if 
 
 ^11111111 
 


 £& 
 
 ■ 
 
 ^■^H 
 
 Ji 
 
 B 1 Hi 
 
 ■VaS 
 
 ■Bwafl 
 
 ■nHlnl^^Hi 
 
 
 ■1 ■ 
 
 
 • 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 ■■ 
 
 ■ 
 
SBKSXGSBa 
 
gpplg 
 
The Christian's Heritage, 
 
 AND 
 
 0t\tx Sermons. 
 
 BY THE LATH 
 
 MELANCTHOX W. JACOBUS, D.D., LL.D, 
 
 TOGETHER WITH 
 
 AN UNFINISHED AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 
 
 EDITED BY HIS SON-IN-LAW, 
 
 Rev. Matthew Newkirk. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, 
 
 530 Broadway. 
 
 1878. 
 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 OF C ONG RESS 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 .traGs 
 
 Copyright 
 By Robert Carter and Brothers. 
 
 1877. 
 
 Cambridge: 
 
 press of 
 
 john wilson and son. 
 
 ST. JOHNLAND 
 
 STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY, 
 
 SUFFOLK CO., N. Y. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Many former parishioners and admiring 
 hearers of Dr. Jacobus have requested for 
 publication those sermons which they have 
 heard with profit. And these have been 
 gathered and are now presented, without 
 alteration or revision, just as they were 
 written and left. There has been no such 
 selection as would display mere exegetical 
 skill or literary power. Those who have 
 demanded the volume have made the choice 
 of the contents. And these favorite dis- 
 courses are issued with the prayer that 
 he, being dead, may yet speak to many 
 hearts with words of comfort, joy, and 
 conviction. 
 
 Among his papers has been found an 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 autobiography, commenced a few weeks be- 
 fore his death, and embracing only the 
 incidents of his earlier life. Although in- 
 complete and unrevised, it is given with 
 the sermons to show the deep religious 
 experiences and complete theological prep- 
 arations which so remarkably fitted him 
 for his pastoral and professional work. A 
 filial hand has imperfectly but briefly at- 
 tempted to complete the life-sketch. 
 
 M. N. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN'S HERITAGE 
 
 " For all things are yours ; whether Paul, or Apollos, or 
 Cephas, or the world, or Life, or Death, or things present, 
 or things to come ; all are yours ; and ye are Christ's ; and 
 Christ is God's." — I Cor. iii. 21-23. 
 
 11. 
 
 LOSING OR SAVING LIFE 18 
 
 " For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but who- 
 soever shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospel's, the 
 same shall save it." — Mark viii. 35. 
 
 III. 
 
 LIMITATIONS OF THE DIVINE WORKING 38 
 
 "And he could there do no mighty work, save that he 
 laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them." — 
 Mark vi. 5. 
 
 IV. 
 CHRIST THE IDEAL MISSIONARY 57 
 
 "Who went about doing good." — Acts x. 38. 
 
 V. 
 
 THE LAW OF THE DIVINE MANIFESTATION 73 
 
 "Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord how Is it that 
 thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world ? 
 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he 
 will keep my words : and my Father will love him, and we 
 will come unto him, and make our abode with him."— John 
 xiv. 22-23. 
 
vi CONTENTS. 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE FIVE "ONE THINGS." 9° 
 
 "But one thing is needful."— Luke x. 42 "One 
 
 thing thou lackest." — Mark x. 21 "One thing I 
 
 know."— John ix. 25 "One thing have I desired of 
 
 the Lord."— Psalm xxvii. 4 "But this one thing I 
 
 do." — Phil. iii. 13. 
 
 VII. 
 "TO THE UTTERMOST" no 
 
 "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the utter- 
 most that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to 
 make intercession for them." — Heb. vii. 25. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 PERSONAL LOVE OF JESUS 128 
 
 " Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." 
 — John xi. 5. 
 
 IX. 
 
 THE MERCHANT SEEKING CHRIST AND SOUGHT 
 
 BY HIM 143 
 
 " And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to 
 this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For 
 the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was 
 lost." — Luke xix. 9-10. 
 
 x. 
 
 TEARFUL SOWING AND JOYFUL REAPING....... 162 
 
 "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that 
 goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubt- 
 less come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with 
 him." — Psalm exxvi. 5-6, 
 
 XI. 
 CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE 180 
 
 " He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also 
 in much : and he that Is unjust, in the least is unjust also in 
 much." — Luke xvi. 10. 
 
CONTENTS. vii 
 
 XII. 
 UNIVERSAL THANKFULNESS 197 
 
 " In every thing give thanks ; for this is the will of God 
 in Christ Jesus concerning you." — I Thess. v. 18. 
 
 XIII. 
 FEAR AND FAITH 215 
 
 " What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee." — Psalm 
 lvi. 3. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 NO PERSONAL SALVATION EXCEPT BY PERSONAL 
 
 SANCTIFICATION 235 
 
 " Peter saith unto him : Thou shalt never wash my feet ! 
 Jesus answered him : If I wash thee not thou hast no part 
 with me. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet 
 only, but also my hands and my head." — John xiii. 8-9. 
 
 XV. 
 MODERN INDIFFERENTISM 254 
 
 "And Gallio cared for none of these things." — Acts 
 xviii. 17. 
 
 XVI. 
 THE JOY OF GOD'S SALVATION 270 
 
 " Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold 
 me with thy free Spirit ; then will I teach transgressors thy 
 ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee." — Psalm 
 li. 12-13. 
 
 XVII. 
 EVERY MAN HIS OWN BUILDER 289 
 
 " If any man's work abide which he hath built there- 
 upon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall 
 be burned, he shall suffer loss : but he himself shall be 
 saved ; yet so as by fire." — I Cor. iii. 14-15. 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 XVIII. 
 THE EAGLE'S NEST 306 
 
 "As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her 
 young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth 
 them on her wings ; so the Lord alone did lead him, and 
 there was no strange God with him." — Deut. xxxii. 11-12. 
 
 XIX. 
 OUR HEAVENLY HOME 327 
 
 " In my Father's house are many mansions : if it were 
 not so, I would have told you." — John xiv. 2. 
 
 XX. 
 
 THE DOUBLE CALL 
 
 "And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him 
 that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come, 
 and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." 
 — Rev. xxii. 17. 
 
 349 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY 
 
 I, Melancthon Williams Jacobus, was born in New- 
 ark, New Jersey, September 19, 1816, nearly opposite 
 the place where I was brought up, and about midway 
 between the First Presbyterian Church edifice and 
 Fair Street, in the house afterwards occupied by Mr. 
 Elisha Whitaker. 
 
 My parents, of blessed memory, were Peter Jacobus 
 and Phebe Williams, of whom I was the first-born. 
 My father was the youngest child of Cornelius Jacobus 
 and Catherine Garrison, who lived at Pompton Plains, 
 N. J. My grandfather died at eighty-two years of 
 age, and my grandmother at ninety-eight. A young 
 brother and sister died named " Peter Hamilton" and 
 Elizabeth, the latter at five years of age giving mar- 
 vellous evidence of the Christian life. My brother 
 Theodore Dwight, after being twice married, died in 
 Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1851. My sisters Hannah Cath- 
 erine (now Mrs. Richard A. Donaldson — widow) and 
 Frances Elizabeth yet survive. My father died Au- 
 gust 28, 1866, and my mother November 20, 1872, the 
 former aged seventy-five, and the latter eighty-one, 
 both at 70 Park Place, the family residence in New- 
 ark, N. J. ; and both are buried in Fairmount Ceme- 
 tery, Newark, on the ridge overlooking the Passaic 
 River. 
 
 The house to which my father removed and where 
 I was brought up was the house formerly owned by 
 Samuel Pennington, and next (north) to the residence 
 
X AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 
 
 of Judge Smith Burnet, the garden running west 
 along the line of the Old Burying Ground, My fa- 
 ther's factory was adjoining the residence north, the 
 front being about the same as the residence, making 
 together about forty-eight feet on Broad St. Judge 
 Burnet's residence was the place in which the first 
 banking institution in Newark was opened. The prop- 
 erty north of my father's abutted on the burying 
 ground (as his factory also did), and was part of 
 the First Presbyterian Church property. The origi- 
 nal church stood on this ground opposite the present 
 church (on Broad Street). The row of buildings on 
 this leasehold front was known as the Brick Eow. A 
 stream of water ran north and south through the 
 grounds, and was allowed to run up to my father's 
 line, while the grounds were used for burial. After 
 that it was filled up between the slopes, and gradually 
 has become improved, with sad havoc upon the place 
 of the dead. (See Harper's Monthly Magazine for 
 October, 1876.) 
 
 My earliest recollection is of going to school to Mrs. 
 Martha Hinsdale, in a frame annex to the house of Ja- 
 bez Hayes, nearly opposite the present Third Church, 
 Newark; and to Miss Elizabeth Woodruff in the Brick 
 Bow nearly opposite the First Church, Broad Street. 
 I remember Lewis M. Rutherford, now of New York 
 City, as one of my school-fellows. Afterwards I began 
 the study of Greek and Latin at eight years of age, 
 and went to the Newark Academy to Abraham Van 
 Doren, who with his sons J. Livingston and Luther 
 Halsey and J. Howard were principal and teachers in 
 that institution, corner of Academy and Broad streets, 
 now occupied by the post-office building. After that 
 I think it was under the charge of Silas Sesson, and 
 again of Mr. Rood and of Rev. Richard Croose, to 
 whom, in turn, I was sent for instruction. After that 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY. XI 
 
 to Nathan Hedges for a short term. His habit of 
 punishing boys by "sending them to Java" was often 
 witnessed by me, but never experienced. It was a 
 forced passage between his legs as a Colossus — the 
 poor fellows receiving blows as they passed through 
 on hands and knees. At the Newark Academy I re- 
 member William T. Mercer, Horace Baldwin, Matthias 
 Ward, Charles Hornblower, Alex. C. M. Pennington, 
 and others. 
 
 When a boy of ten to twelve I was thrown into 
 contact with the apprentices and journeymen of my 
 father's employ, the former of whom were members 
 of his family, fed at his table, and sleeping under his 
 roof. My father had been apprenticed to Mr. William 
 Rogers in the saddle and harness business, and set up 
 for himself in a small way, his only capital being his 
 capital credit. And he was one of the earliest to intro- 
 duce the southern trade to Newark along with Luther 
 Goble in the shoe business, Isaac Meeker in clothing, 
 Wm. Rankin in hats, and Jas. Turnbull in carriages. 
 I was forward and active, and fell readily into com- 
 pany with the young men in my father's employ. And 
 I was an amateur apprentice myself — "drawing on" 
 trunks of horse-hide and seal-skin over wooden box- 
 frames, stitching girths for saddles, stitching bridle- 
 reins and making bridles. This my father encour- 
 aged, as an industrial pursuit, cultivating enterprise 
 and keeping me out of idleness and mischief. He al- 
 lowed to me the pay received by other workmen. I 
 kept my pass-book and was credited with substantial 
 amounts for this kind of work. I have distinct recol- 
 lection of these days, of times of sore temptation in 
 which the loose habits of the apprentices were hurtful 
 to me, notwithstanding all my father's caution. And 
 though my father exercised a religious watch and con- 
 trol over them, and provided for them a pew in the 
 
Xli AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 
 
 church gallery, handsomely lined and fitted up with 
 cushion and books, they were far from safe companions 
 for me. I can easily see how if I had been unchecked 
 by divine grace, I should have become very wicked 
 I remember skating on the small streams that ran 
 through the parsonage property of the First Church, 
 and having hot gin and whiskey with allspice served 
 to the family on Christmas when a very small boy. 
 
 Dr. Jas. Richards was the pastor of my father's fam- 
 ily, as there was no Dutch church in Newark such as 
 my father had been brought up in at Pompton. I have 
 very indistinct recollections of Dr. R. — my earliest as- 
 sociations being with Rev. Wm. T. Hamilton, who came 
 to the First Church at the same time with Joshua T. 
 Russell, both as candidates. They divided the church 
 amidst high partisan excitement and angry controver- 
 sy between the Hamiltonians and Russellites, as they 
 were called; the adherents of the latter withdrawing 
 and erecting the Third Church. Mr. Smith Burnet, 
 living the next door to us, and related to my mother 
 by marriage, was a leader in the secular undertaking, 
 though not himself a church member. 
 
 I remember my father taking me to the weekly 
 prayer-meeting with him and to the nine o'clock Sab- 
 bath morning prayer-meeting. I remember going to 
 the Sabbath-school and Bible class in the gallery taught 
 by Mr. Moses Lyon and by my father, when furnishing 
 written proof-texts was the weekly exercise. My fa- 
 ther also encouraged me to take down in the church 
 the text and division of the sermon, and at noon-time 
 and evening I was expected to transcribe these memo- 
 randa, with as full additions as I could recall from 
 memory. This was a very useful exercise, inducing 
 attention, and concentration, and cultivating an inter- 
 est in the sermon. Two or three books of sermon out- 
 lines I have well filled as a result of such training. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY. xiii 
 
 This was suggested to my father by the example of 
 Mr. Wm. Tuttle, Ruling Elder, who thus exercised his 
 son Jos. N. Tuttle, now and for years a ruling elder, 
 as our fathers were in the old First Presbyterian 
 Church. 
 
 I remember the Saturday afternoon catechising in 
 the lecture room by Dr. Hamilton, and his pastoral 
 visits at the houses notified from the pulpit on the 
 previous Sabbath. 
 
 I had the credit of being bright at study, and pro- 
 ficient above my fellows, and when I was about four- 
 teen years of age my father, chiefly as I believe on 
 account of a revival of religion in the village of Bloom- 
 field near Newark, determined to send me thither to 
 boarding-school. Albert Pierson was principal and 
 teacher of Latin; and there were several candidates 
 for the ministry in preparatory studies there — Pe- 
 ter Dougherty, John H. Morrison, Elias J. Richards, 
 Aaron A. Kemble and others. Rev. Gideon A. Judd 
 was pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Bloomfield. 
 I requested my father to allow me to board with Dr. 
 Mundy, a young physician near the Academy, which 
 he granted. Dr. M. was not a Christian, though he 
 had a charming Christian wife, and, what was to me 
 most attractive, he had a fine bay horse, in which I 
 became much interested. Alfred Allen and others of 
 my town-fellows were at school there, and were great- 
 ly exercised in religious things. After I had begun 
 my studies, they urged me to attend the prayer-meet- 
 ings, which I was reluctant to do. I strove against it 
 for some days. Dr. Mundy countenanced me in my 
 opposition to any part in the matter. Rev. Burtis C. 
 Magie and his brother, candidates for the ministry, 
 strove with me, and especially the good Spirit of God; 
 for one day at noon as I mounted the fence on my 
 way to my boarding-place, I halted and sat on the rail, 
 
XVI AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 
 
 from the beginning of my new life that this was my 
 proper and appointed work. 
 
 When I appeared for the first time before the ses- 
 sion in Newark, for examination with a view to unit- 
 ing with the First Presbyterian Church, my father was 
 rather inclined to have me wait till another season. 
 The elders, especially Mr. Obadiah "Woodruff, were 
 close in their examinations. I remember that Mr. W. 
 inquired particularly if I was not given to quickness 
 of temper, which sometimes got the advantage. And 
 upon frank confession of this (however ascertained), 
 and in consideration of my youth (about fourteen), I 
 was advised to wait, according to my father's hesitancy 
 and desire that I should be well proved. At the next 
 sitting for the following communion season, I was ad- 
 mitted at the same time with Mr. Wm. Wallace, Jr., 
 and others. 
 
 When it became settled that I should make ready 
 for the sophomore class in Princeton College, I sought 
 and enjoyed the services of Wm. Dod, a recent gradu- 
 ate and a superior mathematician, to prepare me in 
 the study of algebra, and I pursued some other studies 
 with Mr. Nathan Hedges. I well remember how, in 
 September, 1831, my father conveyed me with my 
 baggage, bed and bedding to Princeton. We rode 
 into the town on the open wagon (one horse) which 
 carried its load of goods, and as I caught the first 
 sight of the Old North College, with its prison look, 
 I felt a cold chill run over me, of shrinking from the 
 ordeal I was to undergo. I had the advantage of 
 having a friend, who was a candidate for the ministry 
 and who entered college at the same time, Aaron A. 
 Kemble, from Haddonfield, N. J., who had also been a 
 fellow-student at the Bloomfield Academy. He took 
 great interest in me and did much, by daily counsel 
 and example, to stimulate me to exertion in study. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY. xvil 
 
 He became my room-mate. He was a smoker. But 
 by my father's special caution and admonition I was 
 mercifully kept from being led under bondage to such 
 a habit, and I have never smoked tobacco. 
 
 One of the tutors at college at this time was the Rev. 
 Festus Hanks. His department was mathematics. In 
 demonstrating propositions in Euclid I was summoned 
 to the large slate blackboard, which was mounted on 
 a huge frame in a corner of the recitation room. One 
 day I remember when, a certain nervous timidity that 
 afflicted me almost choked my uttterance from a fear 
 I had of hearing my own voice, and a dread of break- 
 ing down in the recitation of what I perfectly knew, 
 Mr. Hanks spoke and said: "Don't be afraid, Mr. 
 Jacobus. You have no need of fear." This made my 
 agitation all the worse, and rather served to call atten- 
 tion of the class to what I still hoped might escape 
 their notice. This agitation at any reciting before the 
 class clung to me throughout my college course, and 
 greatly embarrassed me, requiring as it did a very 
 special memorizing to put me in command of my les- 
 sons, and inflicting on me a severe distress on every 
 occasion of my public appearance. Though I was the 
 youngest in my class, so far as I know, I stood at the 
 head and took the first honors in each year. In the 
 junior year, Prof. Albert B. Dod, being our mathe- 
 matical professor, gave to three or four of us the 
 mark "No. 1, Distinguished" — I remember Shipley, 
 Ed. Pendleton and myself. 
 
 In the junior year I was chosen by the Clio Hall as 
 one of the junior orators, along with Parke Godwin 
 and Elias J. Richards. And at the close of the senior 
 year, I was assigned the first honor along with Edward 
 Pendleton of the Whig Hall, my classmate from Mar- 
 tinsburg, Va. He was, throughout the course, a very 
 accurate and accomplished scholar, and well deserved 
 
xviil AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 
 
 a share in the honor. The Latin salutatory fell to me 
 by lot, and the English salutatory fell to him. It was 
 customary at that time to divide the honors, 1st, 2d, 
 3d, and 4th, between several. The Clio Hall treated 
 my honor as equivalent to "Solus" as it was Solus in 
 the hall division, and they accorded to me the very 
 special honor which they were wont to give to such. 
 The testimonial remains in the hall to this day. 
 
 After the honors were announced that same day, I 
 met my professor, Jas. W. Alexander, on the steps of 
 the hotel. He grasped my hand and said with hearti- 
 ness: "I shall always be glad to hear of your pros- 
 perity.''* I shall never forget the actions or the words. 
 He never failed to make them good. 
 
 After the commencement, though I was not yet 
 eighteen years of age (until the nineteenth of the 
 month), the president, Dr. Jas. Carnahan, informed 
 me that the trustees had elected me tutor in the 
 college, and he added his wish that I should serve. 
 This was a surprise to me. I shrank from the tutor's 
 exposure among rowdy college boys, as I had seen 
 them suffer all manner of indignities, and, considering 
 my youth, I doubted. I referred it to my father, and 
 he referred for counsel to his former pastor, Dr. Jas. 
 Richards. His counsel was that, as I was to be a 
 preacher, he would advise me not to be a pedagogue. 
 And this counsel was fully in accord with my feelings. 
 
 As I had age on my side, and had no need to hasten 
 to my profession, I determined to take a year's respite 
 from study for reading and active employment in my 
 father's office. This latter I was inclined to, as my 
 father's business was expanding, and trade with the 
 far south and south-west was existing at that time 
 of spirited competition. This commercial experience 
 was indeed a great gain to me. It gave me knowl- 
 edge of business and an insight into that particular 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY. xix 
 
 branch which enabled me to give substantial aid to 
 my father in time of need. I made out bills, con- 
 ducted correspondence, kept books, waited on buyers, 
 and often went after them and showed them atten- 
 tions which secured then* orders. This was pleasant 
 to me; yet it did not alienate me from my work. 
 Though it seemed to my father and to some of our 
 best friends that Providence opened the way to me to 
 become partner with my father at that time when his 
 business required extension and a joint headship, yet 
 I was never for a moment moved even to a doubt 
 about my great high calling to the ministry. 
 
 Accordingly, in 1836, 1 entered the Theological Sem- 
 inary at Princeton. 
 
 [September 19th, 1876. This day, a brilliant sky and 
 inviting air, I am sixty years old, writing these 
 reminiscences of early life; thankful to a Covenant 
 God for his great goodness wherewith he has dis- 
 tinguished my lot, and hopeful for other years of 
 usefulness.'] 
 
 Drs. Alexander (Archibald) and Miller were pro- 
 fessors, and Dr. Addison Alexander assistant, and Dr. 
 John Breckinridge a portion of the time, the last as 
 missionary professor for a very short period. Theo- 
 logical discussions were rife in the church, and debat- 
 ing clubs were formed among the students. Samuel 
 "W. Fisher and Thos. Wickes took the side of the 
 new theology, and John McAuley dealt much in Dr. 
 Nath'n "W. Taylor's system, that "all sin consists in 
 voluntary action." 
 
 In 1837 occurred the great schism in the church, 
 the trial of Albert Barnes and also the formation of 
 a new assembly, accompanying the exscinding acts of 
 the Old School body. The students were of course 
 
XX AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 
 
 much excited. Some of them attended the trial in 
 Philadelphia, Samuel K. Wilson among them. When 
 Judge Rogers' decision was announced, favoring the 
 New School claims, the professors were alarmed and 
 queried what course they should take. But soon 
 Charles J. Gibson's decision reversed the Rogers' ver- 
 dict, and there was peace in the Seminary. My friends 
 at Newark, as might have been expected, were strong- 
 ly in sympathy with the party which was led by Dr. 
 Fisher and Dr. Richards. But my own mind was 
 fixed on the side of the standards and the true suc- 
 cession as I understood it. 
 
 When my course of three years was finished, though 
 I had invitations to one or two fields, Dr. Alexander 
 (Archibald), one day at the close of my course, an- 
 nounced to me that it had been determined to invite 
 me to remain as tutor in Hebrew — assistant to Dr. 
 Addison Alexander, at a salary of $200 provided by 
 the Roswell Colt Fellowship (Paterson, N. J.). This 
 suited my taste entirely, and I was glad to remain. 
 It fell to me to conduct the study of the entering class 
 in Hebrew grammar. At that time Dr. Isaac Nord- 
 heimer was preparing and putting through the press 
 his admirable grammar, and was doing much of the 
 work at Princeton. Here I fell in with him intimately, 
 and enjoyed walks and talks with this remarkable 
 man. He presented to me a copy of his grammar, 
 first published, with his autograph. I also copied 
 his notes and lectures on Syriac and Arabic gram- 
 mar, and became deeply interested in his plans foi 
 pubhshing these and other, works, which plans were 
 broken up by his untimely death. I was one of a 
 class to whom he lectured, and one of a class of Addi- 
 son Alexander's in special Hebrew studies during my 
 seminary course. This elegant scholar (Dr. A.) took 
 lively interest in me, and gave into my hands the 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY. XXI 
 
 Book of Malachi, to prepare a commentary, which I 
 did in my way. This exercise served to direct my 
 studies in the department of exegesis, and thus a 
 taste was developed for this line of investigation. 
 
 During this year I was licensed to preach by the 
 Presbytery of New Brunswick, sitting at Freehold, 
 N. J., in the church of Rev. D. V. McLean. It was 
 the period of great speculation in the morus multi- 
 caulis tree, in which Mr. McLean was prominent as a 
 cultivator and dealer in the article. The propagation 
 of the tree by buds was very profitable, and the ex- 
 citement ran high in the production of silk- worms and 
 their food. 
 
 During my course in the Seminary, I took active 
 part with Robert Birch (afterwards settled as pastor 
 of First Presbyterian Church, New Brunswick) in con- 
 ducting a Sabbath-school at Blawenburgh near Prince- 
 ton; the people coming for us alternately in a wagon 
 on Saturday and bringing us back on Monday morn- 
 ing. This was the only approach to pulpit exercise 
 which the custom of the Seminary allowed prior to 
 licensure, and the licensure was not given until gradu- 
 ation. So I found myself set loose upon the churches 
 with this permit to preach, before having any exercise 
 in preaching, except the ten-minute exercise in the 
 oratory of the Seminary two or three times in the 
 course. It had happened with me that being in the 
 village of Orange, N. J., I was pressed by the vener- 
 able Dr. Hillyer, then pastor of the first church, to 
 occupy his pulpit on a Sabbath evening. Rev. Dr. 
 Fisher was also present, and another clergyman whom 
 I do not remember. It was claimed that there were 
 three present (enough to form a Presbytery), and Dr. 
 H. said they would license me for the occasion. But, 
 as he was to be present, it was considered orderly, and 
 I preached. This, so far as I remember, besides once 
 
XXll AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 
 
 speaking of an evening in the Orange school-house, at 
 the solicitation of Mr. Aaron Peck, was the whole of 
 my public work in preaching prior to licensure, be- 
 yond the Sabbath addresses as conductor of the Sab- 
 bath-school already referred to. 
 
 But now, as I came to my graduation in the Theo- 
 logical Seminary, and had accepted the proposal an- 
 nounced to me by the venerable Dr. A. Alexander, 
 to continue a year as tutor (or fellow) in Hebrew, I 
 was not a candidate for any pulpit. I preached occa- 
 sionally, however, in Newark, and elsewhere near at 
 hand. It occurred, towards the close of the year, 
 that I received an urgent call from the First Pres- 
 byterian Church of Brooklyn, New York. It was on 
 this wise: 
 
 During a vacation in the Seminary, I was asked to 
 supply the pulpit of the church from which Dr. Cox's 
 (Sam'l Hanson) church had separated by withdrawal 
 from the General Assembly, in the schism of 1837. 
 This remnant (among them, prominent as elders and 
 trustees, Adrian Van Sinderin, Daniel Colt and oth- 
 ers, elders — and John Laidlow, Judge Peter RadclifT 
 and others, trustees, etc., and Rev. Jonathan Green- 
 leaf, secretary of the Seaman's Friend Society in N. Y.) 
 was worshipping in a hall, at the corner of Fulton and 
 Cranberry streets, where I first preached to them, not 
 at all as a candidate, but only as a temporary supply. 
 They, however, were pleased, after advising with Dr. 
 Benjamin H. Bice, pastor of the church at Princeton, 
 and Drs. Alexander, Miller and others of the Semi- 
 nary, to formally present and urge their call upon me 
 to become their pastor. This was quite contrary to 
 my thought, as I had been devoting myself to my 
 work in the Seminary, and had made no further prep- 
 aration of sermons for settlement, not expecting so 
 soon to enter the field. But after full consideration 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY. XX1U 
 
 of the case, in such a crisis, with such urgency of the 
 call, I was led to accept what seemed to be my duty 
 before God and man. 
 
 Here his own manuscript ends. — Though unfinished 
 and never revised, it is offered as more particular and 
 interesting than any history of those earlier and for- 
 mative years which could be prepared. Five weeks 
 after the last words were penned, Dr. Jacobus " was 
 not — for God took him." And it remains our sad 
 duty briefly to enumerate the events of that brilhant 
 and busy life which closed on earth at threescore 
 years. 
 
 Having accepted an unanimous and urgent call from 
 the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, he was in- 
 stalled pastor in the fall of 1839, and entered upon his 
 duties at the time when the church was involved in 
 the controversies ensuing upon the rupture of 1838. 
 
 In January, 1840, he was married to the eldest 
 daughter of Samuel Hayes, M. D., of Newark, N. J. 
 He labored successfully in Brooklyn during eleven 
 years, in which time the church was well established 
 as one of the most flourishing in the Presbytery. It 
 was at this time he received the first warning of 
 impaired health. Added to his pastoral and pulpit 
 labors, he had undertaken the preparation of a Com- 
 mentary upon the Gospels, the first volume of which 
 was published in 1848. The confinement and exhaus- 
 tion of this additional work led to a disease of the 
 throat, which rendered it necessary for him to inter- 
 mil; his labors, and seek refreshment and health in a 
 foreign tour. In the fall of 1850, his congregation 
 granted him a year's furlough for travel, and made 
 liberal provision for supplying his pulpit. Accom- 
 panied by his wife, he travelled over the continent 
 
XXIV AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 
 
 of Europe and then extended his tour into Egypt 
 and the Holy Land, returning by Constantinople and 
 Greece. He reached home in September, 1851, great- 
 ly benefited in health, and more thoroughly furnished 
 for his work by his journeyings among classic and 
 Bible lands. 
 
 It was during this absence that an event occurred 
 which changed the course of his subsequent life. ~ The 
 chair of Oriental and Biblical Literature in the "West- 
 ern Theological Seminary at Allegheny City, Penna., 
 was vacant; and the attention of the directors being 
 attracted to his rising fame, both as a preacher and 
 commentator, he was chosen to fill the position. The 
 General Assembly in May, 1851, confirmed this nom- 
 ination, and duly elected him to this professorship. 
 This call met him in a foreign land, and he was not 
 yet thirty-five years of age. Finding his health greatly 
 improved by the season of rest and travel, and feeling 
 that the comparative quiet of a professorship, in an 
 interior climate, was more suitable to his habits as 
 well as desirable for the preservation of his life, he 
 resigned his pastorate in Brooklyn, amid the regrets 
 of his admiring and united people, and, accepting the 
 chair of Oriental and Biblical Literature, removed to 
 Allegheny City, and entered upon his duties in the 
 early part of 1852. 
 
 This new position was favorable to the accomplish- 
 ment of the ideal of his life — the completion of a 
 commentary upon the sacred Scriptures. His volume 
 upon "Matthew" had already been published; but 
 now, fresh from the scenes of the Holy Land, he 
 took up the interrupted work, and in 1853 issued his 
 second volume on "Mark and Luke." This was fol- 
 lowed in 1856 by his valuable work on "The Gospel 
 of John," and in 1859 with a still more elaborate com- 
 mentary on "The Acts of the Apostles." In 1862 these 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY. XXV 
 
 "Notes on the GosjDels" were republished in Edin- 
 burgh, Scotland, and obtained an extensive circula- 
 tion. In 1864-5 the two volumes on "Genesis" were 
 issued. These books evince great labor and research, 
 and in a brief space furnish a mass of material made 
 ready for the use of Bible students. 
 
 In February, 1858, he was called to the pastorate 
 of the Central Presbyterian Church of Pittsburg, and 
 for more than fourteen years ministered in addition to 
 the duties of his professorship, with remarkable zeal, 
 to the upbuilding of this church. 
 
 In the church — its ecclesiastical courts, its benevo- 
 lent enterprises and its great controversies — he has 
 been an active participant. He attained the highest 
 ecclesiastical honors that could be conferred upon 
 him. The scholastic degrees of D.D. (Jefferson Col- 
 lege, 1852) and LL.D. (CoUege of New Jersey, 1867) 
 adorn his name. He is associated, historically, with 
 the grandest event in the history of our church, — as 
 Moderator of the Old School Assembly at the time of 
 the Reunion in 1869-70. 
 
 In 1870, the matter of Ministerial Sustentation en- 
 gaged the attention of the first Assembly of the re- 
 united church, and a committee, of which Dr. Jacobus 
 was chairman, was appointed to consider and report 
 upon the question of more adequate pastoral support. 
 In 1871, the Assembly adopted the scheme which was 
 proposed, appointed a committee to take it in charge, 
 and elected Dr. Jacobus to be its secretary — a post 
 which he accepted and held for three years on the 
 condition that he should receive no salary for his ser- 
 vices. The duties of this position were discharged, in 
 addition to his full professorial work in the Theolog- 
 ical Seminary and his pastorate in Pittsburg. In 1874 
 he resigned his official connection with this scheme, 
 and the General Assembly paid a handsome tribute to 
 
XXVI AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 
 
 the value and disinterestedness of his services by a 
 resolution of unqualified commendation. 
 
 In the spring of 1876, he was elected secretary of 
 the Board of Education of the Presbyterian Church, 
 and was urgently pressed to accept this position, for 
 which he was remarkably qualified by his long associ- 
 ation with students for the ministry. His reasons for 
 declining that position will appear from a brief extraci 
 of a letter written at the time : 
 
 " You may be surprised to learn that, after weighing 
 all my duty in regard to the secretaryship, I am not 
 able to see my way clear to accept the invitation. 
 The work would take me so entirely off my track of 
 life-long occupation, — in the office and on the wing, 
 vindicating the cause, and appealing for funds, and 
 taking a sort of oversight of candidates — that I find 
 myself shrinking from it, and fearing that my nervous 
 system might not bear the strain. I therefore more 
 readily fall in with the protests from Allegheny, and 
 with the counsel of many Eastern friends, who say 
 that, while I am the man for the post, it is doubtful 
 whether it is the post for me. And, much as I should 
 like the idea of rendering the church important ser- 
 vice, I can not be sure that even at self-sacrifice I 
 should be able to endure it. I wait, then, the will and 
 providence of God. I would like to pursue my Bib- 
 lical studies, and put my material of twenty-five years 
 into shape. Perhaps I may have mistaken my duty; 
 but I have every way sought light." 
 
 At the opening of the new term of the Western The- 
 ological Seminary, September, 1876, he delivered the 
 address: his theme, "Bible" Study, Professional and 
 Popular." 
 
 In the following month he attended the Synod oi 
 Pittsburg, of which he was a member, and took an ac- 
 tive part in its proceedings. He addressed the Synod 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY. xxvii 
 
 upon various matters which were under discussion, and 
 particularly made an earnest appeal on behalf of the 
 cause of sustentation, in which he continued to take a 
 lively interest. 
 
 On the same week he spent a day (Thursday, Oct. 
 26th), by special appointment in conference with Rev. 
 Dr. C. C. Beatty about plans for the future welfare of 
 the Seminary. His mind was full of valuable sugges- 
 tions, and his enthusiastic nature looked forward with 
 hopefulness to the future advancement of that institu- 
 tion. Reference being had to the half -century cele- 
 bration of the Seminary next spring, he remarked, "At 
 the same time I shall celebrate my quarter century of 
 connection with it, and we both shall enter upon a new 
 course of usefulness." On Friday he attended to his 
 usual Seminary duties, and on Saturday morning (Oct. 
 28th) the community was startled with the intelligence 
 that he was no more. He worked up to the very 
 last, without the loss of an hour or a single lecture, 
 and entered upon a higher service in heaven — dying 
 in the harness — falling on the field — his busy, useful 
 life ending suddenly and mysteriously, almost without 
 seeing death or tasting its bitterness. 
 
I. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN'S HERITAGE. 
 
 "For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, 
 or the World, or Life, or Death, or things present, or things to come ; 
 all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's." — I Cor. 
 iii. 21-23. 
 
 The apostle here takes an inventory of the be- 
 jiever's possessions, if so be he may tempt him to 
 the enjoyment of the Christian's heritage. It is 
 given in large figures. It is based on calculations 
 which the world do not understand. It will seem 
 to the uninitiated to be visionary; like those wild 
 reckonings, which are only on paper, and are not 
 sustained by the facts. But it is as if a man had 
 been notified of immense estates, bequeathed to 
 him beyond the seas, from a long-forgotten rela- 
 tive. And the man himself is slow to believe it 
 all — has not even faith enough in the good news 
 to go and take possession, or even to enter his 
 claim. And so the Christian, by the death of his 
 Kinsman Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, has be- 
 come heir to a patrimony in two worlds, which 
 transcends all our arithmetic. 
 
 How seldom do Ave think of the term Testament, 
 as a legacy, and a legacy to you and me. It is 
 
2 THE CHRISTIAN'S HERITAGE. 
 
 not often noticed, how this Gospel announcement 
 is made as a preface to the Decalogue, and must be 
 read and received before any one of the command- 
 ments can be understood or obeyed — "I am the 
 Lord thy God,- — that have brought thee out of the 
 land of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage." 
 "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." 
 
 The apostle reaches his point in the text by 
 exhorting these Corinthians against their narrow 
 jealousies, which divided their Christian interests. 
 He advances the large idea, that instead of boast- 
 ing ourselves against each other, as to our Chris- 
 tian privileges, we ought rather to be sharers in 
 each other's joy. For this Christian treasure that 
 we have in the church and the ministry, is not 
 such as is reduced by others sharing it. It is like 
 the light, which is its scriptural emblem. It be- 
 comes brighter all around, by others lighting their 
 torches from it. Therefore all that we have from 
 Christ is ours — and all that our brethren have from 
 Christ may be enjoyed as ours also, if we will only 
 enter into their joy. Just as, even in worldly prop- 
 erty, where the mine and the thine are so distinctly 
 pressed, I may enter into the joy of my neighbor, 
 and may share his possessions, by looking out 
 upon his gardens and groves, and getting the com- 
 fort of them, without the care of their keeping. 
 Just as I may even enjoy his happiness, as a 
 sharer with him in all that blesses his lot, if I 
 have only the large-heartedness to "rejoice with 
 them that do rejoice." 
 
 I remember just such a man on Brooklyn Heights, 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S HERITAGE. 3 
 
 looking out daily from his window upon that beau- 
 tiful bay, with its fairy scenes ; and he used often 
 to say to me, " I would not take a thousand dollars 
 for my interest in Governor's Island." He made it 
 daily his own, by roaming over it with his eye, 
 and feeling all the charm of it, as an appendage 
 of his grounds, and it was quite as though he had 
 the title deed for it, only without the taxes and 
 the care. For no one could carry it away from its 
 lovely seat in the bosom of that glorious water, 
 and no one could shut it out from his view. And 
 therefore, though the government owned it for an 
 arsenal grounds, it was his for all his better pur- 
 pose of enchanting scenery. 
 
 There are three couplets here — under which the 
 all things are grouped. 
 
 The Church and the World; Life and Death; 
 The Present and the Future. 
 
 The first item in the Christians inventory is — 
 that the Christian ministry is yours. Paul, Apollos, 
 Cephas — they all belong to the believer. u For 
 who is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers 
 by whom ye believed ? " What is their function, 
 but to instruct, guide, and comfort you — to pro- 
 claim to you the Gospel message, and to help you 
 on to glory ? Not alone your own pastor, nor 
 alone the ministers of your own denomination 
 even, whom you have cherished and boasted ; but 
 others also, and the whole company of them, are 
 yours for Christian service, and yours as bound 
 up with you in the same great interest, which you 
 and they together represent. They belong to you, 
 
4 THE CHRISTIAN'S HERITAGE. 
 
 as they do not to the outside world, who will have 
 none of their care and guidance. They belong to 
 you as the shepherd belongs to the flock — as the 
 teacher belongs to the school. They are not yours 
 to set up one against another — not to criticise, and 
 to neglect, and to condemn. But they are all yours 
 with their respective gifts and qualities, to profit 
 by them all. The one may give more instruction, 
 the other more admonition or consolation. And 
 no one of the true ministers of Christ, is so weak 
 or so humble, but he can dispense to you the truth 
 from the skies — just as an infant can cast a seed 
 into the furrow, as well as an archangel. 
 
 And who can calculate what wealth of benefit 
 and blessing is involved in this single item, to a 
 believer! Strike out all that you get from the 
 ministrations of the sanctuary, and from the pre- 
 cept and example, or influence of the Christian 
 ministry in any household or community, from 
 childhood up, and what a blank is left. If you do 
 not get good from the minister, it is most likely 
 that you do not value the message. For what is 
 the man to the message? A menial servant can 
 bring me news from my home that shall gladden 
 my heart forever. The meanest minister brings 
 you the good news from heaven. 
 
 But a second item in this inventory of the Chris- 
 tian's estate, is the world. This is a large item. 
 Is there no mistake? Or' is it on the list only by 
 some theological fiction or exaggeration? Can it 
 fairly be said of every Christian, that the tvorld is 
 his — that be he prince or pauper — master or slave 
 
THE CHRISTIANS HERITAGE. 5 
 
 — millionaire or beggar — he owns the world? That 
 what the wordling is striving to gain at the peril 
 of his own soul, even the whole world, he has 
 gained along with the saving of his soul, and even 
 by means of his soul's salvation? But, is it not 
 rather said in the Scripture, that the world is his 
 enemy, and that the world's friendship is enmity 
 with God? 
 
 Let us see. I undertake to emphasize it. The 
 world is the Christians, first of all, because his Father 
 made it and owns it. u If children then heirs, heirs 
 of God, and joint heirs with Christ/' And the 
 Christian is the man who is rightful owner and 
 heir of the world. It was made for him, and not 
 for the worldling — not for the man who is debased 
 and debauched by it, and who abuses its enjoy- 
 ments, to shame and sin. All nature is meant to 
 minister to the child of God. These laws of the 
 physical world are bidden to subserve his highest 
 interest. The stars hold on their courses, and the 
 seasons run their round for him, and the whole 
 cosmos is a wondrous mechanism, in which all 
 things are so constructed as to co-work for him — 
 all the forces and appliances working together for 
 his good. The man who claims the world as his 
 own, and is bent on enjoying it in defiance of God, 
 lives only by sufferance, and as a child of pleasure, 
 he is dead while he liveth. 
 
 And then again, the world is the Christian's, in 
 its highest idea; to get all the benefit of it, without 
 the mischief and the curse. He is master of it and 
 not slave to it. Have you thought that the world 
 
6 THE CHRISTIANS HERITAGE 
 
 is just that which the Christian gives up, relin- 
 quishes, foregoes, by his Christian vocation? that 
 this whole domain of earthly pleasure is that which 
 he forswears and denies himself? And that here 
 is the weight that is to be cast into the scale, 
 when you weigh over against all this, his treasures 
 in the shies? This is the view of some. And. so, 
 many an uninitiated one, regrets, sometimes, that 
 he must forfeit so much to be a Christian — and 
 wishes he could consistently carry into the Chris- 
 tian life certain worldly pleasures that he is expect- 
 ed to resign. Is this the true idea? Nay. The 
 Christian has discovered what is the higher domain 
 of pleasure to be enjoyed in the world where its 
 poisons are not tasted, but only its true delights — 
 where its temptations are mastered, and only its 
 pure, solid and lasting benefits are enjoyed — where 
 the higher taste excludes the low, debasing grat- 
 ifications, and finds a sphere for the purer appe- 
 tites, and a range for the nobler desires. These 
 use the world as not abusing it. 
 
 Blessed are the meek (says Jesus), for they shall 
 inherit the earth. The Christian grace of meekness 
 that is moderate in its desire and that enters into 
 the joy of others as if it were its own, making it 
 its own — this is a beatitude. Blessed such are and 
 must be. Happiness must have its sources within 
 the soul. And anywhere outside the stream can 
 rise only to this level of the fountain within. So 
 says the Psalmist, u The meek shall inherit the earth, 
 and shall delight themselves in the abundance of 
 peace." And that is a kind and quality of abun- 
 
THE CHRISTIANS HERITAGE. 7 
 
 dance, which is more than abundance of treasure 
 or of worldly estates — the abundance of peace. It 
 is not what a man can show his legal claims and 
 titles for. It is rather what he really possesses and 
 enjoys as part of himself, which makes him an 
 owner. And what he has locked up securely in 
 his breast, he possesses and ovens in the highest 
 possible sense, as the key to all true enjoyment. 
 
 I ask you what a man is worth. And you say 
 so many dollars, as if gold were the standard of 
 worth. When you speak of a man, you know, if 
 you think a moment, that his real worth consists 
 of principle — not money principle, but moral prin- 
 ciple. Gold is worth only what it will purchase 
 for you. You can't eat it. You can't make a bed 
 or pillow of it. You get the good of it only when 
 you part with it for something else. And gold will 
 not buy happiness. For happiness is not a mer- 
 cantile commodity. The noble vessel that ploughs 
 through the ocean, and rides upon the wave, and 
 makes even its currents a propelling power for the 
 passage across, that is the vessel to which the ocean 
 belongs, and not that other vessel that has the sea 
 come up over its bulwarks, and rush in at the 
 cabin doors, and fill it, and drown it to the depths. 
 
 But the third item in this inventory of the Chris- 
 tian's estate, is, Life. Understand it. Life is the 
 heritage of the Christian. There is a mere physi- 
 cal life which we have in common with the brows- 
 ing herd. And life, to the multitude, is the mere 
 brute being. And the highest idea of life, with 
 such, is to enjoy all the physical functions, and 
 
8 THE CHRISTIAN'S HERITAGE. 
 
 to gratify all the appetites, and to regale all the 
 senses to the full. But this is not life, as a man is 
 made to enjoy it, in its higher qualities, and for its 
 nobler ends. This is life every way narrowed and 
 hampered in its sphere of pleasure by the poisons 
 of sin, and it is life, sadly, awfully bounded and 
 cut short by death. But the Christian, by his very 
 principle of living, has life as a noble heritage. 
 And it is life in all the most exalted and harmoni- 
 ous play of the mental and moral powers. 
 
 This is not arbitrary. Could you even say that 
 a wild Indian, ranging over the fields for his game 
 and living as a happy child of nature, could have 
 life in any such high sense as the man of culti- 
 vated intellect, and of refined taste, and of spir- 
 itual perceptions ? No ! Here is the secret. The 
 Christian life, that is "hid with Christ in God" — 
 that enters into the very enjoyment of God, that 
 lives in sympathy with God's Avork, that spans 
 the gulf between the eternities, and already en- 
 ters into God's rest, and partakes of the divine 
 nature — already lives beyond the grave, already 
 sets the affections upon the things where Christ 
 sitteth on the right hand of God ; this Christian 
 life is the highest style of life, has all the elements 
 and conditions of pure, happy, useful, blessed liv- 
 ing. Only such a man knows what it is to live — 
 to live close beside the fountain of life — where new 
 draughts of life can be partaken in ever fresh sup- 
 plies — and where the life itself is life and light also 
 — the life, the light of men — not ignorant grovel- 
 ling life, that merely vegetates, but life elevated, 
 
THE CHRISTIANS HERITAGE. 9 
 
 illuminated, and in affinity with God. Do they 
 own life, who claim the passing enjoyment as life's 
 great end ? They whose life is a life of fashion, a 
 life of sport, a life of gaiety and indulgence — a life 
 of worldliness and vanity, and sin and shame ? Is 
 that life? And are they lifes owners? If it were 
 even a life as sinless as that of the butterfly, would 
 it be Life, as that of the saint, who lives to God, 
 and goes to live like a seraph, in the presence and 
 blessedness of God forever ? 
 
 And seeing that the Christian possesses life in 
 its highest quality, has he not also the clue to 
 life's secrets, and the key to life's richest stores? 
 
 Take the multitude, and so many have high 
 physical life, and have ample means to make life 
 happy, but mistake the idea of happiness; are try- 
 ing to get life's full benefit by wealth hoarded, 
 w T hen the true happiness is in active charities, and 
 in wealth liberally dispensed. Some will be lib- 
 eral only when they die, so they deny themselves 
 the happiness of living as God has planned it for 
 them, and proposed it to them, in vain. 
 
 But take the man whose life daily duplicates 
 itself by sharing what he has with others — who 
 enters into sympathy with Christ's work on earth, 
 and so becomes a Saviour also in his humble 
 sphere ; that man has discovered the true life, 
 that is "hid with Christ in God"; that man has 
 found the true luxury of living ; there is somewhat 
 in that life, that is divine-human, and godly, and 
 Christ-like ; and such a life is angelic in its affinity 
 with the better world. It is the life of God in the 
 
10 THE CHRISTIAN'S HERITAGE. 
 
 soul of man ! And to live such a noble, unselfish, 
 happy life, belongs to the Christian, as it does not 
 to "any other. " He most lives, who thinks most, 
 feels the noblest, acts the best." And life to the 
 Christian, is just a scene of divine and angelic 
 ministries on his behalf. Tis just his daily train- 
 ing for glory. It is not an end, but a means to-an 
 end. It takes hold already upon heaven, which is 
 only the life beyond. 
 
 I said to an aged Christian lady, as she came 
 out from the bedside of a dying friend, " My dear 
 madam, you too have come near the end, and must 
 soon die also." u Ah!" said she, with beaming 
 face, "ah, I shall then only just begin to live!" 
 All providential dealings are the believer's for 
 eternal blessedness, and life is his in the highest 
 sense, because interpreted and used aright. It is 
 the unfolding of the divine counsels of grace and 
 love towards him, in his pupilage for the skies. 
 And all that life can yield of experience in divine 
 things, of rich discovery of God's truth and cove- 
 nant, and of preparedness for the life beyond, is 
 his. And this is the highest glory of the present 
 life, which only the Christian man can possess. 
 
 But the Christian's estate stretches even farther 
 than this. It is not more true that the world and 
 life are his, than that death is his also. This is 
 an item that lies beyond our common sphere of 
 knowledge. We see the outward phenomena of 
 death, in which it is common to all. And the 
 Christian is not, in any such sense, the owner of 
 death, as to control his movements, or to escape 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S HERITAGE. 11 
 
 his summons. And yet, though he must bow his 
 head as low as any in the grave, death belongs to 
 him, as it does not to any other. Other men indeed 
 belong to death They are death's victims, death's 
 prey. Death has all his terrific power over them, 
 holding them in bondage here, by the fear of his 
 blow, and holding them in eternal bondage here- 
 after, under the second death. Sometimes it is a 
 living death they live, and then death gets so 
 much the mastery, that they fall prematurely un- 
 der his power. 
 
 But death is yours, my Christian brother, in the 
 sense that all its circumstances are arranged for 
 your best interest. It will come only as it is sent 
 to bless you — only as it comes to consummate God's 
 covenant blessing in your case. Just at what mo- 
 ment, in what manner, on what spot, by what dis- 
 ease or so-called casualty — -just with what processes 
 of wasting or not, all as particularly adjusted to 
 your case, as light is adjusted to the eye, or sound 
 to the ear, to produce the most vivid impression, 
 or the most exquisite harmony, so death shall come 
 ministering to you. And so it shall be to you, the 
 Son of Maris coming to fold you in his arms, while 
 death only wraps his dark mantle over you for the 
 passage. 
 
 God makes no mistakes. There is no such thing 
 as accident, or casualty, or fatality with him. None 
 whatever ! Just when your seat is ready at the 
 table the bell will ring, and the messenger will 
 come to conduct you in. Just when your partic- 
 ular mansion in the Father's house is entirely pre- 
 
12 THE CHRISTIAN'S HERITAGE. 
 
 pared — when the last picture is hung on the wall, 
 and the last item of furniture is in its place — then 
 you shall be bidden to enter in, and take posses- 
 sion. Some of the pictures are painting now, from 
 these life scenes, not yet finished. The map of the 
 way in which God has led you is not yet com- 
 pleted. Some of the furniture must be transferred 
 from these earthly mansions, and some of the arti- 
 cles are carving now, with your own fingers. 
 
 Look at that Lazarus at the gate of Dives. Men 
 see the gasping beggar. And they see the dogs. 
 But they do not see the angels, who are there to 
 escort him to Abraham's bosom. Men call it death. 
 The angels call it life. Death is his; the property 
 of that beggar, — belongs to him — does him dis- 
 tinguished service. The cfea£/i-angel holds out the 
 signal to the angels of light, and they come with 
 torches for the dark valley, and bear away the 
 heavenly guest to glory. 
 
 But look at Dives. He belongs to death. What 
 are all the purple, and fine linen, and sumptuous 
 fare? What a record! "The rich man also died 
 and was buried. " No escort of angels, no Abra- 
 ham's bosom. Carry out the corpse. Bury him in 
 his splendid tomb. His riches should have made 
 a friend of that Lazarus to welcome him to the 
 everlasting habitations. But no ! He left Laza- 
 rus to the dogs. And he goes now to his own 
 place, where not even the dogs can minister to 
 him. All the pomp of a princely funeral is his — 
 to cover death's doings— to divert men's attention 
 from the dark under-ivorld, where he is lifting up 
 
THE CHRISTIANS HERITAGE. 13 
 
 his eyes in torment. He could have no control of 
 death's terror — could get no single service from the 
 monster — could not buy any alleviation of death's 
 bitterness and sting, with all his wealth. He must 
 go down to the grave, unguarded and unhelped, 
 and down to the abyss of despair, unsaved! He 
 is death's victim — death's prey. He has no friend 
 and helper, to go down with him to the dark val- 
 ley, and across the deep river. None. No Jesus 
 u who hath abolished death " for him. None ! 
 
 But you, my Christian brother, as surely as you 
 are a Christian, are not a subject of death's dark 
 empire. You can plead your heavenly citizenship. 
 You can say to the death-angel, " I am a Christian 
 citizen and free born by virtue of relationship to 
 Christ." You can claim exemption from the bond- 
 age of death. He can not impress you into his 
 ranks. You are a free man of Christ Jesus. You 
 can not be holden of death, for you belong to one 
 who has met death, and vanquished death, and has 
 the keys of death's dark palaces, and can open his 
 dungeons, and break his sceptre, at His will. 
 
 "One moment here, so low, so agonized, 
 And then — beyond the stars." 
 
 Need I say more! Is not this enough for any 
 man's heritage? Does it not cover all possible 
 interests? If other words were needful, or could 
 add any thing to these large items — if you could 
 ever be in circumstances to despond, or distrust, 
 after all these large assurances — then hear the 
 apostle: " Things present, and things to come," are 
 
14 THE CHRISTIAN'S HERITAGE. 
 
 yours! Ah! I know. It is these surroundings of 
 the hour. It is this present struggle and conflict. 
 Or this passing cloud of affliction — or this thun- 
 der clap which has just burst over our heads. It 
 is this particular strait of to-day — it is this burden 
 — it is these tears — it is this heart-ache — which sets 
 aside all large generalities, and makes us beg for 
 some assurance, that will reach down to our pres- 
 ent case. 
 
 My Christian brother ! Things present are yours ! 
 No matter what they are. Not merely the past, 
 which has been conquered — with all its strong 
 temptations and gloomy fears, and fiery trials; 
 but this present — these very things that concern 
 you so much to-day — these vexations — these dis- 
 appointments — these bereavements — these contin- 
 gencies — these mysteries of Providence, which you 
 would so like to have interpreted — they are all 
 yours! You are master of the situation, if you 
 knew the facts. They are working together, and 
 co-working, with all other things, for your good. 
 
 And, what is yet more amazing, " Tilings to 
 come " are yours ! All that undiscovered, unre- 
 vealed future, with all its events — its hopes and 
 fears — its smiles and tears — all its tidings of joy 
 and sorrow — all its new friendships and its broken 
 ties — all its dreams, and its realities, as they open 
 upon you, like an Apocalypse, day by day. They 
 are all yours. And nothing can eventuate, that is 
 not in your interest. The future is yours. The 
 unfoldings of to-morrow will be sure to pour into 
 your bosom the materials for Christian joy, if you 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S HERITAGE. 15 
 
 rightly read and receive them. Be the day dark 
 or bright — come sunshine or come storm; just 
 where you are so fearful — -just where you are en- 
 tering with a shudder into the cloud — there the 
 voice out of the cloud tells you it is Jesus ! And 
 it is like the cloud of the Visible Presence, that 
 hung over the Mercy-seat, in the holiest of all — 
 it is the cloud of the divine glory. 
 
 Yes! you may look down the vista of futurity, 
 where men's hearts fail them for fear of all that is 
 coming on. You may even see the storm-cloud 
 gathering thick and heavy in your horizon. You 
 may have dreary presage of troubles, losses, sick- 
 nesses. You may shudder to have the veil lifted, 
 that hides the things to come. And yet, you may 
 look into the face all the reverse and distress and 
 death agony, that you know must sometime hap- 
 pen, and here is the assurance. Things to come are 
 all yours ! All your future is compassed by God's 
 covenant of love. Every cloud is bright to you 
 from your upper side position. No good thing 
 shall he withhold from you. No one shall harm 
 you. No one shall pluck you out of his hands. 
 Angels shall camp around your dwelling, and shall 
 bear you up in their arms, lest you dash your foot 
 against a stone! Your track is already laid, to 
 where it opens into the heavenly paradise. The 
 ladder from your stony pillow has its top in glory, 
 and has the angels traversing it meanwhile, in 
 ministries of love to you. 
 
 And all things are yours! There is nothing which 
 is not yours. 
 
16 THE CHRISTIAN'S HERITAGE. 
 
 "If thou hast wherewithal to spice a draught when griefs pre- 
 vail, 
 And for the future time art heir to the Isle of Spices, 
 Is it not fair?" 
 
 Your afflictions are burdens, just as the bird's 
 wings are burdens on his back by which he may 
 soar to the skies, — -just as buoys are burdens to the 
 wreck to float it to the surface — just as the life- 
 preserver is a burden bound fast to a man to keep 
 him from sinking in the sea. This darkness is but 
 the shadow of His wing. Beyond all peradventure 
 — far beyond all possible contingency — by His 
 word of power and grace, who rules the universe — 
 by his covenant and oath, who can never fail, 
 the universe is yours! Poor sinner that you are, 
 — deserving only of perdition, — once under the 
 awful doom of everlasting death, having nothing 
 to-day in your own right, but sin and shame — even 
 you, without reserve or qualification, may look out 
 upon the vast domain of creation, providence and 
 redemption, and there is nothing in it all, but you 
 can claim as your own, in Christ Jesus. You are 
 infinitely richer than you had thought. Up! out 
 of your tears, and darkness, and ashes— thou child 
 of poverty — child of sorrow. All things are yours. 
 You are a king and a prince unto God. These 
 doubts, this darkness, ill become one of such 
 princely birth and of such vast possessions. Live 
 in some manner becoming your high rank, and 
 splendid heritage. Paul — Apollos — Cephas — all 
 God's ministers in all the church. The world, 
 with all its interests. Life, with ail its truest joys 
 
THE CHRISTIAN'S HERITAGE. 17 
 
 Death, with all its sternest realities. Things "pres- 
 ent, as you feel them pressing with all their Aveight 
 upon you, and tilings to come, as you dread to con- 
 front them. All are yours. Perfumes of paradise 
 around the broken vases of earthly delights — and 
 death itself only the bursting of the shell for the 
 springing forth of the soul, to the new and higher 
 life in glory! 
 
 And now, all that is asked of you, is that you 
 enter fully upon your estate and enjoy its splen- 
 did benefits. Walk worthily of this high voca- 
 tion wherewith you are called. u For all things 
 arc yours! Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, 
 death, things present — things to come 1 All are 
 yours" Is there any thing higher, and more assur- 
 ing? "And ye are Christ's." Can there be any 
 thing higher, that shall link you fast to the very 
 throne, and the very Person of the Almighty? 
 "And Christ is God's" 
 
II. 
 
 LOSING OR SAVING LIFE. 
 
 "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever 
 shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospel's, the same shall save 
 it." — Mark viii. 35. 
 
 To find ones life, so as to discover the secret of 
 happy and successful living — this is the great, high 
 problem among men. Many a man spends his life- 
 time in vain queries about life, — how he shall best 
 enjoy it, — or best employ it to earthly gains, — or 
 best accomplish the true end of living. Many a 
 man is all his life long finding out where to live 
 and how to live, so as to have the best climate, or 
 the most comforts, or the choicest friends, or the 
 greenest old age. If one could only know life's 
 secret at the outstart, and act accordingly, then, 
 indeed, such an one would seize upon the very 
 ideal living, and would exhibit a life beautiful and 
 blessed, with all the symmetry of a well-fashioned 
 character and experience. 
 
 To understand this momentous sentence, you 
 must read the text in its connection. The same 
 Jesus had just said, "Whosoever will save his life 
 shall lose it." And the plain meaning is, that who- 
 ever is set upon getting out of his life the most of 
 
LOSING OR SAVING LIFE. 19 
 
 selfish ease and indulgence, and mere self-grati- 
 fication, shall be woefully disappointed, and shall 
 come to utter loss of all life's proper good. 
 
 A young man says, "I will live for myself. I 
 will lose no opportunity to make money. I will 
 rise early and sit up late. I will toil on, day and 
 night, for wealth. I will have my large posses- 
 sions — adding house to house, and field to field. 
 I will get gain from the rich and gain from the 
 poor, — by honest industry; and if need be, by 
 dishonest exaction. I will subsidize the labor of 
 the workman, and the skill of the mechanic, and 
 nothing shall escape my eye that can add a far- 
 thing to my increase. I will hold my gains with 
 a rigid grasp. Others may give to the needy, and 
 help forward the great schemes of beneficence, but 
 not I. I will have my splendid mansion and my 
 costly equipage, servants and dependents at every 
 turn. I will be master and owner of whatever can 
 add to human pleasure or ambition." How often 
 such a greed overdoes itself! The man fails in 
 getting what he so passionately craves. Or he 
 fails as likely in getting this, and losing all beside, 
 — in getting wealth and losing health, — getting 
 goods and losing God. Nay he fails by getting a 
 surfeit and losing the appetite. " For the world 
 passe th away and the lust thereof." He shall lose 
 his life by the very eagerness of the grasp with 
 which he seeks to gain it, to mere selfish ends. 
 Just as you sometimes see the drowning man, in 
 the very convulsive struggle for life, seize his res- 
 cuer by the throat, and disable him and himself 
 
20 LOSING OR SAVING LIFE. 
 
 also, so that they sink together. Mere selfishness, 
 as we daily see it, defeats itself. Overreaching in 
 business oftenest overreaches itself. Greed of gain 
 will sometimes perish by satiety, — will stuff its 
 morbid maw, so as to destroy itself by the over- 
 load. Just as any physical self-indulgence con- 
 stantly works disgust with the indulgence itself, 
 and, by its more repeated gratification, breaks the 
 appetite, and so loses the power to enjoy itself. 
 
 Such paradoxes are deeply rooted in the con- 
 stitution and course of nature. This is nothing 
 arbitrary with God. True religion has its divine 
 sources deeply welling up within the soul. And 
 it is no vain promise. It is even, in part, the 
 working of a natural principle, that is announced 
 by Jesus in the text. " Whosoever shall lose his 
 life, for my sake and the Gospel's, the same shall 
 save it." 
 
 We are then to save life by losing it ? Yes ! This 
 is the divine problem. And this is not so paradox- 
 ical as might seem. We know how one may often 
 save time by losing it, — save a day by losing an 
 hour. We know how we often gain by giving, — 
 even gain money by giving it away, — gain friend- 
 ships by giving out our friendships to others. And 
 how, as it is with the farmer, that by throwing 
 away some of his last year's crop into the furrow, 
 he gains a harvest of an hundred fold. So it is 
 everywhere, that we must lose somewhat in order 
 to gain more. Somewhat of time, — of energy, — of 
 capital must be sacrificed in order to reap a return 
 of kindred benefits. 
 
LOSING OR SAVING LIFE. 21 
 
 So it is with even the Gospel benefits, that 
 though they are free and can not be bought in 
 the sense of being bargained for, they must never- 
 theless be bought, in the sense of parting with 
 something for their possession. "Buy wine and 
 milk, without money and without price." And so 
 indeed, we solve that profound mystery of Christ's 
 teaching, — that it is more blessed to give than it 
 is to receive, — not as if it were all giving, and no 
 receiving. But because the blessedness is in kind, 
 — in actual receiving a return of the giving — good 
 measure, pressed down, shaken together, and run- 
 ning over, of gifts into the lap and bosom. 
 
 And herein, too, lies the philosophy of this con- 
 structive suicide, — this losing one's life by saving 
 it, — that when one narrows his aims and enjoy- 
 ments within the sphere of his own mere self, — 
 excluding all other aims, and all share in others' 
 well-being — that is just such a stagnation of soul 
 as inevitably dries up the better nature and de- 
 stroys the better self. The fountain that overflows 
 and brims over with its fulness is the fountain 
 that keeps fresh with its living waters. And this 
 is the place where we choose to drink rather than 
 from any stagnant pool. The announcement of 
 the text is this — that living for Christ and the Gos- 
 pel, so as to forget self, — so as to subordinate sel- 
 fish aims and pursuits, — so as to lose one's self in 
 this higher living, is the true secret of life, — of liv- 
 ing to purpose — and of that higher style of life, 
 which realizes life's greatest and best end. It is a 
 first principle in this whole matter, that happiness 
 
22 LOSING OR SAVING LIFE. 
 
 is not found by seeking it as an end. Nothing 
 is truer, in all experience, than that the pleasure- 
 seeker is the pleasure-loser — eaten up with greed 
 of pleasure — devoured by the appetite of indul- 
 gence. "She that liveth in pleasure, is dead while 
 she liveth." And a true happiness comes from 
 having true objects of pursuit and true tastes- for 
 gratification. 
 
 It is in view of this fundamental constitutional 
 fact, that Jesus Christ, the Prince of Life, proposes 
 himself as the personal object of life, and his Gos- 
 pel as the proper interest to be cherished in all our 
 living ; and that he who will most lose his life in 
 this direction shall most truly and effectually save 
 it unto life eternal. 
 
 Considering that it is hard to persuade men of 
 this seeming contradiction, — we must clearly un- 
 derstand what this losing one's life for Christ and 
 his Gospel means. We know something of what it 
 means when one loses his life for a friend, by ac- 
 tually dying to save another — as when one plunges 
 into the wave, and drowns in the effort to rescue 
 a sinking fellow, — or as when one rushes into the 
 burning chamber and is consumed in the attempt 
 to save another, — or as when one steps in and takes 
 the deadly blow that is levelled against a bosom 
 friend. We know how love sometimes flames into 
 such an all-absorbing passion, as actually revels 
 in such self-sacrifice — and cheerfully yields up life 
 itself, even in the fruitless endeavor to save one 
 best beloved — wife, mother, sister, child. 
 
 But the losing of life contemplated in the text 
 
LOSING OR SAVING LIFE. 23 
 
 is not necessarily this, though this may also be 
 included in it. It is rather the spirit which may 
 sometimes so express itself, and which stands ready 
 for this actual yielding up of life at the instant, 
 if need be. It is no falling under the wheels of any 
 Juggernaut. But as it lies within reach of all, it 
 is rather the daily cross-bearing and self-denial, 
 the self-abnegation and self-sacrifice, that willingly 
 loses sight of self in the Master, and in the absorb- 
 ing aim to serve his Gospel cause. 
 
 Take it, as it appears in the burning zeal of 
 a true missionary who says, I will live for Christ. 
 I will quit my home, my friends, my comforts, and 
 go out far away amongst strangers, amongst sav- 
 ages. I will give up the joy of these refinements 
 and indulgences that belong to civilized society, 
 and I will spend my days in telling of Christ to 
 the pagan, and in lighting up his darkened soul 
 with this religion of Christ, and in cheering the 
 home of the barbarian with this Gospel of Jesus. 
 I will forget my country — forget my church priv- 
 ileges—forget my own home pleasures. I will for- 
 get the joy of greeting beloved friends of my child- 
 hood and youth, and I will be an exile from all 
 these things for Jesus, and for the joy of giving 
 this religion to the destitute. Say, then, is such 
 a life lost, or found ? 
 
 Lost lives are everywhere around us. Faculties 
 prostituted, energies misdirected, souls wrecked. 
 But not here. Jesus Christ himself was a man 
 of joys, as well as of sorrows; nay of joys springing 
 out of his sorrows ; finding his earthly life in losing 
 
24 LOSING OR SAVING LIFE. 
 
 it, never disappointed, never foiled in his purpose, 
 never daunted nor overcome, even in Gethsemane 
 or on the cross, always rising up from under every 
 crushing weight, and singing at the last, not in 
 despair, but in triumph, "It is finished." 
 
 And there are men of such a stamp and style, 
 whose record is in history, as the Christian men of 
 the race — missionaries like Mills and Brainard and 
 Williams of Erromanga, the American martyrs of 
 India, and men at home who delight to give to 
 Christ and his Gospel all their means, and poor 
 widows who give him all their living. And there 
 are yet tender spirits like Harriet Newell, who 
 sanctified womanhood in the service of Christ and 
 his Gospel for a perishing race. 
 
 Can we not plainly see how the missionary in 
 Christ's footsteps may abound in joys that spring 
 out of his privations, — how such an one may find 
 his life, in finding a vocation so noble, and an aim 
 so genial and spiritual ; how it may even be a daily 
 charm and rapture to be so set on the highest ends 
 of living — and so absorbed in what is true and lov- 
 ing and good? Can we not see how such an one 
 enters upon a daily culture of the best tastes, and 
 throws off a thousand cramping, crippling con- 
 straints of a mere conventional and false living, 
 for the honest, pure, and peaceful cultivation of 
 things pertaining to the soul ? Men may not un- 
 derstand it. But such a finding of missionary life 
 is often a finding of life as a discovery; as where 
 one has found lost health, or a lost home, or a lost 
 friend, or a lost treasure. And take any man of 
 
LOSING OR SAVING LIFE. 25 
 
 a true Gospelizing spirit, at home or abroad, who 
 says, "I will live for Christ and not for self — for 
 Christ even more than for parents, or wife, or 
 children." We know what it is to forget self for 
 the darlings of the household. And this is a joy ! 
 This is a pure pleasure ! The very aim to gladden 
 the home circle with gifts or with new additions 
 to their comfort, — this becomes an element of real 
 happiness, in the cup of daily toil and privation, 
 and makes even the most exhausting, wasting 
 work minister to the soul's refreshment. 
 
 But this person of Jesus, and this cause of his 
 Gospel, is an object of living still higher, purer, 
 better. It does not exclude the home objects. It 
 only sanctifies all that sweet, domestic affection, 
 and absorbs it in the nobler zeal of doing all 
 things at home or abroad, for Christ and his cause. 
 The man says, " I will aim to serve Christ in every 
 thing — in business, working for Christ, — in society, 
 speaking and acting for Christ, — in the home circle, 
 living for Christ — keeping eye upon his example — 
 studying his pleasure — aiming to promote his cause 
 in doors, and out of doors — and subordinating self, 
 selfish ease, and selfish emolument to the pro- 
 moting of his Gospel. To this end, in the thou- 
 sand channels of active work and influence, I will 
 seek to be sanctified wholly — to have my business 
 calling sanctified, and my plans, and aims, and 
 calculations sanctified. I will deny myself. I will 
 forego a personal gratification, if so be, I may ad- 
 vance his cause. I will spare from my personal 
 expenses to give to his treasury, and that not 
 
26 LOSING OR SAVING LIFE. 
 
 merely on a rare occasion, but as I have oppor- 
 tunity, — and not merely so far as is convenient, 
 but where it is inconvenient, and even damaging 
 to my ease, and to my estate. I will take up my 
 cross daily and follow Christ, — as a cross-bearing 
 disciple, — not found without my cross — subordi- 
 nating self to the Master — having a will subdued 
 to his will, and the whole man subjugated to his 
 service." Then it is the reign of peace, and love, 
 and pleasure in the soul. 
 
 There are living examples of this. Men who 
 have left houses and lands in this sense, who have 
 willingly submitted to privations — have yielded up 
 themselves a living sacrifice — subsidizing all for 
 Christ — not in any spirit of fanaticism, nor in any 
 heartless routine of monastic living, but in a calm, 
 earnest, well-advised, sober-minded devotement of 
 themselves to Christ, manifestly making this their 
 all in all for life ! In the world's eye, such " lose 
 their life." But in God's eye such find their life 
 and save it in the very worldly loss of it. 
 
 Can such a life of loss be attractive? Is there 
 any thing in it that looks like the discovery of a 
 great secret — like opening a mine of gold — like 
 unburying hidden treasure? Let us see. First of 
 all. As regards lifes great ends. Life is found or 
 lost, and saved or lost, according as it realizes or 
 not its true idea. This involves a high constitu- 
 tional question of what Life is, in its noblest and 
 best realization, and how far any life is a true life, 
 founded on true principle, seeking true ends; or 
 how far it is false, in all its ideas and tendencies. 
 
LOSING OR SAVING LIFE. 27 
 
 Biologists who are speculating about the origin of 
 life, and do not study its ends, find themselves 
 absorbed in questions of life-cells, and tissues, and 
 protoplasms, and never discover the life eternal. 
 If the soul is made for God, then it can have its 
 nature satisfied only in God. It can not be a true 
 and noble soul — it can not even enjoy true happi- 
 ness out of its proper sphere. All that may seem 
 to be joy is but the animal gratification of the 
 hour, or the low, grovelling indulgence of a false 
 taste, that brings its swift-dealing penalty. 
 
 Now take a soul absorbed in the service of Christ 
 and his Gospel — not the monkish religionist,, deal- 
 ing in the mere form and ritual of service, but the 
 hearty, earnest Christian worker, alive to the cause 
 of Christ and his Gospel. There is a harmony of 
 the mental and moral powers, — there is a proper sat- 
 isfaction in the things of God, such as the worldling 
 never finds in the things of Mammon. The soul and 
 body are so far answering their true ends. And 
 there is a fulfilment of life's great purpose, which 
 is a conscious blessedness. 
 
 Men need to be convinced of what life is in 
 this highest sense. They need to have the para- 
 ble of the rich fool constantly spoken, to teach 
 them that "a man's life consisteth not in the 
 abundance of the things which he possesseth" — 
 that the most opulent and pampered lord is often 
 the most menial slave, — that under the purple and 
 fine linen, and sumptuous board, there is the soul 
 at war with the high ends of its being, and so, 
 necessarily ill at ease — disconcerted, and discon- 
 
28 LOSING OR SAVING LIFE. 
 
 tented, — never truly at peace — having never any 
 Sabbath within. Such a life is a splendid failure. 
 
 Now, the pleasure of a soul answering its high 
 end — the pleasure of all the intellectual, moral 
 and spiritual functions having their proper play, 
 — working with all the charm of fulfilling their 
 constitutional design — no jar — no contradiction — 
 this is blessedness akin to the blessedness of God. 
 This is the peace of God which passeth all under- 
 standing. Truth, principle, conscience, faith are 
 the highest prizes of life — the choicest treasures of 
 the soul. Bunyan's Pilgrim lodged in the Palace 
 Beautiful, and slept in the chamber called Peace, 
 and in the morning looked out upon the Delect- 
 able Mountains, and saw Immanuel's land from the 
 house-top. 
 
 And then, further, the self-renouncement which 
 subjects one's reason and opinion and option to 
 the word and will of Christ— this is the key to all 
 true and happy and successful living. It is a di- 
 vine revelation which comes with power to a man 
 who is truly taught of God, that he who trusteth 
 in his own heart is a, fool. And this is sound doc- 
 trine, elicited often by the deepest experience of 
 life. Some other one to trust in — some other one 
 to follow — higher and better than self — this is the 
 grand discovery of life which realizes life's great 
 end. This is no sinking of one's manhood. It is 
 only stripping off the tinsel and gewgaw of child- 
 ish folly, to put on the proper garb and style of 
 manliness — where one becomes the most of a man 
 by communion with the God-man — deriving of his 
 
LOSING OR SAVING LIFE. 29 
 
 fulness — copying his example — relying upon his 
 grace, and following his counsel and guidance to 
 glory. 
 
 And this is just the condition in which even 
 disappointment brings no pain, because it comes 
 as the kind and covenant ordering of Jesus. It is 
 taken as belonging to the divine programme of 
 our personal salvation. This losing one's life for 
 Christ's sake and the Gospel's — subjecting all pride 
 of opinion, and all high ambitions of the reason to 
 the mind and will of God in the Scripture, count- 
 ing it the highest reason to believe and trust in 
 what God has revealed — counting all rationalistic 
 self-assertion as most unreasonable against God's 
 written word — and carrying this into the whole 
 walk and work of life, — going just when and just 
 whither he commands, — not stopping to make re- 
 ply, nor to ask the reason why, — this is the su- 
 preme blessedness of life. The uninitiated revolt 
 at it, as a humiliating self-abnegation, unworthy 
 of a man. But Jesus will have us thus lose self 
 to find salvation, — where it is only losing self in 
 him, to have the life hid with him in God, as jew- 
 els are hid in a casket — or as a babe is hid in the 
 folded arms of its mother. All the sweet counsels 
 of bosom friends, on whom we are wont to lean in 
 our perplexities, are summed up and sanctified in 
 this gracious counselling and care of Jesus. This 
 makes the world's awful desolations impossible to 
 such, and the covenant promise is every day ful- 
 filled, "None of them that trust in him shall be 
 desolate." 
 
30 LOSING OR SAVING LIFE. 
 
 Jesus preaches rest, and he provides rest to the 
 soul. And rest itself is life itself. You shall save 
 your life by trusting it to his keeping — -by losing 
 it in him. Here indeed occurs that blessed expe- 
 rience, that in this emptying of one's self for Christ 
 ■ — this losing of one's self in Christ — there is a 
 blessed losing of what is evil — a losing of one's 
 cares by casting them upon Christ — a losing of 
 one's sins by laying them upon Christ — a losing 
 of one's burdens of every kind, both temporal and 
 spiritual, by rolling them upon Christ — so that it 
 is a happy loss for a mighty gain. And as the 
 worm loses its crawling nature, to take on itself 
 the wings of 9 the butterfly, — so in such self-losing, 
 we are only pluming ourselves for the skies. To 
 lose one's life for the Gospel is the true secret of 
 saving it. 
 
 The divine signature of the work of Christ, more 
 than his miracles even, was his preaching the Gos- 
 pel to the poor — to the laborer — to the outcast— 
 to the distressed. This was his answer to inquir- 
 ers and doubters — wrought out and demonstrated 
 in their presence. And this is the glory of the 
 Gospel, that it is a good word to the poor — the poor 
 in purse, as well as the poor in spirit. And this is 
 the reflective glory of the Christian work every- 
 where, that it stretches out the hand of benefi- 
 cence to the needy, on the great, high principle, 
 that it is a blessing bestowed upon Jesus him- 
 self, in blessing his own poor. Heathen religions 
 and philosophies had nothing for this class. The 
 Jews also derided them. " This people " — this rab- 
 
LOSING OR SAVING LIFE. 31 
 
 ble (they said), "that know not the law are accursed." 
 But to feed the hungry^— to clothe the naked — to 
 enlighten the ignorant — to aid the struggling and 
 weak; this is the mission of the Gospel. This is 
 where the good news and glad tidings come in. 
 
 It was the glory of Athens, that she alone had 
 reared a solitary altar to pity. But Jesus rears 
 an altar to pity in every Christian breast. And 
 then instead of the coliseum and the amphitheatre, 
 where the slave was cast into the arena to fight 
 with the beasts, there rose the hospital, the orphan- 
 age, and the sanctuary of Christian worship. And 
 to bless the poor with Christian charities, and espe- 
 cially to sustain the ordinances for poor churches, 
 even at personal sacrifice; this is in so far losing 
 one's life for Christ's sake and the Gospel's, and 
 this is finding one's life — finding the grand, high 
 object of living — man's chief end — finding the true 
 luxury of living — to win souls to Christ. 
 
 " Sure they of many blessings 
 
 Should scatter blessings round, 
 As laden boughs in autumn fling 
 Their ripe fruit to the ground. 
 
 " And the best love man can offer 
 To the God of love, be sure, 
 Is kindness to his little ones 
 And bounty to his poor." 
 
 And then, further, as regards the meed of human 
 praise, which men so relish, and for which they 
 labor, as an object of life. It is the difference be- 
 tween being esteemed for one's person and dress — 
 
32 LOSING OR SAVING LIFE. 
 
 for one's estate and equipage — or for one's noble 
 qualities of soul, — esteemed for the ability to com- 
 mand indulgences, or esteemed for the generosity 
 and charity of a large beneficence, that carries in- 
 dulgences to others. What public honor is there 
 among men, like that which brings the poor, crowd- 
 ing with tears around one's coffin— and the Sab- 
 bath-school children, strewing flowers upon one's 
 grave? Nay, what is it even to be laid in the 
 poet's corner in Westminster Abbey, as having 
 wondrously portrayed human character in the com- 
 mon walks of life, — as having made one's pen speak 
 in sympathy with the neglected masses? How in- 
 finitely is all this beneath the actual Christ-like 
 work of lifting up the masses by Christian char- 
 ities, and by self-denying services, such as thrill 
 through the very body of Christ in his feeling for 
 the poorest members. 
 
 A Christian may easily be defined. There needs 
 no controversy on so plain a point. He is not 
 a Christian who merely paints Christianity on a 
 canvas, in her figure of relieving the distressed, 
 and ministering to the downtrodden and abused. 
 No! that is the artist's work, who may paint with 
 magic colors an ideal most unlike himself. The 
 Christian is he who sits for that original, who is 
 himself the model of that form — the prototype of 
 that image. And he finds his life, where such a 
 mere artistic limner of it would put the shadow for 
 the substance, and would say he lost his life in 
 seeking to devote it to Christ and his Gospel. 
 
 But this is the charmed word — losing one's life 
 
LOSING OR SAVING LIFE. 33 
 
 for Christ. Yet this is just where men shrink back, 
 and will not readily venture on any such experi- 
 ment, — can not understand how loss can ever be 
 gain, — how self-denial can ever be satisfaction and 
 success. A man says, "I will do what I can for 
 the cause." He means — "What I can," without 
 inconvenience. He says, I am not able to give to 
 this or that object. He means, not able without 
 some privation or self-sacrifice — without the denial 
 of some indulgence — either promised or enjoyed — 
 without in so far losing his life — losing some of 
 his life's common pleasures — forgetting how the 
 uncommon and superior pleasures of a higher life 
 may come by this very means — may come in at 
 this very opening — forgetting how the vessel must 
 be emptied of rubbish in order to be filled with 
 treasure — emptied of self in order to be filled with 
 all the fulness of God. Nay, it is not to be con- 
 cealed nor evaded, that the highest aim of human 
 life is, in this sense, to lose one's life — to set one's 
 self deliberately and earnestly to a life of self- 
 emptying — self-denial — self-sacrifice for Christ and 
 the Gospel, abjuring all that pampers pride, and 
 panders to mere worldly indulgence, when by the 
 true self-renouncement, Christ's cause may be best 
 subserved ! It is just the ever present question — 
 the constant, persistent application in all the char- 
 ities of the church — in all the offices of beneficence 
 — in the thousand appliances of Christian work — 
 this is it — a distinct, undisguised proposition to a 
 man to lose his life, in order to find it. 
 
 Some fruit-trees must be lopped off at the top in 
 
34 LOSING OR SAVING LIFE. 
 
 order to a better bearing — the vine must be pruned 
 so as to produce much fruit. Nay, even some 
 clusters must be stripped off, for the better ma- 
 turing of the rest. A ship's cargo, even her treas- 
 ure, must sometimes be cast overboard to get to 
 land. Conquest is by conflict Eeigning is by suf- 
 fering, as its necessary and fixed condition. Even 
 in Christ's kingdom, this is the proposition: u If 
 we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him." 
 It is the cross in order to the crown. 
 
 But further than all this, the text is not merely 
 a statement. It is also, and mainly, a covenant. 
 It is not merely the working of a natural law, by 
 which we must first lose a thing, before we find it. 
 It is the working of a higher law, by which Christ 
 covenants to more than compensate every loss in- 
 curred in his service. "Even the cup of cold wa- 
 ter, given to a disciple in his name, shall not lose its 
 reward." It is a definite and fixed promise. "And 
 he said unto them, verily I say unto you, There is 
 no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, 
 or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, 
 for my sake and the Gospel's, but he shall receive 
 an hundred-fold, now in this time, houses, and breth- 
 ren, and sisters, and children, and lands with per- 
 secution, and in the world to come, eternal life." 
 This is God's grand guarantee. Prove ye, whether 
 it be not true — true in every item of it. I beseech 
 you, my brethren, make proof of this contract. It 
 is a plain, business transaction. It is a fair calcu- 
 lation of outlay and return. Let no man dare to 
 qualify the language, or to spirit it away by mere 
 
LOSING OR SAVING LIFE. 35 
 
 spiritualities. The phrase is, "an hundred-fold, now 
 in this time, houses and lands." 
 
 Do you believe it — that the investment is com- 
 mercially good — that whatever is given to God in 
 good faith comes back with large interest in this 
 life? God is able to pay. He has all resources at 
 his disposal. He controls your daily trade — your 
 daily table. He can surely make his service re- 
 munerative. And he has given his obligations in 
 writing, sealed with royal, double seals. And why 
 should he not make them good? As Luther said 
 in an hour of anxiety, pointing to a bird on a 
 bending branch, where he had perched, singing, 
 " Happy fellow — he leaves God to think for him." 
 
 I have known men of the world, who had made 
 trial of giving to the cause of Christ, for return in 
 kind, and who believed that they never gave a 
 dollar but it came back to them, with a large 
 increase, better than the banks. And is the Chris- 
 tian to hold back and doubt the master's ability, 
 or his fidelity? An hundred-fold, now in this life. 
 What? Not any one hundred per cent — two dol- 
 lars for one ! No ! But one hundred-fold. One 
 hundred dollars for one. Do you believe it? It is 
 by a higher and truer calculation than your best 
 experts or actuaries can make. 
 
 And then under God's covenant, you must take 
 account of exemption from losses ivhich might other- 
 wise have come, as well as of actual accumulation ; 
 and who knows, how in God's reckoning, the large 
 total is thus made up, without abatement, accord- 
 ing to the largest terms of the promise. 
 
36 LOSING OR SAVING LIFE. 
 
 And there is a positive increase of values, where 
 there is an increase of ability, to enjoy one's goods. 
 The gift of an appetite is more than the gift of a 
 sumptuous meal without it. 
 
 Count the interest, then, along with the princi- 
 pal. The disheartened prophet under the juniper- 
 tree said, "Let me die. It is enough. Now," 
 Lord take away my life ! " What are palaces, 
 and banquets, and jewels, and equipage to a sick 
 soul — to one whose spirits are dried up ? But God 
 lifts the veil — takes away the pall from the pros- 
 pect — gives to life a new relish and zest. And 
 this is houses, and lands, and brothers, aiid sisters, 
 all in one ! And all this is now in this life. If 
 you know nothing of this, it is because you have 
 not tried it. And what then of the hereafter? 
 " In the world to come eternal life ! " Here all 
 human calculation is baffled. Take the life of an 
 angel — of a seraph flaming with the love of God. 
 But more than this is the bliss of a redeemed soul. 
 
 I see men everywhere around me, losing their 
 lives — yet not for Christ's sake, and the Gospel's 
 — but for passing indulgences and for vain ambi- 
 tions. I see them losing life in a mistaken effort 
 to find it, but finding nothing but drudgery, and 
 disappointment, and grief, and loss, — finding death 
 instead of life, and finding out the miserable, mock- 
 ing delusion, when it is too late — when they have 
 lost their higher life to gain the lower one — lost 
 the future life to gain the present one — lost the 
 eternal life to gain the temporal one — and have 
 lost both lives — lost the soul and lost the body. 
 
LOSING OR SAVING LIFE. 37 
 
 I set before you, as the surest calculation in all 
 the universe this proposition of Jesus Christ him- 
 self — Author of Life— source of life's blessedness — • 
 of him who is the way, and the truth, and the life 
 — that you shall find out life's highest uses, life's 
 purest pleasures — life's most lasting riches and re- 
 wards, if only you will lose yourselves in him — as 
 a wife loses herself in her husband — as a friend 
 loses himself in a bosom friend. If only you will 
 lose sight of self in his sweet service — if only you 
 will let go the lower, lesser life for the higher, 
 greater life — you shall ever find all life's common 
 joys sweetened to you — all life's common natural 
 ties strengthened and endeared to you. You shall 
 find out the secret of happy living, which you were 
 seeking for, in other and false pursuits. And you 
 shall find that the life of a man, when it is elevated 
 by such divine aims as Jesus Christ proposes, be- 
 comes a life hid with Christ in God, — becomes the 
 life of God himself in the soul of man. 
 
III. 
 
 LIMITATIONS OF THE DIVINE WORKING. 
 
 "And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his 
 hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them." — Mark vi. 5. 
 
 God himself is law itself. And he can not work 
 except in deference to law, as embodying the most 
 solid and fixed principles of action. Law is not 
 God — but only the proof of a lawgiver, who is 
 God. As we understand it, law is only the uni- 
 form working of force and power, whether in nat- 
 ural or in spiritual things, as that law is deduced 
 from our observation and experience in manifold 
 instances. And when we speak of miracles, men 
 commonly regard them as either violations of law, 
 or suspensions of law, while in truth they are only 
 exceptional workings, which are equally within the 
 sphere of law, only of higher law, transcending all 
 ordinary phenomena. In a most important sense, 
 the grace of God is omnipotent Yet not so, be 
 sure, as to be irrespective of all fixed principles of 
 working. "He is able to save unto the uttermost." 
 But observe, it is "all that come unto God by 
 him." He is not willing that any should perish. 
 No! But that all should come unto repentance. 
 
LIMITATIONS OF DIVINE WORKING. 39 
 
 For the man that cometh not to repentance, must 
 go on to condemnation and perdition. 
 
 Look out in nature. The sun and rain are not 
 able, even in their timeliest and most genial opera- 
 tion, to bring any verdure out of the rock. And 
 yet this is no defect in the quality of the sun, or 
 the rain. It is only a necessary result, in such con- 
 dition of things, according to constitutional law. 
 
 So also in the domain of grace, as set forth in 
 the text. There is a certain necessary limitation 
 of the divine working. God bows to the eternal 
 fitness of things. He is himself controlled by the 
 law of his supreme love and faithfulness. The 
 divine omnipotence, in gracious operation, is con- 
 ditioned by the advertised plan, as regards the 
 subject, or the sphere, or the circumstances, in any 
 particular case. And yet, this is no essential qual- 
 ification of the fact that God is omnipotent, or that, 
 in the theological sense, the divine grace is irre- 
 sistible. God's plan of grace can not be thwarted 
 by the creature. u He will have mercy on whom 
 he will have mercy." But there is a plan. He 
 will have mercy on whosoever will. And accord- 
 ing to this plan, God is pleased to work, and so to 
 limit his operations. "God so loved the world." 
 How much and how? That he gave his only be- 
 gotten Son. But only with a plan, and for a defi- 
 nite end — that whosoever believeth on him (and 
 none other), might not perish (as otherwise he 
 must) but have eternal life. 
 
 Plainly, there are certain things in morals, which 
 it is impossible for God to do. It is impossible for 
 
40 LIMITATIONS OF 
 
 God to lie. And why is it impossible? Simply 
 because he can not be false to himself, or false 
 to any creature or interest in the universe. And 
 hence, it is essentially inconsistent with the very 
 nature of things, and contradictory to the very 
 idea of God. 
 
 In the passage before us it is written, that in 
 a certain place, and in certain circumstances re- 
 corded, Jesus Christ could do no mighty work — 
 with the very partial exception that is named. 
 It is an actual inability that is spoken of. It is 
 recorded here as impossible in the circumstances. 
 Is his grace then limited by creature conditions? 
 Let us see. The limiting cause in the case before 
 us was the unbelief of the people. Nothing else. 
 This was his own people. It was his own coun- 
 try and city of Nazareth. It was amongst his own 
 neighbors, and kinsfolk, and acquaintance. And 
 you have it written here precisely how the matter 
 worked. He had been known by his townsmen 
 in his boyhood. His family was well known. His 
 trade, his brothers and sisters and mother — all — 
 they knew them all. And they reasoned about 
 him thus: "Is not this the carpenter — the son of 
 Mary, the brother of James — a man of our commu- 
 nity. We know all about him — his antecedents, 
 origin, training, occupation, family, condition in 
 life and daily business. Whence then hath this 
 man this wisdom and these mighty works reported 
 of him?" These were the workings of their minds. 
 It was from the natural view of the case. And 
 this was the bar to their faith. Looking upon him 
 
THE DIVINE WORKING. 41 
 
 thus, in the mere human aspect — they could not be- 
 lieve. And not believing in him, they could not be 
 saved. 
 
 But you say, it is the divine prerogative to give 
 faith. So it is. But faith is not a substance, which 
 God could give a man, as you could give a man 
 bread or water. No! It is a mental condition and 
 quality of thought and of heart, which can be 
 given only in consonance with the laws of mind, 
 and in keeping with the constitution of the soul. 
 Faith was never given, as a solitary and independ- 
 ent gift, apart from its necessary conditions and 
 concomitants. There must be mental states, fore- 
 going convictions and affections accompanying. 
 And though faith is the gift of God, it is such a 
 gift as is effectually barred by all the conditions 
 of persistent and cherished unbelief. Therefore, 
 faith, as a grace, does not spring up alone, as if 
 it could be communicated by itself, and independ- 
 ently of other graces. It is simply a quality of the 
 divine life in the soul. It can not co-exist with 
 such prejudices against Christ's person and work 
 as belonged to those Nazarenes. It is founded 
 on truth, and it must have its corresponding con- 
 victions. It relates to a person, and it must have 
 its corresponding affections. 
 
 The blessed Spirit of God, the sole agent in re- 
 generation, however supernatural, works naturally, 
 not unnaturally. He goes so far towards giving 
 you faith, every one of you, that he has given 
 you the wonderful record, abundantly attested, 
 to be implicitly believed. And the wonderful 
 
42 LIMITATIONS OF 
 
 person and life to be fully trusted. And all that 
 is lacking, is just the sincere disposition to ac- 
 cept the truth, thus amply set before you. And 
 God can not make you believe against your con- 
 victions, nor against your will. So Jesus says to 
 some of his hearers, "Hoiv can ye believe, who re- 
 ceive honor one of another, and seek not the honor 
 that cometh from God only?" How can ye pos- 
 sibly do it? There are necessary conditions of be- 
 lieving. And a man, in the rush of pride, ambi- 
 tion, and self-seeking, can not be a believer. "The 
 natural man discerneth not the things of the Spirit 
 of God, neither can he know them, because they are 
 spiritually discerned." Therefore, while it belongs 
 to God to give faith, he can not give it arbitra- 
 rily, and abstractly, and apart from all consti- 
 tutional law. No man can expect it, much less 
 insist on it as the gift of God, when he is mov- 
 ing habitually, in another and contrary sphere of 
 thought, and feeling, and action, using no means, 
 cherishing no kindred influences. For God can 
 not contravene all the laws of mind. This would 
 be to deny himself. He works within the sphere 
 of mental and moral law. And though his grace 
 has no conditions — as if it were to be bargained 
 for — yet there are the necessary conditions for the 
 operation of the grace — the conditions of things in 
 which the grace operates, and which is essential to 
 its operation. So it is said, "He came unto his 
 own, and his own received him not." And so, 
 using a natural illustration, it is said, "The light 
 shineth in darkness, and the darkness compre- 
 
THE DIVINE WORKING. 43 
 
 hended it not" — did not take it in. Just as when 
 a dark cloud is so thick, as to be impenetrable by 
 the rays of the sun. We understand that. It is 
 no sudden defect of the sun's power. Only that 
 is not the condition of things in which the sun's 
 pow r er can be felt. 
 
 Let us apply these principles to the operations 
 of divine grace, and inquire what are the necessary 
 limitations of the gracious working in any case 
 or community. There was the large majority of 
 instances at Nazareth, in which Jesus Christ could 
 not, was not able, it is said, to do any mighty work 
 of healing and salvation, with only a few rare ex- 
 ceptions. Our inquiry relates, first, to the case of 
 the man himself, and second, to the case of thos£ 
 who are seeking the man's salvation. As to the 
 individual case, unbelief is the effective bar and lim- 
 itation of the divine working. Take it as regards 
 the work of healing, when Christ was upon earth, 
 This illustrates the great salvation in all time. 
 The principles are the same for the soul as for 
 the body. 
 
 First, we are to understand that Christ's chosen 
 work is to cure and to save — and that this is the 
 uniform operation and result of the means of grace, 
 unless toe interpose the unbelieving hindrances. 
 Commonly we think of the grace as sitting in 
 state, arbitrarily waiting to be pleaded with and 
 persuaded — like imperial power, that is indifferent 
 to its subjects, and only, peradventure, attentive to 
 their petitions. But not so. On the contrary, Je- 
 sus Christ is out upon his work of healing, travers- 
 
44 LIMITATIONS OF 
 
 ing the world, seeking and saving the lost. Cures 
 are his element — his proper motions. They flow 
 from him as his living breath — as water from a 
 fountain — as light from the sun — as life from the 
 Godhead. They are the natural radiations of his 
 love, save where we interpose the unbelieving ob- 
 structions. For a fountain can be wilfully choked, 
 in this or that passage, and the sun's rays can be 
 shut out from one's eyes or from his windows. The 
 sun shines for all, but not so as to reach the man 
 who hides away in a garret or in a cellar, and will 
 not be beholden to its beams. 
 
 See how that woman that came away from all 
 the world's physicians, in sheer despair, to Jesus, 
 got somehow this living thought into her soul. It 
 flashed down into her dark, desponding bosom, and 
 therewith all her energies were roused to action. 
 She thought within herself — ah, this is the turning 
 point in her life — -she thought within herself, "If 
 I may but touch the hem of his garment, I shall be 
 made whole." She came to think of him, as of a 
 galvanic jar, surcharged with all the electricity 
 of love and healing — so that even the touch of 
 even the hem of his garment would give her the 
 cure. If we could so estimate it, that in him all 
 fulness dwells — all the fulness of the Godhead bod- 
 ily and all for us — then we should see the truth 
 in something of its proper light, as reflecting on 
 ourselves the fearful responsibility we incur of our 
 own perdition. 
 
 So the prodigal one day came to himself! "These 
 rags — these husks — these swine." Let no man say, 
 
THE DIVINE WORKING. 45 
 
 that his own case is too bad or too far gone now 
 for a cure. Such limitation of Christ's power as 
 we find in the text is not a weakness. It is only 
 an indication of strength. God is restricted, not 
 by any stint or failure of his resources. No. But 
 only by the lack of the proper sphere for his oper- 
 ations in any case. 
 
 If you go with a broken limb to an oculist, you 
 are not in the way of healing. His power does 
 not operate in this direction. All he wants is to 
 have the proper applicants for the cure he has to 
 give. God's self-limitation therefore is all in per- 
 fect consistency with his omnipotence, which only 
 conditions itself in wisdom and righteousness and 
 faithfulness and love. God will be true — true to' 
 himself — true to the sinner— true to the Gospel 
 scheme as revealed to men — true to the universe. 
 The sun must have an atmosphere to work in, or 
 he can not shine. The most powerful light will 
 go out amidst the mephitic damps of a well or a 
 mine. The prophet says to Israel, "Behold, the 
 Lord's hand is not shortened that it can not save ; 
 neither his ear heavy, that it can not hear; but 
 your iniquities have separated between you and 
 your God, and your sins have hid his face from 
 you, that he will not hear." The hindrance does 
 not lie in God's sovereignty. No! Nor in God's 
 absolute decree. No! Nor in any unwillingness 
 of God to save. No ! Nor in any lack of provision 
 in any possible case. No. No. It lies simply and 
 only in your unbelief. 
 
 Of what avail would it be to you, if a draft for 
 
46 LIMITATIONS OF 
 
 a thousand pounds were put into your hand, to 
 your order, if you thought it a fraud, or a mistake, 
 for some other man, or for yourself only upon 
 some impossible condition; and for this, or any 
 reason, you would not endorse your name upon 
 it, or draw the money at the bank? You can not 
 give a man the most precious gift, if he will not 
 take it. 
 
 And, second, This unbelief is the sole and certain 
 barrier to the divine grace, because the faith required 
 is only the necessary instrument by which we re- 
 ceive the blessing. Nothing more is required of 
 us than heartily to accept the gift. Nothing less 
 is compatible with our receiving and enjoying the 
 blessing. You think of the faith being requisite, 
 as a positive, pre-eminent grace, and the grace, 
 you say, you can not furnish. And the grace of 
 faith in possession and exercise supposes the sal- 
 vation to be already achieved. This is the confu- 
 sion of ideas. Just here, the problem is tangled 
 to the common view. But the faith is requisite, 
 only by a necessary law of the mental and moral 
 constitution. Faith in a father's promise is neces- 
 sary to any enjoyment of the promises. But you 
 do not go into a diagnosis of your mental or moral 
 state, and ask yourself if you have the grace of 
 faith in your father. No. You do not puzzle 
 yourself with such an analysis of faith as a grace 
 or quality prerequisite. No ! You want only to be 
 sure of your fathers word ! In the case of those 
 Nazarenes; how should any of their invalids be 
 cured by him if they came not to him for the heal- 
 
THE DIVINE WORKING. 47 
 
 ing — if they derided his claims, and disbelieved his 
 teachings ? It is written of others — of those at Jer- 
 usalem — "That the blind and the lame came to him 
 in the temple, and he healed them all" " As many 
 as touched the hem of his garment, were made whole." 
 But here they did not come to him. And this sim- 
 ply because they did not believe in him, and would 
 not be beholden to his grace. It was not the mere 
 local absence that prevented the cure. He could 
 have cured them at a distance by a word, by a 
 will. This he did at times when the faith was 
 exercised. But it was the indifference, and the 
 disobedience — it was the suspicion, and the aliena- 
 tion — it was the incredulity and malignity, that put 
 them out of the sphere of the gracious operation. 
 It is not the faith, as a matured, ripened grace, 
 that is prerequisite to the cure. It is just the re- 
 ceptivity and susceptibility, that lays itself open 
 to the cure, and invites it, which is, in the very 
 nature of things, requisite. The simple believing 
 is, of course, necessary and indispensable to the 
 receiving. 
 
 A steamer is at the wharf, waiting for pas- 
 sengers. The knowledge and faith are necessary, 
 which will lead a man to go on board. And this 
 is necessary, not as any meritorious quality in the 
 passenger, not as any grace of faith, but only as 
 a necessity in the nature of the case. His going 
 aboard does not pay his fare. No ! But he must 
 go aboard, or be left behind. 
 
 Ajid further — this divine law of gracious oper- 
 ation will be illustrated by the exceptional m- 
 
48 LIMITATIONS OF 
 
 stances here mentioned. " He could not do there 
 any mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon 
 a few sick folk and healed them." These few sick 
 folk — how did they obtain the healing as an ex- 
 ception to the general rule among the Nazarenes? 
 These were doubtless such as, in their sickness, felt 
 the need of his cure, and sought it in their hearts 
 — and either sought him out, or if they could not 
 do this, and could not put themselves in his way, 
 were brought to his notice by friends who be- 
 lieved, or were sought out by him for the healing, 
 which they most of all things desired. This state 
 of mind — this readiness to receive the blessing — 
 this earnest desire after it — this measure of faith in 
 him, that would invite it, and accept it thankfully, 
 if it were known, and within reach — this is what 
 everywhere he required, and this was all. "Wilt 
 thou be made whole?" Wilt thou? "Believest 
 thou that I am able to do this ? " 
 
 So it is (in every community), the few sick folk 
 upon whom he lays his hands and heals them — 
 they are the exceptions to the general rule. Oh ! 
 why so few healed, when so many are sick — only 
 that they do not count themselves sick, or because 
 of obstructions interposed by themselves — not for 
 any lack of divine willingness to save — but only 
 for lack of their willingness to be saved. They are, 
 in their own estimation, whole, and do not need a 
 physician — or, they are doubters, and disbelievers, 
 quibbling about questions which do not concern 
 their vital necessity — and whilst they are argu- 
 ing and disputing and cavilling about doctrines, 
 
THE DIVINE WORKING. 49 
 
 or duties, or means and methods, they perish. But 
 these few sick folk have blessed the day they ever 
 came to the knowledge of his grace. From off 
 their cots of pain and disease — out of the depths 
 of their misery, they rejoice in his great salvation. 
 
 And further, it is plain, that it is not any ma- 
 tured and perfected faith that is requisite, but only 
 such a measure of it, as brings one within the 
 sphere of his working, and makes the saving con- 
 tact possible. The fountain is gushing with its 
 healing waters. But these gushing, healing wa- 
 ters are nothing to the man who will not try 
 their virtue, and will have none of them for a 
 cure. They may flow on forever, like Niagara, 
 and he will be unhealed by them. The man may 
 be thirsting to death, and yet keeping at his dis- 
 tance for some prejudice or mistake he will get 
 no slaking of his thirst. Therefore the call is, 
 " Come ye to the waters." And faith, that is only 
 as yet very partially enlightened, and very weak, 
 and very distrustful — if only it bring the sinner to 
 Christ for a cure — meets the demand, and makes 
 the salvation sure. 
 
 The woman who touched him in the crowd 
 thought that she might carry off the healing virtue 
 unbeknown to others and even to him — thought 
 that she might have the healing all to herself — 
 quite a secret — and hidden from the rest. This 
 was her first low view of the situation. She was 
 ashamed of her disease — could not bear to speak 
 of it — nor bear to have it noticed in the crowd, 
 before the congregation; just as men and women 
 4 
 
50 LIMITATIONS OF 
 
 are ashamed to own themselves sinners, and pen- 
 itents, and to be humiliated before Christ, or to 
 confess him before men. All that had well nigh 
 proved a fatal barrier to her in the way of the 
 grace. But she despaired of other helps. She 
 came at the impulse of her strong conviction. 
 She ventured on the touch. She came into the 
 necessary contact with him, even by the garment 
 fringe. And Christ brought her out, and led her 
 into the proper development of a believing spirit, 
 in a believing life. And to her infinite joy she 
 was healed, despite all the defects of her faith, and 
 she felt the conscious healing course through all 
 her frame. 
 
 Look at the twelve themselves. On the Sea of 
 Galilee, with Christ in the vessel — when the storm 
 came up and the elemental war threatened to wreck 
 their boat and their faith together — when they can 
 not trust themselves with him in the same vessel, 
 will he let them go down as the just rebuke and 
 punishment of their unbelief? No! Does he curse 
 them to their face ? Does he even threaten them ? 
 No ! For he recognizes the faith in the germ and 
 he fosters it. With what infinite tenderness and 
 forbearance he says, u Why are ye so fearful, ye 
 of little faith?" 
 
 I am often asked — why God does not save all 
 men, seeing he is able to save all ? The Scripture 
 answers, " Jesus is able to save unto the uttermost, 
 all that come unto God by him." We may fairly 
 say, God does save all whom he is able to save con- 
 sistently with his plan of redemption. And this 
 
THE DIVINE WORKING. 51 
 
 plan is part of the constitutional law of the uni- 
 verse, by which he can save only such as believe. 
 Some men claim to hope in a universal salvation. 
 But there is no other salvation than this of Christ 
 in the Gospel, and it is as universal as the case will 
 admit. It is for all ivho tvill. AVhat can be more 
 free ? And how can it be for those who icill not ? 
 
 Examine the law of operation, second, as re- 
 gards those who are seeking the salvation of oth- 
 ers. That Nazareth had been greatly honored and 
 blessed as a community. The very fact which 
 stood in the w r ay of their faith was the glorious 
 truth that Jesus had been reared among them, 
 and that they knew him, and his household, all 
 of them by name. And that very city, where he 
 was one of themselves, was awfully hardened, and 
 disbelieving, just by reason of their superior privi- 
 leges. No wonder it is written, u He marvelled be- 
 cause of their unbelief." 
 
 It is often so — that the communities most dis- 
 tinguished for religious privilege — for having the 
 church and the household of faith in their midst 
 — are the most hardened against Christ himself. 
 As though he had made himself cheap and com- 
 monplace by living among them — had become 
 a stranger by being familiar, and so that a real 
 stranger would have had more influence, and 
 strange doctrines would carry the day. His won- 
 derful works were an old story, and simply incred- 
 ible to them, in the view of his well-known human 
 relations. This is also the feature of our age — that 
 it rejects Christ, simply because he has become so 
 
52 LIMITATIONS OF 
 
 familiar — rejects him as God, because he has be- 
 come man — rejects his Gospel, because his church 
 and worship and claims have become an old story. 
 His people are known — his brothers and sisters — 
 and they are criticised. Some fault is found, and 
 readily enough, with one or other of them. The 
 age will have something new and strange. Not 
 one horne-born, but a stranger will be accepted. 
 Not Christ, but any antichrist, without half of his 
 credentials and his attestations. Jesus Christ mar- 
 vels at your unbelief. But every man's eternal 
 future shall be according to his own free choice — 
 "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life — 
 freely." And whosoever will not, must take the 
 opposite, and drink of the waters of death. So 
 that Jesus does, in effect, say to every man, " Be 
 it unto thee, even as thou wilt." For the future 
 life is the fruit, of which this life is the bud and 
 blossom. The longings show the belongings. It 
 is according to one's path here, that he shall travel 
 there. According to your affinities, dispositions, 
 attractions and actions shall be your destiny here- 
 after. Even of Judas, it is said, he went to his 
 own place. This state of the public mind is at 
 this moment, a mighty barrier in the way of his 
 doing his mighty works. All this parleying and 
 arguing about Christ — this speculation as to who 
 he is — this derision of him for his human origin 
 and antecedents — this denial of his Divine Person 
 and offices — all this, stands to-day in the way of 
 the grace. For God will not work where there is 
 no compatibility with the working. 
 
THE DIVINE WORKING. 53 
 
 And so again — where the community is overrun 
 with worldliness, and there is no spiritual taste — 
 no desire after God— and where the church itself is 
 poisoned by the low marshy miasma of the world 
 — there is no sphere for the gracious operation. 
 The Spirit of God, instead of being cherished, is 
 grieved — instead of being fostered is quenched — 
 sacred things are trodden under foot in the rush 
 after the world's vanities, and all the appliances of 
 the Gospel are resisted ! All the means of grace, 
 that are put in operation, rebound, as from a wall 
 of adamant. In the healing career of Jesus among 
 the cities and villages of Palestine it is written, 
 that they brought to him all that were diseased, and 
 them that were possessed with devils, and he cured 
 them. The church is an agency set up in the 
 world for bringing the outcast and lost to the 
 notice of this Jesus — and for bringing them in the 
 arms of our faith to his feet. Some are converted, 
 that they may labor for the conversion of others. 
 And where this agency is lacking — where this 
 instrumentality is at a stand-still — the history of 
 gracious operation in any church or community is 
 like that which is written here, "He did not many 
 mighty works there, because of their unbelief." 
 
 God works in accordance with law. It is not, 
 therefore, law that works, but God, who is the em- 
 bodiment of law. It is a high personal agency. 
 He will not work his mighty cures, where there is 
 no demand for them — no belief in him, nor in his 
 healing. He can not do it, in the very nature of 
 things. There will be no revival of religion in the 
 
54 LIMITATIONS OF 
 
 gambling hall, or in the drinking saloon — no — nor 
 where the community, and the church itself, is 
 intoxicated with mirth or strife or gambling for 
 gain. That is not the atmosphere where the Spirit 
 dwells. He is grieved and quenched by such a 
 condition of things. So Jesus can not work against 
 all the opposing influences of unbelief, even in his 
 own city, — among his own people. It is not in 
 the nature of things possible. It would be as im- 
 possible as for God to lie, or to deny himself. 
 
 Look out and see the few sick folk healed, in 
 comparison of the multitudes — a few among the 
 thousands. My hearer! You complain that God 
 does not save you. But you do not consider that 
 you are virtually tying his hands, so that he can 
 not do it — any more than he can lie, because he 
 can not be false to himself. My brethren, here the 
 whole problem resolves itself into an earnest, be- 
 lieving application and supplication for the bless- 
 ing. Do not charge it upon God's sovereignty, I 
 beseech you, or upon an inexorable decree against 
 you. The decree of grace and salvation by Christ 
 is here plainly revealed and published. If you want 
 the blessing, take it — "Ask, and ye shall receive." 
 
 There is a heartless, faithless way of asking, that 
 does not amount to seeking, and that never would 
 go so far as the actual knocking to enter in. You 
 may ask, and not come prepared to take the bless- 
 ing that is offered — as a man may apply for some- 
 thing, which he is not ready to take home with 
 him, for the reason that he has not expected to get 
 it, or to get it now. You may not be prepared, 
 
THE DIVINE WORKING. 55 
 
 in your business affairs, or in your household, or 
 in your worldly social engagements — for receiv- 
 ing the Holy Ghost into your heart, or into your 
 household, just now. And God does not grant it 
 to-day, with an understanding that you may take 
 it to-morrow. No. The very readiness of God to 
 give the blessing on the spot may be that which 
 you are not prepared for, and which will always 
 stand in the way of your receiving the blessing 
 at all. You are never ready to take it just at 
 once, and without any further delays — not ready 
 to sit down with Christ to the passover table, just 
 because you are well aware that there is some 
 leaven, not yet searched for and cleared up and 
 cast out of your house or your heart. 
 
 My hearers, I know not what barrier stands in 
 the way of this divine grace with any of you to- 
 day. But plainly, this is the record here, as there. 
 "He could do no mighty works, save that he laid 
 his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them." 
 But I am instructed to say, " It is not the pleasure 
 of God that any of you, my hearers, should perish." 
 If it were only your pleasure to be saved, and to 
 come to him for salvation, then you would be 
 saved. If it were even the pleasure of Christian 
 friends — of God's praying people here, that these 
 should be saved, and if so, they brought them to- 
 day, in hearty concert, as those four friends brought 
 the paralytic to Christ for a cure, I can not doubt 
 that the cure would come. 
 
 But woe to the man or the household, that bars the 
 incoming of the Holy Ghost! Better bar the gates 
 
56 LIMITATIONS OF DIVINE WORKING. 
 
 of the spring, and let no blade of grass or flower 
 or blossom appear. Better bar the gates of the 
 morning against the glorious sunrise. Better bar 
 the door of your dwelling against your own father 
 and mother, or against the best beloved of your 
 soul. Better bar the chambers of your sense, and 
 let the pall of death hang upon all your being, 
 than to bar out the Sweet Spirit of God, Quickener, 
 Teacher, Comforter, Kenewer, Sanctifier, Saviour. 
 
IV. 
 
 CHRIST— THE IDEAL MISSIONARY. 
 "Who went about doing good." — Acts x. 38. 
 
 Beyond the plain statements and predictions of 
 the Scriptures, a vision was necessary to reveal to 
 the church the great mystery of the ingathering of 
 the outside world. And when Peter stands up the 
 first time to publish the grand truth, and open the 
 door to the Gentiles, he speaks of the Gospel mes- 
 sage as embracing the glorious facts of Jesus' life, 
 death, and resurrection. And in this statement he 
 condenses the whole of this wonderful biography 
 into these few words. The life of Jesus full of 
 work — full of gracious deeds — full of saving acts — 
 is well and truly expressed in this brief phrase, 
 "He went about doing good." 
 
 The ingathering of the heathen is yet a mystery 
 to the church — not something in its nature inscru- 
 table, btLt something that needs divine revelation 
 to make it known. It is a mystery, I say, even to 
 the church. As though when it had b£en hid from 
 ages, it had not at length been fully revealed by 
 the advent of Christ and of the Holy Spirit. There 
 is still a grave misconception of the mission and 
 relation of the church to the outside world. Multi- 
 
58 CHRIST — THE IDEAL MISSIONARY. 
 
 tudes around us stand very much in our eyes as 
 the Gentiles stood to the Jews. We regard them 
 a people to be pitied rather than to be gathered in. 
 And we occupy our comfortable sanctuaries, as the 
 chosen people of God, and think it enough that the 
 outside world around us are not actually debarred ; 
 enough that the way is open to them ; enough that 
 the ancient ban of exclusion is taken off — not con- 
 sidering that ours is a mission to them of grace 
 and salvation; not considering that the great work 
 of the church is to gather them into the fold. 
 
 Peter's work was shown in the vision at Joppa 
 to be positive and aggressive work. It was not 
 merely a pictorial exhibition in which all the ani- 
 mals clean and unclean were seen to be herded to- 
 gether promiscuously and without distinction ; but 
 there came forth the commandment along with the 
 exhibition, "Kise, Peter, kill and eat!" If he re- 
 volted, if his ancient prejudices of race and privi- 
 lege demurred at this mixing with the unclean, 
 and at this abolishing of old distinction between 
 classes and races of people, the word came back to 
 him, — a conclusive word, " What God hath cleansed 
 that call not thou common." 
 
 It would seem as if the Jewish prejudice of ex- 
 clusiveness and church privilege and prerogative 
 were clinging yet to our minds, and that yet an- 
 other vision would be necessary to make plain to 
 us our duty to go forth in our mission of evan- 
 gelizing the outside masses. "The mystery hid 
 from ages and made known in Jesus Christ" has 
 yet to be reopened to the Christian church. It 
 
CHRIST — THE IDEAL MISSIONARY. 59 
 
 was nobly exemplified in the life of Jesus Christ 
 himself. The grand duty of the church is like the 
 Divine Master to go about doing good. 
 
 Look at this simple phrase as the definition and 
 description of Jesus' life. Strange enough that 
 there are two opposite characters representing the 
 spirit w^orld, who are described in the Scripture as 
 going about among men: the one walking about 
 as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour; 
 and the other, this Jesus, going about doing good. 
 
 Through Galilee and through Judea this was it; 
 one aim, one ambition, nothing else. He was not 
 at the wedding at Cana simply to be entertained 
 as a guest; much less to indulge even an innocent 
 recreation from his pressing cares and business; 
 least of all, to vindicate his social claims, or to 
 keep up his social position and that of his disci- 
 ples, with the families of the town. No ! his hour 
 was coming to do a grand work of providing for 
 the family and for the guests, and thus to signify 
 his willingness to work wonders for our refresh- 
 ment and satisfaction, for body and soul forever. 
 
 And where was he anywhere in any such re- 
 lation or condition as to throw any doubt upon 
 his work of helping, healing, comforting, saving? 
 Where w r as he ever seen in any attitude or con- 
 nection to cast a shadow upon the glory of such a 
 life? When could any one have ever suspected 
 that he had any private aims to subserve or any 
 sinister, selfish objects to accomplish? Nay! all 
 those accusations and mean insinuations of his 
 being a man gluttonous and a w x inebibber, or of 
 
60 CHRIST— THE IDEAL MISSIONARY. 
 
 his wishing to make himself a king, and of his 
 aiming to overthrow the nation, were only the 
 fabrications of their envy and jealousy; only the 
 assaults of sheer malice to get up some popular 
 outcry against him. No man of them who knew 
 him at all was ever honest in any such charge 
 against him. Never! You could see his life every- 
 where disproving this whole batch of slanders. He 
 and his disciples stood ready to point to those won- 
 derful works as the patent overpowering answer 
 to such shamefaced invective. 
 
 What town or city or village of Galilee and Ju- 
 dea and Samaria even, was not made glad by his 
 healing mercy? There was Capernaum and Beth- 
 saida and Nain and Nazareth and Samaria and 
 Sychem and Bethany and Bethlehem and Jericho 
 and Jerusalem. And there were the outside coasts 
 of Tyre and Sidon. He was never resting, never 
 intermitting his work. In the house of friend and 
 stranger; by the road-side; in the temple and at 
 the pool where invalids resorted; on the sea, on the 
 shore; by day, by night; Sabbaths and week-days 
 — busy, busy, busy; always at work — curing lep- 
 ers, healing blind and deaf and lame ; casting out 
 devils, rebuking fevers, raising the d,ead. He took 
 his sleep on the boat, upon the passage — the only 
 sleep of his we read of; agonized while his disci- 
 ples slept in Gethsemane ; talked with Moses and 
 Elias while his disciples were overpowered with 
 sleep on the Transfiguration Mount. Eead the 
 brief accounts of his work: " There came great 
 multitudes unto him and he healed them all" "As 
 
CHRIST — THE IDEAL MISSIONARY. 61 
 
 many as touched the hem of his garment were 
 made whole." u He healed all manner of sickness 
 and all manner of disease, among the people." 
 And here in the text. u He went about doing 
 good and healing all them that were possessed 
 with the devil." The busiest man that the world 
 ever saw was this Jesus. 
 
 And, secondly, this religion of Jesus Christ is 
 precisely adapted to the masses. It carries upon 
 its very front an invitation to the laboring classes : 
 "Come unto me all ye that labor." 
 
 We have missed the sense of this when we have 
 over-spiritualized it; when we have explained it 
 wholly of the inward soul-troubles of men. And 
 then, at once, men have been prone to understand 
 it of a spiritual quality or condition prerequisite 
 and meritorious. And in the absence of this state 
 of mind and heart they have thought there was 
 no hope for them. But no ! Its voice is to all 
 who toil and worry and sweat under the curse — 
 that immense majority of men — the workmen and 
 laborers of every kind, whose cry is for rest in all 
 their weariness and worn condition ; to whom his 
 own Sabbaths ought to come as a special joy. 
 And then the masses — the outside multitudes — 
 these are yet at our doors, under the shadow of 
 our sanctuaries. 
 
 And this Gospel is precisely for them. It is for 
 the poor. Under this economy of Christ it is pre- 
 sumed that the poor have the Gospel preached to 
 them. "The poor," he says, "ye have always with 
 you." And this religion is suited to such wants 
 
62 CHRIST — THE IDEAL MISSIONARY. 
 
 and woes as poverty brings. While the poor are 
 standing aside and looking upon the sanctuary as 
 only for those in easy circumstances; while they 
 hold themselves to be debarred by the usages of 
 Christian society ; repelling the poor by failing to 
 invite them and by failing to notice them when 
 they come, as if it was no part of a Christian's 
 calling to consort with sinners of the Gentiles; — 
 all this while, this very Gospel that we preach is 
 specially addressed to these classes who are so 
 largely absent; who are thus virtually excluded. 
 And the full Gospel is best preached to such, and 
 can not be effectively preached nor successfully 
 preached where such are not found in the con- 
 gregation. Where in the sermon on the mount 
 it is once said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," 
 it is again said, "Blessed be ye poor, for yours is 
 the kingdom of God." 
 
 And further, this Gospel is fitted for the offcast. 
 When we see this Christianity go to the abject 
 and degraded, we see it working in its proper 
 sphere, doing its greatest wonders, and proving 
 its divine origin, as in no other way. 
 
 We have our genteel congregations who come 
 and go, who have their pews as they have their 
 houses — all as their private property. And the 
 whole aspect of the matter is, that the sanctuary 
 is a sort of religious club-house, where persons in- 
 clined to religious things buy for themselves and 
 for their families a place and a partnership in 
 whatever is to be found here: building, preacher, 
 music, society, all their own. Others, for the most 
 
CHRIST— THE IDEAL MISSIONARY. 63 
 
 part, it is thought, are not expected, not wanted; 
 and though such would not be put out nor frowned 
 upon, but even welcomed, yet this is judged to be 
 rather by constraint of Christian politeness than 
 by any zeal to do them good. 
 
 But look, and see this Christianity where it goes 
 out to the forlorn and wretched and offcast, and 
 takes the Gospel to the humblest cot and kindly 
 commends this Jesus to the sorrowing and de- 
 graded and lost! You see it put gladness into 
 the darkest garret; into the foulest, vilest pit, or 
 den of iniquity. And where it lifts up the most 
 abandoned of our race and imparts to such a new 
 nature, there it is that Christianity asserts its divine 
 power. And there we see a proof of it such as no 
 argument of books, neither miracles nor prophe- 
 cies even, could give. It is the external and inter- 
 nal evidence together. It is therefore in the cities 
 as the centres of population and of human inter- 
 ests, where life is teeming w r ith busy energy in 
 good and evil, and crowded with temptations and 
 trials and vices; it is here where the masses con- 
 gregate of various races and pursuits and princi- 
 ples, and where the throng is full of cross purposes 
 and conflicts ; it is here that this religion of Christ 
 comes in and addresses itself equally to all. Here 
 it ought to reap its grandest harvests, and here it 
 ought to gather its most splendid trophies. So it 
 is said, "Jesus began to teach and preach in their 
 cities.'" 
 
 All the squalor of the hovel, all the revel and 
 riot of the dramshop, all the vile, profane, brutish 
 
64 CHRIST — THE IDEAL MISSIONARY. 
 
 degradation of the promiscuous crowd, where every 
 vestige of self-respect is long ago lost and noth- 
 ing is left but base indulgence — all this is to be 
 reached and lighted up and cheered and blessed 
 with this religion of Christ. No other power in 
 the universe can do it! And where this Gospel 
 goes out on its path of conquest it subjugates the 
 stoutest rebellion, elevates the most abject condi- 
 tion, and wins over the most alien and hostile 
 disposition to Christ. This is seen wherever it is 
 fairly tried. 
 
 Why then is not this grand remedy for fallen 
 humanity put in utmost use? Why is the Gos- 
 pel provision stored in the churches as in bonded 
 warehouses and not brought out and distributed 
 among the multitudes? Is it enough that Chris- 
 tians furnish the church accommodation ? But 
 they have not even done that. Must careless men 
 be left to build themselves churches and to sustain 
 the ministry of themselves, on the principle that 
 if they want them they will have them? What 
 if those who need them most, want them least? 
 You had as well demand that the fish in the sea 
 should make themselves a fishing-boat and net to 
 take them in. And Christian ministers and Chris- 
 tian members are fishers of men. 
 
 And it is not enough to open the sanctuary 
 doors, nor even the doors of your pews. You must 
 go out seeking, inviting, urging them to come in. 
 This we have not done. The net is not to be kept 
 in the boat. It is to be cast out, and cast out in 
 the deep and on the right side of the ship. 
 
CHRIST— THE IDEAL MISSIONARY. 65 
 
 I take it that just here is the shameful neglect 
 of our churches. And the ground of their great 
 inefficiency is this: the Gospel that is made for 
 the masses and meant for the masses, does not 
 go to the masses, simply because the church mem- 
 bership does not go out among the masses with 
 proper zeal and tact to gather them in. 
 
 First, then, I say the u going about" is to be 
 done after the pattern of the Master. He did not 
 sit in state in the Temple at Jerusalem and wait 
 for the people to seek him out, else neither Zac- 
 cheus the rich man, nor Bartimeus the blind beg- 
 gar, nor thousands of others, would have been 
 reached. He went out seeking as well as saving 
 the lost. 
 
 And here it is that pure religion finds its prac- 
 tical definition, in the church as well as in the 
 Scripture, "Pure religion and undefiled before God 
 and the Father" is this. What is it? To visit — 
 to visit. It is not as if a mere fashionable visit- 
 ing could be meant, but to go about and find out 
 the distressed, to visit the fatherless and widows 
 in their affliction; to go in search of the forlorn 
 and careless and bring them into the churches. 
 
 I know the difficulties. You are disinclined to 
 visiting, or you have a large circle of your own, or 
 you are doubtful how you would be received by 
 strangers on any religious errand, or you think it 
 would be forwardness or presumption on your part, 
 or you think of others who could do it better; 
 and for one reason or another, the great ma- 
 jority of the church members excuse themselves 
 5 
 
66 CHRIST— THE IDEAL MISSIONARY. 
 
 and scarcely charge their minds with any such 
 duty. 
 
 Elisha the prophet went outside of Israel to the 
 poor widow of Shunem. She was in great trouble. 
 There was a hard-hearted creditor threatening her 
 for his pay. She had nothing left in the house 
 but her cruse of oil. And the prophet made that 
 cruse of oil go so far that it filled all the ves- 
 sels she could get from her neighbors, and lo ! 
 by means of his visit the poor widow was rich 
 enough in oil to pay her debt. Christianity does 
 this very thing; makes our little go so far. It 
 increases our scanty supply; multiplies our few 
 loaves to a livelihood. 
 
 What multitudes of our own city are living out- 
 side of our sanctuaries, little cared for or looked 
 after; and what an account have we to render 
 for these ! The church is asleep to the astound- 
 ing facts, and yet the very special province of 
 the church is this aggressive work among the out- 
 side multitudes. 
 
 And the proper power of the church is seen in 
 this very work of ingathering. 
 
 Some one was curious to know how Mr. Spur- 
 geon was ever able to fill his immense tabernacle 
 with a steady crowd of five or six thousand hear- 
 ers. Naturally enough he was written to, to tell 
 the great secret of filling the church. He an- 
 swered, " My members fill the church, not I. It is 
 by their bringing in others, It is their success not 
 mine. They back me up," he says, " through the 
 week they invite others to their pews, they seek 
 
CHRIST — THE IDEAL MISSIONARY. 67 
 
 out new-comers, they bring in new church-goers." 
 I asked him, how he ever succeeded in visiting his 
 thirty-five hundred members. He said, "I don't 
 visit them, except in actual necessities. My elders 
 do the bulk of the visiting, and they inform me 
 of the cases that require my personal attention." 
 But then came the question, how his elders could 
 command the time; and the only answer was, 
 "They doit." 
 
 I ask now, would it not be a sweet relief from 
 the constant rush and pressure of business cares to 
 make a visit or two a day for the church and for 
 Christ. There are difficulties, I grant it; but the 
 cry is commonly, "I am too busy." Must God, 
 then, spoil a man's business and break him up and 
 set him high and dry with nothing to do in order 
 to get from him some service for the church? The 
 charge of Christ in the parable, " occupy till I 
 come" means "Do business till I come." Is not 
 this verily one's business? Is your own secular 
 business, as you call it, to be put before the busi- 
 ness of Christ ? Must the church die out and the 
 Gospel of Jesus Christ fail in a community, be- 
 cause the men, both officers and members, are too 
 busy to give it attention ? 
 
 Is there any fair reason why every sitting-place 
 in every one of our sanctuaries should not be filled, 
 except the people outside think they are not want- 
 ed in the sanctuary; that they will not be wel- 
 comed by the pew-holders, or will not be respected 
 among the worshippers — who seem inclined to have 
 it all to themselves ? Meanwhile the thousands of 
 
68 CHRIST — THE IDEAL MISSIONARY. 
 
 families stay away, and religion declines, and the 
 blessed Gospel of Jesus Christ is charged with in- 
 efficiency. The merchant would issue his circulars 
 and send out his travelling agents, if he saw his 
 business falling off or his custom declining. Oh, 
 yes ! and every one knows this, and it is the testi- 
 mony we have heard from a great worker in city 
 missions, that the Sabbath congregations of mis- 
 sion chapels are just in proportion to the visits of 
 the week; and it is commonly so in the churches. 
 And if members are remiss in Christian sociabili- 
 ties the church suffers, and the fault is simply that 
 of carelessness, inactivity, sluggishness, or coldness 
 in the life-currents of the body. 
 
 Some minister has lately said that so far as his 
 experience goes, the church fails in the city from 
 the absorption of the men in business, and from the 
 absorption of the women in pleasure. It is not 
 quite so in all cases. Dr. James Hamilton of 
 London speaks of the heartless industries that so 
 absorb attention. He means the mere mechanical. 
 Women as well as men fail in church duties from 
 over-attention to business. Martha is careful and 
 troubled about routine work of the household, and 
 Mary sits still in the house at Christ's feet. It is 
 the charge of the household which, in some cases, 
 seems to make it impossible to do any thing out of 
 doors; but could not some time be rescued for this 
 Christian work? Would not the incessant watch 
 and worry of the housekeeping be relieved by step- 
 ping aside daily to look in upon others for Christ ? 
 
 And then, too, much time and labor might be 
 
CHRIST— THE IDEAL MISSIONARY. 69 
 
 saved for the church if the costly alabaster boxes 
 of precious ointment were broken upon the head 
 and feet of Jesus. The recourse is now to employ 
 suitable men and women for visitors ; and this, at 
 least, the church could do. The missionary alter- 
 native is go or send; but no substitute can alto- 
 gether release the principal from his or her ap- 
 propriate work. And the members are better as 
 volunteer visitors, than any who could be sent as 
 employees — if only the members have a heart for 
 their work. 
 
 And it is not merely going about; but it is 
 going about doing good that is requisite. Offices 
 of Christian kindness which bring a practical Chris- 
 tianity in contact with men, bring it to the bedside 
 of the sick and to the hut and hovel of the desti- 
 tute, and which penetrate even to the dark dens 
 of iniquity, reaching out this salvation to the 
 lost. 
 
 This is the Christianity that is needed to do the 
 work of the church. Take the church to the thou- 
 sands who will not come to the church, and so the 
 church becomes filled and swarming with those 
 who have had the practical proof of its value. It- 
 is easy to say, " Be ye warmed ! " and " Be ye 
 filled ! " without opening the hand to supply the 
 want. There are a thousand questions that are 
 naturally raised in the mere matter of formal vis- 
 iting, even where it is for the best Christian pur- 
 poses ; but where it is mixed with Christian benefi- 
 cence — where a lively Christian sympathy goes 
 along with the call, and a hearty desire to do 
 
70 CHRIST — THE IDEAL MISSIONARY. 
 
 good is manifest, there goes the mighty power of 
 Christian example and persuasion of a Christian 
 life. Therefore the Christian visiting that is given 
 as the first part of the inspired definition of true 
 Christianity is joined with the most important prac- 
 tical requisite — for the visitor himself to keep him- 
 self unspotted from the world. A man's efforts to 
 do good to others ought to be sustained by his 
 own solid Christian character. May not this be a 
 reason why so many hold back from any thing 
 active and positive and aggressive in the church ; 
 that they are conscious themselves of inconsisten- 
 cies and contradictions of character, and of being 
 not unspotted. 
 
 Plain enough is it then, that what the church 
 needs, to be an effective and successful agency for 
 Christ in the world, is to go out into the world and 
 not seclude itself; not shut itself up from contact 
 and sympathy and communion with the outside 
 multitude ; but to circulate, to visit the needy and 
 neglected and distressed, and to be in all its mem- 
 bership an example of purity and piety, diffus- 
 ing the influence of a holy life, and evincing a 
 heartiness in every good word and work. What 
 if every family in the church should charge itself 
 with the responsibility of always having another 
 family under its care — to bring into the sanctuary 
 and lead to Christ? This going about doing good 
 can never be accomplished by staying in the house 
 and living to one's self, careless of others' wants 
 and ignorant of the necessities around. 
 
 You ask how you can do any thing. You think 
 
CHRIST — THE IDEAL MISSIONARY. 71 
 
 only of working by societies or committees. You 
 think of the great city and can not see how you 
 are to reach the masses. Begin with your own 
 family, your domestics and dependents, and your 
 own neighborhood. You will not go far till you 
 will find some one to be helped and led to Christ. 
 Work for the Sabbath-school. Make an effort with 
 the neglected boys on the streets to gather them 
 in. Families are reached by this means. " To do 
 good and to communicate forget not, for with such 
 sacrifices God is well pleased." Benevolence is the 
 popular word, but beneficence is the true word. We 
 ought to have gotten past the mere well-ivitting 
 and even icell-wishing that falls short of well-doing. 
 That is a failure. It is beneficence that is called for 
 as the proper fruit of benevolence, and need I say, 
 that such beneficence is a blessing to the doer him- 
 self. Just as the overflow of the fountain purges 
 it; just as the giving of a light to another from 
 your own lamp in the midnight doubles the light 
 that shines around your own path. 
 
 And a city which cares nothing for evangelizing 
 the masses, reaps an awful reward in the ram- 
 pant vice, the corruption of public morals, the rob- 
 bery, fraud and murder which infest the commu- 
 nity, and make the city a hell on earth. And 
 where the church is satisfied with elegant propri- 
 eties of worship, and is not hard at work reclaim- 
 ing the masses to Christ, the plagues which God 
 will visit on the city and the land will come up 
 into our windows, and vice will threaten to break 
 in at our doors, and it will require a miracle to 
 
72 CHRIST— THE IDEAL MISSIONARY. 
 
 save us from the fiery judgment that comes rain- 
 ing down from heaven. 
 
 And an active church, a working church, a so- 
 ciable church, is a successful church. It is the 
 definition of true religion, therefore, because it 
 is the definition of Jesus' life among men. " He 
 went about doing good." And he lives most and 
 best for Jesus, and he attains most surely to his 
 glory and reward, of whom it may be said by the 
 living at his death, and written by beholders, for 
 his epitaph, " He went about doing good." 
 
V. 
 
 THE LAW OF THE DIVINE MANIFESTATION. 
 
 "Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou 
 wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world ? Jesus an- 
 swered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my 
 words : and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, 
 and make our abode with him." — John xiv. 22-23. 
 
 There are laws in grace, as there are laws in 
 nature. I love to think of this natural world, as 
 so constructed as to symbolize and shadow forth 
 the higher realm of grace. I love to think of our 
 adorable Lord Jesus Christ as the Creator of this 
 lower framework of material things, by which he 
 would illustrate the higher department of spiritual 
 things — using the earthly to exhibit the heavenly. 
 So that when he came to his own, he made the 
 rose and lily to speak, and the field and the vine 
 to stand forth, as pictorial images of something 
 belonging to the soul; and even making our com- 
 mon bodily sicknesses the avenue by which he 
 reached our deeper spiritual wants. 
 
 God has been pleased to manifest himself in 
 places devoted to his worship. To the fallen pair, 
 though not in Eden, yet at the gate, he dwelt be- 
 tween the cherubim. At the altar of sacrifice he 
 
74 THE LAW OF THE 
 
 displayed himself in response to the offering there. 
 At the Tabernacle and in the Temple, he revealed 
 himself in the Shekinah — the luminous cloud of 
 the visible presence resting over the mercy-seat. 
 And in the synagogue and in the Christian sanc- 
 tuary he has appointed to be approached, and^ by 
 signal manifestations all down the ages he has made 
 the place of his feet glorious. Not now, as of old, 
 confined to any exclusive seat, for gorgeous cere- 
 monial and for a whole nation's assemblage. Not 
 now preferring even the grand cathedral, amidst 
 the lavishment of wealth and the embellishments 
 of aesthetic offerings. But bound by great moral 
 laws, operating everywhere the same, and equally 
 on earth as in heaven — laws which reach down to 
 the heart's depths, and which estimate the exter- 
 nals of worship only as they are the expressions 
 of inward devotion. But not to all alike, in any 
 worshipping assembly, does God manifest himself. 
 The sun shines for all, yet not so as to reach and 
 gladden those who hide themselves in garrets and 
 cellars, or who bandage their eyes rather than be 
 beholden to the light of day. 
 
 Here, in our text, a profound truth is touched, 
 by this inquiry of Judas. And when it is noti- 
 fied, that this Judas is not the Judas Iscariot, but 
 another and opposite Judas — a friend, and not a 
 foe — the question has its highest significance from 
 the contrast. " Lord, how is it that thou wilt man- 
 ifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world ? " 
 
 What is the law of the divine manifestation? 
 Here is a mind, laboring with the deepest prob- 
 
DIVINE MANIFESTATION. 75 
 
 lems of Gospel grace, as they stand related to the 
 divine sovereignty, and to the human volition and 
 action. Here is a man, moved to the depths by 
 the question, how it is that so large a proportion 
 of his fellow-men have no conception of the Gos- 
 pel, though living under its blaze. How is it ? he 
 asks. There are doubtless these two great classes 
 of men in all the ages — the discipleship, and the 
 outside world! And the case with these, respect- 
 ively, as to the divine manifestation, is opposite, 
 the one to the other. And the momentous ques- 
 tion is here propounded to the Master himself — 
 Hew is it? Is it a matter to be referred simply 
 and only to the divine will, and the divine decree 
 — as wholly arbitrary with God ? Is it simply to 
 say, that to one man God pleases to reveal himself, 
 and not to another ? Men so caricature the divine 
 fore-ordination, which is everywhere taught in the 
 Scripture, and which is essential to the very idea 
 of God; and then with a partial and one-sided 
 statement of the matter, they denounce the divine 
 prerogative as a sheer outrage. 
 
 But there is a human side as well as a divine side 
 of the matter, and the over-statement of either is 
 a misstatement, and it is only the half truth, which 
 becomes falsehood. 
 
 The divine fore-ordination is set forth in the 
 Bible as a comfort to the people of God, and not 
 anywhere as any discouragement to any other 
 creature. They who love God are addressed and 
 spoken of as elect before the foundation of the 
 world, and it is an infinite comfort to such. Is it 
 
76 THE LAW OF THE 
 
 any thing repulsive to the wife to be told by the 
 husband that he had always loved her from the 
 first sight of her in childhood? No. 
 
 But there is no man who is not freely invited 
 to all the benefits of this election. And nothing 
 is required of any man but his own election of 
 these benefits, corresponding and responsive to the 
 divine election of himself. Pause here, and listen 
 to the profound and beautiful answer from the lips 
 of Jesus himself — and see how it is. And if there 
 be a creature under the whole heaven who can 
 take exception to this law, as any severity of God, 
 let him speak. 
 
 This divine manifestation to one man and not 
 to another, is here referred in the text, first of all, 
 to the human taste and inclination. 
 
 Jesus' answer to the question of how it is, is 
 this; "If a man love me, he will keep my word." 
 
 Yes ! If a man love me. And this everywhere, 
 naturally and necessarily, conditions the whole case. 
 Take any thing that is to be manifested. There 
 is, for example, in our great city, the glorious pic- 
 ture of the Yosemite, or the "Heart of the Andes." 
 It is on public exhibition. And the advertisement 
 is blazoned in the public prints, and it is hung over 
 the door-tvay of the hall, and it is even thrust out 
 upon the path of the passer-by. It is on exhibi- 
 tion free. But what cares the rushing throng? 
 " One to his farm, another to his merchandise ! " 
 Few pause, and enter in ! It is matter of taste and 
 inclination. The picture is there. It is there on 
 free exhibition. Whosoever will, may come and 
 
DIVINE MANIFESTATION. 77 
 
 see. But only here and there does any one turn 
 aside from his common business to enjoy the spec- 
 tacle. "If a man love painting." That is the point! 
 If he have a taste for high art. If the glowing 
 colors on the canvas have a power to reach his 
 soul and to put him into delicious communion 
 with nature — so as to ravish his sense and bring 
 him into that sweet bondage to the high ideal — if 
 this be so — then this is the inward condition that 
 controls the result. This is the susceptibility that 
 is wrought upon, and charmed, and captivated, 
 and without which, that glowing canvas would 
 be to the eye only as an idle tale. 
 
 Take a different man into the presence of that 
 masterpiece. What is that to him ? He has no 
 taste for any such manifestation of nature's beau- 
 ties, as w r rought by the pencil of the artist, and 
 he turns away to the gratification of lower pas- 
 sions, or to the dull, mechanical routine of his daily 
 life. 
 
 In the personal matter of the text, the key to 
 the situation is just the inward taste which decides 
 the affinity. This is the divine statement. "If 
 a man love me, he will keep my word." 
 
 And this the natural and necessaiy law of ac- 
 tion. The word, written and preached, is the rev- 
 elation of God in Scripture — as the personal word 
 is the revelation of God in our nature. Each is, 
 in its way, an incarnation. And the glory of the 
 Scripture, wherein it is living and powerful, is that 
 the God incarnate shines through the page, and 
 gleams upon our view in all the living record. 
 
78 THE LAW OF THE 
 
 To say then (as Jesus here says, in explaining 
 his manifestation), "If a man love me, he will keep 
 my word" is only to say, that the personal af- 
 finitv will decide the action of the man, in mak- 
 ing him attentive to the word of the one whom 
 he loves — in making him cherish it, and follow it 
 in his living. 
 
 And this word of Scripture is itself a medium 
 of the divine manifestation. He looks here just as 
 he puts his eye to the glass of the stereoscope, to 
 find the picture in its rounded, lifelike proportions. 
 
 AYhat then, if the picture on exhibition be that 
 of -Christ Healing the Sick," or of Eaphaefs " Dres- 
 den Madonna?" Then it is also a question of the 
 subject. What is the man's taste, and how will it 
 lead him? That Madonna, world-renowned, has a 
 separate chamber in the great gallery at Dresden. 
 Will you enter in and see it there? If a man love 
 Jesus, he will gaze with a very special interest and 
 rapture upon whatever reveals him, and even upon 
 these triumphs of art, because they aim to deline- 
 ate the glories of his Friend and Saviour. And for 
 the same reason, and if he have this personal love, 
 he will study the Scripture, and receive the mes- 
 sages of God's word in the sanctuary, and find 
 himself in personal communion with the beloved 
 object. 
 
 I have seen American travellers in the Holy 
 Land, caring nothing for Bethlehem, and Xaza- 
 reth, and Jerusalem, and longing to get back to 
 the opera-houses and theatres in Paris and Milan, 
 heeding not the footprints of Jesus, or the sacred 
 
DIVTNK MANIFESTATION. 70 
 
 memorials and monuments of his life and de.ath. 
 You can see the same taste here around you and 
 even amongst the Sabbath assembly. 
 
 So I have seen men, to whose eye all the gran- 
 deurs of the Yosemite were nothing at all: to 
 whom that stupendous display of God's majesty 
 and creative power was only a dull and toilsome 
 sight — who would stop on the way to the Vernal 
 Fall to fish in the stream, rather than go on to 
 gaze at the beauties that God has so concentrated 
 in that fall itself. 
 
 If you ask. then, how if is that Jesus will mani- 
 
 - himself to his disciples and not unto the world : 
 if you will know the philosophy of this distinc- 
 tion in so momentous a matter. I protest, that you 
 shall not charge it upon the mere sovereign dea 
 of God, to display himself to one man rather than 
 to another, as though there were no human side 
 to the case. Come here to the plain matter of 
 fact, and to the human aspect of it all. and see how 
 it is determined by your own tastes and liking - 
 
 Moral beauty ;f display itself to depraved 
 
 tastes, so as to be appreciated. There can not 
 be any compulsion of love. Your tastes are all 
 worldly, and not at -all spiritual and heavenly. 
 Then vou do not. in such inward condition, afford 
 any susceptibility to the glories 6f Christ, however 
 fullv thev mav be revealed. It is the lkrht shin- 
 ing in another sphere — or rather, it is the light 
 shining in the darkness, and the darkness compre- 
 hending it not. Xo eye for that. Blind to that 
 kind of beautv. The fish in the mammoth cave 
 
80 THE LAW OF THE 
 
 have no eyes, because their habitat is darkness. 
 It is simply in your breast, a cloud so thick, so 
 impenetrable by the noonday sun, as that no im- 
 pression is made upon it, any more than if the sun 
 had never shone to gladden the earth with his 
 beams. The colors in the most beautiful flowers 
 are not essential and inherent qualities. They are 
 only the rays of the common sunlight, which that 
 flower absorbs by its own peculiar texture. 
 
 What now, should one complain, if, at the great 
 Handel Festival, he should find no pleasure, sim- 
 ply because he had no taste for classic music, had 
 not cared for it nor cultivated it ? Or if he would 
 not even look over the programme, and get the 
 grand ideas of the oratorio — the " Messiah," or the 
 " Creation " — and should feel no sympathy with the 
 performance, because he could not enter at all into 
 the music or the sentiment? Ask then, amongst 
 the auditors, "How is it that there the great Han- 
 del manifests himself to some, and not to others?" 
 If a man love the art and the subject, then it is 
 all to him a splendid manifestation. But if he has 
 a taste only for the song of the brothel, and for the 
 low bacchanal, then we readily understand how it 
 is, that in all that grand performance of such mas- 
 terpieces, there is no manifestation to him. 
 
 That wonderful* statue of the "Dead Christ," by 
 Bernini, at Borne. You may go down into the 
 crypt of St. John Lateran, and you shall see noth- 
 ing. All is darkness. But if the guide go along 
 with you, with his torch in hand, some will see, in 
 the light of that manifestation, only the exquisite 
 
DIVINE MANIFESTATION. 81 
 
 marble form, almost transparent. But to the lover 
 of Jesus, it is the form of his best friend, and there, 
 as nowhere else in all the world, either in painting 
 or in statuary, he can see the dead Christ in the 
 arms of his mother! 0, what a manifestation! 
 But only in those conditions. 
 
 Look now at the holy scene where, in the sanctu- 
 ary, Jesus especially manifests himself to the church 
 as he does not to the world. It is the peculiar, 
 chosen spot of divine manifestation. It is Geth- 
 semane, Calvary, and the garden sepulchre of Ari- 
 mathea, all together, in one blaze of splendid, glo- 
 rious revelation. What a table ! What a feast ! 
 How is it, that it is to only a portion, and a small 
 portion of the public worshippers, that Jesus man- 
 ifests himself there — that to so many it is noth- 
 ing but the bits of bread, and the common cup — 
 the humblest, most empty and unattractive of all 
 earthly entertainments ? And how is it ? how is it, 
 that to a few it is the most hallowed spot of 
 heavenly friendships, where God and Christ come 
 down to be guests of the poor sinner; and yet the 
 table is the Lord's own, and without any parallel 
 this side of heaven — grander and more glorious 
 than any banquet of kings? How is it? How? 
 
 Look at the two Judases at the first Supper! 
 One of them (the Iscariot) nursing in his heart 
 the bloody thought of a traitor to his master, see- 
 ing in the Lord Jesus only a victim for his base 
 designs; his depraved vision veiled to all his glo- 
 ries. And the other Judas (not Iscariot), clinging 
 to his Lord with all the devotion of love, and be- 
 
82 THE LAW OF THE 
 
 holding him in all his fond manifestations at the 
 table. How is it? What can explain the phe- 
 nomena — that make these men of the same circle, 
 and of the same name, the veriest opposites? I 
 tell you it is all a matter of taste! Judas Iscar- 
 iot's judgment of the alabaster box betrays him as~ 
 the thief that he is. And this inquiry of the oth- 
 er Judas discovers in him the yearning for the 
 world's well-being, which proves his true disci- 
 pleship. 
 
 Yes. I tell you it is all a matter of taste. And 
 you have not the taste for any such manifesta- 
 tion, nor the appetite for any such feast of Christ ! 
 Pity! Pity. A thousand times, pity ! If one have 
 no taste for the good, no taste for the beautiful, no 
 fondness for knowledge, no relish for the truth, no 
 affinity for moral excellence, then he is, by this 
 very constitution of things, ruled out of the sphere 
 of all highest and purest enjoyments. 
 
 It is nothing arbitrary with God. No. It is no 
 naked decree of divine election, without any re- 
 sponsive election, or corresponding choice in the 
 human breast ! No ! For love is just that quality 
 and exercise of soul that can not possibly admit 
 of compulsion. And hence the law of the divine 
 manifestation is perfectly natural and simple, and 
 determined by the very necessity of things, and 
 not a matter of mere decrees with which we have 
 nothing to do. No! It is the same great law as 
 governs every manifestation of moral excellence 
 in all the universe — for angels, for devils, for time 
 and for eternity. The law is fair and beautiful 
 
DIVINE MANIFESTATION. 83 
 
 and true and good. Do you ask again, How it is? 
 Jesus gives the answer. "If a man love me, he 
 will keep my words, and my Father will love him, 
 and tve will come unto him, and make our abode 
 with him." Take if you please, the manifestation 
 of God in nature — where the great questions come 
 to view at the threshold of all created things. 
 Is there a God — a personal Creator and Euler of 
 the universe? I ask, Is this a question of pure 
 reason? Nay, but of the disposition also. The 
 heart rebels against the creative claims. Men call 
 for laws of nature, orders, processes, forces, inani- 
 mate and impersonal agencies — and make the uni- 
 verse mere machine work, without a machinist, so 
 as to escape the personal responsibility to a per- 
 sonal intelligent cause. Jesus says, "If a man 
 love me." Oh, yes! Then nothing is so beautiful 
 as God in nature, and everywhere is seen his foot- 
 print, and everywhere is heard the hymning of 
 his praise. But if a man love me not! Oh, then, 
 nothing is so welcome as to displace God from his 
 own universe, and to get rid of the very idea of 
 God. 
 
 Take also, for example, the manifestation of Jesus 
 Christ as God. Is this a thing of the reason alone, 
 or even of revelation alone? No! But also a mat- 
 ter of the taste and disposition. The man who has 
 in his soul no appreciation of the God-man — who 
 has in his sense of need no necessity for a divine 
 Saviour — he can not readily accredit him as divine, 
 can not entertain the idea of his divinity, can not 
 find any place for it in his sphere of thought, can 
 
84 THE LAW OF THE 
 
 not receive and accept such a being in his personal 
 relations. And the Unitarian Creed, as it was, and 
 is, with the Jews, is the outgrowth of a self-right- 
 eousness or a self-expiation, that discards the great 
 truth of a divine provision for men. If the neces- 
 sity of our case be finite, and not infinite, then the 
 Saviour and the salvation must be finite also. 
 
 But there is a further step in this law of the di- 
 vine manifestation. The law is throughout a law 
 of moral harmonies in advancing operation. It is 
 the common and universal law of personal affini- 
 ties in the actual progression. The man who in- 
 clines to God finds God inclined to him. It is 
 infinitely mutual. The spring-tide sun draws out 
 the violet from the sod, and so also the violet 
 draws the sun, and receives his beams in beautiful 
 manifestation of rainbow tints upon its bosom. 
 
 But note the law of progress here. Observe. 
 This keeping of Christ's word, as published in 
 the Scripture and in the sanctuary, is that con- 
 dition of things in icliich the Father shows himself 
 as infinitely loving to such, and in which he draws 
 near to such, in expressions of personal love. This 
 is the higher, closer manifestation that may be said 
 to be naturally conditioned upon the former. Here 
 occurs a fuller intimacy through the word — a per- 
 sonal communion through the written and inspired 
 communication. Just as letters from a distant and 
 beloved friend awaken all the tenderest sympa- 
 thies, and draw out the inmost soul in response, 
 and the affection comes to be aglow, and the 
 friendship is cemented on both sides. So, such a 
 
DIVINE MANIFESTATION. 85 
 
 heart as is responsive to God's word of revealed 
 love finds God exhibiting himself more and more 
 in that love, and entering in more fully to the 
 chambers of the soul as a guest. If a man love 
 me, then it follows that he will keep my word as 
 it is delivered to him; then, by the same law of 
 manifestation, it further follows that the Father 
 will love him. And then, as a crown and climax 
 of the manifestation, the Father and Son together 
 will come unto him, and make their abode with 
 him. 
 
 The picture in the Eevelation is of one stand- 
 ing at the door of the church, and knocking for 
 admittance. And the natural and necessary con- 
 dition in the case of every man is, that the inward 
 response shall be the signal for entrance and friend- 
 ship and fellowship, and there is, at length, the 
 blessed banqueting there. "If any man hear my 
 voice and open the door, I will come into him, and 
 sup with him, and he with me." This is the clear 
 delineation of the whole case. This is the full 
 explanation of all the phenomena. 
 
 And further, this law of the divine manifesta- 
 tion involves principles, which apply as well to the 
 negative as to the positive side, and as well in eter- 
 nity as time. It is night now in other quarters of 
 the globe, not because the sun is blotted out or 
 exhausted. No. But simply because there the 
 earth is turning her face away from the sun. So, 
 also, it is the side of the moon which leans in her 
 circuits towards the sun, which gets all the radi- 
 ance which she reflects upon our planet, while the 
 
86 THE LAW OF THE 
 
 other side must, by the same necessity, be pitchy 
 darkness, and winter's cold! Does any one ask 
 then, How it is that God allows in his universe 
 any place of perdition ? It is simply because men, 
 who have perdition in them, can go nowhere else, 
 by all the laws of moral gravitation — by all the 
 affinities of moral being. Just as a stone sinks 
 and a feather floats — by law. It is even a pro- 
 vision for a great necessity, and no arbitrary dic- 
 tum of God. It can not be otherwise. In the 
 constitution of moral nature, by the law which 
 eternally regulates all moral destinies, it must be 
 so! The sinner must go to his own place. No 
 power in the universe could adapt heaven to the 
 lost soul. Lost to all right conceptions of God — 
 to all right views of truth, and to all holy princi- 
 ples of action — to all right tastes and affections — 
 there is no atmosphere in heaven which such an 
 one could breathe — no pleasure in heaven which 
 such an one could relish or tolerate. Do you ask 
 of Jesus again, How is it that thou wilt not man- 
 ifest thyself unto the world ? 
 
 Has the question in your mind ever taken the 
 shape of the profane inquiry, How is it that God 
 can be so cruel as to send any man to an eternal 
 perdition? Then, I say, there is no cruelty on 
 God's part, but only a high and absolute neces- 
 sity that must determine the manifestation on both 
 sides. And as heaven consists in God's manifesta- 
 tion of his glories to those who love him, and it 
 is all blessedness and rapture to them; so whose 
 fault is it, if to those who hate him, he turns his 
 
DIVINE MANIFESTATION. 87 
 
 back, or if turning their back on him, that very- 
 manifestation of himself which makes a heaven 
 to the good, makes a hell to the wicked, simply 
 by their own adverse position? 
 
 Look at Judas Iscariot. He was simply a fully 
 developed sinner, lost amidst the highest exhibi- 
 tions of Christ's love, and lost to all that is lovely 
 and good in the universe. Where must he go? 
 Where in all the realm of God's government? 
 Where? Only to his own place — where every 
 thing is akin to him, where his boon companions 
 are, where he naturally and necessarily belongs. 
 No power of all the angels, as they reap the har- 
 vest of the world, could thrust the humblest be- 
 ing into hell (or into heaven), against this law of 
 moral affinity. 
 
 And so it is that Jesus further explains, and on 
 the negative side of this great question, just to 
 show how it is that he will not manifest himself 
 to the world. He simply says, u He that loveth 
 me not keepeth not my sayings." 
 
 This is the law, and this is the philosophy of 
 its working. The question of salvation or perdi- 
 tion is reduced ultimately to a matter of taste. 
 And the taste determines the action, towards God 
 or away from him — for God or against him forever. 
 What are your tastes and affinities ? God is just, 
 and true, and good. The salvation is universal, 
 in so far, that it is free to all — offered to all 
 who will. But how can it take effect against any 
 man's will, however universal it may be? The 
 only thing that ever conditions it to any one is 
 
88 THE LAW OF THE 
 
 his own actual and cordial acceptance of it. And 
 beyond that absolute universality of the offer, shall 
 any man dare demand that God shall put him un- 
 der any compulsion to love him? This is impos- 
 sible, inconceivable! Love can not be so com- 
 pelled! God himself can not so violate all the 
 law of moral being, as to make a man's love to 
 him to be contrary to the man's own choice, and 
 in utter violence to his free action. 
 
 No! And can a man make his perverse and 
 corrupt tastes a plea for his alienation from all 
 that is good ? Is a man's taste for fraud, or theft, 
 or murder, a plea in his defence? No, but rather 
 an aggravation of it. Call it moral insanity, or 
 what you will, we can conceive no greater free- 
 dom among men, than that one does as he pleases, 
 and follows out his own tastes and appetites. 
 
 But whosoever will, let him take; nothing can 
 be freer than this. If any man thirst, here is the 
 living water, gushing up freely and fully from the 
 open fountain. And no man who comes hither, 
 wishing to find Christ, but will find Christ waiting 
 to receive him into favor. To one who knocks for 
 admittance at Christ's gate, there is nothing in 
 the universe to debar him. The gate stands wide 
 open, night and day, for such to enter freely. And 
 when any such applicant doubts whether he will 
 be accepted, let him understand that this is to 
 doubt all Christ's word of Gospel invitation and 
 provision. And that already he is accepted in the 
 beloved. And let him know that heaven is for 
 none other than such. 
 
DIVINE MANIFESTATION. 89 
 
 And there as here, the children will find the 
 Father's house; and just because they are chil- 
 dren, they shall come, one by one, tripping home 
 at evening, and shall gather round the supper- 
 table, and he will preside at the feast, and he will 
 manifest himself in all his loving attributes to all 
 those who love him, and who heed and cherish his 
 word. 
 
 And all that manifestation shall be infinitely 
 natural, genial, cordial. And as he has often 
 come in and supped with us here, Father and Son 
 together, along with the children, so there, we 
 shall enter in and sup with him at the great ban- 
 quet of the redeemed. And it will be home, and 
 happiness and lieaven. 
 

 
 VI. 
 
 THE FIVE "ONE THINGS." 
 
 c But one thing is needful.' ' — Luke x. 42 "One thing 
 
 thou lackest." — Mark x. 21 "One thing I know."— John 
 
 ix. 25 "One thing have I desired of the Lord." — Psalm 
 
 xxvii. 4. "But this one thing I do." — Phil. iii. 13. 
 
 The Bible is, in a certain sense, a book of one 
 idea. There is one doctrine taught, towards which 
 all its passages converge. There is one interest 
 set forth, as the essence of this divine communica- 
 tion to men. One duty is enjoined, in which all 
 possible duty concentrates. As a record of his- 
 tory, what shall be stated as the sum of it all? 
 "This is the record — -that God hath given to us 
 eternal life, and this life is in his Son." As a mes- 
 sage from God to us, what is the substance of it 
 all ? This is the message — " Peace on earth, good- 
 will toward men." As a law of living, what is the 
 purport of it all? This is the law — "Thou shalt 
 love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy 
 neighbor as thyself." And as a definition of duty, 
 what is it in the language of Jesus Christ him- 
 self? "This is the work of God, that ye believe 
 on him whom he hath sent." And where this Gos- 
 pel is truly embraced, it makes the man, in a strik- 
 
THE FIVE "ONE THINGS." ■ 91 
 
 ing sense, a man of one idea. His eye is single, 
 his aim is simple, his life is expressed in one word 
 — u To me, to live is Christ!" and so, also, death 
 with such an one has but one result — gain ! 
 
 I find in the Scriptures five passages, in which a 
 certain "one thing" is spoken of, and these pas- 
 sages are comprehensive of all true religion. 
 
 The first passage is this of our Lord to Martha, 
 Luke x. 42: "One thing (he says) is needful!" It 
 is personal religion — the positive and absolute need 
 of all. The great Creator of all things stands be- 
 fore a poor creature, who is full of various ne- 
 cessities, the very impersonation, as Martha was, 
 of divers cares and worriments of life. And, as 
 if there were only one thing, out of all that crowd 
 of her anxieties which was really worthy her so- 
 licitude, he says : " Martha, Martha, thou art care- 
 ful and troubled about many things ; but one thing 
 is needful ! " Not as if all attention to domestic 
 matters were to be rebuked. No ! Not as if the 
 cares of the household were not every way proper 
 and commendable. Nor as if Martha were to be 
 blamed for the beautiful example which she set 
 of caring so much to make her house and board 
 agreeable to the Master. Oh, no ! But that Mary 
 also is well situated at the feet of Jesus — that 
 she is not to be rebuked for seeming to subordi- 
 nate every thing earthly to the higher spiritual 
 concern — and that, as a principle, which must for- 
 ever decide between the Marys and the Marthas, 
 there is just one thing needful; and that to this 
 thing every thing ought to be referred. It is just 
 
92 ' THE FIVE "ONE THINGS." 
 
 the foundation which is needful to the building. 
 It is the main-spring which is needful to the 
 watch. It is the light which is needful to the 
 eye. Nay, it is the soul which is needful to the 
 body. 
 
 And true religion, whether you define it as the 
 love of God or the faith of Christ, is just the helm 
 that is needed to steer the vessel on this great and 
 tumultuous ocean — the pole-star in our sky which 
 is needed to guide our earthly course. And as 
 between Martha and Mary here, it is not at all a 
 question between merely secular and merely spir- 
 itual occupation, but only a question between the 
 different modes of serving Christ in different cir- 
 cumstances. For Martha is a lover of Christ, and 
 this is the secret of her care to set his table well. 
 But Martha's duty is not Mary's, nor is Martha 
 responsible for Mary's service, nor is Martha to be 
 the censor of Mary's conduct, if the Master ap- 
 proves. Much less is Martha to fret so over her 
 housekeeping cares, as to chide the Master him- 
 self for not thrusting Mary from his feet, that she 
 may give her help in her undue worriment. Nay, 
 the subject has only one solution; true religion 
 everywhere — in the kitchen, in the parlor, or in 
 the sanctuary. 
 
 But the record is — "Mary also sat at Jesus' 
 feet." Not exclusively this; not shunning to bear 
 her part in the service also, but mingling the work- 
 ing and the waiting in such way as draws com- 
 mendation from the Master. 
 
 Work and worship are sisters ; twin sisters, shall 
 
THE FIVE "ONE THINGS." 93 
 
 I say? Not work without worship! That is sla- 
 very. Not worship without work. That is fanati- 
 cism and heresy. Sitting at Jesus' feet and hear- 
 ing his word, we get the key and clew to all holy 
 living. 
 
 Some disparage doctrine, will have nothing but 
 work, will have little to do with a creed, will shun 
 any committal to definite symbols of faith; as 
 though doctrine were not at the very bottom of 
 duty, as though a man's belief, positive and well 
 defined, must not control his practice; as though 
 any one's living could mean any thing, or be of 
 any account at all, except as founded upon his con- 
 victions. Mary also sat at Jesus' feet and heard 
 his word, taking precious lessons of Christian doc- 
 trine in order to Christian duty; learning just 
 there, at his feet, to do such eminent service, as to 
 wash those sacred feet with her tears, and to wipe 
 them with the hairs of her head; and preparing 
 just thsre to do that splendid office-work of anoint- 
 ing, which he was pleased to account as done 
 against the day of his burial. And thus her work 
 had all its glowing motive and glorious crown, as 
 being Christian work, done on the basis of Chris- 
 tian doctrine, learned at Jesus' feet. And when 
 the sisters sent for Jesus to save their sick brother, 
 this is the record; not — It was that Martha who 
 spread his table; but, "It was that Mary who 
 anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his 
 feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was 
 sick." 
 
 And so the choice of this good part is the choice 
 
94 THE FIVE ''ONE THINGS." 
 
 of a key to unlock all the chambers of the glorious 
 golden palace of God! The habitual learning from 
 Jesus, out of his word and out of his daily prov- 
 idence, i& perhaps less showy, less bustling, less 
 demonstrative; but it is not, on this account, de- 
 serving of the reflection which may be cast upon 
 it from Martha's point of view. In truth this is 
 the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he 
 hath sent. "This is life eternal, to know thee, the 
 only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast 
 sent." 
 
 The busy workers who can go out among the 
 degraded and destitute, and day and night can 
 seek them for Christ, may sometimes complain 
 of those whose work is more retiring and less 
 public, as if they were doing nothing in their 
 quiet home circle, or in the unpretending walks of 
 the neighborhood. Some are always demanding 
 that all shall work in their way, after their pat- 
 tern ; and nothing counts with them, in thg whole 
 varied round of service, if it be not out-of-doors 
 work, society work, and public demonstration. 
 Some who are always on their feet in the Chris- 
 tian service are not found sufficiently at the feet 
 of Jesus. This religion must sway all our belief, 
 must enter into all our relations, and must per- 
 vade all our affairs. And in order to this, it re- 
 quires to be nourished on all sides, and to be care- 
 fully cultivated at the feet of Jesus himself — to 
 learn of him. Else, this living of ours, amidst toil 
 and trial, takes in too much of the merely secular 
 element, and we lose the calm and peace which 
 
THE FIVE "ONE THINGS." 95 
 
 our blessed Christianity so well affords. " One 
 thing is needful" especially in the worry of modern 
 living; to hallow life's cares, and lighten its loads, 
 and soothe its sorrows, and chasten its tempers, and 
 sweeten its endearments. Your cares and troubles 
 are sent to bring you to his feet. Blessed are the 
 Marthas who bring their cares, and even their com- 
 plaints to Jesus. He will show them his grace, 
 most resplendent upon the dark background of 
 every sorrow. He w 7 ill show them how in every 
 trouble the eternal stars w r ill shine out as soon 
 as it is dark enough; and how every cloud that 
 spreads above, and veileth love, itself is love! He 
 will expound to them the elaborate system of his 
 providence, by which, as in the music-box, every 
 one of the sharp points that are scattered, at seem- 
 ing random, on the cylinder of daily life, is set 
 so as to strike an answering chord, just where it 
 shall discourse the most harmonious and exquisite 
 melody. 
 
 Again, secondly, we find the same "one thing" 
 set forth by the Master — true religion. The chief 
 essential lack of the best natural men. "One thing 
 thou lackest" Mark x. 21. It is the case in which 
 our Lord confronts the claims of a most exemplary 
 and lovely young man, who had wealth and social 
 position, and even a religious inclination, to make 
 him most attractive and truly lovely. Jesus show T s 
 him wherein all his vaunted righteousness was de- 
 fective and unable to stand the test. 
 
 You see the picture as it is drawn by the inspired 
 evangelist. It is the young ruler accosting the 
 
96 THE FIVE "ONE THINGS." 
 
 Master in most respectful terms; nay, running and 
 kneeling to Him, and anxiously inquiring of Him 
 — "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" It is 
 the picture of many a young man — respectful to 
 religion indeed, but not religious nor ready to be- 
 come such. It is the great chief question of our 
 race, in contact with the means of grace, and un- 
 der the pressure of divine truth. And the point 
 of the Master s teaching and warning is this : the 
 most direct, the most personal, the mo'st universal 
 — "One thing thou lackest." 
 
 Who does not know that the lack of one thing, 
 in most special circumstances, may be the lack of 
 every thing? The wedding garment at the feast, 
 the robe of Christ's righteousness at the judgment, 
 the passport at the gate of heaven. 
 
 This is every thing. It is so in daily life. If a 
 man lacks principle, you say this is that essential 
 lack which spoils his best deeds, vitiates all his 
 living, makes him utterly unreliable. If he be 
 untrue, if he lack truth in speech or conduct, this 
 is fatal before God and man. And this is just pre- 
 cisely that one thing — the lack of a true and proper 
 Christian principle in all one's actions, which the 
 judgment day shall expose and denounce with 
 fearful severity. Oh how many guises shall be 
 torn off in that day, how many sophistries ex- 
 posed, how much fair-seeming will be made dis- 
 gusting ! How many a young man, of whom this 
 one in the Scripture is the type, will be able indeed 
 to say — "AH these commandments have I kept 
 from my youth up," they were the inculcation of 
 
THE FIVE "ONE THINGS." 97 
 
 my infancy, the doctrine of parental piety, dis- 
 tilled upon me as rain upon the tender grass ; and 
 from the first to the tenth command, I have kept 
 them all from my youth. Who shall say now, 
 that I lack any thing ? The Judge of all will say 
 — "Yet lackest thou one thing;" and this is the 
 new heart, this is the Christian principle, this is 
 the divine life in the soul. Only one thing indeed! 
 But as when the light is lacking to the landscape 
 the whole scenery of fields and flowers is wrapped 
 in darkness, and has the pall of midnight spread 
 over all its beauty, so thou lackest the Sun of 
 Eighteousness to break out upon your decorous 
 and decent living — to make it beam forth as the 
 reflection of Jesus' image, and glow and glisten in 
 all the hues and tints of the rainbow that is round 
 about the throne ! 
 
 And if any man questions his lack in the pres- 
 ence of the Master, let him only ask, Who is to 
 pronounce upon the fact at the last day? By 
 what standard is his life to be measured? Whose 
 requirement is he to meet? Whose bar is he to 
 confront? And if yet he seem to himself to be 
 faultless, or claim to be without any essential de- 
 fect, let him only submit himself to this true test 
 of all morality — let him hear the ten commands 
 expounded and applied at the lips of the great 
 Lawgiver himself. He may repeat them all and 
 respond to them all, but put to the first practical 
 test he breaks down at the very first command- 
 ment. Has he been keeping the cold precepts of 
 the Decalogue, and yet turned away from the liv- 
 7 
 
98 THE FIVE "ONE THINGS." 
 
 ing impersonation of them all in the man Christ 
 Jesus himself? Has he had love for his neighbor, 
 for his friend, for his household — love for the stran- 
 ger even, and only no love at all for the most 
 lovely object in the universe? Weighed in this 
 balance of heaven itself, the verdict is — " Yet lack- 
 est thou one tiling." 
 
 Ah ! you do not know, as yet, the preface to the 
 commandments. You have not read that Gospel, 
 that goes before the Law, that wondrous announce- 
 ment of deliverance from the house of bondage, by 
 him who says to you: "I am the Lord thy God, 
 which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt." 
 "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." I 
 must have all your love. 
 
 Many wonder how it could be said here, of this 
 very young man, with all his fatal mistake, that 
 Jesus, looking upon him, loved him. But this is 
 the Gospel itself, which we are all so slow to ap- 
 preciate ; the tidings of God's love to us in Jesus 
 Christ, that comes in every Gospel message, and 
 comes in every benediction of the sanctuary — "The 
 love of God be with you." This is the precious, 
 gracious truth, that the young ruler had not taken 
 into his soul, the love of God to men, and that God 
 sends his love to sinners in Christ Jesus, as calling 
 for a responsive and absorbing love to him. And 
 so the young man had failed to understand the 
 Decalogue, and could not receive or obey it in 
 truth, because he understood it as a task, because 
 he had not understood the preface to it, that bade 
 him, first of all, count himself a redeemed man, 
 
THE FIVE "ONE THINGS. 99 
 
 and wake up to the high obligation of giving the 
 heart to him who gave himself for his salvation. 
 
 And still more. Your idolatry of the ivorld may 
 be the secret poison at the vitals of all your moral- 
 ity. Then admit this test of Jesus — begin at the 
 very first commandment. Who, or what is your 
 God? What if he bid you to sell what you have 
 and give to the poor, to empty the chaff from his 
 vessel so as to get it filled from his stor.e? Do 
 you love most your gold or your God, your treas- 
 ure or the well-being of your fellow-men, your 
 large possessions which the Master allows you or 
 the Master himself, your riches or the heritage of 
 heaven? Is it God or mammon that you serve 
 and obey? Oh, if you lack this one thing, under- 
 neath all these fair appearances you lack the new 
 nature, the renewed temper, the celestial taste, the 
 divine affinity, the relish for heaven itself! And 
 so you lack every thing. 
 
 But there is, thirdly, another point of view, in 
 which this one thing is presented to us in the Scrip- 
 ture. It is the one thing needful obtained, or per- 
 sonal religion in the experience. " One thing I 
 know, that whereas I was blind, now I see,' 1 John 
 ix. 25. 
 
 The case is that of the poor man upon whose 
 dead eyeball no sweet light of sun or stars had 
 ever shone from the beginning; the very picture 
 of native disability. And to him Jesus came — 
 the wonder-worker, the Healer, the Saviour. And 
 upon all that darkness there burst forth the glori- 
 ous light of day, and his eyes were gladdened by 
 
100 THE FIVE "ONE THINGS," 
 
 a sight of the personal Eedeemer, who is the Light 
 of the World, and the Light of Life. And now, 
 when men were puzzled at the change, when 
 friends crowded around the cured man to inquire 
 into the wondrous phenomena, when they said it 
 was so impossible, so incredible, that a man should 
 by a word open the eyes of one born blind, he 
 answers to it all, out of his own experience, " One 
 thing I know, that whereas I was blind now I see." 
 It is the amazing contrast of what he is with 
 what he was, which certifies him of the change. 
 His long cherished misconceptions of the truth are 
 gone. What he was so naturally blind to, what 
 he never could see though it was often described 
 to him, what he could never understand though 
 so often explained to him, now he sees it all. It 
 comes flashing into his inmost soul with all its in- 
 imitable beauty — God's love to men in the Gospel 
 and the glorious salvation by Jesus Christ, in all 
 its glorious colors. What wonder that only one 
 object now fills his eye, only one truth is to him 
 the sum of all knowledge; and far beyond all 
 his common understanding of truths in nature or 
 truths in history, far beyond his knowledge of 
 common facts attested by observation and expe- 
 rience, is the absolute certainty which he has of 
 this one thing ! It is a thing which has gone down 
 to the depths of his soul, and has struck its roots 
 deeply into the very fibres and tissues of his be- 
 ing. It is matter of living consciousness. What- 
 ever Pharisees may profess to know to the con- 
 trary, and vaunting Scribes or his own parents 
 
THE FIVE "ONE .THINGS." 101 
 
 may assert, all this does not disturb him at all 
 in this one thing, which he certainly and undeni- 
 ably knows for himself. Nay, whatever he may 
 not know, as yet, about this one thing, he knows 
 the thing itself, knows the fact, that the change 
 has passed upon his mental and moral being; that 
 it is now the gladdest of all cures which a man 
 could experience, to have his dead eyeball quick- 
 ened, and a universe of beauty let in, with the 
 flood of day, upon his joyous sense. As if God 
 had just now flung out all these worlds for him, 
 and decked the fields with all their flowers, and 
 the faces of friends with all their nameless charms, 
 and discovered Jesus to him, as his best friend, 
 to fill his soul w r ith oceans of happiness. Let the 
 vain world, let arrogant reason, let the devil him- 
 self, with all his cunning, seek to throw skeptic 
 suspicions upon the sources of this untold pleasure, 
 and to dry up the fountains of this joy, and to poi- 
 son the springs of this new-born hope. They must 
 first destroy the very constitution of the soul, must 
 vitiate all the evidence of* experience, must make 
 a man to disbelieve — I will not say his senses of 
 sight, and hearing and feeling, for they may de- 
 ceive him — but to disbelieve his own self. 
 
 Tell me that this domain of religious experience 
 is not the proper sphere of knowledge. I tell you 
 this is the very field of positive knowledge. To 
 all the vagaries of a blind philosophy and a deaf 
 science, claiming to know more than the Scrip- 
 ture or more than God, the Christian man still 
 answers boldly, " One thing I know, that whereas 
 
102 THE FIVE "ONE THINGS." 
 
 I was blind, now I see." He witnesses of this 
 Eedeemer's work upon himself, of this one thing 
 as the great requisite, and witnesses of its reality 
 in his own case. He says, "one thing to me was 
 needful, and that was my sight; one thing indeed 
 I lacked, and that was the cure ! But now, one 
 thing I know, that the blessed change has been 
 wrought upon me which has altered all my be- 
 ing." Oh poor blind sinner, do you claim that 
 you see ? that you apprehend truth and appreciate 
 it in its real bearings, and yet like Pilate in the 
 presence of the King of Truth and of the Person of 
 Truth itself, are vainly querying, u What is truth?" 
 I tell you this one thing must yet become a matter 
 of your inward and personal experience, before you 
 can speak or act advisedly ! Till this change shall 
 take place upon you you are at best even here in 
 the sanctuary only a blind Nicodemus, groping 
 about by night, and in the presence of the Mas- 
 ter, asking, u How can these things be?" 
 
 And, fourthly, another passage presents still an- 
 other and further aspect of this one thing. It is 
 true religion in the heart as the spring of true 
 devotion. It is the Psalmist's fervent aspiration, 
 in which he seems to have but one great wish — 
 one hearty desire — that absorbs his whole soul, 
 and swallows up all the passions of his being. 
 Psalm xxvii. 4: "One thing have I desired of the 
 Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in 
 the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to 
 behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in 
 his temple." 
 
THE FIVE "ONE THINGS." 103 
 
 Here it is, that the one principle works within, 
 in one characteristic style of impulse and emotion. 
 This is its natural development in worship. The 
 Christian is a man of prayer and praise. His 
 chosen occupation is worship, his chosen home is 
 the sanctuary, his favorite study is the character 
 and ways of God. The personal object in all the 
 universe that most attracts him is the Lord Jesus, 
 and clustering around the house of God are his 
 dearest, fondest home delights. Here are his com- 
 panions and friends, here he chooses his residence 
 for a permanency ; and this one taste is the expres- 
 sion of all the highest, strongest affinities of his 
 being. 
 
 To know a man's character, ask only what de- 
 lights him most. What places does he chiefly fre- 
 quent? What circle of friendship does he seek, 
 what is his chosen study and occupation, what 
 are his leanings and likings, and what are his 
 longings day by day, culminating at the top and 
 crown of the week ? The word of God, the house 
 of God, the worship of God, the people of God, 
 the service of God, the favor of God, and God him- 
 self — these express, for a true Christian, his whole 
 circle of interests. 
 
 "Thou art the sea of love, 
 
 Where all my pleasures roll; 
 The circle where my passions move, 
 And centre of my soul." 
 
 The one thing needful is found. The one thing 
 lacking is supplied. The one thing that he knows 
 beyond all dispute is this new perception he has 
 
104 THE FIVE "ONE THINGS." 
 
 of the divine beauty, and this new sense and eye- 
 sight of all that is so transcendently lovely in the 
 character and work and ways of God himself. And 
 he can not keep it secret. He must give it pub- 
 lic expression, in the public confession of Christ 
 and Christianity. And you had as well expect a 
 lighted lamp to keep the light a secret, or the rose 
 to hold back its fragrance, as expect a Christian 
 not to confess Christ, And the one engrossing 
 desire that expresses the highest longings of his 
 nature is this — a personal communion with God; 
 and if anywhere on earth a table is spread for 
 this he will find it. It is this heaving and swell- 
 ing of his bosom after fellowship with the Most 
 High which does, in effect, make every place to 
 him a place of worship, and every act an act of 
 worship, and sets the sanctuary far above all earth- 
 ly resorts, and establishes the man in a habitual 
 devoutness, until his face shall seem to shine and 
 glow in the radiance of his interviews with God. 
 Such an one illustrates the true religion, in all 
 his tastes and fellowships. And when, on the Sab- 
 bath, or during the week, he comes up to the courts 
 of God, you can see that it is from no constraint, 
 but out of a hearty choice ; that it is his home, that 
 it is more attractive to him even than his own 
 hearth-stone, and the dear circle of his household, 
 because this is the dwelling-place of God, his heav- 
 enly Father, and the chosen resting-place of the 
 soul. And such a prevalent temper is the guar- 
 antee of all good desires, and the pledge of all holy 
 and happy experience. 
 
THE FIVE "ONE THINGS." 105 
 
 But there is still another and crowning aspect, 
 in which this one thing is presented. It is per- 
 sonal religion essential in the life, or Christian ac- 
 tivity exemplified. 
 
 "This one thing I do, 11 Philippians iii. 13. Paul 
 is the man who says it — that man of gigantic en- 
 terprises and of vast and varied exploits, whom 
 you see at Jerusalem, at Athens, at Corinth, at 
 Ephesus, at Eome, confronting all oppositions, re- 
 futing all sophistries, establishing and supervising 
 all the churches. Yet it is only one thing he does ; 
 as the sun does only one thing — that he shines 
 and shines for all, and comprehends all within his 
 glowing circuit, and sheds his radiance upon all 
 creatures and objects under the broad heavens. 
 
 This is the sublime unity of the Christian living, 
 that in effect it has but one aim, knows but one 
 object, moves in but one orbit, and tends always 
 towards one grand result. This is no narrowness 
 of thought and feeling, but only a world-wide 
 comprehension of all truth and duty. If there 
 seem to be various forces at work in his life, there 
 is this resultant of them all to be found. If there 
 be disturbances at times in his motions, there is 
 yet a balance even of those disturbances, like that 
 balancing of perturbations which holds the planets 
 in their track and wheels them along in their 
 spheres. This makes a man consistent and prin- 
 cipled — that he has no two Gods to serve, no two 
 courses to pursue, no two ends to fulfil, no tivo des- 
 tinies to attain. This steady, uniform aim and ob- 
 ject of life develops into all the manifold Christian 
 
106 THE FIVE "ONE THINGS." 
 
 enterprises of church work and Christian benefi- 
 cence. This is the beautiful singleness of eye 
 which makes the whole body fall of light, where 
 there is this fixed focus of his vision, and no double 
 sight. This is the simplicity and transparency of 
 his conduct — a man of one huge, steady, life-long 
 undertaking, of one grand thought, of one burn- 
 ing desire, of one overmastering impulse; like the 
 runner of a race, with his eye intent upon the one 
 goal, straining every nerve and bending every en- 
 ergy for the achievement; like the great racer 
 who, even if he wound himself on the track, will 
 struggle bravely through. This is the secret of 
 all efficiency, of all fidelity, of all success. 
 
 But observe here, this one thing that the Chris- 
 tian does is to progress in the divine life. It is to 
 advance in Christian attainment. It is no sitting 
 at ease, as though the getting of this religion were 
 like getting a jewel to wear, instead of an imple- 
 ment to use or a life to live. There must be the 
 natural and necessary development of that germ 
 which is implanted in the new birth, that grows 
 to the stature of a matured and ripened manhood. 
 And yet how few seem to have discovered that 
 this religion, instead of being a thing for the Sab- 
 bath merely, or for a mere ritualistic service, is a 
 thing to pervade the whole being, and to enter 
 into every thought and feeling and action. It 
 consists not so much in doing certain religious and 
 spiritual things, as in doing all things upon a re- 
 ligious and spiritual principle. This is, indeed, just 
 the difference between a mere empty formalism 
 
THE FIVE "ONE THINGS." 107 
 
 and a true Christian living. And the atmosphere 
 of such a piety is no such dusky twilight as 
 makes men doubtful whether the sun is up, but 
 you know that the Sun of Righteousness has risen 
 on the world of such a man, from beholding every 
 object lighted up by its effulgence and glowing in 
 ^its beams. And it is not with such an apologizing 
 for deviations from the course — for excesses or in- 
 dulgences; there is no narrowing and diminishing 
 of the divine requirement by worldly interpreta- 
 tion, no excuse for want of progress in religion. 
 No ! but rather a whole-souled effort and determi- 
 nation to progress to the highest possible attain- 
 ment. It is no self-satisfied and self-righteous liv- 
 ing, as though between the man arid God there 
 was no great distance to be traversed, in reaching 
 the celestial perfection; but it is an ever onward 
 " pressing toward the mark for the prize of the 
 high calling of God in Christ Jesus," an ever in- 
 creasing wrestle with all forms and powers of evil 
 in the world. This is the lack of the modern piety, 
 my hearers, that it makes no such strenuous, per- 
 sistent, daily efforts at advance; that it does not 
 pursue this divine perfection as men run and strug- 
 gle for a prize. 
 
 And yet is not this perfectness essential to the 
 heavenly estate ? And are you even at any near 
 approach to that unspotted holiness in which you 
 are hoping to appear before God? I assure you, 
 my brethren, there can be nothing miraculous in 
 the transformation of any soul to fit it for glory, 
 any more than to fit it for woe. It is the one 
 
108 THE FIVE "ONE THINGS." 
 
 thing throughout — the one thing that is essen- 
 tially needful to every man, and the one thing 
 that is essentially lacking with every unrenewed 
 man, and the one thing that the converted man 
 has found out,, like a new eyesight to the dead 
 eyeball, and the one thing that shapes his daily 
 longings for the worship and service of God. This 
 is still the one thing which unifies the life, and 
 which gives definiteness to the course, and bal- 
 ance to the tendencies, and singleness to the aim, 
 and harmony to the powers and passions; which 
 makes heaven a necessity for him. One thing 
 is certain, heaven can be the home of those only 
 who long after it and travel towards it That prize 
 can be reached by no lottery, but only by those 
 who run here the race whose terminus is crowned 
 with this bright reward. 
 
 We have not reached the goal, my brethren. 
 Why sit down as though all our work of heart- 
 culture were finished, when it is scarce begun? 
 Where is the daily self-inspection such as a com- 
 mon prudence would dictate in the midst of dan- 
 gers, such as the smallest degree of interest would 
 call for to secure the great result ? And are you 
 getting no daily inspirations from the upper world 
 for which you profess to hope ? Does not the fore- 
 sight of that eternity animate you in daily duty ? 
 Is not the crown of glory such a shining reality, 
 and such a splendid reward, as to call forth all the 
 longings of your soul ? What are you living for, 
 if not for that ? What one thing are you doing, if 
 not reaching forth for that? And amidst all the 
 
THE FIVE "ONE THINGS." 109 
 
 excitements of the race, the perils of defeat, the 
 glories of victory, can you possibly help thinking, 
 hoAV very soon the race will be run and the eter- 
 nal issue decided ? And what can be more certain 
 than that, as is the course you are running, so must 
 be the goal ? You can not expect to strain all the 
 energies of your being along the downward road, 
 and find it just at the last moment, by a sudden 
 turn, landing you into heaven. The very path 
 you daily travel projects into eternity; and as, in 
 some of the great cities which lie on both sides of 
 a river, the very streets the other side the river match 
 with these which you are now traversing on this 
 side, — and as on one side of the river is your bus- 
 iness, so on the other side is your residence and 
 rest, — so far away into the ages upon ages, these 
 same roads stretch on, and on, and on, forever 
 and ever. And this one thing which you do now 
 you will do then and eternally. 
 
 And now, my hearers, there remains with each 
 one for himself, but one question. It regards this 
 one thing ! Are you doing this ? I ask not what 
 else you are doing for yourselves, for your families, 
 for the world. Are you doing this one thing, and 
 doing this in every thing, so that every thing you 
 do may resolve itself into this — all words of defin- 
 ition into one word — "For me to live is Christ." 
 " Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving 
 the Lord." 
 
VII. 
 
 "TO THE UTTERMOST." 
 
 " Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that 
 come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession 
 for them." — Heb. vii. 25. 
 
 When the Son of God was born a babe at Beth- 
 lehem, what should be his name? What should 
 Gabriel announce as the charmed word by which 
 he should be called — the title by which he should 
 be most familiarly and fondly known among the 
 crowds of sinners, to the end of time? Not Crea- 
 tor, not Upholder of the Universe, not Judge of 
 the World, but — Jesus, Saviour! The name that 
 is above every name. 
 
 Tell me not of other ability that he has to gar- 
 nish the heavens, and lay the foundations of the 
 earth, and to raise the dead and judge men and 
 angels; but tell me has he ability to save — at all 
 times, in all extremities, and all classes of men? 
 Can he save a chief sinner, can he save you and me, 
 can he save me now, as I am ? Is he so great a 
 Saviour that he can not fail us, if we trust in him ? 
 
 And how is this ability proven ? On what grounds 
 may it be alleged without contradiction? 
 
 He is sometimes set forth as able to save on the 
 ground of his proper Godhead. "Look unto me, 
 
"TO THE UTTERMOST." Ill 
 
 and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am 
 God and there is none else!" Here in the text, 
 however, the apostle infers this saving ability from 
 his priestly character and office-work, as so supe- 
 rior to that of the sons of Aaron. 
 
 He is no half-way Saviour, because he has an 
 unchangeable priesthood, that does not descend to 
 some successor by reason of death. He ever liveth 
 to carry on what he has begun and to consummate 
 it, in every case, as a complete and eternal salva- 
 tion. He ever liveth to intercede, to make our 
 cause his own. 
 
 The undying intercession of Christ is here pre- 
 sented as the basis of his supreme ability to save. 
 If any one would possibly think of that interces- 
 sion as if it were the plea of the Divine Son with 
 the Father, to overcome his enmity and to per- 
 suade his reluctance, let him hear the Scriptures — 
 "God so loved the world that he gave his only 
 begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him 
 should not perish, but have everlasting life." 
 
 The argument here is brief and conclusive. As 
 the shepherd has his sheep, who are objects of his 
 special care and keeping; as the attorney has his 
 clients, for whom he pleads at law as for none 
 others; as the representative has his constituency, 
 for whom he stands and with whose interests he is 
 charged to carry them through; so Jesus Christ, 
 the advocate with the Father, undertakes the case 
 of all those who come unto God through him. 
 
 Of what avail were the temple, altar and priest 
 of the old economy, in all their glory, if no man 
 
112 "TO THE UTTERMOST." 
 
 had come forward with his lamb of sacrifice ? The 
 priest ministered for sinners who needed expiation, 
 and who sought the priestly services, appointed by 
 God in such case; who came bringing their lamb 
 or bullock for the altar with confession of sin, and 
 for all such those Aaronic high-priests acted and 
 were able to save, just so far as that ritual function 
 could suffice. Jesus, the ever-living High-priest, 
 who is also the Lamb of God, is able to save all 
 who come unto God by him. 
 
 And beyond all that those ritual priests could 
 ever do, he is able to save most completely and 
 eternally through and through. 
 
 Whoever seeks his priestly ministrations, his sac- 
 rifice and his intercessions, finds him able to save 
 unto the uttermost. And if any are not saved, it 
 is only because they have disdained his office-work, 
 have not committed their souls to his hands, have 
 not sought his expiation, have not applied for 
 his merits, have not besought him to undertake 
 for them, as the true and living Intercessor and 
 Saviour. 
 
 The idea of the text is, that Jesus is no half-way 
 Saviour ; the exact language is, that he is able to 
 save unto completion or consummation. 
 
 And this is in distinction from those Levitical 
 priests of the ancient ritual, whose function was 
 external and typical. They could, in a sense, save 
 only half-way; while they were officiating, too, 
 they died; they could bring nothing to comple- 
 tion; they only led to the gate-way of salvation, 
 and here they stood, in holy vestments, confessing 
 
"TO THE UTTERMOST." 113 
 
 their inability to deliver the soul from death, and 
 pointing forward to the great High-priest that was 
 to come. 
 
 Let us consider in the first place: Jesus is able 
 to save to the uttermost of sin ! 
 
 There were certain crimes under the Mosaic law 
 for which no expiation could be made — so flagrant, 
 so wilful, so capital, that they were expressly de- 
 barred from the priestly mediation. But no such 
 sin is set down under the Gospel, as transcend- 
 ing the power of Christ's blood to wash it away. 
 "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." 
 For wilful murder and blasphemy the priestly office, 
 under the Mosaic dispensation, could not atone; 
 but even the murder of Jesus himself can be ex- 
 piated by the very blood those murderers shed, 
 and even blasphemy against the Son of Man is a 
 crime expressly marked as within the scope of 
 forgiveness under the Gospel. The murder of a 
 fellow-creature, whose blood, like Abel's, is crying 
 from the earth and interceding with God for ven- 
 geance, can be pardoned by the louder outcry of 
 the blood of Jesus, interceding for the criminal's 
 salvation. 
 
 See Saul, with a Satanic malice, compelling fee- 
 ble, frightened Christian men and women to blas- 
 pheme; but instead of lightning flashes of wrath 
 overwhelming him, there come the lightning gleams 
 of mercy ! Hear him testify — u It is a faithful say- 
 ing and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus 
 came into the world to save sinners, of whom / am 
 
 chief:' 
 
 8 
 
114 "TO THE UTTERMOST." 
 
 And, of all sins that have ever been named by 
 God or man, there is only one that is counted unpar- 
 donable, and that seems rather the combination and 
 concentration of all in one — blasphemy against the 
 Holy Ghost 
 
 We know not the nature of it, only that it 
 implies a settled malignity and despite that breaks 
 out against the sweet Spirit of grace — against the 
 only Power that can reach and renovate the soul. 
 It is a malignity that would grieve the Spirit and 
 quench the Spirit and resist the Spirit, so as madly 
 to spurn all his gentle and gracious and saving 
 offices. And it would seem to be only a consum- 
 mation of all those resistances and oppositions to 
 which an incorrigible soul may be given over, to 
 dash the cup of life from its very lips and to 
 trample under foot the son of God, doing despite 
 unto the spirit of grace. 
 
 And then beyond the official ability there is also 
 an effective ability here provided, which carries on 
 the salvation through and through to the rooting 
 out of the most stubborn and desperate sin. 
 
 Sinful habits will seem to defy the divine power 
 in the heart and life ; besetting sins long cherished 
 will still get the mastery. No wonder that the 
 Christian cries out at times — "Oh, wretched man 
 that I am, who shall deliver me?" Can all such 
 evil tempers and mad passions be eradicated? Can 
 this legion of devils be exorcised? All of them. 
 And the man who had wandered among the tombs, 
 raving and gashing himself — can he be so thorough- 
 ly made a new creature as to be found sitting at the 
 
"TO THE UTTERMOST." 115 
 
 feet of Jesus clothed and in his right mind ? Yes. 
 It has been done ! It can be done again ! This is 
 the great salvation — a process going on within lis, 
 saving us to-day from the sins of yesterday, and 
 saving us, through and through, to the end. 
 
 He saves to the uttermost The poor besotted 
 creature who has been a beastly slave to his cups, 
 even he is lifted up by Jesus from this degrada- 
 tion, and raised to the dignity of a man again. 
 The profane swearer, whose every sentence was 
 intensified by an oath, is brought to loathe the 
 fiendish habit that so associates a man, prema- 
 turely, with the world of curses and the abode of 
 the lost. The gambler and the Sabbath-breaker, 
 who had become so addicted to their cherished 
 vices as to have made them a second nature, are 
 led to put them off as their shame, and to dread 
 them as their ruin. And the grovelling, debased 
 idolater of mammon, who has sold himself to cov- 
 etousness and greed, even he is raised up out of 
 the dust of his idolatries and has his heart opened 
 to the obedience of Christ. 
 
 There can be no complete salvation which does 
 not complete this deliverance from sin — from all 
 sinful tastes, impulses, habits and principles — how- 
 ever inbred and however stubborn to the last. He 
 will present us faultless! It seems impossible I 
 know! But it is not impossible to divine grace. 
 
 But, secondly, Jesus is able to save, to the utter- 
 most of mental infirmity. 
 
 It is the glory of the Gospel plan that it reaches 
 the divine arm down to the lowest depth of hu- 
 
116 "TO THE UTTERMOST." 
 
 mankind. The poor child of ignorance can not 
 say, " This is too high for me, I am no scholar." 
 Jesus comes with his precious, glorious Gospel, and 
 it is found to be for babes. Only the boasted wise 
 and prudent can not understand it. The very sim- 
 plicity of its teachings and of its terms hides it 
 from such. The more they philosophize and spec- 
 ulate and apply the logic of the schools, the more 
 they overlay the gems with rubbish and go blind 
 in their own light. But the children see it while 
 the parents hesitate and doubt. 
 
 It was so at Jerusalem. The boys and girls, 
 such as gather at our Sabbath-schools, came rush- 
 ing out of the Temple and greeted him with hosan- 
 nas, while the proud Pharisees and Scribes rebuked 
 them as disturbers of the peace. They called it 
 puerile, but Jesus understood it and accepted it 
 as an ovation to him, next to the song of the 
 angels. 
 
 And then, how the Sabbath-school classes sit 
 at his feet, and sing their sweet anthems to his 
 praise, and come thronging in his footsteps and 
 crowding at his table, while so many adults scorn 
 to be learners and so never find out that he is Je- 
 sus. Oh! when shall our Jerusalem be full of boys 
 and girls playing in the streets thereof! When 
 the time shall come that Jesus shall be confessed 
 and followed by the children with their hosannas, 
 then shall be the time of Christ's triumphal entry 
 into the church and the world. 
 
 And further, thirdly. He is able to save to the 
 uttermost of present deficiency and disability. 
 
"TO THE UTTERMOST." 117 
 
 Thousands under the Gospel have not under- 
 stood this. Here it is, precisely, that we stand to- 
 day, exhorting men to believe and be saved. This 
 is just the credence and confidence he asks, that 
 he can save you to-day — this moment — as you 
 are — where you are — sinner though you are — able 
 to save the most unable ! 
 
 You believe that he is able to save some certain 
 ones, who have fulfilled certain conditions ; all 
 who come unto God, by him, aright — who come 
 penitent, broken-hearted, believing — but not you, 
 who are none of these, and who have no right 
 affections whatever, and therefore you are waiting 
 till you can get in a condition to be saved by him. 
 If you are in a condition to desire his salvation, 
 that is the very condition in which he loves to 
 save. 
 
 You ask me if he can save you without any 
 further preliminaries or preparations ? Yes ! But 
 you say; "Where is the new heart to come from?" 
 That he will give. "Where is the faith to come 
 from ? " That he gives. You demand then to 
 inow, if you may from this moment rest upon 
 him your whole salvation? Yes; it is just this. 
 Must you, then, first of all — now — this hour — put 
 your whole case into the hands of this Intercessor, 
 call him your Saviour, and count all the benefits 
 of his finished work on earth and his eternal work 
 in heaven yours? Yes. What warrant has any 
 one to go to any other being in the universe for 
 any part of the salvation? What warrant has any 
 sinner to delay, one moment, his acceptance of Je- 
 
118 "TO THE UTTERMOST." 
 
 bus as his Saviour, when the atoning work is all 
 done, and the Gospel is proclaimed to all with all 
 the glad tidings, and the water of life is gushing 
 from the fountain freely and for all ? 
 
 You ask me : " Is there then nothing for the ap- 
 plicant to do, but to read here the message and to 
 say — "Jesus is mine! 1 ' and to live in the blessed, 
 grateful confidence of this fact? Nothing to do, 
 but this. To whomsoever this Gospel is glad tid- 
 ings, to him it is the Gospel. 
 
 When will men understand that Jesus is able to 
 save to the uttermost — not half-way, but through 
 and through, from beginning to end. The poor 
 African tmderstood it in that favorite couplet: 
 
 " I am a poor sinner, and nothing at all, 
 But Jesus Christ is my all in all." 
 
 Jesus said, "To the poor the Gospel is preached." 
 Of what avail is it that I give a man a draft for 
 a thousand pounds, payable to his order, if he will 
 not believe it is for him, or for his present use, 
 apart from all considerations? He says, "How can 
 it be ? This is not for me. I have never earned 
 it. There is some mistake. I have no claim upon 
 this party, none whatever ; to say nothing of such 
 an amount. It may be for some other one of my 
 name, or even for me upon some unexpressed con- 
 ditions, but surely not for me as a free gift!" and 
 he will not even endorse his name upon the back 
 of the draft nor apply for the money at the bank. 
 So it is with multitudes who disbelieve and to 
 whom it is as though Jesus had never died. 
 
"TO THE UTTERMOST." 119 
 
 You have seen men also, who would not allow 
 you to help them, whose vicious proclivities made 
 all your solicitude vain and your utmost bounty 
 useless. 
 
 In this light 1 protest that this salvation is as 
 universal as the nature of the case will admit. It 
 is proclaimed freely to " Whosoever will" and what 
 can be freer than that ? How can there be a sal- 
 vation for those who wilt not? The Bible will com- 
 pel no man's belief; God will thrust no man into 
 heaven against his convictions and against his 
 will. No ! No ! ! If you want it, take it — take 
 it as a gift — for it is even such an absolute gratu- 
 ity that you can have it no otherwise than as a 
 
 gift. 
 
 But, fourthly, Jesus is able to save to the utter- 
 most of temptation! 
 
 The strife is sometimes severe. As against the 
 Tempter and all his power, and all his hellish arts, 
 Jesus is omnipotent to save. No matter how ma- 
 levolent be the devices which the arch-adversary 
 plies to the ruin of a believer, following him on 
 through life, Jesus does not allow him to pluck 
 any soul out of his hands. 
 
 The secret of this is found in that wonderful, 
 all-powerful intercession with which he bears the 
 tempted one upon his bosom at the right hand on 
 high. And just because he can not die, the inter- 
 cession can not cease, nor can the cause which he 
 has undertaken be relinquished; nor can he ever 
 be found inactive, or indifferent, or unequal to the 
 case. But always pleading and always prevail- 
 
120 "TO THE UTTERMOST." 
 
 ing, as he is, Satan can not snatch any one, of 
 the weakest even, from his covenant grasp. 
 
 Look at Peter. There is no doubt of the strug- 
 gle there — that heaven and hell were contending 
 for that apostle. Jesus tells him plainly: "Satan 
 hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as 
 wheat, but" — but — U I have prayed for thee, that 
 thy faith fail not ! " Ah, there is the secret. 
 
 So with the martyr-maid of Scotland, when the 
 persecutors bound her to the stake on the sea- 
 beach, where soon the rising tide would come in 
 upon her and drown her in the flood. There are 
 the frowning soldiers clamoring for her recanta- 
 tion ! There are the advancing waves steadily ap- 
 proaching! She can overhear the cries of her elder 
 sister, tied at a forward stake and just now drown- 
 ing in the surge. They only demand of her to 
 say: u God save the king!" The mother in the 
 crowd cries out to her, " My bonnie Margaret, give 
 in and dinna break my heart;" but she sings: "To 
 thee, God, I lift my soul." it seems the least 
 possible abjuration of her Saviour, but that Saviour 
 is precious to her, just because he is so mighty to 
 save, and she feels the power of his intercessions 
 sustaining her in her fearful straits. Old ocean 
 thunders out to her the voice of God in all the 
 promises, 
 
 "And 
 The tide flows in and, rising to her throat, 
 She sang no more, but lifted up her face 
 And there was glory over all the sky, 
 And there was glory over all the sea — 
 
"TO THE UTTERMOST." 121 
 
 A flood of glory — and the lifted face 
 Swam in it, till it bowed beneath the flood 
 And Scotland's maiden martyr went to God." 
 
 So with many a weak frame that goes boldly to 
 the stake and embraces the fiery cross of martyr- 
 dom. There is no principle on which yon can ac- 
 count for such heroic fortitude and such unflinch- 
 ing faith, except that he who prayed for Peter that 
 his faith should not fail, was praying for these also. 
 
 So with the serf of some cruel despot; he is 
 commanded to renounce his religion. No! It is 
 not that he is free to seek another home, it is not 
 that he has friends and helpers, it is not that he 
 has money in bank, it is not that he has any earth- 
 ly recourse from his infuriated master. No! It is 
 only that he has a Master in heaven whom he will 
 serve, and from whose love no threats nor tortures 
 can separate him. 
 
 And so, the poor tempted one, who is always 
 trembling, always doubting — looking to the Spir- 
 it's unfinished work within for some ground of 
 hope, instead of to Christ's finished work without 
 where the Tempter has almost baffled the weak 
 beginnings of trust, has almost wrested from the 
 worrying mind the first, faint, feeble confidence — 
 even here Jesus saves. That germ of grace he has 
 implanted, that faint spark of faith, he will fan yet 
 to a flame. He does not break the bruised reed 
 nor quench the smoking flax, but he brings forth 
 judgment unto victory. 
 
 But again, Jesus is able to save to the uttermost 
 of loivly condition in life. 
 
122 "TO THE UTTERMOST." 
 
 Look at Lazarus, whose friends can only lay 
 him daily at the rich man's gate, if, possibly, he 
 may get some of the crumbs that fall from that 
 lordly table. Who will save Lazarus? The dogs, 
 that lie in lazy groups on the sunny streets of that 
 oriental city, will gather round him as if he were 
 cast out there to rot in his beggary and sores. 
 But within the veil that hides from us the invisible 
 world, angels are busy preparing to escort that dy- 
 ing beggar to the choicest mansion in Paradise. 
 Who would not rather be Lazarus than Dives? 
 
 But who will save that miserable wretch who, 
 writhing on his cross at Jerusalem, expiating to 
 the law his treason against the state — that insur- 
 rectionist who had imbued his hands in blood and 
 been brought to the cursed tree along with Jesus 
 — who is most forlorn, most helpless, most forsaken 
 of friends, most destitute and desolate — to whom 
 salvation seems impossible? Jesus is able to save 
 — able to save to the uttermost — able to save to- 
 day in answer to the faint and faltering cry for 
 remembrance at a future coming in his kingdom — 
 beyond all expectation, beyond all conception of 
 ability and success, he can do it and he will. 
 
 The widow of Nain with her only son upon the 
 bier, the sisters of Bethany with their only brother 
 in the grave, the ruler Jairus with his only daugh- 
 ter dead in her sweet childhood before his eyes — ■ 
 he can save, even there. No condition in life where 
 he can not save, no case so helpless and hopeless 
 as to be beyond the sphere of his salvation, for all 
 who come unto God through him. 
 
"TO THE UTTERMOST." 123 
 
 But, finally, Jesus is able to save to the utter- 
 most limit of this mortal existence, 
 
 I know that, on all common human calculations, 
 you would say, "It can not be so!" that the man 
 who has spent his lifetime in rejecting Jesus/ and 
 has wasted his energies in opposition to his Gospel, 
 can not be accepted at the last moment. I know 
 that, while I must speak the truth on this point, 
 that truth will be abused. But it is still true ! 
 
 And this is the sublimity and glory of the grace, 
 that it can overleap all a man's life-long misdo- 
 ings, and make good the Gospel word, even at the 
 dying moment. The poor worldling who comes 
 up to the brink of eternity full of his avarice and 
 folly, and- dreaming yet of gains and gold while 
 death is on his clammy brow, even he may hear the 
 Gospel word and live. Yes, my hearer, for the 
 same Gospel news is published to all, and it does 
 not except any who will. We have no other Gos- 
 pel for such extreme cases than the same which we 
 have for you, in health and buoyancy to-day. The 
 dying thief, recent from his robbery and murder, 
 and with the words of reviling fresh upon his lips, 
 even he, from his cross, may lift his dying prayer 
 to Jesus from a heart of true desire, which merges 
 into humble faith as he is welcomed the same day 
 to Paradise. 
 
 Ah, my hearer, the difficulty with death-bed re- 
 pentance is not in Jesus. No! It is not that he 
 withholds his salvation at that utmost limit of life 
 in a just retaliation, or because it makes him take 
 up with the devil's leavings! No! Even this he 
 
124 "TO THE UTTERMOST." 
 
 will do, and welcome the returning prodigal when 
 he is starving to death, and seeking refuge from 
 amidst the husks and the swine of his profligacy ! 
 But the difficulty is with the man himself, that 
 having been all his lifetime running down the 
 steep, he can not at his mere option turn back, 
 any more than Niagara can leap back with all its 
 floods up the steep precipice. Having all his days 
 blinded his mind and poisoned his thoughts with 
 unbelief, he can not now easily dismiss his cavils 
 and receive the truth as it is in Jesus. Jesus is 
 able as ever, ready as ever! It is not that the 
 stubbornness of that long persistency in sin has 
 steeled his divine heart to the dying outcries. No ! 
 His Gospel comes still the same, a Ho, every one 
 that thirsteth, come : weary and heavy-laden ones, 
 come ye, without money and without price ; who- 
 soever will, let him take." But now the man him- 
 self can not credit his ability ; he can not be per- 
 suaded that there is any salvation for such an one, 
 at such a last moment; his own conscience turns 
 against him and cries out, "Too late;" Satan, who 
 will fain seize the departing spirit, taunts him with 
 the cry, "Too late;" and just because the man has 
 never known Christ — never listened to his love — 
 he finds himself when he would wish to believe, 
 doubting, hesitating, distrusting, denying, despairing ! 
 And amidst this self-imposed and cherished dark- 
 ness, he sinks into the blackness of darkness, self- 
 condemned, heaping reproaches upon his own soul, 
 and can't believe that Jesus is able to save so to the 
 uttermost! But he is! I tell him that he is, but 
 
"TO THE UTTERMOST." 125 
 
 he can't believe it, yet Jesus must be credited and 
 trusted ; for in the trusting spirit is the peace and 
 joy of his salvation — the germ of life and blessed- 
 ness and glory. 
 
 And thus, also, he is able to save to the utter- 
 most in nature's final hour. Where human power 
 can go no further — where best friends, with all 
 their fondest love, have done their utmost — watch- 
 ing, soothing, helping against the advances of the 
 last enemy, until now the dear one is given up 
 as beyond the reach of kindliest sympathies — then, 
 far out at life's uttermost verge, another work is 
 going on. The friend that sticketh closer than 
 a brother is busy there, and spirit with spirit is 
 communing there, and the king's servants are 
 hovering around the dying couch there, whisper- 
 ing of heaven and ready to be the escort to glory. 
 And in the very article of dissolution, when the 
 farewells have been all spoken and no name of 
 wife or husband or child or parent stirs any sensi- 
 bility any longer, and you say it is "death" and 
 you feel no pulse any more — even then, the name 
 of Jesus will rouse the dying pulses that seem ut- 
 terly gone, and there will be a response from the 
 very embrace of death to that Name which is above 
 every name, as the Conqueror of Death and Hell ! 
 Oh ! I have seen it. The last dying smile, which 
 no other salutation could command, plays upon 
 the pallid features at the mention of that magic 
 name. 
 
 That dying senator! The scene was beautiful 
 as the beautiful gates that he saw opening into 
 
126 "TO THE UTTERMOST." 
 
 glory. Looking out, as he did, for the last time 
 upon the nation's Capitol, and the sun shining on 
 its dome, and then up to the great white throne 
 and the starry seats that circle it, and the Father's 
 house, where all the good and truly great of the 
 race are fast gathering — that was the Christian 
 statesman dying. 
 
 And then I have seen the dear little ones die — 
 the Christian children — and they saw the same 
 beautiful gates as this Christian statesman saw, 
 and they cried out as he did — "Beautiful, beauti- 
 ful" — as they were borne by the angels to the 
 same heavenly home. 
 
 And then, observe that at that uttermost ex- 
 tremity, when all earthly helpers must give up and 
 can do no further work of relief or of salvation, 
 Jesus goes on to save — triumphs there as the only 
 Saviour, displays his supreme and matchless abil- 
 ity to save through and through. Where death 
 and the grave boldly defy any and all others, see 
 how he saves to the very completion — saves even 
 from the fear of death, saves from the bitterness 
 and sting of death, saves from impatience and re- 
 pining amidst the dying agonies, saves even from 
 all these overwhelming anxieties that you would 
 think must make the death-bed of a fond parent 
 so terrible, where the orphan children must be left 
 behind without earthly provision. And there you 
 see the salvation in the triumphant calm and peace 
 wrought out for the departing spirit, and victory 
 sits upon the brow, and a longing, longing for the 
 heavenly home seems to throw the fondest earthly 
 
"TO THE UTTERMOST." 127 
 
 home into the shade ! And the heavenly society — 
 kindred and friends that are there — seem so ineffa- 
 bly attractive as to make those dear ones that were 
 most doted on here only secondary and inferior in 
 their charms. 
 
 And all this is the proof — the shining proof — 
 that Jesus is able to save to the uttermost. And 
 the secret of all this is that yonder in heaven at 
 the Fathers side he is busy in his intercessions 
 — the living Saviour — actively officiating for his 
 dying children where the dying Stephen saw him 
 — praying that they may be with him where he is, 
 that they may behold his glory, and so he conies 
 down and meets them in the dark valley, with his 
 shepherd rod and staff, and stands at the dying 
 bed, vanquishing Satan and hushing his malicious 
 accusations, and whispering peace ! And his own 
 Spirit — the Blessed third Person of the Trinity — 
 is making responsive intercessions in the heart, 
 with groanings that can not be uttered, taking 
 of the things of Christ and showing them to the 
 inward sight while the natural eye is sealing up 
 in death, opening the vision to celestial glories at 
 the very moment that it is utterly closed to earth — 
 
 " Trembling, hoping — lingering, flying, 
 Oh ! the pain — the bliss of dying." 
 
 "Oh ! had we learned what death alone brings nigh, 
 The dread had been to live and not to die." 
 
VIII. 
 
 PERSONAL LOVE OF JESUS. 
 
 "Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.' ' — ■ 
 John xi. 5. 
 
 The personal love of Jesus is that of which we 
 find it hard to be persuaded ; especially, as respects 
 ourselves, that the risen, glorified God-man, from 
 his throne, loves me ; loves me — a sinner as I am 
 — loves me by name, loves me as distinct and dif- 
 ferent from all others, loves me with all my infirm- 
 ities, loves me with any such love as we feel and 
 value in our human circles — this is hard to esti- 
 mate and apply. Yet the whole Gospel is based 
 upon the idea of personal love — that makes it good 
 news and glad tidings to individuals, and not mere- 
 ly to the race in general. 
 
 And love itself, if it were only universal and not 
 particular, if it were only judicial and governmental 
 and not personal, would not be valued by any of 
 us. Nay, even such fatherhood as is claimed by 
 those who hold God equally bound to all, and in- 
 discriminate, therefore, in his salvation, can have 
 no perceptible, sensible weight with any man to 
 control his living. It is practically nought until 
 it comes home to himself and reaches his individual 
 
PERSONAL LOVE OF JESUS. 129 
 
 case. For, if the love that is felt towards me is 
 only a sort of official love, then I do not value it 
 as appealing to my heart ; if it is an in discriminat- 
 ing love, only the same to me as to all men, then 
 I do not feel the sweet constraint of it, with all its 
 claims to a loving return; if it lay no demand for 
 holy living, and make no provision whatever for 
 personal character, then I can not respect it, as 
 worthy of consideration. The Gospel provision, 
 though it proclaim good- will to men in general, is, 
 nevertheless, in its whole idea, a provision for men 
 in particular; and the salvation can be applied only 
 as it comes home to each case by itself, and makes 
 its claims personal in all their application. 
 
 Love therefore is, in its very nature, special and 
 partial. This is its ruling idea. It finds a per- 
 sonal object among others on which it fixes with 
 fond affection, and it is only by such personal 
 choice that one or another comes to be a special 
 recipient of one's love. Out of such affinities grow 
 all the tender and endearing relations which pre- 
 vail among creatures. And God himself recog- 
 nizes this high law of love for his own action. 
 
 But we can not readily feel the force of Jesus' 
 love, as we can feel that of fellow-creatures. It 
 seems so theoretical, so merely doctrinal and theo- 
 logical. It is hard to bring it to any sensible real- 
 ization — as if we could feel his warm hand grasp- 
 ing ours, or his warm embrace, or his loving kiss, 
 pressing us to his heart. 
 
 And yet, if we consider, his love must be even 
 
 more real and more personal than that of fondest 
 9 
 
130 PERSONAL LOVE OF JESUS. 
 
 friends. If he could come to our homeland lodge 
 under our roof, and sit at our table, in the flesh, 
 as he did in the family at Bethany, this would 
 make it more real to our apprehension. If we 
 could see him coming in at our door at our call 
 of distress, if we could see his tears of sympathy 
 at the grave of a brother, if we could hear him 
 summon our dead from the tomb — then we could 
 value the love as something more than human. 
 But he is distant, he is invisible. And yet he is 
 personally present with us, only not in the flesh; 
 all the while present, as he could not be in the 
 flesh ; more really and fully and effectively present 
 than he could ever be in the body. He is able to 
 succor us in every case, more able, by far, than if 
 he were bound to those earthly conditions of his 
 humiliation. 
 
 And now the question is simply a personal one. 
 Does Jesus love me? If so, is he then daily and 
 hourly caring for me, keeping me ? Is it his hand 
 that preserved me in that peril, sheltered me from 
 that blow, raised me from that sickness. Nay, 
 was the physician's counsel and remedy his ac- 
 tual agency by another hand ? And am I to 
 thank him for the daily bread and for the night's 
 repose ? Can I so receive and believe it ? This is 
 the practical difficulty. And hence we are prone 
 to go as if there were no Jesus' love beating in 
 his heart towards us, or as if the truth, in this 
 respect, were only the cold doctrine of a creed, 
 and not a living reality. 
 
 The passage before us tells us of Jesus' love to 
 
PERSONAL LOVE OF JESUS. 131 
 
 a family group at Bethany. The announcement 
 is brief. It descends to no particulars as to the 
 personal grounds, only it includes the household. 
 This is beautiful. 
 
 The household covenant is a feature of both 
 economies of grace. It was instituted as the lead- 
 ing feature of the covenant with Abraham, and 
 looked to his generations so distinctly and spe- 
 cially as to require the sacramental seal of this 
 household relationship. The family itself is God's 
 institution, and it was meant to subserve a glorious 
 design in the economy of grace. Else, why did 
 he set the solitary in families, why did he reveal 
 himself as having a love for the households of his 
 people, except it were to sanctify those relations, 
 and to make all that special influence that clusters 
 round the family hearth a ministry of grace and 
 salvation?. At the beginning, the church was in 
 the house. And this is still and always, the fun- 
 damental, vital idea. Family religion is in order 
 to sanctuary ordinances and church privileges, and 
 it is essential to the existence of the church. 
 
 God perpetuates his church by means of a pious 
 posterity. If there had been no sacrament of in- 
 fant baptism in the Christian church, this would 
 have seemed such a defect in the light of the past 
 economy, and in the view of our natural constitu- 
 tion in the household, that we should have heard 
 the Jew clamoring against the Gospel as being 
 narrow and restrictive, and as denying to him 
 the benefits which he enjoyed for his house, un- 
 der the old dispensation. Nay, more, I think par- 
 
132 PERSONAL LOVE OF JESUS. 
 
 ents would scarcely have been encouraged to bring 
 their infant children to the arms of Jesus for his 
 blessing, and he would scarcely have uttered to 
 them those precious words, " Suffer the little chil- 
 dren to come unto me and forbid them not, for of 
 such is the kingdom of heaven." Nay, further. 
 If there had been found no baptism for households 
 — such as Lydia's and the jailer's — we are sure 
 that there would have been a loud call for such 
 an ordinance to take the place of circumcision, as 
 a seal of the covenant of grace. 
 
 The whole question of infant baptism resolves 
 itself into the simple question of the unity of 
 Scripture and the unity of the old and new dis- 
 pensations. And hence, they who have denied 
 infant baptism, as belonging to the New Testa- 
 ment, have been forced, in distinguished instances, 
 to deny the obligation of the Old Testament upon 
 the Christian church, as a rule of life. 
 
 And the whole Christian instinct cries out against 
 this, and every parental instinct cries out against 
 the denial of a sacramental ordinance for the chil- 
 dren. How can we look upon the dear children 
 at Christmas-time and bid them be happy in the 
 birth of the Bethlehem Babe, and yet hold them 
 to be excluded from the covenant blessings by the 
 Lord Jesus — as if the covenant with Abraham had 
 been a grand mistake, and as if Christ Jesus had 
 not come as a child in order to express his sympa- 
 thy with the children, and to compass them about 
 with the arms of his love. It is just by such means 
 as this household baptism that Jesus Christ would 
 
PERSONAL LOVE OF JESUS. 133 
 
 have his religion introduced into the family, and 
 would have our children marked as his from the 
 first, just as the oriental shepherd took pains to 
 put his brand upon the lambs, for they were most 
 in danger of going astray. 
 
 This household at Bethany is a household of the 
 children, as Abraham's household was — the sisters 
 and an only brother are here — where the parents 
 are no more. And all along the list they are re- 
 corded as Christ's — Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. 
 
 What a blessed home! How close the affinity 
 and how sacred the joy in each other's love ! No 
 one of them outside! No antagonisms, therefore, 
 as where the church and the world are brought 
 into conflict in the same home circle ! No painful 
 anxieties, as where one straying one is watched 
 by sisterly care and counsel, all in vain. "Martha, 
 and her sister, and Lazarus!" All of them bound 
 up together in the bundle of eternal love. 
 
 But we notice further, that it was Jesus' love to 
 that family, not in the general, but in the particular! 
 It was to each of them by name. 
 
 And this included personal peculiarities, differ- 
 ences of taste and temper — I know not what. We 
 can already see how Martha differed from Mary, 
 and yet Jesus loved them both; the careful, anx- 
 ious housekeeper, as well as the devout worship- 
 per at his feet. For Mary also kept the house, and 
 Martha also sat at Jesus' feet, though not in the 
 same proportion of time and attention. These ex- 
 cesses of Martha's carefulness he will correct by his 
 seasonable counsels, and he will encourage Mary's 
 
134 PERSONAL LOVE OF JESUS. 
 
 devoutness by his loving word of approval. And 
 Lazarus — he also was an object of Jesus' love. He 
 was loved as a young man — as one of nearly his 
 own age — and therefore of his close companion- 
 ship, who was known therefore as one of his spe- 
 cial favorites at Bethany. 
 
 Jesus loved the sisters. 
 
 Who says that this religion is good enough for 
 the women? This is its highest encomium — that 
 it comes home to the culture and refinement and 
 tenderness of womankind. Woman was every- 
 where smiled upon and lifted up from her oriental 
 degradation and blessed by him. He stood related 
 to woman as he did not to man, as no other being 
 did — with a human mother and no human father. 
 No wonder that the women, all the way from Gal- 
 ilee, followed him in Judea and ministered to him 
 of their substance. No wonder that the daugh- 
 ters of Jerusalem wept after him as he staggered 
 under the weight of his cross. No wonder that 
 the Marys were last at his cross, and first at his 
 sepulchre. 
 
 I have seen the women of Italy carrying the 
 hod, and worse, I have seen the women of Egypt 
 and of Asia treated like beasts — no girls in the 
 schools, no women in the mosques, as if they were 
 not fit to be educated nor fit to worship God. 
 
 But the Old Testament religion honored the women. 
 Sarah is on the list of Old Testament worthies, as 
 a splendid example of faith; and Deborah was a 
 prophetess and a leader of the people; and Miriam 
 was a sweet singer of triumphal psalms; and Han- 
 
PERSONAL LOVE OF JESUS. 135 
 
 nah was an honored mother, bringing her chil- 
 dren to God ; and Ruth was an elegant instance of 
 devotion; and Esther was the beautiful, queenly- 
 petitioner, that saved her people by her patriotic 
 prayers; and Jael was a heroine for Israel; and 
 Rahdb staked her all for their salvation. And in 
 striking contrast with all these, there was one such 
 woman as Jezebel. 
 
 And then, at Christ's coming, there was that 
 good old Anna, the prophetess, who could always 
 be seen in all weathers at church, all Sabbath time 
 at public worship, and also through the week. 
 And there was Elizabeth, who walked with her 
 husband, Zacharias, in all the commandments and 
 ordinances of the Lord, blameless. Who, then, 
 can wonder at such a record as this of our text — 
 "Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister." 
 
 That wonderful mission of the Marys at the 
 resurrection — how it rebuked the slowness, and 
 apathy, and unbelief of the men; that assuring 
 testimony that they had seen the angels, and had 
 seen the Lord. And it was not only then, but often 
 since in the Christian Church, that it has been 
 written — " They found it, even as the women had 
 said!" 
 
 The men can not always sympathize with wom- 
 an's Christian work. They count it a weak enthusi- 
 asm, just as the apostles even counted the women's 
 testimony from the sepulchre as idle tales and be- 
 lieved them not. The shepherds, next to the an- 
 gels, were the first publishers of the advent. But 
 the women, early in the morning, were the first 
 
136 PERSONAL LOVE OF JESUS. 
 
 publishers of the resurrection and of our Christi- 
 anity, as it is founded on the resurrection of Christ. 
 What the apostles were commissioned to bear wit- 
 ness of, they received first from the women. And 
 but for those rousing, burning words of the Marys, 
 those ministers of Christ might have sat still in 
 their discouragement and disbelief. What wonder 
 that he showed himself first to Mary Magdalene ! 
 
 Who does not see that woman has a heart for 
 Christian work, an ardor and alacrity in the ser- 
 vice of Christ which reveals a special affinity and 
 makes us wonder no more at such a narrative. 
 How we find them everywhere, whatever their 
 household cares — patient, sympathizing, laborious, 
 self-sacrificing— waiting upon the destitute, search- 
 ing out the lost, pushing forward the great schemes 
 of beneficence ! How we find them rebuking the 
 excuses of the men who plead their farms and mer- 
 chandises! And while the Martlias might plead 
 their housekeeping cares as well, how we see them 
 early in the day disposing of these, and hurrying 
 to the work of the Master! "Now Jesus loved 
 Martha, and her sister!" 
 
 A woman, without work for Christ, is, therefore, 
 without her proper occupation. A woman work- 
 ing for Christ, and sitting at the feet of Jesus, is the 
 true ideal of womanhood. That apostolic woman, 
 Dorcas, honored Joppa by her good works, as much 
 as Peter honored it by his house-top prayers. What 
 a record of her, that "she was full of good works, 
 and alms-deeds that she did! " And when she died, 
 there was a lamentation in the city, and the church 
 
PERSONAL LOVE OF JESUS. 137 
 
 sent for an apostle to come thither and help them 
 in their distress. And that upper chamber, where 
 she was laid out for the burial, was crowded with 
 the weeping widows, who " showed the coats and 
 garments which this good woman had made, while 
 she was with them." And no wonder that the 
 apostle thought such a life too valuable to be lost, 
 and exerted his miraculous gift to raise her up 
 from the dead. The Dorcases are not all dead, 
 blessed be God! 
 
 And she was a young woman, as her other 
 name, "Tabitha" imports. 
 
 The young women of the church are not all 
 given over to gaiety and pleasure-seeking, but some 
 are eager to give their youth-time to Christ, and 
 to deeds of Christian beneficence — teaching in the 
 Sabbath-school, clothing the poor, and supplying 
 the destitute, by their angelic ministries. 
 
 This is woman's mission — everywhere and al- 
 ways. These are ivomans rights which belong to 
 her by divine constitution, and which Jesus will 
 vindicate in his church — the right of blessing, and 
 being blessed. The woman blessed among women, is 
 Mary, the virgin mother; and the woman whose 
 praise is sung as blessed above ivomen, is Jael, the 
 wife of Heber the Kenite, driving the nails through 
 the temples of the foe of Israel, and pinning the 
 chieftain of the wicked to the ground. 
 
 And yet, I say, the love of Jesus is consistent 
 with diversities of temper, and with defects of 
 character. 
 
 " I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, 
 
138 PERSONAL LOVE OF JESUS. 
 
 and the God of Jacob" — Abraham, the faithful 
 worker, Isaac, the patient sufferer, and Jacob, the 
 cunning schemer. Martha's complaint to Christ 
 against her sister was too much in the spirit of 
 petulance and censoriousness to win his approba- 
 tion; and it conveyed, also, an ungracious insinu- 
 ation against his own love for herself — " Dost thou 
 not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone ? " 
 
 It is hard, indeed, to do laborious service, and 
 see others idle or only occasionally at work. We 
 find it hard to have the church enterprises rolled 
 upon us alone, as if the more we do the more we 
 ought to do. And some would seem to have some 
 right to be impatient and fretful at the sluggish- 
 ness and inefficiency of so many. But if we wait 
 for all to be with us at service, we may wait for- 
 ever and do nothing, because others will not do 
 their part: But these are our infirmities, to relax 
 our service because others are inactive, or to do 
 our work under a protest against the do-nothing 
 class in the church. 
 
 But Jesus loved Martha, even though, in a mo- 
 ment of complaining, she cast a reproach upon her 
 sister and upon himself. What should any of us 
 do, if Jesus could not love us, notwithstanding our 
 defects and our unpleasant peculiarities? He loves 
 us enough to administer his loving reproofs and 
 corrections. 
 
 And yet, further. This love of Jesus is so per- 
 sonal, as to be fitly pleaded in distress. 
 
 The fact of Jesus' love is something so moment- 
 ous and so precious, as to stand a man in stead, 
 
PERSONAL LOVE OF JESUS. 139 
 
 when trouble comes. Be it loss of friends or loss 
 of property or loss of health — whatever the sorrow, 
 this love can be relied on, and mentioned, and 
 made the basis of request for his presence and 
 succor in the adversity. 
 
 How natural for these sisters to send word to 
 Jesus, from the sick bed of Lazarus — "Lord behold 
 he whom thou lovest is sick" We know not what 
 proof this suffering brother had ever given of his 
 love to Christ. But this is not mentioned. It is 
 not said, Behold he who loves thee is sick. No ! 
 That would not be the proper plea. The Scrip- 
 ture nowhere so presents it. 
 
 There is so much defect in our love to Christ, 
 and it is so fickle and feeble in its best condition 
 that it will not bear to be named as the ground of 
 petition, even for a visit from Christ. No. It was 
 the boasting Peter who said, "Though all men 
 should forsake thee, yet will not I — though all 
 should be offended, yet will not I." But John, 
 the beloved disciple, boasted Jesus' love to him, 
 and not his love to Jesus — and he gloried in the 
 name of "that disciple whom Jesus loved" 
 
 Aud now can we so appreciate this love of Christ 
 as to feel its availability in our distress? Can we 
 so substantiate it, as we do our human, earthly 
 loves, in all their personality? Can we gather up 
 for ourselves or for one another the proofs of Jesus' 
 love to ourselves, so as to mention in his ear the 
 simple fact, as a plea for his presence and assist- 
 ance? Do we inquire for the daily proofs of his 
 favor, so as to comfort ourselves with this endear- 
 
140 PERSONAL LOVE OF JESUS. 
 
 ing relation, and make it our recourse in time of 
 trouble? Can we enter at ail into the triumphant 
 language of the apostle — "Who shall separate us 
 from the love of Christ' 1 — from the personal love 
 which he bears to us? No power in all the uni- 
 verse can do it, for Us preciousness is above all 
 price. 
 
 And yet, observe, this love of Jesus finds resjwn- 
 sive love in thorn who are its objec 
 
 Though Mary is one day sitting at his feet, 
 seemingly inactive and inattentive to Martha's 
 call, or to the table service, yet her record is 
 beautiful, and her loving acts are referred to here 
 "n connection with Jesus acts of love — "It was that 
 Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and 
 wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Laz- 
 arus was sick." That act of rare devotion is ren- 
 dered now, as a natural response to that foregoing 
 love he had shown, when sorrow brooded over the 
 household, and when her only brother was laid 
 low upon his sick bed, and in the very jaws of 
 death. Lazarus who had been dead — was he not 
 now sitting at the table with them ? 
 
 That anointing cost her an alabaster box of 
 very precious ointment. It may have wrung from 
 her heart a pang, at the time, to break it upon the 
 head of this friend. It wrung from Judas, with 
 his hypocritical cant, a reflection upon the prodi- 
 gality that would throw so much money away 
 upon a favorite, when it could have been given 
 to the poor. But Judas hung himself, and Mary 
 exalted her sex by her humble sacrifice before 
 
PERSONAL LOVE OF JESUS. 141 
 
 God. That was her fond heart's offering — and 
 had she not, already, gotten more than she gave — 
 gotten back her dead brother from the sepulchre ? 
 And the Holy Ghost mentions her ointment and 
 tears in this connection of Jesus' resurrection work, 
 as if it were only the responsive love that ruled in 
 these kindred hearts. 
 
 How many in the church are only hoping, upon 
 the whole, to be saved; only enrolled in the mem- 
 bership, without ever having waked to the con- 
 sciousness of Jesus personal love; without ever 
 having felt the sweet sense of his personal favor ; 
 without ever laying to heart the fact of pardoned 
 sin; without ever dreaming of any such affection 
 on his part as a mother's love, or a brother's ; with- 
 out ever trying to grasp the fact that he loves 
 them by name — " Martha, Mary, Lazarus" — each 
 and all ! And it is just the lack of this apprehen- 
 sion of a great Gospel fact which cuts the nerves 
 of individual exertion in the church, which brings 
 so few Marthas to set Christ's table in the house, 
 and so few Marys to break their costly perfume 
 boxes upon Jesus' head. 
 
 And they who love Christ, and show the proofs 
 of it in their living, are also proving to the world 
 that Christ loves them. These are our only tangi- 
 ble proofs. It was the service done to Christ in 
 that household at Bethany, which made every one 
 who knew them aware of Christ's love to them. 
 And so we know his love to Mary, by Mary's oint- 
 ment poured upon his head; and his love to Mar- 
 tha, by Martha's generous spreading of his table; 
 
142 PERSONAL LOVE OF JESUS. 
 
 and when all say that he loved Lazarus, we know 
 that Lazarus must have done such loving acts as 
 made him known at Bethany, as Jesus' friend — 
 such acts as were the response and reflection of 
 Jesus' love. This love of Jesus makes sunshine in 
 the house that death itself can not long darken, 
 and that no power in the universe can destroy. 
 
 But you doubt about the evidences of Christ's 
 love to you. Come down to the child's simplicity. 
 
 "Jesus loves me, this I know, 
 For the Bible tells me so." 
 
 And if this is found in the Bible, why not gather 
 up the documentary proofs — the title-deeds, and 
 covenants, and bonds, that are written, signed and 
 sealed here. And if it is true of you, then it is the 
 most precious, most important fact in your exist- 
 ence. Then lay the fact to heart. Then live as 
 one beloved of Jesus. Then send for him in trouble, 
 tell him your wants, your complaints ; tell him all 
 the case, as friend with friend. And only remem- 
 ber that his love is royal. He loves to be laid un- 
 der obligations. He loves to be relied on, pleaded 
 with, confided in. Let his love be no more a mere 
 doctrine, but a living reality. 
 
IX. 
 
 THE MERCHANT SEEKING CHRIST AND 
 SOUGHT BY HIM. 
 
 "And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to 
 this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the 
 Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." — 
 Luke xix. 9-10. 
 
 The mission of Jesus Christ to men is fall of 
 kindest advances for our salvation. If any are 
 urged to seek him, it is chiefly with this encour- 
 agement — that he is seeking them, and has come 
 for this purpose to seek and to save them that are 
 lost. Before they can give a thought to the mat- 
 ter, he has already groaned under the curse of 
 their sins, and has even died for them on the 
 cross. This foregoing love is a grand, attractive 
 fact that qualifies all our understandings of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 So many, like the man of the one talent, are 
 looking upon the terms of salvation as hard, im- 
 possible — regarding God as an austere man, and, 
 out of their own narrowness of feeling, are attrib- 
 uting a greater narrowness to him. And they 
 have no room for confidence even in his dying 
 love ! They forget that, when this planet of ours 
 had broken away from the harmonious system of 
 
144 THE MERCHANT SEEKING CHRIST 
 
 worlds, there was no method for its recovery but 
 that the grand laws of attraction be brought to 
 bear upon it. Its own gravitation would carry it 
 down, down to the deepest depths of ruin. The very 
 velocity with which it tore away would plunge it 
 into remediless destruction. 
 
 And now, therefore, the law is, that no man can 
 come back to God, except by the Father's drawings 
 — that Christ, as he is lifted up, shall draw all men 
 unto him. Hence, this is now the attractive sys- 
 tem of providence and grace. The message is now 
 the sweet, alluring offer of the Gospel — nay, more 
 than an offer — the proclamation of peace, which 
 only insists on acceptance. And the daily deal- 
 ing is now the hand of kind constraint which 
 works with every man in all his life. 
 
 Inere is not a man of you but has been thus 
 plainly dealt with, for his drawing to God. Some 
 of you have been prospered in business, and that 
 was a most kind drawing. Others have been dis- 
 appointed and baffled — perhaps utterly broken up 
 — and that was a gentle constraining towards a 
 better world. 
 
 How, then, are you interpreting your daily his- 
 tory? How are you understanding your gains and 
 losses, your successes and reverses in the world ? 
 
 If such be the explanation of your life's affairs, 
 then surely this matter of your salvation is, with 
 God at least, an omnipresent interest. But if this 
 be his constant concern in you — nay, if this be 
 the only accounting for your history on earth, that 
 you have been kept under treatment rather than 
 
AND SOUGHT BY HIM. 145 
 
 banished long ago to despair, then you will grant 
 this one point, that there is every encouragement 
 and every inducement offered you to seek salvation. 
 
 There is a certain class who see nothing but dif- 
 ficulty in the way of their being saved — not in- 
 deed as regards God, but as regards themselves. 
 They have not the requisites in their view. They 
 have a kind of conviction, but it is not overpower- 
 ing nor deep. They have a kind of belief in this 
 Gospel, but it is not moving nor positive ; and 
 hence, they only see a great gulf fixed between 
 themselves and heaven. There needs feeling, and 
 they have not the right; there needs a present, 
 pressing motive to seek Christ, and they have not 
 the right; all that they have is hard-heartedness 
 and infinite distance from Christ. And if they are 
 ever to be saved, they imagine it must be by some 
 mysterious, overpowering impulse — they know not 
 how or whence. Others, they believe, have been 
 brought to salvation, not by thinking on their ways 
 — applying themselves to the Gospel message, and 
 turning their feet to God's testimonies — not in any 
 such calm, sober, rational manner, but by sudden 
 and strange workings in them, which could neither 
 be explained nor resisted. 
 
 But is salvation, then, all a mere lottery, a casu- 
 alty or fatality? Can so momentous an interest 
 have been left to the mere chances of such a blind 
 occurrence ? Has God proposed to men this great 
 redemption, and yet not brought it at all within 
 their reach ? 
 
 The question is here solved by a case in hand ! 
 10 
 
146 THE MERCHANT SEEKING CHRIST 
 
 How Christ meets men in his mission of grace — 
 how the acquaintance is made between a sinner 
 and the Saviour, and how wonderfully this salva- 
 tion comes home to every man, anticipating his first 
 inquiry, suiting every necessity, overcoming every 
 difficulty, so as to be the most immediately access- 
 ible and available to any seeking soul — all this is 
 illustrated by a living instance in this history. 
 
 It was in the last week of our Lord's career on 
 earth, and on his last journey to Jerusalem. Jer- 
 icho, the city of palm-trees and of stirring busi- 
 ness, was specially astir that day, because of this 
 unusual procession that passed through the streets. 
 Among them the citizens could distinguish a poor 
 blind beggar, whose eyesight had just been given 
 him by the divine wonder-worker there ; and that 
 Bartimeus, glad and grateful, was shouting after 
 Jesus, and others were gathering to the throng. 
 
 Business had its claims there as it has here. 
 But there was a chief merchant of Jericho whom 
 no claims of worldly business could keep back that 
 day from following after this Son of God. He was 
 a custom-house officer, but what of that ? He was 
 even a chief among these odious publicans, and he 
 was rich — likely enough had gotten rich by his ex- 
 tortions as a tax-gatherer. But all that shall not 
 hinder him now from seeking Jesus. The result 
 will show that this merchant was no loser by quit- 
 ting the custom-house that day, and letting go all 
 his questions of tariffs and taxes and trade, his 
 invoices and receipts and commissions, and giv- 
 ing up his time and his bargains to look after 
 
AND SOUGHT BY HIM. 147 
 
 that Jesus, who was so soon to be welcomed as 
 his guest and Saviour. 
 
 Christ is here an applicant for the sinner's hospi- 
 tality — asks for admittance to the publican's house. 
 He only seeks to put himself under these pleasant 
 obligations, just to institute personal acquaintance, 
 just to open a familiar intercourse. He asks the 
 man to entertain him, just that under this invita- 
 tion of himself, he may put forward his own gra- 
 cious invitation to his own house on earth and in 
 heaven. 
 
 We call your attention, then, to this statement of 
 Christ's gracious mission, as avowedly illustrated 
 by the case of Zaccheus. Here is the business-man 
 seeking Christ, and finding Christ seeking him — 
 "This day is salvation come to this house, foras- 
 much as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son 
 of Man is come to seek and to save that which 
 was lost." 
 
 Observe, first of all, how inadequate were this 
 mans views of Christ at the outset of this matter. 
 Indeed his ignorance was complete and confessed. 
 He sought to see Jesus, who he was. But this 
 is the Gospel exhortation — " Behold the Lamb of 
 God." What if, like some who hear me, he had 
 waited until he should have some special discov- 
 eries of Christ, he knew not whence ; some inward 
 revelations of him that should irresistibly captivate 
 and constrain, he knew not how. It was just be- 
 cause he did not know who he was, that he would 
 take some present opportunity of seeing him. 
 
 Is not this a point from which any man here 
 
148 THE MERCHANT SEEKING CHRIST 
 
 could fairly start out in the matter of his salva- 
 tion? What if, like this rich publican, he should 
 find himself so speedily drawn into the very com- 
 pany of Christ, and into the mighty currents of 
 that whirlpool of his love, and Christ sitting with 
 him, the same day, at his own table — the Saviour 
 wonderfully a guest in his own house! Are you 
 to wait' for something — for any thing — in the way 
 of views and discoveries, which you have not this 
 moment? Is there need of any such delay? Is 
 there a chasm here which needs first to be filled 
 up, or bridged over, by some mighty movement of 
 God, before you can take a step in the way of see- 
 ing Jesus? You may protest to all our urgencies 
 that you have no adequate views of Christ as yet, 
 and so you can not start. We know you have not. 
 But this is the very motive for your seeking him — 
 at least to see who he is; for your making some 
 becoming inquiry into his word and work. 
 
 Is he the Creator of these heavens and this earth, 
 and you know him not ? Is it he that has peopled 
 the upper worlds with angels, and this globe with 
 all its inhabitants, and you care not to know who 
 he is ? Has he been so long time with you in his 
 church, in the Gospel, and yet you know him not ? 
 Though you have learned to lisp his name from in- 
 fancy, are you ignorant of him still ? 
 
 If there could be one Person of the Blessed Trin- 
 ity greater to us than another, it is he ! He is 
 not only God, but man also ! He has not only the 
 throne of the universe, but the Mediator's throne 
 of grace besides. He is not only Jehovah, but 
 
AND SOUGHT BY HIM. 149 
 
 he is Judge also. And he is not onlv Lord, but 
 Saviour ! 
 
 And though vou are this moment blind to all 
 his attributes, and though you have no conception 
 
 of him that could charm you at all: say at least, 
 that you will, the rather, on this very account, 
 k a sight of him. Xo inadequate views of 
 Christ could be a reason for vour delav. but all 
 the rather a reason for your promptest action. 
 And it is just because you never yet rose to any 
 such inquiry, never yet took the first earnest step 
 towards a discovery of him. and for this object, 
 that you sit in ignorance and darkness still. 
 
 But observe, secondly, how inadequate were this 
 man's J at the ovtsd. 
 
 You wait for proper feelings, for some strange, 
 miraculous movement in you, something that shall 
 strike vou down with terror, or dazzle vou with 
 light : some evident arrest and seizure of the 
 Almighty hand, unaccountable and unreasonable. 
 You are sitting under all the voices from Calvary, 
 and all the calls from heaven itself, as though noth- 
 ing had come to you as yet. When you think of 
 your being converted, you know not how to com- 
 pass it. nor how to promote it. because yon see not 
 how you can work these feelings in you, which 
 yon deem prerequisite: and here yon sit. like the 
 impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, for years to- 
 gether, as though Jesus had never passed this way. 
 when he dwells here, and here delights to core. 
 
 Whence has such a prevalent fallacy arisen in 
 the human mind? What an arch delusion of Sa- 
 
150 THE MERCHANT SEEKING CHRIST 
 
 tan, to make men believe that they have yet to sit 
 waiting for the Christ, like a blinded Jew who 
 waits for the Messiah ! So in the garden he con- 
 tradicted the threatening, and said, u Ye shall not 
 surely die." And here under the Gospel, at the 
 gate-way of the new paradise, he countervails the 
 promise, and says, "Ye shall not surely live!" He 
 tempts the atheist to say, " There is no God ; " and 
 conscience whispers, that the very tongue that 
 utters it, is a piece of mechanism whose mute 
 but resistless testimony contradicts the lie! So 
 he tempts you to say, "There is no Saviour;" and 
 these sanctuaries, and Scriptures, and sacraments 
 utter the testimony of long generations to rebuke 
 the dreadful falsehood. 
 
 Could you not at least inquire honestly, ear- 
 nestly, who he is ? This man was moved, it 
 would seem by the merest curiosity. At most 
 his mind was open to conviction. General im- 
 pressions that he had, or common report that he 
 had heard, led him to seek a view of Christ — not 
 even an interview with him. He had no thought 
 of following him as a disciple. The lowest desire, 
 the very lowest point of interest, was his. You 
 would have held back, though it were in the mat- 
 ter of your soul's salvation, because these were not 
 as yet the right feelings, nor the proper motives in 
 approaching Christ. 
 
 But see how a man can set out in this matter, 
 with all his ignorance, and get that ignorance 
 enlightened; how he can seek a sight of Christ 
 at least from quite inadequate motives, and with 
 
AND SOUGHT BY HIM. 151 
 
 most unworthy feelings, and be met, and more 
 than met, by the Divine Saviour. 
 
 Must it not needs be so? Whoever started in 
 this matter with right views, or out of any right- 
 eous affections? For then Christ had already been 
 found, and the great work of the Spirit of Christ 
 had been needless. 
 
 Could not any man here start this moment from 
 this low point and find himself like this chief pub- 
 lican, speedily in the closest companionship with 
 Christ — his understanding enlightened, his heart 
 opened, his house honored by Christ's presence, 
 the father of a family welcoming Christ to his 
 utmost hospitality, and Christ pronouncing the 
 blessing at his domestic board? 
 
 Could not these men who have long sat under 
 the Gospel, move at once in this matter, without 
 waiting for something — they know not what — and 
 find this great business of the soul done for them, 
 and in them, to their everlasting salvation ? Could 
 not these almost Christians succeed as well as this 
 publican? To say that something is in the way, 
 and to conceive that this Gospel message is not to 
 you as you are, but only to you as you ought to 
 be, is to nullify this grace, and to make a fatal mis- 
 take. It had as well be any other falsity. You 
 had as well be counting the Scriptures untrue, or 
 be dreaming that there is no eternity, no judgment, 
 no Jesus Christ, no heaven nor hell. "Then shall 
 ye know, if ye follow on to know the Lord." 
 
 But observe, thirdly, how sudden ivas the change 
 in this man. 
 
152 THE MERCHANT SEEKING CHRIST 
 
 How long did it take him to be a Christian that 
 day; or the jailor at the prison door in the night; 
 or the Samaritan woman at noon at the well; or 
 Lydia, at the river-side at evening, in the place of 
 prayer? From being a mere spectator, gazing at 
 this wondrous personage as he passed by, he came 
 to be an acquaintance, a friend, a follower. The 
 same day of his utter ignorance and distance, he 
 found himself entertaining Christ as a guest, under 
 his own roof, and having him sit at his own table, 
 and cheerfully acknowledging his claims — and his 
 heart already moved to new purposes of living, 
 and new ideas of integrity and duty. 
 
 He was rich before in this world's goods. But 
 now he had suddenly another kind of riches, which 
 made the fine gold dim in itself, yet in regard to 
 its use and in the light of Christ's love, gave it a 
 new lustre as to be employed in his service ; made 
 him talk of giving half his hoarded goods to the 
 poor ; made him at once profess Christ as King no 
 less than Prophet and Priest to him. And all this 
 great, radical, practical change in a day — in an 
 hour. 
 
 He was a man in high station before. He held 
 a post of monetary trust and was chief in the of- 
 fice, yet his was a most thorough conversion. He 
 arose now to newness of life. You can see that 
 the whole cast of the man was altered. And this 
 important business-man renounced the world's idol- 
 atries and the publican's extortions, and launched 
 out upon a new career — a career of usefulness, of 
 liberality, and of Christian discipleship. 
 
AND SOUGHT BY HIM. 153 
 
 But you know not what mighty convulsion can 
 ever work such an important change in yourself. 
 You can not conceive how it could ever be reached. 
 You imagine yourself somehow excluded from this 
 grace at present, or that it belongs to some other 
 and privileged class. But Zaccheus, though a de- 
 spised publican, and probably enough a Roman op- 
 pressor, was now, in Christ's view, a son of Abra- 
 ham, and an Israelite indeed. You think of your 
 salvation, either as a kind of miracle that must be 
 like that of the quaking earth and rending rocks 
 at the crucifixion, for which, therefore, you have 
 only to wait; or you look upon it as a most for- 
 midable, discouraging work of your own, which 
 you have not the heart to undertake. You can 
 not think of it, except as the most far-off and in- 
 accessible result. All this mistake about the work 
 of seeking Christ arises from a misconception of 
 Christ's work in seeking men. 
 
 We say then, first of all, that his redeeming 
 work for sinners is already complete. 
 
 It is not as though he had yet another death to 
 die for which you must tarry, nor as though. the 
 benefits of his death were, as yet, inaccessible to 
 you, because of something which he has left un- 
 done. The redemption is wrought out. And what 
 is the Gospel message, but the tidings of this ? 
 
 And yet it is to you, as though no news had 
 come; or as though it were nugatory because of 
 something lacking to make it good and available 
 to men. Hence you are laboring, without rope or 
 bucket, to draw water from this deep well, when 
 
154 THE MERCHANT SEEKING CHRIST 
 
 Christ is pressing the cup of water to your very- 
 lips. You do not consider what has been already 
 and actually achieved for your salvation, nor how 
 complete an atonement has been made, nor how 
 perfect a provision altogether has been furnished. 
 You do not reflect on the glorious perfection of 
 him who has undertaken this. You do not see 
 the explicitness of the offer as it is recorded here 
 by the Spirit. When you are urged to seek Christ, 
 you do not think of it as an encouraging summons 
 to accept salvation, but as a severe and cold com- 
 mand to do an impossible work ; and for this very 
 mistake of supposing a bridgeless gulf between 
 you and this grace, you sit still, you dismiss the 
 matter as impracticable for you; or, at least, as 
 out of the question now! And all the good news 
 that ought to have charmed your heart to hear 
 falls dead upon you, as though it were a pro- 
 posal to buy heaven for a million pounds, when 
 you have not a farthing to give, nor any possible 
 resources. 
 
 You can never go forward in this matter with- 
 out starting out; you can never get light nor peace 
 in Christ, except in the way of Christian duty. 
 His cures come to you in the shape of commands: 
 "Rise, take up thy bed and walk:" "Stretch forth 
 thine hand." So he said to the lepers, "Go show 
 yourselves to the priests and offer the gift which 
 Moses commanded." He bade them to go forward, 
 just as though they were already healed — "and as 
 they went, they were healed." 
 
 But in your neglect to seek Christ, there is also, 
 
AND SOUGHT BY HIM. 155 
 
 secondly, an utter misconception of Christ's pecu- 
 liar work in seeking sinners ! 
 
 The text declares this to be his very object in all 
 his mission of grace to our earth, to seek and to 
 save the lost. If so, it is the single explanation of 
 all these Gospel messages to you, of all these means 
 of grace, of all the truth delivered, of all the provi- 
 dences dealt out to you. If so, it is true — aston- 
 ishingly, touchingly true — that Christ has long 
 been out seeking you, using constraints to draw 
 you, variously working to lead you; and there is 
 not a single item in all the vast array of his dis- 
 pensations towards you, but is so to be understood. 
 This would seem our only accounting for your 
 respite upon earth, for your prolonged lives and 
 opportunities. 
 
 Are you, then, idly waiting for something more ? 
 For what? For Christ to move? He has moved 
 the heavens and the earth for this ; he has moved 
 with groans and blood up the crucifixion hill for 
 this ; he has moved in all the checkered traces of 
 your history, just for this ! You can not say but 
 you have manifold drawings, and have resisted 
 them all; you can not say, but again, this holy 
 hour, Christ brings you here in his providence, and 
 accosts you with his word of grace, for this. And 
 what wait you for? Does not all this bring the 
 matter home to you? Have you the warrant for 
 any delay? When there is all urgency from the 
 hand that would save you, are you sitting, wait- 
 ing for the heavens to open, and the Saviour to die 
 again? If any amount of completion could put 
 
156 THE MERCHANT SEEKING CHRIST 
 
 Christ's work within your reach, for its immediate 
 avail, it could not be more complete than it is 
 now. And if any winning, inviting aspect of the 
 matter could encourage you to move at once, and 
 take action upon it, is it not enough that he came 
 in all this wondrous mission of grace, for this ex- 
 press object, to seek out and to save the lost ? Is 
 it no encouragement to a lost child to seek his 
 father, if he can know that his father is actu- 
 ally seeking him ? Did not the prodigal's doubt- 
 ing, shivering heart leap with a bursting emotion 
 when, in the far distance, he caught the first 
 glimpse of his injured but loving parent, running 
 to embrace him? Or where there has been rup- 
 ture, is it no incentive to seek reconciliation, that 
 already you are sought, for this very purpose ; and 
 that already the offended party is proclaimed as 
 reconciled ? 
 
 Then why not move at once in this matter, at 
 least to see Jesus, who he is. What if you should 
 find him actually inquiring for you, and what if 
 the first salutation is his voice, calling you as if 
 by name, and welcoming you to all he has to give ? 
 Tell us what this publican, more curious than right- 
 eous at first, saw or heard now, that brought him 
 so into close connection with Christ ? What was 
 it but that he heard Christ call, heard Christ call- 
 ing him— calling him by name, so that he could 
 not mistake its reference to himself; calling him 
 to come down and entertain him, at his house ? 
 
 And such a call, only a thousand times repeated, 
 you have had from your first moment of discretion. 
 
AND SOUGHT BY HIM. 157 
 
 What more can you ever have ? You wait for some 
 louder call ? Is it to be in the thunder, or earth- 
 quake, or death itself, or the last trumpet's sound ? 
 Have you not heard him say, " Come unto me and 
 I will give you rest:" — "Come! Follow me!" — 
 u Give me thy heart:" — u Come, for all things are 
 now ready:" — "Open unto me, and I will come into 
 you and sup with you, and you with me"? Is 
 there any tiling to be waited for ? Should you not 
 now, at once, admit Christ and entertain him, and 
 rejoice in him ? 
 
 But that this is so, will appear also, thirdly, from 
 the very terms in which the call of Christ is made 
 to you. Because it is addressed to all, to every one, 
 to whosoever will; it is addressed to yourself, this 
 moment, as truly and as much as to any other 
 creature under heaven; as personally as if you 
 were called by name. And what is it, but come ! 
 It is a free, unconditioned invitation to all the ben- 
 efits. It is not pay and come, or promise and come, 
 or perform good works and come, or make new 
 hearts and come, but come first of all, now and at 
 once, without any delay. Come sinners — needy, 
 helpless, lost — come! Come as you are and be 
 saved ! 
 
 This is Christ's work — to save sinners. This 
 very lost estate of yours has brought out Christ, 
 seeking you, seeking sinners such as you, and none 
 but such. He seeks the lost. It is his glory and 
 delight to receive you — miserable, sinful, lost as 
 you are. And if there were the least to pay, you 
 could not pay it. If there were the least to do 
 
158 THE MERCHANT SEEKING CHRIST 
 
 acceptably, you could not do it. If there are pre- 
 requisites and conditions of good feeling or good 
 works, this utterly vitiates the matter for sinners, 
 and makes it all an idle offer to you. 
 
 But what do we hear in the Gospel. It is "come 
 to the waters." Whatever is here flows as freely 
 and as fully as the fountain streams, running over 
 and gushing up from their deep eternal bed. You 
 mistake the Gospel provision by supposing that 
 instead of furnishing "all things that pertain to 
 life and godliness," it requires the first holy acts 
 to be of yourselves. He gives holy desire ; he 
 gives Christian faith ; he gives true repentance ; 
 he gives whatever is needful. He treats you as 
 lost. And you must come as you are, to get 
 whatever you require, from first to last. No mat- 
 ter even what brings you to Christ ; no matter 
 about the style of coming, so that you come to 
 him as the onlv Saviour. 
 
 Look now at the history of this new-made ac- 
 quaintance that has brought a man at once to such 
 a change of all his relations and destinies. It is 
 given to the life as an avowed illustration of seek- 
 ing Christ, and of Christ seeking and saving the 
 lost. 
 
 All that need be said in the book of truth about 
 the nature of his first inquiry, is this — that this 
 chief publican, ignorant altogether of Christ ex- 
 cept from the common fame, sought to see Jesus, 
 who he was. Difficulties presented themselves; 
 but he had risen to this simple resolution that he 
 would press through the crowd and climb up, if 
 
AND SOUGHT BY HIM. 159 
 
 need be, to see him. He put himself in the path 
 of Christ, of course, yet seeking only a view of 
 him as yet, rather than an interview. And he 
 found that Christ was seeking him, was already 
 reading his secret feeling, was more than meeting 
 his first desire. He knew him at last only by that 
 personal revelation of himself — that Christ knew 
 him first — called him now by name. All that you 
 can say of the man is, that then and there, before 
 he had uttered a word, he heard Christ calling, 
 calling him to come, and he came down at once; 
 made haste and came down. 
 
 Christ bespoke his hospitality (amazing conde- 
 scension!) asked to be a guest at his house, cared 
 not only for himself, but for his family also, and 
 the man received Christ joyfully. No wonder! No 
 man of all that crowd could sneer at this publi- 
 can for welcoming Christ. But all wondered that 
 Christ had gone to be guest with a man that was 
 a sinner. That publican's house was made happy 
 that same hour. Christ crossed that threshold and 
 said, " Peace be to this house." That man's table 
 was honored by Christ's presence ; his lot was 
 enriched by Christ's blessing. Christ declared to 
 the man, that that day salvation had come to 
 his dwelling. The convert found his whole soul 
 warmed towards the Saviour, and changed in all 
 its relations and resolutions. He is ready to pro- 
 fess Christ; he does it on the spot, and under his 
 own roof he repeats it. An altar to Christ is set 
 up there ; he has new plans of living and of well- 
 doing. 
 
160 THE MERCHANT SEEKING CHRIST 
 
 What now shall be the history of this case ? He 
 did not even knock to have it opened to him, half 
 so much as Christ was found knocking at his door, 
 and he opened to Mm. Zaccheus ran before the 
 crowd; but Christ had run before Zaccheus. The 
 man was called on by the heavenly guest to enter- 
 tain him at his home. But oh ! he found himself 
 the most entertained. He welcomed Christ, but 
 he found himself more welcomed. The father of 
 a household just opened to the Saviour, and lo ! 
 the Saviour had come in to him to sup with him, 
 and he with Christ, and his family were blessed by 
 such a visitant. Oh, what a day was that to this 
 publican and sinner ! Who had thought that his 
 first starting out, in all his ignorance and preju- 
 dice, and sin, that hour, would have led to such 
 amazing and glorious results that very day. 
 
 My hearers, do you tell me that you wait for 
 something in this matter of seeking Christ? You 
 ought to know the Gospel message and Christ's 
 office-work well enough to be pressing through 
 the crowd, or coming down from where you are 
 posted along the way. You ought to make haste 
 and come down, and receive him joyfully. Where 
 have you climbed up now to see him? "Blessed 
 sycamore ! by which Zaccheus climbed that day to 
 heaven!" You have the means of grace at hand. 
 The Gospel word is nigh thee. While you pray 
 and complain that you find no answers, the an- 
 swers are here already in the Scripture, fresh as 
 though they came this moment from the skies. 
 You look for a sign from heaven that shall assure 
 
AND SOUGHT BY HIM. 161 
 
 you, so as to dispense with all exercise of trust 
 You will have sight, and not faith. You can not 
 help knowing that Christ calls you now, before you 
 ever call to him. You can not help hearing him 
 speaking directly to yourself as if by name, even 
 along the road-side. And if you would respond to 
 him like this chief merchant of Jericho, and enter- 
 tain this Saviour in your heart and at your home, 
 you too would find him abiding at your house to- 
 day with his great salvation. 
 
X. 
 
 TEARFUL SOWING AND JOYFUL REAPING. 
 
 "They that sow in tears, shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth 
 and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with 
 rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." — Psalm cxxvi. 5-6. 
 
 The Psalmist celebrates in this beautiful psalm 
 the return of the church from captivity by help 
 of her covenant God. How joyous was the day ! 
 How bright and blessed was the deliverance! It 
 was morning after midnight. It was plenty after 
 famine. It was rain after drought. And from such 
 a glad and happy experience he deduces a great 
 principle, applicable to all times and to the church, 
 not only, but to the individual believer. "They 
 that sow in tears, shall reap in joy." 
 
 But this principle can not be of universal appli- 
 cation. It is confined to the domain of Christian 
 effort. Traced to the natural law, we could say 
 that they who undertake and prosecute enterprises 
 with anxious earnestness, such as often expresses 
 itself in tears, do commonly meet with success, and 
 obtain a joyous harvest of their anxious sowing. 
 
 But this is, by no means, the universal experi- 
 ence. Every one sees that many sow in tears 
 and reap in tears also. See the man of the world, 
 early and late busy, carrying on the service of 
 
TEARFUL SOWING, JOYFUL REAPING. 163 
 
 mammon with sweating toil worthy of a better 
 cause ; wearied in body and mind, worried and ex- 
 hausted, sitting down at last to disappointment 
 and despair. Oh! How the masses who forget 
 God and go in pursuit of worldly pleasure, or 
 of mad ambition, sow in tears and jeap in bitter 
 weeping ! 
 
 The service of Satan and of mammon is a hard 
 service, drudging work and poor wages. Pity on 
 the toiling laborers who have no rest, day nor 
 night ; no release from their bondage and no fruit 
 of their labor, but shame and sorrow ; where they 
 drudge on, and are only crushed and cursed for 
 their pains by the hard master whom they serve. 
 
 There is no service but the service of God, that 
 guarantees a splendid success. Think of this, ye 
 who give body and soul to the cares of life and 
 to its pleasures, and find your reward so hard and 
 cruel, with no promise of relief forever and ever. 
 Listen to those cheering words of the text and. 
 inquire for this Master, who promises such joyous 
 and blessed returns in his service. 
 
 It may be fairly said, that there is no great 
 result in life attained without hard labor. Men 
 concede this every day in their worldly business. 
 They are even willing to sow in tears at the pros- 
 pect, however uncertain, of reaping, at length, 
 in joy. There is ready sacrifice, daily self-denial, 
 cheerful cross -bearing, patient bondage, to the 
 work of mammon, in the bare hope of gaining, 
 at length, an ample return. 
 
 And yet, how hard it is, sometimes, for such to 
 
164 TEARFUL SOWING 
 
 bear up under the blasted prospects and baffled ef- 
 forts in business, with no security that it will ever 
 be otherwise. But here, in the service of God, 
 the sower can well afford the tears; he can bear 
 up cheerfully under the present burdens, knowing 
 that there shall surely come an abundant harvest 
 — that none of his patient, painstaking labor shall 
 be lost, that he shall yet go forth to the reaping, 
 however it be long delayed, and that, 
 
 "Though seed lie buried long in dust, 
 It sha'n't deceive the hope. 
 The precious grain shall not be lost, 
 For grace insures the crop." 
 
 There are divine maxims that the world quotes 
 for its encouragement, but they belong to the peo- 
 ple of God, that — "The darkest hour is just before 
 the day," and that "man's extremity is God's op- 
 portunity." The Scripture has it, as it was writ- 
 ten in the history of Abraham. "In the mount 
 the Lord shall be seen." The altar on which your 
 Isaac is to be given up in tears to God, is the place 
 where you shall behold marvels of God's mercy — 
 where God shall graciously interpose, and all an- 
 gels shall seem to be your bodyguard, and unim- 
 agined ways of deliverance shall appear to turn 
 the weeping into joy. 
 
 So it is written, on the basis of the same divine 
 guarantees, and as a fruit of the same Christian 
 experience: "Blessed is the man whose strength is 
 in thee ; in whose heart are the ways of them, who, 
 passing through the valley of Baca, make it a 
 well." I have seen stout men and tender women 
 
AND JOYFUL REAPING. 165 
 
 passing through the valley of Baca, and the vale 
 of weeping becomes to them a fountain of living 
 waters, and God's gracious rains from heaven — all 
 his showers of blessing — fill the pools which afflic- 
 tion has scooped out in their path. 
 
 Let us look now at the text, as it sets before us 
 the certain results of Christian effort — the sure 
 success of labor in Christ's service, however toil- 
 some, and however discouraging, or disappointing 
 it may any time appear. 
 
 Every man is in a sense a husbandman, whether 
 he will or not. He is daily sowing seed that shall 
 spring up to some harvest of honor and joy, or of 
 shame and sorrow. But the Christian minister 
 and every Christian laborer is likened, in the 
 Scripture, to a sower — who goes forth to sow, 
 whose business and office-work is this — to sow 
 seed. The illustration is full of interest. Let us 
 trace it out. 
 
 The dissemination pf God's truth is our great 
 business — yours and mine, my brethren. 
 
 And this divine truth, when brought to bear 
 upon men, is compared, in Scripture, to a fire and 
 a hammer, that breaks the flinty rock in pieces. 
 This is its function — this is its office-work and aim 
 — to break down the stoutest enmity of the heart. 
 It is also likened to a sword that is to be wielded 
 — to strike down the most violent opposer — the 
 sword of the Spirit, which God, the Holy Ghost 
 himself draws — and with which he cuts, even to 
 the joints and marrow of the desperate foe. 
 
 But in the hand of the Christian minister, and 
 
166 TEARFUL SOWING 
 
 Christian member, this truth of God is also seed. 
 And thus it is called the good seed — the incorrupti- 
 ble seed, which liveth and abideth forever. Other 
 seed may utterly rot in the ground, as it fairly 
 ought; and some seed may germinate to corrup- 
 tion ; but this seed never rots, and where it springs 
 up, at length, it is always to a pure and joyous 
 harvest. 
 
 Mark, then, the divine encouragement: "He that 
 goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, 
 shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bring- 
 ing his sheaves with him." The sole condition of 
 the success is, that the sower shall go forth to his 
 work, bearing the precious seed, and then, he may 
 go forth even weeping, for the present hardship or 
 opposition or ill-success, but he shall doubtless 
 come again with rejoicing, reaping his golden 
 harvest. 
 
 Look now at this truth of God as seed. 
 
 Jesus spake a parable to this effect, and said, 
 "The sower soweth the word." The seed is the 
 word of God. You may notice how these divine 
 truths are thrown out from the pulpit and the 
 press and social conversation, as from the sower's 
 hand. 
 
 Is this to be the end of all this constant work 
 of the preacher, just to pronounce formal sermons 
 — just to work up thoughts into religious dis- 
 courses, or to work out the high problems of di- 
 vine revelation, for curious hearers, and to go on 
 to-morrow as to-day, and next Sabbath as this Sab- 
 bath, looking for no further results? Ask: Is it 
 
AND JOYFUL REAPING. 167 
 
 the whole business of the husbandman to turn his 
 mellow furrow and plant his field with grain — and 
 so go on, with the same process, year after year, 
 looking for no harvest? Oh no! This might be, 
 if he sowed pebbles. But he has sowed seed. And, 
 in its very nature, it is a germ — having life — and 
 it is expected to be started into growth by all the 
 system of influences into which it is cast by that 
 act of the sower flinging it into the ground. 
 
 Look at these truths of God. They are living 
 germs — they are seed-grain. They are cast out 
 into the minds of men in the hope of genial influ- 
 ences for expanding and maturing them to a har- 
 vest. Oh ! how one thought, flung into the active 
 soul, has often germinated and expanded and come 
 up with rank stalk and heavy crop in all the fu- 
 ture life. 
 
 And that is what we seek. And this is what 
 God expressly promises: "As the rain cometh 
 down and the snow from heaven, and returneth 
 not thither, but watereth the earth, that it may 
 give seed to the sower and bread to the eater; bo 
 shall my word be, that goeth forth out of my 
 mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but it 
 shall accomplish that which I please : and it shall 
 prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. that instead 
 of the thorn may come up the fir-tree, and instead 
 of the brier the myrtle-tree, to be to the Lord for 
 a name, for an everlasting sign which shall not be 
 cut off.'' This is the absolute guarantee of God. 
 And this is the standing encouragement in dis- 
 seminating this good word of God. So it ought 
 
168 TEARFUL SOWING 
 
 to result — so every sowing ought to have its crop, 
 and will somehow and sometime have it, in ben- 
 efit and blessing for all eternity. 
 
 But observe the grand condition of this success 
 is, that the seed sown shall be precious seed. 
 
 Oh! how many hands are busy sowing worth- 
 less seed, that shall either not spring up or, what 
 is worse, shall spring up to prolific harvests of 
 corruption and perdition. How the new labor- 
 ers, with seed in hand — bad seed — enter the ser- 
 vice of Satan every day ! And how hard it is to 
 get men, in this blessed field of the Master, men 
 who will be earnest and faithful in scattering the 
 good seed of the kingdom, as they go along in life 
 with a view to a harvest of souls ! 
 
 But look at this seed, — how precious ! You can 
 know it only from its fruits. You may take vari- 
 ous seeds — some of most poisonous plants, and 
 some of richest fruits — and you may not be able to 
 distinguish them. But drop them into the ground, 
 where they shall be subjected to the appropriate 
 influences of soil, and you shall soon know them 
 from the stalk and leaf even, but surely from the 
 fruit. 
 
 Take now one of these divine truths — the great 
 fact of the Gospel — the faithful, credible saying, 
 so worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus 
 came into the world to save sinners. Have I 
 need to prove to you how precious is this seed- 
 grain of inspired truth? Have you not seen it 
 where it has sprung up in a desolate field, where 
 the heart was sad and the home was cheerless, 
 
AND JOYFUL REAPING. 169 
 
 and it has gladdened all around — comforted the 
 sorrowing, and raised the degraded and debased 
 — as when you have sown some gorgeous flower- 
 seed in your garden, and it has bloomed all the 
 season through, to delight and bless with its beauty 
 every beholder ? 
 
 I saw, for the first time, last summer, in this 
 vicinity, the evening primrose. They who had 
 the beauteous thing in bloom, near the door-way 
 of their dwelling, gathered the whole company 
 of visitors around to see it so wondrously open 
 its flowers at the instant of the sunsetting. We 
 stood and watched the long yellow blossoms that 
 had been folded up closely through the day — and 
 strangely enough, as the sun went down, these 
 blossoms on every stem seemed instinct with life. 
 The folded leaves began to stir, and first one and 
 then another leaf gently unfolded, until, presently, 
 it flung open all its beauty to the beholder. And 
 not one of the blossoms failed to do the same, 
 until a dozen on the same stalk stood forth in the 
 glory of this twilight resurrection. A precious 
 seed, I said, is that, and I must have the joy of 
 such a planting and flowering. 
 
 So I have seen it, in a circle of worshippers, or 
 in the same household. What precious seed has 
 the great Gospel truth of Jesus' advent for sin- 
 ners' salvation proved to be ! What peace it has 
 brought forth in the bosom! What solid prin- 
 ciple! What noble practice! How it has burst 
 forth in beauty on a whole circle of beholders — 
 a garden of delights — like the most rare and fra- 
 
170 TEARFUL SOWING 
 
 grant blossoming of the tropics. How faith and 
 hope and love and joy and peace and long-suffer- 
 ing and gentleness and goodness and meekness 
 and temperance and truth have been gathered by 
 a whole household, in richest clusters, as the crop 
 from this one seed. 
 
 And so there is another precious seed, the truth 
 of a divine covenant with the believer through 
 Jesus Christ covering all providence — controlling 
 all issues and events — numbering the very hairs 
 of the head — providing for the asking and the re- 
 ceiving, as by a law more fixed than that which 
 moves the stars in their exactest courses. See how 
 this seed, sown in the heart, springs up and yields 
 a fruit of happy thoughts and rich consolations ! 
 
 Then as nothing can happen unforeseen and un- 
 ordered and unprovided for by my covenant God, 
 is it not blessed at the worst ? Is it not part of 
 my training for heaven, and part of my leading 
 thither? And so, if the event cross my plans, do 
 I want any thing for myself that my covenant 
 God does not want me to have? Or do I know 
 better than he what is best for me ? Is it not bet- 
 ter for my own happiness and for my eternal sal- 
 vation, that my poor, stumbling way be embar- 
 rassed than his eternal course of love? Is it not 
 better that my poor, blind will be disappointed, 
 than his loving and glorious counsels? And so let 
 the tribulation come, and it shall work patience, 
 and the patience experience, and the experience 
 hope. 
 
 And so, finally, the truth of the resurrection and 
 
AND JOYFUL REAPING. 171 
 
 eternal life is a like precious seed. Springing up 
 in the dreariest bosom, it sheds joy around; it is 
 fragrant with perfume that fills the air. 
 
 Yesterday, I buried an aged widow, who first 
 received me into her hospitable home a quarter 
 century before, when I went out a lad to do my 
 first sowing of the Gospel seed. She was one of 
 my earliest parishioners in a distant city. She 
 came to her grave in a full age as a shock of 
 corn cometh in in his season. It was a seasonable 
 death, calm and beautiful, at eighty-seven years 
 of age. And her last words were — " Eternal life ! 
 eternal life ! " 
 
 That seed, planted in her mind — this truth of 
 the "life eternal" — that single glorious truth let 
 fall in her soul — was vitalized and expanded to a 
 gracious maturity and developed in her all joy 
 and triumph, in her long and happy life journey 
 and in her victorious death. So you have seen it 
 all through your society. And to see it spring up, 
 in even a few instances, is an ample reward. 
 
 But the text makes mention of the weeping, 
 almost as if it were a condition of success. 
 
 There are manifold occasions for tears in this 
 sower's work. The promise is spoken for encour- 
 agement, under all possible disappointments and 
 drawbacks. As Jesus himself portrayed the sow- 
 ing in his beautiful parable, you remember, it was 
 only in one condition out of four, that the seed, 
 precious as it all was, came to a blessed harvest. 
 And yet we might hope that more than a fourth 
 of all the seed sprang forth to perfection — that 
 
172 TEARFUL SOWING 
 
 most of all the seed sown was dropped into the 
 good ground, and only here and there a few scat- 
 tering seeds fell by the wayside or upon the rock 
 or among the thorns. But the manifold hindrances 
 to the growth of the word in the heart and life 
 might make an angel weep. 
 
 It is hard for a minister to see the loss of his 
 labor, in case of the wayside hearers. Hard to 
 see a thousand birds of ill-omen, flocking round, 
 to pick up the precious seed which has received 
 no lodgement on that hard trodden road. Hard 
 to see men, so indurated by the rush and tramp 
 of business or pleasure, that you can't get them so 
 much as to think of the soul. These great truths, 
 most solemn and momentous, scarcely dropped be- 
 fore they are gone! Men who come, and go as 
 they came, from a thousand sermons, and no im- 
 pression is received ! Oh ! it is that which brings 
 the tears. And then it is hard, where the seed has 
 even sprung up and blossomed, full of promise, to 
 find, in a few short months, how it has revealed 
 its rocky soil — no firm rooting — all going to stalk 
 — nothing but leaves — the blossoms dropping off 
 without any fruit — nothing matured and ripened 
 to perfection — withered away! And then, too, to 
 see the growing of the seed choked by thorns — by 
 the cares of this world and by the deceitfulness of 
 riches and by the lusts of other things. So much 
 good seed falling on rich soil, but overrun by 
 weeds and overtopped by thistles, till it can grow 
 no more, but is buried under the rank mass of 
 worldliness. Oh! this is matter for tears; these 
 
AND JOYFUL REAPING. 173 
 
 are sights, under our daily eye, to wring the sow- 
 er's heart with anguish. 
 
 You do not see the weeping. How the evil 
 tempers and evil example of some in the church 
 hinder the progress of young Christians, or hin- 
 der others from becoming Christians at all ! How 
 we must weep over much inconsiderate conduct 
 even in the best ; over mischievous principles 
 broached by good men, where wrong is palliated 
 by those who are set to be the promulgators and 
 defenders of the right, and where all a pastor's 
 efforts are paralyzed by men of standing in the 
 church, who openly, in conduct or otherwise, ad- 
 vocate the wrong in daily practice. 
 
 But we are bidden to go on sowing, even though 
 we weep as we go. For first, the sowing is ours 
 and the weeping may be ours, but not the ger- 
 minating, nor the fruit-bearing of what we sow. 
 44 Paul planteth, Apollos watereth, but God giveth 
 the increase." 
 
 And this is just what God doeth and delights to 
 do, as if it were by a system of natural law. The 
 means are ours — the results are his. And yet, he 
 will often so bless the means with the results, as 
 that they shall seem to have produced them. So, 
 he often honors the preaching of the word and the 
 use of all Christian instrumentalities. But he has 
 not required of us to make the seed grow, only to 
 do the sowing faithfully, and even at self-sacrifice 
 and with tearful efforts, that shall evince the ear- 
 nestness and the fidelity. And he will ensure the 
 gracious harvest. 
 
174 TEARFUL SOWING 
 
 But we are to consider, secondly, that God does 
 not bind himself to times and seasons for this 
 harvest. 
 
 It is not in the church, as it is in nature, that we 
 can tell of the harvest-time from the course of the 
 sun in the sky or from the season of the year. He 
 reserves to himself the time for the reaping. Nay, 
 it is often that one soweth and another reapeth. 
 
 But God will have our patience tested and culti- 
 vated here. And then he will have it so arranged 
 that he that soweth and he that reapeth may re- 
 joice together. Oh! in the other world, we shall 
 see the map of human influences and destinies 
 spread out in our individual cases, and it will ap- 
 pear whose sowing it was from which the harvest, 
 in each case, was finally reaped. And many an 
 one who had waited and wept long time for re- 
 sults in his ministry will be honored, at last, with 
 bringing in the sheaves from his own sowing, how- 
 ever long ago past; and then, if not before, that 
 eternity that shall disclose all actions and all issues 
 and shall trace them to their respective sources 
 shall put the honor upon those to whom it is due. 
 And they who, years ago, went forth sowing and 
 toiled faithfully in the furrow and scattering the 
 seed, but not knowing of the ultimate results, they 
 shall come again, with rejoicing, and shout the 
 harvest-home. Patience, Christian parents, pray 
 and labor with your wayward children. u God 
 giveth the increase." This is what he does — 
 God giveth the increase. Patience, Sabbath-school 
 teacher, plant and water. 
 
AND JOYFUL REAPING. 175 
 
 And if this be so, then we remark, further, that 
 present success in this work is no criterion of fidel- 
 ity or of God's favor. 
 
 What if a man sits down in his field, discouraged 
 because he does not see the seed spring up at once. 
 Many will give up the work, if they have not the 
 immediate returns. But the husbandman waiteth 
 for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long 
 patience for it, until he receive the early and the 
 latter rain. God's times are not ours, nor are his 
 ways ours. And can we not afford to wait when 
 the promise is absolute, as in the text ? Yea, the 
 farmer may sow the best seed and may wait in 
 vain for the crop. Nature has not supplied all 
 the conditions of fertility and production. And 
 hence he goes, mourning the barrenness and loss. 
 But here, in Christ's service, no Christian labor 
 shall ever lose its reward. It is only a question 
 of time. The faithful sower shall, doubtless — 
 doubtless — come again with rejoicing, with his 
 arms and bosom full of the sheaves. 
 
 There is a world beyond; and it is a world of 
 wages and fruits and issues and results and recom- 
 penses. If the seed has not yet sprung up, there 
 it is, in the furrow, we may hope. It is sown in 
 the bosom, and it is incorruptible seed. And if 
 it be longer a-coming, it may be only because it 
 was deeper planted or because of the nature of the 
 soil. The century plant blooms for those who did 
 not plant the seed. Yes ! And so there were those 
 who planted that precious seed in faith, though 
 they knew it should open its gorgeous flower, not 
 
176 TEARFUL SOWING 
 
 for their eyes, but for others — when their heads 
 were laid low in the dust. 
 
 I met a former parishioner in the crowd of 
 Broadway, last week. It had been nearly twenty 
 years since I had seen him. He told me of his 
 children — one dead, another in Europe, another at 
 home. He grasped me by the hand as we parted 
 and he said: "Ah, you will be remembered by 
 your people in Brooklyn, long after your head is 
 in the grave." Ah! that is wages: the like of 
 which one may get every year, more or less, from 
 the old field, while he gathers also from the new. 
 The husbandman hath long patience for the pre- 
 cious fruit of the earth — long patience for it. And 
 why not we for this more precious fruit of heaven, 
 when we are assured that it shall certainly come ? 
 
 And, finally, we see it is not the ministry, alone, 
 but the membership, also, to whom this sowing 
 belongs. 
 
 They who have the seed are to scatter it. There 
 is no monopoly of production. You may all be 
 cultivators of this gracious crop. No matter what 
 discouragement or what delay or doubt or opposi- 
 tion of men or hindrances of the world or of the 
 devil — no matter though Satan plant tares over 
 night among the wheat, which you have carefully 
 sown and watered with your tears. It is God's to 
 give the increase, even where Paul plants and 
 Apollos waters. And therefore, every one who 
 can cast a seed out into the field, is invited to 
 this work. Here is the call for truth, in every 
 form of dissemination, to be written, spoken, said, 
 
AND JOYFUL REAPING, 177 
 
 or sung — at home or by the way — to men and to 
 children — in the church and the Sabbath-school 
 and the counting-room — at the table and in the 
 social circle — by the formal teaching or the inci- 
 dental remark — by the sober counsel or the tender 
 rebuke or the word of invitation or admonition. 
 Speak I I pray you, my brother ; whatever of God's 
 truth you have at hand that the occasion calls for 
 — that you have the opportunity to dispense — 
 speak out ! for that truth has life in it — spirit and 
 life — and it can not be utterly tramped out of the 
 bosom. The fowl of the air may pick it up from 
 the way-side, but may drop it elsewhere — may 
 even drop it into a fresh furrow. And it will 
 grow, ages after it has passed from your hand. 
 Just as the seed deposited in the mummy's coffin 
 is found, after long ages, yet instinct with life and 
 incorruptible. 
 
 Oh! ye who are out in the field of life daily, 
 amidst the open furrows, where some sowing is 
 all the while going on, and you are busily sowing 
 some seed, whether you know it or not, whether 
 you will it or not, sow this good seed of the king- 
 dom, I beseech you, wherever you can. Employ 
 your talents for Christ. Use your opportunities 
 for Christ. Undertake work for Christ. It is no 
 time for shrinking and shirking the work of the 
 Master. Have you not served Satan faithfully and 
 the world and self; and will you beg off from toil 
 and denial in Christ's service ? Only think of the 
 sheaves which you may bring home, at the great 
 harvesting of the world! Even though you are 
 
178 TEARFUL SOWING 
 
 obscure and without influential position in society, 
 remember, God asks for the sowing and he will 
 give the increase, whether it be your sowing or 
 Paul's or Gabriel's or a child's or an idiot's. 
 
 "I say to thee, do thou repeat 
 To the first man thou mayst meet, 
 In lane, highway or open street, 
 That he and we and all men move 
 Under a canopy of love, 
 As broad as the blue sky above." 
 
 And then let no one say that this is work which 
 is too hard. 
 
 "A grain of corn an infant's hand 
 May plant upon an inch of land, 
 Whence twenty stalks may spring and yield 
 Enough to stock a little field. 
 The harvest of that field might then 
 Be multiplied to ten times ten, 
 Which sown, thrice more, would furnish bread 
 Wherewith an army might be fed." 
 
 And herein is the strong attraction of this blessed 
 work. Who can trace out its interminable issues ? 
 Who can tell the history of one of these seeds ! It 
 is the infinite development that gives it a charm. 
 It can never die out — can never utterly fail — can 
 never cease to grow and multiply its happy results, 
 forever and ever. It is not measured, in its blessed 
 product, by the strength of the muscle that sows it, 
 nor by the power of the intellect, nor by the age or 
 size of the sower, nor by the experience in the sow- 
 ing. You can do it daily, hourly, and not tire. 
 All the conditions and influences requisite for the 
 
AND JOYFUL REAPING. 179 
 
 hundred-fold product are with God. And the ab- 
 solute promise is ours. All that is asked is the 
 earnest act, such as will express itself often, in the 
 tear-drop of anxiety that goes along with the seed 
 into the ground; and then, be sure, all your labor 
 shall be more than recompensed with the rich har- 
 vesting — and all the weeping shall be more than 
 repaid by the reaping. 
 
 And, , my brethren, work while the day lasts ! 
 The time is short. Jesus wept at the grave of 
 Lazarus, perhaps because that faithful disciple 
 was lost to the town of Bethany — because his 
 labors of Christian love in that dear household 
 and in that whole community were ended — be- 
 cause one of his few faithful followers had gone to 
 the grave and the narrow house had closed upon 
 all his influence in that day of weakness and dark- 
 ness. Think how every day shortens your oppor- 
 tunities ! If you want the golden sheaves in your 
 arms and bosom, you must sow the good seed. 
 You shall reap what you sow. 
 
 "And beyond the sowing and the reaping, 
 Beyond the sighing and the weeping, 
 _ We shall be soon." 
 
XL 
 
 CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 
 
 "He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in 
 much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much." — 
 Luke xvi. 10. 
 
 This life is properly called probationary. Though 
 there is a sense in which all the race had their trial 
 in their Head and Kepresentative, there is another 
 and important sense in which each man is put on 
 trial for himself all through life. It is so by the 
 very necessity of things. 
 
 In human relations it is universally recognized. 
 Every man stands at his post on trial for higher 
 and more responsible positions which he may oc- 
 cupy, if he be found faithful in this. The whole 
 course of human responsibility is subject to this 
 law. The boy who is true to the claims of boy- 
 hood — who is faithful in the household and faithful 
 in the school — is the boy to be advanced to all the 
 graver trusts of manhood. And so the good son is 
 the one to be a good husband and a good father — 
 and a good householder and a good citizen and a 
 good Christian. While the converse is held to be 
 equally true — that the bad boy comes to be fit for 
 no worthy and honorable post in society. And so 
 
CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 181 
 
 the merchant's clerk is put upon his trial; as he 
 conducts himself equal to his task — faithful in his 
 sphere — so he is a candidate for the advanced po- 
 sitions of business, proves himself fit to take the 
 headship and to become a master in his calling. 
 
 And so every calling is, by the divine constitu- 
 tion, probationary. The man is subjected to tests 
 such as belong to his sphere of action, according 
 to which he is adjudged faithful or not. And he 
 is everywhere and every hour the candidate for 
 promotion or disgrace. Fidelity must elevate him, 
 unfaithfulness must degrade and sink him. 
 
 And this is so, by a necessary constitution, be- 
 cause, it is everywhere recognized that principles 
 must decide men's character. For, in the long 
 run, principles control men's conduct — good prin- 
 ciples or bad — and the aim of all practical tests in 
 society is just to find out by what principles a 
 man's living is swayed, and according to what 
 rules he lives and acts. 
 
 It is by a system of patient inductions that 
 you arrive at the law of a man's conduct. He 
 is watched on every side. Men measure him and 
 weigh him ; they take his aims and bearings ; they 
 study his actions in ever varying circumstances; 
 and so, at length, they come to their opinion of 
 him — believing all the while that his actions are 
 moulded by a certain law, and that, in these daily 
 particulars, his whole self is acted out. 
 
 The text gives us the formula of divine inspira- 
 tion to this same effect. 
 
 The parable of the unjust steward is a parable 
 
182 CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 
 
 spoken for thousands of cases in every age of the 
 world. How a man, in a most responsible posi- 
 tion, may utterly betray his trust and make awful 
 shipwreck of the confidence reposed in him ; how, 
 under some special pressure of temptation or trial, 
 he may act himself out and develop hidden iniqui- 
 ties which show his unfitness for any responsible 
 station — this is the picture that has a thousand 
 forms of illustration and, like the kaleidoscope, with 
 the same elements, turns up in every varying as- 
 pect of human demoralization. 
 
 The parable is, that this man was accused to 
 his master of wasting his goods. It is not alleged 
 that he had actually done it — only that he was ac- 
 cused of having done it. The parable will show 
 us how he will demean himself under the accusa- 
 tion. You may be sure he will show himself the 
 guilty man that he is, by following his thieving 
 instincts and even propagating his fraud by mak- 
 ing his lord's debtors accomplices with himself in 
 the roguery. The man who could waste his mas- 
 ter's goods was the man who could so unscrupu- 
 lously go on to sacrifice his master's claims, so as 
 to promote his own selfish interests. And hence 
 the great Teacher, in the spirit of the profoundest 
 philosophy, states it as in the text — "He that is 
 is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in 
 much, and he that is unjust in the least is unjust 
 also in much." 
 
 Principle, my hearers — principle— this is the de- 
 mand of society, and it is the demand of Christ. 
 The advertisement in politics, in business, in the 
 
CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 183 
 
 household, in the church, is for men of principle — 
 high, uniform, steady, consistent principle. 
 
 There are men who are said to be men of no 
 principle — who are driven by every wind, who 
 are in no sense reliable, who can not be depended 
 upon for any firm, unflinching adherence to truth 
 and rectitude in all circumstances, and whatever 
 be the temptation or opposition they may meet — 
 men of straw — the mere chaff of society — drifting 
 with the breeze, the light and empty stuff, the 
 mere refuse and stubble, the dead wood of the 
 vineyard, that is fit only to be under foot and 
 to be burned — men of present impulse, who go 
 according to the wind and wave of the hour, who 
 are not serious enough in their living to have 
 adopted any fixed laws for the regulation of their 
 conduct, who have an easy way with their con- 
 sciences, and who can do any thing that they 
 may find a present, pressing motive for doing; 
 who will be unfaithful whenever they think they 
 can be so with advantage and with impunity; 
 men who find their justification with themselves 
 in the fact that others do likewise, and that it is, 
 in a sort, necessary to be unprincipled if one would 
 do business or would make money. 
 
 Such men may be said to have principle, but 
 their principle is a low, selfish interest. They may 
 be said to have even fixed principles of dishonesty 
 and iniquity. They have deliberately adopted for 
 their living principles of falsity and corruption, 
 of lying and overreaching in trade, and of debase- 
 ment in morals. Moral principle of such soft text- 
 
184 CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 
 
 Tire is easily eaten out by slow degrees — -just as 
 I have seen in oriental houses, where the worm 
 stealthily perforates the soft wood of the rafters 
 and so completely riddles it, that the fabric comes 
 tumbling down over your head. And therefore, 
 the cedar of Lebanon was so valuable for the tim- 
 bers of the temple because the worms would not 
 infest that highly aromatic wood. 
 
 Give me a true Christian, whose morals are based 
 upon Christ and Christianity, and I know he is of 
 the right stuff. The men who are the rafters in 
 our social and political structures ought to be 
 the cedar-of-Lebanon men, of such timber as God's 
 Temple is built of, which the worms of corruption 
 can not perforate, with an aroma such as worms 
 can not bear. 
 
 And the text asserts the law of men's devel- 
 opment. 
 
 This life is a life of principles, where the small- 
 est particulars disclose the law of operation. We 
 speak in nature of a principle of gravitation. And 
 we know that it shows itself in the tiniest atoms 
 as well as in the massive worlds. It was, perhaps, 
 the falling of an apple from a tree that led the 
 great philosopher to the discovery of the law by 
 which the vast systems of the starry universe are 
 held in their courses. It was the flying of a kite 
 which unveiled to another philosopher the princi- 
 ple of electricity. And I have seen, in the great 
 cathedral at Pisa, where Galileo, by the swinging 
 of the chandelier from the high vaulted roof, dis- 
 covered the principle of the earth's rotation. And 
 
CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 185 
 
 it is just because a great law in nature must take 
 hold of minutest particulars and so must prove 
 itself to be a law, that the smallest items have 
 served for the discovery of grandest principles in 
 the material universe. 
 
 And so it is uttered here of men, by the Great 
 Searcher of hearts, that you may discover their 
 principles of action by the merest minutiae of life 
 — "He that is faithful in that which is least is 
 faithful also in much, and he that is unjust in 
 the least, is unjust also in much." That departure 
 from duty is the leak in the ship's side that makes 
 the wreck — it is the breaking of the link in the 
 golden chain that binds the soul to truth and, honor 
 and to God. The eye of the needle is broken, the 
 blade of the knife — therefore it is that offending 
 in one point is guiltiness of all. 
 
 Apply this law to our higher relations and see 
 in the first place how, if one have religious principle 
 it ivill take hold of smallest particulars. 
 
 How few can appreciate the Gospel precept that 
 makes our religion take hold of our eating and 
 drinking and of whatsoever we do, as all to be 
 done to the glory of God! God has not so writ- 
 ten his law as to have a precept for every item of 
 a man's living. The Decalogue has comprised all 
 the commandments in ten. The whole moral code 
 for every possible relation and condition of life is 
 written on two tables, and in half a score of com- 
 mands. And these all are further reduced to two 
 great commandments and these two to one — and 
 this one to one word — and this one ivord to one syl- 
 
186 CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 
 
 lable and that one syllable is Love! And in this 
 sense, as God is a unit, so God has but one prin- 
 ciple of all his conduct. And men are to have the 
 same unity, and to be swayed by the same fixed, 
 undeviating law which shall comprehend and con- 
 trol all their actions. 
 
 Take the philosophical idea of God and according 
 to this, he is simply the Great First Cause and Last 
 End of all things — the cold and cheerless origina- 
 tor of all material things, the prime and ultimate 
 idea that is necessary to a beginning of all created 
 objects, far back of all the starry universe, before 
 all systems of worlds. And that is merely a for- 
 mal principle of creatorship, to solve the mystery 
 of nature and to answer to the questionings of 
 reason, as to the origin and genesis of all things. 
 But there is no light here upon personal and moral 
 relations. 
 
 Take the theological idea of God and it is "God 
 as a Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in 
 his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, good- 
 ness and truth." And nothing less could make out 
 his description ; and these are his attributes which 
 go to define his glorious essence and to describe 
 his unsearchable being, as we speak of him and 
 set him forth to one another, so that no point of 
 his relations shall be left out. But when the Gos- 
 pel presents God in his practical relations to us, as 
 he is revealed in grace for our salvation, it is just 
 one word that expresses it all, because it is just one 
 principle that operates in all the details of his re- 
 deeming works and ways — and that word is love. 
 
CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 187 
 
 And so it is the same word which expresses the 
 whole commandment for men, because, this one 
 high principle must operate in all the details of 
 Christian living and must take hold of all the 
 minutiae of life. 
 
 Just as in the material world, if you could sur- 
 vey at a glance all the forces in operation every- 
 where — whether animal or mechanical or physical 
 — all are traceable to the power emanating from 
 the sun. The force of the muscle that wields the 
 hammer or that moves the pen, and the force of 
 the steam that drives the locomotive or the ocean 
 vessel, and the force of the avalanche that tears 
 the mountain sides — all forces from the volcano 
 and the cataract and the tornado down to all the 
 minor industries, in all the work and walk of life, 
 they have all but one source of all their power 
 and that is the sun! And so it is this sun-force 
 in morals, which we call love, that accounts for 
 all true Christian living. In other aspects, as not 
 merely an attribute but a trait of character, and a 
 working power in the moral world, you may call 
 it fidelity. And this is the word in the text for 
 meeting God's high demand — a faithfulness that 
 springs from Christian faith and operates in all 
 the domain of human conduct. 
 
 Take now this Christian faithfulness. I say that 
 true faithfulness must have its ground and essence 
 in the Christian faith. Any principle of any lower 
 origin must resolve itself into some of the world's 
 poor maxims as that " Honesty is the best policy" 
 — that is, that a man must be honest if, on the 
 
188 CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 
 
 long run, he would succeed in life, and that this 
 proverb is the finding of human observation and 
 experience — the verdict of soundest worldly philos- 
 ophy—that one had better practice honesty than 
 not, out of mere policy, and for his own selfish 
 interest — for his standing in the community, for 
 his peace of mind, for his success in life, and for 
 his comfort in death. But this is not faithfulness, 
 in the higher sense. One may be unfaithful with- 
 out being pronounced dishonest, as the world goes, 
 and so he may be honest — no thief, no defaulter — 
 yet without being faithful. But when you come to 
 a fidelity which is actuated by a strong Christian 
 faith which credits these Scriptures in all their ful- 
 ness, embraces these Christian promises, entertains 
 these Christian hopes, takes firm hold of eternal 
 realities, as here revealed, communes with God, 
 takes counsel of Jesus Christ, and is under habitual 
 influence of the powers of the world to come — that 
 is a Christian fidelity which reaches the highest 
 idea of human faithfulness, and takes hold of all 
 the details of living. That is the high quality that 
 makes a truly faithful man. 
 
 I know that Satan is strong, that his temptations 
 are sharp and severe, that a man may sometimes 
 find himself struck, as by a tornado of his power, 
 or be skilfully lassoed by his arts; I know that he 
 beguiled Eve through his subtlety. But I know 
 that this is the very weighty motive for binding 
 ourselves fast, by Christian principle and habit, 
 and for throwing ourselves into the arms of divine 
 power and grace that alone can overthrow Satan 
 
CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 189 
 
 and his hosts. Show me the man who adopts this 
 Christian method of living, and I know he is trusty 
 in all the relations of life. 
 
 Do you not see that men had rather employ for 
 a confidential clerk, or for any office of trust, one 
 who is professedly and manifestly a Christian ; and 
 when you can say of a man that he has Christian 
 principle, you have in a word passed the highest 
 encomium upon his character and living ? One 
 standard of all his conduct, one single rule of all 
 his life, one single eye to his great aim and object, 
 one thing to do, one cause to serve, one pattern to 
 imitate, and that, the highest, purest possible; one 
 Christ-like career to run, and hence one consistent, 
 unwavering Christian course of duty. This prin- 
 ciple of loyalty to Christ, call it what you will — 
 love, faithfulness — this is Christian principle, and 
 Jesus himself bears on his vesture the name Faith- 
 ful and True. 
 
 Consider now, further, how the littles in life illus- 
 trate principle. 
 
 Two hundred years ago, when Sir Christopher 
 Wren was building Saint Paul's Cathedral in Lon- 
 don, a countryman came to him, seeking employ- 
 ment in wood-carving. The great architect asked 
 him what he had been used to carve. The man 
 confused and trembling answered that he had been 
 used to carve troughs. "Troughs! " said Sir Chris- 
 topher, "then carve me a group of swine, and bring 
 it here this day week." True to the appointment, 
 the man came with his carving and was at once 
 engaged for seven years as wood-carver on that 
 
190 CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 
 
 magnificent edifice. Faithful in littles his faithful- 
 ness in much Avas inferred. If the great law of at- 
 traction did not bind together the minutest atoms, 
 it could not bind together the planets. So, if the 
 law of Christian love and of Christian loyalty does 
 not act in minor particulars, it can not act as a law 
 at all. 
 
 See how Christianity comes every day out of the 
 secret closet and steps forth from those concealed 
 and private acts of communion with God to all 
 the thousand cares and labors of the day. See 
 how personal religion is manifested by the daily 
 tempers in manifold details ; how it shows itself in 
 the tender and gentle offices of home, before it 
 goes out into business; and how along the street 
 it puts forth the hand of charity and. stoops with 
 benefaction to the hut of poverty ; drops a word of 
 Christian counsel to the erring and seeks to re- 
 claim the wanderer by some kindly act, all in a 
 way to show the ruling passion of Christian love. 
 
 When Christ entered on his ministry and began 
 by expounding to men the law- of Sinai, he gave as 
 a wonderful summary of it all, as a precept and 
 rule of living for all, that Golden Rule that has 
 been the admiration of all the world, "As ye would 
 that men should do to you, do ye even so to them 
 likewise, for this is the law and prophets." 
 • But his Gospel reveals a new commandment What 
 is it? Is it to love others as we would have them 
 love us? No! To love others as they love us? 
 No! To love others as we love ourselves? No! 
 To love others as ice love Christ? No! But to 
 
CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 191 
 
 love others as Christ has loyed us. And so it is that 
 faith in Christ takes hold of the precious, gracious 
 fact of his love to us, and so it works out the Chris- 
 tian faithfulness in all the relations, from the least 
 even to the greatest ; and so love to Christ becomes 
 love to one another, and resolves itself into that 
 manifold love which runs through all society. And 
 so it is that, as in the golden candlestick of Zecha- 
 riah, the oil in the bowl at the top and crown of 
 the whole is supplied by the living olive-trees on 
 either hand, and so runs down through all the 
 seven pipes and branches for the living illumina- 
 tion of the world. 
 
 Then consider further, how character acts itself 
 out most naturally and freely in little things. 
 
 No man can be faithless in little and faithful in 
 much. No ! It is just when men are off their 
 guard, unconstrained by their surroundings, that 
 you may see their real selves. What they do 
 apart from special impulse, and only by the ne- 
 cessity of their governing principle, that exhibits 
 them in their true light. Therefore it is that se- 
 cret prayer and private study of God's word are 
 held to be so evidential of Christian sincerity. He 
 that seeth in secret will reward such openly, and 
 the reward shall sit like a crown upon the head, 
 like a halo on the brow. If it be only out of 
 doors, or of Sundays, that a man is religious, you 
 know that there is nothing in all that which may 
 not be explained by a cold, heartless, selfish policy. 
 But when one is found to be habitually set upon 
 religious living, volunteering Christian work, seek- 
 
192 CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 
 
 ing out Christian service; when his thoughts mani- 
 festly take that direction, and casual words dropped 
 in conversation show it, and the constant likings 
 and leanings evince it; and when Christian duty 
 is evidently a matter of taste and not of task; and 
 when an ever-present law of Christian action sways 
 the whole man, on small occasions as well as on 
 great ones, in the social assembly as well as on 
 the Sabbath ; and when on week-days, he is found 
 illustrating, by his walk, the Christian ideal that 
 is set forth in the sanctuary, then you know that 
 he may be relied on as a Christian man. You may 
 count on his hearty support for all that is good — 
 without shirking, without shrinking, without vacil- 
 lation, without that gross and palpable inconsist- 
 ency which makes some men's record a mere yes 
 and no, all the way through life ! 
 
 And then consider, further, that life is made up 
 of the littles. 
 
 As these breaths and pulsations make up the 
 physical life, so our Christian living must be shown 
 in detail, if at all. Life is too short to wait for the 
 rare and special tests which might seem, in them- 
 selves, so conclusive. You must put this and that 
 together, and all these minute items prove the 
 principle and law of living. Like the lines and 
 pages of a book, they are the lines and chapters 
 and paragraphs of life — the words and sentences 
 by which we must read a man and which make up 
 his record. 
 
 And then a consistent, steadfast aim, in all tilings, 
 makes the little to become so much. To one who 
 
CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 193 
 
 has no such principled object of living, these items 
 seem trifles. But every fabric of the garments that 
 you wear must be woven with particular threads, 
 and that fabric goes upon you as your clothing or 
 habit And these threads of life become habits by 
 this principle. 
 
 So the weaver, after a pattern with his steady 
 aim in view, brings his threads into their beautiful 
 combination, delicate and expressive, like the Gob- 
 elin tapestry, as if from the pencil of the painter. 
 And so I have seen the oriole, with an eye to the 
 structure of her nest, gathering up the hairs and 
 threads from the rubbish, and skilfully sewing 
 them into the bag that she also suspends from 
 the bough as her domicile for the little ones. 
 
 And then the little becomes much by natural and 
 necessary development. 
 
 The man who is unjust in the least is unjust also 
 in much, because it leads to this, because he is rap- 
 idly advancing to that further stage of progress. 
 The waster becomes the embezzler, and the pil- 
 ferer becomes the robber, and the robber becomes 
 the highwayman, and the highwayman plies his 
 fiendish art till he can even set the trap to throw 
 the midnight train off the rail, with its load of 
 human freight, and then, can cruelly file off from 
 the finger of a dying woman in the wreck the dia- 
 mond ring which was the token of wedded love. 
 
 The sentiment of our Lord in the text, so pro- 
 foundly illustrated by the parable of the unjust 
 steward, is that a lofty Christian principle is what 
 is called for in life as the only safeguard of a man 
 13 
 
194 CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 
 
 in temptation, the only steady, satisfactory, propel- 
 ling power of a man's living, and the pledge of an 
 eternal future. Christ calls for faithful men, loyal 
 to his cause and crown and covenant; at all times 
 faithful, through evil report and through good re- 
 port ; faithful under burdens — bearing crosses, en- 
 during sacrifices — or in the giddy whirl of position 
 and prosperity faithful, and faithful through and 
 through ! 
 
 And he suggests to us all the solemn truth that 
 this life is tentative, experimental and formative, 
 in reference to the life hereafter ; that here, we are 
 daily subjected to testing processes that shall dis- 
 cover what we are, and how we shall be found 
 worthy or unworthy of the higher trusts and of- 
 fices of the heavenly world. And it is only as a 
 man is found possessed of Christian principle, that 
 he can be advanced and promoted to the higher 
 positions beyond, where Christ is head. All this 
 earthly stewardship, all these business operations, 
 all this buying and selling and contracting and 
 executing is only a means of proving men by the 
 lower and secular responsibilities, finding out their 
 true character and their real principles, and decid- 
 ing whether they shall be entrusted with the riches 
 of that higher sphere. And this is the question, as 
 Christ powerfully puts it, "If ye have not been 
 faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who shall 
 commit to your trust the true riches?" If here, on 
 trial as stewards of that which is sordid and per- 
 ishing, you have utterly failed, have wasted God's 
 goods, or have returned no proper account to God, 
 
CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 195 
 
 then how could you expect a position of trust in 
 that upper court and kingdom? "And if ye have 
 not been faithful in that which is another man's, 
 who shall give you that which is your own." If 
 not faithful as stewards, how shall you be made 
 lords of the household? If not faithful as agents, 
 who shall make you principals? If, with these 
 small sums committed to your charge, you have 
 wasted the Master's goods and for purposes of self- 
 emolument have made unfair alliances and com- 
 binations and unjust returns; if you betray an 
 utter lack of Christian principle in your use of the 
 worldly means entrusted to you, who shall commit 
 to your trust the true riches, the immense estates 
 and ample treasures of the heavenly world? If 
 you are faithful only as between man and man, 
 and not as between man and God, that is being 
 faithful to the employees and not to the employer. 
 This is a life of germs and rudiments. This train- 
 ing is elementary. We are here at school. Every 
 day's lessons are given us in the culture of the soul 
 for the cultus or worship of eternity. The little, 
 even here, advances to much. The juvenile piety 
 soon becomes manly, stalwart, heroic, and passes 
 on to glory for nobler deeds and honors. We are 
 here learning the alphabet and spelling out the 
 syllables of that language which we are to speak, 
 and in which we are to read God's works and ways 
 forever. Every man is training in that dialect in 
 which he shall hold converse in all eternity. The 
 street we travel here up to the edge of the river is 
 continued on the other side the same street, and 
 
196 CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE. 
 
 is called there by the same name forever and for- 
 ever. As we travel here so shall we journey there 
 to all eternity. 
 
 It is fit that temptations should come upon us in 
 this life; it is fit that they should assail us with 
 tremendous power; and in the midst of their hot- 
 test, most fiery darts, there is but one safe, infal- 
 lible recourse, and that is indicated in the prayer 
 put into our mouths by the Master himself — " Lead 
 us not into temptation," but lead us out of it — " de- 
 liver us from the evil." 
 
 My hearers, the great investigation is coming on, 
 and for each of us. And who, then, is that faith- 
 ful and wise steward whom his lord shall make 
 ruler over all that he hath? Oh! is there no wor- 
 thy ambition for the dignities and preferments and 
 emoluments of the eternal world ? Every thought 
 and action passes into the account for that great 
 day. Amidst the terrors and glories of the judg- 
 ment-seat, who can imagine the joy of the man to 
 whom the Judge shall say — " Because thou hast 
 been faithful in a very little, en a very little, have 
 thou authority over ten cities ! " 
 
XII. 
 
 UNIVERSAL THANKFULNESS. 
 
 "In every thing give thanks; for this is the will of God in 
 Christ Jesus concerning you." — I Thess. v. 18. 
 
 The religion of Christ proposes to inspire men 
 with a sentiment of liveliest gratitude, that so it 
 may incite them to a life of loftiest praise. It 
 makes it our first and highest duty to be thank- 
 ful, and thus it provides directly for our highest 
 happiness. It sets before us the most abounding 
 incentives to thanksgiving. And who does not 
 know that praise is pleasant and comely — that the 
 spirit of praise is the spirit of joyfulness ? 
 
 This universal thanksgiving is the will of God 
 in Christ Jesus concerning us — a secret found out 
 by few. The will of God seems to most to be 
 harsh and repulsive — only a severe decree or an 
 inexorable demand for an obedience which is un- 
 natural and irksome ; only a rigorous exaction of 
 duty under the threatening of a swift -coming 
 judgment. 
 
 But properly understood, the will of God is not 
 simply law, but Gospel also. It is indeed the rev- 
 elation of law in order to the appreciation of the 
 Gospel. It is not simply the absolute will of God 
 
198 UNIVERSAL THANKFULNESS. 
 
 which, is revealed — it is good-will to men. It is 
 the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning us; 
 and that will is, that we shall exercise an habitual 
 thankfulness, that Ave shall live under the constant 
 inspiration of gratitude, that our lives shall be one 
 anthem of praise, that every relation in which God 
 stands to us and in which we stand to God shall 
 provoke our thanks, and that by every new com- 
 mandment we shall be put under new obligation 
 of thanksgiving. This is what the religion of 
 Christ contemplates for us. 
 
 This appears, first, from the light in which God 
 is presented to us as the Author of our being. 
 
 A personal God and not any dumb idol of the 
 heathen claims our praise as our Creator — not any 
 impersonal principle of creative energy, not any 
 abstract law of nature, not any mere idea of de- 
 velopment. 
 
 Pity upon the poor sceptic who argues out his 
 own creation from some dumb theory of matter, 
 and tries to find the origin and source of his be- 
 ing in the lower animal tribes; who would attrib- 
 ute the race of mankind to a slow development 
 from the race of fishes and of beasts, instead of a 
 development of God's plan in creation, working 
 up from the lower to the higher. WTiom has he 
 to thank for his existence ? An idea ! A theory ! 
 An abstraction ! A law of nature ! But no God ! 
 The astronomer Lalande declared that he had 
 searched through the heavens with his telescope 
 and had not found God: as though God were a 
 material object, like a star, to be found with a tele- 
 
UNIVERSAL THANKFULNESS. 199 
 
 scope. This is the madness and mockery of the 
 false science, while the true science everywhere 
 finds God in his works. The fool hath said in his 
 heart— " No God." 
 
 Blank materialism and atheism, cheerless and 
 black as midnight, comes into popular favor, just 
 from an impatience of these gracious restraints' 
 which the religion of Christ imposes upon us; just 
 from a hatred of being beholden even to God or 
 of being bound even to thanksgiving, under a 
 sense of personal favor at his hands. 
 
 But this plan of God, to put us upon a life of 
 thanksgiving, appears further, in the fact that our 
 creation is represented as the work of Jesus Christ. 
 Not the absolute idea of Godhead as a great spirit 
 of the Indian, or the abstract Divinity as a su- 
 preme Power in the world of matter, but the sec- 
 ond Person of the Blessed Trinity — this Logos, 
 Theanthropos, God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 We are referred to him who hath redeemed us, . 
 as the Personal Agent in giving us being. And 
 then it is our glory, not so much that we were not 
 made brutes, as that our Maker is allied to us in 
 our humanity — allied to us even in nature, as him- 
 self the model after which we were formed; and 
 then coming himself to be formed in our human 
 image. And here we find that there was, from all 
 eternity, an ideal of manhood in the Godhead, after 
 whose image man was made. The Godhead aim- 
 ing to express itself in manhood and man, in his 
 creation, thus made to foreshadow and herald forth 
 the God-man ! 
 
200 UNIVERSAL THANKFULNESS. 
 
 And then even more than this, we get the idea 
 of God's Fatherhood, not from his absolute Creator- 
 ship so much as from the Sonship of him by whom 
 we are created — in whose image we are made and 
 through whose Sonship we are made sons. And 
 so our existence is announced as having come to 
 us from the very same hands which were pierced 
 for our redemption by the nails of the cross. Oh 
 what a cheering revelation is this, that he hath 
 created all things by Jesus Christ! Then our orig- 
 inal creation from the dust is associated closely 
 with the incarnation at Bethlehem and with this 
 new creation in which we are recreated in Christ 
 Jesus unto good works. And so every pulsation 
 of our heart is commissioned to speak his praise as 
 the Author of our being, and of our redeemed and 
 glorified being, here and hereafter. 
 
 And this principle is still further apparent from 
 the plan of God in providence and grace, always 
 to put us under Gospel obligations. 
 
 This is indeed the meaning of those sacred, gra- 
 cious ties by which we are held fast to God in 
 Christ. They are Christian obligations — bonds of 
 gratitude — all having their basis in the work of 
 Jesus Christ, accomplished for us in a suffering 
 life and a shameful death and a glorious resurrec- 
 tion. And though the natural heart chafes under 
 these Gospel commandments, as a restraint to car- 
 nal appetites, they are simply calls to grateful re- 
 membrance of Jesus. There is no providential fa- 
 vor we receive, not even our breath nor our daily 
 bread, but we are taught to accept it as from the 
 
UNIVERSAL THANKFULNESS. 201 
 
 very hand of our covenant Lord and Saviour — the 
 God-man. And so there is no single duty which 
 we are commanded to discharge under the Gospel, 
 but is enjoined upon us in the very same strain as 
 his dying command to sit around his table. This 
 do, and this, and this, in remembrance of me ! 
 
 Properly understood then, every duty is to be 
 entered upon and performed in the spirit of grate- 
 ful song and in thankful remembrance of his death 
 for us. We are bidden to go out to our day's toil 
 and even to the day's burdens and hardships, sing- 
 ing! For these daily obligations are only the gold- 
 en cords by which he would bind us fast and faster 
 to himself. 
 
 Enclosed within them all is the historic thread 
 of his sorrow and self-sacrifice for us, calling for 
 some poor requital. And Christian duty is meant 
 to be the sacrifice of praise to God, continually, 
 w^here, instead of smoking lambs or wreathing in- 
 cense, is the volume of hearty thanks to God, 
 which these only symbolized — expressed, not only 
 in words, but in works. 
 
 We have come to use the word " sacrifice" as 
 synonymous with hardship and loss. But this is 
 only a confession of our reluctance in God's service. 
 
 It is the sacrifice of praise. Hence it is that the 
 whole commandment is fulfilled by love. It could 
 not be expressed by any specific deed or catalogue 
 of deeds ; but it is expressed by one glowing affec- 
 tion of the soul — all inclusive — comprehending all 
 that is to be felt and all that is to be done, where 
 the love finds manifold expression in action. It 
 
202 UNIVERSAL THANKFULNESS. 
 
 is the well-spring of a voluntary and cordial obedi- 
 ence. And so it is love always answering to love. 
 Even the ten commandments of Sinai are answered 
 to by love. For love is personal and binds us to 
 the object, which is God himself, and leads to 
 manifold utterances in the lips and in the life. 
 No other gods to acknowledge, no idols to wor- 
 ship, no profanation of God's name to indulge, 
 and the tender and devout remembrance of him 
 culminating in his own day. These are only ex- 
 pressions of love. And so Ave may conceive of 
 God, in all his laws, as only putting us upon the 
 platform of praise and only binding us to love 
 himself, as he is revealed in his law — to thank 
 and bless his name in all our living, and all the 
 while putting a new song into our mouths, even 
 praise to our God. 
 
 And this same idea is further apparent if we 
 consider what he plans for us in the new nature. 
 
 When he transforms us, when he works with- 
 in us a new heart and new spirit, it is mostly a 
 heartiness of thankful service and a spirit and 
 temper of thanksgiving in all our lives, to which 
 we are introduced. The new eye to see is an 
 eye for the beautiful in God's character, word and 
 works — beholding loveliness in it all, and ground 
 for gratulation in it all, and call for praise in it 
 all. And the Christian spirit is therefore, mainly, 
 a spirit of thankfulness which is, first of all, a con- 
 fession of dependence and, next, an expression of 
 loving obedience. The exercises of the new na- 
 ture are, therefore, the happy responses of the 
 
UNIVERSAL THANKFULNESS. 203 
 
 heart to Christ, the glad and grateful recognition 
 of his claims, the cheerful admiration of Jesus in 
 the Scriptures and in nature and in all that he is 
 and does, the jubilant testimonies to his faithful- 
 ness, the loving expressions of gratitude to him in 
 all the life. 
 
 And still further, this plan and principle of the 
 religion of Christ, to inspire us with thanksgiving, 
 must be apparent from the provision made for us 
 by Christ's finished work. 
 
 That heritage of joy hereafter is everywhere de- 
 picted for us in the Scriptures as a stimulant to 
 every blissful expectation. The bounding heart, 
 under its deepest sorrows or cares, is bidden to 
 rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by 
 whom we have now received the atonement. And 
 we are animated by a joy unspeakable and full of 
 glory, receiving the end of our faith, even the 
 salvation of our souls. Through all the darkness 
 and midnight of the world's troubles, this ineffable 
 glory from the other side beams upon us — where 
 all is joy and all is peace — where there is no voice 
 but that of song, because there is no sentiment but 
 that of thankfulness and no aim but that of a 
 loving devotion for all eternity. Out of the depths 
 of poverty, on the hardest cot of straw, and suf- 
 fering the agony of disease on the brink of disso- 
 lution, the poor believer is " begotten again unto 
 a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ 
 from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and 
 undefiled." 
 
 There, in that blest estate, the occupation is 
 
204 UNIVERSAL THANKFULNESS. 
 
 praise, the duty is praise, and the law of the so- 
 ciety is praise, and the atmosphere of the place is 
 praise — songs of everlasting joy are on the heads 
 of the ransomed throng. And the highest concep- 
 tion of heaven, as a state of blessedness, is this: 
 that it is an estate of happy fellowship with God 
 and happy, grateful devotion to God forever. 
 
 And God's aim for each of us in Christ Jesus — 
 his thought of love for us in Christ is, that we 
 shall be happy in him in the giving of thanks to 
 him, so that he shall receive our ascriptions of 
 praise eternally, making him most blessed in the 
 blessings we ascribe'to him, for blessings bestowed 
 upon us. And there, in the retrospect of our earth- 
 ly career, we shall forever praise him for all the 
 way in which he has led us to glory. 
 
 But there is a second point in the text and 
 equally involved in this religion of Christ. It is 
 that in every thing we are to give thanks ; for this 
 thing that occurs to us in providence, whatever 
 it be, is the will of God in Christ Jesus concern- 
 ing us. 
 
 It is easy to glory in prosperity; but it is no 
 easy thing to glory in tribulation and to glory in 
 it just for being able to see through it to the glory 
 which it works out. It is not easy for us to believe 
 that God has constant thoughts respecting us — 
 has even a plan for each of us — a perfect plan for 
 us to follow out, if we will ; a plan comprising all 
 our lot in life. But it is even so. 
 
 He said to Cyrus, when he commissioned him as 
 the deliverer of his-people from Babylon: "I have 
 
UNIVERSAL THANKFULNESS. 205 
 
 girded thee, though thou hast not known me." 
 He meant, that all the steps by which that great 
 leader of his people out of captivity had been him- 
 self led by God, were just in order to that result, 
 so glorious and triumphant, though the man was 
 most unconscious of it all. 
 
 Who doubts that Jesus traversed the other side 
 of Jordan and came to Jericho with an eye to heal 
 the blind men there, and to convert Zaccheus the 
 publican there ? Who doubts that, just as the sun 
 courses along his path in the sky, to lighten differ- 
 ent hemispheres and to gladden different homes 
 and even to pour his soft beams upon the cottage, 
 the most humble garden plot, and to warm and 
 bless the tiniest wild flower of the prairie, so Jesus 
 trod the borders of Tyre and Sidon to seek out that 
 Syrophenician woman, and came thirsting, at noon- 
 time, to the well of Jacob, to meet that very woman 
 of Samaria there? Who doubts that God's great 
 mind teems with thoughts about you and me — 
 with his plans for you and me — and that his plan 
 of grace is comprehensive of all our cases and cir- 
 cumstances ? Oh ! if God could make any mis- 
 take; if he could ever forget, or fail, or falter; if 
 any person or item in his domain of creatures 
 could escape his notice or elude his control; if he 
 did not literally preserve and govern all his crea- 
 tures and all their actions ; if it were not literally 
 true that every hair of our head is numbered, that 
 a sparrow does not fall to the ground by the stone 
 or arrow of the heedless boy without our Father, 
 then how would our ground of confidence and con- 
 
206 UNIVERSAL THANKFULNESS. 
 
 solation be utterly swept away from us, amidst all 
 this turmoil of life ? 
 
 But observe, first, the whole scheme of providence 
 is redemptive. 
 
 The history of the world is the history of re- 
 demption. The history of providence, as it em- 
 braces all individuals and nations from the begin- 
 ning, is the history of God's redeeming plan. And 
 providence, in all its amazing scheme and struct- 
 ure, has just one grand idea — one focus for all its 
 scattered beams, one nucleus around which all its 
 events beautifully crystallize — and that is God's 
 idea of redemption by Christ Jesus. If this be 
 so, then no event, whether public or private, so- 
 cial or personal, but is more or less directly or 
 remotely within this broad circumference. Prov- 
 idence, in all its dealings with you and me, is 
 redemptive. 
 
 Your own experience has possibly taught you 
 to say of this or that dark event in your history 
 — "It is best" — on the bare principle that what- 
 ever befalls us will somehow eventuate well; or 
 out of a determination to keep up heart, and take 
 things as they come in a stoical indifference; or 
 even out of a disposition to hope at least for some 
 good result which may possibly come out of the 
 darkness. But here is an enlightened, intelligent 
 and, above all, grateful view to be taken of every 
 affliction, great or small, that this particular thing, 
 hard as it is to bear, is the will of God in Christ 
 Jesus concerning you. 
 
 First, that it is willed by God. No accident, 
 
UNIVERSAL THANKFULNESS. 207 
 
 no irresponsible fate, no mere craft or malice of 
 man, no uncontrolled spite of Satan, but God's par- 
 ticular intent. 
 
 And second, that it is liis intent in Christ Jesus, 
 comprised within his plan of grace — not there- 
 fore any severity, not in mere judgment, but as 
 belonging to the scheme of grace and salvation 
 by Christ Jesus. 
 
 And thirdly, that it is his plan concerning you, 
 personally, as a link in the golden chain of your 
 salvation, as a direct and individual provision of 
 grace for your very self. 
 
 Ah! here lies the secret of rejoicing in tribula- 
 tion, of glorying jn infirmities, of taking joyfully 
 the spoiling of one's goods for Christ, and of dis- 
 daining a mere earthly deliverance. It is just from 
 understanding this divine philosophy by which the 
 tribulation works — works patience and experience 
 — until the blessed result is an animated and tri- 
 umphant Christian hope, brightened by contrast 
 with all the deepest darkness. It is just by learn- 
 ing how the personal weakness becomes an occa- 
 sion for the power of Christ to rest upon the 
 soul, and how the spoiling of one's earthly goods 
 and the lack of an earthly deliverance may give 
 sharper relish for the enduring substance beyond. 
 It is just from apprehending the divine policy 
 of advancing our personal salvation by all these 
 means and agencies which, to the sufferer, may 
 seem hard and inscrutable, but which, in God's 
 view, are the most effective methods of working 
 out our redemption. 
 
208 UNIVERSAL THANKFULNESS. 
 
 I have seen the sailor full of glee at the burst- 
 ing of a storm upon his vessel, while the timid 
 passengers shrank away and shrieked in terror. 
 He knew the course of the gale, how it would 
 drive his vessel into port, and how he had only 
 to climb the mast-head, take in his canvas to bear 
 the storm, and trim his craft, so as to outride the 
 gale; knowing that even though it were midnight, 
 and the scene all dreary, and the howling tempest 
 fearful to the inexperienced, he should find him- 
 self, at morning, safely in port, even though he 
 should have lost a spar or had his rigging torn 
 to ribbons by the relentless hurricane. 
 
 You have seen it so ; some of you, like the noble- 
 man at Capernaum, have made your first acquaint- 
 ance with Jesus at the illness of your boy, and you 
 have perhaps already seen that the dear little fel- 
 low was brought to the point of death, that you 
 might be brought to the feet of Jesus. Take that 
 example from your most recent history, that be- 
 reavement in your household; bitter as was the 
 cup, stunning as was the blow, that very event 
 was not merely the divine will in the general, so 
 that it could not have happened had not God 
 willed it — that is philosophy. But more, it was 
 God's great, wise, tender, loving thought in Christ 
 Jesus concerning you — this is Gospel. 
 
 As he cared for you — as he had eternally planned 
 for your salvation, if you will; as he knew your 
 case and your present necessity; as he marked out a 
 course for you in life, by following which, you may 
 be saved, and as he often hedged up that path with 
 
UNIVERSAL THANKFULNESS. 209 
 
 thickets and thorns, to keep you in the way ; as he 
 would not have you lost ; so, and precisely on this 
 account, he ordered that overwhelming sorrow to 
 enter your household. It was in his heart simply 
 to lead you to God, breaking you down at his feet, 
 that he might hear your cry and bless you: chas- 
 tening you, not for his pleasure, but for your profit, 
 that you might be partaker of his holiness. If this 
 'be so, then you could not possibly have done with- 
 out that sorrow. 
 
 Then that lesson was in your education for glory ; 
 and the omission of it might have left you to lose 
 your way in the wilderness and fail of your heav- 
 enly heritage. Then that particular trial, which 
 you called the bitterest cup of your life, was as 
 truly in Christ's programme for your salvation as 
 was the agony of your dying Lord — not occupy- 
 ing any such place, I grant; not meriting any iota, 
 nor achieving any thing which could be achieved, 
 only by his vicarious groans and tears and blood, 
 but belonging to the same scheme as his sacrifice 
 and indispensably bound up with it in the plan for 
 your redemption. 
 
 "Oh!" you say, "if I could only so believe!" 
 But this belief is that to which you are invited, 
 that these trials are God's gracious cords, drawn 
 only tighter ; as when one scales some Alpine sum- 
 mit and feels the rope of his guide almost like the 
 rope of the hangman because that is all that holds 
 him up as he overhangs the abyss; or as when 
 from the wreck of the steamer, one must be drawn 
 through the flood by the rope around him, in order 
 
210 UNIVERSAL THANKFULNESS. 
 
 to be saved. I grant it ; it is no easy thing so to 
 construe every bitterness of life, as only an ingre- 
 dient in God's sacramental cup, but herein is the 
 training for us under the Gospel. If we will re- 
 ceive it, this is the will of God. 
 
 "What," you say, u can there be any bright side 
 to my trial — the ingratitude of children, the treach- 
 ery of bosom friends, the loss of dear ones or the 
 loss of property?" Yes — the upper side, where 
 the sun shines out on the dark clouds all radiant 
 with love. "Oh!" you say, "if I can feel that my 
 trial is the will of God and, especially, that it is 
 the loving will of God in Christ Jesus concerning 
 me, I can accept it and go on under the heaviest 
 load, rejoicing in the Lord alway ! " 
 
 Does any one doubt as he looks now upon the 
 history, that that poor paralytic, who was so help- 
 less as to be carried by four friends like pall-bear- 
 ers to Jesus for a cure, had his paralysis sent upon 
 him, as a means of grace? — -just in order that he 
 might be let down, through the broken verandah, 
 into the presence of the great Healer, and might 
 hear him say, "Thy sins are forgiven thee"? Oh! 
 what an insight do we get into the wondrous com- 
 binations of providence and redemption, when he 
 replies to all the questioning, whether is easier to 
 say, " Thy sins be forgiven thee, or, rise, take up 
 thy bed and walk. But that ye may know that 
 the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive 
 sins, he saith to the sick of the palsy, Rise and 
 walk ! " And so also that ye may know that he 
 hath power on earth to heal the paralytic, he 
 
UNIVERSAL THANKFULNESS. 211 
 
 saith, "Thy sins are forgiven." The providence 
 is redemptive. 
 
 ' And, second, the redemption is providential. 
 
 The path to glory for us sinners lies through 
 this world. The great Kedeemer does not, at once 
 upon our conversion, take us up to heaven; but 
 he makes us set our faces thitherward — makes us 
 aim at it and march towards it, and makes us de- 
 scribe the pathway by our weary, foot-sore prog- 
 ress in a gradual training and unfolding of our 
 new nature for that new estate. Our path lies 
 through the wilderness to Canaan. He can not do 
 the marching for us. We must march ourselves. 
 Every dealing, therefore, comes to us labelled with 
 our personal address and with this inscription: 
 this thing and this, whatever it be, is "the will of 
 God in Christ Jesus concerning you." 
 
 The likeness of Jesus, in which we are to awake, 
 is to be chiselled by sharp instruments, and the 
 features are thus to be delicately wrought out and 
 clearly defined, till they glow with the very linea- 
 ments of Divinity. There seems often, therefore, 
 a severity in the dealing. But it is just because 
 the finish must needs be exquisite that the artist 
 must grave and carve so much and strike so many 
 blows. 
 
 There will often appear to be a strange indiffer- 
 ence to your earthly circumstances in God's deal- 
 ings. But is it not according to truth? Have 
 you not often yourself seen how houses and lands 
 and comforts, such as gold can purchase, aye and 
 even friends, which gold can not buy, are noth- 
 
212 UNIVERSAL THANKFULNESS. 
 
 ing, if the heart be sick — if you have no inward 
 peace ? And therefore is it that God will have his 
 dealing reach your inmost spirit and probe those 
 hidden depths and cure that trouble within. And 
 then you are possessed of the essential elements 
 of happiness and may feel yourself quite superior 
 to the earthly lot. Look at the boy who can be 
 saved from the wreck of that sinking steamer, 
 only by a kind hand thrusting him violently 
 through the narrow port-hole to the outside. 
 
 Besides, there is a training needful for the life 
 beyond; and the living here must therefore be 
 made to take hold upon the life hereafter. And 
 the discipline is requisite, just in proportion as the 
 future work is in the higher department. 
 
 The worker in iron can not set his hand to work 
 in gold; the huge bellows and hammer and anvil 
 are not the implements of the goldsmith. That 
 brawny arm and rough finger and careless eye 
 and sturdy blow are not the qualifications for the 
 fine tracery and gorgeous chasing of the precious 
 metal which is to glisten on the bosom of royalty 
 or on the finger of wealth as a gem of art. Oh 
 no ! That is not the work which graves the very 
 name of the owner and of the donor on the golden 
 gift and makes it a presentation of love. 
 
 And our education here is to be a musical edu- 
 cation. 
 
 It is the aim of God's schooling to instruct us in 
 the service of praise. And this can be done, in 
 some cases, only in a small degree as yet. Some 
 are so complaining, so discordant; they are so in- 
 
UNIVERSAL THANKFULNESS. 213 
 
 genious in detecting flaws in their daily allot- 
 ments, that they seldom take up any anthem 
 upon their lips. But others are full of song; 
 they cheer the most melancholy hours by some 
 hymn of praise, and, at worst, they are only strik- 
 ing a minor key, soothing the painful moments by 
 the plaintive tones. 
 
 "Some murmur when their sky is clear, 
 
 And wholly bright to view, 
 If one small speck of dark appear 
 
 In their great heaven of blue. 
 And some with thankful love are filled 
 
 If but one streak of light, 
 One ray of God's good mercy gild 
 
 The darkness of their night." 
 
 And is not this the secret of a happy life ? No 
 mere chimera, no castles in the air, no gay rou- 
 tine of exhausting excitements and excessive in- 
 dulgences, but a life of joy built upon the most 
 solid foundations of God's Gospel truth. Not only 
 viewing every thing as consistent with God's will, 
 but rejoicing always in God's will, as it is in Christ 
 Jesus concerning us. Try it one day — one hour, 
 to be thankful for every thing on this high prin- 
 ciple — for prosperity, not merely because it is 
 sweet, but because it is God's will concerning you 
 in Christ Jesus ; for adversity, not only because it 
 is the divine will, but because this very thing, 
 whatever it be — disappointment, bereavement — is 
 the divine will in Christ Jesus concerning you. 
 
 I have seen the highest skill in engineering gain 
 the rugged mountain summit by a back track — by 
 
214 UNIVERSAL THANKFULNESS. 
 
 doubling the road upon itself— just because the 
 grade was too steep to be overcome otherwise, 
 and the chasm too deep and fearful to be bridged 
 over. I have seen the same object accomplished 
 by tunnelling the ridges, and laying the track 
 through the dark bowels of the mountain peak; 
 and then, oh, if you are afraid as you enter the 
 tunnel — afraid of the sudden gloom and the fearful 
 noise and the overhanging masses — the clatter of 
 wheels echoed by the rocky walls — if you think 
 you have gone into that dreary midnight passage 
 never to come out, then you may shrink and sink, 
 just for lack of confidence in him who laid the 
 pathway by that dark route, as the very best. But 
 maybe you . have gone through it often enough to 
 feel no shudder, nor shock, but only laying aside 
 your paper, or hushing for a moment your conver- 
 sation, you can sit and sing till the light breaks 
 in at the farther side. 
 
 My brethren take this passage from God's book 
 of joy, wear it as a frontlet between your eyes, 
 grave it upon the palms of your hands, try the 
 sweet experiment of a universal thankfulness — 
 everywhere, everyhovv, and always. 
 
 " Careful for nothing, prayerful for every thing, 
 thankful for anything" — "and the peace of God 
 which passeth all understanding, shall keep your 
 hearts and minds by Christ Jesus." 
 
XIII. 
 
 FEAR AND FAITH. 
 
 "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee."— Psalm lvi. 3. 
 
 The Psalmist, in the text, commits himself be- 
 forehand, for all his seasons of alarm, to a uniform 
 and an unshaken confidence in God. The power 
 of such a principle in the life of any man must 
 needs be amazing. 
 
 If one had a drug for all his pains and fevers and 
 flesh wounds, so that the application of it would 
 always give him ease and work a ready cure, how 
 must it affect his mortal history! 
 
 But beyond these actual afflictions, fears are 
 common to us all. And if these all could be al- 
 layed at once by some sovereign appliance, how 
 blest were the bosom that could carry in itself the 
 wondrous efficacious balm ! How immensely any 
 of our lives must be relieved to wipe out, at once, 
 from our emotions the whole list of alarms tem- 
 poral and spiritual, secret fears, sudden frights 
 and overhanging terrors ! How the past history 
 of any one here must have been quite another 
 thing, if those brooding apprehensions and dreary 
 forebodings that have made up so much of our 
 experience, could have had no place ! 
 
216 FEAR AND FAITH. 
 
 Observe; the Gospel message is not merely "be 
 healed" "be saved" but, "be not a/raid, it is I, fear 
 not." When you consider how "the news of trouble 
 may be borne to you on any breeze, what a stretch 
 of security is that to cover with the promise or 
 to embrace in the description of a believer. " He 
 shall not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is fixed, 
 trusting in the Lord." And when you know some- 
 thing of what it is to have the pestilence stalk 
 abroad through your streets or in your neighbor- 
 hood, smiting the people with panic, to hear the 
 sweet assurance coming to you in such terms as 
 these — "Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by 
 night nor for the arrow that flieth by day, nor for 
 the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the 
 destruction that wasteth at noonday." This is such 
 a balm as the world can not give. 
 
 This language in the text is not that of a mere 
 resolve — the result of some theoretic speculation, 
 or of some temporizing policy, or of some self-suffi- 
 cient impulse. It is the outbreak of devout com- 
 munion with God — fresh in the experience of wliat 
 he is for a trust, and it is a solemn, personal pledge, 
 left with the divine party as the fruit of most sol- 
 emn personal intercourse and understandings. 
 
 It is the testimony of one whose common faith 
 has grown so strong, through ordinary, e very-day 
 exercise as to feel quite prepared for trying sea- 
 sons. It requires one to have trusted in daily 
 matters to rally an adequate trust for sudden and 
 severe occasions. The lone tree that would bide 
 the tempest needs to be rooted and strengthened 
 
FEAR AND FAITH. 217 
 
 under many ordinary winds. It is no solitary act 
 of faith that is requisite. It is the believing spirit. 
 
 Observe, then, why he seizes upon his seasons 
 of fear that are to come again as they have nat- 
 urally come before. It is not the feeling of the 
 coward sinner, who never flies to God but when 
 his fright comes on. It is not the cold and slug- 
 gish plan of a false professor who bespeaks God's 
 attention for such times of terror, and cares not for 
 him beside. It is not the presumptuous confidence 
 of a man who composes himself in the general 
 goodness of God for seasons of adversity. It is 
 the feeling of a ripe believer who has just come 
 out of some sore alarm, and because he has found 
 God a very present help in trouble, has at once 
 built an altar there and called the place by that 
 name and written this inscription, like Abraham's 
 on the mount, " The Lord will provide." 
 
 You know something of what it is to have com- 
 mercial revulsion desolate your business circles, 
 prostrating your most established merchants, strik- 
 ing down your most trusted dependences, drying 
 up your best worldly resources, all of a sudden, it 
 may be — all in one tremendous crash. 
 
 Consider, then, first of all, that this trusting 
 spirit which so braces itself against fear, is well 
 suited to the grounds of our hope. 
 
 We have learned by many an experience to dis- 
 criminate between objects of confidence. Not all 
 persons or things, alike, can win our faith. God 
 has given us himself for our trust — all his re- 
 sources, all his attributes; whom no casualty can 
 
218 FEAR AND FAITH. 
 
 overtake, whom no fortuity can disappoint, whom 
 no power can baffle, whom no demands can ex- 
 haust. Head over all things — Lord of lords, God 
 over all — in whom all things consist : he is our Sa- 
 viour. "Look unto me," he says, "and be ye saved, 
 for I am God and there is none else " — " Trust ye 
 in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is 
 everlasting strength." No wonder that one who so 
 eminently trusted him should so often have made 
 it the chorus of his songs for all ages: " Blessed is 
 the man that trusteth in thee." No wonder that 
 everywhere in troublous times, God's people have 
 sung, in all languages, and have even gone out to 
 the battle with enemies, singing — " God is our ref- 
 uge and strength, a veiy present help in trouble ; 
 therefore will not we fear though the earth be 
 removed." 
 
 But more than this, God has given us a cove- 
 nant ordered in all things and sure. This written 
 pledge for whatever may betide us — so worded as 
 to cover all cases and circumstances, all issues 
 and events — provides for adversities, is ordered in 
 trials, as well as in prosperity. 
 
 Consider, then, in the second place, that the re- 
 lation here observed between fear and trust is that 
 in which vital religion peculiarly appears. For we 
 see how it is an easy matter to entertain a gen- 
 eral trust, apart from any realities of its exercise. 
 It is easy to hold the doctrine of it, apart from any 
 of its operations. A technical, professional faith, 
 that is with many a church member like a mere 
 theory of the heavens which he has given in to but 
 
FEAR AND FAITH. 219 
 
 which concerns him not, is qnite another thing 
 from an active and practical trust. Easy enough 
 is it to trust God in smooth seas, and in bright 
 sunshine, and to profess such trust in the general ; 
 but to put it in practice and have a lively exer- 
 cise of it, when tempests come on and storms howl 
 fearfully around you — this is the substance of which 
 that is the shadow at most. 
 
 This sad mistake of many is the basis of that 
 unnatural separation between a faith for spiritual 
 things and a faith for temporal things. The Chris- 
 tian that trusts God for his soul and can not trust 
 him for the body, shows this egregious absurdity 
 — "Is not the life more than meat and the body 
 than raiment," and the soul than the body? If 
 God will clothe the lily, will he not clothe his 
 people? And if he will clothe their bodies, will 
 he not clothe their souls ? 
 
 Understand, then, a light is for the darkness, 
 whether it be that of a deep dungeon in the day- 
 time, or that of ordinary night. The exercise of 
 trust belongs to whatever time of fear. It is appro- 
 priate for any kind of fear, in any stage of our 
 history, in any department of our affairs. And 
 so, the only genuine trust will take this broad 
 compass of the text and commit itself for any such 
 a juncture, anywhere, in any case — "Trust in the 
 Lord at all times ye people." The times of fear 
 are the very times for trust, when our principle 
 is tested and our religion can display itself where 
 nothing else could serve. 
 
 Observe, then, the importance of this Christian 
 
220 FEAR AND FAITH. 
 
 principle in the text as appears, thirdly, from the 
 tenor of God's dealings with his people wherein he 
 develops their religion. 
 
 It is found to be precisely what our conditions 
 in life most chiefly demand. It is of God's own 
 purpose that we are constantly thrust into those 
 difficult positions where this very peculiar grace 
 is called for. The essence of a godly trust seems 
 to lie in this relation which it bears to fearful cir- 
 cumstances. There is no room for trust where 'a 
 man can see as he goes. It is where he can not see 
 — where the way is hedged up, that he is shut up 
 unto the faith There he is called on to confide in 
 what shall be revealed in the fact, and what has 
 been already revealed in the promise. It is because 
 this is of the very nature of Christian trust that 
 every Christian finds himself so often in just such 
 straits — where he is divested of common reliances 
 and sees other trusts torn one by one away, and 
 sees, too, the floods of his affliction rising fast 
 around him, so that it grows deep and deeper 
 where he stands — then he does so often cry out, 
 at length, as one dealt with and disciplined and 
 dissuaded from any other trust — "Lead me to the 
 Eock that is higher than 7." 
 
 Observe now, the working of this principle in 
 spiritual things. 
 
 It is just where Ave have abundant grounds of 
 fear that we are challenged to seize this surpass- 
 ing confidence. It was just because he was afraid, 
 that the Christian cast himself into such arms of 
 a divine covenant for his soul. Therefore Peter 
 
FEAR AND FAITH. 221 
 
 was allowed to step out into the sea that in his 
 rising fear he might trust. Who comes in at the 
 open gate of this city of refuge but the affrighted 
 sinner who flees from the wrath to come? "Know- 
 ing therefore the terror (fear) of the Lord, we per- 
 suade men." 
 
 We know that no man will ever find occasion 
 or motive to trust until some fears are aroused. 
 They who have indolently taken up this Chris- 
 tian reliance, with scarce an emotion, without a 
 struggle, can not know, as yet, how great is this 
 salvation. They have not grasped their religion 
 strongly or earnestly enough to get the full advan- 
 tage of it. Here, then, the timid Christian, full of 
 fears and pressed down with gloomy apprehensions, 
 may find out his common mistake. It is just be- 
 cause he sees so much to alarm in God's aveng- 
 ing justice, in his own peculiar sins and in his 
 sad unfitness for God's favor and for heaven — it is 
 just because of this, that he is called to trust in 
 him who meets all these grounds of fear by his 
 own amazing provisions ! Let the trembling and 
 alarmed remember that only they who are some- 
 how weary and heavy laden can take rest! Only a 
 wounded spirit can take the balm. 
 
 Such it is that Christ is seeking — those who 
 would seek such an one as Christ. To whomso- 
 ever the Gospel comes as glad tidings, to him it is 
 the Gospel. The poor man stripped and bruised 
 and left helpless by his foes on the road -side 
 may be passed by the Levite and bigot priest 
 and scorned by the crowd because he is in so 
 
222 FEAR AND FAITH. 
 
 grievous a case. But to sucli an one, and for this 
 very reason the good Samaritan turns. He has 
 the oil and wine for his wounds and he has the 
 price for his keeping. Let a man that has fears — 
 fears for his soul, fears of his -unbelief, fears about 
 his acceptance, fears of his insincerity, fears lest 
 he has grieved the Spirit, fears lest he has com- 
 mitted the unpardonable sin, fears lest his stub- 
 born, icy heart may never melt — let him fly indeed 
 and fly from the wrath that is coming, but let him 
 fly to Christ. Here is the rule of Christian living 
 — "What time I am afraid" — afraid that I shall 
 yet come short of heaven, afraid that Satan will 
 yet gain the advantage and in some heedless hour 
 will thrust his fang into my heel or into my heart, 
 afraid that Christ will leave me and the Holy Ghost 
 give me up, afraid that I shall be devoured by sav- 
 age beasts in the dark valley of death — "What 
 time I am afraid, I will trust in thee ! " 
 
 But observe further, the very fear shall suggest 
 the confidence, and the working of this principle 
 in temporal things must be essentially the same as 
 in the spiritual. 
 
 Do we forget that Abraham's faith, for which 
 he had righteousness counted unto him, was the 
 faith of a father respecting his child who was the 
 son of promise, when the heart of the patriarch 
 almost bursting, and his very tears mingling with 
 the sacrifice, yet believed and yet triumphed? Do 
 we forget that the minute, secular history of all 
 the ancient saints is preserved to us on holy rec- 
 ord for its influence upon our daily living ? Do 
 
FEAR AND FAITH. 223 
 
 we forget that even in our temporal career and in 
 each day's course, we are to walk by faith, and not 
 to walk by sight ? The passing views we take of 
 things may be from the appearance, as we may 
 not always think but that the sun walks daily 
 round the earth as would seem. But to make a 
 calculation of the heavens on this hypothesis would 
 involve the grossest mistakes. 
 
 We see, then, the common violation of this Chris- 
 tian principle of the text, amongst the troubles of 
 real life — that amidst their fears Christian men 
 will give themselves up to their own sensations 
 and vain reasonings and virtually set aside this 
 trust! They will demand to see in the dark else 
 they can not believe; but it is just where they can 
 not see that they are required to believe. 
 
 What practical ignorance of this vital princi- 
 ple do we find amongst our real adversities ! Sad 
 enough is it that they who stand in the church as 
 Christians and whose religion, like any other light, 
 should shine brightest in the dark, show often so 
 much fretfulness and tearfulness and despondency, 
 and give so little credit to a covenant God in their 
 times of trouble or alarm ! Behold what efforts are 
 made to fly from providence, to effect an escape 
 from the danger and from the duty that it brings, 
 rather than amidst the danger to trust ! So Jonah 
 flies. Hard is it in the midst of terrors to stand 
 still and see the salvation of God: yet this is the 
 perfection of our confidence. 
 
 Will you trust Christ no further than you can see 
 him ? Must you perceive beforehand and all along 
 
224 FEAR AND FAITH. 
 
 just what he is bringing about and how he will do 
 it? Then you would walk by sight and not by 
 faith. Then you would strip him of his preroga- 
 tive. Oh, it is one thing to go your own way of 
 your own self and quite another thing is it to be led. 
 But the blind man is led — is willing to be led — 
 and though there is discomfort in blindness, yet 
 who would not be blindfolded or blinded rather 
 than go to his own place and in his own way to 
 perdition! "I will bring the blind by a way that 
 they knew not, I will lead them in paths that they 
 have not known, I will make darkness light before 
 them and crooked things straight." This is the 
 prerogative and promise of God. 
 
 But bring the professed believer to the point and 
 the Christian responds to all the claim with the 
 cheerful confession, "I will trust in thee." Let even 
 Jacob be actually famishing with all his house and 
 have Joseph's coat brought home to him in blood, 
 and Benjamin demanded by a severe lord in Egypt, 
 and how naturally he exclaims in his grief and 
 fear — "All these things are against me!" But 
 those things were for him — only he could not see 
 it. He sees or thinks he sees inevitable ruin star- 
 ing him in the face. It is so imminent, so cer- 
 tain ; how vain are human reasoning's ! The quiet 
 he could get from a mere fatalism is only the quiet 
 of despair. Nothing comforts him, but every thing 
 crushes more and more. The case is clearly des- 
 perate. All that he sees is such as to break him 
 down, but God in Christ he does not see. Who 
 can dispute the senses, he says. 
 
FEAR AND FAITH, 225 
 
 So even with Abram the father of the faithful. 
 What can possibly come in now, between the up- 
 lifted knife of Abraham and the slaughter and 
 death of Isaac. " Isaac must now die, and if Isaac 
 dies, I am undone/ 1 A short step to the conclu- 
 sion. Yet, behold even now, only behind him, is 
 the very ram for the burnt-offering, and hovering 
 over him, only silent as yet, is the eternal word 
 of God. Yet how commonly our fears get the 
 mastery. 
 
 The den of lions would seem certain death to 
 Daniel. "It must be so," we would say. "Who 
 ever escaped from it, or from the fiery furnace of 
 Nebuchadnezzar heated seven times?" Yet, give 
 up to such fears and you may die of grief before 
 even the reality comes on — you may sink into the 
 earth, out of mere despair, while all your energy 
 is demanded for your escape. You may induce 
 the disease which you dread by the very panic of 
 mind which you indulge. 
 
 It is vain to say "What time I am not afraid, I 
 will trust in thee." There is no virtue in this if 
 this be all, no reality in it. It is a delusion just 
 because there an active trust has no place. 
 
 And then, too, we are mostly comforting our- 
 selves, that we have no occasion for reliance on 
 God. Many of us have a church faith of this kind 
 — speculative, inactive, ready to deny itself in- 
 stead of to endure self -denial; ready to give way, 
 the moment it is tried in the fire. 
 
 "Are you able to drink of the cup that I drink 
 of, saith Christ himself, and to be baptized with the 
 15 
 
226 FEAR AND FAITH. 
 
 baptism that I am baptized with " — not indeed to 
 plunge from the Temple-top and trust to angels as 
 Satan would have you do, but to go up on your own 
 cross and even die by violence, and trust ? Are you 
 ready to give up your own Isaac and believe that 
 God can even raise him up if he will, to make 
 his promise good. And finally, when things have 
 even turned out most adversely as it would seem, 
 are you able to believe that yet — yet — all can 
 eventuate well and will eventuate in the best man- 
 ner under God? Mary, Martha, can you believe 
 not only that if Christ had been here your brother 
 had not died but even now, at this late hour, with 
 Lazarus four days in the grave, your brother shall 
 rise again and rise now if he gives the word — rise 
 in some other form — in some friend and helper 
 if not in person. Can you trust, my hearer, even 
 while God seems plainly in an attitude to slay you; 
 nay, after he has slain all your earthly hopes ? 
 
 Here is the difficulty. The things which dis- 
 courage you are seen. The things which should 
 encourage you are tcnseen. Your fears seem to 
 you all opposite to these hopes. But the time of 
 fear is the time for trust. In the heat of that 
 very struggle, believe ! Then, when any unbeliever 
 would despair — when, in an inner prison, your feet 
 are fast in the stocks and it is midnight, and the 
 jailor is at the door, and soldiers are chained fast 
 to you on either side — then if you can sing praises 
 unto God, this is trust, worthy a Christian believer. 
 It shall be counted to you for righteousness, be- 
 cause it is such a trust as lays hold on Christ for 
 
FEAR AND FAITH. 227 
 
 the soul's salvation. It is of the same essence as 
 the saving faith. 
 
 To most, the practical absurdity will seem to be 
 that such a trust for such stern realities is like 
 living on an idea! That it is nothing but doc- 
 trine attempting to console a man in the very 
 strife of adversity. But it is not living on faith 
 as you think. It is living by faith and living on 
 Jesus Christ. You say there is nothing to rest on ! 
 Nothing of sense, I know, but what does the globe 
 rest on ? It is hung out by God's power in the air 
 and kept in its accurate orbit by the infinite con- 
 sistencies of that power. It is founded on the 
 seas and established on the flood. In the sea of 
 your fears and your trials, walk on the troubled 
 waters at the bidding of your Lord. 
 
 There is something of this confidence in society, 
 where often you must have an ultimate trust in 
 fellow-men back of all that appears. This is a 
 confidence in character or in power, or both! Is 
 it much to trust God thus far, or on this principle 
 to the very farthest — his character is glorious, his 
 power is infinite. You must trust a fellow-man 
 out of your sight, often farther than you can see 
 him. Your ultimate reliance is on his established 
 and unwavering truth and honesty and ability. 
 Can you not so accredit God, though he be in the 
 heavens, the better for his being so exalted, where 
 you know of his power all around you and in you 
 and dare not doubt his word ? 
 
 Come now, my hearer, to some dreadful trial and 
 see how you can trust. Let your hopes all be dis- 
 
228 FEAR AND FAITH. 
 
 appointed and let every thing look dark and blank 
 as midnight or the grave. Let your earthly re- 
 sources all fail! Your throbbing heart begins to 
 shrink and despair. All these things are against 
 you. Your trust seems but as a feather on the 
 tide amidst this tempestuous and boiling sea. Be- 
 hold, now, at length some monster of the deep is 
 ready to swallow you up ! Can you go into his 
 jaws trusting in God? You ask a sign from 
 heaven? There shall no sign be given you but 
 the sign of Jonas the prophet. 
 
 You have examples, you have the assurances 
 beforehand; the word that Christ hath spoken is 
 your hope. You would not think so far as to con- 
 ceive the wondrous ivay of escape in every case, 
 but let God have his own way and trust thou in 
 him ! He prepared the monster to swallow, with- 
 out devouring. He can prepare agents and results 
 so that the very monster that seemed to have 
 eaten you up shall prove to have only taken you 
 in safe-keeping, to land you in due time on the 
 shore ! A miracle of mercy ! Trust God outside 
 of all that appears — beyond your fears, beyond 
 your severest straits, beyond death and the grave. 
 Hope in him, against hope; and in the midst of 
 your crushing trials, and after your losses are even 
 realized and your worst fears are proved less than 
 the desolating reality, stand up and say, " Though 
 I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me, 
 thou shalt stretch forth thine hand upon the wrath 
 of mine enemies and thy right hand shall save 
 me." 
 
FEAR AND FAITH. 229 
 
 This, I confess, goes a great step beyond any- 
 common confidence among men. Here it defies a 
 parallel in human society. Among men you will 
 trust so long as there can be hope that what you 
 fear will not come to pass ! But when the worst 
 that you dreaded is realized, how shall you trust 
 in one whose hand is actually striking you down ? 
 "Trust in him at all times, ye people, pour out 
 your hearts before him; God is a refuge for us; 
 though he slay me, yet will I trust in him; be- 
 hold the fowls of the air; consider the lilies." Who 
 would say beforehand that the fowls could have 
 their daily meals without storehouse or barn, with- 
 out work or wages; or that the lilies could have 
 raiment more splendid than Solomon's without care 
 or cost. Nay, who would say that a man could 
 actually have his food carried to him by ravens. 
 Yet interpositions as marvellous as this have oc- 
 curred, perhaps in our own knowledge — if not in 
 our own history. u Because he hath inclined his 
 ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as 
 long as I live." 
 
 Even Job, far back in the midst of patriarch 
 times, had such an every-day trust. God answered 
 him out of the whirlwind in tones as sweet as an- 
 gels use. It was no mere theory — nothing dead, 
 but living. There was a time for his trust when 
 a whole procession of calamities had come apace 
 and the bewildering news flashed like successive 
 bolts of lightning upon him. Assassins slew his 
 servants, the conflagration consumed his flocks, 
 robbers stole his camels, and a hurricane swept 
 
230 FEAR AND FAITH. 
 
 away his sons amidst the ruins of their house. 
 And this patriarch, with his dim and narrow rev- 
 elations of God and tempted by Satan and the 
 world in that doleful hour when all was gone, 
 when his earthly hopes were so successively and 
 swiftly blasted, still sings in calmest confidence 
 — "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away: 
 blessed be the name of the Lord/' 
 
 Ye men of Galilee who have boasted your faith 
 on the shore, come out now upon the Sea of Gal- 
 ilee in the vessel; Christ is embarked with you, or 
 he walks out on the boiling billows at the fourth 
 watch of the night to look after you. And now 
 you are thinking him asleep or you are imagining 
 his heavenly form as it approaches to be some ap- 
 parition haunting your darksome way; you are 
 crying out in the gale as though he who comes 
 to save you were some spirit of the storm, as 
 though you had no Saviour, or as though he had 
 not control of the elements which threaten to en- 
 gulf your all, or as though he had turned to be a 
 destroyer; or you fear your common ground of 
 trusting will not stand you in this present case : 
 and this shameful timidity is just what he rebukes, 
 just what he wonders at, as he knows his infinite 
 resources for your help. " Why are ye so fearful, 
 ye of little faith: 1 
 
 You think that the managing of your vessel is 
 so much a mere mechanical matter that it is too 
 purely a business concern for God Almighty to 
 deal with, that it is just a thing of the helm, or 
 that this surviving a financial storm is merely a 
 
FEAR AND FAITH. 231 
 
 business of notes and banks and mercantile sagac- 
 ity ; just a matter between man and man, too secu- 
 lar for Jesus Christ to concern himself with. But 
 did not this same Saviour think it worth working 
 a miracle to enable Peter to pay his taxes — aye, to 
 pay his own tax — rather than that his children or 
 his cause should suffer discredit ? And if he could 
 make a fish come up to the apostle's hook, bearing 
 the very coin that was needed, what bankers can 
 he not command, how can his agencies ever fail, 
 when can his deposits be exhausted, when shall 
 his trusting servants be deserted by him ? 
 
 The believer who comes upon his trying times — 
 his times of temptation or apprehension or afflic- 
 tion or dissolution — remembers that these seasons 
 are just those which his common every-day piety 
 was all along girding itself for, that these severe 
 conflicts are just what he was always given to ex- 
 pect, that his ordinary faith in fair weather was 
 always strengthening to outride the tempest when 
 it should come on, that it was training itself to 
 grapple with the tempter and the monster when 
 they should rise to do their worst, and so he is 
 the overcomer at last, just by being a habitual 
 daily overcomer. 
 
 What shall they do who are thinking it will be 
 enough to talk of faith when the time of fear has 
 come? If the dying thief had a stronger faith 
 than was almost ever known, I assure you there 
 was need of it — to have had its first exercise in the 
 very struggle and agony of death — faith at such a 
 crisis, for the first, is rather a miraculous grace, a 
 
232 FEAR AND FAITH. 
 
 rare specimen just to illustrate in the brightest way 
 that stupendous occasion on Calvary. 
 
 Trust not to such an hour. Your death-bed is 
 not calm, when all your life of sin comes up against 
 you, staring you in the face ; when all your lifelong 
 rejection of Christ is rising up to forbid your hope 
 at the last hour ; when your very inbred habits of 
 unbelief seem not to allow of a calm confidence 
 on such a sudden — at that outermost verge of 
 life when the sinking spirits refuse to trust ; when 
 your own conscience within is full of accusations ; 
 when even the fever or the stupor of your disease 
 shall be against any such act of the heart as de- 
 mands a most collected, well advised, deliberate 
 and strong application of all the energies ; to trust, 
 then, for the first " when the fear cometh as deso- 
 lation and the destruction cometh as a whirlwind, 
 when distress and anguish come upon you," would 
 seem against all the laws of your being. It shall 
 not be because God refuses to be gracious. Oh, 
 no! It shall be rather because an affrighted, be- 
 wildered, sinking, perishing soul can not easily 
 trust then for the first. 
 
 Behold, then, the high attainment of piety is 
 here. "They that trust in the Lord shall be as 
 Mount Zion which can not be moved." The Chris- 
 tian that has trusted Christ, in view of the last and 
 worst of Satan's accusations — of death's struggles 
 and of the dreadful bar itself — looks forward to 
 the dying point and shouts beforehand, " Yea, 
 though I walk through the valley of the shadow 
 of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me." 
 
FEAR AND FAITH. 233 
 
 They who trust in frames and experiences rather 
 than in the simple word of grace shall always have 
 fears beyond any reach. Unless there is a hope for 
 us as worthless sinners, we have no satisfying and 
 sure consolation. Unless there is a ground of hope 
 without us and above us we can find no firm 
 foundation. 
 
 The Christian's fears drive him always to the 
 same shelter and refuge. What new terror in 
 death shall frighten him away from Christ? "I 
 am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor an- 
 gels, nor principalities nor powers, nor things pres- 
 ent, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor 
 any other creature shall be able to separate us 
 from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, 
 our Lord." 
 
 In many a fearful time, when providence has 
 been all dark and actually adverse, the believer 
 has stood up in the midst of trouble and thought 
 of God's goodness covenanted to him, and of God's 
 wisdom pledged to arrange for him; he ventures 
 to believe against all present appearances, he dares 
 think, amidst all that is inscrutable now, that there 
 is a good reason with God for every grief or fear he 
 suffers or shall suffer, and he is at peace. In his 
 terrors he trusts, and this is the power of his confi- 
 dence. What other trust can serve him? What 
 shall the habitual unbeliever do in that extremity 
 unpractised to any such reliance? To whom shall 
 he go ? Whither shall he seek for refuge ? 
 
 You know not, my hearer, how hard it is to put 
 away all natural impressions and in the darkest 
 
234 FEAR AND FAITH. 
 
 hour to behold the Lamb of God whom you never 
 would see in your brightest days — when you find 
 that you have been all your life long spinning 
 for yourself, and out of your own bosom, a death 
 shroud, soft and silken it may be, like the silk- 
 worm's, but, like its cocoon, a coffin. Tell the 
 drowning man, who has never balanced himself 
 in the waters, to do it now, when he is swept 
 from the wreck into the boiling ocean, amidst his 
 terrors and alarms ; preach to him the whole the- 
 ory, as you believe. Tell him to cease his striv- 
 ings, to compose himself and lie down on the 
 bosom of the flood, and set his face steadfastly 
 towards heaven and float upon the wave. Can 
 he do it? Oh, no! He will likely enough cry 
 out in his alarm and strangle in the act. He will 
 struggle and go down in the attempt. He can not 
 trust now for the first amidst such swelling bil- 
 lows and such desolating fears. 
 
 Practice in your calmest times this heavenly art 
 of trusting Christ, the great Redeemer, and then 
 you can say, " What time I am afraid, instead of 
 desponding, shrinking, fretting, despairing, I will 
 sweetly compose my soul in God, and, casting my 
 all on the bosom of thy covenant, I will trust in 
 thee" 
 
XIV. 
 
 NO PERSONAL SALVATION EXCEPT BY PER- 
 SONAL SANCTIFICATION. 
 
 "Peter saith unto him : Thou shalt never wash my feet! Jesus 
 answered him : If I wash thee not thou hast no part with me. 
 Simon Peter saith unto him : Lord, not my feet only, but also my 
 hands and my head." — John xiii. 8-9. 
 
 Our blessed Lord had come, with the twelve, to 
 sit down at the Last Paschal Supper, which was to 
 introduce his betrayal and death. What does he 
 say and do, that best befits such an occasion ? He 
 speaks a parable in the act. Condescending love 
 could find no earthly picture wherewith to express 
 itself, for there was never an instance like this. 
 He rises from the table, before proceeding with 
 the feast, comes to his disciples, one by one — 
 comes girt with a towel, in the garb of a servant, 
 and proposes to wash their feet. You know the 
 sequel. Our Lord came to Simon Peter. This im- 
 petuous and noble apostle declined the service as 
 a thing quite too humiliating for his Master to do 
 — too humiliating for him to accept from his Lord. 
 Jesus insisted, and even made it a condition of his 
 saving grace, that this very thing here proposed, 
 and whatsoever he proposed for any of his people, 
 should be accepted at his hands. This brings Pe- 
 
236 NO PERSONAL SALVATION EXCEPT 
 
 ter to terms. He could hold out no longer. He 
 sees it in a new light. It is no mere courtesy, 
 no mere formality, it is absolute necessity and he 
 yields most cordially, most fully, in the language 
 of our text — "Lord, not my feet only, but also my 
 hands and my head." 
 
 View the picture, my brethren. It is a scene for 
 us all to contemplate. There are lessons for us all 
 to learn. Jesus has a plan for the thorough cleans- 
 ing of each disciple. He proposes for each of us, 
 in all the minutiae of life, his divers methods for 
 our most entire personal sanctification. By vari- 
 ous means of grace and various dealings of prov- 
 idence, he comes round to each and urges upon us 
 his cleansing processes. We are often inclined to 
 take exception here and there to this and that, but 
 we have no right to object to any thing he pro- 
 poses for us. He insists upon each item as indis- 
 pensable to our salvation, and what he will bring 
 each of us to, if we are saved, is just this whgle- 
 hearted concurrence with him in his whole scheme 
 and system of grace; so that we shall earnestly 
 pray — " Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands 
 and my head." 
 
 Look now at the infinite condescension of Jesus 
 in this work of our sanctification. To rescue us 
 from the bondage of sin, the first step he takes is 
 that wonderful leap, just at one bound, from the 
 highest heaven to the lowest condition of earth. 
 " He took upon him the form of a servant, and 
 was made in the likeness of men." "And being 
 found in fashion as a man," he took the most ab- 
 
BY PERSONAL SANCTIFICATION. 237 
 
 ject state of our humanity. "He humbled him- 
 self" below all ordinary condition of humankind 
 and "became obedient unto death, even the death 
 of the cross." And when you say, that this was 
 to save men from hell, do you not understand that 
 there is no jwssibility of personal salvation except 
 by personal sanctification? Nay, that salvation it- 
 self, properly understood, is just this sanctifica- 
 tion itself. That therefore, you are in the way 
 of being saved, only as you are in the way of 
 being sanctified; and that hence all the questions 
 about election, predestination and personal salva- 
 tion do, in their practical aspect, turn upon this liv- 
 ing question, of personal sanctification; and that 
 so God's eternal decrees of salvation, are really 
 indicated and brought to light by our habitual 
 actions, and that he is plainly an elect man, and 
 only he, who elects Christ for his Saviour and who 
 has thus the mark of sanctification on the forehead 
 of his daily living. 
 
 And so it is that this profound doctrine, which 
 so many stumble at, is everywhere presented in 
 the Scriptures, in its living, practical connections. 
 This very Peter says, in his epistle, after he has 
 here been made to understand the doctrine well, 
 " Elect, according to the foreknowledge of God the 
 Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto 
 obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Christ," 
 Not elect unto eternal life, do what you will. No ! 
 elect unto obedience. Ah ! this is the brand by 
 which the Good Shepherd marks his sheep, with 
 a monogram of both initials in one — "My sheep 
 
238 NO PERSONAL SALVATION EXCEPT 
 
 hear my voice, I know them and they follow me," 
 and so it comes to pass that they shall never per- 
 ish. So you may know them from all others. So 
 said Paul, u I bear in my body, the marks of the 
 Lord Jesus." 
 
 Look now at this condescending kindness of 
 our Lord, in pressing upon you his work of sanc- 
 tification. When he comes to you, and you are 
 found so reluctant to accept his method, see him 
 still following you up in life, plying you with 
 every new motive ; visiting you with tender warn- 
 ings, earnest reproofs and rebukes of his provi- 
 dence ; hedging you in so from your cherished sins, 
 begging and entreating you to accept his grace of 
 cleansing in all particulars of daily life. This is 
 his menial attitude, girt with a towel and pouring 
 water into the bason and coming to you with the 
 entreaty that you would allow him to wash your 
 feet. 
 
 But as regards the methods. They seem to us 
 arbitrary often, and unnecessary, and we demur. 
 
 Look here at the significance of this transaction, 
 the water-washing — true it is, at most, a sign of 
 something greater and better that is signified. Is 
 the sign then so necessary? So you say of the 
 sacraments: u May you not be a Christian, and yet 
 not be baptized or partake of the Lord's Supper?" 
 But Jesus says, "If I wash thee not, thou hast no 
 part with me." If you set up your own opinion 
 and feeling in regard to this water-washing, you 
 do, in effect, repudiate the whole scheme of grace 
 and claim to accept or reject as you think fit. No! 
 
BY PERSONAL SANCTIFICATION. 239 
 
 If you accept not this very thing, which I here 
 propose in the sign, you do, in effect, repudiate the 
 tiling signified. We can not be saved by a mere 
 creed or profession of religion, any more than we 
 can be warmed by the picture of a fire. 
 
 But let us look further at the significance of this 
 action. I say to you, all and each of you, Christ 
 has a plan for your personal cleansing, complete in 
 all its details. You can not afford to reject it in 
 any minute particular. It is not for you to pro- 
 nounce any thing trivial or unnecessary in his plan 
 for you. He knows what you need and wherein 
 you lack, and he comes to you — Peter, James, or 
 John — comes with his own chosen methods of 
 cleansing — "Then cometh he to Simon Peter " — 
 and then he comes in his round of the ages to you, 
 my brethren, and he begins with each here, at the 
 feet. And this is daily needful and indispensable, 
 though you may have been regenerated at heart. 
 Here he comes in this symbolical transaction. He 
 has himself explained it, He says, "He that is 
 washed or bathed, needeth not save to wash his 
 feet." So the man who is regenerated needs yet 
 to have his daily corruptions washed away by 
 daily processes of sanctification. The man Avho 
 deems the gracious work accomplished for him- 
 self, at the outset, by the regenerating act, and has 
 not waked up to consider how he needs this same 
 cleansing efficacy reapplied from day to day, he 
 must be aroused from his terrible mistake or he 
 is lost! 
 
 Are you considering it enough to be a Chris- 
 
240 NO PERSONAL SALVATION EXCEPT 
 
 tian in the general and not in the particular, or 
 to have been a Christian once, if not now ? or are 
 you claiming that this Christianity shall not come 
 down to the minutiae of your life and control your 
 habits, in the smallest items, and regulate all your 
 intercourse and sway all your tempers and your 
 speech and restrict your indulgences and set up 
 its throne in your whole living, so as that every 
 thought shall be brought into captivity to the obe- 
 dience of Christ? Then, there is your fatal mis- 
 take. There is where you have failed to be a pro- 
 nounced and recognized Christian, because you 
 have not carried your religion into the minor de- 
 tails of life. You have thought it beneath the 
 Master to come down to so common and menial a 
 business as to wash your feet. And just because 
 you do not think it worth your while to act upon 
 Christian principle in such common every-day mat- 
 ters, no man can see where you are acting on 
 Christian principle at all. You say this or that 
 indulgence, this or that prevarication or overreach- 
 ing is innocent, and Jesus does not concern himself 
 with such trivial things. " I can do this or that, 
 go hither or thither, as I please." And so you say, 
 at the first blush of the subject, "Thou shaft never 
 wash my feet." 
 
 But these defilements that are contracted in the 
 common paths of life, this whole question of what 
 you say and do, and whither you go, and into 
 what dust and dirt of the street you wilfully tread, 
 is a question of prodigious moment. It involves 
 your business enterprises and dealings, your asso- 
 
BY PERSONAL SANCTIFICATION. 241 
 
 ciations in life, your private habits and social prac- 
 tices — all your course and intercourse. Alas ! for 
 the daily misadventures of men, whom we must 
 regard as true Christians. Here is the great prac- 
 tical work for the church membership, which Jesus 
 sees most needful to be done — this personal sanc- 
 tification and correction, in view of these indiscre- 
 tions and inconsistencies and iniquities of good 
 men — their evil speech, evil example, divers de- 
 nials and betrayals of the Master ; their wrong-do- 
 ings in business, in the family, in society, in the 
 church. We need even at our communion table 
 to have Jesus come round with towel and bason 
 and wash the feet, even of the chief disciple. 
 
 You object to your religion coming down to all 
 this detail; you say, "This or that is not sinful, 
 good men do it; to be so rigorous is excessive: 
 Christ does not concern himself with such small 
 matters." But this is just where he insists, and 
 will take no denial. It is to wash your feet. You 
 say that to carry religion into all these particu- 
 lars of your common walk is carrying it quite too 
 far, and virtually you protest, u Thou shaft never 
 wash my feet. You may w r ash others' feet, but 
 not mine." And well and truly does the Saviour 
 reply, " If I wash thee not, thou hast no part 
 w r ith me." 
 
 I venture to say that no man can get to heaven 
 whose Christian course does not often propose to 
 him some self-denial for the example's sake. Grant 
 that this thing or that thing may be abstractly in- 
 nocent — innocent in itself. But is it relatively in- 
 16 
 
242 NO PERSONAL SALVATION EXCEPT 
 
 nocent? Is it such a thing as you, a Christian 
 man, can safely hold up and commend as an ex- 
 ample to all others ? Has not your religion gone 
 so far as to restrict your feet, your going hither 
 and thither, or to prompt your avoiding this or 
 that, on account of the example? Can any Chris- 
 tian man, in this wicked world, surrounded by oth- 
 ers who are watching him and pleading him as a 
 pattern in questionable matters, claim to act inde- 
 pendently, on his own view of what is lawful for 
 himself, and regardless of the influence he may 
 exert upon others ? What a monstrous mistake ! 
 Can any man allow himself to go hither or thither, 
 to do this or that, on the presumption that he will 
 not be seen and that hence his example will be 
 out of the question? What a delusion! A man 
 may escape observation where he goes to do good, 
 but he can not escape notice where he goes to do 
 evil. 
 
 And then this question of foot- washing, the 
 cleansing of the feet which Jesus proposes for 
 each of us, lies mainly just here, here amidst this 
 whole circle of things which men call indifferent 
 and which some claim to regard as outside of the 
 sphere of this religion. And the Christian, who 
 is not watchful of his path, who does not admit 
 Christ to do this work of divine cleansing upon 
 his daily goings, who is not heedful of the defile- 
 ments which are daily contracted by the way, who 
 is not jealous of his walk and anxious about it, to 
 have it perfectly immaculate and to have all his 
 living, even in smallest particulars, sanctified; he 
 
BY PERSONAL SANCTIFICATION. 243 
 
 has not yet waked up to the higher ideas of the 
 Christian life. 
 
 And this brings us to the second main point of 
 our text. There is a higher style of Christian liv- 
 ing than most in the church are found to adopt. 
 Jesus comes with towel and water, to each of us, 
 to do this further needful work of additional puri- 
 fication. What say you my brethren? Do you 
 admit the necessity? or do you take exception and 
 object and wilfully protest, where the way is dis- 
 tressing or inconvenient? Do you pretend that it 
 is an indignity for Jesus to concern himself with 
 these small matters of yours? But the principle 
 he lays down here is that nothing whatever which 
 he proposes can be trivial or indifferent to you — 
 nothing which he has prescribed, nothing in the 
 whole sphere of personal dealing, however mi- 
 nute, can be refused by you if you would be saved. 
 And there is a point where every true Christian is 
 brought up upon this higher platform, and abjur- 
 ing all such laxity as he had entertained is led to 
 say, " Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands 
 and my head." 
 
 The idea here involved is, that our daily defile- 
 ments, contracted in our worldly intercourse, need 
 to be daily cleansed by these processes of grace. 
 If you have overlooked this, you have omitted a 
 large item in the plan of salvation. This whole 
 business of foot-washing concerns our habits of 
 piety and our progress in the divine life. Just as 
 the Jew could not eat his meal without his cere- 
 monial ablutions, so every Christian is under daily 
 
244 NO PERSONAL SALVATION EXCEPT 
 
 necessity of the divine cleansing. Just as the bath- 
 er, coming out of the surf, needs to have the sand 
 washed from his feet, for his entire cleansing, so 
 there is this daily supplementary work to be done 
 upon the best Christian living. 
 
 Have you waked up to this, my brother? Do 
 you see Jesus stooping in such infinite condescen- 
 sion, asking to wash your feet? Then your daily 
 prayer is, for more entire conformity to the divine 
 image and will, for a holier course of living, for a 
 more strict and exemplary and unimpeachable walk 
 in life, for a more thorough avoidance of even ques- 
 tionable wrong, that your feet may tread, at every 
 step, the shining path to heaven, and that they 
 may not go where the Avay is slippery and where 
 the road is anywise connected with the downward 
 track to destruction. 
 
 There are errands of love and mercy enough for 
 the feet of the disciples of Christ, and it is part of 
 the Christian armor to have " your feet shod with 
 the preparation of the Gospel of peace." " Blessed 
 is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the 
 ungodly " — does not adopt their maxims, nor take 
 their advice — "nor standeth in the way of sinners' 7 
 ■ — is not found in their association or connection — 
 " nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful " — does not 
 consort or company with them in their pursuits — 
 "But his delight is in the law of the Lord: he shall 
 be like a tree planted by the rivers of water: what- 
 soever he doeth shall prosper." Come up, then, 
 my brethren, to this higher Christian platform, to 
 covet this daily sanctifying process, to put aside 
 
BY PERSONAL SANCTIFICATION. 245 
 
 all exceptions and reserves that shall debar the 
 thorough and perfect working of Christ's plan for 
 your cleansing, to consider the path of your feet 
 and have all your goings established, and to in- 
 voke, in your daily prayer, this gracious work of 
 Christ upon your daily walk. " Lead me not into 
 temptation, but deliver me from evil." Let him 
 wash your feet. If not, you perish ! 
 
 But the true disciple is brought, like Peter, to a 
 larger comprehension of Christ's plan for his salva- 
 tion. It is not merely a salvation at last that he is 
 led to crave — as many pray "save us at last" — but 
 the great idea is, to be saved at present and just 
 now. It is not a mere foot-washing that he begs 
 — as many who would have their feet well cared 
 for and who are all correct and strict as to their 
 outward proprieties, always found at church and 
 never in places of wicked or hurtful association, as 
 though their blameless but negative walk before 
 men would save them, as though it were enough 
 to be professing Christians — but it is an entire 
 sanctification that is besought — feet and hands 
 and head. And it is just a lively conception of 
 Christ's condescending, dying love to sinners and 
 to us, which brings us to put off our laxity and to 
 come into harmony with his gracious plan in our 
 case. It is when we see him taking this menial 
 garb and performing these menial offices, all to pu- 
 rify and cleanse us — all to bring us up to some 
 true estimation of our need and of his scheme for 
 our redemption — it is then that we gain a wholly 
 new conception of our case and of his claims and 
 
246 NO PERSONAL SALVATION EXCEPT 
 
 of our obligations; of what we may do, of wdiat 
 we ought to do, of what we fail to do, of what he 
 has taught and patterned for us to do, and of what 
 (God helping us) we may hope to do, and we cry 
 out, " Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands 
 and my head." 
 
 And especially, when the divine Master comes 
 in his tender love and with his sanctifying method, 
 and represents to us the indispensable necessity of 
 this daily cleansing to our soul's salvation, and we 
 are led to see that if he wash us not we have no 
 part with him ; when he shows us how foreign our 
 thoughts are from his thoughts, and our ways from 
 his ways; what poor conceptions we have of our 
 need, how we are swayed by what others say and 
 do more than by what he requires; it is then, 
 when we see that our dealing must be with him 
 as the Judge of quick and dead, and that we can 
 not hope to get to heaven except in his prescribed 
 methods and by his gracious offices, day by day; 
 it is then that we beg for a sanctification of all our 
 powers and' all our activities and energies and op- 
 portunities — " Lord, not my feet only, but also my 
 hands and my head.' , 
 
 But we are prone to misunderstand and misin- 
 terpret his dealings and so we object. He comes 
 to us in some affliction, and we do not see how it 
 is for our cleansing from some defilement of our 
 walk, how he comes girt with a towel, comes with 
 bason and water, just to do us this loving service. 
 We think it all severity. We think it the work 
 of a hard master, but it is the work of a faithful 
 
BY PERSONAL SANCTIFICATION. 247 
 
 friend and servant. We misconstrue the dealing 
 altogether. It is some loss, some disappointment, 
 some bereavement, some heart-breaking trouble. 
 Can it be that this is Jesus come to wash our feet, 
 just in order that we may have part with him? Is 
 this his voice out of the whirlwind — "If I wash 
 thee not, thou hast no part with me?" This trib- 
 ulation that unsettles us at our table, that stirs up' 
 our nest, that is so full of distress and deprivation 1 
 to us, that we can not see the need of it in our 
 case, at least that it should come in this form ; that 
 altogether contradicts many of our common cher- 
 ished ideas of what is good for us ; is this Jesus in 
 servant's garb, come to wash our feet for the table 
 of the Lord? Then be it so and blessed be the 
 name of the Lord. And so understood, then when 
 he presses to our lips this bitter cup of sorrow, we 
 may hear him say, "This cup is the New Testa- 
 ment in my blood; drink it in remembrance of 
 me." 
 
 What is the secret of our inefficiency as Chris- 
 tians? It is that we erect for ourselves artificial 
 and unauthorized standards of duty and we are 
 not willing to be undeceived. We cleave to our 
 own selfish methods. We take our guage of re- 
 ligious living from the fair average around us. 
 We want just to stand within the outer edge and 
 circumference of the discipleship, so as not to be 
 left out at the last day. But we set before us no 
 such pattern as Jesus Christ; we aim at no such 
 thing as to reach the very utmost of Christian ser- 
 vice. It is too much with us a task work, or a 
 
248 NO PERSONAL SALVATION EXCEPT 
 
 formality, and not a labor of love. We are not 
 hungering and thirsting after righteousness, as for 
 daily food; we are not wholly consecrated in all 
 our walk and work, in all our course and inter- 
 course; and what is worse, we do not count it 
 necessary that we should be. We will wash our- 
 selves in our own way and not be washed by Je- 
 sus, in his way. 
 
 But this whole matter of personal and habitual 
 sanctification, a sanctification which is not merely 
 commercial and social, but spiritual and individual, 
 involves actual dealing with him, daily prayer to 
 him and for his sake and in his name. 
 
 Let us consider what is meant by this sanctify- 
 ing of our hands. It is not only to have our hands 
 cleansed from actual sin, to have clean hands in 
 all our living and dealing — clean from corruptions 
 of trade, from fraud and deceit and overreaching 
 in daily intercourse ; it is to have all our industry 
 and our business turned to the account of the Mas- 
 ter. Jesus was a carpenter; and so he sanctified 
 all industrial pursuits. He taught us by that lowly 
 work at Nazareth how honorable and dignified is 
 any industrial calling, if it be pursued in his name 
 and in God's service. 
 
 I have stood there in Nazareth, where tradition 
 points out the site of Joseph's shop, and I have 
 wondered how the hands that touched the bier 
 of the widow's dead son at Nam, and stopped the 
 funeral train to give the boy back to his mother, 
 could have wrought in boyhood at that common 
 trade of men; or how the same hands that touched 
 
BY PERSONAL SANCTIFICATION. 249 
 
 the blind eyes and brought the sight again to the 
 dead eyeballs of Bartimeus could have driven the 
 nails of the carpenter and handled those rude im- 
 plements of the mechanic — the same hands that 
 were nailed fast to the cross for us. But the 
 greater wonder is, how every stroke of his hum- 
 ble trade was sanctified as much as the agony 
 of Gethsemane or the winged errand of an angel. 
 
 And this is the true Christian ambition — to have 
 all his daily work, whatever he turns his hand to, 
 hallowed and consecrated to Christ. 
 
 We all know what it is to be working for par- 
 ents or for brothers and sisters; and then, by a 
 higher step, we know what it is to be working 
 for wife and children in all that we do; and here, 
 by a step still higher, to be working for Jesus, in 
 all our daily doings — to have all the busy toil of 
 the week sanctified and dedicated to his service, 
 to have our hands set to no work, however com- 
 mon, without invoking his blessing and bringing 
 to his feet the well-earned gains. This comes from 
 Christ's washing of the hands. 
 
 And then, besides having our business done for 
 Christ, to find Christ's business that we can do 
 and are called to do — to set our hands to such 
 work as we may do for the perishing ; busily gath- 
 ering in the wandering, reaching out the hand of 
 charity to the destitute, scattering the word of life 
 in the Bible or the tract or the Sabbath-school, 
 building up the church and supporting the cause 
 of Christ in the world ; Christian men toiling, 
 Christian women plying the needle in aid of the 
 
250 NO PERSONAL SALVATION EXCEPT 
 
 missionary work, and Christian children bringing 
 in their tribute for the service of Christ. This is 
 noble. This is what we need. This is what we 
 pray for, when we beg that Jesus would wash our 
 hands as well as our feet. 
 
 And when the hands are washed by Christ — 
 when his divine grace, applied to them, sanctifies 
 their doings — then they are opened to deeds of 
 liberality and Christian charity. The hands can 
 not be washed without being opened. It is not 
 possible for Christ himself to wash the hands of 
 the close-fisted, without opening them to a larger 
 bounty and to a more liberal bestowment of world- 
 ly goods for his cause and kingdom. 
 
 Men may take exception to this, may plead that 
 this religion is a thing of the heart, and has noth- 
 ing to do with the pocket. But look at Zaccheus, 
 the converted publican, who recognizes at once 
 Christ's claim upon his means. " Behold, Lord, 
 the half of my goods I give to the poor." This 
 is his profession now. This, he says, is what I 
 now propose to do. Not I have done this in time 
 past. This would be to boast of what he had been 
 and what he had done, which is the farthest from 
 his thoughts. So far from this, he proposes to do 
 his utmost to undo the past. "If I have taken 
 any thing from any man, by false accusation" 
 — as he had done, enriching himself by extor- 
 tion in the tax-gathering — " I restore unto him 
 fourfold" 
 
 And yet more, this higher Christian living calls 
 for Christ's sanctifying methods to be applied also 
 
BY PERSONAL SANCTIFICATION. 251 
 
 to our heads. It is not enough even to have the 
 new heart, if that be all. New hands and feet and 
 head are needed. Grace in the heart is often very 
 slow in reaching to the hands and the head, so as 
 to pervade all the active living. Some men cleave 
 so to their old notions, do not wish their opinions 
 interfered with, dispute minor points, lay claim to 
 a large liberty of thinking and action that is not 
 directed and dictated by the Gospel. And there 
 are imaginations that need to be cast down and 
 there are high thoughts that exalt themselves 
 against the knowledge of God which need to be 
 brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. 
 And this sanctification of the head is the great 
 demand of our day. Free thinking and laxity of 
 doctrine work laxity of living. Besides, to have 
 the head sanctified involves the cleansing of all 
 the senses, as of all the sentiment — the eye sanc- 
 tified with all its seeing, the ear with all its hear- 
 ing and the lips with all their speech and con- 
 versation. This is the high idea of our religion. 
 Opinions need to be sanctified. And the daily 
 thinking and planning and calculating need to 
 be sanctified. And men's pride of intellect and 
 selfish claim of judging for themselves needs to 
 be humbled, not before mere church authority, 
 but before the holy Scriptures and before God. 
 And when, like Peter, we are ready to dispute 
 Christ's methods of grace, or when we think the 
 means of grace which he has appointed for us in 
 his w r ord are unnecessary for us; when we think 
 that the Bible may be dispensed with or the 
 
252 NO PERSONAL SALVATION EXCEPT 
 
 prayer-meeting or the Sabbath service or the sac- 
 raments, and imagine that we can get to heaven 
 without them, then Jesus will insist, "If I wash 
 thee not, feet and hands and head, thou hast no 
 part with me." 
 
 When you see a man planning for Christ as he 
 plans for his business, studying how he can best 
 advance his cause and push forward every enter- 
 prise for the Master, studying how he can best 
 stir up others to co-operate and how he can best 
 reach and influence for good the neglected and 
 perishing, there you know the head, as well as 
 the hands and the feet, has been cleansed by 
 Jesus. There you know the sanctifying power 
 has gone to the brain and has set all the busy 
 thought in motion for care and painstaking in 
 the work of Christ. And when you see such a 
 merchant or such a mechanic or day-laborer sanc- 
 tified in all his activities, from head to foot, and 
 manifestly giving himself, heart and soul, to the 
 Master, there you see a power in the world ! 
 
 The amount of good that one man can accom- 
 plish, when fired by the love of Christ, even though 
 his intellect or talents be not great, nor his social 
 position exalted, is simply incalculable. Such an 
 one as Harlan Page, who used to stand in the 
 great city almost alone in the annals of lay-work- 
 ers, is having a noble band of successors in our 
 day. And the world will never be converted until 
 private Christians shall go out to publish the Gos- 
 pel in their sphere — until men and women in the 
 church membership shall count it their high call- 
 
BY PERSONAL SANCTIFICATION. 253 
 
 ing to make known this great salvation to the 
 world around. 
 
 It was never meant to be the work of the minis- 
 ter alone, as one of a thousand, but of the minis- 
 ter, as ordained to the holy office, for a leader and 
 guide of the people, in this great work. It is im- 
 possible that he should bear the burden alone, or 
 do justice to the field alone, or make successful 
 onset upon the foes of God and man, single-handed 
 and alone. The church membership are too much 
 excusing themselves, as if they had employed the 
 minister for this and could decline the personal re- 
 sponsibility of laboring for Christ. But the sub- 
 stance of all the commandments is a love to God 
 from every man, which shall engage all the heart 
 and all the soul and all the mind and all the 
 strength. 
 
 And if this is the necessary ruling of God's moral 
 law from the beginning, how can there be any less 
 requirement under the blaze of the Gospel and in 
 the light of the cross of Christ. When the living, 
 loving Christ comes down to you and to me, as he 
 came to Simon Peter, and claims the privilege of 
 washing our feet and sanctifying all our walk and 
 all our work, woe to the man who resists — who 
 disputes the wisdom, or expediency or dignity of 
 such an office. Then he shall hear from the Mas- 
 ter, in words like the thunder of the judgment-day 
 — "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me." 
 And blessed is he who will answer — " Lord, not 
 my feet only, but also my hands and my head." 
 
a 
 
 XV. 
 
 MODERN INDIFFERENTISM. 
 
 And Gallio cared for none of these things." — Acts xviii. 17. 
 
 The progress of the Gospel in the world devel- 
 ops individual character. Whether in or out of 
 the church, men are sifted and searched by the 
 presence of this religion of Christ. Just as a chem- 
 ical test will disclose the presence of poison in the 
 blood or tissues, even of a dead subject; or just as 
 the same test will tell vou of the metal, whether 
 it is pure ; or just as the fire will bring the gold, 
 glistening in sunny globules, from the dark ore — 
 so this divine religion brings men forth to the light 
 and reveals their inner selves, and exhibits their 
 tastes and affinities. So said the aged Simeon, in 
 the Temple, with Jesus in his arms — "This child 
 is set for the fall and rising again of many in 
 Israel, that the thoughts of many hearts may be 
 revealed.'' 
 
 The truth of God in the world produces conflict. 
 It is no fault of the truth, but only of the error, 
 which it is called to confront and overcome. Con- 
 troversy must attend the promulgation of what is 
 right amidst a world of wrong, and of what is 
 good amidst a world of evil. Men accuse Chris- 
 
MODERN INDIFFERENTISM. 255 
 
 tianity of all this controversy, not considering that 
 it is only the introduction of daylight that battles 
 with a world of darkness, and that sends wild 
 beasts howling to their dens. It was in this as- 
 pect of the case, that Jesus himself said, u Think 
 not that I am come to send peace on earth. I 
 came not to send peace, but a sword." And yet 
 the sword which he wields is plainly in the in- 
 terest of universal peace. 
 
 In the apostolic history before us the Gospel was 
 making its way, amidst surrounding heathenism, 
 from the capital of Judea to the metropolis of the 
 world. Look at the characters which are brought 
 out at every point, in every city and village ; some 
 falling in with its glorious revelations and joining 
 the ranks of its publishers and advocates, others 
 ranging violently in the opposition, denouncing its 
 doctrines and persecuting its friends. In this par- 
 agraph that records the success of the Word in the 
 Grecian Peninsula, and in the great city of Cor- 
 inth, here are Aquila and Priscilla — humble refu- 
 gees from Eome — day-laborers at the trade of tent- 
 making — becoming converts and boon companions 
 of Paul; and there is Apollos, a learned and elo- 
 quent scholar of Alexandria, giving his high talent 
 to the exposition of the truth, yet sitting at the 
 feet of these tent-makers, to hear the word of God 
 expounded more perfectly. And here is the crowd 
 of false religionists, dragging Paul before a hea- 
 then tribunal, while even the heathen multitude 
 range on his side, in sympathy with the noble- 
 minded, persecuted Christian. And here is Gallio, 
 
256 MODERN INDIFFERENTISM. 
 
 the heathen judge on the bench, pronouncing all 
 the controversy trivial in the eye of the law, and 
 hastily, summarily dismissing it as a mere quibble 
 — or logomachy — a dispute of words and names, 
 and involving no great question of practical right, 
 to be recognized at his tribunal. It is not Gallic* 
 as a judge, or an officer of state, with whom we 
 have here to do, but Gallio as a representative of 
 a prevalent indifferentisrn to whom we direct your 
 attention. 
 
 This religion of Jesus Christ is still, in its pas- 
 sage through the world, the same as proclaimed at 
 that day, only with vastly increased and accumu- 
 lating testimonies from all the generations. This 
 Christianity presents itself at the bar of every man's 
 reason and conscience. And he must give it a hear- 
 ing, or drive it from his judgment-seat. The man 
 who looks it fairly in the face, and even attempts 
 an examination of its claims, and reports adversely, 
 and calls himself an unbeliever, for reasons which 
 he assigns and vindicates, is nevertheless, on his 
 own ground, open to conviction, and may hear the 
 case pleaded again at the bar of private, personal 
 judgment, and may be won over, eventually, to its 
 embrace. But the man who is simply indifferent, 
 and can not be detained for a hearing of the case, 
 and on one plea or another summarily dismisses it, 
 as not a question at his bar, he is the most hope- 
 less of all. Infidelity, however it may have en- 
 trenched itself with sophistries and fortified itself 
 with arguments, is still bound to hear the case 
 reargued in open court. But the indifferentisrn that 
 
MODERN INDIFFERENTISM. 257 
 
 dismisses it altogether, and drives it from the judg- 
 ment-seat, puts itself out of the sphere of its high 
 doctrines and strong arguments, and may be writ- 
 ten hopeless, even beyond its avowed opposers. 
 
 The type of indifferentism in our day is still that 
 of the heathen mind, as exhibited in Gallio. This 
 man was the brother of the great Koman scholar, 
 Seneca, and was held in high repute as a judicious 
 administrator and sound thinker. And here, in his 
 verdict, that was no verdict at all, is only the high- 
 est judgment of Christianity from the heathen point 
 of view. And on precisely similar grounds men 
 of Christian communities among us, are every day 
 dismissing this great subject and banishing it from 
 their consideration, and they are thus evincing the 
 same heathen instincts and tendencies; they are in 
 effect ranging themselves, in their practical judg- 
 ment, with this heathen Gallio; they are showing 
 themselves, under these Christian influences of our 
 day, to have made no advance, beyond that dark 
 and dismal age of human thought and religious in- 
 quiry in which the world was shrouded in pagan- 
 ism. It is all to them as if Jesus Christ had never 
 come, as if the light of this glorious Gospel had 
 never dawned upon the earth. 
 
 Let us analyze the heathenism here in the case 
 of Gallio. His plea for dismissing the subject of re- 
 ligion altogether from his tribunal is, that it is not 
 a question of wrong-doing, or of actual flagrant 
 crime, but a question of words and names, and of 
 Jewish law, with which he had nothing to do. So 
 says Pilate — "Am I a Jew ? n 
 17 
 
258 MODERN INDIFFERENTISM. 
 
 Look at the heathenism of our popular litera- 
 ture, that treats the subject of religion in the same 
 summary way of contempt, ignoring the claims of 
 Christianity as a religion of the past or as merely 
 the business of its professional advocates — of min- 
 isters and of church members — as well enough, per- 
 haps, for those who have so committed themselves, 
 but as of no consequence for independent thinkers. 
 That, as between one religion or another, Judaism, 
 Mohammedanism, Buddhism, or Christianity, it is a 
 mere question of words, or of names, of definitions 
 or of creeds and confessions — but nothing worthy 
 any one's painstaking, to unravel the mysteries, or 
 to solve the doubts. 
 
 But let it be understood, this is the heathenism 
 of our modern thinking — of " advance thinkers," as 
 they please to call themselves — who pride them- 
 selves on progress, and are only going back to the 
 dark and dreary heathenism that had no Christ 
 and no hope for eternity to illumine the midnight 
 darkness. "If it were a question of ivrong!" he 
 says. And this is the heathen morality, that would 
 separate right and wrong altogether from a re- 
 vealed religion, and would therefore follow brute 
 instincts, and fall back upon natural tastes and ap- 
 petites as the only rule of faith and practice. Who 
 does not discern, through all this mist evolved from 
 modern speculation by the conjury of this genius 
 of heathenism, all the orgies of idolatry, and all the 
 abominations of pagan rites and practices, coming 
 back upon us in the new social system ? 
 
 On our frontiers, in our new settlements — away 
 
MODERN INDIFFERENTISM. 259 
 
 from the constraints of these divine Scriptures, 
 where bold adventurers have made their way to 
 set up their new systems, and plant the standards 
 of their false faith, on the plea of progressive 
 thought and liberal doctrine — you see heathenism, 
 restored with all the depravities of Mormonism, 
 superstition, or spiritualism, in various forms. 
 
 And our polished magazine literature, that af- 
 fects so contemptuously to set aside this religion 
 of Christ, is simply a revived heathenism. Let the 
 writers be adjudged to their proper place. They 
 have not anywise advanced beyond Plato, and Soc- 
 rates, and Seneca. 
 
 Is it not history ? Was it not long ago put to 
 the proof and ascertained — demonstrated in the 
 wisdom and providence of God — that "the world 
 by wisdom knew not God," that worldly wisdom, 
 which in its highest estate, without Christianity, is 
 heathen, so far from attaining to the knowledge of 
 God, attained to ignorance of God — to Polytheism, 
 Pantheism and base idolatry; to flat and outright 
 denial of God. And is it not proven most conclu- 
 sively, that to blot out Christ and Christianity is 
 to blot out the sun from the heavens, and to make 
 the knowledge of God impossible to men ? 
 
 If now, we pursue the modern indifferentism 
 more closely, we shall find that it is traceable to 
 various forms of this heathen prejudice. It is a 
 prejudice, which refuses any fair and patient in- 
 vestigation of religious truth, which declines any 
 earnest study of the documents of our faith, but 
 which, just at the threshold of all inquiry, rules 
 
260 MODERN INDIFFERENTISM. 
 
 the whole subject out of court — denying the juris- 
 diction, resolving it into mere quibbles of lan- 
 guage, or disputes of divines, or conflicts of divers 
 religions. 
 
 You say you can not deal with these doctrinal, 
 theological questions ; if it were a question of right 
 or wrong, then you could reasonably judge and 
 act. But these are the highest themes of human 
 inquiry. They enter into every-day affairs of men. 
 Is it not a question of wrong? Great God! what 
 is wrong, if it is not wrong to neglect and deny 
 thee; and what is right, if it is not right to love 
 and serve thee? Conscience — that arbiter within 
 you — testifies to the prodigious wrong of neglect- 
 ing the soul, and refusing the claims of* God, and 
 ignoring the final tribunal, and despising the di- 
 vine grace. Is it not a question of wrong, that 
 forces itself upon you as responsible creatures, con- 
 scious of that responsibility, and even recognizing 
 the truth of Christianity, but rejecting its high 
 obligations? Even coming hither to the sanctu- 
 ary, and receiving its messages, but utterly disre- 
 garding their personal application. " What is the 
 chief end of man?*' "What is sin?" u What is 
 God?" Are not these fair questions? 
 
 This prejudice takes other and peculiar shapes, 
 in certain instances. In some one of your minds 
 it may define itself as a prejudice against certain 
 church members, whom you have known. And 
 so, you will have nothing to do with the church, 
 or with Christianity. As if a prejudice against 
 certain physicians, or quackeries, or against their 
 
MODERN INDIFFERENTISM. 261 
 
 patients even, should decide you to have nothing 
 to do with the healing art of medicine. Can you 
 not take a thought further and ask, what you w411 
 do when you are seized with some alarming sick- 
 ness? All this indifference may answer you to- 
 day, while you are well, and so ivell as to think 
 foolishly that you can never be sick. But when 
 death comes knocking at your door, with all the 
 symptoms of fatal malady — what then? All the 
 absurdities and inconsistencies of this or that prac- 
 titioner, or all your impressions against them as a 
 class, or against this or that school of medicine, 
 will not hinder you from availing yourself of what- 
 ever aid any of them can give you, in your hour 
 of awful disease and pain and death. 
 
 Or, you are prejudiced against the sects. And 
 you see and hear so much of controversy, and that 
 so sharply and shamefully conducted, evincing so 
 little of a Christian spirit — one party or interest 
 persecuting another, and making party name or 
 usage to be more than Christianity itself. The 
 doctrine is promulgated that the state is secular; 
 that religion has no business with the state, and 
 the state has no business with religion. And so it 
 is loudly claimed that there shall be no oaths in 
 court, no chaplains under the government, no Sab- 
 bath legalized, no Bible in the public schools and 
 no religion. But this is irreligion— -false religion. 
 And this irreligion is sectarian, bitterly and boldly 
 sectarian. 
 
 Take all the opposing forces in the great contro- 
 versv and is not Judaism sectarian, and Romanism? 
 
262 MODERN INDIFFERENTISM. 
 
 And is not infidelity a sect with its organizations, 
 its preaching, and its schools? And is this arrant 
 heathenism to be rolled in upon us under the guise 
 of secularizing our public institutions under the 
 state ? God forbid ! 
 
 But, therefore, you will have nothing to do with 
 the subject. And is it thus that you set aside 
 questions of political party, and great vital ques- 
 tions of government ? Will you have no govern- 
 ment because some secretaries or Congressmen are 
 corrupt? Will you dismiss the whole matter, and 
 form no opinion on the case in hand ? Ah ! I see 
 you eagerly canvassing the news, eagerly poring 
 over the arguments pro and con, and yourselves 
 joining in the controversies. And you judge the 
 controversies to be vital. And you do not hasten 
 to pronounce against the laws of the land, because 
 the sense and bearing of them may be sharply dis- 
 puted. No! You do not decide for anarchy, be- 
 cause government among a free people has always 
 led to strife of opinion, and even to conflicts at 
 arms! Oh, no! 
 
 But another type of the present prevalent indif- 
 ferentism is traceable to mere secularity. 
 
 Business-men are found ignoring altogether this 
 momentous subject, because it is not in the line of 
 their secular, commercial pursuits. To them it is 
 quite an outside matter. No time to attend to it, 
 no disposition to take it up. Just as little relish 
 for the inquiry as many a farmer or day-laborer 
 would have for inquiring into "the chemistry of 
 the sunbeam." You rule us out of court therefore. 
 
MODERN INDIFFERENTISM. 263 
 
 You will not entertain these vital questions. You 
 are prone to say, it is a question of words or of 
 names, of doctrines or denominations. And, there- 
 fore, you are caring for none of the doctrines, and 
 you are joining yourself in good earnest to none of 
 the denominations. Pity that a man should starve 
 because he can not decide what is the healthiest 
 food, or should perish in a wreck because there 
 are several life-boats launched, and he can not 
 choose between them. But you are perishing of 
 indifference. 
 
 You say, if it were a question of wrong — that is, 
 of wrong such as a business-man has to deal with 
 — wrong dealing in trade — or a question of govern- 
 ment wrong, of taxes and tariffs, or a question of 
 violated mercantile obligations; if it were a ques- 
 tion of any such practical moment, then, indeed, 
 reason would, that you should bear with us. 
 
 And is this, then, the high service to which rea- 
 son is confined, and is this the noble function of 
 man's divinest attribute, to occupy itself only with 
 the decimal fractions of profit and loss, only with 
 the system of trade and banking; to give up the 
 immortal soul to buying and selling, until the soul 
 itsdf is sold in the markets, as a chattel in the 
 shambles? Are these, then, the highest themes 
 of thought? And must nothing else claim supe- 
 rior attention ? And is it so, indeed, as the term 
 would seem to indicate, that, in this secular age 
 and among practical men, high intellectual and 
 religious speculation is crowded out by speculation 
 in the markets ? Will a man rob God ? 
 
264 MODERN INDIFFERENTISM. 
 
 The entire substance of many a man's creed is, 
 that " Honesty is the best policy," which, analyzed, 
 may mean merely that, in the long run, it pays 
 best to be honest; that as a stroke of policy it is 
 best — is found to turn out best for one's character 
 and influence, and standing as a business-man ; but 
 that apart from policy it is nothing. We preach to 
 you the Gospel of Christ, and you seem to say, 
 44 Give us some practical business question and we 
 will hear you. But these questions of words and 
 names — of justification, adoption, and sanctification, 
 of free grace and repentance and God and Christ; 
 these questions of religious law, or these questions 
 of church — one church or another — where no busi- 
 ness interest is involved; we must be excused from 
 these." 
 
 And then, indeed, is the church nothing, or worth 
 nothing more than the cost? Nothing to the com- 
 monwealth and community and city, nothing to 
 yourself, and your family? And is not this a 
 question of eminent practical account? Does it 
 not fairly involve and underlie all business ques- 
 tions and calculations? Ye practical men — busi- 
 ness-men — I ask you, is not here the great funda- 
 mental question of securities, the very bottom fact 
 of all bonds and all mortgages and all endorse- 
 ments? If you do not save society from rotten- 
 ness by this religion of Christ, can you save your 
 houses, or your claims, or your goods, or your 
 deposits ? 
 
 And what shall I say of this indifferentism when 
 it appears in woman — she who, of all the race, is 
 
MODERN INDIFFERENTISM. 265 
 
 most indebted to this Christianity ; she whose sex 
 has been so elevated and adorned by this religion, 
 as compared with the heathen society in Gallio's 
 time? That woman, made to be clinging and con- 
 fiding, as the vine and its tendrils, should repudi- 
 ate him who is the great prop of our humanity; 
 she that is given over so often to damaging alli- 
 ances, that she should disown this man of Bethany 
 — this brother, husband, Jesus Christ — and should 
 have her heart crushed by human treacheries, for 
 lack of such a Partner and Bosom Friend. That 
 woman, whose nature and ambition it is to shine 
 in society, should disregard God's direction how to 
 shine, as the firmament, and as the stars, forever 
 and ever, by turning many to righteousness; that 
 woman, whose nature is so ready to acknowledge 
 and requite favors with hearty gratitude, should 
 disdain to confess Christ and his dying love ; grate- 
 ful to friends and benefactors, only not grateful to 
 this Jesus ; that woman, whose brightest examples 
 in history are the Marys, last at the cross and first 
 at the sepulchre, whom the dying Lord last recog- 
 nized from his cross and to whom the risen Saviour 
 first appeared at the sepulchre — that she should 
 show no interest in him nor listen to his recogni- 
 tion by name; nay, that even with the seal of 
 baptism upon her forehead, she should not bow 
 to him, nor confess him as her Lord — this is the 
 most astounding — that she should bow her conse- 
 crated head to mammon, and yield herself a devotee 
 to the world, and give up her soul to vanity, till it 
 is hardened irrevocably against all the truth of 
 
266 MODERN INDIFFERENTISM. 
 
 God and heaven! This is incredible — horrible! 
 But it is so! 
 
 And yet the Marys, and the women that fol- 
 lowed him from Galilee, and the daughters of Je- 
 rusalem, are types of a large class — blessed be 
 God! I see hardened men passing by the cross 
 and wagging their heads, but the women smite 
 upon their breasts, bewailing and lamenting him, 
 and they keep guard at his sepulchre, and they 
 bring spices to embalm his corpse. 
 
 Alas ! for the woman whose chief ornament, 
 amidst all the parade and display of life, is lack- 
 ing — must always be lacking — till the soul finds 
 its proper affinity and the life its proper radiance 
 in Christ Jesus. She can least of all afford to 
 bring back upon us the barbarities of heathen- 
 ism. And yet, when these great questions of 
 Christianity are brought to the bar of her judg- 
 ment, I see her often, like Gallio, dismissing them 
 from her tribunal as matters with which she has 
 nothing' to do. If it were a question of social 
 wrong, according to the etiquette and conven- 
 tionalities of the day, she would call it reason- 
 able to enter into it with zest and interest. 
 
 And is this, then, the debasement of woman's 
 reason, in this Christian land, amidst these sanc- 
 tuaries? — the reason of the butterfly, to so pro- 
 nounce the body more than the soul, grace of 
 manner more than graces of the spirit, and Christ 
 and the judgment mere empty words and names? 
 
 My hearers, you will bear with us, if we plainly 
 declare that all this popular indifferentism of our 
 
MODERN INDIFFERENTISM. 267 
 
 day, which often prides itself in learning or prac- 
 tical wisdom, has its ground in igxoraxce. 
 
 This heathen Gallio was totally ignorant of 
 Christianity. And so he most inconsiderately and 
 rashly drove these men and all their religious ques- 
 tions from his tribunal. And he was even igno- 
 rant of the direct and immediate bearing of his 
 decision. In deciding to ignore the right, he inau- 
 gurated violence and crime. For at once, the mul- 
 titude, emboldened by his heathen ruling, rushed 
 upon the Jewish leaders, and beat them in the 
 very presence of the judgment-seat. And there, 
 at once, was a question of wrong and of flagrant 
 crime, which it behooved him to recognize at court, 
 Only, if you banish religion as a matter of trivial 
 concern, then you must entertain the whole list 
 of criminal questions, as they rush for adjudication, 
 from the mobs of unrestrained violence. 
 
 Look at Pilate, the proud Koman procurator, 
 who can have nothing to do with what he deems 
 a mere idle Jewish controversy — u Take ye him, 
 and judge him according to your law." Pity upon 
 his ignorance ! Oh, if he knew that he has Jesus 
 in hand, and that this Jesus is the glorious God- 
 man, Son of God, the blessed impersonation of 
 truth and love and law and order, then, instead 
 of wildly asking, "What is truth?" he would have 
 clasped him, like the aged Simeon, to his arms, 
 and thrown around him the high protection of the 
 Roman power. The Scripture itself says, " If the 
 princes of this world had known, they would not 
 have crucified the Lord of Glory." 
 
268 MODERN INDIFFERENTISM. 
 
 And all this affected advance in science — has it 
 discovered indeed that there is no God? It is only 
 the fool who says it. And he says it only in his 
 heart, ashamed if the profane and blasphemous 
 atheism comes up to his lips ! Is this, indeed, 
 the dignity of true learning? Is this the noble- 
 ness of a highly cultivated and well furnished in- 
 tellect? Are these the modern Magi, who come 
 to Bethlehem, to turn Jesus out of the stable, when 
 he has found no room in the inn? Lord Bacon 
 has well said, " A little philosophy inclineth man's 
 mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bring- 
 eth men's minds about to religion." Sir Isaac 
 Newton answered the whole host of free-thinkers, 
 when he answered the infidel Halley, in those cut- 
 ting words, " I have studied these things, and you 
 have not." And so the late Dr. Hamilton pro- 
 foundly remarked, " It is easy for a sciolist to be 
 a sceptic; but it is not easy for a well-informed 
 historian to reject the records of faith." But this 
 air of indifferentism is, with many, only the thin 
 disguise of a troubled soul. 
 
 Pilate, pacing the judgment-hall — restive, vacil- 
 lating, with all his convictions on the side of Jesus, 
 and yet swayed by the multitude to give him up 
 to death — he is the type of such. Brought by this 
 preached Gospel and by all these Christian institu- 
 tions and ordinances and influences to confront 
 Jesus face to face, they had rather he were oft" 
 their hands, rather they had no verdict to render 
 in his case. They would give no decision against 
 him. They can take no responsibility for him. 
 
MODERN INDIFFERENTISM. 269 
 
 Any public espousal of his cause they are not pre- 
 pared for. They will only, as a last resort, let the 
 mob take their course and crucify him, while they 
 will wash their hands of the blood! They will 
 take no active interest in his cause, amidst the pre- 
 vailing clamor of his enemies, and they will flatter 
 themselves that they have at least pronounced him 
 innocent. 
 
 My hearers, the witness is within you, as part 
 of your own souls, that these themes that we 
 preach to you are the highest articles of truth, 
 most worthy your immediate attention and em- 
 brace. Better postpone any other questions than 
 postpone these. All other interests are questions 
 of names, and words, and of human laws. But 
 these are the questions of right and wrong, of 
 good and evil, of happiness and misery, of life and 
 death eternal. Reason, in the exercise of her high- 
 est function, protests that you shall postpone busi- 
 ness and postpone pleasure, postpone health and 
 wealth, postpone even the claims of home and 
 friends, and let the dead bury their dead, while this 
 grand, paramount question of the soul and of your 
 relations to God shall be settled for time and eter- 
 nity. Oh ! when you shall stand before the judg- 
 ment-seat of the universe, and shall find it to be 
 the judgment-seat of Christ, then — if not before — 
 when it is too late, you will care for all of these 
 things. 
 
XVI. 
 
 THE JOY OF GOD'S SALVATION. 
 
 "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with 
 thy free spirit; then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners 
 shall be converted unto thee." — Psalm li. 12-13. 
 
 True religion in the heart and life is essentially 
 a ivell-spring of joy. However it may have been 
 misunderstood hj the world, or misinterpreted even 
 by its adherents in this respect, this is still its lead- 
 ing feature — that it is a joy forever. Not the mere 
 sensational pleasure which is misnamed joy — an 
 externa], adventitious thing that comes and goes 
 as the sunshine among the clouds — but a living 
 principle, a quality of the new nature, which thus 
 becomes a vital force and works out its glad results. 
 
 Did not angels, who are the very impersonations 
 of happiness, declare it to be good tidings of great 
 joy ? And even the Man of Sorrows, who repre- 
 sented it on earth, did not he show himself to be 
 also the Man of Joys, abounding in a deep, inward, 
 inexhaustible peace — a peace that made him calm 
 as the summer morning amidst implacable foes 
 and in the very near prospect of a bitter crucifix- 
 ion? And did he not pass up to heaven in the 
 very act of blessing his people with peace — his 
 own peace — in the very attitude of benediction, 
 
THE JOY OF GOD'S SALVATION. 271 
 
 with his high-priestly hands yet extended to indi- 
 cate that this was the office- work he would carry 
 on in glory — shedding down blessings on them, 
 even as "ivhile he blessed them, he was parted from 
 them" ? 
 
 Whence comes it that the world will shrink 
 away from this Gospel of glad tidings as though 
 it were bad tidings— decline its proposals of living 
 pleasure and of eternal bliss as though it were noth- 
 ing but privation, sacrifice, hardship, tears, and ter- 
 rors? Do they not know that Jesus came on earth 
 to restore the ruins of the fall ; to drive away fam- 
 ine and disease and sorrow as well as sin, which 
 is the parent of them all ; to turn our water into 
 wine, and to set up in the human breast, the do- 
 minion of all that is peaceful and blessed forever ? 
 
 True, there is self-denial to be practised, but it 
 is only the denial of the evil self, where the in- 
 dulgence would bring pain, or lead into tempta- 
 tion, and work alienation from God; and where the 
 denial would install a living, permanent pleasure 
 in the soul. And so it does occur, that where the 
 Prince of Peace enthrones himself in the human 
 bosom, there evil passions come to be more and 
 more hushed, the tumults and strifes of the breast 
 are quieted, and all the faculties are reduced to 
 harmony; and the soul, at peace with itself and 
 at peace with God, becomes a living instrument 
 all in tune, discoursing heavenly music. 
 
 Nor is it by any means a inere future joy which 
 the Gospel preaches and which we offer unto men. 
 So they imagine it to be who think it is enough 
 
272 THE JOY OF GOD'S SALVATION. 
 
 if they can snatch a passport to heaven at the dy- 
 ing moment. But the joy is meant to be a present 
 reality — now — every moment welling up within, 
 and only at length, merging into eternal relations 
 and projecting itself on an infinite scale. 
 
 Has any one thought that the joy of heaven is 
 a mere local joy, belonging to a happy place, and 
 that you could just enter in there and find it — the 
 melody of sweet sounds, the charm of rapturous 
 sights, the bliss of some supernatural ecstasy into 
 which the soul is taken up to the third heaven as 
 in a trance? And do you mean, then, that if by 
 some peradventure, Judas, from his fiendish, de- 
 spairing death could just have gotten entrance at 
 that golden gateway he would have been made 
 "perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of God 
 to all eternity ?" No. No! 
 
 Have we not seen that you may take a man from 
 the street and seat him down amidst the festivi- 
 ties of the most joyous circle of earth, where fond 
 friends are full of loving and blissful communion, 
 and every element of earthly pleasure gushes up 
 there to the brim — wealth, beauty, banqueting, 
 music, loving tones of friendship — so that the very 
 air of the halls is laden with the rapture, and is 
 that stranger happy because he has been ushered 
 in there ? No. No ! But miserable, just because 
 he is a stranger, just in proportion to the contrast 
 which he feels in himself to all that friendly com- 
 munion of kindred hearts. He is as much already 
 thrust out into the outer darkness as though he 
 were banished from the brilliant company. Nay, 
 
THE JOY OF GOD'S SALVATION. 273 
 
 it would seem even a relief to him from the insuf- 
 ferable brightness and from the gross contradic- 
 tion, if he could but be turned out into the dark 
 street again. That was Christ's parable of the 
 man without the wedding garment — of the guests 
 out of place, miserable. Hence, it is not heaven 
 as a place so much as heaven as a state that is rep- 
 resented to us in the Scriptures. And therefore, it 
 may be, God has not chosen to tell us what glori- 
 ous planet he has fitted up with the many man- 
 sions, only that it is where Christ is, and where all 
 the good and blest in all the universe shall be with 
 him forever. 
 
 You must carry heaven within you, in the germ 
 and living principle at least, or it will not develop 
 itself under any heavenly sky or any celestial in- 
 fluence whatever. While it is all of grace yet it 
 is only as a man soiveth heaven that he shall also 
 reap heaven. It is not the joy of a place for which 
 the Psalmist prays in the text. It is the joy of 
 God's salvation. 
 
 We need only advert to some of the commonest 
 elements of this Christian joy as a joy in God's 
 salvation, and it will be seen that it reaches far 
 above all ordinary sources of pleasure. 
 
 The joy of a soul at peace within, its own dis- 
 cordant principles brought into harmony with all 
 that is truly blessed in the universe, having its 
 affinity with God, seeking its pleasure in his per- 
 fections and having its will attuned to his — this, 
 at once, takes highest ground as a great step 
 heavenward, and gets the joy already as a life, 
 18 
 
274 THE JOY OF GOD'S SALVATION. 
 
 an inward principle, a quality of the soul. It is 
 no longer then a happening, as worldly happiness, 
 so called, most commonly is; it is a being — a bless- 
 edness in actual, living possession. This is the 
 first joy of God's salvation. 
 
 And then there is the joy of pardoned sin. You 
 have only to contrast this with the tortures of an 
 accusing conscience and you may know what is 
 the blessedness of "the man whose iniquities are 
 forgiven and whose sin is covered"; who has heard 
 the blissful sentence as from the very lips of Christ 
 — "Thy sins are forgiven thee. Go in peace." 
 
 This is not the altogether doubting and doubt- 
 ful exercise which commonly passes current as the 
 Christian hope, with nothing fixed, nothing confi- 
 dent, and hence, no rest to the soul, no love, be- 
 cause no assurance of Christ's love — no joy nor 
 peace, because no security; but it is the sense of 
 pardon as a fact founded on the great facts re- 
 vealed in the Gospel and surely ascertained to us 
 in the record which God hath given of his Son — 
 "And this is the record that God hath given to us, 
 
 eternal life, and this life is in his Son 
 
 that ye may know that ye have eternal life." 
 Unto them that believe Christ is precious, and 
 they to whom Christ is precious, they are true 
 believers. The apostle says: "We joy in God 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have 
 now received the atonement," It is no self-joy, 
 no flattering self-gratulation in frames and exer- 
 cises that are counted acceptable to God. The 
 object is outside of self. 
 
THE JOY OF GOD'S SALVATION. 275 
 
 This is a high felicity to such that sends one 
 singing to his daily business and even to the com- 
 mon hardships of life, that emboldens one to lift 
 his face toward the heaven and to rejoice in God, 
 that quenches a thousand nameless heartburnings, 
 distresses, doubts, and banishes a world of fears. 
 
 This is no mere future thing, beginning only in 
 the remote hereafter, postponed till eternity as the 
 fruit of a life without joy or peace. No ! It sets 
 the heart, at once, leaping and bounding in the 
 consciousness of pardon. It is not rest alone — nor 
 peace alone. It is all these and more. It is a 
 well-spring of active, exulting joy! 
 
 And so, thirdly, there is the positive abounding 
 joy of the Christian life. /-.-;" 
 
 Think for a moment what is the legitimate bless- 
 edness of such a new and heavenly nature in the 
 active service of God — calling God Father, mov- 
 ing in sympathy with the highest good, and enter- 
 ing already into the joy of Christ himself, each 
 becoming in his sphere a Saviour. This is it — 
 " Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. My 
 peace I leave with you" — the peace of the Prince 
 of Peace — "that my joy might remain in you" — 
 the joy of the exulting, victorious Redeemer, tri- 
 umphing over the world, the flesh and the devil 
 and entering into his rest. 
 
 And then the joy of Christian trust. The per- 
 fect peace of a mind that is stayed on God, the 
 peace flowing like a river, with an interest in a 
 covenant u ordered in all things and sure," certified 
 of all things working together for good, guaran- 
 
276 THE JOY OF GOD'S SALVATION. 
 
 teed against all real evil even where there may be 
 the threatening of it and the seeming of it, as- 
 sured beforehand of never having any real good 
 thing withheld; though poverty may come and be- 
 reavement, yea, death itself, yet by all the divine 
 attributes, as God is able to control all elements 
 and resources, warranted against the lack of any 
 real benefit or blessing whatever — this is another 
 element of the Christian joy. Though the trouble 
 be great, though it be the sum of all trouble in 
 one, yet staying the soul on God, equally as in 
 small troubles — in six not onlv, but in seven — 
 confident that Christ can bear our great burdens 
 as well as our small ones, just as the ocean bears 
 on its bosom the stateliest ship as easily as the 
 light sea -weed, just as the sun bathes with its 
 golden glory the huge mountains as easily as the 
 mole-hill 
 
 And then, this living in the atmosphere of Chris- 
 tian love, this must needs be a joyous living — a 
 most enriching method indeed, by which others' 
 joy is entered into and rejoiced in and made our 
 own, and so the vast amount accumulates, by this 
 power of reduplication, until there is absolutely no 
 limit to which the mighty aggregate can be con- 
 fined, but the soul has seemed to enter into the joy 
 of every other happy ransomed soul, and has risen 
 even to share the joy of the great Ransomer himself. 
 
 What wonder that such an one attains, under 
 God, to the sublime power of rejoicing in tribula- 
 tions also! That seems only a rude act of violence 
 where the bow is drawn over the cords of the 
 
THE JOY OF GOD'S SALVATION. 277 
 
 stringed instrument. But then you see the artist 
 with the other hand quietly touching the several 
 chords as if knowing just where the music lies. 
 And this brings forth from the mysterious depths 
 the most exquisite melodies, even under the rough- 
 est sweeping of the strings. 
 
 And then, not only to be living in the constant 
 sense of pardon and deliverance, but beaming in 
 the smiles of God, and sharing in the felicity of an- 
 gels' work, and looking forward all the while to 
 this pleasure in perfection — the holiness without a 
 spot, the blessedness without a limit or interrup- 
 tion forever — this is the Christian's joy. All this 
 and more is comprised in the joy of God's salva- 
 tion. All joy of earth does merely hint of this and 
 somehow image it forth. It is the joy of infancy 
 reposing on the parental bosom, the joy of youth- 
 ful ardor and vigor in a glad service, the joy of 
 the student solving his problems and drinking in 
 knowledge to the depths, the joy of the merchant 
 buying wine and milk without money — seeking 
 and finding goodly pearls, the joy of the soldier 
 covered all over with the laurels of daily victories, 
 the joy of the shipwrecked mariner picked up from 
 the boiling deep and riding beautifully into port, 
 the joy of the prodigal son welcomed home. 
 
 And now, I say, all this exulting, abounding joy 
 belongs of right to every believer, as a rightful 
 partaker of God's salvation. It is a blissful experi- 
 ence that he is warranted and invited to enter into. 
 
 But while I say this, I know full well that many 
 have it only in a very inferior degree. They have 
 
278 THE JOY OF GOD'S SALVATION. 
 
 never as yet read properly the Gospel warrant, and, 
 therefore, they have not entered into the full sat- 
 isfaction. As if one had his warrant to draw a 
 million pounds and had read it as being only for 
 others and not for himself, or for himself only on 
 some impossible condition, or only in some other 
 frame and experience; or as if he had read it as 
 being for a hundred pence instead of for a million 
 pounds and, therefore, had gone starving in the 
 very lap of privilege — rich, but not knowing the 
 fall fads of his heritage and, therefore, not abound- 
 ing in the joy. 
 
 So, I know, there are others, and many of them, 
 who have once been possessors of this joy, but have 
 lost it. 
 
 • Look at this language of the text ! Here is the 
 man after God's own heart, contemplating for him- 
 self a work of aggressive piety in the world, but 
 his soul is paralyzed and his path is darkened by 
 sin. How can he preach peace to others when his 
 own breast is not at peace! How can he celebrate 
 the glad salvation when his iniquity, like a spec- 
 tre, rises up before him, and confronts him at every 
 step ! How many a sublime and joyous psalm 
 has he sung in glowing numbers, rehearsing God's 
 praises in the ear of the worldling and wayward ! 
 But his mouth is silenced now to all this ! He has 
 sinned! And now, he can only wail out his bitter 
 relentings into the ear of the God whom he has 
 wronged. The world scoffs at him and will take 
 no warning at his lips. What can he do ? He 
 would fain teach transgressors God's ways, but he 
 
THE JOY OF GOD'S SALVATION. 279 
 
 himself is now a transgressor. What must he have 
 for this aggressive piety on earth ? What element 
 of Christian life is it that he most intensely craves 
 and for which he cries out in the agony of his 
 soul ? It is joy— Christian joy — the joy of God's 
 salvation! How can the blackened prism reflect 
 the sun-ray? But only let it be clear, so that 
 God's own light can enter into it and penetrate 
 its whole substance, and then, from every side 
 and angle of its surface, it Avill give out from its 
 crystal depths not only the light, but that light 
 divided and distributed in all the beauteous colors 
 of the rainbow. 
 
 I know not what was the style of your first love, 
 or your early joy in God — but ivhere is it, even 
 such as you then had? What has quenched it 
 that you now have lost the bounding step and 
 eager purpose and go no longer singing to your 
 daily duties in the blessedness of God's salvation? 
 It may be some secret sin that is slowly eating 
 out the life of your piety. It may be that this is 
 why you have no open, cheerful, outspoken utter- 
 ance for Christ — that you have cherished some vile 
 passion, or have omitted daily Christian devotions, 
 or have absented yourself from the places of spirit- 
 ual refreshing, and thus you may have wilfully lost 
 all sweet and holy communion with God. I only 
 know that, for the most part, such a joyous, exult- 
 ant piety is sadly lacking from among us. Your 
 faces are lighted up with other and fickle pleas- 
 ures, rather than irradiated all the year long with 
 this glory of the divine life in the soul. 
 
280 THE JOY OF GOD'S SALVATION. 
 
 Come up now and understand your privilege. 
 You own every thing in Christ if you own any 
 thing in him. If you are a Christian, then all 
 things are yours — the world is yours, life is yours, 
 death is yours, things present are yours, things 
 to come are yours. And if you are not a Chris- 
 tian, nothing is yours, nothing. Only wake up to 
 consider wdiat you might have, ought to have, 
 must have, to enter fully into the great salvation, 
 and then come up to the mercy-seat asking to get 
 hack what you have shamefully lost — that heav- 
 enly transport that once was yours, that luxury in 
 doing good, that peace flowing like a river, that 
 joy in God, that glorying in tribulations even, and 
 that bright and blessed earnest of heaven. Ask 
 to get it back. You need it — you can have it ! It 
 is only the son asking for his father's bread and 
 bounty, as he comes in, sick of the husks. 
 
 If it be indeed some master sin that has enslaved 
 you, that has made the precious promises distaste- 
 ful and heaven itself to you no longer as a prize to 
 be gained, or a crown to be won ; if you are just 
 sitting, as the son of such a Parent, satisfied among 
 the swine, there is yet left to you this one grand 
 resource — the Father's house and heart. You are 
 a son, even though a prodigal son, and you have 
 just to be up and return, with your soul full of 
 confessions, and you shall yet be received to that 
 Father's bosom as a son and be welcomed to the 
 son's share in the Father's bread and bounty. 
 
 And, already you are anticipating the change 
 which such abounding Christian joy would work 
 
THE JOY OF GOD'S SALVATION. 281 
 
 in your daily living. The joy of the Lord is your 
 strength. How it would needs show itself as a vital 
 force, prompting you to a bold and joyous profes- 
 sion of Christ in all your living, and lifting your 
 banner to the breeze — not ashamed of Jesus, not 
 backward but forward in duty, not listless but jubi- 
 lant in the proper aggression of the church upon 
 the world, like a triumphant banner — doing just 
 what you have so egregiously omitted in the proper 
 publishing of his Gospel to fellow-sinners. 
 
 For such a brimming joy would be in itself a 
 Gospel sermon. That sunshine of the soul would 
 reflect from a thousand points the sun. It would 
 sit on the face like a beam of glory from the skies. 
 It would lift up its banner inscribed with the name 
 of a covenant God. So it would march to every 
 new conflict, rejoicing in the Captain of Salvation. 
 It would sing out, in the bounding step, full many 
 a gentle, gracious Gospel message, and would go 
 to others as melting i$iusic where you might not 
 speak a word. 
 
 The silent, unconscious influence of such a heav- 
 en-lit life is powerful. It is often more than argu- 
 ment. It is the mute testimony, like that which the 
 stars give to the power and love of their Creator, 
 
 " Forever singing as they shine, 
 The hand that made us is divine." 
 
 I have seen it — where a Christian man has 
 walked the street with his head erect and his 
 countenance aglow with a cheerful piety, seeming 
 to go shining and singing, like the sun in his daily 
 
282 THE JOY OF GOD'S SALVATION. 
 
 course, and I have taken that to be a living dem- 
 onstration which no sophistry can break down or 
 dare dispute. I know not how else the face of 
 dying Stephen was sunny and beaming, "as it had 
 been the face of an angel," unless it were by this 
 radiance and glow of the martyr joy that already 
 sat upon his brow. 
 
 And then, you need to crave also tlie upholding 
 of God's/ree Spirit, that sweetly stirring agency in 
 the human bosom which, at the same time that it 
 makes the soul buoyant with a conscious freedom 
 and gives it alacrity for every good work, freely 
 upbears it from all stumbling. God's free Spirit 
 which is in utter contradiction to the spirit of 
 bondage and fear — a spirit of filial confidence and 
 filial love that can not be hampered by doubts and 
 restraints, but plants itself in the facts of Christ's 
 finished work, and walks at liberty — free as air, 
 this you must crave as the living source and sus- 
 tainer of your joy, that you may not fall any more 
 into the bondage of some evil passion, or of some 
 foul accusation of Satan, but may stand fast in the 
 liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free, and 
 daily go forth to duty as the freedman of Jesus 
 Christ — for, "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there 
 is liberty," and the fruit of the Spirit — that which 
 it brings forth in the Christian heart and life, as 
 naturally as the vine brings forth its clusters — the 
 fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. 
 
 And, secondly : Such an abounding joy will nat- 
 urally express itself in word and action — "Out of 
 the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh;" 
 
THE JOY OF GOD'S SALVATION. 283 
 
 and one who is revelling in trie divine pleasures 
 will needs make it known. 
 
 This inward pressure, this divine and loving con- 
 straint, will set one publishing the Gospel to those 
 who also might be gladdened by the good news. 
 This Gospel makes the tongue of the dumb sing. 
 And the singing becomes an eloquent proclaiming 
 of the message, in the very style of the angels; 
 not prosy, not gloomy, but joyous; not harsh, but 
 melodious. 
 
 This was probably the strain in which the mul- 
 titude broke out in that remarkable gift of tongues 
 at Pentecost — all reciting in high and jubilant 
 measures the wonderful works of God. And, while 
 their full souls exulted in the praises of his life and 
 death and resurrection and ascension, that Gospel 
 song carried with it a double power with the hear- 
 ers. It was their' testimony, and it was their joyous 
 testimony. It was tidings — it was glad tidings, 
 and it was glad tidings of great joy, rehearsed by 
 glad tongues. 
 
 And it would seem that these joyous demon- 
 strations are what the church may look for again, 
 and at once, as the signs of the Spirit's work and 
 the means of his further working. And men shall 
 come together again, at such outbursts of God's 
 people, and say: "How hear Ave every man in our 
 own tongue in which we were born, declaring the 
 wonderful works of God." 
 
 Ah! It is the dull, sluggish, heavy tone of for- 
 mal prayer and praise that makes the testimony 
 powerless. We do not abound as we ought in 
 
284 THE JOY OF GOD'S SALVATION. 
 
 praises — private, domestic, social, public praises of 
 God. The " hosannas languish on our tongues 
 and our devotion dies." And then, what wonder 
 that the highest doctrine palls on the ear of the 
 multitude, and the weightiest truth carries no con- 
 viction at our lips? Are we aiming to be only 
 "proper" Christians, when souls of men are at 
 stake? Is it only the genteel air and manner of 
 devotion that we seek, afraid to venture a word 
 with a perishing fellow-sinner aside from the rule 
 of propriety we have laid down for ourselves? As 
 though the command of God to us were just to 
 make as little stir as possible with our religion, 
 and to tell no man of him! As though the oath 
 by which we had bound ourselves in the church 
 aisle were an oath to keep the profoundest secrecy, 
 lest this rich mine of God's treasure might be dug 
 by too many. 
 
 Give us the abounding joy, as a new baptism of 
 the church, this holy anointing with the oil of the 
 guest chamber and the banquet of Christ, and then 
 the publisher will go forth — they can not help it 
 — just as the whole array of the starry heavens, as 
 they go out on their bright and gladsome courses, 
 go singing as the^y shine; just as all the daughters 
 of music that throng the forest, while they sing 
 out their own joys, are publishing God's goodness 
 and glory in the spring-time. 
 
 And so, finally: this abounding Christian joy 
 will give a freeness and freshness and heartiness 
 in the divine service. Trammels, hindrances, re- 
 straints will be broken through. The soul that 
 
THE JOY OF GOD'S SALVATION. 285 
 
 lias been long sluggish and could not move in 
 any work of evangelizing others, will take to the 
 wing and rise above all common barriers. 
 
 It is time to have done with the cold constraint 
 of mere law and duty in the divine service. There 
 must be a higher, nobler impulse if Ave would 
 please God or prevail with men. We need to 
 feel the stimulus of Christ's love to us, with all 
 its overpowering force. We live too near the day 
 of glorious revelation, we border too closely upon 
 the coming of the Son of Man, and the coming in 
 of the full and eternal salvation, to be utterly hold- 
 ing our peace. We need now to be catching the 
 animation of the other side, to be hearing the 
 music of the celestial city, as we near the shores, 
 "for now is our salvation nearer than when we 
 believed." 
 
 And many of us have lived long enough at ease, 
 and idle in the church, if we are ever to do any 
 good and great thing for God and for souls. I 
 know no other remedy for all the shameful dul- 
 ness and apathy of the time than just to get back, 
 at least, the joy of God's salvation that we once 
 had, and then to get it increased till it shall be 
 full to the brim and overrunning — the joy that 
 belongs of right to the salvation in every case — ■ 
 and then you, yourselves, can well imagine with 
 what alacrity, cheerfulness and zest you would go 
 singing out your testimony to the power of God's 
 grace. And the glad hosannas would no more lan- 
 guish on your tongue, and then your labor with 
 others would be a shining success. Sinners would 
 
286 THE JOY OF GOD'S SALVATION. 
 
 throng to join the bannered ranks, they would be 
 professing Christ, as they are not now, while no 
 song is on your lips, no sunlight on your counte- 
 nance, no singing in your step, no banners lifted 
 up in triumph, and no music in your heart and life. 
 They would come flocking around your standard, 
 longing to enter into your joy and into your ser- 
 vice of song, and to be sharers with you of the 
 great salvation. Your life would accost them as a 
 hymn of praise to Christ, ten thousand times more 
 melodious and winning than all the most ravish- 
 ing arts of formal worship. It is in such a glad 
 array that the church w r ould go forth, " clear as 
 the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army 
 with banners." And this would be the glad work- 
 ing. You w r ould be telling your joys and others 
 would be asking after the like joys for themselves. 
 They that hear you singing, in all the round of 
 your living devotions — " Nearer my God to thee," 
 will echo the strain, " nearer to thee." 
 
 And now, my brethren, consider in this light, 
 the duty of Christian joy. 
 
 You think of it as a rare privilege which you are 
 denied, which belongs perhaps only to the far-off 
 heights of Christian advancement, where they get 
 upon the last round of the ladder and step on the 
 threshold of heaven. But heaven is not a definite 
 distance off, like the sun or moon. You can bring 
 it as near as you will. But you do not apply your- 
 selves to the duty of heavenly joy. And so you 
 go, getting only at best the occasional thrill of a 
 pleasure which is your lawful heritage. And so 
 
THE JOY OF GOD'S SALVATION. 287 
 
 you are cramped in your activities and cold in 
 your devotions. Would you not already begin the 
 celestial anthem, "Worthy is the Lamb, that was 
 slain?" 
 
 In the economy of grace, God's children are 
 commanded to go along, singing to their daily 
 work Even the martyrs go to the stake hymn- 
 ing the praises of their Redeemer. And it is Satan 
 who tells you that if you are a Christian you have 
 no right to smile and be buoyant. And just by 
 such a foul falsehood he cuts the nerves of your 
 exertion. Christian joy seeks expression in Chris- 
 tian work, and the work again brings revenues 
 of joy, and this constitutes the bright circles in 
 which the Christian goes through his round of 
 duty. And so, along all the ranks of Christ's army, 
 goes the command — u Rejoice in the Lord always; 
 and again I say, rejoice." 
 
 Why should not the church, even while it is mil- 
 itant, lift up her standard in the name of her cove- 
 nant God, and peal out her stirring music as a glad 
 testimony of the glad tidings, instead of marching, 
 like a captive host, with arms reversed and drums 
 muffled and banners trailing in the dust? Shall I 
 say, God asks for a revenue of glory from the re- 
 joicings of his children? And Jesus pronounced 
 his blessing upon the infant voices when they 
 made the old temple ring with his praises. To 
 him one such burst of hosannas was more than all 
 the majestic orchestra of the temple. That, he 
 said, is praise perfected out of the mouth of babes 
 — that is strength ordained from lips of sucklings, 
 
288 THE JOY OF GOD'S SALVATION. 
 
 that has power to still the enemy and the avenger 
 more than an armed host. 
 
 The more we drink the cup of Christian joy, the 
 more do we obey the divine injunction. And this 
 at once sends us on our way publishing the great 
 salvation just by giving expression to the joy of 
 that salvation. So that the work of the Christian 
 life is essentially cheerful and, so far from being 
 a drudgery, it is not only a luxury, but a high 
 necessity. 
 
XVII. 
 
 EVERY MAN HIS OWN BUILDER. 
 
 "If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he 
 shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he 
 shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire." 
 — I Cor. hi. 14-15. 
 
 Every man is a builder, whether he will or not. 
 Some fabric he is erecting busily, day by day, at 
 all seasons and by all means. He is laying his 
 hand to a work of some sort, and silently and 
 steadily it goes up to its completion — the result 
 of all his thought and all his activity, the expres- 
 sion of all his character. 
 
 Noah was the builder of an ark, according to the 
 divine direction, which was to be his ark of refuge 
 and his home of safety to outride the deluge of 
 God's wrath. By that work, it is said, he con- 
 demned the world of foolish builders and false 
 builders who rear no ark for eternity. 
 
 The Psalmist celebrates the coming Messiah as 
 the stone which the builders refused and which 
 was to become the head of the corner — the chief 
 corner-stone in the true temple of God. And then, 
 farther, Jesus is declared by the prophets to be a 
 stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure 
 19 
 
290 EVERY MAN HIS OWN BUILDER. 
 
 foundation for every man to build upon for eter- 
 nity. And then, when Jesus himself came, he 
 spake a parable to show the consummate wisdom 
 of building one's house upon a rock, because that 
 house is to comprise a man's dearest interests, it 
 is to be the sacred enclosure of his home. The 
 hearth-stone of his domestic life is to be there, the 
 circle of his children. And by all that there is 
 centred, of most surpassing value to him, must be 
 the arrant folly of building his house upon the 
 sand. 
 
 A day of trial is coming, my brethren. It can 
 not always be sunshine and peace. There must 
 be also stormy tests and fiery tribulations. Tem- 
 pests will blow that will rock the building to its 
 base. Fires will burn that shall consume all that 
 is combustible about it. 
 
 The apostle is speaking, in the text, of the differ- 
 ent structures which men may erect upon the one 
 only true foundation. 
 
 He is speaking, primarily, of ministerial buiWlers, 
 whose function it is to set before men the one only 
 foundation for them to build upon, or, as under 
 workmen to carry up different parts of the great 
 spiritual temple in the world. They may build 
 into the wall, he says, various materials of doc- 
 trine or of membership — either the precious gold 
 and silver and the splendid stones of porphyry and 
 jasper such as form the foundations of the New 
 Jerusalem, or they may build into it the merest 
 rubbish of error and of false profession, which the 
 fire will utterly consume. 
 
EVERY MAN HIS OWN BUILDER. 291 
 
 But the principle applies no less to church mem- 
 bers than to ministers, no less to private build- 
 ers and buildings than to public ones. Individual 
 Christians may be building various structures even 
 upon the same Jesus Christ as a foundation. This 
 is also the teaching of the text. 
 
 First, then, we learn that it is not enough for a 
 man to have his hope in Jesus Christ. 
 
 One must build upon him to get the advantage 
 of the foundation which he is, to be resting upon 
 no other. This is rather a negative thing. To be 
 resting one's hope upon Christ so far as one has 
 any hope, this is not enough. Is there, in such 
 case, any hope at all, properly so called — under- 
 stood as compounded of desire and of expectation 
 also? Many an one in the church has no hope, be- 
 cause that which he calls a hope has no element in 
 it of expectancy. It sets its telescope to no glorious 
 world of light; it deals with no daily evidence and 
 has no habitual substantiation of the things hoped 
 for, as a true faith is wont to substantiate them. 
 You might say that such an one has Christ for 
 his foundation, but for the foundation of ichat? 
 No building is seen going up and daily develop- 
 ing its Christian proportions under the workman's 
 hand. 
 
 What then? This foundation, w^hich is Jesus 
 Christ, is not alone the doctrine of Christ as the 
 Messiah, nor is it alone even the doctrine of his 
 finished work; much less is it a mere church con- 
 nection. It is all this and more. It is the per- 
 sonal, living Jesus Christ himself, just as he claims 
 
292 EVERY MAN HIS OWN BUILDER. 
 
 to be the personal, living Way, and the personal, 
 living Truth, and the very personal Life itself 
 And so it is not possible to have this foundation 
 lying idle and unoccupied, as you may see some 
 deserted foundation that lies awaiting for a long 
 time its superstructure, and so is wasting away 
 under the power of the elements and going to 
 dilapidation. No ! Jesus can not be such a foun- 
 dation, just because he is a personal, living founda- 
 tion — as a vine can not be for long years without a 
 branch, because it is a living vine. It is a foun- 
 dation that "groweth unto a holy temple in the 
 Lord." 
 
 Observe, secondly : Jesus Christ is to serve a man 
 as a foundation to his building. 
 
 The first question is, as to whether he will build 
 on the rock Christ Jesus, or on some shifting sand ; 
 whether he will carry up his life-long work on the 
 solid basis of Christ's finished work, or whether lie 
 will choose some sea-beach for his location, where 
 the dashing surf shall rise and sweep away both 
 the house and the foundation itself. He can not 
 escape being a builder, and here is the gracious 
 provision — to have this massive, immovable foun- 
 dation-work all readv to one's hand, all its outline 
 determining the ground plan of the structure — 
 tower and buttress and doorway — all marked out, 
 so as that he has only to follow the base-line in 
 carrying up the walls, and then to have the pre- 
 cious corner-stone binding together the walls them- 
 selves that rest upon it. 
 
 And, if he have even chosen Christ to build 
 
EVERY MAN HIS OWN BUILDER. 293 
 
 upon, then it is still for him to take heed lioio 
 he builds upon him. For, still, the superstructure 
 may be very inappropriate to the foundation. The 
 man may dream that all is well if he put up any 
 worthless fabric upon so goodly a base, or if he 
 put up none at all. But the fabric ought to be 
 such an one as is worthy of the base, else it will 
 stand condemned by it. The foundation is given 
 him not to dispense with his own labor, but just 
 to invite his labor upon such a noble ground-work ; 
 not to be all the work, but the fundamental part 
 of the work. And so the edifice is to rise under 
 the builder's hand as a Christian fabric, in all its 
 beautiful and comely proportions ; always outlined 
 and stayed and supported by this living, substan- 
 tial foundation, which is Christ Jesus. 
 
 Who can estimate the grace that presents to 
 every man such an advantage of grounding him- 
 self upon Jesus, upoir his perfect merit, upon his 
 finished work, so that he may have his house go 
 up upon the Rock of Ages — sure of standing firm 
 amidst the flood and unshaken by the wreck of the 
 globe. Think of having it freely granted to a poor 
 sinner to build upon him whose goings forth have 
 been from of old — from everlasting. And then to 
 build after his pattern and model so as to have the 
 building shaped and outlined by his own human 
 example. 
 
 And then, further, to feel that he has a plan for 
 each of us. So that he stands the supervisor and 
 architect of our own personal structure, and his 
 great thoughts of love are daily working in prov- 
 
29± EVERY MAN HIS OWX BUILDER 
 
 idence t guide and shape the fabric tha: Lb g ing 
 up under our hai- ifi afl cur life-work for eternity. 
 And, then, : have his finished work that w 
 laid deeply in the counsels :: Godhead serve us 
 
 d ~ onlv as the substratum, but ah the crown 
 
 ■ 
 
 of glory of our work. All that work of toil and 
 suffering and tears and blood to build upon and 
 glory in. from base : topstone of our edifice: all 
 tha: precious gracious work which he became in- 
 carnate to accomplish, and whose history is writ- 
 ten in th: pel of grace to have it all made 
 yours and mine — to be applied mos: freely — ah 
 building made our building, as if it were our own 
 handiwork, when i : :rion and stability and 
 everlasting worth are such as that all the an e — 
 could never have achieved it. 
 
 And. then, to know, of a surety that buildino: 
 upon Christ you are certain of your foundation 
 standing firm, even though your poor tenement 
 which you built should be swept away by the 
 flood or wrapt in the final conflagration. Oh ! 
 This is infinite grace, that should induce a man 
 — rvery man — to build upon this Bock of A_ 
 whatever else he does, or fails to do; and how 
 poorly soever he may have built upon it. 
 
 And now. e. thirdly: It is possible even 
 
 for a Christian man to build upon this goodly foun- 
 dation the merest rubbish. We speak now as to 
 the material 
 
 Take the whole class of careless, inanimate. 
 obi; worldly Christians, where your charity 
 
 utmost limit in .ike 
 
EVERY MAN HIS OWN BUILDER. 295 
 
 tbem in — the whole crowd of border Christians, 
 negative, lukewarm, half-way, inefficient. They 
 are doing certain Christian deeds of worship and 
 of Sabbath service, and, so far, they may seem to 
 come within the outermost circumference of the 
 living membership. Their activity 'professes to be 
 Christianized, but it is not. They repeat their 
 vows of consecration. They make, so far, a cred- 
 ible profession — that is, not absolutely incredible. 
 
 But what is the sum total of their Christian 
 work ? Even the Sabbath, with its poor half ser- 
 vice, may be already a drudgery. What would 
 the great Inspector, the chief Architect, say of 
 their building — of its design, its proportions, its 
 symmetry, its advancement ? What of the mate- 
 rials and the workmanship — what of it taken as 
 a progressive whole? It is ivood, hay, stubble, a 
 house of boughs and reeds for walls and roof, a 
 mere summer-house, a toy-house for the children, 
 as if never dreaming of making it a substantial 
 structure for residence — much less fire-proof. 
 
 What now, my brethren, are the materials which 
 are daily building into your walls and forming part 
 of your life structure ? 
 
 See the unsubstantial refuse which goes into so 
 many of these buildings — the unsettled doctrine, 
 the irresolute purpose, the inconsistent behavior, 
 the rush of worldliness, the inactivity and ineffi- 
 ciency in religious duty, the dead wood of dead 
 works, the straw of empty profession, the stubble 
 of misconceits and of ill-tempers and delinquen- 
 cies. No plan, no selection of material, no archi- 
 
296 EVERY MAN HIS OWN BUILDER. 
 
 tectural execution, and hence, no building that is 
 substantial enough to hold together in a storm, 
 much less to resist the fire. How poorly does all 
 this befit the glorious and costly foundation ! How 
 few have wrought any thing that abides, any thing 
 that you can find when they are gone ! How few 
 have left any monument behind them ! Show us 
 where, among the circles of professed builders, is 
 some ark going up like Noah's, or some altar of 
 sacrifice like Abraham's? How many live with 
 their names on the roll of the church, but of whose 
 work in the church there is nothing at all to men- 
 tion, not so much as a scarlet thread hung out 
 from the window like Bahab's in the service of 
 God's messenger! 
 
 If there be no plan, nor principle, in the relig- 
 ious living; no earnest estimates of daily duty, no 
 systematic and proportionate giving and praying, 
 no care nor painstaking to make the most of one's 
 time and the most of one's talent and the most 
 of one's opportunities in God's service and in the 
 work of the church ; if all the man's wit and fore- 
 thought and art and busy industry be applied to 
 his secular business; if he have not yet learned 
 the secret of carrying his religion into all his pur- 
 suits — being diligent in business yet, withal, fer- 
 vent in spirit, and in all things and by all means 
 serving the Lord — then I see how that man's build- 
 ing must be a careless huddling together of life's 
 trash and refuse in his religious undertakings, a 
 vast pile of rubbish, a building of odds and ends 
 — every thing at random, wood, hay, stubble, hap- 
 
EVERY MAN HIS OWN BUILDER. 297 
 
 hazard — and all of it the light, combustible stuff 
 which blazes at the touch of fire ! 
 
 We learn, accordingly, in the fourth place, how 
 even a Christian man may be but barely saved. 
 
 At the day of final revelation which shall make 
 every man's work manifest, such a foolish builder 
 as we have named shall suffer loss — an awful loss 
 — by being stripped of all his work in the fiery 
 trial. I would have you reflect, my brethren, that 
 it is possible for a Christian to be barely saved — 
 saved so as by fire. 
 
 Will any one say that this is all he asks, to be 
 saved at last, however narrowly escaping eternal 
 destruction? But who can tell the loss! It may 
 be the difference between parlor and attic or cellar. 
 Let none imagine that all they need for their house 
 is a foundation, however good, however splendid. 
 Let no man think that even the finished work of 
 Jesus Christ is enough for him, without any work 
 of his own going up upon it. The foundation calls 
 for the corresponding superstructure — demands it, re- 
 bukes the lack of it. And the day is coming when 
 a severe ordeal " shall try every man's work of ivhat 
 sort it is. 11 
 
 I see many a man satisfied with being in the 
 church, professing to have Christ for a founda- 
 tion, but no building going on there ; making 
 little account of daily religion — planning nothing 
 for Christ, not striving to live after Christ, not 
 building upon Christ; deluded with the idea that 
 his future is safe, because he has a theoretical faith 
 and hope in Christ, or an outward church connec- 
 
298 EVERY MAN HIS OWN BUILDER. 
 
 tion with nothing practical and personal ; not ask- 
 ing how a mere foundation will answer when he 
 needs a house for shelter and refuge, or how it will 
 go tvith Mm if, in the fiery day, his house be found 
 to be of light, combustible stuff which the flame 
 shall instantly devour; especially not considering 
 that he may have been all the while building that 
 house on the sand. 
 
 That day shall call for solid work, for massive 
 masonry, for results of hard day-labor and sweat- 
 ing toil of the builder — and all this on the one 
 only foundation, Jesus Christ. It will be a day 
 of searching analysis, of universal, awful manifes- 
 tation. Then shall be plainly disclosed just how 
 much every man has done, and just how little; 
 and what sort of work it is, and how far it has 
 justified the reasonable expectations, from such a 
 foundation as is laid in the Gospel and professedly 
 chosen by every Christian man. 
 
 I see some — many — who will be able to show 
 nothing in the shape of a building which will 
 stand a moment's test of that last fearful day. 
 
 How inexorable the fire is in its devouring appe- 
 tite for all that light and empty material! How 
 in one instant that ark of rushes has vanished 
 and nothing is left where all that pride had been ! 
 Yes. Even the Christian man may be barely saved 
 • — as a brand plucked out of the burning, after the 
 fire had fastened upon it already, so as to begin to 
 blacken and char it — barely saved ! Almost lost ! 
 Like Lot, saved only at the hardest, only out of 
 the jaws of perdition, only by the special urgency 
 
EVERY MAN HIS OWN BUILDER. 299 
 
 of good angels at the last moment; only at the 
 very side of some pillar of God's wrath, where his 
 own wife, almost saved, is lost after all. 
 
 This being saved yet suffering loss — the man 
 himself saved but saving nothing with him — is as 
 where one has barely escaped from a burning tene- 
 ment with his life. His very skin is shrivelled by 
 the flames. Estimate the loss, if you can, where 
 the Christian is barely kept out of the perdition 
 that overtakes all that he has built; where it 
 would seem he must stand for his eternity on 
 the hot edge of the fiery gulf; just as where one 
 stands amidst the gases and steam of Vesuvius, 
 on the very brink of the crater, having only to 
 think, with trembling awe, how he has just so 
 narrowly escaped being swalloAved up in its yawn- 
 ing abyss of fire ! 
 
 Is this a result worthy a Christian's ambition, to 
 stand at last, like a man whose dwelling is burned 
 over his head and who is driven out, naked and 
 homeless, into the streets, only not himself con- 
 sumed, yet stripped of every thing but his life? 
 This is the case of a Christian man who has no 
 substantial Christian building to show at last; noth- 
 ing, save the Christian foundation upon which he 
 built his house of straw. There were only fitful 
 and random efforts of piety — scattered deeds of 
 Christian charity — nothing systematic, habitual, 
 day by day, as the day-laborer, and hence no com- 
 pleted and consistent edifice at last, as the result 
 that is worthy of the name. He has no work that 
 can stand the test, nothing that can abide as a 
 
300 EVERY MAN HIS OWN BUILDER. 
 
 building, and the awful loss he suffers is that of 
 every thing but existence itself. It is one thing to 
 be snatched from the endless burning as a charred 
 brand; but oh! it is quite another thing to have 
 an entrance ministered abundantly into God's ever- 
 lasting kingdom. 
 
 Look now at this opposite case in the text — at 
 the Christian man whose work abides, who is abun- 
 dantly saved — saved with his house and his house- 
 hold, saved with all the goodly and beautiful and 
 stately and substantial fabric he had built on Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Observe, there is the daily work on this building. 
 No day that something is not done to advance the 
 structure. Every thing that is wrought at home 
 and abroad, on Sabbaths and week-days alike, is 
 made to contribute to the glorious fabric. 
 
 And so the work goes on everywhere, just as the 
 carpenter is making the doors and windows of the 
 house far off in his own factory, or as where the 
 iron front of a store is casting away in the distant 
 foundry. The religion of that man is carried into 
 daily life and, just as the fire converts the clay into 
 the hardest brick for the building, so his religion 
 has this converting power, and his afflictions even 
 work this result, giving solid substance to what 
 were else only as the dust of the streets or the 
 common soil you tread upon. 
 
 And so it comes to pass that some men s build- 
 ing material is most costly and rare — is even gold, 
 silver, precious stones. Only conceive how exqui- 
 site a structure it is possible for a Christian to 
 
EVERY MAN HIS OWN BUILDER. 301 
 
 erect upon Jesus Christ, by little and little working 
 into Avails and cornices and capitals the most rich 
 and splendid materials, and, here and there, the 
 gold and silver ornaments that shall glisten in the 
 light of that final revelation — bringing the world's 
 art and treasure and making the whole domain of 
 wealth and beauty contribute to the work. Just 
 as you may see porphyry columns from the great 
 temple of Diana wrought into the Christian tem- 
 ple of Chrysostom — like the temple at Jerusalem 
 itself — its spanning roof overlaid with gold, and its 
 pinnacles and turrets pointed with gold, cedar of 
 Lebanon for its beams which the worms will not 
 perforate, and all the cunning handiwork of Tyrian 
 builders applied to make it the most splendid of all 
 earthly structures: or like the famed chapel of the 
 Medici at Florence, lined with slabs of all precious 
 stones — the porphyry and malachite and agate and 
 lapis lazuli — all polished to the highest degree, and 
 even the tombs dazzling with the rarest glory, and 
 that as a family mausoleum amidst the splendor of 
 which they lay their household dead. 
 
 Take the life of some of the men whose Chris- 
 tian usefulness has left such a splendid memorial 
 of Christian works behind them — as that of Ed- 
 wards, Whitfield, Wesley, Nettleton — whose acts 
 of faith like bars of molten gold, and whose pa- 
 tience of hope and labors of love like the precious 
 stones of the celestial foundations, have all been 
 wrought into an exquisite fabric upon the basis of 
 Jesus Christ. We bless God that, in our day, men 
 are building monuments, in the shape of Christian 
 
302 EVERY MAN HIS OWN BUILDER. 
 
 hospitals and educational and charitable institu- 
 tions, to stand for ages, doing their silent and be- 
 neficent work in which God and angels rejoice. 
 
 Look at Leigh Richmond, writing the tract of 
 the " Dairyman's Daughter," and by this one act, 
 which was only the expression of his Christian life, 
 building into his life structure so many polished 
 stones, rearing so many pillars in the temple of 
 God! See how the building grows upon his hands 
 to this day, and seems, at length, to be like some 
 fairy mansion, widening and towering more and 
 more with each succeeding year of new successes 
 to his work ! Long after the builder's head is in 
 the dust and his soul in glory the stately pile goes 
 up, and the procession of converts from that simple 
 story of the cross lengthens, and they keep pour- 
 ing in to heaven, where he rests from his labors and 
 his works do follow him. You know the founda- 
 tion of that structure from the fabric itself- — like the 
 Milan Cathedral, bristling all over at the pinnacles 
 and turrets with human forms, wrought carefully 
 into living proportions, and everywhere embellish- 
 ing the gorgeous structure, filling every niche and 
 corner, every capital, as so many stately trophies 
 of the workman's art, as if aiming everywhere to 
 elevate man and thrusting up towards the heavens 
 the marble statues of man as types of the true. 
 
 Look at John Bunyan, who might have ex- 
 cused himself from any great enterprise of useful- 
 ness in the dungeon of Bedford Jail; but, while 
 many an inert, lifeless Christian was sorrowing 
 that so much power for good should be shut up in 
 
EVERY MAN HIS OWN BUILDER. 303 
 
 a gloomy prison, he had within him a light which 
 the prison walls and bars could not confine — 
 which streamed out through every cranny and 
 crevice. And where God's light and air must come 
 in to him, his light shone out in return, and the 
 atmosphere of his piety breathed around to en- 
 lighten and enliven masses of minds to the last 
 day. And since his time, no pilgrim to the celes- 
 tial city, who has heard of Bunyan's pilgrimage, 
 but walks up Hill Difficulty by the aid of his 
 goodly staff, nor passes the wicket gate without 
 casting off his burden where Bunyan threw his. 
 
 Observe, my hearers, the work of a Christian 
 minister is that of a wise master-builder — to lay 
 the foundation upon which the members are to 
 build, to set forth Jesus Christ as the rock, and to 
 warn men against the sand; to charge men with 
 the wisdom of choosing him for a foundation, and 
 to warn them against the folly of not going for- 
 ward with the building; to beg them push on 
 their great life-work and take heed how they build 
 as well as where they build. 
 
 And a church ought to be the sphere of utmost 
 business enterprise and activity, unsurpassed by 
 any thing in the world. Here is the field for the 
 noblest exertion of human skill and energy — every 
 man working at the edifice which is to be the re- 
 sult of his labors for life, and all working together, 
 each carrying up some part of the temple of God, 
 some one of those noble structures which are to 
 form the celestial city — the New Jerusalem. That 
 is the city which lieth four-square — which is laid 
 
304 EVERY MAN HIS OWN BUILDER. 
 
 out according to divine rule and not according to 
 the selfish and tortuous interests and arts of men; 
 which calls for conduct that is honest and earnest 
 and straightforward, and not shifting and evasive ; 
 where you shall not lose your way among the 
 windings of deceit, but where every thing is open 
 and manifest. 
 
 My brethren, the highest glory of a Christian 
 minister is to see the people busily at work, each 
 rearing some sightly and substantial edifice of faith 
 and love upon the foundation he has laid among 
 them ; to watch the proportion of each structure as 
 it develops day by day, and to look forward to the 
 time when, in that New Jerusalem, he shall walk 
 some golden street all lined with rows of stately 
 palaces built by his people, each for himself on 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 There is one reflection from this subject which 
 bears upon such of you as have not so much as 
 professed or attempted to build upon this founda- 
 tion. With you it may be the folly of erecting 
 some laborious work of a careful morality upon a 
 foundation of sand, ignoring the foundation- work 
 of Christ; or it may be the recklessness of hav- 
 ing only wood, hay and stubble for building and 
 foundation together. God himself has asked in 
 the Scriptures — " If the righteous scarcely be saved 
 where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ? " 
 Grant it, even, that all your criticism of church 
 members is just — grant it that often their building, 
 as you see it go up, is of mere combustible stuff. 
 This only points the question which comes home 
 
EVERY MAN HIS OWN BUILDER. 305 
 
 to yourself — "If they be scarcely saved 7 ' — if every 
 thing of theirs shall be swept away but the bare 
 foundation, if this fiery ordeal shall utterly con- 
 sume all men's work and leave them stripped and 
 suffering such fearful loss, only barely kept out of 
 perdition and scarcely allotted a remote corner in 
 the heavenly city, then "where shall the ungodly 
 and the sinner appear? " 
 
 It is a glorious thing to build on Jesus Christ, 
 to have laid even the first stone upon him as 
 the chosen corner-stone and sure foundation. It 
 is something blessed to build even a booth of 
 boughs or rushes upon such a foundation as Je- 
 sus. But to reject him, to be deliberately scorn- 
 ing this high privilege, to be testifying, by your 
 example, that he is worthless or useless for you to 
 build upon, that all his work from Bethlehem to 
 Calvary and in glory is needless for you, or that you 
 have a better ground of hope and conduct for eter- 
 nity — what will you answer to him at the final bar? 
 
 I tell you it is better to be a poor Christian than 
 to be no Christian; to be a weak believer than to 
 be no believer at all; better to be making feeble 
 attempts and to have ill success in religion than 
 to be building on the sand. But oh! it is best of 
 all to be daily building up a fabric which shall 
 abide — to be working into it the gold, silver and 
 precious stones, to glisten and glow in the coming 
 glory more elegant and stately than any mansion 
 of earth, which the eye shall delight to rest upon 
 in eternitv, and which shall survive the wreck of 
 material greatness forever and ever. 
 20 
 
XVIII. 
 
 THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 "As an eagle stirrreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, 
 spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her 
 wings; So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange 
 god with him." — Deut. xxxii. 11-12. 
 
 God is the source and pattern of every thing ex- 
 cellent in the universe. If there is fondness in the 
 paternal relation, if you see on earth any charming 
 specimen of what a father ought to be, all these 
 qualities have come from God ; and they are only 
 at best a dim type and distant hint of what God is, 
 in that capacity, when he bids us call him, " Our 
 Father which art in heaven." 
 
 If there is any thing endearing in the husband, 
 any attribute in such an one, that wins the heart 
 beyond all common parallel, there, again, is a faint 
 picture of what God is, as he can be but poorly 
 represented in such an image of himself — "Thy 
 Maker is thy husband." So, we all know that 
 a brother "is born for adversity." The God-man 
 is our elder brother, and he is the Friend that 
 sticketh closer than a brother. And who does 
 not know what ineffable loveliness there is for 
 us all in a mother; how the name tells of match- 
 less fondness, tenderness, watchings, long-suffer- 
 ing and faithful care? But this, also, God takes 
 
THE eagle's nest. 307 
 
 as his favorite resemblance and reminder on earth 
 — "As one whom his mother conrforteth, so will 
 I comfort yon." 
 
 And so, also, in the vegetable icorld there are 
 the pictures of himself. The vine that clambers 
 over the latticed porch of wealth and poverty 
 alike and hangs ladened with its purple clusters 
 is beautiful. But Jesus claims all that is charm- 
 ing in it, as only a type of himself and says: U I 
 am the true vine." As though these all, in every 
 vineyard, on every hill-side and in every garden, 
 were only to be understood as the shadows and 
 images of the true, himself the genuine, origi- 
 nal, archetyped vine, and "ye," he adds, "are the 
 branches " ! So, if bread is good — if this, that is 
 the food of the starving and the daily nourish- 
 ment of the millionaire has any thing excellent 
 in itself as the grand staple and staff of life, Jesus 
 says, " I am that bread of life." And if, for every 
 man's thirst, there is nature's beverage, that has 
 the highest power to slake it, so that the king 
 and the peasant draw from the same fountain and 
 drink at the same stream, Jesus says, as he sits 
 by the well-side, where we all have come up with 
 our poor pitchers to draw — "I am the water of 
 life." And so, also, where along the path of prince 
 or beggar, the rose of Sharon blooms, or the lily 
 of the valley sheds its fragrance, Jesus says — "I 
 am the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the Val- 
 ley." And fragrance drops from his lips, and his 
 ringers drop myrrh on the handles of the locks. 
 
 So if the sun in his daily career is glorious, 
 
308 THE EAGLE'S nest. 
 
 Jesus still declares, that it is a borrowed splen- 
 dor, set in the sky to give us this best of all en- 
 lightenment — the knowledge of himself; and that 
 he has in perfection, all that is imaged forth in 
 that material orb ; for he is the Sun of Righteous- 
 ness, and rises upon our darkened and desolate 
 souls with healing in his beams. 
 
 And so, even in the animal icorld, he has his 
 types — hangs out the pictures of himself to the 
 commonest view. His tender care, he says, is 
 like that of the hen, gathering her brood under 
 her wings. And this constant, busy training of 
 his people, in the discipline of daily life, is like 
 that of the eagle, with her young in the nest. 
 No wonder, then, that a star celebrated his ad- 
 vent, that the sun hid his face, and that earth's 
 granite rocks rent their bosoms at his crucifixion. 
 
 The picture which the Holy Ghost has given us 
 in the text represents a great truth. It teaches 
 us God's discipline of his children for an elevated 
 Christian life. He will have us comprehend the 
 vital idea; and so he will take us out to where 
 the noblest of birds builds her nest, on some tall 
 crag of the rock, far above the busy haunts of 
 men, and he will show us how, with untiring de- 
 vice and persistency, she makes it the first great 
 business to teach her young to fly. How she dis- 
 turbs the nest for this, flutters anxiously over her 
 brood to break up their listless repose and set 
 them in motion towards herself, spreadeth her 
 own wings so that they may catch the idea and 
 be led to imitate her actions, and even takes them 
 
THE EAGLE'S NEST. 309 
 
 up by her own kind force and bears them on her 
 wings, if thus, by any means, they may be drawn 
 or driven to fly. 
 
 This opens to us, first, the grand secret of life. 
 Life is a schooling, a discipline, a preparation for 
 another world. God has his children here on 
 earth. Some of them are in the church, others 
 are not yet gathered in. Some of them are his 
 young children, yet in the nest, never developed 
 to any maturity. But over them all he busily 
 watches, and with them all he constantly deals 
 and strives. 
 
 And this is the meaning of our changes. A 
 man gets a blow in the dark from an unseen hand, 
 and he wonders whether it be an enemy, but finds 
 out that it is a friend driving him back from a 
 precipice, or from the edge of a pit, into which he 
 is just taking the fatal step. We fret and worry 
 at our discomforts and clislodgements. Fire, flood, 
 tornado wait upon us, to sweep away our goods. 
 Bobbers, in many a guise, strip us of our hard- 
 earned gains. Sickness reduces our strength, ema- 
 ciates our frames and dries up our pleasures; and 
 we see ourselves only as the ill-starred victims of 
 adversity, and seek as best we can, to run the 
 gauntlet of our troubles. And this is life ! Or 
 perhaps prosperity waits upon us and all our en- 
 terprises are a series of successes, and we add 
 house to house and field to field, and call ourselves 
 rich and independent, and see not the hand that 
 is dealing with us, and learn not the intent of his 
 dealings; and this is only another phase ofjifel 
 
310 THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 But God's hand in our affairs is life's great secret 
 — undivulged to so many, who never know what 
 helps them or what harms thern or by what great 
 powers of the eternal world they are constantly 
 influenced and disciplined for their swift-coming 
 hereafter. 
 
 Let us look, then, at God's children in the nest 
 There is a Christian life that is the very least re- 
 move from death itself — the barest infancy of the 
 Christian being. And God forbid that we should 
 pronounce against whatever can not show the ma- 
 turity and manhood of piety. God recognizes his 
 infant children and with more than a mother's ten- 
 derness waits upon them, and watches over them ; 
 bears long with them, for their advancement in 
 the divine life. Some have been poorly nurtured 
 by their earthly tutors, have been carelessly led 
 along, incorrectly taught, never set to work, or 
 else crippled by ill-usage of their Christian guides. 
 And they are babes long after they should have 
 been grown men. They are using milk long after 
 they should have come to the strong meat of God's 
 mature children. When they ought to have been 
 teachers, they have need that one teach them what 
 be the first principles of the doctrine of Christ. 
 
 If none but the full-grown, well-developed men 
 and women are true members of Christ's family, 
 then, alas ! we have but few. How many stagger 
 yet at the very gate-way of life, not at all estab- 
 lished in Christian doctrine, not knowing, as yet, 
 but that their repentance must be in part pay 
 when the ransom price is counted ; not certain but 
 
THE EAGLE'S NEST. 311 
 
 their faith is to save them instead of Christ, or by 
 its own virtue and value, rather than as taking 
 hold of Christ! And though we teach them a 
 thousand times and a thousand ways, there they 
 are yet — never venturing out of the nest, never 
 trying their wings, never soaring nor learning to 
 soar. They are like mariners who have weighed 
 anchor, but they never set sail, nor even unloose 
 their moorings, nor even get away from port. 
 They go no whither, they arrive nowhere. 
 
 But there is another class of God's children in 
 the nest. I mean those who are at ease in Zion. 
 They are just satisfied to keep a comfortable place 
 in the church for slumber and self-security. They 
 are taking religion as a secondary thing, not as the 
 chief business. They are the sluggish, inactive 
 members, who are vigorous and efficient enough 
 in traffic and merchandising, shrewd enough in 
 making money, and we only wonder at them, how, 
 even if they have their daily prayers, even if they 
 daily say the Lord's prayer, as their Christian moth- 
 er taught them, they could manage to be such 
 utter drones in the church. You never see them 
 rising high in their devotions, never spreading 
 their wings to soar towards God, never abounding 
 in any Christian grace, never like the eagle, pierc- 
 ing the sky with a steady gaze upon the sun; but 
 always grovelling, taking the narrowest views of 
 Christian privilege and duty, circumscribing their 
 religion within their nest, and, to all appearance, 
 not a whit maturer to-day than years ago in this 
 divine life. 
 
312 THE eagle's nest. 
 
 I do not say that such are Christians indeed, 
 as they profess to be ; I only know that we may 
 stretch our charity so far as to hope for even such, 
 that they may be, as yet, like Peter, following the 
 Master afar off, until they should be drawn out to 
 a new style of Christian living. I see such evi- 
 dently satisfying themselves with the comforts of 
 this world, and not looking for a better country, 
 that is a heavenly; folding the cloak of a Chris- 
 tian profession around them and wrapping them- 
 selves up in worldly prosperity, and saying, "I 
 shall die in my nest." 
 
 I point you, my brethren, in this light, to the 
 meaning of your providential history. I beg you 
 to consider God's discipline towards you, and its 
 high intent. The picture in the text portrays to 
 us the unremitting care and assiduity of God in 
 prosecution of one great end — to make you get 
 out from your indolence and immaturity and rise 
 and fly in all the ways of an elevated Christian 
 living. 
 
 There is a higher style of Christian living, just 
 as different from the lower Christian life as the 
 manhood is from infancy, as the soaring eagle is 
 from the unfledged bird in the nest. The Scrip- 
 ture, indeed, sometimes speaks of such an ad- 
 vanced piety as requiring, in some cases, a re- 
 converting power for a new turning to God. I do 
 not say a second regeneration. This is just as im- 
 possible as was the case proposed by Nicodemus — 
 a second natural birth. There is no falling from 
 grace where there is no grace to fall from, and 
 
THE eagle's nest. 313 
 
 what grace begins it will complete. The new- 
 born soul has the divine life; it may be sickly, 
 faint, dwarfish, feeble, childish, so as to adhere to 
 the diet and action of the child, and seem to get 
 no manliness or maturity. This is what we speak 
 of. And in the case of Peter, Christ forewarned 
 him of his weakness that would issue in a fall, and 
 then assured him that though he should come to 
 be disgraced before his brethren, and should weep 
 bitter tears of shame and sorrow, yet by his divine 
 intercession, his faith should not utterly fail. And 
 when this crisis is past, he says, "When thou art 
 converted, strengthen thy brethren." 
 
 Would you know what this reconversion is? 
 Look at the case of Peter. No more following 
 afar off, no more childish fear, no childish boast- 
 ing ; but a heart full of love, that would bear the 
 threefold questioning of the Master at the Sea of 
 Galilee, or plunge into the sea to embrace him; 
 would defend his cause at Pentecost — before the 
 scoffing Jews and scorning Sanhedrim, and did 
 go to prison and to death for his sake; whereas 
 before, he had only made the loud profession and 
 shrank away when the trial came. 
 
 Let us look a moment at the assiduity and vari- 
 ety and persistency of God's dealings with us in 
 this direction. Job, out of the midst of his severe 
 discipline, his poverty — children and health gone 
 - — caught a view of the dignity of such divine 
 dealing, and cried out — "What is man that thou 
 shouldest magnify him and shouldest set thine 
 heart upon him, and that thou shouldest visit him 
 
31 J: THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 every morning, and try him every moment?" And 
 the Psalmist, in the same spirit, wonders when 
 he looks out from the glorious marshalling of the 
 stars and says — "What is man that thou art mind- 
 ful of him, or the Son of Man that thou visitest 
 him?" 
 
 Look, then, upon your changes, and see that 
 they are only the hand of God in your affairs, only 
 the evidence of his interest in you, only the posi- 
 tive proof that he cares too much for you to let 
 you alone. Were it any advantage of a school 
 that you should get no lessons, or that the lessons 
 should never be hard or long, or that when the 
 lesson is poorly learned it should never be given 
 you over again, even with a rebuke, to call atten- 
 tion to it and set you about an earnest study of it, 
 and impress it on your memory? Look back a 
 little and see if there be not here an interpreta- 
 tion of your allotments that vou should all along 
 have regarded well and understood. Ask if this 
 understanding of it would not have often altered 
 the whole aspect of life to you — lighted up many 
 of its dark places and made the whole course of it 
 seem sacred, and even its suffering sweet? I think 
 we all understand this, in this day of trouble, un- 
 der this dispensation of calamity and death. 
 
 First, there is the stirring up of your nest. It 
 is hard to be disturbed so — to have the slumbers 
 broken and the quiet of the dear household in- 
 vaded by disaster, disease and distress — hard to 
 be dislodged by the hand of violence and have 
 the sweet resting-place utterly torn in pieces and 
 
THE eagle's nest. 315 
 
 you and yours emptied out upon the world. But 
 this is only God's fidelity. Every such occasion is 
 only a golden occasion for you to put forth some 
 heaven-born energy, to cultivate some cultured 
 grace, to put you in motion, so as to try your 
 wing and learn its use and practice the divine art 
 of soaring towards God. Therefore he disturbs 
 your house or dislodges you from your comfort- 
 able nest. The culture of humility or charity or 
 patience or faith — this is what is aimed at. He 
 knows what a desolate hearth-stone is, and there- 
 fore he has adopted this device for your highest 
 interest. Just as if a father should find his son 
 sleeping out at night in the barn, among the cat- 
 tle, and he should tear his pillow of straw from 
 under him, only to bring him in to his better 
 couch and covering. That stirring up of your 
 nest, God has done. If he had not done it, he 
 would have been caring less for you. That sharp 
 bereavement, that came like a thunderbolt upon 
 the head of your house and struck down the part- 
 ner of your bosom, or the idol and ideal of your 
 family, was only in the line of his gracious deal- 
 ing. Just as surely as you are his child, we know 
 what is his intent in the affliction. 
 
 You can not fully appreciate the picture before 
 us, unless you consider that it is not only the nest 
 of her young, but her own nest, that the eagle 
 stirs up. It is so with the Covenant Angel. God's 
 interest in his children, even in the weakest of 
 them, is amazing. This is his household and his 
 family that he deals with. Their enemies are his 
 
316 THE eagle's nest. 
 
 enemies, and his glory and joy is in getting them 
 up to himself. 
 
 How he bore with the blindness and hardness 
 and backwardness of the twelve, the denials of 
 Peter and the doubts of Thomas, and even, up to 
 his dying moment, saw from the cross of his agony 
 how they shrank ignobly away, down-hearted, fear- 
 ful and ready to give up all for lost. And how he 
 spent those forty days seeking after them, and 
 appearing to them all the way from his home in 
 glory, just to clear away their doubts and remove 
 their prejudices. And now, when he stirs up your 
 nest, he feels the pang, for it is his own darling 
 interest that clusters there. Think not it is the 
 hand of a rude invader, who would wilfully break 
 up your peace; think not that God sends these 
 afflictions as purely judicial, with no pang of sym- 
 pathy in your sorrow. He has tried to show us 
 — "What is the riches of the glory of his inher- 
 itance in the saints." And here in the preceding 
 context, as if to prepare us to appreciate the pic- 
 ture, he has said — "The Lord's portion is his peo- 
 ple. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance." 
 
 But this is not all. There is an infinite variety 
 in the treatment. Just as that noblest parent bird 
 flutters over her young in utmost anxiety, hover- 
 ing over them, to arrest their attention; so, if you 
 would listen, you could hear the Covenant Angel, 
 by the very rustling of his wings, in your affairs, 
 constantly challenging your notice, winning you 
 to consider him as your Saviour and to commit 
 your ways to his care; bidding you look upward 
 
THE eagle's nest. 317 
 
 from all that- is grovelling and selfish and slug- 
 gish, and to see and recognize with gratitude how 
 busily and anxiously he watches over you for your 
 highest good. Can you not read this teaching in 
 your history? — u In all their affliction he was af- 
 flicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. 
 In his love and in his pity he redeemed them and 
 he bare them, and carried them all the days of old." 
 This is life's great secret. And if you know what 
 it is to pity your suffering children, that is the 
 picture, if you please: "Like as a father pitieth 
 his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear 
 him." He never stirs up your nest, but he stirs 
 his own soul to the depths. 
 
 And then another device for the same object 
 is represented by the eagle spreading abroad her 
 icings in the view of her young. It is another 
 feature in the inspired illustration, another variety 
 in the loving discipline of God. We know what 
 this is — that when at some moment the attention 
 has been arrested by some dealing, like this flut- 
 tering over you of the Covenant Angel, God shows 
 you, by his own pattern in the flesh, what it is to 
 soar; what he would have you do and how you 
 should do it, ever spreading abroad his own wings;, 
 in the way of tempting you to the upward flight. 
 
 When he gives us to see how beautiful is that 
 exalted piety which shone in the man Christ Jesus 
 — is there no incitement in it to seek a similar 
 style of living ? He became very man to live for 
 us as Avell as to die for us. All that life of his, 
 from the cradle to the grave, was given as a pat- 
 
318 THE eagle's nest. 
 
 tern, no less than a propitiation — pattern prayers, 
 pattern labors, pattern graces, pattern life, pattern 
 death — always soaring himself, so as to teach us to 
 soar. 
 
 And can you not read this also, in his parental 
 discipline? Have you not sometimes been driven 
 away from all earthly trusts, from every human 
 helper, to Christ Jesus alone, as the only alto- 
 gether lovely being in the universe? Have you 
 not been pressed to the simple study of his char- 
 acter and life, as having in it an attraction and a 
 perfection nowhere else to be found ? And when 
 sickened of the imperfect earthly examples, you 
 have sought a true and perfect pattern of living, 
 have you not been led directly to behold the Man 
 — the Pattern Man ? And then, in every circle of 
 life, among enemies or friends, in the temple or 
 the garden, in the home of Martha or the house 
 of Simon, on Tabor or Olivet, you have seen him 
 spreading his wings teaching and tempting us to 
 soar. 
 
 And then, as a crowning feature of the illustra- 
 tion, there is that other variety in the treatment 
 of the Covenant Angel, where he takes us and 
 bears us on his wings. When all other dealing- 
 has seemed unavailing, and you would neither be 
 worried nor wooed to an elevated Christian life — 
 when he has stirred up the nest and torn it from 
 under you, and you have just clung to the near- 
 est bough; when he has fluttered over you and 
 spread his own wings to your view, all to teach 
 and tempt you heavenward — then, beyond all this, 
 
THE eagle's nest. 319 
 
 he has even come by the sweet compulsions of his 
 grace and lifted you up upon his own wings and 
 borne you heavenward. You have seen that noth- 
 ing has sufficed but his own almighty power bear- 
 ing you on the bosom of love. 
 
 If you have ever been lifted up from your grov- 
 elling, it has been by the thought of what an in- 
 finite stoop he made, to get you on his wing. He 
 must needs get beneath you in order to bear you 
 up. Angels came thronging out from the sky and 
 hovering over the earth in wonder to see whither 
 he had come, and they could not refrain their an- 
 them, but even among the clouds of this rebel 
 world, they sang, " Glory to God in the highest 
 and on earth peace." 
 
 And now you behold him taking you, laying 
 hold upon you to save you, bearing your sins upon 
 his soul, bearing you on the bosom of his divine 
 intercession, and carrying you along with him on 
 the wing of his own victorious ascension; rising 
 from the dead and ascending from earth for you, 
 and bearing your names on his sacerdotal breast- 
 plate in heaven — the pledges for you till you come. 
 This has made you soar — only this discovery of his 
 standing for you, dying in your stead, vanquish- 
 ing death and hell for you, and rising to glory as 
 the Captain of your salvation, only this, at last, 
 has ever tempted you from your nest. And when 
 you have felt these sweet constraints of his love — 
 his own soft hand laid gently on you, to give you 
 the benefit of his triumphant power and grace; 
 when you have felt that you could fly only as his 
 
320 THE eagle's nest. 
 
 wings bear you aloft; then yon have felt the in- 
 citements to a heavenly living, and then, if ever, 
 you have risen to the elevated Christian life. 
 
 And now, look back a moment at the variety of 
 the divine treatment in your case. See how it has 
 all borne steadily to this end; see how in it all 
 there has been the appliance of every tender de- 
 vice which infinite love could suggest. 
 
 And this is the key to the multiplied and diverse 
 dealings: first, the discipline has been calculated 
 to induce a higher style of prayerfulness. You 
 have surely seen this. Your losses, sicknesses, 
 bereavements, disappointments, estrangements, all 
 have seemed pointing you with steady finger to 
 the mercy-seat. When you were perhaps flagging 
 in prayer, God has given you something to pray 
 for; and if, under the rod, you have gone to pray 
 merely for present relief, so that all the motive to 
 prayer would be gone with the occasion, Christ 
 has opened to you there, amidst your tears, his 
 own heart of love, and shown you the upper side 
 of the matter. And you have come to prayer in 
 the higher department of its exercise; you have 
 studied and practised it in the higher branches — 
 as a holy communion with God, a happy soaring 
 heavenward, a friendly fellowship with the Father 
 and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And it has come 
 to be the very breath of your being, and you have 
 put away your old worn-out prayers for new ones ; 
 you have learned something of the power of prayer 
 in the amicable wrestling with the Angel of the 
 Covenant, until the breaking of the day. 
 
THE eagle's nest. 321 
 
 But it was not until your boasted human strength 
 had been crippled, and you were sent halting to 
 the mercy-seat. Then you have begun to think 
 of prayer not merely as a form, not merely as a 
 duty, but as the highest privilege of the creature 
 and the loftiest freedom of a son. Ah! it was 
 therefore, that every grief dealt out to you seemed 
 a new grief — the loss of a child so different from 
 that of a parent, the loss of a wife so different 
 from that of a child, the loss of property so differ- 
 ent again from either; the treachery of friends, 
 the ingratitude of children — each the hardest to 
 bear, just because your faithful Father would, in 
 each affliction, try a new device and give you a 
 new lesson — utter a new call to himself and ply 
 you with some new parental discipline to this end. 
 And if you have learned the lesson well, you have 
 found yourself now praying on a new principle, 
 in a new language and temper of prayer, as differ- 
 ent from the former as that of the publican from 
 the Pharisee. And you have found the meaning 
 of the promise — "That they that wait upon the 
 Lord shall renew their strength, shall mount up 
 on wings as eagles." 
 
 And so, secondly, this series of divine dealings 
 has tended to induce a higher style of Christian 
 reliance— faith we call it, that seems with some a 
 mere intellectual exercise with scarce an emotion. 
 You may have found it so in its lower depart- 
 ments. But then, perhaps, God has beaten you 
 about from the nest to the bough, and from tree 
 to tree, until you have been driven to soar up- 
 21 
 
322 THE eagle's nest. 
 
 wards and to seek your very home in the skies 
 and in his bosom. Now it is not merely belief, 
 it is filial confidence — implicit, childlike reliance. 
 It is trust; it is the higher style of faith, that is 
 deeply emotional, deeply personal, that works by 
 love, takes hold of the inmost, utmost heart, and 
 binds it to the kindred heart of this Kinsman Ke- 
 deemer in the bonds of a fervent affection. 
 
 Then, when you have come to find Christ walk- 
 ing among your daily affairs as truly as he walks 
 among the golden candlesticks — the Alpha and 
 Omega in all providence, and you have seen 
 enough of his dealings, to know that you must 
 not repine at what seems grievous till you see the 
 issue of it, nor call any thing adversity till it has 
 worked out its results; when you have heard him 
 say — "I am the ending as well as the beginning 
 of all providence, the last letter of the alphabet in 
 these lessons, as well as the first," and you have 
 learned to look for a bright noon, out of a cloudy 
 morning — then you have come to walk more by 
 faith, and faith has worked more by love, and you 
 have just thrown yourself into the arms of his 
 faithful and eternal covenant. 
 
 And so, also, this discipline has taught you the 
 lesson of Christian activity in its higher stages. 
 You have seen this to be the aim of his daily and 
 various dealing — to shake you from your nest by 
 some means or other, so as to put you on the wing. 
 Therefore, you have found all other sources and 
 streams of happiness dried up, saving only the 
 happiness that springs from Christian duty. Even 
 
THE eagle's nest. 323 
 
 beyond the happiness of receiving, which the world 
 counts its chiefest pleasure, has been the luxury 
 and blessedness of giving. And when you have 
 come to this, then, indeed, there was the highest 
 evidence of your getting the upper track, dwelling 
 in the higher atmosphere. You have seen Christ 
 showing to you the crown of righteousness, ex- 
 hibiting the thrones and dominions to be pos- 
 sessed by the saints in glory. And you have 
 heard him say — "He that is faithful in that which 
 is least, is faithful also in much; have thou au- 
 thority over ten cities." And his own dying love, 
 showing the scars on his forehead and in his very 
 heart, has been a powerful constraint with you, 
 till even his suffering has made all suffering in 
 his service sweet. 
 
 This exalted Christian life is no fiction, my breth- 
 ren, nor yet will it do to hold, that he who can not 
 lay his hand upon his heart and say he has fully 
 attained to this, is no Christian. No! alas! This 
 is theory, but practically the test is extravagant- 
 Men do not longer come into this world in full- 
 grown manhood, like Adam. There must be in- 
 fancy before maturity, there must be much tend- 
 ing and nursing and growing, much creeping and 
 staggering often, many sore bruises and much of 
 life's daily discipline, before we reach this full 
 manhood of Christian life. But a Christian, like a 
 bird, is made to soar, and therefore he is dealt with 
 by his faithful Father to drive him to the wing. 
 
 And, blessed be God ! there is this elevated style 
 of piety. The firefly lightens only as it flies ; birds 
 
324 THE eagle's nest. 
 
 of gay wing show their plumage, only as they 
 soar ; and none of us can get to heaven except by 
 working up thither, climbing up by the steps of 
 the ladder, where tribulation works patience, and 
 patience works experience, and experience works 
 hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the 
 love of God — what God's love is to men in Jesus 
 Christ — is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy 
 Ghost given to us. 
 
 And now look back upon the discipline of your 
 life past ! All along you were too prone to look at 
 second causes, and to overlook God's hand. Even 
 at the grave of some brother Lazarus, you heard 
 the voice of God speaking from the clouds and you 
 referred it to natural phenomena and you said 
 "It thundered," when it was the tender voice of 
 the Covenant Angel, speaking to your soul. Look 
 at your history in this light! Interpret it all on 
 the Christian principle. See if you can not un- 
 lock all its mysteries with this one key. Was not 
 the chastisement paternal? Can you not read this 
 tender, yearning love of God in all the severest 
 dealings, emptying you from vessel to vessel, like 
 the Avine, that you may be refined? Can you not 
 see the Covenant Angel, every way busied to draw 
 or drive you heavenward? Look at your prosper- 
 ous days as wooing you to God, and your adverse 
 days as worrying you to seek refuge and fellowship 
 with God. See how this same good hand has been 
 in all your affairs for this same good end, and how 
 sicknesses and bereavements, birthdays and burial 
 days, meetings and partings, good news and bad 
 
THE eagle's nest. 325 
 
 news, new friendships and ruptured ones, gains 
 and losses, all were but the new lessons given in 
 this great study of a habitual communion with 
 God. And then crowning all those week-day mer- 
 cies and miseries, by which you were disciplined, 
 there came the sweet Sabbaths and the holy sacra- 
 ments, as reviews of the lessons. 
 
 And now, after all, how much have you really 
 and inwardly and practically learned? How much 
 higher do you rise to-day in your devotions than 
 you did on the first Sabbath of your new birth ? 
 Does not the Angel of the Covenant yet stir up 
 your nest, flutter over you and spread his wings 
 abroad, take you and bear you on his wings? 
 And after all this, are you able to lay your hand 
 upon your heart and say — " Lord, thou knowest 
 ail things, thou knowest that I love thee?" "For 
 to me to live is Christ" — Christ for the rule of 
 living, Christ for the motive of living, Christ for 
 the ideal of living, Christ for the source and spring 
 of living, Christ for the very definition of living ! 
 Then, indeed, you may afford to be in a happy 
 balance between two worlds — to have Christ with 
 you on earth, or to be with Christ in heaven. 
 Walking with God like Enoch, it could not be 
 but that you shall go up to God, virtually with- 
 out death — without its sting and curse and bit- 
 terness ! And when, some day, men will inquire 
 why your place is vacant in the business circle, 
 in the household, and in the church, it will be 
 said — " He walked with God, and he was not, for 
 God took him." He went up, not in any chariot 
 
326 THE eagle's nest. 
 
 of fire, but on the soft wing of the Covenant An- 
 gel. From where he daily climbed to the topmost 
 round of Jacob's ladder, he stepped directly into 
 heaven; from where he trod on the high-road of 
 Christian living, far up towards the celestial city, 
 he found the door wide open into the golden streets 
 of the New Jerusalem. 
 
XIX. 
 
 OUR HEAVENLY HOME. 
 
 "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I 
 would have told you." — John xiv. 2. 
 
 It is the blessed presumption of our Christianity 
 that there is a heaven for the people of God. If it 
 had not been expressly revealed it could have been 
 plainly inferred from the whole Christian system ; 
 not that the eye hath seen it, though it hath seen 
 Sinai on fire and Jesus transfigured in his robes of 
 light; not that the ear hath heard it, though it 
 hath heard the anthem of angels at Bethlehem. 
 But God hath revealed it unto us, not only in the 
 written word, but in the Christian heart also, by 
 the Spirit. All the assaults of Satan, all the efforts 
 of skepticism, all the powers of the vain world, all 
 the plague of the depraved nature can only ob- 
 scure the prospect or stagger somewhat the hope. 
 But the voice of Jesus is heard amidst all the con- 
 fusion saying, in the whole tenor of his teaching, 
 — "Be not afraid:" — "It is so:" — and "if it were 
 not so, I would have told you; because I would 
 not have allowed you to entertain so natural an. 
 expectation only to be disappointed." Fears come 
 
328 OUR HEAVENLY HOME. 
 
 rushing upon the soul, like the swelling billows of 
 the ocean just where they foam in the breakers 
 and lash against the shore. But amidst the deep- 
 est darkness the signal lights are seen hting out 
 from the very skies. And these are responded to 
 by the testimonies within, as well as by the voices 
 from the garden and the cross, that the whole 
 Christian system requires such a consummation. 
 
 AVhat a sport of human hopes would be made by 
 a Gospel that says nothing of heaven, by a salva- 
 tion that stops at the grave, by a Saviour who does 
 not bring life and immortality to light. They, 
 therefore, who receive Christ at all do understand 
 that it is for a deliverance which looks beyond the 
 grave; that it is for an inheritance which would 
 be despoiled of its excellence and beauty if it did 
 not lie far beyond the reach of this present evil 
 world. 
 
 And so Jesus, with inimitable tenderness, comes 
 forward to the distressed disciples and administers 
 this magic consolation. The great cure for heart- 
 trouble, he says, is to believe in him, and then he 
 announces this ultimate fact of a home in heaven 
 for God's people. Look beyond, he says. Fear 
 not. All that you expect and more will be yours 
 in glory — " If it were not so, I would have told 
 you." 
 
 We propose to consider wherein it is the presump- 
 tion of our Christianity that there is a heaven for 
 the people of God. 
 
 First: A heaven is to be presumed by the char- 
 acter and the life of Jesus on earth. 
 
OUR HEAVENLY HOME. 329 
 
 Look upon him as you will, I challenge the 
 blackest infidelity to say that he belongs to this 
 earthly sphere. You would know that his Father's 
 house was not even on some most favored island of 
 our globe, nor in some royal domain such as mon- 
 archs have fitted up for themselves. His works, 
 his tastes, his longings, his affinities, were every 
 hour proving him to be the tenant of some bright- 
 er realm. And his miraculous life, and his mira- 
 culous resurrection and ascension, all discovered to 
 men that a better world than ours must claim him, 
 and that somewhere in God's great universe there 
 must be a land of purity and blessedness and peace 
 and glory such as would be congenial to him. 
 
 He came down amongst these human circles and 
 traversed our sinful sphere, a living exception to 
 the race, a personal contradiction to the great uni- 
 versal law of depravity. 
 
 So he announced himself as the Way to some 
 other region, and the Truth in open refutation of 
 the world's errors, and the Life in the highest sense, 
 and beyond all this dying life of ours. And wher- 
 ever he went it was as if odors from the Isles of 
 the Blest were emptied upon the air — the sick 
 revived, the dying were healed, the dead were 
 raised, and all pointed to a superior department 
 of being. It was as if the whole host of angels 
 had been sent down to open to view that other 
 circle of society and that upper world of light. 
 No wonder that his disciples, catching gleams of 
 his glory, asked him, " Whither goest thou?" And 
 no wonder that his reply to their question was, 
 
330 OUR HEAVENLY HOME. 
 
 "Whither I go ye know and the way ye know," 
 but ye can not follow me now. No wonder that 
 beholders inquired whence he came. 
 
 And therefore it is, that however our Christian 
 faith may be puzzled to fix the locality of heaven 
 — in what fair planet or star of God's universe — 
 Jesus is the blest object whose home, we know, is 
 heaven. And we are content to rest on this assur- 
 ance, that where he is, there we shall be also. Not 
 in a mere spirit-world, for there is his glorified 
 body! His life, it was, no less than his doctrine* 
 which brought life and immortality to light. And 
 therefore it is that, following in his footsteps, we 
 know we can trace the shining road to where he 
 enters in and is at home in the Father's house. 
 
 And so also, secondly: All the relations which Iv 3 
 instituted here icith sinners proved that his object was 
 to make us felloiv-residents ivith him in heaven. 
 
 He showed us, that surely as there is such a 
 world of blessedness, so surely he came to take 
 us up thither. If he is the Living Head and we 
 are the members, how can these parts of the one 
 body be forever separated, or where shall the liv- 
 ing members be, but with the Living Head? This 
 was the whole drift of his teachings, and the whole 
 tendency of his system. So that if you should 
 strike out from our Christianity the heritage beyond, 
 to which it invites us, it would be only a system 
 of severest disappointment, and most self-contra- 
 dictory in all its terms. " If in this life only we 
 have hope in Christ, we are of all men most 
 miserable. " 
 
OUR HEAVENLY HOME. 331 
 
 But consider, if he is Shepherd of the sheep, 
 where, or when, is the shepherd office to be exer- 
 cised so delicately and tenderly and surely and 
 effectively, as when we come to the dark valley 
 and deep shadow of death — with a view to our 
 passing triumphantly through all the darkness and 
 danger to the other side ? And so, if he is the 
 Life of men, as the living vine to the branches, is 
 it not in reference to the life eternal, which is only 
 at best initiated here below, of which this is but 
 the infancy? 
 
 The religion of Christ has for its foundation-doc- 
 trine the truth of the resurrection, as instanced in 
 the triumphant resurrection of Jesus, and as to be 
 gloriously illustrated and fulfilled in that of his re- 
 deemed people. And he is not only the Resurrec- 
 tion, but he is also the Life Eternal which makes 
 the resurrection precious. And so, if this religion 
 be not our strength in a dying hour, and our com- 
 fort over the open grave, it fails just where we 
 need it most, and where it promises us the strong- 
 est consolation. But here it does not fail. Here 
 it blazes forth in its utmost effulgence at the dark- 
 est point. 
 
 So also, thirdly, God has allowed us glimpses of 
 that heavenly world, from tohere the gates have stood 
 ajar for a moment, and the inner glory has been 
 revealed. 
 
 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, entered in there 
 without the formality of death ; and his body was 
 changed, as the bodies of those believers shall be 
 changed who are found on earth when Christ shall 
 
332 OUR HEAVENLY HOME. 
 
 appear at the consummation. How that primitive 
 saint went up we know not. It seemed to have 
 been by some vanishing, as of one that is caught 
 up in a cloud, or a whirlwind of glory; or as of 
 some star that merges into day — "as sets the 
 morning star, that goes not down behind the dark- 
 ened west." And so that heavenly state was re- 
 vealed to the antediluvian world. 
 
 And then, again, under the law — Elijah, the 
 prophet of Israel, was caught up with all the dis- 
 play of a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and a 
 whirlwind. 
 
 And then, still further, and nearer to us, that 
 same Elijah was seen again — returned to earth 
 along with Moses, who died on Mount Nebo; and 
 there they stood together, in their robes of light, 
 on that golden summit of the transfiguration. 
 
 And still again, and still nearer, Jesus himself 
 was caught up from Olivet in a cloud of glory and 
 parted from the sight of men. 
 
 These mountain summits of the earth have thus 
 seemed to touch the skies; and gleams of "the 
 Delectable Mountains" have gilded these very hill- 
 tops where we travel in darkness, looking out for 
 the eternal day. And so, whenever a fellow-Chris- 
 tian has passed in there from our own circles, we 
 have seen something of the celestial effulgence 
 beaming through where he entered. 
 
 And fourthly : This Christian system throughout 
 implies such an estate beyond, as it is a system of 
 longing and praying and icaiting and progressing 
 till ice arrive where Jesus is. The heart, therefore 
 
OUR HEAVENLY HOME. 333 
 
 that has not been touched with any yearning for 
 such a blest abode, has not begun to conceive what 
 the Christian system is, as a system of aspiration 
 and elevation and salvation by Jesus Christ, and 
 of glorification with him forever. 
 
 But every believer has had his faith rise to some 
 height of heavenly contemplation, has had it, more 
 or less, take in that other and celestial sphere, 
 and, with the help of Scripture, he has pictured 
 to himself its glories, and has, perhaps, imagined 
 himself seated down in its eternal mansions. Just 
 as when the traveller has climbed the highest 
 summit to get a view of the Alpine snow-peaks, 
 and he has found the mists gathered round the 
 glorious crests, and he has sat down in weariness 
 and disappointment. But presently the mist-clouds 
 have parted and, one by one, the snow-peaks stood 
 forth to view, and then all of them together, 
 wreathed round with the gossamer, and standing 
 forth in every various phase of majesty and beauty, 
 and then at sunset the golden glory, resting on 
 the summits, have made them to seem like the 
 gate-way of heaven — all the more luminous and 
 glorious for the circling veils w r hich at first had 
 obscured them. 
 
 " And what if earth 
 Be but the shadow of heaven and things therein 
 Each to other like, more than on earth is thought ?" 
 
 These heavens and this earth are types of a new 
 heaven and a new earth which shall be. 
 
334 OUR HEAVENLY HOME. 
 
 "Many a joyful sight is given, 
 
 Many a lovely vision here: 
 Hill and vale and starry even, 
 
 Friendship's smile — affection's tear — 
 These are shadows, sent in love, 
 Of realities above." 
 
 And now Jesus speaks to warrant all that the 
 most lively conception has ever painted — to legiti- 
 mate it all as none too glowing, none too bright, 
 none too assured; that the reality is rather infi- 
 nitely transcending all that we ever conceived. 
 He describes it, rather, by what it is not, than by 
 what it is. No night there; no sorrow, nor sigh- 
 ing, nor tears, nor any more pain. He says that 
 this Christian faith of ours, that goes out and fixes 
 upon such a blessed world, shall in nowise be dis- 
 appointed; that all that we have inferred from his 
 teachings and from our longings about that estate, 
 shall be more than realized in the fruition. And 
 that "if it were not so" — that there is a Father's 
 house for us as well as for him — he would not 
 have allowed us to remain a moment under the 
 misconception, but he would have told us not to 
 expect it. 
 
 First, then, the heavenly world is fairly to be 
 presumed — considered as the Fathers house of 
 Jesus. 
 
 We come in our feeble faith, like those early dis- 
 ciples, beholding this Lamb of God, wondering and 
 asking of him — " Where dwellest thou?" And he 
 replies to us — "Come and see!" He has excited 
 our desire to dwell where he dwells; his home we 
 
OUR HEAVENLY HOME. 335 
 
 would have to be our home. All his human inter- 
 course has awakened this sympathy and affinity. 
 And shall it be disappointed? We hear him all 
 along his path crying, "Follow me: I will show 
 you the way: I will clear it of obstacles. Come 
 on." We inquire, therefore, to what realm he be- 
 longs. And it is to this very point that he here 
 speaks, and enlightens us about the extensive ar- 
 rangements there in his Paternal abode. 
 
 He means, clearly, that there can be no such 
 restrictions and limitations there, as belong to these 
 earthly habitations — that in his Father's house there 
 is room for all the children, no less than for him- 
 self. Did he not say to Mary, "I ascend unto my 
 Father and your Father, and unto my God and 
 your God?" And is not his Sonship the very basis 
 of our sonship ? Do we not become sons just be- 
 cause he is the eternal " well-beloved Son," "the 
 first-born among many brethren," who has the 
 birthright place and privilege? And "he is not 
 ashamed to call us brethren," just because "he 
 hath prepared for us a city." And if this be so, 
 his Fathers house is our Father's house, and what 
 he means here is that the grand Paternal homestead 
 has many mansions. 
 
 The first idea in this phrase is the manifold 
 accommodations. 
 
 There is such amplitude, such variety. This 
 could also be fairly presumed. Not all alike for 
 all the children, for the very reason that they are 
 not all alike in respect to training and culture and 
 development. As the life yonder is to be presumed 
 
336 OUR HEAVENLY HOME. 
 
 from the life here, so that life must be supposed to 
 be the continuation of this, according to the laws 
 of mental and moral being. 
 
 Some may reach that heavenly land the merest 
 babes in Christ, and some all dwarfed compara- 
 tively — no high expansion of their powers in abun- 
 dant works of faith and love — no full unfolding of 
 the soul to the measure of the stature of the fulness 
 of Christ. And though there shall be no imperfec- 
 tion which could imply defect or infer the presence 
 of sin, yet all perfection is not the same. There is 
 a perfect child, and yet that is not a perfect man, 
 nor that a perfect giant, nor that a perfect artist, 
 nor a perfect warrior. According to the pathway 
 of each, must be the landing; according to the 
 race must be the chaplet; and according to the 
 victory must be the crown. Even among angels 
 there are cherubim and seraphim — angels whose 
 specialty is knowledge, and angels whose specialty 
 is love. So there are archangels, and among these 
 there are thrones and dominions and principalities 
 and powers. There is room there for the babes in 
 Christ. There must therefore be an infinite vari- 
 ety, according to an infinite aptitude. All shall 
 not live in the same house, but each under the 
 same spanning firmament of love, and as under 
 the same grand roof of the Father's house of 
 Jesus. 
 
 The next idea of the phrase is, that these mani- 
 fold accommodations are dwelling-places — abodes, as 
 the term is — not temporary, like these tents which 
 are so easily blown down by the gale, or swept 
 
OUR HEAVENLY HOME. 337 
 
 away with the flood, but places for an abiding 
 residence. 
 
 This also could be fairly presumed. If we are 
 pilgrims, as we are, we are journeying to a bet- 
 ter father-land. If we are disturbed in these 
 poor houses of clay that are crushed before the 
 moth, it is that we may enter the more permanent 
 habitation. 
 
 This Christian hope, that, with such steady fin- 
 ger points us forward and upward, points to this, 
 if to any thing — an enduring home. That which 
 this shifting scene makes us long for — to get to 
 some quiet retreat that shall be "incorruptible, 
 undefiled, and that fadeth not away " ; that which 
 is the high ideal of the soul is precisely what is 
 variously painted to our vision, and delineated 
 in the text. All variety there to suit the case of 
 every redeemed and pure spirit; and all perma- 
 nency to leave no fear of change, nor any pang at 
 the prospect of departure. 
 
 And then, that this abiding residence shall be 
 home — cheery and blessed; the fondest resting- 
 place of the soul, the dear centre of its joys and 
 the sphere of its endearments. More welcome 
 than home could ever be to any poor traveller 
 who comes in, after the dusty and famishing and 
 sleepless travel to the happy homestead on earth; 
 more hearty and happy greetings of the great glo- 
 rified family, through all the membership. All that 
 was lacking to make home the perfect fruition of 
 every bliss, and that to all eternity, shall be there 
 enjoyed. Absence from the body becomes bliss, 
 22 
 
338 OUR HEAVENLY HOME. 
 
 because it is to be u at home with the Lord," as 
 the term is. 
 
 All analogy warrants this conclusion. The bird 
 upon whose back God has fashioned the wings, 
 finds the broad sky made for it to fly in ; and the 
 fish whose fins are fitted for the watery element 
 finds the seas and rivers for its appropriate life; 
 and shall the soul that is winged and plumed for 
 glory, find no sky in which to soar ? 
 
 And so, in truth, it is, as to all the Scriptural 
 types or images of our home in heaven; they are 
 the fullest response to our felt necessity. There- 
 fore this is the nature of the presumption. There 
 shall be the utter absence of all evil, and the full- 
 est presence and experience of all good. What- 
 ever we sigh for here in vain, whatever we could 
 possibly enjoy there, whatever could enter into the 
 cup of delight for a ransomed creature, must needs 
 be comprised in that one magic word, heaven! And 
 hence whatever sorrow or sighing or pain there is 
 here, must give place to the rich and overwhelm- 
 ing enjoyment. "In thy presence is fulness of joy" 
 — such as fills the vessel to the utmost, and makes 
 it brim over with the fulness. 
 
 Consider then, further, the general idea involved 
 in the item of a mansion is, that it shall be our pos- 
 session of a dwelling — not rented, but owned. 
 
 We are always aiming here to possess somewhat 
 that we can call ours, especially an abode which 
 we call a home. We are often fretting for more 
 than we have or can have. This aim, that in 
 some worldly minds rises to the pitch of an ava- 
 
OUR HEAVENLY HOME. 339 
 
 ricious grasping, adding house to house, and field 
 to field, and leading to the enlargement of barns 
 and storehouses, as the depositories of their goods, 
 is, in the limited sense, natural. And, in so far as 
 it is a legitimate aim, the presumption is, that 
 heaven shall be the sphere for its highest grati- 
 fication. 
 
 So the Scripture, alluding to this principle, delin- 
 eates that happy estate as an inheritance. It is an 
 inheritance, as a patrimony, coming to us through 
 our sonship. "If children, then heirs!" If chil- 
 dren of God., then heirs of God; and if children of 
 the same Father as Jesus himself, then joint heirs 
 with Jesus. Sharers with him in the heritage — so 
 that whatever belongs to him becomes ours to en- 
 joy as partners of his heritage, members of the 
 body of which he is the Head. 
 
 Then it is a possession of holiness. 
 
 This is an inward treasure. This, therefore, is 
 an article of wealth not reckoned by the banker, 
 nor quoted in the market nor valued by the world. 
 And yet it is just the richest of all treasures, be- 
 cause it is an estate of the soul ; real estate in the 
 highest sense, as distinct from mere chattel and 
 movable estate, and inalienable. And just because 
 all peace and rest and true felicity must have their 
 seat in the inward condition — just as the glory of 
 this Gospel is to open a fountain within the soul, 
 as a well of water, springing up to everlasting life, 
 so we accept this as the highest boon — the posses- 
 sion of an undefiled nature, 'personal estate as being 
 always available. 
 
340 OUR HEAVENLY HOME. 
 
 This internal grace makes the inheritance unde- 
 filed, as no power in the universe could make it 
 to us, without this. To bear the very likeness of 
 Jesus — not in any mere superficial impression, 
 such as a stamp upon the wax could give, not in 
 the mere physique, resembling the man Christ Je- 
 sus, but in an inward and spiritual transformation, 
 to have the elements of the divine life in the soul, 
 so as to be living on the same great principles as 
 God lives — ah! this is it — with divine tastes and 
 heavenly affinities, aims and joys. This is the 
 chief possession. 
 
 And just because it so belongs to the very text- 
 ure of the soul itself, it can never be alienated in 
 the least. This, therefore, must be the nature of 
 the heavenly mansion. As it implies rest, and 
 home, and these can not exist in their highest 
 sense without holiness of nature, so we find that 
 it is no palatial residence even of most enduring 
 fabric, for even the solid granite would crumble in 
 the heat or be demolished in some convulsion of 
 matter. The home and the rest and the inherit- 
 ance that is incorruptible and undefiled must be 
 the soul's possession of an inward holiness, which 
 is shared with Jesus Christ — the divine nature of 
 which we become partakers through him. It is 
 therefore notified to us that it is a home in the 
 Father's house, a home for us as children of the 
 Father, and as bearing his image and likeness 
 within for all eternity; and so heaven must be, 
 according to the whole presumption of the case, 
 the possession of whatever would enhance at all 
 
OUR HEAVENLY HOME. 341 
 
 the enjoyment of the blessed. This idea is also 
 involved in the many and various mansions, to 
 suit the particular case of each — of Abraham, of 
 Isaac, of Jacob, and of you and me. 
 
 So it is spoken of, again, as a kingdom, mean- 
 ing evidently that just as one's home is his king- 
 dom, in so far as it is a home to him, so there the 
 redeemed saint shall have fullest range and sway 
 amidst all the wealth of delights, privileged to en- 
 ter upon the occupancy of whatever realm or sphere 
 of pleasure belongs to the kingdom of Jesus, wear- 
 ing the crown of that kingdom, though he were 
 a beggar here on earth; proprietor, now, by vir- 
 tue of his heavenly heritage, of such a domain as 
 no mortal ever conceived, with royal titles upon 
 his breast, royal diadem upon his brow, all such 
 as Jesus himself wears, and all possessed by virtue 
 of oneness with him. 
 
 Now, if you stagger at the thought of such glory 
 for a child of the dust, consider what is the pre- 
 sumption of the whole Christian system. It is free 
 grace to sinners. It is nothing for any being of 
 our race except in Jesus. But it is every thing in 
 Jesus, offered to the vilest of mankind. If he is 
 the Head, and we are the members of one and the 
 same body, then in this complex person all the ful- 
 ness above must be enjoyed. Then take the sur- 
 vey. Ask what inheritance is his, and call it yours 
 also, if you stand in Christ. Is it that a redeemed 
 sinner is to be placed on a footing with righteous 
 Abel, or with Abraham the friend of God, or with 
 John who leaned on the bosom of Jesus, or with 
 
342 OUR HEAVENLY HOME. 
 
 Mary his mother, or Mary who anointed his feet 
 for his burial, or with Gabriel? No! but with 
 Jesus himself. 
 
 But, further, there is the possession of knoideclge 
 which must be presumed as belonging to heaven. 
 
 This idea is involved in the text. For it is the 
 joyous certainty and realization that is here prom- 
 ised beyond all doubt. For knowledge is the aim 
 of our higher nature, which must surely be grati- 
 fied there. 
 
 Ye doubting Christians, who wonder what is be- 
 yond, in the great future, I tell you now, he says, 
 as you shall soon rapturously know it for your- 
 selves, if you are children. And "if it were not 
 so I would have told you." The tree of knowledge 
 in the midst of the old paradise must surely reap- 
 pear in the new paradise, along with the tree of 
 life. And this fruit shall no more be interdicted. 
 Then it shall be notified, "Of the tree of knowl- 
 edge of good and evil, thou may est eat." It never 
 was the nature of the fruit, but only the nature of 
 finite man, that made that original restriction in 
 Eden. 
 
 We are left to inference here, as to what range 
 of knowledge, what researches into God's works, 
 what traversing of the material and moral uni- 
 verse, what high calculations in the profoundest 
 science and philosophy shall be allowed us. No 
 tougue can tell. But we conclude that such inves- 
 tigations as the mind is fitted for, and such as 
 have only been distantly approached here, will 
 fill the utmost capacity there and forever. With 
 
OUR HEAVENLY HOME. 343 
 
 powers of mind immensely enlarged, and faculties 
 exquisitely refined and glorified, the boundless field 
 will open to the enraptured view. So that there 
 never will come a period, all down those intermi- 
 nable ages, when knowledge will cease to flow in 
 upon the delighted intellect, or when any barrier 
 will be set up to the range of the mind in all the 
 fields of exploration. God, creation, history, prov- 
 idence, Scripture, redemption, retribution — such 
 themes, such volumes, spread out for all eternity ! 
 How Jesus will communicate of this boundless 
 knowledge. Already he says, " I have called you 
 friends, for all things that I have heard of my 
 Father I have made known unto you." And we 
 shall enter into the knowledge of Jesus as he is, 
 in all his offices, in his personal offices for us, the 
 full knowledge of redeeming love in all its annals, 
 where it passeth knowledge here. 
 
 And further still, there is included all the appro- 
 priate occupation for all eternity. 
 
 It is to be presumed from the whole Christian 
 system, that all fitting employment is reserved for 
 us in heaven. And this idea is also involved in 
 the text. For home has never its charm from a 
 mere lazy indolence, where time hangs heavy; and 
 jeternity would be insufferable. The home occu- 
 pations sweeten the delights of home, give relish 
 to the daily meal, create ever-increasing bonds of 
 sympathy in the household, and give play to all 
 the finest feelings of our nature. What is home 
 if there be no objects of fond endearment to en- 
 gage the thought and occupy the attention and 
 
344 OUR HEAVENLY HOME. 
 
 affection, and give zest to the daily occupation ? 
 And so, heaven is spoken of as a sanctuary into 
 which the Great High-priest has entered, and we 
 enter with him as "priests unto God and the Fa- 
 ther." It is a round of priestly services, chiefly 
 the offering of the sacrifice of praise. 
 
 Yet who shall say that the celestial tenantry are 
 debarred from doing good to others in their sub- 
 lime spheres ? Not indeed, as charity can here be 
 done, among the needy brethren, but as angels 
 minister now to us, so may we not minister to 
 other orders of being, or even to angels, to return 
 somewhat of their manifold and blessed service, 
 reciting to them at least the story of our personal 
 salvation? And in the glorified body, those spir- 
 itual frames in which we shall be clothed shall 
 have their highest employment — works worthy of 
 the house "not made with hands, eternal in the 
 heavens." 
 
 And, finally, as further belonging to the idea of 
 the text, and as the necessary charm of the many 
 mansions, is the glorious personal and social reunion, 
 which must be enjoyed there — the mutual grat illa- 
 tion, each in the other rejoicing, all rejoicing in 
 Jesus, and Jesus rejoicing in all. 
 
 Already as one enters before us we seem to over- 
 hear the happy greetings of the great family with- 
 in, and to catch glimpses of the glory through the 
 open door-way. What do we long for in heaven 
 next to seeing Jesus, so much as Ave long for a rec- 
 ognition of Christian friends gone before? There 
 is a chord in every heart which is touched and 
 
OUR HEAVENLY HOME. 345 
 
 thrilled by this expectation. It is not explicitly- 
 revealed, just in so many words, but it is most pos- 
 itively implied and presumed. The royal mourner, 
 the sweet Psalmist of Israel, as he wept over a 
 departed child expressed a balmy thought for be- 
 reaved parents, who have laid their treasures early 
 in the tomb, when he said, u He shall not come to 
 me, but I shall go to him. 1 ' 
 
 What is home without such a recognition of the 
 members in the happy circle? Could it be that 
 God has fitted up the Father s house for the chil- 
 dren, with all its boundless hospitalities, and yet 
 they who have gone up thither from the same 
 earthly household shall not know each other there? 
 The joy you daily take in greeting your relatives 
 and friends — nay, even the pure pleasure you feel 
 in collecting their photographs within a clasped 
 volume of your own, turning over the leaves of 
 such a magic mirror, where you gather them at 
 will in a sweet circle around you — all this is only 
 the natural inward yearning which is to be so per- 
 fectly gratified there. No matter how refined and 
 exquisitely attenuated shall be that spiritual body 
 it shall be a body nevertheless; all the more deli- 
 cate and fairy-like as it shall put off this grossness 
 of the common flesh. And when even the image 
 which the light of day imprints upon the snow- 
 white paper smiles upon you, and seems to speak, 
 though it be only a thing of the sunlight, could it 
 be that the spiritual body should have no features, 
 or that those features which that soul has seemed 
 to make should not be for the delighted eye of 
 
346 OUR HEAVENLY HOME. 
 
 companion and bosom friend? And should we be 
 allowed to go through the streets of that New 
 Jerusalem inquiring in vain for those whom our 
 soul loveth, and whom we expected to meet again, 
 and to greet again, in the eternal reunion there ? 
 So Jesus comforted the weeping sisters when he 
 said, "Your brother shall rise again;" and he com- 
 forted the sorrowing Mary at his sepulchre by the 
 joyous words, "I ascend unto my Father, and your 
 Father." Oh! how could heaven be heaven indeed, 
 if such a yearning of our hearts were denied us, 
 and if we could never recognize again the pure 
 and lovely and good who shone here in the image 
 of Jesus, and were folded together with us, in the 
 same Shepherd's arms? 
 
 Yes, and more than this. Why should we not 
 recognize all the great and good of whom we have 
 ever read or heard — Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 
 and Paul, and John, and the Marys, and the mar- 
 tyrs, and the reformers, and all the great benefac- 
 tors of our race ? Why not ? Shall not heaven be 
 made most pleasant to us by our being introduced 
 to them, one by one, among the glorified throng, 
 and learning the story of salvation from the tongue 
 of each ? And then if Jesus was a friend on earth, 
 "the chiefest among ten thousand," it must be sur- 
 passing joy to recognize his features, and to see 
 the halo of glory that sits upon his thorn-crowned 
 forehead, and to behold the scars of his crucifixion 
 beaming in his hands and feet and side. At the 
 resurrection, they who have loved him and longed 
 for his abode shall be clothed in a body like his 
 
OUR HEAVENLY HOME. 347 
 
 own. " He will change our vile body that it may- 
 be fashioned like unto his glorious body." "And 
 as we have borne the image of the earthy, we 
 shall also bear the image of the heavenfy." We 
 shall know each other there, even as we are known 
 here. And so they know us now. They look out 
 of the window upon our path, as we are led by the 
 good Shepherd, and so they await our return, as 
 they see us nearing our heavenly home. 
 
 "Jerusalem the Golden; 
 
 There all our birds that flew, — 
 Our flowers but half-unfolden, 
 
 Our pearls that turned to dew, — 
 And all the glad life-music 
 
 Now heard no longer here, 
 Shall come again to greet us, 
 
 As we are drawing near." 
 
 My brethren, if heaven is our proper home — if 
 there our hearts and treasures are — then death 
 ought to be welcome. Nay, then we may bear 
 poverty, losses, crosses, all ills of life, and rejoice 
 in the glorious prospect. Nay, we could even say, 
 like a devout Christian on his death-bed, "I am 
 homesick." 
 
 But is this your real affinity? Would you find 
 heaven to be your home, even if God should open 
 wide its gates to you? Would you find there your 
 home circle, your fond endearments, your favor- 
 ite occupations, your most cherished friendships? 
 And would your freed spirit sit down there as in 
 your Father s house, and among your brethren of 
 the same happy family ? Or would your heaven 
 
348 OUR HEAVENLY HOME. 
 
 be in the festive circle of worldliness? Would it 
 be, then, that all the glories of that blessed realm 
 should afford you no pleasure, just because of your 
 earthy and depraved tastes and desires — -just be- 
 cause of an unrenovated nature ? Would you your- 
 self probably feel there as one feels who is ushered 
 into a festive company, where he is an utter stran- 
 ger and is not recognized by the circle, just be- 
 cause he has nothing in common with them ? 
 Then it is not the fault of the place, nor of the 
 proprietor. It is not God's fault, nor any fault of 
 heaven. But it is the alienation of your own soul 
 from all that is good and happy and blest in the 
 presence of God and the Lamb. And God is just 
 when he says to such — "Depart from me, I never 
 knew you." 
 
XX. 
 
 THE DOUBLE CALL. 
 
 "And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that 
 heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And who- 
 soever will, let him take the water of life freely." — Rev. xxii. 17. 
 
 This closing passage of Scripture is a splendid 
 summing up of every thing that is inviting in the 
 Gospel. 
 
 When Christ had unfolded to the exiled apostle 
 a symbolical sketch of human history in this Apoc- 
 alypse, he closes with that which is the one grand 
 end of all Scripture, a universal call and offer of 
 reconciliation and eternal life. So, that it is, as 
 if, on the back of the prophetic roll in which all 
 human events are outlined, there is stamped for 
 every beholder this Gospel message — Come. As if, 
 in view of all the historic future, men's one great 
 leading interest must always be, to come hither 
 to Christ — no matter what events are happening, 
 or may happen. As if all elements and agencies 
 which enter into the working fabric of human af- 
 fairs, could give only one and the same invitation 
 — Come. And as though all providential agents, 
 all angels, cherubim and seraphim, were taking 
 up the call, and sounding out, over and over, in 
 
350 THE DOUBLE CALL. 
 
 every form, with every variety of anthem and ap- 
 peal, the message — Come! come! come! 
 
 In the immediate context, the Lord Jesus has 
 twice announced himself as speedily coming to the 
 world for the scenes of the final consummation. 
 He says, u Behold I come quickly ;" and then again, 
 he repeats it, " Behold I come quickly and my re- 
 ward is with me, to give to every man according 
 as his work shall be." And now it would seem, 
 that the former part of our text is a call to Christ to 
 come to men, and the latter part, a summons to sin- 
 oxers to come to Christ. As if after the prophetic 
 unfoldings were all given, in vision here, it re- 
 mained only to put forth in one glowing and glori- 
 ous sentence, what may be regarded as a concen- 
 tration of the whole Scripture, calling upon Christ 
 to come to men, our world — and calling upon men, 
 the world, to come to Christ, as is predicted and 
 portrayed here. 
 
 In the previous context, Jesus declares himself 
 as the Alpha and the Omega of all history; and, 
 accordingly, as being at once the Author and Fin- 
 isher of this temporal estate. He repeatedly an- 
 nounces himself as coming quickly. "Behold I 
 come quickly, and my reward is with me." And 
 here, immediately, and as a response to such an- 
 nouncement, the Spirit is represented as calling out 
 — "Come. 1 ' And the Church, the Bride of Christ, 
 echoes the call to come. And then, every hearer of 
 so glad a declaration and response is bidden to 
 join the acclamation, and to bid Jesus come and 
 welcome to this waiting earth. 
 
THE DOUBLE CALL. 351 
 
 And then, as if this, his second advent, must be 
 that which shall make it infinitely desirable and 
 every way encouraging for sinners to come to 
 Christ, that so his coining to judgment, and com- 
 ing for the salvation of his people may be the 
 present urgent motive with all men, the call goes 
 out to the thirsty soul, whoever he be, to come, 
 and whoever will, is entreated to take the water 
 of life freely. 
 
 And first, the Spirit in prophecy calls on Christ 
 to come. 
 
 As to the nature of this coming, we shall only 
 say that it is in accordance with the whole spirit 
 and scope of prophecy. It is that coming in 
 power and great glory for which the Church looks 
 to build up his kingdom in all the earth, and to es- 
 tablish his millennial reign. It is that coming by 
 his Spirit in mighty outpourings upon all flesh 
 such as was only partially fulfilled at Pentecost. 
 
 We need not here discuss the question of a per- 
 sonal premillennial advent — whether we may look 
 for Christ to appear visibly in person before the 
 millennium, to achieve what the Church and the 
 instituted means of grace can not do, to consume 
 the wicked upon the earth by the literal breath of 
 his mouth and destroy them by the brightness of 
 his coming. All along the ages the prophetic an- 
 nouncement was of the Comer. Always, it was in 
 drapery suited to the time, that this glorious ad- 
 vent was depicted. 
 
 There were four great predictions of Christ in 
 the patriarchal age — one for each of the four great 
 
352 THE DOUBLE CALL. 
 
 epochs of the Church's history, before the settle- 
 ment in Canaan. There was a prediction of Christ 
 at the FaU, and another at the Flood, and another 
 at the Covenant with Abraham, and another at the 
 Exile from Egypt. And in each of these, the 
 prophetic vision reaches beyond the first advent, 
 and takes in also the second. 
 
 When the serpent had just tempted the first 
 pair, the Comer was announced as the Destroyer 
 of the serpent. "And for this purpose, the Son 
 of God was manifested, that he might destroy 
 the works of the devil." But when he came and 
 spoiled principalities and powers on the cross, the 
 bruising of the serpent's head was not fully accom- 
 plished so much as the bruising of the Saviour's 
 heel. The Spirit therefore, in that first promise 
 from the earth's earliest history, calls out to Jesus 
 to come in his second, triumphal advent, to put 
 all enemies under his feet. 
 
 And even in the antediluvian times, Enoch who 
 walked with God as a child walks hand-in-hand 
 with the parent, overreached all human history, 
 and announced the second advent of Jesus with- 
 out even speaking of the first advent. u Behold 
 the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints 
 to execute judgment upon all." 
 
 And so, at the era of the Flood, the Spirit cries 
 out in the promise to Noah, and calls for that pre- 
 dicted enlargement of Japhet, and for his dwelling 
 in the tents of Shem. This can ensue only upon 
 Christ's coming, in the ingathering of the world's 
 dominant races to a pure Christianity. 
 
THE DOUBLE CALL. 353 
 
 And so the Spirit cries out, in the covenant 
 promise given to Abraham — calling on Jesus as 
 the seed of blessing to come. 
 
 More and more the prediction labors for accom- 
 plishment. In this promised seed, all the families 
 of the earth are now waiting to be blessed. The 
 benighted and down-trodden, the infidel and idola- 
 ter, the civilized and barbarous — are they not all 
 in an attitude of longing expectancy, crying for 
 deliverance, and there is no deliverer for them but 
 Jesus; sighing for light, and he it is, who coming 
 into the world, lighteth every man. And so, also, 
 at the time of bondage in Egypt, the prediction 
 had a voice which is still crying for accomplish- 
 ment. For the Shiloh has come. But the gather- 
 ing of the nations to him, in a hearty and univer- 
 sal obedience, waits its glorious fulfilment. It is 
 advancing. The march of the world's millions is 
 plainly onward toward this goal of human blessing. 
 
 But observe, in the second place, the Bride also, is 
 here represented as joining in this call to Christ to 
 come. This is the Church, the Spouse of Christ. 
 Already in the midst of the ancient economy this 
 is the very attitude in which the Church is de- 
 picted, in that wonderful Song of Solomon. We 
 hear her voice as that of a desolate, lone woman, 
 searching about the city for her absent partner 
 ■ — inquiring of the watchman, in most touching 
 strains, where he may be found. To her his ab- 
 sence is represented under the images of scorching 
 suns, freezing winter, pelting rain, pitchy night, 
 dreary desert — and she can not sleep nor take any 
 
354 THE DOUBLE CALL. 
 
 comfort till she find her beloved, till she hear his 
 voice at the lattice, till his fingers drop myrrh on 
 the handles of the lock. All language is exhausted 
 to express that connubial love which makes her go 
 about through the streets and lanes of the city, 
 crying for his coming. Nay, through the fields, 
 and over the mountains, she searches for him, 
 and her cry is still the same earnest, impassioned, 
 beseeching — come ! come ! " Come with me from 
 Lebanon, my Spouse, with me from Lebanon. Look 
 from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and 
 Hermon; from the lions' dens, from the mountains 
 of the leopards." This is the restless plaint of the 
 true Church, in all ages, crying and entreating 
 until the Bridegroom shall come. 
 
 And the heart of genuine faith and hope and 
 love has always found fitting expression in these 
 matchless passages of that Song of Songs, which is 
 Solomon's. It is an index of returning conscious- 
 ness in the Church of our day, when she finds 
 these stanzas of the Canticles such as suit her 
 lively desire, when she goes through our cities, 
 in the person of her members, crying aloud, and 
 weeping for the coming of the Bridegroom. 
 
 And the Church in all the world is earnestly, 
 anxiously looking out for the Masters coming. 
 She is so interpreting all his methods of provi- 
 dence and all the stupendous steps in history, all 
 the upturnings and overturnings among the na- 
 tions; and nothing is of so great moment to this 
 spouse of Christ, as that he may come in all these 
 commotions, and that on this accursed earth, where 
 
THE DOUBLE CALL. 355 
 
 he was derided and condemned and crucified by 
 sinners, he may be exalted and enthroned in power 
 and great glory, holding the kingdoms as all his 
 own. 
 
 And now, seeing that this is the outcry of the 
 Spirit and the outcry of the Church, calling upon 
 Christ to come, in keeping with this proclamation, 
 what is needed is, that every one by whom the 
 promise or the response is heard, shall take up the 
 cry, and re-echo it all around. "Let him that hear- 
 eth say, Come!" 
 
 Every hearer of the Gospel should become a pro- 
 claimer of it in his sphere, to his circle. It is in 
 this way that the divine plan contemplates its uni- 
 versal promulgation. If the iron is to attract, it 
 must first be magnetized. God has pleased to 
 make men ministers to their fellow -men. And 
 there is no method so natural, nor is there any 
 so efficient. 
 
 It is not supposable that angelic ministries, 
 though so much more exalted, would subserve so 
 direct and valuable an object as man's own min- 
 istries to his fellow-man. Hence the Godhead re- 
 vealed itself in the God-man — not in the God-an- 
 gel, nor God-seraph, but in the God-man. 
 
 And he who is so blessed above others, as to be 
 a hearer of this Gospel sound, is summoned to take 
 it up and echo it. This is only what he would find 
 it in his heart to do, if he heard some other glad 
 tidings, in which all the multitudes are as deeply 
 concerned as in self. This is only an instinct of 
 our better nature — to tdl the good news which is 
 
356 THE DOUBLE CALL. 
 
 so fitted to gladden other hearts, to give utmost 
 currency to such a heavenly message, as will cheer 
 the laborer at his work, and the prisoner in his 
 dungeon, and bid the weeping and desolate chil- 
 dren of want rejoice. 
 
 And then, again, if this were done at this mo- 
 ment, simply with the aim of each Christian man, 
 bringing home the message to another so as each 
 to duplicate himself in the kingdom of Christ, then 
 how long, think you, would it take for the whole 
 world to become converted ? If there were only 
 half a million of true Christians in the world, and 
 each should be the means of bringing one soul to 
 Christ in a year, and these should go on, each du- 
 plicating himself in this way, yearly, every soul 
 on the globe would be converted within thirteen 
 years. 
 
 But instead of half a million of Christians on 
 the earth, there are twenty-five to thirty times 
 that number, who make a credible profession of 
 Christianity. Alas! that such mighty forces should 
 be so dormant. Oh ! when the leaking time shall 
 come for the church, and this immense army shall 
 be led forth in battle array by the Master, see how 
 soon this globe of ours will be won for Christ ! 
 
 It has been computed that if the work of the 
 world's conversion should now begin for the first, 
 in the ministry of a single man, and he should win 
 one soul to Christ during the first year, and these 
 two should do the like in the second year, each 
 winning his man, so that four should be at the 
 work the third year ; at this rate of reduplication, 
 
THE DOUBLE CALL. 357 
 
 the whole world of one thousand millions would 
 be won to Christ before the first laborer had come 
 to his grave in the ordinary course of nature. In 
 the United States if each Christian should bring in 
 five more during the year, the whole population 
 would be converted in a short twelve-month. 
 
 And such a plan is precisely what we need this 
 moment to have in operation — that each hearer of 
 the Gospel become a petitioner for Christ's coming, 
 and a laborer for it, sounding the invitation of the 
 Spirit and the Bride to all within the reach of his 
 voice. Then it would be as signal words of com- 
 mand are passed along the ranks of an army — by 
 each man repeating the order to those beyond; or, 
 as a word of good cheer is passed around a social 
 circle, like the arrival of a friend at the door ; or, 
 as the news of peace, brought to the wharf of a 
 city from a remote land, is echoed from mouth to 
 mouth along the streets, till it reach the utmost 
 border of the population. So it would be with this 
 glad message of the Gospel. What the Church 
 needs just now is individual effort — every one with- 
 in her pale, every one within the sound of her 
 message, becoming active in this glorious cause; 
 every hearer becoming an evangelizer ; all her en- 
 ergies thus brought out, all her agencies set at 
 work, all her lively sympathies enlisted, as in any 
 other grand scheme for impressing and influenc- 
 ing men; mind operating upon mind, the voice 
 of every hearer pleading with Christ to come, and 
 pleading with his fellow-men to come to Christ : so 
 that the individual effort will direct itself to indi- 
 
358 THE DOUBLE CALL. 
 
 vidual conversion, each one laboring with some 
 other to whom he recites the message, and plead- 
 ing with him to be reconciled to God. 
 
 And now, just because the kingdom of heaven is 
 at hand, and just because Christ has announced 
 himself as coming quickly, and just because the 
 Spirit and the Bride, in response to this announce- 
 ment, call on him most earnestly to come — there- 
 fore, the words of invitation to men may be ad- 
 dressed with more emphasis and urgency, to come 
 to him who already has come to us as Kedeem- 
 er, and is soon coming again as Conqueror and 
 Judge. In what terms shall the closing invita- 
 tion of the Gospel be couched? "Let him that 
 is athirst, come ! " 
 
 Tliirst — thirst — is the very expression of raging 
 desire. It reaches to the soul's depths, and all 
 agony of longing was expressed in this one bitter 
 word, when Jesus on the cross said, "I thirst 11 It 
 is only a hint on earth of what inexpressible de- 
 sire rages in the bosom of a soul when it is lost, 
 when it is in this flame of torment and has no 
 drop of water to quench it. So Dives in hell said, 
 "J thirst 11 It is because all men thirst with unsat- 
 isfied cravings and need to find the fountain of life 
 and blessedness, that this is the form here of the 
 universal offer. As much as to say — every thirst- 
 ing soul come hither — whatever your unappeased 
 longings, whatever your feverish, burning appetite, 
 whatever your unquenched desires — come hither ! 
 
 Is this mistaken by some as a limitation of the 
 Gospel call to such as can prove that they have 
 
THE DOUBLE CALL. 359 
 
 the described thirst ? So it is that Satan and an 
 evil conscience hasten to pervert the most genial, 
 cordial words of Jesus; so as to rob the Gospel 
 of all its grace and bar up the very open way 
 to heaven. So many a weak and trembling con- 
 science understands the Gospel call as limited to 
 those who are weary and heavy laden, as the Scrip- 
 ture describes; and at once they are laboring to 
 find some evidence that they labor, to make proof 
 of this quality in themselves as something meritori- 
 ous. Or else they are counting themselves as ex- 
 cluded, because they fall short of this description. 
 
 Just as if any one should stand amidst a throng 
 of famished paupers, and should say, "Let him 
 that is hungry come to me for food." Would any 
 oue think that he must first prove himself hungry, 
 before he could be entitled to apply under the call? 
 Or rather would it be understood by all that the 
 mention of such a class was only to illustrate the 
 grace, only to show that the provision was ample 
 for all the need ; and that here the hungry could 
 find food, the thirsty could find drink, the weary 
 and heavy laden could find rest. The call is in 
 terms of most unrestricted invitation — not limited 
 by the kind of thirst, or the measure of thirst, or 
 the character of the thirsting ones ; much less lim- 
 ited by any secret decree of God, but " Ho every 
 one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters ! " " Let 
 him that is athirst, come I " For here the fountain 
 is opened, here the well-springs gush up and brim 
 over, and flow deep and full at your very feet. 
 
 But I have known a difficulty to be raised by 
 
360 THE DOUBLE CALL. 
 
 tender consciences about the matter of coming. 
 " Oh," says one, "If I could only come in the 
 sense of this call, or if I could come aright, or if 
 I could know that I had really come at all to the 
 right quarter." And so, some have debated and 
 doubted about the coming, as if here was some 
 mysterious difficulty, some secret impossible sense 
 of the requirement upon which all the emphasis 
 is placed; making the imitation a practical nul- 
 lity, making this act of coming as much a legal 
 service as the offering of rams and bullocks on 
 the Jewish altar! It would seem as if to meet 
 this very difficulty of some, that this last closing 
 form of the Gospel invitation has in it not even 
 such a word, about which there could possibly be 
 any doubt, or which could occasion any delay. 
 
 Let it be known, then, that it is nothing merito- 
 rious in the manner of coming. No secret grace 
 in the gait or attitude — whether it be running, 
 walking, creeping — whether it be coming with 
 many prayers and tears or with few. It is coming 
 to Christ that is requisite. Not how you come, 
 but to whom you come. This is the all in all. 
 
 There have been all styles of coming. The 
 young man who came running and kneeling, and 
 made the best show of devotion, went away disap- 
 pointed because he found nothing that he wanted. 
 The blind beggar by the way-side, that only cried 
 out from where he was, as the eager throng rushed 
 by in the track of Jesus, he was blessed where he 
 sat, and bidden to get up, and receive all bene- 
 diction from Christ himself. So it is sometimes 
 
THE DOUBLE CALL. 361 
 
 spoken of as looking, or seeking, or following, or 
 trusting. 
 
 Nay, my hearers, there is here nothing obscure, 
 nothing mystical or perplexing, to any honest in- 
 quirer. It is just the freest possible invitation — 
 " Whosoever will, let him take the water of life, 
 freely." Not, let him come and take, but let him 
 take, where he is; as if the cup of life's waters 
 were pressed to his very lips, and it is only to take 
 it, if he ivill. 
 
 There is nothing to stand between the willing 
 and the receiving. It is just the single, only ques- 
 tion, whether a man will have all the hopes of the 
 Gospel, all the salvation of Jesus, all the heritage 
 of the blessed, as an unmixed gratuity — whether 
 he will take it as a gift. 
 
 Let no perversions crowd in here. This is the 
 last effort of the Holy Ghost, to clear the Gospel 
 offer of all obscurity, to vindicate it from all objec- 
 tion as inapplicable or inaccessible, to rescue it 
 from all wicked perversion, as unsuited to any 
 case, or as covering some undefined impossibil- 
 ities, under the guise of a fair and free and full 
 gratuity. Let it be known everywhere, that this 
 last sublime utterance of the universal call and 
 offer, is in that form which need not be misunder- 
 stood, for language could not make it simpler, 
 plainer, clearer; and there is no mystery, no per- 
 plexity, about it. If you ivant it, take it Whoever 
 will have it it is his. 
 
530 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 
 November, 1877. 
 
 ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS' 
 
 NEW BOOKS. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM ARNOT. 
 
 Portrait. 12mo 2.00 
 
 " The work before us is one of uncommon merit, a book to revel in, a true and beautiful, a 
 stimulating yet reproving, record of a life of rare honesty, beauty, and utility. . . . The 
 reminiscences of childhood and youth are racy and manly." — Weekly Review. 
 
 AMONG THE TURKS. 
 
 By Cyrus Hamlin, D. D. 12mo .* 1-50 
 
 Dr. Hamlin's thirty-five years' residence in the Turkish Empire gives him special facilities 
 for describing the origin, progress, laws, religion, military power, educational institutions, and 
 other peculiarities of this interesting people now brought with unusual prominence before the 
 public. 
 
 BRIGHTER THAN THE SUN ; 
 
 Or, Christ the Light of the World. A life "of our Lord, by J. R. Macduff, 
 D.D., with 16 full page engravings, by Rowan. Printed on superfine paper, 
 and elegantly bound, in black and gold 3.50 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH . 
 
 A new volume of the "Word Series," by the author of the "Wide, Wide, 
 World." 16mo 
 
 THE HIDDEN LIFE. 
 
 Thoughts on Communion with God. By Rev. Adolph Saphir. 12mo.... 1.50 
 
 " Mr. Saphir's unusually able, devout, and attractive works are gradually making him known 
 to a wider circle than can directly feel the influence of his talent, learning, genius, and fervor 
 in his pulpit in the West of London. In Great Britain, and by Continental scholars, like De- 
 litzsch, he is recognized as one of the most instructive and original theological and religious 
 writers of the day." — Princeton Review. 
 
 ABRAHAM THE FRIEND OF GOD. 
 
 A Study from Old Testament History. By J. Oswald Dykes, D.D.12mo 1.50 
 
 " His style is full of vigor. Everywhere appear the evidences of strength and culture. He 
 is never commonplace. He is never extravagant. His mental self-poise seems equally con- 
 stant and complete. The tone of his intellect is very high, and the moral elevation of his 
 teaching would at once strike any susceptible and appreciative reader. He is never one-sided 
 or extravagant 
 
Robert Carter & Brothers' New Boohs. 
 
 BIBLE ECHOES, 
 
 By the Rev. James Wells. Illustrated 
 
 DR. HODGE'S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS. 
 
 New edition. 12mo 1.75 
 
 THE PERSON OF CHRIST. 
 
 By the Rev. A. A. Bonar. (From the fifteenth thousand of the Scotch edi- 
 tion.) 18mo 0.50 
 
 A KNIGHT OF TO-DAY . 
 
 By L. T. Meade, author of " Scamp and I." > 
 
 DAVID'S LITTLE LAD. 
 
 By the same author. Illustrated 1.25 
 
 FOR HIS SAKE. 
 
 A Tale of the days of Queen Mary. By Emily Sarah Holt ' 
 
 THE CHRISTIANS HERITAGE ; 
 
 And other Sermons. By the late Melancthon W. Jacobus, D.D. A Memorial 
 Volume, with Portrait. 12mo. 
 
 FOOTSTEPS OF ST. PETER. 
 
 Being the Life and Times of the Apostle. By J. R. Macduff, D.D. With nu- 
 merous illustrations 2.00 
 
 "As a poet Dr. Macduff is enabled to invest his subject with all the attractions of imagina- 
 tive description. As a Biblical scholar he makes every page sparkle with Scriptural thought 
 and illustration. As a traveler in the regions he seeks to describe, he is able to present the 
 very scenery and society in which the great Apostle moved." — Scotsman. 
 
 MOORE'S FORGE. 
 
 A Tale. By the author of " Win and Wear.' 16mo 1.25 
 
 A fresh, admirable American story. 
 
 THE HIGHLAND SERIES. 
 
 By the author of " Win and Wear Series." 6 vols., in a box 7.50 
 
 COMPRISING 
 
 Who Won 1.25 Brentford Parsonage 1.25 
 
 Mabel Hazard 1.25 Comfort Strong 1.25 
 
 Doors Outward 1.25 Moore's Forge 1.25 
 
 " Who the author may be we do not know. We know her only as the richly gifted writer of 
 
 several most excellent pleasing and useful volumes."— Christian Advocate, 
 
 A PEEP BEHIND THE SCENES. 
 
 By Mrs. W altos, author of " Christie's Old Organ.' 16ms. ft illus... 1.25 
 
Robert Carter & Brothers' New Boohs. 
 
 BLACKBERRY JAM. 
 
 A Tale by Joanna H. Mathews, author of the "Bessie Books," &c. 16mo. 
 
 3 illustrations 1.25 
 
 By the same author : 
 
 The Bessie Books. 6 vols 7.50 Kitty and Lulu Books. 6 vols... 6.00 
 
 The Flowerets. 6 vols 3.60 Miss Ashtori s Girls. 6 vols 7.50 
 
 Little Sunbeams. 6 vols 6.00 Little Friends at Glenwood. 1.25 
 
 Broken Mallet 1.25 
 
 By her Sister : 
 
 Golden Ladder Series. 6 vols.... 3.00 Dare to Do Right Series. 5 vols. 5.50 
 
 Drayton Hall Series. 6 vols 4.50 Lilies and Thistledown 1.25 
 
 Uncle Joe's Thanksgiving 1.25 Katy and Jim 1.25 
 
 NELLIE'S SECRET. 
 
 16mo 1.00 
 
 HIS GRANDCHILD. 
 
 A Tale. By the author of " Nellie's Secret." 16mo 1.00 
 
 PINE N EEDLES. 
 
 By the author of the "Wide, Wide World.' 12mo 1.50 
 
 "We recommend this, Miss Warner's last work, very heartily. It is an excellent book. It 
 can be read on the Lord's day, for it is concerning the Lord's people and His work. It is a 
 book that will bear the severe test of being read aloud to the family circle. It is admirably 
 adapted to such a use." — Christian Intelligencer. 
 
 PEEP OF DAY LIBRARY. 
 
 Containing "Peep of Day," "Sequel to Peep of Day," "Line upon Line," 
 "Precept upon Precept," "Kings of Israel," "Kings of Judah," " Captivity of 
 Judah," "Story of the Apostles." 8 vols. 18mo., in a box 4 50 
 
 Or, separately : 
 
 Peep of Day. 18mo 0.50 Captivity of Judah. 18mo 0.60 
 
 Line upon Line. 18mo 0.50 Story of the Apostles. 18mo 0.60 
 
 Precept upon Precept. 18mo 0.50 The Kings of Israel and Judah. 
 
 Sequel to Peep of Day. 18mo... 0.60 In one vol. 16mo 1.25 
 
 "Anything written by the author of 'Peep of Day' will find readers in Christian house- 
 holds. Half a million copies of that charming book attest the author's remarkable success in 
 writing for children." — Observer. 
 
 A.n aggregate of 1,500,000 volumes of the different works by this author have been 
 
 sold in England alone. 
 
4 Robert Carter & Brothers' New Boohs. 
 
 ELLA'S HALF SOVEREIGN. 
 
 l^mo 1.25 
 
 CHRISTIE'S OLD ORGAN. 
 
 18mo 0.50 
 
 A capital judge of books says of " Christie's Old Organ :" " It is for its purpose the most 
 admirable book I have ever met. It is perfect in its adaptation for the work of leading the 
 lowly, the ignorant, the weak and depraved to Christ. Nowhere have I seen the story of the 
 Cross so simply and yet impressively told." 
 
 JACK O'LANTERN. 
 
 A delightful book for little children. 8 illustrations. 16mo 1.25 
 
 THE GIANT KILLER, AND SEQUEL, 
 
 By A. L. 0. E. 16mo. Illustrated edition 1.25 
 
 " A religious allegory. Faith is a Knight in panoply who goes out to contend with Giants 
 such as Sloth, Selfishness, Untruth, Hate, and Pride. The book is a description of the battle 
 that all must fight, and is deeply instructive and entertaining.*' — Advertiser* 
 
 NEW BOOKS BY A. L. O. E. : 
 
 Indian Stories. 18mo 0.75 
 
 Victory Stories. 16mo. 1.25 
 
 The A. L. 0. E. Library. 55 vols 40.00 
 
 Heroes of Israel. 5 vols 5.00 
 
 THE SEEP OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 A Tale of the Days of Trajan. By H. M. Dickinson. 16mo 1.25 
 
 LETTICE EDEN. 
 
 By Emily Sarah Holt. 12mo 1.50 
 
 LITTLE AND WISE. 
 
 By the Rev. Wm. W. Newton. 16mo 1.25 
 
 "A charming volume. . . . The stories and anecdotes, so plentifully given, really illus- 
 trate the chapters in which they appear, without being mere gratuitous sugar-plums ; and the 
 didactic element is very far removed from dryness. The child that does not enjoy the book is 
 a fit subject for a physician's instant attendance, it is so healthy in tone and so agreeable in 
 manner. Mr. Newton seems likely to inherit his father's mantle v.hen that most eminent of 
 children's preachers shall have completed his work." — Independent. 
 
 RAYS FROM THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 By Richard Newton, D.D. 16mo 1.25 
 
 By the same author : 
 The Jewel Case. 6 vols 7,50 The Wonder Case. 6 vols 7.50 
 
Robert Carter & Brothers' New Boohs. 
 
 SERVANTS OF CHRIST. 
 
 18mo 0.50 
 
 m Just the book to put into the hands of young Christians."— Christian Intelligencer. 
 
 A HERO IN THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 
 
 By the author of the " Memorials of Captain Vicars." 18mo 0.50 
 
 ce No Christian can read this book without having higher conceptions of his duty to his 
 \£X&"—Episcopal Register. 
 
 BERNARDINO 0CHIN0 OF SIENA. 
 
 By Karl Benrath. 8vo 2.50 
 
 " The discovery of a great soul is greater than the discovery of a continent, and the perusal 
 of the story of Ochino has been like the discovery of a new soul and a truly grand one to us. 
 It presents a valuable and interesting picture of religious life in the Sixteenth Century."— 
 Harper's Magazine. 
 
 SCAMP AND I. 
 
 12mo „ 1.25 
 
 " It is touching in the extreme, and often literal to a degree which would do credit to the 
 close observation of Dickens or Farjeon."— Christian Union. 
 
 FIGHTING THE FOE . 
 
 12mo 1.50 
 
 " A capital book for children is f Fighting the Foe.' It contains twenty-five well-told stories, 
 strung together by a simple chain. The stories such as ' Giant Gain and Dwarf Grudge,' might 
 be well pondered by older people than those who usually attend our Sunday Schools."— Chris- 
 tian Intelligencer. 
 
 OLIVER OF THE MILL 
 
 By the author of " Ministering Children." 12mo .. 1.50 
 
 " Our young readers will follow with pleasure the growth of Oliver up to manhood and the 
 manly, Christian development of his character, and we trust the many thousands to whom 
 * Ministering Children/ and its « Sequel ' have been pleasant and useful, will find an equal sat- 
 isfaction in the present work." — Northern Christian Advocate. 
 
 D R. GUTHRIE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIR. 
 
 New edition in one volume. 12mo • • 2.00 
 
 (The fine edition in two vols, reduced to $3.00.) 
 
 D R. GUTHRIE'S LIFE AND WORKS, 
 
 11 vols., 12mo., uniform, in a box . 15.00 
 
6 Robert Carter & Brothers' New Boohs. 
 
 FOURTH EDITION OP 
 
 FORTY YEARS IN THE TURKISH EMPIRE. 
 
 Or, Memoir of Dr. Goodell. By Dr. Prime. 12mo 2.5( 
 
 FOURTH EDITION OF 
 
 ALL ABOUT JESUS. 1 
 
 By the Rev. Alex. Dickson. 12mo 2.0( 
 
 NEW AND NEAT EDITION OF 
 
 HUGH MILLER'S LIFE AND WORKS. 
 
 12 vols. 12mo., uniform ..18.0( 
 
 THE TRUE MAN. 
 
 And other Practical Sermons. By Rev. Samuel S. Mitchell, D.D 1.5( 
 
 GOLD THREAD AND WEE DAVIE. 
 
 By Norman Macleod, D.D. New edition. 16mo 0.7* 
 
 THE MARINER'S PROGRESS. 
 
 By Duncan Macgregor. 16mo 1.21 
 
 THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS. 
 
 IS IT SUFFICIENT ? By James McCosh, D.D., L.L.D. 12mo., limp... 0.5( 
 
 THE JUDGMENT OF JERUSALEM. 
 
 By William Patton, D.D. 12mo 1.2c 
 
 MY OLD LETTERS. 
 
 A Poem. By Horatius Bonar, D.D. 12mo 2.0( 
 
 HOLIDAY HOUSE. 
 
 By Catherine Sinclair. New edition, illustrated. 16mo 1.21 
 
 PRAYING AND WORKING. 
 
 By Stevenson. New edition. 16mo l.CK 
 
 THE BLESSED HOPE ; 
 
 Or, The Globious Coming ot thi Lord. By Willis Load, D.D 1.21 
 
for 
 

 
 Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
 Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
 Treatment Date: May 2006 
 
 PreservationTechnologies 
 
 A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 
 
 1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
 Cranberry Township, PA 160S6 
 (724)779-2111 
 
i.W 
 
 
 M 
 
 ■ 
 
 % 
 
 ^^m 
 
 U$& 
 
 »V\ 
 
 ■ 
 
 k 
 
 
 ;*<^. 
 
 ^."•A 
 
 ■ ■ 
 
 
 
 -*!**«. 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 ■■ 
 
 ■ I "'** 
 
 ■ 
 
 H 
 
 &:< 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 fl£ 
 
 & 
 
 H 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 r/.*c 
 
 ■ 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 5rf. 
 
 ■ 
 
 ^B 
 
 ■ 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 017 578 951