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 UNITED STATES OP A3IEEICA. 
 
QUICK TRUTHS 
 IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 BY 
 
 Robert Stuart MacArthur 
 
 Truth dwells not in the clouds ; the bow that's there 
 Doth often aim at, never kit the sphere 
 
 George Herbert 
 
 0F CO*A^ 
 
 MG 811895 
 
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 WARV 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY 
 
 1420 Chestnut Street 
 
 1895 
 
 '"fa*' 
 
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 Copyright 1895 by the 
 American Baptist Publication Society 
 
 ^SHlNGTO*L 
 
Ta £. TF. 3/C. 
 
 THE BELOVED WIFE, WHO FOR TWENTY-FIVE YEARS 
 
 HAS FILLED MY HEART WITH INSPIRATION, 
 
 MY HOME WITH SUNSHINE, AND 
 
 CALVARY CHURCH WITH 
 
 BENEDICTION. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The sermons contained in this volume were 
 preached in the Calvary Baptist Church, New 
 York, on consecutive summer Sunday evenings. 
 They were afterward preached in Music Hall, 
 Boston, during the author's vacation ministry of 
 two seasons with the Tremont Temple Church. 
 Some of the truths will be found quicker, and 
 some of the texts more quaint, than others ; but it 
 is believed that they are all sufficiently quick and 
 quaint to justify the title given to the volume. 
 
 There is a decided gain in the direction of 
 freshness and force in the selection of texts from 
 the unknown portions of the Bible. It is often 
 well to tread the unfamiliar byways and to visit 
 the comparatively strange regions of the Bible. 
 It is the only unexhausted and inexhaustible 
 book in the world. Another volume with a sim- 
 ilar title, the Second Series, it is expected will 
 follow in due time. That these sermons may 
 honor Christ, who is to "judge the quick and the 
 dead," is the author's chief aim in their publi- 
 cation. 
 
 Robert Stuart MacArthur. 
 
 Calvary Study, New York City. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. The Powerless Gates, 7 
 
 II. The Consecrated Hand, 25 
 
 III. The Brave Three Hundred, 41 
 
 IV. The Endangered Inheritance, . . . . 57 
 V. The Ennobled Ox-Goad, 73 
 
 VI. The Mutilated Message, 89 
 
 VII. The Poisoned Pottage, 105 
 
 VIII. The Bed and Its Covering, 121 
 
 IX. The Swimming Iron, 139 
 
 X. The Fleeing Shadows 157 
 
 XI. The Crude Cake 175 
 
 XII. The Costly Journey, 191 
 
 XIII. The Northern Iron and Steel, . . . 207 
 
 XIV. The Christly Marks, 223 
 
 XV. The Learned Tongue, 241 
 
 XVI. The Hurrying Angel 257 
 
 XVII. The Wooden or Iron Yokes, 273 
 
 XVIII. The Cowards -in Battle, 291 
 
 XIX. The Single-Hearted Soldiers, .... 305 
 XX. Divine Heartburn, 321 
 
THE POWERLESS GATES 
 
The gates of hell shall not prevail against 
 Matt. 16 : 18. 
 
QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 THE expression " the gates of sheol," is found 
 several times in the Old Testament. The 
 word " hades " is the New Testament representative 
 of the word sheol. Both denote the invisible 
 world, the abode of the departed. Such also was 
 the original sense of the English word " hell " ; it 
 denoted simply the hidden or unseen place. L,ater 
 it came to denote exclusively the place of tor- 
 ment ; but this is its secondary, not primary, 
 meaning. 
 
 The expression " the gates of hades," may have 
 several meanings. Its most natural meaning is 
 that the abode of the departed shall not swallow 
 up the church of Jesus Christ. All things earthly 
 go through its terrible gates ; but Christ's church 
 will never cease to exist on the earth. Our Lord 
 fearlessly uttered these bold words. Another pos- 
 sible meaning is that the gates of hades shall not 
 prevent the people of God from rising again from 
 the dead. Some have suggested that the expres- 
 sion means that the gate would be opened to per- 
 mit monsters to issue from the dread realm of the 
 departed ; but this meaning is scarcely worthy of 
 
 9 
 
IO QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 consideration. Still another meaning is that gates 
 stand as the symbol of power in connection with 
 fortified cities ; in the gates judges often sat, and 
 kings decreed justice ; in the gates garrisons 
 assembled. The expression " the Sublime Porte," 
 and even the European use of the word " Court," 
 are connected with this idea of gates. 
 
 In the passage under consideration we are 
 apparently limited to one of two meanings, either 
 that the church shall not be swallowed up by the 
 gates of hades, or that it shall not be overcome by 
 their power. It is true that the expression does 
 not so much suggest an aggressive power as a 
 resisting and restraining force. But whichever 
 interpretation we may adopt, the teaching is that 
 the gates of hades, neither by their receptive nor 
 destructive, nor yet by their retaining power, shall 
 be able to overcome the church of Jesus Christ. 
 This is the great and glorious truth here taught. 
 To illustrate this truth is the purpose of this dis- 
 course. 
 
 The church of Christ is to expect criticism. 
 She must not shrink from it ; indeed, she cannot 
 help challenging it. She is a city set on a hill. 
 She does not fear criticism ; she fears nothing but 
 error and sin. Truth seeks the light, comes to the 
 light, rejoices in the light. Error loves darkness, 
 grows in darkness, and reluctantly comes into the 
 light, which at once reveals and rebukes its 
 deformity. A true Christianity knows that cor- 
 rect knowledge, and not ignorance, is the mother 
 
THE POWERLESS GATES II 
 
 of genuine devotion. A true Christianity wel- 
 comes truth from whatever quarter it comes, and 
 by whatsoever messenger it is brought. A true 
 Christianity cares more for truth than for the 
 opinions of the greatest men. She says evermore, 
 as Jesus said to those who asked, ' ' Master, where 
 dwellest thou?" and as Philip said to Nathanael, 
 who thought no good thing could come out of 
 Nazareth, " Come and see." She submits all her 
 premises, processes, and conclusions to the full 
 sunlight of the most critical examination. She 
 has absolutely nothing to conceal. 
 
 In the encaustic tiling at the entrance to one of 
 his homes, L,ord Tennyson, we are told, had the 
 words, " Truth against the world." A true Chris- 
 tianity will write these words at the head of every 
 sermon, on the first page of every book, and on 
 the heart of every disciple. In this spirit the 
 church ought to go forth to meet her critics. 
 Criticism is the act or art of judging; the judg- 
 ment is not necessarily unfavorable. But even 
 when unfavorable the church, as the child and 
 champion of truth, will go forward fearlessly and 
 even joyfully to meet it. 
 
 i. Consider, in the first place, the church and 
 her early heathen critics. I do not call them 
 atheistic critics. It is doubtful whether such a 
 phenomenon as an intellectual atheist ever ex- 
 isted ; but practical atheists are, and always have 
 been, very common. There are men who live as 
 if there was no God. Could it be authoritatively 
 
12 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 announced to-morrow that God is dead, they 
 would make no change in their systems of thought 
 or in their methods of life. To them there is no 
 God. Such persons were known to and charac- 
 terized long ago by the psalmist when he said, 
 k 'The fool hath said in his heart, No God." It 
 was a fool who uttered the words, and even he 
 said them in his heart rather than in his head ; 
 for the head of even a fool knew better. Atheism, 
 of whatever kind, is a freezing void, an arctic 
 breath, a lifeless life. It is an atmosphere in 
 which no wing can loftily soar, no heart can truly 
 beat, and no soul fully rejoice. Atheism can trans- 
 form a rare day in June into a raw day in January. 
 Atheistic, or more strictly, polytheistic, critics of 
 Christ and the church appeared early in the his- 
 tory of Christianity. They fiercely attacked the 
 church ; they created great consternation. Xo 
 doubt many pious souls thought the ark of God 
 was in danger ; and yet most of these critics 
 would now be unknown were it not that Christian 
 writers have perpetuated their names in the books 
 written to oppose their sophistical arguments. 
 
 L/ucian first comes before us. He was born at 
 Samosata on the Euphrates, about the year 120, 
 and he died about the end of the second century. 
 He was placed with his maternal uncle, who was 
 a sculptor, that he might learn statuary. Later 
 we find him practising law at the bar in Syria and 
 Greece ; then as a teacher of rhetoric in Gaul, 
 where he gained pupils and fame ; then he ap- 
 
THE POWERLESS GATES 1 3 
 
 pears in Athens as the boon companion of the 
 gay, wealthy, and impious circles. There he wrote 
 much, his writings consisting mostly of attacks 
 on philosophy and religion. Toward the latter 
 part of his life he held a lucrative office in Egypt, 
 bestowed upon him by the Emperor Commodus. 
 He has been called the " Voltaire of Grecian 
 literature." He wrote in the form of dialogue 
 and in pure and elegant Greek. His keen wit did 
 good by opposing the quackery of heathen priests 
 and the shallowness of philosophical charlatans ; 
 but he attacked Christianity in common with the 
 false systems of heathenism. He spoke of Jesus 
 Christ as a "crucified sophist," and not as an 
 impostor, as did Celsus. Christianity he treated 
 with a compassionate smile and not with a bitter 
 sneer. He was marked by a general unbelief ; he 
 was an Epicurean, a worldling, and a fine example, 
 as has been said, of the " nil-admirari school." 
 
 Next comes Celsus. His history is involved in 
 obscurity, but he was born probably early in the 
 second century. His vulgar jibes and ribald 
 criticisms remind us of Thomas Paine of a much 
 later day. He is the reputed author of the work 
 entitled, " A True Discourse," which was written 
 against Judaism and Christianity. We would 
 know almost nothing of his writings were it not 
 for Origen, who, though he knew little of Celsus 
 himself, wrote vigorously against his methods and 
 conclusions. In so doing he quoted many parts 
 of his opponent's arguments, and thus has sent 
 
 B 
 
14 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 them down to succeeding generations. It is 
 almost certain that Celsus was a Platonist, and 
 quite certain that he was a man of much philo- 
 sophical learning, and of equal critical ability. 
 He discovered and declared many of the objec- 
 tions to Christianity which its ablest opponents 
 mention and emphasize to-day. In several im- 
 portant matters he anticipated the theories of Mr. 
 Darwin. Strictly speaking, he was not an atheist ; 
 he believed in a supreme God. He believed in 
 original uncreated matter as the source of all 
 evil ; but he denied a supernatural will and final 
 aims or causes. These principles, if they had 
 triumphed, would have been fatal to Christianity. 
 
 Origen, more to please friends than to satisfy 
 himself, replied to Celsus in the book entitled, 
 " Contra Celsum" and he has thus preserved his 
 opponent's name. Only as men link their names 
 with the deathless name of Jesus Christ, do their 
 own names become immortal. The names of the 
 three men who were cast into the fiery furnace 
 abide ; the names of the men who cast them in 
 are unknown ; they were never recorded. The 
 righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance, 
 but the memory of the wicked shall perish. 
 
 Then came the brilliant Porphyry, whose origi- 
 nal name was Malchus, the Greek form of the 
 Syro-Phcenician word melek, or king. The word 
 Porphyry is an allusion to the color of which 
 regal robes generally consisted. He was born at 
 Tyre about the year 233. He was truly a cele- 
 
THE POWERLESS GATES 1 5 
 
 brated heathen philosopher ; an able expounder 
 of Neo-Platonism, and a bitter opponent of Chris- 
 tianity. He was without doubt one of the most 
 brilliant and sagacious, one of the most deter- 
 mined and persistent, critics Christianity has ever 
 had during all the centuries of its existence. He 
 stands vastly higher in character and ability 
 than either L,ucian or Celsus. They were com- 
 paratively rude ; he was refined and personally 
 noble. They were coarse jesters ; he was a phi- 
 losophical thinker. They attempted to check 
 the progress of Christianity ; he determined ut- 
 terly to destroy Christianity. They gave Chris- 
 tianity a sneer or a syllogism ; he sought to 
 give Christianity its death blow. He was schol- 
 arly and able at every point ; he was a peerless 
 heathen polemic. Perhaps it is not too much to 
 say that Christianity never had a more relentless 
 or capable foe. He moved boldly into the arena ; 
 he was resolved to dethrone Jesus Christ. He 
 made a tremendous onset against the supernatural 
 in Christianity, endeavoring to disprove the 
 records in which the gospel is taught ; this method 
 of opposition he devised. L,ucian and Celsus did 
 not attack the gospel records. He anticipated, 
 perhaps he suggested, methods which are common 
 in our day. About the year 270 in Sicily, having 
 gone there after a fit of deep melancholy, during 
 which he attempted to take his own life, he wrote 
 fifteen books against Christianity. He might as 
 well have attempted to climb to the sky and blow 
 
1 6 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 out the sun. He simply succeeded in making his 
 name hated by Christians far and near. Thirty 
 defenders leaped into the arena to do battle for 
 Christ and his truth. Jesus Christ, not Porphyry, 
 is King. He wears the royal purple and the 
 crown of glory, and bears the palm of victory. 
 
 We now come to one of the most interesting 
 and accomplished of the earlier writers against 
 the church, Julian the Apostate. His full name 
 was Flavius Claudius Julianus. He was born in 
 Constantinople, in the year 331. He was the son 
 of Julius Constantius, and the nephew of Con- 
 stantine the Great, the first Christian emperor on 
 the throne of the Caesars. He too made a vigor- 
 ous but ineffectual attempt to destroy Christianity, 
 and to establish the Grseco-Roman heathenism in 
 power and splendor. It has been said that the 
 Arian pseudo-Christianity of Constantius, his 
 cousin, produced the anti-Christianity of Julian. 
 He was the last great champion of a dying poly- 
 theism. It ought to be remembered also that the 
 heathenism with which he was in love was ideal- 
 ized by philosophy and purified by Christianity. 
 The culture of that old Hellenic world had for 
 him an irresistible charm ; and in giving his love 
 to its culture he gave also his loyalty to its relig- 
 ion. Christianity was to him almost synonymous 
 with family cruelty. We can all somewhat sym- 
 pathize with the mitigating circumstances in his 
 case of which Neander speaks. Brilliant and able, 
 though he was, he was ready to believe the most 
 
THE POWERLESS GATES 1 7 
 
 absurd legends of the gods. He apostatized as 
 early as 351, but for purposes of political ambition 
 he concealed for years his real sentiments. In 361 
 he became emperor. He forbade the Christians 
 to teach, or be taught rhetoric, so that their igno- 
 rance might weaken their power ; he even forbade 
 the use of the name Christian. When his soldiers 
 came to receive gifts they were obliged to throw 
 a handful of incense on the pagan altar. Three 
 times he assisted the Jews in their foolish attempts 
 to rebuild Jerusalem, in order to falsify the pre- 
 dictions of Christ. He, however, showed great 
 ability as a soldier, as he had already showed apti- 
 tude as a scholar. But all his efforts to destroy 
 Christianity were in vain ; paganism was dying ; 
 in Christianity alone all the hopes of humanity 
 were centered. Finally, he found himself, after 
 many brave exploits, in a waterless and desolate 
 country at the hottest season of the year, sur- 
 rounded by the whole Persian army ; an arrow 
 sped through the air, and in a moment more he 
 lay on the ground mortally wounded, June 26, 
 363. A later tradition says, that taking up a 
 handful of sand saturated with his own blood, he 
 cast it into the air, exclaiming : " O Galilean, 
 thou hast conquered ! " Thank God, the Galilean 
 will conquer every foe ! 
 
 2. Attention must be directed, in the second 
 place, to some of the scientific critics. To a true 
 science no Christian teacher can object ; an estab- 
 lished truth of science is as much a truth, in its 
 
1 8 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 place and for its purpose, as any statement of rev- 
 elation. All true discoveries of science are revela- 
 tions of the thoughts of God. Every truth of 
 mathematics is to be honored as fully in its place 
 as a truth of revelation. This thought gives 
 honor and glory to the study of sines and co-sines, 
 of angles and triangles. Many Christians have 
 made a most unfortunate opposition to scientific 
 discoveries ; all such discoveries are to be honored 
 as revelations of the eternal mind. It is only to a 
 science falsely so called that we object ; truth is 
 one, and the revelation of God in science cannot 
 contradict the revelation of God in Scripture. 
 Genesis and geology, rightly interpreted, must 
 teach the same great principles. There may be 
 contradictions between our interpretations of 
 God's book of nature and our interpretations of 
 his book of revelation ; but the contradictions are 
 in our interpretations and not in the divine revela- 
 tions. There are scientific critics who are op- 
 posed to Christ and his cause, to the church and 
 to Christianity. But, for the most part, they are 
 men who have not profoundly studied either the 
 history or the principles of our holy religion ; they 
 have been occupied largely, if not exclusively, with 
 their own scientific investigations. Darwin is a 
 melancholy example of men of this class. At one 
 time he was broad in his investigations and varied 
 in his attainments ; but he devoted himself so ex- 
 clusively to his specialties that he became narrow 
 and painfully bigoted. He himself tells us that a 
 
THE POWERLESS &ATES 19 
 
 page of Shakespeare u nauseated " him, and that 
 music gave him exquisite pain rather than pleas- 
 ure. To use a word which has become common 
 in certain scientific treatises, many of his noblest 
 faculties became atrophied. There was much in 
 Darwin to admire; he was a man of marvelous 
 industry, of great honesty, and of singular devo- 
 tion to his studies. But he developed his nature 
 unsymmetrically ; and he became narrow, bitter, 
 and bigoted. 
 
 This remark applies in part to Spencer, and 
 Huxley, and to others of their class. On the 
 other hand, there are scientists who are as famous 
 for their devotion to Christ and their loyalty to the 
 Bible as they are, or were, conspicuous for scientific 
 learning, and as they are honored by their brother 
 scientists throughout the world. The celebrated 
 Agassiz belongs to this class. He was the son of 
 a Protestant minister, and he studied medical and 
 other science at Zurich, Heidelberg, and Munich. 
 His first work was a Latin description of the 
 fishes which Martius and Spix brought from Bra- 
 zil ; while visiting in Paris he formed an intimate 
 friendship with Cuvier and Humboldt. In 1848 he 
 accepted a call to the chair of geology at Harvard, 
 and he became widely known for his rejection of the 
 Darwinian theory. With the exception of Hugh 
 Miller, no one did more to help science in our day 
 than did Agassiz ; perhaps no other introduced 
 and trained so many young and enthusiastic nat- 
 uralists. Whipple was right when he said of 
 
20 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 Agassiz : "He was not only a scientific thinker, 
 but a scientific force." Similar honor is due to 
 Guyot, who honored his native country, Switzer- 
 land, and his adopted country, America, alike by 
 his great learning and his noble character. He 
 gave honor to Princeton College, and to the world 
 of learning on both sides of the Atlantic. Pro- 
 fessor Gray was to Harvard College what Guyot 
 was to Princeton and more ; he also gave honor 
 to America, and to science throughout the world. 
 His name reflects credit upon Christianity as 
 Christianity illumined and ennobled his life. The 
 illustrious Dana was to Yale College what Gray 
 was to Harvard. His name was a synonym for 
 scholarly attainments and for Christian faith. 
 Perhaps the celebrated Dawson is, in many re- 
 spects, more illustrious than any scientist already 
 named. Recently he was knighted as an expres- 
 sion of royal appreciation. He gives honor to 
 Canada, to America, to Britain, and to the world. 
 These men are remarkable witnesses for Christ and 
 Christianity ; and they are as eminent in science 
 as they were loyal in faith. Jesus Christ is King ; 
 his throne is in the center of the great realm of 
 truth ; the whole earth is his footstool ; it is the 
 incarnation of his thoughts. All chemical forces 
 are revelations of the mind of God. The flowers 
 are God's beautiful thoughts ; the mountains his 
 majestic thoughts ; the stars his brilliant thoughts. 
 The best student of nature, other things beine 
 equal, is he who is most loyal to Jesus Christ, as 
 
THE POWERLESS GATES 21 
 
 the God of creation and as the King of truth. 
 No one can be truly loyal to the teachings of 
 nature, as revealed by science, if he is disloyal 
 to the world's Creator and Preserver. 
 
 3. The literary critics, in the third place, also 
 deserve consideration. The two classes sometimes 
 intermingle ; but still there is a distinction to be 
 made. There are men who are supposed to be 
 lights in the literary world who are against Christ 
 and Christianity. But, for the most part, they are 
 lights of but little brilliancy ; they are, compared 
 to the suns of literature, but as tallow dips or gas 
 lamps to the great electric lights. Who are the great 
 lights of literature? Glance over the centuries; 
 pronounce the names of Homer, Euripides, Socra- 
 tes, Plato, Virgil, and a dozen more. You say that 
 these men are heathen ; you are quite right. But 
 they were religious according to their enlighten- 
 ment ; they caught inspiration from their religion ; 
 indeed, this religious element in them gave them 
 power ; it made their writings immortal. Rob their 
 works of this religious element and you rob them 
 of the characteristics which have given them 
 enduring fame. Pronounce the names of the great 
 authors in English literature ; such names as 
 Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, Shakespeare, all the 
 Puritan Divines, and such men as Addison, Car- 
 lyle, Ruskin, Browning, Tennyson, and others. 
 Differing much among themselves in religious 
 faith, still these men were inspired by religious 
 hope and constrained by divine love. George 
 
22 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 Eliot never reached her highest possibilities ; 
 agnosticism limited her attainments ; this world 
 bounded her horizon. Her influence would have 
 been wider and her fame more enduring had she 
 swept within the area of her vision the other 
 world as well. Tennyson and Browning, each 
 on his own lofty peak in Parnassus, looked 
 across the valley of the Muses to that other with 
 admiration and affection. They were apostles of 
 purity and of power ; they were disciples of truth 
 and of Christ. 
 
 It is cause for profoundest congratulation that the 
 sweetest voices on our side of the Atlantic during 
 the closing years of this century, sang to the praise 
 and glory of Jesus Christ, Son of Man and Son of 
 God. Pronounce the names of some of our great 
 American authors; such as Bryant. Cooper, Emer- 
 son, Holmes, Eowell, Longfellow, Motley, Whit- 
 tier, and a dozen more. These men differed among 
 themselves touching many matters of faith ; but 
 they lived and wrote under the inspiration of Jesus 
 Christ. Pronounce if you can the names of a 
 dozen or so infidels on either side of the Atlantic, 
 who can be for a single moment compared to these 
 writers for intellectual attainment, not to speak 
 of their moral character. Christianity gave us the 
 greatest of poets, John Milton ; the greatest of 
 lawyers, Blackstone ; and the greatest of politi- 
 cians, Gladstone. Christianity develops intellec- 
 tual power and immortalizes native genius. The 
 men of greatest brain, of vastest learning, and of 
 
THE POWERLESS GATES 23 
 
 most brilliant genius, are found bowing low at trie 
 feet of the Christ. The giants have had their day 
 against Christianity and have utterly failed. Do 
 you think that the pygmies are to do that in which 
 the giants have failed ? Do you think that a few 
 poets and novelists are to overthrow the kingdom 
 of God? Do you think a woman's novel, which 
 has for its hero a man who never took a regular 
 course in theology, a man more ignorant of the 
 history of theological questions — according to the 
 author's showing — then a middle man of average 
 attainments in an average theological seminary ; a 
 man who excites our pity and justifies our con- 
 tempt ; a man who topples over when confronted 
 with the questions which were answered at least 
 one thousand five hundred years before he was 
 born ; do you think this novel is to overthrow the 
 church of the living God ? Shades of I^ucian, of 
 Celsus, of Porphyry, and of Julian, is this the fa^e 
 that befalls you ? Climb to yonder moon and draw 
 a curtain over her fair face ; climb to yonder sun 
 and blow out its glowing flame with your feeble 
 breath — these things you may do sooner than put 
 out the light of Jesus Christ, the Son of Right- 
 eousness, or darken the glory of the church, which 
 is " fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible 
 as an army with banners." Let us stand with 
 Jesus Christ ; let us lean on the Rock of Ages ; 
 let us glory in the Bible. Pantheism, atheism, 
 every ungodly ism, shall go down. But the word 
 of God, and the Christ of God, and the church of 
 
24 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 God shall stand forever. The gates of sheol shall 
 never prevail against the chnrch of the living 
 Christ. Christ vanquished death and the grave. 
 He led captivity captive in his triumphant train. 
 Hail to the Vanquisher of death, the Ransomer 
 from hell, the Victor over Satan. 
 
II 
 
 THE CONSECRATED HAND 
 
'« . . . What is that in thine hand? . 
 Exodus 4 : 2. 
 
II 
 
 MOSES hesitated to become the messenger of 
 the Iyord to Pharaoh. He mentioned one 
 difficulty after another which he thought would 
 excuse him from entering on his allotted task. 
 His third plea was the incredulity of the people. 
 It is true that God had not made a manifestation 
 of himself to Israel for more than two hundred 
 years before the call came to Moses. The force 
 of the objection which Moses made the Lord 
 seemed to recognize ; but he removed the objec- 
 tion by supplying Moses with authoritative cre- 
 dentials. He wrought supernatural wonders in 
 the sight of Moses for the confirmation of his own 
 faith ; he also commanded that a third wonder 
 should be performed in Egypt, to assure the people 
 and to convince Pharaoh that Moses was the ap- 
 pointed messenger of Jehovah. As the rod, which 
 was the symbol of the shepherd's position, was 
 changed into a serpent, so the position and work 
 of Moses was to be changed. The serpent was 
 also the tempter in the garden of Eden, and so 
 became the representative of evil. When Moses 
 seized the serpent and it became again a rod in 
 his hand, he was taught that what was formidable 
 to weak faith might become an element of power 
 when the act of obedience to God was performed. 
 
 27 
 
23 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 What was originally the rod simply of the shep- 
 herd now became the rod of God. This rod in 
 the hand of Moses accomplished mighty things 
 for God and for Israel. It was afterward associ- 
 ated with the name of Moses as was the spear 
 with Joshua and the harp with David. When 
 our weakness is supplemented by God's almighti- 
 ness, only he can estimate the possibilities which 
 we may accomplish. 
 
 Our inherent or acquired ability is a blessing if 
 used in harmony with God's will ; but it becomes 
 a curse when used in opposition to God. The 
 rod of Moses finally became a symbol of his dis- 
 obedience to God, and so it became indirectly a 
 curse and not a blessing. Moses and Aaron dis- 
 pleased God at the very end of the long pilgrimage. 
 Once more the people upbraided Moses because 
 there was no water. He and Aaron became fear- 
 ful lest the new generation, murmuring like their 
 fathers about water, should be for the second time 
 turned back into the wilderness. Moses did not 
 implicitly rely upon God's word, but injected into 
 the exciting scene a display of his own power. 
 His purpose probably was to make a deeper im- 
 pression on the people ; but his act was unwise. 
 Instead of simply speaking to the rock he struck 
 it with his staff. Israel obtained water, but Moses 
 and Aaron were forbidden the honor of entering 
 the land of promise. It is evermore true that pos- 
 sible good lies near to possible evil. Opportuni- 
 ties rightly employed become blessings greatly 
 
THE CONSECRATED HAND 29 
 
 multiplied; but opportunities neglected or mis- 
 used become disadvantages greatly multiplied and 
 increased. 
 
 What is in thine hand, O Joshua ? A spear to 
 be held aloft in obedience to the command of the 
 Lord. This spear ever after is associated in our 
 thought with the name and work of the noble son 
 of Nun. When the second attack was made upon 
 Ai the Lord commanded Joshua to "stretch out 
 the spear that is in thine hand toward Ai." Joshua 
 was obedient to the Divine command ; he held the 
 spear extended as the signal agreed upon with the 
 men who were in ambush. The extended spear 
 notified them of the precise moment when they 
 were to issue forth from their retreat, and to rush 
 into the city. It is quite possible also that the 
 elevation of the spear was symbolic of the Divine 
 presence, like the lifting up of the hands of Moses 
 in the battle with Amalek. Later in the narra- 
 tive the extended spear of Joshua was an indica- 
 tion that the work of destroying the enemies of 
 Israel was to continue. It is still true that when 
 we are obedient to God in the use of the sword of 
 the Spirit, God's presence is granted us for the 
 destruction of our spiritual foes. When we fail to 
 employ the divine weapon, we cannot expect to 
 claim the divine promise that God will be with us 
 to give us the victory over his and our foes. Happy 
 are we when we become the obedient servants of 
 God in the use of the spiritual weapons which he 
 has graciously furnished for our spiritual conflicts. 
 
30 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 What is in thine hand, Shamgar ? An ox-goad. 
 A rude, clumsy weapon is this with which to bless 
 Israel and to honor God. But use it for God 
 and you shall not use it in vain. Six hundred 
 Philistines shall fall before thy power, and Israel 
 shall be delivered by thy bravery and heroism. 
 
 What is in the hand of Gideon and his brave 
 three hundred? Lamps, pitchers, and trumpets. 
 These are strange weapons with which to attempt 
 the defeat of the countless Midianites who lie in 
 the valley below. But God can take feeble 
 instruments and make them mighty for the 
 accomplishment of his divine purpose. Wonder- 
 ful were the encouragements which God gave to 
 Gideon in the narration of the dream of the bar- 
 ley cake at this critical moment in the history of 
 that remarkable night. There in the valley lay 
 the hosts of Midian silently sleeping ; there are 
 their camels as the sand by the seaside for multi- 
 tude. The barley cake rolled through the host 
 until it reached a tent and overturned it so that it 
 lay prone on the ground. It would seem that 
 many tents were smitten by the rolling cake, as 
 if it were a ball among nine pins, prostrating 
 everything in its course. Gideon did not feel 
 humiliated in hearing himself called but a barley 
 cake, although this was the most insignificant of 
 cakes, so long as he could see that cake rolling 
 among the tents and the tents falling flat upon the 
 ground as witness to its power. All is silent 
 among the hosts of Midian as the hour approaches 
 
THE CONSECRATED HAND 31 
 
 the noon of night. We see the brave three hun- 
 dred divided into three companies, and in every 
 man's hand a trumpet, a pitcher, and a lamp 
 within the pitcher. We then see Gideon going 
 to the outside of the camp and asking all to fol- 
 low his example. Then came the blast of the 
 trumpets, the crash of the pitchers, the flashing 
 of the lights, and the cry of the hosts of Israel, 
 "the sword of the L,ord and of Gideon." The 
 intermingled sound of the trumpets and the 
 reverberation of the shouts, with the sudden glare 
 of the three hundred blazing torches, astounded 
 the Midianites, awakening to their doom. These 
 Midianites, no doubt, supposed that there were 
 as many companies as there were trumpets, 
 lamps, and pitchers. Every man's sword was 
 turned against his fellow as, with a harsh cry, pecu- 
 liar to their race, they rushed about unable to 
 distinguish friend from foe. Terrible was the 
 slaughter; glorious was the victory. We need 
 never hesitate to undertake any task however 
 difficult if we are following the Divine leadership. 
 We never need doubt of success when God is on! 
 our side ; and we must ever give God the glory, 
 when victory has been achieved. Brave and 
 noble Gideon ! thou hast written thy name high } 
 on the scroll of fame among patriotic victors and ! 
 faithful heroes. 
 
 What is in thine hand, David ? A harp. We 
 cannot look upon this youthful warrior without 
 enthusiasm mingled with affection. The ruddy 
 
32 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 youth comes before us in the heartiness of his 
 faith, and the intrepidity of his courage. We are 
 to hear him singing with his harp and to see him 
 slaying with his sling. Saul was the victim of 
 mental and moral disorder. He was perhaps the 
 guilty victim of some form of cerebral disease. 
 We are told that " an evil spirit from the Lord 
 was upon him " ; but we know that this is simply 
 the Old Testament way of telling us that Saul's 
 misconduct brought upon him a Divine retribu- 
 tion. He seems naturally to have been of a mor- 
 bid disposition, and this tendency was aggravated 
 by his obstinacy and selfishness. Although re- 
 buked by the prophet Samuel, he does not seem 
 to have sought the Divine forgiveness. Soon his 
 cruel suspicions and morbid jealousies induced a 
 homicidal mania. A better spirit occasionally 
 possessed this strange man ; but soon it left him, 
 and he again fell into his passionate melancholia. 
 It occurred to the attendants of King Saul to try 
 the soothing charms of music as an opiate to as- 
 suage the anguish of his troubled mind. It was 
 believed that music would be, 
 
 The soft, insinuating balsam, that 
 
 Can through the body reach the sickly soul. 
 
 David is soon brought with his harp to the court. 
 Saul is sensitive to the soft strains of David's 
 music, as he was to the more stirring minstrelsy of 
 the sons of the prophets. The sounds of David's 
 lyre and voice, perhaps chanting some lofty theme, 
 
THE CONSECRATED HAND 33 
 
 controlled the troubled spirit of the unhappy and 
 wicked monarch. 
 
 It is almost impossible to overestimate the value 
 of music in every relation in life. It stirs the sol- 
 dier to heroic deeds in battle, and to untiring- cour- 
 age on the march. It conduces powerfully to relig- 
 ious feeling, whether it be the product of the great 
 organ or of the human voice. It is one of the sweet- 
 est charms in social life, and in its wild revelries it 
 may become an irresistible agency of Satan to deeds 
 repugnant to noble men and hateful to God. We 
 know that Elisha sought the ministry of a minstrel 
 that his mind might properly receive the prophetic 
 impulse ; and we know that music was an inspiring 
 power to Martin L,uther. His own words are, 
 " Next to theology, I give the first place and 
 the greatest honor to music." Milton also was 
 charmed with the gracious influence of music 
 alike in his times of sadness and poetic fervor. 
 
 Before the clouded face of Saul, David sat with 
 his harp. Over its strings his hands swept, calling 
 forth strains inspired alike by human genius and 
 divine ecstasy. Fable has told us of the power of 
 Orpheus, who by touching his lyre moved trees and 
 rocks and the beasts of the forest. Alas ! David's 
 harp could not permanently subdue the power of 
 evil in the soul of Saul. It checked for a time 
 his evil tendencies ; but the blackness of his envy 
 and the foulness of his jealousy broke forth in 
 bitterness of spirit and deadliness of purpose 
 against the sweet singer himself. Marvelous is 
 
34 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 the power of good or evil which music exercises. 
 Glorious are the possibilities in possession of the 
 great musicians of the world. Beautiful is the 
 expression of the psalmist when he says, " as well 
 the singers as the players on instruments shall be 
 there." Heaven is harmony ; heaven is song. 
 Almost divine is the gift of playing the organ, the 
 harp, the violin, and the many other instruments 
 of music, and so giving forth melodious sound 
 and song. More than angelic is the gift of open- 
 ing the lips and pouring forth a flood of melody 
 which makes all the air tremulous with heavenly 
 music. Oh, men and women, gifted with this 
 mysterious, matchless, heavenly power, use it for 
 purity, for truth, and for God. 
 
 What is in thine hand, David ? A sling. Only 
 a sling ; but a sling in the trained hand of David 
 was really a mighty weapon. It was mightier far at 
 a distance than the sword of Goliath. Fresh from 
 home came David ; preparation for battle is going 
 on in the camp. David is weary of the cowardice 
 of the men of Israel, who dared not resent the 
 impious challenge of the gigantic Philistine. Shall 
 this man continue to defy " the armies of the liv- 
 ing God " ? Patriotic fire burns in the soul of the 
 youth. He could not bear the thought that any 
 one should defy the living God. He will accept 
 the challenge of the impious giant. He will go 
 out in the confidence of God to defend his name, 
 and to honor the truth. He cannot go in the 
 armor of Saul ; so clothed he would be powerless. 
 
THE CONSECRATED HAND 35 
 
 Saul is cowardly in refusing to fight the foe and 
 in accepting the services of an inexperienced 
 youth. See the brave David preparing for the 
 conflict ! The Philistine scorns and curses him, 
 declaring that he will soon give his flesh to bird 
 and beast. Hear David replying that he goes in 
 the name of God and that the battle is the L,ord's. 
 See him securing the pebbles from the brook as 
 he hastens to the conflict ! Behold him adjusting 
 the stone and swinging his sling ! With terrific 
 force the stone whizzes through the air and sinks 
 into the head of the boastful Philistine. He falls 
 prostrate upon the earth. Brave David ! Thy 
 courage was equalled by thy faith, and thy victory 
 is in harmony with thy faith and courage. Ever- 
 more our motto must be, ' c In the name of the 
 Lord. " That was David's motto when feeding the 
 sheep, when slaying the lion, when defying the 
 Philistine, and when composing his immortal 
 psalms. When we go out in the name that is 
 above every name, victory will assuredly be ours. 
 What is in the hand of Peter and his compan- 
 ions ? A casting-net. They are on the sea of 
 Galilee. By this sea Jesus walked for the purpose 
 of preaching the kingdom of God and calling 
 men to be his disciples and ministers. Here was 
 Peter, with his brother Andrew, and their partners, 
 James and John. They were just commencing the 
 labor of the day or the night. Immediately is 
 heard the call of Jesus, " Come hither." Already 
 they had recognized him as the Messiah, but had 
 
36 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 still followed their occupation as fishermen. They 
 are now ready to arise and follow Jesus. Some of 
 them had already been called to follow him as 
 disciples ; but now they are called to be his con- 
 stant attendants. Beautiful is the statement that 
 ' ' they straightway left their nets and followed 
 him." Beautiful also is Christ's remark that he 
 would make them u fishers of men." They were 
 to be preachers of the gospel ; they were to be 
 winners of souls to Christ. The net in the hand 
 of Peter and his companions is at once trans- 
 figured and glorified until it becomes the divine 
 method for winning souls, and the fish are sug- 
 gestive of the men and women who are to be 
 gathered into the kingdom of God. No instru- 
 ment is so insignificant as to be unfitted for God's 
 purpose in bringing good to men and glory to 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 What is in thy hand, you young lad, with the 
 disciples ? Five loaves and two fishes. What are 
 these among so many ? Jesus well knew what he 
 himself would do although he asks the question 
 as to the resources for supplying the wants of 
 the multitude. When we turn to the evangelist 
 John we find that these resources belong to the 
 lad who chanced to be present on the occasion. 
 Jesus assured the disciples that the multitude need 
 not depart and that they could give the people 
 food to eat. Perhaps this lad was present for the 
 purpose of " turning an honest penny " by selling 
 supplies from his small stock. We now see our 
 
THE CONSECRATED HAND 
 
 Lord preparing a table in the wilderness and 
 bidding his disciples make all the people re- 
 cline on the green grass. The evangelist Mark 
 graphically tells us that they sat down in com- 
 panies with a symmetrical arrangement, like 
 garden plots, illustrating Christ's practical wis- 
 dom as the lover of order. What are five 
 loaves and two fishes among five thousand men ? 
 Listen ! Hear Jesus say, " Bring them hither to 
 me." They are brought to him. The people are 
 seated ; the disciples are the waiters ; the blessing 
 of God is asked on the bread ; it is broken ; the 
 loaves are given to the disciples and by the dis- 
 ciples are given to the multitude. "And they did 
 all eat and were filled ; and they took up of the 
 fragments that remained, twelve baskets full." 
 The five thousand men, besides women and chil- 
 dren, were all satisfied with this marvelous repast. 
 When we take our small stores of grace, of intel- 
 lect, and of effort of whatever kind, to the Lord 
 Jesus, he makes them mighty for the feeding of 
 hungry souls. We have only to bring our empti- 
 ness to his fullness ; our weakness to his strength ; 
 our humanness to his divineness. We are told 
 even that the loaves were barley loaves. Barley 
 loaves were then the food for the most part, not of 
 men but of beasts. It was a barley cake that rolled 
 into the camp of the Midianites. God can take the 
 " things which are not to bring to naught things 
 that are" ; God can make the foolish things of the 
 world confound the things which are mighty. 
 
38 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 What is in thine hand, Mary ? An alabaster 
 box of very precious ointment. Pour it on the 
 head of Christ. Judas may misinterpret thy 
 act, but Jesus will pronounce thy eulogy. This 
 anointing was an act performed with reference to 
 Christ's death. Mary seems to have had a knowl- 
 edge of his approaching death which his disciples 
 did not possess. Never were greater honors be- 
 stowed upon a mortal than Jesus conferred upon 
 Mary. He declared that her deed should be in 
 everlasting remembrance ; and that it should be 
 everywhere mentioned. Matthew and Mark do 
 not give the name of the woman thus honored ; 
 but while John omits the prophecy he records the 
 name, and reveals the fact that this Mary was 
 the sister of Martha. The odor of that precious 
 ointment has filled the world ; the heart of Jesus 
 was tender, sensitive, and appreciative. Blessed 
 are they whose names are associated with the 
 name that is above every name ! 
 
 What is in thine hand, Dorcas ? Only a needle. 
 Is a woman with a needle to be made immortal ? 
 God sees that woman's heart ; God sees the glis- 
 tening of that needle as it passes in and out of the 
 garment. That needle is used for the Lord's poor. 
 The needle of Dorcas wrought for her an inscrip- 
 tion more durable than brass or marble. Her 
 eulogy will be read when the victories of Roman 
 arms and the glories of Grecian arts are forgotten. 
 Her needle served God as truly as does the pen of 
 the recordine an eel. 
 
THE CONSECRATED HAND 39 
 
 What is in thine hand ? A broom. Use it for 
 God. The broom of the domestic servant may be 
 as truly used for God as was the sceptre of David 
 or Solomon. What is in thine hand ? A trowel, 
 a hammer, an axe, a chisel, a saw, or some other 
 mechanical tool? Use it for God. Jesus Christ 
 gave dignity to labor ; the sweat-beads of honest 
 toil stood on his brow. What is in thine hand ? 
 A pen. A pen is mightier than the sword. The 
 pen of Shakespeare, of Longfellow, of Tennyson, 
 of Whittier ! Oh, matchless instrument ! A pen 
 in the hand of Harriet Beecher Stowe stabbed 
 slavery to the heart. A pen in the hand of George 
 Kennan to tell the story of darkest Russia is might- 
 ier than the sword of the Czar of all the Russias. 
 Have you a pen ? Use it for God. Perhaps it is 
 a typewriter. Touch its keys ; make sweet music 
 that shall echo around the globe. We are all 
 familiar with George Herbert's admirable expres- 
 sion of this thought : 
 
 A servant with this clause 
 
 Makes drudgery divine ; 
 Who sweeps a room, as for Thy laws, 
 
 Makes that and the action fine. 
 
 We need grit and grace to use the old sword, 
 the old hammer, the old fire, the old and always 
 new gospel. Oh ! can you not find some poor 
 soul to-day who does not know Jesus ? Can you 
 not tell some wanderer about the Christ ? What 
 is in thine hand? Wealth. Consecrate it now to 
 
40 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 God. What is in thy mouth ? A tongue of elo- 
 quence. Use it for God. The tongue is the 
 mightiest instrument that God ever made. What 
 is in thine hand? A kindly grasp? Give that 
 hand to some sad soul. Let us consecrate every- 
 thing to him ! The office, the plow, the pen, 
 the needle, the tongue, the hands, the feet, and the 
 heart for Jesus. When the pierced hand of Jesus 
 Christ is laid on the printing press, on wealth, on 
 learning, on beauty, on culture, on every gift and 
 grace in every relation in life, then the splendor 
 of the millennial dawn will color the eastern sky 
 with its crimson and gold. 
 
Ill 
 
 THE BRAVE THREE HUNDRED 
 
• ' And the Lord said unto Gideon, By the three hundred 
 men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midian- 
 ites into thine hand : and let all the other people go every 
 7iian unto his place. ' ' Judges 7 : 7. 
 
 
Ill 
 
 BRAVE, dashing, and victorious were the sol- 
 diers of the heroic Gideon. They are 
 worthy of immortality ; and they have been im- 
 mortalized on the page of sacred story. They 
 lose nothing of their grandeur and glory even 
 when compared with the "noble six hundred" 
 who rode "into the jaws of Death, into the mouth 
 of Hell," and whose praise is chanted in immortal 
 verse by the laureate Tennyson. In giving praise 
 to Gideon and " glory to the Lord of Hosts, from 
 whom all glories are," we desire to detract nothing 
 from the illustrous three hundred, whose heroic 
 and patriotic piety give them a unique place not 
 only in the Bible, but in the history of brave men 
 of every century and every clime. 
 
 In order rightly to understand the events re- 
 corded in connection with the bravery and victory 
 of Gideon, we must have clearly in our minds the 
 condition of the country at the time. Earlier in 
 this history we have the account of the defeat of 
 Sisera. That defeat marked the failure of the 
 last attempt by the old inhabitants to overthrow 
 the people of God. Now, however, enemies from 
 new quarters afflict the children of Israel. They 
 are the Midianites and the Amalekites ; the Mid- 
 ianites had gradually spread northward from the 
 
 43 
 
44 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TRXTS 
 
 peninsula of Sinai, and the Amalekites were the 
 old enemies of Israel whom they had fought at 
 Rephidim. These two peoples have now joined 
 their interests with some other tribes, known un- 
 der the general title of u the children of the East," 
 in order to overthrow Israel. They were accus- 
 tomed to make incursions at harvest time, when 
 they carried off flocks and destroyed the harvests, 
 after the manner of the Bedouin Arabs of the 
 present day. The Israelites were reduced to the 
 sorest distress ; many of them were obliged to 
 dwell in the mountains in caves and in strong- 
 holds. They did not dare to reside in the open 
 country, but were obliged to find protection in 
 these retired places and in hidden caverns. Fre- 
 quently still whole neighborhoods are exposed to 
 these ravages, and as a result whole villages have 
 disappeared from the face of the land. The peas- 
 ants prefer, when attacks are made, to climb to a 
 safe retreat in the hills rather than take the risk 
 of living in the open fields. In Gideon's time 
 these raids were on an especially gigantic scale. 
 Cruel as is war always and everywhere, it was es- 
 pecially so in the midst of the terrible sufferings 
 inflicted upon the helpless Israelites. Two chiefs, 
 having the title of kings, are especially brought 
 to our notice, Zebah, " the man-killer," and Zal- 
 munna, " the pitiless." Their names indicate the 
 power they exercised and the terror they inspired. 
 There were two inferior chiefs named Oreb, " the 
 raven," and Zeeb, "the wolf"; these latter bore 
 
THE BRAVE THREE HUNDRED 45 
 
 the title of " princes." These four chiefs led their 
 wild followers in battle array against the defense- 
 less inhabitants. The picture of their army given 
 in the narrative is striking and startling. They 
 are represented as appearing, like the Arab chiefs 
 of modern days, arrayed in gorgeous scarlet robes, 
 while on their necks and the necks of their cam- 
 els there were gold chains and crescent-shaped 
 ornaments. All their women were decked with 
 ear and nose rings of gold, together with many 
 other jewels. This is the picture given us in this 
 ancient record of the dashing and heartless ene- 
 mies of Israel, and of the sad condition of the 
 people themselves. 
 
 When the night is darkest, the morning is near ; 
 when the knell of liberty is sounding, the deliv- 
 erer is born. When the tale of bricks was doubled 
 then came Moses ; when Israel was in despair and 
 her enemies in triumph, then came Gideon, heroic 
 deliverer and triumphant soldier of God. Our 
 thought must be fixed upon him for a little as we 
 study this interesting narrative. " Words are 
 things," said the fiery Mirabeau in the wild 
 French Assembly. This statement is true of 
 Gideon's name. It means "feller," "hewer," or 
 " destroyer." He was chosen of God for his noble 
 mission. He was of a small family. Amid the 
 poor, or at least weak, clans of western Manasseh, 
 was that descended from Abiezer, a son of Gilead ; 
 and among these households that of Joash held a 
 prominent place. All his sons were brave and 
 
46 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 noble, " each like the son of a king." All except 
 the youngest son, Gideon, had fallen on Mount 
 Tabor in the many fights with the fierce Midian- 
 ites. Unexpectedly did this great champion of 
 Israel arise in the midnight hour of Israel's hope. 
 Already he was known both to the Israelites and 
 to their enemies as a mighty hero. The " tree- 
 feller " was also a " man-feller ; " and many a Mid- 
 ianite had already felt the strength of the arm of 
 this " mighty man of valor." His home and fields 
 were at Ophrah, and here the invaders encoun- 
 tered his strong arm and brave household. He 
 was modestly at work, like many other truly great 
 men, when he received his call to higher duties 
 and nobler endeavors. 
 
 Gideon was threshing wheat with a flail in the 
 winepress in order that he might the better con- 
 ceal the grain from the tyrants. In the winepress 
 he would be less exposed to the notice of the 
 invaders, and the flail falling on the grain placed 
 on the bare ground would make less noise than 
 if it were on a boarded floor. There would be 
 danger that the enemies might hear the bellowing 
 of the oxen, if they had been used to thresh the 
 grain. The angel of the Lord immediately said 
 unto him, "Jehovah is with thee, thou mighty 
 man of valor." This address seemed not only 
 startling but ironical to Gideon, when he con- 
 sidered the depressed state of his people. He 
 therefore replied, " O my Lord, if Jehovah be 
 with us why then is all this befallen us? and 
 
THE BRAVE THREE HUNDRED 47 
 
 where be all his miracles which our fathers told 
 us of, saying : Did not Jehovah bring us up 
 from Egypt ? but now Jehovah hath forsaken us 
 and delivered us into the hand of the Midianites." 
 We can well understand how Gideon came to 
 speak in a tone so despondent. The answer came : 
 " Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel 
 from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not 
 sent thee?" Gideon still expressed his doubt; 
 but he is met with this divine promise : " Surely 
 I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the 
 Midianites as one man." The assurance that God 
 is with him is all that he needs. A miracle finally 
 entirely removes his distrust, inspires his heart 
 with hope, and assures him of God's presence and 
 help in all his undertakings. This miracle is in 
 itself deeply interesting. Gideon at once under- 
 takes to present the angel with a kid and unleav- 
 ened cakes. These he laid upon the rock, and 
 the supernatural visitor touches the offerings with 
 the tip of his staff, and straightway a fire arose 
 out of the rock and consumed them ; and thus the 
 meal immediately became a sacrifice. The angel 
 then departed and Gideon was filled with holy 
 awe because he had seen an angel of the L,ord face 
 to face. The heavenly visitant gives him a word 
 of benediction, and Gideon builds an altar calling 
 it Jehovah-shalom. 
 
 A new era dawns upon Gideon and the people 
 of God. Striking is the language employed to 
 describe Gideon's preparation for this heroic and 
 
ah !™cz earrrHS :x qtaitnu rzxrs 
 
 .I '_t . a. z. cllli trtlS C aet He vaxei Varaut 
 
 in nrht " tad — as thus cradled ;: " turn :: mrht 
 the armies :: the aliens." When the Spirit :: 
 
 G ~ t "I ~c^ "II 2.3 'HI "*, ?-, T. t T~~. r - 5 — c "II 111 ill tile'" 
 
 srblime results. vVe are n:: n:~ surprised :: 
 read that Gidetr :le~ the — ar trariret thrcuah 
 his mm :a:: :i~A:ierer, and als: that measeu^ ms 
 
 is r:~ ream :;r a rreat deliverance : '::: i-i a- : n 
 feels r'ae nee -a :: a mvme t titer. :: assure him :: 
 Gid's presence and dlessmr. <3-: i c.mdeseends :•: 
 strenrthea his faith hy a cradle simi — :hat :■: :he 
 vet rleete ana :he iry — :: the Inane presence. 
 One vr inters at Gi deer's remind :ha: G: i slmuld 
 give him :his ::hen : his tmduct seems tresamp- 
 rutus after G:r ami river a deamte premise: but 
 in passing mdmuert upon mis demand :: Gidem 
 we must Lave constantly in vie— the necessities 
 :e his t tsiriem 
 
 vVe n:— see hie ratherirr cz the ciam vae hear 
 the blast :: ihe trumpets, and are ready fer 
 :he apprcaehirr clash :•: arms. Giaem's tareer 
 is a eamcairu rather than a rattle, a carutairu 
 which divides itself into three parts. Xo fewer 
 than chirry-rvr; hnzusana men have ansrverea 
 Gideens mil h: h:~ ever, pre claims hrrrcuah 
 
THE BRAVE THREE HUNDRED 49 
 
 the host that all who were faint-hearted were free 
 to depart, and to our astonishment, and, as we 
 might well suppose, to his dismay, no fewer than 
 twenty-two thousand withdrew. But even the 
 ten thousand still remaining were too many. A 
 strange method does Gideon employ to test the 
 spirit of his soldiers. Here is a copious spring, 
 named from this event, "the spring of Trem- 
 bling," flowing from under a huge rock and form- 
 ing a pool of pure water, and to it his soldiers are 
 brought that he may once more test their wisdom 
 and their self-restraint. Only those who lapped 
 the water with their hands, as men do who are in 
 haste, were considered worthy to be retained in 
 the army, and all those who lay down and lei- 
 surely drank were excluded. These two modes of 
 drinking are still common in the East. Orientals 
 become amazingly dextrous in drinking by the 
 use of the hands ; they throw the water into the 
 mouth before the hand is brought close to it, so 
 that the hand brings a fresh supply before the 
 preceding one has been swallowed. The original 
 word for " lappeth " (yalok) is precisely the sound 
 which a dog makes in drinking. 
 
 The entire number of soldiers is now reduced 
 to three hundred. Is Gideon to be pitied ? One 
 might so affirm; but God had said: "By the 
 three hundred men that lapped will I save you, 
 and deliver the Midianites into thine hand." God 
 cares for quality more than quantity. When God 
 makes bare his arm, a few men become mightier 
 
50 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 than many thousands without his immediate 
 presence and benediction. But a slight differ- 
 ence marked the conduct of the rejected and the 
 accepted soldiers ; but that slight difference indi- 
 cated an important distinction between these two 
 classes. We may expect that Gideon soon will 
 achieve victories for God's Israel and for Israel's 
 God. 
 
 At this critical moment Gideon needed and 
 received another encouragement from God. At 
 this time the Midianites and Amalekites, and all 
 the children of the Bast, lay sleeping in the val- 
 ley like grasshoppers for multitude, and their 
 camels, according to the Scripture narrative, were 
 without number, they were as the sand by the 
 seaside for multitude. How may Gideon attempt 
 to overcome one hundred and twenty thousand of 
 these dashing warriors with three hundred men ? 
 God recognizes the necessity of interposing for 
 the encouragement of his noble servant. Yonder 
 in the valley beneath sleep the hosts of Midian ; 
 God commands Gideon to go down unto the ho£t, 
 taking his servant Phurah with him, and accom- 
 panied the command by the promise that he had 
 delivered Midian into Gideon's power. We now 
 see Gideon and Phurah going stealthily down to 
 the sleeping host. The darkness of night has 
 come down alike upon the invaders and the 
 invaded. Under cover of the night Gideon and 
 his armor-bearer reach the outskirts of the tents ; 
 deep silence reigns over the encampment. Like 
 
THE BRAVE THREE HUNDRED 51 
 
 all Arabian armies, this army had no sentinel. 
 One of the sleeping Arabs awakes ; a dream has 
 startled him. He is telling that dream to one of 
 his companions. How eagerly Gideon and -Phu- 
 rah listen ! This dream meant much to Midian ; 
 it will mean much to Israel. A thin and round 
 cake of barley bread is seen rolling into the camp. 
 Mysterious cake ! Marvelous wheel ! And now 
 it reaches the royal tent in the center of the 
 encampment, and headlong the tent falls upon the 
 ground. So spake the awakened Arab ; so heard 
 the anxious and delighted Gideon. The Arab 
 affirms that it meant nothing else save "the sword 
 of Gideon, the son of Joash." Grateful Gideon ; 
 he bows himself in thankfulness to the ground, 
 and then dashes off up the mountain side with a 
 glad heart ; be returns to his three companies at 
 their posts. Near midnight the signal is given. 
 Never were stillness and darkness more suddenly 
 disturbed. Three hundred pitchers crash, three 
 hundred men shout until the midnight air resounds 
 as if hundreds of thousands instead of three hun- 
 dred soldiers were making an onset ; and three 
 hundred torches flash out on the darkness of the 
 night. And the stirring war-cry, ' ' For Jehovah 
 and for Gideon," breaks upon the stillness of the 
 midnight air. The Arabs break camp, rush 
 hither and thither in the darkness and confusion, 
 uttering the wild cries peculiar to their race. 
 Every man drew his sword against his fellow. The 
 vast multitude poured in hopeless confusion down 
 
52 QUICK TRUTHS IX QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 the valley toward the ford of the Jordan ; their 
 aim was to cross the river at Bethabara, but Gid- 
 eon would not permit them to escape. 
 
 We now come to what was really a second bat- 
 tle, for the Ephraimites were now aroused, and 
 that great tribe seized the ford and cut off the 
 fugitives. The two greater chiefs had crossed the 
 river before the Ephraimites arrived, but Oreb and 
 Zeeb, the lesser chiefs, were caught and slain. 
 "Faint, yet pursuing," dashed Gideon and his 
 brave three hundred after the retreating enemy. 
 
 At Succoth and Penuel, Gideon found halting 
 places. Although two battles had been gained, a 
 third must be fought and a third victory won. 
 Gideon now follows the course of Zebah and 
 Zalmunna, the two chiefs who had been over all 
 the host, with flying steps, and pursued them in 
 their rapid flight. Shall he overtake them ? 
 Shall the victories won be followed by another 
 triumph ? On, on, far into the desert rush Gideon 
 and his brave three hundred, and at distant Kar- 
 kor he overtakes the flvin^ Arab host. There the 
 remnant of their army has encamped in fancied 
 security. Gideon immediately resolves to sur- 
 prise them by a rapid detour. In his plans he is 
 eminently successful, and suddenly falling upon 
 them from the east, he utterly routed them, and 
 by sunrise he was marching in triumph on his 
 way back to the Jordan. Never was a victory 
 more complete. The day of Midian, "with its 
 confused noise, and its garments rolled in blood," 
 
THE BRAVE THREE HUNDRED 53 
 
 remained ever after as the emblem of the com- 
 plete destruction of the foes of Israel. Not only 
 Isaiah, but the author of the eighty-third Psalm 
 speaks in stirring language of this great triumph. 
 He represents the enemy driven over the uplands 
 of Gilead like the chaff blown from the threshing- 
 floor, and like the dry weeds before the fierce 
 flames on the mountain. So magnificent was 
 Gideon's triumph that he rose at once to the high- 
 est honors which the tribe could confer. It was 
 their intention to crown him as king, but he was 
 as humble as he was heroic; he was modest as 
 brave. Few men could have been more fit for the 
 honor of royal rank. His very appearance was 
 kingly, but he earnestly refused the proffered 
 crown. 
 
 God gives us at times opportunities for doing 
 great things for him. Happy are we when we 
 recognize our opportunity and discharge our obli- 
 gation. Again, God can work with few as with 
 many ; he regards quality more than quantity. 
 Unfortunately, but a small percentage of mem- 
 bers in all our churches now do the work of the 
 churches ; but few are ready to respond to the 
 blast of the trumpet for battle against the devil 
 and all forms of evil. Many soldiers are heroic 
 in sham battles and on parade day ; but when war 
 really comes thousands are faint-hearted, and other 
 thousands are self-indulgent. Many are sulking 
 in the rear, some are in their tents, while an undue 
 proportion is in hospitals or in ambulances. If 
 
54 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 the test were applied to ch.urch.es to-day, perhaps 
 as great a proportion as in the army of Gideon 
 would be unfit for battle. 
 
 Once more the trumpet sounds, summoning- us 
 to the conflict. Hosts of Midianites and Amalek- 
 ites, in the form of social, political, and personal 
 evils are all about us. Let us sound the cry, " For 
 God and native land," and rouse ourselves for duty. 
 Let us, here and now, consecrate ourselves afresh 
 to Christ and to his church. But let us determine 
 to undertake nothing in our own strength. We 
 are unable to cope with our terrible foes ; but let 
 us also shrink from no duty to which we are 
 clearly called of God. God will permit us to test 
 him as Gideon tested him with the fleece ; and 
 God will give us encouragement by confessions of 
 weakness from the foe, as Gideon was encouraged 
 by the dream regarding the cake of barley bread. 
 Let us doubt nothing when God promises us his 
 help. 
 
 The only question which a true Christian need 
 ever ask regarding any duty is, ' ' Does God so 
 command?" His command is ultimate author- 
 ity. His will, as expressed in his word, is the 
 highest law of duty for a true believer. Creeds 
 made by men can be unmade by men ; it is only 
 the word of our God that shall stand forever. 
 We have been governed quite too much by feeling 
 rather than by the sense of duty. We never read 
 that we are saved by feeling, but always by faith. 
 One often wishes that the word "feeling" were 
 
THE BRAVE THREE HUNDRED 55 
 
 blotted out of all our religious vocabularies. In 
 all Wellington's dispatches, which filled twelve 
 large volumes, we never find the word " glory," 
 not even after his greatest victory ; but Welling- 
 ton's word was always '-' duty, duty, duty." In 
 Napoleon's dispatches we have the word "glory." 
 Wellington tells us that he learned in his cate- 
 chism as a boy to do his duty in whatever sphere 
 the providence of God might place him. The 
 Frenchman followed glory; the Briton, duty. 
 The nations that are the disciples of glory shall 
 pass away ; but the nations that are loyal to duty 
 must abide. When God clearly commands, it is 
 ours promptly to obey. Results are God's ; duties 
 are ours. It is ever true that the path of duty is 
 the path of safety and joy. We cannot expect 
 God's blessing on our path except our path be 
 God's way. The moment we fly from the path of 
 duty we experience sorrow, as did David, Elijah, 
 Jonah, and all others who at any time disobeyed 
 the voice of God. In the word of God, commands 
 and blessings are closely associated ; in the experi- 
 ence of all Christians obedience and benediction 
 are inseparable. No duty is difficult when God 
 leads the way. If there be a lion in the path we 
 have but to walk straight forward and when the 
 lion is approached he will be found chained and 
 his jaws locked. Had Gideon refused to obey the 
 command of God, he would not have won victory 
 from his foes. To-day we crown him with glory 
 because in his day he yielded God unquestioning 
 
56 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TKXTS 
 
 obedience. No man is fit to command his fellow- 
 men but be who yields body, soul, and spirit to 
 the commands of his God. The man who makes 
 duty his watchword, duty his king, is the man 
 who must win in the warfare of life, and is the 
 man to whom God will at last give the triple 
 crown of glory, of righteousness, and of life. 
 
 Forward, O church of the living God ! I,et us 
 no longer sing, " Hold the fort," but let us shout, 
 " Storm the fort ! " And let us, when the victory 
 is won, take no glory to ourselves, but give it all 
 unto God. God must strip us of pride that he 
 may use us for work. May the God of Gideon be 
 our God, our portion, our all, henceforth and for- 
 evermore ! Amen. 
 
IV 
 THE ENDANGERED INHERITANCE 
 
" . . . Lest I mar i7iine own i7iheritance. . . Ruth 
 
 4:6. 
 
IV 
 
 THE story of the bridal ceremonies of Ruth 
 and Boaz is as beautiful as a dream. It 
 abounds in touches which make the whole world 
 kin. Indeed the whole pastoral is beyond com- 
 parison touching and full of human interest. 
 From amid the stormy clashing and warring of 
 interests that marked the period of the judges of 
 Israel, it comes like a strain of music from amid 
 the tumult of a mob ; like the song of a lark, float- 
 ing out over the murkiness and savagery of a bat- 
 tlefield. Hear it often as we may, we do not tire 
 of it ; or if we do, it is only of the telling, and 
 then we take it and tell it ourselves, and anew 
 breathe out our thanks to its unknown author. 
 
 An obstacle to the marriage of Boaz and the 
 Moabite Ruth, according to the levirate law, ex- 
 isted which might have interrupted the course of 
 true love, and which might have changed their 
 future, and even the inspired record in the Bible. 
 There was no obstacle to the marriage in the heart 
 of either Boaz or Ruth ; there was none in his cir- 
 cumstances ; none in her desires. The only ob- 
 stacle was technical and legal. This difficulty 
 must be removed, or the marriage between the 
 prosperous yeoman and the beautiful widow could 
 not be solemnized. 
 
 59 
 
60 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 The facts of the case at this point give us a 
 suggestive glimpse of the solemn manner and pe- 
 culiar ceremonies of that primitive time. We are 
 carried at once to the city gates, through which 
 all the town folk must pass. This gate was the 
 place of gossiping, of marketing, and of marry- 
 ing. It was the court-house and the town hall of 
 that early day. On this particular morning Boaz 
 is on hand early. Great and tender thoughts are 
 in his heart, but strange fears disturb his peace, as 
 many tender hopes are in the balance. He re- 
 receives and returns kindly salutations as he ap- 
 proaches ; his manner is peculiarly earnest and 
 dignified to-day. With honored townspeople, he 
 sits on the stone bench prepared for him and other 
 local dignitaries. All the people feel that there 
 is something unusual to come before them on this 
 occasion. The judges meet. The case is formally 
 opened. The story of Naomi and Ruth is told. 
 
 It is known that Naomi has resolved to sell the 
 property which belonged to her deceased husband. 
 The next of kin, according to the old law, has the 
 first advantage in making the purchase. This 
 anonymous kinsman approaches. Boaz in a manly 
 way gives him the opportunity. He seems glad 
 to buy. Perhaps he thought the necessities of 
 Naomi would induce her to part with the estate 
 at a reduced price. This is a trying moment for 
 Boaz ; his heart beats fast. Will the kinsman se- 
 cure the property ? Tender hopes balance on the 
 answer to that question, but Boaz must be fair ; 
 
THE ENDANGERED INHERITANCE 6l 
 
 the offer must be fully made. It must be under- 
 stood that when the property is bought from 
 Naomi, Ruth goes with it. She is its inalienable, 
 its inseparable appurtenante. The case is fully 
 stated. Will the kinsman agree to the terms? 
 Shall he claim Ruth as his own ? Oh, Boaz, still 
 thy throbbing heart and listen to the kinsman's 
 answer ! The beautiful Ruth, the rose of Moab, 
 is not wanted by this relative. The kinsman will 
 not have the property on these terms. The anon- 
 ymous relative does not want Ruth as his wife. 
 We cannot tell what his reasons were ; he may 
 have had a wife already, and he may have feared 
 that additional claimants to the inheritance would 
 be multiplied ; but it is certain that he declines to 
 purchase the estate on the conditions named. 
 Noble Boaz, happy Boaz, Ruth shall be all thine 
 own ! The people are witnesses ; they shout their 
 joy ; their hearts ascend to heaven in prayer, and 
 go out to the bridal pair in blessing. 
 
 We may not admire the conduct of the kins- 
 man, but we can rejoice in the happiness of Boaz ; 
 and we can learn useful lessons from the kins- 
 man's words as recorded in this old story : " lest I 
 mar mine own inheritance." Many men mar 
 noble inheritances. We have here suggested for 
 us a practical subject to whose discussion we now 
 give our thought. What are some of these in- 
 heritances, and how may they be marred ? 
 
 i. We may notice, in the first place, that there 
 is the inheritance of physical health. The an- 
 
62 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 cients were right who spoke of a sound mind in a 
 sound body as one of the best gifts of the gods. 
 Nowhere does the word of God, rightly translated, 
 speak of the body as vile ; everywhere does the 
 Bible exalt the body as a noble specimen of Di- 
 vine workmanship. The interpretation of the 
 Scripture which makes it degrade the body is false 
 to its true teaching, and is dishonoring to God, 
 the Author of the Bible, the Maker of our bodies, 
 and the Father of our spirits. The man who sins 
 against his body sins against his God. God has writ- 
 ten his will upon the body as truly as upon the pages 
 of the Bible. Every natural motion of the body is 
 a revelation of the will and purpose of the divine 
 Creator. It was a heathen, and not a Christian 
 conception which in the minds of recluses and 
 fanatics, of hermits and monks, led to the lacera- 
 tion of the body in the hope that thereby God 
 would be honored and the soul ennobled. Ever 
 since Christ was cradled in the manger at Bethle- 
 hem the body has been honored, exalted, glori- 
 fied. Every babe since the birth of Christ has 
 been in a sense divinized. As his incarnation was 
 the humanizing of the divine, so in some sense, it 
 was the divinizing of the human. As a young 
 man with the dew of eternal youth, he sits now 
 on the right hand of God in a glorified human 
 body. He carried that body with him to his cross, 
 to his grave, and to his throne. It bore the marks 
 of the cross after his resurrection. It was sup- 
 ported by needful food, and now glorified, it is ex- 
 
THE ENDANGERED INHERITANCE 63 
 
 alted to the throne of the universe. The man who 
 expects to honor God by dishonoring his body 
 dishonors alike the creature and the Creator. Ever 
 since the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day 
 of Pentecost the body has been the temple of the 
 third Person of the Trinity. We distinctly read, 
 " Ye are the temple of the Holy Ghost." On the 
 day of Pentecost, there was an incarnation of the 
 third Person of the Trinity as truly as there had 
 been of the second Person in the child of the 
 manger at Bethlehem. 
 
 This truth needs to be emphasized ; this is the 
 dispensation of the Spirit. He dwells now in the 
 children of God. Shall a man dare destroy, dis- 
 honor, or pollute the temple of the Holy Ghost? 
 The man who overworks his body sins against 
 God. The man who by intemperance in eating or 
 drinking unfits his body for discharging its nor- 
 mal functions, degrades himself and dishonors the 
 Almighty. Intemperance even in lawful indul- 
 gence is to be rebuked as a degrading sin against 
 the most wonderful mechanism known among 
 men, and as a defiant crime against God the author 
 of this matchless creation. Indulgence, laziness, 
 and selfishness are sins against health, happiness, 
 and God. No man has a right to overwork, to 
 overeat, or to practise undue indulgence in rest or 
 in any rightful enjoyment. The man who sins 
 against the simple economy of health has taken 
 the crown from the brow of manhood and has at 
 the same time defied the laws of the Almighty. 
 
64 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 It is true that many men with broken bodies 
 have accomplished wonderful results in life. The 
 names of John Calvin, Robert Hall, and a score 
 more suggest themselves as illustrations of this 
 truth. Let no man be discouraged who has in- 
 herited a weak body. Great souls have often 
 dwelt in frail tenements, until the tired body was 
 laid to its rest and the great soul went up in 
 triumph to God. But let those who have re- 
 ceived the inheritance of physical health prize it 
 as one of the great gifts of God. Let them care 
 for it as one of the sacred inheritances of life, and 
 let them lay it as a willing offering at the feet of 
 the Lord Christ. In the case of many men, sick- 
 ness is often a reflection on their good sense if not 
 on their moral character. There is a glorious 
 sense in which Christ heals our diseases as truly 
 as he forgives our iniquities ; there is a blessed 
 truth in the affirmation that he came to bear our 
 sickness as truly as our sinfulness, and there is an 
 unspeakable inspiration in the certainty that in 
 heaven none of the inhabitants shall ever be sick. 
 Let every man emphatically say " No " when 
 tempted to violate the laws of God in his own 
 body, adding with this unknown kinsman, ' ' Lest 
 I mar mine own inheritance." 
 
 2. There is also the inheritance of intellectual 
 capabilities. Of course, there are great differences 
 among men in these respects. But in our day 
 ignorance is not simply a misfortune ; it is a crime. 
 Christian men must develop all their faculties to 
 
THE ENDANGERED INHERITANCE 65 
 
 their highest possibilities. All that they have 
 and are belongs to Jesus Christ. No man has a 
 right to be an intellectual dwarf when he might 
 be something of a giant. Every man is bound, 
 by the most sacred of obligations, to make the 
 most of himself for time and for eternity. What a 
 man is intellectually here will determine to some 
 degree what he will be intellectually hereafter. 
 The life to come is but the developed results of 
 present conditions and attainments ; that life is 
 but the ripened fruit of the intellectual and moral 
 seed sown in this life. Every Christian, because 
 inspired by a sense of loyalty to Jesus Christ, will 
 desire to develop his intellectual powers to their 
 utmost degree. He cannot but wish to possess 
 numerous and varied mental faculties for the sal- 
 vation of men and for the greater glory of the 
 Iyord Jesus. He must, because of his Sonship 
 with God, enlarge to their utmost capacity all his 
 mental faculties. Christianity tends greatly to 
 produce this result. True religion appeals to true 
 reason. God summons our reasoning faculties to 
 their fullest exercise and to their noblest achieve- 
 ment. When God's thoughts come into men's 
 hearts they stimulate their own thoughts to active 
 exercise and to harmonious development. Divine 
 love in human hearts puts enlarged brains into 
 human heads. Religion stimulates every noble 
 faculty of the soul. It consecrates and inspires 
 poetic genius, and it lays its ennobling touch upon 
 every logical faculty. Divine love made John 
 
66 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 Bunyan the immortal dreamer ; it made Samuel 
 Bradburn one of the great workers and orators in 
 his church, a man of whom Dr. Abel Stevens said 
 that, " during forty years Samuel Bradburn was 
 esteemed the Demosthenes of Methodism " ; it 
 made William Carey a profound scholar, a lofty 
 thinker, a consecrated toiler, and an inspired 
 genius. Christianity adorns culture with true 
 symmetry and highest beauty ; and culture, in 
 turn, gives Christianity its fullest beauty and its 
 grandest opportunity. They ought never to be 
 separated. Bach sweetly and divinely ministers 
 to the other. 
 
 Let no young man or woman neglect wide read- 
 ing, careful study, and earnest thought. Young 
 Christians should be model students. They have 
 Jesus Christ for their teacher, and the noblest 
 men and women in the world as their fellow- 
 pupils. No man can so securely walk the dizzy 
 heights of intellectual greatness as he who has sat 
 in lowliest reverence at the feet of the Lord Jesus. 
 He is the w r orld's great teacher. The school of 
 Christ is the noblest university. Arise, oh young 
 men and women, to your dignity as sons and 
 daughters of the Lord Almighty ! Take advan- 
 tage of every opportunity for intellectual culture, 
 and then let the love of Christ sanctify that cul- 
 ture to his greatest glory. Intellectual indolence 
 is a sin against our noble nature and against the 
 great God, the world's foremost thinker and vour 
 own Creator and Redeemer. When the great 
 
THE ENDANGERED INHERITANCE 67 
 
 thoughts of God come into the soul, plowing 
 their way through our whole being, they lift us 
 to the noblest heights of human endeavor and 
 achievement. They give us conscious kinship 
 with angels and God. When tempted to intel- 
 lectual slothfulness, ring out an emphatic refusal 
 lest you mar your inheritance of noble intellectual 
 possibilities. You ought to surpass all ungodly 
 men and women along every line of intellectual 
 attainment and noble endeavor. You ought to 
 win the highest honors in the race of life. 
 
 3. There is also, in the third place, the in- 
 heritance of a worthy family history. This is a 
 great, an unspeakable gift. It is a gift above the 
 worth of all mere financial values. A good name 
 is more to be desired than gold, yea, than much 
 fine gold. A good name is the ripe product of 
 years of noble ancestral character. There is, 
 whatever may be said to the contrary, much in 
 blood. It is quite true that a man cannot on 
 heraldic crutches strut across the stage of life so 
 as to secure the respect of thinking men. We 
 insist in these days upon having worth in men 
 themselves. We ask not so much who their 
 grandfather was, nor what he did, but who they 
 themselves are and what they can do. Neverthe- 
 less, what a man is and what he can do will de- 
 pend in no small degree upon who his grandfather 
 was and what he did. There is often an esprit de 
 corps in a noble family history which is influen- 
 tial in preserving its nobility. It takes years to 
 
68 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 acquire a worthy character, either as a personal 
 possession or as a business influence ; but when 
 possessed its value is inestimably great. 
 
 There is a vast difference between character and 
 reputation. Reputation is what men think we 
 are ; character is what God knows us to be. Rep- 
 utation is seeming ; character is being. Reputa- 
 tion is the breath of men ; character is the in- 
 breathing of the eternal God. One may for a 
 time have a good reputation and a bad character, 
 or the reverse ; but not for long. What is in will 
 come out. It is impossible for any man long to 
 play the hypocrite. No man falls suddenly, ex- 
 cept in the eyes of his fellow-men. The man who 
 falls has long been leaning in the eyes of God. It 
 is indescribably sad that a man after years of noble 
 living may in an hour ruin both reputation and 
 character. It is sad that man}' sons mar the value 
 of a worthy family name and history. They drag 
 down their father's name into the mire of their 
 own vileness. They are like Hophni and Phine- 
 has, the unworthy sons of the gentle and kindly 
 Kli, priest and judge of Israel. They break the 
 heart of their mother, and discrown the gray head 
 of their father. Is there a man who has wandered 
 from his father's and his mother's God ? Is there 
 one who has lowered the standard of a noble 
 family life and history ? Is there one who is be- 
 smirching his name and staining his character by 
 unholy thoughts and impure acts ? In the name 
 of that worthy familv historv, in the name of an 
 
THE ENDANGERED INHERITANCE 69 
 
 ideal family life, in the name of the great God and 
 Father of us all, I beseech him to stop and to stop 
 now. He is marring his own inheritance. 
 
 It is a blessed thing to be able to give a noble 
 family inheritance to one's children. Almost all 
 that many of us can give our children will be a 
 worthy name. Almost all that any of us can ever 
 expect to possess in this world will be a good 
 name. L,et us carefully guard it ; let us sacredly 
 preserve it ; let us continually honor it ; let us 
 never so live that our children shall be ashamed 
 of the name which they bear. L,et us send it 
 down to them as an honored inheritance to which 
 they shall add honors for all the generations to 
 come. Such a name is worth more than bonds or 
 gold. Many a man would rather have honest 
 poverty than dishonest wealth. A little time ago 
 in this city, in a professional man's office, a man 
 of wealth was ashamed to give his name. His 
 father had dishonored that name. Men's sins go 
 down to the third and fourth generation still. 
 Many men sin against their children by making 
 them heirs of disease and dishonor. God pity 
 such children. God have mercy on such parents. 
 
 4. There is also, in the last place, the inherit- 
 ance of religious possibilities. Intellectual attain- 
 ments and religious experiences cannot be trans- 
 mitted to our children. We can transmit our 
 vices ; but, strictly speaking, not our virtues. We 
 can transmit our sins but not our graces. There 
 is a sense, however, in which we can transmit 
 
70 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 tendencies toward good and God or toward evil 
 and the devil. There is a divine truth in much 
 that is said regarding heredity in our day. It is 
 much for a man to be able to say " my father's 
 God " ; it is vastly easier for such a man to say, 
 " My Lord and my God" after having been taught 
 to say " my father's God. " Children of Christian 
 men and women stand upon a vastly higher plane 
 of possibility than the children of ungodly men 
 and women. The time may come when the 
 natural will be much more like the supernatural 
 than as we now see it. Indeed, there is a sense 
 in which there is no distinction between the 
 natural and supernatural. God is active in all 
 spheres of nature. 
 
 The possibility of being translated out of the 
 kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's 
 dear Son ought to be realized in early childhood. 
 No man, however far he may go into sin, can 
 shake off entirely the influences of a godly parent- 
 age and of early religious training. These in- 
 fluences will follow him in all his departures from 
 the God of his father and mother. They will ar- 
 rest his thoughts in his moments of sin, and they 
 will be present both to rebuke and to inspire him 
 in his ways of penitence. Early religious training 
 becomes an inseparable part of the soul's essential 
 life. During the last week I talked with a man 
 who had just recovered from a period of dissipa- 
 tion, and with broken voice and moist eyes, he 
 said : " How could I so far forget myself, so greatly 
 
THE ENDANGERED INHERITANCE 7 1 
 
 dishonor my sainted parents, and so wickedly dis- 
 obey my father's God?" Oh, children of God's 
 children, prize your privileges. Oh, realize your 
 possibilities. Oh, make their God your God and 
 your portion fore verm ore. 
 
 Out of his historic obscurity comes this kins- 
 man of Naomi, and into this obscurity he passes 
 again ; but he has left on record a warning which 
 for three thousand years has been uttering its 
 wholesome suggestions. Regarding all these in- 
 heritances that we have named let this anonymous 
 kinsman give us instruction and suggestion. With 
 a fuller meaning than he could have known, let 
 us refuse to obey the promptings of evil compan- 
 ions, the suggestions of our own corrupt hearts, 
 and the temptations of Satan, lest we mar our 
 noble, our immortal, our divine inheritance. 
 
 It is possible for us to rise on stepping-stones of 
 our dead selves to wondrous heights of Christian 
 attainment, We remember how the Laureate 
 puts it : 
 
 I held it truth with him who sings 
 To one clear harp in divers tones, 
 That men may rise on stepping-stones 
 Of their dead selves to higher things. 
 
 It is a profoundly solemn thought that our 
 lives are to be lived over again in laying founda- 
 tions for the generations yet to come. In Ruth, 
 the Rose of Moab, part of the Gentile strain of 
 blood came into the life of Christ. Each one 
 of us may in a more real sense make our lives a 
 
72 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 part of his and his life a part of ours. We may 
 become partakers of the divine nature. God grant 
 that we may never mar any part of our glorious, 
 our immortal, our divine inheritance. May we 
 add dignity and glory thereto by accepting Jesus 
 Christ as our personal Saviour, and so become par- 
 takers of the divine nature ! 
 
V 
 THE ENNOBLED OX-GOAD 
 
 G 
 
• ' . . . And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath, 
 which slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox- 
 goad : and he also delivered Israel " Judges 3 : 31. 
 
THE subject here presented brings before us a 
 strange story of the olden time. It is a 
 story which suggests to us rude manners, fierce 
 conflicts, and cruel conquests. It is a story which 
 shows us how God's people prospered when they 
 were right with God, and how they were defeated 
 when they turned away from God and served the 
 gods of their idolatrous neighbors. It is also a 
 story which illustrates what one man may do for 
 his country, his faith, and his God, when his heart 
 is brave and his arm strong. 
 
 The condition of the country at this time was 
 sad indeed ; the Israelites were greatly oppressed 
 and correspondingly depressed. Their enemies 
 had so overrun . the country that it was almost 
 useless to till their soil or to sow the seed, as in 
 no case could a profitable harvest be secured. The 
 highways were so infested with robbers that they 
 were well-nigh deserted by all others. The peo- 
 ple were obliged to go in byways and in the daik. 
 They could not in open day go to the public wells ; 
 for their enemies had surrounded them ; and 
 finally many of the people were obliged to hide 
 in inaccessible dens in the mountains. At this 
 sad time Sham gar was the man chosen of God to 
 be the deliverer of the people. In every crisis 
 
 75 
 
j6 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 God has the right man ready to come forward, 
 perform his work, and honor God's great name. 
 When Israel is to be led out of Egypt, God has 
 Moses trained for leadership. So God prepared 
 and called Joshua, David, Solomon, Elijah, and 
 Elisha. In like manner, in due time, he called 
 Paul and Augustine. In later days Calvin and 
 Luther; then Wesley and Whitefield. God has 
 use for the rough mountaineers of Lebanon to 
 hew down the cedars, as truly as for Hiram's cun- 
 ning Tyrian workmen to mold the brass and to 
 carve the fretwork for the temple. God calls men 
 who are engaged in lowly work to nobler service ; 
 thus he called Moses from the flocks of Jethro to 
 his high commission, and Gideon from the thresh- 
 ing-floor to achieve national triumph. God called 
 Peter, John, and Andrew from their nets to be fish- 
 ers of men ; and Matthew from the receipt of cus- 
 tom to be an evangelist and an apostle ; so God 
 called Shamgar, who seems to have been engaged in 
 plowing when the grander work was presented. 
 
 God puts before us all great possibilities, but 
 he makes faithfulness in our present calling a nec- 
 essary preparation for taking advantage of our 
 great opportunities. Doors of opportunity open 
 quickly to the touch of industry. Only as we are 
 faithful in lowly spheres do we show that we are 
 worthy of promotion to higher ranges of duty; 
 our divine Lord formulated this great law when 
 he said: "He that is faithful in that which is 
 least, is faithful also in much." God always 
 
THE ENNOBLED OX-GOAD JJ 
 
 loves and approves busy and faithful men ; and 
 such men are always an inspiration and a benedic- 
 tion. The world is constantly looking for such 
 men ; and there is no corner of the universe suf- 
 ficiently obscure long to hide men of worth and 
 power. God reaches out his hand to such men ; 
 churches, banks, great corporations, call loudly, 
 winsomely, and authoritatively for such men. 
 Great institutions are anxious to promote men 
 whose character and ability make them essential 
 to the highest prosperity of these institutions. 
 But the greatest unkindness that a business house, 
 a corporation, a church, or a nation can do, is to 
 promote to a lofty place a man who is unfitted 
 for the position. Such a man may hide his de- 
 fects in private life, but when exalted to a high 
 place his deficiencies become painfully conspic- 
 uous. 
 
 A good record for faithful service is one of the 
 best diplomas which any young man can possess ; 
 years of faithful service become rounds of the lad- 
 der up which a man may climb to the highest 
 place. Every man should strive to make himself 
 indispensable to his employer. A man in my 
 study recently said : " I can speak nine languages, 
 and I can read thirteen, but I cannot earn my 
 own living ; all my diplomas will not make the 
 pot boil, unless I were to put them all under it at 
 one time and consume them in a grand conflagra- 
 tion." This man was unfitted by practical expe- 
 rience, by sound common sense, and by years of 
 
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 earnest service for any position requiring varied 
 intellectual abilities. We all ought to strive for 
 that strange something which secures success. 
 There is force in Carlyle's emphasis of the real 
 meaning of the word " king " ; he is the " canning 
 man" — the man who can do it. He is the able 
 man, whether or not we can analyze and define 
 the subtle elements which constitute his real abili- 
 ties. Napoleon was accustomed to ask, when ap- 
 plicants for various positions came to him : 
 "What have you done ? " and the answer to that 
 question determined to a great degree the position 
 which the applicant might expect. 
 
 We sometimes say that circumstances make 
 men ; but as usually understood this statement is 
 incorrect. If circumstances alone made men, 
 there would be a great many more men made, for 
 there certainly are circumstances enough. Cir- 
 cumstances make men only as men use their op- 
 portunities, as they overcome unfavorable condi- 
 tions, and take advantage of those which conduce 
 to the highest success. Circumstances are like 
 the laws of gravitation ; they make or unmake us. 
 If we put ourselves in line with these great laws 
 they will bear us on to prosperity ; if we oppose 
 them, their irresistible momentum will crush us 
 in their onward progress. Work and worth are 
 the true standard of value. Cost and worth are 
 ever close neighbors. If we want pebbles, we 
 can pick them up by the handfuls almost any- 
 where, but when possessed they are only pebbles. 
 
THE ENNOBLED OX-GOAD 79 
 
 If we want diamonds, we must dig for them. 
 Why is an ounce of gold of more value than an 
 ounce of lead? Largely because it takes more 
 work to get an ounce of gold than it takes 
 to get an ounce of lead. Many men want the 
 honors of wealth and education, but they are not 
 willing to pay the price for both in hard labor ; 
 they want noonday honors for men, but they are 
 not willing to pay the price in burning midnight 
 oil. 
 
 In like manner, there are many who want the 
 blessings of a Christian life, but they are not will- 
 ing to pay the price in self-renunciation and in 
 Christian service ; they want the crown, but they 
 will not bear the cross. But no man shall wear 
 yonder crown with its glittering gems, except he 
 take up Christ's cross with its cruel nails. This 
 is an eternal law. Will you to-day take up the 
 cross ? If you do, some future day you shall wear 
 the crown. I would that all might feel the force 
 of these plain and homely truths. I am always 
 disheartened when I hear young men talk as if 
 they trusted to luck for success. L,uck is a fool ; 
 pluck is a hero. Only fools trust in the god of 
 luck. When I hear a young man speak as if he 
 believed himself to be the possessor of genius 
 which relieves him from the necessity of doing 
 hard work, I have little hope for him ; and when 
 I find that his mother agrees with him, I have 
 less hope for either him or her. Shamgar was a 
 patient, plodding, industrious man. We need 
 
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 such men in the church ; men who go on plow- 
 ing even though the enemies of Christ are numer- 
 ous and powerful ; even though the friends of 
 Christ are fearful and faithless. Carey, our im- 
 mortal missionary, when asked the reason of his 
 success, answered in three words, "I can plod." 
 Plodding, with the blessing of God, made Carey. 
 Plodding and fighting made Shamgar, the plow- 
 man, the judge of Israel. 
 
 Shamgar was also a very brave man. His ene- 
 mies were many and strong ; the friends of liberty 
 were few and weak. But he did not lose hope 
 nor turn away from duty. He kept right on per- 
 forming his duty in his lowly sphere, until God 
 gave him the opportunity for rendering greater 
 service. If he had been a coward, he had not 
 been a plowman in his discouraging circum- 
 stances ; if he had been a coward when the six 
 hundred Philistines came in sight, he would have 
 been out of sight as fast as his feet could carry 
 him. But no coward was Shamgar, the plow- 
 man ; he trusted that God would deliver Israel ; 
 and he determined to do his part toward securing 
 the deliverance for which he hoped and prayed. 
 It is barely possible that we are not to understand 
 that he attacked those six hundred Philistines 
 alone ; perhaps all that is meant by the language 
 here used is that he put himself at the head of a 
 band of peasants, armed with ox-goads and other 
 rude implements, and with the help of these won 
 the glorious victory. It is common for us to as- 
 
THE ENNOBLED OX-GOAD 8 1 
 
 cribe to a leader what is accomplished under his 
 leadership. With the help of his associates he 
 made the desperate assault and slew six hundred 
 of his and their enemies. This brave act secured 
 a temporary respite for him and his people, as it 
 struck terror into the hearts of the rebellious 
 Canaanites. 
 
 We all need similar bravery in our Christian 
 conflicts. We have foes many and strong which 
 we must destroy or they will destroy us. We 
 must fight against the world, the flesh, and the 
 devil ; and these three foes will come to us in 
 many forms. They will sometimes come even as 
 angels of light ; but we must be quick to recog- 
 nize real foes under fair faces, and we must cut 
 and hew them without hesitancy or mercy. As 
 much courage is needed in the Christian life as on 
 the field of battle. Many a man could walk 
 boldly to the cannon's mouth who would hesitate 
 to affirm his faith in the presence of jeering men 
 or fair but foolish women. Glorious moral vic- 
 tories are lost for the want of prompt and unwa- 
 vering courage. We should be as bold for Christ 
 as are the servants of Satan for their cruel master. 
 It is a pity that so many Christians play the 
 coward and the fool when they should be heroes 
 and victors. We all love a man with the courage 
 of his convictions. Bravery is contagious. We 
 all feel the influence of a noble, true, and conse- 
 crated life the moment we are brought into its 
 atmosphere. I believe with Dr. Holmes that the 
 
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 atmosphere for a considerable distance — perhaps 
 for several feet — around a brave man is charged 
 with inspiration. Science has enabled us to 
 measure the degree of heat which is generated in 
 a firefly's flash ; and the time may come when 
 science will enable us to measure the amount of 
 inspiration or depression generated by the heroes 
 or cowards whom we meet. Whatever we may 
 call this influence, its existence can scarcely be 
 denied. We all know of men whose presence 
 cheers, inspires, and exalts. We all love to meet 
 them on the street. There are others who take 
 power, life, and hope out of us. You might 
 almost as well give them your arm and let them 
 take from you a pint of blood as to give them a 
 portion of your time, and let them take from you 
 your courage and hope. Sham gar seems to have 
 inspired other men to brave and noble deeds ; he 
 stimulated them to serve God and to save their 
 native land. He mourned over the deserted vil- 
 lages, the inaccessible wells, and the discouraged 
 people of the land. Now he comes forth to be a 
 deliverer. God made his hand strong and his 
 heart brave. God multiply the Shamgars in all 
 our churches ! 
 
 Shamgar was skillful in the use of the weapon 
 which he had. He had only an ox-goad with 
 which to attack the foe. He might have plead 
 the inadequacy of his weapon as an excuse for 
 refusing to attack the foe ; but he was not that 
 kind of a man. The word translated a ox-goad" 
 
THE ENNOBLED OX-GOAD 83 
 
 is from a root which literally means " an instructor 
 of oxen " ; it was an instrument which brought 
 oxen into obedience. Sometimes it has been 
 translated a coulter or a plowshare ; and the ox- 
 goad still used in Palestine is a weapon which 
 if wielded by a strong hand may be very destruc- 
 tive. Some of these ox-goads are from eight to 
 ten feet long, and at the largest end they are often 
 six inches in circumference. The shaft is fre- 
 quently made of an oak sapling. These goads 
 are armed at the smaller end with a sharp prick 
 for driving the oxen, and at the other end with a 
 small paddle or spade of iron for cleaning the 
 plow from the clay which often sticks to the 
 share. It was probably with such a goad that 
 Shamgar made his terrible assault. 
 
 We are constantly excusing ourselves from 
 doing our duty because we do not, as we claim, 
 possess proper facilities for our work. We charge 
 our failure on our condition, on our partners, on 
 our companions, on anybody or anything except 
 ourselves. This is an old trick. The shirking of 
 responsibility came into the world with sin. 
 "The woman thou gavest me," said Adam, in 
 the ungallant and cowardly spirit induced by his 
 heinous sin. It is easy to see that in blaming the 
 woman Adam really meant to blame God. This 
 is the tendency of sin in every age and country. 
 This tendency reveals itself to-day when men talk 
 unwisely of heredity and environment. There are 
 elements of truth in both, but as often used they 
 
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 are made practically to excuse man and virtually 
 to accuse God for our weakness and sinfulness. 
 We are following too closely the example of Adam 
 in this respect. A poor carver always has a dull 
 knife. 
 
 Many a man says, " If my circumstances were 
 different I could easily be a Christian ; if I only 
 had large amounts of money I could be generous. " 
 We ought at once to stop such wicked and weak 
 speech. If we will not serve God in the circum- 
 stances in which we are placed, we would npt 
 serve him in changed conditions. If we will not 
 obey God now, we would have disobeyed him in 
 Eden. We may as well discontinue chasing 
 Adam up and down the centuries and turn our 
 thoughts to our own weak disobedience and 
 wicked rebellion against God. We may as well 
 understand at once that for our want of success 
 in the Christian life, we are ourselves to blame. 
 The words of Shakespeare illustrate, at least to 
 some degree, every man's experience : 
 
 Men at some time are masters of their fates : 
 The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, 
 But in ourselves, that we are underlings. 
 
 Part of our duty in life is to overcome even- 
 unfavorable tendency and every inhospitable en- 
 vironment. We ought to develop skill in the use 
 of the instruments, the opportunities, and the 
 circumstances with which we stand connected. 
 It is a glorious thins: to snatch victory from the 
 
THE ENNOBLED OX-GOAD 85 
 
 jaws of defeat ; to make hostile conditions the 
 ground of sublime triumphs ; and to recast all 
 our circumstances so as to make them the inspira- 
 tion of heroic struggle and glorious victory. 
 Skill in the use of the weapons that we possess 
 we ought to study to acquire. 
 
 I love to see how Shamgar won victory with a 
 comparatively powerless instrument ; he found a 
 new use for an old tool. Many of the discoveries 
 in astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, navigation, 
 and science generally, were made with very im- 
 perfect instruments. Dr. Valentine Mott's re- 
 markable surgical skill is the more honorable be- 
 cause of his comparatively poor instruments. 
 True genius shows itself in accomplishing grand 
 results with imperfect tools. Rittenhouse, whose 
 name is a synonym for marvelous scientific at- 
 tainments, worked in boyhood on his father's 
 farm, and calculated eclipses on plow handles 
 and fences ; and, although studying alone, made 
 himself master of Newton's " Principia," and dis- 
 covered for himself the method of fluxions when 
 in his nineteenth year. It is little wonder that 
 when he observed the transit of Venus, June 3, 
 1769, while in his private observatory at Norri- 
 ton, he fainted from excitement at the moment 
 of apparent contact. Benjamin West, the Anglo- 
 American painter, made his first colors from leaves 
 and berries, and his first brushes were taken from 
 a cat's tail. Thus self-taught, at the age of sixteen 
 he practised portrait painting in the villages near 
 
 H 
 
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 Philadelphia, his first historical picture being 
 "The Death of Socrates." When but a child he 
 drew the outline of his baby-sister's face as she 
 lay sleeping in the cradle. His mother discovered 
 in the rough outline genius, if not skill. She 
 kissed her boy with motherly affection and en- 
 thusiasm ; and he tells us that that kiss made him 
 an artist. 
 
 A boy in England was run over by the cars, and 
 the blood spurted from a severed artery. Astley 
 Cooper stopped the bleeding by pressing with his 
 handkerchief above the wound. This sensible 
 act was the prophecy of his fame as the foremost 
 surgeon of his day. The boy Galileo watched a 
 lamp left swinging by accident in the Cathedral 
 at Pisa, and learned from the regularity of its 
 oscillations the useful principle of the pendulum. 
 Astronomers for ages had been familiar with the 
 rings of Saturn ; but Laplace learned from them 
 that they were visible evidences of the process of 
 star manufacture, and he thus added a valuable 
 contribution to the history of creation. Humphry 
 Davy had but little opportunity to acquire scien- 
 tific knowledge ; but he made old pans, kettles, 
 and bottles contribute to his success as he experi- 
 mented in the attic of the apothecary store in 
 which he was employed. Over a stable in London 
 lived Michael Faraday, a poor boy, who made a 
 living by carrying newspapers to customers. 
 While apprenticed to a book-binder and engaged 
 in binding the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," his 
 
THE ENNOBLED OX-GOAD 87 
 
 eyes fell on the article on electricity. He had 
 only a glass vial, an old pan, and a few other 
 articles with which to make experiments. A 
 friend took him to hear Sir Humphry Davy lec- 
 ture on chemistry. Later the great Davy called 
 on the humble Michael. The years pass ; and 
 Tyndall said of Faraday, " He is the greatest ex- 
 perimental philosopher the world has ever seen." 
 When Sir Humphry Davy was asked what was 
 his greatest discovery, he replied : " Michael Fara- 
 day." Kepler showed his genius in struggling 
 with poverty and hardships, in having his books 
 burned by order of the State, and later locked up 
 by the Jesuits, and himself exiled by public 
 clamor. But this boy, with few instruments and 
 fewer opportunities, became one of the world's 
 greatest astronomers. Time would fail to tell of 
 the heroic souls in every department of human 
 effort who have triumphed over apparently insur- 
 mountable difficulties, and have won sublime vic- 
 tories as the result of inherent genius and untiring 
 effort. 
 
 No matter how weak are our weapons if God 
 strengthens our arm. The ox-goad, with God's 
 help, is mightier than Goliath's sword wielded by 
 an arm of flesh. God often chooses weak things 
 to confound the mighty. God designs that the 
 excellency of his power may reveal itself in the 
 weakness of our instruments. Oh, church of the 
 living God, arise in thy might ; put on thy 
 strength ; consecrate old tools to new uses. De- 
 
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 velop thy latent power ; destroy thy foolish con- 
 servatism. Use anything, use everything for God. 
 The pulpit and the pew, the charms of women 
 and the winsomeness of children, the glory of 
 music and the power of eloquence, new methods 
 and old truths to honor God and to bless men — 
 these are to be consecrated to-day. I summon the 
 Shamgars with their ox-goads to-day. We defy, 
 and we shall destroy, our Philistine foes. We 
 shall heroically do our part, and then pray God to 
 send his Deborahs and Baraks to complete the 
 deliverance, and to sing the song of triumph, 
 while we shall give the glory to God's Israel and 
 to Israel's God. 
 
VI 
 THE MUTILATED MESSAGE 
 
-And it came to pass, that wtu* Jtkudi ka -« or 
 
 four hares, he cut it wilk ti, - I "■ " " «* *» 
 
 fire that was on the hearth, until all tht roll was consumed 
 
 in the fire that was on the tea ri Jcr. 36 : 23. 
 
VI 
 
 THE MUTILATED MESSAGE 
 
 THE period of Jewish history with which the 
 text stands connected is, even to some in- 
 telligent Christians, largely a " terra incognita." 
 L,et us strive to get a clear idea of its character. 
 The kingdom of Judah was a kingdom only in 
 name at this time ; it was really in a state of al- 
 ternate vassalage between Egypt and Assyria. 
 The kings of Judah were kings only in name ; 
 they were retained or dismissed according to the 
 personal whims or political exigencies of their 
 masters. It was a time of misrule and imbecility 
 on the part of the king, and of suffering and de- 
 spair on the part of the people. Enormous taxes 
 were raised from the people to satisfy the demand 
 of foreign powers, and also to gratify the pride 
 and folly of the nominal king. Foreign oppression 
 was matched by home cruelty. The distant mut- 
 terings of the coming storm were heard. 
 
 At this crisis one man stands before the people 
 with majestic pose, and utters the voice of author- 
 itative warning. It is none other than Jeremiah, 
 the great, noble, and suffering prophet of the most 
 high God. Protected in his earlier years by the 
 influence of the pious Josiah, he became under 
 
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 Jehoiakim the object of fierce attack, and his 
 prophetic ministry was opposed alike by the king, 
 the priests, the prophets, and the populace. He 
 was brought before the civil authorities and they 
 were urged to inflict capital punishment upon him 
 because of his threatening prophecy. Neverthe- 
 less, all through this dark period, he strove to 
 avert, or at least to lessen, the force of the blow 
 which he saw must soon fall upon the land. That 
 tremendous empire, the Assyrian, was at the time 
 in great power, splendor, and glory, Babylon being 
 then its capital. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar was associated with his father 
 in ruling over the kingdoms, and he was in com- 
 mand of the forces of Assyria. It was a time 
 when the very earth seemed to tremble beneath 
 the tread of these mighty armies. They were 
 advancing with irresistible power ; and carnage 
 and triumph marked every step of their progress. 
 Most clearly did the prophetic eye of Jeremiah 
 see the coming storm. Long had he striven to 
 bring the people back to their allegiance to God ; 
 in royal palace and in sacred temple he fearlessly, 
 patriotically, and piously lifted up his warning 
 voice. But his words were unheeded by the in- 
 fatuated people ; they were deaf alike to warning 
 and entreaty. 
 
 The long-threatened storm is now near ; the 
 cyclonic destruction is at hand. IyOng ago would 
 its fury have burst upon the people, but for the 
 virtues of the good king Josiah. But he was 
 
THE MUTILATED MESSAGE 93 
 
 wounded by a random arrow in the battle near 
 Megiddo, was removed by his attendants from the 
 war-chariot, and was finally borne in sorrow to 
 Jerusalem, where he died after a reign of thirty- 
 one years. Deeply was he lamented by all his 
 subjects. So sad a death had never been known 
 in Jewish history ; and Jeremiah composed an 
 elegiac ode on the occasion, an ode which was 
 long preserved in the memory of the minstrels as 
 a national lamentation. But Jehoiakim would 
 learn nothing from the warnings of God's prophet, 
 or the inflictions of God's providence. 
 
 It is possible for us now to get the immediate 
 surroundings of the story so that its facts and les- 
 sons may be the more fully impressed upon our 
 minds. It is now the fourth year of the reign of 
 Jehoiakim, and about the year 605 b. c. God's 
 word came to Jeremiah, commanding him to write 
 a summary of all the sermons which he had 
 preached since the third year of Josiah ; and the 
 hope is expressed that the people will hear the voice 
 of God and the instructions of his prophet. But 
 Jeremiah had not the pen of a ready writer ; in 
 this respect Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, 
 excelled ; he is, therefore, employed as Jeremiah's 
 amanuensis. There had been confidential rela- 
 tions between these two men previous to this time. 
 It seems likely that Jeremiah was now "shut up " 
 in some such sense that he could not himself go 
 into the house of the Lord. Baruch, therefore, 
 wrote the predictions on pieces of parchment ; 
 
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 these pieces were joined together, the top of one 
 to the bottom of the other, thus making a long 
 scroll, which would naturally be rolled on a staff 
 prepared for the purpose. Jeremiah, as I have 
 said, was at this time in some sort a prisoner ; 
 perhaps he was not in close confinement ; but 
 he was at least forbidden by Jehoiakim the king, 
 from appearing in the temple. By silencing the 
 prophet of God, Jehoiakim thought he could defeat 
 the purpose of God. Jeremiah, therefore, deputed 
 Baruch to go and to read the prediction publicly 
 on the fast-day. 
 
 A year passes, either in preparing the book 
 or in other readings of it, before this great and 
 formal presentation. The government seems to 
 be somewhat alarmed, as a fast-day has been 
 appointed. Perhaps the hostile armies are now 
 near, and famine, slavery, and death with all 
 the other horrors of war stare the people in the 
 face. Baruch, the amanuensis of Jeremiah and 
 the sharer of his dungeon, appeared in the cham- 
 ber of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, who was 
 friendly to the cause, and standing in the window 
 or balcony, or, as Dean Stanley suggests, on the 
 platform or pillar on which the king stood on 
 solemn occasions, he repeated the sad lamentations 
 and fearful prophecies to the people assembled for 
 the national fast. Micaiah descended the temple 
 hill and informed the princes ; they were met in 
 council in the palace, in the apartments of the 
 chief secretary, as was the custom during these 
 
THE MUTILATED MESSAGE 95 
 
 troublous times. They summoned the people to 
 the house of the Lord, although they do not seem 
 to have come themselves. Now Baruch is sent 
 for by Jehudi, the descendant of a noble house 
 and a page of the king, and ordered to sit down 
 and read to them the roll. This Baruch readily 
 did, giving an account of the manner in which 
 the prophecy had been composed. The princes 
 were much affected as they patiently listened ; 
 they trembled with fear as did Felix. The re- 
 proofs were terrible, the threatenings solemn, and 
 the predictions sure. For a time consternation 
 seems to have prevailed over the minds of all the 
 counsellors ; and they finally agreed to tell the 
 king what they had heard. But knowing the 
 cruelty of the king, they advised Jeremiah and 
 Baruch to leave the roll and to hide them- 
 selves. These counsellors were moved by fright, 
 but they were not subdued by faith ; they were 
 convinced, but they were not converted. 
 
 The roll had now been read to the people ; it 
 had also been recited to the princes, to whose 
 hearts it struck terror. Now the fierce and law- 
 less king must hear its fearful contents. The roll 
 was laid up in the chamber of Elishama the 
 scribe, in the chamber where the princes heard it 
 read, and they told the king, who sent Jehudi to 
 bring it. Jehudi obeyed. 
 
 The king sits by the fire in his winter parlor 
 on that December day, sits by the charcoal pan 
 or brazier which stood on the hearth. The 
 
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 princes stand aronnd him filled with alarm be- 
 cause of the threatenings of God's wrath, and 
 because of the easily aroused wrath of the king. 
 Jehudi reads the roll ; reads it perhaps imper- 
 fectly ; reads it with comparatively little appre- 
 ciation of its contents. Better if it had been 
 read by Baruch or Jeremiah. The king, how- 
 ever, soon catches its meaning. Its bitter denun- 
 ciations fill him with uncontrollable wrath. 
 But three or four of the pages, or rather columns, 
 were recited when the king's patience was ex- 
 hausted ; he seized the penknife, such as scribes 
 usually had for cuttings and erasures, and cut the 
 parchment into strips ; and, notwithstanding the 
 remonstrances of his counsellors, threw it into the 
 fire on the hearth, and soon it was consumed. 
 He then ordered Jeremiah and Baruch to be seized, 
 but they had followed the suggestions given them, 
 and had hid themselves so that they could not be 
 found. 
 
 The act of the king was a high-handed outrage ; 
 it was an act of daring impiety ; it was an awlul 
 affront to the God of heaven. The king was im- 
 patient of reproof ; he was determined to pursue 
 his own course, resolved to persist in sin. He 
 would have cut up and burned the preacher in- 
 stead of the sermon if he could have laid his 
 hands on him. No wonder that the memory of 
 his impious act lingered long with the people ; no 
 wonder that the Jews, even to this day, commem- 
 orate the burning of this roll by an annual fast 
 
THE MUTILATED MESSAGE 97 
 
 Jehoiakim was determined to run against the 
 thick bosses of the Almighty's buckler; he was 
 determined to defy God and to invite the just 
 wrath of the Almighty. 
 
 This story of the olden time furnishes us with 
 many lessons for modern life. 
 
 1. We learn, from this story, that God has many 
 ways of rebuking and warning men. The method 
 that he uses depends upon the nature of the person 
 to be rebuked, and upon all the circumstances of 
 the case. He rebuked Pharaoh in many ways and 
 by means of varied instrumentalities. He spoke 
 to Nebuchadnezzar in language which he could 
 not fail to understand. He uttered a warning 
 voice to Belshazzar by the writing on the wall 
 which Daniel interpreted. Through the instru- 
 mentality of Pilate's wife, a noble Roman woman, 
 he spoke to Pilate's judgment and conscience. 
 God still speaks with varied voices and in the use 
 of manifold arguments. Men ought to listen in 
 the whirl of business, in the quiet home, on a bed 
 of sickness, and in the house of God, to the voice 
 of the Eternal, speaking in warning and in ex- 
 hortation, in rebuke and in promise. To-day, oh 
 men and women, harden not your hearts, but 
 listen to the voice of God warning you of danger, 
 summoning you to repentance, and proffering you 
 his full and free forgiveness. 
 
 2. We may learn that men's hearts may become 
 so hardened that they will not heed God's warn- 
 ing. Jehoiakim determined to do what he desired, 
 
 i 
 
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 whatever God's prophet might say. The inevit- 
 able result of slighting God's warning is that the 
 heart becomes hard. The boy who blushed when 
 he stole an apple may finally dye his hand in the 
 blood of his fellow-men without compunction. 
 The sponge attracts to itself particles of silex 
 until finally it becomes a silicious mass. So the 
 heart changes into stone ; so men and women may 
 reach a stage when they literally are " past feel- 
 ing." Some of you are distinctly conscious that 
 once your hearts were tender, that once your tears 
 flowed in a penitent flood, that once you were 
 willing that men should know that you were 
 anxious about your soul. But now all such emo- 
 tions are gone, you have become hardened ; you 
 are resisting God ; you are imitating the example 
 of Pharaoh and of Jehoiakim. Oh, it is terrible 
 to carry in one's bosom a stone instead of a heart. 
 I beseech you that to-day you listen to the voice 
 of warning and of entreaty. Remember that "he 
 that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, 
 shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without 
 remedy." 
 
 3. We learn that some men think they can 
 avert God's threatenings by destroying or disbe- 
 lieving God's communications. "Abominable 
 parchment ! " So Jehoiakim may have said : 
 " How it disturbs my pleasures ; away with it ; 
 begone, miserable old prophet ! " So he throws 
 the parchment on the coals in the brazier. See 
 it burn. Now it is consumed. Now the king 
 
THE MUTILATED MESSAGE 99 
 
 seems to say, "The judgments of God cannot 
 come." Was ever foolish man so foolish ; was 
 ever childish petulance so petulant and childish? 
 Did not God know how to execute the sentence 
 when the roll was burned? Did the roll cause 
 the approaching disaster ? You expect to go on 
 an excursion some summer day ; you examine the 
 weather in the morning paper ; you wish to dis- 
 cover what are the indications for the day. You 
 read, " Showers at intervals all the morning. " Are 
 you so silly as to think destroying that paper will 
 avert those showers? The doctrines of God's 
 word are unwelcome to some men ; therefore these 
 doctrines are untrue. They fear the judgment of 
 a just and holy God ; therefore they deny that there 
 is a God. Men deny that there is a hell ; they 
 deny its existence because they fear its reality. 
 The Bible does not create hell ; the Bible only 
 reveals it. And in revealing it we have a proof 
 of the love of God to the children of men. Christ 
 gives us the fullest revelation of hell that we ever 
 had ; indeed, he uncovered the pit. He gave us 
 this revelation to guard us from destruction, as 
 the brakeman swings his red lamp to warn the 
 approaching train of danger. Christ was as loving 
 in his warnings as in his invitations. 
 
 4. We learn from this story that God's word 
 shall stand, whatever men may do or say. God's 
 threatenings will be fulfilled, and additional ones 
 will be given and additional dangers incurred. 
 Jeremiah and Baruch had to flee from the wrath 
 
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 of the king ; his rage knew no bounds. He was 
 not willing to confess his sins, so he turned against 
 the preacher who rebuked him for his sin.. Baruch 
 was disheartened at the failure of his mission ; 
 but Jeremiah knew God better than did his 
 amanuensis, so he commanded Baruch to take his 
 pen and write again the terrible message. It thus 
 came to pass that the counsel of God against the 
 king stood sure ; that a fresh roll was written with 
 the addition of a further and an awful denuncia- 
 tion, occasioned by the king's foolish and sacri- 
 legious act. The king and the country are 
 doomed ; the cup of God's wrath must be emptied. 
 The cloud charged with fire and brimstone was 
 for a time held over Sodom, but it was not re- 
 moved ; its contents at the appointed moment 
 were poured out. The postponement of the afflic- 
 tion upon Jehoiakim was not indefinite. God's 
 word could not be destroyed. It is like the burn- 
 ing bush — it burns but is not consumed. This 
 terrible prediction regarding the king was made : 
 " He shall have none to sit upon the throne of 
 David ; and his dead body shall be cast out in the 
 day to the heat, and in the night to the frost." 
 But even this terrible threat made but little im- 
 pression upon him, for he still continued to sin 
 against the Lord his God. 
 
 The blessed Bible has been often burned ; but 
 as a divine Phoenix it comes forth from its ashes. 
 The written word is indestructible ; the gates of 
 hell shall not prevail against it. Heaven and 
 
THE MUTILATED MESSAGE IOI 
 
 earth shall pass away, but not one jot or tittle of 
 the divine word shall perish. The unbelief of 
 man shall not make the word of the ever-living 
 God of non-effect. You may burn the book, but 
 you cannot destroy the word ; you may break the 
 table of stone, but the finger of God shall write 
 the law on other stones. " The grass withereth, 
 the flower fadeth ; but the word of our God shall 
 stand forever." Glorious Bible ! Blessed revela- 
 tion ! This book shall stand when all its critics 
 are utterly forgotten. Every threat, as well as 
 every promise, shall be fulfilled. Because you do 
 not read the Bible, perhaps do not believe it 
 or its author, you do not by your unbelief blot out 
 perdition or dethrone God. God's word, like 
 God's three brave witnesses, may be put into the 
 furnace, heated seven times hotter than it was 
 wont to be heated, but it shall come forth without 
 the smell of fire on its leaves. Disobedience on 
 the part of Judah's king brought into his own 
 heart more arrows from God's quiver. A worse 
 thing, Christ intimates, might come to the man 
 healed at the pool of Bethesda than his infirmity 
 of thirty and eight years. There are still other 
 arrows in the quiver of the Almighty. Oh, men 
 and women, believe and obey God's word to-day ! 
 If you do, it will be well with you in time and 
 blessed with you in eternity. 
 
 5. We may learn still one other lesson : No man 
 can oppose God and prosper. Hear the conclu- 
 sion of this story of the olden time. The wrath 
 
102 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 of God came upon the king and his whole family 
 The King of kings will not lightly pass over the 
 indignity which the king of Jndah put on his law 
 and on his word. Jehoiakim was perhaps especially 
 angry because in the roll it was said that the kin^ 
 of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy the 
 land. He despised the warning ; he heeded none 
 of God's reproofs. A few years pass ; he is de- 
 luded by the Egyptian party in his court and so he 
 ventures to throw off the Chaldean yoke. Against 
 this step Jeremiah earnestly remonstrated, but 
 Jehoiakim violated his oath and hastened to his 
 ruin. He would rather lavish the tribute on his 
 own luxury and pride than pay it to the king of 
 Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar, having taken Car- 
 chemish, crossed the Euphrates and soon overran 
 the whole of Palestine. Soon he was at the gates 
 of Jerusalem ; and Jehoiakim was well-nigh pow- 
 erless. He admitted Nebuchadnezzar into Jeru- 
 salem under certain conditions ; and these condi- 
 tions, with his usual fatuity, he immediately dis- 
 regarded. Soon he was himself in chains to be 
 carried a prisoner to Babylon. 
 
 Alike in the history of Josephus and in various 
 books of the Bible, much obscurity hangs over the 
 story of his death. In 2 Kings 24 : 6, he is said to 
 have slept with his fathers ; and in 2 Chron. 36 : 6, 
 to have been put in chains to be carried to Babylon ; 
 and in Jeremiah he is said to have had the burial of 
 an ass. xALl the narratives can be grouped so as to 
 show that on his submission he was reinstated on 
 
THE MUTILATED MESSAGE 103 
 
 his throne and that three years afterward he en- 
 deavored to throw off the yoke of Chaldea ; then 
 he was for a time imprisoned, and finally this 
 cruel and weak king was slain ; bnt whether by 
 the hands of his subjects or by foreign foes it is 
 not easy to determine. His body was thrown over 
 the wall and exposed night and day, and after a 
 time it was carried away and " buried with the 
 burial of an ass." The differences in the individ- 
 ual accounts are just such differences as you would 
 expect in independent narrations. The sacred 
 writers were God's penmen and not God's pens, 
 and while there are substantial unity and inerrant 
 truth, each tells his story in his own way, and 
 brings out what impresses him most. The tem- 
 ple was plundered and many noble young men, 
 perhaps among them Daniel and the three known 
 as the Hebrew children, were carried away into 
 exile ; and here began the seventy years of painful 
 exile. Thus Jehoiakim, the son of the godly 
 and noble Josiah, died unwept and unsung, and 
 was buried without pomp or lamentation, but 
 with ignominy and detestation. 
 
 Oh, the folly of opposing God ! Oh, the un- 
 speakable guilt of lifting our puny arm against 
 the Almighty ! Let men contend with men, but 
 woe unto him who contends with his Maker ! 
 Men and women, submit to-day to the pleading of 
 God's love, to the entreaties of his grace, to the 
 voice of his warnings. Submit to his gentle 
 authority, and rejoice in his fatherly love. Trans- 
 
104 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 fer your allegiance from Satan to Christ, thus 
 yielding your hearts to his love, which is gentler 
 than a mother's, while his arm is mighty as God's. 
 Will we not say ? 
 
 Love, that will not let me go, 
 I rest my weary soul in thee ; 
 
 1 give thee back the life I owe, 
 That in thine ocean depths its flow 
 
 May richer, fuller be. 
 
VII 
 THK POISONED POTTAGE 
 
■ ' So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to 
 pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, 
 and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And 
 they could not eat thereof. ' ' 2 Kings 4 : 40. 
 
VII 
 
 THIS text and its context bring Elisha before 
 us in beautiful relations to young men and 
 to the kingdom of God. He is presented to us 
 as he moves among the sons of the prophets as a 
 skillful teacher, a sincere friend, and an honored 
 father. He is a pioneer in the department of the- 
 ological instruction ; he is a forerunner of the pro- 
 fessors and presidents in our modern theological 
 seminaries. There never was a time in the church 
 of God when it was not the duty of religious 
 teachers to provide for the training of their suc- 
 cessors. Similar obligations rest upon the minis- 
 try of to-day. It is quite as much a part of our 
 duty to assist in the training of young men for the 
 ministry as it is to preach the gospel, or to perform 
 any kind of pastoral work. The ministry is dere- 
 lict in a part of its duty if it fails to pray and to 
 labor that the I,ord may send forth young men as 
 toilers in his vineyard. Every pastor should be in 
 a sense a theological professor, and every church a 
 theological seminary. Indeed, pastors and churches 
 are such professors and theological seminaries for 
 truth or error, whether they are conscious of the 
 fact or not. Any man who listens for a score of 
 years to an intelligent pastor ought to pass a good 
 examination on Christian doctrine. 
 
 107 
 
108 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 Elisha, whose life was almost constant sunshine 
 and benediction, never appears more appropriately 
 in his true character than when he is giving in- 
 struction to these young students of theology as a 
 teacher, and when he is providing for their daily 
 wants as a father. We learn from the connection 
 that the time here mentioned was a period of 
 dearth in the land. It is not at all improbable 
 that it was the time of scarcity which is men- 
 tioned in the first and second verses of the eighth 
 chapter of this book. If so, then it was the time 
 of famine regarding the coming of which Elisha 
 gave information to the Shunammite woman. The 
 famine of which he thus prophesied lasted for 
 seven years. This woman followed the suggestion 
 of Elisha and sojourned in the land of the Philis- 
 tines for that period. The famine did not appar- 
 ently reach that land, or at least it was not so 
 serious there as in Israel. It was a much more 
 severe famine, at least as far as its length was con- 
 cerned, than that which occurred in the time of 
 Elijah ; for that famine was but three and a half 
 years, while this one, as we have seen, continued 
 for seven years. This was a famine of bread ; 
 but it was not, as was the former one, also a fam- 
 ine of the word of God. 
 
 We have two striking illustrations in the nar- 
 rative of the care of the prophet concerning the 
 food of the students who were under his care. 
 Elisha was a broad man. His care for the physical 
 wants of his students is worthy of all imitation. 
 
THE POISONED POTTAGE 109 
 
 The true minister of Christ must be interested in 
 all that concerns those over whom he is placed as 
 a minister. Concerning no interest of the people 
 can he afford to be indifferent. The sphere of the 
 pulpit has greatly widened in these latter days. 
 Whatever concerns men and women concerns the 
 pulpit in which Christ is truly preached. He who 
 preaches Christ rightly preaches the necessity of 
 introducing the Christly spirit into all the rela- 
 tions and duties of life. Twice our Lord fed the 
 multitudes with the bread of this life ; but it is 
 true that his ultimate purpose was to feed their 
 souls with the bread which cometh down from 
 heaven. His miracles have been called " the 
 great bell before the sermon" to summon the 
 people to listen to the words of life. The church 
 of to-day must in like manner care for the phys- 
 ical needs, and also meet the intellectual wants of 
 the people, and thus the better prepare them to 
 receive the gospel message. 
 
 The two miracles performed in connection with 
 the events here recorded concerned the sons of 
 the prophets in their organized capacity. The 
 first two miracles mentioned in this chapter, the 
 increase of the oil and the restoration of the child 
 of the Shunammite woman, referred to individual 
 servants of God ; but the other two miracles, the 
 removal of the poisonous element from the pot- 
 tage and the increase of the loaves of barley, re- 
 ferred to the entire body of the sons of the proph- 
 ets. These two latter miracles join themselves 
 
IIO QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 appropriately to the two earlier recorded in this 
 chapter. The two latter give us a charming in- 
 side picture of the daily life and fraternal associ- 
 ations of these students in the school of the proph- 
 ets ; and they also greatly strengthen our faith in 
 God, whose servant Blisha was, and who by the 
 instrumentality of this servant showed his tender 
 care for the physical wants as well as the spirit- 
 ual necessities of these young men. 
 
 We see that Elisha here transtorms a hurtful 
 vegetable into healthful food. He was now at 
 Gilgal. He had been there a short time before in 
 company with Elijah, a little time previous to 
 Elijah's ascension. Here, as we have seen, there 
 was a school of the sons of the prophets. In their 
 society Elisha took great pleasure ; he was alike 
 their teacher in things spiritual and their provider 
 and father in things temporal. Theological stu- 
 dents, as a rule, need help in both these respects. 
 Somehow, doubtless for wise purposes, God does 
 not call many millionaires to be ministers of the 
 gospel. The church still has to assist in making 
 provision for the support of her young ministers. 
 The nation does not think that she dishonors her- 
 self by. providing schools, teachers, educational 
 apparatus, appropriate uniforms and all other ex- 
 penses for the students at West Point and Annap- 
 olis ; and the students in these institutions do not 
 feel that they have dishonored their manliness as 
 candidates for military service by accepting the 
 bountiful provision of the nation. Where the 
 
THE POISONED POTTAGE III 
 
 nation gives ten dollars to help young soldiers, the 
 church does not give even one dollar to train her 
 young ministers ; and by accepting this ecclesias- 
 tical pittance our theological students often sub- 
 ject themselves to the harsh criticism of cold- 
 hearted Christians. The church, however, must 
 continue to act toward her young students the 
 part which Klisha performed toward his in that 
 early day. 
 
 We see him now at one of the times when he 
 was to give them lessons suited to their work. 
 Studiously and affectionately they are gathered 
 about their honored and beloved teacher. Un- 
 fortunately the severe famine is still in the land. 
 The wants of these students are very few ; and 
 they are willing to make even unreasonable sacri- 
 fices for the opportunity to study the truths of 
 God as made known by the revered servant of 
 God. But it is difficult for them to secure the 
 supply for even their modest wants in this time 
 of prolonged and severe famine. Their case is 
 touching indeed. It appeals to our hearts as we 
 read the story in this remote country and distant 
 century. It touched the heart of Klisha. We see 
 by the narrative that he commands his servant, 
 who was probably Gehazi of subsequent memory, 
 to " set on the great pot and seethe pottage for 
 the sons of the prophets." A modest meal indeed 
 these students of theology were to have as they 
 feasted on their stewed pottage prepared in the 
 great caldron. Again we are reminded of Elisha's 
 
112 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 tender care for the needs of trie body, while he was 
 feeding the intellectual and spiritual natures of his 
 students. The body is the Lord's, and as the 
 Lord's servant he would care for all that belonged 
 to his Master. Christ came not to save the soul 
 as distinct from the body, but to save the entire 
 man, body and soul, from sin and sorrow here and 
 from suffering hereafter. He came to make body, 
 soul, and spirit the willing servant of God on earth, 
 and the joyous resident with God forever in 
 heaven. 
 
 It would seem that several of the students went 
 out in the fields to gather herbs, vines, and gourds 
 into their blankets, as the word means rather than 
 laps, to be shredded for the pot, or caldron, of 
 pottage. There was no meat in our sense of the 
 word, and no mention is made of bread in con- 
 nection with their food. One of the number who 
 went out to gather herbs brought in by mistake 
 some poisonous, or at least noxious, herb in his 
 blanket. The nature of this herb perhaps it is 
 needless for us to stop to discuss at length. It is 
 supposed by many to have been coloquintida, the 
 fruit of a plant of the same name. Its fruit is 
 said to be about the size of a large orange. Some- 
 times it is called the bitter apple, as both the seeds 
 and the pulp are intensely bitter, Judiciously 
 used it is valuable for its medicinal qualities, but 
 it is ordinarily placed among vegetable poisons. 
 Gathered thus carelessly, it was put into the pot 
 along with the other herbs. The fires were lighted 
 
THK POISONKD POTTAGE 113 
 
 and the process of stewing began and continued. 
 Soon it was announced that the food was ready 
 for the humble repast. No sooner had the pottage 
 been tasted than the unusual bitterness startled 
 the hungry students. The presence of this dan- 
 gerous plant was thus discovered and at once the 
 students cried out : a Oh, thou man of God, there 
 is death in the pot." This was certainly a provi- 
 dential discovery. 
 
 We may pause a moment at this point in the 
 story to emphasize some of the applications which 
 the narrative here suggests. The table is still 
 often a snare to usefulness, and not infrequently 
 to life itself. Death still lurks in many a pot. 
 The intoxicating cup has destroyed more lives 
 than the sword. Intoxicating drink is still Satan's 
 strongest ally among the children of men. Other 
 evils have slain their thousands ; strong drink has 
 slain its tens and hundreds of thousands. A great 
 army of drunkards marches daily through the 
 land on its way to dishonored graves. It is ac- 
 companied in its march to the tomb by bruised 
 lives and breaking hearts ; it is a sight which 
 well-nigh breaks the hearts of all thoughtful 
 observers. We license men to recruit victims for 
 this heart-breaking and often heart-broken army ; 
 we trifle with the tippling which so often sows the 
 seeds of which drunkenness, in all its horrid de- 
 bauchery, is the ripened fruit. Oh, that God 
 would give us some Blisha to take the poison out 
 of this pot ! Oh, that God would make us wise 
 
114 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 in the example we set, in the instruction we give, 
 and in the laws we enact, so that this army beat- 
 ing "funeral marches to the grave" may no longer 
 be recruited, aud that this gigantic evil may be 
 banished from our land. 
 
 There is also many an intellectual pot in which 
 there is death to all that is noblest and loftiest in 
 life. The mind, as truly as the heart, was made 
 for God, and only as the intellect is inspired by 
 and consecrated to God does it reach its loftiest 
 possibilities. The plant of skepticism and the 
 weed of atheism have poisoned every pot into 
 which they have been cast. They have robbed 
 life of its noblest inspiration, death of its sublime 
 support, and eternity of its immortal hope. The 
 man who puts these plants into the pot of life is 
 the enemy of the republic, the enemy of the race, 
 and the enemy of his God. Truth is the soul's 
 heavenly food ; feeding on error the soul weakens, 
 sickens, and dies. Truth, in the end, must triumph 
 over every form of error ; truth assuredly shall 
 eventually come down from the cross and shall 
 ascend the throne. But in the meantime the 
 poisonous plants of error and sin will find their 
 victims among our noblest youth, and will hold 
 as slaves some men and women whose pens are 
 facile, and whose tongues are eloquent. God in 
 heaven, make the day of truth's triumph to come 
 speedily, and make that triumph complete 
 throughout the world. 
 
 There is sometimes death in the ecclesiastical 
 
THE POISONED POTTAGE 115 
 
 pot. This pot, as stewed in some theological 
 seminaries and Christian pulpits, is a strange 
 mixture of herbs of criticism, vines of fancy, and 
 gourds of skepticism. When men preach a gospel 
 which is not a gospel, when they put human 
 opinion in the place of divine revelation, when 
 they give us their own fancy instead of God's 
 truth, they offer to dying men a pot in which 
 there is the seed of death, not the bread of life. 
 When men give us "eisegesis," which is putting 
 into the Bible their own wish, instead of exegesis, 
 which is getting out of the Bible God's thought 
 as there divinely written, they put death into their 
 theological pot. When men strive to be wise 
 above what is written, they usually end by being 
 ignorant below what is written. When men take 
 away our Lord from their preaching, they take 
 away our hope, our joy, our life, our all. Some 
 time ago, pinned to the pulpit cushion of a 
 scholarly but technical, theological, cold-hearted, 
 and unsympathetic preacher, was a piece of paper 
 on which were written the words: "They have 
 taken away my Lord, and I know not where they 
 have laid him." The words went straight to the 
 heart of the preacher as he took up the piece of 
 paper. They led him to thoughtfulness and 
 prayerfulness ; they induced him to preach Christ 
 and him crucified as never before in his ministry. 
 His whole soul glowed with the new life which 
 he had received, and his sermons exalted Christ 
 in all the tenderness of his love as the only hope 
 
Il6 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 of lost men and women. Entering his pulpit 
 some time after he found another slip of paper on 
 which were the words : " Then were the disciples 
 glad when they saw the Lord." All disciples of 
 Christ are glad when they see their Lord and 
 Master. No preacher can deeply, truly, and per- 
 manently touch the hearts of men in their varied 
 experiences, in their longings for light and life, 
 in their disappointments with themselves and the 
 world, except he lift up Christ before their weary 
 hearts. The old gospel has not lost its power. 
 An uplifted Christ is still the mightiest magnet 
 to draw men from self and sin to holiness and 
 heaven. Christ's words: "And I, if I be lifted 
 up from the earth, will draw all men unto me," 
 are as true to-day as when he uttered them while 
 entering the shadows of the garden and the cross. 
 If Christ were thus tenderly, lovingly, triumph- 
 antly, and constantly lifted up in the pulpit, men, 
 women, and children would oftener be drawn to 
 the pews, and eventually be drawn to the feet and 
 to the heart of this exalted Christ. 
 
 In the narrative before us we see that Elisha 
 was equal to the emergency. Men who have God 
 on their side can do all which the providence of 
 God may require at their hands. Such men are 
 never wholly at a loss under any circumstances. 
 " Bring meal," said Elisha. The meal is brought. 
 He casts it into the stew in the pot ; then he said, 
 "Pour out for the people that they may eat." 
 They poured out ; the people ate ; and there was 
 
THE POISONED POTTAGE 117 
 
 no harm in the pot. On a former occasion he 
 healed the bitter waters with salt ; now he heals 
 the bitter herbs with meal. The meal, doubtless, 
 was only the sign of healthful food, and Elisha 
 only the channel through which God wrought. 
 
 From this quaint narrative we may learn some 
 additional lessons. L,et us guard against death in 
 the pot. God makes every sin a proof of its own 
 bitterness and folly, as he makes every sense in 
 the body a sentinel against danger. Pain is the 
 servant of the body in communicating the pres- 
 ence of evil and danger. It telegraphs at once to 
 the brain that an enemy to the body is present 
 and active. God has so placed the mouth and 
 the nose as to guard against the eating and drink- 
 ing of poison. He has been equally careful re- 
 garding the entrance of moral evil. He forbids 
 nothing which our own highest nature does not 
 also forbid ; and he commands nothing which our 
 instructed moral faculties do not fully endorse. Sin 
 is moral insanity. It is marvelous that men and 
 women should so willingly become the dupes of 
 Satan. There is moral death in many of the prep- 
 arations offered for our moral natures. We must 
 be quick to detect the presence of the poison in 
 whatever capsule of fair appearance or smooth 
 speech it is presented. 
 
 A second lesson is that we should recognize God 
 as the fountain of all life and blessing. He it is 
 who always healeth us. Jehovah-Rophe, I am 
 the L,ord that heareth thee, was the name given 
 
Il8 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 by God to Israel at the bitter waters of Marah. 
 He it is who always takes death out of the pot, 
 and keeps us in life and health. Do you recog- 
 nize him in all your ways ? Did you, at least in 
 your heart, recognize him in your food to-day ? 
 Have you bowed the knee to him as the giver of 
 every good and perfect gift ? Is God thought to 
 be good in all the events of life? When we see 
 God in all our relations, life is exalted, purified, 
 and divinized ; the whole world becomes Christ's 
 school for our training in Christly character. 
 Earth becomes a foretaste of heaven when Christ 
 alone rules over the life. Happy is that home, and 
 blessed is that heart where God is thus recognized. 
 He is then seen to be the dispenser of every good, 
 the sanctifier of every sorrow and cross, and the 
 glorifier of every earthly experience however 
 checkered. Back of every blessing which bright- 
 ens and beautifies our life is God. Back of all 
 the allotments of our earthly experience is God as 
 the ordainer of our sorrows as truly as our joys. 
 May he enable us to recognize his hand and to 
 bow submissively to the appointments of his 
 divine w T ill. 
 
 Lastly, remember that only his grace can turn 
 human bitterness into divine sweetness. He alone 
 can change the bitterness of Marah into waters of 
 sweetness. Sin cherished is unspeakable bitter- 
 ness ; sin forgiven leads to an experience of divine 
 sweetness in the soul. Sorrow unsanctified is bit- 
 terness unqualified ; sorrow submissively accepted 
 
THE POISONED POTTAGE 119 
 
 is joy unlimited. Jesus Christ is the true Blisha. 
 Let him to-day come into the soul that the poison 
 of life may be removed and the bitterness of 
 earthly experience be transformed into the sweet- 
 ness and blessedness of heaven even now. We have 
 put heaven too far away. More and more ought 
 we to emphasize the possibility of having heaven 
 here and now. The Apostle John addresses us as' 
 the sons of God while we are upon the earth. 
 The whole aim of Christianity, when understood 
 in its full and truest meaning, is to give us much 
 of heaven during our earthly life. Our Lord 
 taught us to pray "Thy kingdom come." The 
 answer to this prayer is certainly that the king- 
 dom of God should be established upon this earth. 
 The entire aim of the church should be the reali- 
 zation of that prayer in the introduction and es- 
 tablishment of this kingdom. Indeed, we can 
 never enter heaven there and then, except heaven 
 enter us here and now. The church has lost 
 power by neglecting, to so great a degree, the 
 teaching of this truth. We have filled men's 
 minds with a dreamy conception of heaven at 
 some remote time and in some distant sphere ; we 
 ought rather to show that heaven is really the full 
 fruition of religious principles operating in our 
 characters while we are upon the earth. A simi- 
 lar law applies to hell as to heaven. Men go 
 into perdition at the last because they are partially 
 in perdition now, and perdition is partially in them 
 here and now. Only as the grace of God comes 
 
120 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 into the heart to drive out the bitterness and 
 poison of earth's noxious plants and so transform 
 the soul into the image of Christ, can we expect 
 to see Christ at the last and be like him and dwell 
 forever with him. May God give us foretastes of 
 this life here and now ! 
 
VIII 
 THE BED AND ITS COVERING 
 
' ' For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself 
 on it : and the covering narrower than that he can wrap 
 himself in it." Isa. 28 : 20. 
 
VIII 
 
 THE context shows us that at this time 
 there were those who made a jest of the 
 judgments of God. Some of these jesters were 
 the magistrates who ruled in Jerusalem ; they 
 were scorners of the truth of God. They chal- 
 lenged the Almighty to do his worst, and they 
 practically affirmed that they had made a cove- 
 nant with death and hell. These rulers of Jeru- 
 salem thought that they were wonderfully skill- 
 ful politicians, and that they would outwit their 
 foes. But God teaches them the folly of their 
 false security. He affirms that the time is com- 
 ing when judgment will be laid to the line and 
 righteousness to the plummet ; that the hail will 
 sweep away the refuge of lies, and that the waters 
 shall overflow their hiding place. Then comes in 
 the narrative the " washed" or proverbial saying, 
 which forms the text. 
 
 The picture here presented excites our pity, and 
 also our sense of the ludicrous. Those who 
 sought protection in idols, in the promises of false 
 prophets, and in the promised aid from Egypt, 
 would be like a man who, while seeking repose, 
 lies down at night on a bed that is too short and 
 under a covering that is too narrow. When he 
 would stretch, his feet extend beyond the bed ; if 
 
 123 
 
124 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 he finds support for his feet, his head and shoul- 
 ders are beyond the limits of the bed at the other 
 extremity ; the covering is so scanty that it will 
 not protect him from the chill of the night. 
 
 The world is, in some sense, a great dormitory or 
 hospital. Passing through the wards we see beds 
 on either side on which men are vainly striving 
 to find security and repose. L,et us look at some 
 of these beds. 
 
 The first is the bed of Atheism. This bed ex- 
 cites our pity ; it almost justifies our contempt. 
 It is short, narrow, hard, and lumpy. Any man 
 of average size endeavoring to stretch himself 
 upon it, will find that either his feet or his head 
 must be without due support. Its covering is as 
 much too narrow as the bed itself is too short. 
 The question has often been asked as to whether 
 atheism is possible on the part of intelligent hu- 
 man beings ; whether it deserves the dignity of 
 discussion in a modern pulpit. Atheism in itself 
 is purely negative. It affirms nothing ; it is noth- 
 ing. It simply denies what the true doctrine of 
 God affirms ; it is difficult to deal with a mere 
 negative. To prove theism is to disprove atheism. 
 .Many men whom the Christian world has united 
 in calling atheists have rejected the term as one of 
 reproach. They were unwilling to have the title 
 associated with their names. Hume indignantly 
 repudiated it ; so do many men of to-day who in 
 popular esteem are atheists. But they make the 
 word of God synonymous with an active prin- 
 
THE BED AND ITS COVERING 125 
 
 ciple in nature ; they say " motion is God." But 
 the definition of God, which men of this class 
 give, Christian men cannot accept. To say that 
 a man believes in God is to say that he believes 
 in a self-conscious and personal being. A man 
 who simply believes in motion, in force, in order, 
 cannot, strictly speaking, be said to believe in 
 God. Atheism is contrary to the deepest intui- 
 tions of our nature. A man may, indeed, by 
 wickedness, or even by speculation, bring himself 
 into a state of mind and heart so that he may be- 
 come, in some sense, an atheist. A man may, in- 
 deed, reach a state in which he doubts his own 
 individuality ; but such a condition is unnatural, 
 and must be only temporary. It would seem as if 
 all men have some knowledge of God, that knowl- 
 edge varying according to their circumstances 
 and character. This knowledge of God seems 
 to be innate. Atheism is abnormal and sensual. 
 Atheism is a gigantic fraud ; it is an immeasur- 
 able failure. It destroys the noblest aspirations 
 of the soul. It robs men of kinship with God ; 
 it unites them hopelessly with the beasts that 
 perish. It clips the wings of genius, stays the 
 hand of art, and silences the voice of poetry. 
 
 It may be doubted whether there is an intellect- 
 ual atheist in the universe ; but practical athe- 
 ism is as common as it is sad. Many men live as 
 if there were no God. They live on God's bounty 
 and never recognize his goodness. They eat and 
 drink, sleep and work, forgetting the God in 
 
126 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 whose hand their breath is, and whose are all 
 their ways. Atheism lacks the spirit of self-sac- 
 rifice ; it has no inherent vitality ; it has no real 
 aggressive endeavor. It builds no hospitals ; 
 founds no asylums ; endows no institutions of 
 learning. It is doomed to defeat, and it will re- 
 ceive in all the years to come the contempt of the 
 living, enterprising, and achieving men of the hour. 
 Atheism is also unscientific. Who dares affirm 
 that there is no God ? If we affirm a designer for 
 a watch when we see evidences of design in the 
 watch, who shall dare deny the existence of a de- 
 signer in the presence of evidences of design in the 
 great universe of God ? Is there a bud or flower, a 
 star, moon, or sun ? Is there a force or atom, however 
 minute, however beyond human vision or power 
 to analyze, in which God is not? The intellect 
 of the world to-day is against atheism. The most 
 cultivated minds and the most consecrated hearts 
 find their highest joy in bringing their treasures 
 of intellect and their gifts of love, and laying 
 them at the pierced feet of the Lord's Christ. 
 Atheism belongs to the dark ages of the human 
 intellect. Doubt is the gray dawn of the morn- 
 ing ; faith is the full splendor of the noonday sun. 
 Oh, men and women, leave that bed on which you 
 are trying vainly to find repose! Even devils 
 have a kind of faith in God ; a faith which at 
 least makes them tremble. Leave this bed of 
 atheism lest it be transformed at the last into a 
 bed of eternal perdition. 
 
THE BED AND ITS COVERING 127 
 
 The next bed on which, our eyes rest is the bed 
 of Agnosticism, This bed is in the vicinity of 
 the bed of atheism. There is a skepticism which 
 is commendable, a skepticism which is seeking 
 after truth with a sincere desire to embrace it as 
 soon as it is found. There may be also a species 
 of agnosticism which is free from censure; but 
 the type which we commonly meet is censurable 
 to the last degree. When a man of a certain type 
 says, "I know almost nothing about anything," 
 we may be sure that he means, i ' I know quite 
 everything about everything. " There is a blessed 
 knowledge of God and truth everywhere men- 
 tioned in the Bible with commendation. We love 
 to hear Job say " I know " ; to hear Paul ring out 
 " I know " ; and to hear John sweetly affirm u we 
 know." Over against this blessed assurance, this 
 experimental gnosticism, are the " perhapses," the 
 " perad ventures," and the " don't knows " of the 
 professional agnostic. He tells us that there is so 
 much mystery in the Bible that he cannot under- 
 stand it. Doubtless there are mysterious depths 
 in this divine revelation. There are more mys- 
 teries in the Bible than are known to the average 
 agnostic. Wherever the finite mind comes into 
 contact with the infinite mind insoluble problems 
 emerge. We now see through a glass darkly ; we 
 now know only in part ; we now see Jesus, not as 
 he is in all his fullness, but as we are in all our 
 weakness and emptiness. If God gave us a reve- 
 lation which we could fully understand at every 
 
128 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 point, we might doubt that it was a revelation 
 from God. A Bible without mystery would be 
 more mysterious than the Bible God has given. 
 If we could know God fully we would exhaust 
 God eventually. Mysteries are not limited to the 
 revelations of the Bible ; the book of nature is as 
 mysterious as the book of grace. The infinitely 
 small is as mysterious as the infinitely great The 
 microscope, as truly as the telescope, opens to us a 
 world of wonders. Theology is quite as exact a 
 science as any of the natural u ologies," regarding 
 whose exactness scientists have been wont to 
 affirm. 
 
 If science is proving anything in these later 
 days it is that scientists of other days were often 
 utterly unscientific. A new substance has re- 
 cently been discovered in the atmosphere. New 
 wonders of nature are constantly appearing. 
 Shall men refuse to believe in the laws of gravi- 
 tation and in the applications of electricity be- 
 cause certain elements of both are undiscovered 
 and at present undiscoverable? It is astounding 
 that men should be wise in all secular matters and 
 absolutely inane in all religious concerns. Is it 
 true to say that the Bible is a collection of mys- 
 teries ? Does it not abound in plain precept, plain 
 promise, plain doctrine, plain threatening ? Could 
 anything be plainer than these words, l< Except ye 
 repent, ye shall all likewise perish ? " Could lan- 
 guage be more simple and solemn than this state- 
 ment, " He that believe th not shall be damned? " 
 
THE BED AND ITS COVERING 1 29 
 
 Why should God give men a fuller revelation if 
 they will not walk in the light of the truths they 
 do understand ? When men come to me asking 
 for explanations of some abstruse doctrine, I ask 
 them if they have obeyed the commands affecting 
 their personal religious life which they understand 
 without a single element of doubt. We cannot 
 expect God to give us light far ahead in our path 
 if we refuse to walk in the light we have. 
 Nothing is plainer than the truths of revelation 
 which affect personal duty, personal character, and 
 personal salvation. This bed of agnosticism emits 
 poisonous odors which induce a dangerous sleep. 
 It abounds in narcotics whose power may lull to 
 repose until the sleeper awakes to realize that he 
 has sinned away his day of grace, and has entered 
 upon a night without a morning, and an expe- 
 rience without God and without hope. 
 
 Another bed is Election. This bed in the 
 world's dormitory is not so common as it was a 
 generation ago ; but occasionally we find some 
 unhappy man trying to find repose on this short 
 bed and protection under this narrow covering. 
 When spoken to he will say, " If I am elected, I 
 shall be saved, do what I will ; if I am not elected, 
 I cannot be saved, do what I may." It is simply 
 astounding that sensible men will so think and 
 speak. Their language involves an absolute ab- 
 surdity. Men do not so speak in regard to the 
 affairs of this life. They do not say when igno- 
 rant that they shall become learned whether they 
 
130 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 study or not ; they do not say, if we are to go to 
 Europe we shall go, whether or not we go on 
 board of an ocean steamer. We never suppose in 
 human affairs that an event can be accomplished 
 apart from the means by which its accomplish- 
 ment is possible. But in matters of religion men 
 seem to lay aside all common sense. 
 
 There are, we readily admit, difficulties grow- 
 ing out of the relation between human freedom 
 on the one side, and divine sovereignty on the 
 other. We are free, and we know the fact ; God 
 is a sovereign, and we know that fact. Reconcile 
 these two truths we cannot; believe them we 
 must. Human freedom is a column ascending 
 before our sight until it is lost in the clouds above 
 us ; divine sovereignty is another column ascending 
 before us until it also is lost in the clouds above 
 us. Somewhere above these clouds these columns 
 meet to form a perfect arch. Election is not a 
 doctrine for the guidance of sinners ; it is a doc- 
 trine for the comfort of saints. We know, in- 
 deed, that no man can go to Christ except the 
 Father draw him ; and we know also that the 
 Father is constantly drawing men to Christ. Not 
 more certain is it that the law of physical gravita- 
 tion affects the physical universe than that the 
 law of moral gravitation affects all moral beings. 
 The great practical question for us is, are we candi- 
 dates for election ? No man can know that he is 
 elected by God until God is elected by him. No 
 man can look over God's shoulder to see whether 
 
THE BED AND ITS COVERING I3I 
 
 his own name is written in trie Book of L,ife ; but 
 he can elect to believe God, and then he shall 
 sweetly know that G-od has elected him. He is to 
 strive to make his calling and his election sure. If 
 a man will lie upon that bed, refusing to receive 
 Jesus Christ as his Saviour, refusing to elect salva- 
 tion, he will by that very act elect perdition. God 
 help us to avoid such unspeakable folly and such 
 unpardonable guilt ! Arouse thyself, O man, from 
 the ansesthesis of this perverted and so perverse 
 doctrine of election. God is calling thee now ; 
 awake from sleep, arise from this bed and be 
 saved with an everlasting salvation. 
 
 Another bed we may call Inconsistency. This 
 bed also is short and its covering is narrow. We 
 often hear from ungodly men, of the pharisees 
 who are in the church ; it ought to be understood 
 that the number who are outside of the church is 
 unspeakably greater than the number inside of 
 the church. These critics tell us that professors 
 of religion are no better than are men of the 
 world. If their statement is true, these professed 
 Christians are not genuine Christians. But these 
 statements are not true. Christ once said of his 
 people, " Ye are the light of the world " ; thank 
 God, that light has not gone out. He once said 
 of them, ' k Ye are the salt of the earth ' ' ; thank 
 God, that salt has not lost its savor. That light 
 will never go out ; that salt will never become 
 saltless. 
 
 The best men and the noblest women to-day in 
 
132 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 God's universe are members of Christ's church. 
 But for their presence on the earth, the very earth 
 might long ago have been destroyed. God pre- 
 serves cities now as in the earlier days, because of 
 the righteous men and women who are citizens 
 therein. It is time that plain words were spoken 
 regarding the sins of professed Christians ; but it 
 is also time that equally plain words were spoken 
 regarding the phariseeism of worldly men, who 
 bring unjust accusations against Christians. Like 
 the typical Pharisee whose picture Christ painted, 
 these men thank God that they are not as other 
 men are. They are utterly puffed up with self- 
 conceit ; they would despise themselves if they 
 saw themselves as others see them. The Pharisee 
 in the parable did not really pray ; he simply de- 
 livered a self-congratulatory oration before God. 
 Thus do Pharisees of modern times ; they exalt 
 themselves and despise all other men. Their bed 
 is extremely short, and on it they can find no 
 comfort. 
 
 But granting that all which they affirm is true, 
 granting that all church-members are hypo- 
 crites, the doctrines of the Bible are not any the less 
 true and authoritative ; its promises are none the 
 less encouraging, and its threatenings none the 
 less alarming. Do these men expect to be saved 
 because of the inconsistency of church-members ? 
 Do they expect that the sins of others shall justify 
 them at the judgment seat of Christ ? Was there 
 ever such folly ? Was there ever such perfect inane- 
 
THE BED AND ITS COVERING 1 33 
 
 ness ? Have such men no common sense ? Do they 
 not know that they could not be justified before 
 God by the goodness of others ? How then can they 
 be justified before God by the badness of others? 
 If other men are inconsistent, to their own Master 
 they must stand or fall. If these men are en- 
 deavoring to find a refuge behind the inconsis- 
 tency of Christians, they will discover at the last 
 that it is but a refuge of lies. As God liveth, he 
 will lay judgment to the line and righteousness to 
 the plummet. As Christ is enthroned, it will cer- 
 tainly come to pass that the hail shall sweep away 
 their refuge of lies, and that the waters shall 
 overflow them in their bed of inconsistency. 
 
 As we move on we find the bed of Self-right- 
 eousness. Unfortunately beds which should bear 
 this title abound in the world's dormitory. Men 
 are constantly saying, " Why, what harm have 
 we done ? " They are constantly affirming that 
 they have injured no one, that they are not covet- 
 ous, not profane, and not drunken. On every 
 side we hear them say that they pay their just 
 debts, are kind to the poor, and are benevolent 
 toward the charities of the hour. Grant that all 
 their statements are true ; these things they ought 
 to do and be. Will they claim credit for simply 
 doing what every consideration of justice and hu- 
 manity would incline them to do ? They forget 
 that they have failed to love the L,ord Jesus 
 Christ ; that they have despised him who died for 
 them on the cross ; that they have trampled upon 
 
 M 
 
134 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 his precious blood as an unholy thing ; and that 
 they have grieved the Holy Spirit and walked in 
 their own ways. It is marvelous that men should 
 speak of themselves and of God as they do. 
 Their self-righteousness has inflated their good- 
 ness in their own judgment beyond all reasonable 
 dimensions. If men could be saved apart from 
 Jesus Christ, his cross was a gigantic blunder or 
 an unpardonable crime. As well might a man 
 attempt to lean on his own shadow for support as 
 to rest upon his own righteousness as a ground of 
 salvation. We must not try to stitch the rags of 
 our righteousness on the finished and spotless robe 
 of Christ's righteousness. 
 
 Men who attempt to justify themselves show 
 that they know nothing of their own sinful nature, 
 and nothing of God's immaculate holiness. 
 These men tell us that God is too merciful to 
 punish sinners. We know that God is more mer- 
 ciful than language can express, or thought con- 
 ceive ; but his mercy is manifested along the line 
 of the provision which he has made for our sal- 
 vation. If we reject the offers of his mercy we 
 may expect that he will whet his sword and that 
 his hand will take hold on justice. We are told 
 that Phidias, the great sculptor, made a statue of 
 the goddess Diana for the Athenians. This work 
 was his masterpiece. It so charmed him that he 
 desired that by means of it his name should go 
 down to posterity ; he therefore, engraved his 
 name in one of the folds of the drapery. But 
 
THE BED AND ITS COVERING 1 35 
 
 when the Athenians discovered that the sculptor 
 had associated his name with the sanctity of their 
 goddess, they indignantly banished him from 
 their country. Oh, men and women, dare not 
 associate your righteousness with that of Jesus 
 Christ, the spotless Lamb of God. Leave this 
 bed ! It is too short. Discard the coverlet ; it is 
 too narrow. Through it the piercing eye of jus- 
 tice will discover your unforgiven sin, your stained 
 soul, and your corrupt heart. Confess your sin, 
 and you will find that God is gracious to forgive 
 your sins and to cleanse you from all unright- 
 eousness. 
 
 Before we reach the end of the ward there is 
 one more bed which we must notice — the bed of 
 Procrastination. Beds bearing this name are 
 sadly numerous. The whole atmosphere in the 
 vicinity of these beds is filled with a most deadly 
 opiate. It destroys all sensibility. It is more 
 powerful than ether, than chloroform, or any other 
 anaesthetic. Many have slept on this bed until 
 life with all its opportunities have passed. They 
 will admit that religion is extremely important, 
 and that they are determined at some time to give 
 it due attention ; but they will also tell you that 
 it is not their purpose to give it attention to-day. 
 They will not promise you that they will do so in 
 a week or a month. They are willing to risk the 
 loss of their souls, rather than seek Christ accord- 
 ing to his command, to-day. They affirm that 
 they must wait God's time. They forget that God 
 
136 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 has said, " Now is the accepted time ; behold now 
 is the day of salvation." They forget that God 
 has said, " Choose ye this day whom ye will 
 serve." My heart aches as I look upon these 
 beds, and on every bed a drugged body and an en- 
 dangered soul. One would think that these men 
 had made a covenant with death and with hell. 
 They are like those of whom the prophet has 
 spoken in connection with my text. Can nothing 
 arouse them to listen to the voice of God to-day ? 
 Can nothing prevent them from grieving the Holy 
 Ghost? They forget that God has said, Ki To-day 
 if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts." 
 You know, men and women, that your hearts 
 are harder than once they were ; you know that 
 you are becoming insensible to the voice of God in 
 providences, in revelations, and in direct addresses 
 of the Divine Spirit. For a quarter of a century 
 I have preached to some of you, and you are still 
 strangers to Jesus Christ. I am unspeakably 
 humbled in your presence ; you treat me vastly 
 better than you treat my Lord and Master. You 
 have an open hand, an open home, and an open 
 heart for me, the servant ; but hand and home 
 and heart are closed against him, the Master. I 
 would that I could arouse you to-day as never be- 
 fore. May God Almighty, even if it be by the 
 earthquake of his power, shake you from this bed 
 of procrastination ! You are putting faith in to- 
 morrow, rather than in Jesus Christ. You are 
 risking your immortal soul rather than do your 
 
THE BED AND ITS COVERING 1 37 
 
 duty in seeking salvation to-day. Remember the 
 Spanish proverb which says, " The road of By- 
 and-By, leads to the town of Never." We are told 
 that at the critical moment of the night in the 
 year 1741, when Count Lestocq went to conduct 
 the Princess Elizabeth of Russia to the palace, 
 that she might affirm her right to the vacant 
 throne, he found her irresolute. He drew forth, 
 it is said, two pictures which he had caused to be 
 prepared should she refuse at once to follow his 
 direction. In one picture she saw herself under 
 the torture and the count on a scaffold. In the 
 other picture she beheld herself ascending the 
 throne amid the applause of the people. Hold- 
 ing these two pictures before her, he commanded 
 her to make a choice. She chose the throne, and 
 on the morrow was welcomed as the Empress of 
 all the Russias. 
 
 Before you to-day I would place two pictures. 
 In the one you may see yourselves rising from the 
 bed of procrastination to stand before the great 
 white throne on the left hand of the Judge. So 
 standing, you will solemnly hear him say in 
 words almost too sad for human utterance, but 
 words spoken by himself, " Depart from me, ye 
 cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil 
 and his angels." In the other picture you may 
 see yourselves standing on the right hand of the 
 King, and hearing him say, u Come, ye blessed 
 of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for 
 you from the foundation of the world." Arise, 
 
I38 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 oh men and women, from your beds of atheism, 
 agnosticism, election, inconsistency, self-right- 
 eousness, and procrastination. Jesus calls you now 
 to his own blessed feet. Trusting him, you may 
 lie down at the night of each day, and at the 
 night of life, on a bed softer than down, to be 
 covered by the robe of his spotless righteousness, 
 in which not even the eye of infinite justice shall 
 find stain or flaw. 
 
IX 
 THE SWIMMING IRON 
 
And the iron did swim.** 2 Kings 6 : 6. 
 
IX 
 
 THIS text forms a part of an interesting story 
 of simple life and primitive employment. 
 Elisha had now become a popular theological 
 professor. So large was the number of his stu- 
 dents that they were obliged to say, " Behold 
 now, the place where we dwell with thee is too 
 strait for us." The dishonesty of Gehazi was dis- 
 covered a little time before and was severely pun- 
 ished. This discovery and punishment seemed to 
 have added to the popularity of the school. It is 
 not at all unlikely that some of the students may 
 have suffered from Gehazi's unholy desire for 
 gain, before his dishonesty was discovered in the 
 case of the generous Naaman. We do not know 
 whether the place in which the students met was 
 Gilgal or Bethel ; and some think that it was 
 Jericho. 
 
 But although their abode had become too strait 
 for them they had no thought of abandoning their 
 studies or forsaking their teachers. They were 
 determined to enlarge the place of their habita- 
 tion, and with that thought in mind they removed 
 to some location in the immediate vicinity of the 
 Jordan. The plan was that each student should 
 cut down a post, beam, pillar, rafter, or some other 
 part of the simple house which they proposed to 
 
 141 
 
142 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 erect. By their united labors in this way a more 
 commodious dwelling place could be speedily and 
 inexpensively secured. These young men were 
 ready to help themselves in this practical way. 
 They therefore selected some quiet spot, which 
 perhaps may already have been sacred in the his- 
 tory of Israel ; perhaps it was the place where 
 Elijah and Klisha some time before crossed the 
 Jordan ; or perhaps it was where Joshua and the 
 priests with the ark saw Jordan's swollen floods 
 held back by the invisible hand of the Almighty. 
 These students did not wish to engage in this 
 work without the presence and benediction of 
 Elisha. No doubt his presence was desired, not 
 so much to direct the work as to encourage the 
 workmen. Klisha therefore cheerfully accom- 
 panied his earnest students. 
 
 Soon the Jordan was reached. With brave 
 hearts and vigorous hands they began felling the 
 trees which formed a thickly growing belt down 
 close to the water's edge. We are told that wil- 
 lows, poplars, and tamarisks here grow in abund- 
 ance. Soon the blows of the axes resounded 
 through the woods ; soon the trees fell apace, and 
 soon the chips flew in all directions. Brave- 
 hearted and stout-armed students were these! 
 They did not need exercise in playing baseball, foot- 
 ball, or any other form of gymnastics. They com- 
 bined useful labor with needful exercise. Over- 
 hanging the stream is a tree which it is desirable 
 to secure. In size and shape it is probably just 
 
THE SWIMMING IRON 143 
 
 what they needed for some part of the pro- 
 posed building. But while felling this tree one 
 of the young men struck a strong blow and 
 the axe flew from its handle and sank in the 
 stream of turbid water. He may have been to 
 blame in not noticing that it was loose on its 
 helve, but in his earnest work he had no thought 
 of possible danger. His distress was all the 
 greater because he was obliged to say, " Alas, 
 master, for it was borrowed." He was an honest 
 man and desired to return a borrowed axe ; per- 
 haps he was sufficiently honest to return even a 
 borrowed umbrella. He was probably also a poor 
 man, and it is not unlikely that the owner of the 
 axe was as poor as himself. Klisha was not in- 
 different to the cry of need in temporal as well as 
 in spiritual affairs, and soon he was at the man's 
 side. We see him in his consciousness of power. 
 He breaks off a stick and casts it into the water 
 where it is shown him that the axe sank, and 
 soon, to the surprise and delight of all, the iron 
 appears floating on the surface, so that the histo- 
 rian rightly says, "the iron did swim." We are 
 not to suppose that the stick was more than a 
 sign which the prophet chose to use to suggest 
 the higher power employed. Human instrumen- 
 tality was conjoined with divine miraculousness. 
 Divine and human power are ever associated in 
 temporal and spiritual work. The young man is 
 commanded to "Take it up to thee," and we read, 
 " He put out his hand and took it." 
 
144 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 This story of the ancient time is full of lessons 
 for modern life and duty. It would be easy to 
 point out several of these lessons regarding varied 
 human relations. But on this occasion I desire to 
 direct your thought to one great truth : the duty 
 and possibility of making iron swim. We often 
 are called upon to do what is impossible to our 
 unaided strength. We are always to remember 
 when impossible tasks are assigned us that God's 
 help may be secured, and with his help all things 
 are possible. There are times when it is true that 
 duty is not measured by ability. We are often 
 called upon to do what we cannot do ; we are to 
 perform the impossible, to achieve the unachiev- 
 able ; we are, in a word, to make the iron swim. 
 How could the disciples with their five barley 
 loaves and two small fishes feed thousands of hun- 
 gry men, women, and children ? Judged by all 
 ordinary rules we might say that it was abso- 
 lutely impossible for them to do this. Yet Christ 
 said, ' ' Give ye them to eat. " We must remember 
 that with the command went the divine power 
 which made the accomplishment possible. 
 Quaintly has this thought been thus expressed, 
 " All God's biddings are enablings." In all rela- 
 tions in life we are at times commanded to per- 
 form tasks quite beyond our unaided strength. 
 Triumphantly does the matchless Paul exclaim, 
 " I can do all things through Christ which 
 strengtheneth me." This statement explains the 
 secret of the divine commandment and of the hu- 
 
THE SWIMMING IRON 1 45 
 
 man accomplishment In the light of this great 
 truth there are really no impossible tasks. It has 
 been well said that, " a precept of impossibility 
 is a promise of omnipotent help." 
 
 This same principle is illustrated in the history 
 of the church. God often gives his church im- 
 possible tasks. He then gives her heroic faith 
 and divine help. An impossible task was given 
 to Abraham when he left his ancestral home not 
 knowing whither he went. To Moses was as- 
 signed the task of bringing the axe-head of a 
 nation out of the dark waters of Egyptian slavery. 
 No wonder he shrank from the apparently impos- 
 sible task. What was the opening of a path 
 through the Red Sea but making the iron swim? 
 The rod of Moses is outstretched, the power of 
 God comes down and the waters stand up in crys- 
 tal walls on either side. Again the iron did 
 swim. How shall water be found in a waterless 
 land, or food in a desert, where there is none? 
 The heavens are opened and manna falls ; the rock 
 is struck and water gushes forth. God and Moses 
 made the iron to swim. Behold Israel gathered 
 at the Jordan. See the priests who are bearing 
 the ark touch the waters with their feet ; soon the 
 waters divide, and Israel passeth through dry- 
 shod. Behold impregnable Jericho ! But see her 
 now with her walls flat and Israel passing victo- 
 riously into the city. The men of Jericho may 
 sneer while the men of Israel march in silence 
 around her walls, but when God touches the 
 
I46 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 walls they fall, and Israel passes over and enters 
 the city in triumph. 
 
 Similar are the events in the history of God's 
 church all through the ages. David, with God's 
 help, makes the iron swim. So do Isaiah, 
 Daniel, and other brave Hebrew heroes and 
 prophets. Christ and his apostles make the iron 
 swim. Was ever folly greater than to attempt to 
 convert the world with twelve men, without arms, 
 without learning, without wealth, without social 
 influence? But they had on their side God and 
 truth. Away they went over the rocky hills of 
 Palestine ; away they went over the sparkling 
 waters of the ^Bgean, whose islands became step- 
 ping-stones for the feet of the " sacramental host 
 of God's elect." With the cross they battered 
 down the walls of pagan religions and supersti- 
 tions. They destroyed philosophies and immo- 
 ralities hoary with age and venerable in tradition. 
 They changed the poetry and the art, the archi- 
 tecture and the civilization of the world ; they 
 created a new world and changed the trend of 
 eternity. They found the axe of humanity deep 
 in the stream of selfishness and sin, sunken in the 
 nameless corruptions of heathenism, and they put 
 it on the helve of a nobler civilization in the 
 hands of a heaven-born church. The great Refor- 
 mations under Luther and Latimer and under 
 Wesley and Whitfield, again and again made the 
 iron swim. Judson and Carey and hundreds of 
 other missionaries in India, Burma, China, Japan, 
 
THK SWIMMING IRON 147 
 
 Africa, and other lands of heathen darkness have 
 made the iron swim. It is gloriously swimming 
 to-day. 
 
 The church of Jesus Christ is the product of 
 the highest wisdom of the Triune God, and it is 
 also the glory of humanity. It is the hope of the 
 world, and it is the inspiration of eternity. What 
 has infidelity to show in comparison with Chris- 
 tianity ? What axe-head can infidelity lift from 
 the turbid and corrupt stream of life ? What col- 
 leges has infidelity built and endowed? What 
 hospitals has infidelity founded ? What orphan- 
 ages has infidelity erected ? Infidelity is a gigan- 
 tic failure ; it is an amazing blunder ; it is a des- 
 picable imposition. It lacks self-consecration, 
 and all forms of practical helpfulness. It merits 
 the contempt of all large-hearted and noble souls. 
 It leaves the helve and the axe of humanity dis- 
 joined. It leaves the race helpless in its blank 
 despair. The stream flows on and men stand with 
 the useless helve in their hand, while infidelity 
 has no power either to dry up the stream or to 
 bring up the axe. Only the power of God can 
 put axe and helve together and fit the race to per- 
 form its divinely appointed mission. 
 
 The truth finds its illustration in the history of 
 our great country. The history of no country is 
 more marked by striking divine providences. 
 Both as Christians and as patriots we ought more 
 often to see God's hand in the history of America. 
 On this continent God has made the iron to swim. 
 
148 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 Here the impossible has been achieved ; here human 
 grit and divine grace have gloriously conjoined 
 for the establishment of civil and religious liberty. 
 Why was the discovery of America so long de- 
 layed ? This question is often asked, and it can 
 be clearly answered. To the great nations of Eu- 
 rope and of the Orient this country was practi- 
 cally unknown through long centuries. God is 
 never in a hurry. It often takes thousands of 
 years to ripen his vast plans. With him a thou- 
 sand years are as one day, and one day is as a thou- 
 sand years. When the clock of God's providence 
 struck the right hour, the continent of America 
 rose to view. Europe was over-crowded, human- 
 ity was well-nigh crushed with despotism, and 
 civil and religious liberty was almost unknown. 
 Then it was that God unveiled this Western 
 world, and opened a new field for the hosts of 
 brave men and true women who wished to estab- 
 lish liberty in worshiping God and in serving 
 the State. The Lord God made the iron swim in 
 these Western waters. He prevented the Moham- 
 medans from casting the dark shadow of a gross 
 superstition over the virgin soil of America. He 
 saved our country alike from the Mohammedan and 
 the Spaniard. He saved it to an open Bible, to a 
 free school, and for the development of liberty 
 in its noblest ideals. 
 
 The achievements of the Pilgrims truly were as 
 if the iron were made to swim. They performed 
 the impossible. In his great oration at Plymouth 
 
THE SWIMMING IRON 149 
 
 Rock, Edward Everett, after recounting the perils 
 of the long sea voyage, and the arrival of the Pil- 
 grims on the bleak shores of New England, says, 
 " Shut the page of history, and tell me on any 
 principle of human probability, what shall be the 
 destiny of that little band of adventurers." What 
 have we seen as the result of that settlement? 
 These brave Pilgrims had little capital, but gran- 
 ite rocks, icebergs, their own consecrated hearts, 
 and their unquestioning faith in God ; but the 
 little band has become at least sixty-five millions. 
 The Eord God has truly protected the infant 
 colony, as when with pillar of cloud and fire, he 
 went before his ancient people. God's throne and 
 ark were as truly on the shores of New England 
 as they were on the shores of Jordan and the bor- 
 ders of Canaan. 
 
 In securing national independence, again the 
 iron was made to swim. Again the impossible 
 was performed ; again divine power and human 
 instrumentality were conjoined. Behold the mar- 
 velous growth of this nation ! Behold her free 
 schools, her open Bible, her civil liberty, her re- 
 ligious freedom, her marvelous national pros- 
 perity — these are the wonder of the world ! 
 Triumphantly she has gone through the great Civil 
 War which robed the land in sackcloth and bap- 
 tized it in blood ; and she has come up from her 
 baptism purified, ennobled, glorified. She has 
 wiped the stain of slavery from her beautiful 
 flag ; and she has started on a new and grander 
 
150 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 career. To-day America sits crowned as queen, 
 radiant and beautiful, in the Congress of Nations. 
 Great questions are still waiting to be solved and 
 great perils are to be met ; but in the presence of 
 this glorious past, no true son of America will ever 
 doubt God or will ever shrink from duty. Deep, 
 deep in many a turbid stream lies the iron yet to 
 be fashioned for noble service. Divine purpose 
 and human performance will raise this iron and 
 put it on the helve of American citizenship, and 
 additional honor will come to citizenship in the 
 republic, and to heirship in the kingdom of God. 
 In the scientific realm the iron has been made 
 to swim ; the impossible has been fully achieved. 
 What was scientifically impossible a few years 
 ago, is now so common an experience as to attract 
 but little attention. We have entered into the 
 formerly mysterious realm of nature, have mas- 
 tered many of her secrets, discovered many of her 
 subtle laws, and are now applying these laws to 
 the duties of life. What once was considered 
 mysterious, is now commonplace ; what was once 
 miraculous, is now explicable ; and what was 
 utterly beyond our comprehension of natural 
 law, is now seen to be in fullest harmony with 
 the natural law. We are greatly in need of a 
 new definition of miracles. It is certain that 
 many things, now as common as the sunshine, 
 were once believed to be impossible, and had 
 thev occurred their greatness would have been 
 considered miraculous. All these discoveries of 
 
THE SWIMMING IRON 151 
 
 nature are making it vastly easier to believe in 
 God than ever before. The hand of God in na- 
 ture, in history, and in every range of life is one 
 of the blessed truths which modern discovery has 
 more fully than ever revealed. In the great 
 steamships which plow the oceans of the world, 
 the iron has literally been made to swim. Rail- 
 ways, telegraphs, and telephones have girdled the 
 world. 
 
 The recent opening of the long-distance tele- 
 phone between New York and Chicago was an 
 epoch-making event. Previous to that time we 
 had telephones between Paris and London, and 
 between New York and Boston ; but none cover- 
 ing so great a distance as between New York and 
 Chicago, in round numbers one thousand miles 
 apart. The line was built with the utmost care 
 in the selection of the wood for posts and the ma- 
 terial for communication. On the final day a cor- 
 net was blown at the receiver in New York, " to 
 clear the wires," and every note of the cornet was 
 distinctly heard in Chicago. This achievement 
 is one of the miracles of modern science. Soon 
 an editor dictated in Chicago an editorial to a 
 stenographer in Brooklyn ; soon the presses were 
 started to print the article dictated, and the noise 
 of those presses, separated from the receiver by 
 two empty rooms, was distinctly heard in Chi- 
 cago. The time will soon come when propelled 
 by steam we shall cross the Atlantic in four days ; 
 the time may yet come when propelled by elec- 
 
152 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 tricity, using the waves to generate the electricity, 
 we may cross in two days ; and the time may 
 come when our passage in airships will be meas- 
 ured by hours and not by days. If a man af- 
 firmed that we would yet go to the moon in an 
 airship, we might be somewhat credulous if we 
 believed his statement, but we would be alto- 
 gether reckless if we denied his affirmation. If a 
 little girl can touch a button m New York and 
 blow up great masses of rocks in the Bast River, 
 in perfect harmony with natural law, who shall 
 dare say that God may not touch a button, and in 
 perfect harmony with natural law, cause the walls 
 of Jericho to fall down ? 
 
 Who are most of us that we dare deny the pos- 
 sible achievements of modern science? Who are 
 the greatest scientists that they dare limit the 
 power of God working along the lines of natural 
 law ? If a man can speak to his brother man in 
 Chicago, in perfect harmony with natural law, 
 but with laws which until lately we did not 
 understand, who shall dare affirm that man may 
 not speak to God in heaven in perfect harmony 
 with natural law, although the un-Christian scien- 
 tist may deny the existence of such a law ? The 
 fact is that, rightly understood, all modern discov- 
 eries are brin^inof God nearer to earth, and earth 
 nearer to heaven, and are making it vastly easier 
 to believe in spiritual realities than ever before. 
 The most advanced scientist cannot exhaustively 
 explain gravitation, electricity, or many other 
 
THE SWIMMING IRON 153 
 
 things in nature which scientists constantly use 
 in making their discoveries. A great change 
 within the past twenty-five years has come over 
 the spirit of scientific thought. A quarter of a 
 century ago it was thought that materialism, 
 which Carlyle roughly called u a gospel of dirt," 
 was to account for creation in its varied phe- 
 nomena. But of all methods of accounting for 
 existence materialism is to-day the most objec- 
 tionable. 
 
 There has been during the last quarter of a 
 century a revival of religious faith in the scien- 
 tific world. A generation ago scientific men 
 swaggered about in boastful unbelief ; religious in- 
 tolerance was nothing compared with the scien- 
 tific intolerance of that day. Thank God, that 
 spirit has disappeared. To-day we see Mr. Glad- 
 stone giving his ripe thought to biblical interpre- 
 tation and to the affirmation of Christian faith. 
 To-day we see the brilliant debater, the keen poli- 
 tician, the able administrator, and the thoughtful 
 writer, Mr. Arthur Balfour, writing his notable 
 volume entitled " The Foundations of Belief." 
 This is a remarkable volume. Nothing is more 
 certain than that materialism has had its day, and 
 that spiritual realities are affirming their place in 
 the world's thought. God is seen to be touching 
 earth with his hand, and the thoughts of men with 
 his inspiration. Back of all law is the divine law- 
 giver; back of all order the divine Ordainer ; 
 back of all providences Providence ; and above 
 
154 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 the longings and aspirations of the children of 
 men, the great heart of their Father in heaven. 
 Only he who sees the invisible can do the impos- 
 sible. Science is laying her crown at the pierced 
 feet of the L,ord Jesus, and moving with statelier 
 tread, lowlier spirit, and loftier faith than ever be- 
 fore, to the music of Christ's name. 
 
 The necessity of making the ir#n swim is also 
 illustrated in the conversion of individual souls. 
 Bvery man is commanded to perform what to his 
 unaided strength is an impossible task. How 
 could the man with the withered hand stretch it 
 forth ? In his own power obedience was impossi- 
 ble ; but with the command came the ability to 
 obey. How can a man whose heart is dead in 
 trespasses and sin become alive to God? How 
 can he give that dead heart to God ? How can 
 he enter the strait gate and walk in the nar- 
 row way ? How can he overcome the world, the 
 flesh, and the devil? How can he endure unto the 
 end ? Without divine help these are impossible 
 tasks. No man unaided by God can cross the Red 
 Sea, march through the wilderness, or take the 
 Jericho of his own heart. Without divine help 
 Jacob can never be transformed into Israel. But 
 for God's divine aid no man could reach down 
 into the deep stream of his own sinful nature to 
 find the lost axe of noble purpose, and then fit it 
 on the helve of God's plan for life and duty. 
 But, thank God, there is divine power for the ask- 
 ing. No man can come to God except he be 
 
THE SWIMMING IRON 1 55 
 
 drawn by divine power. But, thank God, there 
 is a divine drawing. We do not excuse our mes- 
 senger for failing to take a message to Brooklyn 
 because there is a river between Brooklyn and 
 New York. We ask him, when he returns with- 
 out fulfilling our command and telling us that 
 the river is deep and broad, " Is there not a ferry ? 
 Is there not a bridge?" If God commands us 
 to perform impossible tasks he also says to every 
 man, " Let him take hold of my strength, that he 
 may make peace with me, and he shall make 
 peace with me." God is drawing us by the still 
 small voice of his Spirit ; and God is also drawing 
 us by the thunders of his power. I beseech you 
 that you trifle not with that divine drawing. L,et 
 me solemnly tell you that you do so at your peril. 
 Your heart is growing harder the longer you re- 
 fuse to obey. Despise not the love that has 
 sought you all these years. Trample not under 
 foot the blood of the everlasting Covenant. The 
 axe-head of your noblest life has flown off from 
 the helve of divine possibility within your reach. 
 Do you stand alarmed and helpless ? Behold, a 
 better and mightier than Elisha is by your side. 
 With his cross he reaches to the depths of your 
 soul. He touches the axe which has flown off; 
 he wishes to make your life complete by repair- 
 ing the damage wrought by sin. Oh, men and 
 women, do you not at this moment feel the divine 
 drawing? Do you not feel the inert and dead 
 mass moving in the center of your soul? Are 
 
I56 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 you not conscious that already it is rising and 
 now is floating before your eyes and within reach 
 of your hand. Reach out your hand now, I be- 
 seech you, and seize it and reunite helve and iron, 
 and be again complete in the sight of God and 
 men. In the name of Elisha's I^ord and ours, I 
 command you to be made whole to-day ! L,ay 
 your divided lives at his feet, where they will find 
 happy completion, and then saints on earth and 
 seraphs in heaven will rejoice that the lost is 
 found, the separate united, and the dead made 
 alive again. 
 
THE FLEEING SHADOWS 
 
' ' Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will 
 get ?ne to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frank- 
 incense" Solomoji s Song 4 : 6. 
 
 
X 
 
 THOSE of you who are accustomed to attend 
 this ministry know that comparatively 
 seldom are sermons preached in this pulpit from 
 texts taken from the Song of Solomon. It is 
 readily acknowledged that the book is not with- 
 out its serious difficulties. The scholarship of the 
 past generation will doubtless lead us in the near 
 future to modify some of our former interpreta- 
 tions of this book ; but it is not my intention to 
 speak of the book as a whole, nor even of the im- 
 mediate surroundings of my text. The text itself 
 gives us some interesting and instructive lessons ; 
 and to these, without further preliminaries, I 
 desire to call your thought. 
 
 You will observe, in the first place, that the 
 text suggests that there are shadows in every life. 
 This melancholy truth we all know ; sometimes 
 we think we know it too well, by observation if 
 not by experience. There is a crook in every lot ; 
 there is a "but" in every life. Every heart 
 knows its own sorrow ; every life has its own 
 special form of shadow. 
 
 Permit me, however, to particularize some 
 shadows in illustration of this general truth. 
 There are, in some cases, the shadows of physical 
 infirmities. Many men and women have as their 
 
 159 
 
l6o QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 chief inheritance weak bodies. It is astonishing 
 how mnch work a great sonl may get out of a 
 weak body, until they are divorced by death, when 
 the body, so tired and worn, is permitted to rest 
 in the grave, and the spirit to go up in triumph 
 to glory and to God. There are, however, even in 
 such cases marked compensations in this life. It is 
 iuteresting to observe how one faculty will spring 
 to the relief of another, and how God sometimes 
 gives his richest intellectual and spiritual bestow- 
 ments to those who suffer from some form of 
 physical infirmity. John Milton would never 
 have filled the world with the music of his poetic 
 genius had not God closed his eyes. Through his 
 sightless eyeballs he saw the resplendent glories 
 of heaven ; he saw the marshaled hosts of angels ; 
 he saw the gates of pearl and the streets of gold. 
 John Milton, sitting in his blindness, was lifted 
 to the third heaven by the glory of poetic genius 
 and the fervor of religious enthusiasm. Anne 
 Steele would never have written so many noble 
 hymns, more than one hundred of which are 
 found in our recent compilations, were it not for 
 her physical infirmities. She has well been called 
 the "woman poet of the sanctuary." For sixty- 
 one years, until she was released by death, she was 
 for much of the time an invalid. During many 
 of these years she was confined to her room, and 
 during some of them to her bed. At twentv-one 
 she was to have been married, but the day before 
 the marriage was to take place, her intended hus- 
 
THE FLEEING SHADOWS l6l 
 
 band was drowned while bathing. The most 
 familiar of her hymns is that which begins : 
 
 Father, whate'er of earthly bliss 
 
 Thy sovereign will denies, 
 Accepted at thy throne of grace, 
 
 Let this petition rise. 
 
 She never could have written this hymn but for 
 the deep shadows on her life. 
 
 Cowper suffered from peculiar sensitiveness of 
 body and corresponding sensitiveness of mind. 
 At times he lived on the border of insanity ; and 
 frequently he contemplated, and more than once 
 attempted, suicide. It has often been said that 
 so far did he go in his determination that he 
 ordered a post-chaise to drive him to the river 
 Ouse, that he might end the agony of his life. 
 The driver could not find the way, although he 
 had never lost it before, and Cowper could not tell 
 him. At last the driver turned the carriage home- 
 ward, after a few more attempts to find the desired 
 location. After Cowper reached the seclusion of 
 his own room he composed that matchless hymn, 
 beginning : 
 
 God moves in a mysterious way, 
 
 His wonders to perform ; 
 He plants his footsteps in the sea, 
 
 And rides upon the storm. 
 
 This has been called the greatest hymn ever 
 written on divine providence. Our New York 
 sister, Fanny Crosby, whose presence sometimes 
 
1 62 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 gladdens our worshiping assembly, never would 
 have seen Christ crucified in the splendor and 
 glory of his divine sacrifice, had not God shut out 
 the light of all besides from her eyes. Truly, 
 
 God moves in a mysterious way, 
 His wonders to perform. 
 
 There are also the shadows of temporal reverses. 
 Many persons just now, in different parts of our 
 country, are under very deep and dark shadows 
 from this cause. All our hearts lately were sad- 
 dened as seldom in our lives as the result of the 
 deaths caused by great fires in three States in the 
 West. Many others, during the past two years, 
 have known trials and shadows from temporal ad- 
 versities. Never has any country on the globe 
 swept within a year and a half from marvelous 
 prosperity to almost unexampled adversity, as has 
 this republic of ours. I am not here to speak of 
 the cause ; you will have your own views on that 
 point. I simply emphasize the unquestionable fact. 
 Riches thus often take to themselves wings and 
 fly away. 
 
 This is a world of strange mutations. God's 
 people suffer as much as, apparently more often 
 than, the people of the world. Here, e. g., is a 
 man who prays seven times a day, and he is un- 
 fortunate in the affairs of life; here is a man who 
 does not pray once in seven days, and he appar- 
 ently prospers in all his business plans. Will we 
 sav that these things are merelv the result of 
 
THE FLEEING SHADOWS 163 
 
 chance? But what do we mean when we so 
 affirm ? Shall we be more learned and say they 
 are the result of the law of general averages ? 
 Now we seem to be talking philosophically. But 
 what do we mean by the law of averages ? We 
 are simply using a vague term for a plain one ; an 
 obscure expression for a simple one. For when 
 we analyze our thought we find that we simply 
 mean chance. What is chance? Is there any 
 such thing ? What is law ? A law is only the 
 name we give to the manner in which we observe 
 some force to act. Do we mean to say that a law 
 accounts for results apart from a lawgiver? 
 Away with such a doctrine ! The heart repu- 
 diates atheism ; the heart cries out for God, for 
 the living God. The mind sympathizes with the 
 heart ; a living man must have a living God. 
 Never can he satisfy either affection or intellect 
 by agnosticism or atheism. A man needs to look 
 into his Father's face and to lie at his feet ; he 
 needs to feel the throb of his Father's heart. God 
 does not make up his accounts at the end of each 
 month ; God does not balance the books of provi- 
 dence at the end of each year. Be patient, O 
 child of God. The end is not yet. We, like the 
 psalmist, have looked and we have seen the 
 wicked spreading himself like a green bay tree ; 
 we have seen wicked men prosperous, and we 
 looked again and they could not be found ; even 
 their memory had practically ceased among 
 men. The memory of the wicked shall rot ; 
 
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164 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 | but the righteous shall be in everlasting remem- 
 brance. 
 
 There is, also, the shadow of bereavement. 
 Perhaps there is no shadow so broad, so deep, so 
 dark as this shadow often is. It is simply impen- 
 etrable and inexplicable darkness, judged from our 
 point of view. During the past week I stood be- 
 side the little casket where lay the babe of two 
 months of earthly life. Why was that babe 
 given to our brother and sister, so soon to be taken 
 from their arms and hearts ? God knows ; God 
 is too wise to err ; God is too good to be unkind. 
 In the Alpine regions, we are told that when the 
 sheep have eaten the grass bare on a given level, 
 the shepherds come and take the lambs in their 
 arms and carry them up higher where the grass 
 is green and abundant and where the waters are 
 clear and cool ; and soon the sheep clamber up 
 the side of the mountain to reach the lambs. So 
 now the Good Shepherd takes our lambs from 
 our homes and hearts up to his own paradise, that 
 parents may be drawn from earth and lifted in 
 love and life toward heaven. 
 
 He was an excellent Christian man, from whose 
 side his wife had just been taken, who asked me 
 this question a little time ago : " Did God need 
 her more than I needed her? " " Did God need 
 her more than the babe needed her?" a Did 
 God need her more than her mother needed her ? ' ' 
 She was the only child of her mother, and she 
 was a widow. Ah, what could I say? What 
 
THE FLEEING SHADOWS 165 
 
 could you have said ? I only whispered, " Even 
 so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. ' ' 
 
 Allow me to direct your attention, in the second 
 place, to another suggestion in this text. The 
 time is coming when the shadows shall flee away : 
 " Until the day break and the shadows flee 
 away." Yes, the day will dawn when the 
 shadows shall flee away. The day of greater 
 trust in God will dawn. The day of doubt shall 
 entirely end ; the day of sweeter faith shall begin. 
 The day will come when we shall know that a all 
 things work together for good to them that love 
 God." The day approaches when we shall see 
 good in seeming evil, and light in real darkness. 
 I stood in this pulpit while there sat before me in 
 her pew one of the noblest women to whom I 
 have been permitted to minister for years. With- 
 in ten days she had lost her husband and her only 
 child. My heart ached for her as I conducted 
 the services that morning. As soon as the ser- 
 vices were over, I went to her. The peace of 
 God was in her heart ; the glory of the Lord 
 was on her face ; and divine quietude reigned 
 within her soul. She looked into my face when 
 I spoke to her words of pastoral and personal 
 sympathy, and said, ■' Though he slay me, yet I 
 will trust him." The day had dawned for her. 
 Earth has no shadows for the heart that has such 
 faith. Earth has no storms to disturb the sea of 
 experience when Jesus says, " Peace, be still." 
 The psalmist knew what it was to pass through 
 
1 66 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 trials in the loss of property, of friends, of honor, 
 and of all that he held dear ; and yet he was able 
 to assure us that before he was afflicted he went 
 astray, but now he sought the Lord's precepts 
 and walked in the Lord's way. There is thus an 
 experience of life, joy, peace, and blessing even 
 here and now. The moment we can take the 
 hand of Jesus in our hand and kneel by his side 
 and say, " Even so, Father, for so it seemed good 
 in thy sight," the day of blessedness has begun 
 to dawn, and heaven has already begun on earth. 
 But better still, the day of everlasting light will 
 dawn sure and soon. Life when longest is short, 
 when darkest is bright, when roughest is peaceful 
 to the child of God. Earth may become a fore- 
 taste of heaven ; earth may hear now the music 
 of saints and seraphs, and may see the light of 
 God streaming through " the gates ajar." I thank 
 God for this sweet hope, for this blessed assurance, 
 for this unbroken peace. Already the shadows 
 are fleeing away ; already the day is dawning. 
 
 It is helpful for us to bear in mind that lights 
 and shadows have their uses in every relation in 
 / life. Art would be comparatively meaningless, 
 but for its commingling of lights and shades. A 
 picture all light would be without expression, 
 without character, without real worth of any 
 sort. One of the charms of Gothic architecture 
 is the opportunity that it furnishes for the inter- 
 mingling of lights and shadows. The deep re- 
 cesses in the ceiling, in the gallery fronts and else- 
 
THE FLEEING SHADOWS 167 
 
 where in this church, add much to its pleasing 
 effects, both in natural and in artificial light. The 
 minor chords in music give it no small element of 
 its power over the hearts of men. Every trained 
 ear watches with interest, and every cultivated 
 heart listens with appreciation, to the notes ex- 
 pressive of mingled sorrow and joy. The same 
 truth is illustrated in the highest poetry ; its deep- 
 est undertone is expressive of the inevitable 
 shadows of life. Elim, with the waving of its 
 palm-trees and the murmur of the waters from its 
 twelve wells, is evermore near Marah, with its 
 bitter waters and its disappointed pilgrims. The 
 tragedies of life are as certain as are its victories ; 
 earth is fashioned and controlled so that the 
 shadows give deeper significance to the lights of 
 life. The falling leaves of autumn are as beau- 
 tiful as the bursting buds of spring. The deep- fc 
 ening shadows of night are often more impressive 
 than the eastern sky, colored with the crimson and 
 gold of the rising sun. L,akes of burning lava 
 in the Hawaiian Islands are found beside beds of 
 blooming and fragrant flowers. But for their 
 tragical elements, the great dramas of the ages 
 had never been written ; and, if written, they 
 would not have controlled the heart and excited 
 the imagination of men through the ages. 
 
 Perhaps the pessimists have a place in life, 
 although often they are a great trial to us, as truly 
 as the optimists. But an earnest Christian will 
 not linger long in the darkness of pessimism. 
 
1 68 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 Perhaps indeed, the shadows lie more thickly 
 than the sunbeams ; perhaps the winter is more 
 dominant than the spring. These comminglings 
 of light and shadow are thus seen through all the 
 universe of God. All deep lives have their great 
 
 I joys and their correspondingly great griefs. They 
 are shallow-hearted people who live constantly in 
 one light and with a uniform experience. The 
 Son of God was a Man of Sorrows and acquainted 
 with grief on one hand ; but he was equally, on 
 I the other hand, anointed with the oil of gladness 
 above his fellows. God has not given the earth 
 up to the devil as his portion ; this earth of ours 
 rejoices in heavenly visitants with their transfig- 
 uring and celestial sunlight ; but across its fairest 
 flowers and its greenest swards, shadows often fall 
 and sometimes linger. As the landscape is beau- 
 tified by the alternations of mountain and valley, 
 of hill and meadow, of river and island, so is life 
 by its apparent contradictions, by its lights and 
 shadows. The day will dawn when earth's vision 
 will glow in a sunlight without an earthly cloud ; 
 when the images of the Apocalypse shall become 
 glorious realities, and when in a light of golden 
 glory the mists of earth shall vanish, and only 
 blessed glimpses of the celestial land shall be 
 ours. 
 
 And will you notice, briefly, in the last place, 
 
 I * that there is help for us in the meantime : " Until 
 the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will 
 get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill 
 
THE FLEEING SHADOWS 1 69 
 
 of frankincense." It is supposed that by the 
 mountain of myrrh we are to understand a condi- 
 tion of penitence, and by the hill of frankincense 
 the offering- of prayer. We know the importance 
 which the Orientals attached to aromatic shrubs, 
 and so I use these words as illustrative of the devel- 
 opment of these and other Christian graces. The 
 reference to myrrh certainly sets forth the devel- 
 opment of the grace of penitence. Our hearts 
 need often to be humbled, and our wills broken, 
 so that our lives may be fully dedicated to God. I 
 
 The words also set forth the blessedness of 
 prayer. Never do we know how to pray as when 
 we have been driven to the Father's bosom by the 
 rod in the Father's hand. I believe that when 
 the rod of chastisement is in the hands of our 
 Heavenly Father, and it is laid upon us, the true 
 child can go to God and say, u I shall cling to 
 thee, and I shall love thee as never before." We 
 do not get half the good out of prayer which 
 we might receive. Our faith is too weak and our 
 love too feeble to lead us to God with our daily 
 burdens and our fretting cares. We forget that 
 prayer is a spiritual telephone between our lips . 
 and hearts and our Father's ear and heart. Prac- \ 
 tically, many men have no real faith in the reality 
 of this intercourse between heaven and earth. 
 Far more wonderful is this telephonic connec- 
 tion than the noble achievement of modern 
 science when the Atlantic and Pacific shores were 
 brought into immediate contact, or when the new 
 
 p 
 
170 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TRXTS 
 
 world and trie old were able to count each other's 
 pulse-beats by the Atlantic cable. We ought to 
 know that the slightest whisper of our hearts is 
 heard by our Father in heaven. We ought to re- 
 member that it is possible for us to make direct 
 requests, and to receive immediate answers. 
 Abraham said unto God, " O that Ishmael might 
 live before thee ! " and the immediate answer 
 was, " As for Ishmael, I have heard thee." David 
 inquired of the Lord, " Shall I go and smite 
 these Philistines?" and the answer of the Lord 
 came to David, " Go and smite the Philistines." 
 Solomon sent to heaven a long dispatch by this 
 spiritual telephone at the time of the dedication 
 of the temple ; and immediately the reply came, 
 " I have heard thy prayer, and thy supplication 
 which thou hast made before me." While Paul 
 was engaged in prayer the answer came from God, 
 " Make haste and get thee quickly out of Jeru- 
 salem." Wherever there is a praying heart there 
 will be found a place of prayer. Daniel found an 
 oratory in the lion's den ; Jeremiah one in a dun- 
 geon ; Jonah one in the depths of the sea ; Peter 
 one on the house-top ; and the thief one on the 
 cross. We receive little because our requests 
 are so few, so small, and so feeble. We have 
 been satisfied with the crumbs which fall from 
 our Father's table, when we might go into the 
 King's palace and enjoy a full meal. We never 
 can go too early in the morning to the heavenly 
 throne ; its gate of access is always open. We 
 
THE FLEEING SHADOWS 171 
 
 can never go too late at night ; its gate is never 
 closed. We need not ascend some Moriah or 
 Pisgah ; we need not enter some sacred shrine or 
 go to any holy place ; we shall find God wherever 
 we seek him, and to the seeking soul every place 
 is holy ground. To the eye of faith every bush 
 is aflame with God. Prayer can open the win- 
 dows of heaven ; prayer can bring angels down ; 
 prayer can open the heavens and bring a plentiful 
 rain ; prayer can put God in harmony with his 
 own precious promises under a holy constraint for 
 our help. Would to God that we realized the 
 greatness of our privileges, and the blessedness of 
 constant communication with our Father in 
 heaven ! If we seek God aright we shall never 
 seek him in vain. There is a reflex blessing to 
 our souls as well as a direct benediction as often 
 as our hearts are lifted in prayer. There is a 
 blessed intellectual discipline, as well as a holy 
 heart culture, in communion with God. Such 
 communion inspires the mind with its noblest 
 thoughts, the heart with its sweetest affections, 
 and the soul with its noblest aspirations. Never 
 were truer words uttered than these of Tenny- 
 son : 
 
 More things are wrought by prayer 
 Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice 
 Rise like a fountain for me night and day. 
 For what are men better than sheep or goats 
 That nourish a blind life within the brain, 
 If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer 
 Both for themselves and those who call them friend ! 
 
172 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 For so the whole round world is every way 
 Bound by gold chains about the feet of God. 
 
 Oh, blessed mountain of myrrh ! Oh, heavenly 
 hill of frankincense ! from whose tops we can see 
 the glory of heaven, and standing on which we 
 can hear the music of angels. 
 
 I think, in the meantime too, we ought to cul- 
 tivate the grace of patience. Patience should 
 have her perfect work. Charles Haddon Spur- 
 geon would never have been the world's greatest 
 preacher, notwithstanding all his other gifts, but 
 for some of the physical infirmities and racking 
 pains, temptations, trials, and even persecutions 
 which he endured in his early ministry. They 
 cultivated in him the grace of patience. He said 
 once to me, that if ever, for a moment, he was up- 
 lifted in any way, he had only to look over the 
 books of the horrible caricatures of himself which 
 he had preserved, representing him as unworthy 
 the respect of an intelligent community, and he 
 was thoroughly humbled. And yet to-day all the 
 English-speaking world, irrespective of religious 
 creeds, rejoices in his noble character, great work, 
 honored name, and immortal fame. True pro- 
 gress is necessarily slow. De Maistre said, " To 
 know how to wait is the great secret of success. " 
 Patience vanquishes the greatest of foes ; patience 
 dwells amid the noblest graces of the ripest and 
 sweetest souls. Finely has Mr. Beecher said : 
 u At the bottom of every leaf-stem is a cradle, and 
 in it is an infant germ ; and the winds will rock 
 
THE FLEEING SHADOWS 173 
 
 it, and the birds will sing to it all summer long ; 
 and next season it will unfold. So God is work- 
 ing for you, and carrying forward to the perfect 
 development all the processes of your lives." It 
 is often said, " Patience is genius" and " patience 
 is power" ; and the French proverb adds, "He 
 who does not tire tires adversity," while the Span- 
 ish proverb thus suggests encouragement to disap- 
 pointed hearts, u If I have lost the rings here are 
 the fingers still." Patience is a precious jewel ; 
 patience gives radiance in darkness, joy in sorrow, 
 and peace in trouble. We shall one day thank 
 God as much for our sorrows as for our joys. 
 
 Oh, beloved, this evening I beseech you, walk 
 on the mountain of myrrh, leap on the hilltops 
 of frankincense, trust God with all the heart, and 
 wait patiently for him ; and the eternal day will 
 dawn, and the earthly shadows will flee away, and 
 the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing 
 in his wings for br uised bodie s, blighted liye.^ and 
 ber eaved heart s. 
 
 Hast thou within a care so deep, 
 It chases from thine eyelids sleep ? 
 To thy Redeemer take that care, 
 And change anxiety to prayer. 
 
 Hast thou a hope with which thy heart 
 Would almost feel it death to part? 
 Entreat thy God thy hope to crown, 
 Or give thee strength to lay it down. 
 
 Hast thou a friend whose image dear 
 May prove an idol worshiped here ? 
 Implore the Lord that nought may be 
 A shadow between heaven and thee. 
 
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 Whate'er the care that breaks thy rest, 
 Whate' er the wish that swells thy breast, 
 Spread before God that wish, that care, 
 And change anxiety to prayer. 
 
XI 
 THE CRUDE CAKE 
 
Ephraim is a cake not turned:' Hosea 7 : 8. 
 
 
XI 
 
 EPHRAIM was the second son of Joseph, by 
 his wife Aseuath, and the foremost of the 
 twelve tribes of Israel. Ephraim's elder brother 
 was Manasseh ; but, as on a former occasion in 
 the family, the younger was to rule over the elder. 
 The new kingdom ruled over by Jeroboam was in 
 large part the kingdom of Ephraim. The word 
 Ephraim thus came to stand for Israel, and in this 
 representative sense, it is used in the text before 
 us. 
 
 A word in regard to baking in the East will 
 throw light on the text. It is the custom to heat 
 the hearth, or a portion thereof; then sweep care- 
 fully the part heated, put the cake upon it, and 
 cover it with ashes and embers. In a little time 
 the cake is turned. It is then covered again and 
 this process is continued several times until it is 
 found to be sufficiently baked. Israel, as a loaf, 
 had been put under the ashes ; but, though well 
 leavened and kneaded, Israel had not been care- 
 fully turned. One side became a burnt crust, and 
 the other side remained raw dough ; and thus 
 both sides were absolutely worthless. 
 
 Ephraim still lives. He has many representa- 
 tives at this hour. Let us look at a few of these 
 representatives in their order. 
 
 177 
 
178 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 The man who lives for pleasure alone is a cake 
 not turned. One side of his nature is unduly 
 baked ; the other is entirely neglected. Pleasure 
 has its uses, but pleasure as a business is a very 
 poor business indeed. Honey is good, but the 
 man who eats nothing else will have neither 
 brawn nor brain. 
 
 There are many representatives of this class. 
 Some are from the lower and more groveling 
 classes ; these are born in environments of sin. 
 Their pleasures are of the lowest and most sen- 
 sual kind. They live in the damp cellars of their 
 earthly house. Their degradation is seen in their 
 very faces. They are almost below the rank of 
 human beings and to class them with animals is 
 to do the animals injustice. But others of this 
 class belong to the higher walks of life. They 
 have elegant homes, they are surrounded by every 
 evidence of wealth and luxury ; nevertheless, 
 they must claim kinship with the more degraded 
 classes, in that pleasure is the only aim of their 
 lives. One danger of American society in our 
 day is that many young men of wealth feel that 
 they have nothing to do in life. Comparatively 
 few of them are ever graduated from our colleges. 
 When they have exhausted the horse-race, the 
 latest play, or the newest amusement, they find 
 themselves at home in the discussion of petty 
 social scandals. Such is the club life of many 
 young men, some of whom have honored names. 
 They do not live, they simply exist. They are 
 
THE CRUDE CAKE 179 
 
 a reproach to American life and to the civiliza- 
 tion of the nineteenth century. There are in Wall 
 street, and in other business centers, honorable 
 exceptions ; but the great regret is that these ex- 
 ceptions are not more numerous. The idle rich 
 are a curse to America. They arouse all the 
 anarchistic tendencies of the hour. They are 
 themselves anarchists of a dangerous sort, for 
 they violate and defy the law of all true national 
 growth and stability. They are a reproach to the 
 human race. In the old country this crisis has 
 happily been passed. A great change has taken 
 place within the past generation, certainly within 
 the last half-century. Once no work was respect- 
 able for sons of nobility and royalty except gam- 
 bling or similar pursuits. To-day many men of 
 historic names are engaged in banking and other 
 forms of useful enterprise. It is felt that there is 
 something else to do in life besides fox-hunting 
 and pleasure-seeking generally. In order to main- 
 tain a respectable standing with the thinking 
 classes of society, such men must do something 
 in life. If they do not engage in business it be- 
 comes necessary for them to be active in some 
 form of literary or philanthropic work. Strip 
 Mr. Gladstone of all his political honors, and he 
 will still stand before the world conspicuous as 
 one of the ripe scholars of the day. Remove 
 from the Duke of Argyle all the glory of his an- 
 cestral name and estates ; leave him simply his 
 cultivated intellect and his Christianized heart, 
 
t8o quick truths in quaint texts 
 
 and he will stand before the world as the author 
 of books representing the ripest results of science 
 in loving harmony with the deepest teachings of 
 religion. Men of wealth and social position like 
 Mr. Lecky, can neither satisfy their own ambitions 
 nor the demands of society, except as they con- 
 tribute something to the world's progress in 
 thought and life ; and so Mr. Lecky becomes the 
 author of volumes which will make his name 
 more enduring than monuments of marble or 
 bronze. We ought to be profoundly grateful for 
 this tendency of our times. No man has a right 
 to live on the fame of his family name. On no 
 heraldic crutches ought any man to strut across 
 the stage of life. The world to-day asks you not 
 what your father or grandfather did, but, " What 
 have you done ? " And its demands are right 
 and just. The man who lives for pleasure, 
 whether of the higher or lower kind, is dead while 
 he liveth. He consents to doom himself to an 
 early grave, a dishonored name, and an immortal 
 shame. He dooms himself to crawl and bite the 
 dust, when he might stand erect and eat angel's 
 food. He is a cake not turned. One side of his 
 nature is burnt to a crust by the fires of unholy 
 desire ; the other side of his nature is raw dough. 
 Both are worthless. To-day, in the name of all 
 that is noble in manhood, and in the name of our 
 divine L,ord, I beseech you to be true to the loftier 
 instincts of your nature, and live for the glory of 
 God and for the good of men. 
 
THE CRUDE CAKE Ibl 
 
 The man who lives for business alone is a cake 
 not turned. This man stands higher, all will ad- 
 mit, than the mere votary of pleasure. Business 
 is good ; business has its claims ; these claims 
 must be recognized. But even though the busi- 
 ness be honorable and the methods of its pursuits 
 unobjectionable, the man who lives for this life 
 alone, loses this life as well as the life which is to 
 come. The man to whom this world is a god is 
 a wretched idolater. Our Lord gives us two illus- 
 trations in his parables of men who lived for this 
 life alone. The first is usually called " the rich 
 fool." 
 
 Our Lord sets before us this man as a warning 
 against covetousness and as an illustration of the 
 danger of those who trust in this world's goods as 
 a source of blessedness. Nothing is said against 
 this man's character. Not a word as to his hav- 
 ing procured his wealth by any unjust means. 
 Indeed, the fact that a rich farmer rather than a 
 trader was chosen as an illustration, suggests the 
 honest and laborious processes by which his 
 wealth was acquired. The sun, the rain, and all 
 the forces of nature, contributed to his increasing 
 wealth. He had no room where to bestow his 
 fruits. His selfishness appears in that he calls the 
 fruits his own: "My fruits and my goods," he 
 says. But while he made plans for satisfying the 
 flesh, he utterly neglected the higher wants of his 
 soul. He says to his soul, " Take thine ease, eat, 
 drink, and be merry; thou hast much goods laid 
 
 Q 
 
1 82 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 up for many years." He expects to feed his soul 
 on grain. Well might God address him as Thou 
 fool ! Solemn were the words of warning telling 
 him that that night his soul would be required of 
 him. He heaped up riches ; he knew not who 
 would gather them. He was rich toward the 
 world ; he was unspeakably poor toward God. 
 He made no provision for the future. To him 
 the future was a blank. It was blackness ; it was 
 darkness ; it was death ; and when the curtain 
 fell he went out into that unknown future, leav- 
 ing all for which he lived behind. 
 
 In another parable, the rich man and Lazarus, 
 our Lord lifts the curtain and shows us what lies 
 beyond. This rich man, like that one, lived for 
 this life alone. Unlike the first, he lived a life of 
 jovial splendor. He was clothed in purple and 
 fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day. He 
 was the incarnation of selfishness. It is not, how- 
 ever, said that he was the oppressor of the poor, 
 nor that he had robbed other men of their goods. 
 He simply lived for himself. He neglected Laz- 
 arus lying at his gate. The rich man dies and is 
 buried, and when the costly funeral is over, the 
 curtain is drawn aside, and while Lazarus is in 
 Abraham's bosom, the rich man lifts up. his eyes 
 in hell, in torments. In his wretchedness a drop 
 of water on his fiery tongue would be a blessing. 
 But he is reminded that in his lifetime he received 
 his good things. We have here the only illustra- 
 tion in the Bible of a prayer offered to a saint. It 
 
THE CRUDE CAKE 183 
 
 was a prayer that came from hell, and it was a 
 prayer that was not answered. He is still the un- 
 believer that he was upon the earth. He wishes 
 Abraham to send some one to warn his brethren. 
 Abraham reminds him that they have Moses and 
 the prophets, but this will not silence him. It is 
 as true of the lost as of the saved, that their works 
 do follow them. The temper of the Christian in 
 heaven is but the full fruition of his temper on 
 earth. The spirit of the lost man in hell is but 
 the intensification of his spirit on earth. This 
 man's demand implies that his brethren on earth 
 did not have a fair opportunity, else they would 
 have repented. All men who live for this world 
 alone have no outlook, no prospect ; this world 
 bounds their view. When the call comes for 
 them to leave it they go into the unknown land 
 for which they are utterly unprepared. I am 
 speaking of men whom the world calls eminently 
 respectable. For the future to which they are 
 hurrying they have made no preparation, and 
 such a man's life cannot be but a gigantic failure. 
 There comes to my mind while I speak just such 
 a man. He lives as utterly without God as if God 
 were dead. He is a husband and a father; but he 
 and his wife and children sit at their table and 
 partake of their food, as far as gratitude to God is 
 concerned, precisely as animals might eat. The 
 name of Christ is never heard in the house except 
 to round a joke or emphasize an oath. This man 
 is without God and without hope. He lives for this 
 
1 84 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 life alone. His only god is business. The most 
 important part of his nature is utterly neglected. 
 The faculties which would give him kinship with 
 angels and God lie absolutely dormant. He is de- 
 frauding himself of his possible heritage as a 
 child of God and an heir of heaven. He is rob- 
 bing his home of the sunlight of Christ's pres- 
 ence. He is a cake not turned. One side of his 
 nature is scorched by the friction of the world's 
 cares, and the other is raw dough. 
 
 The world has claims upon men of wealth 
 among us. Great possessions involve correspond- 
 ing responsibility, and the intellect that is used in 
 acquiring ought also to be used in wisely distrib- 
 uting. God will not hold him guiltless who 
 amasses great wealth for personal gratification or 
 family aggrandizement. The wants of ten thou- 
 sand needy enterprises demand recognition. Only 
 he whose nature is symmetrically developed under 
 the guiding influence of Christ, who came not to 
 be ministered unto but to minister, who came to 
 rule by serving, who came to be King by being 
 the lowliest of all, who came to give life by his 
 death ; only as men's lives are modeled by his ex- 
 ample can they truly live and triumphantly die. 
 If their life is like that of Ephraim it is a cake 
 unturned — on the one side a blackened crust ; on 
 the other raw dough. These are crude lives ; the 
 word crude means uncooked. The need is that 
 the love of God and the love of their neighbors 
 should so warm their hearts that their characters 
 
THE CRUDE CAKE 1 85 
 
 should be baked through and through, else they 
 cannot escape the charge made against Ephraim 
 of old. 
 
 A man who lives for culture alone, as that word 
 is usually understood, is a cake not turned. This 
 remark will not apply to a culture that is broad 
 and deep, a culture that takes in the entire being. 
 What is culture ? Look at the derivation of the 
 word. It is tilling. To till you must plow or 
 delve ; you must rake or harrow. You have cul- 
 ture in a field only as you have tilling. Parts of 
 the field that have not been tilled are not cultured. 
 That cannot be called a cultured field in which 
 large portions have been utterly neglected. New- 
 world farmers are astonished when they see the 
 fields of old-world farmers. Every spot is tilled ; 
 every mountain-side is cultured. No man can 
 claim that his is a well-tilled farm, if much of 
 it has never felt plow or spade. No man can 
 claim the honors of culture, portions of whose 
 nature lie fallow. What would you say of a man 
 who claimed to be cultured simply because his 
 muscles were well developed? You say, "Yes; 
 he has physical culture ; let him limit his claim 
 to that." But you rightly demand more. The in- 
 tellect also must have culture. Now, more of the 
 territory has been gone over ; now, more may 
 rightly be claimed by the man. But why stop 
 there ? The man is more than muscle and mind. 
 You must go higher. All things below man look 
 up to man as their center. Shall he have no up- 
 
1 86 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 ward look ? All faculties within look to the heart, 
 the soul, the conscience. The word conscience 
 suggests this upward look. It is a solemn word. 
 It is knowing together with another. Who is 
 that other ? There stands God. Language itself 
 witnesses for its Author. Man is not a god unto 
 himself. A true culture includes the entire field ; 
 it sweeps across every faculty. It has its earth- 
 ward, manward, and Godward relation. If lack- 
 ing in any of these directions, it is a partial, de- 
 fective, and unauthoritative culture. It is a cake 
 baked only on one side. 
 
 Tried by this true standard many claimants for 
 this honor will be found wanting. Sidney Smith 
 thought it better not to read a book which he was 
 to review ; reading it might prejudice his judg- 
 ment. So do men of culture in some directions 
 seem to act in regard to religion and the Bible. 
 The religious sides of their natures are neglected ; 
 other parts are cultivated. On science and art 
 they would not make ignorance a claim to author- 
 ity ; in regard to religion they act as if their ig- 
 norance especially fitted them for bold and author- 
 itative statement. Such men would receive our 
 contempt did not our religion teach us to give 
 them our pity. The apostles would say, "We 
 speak what we do know " ; not so with these ill- 
 cultured critics of divine things. Locke said : "It 
 needs a sunny eye to see the sun/' He is right. 
 No man can really see the ocean, except he has 
 oceans in his soul ; no man can really enjoy the 
 
THE CRUDE CAKE 187 
 
 mountains, except he has mountains on his brain ; 
 no man knows love but he who has felt its con- 
 straining power. Flesh and blood cannot reveal 
 the deep things of God to a man. The Lord's 
 secret is with those who fear him. To know bread 
 and meat you must eat them. A hungry man 
 who should coolly pronounce on the life-giving 
 qualities of bread and meat as a result of a chem- 
 ical analysis, would proclaim himself a fool. You 
 would say of him that much starving had made 
 him mad. So to be able to judge of religion you 
 must have religion. This is not, on the part of 
 the religious teacher, asking too much. If you are 
 to demonstrate to me a problem in geometry, you 
 have a right to demand that I shall know enough 
 of the science to follow you step by step. If I do 
 not, how dare I dissent from your conclusion ? Is 
 my ignorance to give me authority ? Geometric- 
 ally I am, on this supposition, a cake not turned. 
 Surely a man ought to be diffident in pronounc- 
 ing an opinion on subjects which he has never 
 studied. Sir Isaac Newton was right when he 
 said to Dr. Halley, a man of science but an un- 
 believer in God's word, "I am glad to hear you 
 speak about astronomy or mathematics, for you 
 have studied and you understand them ; but you 
 should not talk of Christianity, for you have not 
 studied it." That is good sense. Dr. Halley was 
 not a man of culture, so far as Christianity was 
 concerned ; that side of his nature was unbaked. 
 Carlyle's culture was painfully one-sided. He was 
 
1 88 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 crusted on the one side; he was crude on the 
 other. The harsh, the crabbed, the unloving 
 elements were unduly developed; the tender, 
 gentle, and winning graces were neglected. The 
 men who bless and save the world are not of his 
 stamp. His very greatness makes his weakness 
 the more conspicuous. It is also to be borne in 
 mind that Carlyle seems to have come in his later 
 years more fully into the light of Christ than in 
 his middle life. Carlyle fully acknowledged that 
 as he stood on the brink of eternity the old words 
 learned in childhood came back with wondrous 
 power — that the chief end of man was to glorify 
 God and to enjoy him forever. Culture! Yes; 
 but let it be the culture of the whole man. When 
 Moses came down from the mount, beams of 
 supernal splendor radiated from his face. Of the 
 silent John and the eloquent Peter men took 
 knowledge that they had been with Jesus. With 
 all your culture forget not that which can be 
 learned only in the school of Christ. Culture 
 will adorn piety, but piety crowns and glorifies 
 culture. We want both. Both are one. That is 
 not true culture which fails to cultivate the nobler, 
 the diviner elements of the soul. The man who 
 neglects this is a crude Ephraim — a cake not 
 turned. 
 
 A man who is half-hearted in religion is a cake 
 not turned. Ephraim had introduced much of 
 the superstition and idolatry of the Gentile 
 nations into the worship of Jehovah. Ephraim, 
 
THE CRUDE CAKE 1 89 
 
 though proud and haughty as a tribe, had been 
 lacking in moral backbone, in loyalty, in conse- 
 cration, in the service of God. The people had 
 worshiped calves at Dan and at Bethel ; and yet 
 they called on the name of the Lord. They, like 
 the inhabitants of Samaria in later times, feared 
 the Lord and served their own gods. There are 
 such professors of religion to-day. They have a 
 name to live and are dead ; they have the form of 
 godliness but not the power. They have not true 
 religion either in experience or in practice. They 
 to-day serve Baal; to-morrow Jehovah ; the next 
 they flit as birds from branch to branch, halting 
 between God and Mammon. This is poor busi- 
 ness. A half-and-half man is a failure always and 
 everywhere. No compromise : This should be 
 the Christian's watchword. That was a magnifi- 
 cent army of David's, "fifty thousand who could 
 keep rank ; they were not of double heart." They 
 had but one purpose, the honor of their king and 
 the glory of their God. They did not have one 
 heart for the field and another for the home. To- 
 day Jesus Christ calls for men with one heart, and 
 that heart on fire with his love. We want no un- 
 turned cakes. The church of Christ wants men 
 with convictions ; men who know why they are 
 Christians. The world needs such men. Men 
 strong and true ; living, loving, brave, and gentle 
 men — these the church of God needs. Christ in- 
 dicates the men he wants. He commands us, in 
 his admirable summary of the Ten Words, to love 
 
190 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 God with all our heart and mind and strength. 
 That is culture. All our faculties, and all of each 
 faculty, must be called into service. We are also 
 to love our neighbors as ourselves. Self-love is 
 right ; selfishness is devilish. It is sometimes said 
 of some men that they are very pious Godward, but 
 very crooked man ward. That is a severe criticism 
 when it is true. That is not Christ's model man. 
 He is symmetrical; he is baked through and 
 through. Unconverted men are crude, uncooked 
 men. A Christian is like a biscuit, twice cooked, 
 as the word means. Christ alone can make such 
 men. Come to the cross of the perfect Man to 
 learn the first lesson in true manhood. Let his 
 love sweetly bake your hearts clear through. 
 Starting thus, and continuing thus, you will never 
 be rebuked as crude Ephrairns, but you will one 
 day be presented to God as perfect men and women 
 in Christ Jesus. 
 
XII 
 THE COSTLY JOURNEY 
 
So he paid the fare thereof. ' ' Jonah I : J. 
 
XII 
 
 IT is the habit of some German and other critics 
 to affirm that the book of Jonah is largely or 
 wholly fictitious. But the explanations given by 
 these critics in attempting to account for the book 
 are more difficult to believe than is the book 
 itself. The book has worthy moral objects. It 
 sets forth the peril of fleeing from the path of 
 duty, even when that path is a dangerous one ; 
 it shows us God's desire to bring back his wan- 
 dering children; and it emphasizes his willing- 
 ness to forgive heathen nations, when they come 
 in repentance to his feet. These objects explain 
 the story and justify its place in the sacred record. 
 Jonah is distinctly recognized in both Testaments 
 as a historical person ; and our Iyord puts his ap- 
 proval on the mission of Jonah, and explains its 
 spiritual significance. Did he not know whether 
 the history of Jonah was true or false ? If it were 
 only fiction would Jesus Christ speak of it as if it 
 were true ? Perish the thought ! L,et Jesus Christ 
 be true though every critic be false. Admit God 
 and you must admit any miracle which God may 
 deem necessary for the accomplishment of his 
 purpose. It is an interesting fact that Jonah has 
 great honor among almost all of the Oriental 
 nations ; his name is associated with an entire 
 
 R i 93 
 
194 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 chapter in the Koran. We know that the word 
 " whale " means simply a great fish, or sea mon- 
 ster ; the species of marine animal is not defined 
 here and the Greek word used in the New Testa- 
 ment and translated whale is equally broad. Per- 
 haps a species of the shark fish, still common in 
 those waters, is intended. These fish are large 
 enough to swallow a man. Modern discoveries 
 are proving the correctness of the references made 
 to the size of Nineveh, and to other important 
 matters mentioned in this book. 
 
 Confining our attention to the thoughts sug- 
 gested by the text, we see that Jonah paid a great 
 price for his passage. Seldom has there been a 
 more expensive journey than the one which he 
 took when endeavoring to flee from the presence 
 of the Lord. Jonah did not travel on a pass ; he 
 was not a deadhead. He wished to pay his way, 
 and he seems to have gone to the captain or other 
 officer with a great show of honesty in his desire 
 to pay for his passage. We know not how many 
 shekels his passage cost, but we know that it cost 
 him that which cannot be estimated by coin. 
 
 For that passage he gave his self-respect. This 
 is an enormous price for any man to pay on any 
 occasion. No man can look for respect from 
 others if he does not possess respect for himself. 
 No man deceives others until he has first deceived 
 himself. So long as a man is true to himself he 
 may expect others also to be measurably true to 
 him. 
 
THE COSTLY JOURNEY 1 95 
 
 This is wise counsel of the great dramatist : 
 
 To thine own self be true ; 
 And it must follow, as the night the day, 
 Thou canst not then be false to any man. 
 
 Somehow we feel disposed, for a time at least, 
 to take men at their own estimate of themselves. 
 We may, indeed, reduce that estimate when it is 
 very high, but we cannot certainly expect to in- 
 crease it when it is very low. A man may rightly 
 rejoice in the loss of the respect of others, so long 
 as conscience and God give him unqualified 
 approval ; but the moment he loses the approval 
 of conscience and God he becomes unspeakably 
 poor. The very word u respect " is instructive; 
 it suggests that the object to which it is applied 
 is worth looking back upon, or worth looking at 
 the second time. When a man cannot look at 
 himself without contempt for himself, he is in 
 a truly wretched condition. 
 
 Jonah gave also his reputation as part of the 
 price of his ticket. We may rightly care com- 
 paratively little for our reputation if only our 
 character is right. As compared with a worthy 
 character a good reputation is relatively unimpor- 
 tant. Nevertheless a good reputation is not to be 
 Rightly esteemed. Preachers of God's truth are 
 t^ strive to have a good reputation among men as 
 well as a right character in the sight of God. 
 Their power for usefulness largely depends upon 
 the possession of both character and reputation. 
 
I96 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 Jonah had to cast in his lot with sailors and 
 travelers as one of them when he went into the ship. 
 He practically denied his mission as a prophet of 
 Jehovah, and in his desire to flee from the path of 
 duty, he became virtually an unbeliever. He 
 seemed to forget that there was a God in Tarshish 
 who was conscious of his disobedience. He acted 
 as if he feared for his personal safety should he 
 pursue the path pointed out by God ; and also as 
 if he feared that God would retract his threat to 
 destroy Nineveh ; and when God did arrive at this 
 decision, Jonah was exceedingly displeased. His 
 companions on the ship discovered, as the result 
 of casting lots, that Jonah was the cause of their 
 peril ; and the shipmaster soon came to him say- 
 ing, " What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, 
 call upon thy God, if so be that God will think 
 upon us, that we perish not." He is obliged to 
 acknowledge that he is a Hebrew, that he feared 
 the God of heaven, and that he fled from the 
 presence of the Lord. Even the heathen officers 
 and passengers were astounded that he could 
 offend such a God as the God of heaven, and that 
 he should attempt to escape his wrath by flight. 
 But we cannot help admiring his honesty when 
 he urged the men to take him up and cast him 
 into the midst of the sea. He is at least frank in 
 the confession that he makes. The men showed 
 an excellent spirit in their desire to save him by 
 rowing hard to reach the land, but the sea only 
 became more furious. Jonah loses thus the good 
 
THE COSTLY JOURNEY 197 
 
 opinion of the officers and passengers on the ship. 
 The devil is a hard task-master ; and the time in- 
 variably comes when he and ungodly men despise 
 their own dupes whom they have led into sin. 
 The man who truly fears God need never fear the 
 face of man ; but the man who disobeys God is 
 soon brought into disrepute even among the god- 
 less. 
 
 But Jonah gave, also, the approval of God for 
 his ticket. Neither man nor devil can estimate 
 the costliness of this element in Jonah's passage. 
 God gave Jonah a distinct and personal call to 
 perform a definite work in his kingdom. In this 
 call to Jonah God specifically mentions his name ; 
 he calls for Jonah, the son of Amittai. God 
 knows us in our family relations ; God knows the 
 name of our father, and the names of our chil- 
 dren. God vocalizes his thought ; and God local- 
 izes his man. We thus see that God knows men 
 and women by the names which they bear among 
 men. God knows men and women also in their 
 residential relations. He called Ananias in Da- 
 mascus to go into the street which is called 
 " Straight "; we thus see that God knows streets 
 in cities. He knows Fifth Avenue, he knows 
 Fifty-seventh Street. He knows the houses in 
 the streets ; for he specified in this command 
 to Ananias that he was not only to go into 
 the street which is called " Straight," but he was 
 to inquire in the house of Judas. God knows 
 also all the members of a household ; for he com- 
 
198 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 inanded Ananias to " inquire in the house of 
 Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus." God knew 
 Saul's birthplace ; and knew that he was then 
 called " Saul of Tarsus." God knows us in our 
 occupations and engagements, for he announced 
 to Ananias that at that moment Saul was engaged 
 in prayer, "for, behold, he prayeth." Such 
 knowledge on the part of God is wonderful, ten- 
 der, and solemn. God sees individual men and 
 women ; and we cannot escape from his notice 
 and call because of any crowd in which we may 
 be. God still calls men and women to duty, as he 
 called Jonah. Our relationship to God is itself 
 one form of a divine call to divine service. We 
 are not as the beasts that perish ; we are made in 
 the image of God. We are placed upon creation's 
 pedestal ; we are creation's crown and glory ; we 
 are made a little lower than the angels. Our 
 erect posture is one call from God to look upward. 
 Other creatures go on all-fours ; they can easily 
 look downward, around, and forward ; but man 
 can naturally look upward. God help us to be 
 truly worthy of our name and place in his crea- 
 tion ! 
 
 Our relationship to men emphasizes God's call. 
 We owe duty to our neighbor as to ourselves. 
 Every blessing which we have received from God 
 we ought to bestow upon men. Every true man's 
 life consists of one hemisphere in which he re- 
 ceives blessings from God, and of the other hem- 
 isphere in which he bestows blessings upon men. 
 
THE COSTLY JOURNEY 1 99 
 
 The more we give, the more we have ; the more 
 we keep, the less we truly possess. Religion is 
 multiplied not by keeping, but by bestowing. He 
 who giveth, hath ; but he who unduly withhold- 
 eth, hath not. That is the divine law. God in 
 his word and Spirit still calls us to serve him. The 
 Bible is not chiefly a book of precepts ; it is rather 
 a book of principles. If men were writing a book 
 to be the guide of their fellow-men, it would 
 abound in precepts concerning painfully minute 
 details. God does not so write. There are pre- 
 cepts in the Bible, for it is addressed to persons of 
 all ages and conditions ; but, for the most part, the 
 Bible is a book of principles, great, broad, deep, 
 high principles. The Bible expects men to use 
 judgment, to exercise thought, and to assume re- 
 sponsibility for the application of these great prin- 
 ciples. Thus the Bible develops character. These 
 principles meet us in all the relations of life. They 
 confront the pastor in his relations with the peo- 
 ple, the physician with the patient, the lawyer 
 with the client, the merchant with the customer, 
 and the employer with the employed. These 
 mighty principles are universal as gravitation ; 
 they are eternal as God. 
 
 Truths in God's book are not classified and 
 labeled, as are teachings in books of human law. 
 The Bible is not a museum ; it is not a herbarium. 
 It is rather a garden in orderly disorder, in heav- 
 enly confusion, which is divine harmony. 
 
 God's word comes to us at some special crisis in 
 
200 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 our life, calling us to some particular form of 
 duty : "Arise," said God to Jonah, "go to Nine- 
 veh.," that great city on the eastern bank of the 
 Tigris, opposite the site of the modern Mosul. 
 This special call may be the beginning of a new 
 era in our history. God meant it to be a great oc- 
 casion for Jonah, a great occasion for Nineveh, a 
 great occasion for the human race. Human life is 
 not always on the same dead level. There are 
 hours into which a whole lifetime is crowded ; 
 there are moments of great exaltation : there are 
 times when heaven comes down to earth, and 
 times when earth rises to heaven. Marvelous ex- 
 periences are sometimes compacted into a few mo- 
 ments. There is not one listener here this even- 
 ing, who does not recall periods when he or she 
 lived years in an hour, lived volumes in a minute. 
 Such a time came to Abraham when God called 
 him to go out to a place that he knew not ; such 
 a time to Moses when he was called to be the de- 
 liverer of his people ; such a time to Gideon when 
 God assured him that by him he would break the 
 yoke of Midianite bondage ; such a time to Luther 
 as he went to the Diet of Worms ; and such a 
 time to John Knox when at the age of forty-two 
 God called him to preach the gospel, to stir Scot- 
 land, to move the world, and to defy the queen, 
 the pope, and the devil. Such a time came to 
 William the Silent when he rode in the forest of 
 Vincennes with the King of France, and when 
 Henry informed him of the secret league into 
 
THE COSTLY JOURNEY 201 
 
 which he had entered with Philip of Spain for 
 the destruction of Protestantism by the extirpa- 
 tion of all Protestants. Too good a diplomatist to 
 manifest alarm or even surprise, he rode on with 
 the king- and finished the hunt, but he formulated 
 his plans to deliver the Protestants and to destroy 
 the power of Charles, of Philip and of the pope, 
 and thus he became the Moses of another exodus. 
 How wonderful are those occasions, often quiet 
 and sometimes almost unnoticed, when a lifetime 
 is enfolded in a few minutes ! Then it is that 
 God's hand sweeps over the key-board of the 
 organ of our soul, and a new note is struck, a new 
 tune is sung, and life is never again what it was 
 before. It is ever after on a higher level ; it is in 
 a clearer atmosphere ; it is ever in the sunshine 
 of God's uplifted countenance. Happy are we if 
 we listen to that note when God's finger touches 
 the key ! The great dramatist again uttered a true 
 word when he said : 
 
 There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
 Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ; 
 Omitted, all the voyage of their life 
 Is bound in shallows and in miseries. 
 
 I would to God that you all might hear God's 
 call now ! You may fail in the crisis of life, and 
 you then will journey over its path with bowed 
 heads and wounded hearts. You may turn your 
 back upon God, but in so doing you turn your 
 back upon life, light, peace, and joy. The clock 
 
202 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 of Providence is now striking the hour of destiny 
 for some soul. Listen ! Do you not hear it peal- 
 ing out its call, and echoing that call through the 
 chambers of your soul ? Obey God's voice ; run 
 in the way of God's commandments, and life will 
 be a foretaste of heaven, and earth will be itself a 
 paradise of God. 
 
 But we, like Jonah, may disobey God's call. 
 Jonah was called to Nineveh, but Jonah strove to 
 go to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. It 
 is now almost certain that Tarshish was Tartessus 
 in Spain. We know that the Phoenicians were in 
 the habit of trading by ship with this city. He 
 thought he could throw off responsibility for neg- 
 lecting his commission by flight to another city. 
 The power to disobey God is one of the fearful 
 incidents of our God-given freedom. Doubtless 
 Jonah was, as his name implies, a timid, shrinking 
 man. He was nervous ; he was self-willed. There 
 were times when his condition bordered on insan- 
 ity, resulting from his melancholic disposition ; 
 he seems occasionally to have been a pitiable hy- 
 pochondriac. He was perhaps hardly responsible 
 always for his acts. He was also a true patriot on 
 another side of his nature ; and he did not wish 
 to officiate as a prophet of God among these idol- 
 aters. But there is no folly so great as that of him 
 who opposes the Almighty. Pharaoh made this 
 attempt, and he and his hosts were overwhelmed 
 in the Red Sea. No man, unless he is blinded 
 by sin and duped by Satan, will dare run against 
 
THE COSTLY JOURNEY 203 
 
 the thick bosses of the Almighty's buckler. Jonah 
 gave a great price in taking the risk of misery in 
 life and eternal banishment from God when he 
 gave for his passage the approval of God. 
 
 Out of this disapproval came the loss of peace 
 of conscie7ice. Conscience makes cowards of us 
 all ; an instructed conscience is always on the side 
 of God and duty. No reward of sin can ever re- 
 munerate a man for the loss of the peace which 
 comes from obedience to God and faithful per- 
 formance of duty. The very word conscience 
 implies knowing together with another ; that 
 other is God. That mutual knowledge brings 
 conviction of sin as the result of wrong-doing. 
 External circumstances which favor our disobe- 
 dience to God, do not imply that our disobedience 
 has God's approval. Jonah found a ship all ready 
 to slip its cables and to hoist its sails. Had that 
 ship not been there we may say that the whole 
 story of his life might have been changed ; that 
 he would have time for reflection and prayer, and 
 that in a better mood he would have acted more 
 wisely. Perhaps he congratulated himself on 
 finding the ship apparently waiting for his arrival, 
 and assumed that this fortunate coincidence was 
 an evidence of God's approval. But we ought to 
 bear in mind that God does not make up his ac- 
 counts at sunset of every day. Still we ought to 
 be considerate toward Jonah's weakness at the 
 moment. If the ship had been ready for you and 
 me when perhaps we were tired and discouraged 
 
204 QUICK TRUTHS IX QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 with, duty, we might have sailed to some Tarshish ; 
 had the opportunity been given us we might have 
 blackened our lives and have lost our souls ; but 
 God in his infinite providence was unspeakably 
 good in causing the ship to sail before we reached 
 the dock. You men have no right to put temp- 
 tation in the way of your employees ; you have 
 no riodit to be careless in vour accounts. You 
 women should not tempt those serving in your 
 homes by leaving money and valuables exposed, 
 lest they appropriate your property and dishonor 
 their own lives. Cut the cable and let the ship 
 of opportunity float out into the sea before it 
 brings men and women into sin. But there are 
 men who, like Jonah, wish to be very honest with 
 their employers and partners, and yet are willing 
 to cheat their God. There are men who would 
 not steal a ride from a railroad company, but they 
 rob God. You should know that God wants your 
 life, your heart, your will, your entire being. 
 
 In paying his fare Jonah took the risk of losing 
 his life, temporal and eternal. But for the strange 
 providence of God his temporal life certainly 
 would have been lost. Touching are the prayers 
 which he offered unto God when the floods com- 
 passed him about and all God's billows and waves 
 passed over him. He felt like one who was buried 
 alive ; he realized that he was shut up in darkness 
 and imprisoned apparently without hope of ever 
 seeing again the light of day. It is a terrible 
 thins: for a man to take such risk for time and for 
 
THE COSTLY JOURNEY 205 
 
 eternity. Satan's road to hell exacts a costly fare. 
 God in heaven, what a price men pay for their 
 ticket to perdition ! Satan's road is a costly line 
 on which to travel. Am I not uttering words 
 which your own conscience approves? The old 
 proverb is eternally true, "He who suppeth with 
 the devil needeth a long spoon" ; but there never 
 was a spoon so long but that its handle was found 
 to be too short when the supping was done. 
 
 Jonah gave for that ticket also a final self-sur- 
 render to God^s command. God's word will tri- 
 umph in the end. Men must obey God. The 
 winds and waves are often God's messengers. 
 Cyclones may be preachers of God's eternal truth. 
 The glorious sun is the reflection of God's up- 
 lifted countenance. The stars are God's brilliant 
 thoughts, and the flowers are his beautiful 
 thoughts. The undevout astronomer is mad. 
 The true student in nature's laboratory will be- 
 come a disciple at Jesus' feet in the temple of 
 revelation. Oftener than we suppose there is a 
 moral element in storms and calms; and God 
 often uses even wicked men to advance his plans. 
 See how that ship plunges and rocks ; how it reels 
 to and fro like a drunken man ! How terribly the 
 waves roll ! Jonah sleeps in the side of the boat, 
 while the sailors are in desperation, and begin to 
 throw off the bales of goods. These bales were 
 probably the property of merchants in Tarshish 
 and elsewhere. Because of one sinful man this 
 cargo of goods is thrown into the sea. One bad 
 
 s 
 
206 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 man destroys much good; one bad man is a 
 calamity to a community. If men could only 
 go down alone their fall would not be so sad; 
 but some men are like mighty cedars in Leb- 
 anon, and when they go down they drag the sap- 
 lings after them. Every sinner is a public evil. 
 And every sinner's conscience will say c * amen ' ' 
 to God when he casts him into utter dark- 
 ness. Oh, men and women, what God wants 
 is your hearts. Give him your hearts and the 
 waves will cease, and the winds will be calm, and 
 the peace of God will be in your souls to-day. 
 You must obey God; Jonah had to go to Nineveh. 
 If you will not bow to the gentle sceptre of Jesus 
 Christ, you will have to bow before the iron rod 
 of his power. Jonah must go, Jonah did go, to 
 Nineveh. 
 
 The time is coming, God alone knows how soon, 
 when at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, 
 in heaven, in earth, and under the earth ; the day 
 is hastening when every tongue shall confess that 
 Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the 
 Father. Almighty Christ, hasten the day ! May 
 God help us all to obey now, drawn by the cords 
 of heavenly love, so that we shall not be finally 
 driven by the whip of justice as was Jonah to his 
 neglected duty. Almighty God, draw us now by 
 the bands of love and by the cords of a man that 
 we may run after thee. 
 
XIII 
 THE NORTHERN IRON AND STEEL 
 
"Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel? 
 Jeremiah ij : 12, 
 
XIII 
 
 IT is not necessary to remind you that these 
 words are a proverb. Proverbs abound in 
 the word of God ; they are found in both the 
 Old and New Testaments. The Orientals were a 
 people much given to proverbial forms of utter- 
 ance. A proverb has been well defined as ' ' The 
 wisdom of many and the wit of one." We need 
 not, therefore, be surprised that our Lord and his 
 prophets and apostles were accustomed to use the 
 proverbs which they found among the people, in- 
 jecting into these common sayings a higher and 
 holier meaning. Our Lord never refused to se- 
 lect a good form of expression from whatever 
 source it came, and adapt it to his own special 
 purpose. The Sermon on the Mount contains 
 truths that are found scattered through many pas- 
 sages of Jewish literature. Many of the thoughts 
 in that sermon were not entirely original ; our 
 Lord took them as he found them, and gave them 
 a new and nobler setting. So with writers such 
 as Jeremiah ; they took familiar forms of expres- 
 sion and adapted them to their own special pur- 
 poses and desires. 
 
 THE PROVERB'S SIGNIFICANCE. 
 
 This proverb is one which possesses a local col- 
 oring, a local setting, and a local significance. 
 
 20Q 
 
2IO QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 Many other proverbs are more general in coloring 
 and setting than the one before us for considera- 
 tion this evening. By the iron, in the early part 
 of the text, we are to understand the common 
 iron ; by the northern iron, a kind much more 
 costly, much harder and better. The northern 
 iron was supposed to come from the Chalybes, a 
 people near the Pontus. The common iron of 
 that time was comparatively worthless, but the 
 northern iron was relatively good. The steel, of 
 which mention is here made, had a large mixture 
 of brass or copper united with tin, to give it 
 hardness. What is the special and primary ref- 
 erence of this proverb as here given ? Some sup- 
 pose that it refers to the relations between the 
 Jews and the Chaldeans, and that Jeremiah prac- 
 tically said to the Jews: "You, in comparison 
 with the Chaldeans, who come out of the north, 
 and are brave and terrible, are only as common 
 iron compared to the northern iron and steel ; you 
 would be no match for them in the councils of 
 peace or in the exploits of war." Others suppose 
 that the reference is to Jeremiah himself in his 
 relations to the Jewish people. He was a man of 
 fine texture ; but the people about him were 
 coarse and rude. Jeremiah shrank from the dis- 
 charge of the solemn duties which God had laid 
 upon him toward his people. So God promised, 
 in chapter I : 18, to make him as an iron pillar 
 and as brazen walls to those to whom he preached 
 unwelcome truths. Thus the people would not 
 
THE NORTHERN IRON AND STEEL 211 
 
 prevail against the preacher. Every preacher 
 often has to utter truths which he would rather 
 not express, if by silence he could be loyal to God 
 and faithful to the people. As a timid child, 
 Jeremiah shrank from uttering prophecies which 
 the people did not wish to hear. According to 
 this interpretation, God practically says to him, 
 "Jeremiah, shall the common iron, the rude, ig- 
 norant, and ungodly people overcome you, the 
 northern iron and the steel? You are strength- 
 ened by my divine power ; be brave, my prophet ; 
 do your duty, and God will give you the victory." 
 Northern iron and steel must always triumph 
 over common iron. This latter is, in my judg- 
 ment, the true primary reference of this proverb. 
 But we have here a broader truth. To this 
 broader application of the proverb I desire to call 
 attention. Several suggestive lines of thought 
 diverge from the text as thus explained. It gives 
 us the general truth that the lower nature cannot 
 eventually triumph over the higher ; that the 
 worse cannot secure a victory over the better; 
 that wrong shall not always be on the throne, and 
 right always on the cross. It teaches us that 
 truth is as northern iron and steel, while falsehood 
 is as common and comparatively worthless iron. 
 Allow me now to apply this general rule to some 
 special relations in life. 
 
 SHALL THE LOWER TRIUMPH IN MAN? 
 
 Shall the lower elements of our life triumph 
 
212 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 over the higher ? Fallen and ruined as we are, 
 there is still something of the angel, as well as 
 much of the demon, in every human life ; there 
 are elements of goodness as truly as of badness in 
 every human soul. There is a side of our souls 
 that opens like a flower to the sunshine when the 
 light of Christ falls upon it ; and there is another 
 side that is like a poisonous weed, growing not in 
 the sunshine of purity and love, but in the gloom 
 and darkness of sin and Satan. There is a Mr. 
 Hyde and there is a Mr. Jekyll in every human 
 heart. 
 
 The principle of the text applies also to the 
 question : Shall the iron of the old nature break 
 the northern iron and steel of the new nature in 
 Christ Jesus ? When we are converted we become 
 new creatures ; old things are passed away, and 
 all things become new. We profess to have con- 
 secrated all our powers of body and mind to the 
 service of God. We profess to give Christ the 
 chief place in our hearts, and to make him the 
 sole ruler over all the territory of our natures. 
 But we are conscious that there is a constant duel 
 in our dual nature. The experience of the Apos- 
 tle Paul in the seventh chapter of Romans is our 
 daily experience. Each man is obliged to say, 
 " That which I do, I allow not ; for what I would, 
 that I do not ; but what I hate, that do I." We 
 fully sympathize with all that Paul says regard- 
 ing the good which we know and do not, and the 
 evil which we would not and vet do. We know 
 
THE NORTHERN IRON AND STEEL 213 
 
 that there is a law in our members warring 
 against the law of our mind, and bringing us into 
 captivity. It is scarcely to be doubted that the 
 experience of the apostle as expressed in this 
 chapter was his experience after conversion ; it is, 
 as it seems to us, impossible to explain his lan- 
 guage on any other supposition. He was con- 
 scious of this twofold nature within him. 
 
 Many men, even without the light of the gos- 
 pel, experience a somewhat similar conflict. In 
 Xenophon's " Cyropsedia," Araspes, the Persian, in 
 order to excuse his treasonable designs says : " Cer- 
 tainly I must have two souls ; for plainly it is not 
 one and the same which is both evil and good ; 
 and at the same time wishes to do a thing and not 
 to do it. Plainly then, there are two souls ; and 
 when the good one prevails then it does good, and 
 when the evil one predominates, then it does 
 evil." Epictetus expresses a similar thought 
 when he says : " He that sins does not do what he 
 would, but what he would not, that he does." 
 And the well-known passage from Ovid seems 
 almost to have been in the apostle's thought : "De- 
 sire prompts one thing, but the mind persuades 
 to another. I see the good and approve it, and 
 yet pursue the wrong." 
 
 Bvery man who has attempted to live a really 
 noble Christian life has been conscious at times 
 of this struggle. Corrupt passions and evil 
 thoughts war against all the nobler elements of 
 the soul. But let not the man doubt his conver- 
 
214 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 sion, if he is able to say with the apostle, " For I 
 delight in the law of God after the inward man." 
 This delight shows that he who experiences it is 
 a renewed man. No impenitent sinner ever truly 
 delights in this spiritual law of God. L,et not 
 any true believer doubt the reality of his conver- 
 sion because of this inward struggle. He will be 
 able soon to utter the glorious shout contained in 
 the opening portion of the next chapter of this 
 same epistle. It is the privilege and duty of 
 every child of God to overcome the world, the 
 flesh, and the devil. This glorious promise may 
 well inspire every heart : " To him that over- 
 cometh will I grant to sit down with me in my 
 throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down 
 with my Father in his throne." We all must at 
 times exclaim with the apostle, " Oh, wretched 
 man that I am ! Who shall deliver me from the 
 body of this death ? " Some believe that the 
 apostle here refers to a custom practised by an- 
 cient tyrants, of binding a dead body to a captive 
 as a punishment. The unfortunate wretch was 
 compelled to associate with this cumbersome and 
 offensive burden, and wherever the man went the 
 corpse was by his side. But perhaps we are not 
 obliged to accept this reference of the language. 
 Still in some such way the apostle feels that this 
 new life within us is chained down to the old 
 man, to the dead body of our past sin and cor- 
 ruption. We all, I think, are conscious, at times 
 at least, of such an experience. 
 
THE NORTHERN IRON AND STEEL 215 
 
 But, thank God, we also know something of the 
 experience of the opening of the eighth chapter 
 of Romans, with its glowing words, which the 
 apostle soon after wrote ; we know what it is to 
 pass out of darkness, gloom, and death, and to 
 strike this note of divine sweetness and holy tri- 
 umph : "There is, therefore, now no condemnation 
 to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not 
 after the flesh, but after the Spirit." We all have 
 a damp, dark basement in our soul-house ; we all 
 may also have a bright and beautiful balcony, re- 
 splendent with the glory of heaven, standing in 
 which we can look out over the fair earth, and 
 we can rejoice in God's sunshine as it illumi- 
 nates our faces ; a balcony where God's breezes 
 kiss our cheek, cheering our hearts and inspiring 
 our lives. I appeal to you now as you struggle in 
 the fierce conflict, Shall the iron of our lower 
 nature break the northern iron and the heavenly 
 steel which God has put within us? Shall you, a 
 child of God, an heir of heaven, and a joint-heir 
 with Jesus Christ, take off your crown and trample 
 it under your feet ? Shall you take off your robe 
 of righteousness and let Satan defile it ? God for- 
 bid. Shall the northern iron and the steel over- 
 come the common iron ? God grant it. All that 
 is precious and holy is rebuking and beseeching 
 you, young men ; and all that is vile and Satanic 
 is sneering in answer to the tender voice of all 
 that is precious and holy. Oh, young men and 
 women, reject the devil and all his temptations ; 
 
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 and let :he mrthern iron and steel :: the de- 
 nature have the victory. Say to Satan today, 
 " Get thee behind me." and Satan will : for he is 
 ;. coward "-hen we are brave, and he is :rave only 
 when ve are ctwards. Besyise yourself, man, if 
 ever you have been a tool of Satan, a dupe of 
 evil, a bit of common iron, when you might have 
 been u:r:heru ir:n ami divine steel. 
 
 SHAH THE WORLI ZOXQUZR THE CHUECH ? 
 
 The principle of this proverb applies also to 
 this question : Shall the world overcome the 
 church ? There is war between the world and the 
 church. There always has been; there always 
 will be. They are implacable foes ; between them 
 is an irrepressible tinnier. The Aycstle J :'.:\z 
 taught us that if we are friends cz :he w:rli we 
 must be enemies of Christ : ana. in turn, if we 
 are friends jf Chris: ve must be f:es :f the world 
 
 and dangerous tendencies. 
 
 Shall then the world overtime the church? The 
 world is only iron ; but, thank God, the church is 
 northern iron and steel. The Lord himself taught 
 us that he sent us out as sheep in the midst of 
 wolves. The first time I had the measure of hear- 
 ing Mr. Spurgeon, he emphasized the truth that 
 the Master sent us out as sheep in the midst of 
 wolves ; and further said, in substance, if we were 
 to put one wolf in a flock of sheep we would en- 
 danger the life of the entire flock ; but. in the di- 
 vine olan, we may have one sheep put into a pack 
 
THE NORTHERN IRON AND STEEL 217 
 
 of wolves. Nevertheless we know that the sheep 
 are mastering the wolves. It is conceivable that 
 there shall be no wolves in the world one day ; it 
 is experimental that there are sections of the 
 country now in which there are no wolves. Timid 
 and defenseless creature as the sheep is, yet, in 
 the providence of God, the sheep is winning the 
 victory over the wolf. Precisely so is it in the 
 church of God. Dangerous as it would be to put a 
 sheep into a pack of wolves, yet by the grace of 
 God the wolves will eventually disappear and the 
 sheep will indefinitely increase. Jesus said, " In 
 the world ye shall have tribulation ; but be of good 
 cheer ; I have overcome the world." Through 
 him we also shall overcome the world. 
 
 As a matter of fact the church is overcoming 
 the world. Day by day the church is encroaching 
 on the world's territory ; day by day the church 
 is learning more and more fully her high and 
 holy mission. The world has brought forth all her 
 best swords to fight the truth and God ; but God 
 has said of the church, " No weapon that is formed 
 against thee shall prosper." The world has 
 brought forth its mightiest hammers, but God has 
 made the church an anvil that has worn out all 
 the world's hammers. Representatives of infidel- 
 ity, of Satan, of worldliness, bring on your ham- 
 mers. Here is an anvil made of northern iron 
 and steel, and your hammers are only common 
 iron. Let them fall upon the anvil ; and you will 
 see that it will wear them out, every one. If I 
 
 T 
 
2l8 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 were an infidel I wonld throw down my hammers, 
 I wonld close my month, and I would lay aside 
 my pretensions ; for, as God lives, the church will 
 overcome infidelity and all other forms of oppo- 
 sition. There is a vast amount of clay mixed in 
 the iron of this world, and one day its hammers 
 will crumble ; but the anvil forged in the fires of 
 eternity and hardened with heavenly iron and di- 
 vine steel, will still remain after the hammers of 
 the world have beaten themselves into dust. I 
 have no more fear of the triumph of infidelity 
 than I have of the death of God. As God lives 
 his church shall live, and even the gates of hell 
 shall not prevail against it. We may say with 
 Lowell : 
 
 And behind the dim unknown 
 
 Standeth God within the shadow, 
 Keeping watch above his own. 
 
 God's church is the apple of his eye ; God's 
 church is engraven on the palms of his hands, and 
 he never closes his hand but he protects his church, 
 and he never opens his hand but he sees the name 
 of every one of his children. Blessed be God, his 
 church shall evermore endure. 
 
 SHALX SATAN OVERCOME CHRIST? 
 
 The text has a still closer application in answer 
 to the question : Shall Satan overcome the church ? 
 The old dualism of the ancient Persians had in it 
 an important truth. All the errors of heathenism 
 have in them some elements of truth. Pure error 
 
THE NORTHERN IRON AND STEEL 21 9 
 
 must soon disintegrate ; it cannot long cohere. It 
 is only the element of truth in error that holds it 
 together. There is a truth in the Zoroastrian re- 
 ligion regarding the conflict between light and 
 darkness ; between Ahriman, the spirit of evil, 
 and Orrnuzd, the spirit of good. The latter is the 
 spirit of life and light ; and he wages unceasing 
 warfare with Ahriman. The word of God gives 
 us a progressive revelation of Satan ; in the 
 temptation of the first Adam he was only a ser- 
 pent ; then came the fuller manifestation of his 
 character all through the Old Testament. Dur- 
 ing the temptation of the second Adam he was a 
 person in all the horrible deformities of his Satanic 
 nature. Jesus Christ came into direct and per- 
 sonal conflict with Satan. It was immediately 
 after our Lord's baptism that the conflict began, 
 just when the voice of God had been sounding in 
 his ear, telling him that he was the Son of God. 
 The pendulum of human experience swings from 
 one extreme to another. Many a pastor has had 
 times in the pulpit when he scarcely knew whether 
 he was in the body or out of it ; times when his 
 soul was bathed in heavenly splendor ; times when 
 he felt the throbbing of the heart of Jesus Christ, 
 and soon afterward he may have gone into the 
 deep valley of despondency. 
 
 I suppose there is a philosophy in those chang- 
 ing times of joy and sorrow. Christ also had vary- 
 ing experiences. He seems to have been exalted 
 just after his baptism as never before in his life ; 
 
220 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 he seems to have realized then, as never before, 
 that he was the Son of God. A new life was 
 begun ; a glorious career was opening. Just then 
 he had to go into the wilderness to be tempted of 
 the devil ; so must you, so must we all. Christ's 
 trial is a lesson of profoundest mystery, and at 
 the same time one of glorious triumph. In those 
 three temptations you have the essence of every 
 temptation that ever comes to a child of God. In 
 the first, we have a temptation to use divine 
 power, given for a higher purpose, to satisfy 
 human need. Every man in a bank or store, or 
 in any other responsible position, has that tempta- 
 tion ; he is tempted to use the opportunity for 
 personal and selfish ends ; to use the trust that 
 men repose in him to advance his own fortunes. 
 "Command," said Satan, "that these stones be 
 made bread." 
 
 Christ had the power ; there were the little 
 brown stones looking like loaves of bread. Men 
 everywhere are tempted to use improper means to 
 secure bread. When that temptation comes, say 
 as did Christ, " Man shall not live by bread 
 alone." 
 
 In the second temptation we are taught that we 
 have no right to tempt God ; but we have a right 
 to trust God. If I expose myself unnecessarily to 
 danger, making a spectacle of God's watchcare, I 
 am tempting God. If duty calls me into danger 
 I will go, and trust God, and so not tempt him. 
 
 The last temptation is one that comes to every 
 
THE NORTHERN IRON AND STEEL 221 
 
 living soul. It really means, " Worship Satan 
 and all the kingdoms of the world shall be yours. 
 Forge your name on this note and the needed 
 money will be yours. Put a false ballot into the 
 ballot-box, and this district and its honors shall be 
 yours." Men, to-day, in this way bow down to 
 worship Satan. Satan was a liar from the begin- 
 ning ; he does not own this world ; he cannot 
 deliver the kingdoms which he promises. In the 
 end his dupes find themselves in the grip of law 
 and under the lash of justice. 
 
 What weapons did Christ use to overcome 
 Satan? None but those which we may use. 
 Glorious Christ ! My heart glows with enthu- 
 siasm as I think how he overcame Satan. He 
 used the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of 
 God. He used weapons that are within our 
 reach, and he won victories that we may win. 
 Oh, that to-day, with words of withering scorn, 
 with words of holy triumph, with words of blight- 
 ing, blasting indignation, you and I may say to 
 Satan, "Get thee behind me, Satan." Satan 
 never recovered from that defeat. Christ struck 
 the sceptre from his hand and the crown from his 
 brow. Satan left him, and angels ministered to 
 him. Some say there is no Satan. That is a de- 
 licious doctrine for devils. Nothing would please 
 thieves and robbers more than to have it an- 
 nounced that there are no thieves and robbers ; 
 that would be a most popular doctrine in every 
 evil den in this city. But Satan is like a roaring 
 
222 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 lion going about seeking whom he may devour ; 
 but, thanks be to God, there is a Lion of the 
 tribe of Judah who will overcome Satan's power. 
 Though powerful, Satan is not omnipotent ; 
 though wise, he is not omniscient ; though active, 
 he is not omnipresent. Satan is more than a 
 match for me ; but he is less than a match for 
 Jesus. Heaven is above hell ; Christ is victor 
 over Satan. And like the young men to whom 
 the Apostle John wrote, it may be said of us, " Ye 
 have overcome the wicked one." 
 
 The principle of the text applies to those who 
 are fighting against God. Men and women, do I 
 see you to-day going into conflict with God ? My 
 heart aches for you ; you are only common iron, 
 and God is northern iron and steel. How dare a 
 man contend with the Almi^htv? Hear the 
 voice of Isaiah, "Woe unto him that striveth 
 with his Maker ! " Can you tell me of a single 
 man who ever opposed God and who triumphed ? 
 Let man enter into conflict with man ; but let no 
 man fight against God. Some of you are fighting 
 against him to-day ; he is saying, " Submit now " ; 
 he is saying, "Lay down your weapons"; and 
 you will not do it. You are lifting your puny 
 arms against the Almighty. Oh, the insanity of 
 sin ! I once opposed God. Now I thank and 
 bless him that he did not strike me down in his 
 wrath, foolish youth that I was. God in heaven, 
 help us now to cease our wicked strife, and to 
 come as humble suppliants to thy feet ! 
 
XIV 
 
 THE CHRISTLY MARKS 
 
' 'From he7iceforth let ?w ma?i trouble me ; for I bear in 
 my body the ?narks of the Lord fesus. ' ' Gal. 6 : zy. 
 
XIV 
 
 THIS has always seemed to me to be a very 
 tender and touching passage of Scripture. 
 It has a plaintiveness and sweetness peculiarly its 
 own. The Apostle Paul found the Galatians, 
 what all writers have agreed in styling them, a 
 very fickle people. At the first they were de- 
 votedly attached to the noble apostle. They re- 
 ceived his instructions with the utmost confidence ; 
 and they obeyed his commandments with the 
 greatest heartiness. The apostle bears testimony 
 to their love for him when he says, "I bear you 
 record that if it had been possible, ye would have 
 plucked out your own eyes and have given them 
 to me," 
 
 This testimony suggests, as many have sup- 
 posed, that Paul's thorn in the flesh was weakness 
 of the eyes ; it at least shows that the Galatians 
 had formed a most ardent attachment for him as 
 their teacher; but it shows also that their love 
 was changeful, and that the time came when the 
 apostle deeply regretted that they had been u so 
 soon removed from him that called you into the 
 grace of Christ unto another gospel." They were 
 a people who had been rescued from heathenism 
 of a peculiarly gross and debasing character. They 
 worshiped the " mother of the gods " under names 
 
 225 
 
226 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 and forms that were utterly degrading. Heathen 
 writers call them " a foolish people." They were, 
 however, a great people physically. They were 
 of three different tribes and nations, and are men- 
 tioned by all historians as physically tall and 
 brave and fierce in battle. Their fickleness was 
 seen in that as soon as the apostle had left them 
 they were turned away from the simplicity of the 
 gospel. It is clear that Judaizing teachers went 
 among them and induced them to observe the rites 
 of the Jewish faith. These teachers claimed to 
 have come directly from Jerusalem and to be act- 
 ing under apostolic authority. They perverted 
 the doctrine which the apostle had taught and 
 affirmed that he was inferior to the apostles in 
 Jerusalem. They endeavored to set at naught his 
 authority because if he were an apostle at all he 
 had been recently called to the apostolic office ; 
 and they insisted that his teachings were inferior 
 to those of the teachers in Jerusalem. They urged 
 also that the laws of Moses were still obligatory, 
 and they led many of the Galatians to submit to 
 the distinctive Jewish rite and to observe some of 
 the Jewish festivals. It is evident that great dis- 
 cussions soon arose in the church and that direct 
 instruction from the apostle was necessary to pre- 
 vent the spreading of dissension among the peo- 
 ple, and the possible dissolution of the church. 
 
 The Apostle Paul shows clearly in this epistle 
 that his commission was received immediately 
 from God ; that he had not been instructed by 
 
THE CHRISTLY MARKS 227 
 
 other apostles ; that he did not acknowledge their 
 authority, and that he did not need to have ad- 
 ditional proof of his apostleship. He claimed to 
 rank with the highest apostles at Jerusalem. Al- 
 though he had not seen Christ befoie his death, he 
 was supernaturally ordained by him to his apos- 
 tolic office. He did not hesitate to differ with 
 Peter and even to rebuke him, when he was clearly 
 wrong. He also in this epistle discusses the true 
 nature of justification by faith, and shows that 
 those who trust in the rites of Judaism dishonor 
 the finished work of the Lord Jesus. Most glori- 
 ously does he exalt Christ as the all- sufficient 
 Saviour of men. In this connection he proves 
 clearly, that the Mosaic ritual was only temporary 
 in duration and introductory in design. Its high- 
 est glory was that it was preparatory to the com- 
 ing of Christ and was designed to lead to him for 
 salvation. 
 
 The controlling purpose of the apostle is to 
 state and prove the true doctrine of justification 
 by faith, and so he shows that even Abraham was 
 justified by faith rather than by obedience to a 
 ritual. We see clearly that the opposition made 
 to the apostle caused him great sorrow. He has 
 now reached the close of the epistle and he speaks 
 with a tenderness which reaches the heart of every 
 reader. He says, "From henceforth," that is for 
 the remainder of my life, whether it be long or 
 short, " let no man trouble me : for I bear in my 
 body the marks of the L,ord Jesus." His call to 
 
228 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 the apostolic office had been questioned ; and his 
 authority to explain and to defend the gospel had 
 been doubted. Clearly does he vindicate himself 
 at both of these points ; fully does he prove the 
 divine authority of his commission ; exhaustively 
 does he explain the great doctrine of justification 
 by faith, showing that the law of Moses is no 
 longer binding ; and now, in a tone of mingled 
 authority, resignation, affection, and conscious in- 
 jury, he begs them to give him no more trouble 
 on these points. He surely had sorrow enough to 
 bear. He reminds them, with varied and contra- 
 dictory emotions, that there is another kind of 
 proof of apostolic office and authority. It is a 
 delicate proof for him to produce. The thought 
 is as if he had said, " I have not before alluded to 
 this form of proof. It is with hesitancy that I 
 now mention it, but the circumstances of the case 
 justify the delicate allusion. Look at me. Be- 
 hold and see that I bear in my body the conclu- 
 sive proofs of my apostleship. These marks I re- 
 ceived in the service of my Lord. These wounds 
 are witnesses that I am truly a soldier of the Cap- 
 tain of our salvation, and an apostle of the Lord 
 Jesus. I have need of your prayerful sympathy 
 rather than of your critical comments and your 
 captious opposition. It is almost humiliating to 
 me that I have been compelled to vindicate my 
 apostleship in this tender and personal way. Do 
 you doubt my loyalty ? Let these ' stigmata \ be 
 the answers to your carping criticisms. Suffering 
 
THE CHRISTLY MARKS 229 
 
 as I do in my scarred and feeble body it is posi- 
 tively painful to me to call attention to these deli- 
 cate matters." 
 
 Beloved hearers, this line of remark which I 
 have put into the mouth of the apostle is very 
 touching. It is an appeal which is gentle as it is 
 mighty. It moves our hearts after the lapse of 
 the centuries. It must have tenderly touched the 
 fickle nature of these Galatians. It is indeed a 
 touch both of nature and grace which makes the 
 whole church of God kin. 
 
 It is fitting that we should here ask what the 
 apostle means by " the marks of the L,ord Jesus." 
 The commentators call attention to the fact that 
 the word stigmata, here translated marks, properly 
 means the brands which were burnt into the body. 
 It is well known that slaves were often branded 
 in this way by their owners, so as to make their 
 escape less likely, and to make their discovery 
 more certain should they escape. We know also 
 that devotees of certain idol-gods in the excite- 
 ment of their fanatical devotion often imprinted 
 upon their flesh images of the gods whom they 
 adored. Herodotus is quoted as mentioning a 
 temple of Hercules in Egypt, in which if any 
 slave took refuge, and had the sacred stigmata 
 placed upon him, he was ever afterward considered 
 as devoted to the god whose image he bore, and 
 no man could afterward lawfully injure him. 
 Some have supposed that the Apostle Paul here 
 referred to the image of the L,ord Jesus as im- 
 
 u 
 
230 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 pressed upon him in a similar way ; others have 
 supposed that he refers to the form of the cross as 
 being impressed upon some part of his person. 
 Romanists have wrongly used his language in the 
 attempt to justify the most extravagant vagaries 
 of their idolatrous beliefs in connection with the 
 face and cross of the Lord Jesus. Such interpre- 
 tations are fanciful. The apostle simply means to 
 say that in the service of his Master he had re- 
 ceived marks as the result of the sufferings which 
 he had endured because of his loyal devotion. In 
 2 Cor. 11 : 24, 25, he says, " Of the Jews five 
 times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice 
 was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice 
 I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have 
 been in the deep." In the succeeding verses he 
 gives us an astonishing catalogue of his dangers 
 from robbers, and of his perils in the city and in 
 the sea. 
 
 No one, in whose breast there is a heart and not 
 a stone, can read without profound emotion the 
 account which he gives. Doubtless it is to such 
 experiences as these that he refers in the text. In 
 his body then there were marks of his heroic 
 service for Christ ; they were the witnesses of his 
 apostolic commission and apostolic fervor. Some 
 had in their body the marks of Jewish rites ; he 
 the marks of Christian sen-ice. Some the images 
 of idols whom they worshiped ; he the weals 
 which he had received from scourges and rods in 
 the hands of the enemies of his Master. How 
 
THE CHRISTLY MARKS 23 1 
 
 could he possibly give more striking evidence of 
 his devotion to Jesus ? A few weeks ago a brave 
 soldier in our late war showed me with pride the 
 scar which he bears of a wound received before 
 Richmond in a decisive engagement. Of that 
 scar he was rightfully proud. It was an evidence 
 of his devotion to his country and his service in 
 the preservation of the Union. Many an old 
 soldier, on Memorial Day, points with pardonable 
 pride to similar evidences of his devotion to his 
 country and his sufferings in her honor. Lafay- 
 ette, when struck in the foot by a musket ball at 
 Germantown, said : " I prize this wound as among 
 the most valuable of my honors." Without boast- 
 ing, but with a justifiable pride, the Apostle Paul 
 could point to the scourgings which he had re- 
 ceived as the pledges of his consecration to the 
 cause of the Iyord Jesus. Could any words more 
 closely touch the tenderest spots of the heart than 
 those which are my text this evening ? Chrysos- 
 tom doubtless catches the true thought when he 
 reminds us that Paul does not say, " I have," but 
 " I bear " in my body. Paul bore these scars as 
 one is proud of trophies. 
 
 All Christians now should bear in some form 
 the "marks of the Lord Jesus." They are not 
 now called upon to suffer for their faith as was the 
 Apostle Paul and as were the martyrs who fol- 
 lowed him in Christian service ; but there are 
 marks which we must bear or we have no evi- 
 dence that we belong to Christ. There is a spirit 
 
232 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 which we must possess and manifest, or we cannot 
 prove that we are Christ's. What are some of 
 the marks which we ought to bear, which men 
 ought to see as the proofs that we are not our own 
 but Christ's ? Such marks are worth more than 
 all the honors which this world can bestow. The 
 time is coming when the " marks of the Lord 
 Jesus " will be worth more than ribbon or star in- 
 dicating even the loftiest rank among men, worth 
 more than ducal coronet or kingly crown. Do we 
 possess these marks ? This question is the most 
 important which can be asked of any human 
 being. What then are some of the marks of the 
 Lord Jesus which we ought to possess? But a 
 few can be mentioned, but these are so inclusive 
 that they imply the possession of others of like 
 character. 
 
 Obedience to the will of God is one of the dis- 
 tinctive marks of the Lord Jesus which true Chris- 
 tians possess. The obedience of Christ was un- 
 questioning, unvarying, and unparalleled. It was 
 the controlling characteristic of his earthly life. 
 David, speaking in the fortieth Psalm as a type 
 of Jesus, said, " Sacrifice and offering thou didst 
 not desire ; mine ears hast thou opened : burnt- 
 offering and sin offering hast thou not required. 
 . . . Lo, I come : in the volume of the book 
 it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, 
 O my God : yea, thy law is within my heart." 
 All the way from Bethlehem to Calvary the 
 spirit of obedience to the will of God was one 
 
the: christly marks 233 
 
 of the marks of the life of the L,ord Jesus. At 
 the age of twelve this mark was clearly seen 
 when he said to his parents, who found him after 
 seeking him with anxiety, " How is it that ye 
 sought me ? wist ye not that I must be about my 
 Father's business ? ' ' Already the solemn duties 
 and the sublime achievements of his earthly life 
 were pressing upon his boyish mind and heart. 
 This sense of obedience is one of the distinctive 
 characteristics of the L,ord in connection with his 
 baptism. When John hesitated to baptize his 
 L<ord, the answer of the L,ord was, " Suffer it to 
 be so now ; for thus it becometh us to fulfill all 
 righteousness." How should the pure and holy 
 Son of God submit to an ordinance which is the 
 sinner's and not the Saviour's ordinance? He 
 took upon himself our nature, not only that he 
 might be " made sin for us," but also that he 
 might set us a perfect example of obedience to the 
 law of God. Had he refused to submit to the act 
 of baptism he would have left incomplete the per- 
 fect righteousness which he came to manifest. 
 He shows that this act of holy obedience should 
 be performed by every true disciple, and that its 
 neglect leaves something of the required righteous- 
 ness unfulfilled. For the time being, he took a 
 subordinate place, making John the Baptist the 
 actor, while Jesus, the Christ, was the recipient of 
 the divine ordinance. The Apostle Paul in Ro- 
 mans 5 : 19 teaches us that, "As by one man's 
 disobedience many were made sinners, so by the 
 
234 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 obedience of one shall many be made righteous" ; 
 and in Hebrews 5 : 8 we have the striking words, 
 ' ' Though he were a Son yet learned he obedience 
 by the things which he suffered." The same 
 spirit of obedience was gloriously shown in Geth- 
 semane when he submitted to the will of God by 
 drinking to its dregs the painful cup. The Apos- 
 tle Paul in writing to the Philippians emphasizes 
 the thought that Christ became obedient unto 
 death, even the death of the cross. His exalta- 
 tion to the right hand of God stands in close rela- 
 tion to his ignominious humiliation on the cross. 
 This spirit of obedience is one of the marks of 
 the Lord Jesus which we ought to possess. We 
 are commanded to repent and be baptized. We 
 dare not separate between these divine commands. 
 Both are personal acts, and both should receive 
 our prompt and joyful obedience. We are to be- 
 lieve in the Lord Jesus and to confess him before 
 men, are to accept and to declare his righteousness. 
 We ought never to ask : Is this or that command 
 essential to salvation? To us the voice of the 
 Master comes saying, in response to our querulous 
 questioning regarding the essentiality of this or 
 that command, ' ' What is that to thee ? follow 
 thou me." Finely does Matthew Henry say : "It 
 ought to be the great care of even- one of us to 
 follow the Lord fully. We must in a course of 
 obedience to God's will and service to his honor, 
 follow him universally without dividing ; up- 
 rightly, without dissembling ; cheerfully, without 
 
THE CHRISTXY MARKS 235 
 
 disputing; and constantly, without declining: 
 and this is following him fully." 
 
 We must obey although we do not fully know 
 the reason for the divine requirement. God 
 knows best, and our fullest wisdom is in accepting 
 his will as our highest law. The first obligation 
 of the Order of St. Francis was unquestioning 
 submission to the authority of the superior. We 
 are told that when a monk proved refractory a 
 grave was dug deep enough to enable a man to 
 stand therein. The disobedient monk was put 
 into it and his associates shovelled in the earth, 
 while the superior looked on without an emotion 
 of tenderness. The earth reaches the knees of 
 the stubborn monk. The superior stooping down 
 asked, " Are you dead yet ? " There was no 
 answer. The burial went on until the earth 
 reached to the waist, to the shoulders, and finally 
 to the lips. Once more the superior bending 
 down asked, " Are you dead yet ? " A little more 
 dirt thrown into the grave, and the rebellious 
 monk would be suffocated. No longer might he 
 resist. The iron will of the superior could not 
 be broken ; that of the monk must yield, or 
 death would be his fate. " I am dead," said he, 
 and his release was immediately ordered. In a 
 higher and nobler sense we are to be dead to self, 
 sin, and the world, and we are to be alive to duty 
 and to Christ. We are his only as we do his com- 
 mandments ; obedience alone proves our friend- 
 ship to him and our true discipleship in his 
 
236 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 church. His own words are : "If ye love me, 
 keep my commandments." 
 
 Only as our faith takes the form of practical 
 obedience is it helpful to us or acceptable to 
 God. Noble was the spirit of the Roman com- 
 mander who forbade a battle with the enemy, and 
 whose son challenged and defeated that enemy, 
 and who, when the son came in triumph carrying 
 the spoils won from the enemy, refused to give 
 him honor because he had disobeyed his father's 
 and commander's orders. Even though his diso- 
 bedience resulted in victory it was more worthy 
 of death than honor. Beautiful were the words 
 spoken by the mother of Jesus when she said to 
 the servants at the marriage in Cana, ' ' Whatso- 
 ever he saith unto you, do it." These words 
 might be written on the first page of every Bible, 
 over the vestibule of every church, over the head 
 of every preacher, and in the heart of every dis- 
 ciple. Beautiful the words of the old prophet, 
 " To obey is better than sacrifice." What is it to 
 be a Christian ? This : To obey Jesus Christ. 
 Obedience proves faith, love, joy, and every grace. 
 
 Another mark is a life of holy zeal in the cause 
 of God and man. This mark is kindred to the 
 one already presented. Christ's life gives us many 
 illustrations of this characteristic. In Mark 3 : 
 21, we read that his friends said, ll He is beside 
 himself." They could not understand the spirit 
 which prompted his unresisting service in the 
 cause of God. We read of his performing mira- 
 
THK CHRISTLY MARKS 237 
 
 cles during the day and retiring to the mountain 
 to pray during the hours of the night. He spent 
 the night in prayer before calling his twelve 
 apostles. He often spent many hours in silent 
 communion with God. Men could not under- 
 stand the secret of his all-consuming zeal. His 
 life was summed up in the most suggestive re- 
 mark, " He went about doing good." The world 
 knows us not because it knew him not. Men 
 now call devoted, enthusiastic, zealous, and con- 
 secrated Christians fanatics and fools. Christ 
 showed us that true enthusiasm in religion is the 
 highest reason. If we truly believed what we 
 profess we would be amazed at our coldness in the 
 cause of God. Christ worked and prayed until 
 after the sun had set, and then we are told that he 
 arose a great while before dawn to resume his 
 works of love to men and of obedience to God. 
 The Son of Man said of himself, "I must work 
 the works of him that sent me while it is called 
 day." 
 
 The most dangerous of all " isms " in the church 
 of God is indifferentism. The most fervent Chris- 
 tian is amazed at his own lack of fervor. How 
 can we be indifferent when men about us are 
 without God and without hope ? True zeal is one 
 of the noblest elements of power in the Christian 
 life. It is the highest Christian principle set on 
 fire by divine love. It is love fanned to a white 
 heat. A Christian without zeal is a sacrifice with- 
 out fire. Zeal drives the disciple to an unflagging 
 
238 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 and ever joyous service. It made Whitefield and 
 Wesley mightier than Butler and Watson al- 
 though their inferiors in mental attainment. We 
 need this zeal to-day to melt the icebergs, and to 
 burn up the hay, wood, and stubble in our 
 churches. Oh, for a burning devotion, for a fiery 
 zeal, for a quenchless love ! A sleeping church 
 is the devil's best ally. We are told that when 
 Napoleou invaded Egypt, he met a force pro- 
 tected by a mud fort. This fort defied all his 
 efforts. If it had been rock, he would have 
 blown it up with powder ; if it had been wood, 
 he would have fired it with rockets ; but it was 
 mud. The missies he hurled into it increased its 
 power of resistance. It is said that he left it in 
 despair. A sleeping church is a mud fort. God 
 help us to awake and to put on our strength, and 
 to do our duty as followers of the Lord Jesus ! 
 In all our churches there are to-day sleeping 
 Christians. Oh, if we could but appreciate the 
 value of a soul ! If we could, as the seraphic 
 Surnmerfield said, " take a look into eternity," 
 how we would beseech men to be reconciled unto 
 God ! And in some measure can we not ? Has 
 not our Lord placed before us the means of doing 
 this ? What is the parable of Dives and Lazarus 
 but such a look ? The fact that it fell from the 
 Christ's lips should make it throb with meaning 
 for us, and this meaning should make us earnest 
 for others. Vain the inward longings for relief 
 then : Vain the prayers for others' rescue. Now, 
 
THK CHRISTLY MARKS 239 
 
 now, is the day of salvation. Now alone will our 
 efforts avail anything. 
 
 While life prolongs its precious light, 
 Mercy is found and peace is given. 
 
 God help us to carry the one and the other to 
 men, that neither for them nor for us the here- 
 after may be marked by an eternal regret. 
 
 We need the mark of self-sacrifice, a life not 
 lived for itself, but for God and for man. This 
 truth Christ taught from the cradle to the grave, 
 taught in words and in acts. When we become 
 Christians we profess to die to self. We profess 
 that our body, soul, and spirit are Christ's. We 
 declare that we have been bought with a price, 
 and that we are bound to serve God in our bodies 
 and spirits. We cannot have any proof for our- 
 selves or for others that we are Christ's except as 
 some of these marks are found upon us. 
 
 The best proof that we are Christians is that 
 we are Christlike. We ought not to be obliged 
 to give evidence that we are Christians ; our lives 
 in themselves ought to be such evidences. There 
 is irresistible power in the possession of these 
 marks of the L,ord Jesus. No one can long mis- 
 interpret their testimony. They are self-evidenc- 
 ing proof that we have passed from death unto 
 life. Oh, to-day bow at the cross, and receive 
 Christ as your personal Saviour ! L,et this act of 
 obedience be the first mark in your soul. Then 
 ask with Paul on the Damascus highway, " Lord, 
 
240 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 what wilt thou have me to do ? " Then run with 
 joy in the way of Christ's commandments, and 
 when men ask us questions, carping, unreasonable, 
 unanswerable questions, each can say with deep 
 humility, with holy joy, and with conclusive 
 argument, ' ' Henceforth let no man trouble me : 
 for I bear in my body the marks of the L,ord 
 Jesus." 
 
XV 
 THE LEARNED TONGUE 
 
' ' The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, 
 that I should know how to speak a word in season to him 
 that is weary" etc., etc. Isa. jo : 4-Q. 
 
XV 
 
 WITH the beginning of the fourth verse of 
 this chapter, a speaker is introduced who 
 makes great claims for himself. He asserts that 
 he is eminently qualified for the office to which 
 he is called ; that he is amply endowed of God ; 
 that he will meet the fierce opposition to which 
 he is exposed with great meekness, and that he 
 will finally triumph over all opposition because 
 his trust is in God and in him alone. The best 
 interpretation, however, is that which makes this 
 speaker none other than the Messiah. It cannot 
 be denied that all that is here said naturally ap- 
 plies to Christ. Every description of his humili- 
 ation and meekness, of the opposition which he 
 encounters, of the faith which he exercises, and 
 of the victory which he finally secures, applies 
 with exactness to Jesus Christ. Indeed, some 
 parts of this description can by no possibility, ex- 
 cept by a violation of all reasonable rules of inter- 
 pretation, be applied to any other than the Messiah. 
 All doubt regarding the application of any Old Tes- 
 tament prophecy is removed when we find Christ 
 making the application to himself. In L,uke 18 : 
 31 our Iyord applies these prophecies to himself. 
 These words are a literal fulfillment of this ancient 
 prophecy. We know too, that he was perfectly 
 
 243 
 
244 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 endowed to perform the work which is attributed 
 to the speaker introduced in the text ; we know 
 that Christ was entirely obedient to God ; that he 
 submitted to all the injuries inflicted on him ; that 
 he endured the opposition of men trusting in God ; 
 and, in a word, that all these prophecies have in 
 him, and in him only, their complete fulfillment. 
 
 We have then, in the first place, Jesus Christ 
 brought before us in the fourth verse as a great 
 Preacher. We are accustomed to think of Christ 
 as a preacher in connection with the Sermon on 
 the Mount, and with the delivery of his parables, 
 and with other teachings recorded in the New 
 Testament. It is at first blush somewhat startling 
 to find Christ described as a great preacher in a 
 passage in Isaiah. We know that Isaiah was the 
 most evangelical of all the prophets ; that he saw 
 the glory of the coming Christ as no other prophet 
 of his time, and that he described events which 
 were to occur in the ministry of the Messiah as if 
 he was in their midst at the time of their occur- 
 rence. He places himself constantly in the very 
 time of the events which he narrates ; this method 
 of description is somewhat peculiar to Isaiah. We 
 have other instances in the Old Testament, as in 
 the case of the "angel of the Lord" who preached 
 at Bochim, of the preaching of Christ in that 
 early day. In like manner we have him intro- 
 duced to us as a great preacher in this passage in 
 Isaiah. 
 
 The first characteristic of Christ as a great 
 
THE LEARNED TONGUE 245 
 
 preacher is that he has " the tongue of the learned." 
 The more literal rendering of the phrase is, the 
 tongue of those who are instructed, or the tongue 
 of the truly eloquent. The entire passage shows 
 us that Christ was endowed of God in a remark- 
 able manner. It is evident that the reference 
 here is not to the knowledge of human science, 
 but to the knowledge of that higher and nobler 
 science, the science of salvation. Touching that 
 matter he was qualified as never was man before 
 or since ; he was endowed with supernatural knowl- 
 edge and unparalleled eloquence. He made known 
 the will of God as one who had dwelt in the bosom 
 of God. He spoke of the spiritual world as one 
 who had long dwelt there, and was as familiar with 
 eternity as with time. Never man spake as did 
 Jesus Christ touching all matters spiritual. He en- 
 forced the claims of God with sublime simplicity, 
 with tearful tenderness, and with awful authority. 
 All his discourses prove the superiority of his 
 knowledge, the tenderness of his spirit, and the 
 affection of his heart. No one can read his dis- 
 courses, and especially *the Sermon on the Mount, 
 without feeling that he is breathing a new at- 
 mosphere, looking upon a new world, and hear- 
 ing the divinest man who ever visited this earth. 
 The Sermon on the Mount is matchless. It 
 lifts itself above all human discourses as a veri- 
 table Mont Blanc. His other discourses stand 
 around this mountain peak as the white-robed sis- 
 ter mountains stand around Mont Blanc, their 
 
246 QUICK TRUTHS IN OUAINT TEXTS 
 
 peerless queen. All who are Christ's disciples may- 
 share in his knowledge of God, and in his elo- 
 quence toward men. Good Matthew Henry has 
 well said that God made man's mouth, and God 
 alone can make it eloquent. We know that God 
 made the speech of the hesitating Moses mighty 
 to terrify and to subdue Pharaoh ; and God made 
 the words of Paul mighty to the pulling down of the 
 strongholds of sin. All great thinkers on relig- 
 ious things catch their inspiration and receive 
 their instruction from Christ who stands in the 
 foremost place among the thinkers and teachers 
 of the world. 
 
 Another characteristic of Christ as a great 
 preacher is here given. He knew ' ' how to speak 
 a word in season." The Hebrew here is " that he 
 might know how to strengthen with a word the 
 weary." Christ knew how to sustain, to comfort, 
 and to refresh weary souls by his wise counsels 
 and by his precious promises. He knew how to 
 lift the burden from hearts weary with care and 
 laden with sin. He knew how to lessen the sor- 
 rows of life ; how to impart the comforts of the 
 divine presence, peace and power. Whether the 
 weary were burdened with sin or with the inevi- 
 table sorrows of life, he knew how to lighten the 
 load or to increase the strength. 
 
 There is marvelous power in a sympathetic 
 word. Too little do we appreciate its influence, 
 and too seldom do we impart its blessings. There 
 is a sanctified tact which is as rare as it is desirable. 
 
THE LEARNED TONGUE 247 
 
 The ' 'golden rule ' ' is the highest law of etiquette. 
 Men who learn to practise this rule learn the secret 
 of gentlemanly courtesy, because they have felt 
 the impulses of Christian affection. Grace was 
 poured from Christ's lips, partly because a sym- 
 pathetic heart beat in his bosom. His whole life 
 is an illustration of these truths. He came to re- 
 move burdens by forgiving transgressions. He 
 learned obedience himself by the things which he 
 suffered. He knew how to say, " Come unto me, 
 all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
 give you rest." The sight of thousands groaning 
 under their burdens was enough to break his lov- 
 ing heart ; but he taught us to cast our burdens 
 upon him- assuring us that he cared for us and 
 would sustain us. 
 
 He knew how to speak the seasonable word to 
 those burdened with the intellectual doubts con- 
 nected with religious faith and providential expe- 
 rience. His hand swept every chord of the human 
 heart. There were times in his own life when he 
 seemed to stand over great chasms of darkness 
 and doubt connected with God's dealings with 
 men. Precious thoughts are suggested by Christ's 
 sympathy with those burdened with the intellect- 
 ual mysteries of revelation and of experience. 
 In all times of doubt we can take his hand, kneel 
 at his feet, and say with him, " Even so, Father, 
 for so it seemed good in thy sight." If men bur- 
 dened with intellectual difficulties would but cast 
 themselves at his feet, he would take them and 
 
248 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 their difficulties and carry both, giving them 
 sweet peace, clear vision, and joyous faith. 
 
 He knows also how to bear the burdens of mor- 
 tal infirmities. He knew what it was to be weary 
 in body with the toils of the day ; what it was to 
 lay his head upon the wooden pillow in the 
 hinder part of the ship and sleep the sleep of utter 
 weariness. It is true he did not know by personal 
 experience the infirmities brought on by old age, 
 but it is quite "certain that he knew them by his 
 broad sympathy and by his appreciative affection. 
 Never was there a burden-bearer like Jesus Christ. 
 He knows how to speak peace to the sorrowing. 
 He calls his sheep by name. He speaks to each 
 believer with a select, a special, a discriminating 
 tenderness. We may say to every burdened soul : 
 
 Thou art as much his care as if beside 
 
 Nor man, nor angel lived in all the earth ; 
 
 The sunbeams pour alike their glorious tide 
 To light a world, or wake an insect' s birth ; 
 
 They shine and shine with unexhausted store ; 
 
 Thou art thy Saviour's darling — seek no more. 
 
 Every minister, and every other worker for Christ, 
 should have this sanctified endowment in some 
 measure at least. It should be coveted as one 
 of the best gifts ; it may be possessed partially by 
 all believers, and it may become an element of 
 almost irresistible power. 
 
 Another characteristic of Christ as a great 
 preacher was that he had an open ear for instruc- 
 tion : "He wakeneth morning by morning: he 
 
THE LEARNED TONGUE 249 
 
 wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned." The 
 thought here is of a pupil wakened early every 
 morning to receive instruction from his teacher. 
 As applied to Christ the teaching is that he was 
 eminently endowed by divine instruction for his 
 redemptive work ; that he could teach men as 
 one who was himself taught in the school of God ; 
 that he could wisely impart because he daily re- 
 ceived wisdom from God. He was attentive to 
 the divine commands, and so was able to impart 
 divine truth. Taught of God, he was thoroughly 
 qualified to teach men. A docile disciple of God, 
 he was fitted to be an authoritative teacher of 
 men. 
 
 The open ear is as important for a religious 
 teacher as the ready tongue. The man who is to 
 teach his fellow-men must be a willing pupil 
 awakened by God morning by morning, as an 
 earthly schoolmaster arouses his pupils and gives 
 them necessary instruction. Unless we have an 
 open ear to hear God's voice, a ready tongue in 
 teaching men is a source of evil rather than of good. 
 Christ received that he might bestow. In one 
 hemisphere of his life, heart and hand were open 
 to receive from God; in the. other hemisphere, 
 they were open to impart to men. He who is 
 to preach the preaching which God bids, must re- 
 ceive the teaching which God gives. No man 
 can claim the authority rightly belonging to a 
 teacher, except he have first rendered the obedi- 
 ence rightly claimed of a disciple. It is instruct- 
 
250 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 ive also to observe that this teaching was a daily 
 privilege and duty ; this docile pupil was awak- 
 ened morning by morning to receive instruction. 
 Every day requires new wisdom for new respon- 
 sibilities ; every day needs a new baptism of 
 grace and strength for new duties and burdens. 
 Strength for the day is to be imparted by the day. 
 Happy is that man w T ho begins every day with 
 God ; who gives his first thoughts into God's 
 bosom and receives from God's lips his first com- 
 mand for the day's duties. 
 
 We behold, in the second place, from verses five 
 and six, Christ as a submissive sufferer. "The 
 Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not 
 rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my 
 back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that 
 plucked off the hair ; I hid not my face from 
 shame and spitting." Christ willingly undertook 
 the solemn and blessed task of making God 
 known to men. He was in himself the Incar- 
 nate Word ; he was God. He came not to do his 
 own will, but the will of God who had sent him ; 
 he came to bear all forms of trial, and to suffer all 
 kinds of reproach. One might have supposed 
 that a preacher such as has been described would 
 receive at once the submission, homage, and affec- 
 tion of his hearers. One might have expected 
 that in com ins: to earth all men would hasten to 
 la}* their willing service at the feet of the Lord's 
 Christ. But it was far otherwise. When the Son 
 came, men said, " This is the heir, let us kill him." 
 
THE LEARNED TONGUE 25 1 
 
 Perhaps it would not be otherwise to-day should 
 the Son of God visit this city and other cities in 
 our land and in the world ! Men now would 
 oppose, deride, and possibly crucify the I^ord of 
 glory. 
 
 We have in these two verses a statement of 
 Christ's experimental knowledge of God's instruc- 
 tion. "The Lord God hath opened mine ear." 
 Experimental knowledge is the profoundest knowl- 
 edge possible to men. Indeed it is the only knowl- 
 edge which is truly worthy the name. All other 
 knowledge is superficial. As the word itself im- 
 plies, it is knowledge that conies out of us because 
 it has first gone through and through us ; it is 
 knowledge that has come to us as the result of 
 actual trial. It is the deepest, broadest, highest, 
 and truest of all forms of knowledge. Experi- 
 mental preaching is sometimes spoken of with 
 depreciation and occasionally with a sneer ; but it 
 is preaching that is high as heaven and deep as 
 hell. It is preaching which, in a sense, is as deep 
 and high as the love of God himself. It is the 
 most unanswerable of all kinds of argumentative 
 instruction. Thrice happy is he who knows God 
 in this experimental way. 
 
 All the Pharisees in Jerusalem could not make 
 the man who once was blind and was cured by 
 Jesus doubt the reality of that cure. They might 
 perplex him regarding many difficult questions, but 
 he who knew that once he was blind and that now 
 he saw, could stand on that knowledge as firmly 
 
252 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 as on the everlasting rock. Would to God that all 
 to whom these words come might know Jesus 
 Christ by a personal experience ! This is not to 
 know about Christ, but it is to know Christ ; it is 
 to enter into his life, to catch his spirit, and to be 
 made over again in his image ! 
 
 We also have here an expression of the Mes- 
 siah's loyal service. " I was not rebellious neither 
 turned away back." Christ clearly foresaw the 
 difficulties he must encounter ; he knew that he 
 was to be despised and rejected of men ; he knew 
 that he was to be a man of sorrows and acquainted 
 with grief; but he pressed forward bearing every 
 burden and discharging every duty. We are to 
 follow his example in this respect as in all other 
 relations of life. The man who fears difficulties 
 will never accomplish impossibilities. There is 
 apparently a solid wall across every path of duty, 
 but as we walk up to it we see the cleavage, and 
 as we resolutely approach it the wall parts and 
 we pass through. Those who follow God into 
 the Red Sea of difficulties will see that sea rising 
 in crystal walls on each side of their path while 
 they walk onward on dry land. 
 
 We have here also an illustration* of our Lord's 
 patient obedience. He submitted to be scourged, 
 giving his back to the smiters. He submitted to 
 be buffeted, giving his cheeks to them that 
 plucked off the hair ; he endured the humiliation 
 of being spat upon, hiding not his face from shame 
 and spitting. He thus received the greatest indig- 
 
THE LEARNED TONGUE 253 
 
 nity and the highest insult that could be con- 
 ceived among an Oriental people. To cut off the 
 beard or to pluck it out was an insult which no 
 words could adequately describe. To be spat upon, 
 or even to spit in the presence of an Oriental, was 
 an insult of the most degrading character. But 
 these acts of indignity were inflicted on the meek 
 and lowly Christ. One's heart grows tender as 
 he thinks of the indignities which the Lord en- 
 dured on our behalf. What have we done for him 
 who endured so much for us? Was there ever 
 sufferer so innocent, so patient, and so heroic as 
 Jesus Christ ? Seeing and knowing all that his 
 incarnation implied, he came willingly into our 
 world, assumed our nature, bore our sins, and died 
 the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to 
 God. Oh, that the sight of this submissive suf- 
 ferer might awaken your love, arouse your con- 
 science, and finally consecrate your lives to his 
 holy service ! O divine Saviour and august Suf- 
 ferer, may thine example rebuke our coldness and 
 lead us to lay ourselves in sweet submission at thy 
 pierced feet. 
 
 In verses seven, eight, and nine we behold, in 
 the third place, Christ as a triumphant Conqueror. 
 Christ was the Lamb slain from before the founda- 
 tion of the world ; still he was evermore the Lion 
 of the tribe of Judah. He was anointed with 
 the oil of gladness s above his fellows ; still he was 
 a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We 
 love to think of Christ in both of these characters, 
 
 w 
 
254 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 at both extremes of human experience, as both 
 weak and helpless, and as mighty and glorious. 
 We like a God of power, a God who can bring 
 things to pass, a God who can confound his foes and 
 glorify his friends. We have here the Messiah's 
 confidence in God. w The Lord God will help 
 me." He knew that because of the divine help 
 he would not be confounded and that he would 
 finally triumph over all his foes. God gloriously 
 helps those who trust in him, and who confidently 
 walk in the path of obedience. 
 
 The Messiah realized that " he is near who jus- 
 tifieth me." He would, therefore, set his face 
 like a flint, and he could resolutely defy the con- 
 tempt and scorn of all his foes. God was near 
 him in every hour of trial and justified him in 
 every experience of human derision and falsity. 
 God proved him to be righteous, vindicated 
 his character, and declared his innocence in the 
 face of every earthly foe. At his baptism God, 
 by an audible voice, declared him to be the be- 
 loved Son. In all his miracles, God showed that 
 they were wrought by his power. At his trial, 
 Pilate declared him to be innocent ; even Pilate's 
 wife, that noble Roman lady who was loyal to him 
 when disciples fled, declared that he was a just 
 man. The Roman centurion who attended his 
 crucifixion, affirmed that he was a Son of God. 
 His resurrection declared him to be the Son of 
 God with power. God thus approved his course, 
 vindicated his character, and confirmed his claims. 
 
THE LEARNED TONGUE 255 
 
 Well may he here defy his foes, challenging any 
 man to contend with him. His confidence in God 
 is unshaken, and his assurance in his own integ- 
 rity is unquestioned. The language here em- 
 ployed is suggested by trials in courts of justice. 
 It is a solemn call upon any legal adversary to en- 
 ter the tribunal and prefer his accusation against 
 the Messiah. He is willing to meet such an ad- 
 versary in the lists. He dares him to a trial of 
 strength and skill ; he challenges him to enter a 
 legal action against him. He is assured that he 
 can put all disputants to silence. He is willing to 
 meet foot to foot, or shoulder to shoulder, with any 
 adversary who dares contend with him. 
 
 Claims such as these every believer may make. 
 Christ speaks in their name ; he speaks as their 
 fearless champion. Who dares be an enemy to 
 those to whom Christ is a friend ? Who dares con- 
 tend with him for whom Christ appears as advo- 
 cate ? Let us once more ring out the defiant chal- 
 lenge of the Apostle Paul, " Who shall lay any- 
 thing to the charge of God's elect ? ' ' These are 
 stirring words. They sound like the blast of 
 a trumpet; they stir the blood like strains of 
 martial music. We have been too timid and mod- 
 est ; we have too often asked the pardon of all 
 creation for daring to be followers of the Lord 
 Jesus. We ought to defy the world, the flesh, and 
 the devil. We owe the devil nothing but con- 
 tempt and disobedience. Christ overcame him, 
 and in Christ we also may overcome. All our 
 
256 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 enemies, as we are here taught, "shall wax old as 
 a garment " ; and the L,ord Christ shall survive all 
 their opposition. His cause shall live and his 
 truth shall triumph, but his foes shall perish. 
 
 Once more we stand in the presence of this 
 divine preacher, Let the voice of the earthly 
 preacher be forgotten ; let his presence be unseen. 
 Behold him who spake as never man spake ; be- 
 hold him in all the glory of his humanity, and in 
 all the immaculate purity of his divinity. Behold 
 him as the babe in Bethlehem, as the boy in Jeru- 
 salem, as the beloved Son in the waters of baptism, 
 as the divine physician and as the good shepherd. 
 Behold him bowing in Gethsemane's garden, hang- 
 ing on Calvary's cross, rising from Joseph's tomb, 
 and ascending to his vacant place on the Father's 
 throne ! I ask you, in his sacred presence and by 
 his divine authority, " What will ye do with 
 Jesus, who is called the Christ ? " Oh, receive him 
 as your Saviour. Sit at his feet as your divine 
 teacher, then you also shall have the tongue of 
 the learned, shall speak seasonable words to the 
 weary, and shall finally triumph over every adver- 
 sary, coming off more than conquerors through 
 him who has loved you and given himself for you. 
 
XVI 
 THE HURRYING ANGEL 
 
". . . Run, speak to this young man. . ." Zecha- 
 
 riah 2 : 4. 
 
XVI 
 
 WE see by the sixteenth verse of the preceding 
 chapter that the prophet was instructed to 
 tell the people that a line should be stretched forth 
 upon Jerusalem ; in the immediate context we see 
 that this prophecy was fulfilled. In vision the 
 prophet sees a man going forth to measure Jerusa- 
 lem. This sight naturally awakens his curiosity. 
 We know that Nehemiah received a commission 
 from Artaxerxes L,ongimanus to build up the 
 walls of Jerusalem. It was expected that so 
 numerous would the inhabitants be that they 
 could not be contained within the ancient limits 
 of the city. Just as Moscow, Quebec, and other 
 walled cities of the world have greatly overflowed 
 their original limits, so would this larger Jerusa- 
 lem overflow the limits of the earlier time and 
 city. The sight of the man with the measuring 
 line leads to earnest inquiry. Perhaps the man 
 thus seen was Nehemiah. The thought indeed 
 may be lifted to the true Master Builder for his 
 church, he who builds by the line, the square, and 
 the level. In answer to the prophet's inquiry, the 
 reply comes that the man seen with the measur- 
 ing line is going forth to measure Jerusalem. 
 
 You will observe that one angel talked with the 
 prophet, and soon another angel came forth, it 
 
 259 
 
26o QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 may be from the Lord, to meet him and to tell 
 him to hasten to the yonng man who has the 
 measuring line, informing him that it is unneces- 
 sary to measure the old limits of the city. Who 
 the young man in the text is, is a matter of con- 
 siderable dispute. Some affirm that he is the 
 prophet Zechariah, others that he is the "man 
 with a measuring line," referred to in the first 
 verse. The design of the whole scene is to im- 
 press the mind of the prophet with the great pro- 
 mise of God respecting the growth of the new 
 city in itself, and especially of that city as pro- 
 phetic of the spiritual Zion of which it was the 
 earthly symbol. One angel desired the other to 
 explain the vision to the young man lest it should 
 awaken fear in his mind. So urgent is this mes- 
 sage that he exclaims to the other, in the words of 
 the text, "Run, speak to this young man." Let 
 us consider this remarkable message, beginning 
 with the latter rather than the earlier part of the 
 same. 
 
 It is to be noticed, in the first place, that it is a 
 message from one angel to another on behalf 
 of a particular young man, "Run, speak to this 
 young many We need not be surprised that 
 angels are represented as taking so great an inter- 
 est in this particular young man. We are distinctly 
 taught that they are "all ministering spirits sent 
 forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of 
 salvation." In the particular instance before us, 
 their ministry was on behalf of a young man who 
 
THE HURRYING ANGEL 26l 
 
 was a prophet, if the latter interpretation above 
 given as to the young man is correct. The name 
 Zechariah signifies " one whom Jehovah remem- 
 bers." He seems to have entered upon his office 
 in his early youth. But God honored him by 
 giving him his mission in an interesting period in 
 the history of Israel. His mission had a special 
 reference to the affairs of his countrymen, who 
 had been restored to their own land. He exer- 
 cised the priestly, as well as the prophetic, office, 
 as is generally supposed. He was called of God 
 to stir up the flagging zeal of the people that their 
 restoration to their own land and their work in 
 rebuilding the temple might be a time of national 
 enthusiasm and religious consecration. The angel 
 desired to comfort him in his perplexity regarding 
 the vision of the man with the measuring line. 
 
 We may be well assured that angels care for 
 young men and women ; in this respect angels 
 exercise sound common sense. Young men and 
 women are worth caring for ; and the church that 
 is indifferent to them is unworthy of the divine 
 Master. Jesus Christ gave the life-blood of a 
 young man for the salvation of the world. Great 
 numbers of young men and women have achieved 
 in early youth wonderful things for God and hu- 
 manity. In the nature of the case comparatively 
 young Christians must be leaders in the great 
 movements for Christ and the church. This truth 
 is wonderfully illustrated in the great organiza- 
 tions of young people in the churches of to-day — 
 
262 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 the Kp worth League, the Baptist Young People's 
 Union, and the Christian Endeavor Societies, all 
 organizations of mighty and of even incalculable 
 power. The activity of young men and women 
 is one of the marked features in the religious his- 
 tory of the hour. It is a movement which will 
 grow to still greater dimensions during the clos- 
 ing years of the present century. 
 
 Comparatively few appreciate how much of the 
 world's work has been done by men and women 
 while still young. This remark applies to literary, 
 as well as to distinctively religious, achievements. 
 We know that Byron and Raphael died at .thirty- 
 seven after having made for themselves imperish- 
 able names. Raphael's death occurred on his 
 thirty-seventh birthday. As his " Transfigura- 
 tion " was his greatest, so it was his last work. 
 It was carried before his funeral procession 
 through the streets of Rome when his body was 
 borne to the Pantheon. We know that Jefferson 
 was chosen to draft the Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence when he was but thirty-three ; that Payne 
 wrote his " Home, Sweet Home " before he was 
 thirty ; that Southey composed more verses before 
 he was thirty than he afterward wrote during his 
 long life of letters ; that Robert Pollock wrote 
 his "Course of Time" before he was twenty- 
 eight ; that Toplady wrote his " Rock of Ages," 
 a hymn which will make his name immortal, at 
 twenty-seven ; that Napoleon at twenty-seven 
 executed his great march into Italy,- winning the 
 
THE HURRYING ANGEL 263 
 
 right to be considered the foremost captain of the 
 world ; that Calvin at twenty-seven wrote his im- 
 mortal " Institutes," which have so largely shaped 
 the religious thinking of the church ; that 
 Dickens gave us his u Oliver Twist" at twenty- 
 six ; that at twenty-five Luther had attained fame 
 as a Reformer, and Newton made some of his 
 great discoveries before he was twenty-five ; that 
 Whitefield attained fame as a preacher and leader 
 in revivals at twenty-four ; that John Milton before 
 twenty-four did much of his imperishable work ; 
 and that at the same age Ruskin wrote his five 
 volumes of u Modern Painters"; that Words- 
 worth at twenty-three published his " Descriptive 
 Sketches " ; that at twenty-two Longfellow was 
 a university professor, and had already written 
 some of his noblest poems, and that Lowell at the 
 same age published his first volume ; that Pope at 
 twenty-one wrote his " Essay on Criticism," that 
 at twenty-one Melancthon gained the Greek chair 
 at Wittenberg, and at the same age Henry Kirke 
 White had already written his name high among 
 the poets of the world ; that Pitt, Bolingbroke, 
 and Gladstone were members of Parliament 
 almost before they had attained their majority ; 
 that Campbell wrote his " Pleasures of Hope " at 
 twenty-one, and at the same age Robert Brown- 
 ing his "Pauline"; that the fabled Romulus 
 founded Rome at twenty ; that Euripides wrote a 
 tragedy of rare merit at eighteen, and Tasso his 
 " Rinaldo " at the same age ; that at eighteen 
 
264 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 Alexander the Great won distinction in battle and 
 at twenty-one ruled the world ; that Tennyson 
 wrote his first volume at the same age, and at 
 nineteen gained a medal at Cambridge ; that 
 while still in his teens Charles Haddon Spurgeon 
 was filling the world with his own fame and with 
 the glory of his Lord and Master ; that Shelley 
 was only seventeen when he uttered so much of 
 his soul in u Queen Mab " ; that Robert Burns 
 began his '" Sin of Rhyme " at sixteen, though he 
 ended it considerably later in life ; that Victor 
 Hugo wrote a tragedy at fifteen, and before he was 
 twenty took three prizes at the Academy, and 
 gained the title of Master ; that Moore published 
 in a Dublin magazine a sonnet at fourteen ; that 
 Bryant wrote much at thirteen, although he gave 
 us his masterpiece, " Thanatopsis, M at twenty- 
 two ; and that Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote 
 prose and poetry at ten, and published a vol- 
 ume of poems at seventeen. 
 
 Fable has affirmed that Hercules while a youth 
 performed his "Twelve Labors." While still 
 young, John the Baptist and the apostles of Jesus 
 achieved glorious results for God and man. And 
 it was as a young man that Christ lived and 
 labored for a lost world ; it was the life-blood of a 
 young man which he poured out on the cross for 
 the world's salvation. In the vigor, freshness, 
 and bloom of young manhood, he lived, died, and 
 rose again. Had he lived to be old and feeble, 
 the effect to human view would be disastrous. 
 
THE HURRYING ANGEL 265 
 
 And as a young man, the God-man, he sits on his 
 mediatorial throne to plead for young men who 
 will accept his proffered love. 
 
 We notice, in the second place, that it was a 
 message which was to be verbally delivered — 
 " speak to this young man." There are times 
 when perhaps we ought simply to pray for the con- 
 version of those committed to our care. Doubt- 
 less sometimes there is nothing more that we 
 can do. Absence from them and other causes 
 may make it impossible for us to come into closer 
 touch with those whom we would win to Christ. 
 We may be sure that we ought always to pray for 
 the conversion of those whom we are likely to in- 
 fluence. Paul and Silas in the prison at Philippi 
 had no means of communication with their fellow- 
 prisoners except by way of God's throne. We 
 read that " praying, they hymned God." This is 
 the literal translation of the words descriptive of 
 their songs and praises. Their praise and prayer 
 were one act. Perhaps they chanted some of the 
 Psalms of David, thus voicing their hearts' desires 
 unto God. Their prayer, thus offered, was heard 
 not only by God, but by the prisoners in their 
 cells. That certainly was a night to be much re- 
 membered. The old jail probably never before 
 heard such " songs in the night," as on that occa- 
 sion ; although Paul and Silas could not speak in 
 the ordinary method through the gloomy parti- 
 tioned walls, yet they could sing their praises and 
 prayers unto God, and in this roundabout way, 
 
 x 
 
266 QUICK TRUTHS EN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 they could reach the hearts of their fellow-pris- 
 oners. There was no wall that could separate be- 
 tween their praying hearts in jail, and their listen- 
 ing Father in heaven. The prayers and praises 
 thus sent upward came downward on the other 
 side of the wail and fell as good seed into good 
 soil. We can always pray for those whom we 
 would see brought to Christ. The way between 
 our hearts and God's throne may be always open. 
 If in these days we ortener took our unconverted 
 friends in the arms of believing prayer, many 
 more of them would be brought to a saving 
 knowledge of Jesus Christ. 
 
 There are aiso times when W2 can best reach 
 the hearts of those whom we desire converted by 
 writing to them. In this way timid souls can 
 often best express their deepest thoughts. The 
 heart can sometimes best go out through the pen. 
 Many a man or woman has not the courage to 
 speak to the unconverted face to face. When the 
 attempt is made their thoughts falter and their 
 words are hesitant. They cannot do themselves, 
 their cause, and their Master justice. But such 
 timid souls may often pour out their hearts in a 
 letter with a fullness and tenderness which will 
 surprise even themselves. A letter thus written 
 will sometimes come to the reader in his medita- 
 tive hours. It may find him alone with his own 
 heart and with his God. The letter will speak to 
 him a^ain and a^ain. He mav throw it down, he 
 
 o o 
 
 may trample upon it with his foot, he may crush 
 
THE HURRYING ANGEL 267 
 
 it with his hand, but it will not rebuke him ex- 
 cept by its appearance as silently it beseeches him 
 for his attention. It will remain under his eye as 
 he moves about his room, adjusts his books, and 
 examines his correspondence. It will, by its 
 silent presence, insist on being read, and perhaps 
 re-read. Then too, there will come a time when 
 it must be answered. He must treat the writer of 
 the letter with courtesy. What answer can be 
 given ? What reply can he make to the expres- 
 sions of tender feeling and to the heart's search- 
 ing questions contained in the letter? God may 
 make that letter an angel of mercy, a communi- 
 cation from his own throne, a benediction from 
 his own heart. God may in all these ways speak 
 to the careless soul. Let us lose no opportunity 
 in striving to reach men for their good and for 
 God's glory. 
 
 Fathers and mothers, write to your absent sons 
 and daughters ! Where are your boys and girls 
 to-night ? Are they in distant cities, in school, 
 in business, or in the fascinations of social life ? 
 Let a message speedily go from your heart to 
 their hearts. Young men and women, you are 
 here in New York, and your fathers and mothers 
 are in the quiet country home. When have you 
 written to them ? Have you answered their last 
 tender and beseeching letter ? Answer it at once ! 
 Tell them that you have given your hearts to 
 God. Assure them that you are walking in Wis- 
 dom's ways, whicli are ways of pleasantness, and 
 
268 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 whose paths are peace. Such a letter will give 
 joy unspeakable to your parents in your old home ; 
 such a letter will cause joy in heaven among the 
 angels of God. Sunday-school teachers, have you 
 written to the members of your class? Some of 
 the boys and girls have been absent for several 
 Sundays. Have they become indifferent? Are 
 they ill ? Some of them perhaps are waiting to 
 have you lead them to Christ. Write them at 
 once ! Pour out your heart in love and your 
 letter will be eloquent. Coining from the heart 
 of a loving and prayerful teacher it will reach the 
 heart alike of the indifferent and the thoughtful 
 pupil, and you may thus see them led to Christ. 
 Be all things to all men, as was the Apostle Paul, 
 if by any means you may win some to the Lord 
 Jesus. 
 
 But it is a great thing to be able to speak to 
 men face to face about their relations to God. It 
 often requires courage to do so. It is compara- 
 tively easy to preach against sin and sinners with- 
 out having any particular sin or sinners in mind. 
 It is quite another thing to come close to the un- 
 converted and urge them at once to submit to 
 Jesus Christ. This requires decision, courage, 
 sometimes positive heroism. We need constantly 
 to emphasize the importance of hand-to-hand 
 work for the Lord Jesus. There is no work so 
 fruitful as this. A Roman youth complained to 
 his father that his sword was too short. ' ' Add a 
 step to it," said his father. The Bible is the 
 
THE HURRYING ANGEL 269 
 
 sword of the Spirit ; if we are to use it well we 
 must come into close quarters. It is a great 
 thing to be able to speak to men about God. So 
 speaking the tongue finds its highest use. Then 
 the voice, the eye, the hand, and the heart, all be- 
 come eloquent to God. Such words when in- 
 spired by the love of Christ, are irresistible. God 
 will give skill to men to speak for truth. Love 
 has a logic of its own. Love becomes irresistible 
 when it voices itself in behalf of truth and God. 
 When have you spoken to man, woman, or child 
 on behalf of Christ? Have you done it to-day? 
 Did you do it in the past week ? Oh, speak such 
 words now. This may be your golden oppor- 
 tunity ; this may be your only opportunity. 
 
 We notice, in the last place, that this was a 
 message given and delivered in haste — " run" 
 said the one angel to the other. The haste was 
 due to sympathy with the young man. He did 
 not understand the significance of the vision of 
 the man with the measuring line. Perhaps that 
 vision was prophetic of evil. His mind was thus 
 disturbed, and the angel desired speedily to relieve 
 his perplexity. Why keep him longer in sus- 
 pense? Angels have sympathy with the honest 
 doubts of honest young men. Have not we? 
 Look about you and you will find some one to 
 whom you can run with some message for God. 
 Let the love of Christ constrain you, and you also 
 will haste to deliver some message for the Master. 
 
 There is need of haste, because character is 
 
270 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 soon formed. It is formed sooner far than most 
 of us think. At the age of seven many a child 
 has received its trend for life and for eternity. 
 Before the power of speech is acquired, children 
 form ideas. At that early age they may receive 
 lasting impressions. You are ofcen startled at 
 hearing them repeat words which you dropped in 
 their presence, and which they seemed not to 
 hear. Who can rightly estimate the importance 
 of giving the young a proper direction and inspi- 
 ration in their early youth ? Youth is indeed the 
 time to begin to serve God. The word of God 
 makes special promise to those who are young in 
 years. Then the mind receives its most perma- 
 nent and profitable impressions. Oh, haste to de- 
 liver the message to the boys and girls of to-day. 
 They will be the men and women of to-morrow. 
 They will be then leaders in the great business 
 enterprises of the world, pillars in the church, or 
 leaders in sin. May God in heaven help us to 
 help them to-day. 
 
 There should be haste, also, in speaking to the 
 young because the opportunity of speaking at all 
 may soon be beyond our reach. Where are to- 
 day the boys who began with me in my pastorate 
 twenty-five years ago ? To-day they are men. 
 To-day some of them are at the ends of the earth. 
 To-day some never go to the house of God. To- 
 day others are earnest preachers of Jesus Christ, 
 some in different parts of our own country, and 
 some in several lands bevond the seas. Some have 
 
THE HURRYING ANGEL 27 1 
 
 consecrated their lives to God on mission fields ; 
 some are leaders in law, in medicine, in other pro- 
 fessions, and in various commercial enterprises. My 
 heart mi^ht almost break with anxietv as I think 
 of the possibility of having failed to influence them 
 aright. For some of them I thank God morning, 
 noon, and night. They are the crown of my re- 
 joicing. They shall shine as stars in the crown 
 of Jesus Christ Time flies ; opportunities pass 
 away; to-day may be the only opportunity to 
 speak to some soul for Christ. All this congrega- 
 tion will never be assembled again on earth. 
 Some of you I shall not meet again until we meet 
 at the judgment seat. I run to you now with a 
 message from God. Oh, young men and women, 
 remember now your Creator in the days of your 
 youth ! Lay your young hearts at his feet, giving 
 him the dew of youth, the strength of mature life, 
 and the glory of old age. If you so submit to Christ 
 I shall be as an angelic messenger to you to-day, 
 having brought this message from Christ, and 
 then shall pastor and people rejoice, as at the last 
 they together cast their crowns at the feet of their 
 Lord and King. 
 
 We do not perhaps appreciate our young people 
 as we ought. Possibly we get out of sympathy 
 with them. It is so easy to do this as the years 
 hurry us onward. Perhaps we disparage them 
 somewhat in our thought. The temptation to do 
 this is great. The men of one's own generation 
 are apt to seem greater to him than those of its 
 
272 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 successor. But we need not fear any such deteri- 
 oration. God has always been able to raise up 
 men equal to all the emergencies confronting 
 them. He will do so still, and the boys and girls 
 of to-day will not be less than worthy of those 
 who have preceded them. Let us see to it that 
 we are factors in the making of them so. 
 
XVII 
 THE WOODEN OR IRON YOKES. 
 
V, 
 
 
 " Go and tell Haiianiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord ; 
 Thou hast broken the yokes of wood ; but thou shall make 
 for them yokes of iron." Jeremiah 28 : 13. 
 
XVII 
 
 TRUTH and falsehood are ever in an irrepres- 
 sible conflict; the messengers of God and 
 the emissaries of Satan must be in open hostility. 
 Wherever there is a true prophet there will be a 
 false prophet ; wherever there is Christ there will 
 be antichrist. Jeremiah had charged the prophet 
 who foretold a speedy victory over the king 
 of Babylon, with uttering lies. In the chapter 
 from which the text is taken Hananiah, one of 
 these false prophets, contradicts Jeremiah, and 
 affirms that Nebuchadnezzar's power would soon 
 be overthrown, and that the vessels of the sanctu- 
 ary, which had been carried away, would be re- 
 turned. Jeremiah preached in act as well as in 
 word. 
 
 In order to illustrate the bondage into which 
 the people of God should fall, he put a yoke upon 
 his own neck ; and now in order to illustrate the 
 falsity of Jeremiah's prophecies, Hananiah broke 
 the yoke which was on Jeremiah's neck. As a 
 true patriot, Jeremiah wished that the words of 
 the false prophet might prove true ; but as a true 
 prophet he knew that these words were false and 
 that Israel was doomed. He knew that Jeconiah, 
 the other captives, and the vessels of the temple 
 could not be brought back in two years ; indeed, 
 
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2~6 QUICK TRUTHS IX QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 he knew sadly that the yoke of the king of Baby- 
 lon should be so firmly bound on the neck of 
 Israel that the vessels and captives would not re- 
 turn for seventy years. 
 
 There is a vast difference between the prophe- 
 cies of true and false prophets. Jeremiah spoke 
 with loftiness of expression and simplicity of 
 spirit ; but Hananiah spoke with personal as- 
 sertion and impious affirmation. As a faithful 
 prophet Jeremiah must foretell the destruction of 
 Jerusalem, although as a true Israelite he might 
 pray for its preservation. He submitted humbly 
 to the insolence of the false prophet, but he 
 strongly affirmed his former prophecies ; and now 
 after the insolence of Hananiah, the word of God 
 in the mouth of Jeremiah is ratified. Hananiah 
 broke the yoke of wood, but Jeremiah solemnly 
 affirms that instead of bearing on their necks 
 yokes of wood, God would make for them yokes 
 of iron, and that with sorrow they should serve 
 the king of Babylon. This iron yoke the}* would 
 not be able to shake off, however vigorously they 
 mio-ht struggle. Thev must suffer lon^ and oriev- 
 ously for their sins. Hananiah cannot escape 
 responsibility for his false prophecy ; he is sen- 
 tenced to die for contradicting the words of Jeho- 
 vah in the mouth of Jeremiah. He cheated the 
 people and he affronted God ; he made the people 
 to trust in a lie, and he endeavored to make God 
 the author of that lie. He taught the people re- 
 bellion against the Lord ; and he himself was the 
 
THE WOODEN OR IRON YOKES 277 
 
 leader in that rebellion. God was obliged to say: 
 " I will cast thee from off the face of the earth ; 
 this year thou shalt die because thou hast taught 
 rebellion against the L,ord." These are solemn 
 words, and they were solemnly fulfilled ; for we 
 read " so Hananiah the prophet died the same 
 year, in the seventh month." We thus see that 
 he died within the two months after the delivery 
 of his false prophecy, for that was dated on the 
 fifth month. His death was foretold as the pun- 
 ishment of his sin ; it was a testimony from 
 heaven against him because of his false prophecy 
 and in honor of Jeremiah because of the truths 
 which he uttered. 
 
 The words of God through the lips of Jeremiah 
 regarding the fate of Israel set forth a profoundly 
 important principle. All men must wear some 
 form of yoke, and those who will not wear the 
 wooden yoke of obedience to God must wear the 
 iron yoke of submission to Satan. To illustrate 
 and to apply this truth and principle is the special 
 object of this discourse. Three classes of yokes 
 come upon us in our varied relations in life. In 
 the Epistle to Titus we have the exhortation to 
 " live soberly, righteously, and godly in this pres- 
 ent world." The word "soberly" teaches us to 
 exercise a due restraint on all our passions and 
 propensities. We have in this threefold exhorta- 
 tion three ever-widening circles of duty. The first 
 circle simply includes duty to ourselves ; the next 
 circle includes the duty we owe to our fellow-men ; 
 
 Y 
 
278 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 and the third is larger still, setting forth our duty 
 to God. This last circle properly includes the 
 two preceding circles. We must bear yokes in 
 these threefold relations in life. Nothing is more 
 certain than that God, in his infinite wisdom, has 
 put wooden yokes on us in relation to ourselves. 
 
 There is the wooden yoke of industry ; if we 
 will not bear this yoke we must wear the iron 
 yoke of poverty. Religion is the friend of indus- 
 try and of all other virtues ; religion is the foe of 
 indolence and of all other vices. The necessity 
 of work is not so much a curse as it is a blessing. 
 Adam worked in Kden before he sinned ; he was 
 required, even in a state of innocence, to dress the 
 garden and keep it. The Apostle Paul became 
 righteously indignant at the Thessalonian idlers, 
 and declares that if they will not work neither 
 shall they eat. Jesus Christ was himself the 
 mighty worker ; he affirmed that he must work 
 while the day lasted. He often reached the full 
 measure of his strength, and experienced fatigue 
 even as do workers now. Happy are the men 
 who have been taught to bear the yoke of indus- 
 try in their youth. The necessity to work has 
 saved many a man from making shipwreck of his 
 life. Every man should be taught, especially if 
 lie is possessed of great wealth, that he owes 
 solemn obligations to his generation. There is 
 danger in America that we are raising up a class 
 of young men whose only aim in life is to have 
 what they call "a good time," and recklessly to 
 
THE WOODEN OR IRON YOKES 279 
 
 spend the wealth, which their fathers foolishly 
 hoarded. There is danger in America that we 
 are raising an aristocracy of wealth which will be 
 a far greater curse to our country than is an aris- 
 tocracy of name and fame in some countries of the 
 Old World. The old French motto, " Noblesse 
 oblige" should exercise its full meaning over the 
 sons and daughters of wealth in different parts of 
 our broad land. Great responsibility rests upon 
 the children of wealth ; correspondingly great 
 possibilities for good or evil are before them. 
 They cannot set aside the responsibilities which 
 their possessions impose. They ought to realize 
 that they are to be stewards of God to bring bless- 
 ings to men. If they live lives of self-indulgence, 
 even though they do not descend to the commis- 
 sion of grosser sins, they are unworthy of their 
 position in American society and of their respon- 
 sibility as the possessors of wealth. 
 
 The duty of the millionaire a generation ago 
 was never discussed ; practically we had no mil- 
 lionaires until a comparatively recent period ; but 
 this duty now is one which the pulpit and the 
 press must emphasize. Men of wealth must be 
 held to a strict accountability for their obligations 
 to God and man. A man died recently in the 
 vicinity of New York leaving over ten million 
 dollars ; of this sum he gave ten thousand to all 
 the causes of God and man in the world. A man 
 died recently in the vicinity of Boston leaving 
 eight million dollars ; of all his wealth he left not 
 
280 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 one dollar to any cause of God or man. Such 
 men are unprepared to die ; such men will have a 
 fearful reckoning at the judgment seat of Christ. 
 They do much toward fanning the flames of 
 anarchy in the American Republic. If they do 
 not become a blessing, they will be a vast curse 
 to America in the near future. 
 
 We are also to wear the wooden yoke of so- 
 briety. We must exercise a proper control over 
 all passions, purposes, and endeavors. If we throw 
 off the wooden yoke of soberness, we shall have to 
 wear the iron yoke of drunkenness. If there is a 
 slave beneath God's heavens, it is the drunkard ; 
 if there is a man to be pitied of angels and of 
 God, it is he on whose soul is laid this terrible 
 iron yoke. That yoke will certainly become 
 heated in the furnace of fierce desire, a furnace 
 which is itself heated of hell. We have rightly 
 blamed the saloon-keepers who make drunkards ; 
 but we have not sufficiently blamed, and have oc- 
 casionally only pitied the man who makes him- 
 self a drunkard. He is guilty at the bar of hu- 
 manity, and will be guilty at the judgment seat 
 of Christ for becoming a drunkard. Xo drunkard 
 shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. We must 
 emphasize the sin of drunkenness. We have 
 rightly blamed the liquor sellers ; we must also 
 justly blame the liquor drinkers. Even* man 
 who is made at all makes himself; with equal 
 truth it may be said that every man who is un- 
 made unmakes himself. No man can be made a 
 
THE WOODEN OR IRON YOKES 28 1 
 
 drunkard except by his own consent ; and every 
 man must be held to a strict accountability for 
 giving that consent. No man can degrade us if 
 we do not yield ourselves to the influence of degra- 
 dation. We all know that indulgence in strong 
 drink breaks down the walls of personal resist- 
 ance ; that it destroys the will-power of men until 
 at last they become the victims of strong drink 
 and of the diseases which it brings. But at the 
 outset at least they are responsible for yielding to 
 these dangerous and Satanic influences, and for 
 that yielding they must be held responsible. 
 We smile at the so-called Industrial Army that 
 marched on Washington ; but if the subject were 
 not so solemn we might smile as well as weep at 
 the army of drunkards passing through the world 
 in dishonor, and going down to eternal perdition. 
 God help men and women now to throw off this 
 terrible yoke ! Soon it will be bound with clamps, 
 not upon the neck only, but also upon the soul of 
 the wretched victim of intemperance. 
 
 God lays upon us all the wooden yoke of 
 purity. If we throw off this yoke we must wear 
 the iron yoke of sensuality and viciousness. It is 
 a horrible thing to become the slave of evil, the 
 victim of vice, the candidate of dishonor on earth, 
 and a child of perdition in eternity ! We ought 
 to bless God for the yoke which restrains us from 
 evil, and thereby blesses us with good. Liberty 
 is not license ; liberty is obedience to just laws. 
 The man who tramples upon just laws does not 
 
2S2 QUICK TRUTHS IX QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 enjoy wholesome liberty, but indulges in danger- 
 ous license. No man has a right to do as he likes, 
 unless he likes to do right. Xo man can break 
 God's great eternal laws ; he can run against 
 them, and they will break him. It is he and 
 not they that will be broken. Men ought to be 
 glad to-day with wonderful joy who wear the 
 beautiful, radiant, and heavenly yoke of purity. 
 The whole nation has been humiliated and hu- 
 manity has been dishonored by grievous sins in 
 high places. When the yoke of purity is thrown 
 off the yoke of abominable grossness takes its 
 place, and men and women become slaves to sin, 
 and soon are both despised and pitied by them- 
 selves, by their fellow-men, by angels, and by God. 
 In wearing the yoke of purity we are yoked with 
 Christ, for this is a double yoke. We may walk 
 in blessed companionship with him, the perfect 
 man, Son of God and Son of Man. 
 
 In the larger circle there are yokes of wood to 
 be borne in our social relations. Civilization is 
 itself a yoke, but of wood rather than of iron. 
 Society necessitates the giving up of certain so- 
 called rights in order that we may enjoy the privi- 
 leges which society offers. City life restricts cer- 
 tain privileges which country life affords ; but 
 city life gives us other privileges far in excess of 
 those of which we have denied ourselves. All 
 life contemplates the idea of self-sacrifice. Every 
 higher good implies the abandonment of lower 
 eood in our relations with our fellow-men. We 
 
THE WOODEN OR IRON YOKES 283 
 
 must consider their rights as well as our own. 
 All life is preceded by some form of death. 
 Every social privilege implies the abandonment 
 of some personal right. Every good driver on 
 Broadway and Fifth Avenue has not only to look 
 out for his own team, but for all other teams 
 driving on the same street. No good citizen can 
 afford to be indifferent to the welfare of all other 
 citizens. We must bear the wooden yoke of civ- 
 ilization or wear the iron yoke of barbarism. 
 
 We must wear the wooden yoke of good citi- 
 zenship, or we shall have to wear the iron yoke of 
 a contemptible bossism. If we do not stand up 
 for our rights, we shall have to cringe at the feet 
 of coarse, ignorant, unpatriotic, and un-American 
 political masters. The issue is distinctly before 
 us. The ruling classes in many of our great cities 
 have ruled so wickedly that their conduct has 
 brought dishonor on republican institutions 
 throughout the world. Shall our American citi- 
 zens ever rise to the performance of their duties 
 as patriotic citizens, joyfully wearing the wooden 
 yoke of Americanism, rather than the hard, 
 rough, cruel, iron yoke of an unpatriotic for- 
 eignism ? 
 
 We must also wear the wooden yoke of law, or 
 the iron yoke of anarchy. This issue also is dis- 
 tinctly before us at this moment. We are hu- 
 miliated by the riots and terrible outbreaks in so 
 many parts of our country ; we seem to be in a 
 period of peculiar lawlessness. Hungarians, Slavs, 
 
284 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 and other foreigners of like character have been 
 making the coke regions of Pennsylvania scenes 
 of Satanic outbreaks. Companies have marched 
 from shop to shop and made men join their riot- 
 ous ranks at the risk of their lives. Thousands 
 of tons of coke have been destroyed, and some 
 precious lives have been sacrificed. The place to 
 begin to stop these outbreaks is Castle Garden. 
 We must insist upon qualification, and so limitation, 
 in immigration. This country must not longer 
 be made the dumping ground for the worst popu- 
 lations of Europe. Anarchy is an iron yoke 
 which is sure to be heated white hot, and which 
 will burn its way into the very heart of all that is 
 noblest, sweetest, and purest in American civili- 
 zation. The ballot-box is the ark of the cove- 
 nant of the American Republic. Palsied be the 
 hand that deposits a false ballot and the tongue 
 that makes a false count ! Thank God, the better 
 spirit of American patriotism is rising, and it will 
 roll over this land with an irresistible wave. Let 
 us all willingly accept the wooden yoke of just 
 law, so that we shall not unwillingly bow our 
 heads to accept the iron yoke of anarchy. 
 
 But the circle still enlarges. We must wear 
 either the wooden yoke of obedience to God, or 
 the iron yoke of submission to Satan. If we 
 shall not bear this wooden yoke we shall be like 
 Adam, driven from the paradise of privilege and 
 possibility. We must wear the yoke of faith or 
 the iron yoke of doubt. Doubt is boyhood ; faith 
 
THE WOODEN OR IRON YOKES 285 
 
 is manhood. Doubt is the gray dawn of the 
 morning ; faith is the splendor of the noonday 
 sun. Doubt is imperfect attainment ; faith is 
 the crown of noblest culture. Refusing to wear 
 the wooden yoke of reason, we shall have to wear 
 the iron yoke of unreason. The man who does 
 not believe in Jesus Christ is not rational ; the 
 truest rationalist is the humblest believer. He is 
 unworthy the noble name of rationalist who with- 
 holds his faith and love from Jesus Christ. Men 
 who will not believe in God are ready to believe 
 in ghosts ; men who will not believe the Bible are 
 ready to believe in dreams and in all other vaga- 
 ries. Caligula, savage, capricious, and fantastic 
 as he was in wickedness, mocked at the existence 
 of any deity, but was accustomed to hide under a 
 bed when it thundered. Reasonless credulity and 
 a groundless infidelity are always twin brothers. 
 No men are so insanely credulous regarding hu- 
 man follies as are those who are insanely incredu- 
 lous regarding Divine revelations. Men who will 
 not believe in the Bible will believe the ravings 
 of a fortune-teller and in the communications of 
 mediums of shady reputations, who affirm that 
 Shakespeare is speaking in their wretched dog- 
 gerel, Milton in their unrhythmic verses, John 
 Bright in their bombastic speeches, and Macau- 
 lay in their ungrammatical prose. 
 
 Men who will not wear the wooden yoke of 
 revelation, must wear the iron yoke of tradition. 
 There is a vast amount of traditionalism in many 
 
286 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 so-called Christian creeds. It is not too much to 
 say that heathenism still exists in many corrupt 
 forms of Christianity. Certain branches of the 
 Christian church have swung away from the fun- 
 damental principles of Protestantism. " The Bible, 
 and the Bible only, the religion of Protestant- 
 ism," are the words of Chillingworth. This prin- 
 ciple has received the endorsement of Protestants 
 generally. But unfortunately the words of this 
 famous theologian of the Church of England, who 
 had been led into, and finally out of, the traditions 
 of Romanism, are practically contradicted by the 
 principles and practices of many men of his own 
 church. The belief in purgatory is an ancient 
 form of heathenism carried over into Christianity. 
 It is not found in the word of God, and is not in 
 harmony with sound reason. Without doubt the 
 elements of this unscriptural doctrine are found in 
 certain forms of Judaism and also in certain forms 
 of Persian heathenism. The learned Neander in 
 tracing the historical or critical view of the gene- 
 sis of this doctrine, finds its source in the ancient 
 Persian doctrine of the purifying burning which 
 precedes the victory of Ormuzd. The Jews, it is 
 probable, received the doctrine from the Persians, 
 and it found its way into the ethical speculations 
 of early Christians from Jewish traditions. It was 
 in perfect harmony with certain philosophical no- 
 tions borrowed by the Gnostic Christians from 
 Neo-Platonism. The belief w T as that man was 
 inherently evil, and that if the body were to rise 
 
THE WOODEN OR IRON YOKES 287 
 
 from the dead it must be subjected to some form 
 of purification. 
 
 Many so-called Christian creeds are themselves 
 in great need of purification ; they ought to be 
 subjected to the purgatory of critical examination 
 in the light of Christian truth. Infant baptism 
 belongs to this class of errors. The moment a 
 church adopts infant baptism it ceases to be, ac- 
 cording to the usual definition of Protestantism, 
 a Protestant church ; it at once passes over to the 
 ground of Romanism and traditionalism. There 
 is absolutely no logical place for infant baptism 
 in an evangelical system of faith. Those who at- 
 tribute regenerating power to this rite are con- 
 sistent in its observance, although unscriptural ; 
 but those who deny this regenerating influence 
 are both unscriptural and inconsistent in its observ- 
 ance. Those who practise infant baptism must 
 either make more or less of the rite, or abandon 
 it altogether in order to retain even the semblance 
 of logical consistency. 
 
 It is a thousand pities that so many churches 
 practise, as an ordinance of the New Testament, 
 a rite for which, according to their own most 
 critical scholars, there is neither command for, 
 nor example of, in the word of God. The 
 practice of infant baptism to-day is without doubt 
 one of the most marked evidences of weak- 
 ness in modern Protestantism. No Protestant 
 church which observes this unscriptural ordi- 
 nance can consistently or successfully antagonize 
 
288 QUICK TRUTHS IX QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 the Roman Church. In the reco^niM:: of this 
 illogical and unscriptural rite Romanism and 
 Protestantism join hands under the guidance of 
 tradition. Would to God that men accepted con- 
 sistently the famous dictum of Chillingworth to 
 which we have referred; then would Pr ::e ; ::..::- 
 ism arise in her might and lead in the conquest of 
 the world for the recognition of the word of God 
 as the only rule of faith and practice in the church 
 of Christ. 
 
 Tradition is a cruel master ; it has wielded the 
 sceptre of persecution and of death through many 
 of the ages of the Christian church. When 
 churchianity takes the place of Christianity, then 
 many of the dearest interests of our holy faith are 
 at stake, and Christ is crucified afresh in the 
 house of his friends. Then formalism takes the 
 place of life, and the power of God to win vic- 
 tories becomes weakness in the presence of the 
 meanest foe. Sad it is that the substitution has 
 been so often made. 
 
 We must recognize either Christ or Satan as 
 master ; there is no middle ground between these 
 rivals to the throne of our hearts. Satan is still 
 the foe of Jesus Christ. Once he strove to secure 
 the allegiance of the Son of God, when he was 
 tempted in the wilderness ; then as always, Satan 
 was a liar. He could not have delivered the w : rl 3 
 to Christ even if Christ yielded him allegiance. 
 Jesus Christ and not Satan sits upon the thro::e of 
 the universe. Mighty as is the devil he is neyer- 
 
THE WOODEN OR IRON YOKES 289 
 
 theless the defeated foe of Zion's King, and his 
 leal subjects. If we stand with the triumphant 
 Christ we shall share in his glorious victory ; if 
 we yield to the traitorous solicitations of Satan we 
 shall share here in his partial defeat and hereafter 
 in his total overthrow. Every form of evil is on 
 the side of the devil ; every form of good is on 
 the side of Christ. When we yield to sin we 
 yield to Satan ; when we triumph over wrong we 
 stand with Christ in his heroic victory over the 
 kingdom of Satan. Blessed are they who wear 
 the easy yoke of Christ rather than the hard and 
 heavy yoke of Satan. We must wear either 
 Christ's yoke or Satan's. Which shall it be ? 
 Satan's yoke is iron ; Christ's is wood, perfectly 
 fitted by his love. Christ's yoke is easy, and his 
 burden is light ; Satan's yoke is hard and his bur- 
 den is heavy. Christ's yoke is such a burden as 
 " wings are to a bird, or sails to a ship." May 
 God help us to wear this yoke willingly, joyously, 
 and triumphantly ! May God save America from 
 individual license, from social anarchy, and from 
 the folly and crime of atheism ! May God save 
 America and the world from the sin of unbelief! 
 May God help each of you now to come as lost 
 men and women to the feet, the cross, and the 
 heart of Jesus Christ ! May the God of Jeremiah 
 be your God, and may you avoid the sin of Hana- 
 niah, and so his terrible fate. Here and now 
 sweetly realize the truth of Christ's blessed words, 
 " Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy 
 
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 laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke 
 upon you, and learn of me ; for I am meek and 
 lowly in heart ; and ye shall find rest unto your 
 souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is 
 light." 
 
XVIII 
 THE COWARDS IN BATTLE 
 
1 ' The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying; 
 bows, turned back in the day of battle. ' ' Psalms 78 : g. 
 
XVIII 
 
 THIS text is taken from the longest historical 
 psalm in the Psalter. In it the writer re- 
 capitulates the history of Israel from the exodus 
 to the final union of the tribes under David. It 
 seems clear that the psalm was written after the 
 revolt of the ten tribes, and the establishment of 
 the sovereignty in the tribe of Judah. In other 
 words, the psalm was written after the time of 
 David and Solomon. The text seems clearly to 
 indicate this fact, as does also the sixty-seventh 
 verse, in both of which " Ephraim," the chief 
 'of the ten tribes, is used to distinguish them 
 from "Judah." The psalm is an appeal to the 
 past, with the definite purpose of rebuking the in- 
 gratitude and rebellion of the people. That past 
 was marked at every point by displays of patience 
 and power on the part of God ; but it was equally 
 marked by manifestations of weakness and rebel- 
 lion on the part of the people. A review of the 
 history is intended to warn Judah and to rebuke 
 Ephraim. While the whole nation is rebuked, 
 the blame falls most heavily upon Ephraim as the 
 leader in the earlier apostasy of the people, and 
 as the type of a disobedient and rebellious spirit. 
 Perhaps the special design of the psalm is to 
 vindicate the choice of God in the rejection of 
 
 293 
 
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 Ephraim and in the selection of Judah as the head 
 of the nation. The rejection of the ten tribes, in 
 which Ephraim exercised a predominating in- 
 fluence, was due to their revolt from God. 
 
 We call attention, in the first place, to the 
 nominal character of these men — u the children of 
 Ephraim." This connection gave them the ad- 
 vantage of having had brave ancestors. It is 
 true that the numbers of the tribe do not appar- 
 ently fulfill the promise of the blessing of Jacob, 
 for at the census in the wilderness of Sinai its 
 numbers were but forty thousand five hundred. 
 Forty years later, on the eve of the conquest, 
 while Manasseh and Benjamin had advanced, 
 Ephraim had decreased, its numbers then being 
 but thirty-two thousand five hundred, the tribe 
 of Simeon being the only smaller tribe, and num- 
 bering twenty-two thousand two hundred. 
 
 Joshua, the son of Nun, was of the tribe of 
 Ephraim. This great and heroic leader gave the 
 tribe, notwithstanding the smallness of its num- 
 bers, a high position in the councils of the na- 
 tion. Doubtless the connection of the tribe with 
 Joshua tended also to give it the haughty spirit 
 and authoritative tone which it manifested on 
 many occasions. The word Ephraim stands in 
 the text for the ten tribes, Ephraim being the 
 chief. It is possible for men to be unworthy of 
 their noble ancestors. Unfortunately unworthy 
 sons of noble sires are only too common. The 
 descendants of Joshua, and other leaders, u in the 
 
THE COWARDS IN BATTLE 295 
 
 brave days of old," became cowards in time of 
 trial and acted unworthy alike of themselves and 
 their noble ancestors. The same principle is 
 too often illustrated in our own day. Noble an- 
 cestors are a great honor and should be a great 
 blessing. But when men act unworthy of their 
 high privileges, they sink to lower levels than 
 those who never enjoyed such privileges. Blood 
 is much ; grace is more. Parents can transmit 
 their vices, but not always their virtues. Divine 
 grace is a personal possession and a divine bestow- 
 ment. Happy are the children of godly parents, 
 when the God of their fathers becomes their God 
 by their own joyous choice, and by their daily, 
 loving, and loyal devotion to his service. 
 
 As children of Ephraim they also enjoyed great 
 advantages of location. The central situation of 
 Ephraim gave it opportunities of trade and 
 growth, denied to some of the other tribes. It 
 was on the highway of all communications from 
 one part of the country to another. It was in the 
 line of march from north to south, from the Jor- 
 dan to the sea, from distant Damascus even to 
 Egypt. The roads connecting these countries lay 
 in part through Ephraim, and thus constant traf- 
 fic was possible and actual between different 
 towns and countries. Shechem, the original set- 
 tlement of Jacob, was within the limits of the 
 tribe. Here was his historic well, here his " par- 
 cel of ground," and here the two sacred moun- 
 tains of Ebal and Gerizim, with all the historic 
 
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 memories of trie impressive ceremonial of bless- 
 ing and cursing. Within the tribe, likewise, was 
 Shiloh, where the ark remained from the time 
 of Joshua to that of Eli. Within its borders, 
 also, was the tomb of Joshua, not only the great 
 hero of Ephraim, but of the entire nation. It 
 was a great honor, and should have been a great 
 blessing to the tribe that these localities were 
 within its borders, localities suggestive of a glo- 
 rious past and prophetic of a still nobler future. 
 To these famous places the tribe would naturally 
 turn its thoughts and often direct its steps. No 
 other tribe possessed localities so sacred, until 
 Jerusalem was established under the triumphant 
 arms of the great David. The tribe made great 
 pretensions. It was proud and haughty to an un- 
 usual degree. During the time of the Judges, it 
 asserted a species of superiority over all the other 
 tribes. 
 
 Unfortunately, the leaders of the tribe were often 
 leaders in sin ; unfortunately, ten of the twelve 
 tribes were lost to David's house, and later it was 
 clearly seen that God was with the two tribes 
 rather than with the ten. It is true that some- 
 times the tribe showed a noble and patriotic 
 spirit, but generally it was ready to take offense, 
 to manifest jealousy, and to refuse co-operation in 
 enterprises undertaken by other tribes in which 
 enterprises it did not have a leading position. 
 We have only to think of its complaints to 
 Gideon, to Jephthah, and even to David ; com- 
 
THE COWARDS IN BATTLE 297 
 
 plaints expressed almost in the same words in 
 each case, " Why did ye despise us that our advice 
 should not have been first had," or, " Why hast 
 thou served us thus, that thou calledst us not." 
 The reader of the book of Judges becomes sadly 
 familiar with this spirit of complaint. 
 
 The possession of privilege is always a blessing 
 or a curse. Privileges wrongly used become 
 curses greatly multiplied. The psalmist here 
 cannot forget the ancient position of this tribe, 
 neither can he forget that they used their great 
 opportunities to injure, and not to bless the nation 
 as a whole. This tribe might have been bene- 
 fited greatly by the influence of Samuel, for 
 though he was a Levite, he was a native of 
 Ramah in Mount Kphraim. Saul, also, belonged 
 to a tribe in close affiliation with the family of 
 Joseph. It thus came to pass that during the 
 priesthood of Samuel and the kinghood of Saul, 
 the supremacy of Ephraim was emphasized. The 
 concentration of both the civil and ecclesiastical 
 capital at Jerusalem, under David, gave a severe 
 blow to the pride and power of Ephraim. But 
 some of her stalwart sons assisted in making 
 David king over Israel, and among the officers of 
 his court were some Ephraimites. But the reign 
 of Solomon tended to develop the spirit of revolt, 
 and Solomon himself clearly saw that a separation 
 could not long be postponed. Through the in- 
 sane conduct of his son, the rebellion was soon an 
 actual experience. It is ever more true that 
 
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 privilege wrongly used turns to the utmost 
 disadvantage of those thus favored. Men and 
 women in nominal Christian lands who reject 
 Jesus Christ and live practically as heathen, will 
 fare far worse in the day of judgment than the 
 heathen themselves. The servant who knew his 
 Masters will and did it not shall be beaten with 
 many stripes ; he who knew it not and did it not, 
 with but few stripes. Xo one sinks so deeply into 
 perdition in actual experience as he who was 
 exalted nearest to heaven in personal privilege. 
 It is a great honor to belong to the children of 
 Ephraim, but it is an honor bearing with it solemn 
 responsibilities, responsibilities which may sink 
 their possessors into hopeless degradation if they 
 are not properly discharged for the good of men 
 and the glory of God. 
 
 Our attention is directed, in the second place, 
 to the military condition of these men — " being 
 armed and carrying bows." The idea here taught 
 is that they had abundant means for protecting 
 themselves and for aiding the other tribes. The 
 expression " carrying bows " literally means 
 "throwing forth" or "lifting up." They were 
 archers thoroughly equipped for battle. They 
 were defensively armed. They also enjoyed spe- 
 cial opportunities, and were skillfully equipped. 
 But weapons of war are of little value if men have 
 not the martial spirit; and if God be absent, the 
 true martial spirit cannot be present. Sin makes 
 cowards of all men. It takes awav their heart, 
 
THE COWARDS IN BATTLE 299 
 
 and utterly robs them of a heroic spirit. They 
 were also offensively equipped, for we are told 
 that they were not only armed but they carried 
 bows. Great things might thus naturally be ex- 
 pected of a tribe with ancestors so brave, opportu- 
 nities so great, and twofold armor so appropriate. 
 The church of God is similarly equipped. It 
 also has its defensive and its offensive armor. In 
 the summary of that armor which is given us in 
 the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, 
 we have a full statement of all its parts. It is in- 
 teresting to observe that the exhortation there is 
 to "put on the whole armour of God." Every 
 Christian is furnished with a full panoply, that he 
 may be a good soldier of Jesus Christ. In this 
 suggestive list there is but one offensive weapon, 
 " the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of 
 God." All the other parts of the armor are de- 
 fensive. He that takes the human sword may 
 perish by that sword ; the Christian's divinely ap- 
 pointed weapon is " the sword of the Spirit." As 
 the sword was the essential part of the armor of 
 an ancient soldier, so this sword is the only essen- 
 tial weapon in the hand of the Christian soldier. 
 He is not furnished with the bow, the spear, or 
 the battle-axe ; but with this one offensive weapon 
 he will be able to strike down all the foes of truth 
 and God. He is not to depend on his own rea- 
 son ; he is not to rely on his argumentative skill. 
 This divine sword will rout Satan ; it will drive 
 back temptation, and will win glorious victories. 
 
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 A single blow of this sword is worth more than 
 all the human philosophy which the world con- 
 tains. 
 
 The devil is a skillful reasoner ; he can construct 
 syllogisms and draw false conclusions. He is 
 more than a match for us along lines of human 
 endeavor ; but while he is more than a match for 
 us, he is less than a match for Jesus Christ. He 
 cannot endure the flash and cut of the sword 
 of the Spirit. Had Eve used this sword, instead 
 of attempting to reason with the tempter, she 
 would have been safe. The second Adam stood, 
 although the first Adam fell ; and the second 
 Adam met Satan with the word of God. Had he 
 used forms of divine power which we may not 
 possess, in encountering the great enemy, his ex- 
 ample would have been comparatively worthless 
 to us. But he used simply the weapon which we 
 may use, and he won only the victory which we 
 may win. The moment we drop the sword and 
 begin to parley with Satan, we are vanquished. 
 So reasoning with the devil we are like a man in 
 battle who would throw away his sword and use 
 his naked hands against his adversary. God help 
 us all to have the right passage of Scripture on 
 our tongues as the sword of the Spirit, and to 
 have a quick eye and a supple wrist that we may 
 know how to attack and to overcome every enemy ! 
 
 We observe, in the last place, the cowardly con- 
 duct of these men, they ''turned back in the day 
 of battle/' This is a terrible charge to be made 
 
THE COWARDS IN BATTLE 3OI 
 
 against the children of Ephraim. Their conduct 
 reflects seriously on Joshua, and their other brave 
 ancestors. Brave warfare is not waged by turning 
 one's back. Men should stand or fall facing 
 their foes. These Ephraimites perhaps trusted 
 in their armor rather than in their God. They 
 became panic-stricken when they were expected 
 to be of service. We have here a striking picture 
 of faithfulness in the day of trial. They fled 
 when they ought to have stood their ground. 
 They were brave soldiers on parade days, but 
 arrant cowards on the day of battle. Courage is 
 worth more than armor when the- battle rages. 
 Moral courage is the secret of victory in thousands 
 of battles. No man can explain the victories of 
 Joshua, of David, of Wellington, of Washington, 
 of Grant, and of many more great leaders in 
 battle, apart from their eminent personality and 
 their moral courage. This element in human 
 character must never be wanting if the noblest 
 results of human influence are to be secured. 
 
 We are told also that their cowardice was shown 
 " in the day of battle." There may be a reference 
 to some particular battle in which the Ephraim- 
 ites were specially concerned. Some suppose that 
 the defeat here intended was that by the men of 
 Gath, mentioned in 1 Chron. 7 : 20-22, or the 
 reference may be to the shameful defeat which 
 the Philistines gave them in the time of Eli, 
 when they captured the ark, the account being 
 given in 1 Sam. 4 : 10, 11. It was bad enough to 
 
 2a 
 
302 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 turn their backs when the danger was not great, 
 but it was simply abominable that they should do 
 this in the day of battle. 
 
 The conduct of the Bphraimites unfortunately is 
 too often the conduct of Christians in our day. 
 They are very loyal when the sun shines and ene- 
 mies are absent ; but they become disloyal and 
 cowardly when foes are numerous and temptations 
 are fierce. Better the three hundred men that 
 lapped, as the helpers of Gideon, than the thirty- 
 two thousand who could not endure the tests to 
 which they were subjected. But we ought to 
 congratulate him and to thank God because he 
 promised that by the three hundred that " lapped " 
 the valiant leader should overcome the Alidianites 
 and save Israel. 
 
 If such a test were applied to the church of 
 God to-day, the large numbers who would be 
 eliminated would both startle and humiliate us ; 
 but those who would remain would be stalwart, 
 heroic, consecrated, and triumphant to a degree 
 which would rejoice the hearts of saints on earth 
 and angels in heaven. A church of two hundred 
 men and women, aglow with love to God and 
 love for the souls of men, would stir the city 
 of New York from center to circumference. 
 Our Christianity is too easy a possession, or at 
 least a profession, in our day. We need the 
 heroic spirit of Paul in his consuming zeal and 
 utter self-sacrifice. We need the spirit of Lu- 
 ther, who would meet the Diet at Worms al- 
 
THE COWARDS IN BATTLE 303 
 
 though there were as many devils present as 
 there were tiles on the roofs of the houses. We 
 need the spirit of Bunyan, who would rather stay 
 in Bedford jail until the moss grew on his eye- 
 brows than be faithless to duty and God. We 
 need the spirit of John Knox, when he cried out 
 while at prayer in a garden near his house, u Oh, 
 God, give me Scotland or I die ! " We need the 
 spirit of Matthew Henry, who said, " I would 
 think it a greater happiness to gain one soul for 
 Christ than mountains of silver and gold to my- 
 self." We need the spirit of Brainerd, who could 
 say, " I cared not where or how I lived or what 
 hardships I went through, so that I could but gain 
 souls to Christ." How weak is the spirit and 
 how worthless the labors of most Christians com- 
 pared with these heroes of faith ! Shall we be so 
 faint-hearted as to turn our back in the day of 
 battle ? Yonder stands the Christ on trial in some 
 hall, and before some tribunal. Here are his 
 sneering foes warming themselves by some earthly 
 fire ; here is some silly girl charging us with be- 
 ing his followers. Shall we, like the faint-hearted 
 Peter, having followed him afar ofT, now deny him ? 
 Shall you, who are his professed disciples, crucify 
 him afresh and put him to open shame in the 
 house of his friends? I summon you, young 
 women, that you stand true to your profession of 
 faith and to your covenant in the church of God ! 
 I summon you, young men, and you, older men, 
 that you be willing to give your right hand or to 
 
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 give your life, rather than be cowards and traitors 
 toward hi in who gave you his life on Calvary's 
 cross. Shall you go forever on record, in the his- 
 tory of the church on earth and in the records of 
 eternity, as having turned your backs in the day 
 of battle ? Oh, mothers, be like the brave women 
 of Sparta, who commanded their sons in going 
 forth to battle, to come home with their shields or 
 on their shields. Better be mothers and fathers 
 of dead sons than mothers and fathers of wayward 
 daughters and cowardly sons. A thousand times 
 better to die on the field of battle with our faces 
 to the foe, than to turn our backs as cravens and 
 traitors, when truth and Christ are fighting against 
 error and Satan. 
 
 Terrible is this title placed forever on the page 
 of sacred history against the children of Ephraim. 
 Behold the picture ! These stalwart sons of his- 
 toric and immortal sires, fully armed — armed 
 defensively and offensively. There they stand ; 
 the trumpet sounds, the battle begins. It grows 
 hot and hotter. The time has come when even- 
 noble impulse in these armed soldiers should 
 lead them to rush for country and God into 
 the thickest of the fight ; but, look ye, they hesi- 
 tate, they stop, they turn, they flee ! Abominable 
 cowards ! Unspeakable traitors ! Hold up for- 
 ever the picture in the gallery of revelation to the 
 contempt and execration of brave souls in all the 
 ages to come. Let it be ours to do and to die, 
 but never to turn back, as did these. 
 
XIX 
 THE SINGLE-HEARTED SOLDIERS 
 
■ * Fifty thousand which could keep rank ; they were not of 
 double heart" I Chronicles 12 : jj. 
 
XIX 
 
 ON this Sunday evening preceding Memorial 
 Day we meet in God's house to worship 
 him, to give honor to the memory of our noble 
 dead, and to learn the lessons of duty which the 
 day with its sad and joyous memories teaches. 
 The thought of the text selected for this evening 
 is not, at the first glance, entirely clear ; but when 
 fully seen it is found to be suggestive and in- 
 spiring. We have in the chapter from which 
 the text is taken, as Dr. Samuel Cox has reminded 
 us, five muster-rolls from the archives of the 
 Hebrew people. In some cases the lists are ac- 
 companied by marginal notes by an intelligent 
 contemporary, perhaps by David himself. These 
 notes, of course, add vastly to the historic value 
 of these national rolls. Such lists, fortunately, 
 we have of our own civil war. We have histories 
 by professional historians, and also by our noble 
 and immortal soldiers. 
 
 It may not seem a wonderful thing to you that 
 fifty thousand men could keep rank. You may say, 
 it is the business of the soldier to do that. Still, 
 it is much to keep rank, not simply on the parade 
 ground, but amid the storm of battle. It is a 
 great honor to say that soldiers could repel a 
 charge or make an assault with an unbroken line ; 
 
 307 
 
6 
 
 08 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 that when brave fellows fell fast, other brave men 
 were ready to close up the ranks, and to present 
 an unbroken front to the foe. But the chief les- 
 son here is the secret of the bravery of David's 
 soldiers : " they were not of a heart and a heart." 1 
 They did not have one heart for the home and 
 another heart for the battlefield ; not one heart 
 for self and another for David. They had one 
 heart for David, for country, for God. They were 
 under the control of an overmastering purpose. 
 They forgot everything but the honor of the king 
 and the salvation of the country. Double-hearted 
 men are a failure always and everywhere. The 
 difference between half-hearted and whole-hearted 
 service for God and man is often the difference 
 between shameful defeat and glorious victory. 
 But the singleness of purpose, the entire devotion 
 of David's men made them irresistible. It ought 
 to be remembered that it was their unity of heart 
 that led to their uniformity of step ; that it was 
 this singleness of purpose in the hearts of Da- 
 vid's men that kept them in rank, and enabled 
 them to present an unbroken line to the foe. We 
 need men to-day with similar unity of heart, uni- 
 formity of step, and invincibility of courage, in 
 every duty and in every conflict. 
 
 We need men with courage to keep rank when 
 great principles are at stake, when the existence 
 of civil and religions liberty is the issue. Great 
 
 1 The last clause of the text is more literally rendered in this way. 
 
THE SINGLE-HEARTED SOLDIERS 309 
 
 principles are necessary to make men brave in 
 national crises. We ought not to separate widely 
 between our piety and our patriotism. The man 
 who loves God most tenderly will love his country 
 most loyally. The bravest soldier for truth and 
 God should be the bravest soldier for flag and 
 country. I am now addressing men who, I trust, 
 are as loyal in religious faith as they were brave 
 in their devotion to their country in peace or in 
 war. It is extremely difficult to realize that a 
 whole generation has grown up since the war ; that 
 the boys of '61 are the mature men of '95 ; that 
 the mature men of '6i are now feeling the infirmi- 
 ties of age, and that for some of them the final 
 muster-roll is nearly ready. To many even in 
 this congregation the war is only a tradition, and 
 to others it is history, not differing widely from 
 other chapters in the story of our beloved land. 
 There are in our congregation now those who re- 
 member as among their childish memories the 
 spirit-stirring drum and " the pride, pomp, and 
 circumstance ' ' of the war. There are others 
 who remember how their fathers and mothers and 
 older members of their family listened for the cry 
 of the newsboys announcing the reports of the 
 battles of the previous day, and how the lists of 
 the dead and wounded were scanned to see whether 
 loved names were there. It is fitting that this 
 evening these memories should be revived and the 
 lessons of the war should be emphasized. 
 
 The day will never come when the republic 
 
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 shall cease to honor her brave defenders. Should 
 that day come, America would deserve to be ex- 
 cluded from the sisterhood of the noblest nations. 
 No braver men fought on the field of Mara- 
 thon, no braver men shouted for liberty among 
 the Swiss Alps, than those who marched from 
 their quiet homes in the North to fight the battles 
 of their country, and many of them to lay their 
 bodies in Southern graves. God forbid that the 
 country should forget her brave soldiers. She 
 will decorate their graves the day after to-morrow 
 with flowers, and although these flowers shall fade, 
 the memory of the soldiers will be forever green 
 in the kindly thoughts and tender affections of 
 their countrymen. Battle flags may decay, and 
 the grass may grow over the graves where sleep 
 our dead heroes ; but their brave deeds will forever 
 remain as an imperishable chapter in the glorious 
 history of the republic. 
 
 Brave men, I remark in the next place, will 
 keep step to the sentiment of appreciation of the 
 noble part taken by American women during the 
 trying days of our civil war. Their heroism in 
 many respects was more sublime than that of the 
 men. They suffered in the quiet of their homes 
 without the excitements of the battlefield. In 
 their patient suffering they were upheld by serene 
 hope, by loyal devotion to their country, and by 
 sublime faith in God. The men on the field of 
 battle were under the excitements of music and 
 the shouts of both armies ; they were stimulated 
 
THE SINGLE-HEARTED SOLDIERS 311 
 
 by the infernal scream of trie shells, the rattle of 
 musketry, and the booming of cannon. They had 
 also the magnetic influence of brave men by their 
 side ; and they were cheered by the voices of cap- 
 tains and other officers. But the women were 
 alone in the silence of their homes by day, and in 
 the more awful silence of night. Their hearts 
 were breaking with anxiety for father, husband, 
 son, brother, or lover, fighting the battles of their 
 country hundreds of miles away. We shall not 
 forget on these memorial days the women who 
 went to nurse the sick and wounded ; the women 
 who walked hospitals without fear of fever, and 
 in defiance of pestilence ; and the women who 
 spent their time in preparing delicacies and min- 
 istering to the comforts of soldiers on the field. 
 To-day let us crown these women with unfading 
 garlands. They are still in large measure the 
 hope of the republic. 
 
 General Trumbull in a recent article tells us of 
 the bravery of one family to whom it is an honor 
 in this connection to refer. In his company, 
 raised at the beginning of the war, was a man of 
 forty-five, a man of influence and wealth. He 
 had a devoted wife and eleven loving children. 
 The eldest son enlisted with his father, and as father 
 and son passed the home on the way to the field, 
 at the gate stood the wife and mother and the re- 
 maining ten children. Each one of them, includ- 
 ing the baby, waved a flag as the father and son 
 passed. In the first battle this noble son fell, shot 
 
312 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 through the body. " Tom," said a comrade, " are 
 you badly hurt ? " " Yes," said he, " I am dying. 
 Give my love to my mother." This comrade rode 
 up to the father and told him that his son was dead. 
 For a moment the brave man fell forward on his 
 horse's neck, and a great sob burst from his heart. 
 Then straightening himself up he exclaimed, 
 "Thank God, he died like a brave man. God 
 help his poor mother." And then cheering on his 
 men, he rushed into battle. After the battle was 
 over the announcement of her son's death was 
 made to this patriotic mother. The news was 
 terrible, but she bore it with heroic resignation, 
 and in the silent watches of the night she min- 
 gled mourning for her dead boy with anxiety for 
 her living husband. A year passed ; this husband 
 had been made a lieutenant-colonel. His regi- 
 ment had been engaged in a terrific battle ; pain- 
 fully anxious was the noble wife in the quiet 
 home. Looking over the paper the next day, she 
 found among the dead the name of her husband. 
 No sooner had she and the second son made that 
 discovery than the second patriotic boy said : 
 " Mother, I ought to go." And that heroic wo- 
 man said : " Go ! " The days went by, she 
 watched and waited, hearing the sound of a battle 
 in every breeze. A great battle had again been 
 fought ; again she searched eagerly among the 
 names of the killed and wounded, and there 
 among the dead, killed at the front, was the name 
 of her boy. Then stood before her the third son 
 
THE SINGLE-HEARTED SOLDIERS 313 
 
 repeating the language of the second, and hear- 
 ing from his mother the word "Go," and he 
 went, and like his father and two brothers, he 
 died fighting bravely for his country. 
 
 General Trumbull adds that after the war was 
 over he was riding from Waterloo, Iowa, to Inde- 
 pendence. A lady in the same car suddenly be- 
 came ill. She was accompanied by her daughter. 
 The daughter recognized the general, and came 
 to him saying, " My mother wishes to see you." 
 Approaching the woman, he found in her, she 
 knowing him though he did not remember her, 
 the wife of his friend and the mother of the three 
 brave boys. She thanked the general for his care 
 over her husband and sons, and for the kind letter 
 he wrote her the day that Tom was killed ; and 
 then she said : " The war is over, the country is 
 saved, and I am satisfied ; but my heart is broken, 
 and 1 am going to my old home in Ohio to die." 
 These are the women who make a country great ; 
 these are the women who ought to receive honor 
 on this memorial day ; these are the women whose 
 names will be held in loving memory in all the 
 future history of our great republic. 
 
 We ought to keep rank to the progress of the 
 larger civilization which necessitated the late war, 
 and which was also accelerated by it. Our civil 
 war was a period of education, emancipation, and 
 general progress. These helpful influences it ex- 
 ercised not over America alone, but over the 
 whole world. European nations could not under- 
 
 2b 
 
314 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 stand how a republic could disband a million men 
 and have them return to the peaceful pursuits of 
 industry. It was prophesied in Europe that the 
 military idea would ever after be dominant in 
 our government, and that the United States 
 would be a military nation ; but the soldiers were 
 disbanded, and soon became absorbed in the civil 
 population. The United States has been the 
 leader and the teacher of all nations by this re- 
 markable example. The late war was really but 
 one act in the great drama of American history. 
 It was but a chapter in the story of the conflict 
 between aristocratic privilege and equal rights. 
 Our fathers came to these shores to found a nation 
 on the principles of equal liberty. They came 
 when the inother-country was wrapped in the dark- 
 ness of caste ; they came to lay the foundations of 
 a nation which should enjoy the right of liberty 
 and the pursuit of happiness ; but unfortunately, 
 slaver}* existed. There was an " irrepressible con- 
 flict " between the North and the South. It was 
 a conflict between two civilizations. The fruits 
 of liberty and of slavery both grew from seed 
 sown in transatlantic soil. The civilization of 
 the South was that of the Middle Ages. The 
 planter with his slaves represented the baron and 
 his retainers of mediaeval times. Slavery was an 
 exotic in American soil, and in the nineteenth 
 century. The spirit of the North belonged alike 
 •to the newer age and the progressive country. It 
 was impossible that these two civilizations could 
 
THE SINGLE-HEARTED SOLDIERS 315 
 
 live long side by side on American soil. The 
 conflict was sure to corne sooner or later. 
 
 But never did braver men march under any 
 country's flag than those who met the heroes of 
 the South on the bloody fields of battle. Sher- 
 man's march from " Atlanta to the sea " does not 
 lose its honors when compared with the crossing 
 of the Alps by Hannibal, and the campaigns of 
 Grant will lose none of their lustre when placed 
 side by side with those of old-world heroes 
 through all centuries of history. Men inspired 
 by the loftiest patriotism and the holiest faith are 
 ever the bravest. We remember that Frederick 
 the Great once overheard his favorite general 
 engaged in prayer, and was about to utter a sneer- 
 ing remark at the general's piety, but the brave old 
 man, who had never feared a foe nor his majesty's 
 jest, said : " I have just been asking aid from your 
 majesty's great Ally." Men with such religious 
 faith are irresistible on the battlefield. No foe 
 could stand before Cromwell's " Ironsides," who 
 rushed into conflict chanting psalms and offering 
 prayers. Their watchword was, "The Lord of 
 Hosts is with us " ; and in the pockets of the sol- 
 diers were Bibles with marked texts for their in- 
 struction and inspiration. General Havelock's 
 bravest men were chosen from his prayer meeting 
 for the most desperate attacks. On occasions de- 
 manding special heroism, volunteers were always 
 selected from " Havelock's Baptist Saints." 
 
 Where do vou alwavs find the bravest men and 
 
316 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 the noblest women? In the Church of God, in 
 the army of the Lord. Where the grandest ex- 
 amples of heroism, self-sacrifice, and noble conse- 
 cration, but in the church of God? Who but 
 true believers have made the page of history illus- 
 trious with deeds of immortal valor? For the 
 love of God and souls brave men have become 
 braver still, and tender women have been trans- 
 formed into heroines in life and saints in death. 
 They have gone into dungeons damp and loath- 
 some, they have gone from country and friends to 
 the jungles of India and the swamps of Africa, 
 and they have been stretched on the rack and 
 dragged to the stake. They dyed the Alpine 
 snows with their blood ; they have trodden the 
 glens of Scotland and climbed its rugged hills, 
 and finally they went up from the Grass Market 
 in Edinburgh in a chariot of fire to glory and to 
 God. They have been the Havelocks and the 
 Gordons in battle ; they have been the Polycarps, 
 the Chrysostoms, the Luthers, and the Bun vans 
 in peril and in death for their faith. To-day the 
 loftiest manhood and the truest womanhood of the 
 world are in the church of God. Let infidelity 
 hide its diminished head. The glory of manhood 
 is the outcome of Christian faith and love. Chris- 
 tian faith consecrates patriotism, and makes brave 
 soldiers for flag and country, braver, manlier, and 
 nobler still. 
 
 We must, with united hearts, keep step to the 
 spirit of magnanimity with which General Grant 
 
THE SINGLE-HEARTED SOLDIERS 317 
 
 signalized the close of the fearful conflict. Beau- 
 tiful were the words spoken by Gen. Roger A. 
 Pryor, himself an officer in the Confederate army, 
 at the seventy-first birthday dinner held recently 
 in honor of General Grant. General Pryor could 
 pronounce no prouder eulogy on the immortal 
 Grant than that he had overcome the apparently 
 invincible Johnston and the brilliant Lee. But 
 the grandest victory even of General Grant was 
 his magnanimity toward General Lee at Appo- 
 mattox, when Lee surrendered his sword, and the 
 great civil war was ended. Grant destroyed the 
 armies of Lee, Early, and Beauregard, but his 
 clemency to the brave Lee made him victor over 
 the hearts of the South, and over the hearts of all 
 noble men throughout the world. General Pryor 
 and other eloquent speakers affirmed that the 
 time would come that General Grant would be 
 considered as great a statesman as now he is 
 regarded as a soldier. His influence in settling 
 international disputes by arbitration ought to 
 cover him with everlasting honor. He was a pio- 
 neer in this new realm of statesmanship. There 
 is a time coming when civilized nations will no 
 more think of settling their disputes by the arbit- 
 rament of the sword than Christian gentlemen 
 would think now of resorting to blows to settle 
 their petty differences. There is a time com- 
 ing when the nations " Shall beat their swords 
 into plowshares, and their spears into pruning- 
 hooks ; " when " nation shall not lift up a sword 
 
318 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 against a nation, neither shall they learn war any 
 more." 
 
 We thank God that our conflict is over, that 
 peace is secured, that liberty is universal and will 
 be perpetual. Thank God that no bitterness now 
 marks the spirit of any true Northern soldier. 
 North and South are to-day one great nation. If 
 the call came to fight against a common foe, the 
 boys of the "gray" would march with the boys 
 of the "blue" under our one glorious flag, for 
 the honor of our common and beloved country. 
 Thank God that we can say : 
 
 For now the Northern lily 
 Blooms with the Southern rose. 
 
 Let their mingled beauty delight our eyes to- 
 day ; let their blended fragrance be sweet perfume 
 to the spirit of patriotism. We rejoice in one 
 country from the lakes to the gulf, and from the 
 mighty Atlantic to the mightier Pacific. 
 
 We must learn to keep step to the spirit ofge?i- 
 tiine Americci7i patriotism. No soldier is worthy 
 of his name and fame unless he will stand in 
 peace for the principles for which he braved death 
 in battle. We must insist upon equal rights for 
 all men of all creeds in all parts of our redeemed 
 land. There are foes against which we must still 
 fight. The saloon is the nursery of disloyalty, 
 anarchy, murder, and every Satanic vice. The 
 saloon ought to be consigned to the grave where 
 slaver}' lies buried ; and neither ought ever to have 
 
THE SINGLE-HEARTED SOLDIERS 319 
 
 a resurrection. Gambling houses are born of hell 
 and they lead to the place of their birth. Pollu- 
 tion of the ballot-box is a crime against civiliza- 
 tion. 
 
 Some of you will remember that in the museum 
 in Berlin there is a fine fresco by Kaulbach. A 
 few years ago I stood before it in wonder and ad- 
 miration. It represents the last conflict between 
 the Goths and Huns, a conflict that settled for 
 centuries the form of civilization in Southern Eu- 
 rope. The picture embodies the legend which 
 taught that after the battle was over, the spirits 
 of the slain still carried on in the air the terrible 
 conflict begun on earth. The legend is literally 
 true in our country's history at this hour. The 
 forces of evil are arrayed against the forces of 
 good ; superstition against intelligence ; and sel- 
 fish politics against true patriotism. It must be 
 yours to rise above the bitterness of the past, 
 above the selfishness of the present, and to stand 
 with a true heroism, a loyal patriotism, and a 
 Christly manliness against evils of whatever kind 
 and wherever found. Rightly did Milton sing : 
 
 Peace hath her victories 
 No less renowned than War. 
 
 In this time of peace let us guard against political 
 evils. L,et us resist every form of danger from 
 whatever quarter it comes. L,et us strive more 
 for the welfare of the republic than for the dom- 
 inance of any political party. Once more let us 
 
320 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 say with Rufus Choate, " We join ourselves to no 
 party that does not carry the flag and keep step 
 to the music of the Union." Once more with 
 the immortal Lincoln: " This nation, under God, 
 shall have a new birth of freedom, and that gov- 
 ernment of the people, by the people, and for the 
 people, shall not perish from the earth." 
 
 With tenderness, appreciation, and affection, I 
 appeal to you, veterans, to serve your country and 
 your God in peace as loyally as you did in war ; 
 to you, sons and daughters of veterans, that you 
 strive to be worthy of your honored sires ; to you, 
 boys of the brigade, that you grow up to be strong 
 men for God and your native land. Be of the 
 number of those who, like the soldiers in David's 
 army, could keep rank, those who had one heart 
 for truth, purity, patriotism, and godliness. As I 
 close, I rinsf out the words of the brave and 
 matchless Apostle Paul, praying that the spirit of 
 all truth may enable you to apply them in every 
 relation of life : " Watch ye, stand fast in the 
 faith, quit ye like men, be strong." And may 
 God grant that when you are all mustered out 
 from the ranks of earthly heroes and heroines you 
 may be crowned with immortal glory in heaven as 
 good soldiers and as triumphant victors through 
 the strength of Christ, the Captain of our salva- 
 tion ! 
 
XX 
 
 DIVINE HEARTBURN 
 
"And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn 
 within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he 
 opened to us the Scriptures ? ' ' Luke 24 : 32. 
 
 J 
 
XX 
 
 WE find two disciples in deep sorrow leaving 
 Jerusalem and going toward Bmmaus, a 
 small town situated about seven or eight miles 
 from Jerusalem. This journey was undertaken, 
 it would seem, between midday and the early 
 evening. It was the day of our Lord's glorious 
 resurrection. The name of one of the disciples 
 was Cleopas ; the name of the other we cannot 
 discover. Probably we never shall know it ; but 
 it is enough for us to know that it is graven on 
 the palms of Jehovah's hands ; enough for us to 
 know that perhaps we shall one day learn it when 
 the Lord shall write up his people. Some have 
 supposed that it was Simon ; others that it was 
 Luke himself; but it is useless to speculate on a 
 matter which the Holy Spirit has not revealed. 
 
 As these men walked in their sadness, they 
 talked with great earnestness ; and one seemed to 
 be talking and arguing with more hope than the 
 other. The original language which describes 
 their conversation suggests the earnestness of their 
 spirit, and the vigor of the argumentation in 
 which they indulged. It is easy for us to im- 
 agine what the subjects of their conversation 
 would be ; easy to suppose that they were discuss- 
 ing the great events connected with our Lord's 
 
 323 
 
324 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 arrest, trial, condemnation, and crucifixion. We 
 know too, that vague rumors concerning his 
 resurrection were current in the city before they 
 left ; indeed it is strange that they could leave 
 the city until they had verified or falsified those 
 reports. There certainly was much of which 
 they might speak regarding the wondrous events 
 which had happened in Jerusalem during the past 
 few days, and thus sadly do they walk and talk. 
 A stranger overtakes them and participates in 
 their conversation ; we know, although they did 
 not, that this stranger is none other than the 
 august Person of whom they were speaking and 
 reasoning. To them he seemed to be an ordinary 
 traveler on that frequented highway. There is 
 nothing peculiar at the outset in his dress, man- 
 ner, or speech to suggest that he is the Son of God 
 and the Redeemer of men. Their eyes, we are 
 told, were holden that they should not know him. 
 The disciples frequently failed to recognize our 
 Lord during the forty days between his resurrec- 
 tion and his ascension ; on that very morning 
 Mary Magdalene failed to recognize her Lord and 
 Master. Perhaps this result was partly due to the 
 exercise of some strange power over the vision of 
 the disciples ; and perhaps it was partly due to a 
 change in the appearance of the Lord himself. It 
 would seem as if his body were already assuming 
 some of the characteristics of its subsequent glori- 
 fication. It is certain that some alteration had 
 taken place in his appearance, an alteration which 
 
DIVINE HEARTBURN 325 
 
 was sufficient to throw doubt over his identity, 
 until his disciples gave him their more careful con- 
 sideration. It is evident that the two disciples 
 journeying toward Bmmaus did not know at once 
 who was their companion, and thus for a time the 
 blessed Lord walked with them unrecognized. 
 
 The case of these disciples in this respect was 
 not unlike our own. How often the divine Lord 
 walks with us in our daily life, in our severe trials, 
 and in our blessed experiences, when for a time 
 we do not recognize his presence ! How often he 
 passes by us and we perceive him not ! How 
 often have we wished that we might find him, 
 when in reality he was by our side ! Too often, 
 like Mary in the garden, we look at him through 
 a veil of tears, and fail to recognize his presence ; 
 too often, like the disciples in the fourth watch of 
 the night, we fail to know him when he comes to 
 us walking over the foaming billows ! 
 
 But, though unrecognized by them, Christ's 
 heart is drawn out in tender sympathy and in 
 great love toward these sad travelers toward Em- 
 maus. His words recall them to themselves and 
 enable them to think clearly of what has passed 
 in Jerusalem. Let us look for a little time at 
 these three travelers. 
 
 The two men, so far as we know, had performed 
 no remarkable services for Jesus ; perhaps one of 
 them may have occupied a position of relation- 
 ship ; but the Lord did not draw near to them on 
 that account. If relationship were to be the 
 
 2c 
 
326 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 cause of his appearance, he would have mani- 
 fested himself especially to his mother during his 
 resurrection life ; but her name does not once ap- 
 pear in the entire record of this period. After he 
 committed her to the care of John while he him- 
 self hung on the cross, he seemed to drop the 
 claims of earthly relationship. Had these travel- 
 ers been Peter or John, Christ's approach to them 
 would not have been surprising ; but the travelers 
 were not apostles, and they were not of promi- 
 nence among the seventy disciples. But our 
 Lord's first words to them may explain the reason 
 of his approach. He certainly did not need to 
 ask them for information, for he knew what was 
 in man ; but he questioned them that he might 
 gain ready access to their sorrowful hearts. In 
 their surprise they seemed scarcely to know how 
 to answer him ; they think he must be a stranger 
 in Jerusalem, not to know the wonderful things 
 that have come to pass there in the last few days. 
 Wondering travelers ! This stranger is the Lord 
 of life and glory ! That morning he left Joseph's 
 tomb in triumph, leading death and hell in cap- 
 tivity. On that journey he opens to the travelers 
 the Scriptures and soon their hearts burn within 
 them. 
 
 He remains to the evening meal ; in the break- 
 ing of bread in the humble home he is recognized, 
 and back to the city hasten the joyous disciples. 
 Never was a journey so short ; and even before 
 they start they ask in the words of the text : " Did 
 
DIVINE HEARTBURN ^l 
 
 not our hearts burn within us while he talked with 
 us by the way, and while he opened to us the 
 Scriptures?" My theme this evening is, "Burn- 
 ing Hearts in Christian Work." Burning hearts 
 are necessary to the highest success in Christian 
 service ; burning hearts can be secured ; burning 
 hearts will be sure to manifest themselves in 
 speech and action. 
 
 In the first place, glowing hearts, hearts aglow 
 with love to Christ and love for the souls of men, 
 are one of the great needs of the hour. Why 
 have Christians so little power in Christian ser- 
 vice ? Why move the wheels of God's chariot so 
 slowly ? Why are there not thousands converted 
 in a day? Why should one sermon on the day of 
 Pentecost convert three thousand souls, while in 
 our day it takes almost three thousand sermons to 
 convert one soul? Certainly one answer to this 
 question is that the hearts of so many professors 
 of religion are cold in Christian service ; and as a 
 result the power of the church is largely latent. 
 It has been well said that a powerless Christian 
 ought to be as great a misnomer as a forceless 
 thunderbolt. Christians need burning hearts to 
 give them earnest desires to work for Jesus. 
 There are thousands in good and regular standing 
 in our churches, who have no sense of personal 
 responsibility for the conversion of their friends 
 and neighbors. There are thousands who have 
 never put forth personal efforts to secure the con- 
 version of even one soul. It has not entered into 
 
328 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 their minds that membership in a church implies 
 the existence of such desires, and the making of 
 such efforts ; and still they stand well in the 
 church, and could at any time receive a letter 
 to another church certifying to the integrity 
 of their character, and the regularity of their 
 standing. 
 
 It is worth much to be impelled by the sense of 
 duty to seek the salvation of those with whom we 
 are in contact ; but it is better to draw sweetly by 
 the cords of divine-human love. Those who have 
 a desire to work for Jesus will always find a field 
 of labor ; opportunities abound did we but desire 
 to do our duty. We ought to have a passion for 
 souls ; no man can enjoy the love of God fully, 
 unless he shares it generously. There is nothing 
 selfish in true religion ; the more a man gives 
 away the more he has, and the less he gives away 
 the less he keeps for himself. This is the spirit 
 which ought to dwell in the hearts of all Christian 
 believers ; if they had a full realization of the 
 wondrous love of God, of the value of a human 
 soul, and of the danger to which it is exposed, 
 they would rather be the means of its salvation 
 than possess the greatest of earth's treasures for 
 themselves. 
 
 The love of Christ in the heart burns up the 
 dross of selfishness, melts the coldness of worldli- 
 ness, and quickens the deadness of indifference 
 in every true believer ; this love will manifest 
 itself in their words, acts, tones, and looks. The 
 
DIVINE HEARTBURN 329 
 
 prayer of the Christian ought to be, "0 God, 
 give us hearts on fire with divine love." 
 
 We need burning hearts to give us power in 
 working for Christ. It is not merely what a man 
 speaks or does, but the spirit in which he speaks 
 and acts, that gives him power with men. It is 
 the man behind the words which gives them irre- 
 sistible force, which throws them out with projec- 
 tile power. It was said that every word of some 
 of Webster's great speeches weighed pounds. We 
 know that it was not simply the needle guns of 
 the Germans, but the intelligence of the soldiers 
 behind the guns which wrought such havoc 
 among the French in the Franco- Prussian war; 
 it was the schools of Germany which annihilated 
 the soldiers of France. Richard Sheridan was 
 accustomed to say, " I often go to hear Rowland 
 Hill because his ideas come red-hot from the 
 heart," Dr. John M. Mason, when asked for an 
 explanation of the remarkable power of Dr. Chal- 
 mers, replied, after taking time for careful con- 
 sideration, " His blood earnestness. " If our words 
 are to move men like an electric battery, we must 
 be saturated with the love of the Lord Jesus. If 
 that love is in our hearts, it will make our words 
 mighty over the hearts of others ; if we are con- 
 strained by Christ's love, men will take knowl- 
 edge of us that we have been with the Lord, and 
 they will yield to the power of his truth embodied 
 in our lives and preached by our glowing words. 
 This life will give unspeakable joy in our work, 
 
330 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 and that joy of the Lord will be our strength in 
 manifesting a true Christian character, and in de- 
 claring by our words and acts the glorious gospel 
 of the blessed God. 
 
 How may burning hearts be secured ? It is cer- 
 tain that one element of preparation for securing 
 them is sadness because of their absence. Why 
 did Christ go to these disciples ? We have already 
 seen that his visit was not due to any great ser- 
 vice which they had performed, neither was it be- 
 cause of near relationship. Still our Lord gave 
 them more time than he ever gave, so far as 
 the record goes, to any disciples during his resur- 
 rection life. Doubtless their sadness had its in- 
 fluence in drawing " the Man of sorrows " to their 
 side. During this first resurrection day he had al- 
 ready appeared to Alary as she wept at the tomb, 
 in her lonely grief; he had already appeared to 
 Peter, who poured forth, as we may well believe, 
 his tears of penitence; and now he joins himself 
 to these two disappointed and almost broken- 
 , hearted disciples. The grief of Mary was that of 
 a grateful and loving heart robbed of the object 
 of its devotion ; the grief of Peter was that of a 
 heart smitten with a sense of ingratitude, cow- 
 ardice, and open betrayal. But the grief of the 
 two disciples was that of men disappointed in 
 their hopes, and sunk in despondency because of 
 their disappointment. Grief ever touches the heart 
 of the Son of God. Longing for him draws him 
 to our side ; grieving because of his absence helps 
 
DIVINE HEARTBURN 331 
 
 greatly to secure his presence. Do we long to-day 
 for his companionship as we walk life's dusty high- 
 way ? That very longing he understands and will 
 speedily meet by his blessed presence. There are 
 subtle laws, but little understood as yet, according 
 to which thinking of and longing for the absent, 
 moves them by processes which we cannot under- 
 stand ; there is here a great realm of mystery 
 acted upon by laws which sometime we shall un- 
 derstand. Facts abundantly warrant us in affirm- 
 ing that earnest thought of one absent, tends to 
 influence the thoughts and desires of the one thus 
 considered. Now if these things are true among 
 men, how much more possible and true are they in 
 our relation to him who knows the thoughts and 
 desires of every soul ! Are you grieving because of 
 the absence of your Lord ? That grieving he under- 
 stands; to it he will promptly respond, and he will 
 crown your life with his own gracious presence. 
 Are you disappointed ? Are your hopes blasted ? 
 Is your sadness deep to-day ? Then know that to 
 you, as to the disciples on the stormy Galilean 
 sea, Jesus will come walking over the crested bil- 
 lows of your grief; to you, as to the two disciples 
 on the way to Emmaus, Jesus will come making 
 his presence known, and causing your hearts to 
 burn with holy joy and to glow with heavenly 
 love. 
 
 We see also that studying the Bible to find 
 Jesus brings Jesus near. This narrative greatly 
 helps us at this point ; doubtless these disciples 
 
332 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 wete studying carefully the events which had oc- 
 curred during the past few days ; doubtless they 
 were trying to find some relation between these 
 events and the facts of revelation. There was 
 very much about which they might well reason 
 and dispute ; the questions would justify, and the 
 narrative implies, vigorous disputation. How 
 could their Master yield to the power of his ene- 
 mies, and be shamefully crucified? How could 
 they reconcile his repeated claims to divinity and 
 his manifestations of almighty power with his 
 submission to his enemies. Various sayings of 
 his now return to perplex their minds, and to sug- 
 gest mysterious and confused notions concerning 
 his character and mission. They had also heard 
 just before leaving Jerusalem that certain women 
 had found the sepulchre empty and had seen 
 angels, who had declared that he was not dead bat 
 alive. Could he really be alive ? I have often 
 wondered that they could leave the city without 
 fuller information, while such rumors were in the 
 air ; but it is certain that they did not really be- 
 lieve in his resurrection. All his prophecies on 
 that point had perplexed their minds. Xow, how- 
 ever, he draws near as their great Enlightener ; he 
 unfolds to them the Scriptures concerning himself. 
 Wonderful moment ! Marvelous Teacher ! Never 
 before had they seen the Old Testament prophe- 
 cies in the light of this hour. Jesus showed them 
 how he himself was the subject of these prophe- 
 cies. There are men now who tell us that the 
 
DIVINE HEARTBURN 333 
 
 Old Testament is obsolete. Not so did Christ 
 teach. He began at Moses and all the prophets 
 and expounded to the disciples the Scriptures 
 concerning himself. He rebuked them because 
 of their slowness of heart, because of their ignor- 
 ance of the true meaning of their own Scriptures. 
 They needed his rebuke, and they found that he 
 wounded them but to give them divine healing 
 and assured comfort. He who searches the Scrip- 
 tures and does not find Christ in them does not 
 search and teach as did the Christ himself. We 
 cannot suppose that they had a copy of the Old 
 Testament Scriptures with them ; but they knew 
 the leading passages by heart. Perhaps Christ 
 showed them the meaning of such a prophecy as 
 that of Moses raising up a prophet like unto him- 
 self ; such a prophecy as that of Isaiah when he saw 
 the glory of the suffering and triumphant Messiah; 
 and such as that of Daniel speaking of the Mes- 
 siah who should be cut off for the sins of the 
 people. These, and similar prophecies, he may 
 have unfolded to their dull minds. There is a 
 long line of such prophecy ; there is a golden 
 thread of Messianic truth running through the 
 warp and woof of the Old Testament ; there is a 
 crimson cord let down from every window of this 
 ancient and inspired prophecy. Everywhere we 
 see the paschal lamb, the smitten rock, the ser- 
 pent of brass, and the blood-sprinkled mercy-seat. 
 Oh, critics, are not ye fools and slow of heart not 
 to believe the glorious things which the prophets 
 
334 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 have spoken ? Ought ye not to see that Christ 
 must have suffered on the cross that he might enter 
 into the glory ? Do ye not know that the cross is 
 
 The great world's altar stairs, 
 
 That slope through darkness up to God ? 
 
 It is true also that beseeching Christ to tarry 
 secures his abiding in our hearts and homes. Soon 
 the travelers reach the village to which they were 
 going ; and the illustrious stranger makes as if he 
 would go farther. Is he guilty of attempted im- 
 position? Who will dare so affirm? He is en- 
 tirely sincere ; he certainly will go farther if they 
 do not beseech him to remain. Jesus is ever pass- 
 ing by and he will not stay, but constantly go be- 
 yond us, if we do not detain him ; he stands at 
 the door of our heart and knocks, and unless we 
 open he will pass on. It is toward evening and 
 he turns in to make himself the guest in this 
 lowly home. Oh, blessed visif.^r ! Oh, holy guest ! 
 Iyet our prayer now be, " Come in, come in, thou 
 blessed Son of God ! " Let that prayer often as- 
 cend in holy song : 
 
 Abide with me ! Fast falls the eventide, 
 The darkness deepens, Lord with me abide. 
 When other helpers fail, and comforts flee, 
 Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me! 
 
 He did come in to abide ! The evening meal 
 is spread ; he lifts his hands in blessing, and now 
 the disciples are filled with holy joy because of 
 their rapturous recognition. Something in his 
 
DIVINE HEARTBURN 335 
 
 manner of blessing and breaking the bread caused 
 their eyes to open and they knew him. It has 
 been suggested that when he raised his hands in 
 blessing, they saw in his palms the print of the 
 nails ; bub perhaps it was only his manner of 
 breaking and giving the bread which recalled to 
 their minds some former peculiarity of manner and 1 
 tone which assured them that it was indeed the 
 Ivord. Do we have a welcome in our homes, a 
 place at our tables, and a throne in our hearts for 
 thee, blessed Christ? 
 
 How are burning hearts manifested ? The nar- 
 rative helps us at this point also. These disciples 
 went back to the city ; they had not expected so 
 to do ; but they cannot remain in Emmaus with 
 this glorious knowledge in their hearts. Never 
 was a journey so short and so joyous. They left 
 Jerusalem not to return ; they now hasten back ; 
 with flying feet they run to tell their thrilling 
 story. Religion mikes the Christian's duties easy 
 and joyous ; when the love of God is in the heart 
 the yoke of duty is easy and the burden of ser- 
 vice is light. When they reached Jerusalem they 
 became preachers ; they hastened to the upper 
 room where the other disciples were gathered. 
 All had heard the reports of the women, of Mary 
 Magdalene, and of Peter ; and these disciples now 
 add their testimony to that of the other witnesses 
 to the resurrection. They could say with Jere- 
 miah, " His word was in mine heart as a burning 
 fire, shut up in my bones, and I was weary with 
 
336 QUICK TRUTHS IN QUAINT TEXTS 
 
 forbearing, and I could not stay." They could 
 say with the psalmist, " My heart was hot within 
 me ; while I was musing the fire burned ; then 
 spake I with my tongue." Once more they were 
 rewarded by a sight of the risen Lord ; soon he is 
 in the midst of them, and soon his " Peace be unto 
 you," falls upon their wondering and joyous hearts. 
 
 If the love of God be in our hearts, we cannot 
 but speak what we have seen and felt ; we will 
 arise like those disciples the same hour, even 
 though it be night, and will hasten to tell our 
 glad story ; and we shall experience something of 
 their blissful enthusiasm ; and we, like them, shall 
 be rewarded with another sight of the Lord. 
 
 Do you wish for burning hearts in Christ's ser- 
 vice ? Then bring your cold hearts now to Jesus. 
 The way to drive out cold is to let in heat ; the 
 way to banish darkness is to admit light. Oh ! 
 men and women, long for the presence of the 
 Lord ; study his word to find him ; pray him to 
 come in and to tarry with you. Then the mys- 
 terious stranger will meet you by the way and 
 cause your hearts to burn within you ; and then 
 when you have hastened to tell another of the 
 joy that you have found, once more the Christ will 
 meet you, and his sweet benediction, as heaven's 
 choicest blessing, will fall upon your souls. 
 

Wm ♦