m ■ ■ ■ I K&E* Qass_JLi_ Book___ 2237 Ill f PRICE, 50 CENTS. SES f)^j|p U^k^k^H^HH^ t r- wy ■a « - PREACH § THE< * i WORD f Bible Lectures 1 BY GEO. C. NEEDHAM. W. P. FIFE, CHARLOTTE, N. C. Preach the Word Conference Addresses by GEO. C^NEEDHAM. Address orders to W. P. FIFE, (Evangelist,) CHARLOTTE, N. C. c>W» ntered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1892, by THE BIBI.E STUT» v TylTERATURE Co., In the Office of Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. change tv ke University 2 9 1 934 & St (Contents, Explanatory, William P. Fife, George C. Needham, Manifold Ministry of the Spirit, . The Spirit of Revelation and of Unction, The Spirit and the Word How to Study t) le Bible, The Manifold C ospel, Consecrated Vessels, . VII. Paul's Devotion to Jesus, VIII. Communion with Jesus, IX. Redemption as taught by Moses, X. Our Great High Priest, . XI. The Believer's Blessed Hope III. IV. V. VI. 5 7 15 23 4i 57 76 95 114 132 149 170 181 198 EXPLANATORY. HE addresses herein published were delivered by Evangelist George C. Needham during a series of Bible Conferences held in several towns and cities of North Carolina. The great interest shown in Bible study by the large audiences which assem- bled for that purpose, and the repeated requests for the lectures in permanent form, justifies their publication. These studies were developed in Mr. Needham 's course of ordinary Scripture examination, and were presented to the assembled congrega- tions without manuscript. They were taken down by Miss Gertrude E. Jenkins, the expert stenographer of Winston, N. C. , and hastily revised by the author. The lack of oppor- tunity for more careful revision is regretted by Mr. Needham himself. The reader is specially forewarned that every Scripture refer- ence should be studiously examined. The insertion of texts in full would have occupied too much space ; the references ought to stimulate each person to examine the several passages which are given in chapter and verse in order to have a more complete understanding of the topic expounded. The Conferences were planned by Evangelist W. P. Fife, hoping thereby to spiritually benefit the Christian people of his native State. The publisher ventures to present a brief sketch of both Evangelists in order to gratify a multitude of friends who attended these Conferences, and thousands more who could not be there. Now may the blessings which attended the addresses when delivered be multiplied a hundred- fold and be used of God in helping every reader to love, reverence and study the blessed Word of Life. (5) WILLIAM P. FIFE, The North Carolina Evangelist. HROUGHOUT the history of the Church we are led to recognize the sovereignty of God in selecting, fitting and sending special agents to accomplish a special work. The regularly established order of services need not neces- sarily be set aside, save only when it is perverted from the divine idea ; but even when the orthodox channels are used to convey the water of life to thirsty souls, God has a way of thrusting to the front some individual who shall prove himself to be a special messenger dele- gated by the great Head of the Church to stir and move the Church with an infusion of fresh life and power for greater usefulness. From Moses to Jeremiah, from Jeremiah to John Baptist, from John Baptist to Paul, we see proofs of this fact. And during the nine- teen centuries of Church history it has been demon- strated in hundreds of instances that God's resources are illimitable. Frequently He takes ' ' the wise in their own craftiness ; ' ' also He taketh ' ' the beggar from the dunghill to set him among princes ; ' ' while frequently He asserts His sovereign purposes by the choice of "foolish things to confound the wise, and things that are not, to bring to nought things that are." And wherefore ? That ' ' no flesh should glory in His presence." God's law of moral rectitude stops the (7) 8 William P. Fife. mouth of every condemned sinner, and God's law of in- dependent agency for the salvation of men stops the mouth of every censorious critic. The Nineteenth century of human wisdom, of scien- tific effrontery, of subtle philosophy, of ecclesiastical conceit is specially a century rich in illustration of the great Master's purpose to exalt whom He will, and to confound every form of human pride, and bring down to the dust every element of human glory. Pastors after His own heart are serving God in their day and generation ; shepherds who are not hirelings feed the flock of God, while evangelists upon whose neck no traditional yoke has ever set are thrust by the great Master into the world's harvest fields; mission- aries also, whose cry for the millions enshrouded in darkness has been heard, have unlocked doors without government influence or kingly favor. And as the Age nears its end God will more wonderfully make bare His arm in the midst of the nations. One of the most recent proofs of sovereign grace is found in the subject of this brief sketch. Mr. William P. Fife, in his thirtieth year, was hewn from the rock, digged from the pit, and freed from the bondage of sin. It is not necessary to dwell upon his past life, save only to remark that he was no better and no worse than thousands of young men who are ruled by the god of this age, serving sundry divers lusts and passions, de- ceiving and being deceived, sowing evil seed and reap- ing a corrupt harvest. Through the mercy of God, leading the blind by a way they know not, William P. Fife was led to hear the preaching of Evangelist R. G. Pearson in the city of William P. Fife. 9 Wilmington, N. C, on the 2d day of April, 1888. The Holy Spirit has greatly honored the ministry of Mr. Pearson, and especially that many strong-willed men, foremost in the service of the devil, have been saved through his earnest labors. Mr. Fife heard the mes- sage of God's love to man. Overcome by conviction, his soul was in a fiery torture as an awakened con- science accused, and a terrified memory brought up the evils of a wasted life. But, thank God, he fled to Christ for pardon, for peace, for purity, for power, and in Him he found all. Yes, the man of iron is broken at the feet of Jesus, and now, like a child, tender, loving, confiding, he trustingly leaves himself, his sins, his cares, his life, in the hands of the Redeemer. This, then, he discovered, that his sins are pardoned, and his life redeemed for some noble purpose. What shall he now do to retrieve the past, to prove his gratitude to his L,ord, and to help others' who are lost in the mire of carnal appetite and fleshy dominion ? During the first fifteen months after conversion Mr. Fife was in active business. But the burden of souls grew upon him, while without planning on his own part, the way opened for him to give addresses to the colored people, to Sunday schools and at Y. M. C. A. meetings. During this time also he read his Bible dili- gently until it began to burn within him like a fire shut up in his bones. It soon became evident to his christian friends that he was well qualified for general evangelistic work. But what steps must be taken to introduce him to needy fields? His former sinful pleasures left him bankrupt in health and in pocket. A debt of $10,000 io William P. Fife. weighed down his spirits. Who is sufficient for these things ? Slowly, but surely, Mr. Fife began to learn the all-sufficiency of Jesus Christ. The promises be- came real to his soul. Can he not now trust God for their fulfillment ? The crisis is finally reached. Calls to preach are frequent. The efforts already made were crowned with fruitfulness. In one country town hun- dreds were converted, many of whom were drunkards and gamblers. From town to town calls urged him on until he relinquished his business and threw himself and his family on the Lord. With a firm grasp he laid hold on Phil. iv. 19 : "My God shall supply all your need. ' ' Immediately pastors urged him to visit neg- lected districts. The fame of the earnest young Evan- gelist went before him. As he dealt heavy blows on every form of vice giant sinners trembled. Frequently three hundred professed conversions took place in one week. Mr. Fife wisely worked within his own native State. He had no wish to extend his borders and touch on fields far apart. From town to town he traveled gaining friends and making enemies. The wicked feared him ; illegal traffic he exposed and evil-doing denounced until gamblers ceased plying their trade and whiskey vendors renounced their business. After his first meeting at Maxton Mr. Fife visited IvUmberton, Polkton, Reidsville, New Berne, Raleigh, Durham, Shelby, Milton, Burlington, Concord, Rocky- mount, Lawrenceburgh, Gastonia, High Point, King's Mountain and Fayetteville. The largest buildings were crowded at every place and thousands were brought under Gospel influence. Nor did the Lord forget His servant who consecrated his powers to preaching Christ. William P. Fife. n Money flowed in upon him until his debts were lessened and Mr. Fife was in a position to aid other workers with whom he willingly shares his income. In July, 1890, the young Evangelist attended the Niagara Bible Conference, where he was brought into contact with men who were able to rightly divide the Word. His appetite was whetted at this conference for a deeper knowledge of the Scriptures, and he prayerfully determined to study that Book with greater purpose of heart. This he has done faithfully until his biblical knowledge has become a surprise to former friends. In the fall of 1890 we find this earnest man again at work in his beloved State. He preached for about ten days in each of the following places : L,incolnton, Newton, Morganton, Randleman, Blacksburg, Mount Holly, Mooresville, Louisburgh, Kinston, Lexington, Statesville, Greenwood, Salisbury, Spartanburgh, Char- lotte, and Greensboro. Many other towns were visited by the vigorous Evangelist until his name became a household word in North Carolina. The writer has heard from the lips of a good many that "in two years Bill Fife has done more to elevate the morals of North Carolina, and win more souls to Christ than any other agency in twenty years. ' ' In the fall of 1891 he preached in a large warehouse at South Boston, Va. During the ten days' meeting thousands flocked to hear him, and hundreds were converted. The grateful citizens presented him with a purse of $1,600. They also bought out five liquor saloons, and banished whisky from this thriving town. In 1892 Mr. Fife preached in the large tabernacle at 12 William P. Fife. Norfolk, Va. Seven thousand persons attended his closing service. During the month of April he visited seven towns with his friend, George C. Needham, holding Bible Conventions which made a profound impression in every community. We may here summarize Mr. Fife's qualifications for the work of an Evangelist : He is a young man now in his prime, with a commanding presence, and a good, full voice. He is a great sponge, absorbing from every source as much Bible knowledge as he can utilize. His memory is excellent. He can readily quote hundreds of texts giving chapters and verse ac- curately. He is a good singer, and makes use of sacred songs largely in his w r ork. Mr. Fife is not a ranter, but is tremendously earnest. He avoids clap- trap, yet uses plain language, scorning to call a spade 1 ' an agricultural implement. ' ' He is genial and social, full of merriment, which ekes out and bubbles up at all times. Although he warns sinners to escape the fiery lake, he seeks to allure them to Calvary in pathetic strains, for he is surpassingly tender in plead- ing with the lost. The Evangelist is a man of prayer. This seems to the writer to be a true secret of his power. He talks with God in holy familiarity, and pours out his soul in jo3 r ous supplications. At the present writing Mr. Fife has unfurled his flag, having pitched his mammoth tent in his native city of Newberne. Many cities await his services; but the great desire of his heart is to establish a central annual Bible Conference in the South like unto Ni- agara, and open a Bible training school for ■ Christian workers, like unto the Chicago Institute. We bless William P. Fife, 13 God for William P. Fife. The I^ord has been good to him in giving him an amiable wife who is full of gratitude for the blessed change in her husband's life, and for his great usefulness. They are blest with a son and daughter. GEORGE C. NEEDHAM.* [HE subject of this brief notice was born forty- seven years ago on the shore of the Ken- mare Bay, not far from the far-famed L,akes of Killarney in the south of Ireland. His parents were Irish Protestants, and he, with nine brothers and sisters, enjoyed a religious training. When five years old he received a decidedly religious impression from hearing an older sister recite a sermon which she had heard on the Second Coming of Christ. But it was not until his eighteenth year, when the great revival wave swept over Ireland, that he became fully assured of salvation. The mother of the Needham family, with her ten children surrounding her bedside, passed away when George was nine years of age. The mother's dying prayer was for the spiritual welfare of her children. It has been abundantly answered. When nineteen years old young Needham entered business in Dublin. He soon won the high regard of his employers by detecting a system of fraud which had for some time been practiced against them. At the end, however, of his first year in business, against the protest of his employers who made him flattering oners, and of some of his friends, who thought him rash, he * For this sketch of Evangelist George C Needham we are chiefly in- debted to The Christian Herald, edited by Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage. (15) 1 6 George C. Need/iam. relinquished his position and went forth as an Evan- gelist. His labors during the first few years of his ministry succeeded so well in Ireland that he was in- vited to England, where a successful work in the vicinity of Mr. Spurgeon's birthplace threw him into contact with that great preacher. It is said that he proposed at this time to enter Mr. Spurgeon's college, then in its incipiency, but that the latter, seeing the work he was doing, advised him to continue preaching Christ. In 1866, Mr. Needham, in company with Henry Grattan Guinness, made an evangelistic tour of Ireland with the most marked results. " Thousands flocked to their preaching, and strong men fell to the ground under powerful conviction of sin. Conversions were numerous. Christians were greatly stirred to work for the salvation of souls. When he entered upon his life-work it was with the reservation that, if not supported, he would return to his former home and aid his father, who for years had filled several public offices. George had heard nothing of the theory of living by faith, although he was now practically living that life. When his first trial came through lack of funds he determined to re- visit his father. That night he had a troubled sleep, and three times had a startling dream that his father and himself were net-fishing, and every time they threw the net the father fell overboard and became entangled in the meshes. The morning found him feverish, dejected, and on the border of despair. He sought relief in pro- tracted prayer and arose strengthened, when a telegram reached him. He surmised evil tidings, and, before opening it, again sought the help which cometh from George C. Needham. 17 God only. A strange peace came over him, and he was somewhat ready for the terrible news: "Your father was drowned yesterday. Come home immedi- ately." Soon after the settlement of family affairs, with the added burden of younger brothers and a deli- cate sister, for whom temporary arrangements had been made with relatives, the young Evangelist, strong in purpose to win souls, started out on a tour of preach- ing throughout Ireland and England. Observing one day the shabby condition of his cloth- ing, he ventured to pray especially for a new suit. He had not heard of any one before doing this. In a very brief space of time he received an anonymous letter, in which he was asked to call on certain shop-keepers. On doing so he found they had been commissioned to renew his wardrobe, even to hat and boots. The great packages came to his room, when, spreading them open, he challenged the devil to look at his Father's gifts, and never again to tempt him on the score that he would either starve or go ragged if he continued evangelizing. The Evangelist has had many such lessons taught him by great trials and extra- ordinary deliverances. In the year 1867 two young preachers in Great Britain had agreed together to visit America. These young men were George C. Needham and the late Henry Moorhouse. Mr. Needham having been de- tained by the sickness of a sister, who afterwards accom- panied him on the voyage, did not reach the United States until three months later than his friend Moor- house. He landed at Boston, and on the next day gave a brief address at the noon meeting of the Y. M. 2 1 8 George C. Needham. C. A. Invitations to preach began immediately to pour in upon him. Mr. Spurgeon had introduced him by letter to the churches of America, hence the con- fidence readily bestowed on the young stranger. Moorhouse had already reached the public ear in Chicago through D. I,. Moody, then President of the Y. M. C. A. of that city. Through these young Evan- gelists, Bible readings, as they are now more popularly called, were first introduced, similarly in New England and the great West. Bagster's Bibles were then com- paratively unknown among the American people ; but the Bagster's, carried by the young preachers, well thumbed and well marked, were regarded as a curi- osity, and immediately the work of importation began. Pastors, missionaries, Sunday-school workers, and others, must study a Bagster's Bible ! Some, indeed, made excellent use of them, while others, not diligent in the pursuit of Bible knowledge, found the talisma- nic copy very ordinary after all. Rev. S. H. Pratt, of Salem, Mass., had invited Needham to his church. He, too, was struck with the marked Bible used by the Evangelist, and at once ordered a copy. This was probably the first Bagster imported of that immense number which thereafter found purchasers on this side the sea. Mr. Pratt made excellent use of his Bible, having since then entered upon the work of evangelism, and has been for years well known as a faithful, accu- rate teacher of God's Word. After Moorhouse left Chicago, Mr. Moody urged Needham to visit him, he having previously met with him in London. These were halcyon days ; a nucleus of whole-souled young men had already stamped the George C. Needham, 19 city with religious zeal. Bible study received an added impulse when Mr. and Mrs. Needham, on their wedding tour, joined that vigorous band. Moody, Whittle, Jacobs, Morton, Reynolds, and others, are still, thank God, with the Church on earth, and ripen- ing for the Home in heaven. A recent critic has tersely remarked : ' ' Mr. Need- ham emphasizes, elucidates, preaches the Word." The same testimony is given wherever he has gone, and there is no doubt that it reveals the secret of his suc- cess. God will bless His own Word. Preachers and Evangelists may depend upon that. If they desire God's blessing, let them make their hearers know and understand the Bible. If their object is popularity as eloquent or gifted preachers, then they may deliver an oration with a verse of Scripture used for form's sake as a peg to hang it on. They will have their reward. It is the Word of God which is ' ' quick and powerful" for the conversion of sinners. Mr. Need- ham believes this, and he has made it his study in order to expound it unto others. A recent article calls attention to his constant aim of exalting the Scriptures. It says : ' ' The best commen- tary on the New Testament is the Old Testament, and vice versa; the Scriptures explain themselves. The listener is profoundly impressed with the importance of studying the Word of God, and he goes home with at least a mental resolution to be a closer Bible student. One thing is very apparent — it is that people will go to hear the Bible explained when it is well done. ' ' Mr. and Mrs. Needham have both written largely on Bible themes. Mr. Needham has also prepared a 30 George C. Needham. voluminous life of Mr. Spurgeon, and a large book on "Street Arabs," besides having written a life of his friend, Henry Moorhouse. The Evangelist has been the hardest sort of a worker all his life. He preaches nightly almost the whole year around. He gives Bible readings nearly every afternoon, sometimes con- ducts a morning prayer meeting, preaches frequently four or five times a Sunday, carries on a large and /aried correspondence, and contributes to a number of nagazines and papers. One of his little books, ' ' Father Waffle," has reached a circulation of four hundred and fifty thousand. Although on three occasions he has been offered the degree of Doctor of Divinity, with most flattering allusions, Mr. Needham is still ' ' Evangelist ' ' pure and simple. Though in constant movement from one part of the country to another, having carefully kept him- self free from ties which would confine his labors to any one location, he is not a professional revivalist. The distinction may appear trivial, but it is very im- portant. Some idea of his character may be formed from an answer he once sent to a member of a com- mittee in a large city, who wrote to him for suggestions about the style of advertisement which should be issued, announcing his meetings. "By no means advertise me," he wrote, "as being sensational, or magnetic, or eloquent, or scholarly, or smart, or any such thing, but only as a plain man, telling a plain story, in a plain manner." The Evangelist has done pastoral work in Chicago for two years, where the great Chicago Avenue church and school felt the power of his organizing ability, as George C. Needham. 21 well as of his earnest preaching. He generally avoids great denominational gatherings and popular assem- blies,- and refuses to deliver addresses on any subject which does not immediately relate to the Gospel of Christ. He has labored with leading Evangelists both in Great Britain and the States, and has co-operated for many years with his beloved brethren, Moody and Sankey. His three younger brothers have been influenced by his example, though never urged by his appeal to give themselves to the work of the ministry. Thomas is a well-known and highly successful Evangelist, whose career for ten years, previous to his conversion, among the Patagonians and Uruguayans of South America is packed with startling incidents. Benjamin is pastor of the Coatesville Baptist Church, a tireless worker moving along on independent lines and success- ful beyond many. William, pastor of the Third Baptist Church, Germantown, is also an artist of no mean merit, whose rapid crayon-sketching before an audi- ence is surprising, thrilling and morally elevating. The Evangelist's sisters are all devoted workers in their respective churches, while several of their chil- dren are highly imbued with the missionary spirit. The sainted mother's prayer has indeed been answered. One of Mr. Needham 's special gifts is that of organ- izing and promoting great Christian conventions. He successfully carried through the prophetic conference in Chicago, inaugurated and moderated the Philadelphia Conference on Bible Inspiration, and the glorious con- vention of Baltimore, on the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit. Besides, the Evangelist's voice is heard 22 George C. Needham. all over the country at Bible Schools and Bible Insti- tutes. In fact, of late years he is giving much of his time to the promotion of Bible Study through all of these potential agencies. Mrs. Needham is also well-known as an accurate Bible student, a prolific writer and an accomplished speaker. PREACH THE WORD, THE MANIFOLD MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. EAR FRIENDS:— I think we begin right when we begin with the Spirit Himself. * * Them that honor me, I will honor. ' ' We all believe theoretically in the Holy Spirit; we believe in His personality; we believe that He is the great source of power in the Church ; yet practically we too much ignore Him, and He is thereby grieved. We cannot make the work of the Spirit and the Ministry of the Spirit too prominent in teaching; nor can we make it too prominent in personal experience. I remember hearing of a Scotch pastor who, according to the custom, met with candidates for church-membership every Saturday to catechise them on the doctrines of the Bible, and as his manner was, he asked many questions. To one old woman he put this question, ' ' How many persons are there in the God-head ?" She replied, in her broad Scotch, u Twa." " Why, you foolish (23) 2\ Preach the Word. woman, don't you know how many persons there are in the Trinity ?' ' And she again said ' ' Twa. ' ' "Don't you know that there are three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost?" " Oh, I ken the Bible says that, and the Catechism says that; but you have been ten years in the parish, and I have never heard you say so much as that there was a Holy Ghost. ' ' He felt the rebuke and gave him- self up to the study of the subject. Then he began to preach on the Spirit, and the result was that a gracious revival broke out in that parish. Now, I believe, dear friends, that if in the Church and in our individual lives we honor' the Spirit more and have less reliance upon Church machinery — which, while it may be all right in its place, yet if it takes the place of the Spirit we shall suffer — and if we put the Spirit in His own proper place, and recognize Him and honor Him, and trust in Him, He will respond to us, and He will manifest His power through us, and reveal the truth concerning Jesus Christ to us, and we shall thereby be enriched and enlarged in spiritual life. L,et me say here, that in these Conferences we cannot afford to amplify too much ; the subjects cannot be dealt with as interestingly as in an or- dinary evangelistic sermon. In our evangelistic addresses we can make use of anecdotes and illus- trations, making them a little more popular, per- haps; but in these Studies we take it for granted Manifold Ministry of the Spirit. 25 that you are already interested ; that your hearts are already in sympathy with the subject, and therefore we shall do little more than suggest as we proceed. I want you to bring your own Bibles, with your note -books, and write down the salient features of the subjects, with the Scripture refer- ences. And I wish to say that these Conferences will not be of very much benefit to you, unless at your homes you review the lesson and see how much you can get out of it that will be helpful to you in your personal life. I make this a point which I insist upon everywhere, that the real profit of the Conference is not during the session, but afterwards, when individual Christians are alone with God in studying the Word, in studying out what they have heard, trying to put it in such a form that they can grasp it within their own hearts, and that it will be full of power in their own lives. We want not simply to hear with the outward ear, but to hear also with the inward heart. ' ' Thy Word have I hid in my heart. ' ' I. We now commence with this fact, THAT THE Spirit is personal. I know it is very hard to realize that the Spirit is personal, because He has not appeared in a human body. God tabernacled in the flesh, and we behold the Son of God in human form; we can touch Him; He appeals to our senses, so we know He is personal; but it is difficult to realize that the Holy Spirit is likewise 2,6 Preach the Word, personal. God is a Spirit. No man hath seen the Father, yet the Father is personal. If we keep in onr minds this fact, that the Holy Spirit is personal as mnch as the Father is ; as mnch as Jesns is; that He has all the qualities, attributes, feelings and capabilities which go to make up personality, then we will not dishonor Him by thinking of Him as an emanation, an influence, or a thing. The Holy Spirit, as a personal Being, is incorporated in a body; but that body is the body of the believer, hence His manifestations in Christian life, just as we have manifestations and proof of the wind which we see not. John xiv: 16. "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever." The names which belong to Him prove His personality. He is called "another Comforter." Now, that word "another" not only proves the equality of the Spirit with Jesus, but also the personality of the Spirit. Jesus was a Comforter to the disciples, an Advocate, a Helper, who said, ' ( When I go away I will send you ' another Comforter' — not a thing, not an influence, but a ' Comforter ;' one who shall be to you what I have been to you; He will be your Guide, your Friend, your Helper, and He will abide with you forever." He is called our Guide, our Counsellor, our Friend — names which distinguish Him as a personal Being. Manifold Ministry of the Spirit. 27 Again, there are certain attributes which he possesses. God has for his attributes Omniscience, Omnipotence, Eternity ; and the Spirit of God possesses the same attributes as the Father and the Son. See Hebrews ix. 14. Here He is called the Eternal Spirit. The Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, and the Holy Spirit is eternal; so that He has neither beginning nor end. Read 1 Cor. ii. 9-1 1. "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him ? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." The Spirit here is Omniscient. He knoweth all things. The Spirit or (Jod is "said to possess knowledge; He has all knowledge of to-day and to-morrow; He has all knowledge of the Father and the Son; He know- eth all things. You see that language could not be applied to an influence in any way, but it is applied to a person, and the Holy Spirit is that person. He possesses knowledge ; He knoweth u the deep things of God." Psalms cxxxix. 7-12. "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit ? or whither shall I flee from thy pres- 28 Preach the Word. ence ? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea ; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me: even the night shall be light about me; Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee: but the night shine th as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. ' ' This brings before us the blessed fact that the Spirit of God is Qmnipre- sent; present everywhere, no matter howafstant believers are from one another, no matter how far away they are from home and kindred, the Spirit of God is always with His people; He is in the heavens, He is in the deep, He is Omnipresent. I only give you these few sample texts along that line of study which could be amplified and devel- oped, making a subject of itself — the attributes of the Spirit of God. Remember these lessons are only suggestive and you are to work them out more fully for yourselves. Again, the action and work of the Spirit imply personality. Genesis i. i, 2. Here we find Him brooding over chaos at the beginning, bringing light out of darkness, order out of confusion. Job xxvi. 13. We find that the Spirit is identified with the work of creation. He is the creator of this material earth, this cosmos, in co-operation with the Father Manifold Ministry of the Spirit. 29 and the Son. So we read the Spirit of God was engaged in the work of creation. ' ' By His Spirit He garnished the heavens. ' ' Psalms civ. 30. The Spirit's work in the material world is typical of His work in the spiritual world. John xvi. 8. ' ' And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. ' ' He will come to reprove, or con- vince, the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. Not only is He the creating Spirit, but also the convicting Spiri t Some time ago at the """ Northfleld Conference, when Prof. Drummond was there, I arrived one day after Conference had com- menced. I found Mr. Moody, Dr. Pentecost and Prof. Drummond sitting on the ground, asking and answering questions. The question that was up when I reached the ' ' Hill-top, ' ' was this : Whether the evangelists had been noticing in late years, the character of conviction produced in the hearts of the unsaved; whether it was conviction of the guilt of sin, or of the power of sin. Prof. DmrnnioncT^ said in connection with his work, he thought the conviction produced in the minds of the young men was conviction of the dread power of sin, while Dr. Pentecost thought that in his preaching men were convicted of the guilt of sin. Mr. Moody turned to me and asked, "What is your experience?" 1 'Well, ' ' I said, ' ' I am sorry to say that for the last ten years I have not found very many convicted either 30 Preach the Word. of the guilt or of the power of sin. ' ' We do not seem to have much conviction in these days. We get people into the Church in a very easy way, and I tell you friends that I hope the time may soon come when the Spirit will convict men of sin until they are all broken up. I may be right, I may be wrong, but I think one reason of this lack of con- viction is that we have not been honoring the Spirit of God sufficiently. By the way, let me say, in passing, that when we talk about the Book of Acts, we generally call it by its human title, ' ' The Acts of the Apostles, ' ' just as " The Revelation of St. John " is the human title of the last book in the Bible. That is not the true name of the Book ; see the first verse of chapter I. ' ' The Revelation of Jesus Christ ;' ' so the "Acts of the Apostles," should be " The Acts of the Holy Spirit. " It is the fifth Gospel ; the Gospel I of the Holy Spirit. The other Gospels record the life and ministry, the death and resurrection . of Jesus, so that book records the work of the Spirit through the Apostles. And if you study this question in the Book of Acts, Is the Spirit of God personal ? His actions, His power, His miracles, would so impress you, that you would bless God and piaise Him that such a Divine person is given to the Church. The qualities which the Spirit possesses prove His personality. Bph. iv. 30. ' 'And grieve not the Manifold Ministry of the Spirit. 3 1 Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. ' ' The way in which we grieve Him is expressed in the context. We may grieve the * Spirt of God in two ways. I may grieve the Spirit/ in my own heart by sin, and I may grieve the Spirit of God in your heart by rny conduct towardsN you ; and I think that is the thought really brought / out in the text ; therefore we are to be kind one to/ another, gentle, forbearing one another, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us. And by the exercise of these graces one toward another, the Spirit of God instead of being grieved, is gladdened ; we have the power of gladdening the Spirit or grieving Him, so that although He does not take His flight from us, He I may be grieved in our hearts. Yes, grieved, like \ some friend coming to our house ; we entertain him \ in great style for a few days and then neglect him; \ he remains, but is grieved. The Spirit of God J being capable of grief, is substantial proof of His / personality. Acts vii. 51. u Ye stifFnecked and uncircum-\ J J cised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye." No\^x there is a difference between grieving the Spirit and resisting Him. The child of God grieves the Spirit, the unconverted resist the Spirit. How does a man resist the Spirit ? By simply refusing to believe on Jesus Christ as his Saviour. Stephen 32 Preach the Word. presented the crucified Saviour to the Jewish peo- ple and they would not believe on Him; now the fact of their rejection of Christ was proof of their resistance of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes persons may say, ' ' I am afraid I have resisted the Holy Spirit." Are you a believer in Jesus Christ? ' ' Well no, I have not believed on Him. ' ' Then, of course, you have resisted the Spirit. In the persistent refusals of the sinner to accept Christ as his Saviour, he resists the Holy Spirit, for it is the work of the Spirit to bring the truth of the Gospel to the heart, and by our refusing to accept it, we put ourselves in opposition to the Spirit of God. Isaiah lxiii. 10. " But they rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit : therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them." Just think of that ! ' ' They rebelled and vexed the Holy Spirit, therefore He became their enemy and fought against them. ' ' Now, you cannot vex any- thing impersonal; you cannot vex the light, but you can vex a person. Acts v. 9. " Then Peter said unto her, How js it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord ? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out." What a terrible charge made against the man and the woman after having kept back part of the price of the land! While it was in their own power it belonged to themselves, but Manifold Ministry of the Spirit. 33 ! when they sold it and professed to have given all the proceeds to the Apostles, yet kept back part of the price of the land, they lied to the Holy Ghost, / so although they had not spoken a word, their action was a lie, and thus they vexed the Spirit, and judgment came upon Ananias and Sapphira for their sin against Him. II. The Manifold Ministry of the Spirit. 7. He is the regenerating Spirit. The Spirit of God is the Agent, the great, personal intelligent Agent in the Church to do the work of regenera- tion. He is the regenerating Spirit and every believer is the product of the Holy Spirit, for he is born of the Spirit. John i. 12, 13. " But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name : Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. ' ' I want you to notice here, ' ' which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. " Who are born of God ? "To as many as received Him, to them gave He power," or the right or privilege ' ' to become the sons of God. ' ' Romans viii. 15, 16. "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. 3 *SS/ L 7 34 Preach the Word. L,et me say in passing, the neuter pronoun " itself" applied to the Spirit is in the Revised Version properly ' ' Himself. ' ' There is a verse in the second chapter of Acts where it is said that the tongue of flame came and "#" sat upon each of them, but the neuter pronoun there belongs to the symbol, the tongue of flame. It is always "He" and < ' Him ' ' and " His ;" " the Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. ' ' Therefore the cry of the believer, ' c Abba, Father!" There is a traditional saying that the Jewish children in their first attempts to speak simply brought their lips together and made that sound, ' ' abba, ' ' exactly as American children say 1 ' papa. ' ' Well, there are a great many of us who never get much beyond that ' ' Ab-ba. " It is a great thing to be able to look up and say, ' 'Although I have been a rebel against God yet now instead of being my Judge, he is my Abba, Father. ' ' The Spirit of Adoption in us leads us to cry, ' ' Father, ' ' because we recognize the relationship which exists between us now ; he is my Father, I am His child. But let me add that though we have the Spirit of adoption now, the adoption has not yet taken place. There is a great deal of difference between adoption and birth. The ordinary idea is that as a rich man takes a poor child from the street into his family, giving him his name, treating him in every way as his child, so God in like manner Manifold Ministry of the Spirit. 35 takes the sinner into His family. But the illustra- tion fails. There is no community of nature be- tween the reputed father and the adopted child; though the child may take that father's name, there is still a great chasm between them; there is no union of nature. Adoption is a very different thing from birth: we are not now adopted when we believe; we are born. We are made partakers of the Divine nature; there is a fellowship of nature between God the Father, and the believing sinner. But then, where does the adoption come in ? Turn/ to Romans viii. 22, 23. " We groan within our-f selves, waiting for the adoption. ' ' We wait for the] adoption ; now we have the Spirit of adoption! already in us, because the Holy Spirit takes pos- \ session of the heart of the believer ; He is the \ Spirit of adoption witnessing within us to our spirits that we are the children of God. What is the adoption ? The redemption of the body. One of the interesting sites to me in Rome, is the old Forum. I spent many hours there, walking up and down, and I remembered a good many things in history which occurred there. When a young Roman was about to be invested with the rights of citizenship, the father brought him before the Senate, and said, ' ' This is my son who has reached the age of manhood, and I want him to be publicly recognized as a citizen of the Common- wealth. ' ' Then they take from him the robe of 36 Preach the Word. boyhood and put on him what is called the ( ' toga virilis," or robe of manhood, and he is by that act adopted into the family of his father and he thereby becomes a citizen of Rome. So hereafter the believer's body is to be raised from the dead, and when that resurrection day comes, God will pub- licly invest us with the ' ' toga virilis ' ' our glorified body, and we shall enter into the rights of heavenly citizenship. We now wait for the adoption, even the redemption of our body. Oh, it is a grand thing to be a Christian; it is a divine and dignified business ; not simply, c ' I belong to the Church and I am trying to do the best I can. ' ' But, ' ' I am a citizen of Heaven, I am a child of the King." Gal. iv. 4-6. See how Paul writes to the Gala- tians, as he wrote to the Romans, ' ' because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts crying, Abba, Father." 1 John iii. 1, 2. In the Revised Version it says, " Sons of God we are. ' ' Now I ask you, are you a child of God? I hear some reply, "I hope I am, I don't know whether I am worthy or not. ' ' On the score of unworthiness you need have no doubt. I know you are not worthy, neither am I. God looks down upon the unworthy, upon the beggar on the dung- hill ; he sees us in our filth, but in spite of our filth and folly He stoops to us and brings us into His family. 2. The Holy Spirit is the Believer's Seal. Manifold Ministry of the Spirit. $7 We are born of the Spirit, and sealed with the Spirit. Bph. i. 13. "After that ye believed," or as the Revised Version reads, ' ' on believing ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." Now, the seal is not some impression which the Spirit makes upon the heart. The seal is not some emotion which will pass away again, but the seal is the Spirit Himself. 2 Cor. i. 22. What is the use of the seal ? It is the mark of Recognition. Gal. vi. 17. "From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the L,ord Jesus. ' ' The Apostle Paul had some brand-mark upon his body which was the seal of recognition that he was the property of another. The L,ord had acquired Paul unto Himself. Paul calls himself the slave of Jesus, and says, ' ' I bear in my body the brand- marks of the Lord Jesus. ' ' Now, the Holy Spirit is the real brand-mark which God has put upon the believer as a token that now we are no longer our own; He has secured us unto Himself as purchased property and He puts upon us this brand-mark. 2. Tim. ii. 19. "Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The L,ord knoweth them that are his. And, L,et every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from in- iquity." This is the inscription of the seal upon the heart of the believer, " The L,ord knoweth them that are his. ' ' Christianity is an exceedingly 38 Preach the Word. simple question, if we understand and remember that we belong to another. Consecration is simply a recognition of the fact of Christ's ownership of us. Oh, friends, if we once recognize the fact that we are the Lord's property; our brain, our talents, the wealth which we may accumulate, and all our gifts, or whatever we hold belong to Him; if that were recognized in the Church of God, we would fill the Lord's treasury full all the time and be able to carry on mission work, home and foreign, because all we have belongs to Him. There is not a single passage in the Bible which says that Jesus Christ died for the souls of men only; He came to save us soul, body, powers, faculties, everything that we possess. If we dissociate our earthly calling from spiritual life, there is no consecration. The Lord came to save soul, body, will, conscience, heart, life, talents, money, everything. I should recog- nize the fact that I am purchased by blood divine and sealed by the Spirit as the property of another. I have therefore no right to cheat Him; I have no right to say I own a thousand dollars, or fifty thou- sand dollars, or that I am a millionaire. I am only a steward; God entrusts me with certain funds, and I should manage that property for Him. This should be the result of the Spirit in us as the seal of God upon us. John vi: 27. "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto Manifold Ministry of the Spirit. 39 everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you : for him hath God the Father sealed. ' ' Jesus Christ was sealed by the Spirit. The seal was the mark of genuineness, validity. There were a great many who said, ' ' I am the Messiah. ' ' But John said, "I knew Him not; but He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descend- ing, and remaining upon Him, the same is He. ' ' God placed His seal upon the Messiah, and testi- fied, "this is my beloved Son." All the others were false Messiahs. Now this is the proof of true Christianity. God places His seal upon every believer who is a regenerate person. ' i If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. ' ' That is a very solemn matter. The moment I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, God puts His mark on me. I should, therefore, recognize myself as purchased property. ' l Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the Kingdom/' Then the seal produces a likeness. Romans viii: 29. "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." God ; s great plan is to have the redeemed race like Christ in His glorified Body. He started with Adam, making him after His own image. The devil came and despoiled that image, and man has been marred ever since. God then 4-0 Preach the Word. came down in grace and redemption, took man up out of the horrible pit, and hereafter will take him higher in a bodily resurrection. Then shall we be conformed to the image of His Son ; the image which God had before His mind in the beginning. But there is also a moral transformation going on in the lives of Christians who are sealed with the Spirit. 2 Cor. iii: 18. That is practical Chris- tianity. We are being ' changed, transformed by the Spirit into the image of Jesus. That means we are to be more patient to-day than yesterday, more gentle and more Christly day by day as the years roll on. We ought to control our temper; to mortify our covetousness ; to be more generous; we should ever be daily growing into the likeness of Jesus Christ, which the Spirit has come to pro- duce in us, so that the world may be convinced of the reality of Christianity, as that reality ex- presses itself in outward conformity to the blessed Son of God. II. THE SPIRIT OF REVELATION AND OF UNCTION. HERE are many lines of study on the subject of the Holy Spirit which are very profitable. For instance, one can consider the Gospel of John and trace the operations of the Spirit and the promises con- cerning the Spirit through that Gospel. You will find there a wonderful field of study and of delight. Then any student can take up the Book of Acts, and trace the ministry of the Spirit through that book, and while reading the book, just have that one thought in your mind, making notes as you read; it may take you a week or two according to your time and the diligent application you give to it. Then review the Epistle to the Ephesians; there are six chapters in that Epistle and the Spirit is mentioned in every chapter. So if you will study a book, noting what is said about the Spirit, you will find a great deal of comfort and delight and spiritual profit in that study. Now, let us open our Bibles at John xiv. 16. ' ' And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever." I wish to call your attention to the (4i) 42 Preach the Word. Spirit as the Spirit of Revelation. He reveals to us the things of Jesus Christ. ' ' I will pray the Father and He shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you forever." The Comforter is the Holy Spirit, who is Christ's Vicar on earth; Christ's substitute; He comes to take the place of Jesus. Many persons think the Pope is Antichrist, but I never can understand how the Pope is Anti- christ, for this reason, the Bible says specifically that Antichrist when he comes will deny the Father and the Son, that Antichrist will be an in- fidel. The Pope honors the Father and the Son, not only in His humanity as the son of the Blessed Virgin, but he also fully recognizes the divinity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. But the Pope claims to be Christ's Vicar on earth, and he occupies the Holy See, which is an abbreviation of the Holy Seat, so that the sin of the Pope is a sin against the Holy Ghost, for his assumption is a denial of the Spirit of God, who has come in his personal presence to be Christ's Vicar on earth and to occupy the Holy See, which is the Church, the Temple of God. The Holy Seat is the heart of the believer, and the Spirit has come as Christ's representative to earth to transact business for Him, so that when the Pope claims to be the Vicar of Christ, he there- fore denies the Spirit and sins against Him. But the Protestant Church is not guiltless. Our evangelical orthodox churches, while not deny- The Spirit of Revelation. 43 ing the Spirit, yet ignore His presence, so that we also have in great measure sinned against the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, I will send One who shall abide with yon forever, another Comforter, the Paraclete, the Advocate, the Intercessor, who shall be with you and in you. John xv. 26. " But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me." This then is the main work of the Spirit of God, testifying of an absent Christ ; testifying of a risen Christ. John xvi. 13. The newspaper can only tell us of things which have transpired ; the Bible speaks of things to come. It is the best kind of a newspaper, for it predicts future things. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of prophecy. He makes known to us the future, so that the believer need not be speculating concerning the things of the future ; the things con- cerning our Ivord and His people, and concerning this planet upon which we live. ' ' He shall show you things to come." The Holy Spirit is the re- vealer of Jesus Christ. Suppose there is a veil across this platform, all these ministers on the plat- form will be in obscurity, you cannot see what is behind the veil; but when the veil is drawn aside you see clearly. Revelation means the rolling back of the veil. There is a veil on the human heart ; we cannot see spiritual things, but the Holy Spirit 44 Preach the Word. comes and draws aside the veil, opening our eyes and enlightening our understanding, giving us the power to perceive spiritual things, and He sets Jesus Christ before us so that we shall see Him. If we are acquainted with the Holy Spirit in His gracious ministry we shall become more fully ac- quainted with Christ. But we must not be look- ing for any mystical work of the Spirit apart from His Word. Through it He will give to us a clear and complete knowledge of our L,ord Jesus Christ. And here arises the question : Is it possible to believe in, or love an absent person ? Is it possible to love one whom we have never seen, with whom we have never spoken ? Certainly, it is. The Lord Jesus is absent, but the Holy Spirit can reveal Him to us so really that our hearts will throb in love to Him, and like Peter, we can say, ' ' Whom not hav- ing seen, we love ; in whom, though now we see him not, yet believing we rejoice with joy unspeak- able and full of glory." When you have time I want you to read the 24th chapter of Genesis, where we have a very beautiful story, interesting, touching, pathetic; it is also a very striking illus- tration of God's method of revealing the truth to the believing soul. Abraham is a father, Isaac is his son. Abraham has a faithful servant who has been a long time in his household, and has become as a member of his family. He said to him one day, ' ' You go to the daughters of my people and The Spirit of Revelation. 45 provide a wife for my son ; do not go among the Canaanites ' ' — for old Abraham did not wish to have any unequal yokes in his family — "go find a wife amongst my own people for my son. ' ' Now, this was a very peculiar mission on which this servant was sent, but he prayed God to go with him, and when he reached the end of his journey there was Rebekah, and after a little conversation the servant thought, perhaps this is the one whom God has pro- vided for my master's son. I want you to mark the delicate tact of the man. He talked to her and said, ' ' I belong to Abraham ;' ' then he talked about Abraham for a time, and about himself as the ser- vant; but mark you, everything he said about Abraham and everything he said about himself related to Isaac ; he led the mind and heart of the damsel to Isaac. ' ' My master has an only son and his name is Isaac ; Abraham is rich and Isaac is his heir." Of course that would be attractive to a damsel, to hear of a nice, good young man, very rich. After a little while he opens the casket and takes out some jewels and puts them upon her arms and neck, and said, Now these are but the first-fruits of the wealth that Isaac has. And then he talked about Isaac in a great many sweet ways, and while he talked the heart of the damsel began to throb with love towards the man she had never seen. And when the servant said, "Will you go with me and be his wife ?' ' she said, ' ' I will go. ' ' Why ? 4.6 Preach the Word. The revelation of Isaac was so real, the portrayal of the man was so graphic it seemed as if she had known Isaac all her life-time. So, beloved friends, onr Master is very great, He is the risen Lord Jesus, He is Lord of all, and the Holy Spirit comes as the servant of the Father and of the Son to this earth to find a bride for that Isaac. He comes down to earth to speak with us about the Lord; He talks not about Himself except in rela- tion to Christ. Then He takes the promises and precepts and beautiful things which belong to Christ, and gives us to understand this is just a little of the riches of His grace. And as we believe, our poor hearts begin to beat with love towards a person we have never seen, because the Holy Spirit makes Him real to us. This is the work of the Spirit, to make Christ real to the believing heart. He is no mystic Christ, no mere dogma Christ, but the Christ for the human heart ; He is full of sympathy, He has suffered for us, He gave His life for us, and the Holy Spirit makes Him and His redeeming love real to our faith, so that we love Him. Again, the Holy Spirit reveals to us the resources of Christ. There are a great many of us Christians who are living on a cent a day. You know what I mean. The Lord Jesus is infinite in His resources ; He gives to us liberally all things to enjoy, and the Holy Spirit is here to make known to us the deep, infinite, eternal riches of Christ. Not only, dear The Spirit of Revelation. 47 friends, are all things spiritual in the hands of Jesus, but all things material. The cattle upon a thousand hills belong to Him ; so also the gold and the silver. Where does George Miiller get his means for feed- ing and educating 2000 orphans ? He goes to His Lord, for the Spirit has revealed to George Miiller the infinite resources of Jesus. Hudson Taylor cares for hundreds of missionaries in China, and neither he nor Mr. Muller ever had a pink tea, or an oyster supper, or a broom drill, or a begging expedition to raise money for the Master's work. There was a man, called Joseph, who, in his youthful days, was supposed to have been eaten by animals. In after years the brothers were in Egypt in the time of famine, and there Joseph revealed himself to them. He forgave them; he filled their sacks with corn; he sent them down to Canaan, and said, Tell my father that I am alive and Gov- ernor over the land of Egypt, and bring my father up to me. And the sons came into the tent of their father and said, ' ' Father, Joseph is alive and Governor over the land of Egypt!" Now if they had broken it gently and said first, * ' he is alive, ' ' and then afterwards "he is well off," and given him time so that he could take it in little by little, they might have convinced him; but the heart of the old man sank within him, and he said, ( ' You mock me!" and turning, it may be, to the little coat hanging on the tent-peg, he said something 48 Preach the Word. like this: My sons, there is proof that Joseph is dead. Joseph is to me but a sacred memory, and you harrow my feelings in my old age by talking in that flippant way about him. How can they convince their father that Joseph is alive and Gov- ernor of all the land of Egypt, and that the old man shall henceforth have plenty? They invite him to the open door; and as he stood there in the tent-door he saw a chariot, the like of which he had never looked on, with caparisoned horses. ' ' What is this ?" u Those are Joseph's horses and chariot come for you." "And those wagons — what are these ?" " Those are provisions for your comfort on the journey." u What are those?" u Those are provided for us and our families." u What is that?" Wagon after wagon; it was such a revelation to the old man that he cried out, " It is enough; my son is yet alive; I will go and see him before I die." My dear friends, the Holy Spirit comes to us, poor pauper Christians that we are, and He brings before us in review chariot after chariot, wagon after wagon, promises, provisions of grace, all to persuade us, to assure us that Christ is rich; that we need not starve; that He has all things in His possession. And when that truth gets down into our hearts and lives we can go on our way rejoic- ing, singing, " Our Joseph is alive, our Joseph is rich. ' ' So let us not go creeping along, but walk The Spirit of Revelation. 49 erect as Sons of God, when our Elder Brother has all things at His disposal; spiritual wealth, and all other things which we need. This, then, is the work of the Spirit, revealing Christ, making Him so real that we shall transact business with Christ, who is Governor over all worlds, and who has all resources in His possession. In the next place, not only is He the Spirit of Revelation, but He is the Anointing Spirit. 1 John ii. 20, 27. The unction of the 20th and the anoint- ing of the 27th verse is the same thing. Now what is the purpose of the Spirit in this respect ? The Spirit is set forth under the emblem of oil. What is the use of oil ? Oil is for many purposes. First, we find that oil is for knowledge ; in the second place, oil is for joy; then oil is for beauty; oil is also for power. Acts x. 43. God anointeth ; the Holy Spirit is the oil. In Luke iv. 10, we read ( ' The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor." As Jesus was anointed with the Spirit, so are His people. There are two things referred to in the Old Testament ; the blood and the oil. In the 14th chapter of Leviticus we have the cleansing of the leper. One bird is killed and the other bird is dipped into the blood of the dead bird and turned loose into the field, while the blood is sprinkled on the leper seven times. Then follow the results of the cleansing. A great many Christians are sat- 4 50 Preach the Word. isfied to have the blood of Jesus cleanse their past life, but, my dear friends, that is only the first in- stalment of salvation. When that leper had been cleansed, he shaved off all his hair, washed himself in water, and stood there a cleansed man, then the priest gave other directions. Observe : The priest took of the blood of the trespass offering and put it upon his right ear and upon his thumb and upon his toe, touching him with blood from head to foot. The ear represents the senses ; the hand, labor, and the foot, walk. All touched with the blood of the trespass offering. This is exceedingly inter- esting to us, because it is typical. When the leper had his senses and all his faculties dedicated with blood, then the priest took the oil and placed the oil upon the blood, associated it with the blood, upon the ear and upon the thumb and upon the toe. Oil is the symbol of the Spirit ; hence the rest of the oil was poured upon his head and it flowed down to the skirts of his garment ; so that this leper was not only touched with blood, but also anointed with oil. There is a remarkable passage in i Cor. vi. 19, 20, "What, know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which ye have of God, which is in you ! For ye are bought with a price. ' ' Thus we have the blood and the Spirit together, but the blood always preceding; the blood first and then the Spirit afterwards ; so that the oil upon the leper represents the fact thai The Spirit of Revelation. 51 the sinner cleansed in the blood of Jesus, is in the next place touched with the holy oil; the holy unction is placed upon him ; upon his head, upon his hands, and upon his feet ; the whole christian is now dedicated to the Lord by the indwelling of the Spirit of God. Now, let us look at these four points. First, the anointing is for knowledge, that you may know; like when Jesus anointed the eyes of the blind man, then he saw; he went and washed and re- ceived his sight. Jesus said to the Church at Laodicea, ' ' Thou thoughtest that thou wast rich, and increased in goods and had need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art poor and miserable and blind and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou may est be rich ; and white raiment that thou may est be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest see." My dear friends, when the Holy Spirit comes as the oil, it is that we may know Christ; then our eyes are opened ; our blindness is removed. The Church blind ? Is that possible ? Yes, and the Holy Ghost is the oil to heal the spiritual eye of the Christian that he may see by its wonderful power and efficacy. Don't you know that the christian believer sees very much further than the unregenerate philosopher; the holy oil, this Spirit of revelation, is given him for knowledge, and he can see further than the natural man. 52 Preach the Word. The second purpose of the oil is for joy. Psalm xlv. 7. ( ' Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." This Psalm is prophetic of Jesus; "He was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows. ' ' There is a traditional saying that Jesus was never known to smile, that He was never known to laugh, but passed through this world a man of sorrows, gloomy and sad. It is true He is called the ' ' Man of Sor- rows; " He saw enough of sin in this world to fill Him with sorrow; but it is also true that He was a Man of Joy, so we read that Jesus rejoiced inspirit and said, u I thank thee, oh Father, L,ord of Heaven and earth." Again and again it is intimated that divine joy possessed the heart of Jesus, and He went through life filled with gladness. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of gladness was upon Him. A little girl heard that Jesus never smiled, and she said, ' ' Mamma, that cannot be so, for if He never smiled how would the little children come to Him, for we are told they did come to Him, and if He had never smiled, they would not have come to Him. ' ' The Holy Spirit has come to us that we. too might be joyful. Gal. v. 21. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy." Beloved friends, who are happier than the L,ord's children? They can have their recrea- tions, their amusements, their innocent diversions. I believe they should be very happy; I mean the The Spirit of Revelation. 53 children of God, who are walking in communion with their I^ord and King. In the next place, the Holy Spirit, as the oil, makes us beautiful. Psalms civ. 15. Orientals use oil very lavishly; they use it for medicinal pur- poses and as a beautifier, and the more they shine, the greater beauties they are considered to be. Now the Holy Spirit is represented by that figure; * ' oil, which makes the face to shine. ' ' There is a spiritual meaning underneath all that. My dear friends, the only beauty this world's children talk of is outward beauty. There are a great many beautiful faces in this world, and there are some beau- tiful faces in this city. But though some of us are homely enough, nevertheless we can be beautiful, for when the Spirit of God fills mind and heart, and the Word of God abides in us, there will be a spiritual charm and a heavenly peacefulness radiat- ing from the most unhandsome face. It has often been said that Mr. Spurgeon was a very ordinary- looking man; people were disappointed when they saw him. It is true he was not handsome, not even in his young manhood, when I first became ac- quainted with him. But when preaching, or even in conversation, talking about the Iyord, I have seen that face light up like the face of an angel; I have seen the beauty of the L,ord reflected from that rugged face. I received a letter from the dear man which reached me after he had gone to heaven. 54 Preach the Word. He was feeling well some days before his death, and the letter which he wrote me was tender and sweet. Spiritual beauty is the kind of beauty which the Spirit brings out in the life of the believer. The angles and the harsh lines He tones down and the corners He rounds off. The Spirit of God has a good deal of work to do on some of us, and He has been very patient with us. My dear friends, Society may talk about her balls; her votaries may go through ball-rooms laden down with diamond necklaces, but there is no ball-room beauty to be compared with the plainest person in whom the Spirit of God dwells. ' ' L,et the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. ' ' The Holy Spirit as oil is given to us for pozver. The ancient athletes and gymnasts used it for lubri- cating all parts of their body, so that they were able to bend easily. The oil has been in constant use by Orientals for strengthening the body, so the divine Oil has been given to us that we may be strong in spiritual life. When you look into the Old Testament, and espe- cially the book of Judges, you will find how the Spirit of God came upon men, anointing them; He came upon Shamgar, and upon Samson; He came upon Gideon, who went forth with his pitchers and lamps and overcame the Midianites. He came upon judges and upon kings to give them strength for action, to qualify them for service. He comes now upon The Spirit of Revelation. 55 us to impart strength for toil, and power for service. My dear friends, this is an important consideration ; are we willing to have the power of the Spirit rest- ing upon us, not only for public service, but also for personal holiness? I believe that if the Spirit of God rests upon us, we will know how to rock a cradle better, how to do an errand better, how to do business better, how to accomplish the most menial things better; for if indeed we are anointed with the Spirit of God there will be a power upon us for everything we seek to do, and surely we need to be anointed that our hands might be made stronger for labor, our services be more complete and our character more perfect. Now, in closing, is there any way by which we can secure this power? Yes, thank God! There must be a denial of self there must be a giv- ing up of many things dear to us; there must be a hearty surrender of ourselves unto our God. I do not mean to say that you are to become a monk or a nun, but that the world must have no power over you any more; Society must not charm you any longer. When we fulfil the conditions which secure spiritual power, turning our backs upon all kinds of harmful societies, which are the bane of the Church to-day, turning our back upon the world, giving our services to the Church of Christ, stand- ing by her true pastors and teachers, and in fellow- 56 Preach the Word. ship with all who love our L,ord, then shall life indeed be worth living. Brothers and sisters, the power of God is for us all. Oh, I do pity from my heart brethren who are wasting their strength, sis- ters who are squandering their energies on things that do not profit. When I see many of our best workers drawn aside by one thing and another from the true object of life, I do not care even if it be a legitimate pursuit, I know it is grevious to the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit is unlimited in power, infinite in grace. He may take up some poor, weak sister here to-day, and before twelve months you may see her bringing in her sheaves ; He may take up some brother who has never worked for God and use him mightily in sav- ing the lost. Iyet us expect great things. God bless you and grant you the anointing of the Spirit. III. THE SPIRIT AND THE WORD. HB Holy Spirit sustains varied relations to the Holy Scriptures. He is inde- pendent of them in personal sovereignty, yet identified with them in official min- istry. The Spirit is known only through His word, even as a man is known by his words, which are the outward expression of his thoughts. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Yet not always is the man hereby fully known. Not so, however, with the Spirit, for through the revela- tion of Himself, we have accurate knowledge of Him — the Holy Spirit. For He wears no mask, adopts no disguise, is not hypocritical, is no trickster, but is transparent as the sea of glass before the throne, clear as the sunbeam, in whom is no dark- ness at all. Through the mirror of His Word He reflects His pure nature, His manifold characters, and the purposes of His ministry. By that Word, also, by the thunder of its power, by the sharpness of its blade, by the sweetness of its taste, by the richness of its mines, by the comfort of its promises, and by the nourishment of its doctrines, do we further know the Spirit in the majesty of His per- (57) 58 Preach the Word. son and in His manifold ministry. For whatever may have been His modes of revelation in former ages to patriarchs and prophets, and however varied His operations shall be in the ages to come, He seems to have limited the instrument of His min- istry during this church dispensation to that Word, of which He is both Author and Finisher. There is, however, a First Word, who is from the beginning, who in the fullness of time became incarnate, and there is another Word, called ' ' living Epistles," with each of whom, also, the blessed Spirit has entered into close and vital relations. There is, besides, a correspondence between such relations, and those He sustains toward the written Word, which is, to us, the source of all spiritual knowledge of things past, present, and to come. With each, the Incarnate Word, the living Epistles of Christ, and the written Scriptures, is the Holy Spirit organically related. It was He who prepared that Temple of our Lord's body, which concealed, yet revealed, the glory of the only-begotten Son of God. It was He who, in dove-like appearance, descended upon Jesus on the banks of the Jordan, and abode upon Him. Thus He came, as the Father's seal of Divine authentication, upon the Beloved Son. Priests and prophets He visited, endowed, inspired, but with none of them could it be said that He abode. And so throughout our Lord's earthly life, in preparation for His unique The Spirit and the Word. 59 mission, He was anointed of the Spirit, led of the ( Spirit, empowered by the Spirit, comforted throngh the Spirit ; He offered Himself a sacrifice for sin by the same Spirit, yea, was finally raised from the / dead by Him — who is the quickening Spirit. Again, observe the very intimate relations which the Holy Spirit holds to the believer. For the Christian is one born of the Spirit, sealed with the Spirit, led of the Spirit, empowered by the Spirit, quickened by the Spirit, first in his inner life, and finally in his resurrection from the dead. Thus, also, do we perceive like relations between the letter of Scripture and the living Spirit. May we not say truly that it is born of the Spirit, it has been baptized with the Spirit, its genuineness is attested by this divine seal upon it? // is anointed with the Spirit, it is made quick and powerful, a living resurrection Word by the same Spirit. As Jesus was author and finisher of His own personal faith, so is He, the Spirit, author and finisher of that "word of faith," which is our warrant of faith, our ground of faith, our instructor in faith, our incentive to faith, and our rule of faith. I wish to submit for your consideration four pro- positions. I. First proposition : The Holy Spirit is sole Author of Holy Scripture. 1. He is the author of revelation in its totality. 60 Preach the Word. The Bible is not of man, neither by men, even as the stream is not of the river channel. Yet as channel and stream are closely related, and identified one with another, so are the human writers and the writings in close identity. But only forth from the fountain-mind of the Eternal Spirit, who is inde- pendent, sovereign, original, and originating, have these Scripture streams descended through their human channels to us. 2. The Holy Spirit is the author of Scripture in its thoughts and words. We do not indeed at- tribute to Him every recorded utterance. There are phrases in the book entirely alien to the Spirit of God. The words of Satan — words of demons — words of heathen poets — words of scribes, pharisees, hypocrites — words of bad men and mistakes of good men are not divine words. It suited the purpose of the Spirit, however, to have them recorded ; and He accordingly inspired holy men to write them, ' ' for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God might be per- fect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. ' ' The mission and office of the Spirit was thus announced by Jesus : " Howbeit when He the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come" (John xvi. 13). The Holy Spirit must make use of human language, not The Spirit and the Word. 61 because of His impotence, but because of our in- firmities. • ' ' He shall speak. ' ' He gave the writers words, which words are the original Scriptures. It has been frequently stated that the Holy Spirit had for the object of His mysterious inspiration, not the writers, but the writings. The writers were fallible men; the writings infallible communi- cations. The words employed by the Spirit are human words, and may form the vehicle of ordinary human intelligence, but when selected by the Spirit to convey divine revelations they become divine words. Therefore, in this relation are they called the words of the Spirit. * ' Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wis- dom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth." As the body of the primal man was made out of the earth, into which God breathed the breath of life, and man became a living soul; so the Holy Spirit has taken the earthly words of human lan- guage out of which He forms the body of Scrip- ture, and into which He breathes the living thought, and thereby the Book becomes a Book of Life. \ ' Every Scripture is God-breathed. ' ' Let us consider the testimony of Jesus on this point. In Mark xii. 36, our Lord's words are re- corded, where He quotes from Ps. ex. Not accident- ally does He refer to the author of that Psalm, when rebuking the secularized scribes of the temple, in the words, ' ' David himself said by the Holy 62 Preach the Word. Ghost." The Psalm is the language of David. David himself said it, for David was mouth-pi ece 5 or penman. But it is emphatically the language of the Holy Ghost who spake through David, and whose word was on his tongue. (2 Sam. xxiii. 2.) Again, when Peter, in Acts i. 16, refers to the forty-first Psalm, prophetic of Judas Iscariot, he makes this application of it : " Men and brethren, this Scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus." Thus does Peter attribute the authorship of the words of the Psalm to the Holy Spirit of God. So also in Acts iv. 25, the language is most ex- pressive, "Who by the mouth of Thy servant David HAST said." Paul, likewise having been taught the source of that wonderful communication to Isaiah recorded in chap. vi. , declares, ( ' Well spake the Holy Ghost through Isaiah the prophet." Nor must we forget that climacteric statement of Peter who was inspired to write, ' ' No prophecy ever came by the will of man; but men Spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost." How misleading, therefore, is any theory of In- spiration which allows the admixture of human mistakes with divine communications; the mistakes of human speech coupled to divine thought. And The Spirit and the Word. 63 how flattering to human pride that intellect, intui- tion, or consciousness shall determine which is truth and which is fable. No true lover of God's Word will permit the majesty of that Word to be thus degraded, in order that the perverted, distorted and corrupted reason of man shall be exalted. Nor will any christian believer having due reverence toward the Holy Spirit entertain such rationalistic and unscriptural doctrine. The higher critics and the lower critics would not manifest their dislike of the complete inspiration of the words of Scripture, were it not for the insane pas- sion of the natural man to regard reason as the touchstone and test of revelation. Calmly and wisely has Professor Gaussen written of the Bible; u Its first line and its last, with all the instruction (whether understood or not) which it contains, are by the same Author. Whatever the sacred penmen may have been-r-whatever their circumstances, their impressions, their comprehension of what they wrote, and the measure of their individuality brought into operation by this divine and mysteri- ous power — they have all, with a faithful and directed hand, written in the same volume, under the guidance of the same Master, in whose estima- tion 'a thousand years are as one day,' and the re- sult is — the Bible. Let us not lose our time, then, in vain questioning, but study the Book. It is the word of Moses, of Amos, of John and of Paul, but 64 Preach the Word. it is the thought of God, and the word of God. It is therefore erroneous language to say, Certain passages of the Bible are those of man, and others those of God. No; every verse therein, without exception is of man, and they are also all, without exception, those of God. ' ' Even so. The humble, devout believer recognizes the divine Author in every verse and word of Scripture, and values it as an integral part of the great volume of Revelation, stamped from Genesis to Apocalypse with the im- press of divine life, and light, and power, even as the thoughtful naturalist sees in every trembling leaf the mark of intelligent design, and under- stands its relation to the whole forest. II. Second proposition: The ministry of the Spirit and of the Word is a co-ordinate ministry. He who is the author of the word is pleased to use it as the instrument of His diversi- fied operations in this dispensation of the Spirit. / 1. The identity of the Spirit and Word is re- cognized in the names given to each. As for in- stance : ' ' Spirit of God, " " word of God ;' ' ' 'Spirit of truth," "word of truth;" "Spirit of grace," "word of His grace ;" "Spirit of life," "word of life;" "Spirit of wisdom," "word of wisdom;" "Spirit of Christ," "word of Christ;" " Spirit of power," "word of power;" "The good Spirit," "the good word of God;" "Spirit of prophecy," "word of prophecy;" "The Comforter," "com- fort one another with these words. ' ' The Spirit and the Word. 65 2. Their identity is recognized in the use of emblems common to the Spirit and Word. (1) Dew. In Hosea xiv. 5, we find the promise, "I will be as the dew unto Israel," a favorite and appropriate emblem of the Spirit. In Deut. xxxii. 2, Jehovah declares, " My speech shall distil as the dew." (2) Rain. Ps. lxxii. 6 : " He shall come down as showers upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth." (comp. Isaiah xliv. 3.) Deut. xxxii. 2 : " My doctrine shall drop as the rain . . . as the small rain upon the tender grass, and as the showers upon the earth." (3) Water. John vii. 37: " He that believe th on me, out of his belly (heart or inward parts) shall flow rivers of living water. This spake He of the Spirit, that they which believe in Him should receive." Eph. v. 25: "Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water, by the word. ' ' (4) Light. 2 Sam. xxiii. 4: "He shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth." Ps. cxix. 105', "Thy word .... is a light." Prov. vi. 23: " The law is light." (5) Fire. When the Holy Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost, ' ' there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire .... and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." (Acts ii. 3, 4.) 5 66 Preach the Word, Jer. xxiii. 29: " Is not my word like as fire? saith the Lord." 3. Proof of co-ordinate ministry of the Spirit and the Word by the effects produced. (1) In regeneration. " Not by works of right- eousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regene- ration and renewing of the Holy Ghost" (Titus iii. 4-6.) Regeneration by the Holy Spirit is a foundation creed in all evangelical churches. It is an essential Bible doctrine. For ' ' except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." But regeneration is also the office of the Word. u Being bom again, not of Corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for- ever." (1 Pet. i. 23.) The Holy Spirit begets the soul anew through the word. The Spirit regene- Yates, and the Word regenerates •* fsity of preaching s the Word in order to give the Spirit the opportunity He seeks to make men wise unto salvation. While human speculation, natural philosophy, culture, politics, or science, form the substance of so many sermons, we are not surprised that regeneration is practically ignored, and its deep need forgotten. The Spirit's injunction to the ministry of every age is, ' ' Preach the Word. ' ' (2) In sanctification. The Holy Spirit enters the believing heart as the sanctifier. (1 Pet. i. 2.) But The Spirit and the Word. 67 also in the Lord's prayer we note the petition, " Sanctify them through Thy truth, Thy word is truth;" i. e., the whole of truth. (John xvii. 17.) There are various aspects of sanctification which cannot now be discussed, such as sanctification through the blood of Christ, sanctification by faith, etc. Our present work is to call attention to the fact that the Spirit of God sanctifies the regenerated t man, making use of the Word of God for his/ cleansing and purification. ' ' Now are ye clean j through the word which I have spoken unto you. ' ' ] (John xv. 3.) (3) The Holy Spirit testifies of Jesus. "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth | which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me." (John xv. 26.) But it is co-ordinate testi- mony. "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life : and they are they which testify of me." (John v. 39.) The Scriptures our Lord refers to, are those of the Old Testament. Moses in the Law, David in the Psalms, and all the Prophets testified of Him. Jesus Himself re- bukes every reviler of Moses. ' 'And beginning at Moses and all the prophets He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. And He said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled 68 Preach the Word. which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me. Then opened He their nnderstanding, that they might understand the Scriptures. ' ' (4) The Spirit and the Word work unitedly in the edification of the Church. The Holy Spirit is builder. He hews out the living stones from the quarry, fitting them into the spiritual temple, which groweth up as the habitation of God. (Bph. ii. 22.) Yet Paul, in his farewell address to the Bphesian elders, commended them to the word of God's grace, ' ' which is able to build you up. ' ' (Acts xx. 32.) Through the Holy Spirit's gracious ministry of the divine Word is the Church, whether viewed as a structure, or as the mystical body of Christ, truly edified. (5) The work of revival is the work of the Spirit. When the promised dew descends, revival begins. (Hosea xiv. 5.) No intelligent Christian will designate the most effective preacher a "re- vivalist ;' ' and no man taught of the Spirit will arrogate to himself this distinguishing title. Re- vivals may be simulated, but the work when real is the product of the quickening Spirit. The Word however, has also its place in every genuine revival. In Neh. viii 1-9, we have an example of the reviving power of the preached Word. The Levites read out of the law distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused the people to understand the The Spirit and the Word. 69 reading. And the word was applied in power by the Spirit. So also in Ezek. xxxvii. 1-10, we dis- cover the co-operation of these two in the revival of the dry bones, who stood upon their feet an exceeding great army. And thus, as the prophecy foretells, shall the scattered tribes of Israel be nation- ally revived in the next age of millennial blessed- ) ness, when the Spirit is poured forth upon them, and they are found hearing the words of the L,ord. ' (6) Guidance. The promise of Jesus is, ' ' He will guide you into all the truth." Thus does our L,ord comfort His disciples, in assuring them that after His departure, the Holy Spirit would come and be their guide. Also in Pro v. vi. 22, guidance is attributed to the Word; "When thou goest, it shall lead thee." Here, then, is provision for our journey; an infallible guide flashing on our path- ^ way this unfailing light. No feeble light of nature [ nor nickering light of consciousness can illumine the path from earth to heaven. Only the Holy Spirit's clear, steady, noon-day light of Scripture will prove sufficient. (7) Co-operation in producing pure and sponta- neous worship. ' ' Be filled with the Spirit, speak- ing to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiri- tual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord ; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Bph. v. 18, 19.) Thus a 70 Preach the Word. the highest expression of worship is the product of the divine Spirit in the soul. And herein does the Word also fulfill its mission. ' c Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." (Col. iii. 16.) Such are the divine effects of the indwelling Word when received in the Holy Ghost. It becomes the true basis of spiritual experience and the strongest incentive to spiritual worship. Thus have we traced the unity of both. The Word is the Spirit's word and the Spirit's instru- ment. Therefore their action is one and the same in regeneration, sanctification, testimony, edifica- tion, revival, guidance, worship, and every ex- perience of that new creation in Christ Jesus — the true Christian believer. Sadducean sceptics de- nied the supernatural element in the Scriptures and brought upon themselves the deserved rebuke of Jesus, u Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. ' ' In that declaration does our Lord affirm, that divine, superhuman, omnipo- tent power is linked with the written Word of God. Is it not our privilege, then, to receive that Word in its totality and in its tittles ; to bow with becom- ing reverence before its divine claims; to recognize that every type, prophecy, history, parable, doc- trine, is given of God; that every word of God is The Spirit and the Word. 71 pure; that it has been tried and not found wanting, and that He from whom it came will abide with it forever ? III. Third proposition: The Holy Spirit alone can give us a right understanding of the Word. The natural man may by the power of unaided intellect throw side-lights upon the human element of Scripture. We are deeply indebted to the geol- ogist, botanist, historian, grammarian, archaeolo- gist, to compilers, and to critics. But to none of them, as merely intellectual men, not having the Spirit themselves, do we owe aught in the matter of spiritual interpretation ; ' ' For what man know- eth the things of a man, save the Spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." (1 Cor. ii. 11, 12.) There are, of course, men of intellect, who, thank God, have also the Spirit of God, to whom the Church is deeply indebted for spiritual interpretation and exposition of the Bible. And also there are natural men who reverently aim to exalt the Bible from a merely human standpoint, who endeavor to account for discrepancies, and who seek to explain difficulties. ' ' But the natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit of 72 Preach the Word. God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually dis- cerned." (i Cor. ii. 14.) And alas ! there are writers of another school who disparage the written testimony and deny the Holy Spirit, while they irreverently discuss the Christ in art, in poetry, in story and in philosophy; whose darkened understanding and skeptical tendencies can only lead their disciples into the mazes of doubt and infidelity. Some of these would fain boast that they compliment Jesus as the Ideal Man, while they rob Him of His inherent glory as ' ' God mani- fest in the flesh. ' ' Truly, ' ' no man can call Jesus L,ord, but by the Holy Ghost. ' ' So, also, ' ' if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." ' Let it, then, be our glad homage, brethren in the Lord, to give the Holy Spirit that honor due to Him. It is His prerogative to enlighten our minds, and to illuminate the Word, that we may behold won- drous things therein. ' ' We have an Unction from the Holy One, ' ' that we might know divine things. He will teach us, He will prophesy to us, He will bring past spiritual knowledge to our remembrance. He will reveal Christ to our inner life, when, through patient, diligent study of the divine Book we wait upon His ministry, and prayfully seek His proffered help. IV. Fourth proposition : The Holy Spirit in- variably HONORS THE DIVINE WORD. The Spirit and the Word. 73 The promises are abundant insuring its success. Isa. lv. 10, 11. "For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth : it shall not re- turn unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. ' ' We read in the Book of Acts : "While Peter spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the Word." What words ? Simply Old Testament words, rightly in-l \ terpreted. The Apostles preached the Word. Their sermons were Bible-readings. When Christ is ex-| alted according to the Gospel, through its pro-| j clamation the Holy Spirit will glorify Him in those \ that believe. He presents to them through the \ Gospel the things of Jesus, and thus Jesus becomes f j to the believing soul both real and personal. It need scarcely be added that pastors, evangelists, missionaries and other preachers who trade largely with the Scriptures, and who earnestly invoke the Spirit's anointing, are the men and women whom the King delights to honor. In conclusion : The knowledge of these relations between the Spirit and the Scriptures will save us from a two-fold danger. 1. First, from searching the Word for purely mental gratification — from an 74 Preach the Word. intellectual pursuit after truth. It is possible to be adepts in biblical science, and yet be as dry in our spiritual life as Gideon's fleece when no dew from heaven fell upon it. Gathered truth, unfelt in the soul, unknown by spiritual apprehension, can only corrupt like the unused manna. It is possible to preach biblical doctrine and be strangers to its vitalizing power. Such preaching is dreary, is drudgery, is delusive. The heart, not the head, is the home of the Word. It seeks admittance there. Confession with the mouth, or outward testimony, if real, must be the outflow of a believing heart. (Rom. x. 9.) Heart-knowledge of the Word must be sought after by every Christian who would know more of Jesus, who seeks to know the will of God, and who gladly recognizes the prerogative of the Spirit as the supreme, qualified and infallible Bible teacher. 2. Secondly : bearing in mind the relations of both, will also guard us from a dreaded mysticism, or a dead sentimentalism^ Seeking revelatiGasror- experiences fronT_me Holy Spirit, outsid e of, and from the Holy Scriptures, leads to fanatical xtravagances. He needs a keen and watchful eye can readily distinguish the inward monitions of the Spirit, from purely human emotions. When the voice of God, in His Word, is considered too feeble, and a more pronounced voice is demanded by the listening soul, let it be remembered that Preach the Word, 75 Satan can mimic to deceive and adopt the gnise of a good angel for his evil purpose. The canon of Scripture is closed and is complete. Within its range we may freely roam in search of truth, oui trembling hand held in the strong hand of th< Holy Spirit, our guide. Its pastures are our feed-' ing-places; its still waters will slake our thirst. Rapt visions, celestial dreams, or mysterious inward impressions, must not be heeded when antagonistic^ to the revealed will of God, and the true teaching of the Spirit in. the Bible. It is an evil work to attribute to the Spirit monitions and emotions for which He is not responsible. He has given us the Scriptures. By thes e He will te ach us, and com-| ; fort us. In ouf^study of me same, we shall have His promised aid; in our Christian work, we shall have His needed help. And in distinguishing His personality, as co-equal with the Father and the Son, from the instrument of His official ministry in the Church, namely, His thoughts and Words, let us not seek their divorce. For of the spirit and the Word it may be truly said, "What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. " IV. HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. HE present subject is one of great im- portance, as well as, I trust, of great interest to us all ; and I wish to be very frank with you from the start. I do not know that there are any iron rules for Bible study. I believe a great deal depends upon our own individual exertion, our personal diligence and application. All I can now do is, not to lay down rules for study, but to give you hints and suggestions. Much will depend upon your own earnest endeavor to make the Bible a real study. Do not be discouraged ; Rome was not built in a day, and you must not expect to be proficient Bible students in a day. The acquisition of Bible knowledge is really very slow work. There are a great many Christians discouraged because they hear a man quote Scripture very fluently and very accurately, and they feel that they never will attain to that proficiency. Every student of the Bible with whom I am acquainted, gained his knowledge by diligence, patience and perseverance, year by year, gathering little by little at a time. I do not know of any good Bible student, who became one (76) How to Study the Bible. 77 incidentally, or accidentally, but who in this work had to make haste slowly. So do not be discour- aged in beginning Bible study ; everything depends upon your ov/n faithfulness ; use a little time each day in this blessed pursuit and you will find very soon, by the end of a year or two years or five years, if God shall spare you, that your Bible knowledge will increase ; and in order to make it of real value in your own experience, give it out to others as fast as you receive it. Let this be your aim and you will find your reward in its successful accom- plishment. I should like to say also that we shall never be proficient Bible students, until we know the purpose of the Bible; the value and use of God's most blessed Word. We need a motive for study; mo- tives are greater than methods; methods will take care of themselves. The Jews were commanded to read the Bible all the time; to write it upon their door-posts; to have it as frontlets between their eyes; to talk of it by the way; and in social gather- ings. The Bible was to be the subject of discourse constantly, and so they were commanded to teach it to their children and their children's children. It was to be their spelling book, their reading book, their grammar, their help in devotions, their com- fort in trouble, their staff in old age, their light in the valley of death. They were to know the Word of God, to love it, to believe it, to study it and to practice it. 78 Preach the Word. I know an humble mechanic — and I say this for your encouragement — who was once a poor clog- dancer on the stage, brought up a Roman catholic, exceedingly ignorant of the Bible, and not a great man intellectually. He came into one of our Sun- day afternoon meetings, was converted, and there- after resolved that he would not read a single book for five years but the Bible. Pie read neither newspa- per, nor magazine these five years. The only mo- ments he had for study was a little time in the morn- ing and at night. He commenced the study of the Bible alone; he had no one to guide him or help him, but he memorized a verse each day, and could repeat 365 verses in a year, which he kept stored in his memory. The way he managed was this : When he got up in the morning, he took his Bible and after reading a few verses, he wrote out some one verse on a slip of paper, took it to his factory and put it on the bench before him, and often through the day while he was filing or sawing, he had his eye on that paper ; all day long he was memorizing it, meditating upon it, praying about it and getting its sweetness down into his soul. For five years he kept at it, until now the man's inner life is filled with Bible knowledge. Not only that, but he has become skillful in its use. He now reads other books but only such as will aid him in Bible study; and, my friends, I know few men in this land who have a profounder grasp of truth How to Study the Bible. 79 than that mechanic. Many pastors request him to fill their pulpits on Sundays, and when he stands up to preach he speaks in Bible language. He is an illustration of the verse, * ' the base things of the world and the things that are not, to bring to nought the things that are." There is something marvelous about that man ; he is not a very strong man physically ; he is a very ordinary man, but in a section of his town known as the most wicked part of that city, he started a mission, and more than two hundred people were converted by his efforts. He gave them God's Word which proved irresistible. I verily believe it possible that any ordinary man, any ordinary woman, any young man, any young lady here may become fairly good Bible students, if they will take the time which is now wasted on mere trifles, if they will use the spare moments and pass them in Bible study, the Spirit of God will help them in it, will enlighten them, and will empower them to do good in their day and generation. All the helps, all the suggestions, all the hints in the world will be of no use, unless you have first of all a motive for study: then be diligent, not simply for a month or two, or a year or two, but for a lifetime. We should be Bible students right along to the very end. Well, what is the good of the Bible? What is its special use ? Remember friends, the Word of God Preach the Word. is for regeneration, for sanctification, for growth, for purification; the Word of God is for the en- largement and enrichment of christian experience; the Word of God is our shield, the Word of God is our sword, the Word of God is a fire, it is a hammer, it is a lamp. When we come to know how helpful it is for spiritual development, we shall have a motive for study. How now shall we study it ? You know the old recipe for cooking a hare. The first thing is to catch your hare. How to study the Bible ? First of all possess a Bible ; have a Bible of your own. Procure a Bible that you can use. Do not depend upon the old loved family Bible in the parlor, with its big clasp and the names of the family recorded in it; their births and marriages. Sometimes when you go home, with your hands a little soiled and wish to use it, the good wife would not like to have you open it; you cannot use the family Bible for study as a rule. Get a Bible and do not be afraid to use it; do not try to keep it too nice and clean. We ought to adopt the habit of bringing our Bibles to the prayer meetings and to our church services. I have been a pastor, and I have encouraged my people always to bring their Bibles to church. We should see with our own eyes if the text is there in the Book. I am very glad to see so many Bibles in your hands to-day, and I wish to say that I have not held a Bible Conference for years in any new district of the country under How to Study the Bible. 81 such favorable auspices as these ; I have never had a new Conference more favorable than this ; the brotherly fellowship, the eagerness of search, the taking of notes — why I would like to live among you ! * My friends, if you have not money enough to buy a Bible, forego your spring bonnet; if you have not money enough for a new coat go without it, if you can secure a Bible in no other way. Be sure to have a Bible of your own. Another thing about the Bible. Never make a jest or a pun upon the Word of God, never allow anybody to do that in your presence; see that you have great reverence for the Book. I believe in wit, I believe in brightness, I believe in social in- terchange of humorous remark, but I never want in any sort of company to hear anybody make a pun on the Word of God. A twist of a verse will leave a perverted exposition on the mind which may never be corrected. Some of us have heard things said about the Bible which we can never for- get. I hope that the generation coming will have a profound reverence for God's Word, and never make it the subject of a jest. May we all show by our con- duct that even if we do not understand it, we rever- ence it, because it is the Word of the living God. Then let us not be discouraged because some of the Bible is very difficult to understand. Nor should we overlook any part of the Bible; let us * Wilmington, N. C. 82 Preach the Word. not overlook the most difficult portions of the Book, the historical portions, the Books of Chroni- cles, the Books of Kings, the Book of Job ; let us re- member that ( ' all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly fur- nished unto all good works. ' ' What a library the Bible is for the man of God! By it he may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works! Then we are to pray for the promised blessing to rest upon us while we study. Luke viii. 22. Remember this, the Lord Jesus declares that there is a closer relationship existing between Himself and his disciples than between Himself and His mother and brethren in the flesh. l ' My mother and My brethren are these which hear the word of God and do it! " Jesus always honored the Scrip- tures. Luke xi, 27, 28. This also is a very re- markable statement. The Lord Christ in His human life loved His dear mother: oh, how tenderly; but when the blessing was pronounced upon the virgin mother, Jesus said, "Rather blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it. ' ' Rev. i. 1-3. A great many people tell me they do not read the Book of Revelation, because they do not understand it. That is true, we do not understand all of it, but there are in it a good many things we do under- stand. It does not say, ' ' Blessed is he that under- How to Study the Bible. 83 standeth," but, "blessed is lie that readeth;" so, I have never, myself, read through the Book of Re- velation, without receiving a blessing. While some- times the seals, and the trumpets, and the beasts, and the great historical and prophetic passages may be beyond our grasp, remember the Book is ' ' the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants the things that must shortly come to pass." We cannot read it without being profited, without being solemnized in our minds by that wonderful Book which is given us by the Spirit of God. * ' Blessed is he that readeth ; " if you read it, you will get the promised blessing, the Lord will not disappoint you. There is always blessing accompanying the careful reading of any part of the sacred Scriptures. In the next place, let me say that when the Lord shows us any truth in his Word, we are to obey that truth at once. The Word teaches and further prepares for duty; obedience gives capacity to under- stand more. I believe that the blessing of Bible study ceases when we refuse to accept some clearly- revealed truth. John vii. 17. "If any man shall do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. " Rom. xii. 1, 2. I think this is an exceedingly im- portant verse. Non-conformity to the world, and being transformed by the renewing of our mind, that we may prove what is that good and accept- 84 Preach the Word. able and perfect will of God. And the contrary is true of those who are conformed to the world, and who not being transformed in their minds, are not capable of proving what is that good and ac- ceptable and perfect will of God. The carnal mind cannot grasp spiritual things; the natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God; they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually dis- cerned. Consider : The importance of Bible Study. Job xxiii. 1 2. ' ' Neither have I gone back from the command- ment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary foody We go back to Job, one of the earliest books of the Bible, coming, perhaps, after Genesis. Job lived very early in the history of the world. He did not have very much of a Bible; but the little that he had was more to him than natural food. Now, when we are in the spirit of Bible study, so that sometimes we forget to eat our bread, we shall suffer no bad consequences. It would be a good thing for us sometimes to forego a meal, in order that we might have leisure for heavenly food. Psalms cxix. 140. u Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it. ' ' David loved the Word. He had not very much of it, but he loved it. Jer. xv. 16. u Thy words were found, and I did eat them. ' ' He got them down into the right How to Study the Bible. 85 place. It is not enough to have the Word on our lips, unless we get it down into the heart. " Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart." There is no occasion why we christians should need a revival meeting, or a minister, or an evangelist to stir us up. If, like Jeremiah, we hid the Word of God in our inner life, it would burn within us as fire; we should soon be stirred up by its power. If the Word of the Lord comes to us in all its sweetness and power and warmth, we shall be in a revived state all the time. Before we can study the Bible, we ought to read it. We should read it consecutively, beginning with Genesis and ending with Revelation. I never set myself the task to read just so many chapters, but to read while I have time. In the interrupted life which I pursue I cannot always have stated periods such as you may have, so I read according to my time. If I have time for only half a chap- ter, I read it; if I have time for one chapter, I read it. Consecutive reading of the Bible has this great advantage: first of all, we shall get a knowledge of the books. Each book with its peculiar char- acteristics will have an interest for us ; while the first or the second reading may not give us very much knowledge, yet we are becoming familiar with the books. We ought to read the Bible at least once a year. It is not a very large Book. Some of you will read more novels in that time 86 Preach the Word. than in bulk would make five or six Bibles. One of the great advantages of consecutive reading is that we shall notice how often chapters are divided in the wrong places. Chapters and verses are human divisions. It is a good thing to have a paragraph Bible; it is a good habit to read the Re- vised Version frequently. If you turn to the fifth chapter of the Book of Joshua, you will find at the closing of the chapter that a man stands before Joshua, near the walls of Jericho. Who is this captain of the Lord's host? Who is this angel messenger? The first verse of the sixth chapter is a parenthetical verse. The second verse of the sixth chapter, and the last verse of the fifth chap- ter, naturally come together. What truth do you now discover? For a long time I supposed that this messenger was some kind of an angelic being; but when I saw the connection of the chapters, I knew it was Jesus Himself. Jehovah-Jesus was Captain of the Lord's host. Jesus foreshadowing His incarnation by appearing in human form out- side of the walls of Jericho, showing Himself there as leader of the Host, with victory upon His banner. The 7th and 8th chapters of John taught me a sweet lesson because I did not stop at the end of the 7th chapter. The last verse of that chapter says, ' ' And every man went unto his own house. ' ' Suppose I had shut the book then, I would forget How to Study the Bible. 87 how the chapter ended, and when I started a new chapter I would not see the connection. The 8th chapter begins, ' ' And Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives. ' ' Every man went to his own house ; every man had a house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives ; He had no home. ' ' Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. ' ' I tell you, my dear friends, I could not keep back the tears as I read that pathetic statement about my L,ord and Master, who had no earthly home, no couch whereon to lay Himself. In reading the Bible consecutively you will come upon numbers of such instances and illustrations. Every time that you discover a truth about Jesus it will be a blessing to you. I thank God for the faithful men who have helped me in Bible study, but I tell you this : A truth which you discover for yourself in your study has more power in your life than anything you receive second-hand. You ought to be making discoveries all the time. We read about doubting Thomas, who would not be- lieve when the disciples said, ' ' We have seen the Lord, ' ' and too many have been flinging stones at Thomas for nineteen centuries. Now, I have great sympathy with Thomas, for I have been there my- self. I have great sympathy with Thomas because he would not take the truth of the resurrection second-hand. While external evidences are good 88 Preach the Word. enough in themselves, until we have personal ex- perience of the power of His resurrection, evidences of themselves are powerless to remove our doubts and to hush our fears. Yet not only do we see the connection of chapters, but we see the connection of verses ; that is a very important matter to observe. For instance, Luke xiii. 24, 25. The doctrine deduced from that text is that there are a great many persons who make an earnest endeavor but who will not be saved, because they were not elected to be saved, and no matter how much they strive, they will be shut out. Is that what it teaches ? If you read both verses together, you find it otherwise. Now the door is open, but the Judge will come by and by and close the door, then those who have not come in while the door is open will be shut out forever. 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10. "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. ' ' I heard a brother preach on that text, and this was the doctrine that he taught: That nobody knows anything about heaven or the future; that we have to live as well as we can here and trust for the future; that G'od hath some good things prepared for those that love Him, but all thoughts about How to Study the Bible. 89 heaven, all thoughts about the millennium, were purely speculative. You see he did not read the next verse or he would have found that instead of having these glorious things hidden from us, they are revealed ; the Spirit of prophecy has given us in the Word knowledge of the future ; heaven is known to God's people and the glory of the future is revealed to us. I could give you many such instances of the value of reading the Bible consecu- tively, but these few illustrations will be sufficient. In addition to reading the Bible consecutively, we are to search diligently. u Search the Scrip- tures," said Jesus, and He commended the Phari- sees in so far that they searched the Scriptures. c< But my understanding of that word ' search,' said a miner, ' ' means ' pickaxe ' the Scriptures. ' ' You do not get much gold by scratching, but when you use the pickaxe you find the nuggets. The Swedes have no word for ' ' search, ' ' but they have a word, which we translate ' ' ransack. ' ' I know when we sometimes are hunting for an article we pull open the bureau drawer, and will ransack the drawer until we find what we are after. Let us ransack the Bible in pursuit of some truth and you will find it, but like the Shepherd going after the sheep diligently seeking, so must we search until we find. Again, we should study the Bible topically. I am not going to enlarge upon this feature because considering topics is one of the commonest ways 90 Preach the Word. of studying ; but do not think that you can get it all at once; nor imagine the Concordance will give you all on each topic. When in Alabama some years ago giving Bible readings a brother from the North was there and attended one of the services. Afterwards he called at my home in Philadelphia, and said, " I took notes of the Bible reading, and I want you to give me two or three readings, because I have not much of a stock and I want to get started along that line; I have only two hours to catch my train, and I want you to give me as many Bible readings as you can." ' ' How long did it take me to prepare that Bible reading?" I inquired. He did not know. "Well," I answered, "it took me exactly fifteen years." Bible study is a growth. A Bible read- ing proper is not simply stringing verses which have the same word together ; there must be inquiry, investigation, analysis and comparison of Scripture with Scripture; taking each particular text, reading the text all around it to find out just what the real thought is, then you link that with the next and the next, and so on. The topic gives you the string upon which you can crystallize the truth. There are some topics which you can string together very happily. If I were a young student, I would begin this very night on the doctrine of Justification by faith. If I were to spend a year on it, it would repay me well. Take the theme, How to Study the Bible. 91 Justification by faith; analyze every verse where found; take your time, you may not get far ahead the first week or the second week or the third. It is like studying stenography; you get acquainted first with the various characters, by and by you learn to put them together, though you do not notice much progress at first. It is like learning music, or anything else. But when you have a scriptural understanding of Justification by faith, not only do you grasp the whole foundation doc- trine of the believer's salvation, but you will at the same time grasp all related doctrine, and when you arise to testify, it will be a clear testimony. You never after will talk in any ignorant manner about Justification by faith ; the study will abide with you forever. Studying the Bible is a task anyhow, but earnestly give yourselves to it. Do not be vexed with me if I tell you of this difficulty. North, South, Bast, West, England, Ireland, Scotland, everywhere, one great difficulty in the way of Bible study is laziness. The natural man is a lazy animal; he dislikes religious earnest- ness. It is far easier for preachers, I tell you hon- estly, it is far easier to take a little text and spin out a little moral essay than to take the Word of God and search, investigate, compare, examine, until sometimes the head becomes dizzy and the hand weary in the use of pen or pencil; but the Word of God taught and preached has more power 92 Preach the Word. than all our poor little rhetoric. Brethren and friends, let us right against laziness in Bible study. Once more : We should study the Bible typically. Study the types of the Old Testament. How can we do it ? It is an exceedingly interesting study. Some brethren say to me, "Why, brother, you are too fantastical about these types; it is dangerous to study Scripture types." Where is the danger? "Well, imagination and fancy might run away with us." My friend, I dispute your statement; any man who makes that statement, I tell him he makes that statement because he is ignorant of the real design of the types. I declare to you, my friends, there is no more danger of the imagination running away on the study of types than in any other study that I know of. Go back to the 21st chap- ter of Numbers, what do you read there? You read about the serpents biting the Israelites, and Moses lifting up the serpent of brass. What has that got to do with us? We refer to John iii. 14, 15. Our Iyord takes that Old Testament type and he makes a proper application of it. Now, suppose I were to prepare a sermon on John iii. 14, 15. How should I begin ? I do not sit down with John iii. 14 before me and try to find- everything from what is in that passage, but I go back to Numbers and read carefully there the history of the whole matter; how the serpents came in, and how Moses was commanded of God to take the brazen serpent mtitype. Moses struck a rock and the water carne leaping How to Study the Bible, 93 and what he was to do with it. I try to find out all the facts of the historical type and then turn to its application. The study of the precious Gospel will then begin to grow upon me in its beauty, and force and fullness. There are many points of com- parison and of contrast between this type and its out of it. What has that to do with me ? There is just a little hint given in the 10th chapter of 1 Cor. 4th v. ' ' They drank of that spiritual rock ; that followed them and that rock was Christ." As the water gushed out of the heart of the rock and satisfied three million thirsty people, so out of the Heart of Jesus flows the river of life and salva- tion to quench the thirst of a dying world. What a glorious Gospel is there! See the 12th chapter of Exodus and read about the lamb that was killed and the blood of that lamb. What has that to do with me? We turn to 1 Cor. v. 7, and we read, "Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us, there- fore let us keep the feast; not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. ' ' Now, return to the type and read of that lamb slain, and see the beautiful type there, then turn over to the New Testament and see how this type throws its light upon Christ our sacrifice, the L,amb of God. The Gospel of salvation will grow before 94 Preach the Word. our wondering mind as we pursue this line of com- parison. Now, there are many of these types scattered through the Books of Moses having their application to Christ as revealed in the New Testa- ment. It is a glorious study ; an interesting study ; a study that may well occupy a lifetime. I say to you, in closing, with all humility, that no man can have a clear, vivid grasp and understand- ing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ who has not been a student of the types of Moses. Moses wrote of Him. In the Old Testament Jesus Christ is taken to pieces, as it were, that you may look at each part and see the perfection of each part, and in the New Testament the pieces are put together again and we see the complete Christ. The intelligent believer will go to the types of Moses and see Christ there, see every part laid out in these types; he comes to the New Testament and discovers Jesus the sum and substance of all. So the typical study of the Bible is exceedingly important. I trust that we may go from here realizing that this Bible is for a lifetime study, and that thereby the Spirit of God will work in us personal puri- fication. Bible study will help us in our ministry and in our homes. God grant these fragmentary suggestions may prove of practical value to you, dear pastors, and to all of you, christian friends; that the study of Holy Scripture may make you wise and loving and patient and fruitful to the praise of His grace. Amen. V. THE MANIFOLD GOSPEL. DO not say ( ' gospels, ' ' but ' ' gospel, ' ' the one Gospel, though it is many-sided. There are many facets to this diamond. In these meetings we wish to develop some feature of God's Word which will furnish you material for your profit and study and further in- vestigation of the precious Scriptures. Now, turn with me to the 55th chapter of Isaiah, vs. 1, 2. Notice four things ; water, wine, milk, bread. These are emblems or symbols of the Gospel of our salvation. Somebody has rightly said that the Holy Spirit has ransacked all creation to find fitting emblems and symbols with which to suitably portray the Lord Jesus and set forth His- finished work of redemption. Everything in nature! is laid under tribute by the Spirit of God for this purpose. He enters the animal creation and takes the lion and the lamb, and into the vegetable king- dom and selects the rose and the lily, and into the mineral kingdom to find gold and silver and precious stones, to illustrate, to shadow forth, to represent, and to portray the L^ord Jesus. The Spirit of God hides Himself; He shall not speak (95) 96 Preach the Word. of Himself, in order that He might reveal Jesus Christ. He testifies of Him. But we need to have an intimate acquaintance with the modes and methods and purposes of the Spirit in order to be prepared for His revelation of Jesus Christ to us. So the Spirit of God takes various emblems and symbols to set forth the Gospel of salvation in its manifold character. If any of you, brethren, wish to have a little address and you have been too busy all day to prepare it, you could take these four things and talk on them beautifully and profitably. Water is the symbol of life ; so the best thing we have is the living water. What a glorious repre- sentation of the Gospel that is! Then wine in Scripture is the emblem of joy, "wine that make th glad the heart of man. ' ' Wine produces an ecstasy in man's physical organization, and so it is the emblem of the Gospel which produces a purer ecstasy and a greater enjoyment. Wine illustrates the joy of the Gospel. Then milk. You know that milk is spoken of in Peter as the source of growth: "As new-born babes desire the unadul- terated milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby unto salvation. ' ' And bread is that which gives strength. So we have life, joy, growth and strength, features of spiritual life symbolized in this manner. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is all of this ; the Gospel brings life to the sinner, and the Gospel brings joy to the heart, and the Gospel develops The Manifold Gospel. 97 growth in the convert, and the Gospel has in it also the nourishing qualities, the nutritive elements which make the believer strong in the L,ord and in the power of His might. I want that you should now turn to Gal. i. 8, 9, in order that we may study this subject of the mani- fold Gospel. The Revised Version reads, * ' Though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any Gospel other than that which we preached unto you. " It is a very serious thing to preach the Gospel, to profess to be a preacher of the Gospel ; it is a very serious thing to hear the Gospel; it carries with it very great responsibility. Take heed, therefore, how ye hear, and take heed, therefore, what ye hear. Now the question will naturally arise in the mind, What is the Gospel ? If there is an anathema pronounced against those who preach any Gospel other than that which Paul preached, what is the Gospel ? In Gal. i. 4, we have the very substance of the Gospel : "Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father. ' ' Now that is j the very essence of the Gospel, the substitutionary] work of Jesus Christ for the sinner ; and if any manf \ preach any other Gospel than this, any speculation, { any philosophy or any theory other than this, he; j comes under the terrible anathema, "let him bei j accursed. ' ' What is the Gospel ? What is its definition ? 7 98 Preach the Word. We have a scriptural answer. We turn to the second chapter of Luke and there we find the true scriptural definition from the 10th verse: "Fear not. ' ' Man is afraid of God because he does not understand God; man, because he is a sinner, knowing that God is holy, trembles before him. ( ' Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy." What are the good tidings? u For unto you is born this day in the city of David ' ' a helper ? no ; a reformer ? no ; a teacher ? no ; "a Saviour which is Christ the I^ord. ' ' Now do not be startled if I say to you that Jesus Christ did not come into this world to help the sinner. He did not come to help, He came to save. We have no power in ourselves, we are helpless, and He has come not as a helper, but as a Saviour.. " And this shall be a sign unto you, ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good- will toward men." Even angels will have their hallelujahs when they hear this Gospel announced. Mr. Spurgeon said one time that when he got to heaven, where he is now, although there would be no sinners there, he felt that he must stand on the corners of the streets of the New Jerusalem and preach to the angels, to tell them about this Gospel, what a glorious thing it is. The Manifold Gospel. 99 How very glad every angel in heaven must be to know that as God looked down upon this lost world, he had such love for man as to send His only begotten Son, born of a woman, the Saviour, Jesus Christ our Lord. This was their chant: 1 ' Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good- will to men." This, then, is the meaning of the word Gospel ; "glad tidings." And what are these tidings? I want you to take the word Gospel and trace it through the New Testament when most convenient. There are many ways of studying the Bible, but this is one very good way. You select the word Gospel : it is found very frequently in the New Testament; get your concordance and trace it throughout. Take note-book and pencil and write down every verse where you find the word; then when you complete your list of texts, take your notes and your Bible, and read carefully not only the passage where the word is found, but all its sur- roundings. Try to understand what is meant by the word in that particular passage, and you will find very soon that your mind will be enriched and your soul comforted, and you will have gained a goodly store of Bible knowledge. When I was a boy I was very fond of rock candy. One thing about the candy always puzzled me; the smallest piece would always have a little string in it, and the longer pieces would have a string in them. ioo Preach the Word. Whatever amount I bought I always found a string through it. When I inquired I learned that they could not make the candy without that string on which they crystallized the sugar. • Now you may take a word like the word Gospel for the string and find precious teaching connected with it. I shall take that word at this time and call your attention to it in a few places. Romans i. i. u Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God." I want you to notice that every text I read will have a different expression connected with the word Gospel. We start with this statement: "The Gospel of God." That is, the Gospel is of God, the Gospel is from God, it concerns God and it comes from God to men. Every river in the world has its source ; men may be a long time try- ing to find the source of the Nile, but it has its source. So when you trace the Gospel you find its source in the very heart of God. God planned this whole scheme of redemption. It was no after- thought; before even man fell He had the idea of redemption in His own Mind; the Gospel is not, therefore, a human scheme of redemption, but it is the divine plan for the salvation of the race. The Gospel reveals God; makes Him known to us. Nature also makes Him known, but not in His moral character; the man who studies nature will have some idea of His existence and power and The Manifold Gospel 101 wisdom and greatness and so on, but the Gospel discovers to us the moral nature of God. Nature tells us nothing about His love for mankind, but the Gospel gives us the full revelation of His char- acter, of His work, of His nature; so we come to know Him ; ' ' and this is life eternal that they may know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. ' ' Then there is life in a full knowledge of God in the Gospel. He reveals Him- self to us in that Gospel, and by that revelation we are saved; saved because we come to know Him; to know that "God is love," and "we love Him because He first loved us." Turn to Acts xx. 24. " But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." You find another expression here. We read in that re- markable sermon which Paul preached to the elders atBphesus: "None of these things move me." How different it is with us modern evangelists! Unless we ride in a Pullman and have the best of everything we think we are hardly dealt with; and unless we have applause where we go, we are discouraged. It was the Gospel of God in the 1st chapter of Romans, now it is the ' ' Gospel of the Grace of God." If you were to ask me to explain Grace, I should have to decline; if you were to ask 102 Preach the Word. me to lecture on the rainbow, I should have to be silent. You cannot explain grace, although you may have some little conception of it. The best definition I ever heard of Grace was from a little ragged boy in a mission school. The question was asked, ' ' What is grace ?' ' And the answer came, " Please, sir, it is getting everything for nothing." Such really is the grace of God. The Gospel says that we have nothing to give, and God gives us everything; we have no price in our hand, no merit in ourselves, but God out of His boundless goodness, out of His own infinite mercy, gives to us salvation full and free. The Gospel is the Gospel of the grace of God. In the 7th chapter of Iyuke you will find a beautiful and touching illustration of Grace. There was a good man, a centurion, very patriotic, a lover of his country, and a lover of the Jews ; he built them a synagogue and he loved their nation. He had a sick servant, and he was very solicitous about that servant, and the Jewish people sympathized with him. They went to Jesus and said, ' ' We want you to come and heal this centurion's servant, for he is worthy for whom you should do this, for he built us a synagogue and he loves our nation. ' ' Now the plea of the Jews with Jesus that he might heal the centurion's ser- vant was based on the ground of the man's per- sonal worthiness. When the centurion heard it he was mortified, and sent his servant to Jesus with The Manifold Gospel, 103 this message, "L,ord, do not trouble yourself to come to me nor to come under my roof; for / am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof. Say the word only and my servant shall be healed. ' ' Jesus marveled, and turning around said, ' ' I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel. ' ' Not among the Jewish people did Jesus find such a believer, but here is a Gentile who has so much faith that he describes himself as unworthy, and he does not base any plea on his own merit, but prays the Saviour to heal his servant in Grace. Now if we have one thought of merit regarding ourselves, it is the fly that spoils the ointment; it spoils Grace. If you think there is any spot good in you from scalp to heel, you do not understand Grace; but when you know there is not a single good moral spot in you, and that God in His infinite Grace stoops down to save you for nothing, then you will understand something about Grace. The Gospel is the Gospel of the Grace of God. It humbles man, it shows him his own lack of merit, then it takes him up in its arms, that in the ' ( ages to come He might show forth the exceeding riches of His Grace." Eph. ii. 8. " For by grace are ye saved through faith ; and that not of yourselves : it is the gift of God. ' ' Grace and merit are opposite ; Grace and works are opposite, and you cannot mingle the two; you cannot be saved partly by Grace and partly by Works. The Gospel is the 104 Preach the Word. Grace of God; it is the announcement of salvation, proclaiming to man eternal life as the gift of God. "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our L,ord. ' ' Now you know what a gift is. When God gives you salvation He is not asking anything of you, and the sinner who is in the atti- tude of a recipient is the one whom God will bless first. Oh, blessed Gospel of the Grace of God! Now we turn to Romans i. 16. u For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ : for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth ; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. ' ' Here the expression is ' ' the Gospel of Christ. ' ' In Rom. i. we have the origin of the Gospel, the Gospel of God; in Acts xx. we have the character of the Gospel. Now in Rom. i. 16, we have the siibject of the Gospel ; the Gospel of Christ. He is the one whom this great Gospel reveals. Turn for a moment to i Cor. xv. 1-4 and you will understand this ex- pression, the Gospel of Christ. The Gospel is con- cerning the Son of God; it tells of His mission to earth, it tells us of His death and triumphant resur- rection. Here are the pillars upon which man's redemption rests. Christ died for my sins, accord- ing to the Scriptures, He was buried ; it was no sham death, no faint, no swooning; He was buried as a dead man, but He rose again according to the Scrip- tures, and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the pillars upon which man's salvation rests se- The Manifold Gospel. 105 cure. If these pillars can be pulled to pieces there is no salvation for the human race. But they are stand- ing to-day as they have ever stood. So the Gospel is an announcement concerning Jesus Christ, espe- eially this, that He died for our sins, and rose again \ from the dead. Therefore the apostles went every- where preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And in the Epistle to the Romans, in that one letter, you/ see how much the apostle thought of Christ ; Christ was the centre of his theology; Christ was the sub-\ stance of his teaching, for thirty times in that Epistle he mentions the name of Christ. Paul had a real sense of salvation through Christ, when he talked about Christ, and when he preached salva- tion he could not preach it apart from Christ. So it is Christ all through, and the Gospel is the Gospel of Christ. Then as to the object of the Gospel in the fourth place, we turn to Eph. i. 13. "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation : in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." The object of the Gospel then is salvation. The Gospel is a verbal message, a declaration concerning Jesus Christ, and the mani- festation of the grace of God to men.. Now, salva- tion is a very comprehensive term; we need to examine that a little. What is salvation? Salva- tion is deliverance. And salvation is a good deal io6 Preach the Word. more than we ordinarily think, perhaps. If, for instance, a man is brought before the court here in this State and is adjudged guilty; if that man is a thief and the witnesses prove his crime against him, and the jury return a verdict of "guilty," if the judge has the right, the prerogative, the power to release that man from the penalty of the law; if he has the privilege to pardon the man, he pro- nounces pardon upon him, he exercises mercy, he says to the thief, ' ' You have been convicted, but now it is my prerogative to pardon you ; you can go out of this place free. ' ' He is saved from what ? From the penalty of his transgression; he is saved from the punishment of the law which he trans- gressed. But after he goes out he steals again; he has still all his thievish propensities and is there- fore only partly saved. But, if the judge could in some way inoculate that man with his own upright principles ; if he could say, ' ' My friend, you have been a thief all your life, and it is your propensity to steal ; I not only remit the penalty of the law, but I implant in you my upright nature." Then the thief going out without his thievish propensities, and with all the virtues of the judge in him, he is saved from the penalty of his crime and he is saved from the habit of thieving. In like manner the Lord came to save us, not only from punishment due to us as transgressors, but also by the imparta- tion of His own nature. c ' If any man be in Christ, The Manifold Gospel. 107 lie is a new creation; old tilings are passed away, behold, all things have become new. ' ' If Brother Fife went aronnd the streets drnnken and gambling as formerly and still said, ' ' I am saved from my sins," none of you would come to hear him. But when you see the change in the man, that old habits are overcome and old vices given up, and the brother's life is now bent in the right direction, you see that salvation is a broad, comprehensive term. Saved from sins and saved from sinning. A great many are hoping to get to heaven, who are never saved from their habits. Their prayer is "Lord, I would like to be saved from hell, but please let me drink and gamble here below." Well, not much, sir, not much shall that prayer be answered. I preached the other night, and made the Gospel just as difficult as I could for the sinner. I showed him all that he would have to encounter, I tried to show him all the difficulties before him; and I said, "Now, I have made the Gospel so difficult that if you come to Jesus Christ you must turn your back upon questionable things; in the face of this difficult Gospel, who is going to come out on the Lord's side ? " It requires courage, but we have to accept the fact that the Gospel carries with it cer- tain responsibilities which a man cannot set aside when he professes faith in Jesus Christ. But though saved from the habit of my past life, 108 Preach the Word. I am not yet fully saved, because I am subject to sickness and disease; I have a body subject to death and if the Lord Jesus should tarry, I shall be car- ried to the grave. But He has promised to redeem that body when He comes, and the graves will then open, and from all the cemeteries will come God's people in their glorified bodies; they shall then be saved from all the consequences of sin. So there are a great many texts which apparently do not harmonize, because one class of texts speak of salvation from Xhi God as to its character, and the Gos- pel of Christ as to its subject, and the Gospel of your salvation as to its object, and the Gospel of Peace as to its result, and the Gospel of the Glory of God as to its design. There is besides the The Manifold Gospel. 113 Gospel of the Kingdom, and the everlasting Gos- pel, bnt I think I have said enough to induce study and give you a little clew in this direction. It is a great thing to have a consistent view and a har- monized view of these different texts which exalt the Gospel of our L,ord Jesus Christ. 8 VL CONSECRATED VESSELS. UT in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work. " (2 Tim. ii. 20, 21.) This great house is the Church. Israel, nation- ally, was the house of Moses, though he was but a servant in it. The Church is the house of Christ, of which He is Foundation, Builder and Master. (Heb. iii. 4-6; Matt. xvi. 18; 1 Cor. iii. 2.)' The Church is " a spiritual house, ' ' the temple wherein God dwelleth. (1 Peter ii. 5; Kph. ii. 19-22; 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17.) It is the house of God, the pillar and ground of the truth. (1 Tim. iii. 15.) This is the house where Truth seeks rest, and for whom all the inhabitants should have proper and jealous regard. But, alas! it is not always so. Hyine nseus and Philetas opposed the truth in denying a future literal resurrection. They overthrew th faith of some in teaching that it was past already. (114) Consecrated Vessels. 115 This fatal error has been presented in many forms for nineteen centuries, and the hope of the fathers regarding the ^e^mre^doji^oXj^e body, for which Paul contended before kings, has been in great measure eliminated from our modern theology. Truth corrupted soon led to corrupt practices. With the denial of truth came the fading away of morals, hence the faithful admonition in the above passage. /. Consider the vessels. The vessels in the great house embrace the minis- try of the church. Some are ' ' gold ' ' and ' ' sil- ver ' ' in the preciousness of gift, natural and ac- quired, and in opportunity for wider service. Others of "wood" and "earth," though of coarser material, are not necessarily restricted in usefulness. In domestic use, indeed, the more or- dinary vessels are the most needful. Not always are vessels of ' ' gold ' ' honorable, nor ' ' earthen ' ' vessels dishonorable. The Master of the house seeks honor from all; yet it is of frequent occur- rence in the assembly of God, that members of culture, position and wealth — "vessels of gold " — are to dishonor, being denied. Intellectual specu- lation in holy things are "lusts of the mind," which lead to denial and perversion of the truth, and in being seduced from the written Word through "carnal reasonings " such, thus tempted, become ' ' vain in their imaginations, ' ' and their n6 Preach the Word. foolish heart being darkened, are set aside as unfit for the Master's use. Again, it is an undoubted fact that persons of meagre gift, limited education, and restricted ad- vantages — vessels of "wood " and " earth " — have proved a perpetual benediction, carrying about within them the water of life to refresh and com- fort and save a multitude — "vessels unto honor." Does God, then, discount on human learning, and put a premium on ignorance? No, in nowise. But He has frequently demonstrated that He can accomplish His great designs without the wisdom of men. i ' For the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men." (i Cor. i. 25-29.) Whether of gold or earth, the l ' vessel ' ' is but a vessel; another shapes it, prepares it, fills it, makes use of it. There are, however, conditions to be observed. The evil which defiles and dishonors must be cast out as a preparatory process for service. Hence, " if a man PURGE HIMSELF FROM THESE he shall be a vessel unto honor. ' ' Not that a vessel of ' ' gold " or " sil- ver ' ' must withdraw itself from one of ' ' wood ' ' or "earth," but that each vessel rid itself of defiling elements which dishonor the Son of God. The context shows that the false teaching of verse 1 8 is connected with the ' ' profane and vain babblings" of verse 16, which eat as a gangrene into the vitals of spiritual life. The "youthful Consecrated Vessels. 1 17 lusts" of verse 22, and the "foolish and unlearned questions" of verse 23, show that truth neglected or perverted inevitably leads to laxity of morals. For when truth is dislodged from the mind by ' ' lusts, " " evil communications, ' ' which ' ' corrupt good manners," find a ready entrance. A vessel of gold or of wood may contain impurity, and from this the vessel should seek purging. The purging enjoined is not an unbrotherly exclusion, or withdrawal, but a riddance of false doctrine. That discipline should be exercised in the church of God is clearly taught elsewhere. But the Scrip- ture idea of excision is for the health of the body, and the restoration to sound doctrine or morals of the excommunicated. We fear that much spiritual pride has been engendered by a false view of this passage, and an unjust exclusiveness, a false spiritu- ality has been the result. Leaving, however, the matter of church dis- cipline aside, let us further examine the teaching of the passage under consideration. "If a man purge HIMSELF, ' ' brings us immediately to the fact of personal responsibility. Separation from sin in all its forms is taught throughout the Scriptures. There are things which defile a man, and from such he should withdraw himself. "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit;" "but now ye also put off all these;" "put off the old man with his deeds ;' ' ' ' put off the works nS Preach the Word. of darkness." Such exhortations should come home very closely to every Christian who has a realization of his individual relation to God, before whom he seeks to walk. And by such Scriptures the Spirit of God is ever reminding us, that as we are holy in God's eternal purpose, we should also be holy in immediate experience and practice. The leper, ceremonially cleansed by the priest, was next commanded to cleanse himself. (Lev. xiv. i-io.) The priest applied the blood, he must apply the water. In our solicitude to defend the gospel of grace from Arminian legalism, we must jealously guard against the rebound to the gospel of Antino- mian license and presumptuous fatalism. The same Spirit who gives assurance of complete salva- tion through the efficacy of the Blood, urges the saved believer to self-judgment and self-cleansing through the efficacy of the Word. It is well to hold the balance of truth, and perceive the harmony between being kept and keeping ourselves, being purged and purging ourselves, being washed and washing ourselves. Nor are we left without a motive in this essen- tial work. u If a man purge himself from these, he shall be A VKSSEL unto honor." In verse 15 Paul enjoins Timothy to study as a workman under the eye of God and for God's approval. For " not he who commendeth himself is approved, but whom the L,ord commendeth. ' ' Such study deepens faith Consecrated Vessels. 119 and checks our desire after flattery. He who seeks the praise of men more than the praise of God, who weighs every question of service in the scales of human opinion, cannot be a vessel " unto honour." " For if I yet please men, I should not be the ser- vant of Christ," was the experience of one whose brief but comprehensive creed was the true ex- pression of a consecrated life — "Whose I am, and whom I serve " How true are our Lord's words, ( ' How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another?" Such self-seeking must surely wound and weaken our faith. 77. Sanctified vessels. u If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master's use. " We cannot charge the Holy Spirit with tautology; every word is of mo- ment. He attaches meaning to ' ' purge ' ' and "honor;" so also to "sanctified," "meet," and ' ( prepared. ' ' i ' Sanctified " is an Old Testament word. It means, primarily, "separated." And this idea is attached to it also in the New Testament. In the memorable prayer of our Lord (John xvii. 17, 19) He asked that His disciples might be sanctified. If we claim that sanctification means only moral ex- cellence, or growth into a holy state, we shall miss the lord's thought and misinterpret the right idea of sanctification. In verse 19 He speaks of His 120 Preach the Word. own self-sanctification, which cannot refer to any attainment in holiness or essential purity, which might imply lack of holiness in the past. He was always ' ' that holy thing ' ' from the earliest stage of being; and in growth into manhood he never became holier in person or character. Not only did onr Lord sanctify Himself, bnt He acknowl- edges the Father as the sanctifier : ' ' Say ye of Him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest ?" (John x. 36.) Keep- ing the primary idea of sanctification still in mind, how full of meaning are the words of Jesus ! The Father sent Him; gladly He came to do His will, separating Himself to His mission with unfaltering devotion, until at the close of life He could say, in fullest measure, u I have finished the work thou gavest me to do. ' ' As our Lord thus set Himself apart to the perfect fulfilment of the Father's will; so He prays that His disciples might likewise be truly sanctified. Every vessel in God's house is formed for its own unique purpose; or, to change the figure, every member of the mystical body has its own use. Every Christian, by the election of the Father, by the redemption of Christ, and by the indwelling of the Spirit, is set apart for salvation and service. Consecration is the recognition of this vital truth in personal life, and the faithful, unswerving devotion of the believer to fulfil the purpose of God concern- Consecrated Vessels. 121 ing him. Therefore, as a vessel, each one should earnestly endeavor to- abide in his own place, or, as a member of the body, to fulfil his own office, and throughout the whole of life be fully devoted to his calling and ministry in the house of God. Every piece of furniture in the Tabernacle and Temple had its own peculiar ministry: the brazen altar could not serve for the laver, nor the candlestick take the place of the ark. Nor as members of the body can the hand say to the foot, ' ' I have no need of thee;" nor the eye seek to perform, in addition to its own, the functions of the ear. Therefore confusion arises in the house of God when we not only endeavor to fill offices for which we are not qualified by nature or grace, but also when ignoring other vessels chosen of God for their own particular service. ' ' Evangelists ' ' should not decry * ' pas- tors," nor u pastors" ignore "evangelists;" nor should either despise ' ' governments ' ' and ' ' helps. ' ' The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal, but to every man is appointed his own special work. (Eph. 4. 8-12.) And here let me offer a word of caution. This separation to our own peculiar work does not em- brace all of sanctification. We may, indeed, stand in our proper place in the church, and not be in a right attitude of soul before God. In the conse- cration of the Nazarite (Num. vi.), separation was unto the Lord. Failure in this particular was fail- 122 Preach the Word. ure in every department of separation. Refusing wine, or avoiding a dead body, may be done in a pharisaic spirit, or in monkish piety. But true separation to the Lord necessarily withdrew the Nazarite from the emblems of worldly pleasure and moral death. Practically, then, it is through the indwelling power of the Spirit that we are separated in aim, in heart, in service to the Lord, and, consequently, from everything antagonistic to His holiness and truth. Thus do we become vessels unto honor, "sanctified" for the Master's use. III. Vessels made meet. " Sanctified," but not yet "meet." Let us note this other word. In the pottery the potter is sov- ereign. He moulds and forms as he wills. He fashions each vessel for its own use — bowls, pitchers, cups, vases. Yet are they not free from uncleanness, the dust of the factory or store ever falling upon and defiling them. A cleansing pro- cess is therefore needful to fit the vessel for use. Likewise, notwithstanding our separation to God, and consequent turning away from evil, we are not free from defilement. We breathe an impure at- mosphere, and even the unconscious sin, which is ever sin to God, must be fully cleansed away before we can truly serve in the fellowship of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. In Lev. xi. 32, the law of ceremonies declared a Consecrated Vessels. 123 vessel unclean if touched by any creeping thing. u And upon whatsoever any of them, when they are dead, doth fall, it shall be unclean; whether it be any vessel of wood, or raiment, or skin, or sack, whatsoever vessel it be, wherein any work is done, it must be put into water, and it shall be unclean until the even : so it shall be cleansed. ' ' Not the outside of the cup and platter only, but the inside also must be cleansed. Vessels of gold or of wood, of silver or of earth, need the inward purification of the Spirit, who washes by the Word, till we are clean every whit. ' ' Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever." The christian believer, separated to his ministry, purged from sin with atoning blood, and cleansed in the laver of truth, becomes a vessel unto honor ( ' meet for the Mas- ter' s use." Vessels uncovered in a Jewish tent became de- filed when a person died. (Num. xix. 14, 15.) The presence of death, apart from any action of the vessels, rendered them ceremonially unclean. Therefore coverings were made and fastened upon them, that they might be held ready for use. Blessed be God, purification may become an ex- perience, because a fact, and provision is made through His infinite grace, to preserve in holiness those who are called and chosen and faithful. "I am an empty vessel ! scarce one thought Or look of love to Thee I've ever brought ; 124 Preach the Word. Yet I may come, and come again, to Thee With this, the contrite sinner's truthful plea, ' Thou lovest me. ' ' ' IV. Prepared vessels. "Prepared unto every good work." What is this preparation ? In other words, if the vessel is set apart and purified, is it not prepared ? Truly, it is ready for use, but not as yet prepared for practical service. When visiting a pottery, I observed the various processes through which the vessel passed till com- pleted. Having made a purchase, the vessel was ready for usefulness in the home, but must needs be prepared for its special work through being filled. While empty, though cleansed, it could not serve its purpose nor fulfil its mission. And hereby the lesson was enforced upon me, that we fail in recog- nizing the Sovereign Potter's design when we de- sire only an abiding emptiness. It is of paramount importance that self should be thrust out, and kept out, but the filling up with the divine material is an absolute essential. " None of self, but all of Thee." A filled vessel, then, is a vessel ' ' prepared for every good work. ' ' Nor is consecration a fact in personal experience, until the emptying of every defiling element becomes insured by the filling up out of the fulness that is in Christ. This essential feature of consecration was typified by the priest's Consecrated Vessels. 125 presentation of sacrifice and incense, which filled his hands. When Moses was ordained of God to consecrate the priesthood, one part of that act was in filling their hands, as symbolic of the powers and ministry of the office with which they were invested. (Bxod. xxviii. 41; xxix. 9, margin.) So, then, the consecration of the priests was com- pleted by the offering up of gifts unto Jehovah. And we must insist on this, that while the believer is said to consecrate himself by a hearty submission to Christ, yet, truly, consecration is the. action of the great high Priest upon him in separating, cleansing, and filling that believing' soul with the Spirit of purity and of power. Nor is this consecration an undefined and ecstatic emotion, called by some "full salvation," an expression unscriptural in that ap- plication of it. Full salvation will not be an ac- complished result until the coming of the Lord, when this mortal shall have put on immortality, and the corruptible body sleeping in death be crowned with incorruptible life. Not until we are like the Son of God, when glorified together with Him, shall we have attained unto complete salva- tion, to be revealed in the hour of His second ad- vent. Blessed be God ; we have the earnest of that salvation now, in His life communicated to us, and by the Spirit dwelling in us. (John v. 24; 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20.) In Romans xv. 13, Paul prayed thus for the 126 Preach the Word. saints: "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. ' ' The Holy Spirit makes THE HOPE real to the in- structed heart, and its anticipations fill us with joy and peace in believing. Joy and peace — the peace that floweth as a river — the result of quietness and assurance; and joy, like the bubbling brook fed by unseen sources, welling up within, giving strength for labor, and gladness in service. The fulness of joy and peace is our birthright privilege. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God . . . And not only so, but we also joy in God, through our Iyord Jesus Christ. ' ' These are, however, but results in themselves which flow from an acquaint- ance with the truth of the Gospel and faith in the Son of God. In Eph. v. 1 8 we have a New Testament com- mand, "Be ye filled with the Spirit." The conse- cration of the believer is not possible apart from the Holy Spirit. When He comes as an abiding guest, and fills every chamber of the heart with His sweet influences and gracious illuminations, revealing Jesus to the understanding, ennobling our aspira- tions and intensifying our love for Christ; when, in a word, we oxejilled with the Spirit, we but en- ter upon a New Testament experience denied to none of the redeemed. For as in the Gospel we find "whosoever will, let him take," appealing to Consecrated Vessels. 12 J sinners outside the door of salvation, so trie same invitation is given to believers who remain outside the door of purchased privileges and unrecognized relationships. And how soft should be our tread, and how careful our walk, lest in the loud tramp of unseeming haste, and the unholy urgency of car- nal excitement, we grieve the Divine Guest who honors us with His presence, and endues and strengthens us by His power. How jealously we should guard the holy flame which the sacred oil feeds within us, lest by our rude touch or unhal- lowed breath we quench the heavenly fire. With- out the Divine Spirit filling the soul there can be no consecration of the life, such as took place with the timid, unlearned fishermen of Galilee, after the Holy Ghost had come upon them. We may here refer to the consecration of Paul, a chosen vessel of the Lord. Whether of earth or wood or gold, the glory was not in the vessel's material, but in its contents. (Acts 9:15.) "He shall bear My name" was the divine decree. " My name! " The name of Dignity and Wealth and Power and Forgiveness and Eternal Life filled the whole being of this honored apostle, who counted all else but dross, that Christ should be magnified in his body. For others, too, he prayed ' ' that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith," and that you ' * may be filled with all the fulness of God." (Eph. 3: 19.) Paul could indeed boast "I 128 Preach the Word. live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me;" therefore when jostled by the crown something of Jesus spilled out of this consecrated vessel. We cannot well define the indwelling of Christ and of the Spirit as distinct facts or experiences. Essentially one in the unity of Godhead, yet, offici- ally both perform a distinctive work. Have you ever looked across the ocean, the eye moving over the surface of the water, until unconsciously you found yourself looking upon cloudland? The drapery of mist having hid the sharp line of divi- sion, your eye passed the unseen horizon as if sea and sky were one. So with the indwelling Christ and the indwelling Spirit. Not that two distinct agents have their abode within us, for not cor- poreally, but by His Spirit, does Christ dwell in the heart. And the Holy Spirit directs the anointed eye from Himself to Jesus with such nice adjust- ment of vision, that there is no abrupt transition from one to the other. Nor by a forced impelling are we led through His monitions and admoni- tions till we find ourselves gazing up into heaven, the scene of our High Priest's intercession at the right hand of God; and by faith beholding His glory there, we are filled with His presence, revealed to our souls through His Spirit which dwelleth in us. ' ' Oh, fill me, Jesus, Saviour, with Thy love ! Lead, lead me to the living fount above ; Consecrated Vessels. 129 Thither may I, in simple faith, draw nigh, And never to another fountain fly, But unto Thee." In order to understand or conceive being filled with all the fulness of God y we need a material figure, which is furnished us both in the Taber- nacle and Temple. When the Tabernacle was set up and the Temple completed on each occasion the glory of God filled the house of God. The Shekinah light having its centre of manifestation on the mercy-seat, between the Cherubims, expanded from thence in such fulness of volume as to fill every department of each house. In the Temple the priests could not minister because of the glory. We have heard of holy men who had such a sense of the glory of the Lord that it became painful to them. Sweet pain! Precious suffering ! Oh that we could thus be "sick of love!" Does such ex- altation, does such fulness, cause the vessel to vaunt itself, and treat contemptuously the little vessel less favored? No, in no wise. Paul, who saw Jesus, King of glory, ' ( and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for man to utter, ' ' thus testified : ' ' But we have this treasure in earthen VESSELS, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." The chiefest apostle called himself u the chief of sinners," with a discrimi- nating knowledge of the inherent evil of the flesh, in which ' ' dwell eth no good thing. ' ' For was not 9 13° Preach the Word. this the casting down of self, not by ignoring its vital existence, but in condemning its unhallowed power? And V&t filling of this chosen vessel with the glory which excelleth, caused him as a conse- crated believer to write, ' ' No confidence in the flesh. ' ' It is indeed a characteristic of consecra- tion, to reject self-aid and live in the element of grace. The truly believing sinner delights in the law of God, and spurns as an insult to Christ the intrusion of ' ' rites ' ' as either the reservoirs or channels of grace. Having begun in the Spirit, let us aim at no perfection in the flesh, but sweetly chant our hymn of praise to God, and announce this as our creed : ' ' Christ is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemp- tion. ' ' Remember, dear friends, such believers only are holy and prepared vessels. V. Vessels full to overflow. But again, a prepared vessel must be filled to the brim in order to do the best service. Where there is overflow, fresh, constant, vigorous ministry will be the result. Elihu said, c ' I will speak, that I may be refreshed " (Job xxxii. 18-22); and David declared that his heart was bubbling up with a good matter, so that he must speak of those things touching the King. (Ps. xlv. 1, 2.) " He that be- lieveth on me, ' ' saith Jesus, ' ' out of him shall flow rivers of living water." And "thus spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should Consecrated Vessels. 131 Receiving is an act of faith ; so then the filling is by faith, and the exercise of faith in Christ will draw ont of His immeasurable fulness the living water, until out of us who believe streams of life shall flow to refresh earth's desert places. In Prov. x. 1 1 we read, ' ' The mouth of a right- eous man is a well of life; " and the Lord Jesus promised that the water given by Him would be in His people ' ' a well of water springing up into everlasting life." (John iv. 14.) Again we find, in Prov. xviii. 4, "The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters, and the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook. ' ' This can be an experience only when Christ, the fountain and wellspring of wis- dom, is in us. No philosophy, no study, no attain- ment, no creed, can effect the marvelous results produced through an indwelling Christ. Come then as an empty vessel, O believer, not to the broken cisterns of human device, but to the Fountain-head of life, and truth, and consecration, that you may become as " a watered garden, and as a spring of water whose waters fail not. ' ' May our constant prayer be, but with no selfish or self- righteous end in view, ( ' Lord, make me ( a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work. ' ' ' O Thou who art of love the living spring, My vessel fill." VII. PAUL'S DEVOTION TO JESUS. HAT Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death; for to me to live is Christ" Phil. i. 20, 21. That Christ may be magni- fied in my body, if by life, then life is worth living. If by a martyr's death, then so be it. In the first place no man could make that boast who was not a converted man. Conversion precedes devotion; there can be no true devotion to Jesus Christ before conversion. A great many persons try to be de- voted to their church and to a religious cause, who are not converted and they have a hard time of it; they are working on wrong principles. Conversion precedes devotion. The reality of Paul's conver- sion is proved by the reality of his devotion. Paul's conversion was the result of sovereign grace. Gal. i. 15. " But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called' me by his grace." Every christian man be- lieves in God's sovereign grace. We are one with Paul there. Paul's conversion was the result of sovereign grace bestowed upon him and ministered to him. (132) PatiPs Devotion to Jesus. 133 In the second place, it was the result of- the reve- lation of Jesus Christ to him. 1 Cdr. ix. 1. "Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord ? are not ye my work in the Ivord ? ' ' He had not been the disciple of Jesus during His earthly ministry, but he had a heavenly revelation of Him. Jesus revealed Himself to Paul outwardly and there was also a revelation of Christ in him. Gal. i. 16. "To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; im- mediately I conferred not with the flesh and blood. ' ' Here, then, is a two-fold revelation; the revelation of Christ to Paul which made him an apostle, and the revelation of Christ in him. And that brings us to this very important text in 1 Tim. i. 15, 16: 1 ' This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all accep- tation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. ' ' I am sure every pastor here has found that passage to be very perplexing. Jesus Christ saved Paul as a pattern; Paul's conversion is a model conversion, yet we know there are no con- versions in this age exactly patterned after it. Where is the difficulty ? Just here. A great many people are saying, if they could be converted like Paul, they would have assurance. You need not 134 Preach the Word. expect such a conversion. Paul was converted by the direct revelation of Jesus Christ to him, and then afterwards by the revelation of Jesus Christ in him. We are converted by the revelation of Jesus Christ in us; there is neither man nor woman here who has been converted by the revelation of Christ to them. Paul speaks of himself in another place as one born out of due time; literally he was born before his time. What was his time ? What is the meaning of this ? Look at the verse again : ' ' For a pattern to them which should hereafter be- lieve on him to life everlasting. ' ' Paul was a Jew, and he is referring to the fact that in the latter day when the Jews are converted, they shall be con- verted by the revelation of Jesus Christ to them. ' ' They shall look upon him whom they pierced and mourn. ' ' There will be a manifestation of the Son of God to Israel, and by His glory in the heavens they will be struck down and converted nationally as Paul was individually; so that he, as a Jew, was a pattern to those who shall hereafter be- lieve, even his people, the nation of Israel ; but his conversion is not a pattern of conversions which have taken place since the days of Paul. Of course there are some characteristics alike; but Paul was converted in a special way, in a distinguished and in a very distinctive manner and for a set purpose. We have ample proof of the reality of Paul's conversion; for Paul was converted through the Paul's Devotion to Jesus. 135 Spirit's work upon him. 1 Cor. xii, 3. "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." You cannot reason an unbeliever into the recognition of Christ's eternal Deity; he has to be taught by the Spirit ; "no man can receive any- thing except it be given him from heaven. ' ' When Paul was smitten to the earth, we find him at once responding, ' ' Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " Just think of it ! A persecutor who hated the name of Jesus! " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " " No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. ' ' When you look up and say to Jesus, "Jehovah, Lord!" it implies your submis- sion to Him, it implies your allegiance to Him, and you will recognize Him as your Master ever after- wards. Believe, then obey. My pastor in Boston, one of the staunchest theo- logians we have — in fact, Mr. Spurgeon told me one time that he was the bulwark of New England evangelical theology — my pastor, Dr. A. J. Gor- don, told me that when he and his wife went into the hills of New Hampshire there were a great many skeptics there. On Sunday morning he said to his wife, ' ' We had best go to the village church ; possibly we may stumble into some Unitarian place, but let us go." They went, and he said, " I won- der how soon will we discover what kind of a preacher this is, whether a Unitarian, or a servant of Jesus Christ. " The choir sang a little, and then 136 Preach the Word. the pastor prayed, and the first words of that prayer were, "O, blessed L,ord!" Dr. Gordon touched his wife and whispered, ' ' We are all right ; no man can call Jesus Iyord, but by the Holy Ghost. ' ' It is so. Paul was able to call Jesus, Iyord, as soon as he was converted. Paul was converted when he surrendered. Acts xxvi. 19. "Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision. ' ' The Apostle Paul yielded at once; it was one of the grand qualities of the man ; as soon as Jesus revealed Himself to Paul there was a surrender of Paul to Jesus. There is no conversion without surrender. Then Paul was converted in answer to prayer. I give you this from implication; I do not find any place in connection with Paul's history where it is said that actual prayer was offered for him; but I take it by implication that prayer was offered for him. Rom. xvi. 7. "My kinsmen who were in Christ before me. ' ' The apostle acknowledges there that some of his own household had been in Christ before him. Perhaps they were his cousins; do not you think they prayed for the zealous persecutor? Can you not imagine them standing up in the little assembly and saying, ' ' There is our cousin Saul, who is now on his way to Damascus, and is get- ting fiercer and madder all the time against the saints ; pray for him. ' ' You can imagine that with- out perverting a line of Scripture. So that I sec Paul's Devotion to Jesus. 137 God's sovereign grace, the revelation of Jesus Christ, the Spirit working in his heart, the surrender of the man and answer to prayer all potential influences co-working for the salvation of Paul. Paul's con- version was a real conversion. After conversion comes devotion. The devotion of Paul was exemplified in two ways: first, in his suffering for Christ, and secondly, in his service for Christ. Suffering for Christ, serving Christ. Notice how Paul suffered. There are two kinds of suffer- ing; suffering for Christ and suffering with Christ. There was the suffering which he endured because of his oneness with Jesus Christ, and there was also the sufferings which came upon him through perse- cution, caused by his allegiance to Jesus Christ. In reading the life of Paul we are apt to be carried away by his eloquence, power and glorious charac- ter. We say, what a grand man ! What a grand hero ! But for years, as I have looked closely into the man's life, I have been struck more with the spirit in which he suffered, with the resignation and the patience and the meekness of the apostle, not- withstanding the intensity of. his suffering, than with any other great quality which he possessed. He looms up before me as a greater man, as a more devout christian because of the spirit in which he suffered. /". PauPs sufferings for Christ. Acts ix. 15, 16. " But the I^ord said unto him, Go 138 Preach the Word. thy way : for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake." The apostle, then, is selected as a vessel to bear the name of Jesus, and it is designed by the Lord that he suffer ; "I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake." It looks at first like the law of retaliation ; he made others suffer, now he is about to suffer : but that is not the purpose of the Lord, He is not avenging himself on Paul. He is simply going to show Paul that his best work is to come through suffering, that discipline is necessary to make him a more per- fect witness for Jesus Christ on earth. Galatiansvi. 17. u I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. ' ' This was a peculiar kind of suf- fering to which he referred. I do not know what is meant, but it is very evident that Paul had some mark upon him, some mark in his body, in his flesh, which at once distinguished him ; he appeals frequently to the people concerning it. ' ' Let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. ' ' Just as in those days they branded their slaves with the mark of ownership ; so the Lord Jesus in some way put his special brand upon Paul. Paul called it the stigma or the brand-mark of Jesus in his body. See Gal. iv, 13, 14, "Ye know how through infirmity PanV s Devotion to Jesus. 139 of the flesh I preached the Gospel unto you at the first. And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected ; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus." There was some infirmity of the flesh, and said Paul, you received me notwithstanding that infirmity, as an angel from heaven, as even Christ Jesus. He praises the Galatian converts that they received him notwith- standing this peculiar infirmity, whatever it was. Now there are a great many thoughtful Bible students who have come to the conclusion that there was something the matter with Paul's eyes, and that this was the brand-mark to which he referred. He, himself, speaks of his slowness of speech ; and it is the conclusion of all students that Paul was a little man, a man small in sta- ture, a man of very meagre proportions, of a stam- mering tongue, and that there was also a weak- ness of the eyes ; perhaps defective vision. I do not give you this as an original thought, but it is supposed that when Paul saw the glory of Jesus Christ and he was blinded by that glory, he never fully recovered the use of his eyes, for the glory of the celestial vision affected his eye- sight. Is there any proof of this ? I think so. Gal. vi. 11. "Ye see how large a letter I have writ- ten unto you with mine own hand." Paul was not accustomed to writing his letters ; he employed an 140 Preach the Word. amanuensis as you see at the closing of his Epistles. Nor does he mean, ' ' I have written a large letter, ' ' referring to the length of the letter, but ' c you see with what large letters I have written to you with mine own hand. ' ' Writing with large letters shows that there was something defective in his eyesight. We may paraphrase it thus : " You see with what large letters I have written ; I have dictated to no amanuensis ; I have gone to the trouble to write myself, and it has been a great deal of trouble ; you see what great pot-hooks I have made. " Again, Gal. iv. 15. "Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. ' ' Such was the love of the Galatian converts at first for the Apostle Paul, they would have plucked out their own eyes and given them to him. Now all these verses would lead us to suppose this was the brand-mark which he suffered; and the infirmity of his flesh which he accepted, and this may have been the thorn in the flesh, which he prayed might be taken away, and of which the Lord said, u If I take it away you may forget yourself, but I am going to give you so much grace that it will be beneficial to you. " Paul then said, ' ' Most gladly will I rather glory in these infirmities." He gained power by the presence of that very thorn which he would not pos- sess had it been taken away. PauPs Devotion to Jesus. 141 Let us now consider the persecutions and suffer- ings which he endured and the spirit in which he endured them. 2 Cor. vi. 4, 5. " But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in dis- tresses. In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings. ' ' He reckons up all that he endured for Christ's sake. 2 Cor. xi. 23-28. "Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more ; in labours more abun- dant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more fre- quent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suf- fered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep. In journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren. In weari- ness and painfullness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fasting often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. ' ' I wish you would read all this at your home some time and read it care- fully. I want you to notice the grace which sus- tained Paul under such trials, and the devotion of the man for Jesus. ' ' Five times received I forty 142 Preach the Word. stripes save one." In administering this awful punishment, the officers first of all bent the body of the prisoner over a block, so that every muscle, every sinew was strained to the utmost degree. Then the executioner laid the first blow upon the back and shoulders of the victim. That first blow would not only tear the skin, but make pieces of flesh fly from the body of the criminal, and often leave the bones exposed. The second blow would follow upon the first, going deeper into his body, while very often the third blow killed the man. Paul suffered that whipping not once nor twice but five consecutive times he received forty stripes — one hundred, and ninety-five stripes, of the Jewish lash had been laid upon his sensitive back. The whip was composed of thirteen lashes, which, when laid on three times, made thirty-nine stripes. Never once did he grumble, never once did he complain, never once did he cry out ; that was one way of witnessing for Christ. When his mouth was closed in silent submission, every open wound made by the lash in the flesh of his body was a mouth bear- ing testimony to the grace of the risen Christ. Paul was also whipped by the Romans. The lictors laid their rods upon the body of the prisoner. You remember at one time in Philippi where he had come to preach he was immediately arrested. ' ' Come over into Macedonia and help us, " was the call. Paul and Silas obeyed, but instantly they are PauFs Devotion to Jesus. 143 in a Roman dungeon. You know what a horrible place a Roman dungeon was in those days. As I stood in the Mamertine prison in Rome, Paul's traditional prison — as I stood there in utter dark- ness except the little lamp of the guide, there came to my mind a little man who had been immured in these prisons, for I read in the 16th chapter of Acts that they put him into the lower prison, when they had beaten him, and left him there. There was no ointment for his sores, no loving hand to bathe his stripes; they were put into the lower dungeon and their feet made fast in the stocks. But Paul and Silas said, " Let us have a prayer-meeting!" And they prayed and sang praises unto God. I do not understand it, I cannot conceive of it, but I believe it; I cannot understand how any human being should be willing to submit to all that ex- quisite torture without some word of complaint. But he was proving in his life his devotion to his Master, and God responded to those songs of praise and that old prison house was shaken. God's Amen was an earthquake. You know the result, that the church at Philippi was founded, after the jailer and his family had been converted. My friends, Peter got three thousand souls when he testified of Christ, but Stephen got three thousand stones for his faithful testimony. I pity the man in any day who is not persecuted for Jesus Christ; you cannot be faithful, devoted, christian men and 144 Preach the Word. women without being persecuted. The enemies of Jesus will not imprison you, it is true, but they will sneer at you. There is no christian lady in this town who, if she is loyal to Christ, will not be sneered at by fashionable society, and fashionable society is the most irreligious thing in this world outside of hell. But thank God for the grace to bear it all. So Paul was imprisoned, and beaten, and stoned, and kicked, and cuffed; the Pharisees were after him, and the Sadducees, and the Hero- dians, and the Gentiles, all were after him with threats and blows, but the dear little man could joyfully exclaim, u None of these things move me from the purpose of my being, that Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be life, or by death." Do you ask me if I have grace to suffer for Christ ? I do not know anything about it. If we have grace for the present occasion, we can trust for the future. Every time I think of this, it overcomes me to think of this little weak man who never had a palace car, was never provided with first-class hotels, going from place to place, suffering all things, yet never complaining ; yea, rather, he is glad of it, thankful for it, that he is counted worthy to suffer for Jesus. Did you ever visit the Church of the Tra Fon- taine outside the city of Rome ? My dear friend, Dr. George B. Taylor, doing missionary work in Pauls Devotion to Jesus. 145 Rome, showed me great kindness when there. I said to him : ' ' There is one place to which I must go before I return to America; I must go out to the traditional site where Paul was beheaded." We went out there, and saw the three fountains bubbling up in the church. According to the tradition, when they struck off Paul's head, it fell on the ground, and a well of water sprung up, and the head bounded on, and another well sprung up, and the head bounded again, and another well sprung up. I drank of the water from these three fountains, while I prayed for the like spirit which possessed Paul. How true, that wherever Paul's Epistles have gone, fountains of living water have welled up. Oh, what a man he was; yet only a man, a man of like passions with ourselves. I talked to you last night about consecration in the abstract; I present to you to-night consecration in the concrete. Paul is an illustration of conse- cration — a man who suffered for Jesus Christ so sweetly, so patiently, so constantly; faithful unto death, and therefore deserving the crown of life. II. The second division of this subject is Paul " s service for Christ. I wish to call attention to the secret springs of Paul's devotion. What were the secret springs of action in his life ? First, recog- nition of the claims of Christ upon him. Acts xxvii. 23. "Whose I am and whom I serve." The Apostle Paul recognized the claims of Jesus 10 146 Preach the Word. upon him. u Ich Dien," I serve, is on the plume of the Prince of Wales. That was the emblazoned motto on the plume of Paul, with this addition: i ' Whom I serve. ' ' Now, we have, in the first place, relationship, "whose I am," and then we have responsibility growing out of that relation- ship, ' ' whom I serve. ' ' Paul never thought for a moment that he belonged to himself; it never entered into his mind ; he knew he belonged to Jesus Christ ; he knew that Jesus Christ bought him and paid for him, and therefore his purpose to serve Him." That will simplify the whole ques- tion of consecration. Next, Gratitude. Gal. ii. 21. I want you to notice what Paul said: "Ido not set aside the law, but if righteousness come by the law, then Christ died for nothing ;" but He died for something; we find it in a previous verse: ( ' He loved me, and gave himself for me. ' ' Now, Paul was moved with gratitude. And the motive of gratitude, as you know, is a mighty motive. At a mission service in Boston, some of the con- verts could not speak English very well. A Por- tuguese sailor stood up, and scarcely knew what to say, but his face was shining, and finally he stam- mered : "If any man say I do not love Jesus, I black his eyes!" It was not elegant, but it was expressive. Well, my dear friends, if we have that kind of gratitude in us, is there anything under heaven that we will not undertake for Him ? PaitPs Devotion to Jesus. 147 There will be nothing we shall consider too precious for us to lay at the feet of our King, who has re- deemed us by His blood. Think of the personal affect 'ion which Paul had for Jesus. Acts xxi. 11-13. " And when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. And when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart ? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." The prophet Agabus came to him, and, putting the girdle on him, said: " Paul, do not go to Jerusalem, for thus saith the Holy Ghost, the Jews will bind the man that owneth this girdle, and will deliver him to the Romans." Im- mediately the little crowd of believers said some- thing like this: " Paul, do not go. We cannot give you up. You will lose your head, and what shall we do without you?" Ah, but hear the noble, the eloquent, the Christ-exalting reply : "I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Terusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. ' ' Per- suade Paul to turn aside from the path of service! No, never. Heroic Paul, thou art now with thy 148 Preach the Word. I^ord, and in the resurrection thou wilt receive thy full reward ; the hand pierced for thy sins will place the crown of glory upon thy shining brow. The good Lord make us a devoted people, that Christ may be magnified in our body, whether it be by life or by death. Amen. VIII. COMMUNION WITH JESUS CHRIST. OMMUNION with Christ is illustrated by the fellowship which David's men had with David. This is an Old Tes- tament study, and I shall first show you how you may study the Old Testament with profit, as I develop this subject — the power of fellowship. I have tried to show you the power of the Spirit and the power of the Word, and now it is the power of communion with Jesus Christ. And I think if we are walking with the Master, and if the Word and Spirit dwell in us, we shall then have all the elements of spiritual power in our life. i Samuel xxii. i, 2. " David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam : and when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him. And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men." Here we have, first of all, the power of personal attraction. In his exile, David went down to the cave Adullam, and the power of (i49) 150 Preach th£ Word. David's personal character drew to him four hun- dred men. He could not offer them any induce- ments or luxuries, he could not offer them any rewards or prospects; he was in a cave, in exile; unpopular, yet they gathered unto him. Those who were discontented, in debt, in distress; those who were unhappy under the rule of Saul were drawn by the personal presence of David into that cave. Then you notice the proof of their loyalty to David. When they came to him in the cave they made him captain over them; they submitted to his discipline and David taught their hands to war and their fingers to fight. They gathered themselves to David in the cave, and remained there with him for some time, and when these same men came out of that cave, as we shall pres- ently see, they were mighty men, men of renown. The spiritual teaching is this: Jesus is not popular in the world to-day; if He were in any of our cities, where His servants gather and His Word is preached, thousands would flock to hear about Him, but not to follozv Him. He is not popular in this country to-day; He is not popular in the world to-day; He is in exile for the present. When He came unto His own, His own received Him not. Satan, in this age, rules in the hearts of the chil- dren of disobedience; he is the prince of this world; he holds the reins of government at present, but God is above him, and Jesus is coming back and Communion with Jesus Christ. 151 He shall sit upon His holy hill in Zion. Now it is by His personal attraction He brings us out of the world into fellowship with Himself. Every sinner in distress, in debt, in bondage, in trouble, attracted by the personality of Jesus is drawn to Him in the cave where our Christ can train us, weak and feeble as we have been in the past, so that we shall become mighty men and men of renown. Iyet us turn to the 12th chapter of 1 Chron. vs. 1, 2. " Now these are they that came to David to Ziklag, while he yet kept himself close because of Saul the son of Kish: and they were among the mighty men, helpers of the war. They were armed with bows, and could use both the right hand and the left in hurling stones and shooting arrows out of a bow, even of Saul's brethren of Benjamin. ' ' We shall now trace out the history of these men. They were helpers of the war. There are two classes of christians, the helpers and the hinderers. If we are not helping, we are hin- dering; you may try to take a neutral position, but you cannot; no man can be neutral in relation to Jesus Christ. ' ' He that gathereth not with me, scattereth. ' ' I would rather to-day be a helper in the church of God, even though every effort be a blunder, than to be a hinderer. Then these men were prepared helpers. They were armed with the armor which had been provided for them, and you 152 Preach the Word. notice they were skillful in the use of it; they could hurl a stone with the left hand as well as the right and shoot arrows out of a bow. Dexterous and ambi -dexterous. They would not miss a hair, they were so keen and skillful in the use of their weapons. When as sinners we come to Jesus Christ, we are soldiers from that moment. The next thing is to be armed, and to be armed always, to be like a soldier, armed cap-a-pie ; from head to foot; " Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God." It does not say wherefore make unto you the whole armor of God, but take; it is pro- vided already. Then we are to be skillful in the use of the weapons, and that comes by training, by discipline, by studying the use of the weapons, to know how to handle shield and sword. Some of us christians make great mistakes; we often catch the sword by the blade and cut our fingers, instead of taking it by the hilt and using it upon the enemy. So it is important for us to be skillful in the use of our weapons. David was a skilled captain ; David understood the art of war, though he had been a shepherd boy ; he taught these men in the cave how to use the weapons of their warfare. Just think of it. Every day they were with him, drawing inspiration from his presence, every day influenced by his presence, every day taught how to make slings and bows and how to use them. They became helpers of the war. Communion with Jesus Christ. 153 Turn now to 1 Chron. , xii. 8th verse. ' 'And of the Gadites there separated themselves unto David into the hold to the wilderness men of might, and men of war fit for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were swift as the roes upon the mountains. ' ' Now notice three things said about these men. First, they were separated men ; they ceased alliance with David's enemies, they had no more fellowship with Saul. My friends, we can have no communion with God until we live a life of separation ; and it is not simply separation from evil but separation unto God. I may separate myself from worldly company and become very conceited and exclusive and self-complacent ; but to be separated unto the the King is necessarily separation from self also. Second, they were not only separated men, but they were heroic men; their faces were like the faces of lions. The lion, you know, is the emblem of courage. And when those men came out of the cave, there was nothing cowardly about them, no timidity or fear written on their countenances. Thirdly, they were prompt men, responsive, men. They were ready to do David's behests ; whatever he told them do, they did it, and did it with alacrity ; like Mercury with winged heels they flew away on his errands. Their feet were swift as roes upon the mountains. You see how full of the spirit of loyalty these men were to David. 154 Preach the Word. Now David's men suggest these thoughts to us ; thoughts concerning our relations to Jesus. If we are in the cave with Him, if we are in fellowship with Him, we become prompt, courageous, respon- sive christians, and when He makes known His will, we should readily obey it. When God told Abraham to offer up his son, we read that ' ' early in the morning he saddled the ass. ' ' He did not wait until noon or evening, but Abraham knew that the best kind of obedience was prompt obedience, so early in the morning he prepared to put God's awful command into execution. Likewise David's men were prompt to serve their king. And their readiness is our example. Now turn to the 14th verse. ' ' These were of the sons of Gad, captains of the host; one of the least was over a hundred, and the greatest over a thousand. ' ' Read in the margin, ' ' One that was least could re- sist a hundred, and the greatest could resist a thousand. ' ' When they went to the cave they were men in distress, men greatly depressed in spirit, but David taught them, disciplined them, moulded them, empowered them and emboldened them, so that when they came out of the cave, the one that was least could resist a hundred of the enemy and the one that was greatest could resist a thousand. Verse 15 "These are they that went over Jordan in the first month, when it had overflown all his banks ; and they put to flight all them of the valleys, Communion with Jesus Christ. 155 both towards the east and towards the west." It was the time when Jordan overflowed all its banks ; there were no ferries; there were no bridges. How then did they cross the river. They mnst have swam over. These men crossed the Jordan and on the other side put to flight all the people of the valley. Jordan in the Scripture means the river of Judgment. There are a great many christians who are still at the cross and around the cross ; it is a good place to be, around the cross, but that is not the place for the believer. We look back to the cross and thank God for it, but we are to be on the resurrection side of the cross, having gone through death with our L,ord, having died with Him, having been raised with Him, we are children of the hills, children of the resurrection. Jordan is not the river of death, the land of Canaan is not the type of heaven ; you would not want such a heaven as that which Canaan represented, for Canaan was a place full of enemies. When the Israelites entered Canaan they went into battle and conflict. Canaan represents the spiritual life into which many christians enter now. Alas, some are yet in the wilderness, sigh- ing for the leeks and onions of Egypt, while others have crossed the Jordan and possess the land. But now they have to fight Philistines and Canaanites. It is the better life of the two, though great temp- tations assail the believer who has entered into heavenly places in present experience, correspond- ing to the heights of Canaan possessed by Israel. 156 Preach the Word. The children of God who cross the Jordan in ex- perience, have to fight against principalities and powers and wicked spirits in heavenly regions. I was tanght that lesson many years ago. When a yonng man, I went through the south of Ireland speaking at little meetings. I visited the city of Cork when about twenty years of age to preach the Gospel. One day somebody said, c ' I want you to go to the Almshouse and see an old lady there. ' ' I went and found an old lady eighty-two years of age, lying on her bed. I saw she was drawing near death, and as I talked with her I found her a very bright christian ; her face was shining like the face of an angel. I was a very young christian myself, but when I came there I thought I could help her. I did not know that the Lord was going to use her to help me. She had been at one time a wealthy woman, but her husband and children died and her property vanished. It is a great thing when a person has come down from wealth to poverty to be submissive. I said to her, ' ' I sup- pose death will soon claim you, and I want to ask you, are you afraid to die ?' ' She looked up very happily at me and said, ' ' I am not going to die. ' ' ( ' Not going to die ? You are pretty old now and you seem feeble, and in the course of nature, you will soon die, and it is well to be prepared. " " Oh, no, ' ' she said, ' ' I am not going to die, because I died already. ' ' Well, I looked at the old lady and Communion with Jesus Christ. 157 I thought, ' ' poor thing ! her mind is wandering. ' ' And I tried just to humor her, because I thought she was in a state of mental weakness ; so I inquired 1 ' When did you die ?' ' She promptly replied, ' ■ I died eighteen hundred years ago. ' ' " Oh, yes, ' ' I thought, l ' the poor woman's mind is entirely gone. ' ' Well I smiled and took up my hat and said, u It is all right; look to Jesus and you will be all right." ' c Well now, ' ' she said, ' ' you think I am not talk- ing good sense, but my dear boy I wish to tell you you do not know what it means, and I want to tell you what it does mean. When Jesus came down from heaven to earth, He died as my substitute, and when He died under the load of my sin, God reckoned that death as my death. I died with Christ; I was buried with Christ, I am raised with Christ; I have eternal life in Christ. Death is behind me and I shall not die again ; I will fall asleep in Jesus, but for that I am ready. There is no death for me, I am a child of resurrection. I am on the heaven side of the Jordan, and I am now waiting till the Lord shall hush me to rest in His blessed arms. ' ' Well, I tell you, friends, I saw heaven opened around me, and I got a truth that I had never dreamed was in the Word of God, that I was a dead man, a buried man, and a risen man. It is true, we are children of resurrection ; we are in union with our risen Lord ; we have crossed Jordan ; we can put to flight the enemies of the valley. 158 Preach the Word. Paul said: "Since ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above;" do not be looking down on the earth, seeking to make the best of this world, but seek the things which are above, because you are already a child of the hills. Let us now trace these men a little further in their history. Turn to the xxiii. chapter of 2 Samuel. Do- not be troubled, brother, sister, if you are known very little in this life ; the Lord Jesus keeps a diary of your daily acts ; and the time will come when He will read out your name and tell of the work which you have accomplished in His service; we shall be pillars in the Temple above. I used to think that a pillar w T as for sup- port, and I wondered how I could support heaven in any way, until, after seeing these old pillars in Rome, with inscriptions upon them, the records of heroic deeds of long ago, making the men famous to-day. There stand these old pillars, with the names of Roman heroes, with their deeds recorded in bas-relief upon the column. So we shall be pillars in the Temple of our God, and our names will blaze out in the heavenly city. The least act which we do for God to-day will be recorded upon the pillar. So do not be discouraged if you are not very much known. If you are living to God, He knows your name and records your deeds. So these men who went into the cave became well known. The first was Adino, which means Communion with Jesus Christ 159 ornament. There are two kinds of ornaments. I was introduced to a man once by his pastor, who said; "he is an ornament to our church." x\nd I asked, ' ' What kind of an ornament are you ? Are you a piece of bric-a-brac ? Or are you another kind of an ornament — a useful vessel?" This man Adino was a useful ornament; he was a glory to the company with which he was identified; he went out and slew eight hundred at one time. The 9th verse. Bleazer is a very interesting man. The children of Israel went against the Philistines, who defied them in battle. Soon as the Israelites saw the host of the Philistines, they fled away, and every soldier of Israel became a coward, and left only one man there, and the great army of the Philistines surrounded him. But we are told Bleazar ' ' arose and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary and his hand clave to his sword, and the Lord wrought a great victory that day." Here is a man who grasped his sword. They could not pull it out of his hand, and the sword went on doing its execution. He represents the man with the Book; the man who is identified with the Word; "the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. ' ' You may be weary intellectually, you may be weary physically. I have seen many a man exhausted in the battle; but as the Word came from Him, as the Word leaped out of his l6o Preach the Word. mouth, that Word became a piercing sword, which put to flight the Philistines. So our faith must be in the sword of the Spirit. I will tell you what I think we have been doing by mistake for many years, not only here but elsewhere: we have been having great controversies in the past; we have had great discussions aforetime, and we have be- come very skillful in debate; we have been using arguments which may be right enough in their place, but my dear friends, instead of seeking to meet infidels by trying to prove to them the reason- ableness of the Bible, do not waste your breath in arguing to vindicate God's Word ; it will vindicate itself. I would not spend two and a half minutes with a willing sceptic, attempting to prove the divine origin of the Word, but would like to stab him with it ; the sword will do its own execution. There was an old christian travelling some years ago, and there was a full-fledged sceptic in the car- riage who prated against Christianity. The old preacher turned around and gave him a text of Scripture. ' ' Ah, yes, ' ' he said, ' ' you quote from that Book, but I do not believe in that Book." And the preacher gave him another text. ' ' Well, now, prove to me that your Bible is the Word of God. ' ' He gave him another text. ' ' I want you to be reasonable ; I am willing to argue with you, but first of all prove to me that the Bible is in- spired. ' ' He gave him another text. ' ' You are Communion with Jesus Christ. 161 not fair; I challenge you to prove to me whether your Book is divine. ' ' He gave him another text. " Well, I will not have anything to do with you at all;" and he gave him another text. Then the young man got mad and said, ' ' You are an old fool." And he gave him another text. Then said the preacher, " If I wanted to kill you with a Damascus blade, I would not come up and say, ' My dear sir, this sword is of steel ;' I would not try to prove it, but I would put it into you, and it would prove itself." Six months afterwards the young man met him, and said, ' ' Sir, do you re- member me?" "No, sir." "I am the young man who was riding in that coach ; you know how angry I was with you; well, I want to tell you, if you had gone into an argument with me I would have been glad to make sport of you; but you used that Book, and it proved the sword which cut me to the heart; but it has also saved me, and I want to thank you, sir. ' ' Brethren, let us have faith in the old Sword, then, though the hand grow weary, the L,ord will give us victory. A man came to me some time ago and said, ' ' I hope you won' t let so and so speak at the meeting. " u Why not ?' ' "Well," said he, "his grammar is so bad, and the ladies do not like him." " Does he expound Scrip- ture properly ?" " Oh, yes, he knows all about the Bible. " "I don' t care if he knows nothing of grammar; if he can give us the Word of God he ii 1 6a Preach the Word, may testify. " " Them that honor me I will honor. ' ' Yon know I do not discount on intellectual ability. I thank God for every intellect consecrated to the Lord Jesus; but I would not give you a bad fig for the biggest brain in this world if it did not exalt the Book of God. Intellect of itself is but a dagger of lath, a paper sword, a wilted rag with which to fight against spiritual foes. Look at the next man in the nth verse. Now, this man's name, Shammah, means fame or renown; he became famous because he defended the land and took it back from the Philistines. I will tell you a little secret; if you are after fame, you will never get it. If you get anything called fame or renown, it is a small affair, but if you are faithful to the Lord, He will give you all the fame you can stand. Just remember, do not make fame or renown the object of your life, else you will get badly sold, but be faithful to God and He will take care of your reputation. The Philistines, the marauding Philistines, came down and reaped the grain of the poor Israelites who fled away from before them. That went on until these Israelites were impover- ished. One day the Philistines came and the Israelitish farmers ran away from them, and the Philistines began to gather up the barley, but one Jew stood out boldly in the little field to defend it. The enemy said, "Why, what is this man doing here ? ' ' But he braved the whole host of the Phil- Communion with Jesus Christ. 163 istines, and overcame them and took that little field back from them. That was a bit of God's covenant land; He gave it to Abraham by an everlasting covenant. Here was a conscientious man. He had a conscience for God's land in all its parts and par- ticles; he would not give a single foot of it over to the Philistines. We have a great many Philistines who tell us this part of the Bible is not essential and that part is not essential ; and there are a great many timid christians who say, ' ' Let us allow the ' higher critics ' to have this and that ; ' ' and the poor backboneless men have not pluck to withstand the enemies who cackle with their unsound logic, and say, ' ' There was no such man as Adam, and there was no such man as Noah. ' ' Then do the weaklings say, ' ' Yes, that is reasonable, that is commendable. " But, thank God! there are men who are standing up to-day who shield the Bible from the ' ' higher critics. ' ' They are defending it, too. Thank God we have a complete Bible; let us hold on to it. Fight for it, live for it, die for it, and God will honor you. We hurl back the peccadillos of the sceptics with contempt for their learning, and we declare our faith in the whole Bible from Genesis to Malachi, and from Matthew to Rev- elation. "Oh, well now," some reply, "you are an ex- tremist; that is fanaticism, you are not reasonable at all. ' ' Am I not reasonable because I think your 164 Preach the Word. logic crooked ? I have no faith in man's mental in- fallibility; I do not trust anybody's logic. If a man is born crooked how can he help it? We are all born with a moral twist. Every faculty is out of plumb. Man's mind is warped, and only when men are converted they see their own crookedness. Then do we seek to exalt the Word. It is a grand thing to see a man right towards the truth and hold- ing the truth. So this man would not give up a turf to the Philistines; all the others fled, but he stood there fighting and won back the land. I thank God that down here South — as I have often said North — you hold on to God's Word. My hope of the country theologically is in the Southern peo- ple; they are true to the Bible. As I said to you the other night, you are sound in the faith, but you are sound asleep. Your theology is good enough, but your spiritual temper needs quickening. You need salvation from spiritual inertness. Set your theology on fire for God and you will burn down the barriers hindering aggressive evangelism. Observe the next man in the 19th and 20th verses. Here are three distinct acts wrought by this man. Benaiah is a very significant name; it means wise and strong; and when we have strength and wis- dom we are good christians. Well this man first of all slew two lion-like men of Moab; then he went against an Egyptian, a goodly man, and pulled his spear out of his hand and thrust the spear into Communion with Jesus Christ. 165 him and killed him with his own spear ; next he tracked a lion to his den, and fought that lion there and killed him. Moab is a type of the flesh, Egypt is a type of the world, and the lion is a type of the devil ; Benaiah represents the believer, who can overcome whatsoever is against us. It is a great thing to stand for God in these days opposing this three- fold power; the world, the flesh and the devil. L,et me say to you here that this man did it all him- self; he fought the men of Moab without any help from the people; and he went after the lion with- out any help from the leaders. Now you can imagine what an exciting time it was. There was the lion prowling around that village. Probably it had eaten some child or woman. We are told by travelers that when a lion tastes human flesh it cares nothing for animals after that, and that a lion will prowl around a village in India or Africa and permit deer or antelope to go by without touching them, because human flesh is sweeter. Everywhere this lion had been committing great depredations, and the people were all alarmed. I can imagine that one day Benaiah went to the house of some of the Jews and said, * l Brethren, we must do some- thing; there is a great lion around here and our women and children are in danger. ' ' And I can imagine him calling a committee together, and they all talked it over and proposed to organize, but that was the end of k. I have seen many an or- 1 66 Preach the Word. ganization tliat was so perfect in its machinery that the only trouble with it was it died at the birth. Now, organization has its place, but there are times when we must rise above organization. Benaiah could not get an organization to go after that lion ; the president might say, "It is snowing and I can not go out in the cold." The secretary might object, "I guess we have not funds enough in the treasury to buy weapons for that lion; " and the other members of the committee would vote, ' ' That we do not go after the lion to-day. ' ' But Benaiah walked out of the door and went straight ahead and entered into the den after that lion and he killed him. Thank God for individual men. If Noah had had a committee, he would never have built the ark. I do not despise committees and organizations, but God has raised up men who must put their individuality into the work of aggressive missionary endeavor. So let us take courage from David's men. Now read from the 15th to the 17th verse. Think about those three men who came to David. Alas, David ! Look at him; his eyes are sunken in his head; his cheeks are pallid; his lips are cracking and blistering; and as he sits there he cries, u Oh, that I had a drink of water from the well of Beth- lehem which is by the gate !" Well, three of the men heard it and they said, ' ( Our king is perishing for water; he is desirous for the waters of Bethle- hem. ' ' There were the hosts of the Philistines in Communion with Jesus Christ. 167 the way, but those three men went, in love for David, and broke down the host of the Philistines; they filled their bottles with the sweet water, came back again and cleaned out that camp and brought the water to David. David said, ' ' Where did you get the water ?' ' They said, u It is water from the well at Bethlehem." I do, not know whether to admire most the love of these men for David or the devotion of David to his God. He poured it all out as a libation before the Lord, as something too pre- cious for him to drink, though his parched tongue was swollen in his head. He said, " It is the blood of these men and I can not drink it. ' ' Great is the power of love. ( ' The love of Christ constraineth me, ' ' said Paul. Dear friends, if we love Him, we will dare the Philistines, we will seek to refresh the heart of our King, by bringing sinners to Him. Let us act, impelled by this great motive and we shall satisfy Him. Mark vi. 31. "And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while; for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. ' ' The disciples had been working very hard, they were doing so much public work they had not time to take their proper food; and the devil knew this was one way to neutralize their work; he knew if he could prevent the disciples from taking food, they would become weak and not 1 68 Preach the Word. be able to do their work. Jesus guarded against such a mistake; He said, "Come into a desert place and rest a while. ' ' It was no desert when He was with them; the greenest glade becomes a desert when He is absent, but the driest spot becomes a refreshing place when the lyord is there. ' ' Come into a desert place and rest a while. ' ' They went into the cave with Jesus; they came out refreshed and ready for work. When Peter and John in Acts iv. 12 spake before the Sanhedrim, the Jewish counsellors said that they should no more talk in the name of Jesus. But ' ' when they saw the bold- ness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men," they took knowl- edge of them that they had been with Jesus. That was the explanation to the unbelievers; they could not have known it on any other principle. These disciples had been in the cave with Jesus, they had been in the desert with Jesus, and the unbelievers took knowledge of it that they had been with Him. They recognized the Spirit of Christ in them, and upon them. \r General Gordon, known as ( l Chinese Gordon, ' ' one of the most remarkable christians of the nine- teenth century, spent an hour every morning with God in prayer, and there was not an officer in the army who would dare to disturb him at that hour. He placed a white handkerchief at his tent door, and a message from Parliament, a message from his Communion with Jesus Christ. 169 Queen could not reach him at that hour. Gordon's directions were of such a nature that no officer would dare to intrude as long as that white hand- kerchief was pinned there. Every man in the army knew that Gordon was alone with God. He came out thereafter with his face like the face of a lion, ready for the business of the day. Oh, what a man he was ! I do not know of any two men of the present century who were so much alike as the late Stonewall Jackson and the late General Gordon; men who were not only humane but intensely spiritual. These were men who walked with Jesus Christ, whose faces were like the faces of lions and whose feet were swift as the roes upon the moun- tains. Why cannot we poor pigmies have a little of their courage ? Why cannot we have a little of their power ? We can ; if like these men we walk with God. No amount of pleasure, no acquisition of wealth, no success in business can be an equivalent for the loss of communion with the Son of God. Oh ! friends, lessen your pleasures, limit your business, accumulate a smaller fortune, and give more of your uninterrupted time to companionship with the King of kings, until you shall catch the whisper of His love, and become filled with the power of His inspiring irresistible Spirit. V IX. REDEMPTION AS TAUGHT BY MOSES. OME one has well said that ' ' redemption is the science and song of eternity." As a science there can be none more deeply interesting and important to us. God and angels, men and devils, all play a part in it; and when our physical sciences end, this divine science will continue to be the subject of inquiry and of praise. In the ages to come God will show forth the glories of the redemptive plan, and the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness to- ward us through Jesus Christ. (Eph. ii. 7.) There are two parallel lines running throughout the whole of God's Word: (1) the sinner's indebt- edness to moral law, and his consequent bondage under its curse; (2) the release effected by the L,ord Jesus Christ, and the sinner's rescue from all bond- age resulting from his sin. These doctrinal truths are readily discovered in the books of Moses, in which so fully Christ is preached. See Luke xxiv. 27, 44; John v. 46; John i. 45. Some of the prophetical utterances of Moses are directly applied to Christ. Deut. xviii. 15; Acts iii. 22, 23. There are many other direct (170) Redemption as taught by Moses. 171 references to Christ, as Gen. iii. 15. Gen. xlix. 10, 24; Num. xxiv. 19; Exodus iii. 14, etc. The whole Jewish ritual was a finger-board pointing directly to a coming Redeemer, and in the dim twilight patriarchs and prophets read and believed the wondrous story thus announced. The harps of the faithful resounded with joyful notes, as their lips gave utterance to prophetic songs of future re- demption, prefigured to them in every earthly de- liverance they had experienced. With the brighter shining of that light, it is clearer still to us that the inspired pages of these early books are fragrant with the Redeemer's name. I. Christ as Redeemer is typically set forth in the books of Moses. 1. In the redemption of the poor relative. "And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or so- journer by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family: after that he is sold he may be redeemed again ; one of his brethren may redeem him : either his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself. L,ev. xxv. 47-49. 2. In the redemption of the inheritance. ' ' If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin 172 Preach the Word. come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold." L,ev. xxv. 25. 3. In avenging injuries done to the next of kin. ' ' The revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer: when he meeteth him, he shall slay him. . . . But if the slayer shall at any time come without the border of the city of his refuge, whither he was fled; and the revenger of blood find him without the borders of the city of his refuge, and the revenger of blood kill the slayer; he shall not be guilty of blood." (Num. xxxv. 19, 26, 27.) The revenger of blood was the Goel or kinsman- redeemer. 4. In raising up a seed which would perpetuate the family name and keep alive in the widowed heart the hope of redemption through the coming Messiah. "If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her. And it shall be, that the first- born which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel. And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name Redemption as taught by Moses. 173 in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my hus- band's brother. Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto him: and if he stand to it, and say, I like not to take her; Then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's house. And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed. ' ' Deut. xxv. 5-10. II. The Redeemers qualifications were three- fold'.— 1. Relationship must exist between the redeemer and the party to be redeemed. 2. The Goel or redeemer must have resources to pay the ransom demanded, and ability to rescue from illegal power. 3. There must be willingness on the part of the redeemer to fill the office; redemption on his part must be purely voluntary. How completely the Lord Jesus fulfils what was thus typified and predicted of Him. He is next of kin, rearer to us than angels. (Heb. ii. 14, 17.) He has all power to ransom and rescue. (Matt, xxviii. 20 ; Heb. vii. 24.) And He has proved His willingness. (John x. 17, 18; Heb. x. 5-7.) He redeems us to an inheritance; He re- deems the inheritance for us; He avenges our 174 Preach the Word. wrongs; and in Him believers become the spiritual seed — -children of God. Christ, as the coming Redeemer, is announced in Gen. iii. 15: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, it (or He) shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." The ransom aspect, as well as the rescue side of redemption, is predicted here. The bruising the heel of the woman's seed inti- mates the ransom payment through Christ's suffer- ings unto death. The bruising of Satan's head speaks of his overthrow, and man's rescue, by the great Deliverer. Satan was the source of man's ruin; the seed of the woman is the agent of man's redemption. The I^ord Jesus is our Goel— the avenger of our wrongs. It was in this relation the patriarch Jacob spake of Him on his dying bed, when blessing the sons of Joseph. " The Angel which redeemed me from all evil bless the lads."— Gen. xlviii. 16. Christ was known to the patriarchs as the avenging or redeeming Angel. The name Goel was given officially to the kinsman who avenged injuries. The devil is the man-slayer from the beginning (John viii. 44), for whom no effectual refuge opened its gates. The divine Goel pursued him to his own domain, and bruised the serpent's head. He came to unbind the works of the devil, and "through death He destroyed him that hath the power of Redemption as taught by Moses. 175 death." (1 John iii. 8; Heb. ii. 14.) This heroic representation of Christ thrilled the hearts of pa- triarchs, prophets, and apostles, and found expres- sion in their writings. He spoiled principalities and powers, and made an open show of them tri- umphing over them in Himself. (Col. ii. 15.) The petition in our Lord's prayer, "Deliver us from evil," is literally, " Rescue us from the Evil One." God gave promise to Israel of deliverance from the Egyptian bondage by which they were sorely oppressed, also that He would bring them into the land promised to Abraham and his seed for an heritage. Exodus xii. gives the history of that de- liverance — redemption negatively ; shelter from judgment through the blood of a substituted lamb (Ex. xii. 13) Redemption positively ; the Lord bringing them out of Egypt. (Ex. xii. 42.) It is again the history, and the type of ransom and res- cue. (Ex. xiii. 3.) Then follows the song of re- demption, ' ' Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength into thy holy habitation." (Ex. xv. 13.) The primary idea of the Scripture word ( ' re- demption ' ' is that of loosing, releasing, or libera- ting by the payment of a ransom. The great ob- ject of redemption, as before intimated, is the re- lease of men from under captivity to the law of 176 Preach the Word. sin, and from under the dominion of the Prince of the power of the air. Exodus xiii. speaks of the consecration following redemption, and this is ever the order of truth in the Gospel. In v. 13 we notice the ass, the rep- resentative unclean animal, and man, linked to- gether. (Numbers xviii. 15.) Both deserve a com- mon doom, but both may be redeemed. If not redeemed, they come under judgment. "And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck: and all the firstborn of men among thy children shalt thou redeem." How strikingly the lamb dying instead of the ass typi- fies Christ our substitute dying for us. This aspect of redemption by substitution is to be guarded with jealous care. The old Socinian idea, that redemp- tion is effected by an infusion of grace enabling the rceipient to outgrow sin, is not without its advo- cates, who speak of redemption by ransom as a metaphor, or figure of speech. That redemption has the sense of release by purchase in the Old Testament, is readily proved as for instance : ' ' And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the men-servants do. If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with Redemption as taught by Moses, 177 her." Ex. xxi. j, 8. " To sell" implies pur- chase, and represents the ransom aspect of re- demption. Ransom and atonement are identified. This is a rich passage, and worthy of much thought. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when thou numberest them ; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them. This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary (a shekel is twenty gerahs), an half shekel shall be the offering of the Lord. Every one that passeth among them that are num- bered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the Lord. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls. And thou shalt take the atonement money of the chil- dren of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation ; that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls." Ex. xxx. 11-16. The redemption of the children of Israel in this particular corresponds with our experience of a personal appropriation of Christ in the relation of Redeemer. Atonement was the 12 178 Pi'each the Word. ground of service } and all stood equally there — the rich and poor having an equal share in redemption privileges, In Leviticus xxv. the Sabbatical year, and the year of Jubilee, typify an age to come when Christ our Redeemer shall be known as the Restorer of the land to the rightful heirs of Abraham. Doubt- less the characteristics of the year of Jubilee illus- trate the blessings of the gospel now, but as a type it can only be fulfilled when the Redeemer will re- turn to Zion and turn away ungodliness from Ja- cob, Rom. xi. 26. Redemption was the purpose of God of old, or ever the earth was. Before sin came into being, or the old serpent entered Eden with his hellish plot, God anticipated both the one and the other. His counsels antedate man's ruin, and what His in- finite wisdom planned His glorious power achieved. Ere the hills were formed, or the mountains brought forth, redemption's science was mastered by the Divine mind. Ere He called light into existence, or gave to the sea His decree, His more glorious decrees of love and mercy toward a future fallen race were perfected in heaven. The earth was made to form a theatre whereon God's character should be fully displayed in the work of redemp- tion, and the world is yet to witness the blessed consummation of earth's restoration through the personal agency of a reigning Christ. The pale Redemption as taught by Moses. 179 light of redemption's gospel fell on Eden as our first parents stood self-accused before the majesty of God. But in that light they had hope. Its brighter glimmerings were caught on the peaks of types, sacrifices, and prophetic revelations. The day dawn had come as the rugged Baptist pro- claimed the presence of the Lamb of God. The sun had fully risen on Bethlehem and Gethsemane and Calvary; but dark shadows arising from man's sin and God's wrath obscured its shining. Never- theless, when Pentecost had fully come, a bright ray from the cross had fallen upon the guilty city where our Lord was crucified, and sinners redeemed by His blood rejoiced in the light. But the clouds have not all withdrawn. Man is still opposed to God, and Satan is this world's prince. Evil men and seducers wax worse and worse ; iniquity abounds; the love of many grows cold; the mys- tery of iniquity is at work ; the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth grows more haughty in her claims and prerogatives, while boasted science flaunts her defiant banner in the face of Revelation: the attitude of the world is enmity with God; millions of our race are yet unevange- lized, and nature herself is weary of the curse which becomes more oppressive. But courage, ye believers in the prophetic story ! Hark to the foot- falls of the returning Redeemer. What He has purchased by blood He will surely redeem by i8o Preach the Word. power. All nature is consecrated by the awful sweat of the garden, and the tragic passion of the cross, and soon will she be disenthralled from the bondage of the oppressor. The Redeemer Himself will appear to fulfill the promises, and justify His purposes. The enchanter's wand shall be broken, the potent spell of hell's magician destroyed; the serpent shall be hurled from his throne; nations will leap into liberty; the scattered tribes of Israel and Judah shall be re-united and restored; the dark clouds will forever vanish, and the earth will be filled with the light of the Redeemer's glory. Blest day, all hail! Blest Saviour, come! Let re- demption's work, typified in the Pentateuch and fulfilled on Calvary, soon be consummated to the eternal praise of Thy name. Thy waiting saints hear the cry, "Behold, I come quickly," and promptly respond, ( ' Even so, come, Lord Jesus. ' ' OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST. " Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus."'— Hebrews iii. i. HE priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ is a subject of paramount importance. There is an interval between the Cross ~~ and the Crown which He fills up in the heavens, while the Spirit fills up the same interval 'in the church. We may inquire what is our L,ord doing for us during that whole period of time be- tween His ascension and His return again ? You who have read the Pentateuch with careful obser- vation will have noticed how frequently a system of doubles is employed in the types of our L,ord. For instance, on the great day of atonement there were two goats: one goat could not shadow forth the great scheme of redemption, which includes both the death and the resurrection of the L,ord Jesus Christ. No one animal could set forth this double aspect of gospel truth. We find also, in connection with the leper, two birds, one slain, and the other dipped in its blood, and let fly into the open fields, setting forth, I believe, the two-fold (181) 1 82 Preach the Word. feature of the gospel, that Christ who died for us has also passed for us into the heavens with His own blood. And so when we come to representa- tive men, there are two, Moses and Aaron, the apostle, and the high priest. The apostle was one sent from God to men, commissioned to declare the truth of God to men, representing God to men. The priest was one going from men to God, to communicate with God on their behalf, and to represent men in the presence of God. And there- fore these two men typify the double feature of the work of our I^ord Jesus Christ. Moses was the apostle sent forth from God charged with a royal commission. He was the prophet constantly com- municating the mind of God to Israel. Aaron the priest was the one who interceded with God on behalf of the people. Our Iyord Jesus is both apostle (or prophet) and priest. ' ' Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, con- sider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus." The Shiloh or Sent One came forth from God. He came forth from the Father into the world. He came to represent God to men; and, having fulfilled perfectly the apostolic office, He entered upon His priestly ministry within the veil, to transact business with God on behalf of men. Apostle and Priest! He is the subject for our consideration, as well as the supreme object of our adoration to-day. Our Great High Priest, 183 In the 4th chapter of Hebrews, the 14th verse, we read, ' ' Seeing then that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession." See- ing that we have such a great High Priest. One of the characteristics of Christianity is its absolute- ness; it is positive, definite; it is never vague nor uncertain. "WE HAVE a great High Priest!" This characteristic feature of certainty pervades all gospel doctrine. We know, and we have; we know, and we possess. There are persons in our day who deem it presumption on the part of any one to claim spiritual knowledge, or acquaintance with spiritual things. According to their philoso- phy, it is the very acme of intellectual culture not to know. But if they confess their own lamentable ignorance of spiritual truth, they have no right to assume that others are alike ignorant. A blind man who denies the existence of sunlight is im- pertinent in assuming that all others are blind like himself. We would never trouble ourselves with these agnostics, ' ' proud boasters, ' ' were it not that they constantly insist that others are as blind as themselves, and as uncertain as themselves regard- ing matters pertaining to salvation. The christian believer ought to be perfectly assured of eternal life, of his home in heaven, of his great High Priest. This is our boast in the Lord : ' ' We know that we have eternal life;" we have a great High 184 Preach the Word. Priest: His name is Jesus, Son of God. We know He is in the heavens, within the veil, making in- tercession for us. ' ' Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus." I. Nearly all human religions acknowledge the necessity of priesthood. It is a very singular fact that when the white man enters for the first time into the haunts of the pagan he finds priesthood there, as if man, in his most barbarous state, was ever conscious of his unfitness in himself to ap- proach Deity. Fallen, sinning man, must know that there is a great gulf fixed between himself and the Divine Being whom he seeks to worship. And because of this innate consciousness of guilt in the human heart, Ritualism, whether Papal or Anglican, takes advantage of it, and supplies us with a counterfeit priesthood. You remember how Job, realizing his own personal sinfulness, cried out, "Neither is there any daysman betwixt us that might lay his hand upon us both. ' ' (Job ix. 33.) There is a great distance between the holy God and sinful man. The sinner cries out for an arbitrator, an umpire, to lay hands upon both, and so effect a reconciliation. The apostle Paul re- sponds to such a cry in his 1st Epistle to Timothy, 2d chapter and 5th verse: u For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Our Great High Priest. 185 Christ Jesus." He who is God, our Saviour, is also the Man Christ Jesus, qualified, as Daysman, to lay hands upon both. Jesus is the Arbitrator, placing one hand upon the throne of the Eternal, and the other hand upon the guilty sinner, thus bringing both together into reconciliation and union. L,et us thank our God, beloved, that we have a great High Priest. As all religions acknowledge the necessity of priesthood, the christian religion likewise acknowl- edges its necessity, and, in fact, if there be no priest, there can be no assurance, no pardon, no reconciliation with God. The title " Priest" means u Sacrificer. " It implies the offering of a victim to God, and certain results flowing therefrom. The word is very often abused and misapplied. Those who cry out against the sacrificial priest- hood of Jesus Christ, who denounce the idea of sacrifice as being altogether repugnant to our re- fined senses, use Bible terms, and steal from the phraseology of Scripture many of its glowing terms. Men of intellectual thought, forsooth! are " priests of nature." What a misnomer! The term implies sacrifice, and if no sacrifice, no priest. The priest must present sacrifice. If Jesus Christ assumes the office of Priest, He must present an acceptable offering. ' c For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices; wherefore it is of necessitv that this Man have somewhat also 1 86 Preach the Word. to offer. " (Hebrews viii. 3.) What is that offering ? ' ' For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sancti- fleth to the purifying of the flesh : How much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the Eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Hebrews ix. 13, 14.) Here is something which never before took place in the history of the world — the Priest offering Himself "as a sacrifice unto God. This Man who must have somewhat to offer offered Himself without spot to God, that, through that offering, our consciences might be purged from dead works to serve the living God. Now, no human priest presenting a sacrifice for sin has any assurance that his offering is accepted, but not so our Priest. If it was not an acceptable offering, He would remain in Joseph's tomb; but " the L,ord is risen indeed, and has appeared unto Simon. " Yea, He has gone up on high, and is now in the divine presence, on our behalf. We know that it is not only an acceptable offering, but a sufficient sin-offering for us. There needs no more offering for sin. Away, then, with your elevation of the host! Away with any other pretended sacrifice to make reconciliation with God, or atone for human sin. It is preposterous and blasphemous. This Man purged away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, so that it is all-sufficient and available to us. The Our Great High Priest. 187 guilty sinner, by faith, appropriates the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to himself, and can say, ' ' He loved me, and gave Himself for me. ' ' II. We now inquire — Was our Lord personally qualified to assume the office of priest ? There were certain qualifications demanded under the cere- monial law. Every man of the seed of Aaron could not enter the office. You will find that there were certain requirements, as, for instance, that the priest must be physically perfect. If any man had a broken hand, a broken nose, or broken foot, or if there was any distortion or any blemish in his body, though he was qualified by birth for the priesthood, these physical infirmities disqualified him, and he could not offer sacrifice. We read of the Lord Jesus Christ in the 7th chapter of the Hebrews and 26th verse, u For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. ' ' Not a blemish on Him, no distortion or disqualification. He was morally fitted, in His own personal life, to enter the priestly office. Then, again, the priest must be per- fectly human, " For every high priest taken from among men, is ordained for men, in things pertain- ing to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacri- fices for sins." (Heb. v. 1.) An angel could not be a priest. There is nothing in common between angel nature and human nature. ' ' Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, 1 88 Preach the Word. He also Himself likewise took part of tlie same; that through death, He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." (Heb. ii. 14.) He was born of a woman and became perfectly human, and in His human life He became qualified as priest. Furthermore, the priest must be a man of compassion. A stoic would not do. A man who had not the ordinary feelings of humanity, who could not sympathize with those in sorrow, would be set aside as morally disqualified. We find that in all things it behooved our lyord to be made like unto His brethren. He is a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. His compassions never fail. He is a sympathizing priest, boundless in pity, infinite in tenderness. No priest could elect himself to the office. Israel's high priest received a distinct call from God : he did not enter the office as having a claim to it. So we read, ' ' And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God as was Aaron. ' ' (Heb. v. 4.) So of Jesus : " Called of God an high priest, after the order of Melchisedec, " (v. 10). He has therefore right and title to enter the priest- hood, and there He stands to-day unchallenged, unquestioned. He still can say, ' ' The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." (John xiv. 30.) We observe, then, dear brethren and friends, that the Iyord Jesus Christ is qualified in Our Great High Priest. 189 every way to be our priest. He answered all the demands of the law, receiving all honor from the Father. ' ' Seeing, then, that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. ' ' III. We pass on to speak of the place where He exercises His priestly ministry. I have referred to that already, but I wish to have it fully established in your minds. When He was here, in the days of His flesh, He fulfilled the office of teacher, teach- ing and preaching glad tidings ; making known the things of God to men. But as the priest of old, on the day of atonement, went within the veil with the blood of the sin offering, so, when our Lord had presented His offering, He passed within the veil, and He is now in the presence of God for us. We read in the 1st chapter of the Epistle to the Bphesians, 19th verse, u And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, ac- cording to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and, set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places ?' ' The 1st chapter of Hebrews, verse 3 : " Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and uphold- ing all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." Again, in 8th chapter of Hebrews and the 1st verse : " We 190 Preach the Word. have such an High Priest , who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.'' See the 9th chapter, 24th verse: "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." Then we find in the 10th chapter and nth verse, the following words, ' ' And every high priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacri- fice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God." I want you to notice the attitude of Jesus Christ in Heaven. We are told that when the priests came into the sanctuary every day to per- form the service of God, there was no seat provided for them in the Holy Place. They always stood to perforin the service of God. There was no seat provided for the high priest in the Holiest of all ; there was but one seat there, the mercy-seat, occu- pied by Jehovah Himself. His throne is one of mercy and grace, but there was no seat for the ministering priest. ' ' Every priest standeth daily ministering:" the work was always incomplete; 1 ' but this Man, when He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down at the right hand of God. ' ' Atonement is made, and He has a right to His seat. He is seated there in heavenly places. He finished the work of atonement, and made an end of sin. Our Great High Priest. 191 He purged away sin and has presented an offering which is available for the sinner, and effectual in securing our abundant pardon; and having made atonement He is now presenting it within the veil. There He presents the results of that finished work in the presence of God on our behalf. Thus recon- ciliation is effected between God and the believing sinner. This, then, is my plea : " O God, I am a sinner; Christ died for me, and has taken His own blood into heaven, and having respect to that blood Thou dost accept me. ' ' Oh, friends, we are recon- ciled to God by the death of His Son. IV. Still further, He is presenting our worship with acceptance. My dear brethren, this is a con- soling thought. Had we no priest in heaven as the medium of our worship, we never could worship God acceptably; our holiest performances are un- clean, our noblest efforts are marred with sin. Just as when the priest of old came into the Holy Place and presented the incense from off the golden altar, before the Lord, so Jesus, who is our golden altar, presents our worship, which ascends from that altar, and the altar sanctifieth the gift. Our gift is sanc- tified and accepted as it ascends from Himself. You know our prayers are but stammering utter- ances ; our praises and devotions are poor at best ; but see how He gathers them together into the golden bowl, perfuming them with the fragrant incense of His own merits, and so presenting them 192 Preach the Word. acceptably to our God and Father. Prayer is offered in the name of Jesus ; praise is presented in the name of Jesus; the consecration of our lives ascends to heaven through the merits of our Priest. Here, then, is where a person of Unitarian senti- ment makes the fatal mistake; he hopes to enter into the presence of the God of nature, the God of providence, the Supreme Deity, and stand there offering gifts: but, vain man, his richest gifts are not accepted by a holy God, save through the medium of the Priest. If you recognize the priest- hood of Christ,- you acknowledge His sacrifice. Then you are no more unitarian : you are a chris- tian believer in the L,ord Jesus Christ. Again, be- sides presenting our worship, He presents the wor- shipper. The priest of old carried the names of the tribes upon the breast-plate and on the shoulder- stones, thus bearing up the whole nation of Israel upon shoulders and heart. So our priest is pre- senting us to-day. Every saint is in the same acceptance always in Jesus Christ. You may to-day have a more vivid realization and appreciation of that acceptance ; to-morrow, your mind may be dull and clouded: you may not enjoy the experience of peace in your soul, and you may not be so keenly spiritual as you are to-day, but your acceptance is the same, beloved friends, and must always be the same, if you are accepted at all. Aaron, Israel's priest, wore around his head a Our Great High Priest. 193 mitre, and on that was placed a crown on which was engraved, ( ' Holiness unto the Lord, ' ' that they might be always accepted. So Jesus Christ stands before God for us, and we stand in Him, and God is looking at us in the Son, saying, admiringly, - ' Thou art all fair, my love : there is no spot in Thee. ' ' Thus it is that the Lord Jesus Christ pre- sents us in acceptance, in righteousness, in the presence of God. What else is He doing for us ? As our Priest is the medium through whom our prayers and worship ascend to the Father, so He is the channel through whom the blessing of the Father comes to us. God is ever blessing us for the sake of His Son, and through His Son. We praise God from whom all blessings flow, because of the priesthood of Jesus Christ. He is always meriting the blessing on our behalf, and in that sense we are always meriting the blessing. By His merit, through the medium of the Priest, grace upon grace, and "the supply of the spirit of Jesus," comes unhindered to our be- lieving souls. How glorious for us is His work! Seeing we have such an High Priest within the veil, let us rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. V. I wish to sum up by giving you a three-fold representation of His priestly work. (1) Jesus Christ is the Mediator between God and man. He is an Advocate with the Father; and an 13 194 Preach the Word. Intercessor on behalf of the saints. A mediator is one who opens up the way of access, and keeps it open, to effect reconciliation between two contend- ing parties. As mediator, that aspect of His priesthood is for the unconverted as well as for the believer; it is for you, sinner, to-day. He has opened a door of access to God, and through His blood He keeps it open for you, Come then to God through the Priest, through the sacrifice, (i Tim. iii. 3-5.) (2) But the other parts of the priesthood are limited to believers. He is not an advocate for the sinner, but for the saint. The advocate is the same as Comforter, or Paraclete. There are many things implied in the advocacy of Jesus Christ. As advo- cate He meets the accuser, for an advocate implies an accuser. Here, then, is a startling fact. The accuser of the brethren, Satan, the god of this world, has access to heaven. He accuses us before the Father. Remember, he does not enter heaven as a subject of it, but he enters the court of equity as an accuser goes before the Judge to testify against transgressors. The devil has a foothold in the heavenly court. Here is his advantage; you and I have failed as christians. If you reflect upon your life since your conversion, you wonder will you ever be finally saved ? The devil takes advan- tage of our infirmities, of our sins of jealousy, envy, evil speaking, of the bitterness of our heart, and he Our Great High Priest. 195 flies to the court above, demanding, ' ' O thou Judge of men, who canst but abhor iniquity, see these people : how can they enter heaven ? How can they enter Thy presence, and have communion with Thee ?' ' So he brings these accusations against us there. Nor can we deny these charges; we must acknowledge our guilt. What can be done when the accuser brings forward charges which cannot be denied before a righteous God ? Friends, look into that court; behold one standing there at the right hand of the Judge. Who is He ? He has the scars of the thorny crown upon His brow. Who is He ? He has the marks of the nails upon His hands, the mark of the spear in His side. He stands present- ing His pierced body in heaven's court of justice. Hear Him thunder, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? Bring the charge against Me. ' ' Hallelujah ! We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. See, there He is with His own blood presenting it on our behalf; it covers our sins, and the devil is baffled in yonder court. Does he press the charges ? Even so, we have our Surety, our Representative, our Priest, who represents us so faithfully and justly that the devil is overcome; he finds nothing in our Lord. But mark you, he rushes from the court- room, and, charging the conscience. of the believer with like accusations, would fain drive us to despair. Grace has, however, made provision, and we over- 196 Preach the Word. come him by the word of our testimony and by the blood of the Lamb. The very blood which drove him out of heaven will drive him from the court of conscience, baffled and overcome. Oh, how it be- comes us to keep that blood in mind, and to remem- ber that we ever have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. (1 John ii. 2.) (3) What else is He doing? He is making in- tercession for the saints. (Heb. viii. 26, 27.) I have sometimes heard it said from the pulpit, ' ( Come to Christ, He is praying in heaven for you;" but there is no such teaching in the Bible. In the 17 th of John we read, ' ' I pray for these, I pray not for the world." If He prayed for the world, the world would be converted; the prayers of this David would be answered. Every prayer of His finds prompt and glad response. God holds nothing back from Him. Were He praying for the whole world, universalism would be true. But He limits His intercessions. ' ' I pray for those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one." In this 17th of John, in this intercession of Jesus Christ, we have the most unselfish prayer on record. There is but this prayer for Himself, " And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. ' ' He then prays for His disciples that they may be kept and sanctified; and for all believers, to the end of time, that they may be united in one, sanctified, and preserved. Our Great High Priest. 197 ( * Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with me where I am; that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me, for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world." Such is the character of our Lord's in- tercession during the period of His priestly ministry within the veil. It is a prayer of anticipation; He had finished the work given Him to do. Oh, how dependent we are on His priesthood. If He failed in that priesthood to-day, alas, friends, our salvation could not be consummated; but He will finish the work of the priesthood, even as He finished the work of the atonement, and when that ministry is brought to a glorious climax in the final salvation of the church, then will He come forth to fulfil that other office, His kingly office, and sway His sceptre over the nations of the earth, for c ' the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our lyord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever. " " Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, con- sider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus." THE BELIEVER'S BLESSED HOPE — OUR LORD'S SECOND COMING. HERE are two events connected with the christian believer's hope. Paul in his letter to Titus refers to the first of these in the glowing words ' c Looking for the blessed Hope and the appearing in glory of the great God our Saviour Jesus Christ." (R. V.) The return to our earth in personal glory of Jesus Mes- siah is the first event included in the blessed Hope. In Paul's speech at Jerusalem before the council we find the second event thus stated: " Men and brethren I am a pharisee, the son of a pharisee, of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question. ' ' Acts xxiii. 6. Again in his defence be- fore the governor Felix, Paul uttered these memo- rable words. ' ' But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets, and have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." Acts xxiv. 14, 15. In his speech of vindication before Herod (198) The Believers Blessed Hope. 199 Agrippa we find the divinely instructed apostle re- ferring again to this hope in the sublime statement : "And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers. Unto which promise our twelve tribes instantly serving God day and night hope to come. For which hope's sake King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead. ' ' Acts xxvi. 6, 7. Once more when Paul had reached Rome, he summoned his Jewish brethren, some of whom were already believers, to hear his plea, that ' ' for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain. ' ' Acts xxviii. 20. Clearly, then, Resurrection was the old Testa- ment hope, held by all pharisees who accepted the law, the prophets and the psalms, but denied by the sadducees who placed reason above the inerrant scriptures. Paul, converted, enlightened, instructed by the infallible Spirit, held with even greater tena- city than formerly to that blessed hope of a literal, bodily and glorious resurrection. These, then are the joyful anticipations of the true christian be- liever. Waiting in hope for the Son of God from heaven, and expecting therewith the full consum- mation of our salvation when the departed spirit shall be re-united with its own body by resurrec- tion from the dead, and in our translation unto glory. 2bo Preach the Word. As regards the future, the believer cannot admit that human opinions and human speculations are conclusive. There is but one infallible, authorita- tive source of knowledge concerning the days be- fore us, namely, the inspired and absolutely exact revelation of God which we call The Holy Scrip- tures. No true Bible-loving and seriously reverent christian will deny the prophetic features of that Revelation. Much that is now history was once prophecy, and the literal fulfillment of the events predicted is the golden key which opens the gate of unfulfilled prophecy to the devout and inquiring mind. The Spirit shows us things to come be- cause He already inspired holy men to write of them in the prophetic Word. Let us then, with becoming reverence, and glad- ness of heart, approach this subject. It is that most joyous hope which has impressed and influ- enced the church in every age. Will the Lord Jesus, the Eternal Word, who appeared once on earth, return again and touch its soil with His blessed feet? Will He who was born of woman, who became the Servant of all, come again in Sovereign Majesty and receive from the world the homage of universal worship, and the crown of uni- versal supremacy ? And shall His sleeping saints be raised from the dust of death to the throne of Eter- nal Life? The Believers Blessed Hope, 201 I. Chris? s own answer. Our first quotation is a statement from His own gracious lips. " I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again." (John xiv. 2, 3.) No one surely will dispute the fact that when Jesus said "I go," He -meant a personal, literal removal of Himself to the Father. The "I" is personal, not metaphorical; the "go" is literal, not figura- tive. Thus Jesus in His own person departed out of the world by ascension to the heavens. So, ac- cording to the simplest laws of language, the promise "I will come again," must be both per- sonal and literal. The ' ' I come, ' ' answers to the 1 ' I go. ' ' According to this precious promise of Jesus, is it not right to expect that some time He will again return to earth ? Surely no past event can be construed into a fulfillment of this promise. Neither the coming of the Spirit, the destruction of Jerusalem, the discovery of America, the birth of the Republic; not the progress of the Age, nor the event of Death will satisfy the thoughtful mind, that in any or all of these occurrences Jesus has come. • He came and died for us ; this is love bleeding for its beloved. He went on high to prepare an abode for us; this is love active for the beloved. He will not send a myriad of angels to convey the beloved home, but He will come Himself and re- ceive His church — His bride to Himself. This is 202 Preach the Word. love satisfying itself : ( ' That where I am there ye may be also. ' ' II. The Answer of the White-robed Messengers. Turn we now to Acts i. 9-1 1. u And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up. ' ' The first part of His own promise was then exactly fulfilled. He was taken up. Had He not said, "I go"? Now hear the heavenly messengers address the disciples. ( * This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." (v. 11.) How did He ascend ? In His human, glorified body. How shall He descend ? In like manner. Who ascended? Jesus. Who shall descend ? This same Jesus. How was He accompanied in His ascension? With a cloud. How shall He return ? ' ' And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud." (Luke xxi. 27.) Surely these Scriptures teach on their surface that Jesus is coming again personally, visibly, gloriously. III. The Apostolic Answer. One verse more. ' ' For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. " (1 Thess. iv. 16.) Again we must admit that this passage refers to our Lord's personal return. With what accompaniments did He ascend ? ' ' God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with a sound of a trumpet." (Ps. xlvii. 5.) The Believers Blessed Hope. 203 Thus also shall He return. He is now in heaven whither He ascended, and will continue there in His priestly mediatorial office until the hour arrives when He shall return to claim His own. Then shall the dead in Christ rise first, and the living saints shall join them in their triumphal procession, while they challenge the graves long occupied, but now empty: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory ? Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our L,ord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. xv. 55-57.) But keeping to the line of thought before us, we must not overlook the fact that the Iyord comes Himself and not by deputy. This, then, is our assured hope. It is not a speculation, not a philosophy, not a supposition, not even a calcula- tion, but an assurance based on the infallible pro- mises of God. Oh, believer, are you tried now ? Are you afflicted now ? Are you sorely beset by many adversaries? Is your heart wrung with an- guish as you see the wicked prosper and the un- godly prevail ? Fear not! Iyift up your head for your redemption draweth nigh. Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and hope perfectly for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revela- tion of Jesus. He will not forget His promises. Therefore ' ' unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation. ' ' (Heb. ix. 28.) Then shall there be re-union with our sainted dead on that day of His glorious Advent. 204 Preach the Word. IV. The Promised Advent not Death. One of our great surprises in connection with this sub- ject is, that any thoughtful person should con- sider the experience of death, and the event of our Lord^s coming one and the same, or even think of them as of equal value. Very many say, " Well, when I die the Lord will have come to me. ' ' Now, is this not a very perversion of Scripture language ? Let any reader carefully go over a few texts where it is said Jesus is coming again, and substitute death for that hope. Will he not readily perceive the fallacy of the above statement ? As for exam- ple : ' ' This same death shall come again. ' ' (Acts i. 12.) " Death shall descend from heaven with a shout." (i Thess. iv. 16.) " Unto them that look for it, shall death appear a second time. (Heb. ix. 28.) "For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for death. (Phil. iii. 20.) "And to wait for death from heaven." (1 Thess. i. 10.) It would be just as absurd to read into such passages any other event, historical, ecclesiastical or providential, as that of death. Surely the Scriptures are clear enough in their literal statement, and conclusive in their designed application. This is very important, therefore observe : 1. That there was in the minds of the apostles a distinction between the article of death, and the advent of Jesus is proved from our Lord's conver- The Believers Blessed Hope. 205 sation with Simon Peter, as recorded in John xxi. 18-23. The Master told him he would die a mar- tyr, which led Peter to inquire concerning John, * ' Lord, and what shall this man do ?' ' The an- swer of Jesus, u If I will that he tarry till I come," led all of the disciples to believe that John would not die, but be found still living when their Lord returned from heaven. Not indeed that Jesus gave any such promise, yet what He did say called out from them the fact that in their minds there was a broad distinction between death and His return. 2. But further, this contrast is seen when we consider that death is a monster evil, the awful penalty of sin (Rom. vi. 23), while the promised Advent of Jesus will deliver His people from its dread power. (1 Thess. iv. 16, 17.) Death is un- natural. From this terrible enemy we shrink with fear, while with glad hope we long to see the un- veiled face of our glorious Lord. Death is a dis- solution; a taking down of the tabernacle; a dis- robing. For the unclothed state we do not pray, as we do for the re-clothed condition. (11 Cor. v. 4.) Death is a divider. The grim messenger is neither softened by tears nor subdued by threats. He is independent of bribes, and mocks at every device to escape his chilling embrace. Kings and subjects, rich and poor, are alike leveled by his sickle, while the friends spared a little longer are left to mourn in their grief. (Gen. xxxvii. 34, 35; 2o6 Preach the Word. John xi. ai, 32.) But when Jesus conies re-union will take place, for the sleeping saints and living believers shall be caught up together in the air. (1 Thess. iv. 17, 18). 3. But again, death does not consummate our salvation ; by it we are made incomplete; the body rests in the grave, and the spirit rests with the Lord. (1 Thess. iv. 13; 11 Cor. v. 8.) When Jesus comes and gathers His people unto Himself, the corruptible shall put on incorruption, referring to those who have died, while the mortal shall put on immortality, referring to those who shall be found alive at His Advent. Then, indeed, shall our salvation of soul and body be fully consum- mated, for we shall be crowned and glorified in that day. (11 Tim. iv. 8; Phil. iii. 20, 31.) No where in the divine record are we taught to earn- estly look for death, to pray for death, to love death, to be comforted with the hope of death, to hasten death, or to watch for death. But always and everywhere these exhortations have direct ref- erence to the coming of Christ ; ' ' waiting for the Son from heaven." I do not deny the intermediate state as one of restful bliss. It is, indeed, better to be "absent from the body, and present with the L,ord," than to be in suffering and sorrow down here. More prominence is given, however, to the final or resur- rection state than to that which is intermediate. The Believers Blessed Hope. 207 The future will be the consummation period, hence the frequency of exhortation to look for the blessed Hope. V. Power of the Blessed Hope. Faith looks upward ; hope looks onward. Whatever mean- ing we may put on the prophetic event intro- duced in the Scriptures as our L,ord's second coming, we notice that it is frequently speci- fied as a Hope. And as hope implies expectation, the Church should wear the onward look. The believer should be an expectant. Hope is the antipode of despair. It has a defi- nite object in view, and as that object is perceived at hand, or remotely, the soul is swayed by deliver- ance or discouragement. The blessed hope and appearing in glory of our L,ord Jesus Christ should not be relegated to the regions of mystery or mysti- cism. How can it be a hope of any value, if it be some uncertain, indefinite, mystic, and far-away, and non-essential theory which happened to drop into the Bible? In fifty- three places where hope is referred to in the divine word, it has special re- lation to future blessings which are to crown the christian believer at the appearing of Jesus Christ. A few of these we might examine. 1. It is a blessed hope. " Looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ." (Titus ii. 13.) A blessed hope means a happy one. The word refers 2o8 Preach the Word. to inward enjoyment apart from external environ- ment. The expectations implied in such a hope make all present circumstances of trial or depres- sion ' * not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us- ward. For the earn- est expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God." (Rom. viii. 1 8, 19. R. V.) 2. It is a purifying hope. ( c And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." (1 John iii. 3.) As linen bleaches under the sun, the light of this hope cleanses the life from world-stains. It loosens the grasp from the things of earth. The man who has a magnificent mansion in some beautiful locality, and is only tarrying in a city hotel for a few days till he can journey home, will not care to spend time and money and thought in elaborately decorating his temporary lodgings in the strange city. So the christian, who reckons himself a " pilgrim and a stranger" here, will have little heart to spend his energies on things pertaining merely to the earthly. His city and his home lie beyond. His great con- cern will be to u lay up treasures in heaven. ' ' (Col. iii. 1, 4.) 3. It is a pacifying hope. ' ' Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of dark- ness, and will make manifest the counsels of the The Believer' s Blessed Hope. 209 hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God." (1 Cor. iv. 5.) "Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Iyord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and the latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the L