The Faith €nee for All.

‘The Faith Gnee for All,
A S E R M ON,
DELIVERED AT THE DEDICATION
— OF —
TMITE INAIC ER, I-A-T, IBI-A-T. T.,
GARRETT BIBLICAL INSTITUTE,
— BY —
BISHOP CYRUs D. FOSS, D. D., L.L. D.
EVANSTON, ILL.,
1887.
DR. RIDGAWAY: I have the great pleasure of introduc-
ing Bishop Foss who will preach the sermon for this occasion.
I feel that we could have had no one who would more fully
sympathize in the work of Christian education and the training
of Christian ministers.
K
.
W
f
:
S’. J. Łºt tº 3.6.<}
THE FAITH ONCE FOR ALL DELIVERED TO THE SAINTs.
A Sermon
by
BISHOP Cyrus D. FOSS, D. D., LL.D.
(Stenographically reported.) *
Text.—“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salva-
tion, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly
contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”—Jude 3.
Among the testimonies which the sons of genius, in their deep
disappointment and bitter want, have given to the solitary su-
periority of the Christian faith I know none more impressive
than that of Sir Humphrey Davy. His brilliant genius, his
practical inventiveness, his great talents, his discovery of four
metals, his fortunate surroundings and his pre-eminent distinc-
tion conspire to make the entry in his later diary very mournful
—namely, the two words “Very miserable;” and to give pro-
found emphasis to his estimate of the Christian faith. He says
“I envy no quality of mind or intellect in others, not genius,
power, wit or fancy; but if I could choose what would be most
delightful, and I believe most useful to me, I should prefer a firm
religious belief to every other blessing ; for it makes life a disci-
pline of goodness, creates new hopes when all earthly hopes
vanish, and throws over the decay, the destruction of existence,
the most gorgeous of all lights; calling in the most delightful
visions where the sensualist and the sceptic view only gloom,
decay and annihilation.” Over against this profound utterance
of that great philosopher at the close of his singularly fortunate
but unsatisfactory career, place the flippant and oft-quoted couplet
of the sceptical Pope, steeped in infidelity to its core:
“For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight,
His can’t be wrong whose life is in the right.”
As though there were no well-ascertained ground and no in-
fallible standard of religious belief; as though there were no
4 The Faith Once for All.
things found out and made clear to Christian thought once and
forever ; as though the great mass of the evangelical church in
all ages had found no common substratum of essential doctrine ;
as though the roots of character had no vital relation to the fruits
of character ; as though figs might grow on thistles and sweet
waters pour forth from bitter fountains. Which of these two
estimates of the Christian faith commends itself to your sober
judgment P That of the profound philosopher who finds in a
firm religious belief the sheet anchor of human safety and hope
or that of the careless and sceptical poet who speaks of “modes
of faith,” as though they deserved no serious attention from
thoughtful men P
Surely in this sceptical age when creeds are so laughed to
scorn, when theology is so often spoken of with contempt and
ridicule as though it were synonymous with superstition, when
catechisms are so largely trodden under foot, and when so much
of the current literature carelessly assumes that the old dogmas
are exploded, and quotes the scriptures not to explain them, but
(if that were possible) to explain them away, it cannot be amiss
for us earnestly to inquire once more after “the faith once de-
livered to the saints,” and in response to this martial summons
to gird ourselves anew and contend earnestly for it with the
courage, fidelity and zeal of good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
Especially does such a train of thought befit an occasion like
this, which places before our very eyes the demonstration that a
large branch of the Christian Church—the largest branch of the
one Church of Christ on this Continent—thinks it worth while to
summon many of the young cadets about to be commissioned for
this holy war, to gather here for years of thorough Biblical and
theological training.
I am of course not unaware that some biblical critics have
called in question the canonicity of the epistle from which I have
read my text, and also of the second Epistle of St. Peter, which
it strongly resembles, and from which it no doubt largely quotes;
but this circumstance need cause us no hesitation in choosing
this text since the same lesson is taught us in many places in
epistles unquestionably canonical. Take as a specimen this in
the 2nd Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy : “Hold fast the form
of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love
The Fazth- What is ºf P 5
which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed
unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.” (II
Tim. I. 13-14). And again, “Thou therefore, my son, be strong
in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou
hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou
to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.” (II
Tim. II 1-2) I have chosen the text because, better than any
other single verse, it sets forth “the faith once delivered to the
saints,” and sounds out a martial summons earnestly to contend
for that faith.
I. Our first endeavor must be to ascertain and verify “THE
FAITH ONCE For ALL DELIVERED TO THE SAINTS.”
We have occasion here, as the text leads us, to consider
I the treasure committed to us, 2 the casket which contains it,
and 3 the custodian of the treasure.
I say first, the treasure. What is it? “The faith,” that is
the phrase. And if you take your New Testament and mark it,
especially the Epistles, you will be surprised to find how many
times you come to the term “the faith.” The word faith is used
in the New Testament in two very distinct senses, namely, as the
saving act of the soul, and as the truth on which that act is ex-
ercised. By the Saviour it is always used in the former sense:
by the apostles, often in the latter. There is very manifest
reason for this marked difference. Jesus was here visible to men,
was moving around among them ; and salvation lay simply in the
acceptance of his visible person as that of the Saviour. Just that
and nothing else. So long as he was visibly present faith had
that sense, and that only. He sent forth his seventy disciples,
but nowhere save to cities and places to which he himself was
about to come : and so his summons was “Come unto me all ye
that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” To
Nicodemus and for all men. He uttered the sublimest declara-
tion ever committed to the music of mortals; “God so loved
the world that he gave His only begotten son that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
But He disappeared from the scene, He was lost to the view
of men; and His apostles went forth to preach Him. And how
should they preach Him P Peter gives us a specimen : “Whom
6 77te Faith Once for All.
having not seen ye love ; in whom, though now ye see him not,
yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory;
receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.”
John, the Apostle, sixty years after he had leaned his head on
Jesus' breast, and who knew that great heart, which had broken
on the cross, better than any other man that ever lived, could
not point men to the visible Saviour as John the Baptist had
done, and say to them, “Behold the Lamb of God,” and so he
wrote about Him thus : “That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us;
and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His son
Jesus Christ.” “This then is the message.” Thus you perceive
that when the Saviour had disappeared from the eyes of men sal-
vation lay in accepting a message concerning him in order that
men might thus come into living union with his ever-blessed and
saving person.
So “the faith” is a system of truth. It is a record of
certain specific facts about the Lord Jésus Christ—if you please,
a creed. Much as that word is despised and laughed to scorn I
thoughtfully use it and say that “the faith ” is necessarily a creed ;
and I observe that, while within the limits of the church many
persons have poured the severest sarcasm on this word, every
church on earth worthy of the name has a creed, and to a greater
or less extent holds to its creed and loves its creed. To be sure
there are creeds and creeds. Men have built around the great
citadel of revelation certain out-works of theology which may be
mere rubbish and worse than rubbish ; and it is well for the
citadel itself that the enemies of Christianity should destroy
these. A great deal of superserviceable zeal has been exercised
in trying to defend that citadel. It needs no defense except the
godly lives of men who illustrate the power and the essential
truth of the Christianity which Jesus taught and which he died
to found.
To show exactly what we mean by theological rubbish we
need not go to the Mother of Abominations, and point to the
shackles which she has bound upon the minds of millions of men.
You can find ample illustration a great deal nearer home than
that. The Athanasian creed, worthy of all praise in many
regards, to be held in everlasting respect for its profound teach-
Zhe Faith, Ascertainable and Verifiable. 7
ing of the incarnation of Jesus Christ and concerning the Holy
Trinity, yet illustrates what I now say. After setting forth these
fathomless mysteries in most elaborate and metaphysical state-
ments, which very few people, not more than one man in a
hundred of the philosophers and divines of the world can pos-
sibly understand, it says “This is the Catholic faith ; which faith,
except every one doth keep whole and undefiled without doubt
he shall perish everlastingly.” Now, I never read that but what
I think of the old lady who sat on the front seat at the funeral of
Jabez Bunting ; and when Dr. Dixon, with the too customary
extravagance of lamentation on such occasions, mournfully said
“Alas, alas, there are no more such men left,” the old lady looked
up with a smile and said, “Thank God, that's a lie.” I would
not use the same words ; but yet as I read the Athanasian creed,
and consider its terrific comminations, I have in my heart the
same feeling. And I do not wonder that the Protestant Episcopal
Church in this country at its organization definitely and perman-
ently refused to adopt the Athanasian creed ; nor that the Church
of England Quarterly says concerning it, “Every time that creed
is read the officiating minister is solemnly enunciating that which
neither he nor any of his hearers believes.” -
And yet the faith is ascertainable and verifiable. God has
put it into the world, and there is somewhat to be found some
where to which no thoughtful Christian man can take exception
as being the faith, the very truth of God. . Before I pass on let
me remind you of the other two terms I used besides the treas-
ure;—the casket and the custodian. The casket, what is it? It
is that which contains the treasure. The treasure, what is it?
It is the essential truth on which a man must rest in order to his
salvation. Imagine a diamond, the largest and most brilliant
ever created, and imagine also that it is a miraculous diamond in
this respect, that it is a fountain of light, not merely reflecting
the light of the sun, but itself a fountain of quenchless radiance.
Imagine it in a vase of alabaster, and so pouring forth its blaz-.
ing luster as to make the whole vase pulsate and palpitate with
light. Such is “the faith ” within “the word.” The custodian
is the Church, the everlasting succession of Christ's true, living,
human witnesses, who first received this truth from God. The
truth was delivered, not invented by man, not reasoned out by
8 - The Faith Once for All.
man's intellect ; delivered, handed by God to man ; delivered
once for all. That is what hapax means, once for all. Read your
new version and you will find it is “Once for all delivered.”
Delivered in its completeness. The same word is used in another
text that will help us to understand this. “It is appointed unto
man once to die: ” hapax once, and only once. Such is the divine
intent of this word.
Now, I beg you to fasten your thoughts on these three state-
ments I have just now made ; and let us see whether they do not
justify the declaration that the faith is ascertainable and verifiable
—nay, is ascertained and verified. And first, I say, this faith is
delivered, that is, given by God to men ; in part, in large part, by
God the Son ; and then the remainder, in its absolute complete-
ness, by God the Holy Ghost. Both these statements I get from
the words of God the Son. When He was among men. He taught
them ; He taught them largely, richly and abundantly ; and yet
long after he had uttered the sermon on the Mount, long after he
had uttered most of his parables—nay, all his parables—long
after he had wrought all his miracles and had uttered those great
discourses of which John gives the record, and John alone; he
came to his valedictory address, and in that He said—I beg you
to mark the words—“I have many things to say unto you but ye
cannot bear them now.” “To them also he showed himself
alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of
them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the
Kingdom of God.” Still the revelation was incomplete ; for he
had explicitly told them, “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. He shall glorify me : for
he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.”
This explains the saying of one of the evangelists who had
written one of the richest of the gospels, when he comes to write
another book ; namely, the book of the Acts of the Apostles:
in opening which he uses these words, “The former treatise have
I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to
teach.” The Gospel of St. Luke is only the beginning of the
biography of Jesus Christ, and so it is with all the four Gospels.
Christ had only begun his career on earth when he disappeared
Complete in the Holy Scriptures. 9
from the eyes of men. There might be more accurate titles to
several of the books of the New Testament. It would be more
correct to call the fifth book of the New Testament, “The Acts
of the Lord Jesus Christ by his Apostles,” and the sixth, “The
Epistle of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Romans by the pen of
Paul;” and the last, “The Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ
to the world through the soul of John.” I predicate this upon
His own statement “I have many other things to tell you but ye
cannot bear them now. The Holy Ghost will teach them to
you.” And through evangelists—apostles, by the Holy Ghost,
he put them into the world ; and we have them now in their
completeness.
I say in their completeness, and here comes my second
thought. Ye ought earnestly to contend for the faith once for all
delivered unto the saints. Not once alone, once for all. Take
in that sense. Any Greek professor will tell you that is the only
sense in which hapax is used. The eighteen hundred years since
the record was complete have been very busy in the history of
the human mind—the busiest years it has ever had. The world
has had a magnificent out-march and development in matters
social, political, scientific and philosophical ; years which in
some aspects of them could never be repeated if it should stand
ten thousand years longer. Every generation has climbed up on
the shoulders of all the generations that have gone before, and
has peered out restlessly with the whole power of the human in-
tellect and the full determination of the human will into the re-
gions of matter and of force and of mind. Wonderful discover-
ies and sublime advances have been made. But I want you to
mark this statement: Since John laid down his pen the whole
thinking of the whole world has not added the dot of an i nor the
cross of a t to the moral and religious teaching found in the New
Testament. Men talk about the Pauline theology and the Johan-
nean theology. Why, if one of those old apostles could stand
forth before the world to-day, and hear such adjectives framed
upon his name, he would indignantly disclaim being anything
but just a receiver and transmitter of the faith delivered by God
to man. Simply that ; no more. Did not Paul say to the Gal-
atians, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that
called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which
10 7%e Faith Once for All.
is not another P” And did he not charge them to curse any
apostle or any angel who should preach to them any other gos-
pel than that which they had heard P Did he not say to them
“I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of
me is not after man : for I neither received it of man, neither
was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ?” John
began the last book of the Bible with these expressive words,
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to
shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass ;
and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John.”
And at its close he uttered a terrific commination against any
man who shall add to or take away from “the words of the
book of this prophecy.”
This treasure in its casket was “delivered to the saints.”
That is the third thing on which I wish to now fasten your at-
tention. It was delivered to the saints, to the holy ones, to
Christian believers, as history clearly shows. It was delivered
to an organized body of Christian believers; and the Church
then at the outset was declared by Jesus Christ's apostle to be
“The pillar and ground of the truth.” Jesus said before he left
this world “Upon this rock I will build my church ; and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” A scheme so com-
prehensive, so vast and so expensive as that which the great God
made for the salvation of this fallen world was not to be left to
any mischance nor to possible failure by any opposition of men
or demons; and so just before He ascended the blessed Savior
said, “Go ye into all the world ; ” his irrepealable marching
order ; “Go ye into all the world ; ”—Blessed command For
it carries with it the potency of a divine prophecy sure to be ful-
filled. “Go teach all nations: ”—There will always be some-
body to go, else Christ would never have uttered that command.
And did he not flank the great commission by a declaration of
His own almightiness, and of his own perpetual presence P
“Go, teach all nations.” Before it, “All power is given unto
me in Heaven and in earth.” Wherefore “Go ye.” After it,
“Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” It
will be done, beloved.
We are ready now to verify the faith. We may do it very
much as you would find the source of a river. Keep the central
7%e Faith—the Apostles' Creed. 11
current and go up until you reach the fountain. On either hand
you will leave tributary streams pouring in on either side, which
are no essential part of the river. And so as you trace back this
stream of Christian belief to the earliest times you will leave the
inventions of men which have been surplusage. You have to go
back only seventeen years to find the first of these side streams,
which you may quickly pass. The Infallibility of the Pope was
decreed in 1870. That is no part of the faith once delivered to
the saints, of course. We know that is one of the muddy
streams that pour in from the swamps of men's thinking. The
dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary dates
back only to 1854; Purgatory, to the Council of Trent in 1563;
the denial of the communion cup to the laity, to the Council of
Constance in 1414. These are facts of history, just as verifiable
as the death of Julius Caesar or the birth of George Washington.
Transubstantiation, to the Lateran Council in 1216. In the 12th
century five of the seven sacraments of the Church of Rome
disappear, and only the two ordained by Christ himself remain.
The supremacy of the Pope is left behind in the 6th century.
In the first five centuries no formal additions were made to
the common faith. That faith was then, in the great essentials
of it, exactly what the consenting faith of the great mass of the
Christian Church is to-day. It was handed down to us in a creed
which has maintained its present perfected form, without the va-
riation of a word, since the year 5oo ; and which in its Greek
and Latin forms with but very slight variations dates 150 years
further back ; and in its every separate declaration it was on the
lips of the Christian Church from the very time of the apostles.
It is therefore fitly termed “The Apostles' Creed.” Through the
first five centuries that holy stream was flowing. It is flowing to-
day. What intelligent Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian,
Baptist, or member of the Roman Catholic Church, or of the Greek
Church, cannot sincerely join in swelling that sublime chorus of
faith, which in unbroken cadence and ever-augmenting volume,
has been ascending to the ear of the Eternal from so many
lands, through so many centuries, “I believe in God the Father
Almighty, maker of heaven and earth ; and in Jesus Christ His
only son, our Lord ; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was cru-
&
12 The Faith Once for All.
cified, dead and buried ; the third day he rose from the dead ;
he ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God
the Father Almighty ; from thence he shall come to judge the
quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the Holy
Catholic Church, the communion of saints; the forgiveness of
sins; the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”
Where did that symbol come from, and where did that faith
come from ? We have traced the stream, dropping off the side
tributaries, throughout all the Christian centuries.
I submit that we may expect, in view of the history I have
thus rapidly outlined, to find a concensus of Christian belief and
Christian Scriptures and a Christian Church somewhere appear-
ing in the world all together. In the year 750 of Rome there
were neither. In the year 850 of Rome there were all. In that
century the Church emerged, the faith was given, was enshrined
in the Word, and the Christian Church was raised around it, and
the three have come down together from then till now. A few
weeks ago I sat beside the famous Silver Spring in Florida. It
is the head of a large branch of the Oklawaha River. Twenty
steam-boats might float on it at once. No rill runs into it on
any side. As you lean over the prow of your boat you see the
gleaming limestone of a vast crystal bowl 74 feet below, and im-
mense subterranean torrents bursting forth. In the years be-
tween 750 and 850 of Rome the Silver Spring of Christianity
burst forth. It is flowing to-day. ,
“Flow, wondrous stream, with glory crowned;
Flow on to earth’s remotest bound,
And bear us on thy shining wave
To Him who all thy virtues gave.”
II. It remains in my plan of discourse briefly to state and
unfold THE DUTY OF CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH once for all
delivered to the saints; and that for three reasons which occur
to me. -
I. The first is this : It is sure to be contended against. Christ
is “ the Prince of Peace,” but he is also “a man of war.” He
“came not to bring peace on earth but a sword.” I know the
advent angels sang “Peace on earth,” but that means peace
through conquest; peace in the hearts of conquered rebels when
they become loyal subjects. Christ’s own track to His throne
7%e Faith Defined by Opposition. 13
lay through thorns and blood. The truth is sure to be contended
against. But if any young minister here before me gathers from
this a sense of discomfort ; rather let it confirm his faith.
Heretics were divinely predicted ; therefore they are credentials
of the faith. If there were no heretics we should know that we
were wrong, and would be alarmed. They have existed in all
ages of the Christian Church, and the apostles tell you how to
treat them. Let me remind you of the words in connection
with the text: “For there are certain men crept in unawares,
who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly
men, turning the grace of Our God into lasciviousness, and
denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” There-
fore, “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of
the common salvation it was needful for me to write unto you
and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith
which was once for all delivered unto the saints.” So Paul also
notified us beforehand of this state of things to which I have just
now referred. “For the time will come when they will not en-
dure sound doctrine ; but after their own lusts shall they heap to
themselves teachers, having itching ears ; and they shall turn
away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables.”
Therefore, what? This most logical of the apostles tells you,
“I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ,
who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and
His kingdom ; preach the Word ; be instant in season, out of
season ; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and
doctrine.” -
The very form in which we find some great doctrines stated
in the Bible was determined by the heresies in the early church.
I will give you two examples which show God’s method in deal-
ing with heresy. In the Church at Corinth there sprang up a
heresy concerning the resurrection of the dead. Many denied
that there would be any resurrection of the dead at all. Where-
upon God turned loose upon the church and upon the world the
greatest man He had ever made, one of the mightiest logicians,
and also one of the grandest poets. Do not tell me about St.
Paul being simply a man of logic. He had a heart of flame, as
well as a clear, cold engine of logic in his head ; and even his
brain took fire now and then, as it did in this record which he
14 The Faith Once for All.
has given to the church for all time on, this question of the
resurrection. He gives it in the 15th of First Corinthians in a
glowing strain of logic grander than the most magnificent poem ;
and millions of Christian people have bent over their precious
dead in meek submission or with feelings of holy triumph be-
cause the risen Christ inspired Paul to write that pean of victory.
Then again, there arose in the Church at Galatia a controversy
concerning the relations of law and grace,—a very profound sub-
ject, I know. It involved a heresy touching the necessity of
circumcision. Again this mighty man of logic leaped into the
arena, “withstood Peter to the face because he was to be
blamed,” accused Peter and Barnabas of dissembling about this
matter of circumcision, and ended the controversy with that lofty
pean, which was not only the termination of a mighty logical
battle but also a shout of triumph for you and me and millions
more :—“I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet
not I, but Christ liveth in me ; and the life which I now live in
the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me
and gave Himself for me.” \ .
2. We should contend for the faith for yet another reason.
It is worth contending for. It destroyed the old polytheistic
civilization. It changed the face of the world. It brought in a
new and better era for the race of man. It emancipated the
mind. You may say these are vast claims. Indeed they are.
Look back eighteen hundred years to what the world was. Read
“ the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.” Gibbon writes.
of “a sinking world.” I use his phrase. There was no promise
of a noble future for the race. The home, as we conceive it,
was not. The marriage tie had no sacredness. Man as man had
no rights, and the individual was sunk in the State. The
emperor, though he might be a very monster, was deified when
he died. Power, power was the one idea of ancient Rome. A
modern French painter has caught the idea and represented it
with wonderful fidelity. I mean Gerome ; whose canvas shows us
the Coliseum with its eighty thousand spectators hungering for
the sight of cruelty. There are the emperor, the patrician, the
plebeian and the vestal virgins. The gladiatorial combat has
proceeded, until the wretched victim has fallen at the feet of his
more brawny or fortunate conqueror, who has placed his foot
Worth our zºhile to contend for it. 15
{}
upon the victim's neck with his sword half raised to give him
the stroke of death ; but as in duty bound, he turns his eyes to
the vestal virgins to see whether the turning of their thumbs
shall say “Let him live,” or “Let him die.” They turn their
thumbs to say “Let him die,” and the stroke is just ready to fall.
He is weak, let him die. He has no power. He is contempt-
ible, let him die. So said the vestal virgins, and so said ancient
Rome.
It was not far from that very time that a plain, homely man,
“in bodily presence weak, and in speech contemptible,” (so his
enemies said,) wrote a letter to some people in Rome and said
“I am ready so much as in me lies to preach the Gospel to you
which are at Rome also ; for it is power.” Here is power against
power. It is the power of God against the power of man. It
is “the power of God unto salvation ” as against man’s power of
destruction. It is the power of God unto salvation “unto everyone
that believeth.” Here is hope for the individual man. How this
levels humanity not down but up. In the old civilization there was
no redeeming power. It was rotten to the core, it must sink and
perish. But thank God for “the faith once for all delivered to
the saints.” Jesus Christ brought in redeeming elements. What
were they P. The truths of man’s accountability, salvability, im-
mortality, resurrection, and eternal union with the Great God
through Jesus Christ. New elements these, of everlasting and
transforming power. There was not a single one of them in the
old civilization. Jesus Christ brought into the world inspirations
and superhuman forces which turned the world on its hinges and
gave mankind a new start in the possibilities of life eternal. So
I say “the faith ” is worth contending for.
3. For yet another reason let us contend for the faith. It
is zvorth our while to contend for it. God’s great way of making
His truth mighty is by putting that truth into living men. God’s
great way of getting acceptance for His gospel is by incarnating
that gospel. His way of making Himself known to the world
was by incarnating Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ. His
way of getting for his truth currency in the world is by putting
it into the mouths and lives of men with hot hearts, making their
hot hearts hotter by means of it, and so thrusting it before the
unbelieving multitude. It is wonderful how any truth once
16 7%e Faith Once for All.
lodged in a human soul will enlarge and ennoble that soul. Many
a scientific thought without any moral aspect has lifted up a man
into nobler thinking, and more earnest working and a higher
grade of living. Thoughts essentially moral and religious, have
still higher developing power.
Take the truth of salvation by faith, witnessed by the Holy
Ghost. It would seem as though there ought never to have been
any serious doubts about that. Enoch “had this testimony,
that he pleased God.” David sang songs of triumph as a
forgiven sinner; and Paul shouted his victory all the way
along. John got so full of the glory of the great Salvation, lean.
ing on the breast of the Blessed Redeemer and following his
footsteps, that you forgot long ago that John ever was a Son of
Thunder. You think of him as the sweetest, meekest and
loveliest of men but such he was not at first. Christ transformed
John and filled him with a clear knowledge of the great salvation
of which he speaks with such emphatic reiteration in his first
epistle. That Epistle is only four pages long : you can read it
through in fifteen minutes. In that brief space he says nineteen
times, “we know God,” and as though that did not satisfy him
he once says, “We do know that we know Him.” And then in
thirty-two other places in the same epistle he says the same thing
in other words, making fifty-one substantive declarations in one
short letter that we are consciously saved through Jesus Christ.
One hundred and eighty years ago you could not have
found a thousand men in all England who would have said that
they knew their sins forgiven. God wanted to get currency
for this truth in the world. This part of the faith once delivered
to the saints must have a new out-march ; and how P Into a
quiet town, with shades more beautiful than these on this charm-
ing lake-shore, to the venerable University of Oxford comes a
son of a stern old English rector. He gets through his collegi-
ate course with high credit but has a burning desire to know
more about God and about personal religion. He is a highly
educated and brilliant scholar, with a large mind ; and is a con-
secrated and even slavish servant of God. All the years from
the age of 20 to 35 was this truth burning in his bosom, that
there is something better in christian experience than he has
ever learned ; that a man must be justified and sanctified also,
A Plea for Theology. 1?
but justified first ; that there is to be found out some way of
conscious and rejoicing access to the eternal God, to the feet
and heart of the King, and that King the Saviour. For many
years he walked up and down those shades studying the Bible
and abounding in good works; and then hastened across the
Ocean to convert the Indians. He came back confused and
puzzled. What, with the Bible open before him, and with the
history of the church at his back P Yes. After all this long
and painstaking search he wrote “I went to America to convert
Indians, but who shall convert me P” But the fulness of time
came and the power of God fell upon him. His heart was
“strangely warmed.” Methodism was then born ; and therefore
we are here to-day. But for those fifteen years of ‘struggle until
this truth possessed that one man, Methodism would never have
been. So I say it is worth our while to contend for the faith
Once delivered to the saints. f
The theme is too large and my time is too short. But I must
say a few words of practical application.
1. I plead for a new devotion to the study of theology. I saw
in the paper a few days ago a statement that Dr. Fairbairn, the
able non-conformist professor of theology in Oxford University
has recently published an article in the Contemporary Review
pleading for “The Study of Theology as an Academic Disci-
pline ;” I have not seen the article, but I say Amen to the title
of it. I would like to know by what process of reason the man
who gets a little chemistry, a very little botany, more Latin and
less German, a little French and some Greek, with a smattering
of philosophy, is considered a liberally educated man ; when he
does not know anything about the grandest of all sciences, the-
ology. I hope for the time, I plead to-day for the time when, in
every College and in every University the science of theology
shall be taught, and no young man shall be permitted to gradu-
ate if he is ignorant of that noblest science.
I plead also for better opportunities for the study of theolo-
gy by theological scholars ; —I mean by these hard-working,
noble men, who are our professors of theology. We must pro-
vide such endowments for this and similar institutions and such
increase of the teaching force that our ablest and best-taught
18 7%e Faith Once for All.
men shall have leisure for yet profounder and more fruitful study
of theology and for brilliant and able authorship. Methodism
owes a debt to America and to the world which she has not fully
paid, a debt of high authorship in Arminian theology. It must
be paid in pure gold. The payment is well begun. We have
the bullion and the mints ; oh for more coin.
I plead for the study of theology by pastors. Some young
pastors, after they have gone over the rudiments which are taught
in the theological schools, think themselves fairly equipped for
making sermons if they dabble a little in philosophy, a little in
science and a little in theology. Young men, study theology,
steep your minds in the great themes of the great theologians,
in the treatises and sermons which are packed full of the teach-
ing of God concerning “the faith ;” and be able to give a reason
for the hope that is within you.
I plead for the study of theology in the Sunday Schools.
You may laugh at catechisms as much as you please. But let
me tell you that one of the most brilliant, learned, versatile and
eloquent men that American Methodism has produced, John
McClintock, used to plead often and earnestly for the teaching
of the catechism to all children in the home and in the Sunday
School. If you do not like the catechism, go to work and make
a better one, but let the children learn the catechism. For some
years it was quite my habit on Sunday afternoons to get my wife
and children together, and have them recite with me the cate-
chism of the Methodist Church ; and I believe that such a
practice furnishes one of the strong foundations of faith for our
Christian children.
2. May one of the youngest of the General Superintend-
ents of our beloved Zion, who within the past thirteen
months has felt the pulse and studied the creed of the
church in five of its Conferences in Europe and in nine in this
country, venture to speak a word more personal to these venera-
ble men, at whose feet I would be glad to sit, the professors in
this theological school P I beg you, brethren, teach these young
men thoroughly to understand and “earnestly contend for the
faith once for all delivered to the saints.” Disabuse them of the
specious but silly fallacy couched in the current phrase so glib-
ly spoken by every callow and shallow heretic about every man
7%e Heart makes the Theologian. 19
“doing his own thinking.” Of course they will need for some
years to do the hardest thinking they are capable of, in order to
get a tolerable comprehension of the great central truths of the
Bible as formulated in all orthodox creeds. Bid them listen to
Mr. Gladstone, and read his two very striking essays on the proper
“Influence of Authority in matters of Religion.” As in the law
the young practitioner is perpetually looking for precedents, and
as the young physician busies himself in finding out the record
of actual cases and of the treatment of them by the masters of
the healing art, so Mr. Gladstone says that the young clergyman
owes it not only to the church, but to his own good sense and
sober reason, to receive the faith once delivered to the saints, to
cling to it and not to depart from it unless protracted and prayer-
ful study compels reluctant dissent.
Remember always that “it is the heart that makes the the-
ologian;” that the truth taught here must go through the brain
into the hearts of these young men. I wish that we might have
in Boston, in Evanston, in Madison and in every one of our
theological schools a revival of religion every year ; a genuine
revival in which the young men who are in training to be teach.
ers of the church might go very low in humble prayer and con-
fession before God, and get a mighty baptism which shall cause
the deepest truths of personal experience to go into their very
souls and bring them close to the Saviour's feet.
Give us also Methodist preachers. We are not bigots; we
will gladly extend the shelter of these lovely shades over all who
come to us, provided their hearts are right. But we desire to
send out true and earnest soldiers of the Cross, sanctified by the
power of the Holy Ghost, washed in the Blood that cleanseth
from all sin, that they may go out into the world and contend in
blood earnest for “the faith once for all delivered to the saints.”
I will say but one other word, though I would be glad to
say many. Avoid the half-deserved criticism laid at the door of
some theological institutions, that of destroying individuality,
and training all students after one pattern. If a lion comes
here, do not shear his mane, pare his claws, draw his teeth nor
still his roar; but cultivate him, develop him. By all means
develop him, but let it be on leonine principles; and when you
turn him out, turn him loose upon the world a lion still. See to
20 g 7%e Faith Once for All. t;
it of course that his roar be true, and that the fire in his eye be
holy, and that he shall go out in the fear of God to use his voice
and teeth and claws. See to it also above all else that his heart
shall beat responsive to the heart of the Lion of the Tribe of
Judah. The Church of God needs in her pulpits no more of that
class of which there are too many already, of which one is too
many ;—nice little, clipped, perfumed, attitudinizing, platitudiniz-
ing, ecclesiastical dudes :-but Oh she wants from Maine to Cali-
fornia, in every State and in every hamlet and in all lands, an
ever-multiplying race of brawny, brainy, developed, individu-
alized, consecrated, manly, godly men in her pulpits. Let my
last word be this ; above all things God help you to teach your
students “earnestly to contend for the faith once for all delivered
to the saints.”

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
O8957 3342
3 9015