SERMONS
PREACHED IN
MEMORIAL CHURCH, BALTIMORE,
BY
REV. OCTAVIUS PERINCHIEF.
EDITEDI BY
CHARLES LANMAN.
NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON & CO.
1870.








INTRODUCTORY CORRESPONDENCE.
BALTIMORE, June 15, 1870.
MY DEAR SIR:
It is known to you that the Rev. Octavius Perinchief became the Rector of "Memorial Church," of this
city, last autumn.  When he accepted the call, it was
believed his health was permanently restored; but a
few months of ardent devotion to his duties, developed
too plainly the unwelcome truth, that he was physically
unequal to the work involved in his charge. The congregation, which, under his brief ministry, had largely
increased, would gladly have made any sacrifice to retain him, under an arrangement by which his preaching
might alone have been enjoyed. But his sense of duty
precluded the consummation of any such arrangement;
hence, a separation became an inevitable result.
Only those who have enjoyed his ministry, can realize the loss sustained by the separation. Realizing this,
there exists on the part of our congregation, an earnest
desire to possess, in permanent form, the treasures of
thought and feeling, which distinguish his pulpit discourses.
Knowing your intimate relations with Mr. Perinchief




4           INTRODUCTORY CORRESPONDENCE.
as a literary friend, and the fact that you edited a volume of his Sermons, delivered in Georgetown, D. C., it
has occurred to me, to solicit your aid in obtaining his
consent to the publication of an edition of his Baltimore
Sermons.  By doing this, you will not only gratify a
large number of his friends and admirers, but confer a
lasting benefit upon all into whose hands they may
chance to fall. I venture to hope that my suggestion
may have your favorable consideration.
Your obt. servant,
JOHN S. REESE.
CHARLES LANMAN, ESQ.,
Etc., etc.
GEORGETOWN, D. C., June 25, 1870.
MY DEAR SIR:
I duly received your letter, and rejoice to inform you
that I have corresponded with Mr. Perinchief, and he
consents to the publication of another volume of his
Sermons.  He has placed a collection in my hands, and
a portion of them will at once be given to the printer.
As was the case when I looked over the Georgetown
Sermons, it has puzzled me to select, where all were
so full of soul-saving wisdom, but I have rather given
preference to the more practical productions. As I recall the effect of his preaching, founded alone upon the
life and death of the Infinite Redeemer, in the several




INTRODUCTORY CORRESPONDENCE.            5
parishes where he has labored, I can only the more
deeply regret that, under a wise Providence, he could
not have been blessed with an ample store of physical
health.
In justice to Mr. Perinchief, I ought to add, that he
will not be able to revise the Sermons, nor examine the
proofs, on account of his removal to the country parish
of Bridgeport, on the river Schuylkill, so that the responsibility of seeing them correctly printed will necessarily rest with me. But I shall do my best. I congratulate the good people of Memorial Church on the
prospect of having a new volume of his Sermons; and
I can assure you that their great kindness to Mr. Perinchief has taken a very firm hold upon his heart.
With high regard,
Yours very truly,
CHARLES LANMAN.
JOHN S. REESE, ESQ.,
Baltimore, Maryland.








CONTENTS.
PAGE
THE   SPIRIT   ELEMENTS..............................................                                9
SELF-CONTROL..............................................   25
TRAINING   CHILDREN...................................................   37
THE  UPLIFTING   OF  CHRIST..........................................    53
WHAT  IS  PRAYER?....................................................   67
THE   FRUITS  OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS........................   82
THE  VICTORY   OVER   SIN.........................................   94
TRUTH.....................................................................  108
PERCEPTION   OF  TRUTH............................................ 125
THE   TRINITY....................................                                                138
PROVIDENCE....................................................  152
THE  PRODIGAL  SON-NO. I.........................................  167
THE   PRODIGAL   SON-No. II........................... 182
THE   PRODIGAL  SON-NO. III....................................... 197
THE   PRODIGAL   SON-NO. IV....................................... 208
EPIPHANY................................................... 222
THE   DIVINE   LOVE.....................................................  237
THE SPIRIT ABOVE THE LETTER......................... 253
RENOUNCING  THE  WORLD............................................ 267
LOVE  ACTING  IN   FAITH............................................ 283
CONSECRATION   TO   GOD........................................... 298
THE  LONG   HEREAFTER............................................. 312








SERMONS.
TIIE  SPIRIT-ELEMENTS.
MATTHEW 22: 37, 38.-Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
THE times in which the Saviour lived, were times
very similar to our own.  Perhaps this is the same
thing as saying that all times are very much alike.
Still, there are times in which the world reaches certain
special crises, and these crises bring into clearer view
prominent resemblances. That age, like ours, was an
age of great mental activity, and that means universal
activity.  It was an age of earnest inquiry, except
where it was thought there was no need of inquiry, and
that was where the power of a wise inquiry was lostwhere everything was settled, as among the Jewish
doctors.
Our text occurs in a chapter which brings before us
one of those battle-days of Christ-those fearful encounters in which all darkness ran point-blank against
all light. No sooner is one charge repulsed than another begins.  "When the Pharisees heard that the




10                     SERMONS.
Sadducees were put to silence, they were gathered to=
gether," entrenched behind a narrow, one-sided creedconfident of their own strength-trusting in the power
of a cold, dim, misguided reason-a lawyer, a man
versed in the letter of Scripture, asks Christ which is
the "great commandment in the law?"  The Saviour,
quoting partly from Deuteronomy, (the lawyer's own
law-book,) replies: "' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind. This is the first and great commandment."
I wish to take these words of our Master to-day and
make them, by God's blessing, the occasion to us of a
wider and deeper comprehension of our duty toward
ourselves and toward God; or, in other words, of a better understanding and use of time and this present life,
preparatory to eternity and eternal life.
It was no foolish question which the Jew asked, although he might have asked it foolishly: "What is the
first and great commandment?"-What is the grand
essential of religion? Fully to answer that is to answer- Wb-t is God? what is man? what is life?  The
Saviour does so respond as in His wonderful wisdom to
answer all these.  The wonderfulness of the answer
will appear only to those of us who have reflected much
upon the poverty of human language in expressing any
soul-verities. In the presence of great soul-experience
we are struck dumb.  Language is for the earth; for
gross and outward things.  When we come to apply it
to soul-vision, we have to use the same word for many
different things. The thoughtless cannot get beyond
the outward, and so the letter often killeth.  The
thoughtful only understand, because they ar tthoughtful; because they are in the spirit, which giveth life.




THE SPIRIT-ELEMENTS.             11
We are all familiar with this creature we call man;
but perhaps, if we were asked what man is, no two of
us would give precisely the same definition. If a being
from another world, who knew not man, were here today seeking information, under all our answers he would
grow confused, and perhaps conclude we did not ourselves know what man is. In some senses man means
the race-then it means man and woman.  Again, it
means a human being of the male sex only. Then man
means an animal; he is a biped; erect; he laughs.
Again, he is an intellectual, social animal-he is a neighbor, an artizan, a tradesman, a scholar. Again, man
has a soul; he knows there is such a thing as right and
wrong. In short, a book could not exhaust all that is
contained under that term " man." So with the term
soul.  What is soul?  Five thousand years have been
trying to tell us, and we do not yet know. You perceive, anything we look upon is not a simple existence,
but a complex existence.  Any term we use expresses,
according to the grasp of the mind that employs it. All
terms at first come from things outward. It is only as
man advances he is able to attach deeper and spiritual
meanings.  Now in religious matters and for religious
purposes, we speak of man as body and soul; or spirit
as mortal and immortal.
But the spirit of man like everything else is complex.
The Saviour, in the text, gives us the three constituent
elements of the spirit-the three-fold function or power
called spirit-the trinity, which makes the spirit-unity.
These three-" the heart, the soul, the mind" —embrace
the perfect spirit.  They are the spirit-not any one
merely, but all together-and these, under equal and




12                    SERMONS.
harmonious development, will lead us to, or produce in
us. a true service of God, this very love which is life.
You perceive, first of all, these three things constitute
or characterize man.  Man is an animal; that is true,
but not merely that, nor mainly that; he has a nature
in addition to that-something which lifts him  out of
the animal level into the plane of intellect, or spirit.
Man is a loving being, or a being with heart. He is a
being distinguishing right front wrong, or a being with
soul. He is a reasoning being, or a being with mind.
Now, unfortunately, we separate these elements-we
divide the spirit, and view one part as the whole; we
aim at developing one part without the other; we act
with extreme unreason, and therefore come to disappointment.  Suppose the growth of the body were left
to an ignorant parent. The body is also a complexity.
There is leg and arm-there is eye and ear-there are
heart and lungs.  One or other of these would appear
supremely important, according to the view  of the
parent.  Imagine the arm  brought to its full development on the body of a babe.  What would it be good for?
Imagine a head of full size, to be supplied with blood
from an infant's lungs.  Do you see how every unity
must be indeed a unity-how a failure in one part is a
failure in every part?  How  there must be uniform
growth; or partial growth, but little better than none
at all?  This is what we forget in religion.  The spirit
also is a unit-one part dependent upon all the rest.
We, however, in speaking of love, connect it exclusively
with the heart, supposing if a man exercise some sort of
an affection toward God, he is religious, forgetting that
the heart can only be safely and fully active, as it responds in its proportions to soul and mind.




THE SPIRIT-ELEMENTS.              13
The term  "heart " is used to express certain facts
which are matters of experience.  We have an affectional, emotional element within us, something that
yearns, and clings, and endures-something which feels
relieved in the simple exercise of feeling. In the original language, I think, the term is often used for consciousness-the inner self. The child feels it toward the
parent; the parent feels it toward the child; it is instinctive, involuntary. Under the influences of the
Holy Ghost, who dwells with every man, through the
atonement of Christ, men feel this toward God, and God
exercises it toward men. It is this which makes a religion a fact in all lands. In the order of nature heart
everywhere comes first.  We find it in birds toward
their young, and in lower animals where there is no
higher instinct. We find it in uncivilized man, as in the
Indians; they have a sense of God and of his goodness,
but no moral code.  It is as we come up to half-civilized,
Pagan and heathen nations we get to moral codes, and
last of all we come to real mind in what is called civilization.  So in each individual.  The little child loves;
it afterwards begins to discover between right and
wrong, and finally to think. If you say belief comes
first, inasmuch as every nation has a belief or creed, the
offspring of mind, I should say, no, not so much belief
or creed as just this unquestioning acceptance of fact:
there is a God.  Just as the child accepts the parent
and loves, asking nothing about it, or so far as it asks,
asking only according to its general development. It
is this heart-element out of which men feel there is a
God; feel He is pure and holy; feel He ought to be
worshiped; feel they should be pure and holy, and
through this in development reach the perception that




14                   SERMONS.
they are impure and unholy.  You observe, it does not
teach a man what is right nor what is wrong. The Indian indulges revenge, and as men always do, projects
his own being upon God, and judges Him by that, or
ascribes that being to Him-not having mind-culture
enough to see, that revenge in God would be impossible. Hence creeds are always changing, and feeling is
modified according to general culture.  Ieart is simply
feeling. Left to this alone, the mother gives her child
just what it should never have, and keeps from it just
what it ought to have. Left to this alone, the devotee
will throw himself beneath the wheels of a Juggernaut,
with as much devotion as a martyr will go to the stake.
Left to this alone, all sorts of absurdities and extravagancies are indulged in the name of religion; all sorts
of creeds are sustained.  Sometimes in viewing life
under these manifestations, men tell you "see what
belief will do;" "what men believe;" but you perceive
these things are not out of ANY BELIEF. They are out
of all real unbelief. It is abandonment of two-thirds of
their being. It is a long arm swinging upon an infant
body. It is a heart over which presides no brain. Still
it is an element-it is the first element-an essential
element of spirit.  Wherever it is certainly dormant, the
man is certainly dead. It must be awakened. It is the
first part of the spirit to awake, but when once it is
awakened, we should not rest content with simply that.
Thus the object of the Gospel is not simply to converta thing we often forget, but to build man up, build the
race up, in true God-likeness-into the full restoration
of the God-image, once obliterated by sin.
We must go on to the development of soul.  This
word soul, while often used as a synonym for the whole




THE SPIRIT-ELEMENTS.             15
spirit-heart and soul and mind-is here used as expressive of only one part, what we often distinctively call,
the moral part of man. This function of the spirit it is
which wills, which makes the you or the me, which
determines what we call character, fixes our place as
honorable or dishonorable, useful or useless-in short,
moral or immoral.  You see the spirit is a threesided prism; you never turn it round and look at the
second side.  You see, you come now to where, when
a man claims to be religious, other men hold him up and
ask whether his religion makes him honest.  Soul is
that faculty by which we grasp moral obligation. We
sometimes call it the " moral sense." It distinguishes
for us the right or the wrong.  Because this is part of
the spirit, its existence is co-extensive with heart and
mind, but it is later in development. For the want of
its proper culture we have so many wrong things in religious history. It was out of the absence of this the
Jews asked Christ, why He cured a sick woman on the
Sabbath day.  It was the absence of mind which made
it true, that hearing they did not understand. It was
absence of this soul which made it true, "' that seeing
they did not perceive." It is the absence of this which
makes our religion so often more of a fear than of a joy.
People are very often afraid to do things, the right or
wrong of which they have no conception. A Romanist
will not eat a piece of meat on Friday.  A Jew would
starve, and so virtually commit suicide, before he would
eat a piece of pork, attaching right and wrong when
right and wrong do not adhere, at the same time doing
many wicked and cruel things, without ever reflecting
that they are wicked or cruel.  It is the absence of
this which  turns religion into superstition; which




16                    SERMONS.
makes us so constantly demand that everybody shall
feel as we do, act as we act. It is absence of this which
accounts for the fact, that under religious feeling or
fervor we have inquisitions and dungeons for the best
men that live, in our heart limiting soul and mind. It is
the absence of this which turns enthusiasm into fanaticism.  Fanaticism  is feeling without soul or mind, a
ship without rudder or freight, a delusive and dangerous thing. This soul, or will, or moral sense is the
second in the order of development.  You can teach
your child to love you without much teaching, but you
must labor diligently to enable him to distinguish between right and wrong.  But in proportion as you
teach him that, his love, his affection, all his emotional
being will be refined, deepened, so that the love wherewith you love your aged parent is transcendently deeper and holier than the love wherewith your little child
loves you.
But to cultivate this you must have the culture of a
higher element still: you must bring in the mind. Now
you know what the mind is.  We sometimes call it reason; sometimes intellect. It is that faculty which produces thought, reflection, cogitation. It is that faculty
which goes out and asks questions of all things that are:
Why they are?  What they are?  What their mutual
relations?  What their specific forces?  It is this in
your child which so often puzzles you. It is this which
in religion, upon the principle of dividing what God has
not divided, religious people and Christians as well, have
been in the habit of ignoring, denouncing. In reality it
is the grandest, if we could compare things essential, the
grandest faculty man has. It is the controlling faculty.
It lifts man above the child, above the savage, above




THE SPIRIT-ELEMENTS.              17
uncivilization and half civilization. It is this, in Jesus
Christ,-I will not say more than anything else, but
co-equal with all the rest in Him,-against which the
gates of darkness have not been able to prevail. It is
this which gives us science, knowledge, all that lifts
human life above brute  life - that makes society,
which alone is human, a blessing, and which abounds
most, only where Jesus is; a fact which is very natural,
for a true cultivation of one part is a corresponding cultivation of every other part. Wherever this is not, uncultured man is barbarous.  Men are barbarous in proportion as it is uncultured. No religion of any high
degree can exist without it.  The Christian religion is
the best religion, because it appeals to this-gives it its
highest and freest exercise-demands its development.
Our Protestant religion is the purest and best of all
things called religion-brings all blessing, all culturethe highest civilization, because it gives this mind the
greatest scope-opportunity  for untrammeled action.
I know Christians have resisted it.  We can none of us
forget the struggle all light has had.  The Printing
Press, Chemistry, Astronomy, Geology-what a struggle! But you see it was the misfortune of the religion
which resisted it, that it was not better. Do you see
how we are unblessed, in proportion as any part of the
spirit is asleep?    Oh," we say, " those days have
gone by.  They were days of darkness."  Are we in
the full light?'The ages which resisted, while doing it
in the very name of religion, we can now see were
neither truly afectional nor truly moral. Zeal was without knowledge and morals were everywhere debaseda clear illustration in itself that we are well off only in
proportion as the spirit is evenly and co-extensively




18                    SERMONS.
developed. It must then begin to appear to you, why
Jesus lays such emphasis here.  This love-such loveis the first and great commandment.
Now we have spoken of these faculties as separateas having an order.  This is merely by accommodation.
The lines which limit the zones upon our earth, do not
divide the earth.  They are only imaginary.  So with
these distinctions we have made this morning. Most
men put mind-culture as the lowest thing in religion.
I put it as the absolutely highest thing in religion; or
rather, it is folly to put it highest or lowest.  It is coequal.  Neglect heart and you have atheism.  Neglect
soul and you have wrong and vice.  Neglect mind and
you have Rome.  Neglect one or the other, and you
lose so much of Christ. I know the illiterate believer
is better off than the gifted unbeliever. And what a
~~%% tiLt i(s that  H t   t qa t QCn omean  th_ VeasaarL t canome to
Christ.  But is it better to be all children and all peasants, or always children and always peasants?  This
mind is the last to reach a high development. It is only
now that this race is learning truly to think.  It is not
the boy, but the mature man who knows how to think.
But I say we err in making these distinctions.  Our
part can only grow as every other part grows, and
wherever you find a highly developed religious character-I mean a character which stands the analysis of
time-you find all three of them together. Take Moses,
a man of profound feeling, the author of a moral code
which has challenged the admiration of the ages-a man
of stupendous intellect. Take David, and Daniel, and
Elijah-all the prophets and seers. These three things
must stand combined, and do stand combined and coequal.  Then an intellect, without morals and a warm,




THE SPIRIT-ELEIMNTS.               19
emotional, affectional nature,-in other words, a mind
without soul and heart, is a cold, repulsive thing, with
two-thirds of itself paralyzed. A moral man, without
affection, gratitude, humility, and without brains, is the
most disgusting and helpless being in the universe. A
heart, without soul and mind, is a ranting, and tearing,
and destructive engine, beating the air-narrow in all
its aims and thoughts-re-acting, perhaps more than any
thing else, upon the merely moral man and the merely
intellectual man, and so producing what we call infidelity.  Heart and soul and mind must go together, and
then you get a being noble, exalted; a creature such
as God loves and a creature who will love God. You
get from any one only as it is aided by all the rest.  It
is the even activity of all three of these spirit-elements
which alone makes Wisdom, a word often used, especially in the Bible, for religion.  These three things will
give us true belief, true worship, and true life. We
shall be happy because wise, and happy and wise because truly religious.  We shall discharge our duty toward God and toward man, and that is the sum of the
law and the prophets.  It is these rallying around God,
striving for the good, that make love, and these three,
loving, that make religion. In them is no end of all
true blessing.
Now, I shall not say that a man who has only religious fervor is not better off than he who is indifferent
to all religion.  I shall not say that a moral man is
worse than an immoral man.  I shall not say that a
man with mind-culture is worse than an ignorant man.
Not at all.  I thank God when I find a man cultured
in either, and I feel ashamed when I find a man more
cultured in either than I am myself.  But I say this: if




20                    SERMONS.
man can be a good Christian, with little or no mindculture, he can be a great deal better Christian with
mind-culture. A ship saved without her rudder is a
good deal better than a ship sunk; but a ship saved
with her rudder is not only saved, but she is a ship. A
man of much heart, but of low morals and no mindculture, may and will enjoy God. He will find much he
can appropriate in God's blessed word. But there will
be a thousand precious things in that word he cannot
see. " With what measure ye mete it shall be measured
to you again." All I contend for is the three together.
As they are mutually dependent, so they are mutually
helpful. The man with religious fervor will have higher
morals and more mind than he would have had without
religious fervor; but let him have all three, and he is
truly a Christian.
I bring these thoughts to you to-day, brethren, because I feel, after much observation and deliberation,
that the Church is making now substantially the same
mistake she has so constantly made, in spite of all Christ
was, of all He did, of all He said. We are making the
mistake of dealing with, and cultivating only the heart,
stimulating mere feeling, creating only emotion, which
may be as often unwise as wise, from the simple fact
that we do aim  only at that.  This mistake has two
general consequences-cohsequences extremely disastrous-first, of placing religion in apparent antagonism
to science and all pure thought, which is a sin, and committed with the same feeling that inaugurated and sustained the'Inquisition,-men sincere enough, but as
unwise as they were sincere; and second, of considering
morals a matter of secondary importance. Two lines of
absolute facts grew out of these consequences-first, that




THE SPIRIT-ELEMENTS.              21
many moral and mind-cultured men are over upon the
side of infidelity-i. e., so far as they are not upon the
side of the Church; and second, the general tone of
morals even in the Christian Church-if not extremely
low-is far from being as high as it should be. The
pauper and vicious classes of society are increasing,
giving rise to problems we know not how to solve.
Yes! this mistake has other consequences. By aiming
at the heart, as the whole spirit of man, much of our
effort is thrown away, being too high for the appreciation of the masses, they needing help like that the
Saviour gave the Samaritan leper, before they can come
back and drink in the deeper and diviner things of God.
This mistake shuts us out from many fields of labormany questions of moral and social science-in isolated,
technically religious exertion, where wide and united
benevolent and truly Christian enterprise would produce
wider and happier results. Another consequence still
is, that by aiming at what we call the heart, exclusively,
Christian preaching is reduced almost exclusively to
what we call exhortation, to what appears to many, a
doleful monotony of thought, or want of thought, often
an invitation of feeling, rather than feeling itself —an
artificial sentiment, if a sentiment at all.  A wide range
of grand and highly useful subjects is kept from our
pulpits, and multitudes of cultivated men and women
are kept from our churches, giving rise to all sorts of
ecclesiastic questions, because to extreme ecclesiastic
practices, ritualism itself being only an attempt of anxious and otherwise good men to bring people to what.they call the worship of God, forgetting that while they
do it they may be crushing out two-thirds of their being.
But I bring these thoughts to you to-day because I




22                     SERMONS.
believe the Christian Church is now entering upon a
struggle, harder than any she has ever encountered.
The struggle will be fierce to the Church, not so much
from the strength outside as from the apathy and weakness inside. The battles of God have never been fought
with mere feeling. Excitement produced the crusades,
but the crusades were mere excitement.  The Christians,
in the first battles of Christianity, had merely the assertion of facts for their work.  It is true, they were
amazing facts-facts that created morals and mindfacts of which morals and mind were the great defences.
The struggles since, have been each after its kind, till
we come now to where the facts themselves are to be
explained, not merely asserted-where they are to be
applied, not to mere individuals, but to man in the mass,
to the multitudes for whom  God intended them.  The
struggle is outside the Church, not so much against old
truths as against old dead forms, against ceremony, the
make-believe truth. Indeed, the world is rather asking
for more truth-a livelier application of all truth.
Because so many in the Church rest upon their forms,
they think if the forms go, religion is gone, and when
the forms do go, many lose the faith they thought they
had.  From them that had not is taken away what they
seemed to have.  In England the struggle at present is
worse than it is with us. But here it is already thickening. Unhappily we stand so divided, each with some
little ism of his own, no part of the real faith, and really
a trifle at last. So occupied are we with this, that light
passes us by, or if it is arrested by us at all, it is arrested
by us in complaint. We often resist what we ought ta
attract, and attract what ought to be repelled.  Thus
we are defeating our own object, and the Church hinders




THE SPIRIT-ELEMENTS.             23
what the Church was designed to promote.  We do not
need anything new, except it be a renewed understanding of all that is old.  There is our weakness.  We
want a stronger grasp of the truths of Christ, and when
I speak to you about mind-culture, as I do, I do not
mean a power of hair-splitting argument-a knowledge
of all the philosophies-an elaboration of tiresome doctrine-an assertion of dogma. Not at all. That is not
the tendency of our times, nor would it be desirable
even if it were. As I have shown you, a religion which
is only philosophical is not religion; but so also a religion
which is unphilosophical is not religion.  What I mean
by mind-culture is power to think-meditation-cogitation-power to combine, eliminate, and harmonizepower to harmonize one part of Scripture with anotherpower to separate small and trivial things from eternal
and essential things-power to receive a new thought.
What I contend for, is just this that Christ tells us, the
loving God with all the heart and all the soul and all the
mind.  What I complain of is, that with a great deal of
Christian fervor, the world forces its morals upon the
Church rather than that the Church imposes high Christian morals upon the world; with a great deal of religious fervor there is a great deal of mind-unculture-a
great deal of wasted time-of wasted talent-of dwarfed
manhood.  The Bible is rich in precious thoughtJesus is infinite in far-reaching truth, which is hidden
from our eyes.
We live upon the surface. Christians support more
trifles than any class of people. What I would impress
upon you is, that your spirit is a unit. It is heart and
soul and mind, and if you are dwarfed in one you are
dwarfed in all.  You may have no time for thinking



24                   SERMONS.
you may have neglected it so long as not to know how
to think-then I would say to you, as Jesus says to us
all, "What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole
world and lose his own soul." You think that applies
to sinners-oh, my brother, it applies to you-it applies
to me. You cannot waste one hour, nor one day, nor
one faculty God has given you, except as you are to
answer for it at the bar of the eternal. You think I
make salvation hard; but did any wise man ever make
it otherwise? Do I not make it just what Jesus made
it? Let me exhort you, brethren, to dwell more with
Jesus. There is our fault, we do not live enough with
Him.  You that are young-you that are old, especially
-think of these words: " Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with
all thy mind."  Ask what they mean?  They are the
first and great commandment.  Around it all truth revolves-upon it depends all safety. Study it and practice it as you would be an heir of God and a joint heir
with Christ-as you would comprehend with all saints
what is the breadth and depth and length and heightas you would know the love of Christ which passeth
knowledge-as you would be filled with all the fullness
of God.




SELF-CONTROL.                  25
SELF-CONTROL.
ROMANS 12: 18.-If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably
with all men.
OUTSIDE the Sermon upon the Mount, it would be
difficult to find a collection of wiser, practical precepts
than those contained within this part of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans. To combine them in one character
would be to create a character of exalted excellenceto make a noble Christian manifestation. It is a chapter worthy of its place-running through these Sundays
of the Epiphany.  In all Paul's reasoning he never
forgets that we are creatures who have to deal with
common life in an ugly world.  Man is not more an
individual than he is a being for society. Indeed, the
value of a man's individuality is determined by his social relations. The man in the combinations of family,
neighborhood, commerce, expresses his manhood. Domestic, social, and civil relations are the tests of his
courage, his honor, his humanity. But for these relations the nobler qualities could hardly find expressionthe finer qualities of mercy, sympathy, benevolence,
could not exist.  But for them wisdom could not exist,
for wisdom  is not what a man knows, nor what he
thinks, but what he does, and what he is. The hermit
who never speaks, nor is spoken to, does not know
whether he has a good disposition or a bad one.  The
man who never had a trust committed to him does not
know whether he is honest or not.  The shoulder that




26                    SERMONS.
never carried a burden is very likely, for that simple
reason, to be a weak one. It is a true saying that nobody knows what he will do till he is tried. That we
may all have some knowledge of ourselves, God has set
us down in a world where trial is inevitable. This is
the meaning of life.  We may talk as we please about
crosses and sorrows and troubles; it would be impossible to attain to the very idea of the thing we call virtue
without them. In their absence, virtue itself would be
unattainable. If there were no storms and no fogs and
icebergs, a boy could take a Cunarder across the ocean.
If there were no sickness, the science of medicine and
the skill of the physician would be unknown. If houses
never burnt down, and robbers never came, and all men
were honest and honorable, some of us could be more
successful in business. If all men were purely patriotic-if there were no such thing as faction, no men
who preyed upon the vitals of the community, municipal and civil government would be easy.  If there
were no such things as cold and hunger and ignorance,
we should want no houses and clothes and food and fuel
and books. But, then, it would be difficult to tell what
would be left of life, or what that life which was left
would be worth.  Idleness would be as good as industry, and ignorance as knowledge. The truth is, nature
is built upon paradoxes.  Order is the resultant of resisting forces. Any fixed point is the center of antagonisms.  There may be a preference of agencies, but
God puts all agencies to some use.
As a social and moral being, in a world of antagonisms, there is a sense in which man cannot, and ought
not, if he could, live peaceably with all men. There is
such a thing as ignorance. There is such a thing as




SELF-CONTROL.                  27
error. There is such a thing as vice and wickedness.
They each have their high priests-their sleepless advocates. They are aggressive. Their aggression is worse
than a pestilence. To give over a struggle against them
is to give over self-existence. Moral life is granted only
on condition that we struggle for it. We can make no
treaty with ignorance and error. Vice and wickedness
in reality do not expect it of us. They instinctively
know and bow to the supremacy of right' and virtue.
The devils that confronted the Saviour always instantly
recognized Hinm, and His authority.  The evil spirits
will always make great outcry:'Why art Thou come
hither to torment us?" But they never expect compromise or toleration; they know they ought to be tormented.  Wherever we stop to parley with them they
are themselves surprised.  But once stop, and they are
insatiable as death. They lay hold of every advantage
and become clamorous.  There are vices in our citieswickednesses organized, which are amazed that they
can exist; and yet, because we have allowed them  to
exist, they actually get to talking of their rights —think
they have a right to be.
But possibly all vice and wickedness are only extreme degrees of ignorance and error.  It is ignorance
and error which are forever craving indulgence. They
are determined not to be dispossessed.  To point a
finger at them, to raise even a flaw of suspicion against
them, is to create enmity and strife. If you wish to
get an enemy, you have only to strive nobly to do a
man a moral good.  If you wish to get an enemy try to
do your duty.  If you wish to raise a cry try to pull
errors out of people.  Men dwell in ignorance and error,
like the Barons of the middle ages in their castles.




28                    SERMONS.
They have their host of retainers. If they sally forth
it is to war. But they are in the way of civilization.
Their existence is disintegration, decay, the paralysis
of all good.  They must be resisted.  The serpent-head
must be bruised. But, then, he who bruises it will be
bitten. Only nobleness and piety and all virtue will
undertake it. But that is the test of nobleness and virtue and piety that it should-that it does. The fact
that a man has enemies is therefore no evidence that he
is a bad man. It is presumptive evidence sometimes of
the very reverse. The noblest men have fallen victims
to mortal rage. Wicked and cruel hands crucified the
Son of God. It was impossible that He should live
peaceably with such men.  His conflict He left behind
Him, and this is what He meant when He said He had
come to send not peace but a sword.  Plainly, therefore, in the nature of things it is impossible to live
peaceably with all men. The only thing to be sure of,
is, on which side you are. You can always tell which
side you are on, by ascertaining whether you are acting
like Christ, and being treated as He was-or whether
you are being treated like the Jews, and acting as they
did.
My impression is, however, this is not exactly the
ground the Apostle meant to cover in this text. When
he says, " If it be possible, as much as lieth in you," I
think he means that we should look inwardly rather
than outwardly-more to ourselves than to others-that
more is possible than we are apt to imagine.  Even admitting that there are cross and ill-natured people-for
beyond all doubt there are-there are people who seem
to have been created for no other purpose than to create
strife-people whose constituent elements seem to be




SELF-CONTROL.                29
wormwood, and pepper and vinegar, whose eye and ear
are eager for deformity and discord-whose tongue is
sharper than a two-edged sword. There are persons so
selfish they exact absolute deference to their whims and
ill tempers-people who never consider either the comforts or the rights of others-people to whom modesty
and generosity and self-denial are unknown.  They
spoil all they touch-people saddled upon you. They
will neither leave nor reform. The fly in all your ointment.  They make any association or organization uncomfortable. The smaller the orbit in which they move
the more fearfully they burn.  They make village life
anything but the poetic and elysian thing we read of.
They make the family circle, sometimes, anything but a
reflection of Heaven. But even admitting this, it does
not follow that they are unmitigated evils. Within the
sphere of social and domestic life-within the domain
of feeling and disposition, the sour and morbid and selfish are not unfrequently extremely useful. They do a
great many things nobody else would do, and things that
need to be done. They are like burrs, the rough exterior of desirable things. In our common every day life
there are things superlatively precious-things like
order and decorum and morality-things embraced under the head of proprieties, relative to which we can
make no law, except so far as society is a law to itself.
In village life, in all our communities in fact, there are
persons who constitute themselves the censors and guardians of public morals, and it is a great blessing that
they do.  There is such a thing as reputation for old
and young.  There is a sensitiveness and solicitude relative to our reputation divinely implanted within us.
There is and ought to be a moral standard for all so



30                     SERMONS.
ciety, and that standard should be high and rigid, and
the man or woman indifferent to it is from  that fact
unfit for a pure society. Society is always greater than
any man or any woman.  It has its interests, its rights,
and it is the duty of every man who would be protected
by society to see that society is protected.  It is a great
mistake to imagine that what our'neighbor does, or
allows to be done, is none of our business.  Example is
fearfully contagious, and its virus is fearfully fatal.
Youth and inexperience cannot reason, and what is liberty to your child is license to mine-and a decay of
manners is not unfrequently a decay of life.  It is well
enough for people, and they are generally young people
who do it, to boast of independence, and shout defiance
to public sentiment, but public sentiment is always bigger than any man or woman at last. It is not to be resisted. To defy it is like defying the yellow fever, or
a miasma.  It has us in spite of all defiance.  Many a
young man and many a young woman has suddenly
waked up to the idea that their reputation was gone.
What a strange thing that thing reputation is, a nothing,
and yet a fortune cannot buy it, rather to be chosen
than great riches, a stain, a flaw destroys it. Once gone,
the victim is like-the leper, branded, avoided, expelled
from the haunts of rectitude and virtue.  Fearful is the
vengeance of society.  It is all well enough to talk of
the inhumanity of man toward man, and especially of
the cruelty of woman toward woman, but it would be
hard to tell how it can be helped. It is not so much a
voluntary action as one of the vital forces of society.
It is instinctive, inevitable. It is the instinct of selfpreservation-better than any enactment of the civil
code.  Very valuable things are all its police agencies



SELF-CONTROL                  31
the eye that detects the first erring steps-the tongue
that sounds out the note of alarm. Such eyes and such
tongues are incorruptible. They are susceptible of no
bribe.  It is true, their office is not to be coveted.  I
do not say they are the wisest or the best people in the
world, but they are not to be despised. The thing is
to live above them in the true sense of the word-to
live so they cannot reach you, and have no occasion to
reach you.  If they get hold of you it is your own
fault.  If you are honest and sober and keep good
hours you have no dread of the police.  They are a
terror only to evil doers.
The thought then, is, that the sources of disturbance
are not necessarily in others-not always where they
seem to us to be.  Thus, the reason why people hear
unpleasant things said of them, is, very often, because
the things are true. Our friends generally are very considerate, altogether too considerate-they do not wound
our feelings by harsh announcements.  Our enemies are
not always blind-not always very bad, either.  The
worst thing about them sometimes is their unpleasant
way of telling the truth, and then it is not always that
they are unpleasant, so much as the truth they tell.  If
you have a deformity anywhere it is the first thing they
see-the first thing they talk about.  But then, if you
do have a deformity anywhere, nobody is more interested in finding it out than you are yourself. They
take your photograph, and I think thatphotographs are,
generally, very unsatisfactory and disappointing things.
But the moral efect of a photograph is good.  It makes
us feel humble.  We cannot quarrel with it.  There it
is-there is no disputing it-it is ours.  It is true, we
never get two alike. We cannot appear always all we




32                    SERMONS.
are. There is ever a crushing possibility left us, that
we have something better in reserve-something that
never can be taken-something that nobody ever sees.
But our enemies are often only so many camera obseuras,
to show us how, at least, it is possible for others to see
us.  You recollect the prayer of the poet Burns:
" O wad some Power the giftie gie us,
To see oursels as others see us:"
I think our enemies are that power. We are very unwise in keeping away from them, or at any rate in not
reflecting on what they say. We cannot improve our
faces, but we can improve our characters, and a wise
man learns as much from his enemies as from his friends.
But it takes a wise man to do it-a strong, brave manand so St. Paul says, " as much as lieth in you." Yes,
that is always the measure of your peace and of your
peaceableness-" as much as lieth in you."  Society is
unhappy, never in our strength, but always in our
weaknesses.  Some men are never at peace, and never
will be. There is no peace-culture in them. Their notions of honor, their ideas, or want of ideas, respecting
a true manliness, will keep them in a perpetual broil.
They have neither the courage nor the strength, under
provocation, to keep their tongue still. It requires a
great deal more courage not to strike a man, than it
does to strike him. Only a real and true man knows
he cannot possibly be insulted. Once, in debating a
matter of vital importance to the State, Aristides, I
think it was, was smitten by his opponent in the face.
Without anger, his instant and only reply was: " Smite
me, but hear me." All ages have said that man was a
man. What could he have been who could smite such
a man as Aristides?  Who but such a man could think




SELF-CONTROL.                 33
that violence was argument?  Most of us allow other
men to be the measure of our manliness.  We go
down to their level. Perhaps that is only apparent.
That is the point. No man does go down. If you quarrel with anybody, you are both alike. If a man is on
any level, he is on none but his. It is the emergency
which defines the level to which he belongs. At any
point a man will always do his best. I do not mean to
say, that in the heat of excitement, or under embarrassment, a man will not do a thing his judgment condemns.
But if he does, even that will not long disturb the peace,
for such a man will know how to undo his act, and he is
not afraid to undo it.  It takes a brave man to make
an apology, especially to a man he would disdain to set
with the dogs of his flock, but a brave man will do it.
You see, C as much as lieth in you " is all the peace possible for you.  If it be possible, be strong enough for all
men. You will be wonderfully strong if you are.  But
I think the thing is possible. I think there is an attainable point from which we can look upon the very
meanest man as a natural phenomenon, and it is very
interesting to do it. There is a point from which one
man can study another, even under provocation, as dispassionately as a botanist would study a new plant, or
an entomologist a rare bug.  If some men knew the
complacency with which they were regarded, that very
complacency, more than any other thing would make
them rare.  It requires great self-possession to do it.
But if you betray the complacency, in any degree, either
in word or deed, you spoil it all. The moment it is betrayed it is not complacency-it is only anger.  Steam
in a boiler is as transparent as air; you cannot see it;
it is strength.  Let it out; then you see it, but it is no




34                   SERMONS.
longer steam-it is only fog. The complacency which
is heavenly, merges into pity; it begets the desire to
bless, and turns hatred into love.
I take it that the whole object of this life is to make
us wise. Everything in this economy has its mission.
For this reason, while we are not to be heedless of all
our enemies say, we are not to suppose their judgment
infallible.  No. We have a wonderful way of misunderstanding each other, even where we are not enemies.
If you say one thing, somebody will say you said another.  We are sent on many fruitless errands every
day from the simple incapacity of men to understand us.
If you are sincere and say only what you feel, some-.
body will say you are reserved and cold and unsocial.
If you are firm in your character, somebody will say you
are obstinate. If you are honest, somebody will say
you are mean.  The object of this life is to make you
thoughtful; to make you define life; to lift you up to
whatever is truly strong and pure and divine; to selfconsciousness.  See to it that all contingencies produce
that effect.
Then your nobleness, if you can attain to it, is one
way, not only to prevent, but to cure strife. The best
way always is, at any cost, to yield to exaction. Of
course business must be governed by business laws, but
in the social circle, in any circle of mere association or
organization, let the mean have their own way. Show
them  how mean they are.  Refer to them.  Consult
them.  Take off your hat to them.  Let them see that
everything yields to their selfishness. If they are human they will sooner or later feel the emotions of shame.
The sunshine will melt the ice if there is only enough
of it. You will sooner or later reach the heart. There




SELF-CONTROL.                 35
may be very little of it to reach, but that is the only
way to reach what there is, and to make it more. That,
too, is the Christian law. If he hunger feed him-feed
him according to his craving. By and by, he will despise himself more than you despise him.
One of the most touching features in the life of Christ
is the fact, He let men treat Him as they pleased. He
resisted not, nor reviled.  "As a sheep before her
shearers was dumb, so He opened not His mouth."
The effect was two-fold.  It showed the dignity and
strength that were in Him, and the meanness that was
in us.  Yes, it was three-fold.  It ended the strife.  You
observe-to retaliate in kind, is to put fuel in a fire.
Not to retaliate at all, is to let the fire go out forever.
It takes two always to make a quarrel.  Christ's
quarrel with this world was the only one that was
wholly one-sided.  It was no quarrel.  We demonstrated our sin.  He, His divine, exhaustless love.  He
showed us how to end all strife-by standing like a
rock, around which beat the waves as they will. They
must eventually, exhausted, subside. This I take to
be the law of Heaven.  We read that there is no strife
there, no sighs, nor tears, nor any more woe. You see
the reason why.  There is nobody to make strife; and
if there should be, each soul is strong enough to end it.
Thus the text is an exhortation to us-to selfculture.  But if it exhort us to so much self-culture as
shall turn the enmities of life into streams of blessingto so much self-culture as shall enable us profitably to
resist-what shall we say of it as an exhortation to that
self-culture which shall make us agencies that nobody
wants to resist? those positive agents which shall dispense everywhere only peace?  There is no time to




36                    SERMONS.
dwell upon that.  But there comes before me those
possibilities in life, in which, without intention to offend, offences spring  from  ignorance and inexperience-grave offences in which sometimes our whole
lives seem wrecked, which bring shadows across our
hopes, acts never to be obliterated; but when, after all,
forgiveness can mitigate and heal-where if the garden
cannot be again, there need not be a desert-where a
heart, big with Christian generosity, cannot only half
redeem, but turn apparent evil into sources of eternal
good.  Then come before me those spirits we sometimes have in our homes-patient, noiseless, thoughtful.
Those saints not down in the calendar, but the only real
saints in which we believe. Then come before me those
men and women-whose feet are always ploddingwhose hands are always working-whose hearts are always throbbing in labors of love; those peace-makers,
who shall be called the children of God. These and
others-but we must put them  off for another time.
Only let us so live, that we shall not only pull out the
thorns from  life, but smooth the road and make it
broader and easier for all who journey with us, following Him, whose disciples we are, and whose very name,
so full of promise for earth, and so full of hope for
Heaven, we cherish and revere as "the Prince of
Peace."




TRAINING CHILDREN.                37
TRAINING CHILDREN.
PROVERBS 22: 6.-Train up a child in the way he should go, and when
he is old he will not depart from it.
SOMETIMES these proverbs of Solomon appear detached and isolated.  Sometimes again they gather in
clusters around a particular thought. In this immediate locality, the wise man is making observations
upon life in certain of its social aspects.  Ile notices a
line of facts and he condenses, to a single expression,
the principle which produces those facts. This is to be
a prophet, or teacher, to see the original principle of
things and reveal it to others. This is wisdom, to accept the principle and weave it into the fabric of real
life. The great hope for man is, that he will one day
see all principles and put them into practice. The millenium will come when the race is wise, and not before.
The more truly wise any man becomes, by so much he
is truly a benefactor to himself and his race.  He helps
us on to the day of promised peace and rest.
The evils and misfortunes which afflict mankind are
the resultants of unlawful action-i. e., action in ignorance of, and in violation of natural principles. This assertion of Solomon's has a great fact and law underlying it, which perhaps more than any other we have
ignored. It suggests the attestation which God set to
all His works in the beginning.  " Behold it was very
good."  In the very nature of things it must be that




38                   SERMONS.
God could not make a mistake in His creation.  If He
made all things else to subserve a purpose and meet its
destiny, most certainly would he not have made man,
the highest of all, to defeat all purpose, and be alone a
curse for all time. In his original organism-in the fundamental laws of his being-it must be that man is as
good as all things else. He needs only wise development.
But in point of actual fact, when we turn to our observations and experiences, we find man, we might
almost say, alone, but certainly more than any other
creature, at variance with highest good. This also is
the resultant of a law. To all other creatures attached
only what we might call a mechanical being. To man
alone attached a moral being-i. e., a being not only
capable of knowledge and wisdom, but a being whose
real life was in proportion to his knowledge and wisdom.
Man alone had the power of combining laws, not creating or changing, but combining, or of setting laws to
acting and re-acting upon each other artificially, so to
speak. It was a fearful power. It was like placing a
child in a magazine with a lighted match in his hand.
The very first thing he would do, would be very likely
to be a wrong one. And yet only by such a process
could there be such a thing as moral force, merit, moral
glory-the highest glory known to us.  Only by such
a process could there have been the brighter and higher
half of the universe.  We have the pledge of this, in
the very nature of God. If there had been any other
way, or if it had been better that this way should not
be, infinite wisdom would have known it? and infinite
love would have done that which was best.  Infinite
love did do what was best, AND MAN WAS. All questions




THE DIVINE LOVE.                239
for the truth, how simple it seems, when at last it comes
to him. If we had truly reasoned, we would have seen
that wrath, anger, hatred, or any unlove, were really a
weakness, and therefore impossible in God.  They are
merely the absence of mercy, patience and love.  If
they had looked into the divine dealings with our race,
they would have seen mercy, restraining and guiding
love, in them all, an attempt to prevent evil consequences,
and so to redeem  and bless mankind.  They would
have seen that every element in man and every element
in nature, under the direction of wisdom, under the influence of reason, of love, were burdened with divinest
ministration. All that nature wanted, all that God asked,
was that man should not be a brute, that he should
mount up to a recognition of his soul-nature, his true
man-being.  The very point contemplated in his being
was his recognition of his moral being, his realization
of soul. It was only as he got away from his fears, his
passions, his grosser self, that he could find God.  What
he needed was not facts, but the power of seeing them,
not truth, but the power of perceiving truth.  He and
all other things were so made, that he should find his
soul level, his moral or spiritual existence.  The essence
of moral being is that the SOUL find it and accept it.  Divine love and wisdom, God Himself, could not frame
any other uuiverse or make another moral being. You
perceive, individual volition creates moral being.  Take
that out and there is no moral being.  To have finite
spirit existence at all, it was needful to have it just as
it was.  There was no unlove whatever in making the
world as it was and in creating man as he is.  It must
so be, or never be.  That lies in the very fact that God
is God. There is a conception of God-i. e., to say, a




40                    SERMONS.
God is the being having most knowledge of divine things,
and most obedient thereto. The being furthest from God
is the being who thinks any way in which he pleases to
live is as good as God's way-the being in greatest
transgression.  Now, this way of God, this way of right,
is a way of study, of tuition, a way to be learned, and,
thank God, a way once learned, capable of being taught.
There is at once the duty and the destiny of the race,
growth, not a way that our theologies or dogmas can
make right, but a way that is right, a way to be learned.
The original basis of our nature, the laws as God made
them being good, reason would teach us that real instruction and wise training would result in good. As
matter of observation and experience, we know that
much sin is the result of ignorance, and much more sin
the result of habit. From observation and experience
we deduce the law, that the goodness or badness in us
is the use or abuse of nature's endowments.  We deduce also the fact, that nature once trained or left untrained is hard to change. Hence Solomon derived the
thought, and we are able to see its force.  "Train up a
child in the way he should go, and when he is old he
will not depart from it."
And this is neither new in Solomon, nor peculiar to
our religion.  The Romans had a maxim:  "The child
is father of the man." Given the conditions and belongings of childhood, and you can forecast the capacities
and destinies of manhood. Every mature life is simply
a resultant.  Every man and every woman is simply
the net product of educational forces. The degree to
which this fact is ignored is one of the most astonishing
things in life.  We bewail human infirmity and degradation, but we nowhere seem to be in earnest about




TRAJINTG CHILDREN.               41
preventing it.  Our religious doctrines have made us blind
to some of God's most palpable laws.  A colt we know
must be trained, and his future value depends upon his
training.  We have laws even for the protection and
multiplication of the fishes in our rivers; but children,
the most precious freightage our world carries, are left
to partial and sporadic endeavors, multitudes of them
being worth not so much as the calves of the stall, or
the sheep for the shambles.
Hence the fearful dilution of all our civilizing agencies; for every community is simply the net product of
all its educational forces put together. Since every community or nationality is a unit in itself, in spite of ourselves, members one of another, the diseased parts are
but a discount, or tax upon the healthy parts. Every
diseased globule of blood in your body is only so much
tax upon the globules not diseased-multiply them, and
the question of health, and even of life, for you is easily
solved. Educational forces are of two kinds, positive
and negative; or, a better expression would be, that
there is everywhere either a proper force or the absence
of a proper force; but where a wise force is not applied
to give direction to development, it is not simply that a
mere inertia or quiescent condition remains, but the lifeforce in the subject acts, assimilates whatever is within
its reach, and takes its direction according to the preponderance of its surroundings.  A remarkable organization, strong moral and mental development, may guide
or give a bias toward a wise selection of auxiliaries;
but an ordinary or defective organization may guide toward an unwise selection, and thus it is,-the absence
of a direct training, becomes a training force itself.  So
that a child not trained is a being uncultured, and that




42                   SERMONS.
means a being demoralized, and a source of demoralization to others. You will sometimes see men with peculiar endowments, but with nothing else of what might
be called advantages, still attaining to great virtue and
usefulness-but because men are generally only ordinary, and because vice and ignorance tend to demoralize
and weaken, in the absence of training, you will oftener
find men sinking into vice and degradation, till it might
be said, multitudes are trained in error and iniquityin the way they ought not to go. And so true it is,
that when trained in it they do not depart from it, it is
felt that the task of converting them is almost hopeless,
and because of our neglect it is, that the world is filled
with so much that is hopeless. We are intent upon the
task of converting, when we ought to be busy with the
God-given work of building. This thought, it seems to
me, should be at the very head and front of all our exertions for human good.
Nor must we imagine that they who, without positive training, attain to virtue and usefulness, attain to
the same degree they would reach under a wise training. If great benefactors have risen up to our race
whom we did not deserve, how much greater had they
been, and how many more of them, had we been worthy of them! Providence contemplates a direct training force. Nature nowhere imagines that a human being shall at any stage of its progress, but especially in
its youth, be left without guidance. Guidance is God's
prime provision for humanity.  The Family, the Church,
and the State, are the three ordained Educators, and they
do educate or train, right or wrong. The duty of educating wisely, is inherent and imperative in all three,
and thus every man, by virtue of his relations to one or




TRAINING CHILDREN.              43
other of these, owes it as a duty to God to bless the
young.  The teacher's work is the most sacred of all
works.  But nature's sovereign preceptor is the parent.
In the order of time, and as a matter of fact, our mothers impart to us our first lessons in being. There is a
keen and hidden force in that Bible record, which makes
Eve the occasion of the fall in Adam.  When women are
studying their rights, what a pity it is they will not
study in the right direction. In all time, it would seem
as though God had put all well-being in a holy, sensible
womanhood.  No GREAT MAN has been so great as his
mother.  The mother's eye, her smile, her tones, convey
to the infant spirit life or death. There is a singular
force in another expression of Solomon's-"A child left
to himself bringeth his mother to shame;" he does not
say " his father," but "his mother," as if he had seen the
apparent law that, beyond a mother's fidelity, there was
no greater force upon earth. And yet her sovereignty
remains but for a time-her problem soon becomes complicated. The rest of the family-friends, associates,
neighbors-gradually assert their influence, till Church
and State, or, what would be here an equivalent expression for both,-society,-exerts as great an influence
as parentage itself.
Hence, the question arises, whence is parental wisdom itself to come? The aggregation of families is but
society, and society but the aggregation of families. We
at once make society and are made by it.  This is a
wonderful circle on which we live. Life is everywhere
reacting upon itself-society cannot rise higher than
itself.  We impart only what we have received.  A
child born in China takes its language, its thought, its
habits of life from its surroundings-it becomes Chinese.




44                      SERMONS.
A child born in Ireland, takes its language, its religion,
its being from the Irish.  There is, as it were, a plane
of being fixed for it, beyond which it cannot rise. The
parent itself has received a certain amount of being,
more than which it cannot impart.  Parentage is fettered
by prejudice and prestige.  Its facilities are only those
which have been inherited from antecedent generations.
Still it remains that the family is the great integer of
human society, the first fact, the organic basis of human
life.  iTe prime duly of parentage, therefore, is SELFCULTURE.  Here is the fact that lies at the basis of this
subject.  No matter what the forces of society are-no
matter what the facilities or hindrances which have
been handed down-all well-being for humanity concentrates at the one point of parental wisdom and diligence.
Without thought, without reading, especially of God's
Word-without prayer, without constant circumspection-neither the unconscious influence of example, nor
the positive employment of means, can be in any high
degree salutary.  Without a wise independence of social dixit; without individual character; without a
Christian plan and purpose, the family will only drift
with the common tide.  In the slavishness of society,
in the dominance of conventionality over all true wisdom, lies one of our greatest hindrances.  Viewed in
some of its aspects, it is wonderful that we have as
much promise in our youth as we have.  We are told
sometimes that we have no longer that reverence for
parental authority which is traditional in our race. The
great wonder would be if we had.  We have forgotten
that the fifth commandment is just as much a commandment to the parent to be honorable, as it is to the child
to honor the parent. The very first law in this matter




TRAINING CHILDREN.               45
of training is in this filial honor and affection. The
very hook on which all hope of success depends is filial
obedience. If there is nothing to honor and nothing to
obey, the discharge of duty in the child is impossible.
In the very large majority of instances, the order of
God is inverted.  It is the child that trains the parent.
It is the parent that OBEYS the child.  It is here, in the
want of parental authority, in the want of home discipline and culture, that our hopes are staggered-our
exertions towards high and wise development neutralized. It is here that instruction and advice about training children become useless. It is in vain for an artist
to tell a clown how to be an artist. There is no receptivity, no skill; nothing to appropriate the advice.
Rules for households are of no use to those who are
above all rules-i. e., below all rules; so that the one
essential of all human progress is thoughtful Christian
parentage.  With that we have all blessing.  Nothing
upon earth can transcend in responsibility the office of
a parent. It is no use to talk about the care, or the
wrong, or the burden, or any other name by which we
choose to call it, woe is unto us, if we betray our trust
-woe in this world-woe in all worlds. We may delegate our work to nurses, to the streets, to society, but
for it God will bring us into judgment.  How many
cups of woe are pressed home every day to unwilling
parental lips. How many wrecks tell of parental infidelity! How many souls are waiting in that other world
till their children, blighted and cursed, their own work,
shall follow  them  there to condemn them.  We can
bow down to society.  We can teach our children to
bow down to society.  We can make respectability and
fashion and ease and other people's opinions, our Gods




46                    SERMONS.
and their Gods, but it had been better for both of us if
we had never been born. Life is very solemn. God will
not have us assume an office, except as we assume
the responsibility.  We must teach by example as
by precept-unconsciously, as well as consciously.
We must show that life means something, by ourselves attaching a meaning to it. If we do that, and I
believe, thank God, that many of us are trying to do
that-if we do that, we must study first of all the children. It is no use to say children differ, and it is so
hard to tell what to do.  That is true enough; children
do differ, and God meant they should differ. A sorry
world it would be, if we were all alike. Sometimes we
say, this child has such a bad disposition-such an evil
trait; but, if there be anything evil or bad about it, it
may be our fault-i. e., it may be a good trait perverted, indulged or pampered into badness.  Sometimes
people tell us how hard they have striven and how
much they have failed.  Both may be very true, and
yet it may be equally true that they mistook the case
in the beginning. Beyond a doubt, there are inherited
tendencies. There are lusts and cravings and things
that go to make up character, which come down from
other generations. Intemperance and vice send their
blight upon children's children. There is a law of nature by which the sins of the father goes down to the
third or fourth generation-a law in itself enough to
alarm us and make us wise. But in the child itself it
is not sin. It is a tendency. It may be a weakness, a
defect, a tax upon exertion, a discount upon our endeavors, because it is a discount upon all the rest of
its being.  Still, it can be watched; it can be fought
against; it can be overcome.  Of course it intensifies




TRAINING CHILDREN.               47
the problem, but it also pays.  That child saved is a
gem  for the skies-a work to follow us and call us
blessed. But very often the dispositions of which we
complain are the very best things a child could have.
Sometimes we complain that a child has a very strong
will.  I know  of no greater blessing the child could
have. Most of us have no will of our own; we will as
other people will. No farmer complains that a colt has
very great strength; he takes care it shall be properly
applied; he trains it.
Toward a child with a strong will, our danger is either
of crushing it altogether, or of turning it into wilfulness, and both are fatal to the child.  Some parents
themselves have a will that is stronger and heavier than
iron-i. e., a strong wilfulness that they mistake for a
strong will. It has no elasticity. It is not tempered
with affection. It has forgotten its own childhood. It
teaches the child no self-control. It brings into play
none of those finer sensibilities and agencies, which God
gave it for the very purposes of self-government. There
is perhaps not a single faculty  which dominates, or
characterizes any child, which is not itself a great blessing if we only knew what to do with it.  And the way to
know what to do with it, is not to isolate it-not to
separate it from all the rest of the child, but to put it
in the combination in which God put it-turn it to
harmony with all the rest of the child.  The dominating faculty itself will then be the richer, a blessing to
itself and to thousands.  How many characters there
are in history; how many men we see every day,
whom we feel have one great faculty, but which itself
is not as great as it had been, if only the other half of
them could have been developed.  If, however, we en



48                   SERMONS.
ter upon illustration here, the subject would be endless.
But I say study the children.  Work up the elements
God has created, no matter what it costs. The prayers,
the trials, the struggles, the self-denials, why, they
shall build a mansion of glory for you. They cannot
fail. Create the cause, you establish the effect. God
neither sleeps nor forgets. There is an element above
you and above it,-the Holy Ghost-God.  Train your
child, and then as long as you live, it will react in blessing upon you, and if you are taken away, you can leave
it no heritage which will compare in value with the recollection of your fidelity and example.
I had intended, and would like very much, if there
were time, to extend these thoughts into the duty of
the State to educate.  What is the State?  There are
many senses in which that word is used. If you use it
in the sense of government, then government is but
representation. It may be used in the sense of an
aggregation of families-society.  Then, in society,
there are always unfortunate people, who, as I have
said, know not how to train their children, or who,
knowing how, are unable to command the needful facilities.  They know not much to impart and therefore are
unable to impart much.  Since we are members one of
another, or since, as I have otherwise expressed it, every
untrained child is necessarily so much disease to the
body politic, no State can aford to have one ignorant,
or untrained child. Every man is better off, in proportion as his neighbor's children are better off. As a matter of policy, to say nothing of benevolence, it is wise to
educate. We often have it said, that schools are cheaper
than jails, and teachers better than policemen.  We do
not yet believe that. The level of the higher stratum of




TRAINING CHILDREN.              49
humanity is always dependent upon the level of the
lower. The top of the church spire depends upon the
elevation of the tower. The nobility of Ireland would
have been vastly happier to-day, if they had taken care
of themselves, by taking care of the Irish.  If Christian
civilization is the highest upon earth, it is because
Christianity sends men out of themselves to take care
of themselves-not as a matter of selfishness, but as a
matter of love. That is Christianity-that is the law
of sacrifice,. giving life to find life. Mind and heart are
the jewels of God.  The more of these the State has,
the more we all have-the richer we all are. Those of
us who have of these, owe it to God to impart it to
those who have it not. You are only a steward. That
is the law of society, the law of accountability, the law
of stewardship. In our-religious zeal and sectarian wisdom, which is very often only irreligious zeal and sectarian unwisdom, we deny the right to impart one, when,
what we take to be the other, cannot go with it. No
greater mistake was ever made.  If twice two are four,
if a knowledge of it is invaluable in human intercourse,
and a man is that much better off for having it, then
we are bound to teach him, and we can and ought to
appoint a teacher for the purpose. If it be universally
accepted that a man should be honest, then the teacher
who should teach that it were better to be dishonest,
would be in conflict with all our instincts, and not only
should be, but would be, dismissed. If it is a questionable thing whether a Bishop, or immersion, are essential
to religion, then that they are, should not be taught in
any school.  Wisdom  is to teach us things that are
certainly known, that we may be better able to judge
respecting things that are so far unknown, and hence it




50                   SERMONS.
is, that the average of civilization is higher where such
a course is pursued than where it is neglected. There
is no question, in my mind, whether Prussia is better
off than Italy, and I cannot believe that we as a people
are going to be long entangled in the snare that has
been laid for us in the question about the Bible in the
schools. That is not the question at all. The real question is, schools or no schools. It is a question, too,
which has come in its time. If we are alive, there is
life in it for us.  We must realize that while there is a
law which tends to simplicity, it often so tends through,
what appears to us, complexity. Two women in ancient
times could grind at a mill, and do all the work contemplated in flour, perhaps from the planting of the grain
to the eating of the bread. But many agencies, each
with a specific work, are needful in our times, and we
have more flour and better bread. Time was, when society was patriarchal, and all that is now embraced in
Church and State, was embraced in the family. Church
and State have too long been complicated, and God is
now eliminating the one from the other, and writing
out in characters too legible to be mistaken, the duty
of every Christian.  Time was, when the State-and
there are still such States-gave all the religion there
is-and how much is it?-what is it worth?  Time is,
when God is saying to every family, your work is there,
and to every Christian your work is there. Time is, when
God is saying to every Christian man and woman,
whether you have a child or not, of your own-there is
a child for whom God has made you responsible, and
whom IIe will look that you bring with you, when you
come up in glory.  The gain was immense when the
Church broke away from the State, and the gain will




TRAINING CHILDREN.              51
be immense when duty is defined before every Christian,
and we have a life power in every man and woman that
belong to the Church. I look upon it that out of the
agitations through which we are passing is coming a renewed life to the Church. Parental duty will be better
defined, and parental energy will be quickened-social
duty will be better defined, and social energy will be
quickened.  The Church herself will turn back again
from profitless theories to high practical themes-from
dogma to religion-from  Paul and Apolos to Christ.
One good begins, I think, already to appear, and that is
a higher life in our Sunday Schools. The inauguration
of the Sunday School was a great step in advance, but
up to this time it has been more of a sentiment than of
a work-our Sunday Schools have needed system and
talent.  Our Sunday School libraries have aimed at
amusing, rather than at instructing. They greatly need
weeding. Any foolish thing, will no longer do for a
Sunday School book. Anybody, will no longer do for a
teacher.  To bridge over an hour on Sunday will no
longer be sufficient. An immense importance attaches
to the work.
It is the recurrence of our Sunday School anniversary
to-day, which has been the occasion of my bringing these
thoughts before you. I had intended to speak more of
our work here, but there is no time. I must defer it to
this afternoon. But I may say we have much here over
which to rejoice, and much to encourage us. Our work
has prospered. We have a band of indefatigable laborers-many instances have come within my observation
of good accomplished. From the Superintendent to the
Infant class, there is life; so much, we need more room,




52                   SERMONS.
and one fact I must mention, which is, that before long
we must increase our capacity for this work.
In closing-as I must close-let me ask you, dear
brethren, if we cannot catch from what has been said,
some higher glimpses, at least, of the solemnity of lifeof our duties as parents, as citizens, and as Christians?
Can we not attach a somewhat higher estimate to childhood, and realize the influence which we, through them,
can exert upon generations to come after us. We do
not love children enough. We love our children. We
need to love childhood-innocent, helpless childhoodpoor, dirty, neglected childhood-the stray lambs without a shepherd.  If we could love them for Jesus' sakelove them as God loves them, enough to make some sacrifice for them, enough to stand up in our lot and demand
of our legislature better laws for them, we should be
blessed in our love, and make them a blessing to thousands.
I have not said anything about the promises of God,
the influences of divine grace, the power of the Holy
Ghost. I have dwelt upon our work.  God will take
care of His side, if we can only take care of ours. If
we can sow the seed upon a broad and cultured ground,
the elements of God's great providence will do the rest,
whether we live or die. There are laws we can reach
and ought to reach-then there are laws which work,
and which nobody can reach.  Thank God for that.
When I look upon my little ones, and feel I must shortly
leave them with no father-hand to guide them, and no
father-heart to shield them, it is unspeakable comfort to
know that God will not leave them nor forsake them.
Blessed is he-blessed is she-who, when called to leave
their little ones behind them, can feel, that they have




THE UPLIFTING OF CHRIST.           53
themselves beaten the path and trained their little feet
to the blessedness of that road which leads to the Kingdom of God. Blessed is he who, over and above his own,
can feel that some child shall follow him to that kingdom and call him blessed! May your children and mine
be blessed!  May God's spirit be outpoured upon all
our work, and by and by, may you and I, and all who
have sown and all who have reaped, through Jesus
Christ rejoice together!
THE UPLIFTING OF CHRIST.
JOHN 12: 32.-And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men
unto me.
THIS is part of a discourse, perhaps the last, our Lord
delivered upon Mount Moriah. He had just ridden into
Jerusalem amid the hosannas of the multitude. There
was great excitement everywhere concerning Him. His
mission was drawing to its close. Three years of such
a life had brought a crisis. Even Gentiles crave the
privilege of seeing Him.  Certain Greeks which had
come up to worship, come to the disciples with the
request:  "Sirs, we would see Jesus."  The disciples
make the request known to the Master, and it becomes
the occasion of His discourse.
The simple fact of being desired by Gentiles, seems
to suggest itself to Christ as a pledge to those around
Him of the eventual fulfillment of His entire mission.
These Greeks belonged to a people remarkable for their
powers and habits of inquiry.  They looked thoughtfully




54                    SERMONS.
into everything, and this request rises like a grand response from this human nature of ours, to that sacred mission of Christ. The first words of His answer were: " The
hour is come that the son of man should be glorified."
To all appearance He was about to die, but in reality
He was about to begin to live. A grain of wheat cast
into the ground seems to be lost. In reality it casts
off only an outward form, and springs into a grander and
richer and reproductive life.. All true life is attainable
only through such a process.  The gross, outward
form, must pass away.  Whoever lives only in that,
lives not at all.
There, in that hour, were drawing to a focus the plans
of the ages past, and the hopes of the ages to come.
The Saviour feels its solemnity and exclaims:  " Now
is my soul troubled. I know not what to say. Father,
save me from this hour, and yet for the purpose of meeting this very hour have I come. I would not therefore
turn from it: Only, Father, glorify thy name." (Contemplate Christ as you will, conscious of a mission committed to Him-conscious of having fulfilled it-beholding a future depending upon it, in the very hour of its
consummation, from  the very depths of His sincerity
appealing to God; did ever any man so speak before?)
A voice from heaven answers: " I have glorified it and
will glorify it again." Jesus explained that this voice
was not for Him, but for them that stood around Him.
It was God's response to these Greeks. Deep responds
to deep, truth to truth.  The divine things in Christ
had been perceived. It was this the nations had been
longing for.  Christ was truly  "the desire of all
nations." In the nature of things, all that was in Christ
should become clearer and clearer to men.  The old,




THE UPLIFTING OF CHRIST.          55
sensual, carnal life, men had been living, was now to be
condemned.  The prince of darkness was to be exposed
as indeed a prince of darkness, and be deposed. The
Prince of Peace was to be reached as indeed a Prince
of Peace, and be enthroned, and real life begin to reign.
" Now is the judgment of this world-now is the prince
of this world to be cast out, and I, if I be lifted up from
the earth, will draw all men unto me."
It is abundantly evident, that in this discourse and in
this verse, Jesus Christ is speaking of Himself as the
means by which God will reconcile all men to himself.
The whole plan and process of salvation is not by Christ
logically, consecutively-if you please-philosophically
expressed. It never is, for man hath no word-forms to
which that plan and process can be reduced. We should
have been worse off with a philosophical expression
than without it. Heaven's logic is love. Love knows
nothing of syllogism; love simply sees. Place redemption in an earth-created form, and you only increase the
materialism which has already crushed mankind. Language is not thought; thought everywhere overlaps language; compress the thought to language, and "the
letter killeth." It always must, because thought is continually outgrowing language, or ought to do it, and
this is why those who have the most creed have the
least life.
Perhaps this plan of God's salvation is, not so much
a plan, as it is an essence, which is to pervade all plans
-not so much a thing, as an element of all things-not
directly and immediately to produce a desired result, but
to make things already existing produce it.  If man
were in a garden of dying and fruitless trees, and wanted fruit, he would make a new tree to produce it; he




56                    SERMONS.
would tear up and destroy and start anew, and repeat
his old failure. But God's plan is, not a new root, or
new trunk, or new branch, but a new life sent through
root and trunk and branch, spreading out into leaf and
bloom and fruit.  It is redemptory-it is quickening.
As such, it is as incapable of philosophical form as the
life of vegetation is beyond our touch or any of our
senses.  A thing admitting of endless manifestations,
a thing to be perceived and realized only in its effects.
Such this plan of God's salvation would seem to be.  It
was incarnate in Christ, and yet it could only outcrop,
so to speak, in word, in act, in life,-sometimes dimly,
sometimes clearly, and yet not so you can grasp it, till
you take all Christ was from Bethlehem to Calvary, inclusive, and not then-till you take Christ as He stands
upon all time, in the promises of the ages antecedent, in
the fruition of the ages subsequent, and not then, till
you have Him in your heart and soul and mind-not
by logic or creed, but by the life-force which you know
experimentally to be in Him.  The scales must fall
from your eyes, the inner vision must be opened, if you
would see Christ. It is needful for us to do just what
these Greeks wanted to do-see Christ-not a secondhand ideal-not a mere report of Him-not one of His
disciples, but what He is, what constitutes divine life,
and even ther% you do not comprehend this plan of salvation. You only feel it in you, and see it round you,
and perceive it reaching out over all time, and stretching into far eternity. You cannot express it. At every
one of its outcroppings, men have undertaken to give
it expression, but their best attempts have been only
approximations.  They have talked of atonement, of
sacrifice, of imputed righteousness, of election, of justi



THE UPLIFTING OF CHRIST.            57
fication, of sanctification, of faith, of works-looping,
analyzing, questioning, till those who saw only their
own position, and not much of that, have denied the
position of others, and thus have given rise to contradiction and confusion. They have dissected it, and given
us here and there a lifeless limb, when what we wanted
was a living, loving, present Christ-a talking, sympathizing, shielding God-an imparting, radiating, quickening life.  But, what is a grand and consoling fact,
amid all confusion, each comes back to Christ at last,
and says, my central thought is there.  And it is there.
All central thought is there.  Each word-form  is in
part expression of that life which is beyond expressionthat which is, alone, the full expression of eternal life
for man.  What is in Him is wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. We are to see that,
to feed upon it. That is the power of God to salvation,
of necessity only to him that believeth. But that is the
precious thought, men shall go on believing. The nations shall enlarge their vision.  It shall be lifted up,
and the craving shall keep increasing, till all men shall
be drawn to Him.  The prince of this world shall be cast
out, and Christ, not only lifted up, but enthroned.
Thus, this life is directly and always connected with
Christ, and He, again, directly and always connected
with this " lifting up."  This " lifting up" was literally
His crucifixion. The very next verse tells us this. The
crucifixion was the ripening, the culmination of the
whole scheme of divine redemption.  It was, in the
nature of things, the only process by which the life of
Christ could be indelibly fixed upon the mind of man;
the process by which it should be kept from the whirlpool of oblivion-by which, through all time, it should




58                    SERMONS.
stand out in bold and unmistakable relief.  It is, and
will always stand, the wonderful thing of all wonders,
that have occurred in human history. It was to finish,
to make perfect, the work of ages. For this hour Christ
had come, but He had come for every other hour of His
life which had preceded it. At the manger-in the temple at twelve years old-at the well-side-at the grave
of Lazarus-in pleading with Scribes and Pharisees-in
the Sermon upon the Mount —in divine instruction to the
disciples-everywhere-He was but going to Calvary.
That hour was the sum of all His hours. That " lifting
up," was but the fullness of three and thirty years-that
three and thirty years but the fullness of all time. It
is through this we are to look at that cross.  Christ is
there, the prophet of all time, the Priest of all people, the
king of all ages. Two eternities, the everlasting past
and the everlasting future, met there. Two worlds, the
earthy and the heavenly, met there.  Two beings, the
divine and the human, met there. That crucifixion was
sacrifice, was atonement for human sin, reconciliation
between God and man, not in its bare, simple self, not in
the isolated act or fact, but in the Christ that was there,
in the incarnation that closed there, and in the spiritual
life to man that began there, in the divine being that
was there that day so uplifted, that it never again
should be hidden from  mankind.  That uplifting was
needful, not only to make the atonement complete, but
so to complete it as to bring out its force, to make it
effective, that man might not be drawn to Christ merely
in theory, but in fact-not merely in desire, but in actual
attainment.
It seems to me, if we fail to get this thought, we fail
to penetrate very far into this scheme of divine redemp



THE UPLIFTING OF CHRIST.            59
tion-we fail to perceive the consoling force, the inevitable necessity of the truth in this promise of Christ, if
He be lifted up, He will draw all men to Him.  I do
not wonder that they who do not see it, become despondent, and forget that Christ ever made such a promise.
And what a promise it is! Christ will draw all men, all
nations, every family of this race to Him-not all at
once, but slowly, as the sun draws out the harvest.
And if we could see that this promise is based upon the
nature of things, in the infallibility of God, what a support and encouragement is there for all work and all
faith!
For us to tell in all respects how Christ is atonement,
or expiation for humian sin, is impossible. In my judgment we have seen but the beginning of Christ's Gospel.
But in that beginning there is very much we can see.
We can see this atonement has two sides-first, God's
reconciliation to us, and second, our reconciliation to
God.  The first we cannot penetrate; the second we
not only can but ought to understand.  The first involves such questions as, whether God needed anything
to appease Him, whether there were any justice to be
satisfied-involves questions theological and, at best,
speculative-questions in which we are wise overmuch,
in that we attempt to pronounce where Christ was
pleased to be silent-questions with respect to which,
if we knew more, we should find to be no questions at
all.  If the atonement were because God needed anything to appease Him, either as an angry God or as a
just God, then the atonement is made, once and forever,
full, perfect and sufficient.  If the atonement were
merely declaratory-merely an act expressive of the
fact that God already loved us and wanted us to love




60                    SERMONS.
Him, that he was reconciled to us and only wanted us
to be reconciled to Him-then that atonement is also
made, full, perfect and sufficient. This part of the
atonement is eminently practical, a part that we can understand and need to understand. The atonement is so
made.that it proclaims to us what the reconciliation is
that God wants-so made, that it entreats us to be reconciled to God.
In viewing it from this position, that it is a declaration of God's reconciliation toward us, and an entreaty
that we become reconciled to Him, we can see, to begin
with, the need of a sacrifice, and what the sacrifice was
that Christ made, and how natural it was GoD should
make it.  That God is love, there can be no disputing.
If we need it in authoritative statement, we have it in
the declaration of Christ Himself: " God so loved the
world that He gave His only-begotten Son."
The atonement is thus, not a cause of God's love, but
itself a resultant, made because God loved. If you
analyze the idea of God, you will see it embraces everything of strength, of mercy, of help.  That which is the
most useful thing in the universe-that without which
nothing could live —is God. That which is most helpful to the thing most needful-that which helps where
nothing else could, or would ever think of helpingthat is God. If man lay at the very opposite extreme
of being, how the very idea of God implies that HE should
go there to help him!  What sort of a mother would that
be, who could do nothing for her child?  How rich
would he be, who could only take care of himself?
What would that philanthrophy be worth, which could
only come and look upon the stricken sinner and pass
by on the other side? If man were ever to be helped
it must be by a higher being, and that help of necessity




THE UPLIFTING OF CHRIST.            61
must involve suffering, or sacrifice to that being; and
oh! what God would that be, who could afford nothing
of help or comfort to His helpless children? You must
perceive, it seems to me, the idea of sacrifice in the
very idea of God.  Men tell you they cannot conceive
of God suffering.  I ask you whether you can get a
conception of God without that idea? It is of the very
essence of the idea of goodness. It is there you begin
to get a pledge of the promise made by Christ in the
text.  If you can get men to see that, you start, in
man himself, a force which is in its very nature redemptory.  The one idea grows upon the other as naturally
as a rose upon its stem.  It is a declaration or manifestation of God.  And in addition you perceive, not
only sacrifice, but vicarious sacrifice. One being suffering for another, not undergoing the same suffering, for
that is imposible, but suffering in a way to remove suffering, in a way to prevent the cause of suffering. Nor
is this alone in Christ, it is a law that pervades existence,
and has its perfection in Christ only as all laws have
their perfection in Him.  The mother does suffer for
her child, the soldier for his countrymen-in a thousand
ways we suffer for each other, and the more and more
voluntarily, in proportion as we are godly, or God-like.
I say there is a law about it-a law which demands of
you the higher you are the more help you shall be.
Yes, I would put it stronger than that: a law which
determines, that the extent to which you do help and
bless another is the exact measure of your own elevation, or goodness. Out of that law grows the fact, that
if you can get one man truly elevated, you get a seed,
as it were, which will eventually get the race elevated,
therefore the fact, that Christ being lifted will draw all




62                    SERMONS.
men unto Him.  Only God knew this law-only God
could make such a sacrifice, and blessed be God, He did
do it. It seems like a paradox, but it is one of those
divine paradoxes on which the foundations of the universe are laid.
Now, what was the sacrifice Christ made? It was
man to be lifted. You look out upon your city, and
see whole classes vulgar, ignorant, degraded.  You see
little children neglected, squallid and wretched. You
wish them better off.  Will that help them?  Must yon
not go to them, or send to them, or in some way reach
them?  Must you not in some way beget self-action in
them?  If you go there to teach them, can they treat
you any better than they know how, and must you not
of necessity encounter all the evils their condition involves, in order to impart to them the blessings of the
condition to which you wish to lift them? We read of
a Missionary who went to the West Indies to preach to
the slaves. In order to do it, he had actually to become
a slave-to work with them, and expose himself to all
their hardships.  He did it.  "A very good man," you
say.  Yes, I have shown you that; but can you see his
sacrifice? Because he was exalted, he was capable of
the sacrifice; he showed them  the good-will of Christians toward them, and what it was to be a Christian.
So Christ became a man, for man's sake.  In this prisonhouse with us He showed us that G.od had now no enmity toward us.  He wanted us to love Him, and so become loveable.  We knew not what the loveable thing
was that God wanted, nor how to become that thing.
Christ became that thing for us, and showed us how to
reach it. This simple fact was so constituted as to
make two demonstrations-one of what God was, one




THE UPLIFTING OF CHRIST.           63
of what man was. We needed to see both.  What was
our condition?  One of infirmity first of all.  There
was nothing of ignorance, of misfortune; nothing of
poverty; nothing of prejudice; nothing of social disadvantage; nothing of pride, of civil or religious intolerance, He did not encounter. He literally "bore our infirmities." He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. Then
hypocrisy, ingratitude, injustice, falsehood, error, love
of evil, envy, hatred, malice-these were our sins, our
prison-house.  These Christ took upon him.  Ie literally bore our transgressions. Insult, buffetings, sicknesses,
want, everything down to murder-these were consequences of our sin, these were incident to our condition.
These, Christ encountered.  " He was wounded for our
transgressions and bruised for our iniquities."  "He
was a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief." He
did not heedlessly aggravate wickedness.  He did not
strive to stir it up and make it worse than it was. Nay,
you know it is a law that you have only to accuse error
or wrong-i. e., merely to point out error and wrong to
make them  at once active-active according to their
own instincts.  He let them have their way.  He literally exhausted them. He resisted not, nor complained.
"As a sheep before the shearer is dumb, He opened
not his mouth."  He let our evil nature have, what to
it was victory.  Our wickedness could not measure
His goodness.  Our hatred could not subdue His love.
He would have been only a man if it had been otherwise, but his love was divine.  You can see there a
divine being, a being that was divine. Do not mix it
up with the question whether Christ was God.  I say
we see there what all our instincts tell us to be of God,
tell us to be divine. It was quenchless. The struggle




64                   SERMONS.
was fearful and to the last extremity. His very innocence exasperated us.  We made a cross and nailed
Him to it.  We lifted Him up in cruelty and derision.
From His lipsfell only the accents of love.  The elements
sought to hide our shame in darkness. The earth put
on sackcloth.  The human race had conspired.  God
had triumphed. That crucifixion was the demonstration
of our vileness and weakness on the one side, and of God's
love and goodness on the other. There was what we are.
There in that Christ was what God wanted us to be.
The light that struck down from that cross floated
back over that life, over it all was written God, and
every letter of that word was love.  The light that
struck down from that cross penetrated the darkened
recesses of our fallen being, and revealed to us what sin
and Satan had' made us-revealed our unnaturalness,
our deformity. It had this effect, by the spirit of God,
to make us condemn ourselves and desire God.  " Now
was the prince of this world judged "-now was God in
Christ glorified!  To create that fact, itself so near to
impossibility, was to create this other fact, of which
Christ speaks. If the work could have a beginning, it
should accomplish that whereunto God intended it. If
a handful could be drawn to Him before His work were
completed, then, when he was lifted up and the whole
mission were fulfilled, all men should be drawn to Him.
There was much yet to be revealed. That Christ, passineg trou^gh. c uc^i\ixio, Lassed really o a se urreti\n.
That fact opened a future of eternal truth. That Christlife leads to glory, to a kingship, to power and dominion which can know no limit in time, or degree. Plant
that thought upon earth and, though it be but a grain
of mustard seed, it shall grow into the grandest of all




THE UPLIFTING OF CHRIST.          65
trees, and the nations of the earth shall take refuge in
its branches. If Christ be lifted up all men shall be
brought unto Him.  Oh what a future opens there! and
how God calls us to it, not in the thunder-tones of Sinai,
but in the still small voice of endearing and consoling
love.
You cannot help seeing, then, redemption. If you
can make every man what Christ was, you take him out
from his old nature and make him a heavenly being.
If you can fill this world with such beings, you make a
heaven.  There would be a new earth wherein would
dwell righteousness. I would like to take you along
the Christian centuries, and show you that this work
has been really going on. You say this world is very
wicked, and truly it is; but do you know how wicked
this world was when Christ came to it? If all the evils
that then existed could be concentrated in your lot under your present advancement, you would rather die
than live. But is it nothing to know this world is a
wicked world?  Does that fact in itself set none of us
to standing guard over principle and honor and truth?
And if we are wicked, have justice, law, liberty, gained
no ground? Are none of those life-forces, which were
in Christ, directly acting in us and upon us? Are none
living unto Him who died and gave Himself for usliving in that same self-sacrifice He marked for us in
His own footsteps-and if there are any, do we know
that there are not many? If we are influenced by that
life and death of Christ, is there not a pledge in that,
that by and by even all shall be drawn to Him?
But a question far more vital to us than this, is, what
effect has that life of Christ, that cross of Christ,
had upon us?  What think ye of Christ? What think




66                   SERMONS.
you of His atonement?  Has it taken away your sin?
Do you feel you are reconciled to God? If not, then
of what avail has time been to you?-what avail that
cross? In those out-stretched arms there is mercy-in
those wounds there is life, but what if you pass them
heedlessly by?  That is a solemn question, my dear
hearer. That was a solemn day when Christ uttered
the words of our text-His hour had come! There is
a time when our hour, too, shall come. That hour may
very soon come. The flight of seasons tells us life is very
short. When we lie upon our back and feel the lifetide ebbing away-when we realize we are to come before the presence of God, we want something strong and
something in which to trust-we want to feel we have
had Christ, God's own Son, for our guide and our strong
salvation. But suppose, in looking back, the testimony
of our days be, that we have not followed Christ at allthat His life and His death were alike matters of no
consequence to you. How can you die?  And if you
cannot die without this Christ formed within you, your
hope of glory, how can you live without Him? You
do not know the extent to which you are a sinner. And
yet God does not know you as a particular sinner; he
only knows you as a particular soul that needs salvation. You are to be reconciled to Him, not He to you.
You need no oblation to bring, but the simple oblation
of a believing heart-that is all. God asks only with
respect to your sins, that you leave them behind; He
asks only that you take Him at His word, and hunger
and thirst after Him. If you can forgive yourself, He
can forgive. If you can forsake, He can forget. God
loves you: that is what the Cross says to you. If you
would know how God loves you, begin to love God.




WHAT IS PRAYER?                 67
God loves you! this is the voice that greets you in the
solemn vigils of this Passion week. This is the voice
that rises from the whole incarnation-from the manger
to sad Gethsemene-from every footprint of that sacred
life-from the hungry and thirsty wilderness to His
buffetings amid the contradiction of sinners-from His
noonday journeys and His midnight watchings-from
the Judgment Hall and the Uplifted Cross,-God loves
you!  Will you love Him?  This is the question pressed
by every need of your soul. This is the question the
Spirit of God yearns for you to answer. The very airs
that breathe this week-the very fact of Good-Fridaythe bells that toll-all speak to us of Christ and the
Cross.  They tell us how God loved us; that the Son
of God was "lifted up," and they all ask us whether
we have been drawn to Him.  May the Spirit of the
living God be with you and me, that we may be able to
feel, that in Christ Jesus we have found life everlasting!
WHAT IS PRAYER?
MARK 6: 31-And He said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a
desert place and rest awhile, for there were many coming and going, and
they had no leisure so much as to eat.
CHRIST had sent his disciples out to preach the Word.
Having fulfilled that special mission, they gather themselves home to Him again, and tell Him all things, both
what they had done and what they had taught, and he
said unto them, " Come ye yourselves apart into a desert
place and rest awhile, for there were many coming and




68                    SERMONS.
going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat."
Having departed, however, the multitude follows them,
and in the wilderness Christ performs the miracle of
feeding five thousand with five loaves and two fishes.
He dismissed His disciples to cross over to the other
side of the sea.  He sends away the multitudes and
betakes himself to a mountain to pray. In the midst of
the night, while His disciples are toiling-contending
with winds and waves-He appears to them, and entering into the ship with them, He stills the elements and
goes with them safely to the shore.
This whole passage is impressive and peculiarly instructive.  Man is an active, restless being; he has of
necessity much work to do, but he makes by far the
larger portion of his work for himself. He forgets he
has a soul as well as a body; he absorbs his time and
energy in the affairs of the flesh; he leaves his soul
pinched and starved.  In this forgetfulness he creates
for himself his severest conflict-makes the elements of
his being antagonistic.  When he has made a paradise
for his body, that becomes a desert for his soul, and
what is a desert for his body, is often the paradise of
his spirit. One of the offices of religion through all
ages has been to equalize the claims of body and soulto place man in harmony with his true being, and put
an end to our strifes by putting an end to their causes.
Even in its religious matters the world has often been
a little super-religious. In its blindness it has laid upon
itself many a necessity God would willingly have spared
it. Because of our lame and helpless condition, religion
which would otherwise have been the life of all work,
has been only itself an additional work in life. The
absence of religion in many men, and the absolute need




WHAT IS PRAYER?                69
of it in all, makes it the duty of some to find out what
religion is, to keep it alive, to extend it-makes the
Church a necessity-introduces an agency, the responsible duties of which, are as arduous as any that can be
laid upon frail humanity. The Apostles had no leisure.
They pressed their mission with ardor. Christ saw they
had need of a resting place. He said to them: " Come
ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest awhile."
The Master had to tell them  to do it.  Though they
were engaged in a religious work, there was danger of
their making it just as much a work-of running through
it-absorbed in it-neglecting the wise and proper culture of their souls, as the men did for whom they were
laboring. This has always been man's danger, of secularizing even religion. It was needful their souls should
be fed, their spirits should drink in, the rich and deep
things of God. He had something precious to impart
to them when they were in the desert, something no
city could give, the precious knowledge, that to be with
Him was to have all they could desire-to have God
for their friend. They wanted the still, small voice-not the whirlwind nor the storm.
What those Apostles needed is just what the whole
Church has needed, what all men need, the turning
aside from the heavy, pressing cares of life-the selfimposed and time-imposed burdens-the jostlings, vexations, strivings of the world, to be alone with God;
to lift the soul up to higher altitudes and clearer revealings; to let the soul define herself, her capacities, and
her longings. Like those Apostles, the Church of God
needs it for a two-fold end-needs it for personal edification and for universal benefit. How can the blind
lead the blind?  How can the Church tell men of God




70                    SERMONS.
and heaven, if she knows not God nor heavenly things?
It was not simply to rest their bodies, that Christ took
the disciples aside. It was rest, as all rest should be,
improvement.  It was rest, as rest in heaven will be,
learning of God.  Come ye yourselves apart; I have
something to tell you; I have food for you, and food for
you to give others. Amid the din and excitements of
life, this is the one thing we need. Perhaps it is because we are so little and so seldom apart with ourselves
and Christ, that life presses upon us so heavily. It is,
after all, the strength from within, with which we bear
up the burdens from without, and if that strength from
any cause be wanting, life is only bewilderment and unrest. God has mercifully appointed Sabbath-days, oneseventh of our time, in which specially to feed on divine
and eternal things. Christ calls us apart, to be with
Him and with God and ourselves.  Great blessings are
these Sabbaths, if we so spend them, not letting the
work of religion infringe upon this real purpose of soul
communion.  And yet, God would not limit us in this
purpose to Sabbath days. He would have us often apart
by ourselves, and perhaps one reason why the Church
in her aggregate, with all her machinery and doctrines,
is not more efficient, is that the Church, in her individuals, is not more frequently and closely in direct and
far-reaching communion with God.  I wish, therefore,
this morning to direct your attention to a few thoughts
upon the subject of prayer.
For the edification of our souls, for that is the true
meaning of rest to our bodies, God has mercifully appointed Sabbath days, one-seventh of our time, in which
to feed on divine and eternal things. Christ calls us
apart.  But "the Holy Church throughout all the




WHAT IS PRAYER?                 71
world," at this Lenten season, pauses to turn aside with
Christ to go up with Him to rest awhile-rest in holy
contemplation-in meditation upon the great human
struggle-in attuning the soul to heavenly things. Lent
is called a fast, an abstinence not merely from meats
and drinks, but a foregoing of many of those pleasures
and indulgencies, the giddy, frivolous things of life,
from which, it were better for man, would he declare
an eternal separation. Being here in the retired place,
the Master shows us the proper privileges of the time
and place, works of benevolence and prayer.
But more especially of prayer, and yet I do not know
that I ought to say "more especially of prayer," for
this is the season in which we should particularly count
up the mercies of God to us, and ask ourselves whether,
according to our ability and opportunity, we are sustaining those heavenly instrumentalities, which have
for their object, the giving of bread to human bodies,
and the meat which endureth to eternal life to human
souls. But it is of prayer I wish more particularly this
morning to speak.  The question which naturally and
first presents itself is, What is prayer? And it is a
question much more easy to ask than to answer.  If
there be up to this hour of mortal progress, one thing
more clearly defined by human inquiries into the constitution of things than another, it is, that man everywhere stands upon the shores of a great unknown. The
universe is an infinite circle. At any point of the circle on which man rests, on each side of him, stretches
an infinity.  Gaze in whatever direction he may, he beholds the wonderful.  The most that mortal thought
can do, is to promote science-i. e., knowledge of what
is-but no science can ever reach perfection, because




72                   SERMONS.
no science can ever measure all there is to be known.
The telescope reveals an infinity above us, and the microscope an infinity below us, or rather, neither is above
us nor below us, but we live, everywhere, with an infinity all around us. Man is the center of creation, and
yet, what we anywhere know, is as nothing to what we
do not know. In us and around us are forces and agencies more subtle than our keenest perceptions.  By
these forces and agencies, men and all things to which
they apply, have their being. As electricity kept the
pole to her center, and made the world revolve in blessing for man before he knew there was such a thing as
electricity; so, there are agencies more vital and powerful than that, doing their work for us, of which we
still are ignorant. Effects of electricity were in the
world as long as there has been a world, only we could
not explain them.  Effects, endless, are all around us:
we cannot explain them: we call them  mysteries.
" What we know not now we shall know hereafter!"
What is prayer?  First of all, it is a something for
which man finds in him  a special and peculiar need.
There is a law in our human being, there is a relation
between the moral intelligence creating, and the moral
intelligence created, which absolutely demands between
those two communication. Prayer is the outgrowth of a
law in moral being. Go back in the past as far as we
may, take as wide a range as our investigation can, we
find no age and no people to whom prayer has been unknown.  Whether you call the nation, Pagan, Jewish,
or Christian-whether you call the spirit of that people,
idolatrous, religious, superstitious or philosophic, the fact
of prayer remains the same. It may be that in many
people and for many ages together, the idea of the fact




WHAT IS PRAYER?                 73
is but dimly defined, or more than that, the manifestations may be, rather the perversion of the fact than the
fact itself-still, the perversion proves there must have
been a great original, and wherever there has been cultivation, there has been prayer, pure, comprehensive,
intelligible; and the purer, more reasonable, and intelligible, the philosophy or religion of a man has been, so
much the more pure, comprehensive and intelligible,
have been his prayers, until, to select the purest, noblest
men of our race, the men in advance of their kind, in
all usefulness, goodness and moral grandeur, is to select
the very men who have resorted most to prayer, to
what is otherwise called, "communion with God."
They who have not been true, nor great, nor useful,
have not been men of prayer, and so far have proved
that with whatever they communed, they lacked a communion with goodness, and consequently with God. The
purest religious systems, and so far as I know, all religious systems, enjoin the exercise of prayer. Nor is
prayer the result of the written commandment, but the
written commandment is the result of the original, natural law. Like all true commands, it is but the transcript of divinely ordained nature. So that whatever
prayer might be, many reasonable considerations conspire to show, that he who employs it is wiser than he
who neglects it; he who employs it, is in unison
with one of the highest laws of his being.  He who
neglects it, neglects his own soul.  He who will not
pray, or cannot pray, or does not pray, is out of tune
with highest being.  There is a blank in his spirit.
There is the best territory of his soul to him locked up,
unknown, utterly lost. That is part of what it is to be
lost, not that we are lost to something, but that some



74                    SERMONS.
thing is lost to us. There is a joy transcendent, perhaps the highest joy known to man, of which he is utterly ignorant, and whether he be wholly lost or not, in
that kind of being, and to that degree he is unfortunate,
because he is in darkness. If there be one here who
thinks prayer is useless, who from any cause is not in
the habit of praying, let not this thought escape you.
The absence of prayer, or of desire to pray, is a blank
in your highest and noblest being.
Because prayer is an office of our higher being, and
because it is responsive to a law, it cannot be that
prayer will soon cease, to a true child of God.  It is
common for us to talk of our prayers being eventually
turned into praises, but I think that is taking a very
narrow view of prayer; for, take away prayer from the
saints, and you take away the sweetest privilege they
have-it is heaven, it is presence with God; it was,
hence, that Jesus prayed-He, though upon earth, in
prayer was with the Father.  The same moral need
which is in all men was also in Him. That is the reason
He prayed; archangels pray; all holy beings pray; they
must commune with God. Prayer is not always asking
for something, not always praising; prayer is communion; your little child communes with you even when it
has no petitions to present.
Whatever it is, if it be as it would appear to be, by
God's own ordering-in His wisdom, which framed all
things-if it be, as it certainly is, the injunction of God
in His holy word, then it must be that God will have
respect to him who prays. If you establish the cause,
you of necessity establish the effect.  It is here you
strike the certainty of all God's promises-heaven and
earth may pass away, but God's word cannot pass away.




WHAT IS PRAYER?                 75
God's word is based upon eternal law; its foundations
stand fast forever.
Strange it seems to be-this very consideration,
which is the sinner's great encouragement, his almost
only plea-God's fidelity-has been brought sometimes
as the very reason why prayer was unreasonable. We
are told if God works by laws, then of necessity nature
must hold her course; causes must go on producing
their effects; things must be as they are decreed to be.
How can we in our misconceptions-asking for things
which are perhaps impossible-change the will of God?
How can we, when we know that He doeth all things
well, ever desire that his will should be changed? But
we do not desire God's will to be changed.  What if
this law of prayer be one of God's fixed laws?  We do
not ask impossible things. What if prayer itself be part
of the warp or the woof of the fabric which constitutes
His providence?  If it be, and I think you have some
reason to believe that it is, even nature herself yields
us what we persistently in another way ask her for, but
if it be, is it unnatural or unreasonable that it, like all
law, should effect its purpose? Is there not only an
additional reason then why we should pray? But look
again. Does prayer necessarily presuppose a change in
God?  Is there nothing else to change?  Suppose, instead of God's being turned into a likeness of our minds,
our minds should be turned into a likeness of God.
What then?  Would that be no desirable effect, no
blessing, no profit in prayer? May it not be, God instituted it for this very purpose? In our blindness we
know not God-we know  not what is for our good.
The blessing, the crowning glory of the creature, is to
be like God.  To see Him in His wisdom, His beauty,




76                   SERMONS.
His perfection-that is the creature's well-being. The
creature must change out of darkness into light, out of
weakness into strength, out of nothingness into real
being-man, and no doubt all creature-being, begins at
a germinal point. Man is to work his way from that
point upward; he is to learn of God-that is being. He
is to learn the laws of trust, of affection, of all wellbeing. A man finds a barrier across his path; he entreats God to take it away.  But suppose God does not
want it away; suppose he is upon the wrong road; suppose by prayer he finds it out, and comes back again to
where God does want him, and where there is no barrier? Is prayer of no use? Suppose he has a burden
upon his shoulders and he entreats God to take it away.
You know if you do not use your arm, how weak it
gets; if you do not train yourself to great achievements,
how incapable you become.  Suppose God sees how
weak his shoulders are, and for that very reason put
the burden there-not that he might have something to
carry, but be able to carry something-not that the
burden is with the carrying, but that the shoulders
should get stronger. You all know how the burden of
ten years ago, would now seem to you no burden at all.
You have grown.  Suppose God has some great work
for him to do, and is preparing that man to do it, and
suppose, by and by, he comes to see it, and does not ask
any more to have it removed, but prays God to go on
and make him all the stronger. Is there no profit in
prayer, and do you not see how it is God lays his heaviest burdens upon his strongest children? Is there then
no profit in prayer? May it not be-is it not certain,
God always answers, whether he gives us what we ask
for, or not? Is there no glory in the thought, that




WHAT IS PRAYER?                77
though the thorn be not removed, the sinner can stand
at last and say, God's grace is sufficient, and he can now
do all things through Christ strengthening him? Did
He who came from heaven make a mistake when He
prayed Himself, and taught all men to pray, and showed
us how to hope and endure, and be patient; how in
waiting we were still serving, and how out of all serving
came at last a reward?
And what a short-sighted view of God is it, to contemplate Him only as a combination of laws known to
us! Do we know all there is of God?  All His ways
of working?  Has He no resources, no ministering
agencies but those which have reported to us? Do we
know all there is of ourselves?  Are there no forces
within us which our philosophies have not discovered?
What is that longing, man feels in his spirit?  There is
a part of God's being, the broadest, grandest, highest, of
which, we as yet know almost nothing, with respect to
which, man is yet slow of heart to believe, a part not
without law, a part the climax and perfection of law, an
essence that, like gravity to material being, underlies and
pervades all moral being, that part called love. Who
yet has measured even human affection?  What line
or plummet ever sounded the depths of a mother's love?
What dictionary can define for us that word " Father?"
What within the limits of possibility has not been
wrought by the quenchless impulses of a devoted heart?
There is no relation in which God delights more to be
viewed, no thought of Himself which He delights oftener
to present to us, than that He is the "' Father," not simply, as we will persist in thinking, that He is the creator, the source of being, but that He is a sympathizer,
a being of feeling-feeling for us, feeling with us, abso



78                    SERMONS.
lutely interested in everything which wisely interests
us, a being who knows our whole nature, our present
wants, our future need, a being absolutely more ready
to give than we are to ask.  " Like as a Father pitieth
his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him."
This is the injunction of Him who came from the Father,
God's Son-came that we too might be sons-that we
might, when we pray, say " Our Father."  Come nestling home, come believingly, come as a child.
Is there no danger of presuming?  Yes, very great
danger; all folly or pride is presuming. But where there
is humility and love, and submission, and faith, and childlikeness, not childishness, but childlikeness-then, there
can be no presumption. Presumption is possible. When
you come with some craving out of a carnal heart, when
you petition for something worldly, something to keep
up your pride and vanity, something you have lost, but
which you ought never to have had, something you
never had, and which you ought never to have, then you
presume.  Because God is a Father, it does not follow
we should be foolish children, making our prayers an
abomination. You ask again, are we to bring none of
our worldly affairs before Him? Oh yes, all our worldly affairs. Blessed is he who has no affairs which he
cannot bring before God. You know in this world how
many of our affairs there are, which are not what God
has laid on us at all, but which we have laid upon ourselves.  Look at Martha, anxious about many things.
Carest thou not that my sister come and help me? Yes;
"' but why have so much to do? " You ask again: Are
we to be indifferent to our affairs?  Never, never.
Would that nine out of ten of us were more earnest
and diligent than we are?  What a blessed world it




WHAT IS PRAYER?                 79
would be if there was more fidelity for God's glory? Are
there then any of our affairs which press upon us, to
which God can be indifferent?  Not one.  That is it.
If they are thine affairs, then they are God's affairs too.
Bring them  to Him.  But in all our asking we should
always add: " Not my will, but thine be done." I do
not say it is easy to do. I do not think it is, and this
shows us, prayer is intended to lift us up to God, rather
than to bring God down to us. If we are in trouble, does
God not know it?  Is He not there with us?  " When
thou passest through the waters I will be with thee."
It is a blessed thing for some men and women to get
into real trouble. There is many a one of us, absolutely not a man or woman at all, until we get into trouble.
There is a varnish over our manhood, a tinsel outside
our real gold. God brings trouble sometimes to wear
it off, to make us seem what we really are. There is a
wide chasm between some of us, till a great trouble falls
into, and makes us accessible to each other. It will be
found in God's kingdom, that out of our apparent misfortunes sprung our greatest blessings.
In all our troubles, it is always the faith and submission and love of God we need more than the thing we
pray for. We do presume when we dictate too much
to God.  Israel asked a king, and God gave a king, not
because he wished to give it, but because it was the
best that poor, faithless Israel could receive-Balaam.
God may give us many things we ask for, and yet bring
leanness into our soul. Is not that contrary to his law
of love? Nay, what He gives may be the best we can
receive. It might only prevent us from being worse off.
It might delay our destruction and give one chance to
avert it. We are the measure of our gifts, not God's




80                   SERMONS.
love. In a proscribing spirit, we may indeed be worse
off for our prayers. When we pray God to convert the
world, we may mean convert it to our particular way
of thinking.  We may not think that we ourselves need
to be converted to the right. We may pray God to reward our enemies, or we may ask Him to bless them in
such a spirit, that God sees we really mean that He will
do to them as they have done to us, and then our prayer
is turned into sin. When Christ says, ask what you
will and it shall be given you, He presupposes it is
Christian asking. If it is a child you long to see converted-if it is a heart you wish to win-if it be some
act of mercy and love, you wish to accomplish, you cannot be too importunate.  If some great sorrow is at your
heart, if some longing beats there, you cannot tell to
another, bring it to God. If some temptation is in your
path, some fear darkens your way, be not afraid-temptation is not itself a sin-bring it to God. If some sin
lies upon your conscience, some denial of Him or His
cause-if you are out of the way, so that the heavens
look like brass, that you even cannot pray, bring it to
God; He is your best friend, and prayer is your highest
hope. If you look within you and see there a worldly
heart; if you look upon the Church, as most plainly
you may, and see there worldliness; if you look out
upon the world, and see there darkness and cruelty and
wrong and bitter woe; if you desire to be a child of
God, and wish many to share your heritage with you;
if you wish to see love and peace upon earth; if you
wish to see grace and piety and all that is lovely upon
earth; if you wish to see God's will done here as it is
in heaven, then pray. You cannot be presumptive, you
cannot be too importunate.  What saith He who want



WHAT IS PRAYER?                81
ed us all to be with Him the true children of God:
" Knock, and it shall be opened."  Knock where?  "I
am the door. My very being here, is pledge to you of
a Father's love."  Knock when?  At morning, and
at noonday, and at night-in the closet, at the family altar, with thy children around thee.  Knock
for what?  "In  everything, by prayer and supplication make request unto God."  Knock how?  Humbly, submissively, earnestly, perseveringly.  Feel that
God is there; feel that He will not turn you away.
Come as a child to a Father, with a big heart and a
high hope, because you are needy, and sinful and weary,
and long for a new life. So coming, then, what though
we be in this wilderness? there is bread enough and to
spare. So coming, then, what though we be toiling in
the darkness, buffeted by the elements? the Master does
not forget us, He is not only interceding for us, but
will soon appear, to take us to our rest. So coming,
then, Sabbath days and all seasons of communion with
God, will have lifted us further from this world, nearer
to the Saviour. So coming, we shall feed ourselves on
things divine, be better guides to others, and glorify
our Father which is in heaven, and lay up for ourselves
treasures that are eternal.




82                       SERMONS.
THE FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
PHILIPPIANS 1: 9, 10, 11.-And this I pray, that your love may abound
yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve
things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till
the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are
by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God.
PHILTPPI is supposed to have been the first place in
Europe in which St. Paul preached the Gospel. From
some things in this Epistle, it would appear, that the
Philippians were a people of a somewhat higher culture
than was usual in those times. Paul was a great faultfinder. His vision was so penetrating, he discovered
all the blemishes, all the omissions and commissions. He
was so much in earnest, he never failed to point out
evils, warn the people against them, and exhort them to
wisdom.  This Epistle of his, to the Philippians, differs
from all the rest of his Epistles, in this respect, that he
utters no complaint.  The relations existing between
him and them, were of the most endearing nature. There
was something in the people, which had caused them
deeply to appreciate the Apostle. Their souls responded
to the simple richness of his spirit.  This very Epistle
was occasioned by an act of kindness. They had heard
that he was a prisoner. Fearing lest he should suffer
from want of something their means could afford, they
sent a messenger with money to administer to his necessities.  This act of theirs was the occasion of his writing.  It may be supposed, their kindness toward him
had made him partial toward them, but the probability




THE FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.         83
is, their kindness toward him was a proof of their superior nature, so that Paul was not blinded by their gift,
but only made more sensible of the graces and virtues,
without which the gift itself had not been possible. He
could say respecting them, I thank my God upon every
remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine,
for you all, making request with joy: "And this is my
prayer: that your love may abound yet more and more
in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve
things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and
without offence, till the day of Christ; being filled with
the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ
unto the glory and praise of God."
This is a very comprehensive prayer; it is worthy of
such a heart as Paul's. It was not that he cared more
for them, than he did for his other Churches; he did not
reflect so much upon the fact that they cared more for
him, only, there are souls whose sympathies go out
toward us, and souls toward whom our sympathies go
up, and to whom our hearts can make a clearer revelation of their yearnings. The Apostle wanted to see this
rich and appreciative nature in them, still richer. He
desired it to be developed: "I desire that your love
may abound," i. e., be constantly increasing "your love."
He must have meant their loving disposition-the spirit
of love that was in themn-the affectionate nature. It
is surprising how a given spirit will sometimes pervade
a whole community-a whole church. Towns and congregations just as much have their dispositions, their
characters, as individuals.  Unhappily it is not always
a spirit, the essence of which is love. If you run
through Paul's Epistles to his different churches, you
will find his tone varying, so as to bear with effect upon




84                    SERMONS.
their respective peculiarities.  The  Romans were a
proud people.  The Corinthians, a worldly-minded,
skeptical people; the Galatians, a fitful, irresolute people, and so all the way through. Each had its characteristic, and so it is still. Some congregations are sociable and friendly; some are humble and affectionate;
some are receptive and charitable; some are worldly
and trifling; some are proud and seclusive; some are
talkative and gossipy; some are suspicious and cold;
some are captiofs —never satisfied; some are enthusiastic, running into ecstacies over nothing; some are not
much of anything. Blessed is the people that find the
man who suits them, and blessed is the man who finds
the people that suits him, provided they both be of the
right kind.  There can be no suiting, unless both are
assimilated. If they are both wrong-if a worldly man
gets into a worldly congregation-there will be woe to
them and to their children, here and hereafter. Where
they are both right, there will be mutual joy, full, free
and deep. To a minister of the Gospel, the recollection
of the righteous among any congregation he has left, is
full of peculiar joy, even long years after he has left
them.  Paul said of these people, " I long after you."
He found in them a people to his mind; they loved him
and he loved them, only he desired that this loving disposition of theirs, should not be a negative one.
This is the peculiar danger of such dispositions: to be
timid and easy; to run into routine; to take things for
granted; to verge upon the sentimental; not to realize
duty, in its steamer aspect; not to be very aggressive.
hunem we so-metimes   ien  whtait ms aiL  A a\  ing Mdspvsition, we feel, if the world were full of such spirits, it
would be a very sorry world. We should all only drift.




THE FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.            85
There is no fire in them, nothing for grand or glorious
deeds. There is no depth, nor height, nor length, nor
breadth. If the world went to the bottom, they would
sigh and think, after all, it were best it should. If the
whole world were asleep, they would think it better not
to disturb it.  Paul had no desire that the Philippians
should settle down into this. Christianity was not intended for that. Activity and truth are not antagonistic to
love. Put vigor into the love, and you have what Paul
was himself, and it was very natural he should desire
these Christians to be like him. He had been striving
to realize his own ideal. His Master before him, was
his model.  A  loving disposition, was the very best
kind of a disposition, if it lighted, and warmed a whole
Christian manhood.  Take a loving disposition abounding in positive qualities, and there is nothing nobler. It
is the beginning of an archangel. " I pray that your
love may abound more and more," but I desire that its
increase shall be in knowledge and in all judgment. In
St. Peter we have this passage: "Add to your faith,
virtue, or manliness, and to manliness, knowledge."
You observe how both these Apostles agree in this,
how they contemplated Christianity, as going down to
the foundations of our being, pervading and quickening
our whole nature.  Peter says: "Add to your faith
knowledge."  Paul says: let your love increase in knowledge-knowledge of God, knowledge of ourselves, of
nature, of this humanity in its capabilities and wants,
of art, of science, of all that God hath done. What
worlds would open to many of us, if we could spend
our time in learning something. How we should cease
to want amusement.  How  we should no longer be
clothed in levity and folly, but in truth and wisdom.




86                   SERMONS.
The Savionr said, we should love God not only with all
our heart and all our soul, but with all our mind. Paul
says, let your love increase in knowledge. To this he
adds, "and in all judgment."  The word he uses here
for judgment, is peculiar, and expresses rather what we
express by our phrase, " common sense," understanding.
It is a word which conveys a very important idea, perhaps more important to us to-day than to those to whom
Paul immediately wrote it. You will find in your margin, for the word, sense. I desire that your love increase in knowledge and sense. They are far from being the same thing.  Many a man knows a great deal,
who has not sense enough to know, whether, what he
knows, is worth knowing, As a general thing, our
Christian knowledge runs in single veins. Owing to
the peculiar condition of our Christianity at this moment,
we are not educated, which means that our powers be
developed, so that we shall be able to think and know
something for ourselves-so much as we are inducated,
if I might use the word. Something is crowded into
us. When we are full, we are supposed to have knowledge, but we do not pause to consider of what kind it
is, what it all amounts to, what it is worth, what it enables us to do. This word of Paul's embraces the whole
idea of the practical-of that which is wise, discreet,
available.  A doctor may know by heart the materia
medica, and yet not be able to write a proper prescription. A lawyer may know all the codes, and yet not
be able to manage a case in court. A minister of the
Gospel may know all the fathers and the history of the
Church, the decrees of councils and the work of the
Middle Ages, and yet be all the worse for his knowledge; he may have nothing to apply to his times



THE FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.         87
nothing that is religion —nothing that anybody wants,
or ought to have, even if they want it. This is, unhappily, too much our condition. We accept without inquiry, that to which, by our birth or other accidents, we
become accustomed.  A Romanist follows the teachings
of the Church; he administers his holy water; counts
his beads; runs through the requirements of his faith.
Suppose he should pause to do as Paul bids us all do,
exercise judgment, common sense-ask how it is possible for things to be as he is told they are-his common
sense would break up his creed. If any of us should
grow thoughtful, and exercise sense, and ask the meaning of much to which we are accustomed, it would work
a revolution in our religion-e. g., why so many divisions of Christianity?  When millions know  nothing
of the Gospel at all, why so many men, each preaching a
peculiar doctrine? What is the use of our peculiarities,
even if they have foundation in some reality?  What
do we gain thereby?  What does man gain by them?
Where is their wisdom?  Why do we build so many
churches, to be occupied only a few hours out of every
week, when, if we would worship at different hours,
one church would do for all.  Why do we do it, especially when so many poor are in want of bread? When
a town wants schools, and libraries, and lyceums, and
lecture rooms —when so many agencies are crying to us
for help, and we always complain that money is so
scarce?  How, with all our religion and churches, we
still work against each other! Suppose we ask ourselves, What though the world be covered with beautiful churches, if man be vile, if God be not worshiped
in spirit and truth?  What though we have infinite
creeds, if nobody really believes, if mammon govern us,




88                   SERMONS.
if passion and pride and folly be the rule of our lives.
If where piety and humility-brotherly love and rich
heart-culture and every virtue ought to be, there is only
vanity and show, what is the use of so much religious
machinery?  If we should stop to define real religion,
and then define what passes for religion, the definition
would bring us to our senses.  We should have some
sense in our religion. If we should exercise our senses,
that would bring us to make definitions, and we should
get much nearer to a unity than we are.
That this is embraced in Paul's meaning, is evident
from the next clause.  I desire that you abound in
knowledge and judgment, for this reason, " that you
may approve things that are excellent," literally, " that
you may try things that differ," that you may find out
the elements amid which you live, and assimilate the
best.  Who of us could do that?  I verily believe,
brethren, that notwithstanding our attachment to our
respective churches, our devotion is rather negative
than positive-more out of our ignorance than out of
our knowledge. First of all, a very large proportion of
our religion is mere attachment to church organization.
Then we know very little about that, about our real
doctrines, the reasons we have for things. Very few
Episcopalians can give a good reason for bowing the
head in the creed. You will very often be amazed at
the absence of anything like large information upon
very simple and common subjects.  There are few of
us that could not be argued out of what we have thought
we believed for years, if a stronger and better informed
mind encountered ours.  That is the reason why men
change their creeds.  They knew nothing of their old
creed.  They know nothing of their new one. They




THE FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.         89
will soon be ready for a new change. We do not try
things that differ. It would not be safe for some of us
to try. Cut us loose from where we are, and we would
be adrift, unballasted, blown about by every wind of
doctrine.  We have no mind-force to move us toward
any real haven.  We are not weaned from our sensesfrom  mere habit.  I do not wonder people guard
their pulpits the way they do, that they so jealously
watch the lips of their appointed teachers and raise a
cry the moment a new idea comes in. Methodist, Puritan, Quaker.  Why, we will not let our teachers teach.
We go fast enough, where knowledge and sense do not
lead; no extravagance, no absurdity gives us pause.
With all our religion and churches, we have no time to devote to real subjects of the rich and deep things of God.
We have no reason for any hope that is in us.  I sometimes try to conceive what the general idea of heaven
is.  I conclude there is no idea.  If there be, it excludes
mind and common sense, it robs eternity of all dignity
and worth, for there is nothing to do. It will be impossible to tie the kingdom above, down to our limitations, as we try to do here-down to mere bodily sense;
and so some of us will lose our heaven for we shall leave
it behind us.'" I desire that your love may abound in
knowledge and sense that ye may try things that differ,"
in other words, that ye may know something, and that
you may inquire and select and get the best, dwell in
such love and intercourse that you may compare notes
one with another and so aid each other. But the Apostle
goes on: " That ye may be sincere and without ofence."
Both these words are very forcible and peculiar.  The
word translated sincere, is compounded of two words,
one meaning sunlight, and the other discrimination; lit,




90                   SERMONS.
erally, to be put in the sunlight and found pure and
bright. It goes down into the very recesses of being.
It drags up motive.  It demands transparency.  I do
not think transparency of character and action is considered a Christian grace. We, at any rate, assert that
we do not practice it, by always inferring a motive in
others, other than that avowed.
I do not know that all do it, but I think you will all
agree, that there is too much suspicion-too much fear
that we have an underhanded motive.  And this might
arise from our practice, which is wrong and unchristian,
of concealing our motives, even in things themselves
perfectly right and lawful. We do not wish people to
know our business, and yet they do know it, too much
of it-take pains to find it out. We give ourselves too
much trouble as to what others think about us. We
are not aware how much we are slaves to other people's
notions, and that must be why they have so many notions of us, because they know we mind them.  We
have nothing to do with what anybody thinks of us.
We are only to know that we are pure and right. Let
people think what they please. " That ye may be sincere," viewed in the sunlight and found pure. What a
blessing would absolute manliness, Christian courage,
true independence be! How  free is such a man!
How loved of God!  Sincere.  Suppose we examine
ourselves. Why have we been to church to-day? Was
it custom?  Was it curiosity?  Was it amusement?
Was it fear of what others would say if we staid home?
Was it love of God, to worship Him. Whatever it was,
when we were here, did we worship?  Did He who
seeth the heart, know that you prayed? Was there no
formality? This word sincere, even in our English has




THE FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.          91
a peculiar meaning because a peculiar origin. It is
composed of two Latin words, "Sine," without; "cere,"
wax-without wax.  In old times, people used to write
notes to each other, and tie a string around them, and
seal the ends of the string with wax.  When friends
were intimate, and open-hearted toward each other,
they folded the letter, and, leaving off the string and
wax simply wrote the word " sincere." Without formality, without any make believe, my heart to your heart.
I heartily wish there were no string and wax in religion,
or society, or anywhere else. There ought not to be
among Christians. Instead of adding more to our religion and to our intercourse with each other, we ought to
strip it of much that is. Christian purity, pure Christianity, will of necessity tend to simplicity, not to ceremony, and formality.  Ceremony eats the core out of
soul.  There can be no soul where there is ceremony.  At any rate, soul and ceremony are in inverse
proportions. Our world is dead of ceremony. It goes
to church with us; it abides in our homes. It carries
us to our graves. It mourns for us afterwards. There
cannot be anything of it in heaven. If there is, heaven
is not heaven.  Oh! to be rid of it; to be free! We
can be, we ought to be. Paul wished the Philippians to
be.  Jesus had no ceremony.  What a figure that is
-that Son of God standing in the majesty of a matchless simplicity! Oh! to be like Him.
Christians, you cannot be "harmless" or "without
offence" if you are not sincere.  This phrase, without
offence, is also a compound word in the original.  It
means "Cnot a stunblingblock."  It does not mean that
you simply pass through the world not being yourself
offended. It recognizes the duty-the very object of a




92                    SERMONS.
Christian-to be a light, a guide, a helper of souls towards heaven. It implies something to do-a life-work.
There are two kinds of lights-true beacons and wreckers lights: sometimes, when wicked men wish to destroy
a ship, they build a fire on the strand; a false light
shines as well as a true one; the unskilled mariner is
lured to his destruction. Such a light is a ceremonious,
half-hearted Christian; and oh, brethren, how many of
us, by ignorance, by thoughtlessness, by neglect, by
worldliness, by insincerity, by endless mistakes, are
luring others into danger. God would not have it so.
It does not grow out of your religion, but out of your
want of religion. The Saviour wants you close to him,
in thought, in discretion, in sincerity. What a richness
there is in all true being! What a glorified condition
must that be in which every soul is full of knowledge,
full of wisdom, full of love unfeigned. What a condition must that be when all is real. Such is heaven.
God wants you and me to be such souls, that we may
enter that heaven.  Oh, what a God is our God, and
oh, what a glory it must be to be His child. Christ
came to show us what such a child is; he set us an example that we may follow His steps. God wants us to
be such here below; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ. This expression, " till
the day of Christ," might just as well be " to the day of
Christ,  or even " in the day of Christ," i. e., in this your
Christian day, through this day in which our Christian
work is all to be done. The idea, however, at last is
the same; clear this life, up to the day in which life will
be closed, and Christ will come to take you to the land
of reward-the home for glorified souls-till He shall
come to pronounce upon our work-the degree in which




THE FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.          93
it has been done to Him, " to the glory and praise of
God."  This is the summing up of Paul's prayer-this
its fullness-that we may be filled with the fruits of
righteousness-rather laden-as a tree with fruitsladen with righteous fruit-which are "by Jesus Christ,"
by faith in His name, by trust in His redeeming love,
by imitation of His example, by love and devotion to
Him, by longing to be with Him, to enter into His rest,
by the power of His spirit, for we can do nothing of
ourselves-by the efficacy of His intercession, by His
divine grace, " to the praise and glory of God."  This
is the consummation of it all-this is what we are created for-God's glory, God's praise.  This is why we
are left here to work, to chasten ourselves, and mould
our hearts; that by our works, this world, this whole
race, may be brought to salvation, to know the true
God and Jesus Christ, whom He hath sent-this whole
race be lifted to the privileges we enjoy ourselves, and
all be made sons of God.  This, then, is my message to
you to-day-a higher life-"nearer, my God, to theenearer to thee." We are called from darkness to lightcalled to the power of spiritual resurrection. Oh, brethren, it is worth striving for, and the day is very short;
the reckoning will soon come. Let us then strive and
strive lawfully-strive according to God's own plan. If
we keep the faith we shall have the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give
us at that day, and not to us only, but unto all them
that love his appearing.




94                       SERMONS.
THE VICTORY OVER SIN.
1 CORINTHIANS 15: 56, 57.-The sting of death is sin, and the strength of
sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ.
THIS fifteenth chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the
Corinthians is too well known to Christians generally, to
render any minute explanation necessary.  The Apostle begins with a partial expression of the Gospel, with
evidences of facts relating to Christ, and particularly
with those respecting the resurrection. From this he
seeks to establish the fact of our resurrection, and closes,
in the glowing exultation of a soul already alive in the
blissful hope of immortality.
The great fact of the resurrection of Christ from the
dead, is, throughout the civilized world, to-day, the one
absorbing thought and theme.  In all languages, among
all tribes, there is to-day the throb of a higher life.
Spirits, strangers to each other, are quickened by similar emotions, and participate in the same universal joy.
It is a pleasant thought, that amid all the vocations,
ambitions, and struggles of life, religion, the idea of a
future, never dies.  Wherever man inhabits, under all
that is outward, above all that is transient, swells the
thought of an endless existence. Men instill the thought
into their children. They give life to keep it alive.
But in four hundred millions of our race to-day the
same thought, upon a loftier level, is connected with
this one being, Jesus Christ. Patiently, as the year




THE VICTORY OVER SIN.              95
revolves, we contemplate Him, in His wonderful incarnation.  We follow  Him  in His instruction, His life,
His connection with all time, His grasp of all being.
We stand humiliated, in the face of our meanness, as
compared with thb majesty of His greatness.  From
the depths of the contrast, spring the foundations of
hope.  Though so unworthy, we are still worth saving.
There is death in us, but there is life in Him. We see
this lower nature smite Him, and trample on Him, and
bury Him.  Over us, over what we call nature, over
death itself, there comes a triumph. Through the gloom
of mortal ignorance, sin and wrong, across all doubt and
uncertainty, away beyond the grave, from the shores of
the "better land," comes the assurance of an endless life.
Christ is risen from  the dead.  As in Adam all die,
even so in Him, shall all be made alive.
This is the thought the Apostle would impress:
"Christ is risen" and become the "first fruits" of them
that slept.  The rifled tomb proclaims, there is no death
in any such sense as annihilation, or ceasing to exist. Whatever truly is, forever is.  To prove this absolutely, by
human logic, is impossible. We have not the elements
of an absolute proof, or if we have we are incapable of
so combining them.  But resurrection is written in
universal nature. Preservation of all things that are, is
as wonderful as original creation, itself. To everything
there is an essence that never dies.  It changes its
form, but preserves its identity. The spring-time with
its flowers; the ages with their myriad reproductions,
combine with the beatings of the human heart, and tell
us of immortality.  Before Christ came, from periods
very remote, men believed in a human resurrection.
To stop to prove the fact of Christ's resurrection




96                     SERMONS.
would now  be a work of supererogation.  We do not
need it.  But that fact in itself, does not absolutely
prove our resurrection.  It would if we knew  all the
connections, but those are just the items unknown to
us.  We cannot say, because He rose, therefore we shall
rise.  We can say this, as Paul says: "If Christ be
preached that He rose from  the dead, how  say some
among you that there is no resurrection of the dead."
" If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ
not risen." But if Christ be risen, then we can certainly say, resurrection is not impossible. There is such a
thing as resurrection, whether we are to have part and
lot in it or not. Now when we combine the utterances
of nature, the voice of the ages, the longings of the
heart, the teachings of Jesus, with thefact of the resurrection,-then we can say:' As in Adam all die, even
so in Him shall all be made alive." Here is the point
of the resurrection-it proves that Christ was true.
The evidence is cumulative.  The proof, to the eye of
faith, is conclusive.  The value of the resurrection of
Christ is, it is an example, a practical illustration.  It
sets at rest conjecture.  It crowns all evidence with a
fact.  It never-more can be rationally said, that there is
no resurrection of the dead. If Christ said there would
be a resurrection, and proved Himself true by His resurrection, then there will be a resurrection. Let us
hold fast this idea, for it is the clearest certainty to us
of immortality.
But to what extent is this fact, when established, a
consolation to us? All are to rise-the just and the
unjust-they that have been wise, to a resurrection of
life, and they that have been unwise, to a resurrection
of condemnation.  You see there, hanging over that




THE VICTORY OVER SIN.              97
fact, other and greater facts. What is the value of the
assurance of an undying future, if that future, by any
possibility to any of us, should be an undying remorse?
Is existence so precious in itself, that it can be coveted,
even though its continuance were a misfortune? You
see, the death and resurrection of Christ must have a
force and significance, over and above the mere letter.
If we confine ourselves to that, there is as much there
still to consume us, as there is to comfort us. Myriads
of beings would be delighted to know just the reverse,
of all this fact proves-would be delighted to know there
were no future, no hereafter.
From the crucifixion and grave of Christ, you learn,
that dying and burial are not death. From the resurrection and ascension of Christ, you learn, that mere existence is not life.  Over all that God has done, still swells
the great truth that man's responsibility is forever the
same.  If we are to exist forever, it is of infinite importance to us that we should know it. If that future is
to be what we make it, it is of eternal importance to us
that we make it as wisdom would have it, and that we
be taught what wisdom  is.  There is the goodness of
God in sending His Son to save us from our sins. That
is the voice of the incarnation, the whole of it, with all
it included. God would reveal to us the real life everlasting.  There is the universal fact of death.  We
cannot resist it, or by any possibility escape it. There
is the eternal fact of future existence. We cannot by
any possibility escape that. The one is as fixed as the
other.  When we lie down in the grave ourselveswhen we lay our beloved ones there, we can be as certain
of another world, as we are of this. But what of that
world?  That is the question.  What are we?  Are




98                    SERMONS.
we walking in light as God is in the light, with the
sons of God, or moving in the outer darkness, where
there is but unrest and bitterness? God is reconciled
to us. Are we reconciled to Him?  If not, we are in
our sin.  There is a " sting" to death.  " That sting of
death is still sin." You see that. Take the wickedest
man in the world.  When he comes down to die, he
still believes he cannot altogether die.  He wishes too
to live, and knows that whether he wishes it or not he
must. Nature, being, as God has made it, asserts itself.
Man not only clings to existence, but feels it will cling
to him.  Not only is there a sense of continued existence, but at the same time also, a sense of guilt. The
one is as natural as the other, a feeling, a consciousness,
not under our control, a part of our nature. There may
be degrees of sin, as when a man dieth, as the brute dieth,
" without bands in their death "-asking nothing of the
past or of the future, insensible alike to life or death,
but that is, if possible, the most hopeless of all death.
It is an insensibility hardly human, and fortunately for
us, seldom reached.  But the most of us have a conscience, a foreboding of judgment, a feeling in us of
shame, of fear.  We have no friend.  We go alone.
The essence of guilt, guilt itself, if you analyze it, is
not something in which God mercilessly wraps us.  It
is an instant consequence of transgression. Nature is
her own police force.  Adam  disobeyed God.  What
then?  He instantly slunk away and hid himself.  He
placed himself under arrest. Your child transgresses.
What then?  It is instantly afraid of you, the best
friend it has.  The instant effect of sin is, it makes us
feel, God is our enemy. It asserts a lie, a cloud rises, a
feeling that we call guilt, a worm and fire in us. But




THE VICTORY OVER SIN..99
God has not changed at all.  He is just the same.
What then is the matter?  Why, we have transgressed,
disobeyed.  Transgressed what and disobeyed what?
Why, a law, the law, an arrangement of God, the constitution of nature, the right thing.  You see how guilt at
once asserts a righteousness, a law of right. You see
how the Gospel, in speaking of the law, does not mean the
Mosaic law, but all law, this law of right.  That law is
still there. It hangs over you. It cannot be broken,
or annihilated, or removed. Endless worlds hang upon
it.  It has strength.  No conspiracy, no ingenuity, no
power can destroy it. There it stands. It does nothing, only to try to resist it, is to be instantly stricken
with a feeling of unworthiness, of shame, of fear, to
have that grim law, between the transgressor and God.
Violate the law of noble manliness. It is a good law.
Do a mean thing and then you feel mean.  The law
itself strikes you with condemnation.  The sense of
guilt is the voice of warning, the alarm of danger.
Suppose God is love. Suppose He forgives all the time.
What of it, if He is beyond that barrier, and the spirit
feels He is its enemy? That is what guilt does for us,
makes us misconceive God, blinds us. Tells us God is
something which He is not.  It surrounds Him with
fires and thunderbolts and wrath. And when the soul
looks down into the grave, and beyond that, into the
fathomless darkness of death, it shrinks, and real death
is there with its sting, goading the spirit into an unutterable wretchedness.  "The sting of death is sin."
A consciousness of sin, a God offended, no way of escape,
that is it, which makes death so ghastly, the coffin and
the grave so utterly repulsive. That it is which makes
us shrink back from  ourselves, from existence itself.




100                   SERMONS.
"The sting of death is sin," and "the strength of sin
is the law." The law is good enough; the law is needful.  What said the Saviour: Heaven and earth could
pass away sooner than that a jot or tittle of the law
could fail-and so it would, for if the law could fail,
then heaven and earth would pass away.  He had not
come to destroy the law, nay, but to magnify and make
it honorable. The law has strength; it is the cohesive
force of the universe; take it away, and all is chaos.
It is because it is needful, that it is strong, and because
it is strong, it must hold its way, though a myriad souls
are crushed by its power.  Salvation, is to be in harmony with it.  He who thinks that Christ rendered it
inoperative, misunderstands Christ; he who thinks that
faith in Christ can justify disobedience, has no faith.
Christ changed nothing; he brought a new law to our knowledge. Obedience to the new law, changes our relations
to the old law. The whole change effected by Christ,
must be in the sinner, or else there is no change; hence
it is, that while the Gospel is for every one, it is for him
that believeth.  "Whosoever will may partake of the
waters of life," but, if he would have life, he must partake; he must be born from above.' Neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new
creature."
Christ does not save by any arbitrary efficacy, or divine feat. There is no such thing, for all divine action
is by law. Christ saves, by putting into the sinner that
which is in Him, or, otherwise to express it, the sinner
is saved by putting on Christ; what Christ was; becoming a fulfiller of the law: " He that hath the Son of
God, hath life." Faith is perceiving, accepting, applying.  Any one of us is saved only as-precisely to that ex



THE VICTORY OVER SIN.            101
tent to which-we understand and obey Christ.  If there
were such a thing as an arbitrary efficacy in Christ,
then all men would be saved, and then too moral nature
would be gone.  But because moral nature is still left,
and there is no such thing as arbitrary efficacy, man is
saved by faith, and faith is, rising into Christ, and being what Christ in His being showed us what to be.
This is the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. But
faith is victory.  We are victors-we must overcome.
The law which Christ brought in was the law of parental authority, or, if you view it from the other end, the
law offilial obedience.  Sin is ignorance of law and hostility to it. Religion is, knowledge of law and obedience
to it. Man in all ages has neglected to study, to learn.
When by any means knowledge has come, he has preferred that which was pleasant, to that which was wise,
that which was dogmatical, to that which was true. We
Christians of to-day are making religion, custom and
doctrine, not truth and life. Thus he has destroyed
himself-he has considered the law a taskmaster, his
enemy.  But because it was fixed, his refusal to obey
it, made it a taskmaster and turned it into his enemy.
He ran point-blank against it; something had to yield;
the law was strong, and he was crushed. Now the Saviour comes in and says-recognize the law, realize its
strength, obey it, find it out-learn of me-and you at
once invert all relations, and the law is henceforth your
slave-you are master.  Put my yoke on, and you find
rest to your soul. Remember, God is your Father. All
that is, is calculated for your good. Be His child and
love Him, and then you instantly outstrip the law and
anticipate all good. You swallow up the first in the
power of the second.  The law of love in Christ, sets you




102                    SERMONS.
free from the law of sin and death, by taking you out of
your antagonism to it. It has not changed nature, but
it has changed you.  There is a renovation in you-a
new life. Before Christ, there stands the law with its
code in one hand, and the rod of correction in the other;
man grumbling, doing just as little as he could, and being chastised at every step. In Christ then is the code,
but its enactments are anticipated-its will is done without its speaking. The rod is annihilated, because it is
useless. In Christ, man is not a passive agent, acted
upon; but a being, active, combining all law into a force,
lifting him into the dignity of a son of God. Before
Christ, the law is penalty, and prison-house, and death.
In Christ, all law is school, and culture, and rich development; it is truth and freedom.  In the family, the
disobedient child requires rules and correction. The
loving child, anticipates all rules, and the rod is unknown.  In society, the criminal is the victim of the
law.  The honest citizen is set free from the law.  The
useful citizen is its guardian protector, and even its
maker.  The wisest people have the shortest code, not
that they know  the fewest laws, but that they know
most laws. The law is written in their heart. You are
not afraid of the police; you are so for above them, it
even seems strange to you, anybody should so live as to
make a police needful.  Out of Christ, the sinner is destroying himself. In Christ, man, poor and frail as he
seems, becomes a co-worker with God, and is making
for himself a heritage with all that is eternally glorified.
The divine law is written in his heart. Like the Saviour, he delights to do God's will. Love is the fulfilling of the law. The rod and the code grow useless and
die; the soul grows stronger and lives.  It has van



THE VICTORY OVER SIN.            103
quished the law.  A  perfect love has cast out all
fear.  There is victory.  Does this, then, throw any
light upon these words: "The sting of death is sin,
and the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God,
which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ." Suppose it should have to be said to you today: " Thou shalt not steal."  What a reflection it
would be upon your condition! What a thrill it sends
through you, to even think of it. Suppose you should,
practically, in earnest, have to say so to your child, how
it would grieve you! How it must grieve God to have
to say this to His own offspring!  But when it was
needful for Him to say it, how merciful in Him to step
in and write it for our instruction! Do you see, how
even Moses himself was only part of the eternal love of
the everlasting Father?  Do you see, how man hath
been all along under only one dispensation, and that a
dispensation of mercy?  How Moses was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ? Do you see, that if Moses
is a hard taskmaster, it is because we were degraded
slaves?  The law says, "thou shalt not steal," "thou
shalt not murder."  Jesus says, "thou shalt love thine
enemies and do good to them  that hate you."  " The
law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by
Jesus Christ."
In Moses we were servants; in Jesus we are sons.
In Moses, under a law which proclaimed our degradation. In Jesus, in a law which asserts our exaltation.
Now, suppose it be needful for any voice from God to
come in to-day and say to you, " my son, give me thy
heart," are you born again?  Have you any victory?
What does that imply with respect to you?  Suppose
you are buried up, not under the old decalogue, but un



104                  SERMONS.
der worldliness and  selfishness, under vanity, and
earthly, and carnal indulgence, under idleness and uselessness, though you have escaped from Moses, have
you entered into Christ. If you have escaped from the
swine, have you got home to your Father's house?
Do you see what the cross means, what the death of
Christ means, that the old, carnal, earthly manhood must
be crucified; that, to save a life, you must lose a life;
that the old manhood must be buried, and the new
manhood raised?  Do you see what the resurrection
means, that we must leave the oldness of the letter and
enter upon the newness of the spirit?  Do you see what
Paul means, when he says: " Christ, our Passover, is
sacrificed for us, therefore let us keep the feast-not
with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth?" It was needful
that Jesus should be crucified, that we might know the
depth of the meanness there was in us-the meanness
that placed him there.  Think of a race that could
crucify such a being. It was needful that we might
know that no depth of meanness in us could exhaust
the riches of His heavenly love. It behoved Him to
be obedient even unto the death of the cross. It was
needful that He should rise again that he might proclaim the fact and power of an endless life-that he
who is obedient and loving and faithful and true, hath
life, hath it abundantly, hath it eternally, is victor over
all law, all death; that death has no more sting, and
the grave no more victory, but that the child of God is
glorified forever; that the service of God is perfect
freedom.  Do you see the victory which looms up
through all time for this world, and through eternity in
the world to come-victory over self, over wrong, over




THE VICTORY OVER SIN.           105
all evil, over ignorance, all that is negative and sensual
and earthly; victory in knowledge, in virtue, in grace,
in peace-in all that can trtly elevate and glorify.
Death hath no more dominion! Do you see how the
fact of the incarnation, gives you a mission upon earth,
and calls you out of darkness into light? Can you see
how resurrection must be a fact-not merely for our
day, but a fact perpetual through time and through
eternity? A fact in you and in me, or else we cannot
ascend to our Father in heaven? And can you to-day,
in view of what you would have been without Jesus,
and in view of what you might be by Him, exclaim as
Paul did-" Thanks be to God?"  If, out of the fullness of a rejoicing spirit, you can say that, to-day, then
the grave may be there, and the law may be there, but
you have already risen, you have entered into life.
When you contemplate your dying hour, and think
upon God, there is no shudder of fear, no thrill of condemnation-the forerunner is there, the advocate is
there, the crown of life is ready. Yes, when we close
the eyes of our loved ones, and lay them away in the
dust, there is no death-" Thanks be to God."  The
dying hour is the messenger which God hath sent to
welcome us to Himself-" Thanks be to God."  We
niever can be thankful enough for that blessed life, that
blessed death, that glorious resurrection. We have
victory through Jesus Christ. Death is swallowedHeaven is opened. We and our Father are one.
But there is the point, whether we have entered into
this life. When we look around this world in its darkness, its selfishness and its sin, when we contemplate
the quarrelling, the fraud, the envy, the vice and all
wrong, under which our race groans, when we realize




106                  SERMONS.
the loneliness and unrest, which broods upon life, we
feel there has yet been in man, as a race, no true resurrection. The law is still the strength of sin, and sin is
still the sting of death. The law is weak, because we
can never compel a soul. The one want to the human
heart, is this law of love. To that alone all good is
possible.  When we contemplate the Church, that universal body, made up of what we call believers; when
we behold the vast machinery, the endless outward
signs of respect and reverence for the name of Jesus;
and then reflect that it is yet early, the day of life
not yet dawned; we must feel that we are like that
band of hearts which went on the first Easter to an
empty grave, to "find a risen Christ." We cannot help
feeling that somehow, with all our love, we have made
a mistake. With all our affectionate preparations for
embalming, what is it we would embalm but a dead
body after all? And does this world want that? And
no wonder as we go, we have misgivings, and endless
problems start up before us, and we say to ourselves,
"Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of
the sepulchre?" Brethren, we are to-day, and long
have been, looking back into the grave of the past and
seeking our Christ from there. The great evil which
afflicts the Church to-day, is the fact that she would
have only an embalmed and historic Christ. We look
back, and behold Christ is not where we have laid
Him.  It is not possible that He should be holden of
death-a voice comes from the cave and says, He is
not here.  Go tell my disciples the Lord is risen, and
bid them seek a living Christ. If we could lift our
eyes and realize that thought, and it is a thought I
would like to leave with you to-day, that ours is a living




THE VICTORY OVER SIN.           107
Christ, a Christ that is with us always-then our eyes
would be opened, and we should know Him and the
power of his resurrection.  The news would spread,
unbelief would die, joy would thrill through our world,
and Christ, risen and glorified, would once more go in
and out among us, in sweet and peaceful communionour whole manhood would be raised up into a new life,
and then would be joy along all our world. This is
the thought that we want to realize, that we must have
Him to live with us, and live in us here, if we are to
live with Him hereafter. To realize what it is for us
to live in Him, and have Him live in us, is the one
work that you and I have to do, upon earth. That we
may, under the banner of His love, through all duties
and trials of life, amid all its chances and changes, go
on to do it, is the one prayer that wells up from my
heart to-day. It is to this living Christ I have tried
all along to lead you, to whom I believe I am trying
myself to come, and in whom and with whom I trust,
when all the chances and changes of this mortality are
ended, we shall all stand together forever. May all our
Lents and all our Easters, and all the experiences and
vicissitudes of life, only build us up more and more
into the likeness of Him who died and rose again, into
that blessed likeness which shall make us heirs of God.
And now, brethren, we are about to celebrate the death
and passion of our Saviour Christ, in the memorial He
hath commanded us to make.  Our communion is the
expression of our faith in Him, as an all-sufficient Saviour.
It is an act of thankfullness for the love wherewith He
loved us, and a promise of service and perseverance so
long as life shall last. Is there one of you who has
not some hope through that crucified Christ?




108                     SERMONS.
" Was not for all, the victim slain?
Is one forbid the children's bread?"
It has been our privilege to thread a few steps in our
life-journey together. We look out to-day across a little
span of time, upon a future which we trust will be ours
together forever. Let us come together, then, in this
expression of our common faith-our common purpose —
our common hope.  Let us come together in a prayer
for each other, that we may be kept from the evil which
is in the world-that we may be fed with the truth as
it is in Jesus, and be built up as lively stones in the
eternal temple-so that, whether life be long or short,
one by one, we may be victors over sin and death, and
stand with Christ in that kingdom which shall know no
end.
All "who are religiously and devoutly disposed," I
earnestly invite to come and be partakers with us in
this communion.
TRUTH.
MARK 4: 24.-And He said unto them, Take heed what ye hear. With
what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear
shall more be given.
OUR Lord had been uttering sublime truths in the
shape of parables. He perceived that even His disciples
did not understand Him.  He then turns to speak concerning the nature and object of truth; He calls it light.
Its nature is progressive and diffusive; its object is the
benefit and convenience of man.




TRUTH.                    109
The word truth, whilst it expresses one thing, is used
to express that thing under two different relations.
Truth objectively expresses all that is, the laws and relations of things-the whole infinity of reality as God
has made it. Truth subjectively expresses that portion
of the whole, which we have acquired or received, our
aggregate knowledge of the all-real. Nature expresses
both the landscape, and the eye that sees the landscape.
Wealth expresses the whole sea of riches, and also that
portion we have individually secured. By means of the
wealth we have, we acquire more. The eye most familiar with nature, sees most in nature. I do not mean,
that the farmer who looks upon the landscape every day,
sees most of the landscape.  The farmer sees the farm.
I mean, the mind most responsive to nature, sees farthest into nature. The soul that has most truth, will receive most truth. Truth, in the sense of our aggregate
knowledge, is to be held up, set upon a candlestick, that
it might give light to the whole household. Such a use
of it will reveal the things, that around us open the
whole domain of being to us.  " There is nothing hid
which shall not be manifested-neither was anything kept
secret but that it should come abroad." This is the object God hath in the universe, that His children should
know it, and be blessed in it.
The words following here, and immediately preceding
the text, are those so often recurring in the discourses
of the Master: " If any man have ears to hear, let him
hear." Perhaps, as He gazed into those faces, He saw
something which told Him, He was much beyond their
depth, or some shade of incredulity, which as much as
said He was mistaken.  Ignorance always undertakes
to pronounce in some way against wisdom. So, He vir



110                  SERMONS.
tually says, I know some of you do not know what I am
talking about. Yet it is necessary that I try to instruct
you.  Some of you have an inkling of what I am saying; therefore receive as much as you can, that so you
may be enabled to receive more. "Take heed what
you hear."  According to the culture within you, you
will receive or reject my words. All will be measured
to you in exactly the same measure you bring. To you
that hear, will more be given.
These words, like all the utterances of the Master,
contain a germinal thought.  They express a root idea;
they go down to the bottom of things-enter into the
essence of cause and effect. Truth was made for man;
man was made for truth. Light was made for the eye;
the eye was made for light.  The glory of the moral
being is to develop into the full stature of perfect being.
Man cannot create anything, nor change anything that
is created.  He can only go on to know that which is.
His glory is in knowing that.  To know God is life eternal. The progress upward, the adaptation of the finite
to the infinite, that is the bliss of immortality-that is
salvation. This progress and adaptation, must be a
thing of personal and individual acquirement. Or, if
you take the race as an aggregate, it must be a thing
of race, acquisition. The millenium is the resultant of
race, progress. We are so constituted that truth can
in no case be arbitrarily given, but must in every case
be voluntarily received. You may tell your child the
highest formula of abstruse science, but you tell it nothing, if the thing be wholly beyond what we call the
child's apprehension. Even the highest wisdom, the
divine Word, Jesus Christ, could not make the Jews
understand Him. He could furnish wisdom, but not




TRUTH.                    11
the capacity to receive it. When you die, you can bequeath your houses and lands, but not your knowledge
and wisdom  and virtue.  The true riches, each soul
must obtain for itself. The true riches the human race
must work out.  The human race is rich only in proportion to the number of its individuals that are rich.
Who therefore becomes truly rich, to that extent enriches
his race. Whoever is poor and lean in spiritual things,
is a burden for the race to carry. There is your work,
and more, to obtain the true riches.  There is the work
of all mankind.  Were it otherwise, intelligence could
not be intelligence-we should be no more than the
tree or the stone.
We ourselves alone set limits to our well-being. Nature, truth, will always respond to our highest comprehension.  To him who truly loves her, truth is divinely
communicative.  On all sides are infinite treasures.
They are absolutely free to all who have intelligence
enough to know they are treasures.  We trample on
them sometimes like swine on jewels. God's delight is
in them that find Him out, and His delight is in proportion to the nearness of our approach. We have however all the interval to traverse, that lies between nothingness and perfection. We begin at an infinite remove
from God, and begin to all appearance under circumstances of greatest disadvantage. So the divine wisdom
has ordered, therefore, it was not good, or possible, to
have it otherwise.  We know  nothing. We have to
learn to know.
The human mind at first is like the eye of a babe.
It cannot bear the light. Then when it begins to know,
nature is full of reflections of herself. We know not
the reflection from the thing reflected. Human history,




112                  SERMONS.
thus far, is hardly more than the record of human mistakes. It would appear that truly to know, involves
that we know what is not, as well as what is. That is
about the experience of each human life, for each of us
is but the epitome of the race. It is well enough to
say, as we say sometimes, if we had known as much
ten years ago as we know now, we would not have
made the mistakes we have, but if we had not made
those mistakes we could not have known as much as
we do. Our folly is, our sin is, we persist in following
that which has been infinitely demonstrated to be
nothing-to be wrong. The wise is he who, through all
nothingness and wrong, has an eye to see the true and
right.  It is written, " Understanding is a well-spring
of life to him that hath it."
But that is the point, who hath it?  How are we to
know the reflection from the thing reflected? How are
we to know when we have the real truth? The Saviour
intimates that it is extremely difficult to tell.  The
history of our race demonstrates the difficulty.  "Take
heed what you hear."  For guiding us in the search
for truth, man hath wrought out many devices. But
even these devices, are only according to the resources in man up to his capacity. In early ages, when
man was nearly all animal, the giant was supreme
power.  The strong man became a god, an ultimate
authority. You have that fact embalmed in the fables
which relate to Hercules. In later times, as man advanced toward a conquest over nature, to some knowledge of mechanical art, rude artistic power became
salvation. The tower of Babel attests the fact. As
man advanced to his higher being, to the regions of
mind and spirit, he advanced toward what we might




TRUTH.                   113
call doctrines and systems. Forgetting that truth must
forever grow, because "all that was secret must be disclosed "-forgetting that the problem grew more intricate as it approached the regions of pure spirit, man
fixed limits to what was illimitable, and grew dogmatic
in proportion as he should have been humble and patient
in inquiry. In spite, however, of all folly and error,
truth kept on growing. Its branches spread; no dogma
could cover them all.  Philosophy secured her apostles;
science secured hers; and all branches got to something
like a natural living, except the religious branch. That,
because highest of all, became more trammeled than
any.  Man undertook to take special care of it. Most
of all needing inquiry, it was most of all hedged with
dogma.  Less capable than any, of being compressed to
limits, man determined most of all to limit it. When
the Saviour came to the race, He found it bowing down
to glow-worms, supposing they were suns-found it in
the night, supposing it was broadest day. There was
not power of vision to endure a true light. There was
ignorance enough to despise the very thing they wanted,
as all ignorance does. They knew not what to hear.
Where the race was then, a very large proportion of
the race is to-day, and the duty of taking heed-the
question of what to hear, is just as imperative to us as
to those whom Christ immediately addressed.
Now, what shall we hear?  If the question were
asked respecting science, we should know who to hear.
I should go to the astronomers about astronomy, to the
geologist about geology. What they agreed upon and
could prove by experience and observation, I should
accept as truth.  What they could not agree upon, what
was yet undecided, I should leave them to experiment




114                  SERMONS.
upon, and leave each to his theory-knowing that none
of them knew anything about it, but feeling that by
their united inquiry truth would be disclosed, and that
he who knew most would do most to disclose it.  If
the question were asked respecting religion, a similar
course should be pursued, but here we are persistently
unreasonable.  We do not accept that, the substance of
religion, in which all agree, and then leave those, who
ought to know, to discuss the philosophy of things,
that which is unknown, and proved to be unknown,
from the very fact, that no agreement can be reached.
But we undertake to discuss what we know nothing
about, and quarrel over matters relative to which all
that is certain is, that to some extent, we are all certainly wrong.
Some men would say, " Hear what the Church says."
But then, who is to determine what the Church is,
which is to have its say? There is, perhaps, no other
word in the language which conveys a more indefinite
idea than the word " Church."  Some men do not know
enough to know that.  Some men use it as if its meaning were patent at once to any ear, and set the man
down as a fool who does not accept their definition of
it. But take it in any of the senses, either as embracing all Christendom, or as confined to a mere sect, who
is to determine what the Church says?  Through all the
ages, the Church has said different things. Paul had
occasion to resist Peter to the face. If opinions of men
are the voice of the Church, then opinions differ. If
the decrees of councils are the voice of the Church,
then we must believe that the world does not turn
round. If the Church is infallible, then no utterance
of hers can be wrong, and so no utterance can be




TRUTH.                   115
changed, and therefore, if she says the world cannot
turn round, we cannot believe that it does. If, as has
been said, she undertakes to legislate in matters not
within her province, then she is not infallible, and so
how are we to know when she is right, and when she
is wrong?
Some men would say, "take what the Bible says."
But what does the Bible say? The Bible, in any language to-day, is a translation from ancient MSS. There
might have been, doubtless were, many mistakes in the
MSS.  There might be, doubtless are, many mistakes
in the translations.  How  can we arrive at the true
original? Then, when we can agree upon the original
word, how can we agree upon the exact word which
shall represent that original in our language?  We say
" repent, our Romish brother says, "do penance," and
that too, when there is no dispute whatever, as to the
original word. Then, when we have settled the translation, who shall fix the meaning?  Men take the
propositions of Paul, and stir up darkness. Men grapple with questions which they are wholly incapable of
comprehending, and hence the confusion even in many
Christian pulpits.
Some men would say, "take what Jesus says."  But
what does He say?  Even when there is no dispute as
to His words, the mind interpreting, can never give to
those words a meaning higher than its own capacity.  "With
the measure we mete it, it is measured to us." Even under
His immediate, simple, beautiful, loving words, with all
their accents and intonations, men did not understand
Him.  He said relative to one of His disciples: " What
if I will, that he tarry till I come," and they made Him
say, that that disciple should not die, and so men are




116                    SERMONS.
forever making you say what they say, and it is a fearful burden to carry other people's sayings. It has been
the calamity of Christianity, to have to carry our interpretations rather than Christ's own words. He said " I
am a king."  They made Him  say Ccesar was no king.
He said nothing about Caesar.  When they  cannot
grasp His saying, or perceive that He refutes their saying, then they declare "He hath a devil."  And so
it ever is.  Unwisdom is always down to its own level.
There is need of saying: "' Take heed what you hear."
There is need of realizing that with what measure we
mete, it is measured to us.
Still the question remains, what are we to hear? We
talk about the " Rule of Faith." We often repeat the
expression that " the Scripture is the sole rule of faith."
Then we reason about the Scripture, and make reason
at last the ultimate arbiter. The fact is, the Scripture
is not the sole rule of faith, nor reason either, if you
mean that by which the ultimate life-action is to be guided. The sole rule of faith, like all unities, is a trinity.
The Scripture, the reason, and the moral sense, these three
combined make the unit that is to be our guide. When I use
the expression " moral sense," I mean an element which
God has given to man-an element we can feel and do
exercise, though we seldom define it. To use an illustration: A flower has a property by which it appropriates
certain rays of the sun, which rays make that flower
different from any other flower, protects and preserves
its peculiar nature and character. The human eye has a
power in gazing upon that flower of perceiving its beauty.
You cannot tell a man what is beautiful, but he perceives what is beautiful.  The stomach craves food,
but it does not accept straw, or wood or sand; not from




TRUTH.                    117
any education it has received, but from an innate, natural sense-a sense responsive to the fitness of things God
has ordained.  So the moral sense in man is the property which asserts to us the just or unjust-the right
or wrong.  If you encounter the highwayman, and he
attempts to reason with you that his calling is honorable, you know his moral sense is perverted.
The moral sense is not exactly what we ordinarily
call the conscience. It comes nearer to what the Quakers call the " Inner Light." It may be work of the
Holy Ghost. Whatever it is, we have it.  I believe it
is the Holy Ghost, but then, that is only my belief, and
I therefore do not bring it in as an element of the
thought.  Some men cannot read the Scripturessome men cannot reason-some men have very little
moral sense; so that neither the Scripture, nor reason,
nor the moral sense alone, can be the rule of faith, but
only the three combined, and their combination in any
man is the stature of that man.  Their voice is the " sole
rule of faith."  When we speak of Scripture, I mean
Jesus Christ-what He said-what He was-the divine
Word.  All the rest is only reflection of Him. I can
put nothing in His place, nor allow anything to take
His place.  And when we speak of man's reason, or
man's moral sense, we do not mean man, as you or me.
Man is not a fraction. I am a man, but not man. Man
is the scholar, the sailor, the artisan, the philosopher,
the tradesman, the hermit-everything, all put together-so, reason is not my reasoning, or your reasoning,
but the aggregate reason of the race.  The moral sense
is not yours or mine, but the enlightened moral sense.
The Scripture, the reason, and the moral sense, in their
broad and comprehensive grasp, are a trinity, which, in




118                   SERMONS.
their unity, make the sole rule of faith. What any one
of them contradicts cannot be true.  What they all agree
upon, must be right. The witness of the three, not any
one of them, is the sole rule of faith.
Now, we see what our Church says-this grand old
Church-so sublime in her comprehensive utterances.
In the VIth Article she says: " Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation, so that whatsoever
is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to
be required of any man, nor be thought requisite to salvation." Observe-: nor may be proved thereby." Proved
by what?  The same act, which lays down the Scripture
as the foundation, makes the reason and the moral sense,
the judges to which that Scripture is to answer. Again,
in the XXth Article, she says: "It is not lawful for
the Church to ordain anything that is contrary to God's
word written."  Well, how are we to tell what is contrary? Not by any procurement of a clique, arbitrarily
called a Church, but only as the reason and the moral
sense witness-the aggregate reason and moral sense-so
that, again, the sole rule of faith, is the resultant, the
testimony of the Scripture, the reason, and the moral
sense combined.  Now, as the Scripture is not absolutely
perfect, not from any deficiency in Christ Himself, but
from deficiency growing out of our inability to secure
the perfection-as the reason is not absolutely perfect,
nor the moral sense absolutely perfect-so, it follows,
that the sole rule of faith cannot be absolutely perfect.
What, then?  Is there nothing that we can hear?  Not
at all! Science is not absolutely perfect-is there, then,
no science? The beautiful has not been absolutely expressed-is there, then, no beauty? Truth has not been
all made known-is nothing known?  The Saviour said




TRUTH.                    119
He had some things to tell us, which we could not bear
-is there, then, no truth?  Did He therefore tell us
nothing?  You see, the Scripture, and nature, and the
beautiful, are infinite and fathomless-they are fixed.
Our reason and moral sense, are the measures which set
limits to our supply.  A  perverted reason and moral
sense, will take the wrong thing —a Church, which ignores reason and the moral sense, will have an inquisition. Do you see any force, then, in the words: " Take
heed what you hear, for with what measure ye mete, it
shall be measured to you, and to him that heareth shall
more be given?" I would give a great deal, if I had it
in my power to make that plainer for you, but I believe
I cannot.  It opens for you all a view of life, and in
that view a most solemn duty-the duty of so using
time, that it shall develop intelligence and moral culture, till we are truly responsive to the eternal Word.
Such is this moral being in which God has placed us.
The higher up we are, the more there is for us to dothe more solemn is this being.
These thoughts directly involve another thing of
which we talk-the right of private judgment. And
this is one of the lessons we draw from this subject.
Do what you will, your salvation depends upon yourself.  You cannot part with your responsibility.  If
you let a priest do your thinking for you, and tell you
what your faith shall be, still it is you that do it. If
you part with your private judgment, it is your private
judgment that parts with it, and somehow, while parting with it, you still keep it. It is the thing from
which you cannot part. Never was there a dogma more
foolish than that which denies the right of private
judgment.  It, in the very act of denial, asserts the




120                  SERMONS.
thing itself. It thinks private judgment should not be,
and what is that thinking but private judgment itself?
If you break your own arm, you suffer from  it.  If
you let somebody else break it, you suffer from it.
The best way is to take care of your own arms. For
what you do, or for what you do not do, your soul must
answer to God.
The next lesson, is the imperative duty of cultivating your reason and moral sense by all the means
within your reach.  Suppose you do not know how to
answer?  Then you may well be afraid of a thought,
and shut yourself up in seclusion. Then draw your
lines as narrow as you can. Only the truth can make
you free, and if you are more afraid of losing what you
have, than of gaining more, you will so contrive as to
lose what you seemed to have.  Without real reason
and culture, you will think you will have to believe all
you hear, and at last not know what you ought to hear.
Only those in God's light see light. And here we reach
one of the greatest evils now in the Church. I contend, that with all our so-called civilization, it is man
at last that is not cultivated. With such a burden of
earthiness to carry, as we have to carry, it is impossible that man should be cultivated. Very few  men
and women, even in the Cuurch, know how to think,
and especially to think upon questions involved in
moral philosophy.  Thinking implies something more
than conjecture or opinion. It implies knowledge, experience, and above all, habits of analyzing, weighing,
comparing, in much diligence and patience. Even the
Christian ministry is not given enough to thinking.
Things are, first of all, prescribed to us in our seminaries, before we have had time to know how to think.




TRUTH.                   121
We are not taught so much to think, as to receive what
we are told. We are not taught truth, broad and universal, so much as our ism-our doctrine. We go out
never to question our tenets, nor to allow them to be
questioned.  We go out not to preach the Gospel, but
to sustain, each man, his party, till we are not only
divided, but antagonistic. Each is skilled in the use of
his own arms, till even the Mormons can make as many
proselytes as any of us, and the advocates of Sunday
liquor laws, of gaming tables, and dens of all iniquity,
make more than all of us put together.  Proselytes,
once gained, react upon the Church. They insist upon
hearing that by which they have been captivated. Nothing new or unusual must be introduced. The teacher
who follows the old formulas, and rumples nobody's
feelings, who is in all respects safe, gets smoothly on.
The man with a real thought, with a positive teaching,
is set down, like the Master, as Beelzebub. We have
no teachers any more. Everybody knows too much.
The pews dictate to our pulpits, and the more imperatively, as they are the less capable. A few young
misses can, often do, determine the theology for a whole
parish, till-God being in all cases true to Himself, to
His own laws-nothingness produces nothingness, worldliness produces worldliness, superstition produces superstition. The Church is everywhere grieving over the
fact. Young men no longer seek the ministry.  Men
are driven out of our churches, and we are left exclaiming against the impiety of the age. Men start up elsewhere to preach God's truth, and we are left protesting
against infidelity-calling those hard names, who, if
they are unfortunate, are made unfortunate, in great part,
by our fault.  The reason abandoned, the Scripture




122                  SERMONS.
unheeded, and they who, ostensibly, are the followers of
wisdom, are most certainly and superlatively unwise;
they who have sworn to renounce the world, with its
pomps and vanities, are they by whom those pomps
and vanities survive, till, instead of the Church being
a teacher, we need to intercede with God for somebody
to come to teach the Church. Then, as if to confirm
us in any errors in which we might be, and to keep us
confirmed, our pulpits are barred to any light from
outside. In our immediate Church, particularly, no man
can enter here, unless he has had laid upon him a socalled Apostolic hand-this we know to a certainty,
that hand can convey no truth, nor power to perceive
the truth, for whilst it prudently fears an error, it fatally
assumes it knows all that can be known. A man who
was yesterday made a deacon, may come here and
preach, though, in the nature of things, it be not possible for him to know anything. While a man, whom
the world counts a wise man, whose wisdom is the
accumulation of years, cannot even set his foot within
the railing. The Son of Man, wandering in his plebian
simplicity, would be worse off with us, than He was
with the Jews. He could enter into His temple of old
and teach them that had ears to hear, but should He
come to us, we could never hear Him, unless we heard
Him in what we refuse to call a church, or outdoors in
the streets. Is it possible that mental common sense
can endorse such action as wisdom? It has been asked,
" where will you draw the line?" I would ask, why
draw  any line?  You have your family circle, and
you keep it pure-but what line do you draw. Your
judgment and object in social life are your guide, and
your purity and culture your protection. Then, if we




TRUTH.                   123
go into any other pulpit, we must never say a word
about their follies or their errors-that would be rude
and impolite, though our business is to save souls.
That would be wrong, though we are seekers for truth,
and we know that one side of a story is good, only till
the other side is heard.  What wonder is it, that men
sit in churches for years, believing, as they think, all
they hear, when, by some fortuitous circumstance, they
hear another story, and find themselves converted to
that?  At this rate, do we Christians believe anything?
Some skillful reasoner could reason multitudes out of
their faith to-morrow. I believe that many of the evils
around us, are because of evils existing within us.
We talk about Christ rather than receive Christ ourselves-what He said, what He was. And, brethren,
when I speak of Christians, I mean myself as well as
you.  I am not, and do not pretend to be any wiser
than other people. But I feel the force of what Jesus
said: " Take heed what you hear, for with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you."  I see it
every day.  I would always carry you to Him. If I
may carry you anywhere else, I lead you astray.  I
may be at every step wrong. He can never be wrong. I
would like you to have an ear to hear Him.  Have I
been able to show you any force in that utterance of
His?  Have I shown you any duty of culture in your
study of Scripture, in your spiritual being, your reasoning power?  Do you see, if you are to love God
acceptably, you are to love Him with heart and soul
and mind?  Have I given you any reasons why you
should let go the shadows, the follies and deceptions of
the world, and cling more ardently to Christ? Apply
your life more devotedly to things above. In all the




124                   SERMONS.
confusion of tongues let us come back to Him.  Let
me remind you, with humble and affectionate earnestness, that life is no trifle, that you and I can never
drift into well-being, that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and anything taken for granted is still
more dangerous, that nature is full of parables. The
wise speak always in parables, even the blessed Jesus.
No power on earth can make you see what you have no
power to see. If you live in the accidents of life, you
will take only more accident. If you live in the essentials, you will crave more essentials, for you will live
always in your highest being.  If you cannot hear
the voice of Jesus, you will hear the voice of the High
Priest, and the more you hear that, the more foolish
you will become, only the more persistent you will be
in believing you are truly wise. Read, mark, learn, and
inwardly digest. In listening to opinions, consider their
source.  Be much in prayer and meditation with Jesus.
He knoweth His sheep, however the world may treat
them.  His sheep hear his voice, and follow him.  In
other words, those who hear his voice and follow Him
are His sheep. Them he will bring to the green pastures
and the still waters of eternal life, to the everlasting
fold where there is everlasting safety.  "Take heed
what ye hear, for with what measure ye mete, it shall
be measured to you; and unto you that have, shall
more be given."




PERCEPTION OF TRUTH.               125
PERCEPTION OF TRUTH.
JOHN 8: 46-48.-Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the
truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God heareth God's words.
Ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. Then answered the
Jews and said unto Him, Say we not well, that thou art a Samaritan and
hast a devil?
THIS whole chapter presents us with one of those
marvellous scenes, to me among the most remarkable
connected with the life of Christ. The wise and gentle
Saviour is contending against the contradictions of the
foolish and cruel Jews.  He came to His own people,
but His own people fight against Him.  Except the
crucifixion, there is nothing in history more humiliating
to our humanity than these attempts of the Jews to
reason with Christ. Perhaps we should hardly except
the crucifixion, for that is but the culmination of rage.
These debates on their part, are the patient delineation
of ignorance and utter impotency.  They could not
resist the force of Christ's wisdom, and yet they could
not admit it to be wisdom. They undertake to answer
His arguments, and yet had no perception of the truth
He imparted.  They could not account for His miracles,
and yet could not admit His power. In the case of an
unhappy woman, low cunning of their nature had made
Him the arbiter. His innate modesty and mercy, combined in a justice so simple and impressive, drove
them self-accused and self-condemned from the judgment hall, and yet they knew all things better than He.
No evidence of the divine nature of Christ is strong
enough to reach them.  They insist upon asking Him,




126                  SERMONS.
"Who art thou?" and yet persist in refusing to receive His answer. It was not that He was confronting
the illiterate and uncultured.  On the contrary "the
common people" heard Him  gladly.  They believed
He was a prophet.  Those who undertook as they
thought to reason with Him, were the learned, the guardians of the nation, set up to be the Church.  The
High-Priest himself, on the night of the final arrest,
said to Christ: " I adjure thee by the living God, that
thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of
God?"  How  could Christ tell Him, except as His
whole life proclaimed it? What answer did he want,
except that Christ should deny his own nature?
Now, these thoughts are worth inquiring into. These
facts are worth explaining. They indicate certain conditions of mind, possible to all men, because they existed
in these men, dangerous to any men, because they were
death to these Jews.  We might discover that truth for
any man, or any age, does not depend so mach upon the
vividness of the truth itself, as upon our power to perceive it.
We might find that there are conditions of mind, things
assumed, results of defective or erroneous education,
which preclude the possibility of perception, which
make a man the victim  of superstition and delusion.
It might be, if we understood all the laws of the case,
that it would be more wonderful for some men to see
the truth, than it now appears to be that they do not
see it.  We might find many of the elements, the tendency of which is to blind, mingling more extensively
in us all, than we are aware, making it imperative that
we use more diligence, more down-right, thorough honesty with ourselves to attain that freedom which real
truth alone can give us.




PERCEPTION OF TRUTH.            127
One element presented to us in this chapter is of
special importance, the element not of an actual Christ,
but of such a Christ. This thought indeed attaches in
relation to the whole incarnation. Man never can complain with respect to Christ, that he had no chance to
do himselfjustice, to do his best, that we were taken at
a disadvantage, that anything was appealed to, except
our reason, our understanding, our humanity-in short,
the best of everything there was in us. Turn the picture over and think.  Had Christ been a monarch, as
men are monarchs, we could not have reached Him.
Had He been a High Priest, invested with the trappings
of a false dignity-had He been a philosopher, robed in
the forms of profession-had he been anything that was
conventional, we could not have done ourselves full and
exact justice, because we should have lacked the freedom of an action absolutely unrestrained.  He could
not have had just His own individual influence and no
more, rather we had better say, and no less.
We must all have observed, how much more powerful, temporarily, office, position, wealth, family, and the
extensive accidents of life always are, than mind, reason, real justice, or any other actual good or personal
worth, and that is one reason why there is so much
more of the one in the world than there is of the other.
Few of us are aware to what extent a man's belongings
are more powerful than the man. We are not convinced
by mind, by virtue, by real moral forces, so much as by
policy, by etiquette, by deference, by conventional habit
and prejudice. In other words, we are not convinced
at all. In the presence of outward dignity and authority, we only do not express ourselves. We yield, and
think we accept. In the absence of outward assump



128                  SERMONS.
tion, we hold to our opinions still, if we had any that
were really ours, whether wise or unwise, good or bad.
We have done many a thing to a man not knowing him,
which we would not have done if we had known him;
but what we did, was an expression of ourselves. Your
unconscious action is often much more yourself, than
your most studied behaviour. The bowing and scraping a man pays to my dignity or wealth, is not respect
for me; it is only the outcropping of his own selfishness.  The respect we pay to the humblest man we know,
is the measure of our respect for humanity.  All the rest
is respect for ourselves.  lie who would not know wisdom in a scavenger, would not know it at all; he who
despises it in rags, in the very act of despising, simply
expresses his own ignorance and distance from God.
This test, the incarnation of Christ, applied to our
humanity.  We did what we pleased, and what a pleasure it was! There was no restraint and no depth to
our degradation.  The treatment the Son of God received, was an exact photograph of our moral condition.
There were you; there was I. Verily, " for judgment
Christ came into this world "-for discrimination-for
defining who and what we were-" that they who saw
not, might see "-that the humble and the pure in heart
might find the truth and God-learn the way to heaven
-that they who saw, might be made blind "-i. e., demonstrate that they were blind; not that they themselves would know they were blind, or ever perceive
it, for that never happens, but that others, they who
can see, might know it-that it might be palpable to all
generations that they were blind-that they did not
see things that were true and divine.
This was one prime reason why those Jews could




PERCEPTION OF TRUTH.             129
not see. They were buried in deference to externals, to
that which was established, to all that was formal, ceremonial, etiquettical, conventional, historic. It was no
part of their practice to inquire into anything, to reason
about things, human or divine. It was not then the
custom of the world.  It never had been.  In a few
nations there had been here and there a thinker.  The
thinkers in those ancient nations, are the most wonderful things those nations ever produced.  They stood
alone; the multitudes thought they were mad.  It is
not the custom of the nations to think now. The real
thinkers are still considered beside themselves.  The
Jews lived in assumption-in what we call " taking for
granted"-in a sort of artificial life-in an atmosphere
they created.  Or, perhaps it were better to say, they
received certain historic facts, accepted them, said they
believed them, without inquiring what those facts implied; they actually knew nothing about them.  The
facts were not fed on and digested; they were kept to
be looked at, and, as is always the case, were least understood by those who laid most stress upon them.
In the absence of inquiry, they made them imply things
that were impossible. "We have Abraham to our Father." Certainly, but that did not make them true children
of God. This was one of their mistakes. They said, "God
was with Abraham; therefore God is with us."  The
therefore did not by any means follow. " We never were
in bondage to any man; therefore we are free." Here was
another " non sequiter." They were in the most galling
bondage, only were too insensible to know it. All that
they held was not wrong, but it might just as well have
been, for all the good it did them. Ignorance, prejudice, error, transgression-that is bondage. Knowledge,




130                    SERMONS.
virtue, wisdom, usefulness, all grace and excellence,
real power to see the truth —that alone is freedom. I
do not think we all quite understand that.
Then another fact rises up here. Ignorance and error
arm themselves against light and truth. The first assumption of narrowness, of wrongheadedness, and wrongheartedness is, that whatever differs with it, is not only
necessarily wrong, but its enemy and the enemy of the
race. Assumption, hereditary creed, forever claims universal guardianship.  It then denies the one grand tenet,
that truth must stand forever, in its exhibition of fear
that truth can be overthrown.  Its assumption, is an
assertion of a falsehood, that truth needs to be guarded.
Think of guarding the sunlight, or gravitation! or the
tidal wave!
All that any truth wants, is full and absolute ventilation, circulation, analysis, sifting. There is much
more of it, and much, nearer to us than we know for.
All we want is an eye to see it. For some men to say
they do not see certain truths is simply ridiculous. It
would be a miracle if they did. Truth can never grow
except as men have power to discuss it.  Wherever
truth is perfectly guarded, truth is perfectly dead. In the
city of Rome you can buy no Bibles, and if there was
but one Church, no matter which one it was, if that
stood alone, there would not be a Bible at all. The spirit
of the Jews-" We have Abraham to our Father," is the
spirit of all sect, and practically, because human nature
is the same all the world over-the difference between
sects, is merely accidental. Sectarianism demands not
the truth, but only repetition and confirmation of what it
already holds, and that is most sectarian, which most
persistently refuses to hear anything but itself. To




PERCEPTION OF TRUTH.            131
change the expression a little, that is narrowest which
claims alone to be catholic; that is most sectarian
which assumes that it alone is true, and to assume that,
is to lose the power of perceiving the truth. We see
this in the Jews. There was certainly truth enough in
Jesus, but what the Jews wanted was an eye to see it.
You must observe this, for it is the very point of this
Scripture, "If I say the truth, why do ye not believe
me?"  Those people whom  Christ said were not of
God, were the very people claiming to be exclusively
God's. If they had been of God, they would gladly have
received Christ; but they were mistaken, and, with all
their pretensions, were Christ's enemies.  That spiritdesire to make something true, rather than to find out
whether it is true, deference to anything but the truth
itself, is the enemy of Christ to-day, as much as those
Jews were on that day to which our text takes us back.
Like seeks like. The blind love the blind. If you are
buried in any ism, and I come to you to confirm that
ism, you receive me gladly. If I attempt to tear away
your error, you attack me as an enemy.  My truth
may be as plain as was that of Christ-but, you see, a
soul full of error crowds out the truth, blunts the perception.  Whoever is unwilling to have discussed what
he holds to be truth, has lost the truth. In what church
or sect would Christ have a better chance to day, than
He had there that day?  You and I, if He were here,
should be first, perhaps, to say, "we cannot sanction
that-that is not what we have been taught." We should
have no power to set quietly down and say, "is this
true." Oh, yes, if we knew it was Christ! That would
be another matter! But God does not wish you to
know, except as you perceive. As I have been showing




132                  SERMONS.
you, that would be to constrain you; you would yield
to authority, not to conviction. The thought would
not be your's. It would only be, that you assent to it.
You would not know anything about it.  Truth bears
with it, its own authority. In God's light we see light.
To tell you it was Christ, would not make you know it
was Christ.  Oh! what a blessing it was that Christ
came, then, as He did; that He could not be bought
up by the Jews, nor by any influence. Do you not
see what it was that crucified Christ?  They felt toward him all that we would feel toward a man who does
what we call outraging the general religious sentiment.
We think that to persecute such a man, is good enough
for him. Christ did outrage all common religious sentiment, but it was not His fault. It was their fault.
What a blessing that He did go on and say all He did
say.  Because He did do it, other men have done it.
" Because He lives, we shall live also."  He has shown
men how divine it is to be true to their convictions.
They ought to have listened-if possible, to learn.
That is our want, thought that is ours, perception of
truth out of powers, vital and inherent in us. If we cannot receive a thing, we ought not to say it is not true.
We ought to say we cannot see it. Nor ought we to
receive a thing, because somebody tells us so. Noit is not the food a man puts in him  that keeps
him alive, but the food he assimilates. It is not the
truth we accept, which does us any good, but the truth
we understand.  Whoever accepts any truth, into which
he is afraid to inquire, puts a millstone round his neck.
It is because we receive so little, and understand so
little, that we are mentally and morally so lean. This
is why, with all our churches, and sects, and preaching,




PERCEPTION OF TRUTH.              133
and what we call means of grace, our world is so graceless.  We have too much contrivance, too much that is
establishment, and not enough truth. The influence of
Christ, at least, was infinite, because every atom of it
was real.  We have so much that is artificial, we have
so little that is effective. We wonder we do not accomplish more.  The greater wonder would be if we did.
The world is as well off as it can be. All things considered, it is more hopeful than we have any right to
expect. Nine-tenths of us have little truth to give itonly our ism, that which is of the fathers. We are not
living trees, yielding fresh fruits for living men, but
only stalls, laden with last year's fruits, and but the
remnant of that-black and wilted.  Now, another
thought.  Truth alone can receive truth.  Truth alone
stands confident that all things help her. There is
a majesty in that expression of St. Paul's, where he
says, some preached Christ to help him, and some to
thwart him.  Still, it matters not any way-Christ was
preached, and it all helped him. This, also, is included
in truth. Not only is it a tenet to be held, it is sincerity in holding it.  Truth comes to the true.  Christ
hath no fellowship with Belial. Truth is life. Who is
not quickened by truth, holds no truth.  Truth alone
passes by the accident, the husk, the occasion, the circumstance, and inquires diligently, turns it over, looks
through it.  How hard that is to do, none knows but
he who earnestly tries it. It requires a discipline so
great, that Solomon made no mistake when he said, he
that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he who taketh
a city. Error says, as the Jews said, unbelievingly,
"who are you?"  Truth says, as the boy whom Christ
had cured of his blindness, said, " who is he, Lord, that




134                   SERMONS.
I might believe on him?" Error, in its pride, would
stop the truth, and in its impatience, smites it. Truth,
in the energy of its quenchless life, courts the truth,
even though it may he smitten by it.  If we could all
go up to our churches to discuss, to hear, to try to understand, not to be stuffed with what we have taken
for granted, what we think we already know, what our
sect teaches; how broad, and strong, and noble, and
useful we should become.  A new vigor would pervade
the Church.  A grand worship in spirit and in truth,
would swell upward as incense before God. Our world
would recover of its leprosy.
It seems to me, now, you can get some insight into
these words of Christ-" which of you convinceth me of
sin?" There stood Christ, a pillar of all virtue, benevolence, and excellence. He virtually said, what is religion
for?  Is not the very idea and essence of it this, to
make us wiser, to help us to lead a godly life? If I
were seeking to overthrow  any good, if I practiced
upon your credulity, if I fattened myself at your expense, you would have cause to suspect me, and complain of me. But my life testifies of me.  Let the
fruit bear witness of the tree.
If, then, my life is true, and I speak the truth-if
you can find no wickedness in me, and are not able to
refute my teaching, why do ye not believe me? Plainly, there must be some cause in you. It is greatly to
your interest that you discover that cause. I tell it to
you plainly: He that is of God, heareth God's words;
he that is true, perceiveth the truth; to him that hath,
more is given.  All things seek according to their nature. Vice loves vice; folly indulges in folly; error
craves error; the iceberg seeks the iceberg; purity




PERCEPTION OF TRUTH.             135
loves purity; wisdom inquires into wisdom. All real
truth is of God; you hear not, because you are not of God.
Your eye penetrates not into things divine. You are
not in earnest with yourself-with your soul; you are
not dealing with the real, but with the fanciful; the
fabric you have built, much as you feel interested in it,
is not that with which God has anything to do, or cares
anything about; you are living for self, for time; you
are not living at all. It may seem strange to you that
truth should be so near, and you not be able to see it,
but it is more strange that you should not be able to
see how deluded you are.  If you were of God, you
would hear God's words; you therefore hear them not
because you are not of God.  And let me ask you,
brethren, if the reasoning of Christ is not plain? But,
if any proof were wanted of the truth as the Saviour
expressed it, and as I have been endeavoring to show
it to you, their answer furnished it-" Say we not well,
thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil?" How true to
themselves! What had that to do with it?  Abuse is
no argument-hard names prove nothing.  They are
only the resort of weakness-the revenge of littleness.
But what an exhibition then, of the fact that we can
never rise above our real selves. How that which is
brutal resorts to brute force, and that which is ignorant
to weakness, and that which is malicious to malice. We
may always safely leave people to their own convictions,
tenets and creeds. A dire necessity is over us all, to
make us tell evermore what we are. Strange paradoxes
are in nature. We cannot express our experiences, nor
can another tell us what we are, but life-action is forever writing us out and telling us to the world.  If any
of those Jews have ever become wise, what would they




136                   SERMONS.
not give to be able to go back there, and wipe out that
record forever! But if they have never become wise,
they do not wish to blot it out. They think it is glorious. This is the reason why the foolish glory in their
folly.
Well, brethren, this is the question, if we are not
wise, who shall make us wise?-if we know not the
truth, who shall teach us truth?-how shall we know
it when we hear it? If the angels are weeping over us,
what angel shall make us feel we ought to weep for ourselves? Is our life, our earthiness, our treatment of
the Bible, of Christ, of all sound wisdom-is the barrenness of our world, the inefficiency of our Churches,
the prevalence of sin-is it all telling what we are and
how much we are worth?  And, oh God! is all going
up before thee, going upon the record of those books
that are to be opened-to consign us to a place with
those Jews that despised thee? Do we wish to blot it
out to-day, and put another record in its place? Well,
no Lazarus will come from the dead-no angel with a
lash will stand over us-no constraint will come even
from heaven.  There is Jesus, Son of God, better than
Moses and the prophets-better than angels or man.
Every word, every line, every incident, is full of truth,
if we only have ears to hear, and eyes to see.  In
the commotions of our world, in the churches and
sects, and isms, in the successions, ordinances, and
conventionalities, everywhere there is truth enough, if
you can distinguish truth from churches and isms, from
successions and ordinances.  Whatever is of sect, of
ism, of ordinance, of mere tradition, is sin.  There is
death in it. Let those Jews be a warning to you. Let
this Scripture teach us whatever is not of sin is of God.




PERCEPTION OF TRUTH.            137
Our Father would have us so live. You see the solemnity of life and eternity, so demands, that we walk as
wise men, in much thought, meditation, prayer, in patient hearing, sifting, testing-that we take heed -how
we hear, how we stand; that we be able to bear the
truth.  He who rends our creed into tatters, may be a
better friend to us, than he who mends the rents already
in it. Blessed is he who, when he sees it going, can
feel it is not his all, but that he has that in him, in
Christ, in God and heaven, against which time nor eternity can ever prevail. Not only that he hath hold of
God, but that God hath hold of him.  He is a true
friend to us, who shows us that with our creed, even
though it may never be torn, or in any way destroyed,
we have very little-that over and beyond it, in the
deep things of God, are things richer than that-who
shows us, that forgetting the things which are behind,
and reaching on toward those which are before, we press
toward the mark of our high calling, of God in Christ
Jesus; that, leaving the rudiments of Christian doctrine, we go on to perfection.  This is our calling, that
we be enriched in all knowledge and spiritual understanding, that we come behind in no gift; that we be
strengthened with might by the Holy Ghost, in the
inner man; that Christ, in all He was, in all He said,
may dwell in our hearts by faith; that being rooted and
grounded in love we may be able to comprehend, with
all saints, with the true and pure, and the wise of all
ages, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and
height, and to know by experience, by perception, the
love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. In short, to
be filled with all the fullness of God. This is our
calling. He that is of God, heareth God's words. This




138                    SERMONS.
is our life-work, to believe in Him whom God hath sent.
Let me entreat you all, young and old, draw nearer to
Christ-of all things you do, sit at His feet, learn of
Him.  Take His yoke.  There, in all He was, is virtue
and grace for you, truth and wisdom for you, life in
earth and in heaven, peace, and joy, and rest, forever
and ever.
THE TRINITY.
MATTHEW 28: 19, 20.-Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.
THESE were among the last words Christ uttered upon
earth. They were spoken after His resurrection, just
as He was about to ascend to His Father in heaven.
He had given His disciples notice of the time and place
whence He would take His departure.  At the time
and place appointed many of them  were gathered.
When they saw Him, they worshiped Him.  But some
doubted-i. e., doubted perhaps whether it were He,
whether it were a reality they beheld.  So He came
and spake unto them.  He would dissolve all doubt.
Among the things He said was this: "All power is given
unto me in heaven and earth."  I have overcome.  I
am King.  All power is given to me; to me whom you
recognize, to me who called you all, to me in whom you
believe, to me whose disciples you all are; allpower is
given.  "  herefore go ye," go to all nations.  You see




THE TRINITY.               139
how the " therefore " evolves out of these facts. " Therefore go ye." And this is the way you are to go: teaching-teaching in two ways; by word of mouth, everything I have commanded you; and by overt act, baptizing, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Ghost. You are not to teach any doctrine of
your own, any more theories, or temporal systems; and
you are not to teach anything which I have not commanded you.  You are to baptize, but you are not to
baptize in my name only; nor in any name, except this
one which I tell you: Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
" You are to teach men to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." Here you have the power
commissioning, and also the commission given.
Baptism, in the Christian dispensation, took the place
of circumcision in the Abrahamic. There are reasons
for believing, that baptism had begun to supercede circumcision, among the Jews, anterior to the coming of
Christ. Converts to the Jewish faith, instead of being
circumcised, were baptized. Perhaps, John the Baptist
accepted what had already begun to be a custom, and
made it the specific sign of adherence to his teaching.
Christ endorsed John's decision, or adoption, and made
baptism the first rite of the new dispensation. The
connection of baptism, however, with the idea of the
Trinity, in the New Testament, is very remarkable.
Christ's own baptism was made the occasion of a miraculous manifestation of the Trinity.
Circumcision had been the sign of the covenant made
between God, on the one hand, and Abraham, on the
other. It was the condition of Jewish nationality, and
assured to every descendant of Abraham the promise
of the Messiah. It was one element of a perfect proof




140                   SERMONS.
that God, the one true God, had made such a covenant
with Abraham.  The elements of a perfect proof of any
historic fact, are three: the written record, the visible,
material monument, and the stated rite, or ceremony,
or sacrament-as we call it, specially referring to it.
Of the Abrahamic covenant, these three elements combined in the proof. There was the written word, then the
tabernacle, or afterwards, the temple, and circumcision.
A historic fact may be believed without these three elements in its record; but where these three elements
are, the fact cannot be doubted. All sacraments have
this historic value. That which has not such a value is
not a sacrament.  The word sacrament means an oath.
The essential idea is that of testimony. In Jesus Christ
the Abrahamic covenant passed from promise into fulfillment. Baptism took the place of circumcision. Circumcision bore testimony, that the covenant was made
between men and the one God, the Lord Jehovah, the
God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  That, you know,
was one specific characteristic of Judaism, its assertion
of the oneness of God. Baptism bears testimony that
the covenant is complete between man, and the one
God; but, that this one God is Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, as revealed by the Messiah, or Revealer, whom
circumcision pledged. Where there is water, without
this form, or this form without water, there is no baptism. Baptism is as monumental as the Lord's Supper.
The Lord's Supper commemorates the fact that Jesus
Christ lived and died; was instituted for that purpose" do this in remembrance of me." Baptism commemorates the fact that Jesus Christ revealed God to be the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. All power is given unto
me in heaven and earth; still, do not baptize exclusively




THE TRINITY.                 141
in my name, but in the name of Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost.  I am God, but God is triune.  I am the Revealer, to reveal this God to you. This is the God I
reveal.  The covenant is between man and a triune
God, the same God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Unity, but also a Trinity.  The monument of Christianity, and of this particular fact in Christianity, is
also perfect; the written record, the ceremonial rite,
and the true Church or visible structure.  To view
baptism, therefore, as a question simply as to the use
of more or less water, is to degrade it. To leave out
this element of testimony, is not to see its whole value.
So long as a man, or a woman, or a child, shall be baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
so long will there be proof positive, that the God whom
Christ revealed was a Trinity.
Now, if any one shall deny the Trinity, he must do
one of two things: either, upon the ground of revelation, set up to be a better revealer of God than Christ
was, (in which case, we leave him to such proofs as he
may be able to give,) or, he must reject revelation, and
take his stand upon reason; in which case, even he,
will hardly deny that, at least, that field is as open to
us as it is to him.
The Trinity of the One Deity, is the truth which the
Church celebrates to-day.  Because Jesus Christ revealed it and established it, no Christian can doubt it,
and therefore, if the simple assertion of it be the object
of our preaching to-day, here my sermon might very
well end.  But there are two senses in which we are
to understand the word "'revealed." There is a body
and a soul to everything. Man has an outward ear, and
an inner mind or soul. The ear is the avenue to the




142                   SERMONS.
mind or soul.  The mind or soul is the man.  The ear
is the channel for reaching the man.  What goes no
further than the ear fails of its purpose and falls short
of the man.  The man has received a revelation, only
when the sound has passed his ear, and the fact stands
clear in his mind. The multiplication table is a revelation to your child. He cons it, and accepts it, till his
ear cannot forget it, but it is then very far from being
revealed, though he does not doubt it. When he eventually sees the laws which compel the results, when the
mental forces lift him above his mere memory, then revelation fairly sets in, and he truly believes.  In the
nature of things, the hearing of the ear comes first, and
the believing in the heart comes afterwards. For this
reason, there are few of us perhaps who, as we advance
in life, do not imagine our early training to have been
imperfect, extremely defective. We understood nothing
at the time, as we went along.  Understanding came
upon reflection, in soul-work and mind-labor. It could
not have been otherwise; it always will be so.  That
is revealed to us which we know, and only that; and the
process of knowing, is a subjective process, something
to be done, each for himself.  When that which is addressed to the ear and accepted there, is true, we go on
to the knowledge, the real revelation, because it is true.
As Christ said, if we will do His will, we shall know of
the doctrine. That is God's law, that we need guidance
till we can.guide ourselves. We reach the real revelation at last, because we have received the substance beforehand.  Hence, faith is not that which blindly accepts anything; faith is not credulity; faith never
can be blind.  The mere letter will always kill, and
the more mere letter a man hath, the more killed he




THE TRINITY.                143
will be. Any system which denies us inquiry, is a system of death, not of life.  That is faith, which not only
accepts a thing as being, but knows it cannot be otherwise. Galileo had faith as to the revolution of the
planets; when he rose from his knees, after saying they
did not move, with the expression:' Still they do move
notwithstanding."  Peter and John had faith, when the
kingdom they had built in the air, out of Christ's words
in their ears, had vanished, and they felt that what was
in Christ alone was royal and glorious. He who has the
most knowledge, will have the most faith. I do not mean
that he who knows most of the world will have most
faith in Christ.  He who knows most of Christ, will
have most faith in Him. He to whose inner soul Christ
is most truly revealed, will have the highest faith in
Him.  Our faith in Him is skin-deep, because words of
His have reached the ear, but not the mind and the
heart.  We are faithless, because we have given up
knowing, in the thought that we already know.
Around the orbit of the human mind lie, and perhaps
will forever lie, great facts, like the systems in the Zodiac
round the orbit of the earth. They are there, and we
cannot altogether penetrate them, and we call them mysteries. Still, great are the unfoldings of time. Age
lends help to ages.  Man defines for man, and though
we see at first through a glass darkly, we are going on
to know, as also we are known.
The doctrine of the Trinity, the fact that the divine
unity is a Trinity, is a mystery, yet is there so much
of it known, that the degree of belief with which we
receive it, rises up into the regions of purest faith.
Still, I approach it with reverence and deep humility,
mindful that the theme takes us into precious and per



144                   SERMONS.
haps toilsome thoughts, thoughts which will reach further
than the expression, thoughts of which the expression,
however perfect, will still be liable to be misunderstood.
The manifestations of it in Scripture are manifold.
The words which express Deity in the Old Testament,
suggest a Trinity. The ancient languages were in their
forms more expressive than ours.  For God, the Mosaic
record employs a form not merely dual, or plural, but
triple. Moses, in prescribing the form of divine benediction, uses a threefold expression, the word God in
each part having a specific and separate accent. The
letter or symbol of God, which the Hebrews wore
upon their phylacteries, was composed of three vertical
lines, standing upon a common base.
Passing by the fact of Christ's baptism, of which we
have spoken, the discourses of Christ, especially toward
the close of His ministry, are filled with instructions
relative to the Trinity, specifying the offices of Father,
Son and Holy Ghost, expressing the Trinity, at the
same time the unity, finally culminating in the command-wherever we taught of God, which must be
everywhere, we must teach that He is Father, Son and
Holy Ghost.  Then, too, the significance of the fact,
that the baptism of Christ was the occasion of the great
manifestation of the Trinity. (Matthew 3.)
Then in nature, throughout all her works, God has
suggested this idea of a divine Trinity in unity, and
unity in Trinity. The difficulties which involve this
fact in mystery, do not proceed from the fact itself, nor
do they proceed from  our knowledge.  They grow  directly and exclusively out of our ignorance, and that
in two ways-first, from what we know absolutely nothing about, and secondly, from what we have taken




THE'TRINITY.                145
for granted we know, i. e., from our ignorance absolute,
and from our error, e. g., we do not know what God is.
We cannot define Him.  " He is far above, out of our
sight."  Then, we do not know what God the Father
is, nor what God the Son is, nor what God the Holy
Ghost is. We can only know a thing when we know
all of that thing. We cannot know all of God, for only
God Himself knows that.  This is the one thing we
shall be forever learning-God. Ordinarily we use the
word God loosely, undefinedly.  When we conceive of
God the Father, we conceive of Him as if He were the
Deity.  We put a part for the whole.  When we conceive of God the Son, we conceive of Him as if Tie
were the Deity. We still put a part for the whole.
When we conceive of God the Holy Ghost, we conceive
of Him as if He were the Deity. We again put a part
for the whole. We use the word God, in precisely the
same sense as we use the word Deity.  Or, otherwise
to express it, we have no word expressive of the whole,
which is not also used to express the parts. We say,
" the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Ghost is
God."  Then the inevitable sequence in the mind is,
there are three Gods, and how can three be one-hence
comes confusion.  We ask, can that which is not
everything, or all, be God? Yes, it may be God, but
not the whole of God. The Father is not the Son, nor
the Holy Ghost.  The Son is not the Father, nor the
Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is not the Father nor the
Son. The Father, Son and Holy Ghost together are the
Deity.  We cannot say the Father is the Deity, the Son
is the Deity, the Holy Ghost is the Deity. We can say,
the Father is Deity, all that the Father is, is Deity, all
that the Son is, is Deity, all that the Holy Ghost is, is




146                   SERMONS.
Deity-and the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
together, are the Deity.  Take an illustration.  Of a
triangle-the first side is triangle, not the whole of
the triangle, not the triangle, but the whole side is triangle, the second side is triangle, the third side is triangle. You see here we are obliged to use the same terms
expressive of part, as we do in expressing the whole.
And yet there are not three triangles, but one triangle,
and there is one triangle only in the three together.
Take the American flag; the red is flag, not the whole
of the flag, not the flag, but all the red is flag, the white
is flag, and the blue is flag, and yet there are not three
flags, but one flag, and but one; because they are three.
These three agree in one.  They are the same in substance, the same in power, one is essential to the other.
Where the one is the other is.  What the one does the
other does. Unless the three are together the flag is not,
and unless they are three, they are not one.  So God
the Father is God the Father, God the Son is God the
Son, God the Holy Ghost is God the Holy Ghost, and
yet there are not three Gods, but one God, each of the
same power and essence, only one not the other. Each
in His separate office, these separate offices very clearly
indicated by the Saviour-three because they are one,
and one because they are three, all together the one
eternal Trinity in unity, and unity in Trinity.
But, I apprehend, our great difficulty, in receiving
the doctrine of the Trinity, is not so much in the doctrine itself, as in our various associations with that doctrine. We wisely associate Jesus Christ with the Deity.  We wisely believe Him  to be the Son of God.
We worship Christ as God "manifest in the flesh," forgetting that it is God manifest in the flesh-i. e., God




THE TRINITY.                 147
only so far as God, could be manifest in the flesh. Because in Him dwelt the " fullness of the Godhead bodily," or incarnately, we forget that it was the fullness of
"grace and truth."  Because  Christ said: " He that
hath seen me hath seen the Father," we forget He also
said: "No man hath seen God at any time."  In these
and other ways we fail to get a true conception of Deity, and then in the absence of such conception lapse
into doubt and confusion.  We do not define the difference between the Deity, and the fact of manifested Deity.
We forget that it would not be possible for us to receive
a full manifestation of God.  It is literally true, as Moses said: " No man can see God and live." If Christ
Jesus were God the Son, you perceive, from what has
been said, He would still not be the whole of the Deity.
But being God the Son, it does not follow that He revealed even the whole of that personality to us. You
must recollect He is not God the Son from any idea of
filiation. He would still have been God the Son, even
if He had never been son of man.  The word Son expresses an essence and yet a separate personality.
That He did not reveal the whole of that personality to
us, you have confirmed, not only in the nature of things,
but also in the record of Scripture.  On one occasion,
in the presence of three disciples He was transfigured.
There was a degree of manifestation more than ordinary,
and that one degree more, overwhelmed the three witnesses.  Shall we say there were no degrees of His
glory beyond that?  If they were not able to comprehend the lesser, would they have been able to comprehend the greater? You bring the sun, the solar luminary, down here, and we are not able to contemplate the
sun.  In His prayer for His disciples just before He




148                   SERMONS.
was offered, He asked that they might be with Him, to
behold that glory which He had with the Father before
the world began. There was assertion, you perceive, of
a glory which they had not seen, Christ was God manifest in the flesh, God the Son, not all the Deity. In
the flesh He manifested not all there was of God the
Son, only that which was necessary to His redeeming
work and our salvation. Even of the manifestation He
made, we yet see only the beginning. All we can see
of God is in Him, but there is that of God, He laid
aside, in order to make to us any revelation of God at
all. What He wanted to reveal of God, what we wanted
to know of God, was "grace and truth," God's character.
" Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." He veiled
Himself, took the form of a servant, the more certainly
to come within the limits of our comprehension. The
lowest form He could assume was beyond our grasp.
Had He been further removed, He could have made us
no manifestation at all.
In order to make myself the better understood, let
us take an illustration: Suppose, on one of the planets
there was an intelligent class of beings, only very different from ourselves-suppose it were necessary to
make ourselves known to them, and only one way was
possible, and that possibility involving the mission of
one person from us to them.  Now man, though a unity, is also a duality.  Man is not male, nor female, but
the unit man, or humanity is man and woman. Man is
not woman-woman is not man, but both together make
man. Here, however, you have man used in two senses,
one in a limited and the other in a distributed sense,
and so it is better to say man and woman together make
manhood. Hence, it might be said, man is manhood,




THE TRINITY.                149
woman is manhood, for we have attributes in common;
the nature is identical; and yet we differ-so differ,
that by no possibility can one take the place of the
other.  Now, again, it might be said, man is a trinity,
which is much nearer the truth, for man is man and
woman and spirit, or male, female, and character-for
man is not God, nor devil, nor brute, in his nature, but
with an essence of being peculiarly human, which essence makes a third element as separate, important and
peculiar as either of the other two-so that, unless you
express the character of man as distinguished from God,
from brute and devil, you do not express man at all.
Now, which one shall we send to those people upon the
planet, to manifest manhood?  We might send a woman.
She would represent the whole manhood, and yet continue peculiarly and emphatically woman, too-i. e., the
fullness of manhood would be in her, and yet, they
would not perceive it, because they could have no complete conception of it, till they had seen it in action as
we see it, with all its developments and belongings-all
its permutations and combinations. But suppose, instead of wearing her own form and language, she had to
take their form  and language.  How the limitations
multiply, and the difficulties of a perfect revelation increase! She would reveal the manhood to them, and
yet not all the manhood. She could tell them wonderful things, and yet they not understand them-not because they were not manhood, but because they, in
their limitations, could not receive her.
Now, this is the way I understand God-Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost-the one not the other-not three
Gods, but all together one God; the Father in His office,
the Son in His, the Holy Ghost in His.  The Son in




150                   SERMONS.
His office came to represent God to us, i. e., God in His
character, " grace and truth "-came to do a divine
work for us. He did it.; He did it under limitations
our nature imposed, not His. Though He were exclusively and simply God the Son, yet He knew the Father,
in a certain sense was the Father, and, in a certain sense,
they who had seen Him had seen the Father, and yet
no man had seen God at any time.  The Father was in
Him, and He in the Father.  The Spirit was in Him,
and He in the Spirit. The whole three one, the whole
three Deity.  He, God manifest in the flesh, the revealer, atonement, and mediator.
This is what God is, a Trinity.  Christ came to teach
us that.  But for Him we could not have known it-but
for Him we could not have known God was'" grace and
truth."  This was part of the work He came to do. But
more especially, this and all His work was, that we might
be taken into t/is unity.  Let us not lose sight of that, for
if we do, we lose sight of the one practical object of the
incarnation.  He taught us, and commanded us to teach
one another, " to observe all things whatsoever He had
commanded us." You see it is easy to determine what
religion is, not something made since Christ was here,
but something made while Christ was here. The whole
object of Christ, as of all revelation, is to bring us into
divine unity, into union with the divine nature.- Beyond all doubt moral nature is one, a unity-i. e., the
same nature that is in God is also in man.  I do not
say that man is God, but in His image we were created.
God exists for man.  Man is made to exist in God and
with God.  Every yearning of the human heart, the
cry of the ages has taught us that.  We had lost the
unison and the knowledge of it. One great part of the




THE TRINITY.                151
object contemplated in the incarnation was to teach us
of the character of God.  The whole object of the incarnation was that we might be conformed to that character and so made capable of dwelling with God.  It
was not to reveal the whole Deity to us, but that much
of the Deity, we were immediately interested in knowing.  That prayer of the Mediator, just as He was
finishing His work, thrills us with conviction of it.
"That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me,
and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us.  I in
them, and them in me, that they may be made perfect
in one."  Yes; this divine and perfect harmony and unity, between Creator and creation, between the Infinite
and the finite, this is the one longing of time, that it
might be, did God the Father send the Son, and give
the Holy Ghost.  Mysterious all the way through!
How we, such beings as we are, can still be scintilations
of the divine, only God lcnoweth.  So has He been
pleased to order. But that it is so, all nature and all
grace, all earth and all heaven, combine to tell us. All
the laws of fluids are in a single drop of water. A drop
of water is not, however, the ocean.  How God could
put the properties of ocean into a simple globule is
known only to Him.  But there they are.  We finite
creatures are little globules, out of our place, out of God;
soiled, corrupt, needing to come back and be taken once
more into the fullness of being, into the infinite harmony, into eternal perfection.  That perfection is a triune
essence-Father, Son and Holy Ghost.  So the Revealer, revealed. So reason deduces-so faith believes.
The way for us to get into that perfection, into the full
soul-revelation of God, is to observe all things whatsoever the Son of God hath commanded.  May we all in




152                     SERMONS.
the confession of a true faith, truly worship the eternal
Trinity, and in the way which Christ hath commanded,
be taken at last into the glory of the eternal Unity.
PROVIDENCE.
ROMANS 9: 21.-Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same
lump, to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?
IN the chapter preceding this, St. Paul has been
showing the Romans that they who are in Christ Jesus
are free from  condemnation.  The truth of the proposition commends itself at once to any reflecting mind,
when the Apostle explains that he means by being in
Christ Jesus, walking according to God's holy law, living upon the spiritual plane. He who lives according
to any law  is universally uncondemned by that law.
He is free from  its penalties.  He participates only in
its blessings.  A  contrast then follows between the
harm that comes of the flesh, i. e., our perverted flesh,
our unenlightened wills, our unsanctified affections; and,
the good which follows from obeying the spirit, walking,
as God designed we should, as nature invites, and wisdom suggests, in harmony with the laws of divine providence, laws embracing the highest good of all creatures,
especially all intelligent and moral creatures, leading onward from  one grade of excellence to another, from
one stage of happiness to the perfection of angels.
This happiness and perfection for moral beings, this




PROVIDENCE.                   153
life upon the spiritual plane, the Apostle asserts to be
and to have been from all eternity, the one purpose of
God in creating moral beings.  In the nature of things,
it must be so.  The divine benevolence could wish
nothing short of it, and the divine wisdom could not
fail to make laws capable of producing it. This happiness and exaltation of moral beings was part of God's
design in having any universe at all, and therefore, all
things in the divine economy tend to help on the wise
soul toward the desired end. In this purpose, joy and
pain come together, and find a common mission-pain, to
turn the soul back from wrong, andjoy, to quicken its
progress toward the right.  So plain is this purpose in
being, so emphatically is it the burden of all laws, the
Apostle calls it "predestination."  Thus any consummation contemplated in divine providence is "predestination." This world will eventually develop and come
out into truth, and beauty, and holiness.  It is predestined to do it.  Predestination is in all things, things
working according to their laws.  The mention of joy and
pain, however, leads us to define what moral being is,
and that is a hard thing to do.  It is that part of being
to which more laws attach than to any other part of
being.  It is, in a certain sense, a perfected being, and
therefore, in a certain sense, a complicated being.  It
is being involving greatest powers, and therefore, in
misdirection, involving greatest danger. It is being,
the inherent essence of which is self-action. It is being
upon which devolves the necessity of knowing its own
being, i. e., having a rational consciousness of it, and
of acting according to its laws. It is being, which must
learn its meaning, and guide its action by a knowledge
of all other being. It is being, made for truth, and the




154                   SERMONS.
glory of which is proportioned to the truth it embraces.
A stone is not a moral being, because it is incapable
of self-action. It can only act as it is acted upon. A
horse is not a moral being, because it is not capable of
a knowledge of all other being. It has no rational consciousness of its own existence, and its destiny is not
affected by its own volition.  Moral being involves social being, and out of society grows its weal or its woe.
God is the highest moral being.. He is moral being
perfected. In short, moral being is a plane of existence, which, for you or me not to reach, is for you or
me to be lost, and to be lost in proportion as we fail to
reach it. It is a general conception of highest moral
being, of God, that it is an arbitrary being —that it
can make things be or not be as it prefers-that it
could put something in the universe, or leave something
out, or make something different, if it only chose.
This is a mistake.  Nothing in the universe is, or can
be, arbitrary.  Nothing can be without law.  Whatever is, is necessary to the universe, without which
there could not have been a universe. Only the universe itself is arbitrary. Whatever is there, must be
so, because by no possibility could it otherwise be or
not be.  We cannot ask, therefore, why God, did not
make us perfect, if He made us at all. He did make
us perfect.  He made us perfectly moral beings.  We
cannot ask, why He did not make us otherwise, for
then He could not have made us moral beings at all.
Here we are in a universe of law, with a destiny in
that law for us.  We know that.  That makes us accountable moral beings, or moral being itself makes us
accountable.  What destiny will we have?  We can
make nothing.  We can change nothing, that is made.




PROVIDENCE.                  155
We can make ourselves and our destiny.  That is all.
What destiny will we have? If according to the laws
that are, then we are predestined to power and great
glory. If not according to laws that are, then of necessity we are predestined to pain and humiliation, not because God wishes it so-i. e., because he wishes the
pain and humiliation, but because He does not wish it so.
He wishes you to turn back again from  the unwise
and pursue the wise. The mission of what we call evil
is good.  Pain has the same general office as pleasure.
He who is in the pain is very unfortunate and therefore
so many agencies try to rescue him.  We are in pain, because we are wrong and it is pain, if possible, to turn
us into the right.  Hence what we call evil, is because
God is good.  When it is said God predestines us, it is
not that He picks out you and picks out me and says
you shall walk this way and I walk that way.  But
when I choose to walk that way, then I am predestined,
and when you choose to walk this way then you are
predestined, because a part of this predestination is-i.
e., in the nature of things. You are predestined to
choose. God's law is, that your will, within its sphere,
which is very small, shall be supreme. God's benevolent
wish is, that you shall be wise. These two, God's law and
His affectionate desire, are the divine will. The two
sides of the one thing.  The gospel of Christ, all that incarnation of the Son of God, is as much a part of the
universe as gravitation or electricity, as the mind or the
soul. If you walk according to that, you are not condemned, because you are upon the spiritual plane.  If
you do not walk according to that you are condemned,
because you are not upon the spiritual plane.  It is not
that God condemns or acquits, but the simple fact of




156                  SERMONS.
your action itself. That it is which condemns or acquits.  " I am not come to condemn" says the Saviour.
He came if possible to show us the way out of all condemnation, came to save.
Now to make us conscious of this being, of the nature
of it, we are set down in the midst of an economy.
This economy we call providence, all of it, strange as it
may seem, perfectly adapted to us, and we to that. It
was made for this very end which we are contemplating.
Whatever comes, it will define moral being for us, and
it will fix our grade in that moral being. You can no
more escape it than you can escape existence. You
might prefer that you had not existed, but that makes
no difference, only to prove that already you are upon
the wrong side of predestination.  This economy, or
providence, is God's household-every particle of itthis world, all that pertains to it. He has some very
idle and wicked servants in it, but they are His, not the
less.  They must give account.  It will not do to make
the Church His household, and all outside of it not His
household. Then we do what God has not done, and
will not allow to be done.  We are all vessels in the
household, every one of us. In that household is an infinite variety of wants, therefore an infinite variety of vessels or utensils, or servants, not one of them unnecessary,
not one mean in itself, naturally, originally. Some may
be more prominent and some more obscure, some more
honorable, and some less "honorable," but all alike
designed, and each, in its proper work, equally to the
glory of God. Over it God presides. He has a will as
we have.  He has purposes as we have.  He knows
laws as we do, only He knows more laws and all laws
perfectly. He works by those laws, employs all agen



PROVIDENCE.                  157
cies to perfect His plans. In His plans there are resisting agencies, so there are in ours. You work notwithstanding, and so He works notwithstanding, only He
knows all laws and works wisely.  We know  only a
few laws, therefore are very often defeated. When we
talk of our will interfering with God's will, we place too
high an estimate upon ourselves. We, individually, or,
a whole generation of us, are, as compared with God,
not so much as a mote in the sunbeam.  One ant in
your cellar could not materially disturb your domestic
economy.  Not one of us can interfere with God.  All
we can do is to affect our own destiny, or possibly to
complicate that of some other atom  like ourselves.
This is what we understand by providence, God mingling in these affairs, preventing the wicked from destroying the race, and helping the righteous to build it up in
peace and good-will, not creating any law, not violating
any law, not doing anything arbitrarily, but just simply
working, the same as a parent works for his children in
benevolence and love, not only by agencies and laws
within His reach, but by agencies and laws, existing for
that purpose.
From this point, then, you can plainly see the difference between the man and the position of the man-between the being and the situation which defines the
being.  You plainly see that the position has nothing
to do with the man, but the man every thing to do with
the position. One man has nothing to do with another
man's office, and no man in another office can be responsible for you in yours. Each man is but responsible for
himself in his own office, wherever or whatever that
might be. It is not for us to be longing for other positions, but to do our duty in the position in which we




158                   SERMONS.
are.  We may be prominent, or we may be obscure, but
we may be as well off one where as another where, for
it is all blessing to have part or lot in this household at
all.
Now, it is this position, you observe, which is determined without our consent-not arbitrarily, not without
law, but still not by our volition, only by the law of
God's knowledge, wisdom and love, God's supremacy.
But what we will be in the position, is left to us.
It is this providence of God which determines this position.  You may be born in one circle in life, or another.
That is what is called an accident of life. It is not accidental in the sense that there is no known law which
determines the fact; but accidental, in the sense that
to be born at all you must be born somewhere.  You
may be born of parentage wise or foolish; with a constitution strong, or weak; with a mind of a high order,
or of a low order; with passions more or less active.
All these things will determine your degree in the scale
of God's household arrangement.  They will determine
the offices you are to hold, or not to hold; send us out
to prominence or obscurity, greater or less; to trials of
one kind or another; surround us with responsibilities,
more or less weighty.  You may be a Pharaoh or a
Moses, an Esau or a Jacob, it matters not which you
are. There is no wrong in making you one or the other.
Wherever you are, your surroundings and responsibilities are equal, and in that fact, the equality between
surroundings and responsibility, we are all alike and
stand upon one and the same level, and therein all men
are equal.  But these positions and relations, or our place
in the household, is not ourselves.  There is another element in us, over us, by which we are worthy or unwor



PROVIDENCE.                  159
thy, by which we have merit or demerit, by which we
are right or wrong, wise or unwise, saved or lost. There
are principles attaching to us, moral essences that come
in, known to us, to which we must have reference.
There is justice and injustice, mercy and unmercy, love
and unlove, self and unself, faithfulness and unfaithfulness, the well-being of others and the ill-being of others,
the honor of God and the dishonor of God.  You see
how this spiritual being strikes the region of spiritual
laws, how moral elements in us respond to moral laws
outside of us. Here you strike your personality, your
individuality, yourself.  Position is a common fact;
Providence has determined that. What you are in that
position, you must determine.  If you can be wise at
all, or serve God at all, you can do it in one place as
well as another. If you choose to live upon your animal or carnal plane, you are predestined to sink down.
If you choose to live upon the spirit plane, you are predestined to great glory.
All this, however, would only fix the fact of your
choice without involving the idea or fact of responsibility, or guilt. And this develops another element, and
a higher element, another fact, and a higher fact-the
element of conscience on the one side, and God communicating with that conscience on the other, not only
nature inside of us, and nature outside of us, but God
in active paternal love, working on the one by means of
the other.  We come to the fact of a moral sense God
has put in us, something responsive to the right, a
something which we must pervert and blunt and resist
in order to go wrong, something with which we must
live in a constant state of protest if we continue in the
wrong.  It is this constant state of protest, this violation




160                  SERMONS.
of your conscience, which makes guilt; which is the sin
against the Holy Ghost. God is made for the soul, and
the soul is made for God, and there is communication
between the two-just as vegetation is made for the
sun, and the sun is made for vegetation, and they are
responsive one to the other. You come then, here, to
the supreme fact, the fact to which I wished to bring
you, the fact stamped upon this day, Whitsun Day, the
gift of the Holy Ghost, the divine power and love, dwelling
in us and with us, God, a Father, and Counsellor, and
Guide.  Heaven and earth, not two but one. Man and
God, not at enmity, but reconciled-man taken into
God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
We are prepared, now, in a measure, to understand
some of these expressions of St. Paul. He says, some
false reasoner, some bungling thinker, looking out upon this being, will conclude, because places in God's
household are fixed-therefore, they who are in these
places are made in them  what they are morally.
Whereas, it is only when you strike what they make
themselves, that you strike the moral at all. Looking
upon the history of the Jews-God's calling Jacob rather
than Esau, will imply that Esau was condemned, because Jacob was chosen.  Whereas, there was no condemnation about it.  Only one was wanted.  The very
fact of choosing implied a rejection, but no depreciation.
Esau was not fitted for a given position, and therefore to that position was not called. He had no faith.
He saw nothing of divine things.  He cared nothing
about them. He chose to live upon the animal plane,
and God wanted something upon the spirit plane. Jacob
was fitted, and to it he was called, and in it he was as
responsible, as Esau in his. Eventually he perverted his




PROVIDENCE.                161
privileges, and fell to a woe greater than any Esau ever
knew, and God did not make Esau unfaithful, any more
than He afterwards made Jacob unfaithful. He blessed
both and if the children of both exist to this day,
they exist in the common mercy of God, and it is difficult to decide which are the better off. This same
wrong thinker will continue his gaze, and imagine that
God arbitrarily made Pharaoh what he was, whereas,
it was the exact purpose and wish of God that he should
be different, who employed all possible means to make
him different. Because being, in spite of everything,
a given material, God worked Him into fabric, as God
will work all material into His fabric, for nature knows no
waste.  This wrong thinker will conceive God arbitrarily made him such material in order to have him to
work up into His fabric. Out of all this, he will infer,
that every man is just what he cannot help being, and
therefore, is not accountable for his actions. He cannot
help asking, " why doth God find fault with us, since
no man hath resisted His will?"
Yes, my hearer, if you are not responsible before
God, how pertinent that question is-why doth God
find fault with you in your error, your wrong, your
trangression?  Do. you wonder St. Paul indignantly
and emphatically repels such a thought?  "Who art
thou, 0 man" —or what a man thou art! how little of a
man there is in you, to reply so against God —against
all His providence, against His very design in giving
us any moral law at all. What else does a moral law
imply, but a responsibility? What a man thou art, to
make out God like us-playing providence, inconsistent,
unequal, unjust, calling upon us for a service we have
no power to render, and demanding of us a life it was




162                  SERMONS.
never intended we should live! Let the simple fact,
that a holy life is demanded, prove that thou art inexcusable, 0 man, whosoever thou art, that thus repliest
against God. Has not the potter power over the clay,
of the same lump to make a vessel unto honor, another
unto dishonor? Does he not know, exactly, what this
economy requires? Did potter, out of any lump, ever
yet make vessels which had no purpose at all?  Did
potter ever yet make vessels just simply to be destroyed? Is the clay not honored, in being fashioned
to any service for the master's use? What a man thou
art! You might as well complain that the great AllFather who made man in the beginning, male and
female, has now, in His providence, made you a man
and not a woman. What a blessing it is, God does
know what to make us.  What a wonder it is, the race
keeps on just equally divided, male and female still.
But for this divine hand, guided by an omniscient wisdom, how soon would the whole race cease to exist. How
soon would the world lapse to its primeval being, and
the original purpose in any world at all, be defeated.
How soon would it be requisite to form  another creation, and try another experiment. Do you see no providence?  No wisdom in providence?  What a blessing
it is that Hie who knows exactly whether to make us
male or female, knows exactly also, whether to put us
in one position or another, so that our whole economy
shall be kept up. And how blessed we are to be where
God has put us, and to be what He has made us, rather
than to be anywhere else. With what earnestness and
love should we study His will, and yearn for His glory,
since the true service of the Creator, is the exaltation
of the creature. What a blessing it is, not only that




PROVIDENCE.                 163
when God does make us, He makes us male and female,
but that He makes most of us under those conditions
in life which compel us to use our God-given energies,
under conditions which compel us to development. How
strange it is, nearly all of us are vessels unto dishonor,
i. e., vessels for use, for practical, every-day purposes.
How much wiser God is, in making the world, than we
would be, if we had had the making of it.. How foolish
we are, not to study His will, and let Him make. it as He
would delight to have it.
Now what I wish particularly to assert, what I believe the whole tenor of Christ's life and doctrine asserts,
and what Paul wishes to assert, is this.  We are all
one family, under one impartial Father, every privilege
of His grace and providence as much for one as another.
This world, with the human family in it, composes
God's earthly household. For all of it Christ Jesus died.
For the whole of it, and each member of it, the spirit of
God liveth. What else does that Scripture tell us which
records the outpouring of the divine grace at Pentecost?
"' How hear we in our tongue wherein we were born?
Parthians and Medes and Elamites and the dwellers in
Mesopotamia and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus
and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphilia, in Egypt and the
parts of Lybia about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome,
Jews and Proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do
hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of
God."  Yes! Every man heard, wherever he was born,
whether he were Jew or Pagan, whether he believed or
not, all heard.  The Holy Ghost spake.  Yes; brethren, that Pentecostal fact, is pregnant with truth which
we have not all learned.  God henceforth dwells with
all men. Nor is there an ear which understandeth any




164                  SERMONS.
speech or language, to which that spirit does not speak.
In whatever language your soul speaks to you, or you
to it, God's spirit is there telling you of God's wonderful works. God's spirit is your enlightener and if
you only would, would be your perfect Counseller and
Guide, to this blessed predestination, this glory, eternal
in heaven.
As there is no part of the material universe, the light,
the air, the laws of nature and providence, the benefits
of which you do not share, so from no part of the moral
provision, the soul-provision which God has made, are
you excluded. As in your bodies God does much without your knowledge or will, and then leaves you to do
the rest for yourselves-so' for your soul God has done
much and leaves you to do the rest, leaves you to make
use of the elements He has bestowed. He has made a
law of Redemption in Christ Jesus. You are redeemed
whether you will or not. And you shall have the tender offices of the Holy Ghost, whether you accept or
repel, yes, even whether you know there is a Holy
Ghost or not.  The office of the Holy Ghost is to
place your spirit in communion with God. The incarnation is " God, manifest in the flesh." The office of
the Holy Ghost is to take of the things of Jesus, because
they are the things of God and reveal them unto us.
So true is the remark that has been made, that God
can do nothing without law, we find that the Holy Ghost
was made known to mankind only when Christ had furnished a power by which the Holy Ghost could work.
It is said that the Holy Ghost  "was given" at Pentecost; but had there been no Holy Ghost antecedently?
Then, by whom spake the Prophets?  By what power
had so many spiritual facts been accomplished?  The




PROVIDENCE.                 165
Holy Ghost had, in the incarnation, a new lever, so to
speak-a new  means.  His power was accordingly
greater and His manifestation corresponding.
Hence the power of Christianity over heathendomnot that God's Spirit is not with the heathen, but that
the thing to be revealed has only dimly been manifested.  They are as the whole world was before Christ
came.  Carry them  Christ, and not some horrible sectarian effigy, and we might look for great results. Even
among ourselves, if the presentation of the Church were
in spirit and in truth, practically and theoretically, objectively and subjectively, only Christ, we should experience greater things.
Hence the office and duty of the Church to preach
Christ, leaving results to the Holy Ghost.
This whole subject is peculiarly prolific, branching as
it does into the thoughts suggested by the Gospel for
Whit-Sunday-the Comforter, the oneness of God and
His children.
These three things,-we and Christ and the Holy
Ghost,-are for each other. The office of the Holy Ghost
is to spiritual things what light is to physical things.
You have an eye, which was intended to give you knowledge of outward objects. Out before you is a beautiful landscape.  But it is night.  The eye is useless.
The landscape is as though it was not.  But the sun
arises-light, silent, serene, unites the two, and while
it is that power without which all else were useless, it
is that power which says nothing of itself. So the office
of the Holy Ghost is to take of the things of Christ and
reveal them unto us.  Many a man can see no beauty
in a landscape —many a man can see no beauty in Christ.
But by the love of God we all have this light if we will




166                   SERMONS.
only use it. If you will accept that law, if you will
take Christ for a Saviour, if His atonement can be your
plea of acceptance, if His precept and example can be
your idea of acceptableness, your hope of glory, then you
can be saved.  Your position in life is just the best one
you could have, if it be one which God has given you.
It will give you opportunity to be saved, and test
whether you are faithful or unfaithful. You may be a
king, a governor, a head of a family.  You may be
lonely, obscure, unknown. All that matters nothing.
Not always is that which is most distinguished, the
most truly honorable.  The ornaments in our parlors
have their places and their purposes. But those obscure agencies which maintain the comfort and order
of our dwellings are more truly honorable than they.
The blackened utensils which give us food at the appointed hour, are more honorable than the gilded clock
which only tells us that the hour has come. In God's
economy nothing is mean.  It is a glorious thing to
serve God, and he who stands in any lot to do that, to
bless the race of which he is a part, to live out a poem
of usefulness and holiness, is as honorable a spectacle as
any on which the eyes of men, or of angels can rest.
And He who stands in any lot, unmindful of God, forgetful of his soul, neglectful of divine and holy things,
have what he may, or think what he may, is already
condemned.  It had been better for him if he had never
been born, not because God will take anything from him,
but because he has not reached out after what God
longed to give him.  He has sinned and continues to
sin, the one sin, against the Holy Ghost, the one sin
which hath never forgiveness, because it precludes all
conditions which can make forgiveness of any value.




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. I.                  167
Brethren, where do we stand to-day? Are we saved?
Are we lost?  What mean the life, the death, the cross,
the resurrection  and  ascension of the  Son of God?
What mean the whisperings of the Holy Ghost?  What
mean our days, our years, our lives? What mean our
positions?  Are they those God has given us? are we
using them  for His glory?  What record are we making above-faithful, or unfaithful? Solomon says, " a
faithful servant shall share with the heir in the inheritance."   Christ Jesus said, " I call you no more servants,
but friends, and sons.  The Holy  Ghost says, "If we
are sons, we are also heirs, joint heirs with Christ, to
an inheritance incorruptable and undefiled, and that
fadeth not away."   To that inheritance, that sonship,
God calls us. Let us hear, believe, obey, and live, day
by day, studying to be faithful in doing our very best,
in that state of life to which it has pleased God to
call us.
TIHE PRODIGAL SON.-No. I.
LURE 15: 11, 12, 13.-And He said, a certain man had two sons, and the
younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods
that falleth to me, and He divided unto them His living. And not many
days after, the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into
a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.
THIS parable of the Prodigal Son, is the third of a very
remarkable series.  The three form a constellation upon
which the eyes of eighteen hundred years have rested,




168                   SERMONS.
with all the emotions of joy and hope. The three are
so many parts of one discourse. The thought in them
all is the same. Each one only increases its degree.
Perhaps, within so small a compass, there never before
was so much taught.  This chapter embraces, in a
certain sense, the whole Gospel in itself.  The burden
of it is, the love of God for all His children-a love above
all loves, the one thing which, be life what it may, it alone
never dies. Around the thought is woven every conceivable circumstance of aggravation or unworthiness,
on our part-that the Fatherhood of God may stand out
supreme and absolute. That it was intended to teach.
That it does teach.  All else is only accessory.  On a
certain occasion, Christ said He had not come to condemn the world, but to save the world. That seems to
have been the one yearning, burning thought of all His
life, and it is worth while to observe here how spontaneously it gushes from His warm and sympathetic heart.
In these parables there is nothing of learned elaboration. They are as simple as the utterances of a child.
There was no time for premeditation-but their grasp
is infinite.  It embraces God, and time, and the human
race.
The parables were a response to the Scribes and Pharisees.  We must recollect that, or we shall miss much
of their meaning. The Scribes and Pharisees had found
fault with Him for receiving sinners, and communing
with them.  These parables were the instant reply.
They as much as say, what else should I do?  Who
can need my help as much as they?  What would a
salvation be, which deserted us in exact proportion as
it was needed? That, surely, would be a human way
of doing things-of loving those who love us, a selfish




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. I.           169
way, not imparting blessing, but valuing people because
we could of them receive blessing-being kind as long
as they did not need the kindness.  But that is not
God's way.  God does not look upon sin so much as a
fault, as a misfortune. Of all things in the universe, it
is the unnatural thing, the undesirable thing, on both
sides.  It is that thing which disturbs all relations,
and defeats all purpose.  Man was made for God.  A
thousand divine objects are contemplated in man's existence. An abstract existence, an existence just for himself, even if it were possible, would make him fall short of
all design, and therefore, not fulfil his existence, not
unfold his being.  God is thus interested.  His affections, His sympathies are enlisted.  If a man lose a
sheep, it is the lost one he must go after. If a woman
lose a piece of money, it is the lost piece she must be
occupied about, till she find it.  If a father lose a son,
it is that son his heart follows, till he return.  The
question now is, not at all about any desert in the lost,
whether it did right or did wrong, voluntarily or involuntarily, there is loss.  The question is wholly as to
the owner, the Creator, the Father.  What is He?
What is His nature?  Can He help?  Will He help?
Would it be worth while to have a Shepherd, if He
could afford no aid?  Would the coin exist if it had no
value?  Would it be a coin without an image and superscription? Would a father be a father, if he did not
love?  Would there be any evidence of a superior
nature, if, able to help, He still refused? View God
as the mere possessor of beings, which He has gathered
for His own selfish purposes, or as a Father exercising
affection, endowed with all the attributes of love-view
man as having nothing, whatever, in common with God,




170                    SERMONS.
or as having merely a sort of divine stamp upon him,
or as endowed with the same nature, and possessed of
faculties and yearnings, exactly responsive to those of
a Father-still, in either case, you must see how it is,
of necessity, the lost, sick, erring one, for whom God
cares.
I ask you to take particular notice of these thoughts.
They are peculiar to Christ. We Christians do not, or
at any rate, did not always understand them. In the
face of the Gospel, where the questions of total depravity and original sin came from, is inconceivable.
The Gospel is the "good news" of restoration, the call to
us to come home.  It presupposes the thing Christ presupposes in these parables-a right to us that God has.
That right is now twofold-first, by creation, second,
by redemption. It asks for the third, the right by our
volition. It presupposes in us, an adaptation, first, to
God's purposes, as the sheep and money are contemplated in our economy, and second, a participation of
nature, and consequent responsiveness, as a child to a
parent.  When God made us, as the rest of all His
works, so we were very good.  If we lost in Adam
the divine image, then in Christ it was restored. We
are all children, God's own beloved children, participating His nature, germinally it is true, but still actually having parts and faculties contemplated in the
divine life, and intended for the divine life; made in
God's image, employed in any other life, their object
utterly defeated, and their possessor utterly a wreck,
existence a burden, the soul, made to be a conscious
joy, turned into one undying remorse. But, if it be in
any other life, it must be there by its own act. If it
go from God, it must go in spite of God's remonstrance,




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. I.          171
of God's intention, of the divine desire. The divine
laws permit it to go, because moral force forbids coercion;
but the divine benevelence wishes it not to go, and so
surrounds it with restraints and warnings.  The sin is,
in not heeding the warning, in despising the restraints,
in not responding to the divine nature, in being indifferent to the better and glorified being God intended
for us.  But, even when we are there, we are still
God's.  He is, while a grieving Father, still not a hating
Father.  He ceases not to yearn and to watch, and
when we return, the first to see us, to greet us and
bless us.
Now, the race has ever been divided into those who
were in their Father's house and those who wandered
away, the religious and the irreligious, the son at home
and the prodigal. You have here, therefore, " the two
sons."  The first remains at home. You see, sin is not
the natural and first condition of man-God did not
make you and crush you, start you out to begin with
crooked and broken, asking of you what in the nature of things is impossible or unreasonable, when
our translation says, "the natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him, and neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned," it does not translate
St. Paul.  He says the man buried-abandoned to his
gross animal nature does not receive, and that is very
true. But that grosser animal nature is itself a development.  It has grown there.  It is by neglect or perversion of powers God made for very different purposes.
This human nature, contemplated merely as a natural
fact is a wonderful combination, or a combination of exalted and wonderful faculties.  It implies just the




172                   SERMONS.
very destiny the Gospel contemplates for it. When
you contemplate it as redeemed by grace, and aided by
the Holy Ghost-the first bias or tendency is toward
God-and where total neglect, or wrong education do
not more than counteract that tendency the development is in that direction.  I believe, and I think your
experience and observation will sustain the thoughtthat the first impulses of youth are pure and noble.
Have you never taken the hand of a young man in the
first conscious flush of his manhood? What impulses beat
within him? What schemes and achievements he proposes! How unselfish? How little he thinks or cares
for what it is to cost. How sanguine, how he imagines
all the world as pure and unselfish and noble as he is
himself. When we recollect our own aspirations, when
we sit down and contemplate youthful inspiration, how
impossible not to feel that the image and superscription
is from God's own stamp.  How we who are older often
stand and laugh at his inexperience, how we chill his
ardor, how we give him his first lessons in selfishness,
in suspicion and mistrust! We whose business it is to
build before him splendid idols, to guide his aspirations
to grand and happy realization, to analyze life for him
hat he may distinguish the real from the delusive. We
shall come to this, if it please God, when we come to
speak of that older brother, that cold, selfish, calculating
mortal who thought his very staying at home was a
virtue.  But I confess I have no sympathy with that
spirit who is abroad in society who poisons life in its
very fountains.  How is it possible for our children to
believe in virtue when they hear in our very houses
that the whole earth is a hot-bed of all evil, of deceit
and hypocrisy.  Do children never reason? Do they




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. I.            173
not often catch their first lessons in evil from our own
life? Do they never ask whether we are sincere in our
professions of affection and piety? When we hear people say every day that the world is devil-riden, do they
all speak out of their own experiences, are their words
the overflowings of their hearts? Take one single example.  At this moment the world is afflicted with
divorces, with divided families, with evils direct and
indirect, not the least of which is the delay of marriage
and in many instances its abandonment altogether. But
why should not the evil exist and soon increase.  I
think if you listen you will find married life often
laughed at and misrepresented by us who call ourselves
Christian people. In our houses and our papers it is
made the subject of jest, a happy home or a happy man
is spoken of as the rarest thing in existence. We picture husband and wife as always quarreling, or at any
rate, as seldom happy, when not one of us out of all we
know could count a dozen homes that are miserable, a
dozen men and women who, even if they are not superlatively happy together would be superlatively miserable
apart.
We know that divorces are the exception, a small
per centage, but we speak of them as the rule, and so
familiarize the mind with the fact, and so, while complaining of the world's corruption, are doing much to
corrupt it. No, I say that life in its beginning is pure
and noble, and would be vastly purer and nobler, if we
would believe in purity ahd nobleness.  If our ideals
were as high as our childrens, their realization would
reach beyond our conceptions.  If the troughs from
which they drink are ring-streaked and spotted, what
wonder they become ring-streaked and spotted them



174                    SERMONS.
selves. The one want of our world now is, a real virtue, and real belief in virtue, when virtue is supposed
to be a deeper apprehension of that for which we are
apprehended.  If the elder brother were better, the
younger perhaps would not think of leaving home.
But let us go back to the thought that the first impulses of life are pure and noble. You see it is not
merely that we are as a sheep to a shepherd, without
any nature in common.  It is not merely as a piece of
coin to a king, with a mere image and superscription,
but it is a participation of real being, a responsiveness.
Now undoubtedly it is the duty of the child to be worthy
of its parentage. It should aim at such appreciation of
the father's exalted character as to improve every privilege, every faculty, and so to honor the father. You
see simply to fail there, simply not to contemplate,
not to resolve upon high action is itself to be delinquent.
The boy or the girl that can be insensible to a father's care
and a father's honor, has taken the first step in ingratitude
and dishonor. You observe, life implies even in its very
beginning, something to do, action. We generally imagine we have something to do to be lost, but the fact
is, we have something to do to be saved.  Salvation
is recognition of the divine nature and development into
it.  It must be not merely action, but high-born conscious action.  Even neglect is guilt.  We will not
stop to define guilt.  It is difficult to tell what it is.
But guilt is a thing felt. It is an effect, natural and
instant. It is part of the perfection with which God has
clothed all His works. If you do a mean thing, you feel
mean, unless you are so inexpressibly mean as not to
feel, not to feel guilt is to be most certainly guilty.
We shall come to this when we come to the citizen of




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. I.           175
the strange country, those so lost, so utterly "pastfeeling," as to be taken in by sin and naturalized.  That is
the extreme degree.  But the neglect of which I have
spoken is the first degree. In that you have the beginning of an alienation from home. When there is no
love of a father, there will soon be a desire to be free
from the restraints of a father.  When there is no love
of home, there will be a love of some other place that
is not home, a thing we who are supposed to have homes
very often forget, and so fail to make the homes of our
children what they ought to be.  It is not enough to
tell a child they should not find their pleasure abroad.
We should see that they do find their pleasure at home
-pleasure pure and holy-pleasure we create and provide-pleasure that is worthy of us and worthy of them
-pleasure that contemplates at once their young life
and their future life. I do not say it is an easy thing
to do, but I do think we could succeed better if we
would try. I do not think we spend time enough with
our children, and teach them to find real happiness with
us.  We should show them the real pleasure there is in
the things they ought to take pleasure in, our real pleasure in it.
There is, however, to all inexperience, evermore the
desire to go out and try for itself. Any of us, even after years of experience, are apt to imagine that some
other place is better and easier for us than that in which
we are.  The young especially must ever be trying experiments.  It is the essential property of inexperience,
of ignorance. Perhaps not one of us ever started out
in life without the feeling that we had the world in a
sling.  No matter how many have failed before us, we
alone cannot fail. Men start that way in business some



176                    SERMONS.
times, and demonstrate over again what has been demonstrated a million times before.  Every life is as
fresh and as much a new life as if there had never been
a life before it. There is a longing to be free, and an
utter ignorance that freedom is conformity to law. The
child knows better than the parent. We all know better than God.  We ask our portion, and God divides
to us His living —  His life" it is literally.  God gives
us our nobler faculties, our far-reaching perceptions, our
responsiveness to nature-this being so gifted, so capable of grand accomplishment.  This is " our portion"a royal gift, the image of our Father-this scintilation
of the divine.  We do not know that it all has its own
laws, that it demands its lawful exercise, just as the
eye must not only use light, but use it wisely. We do
not know we can be wrong, without intending to be
wrong, and that the wrong is defeat of all intentionjust as to stare at the sun, is to put out the eye. The
child needs the parent-man needs God.  To turn aside
from the divine restraints, to set up wilful, personal
pleasures as an end in itself, to ignore all guidance, that
it is, to gather all together, and go into a far country.
What object more pitiable than the child left to itself.
What self-destruction.  Mind untutored, passion unrestrained, affection, talent, undeveloped. What a curse
to itself!  What a waste, what a "riotous living," what
an unsafe life, or unsaved life! for, if I recollect, that is
what the word riotous means in the text, unsafe, unsaved.
If you are wise, you can predict the destiny of almost
any household you know.  The boys, the girls, their
tastes, their habits. You see their tendency, you have
seen enough to know  results.  Where righteous restraints are not sought, you see the good shrink every




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. I.            177
day less and less.  You see the evil abound.  We are
not talking now of the guilt, of things, but merely of
the certainty of results.  The world has its attractions,
the flesh its pleasures. We think they are as good as
heavenly attractions and soul-pleasures, but mark, they
are very different.  They are the attractions of the
world, the pleasures of the flesh. They have their grades.
You can begin at the opera, and go down through the
first class theatre, and second class, and third class, to
the dance house and dens of low degree. Which, now,
will you call the place for a child of God?  " There is
no harm in them," we say.  Is there any blessing in
them?  Are they in the right direction?  I shall not
deny that music hath its holy charms. Music, in itself,
never did anybody any harm.  It is the divine thing
which, somehow, man has never been able to curse.
Even in the dance house, it is the only pure thing there.
If the opera were music, it might do very well; but
opera means dress, and lust, and vile thought, giving to
many an innocent spirit, not merely its first intimations of
evil, but so clothing it as to beget a relish for it, a relish
which, everybody knows, ends not once nor twice, but
many times in the dance house, and the Potter's field.
I shall not deny that histrionic art may be, and has sometimes been, instructive and edifying, that there are now
and then, beings with transcendent genius, who, above
all artifice, or mere tricks, can thrill our soul.  But we
have never seen any of them.  They are not one to a
generation. Still, they may be, and I believe are, as
frequent as the best specimens of anything-but, is
that the field for a divine life? Is that the best phaze
of this mortality?  Is it the home of mind and wisdom?  Of purity and exalted virtue?  The pleasure




178                  SERMONS.
of it, I shall not dispute, but pleasures run all the way
down, and all the way up.  You have to choose which
field of pleasure is yours. Is that a near country to
you?  Are you a citizen there?  You may begin with
the paltry novel, and go down through all sorts of trash,
but is there no prostitution of mind in it? Are there
no grand poems, no high philosophies, no wide-reaching
science-all as angels, beckoning and asking to be entertained, that we, too, may be as angels? The question
is often asked, is there any harm in these amusements?
The answer must vary, according to the inquirer. To
many, I should say, unhesitatingly, no-many persons
are as pure there as they would be anywhere, perhaps,
for two hours, at least, be in better company than they
would have at home, be in better humor. The kennel
is the proper place for a dog, and the sty the proper
place for swine.  But can it be your place?  Everything is good enough in its proper place. The question
is not whether it is good enough for you, but whether
you are base enough for that. Sodom was good enough
for the Sodomites. Lot was not much better, or he
would not have been there at all, and even if he was a
tolerably good thing himself, he was in the wrong place,
and no wonder it took a miracle to save him. In such
a land, in any land of mere animalism, of idle fashion,
of sensual indulgence, the Christian must be indeed in
a far country. For you to go there, you must carry
the splendors and riches of a better country. You can
go there only to desecrate the divine portion your Father
gave you. You were made for thought, for study, for
high communion with divine things.  In such a land,
you must soon begin to be in want. There must soon be
famine, death of all that is morally pure and spiritually




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. I.           179
good, and wishful recollections of the home land, the
fatherland you have left.
What a blessed thought it is, to those of us, who
have children, that if we can give our children the true
culture, if we can implant within them pure thoughts
and holy recollections, they can never forget them.
What a thought-that wander as they may, revel as
they will, the still small voice never dies. Train a child
in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not
depart from it.  That promise is a tower of comfort and
strength.  It is based upon a law.  I often wonder
whether any man can wholly forget God.  I think not.
When I look at some of those citizens, naturalized in
vice, citizens of the far country, I think they too, themselves, must sometimes think of their father and their
home.  Christ does not intimate it here-but it is
possible.
Still, this prodigal need not go down to poverty and
vice to waste his substance.  Many a rich man has for
his riches parted with every noble faculty. In the far
country forgotten his lineage and his father's house, forgotten the dignity and honors and walks that belong to
a Christian.  Have you never seen men in the pursuit
of bubbles, not only forgetful of God, but forgetful that
they are men? You can see it every day.  We sometimes meet men that fairly stagger all our conceptions
of manhood; men with so little perception of divine
things, we wonder if they are men. I read a piece in
a paper a few days ago which caused me to pause and
ask, whether it were possible that the writer of it ever
had a conception of manhood. You have seen men with
all affection and manly sentiment frozen, miserly, miserable mortals, afraid of death, willing to give all their




180                  SERMONS.
possessions for a hope beyond the grave, who feel they
have missed the true mark of life, that somebody is
anxious for their shoes, that nobody really loves them,
that they have done nothing for which anybody should
love them, whose place will soon be filled, whose life
will leave hardly an echo behind, over whom time will
close like the sea over the way of a ship, mind gone,
soul gone, life gone, men far from home, hungry and
faint, that cannot fill themselves with the husks that
swine eat. Have we not all seen spirits sick and
wearied, consumed with a sense of disappointment and
humiliation.  Such is sin, only once desecrate the
blessed Eden in which and for which God created you
and you go forth, the flaming sword forbidding forever
all return. Still do you mark the gradation and degradation here? Do you see how the original divine
pasture has been wasted? Do you observe the contrast
and interval between that grand ideal, thy first self,
and this wretched wreck, thy second self, this, not thyself, not thy Father's child, could He love thee? Would
we there be with the living? Think of Him. He needs
us not. He hath a home and other sons. How we
have disgraced Him, ground our nobility into the dirt,
and like a profligate prince, dishonored royalty itself.
Is there any hope?
Do you observe then, that though our Father looks
upon us in our sins, as unfortunate, rather than faulty,
though He is not angry, yet our misfortune is real, our
woe is not the less? Do you see though God has not
created it, and will not add anything to it, there is
enough of it already?  Can you go on and make it
more? Do you see what alienation from God means?
Suppose you become like one of those citizens of the




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. I.          181
far country, without any father, without any God, remorseless, soulless, dead, fit to deal in crime.  Is there
no punishment in that? Have you lost nothing? Do
you see you have lost your soul; and do you see, when
I tell you God will not punish you, that is not telling
you that you will not be punished. Think, should your
mother be taken from you, of never seeing her again.
Think of the little sister that went the other day, pure,
spotless, never see her again. Never. But suppose when
they are clothed in transcendent excellence, you are
clothed in transcendent soul-poverty and wretchedness
and there is a great gulf between you. Think of never
seeing God, of an infinite gulf between you. Do you
see what that gulf is, the loss in you of the portion, the
divine portion your father gave you?  But, you say
God will not eternally punish; no, God will not punish at all. But do you see the sinking that is there,
first of all, the neglect to love, then the alienation, then
the far country, then the want, then the hiring out to
the citizen, then suppose you were a citizen, should go
so far as to be truly a citizen, to feel satisfied there, not
to know you are lost, then you see there is no hope.
Do you see no eternity beating there?  Well, you are
not there. If you have not left your Father's house, let
me entreat you not to leave it. He is a good Father.
With him are joys forevermore.  If you have left, if
you have any recollections of your home, any longings
to return, pause, resolve to return.  Stay not, nor rest,
till once more in your Father's arms, the sobs of repentance are mingled with the affectionate greetings of your
Father's forgiveness.




182                        SERMONS.
THE PRODIGAL SON. —No. II.
LuKE 15: 15-19.-And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that
country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain
have filled his belly with the husks which the swine did eat, and no man
gave unto him. And when he came to himself he said, how many hired servants of my father have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger  I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, father, I have
sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called
thy son, make me as one of thy hired servants.
THIS is the continuation of the parable of the Prodigal Son, upon another part of which we were meditating
last Sunday night.  We  traced  the  wandering sinner
through the alienation from his father and his home, his
realization of the portion his father gave him, in his
sense of independence taking his journey into a far
country, there devoting the wealth of an angel to the
pursuits of sin.  We traced  him  through  the wasting
of his heavenly portion, through the dearth of everything there that could respond to his better being, down
to the sense of want that overtook him. I asked you
to mark the gradation, or degradation that was here,
the gradual but sure sinking, lapsing, gliding downward.
That is what spiritual death means, the wasting away
of life, falling, the decay of noble faculty, of high-born
aspirations, the passing from a higher to a baser being.
But there was a deeper lapse than that, "He went
and joined himself to a citizen of that country." What
is meant by that?  You recollect in dwelling last Sunday night upon the thought of the " riotous living," I
spoke of spheres of worldliness, within which for any




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. II.          183
gifted or pure being to be, was simply a prostitution of
all gifts and of all higher being. Yet there is a land
within which myriads of this human race dwell. You
look out upon life, dissect society, the community, and
you find classes, degrees of ungodliness, ranging all the
way from  what is supposed to be refined worldliness,
down through hypocrisy, through all sorts of license,
through immorality, through vice, to crime, to all that
is ignorant, vulgar, sensuous, utterly and to all appearance
hopelessly abandoned.  There you have one inclined
plane, crowded, not with kinds, only with degi ees. You
find there, not so much human nature, as the perversion of human nature, the neglect or abuse of divine
faculties, the " portion" of goods originally given utterly
squandered, the patrimony all gone, the family records
lost, the family spirit dead, till they seem, indeed to be
not the children of God.  Here you have the descendants of prodigal beings who wandered here and never
returned, beings born here, educated here, i. e., beings
who never knew their origin, not that they were born
in poverty, in ignorance, in vice, what they are in they
do not know to be ignorance, poverty, and vice.
You must have observed what a naturalness there is
sometimes to such people.  There seems to break in
upon them  no echo from  upper worlds.  The moral
sense, if not dead, is dormant. Though the Holy Ghost
is there, there is little by which the Holy Ghost can
work.  To you, how unnatural it seems, that any being
could live so forgetful of a better being, so unregardful
of God, of all divine things, and it is unnatural. Take
it, in what is its least repulsive phase, in what is very
often an attractive phase.  Take it in circles where
wealth abounds, where the pomps and vanities of life




184                  SERMONS.
flourish, where social etiquette, abandonment to pleasure,
the pursuit of what others think are the supreme good.
Mark the shallowness there, the frivolous vanity, the
shining veneering, the absence of solidity-of all indication that the strong and true things which constitute
humanity, were ever there. There is not unfrequently a
sparkling brilliancy, sometimes a glimpse of true beauty.
But try to present there a thought. What a waste of
labor! How the toil reacts. That being ranges not within
the limits of thought, and I do not mean simply religious
thought, but solid thought of any sort. The whole of
that being is sensuous.  It has not penetrated into
immortality.  It is animalism, painted, draped, and
decorated.  It creates and sustains the froth of life.
It is for them, that all which panders to that kind of
being, exists.  It comes so natural to them, and it
appeals so forcible to unculture, to inexperience, to
youth, and all beings in which the higher nature has
been reached, that many of us suppose that to be human nature.
We take that so much for granted, that instead of
endeavoring to make it impossible by culture, we turn
to abusing it. We guard people against it, without cultivating those faculties, which would render all guarding unnecessary; like an unskillful pilot, we watch the
wrecks, when we ought to know and follow the channel.
Then, from here, go down, through the multiplied
manifestations of the same thing. There are men who
live only to be able to live in that kind of life, men who
devote all the soul power of which they are conscious to
be able to maintain appearances.  Hence we get men
in trade with great faculties of combination, of penetration, of execution, who oil the wheels of commerce and




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. II.         185
keep trade in motion, men who never think, nor care,
for any interests beyond their own, men like the big
pikes in a pond, that eat up not only all the little fish,
but even the smaller pikes, men that create monopolies,
which in their turn create and stimulate all selfishness
and wrong, men who have too many great things to do,
to think of religion, of humanity, of philanthropy, of
right, of God, men who often have mind-culture, but
not moral culture, men who have only one-half their being developed, and that feebly. Here we get to highborn faculties, in all office, perverted to petty and selfish
ends, in every department of life, talent devoted not to
the highest and universal good, to the true and the right,
but to the expedient, the near and local and temporary,
the form and not the substance, men who betray trusts
and sacred interests-men, to be like whom, other men
commit crimes. Then you go down to where the tinsel
begins to peal off, to where the repulsive begins to appear, but observe, repulsive not always to those who are
there. If you have been long in a vitiated atmosphere,
you are not conscious of its exhaustion as the man who
steps in from the pure air outside. They are used to it.
They are indifferent. Here the misunderstanding begins
to be intensified, because the ignorance is more palpable.
They neither covet, nor could they enjoy your refinement.  They think people of culture and religion are
their enemies. That arises from the undefined consciousness that they are at enmity with all social good. You
get down now to where society for its protection begins
to issue licenses, to where the police begin to be needful.
You get down now to those vocations that are illustrated by saloons, by gambling dens, by all infamy. You
get down to where courts and jails are demanded.




186                    SERMONS.
Within the limits of our cities, even you get to a territory here that is thickly settled.
The point I wish you to observe is, the naturalness
that is there, the fact that men and women are citizens
of that country. You perceive it is not what God made
them for. It is by leaving out all that distinguishes
them from the beast. It is the enthronement of all that
is merely animal.  When we look upon the world, and
see so many hard fates and cruel destinies, we think
God is full of wrath, and wonder how  a God of love
could create souls for such woe. But that is not what
God has done, so much as what God has been trying to
prevent.  When you look only sometimes, and see families broken up, all unlove and unrest there, it is because
they have lived in their lower nature, and forgotten
God.  It was against this God provided such endless
means, such an economy of reason, and moral senseeven this Gospel itself.  That is our slavery. We have
spent our divine life. We have joined ourselves to a
citizen of a country that is ruled by the devil, the
cruelest of all masters. He makes fair promises, but
He sends us to feed swine. That is all the stock he
has.  He deals in animalism.  Its food is not soul food.
No spirit can feed upon its husks. Souls have tried it,
but all have failed. We sometimes call it human nature,
but the truth is, it is human unnature. Mark the force of
the swine in the text. You know the hog is the illustration, the epitome of all that is mean and loathsome
in animal being.  Man, having parted with his divine
portion, sinks to the very dregs of animal being. To
part with your birthright, is to sell yourself to one of
these citizens, is possibly, to become one of these citizens, to become naturalized there, to be ruled by lust




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. II.           187
and passion, to wear a yoke more galling than death.
You see people trying to become naturalized there every
day-young people imitating the frivolous and profane,
people sometimes supremely ridiculous, because you can
see it is not natural.  Christian society is only immolation of those who are of the earth, earthy. Many of
the fashions and customs of life are imported from
foreign and heathen circles. One of the deplorable facts
of to-day is, that there exists little of what may be strictly
called Christian society, anything that pervades life as
such.  The world has more power, in certain directions,
over the Church, than the Church over the world.
Much of the dress and extravagance, in which we
indulge, is very unnatural.  It is the testimony of the
absence of heart power, and soul power, and brain
power.  It creates and substantiates the impression,
the suspicion, that religion is not where it. claims to be.
Hence the thinness of our churches.  Hence the impotency of church machinery. Hence the want of success
in reaching the cancer spots of society. Hence it is,
that wise laws are not made, and those that are made
fail to be executed.  Hence so much that is done is
unwise.
While we are here, let us look at an important thought.
From what has been said, we may infer that there are
all degrees of appreciation for divine things, even down to
that degree of which it may be said there can hardly be
any appreciation at all-down to that degree which
justified the Master in saying to His disciples, " Cast
not your pearls before swine."  In forgetfulness of this,
there is absence of much wise action on our part relative
to the masses, and much of Christian effort which is wasted, because it is unwise, well meant, but having in it




188                   SERMONS.
more zeal than knowledge.  We aim  too often at a
higher good, forgetful that if we would do any good at all,
we must first accomplish that of a lower degree.  The Saviour Himself always acted upon this plan.  Whenever
men and women presented themselves for His aid, He
invariably imparted it up to the degree in which they first
askedfor it-to my mind, one of the most instructive
facts in the Bible. When the ten lepers came to Him,
Ite said nothing to them about sin; He never said anything to any of them about their sin; He never makes
them promise to come back and follow Him; He always
takes for granted the better nature in them; He assumes that that nature must work, if it work at all, by
laws of its own.  Yes, "go and show yourselves to
the priests," "go and wash in the pool of Siloam,"
go and get clean by all means up to the best you
covet.  When you are there, the better degree will
bring you to a degree still better.  The blind boy
will come back and worship.  One out of the ten
lepers will come back for a higher blessing.  Now, we
go down into lanes and alleys, into rat-pits and dogkennels, and read the Bible and hold prayer meetings,
and all that may be right enough, but it is not all that
ought to be done. Now, is it the best that could be done.
How hopeless it is, experience tells us. We scatter the
rats and the dogs to other quarters; we make their
former locality available for better business. The Five
Points Mission House is a grand institution, perhaps
as grand as any in New York.  It aims at education.
But I contend that a Christian people should not be
felt merely in isolated and sporadic endeavors.  If
we could unite all our charities and stand together as
Christian people we should not only be more effective,




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. II.           189
but more charitable.  Why are our laws so powerless?
or why have we so few really salutary laws?  Why is ignorance increasing upon us and pauperism  increasing
upon us?  These are questions which are alarming
already, and which as a people we must before long seriously contemplate. I think as Christian people and
as Churches we ought to be more interested and more
active in all the questions of social science. Many social evils are, I think, because Christian people are not
making themselves felt as they ought to be felt. We
feel our duty is discharged when we have paid our taxes and that is what makes it so hard to pay them. We
have no interest in that toward which they are supposed
to be paid.  We never look after the money to see
whether we have any equivalent in actual benefit returned.  When we take up a principle we dabble with
it, like a blind chemist trying experiments.  It is not
for our brother and sister we care, not for the multitudes, not for a better condition of society.  We have
no soul invested. In my judgment we never can reach the
religious sensibilities of the multitudes, till we have first
reached the minds and morals.  We may reach here
and there an individual case, but we must do as the
Saviour, have compassion upon the multitudes.  It is
very true our soul is worth all the money we spend in
converting it, but if wisely directed, if Christians, instead of quarreling over abstract theories, and acting in
sectarian and solitary, and not unfrequently, on very
slender bases, could unite all energy and realize that,
after all, our interests are common and our work too a
common one, I think we could send a tide of life,
through our laws, through our police agencies, through
our philanthropic institutions, and withal derive a high




190                   SERMONS.
life ourselves, quicken the divine faculties within us,
and have not only more religion to impart, but richer
appreciation to which to impart it. We should all reach
proportionally a higher story of our being.  The thought
of the condition of society at its lower extremities
is breaking the hearts of many good men, but the
thought which paralyzes their energies is, the impossibility of weaning Christians from their unprofitable quarrels, and uniting them in wise, strong and concerted activity. The misfortune is, we look out upon the world
not with the anxiety of him who feels he is his brother's
keeper, not with warm solicitude for our Father's honor and interest, but as' hired servants," with the selfish
narrowness of our little divisions. We have our schemes,
our respectability, our ways, whatever they may be, to
secure, and beyond that nothing. All, at last seek their
own and not the things of Jesus Christ.
You know what a household becomes left to servants,
and you see what God's household must be, left to
" hired servants," with enough and to spare, with means
of grace and privileges and blessings beyond, not their
needs, but their craving, with vastly more than they
themselves appreciate.  There is great force in this
thought that the Master puts into the mouth of this
awakened prodigal, "How many hired servants!"  How
many souls think that way when they awake and think
of us.  Roused by bitter experience, by dark providence, by, to him, mysterious extremity, he reaches
depths of being, longings beyond utterance. He misunderstands his father.  He does not see the glory of a
sonship. His first thought is of us,. the hired servants.
And verily, we have enough and to spare.  When I
look out upon the manifold gifts of Christians, when I




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. II.           191
see the time they have at their disposal, the education
they have received, to a great extent unemployed, lending light, transcendently beautiful to be sure, but only
to very limited circles, not employed as a talent lent of
God, not invested in the well being of those who have
no helper, when I contrast this with the myriads who
would be glad of the crumbs of our superfluity, I think
they have a right to expect more of us, and we owe it
to God, to ourselves and our neighbor, to be more diligent and devoted in the work our hand ought to find
to do.  We ought not to be idling, " hired" servants.
But let me remark again this thought, that there are
all degrees of appreciation for divine things, has its
bearing upon this part of the work of the Church or the
Christian, called "preaching the Gospel."  Some men
think that to preach the Gospel, we must always, in
every sermon, lay out the whole Christian scheme, so
that if, for the first time in his life, a straggler happen
in, he may hear the whole Gospel.  That would do
very well, if it were not that, to my mind, that whole
Gospel generally leaves the Gospel out. To me, most
of the preaching, since I was eighteen years of age, has
been telling us what sinners we are, not what a Father
God is. It has been theology, and not Gospel. It has run
upon a certain class of texts, leaving about ninety-nine
one-hundredths of the Bible unopened, and unknown,
and a large portion of it is, to great multitudes of us,
still unopened and unknown. If the preaching of our
times is changing at all, it is in this, that it is bringing
some of those other texts to our minds and hearts.
When we preach the Gospel, we have to assume some
knowledge in our hearers. I assume, in my preaching,
that we all know we are sinners.  If we know not that,




192                   SERMONS.
the case is hopeless, after all the preaching that has
been done.  I take for granted we are all prodigals-or
even if there are some of us, those elder brothers, that
have always been at home-then, even to us, our Father
would speak. I take for granted that sin is the worst
yoke man ever had upon his neck; how it galls, none
know so well as those on whose neck it has rested.
Why should I scrape the sore, and pour vinegar upon
the raw and festering spot. I think that is where we
who preach the Gospel err, in not knowing how raw
it is, in not knowing that men feel it, that they do not
want it to be so-in not knowing that it came there in
their ignorance, in some dark day, under some crushing
temptation-that they were born in a far country; that
cruel, mysterious providencies left them without instruction, without culture, without those restraints, which
would have made them angels. Stranded there, without
a messenger from home, or a guide to lead them  back.
We have not sympathy enough, and so do not know  that
the one thing we want, is an oil for the wound, a balm
that can heal-just this message of Christ-" Neither
do I condemn thee."   I will; be thou clean." Though
thou art far off, thy Father is watching and longingoh! the days and the nights of agony I have spent
over what I know  already, my sins, the tears I have
shed over the same message, tears of joy, tears of
streaming peace, this prodigal son. Oh! when I had
come to myself, and then wanted God, it was here I had
found Him, my Father.  It was this that convinced me
that Christ was my Saviour, because He convinced me
God was love, that was "good news," and when I came
to see His own bleeding side, His cross, and the grave,
when I came to see how my wicked, prodigal heart,




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. II.          193
brought Him there, my sins burned like fire within me,
and if it could have done any good I could have crushed
myself; but cured, and clothed in my right mind, and at
rest, in the thought that, while only fit to be crushed,
God was the only being in the universe who would not
crush me, then I felt it was worth while to live, and
give soul and body to the service of God, in the service
of my fellow man, in telling them that every day they
staid away from God, they wronged their own soul, in
telling my fellow men God loved them, for that could
make them repent; in showing them what was in Christ,
for that would make them ashamed of themselves-just
as I do this day with my little children; when they
transgress I do not tell them how mean they are, but I
tell them of something pure and noble, and sweet and
holy, and it makes them self-convicted, but hopefully
and sweetly penitent, and, my dear hearer, in my judgment, if the love of Jesus, if a sense of the love of
God, do not break your heart, do not make you sensible of your ingratitude and sin, then nothing upon
earth can do it. No, I do not think the elder brother
knows his Father the best, or loves his prodigal brother
the best-or even if he knows it better than I, I think
Jesus knows it better than any, and He holds up everywhere, and all the time, only God's pardoning love.
His own life and death are illustrations of that love, and
to see that, I think, is to be led to repentance, to abhor
ourselves, and cling to God, to be born again, to put on
Christ, to renew our mind; as the Master so sublimely
expresses it here, " to come to ourselves."  When a man
gets there, he is a converted man. He is the best kind
of a converted man. He may think he wants to be a
hired servant, but God will not let him be. He shall




194                   SERMONS.
be a son.  He shall not be looking downward to see
what the least requisite for his Father's Kingdom is,
but always upward, how  near to, and how  worthy
of that Father he can become.
" When he came to himself," what a world of meaning there is in that! What a body of theology is there!
Do you see this palsied, leprous, sin-stricken mortality,
is not thyself? I have known a youth leave his father's
house, his boyhood home, and in the mazes of a large
city disappear. He went out with all the benediction
a parental heart could bestow.  He had been reared
tenderly, perhaps what we might call indulgently, the
pride and hope of a large family circle.  After long,
long years, in which evil association, dire temptation,
vice in all degrees had done their worst, on a dark, cold,
wintry night, that father's door-bell has wrung. Shortly after, an altercation is heard with the servants in the
hall —that father goes out and sees a tattered, trembling,
driveling form, asking for the father's forgiveness before
he died.  Was this his son?  Was this the being in
whom so many hearts had made so large a venture?
Was this he whose form was so erect, whose heart was
so noble, whose soul was so pure, whose life was laden
with promise?  No-it was the wreck that was left of
him.  His crime had been that he had changed into another being. He had cheated himself, and cheated his
father, and sinned against God. In his case, he never
came to himself; it was too late to save him.  Shall I
say he never came to himself?  Perhaps, in that dark
night it was himself that struggled back into himself.
In coming in repentance to his earthly father, he found
forgiveness and peace with God. But if he did not, it was
not because God could not forgive him. No, that Father



THE PRODIGAL SON-No. II.           195
heart was rich in mercy if he could only know it. I
say what a body of theology is in this thought-does
God's spirit ever leave us?  What is it brings us to
ourselves?  What is it brings that Spirit there?  Oh,
the death and sacrifice of Christ! Oh, the gift above
all gifts, God to dwell in earnest love even with those
who do not love Him.  Through that do you see God
abroad everywhere, pleading, working through every
faculty of manhood, quickening the memory, through
the law of association bringing back the past, applying
all providence, as links of iron, to hold us to truth, to
goodness, and to God? That is what we forget, that
spirit of God there, that He works, that it is His office
to apply the things of Jesus, and that all those things
are love.  Yes; my friend, when you are where you
know you ought not to be, when providences, dark and
mysterious, quicken your thoughts, and send them back
over the past, or out over the future, what is it all but
God's spirit calling you to repentance. " When he came
to himself," He was hungry, but against whom had he
sinned?  Against his father.  Who ought to be angry?
According to all our notions, that father. Who ought
to be his best friend? According to Christ, that Father.
Who did he most of all need? that Father?  Oh! my
hearers, God is the one Being that serves us all, the
one Being we cannot get along without, the one Being
we may be sure will never fail us. He is the one Being against whom  we have sinned, but He is the one
Being who is not angry, who does not hate.  That is
the curse of sin, that is when the devil is a liar. He
steps in between us and God and says we cannot return.
This is what faith is, this is the one work for us to do,
to believe Jesus, to believe IN Jesus, to accept His invita



196                 SERMONS.
tion, to resolve to return. Do you see there the one
thought, " you must come to yourself." You must accept the overtures of the Spirit. You must repent and
say: "I will arise and go to my Father." Make up your
story,-" Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son,
make me as one of thy hired servants." ~ But why so
long a story? You shall not need it, God knows it already better than you can tell Him-yes; even with all
you would tell Him, you do not know how much you
have sinned. You do not know how unworthy you are.
As the years go by, and you see your Father's love and
your Father's purity and understand Him, you will the
better understand what you have been, and while every
day will only refine the soul within you, every day will
the more deeply humble you. In your humility will be
exaltation. Now you ask, "make me one of thy hired
servants." Your Father will not let you ask that? By
and by you would not ask it yourself. There will come
a hungering and thirsting beyond what you now know,
and that hungering and thirsting will be, in deed and
in truth, a son of the Highest. May the Spirit of all
truth, quicken all our souls, and send us out with one
constant longing, to come nearer to Our Father who is
in heaven, to be more like that One, elder brother, who
gave Himself that we might live-the Saviour, Jesus
Christ.




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. III.                   197
THE PRODIGAL SON.-No. III.
LUKE 15: 20, 24.-And he arose and came to his Father. But when he
was yet a great way off, his Father saw him, and had compassion, and ran
and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I
have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be
called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best
robe and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet.
And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry.
For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.
And they began to be merry.
You readily recognize this as part of the record of
the Prodigal Son. He is first represented in his alienation from  his Father and  his home.   Then, in  consequence, sinking to great want and extreme degradation.
Then we see him at last meditating upon his evil career
and dark condition, thinking  of home, and resolving to
return. In this text we see him carrying his resolution
into effect.  " He arose and  came to his Father."   We
reach the very  climax  and  pith  of the  parable.  He
comes, not to an angry father, a father to be appeased,
but to a father anxiously watching, more glad to welcome the sinner, than the sinner is to return. This is
the lesson of the parable, the love of a heavenly Father
for his sinful and erring sons.
Possibly an error we have made in reading this parable, has been to consider it a mere story, illustrative of
God's general love, but because a story, filled in  with
parts having no immediate parallels in divine facts. If
such has been  our conception, it has been  a miscon



198                   SERMONS.
ception. Of all the beings that ever walked our earth,
none spake like the Son of Man. He was wonderful,
in thought, in word, in deed, uttering no idle word, and
in any record leaving no necessary word unsaid.  If
this parable had been uttered by any but Christ, we
should have had many faults to find with it.  We
should have thought it not sufficiently explicit. We
should have loaded it with elaborate technicalities, till
its truth, its beauty and its force had all disappeared in
one mist of complication and uncertainty.  "He arose
and came to his Father."  But before that, " he came to
himself." Did he do that in his own strength, by his
own unaided volition?  It would appear so, from  all
that is contained in the record itself. Persons who do
not believe in all our Scriptures, but persons of wide
observation, seeing, in all climes and ages, men truly
turning to God, longing after God, say, the natural man
turns to God and longs for Him. But, while it is true
men in all climes and ages do turn to God and long for
Him, it is still man under grace that does it. This
human race has never been under more than one dispensation. That has been a dispensation of love, of mercy,
God through Christ reconciling the world to Himself,
out of that love wherewith God "so loved it as to give
His only begotton Son." It is convenient for us to talk
of three dispensations, but all these have been but
phases or developments, successive unfoldings of the
one universal dispensation.  Men have been known to
talk of the uncovenanted mercies of God.  There are
no such things as uncovenanted mercies-mercy is one
and forever, and all the mercies of God are covenanted
in Christ.  The Abrahamic covenant was only a type
or shadow. The Christian covenant is all there ever




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. III.          199
was, or ever can be, and that embraces a race and a
world.  The covenant mercy in Christ, as much envelops
the earth as the atmosphere. It applies to every man
as much as electricity or gravity, or sunlight, or space.
Christ's atonement took away the sins of a world. It
made all men brethren, but not only so-the love of
God contemplated the infusion of life within us as much
as the removal of punishment from  us. Even more.
There is salvation as well as redemption.  The atonement, therefore, procured the Holy Ghost, the Lord and
giver of life, to dwell with man, to teach him the true
and the right, to urge him toward its attainment, and
is the source of all the right, and true, and good, in the
world, find it where you will. I do not think the spirit
of God ever leaves any man upon earth.  That spirit
appeals to us through every providence that overtakes
us, through every channel of our being, from the worlds
that swim in space to the flowers that bloom by the
wayside, from the winds that sigh through the trees to
the funeral train that winds through the streets.  Because it was a fixed fact, this redemption and this gift
of the Holy Ghost-fact that our action or inaction
cannot change, because it was universal, always acting,
there was no need that Christ should be ever telling
it.  He only demanded and taught, as God has in all
ages demanded and taught, as we do to-day demand
and teach, an action in us commensurate with and
directly responsive to the facts.
In the Bible we are not told on every page that the
Holy Ghost is there to give it life, to give us vision to
receive it. In our sermons we are not always telling
that the Holy Ghost is present to apply the truth. We
know that, we feel that. If the Holy Ghost were not




200                   SERMONS.
present we could not perceive that anything is truth,
there could not be any truth to apply. When on some
delicious day you stand and gaze on an exquisite landscape, what is it you see? The tree, the valley, the hill,
the shadow, the marvellous combination of beauty. But
does that make the landscape? What if the sun were
below the horizon; where would the landscape then be?
Could your unaided eye create it? Not at all. The one
agent and producer of the whole, is the one thing silent,
unobtrusive. Your eye sees, because it uses the light.
The soul sees when it uses the Spirit of God. Through
Christ they are made for each other, and the Holy
Ghost is with the soul without saying anything of Himself, just as the sunlight is with the eye without saying
anything of itself.
" He arose and came to his father." God asks that of
us all because we are all under grace, because every
man has the Holy Ghost there to help him, because
every man is under the one covenant God made with
the race in Christ. Man now is not man after the first
Adam, dead and helpless, but man redeemed in the
second Adam, man like Adam  before his fall, with germinal life, with perception of and capacityfor life. Man
better off than the first Adam, because he has been
bitten by transgression, like the prodigal, and knows the
deadliness of the serpent's bite, and can look to that
Redeemer who was lifted up, even as Moses lifted the
serpent in the wilderness, if he only will. This is why
God pleads with us in the Bible as He does, to repent
and turn to Him, why he finds fault with us when we
do not repent, why there can be no forgiveness for that
because it is the sin against the Holy Ghost.
"He arose and came to his father."  That is what




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. III.          201
God wants every sinner to do.  We can come pleading
the atonement, pleading all the promises therein made.
We can come to a Father reconciled. This is the very
Gospel itself to tell us of the reconciliation and urge us
to come.  But we can only come in repentance as this
Prodigal did, and as he furnishes us a clear illustration
of what repentance is, a change of mind.  You see him
in his unrest and alienation, striving for an impossibility,
a happiness in his animal nature, a life without God, a
being with all that is immortal stricken out of him, a
being resisting the Holy Ghost. You see then the one
common experiment of ungodliness, the deadly attempt
at impossibility to live without God. If man could live
without God and be happy without God, if in the nature
of things you could be safe in opposition to all higher
being, if your good could be accomplished outside of
God's plan, none would rejoice in it more thanGod. But
it is the impossibility of the thing, the madness of trying it, that grieves God. You must perceive that, you
must see what a folly you have committed, what an ingrate you have been, what a guilt you have incurred.
This is the beginning of repentance. You see the Prodigal conscious of his mistake, guilty, not so much before
God, as in his own consciousness, before the tribunal of
his own soul, self-accused, self-condemned.  This is the
work of the Holy Ghost, conviction, marvellous and mysterious work. It makes the soul its own judge. This
makes him exclaim, " I am no more worthy to be called
thy son." He sees it, his own meanness.  He knows he
has forfeited all his rightand title. He must accept all
now as a gift. When he first went out in his pride he
claimed his portion.  His poor silly heart has made him
think he was strong and rich in his own right.  He sees




202                   SERMONS.
now all is of grace. He must accept. St. Paul says,
" the gift of God is eternal life, and this life is in His
Son," and verily so it is. It is not ours by birth, or by
purchase, or by works, but out of the riches of divine
grace. Truly, too, it is ours now by the best of all
rights, for what a father gives ennobles and makes us
truly rich, rich in gratitude and affection and in all endearment.  This is repentance, not only the sight of
the wrong and evil, and sensual and wicked, for if we
see only that it is the dark side, that which makes religion a fear, but repentance is vision of the true, and
right, and divine, that which makes the service of God
perfect freedom, but which makes us see at the same
time how far away we are from  a true service.  You
perceive only a nature quickened can attain it. Hence a
mystery is solved, the purer we grow, the unworthier
we seem.  The more truly rich we are, the more we
ascribe to God. Thus, true exaltation truly humbles,
and true humility truly exalts. The archangel while
highest and grandest is still humblest and simplest.
Hence, too, we get to a true idea of God, while He is
the absolutely supreme. He is the absolutely accessable,
while the absolute Ruler, at the same time the universal
server-while infinitely exalted, still responsive even to
a child. Infinite love at last embracing all being.
"But when he was yet a great way off, his father
saw him and had compassion."  That expression in itself were enough to tell us of God's yearning to get us
all back to Himself. This were enough in itself to dissipate all thought of God's anger, of a Father in wrath.
That man should have that notion of God that He is
angry, is perfectly natural. If your child should wander out in disobedience and transgression; should it




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. III.         203
commit some flagrant misdeed; its first thought would
be of your displeasure.  It would keep away from you.
But to whom else should that child instantly go?  Who
could be a better friend to it than you? And, if you
were a true parent, who could desire it to do just that
very thing more than you? What a relief it would be to
those of us who have children, if we could only feel that
in all their errings they would come instantly to us!
Who could pity them so much?  Who could guide and
counsel them so well? Oh, what a thought it is, that
God is a Father! His justice satisfied! His anger all
removed! What a Gospel is in those words!-he saw
him when he was a long way off, and ran and fell on
his neck.  Oh! how far did Jesus come, away from
that glory above, past cherubim and seraphim, past angel and spirits of the just, down to us, tattered and trembling sinners, to tell us that-God, "our Father!"  How
He exhausted language and resources in teaching us.
When he would teach us to pray, while he bids us shut
ourselves by ourselves, He does not say, " my Father,"
or, " 0 Lord God of Israel," or, "0 thou that dwellest
in Zion;" nay-but still " our Father," not unwilling to
hear, but more ready to hear than we are to pray, watching, anxious, running, in a transport of joy, falling on
our neck and kissing us. No wonder the Saviour labored so hard to impress it. Good news as it is, men
are slow of heart to believe it. When Adam sinned, he
ran away from God and hid himself-the very natural
thing, but the very worst thing he could have done.
Notwithstanding that earnest, pleading Saviour there,
we even now come tremblingly, "perfect love" not yet
having "cast out" all "fear."  Why can we not believe? There is no reproach, no accusation, no upbraid



204                  SERMONS.
ing. no reaping up. What can so touch the heart, and
break the heart, as love and kindness we know we do
not deserve? Would it not be strange indeed, if Jesus,
being lifted up, should not draw all men to Him? The
Holy Ghost works through love.  Not only so.  What
can so break the heart as kindness, which, having been
rejected and despised, now wells up out of its own native fountains and overflows in forgiveness and blessing?
No wonder the prodigal does not finish his story.
He does not say now, " make me as one of thy hired
servants." His father's love chokes him. That would
be unworthy that father's child-to ask it. He must
be nobler and higher than that. At first he would come
back and work for something.  But oh, how little he
could work for! It would not touch the riches of such
a father. Oh! my hearer, if God gave us only what
we could work for, we should be poor indeed. But you
see, God is so truly God, His Spirit teaches us to be
sons. We must share the riches of that Father.  We
must be like Him, holy as He is holy, perfect as He is
perfect. All that the Father hath is ours. All that
we can receive, all that we can be, and the more we
can receive, and the more we can be-so much nearer
and dearer to Him. No more now about any wages,
and yet every day finding relief in service.  Every
day doing more, and yet every day feeling how much
more God hath done for us. Every day closer to God,
and higher up in Christ, but every day more and more
dependent.
Now, too, once there in this higher and truer service,
how all things minister to us.  "The Father said to
His servants."  Everywhere in the economy of God,
every instrumentality ministers to the redeemed. This




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. III.         205
is the purpose of all things. Earth was made for man.
As we grow in truth, in wisdom, and become more truly
sons of God, how many more things there are in nature
and in God's word, than we supposed was there;
and how much God has for us which we are not yet
able to receive-oh! the ministering agencies we might
command, if we were only worthy! This life of God
is not merely turning from sin, it is being clothed upon
with the fullness of God, it is being lifted up in true
glory.  "Bring forth the best robe and put it on him,"
says the father. God's purposes are to make us sons
indeed.  As we have been clothed in brutishness, He
would have us now meet and fit for the society of saints
in light.  Oh! to think of the beings there, exalted,
transcendent, pure, what a service is theirs-so far
above us, how can we enjoy them, how shall they enjoy
us?  He would have us with a robe of acceptableness,
that which shall make us not strangers in the courts
above.  That robe for every soul is Christ.  Observe,
at first an imputed righteousness, in progress of eternal
cycles to be an acquired righteousness. As being unfolds,
it is to be Christ in us. All that was in Christ reproduced, all the virtues, all the graces, the majesty and
power of the divine life, all toward which Christ so
earnestly exhorts us, and unless we are putting on that
higher life, we are still lost; churches and creeds count
for nothing.  "If ye love them that love you;" etc., "be
ye perfect as your Father," etc.; you see the need of this,
when you come to consider that grumbling elder brother.
How far away he was from his father.  What a gulf
between them, though he had never been a prodigal.
Unless we understand this, we shall misunderstand much
of the Scripture. We are to be clothed upon, not working




206                   SERMONS.
for salvation, but working out salvation, putting on salvation. That is salvation, to be what Christ was. That is
sanctification, to be putting on that. This is what so
many of those Scriptures mean, especially St. Paul.
Take such a passage as this from the Ephesians: " For
this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and
earth is named, that He would grant you according to
the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might
by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in
your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded
in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the
breadth and length and depth and hight, and to know the
love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might
be filled with all the fullness of God." Or, take such a
passage as this, which expresses, as it were, the whole
object of redemption, of the Church, and of religion:
"And He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and
some evangelists, and some pastors, and teachers, for the
perfecting of the saints, for the building up of the body
of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith, and
of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect manhood,
unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."
What a robe is that? What a sonship is there? It is to
be from the crown of the head to the soul of the foot, a
whole nature absolutely reclothed. He is to walk in a
being adorned, glorified-not only bring the best robe
and put shoes on his feet, but put a ring on his hand.
No longer a nature poverty stricken, but a nature enriched and adorned, with a riches that can satisfy, a
soul feasting on " fat things," a feast made of the Lord,
with a spirit merry and glad, with a Father rejoicing
and all the family of God rejoicing. Oh, my hearer, it
is worth while to come home.  It is coming to a heritage




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. III.         207
of glory that shall never be taken away and never be
diminished.  The crown and the palm branch and the
harp, they mean something in that kingdom of our Father. See the glory of not having it as wages. It is
given without measure.  See the glory of its being a
gift.  Your title to it is clear; nobody can take it from
you.  There is nothing about it, that shall ever molest
or make you afraid.  A life with God! Has any body
ever told us what heaven is? We are told that here, in
mortal language, nobody can tell. "It hath not entered," etc.  We know that here upon earth, there are
losses and disappointments, wrongs and deceptions,
woes and sicknesses and sorrows. There, nothing comes
that can deceive or make a lie.  There the wicked cease
to trouble and the weary are at rest. Tears are wiped
away from off all faces.  No more sickness, nor woes,
nor darkness. Well, that is infinitely much, but it is
not all, God shall cause us to eat and be merry, to feed
on things divine and rejoice for ever and ever. There
is to be music and dancing; Heaven, joy and peace in
the Holy Ghost.  This it is to which God invites us.
This it is to which Jesus died to bring us. Oh, suppose, your little child were out, having lost its way, or
afraid to come home, fallen among cruel and wicked
souls, cold and naked and hungry, buffeted by the winds
and evil passions, with no arm to shelter it, no living
breast to pillow it. What would you not give to get it
back? Such a joy is God's when the sinner returns.
But what would that child not give to get back? Such
a relief and joy is that of the sinner that returns! What
thing in the house could be denied it that could minister to its comfort? Such a welcome has our Father, for
every penitent; such a home, for every rescued, recon



208                           SERMONS.
ciled child. Suppose that child were hardened and
would not come, suppose it were insensible to give love,
then what a grief would be yours, what double need of
grieving. Such a grief is God's, over the thoughtless,
thankless, sinning prodigal heart. Can any of us here today have such a heart? Then listen, sinner, Jesus calls
you. Hasten, for thy Father is waiting. Thy ransom is
paid.'lhy welcome is before you. "The spirit in thy
heart is whispering sinner come." It is the joy of that
spirit to say through Christ to all God's children, come.
And oh, beloved, may we all remember what we were,
and what we are, and what we may become, remember,
Him  who  brought us this glad news, and purchased us
with His own blood, that we may be the children of the
Highest.   Wrapt in that robe which  He gives to them
that believe, may we, not be hired servants, but true
sons, risen with Christ.
THE PRODIGAL SON.-No. IV.
LUKE 15: 25, 32.-Now, His elder son was in the field, and as he came
and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called
one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said unto
him, Thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because
he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry, and would not go
in, therefore came his father out, and entreated him.  And he answering,
said to'his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed
I at any time thy commandments, and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that
I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this thy son was come,
who hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the
fatted calf. And he said unto him, son, thou art ever with me, and all that
I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry and be glad, for
this thy brother was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.
ON three former occasions we have dwelt upon the record of this Prodigal Son. First, upon his estrangement




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. IV.          209
from home, and its consequent debasement. Second, his
coming to himself and resolving to return. Third, his
reception at home. Last Sunday night, our souls were
moved in contemplating the watching, hastening, yearning love, wherewith his father forgot the past, and welcomed him to a happier and worthier future. We reached
the prime thought the parable was intended to express,
the great fatherhood of God, with all its wealth of affection, the fountain of exhaustless blessing. There the
parable might have ended, for the joy was full. But the
wisdom of the faithful Saviour saw a lesson beyond it. It
is needful we should know, that the true sonship consists,
not in any outward relations, but in pure filiation, in a
participation of nature. This is the counterpart of God's
love, the object on account of which He loved us. The
father's action toward the prodigal shows the love of
God for us all. The conduct of the elder son shows
the want in us of such a love toward each other.
You will recollect, in the earlier part of the parable,
mention was made of an " elder brother."  As the recital
progressed he disappeared, till now he emerges to-night,
the occasion to us of sad reflection, but not, on that
account, necessarily the occasion of reflections any the
less instructive. I remarked, on a former occasion, that
possibly, by the fact of this elder brother's remaining
at home, might have been meant to convey the thought
that, now through the redemption, our first estate is one
of sonship-that, as a matter of fact, we are created,
not only with capabilities, but with affinities for things
divine; that truly man is the grandest creation of which
we have any knowledge.  While that is true, still, as
compared with God, what a worm man is! What an
interval between him and Deity! How everything in




210                   SERMONS.
divine action is wanting to him. The best we can say
of him is, that he has a perception of the divine, not
that he is divine. Very often in his best estate, he but
reveals the poverty of his being.  He is grand when
compared with all that is below him.  He sinks into
pitiable proportions when compared with God.  His
glory above that of all earthly creatures is, that he can
become like God.  His glory is, that for this end, all
things earthly minister to him. He alone has religion.
Likeness to God in him is religion.
You will recollect this parable was occasioned by the
murmuring of the Scribes and Pharisees.  They could
not understand Christ's sympathy for publicans and
sinners. They did not see how, if anybody needed the
physician, it surely was the sick; that if anybody
needed God, it was surely these very souls who knew
Him not-the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  But
not only this, the Scribes and Pharisees, professors of
religion, set up to be God's children. The Saviour does
not dispute their position. But they undertook to say
that others were not, and for that reason ought not to
be considered children, sons, as well as themselves.
This Christ disputes.  Their thoughts prove that even
if they were sons, their sonship was of no high order;
they had little of God, and knew little of God.  The
true sonship is likeness to God. This the Saviour wished
to show.  It is this, this part of the parable illustrates. It is easy to see, therefore, who is meant by
this elder son.
If we carry the parable off into the mere generalities
of Jews and Gentiles, of Pharisees and sinners, I think
we shall lose its efficacy. The parable is built not upon
any mere accident, but upon law. It applies to all ages,




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. IV.         211
and therefore, to us as much as to the Jews. The elder
brother means the Church, the representative Church,
-not the Church considered as visible or invisible,
but the Church, acting, assuming, administering. The
younger brother means the worldly or unconverted.
The record of this elder brother, is a condensed Church
history, so far as the Church has a history that can be
recorded. You know that any history is not the record
of real life, but only of some accidents of life. Natural
history can give little incite into the actual condition of
an age, or a people. We read of kings and armies, of
wars and laws, of progress in outline. Certain facts
represent a great multitude of facts.  So in Church history, and this record of the elder brother represents
much of Church history.  He had been in the field.
This implies he had been at work. The Saviour does
not intimate that there was any mistake about that.
He had been seeking to augment the estate. But to
what purpose? with what motive?  Was it that he
might magnify his father, or that the estate and his
father might magnify him? These are questions worth
asking.  The world has often had occasion to analyze
the claims and actions of the Church.  It has often
come to the conclusion that they, whom the Church was
carrying, were more in number, than they, who were
carrying the Church.  When you look at those Jews;
yes, when you look at ages long subsequent to those
Jews, when you look through the Middle Ages, when
you come nearer home than that, when you contemplate
the imposing names and pretensions of Church dignitaries, when you contemplate the official zeal and anxiety
for creed and Church and custom, we may well ask, is
it zeal and anxiety for God, or for themselves? Suppose,




212                  SERMONS.
in such a case as Wolsey's, and in many others just
like it, a real work had been there to be done; suppose
a real cross had been there to be carried; suppose there
had been any shame to be despised, had they been there
at all?  The world will ask such questions; it does ask
them.  We may think it is rather unkind in the world
to do it. Still, it is only the world, and we can hardly
expect of it anything better. It is very natural, but
would it not be wise for the Church to ask it herself
sometimes?  I know that when we do ask it, we are
soon said to be no friend of the Church. We are supposed to be gloomy, ill-boding prophets. The query,
however, seriously entertained, would cause us, might
cause us, to see how it is, our grand things cannot, after
all, glorify God. So far from attracting the world, for
the world's own sake we ought not to have them, because they will put the wrong construction upon them.
We might see that "God, who made the world, being
Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made
with hands, neither is worshiped with men's hands, as
though He needed anything."  We might see that, after
all, it is not strange that the grander we become, the
less efficient we are-that the more of our glory we
have, the less there is of God-that the more stone we
possess, the more we want bread. I cannot dwell here,
for there is enough here in itself to occupy the half-hour,
but there is thought suggested here, which followed out,
would show us why the Church should be like Christ
in all things, would show us the fallacy of all that undertakes to teach us that God wants our earthly things.
Soul is never sensuous, nor carnal. For that reason,
the more we represent it, the less we have. It cannot
be, but that the further we go in that direction, the fur



THE PRODIGAL SON-No. IV.           213
ther we go from  God.  In this direction we will perceive why sacrifice and mercy are always in inverse proportions, and why God loves mercy more than sacrifice.
It is well to be in the field, but it is better to be there in
holy motion, in godlike purpose-there as Elijah was
there, as Jeremiah and Paul and the true sons of God
have ever been there.  We cannot help feeling, if we
could give ourselves, as Christ gave Himself, for the
glory of God, it would be easier for us all to live and
all have more true glory at last.
He draws near and hears music and dancing. When
he learns the cause-" Thy brother is come," he is angry,
and will not go in. Instantly a sort of low jealousy
arises. He puts on an air of conscious injury.  He
acts as if some injustice had been done him, as if the
enjoyment of another was something taken from himself. Mark, the parallel has relation to the Scribes and
Pharisees.  Mark its force, as applied to that immediate occasion. They imagined they had ever been in
the house-they transgressed no commandment.  They
come now and find the Gentiles taken into the covenant,
the Samaritans and sinners all taken back, and placed
within the reach of heaven. Emmanuel sits there with
publicans, while the Church authorities and dignitaries
appear to be slighted. Instead of inquiring the cause,
they unreasonably complain. If we let this man go in,
the Romans will come and take away our place and
nation.  They have certain assumptions of their own
importance and authority, certain assumptions as to
what God's kingdom is, so rooted and grounded in them,
they are incapable of inquiry. You observe, the kingdom they had built was not God's kingdom, at all; that
which they supposed needed to be guarded, was the




214                   SERMONS.
thing for human good, needing to be destroyed.  Virtually they have taken the management of the estate
in their own hands. The father is ignored. They assume
his prerogatives.  They make laws.  They prescribe
what God shall do, or shall not do.  They take the keys.
In reality, they are worse than the prodigal. He asks
for his portion, and goes off and sets up for himself.
They stay at home and turn their father out. You see,
then, how it is, that spiritual pride is the deadliest of
all pride. You see running through that fact, the words
of Christ-" Verily, I say unto you, the publicans and
harlots," etc. You see that the pinnacle of the temple is
a dangerous place. But what have the ages ever been
doing, but repeating this folly. What does the Pope
claim to-day, but " the power of the keys." Would you
like to be the Pope?  Yes, but look at every sect.
They are all only so many Popes. Each one is perfectly
sure it knows what man wants, and what God ought to
do, better than God knows. How strange it is, that all
the reformations of the ages have had to leave behind
the elder brothers.  The Jews would not accept the
Gospel.  They got angry and staid out. The Romanists
would not come into the Reformation. They got angry
and staid out. So all reformations have left some of
us behind, and, from many signs of the times, we are
entering upon a dispensation of grander proportions
than any the world has known, from which many of us
are to be left behind, because we will get angry, and refuse to come in. Can nothing new happen in this human
family?  Is every son and daughter gathered back?
And if not, are there not many surprises yet for us all?
And ought it to be a surprise, when God is what He is,
when Christ is such a Christ, that these sons are con



THE PRODIGAL SON-No. IV.           215
stantly coming back? Who should be better prepared,
or who has a better right to enter in and rejoice, than
all the elder sons. Observe, we all rejoice when another
soul joins our sect, but this is not the point here. We
get angry when the limits of the great Church are
extended, when an old fence is destroyed.  Mark the
progress of the last three hundred years. Multitudes
died in battle to prevent the progress of the Reformation. Then, at every step, it was assumed by the elder
brother that there was no step beyond.  The recognition of Jew and Romanist as citizens, the toleration
of Quakers and Methodists as religionists-each had its
struggle, each was occasion of fearful prognostics, each
was thought to be the sweeping away of all religion,
till, as I remarked a few Sundays ago, the Europeans
cannot understand how we have any religion at all,
because we have no State Church, or State Religion.
But shall this Gospel-view shoot out no new branch,
develop no new life, attach no other chapter of this lost
humanity?  It is remarkable, of all the reformations
against which the elder brother has grumbled, that they
have carried men to a larger liberty, opened a new territory, and brought forth a richer heritage. It is ever a
fatted calf with which God is welcoming the return of
his children. It is singular how, in holding on to the
tradition of the elders, we often sneer at the very word
"progress."  How we forget that man is more than we,
and God is more than we, and time is more than we;
how, in turning them out of our thoughts, we have not
a true faith, as an anchor within the vail, and so literally
chain ourselves to littleness. If there are laws in the
universe, then this law of growth is certainly one. If
there is one, this elder brother has uniformly forgotten




216                   SERMONS.
it is this, and hence we find actually existing, moral
fossils, as well as physical fossils. We can find a petrifaction of perhaps every form of religion that ever
existed; forms of religion that the world has long, long
centuries left behind, still exist, and it is one of the
most remarkable facts which all time presents. It is
singular, too, that every transition period has been a
period of anger, and hence too often the history of
religion is the history of controversy. That ought not
to be. It is not in Jesus. The elder brother is he by
whom the work has been sustained, and he should be
the first to enter in and rejoice. But, observe the language of this selfish, angry elder brother. " Lo these
many years do I serve THEE." Was it indeed his father
he had served?  Well, we have thought of that.  But
he does not say, "these many years have I loved thee."
That not being in his heart, it is not upon his tongue.
"Neither transgressed I thy commandments at any
time."  Yes, and neither had he ever got beyond the
commandment, and for that very reason never up to it.
To him the law is still a necessity.  He is truly a servant, not a son.  Service to him is not "perfect freedom."  "And yet thou never gavest me a kid."  Indeed, and on whose bounty had he been subsistingwhose riches had he been sharing?  And if he had
never made merry with his friends, what was it that
prevented, but his own narrow nature, so unlike his
father, it had prevented his entering into sympathy
with him.  " But as soon as this thy son is come." He
does not say " as soon as this my brother is come," " as
soon as this my brother is returned and got home again."
Here he shows us again the heart within him.  No response, no echo there indicative of love, of anything




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. IV.           217
akin to God, and then, he reaps up the prodigal's life,
runs over the horrid catalogue, dwells with emphatic
satisfaction upon its darkest feature.  Ah! how like
man is that! When we get into trouble, how ready is
everybody  to tell us the cause, and how few ready to
help us out? What a contrast here with the affectionate action of the father himself! Mark the silence of
Christ here, He virtually admits the truth of the elder
brother's cruel charge —. e., cruel in that he brought it
up at all. You recollect the action of the Saviour himself, when He was called upon to judge a trembling sinner, how He said, "neither do I condemn thee."  Admit then that this prodigal was mean, wholly undeserving, admit that he was no better than the elder brother,
still does this fact make the elder brother noble? does
it make him like his father? Is he set free from meanness?  Is he a true son?  Why is he in his father's
house, heir to such a heritage? Is it by his merit? Is
it not equally by the father's long-suffering and affection? Is it not simply of free grace; even if there is a
difference, cannot infinite love cover one as much as the
other?  Nay-if the Prodigal were more penitent, was
he not more deeply covered?  If much had been forgiven, might he not for that very reason love the more,
and if he did, even upon mortal reasoning, was it not a
reason why he should be more loved?  Ah! brethren,
this is what we so often forget, in our controversies, that
none of us are in God's favor except by His mercy, and
if He chooses to have mercy, who of us shall say nay?
Do we not often, tacitly, but still actually, reckon upon
our good works, as though we could possibly have any?
Theoretically we believe in justification by faith. Practically we set up a claim by works, that is to say, we




218                  SERMONS.
give to faith the efficacy of a good work; we place a
merit in it, and then we make God our debtor for what
we do for Him. But what are our good works? What
can they be at best? " The tender mercies of the wicked
are cruel; the refinement of the vulgar is vulgarity; the
righteousness of the self-righteous is sin."  You see nothing can go higher than itself, and what if we know not
the purity and holiness of God?  Why, we shall not
only think God is indebted to us for keeping commandments, but attach a merit to our abstaining from certain
evil practices. How  often do we hear men speak in
tones which indicate, that they think they have done
more for religion than religion has ever done for them.
Then, again, look at the tone here of this elder
brother. It indicates that he thought the Prodigal's life
of indulgence had been a blessing, a life of enjoyment,
something that for some reason or other denied himself.
Just as we, in our way of talking, often imply that to
be religious is to make a sacrifice, give up something good.
I think multitudes of people have that idea, that by becoming religious they will lose something. They are
not taught by us that they are to rise to a higher plane
of being and therefore to a higher enjoyment. We
somehow, by our hankering after the world, imply, that
the worldly and sensuous have higher pleasures than
ourselves, and so in reality we often make religion a
perpetual penance, a price we are to pay here upon
earth for great happiness by and by, make religion a
sour fault-finding-a joyless, monotonous service.
I do believe if we could all live upon the plane on
which God desires us to live, on which Christ lived,
the Church itself would convert, the life would persuade, and preaching need be nothing but instructing.




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. IV.          219
As it is, in the absence of that higher life, all preaching
is proportionally paralyzed. In thinking that the wicked
can have a life that by any propriety can be called a
life of enjoyment, I do not wonder we misunderstand
God's mercy, that it seems to us as if He offered a premium to sin by rejoicing when the sinner returns. We
do not see that worldliness and all sin is soul-sickness,
and that the more sick our child has been, the greater
the rejoicing when the recovery is accomplished. It
was this which made the elder son lament the fatted
calf.  What would he have said, if he had gone in and
seen the robe, and the shoes, and the ring. But, "to
whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little."
Listen to the reply of the father: "Son, thou art
ever with me, all that I have is thine." If you have
not enjoyed and do not enjoy, whose fault is it? Surely
you would not narrow the universe down to yourself.
Surely you would not deprive me of joy, because you
are too narrow to receive any more.  " It was meet."
I do not say it was my will. I say nothing about my
authority.  It was fit.  Love could do no otherwise.
This is love. My heart yearned so, as a father I must.
" This thy brother." The fact that he is a brother ought
to make you rejoice, too.  "He was dead, and is alive
again.  He was lost and is found."  But, you do not
love him-you do not love me; you love yourself.
Perhaps you love nobody. If so, then, how are you
worthier than he? If so, then, though you have never
left me, you have staid home to little purpose. You
know very little about me. This is life eternal, truly
to know the true God and Jesus Christ whom He hath
sent.
Thus, brethren, you see, the Saviour while express



220                   SERMONS.
ing the fatherhood of God, also tells us what a sonship
must be, likeness to God. You see, He tells these Jews
what a sonship is, that without which we are a sounding brass or a tinkling symbol.  Thus we come to this
essential query, What, if we do belong to the Church,
but have not the likeness of God?
Thus, we learn these lessons:  First-we may be in
our Father's house, and yet be very unheavenly. Being a Church member is not necessarily being Christlike, and Christ-likeness alone is salvation. Without
that we cannot see the Lord.
Second-we can have no heritage separate from and
independent of our Father's and our brethren's; or, in
other words, we can have a heritage only as we " enter
in," upon our Father's and our brethren's. Their heritage is ours. If our religion is mere sectarian pride, or
Church zeal, then there is no practical difference between us and the ungodly.  Without the true sonship,
the world will see, what the world does so often see,
the same passions and ambitions in the one as in the
other, only playing upon different grounds. With the
true sonship, we possess all things.
Third-nothing can be gained to God, or to our fellow-men, by narrowness.  But much may be lost. This
parable was spoken against the Pharisees. The Saviour
called the Pharisees "hypocrites."  We think a hypocrite is a person who intends to deceive. This is a mistake.  It is a person who is self-deceived, and he is
very sincere in his self-deception. This marks for us
one great difference between a true and a false religion,
One is open always to growth, the other is determined
to stand still. One carries the ages forward, the other
the ages leave behind.  When we return from our field




THE PRODIGAL SON-No. IV.            221
it is right to hear the music and dancing-our ear should
be open. It is right to be sure to find out what it means.
But if we be assured it means the return of any sinner;
if, the gathering in and healing of any nation, any member of this human family; if, the extension of the kingdom of love, which is the Christ-Kingdom, then we ought
to go in. Our Father entreats us. All that He has is
ours. If there is any broader truth, it is for us-if any
greater freedom, it is for us-if any feast of fat things,
it is for us, unless we are angry and refuse to go in.
Fourth-love is the fulfilling of the law. Love is her
own reward.  You need nothing else than to be with
your father all the time, every day, every night, throughout all vicissitude.  This is a whole heritage in itself.
It embraces all that the Father hath.  Rejoice with
Him every day. Let your service be above all fear. Let
your religion be a rejoicing. Have faith in your Father,
in His love. Let the world see that you are satisfied
with what religion gives, that to you it is love and joy
and peace, that by it you can make, and do make, your
Father's service more attractive to all your brethren.
Finally, the whole parable teaches us, that God is love,
that all we are brethren, that God loves one of us as
much as another.  We are all about equally deserving,
i. e., all undeserving. But true sonship consists in being
like Him-merciful as He is merciful, perfect as He is
perfect, not perfect according to any law or creed of
ours, but as God is perfect in love and holiness. It is
not prodigality that opens the way to His heart. It is
not sordid, selfish, stay-at-home religion that makes
Him love us.  It is likeness to Himself, as it is in
Christ, which makes us sons.  Once here we shall love
one another. This God desires in us all. For this He




222                   SERMONS.
is working. For this Jesus came, and all the means of
grace exist.  Peace on earth, good will among men.
This the ages shall produce. This, because He is love,
and because He lives.  He will not resign His estate.
He will not allow us to ruin it.  We must come up to
Him.  He is not coming down to us.  He lives, and
intends to keep the power of the keys.  We do not want
it, nor want it anywhere but in His hands.  We do
want to know that it is in His hands.  Knowing that,
we can walk by faith. We can go to our field, wherever
that field may take us, and work in faith, and while
working, rejoicing that the prodigals are coming home,
that our Father is rejoicing-that the great family circle
is being completed. By, and by, as our day declines,
and the shades of night gather us homeward, as we
approach, may we hear the music and the dancing. May
our souls be thrilled with a holy delight.  May we, too,
enter in with all those who have gone before us, and
hear Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, our
forerunner in glory, bid us enter into the joy of our Lord.
EPIPHANY.
MATTHEW 2: 11.-And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
IN the progress of time, we are brought again to the
season of the Epiphany. This word "Epiphany" means
manifestation.  More directly, it is connected with the
incident of which we read in the Scripture, the presen



EPIPHANY.                   223
tation of Christ to three wise men, or, more exactly,
the three wise men led to Christ. This presentation is
supposed to be typical of the fact that Christ was
manifested for Gentiles as well as Jews.  Otherwise
expressed, it is typical of the fact that Christ came to
and for the whole race.  This Epiphany to the wise
men, thus embodies a central fact.  As often as its
celebration occurs, it revives to us a central idea.
In my judgment, all things, i. e., all actual facts, elements, so to speak of Christ's earthly being, are typical.
We use the expression, sometimes, that Christ was the
end of all types.  A better expression would be, that
He was the consummation and perfection of types.
Antecedent types embraced Him.  He embraced great
facts. He was the door to great territories of beingreaching out through all time and all eternity, for man.
In other words, God being perfect, therefore infinite,
one part of His being was in harmony with every other
part.  What He did, could not help being linked with
all things that were, and were to be.
The simple incarnation itself was transcendently instructive and prophetic.  You have in it a divinity,
born of this humanity, through the operation of the
Holy Ghost-a divinity passing through the vicissitudes
of development, subject to all natural and mortal contingencies, as we have recorded in the Gospel for this day.
" Christ was subject to His parents."  "He increased
in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man."
The divine grew with the human, till it, at last vanquished all ignorance, all suffering, all ENMITY, and triumphed everlastingly.  As if God would tell us, thus
are born all things divine, and thus shall God grow in
this humanity.  So with this Epiphany scene, the nu



224                   SERMONS.
cleus, as I have said, of a central thought. There are
wise men as opposed to ignorant men, from  regions
afar-wise men that are kings, for wisdom alone is royal,
rich men, as wisdom alone is rich, wise men, seeking
something better, as wisdom alone seeks.  Led by a
brightness in the heavens above, out-hung by God for
all that can see. The divine brightness responding to
the human longing, till it is brought to incarnate Deity,
that Deity veiled in humility, yet worthy to receive the
best offerings that wisdom  and riches can give, the
richest products that this land of mortality, our native
land, can yield. He, greater than all kings, and richer
than all riches-they unable to add anything to Him,
but honoring Him most, and exhibiting their true riches
in coming to Him  at all.  This, I say, is prophetic.
All this you have expressed in this simple utterance of
Scripture, "And when they had opened," &c.
But He was there to be manifested. As He was the
"desired of all nations," so God intended Him for all nations.  In this human heart was a longing; He was
God's response to that longing. This world wanted life,
as all true wisdom has forever testified. Christ was
life, the divine life, that was wanted. St. John says,
" the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear
witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was
with the Father, and was manifested unto us."  The
divine life is alone eternal, and the eternal life is alone
divine. That alone is life. In another place, St. John
says, "' He was manifested that He might destroy the works
of the devil." There you have what a manifestation of
Christ is, namely, a manifestation of divine life in the
flesh, and the object of it, namely, the redemption of
man from the power of Satan, the two sides of the same




EPIPHANY.                  225
thing, all of it culminating in the great fact, man truly
royal, but all royalty and all it involves, freely tributary to the King of Kings, the Everlasting God. Man
wholly God's, by creation, by redemption, and now by
his own conscious volition, freely God's forever. God's
kingdom thus, not a kingdom of force, but a kingdom
desired and implored, every subject convinced there is
nothing else fit to reign over it, and only more and more
desirous that God should more and more reign over it,
by more and more rejoicing in it. Hence, in the very
incarnation itself you get the pledge of all the promises
made by the incarnation, a kingdom of true glory for
man, with God, that shall know no end-Deity in this
humanity-Deity incarnate.  That is all you have in
that manger scene.  Then, by it, this humanity lifted
up to God.
But in these very thoughts of a kingdom growing, of
life, and then of c" the works of the devil," of Satan, of
death, you get very distinctly the idea of two sides.
Yes, you get many distinct ideas. Old theologians used
to spend a great deal of time in discussing the origin of
evil, the supremacy of God, the free agency of man, and
other abstract and kindred subjects. They did not take
facts, or laws, seen to exist, and themselves work by
them, but were, as we should be, in neglecting the law
of gravitation, and endeavoring to go behind it, to remote causes, and ask what it is, or why it is?  The
First Cause in everything, is hidden from us; but the
truth is, the bare existence of light implies darkness.
If you think of a universe, you must contrast with it
the thought of no universe, nothingness. It is only by
knowledge, you create the idea of ignorance. The brute
beast knows nothing, not even ignorance. The negative




226                   SERMONS.
is always first. Space must be before body, darkness
before light. Such is the universal order; it is in the
very nature of intelligence. To ask, why? is a childish
asking.  The very thought of God, is a pledge that all
things are supremely best. To find out the position,
that which is, to accept it, to place oneself in harmony
with it, that is wisdom. Religion is, finding God, and
opening our treasures, presenting to Him the best of
them all. Only wisdom can do that.
Jesus Christ was the first revealer of this, and its first
illustrator.  Whatever of it other men did, these Magi
themselves-e. g., they did mechanically, as it were
out of certain instincts which they did not and could
not define. The peculiar work of Christianity has been,
because it was the peculiar work of Christ, to bring
the positive nature of man to closer communion with God,
to increase the positive nature, for that is to commune with
God-i. e., it is communion with good, or goodness, and
so far with God.  The coming of a Saviour at all implies sin.  Sin is ignorance, darkness, hence transgression of law, because we know not that law is, know not
where it is, nor what it is. The Saviour does not go to
work analyzing sin. There is nothing to analyze. Sin
is negative, the absence of virtue. He does not condemn us for being in it. It is because we are in it that
He has come.  But this is the condemnation, light has
come, and we love the darkness rather than light. The
degree of your love of darkness is the degree of your
condemnation.  That love of darkness is all the Saviour
even denounced, the taking for granted, that our dixit,
our doctrine, our system, was the truth, life and light.
Pharisaic formula, Pharisaic pride, that the Saviour denounced.  It took for granted its little system could




EPIPHANY.                 227
comprehend God, and by refusing to stir out of that,
thereby stood condemned. That was condemnation, to
be in it. It is condemnation to any man that is in it,
whether he is inside of a Church, or not. Pride, selfsufficiency, self-conceit, that is always opposed to God.
It matters not what shape it takes. But to everything
else, Jesus always presupposes a better nature. The
poor Magdelene bowed at his feet, scorned by Simon,
how like God, to her yearning, He freely and instantly responds.  The poor woman overtaken in sin.
" Neither do I condemn thee. Go, and sin no more."
You know you have sinned. That is condemnation
enough. Feel your meanness. Rise into thy better
self. See the true life. See that, without which you
feel degraded and are degraded, without which you are
not up to where God wants you and where you wish
yourself to be. Always taking for granted, you perceive, the power to see, the faculty by which to pursue
and lay hold of the better life.
And hence this sublime naturalness in Christ. Why,
what is man? Is he a bundle of nothingness? Has
he no faculties? Are body and appetite and passion,
is mere animal, manhood? Is mind nothing, and all the
moral faculties nothing, and all this affectional nature
nothing?  Did God mean nothing by them when He
created them? What does God mean, when He says
that in the image of God He created man? You absolutely can have no conception of God, except as you
reach it through this thing that we call manhood. It
is only as you have a proper conception of man that you
can have a proper conception of God. If you leave out
these elements of mind and morals and affection, you
have not man at all. It is of these you think when you




228                       SERMONS.
think of manhood.  It is these without which you could
not have the idea of wisdom.  These, for you or me,
create wisdom, or goodness, make one of us worthier
than another.  They explain the idea of religion and
create your eternity  different to  mine.  What is the
wonderfulness of the life of Christ? We have been in
the habit of putting it in His miracles, in His precepts,
more especially in that thing of which He said very
little and which I am certain none of us understand, His
atonement. But the great wonderfulness of that life is
not in one or all of these.  No! we have erred  and
failed to glorify Him in placing it exclusively there. It
was this which caused the poet Lessing, (infidel, I suppose we would call him,) to write, respecting us:
Christianity, not manhood, is their pride.
E'en that which from their founder down has spiced
Their superstition with humanity;'Tis not for their humanity, they love it;
No, but because Christ taught, Christ practiced it.
Happy for them He was so good a man,Happy for them they can trust His virtue.
His virtue? not His virtue, but His name,
They say shall spread abroad and shall drown
And put to shame, the names of all good men:
The name, the name, is all their pride."
But, brethren, there is a great deal of truth in that,
"Happy for them He was so good a man."  It was His
goodness, His naturalness, that was so wonderful. He
was the expression to us of a full manhood, and therefore
the expression to us of the Father. He was the perfection of the image in which God created us. He was
the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express
image of His person, the ideal and model we once lost,
and which God wishes us again to reach.  There was
nothing stilted about Him, nothing was artificial, nothing




EPIPHANY.                   229
borrowed and put on, nothing conventional. His mindwhat a quickness and grasp it had! His moral faculties,
what a harmony and purity was there! His affectionswhen has the world seen anything like it!  Against
these the surges of time have rolled, and peacefully
subsided. It is against these alone the gates of darkness have not been able to prevail.  Our doctrines have
never defended Christ.  They have defended our notions,
and in defendiny them made us deny Christ.  What is it
that has made infidels, so much as church quarrels, and
church dignities, and church machinery, and church
pride?  What has made infidels, so much as the unlikeness of Christians, so-called, to Christ? Nothing. Nothing is so opposed to all leanness and narrowness as
Christ, and nothing is so opposed to Christ as leanness
and narrowness.
Somehow, in himself, man feels a sort of consciousness of two selfs. One that is animal and gross, and
sordid, that is not himself. One that is noble, and pure,
and loving, that is himself. One he wants to increase,
one he wants to crucify. In Christ man sees his better
self. Men love Him, because all that we can love is in
Him.  There you feel you are near to God.  Being
there, you are near to God.  That was the object of
Jesus' coming, that you might get there, and being there,
so, be near to God.
Now, what does he tell us is the first great commandment, the thing absolutely and universally imperative,
the sum and substance of religion?  "Love God with
all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind."
He does not merely mean to say that love of God is
imperative, but He defines what a love of God is-consecration of heart, and soul, and mind-intellect, morals




230                   SERMONS.
and affections.  There you have the three essentials, elements, of man, the three essential elements of moral
being.  Man is a trinity. All great unities are trinities.
Man is intellect, morals and affections. To cultivate
these, to develop them, to make them harmonious, is
to be religious, to serve God, to.be uplifted to God.
These are the natural productions of this our native
clime. These are our treasures. These are the offerings we are to make to God-the gold, and frankincense,
and myrrh, to offer which is itself to prove that we are
royal-this it is to lay our dominion at the feet of Christ,
and have Him " Lord of all."
Now, I think these thoughts to us are very valuable,
and these things are the things Christians have not
always done, and are not now everywhere doing. There
is no other way in which God can be manifested to us
except in a redeemed manhood. There is no way in which
you can make an Epiphany of Christ except as your
manhood is redeemed, exalted, and made like Christ, i. e.,
except as your manhood is clothed in Christ, and you
see what I mean by that-in what Christ was.  This is
that prayer of Christ, " That they all may be one, as
thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also
may be one in us." This thought is not a prevailing one
among us, and for lack of it, we are often hindering
Christ more than helping Him.  What has the Church
done from a period very near the beginning?  Simply
made a creed and said, "believe that, and you are
saved."  Now, in the beginning, creeds were very essential things; that is to say, they were truth formulas,
and as such, creeds are at all times essential things.
But no creed can hold all the truth. Man cannot make
a cup that will hold the universe. Life is always broader




EPIPHANY.                  231
than our homes. After getting the creed, it, and not
the truth, was the object that must spread.  "The
name, the name," as Lossing said, was all their boast.
In progress of time, the truth in it was lost, and hence,
to spread the Church was to spread Christ.  That we
are at to-day. To great numbers of us, an Epiphany
of Christ means a spread of our Church, whatever that
may be.  But, thank God, the world, now-a-days, never
asks and never cares what Church a man belongs to.
If he is broad, and strong, and noble, and manly, if he
expresses their ideal of a Christian, they seek no further, and if he is not that, they pity the Church that
has to carry him. It may be, I cannot say, but it sometimes seems to me, that they whom the Church is carrying, are more in number than they who are carrying
the Church. In other words, let a man get the idea
that his Church is the only Church, or let a man in any
Church, get the idea that the Church, all together, specifically so-called, alone is Christian, and will narrow
him, and so far make him a burden to all alike,-a vitiated globule, and so far a disease to the whole body.
Some of you ask me, do I think, humanity and morality, and intelligence, and charity, are religion?  Let
me ask you, do you think that is religion which leaves
all these out? Did Jesus Christ leave them out of the
Sermon on the Mount? or out of any hour of His life?
Do you suppose a righteous Jew, or a truly wise man
from Arabia, God is going to leave out of His heaven?
Look at that star leading the wise men. Will we never
learn anything from the Bible! That star was the Holy
Ghost, God's own power, which never rests till it stands
where Jesus is. To Him, all wisdom must come, because the Holy Ghost leads. Hath God no star except




232                   SERMONS.
the feeble lamp that you and I hang out? Is there no
God the Holy Ghost, mightier than you and me, and
broader than all our churches put together? Hath that
Holy Ghost anything to reveal, except that incarnate
God, the things that are of Jesus Christ? Why, my
brethren, we forget how, with all our churches and all
our creeds, God is getting on often in spite of us more
than by means of us.  Look at Christian life-life,
rather, within the Churches.  Is it indicative of deeprooted and far-reaching thought? Many are the thoughtful wise men outside what we call the Church, who hang
their heads in sorrow over some of us inside of it. Is
all knowledge embraced by us? Is intellect and reason,
alone comprehensive here? Again you ask, will knowledge save us? Again let me ask, can we be saved by
ignorance?  When I see Christian people wasting precious time on frills and ruffles, whole hours and days,
all sacred, going up in trifles-when I see the levity
that pervades Christian society-I feel they are not
Christian, believe what they may. We belie the name
that saved us; we cast a shadow  across the glory of
Christ.  We make infidels, for us to turn round and
abuse them  after they are made.  The pure gold of
God's manhood we bury in the dirt, and offer the Saviour a lip-service and the service of forms. Is that an
Epiphany?  By us, at that rate, there is not and never
can be an Epiphany of Christ. There is an Epiphany
of our carnal, grosser nature-that's all.  Then look at
morals.  Has the Christian Church a monopoly of them?
Is life in Italy purer than life in Japan? Would you
send a Chinaman to Christian Paris, as we send so many
of our sons and daughters, for his model in morals. I
do not mean to say that life among Christian people is




EPIPHANY.                   233
immoral. I do not believe it is. But neither is it saying much to say that it is not.  What I would ask is, is
it uniformly above the level of bare morality. That is
the question for us.  You ask whether morality can
save us?  I say no, you are not saved, if you are no
higher than that?  Arithmetic is mathematics.  But
he is not a mathematician who is no higher than arithmetic.  We should not be characterized simply by naked virtues. Morality is not a very exalted level. It is
the first level this side of immortality. The Christian
should be up in the graces. The moral qualities should
mount up and blend with the affectional. The frankincense should rise into the fragrance of the myrrh, and
all go up together, an offering of our whole nature to
God, like the evening sacrifice. Can we say, to-day all
this pervades and characterizes the Church? It pervaded and characterized Christ.  How then are we an
Epiphany of the Son of God?  You see, that Epiphany
must be perpetual. It must be actual. It is the road to
the millenium.  That which makes this Epiphany is
the Church, no matter what we think about it.  The
Church is God's star to lead to Christ.  The Church is
that agency which is leading the world up to God, and
not any agency which the world is leaving behind.
Whatever is dark is not in it, or of it, whether it be
mental, moral or spiritual. Whatever is of truth and
light, is in it, for they are Christ's, and all Christ's is
God's.
Now, I do not mean to say, there is more light outside the Church than there is in it. That is impossible.
There is an old saying, " there is no salvation outside
the Church."  That saying is true.  But the Church
is where salvation is, and nowhere else; where light




234                   SERMONS.
and truth are, nowhere else-where Christ is, and nowhere else. The true Church has several times gone
around that which was ostensibly the Church, that
Church which was standing embalmed in pride and selfconceit.  It did it in the times of Christ.  He passed
by the Jews.  It did it three hundred years ago-we
passed by the papacy. God grant there never may be
need of its doing it again. But that it might not be,
we must understand that God will never stand still with
us, but that we must find out God, and advance with Him.
Do you see anything in that you have to do?  I was
struck with a remarkable sermon from a prominent Jew,
not long since.  He tells us some very unpalatable
truths.  We have had a way of asserting all progress
as Christian, and the Christian Church as the source of
modern civilization. He undertakes to prove that nearly
all progress has been made in spite of the Christian
Church.  He says, so far from  forcing progress upon
the world, progress has been forced upon her. He says,
every attempt at a free inquiry into anything, has been
silenced by the Church, that Christians now have a
kind of fear of philosophical inquiry.  He talks of
Galileo, of the Inquisition, of Smithfield. He asks,
who denied civil liberty to the Jews, in England and
elsewhere?  Christians.  Who opposed liberty of conscience? Christians. And so through a variety of questions-and I confess, that the most painful thing to me
about it, was, that most of it was true. But he denies
that we have any Christian civilization. Therein he is
wrong.  Who taught men to resist the inquisition?
Christ.  Who taught the world it was better to die
than to be submerged in self and wrong? Christ. Who
gave the Jews civil liberty?  Christians.  Who died




EPIPHANY.                  235
for liberty of conscience? Christians. Who leads the
van of civilization to-day?  Christians-but not any
sect, I grant you that, thank God for that, but that star
of God; and what I want you to see to-day is, that an
Epiphany of Christ is not a manifestation of any narrowness, no matter where it is, or what it is. Let
me ask you, then, in conclusion, have you any wider
and clearer idea of what you are to do for God, of what
an Epiphany of your Master is to be?  I am afraid
that to-day many Christians will be entertained with a
rehearsal of what the Church has done, of the great
glory that remains. I too thank God for all that has
been done.  But I feel down in my heart that we have
not done it.  God has done it.  We are unprofitable servants, and the manifestation that is, is nothing compared with the manifestation that ought by this time to
have been.  And then, I am afraid, that much will be
taken for glory which is not glory, and much be praised
as done, which had better never been done at all; and
this is natural enough, for, only once think that you are
wholly refined and learned, and good, and that is proof
positive in itself, that you are neither the one nor the
other.  We have a way of talking too much about our
ecstatic experiences, a way of blazing abroad our good
deeds.  But that is the world's way, not God's way.
When I look around the world, I feel as if our ideas of
Epiphany were inverted.  As if God wanted beautiful
churches, and fine music, and splendid ceremonial. All
that cannot help Christ. The material gold and material frankincense, and material myrrh, could do nothing
for Christ.  They left Him just as poor. They could
not give Him  where to lay His head.  The gold of
apostolic mind, the purity of apostolic life, the sweetness,




236                  SERMONS.
and benevolence, and affection of redeemed heartsthese brought peace to man and glory to God.  It is
that we need to-day.  Most men live in their grosser
and meaner nature, because they have nothing better.
Men would not be vulgar, if they could be taught true
refinement, and men would not be irreligious, if you
and I could show them the beauty of holiness. We are
at our wits' ends to find means for building churches, and sending missionaries, and yet we are amazed
at the small results of the churches we have and
the missionaries we send.  Beloved, we have lamps
enough, we need only more of the oil of the divine life.
Not a Christian listening to me to-day, but is a missionary.  Some of you have golden chances.  You can
preach better sermons than I can, down where there are
eyes watching, down where there are hearts that are
aching; you can manifest the true life. You get it from
Christ, and to manifest it, is to manifest Him. When
your thoughts are occupied with high and sacred themes,
when, in order to attain to the graces which Jesus
teaches, you forego your worldly interests, and crucify
your flesh; when over your life exhales the aroma of
benevolence and affection, then you are a co-worker
with God, and are hastening the day of the Eternal
Kingdom.  Thought, to-day, is the solid currency of
the world, the emblem of nobility, and so if you have
time to waste, if your mind is uncultured, if you are low
and selfish in your pursuits, if you know how to watch
others more than yourself, then you are not a Christian
at all. The Church has to carry you. Great thoughts
are beating at the human heart, and you have nothing
to do with them.  You are bringing reproach upon your
Master. You are a sign-post in the wrong place. You




THE DIVINE LOVE.                       237
will not destroy the works of Satan, nor reveal the
glory of God.  You  never will see it.   It had  been
better for you if you had never been born. Oh! may
we all be wise men, may we all be like the Magi-come
to Christ. But be sure of the treasures you bring. If
you learn of Him, then you can go out and  be part of
the great Epiphany, and yourself have part and lot in
the glory that remains. Let us learn something from
the star and the wise men, the incarnate Christ, the
gold, and the frankincense, and the myrrh.
THE DIVINE LOVE.
JOHN 3: 16, 19.-For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the
world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth
in Him is not condemned, out he that believeth not is condemned already,
because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved
darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
THIS is part of our Lord's discourse with Nicodemus.
It embraces the whole Gospel in itself. To a mind, not
preoccupied with doctrines and theories, as the mind of
Nicodemus was, it is peculiarly simple and plain. Nicodemus was a Jew  and a theologian, like us, bound hand
and foot with traditions. The feature of Christ's life
which affected him, was, the fact of miracles. Through
that, Nicodemus got an inkling that Christ was a teacher
come from  God.  HIe just had vision enough to see that
Christ's wonder-working differed from  that of all others,




238                   SERMONS.
chiefly in that it was merciful and beneficent, and so
commended itself to His moral sense, as worthy of God.
The feature of Christ's life which most affects us, is
not His miracles, but the fact that being a Jew, He
was neither a Jew nor a theologian, His thought was
neither colored nor distorted by time or place.  His life
was moulded by neither His age, nor His nationality.
He was human and belonged to mankind.  His truths
were coins which have heaven and God stamped upon
them.  Their substance was not earthly, but spiritual.
He was Himself the greatest of all conceivable miracles, and
view Him in any light we may, we too can say: " We
know Thou art a teacher come from God."
Like the rose, or the morning light, these propositions
of Christ carry with them their own endorsement. Who
is God?  God is love.  This was news even to the Jew.
It is news yet to a great many Christians, for simply
assenting to it, is not by any means the same thing as
understanding it.  It is remarkable that all theologies
and religions have called God from the depths of their
darkness, created Him out of their fears and their passions.  With what light we have had, we have projected simply our own shadow, and called it God.  Both
Jew and Gentile, as was natural enough, consulted their
fears. Not understanding themselves, or nature around
them, they turned all providence into evil, look upon
mankind as under a curse, and called God a Judge, regarded Him as an angry being, anxious to destroy rather
than to preserve.  He was a God to be appeased and
that too by ordinances that were either foolish or deeply revolting.
Imagine Christ's words falling there and saying:
"God so loved the world."  When man has long delved




THE DIVINE LOVE.               239
for the truth, how simple it seems, when at last it comes
to him. If we had truly reasoned, we would have seen
that wrath, anger, hatred, or any unlove, were really a
weakness, and therefore impossible in God. They are
merely the absence of mercy, patience and love.  If
they had looked into the divine dealings with our race,
they would have seen mercy, restraining and guiding
love, in them all, an attempt to prevent evil consequences,
and so to redeem  and bless mankind.  They would
have seen that every element in man and every element
in nature, under the direction of wisdom, under the influence of reason, of love, were burdened with divinest
ministration. All that nature wanted, all that God asked,
was that man should not be a brute, that he should
mount up to a recognition of his soul-nature, his true
man-being.  The very point contemplated in his being
was his recognition of his moral being, his realization
of soul. It was only as he got away from his fears, his
passions, his grosser self, that he could find God. What
he needed was not facts, but the power of seeing them,
not truth, but the power of perceiving truth. He and
all other things were so made, that he should find his
soul level, his moral or spiritual existence.  The essence
of moral being is that the SOUL fnd it and accept it. Divine love and wisdom, God Himself, could not frame
any other uuiverse or make another moral being. You
perceive, individual volition creates moral being.  Take
that out and there is no moral being.  To have finite
spirit existence at all, it was needful to have it just as
it was.  There was no unlove whatever in making the
world as it was and in creating man as he is.  It must
so be, or never be.  That lies in the very fact that God
is God. There is a conception of God-i. e., to say, a




240                   SERMONS.
misconception of God, that He can do any arbitrary
thing, that is, that He might, if He chose, please to do
anything, irrespective of all law.  If that were so, then
He might some day choose to break His promise and
forget and forsake us.
We see, of necessity, the law of truth, forever forbids
that God should ever break His promise.  So God is
omnipotent under His own law, by and within a law, and
the world was made, and man made upon it, under the
law of divine love, and divine wisdom, the best world
and the best humanity that could by any possibility be
made, so that in a certain sense, whatever is, is right.
If consequences, dark and fearful, intervene sometimes,
still there is no anger anywhere, because that is the
negative of God, but love everywhere, because like light
that is the essence of Deity.  God is a spirit of positive
and pure essence.  IHe is transcendently happy and glorified, BECAUSE pure spiritual essence can produce nothing else.
That is what Paul calls "predestination," that is the ultimate end and object of its existence.  The kingdom
of God, used in its spiritual sense, is thus of necessity
a kingdom of pure souls, or purified souls, souls quickened by the divine life. Souls without the divine life
are not partakers of the divine blessedness, but just the
reverse, and a law of proportion pervades both sides.
He who is nearest to God, or who has most of the divine life, is most blest, and he who has least, is most
unblessed.  The soul that has the divine life is in a state
s^ aio  and the boul that hB iit  O, is in W state of
condemnation.
In creating soul, then, it was needful to create us
bodies as well, and needful to create us in just such a
world as ours.  The soul-life can be reached only




THE DIVINE LOVE.              241
through the body-life. All being is a sort of inclined
plane, but because our gross senses cannot mark the
gradations, they break upon us only at long intervals,
and so, being appears to be a series of steps rather than
one continuous plane. These steps again, are sometimes
so broad and deep, they appear to be, and in reality are,
to us great planes themselves.  The two great planes
of our being are the bodily and the spiritual. The bodily plane is our first plane, the gross outward, animal
plane. It is not an end in itself, but a means to an end,
not without its own purposes, but still auxilliary to
higher and ultimate purposes. It has little or no meaning, except as you contemplate its highest meaning.
Just as, if you contemplate existence lower than man,
you find its purest significance only in man himself.
Why the delicate shades of color, the delicious odors of
flowers?  Why the fitness in lower animals for our own
domestic, or economic purposes? or a thousand other
things, except as you refer them to a spirit to which
they can and do minister?  So you get the full meaning of our bodily plane, when you reach our spiritual
plane.  Paul says, these two "are contrary the one to
the other."  He does not mean, that God made one as
a hindrance to the other, but only, that to be inside the
one is to be outside the other. Ignorance, our first estate, is contrary to knowledge. Vulgarity is contrary
to refinement. Poverty is contrary to wealth; the bodyplane to the soul.  The body-plane is negative; the
soul-plane is acquisition. Negative, in all things, is always first. Our bodily plane is the first in order, hence
it is called "the natural man."  Merely in that, the man
is not a man. It is true there is a soul linked with it,
but it is an embryotic soul. Its perceptions are unde



242                   SERMONS.
veloped. As the body has been born after laws of its
own, the soul must be born after laws of its own. Each
begets after its kind. " That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit."
Since God is a spirit, and His Kingdom a kingdom of
spiritual things, we must be born of the spiritual life, in
order to be in, or of, that kingdom. The lower cannot
judge, or be participant, in the higher, any more than
our domestic animals can judge, or be participant, in our
intellectual and human life.  Hence, Christ said to
Nicodemus: "Except a man be born again," or more
literally, "except a man be born from above, he cannot
SEE the kingdom of God."  As the animal senses in a
babe are unfolded, till the mortal gradually reaches a
realization of the world in which he is, so the soul-senses
must unfold, till the immortal reach a realization of the
eternal world.  " You must be born again."
Now, nothing is wanting to this spirituul development
any more than anything is wanting to bodily development.  Laws pervade all planes of being, only each after its kind.  There is a fitness, a provision, an adjustment of all elements.  Born into this world, nature, or
God, provides a food for us, but not only so, provides
that our little body shall crave that food, and reach out,
unconsciously it may be, but still naturally to receive
it.  Not only so, but the same laws which bring the
body, bring also the food to nourish it.  So with the
spirit, its kind of life is provided for it, by the law of
God's love, called by us the atonement. There is a "law
of life" revealed to us in Christ Jesus. How that law
comes, except as everything else comes, out of the love
of God, we know not.  But, "as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man




THE DIVINE LOVE.              243
be lifted up." By that law, the Spirit of God is with
every man that is born into the world, says St. John,
" to light it," guide it, awake it, and set it in conscious
co-operation with spirit-life, and you may discuss human
depravity as you please, I contend the soul of man looks
up for God, just as the flower looks up for the sunlight.
The fact of a religion of some sort, or degree, upon the
whole face of humanity, is proof positive that nothing
can crush the crying out of man's heart. This is the
office of the Holy Ghost, to take of the things of Christ
and reveal them unto us. All these things are of the
spirit-life. Christ is to us, not only procuring cause of
spirit life, but illustrative of it; in other words, the
atonement is not only a removal of death, but a manifestation of divine life, at once like a parent to a child,
means of support and a pattern of life. He is not only
the only cause, but he is also the only pattern.  Man
did not know  God, does not now know Him.  "No
man hath seen God at any time.  He only who is from
the bosom of the Father hath declared Him."  Christ
said truly of Himself, We speak that we do know, and
testify that we have seen-nobody else did know or had
seen.  To take anything else for God, is to mistake the
whole spirit-life, and hence, while God so loved the world
as to give His only begotten Son, it is only, and of
necessity must be only, he that believeth on Him that
can be saved.
The truth is both beings, i. e., bodily and spiritual,
begin at the lowest conceivable point, i. e., they have
beginning.  Its original, normal condition, in both cases,
is germinal.  It is nothing, except so far as it is an embodiment of capabilities or possibilities.  These capabilities or possibilities, in both cases, are matters of our




244                   SERMONS.
own decision, or at any rate, are dependent upon our
own action.  Here you strike moral being, in this selfaction.  The normal intention of nature is a healthy
body.  The normal intention of God is a healthy soul.
This out of the divine benevolence. What God wishes.
But it is subject to law, and laws must work, and hence
we get two senses of the expression, "God's will"what the affection of God yearns for, and what His
laws determine, two very different senses, and yet senses very often confounded. In one sense, God willeth
not the death of the sinner.  In the other sense, He
will by no means spare the wicked.  With respect to
our bodies, if we live wisely, we develop into health
and vigor, into all that makes life rich enjoyment. If
we live unwisely, we simply lose our health. But observe
what that means.  It means weakness, pain, suffering.
You see the absence of health is not only not enjoying,
but it is suffering-something, as it were, of a positive
nature, and, worst of all, as the health goes, it is
proportionally the loss of ability even to regain it. The
powers of nature, so to speak, die, and their death is
pain. It all comes about of transgression, violation of
law.  You call in a physician, for there are redeeming
agencies in all nature, for this law  of life in Christ
Jesus is only according to universal analogy. You call
in a physician, but he does not create a single pain.
He does not reproach the patient.  If he is a true
physician, he is truly sympathetic. His office is one of
mercy.  He would die, and physicians, very often do
die, to alleviate, not what they create, but what they
are unable to prevent. The parallel in spiritual things
is complete. The soul, too, must live by law. In transgression it dies. From its ignorance, you perceive, if




THE DIVINE LOVE.               245
from nothing else, transgression is natuaal. Transgression is sin, and sin is an inevitable fact. Some people
go off at this point, and create what they call "the
doctrine of original sin," and there is no objection to
that, if anybody pleases to do it, only, original sin, you
observe, is a fact; but, discuss it as you will, its roots
lie in the nebula of first causes-into which man cannot pry, and whoever undertakes it, will only " darken
counsel by words without knowledge." All first causes
are hid from us. There is transgression, or sin, or soulsickness.  But observe what that means.  In its least
degree, it is ignorance of God, and that is absence of
transcendent enjoyment.  But it is worse than that.
The absence of love is the presence of unlove, and that
means, not simply immorality and vice, which, indeed,
are very bad symptoms, but it means soul characteristics,
like enmity, spite, cruelty, revenge-that which turns
a man into a demon, that which gives us our idea of
devil, devilishness; that, whenever you see it, whether
in Pharisee circles, as you observe it in the Jews in
Christ's time, or in later times, or in any form of the
Inquisition, or in fashionable circles, as some of us see
it every day; or in trade circles, as it is in gold rooms
where men curse and cheat each other; that which is
selfishness, that which eats joy out of life, that which
repels mercy and truth, that which creates what men
have agreed to call a hell.  That is hell.  You ask me,
what becomes of these men, what hell is, or where
hell is. I cannot tell, but there is a hell, a great scorching
fu'rnace, which you create and feed, and carry with
you, down in your heart. It burns like fire. It gnaws
like a worm. It is as if the universe had judged it, and
condemned it, and cursed it. It is condemnation.




246                   SERMONS.
Observe, God does not come down in a thunderbolt
and crush the soul. No Angel is there to forge a chain
for it. It has done it all itself, not so much by something it has done as by FAILING to do something it ought
to have done. The United States Government has not
condemned the savage Indian upon the plain to his barbarous life. The municipal authorities have not condemned the drunkard, the vile wretches that rob and
murder each other in the dens of our city. The police
authorities in New  York did not condemn that poor
woman who went home one morning last week from a
masked ball and blew her brains out. No, all the forces
of civilization have for their very object the prevention
of these very things.  There are men and women who
would die if all these creatures could be redeemed.  It
is of the nature of love, you see, to pity. Only a pure
soul and an exalted soul could pity them and give itself
for them.  Of all pitying beings God is greatest, He
sends His Son.  The Physician comes.  Not to condemn.
Comes because we are condemned.  Comes to write love
upon every element of being.  Comes to inaugurate
means by which all condemnation may be forever escaped.  That is condemnation, to be there, in our unspiritual being, whether we know it or do not know it. To
perceive the life He brings, to accept Him, to leave
where and what we are, to put on what Christ is-i. e.,
to repent and believe, is to enter into life, to have salvation, but to love the darkness, rather than the light,
is to continue in the condemnation, ruined, lost, and because soul-powers die, as well as body-powers, it may
be, so far as we can see, to be ruined and lost forever.
And then it so happens, that to get upon a plane, from
any cause, is very likely to remain there. Somehow,




THE DIVINE LOVE.              247
our antecedents do greatly control our actions. You
cannot bring the wicked man from his associates or his
associations. They hold like iron fetters. You cannot
make the vulgar sensible of the delights of refinement.
You cannot make the ignorant sensible of the blessings
of knowledge, nor the ungodly conscious of the joys of
the redeemed.  "The natural man judgeth not the
things of the spirit of God."  "They are foolishness unto him," and so it is, the kind of life, our deeds, or call
it by what name we will, the life upon which we have
embarked, whether consciously or unconsciously, is likely to be our kind of life forever.
Now let me ask, can you get no definite idea of these
words of Christ?  " God so loved the world, that He
gave His only begotten Son," (only God could,) " that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the
world to condemn the world, but that the world through
Him mightbe saved. He that believeth in Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not in Him is condemned
already, because he hath not believed in the name of the
only begotten Son of God.  And this is the condemnation
that light is come into the world and men loved darkness
rather than light, because their deeds were evil."
Yes. sin is the most unnatural and repulsive theory
that walks upon the face of the earth, that into which
you could not possibly get a man to go, if it were only
possible to show him where it is he is going, that, in
which of all things upon earth man is the most unfortunate and most to be pitied. But, what blessing, what
mercy, what love, what a God! to come to us! to tell
us He does not hate us, that He loves us and cares for
us! Oh! man, did you ever think, how, if you had




248                   SERMONS.
been left to me, or to your fellow men, how you had
been ground down, how a great angry Judge had been
set over you, how you would have been turned into a living fear, going to heaven not from any love of what God
is, but from a great dread of what He is not. Do you
see how religion is, direct communion with God, with
goodness, not a church routine, another work added to
that burden which makes life so galling. How blessed
to know God loves you, that He is willing to give you
eternal life, that all you have to do is to accept it. You
cannot buy it, you cannot work it out. You can only
receive it, and God will give it just as fast as you will
receive.  "The gift of God is eternal life, and this life
is in His Son." You are to see that, see the divine
life that is in Him, what the Saviour calls "believe,"
then you are not condemned. You must be able to say,
in a deeper sense than that in which Nicodemus said it,
" I know Thou art a teacher come from God."  All your
intuitions and longings, will feel, that He is the Alpha
and Omega, not from any theological dixit, but from the
eternal nature of things.  That belief, that Christ is the
Son of God, and that through Him you are a son of
God, that belief, not merely an assent of your mind,
but a conviction that penetrates every tissue of your
being, a conviction beyond expression, makes you a
member of Christ, whether you are a member of the
Church or not. The Church is an artificial association
of believers. If you have the divine life, you are a
member of the invisible Church of necessity, and though
a connection with some branch of the Church visible is
to some degree imperative, it still is optional. It is not
what are called "doctrines" that constitute salvation. Doctrines make Churches, and very often ruin souls. Your




THE DIVINE LOVE.               249
believing anything does not make that thing true, does
not affect the truth at all. So far as truth is concerned,
it matters not what you believe. So far as you are concerned, it is of the first importance that what you believe
is truth. If you do not believe in the Holy Ghost, the
Holy Ghost can still find you. If you do not believe
in a hell, that will not keep you out of it. If you believe the Church can save, that will not save you. Our
business is to learn, not to write anything down and say,
" I believe that."  No Church can make a creed for
even all its own members, because truth crystalizes in
different ways in different minds. No truth is valuable
in itself, but only in its combinations, and because it
enters not into the same combination in any two minds,
we have so much trouble in all our Churches, and the
more truth we get, the more trouble we will have, till we
get truth enough to know that doctrine is not Christianity, and that belonging to any Church is not necessarily
belonging to Christ. Any truth is infinite, and for that
very reason its form must change.  Any form is but a
shadow cast before, and forms are therefore valuable.
Our business is to find out the facts they do foreshadow.
Christ is not doctrine, except as the greater comprehends
the less. Christ is a life. "Do the will of God," He said,
"and you shall know  the doctrine."  " The Spirit of
God shall guide you unto all truth," not all at once, but
very slowly.  Put Christianity into doctrine and you
have the Churches, with the world saying, "a pretty
set of Christians you are indeed."  Put Christianity
into life, into love, into unself, into self-sacrifice, into
that which is pure, and true, and noble, into a likeness
of Christ, and the world says you are a Christian, without asking what Church you belong to.
Mark how Christ and all good are synonymous. Mark




250                   SERMONS.
how the' truth as it is in Jesus" differs from  all other
truth-not that other truth is not true, but of a different kind.  Truth as it is in Jesus is true virtue, true
purity, true love, true lfe. Did you ever reflect upon
the remarkable fact, that nobody has ever said that
Christ was anything else but good?  Even the malignant Jews had not intelligence enough to bring a charge
of real evil against Him.  They could only bring a
charge of heresy, as a great many churches would bring,
if He were to appear among us to-day.  Christ was
God manifested.  We know not what God is, but the
more we know of God. so much the more we see in
Christ, or the more we see in Christ, so much the more
we know of God.  Calling Him God is not believing Him
to be God.  Mere assent to anything is not belief. Our
likeness to Him is the only measure of our belief that
He is God.  Belief, or faith, is soul vision, soul vision
is life.  "Without eyes we shall want light."  Belief
in Christ is vision of the soul verities in Christ, so as
to produce a life in us, a longing after it, " hungering
and thirsting," as Christ called it.  It is obedience to
God, and trust in God.  It is loving God and our neighbor. It is communing with God, and walking with God.
It is the reproduction of the Christ-life, the life of faith,
of prayer, of sacrifice, of love.  It is the crucifixion of
carnality, and the enthronement of spirituality. Our
victory over the animal or natural plane, is the measure
of our entrance upon the spirit-plane.  All time, all
providence, this economy of temptation and trial, is designed to test and demonstrate which plane it is we are
on. Not to have the upper spiritual, or divine life, is
to be lost. You observe, it is not simply that we are
hauled off somewhere, or are cut off from an economy




THE DIVINE LOVE.              251
of usefulness, but that something is lost to us.  What
is lost to us, no mortal can tell you.  God is lost to us.
Heaven is lost to us. An eternal weight of glory is
lost to us. That is what grieves God. Suppose you
had an idiot child-how your heart would break in
thinking of it-so much joy and knowledge cut off from
it, communion with you all lost. Suppose you contemplate your knowledge or education, whatever it be; suppose you contemplate your refinement and culture, whatever it be. Suppose you realize that to lose these would
make you vulgar and ignorant, could anything upon
earth induce you to lose them? You perceive the loss
of them, would make you lost.
Now, as compared with God, with the heavens above,
with holiness, with life-that is where all of us are by
nature, where so many of us, like the vulgar and ignorant, are contented to remain.  How is it with us here
to-day. You observe, God does not accept you, because
you are acceptable, but because you desire to be acceptable, not on account of your attainments, but on account
of your progress.  He knows how unworthy you are,
but He can wait.  That is His mercy, He will wait,
and does wait. Christ is advocate. A thousand years
will be nothing, if they can bring you to all you want to
be. God will not upbraid you for your unworthiness, but
the more you can see that unworthiness, so much the
more will you reach out after Him. That reaching out is
sanctification-immortal progress. What I want you
to see, is, that we all have something to do to be saved.
Not, as so many imagine, that we have something to do
to be lost. Men feel sometimes, I have never robbed
anybody, I pay my debts, I never swear, nor drink, nor
slander my neighbor. All very well, but, salvation is




252                  SERMONS.
not what you do not do. What do you know of spiritual things, of the love of God?  How far do you see
into the things of Christ?  How much like Him  are
you, forgiving, sacrificing? Salvation is not a fixed
quantity, doled out by a church, limited by a creed.
It is sanctification, more and more unto the perfect day.
It is struggle against self, and earth, and our carnal nature. It is enthronement within us of Christ and God.
I wish to impress upon you all, a sense of the solemnity of life, that life means something, that it was given
for a purpose, that purpose growth-that you cannot
buckle a doctrine around you like a life-preserver, and
say, "here I am all safe."  I wish to impress it particularly upon the young.  Redeem your time. You
have a future to frame, an eternity to fix. Your heart,
your soul, your mind. Christ calls you to Him, to take
His yoke, because it is easy; His burden, because it is
light. Calls you to consecrate your time, with all your
energies and faculties. You see men sometimes beating
about, not knowing which way to turn, and taking, at
last, just the very thing they ought not to have. Is it
any wonder, when they have perverted all their powers,
and wasted all their days? You cannot gather figs of
thistles. Sit at Jesus' feet. Hear what He says as a
message to you from God. Know that God loves you,
and that if you will only love Him, you shall not enter
into condemnation, but shall pass from death into life.




THE SPIRIT ABOVE THE LETTER.            253
THE SPIRIT ABOVE THE LETTER.
II CORINTHIANS 3: 4, 5, 6.-And such trust have we through Christ to
God-ward, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God, Who also hath made us able ministers
of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit; for the letter
killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
ST. PAUL is here, I suppose, partially defending himself from certain reflections which in one way or another
had been raised against him  and his ministry.  The
people whom he addressed were like all the people of
his times, like the vast majority of the people of all
times, blind people.  They had been used to certain
formulas, and to certain rites and ceremonies, in which
they rested, and which they regarded as the counterparts, or development, or end and object of the formulas. They had been in the habit of contemplating the
sources whence the formulas sprung and the channels
through which they had been handed down, as essential adjuncts to the formulas themselves, putting trust
in man, not realizing that God was the only original
source, and that any earthly sufficiency came alone from
Him.  Moses himself was only one divine agency, and
that only to the Mosaic degree. He, advancing from
the nebulous condition of conjecture and tradition, wrote
down certain principles or laws, as nearly as it was then
possible to write them. His people, looking upon the
Mosaic writings as absolute, failing to see the reality of
which they were but dim reflections, gave to them an
outwardness and literalness, which eventually dwarfed




254                   SERMONS.
and shriveled the faculties, moral and spiritual, they
were originally intended to quicken.  Christ came, elucidating, literally fulfilling, the old formulas. The Jews,
even the Apostles, did not understand Him.  St. Paul
goes out preaching Christ, the spirit above the letter.
He met an experience similar to that his Master had
met before him. Those experiences have been repeated
to some extent in every age and generation since, and
are being now repeated more universally perhaps than
ever.
The very Gospel itself was an exhortation to man to
awake and arise.  It addressed itself to those faculties
in man, which made him  man, as distinguished from
mere mechanical, animal being, faculties which had been
dormant, latent, or only rising into life, in rare and distant instances.::It addresses itself to precisely those
faculties to-day.  The wonder of the Gospel, like the
wonder of all nature, is, that the more we see into it
the more we see there is in it.  We find it illimitable,
or if limited to us at all, limited not in itself, but in our
own want of capacity. The little flower is beautiful even
to a savage, but transcendently more beautiful to that
mind which brings to it a knowledge of those laws of
light by which it was produced.  So with every truth
formula in the Bible; and as no man knows yet all about
a flower, so no man knows yet all about the Bible. The
age to which we belong, above all others, begins to realize this.  Men are now asking for truth, of every sort and
every degree, because it is truth, irrespective of any formula,
or any authority, merely human.  The tendency of the
ages hitherto has been to tie the race down to what they
suppose to be reverence, by what most certainly was credulity. They talked of belief. T'hey meant blind accept



THE SPIRIT ABOVE THE LETTER.         255
ation.  We sometimes meet the impression that we are
putting trust only in man. I think we are everywhere
refusing to put trust in any mere mortal authority
whatever.  The tendency of our times is, to develop
man to the degree of self-consciousness and thought.
The general effect of all tendency hitherto has been that
of turning men into children.  The general tendency
now is that of turning children into men.  Hitherto all
independence in inquiry has been looked upon with distrust. The Churches have thought it a thing not to be
allowed. Our age is impatient of any man who has not
learned to think, and passes him by as one who, if he
will not help the race, can hardly claim to be helped by
the race. Of the two tendencies ours is infinitely preferable, but there are dangers in it. Against these the
Christian above all men should be guarded.  The Christian not only ought to be, but will be, in the vanguard
of light. He not only ought to be, but will be guide to
others.  That is to be a Christian.
All around us the formulas and traditions. of the past
seem to be breaking up, like the ice before the advancing spring. Men and women, good people too, are everywhere uneasy and fearful.  They hear their creed assailed, their notions impeached, and, like the Jews of
old, they are alarmed.  They forget that God sitteth
between the cherubim.  They sometimes fear that the
Bible itself is to be overthrown, set aside, that people
will get along without any religion. They do not see
that the Bible is as fixed as mother earth, and that religion within us is as essential to our being as the sentiment of love or the nervous system.  Such trust have
we through Christ upon God.  Christ demonstrated this
law to us, that truth, in conjunction with mind, hath




256                   SERMONS.
the power a seed hath in conjunction with earth. It
springeth up into life. In doubting that, we are like
certain temperance people, who tell us, all men are going
to take to drinking, singularly forgetting that even fifty
years ago there was not the beginning of a temperance
society, or anybody to sound an alarm, that temperance
societies themselves are therefore proof positive that all
men are not going to take to drinking. Motion is never
the sign of death, but of life. If the tendency of our
age were confined to a sect or locality, even then it
would be hopeful; but when we find it universal-in
China, in Japan, in the Jews, in whole nationalities and
continents; when we find it in every sect in Christendom, in every shade of belief-we cannot, or ought not,
to fail to look upon it as God once more moving upon
the face of the waters, God taking a larger and grander
step toward the eternal consummation, the establishment of order over chaos, the enthronement of man over
nature, the creation of a being upon earth with whom
the Creator can commune in spirit and in truth.
St. Paul realized, as his Master had taught him:
We are but sowers.  All seeds produce after their kind.
The thing is to see whether we are ministers of the
new covenant.  To be ministers of that is to be ministers, not of the letter, but of the spirit.  This is what
we are called upon to do, to go down below the surface,
to get at the deeper things of God, that our children in
their turn may be wiser than we. We all of us live in
externals to a vastly greater extent than any of us are
aware.  There is an infinitude in everything beyond
that we perceive. This manhood, e. g., is not merely
animal.  It is not animal at all. We look sometimes
upon degraded humanity, a mass of bloated passions and




THE SPIRIT ABOVE THE LETTER.           257
driveling weaknesses, and say what a thing this humanity is! That is not humanity. That is animalism with the
humanity taken out of it, animalism  under indulgence
such as God never intended even for animalism itself,
animalism in a sphere which animalism alone desecrates.
Neglect a garden, and you have neither grass nor trees,
but only weeds. It is true, God has put the animal and
humanity in conjunction, but humanity is intellect and
soul, humanity is moral force, is perception of divine
and eternal things.  So nothing upon earth is just what
it seems to be. Commerce, again, is not simply trade.
If it is, it is decay and death.  Because the nations
have too often made it an ultimate end in itself, it has
not failed to make an end of the nations. Commerce is
civilization. Art is not merely architecture and painting.  Art is soul-life.  It is perception of nature, and
expression of nature.  True art springs from true life of
its kind, and reproduces after its kind.  With respect
to realities, the great essences that lie beyond the outward appearances, the wise, the seers in all ages, have
been endeavoring to give expression.  The great moral
lights, have endeavored to give expression in like manner, through what we call language, to moral truth.
Their sayings became formulas, not perfect, but only
approximate, not realities, but only reflection.  Simply
to rest in them is not to perceive them at all.  To mistake them is to defeat their very purpose, to turn into a
millstone round our neck, what was intended as a vehicle to help us to glory. A wise man in attempting to
give expression, or as we call it, definition, to this thing
we call man, said " man was the only animal that controlled fire."  To this a blind man remarked, " that it
was not true, for on a given occasion where a fire had




258                   SERMONS.
been left on a shore by some travellers, the monkeys
had kept the fire going by placing sticks upon it, as they
had seen the travellers do," a remark which proved he
had not the remotest conception of what the wise man
meant.  The control of fire does not mean merely the
placing sticks upon a fire already built, but it means all
that can be accomplished by man aided by fire.  It
means everything from the finest needle to crystal goblets and porcelain vases, everything from cotton spindles to locomotives, and steam  engines.  It means
things of which we yet have no conception, because any
truth is an infinity. The truth is one thing. An expression of truth is another thing. The letter is one
thing. The spirit is another. To rest in the letter is
to die. To catch the spirit is to be quickened.
That is what Paul means.  Be not like that man.
Every expression in the Bible is the husk of an endless
truth. Open it, enter in, and live. You begin then to
see what language itself is. We say it is the sign of
ideas. It is much more frequently the sign of the want
of ideas. At any rate at best, it is but a sign. There
is nothing in the arbitrary sound, or the arbitrary form
which necessarily conveys our idea.
A Greek text is the same thing to the illiterate as no
text at all. The French, the German, the English, can
only be understood so far as we learn and accept what
the French, and German, and English, respectively,
mean.  Any language is but a conventional currency, a
thing by means of which we agree to effect certain
exchanges. It is a currency without a specified value.
Its value to you is never that of the person imparting
it, but only that you yourself are able to give it. To
us the word meat would mean ifesh. In certain parts




THE SPIRIT ABOVE THE LETTER.       259
of England, and some of the provinces, it would mean
grass as well. It is used, in that sense in the Bible.
" He giveth to all their meat."  Nature and life, and the
Bible, never respond to any man, except in voices the
man himself evokes.  It is so with everything.  The
wild Indian absorbs only the worst part of our civilization, i. e., he absorbs only our uncivilization. When
foolish people go to Europe, they pick up nothing but
mere folly. When the ignorant immigrant lands upon
our shores, he asks not for our schools, our thought, our
culture, but only for such things, too much of which he
has had already at home. You select from life, not what
you most need, but according to what you carry to life.
Hence, we never can convey our ideas, except up to
the capacity of the person to whom  we are imparting
them. You cannot tell your child all you know. Hence
the Jews misunderstood Christ. Hence these Corinthians misunderstood St. Paul. IHence we are always
misunderstood, and forever misunderstanding each other.
Hence the fearful quarrels and wrongs which kept this
life seething and boiling. A lamp is of no use to a
blind man. All the light possible for you, is in the
capacity of your own eye. Hence the extreme importance of teaching people to think. Hence the extreme importance of reaching the brain and the heart,
rather than the ear and the eye. The one killeth, the
other giveth life. Every man's horizon is limited by
his own hight. To tie him up in sect, in formula, is to
keep him a child. Hence, no man's criticisms of another
man, of any truth, of his times and the movement of
his times, can be higher than the man. If you would
know what any man's opinions are worth, you must,
first of all, know the man. The teaching and preaching




260                  SERMONS.
of anything, is not so dependent upon the teacher and
the preacher, as upon the hearer.  The Jews went to
Christ to trip Him  in His word.  We read people's
opinions to see where they differ from ours, not so much
with an object of mending our own, as of finding a handle
with which to complain of theirs. Christ invariably
recognized this.  When He began to speak, and when
He closed His speech, He said it was addressed only to
those who had an ear to hear. They were all that could
hear, and that is the extent of any man's hearing. Old
things then, as now, were passing away.  All things
were becoming new. Then, as now, there was no reason why the old formulas and creeds should not be left
behind. Not that they had no truth in them, but that
men should go on to perceive the truth beyond them.
So, to-day, if you have been living in the letter, and
desire to live there forever-the signs of the times can
bring you no hope, and fill you with no joy. Those
words of Christ, " Be of good cheer, I have overcome
the world," can have for you no meaning. You do not
see how Christ has overcome the world. But if you
have the spirit, you know God is coming closer to man,
and that the present is big with the glory of the future.
If you know how to think, and catch the spirit above
the letter, you will be safe and blessed.  "Whosoever
hath, to him shall be given."
This answers the question, then, so often asked,
"Can truth ever change?"  You see the answer.  Truth
never changes.  God's foundations, what we callfundamentals, remain forever. Our measure of it must always
change, unless we would be forever dead. Nature every
day is changing her forms, and because she is forever
exchanging, nature is forever life. Perhaps it is the




THE SPIRIT ABOVE THE LETTER.         261
destiny of truth to be forever assuming new forms.
Truth is not only infinitely elastic, but infinitely compounded.  As I remarked last Sunday, no truth is valuable simply in itself.  It is valuable according to its
combinations.  You must be forever assimilating new
truth, as you are every day assimilating new food.  Stop
the process and you die. The race is as one man, and
so there is forever progress, and forever change.  It is
so not only in religion, but in all the great facts of our
economy.  Wealth was once cattle and clothes, peacocks and apes, pearls and fine linen. Now it is bonds
and consols, stocks and factories.  The lesser is included
in the greater; the old is in the new, but the new was
not in the old. Art was once pyramids and sphinxes
and temples. Now it is locomotives and spindles. Once
it was Madonnas and saints.  Now it is Niagara and
the Rocky Mountains, the Yosemite Valley and photographic production. The fundamentals of wealth and
of art cannot and have not changed; they never do
change; they always bear the same relations to life;
but the form  is changing every day.  A merchant of
the middle ages could not understand even the terms of
modern commerce, any more than a warrior of the middle ages could fight with the weapons of modern warfare.  But the essence of commerce and war has not
changed. The form has passed away; the spirit abideth.
So with what we call comfort, so with even life itself;
the forms and accessories are always changing, the thing
itself abides. All changes have for their object the increase of the reality, and in the aggregate succeed.  It
is folly to imagine that the ages past were better or happier than our own.
Now some of you ask whether we can never know




262                   SERMONS.
anything.  I would say, "Yes; we may always know
most certainly that we do not know anything."  The
error of the past has been that we have pronounced
definitely upon subjects that we certainly knew very
little about. Salvation itself has been fixed, as if some
of us had surveyed it with a chain and compass. The
most hopeless feature of the prospect before us to-day
is, the unflinching blindness which accepts things because we are told them.  Go into the rank and file of
any Christian denomination and you will find the grand
reason for their belief to be that their sect believes it.
There are Christian Churches, so-called, in which the
clear assertion of a great truth would create a panic, in
Mexico, in Ireland, possibly nearer home. In India, in
Constantinople, in Rome, the blinder a man is the better believer he is. In other words, you will find they
do not believe at all. If you are a wise man, if your
spirit burns with Christian impulse, you will understand
those expressions which tell us Christ had compassion
upon the multitudes.  How His divine accents struck
Jewish superstition with alarm, but how  His sympathetic heart grieved over their blindness. You will ask
how  the germs which are certainly in man, can be
caused to shoot into divine development, but you will
see it never can be by refusing to use the noblest faculties with which God has endowed us.  The position of
asking for the truth for the truth's sake, is the most
hopeful the race can reach.  All liberation is in it.
Every blessing of the past or present, exhaustless riches
of the future, are there. Peace upon earth is in it, good
will among men.  Without it, we are cannon loaded for
each other's destruction. With it, we are trees laden
with each other's life. Only take for granted it is our




THE SPIRIT ABOVE THE LETTER.        263
neighbor who is in ignorance and error, and there is instant repulsion.  Take for granted we are in ignorance
and error, and there is instant attraction. Yes, only
take for granted you are the only favored of God, and
you will assume the prerogatives of the Almighty.
Take for granted you are helpless and needy, you will
look to God in faith and reverence, and all divine prerogative will distil upon you in blessedness and peace.
Once get a man to loving truth for its own sake at any
cost, and you place that man in direct communion with
God.  For this, God intended us.  To this, Christ and
the Gospel introduced us.  To this, I think all the
truths wrapt up in denominational forms, are bringing
us.  I do not regret denominational forms.  The only
thing that is wrong in sect, is sectarianism.  Church
authority, the greatest misfortune perhaps that ever
settled upon man, cannot choke thought.  When men
tell you faith is dying, they mean their blind authority is dying.  They mean faith is truly beginning to live.  Put a thought into a heart now, and
no mitre can smother it, no crosier can reach it.  If
it be worthless, it lives as long as any little life it
may have will last, and then dies.  If it be truth, a
grand CEcumenical Council, grander than that at Rome,
proclaims it, and it goes forth in all the vitality with
which God has clothed it.  One thing the great abundance of Christian machinery has done for us, is to teach
us the little reliance to be placed in any machinery.
We are trusting more to truth, to man, to God.  We
begin to realize that Christ lives, that movements come
when God orders them and that it becomes us, not to
resist, but to learn. The world to-day is not asking
whether we are of Paul, or where Paul got his authori



264                    SERMONS.
ty, but saying as Paul said: Be the authority what it
may, ye are witnesses, epistles, " written not with ink,
but with the spirit of the living God, not in tables of
stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." This also
hath Christianity accomplished.  This is part of its glorious work.  Only this work must be more, and the
glory more.  The work of Christianity  is this very
work of guidance.  Christ is the creator of new force.
The work of the Christian is to be the radiator of that
force.  The form of Christian work, like all other form,
must change.  In the early age it was the simple proclamation of bare historic fact,-the incarnation, the
death and resurrection of Christ, the releasement from
Judaism and Paganism.  To-day it is the proclamation
of all that the incarnation included, the unfolding of
those forms in which Christ left His revelation, the
bringing out into actual life, universal life, the precious
life of the Son of God, the bringing it not merely to a
few, but to the many, curing the leper, unstopping the
ears of the deaf, and opening the eyes of the blind, not
only raising the dead, but loosing the grave clothes
themselves, and setting us free in that blessed liberty
wherewith Christ alone sets free.  It takes more to be
a Christian to-day than it ever did before, and one thing
that grieves me is, men outside the Church, men of
thought, men of culture, point to so much of so-called
Christian life, point to sectarian narrowness and bigotry
and ignorance, and ask if that is Christianity.  One
thing that grieves me, is, Christ is still wounded in the
house of His friends.
Some of you tell me, " This is making Christianity a
difficult thing." No, my friend. You are only speaking out of your misconception, of which I was speaking




THE SPIRIT ABOVE THE LETTER.       265
just now. It is only making it, not the thing you have
been supposing it to be. You ask, "Who can attain to
all this?" Nobody can attain to it, if they spend their
divine faculties on the decorations of a hat, or the elaborations of Parisian fashions, or the contemplation of railroad stocks. Everything begets after its kind. If you
sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind. Nobody can
attain to it who is governed by laws that come from
France and New York, and know nothing of laws that
come from God; nobody who can waste time and energy
upon the mere signs of life, and dwell in ignorance of
life itself.  This is our misfortune: even when we do
begin to see, how long it is we see only trees, as men,
walking; how long before these dull orbs can gaze upon
the glories of God in all the charms of unveiled sight.
I do not say there is nothing in forms, for the form of
much so-called Christian life proclaims there is no life
in it. The real creed of too many of us is, that faith
means earthly enjoyment, and that it is easy to enter
the Kingdom  of Heaven.  What is that Kingdom?
Have you ever reflected upon what Christ said, that the
Kingdom of Heaven was within you? Have you ever
thought that there is no more Heaven for you than you
are capable of receiving? St. Paul says, not as our
translation hath it, the natural man cannot receive the
things of the Spirit of God, but the gross man, the man
buried in the things of time and sense, the sensual man,
cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. Were
I to preach to you a sermon to-day against the pomps
and vanities of the world, you would say, as is so often
said, "Yes, these ministers must be at their trade."
But do you see that the pomps and vanities of the world
are only the graves of mind and heart and soul, that




266                    SERMONS.
they are not wrong, so much as that they proclaim you
are right?  You talk  of going to Heaven.  What
Heaven?  You think it is easy to enter.  Did Christ
say so? Around you are glorious visions, if you could
see them, and eternal facts, if you could know them,
and angelic experiences, if you were worthy.
" Children of grace have found
Glory begun below."
And if you find not that glory here, you never will find
it in any hereafter.  Every fact is only a result.  Heaven itself is only development.
" The Hill of Zion yields
A thousand sacred sweets,
Before we reach the golden fields
Or walk the sacred streets."
And the streets and fields above are never trodden by
unwilling or unhallowed feet.
The thought, then, I would leave with you to-day is
the thought that religion means culture; life means
growth; Heaven means spiritual glory, the vision of
God.  Upon you that are young, I would like to impress
that thought.  You have years; you have strength;
you have opportunities. To-day as every day, I would
ask you to come to Jesus. He hath the words of eternal life. I would ask you if, through what I have said,
you cannot understand much that He said?  " Strive to
enter in," if you cannot see the force of that earnest life,
thatpleading, patient, hopeful spirit.  I would ask you
to reflect upon the meaning, the spirit, of such words as
prayer, meditation, thought, communion with self and
with God.  You will see that you must give up either
a thoughtless life or a hope of leaven, one or the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon.  You will serve




RENOUNCING THE WORLD.              267
one or the other.  I would say, Come to this Bible.
There is more upon every page than any eye hath seen,
much your eye can see.  Through what I have said,
hear its echo. "Set your affections on things above,
not on things on the earth."  "The Kingdom of Heaven
is not meat and drink, but peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost."
And, one and all of us, What are we living for? To
what extent are we believers, to what extent disciples,
scholars of Him who was the Son of God, whose life,
whose doctrine, whose very Gospel is an exhortation to
be in deed and in truth the children of the Highest?
May God give us grace to come to Him, and, coming,
give us vision to see, faith to know most certainly, that
He alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life everlasting!
RENOUNCING THE WORLD.
MATTHEW 4: 1.-Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness
to be tempted of the devil.
You readily recognize this passage as introductory to
the record of Christ's great temptation in the wilderness. The whole three and thirty years of Christ's life
constitute what He gave for us men, and for our redemption.  But He was now about to enter upon that part
of His life more particularly called His public ministry.
He had just been baptized of John, at the Jordan, where
a miraculous testimony had been given as to His person, His character, and His office. A definition of Him,




268                   SERMONS.
so to speak, had been made.  From this scene He is
carried, still by divine influence, into the wilderness to
be tempted of the devil.  This temptation embraced
three prime elements.  First, "Command that these
stones be made bread."  Second, "The pinnacle of the
temple."  Third, "All these kingdoms will I give thee
if thou wilt fall down and worship me."
The whole of this temptation, being, in itself and in
its circumstances, extraordinary, what we might call
miraculous, it is impossible for us in all respects to explain it. How Satan could approach Christ, how his
propositions could be presented to the mind and spirit of
Christ, we cannot tell. But if Christ were the Son of
God, the Messiah, promised of all ages, the Great
Redeemer of a fallen race, we can conceive a sort of
necessity for His being subjected to such a test. Marvellous as the temptation is, more marvellous, indeed,
would its absence be. The fact that He was subjected
goes far to prove He was all He claimed to be. It gives
us a deeper confidence in the super-human nature of
His mission, and in the inspiration of His whole liferecord.  We may regard it as a demonstration, that if
our Gospel were a merely human fabrication, this temptation had never been found in it. Not that it is not
naturally there, but that man in his speculations upon
divine things, and especially so at the time the Gospel
was written, is forever only speculation, and therefore
unnatural. The wilderness and the Jordan supplement
each other. From highest heights and lowest depthsfrom  Christ's whole being, divine and human, from
heaven, earth, and hell, come one testimony-Christ is
Emmanuel, a Son of Man, who is Son of God.
It must be observed, that this temptation stands at




RENOUNCING THE WORLD.              269
the threshold of Christ's avowed work, of His official
life, so to speak.  Stress must also be laid upon the
fact that it was a temptation. It is true, our words
temptation and trial have a common origin, start from the
same germinal thought.  Together they express that
which gives proof of our moral being, that which defines the amount of true moral being within us. But
they are different things. They are rather the two sides
of one thing. They act upon different elements. Temptation appeals to our weakness. Trial appeals to our
strength.  Temptation attempts to reduce us by surrender. Trial attempts to reduce us by storm. Temptation comes with a bribe. Trial comes with a threat.
If we yield to a temptation, and accept its reward, we
have gained nothing, for we have lost ourselves. If
trial shall strip us, and at last crucify us, we are more
than conquerors, for we are forever glorified. We may
always distinguish between temptation and trial by observing the elements of which they are composed. We
are in temptation when we are inclined toward a thing,
which the moral sense within us tells us to be wrong.
We are in trial when we are under providences, from
which all that is carnal and earthly within us prompts
us to escape.  In temptation we are attracted.  In trial
we are repelled.  They are the centrifugal and centripetal forces of moral being. They create what we
call the antagonism between the flesh and the spirit.
The spirit lusteth against the flesh, and the flesh against
the spirit.  What we would we ought not-what we
ought we cannot, as much as we would. "But they that
are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh."
They occupy two wholly different planes. Temptation
moves upon our baser nature, upon all that is temporary




270                   SERMONS.
and sensuous.  Trial moves upon our diviner nature,
upon all that is eternal and spiritual. The one leaves
us stranded down with the husks and swine.  "That
which is born of the flesh is flesh." The other exalts
us to communion with God in the abodes of the glorified. " That which is born of the spirit is spirit."
We have reached the plane of true trial only when we have
crossed forever the plane of temptation.  We find God
only when we have renounced the world, the flesh, and
the devil. "They that are in the flesh cannot please
God. He passes the temptation plane before he enters
fully upon the trial plane.  Hence it is only the sons
of God, and pre-eminently the Son of God, on whom
trial is laid, and the measure of service is the measure
of trial, and because His service was to be transcendently greatest, both His temptation and His trial were
transcendently severest.
Out of this, then, we evolve somewhat the necessity
that the Son of God should be tempted. It was needful that He should be strong, not that He was hedged
about by any power which no temptation could reach;
not in that He was ignorant of the forces of darkness;
but He must be strong in that He can resist every form
of attack, strong positively and strong negatively.  He
must not be great because He sits merely at our end of
the universe, but great because He covers all there is
of the universe, because there is no part of it over which
He is not supreme.  The first Adam was innocent so
long as he was ignorant.  The second Adam is innocent, not merely because He touches eternal heights, but
because He has sounded eternal depths; not because
some force has left Him alone, but because He has forever subjected all forces. As such He is the repre



RENOUNCING THE WORLD.             271
sentative of the human race in the higher life, as the
first Adam was the representative of the human race in
the lower life.  Upon Him, too, all the laws of good
and evil are to act, just as they act upon us. His temptation is but the condensed reality to which the human
race was, has been, and is subjected; the reality beneath which the human race failed, which failure makes
it a race fallen and lost, the reality against which the
Son of Man triumphed-triumphed, that as death was
in Adam so life might be in Him. He is our forerunner.
Hence the value of the manhood of Christ.  He trod
the pathway alone, but treading it, He opened it, and
marked it, for us. Yes, my friend, if you have not hold
upon Christ in this dark world, or, better still, if Christ
have not hold of you, I know not what life can be to
you, or how you can live at all. Overcoming these, He
showed the result of victory, escape from the devil, angels ministering to us; overcoming these, He goes out
to a divine life, a divine service, to which He invites
us, the success of which He assures us, the necessity of
which He demonstrates, if we would be sons of God,
heirs of God, and joint heirs with Him.
" He was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness."
You will observe it is no part of God's plan that we
should escape temptation.  We sometimes say, how
mysterious it is, God should have created us such beings in such a world. But from what has been said, you
perceive the necessity of such a being if there would
ever be any moral beings at all. It would have been
much stranger if we had not been so created and in such
a world.  You perceive what a true moral being is, that
from which the idea of all that is mechanical, or accidental, or without intrinsic or inherent merit, is exclud



272                  SERMONS.
ed. You read of Heaven, of a Kingdom of God. You
see it is not something which is arbitrarily created, but
a Kingdom of pure soul, a Kingdom the arena of action
for moral and spiritual glory. But for just that life of
Jesus, that life of temptation and trial, you could have
had no high conception of the truly divine, so unlessyou
partake of that life, you can have no part in the Kingdom
of true Glory.  "You must be born from above."  It is
this life of temptation and trial which defines for us
what man is, not an animal, not a devil, not merely for
time.  Through it you arrive at spirit, at moral being,
at immortality.  You perceive what it is to believe,
what it is to believe in Christ, what faith is, how, as I
once explained it to you, it is soul-vision.
We are in a wilderness.  Take man and view him
merely with reference to abundance of bread, with reference to time and the powers of earth-take him as the
center of this strange economy upon which we are cast,
and life is to our souls what a wilderness is to our
bodies. Admit that all the faculties man has were intended merely to feed him sumptuously and cloth him
in purple and fine linen-still what is he? Take those
who have so lived, those who have been successful,
those who have tried the experiment Christ declined.
Take what we call the kings of the earth. How many
kings, of all that have ever lived, challenge the admiration of their race?  You might count them all upon
your fingers, but even of those, what is it that challenges
our admiration? It is not their palaces, nor their power,
nor their abundance, nor their pomps. It is an element
above that, an element of mind, of something we call
humanity, a something which nothing earthly can buy
and with which nothing earthly can compare.  Take




RENOUNCING THE WORLD.             273
Solomon, who thinks to-day of his ivory or his peacocks?
The queen of Sheba did not see the true glory of Solomon; and if he is still a king is it in the abundance of
the things he possessed? Nay, who are the kings of the
earth? Lord Bacon is to-day more a king than any
Plantagenet, and the only wonder about is that he was
a lord. The great rejuvenating forces are forever springing up from the roots of humanity. Christ was described
as a root out of a dry ground.  What makes Britain?
Is it her army, her navy, her commerce, her manufactories.  Then what makes these? Is it her colleges, her
science, her literature, her fine arts? Take out her brave
hearts that have dared, and do dare, to stand up for
right, for justice, for truth, for liberty, and where is
Britain? Is any nation upon earth great without these?
And yet here you reach an altitude altogether beyond
all that is sensuous and earthly. You have attained to
a height beyond all that is animal, something which
alone is human, something too that is divine.
Beside all that, do the people destitute of the higher
element, possess most of the lower?  Do the Indians
upon the Plains wring from nature a better subsistence
than we have in our civilization? Do the tribes of Africa enjoy a better life than the people of Germany?
Do you not see, that it is only in the possession of the
higher that you can at the same time possess the lower?
Do you not perceive that to have only the animal life,
is of itself to fail? Do you not see written all over
life the great thought, that the real forces are, after all,
the moral forces?  That man cannot even manage his
civil, commercial, and social greatness without it-that
if he undertake it, weakness, just at the very point
where strength is essential, brings the whole fabric in




274                   SERMONS.
confusion about his ears, how, in fact, anything that
may be called a fabric is impossible? how, when you
come to run the thought through life as it spreads out
before you, you have in certain circles failure, collapse,
disappointment, or what we call by other words dishonesty, fraud, self-seeking-how such beings are really
not the friends of their race, and how at last for whatever degree of success they may have attained, for
whatever time they may have been able to stand, they
are indebted to the sons of God-how, for whatever
we may have, we are dependent at last upon the higher
life, the family, trade, art-dependent upon schools and
morals and science, and the whole thing upon religion?
I would give much for the power to impress that thought
upon you. I would give more for the power to stimulate you toward all that thought to inspire.
Now, this is precisely what the devil is forever aiming at, to keep us in our dwarfed and animal being. He
helps nothing so much as the accumulation of earthiness,
in any of its forms, because it is the sure ruin of all
heavenliness. The three elements of this Christ-temptation, are the three essentials of all temptation. When
conscious life first dawns upon us, when aspiration first
awakes, we gaze and behold we are in a wilderness, i. e.,
where food for man is not spontaneous. The wants of
these bodies, because our lowest wants, how natural
that Satan should come there first.  He says to us,
" command that these stones be made bread."  He sets
up these bodies in one clamorous claim for recognition
and gratification. He clothes us in a fear, lest some day
should come in which there would not be enough to
sustain life, without asking us whether such an empty
life were worth the saving. He starts out the young




RENOUNCING THE WORLD.             275
with that idea, the idea of an establishment. He keeps
them at that endless and impossible problem, Turn earth
into bread. Mark the significance of the first command
of God to Adam, "Thou shalt not eat."  How simple!
But how wonderful that it should be as needful to-day!
Thou shalt not drink, thou shalt not drown all that is
divine within thee, in that which is sensuous and carnal.
Do that, and you of necessity go out to a being with
every heavenly ray extinguished. You make earth a
desert. You leave yourself a prey to all ills and woes.
In the day that thou doest it, thou diest.  Mind sleeps,
and soul sleeps, and heart sleeps.  In the slumber of
these, man is dead. The absence of the higher is the
absence of the lower as well. If man has a power over
nature, it is only as he is man, only as he is not animal.
If the five barley loaves and two small fishes are to be
in this wilderness more than enough, it is only as we
are sons of God, able to command and be obeyed. Sink
him into the animal, and all that the earth can produce
for him is thorns and briars. He must take his chances
with other animals.  His weapons of defence are defenceless. His level is low. Nature is his equal, and
in the aggregate, more than his equal. All time attests
this; yet, there is man still beating at the same old
problem.
And indeed, Satan seldom needs to go beyond it. He
is a hard worker, but he never does any unnecessary
work.  What we call wicked life is no temptation to the
wicked. How natural it seems, they practice it greedily.
You see, if you stop anywhere, at Satan's bidding, he
is your master.  You yield, and your life-struggle is
done.  Life to you is no struggle.  You shrug your
shoulders when you look upon real men and see the




276                   SERMONS.
troubles they have to go through, and chuckle over yourselves that you are free. But, who is the gainer? I do
not mean to say you have not to work, but your work is
nowhere off your own level; just there you must grind.
You have no agency in the grand things of God, no part or
lot in the heritage of a son of God. The well being of
others is no concern of yours.  The safe-guards of society-all that gives you liberty and safety, you enjoy the
very facilities by which your work is done, the offspring
of toiling brains, results the costs of which are written
in aching hearts, and sacrificed lives; they are eliminated
from your thoughts. As the Psalmist said, they are
not plagued like other men. They come in no misfortune like other folk. Their sensibilities slumber. They
are not up on the life-plane of trial. With all your
work the world is not indebted to you, but you to the
world. You are its pensioner, not its benefactor. You
are the borrower not the lender-not the force that carries, but the burden to be carried; not the feeders, but
the eaters. Can you accept the position? I do not say
you have nothing to do. You have a great deal to do.
Your work is heavy-a wise man could not carry it.
Ignorant of the high moral forces, living where high
moral forces are not. You have to carry a weight of
fear and vigilance, to keep what you have. Not that
you exactly want it. You know before your shoes are
cold, somebody will be after it. Your grandchildren
will never touch it. Satan has cheated you. You have
commanded stones to be made bread, but what of it?
You cannot eat it. Death stands there at the end of
your journey, and what a grim  shadow death is!  I
cannot linger here, but I say there Satan hath prevailed
with multitudes, and you can see them all along in life,




RENOUNCING THE WORLD.             277
stranded and ruined.  The command is made to you.
Shall you be cheated by it?
But some do not surrender at the first challenge.
Perhaps the majority of men pass somewhat on to the
workings of the second element.  It must be, that all
men think sometimes of their souls, and try to take
some sort of a stand worthy of their immortality. c He
carries him to the pinnacle of the temple."
I say mark the fact that Christ was the avowed Son
of God. This tempation comes to those who stand out
to be sons of God.  He carries Him to the pinnacle of
the temple. It is a strange place for Satan to take anybody.  But all that is outward, all that is showy, no
matter what we call it, all that is shadowy, even though
it be symbolic of divinest relation, is approachable by
Satan.  He comes up to worship even with the sons of
God.  His object is to make us rest in ordinances, to
turn religion into form and ceremony, to make us hypocritical and Pharisaic, to give us, instead of God's precious truth in Christ, the wretched theologies and creeds
of men, to turn everything still into that which is outward and temporal. IHe stands beside us in the contemplation of our loftier being, brings before us, not
God, but ourselves, not that which is above us, but
that which is below us, plays upon the strings of our
selfishness, our pride, paints before us the consoling
messages, the smooth things, things intended beyond all
doubt for the sons of God.  But he says:'" See how
high you are, how safe you are." You are at once the
companion and the care of angels.  The whole power
of omnipotence is pledged to sustain and guard you.
If you trace religious developments, if you examine history you will find this delineated in every system that




278                   SERMONS.
ever set up to be a religion. The Hindoo, the Moslem,
the Romanist, every sect, upon earth, what a sense of
security, what a disposition to seclude, what a practice
of excommunication! what impious confidence in limiting salvation to itself!  It all comes from  the devil.
You see, the proposition of Satan is true enough.  The
Son of God is secure.  There is no doubt about that.
The insinuating fallacy is, the taking for granted that
we are the sons of God. You see this fallacy sometimes,
when we select out all the sweet and precious passages
from the Bible, and turn all the rest over to somebody
else. You see this in that thing which clings sometimes
to professors of religion, spiritual pride, the worst disease
that ever affected a soul.
Upon that pinnacle of the temple, you are in a dangerous place. Hold on the faster in humility and reverence and godly fear.  You have entered upon no
child's play, your work is no holiday sport, God is not
mocked.  Take heed lest you fall.  New relations involve new obligations, the higher the position and power
the higher the responsibility-position is nothing but a
snare, unless there be with it a corresponding moral
power.  It is in vain we have escaped the turning of
stones into bread if in a delirium of spiritual pride we
fall to tempting the Lord our God.  God will not hold
him guiltless that taketh His name in vain. If we contemplate the Church, does it not seem indeed as if we
had forgotten that to have changed our places is not
necessarily to have changed our natures.  Do we realize that to have broken away from the old Egypt is
not necessarily to have entered the promised land?
Where are the graces and virtues, yes, the struggles
and trials which ought to characterize the children of




RENOUNCING THE WORLD.            279
God? Do we not seem to the world often to be the
easiest and most self-complacent of mortals? Do we not
ourselves often see men who, in a profession of religion,
have not so much a new nature as a new degree of their
old nature, men who have not put on the new Adam,
but a new degree of the old Adam, men not so much
dissatisfied with the world as they are satisfied with
themselves, who have religion enough to make them
pray, but not religion enough to make them honest and
useful and meek and merciful; whom in short, the Church
has to carry, and who are like the earthy a portion of
that burden which the true children of God have at last
to bear.  Can you be one of them? Can I be one of
them? The pinnacle of the temple? When we contemplate it in its great assumption, its pride of place, and
name and appearance, doing its own petty will, we can
feel it is a dangerous place.  There is need of angels
then, and that Scripture, the Saviour used, comes back
to us, double-edged and keen.' Thou shalt not tempt
the Lord thy God." Religion is no sham, no make believe, and, if the wicked cannot enter heaven, neither
can they who are without holiness see the Lord.
But what shall we say of this third element? There
is upon earth a line of action peculiarly and emphatically called worldliness. It is not a line of temperate,
noble and holy purpose, but of action, begotten of whatever there is in us which is carnal and sensual.  In its
highest and best manifestations it is so close upon the
line of nothing, we never ask respecting it, c where is
the good of it?" but only, "where is the harm?"  It
never rises, in any of its degrees, into positive usefulness and wisdom.  Every degree of it, is from the plane
of nothing, downward into wrong and darkness. It is




280                   SERMONS.
the unchallenged arena of what are technically called
"high life" and " low  life," for extremes often meet.
Hence it is often the culmination of the other two
temptations, one turning stone into bread, furnishes
the means, and the other, the pinnacle of the temple,
makes it respectable. But mark, how it is all yet upon
the plane of the showy and the outward, the earth and
the earthy.  It is a stimulant of every evil passion in
man, of every nerve of his darker and fallen being. It
is the perversion of faculties which God gave for purposes noble and divine. It oils the wheels of trade, but
it often makes trade itself a crime.  It creates public
place and public honor, but it often makes public place
and public honor the very pillory of all degradation. It
traffics in manliness and virtue. Glory, kingdom, power,
glittering pomp are there, but they sit upon a throne
built of ruined humanity; a hideous self, like a fiery
moloch, feeding upon the children of men. It creates
burdens for the fatherless and the widow. It mars every
relation of society. Its very breath is insincerity, and
also impurity.  It creates and sustains whatever there
is in life demoralizing, immoral, and dangerous. Its only
reality is its disappointment and its wrong. Its promises
are a shadow and a name.  But all this will the devil
give, if you will fall down and worship him. No Christian
can possibly be in it. There is force here in the idea of a
mountain, for if a Christian look upon it at all, he must
look down upon it. But the Christian is tempted to go
there. Yes, my friend, and when you are there, whirling
in the giddy mazes of fashion, flattered, caressed, and
applauded, when you ride upon the car of success or
prosperity, Satan may be nearer to you than you would
like to have him, if you only knew, but if you are a




RENOUNCING THE WORLD.             281
professing child of God, the more pressing is the temptation, for you read in your catechism that you renounce
the world, the flesh, and the devil. You see you must
do it, not because the Church says so, but the Church
says so, because you must do it, if you would enter the
the abodes of the blest.  The worldly Christian, a contradiction in terms-but the worldly C/hristian is the best
bait for Satan's trap. To be a Christian in deed and in
truth, you must have set your face like a flint against
the world, the flesh, and the devil, and your heart like
a mirror toward the glory of the Kingdom of God.
Now, have I set before you to-day, any idea of a
Christian life? Have I explained to you any of those
expressions you often hear, like that of a Christian conflict, the idea of a struggle? Do you see the flesh on
the one side, and the spirit on the other?  Do you perceive that the idea of trial is not repulsive, for it is
instantly the pledge of a regenerate nature, and the
only road to the glory of God.  I would like to give
you, if I could, the idea of different planes of being.
You would not like to be merely an animal. But how
much above the animal would you like to be? I would
like to give you this idea, that moral being means, that
you are to choose what plane of being shall be yours.
Temptation comes that you might decide, and trial
comes to test your decision. I would like to say this,
whatever plane you choose, you shall grow more and
more into it.  Think it not strange.  You shall have
your choice.  God will not cheat you.  No; you think
that by and by, it will be time enough for you to decide.  But why should you think that?  You observe
the poor man whose God is money-does he get the
less miserly as he grows old? You take the man who




282                  SERMONS.
has buried all his nobler faculties in self, does he find
them more vivid as life ebbs away?  All things beget
after their kind. If you sow the wind, you will reap
the whirlwind. You might get alarmed when you feel,
by and by, that death is on your track-some men do,
some are too insensible even for that; they have no
bands in their death.  They die as the brute diethbut those who do, have lost, too often, all spiritual
vision, life sinks down into one dark and dismal abyss.
Never having been born from above, the things that
would make for their peace are hidden from  their
eyes.  But you are deciding whether you will or not,
every day. That is one of the mysteries you need
to look into. Life is real. Not to choose is still a
choice. Did you ever reflect upon that expression of
the Saviour, " the outer darkness?" You see God hath
a kingdom, a home. It is heaven, the abode of pure
soul. If you have not that you are simply left out.
That is all. But what is that all? God grant none of
us may ever know. No angels minister there.  The
devil never departs. The two spheres are two-a gulf
lies between. Was it no mercy that Christ trod there
to warn you? Do no revealings of God's love, no intimations that this Gospel is God's blessed scheme of
rescue for you, strike through this temptation of Christ?
Do you not see that the Gospel is so framed as to bring
you an intimation of its divine intention? Does God
not call you? When you reflect upon Satan, is he not
himself a warning to you?  What answer will you
make to-day? What record shall be inscribed upon the
books that are to be opened? In the world you shall
have tribulation, do what you will. Christ alone overcame the world, and in Christ alone can you overcome.




LOVE ACTING IN FAITH.            283
But, brethern, before I close, just let me say this;
some of us are in trial. I mean we are conscious of a
great struggle, a struggle we voluntarily took up, being
called of God. Well, from what has been said, where
else would we be? You see you are upon the plane of
trial.  When you look back through the Bible and
through all the centuries, who are they who alone are fit
to live? Who are they who alone do live? Oh, I think
it is a great blessing to have passed the border land of
temptation. Do you not find as you get older, that you
get better satisfied with what God gives you and less
and less troubled about anything the earth has to give?
Are there not many providences and many experiences
which are ministering angels? If you had to go back
and take up life again, would you not take up just the
same kind of life, only more of it?  Well, that is where
this theme has a voice for us. Take up just as much
of it as we can.  The more single the eye, the more
absolutely filled with light will the body be. The more
truly we are the sons of God, the more truly shall we
stand revealed in the last day with Jesus, in the far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
LOVE ACTING  IN  FAITH.
LUKE 18: 8.-Nevertheless when the son of man cometh, shall he find
faith on the earth?
THE whole of this passage of which the text is a part,
was occasioned by a question put to Christ by the Pharisees. They asked of Him, " when the Kingdom of God




284                  SERMONS.
should come."  The Lord's answer took its form from
His knowledge of the Pharisaic conception or misconception of that kingdom.  The Pharisees had an idea
that the Kingdom of God was to be a visible, pompous,
human kingdom. The Apostles had the same idea, because it was the prevailing idea. They stood upon the
level of their times as all of us stand upon the level of
ours, and notwithstanding the repeated attempts of the
Saviour, it was not till after His resurrection He succeeded in giving them a realizing sense of the kingdom He would establish.  The Lord's answer to these
Pharisees was-" The Kingdom  of God cometh not
with outward show."  It is not after the pattern of
earthly kingdoms, nor responsive at all to the cravings
of the gross, carnal heart. It is not outside of you, but
inside of you. It is not outsight, but insight.  It is the
vision of things divine, and a life harmonious with them.
"The kingdom of heaven is within you."
Turning to His disciples, whose faces doubtless were
upturned to His in amazement and disappointment,
with eager inquiry written upon every line, He endeavors to guard them against mistakes in eventful times
soon to come.  "Do not expect any such kingdom,"
He says, "as the Pharisees expect.  Even this that
you see around you is to be swept away.  They
will expose me to every woe and finally reject me.
But I shall come notwithstanding, and fearful will be
the day of my coming. It will not do for you to be
half-hearted then. You will need the power of this
spiritual kingdom. By you the new kingdom will have
to be built, and by those after you." Thus, by a most
delicate transition, he carries their mind onward to their
great mission, onward through the struggling ages, to




LOVE ACTING IN FAITH.             285
His second coming, telling them in a parable, that the
one instrumentality by which the Gospel kingdom was
to grow, was this inner vision, this sight of God, this
trust, this faith, that however long their hope was deferred, however desperate their cause might seem, it still
could not fail. If a human judge, and he none of the
best, could be touched by the desperate pleadings of a
helpless widow, through motives to which his nature
were alive, how  much more would God, a righteous
judge, never forget the pleadings of His bereaved Church,
this deserted, widowed race, till its longings be met and
its cause won! Your business is always to pray and
never to faint, to see me and God and heaven, and know
that because these are in your own heart and in proportion
as they are there, my kingdom comes. There still gazing
upon those mystified faces, seeing the fearful interval between that seed He was sowing, and the ultimate harvest
He knew would come up, out of the depths of His yearning spirit bursts the ejaculation:   Nevertheless, when
the son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth."
Of all things difficult to define, and therefore difficult
to impress upon the human mind, is this thing, faith.
The difficulty arises from our carnality, from the fact
that we live, like the Pharisees, in our grosser, outer,
animal nature, not in our intellectual, moral and spiritual nature.  The thing most talked about in the world,
is still the thing most difficult to understand, religion.
It is a thing which each soul has to perceive for itself.
It is soul-vision. The best that mortal language can do
is to suggest it.  It never can express it.  It is like
every other pure essence.  The poet cannot tell us his
experiences, whatever he tells us is only the shadow of
what he sees. The painter, the sculptor, they make no




286                    SERMONS.
legacy of their skill.  The true riches must be acquired.
Above all, the pearl of great price must be sought.
Religion! Wisdom! In all thy gettings, get that.  It is
the Supreme good, and so we strive.  We strive for
each other, Jesus strove for us all.
It is constituted of three prime elements, "faith, hope
and charity." Paul says, charity is the greatest; John
says, faith is the victory that overcometh the world.
Of essentials in any thing, it is very difficult to say
which is the most important.  Of essentials, we may
have more room for its exercise, but even that cannot
exist without the others.
This word faith is employed in several senses. Perhaps a better expression would be, this word faith has
many methods of application.  It is not a thing peculiar to religion. I mean by that, religion is not its only
sphere.  It is the one thing essential to human life. It
is the perception of, and reliance upon, certain principles
or laws, leading to certain results. The physician sees
the laws of health, he makes his prescription in reliance
upon those laws.  The parent sees the laws of society,
of well or ill-being, and he trains his child according to
his vision. The merchant sees the laws of trade, of demand and supply, of public trust and mistrust. According to his sagacity he makes his ventures. All that is
faith. Some of it is very low, to be sure, but still it is
faith after its kind and in its degree, and yet we cannot
say it is the faith that is low. The vision is good. It
is only the application which is mean or noble.  But
faith is never a fixed quantity. It is not the same to
you and me.  It varies, and all the faith possible for
you, in this world or any other, is that you possess,
whatever its kind, or whatever its degree.  It is so in




LOVE ACTING IN FAITH.            287
everything.  You cannot show some men even how to
make money.  But like every thing else, faith can grow,
i. e., your vision can extend. It does extend in whatever
direction you give it, and hence the value of what we
call experience. Faith, therefore, in any plane on which
you put it, is simply vision. As such, it may be more
or less. It may rise from the particular to the general,
from the individual to the universal.
In religion it always does this, and hence you have
the word faith applied to that exercise of the soul, by
which, in its longings, out of the depths of its convictions, it looks up to Jesus and says, " Lord, I believe."
At first even that may be very tremblingly said. There
may be no clear conception of how Christ is the Saviour,
of what salvation is. Faith may be, and is at first, as
the smoking flax and the bruised reed. But it grows
till the soul can rejoice in the "full assurance" of faith.
But another soul may go beyond that, into a wider perception of law, or a wider application of the same law.
One soul may see it is saved, another soul may see that
the law which saved it, shall also inevitably work till
all are saved. Hence we have different expressions for
faith, sometimes subjectively, the exercise of the vision
within us-sometimes objectively, that upon which the
vision is fixed. Sometimes the principle itself, sometimes
that in which the principle shall result. But always in
one general formula, faith is the substance of a desirable
thing, the evidence of a thing we yet cannot grasp.
We talk about faith, by and by growing into sight.
Faith is always growing into sight, if it is growing at
all. Faith will grow forever and ever. The archangels
have more faith than we have, because they see more
than we do. The visions in the heavens above, are not




288                  SERMONS.
visions with these bodily eyes. The kingdom of heaven
as I said just now, is insight, not outsight, a thousand
glories are every day spread before these physical eyes
which we see not. You and I gaze upon the landscape,
but we do not see the same thing, as Newton, or Walter
Scott, or somebody who said about himself and his dog
Diamond, they both gazed upon the stars, but they saw
very different worlds. Yes, and there are more glories
in all things than any of us see. The glories of God are
not what any physical eye can report. All vision at
least is soul-vision. Wonderful as all these bodies are,
they are only a clod, and many a man has nothing more,
and would you call him a man at all? All space and
all time and all eternity can make you no more than
that clod, except as you.open your spirit and receive
space and time and eternity. That reception is faith.
Faith is therefore a variable quantity. There are degrees
of it so great that cherubim and seraphim, may be said
to have faith, and degrees of it so feeble, we may question whether we have it all.  Would the angels call
our visions faith? If you look at the Apostles, you
can distinctly trace the growth of their faith. At first,
how dim it was! How blind they were! They saw
nothing! The words of Christ awoke in them hardly
the remotest response.  The wonderfulness of His being seemed scarcely to have dawned upon them. How
wonderful that they should be with Him, and be thinking all the time of a palace and a sceptre, of flimsy
pomp, and never ask a word of the mysteries that were
beating in all being about them, not a word about any
scientific truth He might have told them, not a spiritual
fact He might have revealed, of what the soul was, of
where the spirit went, of how it could see God, only




LOVE ACTING IN FAITH.           289
evermore paltry self, and poor, blind Israel. Even after
the resurrection, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore
again the kingdom to Israel?" How was it possible for
that Saviour to dwell there?  What a hopeless task
to make an impression upon a soul so dead! How
absolutely hopeless, that work would have seemed to
an angel or archangel to wake up spirit so dead, and
yet from that point draw  a contrast between Christ
and them. What an interval was there! Do you catch
no glimpses there of the God incarnate!  God never
despairs.  All things are possible to perfect vision.
Any but God would have left us alone. Do you see
nothing of the wonderful condescension and sacrifice?
Do you see that Christ was a revelation to us of
God, of goodness, of love; that he who had seen Him
had seen the Father. Ile seems to see not earth at all
Amid all sorrow and sin, amid the conspirings of this
very blindness of men, with the surgings of all providence beating against Him, He stands like a rock. He
has vision. He knows even our blindness shall be overcome.  He knows that a race shall be redeemed from
darkness and that a world shall be saved from woe.
Only to God are all things possible.  Only God, never
abandoned us.
But how should this race be saved? By His revealings.  They were a revelation of God. By giving us
the inner vision, the vision of divine things, do you see
how His sacrifice saves, that if he had never come we
could never have known God. Do you see that to believe in Christ is to believe upon that which was in
Christ, to believe in the God-soul, the God-power,
and that that power works in the man-soul and creates
power that he who hath the Son of God hath life, and
that to have life is to have the Son of God. Do you see




290                  SERMONS.
that the incarnation is the explanation to us of this being, God for man, and man for God, God in man and
man in God, that the incarnation is at once a prophesy
and pledge of the destiny of the race, that the promise
which Jesus otherwise made is involved in it, that the
gates of hell should not prevail against us? Do you see
how afterwards, when the scales had fallen from the
Apostolic eyes, how they leaped themselves into that
new life, how they had faith? Do you see the meaning
of the scales that fell from Paul's eyes, how persecution
and want and death had no influence over them at all,
and how, for the first time, they were truly alive, how the
Scribes and Pharisees and Elders were only so many
ghosts before them; and what a power they were?
Against the new life, Emperors and Herods and High
Priests and all that the world called power, availed nothing. That faith really was the victory that overcame
the world, and so it has always been. It is faith which
has removed mountains, discovered continents, and revealed worlds. It is vision, and do you see, if the world
were never to be wholly redeemed, Christ would never
have undertaken it.
Well, you can see all that to-day, multitudes of us
can see it. You can see the interval between the Apostles before Pentecost and those same Apostles after
Pentecost.  Had their faith not grown? You see the
interval between our world to-day and our world that
day. Has faith not grown? Are there no more Christians now than there were in the first century? Of us
Christians all together, are there none of us that see
into divine things further than those who first believed?
And yet, as compared with the man Christ Jesus, and
as compared with the vision that angels have, can we




LOVE ACTING IN FAITH.           291
be said to have any faith? Would you call this faith
that we have? What do we see?
And this is the point to which I wished to bring you.
This passage of Scripture has been employed to convey
the idea that Christ said, the world would grow worse
and worse, to make Christ contradict Himself, and say
the gates of hell should prevail. Multitudes there are
to-day who believe that, and I want to ask you whether
you can call that, faith in Christ, faith in God, faith in
divine things? Multitudes there are to-day, who are
looking upon the world in sourness and gloom, telling
us that it has gone to destruction, when Jesus has died
that it may never go to destruction-telling us it is the
devil's world, when Jesus bought it with His own blood,
and made it God's world-telling us all men are going
away from Jesus, when Jesus said if He were lifted up
He would draw all men unto Him. After all the marvellous things the ages have brought forth, and all the
marvellous things our eyes have seen, telling us Jesus died
in vain. Do you call that faith? When the angels see
the purposes of God, when Jesus beholds our slowness
of heart, are there no sighs in heaven. And through
this, can you not see what Jesus means, in the text,
When I come, be it soon or be it late, shall I find anything here I can truly call faith? anything truly becoming to my disciples? anything worthy the sons of God?
Now this, I say, brethren, is the one thing we are
wanting to-day, we Christians. We have not the courage to go in and possess the land. I do not say the
world has more faith than the Church, not at all. But
I do say the Church has not half the faith she might
have. The faith of the race, the soul-vision of mankind, is infinite as compared with what it was eighteen




292                  SERMONS.
hundred years ago, and it has grown by means of the
Church.  Jesus Christ has been the light of the world.
But it might have grown more, and would have grown
more, had our faith all along been more. Look at the
world. The leaves of the tree have been for the healing
of the nations. Look at science. Is that no part of
the Kingdom of God, and is it nothing to inherit that?
Look at art. Is that no part of the divine legislation?
Is it no part of God's great plan, that by the employment of intellect and soul, man can inherit the earth?
Is that the work of the devil?  If your boy were
stretched dying in New York, anxious only to breathe
his last accent in your parental ear, would telegraph and
rail be no blessing to you both? Is a true civilization
opposed to God? Is all our talk about a human fraternity, is a literature, teeming with high-born thought,
with far-reaching truth, emanicipating man from bigotry
and ignorance, and superstition; is philosophy, asking
of every element of being the most urgent questions;
is freedom from dogma, and from priestly dictation, and
liberation of intellect, and schools for the masses, and
libraries and lectures, and reforms, and homes for the
blind, and the deaf and the indigent-is all that born
of the will of the flesh, and of the inspiration of the
devil?  One would so imagine to hear us Christians
talk sometimes.  Why, my brethren, the Church is
the parent of them, and they in their reflex influence are the feeders of the Church.  Were the wells
that were digged in Canaan, and the houses that
were built, and the grapes that grew, and the vines and
figtrees, all unreal and not worth having? Did God
not intend them for His inheritance?  Was not the
only thing wanting to them a people worthy of them?




LOVE ACTING IN FAITH.          293
And is it not so to-day? We are of little faith. Down
below all Christian life, there is a groundswell of fear
that the people will get along without religion. You
know the people of England cannot see how there could
be any religion in the masses if the Church were cut
loose from the State, just as if they thought the payment of Church rates could make religion, just as if we
should think that to remove our water board and water
tax, the people would never thirst. How in this country we keep up churches and have religion, is a mystery
to the Europeans. When Pere Hyacinth was recently
in New York, a prominent clergyman took him into his
church, showed him the costly building, the Sunday
school room, lecture room, reading room. How is it,
says the father, you get these things with no government to help you? The people give their money, says
the pastor. Do your laws compel them, asked the
father. No; it is purely voluntary. What, gave all this
of their own accord! he exclaimed-ah, I see it now,
God and the people, God and the people. As I have
walked your streets and seen your temples and cities,
I have caught a new idea of your greatness. I see it
all now-God and the people. Yes, my brethren, the
very pledge of the incarnation is God in the people, and
the people in'God, humanity in Diety, and Deity in
humanity.  The Holy Ghost, the God-life, working and
quickening the human spirit, the man-life. You cannot
quench it or stop it, if you should try. You could not
keep religion from man by all the powers of earth
united. If you should pass a law to-morrow, to take
religion from the people, that law would have but one
effect, and that instantly to grind the blind legislators
to powder. What an absence of faith there is, when




294                   SERMONS.
we cannot see it! If you should pass a law imposing
empty forms and ceremonies, any mere make believe,
they would not have it.  They demand thought and
reality and the God-life.  That they will have, and we
ought to be thinking of how more and more they shall
have it. Why, to-day, what is it that is uppermost in our
world?  What name is it that stands above all names?
The cross and Jesus. Philosophers are asking about it.
Historians are searching into it.  The press is throwing
off as many sermons as novels.  You can read them
even in your daily papers. Yes, brethren, one thing
that makes me think the second coming is near, is, that
Jesus said, we should see him seated upon the clouds
in power and great glory. In all the clouds that are
rolling around us, above them all, I see Jesus seated in
power and great glory.  He rides upon all the storms,
and all the elements are his ministers. Infidelity, from
the lips of a poor faithless Roman, says, yes, He was
God.  Philosophy says, yes, thou art the desired of all
nations.  History says, thou art King of kings, and
Lord of lords. Faith says, thou art the Lamb of God
that taketh away the sins of the world, the healing of
the nations, the sum of all blessing.
I know  there is darkness enough, and crime and
wrong and sorrow  enough.  But where' is it?  Just
where the world sees it must of necessity be, just where
men make it.  There is enough.  But will you go
through this great city and pass by its churches and its
houses of comfort, its living citizens, and go to the pest
house and the gutter and sewer and pick up its filth
and stench and say, what a city of corruption! What
a hot-bed of death!  Is your next door neighbor a
thief?  Has the bosom on which you recline ever be



LOVE ACTING IN FAITH.            295
trayed you?  Can you find nothing lovely and nothing
pure?  If you find meanness everywhere, are you sure
you do not carry some of it there yourself? You must
remember that the paper in the  morning  which
brings you the news of the crops and the decrees of
Senators, brings also the accumulated crimes of the civilized world, and as if they were not great enough in
themselves, they are not unfrequently embellished and
multiplied.  I know we have enough.  The earth is
travelling in agony and the groans of the race are still
going up to God, but has nothing been done?  Is there
no light? And why is there as much darkness as there
is, except that you and I have not been better and nobler ourselves; claiming to be sons of God, have not had
the faith which pertains to the sons of God? While
we complain of the crimes and vices and evils of life,
does our faith lift us above the vanities and follies of
the world, into the sunlight of the graces and virtues
of the Son of God, into the breadth, and height of the
Gospel glory? No, beloved, I believe that every Sunday when we say that " confession," we say the truth:
We have erred and strayed like lost sheep.  We have
followed the devices and desires of our own hearts. We
have offended against God's holy laws.  "We have left
undone the things we ought to have done, and done the
things we ought not to have done, and there is no health
in us."  That is true, and that is the thing God wants
in us, health, faith, vision of divine things; remembering the words of the Master, you are the salt, you
are the light-remembering that one reason why the
world is so wicked is partly because we ourselves are
so little above it, we ourselves are not much better.
We are still of little faith, and therefore not half the




296                   SERMONS.
power we ought to be.  The thing, of all things, which
should walk the earth the most hopefully and yet the
same time the most humbly is the Christian.  It is no
part of faith to be grumbling. You get rid of darkness
only by creating light. One thing we want to get rid
of, and that is the habit of tying God down to our little
grooves and insisting that IHe shall be there alone. We
have faith in dogmatic formula, and Church machinery,
which instead of being vision are blinds over the vision
we might have.  That was the sin of the Jew, that is
the sin of the Papacy, that is the sin of sect. God is
broader than man and the Gospel comprehends the race.
You cannot put either of them in your little ism, nor I
in mine.  Oh! what a light there had been upon earth
if we had long ago learned to stretch all ism to the fulness of Christ.
Hear what a thoughtful Japanese said in our country
the other day. He is a student in one of our colleges,
a fact in itself full of hope.  He says: "As I deliberate on the history of Christianity in Western nations, I
find precedents which show, that if the Church, as art
institution, is established in Japan before the people are
taught the Gospel, then there will be no social improvement for my people, for the morality and prosperity of
nations advance, according to their knowledge and practice of the specific duties and virtues of the Christian religion as we find it in the New Testament."  I tell you that
man had not studied Christianity in vain. He preaches
the Gospel to us.  What we want is the power, the
principle, the vision, the faith, not the form, or the mere
creed, or the sect. If any of us choose to anchor there,
the world will pass us by. Neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcism, but a new creature, nei



LOVE ACTING IN FAITH.            297
ther circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but faith which worceth by love, love acting in faith.
Beloved, believe in God, in Christ, in the Holy Ghost.
Believe God is everywhere, and therefore goodness and
love.  Believe in that.  You are going out to-day to
the duties and conflicts, the trials and sorrows, the joys
and hopes of another year.  And how are you going?
My dear brother, if you have no faith, if you are working like a mole for a mere existence, you had better
never been born.  If you see the kingdom of Christ,
and are working for that, then there is a day of glory
for you in the manifestation of the sons of God. I have
brought these thoughts to you this morning, that you
might go as in the very presence of God, believing this
to be God's world, believing yourself to be under His
hand, endeavoring to see Him in all that is around you,
putting Him in all your work, with a nobler faith, with
a manlier trust, consecrating soul and body, intellect
and business, pleasure and pain, and all life, to the glory
of Him who hath called you, and yearns for you to be
near to Him  in all holiness.  So you will fulfil your
mission, so life will give you the best, life can give you
a home with God.  I know our bark is in the midst of
the sea, tossed by the waves; darkness is around us,
and we have been toiling all the night. But what of it
all!  Jesus is on board.  His very presence is the
pledge that we cannot sink.  Presently, He can arise
and say "peace," and the waves shall be still, and the
storm shall be laid, and we shall be at the haven where
we would be.  The knowledge of God's perfect and
everlasting love, the fullness of the eternal kingdom.
Let us have faith.




298                     SERMONS.
CONSECRATION TO GOD.
EPHESIANS 5: 1, 2.-Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children,
and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for
us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.
THE verse before this in the last chapter, reads, " Be
ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one
another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven
you," and so this verse follows.  Though we gain in
the aggregate by having our Scriptures divided into
chapters and verses, we sometimes lose somewhat, by
cutting a paticular topic in two. Such a loss we in a
measure sustain here.  The subject of the Apostle in
this immediate place, embraces a view of the various
relations we sustain to each other, and the spirit we are
to exhibit in these relations. He is looking squarely
at the fact that we are social beings, which is as emphatically a fact as that we are individuals. We have
faculties and properties by means of society, and for
society.  We are like the figures which express an arithmetical number.  Our values increase or diminish by
reason of our place.  We have inherent forces of our
own, but combination, or society, is the vitality of individual force.  " We are members of one another."  One
coal of fire in a grate goes out. Five hundred coals
make a fire. Moral being is so constituted as to demand of us a conscious recognition of the moral forces.
It has made the cultivation of wise moral forces imperative. Rather, all moral forces are wise, good, holy, and




CONSECRATION TO GOD.              299
moral being demands of us their recognition and cultivation.  When we see facts which indicate immoral
forces, we misunderstand the cause of the facts. They
actually result from the absence of a true moral force.
The action of the true moral forces would prevent such
results, and place others in their stead. Neglect the
moral forces, and you get immorality. Extinguish your
light, and you are in the dark. Blot out the sun, and
all the earth would freeze. Leave the sun blotted out,
and it would appear as if frost itself were positivewhen it would only be heat more and more departing.
All malice, unkindness, hard-heartedness, are but the
want of mercy, sympathy, and love.  The world is so
bad, because so many of us are no better.  One man
truly rich is a well-spring of life to his fellow men. All
ought to be rich. Christ was infinitely rich. He was
the universal Redeemer.  The Christian is rich.  All
moral forces are active in him. He is salt. He is light.
That is his mission, to build up and keep the moral
forces alive. He who does not do it is not a Christian.
Any number of Christians, uniting in a given combination, is a Church.  But a Church which has lost its
moral potency, is a dead Church, no Church at all.
The highest of all moral forces is love.  God is love.
It is impossible to tell all that love is. There have
been many attempts at defining it.  It is not simply
"friendship without wings, "as I think the French call
it. It is not merely passionate instinct, as the sensualist
conceives. It is not the combination of these two, as
some have pronounced it.  It appears to be the resultant of a tribute levied upon every faculty and attribute
of true moral being. If there is anything of strength,
anything of truth, of wisdom, of purity, of unself, it is




300                    SERMONS.
in love.  If there is anything of service, of help, of endurance, it is found in love. If there is anything that
seeks in restless, untiring sympathy, it is love. If we
can take another's place, love can do it.  If a desired
end is to be accomplished, all things are possible to love.
It is that to possess which is to enrich another.  It is
that which, in proportion as it enriches another, is itself
rich. All things depend on God. God alone is perfect
love.  He loves irrespective of our action-loves in
spite of our action.  "l Ie is kind to the evil and to the
good." He so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son to save it. Herein is love, that while we
were yet sinners Christ died for us.  He forgives us
our sins every day whether we ask Him or not, whether
we know we are sinners or not.  He pities us all
the more that we feel not we are sinners, do not seek
a knowledge of forgiveness, are not therefore weaned by
forgiveness from our sin.  This it is to grieve God, that
we remain insensible, indifferent to all His love. This
it is to disinherit ourselves, to be lost, not to have the
Spirit of God. This it is to be poor and naked, an object of pity, " dead in trespasses and sins."  The difference between the righteous and the wicked is not so
much in God's feelings toward them as in their feeling
toward Him.  God cannot hate anybody, or anything.
I know the Bible says, " God is angry with the wicked
every day."  But it cannot be anger as we are angry.
That is a weakness, weakness is not in God. Nature
is cruel against the man who impiously resists her.
Whoever resists her, resists to hi sown costs. Whoever
resists God, will find it were better God were angry and
would blot him out forever.  But grief is divine.  It is
only a rich nature that can pity. It is only the richest




CONSECRATION TO GOD.               301
nature that can pity most.  The glory of our salvation
is, our merit has nothing to do with it.  It is God's free
gift in His Son. The best of us are so far from God
we have literally nothing to commend us to Him.  He
has to pity us all, and bears with us from day to day
more on account of our desires, than our attainments.
He grieves over our leanness.  We only cease to be
pitiable, or an object of grief, as we cease to be sordid
selves, as we become like Him, as we have that which is
love, as we are above weakness, such as anger, envy, unsympathy, pride, selfishness, as we are strong in bearing
all things, like a fountain of pure water pouring out health
and purity whether the hand that receives it be soiled
or clean, as we are a tower of support to the weak and
erring, as we prevent what the wicked create, as we
neutralize the envy, hatred and malice the unrighteous
beget.  Hence, love is the whole duty of man.  Our business upon earth is to cultivate it as a spirit within us,
an animus, the presiding force of our being.  That ie
what salvation is, forming our desires in that direction
and conforming our lives to those desires.  We have
nothing to do with other people's actions toward us, except to see that our love is equal to the tests God applies, through what we call " providence " in this thing
we call " society."
When anger begins to rise in a wise man, he does not
say the other man is hateful. He says to his own soul,
thou art weak.  Thou hast something to learn.  Hence,
"love worketh no ill to his neighbor," however deserving of ill that neighbor may be.  It is ill enough that
the does deserve it.  The visiting of ill is not the work
of a holy agent.  His work is to prevent ill.  Like God,
his mission is to roll back evil, to overcome evil with




302                   SERMONS.
good, that if the wicked will go on in their wickedness
they must do it, not by means of us, but in spite of us.
We are co-workers with God.  Hence, "all the law is
fulfilled" in one word, even in this, "Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself." So that amid all the combinations of life, and the vexations of society, the wise
man asks, not what action his neighbor's conduct merits,
but what action is worthy of himself. What does his
own rule of life prescribe? What would the Saviour
have done?  It will not do to say this is placing too
high a standard for human action. What does the life
of Christ mean?  What else is a Christian life?  If
Christ's example were nothing, how are we better off
with it than we would have been without it? You see
noble independence, freedom, soul-strength, looming up
there.  You see heaven of necessity there.  Heaven is
the aggregation of the pure, the meek, the strong. This
is one of the glories of the incarnation. It manifests
God in action, HEAVENLINESS. It brings the divine being here to our apprehension, defines the divine nature
for us, marks the road to its attainment, does it here,
not only amid elements which would to all appearance
make it impossible, but does it by means of these elements.  This is to be a Christian, to be like Christ; nothing else. " In this the children of God are manifested
and the children of the devil.  Whosoever doeth not
righteousness is not of God, neither ie that loveth not his
brother, for this is the message that we have heard from
the beginning, that we love one another."'"A new
commandment give I unto you that ye love one another
as I have loved you."' Love ye your enemies, that ye
may be the children of your Father which is in heaven."




CONSECRATION TO GOD.              303
It can be done by nothing in the world, but by faith in
Christ, by strength which God supplies through Christ.
Now, St. Paul says, " Be ye therefore followers of
God, as dear children;" more literally, " Be ye imitators
of God, or like God, as children beloved. In the family, the child like the father, the child worthy of its parentage, is the true child. " God for Christ's sake hath
forgiven you.  Therefore, be ye followers of God, as
dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also hath
loved us and given Himself for us, an ofering and a sacrifice for a sweet-swelling savor."  To love those only
who love us, is not necessarily to love at all; we cannot
help it, and there is no virtue in it. The publicans do
even the same.  A child loves its mother, but it would
be even below  nature if it did not.  True love is
not only not without our consent, it is a culture.' Love
that the Apostle speaks of, godly love, religious love, is
not the mere parental bond, nor the action of that law
of affinities which binds heart to heart in mysterious
attachment.  It is not mere social respect and worldly
politeness, making feasts for those who make feasts for
us.  " These things are divided unto all people under
heaven."  It is not patronizing those even who cannot make a feast for us, as Simon did toward Christ.
All such love is only another form of self-love. When
a man makes a great feast and displays all his riches
and invites you, it is not the measure of respect he has
for you, but the measure of respect he wants you to
have for him.  Christian love is the spirit, the character,
the condition of soul, known more as benevolence and
beneficence, aiming at the good of others through that
action called self-sacrifice. Christian love is curative.
It finds employment for our faculties, our skill, any and




304                    SERMONS.
every talent God has given us. The ills in society, the
perverseness of men, the crosses they erect for us, the
burdens they impose, are the measure of unself there
is in us. He only is rich who has something to give.
Who can give most is richest of all.  There is great
force in that idea of which the Romanists retain the
perversion, the idea of absolute consecration. With
them it is consecration to the Church, "to a religious life"
as they call it-i. e., to a life, not merely of separation,
but of seclusion, a life that buries soul and body, that
neutralizes every faculty, a paralysis of all spirit. No
mortal can pray all the time, or keep his mind constantly fixed upon any topic, especially such as are considered religious, except as he ceases to have a mind.
But there is force in the idea of religious consecration.
The world wants something beside prayers, something
more than technical religion. It does not want much
money nor much machinery.  It wants that which is
above all price and which never can become mechanical.
It wants manhood, womanhood, moral force, love power,
that which can lift burdens, and kindle thought and
love, and give other souls time to breathe, and it wants
it not in monasteries and nunneries, but right out in
the very press and throng of crippled, needy, suffering
men and women.  Vicarious sacrifice is the one law of
all life. We look with despair upon our fruitless expenditures, upon our complex machineries. Well we may.
Soul is the only force that hath life in itself.  Christlife is the only life that quickens.  Our churches are
magazines of Christian sentiment.  Our Christian homes
are the burial places of soul-force which, if alive, would
quicken the world.
I know of a woman to-night, in a damp basement,




CONSECRATION TO GOD.            305
struggling with poverty and all the woes of a widow.
She has three helpless children.  She is fighting with
a heroic desperation to keep her children together. I
can get money to keep a shelter over her head, but the
woman will soon die, die of foul air and poor food, and
scanty clothes, and overwork, and above all, of a dreary,
aching sense of loneliness. Three orphans will be left
for some friendly home-for-friendlessness. And three
such orphans! They have not known the comfort of
cleanliness. They eat, when they can, not as human
beings should, and though that woman would tear out
her heart to save them, they know not what love is.
There is no time there for love. Of all the Christians
in this city, there is not one to be a guardian angel to
that family, one to sit with that woman as a sister, and
sew-one to send a thrill of encouragement through her
soul-one to keep her back from the grave, or, by instruction and training, to place her little ones, by and
by, above the temptation of vice, and prepare them for
a dwelling place with God. An hour's sewing or cleaning there, every day, would be the best prayer that
could be offered for her. It would go to her heart.
And how many cases are just like hers, and that in a
world where so many of us have given ourselves to
God, with nothing to do; have taken up the cross, and
are called by the name of Christian. Talk of sending
women to the women of India.  That is all very well,
but some of the.women of Baltimore need women sent
to them. Are not Christians the supreme want of our
world to-day? Why are there so many ills in society,
so much perverseness in men, but that so few of us
have love to that degree which can make a sacrifice,
love which can give ourselves to prevent wrong and




306                   SERMONS.
evil, to create wisdom  and peace?  Do you see the
force of what I said, that vicarious sacrifice is the law
of life? What erects more crosses and imposes more
burdens than ignorance? Go into the slums and dens
of any city, and there you see only the resultants of
neglect. It is easy enough to censure, and say it is all
good enough for them. So said not Christ, respecting
ourselves. The love of the Gospel is that love which
considers men unfortunate, rather than faulty, which
causes us to take the place of the offender, and feel that
we were there, except that God's love had kept us back,
except that some mercy, springing in the sacrifice of a
father or mother, or friend, some merciful providence of
God, had fallen to our lot. Rowland Hill once stood
beside a gallows when an unhappy criminal was launched
into eternity. His throbbing ejaculation was, " There
swings Rowland Hill, but for the grace of God."  What
he said was true, and it was the grace of God that
taught him to feel it. Down in the sinks of life, are
wretches, not there because they want to be there,
there because some dark, crushing calamity sent them
there; there because no hand was reached down in time
to save them; there, as we would have been there, had
not some blessing rescued us. They are ourselves, had
not God's grace taught us better.  What the world
wants is rescuing, saving, blessing, Christian personality, real men and women-life.  God meant the Christian to be that, somebody to stop the woe, somebody to
give life. Christ did that. We are content to look down
upon men, and not always with pity.  We are content
to treat them  as they deserve.  So was not Christ.
Evil, sin, wrong, when it assailed Him, just simply
exhausted itself. The shaft buried itself in His heart




CONSECRATION TO GOD.            307
forever.  There was an end of it.  The anger even of
the world's anger, was that it could not anger Him.
Oh, the blessing of that God-life then! Make Jesus
fall to simple human level, and you blot out Jesus, and
all light goes out with Him.  Take Him away as our
forerunner, and how dark is our prospect! Think that
you cannot attain to such a life, or that there is no such
life, and you blot out heaven. No device the world had
was capable of measuring the love of Christ. He ended
all strife by simply letting it exhaust itself.  Then,
turning toward us, He not only exerted His miraculous
powers in healing us, He went to great pains to do us
good. For aught we know, He might have stood in the
Great Temple and cured, at a word, every malady in
Israel.  But He did not do that.  He undertook long
journeys. He hungered often. He slept on the ground,
all to come in direct personal contact with men-all to
impart Hlimself.  For all that matter, He need not have
come at all.  He might have set upon a star, and have
amazed us by some marvellous act, but then we would
have been as far removed from God as ever, for God
does that every day.  IIe gave just what we wanted,
that which God left us, but that which was to Him
sacrifice, that which cost, that which alone to us expresses love. We, in our dealings toward each other,
go as far as benevolence is pleasant, go till it begins to
cost, till we reach the point where sacrifice is needful.
There we stop.  We strike ingratitude, and say it is no
use.  We strike meanness, and say the man is not worth
caring for. The very depth of his need we make the
very reason for deserting him. Oh, the fathomless riches
of the love of God! How the law of life in Christ
Jesus sets us free from the law of sin and death! How




308                    SERMONS.
it is the only law that can do it! How Christianity is
the only religion that promises a millenium! How to
any other a millenium  is impossible! How our world
must groan and suffer till we so learn this law, that it
shall beat in all our hearts and nerve all our exertions!
Do you not see that, one reason why He gave Himself
a sacrifice, was, that we might give ourselves a sacrifice,
and that only in proportion as we do that, is blessing
possible for our world?
But this line of life, this law of action is not to be
viewed merely in the light of a duty. It is not something imposed as a trial. I look upon it as the natural
craving of love, that, through which the soul finds relief.
It is a great deal better men should do well from fear,
than that they should go on doing ill, but whoever carries duty with him  everywhere, carries a burden he
would do well to roll off, carries that with him which
he will never want in heaven. It is true, if every man
on earth were up to duty this world would be brighter
than it is, but if every Christian were only no higher,
it would be vastly darker.  This love is not to be
worked out of mere conscience, conscience is a good
thing but it does not range over the upper stories, the
love-chambers of our being.  It is very limited, and
very thin, and whoever is clothed only in that will feel
cold. I cannot imagine that conscience sent Paul in a
blaze of light over a known world. Conscience could
have staid at Rome or Ephesus, could have made him
tolerably comfortable in Athens, nor was it anything
like the mere hope of reward.  That in itself is but
another form of selfishness, and is itself to lose the reward.  The reward of love is the soul itself which love
creates, or transforms into her own inage.  The child




CONSECRATION TO GOD.               309
that greets you in the morning with a kiss because it
nu.st be respectful, or that would purchase thereby some
little indulgence, would not be the child that would
most please you.  But the child who, all unconscious
of self, found itself happy in your embraces, and flew
there because it was relief to get there, that is the child
that loves you. The charm of love is its unconsciousness of itself. Whenever you find an individual, or an
institution, or a church spreading itself in long reports
like a business advertisement, you have evidence of disease rather than of health; you have not that spirit
which uttered itself so constantly in Christ, " see thou
tell no man." Nothing but love can fill up and overflow  even the measure of duty.  Nothing but love
made Christ upon the roadside in Israel, at Gethsemene,
and upon Calvary, a possibility.  To such love only
all things are possible.  It is the one invincible force.
It can remove mountains.  Oh, the mountains it has
removed! Knowing  nothing itself of sacrifice, its
action is spontaneous.  Its yoke is easy.  Its burden is
light.  God's love! No man can tell it.. Jesus Christ
is its only perfect expression.
Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us and given
Himself for us-an offering and a sacrifice to God for a
C sweet-smelling savor."  How such a life would go up
as an evening sacrifice!  It seems strange the Apostle
should set before us, so frail, a model so high.  And
yet how strange it would be if he did not.  How it is
we treat all such Scriptures as figurative, and therefore
unmeaniny. What said Christ Himself? "Be ye perfect
as your Father in Heaven is perfect."  Not perfect up
to your Father's perfection, but perfect as-not perfect
as the Pharisee was perfect-as the Mahomedan is per



310                   SERMONS.
feet, as any self-righteousness is perfect, but perfect as
God is perfect, as Christ was perfect, perfect in love.
" Be ye holy, for I am holy."  Love your enemies.
Do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again, and your
reward shall be great." Read the sixth chapter of Luke.
Read the Sermon on the Mount.  Contemplate Christ
Himself.  Contemplate Heaven-the archangels, the
cherubim, and seraphim-the beings that have been
developing there through ages before our world was
built; how can we ever dwell with them?  " Your reward shall be great."  Can we then make any sacrifice?
What are the sacrifices of God?  That which crucifies
all we do not need. That which develops all in which
a soul can be rich. You have knowledge, and impart
it. The simple act brightens the knowledge you have,
and magnifies it. You have time. You give it to some
poor soul that hath no helper. One hour buys for you
more enjoyment than a life-time of idleness. You have
money.  You take the burden from  some poor heart,
and you find it the best investment you ever made.
The Apostles gave their lives, and more than any men
they have gained immortality.  They have saved their
lives. Such are God's sacrifices-the multiplication of
all good.  Such is the mystery of goodness-such the
alchemy of love. You read of the day which shall
manifest the Sons of God.  Christ often spoke of it.
You read of rewards.  As sure as we live at all, the
day will come which shall divide us as a shepherd
divideth his sheep from the goats. Salvation is not a
fixed quantity. One star differeth from another star
in glory.
It is this line of thought, I think, the Apostle wants
to bring out for us, this higher life, this life of unself,




CONSECRATION TO GOD.             311
of consecration to God. I do not know what to say to
those of you who have never entered it, not perhaps
thought much about it.  I do not know what life can
mean to you.  The most expressive words of the language, love, eternity, God-the most wonderful facts of
time, religion, Christ, the cross-what do they mean?
Life, death, immortality, do they mean bread and clothes
and indulgence, and three-score years and ten? Is that
all? Think of these things. Herein is part of the love
of Jesus. It comes to seek you, to rouse you, to make
you sensible of your opportunity. "c Awake, thou that
sleepest, and Christ will give thee light." But none of us
are as sensible as we ought to be. Every day is laying
great golden chances at our feet and we are trampling
over them.  We are praying every day for a higher
life, but God will give us Himself, only as we give ourselves
to Him. That is the law of religion.  The measure of
the divine life in you, is exactly the measure you have
of this divine life.'s Who hath the Son of God hath
life.  Who hath not the Son of God hath not life."
The measure of the Son of God we have is the measure of life we have. " Call me not Lord, if you do not
the things I say.  He that heareth these sayings of
mine and doeth them builds a house that shall never fall."
Therefore let us take heed to our alms, to our charities,
our duties, our labors of love, our time, our whole life.
Let us be sure that in our giving we reach the giving
point, the point where we feel we are giving.  Let us
be sure that every day somebody in this world is better off for our being in it. Let us not forget it is ourselves, a divine personality this world most wants. That
is what Christ gave.'" le gave  Himself."  That is
faith to do as He did. That is part of God's love too




312                   SERMONS.
that He gave us such a blessing, a being around whom
our comprehension can fasten, toward whom our affections can go out, in whom our hopes can center, whom
the more we know Him, the more we love Him, and
with respect to whom, if we have anything to deplore, it
is that we are so far from Him.  May we have grace
to do as Paul bids us. Be followers of God as dear
children, not as hired servants. Then so far our prayer
will be answered.  God's Kingdom will come.  His will
be done on earth as it is in heaven.
THE LONG HEREAFTER.
JOB 3: 17.-There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary
are at rest.
IT has been conjectured by some that since the composition of the book of Job is poetry, no such man as
Job ever really existed. But whether any man called
Job ever lived or not, certain it is some man lived
who had the experiences ascribed to Job, or else such a
book were impossible.  Though it is a book of poetry it
is very far from being a book of picture, and though we
may not be in the habit of considering truth generally
poetic, it is very certain that all real poetry is truth.
To an unskillful reader, this third chapter of Job presents much to shock, perhaps much to offend.  Job
curses the day in which he was born and reproaches
every agency which lent its aid to give him being. To
a sensitive mind it all reflects upon the Great Creator,




THE LONG HEREAFTER.             313
and our first wonder is how any man, reputed a good
man, could ever have fallen into such a sin.  He envies
those who had passed into oblivion, and it is of the grave,
with a longing to be there, he utters the words of the
text:  " There the wicked cease from troubling, and
there the weary are at rest."
He whose life has presented no crisis which sends
him down to the depths of his being, cannot in any proper sense be called a man. He who in the presence of
the great struggle, with every faculty of his being under
tribute to sustain him, has not had thoughts of the vanity of life similar to those of Job, must have been something more, or something less than mortal. The very
gist of this life is to define to man moral existence,
to define man to himself, and he knows not himself or
any man who does not know the darkness and helplessness inherent in our creature being, who does not know
God to be the strength and fullness of being, and the
service of God the sum of all blessing.  To know this
every height and every depth of our whole nature must
be laid open, and while it is true, the wise shall inherit
glory, it is also true we can be made perfect only
through suffering, and so, in the life of all the wise as in
that of Job, whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and
because He loves us all, He chastens all.
This life, thus being to us nothing more than a school,
or process of preparation for life, our circumstances,
position and belongings, are no certain indication of
what we really are.  They cannot define a man any more
than tools can define a workman. Books do not make
a wise man.  An army cannot make a general. At
best our circumstances, position and belongings only
define what kind of man we are.  It is only character




314                   SERMONS.
vitalizes life, and the man is written upon his actions
just as the skill of the painter stands above the colors
upon the canvas, or the genius of the architect above
the pile he rears.  To know him you must see him in
combination.  For him  to know  himself he must be
placed where passion, interest and motive, grapple in
conflict. There you discover him a selfish man, a crafty man, a worldly man, a bad man, or you know him, a
useful man, an honest man, a benevolent man, a holy
man. A reference to one side or the other, whether we
are conscious of it or not, works in all our actions and
in all our estimates of action.  In the vigils of the
night, it is the goodness or badness of a man which
presses itself upon our ruminating souls.  Over our
grave every friend and every foe, if they have really
known us, pronounce in the silent convictions of their
soul our real character. More especially is it the case,
as years recede, as passions die, as material and deceptive belongings disappear, history, human conviction,
writes our names upon the page of life, or upon the page
of death.  What did he for his race?  Did he stand
upon the side of wisdom? Was he a tower of strength
or only a snare? Was he a son of God, or a son of the
devil?  All the vocations, all the pretences, all the
achievements of man, dwindle him down, or lift him up
to one or other of these.  So, I say, this life is a school,
a preparation, a probation.
Its benevolent design in God, was to make us conscious of moral being, to fit us for a higher and a better
life. It is to take us out of darkness into light, out of
weakness into strength. At first sight, all nature seems
to be against us. Every step of our life confronts us
with some real or imaginary danger.  But over and




THE LONG HEREAFTER.             315
above the hostility of simple nature, the prevailing conduct of men makes moral existence seem to be based
upon a series of contradictions, and thus to render moral
virtues impossible. How can a man be unselfish where
every man is eager only after his own?  Who can be
humble, where humility is only another name for being
trodden under foot?  Who can be temperate, where
every element within us or without us, lures us to indulgence?  Who can be charitable, where all around us
is envy, hatred and malice, and all uncharitableness?
To lie down, and drift with nature and this world, is
easy.  Men will flatter us when we do as they do.
They will make that enviable which they consider so
desirable, and it seems as though the human race had
conspired to banish real wisdom and holiness from the
earth.  They apply God-given names to things of human creation.  They admit the existence of virtue, and
then define what virtue is, and you know that even religion itself is a very good thing, provided it is only a
name.  But, let it assume a real shape, let it attempt to
pull down the vail of sin which hangs as a covering over
the face of this mortality, and you array against you
every faculty and passion of man. To all human appearance, to be wise is certainly to be very foolish, for the
wisdom of God is foolishness with man; and hence it is,
all the wise have had to contend at every step against all
the missiles of contempt and ridicule, or at least, if the
world does not despise and laugh at them, it assumes
every attitude of composure and self-importance the more
condescendingly to pity them. The wicked have never
ceased from troubling, and this side of absolute glory,
they never will.
But these means of grace, otherwise these apparent




316                   SERMONS.
hostilities to glorified being, do not stop here. Our dangers are not only from  without, they are also from
within.  When all our faculties unite in what we might
call self-possession, when our surroundings present a
fixed and reliable platform, we are to a great extent
delighted with action. By some means man delights in
achieving, and we can undertake as readily on God's
side as any other, provided also the doing will exalt us.
A great many men never stop to define their action,
whether it be truly for God's glory, or only another
phase of their selfishness.  Hence, so many works are
consecrated to God, with which God has nothing to do.
They are wrought in our pride, and for our glory, and
the sacred name of God is only a covering to conceal
a secret selfishness.  How  many battles are fought
and very generally applauded, when the truth would
have more generally prevailed, had there been no battle
at all. How easy it is to fight, when a crowd of spectators urge us on! How easy to long for a great fortune and a great position with which to serve God.
But the greatness we want, and which this world wants,
is not that of great fortune or great position, nothing
after the pattern of our vain plans or hopes.  So God
causes to come in other agencies, realities contingent
upon our creature nature. They make our plans to fail.
Hope after hope is laid in the dust. The pride of our
eyes and lusts of our hearts are removed far away.
Disease touches these bodies. Paralysis creeps over
our faculties, and so weary is the flesh, life itself becomes a burden.  The very trial we would be spared
is the very trial sent to us. The very element in life
which is bitter, is the very element pressed home to our
lips. Then, like Job, we begin to think life is a vanity,




THE LONG HEREAFTER.              317
evil is the day in which we were born. Then, like Job,
we take to another delusion, and wish very ardently to
die.  You know how common this is, in affliction, in
weakness, to wish very piously to depart. But what
of our service to God!  Suppose this is God's willsuppose He wishes us truly to know whether we love
Him for His own sake-suppose there be one more
speck of selfishness not yet extracted-suppose He has
some virtue to reveal, the power of His grace, which
only our helplessness can bring out.  Are we willing,
and while we wait, realize that he who waits still serves.
While nature asks that the cup shall pass away, shall
grace exclaim, "Not my will but thine be done."  So,
that while the wicked cease not to trouble, here the
weary cannot rest.
This is the design of this life to take us out of darkness into light-out of weakness into strength-out of
selfishness wholly into God. He is blessed who is tried.
Job, in his time, was probably the only man to whom
his trials could be sent.  God, in mercy, sometimes
does not disturb us. The chastening would only crush
us, and not bless us.  We ought to thank God.  He
does not leave us to ourselves. We ought to pray to
Him that our life-action be not the resultant of mere
habit, or position, or restraint; that our neighbor's life
be not the measure of ours; that we may not seek our
own, but only the things of Christ.  Then our lives
would not be ill-defined; our notions of being would
not be confused-our hopes of the future would not be
dim, nor in their nature unreal.  It is to be feared when
we enter the circles of disembodied spirits our whole
thoughts will undergo revolution, and very much of disappointment will greet us. Of course no vicious being




318                   SERMONS.
can enter Heaven.  But neither can we conceive of a
useless or selfish being there.  Heaven is not the abode
of those who would never have gone there if they
could have helped it, nor of those who would only go
there to escape a service elsewhere; nor of those who
want to go there only in the name of Heaven to narrow
Heaven down to themselves.  Heaven is a place of
universal service-service transcendently high and solemn and important-service, the very doing of which
is reward, and for which only a holy soul is fitted.
" Then the wicked cease from troubling," that is true;
"Then the weary are at rest," that is true; but, oh, it
is going home, and home, you know, is not where
nothing is to be done. It is not inertia, but rest, which
admits of much action.  It is wholly the service of
love-a service never of restraint or expediency, only
of the conviction that what serves not God can be no
exaltation to the creature.  It is service only of the
great and noble, who, out of all the trials and battles
of life, have proved themselves the sons of God.
You read in the Bible of Heaven, it is true; but
what of Heaven?  Does it not sometimes seem strange
Christ Jesus did not reveal to us more of that land of
rest? But does it not, also, occur to you at the same
time He did reveal all that by any possibility could be
revealed? You know no words of ours can portray anything beyond our experience. If you speak of love, I
understand you according to my idea of love. When
a man tells you there is no love in the world, he only
tells you he never had any. You will observe certain
symbols are used to illustrate, but only to illustrate;
knawing worms, and fires, and stripes represent loathsomeness and pains beyond which our conceptions can



THE LONG HEREAFTER.              319
not go.  Thrones, and songs of triumph, and festal
joys represent powers and emotions in a degree beyond
which this sphere furnishes no illustration.
So, on the other hand, Heaven is oftener spoken of
with reference to what it is not, than with reference to
what it is.  " There the wicked shall cease from troubling."   "All tears shall be wiped away."  "Sorrow
and sighing flee away."  "There is no night there, nothing to deceive or make a lie."  Beyond all doubt
God's  moral government is one.  All moral being
is one.  We shall have the sane universe around us,
and the same faculties within us.  When these bodies
are renovated and spiritualized there will be joys for us
through every avenue it furnishes to our souls.  Borne
upon the wings of our volition, other worlds will present
beauties transcending those of our own, if that were
possible.  There can be no prison-house for the redeemed.  God's great nature will outspread in combinations to charm and electrify the eye. Every element,
animate or inanimate, will be vocal with a music to delight the ear. Every presentation of every world will
be the starting point of thought, and mind will dwell in
all mysteries, because every mystery solved will reveal
God-highest joy of all the exercise of all holy affection.  Love will be the one essence of all essences, the
nectar drop which will sweeten the cup of all being,
chiefest of all, the love of God. What that means I
cannot tell.  I sometimes wonder whether all prayer
will cease in Heaven. It seems to me no soul can possibly comprehend God, and till it does, no soul can cease
its longings, and the sweetness of longing seems to me
the sweetest a soul can know. It will not be a longing
which will know  no gratification.  So far from it, we




320                   SERMONS.
shall know more and more of God, but the more we
know, the more to me it seems impossible we should
cease to long.  Longing will be  alleviated by doing
and acquiring.  Hence I say we shall have our work,
every work with its object and every object combining
also in it our co-workers. Our love there for the saints
is not to be a miscellaneous, unmeaning sentiment. It
is to be general and universal, true-i. e., there will be
no unlove, no envy, no malice. There will be none we
cannot love, but it is while general to be also particular,
e. g., our Saviour was a heavenly being. He loved all
men.  He especially loved His Apostles.  He emphatically loved John, chose him for a closer intercourse
and a sweeter communion.
We, too, shall have our kindred and more congenial
spirits bound to us in every sympathy.  I think we
shall differ there as we differ here. Not all souls will
possess every characteristic in the same degree.  Just
as we know  each other here better than words can
express, better than our visible features betray, just as
we select souls here, because of their responsiveness to
our own, so there we shall have home-spots in our inner
being for kindred and chosen loves.  That home-spot
will always be theirs.  We will never betray them.
They will never desert us.  Think of that! They wlll
understand us. Affection will entwine with affection,
hope with hope, and purpose with purpose, till revolving
cycles shall find us almost one. I sometimes think our
circles there are to be something of our circles here,
which may be added to but never taken from.  The
thought that we are to know each other in that world,
admits of no question.  Mutual recognition is a necessity. Every relation we have sustained here is to have




THE LONG HEREAFTER.             321
its fruition there. All this is not conjecture.  You
remember when Christ had risen, He had His same
body, the print of the nails was in His hands, the rent
of the spear was in His side. When John, in a glorified
vision, saw the glories of that heavenly world, he saw
one " like to the Son of Man."  That Son of Man to
John was none other than that crucified Jesus-that
meek and lowly Saviour.  To His people, I believe He
will always be He who tabernacled with men, who was
crowned with thorns; that look of compassion, that
yearning tenderness, that furrowed brow, they will
always be radiant with a love which only God could
know, when He stood transfigured upon the Mount,
when He assumed a heavenly aspect to commune with
heavenly beings —He was the same Jesus, only clothed
in light.  Moreover, there met Him, Moses and Elias,
not persons looking like Moses and Elias simply, but
Moses and Elias looking as they had looked in their
mortality. Yes, we shall know each other. Jesus said
He was going to prepare a place for us, that where He
was there we might be, and if we are all with Him,
then we must all be together. Next to the joy of laying
our crowns at that Saviour's feet and joining in the song
of the blessed, will be the joy of seeing all, and being
with our loved ones gone before. Yes, contemplate the
blessed remains-those sainted mothers, those angel
babes, those cherished friends; oh, joys transporting,
to be with thee, to know no more languishing, no more
parting, no more shadows to fall across our lives, no
wicked there to sow discord or trouble, no weary bodies
to betray us into impatience. We shall be joined to
ours and they to theirs, generation to generation, circle
to circle. The saints of all ages will be there, the glo



322                  SERMONS.
rious company of the Apostles, the goodly fellowship of
the Prophets, the noble army of martyrs, in peace and
good will; sorrows all past, wicked all gone, no purposes thwarted, nobody to offend-Christ Jesus forever
King, rewards only begun, our works following us,
reminiscences from this earth will float to us there, kind
words and holy deeds will live once more. All whom
we have blessed in the name and for the sake of Christ,
all who have blessed us, whether we have known them
or not-mysteries will be cleared up, and this poor
world will be a poor world no longer. It will have
given us treasure in heaven. I believe we shall love it,
love to think of it. It shall be God's world, Christ will
have been upon it. We shall have been upon it. Here
we were redeemed, and have learned to call God our
Father and Christ our Saviour.
One thing, however, gives us pause. Shall we miss
none we have loved, over whom  we have prayed?
Shall we search with no anxiety among all the blessed,
for one more soul not yet found?  Possibly not.  If
that name be not written upon the Lamb's Book of Life,
we shall know God knew best.  We shall not simply
submit, but acquiesce in His will. We shall know that
we ourselves could not love what loved not God. But
this is what will trouble us. Suppose, with respect to
that soul we have been delinquent. Suppose, in our
earth relations, we knew not our privileges as children
of God.  Suppose my worldliness has misled that soul,
or my neglect has caused it to wander out of the way,
though saved myself, will there be no regrets? Will
no pensive hour creep upon me-no shadow ever rest
upon my spirit? Or, when I see the very faithful far
up in glory, radiant with a light and joy unknown to




THE LONG HEREAFTER.              323
me, light and joy of a devotion here in which I did not
share; when I look back and realize how good was God
in putting blessing in my path, from which I turned
away, because it looked like trial-when I think of the
poor, and struggling, and careworn, I forgot, just as
Dives forgot Lazarus, of the children of ignorance I
might have instructed, of the heathen I might have
helped to enlighten, of the hours I might have cheered
and the homes I might have blessed, of a benedicite
here and a cup of cold water there.  Shall no sigh
escape me, when I think the opportunities are gone, all
gone forever? I know the Scriptures say, sorrow and
sighing shall flee away, but that means the agencies or
causes of sorrow and sighing are to flee away. I cannot conceive how all regrets are to pass away, for nothing
dies from the human mind.  All memory will live.  I
cannot imagine that Eli can forget his children, or that
Peter can ever cease to remember how he deceived his
Lord, or ever recall it with anything but grief. I know
that no soul in heaven will ever tell me of my fault.
Oh, no; there will be charity there to cover all my
faults, and Jesus will forgive-but oh, can I ever forget?
Oh, brethren, our little animosities and strifes, our bickerings and judgings, our hard thoughts and little selfishnesses, are they to live there? When we sit down to
count over our earth pilgrimage will these too come up?
Are we even there, among the blessed, to be sometimes
ashamed, and looking each other in the face, mindful of
our formalities, insincerity and heartlessness, are we to
be mantled in humiliation?  I say this troubles me.
But do not such thoughts as these explain to us much
of Scripture, much our dear Master told us, much which
we so often forget?  Do you not perceive how it is, we




324                   SERMONS.
are to reap as we sow-how it is, in that world one
star differeth from another star in glory, how heaven
grows out of, and is consequent upon this earth, and
how there will be most heaven there, when there has
been most heaven here? Do you not understand what
Christ means, when He says, Lay up for yourselves
treasure in heaven, when He tells us to watch, to strive,
to love even our enemies, to govern even our secret
thoughts, because there is nothing secret which shall
not be manifested, and nothing hid which shall not be
revealed? Do you not see how all deception, of every
sort or degree, is cheating nobody at last, but ourselves?
Can you not understand blessed are the pure in heart,
the meek, the merciful, the hungering and thirsting
after righteousness? Can you not see how it is, this
life of trial, this life of sorrow and sickness, where the
wicked trouble and the weary cannot rest, is to prove
that blessed record, "He that now goeth forth sorrowing,
bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with
joy, bringing his sheaves with him? Can you not see
how this life is a strange and solemn existence, how
every event, or incident, or belonging, is a special providence for us, and every providence a golden opportunity?
What need there is of diligence, vigilance and prayer,
to walk so that we too may be meet and fit for the
enjoyment of the saints in light.
You perceive, then, brethren, the force of what I tell
you; this life is a probation-a crucible to test your
real being.  You see how nature and Providence are to
act upon us; but, above all, how, as moral agents, we
are to act upon nature and Providence, and out of the
elements of every-day life here to build up a true life
for the long hereafter. You see that when God asks




THE LONG HEREAFTER.              325
us to serve and glorify Him, He asks us to lay up blessedness for ourselves.  You see to whom and to whom
alone that other world is a world of releasement-a
world of rest. You see the thing for us is not to wish
to die so much as to be prepared-for Heaven.
Now, these thoughts are peculiarly appropriate to us
to-day.  In the providence of God we are brought to
the last Sunday of our expiring year, with all its record
is nearly gone to be registered upon the Book of God for
us or against us. To review it is a duty; for, to sum it up,
is to sum up our whole life.  It is only the resultant of
all that have gone before. I do not ask you what your
vocation or position in life is. Now, is it a wrong thing
if, in that vocation and position, you have been diligent?  The economy of this life is something.  It is
unjust, and the man who has not been faithful in that
which is less, will never have opportunity to be faithful
in that which is much.  I ask only in your vocation
and position what are you?  What is the spirit which
pervades your life and gives you character as a man,
as a member of society, as a Christian?  Have the
precepts and example-have the incarnation and the
passion of the Saviour-has Christ's blessed Gospel
made you a child of God. In the allotments of Providence, have joy and prosperity made you more thankless and selfish-more worldly and thoughtless? Have
the losses and adversities, the sorrows and bereavements,
made you more humble, more submissive, more trustful.
Pressed at every step by cares, and trials, and responsibilities, do you realize they are sent of God —that
He alone is your strength.  Or, left in loneliness and
helplessness, do you feel that Christ is tenfold your
friend? Does one holy hope nestle in your heart to-day




326                   SERMONS.
which nestled not there a year ago? Has there been over
your life this year a halo of sweetness and blessedness
unknown to other years.  In your houses have you
brought your children nearer to God?  Do they feel
to-day that you realize how you are only a pilgrim and
sojourner here-that you are seeking the golden city with
a longing to be there, and one other longing that they,
too, in God's time, may come to be with you. In our
social and civil circles for the young, and ignorant, and
helpless, does there, by our exertion, prevail one beneficent influence which last year did not give? Are our
means, our talents, our lives, consecrated to God and
His glory? And, if men do not know, does God know;
are our prayers registered in Heaven?  Have we been
upon God's side, or upon the side of ourselves only and
the world?  I think sometimes, when we enter the
abodes of the blest, the first thing they will ask us is:
" Where was our post in the great struggle of earth?
how speeds the great fight?"  They are waiting till
this world is wholly redeemed. They are waiting for
that hour. All that enter there have been soldiers of
the cross.  They have had their battles; they have
fallen in the fight; and now they have their story to tella story of interest to every saint-because it has helped
to swell the great victory of the Son of God. Our
story will soon have to be told. My brother, where is
thy post?  How speeds the fight so far as your conflict goes?  You see how short the time is; as you
judge to-day upon the end of a year, so you will soon
judge upon the end of this life.  In your business you
can only stand a little longer. In your pleasures and
estates your name will soon cease to mingle.  Christian,
at your post, whether of doing or suffering, you shall




THE LONG HEREAFTER.             327
soon be relieved. This very year how many have gone
from us-some leaving us rich memories and blessed
hopes-memories that lighten our steps along the road,
and hopes that beckon us on to the bosom of peace and
of God.  It is meet we should remember them, for I
do not believe they cease to be mindful of us. It is
meet we should thank God for their good examples,
and to pray Him that with them we may be partakers
of His heavenly Kingdom.  Let us, then, brethren,
with such thoughts as these, let us realize what life is,
that God is over it all; that our good is designed in it
all. Let us, brethren, so fill up all our years in all
holiness, that in our time we go not like one "who
wraps the drapery of his couch about him, and lies
down to pleasant dreams;" but who shakes off the shadows of night and wakes to the joys and privileges of the
eternal day-like him  who casts off all dreams and
wakes to the bright and eternal reality. Our home is
where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary
are at rest; our abode is no longer a tabernacle, but a
mansion in the golden city, where the saints of all ages
are-where the throne of the Saviour is-where love
and peace, and rest, shall reign forever and ever.