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 ■ . i 
 
SHORT STUDIES 
 
 FOR 
 
 BY 
 
 CHAS. S. ROBINSON D.D. 
 
 Pastor of First Presbyterian CiiURcn Brooklyn N. Y. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 WYNKOOP & SHERWOOD 
 
 18 Beekman St. 
 
 1868 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, 
 
 By WYNKOOP & SHERWOOD, 
 
 In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for tho 
 Southern District of Hew York. 
 
 Eradstueet Press. 
 
a £ 
 
 S' 
 
 'Ks<^ /z. 
 
 TO 
 
 GEORGE C. RIPLEY, HENRY IDE, 
 
 ROBERT C. OGDEN, ANDREW A. SMITH, 
 
 ALEXANDER M. EARLE, 
 
 $uper^inten^ent$» 
 
 THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED, 
 
 “These are my fellow-workers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a 
 comfort unto me.” — Colosszans, iv 11. 
 
 7G2318 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2017 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates 
 
 https://archive.org/details/shortstudiesfors00robi_0 
 
PEEFAOE. 
 
 chapters of this unpretending volume 
 i^i^ l were originally presented, each in turn, in 
 a series of familiar addresses from the pulpit at a 
 Sabbath afternoon service. 
 
 I have noticed quite intelligently the fact that 
 oftentimes the lines of thought cross each other, 
 and an admonition, an inference, or an exposition, 
 has been repeated. This was most natural in the 
 outset ; and really I cannot see any valid reason for 
 making a change now. I would rather have the 
 singleness of impression from each theme, than the 
 mere satisfaction of more finished work. 
 
 The usefulness I hope these sketches and outlines 
 of Scriptural truth will serve is very simple. Per- 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 haps they will prompt some one who is weary, 
 encourage some one who is tried; perhaps they 
 will be suggestive to superintendents in preparing 
 for public services ; perhaps they will prove 
 acceptable gifts for older teachers to present to 
 younger. 
 
 And if they fail in all these ends, still it is 
 a kind of comfort to myself — I own it — that I 
 have made an honest, humble, prayerful effort 
 to be of some assistance to a class of Christian 
 workers whom I honor with my whole heart. 
 
 74 PiERREPONT Street, Brooklyn, N. Y., ) 
 
 December 1, 1867. ) 
 
TaMe of Hontenta. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. 
 
 A Child’s Rescue, . . 
 
 1 
 
 II. 
 
 The Model Teacher, . . . . 
 
 16 
 
 III. 
 
 The Model Pupil, .... 
 
 . 27 
 
 lY. 
 
 Words to the Y^eary, 
 
 44 
 
 Y. 
 
 Life for Life, .... 
 
 . 60 
 
 YI. 
 
 Manifestino Truth, . . . , 
 
 73 
 
 YII. 
 
 A Child-like Spirit, 
 
 .86 
 
 YIII. 
 
 God’s Arroavs, 
 
 103 
 
 IX. 
 
 Home Heathen, .... 
 
 . 116 
 
 X. 
 
 Draaying- Lightning, . . . , 
 
 135 
 
 XI. 
 
 Intelligent Study, 
 
 . 150 
 
 XII. 
 
 Only Believe, 
 
 163 
 
 XIII. 
 
 The Teacher Taught, . 
 
 . 182 
 
 XIY. 
 
 Division of Labor, . . . . 
 
 199 
 
 XY. 
 
 A Bible-class Lesson, . 
 
 . 219 
 
SHOET STUDIES 
 
 FOR 
 
 SUUDAY-SOHOOL TeAOHEES. 
 
 I. 
 
 A tClbilik’a ^c)5cue. 
 
 And she called Ms name Aloses; and she said^ because I drew Mm out 
 qf the tvater .'" — ^Exodus ii. 10. 
 
 BOUT four thousand years ago a little boy 
 was saved from drowning in the Nile river. 
 That incident forms the theme of this present 
 discourse. 
 
 “Life/’ says Jean Paul, “should in every shape 
 be precious to us; for the same reason that the 
 Turks carefully collect each scrap of paper which 
 comes in their way, because the name of God may 
 be written upon it.” If it were not for this name 
 of God, possible to be written upon every human 
 1 
 
2 
 
 A CHILJOI^S RESCUE. 
 
 heart, I would do Diore atteDipt to interest , you in* 
 the recital of that Hebrew babe’s rescue, than I 
 would in the bursting of one of the nayriad bubbles 
 which broke against the side of the bulrush vessel 
 he lay in. 
 
 Once, when our Saviour wanted to instruct his 
 discijales in primary doctrine, he took a little child, 
 and set him in the midst of them. If Pharaoh’s 
 daughter will but lend to our imagination for an 
 hour the ark she discovered, we will place it here 
 in full view, and make it our preacher. Our lesson 
 shall be concerning the saving of children. 
 
 I. Let me, in the first place, recall to your minds ^ 
 the perils which surrounded the life which was 
 saved on that memorable occasion. 
 
 1. It was the life of an infant child. Strange 
 indeed does it seem, to think that Moses, the ven- 
 erable lawgiver, of the chosen people, once was a 
 feeble babe, weak and wailing as ever was a nurs- 
 ling of three months in its mother’s arms. Yet 
 tliis was lie, lying there in the reeds by the river 
 side. Look at him a moment! Surely, he needs 
 not to be killed in order to die. Infancy alone will 
 extinguish that insignilicant glimmer of existence 
 
A CHlLD^S RESCUE, 
 
 3 
 
 Just leave him where he is a little longer, and you 
 will never hear of his going up into Mount Nebo. 
 One rush of the waves through a crevice, and the 
 march in the wilderness will never be made. One 
 quick gasp, as the relentless current' hurries him 
 under, and the Bible will be less by a Pentateuch. 
 
 2. It was the life of a proscribed child. His 
 nation was in bondage. His mother was a slave. 
 He was ‘‘one of the Hebrew’s children.” He be- 
 came instantly, therefore, an outlaw. All Egypt 
 was on the alert for his life. He was a tremendous 
 enemy of the government that was building the 
 pyramids! There was no room in the world for 
 male Hebrew children when Moses was bom. 
 Aaron, his brother, got in before the door was 
 shut. Beautiful maidens were those, doubtless, in 
 attendance upon Egypt’s princess; but between 
 them and this foundling, socially, there was forever- 
 more a great gulf fixed. 
 
 3. It was the ^fe of an outcast child. He had no 
 friends. His mother had already hidden him till 
 concealment w^ dangerous. It must have been a 
 hard thing for her now to put him out on the river. 
 Sorrowful hours were those she and little Miriam 
 
4 
 
 A CHILLIS RESCUE. 
 
 had, weaving the rushes. But this was the best 
 they could do for him. He was as much adrift on 
 the world as he well could be; and that at an age 
 conceded to be unusually early. Feeble fight 
 would he be likely to make with the hard fortunes 
 that beset him. 
 
 You pity him: so do I, with all my heart. But 
 I will tell you what you may pity to better purpose. 
 There are scores of sons and daughters of misery, 
 drifting out upon a stream of vice, which the Nile, 
 with all its murkiness and its monsters, can not 
 parallel for peril; a river of depraved humanity, 
 hurrying on before it everything good and promis- 
 ing into the dark destiny behind the cloud. I 
 think it high time more was doing in our Christian 
 communities for the rescue of children. 
 
 IT. Let me tell you now, in the second place, 
 who it was that saved that life, so exposed upon 
 the margin of the Nile. 
 
 1. Primarily, of course, God. Tins he has 
 claimed for his especial office. “He gathercth 
 together the outcasts of Israel.” Here was a child, 
 or|)liancd while his j)arcnts were living; homeless, 
 when his father’s house was within sight ; deserted, 
 
A CHILD^S RESCUE. 
 
 5 
 
 wlien his own sister kept her eye upon him ; an 
 outlaw, when the princess of the realm was coming 
 to his relief. Who put him in the midst of such 
 contradictions? Who set all the extraordinary 
 train of helpers in motion ? He it was, into whose 
 faithful face the Psalmist looked up as he said, 
 “ When my father and my mother forsake me, then 
 the Lord will take me up.” 
 
 2. Instrumentally, however, God made use of 
 four agents in this rescue. And it is because all of 
 us, in one way or another, can find an example 
 among them to imitate in forwardness of zeal, that 
 I mention them in turn. 
 
 A helieving mother was the first of them. By 
 faith, Moses when he was born was hid three 
 months of his parents.” Prudence and piety were 
 joined in the effort made for his relief That trust- 
 ful woman religiously committed her child to a 
 covenant-keeping God. But she did all that human 
 ingenuity could suggest to protect him. She used 
 the means within her own reach. Then, with un- 
 wavering confidence she tranquilly awaited the issue. 
 
 A wealthy princess was also one of the helpers in 
 the rescue. Pharaoh’s daughter, coming down to the 
 
6 
 
 A CHILD^S RESCUE. 
 
 water, heard the wailing voice among the rushes. 
 When her attendants brought the curious vessel 
 ashore, she “saw the child.” The great humanity 
 asserted itself in her breast. She felt the sincerest 
 sympathy for a creature so forlorn. It was against 
 the law, mind you, for her to pity him. It was 
 “ resisting the powers ” to aid a little fugitive slave 
 in those uncivilized times. But through all the 
 meshes of conventional exclusion, through all the 
 links of legislation, her womanly instinct found its 
 unhindered way. And in that exalted moment the 
 princess rose to an elevation she never surpassed. 
 She planted herself on the rock by the side of the 
 Creator, who “hath made of one blood all nations 
 of men.” No Christian woman, surely, ever does 
 herself and her sex the honor that the merest self- 
 respect requires, until she is able to free her heart 
 from all trammels of social distinction and caste 
 privilege, enough to cheerfully do good to any poor 
 child of destitution and prejudice, for whom the 
 corninon Ihidccrner has died. 
 
 An inUillL(jcnt child was likewise one of the parties 
 that saved Moses’ life. Ciuitc a number of useful 
 children arc mentioned in the Scripture. A little 
 
A CHILD'S RESCUE. 
 
 7 
 
 lad furnished the loaves and fishes to feed the five 
 thousand. A little girl led the Syrian leper to 
 Elisha for his cure. A touching spectacle rises 
 upon our imagination, when we think of the young 
 Miriam, perhaps at the time four or five years old, 
 put on guard just out of sight to keep the family 
 informed concerning the fate of the ark. How the 
 heart of that faithful watcher must have fluttered 
 when she saw the royal train approaching the spot ! 
 Miriam was undoubtedly a very bright child. She 
 appears remarkably well in this story. There is 
 ingenuity and great shrewdness in her quick sug- 
 gestion of a nurse — a Hebrew nurse — and herself to 
 go and make choice of one. What is the reason 
 children may not be trained in saving children? 
 There is marvelous intelligence in some of them, 
 that might be turned to unmeasured advantage, if 
 they were taught usefulness as patiently as they are 
 accomplishments. 
 
 An affectionate teacher was also among the rescuers 
 of that infant in the ark. To be sure, this was the 
 same woman mentioned before ; but she was now 
 discharging a different office. God’s blessing 
 brought the child back to the bosom it belonged 
 
8 
 
 A CHILD'S RESCUE. 
 
 upon. But after this Jochebed considered her 
 charge as belonging to Pharaoh’s daughter. He 
 was destined to enter the palace ere long. She had 
 it for her duty to prepare him for his eminent mis- 
 sion. We read in the subsequent history that 
 Moses was educated in all the learning of the 
 Egyptians. But it was the foundation of another 
 sort of knowledge that was laid thus early in his 
 career. This instructor taught him of God, of 
 truth, of equity. And I make a point of this work 
 of hers merely in order to say, that the mother of 
 any child is its fittest teacher, when she can be, and 
 when she can not, that will be its best teacher who 
 is most like a mother. 
 
 You see now what was intended when I said that 
 you can choose your own place among these instru- 
 ments of rescue. There is a share in the saving of 
 children to be given to the youngest and the ma- 
 turest, for the pauper’s child and the king’s daugh- 
 ter. Only this much I urge earnestly : the river is 
 rising, time liurries, the ark is exposed. 
 
 III. Let me tell you, in the third ])lacc, wliat 
 was the value ol that lile saved in the ark of bul- 
 rushes. 
 
A CIIILPS RESCUE. 
 
 Measured by any standard of earthly estimate, ii 
 would not pass for much. Indeed, why was it not 
 better for an outcast, like that infant Moses, just to 
 slip quietly out from under the eaves of life into 
 the grand Hereafter at once, and die peacefully into 
 a decenter existence than this ? 
 
 Such a question suggests folly. Drowning is the 
 poorest of all purposes to put a child to. The res* 
 cue proves the finest part of the story. One thing is 
 certain, it has been handed down reverently through 
 forty centuries. The child was worth something, 
 or inspiration would not have been so carefully 
 invoked in its favor. 
 
 1. It was worth something for its beauty, Ste- 
 phen, in the Acts, says Moses was “exceedingly 
 fair;” the Greek is, “fair to God,” or divinely, ce- 
 lestially fair. There is in the countenance of a 
 child wonderful power to move any man of sensi- 
 bility. But the loveliness of infancy becomes de- 
 formed very soon in outcast children. It is a fearful 
 sight to look upon a little, old, wise child ; an infant 
 of years, with maturity thrust upon him before his 
 voice changes; a wiry, shrewd politician of the 
 streets and alleys ; keen and cunning after food and 
 
10 
 
 A CHlLD^S EEBCUE. 
 
 raiment as a wolf, and worse off than a wolf in that 
 he has to procure raiment Believe me, even the 
 artless beauty of a. child is worth saving. It will 
 be one of the dearest sights in heaven, the sweet 
 faces of children. Angels are waiting to welcome 
 them. They never had any. They were never chil- 
 dren themselves. They are all of the same age. 
 They were all created at the same time. They 
 never marry nor are given in marriage. Half the 
 human race die in infancy, and are saved. Oh, it 
 is best to keep something even here to remind us 
 of the joys of the* redeemed ! 
 
 2. It was worth something for its gifts. At this 
 time, of course, Moses was the merest infant. No- 
 body believes the foolish stories which the Rabbins 
 tell of his early precocity, or his boyish ex})loits. 
 But wc know from the disclosure of after history, 
 that there were enfolded in his undeveloped intellect 
 j>rincely possibilities of eminence in attainment 
 and exereJsc. How little wc know about this ques- 
 tion of develoi)nicnt ! Look at youi* own hand; it 
 is as g(;od hand as Michael Angelo’s. Why can 
 not it ])aint on canvas, or (^arvo in stone? It is un- 
 tauglit and unpi’acticed ; but the skill is in it some- 
 
A CHILD'S liES CUE. 
 
 11 
 
 where. So of your memory. So of your imagina- 
 tion. How small a moiety of any man’s nature is 
 working at its utmost power. Look out now upon 
 these undisciplined multitudes. • A shrewd manu- 
 facturer, up among the' mountains, discovered a 
 torrent that was wasting itself in irregular leaps 
 from rock to rock ; he gave it a flume to run into, 
 and it rolled on far better for itself, and turned a 
 tremendous wheel for him. Why does not some 
 keen-sighted statesman or philanthropist see how 
 much waste of power there is in this frantic strug- 
 gle for life which the children of want are making? 
 
 3. It was worth something for its precioiisness. 
 When I look in upon the ark where Moses lies, I 
 can not help thinking of the trustful woman that 
 loved him enough to give him up to the risk of the 
 waters. And I never stand before a great audience 
 of children without saying to myself, somebody 
 loves them. Somebody thinks that each one in 
 turn is the best one of them all. There never was 
 a little child, hardly, in the world that did not have, 
 for at least one moment, a look of unutterable ten- 
 derness from the woman whose heart leaped up 
 when she knew it was her own. . Just for common 
 
A CHILD'S RESCUE. 
 
 iz 
 
 humanity’s sake, then, it is worth the saving. I 
 honor that matron who leaned over the dying sol- 
 dier, and whispered, ‘^Let me kiss him for his 
 mother !” But beyond this^ stands the great love 
 of the Saviour for children. “ Take heed that ye 
 despise not one of these little ones.” They are im- 
 measurably precious to him. No creature in the 
 universe, no matter how vicious, no matter how 
 deserted, no matter how repulsive, is so far beyond 
 the pale of charity as to be rejected for an outcast, 
 just so long as there is room enough on his fore- 
 head for grace to write the name of the Lamb ! 
 
 4. It was worth something for its purpose. In 
 every acorn there is an oak. That feeble child, 
 lying desolately in the ark, was mightier than the 
 sun rolling on its meridian way overhead ; for the 
 All-wise had given him a work to do under the 
 plan of redemption. Jocliebed little knew what 
 history she was weaving when she plaited tlie bul- 
 rushes together. 1’liat tiny hand was one day to 
 wield the rod of Omni])otence over the lied Sea 
 divided, the rock riven, and Amalck routed. Let 
 no man despise children. (lod sometimes charges 
 even the youngc^st life with a purpose so trans 
 
A CHILD'S RESCUE. Ig' 
 
 cendent that the angels earnestly desire to look 
 into it. 
 
 5. It was worth something for its destiny. You 
 look at that child as it is borne up the bank in the 
 arms of its mother. The narrative of the rescue is 
 ended. Pharaoh’s daughter has a fresh adventure 
 to relate in the palace, to cause a wonderment for a 
 morning. Then the recollection grows dim, and 
 that Life so strangely saved seems to have vanished 
 from history. Forty years pass by ; and anon it 
 reappears in the palace. There it is tempted ; then 
 it goes forth into desert experiences, and is lost in 
 the distance. Forty more years pass by ; and again 
 you behold its return. A more splendid life the 
 world never saw. At the head of a mighty host, 
 its marvelous march has begun toward the prom- 
 ised land. Miracles drop from the extended hand. 
 Wisdom untold is issuing from the lips inspired. 
 Forty years more pass by ; and now at last you see 
 that life, with natural force unabated, and eye not 
 yet grown dim, going bravely up into Mount Nebo 
 to die. Then you have reason to believe it is fairly 
 ended. But fifteen hundred years more pass by ; 
 and once more you suddenly discover that life on 
 
14 
 
 A CHILD'S RESCUE, 
 
 the summit of another mountain, in the compan- 
 ionship of Immanuel himself, grand in all the radi- 
 ance of gloiy, with Elijah and with God! From 
 that Tabor-top of wonderful transfiguration it passes 
 back to its rest, to live and reign forever. When 
 you think of that rescued child, think of all this 
 immortal destiny included. Even Miriam, who 
 sang with her timbrel by the Eed Sea, is living yet ; 
 and on the sea of glass will yet sing with her harp 
 the song of Moses and the Lamb. 
 
 This, then, is the -lesson we learn to-day. The 
 salvation of a child — what is it ? It seems so little, 
 but, ah, it is so much I Let me give you just three 
 thoughts to close with. 
 
 1. Learn the power of the great common hu- 
 manity. What Pharaoh’s daughter needed was, 
 not abuse, not long exhortation, not tedious appeal, 
 but to be told what to do. AVhen she “saw the 
 child,” her heart spontaneously responded. Eich 
 j)CO])lc arc all human; most of them are humane. 
 ^J’herc is no good in judging them harshly. Tell 
 them how. 
 
 ‘2. licarn the best kind of monuments. Egypt’s 
 king buildcd the j)yramids. Egy])t’s princess res- 
 
A CUlLD^S RESCUE. 
 
 16 
 
 cued Moses. The pyramids are out in the sands, 
 trying mutely to perpetuate something, nobody 
 knows what. Moses lives on I Who, then, has the 
 truest remembrance ? 
 
 3. Learn the greatest reason for thanksgiving. 
 Thank God that you had helpers to save you when 
 you were a child. “ Saved by grace !” Oh, what 
 a motto for a man’s life ! She called the infant 
 Moses, our text says, because she drew him out 
 of the water. Moses means “saved.” Think of a 
 child called “saved” for his given name I Would 
 it ever forget its history? Well, then, is that not 
 your name ? And are you going to remember that 
 you are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ ? 
 
II. 
 
 TKc Mobel Teaclier. 
 
 Jesus, therefore, heing wearied with hAs journey, sat thus on the well, 
 and it was a'baut the sixth hour ^ — John iv. 6. 
 
 N eastern traveler tells ns there is in all 
 the Holy Land only one spot which we 
 are absolutely certain was trod by the feet of our 
 blessed Redeemer ; and that is a little area of space, 
 within a circumference of which the center is the 
 well of Jacob in Sychar. All other localities have 
 been questioned, and their claims to authenticity 
 arc unsatisfactory and confused. But there our 
 Saviour once undoubtedly rested. What a precious 
 place it must be to visit ! Few of us will ever see 
 it with our mortal eyes; but we arc going to it 
 now, in imagination, for our instruction. 
 
 In the Scrij)ture narrative to which this text 
 introduces us, we find the Son of God fulfilling the 
 
THE MODEL TEA CHER. 
 
 17 
 
 office of a teacher. Fine exemplar is he for ns to 
 imitate. Let ns trace out the incidents of the story 
 to the end, so as to ascertain, if possible, the secret 
 of his snccess. For, strange as it seems to think 
 of it, his entire class was converted that day. We 
 find here illustrated three characteristics : zeal, tact, 
 and spirituality. 
 
 I. Observe the Saviour’s Zeal. You may see 
 this everywhere in our Lord’s life, but here it is 
 more evident than usual. It is shown in four 
 particulars : 
 
 1. He went to a most unwelcome neighborhood. 
 There was nothing to attract him there, everything 
 to repel. All his hereditary prejudices were ar- 
 rayed against the Samaritans. The Jews had .no 
 dealings with them. They were a proud, super- 
 cilious set of people. They called themselves 
 orthodox, and then did as they pleased. Yet, when 
 the whole world was open for his effort, our Lord 
 “ must needs go through Samaria.” 
 
 2. He was satisfied to teach only one scholar. 
 A woman came to him, and that was all his class. 
 He who had preached to vast multitudes, sat down 
 there, under the hot noon, with patient fidelity, to 
 
18 
 
 THE MODEL TEACHER. 
 
 instruct even a single hearer. He spoke just as 
 kindly, and talked to her just as eloquently, as he 
 did to the ten thousand afterward. You know she 
 had a soul ; and when there was a soul to toil for, 
 for that soul Jesus always toiled. 
 
 3. He labored with a disagreeable pupil. This 
 woman was a great sinner. She seems not to have 
 had even one creditable point of character. She 
 was notoriously profligate (verse 17). She was pert 
 (verse 19). She was argumentative (verse 12). She 
 was a liar (verse 18). The disciples wondered, when 
 they came back, that Jesus spoke to the impudent 
 creature (verse 27). And she even wondered her- 
 self (verse 9). It was effrontery unparalleled for 
 her to talk as she did. She was conceited and 
 brazen. She does not exhibit the slightest sign of 
 modesty or shame. Yet it is wonderful to note 
 the forbearance with which Jesus treats her all the 
 time. 
 
 4. He was himself wearied with work when he 
 bcigaii. One little word there is in our text that 
 you rarely think of when you read it over; the 
 word ‘OAw. 9.” Jle sat thus to teach; that is, all 
 W(n*n out just as he was on the long, hard journey ; 
 
THE MODEL TEACHER. 
 
 19 
 
 hungry, tired, thirsty, over-heated, and alone. Yefc 
 you see no sign of this ; he talks cheerfully on as ever. 
 
 W ell then, when you are wearied of hard neigh- 
 borhoods ; when your mission fields try you ; when 
 you put yourself out to go far through the rain or 
 the sun, and find your class thinned down to two 
 or three; when you are thoroughly discouraged 
 over some vicious pupil, who annoys you almost 
 beyond patience ; when you are fatigued with care, 
 or jaded with unrewarded labor ; — then just remem- 
 ber the Master, there in that despised spot, with 
 his one scholar, and she a hateful, bad woman, earn- 
 estly trying to do her good, and forgetting the 
 hunger and heat that oppressed him. 
 
 II. Observe the Saviours Tact. That case re- 
 quired a gi'eat deal of wisdom to manage it exactly. 
 And the shrewdness with which he interested the 
 woman, and the adroitness with which he finally 
 made his impression — that was his tact There is 
 no successful teaching without tact. It is worth 
 while to mark this example carefully. The tact of 
 Jesus is shown in this instance in two particulars. 
 
 1. He was ingenious in catching an’ illustration 
 to interest her mind (verse 7). He took her water- 
 
20 
 
 THE MODEL TEACHER, 
 
 pot for his text. How characteristic this aptness 
 always was of Christ ! When the fishermen drew 
 in their wonderful wealth of fishes, he said to them 
 they should become “ fishers of men” (Matthew iv. 
 19). When the multitudes followed him for the sake 
 of the loaves, he said to them he was the “ bread 
 of life” (John vi. 35). The true way to teach is 
 just this — try to link what one does not know 
 upon what he knows. 
 
 2. He was quick in turning the illustration, so as 
 to impress her conscience (verse 14). Jesus knew 
 he gained nothing until he made that woman feel 
 that she was a sinner. Indeed, this is the essential 
 thing for every gospel teacher to do. The Bible is 
 intended to lead men to the cross. But the human 
 intellect is dull, and the human heart is hard. 'The 
 mind must be arrested, and then the conscience 
 must be ai’oused. 
 
 Now tlie’ difficulty you experience, perhaps, cov- 
 ers botli tliese points. You can neither catch 
 similitudes, nor use tlicrn. One thing is very cer- 
 tain : the licart has more to do with teaching the 
 gospd than most people are aware of. It you 
 really desire to do good, you will find Cod will 
 
THE MODEL TEACHER. 
 
 21 
 
 favor you in ingenuity. McCheynej standing before 
 a forge-fire, said kindly to the workman — Who 
 can dwell with everlasting burnings I” Pay son, 
 when his seat-mate in the coach expressed gladness 
 that the journey was so near its end, put the 
 inquiry, “Are you prepared for the end of the 
 long journey ?” 
 
 III. Observe the Saviour’s Spirituality. He 
 made that entire interview religious. The purpose 
 of her conversion lay uppermost in his mind. This 
 is shown in his avoiding what she wanted him to 
 do, and in his doing what he did. • 
 
 1. He carefully avoided all discussion of irrele- 
 vant matters. And the more you study the story, 
 the more plainly you will perceive how much 
 patience this implied. Like all other sinners, the 
 woman wanted to talk about something else. 
 
 She proposed sectarian questions (verse 9). The 
 first thing she did was to fly off upon the differ- 
 ences between Mount Zion and Mount Gerizim. 
 But our Lord pays not even the compliment of a 
 notice to her polemic hint. He does not mention 
 the Samaritan tenets in the whole interview. He 
 talks only of the “gift of God” (verse 10). 
 
22 
 
 THE MODEL TEACHER. 
 
 She suggested ritualistic points (verse 20). She 
 was ferociously firm about the non-essentials. Our 
 Lord baffles her again by the quietest of all eva- 
 sions. He will not argue any subtle distinctions 
 concerning forms of worship. Calmly he throws 
 himself back on principles underlying all such dis- 
 cussions, and urges the true ‘‘ spirit” (verse 24). 
 
 She ventured on speculative inquiries (verse 25). 
 It is curious to observe how she found herself 
 befogged in her own dogmatism, and majestically 
 referred the question she had raised to the Messiah ! 
 How she must have been startled to -hear her 
 teacher declare, “I that speak to you am He!” 
 (verse 26). 
 
 2. He pressed home the one lesson persistingly, 
 which he wanted her to learn. She found herself 
 thwarted in every endeavor to ward off the rebuke 
 she deserved. One all-embracing purpose was in 
 our Saviour’s mind during the whole conversation: 
 to make her discover her sin, feel its guilt, and 
 come penitently for pardon. 
 
 He told her the exact state of her case. She 
 was a dreadfully wicked woman. It was needful 
 she should see that clearly. No delicacy, no dif- 
 
THE MODEL TEACHER. 
 
 23 
 
 fidence, no fear of offense, kept back the truth on 
 his lips. She was to repent of her sins. It is false 
 in fact, and recreant in spirit, to call either men, 
 women, or children, “innocent.” They cannot be 
 redeemed if they are. There is no salvation offered 
 to such. Christ came into the world to make 
 atonement for sinners, not for innocent people. 
 The very argument he presses in order to show his 
 love for children is found in their sins. “The Son 
 of Man is come to save that which was lost^ He 
 is talking of “little ones” when he says that (Mat- 
 thew xviii. 10). 
 
 He told her of the demands of God’s law. He 
 never thought it necessary to lower even one requi- 
 sition, or precept, or commandment, in order to win 
 favor with a proud heart. No doubt, that thought- 
 less, imperious creature was exceedingly difficult to 
 manage. But there was no kindness to her in cov- 
 ering up her sinfulness. She was ignorant : then 
 she must learn. She was fractious : then she must 
 submit. She was exposed to the wrath of an offended 
 God : then she must be warned. “Now we know 
 that what things soever the law saith, it saith to 
 them who are under the law; that every mouth 
 
24 
 
 TEE MODEL TEACEEE 
 
 may be stopped, and all the world become guilty 
 before God/^ 
 
 He told her of the Eedeemer’s help* Only hints 
 of this conversation are here given ns. The gen- 
 eral points of instruction are all that the Evangelist 
 records. No one tells the story but John, the 
 beloved disciple ; and John was not present. Jesus 
 must have repeated the incidents of the interview 
 to him afterward; and so they appear here in 
 brief But all the essentials of the plan of salva- 
 tion are detailed. Our Saviour taught the woman 
 how to come to himself, and be saved by faith. 
 
 When your class gets the better of you in the 
 recitation, and in spite of all your efforts draws you 
 away into wordy disputes, think of the Master, 
 with his one pupil ; and never forget how indefati- 
 gably he kept her to the point, just by talking to 
 her concerning her own soul’s salvation. Ecmem- 
 ber, always, it is not what we say about the truth, 
 that converts a soul, but the truth. And surely no 
 teaclicr is making any real advance, unless he 
 brings the great triangle of doctrine in personal 
 contact with the lilc and conscience of eacli person. 
 E/)wland Hill was wont to say, there must be “the 
 
THE MODEL TEACHER. 
 
 25 
 
 three R’s” in every sermon — Ruin, Righteousness 
 and Renewal. 
 
 It is time to end this sermon, or you will not 
 think it short. But suffer me to mention a few 
 reflections, which you may dwell upon at your 
 will. 
 
 1. How noble an ofiS.ce is that which Christ here 
 accepted ! God never sulfered an angel to be a 
 teacher. No one could lead a soul to him but his 
 own Son, and those who are like him. God makes 
 none but his children teachers of children. 
 
 2. No person is beyond the reach of true Chris- 
 tian zeal. Was there ever a more unpromising 
 scholar than that one Jesus had there by the well 
 of Jacob in Sychar ? 
 
 3. The real object of teaching truth is the con- 
 version of souls. The mind may be reformed, the 
 manners cultivated ; but the class is a failure unless 
 the conscience is reached, the will is broken, and 
 the heart bowed in penitence at the foot of the cross. 
 
 4. How few Christians are just Christ-like! Oh, 
 that great, brave Life, that spent its energies in 
 doing good! And we are troubled when under 
 slightest inconvenience. The ancient band of Re- 
 
 2 
 
26 
 
 THE MODEL TEACHER. 
 
 demptorists took for their motto — “All for thee, 
 blessed Jesus, all for thee !” 
 
 5. How helpful is the encouragement to be 
 drawn from such an instance as this ! Our Saviour 
 used no peculiar instrument in conversion; only 
 the same truth he has put in our hands freely. If 
 it saved that woman, who is there it cannot save ? 
 
 6. The ministry of reconciliation needs this zeal, 
 and tact, and spirituality of the Mastek. Minis- 
 ters are only Sabbath-school teachers with larger 
 classes. Said the sainted Brainerd, “ Oh, that I 
 were a flaming fire in the service of my God !” 
 
III. 
 
 TKe Mobel Fujiil, 
 
 “TAe waman then left her xcater-pot^ and icent her way into the city^ and 
 saith to the men^ Come^ see a man which told me all things that e/ver I did : 
 Is not this the Christ T '' — John iv. 28, 29. 
 
 HIS woman of Samaria was converted by 
 the personal disclosure of the Lord Jesus 
 to her mind and heart as the Eedeemer. The crisis 
 of her history was reached at the point when, in 
 reply to her suggestion as to an expected Messiah, 
 the Saviour suddenly made the overwhelming an- 
 nouncement : “ I that speak to you am He !” 
 
 Spiritual conversion consists in the revelation of 
 Christ to the human soul, in the instant when it 
 has begun to feel the pressure of its imminent need. 
 And practical conversion consists in the immediate 
 surrender of the entire bein^ to Christ as the Prince 
 
 of Life. Both of these are luminously exhibited in 
 the case of this poor creature, who came to Jacob’s 
 
28 
 
 THE MODEL PUPIL. 
 
 well with nothing of her own but her sins and her 
 water-pot, and ^ieparted without either, having re- 
 ceived a new hope in her heart. 
 
 We have been over part of this story before, 
 seeking the characteristics of Jesus as a teacher in 
 a class of one. We return to it again to find that 
 his pupil becomes a teacher in her turn, and sets an 
 example worthy of commendation. The two par- 
 ticulars to be studied now are the spirit she mani- 
 fested, and the work she undertook. 
 
 I. This woman must have possessed considerable 
 force of character. From the beginning to the end 
 of the remarkable dialogue recorded here, you can 
 not fail to notice how skillfully she employed that 
 much-abused member, which the Psalmist calls his 
 “glory.” Her tongue becomes to us the index of 
 her temper throughout, and follows it unerringly 
 during all its changes. At first, she was sharp, 
 pert, and argun.jntative ; but before the conversa- 
 tion ends, she is really an altered woman. The 
 spirit she manifests has assumed a kind of positive 
 attractivenc.ss. Yon will sec this, if you mark care- 
 fully her docility, her decision, and her devotion, 
 remembering all the time who she was. 
 
THE MODEL PUPIL. 
 
 29 
 
 1. Her docility becomes apparent at the mo- 
 ment when she asks her first favor of Christ. 
 
 The woman saith unto him, give me of 
 this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to 
 draw.” 
 
 Yon will be surprised, I am sil:o, to learn here 
 that some commentators of high repute have seemed 
 to understmid that she was only proposing to Jesus 
 that he should relieve her from her usual daily 
 burden of coming out there so far for water from 
 that well. And some others of equal intelligence 
 have declared she was spitefully turning the Sav- 
 iour’s figure back upon him with the utmost bit- 
 terness of sarcasm. But it is diffi^^ult to discover 
 either the ignorance or the malevolence which a 
 mistake like the first of these interpretations, or a 
 sneer like the second, would imp'*/. If you read 
 the whole dialogue, you will observe how abruptly 
 the early flippancy of this woman collapses into a 
 real sense of desire. Her questioi^ must have been 
 sincere, although somewhat unintelligent. Her 
 mind was fairly arrested. Her sensibilities were 
 moved. And even if her yearnixigs were vague, 
 because she was both vicious and unenlightened. 
 
so 
 
 THE MODEL PUPIL, 
 
 yet her conscience was touched, and she truly be- 
 gan to sigh for a better life. 
 
 Good step forward is that for any teacher, when, 
 the pert assumption of superiority all gone, his 
 pupil just comes frankly admitting need, and says: 
 ‘‘Help me.” For at once, then, does the promise 
 begin to bear with all its precious pressure. “The 
 meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will 
 he teach his way.” 
 
 2. Her decision becomes apparent at the moment 
 when the wondering disciples returned, and beheld 
 her talking with the Master. Singular picture is 
 that which rises upon our imagination, when we 
 read the slight record: “And upon this came his 
 disciples, and marveled that he talked with the 
 woman ; yet no man said. What seekest thou ? or, 
 Wliy talkest thou with her?” 
 
 ^i^hcrc they hesitatingly stood, looking from one 
 to the other, convinced that something was unusual, 
 if not wrong; yet not one venturing a comment, or 
 making an inquiry. Keverencc kept them silent; 
 but so bright a woman as that must have discerned 
 frorri their glances how mueh they disapproved of 
 her presence, and how much concerning her conduct 
 
THE MODEL PUPIL, 
 
 81 
 
 they mistrusted. If no higher feeling than mere 
 curiosity had prompted her stay, one might think 
 her footsteps of departure would have lingered 
 until she could learn something more of this 
 strange personage who had disclosed himself as 
 the Anointed of Grod. But the remarkable part 
 of her conduct is found in the unhesitating com- 
 pliance with which she hastened on her errand 
 away. Her promptness knew not even a mo- 
 ment’s delay; she silently withdrew without an 
 inquiry. 
 
 More important step forward still is that for a 
 teacher, when his pupil’s mind is full and his heart 
 is absorbed; and with not one cavil at difficult 
 doctrine, he fixes his eye steadfastly upon the duty 
 of the instant, and seeks only to perform it. Things 
 are all going well when any awakened sinner hon- 
 estly says : “I thought upon my ways and turned 
 my feet unto thy testimonies.” 
 
 8. Her devotion becomes apparent at the moment 
 when she set out upon her humiliating errand. One 
 little touch .of naturalness there is in the story, 
 which shows the care exercised in gathering up all 
 the fragments of historic truth in the ScrijDtures, 
 
32 
 
 TEE MODEL PUPIL. 
 
 that nothing might be lost : “ The woman then left 
 her water-pot and went her way.” 
 
 You need not be afraid of forcing this casual 
 mention of a striking fact, if you think that in it is 
 found one of the finest evidences of her conversion. 
 The vessel she forsook was to her a costly sacrifice. 
 Whether she expected to ever regain it we have no 
 hint ; she certainly risked its loss among strangers. 
 Few Jews were there then who deemed it necessary 
 to keep faith with her nation. The act appears pre- 
 cisely like the surrender of customs, when Matthew 
 became a disciple ; like the forsaking of the nets 
 when Simon left all in order to follow Christ ; like 
 Bartimeus’ casting away his outer garment that he 
 might hurry to Jesus. The motive of this woman 
 is not stated, but conjecture is easy. Perhaps her 
 mind was so occupied with the stupendous disclos- 
 ure she had listened to that she deemed tliis mere 
 item of loss insignificant. Perhaps her desire to do 
 good was so earnest that she feared even the accus- 
 tomed burden balanced on her head might hinder 
 her haste. Perhaj)s her sense of gratitude was so 
 aHectionate that she willingly left her valuable 
 vessel for tlio convenience of those whom she knew 
 
THE MODEL PUPIL. 
 
 83 
 
 to be nnsupplied with any means to quench their 
 thirst. Whatever was her motive, the act artlessly 
 evidences that she had begun to devote her all to 
 her newly disclosed Friend. 
 
 True religious zeal loves to write Jesus’ name 
 on each of its most treasured possessions ; and you 
 may begin to feel very happy when one of your 
 pupils inquires how he can do something for Christ. 
 
 Thus much concerning the spirit which this 
 woman, nameless and unhistoric, manifested. Ee- 
 becca found a husband, and Moses found a wife, 
 from a mere visit at a well-side ; but this Samaritan 
 convert found that which was better than either. 
 The Holy Ghost had said to her there, in that 
 sultry hour: “ Thy Maker is thine husband — the 
 Lord of hosts is his name ; and thy Eedeemer, the 
 Holy One of Israel !” And in the mystery of her 
 spiritual espousal, she became endowed with graces 
 richer and rarer than the golden gifts with which 
 the servant of Abraham adorned Isaac’s beautiful 
 bride. 
 
 II. We come now, in the second place, to con- 
 sider the work this woman undertook. The exact 
 words of our text are in point. Connect with them, 
 2 '^ 
 
34 
 
 THE MODEL PUPIL. 
 
 however, the remainder of the narrative, and yon 
 will discover these three particulars : the field she 
 selected, the instrument she employed, and the suc- 
 cess she achieved 
 
 1. Observe how singular was the field she se- 
 lected. It was actually the hardest in the world 
 for her to enter. Certain necessities and accessories 
 of duty there are almost always, which help to 
 decide concerning its character. Just look at these 
 details here. 
 
 She went where her story would certainly be un- 
 welcome. It was a Samaritan city, and, knowing 
 exactly how violent were their prejudices, she was 
 going to tell them that their previous traditions 
 were untrue; Gerizim was the wrong mountain ; 
 tiiey had worshiped they knew not what; salvation 
 was really of the Jews. 
 
 She went where her message would be unwelcome. 
 'jMiis was an exceedingly wicked city. Many of 
 the j)eoj)le were no better tlian she was. She had 
 IxJbre her the hisk of arousing their consciences, 
 as well as of convincing their minds. She must 
 iKicds ])rove to them that (Jod was a sj)irit, and 
 they that would worshij) him must worship him in 
 
THE MODEL PUPIL. 
 
 85 
 
 spirit and in truth. If she should succeed in draw- 
 ing forth any adherents, she knew that Jesus would 
 attack their sins first, just as he did hers. Hitherto 
 it had been considered quite sufficient in Samaria 
 to hold orthodox views concerning the two versions 
 of the Pentateuch. It seems to have mattered 
 little how many husbands a person had, or how she 
 got them ; the thing to be sound upon was the dis- 
 puted mountain they swpre by. 
 
 She went where her sex would be unwelcome. 
 The record seems explicit; she addressed herself 
 “ to the men.” Men never love to be exhorted by 
 women. They loved it less in old times than now. 
 They loved it less among those eastern nations than 
 we do here. The old Eabbins had a maxim that 
 read in this way Talking with a woman is one 
 of the six things which make a disciple impure.” 
 
 She went where herself would be peculiarly un- 
 welcome. It was her own city. Some of those 
 men did not know her. It is always difficult to 
 speak of personal religion to strangers. Young 
 converts are generally as diffident as they are zeal- 
 ous. But some of those men did know her — alas ! 
 too well. If there had been as many good men in 
 
36 
 
 THE MODEL PUPIL. 
 
 Sodom as that woman had had husbands, first and 
 last, in Sychar, God would never have depressed 
 the Dead Sea to its present level, and Lot would 
 never have been driven out by a shower of fire. 
 This person must have been understood in those 
 precincts. Six of her -hearers, at least, had some- 
 what intimate acquaintance with her antecedents. 
 All this made her errand awkward and hard. 
 
 2. Observe, however, how simple was the in- 
 strument she employed. The entire sermon she 
 preached is found in the compact verses of the text 
 Analyze it for a moment, that you may remark its 
 frankness, its earnestness, and its ingenuity. 
 
 She frankly acknowledged that her own sins 
 were discovered. “ All that ever I did” — that cov- 
 ered a great deal of biogra])hic ground. Without 
 making any ])retcnsions of fitness as a moral 
 teacher, she disarmed their earliest prejudices by 
 an lioncst confession that lie had found her out on 
 the instant S!:o had said, “Give me the living 
 water!” lie answered, “Go, call thy husband!” 
 Was that bringing a serpent to one who asked lor 
 an egg? N(fi S(;; remember always that convic- 
 tion of sin is the first answer of grace to a sinner. 
 
THE MODEL PUPIL. 
 
 37 
 
 She earnestly professed that her own faith had 
 been won ; yet she put it delicately in the fashion 
 of a question, “Is not this the Christ?” So bold 
 an avowal must have cost her much. Perils, as 
 well as reproaches, surrounded apostates in those 
 days. She was fairly defying the tenets of all her 
 previous training. Solemn moment is that always, 
 when, out from a circle of worldlings and unbeliev- 
 ers, comes one whose heart has been touched by 
 the Spirit, taking a stand on the Saviour’s side, 
 and modestly accepting his cross ! 
 
 She ingeniously brought her own experience to 
 bear upon them, and thus converted her most 
 manifest reproach into aii argument. “All that 
 ever I did”— not what he did ; no relation of sub- 
 lime disclosures, only a mere admission of discov- 
 ery. She appealed to what they would have said 
 in censure. She said in the touching refrain we 
 sometimes sing, “ Even meT And then they knew 
 there must be something in it. That was all she 
 said. Her message ended where the Gospel ends. 
 The Bible has only one word for mortals to speak ; 
 that was the exact word she used — “ Come.” In 
 the Greek it is an adverb of beckoning — Hither T 
 
88 
 
 THE MODEL PUPIL. 
 
 That is the royal call. Christ is waiting just with- 
 out ; we enter and say — hither ! 
 
 3. Observe how extraordinary was the success 
 she achieved. ' I need not trace this out at length ; 
 the record will speak for itself. One woman seems 
 to have moved an entire city. Jesus was rejected 
 of his kinsmen, she was accepted of hers ; he was 
 threatened in Nazareth, she was heeded in Sychar. 
 The last became first, and the first last. All this 
 illustrates the wonderful sovereignty of God. 
 
 She made many converts. They listened and 
 obeyed immediately. Then they went out of the 
 city, and came unto him.” The acquiescence was 
 instantaneous. Did any one ever hear of even 
 the least good gained by delay in the going to 
 Jesus? 
 
 She made many true converts. “ Many of the 
 Samaritans of that city believed on him for the 
 saying of the woman which testified. He told me 
 all that ever 1 did.” You sec it was her own ex- 
 j)crieiice which carried the day. A large number 
 seem to have been sj)iritually renewed that very 
 afLcrnoon Why do many good j)cople feel so sus- 
 picious over sudden conversions? ^fhe sudden 
 
THE MODEL PUPIL. 
 
 89 
 
 conversions in the Bible are all safer than the 
 tardy ones. 
 
 She made many useful converts. They went 
 right to work, urging others to come to Jesus. 
 “He abode there two days, and many more be- 
 lieved, because of his own word ; and said unto the 
 woman, Now we believe, not because of thy say- 
 ing : for we have heard him ourselves, and know 
 that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the 
 world.” Does any one suppose that this woman 
 felt grieved to learn that they heard and trusted 
 and loved Jesus, no longer for her sake, but for 
 his own ? 
 
 Here the history closes. We know no more of 
 this Samaritan convert. She passes away as silently 
 as she appeared ; but the lesson of her life lingers. 
 What shall it be to us ? 
 
 1. Learn, first, that no great talent is needed to 
 do good. Who could have predicted such success 
 for such a creature ? It is piety, not education ; it 
 is spirituality, not culture; it is experience, not 
 learning, which God uses in conversion of souls. 
 Yet with piety pervading, all these gifts maybe 
 made to help. 
 
40 
 
 THE MODEL PUPIL. 
 
 2. Learn, second, that all glory of true usefulness 
 belongs to Christ. What became of this woman ? 
 History drops her when her work is done. One of 
 the old Fathers records that she was named Photina, 
 that she preached at Carthage, that she was mar- 
 tyred in one of the African persecutions, and that 
 he saw her head, which is now kept as a relic in 
 Eome, in the church of St. Paul ! Pretty well that, 
 for a hierarchy that honors woman more than 
 Christ ! To canonize this convert, however, seems 
 to have been a little harder than common. 
 
 3. Learn, also, that the nearest field of useful- 
 ness is often the best. Many people spend half a 
 life-time looking for their vocation, while God is 
 speaking almost audibly to them : Begin at home. 
 The prophet utters a most significant admonition — 
 “ that thou liide not thyself from thine own flesh.’’ 
 Do you remember how kindly our Lord dismisses 
 tlie man out of whom ho liad cast the legion of 
 devils, and who wanted to remain with him ? 
 ‘‘Ib)wbeit Jesus sulfcrcd him not, but saith unto 
 him, Go home to thy friends, and toll them how 
 gn^at tilings the Dord hath done for thee.” 
 
 4. beam that there are occasions in which women 
 
THE MODEL PUPIL. 
 
 41 
 
 may be even more nseful than men. They have 
 more tact. They have more fervency. They have 
 more fortitude. It was a mean Jewish proverb 
 which said — “He who instructs his daughter in the 
 Law plays the fool.” We ought to have outgrown 
 that long ago. This woman had a clearer percep- 
 tion than any Jew Christ had yet found ; for she 
 understood him as the Teacher, and they all de- 
 manded him as a King. 
 
 5. Learn, likewise, that common-place self-denial 
 sometimes becomes one of the clearest evidences of 
 grace. To leave a water-pot for a thirsty disciple 
 may possibly show a thoughtfulness which is the 
 fruit of the Spirit ; while to surrender a fortune 
 may only show a temper or mood which is the off- 
 spring of ostentation and pride. Simon made an 
 expensive feast for Jesus; but the most acceptable 
 part of the entertainment consisted in the unan- 
 nounced generosity of a poor woman, who crept in 
 without invitation and broke her box of alabaster 
 lovingly upon the head of her Saviour. 
 
 6. Learn that new converts have certainly a fair 
 field of usefulness in the instruction of others. 
 Even the conservative Calvin remarks on this pas- 
 
42 
 
 THE MODEL PUPIL. 
 
 sage : “ She would have acted inconsiderately if she 
 had assumed the office of a teacher ; but when she 
 desires nothing more than to excite her fellow-citi- 
 zens to hear Christ speaking., we will not say that 
 she forgot herself, or proceeded further than she 
 had a right to do ; she merely does the office of a 
 trumpet or a bell, to invite others to come to 
 Christ.” 
 
 7. Learn once more that the peculiar privilege of 
 “him that heareth” is that he may say, “Come.” 
 He who temporizes will be like Demas, who for- 
 sook Paul for the present world ; he who calculates 
 will be like Ananias, who kept back part of the 
 price; he who covets will be like Achan, who 
 cleaved hope from his soul with a golden wedge. 
 But he who gives himself wholly to Christ will be 
 honored as an usher in his service, opening the 
 door of his kingdom to his sons. 
 
 8. Learn, finally, that the best memorial of any 
 one is found in the souls he has won to the cross. 
 For there begins a line of perpetual usefulness that 
 can never end. ^idic Empress Helena built a 
 church, at vast expense, over this well of Jacob. 
 But the j)rou(l edifice crumbled many a long year 
 
THE MODEL PUPIL, 
 
 43 
 
 ago. The rubbish of it clogs the water-course even 
 to the present clay. What has preserved the spot 
 is the memory of a nameless woman, who was con- 
 verted there. And while the world stands it will 
 remain thus sacred and unforgotten, ^actually the 
 only spot in Palestine authentic, as having once had 
 the presence of the Divine Teacher and his Samari- 
 tan pupil. 
 
IV. 
 
 Work to tk Wcar^. 
 
 “ The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned^ that I should 
 know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary . — Isaiah l. 4. 
 
 HAVE happened in my reading upon a 
 description of the hieroglyphics by which 
 the ancient Egyptians represented alms-giving. A 
 naked child was feeding honey to a bee ; and in the 
 child’s hand was a heart ; and the bee had lost its 
 wings. 
 
 The details of this symbol will bear analysis. It 
 was a child— in order to mark the guilclessness of 
 si)irit which lies at the center of all true charity. 
 The child was naked — to show that, possessing 
 nothing of liis own, he was willing to be the hum- 
 ble almoner of’ some higher power. Jt was honey 
 he was feeding away — in order to denote tliat he 
 was bestowing what would have been sweet to hiiU' 
 
WORDS TO THE WEARY. 
 
 45 
 
 self, -but was indispensable to the bee. The heart 
 was in his hand — to indicate the warm sympathy 
 and affection prompting the service. It was a bee 
 he fed, not a wasp, nor a butterfly, nor a drone — in 
 order to suggest that only a faithful worker deserved 
 help from self-denial, however generous. But the 
 bee was wingless now — to intimate that a time 
 might come when even industry would fail, and the 
 most willing life would be in the straits of positive 
 exigency. 
 
 And now, although this was the fancy of a merely 
 heathen imagination, I present it for your study as 
 the finest picture I have met of gospel grace and 
 duty, especially as exemplified in the work of a • 
 true Sunday-school teacher. It precisely embodies 
 the meaning of the text upon which we are to 
 dwell : “ The Lord God hath given me the tongue 
 of the learned, that I should know how to speak a 
 word in season to him that is weary.” 
 
 Here we find stated in explicit terms, first, the 
 Objects of Christian zeal, and, secondly, the Instru- 
 ment for its exercise. 
 
 1. Among all the names applied in the Scripture 
 to the Objects of Christian zeal, I know of none 
 
46 
 
 WORDS TO THE WEARY. 
 
 more comprehensive and affecting than that -here 
 emploj^ed — “him that is wearj.” 
 
 1. Some are weary through toil “‘Man goeth 
 forth unto his work and to his labor until the even- 
 ing.” It is not easy for us in our sumptuous homes 
 to quite appreciate the unutterable disgust one 
 would be likely to acquire for the ceaseless itera- 
 tions of a narrow calling. Men there are who 
 spend forty years in fashioning pin-points or drilling 
 needles’ eyes. Children there are who grow old 
 and deformed picking off the flocks of cotton from 
 the running web of a mill. And these people be- 
 come tired, and say in words older than they imag- 
 ine: “What profit hath a man of all his labor 
 which he taketh under the sun? All things are 
 full of labor; man can not utter it: the thing that 
 hath been it is that which shall be ; and that which 
 is done is that which shall be done; and there is 
 no new thing under the sun.” The world is full of 
 human machines; yet with this difference, machines 
 arc not disgusted, and they often are. 
 
 2. Some arc weary through trial A brave man 
 may acc(j])t with iiU submission the lot which God 
 gives to him, and yet now and then lift the prayer. 
 
WORDS TO THE WEARY. 
 
 47 
 
 “Have mercy upon me, 0 Lord! for I am weak; 
 I am weary with my groaning ; all the night make 
 I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my 
 tears.” We think it hard to lose a child ; there are 
 those who think it really harder to be unable to 
 educate and clothe their children. We think it 
 hard to have a wife an invalid ; there are those who 
 think it harder to be obliged to stand by and know 
 their wives are hungry, and feeble, and sick, and 
 yet can not help it 
 
 3. Some are weary through neglect They feel 
 alone in the universe. They look around anxiously 
 for an opening, as J oseph and Mary did in the cele- 
 brated inn at Bethlehem ; there was no place then 
 for the mother of Jesus except in the stable. 
 On this planet there never has been any room for 
 poor people. The population seems to them ex- 
 ceedingly dense. Somebody received title to all 
 the land before they were bom. “As for the 
 mighty man, he has the earth, and the honorable 
 man dwells in it.” And the world is so full of 
 mighty men, not to mention the honorable, that be- 
 tween them working men find the space most 
 amazingly used up. They go up to what seems a 
 
48 
 
 WORDS TO THE WEARY, 
 
 friendly guide-board, modestly to ask the way ; it 
 turns out to be a fierce warning against trespassing 
 on some ones premises. And after one has wan- 
 dered around in the night awhile, within the pre- 
 cincts of a Christian city, without finding any 
 lodging, will it be any surprise if he becomes- 
 slightly heterodox ? And as he looks up overhead, 
 and sees only that dome of the sky, blue as if made 
 out of steel, and glittering with bosses of brass, 
 will it be strange if he murmurs: “Behold the 
 height of the stars ! How high they are ! How 
 doth God know? Can he judge through the dark 
 cloud?” Would you be able to reason any belter? 
 
 4. Some are weary through sin. Some are even 
 weary of sin, and would forsake it if they knew how. 
 
 “ 'Blie candle of the wicked shall be put out;” so 
 we preach to them witli sepulchral warnings of. 
 God’s wrath. They believe it; but then it very 
 naturally seems to them that they will be left any 
 way in the dark if they ])ut it out themselves, un- 
 less we j)r(‘a(*h a little further on in the doctrine. 
 “1’he way of the transgressor is hard;” they know 
 that as w(dl as th(‘. wis(^ man who wrote the Pro- 
 verl)s; they an* (juite tiiH'd of it already. ^I’ossed 
 
WORDS TO THE WEARY. 
 
 49 
 
 about upon the billows of a tempestuous experi- 
 ence, they hear now and then a call — “ Come unto 
 me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
 give you rest.” Thej start up at that strange 
 sound, as the beggar Bartimeus started up at the 
 gates of Jericho, and with passionate earnestness 
 straining their eyes, pitifully blind, they ask what 
 it means. I fear there are yet in the w^orld disci- 
 ples dull enough to answer even such needy crea- 
 tures, “Jesus of Nazareth passeth by,” and then 
 turn with violence to charge them that they hold 
 their peace. Thus the “labor of the foolish weari- 
 eth every one of them, because he knoweth not 
 how to go into the city.” 
 
 Now all these classes of weary persons, I am 
 sure, are meant to be included in the specification 
 of the text. They are the real objects of Christian 
 zeal under the gospel. The glad office of ^Christ’s 
 followers is to aid and to succor them. The Sun- 
 day-school organization, with its appliances for 
 visiting, instructing, and mission-working, aims at 
 them. 
 
 II. The question arises at once, of course, how 
 this work is to be done. And that leads on to our 
 
50 
 
 WORDS TO THE WEARY. 
 
 second matter of consideration, namely, the Instru- 
 ment which is to be employed : “ The Lord God 
 
 hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I 
 should know how to speak a word in season to him 
 that is weary.” Now there are three suggestions 
 here in one : the feebleness of the instrument in 
 appearance, the secret of its incontrovertible power, 
 and the condition of success in its use. 
 
 1. The instrument does seem insignificant. 'Over 
 against all this aggregate of human need, it is 
 soberly proposed to set the exercise of one of our 
 commonest endowments — speech. A word — and 
 yet “ a word fitly chosen is like apples of gold in 
 pictures of silver.” What is a word? We speak 
 a thousand and mind nothing of the waste. Yet 
 God used only one to make all the world. He 
 stood over the ocean of immensity, and said to an 
 uncreated universe. Be! And forthwith it sprang 
 into existence, iriajcstic and finished, like a new 
 island in the shoi’cless sea. To us one word seems 
 nothing; we fling them around in careless luxuri- 
 ance; we point a moral with them, we adorn a tale 
 with them ; we shorten them, we lengthen them, 
 W() inisjironounee them, just to make them musical, 
 
WORDS TO THE WEARY. 
 
 51 
 
 or force them into rhyme ; we play pranks on them, 
 construct riddles for children out of them ; we fire 
 sarcasms with them, turn compliments with them, 
 and put them for stings into the end of a reproach. 
 And yet our Saviour comforted Martha, taught 
 Mary, and raised Lazarus, with a word. 
 
 2. There is, then, a secret of power somewhere in 
 this instrument. The emphasis of our text falls on 
 the expression, “ a word in season^'' The force does 
 not reside in the syllables, but in the opportune- 
 ness of the utterance. There is an exigency of 
 moral need brought on by the Spirit of grace. 
 There are crises in the history of most persons in 
 this world, when the soul pauses, as if poised on 
 the very pinnacle of decision. It is settling some 
 one of the grand questions of life and eternity. 
 Now almost any thing will turn it one way or 
 another way. Then some slight preponderating ’ 
 impression is made. “Death and life are in the 
 power of the tongue.” This is why the Psalmist 
 so often calls his tongue his “ glory.” The wonder- 
 ful power of our Saviour’s discourses is discovered 
 just here. Ah ! but you say, never man spake 
 like this man ; we find no such words on cur lips 
 
52 
 
 WORDS TO THE WEARY. 
 
 as Jesus used. Why yes, my true yoke-fellovf, in- 
 deed you can find such ; and not only such words 
 as Jesus uttered, but the very words. He defeated 
 Satan in the wilderness with three verses of Deuter- 
 onomy, just to show you and me how much light- 
 ning-like force there is in one of those old books 
 of Moses. You have all of them — the Pentateuch, 
 the prophets, and the apostles likewise ; and beyond 
 that, the exact words of the Master in the Gospels. 
 
 3. One thing, however, needs to be noted closely 
 as a condition of success in the use of this instru- 
 ment of speech ; there is a caution intimated in the 
 text. We can not always know what to say, or 
 how to say it, by intuition. The Lord God gives 
 the tongue of the learned^'^^ that each of us should 
 ^'‘know how to speak a word in season.” Now this 
 does not mean great scholarship, as the world terms 
 it This learning comes from the Word of God 
 for its text-book, and the spirit of })raycr for its ac- 
 quisition. 
 
 A Sunday-school worker needs to be thus 
 “learned” in \\\\^ intellect, ddiat is, lie must be in- 
 telligent in. the Scriptures; for, you observe, it is 
 God’s j iron 1 isos that do the work of helping and 
 
WORDS TO THE WEARY, 
 
 53 
 
 saving, not onrs. Hence it is that “the heart of 
 the righteous stiidieth to answer.” No wonder that 
 Job for once lost his patience when those miserable 
 comforters of his compelled him to exclaim : “ How 
 forcible are right words ! but what doth your argu- 
 ing reprove !” Let the word of God dwell richly 
 in you. Thus many an uneducated and even illiter- 
 ate believer becomes, like Apollos, “mighty in the 
 Scriptures he waters as worthily as even a Paul 
 could plant. 
 
 A Sunday-school worker needs to be “ learned” 
 in his sensihilities. That is, he must be sympathetic 
 in his applications of the truth to individ>ial cases. 
 His heart must be in his offering. The essential 
 element of this kind of usefulness consists in its 
 cordiality, its community of spirit, its recognition 
 of the great common humanity. Remember there 
 are just as many notes to the octave in the poor 
 blind man’s violin at your door, a^ in your daugh- 
 ter’s harp gleaming with its gold in your parlor. 
 Prejudice must be broken down with courtesy. 
 The self-respect of those you benefit ought carefully 
 to be kept up. Hence a word, kind, womanly, 
 brotherly, is sometimes worth more than even ex- 
 
54 
 
 WORDS TO THE WEARY, 
 
 traordinary benefactions. “ Weary” people are on 
 the look-out for superciliousness. They get a good 
 deal of it. They suspect arrogance naturally. But 
 every barrier is leveled when they feel a fraternal 
 grasp. Pride disappears from the defiant eye of 
 poverty when they see the heart in the hand which 
 is feeding the wingless bee. 
 
 A Sunday-school worker needs to be “ learned” 
 in his judgment. That is, he must be unaffectedly 
 patient, and unsuspicious, and long-suffering, and 
 charitable in his estimates of those to whom he at- 
 tempts to speak a word in season. We are often 
 so annoyed by sham pretensions of wretchedness 
 that we fall into the habit of looking on all these 
 street-stragglers as if they were only fit subjects for 
 penitentiary discipline. Some of them are, but it is 
 cruel to class all poor pcojde promiscuously together. 
 Ask many a Christian to visit with you in the des- 
 titute neighboi'lioods where you go for mission 
 scholars. You will iind yourself obliged to keep 
 checking him (jften in the midst of a well-meant 
 ljut most |)re])osterous lecture. 1 le counsels moral- 
 ity, its if tiny were thievc’S. He advises church- 
 going, wlien he would be thunderstiaick to llnd one 
 
WORDS TO THE WEARY. 
 
 65 
 
 of them in his pew, and when they have not the 
 decencies of clothing to appear in the house of God. 
 He hopes they keep the Sabbath ; he is sorrowfully 
 surprised to find the children without Testaments. 
 Now you happen to know he is all wide of the 
 mark, yet not one member of the family will tell 
 him so. He is welcome to his impression of them, 
 only it makes them feel spitefully toward visitors. 
 It is hard to be misjudged, hard to be considered 
 vicious, because one is very poor. 
 
 A Sunday-school worker needs to be “ learned” 
 in experience. That is, he must feel in his own 
 heart the blessed comforts of God’s grace before he 
 can bring them effectively to others. The picture 
 which the old poet Chaucer long years ago drew of 
 a faithful minister is worth quoting to you, for it is 
 just in point : 
 
 “ He paid no court to pomps or reverence, 
 
 Nor spiced his conscience at his soul’s expense; 
 
 But Jesus’ love which owns no pride or pelf, 
 
 He taught — hut first he followed it himselfi'' 
 
 Let us remember, once for all, that it is not mere 
 fine intellectual power of adaptation of truth to 
 subtle needs of the soul which does good, but spirit- 
 
56 
 
 WORDS TO THE WEARY. 
 
 nal and experimental knowledge, derived from per- 
 sonal reception of the truth. The untaught Peru- 
 vians cured many a fever with their bitter bark 
 through the centuries before any one of them knew 
 it was only the quinine in it that made the medi- 
 cine. He who had been helped gave v/hat had 
 helped him to his neighbor. I suppose it is always 
 true that “ out of the abundance of the heart the 
 mouth speaketh but never is it truer than when 
 one is trying to speak a word in season to him 
 that is weary.” 
 
 Thus much for an exposition of the text. There 
 remains no space here for an application, but I will 
 add hints for those who desire it. 
 
 1. You find here a test of church efficiency. These 
 words were primarily spoken of Christ. That pro- 
 noun “Me” in the text refers to him. And he 
 accepted tlicm. See Luke iv. 14-22. Hence all 
 true Christi.Miiity centers here. An ancient skeptic 
 tlionglit he was annihilating the faith once delivered 
 to the saints when he said : “ Christianity is the re- 
 ligion of the sorrowful.” Indeed, that is ils glory, 
 and one would think there was room enough in llic 
 world for it, too. Our t(*xt constitutes the ])vno 
 
WORDS TO THE WEARY. 
 
 57 
 
 lamation of an evangelic system. See Mattliew 
 xi. 2-6. Hence, back on any cliurcb, of whatever 
 name, of whatever diversity of ritual or form of 
 creed, falls this vital question, demanding imme- 
 diate answer : Does it preach the gospel to the poor ? 
 Is it speaking words in season to him t’mt ;s weary ? 
 
 2. You discover here likewise the depth of indi- 
 vidual obligation. You are poor; you are uu edu- 
 cated ; you are busy. The point is, you have a 
 tongue, and you can make it -learned enough, by 
 God’s blessing, to be eminent in services of useful- 
 ness. The pious Eutherford wrote to one of his 
 friends : “ Madam, it is part of the truth of your 
 profession that you drop words into the ear of your 
 husband continually of eternity, judgment, death, 
 hell, and heaven.” The truth plants itself in our 
 own experience ; on peril of our piety we are set at 
 this blessed work. The hope of heaven makes 
 upon us the sharpest of all possible demands. “If 
 any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none 
 of his.” “Pure religion, and undefiled before God 
 and the Father, is this : To visit the fatherless and 
 widows in their affliction^ and to keep onds self un^ 
 spotted from the worldf'' 
 
 3 ^’ 
 
58 
 
 WORDS TO THE WEARY 
 
 3. You learn here, also, the extraordinary privi- 
 lege God has given his children in the form of their 
 service of him. The lightning strikes, the pesti- 
 lence kills, Avar desolates, and all these are instru- 
 ments of his to do the divine will. But we have 
 only the beneficence to scatter, the mercy to exhibit, 
 the love to bring, the sweet welcome work in all 
 this weary world to do. And, oh ! what a comfort 
 the reminiscences of fidelity become when one finds 
 himself withdrawn suddenly from the power of 
 working ! In that terrible hour of liis adversity, 
 remember how Job consoled himself : Oh ! that I 
 were as in months past. When the ear heard me, 
 then did it bless me; and when the eye saw me, 
 then it gave witness to me ; because I delivered the 
 poor that cried, and the fatherless, and liim that had 
 none to lielp him, I^he blessing ot* him that was 
 ready to pcrisli came upon me; and I caused the 
 widow’s lieart to sing for joy,'’ 
 
 4. You are taught lici-e, moreover, to stir up the 
 gift of (tod that is within you. Some peojic think 
 tliat theni is a mysterious miraculousuess in tliis 
 al)ility to speak, (htlier in conference, toacliiug, C(m- 
 dolenee, or prayer. Not so at all; spc'cch is one 
 
WORDS TO THE WEARY. 
 
 59 
 
 of the most common-place endowments in the world. 
 But it needs stimulant and skill. Poor Jeremiah 
 once said : Ah ! Lord God, behold, I can not 
 speak, for I am a child.” Moses once said : O my 
 Lord, I am not eloquent ; I am slow of speech, and 
 of a slow tongue.” But it turned out that both of 
 these men were able to do something. Perhaps you 
 are getting “weary” yourself, and need a “word in 
 season.” Be not weary in well-doing. The time 
 has not yet arrived for you to enter the land “ where 
 the weary are at rest :” let us labor lest we enter 
 not in. 
 
V. 
 
 Ififc [or ILxfe. 
 
 “ V&rily^ 'verity, I say u'nto you. Except a cor'ti of 'wheat fall into the 
 ground and die, it ahideth alone; hut if it die, it hringeth forth much 
 frunt. iTe that loreth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this 
 'loorld shall keej) it unto life eternaV '' — John xii. 24 , 25 . 
 
 Saviour is here talking of himself, 
 has been instructing his disciples con- 
 cerning the ignominy of his coming departure. 
 Yet he does not seem to consider the fact of it a 
 misfortune, nor the manner of it a shame. TIis 
 words intimate triumpli. “ The liour is come,’’ 
 lie says, “that tlie Son of Man should be glori- 
 fmiy 
 
 1. ^riic pldlosnpJiy of a contradiction so startling 
 he now goes on to cxjilain. Tt consisted in the 
 revelation and devolojiment of a higher life in the 
 instant of ruin to a lower. His earthly existence 
 covered the principle of an existence celestial and 
 
LIFE FOR LIFE. 
 
 61 
 
 divine. He was to become the life of men by 
 dying in their place. 
 
 2. The illustration he employs to exhibit his 
 thought is one drawn from familiar experience. He 
 says to those simple-minded hearers : Take any 
 common seed, such as a sower carries. Examine it 
 carefully. Its productiveness is now all out of 
 sight, enveloped and imprisoned by the remnants 
 of last year’s harvest. It will grow, if it is planted ; 
 but the present form of it will disappear in the 
 growing. It must die to live. The dry habiliments 
 of a former existence are coarsely inclosing all its 
 promise of a new. It has to perpetuate itself by 
 destruction. Out of the present condition it wears 
 it must utterly perish, in order that it may reap- 
 pear in the blade, the ear, and the full corn in the 
 ear. Activity out of inertness, increase out of sin- 
 gleness, are to be secured only by reproduction out 
 of ruin. “Except a corn of wheat fall into the 
 ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it 
 bringeth forth much fruit.” 
 
 3. The application of this figure is made imme- 
 diately. The Saviour seems to say of himself: I 
 must die in order to live. I am set for the fall and 
 
62 
 
 LIFE FOR LIFE. 
 
 rising again of many in Israel, and must therefore 
 fall and rise again. I left heaven to save men. I 
 must perfect m}^ purpose by dying in their behalf. 
 God’s only-begotten Son must be crucified that 
 God’s many redeemed sons may be brought to 
 glory. Life for life ; this is the price, the penalty, 
 and the payment. 
 
 4. The reach of the rule is now extended, so as 
 to make it embrace, not only his life, but that of 
 each one of those for whom his offering was 
 to become available. He avows this as the 
 fixed principle of the entire plan of redemption; 
 life for life; life of the lower sort sacrificed with- 
 out resei’ve for the sake of life of the higher. 
 “ He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he 
 that hatcth liis life in this world shall keep it unto 
 li((^ eternal.” 
 
 II. '^riiis seems to be the true exposition of our 
 text. Lilt it docs not stand alone. And so anx- 
 ious am 1 lliat tins rule of the gospel should be 
 refM)gni/:ed (jle.arly, as the basis of the counsel I de- 
 sire to ])ress, that I olfer the corroboration which 
 our Lord himseli’ presents, a lit th\farth(M’ in detail. 
 On three other occasions h(m'G[)eats tlu^ same gen- 
 
LIFE FOR LIFE. 
 
 63 
 
 eral form of representation, with only slightly vary- 
 ing direction as to its aim. 
 
 1. Once, when he was in the region of Caesarea 
 Philippi, he was advising his disciples seriously 
 concerning the grand 'purpose of becoming his fol- 
 lowers, trying to make them appreciate how muclj 
 it involved. He had already disclosed to them tho 
 fact and the manner of his death. He knew they 
 would be offended with the prospect. Suddenly he 
 arose to the loftiest ground he ever occupied in his 
 demands upon them. Not only should they accept 
 without scandal this crucifixion of their acknowl- 
 edged leader, not only must they hold themselves 
 ready to be crucified also in his name, but the Ro- 
 man gibbet should henceforth become the very 
 symbol of the new faith. “ If any man will come 
 after me; let him deny himself, and take up his 
 cross daily, and follow me ; for whosoever will save 
 his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life 
 for my sake, shall find it.” The reference here is 
 to the act of conversion which pledges the believ- 
 ing soul to Christ. He is crucified with him. 
 
 2. The next time our Saviour employed this 
 form of expression, he aimed its force at the full- 
 
64 
 
 LIFE FOE LIFE, 
 
 ness of consecration^ wliich every true disciple of his 
 was bound to cultivate. He himself held back 
 nothing from his work. He forsook heaven for 
 earth, angels for men, wealth for poverty, the tran- 
 quil felicities of his eternal Father’s companion- 
 ship for the restless narrowness of an humble lot, 
 without a place where to lay his homeless head. 
 He allowed himself to become entangled in no as- 
 sociations, involved in no cares, fettered by no 
 occupation, that would hinder his entire absorption 
 in preaching the glad tidings to men. This exam- 
 ple of his own consecration he offers as a measure 
 of ours. “ If any man come unto me, and hate not 
 (that is, comparatively) his father and mother, wife 
 and children, brethren and sisters, yea, and his own 
 life also, he can not be my disciple.” ‘Hie that 
 loveth father and mother more than me, is not 
 worthy of me; and lie that loveth son or daughter 
 more than me, is not worthy of me. He that find- 
 eth his life shall lose* it, and he that loseth his life 
 for my sake, shall find it.” Here he intends to ex- 
 hibit the extensiveness of our surrender to him. 
 He gave his life for ns: he claims the life lie lias 
 liought at sncli a jirie.o. 
 
LIFE FOR LIFE. 
 
 65 
 
 3. The third occasion upon whicli our Lord em- 
 ployed this almost proverbial form of expression, 
 was when he was predicting the alarm which many 
 would feel at the downfall of Jerusalem. He ad- 
 vised all who were in Judea to flee to the moun- 
 tains ; to remember Lot’s wife, and look not back 
 on the doomed city; to follow his guidance and 
 trust to him implicitly for deliverance. “Whoso- 
 ever shall seek to save his life, shall lose it ; and 
 whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.” 
 Here he means to counsel fidelity, and forbid fear, 
 under all perilous and extreme forms of trial. He 
 says : Give your life to me ; it is more precious in 
 my sight than in your own. I will keep it ; you 
 can not. If you attempt to manage your protec- 
 tion, you will be more imperiled than ever. Do 
 your duty and leave the rest to me. “ He that 
 dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, shall 
 abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” 
 
 III. What, then, is the instruction our Saviour 
 desires, in all this, to give? Simply this: From 
 the beginning to the end of our earthly round of 
 existence and service, there is only one rule of un- 
 varying decision — life for life. If one wants the new 
 
66 
 
 LIFE FOR LIFE. 
 
 life by conversion, he must give life for life. If on^ 
 asks for the measure of consecration, the answer is— 
 life for life. If one feels frightened at peril, h^ 
 must surrender his life to save his life. If one in- 
 quires for an unfailing principle of success in use 
 fulness, here it is furnished by the Lord of glory- 
 life for life. Hence we now reach the applications 
 of the truth we have learned to our work as Sunday^ 
 school teachers. 
 
 1. Here is a picture of true Christian manhood. 
 ‘‘ None of these things move me, neither count I my 
 life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my 
 course with joy, and the ministry which I have 
 received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of 
 the grace of God.” The motto of all real living tc- 
 Christ is: “I die daily.” “For thy sake we arc 
 killed all the day long.” Just as a corn of wheat 
 must perish to be IruiU’iil, so every believer must 
 put all the surroundings of his earthly existence 
 into his surrender to the Redeemer. “That which 
 thou s(nvest is not (piickened except it die.” 
 
 \Vc are to “ mortify our members.” That docs 
 not mean humiliate them, or shame them, but kill 
 them, make them dead. “ If ye live after the fiesh. 
 
LIFE FOR LIFE. 
 
 67 
 
 ye shall die ; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify 
 the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” Hence, this 
 is the question to start with : Are you, who teach 
 others, yourself dead to the world ? 
 
 2. Here is a corrective of all sentimentalism in 
 piety. This continuous martyrdom is not an acci- 
 dent or an infliction, but a necessity, understood 
 from the beginning. Hence all lachrymose, lacka- 
 daisical bewailing of one’s lot is mere meanness and 
 folly. A mock-heroic feeling is all out of place. 
 And these multiplied forms of devoteeism, by which 
 one tortures himself into maceration, are not to be 
 mistaken for real devotion. 
 
 A monk in his cell is no nearer communion with 
 his God, for all that he is mechanically separate 
 from communion with anyone else. ^^Jesuita; non 
 Jesus ita^ A nun is no more a bride of heaven for 
 refusing to be a bride on earth when she has the 
 opportunity. The promise of a white robe by and 
 by is none the surer for her taking the white vail 
 now. These may seem to a few silly enthusiasts 
 exceedingly sweet instances of unwonted sanctity ; 
 but they are profitless excruciations after all. Burn- 
 ing a corn of wheat destroys it, to be sure, just as 
 
68 
 
 LIFE FOR LIFE. 
 
 mucli as its falling into the ground does; but the 
 one is followed by a harvest of much fruit, the other 
 abides, as it began, alone. It is not necessary for 
 one immediately at conversion to look around for 
 an instrument of suicide. Dying to the world is 
 not always dying out of it. God may want him to 
 live a while yet. 
 
 8. Here is disclosed the spirit underlying all true 
 Christian fidelity. It is a will bent to meet God’s 
 will. We are to consent to die or live. We only 
 long to apprehend that for which we have been 
 apprehended of Christ Jesus. 
 
 The ancient seal inscription offers a very accept- 
 able figure of this. An ox was represented as 
 standing between an altar and a plow. The hus- 
 bandman, on the one side, was presenting the yoke ; 
 the priest, on the other, was only half-concealing 
 the knife. There the patient beast remained waiting 
 for the final signal. And the legend underneath 
 was written: “Keadyfor either.” God calls only 
 for our life to be surrendered to him ; he will take 
 it or will spare it. We look at the fire and the fur- 
 row, and yet make no choice. The inspired descrip- 
 tion of a believer is simply this, a “ living sacrifice.’ 
 
LIFE FOR LIFE. 
 
 69 
 
 4. Here is an explanation of repeated failures, in 
 religious effort. No seed has fallen into the ground 
 and died. Some of you are discouraged over your 
 classes. The children are not converted. They try 
 your patience bitterly. You see no life springing 
 up from the soil around you. Did you put any 
 life in? 
 
 Take one verse of truth next Sabbath with you 
 into the school ; one that once helped you, taught 
 you, comforted you ; one of the texts that have been 
 specially blessed to your own soul in days gone by. 
 Give that to your children. Put your entire self 
 into the use you make of it. Put your intelligence 
 into it ; study the meaning it bears. Put your self- 
 denial into it ; for once give over all listlessness and 
 repining. Put your faith in it ; believe God is going 
 to prosper it. Put your prayer in it ; let your lips 
 be yet warm with the supplication you have lifted. 
 Put your zeal in it ; let the ardor of your intensest 
 longing glow on your cheek, and fairly flash from 
 your eye. Put your experience in it ; try to remember 
 how you felt when those dear words came to you 
 from Jesus. Put your hope in it ; go next day with 
 the expectation you will be needed by a soul under 
 
70 
 
 LIFE FOR LIFE. 
 
 conviction. In a word, put yonr life in it; your 
 life which rests in the G-ospel ; center its force and 
 fervor in the one wistful, yearning desire for that 
 pupil’s conversion. And Giod will give it to you ! 
 He will give you life for life. 
 
 5. Here is a counsel concerning duty which in 
 volves danger. “ Hereby perceive we Christ’s love, 
 because he laid down his life for us ; and v^'e ought 
 to lay down our lives for the brethren.” In the 
 early hour of his first espousal to God, the believer 
 gives himself entirely away, with all the sacredness 
 of devotion of a bride to her husband ; for richer or 
 for poorer, in bloom or in wasting, for better or for 
 worse, in life or in death. Feeble-minded sympathy 
 once implored the brave-hearted Paul to keep out of 
 peril. Ecmembcr his courageous answer: “What 
 mean yc to weep and to break mine heart? for I am 
 ready, not to be l)ound only, but also to die at Jeru- 
 salem, for the name of the Lord Jesus !” How little 
 of the apostolic zeal there is in oui‘ willingness to 
 undergo risk in saving souls ! We arc afraid to wear 
 out early, ^riiink of Whiteficld’s noble words: “I 
 am immortal till my work is done!” What is life, 
 what is health, what is case? Souls are perishing 
 
LIFE FOR LIFE. 
 
 71 
 
 for whom Christ died! An epidemic in a suspi- 
 hous neighborhood drives us heme in miserable 
 cowardice and alarm, while for wealth men are 
 tempting the winds of India and the miasmas of 
 ihe tropics ! And what even if we perish ? That 
 was what we bargained for in the outset. The 
 recluses of an old Franciscan convent were sum- 
 moned to go forth to minister to the sick and 
 dying, once when the plague was raging in the 
 city. They v/ere allotted one by one to the duty, 
 and went without hesitation or reserve to their 
 solemn task. When each day was done, the man 
 returned to an out-house within the inclosure, and 
 if he coulf rang a bell to show he was alive. If 
 that tolling monitor were silent at sun-down, then 
 another monk was dispatched for his relief if possi- 
 ble, at any rate to continue the work. They knew 
 that their comrade had fallen. When the pestilence 
 was finally stayed, it was found that twenty-four un- 
 shrinking men had paid the penalty of their devo- 
 tion. But think of it, how many lives of men had 
 these lives saved? In the measure of life for life, 
 an uneiTing Eye struck the balance. 
 
 6. Here is a lesson as to the ease of all useful 
 
72 
 
 LIFE FOR LIFE. 
 
 ness. It is sin only in this world which is difficult. 
 Once bring a man into communion with the Sav- 
 iour, and he swings as naturally into doing good as 
 a star into its orbit. 
 
 You remember the motto on the pedestal of the 
 Eddystone lighthouse — ‘‘To give light and save 
 life.” So out on the rugged shores of time each 
 child of God is set. The waves are around him, 
 the eternal ocean breaks at his feet. Storms are 
 wild and midnights are gloomy. Yet, untremulous 
 and undirnmed, gleams that lantern on the rock, to 
 give light that shall save life. There is nothing 
 strange or strained in this. Poor mariners are drift- 
 ing here and there far out to sea. They discern the 
 faithful glimmer, and are piloted in. Now it costs 
 the lantern nothing more to do this than it does to 
 live. For the very oil it consumes radiates the 
 rays ; tlic beams the keeper trims it by are those 
 that save the sailors. It does its duty when it is 
 true to itself. And that soul which grace has 
 lighted, saves life when it keeps its life true. “ lie 
 doth much,” says old Thomas a Kempis, “whoZihd/i 
 wclL” 
 
VI 
 
 Mainfcstin^ TnitK. 
 
 “ By manifestation of the truth commending ourselnes to evemj man''s 
 conscience in the sight of God ^ — 2 Cor. iv. 2. 
 
 AUL, the apostle, was one of the greatest 
 preachers that ever lived. A burning elo- 
 quence, that studied no rules of rhetoric and recog- 
 nized no laws of logic, yet followed the rules 
 unconsciously and obeyed the laws without mis- 
 take, poured forth from his lips, until proud officers 
 of the government bowed their heads in conviction, 
 while the common people, half-crazed by a voice so 
 supernatural in its utterance, brought forth garlands 
 and oxen for sacrifice, exclaiming : “ The gods be 
 come down to us in the likeness of men !” 
 
 In our text we have this famous preacher writing 
 about preaching. He is at once explaining and ex- 
 emplifying his power as an expert in the profession. 
 Surely it is worth our while to listen to him. 
 
 4 
 
74 
 
 MANIFESTING TRUTH. 
 
 And the special fitness of this theme to Sunday- 
 school teachers lies in the admitted fact that they 
 are all lay-preachers, with small fixed congregations 
 under their pastoral care. Ministers are only teach- 
 ers with larger classes. 
 
 You will find in the verse chosen for introduction ^ 
 to this sermon these three points, around which all 
 that needs to be said can easily be grouped — the 
 nature of a teacher’s work ; the direction of his 
 efibrt ; and the limit of his responsibility. 
 
 I. The nature of the teacher’s work. He is to 
 manifest the truth. Here are specified both his 
 theme and his duty. 
 
 1. His theme is “ the truth.” A general form of 
 expression this, to be sure ; you will tinderstand its 
 meaning better if we draw out the particulars in- 
 cluded, one by one. 
 
 He is to present the Bible as the revelation of 
 truth. We arc not left, as were some to whom 
 Paul preached, to grope after God, if haply we may 
 find him. Tho Word has been put in our hands. 
 And this is all any Christian needs, no matter what 
 may bo the exigency. When Christ would foil tlie 
 devil in the hour of temptation, ho (piotcd Heuter- 
 
MANIFESTING TRUTH, 
 
 75 
 
 t)nomy. When Peter, on the day of Pentecost, 
 would convert the multitude, he expounded one of 
 the Psalms. When Philip would lead the eunuch 
 to the cross, he read him a chapter from Isaiah. 
 And when Apollos was turning thousands of souls 
 from error and sin, the secret of his success was 
 disclosed in one fact: he was “mighty in the Scrip- 
 tures.’’ 
 
 He is to present the Grospel as the system of truth. 
 In giving us a New Testament, God told us what 
 use to make of the Old. The history of the patri- 
 archs, the songs of the Psalmist, the enactments of 
 the law-giver, the proverbs of the wise king, the 
 sublime predictions of the prophets, are all of won- 
 derful interest. They stand like ' the guide-boards 
 on Hebrew highways, each with an index-finger 
 pointing toward a City of Eefuge. The one thing 
 above all others in the Bible is the plan of redemp- 
 tion. The children in our classes are under the 
 curse of God’s broken law. The great primal sin 
 lies crushingly upon them. They are not sweet, 
 innocent little creatures. What they want is the 
 Gospel. You can not convert one of them witli 
 the story of Ahab, or of the Shunamite’s child. 
 
76 
 
 MANIFESTING TRUTH. 
 
 These are useful to them only as leading them inter 
 the further study of truth. A true teacher will 
 never consider his duty done till he has told them 
 the story of the cross. 
 
 He is to present Jesus Christ as the emhodiment 
 of truth. In that awful hour of indecision, Pilate 
 put the question : “ What is truth?” It had already 
 been answered by the Saviour who stood before 
 him : “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The - 
 characteristic of our Christian faith is the presence 
 in it of a personal Eedeemer. This is what gives 
 those four narratives of the Evangelists such power. 
 There every child may read the story of a Man, 
 divine and human, who lived and died for sinners. 
 He sees that peerless Life, wandering homelessly 
 over the hills of history, retiring to the mountains, 
 walking on the lake, preaching to the multitudes, 
 doing good wherever he moves. lie becomes ac- 
 quainted with Jesus. And as he recognizes him 
 yet more and more frequently, he learns to love 
 liim. ^riiat Life grows dearer as it draws nearer, 
 until it becomes the one image he looks for in the 
 Scriptures. He grows like it, as he sees it the more 
 clearly. And the true way to lead our pupils to the 
 
MANIFESTING TRUTH. 77 
 
 foot of the cross is just this : Show them more and 
 iliore of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Here, then, is the teacher’s and the preacher’s 
 theme. He is really to know nothing but Christ 
 and him crucified. The Bible is to him like 
 the inclosure within the outer curtains around the 
 Tabernacle ; it is all solemn, precious, and sacred. 
 The Gospel is to him like the many-covered struc- 
 ture that invested the altar and the candlestick, 
 within the consecrated pale. But as the chief glory 
 of all these was found in the Shechinah on the 
 inner mercy-seat, whose white light was what gave 
 the entire edifice its grandeur and worth, so to him 
 the presence of the living Jesus in the Gospel is 
 what gives the word its povrer. • 
 
 2. His duty is to “manifest” the truth: that is, 
 make the truth manifest. This also needs to be 
 analyzed. 
 
 He is to explain the truth until his pupils under- 
 stand it. Not that he is to lift the vail from every 
 mystery, or even reconcile every doctrine with hu- 
 man reason. But he must show what God has 
 really said, until even the youngest and the weakest 
 can comprehend the meaning of the verses. It 
 
78 
 
 MANIFESTING TRUTH. 
 
 causes people wonder sometimes to find a man like 
 Simon Peter converted so expeditiously. The ex- 
 planation is found in the fact of his intelligence. 
 The ancient Jews taught their children in the 
 Scriptures. Each Christian instructor is bound to 
 study himself the truth he attempts to impart. 
 
 He is to confirm the truth until his pupils helieve 
 it Here, however, his office extends no farther 
 than merely to exhibit the proofs God has given. 
 He is not so much set to prop a building likely to 
 fall, as to make evident the fact that it needs no 
 props, and is not going to fall. “Walk about Zion, 
 and go round about her; tell the towers thereof; 
 mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, 
 that ye may tell it to the generation following.” 
 
 He is to apply the truth until his pupils feel it. 
 Here is the great duty of every instructor of cliil- 
 dren ; most neglected, yet most indispensable. 
 Every liurnan lieart has its })eculiar ailment. It 
 needs a specific medicine for cure. This it neither 
 can find for itself, nor will it take what is offered b}^ 
 anotlier. A j)erverse will rc^jeets every approach. 
 I>)(‘spite all that is said, a living Gospel is not a 
 coinfoi’table thing to teach f>r to preach, because it 
 
MANIFESTING TRUTH, 
 
 79 
 
 is so uncomfortable a thing to receive. It is like 
 the coal on Isaiah’s lips, borne with because needful, 
 but dreaded because on fire. Yet there is no alter- 
 native. Children must be made to feel the truth as 
 addressed to their own necessities for salvation. 
 God has not rebuked sin in this world, but sins. 
 He is offended not by an abstraction, but by what 
 somebody has done. 
 
 Here, then, is the entire duty of the teacher. It 
 is the very heart of the Gospel laid upon the heart 
 of the pupils. He takes the Bible, turns to the 
 Gospel, and finds Christ. He informs the children’s 
 minds, convinces their judgments, then urges his 
 direct way to their consciences. By manifestation 
 of the truth he commends himself to every child’s 
 conscience in the sight of God. 
 
 II. The direction of the teacher’s effort comes 
 next in order. And it is well to observe, just here, • 
 the choice phraseology of the apostle. He^says, 
 
 ‘‘ commending ourselves to every man’s conscience 
 not denouncing him, or attacking him rudely, but 
 drawing him on gently, with all kindness. Old 
 Doctor Miller was wont to say to his students* 
 
 “ The first element of grace in the pulpit is civility, 
 
80 
 
 MANIFESTING TRUTH. 
 
 And if this is true of men, how much more of 
 children ! There is nothing so much in the way of 
 any teachers success as sharpness or impatience. 
 It only provokes ill-temper, and hinders the truth. 
 When a child^s prejudice is awakened, he is lost 
 for the time being. At the taking of Mansoul in 
 the Holy War, my lord Prejudice fell and broke 
 his leg. “I wish,” says the quaint Bunyan, “my 
 lord had broken his neck.” 
 
 1. The faculty aimed at in all our manifestation 
 of truth is conscience. The direction of every intel- 
 ligent effort is toward that. It is not entertainment 
 of the children for which we come together, but the 
 salvation of their souls. And no hour of labor is 
 worth recording which does not, in some form, reach 
 the inevitable question of sin and salvation. This 
 is right, and that is wrong; do this, and reject that 
 — that is the lesson for fifty-two Sabbaths in every 
 yean 
 
 2. T^he avenues of approach.^ liowcvcr, to this 
 faculty arc manifold. Hence the inexhaustible 
 variety in address, ^fhose mostly in use arc these 
 three : the imagination, the reason, and the sensi- 
 bilities. 
 
MANIFESTING TRUTH. 
 
 81 
 
 The imagination loves d, picture. And when all 
 its vigor is invoked, the skillful teacher will find it 
 easy to turn in the power of the truth he has illus- 
 trated upon the conscience, for the will is off its 
 guard. 
 
 Nathan wrought David to a great pitch of excite- 
 ment with the mere story of a poor man’s ewe-lamb. 
 Just in the moment of his intensest feeling, around 
 came that long finger pointing at him, with the 
 words : “ Thou art the man !” Our Lord told Simon 
 of a very interesting business transaction, and asked 
 his opinion about it. The eager Pharisee answered 
 with much enthusiasm. And then in an instant 
 he found he had been judging his own case, and was 
 convicted of sin before his own conscience. 
 
 The reason looks for argument Just underneath 
 the most violent opposition, oftentimes, there is a 
 secret misgiving of the human heart in favor of the 
 truth. The conscience hears the strokes of argu- 
 ment on the gates of the citadel, and makes ener- 
 getic response with signs of surrender. 
 
 Paul, before Felix^ reasoned of rightousness, tem- 
 perance, and a judgment to come. He hurried that 
 agitated and guilty ruler on, in a chariot of burning 
 4 ^ 
 
82 
 
 MANIFESTING TRUTH. 
 
 logic, over the hounds of time, and far into the vista 
 of eternity; then the frightened debauchee could 
 not help trembling. His conscience made him feel. 
 
 The sensibilities expect fervency of appeal. At 
 the present day, listlessness is by far the greatest 
 hindrance either teachers or preachers have to meet. 
 So we all have to resort to every expedient to break 
 up the apathy. When once the affections are 
 touched, the conscience is exposed. This is the 
 meaning of all those outgushings of tenderness 
 found in the midst of the ancient prophecies. 
 
 The weeping Jeremiah had a purpose even in his 
 tears. Ezekiel turned his own tenderness to account. 
 These faithful men had but one aim. They argued 
 and pleaded, they presented a picture, they thun- 
 dered a denunciation, they melted into appeal ; any- 
 thing — anything that would win even one soul back 
 to its allegiance. 
 
 HI. The limit of the teacher’s responsibility is 
 all that now remains to be noticed in the text “ By 
 manifestation of the* truth commending ourselves to 
 every man’s conscience in the sight of QolV^ 
 
 God secs us ! I’Iu'tc is in this thought a counsel, 
 then tlien* is a caution, then tliore is a comfort 
 
MANIFESTING TRUTH. 
 
 83 
 
 1. The counsel is this : God sees us. Paul else- 
 where develops this statement thus: “With me it 
 is a very small thing that I should be judged of 
 you, or of man’s judgment; yea, I judge not mine 
 own self ; for I know nothing of myself, yet am I 
 not hereby justified ; but he that judgeth me is the 
 Lord.” Here is the standard of every true teacher’s 
 fidelity. Lifting himself above all fear or feeling as 
 to human censure or human praise, and passing 
 even beyond his own self-flatteries and self-distrust, 
 he labors as “in the sight of Grod.” The limit of 
 Christian responsibility is not found in the estimate 
 of men. 
 
 2. The caution is this: God sees us. He does 
 not have to wait and hear our report. Nor does he 
 inquire what others say about us. He has personal 
 cognizance of all we think or do. The petulant 
 temper, the impatient word, the vexed reply, the 
 ignorant exposition, the hasty appeal — he knew it 
 all the time. Our listlessness in the grand work he 
 has intrusted to us is all plain in his sight. 
 
 3. The comfort is this : God sees us. Think of 
 that touching refrain to one of our little hymns — 
 “Even me!” When we seem to be working so 
 
84 
 
 MANIFESTING TRUTH. 
 
 hard for stupid boys or ungrateful girls ; when we 
 feel troubled at heart, yet toil on ; when we fail, 
 even though we meant well ; when with unappre- 
 ciated zeal we plod on through the storm or the 
 heat to our distant classes ; then, and always, Grod 
 sees us ! I may do little enough, but if I try hon- 
 estly to serve him, God sees me — “even me.” 
 
 It is time to end this Sermon. Yet the lessons I 
 want to leave in the minds of us all are in strict 
 accordance with the text. I desire by manifesta- 
 tion of the truth to commend myself to every man’s 
 conscience in the sight of God. 
 
 1. Now you see how solemn is the ofi&ce of a 
 Sunday-school teacher. It is simply the office of a 
 minister of the Gospel. Who is sufficient for these 
 things? “Whoso shall offend one of these little 
 ones that believe in me, it were better for him that 
 a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that 
 he were drowned in the depth of the sea !” 
 
 2. You see the need of a teacher’s conversion. 
 How can he teach the truth to whom it has never 
 been manifested? How can he labor “in the sight 
 of God” to whom God is a consuming fire? Now 
 there is one thing that does not follow from thia^ 
 
MANIFESTING TRUTH. 
 
 85 
 
 and another thing that does. It does not follow 
 that every unconverted man should cease teaching. 
 It does follow that every one who is teaching* 
 should become immediately a converted man. 
 
 3. You see how even helps may hinder in the 
 process of instructing classes. Illustrations and 
 arguments and appeals are all needful in “manifes- 
 tation of the truth.’’ But if one is betrayed into 
 chasing up a ligure, or insisting on a debate, or con- 
 tinuing an exhortation, until his work, becomes the 
 manifestation of a manifestation., he is certainly 
 going to be in his own way. 
 
 4. You see how popularity sometimes gets in the 
 path, and blocks up usefulness. It is as easy to 
 entertain children as it is grown people. When 
 any teacher commends himself to the taste of story- 
 loving scholars, it makes no difference how many 
 flock to his form. He will do them no good. Is 
 this teaching them “ in the sight of God” ? 
 
 5. You see what a lesson is here also for the 
 ministry of reconciliation to learn. Alas I alas! 
 poor human weakness 1 
 
VII 
 
 A tChi(b-(ilic Sjpuif. 
 
 Except ye he converted^ and become as little childr&n^ ye shall not mt&r 
 into the kingdom of hea/cen ^'' — Matthew xviil 8. 
 
 is in the Scriptures no record of a 
 y-school. Mention is made of a 
 theological seminary. Paul and Silas found at 
 Philippi something very like a maternal association. 
 And there was a union prayer-meeting once held 
 on Mount Tabor. Some of our modern institu- 
 tions, therefore, are not original in the churches. 
 Here in tins chapter I think we find the nearest 
 approach to an account of a teacher’s class. The 
 Saviour gives the instruction, the twelve disciples 
 arc tlic learners ; but the lesson they study is not 
 ])resented in a book, but embodied in the person 
 of a little live child. 
 
 Wliat if’ the process should be reversed in our 
 
A CHILD-LIKE SPIRIT. 
 
 87 
 
 Sabbath-scliools once in a while, and the pupils be- 
 come the teachers ? How would we relish being 
 taught by one of the children? Yet this is pre- 
 cisely what our Lord here proposes for a perpetual 
 exercise. W e must become as little children ; and 
 therefore children must be our unconscious in- 
 structors as to what we are to attain. Highly priv- 
 ileged, then, are those who have their monitors so 
 constantly before them. 
 
 In our present examination of this passage, let 
 us first search out the doctrine ; then we can easily 
 trace its practical results, 
 
 I. The doctrine of the text must not be miscon- 
 ceived. There is one thing it does not teach, and 
 there is another thing it does. 
 
 It does not teach the sinlessness of children. 
 Christ says in this very chapter that he came to 
 ‘‘save” the “little ones” because they were “lost.” 
 *No more certainly was Bartimeus the son of Timeus 
 — a blind descendant of a blind father — than are all 
 children the ruined offspring of a ruined race. Tra- 
 dition, not reliable, tells us that the little boy, whom 
 our Saviour called to him on that occasion, was the 
 one who afterward came to be the martyr Ignatius, 
 
88 
 
 A CHILD-LIKE SPIRIT, 
 
 tlirown in his old age to the wild beasts at Eome. 
 That is the best which can be said of him; and we 
 do not know that even so much is true. Surely he 
 was not offered as a model child. Our Saviour was 
 the only model child that ever lived. Our text 
 does not teach infant innocence. 
 
 It does teach the excellence’ of a true child-spirit. 
 It presents an ideal before our minds. The temper 
 of a proper child in its father’s house is the pattern 
 we are to picture. Hot childishness, but childlike- 
 ness, is the condition of our entering the kingdom 
 of heaven. And so our question will arise at once, 
 What is this child-spirit ? We all have our theo- 
 ries ; but subjecting them to a careful, yet not very 
 extensive, analysis, I judge we should agree upon 
 these four characteristics : contentment, obedience, 
 affectionateness, and trust. You are accustomed 
 sometimes, in your talks with your class, to give 
 them the initials of your points of instruction, that 
 they may remember it more easily. Your mnemonic 
 now is found in First Samuel ii. 19. 
 
 1. Contentment. The apostle Paul says : “ I 
 liave learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith 
 to 1)0 (jontent” But he had to learn it. With 
 
A CHILD-LIKE SPIRIZ 
 
 89 
 
 children this is innate. It conies without discipline, 
 and only deepens with experience. 
 
 A child is perfectly content with its privileges in 
 the home circle. Ask any member of yonr class, 
 ‘‘Whose little boy are yon?” and he will answer: 
 “ Father’s.” “ And where do you live?” He will 
 tell you : “At home.” Now he thinks you know 
 all about him. There is only one father in the 
 world, and there is no home but that father’s house. 
 He desires nothing beyond that for either rest or 
 enjoyment. Disturb him, wound him, frighten him, 
 and his earliest wish is : “ Just take me home.” 
 
 A child is perfectly content with its restrictions 
 under the home economy. He expects to be governed. 
 Helpless, he just owns it, and is not humiliated. 
 Ignorant, he just admits it, and is not ashamed. 
 Weak, he just acknowledges it, and says: “Help 
 me, for I can not go alone.” There are others in the 
 same family. He fully understands he must give 
 them equal rights. He must adjust his liberties so 
 as not to interfere with theirs. When he fails, he 
 expects to be prompted and warned. The life he 
 lives is a mere embodiment of the prayer : “ Hold 
 thou me up, and I shall be safe.” 
 
90 
 
 A CHILD-LIKE SPIRIT. 
 
 A child is perfectly content with the sanctions 
 affixed to the home law. He loves approval, he fears 
 punishment. He accepts the essential righteousness 
 of both. He takes to the rewards best, but he 
 knows when he merits the penalties. I asked my 
 little girl once to choose her own punishment. To 
 my unutterable dismay, she chose the toughest 
 She passed intuitive judgment on her offense. 
 
 2. Obedience is the next characteristic of a true 
 child-spirit And as here is likely to be our great- 
 est failure, so here needs to be our closest observa- 
 tion. 
 
 A child obeys his father unconsciously. He is 
 not aware he is doing any thing remarkable. The 
 parental will is law. He receives its mandates as 
 a matter of course. He makes no virtue of neces- 
 sity. He can not really understand the Hindoo 
 doctrine of merit He discusses no mysterious 
 principles of family government His subjection 
 is native. When his father is at home, he expects 
 to mind. 
 
 A cliild ol)cys liis father specifically. He plans 
 to do tlie thing lie is set to do. Casabianca stands 
 on the burning deck, because there he was bidden 
 
A CHILD-LIKE SPIRIT. 
 
 91 • 
 
 to stand. It needs a man grown to become skillful 
 enough to consider whether something else might 
 not be substituted in the place of a commandment. 
 Children do not compound for one sin “ they are 
 inclined to,” by damning another sin “they have 
 no mind to.” 
 
 A child obeys his father unhesitatingly. A 
 teacher, commenting on one of the petitions of the 
 Lord’s Prayer, asked her pupils around the class : 
 “ How is the will of God ‘ done in heavin’ ?” One 
 answered: “Cheerfully.” Another said: “By all 
 alike.” A third added: “All the time.” But the 
 youngest little girl in the class, with a keen pene- 
 tration, replied: “It is done without ashing any 
 questions.'*^ 
 
 3. Affectionateness is another characteristic of the 
 true child-spirit. Some time when you are perus- 
 ing the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, 
 put in the place of the word “ charity,” in the fourth 
 verse, the word “ child,” and see how it would read 
 
 The affectionateness of a child is remarkable foi 
 the spontaneousness of its exercise. Half of our labor 
 in this conventional world is wasted in simply 
 graduating our favors to the ranks of recipients; 
 
92 
 
 .*1 CLIILD-LIKE SPIRIT. 
 
 watching the effects they produce; wondering what 
 return they will bring. AV e must propitiate one man s 
 dislike ; we must keep down another man’s pique. 
 We reckon with much precision how much atten- 
 tion will be needed to ingratiate ourselves with one 
 family, and how much caution will have to be em- 
 ployed to keep us from entanglement with another. 
 Now, a child never calculates. He is thoroughly 
 self-forgetful in his distribution of love. Thus his 
 behavior delights by nothing so much as its natu- 
 ralness. He is so artless in the surrender of all his 
 powers of entertainment, that he will tell you all his 
 stories at once, and sing you all the songs he knows, 
 with a reckless exhaustion of his capital in a single 
 effort. Thus he makes others happy without think- 
 ing of it. He brightens a whole company without 
 planning it beforehand, or remembering it after- 
 ward. 
 
 Idle affectionateness of a child is remarkable for 
 the indiscriminateness of its hestowaL It believes in 
 the doctrine : “ He that would have friends must 
 show Inrnself friendly.” It cherishes no respect of 
 jiersons. Distinctions of wealth, position, even of 
 color and i*ace, a child docs not know how to deal 
 
A CHILD-LIKE SPIRIT. 
 
 93 
 
 with. How suggestive are the lessons we ought to 
 receive from our own rebukes and mortifications on 
 this point ! We try to teach our children choice in 
 playmates ; but the moment our backs are turned, 
 off they go with some wretched urchin from the 
 next alley. Then we force them to play the aristo- 
 crat ; but oh ! how mean it sounds, when we hap- 
 pen to hear them through the casement explaining 
 to the sad little girl with the ragged clothes 
 how we have sagely warned them away from her. 
 Neither seems to understand the case much. 
 They asked the good Cecil’s daughter what made 
 every body love her, and she answered, with her 
 peculiar kind of logib: “Because I love every 
 body !” 
 
 The affectionateness of a child is remarkable for 
 persistency of its endurance. It beareth all things, 
 believeth all things, endureth all things; it never 
 faileth. Breathe in the ear of a proper child even 
 one word of suspicion, and mark how startled and 
 yet how stubborn will be the assertion in reply. 
 His fidelity is simply incorruptible. Did you never 
 have one of the little girls in your class become 
 uneasy before the time of dismissal? You told 
 
94 
 
 A CHILD-LIKE SPIRIT. 
 
 her stories, you asked her questions, then you 
 showed her pictures. Meantime she continued so 
 silent that you flattered yourself on your shrewd- 
 ness in beguiling her attention; when suddenly 
 looking you full in the face, right in the midst of 
 your most enthusiastic endeavors, she said as calmly 
 and as resolutely as a fate : “I want to go home and 
 see my mother !” That tone carried conviction; 
 you had to let her go. 
 
 4. Trust is the remaining characteristic of this 
 true child-spirit. You will find illustrations of this 
 in a child’s mode of thinking, method of reasoning, 
 and manner of life. 
 
 A child is always intelligent in its trust. A lady 
 asked a little daughter of the missionary Judson : 
 
 Were you not afraid to journey so far over the 
 ocean?” And the reply was : “ Why, no, madam ; 
 father prayed for us !” I think Kuskin, the great 
 English critic, must have had a faith like this in his 
 mind, when he penned those exquisite words of his : 
 “ The true unity of earthly creatures is their power 
 and their peace; not like the dead and cold peace 
 of undisturbed stones and solitary mountains, but 
 the living peace of trust, and the living power of 
 
A CHILD-LIKE SPIRIT. 
 
 96 
 
 support ; of hands that hold each other ^ and arc still ; 
 the quietness of action determined, of spirit un- 
 alarmed, of expectation unimpatient ; more beautiful 
 than ever, when the rest is one of humility instead 
 of pride, and the trust no more in the resolution we 
 have taken, but in the hand we hold.” 
 
 A child is always logical in its trust. You will 
 mistake seriously if you imagine children continue 
 their confidence blindly. They reason in mat- 
 ters of the heart far more consistently often than 
 maturer people do. The mind of a child is more 
 logical than the mind of a man, in so far as his in- 
 formation reaches ; for no swerving influence comes 
 in to prevent the process. A twilight bird goes 
 right on sailing into the shadow, with the mo- 
 mentum it gains from flying in the sunshine. 
 It passes under a dark archway .with the impulse it 
 takes from the lit flight it made toward it. And 
 just so the faith of a child presses on unhesitatingly 
 in the line of its convinced reason, and with all the 
 force that reason has acquired. Do him a kind- 
 ness, and a boy will believe you always a kind man. 
 Help him once, and he will never hesitate to come 
 to you for help. Learning his father from what he 
 
A CHILD-LIKE SPIRIT. 
 
 9fi 
 
 knows of him, he hurries along with a swift and 
 fearless prediction, inferring with the instincts of a 
 sure intuition what he does not know. 
 
 A child is always tranquil in its trust. There 
 was once a monarch in Israel’s realm, accustomed 
 to put his experience to music, and sing the strains 
 of affection that were too exuberant for prayer. 
 Floating down the ages, he has sent us one Psalm, 
 gentle as a Bethlehem hymn sung at a covenant 
 cradle, yet manly enough in its utterance to become 
 a “ song of degrees” on the way to Jerusalem. And 
 this is its burden : “Lord, my heart is not haughty, 
 nor mine eyes lofty : neither do I exercise myself 
 in great matters, or in things too high for me. 
 Surely, I have behaved and quieted myself as a 
 child that is weaned of his mother.” 
 
 11. This seems to be the doctrine of the text ; let us 
 now trace a few of its most prominent results. You 
 perceive that the practical force it has for us turns 
 on the fact that it has been made the condition of 
 our salvation. These characteristics of a true 
 child-spirit have been delineated at this length 
 not for any purpose of mere interesting inqui- 
 ry, but because each of them must be received 
 
A CHILD- LIKE SPIRIT. 97 
 
 into our experimented possession as a spiritual 
 grace. 
 
 1. Consider its bearing upon our intellectual pro- 
 cesses. Many a man flatters himself with a sweet 
 consciousness of magnanimity, when he imagines 
 that observers are pointing him out, and saying : 
 There goes one, once a skeptic, who having deter- 
 mined to put all systems to trial, has just now been 
 investigating Christianity : he took up the evidences 
 masterfully, he has given in his adhesion manfully., 
 and thus shown his lofty fealty to his convictions ! 
 Ah ! yes ; but our text does not talk of manhood, 
 but of childhood. There is no child-spirit in this 
 proud surrender to argument. A man needs con- 
 version, not conviction alone. The Bible reverses 
 human terms of counsel. We say to a child. Be a 
 man ; Christ says to the man. Be a child. Hence 
 he will “ enter the kingdom” only when he studies 
 with his faith as well as his intellect. 
 
 2. Consider its bearing upon our formulas of belief 
 A child’s theology is frequently wiser for human 
 need than a man’s. It often comes to pass that 
 when a mature intellect has been worrying itself 
 into most discouraging confusion, it is startled by 
 
 5 
 
98 
 
 A CHILD-LIKE SPIRIT. 
 
 the keen penetration and almost oracular deliver- 
 ance of an infant trust. What is God? Good 
 Gillespie’s prayer did the best it could for a defini- 
 tion. “ God is a spirit; infinite, eternal, unchange- 
 able in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, 
 goodness, and truth.” Now you know what God 
 is ! But you can not make much use of it. Ask 
 a child what God is. You will get for an answer 
 perhaps this — it takes it out of the prayer instead 
 of the catechism: God is our Father who is in 
 heaven. Now, for all practical uses, for all availa- 
 bleness to deep experience of need, I soberly affirm, 
 that little as this seems to say, it says more than 
 the other does. Faith can not climb up on the 
 north side of a doctrine in the shade. I believe in 
 formulas for catechetical instruction with all my 
 heart; but I think they ought to be explained 
 more in the very warmth and light of the Scrip- 
 tures. 
 
 3. Consider its bearing upon . our estimate of 
 liuman greatness. You remember that the disciples 
 had been disputing concerning superiority, when 
 Jesus gave them tliis lesson. Possibly Peter })lead 
 for ])recrnirierice, and instanced the gift of the keys. 
 
A CHILD-LIKE SPIRIT 
 
 99 
 
 Possibly John called attention to bis usual place at 
 the table. Possibly Andrew begged to remind them 
 he had led the first convert to Christ. Possibly 
 James insisted on the prerogatives of his age. All 
 this was met by the spectacle of a tranquil little 
 boy, who possibly wondered why he was put into 
 show. A child-spirit is keen enough to find, and 
 generous enough to recognize,^ good everywhere. 
 It loves all that love its father, all whom its father 
 loves. It discovers no companionship so humble 
 that it can not spend a gleeful hour in the light of 
 it. All the world is in -one family till ten years 
 after people are born ; on the play-ground, in the 
 school-house, from the nurse’s arms, to that dreadful 
 hour when conventionalism steps in and tutors the 
 unconscious democrats into lords and ladies. But 
 half of the human race dies before the fifth year. 
 When the millennium comes, you will find only 
 children a hundred years old. Please look at 
 Zechariah viii. 5. 
 
 4. Consider its bearing upon our tests of grace. 
 We love to deal with subtle evidences of a change 
 of heart. Here a plain one is proffered. Our text 
 presents the final result, the completed picture, of 
 
100 
 
 A CHILD-LIKE SPIRIT. 
 
 conversion : it consists in a child’s temper and dis- 
 position. Any one ought to know whether he pos- 
 sesses that or not. He can find out. And if not, he 
 is “ become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.” 
 
 5. Consider its bearing upon advice to inquirers. 
 You ought to have such constantly in your classes. 
 Some of them completely invert the order of relation 
 between belief and duty. Much of the difficulty 
 they profess to find in the Bible is irrelevant in the 
 matter of obligation, and entirely illogical to faith. 
 Any sensible child is aware that its father’s relation- 
 ship by marriage, social connection in the commu- 
 nity, or form of daily occupation, has nothing to do 
 with the question of its own obedience to his com- 
 mands. Told to go and serve him, it never pauses 
 to inquire whether he is a citizen by birth or 
 naturalization, or what amount of political influence 
 he wields in the party, or how much money he 
 owns. Yet this is just what human reason asserts 
 its right to do over and over again. In perfect de- 
 fiance of logic, inquirers will insist upon searching 
 into the Trinity, before they take up repentance; 
 upon understanding the incarnation, before they 
 will begin faith. They will worry over the decrees. 
 
A GHILD-LIKE SPIRIT. 
 
 101 • 
 
 when we urge holiness they will dispute about 
 foreordination, when we press the necessity of 
 prayer. Whereas not one of these stands in the 
 way of the other. There is only one condition of 
 salvation, and that is this child-spirit. Take my 
 yoke upon you, and learn of me but the taking 
 of the yoke comes first, then the learning of the 
 doctrine. “ Be not children in understanding ; how- 
 beit, in malice be ye children ; but in understanding 
 be men.” 
 
 6. Consider its bearing upon our aims for attain- 
 ment How far away are we as yet fi:om this child- 
 spirit ! “ There remaineth yet very much land to 
 
 be possessed.” Do you ask how this may be 
 reached ? Only one direction is needful. Look at 
 your own children, in your class or in your home. 
 Your lesson is before you. What you would have 
 your child he to you^ that he you yourself to God I 
 You will not accomplish that alone. You had 
 better ask for help at once. 
 
 Quiet, Lord, my fro ward heart ; 
 
 Make me teachable and mild ; 
 Upright, simple, free from art ; 
 Make me as a weaned child; 
 
102 
 
 A CHILD-LIKE SPIRIT. 
 
 From distrust and envy free, 
 Pleased with, all that pleaseth thee I 
 
 As a little child relies 
 
 On a care beyond his own, 
 
 Knows he’s neither strong nor wise. 
 Fears to stir a step alone ; 
 
 Let me thus with thee abide. 
 
 As my Father, G-uard, and Guide 1 
 
VIII. 
 
 (Sob’* Arrow*. 
 
 '''•Thine arrowe sUcJc fast in me ^ — Psalm xxxvih. 2. 
 
 David seems to liave reference to cer- 
 afflictive dispensations, under which he 
 [me borne down. His explanation of 
 their pertinency and purpose is, that he had been 
 doing wrong, and God was rebuking him. And 
 there was in this discipline no caprice of the Divine 
 displeasure; it was the usual method of drawing 
 back a sinful heart to its allegiance. These troubles 
 of his are called arrows ; for they pierced him like 
 the shafts of an archer, shot at a fugitive soldier, 
 not to slay him, but to bring him to a stand. 
 
 This is the figure. In another Psalm the picture 
 is presented in full. In those days monarch s were 
 wont to lead forth their own armies to battle, and 
 were themselves armed for the fray. And here the 
 
 EEE 
 
 tain 
 
 was at the 1 
 
104 
 
 GOB'S ARROWS. 
 
 inspired address is direct to the Captain of our sal- 
 vation : “ Tlij throne, 0 God, is forever and ever ! 
 The sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Gird 
 thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy 
 glory and thy majesty ; and in thy majesty ride 
 prosperously, because of truth and meekness and 
 righteousness ; and thy right hand shall teach thee 
 terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart 
 of the king’s enemies, whereby the people fall under 
 thee.” 
 
 The general meaning we gather from this is, 
 that the aerows of God are the means he uses 
 of every kind to bring his rebellious subjects to 
 terms. 
 
 Now we accept the complaint that many Sunday- 
 school teachers make : the children in their classes 
 are not converted ; the daily instructions in the 
 Bible do not sink into their hearts : the truth seems 
 to glide over, glance off, and effects no permanent 
 lodgment. 
 
 Our reply to it is — you want more arrows. Then 
 comes the question — how can we get them? And 
 this sermon is intended to give that question an 
 
 answer. 
 
GOD^S ARROWS. 
 
 105 
 
 I. You may look for arrows always in the field 
 of Divine Pkovidence. 
 
 The ancients used to say that, having fashioned 
 the universe, the great Architect sent it adrift on 
 the sea of his eternal purpose, thinking no more of 
 its cargo or its course — as a shipwright finishes a 
 vessel, and, after the perilous launch is over, never 
 is at pains to watch for its voyages. But the Chris- 
 tian idea rebukes and corrects the heathen. God is 
 the pilot as Vv^ell as the constructor. He holds 
 every second cause and every instrument in positive 
 subordination to his intelligent will. And in the 
 sphere of his religious influences, especially, where 
 now it most concerns uis to follow him, as if to 
 insist upon his own sovereignty, and keep every 
 human mind from presumptuous interference, it 
 seems to have been his intention that many of the 
 most bright and shining lights in the militant church 
 should be brought into the kingdom in a strange 
 way. Some special providence arrested them sud- 
 denly. 
 
 An infidel was sailing upon a river. A storm 
 arose, a water-spout^dashed over the boat, the man 
 was drifted out to sea, clinging to the oars. Finally 
 
106 
 
 GOD^S ARROWS. 
 
 lie was picked up by a vessel, itself swept from its 
 ^moorings, with broken cable, and in danger of 
 wreck. Thus was Vanderkemp converted. 
 
 A minister made an open-air appointment for a 
 preaching service. Some young men and boys 
 undertook to disturb the meeting. One of them, 
 the most nimble and dextrous, broke his ankle in 
 trying to kick a foot-ball in the good man’s face. 
 That laid him on his bed, and brought the preacher 
 to see him. Thus Morgan Howell was converted. 
 
 President Edwards turned from church one Lord’s 
 day, intending to spend the time in sleep and seclu- 
 sion. He took from the library at random an old 
 book without any name on the back. It proved to 
 be a Bible, and he opened it to find, in 1 Timothy 
 i. 17, the instrument of his conviction. 
 
 Now God ordered all these events, as plainly as 
 lie ordered the sleepless night of Ahasuerus, or the 
 coming of Aaron from Egypt to meet Moses. He 
 used them for their specific end, precisely as he did 
 the erueifixiem wonders for the Italian centurion, 
 the opening of tlie Philijipian prison for the jailer, 
 or the journey to Damascus lor Saul. And now, 
 the loss of jirojierty, the death of friemds, the 
 
GOD^S ARROWS. 
 
 107 
 
 thwarting of all ambition ; sickness, defamation, or 
 want — all these are Giod’s arrows. 
 
 Any incident in a child’s life may be used to point 
 a counsel, to fasten a truth, to impress a lesson. 
 
 II. You may look for arrows in the exercise of 
 Christian Ingenuity. 
 
 The power exerted in the true conversion of any 
 soul is that of the Holy Spirit, and the instrument 
 is the truth. W e have only to bring the truth close 
 to a soul, and then rely on the Holy Spirit. But 
 there is in this process a wide margin left for human 
 tact. Three forms of effort may be mentioned at 
 this point, any one of which you can employ with 
 the members of your classes : personal conversation, 
 religious literature, and the power of a holy life. 
 
 1. Personal conversation is the manliest way of 
 doing good. Gentleness is the very essence of 
 piety ; tenderness always goes hand in hand with 
 tact. You will be interested in the record made 
 of the lamented Hewitson. “His ministry,” says 
 his biographer, “was eminently an earnest one; it 
 was not the earnestness of the flesh — not vehemence, 
 nor noise, nor physical fervor— but the deep, calm, 
 solemn earnestness of the spirit ; there was no scold- 
 
108 
 
 GOD^S ARROWS. 
 
 ing, no impatience, no angry upbraiding ; but the 
 tenderest pity ; be besought and warned with tears ; 
 this was his unanswerable argument.'’ 
 
 Now see how beautifully he wrought this disposi- 
 tion out into his conversations. One time he was 
 passing along through the village, and saw a young 
 woman standing at the door with her child in her 
 arms. He stopped to speak with her. In his usual 
 grave but gentle manner, he remarked : “ How safe 
 that babe feels when you hold it so ! The believer 
 is just as safe in the arms of Jesus.” At another 
 time he met a member of his congregation whom 
 he had not yet visited. In response to his kind 
 inquiry, she told him she lived in such a place, in 
 the room up-stairs.” Then he continued: “Ah! 
 well ; I hope you invite the Lord elesus with you ; 
 he used to live in an upper room sometimes at Jeru- 
 salem, and loved to meet disciples there.” 
 
 '^rhere is no end to the illustration we could offer 
 you here. A wife told her husband she “ trembled 
 for” liirn ; the expi’ession fell deej^ly into his heart. 
 A merchant mentioned to his })artner that he had 
 set ujj a family altar that morning; God blessed 
 that mere word to his good. Lady Huntington 
 
GOD^S ARROWS. 
 
 109 
 
 pressed on one of her servants the consideration of 
 eternal things ; he appeared to pay no attention, 
 and she saw no reward ; but the gardener heard the 
 conversation through a hole in the wall, and became 
 a man of prayer. Payson asked some young men 
 to let him read them a hymn ; and his voice left 
 them in penitent tears. Forty years ago, two trav- 
 elers stopped their horses at a brook for water ; as 
 they looked in each other’s faces, one spoke to the 
 other concerning the welfare of his soul. They 
 parted strangers, as they met ; but the words of love 
 found a lodgment in the heart on which they fell. 
 So Champion became a Christian, a minister, and a' 
 missionary. He never knerw his benefactor, till in a 
 volume sent him in Africa from this country be 
 saw and recognized James Bayard Taylor. Oh! 
 what a meeting those two had, when next they 
 stood face to face (as you and I sing), “ Beyond, be- 
 yond the river” ! 
 
 2. Religious literatare., likewise, may be used in 
 doing good. It is not always easy for one to over- 
 come a constitutional reluctance in regard to speak- 
 ing on religious subjects. Nor does every one 
 always know what to say. A relief is found here. 
 
110 
 
 GOUS ARROWS. 
 
 in both branches of the embarrassment, in the use of 
 tracts, treatises, slips cut from periodicals, cards 
 with texts or hymns printed on them, or volumes 
 of larger size loaned for perusal. The power of a 
 Christian press can not be overrated in this reading 
 age. And God has wonderfully increased our fa- 
 cilities in these past years of the Church’s history. 
 
 A man on the ferry-boat tore a tract in pieces, in 
 sheer spite at the pious zeal that presented it to 
 him. But one fragment clung' to his glove ; and on 
 it was the awful word — Eternity ; that word which 
 our English Bibles utter but once, saving it in sol- 
 emn grandeur to describe what “ the High and 
 Holy One inhabiteth that arrow of God pierced 
 his conscience and brought him to the foot of the 
 cross. 
 
 The mother of Colonel Gardiner put a devotional 
 book in his box when he went from home; that 
 saved liis soul. The father of the dissolute Baxter 
 gave him a traet, which was the instrument in his 
 eoiiversioii. d’hen Ihixter wrote the ‘‘Call to the 
 Unconvei’ted tliis Doddridge read and was con- 
 vict(Ml of sin. ’J’hen • Doddridge wrote the “Jiise 
 and Jh-ogress of Kthigion in the Soul;“ this was 
 
GOD^S ARROWS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 what gave Wilberforce his earliest impressions. 
 Then Wilberforce wrote the “Practical View of 
 Christianity that was made by the Spirit of 
 God effectual to Legh Eichmond’s conversion. 
 Then Legh Eichmond wrote the “ Dairyman’s 
 Daughter,” the noblest tract in the world, now 
 printed in a hundred tongues ! 
 
 3. A holy life., however, is the most effectual 
 power for doing good. In this case the man him- 
 self seems in a Scripture sense to become an arrow. 
 “ He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword ; in 
 the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made 
 me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid 
 me.” 
 
 A reviler went to hear Whitefield preach, and 
 came away penitent. “I meant to break your 
 head,” said he, “but by the grace of God you have 
 broken my heart.” A poor invalid came home to 
 an ungodly father’s house to die; her meek sub- 
 mission, her patient endurance, her joyous hope, 
 subdued his rebellion ; and she expired expecting 
 to see him again. A modest tradesman upheld his 
 family devotion, though it tried all the fibers of his 
 courage ; a clerk who lodged with him was won by 
 
112 
 
 GOD'S AEEOWS. 
 
 the spectacle to begin a better life. A wife, on the 
 way home from church, ridiculed the awkwardness 
 of the preacher ; looking up in her husband s face, 
 she discovered his eyes filling with tears : his emo- 
 tion melted her heart. A peeress of England had a 
 little class of ignorant women, whom she was wont 
 to teach in the Scriptures ; a blacksmith in the 
 neighborhood, a notorious villain, swore he would 
 break up the school, and so one day violently 
 forced his way in. She went faithfully forward 
 in her work, and Grod touched his hidden sensi- 
 bilities with the purity of her purpose and the 
 indefatigableness of her zeal, and he became her 
 efficient ally. An infidel came to a pastor to con- 
 verse anxiously concerning his soul ; “I could 
 always bear sermons,” said he ; “I was ball-proof 
 to argument, but I could never endure the Chris- 
 tian life of my wife.” 
 
 Now, all this may seem very common-place to 
 you ; yet you may rest assured that this is the best 
 means of usefulness you can have with your classes. 
 Eflbi'ts at influencing souls, in any other direction 
 than this, are like arrows shot from tlie long-bow; 
 tlicir force and their reach will depend upon the 
 
GOD^S ARROWS. 
 
 113 
 
 strength of the sinew that strains the string. But 
 truth from a holy life is like an arrow from the 
 cross-bow ; it will penetrate with equal power, who- 
 ' ever sends it flying. 
 
 Now we reach the application— where the ser- 
 mon really begins. 
 
 1. You see that God actually desires the conver- 
 sion of souls. The air is full of arrows. The silent 
 heavens, anA the mute earth, the storm and the 
 sunshine, every agency in the universe has been 
 impressed into service to bring souls to the cross. 
 The kingdom of providence is subordinate to the 
 kingdom of grace. 
 
 2. You see how wide is the field of Christian 
 usefulness. Among all these quivers of arrows it 
 does seem as if every soldier might find some shafts 
 which would just fit his bow, and would certainly 
 stick in the mark. 
 
 3. You see how unfortunate an inactive teacher 
 is. He has no arrows., and his bow is unstrung. 
 Oliver Cromwell found twelve silver statues in 
 Yorkminster cathedral ; suddenly he asked, “Who 
 
 #are those expensive fellows' up there?'’ They told 
 him they were the disciples of Christ. “ Ah ! let 
 
114 
 
 GOD^S ARROWS. 
 
 them be taken down and melted np,” said the old 
 Puritan, “ then they, like Christ, will go about doing 
 good !” 
 
 4. You see the need of constant study of the 
 entire Bible. That is what all the good arrows 
 come from. When the gifted authoress of ‘‘English 
 Hearts and Hands ” saw that strange man on the 
 banks of the river about to commit suicide, she 
 saved his life and his soul by reading ^'ently within 
 his hearing Psalm xlvi. 4. How did she happen 
 to think of it ? When the father of little Agnes, 
 out in the winter burial-ground, saw the great, soft 
 snow-flakes falling on her grave, how did he happen 
 to think of Psalm xci. 4? We must be familiar 
 with all God has said. 
 
 5. You see the encouragement there is for many 
 who are unlearned. They can be, like Apollos, 
 “mighty in the Scriptures,” and God will follow 
 liis own truth with force. “Not by might, nor by 
 power, but by iriy Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” 
 
 “ Tho j^entlo heart tliat thinks with pain 
 It searco can lowliest tasks fullill; 
 
 And if it dared its life to scan, 
 
 Would ask for pathway low and still; 
 
GOD''S ARROWS. 
 
 115 
 
 Often such gentle heart is brought 
 To act with power beyond its thought ; 
 
 For God, through ways they have not known, 
 
 Will lead his own !” 
 
 6. You see what it means, and what to do, if you 
 are ever hit by one of these arrows of God. Job 
 was. David was. Paul was. It means that God 
 desires you to come nearer to him, and then he will 
 extract it. 
 
 7. You see how terrible a future they must have 
 who dare the arrows of God. They tell us that a 
 wounded stag plunges into the deepest thickets, but 
 still the shaft of the hunter clings by its barb ; he 
 seeks rest, but the point rankles; he lies by the 
 fountain, but finds no peace. Oh ! the picture of a 
 transfixed soul, suffering and restless, wandering 
 around in the world of the lost, without even the 
 blessed privilege of being permitted to die ! 
 
IX. 
 
 Mome Meatlben. 
 
 “JFbr ye Tia/oe the poor with you always; and wheffisoem&r ye will^ ye may 
 do them good ''' — Mark xiv. 7. 
 
 tendency of our times is toward con- 
 ization. The means of rapid transpor- 
 tation, and the facilities for quick communication, 
 on the water and on the land, have drawn away 
 business activities from many of the old channels, 
 and more or less gathered them around certain great 
 marts. Our population is setting, toward the large 
 cities and towns. Laborers from foreign lands, and 
 rustic mechanics and tradesmen from our own, are 
 caught by the romantic pictures of profit and plenty, 
 and are hurrying into the crowded houses and the 
 noisy streets of the nearest metropolis. 
 
 And, on tlie other liand, with the easy interchange, 
 the families from the town iind their summer transit 
 
HOME HEATHEK 
 
 117 
 
 quickly made into the villages and hamlets ; and 
 the customs they bring with them are urging their 
 way into the yielding habits of the more unsophis- 
 ticated neighborhoods, molding the growing genera- 
 tions to quite other impulses and tastes, ambitions 
 and moralities, than those their fathers taught them 
 to cherish. The country, in return for its best thrift 
 and energy, which it generously pours into the city, 
 receives constantly new themes of thought, new 
 schemes of enterprise, and new theories of life, some 
 of which, to say the least, are of questionable value. 
 
 This growing centripetal force in our land we are 
 all able to mark. Some deplore it. All admit it. 
 And now that the reciprocity of interest and influ- 
 ence between the rural and the metropolitan districts 
 is recognized — now that the mutual pressures and 
 impressions are beginning to be felt, each in turn 
 sobers under the thought that it has inevitably to 
 deal for itself with the mightiest question of the 
 age : How shall our centers of powers be rendered 
 as Christian as they are attractive, as harmless as 
 they are potent ? 
 
 I. It may as well be avowed here as anywhere, 
 for we shall come to it, that this is not, as an object 
 
118 
 
 HOME HEATHEN. 
 
 of appeal, a popular theme. Choose any city, and 
 you will find that the mission Sunday-schools are 
 sustained by only a meager moiety of the evangelical 
 churches. Do you ask why this is so ? There are 
 two reasons for it, at least. 
 
 1. One of them is the nearness of the objects of bene- 
 volence, Distance lends enchantment to foreign mis- 
 sions. Patriotism makes some allowance for even 
 the closeness of Western churches and colleges in 
 our own land. But the poor are here under our 
 very eye. Descriptions of degradation and suffering 
 are spiritless, because we meet the destitute con- 
 stantly and contiguously. We fairly touch them 
 as we pass. Business men ought to know this, and 
 yet it rather injures the cause to tell them of .it. Eyes 
 look out upon them as they hurry down town, or 
 pour over the North river and East river, from 
 windows behind which there is what no pen can 
 describe. Immortal souls jostle them on the pave- 
 ment, crowd them on the street cars, throng them 
 at the ferries, and stare at them from all the comers ; 
 a great mass of livirig, sentient humanity, each indi- 
 vidual with his own circle surrounding, purpose 
 urging, and destiny coming. 
 
HOME HEATHEN. 
 
 119 
 
 Here they are ; and the question is, how shall we 
 help them? They are within reach, and even now 
 accessible to any effort, the vicious and the depraved 
 close by the intelligent and the moral, the ignorant 
 almost housed with the educated, the foreign with 
 the home-born. And they are increasing with 
 rapidity unparalleled all the time. But every pastor 
 will bear me witness how difficult it is to move 
 Christian people toward them. 
 
 The dramatic power of poverty and vice in a 
 picture is lost in a fact. I have seen men stand 
 suffused and weeping before the painting of a Beg- 
 gar Boy, who passed a hundred boys begging, on 
 their way to the exhibition, and never thought of 
 tears. Now a hook through a man’s back, as he 
 whirls on a lofty post in Hindostan, has a weird 
 horror in it that makes even the purse-strings 
 shudder. But when a man, with the iron in his 
 soul, his heart wrung for his children that starve or 
 that swear, that are naked or are thieves, presents 
 himself, want becomes tame and common-place. It 
 loses romance when we find he lives down by the 
 Ferries, over by the Navy Yard, or across by the 
 Dry Dock. 
 
120 
 
 HOME HE A TREK . 
 
 2. Another reason for the nnpopnlarity of this 
 cause is found in the inveterate repugnance of the 
 human heart to admit the poor and wretched to hrother- 
 hood under any system of things. Many of our no- 
 blest Christians find themselves turning away to 
 work more agreeable than that among the destitute 
 and the vicious ; and indeed it does seem unwel- 
 come. These people do grow presuming, some- 
 times, when you are kind to them. They have so 
 little sympathy that they hardly know how to treat 
 it, and there is much that shocks one’s sensibilities 
 in the beginning of the efibrt. I can go from where 
 I now sit in my study writing, and in half an hour 
 can lead you into liouses where neither the air nor 
 the sunshine of heaven ever comes. Scores of fami- 
 lies are under almost the same roof, not one of 
 which ever hears a prayer. No Bible is there, no 
 Sabbath there, no Christian instruction there. The 
 whole duty of the day is done happily, when poor 
 squalid existence has been prolonged, by protracted 
 ingenuities of labor and crime, through its hungry 
 hours. Vice is fostered, sin is strengthened in its 
 j)owcr over every new generation that grows up in 
 the infamy. 
 
HOME HEATHEN. 
 
 121 
 
 What a school is this for a child ! Two of our 
 mission school children sat out on the dark, ricketty 
 stairs, the other night, till two o’clock, waiting for 
 their drunken father to go to bed, so that they might 
 creep securely into their corner, from which he had 
 driven them with missiles. Think of that little 
 ten-year old boy and seven-year old girl, in the gang- 
 way six hours in a January night, here in the City 
 of Churches ! Human beings live and die in filth, 
 drunkenness, ignorance, and misery, untold and 
 indescribable. And I live, and so do you, within 
 ear-shot of their wailing, and never know who it is 
 that cries I 
 
 I ask again, what are we going to do with these 
 home heathen ? They are ready to meet the minis- 
 trations of the Gospel. They will take anything 
 you will give them kindly, from the loaves and 
 fishes of a little up to the sermon of a disciple. 
 It may seem to you hopeless to labor for them, but 
 you have no right to despair of the truth. 
 
 I have knelt to pray by a bedside, when the awful 
 reek of the floor fairly disturbed me at devotion. 
 I have ministered at the burial of the dead when 
 men sat in the same room, with covered heads, curi- 
 
 6 
 
122 
 
 HOME HEATHEN. 
 
 ously wondering what I was trying to do. I have 
 read and prayed and exhorted at the funeral of a 
 child, and then taken the cofl&n in my own hands 
 and borne it from the room. I have said my hur- 
 ried words of instruction to one who was dying, 
 amid the vilest clatter from the streets, and the 
 rankest odors from the alleys ; and spoken of Jesus 
 and the cross to those who, I had every reason to 
 believe, never had heard his name except in an 
 oath. And then I have fallen back, single-handed, 
 on my faith, and implored a good, merciful Father, 
 who made these creatures, that he would interpose, 
 even in. the depth of their ignorance and hardness, 
 for the salvation of a soul that I knew was just 
 crossing the dark river alone. And yet I am not a 
 city missionary, only a pastor, and my experience 
 is not very strange nor unusual. 
 
 What will you do for these p^ple? Oh, for the 
 sake of your brother’s soul, and for the sake of a 
 great common humanity, answer this question for 
 me ! Look at these men, women, and children, one 
 by one. Take every soul up, as you would take 
 jewels up, if you were erown-making. Christ is 
 (;rown-rnaking ; are not you? Look at its flaws. 
 
HOME HEATHEN. 
 
 123 
 
 not to censure or reject, but to help and restore. 
 No man is lost utterly, no matter how burned, or 
 how bronzed, or how blackened; no man can be 
 lost, while there is but one fair line across his fore- 
 head on which the name of Jesus can be written ! 
 Gather him up in your arms like a bruised child. 
 Say in your heart, “ O my God ! I might be here, 
 but for thy grace !” 
 
 Ah me ! men and brethren, I call to mind those 
 finest words of great commendation, which Bliphaz 
 gave to the suffering Job ; I want to hear such, if 
 by and by I must suffer : “ Behold thou hast in- 
 structed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak 
 hands; thy ^ords have upholden him that was 
 falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.” 
 
 Here are the poor and the vicious, the homeless 
 and the hunted children of misfortune. God is 
 asking us the world over, What shall the strong do 
 for the vreak ? The earth rocks. Institutions are 
 breaking. Life seems a breath. Fortunes fail. 
 Over all sits God calmly, saying, “ Be watchful, and 
 strengthen the things that remain !” 
 
 11. The question of doing good among all the 
 miscellaneous masses of every great community, is 
 
124 
 
 HOME HEATHEN. 
 
 emban'assed with three complications. And so 
 every scheme has to move loosely, and have room 
 to yield and distend almost at pleasure. What 
 seems exceedingly plain work requires all the 
 genius of a master to compass even the least suc- 
 cess in doing. 
 
 1. One of these is 'poverty : mere want of food, 
 want of fire, want of garments, want of everything 
 that helps to make humanity human. It does very 
 little good to pray with a man, or read to him about 
 Bartimeus, or tell him the story of Bethany or 
 Bethlehem, while he is gaunt with famine, or des- 
 perate under the cries of his barefooted children. 
 I know a family that, last evening v^hen it began 
 to rain, had no coal to burn, nor food to eat, and 
 did not know a living source of help. If you have 
 nothing but tracts, my impression is that you need 
 not go there to-day. You will have to do some- 
 thing very like giving money, or work, long before 
 that man or any of his family will be ready for 
 baptism. 
 
 Now I know this is common-place. I suppose 
 some will hardly listen to me as I talk of dollars 
 and cents in this connection. I cannot reason coolly 
 
HOME HEATHER 
 
 125 
 
 with a Christian who rails out against the eternal call 
 for practical help. Let him go and reason with the 
 men themselves. Come, I will invite you. I had 
 a man here in my study the other day. He had 
 been sick a month. He was a furrier by trade. 
 He had four children living. I buried one for him 
 once ; that is the way he came to know me. He 
 could live in ordinary times. His sickness, how- 
 ever, had thrown him in arrears. He was not able 
 to rise or stand. He halted twice on the stair- way. 
 I heard him, and opened the door. He came in to 
 tell me his trouble. His furniture was on the side- 
 walk. He could not remove it from there, without 
 paying his rent — four dollars. He had found 
 another house, but he could not go in without pay- 
 ing in advance two dollars. And he could not 
 move his little store of goods without paying a 
 drayman one dollar more. He was a Eoman 
 Catholic. 
 
 Ah, now, what a chance for conversion ! He had 
 come unsolicited to my study, and I had him fairly. 
 Now, if you had been within reach, how I would 
 have invited you to reason with him ! For, you 
 see, I had “ Kirwan’s Letters” close by; somebody 
 
126 
 
 HOME HEATHEN, 
 
 once gave me a “ Key to Heaven Cummings has 
 a fine chapter on Antichrist, I remember ; what an 
 argument we might have had with him ! Oh, it is 
 too serious to be sarcastic about ! Christian brother, 
 you know better than this. The first thing to do 
 for that poor fellow was to lend him seven dollars. 
 Lend him? Yes, better than give, under such cir- 
 cumstances, for it saves his self-respect. If he can, 
 he will return it — and you can lend it to the next 
 man ; if not, it is only giving, you see, after all — 
 and he hopes to be able yet. 
 
 2. Another complication is found in the fact that 
 very many who are to he reckoned in these mixed mul- 
 titudes are not vicious. In one day’s visit, you will 
 find, quite likely, a goodly number of old-country 
 people, and many of them are members of Christian 
 churches abroad; yet in this land, finding no spir- 
 itual home at first, they have fallen away into neg- 
 lect of all ordinances and institutions of the Gospel. 
 Business life and laborious toil hurry them through 
 the week, amid the vast throngs and vigorous com- 
 petitions of this crowded metropolis, and on the 
 Sabbatli they clamor lor rest and recreation. 1^'am- 
 ilies, even from Puritan New Lngland, are found 
 
HOME HEATHEN, 
 
 127 
 
 likewise, who, reared in the circles of strictest and 
 most virtuous associations, come here into closest 
 seclusion. They discover that the social lines are 
 drawn tensely; the rates of pew-rent are, in all 
 acceptable congregations, exceedingly high; and, 
 compared with all their previous village conge- 
 niality and neighborliness, the general welcome is 
 cold and uninviting to any further intimacy. For 
 awhile they make a compromise ; but little by little 
 they glide away from their former habits and con- 
 victions, become worldly like all the rest, and at 
 last they are lost in the obscurity of the throng — 
 lost to usefulness, if not to faith. 
 
 Bear in mind these persons may be poor or may 
 not Quite likely they are. At any rate, they live 
 among the poor. They find their homes on less 
 fashionable streets. They go to the common amuse- 
 ments ; they put the music of the Central Park in 
 the place of the Philharmonic Concerts ; they seek 
 the cemeteries instead of the sanctuary on the Lord’s 
 Day. They mark the hurrying thousands of all 
 classes in the community, and yet feel that they 
 must fight their own battles. So they grow on 
 fighting. 
 
128 
 
 UOME HEATHEN. 
 
 You imagine, perhaps, that conversation will 
 have great benefits to reach in their case. You 
 would like to talk with them. You may be very 
 ingenious, and subtle, and profound; but I warn 
 you they will give you defeat in the argument. 
 They have thought these matters over a great while ; 
 and that, too, when every faculty of their minds 
 was quickened and excited under the pressure of 
 scenes of starvation, and sickness, and degradation, 
 that they have experienced or witnessed. Social 
 forms and conventional restrictions have vanished, 
 in their estimation, into thin air, before the great 
 humanity that agitates and sways them. They 
 have their theories, not vaguely defined, as you will 
 discover yours are, but hard, clear, sharply-cut, and 
 thrusting. 
 
 Above all, they will worry you with the “ Tu 
 quoque'' argument. It is a favorite with them. 
 You will sa}', “ You ought to do this or that they 
 will answer, “And youT^ They think you are 
 human; they know they are. And they assert, 
 most recklessly their equality before God, and free- 
 dom from social estimates ol‘ every form. 
 
 ^IMicy will (juote Scri})turo at you, and give it 
 
HOME HEATHEN. 
 
 129 
 
 Strange turns of sentiment. You rebuke them for 
 breaking the Sabbath; they will point to you a 
 feeble little child, fairly gaunt for air, and tell you 
 they want to have her go to Greenwood alive a few 
 times before they take her there in a coffin. You 
 tell them that decency requires them to cling to 
 the faith of their fathers ; and they will reply it is 
 difficult to sing even the Lord’s song in Babylon. 
 You complain because they are not seen in the 
 sanctuary ; and they will ask you if it is wise for 
 a poor widow to run hopelessly in debt just to put 
 her two mites in the treasury. 
 
 Are these people all right? No; not half of 
 them. Are they amiable or proper-tempered? I 
 suspect not. I am afraid you would not be, if you 
 were to argue with them. You must soothe. Ah, 
 I tell you beforehand, you will hear more bold 
 heterodoxy than ever you heard before, if you at- 
 tempt to argue with many of the mixed multitude. 
 And now 1 tell you likewise, upon my faith, and 
 with a rebuked and humble heart, you will hear 
 moT-e truth too. 
 
 3. The other complication, to which I alluded, is 
 the entafiyled condition of all laws concefiming the rela- 
 6 * 
 
130 
 
 HOME HEATHEN, 
 
 tioiis of the poor and vicious to the opulent and strong. 
 Men will complain passionately to you that they 
 cannot be good and honest, if they would; but 
 they ask you to help them. They implore you to 
 interfere between them and what seems a great 
 impending hammer of society that simply beats 
 and beats them down. And it is when talking 
 about this that they grow wildest. They handle 
 things rather loosely. They say “ God ” in a way 
 that makes you shudder sometimes, and sometimes 
 weep. They believe he is on their side. They 
 think he is their fast friend. If you press them 
 with the fact that they do not serve him, they will 
 either deny it, and turn their appeal away from 
 you to High Heaven, or th-ey will stand at bay 
 suddenly, and retort on you the almost savagely 
 abrupt question, “ If you never had food nor father, 
 school nor Bible, church nor home, where would 
 you have been better than I am T' 
 
 They charge much of tlieir vice on others, and 
 in many cases you will be saddened with the 
 j)lausibleness of tlic plea. When a man is drunken 
 and violent, and you shame him and reproach him, 
 and then he tells you in rej)ly that* lie is weak 
 
HOME HEATHEN. 
 
 131 
 
 there, and he knows it ; and then he swears with 
 oaths that make the earth and air almost tremble, 
 how he went forth in the morning with a deter- 
 mined heart to be sober, and- a friend, licensed by 
 the laws yon live under, and the administrators of 
 which yon yourself helped to elect, tempted him 
 with a taunt on the corner, and rung a glass in his 
 ear because he knew the week’s wages had just 
 come in ; and So, poor fellow, he fell again. And 
 then, when he says it is no use for him to try to be 
 honest and decent, for all the powers that be are 
 leagued against him, and the whole world would 
 be willing to ruin him, body and soul, in the hell 
 of liquor, for the sake of the money he would need 
 to spend getting as drunk as he is now — what are 
 you going to say ? 
 
 Pity the poor rather than shun them. Be con- 
 siderate. Thoughtlessness kills them by scores. 
 One of Dr. Spencer’s parishioners met him hur- 
 riedly urging his way down the street one day ; his 
 lips were set, and there was something strange in 
 that gray eye: “How are you to-day. Doctor?” 
 he said, pleasantly. He waked as from a dream, 
 and replied soberly. “ I am mad It was a new 
 
132 
 
 HOME HEATHEN, 
 
 word for a mild, true-hearted Christian ; but he 
 waited, and with a deep, earnest voice, went on : ‘‘I 
 found a widow standing by her goods thrown in 
 the street; she could not pay the month’s rent; 
 the landlord turned her out ; and one of her chil- 
 dren is going to die ; and that man is a member of 
 my church ! I told her to take her things back 
 again. I am on my way to see him !” I think I 
 should like to have been present at that interview. 
 It would have been worth seeing, that Christian 
 rebuke from the indignant pastor. 
 
 My purpose is gained in this appeal, if it only 
 leads my fellow-workers to greater zeal. I do not 
 here propose policies, but I pray you read my text 
 over again: “Ye have the poor with you always; 
 whensoever ye wil\ ye may do them good.” I can- 
 not be at rest while the blessed Faith seems back- 
 ward or apathetic. The “ cry of the human ” forces 
 itself in upon me. 
 
 While I sat here, in my quiet study, the upper 
 room of my home, many months ago — my sermon 
 just completed at the close of a day, folded nicely, 
 laid labeled away, the evening coming on with long, 
 Ix'autiful shadows, tracing weird shapes on the 
 
HOME HEATHEN. 
 
 133 
 
 carpet — suddenl y my serene hour of rest was broken 
 in upon by the slow step of an unknown person 
 climbing the stairs. I waited quite a while, the 
 sound nearing the door, as if some one was timid, or 
 hesitated, or lame. Then there fell a heavy burden 
 against the panels. I was startled, and went imme- 
 diately to ascertain the meaning of the intrusion. 
 There on the landing lay the form of one I had 
 known in far-gone years — a broken, sick, worn ine- 
 briate, evidently sober, but exhausted even to faint- 
 ing. He was in the last stages of a decline. His 
 strength failed on the very threshold of my apart- 
 ment. I took the poor, thin, light burden up in 
 my hands, and brought him in, and laid him down 
 on my sofa. He panted so painfully for breath, 
 that I was actually frightened. I thought he might 
 die there with me alone. I gave him water, and 
 fanned him with my sermon — surely it never did a 
 better service than that. 
 
 By and by he got his breath and his utterance; 
 but spoke painfully, as he did his errand : — 
 
 ‘‘ I have come up here — very much troubled — I want 
 — you to take me — by the hand — and just lead me — • 
 like a little child — to Jesus 
 
134 
 
 HOME HEATHEN. 
 
 Do I need to tell you how I tried my best with 
 that poor fellow that remembered hour ? But that 
 is not my point. What I ^^ant to say is, that since 
 then I have never been at rest. The great, tried, 
 feeble, dying world keeps driving in through every 
 crevice of my study the wistful request — Will you 
 lead me, like a little child, to Jesus ! 
 
X. 
 
 JLigKtntng. 
 
 “ And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias^ to tarn the 
 hea/rts of the fathers to the childre/ny —Luke i. 17. 
 
 OIENCE tells us that the best defense 
 against lightning in a thunder-storm is 
 found, not in defiance of it, but in a silent discharge 
 of it. Go right toward it fearlessly with a pointed 
 platina wire, and we shall learn that it will follow 
 a fixed law of harmless dispersion. 
 
 Is there any way by which the power of one of 
 God’s curses can be drawn, so as to avert the terri- 
 ble stroke of divine wrath ? Let us see. 
 
 This text refers us directly back to the final ut- 
 terance of the Old Testament. There are four 
 books in the Bible which end with a curse : Mala- 
 chi. Lamentations, Isaiah, and Ecclesiastes. The 
 Hebrew scribes were always accustomed to repeat 
 the verse just before the last in these cases, so as to. 
 
136 
 
 DR A WING LIGHTNING. 
 
 close the reading with something besides a male- 
 diction. It is not easy to see how this helps the 
 matter in the present instance; for the preceding 
 prediction seems to have been uttered merely to 
 introduce the warning. And, perhaps, it is just as 
 profitable to believe that the best way to avoid the 
 judgments of Grod is to guard carefully against 
 deserving them. 
 
 After the last seer under the ancient dispensation 
 had spoken the words which the Evangelist quotes, 
 the heavens were -closed for four hundred years. 
 Jehovah had not another message to send. His 
 people had offended him. Justice comes almost 
 fiercely forth, and bars the gate of revelation, be- 
 cause children are despised. And not until four 
 centuries of silence had given time for repentance 
 would those bolts be withdrawn. Even then it is 
 a little child who advances to turn the massive 
 key. History wanders sadly in confusion among 
 the captivities and Maccabean usurpations. Only 
 an infiuit can join the ^rcstaments. Luke is the 
 next man to Malachi. The sternest of all Israel's 
 pro])hets reappears in the sternest of all heralds to 
 the church. “For all the prophets and the law 
 
DRAWING LIGHTNING. 
 
 137 
 
 prophesied until John ; and if ye will receive it, 
 this is Elias which was for to come.” 
 
 The wonderful suggestiveness of this passage, 
 however, is found in its theme. A wild threat, 
 four hundred years old, is suddenly removed in a 
 flash of benediction. The curse in Malachi is 
 omitted in Luke — the lightning is drawn. The 
 Gospel fulfills the law when it accepts children. 
 God receives the fathers into favor and communion 
 again when their hearts are turned to their off- 
 spring. 
 
 This is the doctrine of the text. Hence, I pre- 
 sent to you now, as a legitimate subject of conside- 
 ration, the. work of the Sunday-school organization ; 
 it discharges harmlessly the Old Testament maledic- 
 tions^ and it becomes the instrument of fidfilling the 
 benedictions of the New. It is the world’s helper and 
 the church’s servant. You will see this with all 
 clearness, if you examine who are the subjects of 
 its effort, and what it proposes to do with them. 
 
 I. The subjects of Sunday-school effort are, of 
 course, understood to be the young of our race. 
 Oftentimes these are the least noticed, and the last 
 noticed, of all classes of beings with souls. And 
 
138 
 
 DR A WING LIGHTNING, 
 
 yet there is no truth more settled than that Civili- 
 zation^ Chivalry and Christianity reach their highest 
 culmination in the caring for children. 
 
 1. Civilization is traced by marking the progress 
 of history. We may read the records of human 
 life, profoundly probing for the motives of men, 
 analyzing conventional laws, rules, and customs, 
 until at last we venture to say, from a wide induc- 
 tion of particulars, we are beginning to learn the 
 steps of advancement among the nations. And 
 now it has come to be confessed by the wisest phi- 
 losophers that the clearest evidence of a lofty civil- 
 ization for any people in any age or clime, is found 
 in the provisions which are made for little children. 
 Savages bind up their infants with afflictive thongs 
 of bark, as the most expeditious disposal to be made 
 of them. Never till a land has leisure, never till a 
 nation has refinement, never till most of the steps 
 u[>ward liavc been taken in the way toward ex- 
 alted attainment, does there come even one look 
 of a])preciation or sympathy for these “feeble 
 folk” of society more than the merest necessities 
 of existence or the exigencies of convenience re- 
 quire. 
 
DR A WING LIGHTNING. 
 
 139 
 
 He who, with kind heart, and subtle ingenuity 
 of invention, sits down at his desk to illuminate a 
 j uy enile volume with an extraordinary frontispiece, 
 or who toils at his bench to construct a mechanical 
 toy for a little child, is in one sense both the pro- 
 duct and the type of the truest and the highest 
 civilized humanity. 
 
 2. Chivalry has always claimed to have gone 
 somewhat beyond what mere civilization requires. 
 It has presented as the supreme excellence of man- 
 hood, that it recognize woman’s worth, that it labor 
 to secure the amelioration of woman’s lot, that it 
 freely yield to woman’s wish every equalization of 
 privilege, and that it have respect to woman’s weak- 
 ness with all indulgence and affection. It will ac- 
 cept no apology for a lack in this generous form of 
 consideration. It rejects with instinctive repug- 
 nance and horror all the learning of Socrates, all 
 his wisdom, all his morality ; because it discovers 
 that he positively sold his own wife at a price. 
 Chivalry is accustomed to say. Let woman cease to 
 be both a slave and a toy ; give her the place she 
 deserves in the social realm ; let her become reg- 
 nant as God has made her regal ; then the summit 
 
140 
 
 DRA WING LIGHTNING. 
 
 will be reached, and society will have advanced to 
 its highest meridian. 
 
 But when we are ready to accept this as final, 
 and actually begin to honor the sex we deem no- 
 blest, suddenly we discover there is that which the 
 honored sex honors in its own behalf. Look up as 
 we ought at woman, and we find woman not look- 
 ing down upon us, but looking upward still. 
 Crown a mother, and she will put the diadem on 
 the head of her boy, and bid you observe how like 
 a little prince he wears it. Give her a deed of un- 
 told wealth, and she will indorse it for her children 
 before she puts it in the safe. She tells you there 
 is something higher than herself With quicker 
 intuition and profounder wisdom she stands ready 
 to teach you that “ the child is father to the man.’^ 
 To respect woman and not respect children is 
 an impossibility. As society becomes vicious, 
 women are professedly adored ; but homes are 
 broken, and children are considered nuisances. 
 And if an oracle can ever instruct a devotee at all, 
 then chivalry ought to have certainly learned by 
 this time from the voice of woman herself, that no 
 sentiment of devotion to her can be lofty till it be- 
 
DRAWING LIGHTNING. 
 
 141 
 
 gins to honor and love her children as she honors 
 and loves them. 
 
 3. Christianity enters at this point to' accept and 
 repeat the lesson. Up to the moment in which a 
 nation Lecomes evangelized, all reference to the 
 young springs not from interest in them, but only 
 from the interest which the community has in its 
 own well-being. Christianity takes up children in 
 its arms, as"^ Christ did, for childhood’s sake. 
 Within a few years, some in this land of Gospel 
 light have come near enough to the Sun of Right- 
 eousness to learn that he desires to shine most be- 
 nignantly upon the little ones, and wants us to do 
 as they do in some eastern lands with infants, hurry 
 them out at birth where the first ray of the day- 
 spring from on high may visit them. When wealth 
 has multiplied and industry has prospered, when 
 science has increased and education become easy, 
 at last the Sunday-school has reached all ade- 
 quate recognition, and the best minds are laboring 
 in its behalf Music, literature, and the mechani- 
 cal arts are under steady tribute. “ The hearts of 
 the fathers” are in some measure turned to the 
 rjhildren. 
 
142 
 
 DBA WING LIGHTNING. 
 
 And now I am ready to say that herein lies the 
 glory of the American Church ; we are foremost in 
 the Sunday-school work. If some great catas- 
 trophe of nature were to bury us under, as a sec- 
 ond Herculaneum or Pompeii, and the antiquarians 
 of a far-future generation were to unearth our 
 records, found, as they would be, in the market and 
 in the sanctuary, in the dwelling and in the street, 
 in the metropolitan centers and in the rural diver- 
 gencies, all along and over the country — ^it would 
 not be the proud structures of our architects, hior 
 the fine paintings of our artists; it would not be 
 the princely mansions of our opulent merchants, 
 the thronged libraries, the crowded marts, the curi- 
 ous museums ; it would not be the triumphs of our 
 engineering skill, nor our inventions of ingenious 
 tools, nor even the gatherings of highest learning 
 in our universities and academies; not one nor all 
 of these would be our best evidence of civilization ; 
 not one would settle the question of either our ad- 
 vancement in real chivalry or Christianity. Our 
 reputation would have to stand or fall upon the 
 relics which would remain, to show before that en- 
 lightened age what we had been doing for children 
 
DR A WING LIGHTNING. 
 
 143 
 
 in this. It is to be hoped that they would fall upon 
 a toy -shop or a depository of juvenile books. 
 
 There can really be no denial of the affirmation, 
 that the highest reach of a Christian civilization is 
 presented in a Christmas-tree at an anniversary of 
 a Sunday-school. A most excellent study for any 
 thoughtful man is that tall evergreen, with its non- 
 descript fruit shining upon it, and the Bethlehem 
 carol stirring its branches ! 
 
 II. Thus much, then, concerning children as the 
 subjects of our labor. Let us now inquire concern- 
 ing the nature of the work we desire and propose 
 to do in their behalf This is no less than to seek 
 out., to educate., and to redeem children. 
 
 1. To seek them out — it may, possibly, make 
 one smile to speak of seeking out children in neigh- 
 borhoods like ours, where, in all likelihood, there 
 are more quivers and more arrows in each quiver 
 than anywhere else in the known world. Children 
 positively swarm wherever you go. The cities are 
 crowded ; the unhealthiest localities and the unfit- 
 test households generally the most so. And the 
 villages likewise are thronged. ‘‘Happy is the 
 people that is in such a case.” 
 
144 
 
 DRAWING LTGHTNTNG, 
 
 But this involves new responsibility. Half these 
 children die before five years of age. Not far from 
 one in seven is buried before it ever sees its anni- 
 versary birthday. What a waste, if God sends 
 them only as he sends the great tree-loads of spring- 
 blossoms for the comparatively little fruit ! But he 
 does not. He cares for the least of them, though 
 he gives the living multitude to the world with all 
 munificence of profusion. Some he takes home 
 early, and himself teaches. Some he leaves here 
 for you and me to teach. All these need to be in- 
 terested and attracted. In the verse from Malachi, 
 which the angel quotes only partially in our text, it 
 is intimated that the hearts of the children need to 
 be turned to their fathers also. They must be sought 
 out and brought under the power of the Gospel. 
 They never will be, until Christians become more 
 Christ-like. Brazilian rivers are full of diamonds ; 
 what then ? The costliest jewels will only drift 
 down the current and be lost in the sands, unless 
 somebody goes to crown-making, and gathers them 
 carefully up. 
 
 2. To educate them, then, becomes another part 
 of this work. And I make bold to say that there 
 
DBA WING LIGHTNING, 
 
 145 
 
 is no one agency which is doing more in this direc- 
 tion than the Sunday-school. This will appear if 
 you consider the class of instructors, the lesson they 
 inculcate, the text-book they use, and the spirit by 
 which they are actuated. 
 
 Who are the teachers in our Sunday-schools? In- 
 quire them out in turn. Any pastor or superin- 
 tendent can inform you. The best zeal and the 
 truest efficiency of the church at large are there. 
 God has wonderfully quickened the hearts of his 
 people latterly in this respect. The chief impres- 
 sion left by the last mighty revival in our land was 
 concerning the power of individual effort on the 
 part of the lay membership in our Christian con 
 gregations. 
 
 What is the lesson they are trying to impart ? You 
 know very well that the questions which pass for 
 study and answer between instructors and pupils 
 in these classes are those that concern the deepest 
 needs and the loftiest aspirations of the human soul. 
 The tremendous problems of sin and salvation are 
 the staple of close converse. If you draw nigh, so 
 as to overhear any recitation, you will listen only 
 to the story of the cross told over and over again. 
 7 
 
146 
 
 LRA WING LIGHTNING. 
 
 now by the parable, now by the history, now by 
 the type. What a discipline is this for stimulating 
 and directing thought, with such teachers and such 
 themes ! How the intelligence is awakened, how 
 the mind is educated — educed.^ drawn out — into the 
 exercise of its best powers ! 
 
 What is the text-hook they are accustomed to employ ? 
 The Bible alone. The multitudinous appliances 
 for help have increased wonderfully during the last 
 few years, and yet all of them are only intended to 
 magnify and explain the Word of God. The aug- 
 mented and oftentimes mysterious influence of a 
 Sunday-school lesson has this simple explanation : 
 it is as if God spoke, not man. The truth which is 
 brought to bear upon the heart and understanding 
 of the children is immediately authenticated and 
 accompanied by a vital force from heaven itself. 
 Tlie arguments for everything just, honest, pure, 
 and of good report, are not drawn from a mere 
 code of morals, or backed by mere considerations 
 of expediency ; they arc quickened by the unseen 
 energy of inspiration which pervades them. 
 
 What is the sjnrit hy which they are actuated? 
 Look in for a moment, in imagination, upon a work- 
 
DR A Wma LIGHTNING. 
 
 147 
 
 ing and effective Sunday-scliooL Mark one pecu- 
 liarity in attitude. The pupil, in the intensity of 
 his interest, has leaned forward from the bench ; and 
 the instructor, in the absorption of his subject, has 
 bent forward from the chair ; and that circle of 
 foreheads almost touch each other. We, who are 
 a little enthusiastic in such matters, call that char- 
 acteristic posture the “ Sunday-school Arch.” You 
 never find it except at the seats of the most intelli- 
 gent and faithful teachers. Eemember that they 
 have studied that lesson most carefully, and that 
 their whole hearts are in the duty they are doing. 
 Eemember that they have wrestled in earnest prayer, 
 on bended knees, before their Lord that very morn- 
 ing, pleading for all needed assistance. Then bear 
 in mind that their pupils love them, honor them, 
 and now listen with all the inquisitiveness of kindled 
 desire to learn something new and fresh. And 
 the eyes fill sometimes with the suffusion of ten- 
 der appeal and affectionate exhortation. Ah ! is 
 not this the place in which to educate a soul for 
 God? 
 
 3. To redeem children, however, is the main end. 
 And I put the question with all earnestness to any 
 
148 
 
 BRA WIKG LIGHTNING, 
 
 tliouglitfal and candid man : Wliere will you find a 
 plan whicli has more hopefulness in it than this ? 
 God converts souls ; our office is to lead them up 
 under the force of the means of grace. And is 
 there not in this Sunday-school Arch a fitting sym- 
 bol of the Divine promise, the very bow of the 
 ancient covenant, bending over these young immor- 
 tals, with its benediction of peace ? Keep a child 
 there, in that focus of intense spiritual heat and 
 light, aglow for a term of years. Let him grow up 
 under it. Let that immature form become manlier, 
 and perforce straighten somewhat with tallness ; and 
 that other form that has been bending with eager- 
 ness, begin to stoop with age ; and still let the 
 patient process be continued and never relax until 
 the place is changed, and the pupil becomes 
 a teacher, and, beginning with a little group, 
 makes and tends a new arch of his own ; what 
 will be the result of all this pressure of training 
 in the truth? Go ask church-records what it has 
 been. Head the names of those who come from 
 the Sabbath -cl asses into communion and mern- 
 bership 
 
 My Christian friend, liow mucli are you doing in 
 
DBA WING LIGHTNING. 
 
 149 
 
 this day of Gospel privilege to bring the hearts of 
 fathers back to their children ? Do we need another 
 prophet, with his hairy raiment and his leathern 
 girdle, to come forth from the wilderness ? 
 
XI 
 
 Infedigeni Siuctp. 
 
 Search the Scripturesy—Zou.^ v. 39. 
 
 HAT vessel is always liable to go awreck 
 whose pilot does not know whether he is 
 steering for a light-honse, or a light in a house. 
 
 In searching the Scriptures, the earliest point to 
 be settled is this : For what are we to look ? And 
 the answer we need is furnished in the declarations 
 of the Bible itself : “ He that hath an ear, let him 
 hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” 
 
 'l^he motto of the mystics was : “ The Scriptures 
 mean all that they can be made to mean.” The 
 Kabbins said there was not a letter, nor an apex of 
 a letter, whicli did not contain whole mountains 
 of meaning. And so they made anagrams, and 
 counted tlie characters, and estimated the lines, 
 and read the language backward. Putting every 
 
INTELLIGENT STUDY. 
 
 151 
 
 thing in, of course they drew out marvels and 
 wonders without limit. 
 
 What we want to know is just that, and nothing 
 more, which the Spirit of God intended to say. 
 And so all the counsels on this subject are simpli- 
 fied at once. 
 
 I. Search the Scriptures to ascertain the exact 
 words they employ. Inaccuracy in the citation of 
 proof-texts is as needless as it is unfortunate. For 
 an instructor of children, this fault is of prime im- 
 portance. “ Thou which teaches another, teachest 
 thou not thyself?” 
 
 1. Be sure you are quoting that which is in the 
 Scriptures. The Governor of Tennessee had no 
 right to put in his message the line, “ ISTow is the 
 winter of our discontent,” as the utterance of “the^ 
 prophet;” It is not in the Bible that you will find 
 the sentimental figure of Sterne, “ The Lord tem- 
 pereth the wind to the shorn lamb.” 
 
 2. Be sure you are quoting the passage as it is 
 in the Scriptures. No man would ever find in the 
 Bible the absurd jumble he sometimes opens his 
 prayer with: “0 Lord ! we would put our hand on 
 our mouth, and our mouth in the dust, and cry 
 
162 
 
 INTELLIGENT STUDY. 
 
 out, Unclean, unclean, God be merciful to us, sin- 
 ners.” Children sit with wonderment under a con- 
 fusion of acts and images so incongruous and im- 
 possible. Four texts are spoiled to construct this 
 nonsense. It was the afflicted Job that laid his 
 hand on his mouth. It was the yoke-bearing 
 youth in Lamentations that put his (not Job’s) 
 mouth in the dust. It was the leper in Leviticus 
 that was directed to put a covering on his upper 
 lip (not his hand on his mouth), and cry. Unclean. 
 It was the publican (with hands beating his breast, 
 and out of the dust altogether, in the temple) who 
 said, God be merciful to me, a sinner. This is no 
 way to quote God’s language, when speaking to 
 him. 
 
 IL Search the Scriptures to learn the precise 
 facts tliey record. Plain, unlettered men are often- 
 times the best expositors in the historic part of the 
 Ihble. Limited by no set theories or pet creeds, 
 they simply ask what the sacred writer has in- 
 tended to say. They never spring upon you any 
 deliverances of “ Mother Church,” nor do they stun 
 you with leaiMicd citations from “the Fathers.” 
 I’hey claim no inner light” more than other peo- 
 
INTELLIGENT STUDY. 
 
 153 
 
 pie, nor do they throw themselves back upon pe- 
 culiar “spiritual insight.” 
 
 1. Believe what the Bible says. Moses declares 
 that the waters of the Bed Sea were divided, stand- 
 ing as a wall on either side ; it is all folly, there- 
 fore, to seek for some wind, or some tide, to cause 
 a natural reflux, of which the tribes took advan- 
 tage, and got across. When Christ told Peter to 
 cast in his hook for a fish, that in its mouth he 
 might find silver for tribute, there is no propriety 
 in declaring he only meant to have the disciple go 
 and sell the fish and bring him the money. 
 
 2. Eeject what the Bible does not say. One 
 of the old commentators read in the sacred history 
 that Abraham in his later years married Keturah. 
 Knowing that the name Keturah meant “sweet 
 odor,” and remembering that sweet odors were used 
 as a symbol of spiritual graces, he drew from this 
 intricate combination of fragments of learning a 
 most felicitous thought; namely, that before he 
 died, the father of the faithful became superemi- 
 nently sanctified. Whereas the simple-minded 
 reader would only understand from the record that 
 the good patriarch took another wife in his old age, 
 
 7-x- 
 
154 
 
 INTELLIGENT STUDY. 
 
 wliicli in many respects is quite a different thing 
 from growth in grace. • 
 
 3. Be your own judge as to what the Bible does, 
 or does not, say. The volume before us is put 
 freely in our hands. The grand old Protestant 
 sentiment yet holds the minds of the people ; every 
 man’s conscience is the ultimate tribunal of de- 
 cision concerning truth. “No prophecy of the 
 Scripture is of any private interpretation ; for the 
 prophecy came not in old time by the will of man ; 
 but holy men of God spake as they were moved by 
 the Holy Ghost.” The Book of God has been 
 called “the god of books.” And in nothing does 
 the majesty of its divinity appear so indisputably 
 as in its simplicity and clearness to an enlightened 
 and devout mind. Neander’s motto was: “It is 
 the heart that makes the theologian.” 
 
 1 1 r. Scarcli the Scriptures to understand the doc- 
 trines they teach. The true rule for exposition is, 
 in a word, this: “Comparing spiritual things with 
 S])iritual.” We must not cite, and rest upon, 
 isolated verses, but follow the general sense of 
 Scrii)ture, in all our studies of doctrinal truth. 
 ^I'his is what the nj)Ostle means when he says: 
 
INTELLIGENT STUDY. 
 
 155 
 
 “ Let us prophesy according to the proportion of 
 faith.” 
 
 1. Explain one passage by another. This is the 
 value of marginal references. In the sixteenth 
 Psalm, David says : “ My flesh shall rest in hope ; 
 for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell ; neither wilt 
 thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”' 
 Now what possible right had our translators to be- 
 gin those words — Holy One — with a capital letter? 
 We look over in the second chapter of the Acts, 
 and there we find Peter expounding this Psalm as 
 a prediction concerning, not David, but the Messiah. 
 ‘‘He spake of the resurrection of Christ.” 
 
 2. Limit one passage by another. “ Answer not 
 a fool according to his folly,” must meet mid-way 
 with “ Answer a fool according to his folly.” “ Bear 
 ye one another’s burdens” does not rebuke those 
 who accept “Let every man bear his own burden.” 
 There is always some judicious stand which may 
 be taken in contrasting declarations like these. 
 God is said to repent that he made man ; and yet 
 we are told that he is not a man that he should lie, 
 neither the son of man that he should repent. We 
 are told that he hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and yet 
 
156 
 
 INTELLIGENT STUDY. 
 
 th^it Pliaraoli hardened his own heart. In the Psalm 
 we are informed that darkness is God’s secret place; 
 and in the Epistle to Timothy, that he dwelleth in 
 light. Moses says, in one verse, that J ehovah spake 
 with him face to face ; and in another, that no man. 
 conld see God’s face and live. There is no contra- 
 diction in these apparent oppositions of statement. 
 A candid study will find a middle ground between 
 them, sensible and safe. 
 
 3. Interpret each passage by a common under- 
 standing of all. The Word of God never contra- 
 dicts the evidence of our senses, nor advocates what 
 is impossible, nor outrages the dictates of decency, 
 nor crosses our intuitive moral judgments. 
 
 Tt never contradicts the evidence of oitr senses, “ If 
 the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous 
 do?” All the decrees of a thousand councils of 
 '^J’rent can not make me believe that tlie bread at 
 Communion is real flesh. It will not do to quote 
 to me — “''riiis is my body.” 1 would sooner ac- 
 knowledge that that verse reads — “This is not my 
 body,” tliaii tliat tlie bread is not bread. For if it 
 comes to a faith in senses, there they stand four to 
 one. I would ratlicr doubt my seeing the text, 
 
INTELLIGENT STUDY. 
 
 157 
 
 than doubt my seeing, smelling, feeling, and 
 tasting the bread. If I can not know bread and 
 wine, when I eat and drink, how can I know any 
 
 thins; ? 
 
 It never advocates lohat is impossible, Isaiah never 
 walked barefoot three years, just to show how the 
 Egyptians would have to walk barefoot. Ezekiel 
 never lay thirteen months upon his left side, look- 
 ing point blank into a cooking- utensil set on edge, 
 as if playing at a siege of Jerusalem. If the prin- 
 ciple of ecstasy does not explain these visions, 
 there is a principle somewhere that does. 
 
 It never outrages the dictates of decency. Voltaire 
 might have spared himself all the labor of ridicul- 
 ing Hosea for having to marry an adulterous wife ; 
 and all the sympathy he wasted on him for having 
 no better success the second trial. God never put 
 his prophets at doing any such wickedness. 
 
 It never crosses our intuitive moral judgments. In- 
 spiration does not teach that one is to hate his father 
 and mother in order to become a disciple of Christ. 
 Nor is cutting off one’s right hand, or plucking out 
 his right eye, a fixed means of grace. Self-mutila- 
 tion will not keep one out of hell. These passages 
 
158 
 
 INTELLIGENT STUDY. 
 
 are to be explained so as not to contradict our 
 moral sense of right and wrong. 
 
 ly. Search the Scriptures to discover the Christ 
 they reveal. This is, indeed, the first meaning of 
 the text as our Lord uttered it. ‘‘ Search the Scrip- 
 tures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life. 
 And they are they which testify of me.” 
 
 1. The history is full of Christ. Study will sur- 
 prise you with the disclosure that it was the same 
 Person, in whose bosom John lay at the Last Sup- 
 per, who wrestled with Jacob out in the wood be- 
 yond Penuel. He who was crucified on Calvary 
 was typed in the lad that his father bound to the 
 pile on Moriah. The foot of the cross was planted 
 on the exact spot where Abraham offered the ram 
 in the place of released Isaac. Think of Joseph’s 
 story ; what a transcript of Christ’s ! 
 
 2. The ritual is full of Christ. Do you remem- 
 ber that beautiful incident in the Holy War, where 
 ]h*ince Immanuel made a feast? After the eating 
 was over, he entertained the town with some curious 
 riddles, made u 2 )on King Sliaddai, and ui)on Im- 
 manuel his son, and uj)on liis wars and doings with 
 Mansoul. Some of tlicse riddles “Immanuel ex- 
 
INTELLIGENT STUDY. 
 
 159 
 
 pounded unto them, and, oh, how they were light- 
 ened! They saw what they never saw before; 
 they could not have thought that such rarities could 
 have been couched in so few and such ordinary 
 words. Yea, they gathered that the things them- 
 selves were a kind of portraiture, and that of Im- 
 manuel himself For when they read in the scheme 
 where the riddles were writ, and looked in the face 
 of the Prince, things looked so like one to the 
 other, that Mansoul could not forbear but say. 
 This is the Lamb, this is the Sacrifice, this is the 
 Eock, this is the Door, and this is the Way; with 
 a great many other things more.” 
 
 3. The prophecies are full of Christ. One seer 
 foretold his birth, another his death, and all of them 
 saw his day afar off, and were glad. Never was 
 child so longed for as that infant of Bethlehem, 
 which the world found no room for when he came. 
 On the battlements of Old Testament history there 
 seems ever one anxious face at least, peering into 
 the darkness and waiting for the dawn. The best 
 description of Jesus that Andrew could bring to 
 Simon Peter was this : “We have found him of 
 whom Moses and the prophets did write.” 
 
160 
 
 INTELLIGENT STUDY, 
 
 4. The Gospels are full of Christ All the inci- 
 dents of those four narratives are rightly under- 
 stood, only when grouped around that strange life 
 they exhibit You remember the story of the 
 Spanish artist, who painted the Lord’s Supper with 
 matchless perfection. He dashed his brush impa- 
 tiently over the canvas, as he overheard a bystander 
 applauding the wine shining so inimitably well in 
 the goblets. “Is it possible,” he exclaimed, “that 
 any one should see that picture, and think of any 
 thing but the face of Jesus?” 
 
 5. The epistles are full of Christ. Doctrinal truth 
 is the food of the renewed soul. There shine out 
 the exceeding great and precious promises. Yet 
 how few reach the extent of their meaning! I 
 have somewhere read of a silver egg, once prepared 
 for a present to a Saxon queen. Open the silver by 
 a secret spring, and there was discovered a yolk of 
 gold. Find a spring in the gold, and at the touch 
 it likewise flew open, and there was a beautiful 
 Inrd. Ih’css tlic wings of the bird, and in its breast 
 was found a crown, jeweled and radiant. And 
 even witliin the crown, uj)licld by a sj)ring like the 
 rest, w.'is a ring of diamond, fitted to tlie finger of 
 
INTELLIGENT STUDY. 
 
 161 
 
 the princess herself. Oh! how many a promise 
 there is within a promise in the Scriptures, the 
 silver around the gold, the gold around the jewels ! 
 Yet how few of God’s children ever find their way 
 far enough among the springs to discover the crown 
 of his rejoicing, or the ring of his covenant of 
 peace I 
 
 It is only by your favor now that I linger to state 
 a few closing reflections. 
 
 1. Intelligence is the very foundation of piety. 
 Truth gives life. It is no shame not to know ; it 
 is only a shame not to learn. To be ignorant is 
 a misfortune ; to remain ignorant is a fault. 
 
 2. Intelligence is the essential condition of success. 
 Truth converts the soul. Inspiration is what gives 
 truth its force. The best teachers are mighty in 
 the Scriptures.” There is their power. 
 
 3. Intelligence is the measure of attainment. 
 Thessalonica was a large and powerful cit]^ Berea 
 was a little village. The inhabitants of the one 
 place were wealthy and educated ; of the other, poor 
 and illiterate. But this is the testimony : “ These 
 Bereans were more noble than those in Thessa- 
 lonica, in that they received the Word with all readi- 
 
162 
 
 INTELLIGENT STUDY, 
 
 ness, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those 
 things were so.” 
 
 4. Intelligence is the answer to prayer. Truth 
 comes from God. Martin Luther said : “ To pray 
 well is to study well.” Even the Psalmist needed 
 the help : “ Open thou mine eyes, that I may be- 
 hold wondrous things out of thy Law !” 
 
XII 
 
 Believe. 
 
 0 
 
 Be not afraid; only 'beUave .'"' — ^Maek v. 86. 
 
 E were those who one time asked the 
 our, “ What shall we do that we might 
 work the works of God?’^ To this he replied, 
 “ This is the work of God, that ye believe on him 
 whom he hath sent.” 
 
 The issue, then, between God and men is nar- 
 rowed down to this — “only believe.” “He that 
 believeth on the Son of God is not condemned; 
 but he that believeth not is condemned already, be- 
 cause he hath not believed in the name of the only- 
 begotten Son of God.” Hence, the true and only 
 answer to an inquiring sinner is, “ Believe on the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” 
 
 No man, however, can be an inquirer except 
 under the influence of the Holy Ghost. “ No man 
 
164 
 
 ONLY BELIEVE. 
 
 can come to Christ except the Father draw him.” 
 If he comes asking, that proves that he comes 
 drawn. Hence the folly of those who profess to 
 be waiting for the Spirit in order to believe. They 
 have the Spirit ; they are resisting him, instead of 
 waiting for him, this very moment. And hence 
 the correction, also, of all false views of those who 
 deem it perilous to urge on every soul the duty of 
 immediate and believing surrender to Christ ; that 
 is the Spirit’s work, it is admitted ; but this is the 
 man’s duty. He is under the power of the Spirit from 
 the moment he asks the ivay. And we are bound to 
 bid him believe and be saved. If he cannot under- 
 stand it, we must explain it. This is what I now 
 am attempting to do. 
 
 L Let us inquire, first, the meaning of the Scrip- 
 tural term. 
 
 1. When the Bible speaks of faith, it sometimes 
 means mere belief in facts. This kind of faith is 
 necessary, in a certain sense, to salvation ; for he 
 that comes to Jesus must believe that he is. The 
 facts of* the Saviour’s life arc to be received in that 
 way. But this is not saving faith at all. For we 
 read that even the devils “believe and tremble.” 
 
ONLY BELIEVE. 
 
 165 
 
 They know all about the history of the Prince of 
 Salvation. 
 
 2. Again, faith some times, means that conviction 
 of the understanding which results from proofs laid 
 before it, or arguments adduced. This is that 
 which Thomas had, when, being asked to put his 
 hand in the side of his Lord, and his finger in the 
 prints of the nails, he was constrained by the evi- 
 dence to admit the reality of the resurrection. 
 “ Because thou hast seen,” said Jesus to him, “ thou 
 hast believed.” But this is not saving faith; for 
 our Lord immediately added, “ Blessed are they 
 that have not seen, and yet have believed.” 
 
 3. And sometimes the Bible means the faith of 
 miracles. This was a peculiar gift, bestowed by 
 Christ upon his immediate followers, in order that 
 they might attest their Divine mission by using 
 Divine power. This is what he intended when he 
 said, “If ye have faith, if ye shall say unto this 
 mountain. Be thou removed, and be thou cast into 
 the sea, it shall be done.” Now, whatever was the 
 nature of this peculiar endowment, it is evident 
 enough that there was no grace in it to save the 
 Eoul ; for the Saviour himself declared, “ Many will 
 
166 
 
 ONLY BELIEVE. 
 
 say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not 
 prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast 
 out devils, and in thy name have done many won- 
 derful works ? And then will I profess unto them, 
 I never knew you.” 
 
 4. Then, lastly, the Bible means saving faith ; 
 the true belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, through 
 which we are justified, and by which we live. 
 
 II. In the second place, let us inquire concerning 
 the nature of this exercise. The old writers used 
 to say that faith was composed of three elements : 
 a right Apprehension, a cordial Assent, and an un- 
 wavering Trust. Let me seek to exhibit these in 
 turn in a very familiar way. 
 
 1. To apprehend is really a physical act, and 
 means to seize hold of. When applied to mental 
 operation, it signifies to conceive clearly any given 
 object, and hold it before the mind for examination 
 and use. It docs not always include a full compre- 
 hension ; and this is so especially true in reference 
 to matters connected with the plan of salvation, 
 that I shall seek to have it very explicitly under- 
 stood here in the outset. A drowning man may 
 catch a roj)C that hangs near him, and be rescued 
 
ONLY BELIEVE. 
 
 167 
 
 by it, without knowing who threw it to him, or who 
 will draw it in, or what vessel it trails from. He 
 apprehends it, but he does not comprehend it. He 
 sees it, but he does not see all with which it is con- 
 nected. The fleeing Hebrew might not know who 
 erected the guide-posts on the way to the cities of 
 refuge, or how they were instrumental in saving 
 him from the avenger of blood when he was within 
 the walls. But he would need to see the great 
 letters of the word “ Eefuge” that was printed on 
 them, and note the direction in which the index 
 finger pointed. 
 
 JSTow, a careless confounding of these terms has 
 caused a great many mistakes on the part of those 
 who declare they will not believe what they can- 
 not understand.’^ They are not required to believe 
 what they cannot apprehend ; but they do believe, 
 over and over again, even in the common matters 
 of life, what they cannot comprehend. The growing 
 of the grass, the circulation of the blood, are as 
 complete mysteries to human understanding as the 
 doctrine of the Trinity or the Incarnation. I must 
 not turn away from coming to the Saviour, because 
 I cannot see how God could be manifest in the flesh. 
 
168 
 
 ONLY BELIEVE. 
 
 Enougli is it for me, that the Scriptures reveal the 
 mysterious fact that he has been. 
 
 And here you see, therefore, how much any 
 sinner can claim before he yields, and how little. 
 Naaman might not know, and really had no need 
 to know — no right to claim to know — how the river 
 Jordan could cure leprosj^, or what virtue there 
 would be in seven bathings, or what authority Eli- 
 sha had to send him there. But he needed to know 
 clearly the prophet’s directions, so as not to mistake 
 the name of the stream, or what he was to do when 
 he reached it, or forget the number of times he was 
 to wash to be clean. And this he had a fair right 
 to know before the crime of disobedience was urged 
 upon him. Now, this is the precise limit of knowl- 
 edge which the sinner may claim to have, before his 
 obligation to believe begins. He may ask just as 
 much information as the Israelite bitten by the fiery 
 serpent in the wilderness might ask : Where is that 
 image of brass? what must I do when I approach 
 it? I am ready to go. When Moses had replied, 
 It is close by you in the midst of the camp; you 
 arc only to look and to live; then his solemn duty 
 began, and he was responsible for his own delay. 
 
ONLY BELIEVE, 
 
 169 
 
 With the philosophy of the cure he had nothing 
 to do. 
 
 The two essential things for every man to appre- 
 hend, are his own need,, and Jesus Chrisfs fitness to 
 supply it. There ' is the inward look, and then 
 there is the outward look. I cannot help myself, 
 and the Saviour can help me, are the two thoughts 
 that must lie buried deep in his soul. It matters 
 little how these things are learned. “ There are 
 diversities of operations, but the same Spirit” The 
 Holy Grhost may teach one person through the read- 
 ing of the word ; another person through some stroke 
 of Providence, or by the ministry of reconciliation. 
 In one way or another the soul must come to see 
 its ruin and its Kedeemer; to feel, its helplessness 
 and know its Helper. It may not see how it came 
 to be so desperately ruined, nor how Jesus can be 
 of such paramount relief to it. It may know no 
 more than blind Bartimeus did ; that he could not 
 see, and that the Nazarene Healer was passing by. 
 Those two things, however, every sinner needs to 
 perceive. 
 
 2. Then comes the second element of faith, al- 
 ready mentioned — namely, assent This is a step 
 8 
 
170 
 
 ONLY BELIEVE. 
 
 in advance of the other. A simple illustration will 
 make plain what is meant by it. An invalid is 
 sometimes very unwilling to admit his danger, even 
 when he has nothing to oppose to the reasoning of 
 one who proves it. He feels his weakness, but he 
 resorts to a thousand subterfuges to avoid yielding 
 to the physician. His judgment is convinced, but 
 his will is unbroken. He apprehends his danger, 
 and knows the remedy ; but he refuses to be helped. 
 What he needs now is assent; and this requires 
 humility and the renunciation of self-will. 
 
 Faith includes this. It calls for a cheerful sub- 
 mission to God’s requirements, the moment we 
 apprehend them, no matter how humiliating the 
 assertion of our ill-desert may be. When the Syro- 
 phenician woman came pleading to our Saviour, he 
 gave her faith a most severe testing before he 
 granted her petition. “It is not meet,” he said, 
 “to take the children’s bread and cast it to tho 
 dogs.” Now, did she grow angry at this rebuff? 
 Did slic refuse to admit its justice? Did she go 
 away grieved, because lie seemed to be harsh to her? 
 No, indeed; she admitted it' all. “Truth, Lord,” 
 said she, ‘ yet the dogs cat of the crumbs that fall 
 
ONLY BELIEVE. 
 
 171 
 
 from their master’s table.” Then he raised her up, 
 saying, “ 0 woman, great is thy faith ; be it unto 
 thee as thou wilt.” She not only saw the truth, 
 but assented to it likewise, though the admission 
 was humbling in the extreme. And so must the 
 inquiring sinner give assent to all the teachings of 
 the Gospel, self-abasing as they are ; admit every 
 thing ; throw up all excuses ; leave all refuges of 
 lies; renounce self altogether ; “ only believe.” 
 
 3. The third element of saving faith is trust By 
 this I mean reliance on the truth of what God has 
 said he would do ; a quiet resting on his promises 
 to accomplish all we need for salvation. You re- 
 member in the case of the centurion, our Lord 
 declared he “ had not found so great faith, no, not 
 in Israel.” Now, what was it that made his faith 
 in particular so great, so peculiar in itself, and so 
 superior in the estimation of the Saviour ? Simply 
 the presence in it of superabounding trust. He 
 had come for a gift of healing to be bestowed upon 
 his servant lying at home sick. To his request 
 Jesus replied, “I will come and heal him.” One 
 would think that now the centurion would doubt a 
 ‘little. Might not the Saviour forget his promise in 
 
172 
 
 ONLY BELIEVE. 
 
 the multiplicity of his cares ? Might he not delay 
 coming till too late ? Even this suspicion made his 
 trust a matter of somewhat difficult exercise ; and 
 yet that man was willing to go further. He was 
 content to rest on a mere declaration, without a 
 promise. ‘‘Speak the word only,” said he, “and 
 my servant shall be healed.” He did not care to 
 have the Saviour's presence, if he would only say 
 the man should be whole. Then he could depart 
 to his house restful and^ satisfied. 
 
 This is trust ; acquiescence without question, rest- 
 fulness without wavering ; and it is the most essen- 
 tial part of faith, and yet the most difficult to exer- 
 cise. Almost all in our Christian communities have 
 two of the elements of faith already mentioned. 
 They know the Saviour’s history. They under- 
 stand his Gospel plan. They have been told his 
 ability and his willingness to save them. A first 
 step then, apprehension, has been taken. And so 
 has a second, assent, been taken by very many, 
 '’riicy do not doubt one word that God has spoken, 
 '^riiey feel their ruin. Tlicy are under a constant 
 conviction of sin. l^hcy admit everything. Now, 
 what yet do they need ? Nothing except this third 
 
ONLY BELIEVE. 
 
 173 
 
 step, trust; “Only believe.” Eely on the Saviour. 
 Eest in him. Hold to his truth in all he says. 
 
 III. The use to be made of this analysis, comes 
 next to view. We are ready to speak to any in- 
 quiring sinner in our class directly, and this is what 
 to say. 
 
 Your experience hitherto has been something 
 like this. You have seen your need; you have 
 admitted it ; you have gone in prayer to Jesus con- 
 fessing it. Told to pray, you did pray. Moved by 
 some faithful sermon, or tract, or conversation, you 
 have gone home to the privacy of your own cham- 
 ber, making sober resolution to become a Christian 
 at once. You know you have been a sinner, con- 
 demned to eternal death. You assented to all that 
 the word of God charges on you. And you longed 
 to be helped. Told to confess, you did confess. 
 Told you must be in earnest, you honestly think 
 you laid your whole heart bare before God. You 
 acknowledged everything, and only plead for par- 
 don. You said in your prayer, “0 Lord, I am 
 vile, I come to thee ; I plead thy promise that thou 
 wilt not cast me out ; I give myself away in an 
 everlasting surrender ; I leave mj soul at the very 
 
174 
 
 ONLY BELIEVE. 
 
 foot of the cross !” And then you rose from your 
 knees, murmuring, “ Oh, I am no better ; I feel just 
 the same as before !” 
 
 You saw that you had made a failure. Now 
 where was the lack? Simply in the particular of 
 trust You would not take Jesus at his word. He 
 had said, “Him that cometh unto me I will in no 
 wise cast out.” So you plead with him. You came 
 unto him, but you insist that he did cast you out 
 after all. 
 
 You said — here I am ; and then you drew back. 
 You said — I give myself to thee; and then you 
 took yourself away again. You trifled with God. 
 You should have left yourself there, and trusted 
 your soul with him, as you said you would. Let 
 me suggest to you where your disappointment was 
 centered. I think I can tell you what you half- 
 expected, half-bargained, on the spot. 
 
 If some clear voice had only spoken to you as 
 you kneeled, saying, “ Thy sins be forgiven thee ; 
 go in j)cace,” how your heart would have leaped for 
 joy. If you could only have seen Paul’s “great 
 light,” tliat would have confirmed yon. Or if even 
 Borne aged minister liad bent over and whispered 
 
ONLY BELIEVE. 
 
 175 
 
 in your ear, “You are received, 1 am sure,” then 
 you would perhaps have been satisfied, and begun 
 tremblingly to hope. But because you had nothing 
 of this, not even a sign without, or a strange feel- 
 ing within, that you could make to answer for a 
 sign, you were discouraged. Now, I have three 
 remarks to make about this action of yours, and 
 its result. 
 
 In the first place, let me say, I would not have 
 been the minister to tell you of your acceptance, 
 for all the world. For then you would have be- 
 lieved in me, not in the Saviour. No man has any 
 right to say such a thing to you. I have seen those 
 who in revival times will question and direct for a 
 while, and then say to young persons, “ All right, 
 you are converted !” and my blood has run cold. 
 They know nothing about it. 
 
 In the second place, let me tell you that you 
 never will have any such sign, without or within, 
 to be your confirmation. If God ever gives any- 
 thing of the sort, it will only be afterward, for your 
 comfort. “We walk by faith, not by sight;” and 
 this would be sight, not faith. God does not deal 
 with men so.. He claims that that they shall trust 
 
176 
 
 ONLY BELIEVE, 
 
 him without speaking. If you stand off, saying in 
 your heart, I will believe the moment \feel accepted, 
 you will never be accepted. You must trust, and 
 ask no favors. Then God will give you what he 
 pleases. And most likely, one day or another, he 
 will give you some token of his love that will aid 
 you ; but he never will, if you bargain for it. 
 
 Go again then ; do not wait, nor grieve, nor bar- 
 gain, nor doubt Do not reply to me, “ Oh, I have 
 done all I can over and over again ; and it is of no 
 use.” There is one thing you can do, -that you 
 never have done yet You can trust the Saviour. 
 So I say again, and keep saying to you, Only be- 
 lieve.” 
 
 In the third place, let me say, that if this sign 
 were given you, it would be the most dangerous 
 thing for you that could be conceived. Because 
 then you would trust the sign, and not the Saviour. 
 Perhaps you have read that story of the woman, 
 told in the “ Pastor s Sketches,” who saw a beau- 
 tiful Bird of Paradise on a blue globe, and believed 
 it was the evidence God had sent to show her she 
 was born again. Are you surprised to find that 
 wljen she was asked for her ground of salvation, 
 
ONLY BELIEVE. 177 
 
 she had to tell all about that ridiculous dream the 
 very first thing ? So would you, if you had any 
 such folly in your mind. And by and by you 
 would wake to the consciousness that only Jesus 
 can save your soul, and you had been deceiving 
 yourself all this time. 
 
 When you have given yourself to Christ, leave 
 yourself there, and go about your work as a child 
 in his household. When he has undertaken your 
 salvation, rest assured he will accomplish it, with- 
 out any of your anxiety, or any of your help. 
 There remains enough for you to do, with no con- 
 cern for this part of the labor. 
 
 Let me illustrate this posture of mind as well as 
 I can. A shipmaster was once out for three nights 
 in a storm ; close by the harbor, he yet dared not 
 attempt to go in, and the sea was too rough for the 
 pilot to come aboard. Afraid to trust the less ex- 
 perienced sailors, he himself stood firmly at the 
 helm. Human endurance almost gave way before 
 the unwonted strain. Worn with toil, beating 
 about ; worn yet more with anxiety for his crew 
 and cargo ; he was well nigh relinquishing the 
 wheel, and letting all go a-wreck, when he saw the 
 8 * 
 
178 
 
 ONLY BELIEVE. 
 
 little boat coming, with the pilot. At once that 
 hardy sailor sprang on the deck, and with hardly a 
 word took the helm in his hand. The Captain 
 went immediately below^ for food and for rest ; and 
 especially for comfort to the passengers, who were 
 weary with apprehension. Plainly now his duty 
 was in the cabin ; the pilot would care for the ship. 
 Where had his burden gone? The masters heart 
 was as light as a school-boy’s ; he fell no pressure. 
 The pilot, too, seemed perfectly unconcerned; he 
 had no distress. The great load of anxiety had gone 
 forever ; fallen in some way or other between them. 
 
 Now turn this figure. We are anxious to save 
 our soul, and are beginning to feel more and more 
 certainly that we cannot save it. Then comes 
 Jesus, and undertakes to save it for us. We see 
 how willing he is ; we know how able he is ; there 
 we leave it. We let him do it. We rest on his 
 promise to do it. We just put that work in his 
 hands to do all alone ; and we go about doing some- 
 thing else; self-improvement, comfort to others, 
 doing good of every sort. He feels no burden. 
 What troubled us so, does not trouble him. All 
 wc need to do is to hold our confidence firm. What 
 
ONLY BELIEVE. 
 
 179 
 
 if that captain should keep running up to see if the 
 pilot was still there ; or to offer to help him ; or to 
 make suggestions ; would it not be folly ? So, for 
 us to keep distressing ourselves about salvation 
 when we have given all that work to Christ, is 
 worse than folly ; it is doubting the Saviour, slight- 
 ing his love, giving up trust in him just as we 
 begin it. 
 
 One more illustration will make the whole matter 
 clear. A little child, running up to bid her father 
 good-by in the morning as he goes to business, 
 says, Bring me a present to-day.” “What shall 
 it be, little one?” So he questions. “What will 
 you give?” she returns upon him. ^’‘Anything you 
 he replies. That proves too much for the 
 young heart to hold alone. She hurries for a faith- 
 ful help she has : “ Mother, what shall I ask him 
 to fetch me to-night; he says anything T'' “Are 
 you sure of the word, my child?” “Yes, mother, 
 he said he would give me anything I ask ; I know 
 he means of course anything that is proper for a lit- 
 tle girl ; and I cannot think what I want the most.” 
 “ Tell him to bring a Pilgrim’s Progress for you.” 
 
 And before the words are all out, the eager child 
 
180 
 
 ONLY BELIEVE, 
 
 is in the hall again. “ Father, bring me a Pilgrim’s 
 Progress bnt no word of reply. He puts on his 
 coat, and there is a tug at the skirt ; “ Father, will 
 you do it ? a Pilgrim’s Progress ; will you bring 
 it?” And no answer yet; and no answer at all 
 He is gone. Does the child doubt ? No. Why? 
 Because her mother calls her up to say, “You will 
 get that book.” “ How do you know ?” questions 
 the little one. 
 
 “ For two reasons : firsts your father never told a 
 lie ; and he said he would give you anything you 
 asked ; second^ you have asked what most of all he 
 wanted you to have ; for I heard him say he wished 
 his little girl would read Pilgrim’s Progress through. 
 Never mind that he said no more ; he wants to 
 know you trust him and love him.” 
 
 And when I find, my inquiring friend, that you 
 are disturbed because you have no word nor sign, 
 although you have asked God to forgive you and 
 give you a new heart, I can only say to you, trust 
 him for that. I have two reasons also: i/e never 
 told a lie, and He surely said, “Ask whatsoever 
 you will and you have asked of him the very 
 tiling lie desired most earnestly to give you. 
 
ONLY BELIEVE. 
 
 181 
 
 There, then, is the direction found in a word; 
 yet, oh, how full of meaning it is ! Be not afraid; 
 only Believer Come to the Saviour ; rest on him ; 
 hold yourself to him. Say in a prayer : — 
 
 “ Just as I am ; thy love unknown, 
 
 Hath broken every barrier down ; 
 
 Now to be thine, yea, thine alone, 
 
 0 Lamb of G-od, I come I” 
 
XIII. 
 
 The Teaclier Tau^lif. 
 
 “ Thou therefore xchich teachest another^ teachest thou not thyself — 
 Romans ii. 21 . 
 
 N his conversation with Nicodemns our 
 Saviour enunciated the principle to which 
 all Christian usefulness must eventually be referred ; 
 namely, that religious instruction, in order to be 
 effective, must grow up out of one’s personal ex- 
 perience. A careful exposition of the passage from 
 which our text is taken will show that it offers like- 
 wise an illustration of the same rule. 
 
 The model Pharisee of primitive times imagined 
 lie was reaching the ultimate height of excellence 
 when he could call himself a Jew ; he asserted for 
 himself the most edifying orthodoxy ; he presented 
 liis life as tlio j)attcrn of flawless morality and 
 eminent devotion ; he claimed extraordinary kden- 
 
THE TEACHER TAUGHT 
 
 183 
 
 ness in discrimination, approving only what was 
 excellent; he contemplated himself as sublimely 
 equal to any exigency of public station ; he could 
 inform the ignorant, illumine the darkened, give 
 counsel to bewildered adults, and help forward un- 
 taught children, being fully conversant with all the 
 ritual and all the creed. 
 
 Yet with all these assumptions the apostle seems 
 to have discovered that whi^ led him to rate such 
 a creature as a mere spiritual quack ; and he here 
 denounces him with terrible violence. This man, 
 so earnest against thieving, had a touch of dishon- 
 esty ; so stern in pressing the penalties of the 
 seventh commandment, had some sins which would 
 look ill under scrutiny. In a w"brd, he was instruct- 
 ing others with no word for himself. And, again, 
 with great detail of illustration so as not to be mis- 
 understood, St. Paul reiterates the grand principle 
 of the Gospel : religious instruction is to he indorsed 
 hy the living experience of the instructor. 
 
 This is the theme upon which I venture once 
 more to address my fellow-workers in the Sunday- 
 school. A few general considerations will rendei 
 the point sufficiently clear. 
 
184 
 
 THE TEACHER TAUGHT 
 
 1. Consider, first, the great common need under 
 which humanity lies. It has pleased God to make 
 men instruments of good to each otlier. Hence the 
 proclamation of the Gospel is necessarily experi- 
 mental. No converted man has really any thing 
 more to say than this : “ Come and hear, all ye that 
 fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for 
 my soul.” 
 
 There is singular advantage in this method, if 
 only faithfully carried out. It invokes all the 
 power of sympathy. It renders one man influen- 
 tial over many. It saves material. It stimulates 
 exertion. Men are always moved to action in their 
 own behalf when they find others, once confessedly 
 in the same category, now relating and commending 
 the means of their extrication. Naaman was just 
 the person to tell lepers of the prophet in Samaria, 
 who had bidden him go wash in the Jordan. Bar- 
 timeus was just the right one to lead blind men to 
 Jesus, who had opened his eyes. Hence it is per- 
 fectly natural that we demand of him who teaches 
 us that he should first have felt the truth he 
 })roncrs, that lie should have experienced the good 
 he jiroinises, that he should have obeyed the com- 
 
THE TEACHER TAUGHT. 
 
 185 
 
 mand he is urging. -We instinctively question the 
 right of any individual to address us upon those 
 grand matters of personal salvation, unless he can 
 say as Christ did, “We speak that we do know, 
 and testify that we have seen.” He is in as great 
 peril as we are ; he is in as much need as we -are; 
 and we say, “Physician, heal thyself!” 
 
 II. Consider, in the second place, the aim of all re- 
 ligious instruction. The conscience must be reached, 
 and through its monitions the entire life must be 
 influenced, or else all teaching is wasted. And 
 conscience is seared more or less in every case 
 where the soul has so far passed from mere infancy 
 as to reach the exercise of free-will. Great inge- 
 nuity is required in order to reach it ; something 
 more than ingenuity is required in order to arouse 
 it. Even then it is often misunderstood. 
 
 Nothing appears so mysterious as the forms of 
 operation which this inner monitor chooses. Some- 
 times it seems to render a man harder and more 
 violent ; and yet at that very wildest moment he is 
 nearer yielding than ever before. Sometimes it 
 melts a man into deep emotion ; and yet we pain- 
 fully discover afterward that this has been mere 
 
186 
 
 THE TEACHER TAUGHT. 
 
 ebullition of excited feeling. The main question to 
 be answered with 1^11 teachers is this : How may we 
 learn to discriminate in these confusing manifesta- 
 tions ? 
 
 The answer is much easier than many are inclined 
 to suppose. We can not grow skillful in distin- 
 guishing these external shows, without diligent 
 studies of our own internal experience. Conscience 
 must be watched in its working within our hearts. 
 “ As in water face answereth to face, so the heart 
 of man to man.” But face does not answer to face 
 exactly ; features of children differ, and expressions 
 of countenance are flitting and fitful. Still, the 
 number and the name of the lineaments are on 
 every face the same. On general principles, that 
 truth is most effective, which, having proved itself 
 forceful in reaching our own consciences, goes from 
 its success there directly and unhindered upon the 
 intrenchments of another. And let it wear all its 
 awful power undisturbed ; when it has the divine 
 doctrine of r(‘pcntance to utter, it would be folly to 
 change even its raiment of caincl’s liair, or cover 
 tlic coarsemess of the leathern girdle about its 
 loins. 
 
THE TEACHER TAUGHT 
 
 187 
 
 III. Consider, again, the variety of forms employed 
 in Scripture instruction. “ All Scripture is given 
 by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, 
 for reproof, for correction, for instruction in right- 
 eousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thor- 
 oughly furnished unto all good works.” ‘But then, 
 how much there is of it ! One becomes bewildered 
 and embarrassed in the midst of such riches. There 
 is room for any amount of skill in discriminating 
 what doctrine or what principle or what precept to 
 apply in each given case to insure most good, and 
 avert all evil. 
 
 Now, it is no reproach for me to utter, when I 
 assert that matiy of our Sunday-school teachers are 
 at a loss here. Are there none, even in this day of 
 light, who turn over the pages of God’s word help- 
 lessly in search of some reply to an inquiring soul ? 
 When the tossed world is drifting, and a passenger 
 lies at the point of death, are there none wfe^.urry 
 boldly to the Bible, as a sailor to the medicine- 
 chest ; and yet stand appalled at the formidable - 
 array of spiritual drugs, any one of which possibly 
 might be helpful or hurtful, if only they could 
 know which? How can we learn what truth to 
 
188 
 
 THE TEACHER TAUGHT 
 
 employ or what phases of truth to present ? There 
 surely can be but one reply to this question. 
 
 Let the Scriptures be studied experimentally. Let 
 the Christian teacher re-work every principle he 
 offers to others, first into his own mind, and out- 
 work it into his own life. It will not be long be- 
 fore he will have gone over most of the moods and 
 tenses of religious feeling he will meet. It might 
 not be safe that every physician try the effect of his 
 prescriptions upon himself first; but for spiritual 
 cures there is no process that can be more confi- 
 dently commended. “ Out of the abundance of the 
 heart the mouth speaketh.” 
 
 IV. Consider, furthermore, the power of a godly 
 example. The common law of influence can not be 
 expected to fail, just because the force exerted has 
 in some cases become salutary. The habit of the 
 human heart is inveterate. Men are imitative, 
 and in nothing so much as religious observance. 
 Moreover, they insist upon identifying a moral 
 teacher with what he teaches. Especially under 
 the Gospel will they have it that Christians shall 
 incarnate the truth they urge on others, and shall 
 become the ])crsonal embodiment of it with all its 
 
THE TEACHER TAUGHT. 
 
 189 
 
 predicted results. They will not snJBfer a limping 
 man to propose an effective cure for lameness. 
 
 Bear in mind that the world has this much of a 
 show of unusual reason in the case of the followers 
 of Christ ; he expressly taught that they should be 
 accepted as illustrations and exemplifications of the 
 Gospel. The force of one sentence in the Sermon 
 on the Mount turns upon the insignificant wor^, 
 Soy “Let your light so shine before men that 
 they may see your good works, and glorify your 
 Father which is in heaven.” “If, therefore, the 
 light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that 
 darkness !” In like manner, the apostles taught, 
 “Ye are living epistles, known and read of all men.” 
 
 Hence there can be no inconsistency so utter as 
 an inconsistent Christian teacher presents. There 
 can no failure be more ridiculous in the eyes of a 
 ribald world than that of a man who urges a truth 
 and lives a lie. But, on the other hand, whenever 
 fully possessed of the power of the Gospel, pervaded 
 with its spirit, and radiant with its light, a grand life 
 goes about doing good, that life has a majestic 
 driving force to it almost unlimited. Men bend 
 subdued to an influence which they can not com- 
 
190 
 
 THE TEACHER TAUGHT 
 
 prebend, but which they know is safe, and which 
 they feel they can trust implicitly. Finer picture 
 of human greatness there is not even in the Bible 
 than that of Simon Peter, when the multitudes 
 brought the sick out on couches, that they might 
 lay them where at least his shadow could fall on 
 them. Oh ! believe me, this poor world has been 
 deceived cruelly a great many times, bul^ it is yet 
 intelligent enough to recognize its best benefactors. 
 There is no one thing it loves more to abide under 
 than a good man’s shadow — the only shadow on 
 this planet that renders it more luminous besides 
 the shadow of the Almighty wing. 
 
 V. Consider, in the fifth place, the law of the Holy 
 Spirit^ s action. Truth is propagated not by trans- 
 mission through mere symbols, but by radiation 
 through conductors in contact. 
 
 The lens of a burning-glass will not only suffer 
 the free passage of the sun’s rays, but will condense 
 and concentrate them, until the focus they fall upon 
 bursts into flame; meanwhile the lens itself will 
 remain j)crlcctly cool. Wonderful experiments of 
 this sort have been pcrlbrmcd with even a lens of 
 ice, which kindled a lire and continued unmelted. 
 
THE TEACHER TAUGHT. 
 
 191 
 
 You can find nothing, however, in religious matters 
 to which this phenomenon would answer. The 
 torch, not the burning-glass, is the emblem of spir- 
 itual life ; it flames while it illumines, and is warmed 
 as it sets on fire. He infiuences others most who 
 has been nearest in contact with Christ. 
 
 Thus the Holy Ghost becomes an indweller. 
 This is the meaning of the word spirituality; it 
 signifies the presence of the Divine Spirit. And 
 there surely remains no ignorance in any mind as 
 to the absolute necessity of his presence in order to 
 all Christian usefulness. Without him we can do 
 nothing. “ If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, 
 he is none of his.” No religious teacher can give 
 more than he gets, nor communicate more than he 
 possesses. I will not deny that the Holy Ghost 
 sometimes works immediately upon the human 
 heart; what I urge now is merely that when he 
 acts upon another heart through ours, he does it by 
 entering abidingly into ours. And ordinarily he in- 
 fluences the conscience next to the teacher’s, by mov- 
 ing the conscience of the teacher. Thus the efficient 
 impulse is seen to grow up out of experience. 
 
 Whichever way we look, then, we reach the same 
 
192 
 
 THE TEACHER TAUGHT 
 
 conclusion. The heart lies behind the hand which 
 proffers religious truth. The practical importance 
 of this principle can not be over-estimated. Let 
 us now search for points of contact which it finds 
 in Sunday-schools. 
 
 1. We learn here the proper use to make of the 
 Scriptures. All religious instruction must be re- 
 ceived experimentally. Thus the Bible becomes 
 personal in every one of its utterances. How is it 
 now ? “ The vision of all is become unto you as 
 
 the words of a book that is sealed, which men de- 
 liver to one that is learned, saying. Bead this, I 
 pray thee; and he saith, I can not, for it is sealed.' 
 And the book is delivered to him that is not 
 learned, saying. Read this, I pray thee ; and he 
 saith, I am not learned.” What is this that renders 
 the learned and the unlearned together so at fault ? 
 Surely, not want of education, but want of ex- 
 perience. 
 
 It may be worth knowing, as a geographical fact, 
 that there is no water in the Kidron valley save 
 after a shower; it may be important to learn, as a 
 liistoi’ic fact, that Capernaum was located at Khan 
 Minyeh ; but this is not what is going to save souls. 
 
THE TEACHER TAUGHT. 
 
 193 
 
 We need to read the Divine word with a deeper 
 sense of its . spiritual meaning. We must transmute 
 facts into principles ; we must incarnate doctrine in 
 daily .action ; we must embody truth in life ; we 
 must reduce vague information to vital and avail- 
 able help. 
 
 2. We learn to distinguish between gift and 
 grace. Mere intellectual gift sometimes even hin- 
 ders grace. “Christ,” said Legh Eichmond, “may 
 be crucified between classics and mathematics.” It 
 is not our want of aptitudes for doing good which 
 stands in our way, half so much as it is our want 
 of communion with God. The rule is, “ Oh ! taste 
 and see that the Lord is good !” Out of this ex- 
 perimental acquaintance with truth grows our power 
 to fitly offer it. Only thus can we learn to recom- 
 mend the various viands on the table of the Gospel 
 feast. Scholarship becomes a means to an end. It 
 is not the show of splendid attainments, but the 
 hidden force of piety underlying them, which 
 affects the souls we hope to influence. 
 
 The Gospel light is much like the solar light ; its 
 beauty is not its efficiency. You may divide the 
 sunbeam into seven beautiful colors, and not one 
 9 
 
194 
 
 THE TEACHER TAUGHT. 
 
 alone nor all together will imprint an image on a 
 daguerreotype plate. Just outside the spectrum, in 
 the dark, there is one entirely invisible ray, called 
 the chemical ray, which does all the work. No 
 man ever saw it, no man ever felt it ; and yet this 
 it is which bleaches and blackens a dull surface 
 into figures of loveliness and life. I care not how 
 luminous a man’s personal or intellectual qualities 
 may be ; if he lacks amid the showy beams that are 
 shining this one which is viewless — this efficient 
 but inconspicuous beam of spiritual experience — all 
 his endeavors will surely prove inoperative for good. 
 
 3. We learn here the advantage of seasons of 
 discipline. In all the round of God’s dealing with 
 his children, there is nothing like suffering as an 
 educator. It deepens and widens and swells the 
 volume of Christian experience, so that the simplest 
 utterance is made effective. Ah ! how fine is the 
 promise for good that is coming, when one wearing 
 habiliments of mourning enters a Sunday-school 
 with the wish for a class to teach ! “ He that goeth 
 
 forth and wcepetli, bearing precious seed, shall 
 doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his 
 sheaves with him.” 
 
THE TEACHER TAUGHT. 
 
 195 
 
 Anything that loosens the hold of the soul on 
 earthly things, and just shuts it up to God, is val- 
 uable ; but, as a preparation for usefulness, is price- 
 less. Any man expert in sea-life could have said 
 all that the apostle said when he came forth to quiet 
 ‘ the sailors in the midst of a shipwreck. The force 
 of his counsel lay not so much in the prudence of 
 what he suggested, as in the experience which was 
 embodied in it — that ‘‘ long abstinence” in which he 
 had received his vision. One mysterious but re- 
 membered hour there was which gave his speech 
 all its efficiency. “ And now I exhort you to be 
 of good cheer; for there shall be no loss of any 
 man’s life among you, but of the ship. For there 
 stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I 
 am and whom I serve, saying. Fear not, Paul, thou 
 must be brought before Caesar ; and lo ! God hath 
 given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, 
 sirs, be of good cheer ; for I believe God, that it 
 shall be even as it was told me.” It is just this, 
 jmt this., which is the element of power in any 
 counsel. The angel of experience is sent to one, 
 and then he is ready to say, “ I believe God !” 
 
 4. We learn the secret of all success, and the ex- 
 
196 
 
 THE TEACHER TAUGHT. 
 
 planation of all failure. It would seem at first sight 
 that truth is efficient in itself ; that the Grospel sword 
 has an inherent thrust, no matter who wields it ; and 
 that all which needs to be done is to merely bring it 
 in contact with human necessity. But now we un- 
 derstand that first it must pass through the teacher’s 
 experience before it can be expected to vitally influ- 
 ence those who are taught. He who fails, lacks in 
 experience ; he who grows in it, succeeds ; that is, 
 he who teaches another teaches also himself 
 
 When the plague was raging in Ireland, the 
 priests gave out that if any man would take from 
 his own fire a piece of burning peat and light his 
 neighbor’s fire with it, he would deliver the family 
 from an attack of the disease. The whole region 
 was instantly alive with brands passing to and fro. 
 Oh ! if superstition could do this much, ought not 
 zeal to do more ? But the kindling was to come 
 from one’s own hearthstone then ; and the kindling 
 must come from one’s own heart now. Calvin’s seal- 
 motto was a hand holding a heart on fire, with the 
 legend, “ I give thee all, I keep back nothing !” 
 What wc need beyond every other earthly need is, 
 to have our entire level of Christian experience 
 
THE TEACHER TAUGHT. 
 
 197 
 
 lifted. We are too busy about appliances and in- 
 struments and places and theories. 
 
 My fellow -workers, suffer me one word. Since 
 we last met I have been at the ends of the earth. 
 This hand that writes to you has plucked olive 
 leaves from the old tree in Gethsemane. I have a 
 piece of a pyramid that I brought away from Egypt. 
 On my table lies a canteen of water which I dipped 
 from the Jordan. Alas ! how little use I can make 
 of these now ! I showed them to our Sunday- 
 school a few weeks ago, and that is about all I can 
 do with them. And here I am back on the old 
 ground again, facing my task. All I have to really- 
 work with, I find, is my experience of the Saviour’s 
 love. And that is the result, not of my journey, 
 but of my prayers ! 
 
 5. We learn the last essential of preparation for 
 teaching. W e must have the presence of the Holy 
 Ghost. You see this most evidently in the case of 
 the apostle who penned our text. “Thus,” says 
 Chrysostom, “this man, three cubits high, became 
 tall enough to touch the third heavens.” They 
 called him Paullus, because he was little. He 
 had a distemper in his sight. His bodily pres- 
 
198 
 
 THE TEACHER TAUGHT, 
 
 ence was said to be weak, and bis speech con- 
 temptible. 
 
 But no man ever equaled him in power as a relig- 
 ious teacher. He held up before the world the most 
 unwelcome and despised truth of the new Gospel. 
 He turned it round and round in his hand, as his 
 own soul rose to a full comprehension of its magni- 
 tude. He bound to it all his learning ; he wreathed 
 around it poetry and philosophy; he. warmed it 
 with all his fiery ardor of temperament; until in 
 the supernatural rush of his eloquence his diminu- 
 tive body was forgotten, his bent form was straight- 
 ened, his weak eyes were glowing, his hesitant 
 utterance became fiuent ; and Saul of Tarsus, with 
 all his passions and all his disabilities and all his 
 sins, was lost in the inspiration of Paul, the ambas- 
 sador of the living God ! No wonder that the 
 simple-minded multitude of Lystra thought he was 
 a deity, and brought forth garlands and oxen to 
 sacrifice, vSaying in the speech of Lycaonia, “ The 
 gods be come down to us in the likeness of men!” 
 
 Oh 1 for a baptism of the Spirit on us and on 
 our eliildrcn, that should fill us with a like expe- 
 rience, and insure for us a Tike suecess! 
 
©iwiston of ILabor. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 “ One smceth and another reapeth .''"' — John iv. 37 . 
 
 N the British Museum there is an ancient 
 lamp, once picked up at Pompeii, which 
 was refitted and refilled, and kept lighted in order 
 to show its original design. Thus what was only a 
 vile fragment of bronze, lying unnoticed amid the 
 ashes and sand of a buried city, is rendered useful 
 again by the mere common-place service of new oil. 
 
 A like ingenuity is that on record of the apostle 
 Paul. When he was addressing the intellectual 
 scholars of Athens, he took an old line of poetry 
 which he had discovered among the moral verses of 
 their dramatists, dull a^d dead already as an utter- 
 ance of heathen devoteeism — “ for we are also his 
 offspring” — and, pouring into’ it the oil of inspira- 
 tion, set it burning again for all future time. 
 
200 
 
 DIVISION OF LABOR. 
 
 Here in our text we have an instance of higher 
 authority still. Our Divine Saviour selected this 
 little proverb as a remnant of the dry wisdom of 
 by-gone ages, and made it vital once more as a 
 medium of instruction by the fresh spiritual life 
 he put in it. What was then only a sententious 
 adage became sacred as an avowed principle of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 I. Let us in the beginning trace out the analo- 
 gies suggested by the figure thus employed: “ One 
 soweth and another reapeth.” Passing over from 
 nature into grace, it will b§ well if we carry along 
 with us a clear perception of the point upon which 
 the force of the illustration turns. 
 
 1. Sowing and reaping require* different seasons 
 for their performance. “ There is a time to plant, 
 and a time to pluck up that which is planted.” 
 The furrows are to be prepared and the grain cast 
 in, near the opening of the year. Then the hus- 
 bandman has to wait awhile. The mystery of 
 growth begins, at once inscrutable and independent 
 It may be that spring laborers will have new and 
 distant tasks in tlic autumn. One of the most 
 natural occurrences, as things run, is, that other 
 
DIVISION OF LABOR. 
 
 201 
 
 laborers will come eventually to reap wliat these 
 have planted. 
 
 2. Sowing and reaping need different skill for 
 their performance. Farmers’ boys will often vie 
 with one another in generous contention as to whose 
 is the highest prowess, both in the scattering of 
 most grain and in the binding of most sheaves, be- 
 tween any given dawn and sunset. But rarely do 
 the same excellences meet in the same man. The 
 quick step, the free arm, the erect form, the meas- 
 ured motion, which make the sower eminent on 
 the emulous record, are very unlike the rapid and 
 agile grasp, the bending endurance, the strong 
 stride, that insure celerity to the reaper. The 
 sinewy hand which is most expert at throwing the 
 seed may not be the hand which most expeditiously 
 wields the sickle. 
 
 3. Sowing and reaping demand a different spirit in 
 their performance. Sowing proceeds on a principle 
 of hope and faith ; reaping proceeds on a principle 
 of reminiscence, calculation and gratitude. The 
 sower always faces the blank field, and leaves the 
 seed disappearing behind him, with only an uncon- 
 scious prophecy in his own mind as to the result. 
 
 9 * 
 
202 
 
 DIVISION OF LABOR. 
 
 The reaper faces the actual harvest, and cuts his 
 way proudly in among the forests of ripened grain, 
 beating time with his sickle to his song. 
 
 4. Sowing and reaping have a different standard 
 of success in their performances. The success of 
 sowing is that the seed be sowed well ; the success 
 of reaping is that the grain be reaped well. If you 
 will discriminate carefully, you will observe that 
 both of these two forms of activity are to be esti- 
 mated according to their nature. Neither of them 
 has any right to reckon upon the harvest as a cri- 
 terion of fidelity. For the harvest depends on 
 growth, the secret of which is beyond any labor- 
 er’s province. Men are hired to sow and reap, not 
 to concern themselves about the yield. The respon- 
 sibility of one ends when the corn is fitly in the 
 ground, and of the other when the sheaves are 
 fully in the garner. They who plant only put in 
 the ‘‘bare grain;” God giveth it the “body that 
 shall be,” as it plcaseth him. 
 
 JI. ^Ihirning this figure now into the line of relig- 
 ious instruction, let us iinpiire, in the second 
 j)lace, for the doctrine of the })roverb. 
 
 1. Consider it as a settled fact, that for every 
 
DIVISION OF LABOR. 
 
 203 
 
 reaping there has heen a seed-sowing. The field is 
 the world ; the harvest is one of souls. “ To*every 
 thing there is a season, and a time to every pur- 
 pose under the sun.” There are spiritual processes, 
 which, like the natural, demand duration, and simply 
 retire within the secrecy of their own economy. 
 Some one must begin them, of course, merely 
 meeting first .conditions. After that they need no 
 help, and will suffer no interference. Nothing can 
 hurry them. They must be allowed to run their 
 course. The ministrations which are efficient in 
 their advancement are limited, and cannot avail at 
 all beyond a certain fixed, line. Hence it often 
 happens that when any early instrument Grod has 
 honored in the using has dropped from his hand, 
 the link of association is lost; and before the 
 spiritual harvest arrives the one who sowed the 
 seed is humanly forgotten. Nevertheless, let us re- 
 member that never was a soul born again in this 
 world but that somebody prayed for it, somebody 
 labored for it, somebody far back, in the faith of a 
 hopeful husbandman, planted the germ of life, cov- 
 ered it carefully, and perhaps watered it more than 
 once thereafter with tears. 
 
204 
 
 DIVISION OF LABOR. 
 
 2. Consider it likewise as a settled fact, that for 
 every .seed-sowing there will he a reaping. The old 
 covenant of nature still abides to keep farmers 
 alive. “ While the earth remaineth, seed-time and 
 harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and win- 
 ter, and day and night, shall not cease.” How we 
 do rest in that ! 
 
 “ How awful is the thought of the wonders underground, 
 
 Of the mystic changes wrought in the silent, dark profound I 
 How each thing is upward tending, by necessity decreed, 
 
 And the world’s support depending on the shooting of a seed !” 
 
 Well for us is it that there is a covenant of grace 
 just as settled as this. * We need to know that, in 
 due season, we. shall reap if we faint not. Other- 
 wise courage fails, and all enterprise ends. So the 
 explicit engagement has been made: “For as the 
 rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and 
 returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and 
 maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give 
 seed to the sower and bread to the eater : so shall 
 iny word be that goeth out of my mouth ; it shall 
 not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish 
 that whicli I' please, and it shall prosper in the 
 thing whereto I sent it.” 
 
DIVISION OF LABOR. 
 
 205 
 
 3. Consider it as another settled fact, that for 
 every labor there must he a laborer. God has been 
 pleased to select men, women, and even little chil- 
 dren for his fellow- workers under the plan of re- 
 demption. He retains just enough of hold upon 
 all the processes of life and grace to show us how 
 deep is the mystery attending the birth of any re- 
 newed soul, and how absolutely impotent we are 
 for any endeavor beyond that which is merely ex- 
 trinsic and conditional.' We cannot even predict 
 results, much less produce them. A narrow circle 
 of appliances and instruments has been left for our 
 employment. Curious, even as a study, is that 
 kind of limited cooperation which God has per- 
 mitted. The grain is God’s, the germ in the grain 
 is God s, the life in the germ is God’s, the growth 
 of the life is God’s ; but the soil is man’s, the 
 plow is man’s, dominion over the beasts is man’s, 
 and the sickle is man’s. Certain actualities of fact, 
 which we term means of grace, are put within our 
 reach for ourselves and others ; that is all. Hence 
 every labor calls for a laborer. It will not do for 
 us all to stand back, consulting taste and preference 
 and convenience. We are servants ; there is only 
 
206 
 
 DIVISION OF LABOR, 
 
 one Master. Harvesting is most welcome while 
 weak human nature is what it is ; but then seed- 
 sowing must be done. He is the best servant who 
 just puts his hand to what is nearest. 
 
 4. Consider it also as a settled fact, that for every 
 laborer there is a labor. And the sooner we are all 
 at our appointed work the better. These are no 
 times for any one to stand in the market-place all 
 the day idle. The good tidings are to be preached 
 to the meek. The broken-hearted are to be bound 
 up. Liberty remains- to be proclaimed to the cap- 
 tives, and the opening of the prison to them that 
 are in bonds. The mourning need to be comforted. 
 The old wastes are to be builded up, the desolations 
 of many generations are to be repaired. There is d 
 place , then, for every follower of the Lord Jesus. 
 He himself gave the motto for the church : “ M37' 
 Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” In the in- 
 finite varieties of labor, surely every one might 
 find his place. The call does not make any dis- 
 crimination ; it says only, “ Son, go work to-day, in 
 my vincyai'd.” Fvery spirit of calculation is ex- 
 cluded and rebuked. “Why stand ye gazing up 
 inU) heaven ?” 'I'hc fields are already white to har- 
 
DIVISION OF LABOR. 
 
 207 
 
 vest. “ He that observeth the wind shall not sow ; 
 and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.” 
 Clouds and winds are God’s ; we have nothing to 
 do with^them ; the implements we are to use are 
 the plow and sickle. 
 
 III. All this is taught under the figure here em- 
 ployed by our Lord. But lest you should think 
 the interpretation has been forced, let us now, in 
 the third place, examine the philosophy of this 
 form of arrangement. Why not let every man 
 have one field, little or large, and do his own soW' 
 ing, and rejoice in his own harvests? 
 
 Perhaps it is never wise for us to attempt to pro- 
 nounce upon the primal design of the Almighty in 
 any of his foims of arrangement; but from an after 
 study of the exquisite adaptations of means to 
 ends, we may often infer proximately what it 
 might have been. At any rate, there are discover- 
 able these singular advantages belonging -to the 
 plan now under our eye : it holds before our minds 
 a continuous and splendid illustration of God’s sov- 
 ereignty; it serves to evoke and educe various 
 gifts, both of intellect and heart; it makes provi- 
 sion for meeting the extreme diversities found 
 
208 
 
 DIVISION OF LABOR. 
 
 among the differing classes of men ; it most effectu- 
 ally disciplines personal religious experience for its 
 good ; and it engenders the new grace of charity in 
 our estimates of others. 
 
 1. “ One soweth and another reapeih,” in order 
 to illustrate the divine sovereignty. “I know that 
 whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever; noth- 
 ing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it : 
 and God doeth it that men should fear before him.” 
 The inveterate tendency of human pride is to exalt 
 its own efficiency under every increment of success. 
 Aiid this is even more especially true in those cases 
 when it has a secret conviction that the power it 
 has wielded is not its own. That was the most 
 ^supercilious steward in Scriptural history, who, 
 having made a great show by lending his lord’s 
 money, as if it were his own, now, even when he 
 had lost the stewardship by reason of peculation 
 discovered, made a still greater show in attempting 
 to collect it. In tlie world around us, it is the 
 agents of ricli people who become most violent and 
 most purse-proud. An ill-concealed consciousness 
 of imposture in all their attempts at dignity ren- 
 ders them more maliciously vain. Observe, then. 
 
DIVISION OF LABOR. 
 
 209 
 
 how carefully the all-wise Master, in this moral 
 field, has ordered it that no laborer, whom he em- 
 ploys, shall forget his place. He is not allowed to 
 remain long enough at one work to begin to usurp 
 control in it. The ownership in any harvest can 
 not vest in the sower, for he never beholds it ; nor 
 in the reaper, for he finds it white when he comes. 
 Thus the glory of every thing belongs to God, and 
 God receives it. He makes it “beautiful in his 
 time.” 
 
 2. “ One soweth and another reapeth,” in order 
 to evoke human gifts. Men are not alike either in 
 ingenuity or perseverance. They need many forms 
 of labor in the development of both the intellect 
 and the heart. Sanguine temperaments best begin 
 great undertakings in the world’s history; quiet 
 temperaments best bring them to issue. Men with 
 strong personality start out with every vast enter- 
 prise ; but men with deep humility come in with 
 the sheaves of success. In each moral purpose the 
 mind of a Christian worker skills itself for effec- 
 tiveness according to its prevailing gift. Thus 
 each is enabled to stand on a better vantage-ground 
 by entering into the labors of those who preceded 
 
210 
 
 DIVISION OF LABOR. 
 
 him. Finely illustrated is all this kind of division 
 of labor in the discoveries of science. To find a 
 grand principle of nature is one thing ; to apply it 
 is quite another. So the most meritorious achieve- 
 ments have oftentimes to distribute the honors 
 widely. Gioja invented the compass ; Columbus 
 follovjed it over the sea. Franklin linked light- 
 ning to electricity; Morse linked' electricity to 
 thought And generally it may be said that all 
 these conspicuous successes have been preceded by 
 a great unreckoned, unhistoric, inconspicuous mass 
 of minor successes, each opening the path toward 
 the final triumph. Thus every man becomes more 
 useful by a concentration of his genius, and God 
 gets the better glory. 
 
 3. “ One soweth and another reapeth,” in order 
 to meet the diverse dispositions of men. AVe must 
 never forget tliat the grand purpose of the Gospel 
 is the conversion of souls. If this is not gained, 
 there never is any real advance. And so subtle 
 arc tlie intricacies of the human heart that ingenui- 
 ties of a])j)i*oacli to it are in liigli demand in the 
 cl lurches. Now, it matters notliing liow large is 
 the work to be done c)r liow small ; difierent dispo- 
 
DIVISION OF LABOR. 
 
 211 
 
 sitions require difierent methods of dealing, and 
 where one fails another may succeed. Take any 
 great work: in the Eeformation there were the 
 bold-faced ecclesiastics to need the thunder of Mar- 
 tin Luther’s voice, and then there were timid com- 
 mon people to need the quieter accents of Melanch- 
 thon’s. At one time the movement went on more 
 safely by far because Luther was shut up in Wart- 
 burg Castle. So the trumpet of J ohn Knox was 
 as helpful as the pen of Jghn Calvin ; but neither 
 could have been spared. Take any small work: 
 here is an unsuccessful Sabbath-school teacher toil- 
 ing almost hopelessly over a rude boy in the class ; 
 another person comes, and the spell of resistance is 
 dissolved. The one teacher is no better than the 
 other, only the one is unlike the other. God uses 
 the mere personal characteristics of both at his will. 
 
 4. “One soweth and another reapeth,” in order 
 to discipline religious experience. You will never 
 understand why Elisha sent Naaman to bathe 
 seven times in the Jordan with a view to his cure, 
 unless you take into the account the interior life 
 of the man. Each time previous to the seventh he 
 would be likely to say as he came up from the 
 
212 
 
 DIVISION OF LABOR, 
 
 stream — still no better, no better. But with every 
 repetition of an act of duty done, not because of 
 anticipated reward, but because it was duty, there 
 would come an unconscious increment of faith. 
 His will would be breaking, his self-confidence 
 would be on the wane, and by the time the final 
 obedience was reached he would be in a state of 
 mind fit to be healed. So of the company which 
 at Joshua’s command marched around Jericho only 
 blowing rams’ horns for an entire week. With 
 every day’s repetition they would think quietly of. 
 the duty conscientiously performed, their faith 
 deepening, their anticipation quickening, mean- 
 while. How this is really the law of Christian 
 advancement. What Grod once said to Israel, he 
 now says to each one of us : “I knew that thou art 
 obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy 
 brow brass.” The grand purpose of all this life is 
 just to bend that iron and soften that brass. Hu- 
 man will needs to be broken by repeated disap- 
 pointment before it becomes meet to receive suc- 
 cess. It matters little how painfully the discipline 
 is continued, if only at last the heart will be able 
 to say with the heroic Paul: “By the grace of 
 
DIVISION OF LABOR. 
 
 213 
 
 God I am what I am, and his grace which was 
 bestowed upon me was not in vain ; but I labored 
 more abundantly than they all ; yet not but the 
 grace of God which was with me.” 
 
 5. “ One soweth and another reapeth,” in order 
 to teach us charity. To one properly educated in 
 spiritual and moral mechanics, there will always 
 be significance in even the slightest lever and pin- 
 ion and pin, as well as in the massive wheels within 
 wheels. You will remember the absurd disap- 
 pointment of the laborers, who jealously demanded 
 more than their penny because the same was 
 given to those who came into the vineyard at the 
 eleventh hour. There must be no envy among the 
 followers of Christ. Fine, high challenge is that 
 which the apostle uttered, when some weak-minded 
 converts were forming parties in Corinth: “Who 
 then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by 
 whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every 
 man ? I have planted, Apollos watered ; but God 
 gave the increase. So then neither is he that 
 planteth any thing, neither he that watereth ; but 
 God that giveth the increase.” No man is so great 
 in this world as to be greater than any other man, 
 
214 
 
 DIVISION OF LABOR. 
 
 provided both of them are the servants of God. 
 Samuel swayed rule in Israel, but the day was when 
 the forgotten Hannah made him a little coat every 
 year. The widow of Sarepta, with her ban*el of 
 inexhaustible meal, her cruse of unfailing oil, and 
 her loft where he abode, had very much to do with 
 that splendid triumph of Elijah on the summit of 
 Carmel. Andrew had a share in the converts at 
 Pentecost, for he led Simon Peter to Jesus. Do 
 you know who Epenetus was ? Did you ever hear 
 of Adronicus and Julia? Yet please go and read 
 the last chapter of Paul’s Epistle*to the Romans, 
 to see how kindly he spoke of these and others ; 
 they were all his “ workfellows” and his ‘‘kins- 
 men.” 
 
 IV. In making practical application of these 
 thoughts, there will be danger of my becoming 
 prolix. The reach they possess is very extensive ; 
 they serve to correct many mistakes. But I will 
 delay your minds with the mere mention of only a 
 few lessons. 
 
 1. Here you discover the true dignity of faithful- 
 ness. Success is the world’s criterion of merit; 
 fidelity is God’s, ^fhc reward of being “faithful 
 
DIVISION OF LABOR. 
 
 215 
 
 over a few things” is just the same as being “faith- 
 ful over many things ; for the emphasis falls upon 
 the same word ; it is the “ faithful” who will enter 
 into the joy of their Lord. 
 
 2. Here you see what it is to be a soldier of the 
 cross. I fall to thinking sometimes in the night of 
 the brave boys that went forth five years ago from 
 many of our Sunday-school classes, and laid them- 
 selves down to die in the Wilderness and at Grettys- 
 burg. There in their graves they lie, and we are 
 entering into their labors to-day in the peace they 
 conquered. How little heroism for God there is in 
 this world now ! Put it to your own soul — -how 
 would you like it if you were bidden to go labor 
 for a grand cause, die only in the faith of victory, 
 “ but without the sight” ? 
 
 3. Here you learn how imperatively every one is 
 urged to enter his field of duty. Alas for the force 
 which is simply wasted in trying to find one’s work ! 
 If he is not good at sowing, let him break up 
 fallow ground ; if he cannot plow, let him go and 
 reap. Do something somewhere immediately. If 
 you can not plant heavy theology like Jonathan 
 Edwards, be willing to sow light exhortations like 
 
216 
 
 DIVISION OF LABOR. 
 
 Harlan Page. If you cannot preach like White- 
 field, go read the Bible at a bedside, and then write 
 “ The Victory Won.” 
 
 4. Here you perceive the folly of being disheart- 
 ened at delay. God sometimes takes natural 
 methods of removing obs,tacles even when they 
 would appear most dilatory. Daniel once became 
 very much troubled under the impression that his 
 prayer had not been answered. The angel Gabriel 
 was sent to him to say that the petition was heard 
 as usual, and the command had gone forth for its 
 reply, but that the prince of the kingdom of Persia 
 had withstood the Almighty twenty-one days. No 
 man ought to get impatient in three weeks. He 
 can bear as long as God does. Philip the Second 
 used to say, '''' Time and / will work wonders.” 
 
 5. Here you discover, on the other hand, how 
 weak is all undue elation at success. Those who 
 went before us labored, and we entered into their 
 labors. The most prosperous ministry is not always 
 the most toilsome, the most self-sacrificing, or the 
 most meritorious. Philip baptized the eunuch in 
 the desert, and that introduced the Gospel into 
 Africa. But the sermon which converted the 
 
DIVISION OF LABOR. 
 
 217 
 
 eunuch was one preached seven hundred years be- 
 fore Philip was born, by the prophet Isaiah. And 
 Isaiah was so much discouraged that he said no one 
 had believed his report. Grod not unfrequently 
 sends a man to reap that whereon he bestowed no 
 labor. Sometimes a teacher reports a name with 
 great joy; a new soul has been added to -the re- 
 deemed. But now, if influences w^ere searched out, 
 it might be found that the prayers of a dead mother 
 or the counsels of a distant father had made the 
 way easy. 
 
 6. Here, then, you begin to imagine what sur- 
 prises there will be at the final ingathering. As 
 the great day draws nearer, events will hurry some- 
 what. “ Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that 
 the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the 
 treader of grapes him that soweth seed.” Then we 
 shall kuow how intimately we have labored together. 
 He that reapeth shall then receive his- wages, and 
 gather fruit unto life eternal ; ‘‘ that both he that 
 soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.” 
 When the unwritten history shall be read, and not 
 before., I suppose the names of the heroes and the 
 heroines will appear. They shall not build and 
 10 
 
218 
 
 DIVISION OF LABOR, 
 
 anotlier inhabit ; they shall not plant and another 
 eat ; for as the days of a tree are the days of my 
 people, and mine elect shall, long enjoy the work 
 of their hands.” 
 
XV. 
 
 A Bil)(e-(C{ass ILesson. 
 
 ^The TransJiguraUon of our Saviour .) — Luke ix. 28-36. 
 
 HIS study is unlike those which have pre- 
 ceded it, in that it consists of a report of 
 an actual recitation in the midst of a public con- 
 vention held in New York City, in the spring of 
 1867. The audience was densely crowded in the 
 body and galleries of the church. Many clergymen 
 were present, as well as a large number of our most 
 faithful and intelligent Sunday-school workers. It 
 had been expected that a group of young men 
 would be present who might act their part in the 
 exercise of question and answer ; but^ this inadver- 
 tently failed. The Institute composed the class. 
 The place of the lesson had been announced the 
 evening before, and the teachers requested to bring 
 their Bibles with them. 
 
220 
 
 A BIBLE-CLASS LESS OK 
 
 The teacher prefaced the lesson by a word of 
 greeting to those who were engaged in the common 
 cause of instructing the young out of the Word of 
 God; He recognized but few of the many hun- 
 dreds of teachem before him, but hoped that none 
 would hesitate to asl£ and to answer any questions 
 bearing upon the lesson. If he should call upon 
 personal friends, whom he v\ras glad to greet around 
 him, and they should not be ready with an answer, 
 he hoped that they, at least, would be bold enough 
 to say, “I do not know,” with all calmness and 
 equanimity, — which are among the first requisites 
 of good Sunday-school teachers. 
 
 The teacher held in his hand a little book en- 
 titled “Eobinson’s Harmony,” which he found 
 most convenient for use in referring to the various 
 passages. 
 
 Teacher. May I ask my good brother P to 
 
 read the 28 th verse? 
 
 P-^ reads clearly and distinctly, “ And it 
 
 came to pass about an eight days after these say- 
 ings, he took Peter and John and James and went 
 up into a mcmntain to pray.” . 
 
 Teacher. W e have this narrafive repeated in two 
 
A CLASS LESS OK 
 
 221 
 
 others of the evangelists, Matthew and Mark. Not 
 much addition is made to it in either, and only an 
 occasional word is thrown in hj Mark, in his pe- 
 cnliarly graphic style. Will my good brother 
 
 A S tell me what “ sayings” Luke refers 
 
 to — After these sayings ?” 
 
 S . The teachings of our Saviour in refer- 
 
 ence to the true spirit of the Christian life. 
 
 Teacher. Just before that our Saviour had re- 
 ceived a rebuke. Who administered it ? Is there 
 a record in the Bible of any man who dared to 
 administer a rebuke to Christ ? 
 
 S . Simon Peter. 
 
 Teacher. Yes. Our Saviour told him that he 
 was to die on the cross. Simon Peter resisted the 
 very thought, and would have had him retreat 
 from the atonement, if he could thereby have saved 
 his life. He received for this the most stinging 
 rebuke that ever man received — “ Get thee behind 
 me, Satan !” And it was because our Saviour saw 
 that the disciples were unable to bear that great 
 truth of his suffering that this scene of the trans- 
 figuration seems tp have been instituted as a part 
 of his history. It was after these vsayings,” that 
 
222 
 
 A BIBLE- GLASS LESS OK 
 
 “it came to pass.” How long after, brother 
 W ? 
 
 R W- . “ About an eight days.” 
 
 Teacher, Is any other time mentioned by the 
 other evangelists ? 
 
 R W’ . Matthew and Mark call it six 
 
 days, perhaps including part of the other two, 
 making the eight. 
 
 Teacher, There are two ways of reconciling the 
 apparent difference. Luke says “about an eight 
 days.” Matthew and Mark, “six days.” Well, six 
 is “ about” eight, and eight is “ about” six. That 
 is Matthew Henry’s way of disposing of such diffi- 
 culties. He says, for instance, of the two blind 
 men, “if there were two, there was certainly one.” 
 So if eight, there were certainly six days of interval 
 between the events spoken of A better way is 
 
 that suggested by brother W , to suppose that 
 
 Luke, in giving this account, was rather more par- 
 ticular than the others, and counted as one the day 
 upon which they started, and also the day follow- 
 ing the evening whicli was celebrated by this great 
 appearance of the transfiguration, and joins them 
 together, making up the eight Perhaps in this 
 
A BIBLi:- CLASS LESSOJST. 
 
 223 
 
 eight days there is an allusion to the seven-fold 
 division of time. Dr. Alexander in his note makes 
 the remark that very possibly it is the common 
 indefinite form of speaking — customary in the 
 French and German language now, and then per- 
 haps in familiar Greek — “about a week,” and it 
 may have been that this took place upon what was 
 afterwards the Christian Sabbath. 
 
 The narrative tells us that Jesus had companions 
 
 with him. Will the Eev. Mr. T tell us who 
 
 they were ? 
 
 T “ Peter and John and James.” 
 
 Teacher. Why these three ? 
 
 T . They were the three nearest to him, and 
 
 to whom he wished to communicate the particular 
 doctrine represented in the transfiguration. 
 
 Teacher. Do you remember any other instances ? 
 
 T . In the Gethsemane sorrow, and at the 
 
 raising of Jairus’s daughter. 
 
 Teacher. Yes; Peter the most loving, John the 
 most beloved, and James, next to the most loving 
 the one that loved most, and next to the one be- 
 loved the most loved. These three seem to ha^e 
 been chosen as the most intimate companions of 
 
224 
 
 A BIBLE- CLASS LESSOK 
 
 Christ, the chosen three out of the chosen twelve. 
 These Jesus takes' with him to the little prayer- 
 meeting w^hich he held on the mountain. For 
 Luke tells us that he went up into the mountain to 
 pray, > And this is usually brought, in to decide a 
 question that seems to be unsettled in some minds. 
 Will the Eev. Mr. H tell us whether the trans- 
 
 figuration took place in the night time or in the 
 day time ? 
 
 H. I suppose it was in the night. 
 
 Teacher, Can any one give a reason for this sup- 
 position that it was in the night time ? 
 
 P . It would make the scene more brilliant 
 
 ■ and observable. 
 
 Teacher, That was a possible reason. It would 
 be more conspicuous. Any other ? 
 
 A S . The weariness of the disciples, for 
 
 we are told that they were “heavy with sleep.” 
 
 Teacher, We have, then, two reasons. A third is 
 suggested, which is found in the 37th verse. They 
 did not come from the mountain till “the next 
 day.” Where did the transfiguration take place? 
 
 ^ R -. On Mount Ilermon ; they were at that 
 
 time in tliat part of the country. 
 
' BIBLE-CLASS LESS OK 225 
 
 P . On Little Hermon, near Mount Tabor. 
 
 Mount Hermon was ten tbousand feet liigli, und 
 covered with snov/. It does not seem probable 
 that they would go to such a place for such a 
 meeting. Little Hermon, one of the spurs of Mount 
 Tabor, was but a thousand feet high. 
 
 Teacher. Where does tradition locate it ? 
 
 Scholar. On Mount Tabor. 
 
 Teacher. Yes. But the tradition only dates back 
 to the fourth century. Before that time nothing 
 had been said of Tabor as the scene of the transfig- 
 uration. Afterwards it was fixed as the spot, and 
 tradition -carried the opinion down the centuries. 
 Churches were erected on the mount, with a view 
 to commemorating the scene. The lateness of the 
 tradition is an argument against Mount Tabor. 
 What about the distance of Hermon? Where 
 were the disciples during the week? Could they 
 not have traveled fifty miles to the neighborhood 
 of Heiunon, which was in northern Galilee, near 
 Caesarea Philippi ? 
 
 W . They might have done so, but it 
 
 seems more probable that they stayed where they 
 
 were. 
 
 10 * 
 
22(3 
 
 A IJ/BLF- CLASS LESS OK' 
 
 Teacher, Tradition lias confounded tlie two Her* 
 raons. Great Hermon was near Caesarea Philippi, 
 Little Hermon was near Tabor, at the lower end of 
 the sea of Galilee, and near Tiberias. Another ob- 
 jection to Tabor, besides the tradition, is that its 
 top was occupied by a fortified city, or more prob- 
 ably a fortified Roman rampart, and there would 
 not be room for such a scene. But surely there 
 would be room enough for a modest company like 
 this somewhere on the slope, just for four men to 
 stand : there is no hint that any one else saw the 
 splendor. And then some have argued for Her- 
 mon, that the characteristic note thrown in by 
 Mark, that our Saviour’s raiment was “white as 
 snow,” was suggested by the snow around them, 
 on riermon’s sides. Singularly enough, the best 
 versions omit that comparison. A large number 
 of learned commentators argue on both sides. It 
 may be remarked, tliat all the arguments in favor 
 of Mount Ilormon rest simply as against Mount 
 'I’abor. ''riierc is no argument positively for Her- 
 mon ; only conjecture. But it seems to me that 
 the whole thing has been tak(m out of its relative 
 iinportruu'c ; nnd it is a curious fact that the dis- 
 
A BIBLE-CLASS LESSON. 
 
 227 
 
 cussions of the traditional location, &c., have often 
 commanded more interest and attention than the 
 fact of the transfiguration itself We may rest in 
 the confidence that the mountain was accessible, 
 and that it was a good place for the scene which 
 was enacted upon it. 
 
 “ And he took Peter and John and James, 
 
 and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he 
 prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, 
 and his raiment was white and glistering.” 
 
 Teacher, How forcibly does this suggest to us 
 the lesson that comes out through all our Christian 
 experience, as to the disclosures of Christ obtained 
 in the moment of prayer ! I think we may get a 
 greater consciousness of the real force of the story 
 of the transfiguration, if we will accept the little 
 conceit of considering it as a union prayer-meeting — 
 the church on earth meeting the church in heaven, 
 with Christ in the midst of them ! We shall find 
 what they talked about by-and-by. Here we have 
 the living and the dead coming together, with only 
 the vail of flesh between them, in the presence 
 of the once crucified but now risen and glorified 
 Christ Noble testimony to the value and power 
 
228 
 
 A BIBLE- GLASS LESSON. 
 
 of the disclosures made in prayer, to Christ’s dis- 
 ciples ! 
 
 Teacher. Will you tell me, Mr. J , what is 
 
 meant by the word “fashion,” in the text, “The 
 fashion of his countenance was altered ?” 
 
 J . The “ appearance.” 
 
 Teache)\ Yes; just that, and that only. Fashion 
 is not appearance now ; it is to hide appearance. 
 Humbling recollection it ought ever to be that 
 clothes came into the world with sin. They are 
 evidences of lost innocence ; and the less pride we 
 show in them the better. The old English word 
 occurs six times in the Scriptures, and is almost 
 always translated by the word “appearance” or 
 “ form.” The “ form ” of his countenance, then, was 
 altered ; it appeared otherwise than it usually did. 
 Mark’s little word here, “ shining exceeding white 
 as snow,” and then his comparison, “so as no fuller 
 on earth can white them,” is. one of the liner illus- 
 trations of Mark’s peculiar way of describing a 
 scene, lie mentions fewer scenes, but more in de- 
 tail, than the other three evangelists. 
 
 “ AVhite and glistering.” Will the Rev. Mr 
 W tell ns whaf these words mean? 
 
A BIBLF- CLASS LESS OK 
 
 229 
 
 W . Very bright in appearance. 
 
 Teacher, Yes; flashing brightness, like the rays 
 or beams of a star, or the glancing of light upon a 
 spear’s point. It refers to a radiating light. Where 
 this peculiar light came from, or what it was, has 
 exercised the speculative gifts of great and anxious 
 commentators, but they only darken the light in 
 more senses than one. Whether the light came 
 from within or from without, we do not know. All 
 we know is that it was this peculiar, splendid mani- 
 festation of the Saviour in the immediate presence 
 of these three chosen disciples, that filled them with 
 such wonder and awe. Nearer to heaven no men 
 could get than they were permitted to get that 
 night. Nearer to heaven no men can get than 
 vrhen two or three meet together in his name, 
 and he is in the midst. Whilst he was there it 
 seemed that he was not left alone. The disciples 
 discover, the moment they look up, that he has 
 companions. Who else appear ? 
 
 Scholar. Moses and Elias. 
 
 Teacher. Yes ; Moses as the representative of the 
 Law, Elias as the ,i*epresentative of the Prophets— 
 the representatives of the old dispensation meeting 
 
230 
 
 A BIBLE-CLASS LESS OK. 
 
 with Peter, James, and John as representatives of 
 the new ; the one likewise representing the dead, 
 the other the living saints. 
 
 Teacher. To Mr. P . Was there anything pe- 
 
 culiar about Moses’ death and burial ? 
 
 P . There seemed to have been a dispute be- 
 
 tween Satan and Michael concerning his body. 
 
 Teacher. Yes, and you remember that he went 
 up to Mount Nebo to die, and no record was made 
 of his death, or of the place of his burial, but we 
 are told that the Lord buried his body. Then there 
 is a singular expression of Jude in reference to the 
 Devil and the Archangel contending about his 
 body. Some commentators say that in Moses we 
 have another case of unseen and unrecorded trans- 
 lation, and that his .body is now in heaven as 
 Elijah’s is, and that in this glorification of the 
 eartlily body before death in the case of our Sav- 
 iour, there were added for illustration and ex- 
 liibition the two cases of glorified bodies after 
 death. 
 
 Mr. W , 1 will ask you a question: Did 
 
 Elijah go uj) in the whirlwind, or in the chariot of 
 lire* ? I low did 1 k‘ go uj) ? 
 
A BIBLE- CLASS LESSON. 
 
 231 
 
 W . He went up in the whirlwind, in the 
 
 chariot of fire. 
 
 Teacher, Well, sir, almost every Snnday-scholar 
 asks that question, and almost every teacher an- 
 swers that the chariot was there to take him up. 
 Perhaps he went up in the chariot and the chariot 
 in the whirlwind, but it does not say so. The 
 record says that he went up in the whirlwind. A 
 note of caution, merely, to teachers to observe the 
 text strictly and with great care. 
 
 But I would like to call yonr attention particu- 
 larly to the next verse: “Who appeared in glory 
 and spake of his decease which he should accom- 
 plish at Jerusalem.” Why did not Peter ask about 
 that ? It was a question that had deeply interested 
 him. He did not get much comfort from the dis- 
 ciples. They did not realize their state at all. All 
 the comfort he could get now must be from Moses 
 and Elias. But they did not satisfy his curiosity. 
 Here was Elijah translated without death, and here 
 was Moses, concerning whom there was at least the 
 same mysterious probability, and the natural sub- 
 ject of conversation, in Peter’s view, would be the 
 state of the dead. Surely now his inquiring in* 
 
232 
 
 A GLASS LESSON. 
 
 terest will be rewarded. There was every provo- 
 cation to these speculative questions. But no ! 
 When Moses and Elijah came they had something 
 better to talk about ; and we have no record that 
 any of the disciples made any inquiries concerning 
 these mysteries. The simple story of the cross was 
 the all-absorbing theme. ‘‘ The decease which he 
 should accomplish at Jerusalem” was the subject 
 
 of their sweet converse. Mr. S , will you tell 
 
 us vdiat is meant by his “ decease?” 
 
 S . His death. 
 
 Teacher. Yes; literally and more fully, his exo- 
 dus, or exit. Now let us note here more particu 
 larly, the meeting together of the old and new 
 dispensations, in this whole exhibition. Here we 
 have Peter suggesting that three tabernacles should 
 be erected. Here was the appearance of the She- 
 chinah, and the ])resence of the Saviour. Here was 
 tlie conversation about the Saviour’s decease, or 
 literally exodus, and Peter seems to have caught 
 the word from this spot, and afterwards applies it 
 to liis own decease (2 Peter 1. 15). And here we 
 liave all the old appearances, the pillar of cloud, 
 and the fire, and the presence of God in Christ, so 
 
A BIBLE- GLASS LESSOK 
 
 233 
 
 that when Peter begins to speak, his very first 
 suggestion is that they should build tabernacles as 
 in the exodus of God’s ancient people. So that it 
 may well be believed that the whole scene was 
 meant to be a vivid picture to the minds of the 
 gazing disciples of the absolute oneness of the old 
 dispensation with the new. 
 
 R W . Shall I ask a question? May 
 
 we learn, and is it a fitting lesson just here, in 
 relation to the conversation of the two heavenly 
 visitants, that the subject most interesting to Chris- 
 tians when they meet, should be Christ, and that 
 this subject should fill and engage them more than 
 anything else ? 
 
 Teacher, Most certainly. It is the one subject of • 
 a prayer-meeting ; the only one in a union prayer- 
 meeting. It is the one that binds saints on earth 
 and in heaven together. It is the one theme, 
 Christ. 
 
 How much, Mr. L , did Moses and Elias 
 
 understand about “the decease which he should 
 accomplish at Jerusalem?” How much did the 
 Old Testament saints understand of the New Testa- 
 ment theology ? 
 
234 A BIBLE-CLASS LESSOK 
 
 L . I suppose they recognized the Messiah 
 
 in the types and shadows which set him forth. 
 
 Teacher, Somebody saw the day of Christ afar 
 off. Who was it? 
 
 Scholar, Abraham. 
 
 Teacher, Yes, and in the promise made to his 
 seed. He saw the day of Christ. in the person of 
 his own son Isaac, who was a type of Christ. The 
 foot of the cross was planted, not only on the hill, 
 but on the very spot, where the ram was found 
 caught by the horns in the thicket at the time 
 when Abraham was saved the sacrifice of Isaac. 
 And it may be that the ancient Israelites, in every 
 part of their worship, saw Christ as distinctly as 
 • we see him, and understood as much as was neces- 
 sary for them to understand of the atonement, to 
 be saved. Surely we have it revealed to us that 
 those who are in glory still retain an interest in, 
 and cognizance of, all that transpires in the prog- 
 ress of Clirist’s kingdom on the earth. The de- 
 cease which Christ should accomplish at Jerusalem 
 was the link between the old and tlie new dispen- 
 sations. Moses and Klias doubtless knew as much 
 as Peter and James and John did. 
 
A BIBZi:- CLASS LESSOK 
 
 235 
 
 P . Did not their knowledge cover his entire 
 
 work and life on the earth ? 
 
 Teacher, Yes. No doubt they took an interest 
 in the whole plan and work of redemption, in all 
 its progress and accomplishment. Let me call you 
 specially to observe one remarkable illustration 
 afforded in this narrative. Moses was introduced 
 to us as one of the feeblest of human kind — in an 
 ark of bulrushes upon the water — a lost child — a 
 little city mission child, if jon have a mind to call 
 it so — a waif, thrown out upon the current of the 
 world with nothing but absolute neglect and ruin 
 before it. Just at this juncture God's providence 
 interferes to rescue him. He lives. Forty years 
 after you find him acting his part’ in Egypt. Forty 
 years thereafter you find him at the head of the 
 children of Israel. Forty years after that on Mount 
 Nebo, going into that mysterious form of death to 
 which he was led by the Spirit. Then he disap- 
 pears. Fifteen hundred years pass slowly by, and 
 this same child, and leader, reappears in glory, still 
 speaking, still knowing ! How the thought of im- 
 mortality dawns with new light upon us ! There 
 rises before the mind a picture of what immortality 
 
236 
 
 A BIBLB- CLASS LESS OK 
 
 means. We see him as we trace the steps in his 
 wonderful life, and we begin to understand what it 
 means to save a child. We reflect upon the years 
 of instruction that h^ve passed over his^head since 
 the day he was rescued from the ark of bulrushes, 
 until we now behold him on the mount of glory, 
 and feel that it is the same immortal spirit, going 
 from one degree of knowledge and of glory to an- 
 other ! Is it not well for us, in teaching little chil- 
 dren, to imagine oftener than we do, some Tabor- 
 top of transfiguration of that soul, redeemed and 
 coming- by and by to meet us, a glorified spirit, a 
 companion of Moses and Elias, arid of the once 
 crucified but now risen and exalted Christ, reign- 
 ing with him for fevermore ? 
 
 Scholar. Do you not suppose that Moses and Elias 
 received instruction after they got to heaven, on all 
 that belongs to Christ’s kingdom and work ? 
 
 Teacher. I have no doubt they received instruc- 
 tion, agreeing to all the intelligence of heaven. If 
 you mean to ask whether they might have re- 
 c.eived the entire knowledge of it there, whether it 
 c.onld have been communicated as first information 
 tliere, and afterwards increased, T have no doubt 
 
A BIBLE- CLASS LESSON. 
 
 2o7 
 
 of that either. We are told that Moses spoke of 
 Christ. That Moses understood the plan of the 
 atonement, and saw it in the sacrifices, and in all 
 the system he gave to the people, I make no doubt. 
 That Jacob saw Christ when he had the vision at 
 Bethel, I make no doubt. For hereafter, said our 
 Saviour, ye shall see angels ascending and descend- 
 ing upon the Son of man — making a fair parallel 
 between the two scenes. The Old Testament saints 
 were made, through visions and dreams, to see the 
 day of Christ afar off. And perhaps it was not a 
 new communication of information to tliem in 
 heaven, but a constant gipwing into the intelli- 
 gence and knowledge of God’s plans and the 
 scheme of redemption. 
 
 Scholar. Do you think that Bishop Whately is 
 correct in saying that the Old Testament saints did 
 not think that the Messiah would be more than a 
 man ; that he would not be God ? 
 
 Teacher. I do not know the connection of his 
 remark, nor the point of history of which he is 
 speaking; whether at the period and state of ig- 
 norance, or intelligence, which the Jewish nation 
 exhibited. At the time of Christ the state of the 
 
238 
 
 A B/BZU-CLASS LBSSOJV: 
 
 Jewish religion was deplorably low; they held 
 views and customs entirely at variance with the 
 prophecies of their own Scripture. In the days of 
 the glory of the Israelites, I believe that they 
 understood fully what the Messiah would be, and 
 that the remark quoted would not apply. 
 
 Scholar, The writer is speaking of the accusation 
 made against Christ of using blasphemy in claim- 
 ing to be God. He says in this place that the Old 
 Testament writers had not had the idea that Mes- 
 siah was God. 
 
 TeacJter, David certainly had, when in his psalms 
 he called him Lord. And some of the descriptions 
 of Christ in the prophecies leave us in no doubt on 
 that point. 
 
 Scholar. Do you think that Moses and Elias, 
 when they apj^eared, had as clear an idea of the 
 death that Christ was to accomplish, as we have 
 now ? 
 
 Teacher. Yes. I think they knew mucli more 
 tlian we, niid that any man learns in the first hour 
 after d(;ath more tlian in all his life ])revious, about 
 that, and nil the points of our religion. Even as 
 the glory of th(‘ Old Testament dispensation has 
 
A BIBLF- CLASS LESSON. 
 
 239 
 
 passed away, and is exceeded by this glory that 
 remaineth. Progress is the law in Christ’s earthly 
 and heavenly kingdom. 
 
 . Scholar, Is not the truth of recognition of friends 
 in heaven taught in this lesson? 
 
 Teacher, It is, most plainly. It is one of the 
 most comforting and glorious lessons to be derived 
 from this whole passage. The recognition must 
 have been instinctive almost. It may have been 
 that our Saviour told Peter and James and John 
 who Moses and Elias were; at any rate, they did 
 know them, and none of the masters in speculation 
 can rob the scene of this, its crowning lesson of 
 comfort to believers. [The teacher here animad- 
 verted strongly upon Eaphael’s inaccurate repre- 
 sentation of the facts of the Transfiguration Scene.] 
 
 Teacher, We must proceed. The narrative says: 
 ‘‘But Peter and they that were with him were 
 heavy with sleep, and when they were awake they 
 saw his glory.” The lesson we would find here is 
 the extreme misfortune of being dull and heavy in 
 the prayer-meeting. They lost a good deal by it. 
 They did not see Moses and Elias come. They did 
 not go up so explicitly to pray as Christ did. 
 
240 
 
 A BIBLU- CLASS LESSON, 
 
 Were you never in a forest in summer, and as you 
 reclined at the foot of the trees, you were almost 
 shut out from the air of heaven, while looking up 
 you could see the wind breathing over the tops of 
 the trees, shaking the foliage, and making the twigs 
 tremble, and you wished that you were only high 
 enough, that you might get the breath that was 
 stirring overhead ? Just so, have you never gone 
 away from a prayer-meeting feeling that you had 
 been down in the valley, feeling troubled and de- 
 spondent, and that if you could only have risen 
 higher you might have had joy and peace and 
 breathed the air of heaven ? The way to reach this 
 enjoyment is to start liigher. Prepare for tlie hour 
 of praye]\ Gret yourself on the high ground of ex- 
 pectation and desire. Like our Saviour and his dis- 
 ciples, go up into the mountain to pray. Get as 
 liigh as you can above the din and turmoil of life, 
 and there you will have sweet communion with the 
 IMiister. 
 
 ‘‘And it came to pass, as they departed from 
 him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for 
 us to be here; arid let us make three tabernacles,*’ 
 &;c. We have already spoken of the tabernacles 
 
A BIBLE- CLASS LESS OK 
 
 241 
 
 and of the whole scene as suggesting Jewish history. 
 
 “Not knowing Y/hat he said,” &c., — the narra- 
 tive proceeds. That is, Peter was thrown into 
 confusion by the surpassing splendor and unex- 
 pected glory of the vision. Have we not known 
 men similarly affected in times of revival, who are 
 dull and heavy while God is manifesting his glory 
 by his Spirit, and who wake up sometimes in 
 astonishment, if they wake up at all, from the 
 slumber with which they greeted the work at its 
 beginning among them ? 
 
 “While he thus spake there came a cloud and 
 overshadowed them ; and they feared as they en- 
 tered into the cloud. And there came a voice out 
 of the cloud saying, This i^ my beloved Son : hear 
 him.” “Thus,” as Dr. Huntington beautifully puts 
 it, in one of his sermons, “ as one enters into the 
 deep dark providences of God he is frightened ; but 
 when once entered in he discovers the form of the 
 glorified Christ. On entering only is he troubled.” 
 A good thought, but not in this verse. The text 
 here means that only Moses, Elias and Christ en- 
 tered into the cloud. Peter and James and John 
 did not enter in. The first “ they” refers to the 
 • 11 
 
242 
 
 A CLASS LESSOir. 
 
 disciples, who feared when “ they,” the others, en- 
 tered into the cloud. The voice testifying to 
 Christ’s glory, came to. them as they were without 
 the cloud. Peter dwells on that in his second 
 epistle, first chapter, 17th and 18th verses, where 
 he refers to the voice he heard in the Mount. 
 
 ‘‘And when the voice was past, Jesus was found 
 alone.” Mark puts it very finely: “Suddenly, 
 when they had looked round about they saw no 
 man any more save Jesus only with themselves.” 
 Jesm only ! This is the motto of every true spirit- 
 ual life. Jesus only ! If we had been there would 
 this have been our thought? *J. am confident, 
 rather, that some of us would have been ques- 
 tioning Moses about the burning bush, or his mys- 
 terious sepulture, or the plagues of Egypt and the 
 exodus, with the passage of the Eed Sea, and 
 many other things ; but the one thing for the dis- 
 ciples to see was Jesus and Jesus only ! 
 
 “ And they kept it close, and told no man in 
 those days any of those things which they had 
 seen” — by express command, doul)tless,' of our Sav- 
 iour. ^riiosc around about them were not able to 
 bear such extraordinary truths; they were too ad- 
 
A BIBLE-GLASS LESSON. 
 
 243 
 
 vanced for them, and Jesus must take his disciples 
 with him to communicate them, even to them, 
 lest also they should not receive them. But what 
 a bond of union between these three men must this 
 God-committed secret have been ! How they would 
 talk to each other about it in the days that succeed- 
 ed, before his resurrection ! What proof they would 
 have in their own heart of the greatness and the 
 glory of their Divine Master ! I pity with all my 
 heart those Christians whom I sometimes meet, 
 who, when called upon to give testimony for Christ, 
 are forced to speak of their innermost, tenderest, 
 closest feelings in regard to Christ. It seems to me 
 that almost every Christian has some Tabor-top 
 experience that he cannot talk about till after the 
 resurrection. 
 
 Scholar. And now what would you say was the 
 chief lesson of all this passage? 
 
 Teacher. I have no doubt that the design of the 
 whole scene was to show the disciples in that pecu- 
 liar posture of their minds to which they had come 
 at the very moment of his humiliation, that the 
 Saviour was glorified and Divine; to show them 
 that even in the immediate prospect of the cruci- 
 
244 
 
 A BIBLi:- CLASS LESSOK 
 
 fixion our Saviour was tlie chosen of the Father, 
 the well-beloved of Grod. It was necessary that 
 some extraordinary demonstration, to confirm their 
 faith, should be made, especially to those who were 
 to be prominent in the establishment of the church. 
 And I am accustomed to look upon the transfigu- 
 ration scene very much in the light of the record 
 in the Epistle to the Hebrews : after the covenant 
 of redemption in Christ the Son was made with 
 God the Father, and after he had said, “Lo, I come, 
 in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do 
 thy will, 0 God!” — after that early arrangement 
 with the Son and the Father, through which the 
 redemption of the world was committed by the 
 Father to the Son, then Jesus, as the Son, came 
 forth from the bosom of the Father ; and going to 
 the earth, as he passed through the ranks of the 
 angels on his way through the gates of pearl (if I 
 may make the scene so graphic as that) as he passed 
 out of heaven, and when the shining throngs began 
 to undcmtand that the Prince of the Kingdom was 
 going down to be crucified upon this wandering, 
 rebellious planet — at that very moment, lest there 
 should come to them even one derogatory thought 
 
A CLASS LESS OK 
 
 245 
 
 concerning him, the order goes forth from the 
 highest throne, ‘^Let all the angels of God worship 
 him !” And just so to the disciples. When the 
 full doctrine of the crucifixion hurst upon Peter^s 
 mind he said, “Let it not be so. Lord.” It was 
 necessary then, that at that point, a splendid dem- 
 onstration of the obedience and devotion of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ should be made. These I con- 
 ceive to be the main purposes of the transfigura- 
 tion. 
 
 Rev, Mr, T- . How will you manage, with 
 
 such a view, the 16th verse of the first chapter of 
 2d Peter, “ For we have not followed cunningly 
 devised fables when we made known unto you the 
 power and coming of our Lord J esus Christ, but 
 were eye-witnesses of his majesty,” and then the 
 other fact that the transfiguration occurs immedi- 
 ately after the promise of the Saviour in the three 
 Gospels, of his coming. 
 
 Teacher, Are you certain that they refer to his 
 second coming? We will not enter upon this now. 
 I think we hold the truth together, but we have 
 not the time to develop it. 
 
 R. W Can we not get something home 
 
246 
 
 A BIBLE- CLASS LESSON. 
 
 close to our own experience, right here? Here 
 were three who were soon to go forth to a baptism 
 of great suffering. They were now getting views 
 of the preciousness of the Eedeemer such as they 
 had never had before. When we enter into suffer- 
 ing at the command of Christ, shall we not also 
 receive from him sweet comfort and consolation to 
 strengthen us, and are not these views of him given 
 to us to’ enable us to pass through the coming sor- 
 rows he has appointed us unto ? 
 
 Teacher. Truly, this is the design. I think that 
 God never gives us the full manifestation of his 
 Spirit but he would strengthen us for some trial, 
 or build us up against some attack, or prepare us 
 against a coming disappointment. In sunshine he 
 
 makes us ready for the storm. Brother W , 
 
 my heart is very full of practical illustrations that 
 might elucidate and apply this precious portion of 
 the word, especially to younger scholars. But I 
 do not propose to instruct the instructors before 
 me. I see they do not need it. 
 
 Scholar. What do you make the leading thought 
 of tlie lesson ? 
 
 Tccw.her. r>esides that I have mentioned, I should 
 
A BIBLE- GLASS LESS OK 
 
 247 
 
 make the following leading thoughts : the doctrine 
 of the resurrection of the dead, the recognition of 
 friends, and the interest in heaven in regard to 
 things on the earth, and the revelation of a future 
 state in so far as this may be considered a reve- 
 lation. 
 
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