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 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
REV, S, J, HUNTER, D.D, 
 
■ i 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 REV. S. J. HUNTER, D.D. 
 
 WITH A BRIEF MEMOIR 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. W. J. HUNTER, D.D. 
 
 "HE BEING OEAD, YET SPEAKETH." 
 
 TORONTO; 
 WILLIAM BRIOOS, 
 
 WESLEY BUILDINGS. 
 
 Montreal: C. W. COAXES. 
 
 Halifax : S. F. HUESTIS. 
 
 1890. 
 
Entered according to the Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year 
 one thousand eight hundred and ninety, by William Briggs, in 
 the office of the Minister of Agriculture, at Ottawa. 
 
 56758 
 
mTRODUCTIOK 
 
 T T is commcnly assumed that every new book must give 
 some good reason for pressing itself upon the attention 
 of the public. Any book adapted to instruct, inspire and 
 console needs no apology. Jolin Milton says : « A good 
 book is the precious life-blood of .t master-spirit, embalmed 
 and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life." It is 
 always, however, a delicate, if not a doubtful thing, to 
 publish literary or theological remains which were not 
 intended by their author for publication, and which have 
 not, therefore, been prepared for the press by the one who 
 was most competent, and who had the right to decide in 
 such a matter. 
 
 While giving all due weight to these considerations, it 
 has been thought by friends of the late Dr. S. J. Hunter, 
 that, for several reasons, the publication of a volume of his 
 sermons was justifiable and desirable. It will gratify many 
 m the congregations to which he preached during his life, 
 to have the opportunity of reading these discourses. Many 
 others who never had the privilege of knowing or hearing 
 the preacher, may have a wish to read some of his sermons 
 
IV 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The volume will also be a not inappropriate memorial of 
 " one whom Cod has taken," and will contribute, in some 
 degree, to keep his memory green in the hearts of those 
 who knew and loved him. But, above all, it may be con- 
 fidently hoped that the great lessons of Christian truth 
 which are expounded and enforced in these sermons will 
 strengthen the faith and quicken the zeal of those who 
 read them. 
 
 The lecture on our Hymn Book contains so much that 
 is interesting, in the way of biography an illustration, 
 that it was thought advisable to give it a place in the 
 volume. But in order to confine the work within the 
 limits agreed upon, it was found necessary to omit some 
 of the biographical notes and incidents. Most of these 
 Dr. Hunter was in the habit of omitting when he deliv- 
 ered the lecture. 
 
 Dr. Hunter was held in high estimation as a preacher in 
 all the churches of which he was pastor. It is, therefore, 
 an instructive fact, which every reader can see for himself, 
 that his popularity and success as a preacher were not 
 owing to any questionable departure from the simplicity of 
 the Gospel. His chief excellence as a preacher consisted 
 in the clearness of mental grasp, the fitness and force of 
 language, and the directness and fidelity with which he 
 presented the great central truths of the Bible, which relate 
 to Christian experience and life. It is a grave mistake for 
 any preacher to think that anything can be more attractive 
 or effective, in preaching to suffering, sinful men and 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 women, than the faithful, pointed preaching of the practical 
 verities of the Gospel of Christ. 
 
 There 's a prevalent opinion among a certain class of 
 writers, that the press has superseded the teaching of the 
 pulpit. This assumption, which is not held by earnest 
 Christians of any Church, is not justified by the facts. I 
 have no disposition to minify or disparage the influence of 
 the press. It now deals with many subjects which were in 
 former times regarded as in the province of the clergy. It 
 has a powerful influence in the formation of public opinion 
 on moral and religious, as well as on social and political 
 questions. The Ciuirches have not yet fully waked up to 
 the great importance of using the press as a means of 
 difiusing the knowledge of the truth. 
 
 But the press can never supersede the preaching of the 
 Gosp'l. The testimony borne in preaching, to the truth 
 and power of the Christian religion, is a divinely ordained 
 means of leading the guilty and erring children of men to 
 a saving knowledge of Christ. If the press has not super- 
 seded the living voice in political and other non-religious 
 contests, it is still less likely to do so in regard to the 
 propagation of religion, in which testimony respecting the 
 personal experience of salvation bears so prominent a part. 
 What Scripture and reason would lead us to expect is 
 verified by the actual facts that are transpiring around us. 
 The message of the Christian pulpit never had so vast an 
 audience, and never exercised so mighty an influence for 
 good as in our own times. 
 
vi 
 
 WTRODUOTION. 
 
 So long as guilty sinners are longing for deliverance from 
 the burden of their sins, the dark and ignorant groping for 
 light and truth, the enslaved groaning for spiritual emanci- 
 pation, and the feeble and fainting crying out for a strength 
 that none but God can supply, the message of life in which 
 God proclaims His redeeming grace, spok . by those whose 
 own hearts have felt its power, shall continue to be the 
 mightiest means of bringing sinners from darkness to light, 
 and from the power of Satan unto God. 
 
 E. Hartley Dewart. 
 
 Toronto, December 4, 1890, 
 

 CONTENTS. 
 
 In Memoriam '*®" 
 
 9 
 
 SERMONS. 
 
 Power— Influence— Assurance «« 
 
 Loving an Unseen Saviour. , . 
 
 4o 
 
 Movable and Immovable Things 
 
 The Body of Christ 
 
 The Swellings of Jordan _ . 
 
 84 
 
 The Death of Moses 
 
 97 
 
 Glorying in the Cross 
 
 Entire Sanctification 
 
 The Unfolding Life 
 
 136 
 
 The Star 
 
 • 148 
 
 The Transfiguration 
 
 157 
 
 The Wisdom of Preferring the Heavenly 170 
 
 Consecration .... 
 
 181 
 
 Light at Evening Time ,^ 
 
 The Holy War „^^ 
 
 The Ark of God's Strength 216 
 
 Christ's Kingdom 
 
 God our Shield 
 
 5642 
 
Vlll 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 PAOI 
 
 The Development of the Missionary Spirit 253 
 
 The Gospel the Want of the Age 264 
 
 Our Methodist Heritage 276 
 
 Bible Society Address 292 
 
 The Hymns and Hymn- Writers of our New Hymn-Book 304 
 
I 
 
 .. 264 
 
 .. 276 
 .. 292 
 .. 304 
 
 3n iTftcinovianL 
 
 REV. S. J. HUNTER, D.D. 
 
 ON the 12th of April, 1843. in the beautiful little 
 town of Philipsburg, in the Province of Quebec, 
 ray dear brother, Samuel James, first saw the light. 
 I was then just eight years of age, and until this day 
 I have the most vivid recollection of my first sight of 
 the new ' baby brother." Clad in his long white 
 dress, mot ler held him up while the rest of the 
 children clustered around her bedside, and she said, 
 " Thank the Lord for a young son." She never had 
 occasion to take back that thanksgiving, for, during 
 all her life, Samuel never gave her one pang of 
 sorrow, but many a ray of sunshine came into her 
 heart as she watched his development from infancy to 
 manhood, and noted with proud satisfaction the rare 
 talents which gradually unfolded with the passing 
 years. The family history reveals a Scottish ancestry, 
 in direct line from the heroic and godly Covenanters, 
 but our parents were born and married in the county 
 Tyrone, Ireland. Immediately after their marriage, 
 they set sail for America, and settled at Ottawa, the 
 capital of the Dominion, then known as By-Town, 
 where they remained for a few years, when they 
 2 
 
10 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 removed to Philipsburg. At this time they were 
 adherents of the Presby^erian Church, but during the 
 progress of an old-fashioned Methodist "protracted 
 meeting," father was induced to attend, and was soon 
 convinced of sin, and, after some days and ni^^hts of 
 deep distress, was brought into " the glorious liberty 
 of the children of God." He immediately united with 
 the Methodist Church, of which he remained a consis- 
 tent and useful member until, in the eighty-second 
 year of his age, the Master called him from labor to 
 reward. He was a local preacher for '^nore than fifty 
 years. Mother retained her connection with the 
 Presbyterian Church for many years before she, too, 
 cast in her lot with Methodism, and thus it was that 
 the children attended i/he Presbyterian Sunday-school 
 in the morning and the Methodist in the afternoon, 
 and grew up with a " warm side " for Presbyterianism. 
 While Samuel was yet a babe, the family removed 
 to Ontario, and soon afterward settled in East Gwillim- 
 bury, which was then almost a wilderness. A farmer's 
 life in those days involved hard work, and it soon 
 became apparent that Samuel had no taste for such 
 an occupation. In his studies he found delight, and, 
 when a. mere lad, had reached the limits of a common 
 school teacher's p'^wer to instruct, and had taken a 
 first-class certificate in the curriculum prescribed for 
 public school teachers. The Christian Guardian and 
 the secular weekly papers came regularly to the home, 
 and were devoured with avidity. The few books in 
 scanty libraries in the neighborhood were borrowed and 
 read over and over again, and well do I remember how 
 
 i''\ 
 
■* 
 
 REV. S. J. HUNTER, D.D. 
 
 11 
 
 my temper, as an older brother, was often tried when, 
 having sent him into a field to harrow or plough, I 
 would presently see the horses standing quietly by the 
 fence, while the young teamster was lyinr;^ under a 
 shade-tree, poring over his books. He was not made for 
 a farmer. The first money ho ever earned was invested 
 in three works which opened to him the vast world 
 of thought, namely, Dick's Works, Rollins Ancient 
 History, and a Latin grammar and reader combined. 
 In the meantime, the writer of these lines had entered 
 the work of the Christian ministry, and, after his 
 ordination and marriage, was comfortably settled at 
 the charming little village of Burlington, near Hamil- 
 ton. Samuel was now about seventeen vears of ajje, 
 and had recently experienced a change of heart, and 
 connected himself with the Methodist Church, and 
 was placed on the " plan," first as an exhorter, and 
 then as a local preacher. About this time he secured a 
 situation as clerk in a store and post-office in Burling- 
 ton, and found a home in our little parsonage. I was 
 surprised and delighted at his wonderful gift in prayer, 
 and which he f^-equently exercised in our week-night 
 services, and I was not lonj; in discoverinjx that he had 
 no more taste for the store and post-office than for the 
 farm. God's seal was on his heart, and He was 
 waiting to put His crown upon his brow ; and when 
 the late Rev. Richard Jones, then Chairman of the 
 Hamilton District, told me one day that he was looking 
 out for a young man as an assistant to the Rev. John 
 N. Lake, of the Hullsville Circuit, I ventured to sug- 
 gest that perhaps my brother would do, if not too 
 
12 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 young, for he was not yet eighteen years of age, and 
 boyish-looking at that 
 
 After some conversation, embracing trepidation on 
 his part and persuasion and encouragement on my 
 part, Samuel consented to go. The next day we went 
 out in search of a horse. I made him a present of my 
 saddle and "saddle-bags," no longer of use to me, and, 
 with a few books in his trunk, we set out for his first 
 circuit. I take the liberty of transcribing here the 
 pen-picture of the boy preacher, and the beautiful 
 tribute to his memory, given by Mr. Lake, in the 
 columns of the Guardian, and dated May 5th, 1888 : 
 
 "On a bright afternoon, early in October, 1861, a 
 young man on a little French pony was jogging along 
 on the old plank road leading from Hamilton to Port 
 Dover, on his way to the little white parsonage in the 
 village of Hullsville, occupied by the ' preacher in 
 charge ' of the Methodist contjregations on the lari^e 
 and laborious field included in the ' Hullsville Circuit.' 
 Hitching ' Tack-on ' to the fence, he entered the cosy 
 cottage and announced himself as Samuel J. Hunter, 
 the ' supply ' sent by the Chairman of the District, 
 Rev. Richard Jones. Above the medium height, and 
 below the medium weight, with a manly face bespeak- 
 ing reserve and earnestness, with a laugh that always 
 cheered, he was taken into the heart and home of the 
 pastor at once, and welcomed to the greatest work that 
 mortal man could be engaged in. Questioned as to 
 his experience as a preacher, he said, ' 1 have onl}'' one 
 sermon, and that is not much of a one.' But sermon 
 or no sermon, the young preacher captured the hearts 
 
REV. S. J. HUNTER, D.D. 
 
 18 
 
 age, and 
 
 ation on 
 i on my 
 we went 
 nt of my 
 me, and, 
 his first 
 here the 
 beautiful 
 I, in the 
 th, 1888 : 
 r, 1861, a 
 nor along 
 n to Port 
 Lore in the 
 jacher in 
 the larije 
 Circuit.' 
 the cosy 
 Hunter, 
 District, 
 light, and 
 pespeak- 
 always 
 le of the 
 iork that 
 id as to 
 [only one 
 sermon 
 le hearts 
 
 of the people, and wherever he went they came to 
 hear him, with the greatest pleasure, satisfaction and 
 profit. ' Tack-on ' carried him through mud, rain and 
 snow, and he filled all his appointments, and his 
 youthful Superintendent at the District Meeting not 
 only answered with emphasis, the question, * Has he 
 competent abilities for our itinerant work ? ' but went 
 on to state the gladne-ss with which the people heard 
 the truth from the lips of the stripling preacher. At 
 the Conference of 1862 we were both removed — he to 
 Oakville, and I to Markham. We met but seldom, but 
 his name throufjhout that field of labor is still with 
 many, ' as ointment poured forth.' In 1864 he came 
 to Richmond Hill, and our circuits adjoined. We 
 often met — especially do I remember the ' four days' ' 
 meeting (lasting for fourteep days, and at which 
 seventy souls were converted) held in Markham vil- 
 lage, when he, with many others, came to my assis- 
 tance. How intense his earnestness, how powerful his 
 appeals, how clearly he presented truth. The stripling 
 of former years, though no stouter in body, had ac- 
 quired great breadth and scope of thought, and his 
 hearers were always profited by his utterances. Years 
 passed on, and each in his way endeavored to do his 
 work as God gave ability. In 1870 the writer was 
 laying down the responsibilities of the active ministry 
 for the second time, on account of failinfj health, 
 having spent the year at Niagara, when on a lovely 
 morning in the latter end of June, in that year, a 
 carriage stopped before the parsonage, and out stepped 
 the subject of this sketch, beaming with health and 
 
14 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 happiness, and following; him came his blushing bride, 
 to spend part of their honeymoon with us. The 
 days went quickly by, full of pleasure and joy to 
 the whole party. On the following Sabbath he 
 preached, morninfr and evening, at the re-opening of 
 the church, then just refitted and occupied by our 
 congregation. The people were more than pleased 
 with his sermons, and I could not help but notice the 
 rapid strides he was making towards the front rank 
 of public speakers. After those days of pleasure 
 came a separation of three years, when I had the 
 great pleasure of moving the resolution inviting him 
 to Elm Street Church, Toronto, only one person on the 
 Board beside myself knew anything of him, and he 
 was accepted largely on my recommendation. But 
 older men wanted the position, and only after a hard- 
 fought battle, in which the writer took an active part, 
 at the Conference, was the wish of the Quarterly 
 Official Board carried out. Not that the committee 
 doubted his ability for the position, but because older 
 men had to be provided for. Twelve years in this 
 city gave him an opportunity to prove his call to the 
 Christian ministry, in the forceful sermons, the faithful 
 pastoral visits, the efficient leader of special services, 
 and the Christian gentleman. But he has taken his 
 departure. We mourn his loss, and renew our vows of 
 faithfulness to Go^ and humanity. The influence of 
 his life remains ; the grave has received any error, 
 covered any defect, and the fondest recollections alone 
 survive." 
 
 Speaking of that first District Meeting, Mr. Lake 
 
REV. S. J. HUNTER, D.D. 
 
 16 
 
 will remember an amusinf^ episode. The late Rev. Dr. 
 Rice was nov Chairman of the District, and he had all 
 the tenderness of a woman, with all the firmness of a 
 general on the field of battle. In those days, candi- 
 dates for the ministry were required to preach a trial 
 sermon before the members of the district meeting, or 
 a committee appointed to hear and report upon the 
 sermon. We had several candidates that year, and 
 Dr. Rice arranged for the'trial sermons in the diflferent 
 churches of the city of Hamilton, where the district 
 meetinir was held. The old McNab Street Church was 
 the prominent church of the city, and S. J. Hunter 
 was announced to preach there on the evening of the 
 first day of the meeting. The hour came, and so did 
 the congregation, filling the lecture room to the doors, 
 but the preacher did not come. The lad was fright- 
 ened at the thouorht of standing before such an 
 audience, and waited outside until the preliminary 
 services were over, and Dr. Rice had put another man 
 into the pulpit; and the sermon was w< 11 under way 
 when the young preacher slipped quietly in and took 
 a back seat. But Dr. Rice was equal to the emergency. 
 After the sermon, he said : " S, J. Hunter will preach 
 in John Street Church to-morrow morning at six 
 o'clock, and I want you all to be there, especially the 
 preachers." Poor Samuel did not sleep much that 
 night, but he preached an excellent sermon the next 
 morning to an overflowin<x congregation. 
 
 His fields of labor were Nanticoke, Oakville, Yonge 
 Street North, Bowmanville, Montreal East, Montreal 
 Second, Toronto, Elm Street ; Toronto, Queen Street ; 
 
H^ 
 
 i : 
 
 i . ! 
 
 |i| 
 
 16 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 Toronto, Elm Street (second term); Toronto, Sherbourne 
 Street, and Hamilton Centenary Church. In lci71, ho 
 was married to Miss Charlotte Ruston, of Montreal, 
 who (with two children, a son and daughter) now 
 survives him. 
 
 Of his public life, extending over a period of 
 twenty-seven years, I need not write. His record is 
 before the Church and the world, and his " record is 
 on high." He never sought or coveted official position, 
 but shrunk from it, although his brethren were anxious 
 to give it him, for perhaps no minister in our work 
 was more popular with, and more beloved by, his 
 brethren in the ministry. But he has said to me 
 again and again, " All 1 want is a church and congre- 
 gation, where I may do the work of the Master." 
 Had he lived, no doubt official position would have 
 been forced upon him. Already his brethren had 
 passed him through the office of Secretary of Confer- 
 ence, and at the time of his death he was a member 
 of the General Conference and of the Court of 
 Appeal, and a director of the Wesleyan Ladies' 
 College at Hamilton, and, in 1886, the Senate of 
 Victoria University conferred upon him the degree of 
 Doctor of Divinity. But a higher promotion awaited 
 him in a higher sphere, and he has joined the great 
 multitude who " serve God day and night in His 
 temple." 
 
 No words can express my own sense of loneliness 
 since his death, but I am cheered by the thought that 
 I shall meet him again — meet him in the summer-land 
 of the soul, 
 
 I ^|iii 
 
REV. S. J. HUNTER, D.D. 
 
 17 
 
 bourne 
 0571, ho 
 3ntreal, 
 r) now 
 
 •iod of 
 !Cord is 
 ecord is 
 )Osition, 
 anxious 
 Li' work 
 by, his 
 to me 
 congre- 
 Master." 
 Id have 
 en had 
 Confer- 
 nember 
 urt of 
 Ladies' 
 ate of 
 ^gree of 
 iwaited 
 |e great 
 lin His 
 
 leliness 
 Iht that 
 ler-land 
 
 I 
 
 " Where the hidden wound is healed ; 
 Wliore the blighted life reblooms ; 
 Where the smitten heart, the freshness 
 Of its buoyant youth resuniew ; 
 Where the love that here wo lavish 
 On the withering leaves of cirae, 
 Shall have fadeless flowers to fix on 
 In an ever spring-bright clime, 
 Where we find the joy of loving 
 As we never loved before ; 
 Loving on, unchilled, unhindered, 
 Loving once, and evermore. 
 Brother, we shall meet and rest 
 'Mid the holy and the blest. " 
 
 The place which he held in the esteem and affection 
 of the people of this country is evidenced in the 
 utterances of the press, and in the utterances of the 
 speakers at memorial services on the occasion of his 
 death. 
 
 The Hamilton Times said : " In the death of the 
 Rev. Dr. Hunter, pastor of Centenary Methodist 
 Church, a man of large heart, vigorous intellect, sunny 
 disposition, and rare moral courage has gone from 
 among us. Dr. Hunter was a man whom everybody 
 who ever heard him speak was compelled to admire 
 and respect ; a man whom those who knew him well 
 were constrained to love. A fluent, forcible and 
 eloquent speaker, he never failed to please, either in 
 the pulpit or on the platform. His mind was richly 
 stored, for he was a close student and a wide reader, 
 and his hearers were always sure either to learn 
 somethincr from his discourses or to hear some old 
 
18 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 i 
 
 truth presented in a new light. Above all, he was, as 
 a preacher, earnest. His sermons were invariably 
 fused with the white heat of sincerity and zeal in the 
 cause of the Master, to whose service he had devoted 
 his life. He never flinched from telling an unpopular 
 truth. In the death of Dr. Hunter, the Methodist 
 Church in Canada has lost one of its brightest orna- 
 ments, and the country a man who had in him vast 
 possibilities for good, and who would have utilized 
 them well." 
 
 The Toronto Globe said : " By the premature death 
 of Rev. S. J. Hunter, D.D., the Methodists have lost a 
 leader and the Christian pulpit one of its most eloquent 
 voices. He was a man of noble life and lof tv courage, 
 and a powerful factor in the moral and religious 
 movements of his time." 
 
 The Hamilton Spectator said : " The deceased clergy- 
 man was revered by the members of his own congre- 
 gation, and had hundreds of warm friends and ad- 
 mirers, worshippers in other churches here. None 
 who ever heard him preach but would go again ; none 
 who knew him but felt it a privilege to be numbered 
 among his acquaintances." 
 
 The closing scene of his life was touchingly described 
 by a city paper as follows : " For some time past Dr. 
 Hunter's friends observed that he was far from being 
 in his usual health. However, he was a man of such 
 great spirit and energy, and so anxious to keep up every 
 department of his work, that he would not think of 
 taking relaxation. He was prevailed upon a few weeks 
 ago to take a short vacation, his wife and friends 
 
 . 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
REV. S. J. HUNTER, D.D. 
 
 19 
 
 was, as 
 arribly 
 ] in the 
 devoted 
 popular 
 ethodist 
 st orna- 
 im vast 
 utilized 
 
 :e death 
 ve lost a 
 eloquent 
 courage, 
 religious 
 
 l1 clergy- 
 
 congre- 
 
 and ad- 
 
 , None 
 
 none 
 
 bered 
 
 in 
 
 Ulll 
 
 [escribed 
 
 Ipast Dr. 
 
 )m being 
 of such 
 ip every 
 ihink of 
 
 |w weeks 
 friends 
 
 urcrinor him that it would benefit the health of his 
 little daughter, who had not been feeling well. The 
 family spent about two weeks at Clifton Springs, 
 N. Y. He returned apparently better, and on Sun- 
 day, the 22nd of April, preached both morning and 
 evening in the Centenary Church, although many of 
 his friends tried to persuade him not to, as the return- 
 ing symptoms of disease were feared. His sermons on 
 that occasion were models of earnestness and power. 
 On Monday, the 23rd, he attended the funeral of Mr. 
 F. S. Lazier's child, and on that evening complained of 
 being unwell. Within a few hours, erysipelas had 
 manifested itself. The progress of the disease was 
 rapid from the beginning, and although his family 
 physician, Dr. Rosebrugh, and Drs. MuUin and Griffin 
 (who were called in consultation), did all in their 
 power to arrest the malady, their efforts proved un- 
 availing, and at 7.30 last evening (April 30th, 1888), 
 the good and beloved pastor breathed his last." 
 
 Durinof his illness the members of the conj^regation 
 of Centerarv Church, and his ministerial brethren in 
 the city, were unremitting in their attentions. His 
 only brothers. Rev. W. J. Hunter, D.i)., and Rev. H. D. 
 Hunter, M.A.; his sister, Mrs. Munns ; Rev. Dr. Parker, 
 his brother-in-law ; Mrs. Parker, Mrs. W. J. Hunter 
 and family, were present at his bedside when he passed 
 away. At 3.30 in the afternoon, the above-named 
 relatives, together with most of the pastors of the 
 Methodist Churches in Hamilton, and other friends, 
 joined in a religious service around the couch of the 
 dying preacher. They united in singing " Jesus* 
 
20 
 
 IN MEMOllIAM. 
 
 Lover of my soul," and " Rock of Ages," after which 
 the Rev. W. J. Maxwell, pastor of Wesley Church, 
 offered a touching and appropriate prayer. During his 
 lucid moments and in his delirium, the dying pastor's 
 conversation was confined to the Church, with its 
 interests and wants. Shortly before he died, his 
 brother, Dr. W. J. Hunter, said to him, " Samuel, is Jesus 
 precious to you now ? " He replied, " Yes." His 
 brother said, " Jesus is taking you home to heaven." 
 He replied with emphasis, " Amen." 
 
 The funeral services in Centenary Church were most 
 impressive. More than a hundred ministers were 
 present, including all denominations ; and at Toronto, 
 on the arrival of the train bearing his remains, an 
 immense assemblage of friends and clergymen were 
 present. A funeral sermon was preached in '^entenary 
 Church, on Sunday evening. May 6th, by tne Rev. 
 W. J. Maxwell, Chairman of the Hamilton District, 
 when hundreds were unable to gain ad'iittance. 
 
 At the memorial service held in the Centenary 
 Church on the day of the funeral, an appropriate 
 address was delivered by the Rev. E. H. Dewart, D.D., 
 editor of the Christian Guardian, a life-long and 
 cherished friend of the deceased. Dr. Dewart said : 
 " The thoughts which find readiest utterance in words 
 are not our deepest thoughts. The grandest truths 
 and the most profound emotions that stir our hearts 
 are the most diflScult to voice in suitable language. 
 There are moments in every life when the burdens of 
 grief, perplexity or disappointment which press upon 
 the soul are too heavy to find suitable expression, and 
 
REV. S. J. HUNTER, D.D. 
 
 21 
 
 which 
 Church, 
 ring his 
 pastor's 
 rith its 
 led, his 
 is Jesus 
 J." His 
 leaven." 
 
 3re most 
 rs were 
 Toronto, 
 lains, an 
 en were 
 ntenary 
 he Rev. 
 [District, 
 
 ;e. 
 
 ntenary 
 
 ropriate 
 
 |rt, D.D., 
 ins and 
 rt said : 
 in words 
 truths 
 r hearts 
 ,nguage. 
 ■dens o£ 
 Iss upon 
 ion, and 
 
 each is ready to wish that the tongue could utter the 
 thoughts that arise within him, I profoundly realize 
 this difficulty in venturing to address you to-day on 
 this sadly solemn occasion. A dear family has been 
 suddenly bereaved, and left with desolate home and 
 hearts by the death of the loved husband and father. 
 A congregation has had the faithful pastor and leader 
 taken from their head ; the Church of which he was 
 a worthy and honored minister has suffered the loss 
 of a captain and standard-bearer in the army of the 
 living God ; the community mourns the removal of an 
 intelligent and public-spirited citizen, and many of his 
 brethren in the ministry of the Gospel feel that the 
 world is made poorer to them for all future life by the 
 unexpected and painful separation from them of a 
 cenerous, faithfid and beloved friond and brother. 
 
 " Any attempt of mine to express all the sorrow I 
 feel for the widow and fatherless children, for the loss 
 that the Church has sustained by Bro. Hunter's 
 lamented death, or my own high estimate of his 
 character, and my sense of personal loss by the rude 
 rending of the ties of a tender friendship, must be a 
 painfully conscious failure, because I cannot attain the 
 command of thought or feeling that is necessary for 
 such a task. 
 
 " Under these disqualifying circumstances, all that 
 we can do is to glance briefly at the life and character 
 of our departed brother, and to gather up a few 
 practical lessons, to inspire in bearing the burdens and 
 fighting the battles of our own earthly pilgrimage. 
 To me it is especially trying and delicate to speak of 
 
1^ 
 
 I! « 
 
 -^ 
 
 22 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 Bro. Hunter's character. He was a tried and trusted 
 personal friend, to whom \ was bound by a strong and 
 tender affection I never had any doultt that he was 
 true to me behind my back as well as before my face ; 
 and, after all, the men and women who are capable of 
 loyal and unselfish friendship must be reckoned among 
 the best gifts of heaven. They brighten the darkness 
 of earth, and their fidelity and love are one of the 
 things which make life worth living. As a preacher, 
 I need not remind you, who have listened so often to 
 his forcible and eloquent expositions of divine truth, 
 that he was an able minister of the New Testament, 
 manly and outspoken in his utterances, clear and 
 vigorous in thought, expressive and felicitous in lan- 
 guage, and effective and impressive in the presentation 
 of the great practical truths of the Gospel which 
 relate to Christian experiei' 'e and duty. He had a 
 high idea of the work of preaching, and gave it the 
 supreme place in his thoughts. He was pre-eminently 
 a ' preacher of righteousness.' The pulpit was his 
 throne, from which he spoke with the dignity and 
 authority of an ambassador of Christ, his Master. He 
 never lowered the eternal standards of truth and 
 rlirhteousness to win the favor of those who wanted 
 to have smooth things preached unto them. The 
 Church can ill spare preachers of this type. Dr. 
 Hunter was a mrnly, independent man, who had the 
 courage to utter what he believed to be true, even 
 though his adherence to his convictions might cause a 
 loss of friends and popularity. He never degraded 
 his manhood to make each man believe that he agreed 
 
 ■ 
 
REV. S. J. HUNTER, D.D. 
 
 28 
 
 with his notions. Amid the time-servinfj and vacilla- 
 tion which prevail around us, it helps to streng^then 
 faith in our poor humanity to come into contact with 
 one who believes something; and dares to stand by 
 what he deems ri«];ht. I do not hesitate to apply to 
 our translated friend the words of our fi^reat poet : 
 
 *' ' His lifo wp-s gentle, and tlie elements 
 So mixed in him that Nature might 
 Stand up and say t(j all the world, 
 This was a man !' 
 
 And, after all, an honest man is the noblest work of 
 God. He was a cfenial and cheerful Christian, inclined 
 to look on the bright side of things, and bringing 
 sunshine into eyery home that he entered. He was a 
 livinjx contradiction of the allegation that the Christian 
 religion is a sour and melancholy thing. And why 
 should not Christians be cheerful ? God is their 
 Father ; Chr'* fc their Saviour ; and they have a sure 
 title to ' an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled and 
 that fadeth not away.' Though not demonstrative or 
 unduly forward to speak of himself, he so lived that 
 he was ever able and ready to testify to his calm faith 
 in Christ as his Saviour and his sure hope of life 
 eternal. Our confidence in the safety and happiness 
 of our dying friends does not rest upon the expressions 
 of the dying hour, but upon tlie unfaltering assurance 
 that He who hath enabled them to witness a good 
 confession in life will be their strength and safety in 
 death, and bring them safely home to Himself in that 
 heaven where sorrow and death are unknown. It is 
 
; 
 
 24 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 
 meet and right, whjn our friends are taken away, to 
 recall those features of their charactv-^v that were the 
 ground of our love and esteem and the secret of their 
 usefulness ; and thus they, being dead, yet speak to us, 
 calling us upward and onward in the path of duty. 
 We can never, in this world, gather up the whole 
 results of the influences which emanate from a brave 
 and godly life, 
 
 " ' For when a good man dies, 
 For years beyond our ken, 
 The light he leaves behind him lies 
 Upon the paths of men. ' 
 
 " Our departed brother was converted in early life, 
 and while yet a youth consecrated himself to the 
 service in which he spent his life. The noblest types 
 of Christian manhood and womanhood are those who 
 in the dew of their youth give themselves to God, and 
 are trained up with broad and scriptural views of 
 duty and character. We want a generation trained 
 from infancv in right views of life, of liberality and 
 self-sacrifice. Those who begin the Christian life late 
 have already lived a large part of their lives with 
 wrong standards of duty and selfish habits that are 
 terribly hard to shake off; for, even after they have 
 professed faith in Christ, these wrong views and 
 habits, like the Egyptian task-masters, follow hard 
 ifter them and limit their usefulness. 
 
 " The suddenness of Bro. Hunter's removal once 
 more reminds us that there is but a step between us 
 and death ; that only a thin, filmy veil separates us 
 from the spiritual world. The voice of God's provi- 
 dence loudly speaks to U3 to day, proclaiming that ' the 
 
REV. S. J. HUNTER, D.D. 
 
 25 
 
 away, to 
 were the 
 , of their 
 jak to us, 
 
 of duty, 
 le whole 
 
 a brave 
 
 early life, 
 If to the 
 lest types 
 those who 
 God, and 
 views of 
 )n trained 
 ■ality and 
 .n life late 
 ives with 
 ,s that are 
 |they have 
 iews and 
 How hard 
 
 [oval once 
 
 itween us 
 
 )arates us 
 
 )d's provi- 
 
 that * the 
 
 night cometh when no man can work.' Be instant, in 
 season and out of season, for none of us know how 
 long • e shall have to work. How little I thought, 
 when 1 sat in the twilight a few weeks ago, talking 
 with Bro. Hunter, at Clifton Springs, that that would 
 be our last conversation ' until the day breaks and the 
 shadows flee away.' How important that all of us — 
 especially those of us whose hair is becoming silvered 
 with age — live as John Wesley lived, so that if we 
 knew our death was to take place in a few hours, we 
 would need to make no change in the way in which 
 we would spend the intervening time. In such an 
 hour as this, under the shadow of a great sorrow, 
 when death breaks the tenderest earthly ties, how 
 hopeless and desolate would we be without the hopes 
 and consolations of the Gospel ! We stand by the 
 lifeless forms of our loved ones, and ask the old 
 question of humanity, ' If a man die, shall he live 
 again ? ' Earthly wisdom has no answer. We turn 
 to Him who hath ' abolished death and brouoht life 
 and immortality to light in the Gospel,' and we hear 
 His hope-inspiring words, ' I am the resurrection and 
 the life ; he that believeth in Me, though he were 
 dead, yet shall he live.' God's promises are not like 
 the untried theories of men. They have been tested 
 and vindicated by a great crowd of witnesses. These 
 stars of truth have shed down their light and conso- 
 lation upon the darkened scenery of earthly sorrow 
 ;ind death. The orphan, when father and mother, who 
 would feel for his griefs, are silent in the grave, has 
 found in the God of his father, a ' friend who sticketh 
 3 
 
26 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 IH 'i 
 
 closer than a brother.' The widow, when the oak to 
 which she clung has been uprooted in the storm, has 
 heard the voice of her Father, * leave thy fatherless 
 children with Me, I will preserve them alive, and let 
 thy widows trust in Me.' Thank God, this world of 
 shadows and sorrows is not the whole of life. There 
 is a world above, where sorrow is unknown. The 
 broken friendships of earth shall be re-formed ; parted 
 friends shall meet in the sunlight of heaven's un- 
 fading joy.'' 
 
 The Rev. D. L. Brethour, Ph.B., President of the 
 Niagara Conference ; the Rev. A. E. Russ, M.A., and 
 the Rev. W. J. Maxwell took part in the preliminary 
 services ; and at the grave, in Mount Pleasant Ceme- 
 tery, the burial service was read by the late Rev. 
 John A. Williams, General Superintendent of the 
 Methodist Church, and the Rev. Dr. Potts, Secretnry 
 of Education. The pall-bearers were Rev. Dr. Burwash, 
 Chancellor of Victoria University ; Dr. Burns, Prin- 
 cipal of Hamilton Ladies' College ; Dr. Briggs, Book 
 Steward ; Dr. Hugh Johnston, and Revs. W. J. Max- 
 well and John Kay. 
 
 When the grave was filled in, the assemblage sang 
 in subdued voice and in faltering accents, 
 
 " Give me the wings of faith to rise 
 Within the veil, and see 
 The saints above, how great their joys, 
 How bright their glories be." 
 
 And we turned slowly away from the last resting- 
 place of the sacred remains, feeling that earth was 
 poorer and heaven richer, and our dear one was 
 " forever with the Lord." 
 
le oak to 
 torm, has 
 fatherless 
 Q, and let 
 world of 
 8. There 
 wn. The 
 i ; parted 
 ven's un- 
 
 
 nt of the 
 M.A., and 
 •eliminary 
 .nt Ceme- 
 
 late Rev. 
 it of the 
 
 Secretnry 
 . Burwash, 
 rns, Prin- 
 iggs, Book 
 V. J. Max- 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 blage sang 
 
 ist resting- 
 earth was 
 ' one was 
 
I. 
 
 POWER— INFLUENCE— ASSURANCE. 
 
 "For our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in 
 power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. " — 1 Thess. i, 5. 
 
 PRIOR to the utterance of these words Paul had 
 been on two great missionary tours. He had 
 gone over all Asia Minor, and, with Silas as his travel- 
 ling companion, he is now meditating a journey into 
 Asia — probably extending his thoughts to the far- 
 distant East. But while he is contemplating this tour 
 a singular vision appears before him — a man from an 
 entirely different country, not an Asiatic, but a Euro- 
 pean, and in pathetic language, he saj'^s, " Come over 
 into Macedonia and help us." The stranger was from 
 Macedonia, a province of Europe. The call was to 
 bring this Gospel of Christ out of Asia and start it on 
 [its wonderful career on the continent of Europe. Paul 
 [obeyed ; and in company with Silas went first to the 
 city of Philippi. They there began the first Gospel 
 preaching on the continent of Europe, and opened up 
 [that wonderful history which, for eighteen centuries, 
 ►las been unfolding itself — extending from that conti- 
 lent to us — constituting the great religious spirit and 
 listory of our own national life. But, strange to say, 
 nth a continent before him, and uncounted myriads 
 souls waiting for the word of life, Paul soon finds 
 
30 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 himself arrested, cast into prison, and thrust into the 
 inner cell. I have often thought, on reading this 
 history, that this was the proper occasion for the faith 
 of Paul and Silas to give way — at least, it is under cir- 
 cumstances of this kind that our faith in God and His 
 providence generally breaks down. While all is pros- 
 perous and successful, it does not seem hard for us to 
 believe that we are in favor with God ; but when 
 adversity and disappointment come, we begin to won- 
 der. But not so with these men. They woke the 
 echoes of the midnight hour by strains of prayer and 
 triumphant songs of praise. Soon after, an earthquake 
 shook the prison ; the chains fell from the limbs of 
 the imprisoned heroes, and the jailor, in his terror, 
 cried, " Men and brethren, what must I do ? " The 
 earthquake that shook that Philippian prison shook all 
 the continent. Forth from the prison they went ; 
 preached in the city ; gathered around them a church, 
 and left for us one of the most touching and tender 
 letters of Paul, addressed to this church at Philippi. 
 Subsequently they went over into Thessalonica, and 
 then over into other parts of Europe. After an 
 absence from Thessalonica of three years, Timothy 
 brings Paul word that certain things existed in the 
 church there which needed immediate attention. They 
 were beginning to have doubts about this new religion 
 that came to them from Asia, and some feared they 
 had been too hasty in believing and professing it ; and 
 while they were in this state of questioning and hesi- 
 tating, Paul writes them this epistle from which my 
 text is taken. Now, it seems to me, that if I were 
 
POWER — INFLUENCE — ASSURANCE, 
 
 31 
 
 going to write to a church in a state of hesitancy and 
 doubt, if able, I should have written a very learned 
 letter, quoted a great deal from the prophecies, laid 
 down a number of propositions, given them a very close, 
 compact argument to prove that the Gospel must be 
 true ; and as a result, I suppose all the learned men 
 and the skeptics and the free-thinkers would have had 
 a grand time in trying to riddle my arguments and 
 upset my propositions. Ah, Paul was wiser than I 
 would have been. He sits down and writes to this 
 doubting church a most remarkable letter ; properly 
 speaking, not a logical set phrase or proposition in 
 it, but simply a plain, practical appeal to the Thessa- 
 lonians themselves. It is — " Remember." Do you not 
 remember what the Gospel is as I preached it unto 
 you ? Not a word only — a beautiful theory, an ora- 
 torical essay, a philosophical system — but that it came 
 in power and laid hold of your hearts ; that it brought 
 with it the Holy Ghost as a demonstration of its 
 divinity, and lie brought within you His own divine 
 assurance. Now here in this text we have the three 
 great things which must ever stand as the evidence 
 and glory of the Gospel of Christ. 
 
 I. Its " power." 
 
 II. The accompanying influence of the Holy Ghost. 
 III. The assurance it brings to the individual. 
 
 I. Then the argument of the apostle is, would 
 you know the Gospel to be of God ? look at its power. 
 Mark you, brethren, Paul had been preaching the Gos- 
 
32 
 
 SERMONS ON The CFRISTIAN mke. 
 
 ». 
 
 11 
 
 II 
 
 I' 'I 
 
 1 
 
 pel only fourteen years. The Saviour had ascended to 
 heaven only some twenty-five years before this, and 
 yet Paul says, look at the power of the Gospel and see 
 in that an evidence of its divinity ; yes, for in twenty- 
 five years, since the despised Nazarene went up on 
 high, His word had gone through all India and Pales- 
 tine and Asia Minor, and had overleaped the borders 
 of Western Asia and had sounded out over Europe. 
 And if in twenty-five years the Gospel could appeal to 
 the manifestations of its power as the evidence of its 
 divinity, what may we do with this thought when we 
 add to it the centuries that have passed since then ; 
 when we sweep the mind over the history of Christi- 
 anity as it has come down along the line of the ages, 
 scattering its benedictions among men and manifesting 
 its power among the nations of the earth ? Power is 
 of God. You can't think of one without thinking of 
 the other. We stand out in the storm, and tremble as 
 the thunder rolls over our heads, or the flashing light- 
 ning shoots athwart the dome of h aven, and say, What 
 power ! and think of God who wields it. We stand on 
 the ocean shore, hear the lashing of its billows and see 
 it tossing mighty ships as bits of cork, and say, How 
 matchless in power is the God of ocean ! We look into 
 the heavens above us, and see the worlds wheeling in 
 their courses ; we gaze at the sun, 880,000 miles in 
 diameter, a million and a half times larger than our 
 earth, so that if it were hollow and worlds the size of 
 this had been thrown in one every day since the days 
 of Abraham, the sun would hardly yet be filled up. 
 We gaze off from the great central orb at a distance of 
 
POWER — INFLUENCE — ASSURANCE. 
 
 33 
 
 35,000,000 miles, and see old Mercury, sweeping round 
 the sun in 88 days at a rate of 100,000 miles an hour ; 
 looking on still, at a distance of 68,000,000 miles we 
 see Venus spinning round the sun in 288 days ; away 
 off still, 140,000,000 miles, Mars completes his circuit 
 in 686 days; at a distance of 500,000,000 miles we 
 come to that wonderful old world Jupiter, with his four 
 moons, taking twelve years to travel round the sun; and 
 far off there, 906,000,000 miles, Saturn, 75,000 miles in 
 diameter, with his eight moons, and beautiful rings 
 that appear like threads of golden light, takes thirty 
 years to make his circuit; and still on, 1,880,000,000 
 miles, Uranus in eighty years performs his revolution ; 
 and still outward 2,880,000,000 miles, Neptune sweeps 
 his orbit in 160 years. And when we think of all this, 
 and think also that the stars, many of them, are suns, 
 around which other worlds are moving, stars so distant 
 that light, travelling at the rate of 12,000,000 miles 
 a minute, has not yet reached the earth from some of 
 them. I say when we thus look upon this vast uni- 
 verse, system of worlds rising one above another — sun 
 systems, group systems, nebular systems — and see them 
 all taking their places with all the ease and natural- 
 ness that the bud unfolds and the flower blooms, there 
 comes a sense of the infinite, and we exclaim in awe 
 with the royal Psalmist, " Power belongeth unto Thee, 
 God ! " 
 
 Now, the apostle says there is power in this 
 Gospel. What then ? Why, it is the power of God. 
 It is the Gospel of power — it is the Gospel of God. 
 That it is so, you may see written on the page of 
 
34 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 history. Strolling along the Thames Embankment 
 one day, in London, I saw what to me was an object 
 of peculiar interest. It was a rose-colored stone, 
 68i feet long, about 7A feet wide at the base, gradu- 
 ally tapering toward the top to a width of between 
 four and five feet, and then terminating in a summit 
 called a pyramidion, from its being shaped like a 
 pyramid. Each of its four sides had on it three 
 columns of hieroglyphical inscriptions. It was Cleo- 
 patra's Needle — originally hewn in the famous quarries 
 of Syene, in Southern Egypt ; subsequently, one of 
 six obelisks that adorned the approach to the Temple 
 of the Sun at On, in ancient Egypt, and afterwards 
 conveyed to Alexandria, to grace the Csesarium, a 
 temple built in honor of the Caesars, where it became 
 associated with the name of Cleopatra. Abraham and 
 Joseph and Moses may have walked under the shadow 
 of that stone, when the seeds of those mighty thoughts 
 — afterwards to produce such wondrous fruits — were 
 germinating in their minds ; and Jeremiah who, at a 
 later period, lifted up his voice against the Temple of 
 the Sun, may have sat down beside it and wept for 
 the iniquities of idolatry. Egypt then was a mighty 
 nation, whose sword was dreaded by the world. But 
 what of Egypt now ? Her cities are heaps of ruins, 
 her splendid temples are thrown down. She is unable 
 to retain possession of the monuments of her former 
 power ; the whole of the literature of her kings is 
 comprised in what is written on their tombs. Those 
 tombs resound to the footsteps of intruding strangers, 
 and her pyramids only perpetuate the remembrance 
 
POWER — INFLUENCE — ASSURANCE. 
 
 85 
 
 object 
 
 stone, 
 
 rrradu- 
 
 c5 
 
 
 etween 
 
 
 summit 
 like a 
 
 
 t three 
 
 
 s Cleo- 
 
 
 ^uarries 
 
 one of 
 
 Temple 
 
 erwards 
 
 
 rium, a 
 became 
 I am and 
 shadow 
 houghts 
 
 • 
 
 s — were 
 
 
 ho, at a 
 mple of 
 vept for 
 , mighty 
 1(1. But 
 
 
 3t' ruins, 
 s unable 
 ' former 
 
 -■ 
 
 kings is 
 Those 
 
 
 brangers, 
 mbrance 
 
 _ 
 
 of her vanity and pride. And what of the land in 
 which Cleopatra's Needle now stands ? A land of bar- 
 barism a few centuries ago — where the awful rites of 
 the Druid soddened the soil with human sacrificial 
 blood — an infant in age compared with hoary Egypt, 
 yet to-day leading the world in all that is Christian, 
 prosperous, noble and good ? And what of the nation 
 over which Cleopatra ruled ? Melted away in the 
 chalice of time, as her proud queen tried to melt her 
 jewels ; swept away, crushed and utterly destroyed. 
 And why this difference between Egypi and Rome and 
 Britain ? Simply because the power of the Gospel 
 has been in Britain, and the power of the Gospel has 
 not been in Rome and Egypt. Any man passing 
 through the Paris Exposition could pick out the 
 Christian nations by their products. China, Persia, 
 Arabia, and all the nations of the Orient, nodding 
 under the weight of ages when Christ was upon the 
 earth, stood side by side with the younger Christian 
 nations ; but the younger move forward in prosperity, 
 success and growth ; the elder, like marble statues, 
 stand where they stood centuries ago. And why ? 
 Because, in the one case, the Gospel came to them in 
 power; in the other, idolatry or Mohammedanism 
 cramped and destroyed their life. 
 
 But now, what is that strange power that Li's made 
 the Gospel such a success in the world ? I answer, it 
 is in its truth and in the fact that it is true. My 
 friends, if one falsehood, one misstatement had ever been 
 found in the Gospel, it would have ceased long ago from 
 among men. If any lie could be found in it, it would 
 
36 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIKE. 
 
 kill it. Now apply that fact. For 1800 years this 
 Gospel has been winning its way in the world.- At 
 every point it has had its enemies. It was met at the 
 very beginning by the keenest, subtlest infidelity, and 
 has faced the most envenomed opposition in every age 
 and country. These foes have been standing vulture- 
 like, looking to find a flaw or error. Keenest contempt, 
 bitterest sarcasm, broadest ridicule have been brought 
 to bear upon it. A sorer trial than this came upon it 
 through a false Church, hiding it away from the 
 people, adding to it their own superstitions. A little 
 later, another storm of infidelity broke out in Germany 
 and France. The keenest intellects, the broadest 
 learnincf, the severest criticism were brou<;ht to bear 
 upon it. Yet a little later in England, a still broader 
 and deeper and more terrible form of infidelity broke 
 out against it. And in these days, or during the last 
 few years, a new form of infidelity has struck the 
 Gospel — scientific, close, destructive, incisive — and yet 
 through all these trials the Gospel has extended 
 through the ages, and lives to-day, not a word stricken 
 out, not a doctrine proved false, not a fact disproved 
 in its statements. Is not this evidence that it must be 
 true ? Doesn't it look presumptuous for us in this day 
 to suppose that after 1800 years of searching and 
 effort, trying to find an error or falsehood in it, we 
 should yet be able to discover something wrong in it ? 
 If it has stood the test for 1800 years, and lives to-day 
 mighty in the power of truth, doubtless it will survive 
 the nineteenth century. But then there is not only 
 truth in this Gospel, but a particular kind of truth. 
 
POWER — INFLUENCE — ASSURANCE. 
 
 87 
 
 Perhaps I can best ^et this thought before you by an 
 illustration. Not long after my text was uttered there 
 was a man in the city of Rome — a thoughtful, inquiring 
 man. This man went over all the literature of Rome, 
 passed over into Greece to study'all its learning, went 
 down into Egypt and talked with the old priests, and 
 familiarized himself with all their knowledge, but his 
 heart was empty and hungry still. One day, as he 
 was walking through the city of Rome, he heard a cry 
 that was common in those days, " The Christians to the 
 lions ! The Christians to the lions ! " and the multitude 
 began to move toward the great Coliseum. Inside the 
 Coliseum, arranged on its galleries, were perhaps 20,000 
 people. In a little while a wicket gate opened, and a 
 woman was led out into the arena. She was young 
 and beautiful ; there she stood, calm, unmoved, self- 
 possessed, her hands folded on her breast, her eyes 
 lifted towards heaven. Presently she opened her lips 
 and sweetly sang one of the early Christian hymns, 
 and her sweet notes rippled like waves of sound from 
 heaven over the mighty throng. Soon, from another 
 gate, a great Numidian lion bounded into the arena ; but 
 she sang on, and the great beast himself seemed to be 
 arrested as he saw the calm, grand woman. It was 
 only for a moment. With a mighty bound he pounced 
 upon her, and soon blood and fragments lay scattered 
 on the ground. A great shout went up from the mul- 
 titude, and the dreadful show was over. This man 
 looked awe-stricken at the sight, and as he was going 
 out he placed himself beside one of the despised 
 Christians, and said, " I perceive you are a Christian. 
 
38 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 Tell me what is the secret of that woman's death. 
 What made her so calm ? Why, of all the crowd, was she 
 alone trustful and self-possessed ? " And the Christian 
 said, " Because she is a believer in Jesus Christ ; that 
 is the way all our people die. To die is simply to pass 
 to the bosom of Jesus, to dwell with Him forever." 
 " Come home with me," said this philosopher, " and 
 tell me more of this." The man went with him and 
 told him the truth of the Gospel of Christ. It went 
 to his heart, and he said, " I have travelled at home 
 and abroad, in Greece and Egypt, searching for truth 
 like this, and here it comes to me at my own door. 
 Your God shall be my God, your Christ shall be my 
 Christ." He was converted, and the world has recog- 
 nized in him a character almost apostolic — Clement of 
 Rome, who, in his turn, died a martyr. Brethren, 
 this is the power of the truth ; it converts the heart, 
 it meets man's deepest needs, answers the inquiries of 
 the human soul, and brings man into communion with 
 his God. It is God's power in the conscience. 
 
 II. The influence of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The Gospel is something more than truth standing 
 naked and alone ; it comes in power and the Holy 
 Ghost. When the Redeemer had about finished His 
 ministry He said to His disciples one day, "Now I 
 have given you the words which the Father gave Me ; 
 you have the words, you have the truth, all the doc- 
 trines are in your hands ; but wait, tarry in Jerusalem 
 till ye receive the promise of the Father." And when 
 He was leaving them, He said, "Go ye into all the 
 
POWER — INFLUENCE — ASSURANCE. 
 
 39 
 
 I death, 
 was she 
 Ihristian 
 st; that 
 y to pass 
 forever." 
 
 jr, 
 
 and 
 
 him and 
 It went 
 at home 
 'or truth 
 wn door. 
 11 be my 
 as recog- 
 iement of 
 Brethren, 
 he heart, 
 uiries of 
 lion with 
 
 standing 
 
 the Holy 
 
 [shed His 
 
 Now I 
 
 rave Me ; 
 
 the doc- 
 
 lerusalem 
 
 |nd when 
 
 all the 
 
 world, and preach the Gospel to every creature," and 
 " Lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the 
 world." The apostles put themselves in waiting atti- 
 tude, and by-and-by the Holy Ghost came upon them 
 so full in His endowments that it overleaped the bonds 
 of human force, and became miraculous, spoke in 
 tongues, healed diseases, wrought miracles. And when 
 the apostles said to the Thessalonians, "Do you not 
 remember the Holy Ghost that came along with the 
 Gospel ? " I suppose there had been miraculous mani- 
 festations of the Spirit in Thessalonica. But you say, 
 what has thio to do with the nineteenth century ? 
 There is no speaking with tongues, no miracle- 
 working now. Is the Holy Ghost still in the Gospel ? 
 He is. " If I go to my Father," etc., " He will abide 
 with you " — how long ? — " forever." The Holy Ghost 
 is in the Gospel. You read this Word of God. How 
 different from any other book. Why ? The Holy 
 Ghost is in it. Men are convinced of sin, led out of 
 lives of sin into fellowship with the divine, and 
 their souls are made glad and joyful. What is it ? It 
 IS the Holy Ghost. What was it that came like 
 a baptism of peace and joy to your soul ? It w^as the 
 Holy Ghost. What was it that in the time of tempta- 
 tion, when you had almost given way, sent some 
 strange power of conscience upon you — some sensi- 
 itiveness that stirred you up to your danger and 
 [saved you ? It was the Holy Ghost. What was it 
 i^that in the time of your sickness, poverty or embar- 
 [rassment, eame like a refreshing shower from God to 
 [comfort and sustain you ? It was the Holy Ghost. 
 
■--fff 
 
 40 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFK 
 
 What was it on that most solemn of all occasions, 
 when you walked behind all that was left of some 
 loved one, and saw him hid away in the silence of the 
 grave, and all the earth seemed desolate and void ; 
 what was it that came like a benediction of peace on 
 the breaking heart, like a balm upon the wounded 
 spirit, and caused you to grow strong and courageous 
 in God ? It was the Holy Ghost. Thank God, the 
 Holy Ghost is in this Gospel. This is our comfort. 
 Behind all the weakness of the preacher, and the 
 frailty of the earthen vessel, there is the mighty 
 power of God. Divine Spirit, be in Thy Gospel 
 to-night ! Convince of sin and of risfhteousness and 
 judgment. Lead some poor souls into the light and 
 joy of truth. 
 
 III. But there is something more in this Gospel — 
 there is much assurance. That is, the Gospel is its 
 own evidence. It is simply a repetition, in another 
 form, of our Lord's saying, " If any man will do," etc. 
 St. John has the same idea — " He that believeth on the 
 Son of God hath the witness in himself." The Gospel 
 comes to the world with this broad, bold challenge : 
 " If any man will do it " — accept it, live it — " he shall 
 know that it is of God." Try it, and if it does not 
 bring its own evidence, cast it away. Live it and 
 practise it, and it will bring assurance of its truth. 
 Assurance — " much assurance " — a restful, joyful, 
 peaceful assurance that this Gospel is of God. my 
 friends, I want you to try this for yourselves. Let 
 me give you some illustrations here. Bishop James, 
 
POWER — INFLUENCE — ASSURANCE. 
 
 41 
 
 jcasions, 
 of some 
 le of the 
 id void ; 
 peace on 
 wounded 
 urageous 
 God, the 
 
 comfort. 
 
 and the 
 e mighty 
 y Gospel 
 isness and 
 light and 
 
 Gospel — 
 
 spel is its 
 
 n another 
 
 tU do," etc. 
 
 eth on the 
 
 he Gospel 
 
 challenge : 
 
 ." he shall 
 t does not 
 live it and 
 
 its truth. 
 ;ul, joyful 
 od. my 
 
 ■Ives. Let 
 
 lop James, 
 
 of the M. E. Church, now a saint in glory, used to tell 
 how a special meeting was being held, and one person 
 observed at it a few times who excited a great deal 
 of interest, for she was a Jewe.ss. Her husband was 
 a gay man of the world, who went to theatres and the 
 like, and just to relieve the tedium of the evening 
 she used to go to the meeting, just across the street 
 from her home. By-and-by .she found herself asking, 
 ' Wliat if Jesus was the Christ ?" One night at the 
 meeting the conviction took hold of her .soul, " Jesus 
 is the Christ ; " and with it came the terrible thought, 
 " i am a lost soul, for my nation slew Him." In an 
 agony she went home. When her husband came 
 home about 12.30 at night, .she met him in the vesti- 
 bule, and with swollen eyes, .said, " Husband, go to 
 the hou.se of the nearest Christian neighbor and 
 borrow a New Testament." He tried to argue and 
 laugh her out of it, but it was no use. At length, he 
 went and raised the neighbor up and a.sked for the 
 loan of a New Testament. The man who lent it was 
 one who had noticed the Jewess at the meeting. He 
 dre.ssed himself, went to a Christian friend, and said, 
 " There is work for us to-night at the Jewish man- 
 sion ; let us go there." They went and rang the bell, 
 and the Jewess met them in the hall with the smile of 
 heaven on her face and said, 'Oh, I've found Him, 
 Jesus is the Christ ! " And then she told them that 
 when the New Testament was brought she went to 
 lier own room. Imagine it, if you can. Suppo.se you 
 had never seen a Testament — never heard one of its 
 .chapters read ! Then .she .said when .she had got 
 4 
 
42 
 
 SKUMONS ()\ THE CHRISTI \\ I.IFE. 
 
 ill 
 
 alone, she laid the book upon the bed, knelt, lifted up 
 her hand to heaven, and said, "O God of my fathers, 
 Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, give me light, give me 
 light." And then she opened the book at random, and 
 began to read the first chapter of Romans, " Paul, a 
 servant of Jesus Christ," etc. And she read down 
 through those verses, each one pouring through her 
 soul like hot thunderbolts, until she came to this pas- 
 sage, which she read for the first time in her life, " For I 
 am not ashamed," etc. She stopped. Tears blinded her 
 eyes. "To the Jew first, to the Jew first ! I am not 
 ashamed." Her soul was filled with joy unutterable. 
 The Gospel comes with much assurance. Bless God, 
 Christ notifies when He saves us. " All hail the power 
 of Jesus' name." 
 
 Cbr.rles Wesley was for a long time a clergyman 
 before he got the assurance of salvation. At length 
 he was laid on a bed of sickness, and there, he says, he 
 gave up all thoughts of making his own heart better, 
 and trusted his whole soul to the care of Jesus. He 
 felt his heart glow with a sense of pardoning love, and 
 he took up his pen and wrote a hymn, entitled, " Re- 
 joicing in having found Christ." 
 
 "O how happy are they 
 Who their Saviour obey.'' 
 
 A little while ago good old Bishop Mcllvaine, of the 
 Episcopalian Church of the United States, died while 
 abroad in England. The clergyman who was watching 
 beside him heard him say as his last hour came on, 
 " Sing to me." " What shall I sing ? " " Sing ' Just as I 
 
POWER — INFLUENCE — ASSURANCE. 
 
 48 
 
 [ted up 
 "athers, 
 ive me 
 )m, and 
 
 Paul, a 
 i down 
 lah her 
 his pas- 
 , " For I 
 ided her 
 
 am not 
 tterable. 
 Bss God, 
 le power 
 
 ergyman 
 t length 
 says, he 
 better, 
 Rus. He 
 love, and 
 ed, "Re- 
 
 •t 
 
 am.'" Presently he a^ain said, "Sing again." "What 
 shall I sing?" Episcopalian as he was, he said, "Sing 
 C. Wesley's hymn, ' Jesus, Lover of my soul.' " That 
 was sung ; and in a little while he said, " Sing again." 
 " What shall I sing ? " " Sing ' Rock of Ages.' " They 
 began to sing it, and while they were singing that last 
 ver.»e, * When I rise to worlds unknown," the good 
 man rose on its sweet notes and took his fliofht to 
 glory. Ah ! this Gospel comes with much assurance. 
 " I know whom I have believed." I've seen a Swedish 
 paraphrase of that text that I like very much : 
 
 " I know whom I've believed, 
 
 When my sins remembered roll. 
 With bitter pains of penitence, 
 Like billows o'er my soul. 
 
 " Contritely, then, ii Jesus' name. 
 As near my God I come, 
 I see Him stretch a father's arms 
 To take His wand'rer home. 
 
 "I know whom I've believed, 
 
 When the hour of death draws near, 
 When the painful heat of day is cooled, 
 And coming shades appear. 
 
 ' • My Jesus by His death has brought 
 On death destruction sure ; 
 He lives ; therefore my soul with Him 
 Shall evermore endure. " 
 
 friends, you may all have this much assurance 
 now ! Come to God, trusting in Christ. De^oteyour 
 
44 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 ; 
 
 life to Him, resolve to live a Christian life. Don't 
 stand off arguing about the Gospel, try it on its own 
 plan and challenge, and it will come to you in power, 
 breaking the dominion of sin ; in the Holy Ghost, 
 revealing to you God's will ; and in much assurance, 
 enabling you to say I " have redemption through His 
 blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches 
 of His grace." 
 
Don't' 
 
 its own 
 i power, 
 Ghost, 
 surance, 
 agh His 
 e riches 
 
 II. 
 
 LOVING AN UNSEEN SAVIOUR. 
 
 " Whom having not seen, ye love ; in whom, though now ye see 
 Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of 
 glory." — I Peter i. 8. 
 
 THESE words were addressed to those who were 
 " strangers scattered abroad," and who had not 
 personally seen the Lord Jesus. Not only this, but 
 they were men who were plunged in sorrow. Mark 
 how Peter speaks of them in the preceding verses. 
 He says they were at that time in "heaviness through 
 manifold temptations." He speaks of the "trial of 
 their faith " as a " trial by fire." And then, just like 
 a flood of sunlight coming down after a storm, he 
 speaks of rejoicing, and not simply of rejoicing, but of 
 "joy unspeakable and full of glory." It is evident, 
 furthermore, that this rejoicing is not a thing of the 
 future only ; it was a living and present emotion in 
 the men to whom the apostle wrote. He does not 
 tell them simply that they would rejoice in the future; 
 he does not say merely that the hope of blessedness in 
 a coming life cheered them amid present suffering ; 
 but that, apart both from the future and their hope of 
 it, there was in their souls, then and there, a joy, deep, 
 calm, unutterable. And now, in studying this passage, 
 let us note these three particulars : — 
 
jM' 
 
 46 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 I. A barrier to love. 
 II. A substitute for Christ's presence. 
 III. The result of faith. 
 
 I. A barrier to our love. " Whom bavins: not 
 seen, ye love." Christ is out of sight. John leaned 
 on His bosom. Peter conversed with Him, The 
 apostles had Him as their daily companion. But we 
 have never seen Him. You know, if your friend is 
 not only absent, but if you have never seen him — if 
 you have only heard of him — how difficult it is to 
 love him. Let us have seen him even once, and 
 memory has room for action and imagination has 
 scope for play. But Christ is invisible, and " He that 
 loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can 
 he love God whom he hath not seen ? " And then, 
 not only have we never seen the Lord, but bodily. He 
 is at a great distance from us. " The king has gone 
 into a far country," and then the precise locality of 
 that country is unknown. How trying to have to say 
 of a friend, " He is gone abroad, but I have no idea 
 where!" Only give us an idea of his locality — the 
 country, the district, the spot where he has settled — 
 and immediately fancy constructs a home round which 
 affection's roses and honeysuckle twine. Is not this 
 ignorance of precise locality one reason why we dread 
 the death of those who are dear to us, even when we 
 have the best hope that all is well with them ? They 
 go far away, and we cannot know exactly where. 
 That the heavens contain Christ is certain ; but where 
 are those heavens ? We look up to sun, moon and 
 
 
 1 
 
I.OVIN(J AN I'NSEKN SAVlOl'K. 
 
 47 
 
 stars, but thouijh they all [)rai.se Him, if they know 
 the secret, they never tell it. " They have taken away 
 my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him." 
 " Oh, that 1 knew wliere 1 niij^ht Hnd Him." ^Vnd then, 
 to add to our perplexity, how stran<re often are His 
 communications with us ? Plain and direct are our 
 communinLjs with Him, hut very mysterious often are 
 His with us. It is sometimes hard to understand Him. 
 You have <j;one to him sometimes and earnestly ad- 
 dressed Him, and He seemed to preserve a strange 
 silence, till, in an aj^ony, you cried, " Anything but this 
 silence, Lord : hold not Thy peace at my tears." 
 And then, when the silence is broken, it is perhaps by 
 " terrible thini;s in riojliteousness that He answers 
 you." And talk as we may, it is difficult to bear up 
 and hold on amid these mysteries and discouragements. 
 If the Syrophenician woman needed all her might 
 to keep her heart steady in the midst of Christ's 
 seeming repulses — needed that, even when she stood 
 by His side and had it in her power to give answer 
 for answer — can it be easy to preserve a joyous heart 
 when the seeming repulses are all there, but no Christ 
 is beside us to help us througli the mystery ? Oh, 
 but God has not left us in the dark. There is a 
 substitute for His presence. 
 
 II. The substitute. " Believing, we rejoice with 
 joy unspeakable and fidl of glory." 
 
 We have not His bodily presence, but the lack of 
 that is made up, and more than made up, by faith in 
 Him as our present personal Saviour. Now, take 
 
n 
 
 48 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 faith in two or three of its aspects, and see how this 
 comes out. Take it in its power to realize. This 
 power it possesses, for it is " the evidence of things 
 not seen " — that is, it has the power of converting 
 things which have existence, but are unseen, into 
 things which plainly appear. Now, direct this power 
 to realize all the present locality of Christ. " He is 
 gone into the heavens, and is on the right hand of 
 God ; angels and authorities and powers being made 
 subject to Him." The eye of the body in vain scans 
 the heavens to behold Him. Imagination struggles 
 to fill up the outline of revelation, but fails ; but 
 faith, grasping revelation, transforms the unseen into 
 the visible, and clings to it as the true. As we often 
 sing : 
 
 " Faith lends its realizing light ; 
 The clouds disperse, the shadows fly." 
 
 Out of God's utterances it constructs and kindles a 
 chain of golden lamps, reaching from the throne of 
 the Eternal, down through myriads of worlds, through 
 the sun's circuit and the moon's pathway, till with the 
 last lamp burning in our bosom, and looking along 
 that line, we "see the heavens opened, and Jesus 
 standing at the right hand of God." But there is a 
 closer answer to the question, "Where is Christ?" and 
 that answer is couched in three words, " I in vou." 
 He is on the throne, in the starry firmament, on this 
 beauteous earth, and in the temple of the spiritual 
 heart. And how is He discerned there ? Let the 
 apostle answer : " I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in 
 
LOVING AN UNSEEN SAVIOUK. 
 
 49 
 
 ow this 
 . This 
 things 
 verting 
 jn, into 
 s power 
 " He is 
 hand of 
 Iff made 
 n scans 
 truggles 
 lIs ; but 
 een into 
 ve often 
 
 indies a 
 rone of 
 Ith rough 
 ivith the 
 g along 
 Jesus 
 re is a 
 ?" and 
 n vou." 
 on this 
 [piritual 
 ict the 
 reth in 
 
 me." And let me say, brethren, that this presence is 
 better than the liodily. It is far closer. If you read 
 the Gospels carefully, you will see that before the' 
 resurrection there was a something which kept the 
 disciples at a distance from their Lord. They couldn't 
 understand Him, and they didn't venture to say to 
 Him what they said to each other. They were amazed 
 that He could say to Philip, " Have I been so long 
 time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me?" 
 But when His body went to heaven, and His spiritual 
 presence came, there was this intimate closeness, " I 
 in tliem, and Thou in Me." Compare the epistles of 
 Paul, when he is speaking of his own inward life in 
 Christ, with anything we have in the Gospels down to 
 the time of the ascension, and you will see how the 
 verv inmost web of the soul of St. Paul was shot 
 through and through by the lines of the life of Christ, 
 mingled so with the lines of his own life that the two 
 could not be separated ; that " neither life nor death, 
 principalities nor powers could separate." And then 
 the spiritual presence is more abiding. The bodily 
 presence was liable to the accidents of circumstance. 
 The disciples were on the sea, and the Saviour was on 
 the shore. But now, the presence knows no accident. 
 It is with each believer in the midst of the fire, and 
 Christ is the union of spirit with spirit — it is the 
 spirit of man brought into unity with the Spirit of 
 the Lord. And it is universal, in every place, and to 
 all time to come. 
 
 Well, then again, take faith in its power to appro- 
 priate. " I know whom I have believed." Sometimes 
 
60 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 in our i«;iioraiice we fancy, if like Mary or John, we 
 could tell Him our unxieties, there would be perfect 
 quiet. Well, test this matter. You want to see Him as 
 He appeared on earth. Did not thousands of suffering 
 ones see Him, but only to tind no beauty in Him ? And 
 as He unfolded His marvellous life, did not multitudes 
 drop off from Him, at lenj^th He was compelled 
 
 to ask His di-scipies, vV'ill ye also go away i " Did 
 not Peter and Judas ^ Wherever hearts really went 
 out to Him, it was not the eye of the body, but 
 the faith of the heart that was at work, " Daughter, 
 thy faith hath made thee whole," And did He 
 not say to Thomas, " Because thou hast seen Me, 
 thou hast believed," Or, look at Christ glorified. 
 Do you feel that a personal interview would be balm 
 to your troubled spirit i Would it i How did the 
 glory affect the apo *les on Hermon and John on 
 Patnios? No; but 1 vith in its appropriating power 
 be at work within, tn^.. power which carries us to Him, 
 and then constrains us to throw our feeble arms 
 around Hiiu, and say, " Thou art mine I " that power 
 which lifts up sins and casts them into the fountain of 
 His blood, burying them as in the depths of the sea 
 forever; that power which lets us see ourselves in 
 heaven's mirror, " kings and priests to God ; " let that 
 power be ours, and though these eyes do not see Him, 
 we have Him in a way mere sight could never give 
 Him. We have Him as though to us only He belonged, 
 in all the wealth of His present grace and all the 
 grandeur of eternal glory. Oh, how often is this 
 experienced ! Have you ever been in great straits, 
 
LOVING AN UNSEEN SAVIOUR. 
 
 61 
 
 beleaguered on every side by trials and temptations ? 
 Look at that poor soul in like circumstances ! The 
 powers of his soul assemble and converse about the 
 matter. " What is to be done now ? Clearly every- 
 thing is against me. I have often escaped before, but 
 this time 1 am fast on every hand." Now Conscience 
 rises and says, " It's provocation of the Lord that is 
 doing all this." And Desire, anxious and pale, falls 
 on her knees, and cries, ' Make haste, Lord, to help, 
 the spirit faints." Love, fair and beautiful, cries, 
 " Hold on ;" but just then .she catches sight of a dark 
 cloud and faints. " What of the night, now?" a.sks 
 Reason ; and Sight replies, " It's dark — it's getting 
 darker — there the last star is gone out." But now, 
 calm and lofty, with her eye fixed on a bright star 
 that none can see but herself, Faith exclaims, '"Though 
 He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.' Conscience — 
 Be still, all my sin I lay on the Lamb of God. Desire 
 — ' Continue instant in prayer.' I am looking up and 
 expecting an answer. Love — Hold on, ' He shall 
 deliver thee in six troubles, and in the seventh there 
 shall no evil touch thee.' Reason — Wait, * Weeping 
 may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.' 
 Sight — You are not fit to speak at this conference." 
 
 "Blind unbelief is sure to err, 
 And scan His work in vain ; 
 God is His own interpreter, 
 And He will make it plain." 
 
 There, now, the soul is itself again — there's light in 
 the dwelling once more. True, the storm rages with- 
 
m 
 
 62 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 out. " The floods lift up their waves : the Lord on high 
 is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than 
 the mighty waves of the sea." " Though ye see Him 
 not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and 
 full of glory." 
 
 But further, look at faith's power to anticipate- 
 *' Faith is the substance of things hoped for." What- 
 ever interpretation is put upon the word substance, 
 faith is practically the power of bringing into 
 the present foreground, and so far, by anticipation, 
 enjoying the bliss of the future. Faith is continually 
 on the wing, backwards and forwards between earth 
 and heaven, and reporting to those who love His ap- 
 pearing, the beauty of the King and the glory of the 
 land that is yet afar off. She brings from the King's 
 galleries pictures of fairer scenes than eye ever wit- 
 nessed, and hangs them up in the heart of the way- 
 worn pilgrim. 
 
 " Oh, what a blessed hope is ours, 
 Wliile here o'er earth we stray ! 
 We more than taste the heavenly powers, 
 And antedate that day." 
 
 Ill, The result. And just here it is important that 
 we should mark the distinction between joy and happi- 
 ness — joy in a Christian sense, and happiness in the 
 popular sense. The grand difference between them is, 
 that joy rises from within the soul to pervade its life, 
 while happiness is an emotion awakened by e:^ternal 
 circumstances. Joy may grow strong amid circum- 
 stances that would destroy happiness. To be happy 
 
LOVING AN UNSEEN SAVIOUR. 
 
 68 
 
 for instance, is to possess wealth and comfort, social 
 sympathies, a name respected and revered. But in 
 the deepest dens of poverty, in the lonely solitude of 
 midnif^ht hills, in the desolation of barren islands, 
 amid scorn, desertion and slander, joy may rise in the 
 soul and flood its being with the peace of heaven. 
 The deepest cry of man is not for happiness, but to be 
 pure, noble, self-sacriticing, divine. To be freed from 
 the curse of self, to be tilled with the eternal love that 
 shall rouse us to labor for God, in one word, to be 
 tilled with what the Bible calls " the peace of God." 
 Now, in order to this joy, two things are necessary : 
 Inward harmony of soul, and the awakening of all the 
 emotions by the deepest love, and faith in Christ pro- 
 duces these. It creates harmony in the soul. Where 
 there is inward discord joy is impossible. There may 
 be the transient flashes of happiness, but if the heart 
 be at war with itself there will be no joy. Now, be- 
 lief in Christ is self-surrender to Him, and destroys 
 this war. Having yielded his heart entirely to Christ, 
 man is at one with himself and is at peace ; and then 
 belief in Christ tills the heart with the deepest love. 
 Man's soul is not only discordant, it is vacant. It 
 cries out for emotion. Vacancy is the death of joy, 
 and it is this very thing that sends men on that per- 
 petual chase after happiness which we see in the world. 
 Christ fills the vacant heart and rouses those r)ro- 
 foundest sympathies and loves. The feeling of a love 
 in Christ, high as heaven, deep as man's sinful unbelief, 
 bioad as eternity, i> . perception of that love in all its 
 <,'randeur, caring for ls in every personal sorrow 
 
nr^! 
 
 *; 
 
 54 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 11 
 
 n 
 
 sympathizing with us in every individual experience, 
 this fills the heart's vacancy and produces joy, and 
 this joy deepens and broadens. Heaven is not only a 
 thing to be hoped for. The soul that feels the love of 
 Christ grasps eternity now, has within it now an 
 earnest of the conquest of the grave. 
 
 But you will notice, further, the character which the 
 apostle gives to this joy, " Unspeakable and full of 
 glory." Unspeakable! I can't find \ -^nt in shouts and 
 araenp. and hallelujahs. There is a sorrow too deep 
 for tears, and there is a joy too deep and calm for 
 language, to utter it. This is best shown in the fact 
 that it deepens in the midst of sorrow, kjo was it in 
 the men to whom the apostle wrote. While perse- 
 cution was lighting her beacon fires, and the approach 
 of danger summoned them like a trumpet call to stand 
 ready for their faith to die, their joy grew calmer 
 amid the hriviness of manifold temptations. So was 
 it with the martyrs. Outcasts in strange cities, im- 
 prisoned in deepest dungeons, those martyr-souls were 
 lighted, like peaceful homes, with the joy of Christ, 
 which they wouldn't have exchanged for the palace of 
 an emperor. The Sabbath of eternity, with its music, 
 descended into them amid the baptism of fire. What 
 mattered it to them when death came, or where it 
 found them ; whether under the flashing axe of the 
 headsman, or the roaring of the lion ? They felt the 
 embrace of an immortal tenderness, which filled them 
 with joy before the mortal agony had ceased its pangs. 
 And have you not known something like this, though 
 in smaller measure ? Have you never seen the joy of 
 
LOVING AN UNSEEN SAVIOUR. 
 
 55 
 
 grief — the joy of Christ resting like a sleeping light 
 upon the soul amid all the stormy blasts of trouble, 
 and thus proved what Peter means by calling that joy 
 a thing unspeakable. 
 
 " Full of glory" — that is, it is heaven already begun. 
 There is a most significant suggestion here. Some 
 men seem to fancy they shall gain joy by entering 
 heaven. But joy, as we have seen, is not gained or 
 lost by any change of state, it belongs to the immortal 
 soul. You cannot get into heaven. Heaven must get 
 into you. You must carry heaven with you in the 
 joy of Christ, or you will find no heaven beyond the 
 grave. But some may ask, " Is this feeble rejoicing cf 
 the Christian on earth the real element of the eternal 
 heaven ? " Remember, your present joy will lose its 
 imperfections. Your present sacrifice will be shorn of 
 its painfulness — that which is perfect will have come, 
 and that which is in part will be done away. Then 
 the " love which hopeth all things, endureth all things," 
 will be the light that shall not fail, when the lamp of 
 faith and hope are lost in a blaze of glory. " We all 
 with open face, beholding as in a glas-s the glory of 
 the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory 
 to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." Mean- 
 while, let ours be a life of faith in the unseen Saviour, 
 for though unseen, He is ever near, and longing after 
 fuller conformity, let us pray with our poet : 
 
 " Perish, then, thy new creation, 
 Pure and spotless let us be ; 
 Let UB see thy great salvation 
 Perfectly restored in thee," 
 
« 
 
 III. 
 
 MOVABLE AND IMMOVABLE THINGS. 
 
 " Whose voice then shook the earth : but now He heath promised, 
 saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. 
 And this word. Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those 
 things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things 
 which cannot be shaken may remain." — Heb. xii. 26, 27. 
 
 IN this 26th verse the apostle quotes from Hai^gai's 
 prophecy, 2nd chapter and 6th verse. Predicting 
 the birth of Christ, the prophet says, " Yet once, it is a 
 little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, 
 and the sea, and the dry land. And I will shake all 
 nations, and the desire of all natioas shall come : and I 
 will fill this house with glory," That prophecy was 
 literally fulfilled, for, though at the particular moment 
 of the Saviour's birth, the temple of Januss was shut 
 — an emblem of peace — an event which had not taken 
 place for seven hundred years, as if nature and even 
 the passions of men would, by their silence, do 
 homage to a present Deity. Yet, even then, the king, 
 and priesthood, and Jerusalem were greatly troubled. 
 And if we ascend the stream of time to an earlier 
 period, we find the whole world in a state of agitation, 
 preparing for His coming. Never were there as many 
 and as violent commotions in so short a period as 
 elapsed between Haggai's prophecy and Christ's mani- 
 festation. The mighty kingdom of Babylon sank 
 
MOVABLE AND IMMOVABLE THINGS. 
 
 57 
 
 before the Persian, the Persian before the Grecian, 
 and the Grecian before the Roman, in the brief space 
 of five hundred vears. God shook the nations, and 
 out of their strife and violence at leno^th emerp^ed 
 His meek and merciful Son. Under the ruins of the 
 ancient world lay the germs of a new creation, and 
 from these germs Christ's spiritual kingdom arose. 
 At first it was eminently aggressive, but a check 
 came to it — and that check was not from its open 
 enemies, but from its avowed friends. In process of 
 time there grew up and closed around it a huge 
 Christendom, the chiefs of which, had they been able, 
 would have dethroned Christ in His own kinjjdom. 
 He, the King of saints, would have been made to sit 
 at the feet of ambitious priests ; the Opener of the 
 prison to them that are bound, would have been 
 imprisoned ; the world's Deliverer would have been 
 enslaved ; and the risen Lord would have been cru- 
 cified afresh, and buried in a new tomb, the tomb 
 of a so-called Christendom. Hence another mighty 
 shaking became necessary and it came ; and so on 
 throujxh the ages revolutions in Christendom have 
 been needful to the freedom and progress of the truth 
 — needful to the shaking down of the things that are 
 made by man, that the things that are of God may be 
 the more clearly seen in their divineness, stability and 
 beauty. It is ours to live in a day when we are told 
 that the old foundations of our faith are shifting, that 
 landmarks are being changed, that the all-devouring 
 sea is eating away at the base of the clifis on one 
 
 side, and the ebbing tide is gradually relinquishing its 
 6 
 
ii 
 
 58 
 
 StlRMOXS ON 'JHK CHFtlSTIAN LIFE. 
 
 • i 
 
 domain on the other, leaving new hills and valleys 
 for men to build amongf and rejoice. Well, all this is 
 only a part of a great work going on, that did not 
 begin with us, and will not end with us — the removal 
 of things that are shakt^n, that things which cannot 
 be shaken, may remain. And now let us think for a 
 little about these things. 
 
 1. You will notice that in this chapter the apostle 
 draws a striking contrast between the material and 
 the immaterial — the earthly and the spiritual. " Ye 
 are not come to the mount that might be touched," 
 to a palpable material mountain, to the blazing tire, 
 the terrible sound of a trumpet, and the ^oice of birds. 
 No longer in this visible, tangible form does the truth 
 come ; that day is past, and you may be glad that it 
 has passed. Let not your faith go back to Sinai, but 
 forward to the new covenant which deals only with 
 the spiritual. But, some one says, " Why dwell upon 
 such a commonplace fact that the essence of religion 
 depends on nothing that is material?" Why? Simply 
 because whatever our theories may be, our practice is 
 often directly the reverse of them. Have we so 
 learned that most difficult of lessons, how to use the 
 material without being engrossed by it, while not 
 despising, yet not to trust to it ? Do we all so live by 
 faith that if stripped of all — of the place consecrated 
 to God's service ; if the times specially reminding us 
 of Him ; of the printed words so familiar to sight; of 
 the spoken words communicating to us the subtle 
 essence of others' faith ; of the forms of beauty and 
 wisdom which are His voice to ns, in the world around; 
 
MOVABLE AND IMMOVABLE THINGS. 
 
 59 
 
 that thus stript we, shutting ourselves up in oui own 
 spirit, and gathering round us the only mantle left us 
 — the mantle of inviolable; faith in God — could stand 
 and call on Him, left to us amid the void ; bend low 
 before the Father of our spirit, and cry, " Thee, my 
 all-sufficient good, I want, and Thee alone." Have 
 we such a conviction of His existence. His govern 
 ment, and the gradual working out of His plans for 
 us, as to be independent of the material circumstances 
 of our life ? If the Sabeans fall on the oxen, the 
 Chaldeans on the camels, and the wind from the wil- 
 derness slay sons and daughters with a blast, can we 
 say, " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; 
 blessed be the name of the Lord ?" If sore disease 
 waste and torture and make vile the body, is there in 
 despair the triumphant cry, " Though He slay me, yet 
 will I trust in Him." Oh, if our faith were more 
 spiritual, rested less on the things that can be shaken, 
 then at these times — and there are many of them — 
 when the utter unreality of all that surrounds us here 
 is borne in upon us ; when we own, " Surely every 
 man walketh in a vain show ; " when the faces we 
 love are gone, and the new ones that come to us are 
 unlovely ; when the scenes we have known seem 
 shadowy and unreal ; when in loneliness of spirit we 
 are driven back upon ourselves, then our faith fixed 
 on the Invisible, our love expressed in a pavssionate 
 " Whom have I in heaven but Thee," and our hope of 
 one day seeing Him brighter for the surrounding 
 darkness, we should calmly hear, " Yet once more I 
 shake not the earth only, but also heaven ; " for we 
 
ill 
 
 60 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 should add, " this word, yet once more, signifieth the 
 removing of those things that are shaken, as of things 
 that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken 
 may remain." Goethe, the great German poet, depicts 
 the generations of men between the past and the 
 future, as between two black curtains, where they 
 stand bearing torches ; cheated now by their own 
 magfnificent shadows, and now bv the images which 
 poets, statesmen, and tricksters have drawn on the 
 curtain of the future, according to their fantastic 
 humors, while no voice comes out of the darkness, 
 but only a hollow echo answers the agonized questioner, 
 as when one calls into an abyss. Thank God that is 
 not the picture of a Christian. He knows what are 
 the powers of the world to come. The invisible is 
 not silent to his ears, but he hears real voices behind 
 the veil ; it is not dark to his eyes, but flames with 
 light ; his hands are not stretched out towards 
 nothingness, but they take hold of God's everlasting 
 arms ; his feet stand on holy ground, and all along 
 the pathway of life he finds, 
 
 " Earth crowned with heaven, 
 And every common bush afire with God." 
 
 In Schiller's drama of " Wallenstein," a maiden enters 
 the chamber of her father's astrologer, and finds her- 
 self in a circle of colossal statues, kingly forms, repre- 
 senting planets. 
 
 " Each one in his hand a sceptre bore, and on his head a star, 
 And in the tower no other light was there, 
 But from these stars— all seemed to come from them. ' 
 
 }t 
 
1i 
 
 MOVABLE AND IMMOVABLE THINGS. 
 
 61 
 
 And so the believer, seeing only by " the great 
 light that liglitcth every man that cometh into the 
 world," walks in the circle of the sjreat intelligences 
 fair that rantr*' above our mortal state ; his faith 
 grasping the unseen, clinging to the crowned King 
 of saints, realizes amid all the shifting scenes of 
 time that he rests on that which cannot be shaken. 
 Yea, that even now he has received a kingdom in 
 promise, and but waits for his majority to possess it 
 fully and reign with Christ forever. 
 
 2. Forms of religious lite may be shaken, but living 
 faith in God, resulting in personal godliness, is 
 abiding. Men are loth to see the forms in which 
 religious life expresses itself from time to time, pass 
 away. This is what troubled the Jew. The whole of 
 the epistle shows how the priesthood and the sacrifices, 
 so dear to the Jewish heart, were only temporary, 
 destined to pass away before the great High-Priest, 
 who should give Himsqlf once a sacrifice for sins — and 
 the Jew could not bear the thought of that. Now we 
 all cling to forms r religious life, and for this reason 
 they contain and convey truth, bring it before us so 
 that we can realize and handle it. But just as Jewish 
 ceremonials, which held for centuries, more or less suc- 
 cessfully, the spirit of worship, so will it be with many 
 human forms, in which generations as they pass 
 express the truth and live and die. I see no reason 
 why we should be startled at finding that that which 
 decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. I 
 cannot respect a thing simply because it is old. I 
 would draw all possible lessons from the past, but to 
 
»l 
 
 62 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHKISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 draf]j the past into the present, or project it into the 
 future, simply because it is the past, or to take the old 
 skeleton and dress it up in the garments of the present, 
 while there is no beating heart throbbing within, is the 
 height of folly. Has it served its end ? Has it reached 
 the limit of its usefulness ? if so, bury it decently, give 
 it honorable entombment, but for the great active, 
 living present, give us life and power and possibility, 
 even though some may demean it because of its rosy 
 youth. To see men clinging to old institutions, words 
 and phrases, feeling sure that the same power must 
 linger in them, pathetically iterating an old rallying cry, 
 at sound of which no hosts, as of old, muster to the bat- 
 tle, is fully exceeded only by those who throw away the 
 spirit with the forms, the body with the clothes, the 
 kernel with the shell, and because the one has served 
 its day, declare there is no power in the other. What 
 we want to value is not the form of religious life, but 
 the life itself. Christ came into this world to establish 
 deep-seated personal religion. He came to create a 
 personal relationship between man and his God. 
 Indeed, I might almost say that Christ came to create 
 the individual, for at the time of the advent, he can 
 scarcely be said to have had an existence. Roman 
 society, the great Roman world, was everywhere, but 
 where was man ? The colossal empire spanned the 
 continents, but where was there a place within it 
 which afforded even breathing room for man in his 
 personal prerogatives, rights and liberties ? There 
 was no such place. Man was part of a great empire 
 life — nothing more. And when the compassionate eyes 
 
 \ 
 
 

 MOVABLE AM) IMMOVAIU.E TIIINns. 
 
 63 
 
 
 of Christ saw man, made in the image of God, broken, 
 crushed, ruined under the dead weight of society, He 
 wept. The Son of God did not touch society as such. 
 He went straight to the individual. He spoke to 
 him with a pathos that was creative, and detached 
 him from humanity in the mass ; brought him 
 under His own personal influence, taught him, par- 
 doned him, opened a spring of purity and blessed- 
 ness in his heart, breathed into him His own spirit, 
 and then sent him forth as His ambassador to the 
 nations. The Christian man is Christ'^ chosen agent 
 for breaking up the dead mass of society and regen- 
 erating the world. We need to ponder this truth in 
 these days. We are getting so enveloped in the thick 
 dust-clouds of philosophies and religious machineries 
 and associations as to forget the man ; forgetful of the 
 fact that personal fidelity to our Lord is just as much 
 a stronghold of Christianity in this age of freedom as 
 it was in the periods when martyrs bled and died. It 
 is only those churches that are alive with the power of 
 personal godliness, which move with the times, put 
 themselves upon the same level of thought with the 
 men of their generation, are the most active in the 
 living society around them, and bring a manhood filled 
 with the spirit of Christ to bear straight down upon 
 the manhood of the world, that will be able to pass 
 unscathed, through the testing fire stcrm of the times, 
 and strike the chants of the oncoming ages. Let a 
 thousand old forms die, let all old rallying cries die, 
 but let there be men and women clothed with the 
 spirit of Christ, thoroughly converted, wholly conse- 
 
64 
 
 SEIIMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 crated to God, and the cause of truth .shall never be 
 shaken. 
 
 3. Symbolic forms of truth may be shaken, but the 
 grand central truths of the Gospel ar« abiding. By 
 central truths I mean the truths themselves as dl.:tinct 
 from the theological forms which they may from time 
 to time assume. Creeds are the concreted opinions of 
 men in relation to the truths taught in God's Word. 
 I would not like to say that these are complete and 
 exhaustive for all time. Experience accumulates ; 
 new facts are discovered ; society is thrown into new 
 positions ; new mental and spiritual forces come into 
 play, and all mere symbols of truth may be moulded 
 afresh while yet their spirit is the same ; and I believe 
 that the true conservatism of doctrine lies in broaden- 
 ing the platform in harmony with the aggressive 
 enlightened spirit of the times, while maintaining 
 fidelity to the great centnd verities of the faith. Nor 
 does it argue weakness if the churches lay stress at 
 one time on some particular i'(>rm of truth that is not 
 at another time brought prominently forward. It has 
 always been the case that some truths needed to be 
 expounded with special clearness and force. Now the 
 Church has laid too much stress on external evidences, 
 and men, hungry for truth to feed the soul, have com- 
 plained that in asking for bread they have received a 
 stone. Now there is danger of mere humanism, and 
 anon an undue degradation of human nature. Now 
 the emphasis is rightly laid on saving our own souls; 
 again, we are as rightly reminded of the relation of 
 Christianity to society and mankind. Now justitica- 
 
 
MOVABLE AND IMMOVABLE THINGS. 
 
 65 
 
 
 lion is the lever that i.s to move a spiritually inert 
 Christendom ; now, aj^ain, a loftier moral standard is 
 needed. But because there may be restatements of 
 truth — changes in the earthen vessels — shall we fly 
 off at a tangent and say there is no divine truth at 
 all ? Nay ! I have watched the .sunlight on the sea 
 at evening-time. Now there are shooting rays of 
 criuLson and gold; now an intense blush; now the 
 water answers to the blue of the sky ; now darkens 
 into gray ; now it is fretted into a thousand dimples ; 
 now the tips of the tiny breakers are crested by the 
 toying wind ; in one-quarter of an hour changes that 
 no words can express have checkered the scene, and 
 made the whole surface hardly for two consecutive 
 seconds the same. Yet the sun shone steadily on and 
 the sea paused not in its ebb and flow. And so, amid 
 all changes, the divine power is working steadily in 
 the human heart, many and varied as may be the 
 Clouds of human opinion which play across the history 
 of human thought. In them all God is working ; from 
 them all educing a meaning, a result ; by them all is 
 teaching great lessons ; through them all is leading to 
 a great end. The things that can be shaken are 
 removed, that the things that cannot be shaken may 
 remain. 
 
 Then, again, by the central truths of the Gospel I 
 mean those that are supernatural, as distinct from 
 those that have their origin in the sphere of nature or 
 man's reason. These truths I know descend into the 
 sphere of nature and reason, but in their origin they 
 are distinctively supernatural. They are not so much 
 
66 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 revelations from God, as God revealing Himself ; not 
 so much liijlits couiinu: down from heaven and held out 
 to us l)y propliets and apostles, as Christ Himself com- 
 ing down into humanity and passing on to the cross, 
 there to be our light. Now, there are two things 
 about the <];reat truths of our reli^jion that are inex- 
 pressibly dear to every Christian heart. The first is^ 
 that thev all centre in Christ, and brinir Him riirht 
 down to us in our daily life struggle. He lived our 
 life — died our death — and with His own footsteps 
 marked out the great road of human duty, and while 
 He lives in heaven to intercede, He lives on earth to 
 guide, to shield, to bless. The things that are made 
 are alw^ays shifting — moving upon the great line of 
 change — but Christ is unchangeable, and is always 
 near. He is the Christ of the world's yesterday and 
 to-morrow, and emphatically the Christ of the world's 
 to-day. He is knocking at the door of the world's 
 heart noiv. He is as really present with you as the 
 friend sitting there by your side. He could not better 
 know all the tones and phases of your heart if He 
 were vividly present among you. He is with you, 
 entering with sufficient grace in your trade and busi- 
 ness, as when walking across the sands of the lake in 
 the sunrise He entered into the week-day thoughts of 
 Jewish fishermen. With vou with as real an interest in 
 all your true joys as when he sat at the marriage 
 feast ; with as real a succor in all your tribulations as 
 when rouirli billows became smooth under His feet ; 
 with a sympathy as deep and healing for you in your 
 bereavements as He felt for Mary and Martha of 
 
 
MOVABLE AND IMMOVABLE THINGS. 
 
 67 
 
 
 Bethany ; and with as deep a fountain of pity in His 
 heart for men perishing in their sins as when He 
 wept over doomed Jerusalem. The other things about 
 these truths are their positiveness — the direct and 
 unequivocal answers they give to all the great prob- 
 lems of life. There is a word very much used just 
 now — a rew word — a word you will not find in Web- 
 ster or Worcester ; it is the word " Agnosticism." The 
 Agnostic is one who knows nothing. ^ ^f all matters 
 which cannot be seen, or weighed, or handled, or 
 measured, Agnosticism asserts complete ignorance. 
 Ask it, " Is there a God ? " " I do not know," is the 
 answer. " Is there an immortal life ? " "I do not 
 know." " Is there a gracious providence ? " "I do 
 not know." " Is there a soul in man ? " "I do not 
 know." It rails off the largest and best field of our 
 existence, and says it is a part of the unknowable. 
 Byron's words seem to be an accepted maxim — 
 
 " Well didst thou speak, Athemi's wisest son, 
 All that we know is — nothing can be known." 
 
 Oh, what a husk to feed a soul upon — a soul pressed 
 with great problems, conscious of infinite wants, cry- 
 ing out for something to till and satisfy it. Out of 
 this helpless, hopeless ignorance how refreshing to turn 
 to the positive words of Holy Scripture. Give me St. 
 Paul in preference to Spencer and Greg and Frederick 
 Harrison. " I know whom 1 have believed, and am 
 persuaded that He is able to keep that which 
 I have committed unto Him against that day." 
 " We know that we have passed from death unto 
 
"■* "' 1. 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 68 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 life." " We know that if our earthly house of this 
 tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, 
 an house not made with hands, eternal in the heav- 
 ens." This is the knowledfje that is abidinjj. Faith 
 anchored to Christ, and Christ abides. However the 
 world may be shaken, whatever may be swept out of 
 it, He abides in it from first to last, its unchanging 
 Friend and almighty Redeemer ; and He will not let it 
 go till He has worked out upon its heart all the pur- 
 poses of infinite wisdom and love. Yes, He abides ; 
 but we. His servants, do not abide. There is an 
 autumn in cities as well as in fields. " Our fathers, 
 where are they ? " The standard-bearers fall, men die, 
 the ages move on over their graves, but He stands in 
 the midst of them to bless them as they pass. Our 
 systems, like the generations, pass away. They are 
 arches reaching but a little way over the abyss. But 
 God's great way of salvation reaches clear across. See 
 how grandly it spans the gulf, abutting, like a solid 
 bridge, upon two solid eternities, throwing back all 
 the storms of ad the centuries as quietly as the granite 
 cliff throws back the storms of ocean, bearing up the 
 weight of the weary and heavy-laden generations till 
 the last pilgrim in the long procession of Christian 
 souls shall have passed into the " city which hath 
 foundations, whose builder and maker is God." Till 
 then — aye, and longer — for when these long trains of 
 material worlds, now sweeping through the silence of 
 yonder heavens, shall have fallen from their orbits, 
 that bridge shall remain unmoved. An immortal 
 spirit coming forth from the light of God might take 
 
MOVABLE AND IMMOVABLE THINGS. 
 
 69 
 
 c> 
 
 his stand upon one of the battlements to survey th 
 world in ruins. " For they shall perish, but Thou 
 remainest ; and they all shall wax old as doth a gar- 
 ment, and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and 
 they shall be changed ; but Thou art the same, and Thy 
 years shall not fail." All else goes from us; God in 
 Christ only remains. 
 
 Brethren, the great want of the churches to-day, 
 and of the Methodist Church, is a higher-toned 
 personal religion. This was the idea of Methodism 
 from the first. Our fathers had no wealth nor worldly 
 power. They were not the founders of dynasties. 
 But when days were dark and times were dull, and 
 religion but a name, they taught and lived experi- 
 mental piety. They numbered among themselves — 
 though we have no Macau lay to celebrate their praise 
 — more than one Horatius, who so well kept the bridge 
 in the brave days of old — kept it not for himself 
 alone, but for mankind. You need not be ashamed 
 of your traditions. They do not cluster around great 
 society, but they cluster around what is diviner, the 
 enlightened conscience of the Christian man, and this 
 sublime principle, self-forgetting, self-sacrificing, per- 
 sonal religion, the consecration of the entire being to 
 God. May God put His Spirit into that principle 
 afresh, and cause it to go ringing through the Church 
 as a creative voice. 
 
i 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE BODY OF CHRIST. 
 
 " Head over all things to the Church, which is His body ; the 
 fulness of Him that fiUeth all in all."— Em. i. '22, 23. 
 
 THE text forms a part of an argument in which 
 Paul is establishinor the divine and mediatorial 
 glory of Jesus Christ, and the rich benedictions that 
 come to us by virtue of the relation He sustains 
 toward us. And it is worthy of observatio.i how care- 
 fully he builds his argument, not on an isolated fact, 
 but knits top^ether in one the great truths of the Gos- 
 pel ; so perfect the intertexture of the whole, and so 
 accurate the adjustment of the parts, that the omif-sion 
 of any one destroys the harmony of the whole ; the 
 text and context so complete in their connection that 
 they involve the sum and substance of all Christian 
 teaching. " Blessed be the God and Father of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all 
 spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus." "In whom we have 
 redemption thr ugh His blood, the forgiveness of sins, 
 according to the riches of His grace." '' Quickening 
 you who were dead in trespasses and sins." Nor does 
 he leave the subject even with this full and graphic 
 outline. He dwells on it, enamored of its beauty. 
 He presents it in new forms, groups its elements in 
 new combinations, insists again and again on our 
 
t 
 
 THK IJODV OF CHRIST. 
 
 71 
 
 helplessness, and aj^ain and apjain admonishes us that 
 "By gjrace we are saved through faith;" "The exceedint^ 
 <^'reatness of His power to us ward who believe." He 
 mounts up into heaven with Christ, whom God rai.sed 
 from the dead and set "at His own right hand in the 
 heavenly places." And then the crowning glory of 
 the whole, he adds, and so concludes his glowing argu- 
 ment, " And gave Him to be the head over all things 
 to the Church, which is His body ; the fulness of Him 
 that tilleth all in all." 
 
 Three thin^rs in the text claim our attention. 
 
 I. The Church is the body of Christ. 
 II. He is its Head over all things. 
 III. It is His fulness, ev^en as He tilleth all in all. 
 
 I. The Church is the body of Christ. We will 
 not detain you with the minute analogies between a 
 living i)ody and the Church of Chri.st, but notice two 
 or three general characteristics. And first, if you 
 think what a body is, you learn that it is composed of 
 living members, each of which, however, has no life in 
 itself, biit a life out of and above itself, all the mem- 
 bers having one and the same lift? that is common to 
 all. Take the hand — ^it lives, has feeling and motion, 
 but not of itself. If it be severed from the arm, or if 
 the myriad subtle tl reads of life, the nerves, be l)roken, 
 then the hand no longer palpitates with quick touch 
 and niml)le energy. The eye lives, shines with the 
 light of life, but that life is not in the eye. Remove 
 it from the socket, or let the soul go hence, the eye, 
 

 in] 
 
 
 
 ' > 
 
 \'.i 
 
 s 
 
 72 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 indeed, is just the same, yet what is it ? a dull, liquid 
 lens, soon to waste into sad and loathly earth. So 
 with every nie.nber of the body. Its life is beyond 
 itself, within the body of which it is a part ; and by 
 that hidden higher life alone it fulfils its functions. 
 So in the mystical body of Christ, every member of it 
 lives, not by himself, but by the indwelling Spirit of 
 that body, and the Lord is that Spirit. " I live, yet 
 not I, but Christ liveth in me." Faith is the receiving 
 of the Lord Jesus into the heart, and His entrance 
 there is the quickening dawn of eternal life. " He that 
 believeth in Him hath life," for he has received Him 
 who is the spring and breath of life everywhere. 
 And you will observe there is one life in each and all 
 the members of the body. Diversities there may be 
 in nature and in circumstances, but they all live in 
 One, who is Christ. The members of this bo(l\' are 
 many, and endlessly diversified ; but one spirit flashes 
 through each, one life possesses each and fits it for its 
 proper functions. The same life that brightens the 
 eye and receives through it the picture of the vrorld 
 throughout, quivers in the lip, speeds lightning move- 
 ments into the hand, and vibrates with the sharp 
 touch of feeling. So, brethren, are we separate, differ- 
 ent as are the members of our body, yet all of us are 
 instinct and alive unto God by the presence and action 
 of one Spirit, which is the Lord's. And hence it comes 
 that these members of Christ being many are one body, 
 for by one Spirit are we drawn into one and baptized 
 into one body. From the mystery of the body, the 
 soul quickening each organ and part and fitly framing 
 
THE BODY OF CHRIST. 
 
 73 
 
 I 
 
 and sweetly according them to each other, we learn it 
 is thus the Lord Jesus Christ who gives life to each 
 member of His body, knits His living members into a 
 higher fellowship of life, fashions and tunes them for 
 the reciprocal services and vital sympathies of fellow- 
 ship, and cements and roots them together by the 
 mighty yet spontaneous harmonies of His own life. 
 There is no unity but in life. Dead things moulder 
 and separate into atoms ; living things reveal the 
 splendor and completeness of innumerable parts linked 
 and growing together in that unspeakable unison, the 
 unity of life. Such is the body of Christ, comprised 
 of many members, none having life in themselves, 
 partaking of the common life of Christ. 
 
 2nd. Again, a body is a living organization, in 
 which each part has a specific place, and holds a 
 definite relation to every other part, and in which all 
 the parts act with mutual and sympathetic influences 
 upon each other. You cannot tear one member off 
 without affecting all the rest. The Church of Christ, 
 too, is not a disorganized chaos in which men are 
 crowded together, bearing no relation to each other, 
 and no definite place to fill. There must be govern- 
 ment and administration in the Church, that order 
 may be there ; and there must be diversities of opera- 
 tions of office and work, so that each member may 
 find his proper place and do a work suited to his gifts. 
 The members of the human body all conspire to 
 develop and strengthen that body, but the work of 
 each is different. Every member is not an eye, or a 
 foot, or a hand ; but every member holds its right 
 6 
 
; 
 
 74 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 I 
 
 ili 
 
 -+it 
 
 place, and contributes its share to the good of all the 
 rest. Now, the practical point just here is, that to 
 have life from Christ is to be a member of His 
 Church, and to partake of its life ; but to live there is 
 to work — to work in that definite sphere and office, 
 humble or exalted, in which, according to the judgment 
 of the Church, I may best promote the good of the 
 whole body, and aid in the fulfihnent of its mission. 
 And then, from this you rise into a higher truth. In 
 the human body there are ceaseless currents of sym- 
 pathy, which so participate in each other's state, that 
 they sicken or strengthen with each other. Health is 
 just the music of these ten thousand chords blending 
 in unison, and disease is the jar and discord which one 
 false note create.s. No one member of the body can 
 suffer without all suffering with it, and no one can be 
 honored without all rejoicing. And this is the image 
 which Paul gives of the Church of Christ. In this 
 spiritual body, we are not members with one another, 
 simply because our names are on the same church 
 book, or sit near each other in the same sanctuary; but, 
 as Paul says, in another place, we are meuibers one of 
 another — we live in each other's life. No member of 
 the Church can be isolated from his brethren, or can 
 be independent of them ; he gives and receives. 
 They play on one another as constantly as the flow of 
 blood and nervous energy within the body ; and as 
 they get they give. Now, this mutual sympathy in 
 the Church is to be viewed under two aspects. There 
 is, first, that influence which is unconscious, constant 
 and necessary ; and, second, that which is conscious 
 
 ■ .ii 
 
THE BODY OF CHRIST. 
 
 75 
 
 and intentional. Now, of the first, unconscious influ- 
 ence, we all feel its power. There are some Christians, 
 and the tone of their voice, the grasp of their hand, or 
 their smile, seems to touch and warm the heart, like 
 the light of spring and the blossoming of flowers. 
 To meet them in the street is to have the breathing of 
 the better world. Have you never known such ? To 
 know them, to talk with them when you are in trouble, 
 is like entering from a dark, wintry night, a nice, 
 warm, cozy room. And then, again, there are some 
 men whose presence chills you, like the drizzle and 
 dreariness of a bleak November. In almost every 
 Church you will find some men who have an elevating, 
 inspiring force, like a gladsome breeze that bears you 
 upwards, and others are like icebergs. Oh, do not 
 forget that an unconscious but inevitable influence is 
 going out from you, and, as the fire breathes warmth 
 and the ice breathes cold, your heart, as it is Are or 
 frost, breathes in like manner on all around vou. Not 
 for yourself you live. If you have won strong faith 
 and calm hope by the wrestling of prayer, or the 
 discipline of trial, your gain is not your own alone. 
 Your enthusiasm kindles some other body's faith, and 
 they are made strong by your endurance. But then, 
 if you have grown worldly, and selfish, and unbeliev- 
 ing ; if the mildew of spiritual negligence has clouded 
 your experience ; if some evil passion has nestled in 
 your heart, or some power of sin has wasted your 
 soul, that deadly thing is not shut up within yourself. 
 It has checked the Church's zeal ; it has crept like a 
 \t intry fog over your home and your brethren. That 
 
76 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 wef 
 
 sin, lying in your spirit, j]foes out from you as a pesti- 
 lence, and sheds its poison on those nearest you. But 
 then, there is also the influence that is conscious and 
 intentional. We must have a definite place in the 
 Church. We must have as an object of thouj^ht what 
 the apostle describes as " the same care one of 
 another." The welfare of the whole body of which 
 we are members must be our solicitude. With what 
 talents we have, many or few, we must labor for God, 
 and so prove ourselves members of Christ's body. 
 
 3rd. This leads me to another truth. " Ye are 
 Christ's body." Why does a body exist to and for us ? 
 Is it not to utter the nund, do the will, and reveal the 
 character ? The body is the glass through which the 
 mind appears, the instrument by which it works. 
 And just for this end does the Church exist, to do the 
 will of Christ and accomplish the work which He has 
 gone to heaven to superintend. And how vast that 
 work! Not simply to heal the sick, comfort the sor- 
 rowful, but the actual redemption of men from the 
 curse of sin. For that He labored in the days of His 
 flesh, and for that, with ceaseless quest and care. He 
 still works in His Church. To speak for Jesus, to work 
 for Jesus, if need be to suffer for Jesus — this is our 
 vocation and this our honor. And tiiis Church, and 
 any other Church, only proves itself the body of 
 Christ when it works for Christ, does His will, reveals 
 His character. 
 
 II. Christ is the head of the Church. 
 
 1st. He is head overall things to his Church, by His 
 
THE BODY OF CHRIST. 
 
 77 
 
 almighty sovereignty and power. Read the preceding 
 verses — God hath " set Him at His own riglit hand in 
 the heavenly places. Fai above all principality, and 
 power, and might, and dominion, and every name that 
 is named, not only in this world, but also in that which 
 is to come." The supremacy of Christ iw here set forth 
 to be of the most extensive, powerful, and glorious 
 kind. He is at the head of all principality and power. 
 The sovereignty of the whole creation is committed to 
 Him. It extends over all places. Over earth, with 
 her wide domain ; over heaven, with its millions of 
 teeming worlds ; and over hell, with all its depth and 
 gloom. It extends over all things — whether " things 
 present or things to come." It extends over all per- 
 sons — whether men, or angels, or devils. And this 
 universal supremacy is the abiding prerogative of 
 Christ. He has no successor or heir. He is King for- 
 ever. " He hath on His vesture and on His thifrh a 
 name written, Kins: of kin^js and Lord of lords." 
 
 2nd. He is th^ head of His church, as He is the 
 source of its life. He imparts life, strength and motion 
 to it. As the head is the centre of the nerves, which 
 spread themselves over the human body like an intri- 
 cate network of telegraph wires, along which are .sent 
 the sensations and iiiHuences of life to the finger-tips ; 
 so Christ is the centre and seat of those livin<j influ- 
 ences which vivify, move, actuate and bless the Church. 
 He is the source, the origin of the life of the Church. 
 By Him that life is prescved. Through Him it is 
 developed and perfected. It ever there was a period 
 when these points should stand out definitely and 
 
78 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 m 
 
 \i 
 
 ik 
 
 prominently, that period is now, when so many are 
 going back to the imperfection^ of Judaistio days ; 
 when men, instead of preaching, are performing, doff- 
 infj and donnin}; their robes, marchincf and counter- 
 marching, while the low-voiced song and the mumbled 
 chant die away among the arches of the high-groined 
 roof. Woe awaits the day when the simplicity of the 
 Gospel is superseded by the elaborate ritual, and the 
 spirituality of the Gospel is lost amongst the mazes of 
 countless formalities, and the life of the Church is 
 smothered out under a heap of beautiful rubbish, made 
 up of remnants of Judaism and Popery. Let Christ 
 be exalted, instead of sotting up a cross over an altar. 
 Let the Church seek for the light of the Spirit and the 
 Word, instead of burning tapers and candles to the 
 insult of the broad daylight and God's bright lamp in 
 heaven, and let her remember that her existence and 
 power and growth are through Him, for He is the 
 head over all things to His Church. 
 
 3rd. Christ is the head of the Church, as He governs 
 and controls it. As a governor, His authority is 
 founded on right and maintained by power. There is 
 a great difference between authority and power. There 
 may be authority where there is no power, and there 
 may be power where there is no authority. A usurper, 
 backed by a large army, has driven the lawful king 
 into exile. The usurper has power, but no authority ; 
 the king has authority, but no power. In Christ the 
 two things meet. He has authority and He has power; 
 and His authority is grounded on right. Right arising 
 from eminence of nature and power. Right founded 
 
 kil 
 
I 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 THK BODY OF CHIUST. 
 
 79 
 
 on the fact that He is the author of our being — our 
 natural being as men ; our spiritual being as Chris- 
 tians. Right arising from the great fact of redemp- 
 tion, and right arising from our free election of Him 
 to be our head and chief, for we have freely said to 
 Him, "O Lord, our Lord, other lords beside Thee have 
 had dominion over us, but we will only make mention 
 of Thy name." And as Christ's authority is founded 
 on right, He exercises that authority by making and 
 administering laws to His Church. 1 say the authority 
 to make laws, for the Church resides only in Christ. 
 These laws are already made ; are contained iu the 
 New Testament ; are final enactments of divine wis- 
 dom, and all additions and subtractions are fearfully 
 denounced. They are of different kinds — laws for the 
 feelings, called precepts ; laws for belief, called doc- 
 trines ; laws for actions, again called precepts. And 
 then Christ's authority is shown in the administration 
 of law. In the administration of law He proves His 
 power by punishing the obstinate law-breaker and by 
 pardoning the penitent law-breaker. And here we 
 must protest against the invasion of those rights, which 
 belong absolutely to Christ. Whatever attempts to 
 rule my conscience, in whatever way or on whatever 
 ground, whether it be king or church or pope or 
 council, they usurp the rights of the Lord Jesus. 
 
 4th. He is the Head of the Church, as He represents 
 it. The natural head represents the body, and for this 
 end is endowed with many excellencies: the eye that 
 sees, the ear that hears, and the tongue that speaks. 
 And Christ represents the Church, a work for which 
 
80 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHHTSTIaN LIFE. 
 
 
 II! 
 
 He is fitted. His dignity lifts Him at once to the 
 level of this great work, and His capacities for it cor- 
 respond to the dignity. He has been styled the Word 
 of God, the incarnated expression of God's love to man; 
 and we may style Him the Word of the Church, the 
 glorified expression of the Churcli's faith and love 
 toward God. And is not His devotion to the interests 
 of the Church, which is His body, such as to warrant 
 the persuasion that i. is impossible to charg<* Him 
 with unt>i;chful''ies.i in the performance of His work ? 
 His attention never wearies and His heart never 
 wavers, while " He is able to save unto the uttermost 
 those who come unto God by Him." " We have not 
 an high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling 
 of our infirmities, who was in all points teinpted like 
 as we are, yet without sin," Well may the Church 
 exclaim, " Though an host should encamp against me 
 r\y heart shall not fear: though war should rise 
 against me, in this will I be confident. For in the time 
 of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion : in the 
 secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me ; He shall 
 set me up upon a rock. And now shall mine head be 
 lifted up above mine enemies round about me : there- 
 fore will 1 offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy ; I 
 will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord." 
 
 III. The Church is Christ's fulness. 
 
 The fulness of Him that filieth all in all." As 
 Barnes remarks, the exact idea presented by these 
 v/ords is obscure. And then he givos the sense accord- 
 ing to his notion, that the Church is the completion 
 
 :.^A -^ » t: ,-\ 
 
1 
 
 TFIE BODY OF CHRIST. 
 
 81 
 
 or filling up of Christ's power and glory. But as 
 EUicott observes, the idea of Christ receiving com- 
 pletion in His members, implies restrictions little 
 according with other declarations in this chapter ; and 
 I am disposed to adopt his interpretation that the 
 Church is the recipient of t,he plenitude or fulness 
 of Him who filleth all things witl» all things. The 
 fulness of His wisdom guiding her by His Spirit into 
 all saving knowledge; the. fulness of His power, that 
 weak as she may be, and little thought of by the 
 world, yet the gates or hell may never prevail against 
 her ; the fulness of His grace, that her children 
 may be nurtured and rmstained against all conflicts. 
 What but His fulness made fishermen and publicans 
 mighuy to break down strongholds and overthrow high 
 places ? What but His fulness made the company of 
 the despised Nazarenes victorious ov^r the udglit and 
 majesty of Rome ? What but His fulness has sus- 
 tained the pure, life-giving stream against all the 
 currents of earth and hell, and makes its track still 
 visible in every land by the fresh emerald verdure of 
 its charity ? The tracks o^ human conquerors are 
 forgotten while the blood is yet upon thoir feet. The 
 science that could rear the pyramids could not per- 
 petuate the names of their projectors. TJie marble 
 moulders and the brass corrodes in utter mockery at 
 man's attempts at immortality ; but the Church of the 
 living God, receiving the fulness of the wisdom, and 
 power, and grace of Christ, endures for evermore. She 
 will triumph in His triumphs ; she will be exalted in 
 His exaltation , the rays of glory that encircle His 
 
il 
 
 82 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 
 niiii 
 
 1 
 
 brow will enhance her glory ; and when He shall con- 
 summate all things by the entire overthrow of evil, 
 that will be the signal for the great hallelujah shout 
 from the great multitude whose voice shall be like 
 the sound of many waters, because the marriage of the 
 Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready ; 
 and there she will be, as St. John writes, when the 
 angel that talked with him said, " Come hither, and 
 I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife," and he 
 saw her " having the glory of God,, and her light 
 was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper 
 stone, clear as crystal." 
 
 And now, my brethren, how many of you acknow- 
 ledge the supremacy, the headship of Christ ? Remem- 
 ber the question is not between headship and no 
 headship. It is a question between the headship of 
 Christ and the headship of the spirit of darkness. It 
 is a choice between the dark, cruel reign of the devil, 
 and the mild, benignant reign of Jesus. I do not ask 
 you how you have chosen in the past, but I a^k you 
 how you are choosing now. I want you to under- 
 stand that this is a matter in which you are compelled 
 to act, and especially so when it is presented to your 
 notice. Oh, the va t importance of this moment when 
 ever}'- soul h^n*e is either accepting or rejecting Christ ! 
 Do you hesitate how you shall decide ? Can it be 
 possible that a man wavers here when et3rrity is in 
 the balance ? Are motives needed to incite the soul ? 
 Would you then attain the honor that is unstained 
 and fadeless ? You attain it by accepting Christ. 
 Would you open to yourselves stores of wealth ? You 
 
THE B0.;Y of CHRIST. 
 
 83 
 
 do it by accepting Christ — " riches above what earth 
 can grant, and lasting as the mind." Would you plant 
 yourself in a position of unassailable security ? You 
 do it by accepting Christ. But if these do not draw, 
 " Thou, by Thy threatenings move." 
 
V. 
 
 THE SWELLINGS OF JORDAN. 
 
 " If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, 
 then how lanst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of 
 peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, tlien how wilt thou 
 do in the swelling of Jordan ? " — Jer. xii 5. 
 
 THE text is God's answer to the complaints of 
 Jeremiah while sufFerincr from the contempt 
 and contumely of the men to whom he had been sent 
 with words of affectionate counsel and earnest warn- 
 ing. He had commenced his ministry in Anathotfi — 
 his native town — an obscure place in the tribe of Ben- 
 jamin. His brethren, instead of welcoming his words, 
 treated them with cruel neglect, and the prophet's spi- 
 rit fell within him. In this chapter he pours out his 
 complaint to God, wondering why these wicked con- 
 temners of His word prospered while he met with con- 
 fusion and disaster ; and this is the answer to his 
 questionings : " If thou hast run with the footmen, and 
 they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend 
 with horses ? and if in the land of peace, wherein 
 thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou 
 do iu the swelling of Jordan ? " Running with foot- 
 men refers to the practice in the East of employing 
 couriers and foot-posts for the transmission of de- 
 spatches. Contending with horses points to the office 
 of those whose duty it was to precede Eastern chariots 
 
THE SWELLINGS OF JORDAN. 
 
 85 
 
 ■ t 
 
 u 
 
 on foot. The land of peace was the quiet of the pro- 
 phet's own dwellinpj-place, and the swelling of Jordan 
 the annual rise of that river, caused by the melting of 
 the snows on Lebanon, causing it to overflow its banks. 
 The text, then, is as if God had said, " If, in a trial of 
 speed with men — your natural equals — you have been 
 beaten, how will you contend with horses — your born 
 superiors in fieetness ? Or if, in the sunny and quiet 
 times of Palestine — when the Jordan frolics along its 
 channels or eddies in its pools, and belts the whole 
 land with the garniture of its summer beauty — if, 
 even then, you have complaints of hardships, what will 
 you do when that same Jordan shall chafe, and rush, 
 and overflow, driving the wild beast from his covert, 
 whelming the harvest field, and sweeping away your 
 homes with untimely flood ? " Now, the moral of this 
 pictorial question to us is, If the lesser evils of life are 
 too much for you, how will you cope with the greater ? 
 or, if you are unequal to meet the dispensations of time, 
 how can you bear the awards of eternity ? and if you 
 are troubled with the pangs of conscience and the dis- 
 quiet of unforgiven sin, how can you grapple with 
 death and confront the heart-searching Judge upon 
 His throne ? You see, then, at once how broad is the 
 scope of the general principle embodied in these words. 
 Let us note a few of its suggestive lessons. 
 
 1. Private trials of life. 
 
 So true is the Scripture declaration that man is born 
 to trouble, that if his condition does not produce it, his 
 very nature and disposition will. It is so legitimately 
 
liiilii 
 
 86 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 Ill 
 
 II 
 
 human that we go out and horrow, if it does not come 
 unasked. No palace door shuts out the inevitable ills 
 of fancy or reality. No cushioned luxury satiates 
 desire till it says, " I want no more." A zephyr will 
 be a hardship to a life that has no hurricane's, and his 
 spirit will quail to mere vexations who mis^ht, under 
 other circumstances, be strong to cope with solid, mas- 
 sive trials. Thus it is that little griefs corrode us 
 when there are no great ones to buffet us, and we are 
 wearied running with footmen — overcome by trials 
 that spring out of ourselves and our commonest life. 
 How, then, shall we contend with horses — the real, 
 grave, earnest trials that put all our manhood to the 
 test? Now, this text speaks to all who are given to 
 indulge a repining spirit, who fret and worry under 
 the yoke that is laid upon them. And the thoughts it 
 suggests are of great practical value. For example, it 
 bids us think how much worse matters migfht have 
 been or yet may be with us. You grumble because of 
 domestic vexations, but they may be supplanted by 
 domestic woes. You chafe under mercantile inconve- 
 niences, but they may give way to mercantile disaster. 
 You complain of ailments that serious pain may cau.se 
 to be forgotten. There will come a time when your 
 heart will be torn with its bereaved love, and that 
 darkened chamber where you watch by the bed of the 
 dying will be an apt picture of your darkened life. 
 And that dying chamber will be to you also your own 
 dying place, and next to the grief for the friends 
 already lost will be the grief that you are now going 
 to leave the rest behind. Amid the faintness and irri- 
 
 .i-xxeyxn-Trikiib 
 
 '■■ "!?(^^K^3SS35 ?^S^^9S5?^^^^^S^^S^' 
 
 in 
 
THK SWELLINGS OF JORDAN. 
 
 87 
 
 tability of your last sickness your former troubles will 
 all seem mean, and your vexation shameful and unrea- 
 sonable. What are the passing inconveniences of life 
 to the solemn woe of the burial service in which you 
 must stand by the open grave and see your husband, 
 wife or child laid out of your sight forever ? What 
 are these anxieties, common to all, to that heart absorp- 
 tion with which you will watch for the last breath of 
 a loved one, or the loneliness with which you will pace 
 the desolated chamber and your unconscious lips shall 
 call his name and get no answer ? These greater griefs 
 will come ; and if you are so tried and overwhelmed by 
 the rippling waves of trouV>le, what will you do in the 
 swelling of Jordan ? Why should a living man com- 
 plain ? And then again, it is well to compare our 
 trials with those of others. The most accumulated of 
 distresses and the strangest combination of <xriefs will 
 not make us the worst off in the world. It is an old 
 but true savins:, that " one-half the world don't know 
 how the other half live." I have often wished that I 
 could take some whom I have heard complaining, like 
 the prophet, in a land of comparative peace, to scenes 
 that I am often called to witness, that in the presence 
 of overmastering disaster and sorrow they should learn 
 lessons of gratitude that they are no worse off than 
 they are. But again, may we not look at present trial 
 as an opportunity of personal advantage ? In trial we 
 get a right estimate of worldly things. The holy 
 Rutherford once said : " The Lord has taught me more 
 in nine months in A^ ordeen jail than in twelve years 
 of my ministry." Fri i the greatest prosperity may 
 
■^M 
 
 88 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 come the <;reatest curse. Says the prophet, "Moab 
 hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled 
 on his lees ; he hath not been emptied from vessel 
 to vessel, neither hath he f^one into captivity, there- 
 fore his taste remaineth in him, and his scent is not 
 changed." To be joyous in tribulation is greater grace 
 than to be zealous in the time of strength. And then 
 may we not also, in the midst of all trials, anticipate 
 the hour of complete deliverance. That is a beautiful 
 couplet of some poet : 
 
 *'The soul's dark cottage, battered and betrayed, 
 Lets in new light through chinks which time has n\ade." 
 
 The glimpse of the life everlasting shines brightly by 
 the light of the night-lamp. The creaking cords of 
 the frail tent remind us of the everlasting habitations 
 that await us, and in restless moments of pain we are 
 soothed by the promise of that home in which the 
 inhabitant shall not say, " I am sick." The memory 
 of those who have gone before us, and the sufferings 
 they have endured, should stinmlate us that we faint 
 not. " These are they who have come up out of great 
 tribulation, and have washed their robes in the blood 
 of the Lamb." God had one Son without sin, but 
 never one without sorrow. Oh, be of good cheer, 
 tempest-tossed one. You shall yet cast off all earth's 
 calamities, and be clothed upon with garments pure 
 and white. 
 
 2. Difficulties in the service of God. 
 
 Take the case of a man who has recently fallen 
 into known open sin. The inducements were not 
 
 
THE SWELLINGS OF JORDAN. 
 
 89 
 
 powerful in themselves, but the unhappy victim was 
 ensnared ahnost without resistance, perhaps from 
 want of vigihmce or through desperate carelessness. 
 Yea, perhaps the circumstances were favorable for a 
 triumph over the powers of darkness. A few urgent 
 cries for deliverance would have been successful. 
 Escape was close at hand ; but alas, the effort was not 
 made, or feebly made, and now the memory of that 
 sin haunts the conscience, destroys the peace, and 
 embitters all the joys of life. " Thou shouldst have 
 smitten five or six times," said the prophet to Joash ; 
 " then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst con- 
 sumed it." Languid resistance only courts the soul's 
 enemies. Falling thus easily into the wiles of Satan, 
 what will become of you when he shall come in like a 
 flood ? How will you endure when resistance must be 
 unto blood, strivins: against sin ? In that hour, unless 
 the heart be established by grace, you will be driven 
 like chaff from the threshing-floor. Or, take the case 
 of the young man who, while yet in his father's 
 house, sheltered by the sanctions of a Christian home, 
 has fallen into sinful habits, what will become of him 
 when all these restraints are removed, and when a 
 thousand inducements to evil open to his view as he 
 traverses the streets of the great city ? If he could 
 not withstand incitements to sin when all around was 
 on the side of God and virtue, how will he withstand 
 the solicitations of godless companions ? He will 
 become a poor waif of society, the sport of every evil 
 passion, the prey of every destroying lust. Oh, con- 
 tend with the footmen and horses, resist sin now, 
 7 ■ 
 
90 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 
 Jl 
 
 
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 11 
 
 
 
 
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 cultivate a good character, keep out of the meshes of 
 temptation ; be true, virtuous, <]jod]y, in your youth, 
 else m middle life and old ajjje the swellinos of Jordan 
 will overcome you, and you will be whirled about in 
 its eddies and be lost forever. 
 
 3. Troubles that haunt the unconverted. 
 
 Yes, I say troubles that haunt the unconverted. 
 You that are unconverted, seem to laugh and enjoy 
 yourselves, but life is not all enjoyment. You have 
 your fears and troubles. There is wormwood in the 
 cup ; there is an asp in the flower you clasp. It must 
 be so. God has placed in every man's heart a great 
 prophetic witness, to tell him of his sins. Conscience 
 is God's viceroy over the realm of the human spirit. 
 Man may dethrone it by excessive guilt, and violate 
 and dishonor it in ten thousand ways. But conscience 
 was born to a throne in the human bosom, and a 
 throne it will have, if not In this life, then in the 
 next; in this life for his salvation, or if not, then in 
 the next for his deathless torment. When conscience 
 speaks, its voice is always kingly. Even thoi gh you 
 chain it, you tremble at the majesty of its expostula- 
 tions. It is God's eye. It sees your life and reads 
 your heart. It is God's voice counselling your under- 
 standing. It is God's power chastising your guilt 
 with stings. Every sin you commit, open or secret, 
 yea, every thought of sin, calls forth its indignant 
 reprimand. You carry it within you, and you are 
 made to know it is within you. Go where you will, 
 you have this inseparable companion and admonisher 
 
THE SWELLINC.S OF JORDAN. 
 
 91 
 
 of your spirit, pointinj^ always toward the forsaken 
 road of duty. In the Church, conscience barbs the 
 point of God's truth and fastens it in your heart. And 
 even if you sleep upon the divine niessauje, conscience 
 flies in your face when you awake. If you carelessly 
 abstain from the services of God's house, conscience 
 pricks you till you writhe. When you ne<^lect the 
 closet and its prayers, conscience complains through 
 all the chambers of your graceless heart. Sinner, do 
 I not speak the truth when I say that in all your life 
 of alienation from God, you carry this clog to your 
 enjoyment, that yours is a life of sin ? You would be 
 happy if you could not remember that you are guilty ; 
 but remembering this, what a mockery of happiness is 
 a life like yours. Rich you may be in this life, but 
 poverty-stricken for eternity ; honored in men's esti- 
 mation, but miserably vile in His who is no respecter 
 of persons ; wise in human lore, ruinously blind in 
 divine things; just in your dealings with men, but 
 defrauding the God who made you ; free from all 
 worldly stain, but guilty of the blood of your own 
 soul. You feel this as often as you reflect. Your life's 
 worst troubler is your own conscience. Your pang of 
 pangs is your self-inflicted wound. Here is trouble 
 born of and in you. " In a land of peace wherein you 
 trusted you are wearied." And now let me ask the 
 searching question of the text, " How will you contend 
 with horses ? What will you do in the swelling of 
 Jordan ? " For there is coming a time when these 
 pungent pains of your soul will seem like the brush- 
 ing of an insect's wing compared with the searchings 
 

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 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
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 of heart you must then endure. The time is coming 
 when your soul shall be laid bare to the eye of the 
 whole world, and its chiraeter will be read aloud by 
 Him who gave your conscience a part of His own 
 power. He will expose your open and your secret 
 sins, and bring your whole life to the dr-^adful ordeal 
 of the judgment. And what wilt thou say when He 
 shall punish thee ? In that ceasing of forbearance and 
 swelling forth of justice, what wilt thou do? When 
 the time for prayer is ended and gone, and the Holy 
 Spirit is returned to God's bosom, never to visit you 
 again, and the day of grace has had its nightfall, 
 and retribution gleams before you through a starless 
 eternity ; when the wrath of the Lamb has taken the 
 judgment seat, and the love of the Lamb turns away 
 irom 3'ou to the saved, O ye who are rejecting Christ 
 now, hyw can your hearts be strong then ? How can 
 you contend with your God ? You cannot contend, for 
 we know who will then call upon the rocks and hills 
 to fall upon them and shield them from His piercing 
 eye whose one look is a pang that never dies, and the 
 waving of whose hand is the token of endless despair. 
 Oh, heed your conscience now ! You are wearied with 
 it, I know, because you cannot deny its jr tice. As 
 you love your own souls, and as you would fear to 
 carry an unforgiven heart to your death-bed and to 
 the judgment, begin to pray, fly to the Cross, and the 
 blood that your sins drew forth from His side shall 
 be your peace amid the swellings of Jordan. 
 
 4. To those not profiting by favorable providence 
 we may say : What precious opportunities for making 
 

 THE SV^ELLINGS OF JORDAN. 93 
 
 peace with God you have. Sunday after Sunday finds 
 you in the sanctuary, and we are thankful that it is so. 
 But is there not more than that to be accomplislied by 
 you — the salvation of your soul ? And at any moment 
 your privileges may be removed ; and it will be an 
 eternal catastrophe should they leave you unsaved. 
 " Behold noiu is the accepted time, behold now is the 
 day of salvation." One of the later Latin poets has 
 an apologue on the missing of opportunity worthy of 
 our attention. A visitor to the studio of Phidias saw 
 among the statues an unknown object. It had winged 
 feet, to show how swiftly it Hies ; its features were 
 covered with hair, because it is rarely identified ; it 
 was bald behind, because, when once gone, none can 
 seize it ; and closely following at its heels was a slavish 
 form. The first figure was Opportunity, the last De- 
 spair. Men miss the go'idess Opportunity, and fall 
 into the arms of Despair. Mark, Opportunity is 
 winged, passing swiftly away, and is followed by 
 Despair. Oh, seize opportunity now. You have no 
 time to lose. And how, if you persist in delay, will 
 you do in the swellings of Jordan? All must die — 
 whether in the green of budding childhood, the buoy- 
 ancy of happy youth, the vigor of manhood, or the 
 decrepitude of age. Human skill and prudence may 
 delay the hour, but it is only a brief respite. In a few 
 short years, and who of all this congregation will be 
 living? The voice that now addresses you will be 
 silenced ; these pews will be occupied by other people. 
 You will have passed away. You will go down to the 
 grave — from thence to judgment. You know not 
 
 !i 
 

 94 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 when you will die ; you know not how you will die. 
 You are thinking of death as aw; ' in the distance ; it 
 may be very near. Yo i are calculating on a long sick- 
 ness ; you may fall in a moment. Ycu are exposed to 
 accident as well as disease. One of the pastors of this 
 city told me the other day of a gentleman in this city, 
 a commercial traveller, who was in his church a 
 few Sunday evenings ago, and heard a sermon from 
 the words, " Prepare to meet thy God." The word 
 reached fche young man's heart. The next day he 
 called at the pastor's residence, expressed his convic- 
 tion of sin, and joined the church. Last week that 
 gentleman suddenly died. What a mercy that he had 
 at last commenced to seek the Lord. And you may 
 be suddenly called to go down into the swellings of 
 Jordan. Why, then, live another moment in an uncon- 
 verted state ? Your soul is too precious to lose. Oh, 
 I beseech you to seek the Lord now, for there is but a 
 step between thee and death. Don't trust to a death- 
 bed repentance. It is almost certain ruin. " How wilt 
 thou do in the swellings of Jordan ? " No human hand 
 can sustain thee then. No eloquence, no expostula- 
 tions, no tears can bribe death. You know right well 
 that there is no preparation for death but faith in 
 Christ. And Christ is calling you, pleading with you, 
 exhorting you this very Sabbath evening. He waits 
 to save you. Oh, do not refuse ! Christian believer, 
 how wilt thou do in the swellings of Jordan? Fear 
 not. You may be timid, you may have a fear of 
 dying ; but that which you have committed to the 
 keeping of the Saviour shr.l) be kept secure amid the 
 
THE SWELLINGS OF JORDAN, 95 
 
 waters of death. I have been reading the " Pilgrim's 
 Progress " again, and I have been struck by that fine 
 passage in which the dreamer describes the experience 
 of the pilgrims when they came to the end of their 
 journey. Ignorance is ferried over by Vain Hope, 
 only to discover that there is a way to hell even from 
 the gates of heaven. When Mr. Fearful's turn comes, 
 the waters were lower than ever they were known to 
 be before. Mr. Honest is helped over by Good Con- 
 science. And Mr. Standfast, from the midst of the 
 stream, says : " This river has been a terror to many ; 
 yea, the thoughts of it also have often frightened me, 
 but now methinks I stand easy ; my foot is fixed upon 
 that on which the feet of the priests that bare the ark 
 of the covenant stood while Israel went over Jordan." 
 Mr. Ready-to-Halt throws away his crutches. Mr. 
 Despondency cries, " Farewell, night — welcome, day ! " 
 and his daughter, whose name was Much-Afraid, went 
 over sinojing. P clous in the sigrht of the Lord is the 
 death of His saints. Oh, religion is the comfort of life 
 and it takes away the sting of death ! Christians do 
 well in the swellings of Jordan. But the sinner — oh, 
 what £' dark hour is death to him ! And will you run 
 any risks in this matter ? Ye know not what hour 
 the Son of man shall come ; will ye sport on the brink 
 of the eternal world ? Alas, alas, that ye are beguiled 
 by the tempter's voice as he whispers. Time enough 
 yet. I appeal to the aged who are unconverted. You 
 must soon pass away. White locks and feeble steps 
 are the sure precursors. For years you have lived in 
 sin. Oh, retrace your steps ! Christ will take even 
 
96 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFK. 
 
 the fragments of your life. " Come, let us reason to- 
 gether ; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be 
 white as wool ; though red like crimson, they shall be 
 whiter than snow." I appeal to those who have the 
 heavy cares oi life upon them — who are living only 
 for the world — what if suddenly the Master should 
 say, " Give an account of thy stewardship," and you 
 should have to present a record of a life devoted only 
 to yourself and sin ? I appeal to the young. Full of 
 promise, and dreaming of long life, you are refusing 
 the claims of Christ upon your heart. And I appeal 
 to the backslider. " How wilt thou do in the swelling 
 of Jordan ? " I appeal to the children of many 
 prayers. To all I cry, " Prepare to meet thy God ! " 
 
 Si 
 
 
 t 
 
VI. 
 
 THE DEATH OF MOSES. 
 
 ii 
 
 f 
 
 " So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of 
 Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in a 
 valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor : but no man 
 knowethof his sepulchre unto this day." — Deut. xxxiv. 5, 6. 
 
 OF all the world's great men Moses is the greatest. 
 As the historian of creation ; the legislator, not 
 of a class, but of the world ; the conqueror of Egypt's 
 proud monarch ; the founder of the most glorious com- 
 monwealth that ever appeared on the stage of time, 
 and as an eminent type of the Son of God, his name 
 stands first on the roll of fame, figures in all literature, 
 floats in the traditions of the heathen, is a household 
 word in Christendom, is dear to all the good of earth, 
 and mingles with the song of heaven. The text to- 
 night brings us to the last hours of this great man's 
 earthly life. In the plains of Moab he delivers his 
 valedictory to the assembled tribes, then wends his 
 way alone up Mount Nebo until he reaches Pisgah, its 
 highest point, from which he could command a view of 
 the land of promise. " And the Lord showed him all 
 the land of Gilead unto Dan." The hour of commu- 
 nion past, he lay down upon the rocks to die. Poets 
 have sung of the mountain cloud which night hung 
 around him as his shroud, and of the passing thunder 
 as his funeral dirge, but I am inclined to think there 
 
 ii 
 

 98 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
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 "11 
 
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 was neither cloud nor storm, and that the only motion 
 heard amid the impressive stillness was the gentle 
 wafture of the angel's wing on which his spirit rose 
 into the opening heaven. His death was but the soul 
 parting with its fleshly vestment, and putting on the 
 robe of light. "And the Lord buried him." No pnor- 
 tal hand scooped the grave, no mortal voice chanted 
 the requiem, no sculptured stone marked his resting- 
 place ; but as the whole earth the sepulchre of illus- 
 trious men, his fame is graven on the tablet of uni- 
 versal remembrance, and will survive local inscriptions 
 and marble monuments. I might use this expressive 
 piece of history to illustrate the last privileges of the 
 good — the unfolding of the heavenly to the spiritual 
 eye of the Christian in death — but I have other and 
 more practical purposes in view. I ask you to consider 
 the text as illustrative and suggestive of certain great 
 facts concerning life. 
 
 I. Life shortened by sin. 
 
 II. Life ending in the midst of labor and the most 
 blooming earthly prospects. 
 
 III. Life apparently a failure, finding its compensa- 
 tion. 
 
 I. Life shortened by sin. 
 
 Let me direct your attention to the historical con- 
 nections of this thought. The congregation of Israel 
 were murmuring for water at Meribah, in the desert 
 of Zin. " And the Lord spake unto Moses," etc. (Num. 
 XX. 7, 8.) Thirty-nine years before that a rock had 
 
THE DEATH OF MOSES. 
 
 99 
 
 been smitten at Horeb by the command of God, and 
 forthwith came an abundant supply of water, the 
 smitten rock being, as an apostle intimates, a type of 
 Christ, who, being smitten for our offences, caused the 
 water of life and salvation to flow for the refreshment 
 of every sinner applying for the blessings of peace and 
 pardon. But on this second occasion God did not 
 command Moses and Aaron to smite, but to speak to 
 the rock, for the purpose, it might be, of showing that 
 even insensible nature was ready to give a response bo 
 the commands of the Creator, which rational creatures 
 often refuse to give. But there were other and 
 weightier reasons, as we shall see presently. 
 
 " And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation 
 together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear 
 now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this 
 rock ? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod 
 he smote the rock twice, and the water came out abun- 
 dantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts 
 also." (Num. xx. 10, 11.) Must we, Moses and Aaron, 
 fetch you water ? Was this sanctifying the Lord in the 
 eyes of the people ? Nay, was it not a lifting-up of 
 themselves, to the exclusion of the Lord Jehovah, from 
 the eyes of the congregation ? Aye, and was there not 
 another and a more serious evil ? You will observe 
 that in making the tabernacle Moses had been taught 
 to attend in the minutest particulars to the directions 
 given him, and neither to go beyond nor to fall short 
 in the least degree of what God had commanded. 
 Everything connected with the tabernacle and every- 
 thing connected with God's dealings with Israel was 
 
100 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 typical ; and if, as we have seen in the first instance, 
 the smitten rock typified the smitten Saviour, " who 
 bare our sins in His own body on the tree," it was 
 contrary to the very intenti i and spirit of the type 
 that !;he rock should be smitten aj^ain. " Christ was 
 once offered a propitiation for the sins of the whole 
 world," and after His one otferintr there remainetb no 
 more sacrifice for sin. He is not to be smitten ajxain 
 for our offences. Those who would now receive com- 
 municati(ms of f^race and mercy are not to look to the 
 necessity of a repetition of His sacrifice, but they are 
 to speak to him ; and, my brethren, it is one of the 
 most comforting facts of our faith that He may be 
 spoken to — that prayer, loud as the sound of many 
 waters, or low and feeble as the whisper that trembles 
 on dying lips, is distinct to His ear, and will open His 
 hand, from which He is ready to pour a tide of bless- 
 ings, the richest that can emanate from a throne on 
 which is seated a God of love. Moses smote the rock. 
 In that he sinned, and hence the sentence, " Ye shall 
 not brinfj this conorregation into the land which I have 
 given them." My brethren, I find in this sentence 
 God s protest against sin — to me the most solemn pro- 
 test in all the Bible. The old world was swept away 
 by the angry waters of the Deluge ; Sodom and Go- 
 morrah smoked beneath the avenging fires of God ; 
 Nadab and Abihu, with their broken censers, lay be- 
 fore the sanctuary, scorched by the lightning of His 
 displeasure ; the bones of thousands of Israel lay 
 whitened by the sirocco of the desert ; Jerusalem reeled 
 and tottered to her fall, while famine, sword and pesti- 
 
 I 
 
THE DEATH OF MOSES. 
 
 101 
 
 lence consumed her people. But often and fiercely did 
 these provoke the Lord, and, with impious pride, 
 approach in single combat against the Mighty One. 
 But Moses was the meekest of men. His countenance, 
 it may be, still shone with celestial radiance when he 
 descended from communing with God upon the moun- 
 tain ; and, so far as I know, there is not another regis- 
 tered instance in which he displayed the least deficiency 
 of faith, and therefore when I read this sentence 1 
 seem to hear from it more distinctly than from devour- 
 ing waves, and charred ruins, and bleaching bones, 
 and desolated cities, the voice of warning and entreaty, 
 " Oh, do not this abominable thing which I hate." And 
 if there is any one here to-night who imagines that sin 
 under certain circumstances does not move the wrath 
 of the Almighty, who fancies that what he may choose 
 to regard as but a slight divergence from the right, 
 calls down no penal visitation — in one word, if any one 
 would hope to deal with God on any ground other 
 than that of simple obedience to His commands and 
 trust in His promises, I send hini to behold Moses- 
 eager to enter Canaan, yet expiring on the margm of 
 the promised inheritance, because he smote the rock to 
 which he was commanded but to speak. And with 
 this sentence before us, have we not all need to breathe 
 forth the prayer of the nineteenth Psalm, " Cleanse 
 Thou me from secret faults ; keep back Thy servant 
 also from presumptuous sins ; let them not have do- 
 minion over me ? " 
 
 II. Life ending in the midst of labor. " His eye was 
 not dim nor his natural force abated." Full of vigor 
 
102 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE, 
 
 !;a£ 
 
 and strong to labor he must have keenly felt as he 
 stood on Pisgah that his work was in an unfinished 
 state. The tribes were to be conducted over Jordan ; 
 Jericho, with its massive defences, was to be taken; 
 the aborigines were to be exterminated, the land 
 divided among the tribes, and the theocracy fully 
 organized. The land of promise, which had often 
 passed before his imagination, buoying up his spirit 
 amid the trials and vexations of the wilderness, now 
 expanded in all the charms of reality before him. But 
 he must die. Into those lively scenes ho may not 
 enter, and the work which he had hoped to finish must 
 be given to another. My brethren, is it not thus still ? 
 Men for the most part die in the midst of labor and 
 bright prospects of earthly good. Here and there you 
 will find a shock of corn fully ripe, and waiting for the 
 gatherer to take it in ; and once in a while you will 
 find one that seems to be more than ripe, the grain 
 falling on the ground. But most are taken in the 
 green — sap flowing through all the channels, and vigor 
 in the stalk. The farmer leaves his field half ploughed, 
 the artist dies with unformed figures on the canvas, 
 the tradesman is cut down in the midst of his mer- 
 chandise, the statesman is arrested with undeveloped 
 political measures on his hands, and ministers depart 
 with many schemes of instructive thought and plans 
 of usefulness but nicely commenced. Now, these 
 thoughts are full of important lessons. 
 
 (1) If men thus die in the midst of labor, they should 
 be cautious as to the work pursued. There are trades, 
 professions, and departments of secular action that are 
 
THE DEATH OF MOSES. 
 
 103 
 
 (I 
 
 lucrative but unri<:jhteousi — and it would be terrible to 
 die in the midst of unhol}' labor. To transact a busi- 
 ness, to deal in anytliinj^ on which God's blessin*^ can- 
 not be invoked, and which cannot in all respects 
 answer to the requirements of the Divine law, is to 
 endanger the soul and barter it for gain. 
 
 (2) Men should be active and diligent in the prosecu- 
 tion of an honest calling. God never intended life to be 
 a merry playground, or luxurious dormitory. He repre- 
 sents it, not by the zoophyte, anchored to a rock, able 
 to do nothing but grow and twirl its feelers nnd fold 
 them up again, and knowing no variety except when 
 the receding tide leaves it in the daylight, o the 
 returning waters plunge it into the green depths 
 again ; but He represents it by the busy bee and indus- 
 trious ant. No man, indeed, rich or poor, has a right to 
 so bow over his desk or till, ledger or counter, helm or 
 anvil, as to lose sight of the grave, the cross, and the 
 judgment-seat. Still the Gospel is the enemy of idle- 
 ness. " Not slothful in business, serving the Lord," is 
 the characteristic of the Christian. The Almighty 
 Feeder lays toil on the guests He feeds as the condi- 
 tion and tenure of His bounty. " Study to be quiet and 
 do your own business and to work with your own 
 hands, as we commanded you ; and if any man will not 
 work, neither let him eat." 
 
 (3) Men should be careful that their labors sustain 
 a proper relation to God. Daily labor should be made 
 a means of grace. Every secular act should express 
 and sanction, or rather strengthen, those great moral 
 influences over which death has no power. In another 
 
 , 
 
104 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN MFE. 
 
 a; i 
 
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 m 
 
 land we are to be crowned kings before God ; but in 
 this we are only servants, stewards of God's manifold 
 bounties. Kach frai^nicnt of time, each splinter of 
 property, each moiety of influence, has the King's 
 imprint and superscrij)tion, " To God the things that 
 are God's." Avocations the most laborious and har- 
 assing may bo wafted into the spirit of heaven. 
 Piety haunts not pulpits and closets and sanctuaries 
 alone, but walks as no careless or curious stranger 
 through all man's scenes of care and toil. The cause 
 of God need'? not only that men and women be 
 Sabbath-keeping and church-going, but that they 
 worship God at their daily tasks, at the hearth, the 
 counter, the home or warehouse. God's service implies 
 just principles of secular action, a regard to God's will 
 and work, in business and devotion, in earning and 
 bestowing property. 
 
 (4) Men should be careful to recognize the relation 
 of the present to the future. That is a most solemn 
 relation. It is a more solemn thing to live thaii many 
 of you rfalize. There is a grandeur and a dignity 
 about this present life that we are apt to overlook. 
 We look around us, and everything is in a state of 
 flux. Hovel and palace alike crumble. Wealth piled 
 high as mountains is dissolved into dust. Decay con- 
 sumes the works of genius ; old age dries up the voice 
 of eloquence ; mould touches the canvas ; chariots of 
 triumph are broken ; armies of power disappear, and 
 the breath of God passes in anger over the seas, and 
 vessels freighted down with the treasures of the earth 
 and with the richer freight of human hearts, are swept 
 
THE DEATH OF MOSES. 
 
 105 
 
 like bubbles from tho deep. All hi.story is only a suc- 
 cession of epitaphs on the ^.^reatness that has passed. 
 And then, when we come down to humble life, what 
 is it ? To toil that we may live, and to live that we 
 may toil ; brief hours of joy broken up by trials ; to 
 sow and reap, to buy and sell ; to rack the mind and 
 task the heart, till by-and-by the fitful fever is 
 quieted in the grave. And is that all ? Nay ; but 
 behind all that transient scaffolding: is risinfj an 
 immortal fabric. Parallel with the outward goes on 
 a corresponding inward life ; and while the outward 
 perishes, the inward, be it good or bad, is eternal. 
 Holiness will remain undimmed when the light of the 
 stars shall have expired, and sin will wear the thun- 
 der scar of God for evermore. And be it remembered 
 that every act of this present life is giving strength 
 to something good or bad within us. You may have 
 seen the dry bed of some river whose channel has 
 been changed. The waters no longer flow between 
 the banks. They have passed away. Yet there are 
 still the shelves of sand, and there are the rocks worn 
 smooth and round by the constant motions of the 
 waters, and there they will remain. The waters are 
 gone ; but in the sides of the rocky walls are the 
 fissures, a,nd crannies, and caves, that no time will 
 wear away. Just so do the flowing streams of act, 
 and thought, and circumstance, wear into the heart of 
 man, and leave impressions for eternity. You have 
 sat down beside an old man, it may be, and heard him 
 relate the events of his early manhood. He was 
 prosperous, then he met with reverses, and he had 
 8 
 
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 106 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
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 struggles and hardsliip.s, and joys and disappoint- 
 ments. But all have now gone. To him they seem 
 afar off, and he speaks of them as the mariner, in the 
 home of old age, speaks of the events of some long 
 past voyage. They have gone, did I say ? No ; every 
 one of them has left a print upon his soul. He is 
 what he now is, because of what he then did and for- 
 bore. Every event of the past has left a mark in his 
 soul forever. Geologists have discovered in the rocks 
 footprints of a huge race of birds, which had perished 
 from the earth loncj before man was made. The 
 transient footprints were made in a soil which yielded 
 like clay, but the soil hardened into stone, and still 
 preserves in solid rock the old impressions. So it is 
 that the events of the present live or make an 
 impression on the yielding heart of man, and the 
 heart hardens and retains them. Those events may 
 seem very small, but they are feeders to great under- 
 lying principles, just as the transient sunshine and 
 shower nourish the twig which shall outlive a century 
 of such changes, growing up into an oak, whose broad 
 arms hang out a shadow in the summer's heat, and 
 defy the tempests that beat upon the shore, and bear 
 the thunders and powers of a nation across the seas. 
 Be careful how yon live. In Pompeii they find 
 scores who had been overtaken by death suddenly, 
 and in the exact pr»sition at the time of their arrest 
 they remain to-day. Some were found with hands 
 clutching at gold coins, some with fingers clenched on 
 the handle of a door, some kneeling before their house- 
 hold gods ; and death perpetuated not only their posi- 
 
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THE DEATH OF MOSES. 
 
 107 
 
 ■i 
 
 tions, but from those very positions we can read their 
 characters. So death comes to many still' and it were 
 terrible to be arrested in the midst of associations and 
 acts that are unholy, and to go into eternity wearing 
 a corresponding character. 
 
 III. Life finding its compensation. 
 
 The sentence of the text at first sight seems all 
 severity, but we shall soon see that it was tempered 
 with mercy. It seems strange that of all Israel's great 
 ones he should lie in an unknown grave. The sepul- 
 chres of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were known among 
 the graves of Hebron. The bones of Joseph rested in 
 Shechem. Rachel's tomb stood in the way to Ephrath, 
 which is Bethlehem. The sepulchre of David was by 
 Jerusalem — the home of his heart. Of Moses, " No 
 man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day." And 
 how strange it must have been to the Jew to think 
 that the meanest of all the tribes should enter the land, 
 while his leader should be excluded. But, after all, 
 was not Moses in the end the gainer ? When the 
 prospect of the earthly Canaan faded from his eye, 
 another, with brighter skies and better soil and fresher 
 river and more precious fruits, opened to his enrap- 
 tured view. The Jerusalem, for which those who 
 entered the land had to fight many a battle, came to 
 him new and golden; for the tumult of the congrega- 
 tion he joined the calm of the general assembly and 
 church of the first-born. His death, instead of cutting 
 oflf liis life from its grand object, realized it beyond his 
 conception, and realized it to him forever. At the 
 
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 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 bottom of the life of Moses there was a true, honest 
 purpose, and that purpose triumphed, notwithstanding 
 all the failure. Let this thought comfort us. We feel 
 often as if our nature were p11 broken by flood and 
 failure. We look back, and see unsatisfied yearnings 
 and shattered hopes. Green fields of promise once 
 gleamed before us. We marched through deserts, and 
 by winding, tortuous paths up to the very border of 
 the green land, when we were suddenly cut off from 
 it. And now we seem to sit down in the midst of 
 broken columns and withered prospects, and write 
 failure on everything about us. But, oh, if there has 
 been a true purpose in the life, it will reach a perfect 
 close one day, and its visions shall all be realized. 
 And then there was another way in which compensa- 
 tion was given to Moses. He had prayed earnestly 
 that he might enter the earthly Canaan, and though 
 death in the meantime disappointed him, God in His 
 own way and time answered his prayer. Long ages 
 after the limbs of the man of God had been composed 
 by angels in the grave that was in the solitudes of the 
 Moab mountains, over against Beth-peor, a man of 
 holy aspects, but in whose countenance grief had made 
 its furrows, in company with three chosen followers, 
 wended his way up the slopes of Hermon as the even- 
 ing shadows gathered, and speaking to the spirit world 
 two kindred spirits from the brotherhood of the 
 redeemed came forth and talked with the transfigured 
 Jesus of the decease v/hich He should accomplish at 
 Jesusalem. Surely, if the sacred soil had any crown- 
 ing honor, it was when the Son of God walked it. For 
 
 < 
 
 
THE DEATH OF MOSES. 
 
 109 
 
 1,500 years Moses was detained at the gate that he 
 might look upon the land in its glorious prime. 
 Brethren, let that circuriistance show you how long 
 God can bear a prayer in memory. He was 1,500 
 years answering the prayer of Moses, but He did 
 answer it. No prayers that are in agreement with the 
 will of God can be lost. The angel of the covenant, 
 who holds the golden censer before the altar, takes the 
 prayers of all saints, and in His own good time mingles 
 them with His prevalent intercessions, and pours them 
 out before the majesty of heaven. 
 
 Brethren, learn from the history of Moses to hate 
 sin with a perfect hatred. " Let not sin have dominion 
 over you." And learn from Moses how to die. He 
 ascended Nebo — not like a reluctant, dejected culprit. 
 He did not mourn, nor grieve, nor murmur at the 
 divine command. Beautiful, heroic, triumphant was 
 his conduct. And so it may be with thee. Only let 
 thy life be consecrated to the Master, and when sum- 
 moned to depart thou shalt ascend tiie summit whence 
 faith looks forth on the goodly land, and, exclaiming, 
 " We have wp'ted for Thy salvation. Lord," thou shalt 
 pass through the gates into the city to be forever with 
 the Lord. 
 
 i"\ 
 
 1 ' -i 
 
iii' 
 
 YII. 
 
 GLORYING IN THE CROSS. 
 
 *' But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the 
 world." — Gal. vi. 14. 
 
 WHY did the apostle glory in the cross of Christ ? 
 There were other things which, at first sight, 
 we would have thought him disposed to glorj^ in. 
 
 1. He might have gloried in that which gave earthly 
 delight, power and enjoyment. The young man glories 
 in the vigor of his frame, the buoyancy and hope 
 of youth. The man of wealth glories in his title 
 deeds, investments, accumulated funds and stocks. 
 The man of fame glories in his position, the offices he 
 has filled, the influence he has gained. The statesman 
 glories in that he has been able to mark out great 
 lines for the development of the resources of his 
 country, and place it in the highest ranks of life. The 
 warrior glories in the battles he has fought and the 
 victories he has won, which place laurels on his brow 
 and hang the immortelles upon his name. All this is 
 glorying in something that gives ease, comfort, wealth, 
 or joy. But the cross cut Paul off from every one of 
 these, and yet he glories in it. 
 
 2. How much there was in Christianity to glory in 
 besides the cross. Take the person of Christ, John 
 
GLORYING IN THE CROSS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 says of Him in the openinf^ of his Gospel, "In the 
 beginnirif^ was the Word, and the Word was witli God, 
 and the Word was God." " The Word was made flesh 
 and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the 
 glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of 
 grace an<l truth."" What a field to glory in these Scrip- 
 tures open : Oh, to preach Christ as the Maker of all 
 worlds ! To point to the vast universe, worlds on 
 worlds innumerable, which He cast as from His hands 
 into the wide expanse of space, and gave them all their 
 elements and resources; to dwell on the power of 
 creation, the grandeur and limitless wisdom and beau- 
 ties developed under this creative power; what a Held 
 in which fancy might take its loftiest flights ! 
 
 Then think of the wisdom of His instructions. " He 
 spake as never man spake," The multitudes gathered 
 round Him, listening to the words that dropped from 
 His lips. The crowd stood, enraptured with His teach- 
 ings, as thev ijathered round Him on the mountain 
 sides, or followed Him through the valleys, or left 
 their homes and went out into the wilderness, attracted 
 by the wonderful thought of His teachings. Now, as 
 men honor the great philosophers of earth, as they 
 dwell on the names of Plato and Socrates and others 
 of intellectual might, why not thus dwell on the 
 teachings of Christ, and why not glory in the wisdom 
 of His words, and exalt Him above the philosophers 
 of earth for the profound grasp of His thought, for the 
 power to take away the veil from futurity, for the 
 strange power of bringing the invisible to light ? 
 
 Then, again, he might have turned to the actions of 
 

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 112 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHKISTIAN LIFE. 
 
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 11 
 
 Christ. Ho could draw the scenes of the life of Christ; 
 point to His birth, while the star from heaven became 
 the signal to show the Wise Men the way to Hi> 
 cradle ; show how God watched over the Infant and 
 saved Him from the wrath of Herod ; point out how, 
 when a boy, he confounded the doctors of the law ; show 
 how as a God He created, and how as a Saviour He 
 blessed ; how His heart flowed out with sympathy to 
 ever\ human beiiif;, boundless in His benevolence and 
 raising up earth. What a theme to dwell upon — the 
 wonderful works of Christ. But in none of these does 
 Paul glory. " God forbid that I should glory save in 
 the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ," — the cross His 
 death — the death of a malefactor ; the curse and indi- 
 cation of shame — crucified between two thieves, as if 
 He had been the worst of the three. 
 
 He would speak of Christ, the power of God and 
 the wisdom of God ; but all that is exhibited in the 
 cross. If He spoke of the forgiveness of sins, it was 
 to be through the cross. If he spoke of adoption into 
 the family of God, if he spoke of redemption and 
 sanctification, it was to be through the cross. If he 
 spoke of the union of believers, bringing the whole 
 universe into one, it was around the cross. If he 
 spoke of conquest over death and the grave, and the 
 hope of everlasting life, it was through the cross. 
 Everywhere the cross was the centre of his teachings, 
 the grand symbol around which the hopes of immor- 
 tality clustered. 
 Now we ask, why was this ? and we reply : 
 (1) Because in the scene of that cross was manifested 
 
GLORYING IN THE CROSS. 
 
 113 
 
 the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Man thinks of sin as a 
 httle matter. There are very few of us who have 
 those deep views of sin we ought to have, that hmthing 
 abhorrence of evil which we ought to entertain ; 
 but in the cross of Christ is brought out the great 
 abhorrence which God has of sin, the absolute impos- 
 sibility of His passing over it without its being 
 punished, and the fact that sin is so abhorrent to 
 God that the result of it must be death. Now, 
 this is seen in the cross, that there was no way by 
 which the sin of the world could be taken away but 
 through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. " With- 
 out the shedding of blood there is no remission." And 
 thus was the lesson early taught to man. How early 
 we cannot tell, but probably immediately after the fall. 
 It is said that God made to our first parents coats of 
 skins, probably the skins of animals sacrificed for sin. 
 Be that as it may, we find Abel offering the victim on 
 the altar, and all down the Mosaic economy, we have 
 men offering sacrifices for sin. And the whole voice 
 of those sacrifices proclaimed two things : first, that 
 without shedding of blood there was no remission of 
 sin, that sin must have death. " The wages of sin is 
 death ;" and secondly, the great truth that through the 
 shedding of blood there would be remission — through 
 death there might be life. Now, when we take into 
 view that sin must have death following it, as its 
 result, we see how abhorrent it is to Almighty God. 
 What a terrible thing it is to sin against God — " The 
 soul that sinneth it shall die." 
 
 Sin is not to be thought of in itself merely, and 
 
 IHBi 
 
114 
 
 SEUMONS ON THK CHIUSTIAN LIFE. 
 
 il 
 
 |. 
 
 measured with some other sin. We may take murder, 
 and see the terrible character of sin. 13ut that is as it 
 relates to man. The essence of sin is simply disobey- 
 ing God, and the sin in which the disobedience is 
 shown, be it what it may, is that which makes it 
 ofi'ensive to God. It is the lieart that rebels against 
 God ; it is the determination not to obey God, and 
 that may be seen in the smallest as well as in the 
 greatest thinors — and that disobedience God reo-ards so 
 that the soul that transgresses must perish, imles.s there 
 be a sin-ofiering, for that only can take the sin away. 
 As we gather round Christ, then : as we stand by His 
 side when He wrestles tliere in GeJisemane until the 
 sweat drops from His brow as beads of blood ; as we 
 stand by Him at Calvary, and hear His burdened bosom 
 heave ; as we see Him in that intense agony, when He 
 cries, " My God ! My God ! why hast Thou forsaken 
 Me ? " we see the sinfulness of sin in this — that He 
 suffers when God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 
 And God requires, of Him — though He is His own Son — 
 though a voice from the open heaven proclaims, "This is 
 My beloved Son, hear ye Him " — though on the mount 
 of Transfiguration the very Godhead shone out from 
 His garments so that they were white as snow, and 
 His countenance was bright as the sun in his glory — 
 yet when that Son stands in your place and in mine 
 the heavens grow black, the very earth shakes, the 
 graves are opened, the dead go forth, and the burdened 
 bosom of the infinite God incarnate in humanity feels 
 the load too great to be borne, even in anticipation, 
 and cries, " If it be possible, let this cup pass from 
 
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 it: 
 
GLORYING IN THE CROSS. 
 
 115 
 
 Me." I stand in the presence of these scenes, and say, 
 how terrible must he t)»e nature of that sin which we 
 have committed, which stains our souls, and renders 
 them obnoxious to Almi<,dity God ! The first step in 
 the recovery of any one from illness is to fully under- 
 stand the nature of the disease. If man is to be 
 recovered, he must know how deep are the stains of 
 sin, and that he learns as he stands beside the cross. 
 Sinner, in that cross you may see the terrible load that 
 must have fallen on you if Christ had not stepped 
 under it that you miorht go free. You may learn the 
 terrible chamoter of that cup you must have drained if 
 Christ had not tasted it for you. You may feel some- 
 thing of that agony you must have borne had not 
 Christ assumed your place and borne it for you. 
 
 But there is another aspect in which we may see the 
 hatefulness of sin. As we stand round that cross be- 
 hold how heaven and earth and hell seemed to gather 
 round it. From the heavens, God and angels were 
 gazing on that scene. From below, demons and evil 
 spirits were gathered there ready to hold their jubilee 
 when Christ should die upon the cross. But man, for 
 whom Christ died, gathered round that cross, and how 
 does he gaze on Him who is becoming sin for him ? He 
 ought to have gathered round that cross with tears of 
 sorrow and yet with tears of joy. Why, when the 
 angels saw that Christ was to come, they cried out, 
 " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, 
 good-will to men." But when man saw Christ come 
 and dying for him, he cried, " Away with Him ; crucify 
 Him ! " " Not this man, but Barabbas ! " Then consider, 
 
116 
 
 8E11M0NS ON THE CHRISTIAN lilFE. 
 
 
 too, that in that thron<:j there was possibly not one 
 some member of whose family had not been healed by 
 Christ. He had preached in their cities, healing the 
 sick wherever He went. At Capernaum, at Jerusa- 
 lem, at Bethany He had gone to and fro among the 
 poor, the wretched and the dying. And now fnmi all 
 parts of the land multitudes had gathered at the Pass- 
 over, and there hung upon the cross the Man who had 
 rebuked their fevers, cured their leprosy, healed their 
 lameness, raised their dead ; and yet they wagged 
 their heads, and said, " He saved others, Himself He 
 cannot save." " His blood be upon us and upon our 
 children." And there, too, in that solemn scene, in full 
 view of the agoni> s of death, men gambled for His 
 robe — tossing the dice upon the spot soiled by the 
 blood that trickled from the cross. Oh, the depravity 
 of the human heart ! That shows to us the sinfulness 
 of sin. There is where you and I would have stood. 
 We think, not so. The men that stood there had the 
 same nature w^e have, the very same feelings we have ; 
 and sin unrestrained in the heart would have led us 
 just where they stood. Nay, if you do not receive 
 Jesus to-night you stand by His cross rejecting His 
 atoning blood ; you crucify Him to yourselves afresh, 
 and put Him to an open shame. I charge it home to 
 you ; think of the guilt it involves ; rejecting Christ is 
 a sin as great as that committed by the man who 
 pierced His side with the Roman spear. 
 
 (2) The cross shows us the wonderful love of God 
 for the sinner. The love of God — I see it in the 
 heavens above me, in the shining sun, and in the 
 
 .6Tl 
 
 
GLOUYINQ IN THE CROSS. 
 
 117 
 
 sparklinf^ .stars. I .see it in tlie breath which l)re»ithes 
 arouinl me and which I inhale. I see it in the earth 
 carpeted with j^reen and strewn with flowers ; in the 
 music of the birds, and in all things that are beautiful 
 around me ; but how feeble these lessons of the love 
 of God, compared with that love manifested in Jesus 
 Christ. When the sinner transgressed, rea.son said, 
 " Let him die," and law said, " Let him die," but God 
 .said, " I cannot give him up." A father says of a 
 prodigal son, *' He is a prodigal ; he knows he has done 
 wrong ; still he is a son, and I cannot give him up ; " 
 and the father's affection follows that son where- 
 ever ^le goes, weeping, sorrowing, crushed in .spirit ; 
 still he is a .son. So the great Father bends down 
 over us ; we are erring, faithless, wicked children ; we 
 are culprits. Yet He yearns over us as He asks, how 
 can they be saved, how brought back ? He looks. 
 Earth has no offering, angels have no power, arch- 
 anorels have no strength. He holds the book that 
 asks the question, " How can humanity be saved ? and 
 there is no man that can break the seals or look 
 thereon, until there comes the Lion of the tribe of 
 Judah." He takes the book in His hand, He finds 
 the plan of salvation. He offers to die for man, and the 
 Father loves sinners so much that He " gives His only 
 begotten Son," etc. I have often tried to form some 
 conception of the love of God, and I have found the 
 best way to do so is to put it alongside His other 
 attributes. Suppose you put it now beside the purity 
 of God. I have seen a child afflicted with a frighfully 
 loathsome disease. I will not try to describe its ulcer- 
 
 h 
 
 
118 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 
 ji, 
 
 i 
 
 ■si" 
 
 ated limbs — kept away, as he was, from the siji^ht of 
 man, in a private apartment. But was he neglected ? 
 No; and I need not tell you who attended to him. 
 Every morning the loving mother of that child bathed 
 his wounds and swathed bis limbs, and there was not 
 an evening that she wearied in her toil. l)o you think 
 the mother had not natural sensitiveness ? She was 
 keenly sensitive ; but by so much more as she felt the 
 loathsomeness of her work, you see the love that 
 upheld her in the doing of it. But, oh, what is the 
 loathsomeness of cankered wounds compared with the 
 loathsomeness of sin to God ? There is but one thing 
 that God hates, and that is sin. When it appeared in 
 the angels, He swept them from their thrones ; when 
 it broke out in the universe, He scooped the pit of 
 hell to put it in; and so terrible a thing is it, that 
 by-?.nd-by He will put the hatches down and keep it 
 ou*. of the universe forever. Yet, with all His hatred 
 of sin, how He hangs over the sinner, how he woos 
 the sinner. He hates sin, and by so much as He hates 
 it is His intinite love made manifest in the death of 
 Christ. Or, put His love beside His justice. I don't 
 think that in God's estimate of Satan's opposition a 
 thought was given how He should conquer that paltry 
 foe. All that the devil could do to frustrate the 
 designs of God was but as the power of a cobweb put 
 out to stop an express train. The difficulty did not 
 lie with the enemy, it lay with Himself. The grand 
 mystery was, " How can God be just, and yet the 
 iustitier of him that believeth?" How can He be 
 holy, and yet the sinners' friend ? These were His 
 
 .4 
 
 1 
 Iff 
 
I 
 
 GLORYING IN THE CROSS. 
 
 119 
 
 difficulties — thinirs that came up from Himself. But 
 when God's Son dies on yonder cross, all the universe 
 sees how law must be kept inviolable, while God's love 
 for man, and the Son's love for man, flames with a 
 steady light, and God can both be just and the justi- 
 fier of him that belirveth. Or put His love beside His 
 omniscience. I have often thought it well for us and 
 well for the world that we cannot see into the future. 
 If we could see all the trouble, and disappointment, 
 and pain of our lives, we would refuse to live. And 
 so, too, with benevolent and charitable institutions. 
 If we could see the trouble, and the cost, and the 
 vexations involved, and the bad use that would be 
 made of our charity, we would have nothing to do 
 with them. But when God covenanted with His Son 
 in the matter of redemption, He saw all the future. 
 He knew how sinners would turn His grace to wan- 
 tonness, how blasphemies would rise from human 
 hearts, and the smoke of ten thousand idol altars 
 would ascend from earth to heaven. He saw it all, 
 and He saw it all at once ; yet in His mighty love He 
 gives His Son to die for His revilers. Gave His Son. 
 He had but one. When Jesus looked at the poor 
 woman in the Temple, casting her mite into the 
 treasury, He found a new rule of arithmetic. She 
 gave her all. Many gave much ; but the Lord looked 
 at what they had left. She gave her ail, and hence 
 gave more than any other. Try God by His own rule. 
 He had but one Son, His only begotten. If He had 
 taken every star from the sky, and manipulated those 
 stars as you might manipulate grains of wheat, and 
 
 rfJM 
 
120 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 I 
 
 
 m 
 
 moulded them all into a gigantic body, of which every 
 star was an atom ; and then if He had taken every 
 seraph from His throne and every spirit from the 
 universe, and made a mighty amalgam of all souls 
 into one, and had put that giant mind into that 
 gigantic body, and given that body and soul for man, 
 it would have been nothing to this. A word of His 
 could have restored the dismantled heavens, but God 
 Himself cannot make an only begotten Son. It is His 
 only Son, and He gave Him into our nature, into our 
 flesh. He made Hira to go into our grave and to our 
 death. 
 
 There is one text in the New Testament that seems 
 to me to be the concentrated essence of the entire 
 Gospel, " God so loved the world that He gave His 
 only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him 
 should not perish, but have everlasting life." There is 
 no limitation in that text — He gave His Son for the 
 world. John Williams, the great missionary, said that 
 when he sailed in his missionary ship, and touched a 
 shore where he had never been before, where no foot of 
 white man had ever trod, he always preached from that 
 text. God's love is not bounded by mountains and 
 oceans — God so loved the tuorld. And then there is 
 that word whosoever. As you have a general declara- 
 ration for the world, you have now this specific put 
 in. John Bunyan once said of this that it was worth 
 all the gold that could be put between London and 
 York if piled up to the stars ; and Martin Luther said 
 it was so good, that a man might cheerfully fetch it 
 from Jerusalem on his hands and knees. These are 
 
 il 
 
GLORYING IN THE CROSS. 
 
 121 
 
 two grand words, whosoever and whatsoever — whoso- 
 ever looks outward to the race, and whatsoever looks 
 inward to the wants of the believer. Whosoever — 
 that is the longest link of the golden chain of mercy that 
 reaches to just beside hell. Whosoever — oh, is there 
 no one here to-night who will take hold of this word 
 and be saved ? " Whosoever believeth in Him shall not 
 perish." Some of you remember reading in the history 
 of the Mutiny in India about that miscreant, the 
 king of Delhi. He fled, and was pursued by a British 
 force under a certain officer. He took refuge in a 
 mausoleum— and the officer, not having a very strong 
 force, was only too glad to get hold of him, and he 
 said, " If you surrender you shall not be put to death." 
 A great many complained of the officer ; they said this 
 mar has murdered children and defiled women, and 
 should be hung as high as Haman. But I never heard 
 any one say that when the word was once given it 
 should be broken. That king trusted the word of 
 England, and there he stood firm. The soldiers were 
 there, and many of them would have liked to kill him, 
 but he walked about unharmed. Many jf them had 
 rifles, and they would have liked to have sent their 
 bullets whizzing through his body. But England's 
 word was around him, and said, " He shall not die." O 
 I remember when my poor, dark, lost spirit was there 
 in that dark mausoleum of sin, in darkness and con- 
 demnation. I remember when the voice of God came 
 to me, " Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish." 
 I believed it, and came forth ; and it seemed to me as if 
 the fiery fingers of the law pointed to me, and there 
 9 
 
 
122 
 
 SEllMONS ON THE (MIRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 At 
 
 
 ■-. 'J- 
 
 in 
 
 '% 
 
 came a voice of thunder, " Iniquities damn him." And 
 the accuser said, " Damn him." But God's word was 
 around me, and it said, " He shall not perish." Hell 
 cannot touch me, the devil cannot have ine, while I 
 hold fast to the word, " Whosoever believeth in Him 
 shall not perish, but have everlasting life." I don't 
 exactly know what that everlasting life may mean. 
 They are two grand words welded together — '* Life 
 and Eternity." Life — pure, perfect, glorious — life that 
 shall know no end ; life in a country fairer than 
 Canaan, in a city better than Jerusalem — life at home 
 with God. 
 
 3. There is another truth preached to us by the 
 cross of Christ. It clears away the mystery of death, 
 for it shows death as the reverse side of resurrection 
 and holy triumph. Death is only the waning of our 
 mortal being, that the immortal being may have free- 
 dom and enlargement. Hence on the very eve of 
 crucifixion, we are told, " In that hour Jesus rejoiced 
 in spirit, and said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and 
 God is glorified in Him." The cross, the way to the 
 glorification of the Son of man. And the glorification 
 came ; for after His resurrection He led His disciples 
 out as far as Bethany and a cloud received Him out of 
 their sight. And as in majesty he passed up and 
 through the gates of the City of God, a voice was 
 heard, saying, " Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be 
 ye lifted up ye everlasting doors, and the King of 
 glory shall come in." And a responsive voice from 
 within the gates says, " Who is the King of glory ?" and 
 the voice from without cries, " The Lord strong and 
 
GLORYING IN THE CROSS. 
 
 123 
 
 mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." He has been 
 down meeting death, sin, a violated law, the claims of 
 justice ; meeting devils armed with all the fury of 
 hell. He has trampled them beneath His feet, He has 
 broken the bars of death, led captivity captive, re- 
 ceived gifts for men. Then from within is heard the 
 answer, If this be He, then " Lift up your heads, O ye 
 gates ; and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors, that the 
 King of glory may come in." Oh, methinks I see the 
 crowns of myriads of angels and seraphs flying like 
 meteors and falling at His feet, while the Father bids 
 Him sit at His right hand, and reign till death and 
 hell are put under His feet. Here reign till the 
 wicked superstitions of earth shall be banished, till 
 the devils shall cower back to their native hell, till the 
 earth " shall be filled with the glory of God." Here 
 reign till death shall surrender his millions of the 
 human family, until the great end of time, until the 
 jubilee of the saints shall occur in the resurrection of 
 those who have died in the prosecution of duty and 
 allegiance to God. And He will reign till there rings 
 out upon the ear of a listening universe, the glad 
 acclamation, " Death is swallowed up in victory ! O 
 death, where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy vic- 
 tory ? But thanks be unto God who giveth us the vic- 
 tory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Ah, friends, we 
 have our Gethsemanes and our death scenes, ties break 
 and hearts bleed ; but let the light that streams from 
 the cross be turned upon our vales of sorrow and our 
 Calvaries of suffering, and we shall remember that 
 death is only the hither side of resurrection unto life, 
 
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 124 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 brinj^ before you the 
 
 It nailed Jesus to the 
 
 A Gallic prince of the 
 
 once to a missionary 
 
 and that the darkest midnights are broken by the dawn 
 of Easter mornings. 
 
 Brethren, I have tried to 
 exceeding sinfulness of sin. 
 cross. Will you love it still ? 
 Middle Ages, was listening 
 reciting the story of the cross, the hatred of the Jews 
 and the brutality of the Roman soldiery, when, roused 
 to feelings of indignation, he cried out in the church, 
 " Oh, if I had been there with my Gauls." Can you 
 love and harbor that which crushed the heart of the 
 Son of man ? Is there no heart here to say, " I hate 
 the sins that made Thee mourn and drove Thee from 
 my breast." And I have tried to bring before you the 
 love of God for you. Will you now bow before that 
 love and suffer it to draw you to the Saviour ? Has 
 God no claim upon your heart ? Do ye not know that 
 His mercy is designed to lead you to repentance ? If 
 the love of God is not an argument to convince your 
 judgment and affect your heart, I know not what 
 will. And then I have tried to suggest to you the 
 results that spring from glorying in the cross — victory 
 over death and ultimate entrance into heaven. Has 
 heaven no charms ? Do not your hearts desire it ? Is 
 there no wish to enjoy its beatitudes after this life is 
 over ? No cross, no crown. 
 
 ! 
 
 I- 1 
 
n 
 
 I 
 
 VTII. 
 
 ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION. 
 
 " And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly ; and I pray 
 God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless 
 unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that 
 calleth you, who also will do it." — I Thess. v. 2.*?, 24, 
 
 NO peculiarity is more deeply impressed upon the 
 writings of St. Paul than the abundance of 
 their expressions of devotion. Either as doxolo«fy or 
 benediction, as praise or supplication, as ejaculatory 
 formula or studied outpouring, prayer stamps its 
 solemn grandeur on every page of his epistles. In the 
 words that I have chosen as a text this morning St. 
 Paul gathers up and utters all his desire for the Thes- 
 salonian Christians. In reading this prayer we are 
 liable to fall into the temptation that it presents an 
 aim too grand for our attainment. We are apt to 
 imagine that an apostle — with his profoundly devo- 
 tional soul, so adapted to the influences of heaven — 
 might attain to it ; or that in these days some lonely 
 student, endowed with that imperial intellect that 
 rules the body, and living apart from the rushing 
 tumults of the world, might reach it. But that to men 
 brought daily into contact with hard material facts 
 and the perpetual temptations of common life, such a 
 prayer is beyond the measure of our possibilities. Let 
 it be borne in mind, however, that St. Paul does not 
 
1 
 'si 
 
 I 
 
 '•i i 
 
 126 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 '! I 
 
 h 
 
 is 
 
 17 
 
 
 here sketch an ideal perfection to be hoped for only in 
 eternity. What he prays for, every believer may obtain 
 on earth. Every believer, I say ; for there is no hier- 
 archy in the kingdom of grace — save what is created 
 by degrees of earnestness in the prayer of faith. There 
 is great encouragement for us in this respect from the 
 position which this prayer occupies as the conclusion 
 of a wonderful strain contained in the chapter. In 
 the thirteenth verse, the idea of love vanquishing all 
 evil and pursuing all good, stirs the apostle's soul ; and 
 then he advances to a series of wonderful precepts, 
 each bearing the burden of perfection. " Be at peace 
 among yourselves ; warn the unruly, comfort the feeble- 
 minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men." 
 And just at the point when our ambition to be perfect 
 has been stimulated to the utmost, with one of those 
 master-strokes for which he is so remarkable, the 
 apostle glides off f r «m what we can do for ourseb^es to 
 what none but Goa can do for us. " The very God of 
 peace sanctify you wholly ; and I pray God your whole 
 spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the 
 coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Oh, then, it is 
 enough, if this whole sanctification and preservation in 
 blamelessness be the work of God, surely I can attain 
 to it, since " His strength is perfected in my weakness." 
 The subject for us then is : 
 
 The entireness of "personal sanctification. 
 
 It will be necessary for us first to notice what kind 
 of entireness is not meant by the apostle. There is a 
 sense in which all accepted believers are necessarily 
 
 • 
 
ENTIUE SANCTIFICATION. 
 
 127 
 
 n 
 n 
 
 entirely sanctified. They are absolutely washed from 
 the guilt of their sins ; their hearts are sprinkled from 
 an evil conscience, and that defilement which must 
 needs hinder divine acceptance is not seen in them. 
 As the sprinkling of typical blood, under the old 
 economy, and the washing of typical water, ranctified 
 to the purifying of the flesh, so the better blood and 
 purer water of the Gospel purified the conscience and 
 washed the spiritual body of the sacrirtco. In this 
 sense sanctification is one with justification ; they meet 
 and go together for a season, before they widely sepa- 
 rate. The soul that is justified in the court media- 
 torial is sanctified before the altar in the temple. Now, 
 this sanctification is always entire, as justification is 
 always complete. " By one offering He hath perfected 
 forever them that are sanctified." 
 
 In another sense, too, believers may be said to be 
 entirely sanctified. They are presented to God upon 
 an altar that makes everything holy that touches it, 
 and thus they are set apart, consecrated and devoted 
 to the service of God. The seal impressed on Chris- 
 tians marks them out as the Lord's. They are His 
 whose Spirit they receive. Now, that consecration to 
 God must be iu a certain sense absolute, if it exist at 
 all. The offering must be either on the altar or not on 
 the altar. But this is not the sanctification indicated 
 by Paul. The oblation placed on the altar is entirely 
 destined for God, and therefore is and must be wholly 
 dedicated to God ; but it has yet to go up to heaven in 
 the consuming fire as a whole burnt offering. 
 
 The entire sanctification mentioned in the text is 
 
 
128 
 
 SEUMONS OK Tllte (^HKISTIAN MPE. 
 
 I ii 
 
 f ^ 
 
 til 
 
 expressed in two ways : it is the consecration of the 
 whole person or being of the Christian, and the pre- 
 servation of the same whole person in a state of blame- 
 lessness till the coming of Christ. But that term con- 
 secration is to be regarded in a higher sense than the 
 mere total dedication of our powers to God. That is, 
 indeed, included. The believer freely, voluntarily 
 dedicates himself wholly to God, and then God wholly 
 consecrates that which has been presented. God 
 sanctified in the olden times by washings and purify - 
 ings, and now God consecrates us to Himself by pouring 
 into our whole being the light of His truth and the 
 grace of His Spirit, purifying us in every part. It is 
 the function, act, and energy of the Holy Ghost — " The 
 very God of peace sanctify you wholly," etc. The 
 work is one of divine power — " He will do it." Now, 
 this separates our sanctification from any disciplinary 
 self -consecration which man by his own power can 
 effect. It is not the result of a new direction or 
 impetus given to our faculties ; it is through no energy 
 of the self-consecrating will, through no mighty out- 
 goings of the regenerate feeling. There is a power 
 above and behind all these, using them, indeed, each 
 and all, but not leaving the receiving of holiness to 
 them. It is not the moral agent recovering himself 
 by divine aid, but a new and more abundant life in- 
 fused, and sustained, and brought to perfection within 
 man's own heart, but by a power above it. The sanc- 
 tifying power of God pervades man's whole being, 
 extends to all the elements of his nature — " the whole " 
 — and it sanctifies them " wholly," as belonging to one 
 indivisible person. 
 
 Bi i 
 
Entire sanctipication. 
 
 129 
 
 I 
 
 Mark now how Paul speaks of this whole bein«( 
 sanctified. He refers to that great trinity of powers 
 in man — body, soul and spirit — which link him so 
 wondrously with three different worlds. It may be 
 that there is some deep hidden connection in the work 
 of sanctification between the Trinity in God and the 
 trinity of powers in man ; but a consideration of this 
 would not be appropriate to-day. The whole man, 
 however, is sanctified. The body is sanctified. Not 
 that it is crushed, but used solely for the glory of God. 
 In that sancuified body, pleasure and pain, the glad 
 consciousness of strength, the strong efforts of labor, 
 the bounding joy of spring mornings and the solemn 
 awe of autumn evenings — all these are regarded, not 
 as carnal or worldly, but els the holy gifts of our Father, 
 used sacredly as under His eye. And the soul is sanc- 
 tified. The soul in Scriptural prayer, when mentioned 
 apart from the spirit, comes between the higher and 
 lower elements of our being. Paul means by it the 
 powers that are merely natural, in contrast with the 
 powers that are spiritual. It is the sphere of the 
 desires and passions — the passions of ambition and 
 gain, the affections for home and kindred and country 
 by which we are bound to the sorrowing, rejoicing, 
 toiling world around us. Those passions and desires, 
 4nnocent in themselves, are transformed by sin into 
 sinful affections and lust; but they are restored to 
 innocence by being brought under the control of the 
 Holy Ghost, through the will refusing them their 
 unholy stimulants in the world. And the spirit is 
 sanctified. The spirit of man is that element of his 
 
130 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 4 
 
 I '1 
 
 II I 
 
 nature which makes his proud distinction. In that he 
 is only a little lower than the anj^els. There is the 
 seal of the divine image in man — an image that may 
 be nmrred, but never can be lost. Meanwhile, in the 
 sanctified man that spirit is wholly consecrated to God. 
 The reason is filled with truth, and becomes a mirror 
 capable of reflecting the divine image — an eye that 
 can in everything see God. The conscience is sanctified 
 unto perfect fidelity as an eternal legislator, true to 
 the truth ; and the will is sanctified as the servant of 
 its own choice and the master of its own acts — sancti- 
 fied by release from unholy motives, and by the con- 
 stant influence of the truth applied by the Holy Spirit. 
 Such is the sanctification of the whole man. True, we 
 cannot claim for this an absolute character. Sufferers 
 from the fall, inheriting a body that is frail, a judg- 
 ment that is weak, and that unconsciously sometimes, 
 though, ever affects our actions, absolute perfection 
 may not be expected yet ; that can only be when man 
 is glorified ; but now a man may be wholly sanctified 
 — sanctified to God — so that in all the walks of life, 
 in all the business of the world, and amid the troubles 
 and temptations that crowd his path he can look up in 
 adoring confidence, and appeal, " Lord, Thou knowest 
 I love Thee," and though there be in me infirmities, yet 
 with all the powers I possess I consciously serve Thee, 
 and perfectly love Thy holy name. Brethren, the 
 entire sanctification of body, soul and spirit is our 
 great necessity and duty. Men have often tried to 
 purify their outward life alone, leaving the soul 
 unguarded and the spirit unsurrendered, and then the 
 
 
ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION. 
 
 i:U 
 
 secret sins of pride and imaf^ination break out at last 
 into open acts, and wreck their outward purity. Men 
 have left the spirit unconsecrated, leavin<r the soul and 
 body unguarded, or only partly oruarded. Peter tried 
 that. He had subdued the bodily fear of death ; he 
 had nerved his soul to meet scorn and shame, and 
 declared himself ready for Christ to die ; but, alas ! 
 before the first temptation he fell. Men have tried to 
 hallow the spirit, only they have endeavored to keep 
 their higher life apart and separate, as too holy to do 
 their daily work, and the result has been dishonesty, 
 fraud and hypocrisy. No; we must be consecrated in 
 all our powers, in all aspirations, in all prosperities, in 
 all adversities, in all labor, in all worship, in all 
 thought, in all speech — in body, soul and spirit. 
 
 And now, supposing the believer to have wholly 
 dedicated himself to God, and supposing God to have 
 wholly sanctified that offiering, so that at this moment 
 body, and soul, and spirit are holy, is It possible to 
 carry this into our experience ? Is it possible to con- 
 tinue in such a state ? Mark the apostle's teaching, 
 " I pray God that your whole spirit and soul and 
 body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ." Entire sanctification is con- 
 firmed, habitual, uninterrupted devotion of the whole 
 being to God. God is to preserve the continuing, 
 believing soul. As the power that created the world 
 sustains it by an abiding omnipresent energy, so the 
 power that can fix the whole strength of the soul 
 upon God, can keep it fixed on Him. In the wholly 
 sanctified soul, establishing grace reigns The differ- 
 
f 
 
 I 
 
 i: 
 
 132 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 i ' i 
 
 ence betwaen the wholly and the partially sanctified 
 is, that in the one there is permanent devotion to God, 
 while in the other it is more or less wavering. You 
 have often expericixced a strong influence of ^rsLce 
 descending in answer to prayer, that has carried the 
 whole soul to God for a season, stilling every alien 
 feeling within you. It was the prayer of faith that 
 brought that blessing, and when that prayer of faith 
 becomes unceasing, the act of intense devotion settles 
 down into the constant tranquil state of the soul. 
 My brethren, this is what we want ; and our piety will 
 be more or less defective until we gain it. And surely 
 it is the want of that entire sanctification to God of 
 body, soul and spirit, that accounts for a Christian 
 life, full of varying experiences, of sinning and repent- 
 ing, of memory of holy communings broken off by 
 sudden risings of passion, and anger, and resentment. 
 But again, while entire sanctification is habitual 
 communion with God, as the supreme good of the soul, 
 it is the habitual reference of every act to the g'ory 
 of God. While faith fills the soul, it is faith that 
 works by love. Love makes the man who is con- 
 tinually sanctifying God in the temple of his heart, a 
 never-wearying servant of God in the activities of his 
 life. Life has no higher perfection than this, every- 
 thing done with a conscious aim to glorify God, Oh, 
 dear brethren, it is here that many of us fail. That 
 is a beautiful idea embodied in Zech. xiv. 20, 2L 
 Holiness in common things, common works and words, 
 eating and drinking, sleeping and waking ; holiness 
 in the shop and market-place, in buying and selling, 
 
 » 1 
 
 ^-i 
 
ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION. 
 
 133 
 
 in journeying and resting; holiness in the railway 
 carriage and on the highway ; holiness in our reading, 
 and conversation and letter-writing ; holiness in our 
 mirth, our feasts, and in our ordinary intercourse. 
 Many seem to forget i-hat a holy life is exemplified by 
 common duties more than anything else. A truly 
 holy life is a common life sanctified. " Were I a 
 minister," says one, " with nothing to do but with 
 religious subjects and acts, it would be well." Or, they 
 say, " If I had more time to spare, I could glorify God 
 more." No ; a life of leisure is not as easily managed 
 as some think ; self comes in, irregularities come in, 
 efforts are desultory. Holiness in obedience to " Six 
 days shalt thou labor," as to " Remember the Sabbath 
 day to keep it holy." The little things of life are to 
 be attended to. In these. Adam served God when he 
 tilled the ground; Abel, when he kept sheep; Amos, 
 when he gathered sycamore fruit ; Joseph, when he 
 wrought as a tradesman ; Paul, when he made tents. 
 It is thus that we are to glorify God, inscribing " Holi- 
 ness unto the Lord " on everything we do. It is easy 
 to hang up a text in our chamber, but let our words 
 and deeds be a continual vecognition of the Lord our 
 God. Let us make ourselves the texts. Refjulate 
 your house so that it shall speak of God. It is not at 
 family worship or in asking a blessing alone, that 
 God is to be seen. Let Him be everywhere seen and 
 felt. 
 
 Turning to the text again, there is another thought. 
 This state of entire consecration is preserved in 
 " blamelessness"— literally " unblameworthy." That is, 
 

 134 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 no blame is imputed — to them thy life a life free from 
 venom or voluntary sin. The wholly sanctified are pre- 
 served blameless by virtue of the atoning death and 
 blood on which they evermore rely, and hence it said 
 they shall be unblamable at the coming of Christ. 
 This coming of Christ is an argument used by the apos- 
 tle in favor of entire sanctification. Because that day 
 is coming, the day of purity and manifestation. Keep 
 the body, soul and spirit pure — the body, Uiao it may 
 shine out glorified in that day ; the soul, that its pure 
 powers may be able to perceive the truth and light of 
 that day ; the spirit, that it may be able to commune 
 with the eternal love when that day comes. 
 
 And, lest any trembling soul should despair of reach- 
 ing this exalted life, the apostle closes with the great 
 encouragement, " Faithful is He that calleth you, who 
 also will do it." It is not simply that God is mighty, 
 and will achieve the full sanctification of His saints — 
 " He is faithful who has promised, who also will do it." 
 And that word 'faithful' takes us back to His covenant 
 and His promise ; and that covenant says, and that 
 promise is : "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, f.ad 
 ye shall be clean ; from all your filthiness and from all 
 your idols will I cleanse you." 
 
 And now, my dear brethren, I have endeavoured 
 to bring before you this great doctrine, and in clos- 
 ing I would strongly urge you this morning to make 
 an entire consecration to God. I urge it, because it is 
 right. We belong to God, we live at His expense, we 
 are His purchased possession. He bought us with a 
 price; and, oh, what a price ! What can be more reason- 
 
*l 
 
 ENTIRE SANCTI FIC ATION. 
 
 135 
 
 able than that we should live, "not unto ourselves, 
 but unto Him that loved us, and f^ave Himself for us." 
 I urge it, because it is the best use we can make of our 
 powers. It is not only right, but it is wise. To live 
 with any other intent, to any other purpose, is to 
 prostitute our powers to all that is calamitous to self 
 and to others, with reference both to time and to eter- 
 nity. Entire consecration is the devotion of our powers 
 to the highest and holiest of all purposes, it is to make 
 them productive of the greatest good. God requires 
 nothing more of us than He has done and purposes to 
 do for us. He gave his Son to suffering service and 
 death for us. He kept back no part of the price. He 
 drank the cup to its uttermost dregs, and for the future 
 He offers all that it is possible for heaven to bestow. 
 If we will but become His people, He will become our 
 God. Father, Son and Holy Ghost, all things become 
 ours. " May the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, 
 and I pray God that your whole spirit and soul and 
 body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 'hi 
 
IX. 
 
 }ii' - • 
 
 i; • I 
 
 PI 
 
 U ■; r 
 
 ::.;;!: 
 
 THE UNFOLDING LIFE. 
 
 *' For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is 
 named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His 
 glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner 
 man."— Eph. iii, 14-16. 
 
 IN this epistle the apostle gives his readers many 
 earnest exhortations looking to the development 
 and confirmation of their Christian character. But 
 the sublime prayer which we are to study this morn- 
 inc: is itself both exhortation and encouraijement. And 
 what Paul prayed for on behalf of these brethren 
 should represent both the prayer of a pastor and the 
 endeavor of his flock. 
 
 The prayer is addressed to the " Father of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and 
 earth is named." " There is one God and Father of all, 
 who is above all, and through all, and in you all." The 
 whole family of God ir-^ansall His children, no matter 
 where they are — shining forth with distinction among 
 the white-robed hierarchies of the sky, or treading with 
 sorrowful hearts the rough places of the earth. No 
 matter to what nation they belong — Jews or Gentiles, 
 dwellers in the frozen north or sunny south, they all 
 have one name, and one Redeemer, and one common 
 parentage. There are many congregations and many 
 
THE UNFOLDING LIFE. 
 
 137 
 
 denominations but there is but one family. Those 
 who are in heaven have not left the household ; and 
 here Christ the Elder Brother appeals to God the 
 Father to bless His children, not according to their 
 merits, but according to His own riches, His own 
 wealth, " according to the riches of His glory " — that is 
 an unknown quantity, unsearchable riches. Ask the 
 seraphim who hover near His throne, who have dwelt 
 with Him through cycles which we cannot number, 
 who with keen eye have watched His outgoings and 
 with giant intellect have pondered His ways ; ask them 
 for an idea of the riches of His glory, and they 
 reply, we have ever desired to look into these things, 
 but we cannot fathom them. Ask righteous Abel, who 
 cl^.ve the clouds and entered into lieaven when earth 
 was young ; ask the great cloud of witnesses who 
 encircle the throne rejoicing, and they will tell you 
 that they have but reached the porch, while the great 
 temple is unexplored. " That He would grant you 
 according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened 
 with might by His Spirit in the inner man." I shall 
 ask you now to consider these four things contained 
 in the text : 
 
 I. Spiritual strength. 
 
 n. The indwelling of Christ. 
 
 HI. The comprehension of love. 
 
 IV. The crown of all, the fulness of God. 
 
 I. " To be strengthened with might by His Spirit in 
 the inner man." Observe the seat of this strength — " in 
 10 
 
 •11 
 
138 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 the inner man." We may rightly ask and endeavor 
 earnestly to get both bodily and mental strength. 
 While some of the men who have been physically the 
 weakest, the sickliest, have been men of towering 
 genius, and who, by their inventions and productions 
 shall be embalmed forever in the world's memory, yet 
 amongst earth's most valuable possessions is a strong 
 mind in a strong body. You men and women of sound 
 constitutions and unbroken health don't know what 
 misery you have escaped, and what blessings you are 
 dowered with. But bodily and mental strength are not 
 the most important things. We need above all things 
 to be strong in the inner man, to be strong in char- 
 acter. Power of intellect, feeling and will in the direc- 
 tion of God ; strength to know, to feel, and to do the 
 things which God has declared to be our duty. Strong 
 characters are the demand and the need of the times. 
 And character is a thing of the heart. " As a man 
 thiuKeth in his heart so is he." Christian character is 
 not an outside show of glittering practice or lofty pro- 
 fession. It is strength of will to resist temptation ; 
 strength of sympathj^ to relieve the oppressed ; strength 
 of love to encircle the lost. It is the man standint; 
 unmoved by the bribes of Satan, unseduced by the 
 allurements of ungodliness, unfaltering amidst the fiery 
 darts of the wicked one. Strength in the inner man. 
 2. The source of this strength. " By His Spirit." I 
 have spoken of the strength of will, and there is a 
 great deal in that. You have known individuals who 
 by an energy of will-power, of pluck and determination, 
 have overcome diflficulties that would have crushed 
 
 ■4 
 I 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
1 
 
 THE UNFOLDING FIFE. 
 
 139 
 
 I 
 
 others, and endured pain that would have killed others, 
 and worked out success that would never have baen 
 reached by others. And there is a j^reat deal in hope 
 and the inspiration that comes from the attainment of 
 some cherished object, to sustain and nerve a man. 
 During the Prussian war, one day, the surgeon said to 
 the general, " Thtse troops can't match any farther, 
 they are so foot-sore they must go into the hospital." 
 And the general said, " Let me talk to them." Said he, 
 '' Soldiers, I am going to-day to uiarch right up to Paris, 
 and take the city. Let every man that wants to share 
 in the glory follow me." And, with a shout like 
 thunder, the poor foot-sore legions bounded forward ; 
 and, though torn and bleeding, rested not till Paris 
 was in German hands. But moral and spiritual courrge 
 requires a divine inspiration. For the strange fact is, 
 that often he who would without a tremor march to the 
 cannon's mouth will cower before a laugh. Our help 
 in moral conflict must be divine. He who relies upon 
 himself in the hour of spiritual trial will be the victim 
 of defeat. The believer is strengthened by God's Spirit 
 in the inner man. " Ye shall be kept by the power of 
 God." Greater is He that is in you than all that can 
 be against you." The Spirit dwells within, and is the 
 shield ami buckler of God's people. 
 
 3. Then further, you will note the degree of this 
 spiritual strength, strengthened with might. The new 
 version reads, " strengthened with power through the 
 Spirit." The idea is, powerfully strengthened, abun- 
 dantly strengthened to bear trials, to perform duties, 
 to glorify His name. Strength not in small measure, 
 
 1, 
 
'■1^ 
 
 140 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 •it 
 
 ■;& ■ 
 
 ■■■) 
 
 At 
 
 but in great. It is not simply for the breath of the 
 Spirit to touch us, but that He may come over and 
 upon us in power. When was Samson strong ? When 
 the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. With that en- 
 duement, every believer will be a spiritual Samson ; 
 without it, we are Samson shorn of his locks. Power- 
 fully strengthened by the Spirit of God, the Church 
 will be an all-conquering host ; without it, she may 
 preach like a Chrysostom, sing like an archangel, dwell 
 in a palace of gold ; but her services will be barren of 
 results, and from her gorgeous trappings men will go 
 down to perdition. But with the baptism of the Spirit 
 on her brow and the power of the Spirit in her heart, 
 she shall be a Moses standing with uplifted arms, while 
 before her enemies flee away. May the good Lord 
 grant unto us " according to the riches of His glory, to 
 be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner 
 man." 
 
 II. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. 
 First, He dwells in believers as a personal presence. 
 When faith embraces a living Saviour, he becomes 
 more than a thought or fancy. To the critic, cold and 
 sceptical, Christ is but a thought, a problem. To the 
 indifferent believer. He is a far-off, unsubstantial idea. 
 But to the real believer He is a personal presence. 
 Christ is nearer us than our most intimate friends. " I 
 live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." There are 
 two " me's " in every man ; an outer and an inner me. 
 The inner one is that central essence which resides, as it 
 were, within all the faculties and moves them all. It 
 
 
 S 
 
I 
 
 THE UNFOLDING LIFE. 
 
 141 
 
 1 
 
 is the me that I know. The outer is the me that you 
 know, that you see, approve or condemn. Now it is 
 this me, this glorious body, this grand mind ; this 
 glowing, beating heart ; this throbbing, electric con- 
 science ; this outer me, which Paul means when he says, 
 "Christ liveth in me." The man in whom He lives says : 
 "You know my former life. It was I who lived then. 
 It was my ideas, my wishes, my tastes which made me 
 then. But it's not so now. I have seen Christ, I have 
 been with Him; and in addition to being my friend out- 
 side of me with whom I can converse, He is also a 
 living system of truths, a living revelation of divine 
 ideas. Truth has laid hold of me by Him ; eternity 
 touches me by Him ; hope fills me from Him ; holi- 
 ness begins to suftuse me from Him. He is all in all 
 to me. I live, but still it is not I, it is Christ that liveth 
 in me." Second, this presence of Jesus is an abiding 
 presence. He is not an occasional visitor, but a con- 
 stant guest — a resident. He dwells in the heart, and 
 where He dwells there is constancy of religious life. 
 Oh ! there is so much fitful piety, now flaming with 
 zeal and now freezing with cold ; now in ecstacy and 
 now in dull, dead lethargy. We want an abiding Christ; 
 a settled, fixed, stable principle, divine. Third, this is 
 a sin-expelling presence. Dr. Chalmers has a fine ser- 
 mon on the expulsive power of a new affection. It is 
 love expelling all its opposition. It is not light wrap- 
 ping up and concealing darkness, it is light driving the 
 darkness out. Can two walk together unless they be 
 agreed, and is Christ and sin in agreement ; are 
 Christ and Belial in a covenant ; do righteousness and 
 
 : ' 1' 
 
 I 
 
• ^ :; 
 
 ra 
 
 142 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 nnrightecusness accord ; can they dwell together in 
 fellowship ; is the heart a sort of geological cage where 
 all types of hearts can dwell in peace ? No, Christ 
 comes to my heart to purify it, to cleanse it, to lay the 
 axe at the root of the tree, not to lop otf a few branches 
 and beautify it by changing its shape, but to pull it 
 up root and branch. great salvation ! 
 
 " Rejoice in hope, rejoice with me, 
 We shall from all our sins be free." 
 
 ti 
 
 I . 
 
 And this leads me to say in the fourth place, 
 that the presence of Christ is a hope-giving presence. 
 " Christ in you the hope of glory" is the language of 
 the apostle everywhere. Dwelling in the heart. He 
 constantly reminds us of our immortality, and tells us of 
 the place He lias gone to prepare. And there is no 
 firm hope but this, all else guesses and vanities. 
 But by Him despair is banished and victory is won. 
 "The hope of glory!" What is its centre? "We 
 know that we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him 
 as He is." That is it — to be like Him and see Him as 
 He is. That hope has cheered in all ages the lonely 
 pilgrim's heart, and is it any wonder that it should ? 
 H' the plant struggles upward to the light, if the 
 mountain river cuts its way through rocks and forest 
 and plain, until it has reached the sea ; nay, if the 
 whole race groaneth and travaileth in pain together 
 until now, longing for a good which it does not dis- 
 tinctly see, shall not believers for whom that good has 
 taken an obvious form, derive its full realization ? And 
 it shall be realized. Christ's presence now is the ear- 
 
 !! 
 
1 
 
 THK UNKC)M)IN<J MFK. 
 
 143 
 
 nest of it. " Blessed be the God and Father of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spirit- 
 ual blessings. 
 
 III. The comprehension of love 
 
 You see how the text enlarges and expands. St. 
 Paul's soul, laboring in prayer, soars higher and higher. 
 His tongue is touched with the live coal, and he prays 
 " that He would grant you according to the riches of 
 His glory, to be strongthened with might by His Spirit 
 in the inner man." Love is now the theme in its best 
 and noblest phases. Love is the first commandment, 
 " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart 
 and soul and strength." Love is the second, " Thou 
 shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Do you speak 
 of knowledge ; it comes through love of faith; it works 
 by love of obedience ; it is prompted by love of the 
 purity of heavenly robes ; it is love of the harmony of 
 music that tills eternal spheres ; it is lov.; of the light 
 that glitters on the throne ; it is love of the bond that 
 unites the whole family on earth and in heaven ; it is 
 the bond of love. Now, listen to the apostle's prayer, 
 " That ye, being rooted and grounded in love." " I 
 seem to see," says one, " that grand old oak ; what a 
 massive stem, girt with a mass of branches, holding up 
 a forest of verdure. What generations have rested 
 under its shadow, and what generations have been 
 carried past it to the churchyard ? How often has 
 the storm visited it, and the tempest wrestled with it? 
 But there it remains, and there it will remain unmoved, 
 because it is binding at the reservoirs and streams 
 
 
144 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHUISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 
 li 
 
 under the earth. May you be so rooted and grounded 
 in love — for thus grounded in Christ — sending your 
 roots of faith down to the very heart of the Eternal, 
 you may be able to comprehend, with all saints, what 
 is the length, and breadth, and depth, and height, and 
 i low the love of God which passeth knowledge. Oh, 
 1 the measuring line of Zechariah's angel, that we 
 might get some idea of the measurements of love, that 
 we may be able to comprehend the breadth ! How 
 vast the field for which love is designed, and for which 
 it provides. God loves all mankind. Go to the heart 
 of Africa ; you shall find it there. Go to the islands 
 of the sea ; you shall find it there. Go to the millions 
 of China ; you shall find it there. Go to the Arctic 
 circle ; you shall find it there. Go to the torrid zone ; 
 you shall find it there. Love that knows no distinction 
 f ' ime, or race, or condition ; that scorns the narrow 
 o. Jaries of sects, of party and of churches — like His 
 own sun in the heavens, shining everywhere and upon 
 all, so that we can say to any individual upon earth, 
 " God loveth thee, and Christ died for thee." 
 
 " That we may be able to comprehend the length." 
 What is the duration of love ? It is not a thingf of 
 to-day, suddenly conceived, and that may suddenly be 
 laid aside. It is from eternity, and has its birth before 
 the foundations of the earth were laid. And if you 
 look forward you shall never see its end, for it is to 
 everlasting. It shall go with you through the whole 
 of your journey. You shall find it when you reach the 
 river's bank ; it shall sustain you when all other solaces 
 fail, and when ages after ages have passed away in 
 heaven, that love shall still endure. 
 
 
 :-^i! 
 
THE UNFOLDING Lli'E. 
 
 145 
 
 " That we may be able to comprehend the depth." 
 How low has God come witn that wonderful love of 
 His ? That poor drunkard, that prostitute, that cul- 
 prit in his cell ; it comes to these : How deep His 
 love? But shall 1 gauf^e it thus? Perhaps, as God 
 measures depth of guilt, some here may be lower than 
 the classes I have named. That culprit, it may be, 
 was brought up to lie, and beg, and steal. His home, 
 if home it could be called, was reeking with the fetid 
 atmosphere of knavery. That prostitute, it may be, 
 was the victim of a devil inhuman form who betrayed 
 her into sin, and then society cast her out to herd with 
 criminals. That drunkard, it may be, learned to drink 
 at his father's table, and went out from home cursed 
 with a thirst for alcohol. But you are respectable, 
 sober, chaste, kind-hearted, honest. But Christ has 
 been knocking at your heart, and you have said, " I 
 will not let 'Himin." How low you have sunk in 
 God's estimation, since you have spurned the presence 
 of His Son ; and yet to you, whose sin is heightened 
 by your intelligence and respectability, is the word of 
 this salvation sent. 
 
 " That we may be able to comprehend the height." 
 Where is the ba.se of the Almighty's throne? How far 
 above the suns and systems sit the white-robed con- 
 querors ? In what lofty palaces do the glorified abide ? 
 For in the same height of glory to which Christ has 
 gone, to the same height as that throne on which He 
 reigns, to that height of glory He purposes to bring us 
 — a height at which there can be no sin, a height 
 from which every step may be a stepping-stone to 
 
^ 
 
 146 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN MFE. 
 
 
 IM 
 
 'ii ( 
 
 m 
 f 
 
 i 
 
 ! 
 
 m 
 
 ^:1 
 
 J ' 
 
 higher glories. As the lark soars and sings, and sings 
 and soars, so shall we ; but not as the lark, which soars 
 aloft but always comes back to earth again. 
 
 " And to know the love of Christ." Not to read 
 about it simply, but to know it — to know it as a life, 
 as an experience — to have it shed abroad in the heart 
 by the Holy Ghost ; to be tilled with it, for that is to 
 be filled with all the fulness of God, to walk with God, 
 to commune with God, to be partakers of His divine 
 nature. To know the love of Christ, my brethren, a 
 mere speculative or theoretical knowledge of Christ 
 will not do. It cannot meet the needs of your being. 
 It may answer for a life of morality, for a voyage over 
 life's seas which has no severe tempests, if mortal ever 
 had such a voyage; but when in some mighty struggle 
 with the elements, our vessel begins to fill, or when, 
 like Mary and Martha at the grave of Lazarus, we 
 commit from our household a cherished form to the 
 cold keeping of the earth, then we shall need such a 
 knowledga of Christ as shall enable us to say, '• I 
 know whom 1 have believed, and am persuaded that 
 He is able to keep that which I have committed unto 
 Him." Your worldly and speculative creed may do 
 for life ; but when you go down into the valley of 
 the shadow of dep.th, you will want a strong arm 
 put beneath you, you will want to be borne through 
 the cold waters of death leaning upon the bosom of an 
 Almighty Redeemer. And when you rise from the 
 yielding tomb in the day of His appearing, you will 
 want the Mightiest Advocate with the Father which 
 the universe can afford. You will want pleadings 
 
 Kfl 
 
THE UNFOLDING LIFE. 
 
 147 
 
 which only the God-man, pained and bruised for our 
 sakeS; can make, that ye may know the love of Christ 
 which passeth knowledge. No mere paradise this. 
 Too great for human thought to measure, it may be 
 known in the humble, believing heart. The philoso- 
 pher does not fully understand the source an<l power 
 of the sun's light and heat, but a child may know that 
 the sun shines, and warm himself in its beams. Is 
 that infatuation ? Is that fanaticism ? Has not Paul 
 been carried away by his enthusiasm ? Listen : " Now, 
 unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly, 
 above all that we can ask or think, according to the 
 power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the 
 Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world 
 without end ; Amen." Oh, let us this morning pray 
 this prayer ; let us open our hearts to receive the 
 answer. Let us do so now. 
 
 
< n 
 
 X. 
 
 THE STAR. 
 
 
 "And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding 
 great joy." — Matt. ii. 10. 
 
 'ijl' i ' 
 
 1 '; : 
 
 i 
 
 SPECULATION has been busy about the wise men 
 from the East mentioned in this chapter, and 
 about the star which led them to Bethlehem. Just 
 what the Magi were — priests or astronomers — and 
 from what particular locality they came — Persia, 
 Arabia, or Mesopotamia — we do not with certainty 
 know. Neither can anything positive be stated 
 about the celestial luminary which they so devoutly 
 followed. Some suppose it was a comet, some a special 
 meteor obeying special laws. Kepler, the great astro- 
 nomer, was led by his calculations to the conclusion 
 that it was a strange conjunction of the three planets, 
 Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, with another strange star, 
 such as has only occurred once since, in the year 1603. 
 Otliers believe it was a miraculous appearance in the 
 heavens in the form of a star. But all these are sup- 
 positions. It is called a star ; whether a natural or a 
 supernatural phenomenon I know not. It must have 
 been a star of peculiar brilliance and beauty, the star 
 of Bethlehem, an object of superior lustre distinguish- 
 ing it from all other constellations in the heavens. 
 
 ti 
 
 ■1 1 
 
THE STAR. 
 
 149 
 
 And this at once suggests the first lesson for our 
 thought to-day. 
 
 The pre-eminence of Jesus. 
 
 You see this pre-eminence first in the Bible, that 
 which distinguishes the Scriptures above all other 
 books is its one great central theme — Jesus. " Christ 
 is the back-bone of the Bible," said a converted pagan. 
 And some one else said, " The Scriptures are the 
 swaddling bands of the Holy Child Jesus." He is the 
 "Alpha and tlie Omega, the beginning and the end, the 
 first and the last." All within the book is written 
 concerning Him, and it is sealed without with seals, 
 and every seal bears the image and superscription of 
 the King's Son. In olden times, kings were accus- 
 tomed to send messages to one another by means of 
 running footmen, who carried in their hands lighted 
 torches, and these were met by other footmen who 
 were stationed at intervals, each one kindling his 
 torch at the expiring embers of the last, so that the 
 whole row, from one place to another, was one illumi- 
 nated avenue, one unbroken line of blazing torches. 
 Cast your eye along the avenue of Scripture : Genesis 
 gives you the seed of the woman, and Exodus the 
 Paschal Lamb, and Leviticus the sacrifices of the 
 tabernacle, and Numbers the cities of refuge, and 
 Deuteronomy the law with its forward look, and thus 
 on through Joshua and the Judges, and Ruth, and 
 the records of the Kings, and Job with his living 
 Redeemer, and David with his royal Son and heir, and 
 all the prophets with eyes peering into the future to 
 see His day, every page aglow with the radiance of 
 
.1 i 
 
 150 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 the Snn of Righteousness ; from book to book, from 
 despotism to despotism, until in the last chapter of 
 the last book of Scripture you see all dispensations 
 converge into one golden point, and light and life per- 
 fected and consummated in that temple of which it is 
 written, " There shall be no more curse, and there 
 shall be no night there," then lift up your eyes to the 
 central seat of all this glory, and again read the iirst 
 and the last letters in the alphabet of Scripture, "The 
 glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the 
 light thereof." Jesus is the star of the Bible. 
 
 2. He is pre-eminent in the Church. 
 
 The glory of the Bible is Christ ; the glory of the 
 Church is Christ. God hatli made Jesus to be head 
 over all things to His Church. A Bible without 
 Christ woula be a Bible without meaning, a light- 
 house without a liirht. And a church without Christ 
 would be a church without a foundation, and a candle- 
 stick without a lighted candle. What is God's chosen 
 symbol of the Church's true position ? Seven golden 
 candlesticks around a divine centre, from which the 
 lights emanate. Some glory in Paul, some in ApoUos, 
 some in Cephas ; others in types and shadows and 
 outward forms. Paul himself said, " God forbid that 
 I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." A church's glory is worth nothing if it be 
 not the rellected glory of Jesus Christ. The Church, 
 like the moon, shines in borrowed light ; and if we 
 borrow it from any other object than the Sun of 
 Righteousness, God beholds, if we do not, the eclipse 
 of our light and beauty. Christ only is a " light to 
 
 I 
 
THE STAR. 
 
 151 
 
 lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of His people 
 Israel." 
 
 3. He is pre-eminent in nature. 
 
 It is commonly supposed that the Magi were conver- 
 sant with certain Hebrew prophecies concerning the 
 Messiah, especially that of Balaam, in which it is pre- 
 dicted that a " Star shall come out of Jacob." If they 
 had known nothing of such prophecies, it is hardly 
 likely that the star which they saw would have led 
 them to Christ. As one has said, the " star had the 
 commentary of a revelation from God." Much of the 
 religious value of nature springs mainly from the com- 
 mentary of a revelation from God. If the one is the 
 picture, the other is the lamp that reveals it. I go out 
 into nature, I look at the hieroglyphics on earth and 
 sky, but cannot interpret thetn till God's Word helps 
 me. Without its kindly aid a thousand teachings in 
 leaf and grass and Hower and bird would never be 
 discerned. It is easy enough to boast of the religious 
 information afibrded by the material world, but are 
 they found out by those who are ignorant of the 
 inspired record ? There is a beautiful little poem of 
 Tennyson's in point here : 
 
 " Once in a golden hour, 
 I cast to earth a seed, 
 
 Up there came a flower, 
 The people said, a weed. 
 
 *' Then it grew so tall, 
 It wore a crown of light, 
 
 But thieves from o'er the wall 
 Stole the seed by night ; 
 
152 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 il'. 
 
 " Sowed it far and wide, 
 
 By every town and tower, 
 Till all the people cried, 
 
 Splendid is the flower. 
 
 " Read my little fable ; 
 
 He that runs m.ay read, 
 Most can raise the flower now, 
 
 For all have got the seed." 
 
 The Bible has sown the seed of thought, but men 
 will not acknowledge their indebtedness. And 
 then, on the other hand — for we must be fair in this 
 matter — while I will not say that education and science 
 add to the beauty of the star, yet they do help men to 
 see it. These Magi were men of science ; and so it 
 is still. Look at the art of printing. Think of the 
 Bible Society supplying copies of the Word of God at 
 the rate of six per minute. More nearly than any- 
 thing else does the printing-press resemble the " angel 
 having the everlasting Gospel." So of steam — 
 how quickly it conveys the missionary ; and the 
 telegraph — its dull, cold wires have flashed the news of 
 mercy to perishing sinners. I read some time ago of a 
 man in India who was seized with a fatal malady. 
 The prospect of death revealed his unfitness. No 
 Christian was near ; no missionary within many 
 miles. A message was sent to him by telegraph : 
 " What must I do to be saved ? " Soon after replies 
 came in the same silent way : " Believe on the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." " If we confess 
 our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, 
 and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." " He bore 
 our sins in His own body on the tree." 
 
THE STAR. 
 
 153 
 
 4. He is pre-eminent in the heart. 
 
 Jesus is the star of the Bible, the star of the Church, 
 the star of nature, and the star of the heart. Revela- 
 tion calls Him the " Morning Star." Who sees the 
 morning star, but the wakeful ; and who are the wake- 
 ful, but the watchers, they that watch for the morning ? 
 And what prompts to watchfulness ? Love does. And 
 where do we look for love, all sensitively glowing and 
 keenly watchful ? Why, in the expectant and waiting 
 Bride. And what thus rules the heart ? It is the scep- 
 tre of love. " There shall come a star out of Jacob and 
 a sceptre out of Israel." The star and the sceptre 
 must go t gether ; the one to attract the heart, the 
 other to rule it. The sceptre thus crowned and the 
 crown thus sceptred, will turn away our eyes from 
 beholding vanity and keep our hearts from going 
 to sleep. And concerning every such faithful one, the 
 Saviour says, " I will give him the morning star." 
 And surely the fulfilment of this promise will be the 
 consummation of the Church's yearnings and the final 
 answer of her prayers, the divine Bridegroom will give 
 Himself. Even so, come, Lord Jesus, that where Thou 
 art we may be also ; that lifted up from the world's 
 dark night, we may shine with Thee in the kingdom 
 of Thy Father, when Thou shalt come to usher in the 
 " morning without clouds." All that the heart loners 
 for centres in Jesus. What Peter says about the 
 Scripture may be said of Him. " We have also a more 
 sure word of prophecy ; whereunto ye do well that 
 ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark 
 place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your 
 11 
 
 mtM 
 
if. 
 
 154 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHllISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 iji 
 
 hearts." " A lij^ht that shineth in a dark place." How 
 truly aescriptive of Christ that is. The heart wanted 
 to know the divine character, and Christ lets light 
 shine on it. ' The world by wisdom," etc. Clouds and 
 darkness were round about his moral glories. But 
 Christ dispelled the darkness. The glory of God, like 
 a mild and lustrous star, shines in the face of Jesus 
 Christ — the light of love. And the heart wants light 
 to shine on the dark ocean of our being ; and Jesus 
 comes to do that, to reveal to us our dangers, the dark 
 depths of our sinfulness, the utter dis(jualitication of 
 a sinful nature for the presence of light and purity ; 
 to declare to us the only ground of our salvation, the 
 only path of safety ; to offer Himself as the Father's 
 great gift, heaven's life- boat to rescue the perishing 
 and save from fatal shipwreck. And then the heart 
 wanted light to shine upon the future, and Christ did 
 that. He brought life and immortality to light 
 through His Gospel. What a beautiful immortality ! 
 " In my Father's house are many mansions, if it were 
 not so I would have told you." " T go to prepare a 
 place for you." " Absent from the body, present with 
 the Lord." " Sown in corruption ; raised in incorrup- 
 tion." An artist once drew a picture. It represented a 
 night scene. A man is rowing a little skitf across a lake, 
 the wind is high and stormy ; the billows, white and 
 crested, rage round his frail bark ; and not a star save 
 one, shines through the angry sky. But on that lone 
 star the voyager fixes his eye, and keeps rowing away, 
 on, on, on through the midnight storm. And written 
 beneath the picture were these words : " If I ' )se that, 
 I'm lost !" You are that lonely voyager on life's rough 
 
 % 
 
 s 
 
THE STAR. 
 
 155 
 
 How 
 
 vanted 
 light 
 is and 
 But 
 I. like 
 Jesus 
 light 
 Jesus 
 e dark 
 ion of 
 urity ; 
 m, the 
 ather's 
 
 sea. Sin is the dark rock that threatens your ruin. 
 Jesus is your soul's pole-star — a light that shineth in a 
 dark place — your only light. If you lose that, you 
 are lost. Steer by it, and by-and-by you will be 
 safely landed on the golden shore. 
 
 5. Jesus is pre-eminent as the object of faith. 
 
 The faith of these wise men, like its object, was illus- 
 trious. They had to encounter difficulties in the pur- 
 suit of their object. There were geographical difficul- 
 ties. The path through which they journeyed was 
 beset by dangers, and infested with robbers. There 
 were intellectual difficulties. A considerable degree of 
 uncertainty attended their mission, and careful in- 
 quiries had to be made as to the precise time and 
 locality of the Saviour's birth. Yet, in spite of these 
 difficulties, oheir faith was strong. Were they living 
 in our day, they would laugh at the objections which 
 so-called wise men raise against the Bible. They were 
 probably rich men as well as wise, men of rank and 
 renown. If so, their conduct was a sublime commen- 
 tary on the words of Jeremiah : " Let not the wise man 
 glory in his wisdom ; neither let the mighty man glory 
 in his might ; let not the rich man glory in his riches." 
 Had they given themselves to some mission of vain 
 fancies, wild and extravagant theories, they would 
 have labored in vain, and spent their strength for 
 naught. Or had they occupied their attention with 
 some terrestrial instead of celestial object, looking 
 downward instead of upward, they might have lost 
 their guide, and returned home with shame and dis- 
 appointment. But their interest and gaze were con- 
 
 lii 
 
 h 
 
 !fl 
 
 ^^m. 
 
'F, 
 
 k 
 
 156 
 
 SERMONS OS THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 •l\ 
 
 >\ ') 
 
 1 '1 
 
 Mi f^ 
 
 centrated. One star of all the heavenly host could 
 fix their wondering eyes, and with a fjaze thus riveted 
 they illustrated the literal rendering, " Looking off uato 
 Jesus." 
 
 Lastly, Christ is pre-eminent as the source of joy. 
 
 Herod was troubled; the wise men "rejoiced." Rejec- 
 tion of Christ always brings trouble ; His reception 
 always brings joy. The text denotes an ecstasy of 
 joy. Like the joy of mariners after a tempestuous 
 voyage, like the joy of harvest after the husbandman's 
 fears are allayed, like the morning of joy after the 
 night of weeping. Everything about the advent of 
 Christ was joyful. Angels, Anna the prophetess, 
 Simeon, John the Baptist. Everything about the Gos- 
 pel is joyous. There was joy at Samaria when Philip 
 went down to that city and preached Christ. " There 
 was great joy in that city." When the eunuch believed 
 in Jesus, " he went on his way rejoicing." When the 
 Philippian jailer was converted, " he rejoiced, with all 
 his house, believing in God." Ours is an evangel of 
 gladness. The songs we sing to-day are songs of 
 triumph ; the hopes we entertain are lively hopes. 
 Christmas is always a glad season. Its blessed 
 memories, touched, though some of them may be, with 
 sadness, are yet more joyous than sad. The children 
 are all glad, and as we enter into their glee, and find 
 a pleasure In the joy of their young hearts as they 
 play with their toys, we grow young again. Oh, let 
 us be glad to-day ! 
 
 And let us worship to-day. " The wise men did 
 present unto Him gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh." 
 
 
ii" 
 
 u 
 
 XI. 
 
 lili 
 
 THE TRANSFIGURATION. 
 
 "Master, it is good for us to be here." — Mark ix. 5. 
 
 IN directing your attention to these words and the 
 marvellous scene with which they are identified, 
 we shall notice : 
 
 I. Reasons why it was good to be on the Mount of 
 Transfiguration. 
 
 II. Look at the instruction which the subject minis- 
 ters to us. 
 
 I. Reasons why it was good to be on the Mount of 
 Transfiguration. 
 
 1. Christ was there. To thegodless the thought of the 
 presence of Christ is irksome and unwelcome; it troubles 
 and rebukes him, tends to check him in his evil ways, and 
 to mar the pleasure of his most secret sins. But the 
 believer is drawn to Christ by all the tendencies of his 
 Christianized nature. He feels at home in all scenes and 
 services in which Christ makes Himself manifest. He 
 is ever seeking Jesus who was crucified, and when he 
 finds Him " his heart is glad, and his glory rejoiceth." 
 " The King brought me into His chamber ; I sat down 
 under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit 
 was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the ban- 
 
 ^ 
 
158 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 II 
 
 , 'I 
 
 A^ 
 
 queting house, and the banner over me was love." 
 Peter was on the top of a mount which, perhaps, 
 was bleak and cold ; but he was with Christ, and that 
 was enough. He had a heart to which Christ was all — 
 a heart to which the presence of Jesus would have con- 
 verted a Luz into a Beibv.!,. a dungeon into a palace ; 
 a heart which could conceive no higher anticipation 
 than being ever with the Lord — and therefore he could 
 speak, not only for himself but for his brethren, and 
 say, " It is good for us to be here." And not only was 
 Christ on the mount, but He was there in an extraor- 
 dinarv state. " He was transfiijured before them." He 
 was transformed — suddenly, miraculously transformed. 
 His person became luminous for the occasion. The 
 glory of His person burst tlirough His simple attire, 
 the essential glory of " the great God and our Saviour 
 Jesus Christ " broke through the veil which He hid 
 thrown over it in His state of humiliation, manifest- 
 ing Him to be " the Son of God, the brightness of His 
 glory, and the express image of His person." And not 
 only that, but there was the mediatorial glory of Christ 
 — the glory which was to follow His sufferings, and 
 into which He hath entered. There was given both to 
 Him and to the disciples a prelude and an earnest of 
 it, given no doubt to prepare them for the scenes of 
 unparalleled sufferings through which this glory was to 
 be reached. And if it be asked what was the appear- 
 ance of Christ upon the mount, perhaps the best 
 answer would be in the words of the first \ ision which 
 John had in Patmos of the Son of Man in His glory. 
 (Rev. i. 12-17.) Such was the glory into which 
 
THE TRANSPIGURATIOI^. 
 
 159 
 
 Christ was for a little transformed on the mount, and 
 no wonder Peter said, " It is ^ood for us to be here." 
 Was it good for Moses to hide in the cleft of the rock, 
 and see a part of the glory of God passing by; was it 
 good for David " to dwell in the house of the Lord, to 
 behold His beauty and to incjuire in His temple ?" Were 
 these holy men in such experiences as these brought to 
 the " gate of heaven?" I'eter, James and John, as it were 
 passed through the gate, and had for a moment a 
 glimpse of " the glory that shall be revealed" — a preli- 
 bation such as had never before in all respects been 
 enjoyed on earth, 
 
 2 Moses and Ellas were there. Moses, the founder 
 of the Jewish polity and the giver of the law ; and 
 Elijah, the restorer of the law, and the most zealous 
 reformer and prophet of its times. Moses, the typical 
 head of the legal dispensation ; and Elijah, the acknow- 
 ledged chief of the prophets, were on the mount to do 
 homage to Christ, and in the act show that the law 
 and the prophets gave witness to Him. They laid 
 down their commission at His feet, crying, " Hear 
 Him," declaring that Christ was the end of the former 
 systems now waxing old. All the influences of law and 
 all the influences of preceding history, met together in 
 the persons of Moses and Elias, to do honor to Christ. 
 Moses and Elias appeared, and they appeared in glory, 
 clad in the heavenly garb, fragrant with the spices of 
 the better country. They were human beings on earth, 
 with nothing earthly about them. Elijah appeared in 
 that body which flashed through all the changes meet 
 for heaven, the moment he stepped into the tiery 
 
 •1 
 
 .o. 
 
\ 
 
 160 
 
 SERMONS OJJ THE CHRISTIAN LiPE. 
 
 chariot ; and the body of Moses — brought from the val- 
 ley in the land of Moab expressly for this occasion, and 
 when the moments of rapture were passed, conveyed 
 back again over against Beth-peor — appeared, as it will 
 on the morning of the resurrection, when this mortal 
 shall put on immortality. And surely, next to fellow- 
 ship with Christ, it was good to hold communion with 
 Moses and Elias. To commune with them in this 
 representation of the Church in heaven and the Church 
 on earth, met in high congress for purposes so tran- 
 scendentally important, to witness them doing honor to 
 Jesus, not only as ransomed sinners, but as official men, 
 whose whole ministrv found in Him its substance and 
 end, and derived from Him its value and significance, 
 and to hear them talking of His decease. How 
 transporting ! 
 
 3. The cloud of glory was there. Matthew says : " A 
 bright cloud overshadowed them." It was the emblem 
 of the Divine presence which dwelt first in the taber- 
 nacle and after that in the temple. In the present 
 instance it was the symbol of the presence of God the 
 Father who came down and made this special manifes- 
 tation of Himself for the purpose of bearing testimony 
 to His Son. And it was a " bright cloud." We are 
 struck at once by the contrast between it and those 
 clouds symbolical of the olden covenant. They were 
 usually thick and dark, for the Lord said He would 
 dwell in thick darkness — fit emblems of the dispensa- 
 tion to which they belonged ; a dispensation of dark- 
 ness, terror and bondage, in which the God of Israel 
 was comparatively a " God that hid Himself." What a 
 
 I 
 
 II! 
 

 THE TRANSFIGUKATION. 
 
 161 
 
 grand passage is that in Hebrews, in which the apostle 
 contrasts the two dispensations: " Ye are not come unto 
 the mount that might be touched," etc. (Heb. xii. 18-22.) 
 Agreeably with this and as emblematical of it, the 
 cloud upon the Mount of Transfiguration was a cloud 
 without darkness, a cloud of light, pure and powerful, 
 and yet probably so soft and kindly that the eye could 
 repose on it with ease and delight. Fit emblem of 
 the Gospel dispensation, which is pre eminently a dis- 
 pensation of light .^nd liberty and joy, in which " The 
 only begotten which is in the bosom of the Father hath 
 declared Him," which is the ministration of the Spirit, 
 and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty, and 
 in which " We all with open face, beholding as in a 
 glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the 
 same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit 
 of the Lord." 
 
 4. The voice from the cloud was there. A voice 
 not like that which under Moses issued from the 
 cloudy pillar aiiiidst thunders and lightnings and 
 tempests; but a "still small voice," like that which 
 Elias heard in his day when he stood on Horeb. That 
 voice made all that was seen in the mount vocal with 
 glory, it gave a tongue to all the glory of the scene, 
 when it said, " This is My beloved Son in whom I am 
 well pleased, hear Him." "Hear Him." Listen atten- 
 tively and reverently to Him, implicitly believe Him, 
 cordially and diligently obey Him. On all matters of 
 religious belief and practice, hear Him ; He is the only 
 Lord of the conscience, the only King of the Church, 
 the only competent and legitimate Monarch of the 
 
 \ 
 
i! 
 
 162 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 t 
 
 mind and heart. Look no more to Moses and Elias. 
 He of whom they spake is come; come to teach, come 
 to give the law, and come to propitiate. He is a 
 Prophet and a King as well as a Priest. Hear Him 
 and live, for all who refuse to hear shall perish. 
 
 5. There was much of heaven there. Do you speak 
 of the glory of heaven ? Christ on the mount is in 
 His glory — His face shining as the sun, His raiment 
 white as the light. Moses and Elias appeared in 
 glory, and the cloud of the glory of the Lord covers 
 the mount. Do you speak of the mutual recognition 
 of saints in heaven ? Peter, James and John knew 
 Moses and Elias, though they had never seen their 
 face in the flesh, and felt it such rapture to be in 
 their company that they could not brook the thought 
 of parting. Do you speak of the grec^t absorbing 
 theme of heaven ? On the mount " they talked with 
 Jesus and spoke of His decease which He should 
 accomplish at Jerusalem." This is heaven's absorbing 
 theme — the theme that fills every heart and employs 
 every tongue. The anthem of the redeemed, as John 
 heard it in Patmos, was, " Thou art worthy to take 
 the book, and to open the seals thereof : for Thou 
 wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood 
 out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and 
 nation ; and h.-ist made us unto our God kings and 
 priests : and we shall reign on the earth." (Rev. v. 
 9, 10.) May we not say, then, putting all these things 
 together, they had abundant reason for saying, " Mas- 
 ter, it is good for us to be here ? " 
 
 Wl, . I ' 
 
 Hi \ 
 
THE TRANSFIGURATION. 
 
 163 
 
 f 
 
 II. The instruction ministered. 
 
 1. The transfiguration imparts the character of 
 reality to the spiritual life. There are two questions 
 perpetually suggesting themselves to us : first, Do 
 the departed dead lose all interest in the world they 
 have left behind ? and secondly, Where are the 
 departed ? In regard to the first question, Moses and 
 Elias appear here conversing with Jesus, on the event 
 which most deeply concerned the welfare of mankind. 
 And they were representative men of the Hebrew race, 
 and thus it was a visible exhibition of the interest 
 taken by the inhabitants of heaven in the welfare of 
 earth. And then, as to the second question, may we 
 not be warranted in believing that often, at ail events, 
 the spirits of the departed are around us, and hid 
 from us only by the veil of the senses ? The appear- 
 ance to the disciples was miraculous, but they them- 
 selves were the subjects of the miracle. It was their 
 eyes which were opened, and being opened they 
 beheld what was already there — like the young man 
 who beheld the hills round Mount Zion filled with 
 chariots and hosts of the Lord. When death cotnos 
 with its miraculous awakening; when it couches theso 
 eyes of sense, we may behold, not Moses and Elias 
 only, but the innumerable company of tlie departed, 
 hid from us now by the very senses that reveal the 
 world of matter. And in the fact that Mose.-j and 
 Elias retained their interest in this world and felt a 
 sympathy in Christ's sacrifice for the salvation of the 
 world, I would see the illustration of a universal fact, 
 that they who advance onward into higher worlds 
 
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'».*» 
 
 164 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 
 
 lose neither the memory nor the affections which 
 united them to those whom they have left behind. 
 
 2. The transfiguration may serve to correct our 
 worldly estimate of things, and give us an idea of 
 what is most interestinfj in heaven's sight. It was 
 not in the season of triumph, but in the hour of 
 mental struggle and agony, that divine manifestations 
 were vouchsafed to Christ. At that time some of the 
 greatest events were transacting that the world has 
 ever seen ; but the heavenly visitants passed over 
 cities and palaces, banded leaders and ambitious 
 legions, to pause on a solitary hill-top of Judea, where 
 a man was dedicatini? himself to death. Judea itself 
 was hardly to be recognized on the map of the world. 
 The spectacle of the wearied pilgrim, kneeling under 
 the stars and praying, while three tired followers 
 slept, was not one to attract the gaze of mankind. 
 And yet to that scene came the inhabitants of heaven. 
 To human eyes nothing could have seemed less impor- 
 tant than what took place in the soul of Him who 
 bowed before God in the night dews of that lonely 
 hill. But to Him who sees the beginning and the end, 
 there was a turning-point of the world's history. And 
 such it has proved. The glory of the CaBsars has 
 crumbled, but the self-consecration of Hermon and 
 Gethsemane has been the regeneration of hope of 
 mankind. I have read of a picture which is a remark- 
 able commentary on this event. The artist unites 
 with it the event which, during the Saviour's absence, 
 was transpiring at the foot of the mountain. A 
 maniac is there, brought to the disciples to be healed. 
 
THE TRANSFIGURATION. 
 
 105 
 
 The worst form of human misery, the anguish of the 
 affections, the implorinf^ cry for help, the ineffectual 
 efforts to give relief, are all blended in that scene, 
 which represents the struggles, sorrows, darkness, and 
 weakness of earth ; while above in the serene heavens 
 the glorified form of the Saviour appears with His 
 celestial companions. Earthly trial finding its con- 
 summation in heavenly peace ; that is the artist's idea. 
 He would not confine his thought to this present life, 
 but carry it onward to the end. Very false is the 
 view when confined to the present life. That present 
 life is a fragment — like the fragment of a marble slab 
 which the antiquary discovers written over by some 
 baffling inscription. Broken across, the half-lines are 
 unintelligible, but let the other fragment be found and 
 annexed, and at once the record is to those who now 
 read as to those who first wrote it. That is an impor- 
 tant lesson of the transfiguration. As the Saviour 
 passes up from the dark woes of earth into the holy 
 communion of the mount, we have an emblem of what 
 shall be the case of every true life. First toil, then 
 rest; first seed-time, then harvest; first trial, then 
 transfiguration. Where there is fidelity to God, life 
 shall be a constant transfiguration. Self-sacrifice is 
 transfigured into disinterestedness ; confiict with 
 temptation, into strength of soul ; bodily pain, into 
 spiritual fortitude ; sorrow, into trust and faith. 
 
 ** Changed from glory into glory, 
 
 Till in heaven we take our place ; 
 Till we cast our crowns before Him, 
 Lost in wonder, love and praise. 
 
 il 
 
T 
 
 IM 
 
 i 
 
 166 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 Oh, when we stand on the other side of the veil, 
 what transformations shall we behold ! Here we wit- 
 nessed those whose lives seemed blighted by trial ; 
 there, the sickness, the burden, the limitation all 
 dropped, they appear as the angels. Old age, worn 
 and wasted, stoops and drinks what seemed the 
 waters of death, but these transfigured, finds it was 
 the fountain of perpetual youth. The miracle of the 
 transfiguration becomes universal — the deaf hear, the 
 blind see, and every righteous purpose, though it seem 
 to fail on earth, is seen to have been tending to its 
 full accomplishment. 
 
 3. You will observe that this event came to the 
 Saviour under peculiar circumstances — at the time 
 when, on the one side, His soul was most tried, 
 and when, on the other, there was the most devout 
 dedication of Himself to God, in view of certain duties. 
 If you look at the Saviour's history, you see that at 
 the time of His baptism, when He was separated from 
 the world for His great work; and after the forty days 
 in the wilderness, when He took the final step from 
 retirement into the world ; and when the time 
 approached for His death, and in Geth.semane, when 
 looking: forward to the ajronies to which He was sur- 
 rendering Himself, these were occasions on which spe- 
 cial aids were given to Him. Now, these divine inter- 
 positions were n^t fortuitous, but in all cases were in 
 response to acts of self-consecration to God and 
 human good. It was when His soul was lifted up in 
 prayer that the divine help came to Him. Oh, when 
 we surrender ourselves to the world we must look for 
 help only to the sovereign that we serve ! If we serve 
 
THE TRANSFinURATION. 
 
 167 
 
 Mammon, we must look for that aid only which mam- 
 mon gives his servants. We withdraw ourselves from 
 God and from His influences. P>ut when, in faith and 
 holy purpose, we draw near God, God will be sacredly 
 near us. Like the prophet ot old, when we lay our 
 offerinfi on the altar tire descends on it from heaven. 
 Let these thoughts encourage us. The heavenly visit- 
 ants appeared on the mount, not to save Christ from 
 suffering, not to suggest the possibility of avoiding it, 
 but to express the sympathy of heaven as He went 
 forward to meet it. No angels came down with flam- 
 ing swords when He was betrayed ; no Elias descended 
 to bear Him unharmed from the cross ; but these 
 manifestations were given to give Him strength, to 
 fortify Him for oncoming trials. You have trials to 
 bear, and some of them are encounter ^ in the dis- 
 charge of the most sacred duties, and mig e avoided 
 by guiltily avoiding the duty ; and it may be that some- 
 times the question actually presents itself, " Might I 
 not be justified in evading the duty, since its discharge 
 is such a cross ? " That question we answer by asking 
 another, " What is one to seek tirst in life — happiness 
 or the will of God ? " Are we to murmur and repine 
 at the trials encountered in the loyal service of our 
 Maker, or are we to regard such wounds and scars as 
 honorable witnesses to our fidelity ? Now, the whole 
 life of Christ teaches us to think only of the duty. 
 Come what may between, our purpose is to accomplish 
 God's wil.'. Look at life's trials and crosses, which 
 must be met if life's work is done, in no ignoble spirit, 
 but look at them as they are. You need not make 
 believe that trial is not trial, pain not pain ; but say to 
 
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KIS 
 
 SERMONS ON THE ('IIUFSTIAN LIFE 
 
 h ■ 
 
 T 
 
 yourself, Here are trials which I must meet, I can 
 avoid the cross only by avoiding the duty, and, God 
 helping me, I will not do that. Following the Saviour, 
 I will pray, not " Save me from this hour," but "Help 
 me to do Thy will." Have this spirit, and there shall 
 come to you seasons of renewals and strength from on 
 high, seasons when to you the world is transfigured, 
 seasons when God shall draw near to you with special 
 manifestations of His love and grace. But, mark you, 
 these seasons when the soul is most lifted up above 
 the earth and its fears, will be those when there is the 
 truest consecration of yourself to God. And those 
 seasons, the highest and holiest of life, will not .suggest 
 methods of escape from duty and trial, but encourage 
 you with a brave and cheerful fortitude to go on to 
 the accomplishment of duty. Fear not for awhile to 
 travel a rocky and thorny road, if it be the one which 
 heaven has appointed, " Master, it is good : let us 
 abide and build." But the Master saw there was hard 
 work in the valley to do. Peter's mistake in wishing 
 to stay on the mount, enjoying at once beforehand that 
 release from labor and suffering and that communion 
 with glorified saints which was in store for him when, 
 after long years of toil and trial, he should put off this 
 tabernacle, was precisely the grand mistake which in 
 later times made Christians turn hermits, monks and 
 nuns, thinking that the best way to be .separate from 
 the world is to get out of the world. Happily, Christ 
 was at hand to correct the disciple's error, and lead him 
 down again to the leve^ of common duty and experi- 
 ence. Worship and holy contemplation are to the 
 spiritual life what air and food are to the bodily — not 
 
 d 
 
THE TRANSFIGURATION. 
 
 169 
 
 its end, but the means of its activity and liealtl). Not 
 prayer in the neglect of work, but work in the spirit 
 of prayer, is the true idea of Christian life. The 
 Mount of TransfijTuration stood to Christ but once in 
 the whole path between Bethlehem and Calvary ; and 
 to us these seasons of rapt communion are occasional, 
 and ever lie between points of duty. And now, breth- 
 ren, if a brief vision of heavenly glory during one 
 summer night made the disciples willing, though still 
 in the body, to forget and forego all earthly ties, what 
 must be the attractive power and satisfying joy of the 
 full communion with the spirits of just men made per- 
 fect and the vision of the Lord Jesus in the glory 
 which He had with the Father before the foundation 
 of the world ? To see Him, not on a rugged Judean 
 hill, but on sunlit slopes of Paradise ; to behold Him, 
 not with eyes that break down with excess of light, 
 but made strong by immortality ; to abide with Him, 
 not through the hours of a single night, but through 
 the perpetual unfoldings of an eternal day ; to witness 
 and hold converse, not only with Moses and Elias, but 
 with the whole company of the glorified, and particu- 
 larly with those who on earth were bone of our bone 
 and flesh of our flesh, who lived in our homes and ate 
 at our tables, surely " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
 neither have entered into the heart of man, the things 
 which God hath prepared for them that love Him." 
 Let us wait, and while waiting seek to be transfigured 
 into spiritual fellowship with the Redeemer's naturu, 
 that, being transfigured with Him by the Spirit of His 
 grace, we may also share the transfiguration of His 
 glory. 12 
 
 till 
 
XII. 
 
 '• I 
 
 "THE WISDOM OF PREFERRING THE HEAVENLY." 
 
 " Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." 
 —Col. iii. 2. 
 
 I WISH, in commencing, to note an incorrect appli- 
 cation of this text, that generally obtains. The 
 common interpretation is, that it is our duty to set our 
 affections more on the heavenly than on the earthly, 
 and that when the things above and the thin<;s on the 
 earth come into competition, it is the earthly that must 
 be sacrificed. Now, while this interpretation is true 
 as far as it goes, yet it is not exactly the truth chiefly 
 indicated by the apostle. The plain meaning is, that 
 we are not to set our affections, in the way of choosing 
 a portion for ourselves, on earthly things at all, but 
 consecrate them individaally to things above, that we 
 should have only one object for our aim, and that the 
 heavenly inheritance. But while this is the case, 
 while we are forbidden to set our affections on any 
 earthly object /o?^ its own sake, still it may be our 
 duty to labor to gain it, as being related to the heavenly, 
 and helpful in its acquisition. The subject, then, for 
 our consideration to-night is : — 
 
 The wisdom of preferring the things above, to the 
 things on the earth, as the pursuit of our life and 
 heart. 
 
WISDOM OF PREFERRING THE HEAVENLY. 
 
 171 
 
 1. Our first illustration of this proposition is — that 
 if two objects allowed or supposed to l)e of equal value, 
 present themselves for our choice, but with this 
 condH.ion, that in pursuit of one of them we lose the 
 other, whereas in pursuing that other, we may not 
 only gj/in itself, but a large share, if not the whole, of 
 its competitor — we will, if wise, at once choose it as 
 the pursuit of life. This, I fancy, commends itself to 
 every person here. But is it not precisely the state of 
 matters inthepursuitof the earthly and heavenly things 
 mentioned in our text? If a man choose the earthly, 
 he can obtain none of the heavenly in the smallest 
 measure ; whereas in choosing the heavenly, he will 
 probably gain much of the earthly. The solemn, 
 but alas, the forgotten fact is, that nothing, abso- 
 lutely nothing, of the heavenly inheritance, the inheri- 
 tance that endures after earthly objects have all been 
 resolved into their original elements, lie, in the way of 
 the worldling, as he pursues his object. But much of 
 the earthly portion lies in the way of the saint as he 
 pursues his object. The delights and honors of litera- 
 ture and science, enjoyments of the tasteful arts, 
 family endearments in all their various luxury, emi- 
 nent place at the bar or in the college, or in the 
 magistracy of the city, or in the legislature of parlia- 
 ment — all this and more may lie in his way of enjoy- 
 Tnent, as he pursues his heavenward journey. I might 
 take higher ground than this, and maintain that the 
 choice of the heavenly portion is the more promising 
 way of obtaining the earthly, on account of the greater 
 prudence and superior morality which the choice 
 
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 172 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 iuspiros yea, lii^her than tliis still, that it is the only 
 way of timlinf]r satisfaction in earthly things after they 
 have been acquired, without which satisfaction they 
 miixht as well never have been gained. But I am con- 
 tent with the qualified form of the proposition, that 
 the worldling cannot have any share of the saint's 
 portion ; while the saint, having chosen the heavenly, 
 may and will obtain a t-hare of the worldling's portion, 
 and hence we say — heavenly mindedness is wisdom, 
 worldly mindedness is folly. 
 
 2. When two objects compote for our pursuit — still 
 supposing them to be equally valuable — we will, if 
 wise, prefer that which we are tiure our diligence will 
 attain, and reject that as to whose possession there is 
 a doubt. Now let me apply this to the heavenly and 
 earthly portions. Let me suppose one of you young 
 men to have chosen the earthly, and see if there is no 
 gambler's work that j'^ou are making of the race for 
 happiness. First of all, less than the threescore years 
 and ten would not satisfy you for a term of life, and 
 they must all, or mostly, be years of unbroken health 
 besides. How small is your chance for all that ? 
 Then, in defiance of all the seductions by which you 
 will be assailed, you must maintain a respectable char- 
 acter for purity and integrity of morals, the expectation 
 of which requires considerable self-confidence in one 
 who has no faith in the sustaining help of the Spirit of 
 God. And then, you must have thirty years or more 
 of prosperous merchandise, arrested in its career by 
 no frauds, failures or general mercantile disasters, 
 for gaining that fancied fortune on which, secured 
 
 I « 
 
 m 
 
WISDOM OF PUEFEIUUNG TUK HEAVENLY. 
 
 173 
 
 beyond the possibility of loss, you propose to retire 
 to spend those fancied days of old age in fancied ease 
 and honor. And then, this earthly portion which 
 you have chosen, must surely include the item of 
 domestic happiness, implyinij that your choice of a com- 
 panion, from amid the dancing circle of worldlings of 
 course, shall not prove a bitter deception ; that no child 
 of yours shall die, without your having the pain alle- 
 viated by the christian's hope ; and that no son or 
 daughter, ill-educated though tliey be by an ungodly 
 father — I mean yourself — shall anguish your heart and 
 poison 3'our life with their shame, yea, their abuse of 
 yourself. my brother, how sad that your hopes of 
 happiness, according to your own estimate of what 
 happiness is, Sur^uld depend on such chances as these ; 
 and what wild confidence you must have in the throw 
 of the dice-box, to be sure of the realization of your 
 fancy ! 
 
 Now, look across the desk to your companion, who 
 by his sanctitication of the Sabbath, observance of the 
 sacraments, his reading of the Word, his attendance 
 at the prayer-meeting, and his whole life conduct, 
 gives evidence of his ha\ ing chosen the heavenly as 
 his portion. His literary acquirements are equal to 
 your own, he equals you in every graceful and manly 
 quality, he is your compeer in business tactics, and 
 should the hour of battle come, in your country's 
 defence, you will be glad to fight by his side. Now, 
 mark you, while there iy so much uncertainty that 
 you shall ever gain that earthly portion which you 
 have chosen as the object of your life pursuit, so that 
 
I 
 
 174 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 i 
 
 II 
 
 ' i 
 
 there is a possibility of being a fretful, miserable old 
 man if your life be protracted, complaining that all 
 your labor has been lost, he, on the other hand, is 
 certain that being faithful, as he is resolved to be, he 
 will secure the object of his choice. He holds his 
 heritage by no uncertain tenure. His security is the 
 c'ivine promise, " Be thou faithful unto death, and I 
 will give thee a crown of life. ' His hopes for long 
 life, health and wealth, and family happiness, ere as 
 well founded as your own, and in addition he is sure 
 to be saved at last. May I not well, therefore, pi'ay 
 of you, " O that you were wise to know your gracious 
 day ? " 
 
 3. Still supposing that the two objects that com- 
 pete for our favor are equally valuable, and admitting, 
 too, that diligence in the pursuit will certainly be 
 crowned with success, wisdom will prefer that which 
 requires the less amount of labor. Apply this now to 
 the earthly and the heavenly things. What skilful • 
 ness and scheming, what racing, what anxiety, by day 
 and by night, are necessary for gaining a fortune ! As 
 a usual thing, the hardest-worked men are our suc- 
 cessful business men. And then I think, hard as it is 
 to gain the earthly portion, it is often far harder to 
 retain it. As property accumulates, cares increase, 
 the brain i". taxed, and the nerve is taxed ; and not 
 unfrequontlv the men who thought if they could 
 reac> just a certain position they would be easy and 
 content, find, when that position is gained, that they 
 were actually happier while in a lower place. I do 
 not wish in any way to say, as contradistinguished 
 
WISDOM OF PREFEIUIINCJ THE HEAVEJnLY. 
 
 175 
 
 from this sore travail of the world, that a Christian 
 life is a life of sloth and inactive ease. On the 
 contrary, it is a life of constant, unwearied industry. 
 But mark the difference. When the life of a mere 
 worlding is throughout, a life of grindin^^ slavery, 
 much of the saint's work consists of peaceful medita- 
 tion, of sympathetic intercourse with the poor and 
 afflicted, and communion with Christian brethren in 
 devisincf and executinof schemes of benevolence. Not 
 a little of all tliis is felt to be of the nntiire of pas- 
 time rather than of labor. 
 
 But just here I can imagine some one objecting. 
 What about all this godly sorrow and mental dark- 
 ness that I have heard you speak about in connection 
 with the commencement of this hi tvenly pursuit ? 
 Well, I reply, is it not reasonable and fitting that a 
 rebel should tremble and fear ? We do indeed con- 
 tend for sorrow after a godly sort, in commencing a 
 religious course; but it does not follow from this that 
 a religiou^ life is s^n unhappy one. Even in that 
 bruisedness of spirit there is a relief, a satisfaction 
 exceeding anything that cr.n be found in a course of 
 sin. Jesus said, " Blessed " — not wretched — " are they 
 that mourn." And let me say, too, that this penitent 
 is not mourning because he has religion, but because 
 he wants it ; he does not weep because he loves God, 
 but because he does not love God. And then let me 
 observe that if that mental distress be lasting, it is the 
 sufferer's own fault; it is not imputable to this Bible 
 which awoke him to a sense of his condition ; for 
 having disclosed his danger, it pointed hini to a way 
 
 ii 
 
 /■» 
 
176 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 of escapt. And I repeat that it is the fault of his 
 own unbelieving heart if he remain for an hour under 
 the thunderings of Sinai, and find not peace under 
 the shelter of the cross. On the day of Pentecost, 
 when the souls pricked by the Word cried out, 
 " What shall we do ? " they were forthwith converted 
 and added to the Church. I remark additionall}', that 
 even when the Church is bur<lened with the discredit 
 of many cases of melancholy which the worlding 
 laughs at, yet mental distress — and the very statistics 
 of the asylums prove this — mental distress, derange- 
 ment and suicide abound to a far greater extent 
 among worldly men than among those who profess 
 the faith. Religion in its very nature is calculated to 
 soothe, and by its freedom from all excesses, tends to 
 quiet and length of life. On the simple ground, there- 
 fore, of mental ease and quiet, that man is wise only 
 who chooses the heavenly portion. 
 
 4. So far we have proceedcc on the assumption that 
 the two portions are of equal value, and even thus, we 
 have seen that wisdom would prefer the heavenly. 
 But the supposition is most preposterous. There is, 
 'ndeed, a kind of profanit}'- in making it. I therefore 
 remark now, that though the pursuit of the heavenly 
 excluded all participation in the earthly, though there 
 were uncertainty in its attpinment, and though the toil 
 of its pursuit exceeded in heaviness the toil in gaining 
 and keeping earthly, yet true wisdom would say, " Set 
 your afiections on things above." The earthly is for 
 the body only ; the heavenly is for both body and soul 
 in a state of refined susceptibility and enlarged capa- 
 city. The one contains only the praise of man ; the 
 
 
WISDOM OF PFEFERRINO THE HEAVENLY. 
 
 177 
 
 other, the best ot' human praises and the benediction 
 of God. The one contains the endearments of family 
 joys for a season ; the other contains their restoration 
 after death. The one is a portion for a few years only; 
 the other is an inheritance for eternity. 
 
 Do you say that the earthly inheritance is to be 
 'presently enjoyed, while the heavenly lies in the future? 
 Well, if that were true, it would be an argument only 
 for a child. You might perplex him with the choice of 
 a penny to be spent on apples to-day and the pound 
 to be received to-morrow. But you would not insult 
 a full-grown man with the proposition. And yet how 
 many men act the child's part in grasping at to-day's 
 copper in despite of to-morrow's golden pound ! Ah ! 
 when to-morrow comes, how will they weep like chil- 
 dren for the folly of their choice ! But then, the whole 
 of the heavenly portion is not in the future, in the 
 sense of the divine love, in the delight experienced in 
 the conscientious discharge of duty, in the feast of a 
 contented mind, in the happy ordinances of the Church, 
 and in the raptures of that hope which will sometimes 
 make the kinj^dom shine above and all around the 
 meditative saint, in these it is to a considerable extent 
 presently enjoyed. Nor may the worldling mock at 
 the superstition of all this. The question is about 
 experienced happiness, and if these raptures be a delu- 
 sion, it is a delusion under the brightness of whose 
 cloud he might well wish that his own dark and trou- 
 bled spirit were introduced, to lie down and enjoy the 
 Tabor-like vision. 
 
 5. When, of two objects competing for our choice 
 one is absolutely necessary to our happiness, so tha 
 
 i^ii 
 

 178 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 v/ithout it we would perish, the other would be only a 
 temporary convenience, would it not be madness to 
 hesitate in makincf an election ? Yet this i.; a correct 
 representation of the relative value of "the things 
 above" and "the things on earth." Unlt-ss a man 
 secure the former, he perishes forever ; and the best 
 that can be said of the latter is that they are pleasant 
 conveniences for a brief season. The question, then, 
 may be proposed, Which would you rather have, fifty 
 years of poverty and contempt, to put it to the worst, 
 and the glory of heaven afterwards ; or fifty years of 
 luxurious sensual (gratification, but the doom of hell 
 afterwards ? The fortune of Lazarus and the fortune 
 of Dives — they are both exposed for purchase in the 
 auction mart of life, and every soul here is bidding for 
 the one or the other now. My brother, your present 
 action is either tendin<x to secure the felicities of 
 heaven or the agonies of hell. Which is it ? Written 
 clearly on the sacred page is the fact, " Except a man 
 be born a^jain he cannot see the kinj^dom of God." 
 
 I have by no means exhausted this subject, nor 
 drawn as many contrasts between the earthly and the 
 heavenly as I might have drawn ; but I turn and 
 change my tone, and earnestly exhort '^ou to seek the 
 heavenly inheritance. Bear in mind that God's Word 
 not only advises and recommends — it enjoins, it imper- 
 atively commands this course of conduct. The old 
 maxim that a man may do vnih his own fields what 
 he pleases, has been justly reprobated ; but there is 
 another error that needs exposure, that a man may do 
 what he pleases with himself. No, verily, we are not 
 our own proper oy; we are the property of that God 
 
 , ^:Vl.'">-" V 
 
 :*a. 
 
WISDOM OF PREFERRING THE HEAVENLY. 
 
 179 
 
 who made us, and are accountable to Him for the 
 manner in which we manajje ourselves as His estate 
 or inheritance, that He may have honor in us and 
 fruit from us. The God who made you commands 
 you to seek the heavenly ; the God in whom you live 
 and move and have your being, commands it ; the God 
 who will be your Judge at the last day comtnands it ; 
 and will you withstand Hisauthority ? Will not the posi- 
 tive command of the Great Eternal bind you ? I beseech 
 you further to consider the danger and wickedness of 
 delay in this matter. You purpose at some future 
 time to turn to God, but alas, in the meantime you are 
 defrauding your Maker of the service which you owe 
 Him. If ever you are bound to serve Him, it is now. 
 If ever lie is worthy of your love. He is worthy now. 
 If you would shudder at the thought )f remaining His 
 enemies to eternity, why continue His enemies for a 
 day ? In this you are going directly in the face of the 
 earnest entreaty, " To-day, if ye hear His voice, harden 
 not your hearts." All this time you are walking over 
 the grave, and should you suddenly fall into it, what 
 then, what then, what then ? You would not act 
 thus in worldly matters. If all your property were 
 thus exposed, you would not sleep. You would com- 
 pass sea and land to make your title sure. How 
 comes it, then, to pass that in the very case which 
 calls loudest for anxiety, there you are the .aost secure. 
 My dear hearers, are you immortal ? Are you to spend 
 an eternity in heaven or in hell ? And are you losing 
 yourselves among the vanities of the world ? Will 
 you never wake ? Sleep on, then, and ti.ke your rest. 
 
 .'« 
 
 !i) 
 
180 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 m. 
 
 11 I! 
 
 But know you that the mists of death will soon gather 
 round you. You will be laid upon a dying bed. 
 Time is gone, and eternity has come. I see you lying 
 there, without a friend to help you in heaven or earth. 
 I see you cast back your eyes on misspent Sabbaths, 
 on murdered privileges, on wasted time. You remem- 
 ber the calls you once rejected. I hear you cry, " I 
 had a soul, but I prized it not, and now my soul is 
 gone. Ten thousand worlds for one more Sabbath, 
 yea, for one more hour." I look a little further, and I 
 see the perturbations of a troubled sky. The sigi of 
 the Son of man appears in heaven. The last trumpet 
 sounds. That body which had been committed to the 
 grave is organized afresh. It opens its eyes on 
 the strange commotions of a dissolving world. It is 
 forced to ascend. The judgment seat is set in the 
 clouds of heaven, and the books are opened. 1 hear 
 you cry to rocks and mountains to cover you ; but 
 rocks and mountains are sunk in the ixeneral ruin. The 
 books are opened, and on a black page are written all 
 the sins of your life. That page is held up before a 
 frowning universe. The judgment ended, the Judge 
 prepares to speak. Eternal justice lowers on His 
 brow ; His right hand grasps ten thousand thunders ; 
 with a look before which heaven][and earth flee away, 
 He turns full upon His foes, " Depart, ye cursed, into 
 everlasting tire prepared for the devil and his angels." 
 But I return, and blessed be God, I find myself on 
 praying ground, and my hearers about me. This is 
 not the Judgment Day. But I expect soon to meet 
 you at that bar, and give an account of my labors 
 among you this night and d^iring the past year. 
 
 1 
 
 ■5 
 
 
XIII. 
 
 CONSECRATION. 
 
 1 1 
 
 I Iti 
 
 ill 
 
 "In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, holiness 
 unto the Lord ; and the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the 
 bowls before the altar. Vea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah 
 shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts : and all they that saoriOce 
 shall come and take of them, and seethe therein : and in that day 
 there shall be no mor§ the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of 
 hosts. "—Zech. xiv. 20, 21. 
 
 THE picture presented by our text is beautiful 
 and significant. Judah was the country of 
 God's people ; Jerusalem, the seat of His worship. 
 The temple was solemnly set apart to holy purposes ; 
 the priesthood were separated to the performances of 
 sacred services ; the high priest, particularly, was 
 marked by a golden frontlet on his mitre, bearing the 
 inscription, " Holiness to the Lord." Now, it was the 
 will of God that all the people, their country and 
 their transactions, should be in like manner conse- 
 crated, so that even the bells of the horses — or literally, 
 their trappings — should bear the motto, " Holiness to 
 the Lord." And as common things should be made 
 sacred, so sacred things should be multiplied and 
 occupy a place of augmented importance. The meaner 
 vessels of the sanctuary should be enlarged to the 
 dim isions of the larger and costlier vessels of the altar. 
 " The pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls 
 before the altar." And not only in the temple, but 
 
 ♦ 
 
 "I 
 
182 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 ii! i 
 
 i 
 
 Ii 
 
 II 
 
 II 
 
 IM 
 
 every coniinon vessel in every ordinary dwelling 
 should be like the sacred vessels of the temple. " Yea, 
 every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness 
 unto the Lord of hosts : and all they that sacrifice 
 shall come and take of them, and seethe therein : and 
 in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in 
 the house of the Lord of hosts." Yea, such shall be 
 their consecration, that the meat of the sacred feasts 
 shall be boiled in the common vessels of the holy 
 people. And finally, all who should desecrate the holy 
 scene and service shall be kept aloof. " There shall 
 be no more the Canaanite," or, as some render it, 
 " There sht^ll be no more the trafficker in the house of 
 the Lord of hosts." The subject, then, for our morn- 
 ing meditation, is " Consecration to God." 
 
 1. We are to contemplate the view which the text 
 gives of consecration to God. 
 
 The primary element of consecration is personal 
 dedication to the divine service. I fear that religion is 
 too often regarded rather as a state of security and as 
 a sort of negative sanctiticatiim, than as a state of holy 
 devotedness to God. It is not enough for you to flee 
 to religion as a sanctuary from the curse ; it must be 
 a devotement of being and faculty to God. It is not 
 enough that you are good fatliers, masters, children, 
 citizens and servants. Christianity will make you 
 the.^e, but it will make you much more — it will make 
 3'ou feel that life is given, salvation vouchsafed, and 
 grace conferred, that you may be given up in dedica- 
 tion to Christ. Earth will not appear to you an 
 outpost of the universe, where you are merely to 
 
 I 
 
CONSECRATION. 
 
 183 
 
 occupy a trust, but a precinct of God's temple, where 
 you are to serve Him. You are not merely husband- 
 men, who are to work diligently and to pay a rental to 
 the Great Proprietor ; but you are priests, who are to 
 serve and honor Him as the very office of your entire 
 bein^, for, as an apostle puts it, " Ye are a chosen 
 generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a pecu- 
 liar people; that ye should show forth the praises 
 of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His 
 marvellous liofht." This dedication orio-inates in the 
 renewing grace of God. The materials of the temple 
 were of common earth ; the family of Aaron was of 
 the sinful stock ; but both were separated by the 
 divine will to their hallowed purpose. So with you. 
 You were estranged frotn God, but you have been 
 brought nigh by the blood of Christ. All was earthly, 
 grace has produced heavenly-mi ndedness ; there was 
 the mindinj; of the flesh, now there is the mindinj; of 
 the Spirit; there was no fellowship with God, no 
 spiritual worship, now the body is the temple of the 
 Holy Ghost, the regenerate man is the priest of God. 
 The Holy Ghost has set apart the nature thus regen- 
 erated by the holy anointing of His influence, even as 
 the apostle says, " None of us liveth to himself, and 
 no man dieth to himself ; for whether we live, we live 
 unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the 
 Lord ; whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the 
 Lord's." 
 
 This dedication is graciously accepted of God, as it 
 has been made in faith in His Son. God accepted the 
 tabernacle, the temple, the priests, the Jewish people. 
 
 4 
 
II 
 
 184 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 by sacrifice, wherein utoiieiiient was made for the 
 materials of the one and for th6 sins of the other. 
 When Jesus died, it was as the Mediator and Surety 
 of men ; His death was an atonement for sin, the 
 medium of our return, the basis of our acceptance. 
 On the day of His death the holy fire came down ; it 
 kindled upon His holy humanity, and God accepted 
 His sacrificial offering. Now He is well pleased for 
 His righteousness' sake. All that believe are accepted 
 in the Beloved, and " we glory in God through Christ 
 Jesus, by whom we havo now received the atone- 
 ment.'' Faith not merely trusts in the atonement for 
 the remission of the penalty, but also trusts in it as 
 the ground of acceptance, and comes and consecrates 
 the life on the altar which sanctifies the gift and the 
 giver. Ye yield your own selves to the Lord ; ye have 
 consecrated yourselves ; dead with Christ to the 
 world, alive with Christ to God. Finally, this dedica- 
 tion is formally expressed by profession. When you 
 joined the Church, it was professedly a surrender of 
 yourselves to God's service — a separation from the 
 world, an avowal of discipleship. It was a profession 
 that hencet'oith you would be wholly God's, that this 
 world's business, manufacture, merchandise, should be 
 the mere accidents ; your end should be to serve God, 
 and that every service, secular or sacred, should have 
 the frontlet in legible letters, " Holiness unto the Lord." 
 Now, this is the fundamental idea of consecration 
 — personal dedication to God's service. 
 
 2. Such a consecration will evince itself in practical 
 conformity to the divine will, in the discharge of those 
 
CONSECRATION. 
 
 18") 
 
 duties which belong to our several positions in life- 
 It seems to be the will of Providence that men should 
 occupy different stations, fill different departments 
 and hold different ranks in the world. Reliffion does not 
 abolish these, but it sanctifies them. I go to the low- 
 est walks of life. I see a large number of poor in the 
 Church, toiling for bread, occupied in services of the 
 veriest manual labor. But let them take their station 
 and regard its duties as laid upon them by the God 
 of Providence, and then diligence, fidelity, manual 
 skill, will become so many modes of serving God. If 
 an angel were sent down from heaven to occupy some 
 service of toil, he would feel that its toil was just the 
 task assigned of God ; and when Christians feel that 
 they are doing what God has rendered the duty of 
 their calling, if they do it as a duty, so as to fulfil 
 its requirements to the best of their power, it becomes 
 a sacred act. I like to think of this. Then the 
 errand boy runs upon a divine commission ; the ser- 
 vant sweeps the house as a sacred duty ; the laborer 
 bears the burden as a priest of the Lord's house. I 
 would have the Christian workman, if possible, the 
 most skilful, certainly the most diligent and faith- 
 ful ; the Christian servant the most trustworthy of 
 servants. There is no lawful occupation beneath a 
 Christian, when he may inscribe on every implement, 
 " Holiness to the Lord." I may next refer to the 
 traflScker — including in the term all that buy and sell, 
 from the humblest shopkeeper to the most princely 
 merchant. The just measure and the even balance, 
 
 the conscientious bargain and the scrupulous fulfilment 
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 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 of tiit> terms of it, the fair price and the reasonable 
 profit, are indispensable to a Christian, They say it's 
 hard in these times of competition for buyers and 
 sellers to maintain conscience. Well, consistency is 
 the only thing to make it easy. What I mean is, let 
 speculation be proportioned only to capital ; let the 
 style of living be kept down to the level of these 
 profits that may be reasonably calculated on ; let ex- 
 penditure never go before a fair calculation of the 
 means that are at command, and the tradesman may 
 maintain conscience. There is a royal rule, " Owe no 
 man anything." I wish it could be literally adopted. 
 In the letter, I suppose it can't by aU, but the spirit 
 must never be violated ; and it will not be so if the 
 account that is necessarily a running one, is so pro- 
 vided for, that on the day when it is due it may be 
 honored. This wiL' render the exact knowledge of 
 your aflfairs indispensable. With such rules as these, 
 bankruptices would be rare ; and when such as have 
 thus acted shall, through force of circumstances, have to 
 compromise with creditors, respect and sympathy will 
 greet them on every side. Christian character will 
 suffer no damage. The very creditors would examine 
 the vessels of the house, and the pages of the ledger, 
 and report that both were inscribed, " Holiness to the 
 Lord." 
 
 8. Consecration must combine with the duties of 
 this v'orld spirituality of mind. If the first element 
 of consecration be genuine, personal dedication to God, 
 the business of this world cannot be the end of your 
 life ; if t':e second illustration be correct, the business 
 
CONSECRATION. 
 
 187 
 
 of this world is to be the occupation of your life. 
 Now, the object is to make it the occupation without 
 making it the end. You say that the man of business 
 cannot but be distracted with his many cares, and 
 that spirituality of mind is all but impossible. My 
 friends, business pursued as an occupation, and not an 
 end, would minister to spirituality, for the mind is 
 ever the most healthy when occupied. But it is 
 ea<jerness for fjain that makes it a snare. Be diligent, 
 but moderate in your aims. Read the words of Paul 
 to Timothy; a directory of sound, practical wisdom 
 for business men. " Godliness with contentment is 
 great gain." (1 Tim. vi. 6-10.) Ambition and avarice 
 must be mortified. Worldly station, what is it ? The 
 mere accumulation of property, how vain. Even 
 supposing you have ample means whereby you may 
 indulge in pomp and accumulate capital, let your 
 moderation be known in both. Keep down show, 
 live below the measure of ability. Perhaps nothing 
 fascinates more than the rapid accumulation of money ; 
 and nothing is fraught with greater danger. I ask no 
 man to quit his station nor to turn hermit ; but I do 
 beseech you to remember that your chief dignity is 
 that of adoption into God's family ; your truest riches 
 consist in the blessings of His grace, and your best 
 inheritance is heaven. Here ajjain the Bible coun- 
 sels, as it does in all other matters of life " Love 
 not the world, neither the things that are in the 
 world. If any man love the world, the love of the 
 Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, 
 the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and 
 
 
 
\ 
 
 188 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the 
 world. And the world passeth away, an^i the iust 
 thereof : but he that doeth the will of God abideth 
 for ever." 
 
 4. Consecration to God involves the subordination of 
 all the influence arising out of our position in society 
 and our relation to it for the divine glory. One of 
 the most solemn of considerations is the relation 
 Christian people sustain to the mass of society. There 
 are mothers on whom devolves the training of their 
 children ; there are employers who meet the same 
 workmen every day ; servants who have an influence 
 with fellow-servants ; heads of e.stabli.shments whose 
 hands are placed under their special superintendence ; 
 men of business who travel ai)d mix with indiscrimi- 
 nate society ; members of liberal professions who have 
 access to minds on which the stroke of sickness exerts 
 a softening power, and who are found in the most 
 momentous crisis of the immortal man — that of death; 
 and thus it is that through the mass of humanity 
 moral power is operating every day. Now, the grand 
 prerequisite of the hope of usefulness is personal 
 consistency. The lip that is often pale with passion 
 will speak in vain of religion to a child, domestic or 
 apprentice. The man whose hard bargain betrays 
 laxity of conscience will attempt in vain to awaken 
 religious impression in his neighbor. The master that 
 grinds the poor will prejudice the religion he professes 
 by urging it on the victim of oppression. Upright- 
 ness, temper, kindness, must be maintained, or zeal 
 will be utterly unavailing. 
 
CONSECRATION. 
 
 189 
 
 5. Consecration to God involves the cheerful offering 
 of property to the service of God. Why should the 
 ministry be the only department dedicated wholly to 
 the Church ? Why should there be no Bezaleels, 
 working in wood and iron and stone expressly for the 
 same object ? No Tyrians, whose hire and merchan- 
 dize should be dedicated things ? Would there be 
 anything so very wild in the conception of a trades- 
 man or a merchant just trading for the benefit of the 
 cause of God ? A man so prospered as to be able to 
 appropriate an adequate and liberal salary for the 
 support of his family, and then yielding up the whole 
 profit not so appropriated to the cause of God ? Ex- 
 a»r*ples of such have been found where good men 
 needing no more accumulation, instead of retiring to 
 inactivity, have carried on their worldly business 
 expresr.ly for the service of the Church. It is one of 
 the unfortunate circumstances of our position that a 
 minister can scarcely broach such a subject as this 
 without being accused of personal interest, and it is 
 the one thing that vitiates Christian liberality, that it 
 is so often regarded as a salary given to a particular 
 man, instead of recognizing in it a consecration of 
 substance to God. God's Word teaches that holiness 
 just as much consists in the due setting apart of the 
 week's returns, whether in the small wages of the 
 week or in the abundant proceeds of merchandise, to 
 sacred purposes, as it does in prayer or praise. "Honor 
 the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits 
 of all thine increase." God's commands are not set one 
 above the other, all are of equal authority. If the 
 
 
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 i '» 
 
 *} , 
 
 ti 
 
 AU 
 
 190 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 solitary cent represent a fair proportion of ability, it 
 is as acceptable to God as the pound ; and if the small 
 incease of beginnings is to be dedicated, and the pro- 
 portion kept up when scores amount to hundreds, and 
 hundreds to thousands, the treasury of God will over- 
 flow ; and if this be not done, God's law will be broken 
 and consecration will be imperfect, and the enjoyment 
 of perfect love to God will be an impossibility. 
 
 And now, having sketched the elements of consecra- 
 tion to God, let us attend to the practical application 
 of the theme. Is there one of us that does not feel 
 we have come short, and is not such a failure the 
 evidence of imperfect piety? Oh, were our faith in 
 things unseen, our sense of personal forfeiture more 
 deep, our impressions of a Saviour's love more affect- 
 ing, our obedience more perfect, it would not be thus. 
 Combine the solemnity of death with the tenderness 
 of Calvary, the hope of heaven with the sense of escape 
 from hell, the awe of divine majesty with the meltings 
 of divine love, and then consecration will be the 
 characteristic of our being. Such a consecration must 
 be the effect of the Spirit's more abundant effusion. 
 God has promised to pour out His Spirit. We have 
 need to ask, " Have ye received the Holy Ghost since 
 ye believed ?" And even believers seem ready to 
 rejoin, " We have not so much as heard that there was 
 a Holy Ghost." A more obvious effusion is to be 
 sought ; a more conscious reception of it is to be 
 desired. With wrestlings it must be sought; with 
 fervency it must be desired. Pray for it, believe 
 for it. 
 
 
 1 I 
 
CONSSCRATlOK. 
 
 191 
 
 " that it now from Heaven might fall, 
 And all our sins consume ; 
 Come, Holy Ghost, for Thee we call, 
 Spirit of burning, come." 
 
 The consecration we have described will be a mighty 
 influence for gooa upon the masses around us. Picture 
 to yourself the results of such a life on the part of all 
 of us in this church. Each one a revival Samson, the 
 gates of Gaza would speedily be borne away. Such a 
 mighty power would go out before us, or from us, that 
 our families would be saved, our neighbors would be 
 saved, the whole community would be aroused. Let 
 each one enter into a closer examination of his own 
 heart. " Am I conseci'ated to God and His service ? " 
 
 I ( 
 
 \i 
 
11 
 
 XIV. 
 
 LIGHT AT EVENING TIME. 
 
 " And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be 
 clear, nor dark : but it shall be one day which shall be known to 
 the Lord, not day, nor night ; but it shall come to pass, that at even- 
 ing time it shall be light." — Zech. xiv. 6, 7. 
 
 PROPHECY anterior to its fulfilment is usually 
 obscure, hence interpretations are liable to in- 
 correct assumptions and erroneous conclusions. In the 
 words chosen as a text this morning there may be a 
 meaning not obvious to our perceptions. Some ex- 
 positors refer the term " day " as used here to all that 
 time which elapsed between the giving of the prophecy 
 and the coming of the Messiah, and agreeably we 
 kn / that with the Jewish Church the day was 
 neither wholly clear nor altogether dark, neither per- 
 fect peace nor constant trouble, neither rain nor sun- 
 shine. I prefer, however, to detach the text from 
 this specific meaning — if such be the true interpretation 
 of it — and consider it as descriptive of the method God 
 usually takes in the administration of the kingdoms 
 of providence and grace. Three thoughts present 
 themselves for our consideration this morning:. 
 
 I. The usual tenor of God's dispensation is neither 
 clear nor dark, but a sort of twilight. " It shall come 
 to pass in that day," etc. 
 
LIGHT AT KVENING TIME. 
 
 193 
 
 ll. An intimation of comfort with reference to that 
 dispensation. " It shall be known to the Lord." 
 
 ill. The joyful issue of that dispensation. " At 
 evening time it shall be liofht." 
 
 I. I am to use the text as illustrative of the mingled 
 state of affairs as seen in this world. " It shall come 
 to pass." Allow me to say just here, by way of ^paren- 
 thesis, that all this darkness is the effect of our low 
 situation or blinded perceptions. Sometimes, you 
 know, when the clouds hang low, and the fogs are 
 thick, and the mists are dense, we can scarcely see the 
 sun, his rays are refracted from us ; but if we could 
 get above the clouds and soar aloft, if we could rise 
 above these thick masses of clouds, these marshy 
 evaporations, all would be bright and clear. The^/e is 
 nothing really dark with God, nothing imperfect in 
 the Gospel ; and to those who look at them now, 
 through immortal eyes, there is nothing obscure in the 
 providences of God. But to us, to man generally, to 
 man everywhere, there is much in providence and 
 grace that is but twilight, neither clear nor dark, 
 Man may vaunt his wisdom and eulogize his prowess, 
 but he must confess that God's ways are past finding 
 out. His mind no sooner begins to reason than he 
 finds himself in the midst of darkness that his reason 
 fails to penetrate. From the cradle to the grave he 
 walks in twilight. The chamber in which he first 
 opens his eyes is a universe of wonders, and as his 
 circle of knowledge enlarges it is bounded still by 
 mystery. And to grown-up man, there is not a thing 
 
 ! ; 
 
 I 
 
Hfj 
 
 m 
 
 I 
 
 194 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 which his hand touches or on which the eye rests that 
 is not enveloped in in3stery. The flower that blooms 
 in your garden, the blade of grass that you trample 
 beneath your feet, who has revealed its organization. 
 In this life we are, to a great extent, like emigrants 
 travelling through an unknown wilderness. They st:op 
 at night by a Howing stream, set their tents and build 
 a fire, and as the flames rise up all within the circle of 
 a few rods is clear in its light, but beyond and bound- 
 ing this are rocks dimly seen, and trees with vague 
 outlines stoop forward to the blaze, and beyond the 
 branches creak and the waters murmur on their beds. 
 Verily, life is a day not clear nor dark. But let me 
 illustrate this more particularly. 
 
 (a) Partial distribution of the Gospel. 
 
 Blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for 
 they have heard the joyful sound. Christianity has, 
 to a large extent, moulded our laws, our domestic life, 
 our maxims, and our institutions. This is a land of 
 light, a land of vision, and it is destined yet to be, in a 
 high sense, a point whence the rays of the luminous 
 Gospel shall diverge to distant'lands. But, alas ! pass 
 over your own threshold, and what do you meet ? 
 Not only some few countries, but there are many 
 lands quite dark. The Birman, the Persian, the 
 Syrian, the Chinese empires, and many others, enclos- 
 ing the largest amount of the human population, and 
 the fairest portions of the terraqueous globe — nearly 
 all in the dark. When we come to anything like a 
 strict summary of the case, there are only two or three 
 
LIGHT AT EVENING TIME. 
 
 195 
 
 hundred millions of earth's inhabitants who are 
 acquainted with Christianity at all in any form. 
 When we come to analyze these two or three hundred 
 millions and dissect out of that ^reat mass of human 
 beings, how many of them are Christians by compul- 
 sion ? How many of them are Christians merely by 
 education ? How many are Christians merely in form 
 and fashion ? In the eye of that God who searcheth 
 the heart and trieth the reins, how few comparatively 
 is the number of real, genuine Christians ? Oh, is it 
 not affecting to think that two-thirds of the inhabit- 
 ants of the earth, after the lapse of eighteen centuries 
 of Christian history and effort, are still without the 
 Gospel of our Lord ? The damp, dark, and murky 
 fogs of error and delusion are placing themselves in 
 the way of the bright flood of light. The darkness 
 obstructs the light, the collision is fierce, but the light 
 is destined to prevail ; the long dark succession of 
 wintry years shall close, the beauties of holiness shall 
 clothe every region, songs of salvation shall float in 
 every breeze. " The ransomed of the Lord shall 
 return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting 
 joy upon their heads : they shall obtain joy and glad- 
 ness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." " Their 
 sun shall go no more down, nor their moon withdraw 
 itself, for the Lord shall be their everlasting light, and 
 the days of their mourning shall be ended." 
 
 (b) Im'perfect attainments of Christians. 
 
 How many of you have been years at the feet of the 
 Prophet of the New Testament Church while He has 
 
 f 
 
19G 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 been instructing you out of His law. And yet, when 
 you analyze your Christian experience, and explore 
 your moral character, and go down into the depths of 
 your motives and dispositions, you find that in the 
 matter of direct, personal Christian experience it is 
 but twilight, it is not quite light. You have faith, but 
 how few have " full assurance of faith." You have 
 hope ; but how few of you have hope ever blooming. 
 You have obedience ; but your obedience is but par- 
 tial, imperfect and irregular. You have joy ; but it is 
 meddled with. \ ou are like the children of Israel, who 
 sometimes seemed to make such progress in their jour- 
 ney that they were on the very borders of the promised 
 land ; then they were sent back again by the way of 
 the Red Sea. Oh, how few of us reach and dwell in 
 the land of Beulah ! You sing of mercy and judgment, 
 and are sometimes doubtful which shall overcome. In 
 the language of the sonnet we often sing, you are con- 
 strained to say , 
 
 *' Yet doubts still intervene, 
 And all my comfort flies. " 
 
 Alas ! with us " the day is not clear." 
 
 \ i 
 
 (c) Dispensations of Providence. 
 
 In this matter " the day " at present is " neither 
 clear nor dark." How many are God's providences 
 towards His people that they can neither explain nor 
 understand. How was it with Jacob when Joseph's 
 coat was lifted up before him, torn and bloody ? He 
 shook his hoary head, the tear gathered in his eye, 
 
 ;Si. 
 
Lir.IIT AT EVENING TIME. 
 
 197 
 
 and he exclaimed, " All these things are against me." 
 The dispensation was not clear, there was a mist on 
 the affair, a fog on the occurrence, " the day was 
 neither clear nor dark." So it is with many of the 
 dispensations of Providence now. Some of the links 
 are bright, but others are encrusted and shrouded. 
 You have found it so. You laid your plans, you pro- 
 phesied a bright future, you saw light gleaming out 
 of every line, and beauty blushing out of every foot- 
 step. But all at once an invisible hand overturned 
 your glittering temple, and ploughed up its deep 
 foundations. You saw your children sporting around 
 you in all the exuberg nee of youth. You anticipated 
 comfort from them in the decline of life, and just then 
 the chill of death crept over them, and they wilted 
 like flowers in the frost. Ah, that day, like many 
 other days of sorrow, was not clear. Yet it was not 
 all dark. The rose nestled and bloomed amid the 
 thorns ; out of that which seemed a poison came a 
 very elixir of life. You understood not then all the 
 lessons that God was teaching; but God understood it 
 all. This brings me to notice : 
 
 ! I 
 
 Ml 
 
 ■1 
 
 ir. The intimation of comfort with respect to these 
 things that the text contains. " It shall be one day 
 known unto the Lord." The idea here is that God 
 has an eye on all these mixed events, a hand in them 
 all. He takes notice of them, orders and disposes all 
 for the ^' st, according to the counsel of His will. The 
 beauty and harmony of divine providence is strikingly 
 noticed by Ezekiel. You remember how he represents 
 
19S 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN L'FF. 
 
 M I 
 
 i 
 
 I ! 
 
 
 
 providence as a wheel, a great wheel, in which are 
 many smaller wheels, and all the wheels are full of 
 eyes, and all the eyes are instinct with intellicjence ; 
 but it is only the small segment of the wheel which w j 
 see. We may see some of the smaller wheels which 
 are inserted in the great one, but the revolutions of 
 the great wheel are so high, and are determined by 
 such profound intelligence, that we are obliged to sit 
 down and acknowledge our ignorance of it ; but we 
 know the wheel revolves, because the hand of God 
 moves it. Such is the prophet's image of the harmony 
 of divine providence. And our text says, " It shall be 
 one day." A day is made up of hours, each hour 
 crowded with minutes, each minute with seconds. 
 Every day is full of great events to families, individuals 
 ar i nations ; every hour is fraught with occur- 
 rences, and every moment embraces important circum- 
 stances. But all these seconds included in the minute, 
 and all these minutes crowded into an ".lour, and all 
 these hours make but one day, every moment of which 
 is known unto the I^^rd. How many days' reckoning 
 after the manner of men, how many years, have been 
 employed in ripening a single promise. Thus there 
 were some hundreds of years before He fulfilled His 
 promise to Abraham, that his seed should inherit the 
 land of Canaan. Seventy years passed over before 
 the return of the Jews from the land of their captiv- 
 ity. Four thousand years were spent in maturing and 
 evolving matters for the Saviour's birth. But seventy 
 years, and four hundred years, and four thousand 
 years are to the eye of God but one day. " One day 
 
 m 
 
LIGHT AT EVENING TIME. 
 
 199 
 
 is with the Lord as a. thousand years, and a thousand 
 years as one day." Oh, I know we sometimes doubt 
 the harmony and beneficial results of providence. But 
 this is our folly. You may look upon a machine, and 
 see nothing; but confusion ; but that confusion is har- 
 mony to the engineer. What is chaos to you is beauty 
 to the constructor. Just in the same way, what is 
 confusion to you in providence is harmony to God. 
 You talk of chance and luck ; the Bible talks of pro- 
 vidence. You talk of accident ; the Bible talks of 
 design. God has an eye that sees all things, and an 
 arm that reaches from heaven to earth. I like the 
 language and theology of Dr. Watts, who was philoso- 
 phical as well as devotional. He was too good a divine 
 to say, " God's eternal thought." He says, " God's 
 eternal thought moves all." He sees the end from the 
 beginning. He comprehends past, present and future in 
 one eternal now. Our sight is limited by circum- 
 stances ; God's eye pierces the universe. " My thoughts 
 are not your thought, neither are your ways My 
 V ays, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher 
 than the earth so are My ways higher than your ways." 
 Brethren, we have nothing to dread from the conduct 
 of providence. These events which are happening 
 independently of us are under our Father's control. 
 Don't call them visitations of God. He never merely 
 " visits " us ; He abides with us. " I will never leave 
 thee nor forsake thee." That inner wheel of events 
 which men dread so much is love's executor. Nobly 
 does a poet sing : 
 
 ! I 
 
 ■ill 
 
 ir 
 
1 -f 
 
 i-ipl 
 
 i I 
 
 200 SEiiMONS ON THK CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 " Let us be patient ; these severe afflictions 
 Not from the ground arise ; 
 But oftentimes celestial benedictions 
 Assume this dark disguise. 
 
 " We see but dimly through the mists and vapors, 
 Amid these earthly damps ; 
 What seem to us but sad funereal tapers 
 May be heaven's distant lamps." 
 
 III. The joyful issue of this state of affairs. 
 
 " At evenincT time it shall be lig:ht." Twilight is 
 not an abidins: condition, it is a transition state. The 
 transition shall be withdrawn, and at evening time, 
 when after a long, cloudy, tempestuous, stormy day, 
 nothing is expected but a gloomy, howling night — just 
 then it shall be light. You may apply this : 
 
 (a) To the feeble Christian at death. 
 
 Life is frequently compared to a day, of which 
 infancy is the dawn, youth is the morning, manhood is 
 the meridian, and old age is the evening. All men 
 have not a dawn, a morning, a meridian and an even- 
 ing ; but all have an evening when the sun sets. But to 
 the Christian, " at evening time it shall be light." I 
 have spoken of a feeble Christian, and the application 
 of the text to him, because I do not know that those 
 who have most joy in health have most triumph in 
 death. Just as the Saviour was made known to the 
 disciples at the end of the way to Eminaus, so it often 
 happens that those who all through life have been fear- 
 ful and doubting, get the fullest view of Jesus at 
 the end of the way. How well has John Bunyan 
 
LIGHT AT EVENING TIME. 
 
 201 
 
 hich 
 lod is 
 
 men 
 leven- 
 
 ut to 
 
 ." 1 
 •ation 
 those 
 jph in 
 to the 
 often 
 f car- 
 pus at 
 inyan 
 
 I 
 
 hit this off in the "Pilgrim's Progress," in the char- 
 acter of Fearing, the man who had no fear except one, 
 and that was that he should come short at last. And 
 yet how was it with Fearing ? Oh, how he got over the 
 bridgeless river, how joyously he entered into rest, and 
 was embraced by the shining ones on the golden shore ! 
 " At evening time it shall be light." Come and see a 
 Christian die. I paint no fancy picture, I give the 
 outline of a scene whose details Gabriel cannot give. 
 It is a low room, poorly furnished, and on a lowly bed 
 lies a dying man. A mortal paleness is on his cheek, 
 but a calm composure is on his heart. Death is in the 
 room, and Christ is in the room ; death a servant, 
 Christ the Master. The children of the dying man are 
 around the couch, \»rhile the partner of his sorrows 
 looks on with feelings too deep for utterance. He sees 
 a thousand situations in which they will need his help. 
 There is a struggle going on within his heart, till a 
 friend whispers softly, " Leave thy fatherless children, 
 I will preserve them, and let thy widows trust in Me." 
 That carries him across the twilight — " at evening time 
 it is light" — and amid one of those pauses common in 
 hours when death is unsheathing his sword, the tongue 
 falters out, " Thanks be to God which giveth me 
 the — " and the next word " victory" is spoken among 
 the angels of the skies. " At evening time it shall be 
 light." 
 
 (b) The Christian in perplexity and trouble. 
 
 Yonder are the hosts of Israel ; Pharaoh and his 
 
 army behind ; the Red Sea before them, and Baal- 
 li 
 
 *n 
 
 ! 
 
'if 
 
 202 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN .JFE. 
 
 kl 
 
 \.M 
 
 m 
 
 ml p 
 
 h I' 
 
 zephon's cliffs skirting the clouds on either hand, "But 
 at evening time it shall be light." The laws of gravita- 
 tion are suspended, the waters roll up as a wall on 
 either side, and Israel passes over dry shod. See 
 Hagar in the wilderness, with her son, cast out from 
 Abratn's tent. She lavs him down, and he must die 
 of thirst ; but when the shades of evening were 
 gathering round the mother's heart, " it was light," 
 for a voice said, " Hagar, the child will live;" and she 
 looked, and there was a well of water, and she and her 
 chilu lived. Look yonder, there is a stir in a patri- 
 arch's tent at an early hour, and by-and-by a solemn 
 procession moves out, and they ascend the distant hills, 
 and an altar is built, and an only son is the sacrifice ; 
 but while the knife glistens in the sun, and ere it is 
 stained with blood, an invisible arm arrests the patri- 
 arch's hand, while a voice cries, "Abraham, Abraham, 
 lay not thine hand upon the lad." Oh, that is a bold 
 man that would try to describe the agony of Abraham 
 when he lifted up his hand to slay Isaac ; but that is 
 a far bolder man, that would try to describe the rap- 
 ture of Abraham when he took down his hand. " At 
 evening time there was light." And if I were to ask 
 you to turn over the leaves of your own history, I 
 would see you putting your finger on some momentous 
 period when " at evening time it shall be light." 
 
 (c) The final glory of the Gospel. 
 
 We may take the " day " mentioned in the text to 
 refer to the great day of the Gospel. The 'irst part 
 of this day began with the ministry of the apostles, 
 
 i 
 
LIGHT AT EVENING TIME. 
 
 203 
 
 
 [t to 
 jpart 
 ktles, 
 
 and came down to the end of the third century. The 
 second part of this day began with the tourtli century, 
 and came down to the Reformation ; and the third part 
 of the period embraces the general diffusion of the 
 Gospel, the latter day glory, the resurrection of the 
 dead, and the general judgment. " At evening time," 
 in the latter part of the period signified by this day 
 — " at evening time it shall be light." We live in very 
 remarkable times. There is not an old man in the 
 congregation who can put his finger on any portion of 
 the times through which he has lived, or his father before 
 him, and say they were as remarkable as these times. 
 They are more remarkable than thetimesof theapostles, 
 for changes in men and nations, as great as those of 
 of Apostolic days, are effected without the aid of miracles. 
 They are more remarkable than the timesof theReform- 
 ers, for there is not half as much bigotry now as then. 
 In many respects they are more remarkable than the 
 times of Wesley and Whitefield, whose clarion notes 
 thrilled and echoed and reverbrated. Then there was no 
 Bible Society, no Missionary Society, no Sunday-school 
 of any moment. Ours is an eventful age. The 
 millennial light is not yet shining, bi*t there are the 
 faint streaks that announce the morning. I thought 
 the other day, as I read the Methodist Recorder, I could 
 hear an angel's voice heralding that morning. And 
 what did I read there? Why, I read, that last Easter 
 Sunday, in the old seven-hilled city in Rome — 
 the metropolis of the papacy — whose gates for cen- 
 turies have been barred against the truth, a Methodist 
 preacher dedicated the first Methodist church in that 
 
 il 
 
r«r"«"^»m(H 
 
 w 
 
 
 204 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 : »■'■ 
 
 'I'- 
 
 ^ 
 
 I 
 
 old city, preaching from the ominous words, " I am 
 ready, as much as in me lies, to preach the Gospel to 
 you that are in Rome also, for 1 am not ashamed of 
 the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to 
 salvation." And Gavazzi is there, bearing in his body 
 the marks of the Lord Jesus ; and others are there, re- 
 joicing to declare to the blinded Italians the same old 
 truths that made converts in Caesar's household. "At 
 evening time it shall be light." Light in which shall 
 bathe the lofty Himalayas and the gorgeous Andes ; 
 light that shall illume every hill-top, spread through 
 every valley ; light, pouring in floods from the throne 
 of God, over every nation and kindred and tongue. 
 Brethren, are you in the dark or in the light? " Blessed," 
 I said in the beginning, "are your eyes for they see, and 
 your ears for they hear the sound of the Gospel." Do 
 you see the glory of God ? Do you hear the voice of 
 the Son of God ? There are two voices of the Son of 
 God we have to hear ; the one is the silver trumpet of 
 the Gospel, the other is the call to judgment. You 
 must hear the last, whether you will or not ; you may 
 hear the first. You may so hear it that it shall be 
 " music in your ears, a sovereign balm for every 
 wound, a cordial for your fears." Don't be satisfied 
 with the form of godliness. Have you the root of 
 the matter. 
 
XV. 
 
 THE HOLY WAR. 
 
 i 
 
 " Or what king, going to make war againt another king, sitteth 
 not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten 
 thousand, to meet him that cometh against him with twenty 
 thousand ? "— Lukk xiv. 31. 
 
 I PROPOSE, this morning, to discuss this question : 
 Are the forces of Christia:iity able and likely to 
 overcome the forces of evil? Are the ten thousand 
 under the leadership of Christ able to cope successfully 
 with the twenty thousand ranged under the banner of 
 SatHu ? " 
 
 Let us look at the forces of the enemy. 
 
 It is a very trite thing, but a very true thing, to 
 say that we war against the world, the flesh and the 
 devil. That trinity of powers represents tremendous 
 force. There are a thousand millions to be conquered, 
 and the conquest must be complete. In human war- 
 fare, all that is necessary is to break resistance, the 
 will may be left in rebellion. But here every knee 
 must bow, every mind be convince(?, every tongue 
 confess and every will submit. The world has fortified 
 itself into systems of errors, built up through ages, 
 ingrained into every custom of national, domestic and 
 individual life, weighty with authority where men 
 worship their ancestors, and mighty in influence where 
 they do not. And then the various languages of many 
 
 1 
 
206 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 I !:i 
 
 fitte 
 
 :,;li 
 
 of these people are saturated with error. The very 
 name of God is lost out of some lancjuaffes, and in 
 others it is so twisted that Omniscience alone could 
 recognize it. Some people's have lost a fitting con- 
 ception of sin. The very idea of holiness must be 
 engrafted on the minds of some nations ; and the 
 feeling is more difficult to engraft than the idea. And 
 not only are races of men committed to these systems, 
 but there are myriads who liave a selti.sh interest in 
 their perpetuation — myriads whose whole living in 
 laziness depends on it, and who are, therefore, ex- 
 tremely anxious that there shall be no change. The 
 Pharaohs who have been able to extort labor or its 
 results from vast populations, have never been willing 
 to let them go ; they slay the surplus rather. They 
 answer every request for amelioration by doubling 
 the tale of bricks. The Pharaohs are a myriad now. 
 God may thunder marvellously at them, and send 
 lightnings along the ground, but they hold on to their 
 slaves. And then, worse than all, the slaves them- 
 selves are not anxious to go. The vast mass of them 
 are utterly indifferent. The leeks, onions and garlics 
 of Egypt seem like ambrosia to their perverted tastes. 
 They are utterly stolid to every appeal. No interest 
 can be awakened. Resistance could be overcome and 
 antagonisms met. Brick can be burnt, granite pul- 
 verized, and cannon-shot met by cannon-shot, but 
 what can you do with a mud-bank ? Shot and shell 
 may sink in it by the ton, and leave no scar. But 
 worse than all this, many, if not all, these slaves love 
 their situation. Egypt is better than Canaan; the 
 
 »f". 
 
THE HOLY WAR. 
 
 207 
 
 desert than the promised land. Men sacrifice them- 
 selves to sin right early. Where Christianity counts 
 one martyr, sin and Satan count a million. Indeed 
 every sinner is a martyr, sacrificing not pleasure, but 
 power ; not externals but self ; not for a moment, but 
 for eternity. Sin is so dear a thing that men are 
 willing to die for it and in it. From all that devotion 
 the world is to be won ; from all that captivity the 
 world is to be captured. 
 
 Then, to all these difficulties you must ad<l the active 
 interference of spiritual powers ; vast angelic agencies 
 not destroyed, but perverted; might of intellect turned 
 to cunning, and ever scheming against Omniscience ; 
 capacities of love turned to hate; capabilities lo serve 
 employed in rebellion ; strength for God used against 
 Him ; original brightness not lost, but turned to 
 blackness. " We wrestle not against flesh and blood, 
 but against princ'palities and powers." 
 
 " Angels our march oppose, 
 
 Who still in strength excel ; 
 Our secret-sworn, eternal foes, 
 
 Countless, invisible. 
 From thrones of glory driven, 
 
 By flaming vengeance hurled ; 
 They throng the air and darken heaven, 
 
 And rule this lower world. 
 
 These arms that hold the world are to be broken. 
 Every soul saved must be captured from his captivity. 
 Christ refused to buy the world ; He came to conquer 
 it. He girded Himself for a fight, and not for the 
 weighing of shekels. He has led the way in the dire 
 
208 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
 !■; vi 
 
 ii i 
 
 battle. He trod the winepress of wrath alone. 
 Blood to the horse's bridle is none too stron<j a figure 
 for the desperateness of the battle. He has enlisted us 
 on His side. Every captive He takes from the black- 
 bannered hosts enlists in the armies of light. How 
 can we meet the foe ? He comes against us with 
 twenty thousand, and we have but ten thousand. 
 There they stand — ancient fortresses of error covering 
 every continent — the Babel of tongues; and command- 
 ing all these agencies towers up the invisible king of 
 hell, olderthan the world itself, skilled in thousands of 
 years of successful war, wielding agencies whose vast 
 extent we may well fear but cannot know. What 
 can our ten thousand do ? Well, that depends on the 
 quality of the men. " We are utterly outnumbered," 
 cried a faithful scout to his general. " That depends, " 
 said the cool commander, " upon how many you count 
 me for." Three hundred men at Thermopyl.ne, until 
 betrayed, are equal to the surging myriads of Persian 
 hordes. I read in this old book of a kind of men, 
 " where one shall chase a thousand, and two put ten 
 thousand to flight;" and verily I believe men of these 
 divine qualities are the kind of men God meant us to 
 be. 
 
 Now, we have seen something of the forces of the 
 twenty thousand who are against us; let us look at the 
 resources of the ten thousand. Christianity to-day 
 holds three-fourths of the land and all the sea. Six- 
 teen languages and numerous dialects have died out 
 since the Christian era, and it is estimated that by the 
 year A.D. 2000 one thousand million of people will 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
THE HOLY WAR. 
 
 209 
 
 ill 
 
 speak the English tongue. The mental sceptre of the 
 world, once held by Paganism, passed to Moham- 
 medanism, and thence to Christendom, and being 
 founded on demonstrable truth, can never be wrested 
 from its grasp. Wealth and its sources — California, 
 Australia, the Ural mountains — are in the hands of 
 Christian nations. Governments are no longer hostile, 
 but friendly and helpful. And then the Church is 
 better prepared for victory than she ever was. She 
 has met all conceivable assaults victoriously ; trans- 
 lated and interpreted the Scriptures ; settled all its 
 great doctrines ; is no longer engaged in the strife of 
 polemics, but in the emulation of successful devotions 
 to God's cause. The various bodies see eye to eye, 
 provoke to love and good works, instead of hatred and 
 strife. They come to each other to learn the secret of 
 power ; and, standing on all these achievements, look 
 forward to wider work and cfreater success. Nothing 
 succeeds like success — and this always points us to 
 wider triumph. This must como, for I am far from 
 believing that the real standard of Christian power 
 has been reached by any, much less by all. God has 
 higher possibilities of power to open before every 
 individual, and the Church without spot or wrinkle is 
 some distance in advance of the Church general. 
 And then — and I ask your special attention to this — I 
 have expectations of a sudden and marvellous 
 increase of power that is coming to the Church. All 
 history tells me to look for this ; all promises of the 
 Bible tell me to look for this. 
 
 There are three stages in the history of every 
 
210 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 
 llfMili 
 
 ♦m 
 
 '11 
 
 m 
 i 
 
 If 
 
 II ii! 
 
 
 triumph : first, ridicule ; second, a settling of prin- 
 ciples, an excision of non-essentials, an enforcement 
 of truth on the age ; and third, when its strength is 
 tested by persecution and its principles are tested by 
 experience, then comes victory. Then tliose amazing 
 revulsions of mind take place ; opposition is changed 
 to advocacy ; persecutors become apostles ; Sauls 
 become Pauls ; electric power flashes over continents 
 of mind ; the former leaders are overpassed and left 
 behind by the advancing flood. Do you say all this 
 has already happened to Christianity ? I partially 
 concede it. Ridicule has been awed to silence. Perse- 
 cutors have enlisted under the banner of the cross, 
 and success is widespread. But greater triumphs are 
 to come, and the divine is to traverse the w hole earth, 
 and a new heaven and a new earth are to be full of 
 the righteousness of God. But what right have we 
 to say that from anything we now see ? Much, every 
 way. First, because it is God's way of working. All 
 through the ages, development has proceeded by 
 periods. A state of things was introduced and allowed 
 to work out its best results, and then a new era was 
 suddenly introduced far in advance of the last, and 
 then another and another ; that is, there were long, 
 gentle risings by development separated by sudden 
 risings by Almighty power. And it is the same 
 to-day ; the summer heat passes, the winter cold comes 
 on, but the water continues limpid till, on a sudden, it 
 changes into ice. So, too, we ply the rough ores with 
 heat, and they change through black and red and 
 white heats, and on a sudden the stone flows in limpid 
 
 It I '■>! 
 
THE HOLY WAR. 
 
 211 
 
 jn 
 
 streams. Now, God has wrought in that way in the 
 realm of the religious. The patriarchy was His lirst 
 uplifting ; the theocracy under Moses, His second ; 
 then the coming of Christ, His third ; and He died, 
 and there was something better than His visible pre- 
 sence, and Pentecost proved it ; and the limit is not yet 
 reached, for heaven is beyond. But you say this is 
 " the iast dispensation." How do you know it is ? 
 We have had dispensations of the Father, Son and 
 Hoi}"- Ghost, why not one infinitely more glorious — a 
 dispensation of all three combined ? That is to be the 
 
 A. 
 
 di.spensation of heaven, if I understand it, and what 
 amazing uplifts may precede it on earth I cannot say. 
 But suppose this is the last dispensation on earth. Is 
 any one prepared to say that we have reached its 
 utmost power ? Diil not God's manifestation increase 
 in grandeur of display of power in the patriarchy ? 
 And was there not a growing spiritual significance in 
 the Mosaic? And why may not His consecutive dis- 
 plays of power constantly increase in the dispensation 
 of the Holy Ghost ? God's Word teaches me to look 
 for that. God means so much when He speaks that 
 men seldom catch His full meaning at once. Out of 
 His infinite feeling and thougliu God pours meaning 
 into our poor words till the medium of communication 
 is strained, cracked and staggered with its weight. 
 God is never afraid of strong words. He seeks them, 
 for He knows they cannot convey as much as His 
 infinity can mean. Hence has arisen what men have 
 called the twofold application of prophecy. God 
 unfolds things to come by things that are ; things in 
 
v?« 
 
 III' 
 
 212 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 «' • 
 
 I fl 
 
 the far future by things in the near future. So that 
 (Psa. xvi.) "Thou wilt not leave my sonl in hell; 
 neither wilt Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corrup- 
 tion," is applied with widei- and deeper meaning to 
 the Messiah. The 49th and 50th of Isaiah prophesy 
 the restoration of the Jews from Babylon ; but their 
 return with songs and everlasting joy upon their 
 heads did not fill the whole meaning of the prophecy. 
 It was glorious to them, but God (fould mean more 
 than the deliverance of a nation could fill. So the 
 Messiah came with radiant glory and infinite love, to 
 make the whole world that He had graven on His 
 palms, break forth into singing and every desire to 
 rejoice, and blossom as the rose, at its return from sin. 
 And though He came eighteen hundred years ago, 
 and those spreading Avaves of glory have lapped the 
 shore of every sea, all the promises of these chapters 
 are not yet fulfilled. The glory of the Lord has not 
 yet covered the earth as the waters cover the sea. 
 There are promises yet to be fulfilled that will take as 
 distinct an interference and exercise of the divine 
 power as the return from Babylon, the glory of whose 
 results shall as far surpass the return of a nation 
 from slavery as sunshine surpasses dawn. Read Acts 
 ii. 17, 21. 
 
 Do you think that has been fulfilled yet ? You say 
 it was fulfilled at Pentecost. So it was, in part. But 
 I believe, with Dr. Whedon, that Pentecost was only 
 "a fulfilment, or rather an earnest of future more 
 widespread and powerful eflfusions which ^re yet to 
 be characteristic of the last days." This term " last 
 
THE HOLY WAR. 
 
 213 
 
 days " neans the closing days of any of the several 
 dispensations, and the last days of the dispensation of 
 the Spirit are yet to come, and a prophecy that covers 
 all succeeding dispensations has a fulfilment yet to be 
 accomplished. Besides, the text says upon " all tlesh." 
 I can't believe that Parthinns anc' Medes and Elamites 
 cover the measure of God's purpose in a thing so dear 
 to God's heart. It seems to me that God would like 
 to make a Pentefcost in everv land that would as far 
 surpass the, one in Jiidea as the second fulfilment of 
 prophecy surpasses the first. Does such an outpour- 
 ing seem impossible ? To me it seems impossible to 
 do without it. God's Spirit presses down. The whole 
 earth — an Ethiopian — stretches out her hands, and the 
 Church stands between. It sees the desperate need of 
 earth and the infinite fulne.ss of God. It must bring 
 the two together. Only let the Church grow more 
 ardent, agonize before God in prayer, and lay her gifts 
 upon His altar, and 'prove Him therewith, and He will 
 open the windows of heaven, and pour them out such 
 a blessing as there shall not be room to contain." In 
 the American war, a man was condemned to death for 
 falling asleep on his sentinel path. He had been up 
 so many nights that he couldn't keep awake. His 
 wife, with a nursing babe she could not leave at home, 
 sat down in one of Mr. Lincoln's ante-rooms to get an 
 opportunity to plead for her husband's life. But there 
 were so many representatives, senators, generals and 
 ministers before her, that she sat all day without get- 
 ting much nearer the door. The second day the case 
 looked equally hopeless. But toward the close of the 
 
 *, 
 
214 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 day, the weary child broke out into one long, irrepres- 
 sible wail. Dignitaries looked unutterable things at 
 the poor mother. But suddenly the door opened, and 
 Mr. Lincoln said, " I hear a child cry ; what is the 
 trouble?" "Oh," said the usher, "this poor woman 
 has waited two whole days to see you." " Let her 
 right in, the others can wait." Soon the door opened 
 again, and a radiant woman, with a hushed child, 
 passed out, regardless of generals and senators, bearing 
 a pardon aloft, and crying, " I've got it ! I've got it ! " 
 So when the Church cries out for father and hus- 
 band, the pardon must come. Never join the gloomy 
 crowd who say, " Where is the promise of His com- 
 ing ? " Peter says. He that has sunk continents under 
 
 overwhelmincr seas is not slack 
 
 concerning 
 
 His 
 
 promises, will come and shall not tarry. Suppose 
 ini(i|uity does abound and the love of many wax cold, 
 that is a part of the prophesied preliminaries. " Let 
 the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing, 
 the rulers of the earth take counsel against His 
 anointed." The times of God's special interference 
 have been marked by two characteristics — an intensity 
 of wickedness, and an intensity on the part of God's 
 people. When Jezebel sets up her altars and Elijah 
 is exceeding jealous for the Lord, the fire falls. When 
 malignant slayers of Christ are jubilant and disciples 
 aj:e of one accord, the fire falls again. And if, in these 
 times of evil, men and seducers waxing worse and 
 worse, the Church shall keep herself pure and intense, 
 the fire shall fall again. Oh, the hour of victory is 
 nearer to-day than it ever was. In some respects it 
 
THE HOLY WAR. 
 
 215 
 
 may be night now, but ask the watchman, " What of 
 the night ? " and he replies, " The morning cometh." 
 It cometh, and ere long we shall see it bathing Lebanon 
 in its light, gleaming across the waves of the Medi- 
 terranean .Saa, sparkling from the summit of the 
 snow-clad Alps, playing around the roots of the 
 Himalaya, leaping in beauty on the white-crested 
 billows of the Atlantic, vermilioning with its hues the 
 majestic peaks of the Rocky Mountains, flashing its 
 glories over the millions of Japan and the nations of 
 the Orient ; and then shall a regenerated world rise to 
 tell the stars the wondrous story, while from every 
 mountain and every valley, every island and every 
 shore, redeemed men cry to each other, " Hallelujah ! " 
 and the hierarchies of the sky join them in swelling 
 the chorus that shakes the pillars of creation. 
 
 Vs 
 ah 
 en 
 )les 
 
 -^ 
 
 it 
 
V 
 
 1 
 
 W- 
 
 
 M' 
 
 
 
 ) 
 
 Hi-UH 
 
 XVI. 
 
 THE ARK OF GOD'S STRENGTH. 
 
 "Arise, O Lord, into Thy rest; Thou, and the ark of Thy 
 strength. Let Thy priests be clothed with righteousness ; and let 
 Thy saints shout for joy. For Thy servant David's sake turn not 
 away the face of Thine anointed." — Psalm cxxxii. 8-10. 
 
 THE authorship of this Psahii is not known with 
 certainty, but many circumstances seem to point 
 or attribute it to Solomon. It is supposed that it was 
 sung by the Jewish pilgrims in their journeys to 
 Jerusalem, to present themselves before the Lord. 
 " Thrice every year, at the beginning and at the close 
 of the wheat harvest, and again when the grapes were 
 gathered and the wine was made, 'jvery son of the law 
 had to appear before God." They went up with singing. 
 Isaiah refers to this when he says, " Ye shall have a 
 song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; 
 and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to 
 come into the mountain of the Lord, to the mighty One 
 of Israel." (Isa. xxx. 29.) It is supposed also that at 
 the dedication of the temple, ere the glorious prayer 
 recorded in the 6th chapter of 2nd Chronicles was 
 oflfered up, this Psalm was chanted. The mention of 
 the temple at once reminds us of the great want of the 
 kingdom on which Solomon entered when but a youth 
 nineteen years of age. The ancient wars were over ; 
 
THE ARK OF GODS SfUENGTH. 
 
 217 
 
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 the enemies of the nation were subdued ; the govern- 
 ment in all its offices, and in its hold upon the affec- 
 tions of the people, was mature and strong ; but it 
 needed a temple in which the ark of God should be 
 guarded, and the services of religion should be 
 decorously performed. To that great work the king 
 addressed himself. The labors of Tyrian workmen, 
 under the superintendence of their sovereign, were 
 enlisted in it. The mighty forests of cedar, which 
 nodded like crests upon the sides of Lebanon, were cut 
 down and hewn by busy multitudes to form planks 
 and pillars for the sacred structure. Quarries were 
 opened in the limestone regions upon a spur of which 
 Jerusalem is built; and in these excavations, which 
 were discovered a few years ago by accident, the marks 
 of saw and chisel fresh upon them, these immense 
 stones were cut out one by one, that were destined to 
 beautify the city of God and to guard the mountain 
 of His holiness. Foundries were established for the 
 casting of brazen vessels, and with such sagacity was 
 this whole complicated work arranged, that the temple 
 was virtually finished before it was begun ; for with- 
 out the sound of hammer or of axe, in silence and in 
 majesty, like a rapt prophet's vision, the temple of the 
 Lord arose. It was the noblest structure in the world. 
 As it appeared on Mount Moriah, surrounded with 
 -xleamine: white walls of marble, and rcarinjj in the 
 highest terrace a splendid structure burning with 
 gold, it seemed itself a great altar whose fires rose 
 perpetually to heaven. The scene displayed when 
 this edifice was consecrated stands prominently forth 
 15 
 
m 
 m 
 
 Pt 
 
 ii 
 
 218 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 from the history of the Hebrew people. The nation 
 marched in long and dense procession ; the tribe of 
 Levi, with their floating white garments, in the van ; 
 while the king, the princes, and the heads of tribes 
 followed the august symbols of their national faith. 
 As they reached the holy mount, the musicians greeted 
 them with triumphal blasts of trumpets and cymbals, 
 and at last came a solemn company bearing the ark of 
 the covenant to the inner shrine, beneath the wings of 
 the gigantic cherubim, Solomon, kneeling down, 
 poured forth a prayer such as the most tender inspira- 
 tion of his father never surpassed, and as he closed 
 with the impressive words : " Now therefore arise, 
 Lord God, into Thy resting place, Thou, and the ark of 
 Thy strength ; let Thy priests, O Lord God, be clothed 
 with salvation, and let Thy saints rejoice in goodness. 
 O Lord God, turn not away the face of Thine 
 anointed ; remember the mercies of David Thy ser- 
 vant," " the tire came down from heaven, and con- 
 sumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices ; and the 
 glory of the Lord filled the house. And the priests 
 could not enter into the house of the Lord, because 
 the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house. 
 And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire 
 came down, and the glory of the Lord upon the house, 
 they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground 
 upon the pavement, and worshipped, and praised the 
 Lord, saying, For He is good ; for His mercy endureth 
 for ever." (2 Chion. vi. 41-42 ; vii. 1-3.) 
 
 And now, coming to our text, let us gather up its 
 lesson. You perceive how naturally it falls into two 
 
 "iffl'' 
 
j^fwar 
 
 THE ARK OF GODS STRENGTH. 
 
 219 
 
 its 
 two 
 
 « 
 
 I ,.,l 
 
 parts — the first having reference to God, the second to 
 man ; the one, a prayer that God would arise to bless 
 His people, and give them a token of His presence ; 
 the other, that His priests may be invested with 
 righteousness, and that all his saints may be joyous in 
 their God. 
 
 First, the reference to God, " Arise, O Lord." What 
 deep earnestness and importunity are couched in that 
 word "Arise." "Arise," for the king knew that without 
 God's presence and blessing the house would be empty 
 of all that could make it really excellent, the assembly 
 vain, and the bleeding sacrifice lie unconsumed upon 
 the altar. To what purpose is the glory of the build- 
 inir ? What worth belonofs to marble walls and 
 covered porticos ; the pillars, wreathed with golden 
 pomegranates; the deep green cedar, tall palm and 
 hoary olive ; altars and molten seas, supported by 
 brazen oxen ; carvings of palms and flowers and 
 cherubim ; veils of blue and purple and crimson, and 
 garnishings of all manner of precious stones? "Arise," 
 was therefore the earnest call of the assembly, that a 
 more excellent glory might give heavenly grandeur to 
 the whole. And " Arise ! " the singers cried, that an 
 impetus yet further might be given to praise, to 
 magnify the Lord. God's presence would enable the 
 people yet again to say, " He is the rock, His work is 
 perfect, for all His ways are judgment ; a God of truth 
 and without iniquity, just and right is he." " Arise ! " 
 was the call ; just as Moses, the man of God, began his 
 prayer when the ark set forward, " Rise up, Lord, and 
 let Thine enemies be scattered, and let them that hate 
 
 
220 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 I 
 
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 II 
 
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 i 
 
 Thee flee before Thee ; " and when it rested he said, 
 " Return, O Lord, to the many thousands of Israel." 
 Or, as when David sunt^ on brinpjing the ark from the 
 house of Obed-edom, " Let God arise ; let His enemies 
 be scattered ; let them also that hate Him flee before 
 Him." The king was importunate ; the musicians, 
 the people were importunate. God's servants are ever 
 so in prayer, pressing upon Him His promi.ses. His 
 presence is our life. 
 
 If you would see the state of the people who have 
 not sought the Lord, look abroad on scattered Israel — 
 trodden under foot, a by-word and a hissing. If you 
 would learn the history of a people, among whom God 
 dwells, reverse the sad picture, and look at Israel in 
 the palmy days of prosperity, when Jehovah's smile 
 spread peace and plenty through the land, and Israel 
 was a tree planted by the rivers of water, bearing the 
 unwithering leaf, and prospering in all she did. But 
 observe, Solomon prays that God may give them a 
 token of His favour : " Arise, Lord, Thou and the ark 
 of Thy strength." You are doubtless famili ? with the 
 history of the ark of God — how it was formed by His 
 command after a heavenly pattern ; how within it 
 were the rod of Aaron that miraculously budded ; a 
 golden pot, containing a specimen of the manna of the 
 desert, and the tables of the covenant ; on its top the 
 mercy-seat, with the cherubim at either end, beneath 
 whose extended wings was the darkness in which God 
 said that He would dwell. You know how it was carried 
 before the Israelites in their wanderings ; how it rested 
 in the taberracle when they were settled in the land 
 
 
THE ARK OF GOD'S STRENGTH. 
 
 221 
 
 •k 
 
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 it 
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 of promise ; how it fell, for Israel's disobedience, into 
 the hands of the Philistines. You have read of the 
 sin of the people of Beth-Shemesh, who looked into the 
 ark ; of its being carried to the house of Ahinadab ; 
 of its removal thence by David, who, in alarm, because 
 of Uzziah's death placed it in the house of Obed-edom; 
 thence to the tabernacle pitched for it by David, where 
 it remained till the completion of the temple by Solo- 
 mon. That ark was the symbol and pledge of the 
 divine presence, and it was an eminent type of Christ. 
 It was formed of the most durable material, shadowing 
 the nature of Jesus, which death could not hold, nor 
 decay effect; it was overlaid within and without with 
 gold, emblematic of His divine nature, which adorned, 
 in the eyes of His people, with heavenly glory His 
 every word and action. It contained the tables of the 
 law ; Christ had the law in His heart, magnified and 
 made it honorable. It had the pot of manna ; Christ 
 has food and nourishment for hungry souls. It had 
 Aaron's rod that budded ; figurative of the life which 
 is infused by Christ to poor, dead souls, who are as 
 insensible by nature as the rod severed from the parent 
 stem. Casting Jewish thought then into the Christian 
 moulds, this prayer is to us as if we said : " Arise, O 
 God,. Thou and Thy dear Son, be present with us ; let 
 us behold Thee with an eye of faith ; speak to us as 
 Thou didst to Israel. Open to us a way through the 
 danofers and difhculties of life and the horrors of death 
 by Jesus, as Thou didst for Israel in the wilderness, 
 and through Jordan, by the ark. Let Christ be here, 
 that the Dagon of self may fall and be broken before 
 
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 222 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 Him ; let Christ be here as in Obed-edom's house, that 
 they who love Him may be blessed. Make us to 
 remember that, as a plague was on the Philistines for 
 lightl}' esteeming the ark, so will a plague be en any 
 of us who lightly esteem Jesus ; humble us, lest we 
 presume to pry into the secrets of the Lord ; warn us 
 by the hand of Thy wrath, that came on the men of 
 Beth-Shemesh, who dared to look into the ark. Feed 
 us with heavenly manna, teach us with heavenly 
 doctrine, send us to follow Christ, our Ark ; give us 
 grace to say, " Whither Thou goest I will go, and 
 where Thou lodgest I will lodge ; Thy people shall be 
 my people, and thy God my God." But to be more 
 particular, in the dwelling of God in the ark, or in the 
 token of his favour vouch.safed in this way, there was 
 a threefold similarity to our coming to the temple to 
 worship God. There was meeting with God, commu- 
 nion with God, and instruction from God. These were 
 the purpose of the solemnities observed before the ark, 
 and they are also the great objects to be always asso- 
 ciated with the public assemblies of the Christian 
 Church. lu them we meet with God, He has engaged 
 His gracious presence, " Where two or three are met 
 together, there am I in their midst." He comes in 
 answer to the prayers of His people, blessing His word, 
 manifesting His power to save, and filling their hearts 
 with the conviction, " God is in this place." Oh, with 
 what devoutness of spirit would our congregations be 
 marked, if each one coming up, felt, " I am going to 
 meet God." 
 
 But there is not a mere interview, there is coramu- 
 
 «^ 
 

 THE ARK OF god's STRENGTH. 
 
 S2.1 
 
 nion with God. Communion is the outgoing of man's 
 spiritual nature, the activity of his thoughts and affec- 
 tions. He communes with God in the expression of 
 gratitude, or trust or penitence; in contemplating the 
 character of God, the wonders of His providence, the 
 blessings of His gtace. There is just so much of 
 worship in our meetings, and no more, as there is of 
 actual individual converse with God. And then there 
 is instruction. Heal religion is founded on knowledge, 
 its sustenance is the truth as it is in Jesus. The Church 
 is Christ's school, where we learn of His doctrine and 
 sacred will. The increase of our knowledge consists 
 not only in the addition to the store of truths received 
 into the mind, but in the increase of their spiritual 
 authority over us. When Sir M. Hale was asked why 
 he, a learned man, went to hear a very simple bub 
 godly minister, he said, " I go for impression, not for 
 information." It were well if the same feeling largely 
 animated the Church, and that she should continually 
 say, " Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God ; 
 Thy Spirit is good, lead me into the laud of upright- 
 ness." 
 
 Again, the ark was the symbol of the divine pre- 
 sence with His people. We have not now the glory 
 cloud poised in the heavens above us, but, thank God, 
 the ark is still in the midst of His people. Whenever 
 the world is convinced of sin ; when the saints are fer- 
 vent in prayer and diligent in seeking the good of 
 souls; when the giddy are arrested in their whirl of 
 gaiety ; when the callous are melted, the obstinate per- 
 suaded, the doubting assured, and the despairing 
 
If 
 
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 224 
 
 SEllMOKS ON THE CHUlSTlAN LIFE. 
 
 i 
 
 blessed ; when believers are quickened into new life ; 
 when the soul is humbled under a sense of un worthi- 
 ness and overwhelmed with visions of the love of God ; 
 when the false confidences of the heart are shivered, 
 and we are enabled to rely on Jesus only ; when love 
 glows with intenser heat, and under its fervid influence 
 we are led to consecrate ourselves afresh to God ; then 
 we have unmistakable evidence of the presence of 
 God, that the Ark — Christ Jesus — is fulfilling His 
 promi.'-jo^ " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end 
 of thi; world." 
 
 Further, the ark was the defence of God's people. 
 What were rolling seas and rushing rivers ; what were 
 hosts of warlike enemies ; what the shield, the bow, 
 the chariots of war, to Israel, while the ark abode 
 with them and they were loyal to Jehovah ? On every 
 occasion they could sing, " The Lord is our strength 
 and song, and He is become our salvation. Thy right 
 hand, Lord, is become glorious in power. Thy right 
 hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy." And 
 God is still the shield and covering of His people. He 
 has warded off many a blow, and put to flight our foes. 
 Speak we of His Church, the gates of hell shall not 
 prevail against it; or speak we of individual Chris- 
 tians, God is a wall of Are round about them. 
 
 " Angels your march oppose, 
 Who still in strength excel, 
 Your secret, sworn, eternal foes, 
 Countless, invisible. 
 
 Finally, the ark was a medium of revelation. 
 Throughout all the journeyings of the Israelites in the 
 
1 
 
 THE ARK OF GODS STttKNGTH. 
 
 225 
 
 rht 
 rht 
 
 He 
 
 ion. 
 the 
 
 wilderness it was a channel of conmiunieation between 
 God and His people, either in the announcement of His 
 will or in the emphatic expressionsof His disapproval. 
 And does not God still teach His people by His Word 
 and Spirit ? True, the Spirit makes no new revela- 
 tion. It is His function to make clear the revelation 
 that already exists. It is His office to take of the 
 things of Christ and show them unto us. " The Holy 
 Ghost, whoui the Father will send in My name, shall 
 teach you all things, and bring all things to your 
 remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you." 
 Brethren, it is our privilege to be baptized in spiritual 
 light and influence. Give us this, and we shall hear 
 less of speculation and more of faith ; less of theoriz- 
 ing, anei more of practice ; less of doubts and scepti- 
 cism, and more of confidence and activity. The 
 refuges and strongholds of bigotry will be invaded and 
 exposed, the proud vauntings of ecclesiastical self- 
 glorying will cease, and all the churches of the land 
 will more practically recognize the fact that their great 
 mission is one, and the power l)y which all are to 
 accomplish that mission the same. " Not by might 
 nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord." 
 
 And now, in the second place, consider this prayer 
 in its reference to man. "Let Thy people be clothed 
 with righteousness, and Thy priests shout aloud for 
 joy." The priests alluded to by Solomon were the 
 Levitical priests. They were clothed in ephods, and 
 offered up sacrifices continually for sin. They were 
 also the accredited teachers of the people. A long 
 description of their robes is given in the Ipw. The 
 
m 
 
 iii'^<i 
 
 
 r> 
 
 226 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 ephod of the high priest was richly embroidered with 
 various colors, interlaced with gold and spangled with 
 precious stones, on which were engraved the names of 
 the tribes of Israel. The ephod worn by the common 
 priests was of fine linen, but without the riches or the 
 adorning of that of the high priest. In the New 
 Testament the whole relation of man to priesthood is 
 changed, Jesus Christ is a priest forever. He was a 
 sacriticing priest. His altar was Calvary, His own 
 blood the atonement ; and having offered up Himself 
 for sin. He passed into the heavens to pray for us as 
 the Priestly Mediator of the New Testament covenant. 
 Some see an analogy between the Jewish priest and 
 the Christian pastor ; but it seems to me, that if there is 
 any office under the old covenant that answers to that 
 of a pastor amongst us, it is the Levite that waited 
 upon the priest. There is not a word in the New 
 Testament that warrants us in calling any one priest, 
 save Jesus Christ, and His own people, who, in a spi- 
 ritual sense, are a royal priesthood. The fact is, 
 there is no religion in the world — certainly none that 
 prevails amongst any of the celebrated nations — that 
 has not priests, exo pt Christianity. Priests sacrifice 
 for the people; we refer them to the sacrifice of 
 another. They propose to be mediators, through whom 
 the Deity must be addressed ; we teach them to look 
 only at a heavenly Mediator, and in His name to 
 approach God's mercy-seat for themselves. They 
 study to conceal the mysteries of religion ; we labor to 
 make them known. They strive to keep the people 
 in darkness and to stifle inquiry ; we make it our 
 
 ■ 
 
THE ARK OF GOD*S STRENGTH. 
 
 227 
 
 business to enlighten them, urging them to search the 
 Scriptures. And yet I am afraid that some lapse in 
 what is the very origin of priestcraft, namely, doing 
 religious duty by proxy. But surely the minister 
 cannot pray in your stead, cannot perfect holiness in 
 the fear of the Lord in your stead, cannot let your 
 light shine before men, cannot take your place before 
 God. Nay, in this work you are all priests, to offer 
 up acceptable sacrifices to the Lord. So that this 
 prayer, " Let Thy priests be clothed with righteous- 
 ness, and Thy saints shout aloud for joy," refers to all 
 believers. 
 
 Now, I may take this term righteousness in two 
 aspects. I mp-v interpret it by the wo»''' rightneas. 
 Let thy people be clothed, girt about with right ; let 
 them be right in doctrine, right in life, right in pro- 
 fession and in practice, in devotion and in business. 
 Let them be clothed with the garment of honesty in 
 trade, with correctness in society, with charity in 
 judgment, with sincerity in opinion, with humility in 
 profession. It is well to contend earnestly for the 
 faith. But faith without works is dead. Oh, it were 
 a grand thing if we could say of every one in the 
 Church, he is absolutely right. Then I may give the 
 wordamore evangelical sense. Clothed with righteous- 
 ness, with purity. The righteousness of saints is 
 compared to fine linen, pure and white. Christ loved 
 the Church and gave Himself for il. " If we walk in 
 the light, as He is in the light," we have fellowship 
 one with another, and the blood of Christ cleanseth 
 UA from all sin." God's people are a holy people. They 
 
rm' 
 
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 i «' > ^' 
 
 228 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 are in the next sentence called saints — holy ones. " Let 
 Thy saints shout aloud for joy." And surely Israel 
 had cause for joy as they stood around their kintr. 
 The temple was dedicated at a time when all the 
 land was clothed in beauty. The olive and the palm 
 the fig tree and the cedar, the myrtle and the box, the 
 pomegranated and the date, all had put on their 
 royal robes. The corn-fields told of the munificence 
 of God, and the vineyards spake of his exceeding 
 beauty. The gentle stream murmured a song of praise, 
 and the deeprollingriver was voiced with thankfulness. 
 And as they stood there at peace with all, and with 
 the gorgeous temple before them, and thought of their 
 deliverance from the brick kilns of Egypt, and the 
 dangers of the wilderness, and the sword's bow of the 
 Canaanite,and rightheartily would they say,"Amen," to 
 the words of Solomon. " Blessed be the Lord God of 
 Israel, who hath with His hands fulfilled that which 
 He spake with His mouth to my father David." But, 
 brethren, God's character is unfolded to us in His son 
 far more than in the glory of the field and flood. 
 Shall we not, then, rejoice? They had shadows and 
 rej oiced therein we have substance ; Christhascome ! He 
 has died for us, He has risen again, He is at the right 
 hand of God. Shall we not, then, rejoice ? Eve had 
 joy in the promise of Christ given to her ; Abraham re- 
 joiced to see His day by faith, and was glad ; the 
 Psalmist rejoiced to sing the praises of Him who was 
 to come ; the prophets, seeing His glory brightening 
 the horizon, rejoiced to speak of Him. At His first 
 advent heaven ran over with joy, and shepherds of 
 
 J 
 
THE ARK OF GODS STRENGTH. 
 
 229 
 
 was 
 
 Bethlehem caught the hallelujahs of the angelic 
 messengers ; Mary said, " My .spirit doth rejoice in God 
 my Saviour ;'" Anna, the prophetess, was glad ; Simeon 
 said, " Now, Lord, lettest thou Thy servant depart in 
 peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation ; " John 
 the Baptist rejoiced ; the people rejoiced when He en- 
 tered Jerusalem ; the disciples when He rose from the 
 dead; the Eunuch, when Philip preached to him. And 
 with this godl}'- company would we hold fellowship of 
 joy to-day. 
 
 " ' Worthy the Lamb that died,' they cry, 
 ' To be exalted thus ! ' 
 * Worthy the Lamb, ' our hearts reply, 
 ' For He was slain for us ! ' " 
 
 Christianity is the only reli;j;ion of gladness. Rome 
 prescriljes dreary penances. Did you ever see a ree.lly 
 happy-looking papist ? Mohammedanism is sombre as 
 the grave. Heathenism wails out a miserere. Infidel- 
 ity in all its forms is but the outbreathing of despair. 
 The Christian relifjion alone can sing in the midst of 
 trouble. Rejoice evermore. Again I say rejoice. 
 This joy is a condition of soul arising out of the 
 harmonization of all its powers with the will of God, 
 It is different from happiness. Happiness is born of 
 pleasant surroundings. It is the child of wealth or 
 good health, or troops of friends, or of some other 
 form of prosperity. But joy sings in the dark as well 
 as in the light ; in the prison as well as on the throne ; 
 in the lone island of the sea as well as in the palace ; 
 in the hour of death as well as when the eye flashes 
 with the fire of life. Deep calls to deep, waves and 
 
230 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 ;i t 
 
 U 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 It 
 
 billows go over the Psalmist's soul, yet his soul 
 makes her boast in the Lord. Famine stalks lean and 
 gaunt through the land, the vine purples not into 
 grape, no flocks gambol in the fields, the stall is 
 empty of the herd, yet godly Habakkuk cries, "I 
 will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the 
 tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto 
 me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved." 
 Apostles are scourged, but every cutting lash only ex- 
 tracts praise for the grace that gives strength to bear 
 it. Martyrs are burned, yet the flames onh'^ become 
 chariots in which their exultant spirits rise to the 
 waitinij heavens. Common Christians rise into un- 
 common saints, as the furnace consumes the dross and 
 refines their graces. The Church, all through the 
 ages, has marched to the music of the skies, and in no 
 feeble measure has triumphed through her songs. Let 
 thy saints shout aloud for joy. 
 
 i I'm 1^ 
 
 I m 9 
 
XVII. 
 
 CHRIST'S KINGDOi*!. 
 
 " My kingdom is not of this world : if my kingdom were of this 
 world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered 
 to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence." — John 
 xviii. 36. 
 
 I SEE an ordinary Jewish peasant, a little over 
 thirty years of age. He has nothing about Him 
 to distinguish Him from hundreds of other men 
 except, perhaps, His extreme poverty. He is without 
 a home, without patrimony, without a pillow on 
 which to lay His head. And yet this weary, homeless 
 young man calls himself a king, and speaks of a 
 kingdom peculiarly His own ; different from all 
 earthly kingdoms ; better and more enduring, because 
 heavenly and divine. Have you never noticed with 
 what naturalness and, as men would say, with what 
 sublime audacity Christ asserted for Himself the most 
 extraordinary claims ? There was no attribute or 
 office of supremacy which He did not appropriate ; no 
 necessity of the race, no aspiration of the world's 
 great heart, which He did not propose to satisfy from 
 Himself. Hear Him, " I am the Light of the world," 
 " I will draw all men unto Me." " In the last day, the 
 great day of the feast, Jesus stood in the midst, and 
 cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and 
 
 il 
 
W: 
 
 .i. 
 
 232 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 Hi 
 
 . \ 
 
 >-- 
 
 drink." Greece had an illustrious triumvirate of 
 sages, but fancy Aristotle saying, " I am the light of 
 the world." Imagine Socrates crying to the heavy- 
 hearted, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are 
 heavy laden, and I will give you rest ; " or conceive 
 of Plato saying, " I am the resurrection and the life." 
 The very idea is unthinkable, and yet these amazing 
 declarations fall as naturally from the lips of Christ 
 as dew falls from the grateful flowers. Up to the 
 time of the Man of Nazareth, Moses was the chiefest 
 of the Hebrews ; but Christ put the crown upon him 
 when He said, He wrote of Me." David was the 
 royalist of kings ; but he was Christ's subject, and 
 called Him Lord. Jonah was a prophet of renown, 
 and Solomon was a synonym for all regal splendor ; 
 but Christ said a greater than Jonah or Solomon is 
 here. " My kingdom is not of this world." Very 
 emphatic is that expression " Not of this world." It 
 was not the product of the historic forces of the 
 world such as gave rise to the kingdoms of men. It 
 would not require the Christ of God to construct such. 
 That was not what the world wanted. That had 
 been tried already. Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Csesar 
 and Alexander had established universal empires, 
 and we know the result. It never raii^ed man above 
 the corruption and degradation into which he had 
 fallen. And could you to-day reach a higher standard ? 
 Could you give men all that Socialism demands or 
 contends for — education, freedom, abundance of labor, 
 a fair remuneration, a comfortable cottage, and a few 
 works of art — you would doubtless do a great deal for 
 
CHRIST S KINGDOM. 
 
 233 
 
 re 
 
 ve 
 
 » 
 
 man ; but, after all, you would only be dealing with 
 the circumstances of the man, not with the man him- 
 self. You would give the patient a softer bed, but 
 you would not cure his disease. " My kin»j;dom is not 
 of this world." With the word kingdom, in an earthly 
 sense, we associate something material, the idea ot the 
 territory reigned over, rather than the reign itself ; 
 power as expressed by fleets and armies ; luxury and 
 state, as displayed in palaces and august ceremonies ; 
 a succession to the throne, elective or hereditary. But 
 Christ's kingdom is limited by no geographical boun- 
 daries ; it is cumbered by no pomp of thrones, diadems 
 or sceptres. It is a kingdom in which the subjects do 
 not elect their king ; it knows nothing of the inequali- 
 ties of hereditary rank ; in it no man can be a 
 sovereign, and no man can be a serf ; the king must 
 enter by the same door that admits the peasant, and 
 the admitted peasant is equal to the king, for he is a 
 fellow-citizen of the saints, and a partaker of all the 
 privileges of the sons of God. It is a spiritual king- 
 dom. True, it sustains relations to material things ; 
 it worships in houses built by human hands ; it 
 employs the ministry of men ; it expresses itself in 
 written creeds ; its Bible is printed as other books ; 
 its sacraments make use of material elements. But 
 the kingdom of God does not consist in these out- 
 ward things. "It is not meat and drink, but right- 
 eousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." The 
 " righteousness which is through the faith of Christ," 
 imparted by the Holy Ghost'; " and peace," the deep, 
 holy calm which follows faith, unruffled tranquillity, 
 16 
 
i^" 
 
 234 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHIUSTIAN LIFE. 
 
 if-' 
 
 Ji) 
 
 a 
 
 undisturbed serenity amidst all outward agitations ; 
 " and joy in the Holy Ghost," when the Spirit 
 dwells within the heart, bearing witness of adoption, 
 and revealing Christ as the hope of glory. The vic- 
 tories of this kingdom are all spiritual. " The weapons 
 of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual, to the 
 pulling down of the strongholds of sin and Satan." 
 The voice of the cannon is never heard within its bul- 
 warks ; the sword of steel is never unsheathed in any 
 of its battles ; the bloody flag is never unfurled within 
 its dominions. No wounds are felt but the wounds 
 which the Spirit's sword makes. No cries of agony 
 are heard but the captives struggling for deliverance 
 from the powers of darkness. Its worship is spiritual. 
 " God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must 
 worship Him in spirit and in truth." Its political 
 relationships are spiritual. It has no necessary con- 
 nection with any state, or it may be associated with 
 any form of government. It may exist under the 
 most cruel despotism or the most rabid republic. The 
 most beniszn patronage of the state cannot aid it; the 
 most furious persecution cannot retard it. It lives 
 and moves and has its being in Him by whom kings 
 reign and princes decree judgment. Fire and sword 
 cannot waste it ; combined ingenuity and malignity 
 cannot destroy it. Its "life is hid with Christ in God, 
 and when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then 
 shall we also appear with Him in glory." But not 
 only is it a spiritual kingdom ; it is a kingdom of 
 power. Look at its early history. Let me read to 
 you what I regard as one of the most wonderful pas- 
 
 i 
 
 ^ 
 
CHRIST K KINGDOM. 
 
 235 
 
 sages in the New Testament. But before I read it, 
 look about you, and consider the character of the 
 reli*,'ions and nations of the world. In Palestine, a 
 dead church, split up into rival sects, hating each 
 other, but all combining in their hatred of the new 
 religion ; in Greece, godless philosophy ; in Rome, 
 voluptuous and unnameable vice of every degree ; 
 beyond, a great black bank of heathenism, a world 
 Ivinfj in the arms of the wicked one. Here, on a Gali- 
 lean mountain, eleven simple men headed hy a native 
 of Nazareth, professing a faith every article of which 
 was calculated to set on fire the bigotry of the Jew, 
 to excite the ridicule of the Greek, to arouse the 
 hatred of the Roman, to provoke the atrocity of the 
 the barbarian. But, looking out into the darkness of 
 the nations, " the eleven disciples went away into 
 Galilee into a mountain where Jesus had appointed 
 them," etc. (Matt, xxviii. 16, 20.) That was the 
 inausuration of the grandest institution our world has 
 ever known, and those eleven men accomplished the 
 mightiest revolution the world has ever witnessed. It 
 pervaded Judea, it irradiated Asia Minor, it crossed 
 over to the shores of Europe, that tirst having risen 
 like the sun in the east, it might ascend to its zenith 
 and illumine all the kingdoms of the west. It seized 
 upon the great cities of two continents ; it captured 
 Antioch, converted its name to Theopolis, the city of 
 God, made it the home of Ignatius and Chrysostom, 
 and the place where the name of Christian first 
 originated. It entered Ephesus, and gathered a church 
 from the midst of its blooming gardens ; it flew to 
 
 
ir< 
 
 236 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 Thessalonica, the Liverpool of the Levant ; it called at 
 Athens, long enough to deliver the Athenians a nobler 
 oration than Demosthenes ever uttered ; it came at 
 last to Rome, and left converts in Nero's household. 
 
 But come now and look at the influence of this 
 kingdom upon the man. It regenerates men. If so, 
 then its divinity is demonstrated and a new hope, like 
 a morning star, dawns on the vision of humanity. 
 Old Celsus, one of the earliest intidels, objected to 
 Christianity because it undertook impossible things, 
 such, said he, " as making men over again." Why, 
 verily, that is just what it does. It did that when it 
 transformed Saul the persecutor into Saul the mis- 
 sionary and martyr. Contrast Ignatius, Polycarp, 
 Clement and Augustine with the educated gentlemen 
 of the Pagan civilizations ; or contrast Fenelon with 
 Mirabeau, Pascal with Voltaire, Henry Martyn with 
 Thomas Paine. Or, if you choose, compare the dif- 
 ferent periods in the life of the same man — the Bunyan, 
 for instance, who was rebuked for his profanity by a 
 wicked woman, with the Bunyan who, in the person 
 of his Pilgrim, stood on the heights of the delectable 
 mountains, thrilled with the vision of the glory-clad 
 pinnacles of the city of God. We sing a hymn com- 
 
 mencmg 
 
 ' ' Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, 
 That saved a wretch like me." 
 
 and another, 
 
 "One there is above all other — 
 Oh, how He loves — 
 Well deserves the name of brother — 
 Oh, how He loves." 
 
^ 
 
 CHRISTS KINODOM. 
 
 237 
 
 And as the earth rolls on its axis and the Sabbath 
 morning sun rises on the English -speak in t:^ lands 
 which encircle the earth, these hymns salute its light 
 from continent to continent, and from shore to shore, 
 until what were the mornintj sonjjs of John Newton 
 became the evening sonjjs of the Christian world — the 
 same John Newton, who trod the deck of a slave 
 ship and shocked his companions in vice by his pro- 
 fligacy. 
 
 What cannot Christianity do ? Whom cannot it 
 save ? Try it in Japan, and our missionary report 
 tells of an old idolater gloriously converted at the age 
 of ninety-five ; and the same book gives the experience 
 of a convert on her death-bed. Said she, " I have 
 suffered great sickness three times in my life ; in two 
 cases I was afraid to die, and could not sleep day or 
 night ; but now, in this sick-bed, no fear of death 
 troubles my heart. My heart is always in peace. 1 
 can't express the depth of blessing by any word 1 
 know." Try it upon the poor Indian ; and away out 
 at Naas River, in British Columbia, the missionary 
 says, " A woman, very happy when dying, said, ' Jesus, 
 take my hand.'" What a beautiful death! "Jesus, 
 take my hand " — and the Ble>sed One took it and raised 
 her to a throne. At Bella Coola the missionary 
 baptized an Indian lad, calling him Harry Davis. 
 ** The next day," says the missionary, " Harry told me 
 that on the day before his heart seemed as if divided 
 into two rooms, one above the other. The sermon 
 entirely filled the lower room. Then when the hand 
 was placed on the head to baptize him the partition 
 
• 
 
 I 
 
 
 238 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 'it 
 
 gave way, and the undivided heart was filled to over- 
 flowing." Oh, may God break down in like manner 
 all the partitions in our hearts, that our whole being 
 may be filled with all the fulness of God. And thus it 
 is thatfroin the dim past ai nn the illumined present, 
 from the hut of the India, and from the home of the 
 American, from the abode of the Japanese and from 
 the mansion of the European, multiplied proofs come 
 that this Gospel which your mi.ssionaries are preach- 
 ing " is the power of God unto salvation to every 
 one that believeth ; to the Jew first, and also to the 
 Genuile." 
 
 And yet I am told that Christianity is failing. Who 
 tells me so ? Infidelity tells me so. And what is infi- 
 delity ? A murderous hcnd reaching up through the 
 smoke of the pit, to si and blast, to curse and 
 
 destroy. What has it uo. . for the world ? Where 
 are its temples, where its schools and colleges, its hos- 
 pitals and societies of benevolence ? What science or 
 art has it originated ? When did it ever create a single 
 virtue ? What life has it ever assisted to higher holi- 
 ness ? What death has it ever cheered ? None, none! 
 It bewilders, it confuses, it perplexes and tortures and 
 damns. Christianity failing? Yes— with the Bible trans- 
 lated into more than three hundred languages and dia- 
 lects, with missionary stations planted on every shore, 
 with dark continents opened for the heralds of salvation, 
 with long isolated nations unbarring their gates and 
 flinging open their moss-grown portals, with the isles 
 of the sea stretching out their hands to God, with 
 servants and handmaidens on whom the Spirit of God 
 
CUKISTS KINGDOM. 
 
 239 
 
 has been poured out, tlying as on the wings of the 
 wind, to bear the message of salvation to a lost 
 world, with all the appliances of modern science and 
 the activities of modern enterprise and intellect. 
 Christianity is failing, is it ? No, no ! Voltaire said he 
 lived in the twilight of Christianity. He told the truth, 
 though he meant a he. He meont the twilight of the 
 evening; it was the twilight before the morning. Oh, I 
 see her just raismg herself ! There is beauty on her 
 brow, there is lustre in her eye, there is glory on her 
 cheek. 1 see her stepping on the mountains, passing 
 over the plains. I see her fair white hand, with nail- 
 scars and blood -drops on it, stretching down through 
 the clouds of wrath, distributing blessings on the sons 
 of men, lifting helpless sinners from bondage and 
 misery into liberty and joy, and placing them high 
 above seats of anjjels and archangels. And this king- 
 dom shall endure for ever. The bitter ingredient in 
 the cup of kings is that their kingdoms must be left to 
 other people. Where are the mightiest kingdoms of 
 the past ? You walk over the scenes of their greatness, 
 and a voice speaks to you : — 
 
 " Stop, for thy tread is on an empire's dust ; 
 A nation's spoil lies sepulchred below." 
 
 But the kingdom of Christ is an everlasting kingdom. 
 Death cannot destroy it, but only brings it into the 
 immediate presence of the King of righteousness. Its 
 one principle is love, and love is eternal. " They sin 
 who tell us love can die." 
 
I? 
 
 ' 
 
 240 SERMONS ON THE ^^HRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 " O'er every foe v'ctorious, 
 
 Christ on His throne shall rest ; 
 From age to age more glorious, 
 All-blessing and all-blest. 
 
 " The tide of time shall never 
 His. covenant remove ; 
 His name shall stand forever, 
 His great, bt t name of Love." 
 
 And this kingdom is for you. Christ hath opened the 
 kingdom of heaven to all believers. This kingdom 
 may be established in your hearts. Its righteousness 
 and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost may be realized 
 by you. Its principle of love may govern you. It 
 requires no condition but you can practise, no duty 
 but you can perform, no law but you can obey. But 
 oh, the thought that we may reject this kingdom. The 
 throne which we should have occupied may be vacant, 
 the crown which we might have won may be useless, 
 the harp which we might have struck may be silent ; 
 and instead of the everlasting kingdom of light, the 
 everlasting kingdom of darkness ; instead of the eternal 
 song, eternal wailing and gnashing of teeth ; instead of 
 being with Christ and with the spirits of the just made 
 perfect, with the devil and his angels. All that the King 
 requires is that you should choose Him as the Captain 
 cf your salvation ; to grasp His almighty strength, to 
 trust His all-cleansing blood, and you shall be more 
 than conquei'ors through Him that loved you. 
 Workers, work on ; the Master shall call you to your 
 rest. Soldiers, fight on ; and you shall in triumph 
 shout, " 1 have fought the good fight, I have kept the 
 
CHRIST'S KINGDOM. 241 
 
 faith, I have finished my course." This kingdom shall 
 stand forever— everlastinnr joy, everlasting life, ever- 
 lasting songs, everlasting glory, everlasting thrones, 
 everlasoing progress in knowledge, in purity and in 
 happiness : and when incalculable ages shall have passed 
 away, it shall only then be the morning of the ever- 
 lasting day. 
 
 ^i 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
if 
 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 I 
 
 ; 
 
 GOD OUR SHIELD. 
 " I am thy shield and thy exceeding great rewaru." — Gen. xv. 1. 
 
 A SHIELD and a reward ; these two things com- 
 pass man's needs, which are, tirst, protection, 
 and second, the fultihnent of his labors ana aesires. 
 Let us look for a little at what is against us from 
 which we need protection. 
 
 1. Natural forces are against us. 
 
 In some respects nature helps us. The universe is 
 not a mere creation, a mystery, a beauty ; but a thing 
 full of helping thinus for us to use. Spring days, 
 summer hours, passing showers, auiumn fruits, storms 
 and winds, and stars and skies ; the melting, the awe- 
 inspiring, the familiar, the rare, the grand, the minute 
 — we must recognize all these as helps to lift us into 
 better things. Thus Jesus did. He recognized and 
 uj'cd everything. Nou the least escaped Him. Nay, 
 the way He used the least things, the great things He 
 drew from them, left the impressive truth for man that 
 there are no little things. The lily, the bird, the even- 
 ing cloud, the seed of mustard, the leaven, the lish, the 
 scorpion, the mote — all became, in His hand, mighty 
 ministrants to mighty truths and mighty issues. We, 
 too, must learn to search for the helping hands that 
 
GOD OUR SHIELD. 
 
 243 
 
 stretch themselves out to us from every corner of the 
 world. The poet tells us of the footprints on the 
 shore that the forlorn and shipwrecked brother sees, 
 and takes heart again. He uses the footprint as his 
 help. The little weed on the tossed Atlantic came 
 to the distressed Columbus, and he used its help 
 and found America ; and the astronomer used the 
 aberration of the heavenly body, and it put him on 
 the track of bountiful prophecy and quick discovery. 
 But while in these senses nature helps us, in other 
 respects she is cruel and unsparing. She has a power 
 that is over us rather than under us. We turn some 
 of her forces to our use — shut up a little of her steam, 
 gather a little of her electricity, and yoke them to our 
 service ; we make her water drive our wheels and 
 her wind propel our ships ; yet how far otf we are 
 from her subjugation, and how feeble are we before 
 her. Her lightning, her earthquakes, her cyclones — 
 how feeble are we before these. Do what we will, 
 water will drown, and gravitation will dash in pieces, 
 and heat will slay, and gases will poison. No degree 
 of obedience to natural laws will prevent oxygen from 
 consuming tissue, or strengthen the walls of the jugular 
 vein, or take away the power from the wasting years. 
 We stand ever in the presence of destroying, relentless 
 forces, which v/e may outsail or outmaster up to a 
 given point ; but beyond that we are swept along tneir 
 fixed and fatal current. What, then, can give me pro- 
 tection from all this ? God can, and God does ; by 
 assuring us that we belong to Him rather than to 
 nature. When that assurance comes, I put myself 
 
.f— 
 
 fN«' 
 
 244 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 i! 
 
 into His larger order; I join the stronger power, and 
 link myself to its fortunes. The great question for us 
 to ask and answer is, do we belong to the material or 
 to the spiritual ? If the material world is all that 
 includes me, then I am no more than one of its grains 
 of dust, and must at last meet the fate of a grain of 
 dust. But if spirit has an existence of its own, if 
 there is a spiritual order with God at its head, then I 
 belong to that order ; there is my destiny, and there 
 my daily life. And if I accept God's law as the rule 
 of life, and if I am harmonized with it through faith 
 in Christ, then nature may threaten to destroy me, but 
 I say to her, " You may slay my body with your laws, 
 and you will at last ; but you will not slay me, nor 
 can you greatly hurt me. I do not belong to you, I 
 belong to God." 
 
 2. There are in this present life inevitable evils, and 
 God is our shield against them. There comes a time 
 in the life of every human being who does not die in 
 early or middle life, when the law of weakness and 
 decay is felt in its operations. Youth is sprightly; 
 from youth on up to a certain point there is a sense 
 of strength and adequacy. We ride on the crest of 
 the waves of life. But hy-and-by we change in feel- 
 ing and in fact. The step grows slower, the eyes lose 
 their keenness, the voice loses its soft vibrations, 
 recovery from illness is slower. The tables are turned 
 against us. Heretofore life, the world, the body have 
 been for us ; now they are against us. Poetry may 
 flinjx around this fact sentiment and sonjj, but 
 
 " Whatever poet, orator or sage 
 May say of it, old age is still old age." 
 
GOD OUR SHIELD. 
 
 245 
 
 And unless you can meet this fact vvitli some 
 larger fact, philosophy and will power and habit 
 and high flow of spirit will not kill the element of 
 sadness that is in it. Apart from God there is nothing 
 left for us but brute-like endurance or some phantom 
 show of cheer and will ; nothing but sentiments that 
 are bound up in the dissolving process, and that neces- 
 sarily come to an end when most needed. But God 
 comes to me in this crisis, when powers are failing, 
 and death is putting his seal upon the eyes, and He 
 calls Himself the " I Am," in other words, He calls 
 Himself existence. The very name is an argument. 
 Existence says to decaying, dying man, " I am your 
 shield." " I made you," He says, " but you shall not 
 perish because I put you into a perishing body. Be- 
 cause I made you, you cannot perish. Because I am 
 the everliving God, you shall live also." Aye, but 
 that life that lives on may be terrible. But listen, as 
 Christ says, " I am come that they might have life, 
 and that they might have it more abundantly." He 
 has purchased for those who love Him an eternal life, 
 the germ of which is begotten in the believer by the 
 Holy Ghost. *' Ye are dead, and your life is hid with 
 Christ in God." Here is our protection against evil. 
 Because He lives, we shall live also — live in Him, 
 live with Him for evermore. This hope is " an anchor 
 to our faith, both sure and steadfast." 
 
 3. There are calamities in life against which God is 
 a shield. I confess to you that when I take the ordi- 
 nary average life, I hardly know how men stand up 
 under it. Take a life where one pair of hands is all there 
 
246 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 .. ► 
 
 is between the family and starvation, with the chances 
 of sickness and no work. Or take the every-day catas- 
 trophes — loss of property, children, wife or husband ; 
 take the life-long sorrows — the drunken son, the daugh- 
 ter gone to shame, the marriage that has turned into dis- 
 gust; it is not easy to walk steady through the years 
 with such burdens on one. Think of the secret sorrows, 
 of the disappointments, of the failure of plans, that come 
 in life. All these make up a heavy burden. Sir 
 Walter Scott said, " It is enough to have lived." But 
 very few can say that. Now, the fact is, let a man 
 fight never so bravely, let him conjure up courage and 
 will power — and there is a mighty overcoming force in 
 these — but he cannot defend himself as he ought and 
 as he wishes against calamities without God. And I 
 thank God that He does become the strength of His 
 people amid such influences. Shakespeare caught this 
 truth when he makes Hamlet say, in view of what he 
 has to do and bear, " I'll go pray." Put God beside 
 human sorrow and human burdens and human care, 
 and the whole sphere and scene of life is changed, 
 lighted into a realm of power and wisdom and glad- 
 ness. Some one has said that the most of the Psalms 
 were written in a wilderness ; that most of the epistles 
 were indited in a prison. The very calamities of life 
 have been made a blessing to many of you. You were 
 walking towards a precipice over which you were 
 likely to fall, when God wrestled with you by some 
 discipline of trial, and in the conflict your eyes were 
 opened to your danger, and you fell back into the arms 
 of the pitying God. " No sorrow seemeth at the pre- 
 sent to be joyous, but grievous ; nevertheless, after- 
 
GOD OUR SHIELD. 
 
 247 
 
 pre- 
 Ifter- 
 
 ward it worketh the peaceable fruits of riijhteousness 
 to them who are exercised thereby." 
 
 4. God is our shield against ourselves. It is often 
 said man is his own worst enemy. That is usually 
 applied to men who have loose habits and depraved 
 appetites, but it may be true of men who have none 
 of these. The tendency of unrenewed men is towards 
 self-hood and away from God-hood. A very fair-look- 
 ing and seemly life may be caged in four little walls 
 that self has built about the soul. And this is positive 
 misery, to be shut up with self, to walk up and down 
 self, and find how small it is to measure, and weigh it 
 and find how light it is ; to feed on self, to dwell and 
 live and converse with self — there is hardly anything 
 worse than this. If you would see this truth put in 
 high and strong expression, read Tennyson's " Palace 
 of Art." He built the palace gorgeous as an Arabian 
 fairy tale, but he left it empty. 
 
 " No voice breaks through the stillness of this world ; 
 One deep, deep silence all." 
 
 But now Got! comes in through Jesus Christ, shield- 
 like, saving us and drawmg us away from our- 
 selves. And with His coming, self is slain and a noble 
 end is set before us, even the divine glory ; living for 
 self is destroyed, and the soul's powers and activities 
 go out in sympathy and love for the perishing around ; 
 thinking of self is given over, and in the sublime pur- 
 poses that take hold upon the pure and the holy, a 
 thousand little annoyances are lost sight of entirely. 
 God coming to the soul wakens all its powers, trans- 
 figures all its thoughts, lifts the man into a positive 
 
 
248 
 
 SERMONS ON THP: CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 i 
 
 jrreatness of being. Oh it is a j^rand thing to be saved 
 
 from ourselves. To get out of our own tracks, to be 
 
 deHvered from our petty littleness, to be pushed out 
 
 beyond the small circle of our own thoughts. There 
 
 is an inspiration in this coming of God that makes us 
 
 strong and noble and Christ-like. But there is the 
 
 other member of this text that we must consider. " I 
 
 am thy exceeding great reward." " I am thy reward." 
 
 Whether we call it selfish or not, man looks for a 
 
 reward even in his religious life. Abraham lived and 
 
 feared and obeyed God, and he looked for a reward. 
 
 He kept looking for the promised country, but at last 
 
 died without its sight. Still all along God was 
 
 rewarding him. He made life to him tolerable, if not 
 
 triumphant, calm^ if not joyful ; while the great, main 
 
 desire of his life is carried over into the world to come. 
 
 He found a country, but it was beyond the Jordan of 
 
 death. It was not a land flowing with the milk and 
 
 honey of earth, bearing grapes and corn, but it was a 
 
 heavenly country. So every true and righteous life 
 
 will be rewarded. This is the truth that underlies 
 
 that common word " bless" — a word used so often that 
 
 its meaning has well-nigh dropped out of it. That 
 
 God will bless is the sum of our prayers. We mean 
 
 by it that God will prosper us, that success may attend 
 
 our labors, that we may get good things, that we may 
 
 receive benefits of some kind. And God does bless. 
 
 He says to every one who becomes His child, " Now 
 
 that you believe, I would have you begin by thinking 
 
 of Me as one who will care for you, and give you 
 
 unspeakable blessings." God began with Abram in 
 
 this way ; it was not hard duty first, and the joy of 
 
GOD OUll SHIELD. 
 
 249 
 
 saved 
 
 I, to be 
 
 ed out 
 There 
 
 ikes us 
 is the 
 
 er. " I 
 
 eward." 
 
 s for a 
 
 ved and 
 
 reward. 
 
 it at last 
 
 lod was 
 
 e, if uot 
 
 ;at, iiiaia 
 to come. 
 
 ordan of 
 
 milk and 
 it was a 
 
 ,eous life 
 
 underlies 
 t'ten that 
 it. That 
 W^e mean 
 ay attend 
 t we may 
 oes bless, 
 d, " Now 
 thinking 
 ^ive you 
 A.bram in 
 e joy of 
 
 reward finally ; but the great, glad hope and promise 
 came first. We seem sometimes to trust Providence 
 as if it were a last resort, and think of duty as a 
 noble, yet rather heavy thing to do. But not to such 
 a key is the psalm of believing life to be sung ; it is to 
 be caught rather from these ancient words of God, 
 " I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward." God 
 blesses us in every act of obedience. Obedience is 
 not merely the avoidance of the suffering of a broken 
 law, it yields a positive reward. Whenever a soul 
 hears the divine voice saying, "Thou shalt," and rever- 
 ently obeys, it finds a deep and peaceful satisfaction. 
 
 " / am thy reward." That takes us a step farther, 
 lifts us higher. God imparts Himself, " Know ye not 
 that your bod'es are temples of the Holy Ghost?" As 
 the greater includes the less, so in giving Himself He 
 gives us all things richly to enjoy. What is there that 
 God does not give to His people ? Wisdom ? " If any 
 man lack wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth to 
 all men liberally and U] braideth not." Peace ? " My 
 peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth give I 
 unto you." Guidance ? " I will guide you with My 
 counsel." Supply of need ? " My God shall supply all 
 your need according to His riches in glory, by Christ 
 Jesus." What is providence, but God caring for His 
 family, causing " all things to work together for their 
 good ? " What is heaven, but God gathering all 
 excellency and all good and all glory into one grand, 
 rich testament and giving it over to His people ? 
 
 " I am thy great reward." What can you compare 
 it unto ? Earthly crowns and sceptres, human dis- 
 17 
 
f' 
 
 I 
 
 W'ft 
 
 ;) I 
 
 M f 
 
 »:| 
 
 »■ i 
 
 250 
 
 SERMONS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 tinctions and honors, all pale before this great reward, 
 and sink into absolute nothinf^ness. " I am thy 
 exceeding great reward." Language labors to tind 
 terms sufficiently explicit and comprehensive to com- 
 pass it. " Exceeding great," outstripping imagination, 
 defying the power of thought. " Fear not, I am thy 
 shield and thy exceeding great reward." 
 What, then, is our duty ? 
 
 1. Fidelity to God. God would build upon this an 
 argument in favor of fidelity. Is He all this to us ? 
 What shall we be to Him ? Ingrates, rebels, enemies ? 
 Nay ; but His love must command our obedience, His 
 condescension must challenge our highest regard. His 
 faithfulness must compel our love. 
 
 2. Fearlessness. " He that is with us is more than 
 he that is with them." 
 
 " What though a thousand hosts engage, 
 A thousand worlds, my soul to shake ? 
 
 I have a shield shall quell their rage. 
 And drive the alien armies back ; 
 
 Portrayed it bears a bleeding Lamb ; 
 
 I dare believe in Jesus' name." 
 
 3. Circumspection. " What manner of persons 
 ought ye to be ? " Are ye temples of God ? His temple 
 must not be defiled. Are ye children ? His children 
 must live in harmony with the law of the household. 
 Have ye hope concerning the future ? Let that hope 
 be a purifying hope. Fidelity, fearlessness, circum- 
 spection. Cultivate these. God shall be with you, 
 and when at length your feet touch the Jordan, He 
 will whisper again, " Fear not, I am thy shield and 
 thy exceeding great reward." 
 
reward, 
 am thy 
 
 to find 
 
 to com- 
 bination, 
 
 am thy 
 
 I this an 
 s to us ? 
 inemies ? 
 ince, His 
 ;ard, His 
 
 ore than 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 persons 
 s temple 
 children 
 )Usehold. 
 bat hope 
 
 circum- 
 ith you, 
 rdan, He 
 ield and 
 
W - 
 
 fl'h 
 
 III 
 
 r' 
 
 I !l 
 
 d ' 
 
 HI 
 
ADDRESSES. 
 
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE 
 MISSIONAKY SPIEIT. 
 
 NOT the least important item in the proceedings 
 of a missionary meeting is the reading of the 
 report. I know, indeed, that to some this seems to be a 
 bre&k in the interest of a meeting, but why should it 
 be sii ? If, during the time of war men wait, with 
 throbbing hearts, to hear the result of a battle that is 
 to deci le the destiny of thousands ; if the reports of 
 the geologist's researches are hailed with wonderment 
 and delight ; or those of the geographer with abiding 
 interest, why should we listen with heavy ear to 
 the report of a society like the one represented to- 
 night, invested, as it is, with a higher character than 
 temporal governments can grant, and engaged in a 
 work transcending in dignity and importance any 
 mere geological or geographical researches ? No greater 
 joy thrilled the heart of Jesus than that which He ex- 
 perienced when the sevent.y returned with their story 
 of victory through His name. And surely, if we 
 be baptized with the same spirit that rested on the 
 
1^ 
 
 ADDRFSSES. 
 
 Master, we shall be exalted to fellowship of joy with 
 Him when we hear, as we are told in the report, that 
 His truth is still mij^hty to save, and that to-day it 
 kindles in the human heart an inspiration, lofty and 
 pure as that which glowed in the heroic men when 
 Christianity was young, and sent them forth in acts 
 of self-sacrifice for God. And yet, I would remember 
 that these reports are but figures of the true. One 
 eye alone reads the full report of a poor Christian 
 laborer; one mind alone, and that mind divine, duly 
 estimates causes and effects. The history of the 
 Church warrants the persuasion that figures fail to 
 estimate the good done in the world through the 
 agency of truth. If, during the Israelitish apostasy, 
 Elijah had formed statistical tables of the Church, he 
 would have put down all the inhabitants of the land 
 in one column, as idolaters ; and himself in another 
 column, as the sole relic of a better faith. And yet, 
 God had a reserve of " seven thousand who had not 
 bowed the knee to Baal." 
 
 Our reports, sir, give us a condensed and accurate 
 account of those laborers who are openly working in 
 the vineyard ; and yet how many earnest laborers find 
 no mention there. The lone widow, who knows 
 nought but her Bible true, and whose heart is 
 a temple where .Jesus is enshrined ; the care-worn 
 sufferer, whose path winds along beneath the weeping 
 willows, but whose fidelity remains unshaken ; the oft- 
 discouraged, but faithful Sunday-school teaclier, plant- 
 ing seeds of truth in youthful hearts, and watering 
 them with his tears ; the weary sewing-girl, who 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF THE MISSTONAUY SPFIllT. 2o5 
 
 ' with 
 b, that 
 day it 
 y and 
 . when 
 n acts 
 lember 
 . One 
 ristian 
 >, duly 
 Dt' the 
 fail to 
 (jh the 
 lostasy, 
 Tch, he 
 le land 
 mother 
 id yet, 
 ad not 
 
 ccurate 
 Ling in 
 grs find 
 
 knows 
 iart is 
 e-worn 
 keeping 
 
 he oft- 
 
 plant- 
 atering 
 
 1, who 
 
 speaks words of Christian comfort to her doubting 
 friend; and the young man, who, like Daniel, dares to 
 pray in the face of opposition, and despite the scoffs 
 of his companions, kneels at night to commit himself 
 to the care of the unsl umbering Jehovah — these are 
 all co-workers together with God. Silent it may be 
 as the wafture of an angel's wing, but powerful as the 
 light, bearing no heraldic cipher on their shield. But 
 their names are registered in God's great muster- 
 roll, the book of life, as those, who, with sturdy hand 
 or trembling soul, are hasting on the day when the 
 cross shall triumph over every throne of earth, and 
 Jesus shall be sovereign Lord of all. 
 
 In advocating the cause of Christian missions, we 
 cannot fail to bow before the magnitude of the end 
 that cause has in view. The salvation of men; the 
 victories of the cross, the enlightenment of the spirit- 
 ually blind — these, with their imperative claims for 
 sympathy and effort, with their minglc^d story of toil 
 and triumph, and their bright anticipations of ul- 
 timate success, constitute a theme which might well 
 overwhelm us with its greatness. And, sir, when we 
 consider that the Gospel is the only remedy for man ; 
 that there is no prescription for the sickness of the 
 soul, but that which is written in the Redeemer's 
 blood ; that there is no tree whose leaves are for the 
 healing of the nations, but that which grows in the 
 paradise of God ; and that to us is committed the high 
 trust of making this remedy known to man, we can- 
 not but regard ourselves as placed in a position of 
 distinguished honor and weighty responsibility. In 
 
 ^1 
 
Trf 
 
 i 
 
 H m 
 
 m 
 
 
 I 
 
 256 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 pleading this cause, we plead interests that possess 
 all the privilege that age can impart. Its germinal 
 idea is far older than historic Christianity. 
 
 If we search the records of the Jewish nation, we 
 shall find the missionary principle even there. What- 
 ever may have been the prejudices of the Jewish 
 people against the Gentiles, their religion did not 
 countenance it. Good old Simeon only gave expres- 
 sion to the life-thouirhts of his reliijion when he 
 welcomed the light that was "to lighten the Gentiles 
 and to be the glory of His people Israel." The Jewish 
 religion, instead of repelling the heathen, invited him 
 to its fold, on the condition of complying with its two 
 great rites, the circumcision and the passover. In 
 Solomon's time, the Gentiles in the land of Israel 
 numbered fifteen thousand souls.. It is true, that 
 with the exception of Jonah and Elijah, no Jew ^vas 
 sent forth as modern missionaries are to the surround- 
 ing nations ; yet the Jew was a lighthouse of hope 
 through long ages of darkness, and all his prophecies 
 indicated that a time would come when the missionary 
 of a loftier faith would call the nations to repentance. 
 Who can think of Jonah going to preach in Nineveh, 
 without having his thoughts carried forward to those 
 better days, when Ephesus and Corinth, Athens and 
 Rome should re-echo to the preaching of men, who 
 would count it their highest joy to preach among the 
 Gentiles "the unsearchable riches of Christ." 
 
 I think, sir, there was something more in those 
 events that brought the Jews into contact with the 
 nations of the earth. If you will look at it, you will 
 
mn 
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT. 
 
 257 
 
 those 
 th the 
 will 
 
 find that just as the great centres of civilization rose up 
 one after another, the priest-nation of the world, with 
 its grand and distinctive treasure of revealed truth, 
 was placed among them. Does Egypt become the 
 cradle of arts and sciences ? the Jew is mysteriously 
 led thither, then rescued amid signs and wonders, that 
 declare the supremacy of Jehovah. Does Babylon 
 become the " Lady of Kingdoms ? " then Judah goes 
 into captivity for seventy years, not only tc be cured 
 of infidelity, but to bear such heroic testimony for the 
 true God, that Nebuchadnezzar is forced to exclaim, 
 "Your God is a God of gods, and a King of kings." 
 Do Persia and Media acquire might and majesty ? 
 Artaxerxes has Nehemiah for his cup-bearer, and 
 Darius has Daniel for his prime minister, and Cyrus 
 issues a decree for the rebuilding of Jerusalem. 
 Alexander may conquer the world, but he must ride 
 to the gates of the Holy City, and become familiar with 
 those prophecies which foretell his triumph. Does 
 Rome sway the sceptre of universal empire ? then 
 Judea becomes a province of the Roman Empire, and 
 Caesar and Pompey manifest a deep reverence for the 
 temple and its ministers. How worthy of our notice, 
 too, that the last great power of the old world should 
 form unconsciously the link between the Judaism of 
 former and the Christianity of later times. The 
 decree of Augustus brings Mary to Bethlehem, and 
 the mandate of Pilate puts Jesus to death. Thus 
 extensive and important was the mission of the Jewish 
 race. They were to the world what the Baptist was 
 to Christ — " The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 
 
 il 
 
HmPHH! 
 
 258 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 m 
 
 i 
 
 M'' 
 
 Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths 
 straight." But the Jew lost hi.s religious life, vital 
 piety embalmed itself or sunk iijto a dead self- 
 righteous formalism. The time drew near for the 
 mission to be transferred to other hands. The Messiah 
 came, and with two exceptions, that of the Syro- 
 phenician woman and the Roman centurion, confined 
 His ministry to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 
 But at the same time He put an end to Jewish 
 exclusiveness. Having in his death accomplished the 
 work of Redemption ; he instituted the Christian 
 Church — a new missionary society, not like the old, 
 simply attractive, but aggressive. In the old the 
 convert came into the Church ; in the new, th i mission- 
 ary went out to seek the convert. The Christian 
 Church became the evangelist of the world. Then 
 came the day of Pentecost, with its tongues of fire 
 qualifying the missionaries for their work ; and with 
 the gospel of mercy on her lips and the baptism of the 
 Spirit on her brow, the infant Church went forth in 
 the Saviour's name, reaching the world by succes- 
 sive steps indicated by her Master. He said that the 
 apostles were to be witnesses for Him in Jerusalem, 
 in Judea and Samaria, and unto the ends of the earth. 
 Three thousand converts at Pentecost accomplished 
 the first step ; the persecution of Stephen scattered 
 the disciples, and accomplished the second ; the 
 preaching of Philip at Samaria accomplished the third; 
 and the last step was accomplished when Cornelius 
 was baptized and when the events recorded in the 
 11th chapter of Acts took place. From Antioch went 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT. 
 
 259 
 
 out the first mission to the heathen. And its results 
 enabled Paul to say, "Thanks be unto God which always 
 causeth us to triumph in (Jhrist, and maketh manifest 
 the savor of His knowledge by us in every place." 
 
 It were beside our purpose to speak of the constant 
 development of the missionary spirit in the Church. 
 The history of the Christian Church is one vast 
 missionary report, containing one unbroken record of 
 hard work done for God, and the most glorious suc- 
 cesses. But men say, after all this preparatory work 
 through the agency of the Jew, and all these centuries 
 of Christian effort, what is the result ? Ah, sir, impa- 
 tience here is often our besetting sin. We are often 
 like children who plant a seed, and the next day dig 
 it up to see if it has commenced to grow, and are 
 disappointed if it has not. We forget time is an 
 element of all God's dealings. Slow was the prepara- 
 tion of the globe as man's abode, and slow was the 
 preparation of the world for the grand crisis of 
 Redemption. God has not always willed that great 
 results should grow rapidly, or spring from easy 
 victories. Canon Liddon, the celebrated preacher of 
 St. Paul's, in London, has been seriously devoting 
 many afternoon services to the question, " Has 
 Christianity declined ? " And a great many others are 
 exercising themselves over that same question. I 
 have read of a French ecclesiastic who was so in the 
 habit of beginning his answer to any question pro- 
 posed, with the words " I distinguish," that he came to 
 be known by the name of " Distinguish." The Arch, 
 bishop of Paris determined to foil him one day, and he 
 
mf 
 
 t™v 
 
 .'.!! 
 
 260 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 
 J ' 
 
 asked him, "Abbe, is it lawful to baptize with broth?" 
 " I distinguish," promptly replied the Abbe, " it' it be 
 such rich soup as you, monseigneur, are in the habit of 
 eating, undoubtedly it is unlawful ; but if it is such 
 poor stufi" as we poor cures feed upon, why it differs 
 so little from water that it may very well be used for 
 the purpose." 
 
 Well, sir, as to this question of the decline of Chris- 
 tianity, I say, " 1 distinguish between the Christianity 
 of Rome and the Ritualists and the Christianity of the 
 New Testament — and I say that the Christianity of 
 the Sermon on the Mount ; the Christianity whose 
 essence is compressed into the two great command- 
 ments ; the Christianity of the parable of the Prodigal 
 Son — that Christianity is in no way on the decline. 
 Sojourner Truth, a poor old Negro woman, when her 
 white teacher was telling her that slavery would 
 last forever, she asked, " Ah, massa, is God dead ? " 
 So I ask in relation to the fancied decline of Chris- 
 tianity ? When John Bunyan, in his marvellous 
 dream, pictures the inner life of man, as a progress 
 from the city of Sin, far up to the Beulah land of 
 peace and the Celestial City, he places before us, not 
 only the story of a single man, but of the human race. 
 And in that great progress of the race there is no 
 turning back. Sometimes the contest is with some 
 hidden, brutal Apollyon of vice or violence ; sometimes 
 with the mingled fooleries and fopperies of Vanity 
 Fair ; and sometimes far on in the road, even when 
 we have climbed the Delectable Mountains and have 
 seen the Gates of Paradise, there yet frowns overhead 
 

 DEVELOPMENT OF THE MISSIONARY SPIKIT. 261 
 
 IS no 
 
 some 
 
 jtimes 
 
 '^anity 
 
 when 
 
 have 
 
 iihead 
 
 the awful dungeon of Doubting Castle, and Despair 
 mauls us with his club. But still the progress goes 
 on and on forever. We don't stand now, the world 
 don't stand now, where Bunyan stood when he spent 
 his years in Bedford jail. Bedford jail would be an 
 impossibility now, thank God. And this grand pro- 
 gress of the race must and will go on, for the mouth 
 of the Lord hath spoken it, until the last foe is van- 
 quished, the last snare broken, the last river crossed, 
 and the light and glory of the goodly city shall rest 
 upon the world, and all nations rejoice because of it. 
 
 If Christianity were to decline, what would become 
 of the world ? This old world can only be uplifted 
 and saved by a system that is an embodiment of disin- 
 terested love, and Christianity alone is such a system. 
 Selfishness lies at the bottom of everything else. Men 
 talk about commerce. Selfishness is at the bottom of 
 that. Why did the ancient Phoenicians and Latins 
 plant their colonies ? Why did Tyre, Nineveh and 
 Babylon trade with the nations of the East ? Why 
 did Grecian caravans go to Phoenicia, or ancient ships 
 traverse the Mediterranean Sea ? It was not to 
 permeate darker regions with intenser light, but for 
 the double purpose of self-aggrandizement, and to 
 devolve from themselves the crushing burden of their 
 own poor. What did the East India Company do for 
 India ? Will any one say that it gave to that land 
 aught that would regenerate the race ? Bibles, 
 churches and schools are there, but they came there, 
 not by government institutions, but by Christian 
 agency and missionary effort, in the very teeth of 
 
 1 1 
 
 ,i 
 
;■«' 
 
 ! I 
 
 
 I 
 
 262 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 Government. What has commerce done for the 
 Indians of this continent ? Egerton Young told a 
 thrilling story of an old Indian at Beren's River. 
 He had seen this old chief on his first visit to that 
 post. On his second visit he was dead. Before his 
 death he called the tribe around him, and said, 
 " Children, when the missionary comes again listen to 
 him and obey him ; embrace his religion. I can't live 
 till he comes, and I must have some religion to die by; 
 bring the drum and the medicine man." The drum 
 was brought, and the medicine man put the sticks into 
 his hand, that were rapidly stiffening in death, and 
 then, said the Indians, " He began to beat, and as he 
 beat he bowed, and as he bowed he stayed, and as he 
 stayed he died, and fell across his drum." Oh, that is 
 where commerce leaves the Indian to die, across their 
 drum. That is what it leaves them. It gives them 
 nothing. Yes, it does. It gives rum to frenzy them, 
 disease to waste them, and the chicanery of civiliza- 
 tion to enhance their treachery. Our Evans, Stevens, 
 Cases, McDougalls and Youngs, who have gone to 
 them with the simple story of the cross, have given to 
 the Indian mind all of the clearness, and to the Indian 
 home all of the happiness it possesses. 
 
 And men talk of modern literature. But into what 
 barbarous clime has it ever entered to dispense its 
 treasures. It has gone abroad to acquire, not to dis- 
 pense. It has explored the ruins of Athens, Egypt 
 and Italy, to rifle them of their monuments of ancient 
 culture, but never to erect nobler monuments of 
 modern culture. No, sir, it is the missionary, with 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT. 
 
 263 
 
 the Book of God in his hand and the baptism of the 
 Spirit on his brow, that achieves this. And he works 
 only for this purpose. Toiling through days of labor 
 and nights of weariness he constructs alphabets, 
 grauiniars and lexicons to smooth the pathway of 
 approach to Christ ; and then, standing on the pinnacle 
 of success, he exclaims, " Not unto me, O Lord, not 
 unto me, but unto Thy name be all the glory." 
 

 1 i 
 
 THE GOSPEL THE WANT OF THE AGE. 
 
 A MISSIONARY SPEECH. 
 
 I AM strongly in favor of these annual missionary 
 meetings. To me they seem to subserve largely 
 that most important law of life — the law of sympa- 
 thetic impulse. I have often admired the action of 
 God in this respect, in His dealings with the Jewish 
 people. You know that at stated times God called the 
 twelve tribes to His footstool ; constituted them into 
 a grand anniversary gathering, and in this way 
 infused into them a new life, gave them a stimulus to 
 the maintenance of weekly worship in the humble 
 synagogue ; and, above all, taught them to think oft 
 and deeply of the fact that they were a kingdom of 
 priests, and a holy nation. So, too, with meetings 
 like the present, to observe them as an act of love to 
 God, and to make their chief end the renewal of social 
 and spiritual energies, is to go from strength to 
 strength, and fulfil one of the constant conditions of 
 spiritual life. They largely stimulate vital piety, 
 kindle it into a lambent flame, develop the spirit of 
 Saviourship in Christian hearts, and help to sustain a 
 faith exposed to the roughest assaults of scepticism 
 and public disfavor. 
 
THE GOSPEL THE WANT OF THE AGE. 
 
 2G5 
 
 GE. 
 
 onary 
 
 M'gely 
 yiupa- 
 ion of 
 Fewish 
 ed the 
 n into 
 ? way 
 iliis to 
 lumble 
 nk oft 
 om of 
 ietinf:;s 
 love to 
 social 
 rth to 
 Ions of 
 piety, 
 lirit of 
 itain a 
 )ticism 
 
 And, sir, not only do these gatherinijfs thus stimu- 
 late the faith and energy of the Church, but aiming, 
 as they do, to promote Christian sympathy, and pledge 
 the Church to the great work of multiplying the 
 truth of God and spreading abroad the glad tidings of 
 the Gospel, they place themselves in harmony with 
 another great law — I mean the law of ditl'usion. You 
 find the workings of that law everywhere. You see it 
 in God. He garners, not to hoard, but to scatter. He 
 stores light and heat in the sun, not for deposit, but 
 diffusion. He accumulates the wealth of waters in 
 oceans, lakes and rivers as grand reservoirs, whence 
 to scatter the refreshing dew and fertilizing shower 
 over the thirsty earth. And so it is, too, with civiliza- 
 tion. The civilizing forces of society are garnered in 
 libraries, universities, schools and churches as grand 
 rendezvous, whence they are to emerge to educate and 
 enfranchise the world. 
 
 And again, sir, this same law governs the action 
 and development of the human mind. No mind 
 satisfies its normal condition by simple reception. God 
 has so ordained that he who would have a capacious 
 soul and large mental and moral stores must be not 
 only constantly receiving, but constantly communicat- 
 ing. By the very constitution of mind, every thought 
 flashing upon it, or feeling evoked within it, instinc- 
 tively struggles for external expression. The mind 
 endeavors to express itself through the eye, making it 
 radiant with light — or, rather, mt^king it flash with in- 
 telligence ; or through the <;ountenance, making it 
 radiant with light, like Moses coming down from the 
 18 
 
ff 
 
 m. \ii 
 
 i ' :! 
 
 I I 
 
 I .' 
 
 2fiG 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 mount, or Stephen going up » the shining ones ; or 
 through tlie tongue, making it eloquent ; or through 
 the fingers, making them nimble and skilful. Scien- 
 tific and philosophic productions that have blessed the 
 world — the printing press, steam engine, the telegraph, 
 and the multiplied inventions that have elevated 
 society — would have slumbered and died in the souls 
 in which they were conceived but for this law of 
 diffusion. 
 
 Now, sir, this same law, grasping great truths and 
 powerful emotions, and then inspired and sanctified by 
 the spirit of Christ, and intensified by a burning love 
 for souls, and pressed down with the weight of divine 
 command, liecomes irresistible in the propagation of 
 religious truth and feeling. It holds the mastery over 
 a man, and tlings him out into the world an unheralded 
 iconoclast to demolish the idols of society, to break 
 down barriers, and to lift up the race out of its well- 
 worn grooves into a higher plane of social, civil and 
 religious living. It makes men aggressive innovators 
 and revolutionists. It lays under contribution all the 
 powers of the man. 
 
 I fancy, sir, it was this very thing that the shepherd 
 king of Israel felt long ages ago, and which he says 
 was like fire shut up in his bones ; and when he medi- 
 tated upon those great truths struggling for expression 
 the fire kindled into a flame, and his soul began to 
 glow. Every mental and moral power was instinct 
 with a diviner life, and then he spake, nor could he 
 help speaking. It gives a man heat as well as illumi- 
 nation; makes him not only a shining light, but a burn- 
 
^n 
 
 THE GOSPEL THE WANT OK THE AGE. 
 
 267 
 
 i! 
 
 ing li^ht, m tho world. And so it always is. You 
 rernembe'.' when tho oarly tlisciplcs were scattered by 
 the persecution that culminated in tho martyrdom of 
 Stephen, they fled everywhere throu^di the commu- 
 nity, like scintillations blown from the divine altar; and 
 with their hearts throbbin<r with new-found truths 
 and with their hearts glowinj^ with their new experi- 
 ence, it was no marvel that men were constrained to 
 listen to them and become converted. Ho, too, when 
 Luther, who pored over that old Bible when chained 
 in his cell, drank inspiration frotn its luminous and 
 life-giving pages, it sent him out into the world a 
 mighty Refoinior. H«' shook society to its very 
 depths ; human institutions rocked '^Don their hoary 
 foundations, papal thrones trembleil, u.id a spirit of 
 life swept from tin; centre to the circumference of the 
 entire nationality. And so it is everywhere. Convic- 
 tions produced by the living truth of the Gospel are 
 the power of the Christian. 
 
 When the Gospel makes its advent into the soi^], it 
 not only takes possession of the head and the heart, 
 i>ut th(; feet and hands and tonijue. It sends a man 
 out into society a very John the Baptist, crying, " Pre- 
 pare ye the way of the Lonl." Nor can he help cry- 
 ing. As soon command the thunder to cease its roar, 
 or the lightning to sleep in its cloud-bed, or the incom- 
 ing tide to roll back its Vtillows, or the wheels of the 
 chariot of time to reverse their motion, as to bid reli- 
 gion lie silent in a soul. Why, it seems to me that a 
 man attempting to supj)ress burning Vesuvius or 
 padlock the expanding jaws of a devouring earth- 
 
268 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 , I 
 
 / 1 
 
 ii : 
 
 
 1 I 
 
 qiiake, is not r, more pitiable sight than a man, or a 
 council, or a nation of men, attempting to silence a 
 Christian when the warm eternal truth of Christ is 
 burning in his heart. You may fling him into a 
 wilderness, and, as in the case of John the Baptist, 
 cities wil' go out t^ listen to his voice. You may hurl 
 him ir.to a duageon, and make his feet fast in the 
 stocks, and, as in the case of Paul and Silas, an earth- 
 quake will summon a congregation for him ; or you 
 may thrust hitn into a cell, and, as in the case of the 
 Bedford Tinker, the millions of Christendom will 
 gather to listen, entranced, to his immortal dream. 
 Popes may anathematize, curse and doom, but Bol- 
 linger will protest andHyacinthe will assert his freedom 
 to think for himself and get married. Any man who 
 lives out the Gospel must be mighty. He has chained 
 to his chariot the steeds of the skies ; he has enlisted 
 the forces of omnipotence ; he has linked to his enter- 
 prise laws that are mightier than the revolutions of 
 the spheres. 
 
 But, sir, let it be borne in mind that if we are to 
 wield the sword of the Spirit with such grand effect 
 it won't do to have a mere surface experience of the 
 vitalizing power of the Gospel. There must be some- 
 thing more than truth enuodied in creeds and 
 churches ; there nuist be more thaa a name to live. It 
 must be truth incorporated .1 our very being, Christ 
 always coming into the heart, the Holy Ghost always 
 shed abroad. If it be true — and I believe Church his- 
 tory says it is true — that churches in their earlier his- 
 tory are usually most powerful, aggressive and success- 
 
THE GOSPEL THE WANT OF THE A-QE. 
 
 269 
 
 ful, it is simply because they are possessed by the 
 Gospel , convictions are deep, experiences are thorough, 
 and services all pulsate and tremble with divine life. 
 The danger with churches is l;lu;t with the lapse of 
 time convictions should become superficial and experi- 
 ence shallow -, the soul drops out, and the skeleton 
 body is there, beautiful, tricked out with the flowers 
 of profession ; but the soul gone, and hence in the 
 body no powers of locomotion. And, depend upon it, 
 sir, that while we want religion we want the old- 
 fashioned religion — the religion that inspired the men 
 of Galilee, that stood forth in its sublime simplicity and 
 singulpiiiiy amid the trappings of Caesar's household. 
 This is what we want to cope with the worldliness 
 and multiplied evils of this age. Your professors of reli- 
 gion, whose piety is so pliable and accommodating that 
 it can accord with the glare oi the dance and the rattle 
 of the billiai J-table, whose mind-food is drawn as 
 much from Dickens as from Moses, as much from 
 Charles Reade as from St. Pai ', are not the men of 
 whom it will ever be said : " The men that have turned 
 the world upside down have come hither pbo." 
 
 I hear a great deal of talk abi)ut making religion 
 attractive. Beautify the rainbow. Add brightness to 
 the sun. If you want religion to be attractive, Live it. 
 If you want to attract men, hold up the cross on which 
 hangs the Divine Man, who said, " And I, if I be lifted 
 up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me." Jf you 
 want to sing a song that will be as sweetness to the 
 ear, sing one of the songs of Zion. If you want to 
 walk in a path in which you would have others travel, 
 
 I 
 
 mMm 
 
IT 
 
 u 
 
 270 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 '-'V 
 
 ' ' ' 1 1 
 
 
 ■ ■. f ' 
 
 'i. 
 
 4; 
 
 ,',ii 
 
 # 
 
 } 
 
 1 i 
 
 I > 
 
 cliinb the slopes of Calvary. Oh, sir, what we want 
 most of all, is a church like that form of womanly 
 beauty seen in the Apocalypse, clothed with the sun, 
 bright as the moon, and terrible as an army with 
 banners. " I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be 
 made perfect in one." Sir John Herschell tells us, in one 
 of his deeply interesting scientific works, that the solid 
 body of the sun is not luminous, but that it is clothed 
 with three atmospheres, of which the two lower are 
 dark, and the third, alone, is the blazing photosphere, 
 which diffuses light and glory over creation. Well, 
 just such a photosphere is the spirit of true living piety 
 around the Church. V/ithout this it is a dark body. 
 It may be of great magnitude, and, like all great 
 bodies, draw objects to itself, but it is the living love 
 and holincs.; that shines. 
 
 But, sir, perhaps some one here asks, what has all 
 this to do with the cause of Christian missl >ns ? I 
 reply, it has a great d»'al to do with that cat'.so. The 
 law of Christian agency is very much like the law of 
 social agency. The first requisite of the social system 
 is self culture, the second is the culture of others, and 
 that second is suspended on fidelity to the first. We 
 must acquire before we can transfer. Social improve- 
 ment works outward towards the circumference, from 
 the individual to the family, and then to the commun- 
 ity. So with the Church. First, its own spirituality, 
 then the vicinity will feel the contagion, and then in 
 its outward course, multiplying with kindred influences, 
 it swells into a tide that rolls over all the land and 
 aroes out to the farthest boundaries of the world. The 
 
THE GOSPEL THE WANT OF THE AGE. 
 
 271 
 
 missionary spirit doesn't kindle the life of the Church, 
 the life of the Church must kindle tlie missionary 
 spirit. The missionary spirit is not the cause, but an 
 index of the cause. The one is a fountain, the other 
 is a stream. All vital power acts from the centre, and 
 fills up a sphere in proportion to its vigor. Feeble- 
 ness at the deep seat of life, generates inefficiency at 
 the extremities. If there is inefficiency of the limbs, 
 you may be sure there is weak palpitation of the heart. 
 I can't explain how prayer on behalf of others is 
 answered, but I know it is so. And I know that when 
 the Church at home is agonizing with God in prayer, 
 the heathen feel it and the missionary feels it. And I 
 know that if this hour the Methodist Church in Can- 
 ada were to rise to the loftiness at faith, and glow 
 with apostolic ardor, along those mysterious lines 
 that God has formed and planned, that new lifi^ would 
 flash and vibrate, until the most distant missionary 
 amid the snows of the North-West would feel it, as 
 though a breath from the other world fanned his cheek, 
 and the waves of the broad Pacific would present no 
 barrier, but across them that sympathy would flash to 
 the shores of Japan, and the devoted toilers there 
 would know it, and rejoice because of it. 
 
 Permit me further, to add in this relation, that there 
 never was an age that needed this religious life more 
 than the age in which we live. Men may deride it; 
 science, false science, may scout the idea ; socialists 
 and free-^^' inkers may laugh at it, but human society 
 reposes, when it reposes at all, on religion. Civili- 
 zation without it is like the lights that play on the 
 
 '-r 
 
 ^BMiiiiiii 
 
272 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 i ' 
 
 ! 
 
 1 
 
 t 
 
 1 
 
 . ii 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 i 
 
 illH 
 
 1 
 
 
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 1 
 
 1 
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 f 
 
 northern sky — a momentary flash on the face of dark- 
 ness, ere it settles into night. Wit and wisdom, 
 sublime purity and lofty philosophy cannot save a 
 nation, else ancient Greece had never perished. Valor, 
 law, ambition, cannot preserve a people, else Rome had 
 still been the mistress of the world. 
 
 The nation that loses faith in God loses not only its 
 most precious jewel, but its unifying and conserving 
 force. Men of science may wish to substitute natural 
 selection for creation — shut God out from man and 
 man from God — but they would only divert from the 
 world the river of life, and leave it a barren wilderness. 
 Philosophical politicians may preach as the final sub- 
 stitute of the Gospel, a prudential morality. The 
 positivist, after banishing God from heaven and his- 
 tory, may worship humanity ; and infidelity, in its 
 modernized and subtle forms, may sit as a weird old 
 sage, and with sad eye watch humanity shooting Nia- 
 gara, as Coleridge puts it, and then cry, " Whence, 
 whither, how ? " But, oh, how little can ^hese do for 
 this old, weary world, to still its mcurnia] wailings, to 
 heal its broken hearts, and restore its lapsed lives. 
 
 No, sir, this age needs religion, not the religion of 
 Channing, a mere human invention ; not the religion 
 of Rome, or semi-papal ritualism, approaching evil 
 with the delicate rap of the kid-covered knuckle or 
 the button-hole touch of a superannuated remonstrance ; 
 but the Gospel according to Jesus, that, like the 
 brawny Entellas in Vir^dl, buries its cestras deep in 
 the head of the ox, and lays it, quivering, at the altar 
 front — a divine religion, lofty as heaven, yet stooping 
 
 i 
 
 i i 
 
THE GOSPEL THE WANT OF THE AGE. 
 
 273 
 
 low as the meanest upon earth, issuing warm from the 
 heart of God to enter meek, yet mighty, into the heart 
 of man. 
 
 Sir, your missionaries preach such a Gospel ; your 
 Missionary Society believes in such a Gospel ; your 
 Church has all the great elements and principles of 
 such a Gospel embodied in her articles, and I believe, 
 sir, that she holds them in such a way, and preaches 
 them in such a way that she inscribes their grand 
 universalities upon her theological banners, that she is 
 so free from ecclesiastical complications and time- 
 serving traditions, that her church organization is such, 
 and that her miscionary interests are such as give her 
 peculiar advantages in the prosecution of her work. 
 And that is the reason we claim your sympathy and 
 support. I don't want any one to think that I am 
 trying to apologize for our existence as a denomina- 
 tion. We have got out of the apologetic age. The 
 last century was full ol' apologies — apologies of the 
 Bible, evidences of Christianity, and apologies of reli- 
 gion. Press and pulpit were devoted to the proof that 
 God had an existence and that man had a consciences. 
 But we have got out of that apologetic age, which was 
 an inert one. I say, then, I am not here to apologize 
 for the fact of livinfj in this age. Our work must be 
 our defence, and if it is not, we don't deserve any 
 countenance or support. An old church legend tells 
 of one of the ancient saints to whom the prince of 
 darkness once appeared as an angel of light, saying, 
 "I am Christ." Eat the old saint looked at him, and 
 cried out, " Where is the print of the nails ? " and 
 
274 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 I ! 
 
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 11;. 
 
 
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 instantly the devil vanished. So I say of every 
 
 church, " Where are the marks of your hij^h and holy 
 
 calling; burning charity for souls; witnesses in the form 
 
 of men whom you have instrumentally turned from 
 
 sin to holiness ? " Have you a converted ministry ? 
 
 Who can say : 
 
 " What we have felt and seen 
 With confidence we tell." 
 
 And have you a godly membership in the Spirit and 
 by the activities of a consecrated and regenerated life, 
 casting in the precious seed, and looking prayerfully 
 for the reaping, the garnerage and the harvest home ? 
 If so, that church is a living church ; God is in the 
 midst of her, and He will not let her die. As soon 
 would I look for the advancing chariot of the Redeemer 
 to turn backward on its track as to look for the funeral 
 train of such a church. I need not detain you by 
 showing how, by the grace of God, these evidences of 
 a divine call are found in the society which we repre- 
 sent. The report does that. You all accept the fact 
 of their existence. 
 
 And now I appeal to you on behalf of this great 
 cause — the cause of the lone missionary separated 
 from the gentler amenites of life ; the cause of precious 
 souls, perishing for lack of knowledge • the cause of 
 the divine Redeemer, who gave His life for the world, 
 and has commissioned His Church to bring that world 
 to His feet. You are not called upon to give your- 
 selves to this work ; but you are called upon to give 
 of your substance, and to give as God has prospered 
 you. You contribute to a cause that is sure to suc- 
 ceed. If you are connected with any particula politi- 
 
THE GOSPEL THE WANT OF THE AGE. 
 
 275 
 
 cal party, that party may be up or down; or with 
 any particular trade, you may prosper or fail ; but if 
 you are connected with the cause of Christ you are 
 connected with a cause that lives on when empires 
 die, and politics and controversies go out forever. You 
 may not live to see another missionary meeting, but 
 if you work for God now, your work will endure. 
 President Lincoln said, as he stood on bloody Gettys- 
 burg, " Eloquent words will be forgotten, but the 
 deeds of our soldiers will never die." And your Chris- 
 tian deeds will live. The work of a Christian can 
 never die. It is a work whose effects grasp eternity 
 for their duration. It is a work which erects immor- 
 tal trophies on earth to the glory of redeeming grace. 
 It is a work which swells the tide of human happiness 
 here, till it breaks over the boundaries of earth and 
 floods the hereafter with its fulness. It is a work 
 which lightens the universe with manifestations of 
 Jehovah's presence, and pours on the vision of angel 
 and archangel the glory of the Godhead. Christian 
 believer, I may, without presumption, say that that 
 hand of yours can touch the robe of majesty that 
 clothes the eternal and unfold its brightness to the 
 gaze of seraphs and the transports of a universe. 
 
 " Then rouse thee to thy work of high and holy love, 
 And thou an angel's recompense shall know, 
 The good begun by thee shall onward flow 
 In many a branching -earn, and wider grow. 
 
 " The seed that in tbase i w and fleeting hours 
 Thy hands unwearied here have sown, 
 Shall deck thy grave with amaranthine flowers, 
 And yield thee fruits divine in heavnm's ambrosial bowers." 
 
 ',. ^Ai^i^mi^kJ!&k^. . 
 

 OUR METHODIST HERITAGE. 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 Delivered at the Reception of the Candidates for Ordination at 
 the Toronto Conference, in Port Hope, June, 1879. 
 
 IT is impossible to be associated with a gathering 
 like the present, without having one's heart deeply 
 moved. Irresistibly there comes to us the thought of 
 those who were wont to be present at these Conference 
 services, but who have passed home to their reward. 
 Not a few brethren have finished their course this 
 year, some with the bloom of youth upon their cheek, 
 and some with the wrinkles of age; and to-night we 
 gratefully recall their names, their counsels, their 
 toils, and bless God on their behalf. The venerated 
 names of Father Corson, Asahel Hurlburt, John 
 Ryerson and William Philp, of the London Confer- 
 ence ; and Dr. Green and William Andrews, of our 
 own Conference, who were living benedictions in our 
 midst, have been glorified and crowned since last 
 Conference, while the brethren here present, who, 
 like myself, have not as yet attained the middle 
 age, have been admonished by the fall of some who 
 gave promise twelve months ago of many years of 
 service. "Thanks be unto God, who gave them the 
 victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ' 
 
 ' 
 
 
 A^^^mmmm 
 
OUR METHODIST HERITAGE. 
 
 277 
 
 Would it, sir, be wrong to indulge the fancy, or is 
 it only fancy, that amidst the felicities of heaven 
 they still think of us. On the shores of the Adriatic, 
 the fishermen's wives are wont to go down to the 
 beach when the chime for vespers strikes, and the 
 ni^jjht promises to be dark and stormy, and there lift 
 up their voices, as onlj' Italian women can, singing 
 some sons: with a lonj;, lin^erinir note at the end of 
 each verse, for a refrain ; and when this beautiful 
 swell of harmony has got wiill out to sea, they pause 
 and listen for a response ; and by-and-by their 
 husbands and brothers, far out of sight, send back the 
 song, and it comes beating across the waters, softened 
 by the distance and mellowed by the night. Then the 
 women know that all is safe, and retire contented to 
 their work, in hope of a sure meeting with their 
 home-friends soon. I cannot say that those who have 
 left us here and have sailed out on that mysterious 
 main, all round this living world, do even attempt to 
 echo our music back again. But I feel sure that they 
 hear what we sing in praise of our common Redeemer. 
 At all events, it is a tine thing to think of them as the 
 Conference year strikes its evening chime. Oh, that 
 the mantles of the ascending Elijahs may rest upon 
 the young Elishas, their successors in the holy work 
 and sacred office. 
 
 I am sure, sir, that I represent the feeling of all the 
 younger brethren of this Conference, when I express 
 thankfulness to Almighty God for sparing so many 
 of the fathers amongst us still. At the close of the 
 council of Nice, the Emperor invited the assembled 
 
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 I I 
 
 278 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 Bishops to a banquet. They all attended, and the 
 sight surprised all expectations. The imperial guards 
 were drawn up around the vestibule with drawn 
 swords. The procession passed through the glittering 
 ranks without fear, but not without tears, to think that 
 the swords of the empire, heretofore drawn for their 
 destruction, were now drawn for their honor and 
 protection. The Emperor presided, and as the feast 
 went on, called to his side one and another of the 
 Bishops, and loaded them with gifts. At length he 
 called Paphrotius, the crippled martyr, who was his 
 special guest. He threw his arms around him, put his 
 lips to his eyeless sockets, stroked down with imperial 
 touch the frightful wound, and pressed the royal 
 purple to his paralyzed limbs. Sir, these honored 
 brethren need not our commendation nor our sym- 
 pathy, but they will not refuse us the opportunity of 
 saying, that we rejoice in the privilege of being as- 
 sociated with them here, and to say, that we look into 
 our future, which shall be the present of another 
 generation, and hope to do as well for them as they 
 have done for us. By God's help, we will not mar 
 the inheritance that a venerable past has bequeathed 
 to us, but will hand it in an unmutilated form to 
 those who are to come after us. 
 
 And then, sir, I thank God that while the tombs of 
 God's servants are multiplj'ing and age and infirmities 
 are laying others aside from the stirring activities of 
 this ministry, the young, as we see to-uight, are press- 
 ing forward to fill up the ranks, to hold up the 
 standard, to win men to a holy allegiance to God and 
 
OUR METHODIST HERITAGE. 
 
 279 
 
 His truth. They have given evidence of their fitness 
 for this worl\, and inost cordially do I second the 
 resolution so ably moved by Dr. Wood — that they be 
 received into full connexion with this Conference, and 
 be recommended for ordination. 
 
 I would like to encourage and stimulate them as 
 well as myself, by glancing for a few minutes at our 
 position as a Church to-day, at what we have, at what 
 we are capable of doing, and, therefore, at what we 
 must do to live. 
 
 1. There has come to us a precious heritage of 
 doctrine. We know what we believe, we know what 
 every Methodist preacher, when he goes from this 
 Conference to his circuit, will preach. It's a good 
 thing for a Church to be able to say, in this free age, 
 we have a creed. Some time ago one of the Toronto 
 pastors — not a Methodist pastor — announced in the 
 Globe that on a certain Sabbath he would preach on 
 "Jelly-fish Christians." Jelly-fish, that's a church 
 without a creed, I'd rather have cat-fish than jelly- 
 fish, something with a back-bone in it. We have a 
 defined system of doctrine. Prominent in that system 
 stands the fact that every Methodist can say to every 
 man, " To you is the word of salvation sent." I thank 
 God for being taught to believe in a universal atone- 
 ment. Men may talk about God making a vessel of 
 honor or dishonor out of this human clay, as the potter 
 does out of the clay from the quarry beds ; or of 
 throwing material away as the potter's apprentice 
 does in some moment of caprice. But I understand 
 the Bible to teach that God has reserved to Himself 
 
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 280 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 ! I 
 
 no right to call into life a single worm and make its 
 life a curse unto itself. I go out into Nature and find 
 that she will produce her fruits and flowers for the 
 humblest slave. The roses bloom as sweetly around 
 the poor washerwoman's door as they do around 
 Queen Victoria's palace. The bird will chant its 
 matin or its vesper on the branches which sweep the 
 low roof of the mechanic as willingly as on the vines 
 trained on the costly trellis of the rich man's mansion. 
 Perfumes attach to the winds, and light is visible in 
 the uncompressing atmosphere for all. Nature knows 
 no law of primogeniture, but offers her goods to her 
 children in the justice of an impartial love. Does the 
 hand plant the flower and care for it, then will the 
 flower grow and bloom, be the hand that of the 
 mistress covered with jewels, or that of the servant 
 browned with the sun. I go out into the great world, 
 and I see that it opens to all its doors of success and 
 happiness. Into literature Homer may march, though 
 poor and blind, and iEsop, though a slave. Has not 
 science welcomed every Faraday to its fame and 
 majesty ? Has not poetry gladly received a Scotch 
 plough-boy or an Ettrick shepherd ? and has not the 
 door of statesmanship turned on its heavy hinges 
 when the rude backwoodsman has read wisdom by the 
 light of a pine-knot, or felled the tree while thinking 
 upon the rights and wrongs of man ? And surely, 
 He who permits His sunlight to fall on all, and for all 
 who plant them His roses to bloom, and His fruit to 
 ripen, and who has flung open the gates of honor to 
 the cottager as well as the prince ; has built a temple 
 
 I 
 
 r-*: 
 
OUR METHODIST HERITAGE. 
 
 281 
 
 of salvation over whose portals is written in characters 
 large and legible, "All who will, may enter here." 
 Blessed be God for an atonement wide as the world 
 and deep as the range of human want. 
 
 Then, coming over to the human side, we have the 
 great and solemn fact of human freedom. I am born 
 into this world a king over a kingdom of freedom, 
 separated from every other by the length and breadth 
 of the moral government of the universe, by all the 
 attributes of the great white throne. Encased behind 
 this freedom, in spite of God's awakened wrath, and 
 unkindled hells, and fiery tempests of hot displeasure, 
 I can plunge on through the eternities, mocking alike 
 the mercy that saves and the wrath that torments, 
 able to accept the salvation of Christ, or able to reject 
 it forever. 
 
 Then we have salvation by faith, not by works, not 
 by individual merit, but by simple faith ; faith, not 
 the mere belief of a statement, but the trust of the 
 heart; and then we have the witness of the Spirit, 
 God's own notification of our adoption into His family ; 
 both of them truths of great antiquity, the truths of 
 the Reformation, the truths of apostolic times, but 
 truths on which the dust of oblivion had gathered a 
 fathom deep, until our fathers exhumed them and 
 breathed the life into them. 
 
 And then, on the back of all this, we have a full 
 salvation to preach, a salvation from the uttermost 
 extremity of guilt, from the deepest alienation from 
 God; s. salvation to the uttermost of human need, so 
 that we can walk in the light of God and be blame- 
 19 
 

 
 282 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 » ' >• 
 
 4 
 J 
 
 less ; a salvation into the uttermost degree of bl sed- 
 ness, which God has in store for them who overi )me 
 through the blood of the Lamb. 
 
 Sir, with such a body of truth, we can go to the 
 vilest and say there is hope for you. Let us be loyal 
 to the doctrines of our Church and preach them fully. 
 We may bring out our muskets and fill them to the 
 muzzle with anti-Darwinism and anti-Tyndall powder, 
 and fire them off, and nobody will care ; but preaching 
 the old-fashioned truths that have come down to us 
 crowned with the achievements of eighteen centuries, 
 we shall, as our fathers were, be mighty in word 
 and in doctrine, and we shall sweep from the field, 
 doubt and the worldliness of sin. 
 
 2. A rich heritage of hymnody. 
 
 All along the ages God's people have been a singing 
 people. Rising from the shores of the Red Sea, float- 
 ing over the plains of Esdraelon, and pouring from the 
 tuned harp of the kingly palace at Jerusalem, came 
 the songs of Miriam and Deborah and David. The 
 song of the angels filling earth and heaven with its 
 jubilant strains ; the sweet Hallel of the passover, 
 sung with wondrous significance, as Christ and His 
 disciples went out into the Mount of Olives ; and the 
 midnight hymns of Paul and Silas in the inner prison, 
 their feet fastened in the stocks, their backs welted 
 and rigid and stained with unwashed gore, fall upon 
 our ears, and the ears of God and angels, and shall go 
 ringing down the centuries. Then, from many a little 
 group of early Christians in their private houses or 
 subterranean chapels, come the songs that go down to 
 
ivi 
 
 OUR METHODIST HERITAGE. 
 
 283 
 
 meet the hymns of Clement and Gregory, and St. 
 Hilary and Ambrose, and St. Bsrnard and Fiede ; and 
 while their sonf(s are yet lingering in our ears, the 
 sound of Luther's trumpet voice rises gran<)ly in 
 strain." that startle the nations, breathing out, "A 
 stronghold our God is still," the imperishable pagans 
 of the Reformation. Then, after a little pause, during 
 which the voices of many are hushed in exile, blood 
 and death, a new reformation breaks forth, and the 
 world is again ringing with Christian song. Watts 
 and Doddridge and Montgomery, and Cow^per and 
 Newton, and a host of others are heard ; but rising 
 above them all, the sublime, spiritual, inimitable 
 songs of the Wesleys and Thomas Olivers. Oh, what 
 a history this old book has ! How its music and theo- 
 logy have stolen into the hearts of black-faced colliers, 
 and many of the elite of Great Britain. How it has 
 been sung in the backwoods cabin ot this country. 
 How it has woke the echoes as the saddle-bajx men 
 lifted up their voices while passing from one appoint- 
 ment to another. How it has rung out at camp- 
 meetings and quarterly gathering.s. How many on 
 its wings have gone up from sick-beds and passed 
 into the opened heavens. Brethren, let us be loyal to 
 the hymn-book. There are defects in it — the sun has 
 spots — there i« work for our Flymn-book Committee to 
 do, though I hope they won't use the knife too freely. 
 I have all confidence in their judgment, and feel it is 
 safe in their hands. But as it is it stands without 
 an equal. You may put down your " Moody and 
 Sankey," and " Waves," and " Organs," and " Sunshine 
 
TT 
 
 'I 
 
 i.. 
 
 Mi 
 
 284 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 and Golden Hours," and I wouldn't give "Jesus, Lover 
 of my soul," for a whole continent of such. You may 
 sing, " Climb Zion's Hill," but I'll sing, " Leader of 
 faithful souls, and Guide of all who travel to the 
 skies." You mav sing, " There's a land that is fairer 
 than day," but I'll prefer, " I .see a world of spirits 
 bright." You may sing, " In God I have found a 
 retreat," but I'll sing, "Ah, show me that happiest 
 place ! " Let us keep singing our own hymns. Keep 
 them in the prayer-meeting, keep them in the Sun- 
 day-school, sing them in our classes, sing them at 
 our penitent-benches. They will spread no Ply- 
 mouthism, they will vitiate no taste, but they will 
 exalt sentiment and devotion, and be a powerful help 
 to 'the pulpit in bringing men to God and keeping 
 them in the way of life. 
 
 3. The inspiration of a grand heroism. 
 
 The history of Methodism is the history of a 
 divinely baptized heroism. Bishop Simpson, some years 
 ago, gave in a sermon before the British Conference, a 
 line picture of the great hero of the first century of 
 Christ, the merest outline of which is all that I can 
 recall. "I see him yonder, he has been preaching in 
 a certain city, and they carry him without the walls, 
 the missiles fall thick and fast upon him, till they leave 
 him, thinking he is dead. I follow him to another 
 city ; they arrest him there, the robe is taken from his 
 shoulders, and a strong man lays on the lash, " forty 
 strokes save one," and his body is all a gory wound. 
 Again I follow him ; he has been a day and a night on 
 the deep, and, drawn out, he falls exhausted upon the 
 
 -'»»»?*Ttei»»»,r^ra-»«^ 
 
OUR METHODIST HERITAGE. 
 
 285 
 
 shore. I put my hand upon him, I beg him to stop 
 preaching and to save his life. I bend my ear to his 
 lips, and he falters out, " None of these things move 
 me." I follow him to a prison in Rome ; he sits down 
 to write his last letter to Timothy, and if there is a 
 misgiving in his heart, if he is sad and sorry, if he has 
 sacrificed too much, it will come out now. I look over 
 his shoulder and read the writing, *' Timothy, my own 
 son in the Gospel, I desire that you give up the minis- 
 try, it will cost you too much. I'm sorry that I sacri- 
 ficed my early manhood, sorry that I've come to Rome, 
 and that now, in my old age, I am going to be put to 
 death." Is that it ? No no ; but this flows from his 
 pen, " I am ready to be offered." O ye heroes of 
 Thermopylae, and Marathon, and Waterloo, and Balak- 
 lava, stand back in the presence of this Paul, the aged, 
 who dies with the world beneath his feet, the grandest 
 hero of history. 
 
 Now, sir, what Paul was to the first century of Chris- 
 tianity, the early Methodist itinerant was to the first cen- 
 tury of Methodism. Let me give you another's sketch 
 of him. He is of middle height, neither lank nor 
 flabby. Occasionel meals ensure no corpulency. His 
 step is quick, his stride is long, for the imperious " Go" 
 of the Galilean is ringing behind him, and the King's 
 business requires haste. He mounts a horse, the best 
 the country can produce. If Wesley's sermon on the 
 resurrection be true, that horse will have good pastur- 
 age on the other side, for he did a good share of 
 evangelistic work, and knew as much as some evange- 
 lists of our day. The circumstances of this man of 
 
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 I } r 
 
 \\ 
 
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 II 
 
 iii: 
 
 286 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 God are his servants. A stump, a kitchen, a wagpjon, 
 a chair, serve him for a pulpit, as well as a box on the 
 shoulders of male angels, and better, too. Wherever he 
 can get space to stand and an ear to hear, he has the 
 conditions for answering the purposes of his calling. 
 He is self-reliant, for he is in the path of duty. He 
 hastens round the circuit of duties, a messenger 
 from God, with warnings for the heedless, points 
 for the obdurate, courage for the timid, arguments for 
 the doubting, mercy f(;r the penitent and salvation for 
 the believing. Toilinfj amidst scenes of childhoo- he 
 is watched as a stranger ; meetin^c all the duties of a 
 citizen, he endures privation like a foreigner. Rising 
 above the boundary lines of human geographies, he 
 finds his fatherland everywhere. Poor, he has the 
 pearl of great price, and enriches many. Maligned, he 
 lifts up the fallen and clothes with righteousness the 
 outcast. Cursed, he changes the maledictions of ene- 
 mies into blessings, by the meekness of his endurance, 
 and the heroism of his faith. Persecuted, he returns 
 mercy for missiles, and answers shouts of derision with 
 prayers and pardons. He is too full of his immortal 
 idea to be killed, and too intimate with God to be hurt. 
 Wearing Elijah's cloak, he rebukes sin; rising in 
 Elijah's chariot, he forsakes or escapes it. That's the 
 hero of the first century of Methodism. 
 
 Sir, we have a noble heroic ancestry. Standing to- 
 night in the presence of a great cloud of witnesses, 
 gone up to God from fields of Methodistic toils, we 
 catch, I hope, the spirit of these noble men and w^omen 
 of the earlier time, and God helping, we will play 
 
OUR METHODIST HEUITAGE. 
 
 ^87 
 
 He 
 
 neither the part of the coward nor the craven, but 
 prove ourselves worthy successors of the noblest race 
 of men that ever trod Canadian soil. 
 
 4. Church government and order. 
 
 I think I may say that there has come to us the 
 heritage of a noble church government and order. I 
 am not going to glorify Methodism by trying to lower 
 other churches. If there be one branch of the Church 
 in which it is a special sin to be narrow and sectarian, 
 that branch is the Methodist branch, tbe heir and 
 debtor of every pre-existing form of Christianity in 
 government and order. We inherit very much from 
 the early apostolic churches, we inherit much from 
 the MediiBval Church, with all its faults; we in- 
 herit immensely from the Reformed Church, we 
 owe much to the Lutheran, Calvinistic and Angli- 
 can, which were the three great branches of the 
 Reformai ion, we owe very much to the Puritan, 
 which was an offset, and came more from the 
 Calvinist than from anybody else. The fact is, 
 the two great English forms of Christianity, the Puri- 
 tan and the Anglican, Were better represented under 
 the roof of the rectory at Epworth than under that of 
 any other house in England, and therefore in the early 
 traininor of the lirst asfents of Methodism we had both 
 these forms of Christianity preparing for the upspring- 
 ing of Methodism. And after they had done their 
 best, Oxford did what it could do ; and when Oxford 
 had done its best, then Providence takes the future 
 messengers of Methodism, and upon the waves of the 
 Atlantic He brings the influence of the German mind 
 
M 
 
 Mil 
 « « 
 
 t . I;- 
 
 288 
 
 ADDKESSES 
 
 and the simple forms of the Moravian brethren ; and 
 then, when it was beginnin^^ to grow strong, the vivid, 
 incisive passion, the pure, bright, French mind of 
 Fletcher came into the midst of the stirring English 
 mind and the somewhat dreamy German minds that 
 were then at work ; and God launched it forth, de ar- 
 ing by the very circumstances of its origin and growth 
 that He never intended it to be for one race, one coun- 
 try, one time, but for all races, all countries and all 
 times. 
 
 Methodism was never evolved from any man's inner 
 consciousness, as the German evolved the camel. It is 
 a growth in things. Believers met together for reli- 
 gious counsel and to make weekly contributions for 
 benevolence, and almost before they knew, the class- 
 meeting was encircling the world with its songs ; and 
 when the life of God in the soul seeking for expression 
 that gave birth to the class-meeting indicates some- 
 thing better than the class-meeting, I'll go in for 
 abolishing it, but never till then. Richard Maxwell, a 
 layman, began to preach, and Wesley, in alarm, went 
 and talked with him, and found out that he preached 
 because he couldn't help it ; it was the outgrowth of 
 life ; and all our local lay agency came into being. If 
 Wesley were alive to-day, I don't know but he would 
 let women preach. He knew they were good at lec- 
 turing, why shouldn't they be good at preaching ? 
 " You're singing out of tune," he cried one day, to a 
 woman. " My heart is singing right, sir," she replied. 
 " Then sing on," said he. A right heart covered a 
 great many defects with Wesley. 
 
1 
 
 OUR METHODIST IIERITAOE. 
 
 289 
 
 Speaking of preaching suggests the Methodist plan 
 of training for the ministry, which has grown up from 
 the first amongst us, and which, I hope, we shall never 
 relinquish. We have never favored training and 
 education for the ministry — that is, that men should he 
 selected by friends and educated that they should 
 enter the ministry as a profession. We hold that 
 when God, by His .spirit, calls men into the ministry, 
 and the Church recoi^nizes them as so called, it is 
 proper to tit them in the ministry for the work to 
 which God has called them. It is education in, and 
 not /or, the ministry to which we are attached. Trial 
 first, ordination afterward. First, be sure that God 
 has called the man, and then give him the broadest 
 culture and training possible. Some of our people are 
 afraid that our colleges make men unnatural, that 
 they become feeble imitators of the professors, and if 
 ever such a thing takes place it is a terrible calamity. 
 We believe in culture, but we believe in retaining 
 individuality. If there is a lion in a man, I wouldn't 
 begin to po,re his nails, or trim his mane, or tone his 
 voice, or tame his spirit; but I'd let his claws grow, 
 let his teeth lengthen, let his mane thicken, let his eye 
 brighten, let his thunder deepen, let his spirit wax, 
 until by his roaring he sends terror to all the haunts 
 of wickedness, and dismay to all the dens of iniquity. 
 There is just as much that is aesthetic about a lion as 
 about a lap-dog. We want majesty, and sublimity, and 
 grandeur, and glory, as well as beauty. 
 
 Then as to the discipline of the Church. I heard a 
 venerable minister once say on this Conference plat- 
 
290 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 form, before the union, that the tv;o f^reat principles 
 of the Methodist discipline were superintendency and 
 subordination. Well, I suppose that was true of the 
 discipline of which he spoke, particularly of the sub- 
 ordination part. But we have had a new discipline 
 since then. An old farmer onco said, he ^ot a new 
 sled that was so perfect that it broke up all his old 
 sleds ; and we have a new discipline that has broken a 
 good many of the old things, but it hasn't broken 
 superintendency and subordination. I don't like the 
 subordination as well as the superintendency, except 
 when some one wants to superintend me, and then I 
 am not much in love with either. But, seriously, I 
 believe we have a Church polity sufficiently con- 
 servative and sufficiently elastic to adapt itself from 
 time to time to the exigencies of the day. Even the 
 Stationinjj Committee is a fine institution, and so is 
 the Quarterly Board ; and when the one asks me to go 
 to a circuit, in the interests of which I am disposed to 
 sacrifice myself, I always take it kindly, when the 
 others sanctions such a self-denying spirit. That is the 
 carrying out the two great principles of superin- 
 tendency and subordination. 
 
 And now, sir, with the memory of the departed 
 good fresh in our hearts, with the rich heritage of 
 doctrine and hymnody, and heroism and Church 
 polity sacredly committed to us, with the solemn but 
 encouraging sight of these young meii before us being 
 received into this ministry, prior to their ordination to 
 the grandest life-work within the reach of any man 
 on earth, and with the new Conference year before 
 
 I 
 
OUR METHODIST HERITAGE. 
 
 291 
 
 us, let us arm ourselves for the conflict — for conflict 
 there will be. Conflict with f]jreed of gain, the mad- 
 ness of men toi wealth. Conflict with infidelity 
 standing in solid squares, overawing recruits ; and 
 liberalists, spiking the guns, and worldliness poison- 
 ing the rations. Conflict with fashion and rum and 
 the devil, with principalities and powers. Oh, that 
 we may win glorious victories for Chris^-ianity this 
 year. I believe we shall ; we shall hear the songs of the 
 new-born soul, we shall see the cross encircled by the 
 arms of a new-born faith : we shall see Hell tremble 
 as we crowd together in the contest ; we shall listen 
 to the shout of victory, as we forget self and every- 
 thing but Christ. Oh, that upon the Conference may 
 come the mighty >aptism of power. Oh, that revivals 
 may break out upon all our circuits and missions 
 until the whole territory we occupy may glow with 
 the light and life ; and unto Him, the Lord of life, shall 
 we ascribe honor and dominion and power and glory 
 forever and ever. Amen. 
 
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 BIBLE SOCIETY ADDRESS. 
 
 I COUNT myself happy to be permitted to stand 
 upon this platform as an advocate of the claim of 
 the Bible Society upon the sympath)^ and benevoience 
 of Christian people. I am thankful to be in this way 
 associated with these godly ministers and laymen 
 whose prayers go up unceasingly for Zion's welfare 
 and the spread of Christian knowledge and vital piety 
 through the distribution of the Word of God. I am 
 pleased to be at this anniversary in this enterpris- 
 ing city, and hear from the report and see from the 
 congregation an interest in the cause that places this 
 branch in the front rank of the branches of the 
 General Society. And I esteem it above all a privilege 
 to be permitted to say a word, however weak and 
 imperfect it may be, on behalf of a P)Ook to which we 
 are indebted for civil liberty, spiritual good and 
 natioiial prosperity. I am not here in any represen- 
 tative capacity whatever, but I am sure the brethren 
 of the Toronto auxiliary would wish me to convey to 
 you their kindest greetings, and assure you that your 
 success always gladdens them. As one of the directors 
 of that auxiliary during the last twelve years, I can 
 assure this congregation that every effort is made by 
 Bible Societies to manage them with the greatest 
 
 il 
 
Bir.LE SOCIETY ADDRESS. 
 
 293 
 
 ■t 
 
 possible economy consistent with efficiency, and that I 
 know of no organization where more work is done 
 with the same amount of money, so that every con- 
 tributor may be satisfied that his donation is v. Isely 
 expended. 
 
 If I understand tlie work of this Society, it is simply 
 *o aim at putting a copy of the sacred Scripturos in 
 the hand of every man who will receive it — to give it 
 to him for nothing if too poor to pay for it ; and if 
 able to pay, to sell it to him cheaper than he can get it 
 anywhere else. And in addition it proposes, through 
 its colporteurs, to visit and speak to the people about 
 spiritual concerns, if they will listen. But believing 
 that this Book is greater than the man, its great aim 
 is to get the Book into the hands and homes of the 
 masses. Its work has no complications, it knows no 
 denominational distinctions, advocates no church pecu- 
 liarities ; it deals with the Bible, and the Bible alone, 
 as the Word of the living God. Our hope of success 
 is based upon the fact that the Book \/hich we 
 circulate is the Word of God. I am not ignorant of 
 the fact that many dispute with us here, and affirm 
 this Book to be the product of man. Well, the Book 
 is here, somehow ii got here, it had an origin, it has 
 certainly lived a long time and it shows no signs of 
 decay or death. Whatever its origin, and whatever 
 its end, it has a wonderful vitality. It is so, whether 
 it be written in the Hebrew or the Greek ; languages 
 dead or languages living ; whether it be in the version 
 of Wycliffe or Tyndale, of Edward VI. or James I. 
 There are those who expected that when the Revised 
 
 
I- ' \ 
 
 294 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 Version of the New Testament came out, some funda- 
 mental doctrine, some important portion would be 
 abstracted, that these eminent English and American 
 scholars, after their ten years' labor, were sure to 
 strip the old orthodoxy of some of its mysteries and 
 terms, and give us a system of truth such as the 
 rationalists and materialists of the present day would 
 be more likely to accept. But the truth i., change the 
 language of the Bible as you will, put it into the 
 tongue of every nation upon the earth, apply it to all 
 the tests of scholarly criticisms, and every time you 
 will have left one and the same thing, that which 
 has essential life and which no changes can destroy. 
 
 This, sir, I take it, is of some value in the history 
 of this Book, a fact that stands alone, in ancient 
 literature, that after centuries of changes, after copy- 
 ings almost innumerable, after having been tossed 
 about throuofh ages of ignorance and tumult, there is 
 not a single doctrine nor duty nor fact of any grade 
 changed by the various readings. And to-day, also 
 as in all the past, there is not a great Christian sect 
 that does not hold as firmly to the most fundamental 
 elements of Christianity as did the primitive age itself. 
 God, a divine Christ, the immortality of men, their 
 actual lost estate, their possible recovery by repentance 
 and faith on their part, and by an atonement and 
 Holy Ghost on the part of God. Nor i:< there a large 
 denomination bearing Christ's name that does not lift 
 up both hands in favor of the^.c Christians first 
 principles. They stand better than the rooted hills. 
 Time, the great dissolver, makes no impression on 
 
BIBLE SOCIETY ADDRESS. 
 
 295 
 
 them. We confess to sore corruptions in certain 
 quarters. Yet it is true that the Christian world as 
 such, in its creeds and actual beliefs, maintains the 
 whole gist of original Christianity. There is not a 
 main timber in the great ship as it was launched which 
 is not in it to-day, and as sound as ever. On parts 
 barnacles have been allowed to gather. At times men 
 have hindered the sailing by various outlandish 
 equipments. At times they have made the vessel 
 awfully ugly by ill-judged paint, and odious with 
 unfit lading. But despite all this, it is the same ship, 
 as to those great skeleton beams, whose heart of oak 
 holds all together, that once ploughed the blue waves 
 of Galilee and the iEgean, with the fishermen apostles 
 for crew and Christ for captain. 
 
 Well, sir, I was speaking a moment ago of the fact 
 that change of language does not chanjje the Bible. 
 But let me say, that the Bible always changes language 
 for the better, while it remains unchanged. I suppose 
 that in the works of Milton and Shakespeare, the tide 
 of English language and thought rose to their highest 
 point. But Milton and Shakespeare were never trans- 
 lated into any other language without suffering serious 
 detriment. But you may take the book of Job, or the 
 Psalms of David, or the Gospel and Epistles of the New 
 Testament, and translation does not depreciate them. 
 They lift the language up to their level. Every time 
 they are translated into a new language they confer a 
 benefit upon that language. It is said that Luther's 
 translation of the Bible, renewed the life of the Ger- 
 man tongue. So it is everywhere. Translate the 
 
 ? I 
 
296 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 Scriptures into any language on the face of the earth, 
 and that tongue pulsates with new life. It takes a 
 new devotion and has new outlooks. But it is not the 
 lanoruafje of a nation only which the Bible affects, it 
 affects the life of that nation. The Anglo-Saxon civili- 
 zation is the highest civilization which ever blessed 
 the world. This civilization comes from the Bible, and 
 from no other source. Huxley says that ** modern 
 civilization rests on physical science." Take away her 
 gifts to England, he adds, and her position among the 
 leading nations of the world is gone to-morrow ; for it 
 is physical science' that makes intelligence and moral 
 energy stronger than brute force. But, sir, what has 
 given England physical science ? The Bible. What 
 has given her moral energy ? The Bible. Who 
 founded her schools and universities ? Men who 
 revered the Bible. The facts of physical science have 
 been the same since the world began. The electric 
 light was in the garden of Eden. The locomotive lay 
 on the banks of the Nile. But why is it that only 
 those countries where the Bible has been read for 
 centuries, where the Bible has given freedom of 
 thought and freedom of institutions, where the Bible 
 has taught man his native dignity, have applied these 
 facts of physical science ? Why did not the facts of 
 physical science go to Mexico, or China, or Spain ? 
 
 What is it, sir, that dignifies human life ? What is 
 it that makes a city full of men and women, a nobler 
 gathering than the busy tenants of an ant-hill ? The 
 civilization of the ant rests upon the fact of physical 
 science. The ant has industry. The anc has architec- 
 
BIBLE SOCIETY ADDRESS. 
 
 297 
 
 tural skill. Why are not a community of beavers, 
 building their dams and plastering their dwellings, as 
 noble a spectacle as a city full of men and women, 
 building houses and ships and railways ? What 
 makes the civilization of modern times a possibility ? 
 Is it the great mechanical powers ? Is it the great 
 modern inventions ? Take away the sense of account- 
 ability to man and God, take away the ties which 
 bind a man to his wife, and children, and country, 
 which make him anxious for a good name, and what 
 will become of him ? Which can we best afford to 
 spare, steam power and electricity, chemistry and 
 architecture, or that sense of God's presence and 
 of stewardship to Him, which binds us to a moral 
 goverment, of which He is the head ? We have seen 
 whole nations upon the islands of the sea transformed 
 from barbarism to civilization by the Bible, as 
 in a day. To-day the inhabitants of the Sandwich 
 Islands and Madagascar are like the demoniac in the 
 Gospel. They dwell in the tombs of paganism, they 
 deform and deface themselves with cruel rites, they 
 are half-naked savages. To-morrow having felt the up 
 lift which comes from this wonderful Book, they sit 
 at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in their right minds. 
 They build churches and school-houses. They elect 
 rulers and print books. Where are the triumphs of 
 physical science such as these ? Where go the achieve- 
 ments of science, but where the Bible has gone before 
 it. And these changes are not the result of any 
 wholesale motive, they are the result of the study of 
 this single Book. It would be a great loss to mankind 
 20 
 

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 I 
 
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 jl 
 
 298 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 if all the great libraries in the world were burned up, 
 if the accounts of the great modern inventions were 
 consumed. But burn them all up ; burn up all the 
 implements and machines which the mind of man has 
 ever invented, blot from the knowledge of men what 
 they know of the triumphs of physical science, but 
 leave men the Bible, and bring it into contact with the 
 mind, and under its inspiration men will travel the 
 old path over again, and win the same dominion over 
 material things that they have already achieved. It 
 would be a great loss to the human race if you should 
 destroy all the treatises on constitutional government. 
 But destroy them, and leave man the Bible, and he 
 will write them over again. Just as the coral insect is 
 building new continents, so the power of the Bible is 
 lifting nation after nation into the light of the truth, 
 clothing it with beauty and grace, making its insti- 
 tution as stable as the everlasting hills. Sir, this Book 
 is from God. If not, why have the greatest intel- 
 lects, such as Shakespeare, Milton and Newton, stood 
 uncovered in its presence, and why haven't the hun- 
 dred and one infidels who have rejected it on account 
 of its supposed defects, given us at least one proverb 
 such as Solomon's, one Psalm like those of David's, one 
 poem like that of Job, one glimpse of a better world, 
 like that given in the book of Revelation ? If man 
 made this Book, why don't man make another like it ? 
 But, Mr. Chairman, while the Bible does all that we 
 have been claiming for it, while it lies at the root of 
 all national prosperity, and gives inspiration to the 
 intellect and uplifts a people socially and commer- 
 
BIBLE SOCIKTY ADDRESS. 
 
 299 
 
 cially, yet these are not the chief benefits it bestows, 
 nor do these furnish the cliief reason why we seek to 
 circulate it. The chief work of the Bible is to deal 
 with the f]freat crushinf^ question of human sin, and 
 providing for its removal. It is no use to tell me what 
 life ought to be, unless you make provision for dealing 
 with life as it is. A doctor once said that the essence 
 of all the rules of medicine might be summed up in 
 the advice "To keep well." But go into the ward of 
 the hospital and tell that to the patients, and will not 
 bloodless lips say, " But what are we to do who are not 
 well to begin with ? Can you do nothing to make us 
 well, in the hope that we may keep so afterwards?" 
 It will be easy to prove the sinfulness of men from the 
 Bible, but really, one does not need to go there to 
 prove it. Read the newspaper, read the records of 
 police and law courts. Look at the saloons and 
 gambling hells, and houses that lead down to death ; 
 or turn from extreme cases to " societv," and see the 
 empty pride of place and power, envy and jealousy, 
 seltishness and heartburning, all declaring that vsome- 
 thing is tremendously wrong. You may strip sin of 
 its grossness, but it is sin still. The fact of sin meets 
 us everywhere. How shall that fact be dealt with ? 
 Educate, say some ; reduce the physical to the mini- 
 mum and exalt the intellectual to the maximum, and 
 you have virtue as the product. Sir, draw a full-length 
 portrait of a Hottentot with all the hideousness of his 
 immoral nature depicted in his countenance, with all 
 the lasciviousness of his depraved being apparent in 
 his physique ; and I will go to Greece in the days of 
 
1}V. 
 
 PH. 
 
 300 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 Pericles, to Rome in the days of Cicero, to France 
 in the days of Voltaire, to London or Edinburgh 
 to-night; to New York, Chicago, or Toronto, and I 
 will find a scholar whose intellect is impaired, whose 
 mind is thoroughly cultured, yet who, in morals, is 
 the counterpart of the Hottentot. Lord Bacon said, 
 "In knowledge without love there is somewhat of 
 malignity." "Art will restrain the passions and 
 develop virtue," say^ another. But, sir, surely that 
 man forgets that under the chisel of Phidias the Athe- 
 nian marble breathed, and birds came and pecked at 
 the grapes which Apelles painted on the canvas. Yet 
 Grecian art could not renovate Grecian morals. From 
 Monte Rosa to where Vesuvius sends up eternal 
 incense to God, from where the Adriatic dashes on its 
 ancient shore to where the Mediterranean kisses its 
 native coast, Italy is one great art gallery ; yet, from 
 Lago Come to Vesuvius, Italy is corrupt with every 
 form of vice. So, too, of Paris. Oh, art has failed ! 
 It may be a handmaid, but there is no power in the 
 marble or the canvas to restrain the passions of man's 
 degenerate nature. 
 
 Well, then, will civil government do it ? Never. 
 You may have a republic or a monarchy, an absolute 
 or a paternal government, but from time immemorial 
 to the present, all forms of civil government have 
 been a failure in preventing crime and in developing 
 virtue. Whether you go to the patriarchal govern- 
 ment of Abraham, or to the absolute rule of the Czar 
 of Russia, or to the aristocracy of England, or to the 
 Republic of the United States or to your own land, 
 
BIBLJ SOCIETY ADDRESS. 
 
 301 
 
 every form of civil government has failed to give 
 mastery to virtue. There is nothing reformatory in 
 penal law ; the design of punishment is not reforma- 
 tion. If it were, the devil would be the most refcrmed 
 creature in the universe, and hell itself would be a 
 paradise. When once a man has taken a downward 
 step there is no power in law to restore him. Lastly, 
 will family control do this work ? There are not a 
 few of tlie advocates of the doctrine of Confucius 
 who assert the idea of parental authority to change 
 the heart and improve the life. But, my friends, this 
 theory has been tried through two millenniums, tried 
 upon a portion of the earth where citizens are num- 
 bered by hundreds of millions, and where square 
 miles are counted by hundreds of thousands, and yet 
 it has failed — failed in China. You who are parents 
 are only so many witnesses of the inadequacy of 
 parental government, independent of divine grace, 
 either to restrain the passions of the young or to 
 develop a virtuous life. But now com s in the Bible, 
 and it tells us that God has done for man that which 
 he never could do for himself. The very central 
 thing in the whole Book, by the side of which every- 
 thing is of secondary consequence, is this, " God so 
 loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, 
 that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, 
 but have everlasting life. For God sent not His 
 Son into the world to condemn the world, but that 
 the world through Him might be saved." He frees 
 man from that penalty which law must carry against 
 the sinner, if it is to be law at all. He makes us 
 
I 
 
 
 II 
 
 302 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 safe — safe from condemnation — and sound as well 
 as safe, for " If any man be in Christ, he is a new 
 creature." This is the glory of the Gospel ; it not 
 only forgives the sin, but it lays the axe at the root 
 of the tree and cuts it away. Yea, divine grace pulls 
 it up root and branch and all. And so it is that 
 your agents go forth with the living sanctifying Word 
 of God — go to the toiling artizan in his shop, to the 
 hard, rough lumberman in his shanty, to the poor 
 emigrant landing on our shores, and offer him a Book 
 whose doctrines received shall change him and give 
 him peace, whose precepts observed shall build him 
 up in all the traits of good character, whose proml. '^s 
 believed shall comfort him in sorrow, and stand by 
 him in bereavement, and comfort him in death. 
 
 Brethren, this is the Book that we seek to < irculate. 
 And to-night the appeal comes to you again for aid in 
 scattering it broadcast over this fair Held that God has 
 given us to cultivate. The Dean of Canterbury once 
 said on a missionary platform, " Contributions to the 
 missionary cause are a fair index to the faith and 
 spirituality of the man or the Church that makes 
 them." 1 think the Dean was right. To what extent 
 do we believe in the Bible ? What is the measure of 
 our love for the souls that are perishing ? How far 
 have the principles of Christian charity penetrated 
 into the heart ? How fully are we possesed by the 
 Spirit of the Master ? The answer to these questions 
 is not to be found simply in our prayers and in our 
 psalmody, but in our practical giving of money to aid 
 these great movements whose aim is the bringing of 
 
BIBLE SOCIETY ADDRESS. 
 
 303 
 
 men to Christ. How much owe.st thou my Lord ? How 
 far are you indebted to the Bible for your blessinfjs ? 
 Home, with its many charms, the sanctuary with its 
 elevating influences, education with its benefits, civil 
 liberty with its priceless benefits, religious freedom 
 with its advantages — tLese are yours, because of the 
 Word of God that has come to you. How much, then, 
 owest thou to this blessed Bible ? Appeals come from 
 every quarter. Patriotism calls with its trumpet 
 tones ; regard for a brother's welfare speaks with no 
 uncertain voice ; love for souls plies its weighty argu- 
 ment ; the glory of God, with its increasing power, 
 commands your active co-operation with this work. 
 " Lo, the fields are white unto the harvest ; " what a 
 field to labor in. To all — age with its wisdom, and 
 youth with its energy — comes the divine voice, " Go, 
 work to-day in My vineyard." With your own heart 
 right first of all, then take the seed-bag or the sickle, 
 as God shall give directions. 
 
J 
 
 I 
 
 r-t^i 
 
 l«i 
 
 
 THE HYMNS AND HYMN-WKITERS 
 OF OUK NEW HYMN BOOK. 
 
 " T T YMNS," says a living writer, "are the exponents 
 XI of the inward piety of the Church. They 
 are the jewels which the Church has worn, the pearls, 
 diamonds and precious stones formed into amulets 
 more potent against sorrow and sadness than the most 
 famous charms of wizard and magician." Song is the 
 expression of joy. A bird has lost its carol when 
 there is no music of happiness in its heart ; and a 
 man really sings only when he i in good humor. 
 Song has enlivened in every circumstance of trial and 
 danger. Mahomet told his wife Ayesha to instruct 
 his warriors in a native air of wild melody, and in its 
 captive beauty they overwhelmed the enemies of the 
 Moslem. There was no arm to stay their fury when 
 its spirit buoyed them above a sense of danger. The 
 legions of Napoleon were once imbedded in the 
 snowy Alps. The atmosphere was cold and crisp, the 
 wind howled, and far beyond and over still greater 
 obstacles, lay sunny Italy. " Play the French Gloria," 
 shouted the indomitable leader to the band of the 
 discouraged and fainting troops ; and down the lines 
 of that frozen cohort rushed warm liquid melody. 
 The disheartened men were born anew, and the snow- 
 clad Alps seemed small as mole-hills. The immortal 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-WUITERS. 
 
 305 
 
 Lablache, on his death-bed, said to one of his children, 
 " Go to the piano and accompany me." Broken down 
 with anguish and sorrow at the anticipated death of 
 his father, the youth obeyed. The ricli, full tones of 
 the great basso were now mellowed, but he sang with 
 a celestial beauty, " Home, sweet home." He at- 
 tempted the second stanza, but his throat had filled, 
 and murmuring the cadenza of the last line he passed 
 away. " A story is told," says Kev. W. M. Taylor, of 
 New York, of "Faranelli, the famous singer, being sent 
 for by express to Madrid, to try the eft'ect of his 
 magical voice on Philip V., of Spain, who was 
 there buried in the profoundest melancholy, proof 
 against every appeal to exertion, living without 
 signs of life in a darkened chamber, the unresisting 
 prey of dejection beyond relief. The vocalist was de- 
 sired by the nhysician to sing in an outer room, which 
 for a day or two he did, without any effect on the 
 royal patient. But at length it was noticed that the 
 king seemed partially roused from his stupor, and be- 
 came an evident listener. Next day tears were seen 
 starting from his eyes ; the day after he ordered the 
 door of his chamber to be left open, and at last the 
 perturbed spirit entirely left him, and the medicinal 
 voice of Faranelli effected what nothing else could 
 do." How beautifully does Robert Browning sing of 
 the effect of sweet sounds : 
 
 *'My heart! they loose my heart, those simple words, 
 Its darkness passes, which naught else could touch ; 
 Like some dank snake, that force may not expel, 
 Which glideth out to music sweet and low." 
 
306 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 >|li 
 
 l^' 
 
 11 
 
 Southey, in his life or Wesley, refers to the fear- 
 less nature of the Moravians when in thv very face 
 of death. A deep impression was made on Wesley 
 during his outward visit to America with these godly 
 people, by the circumstance that during imminent 
 peril from a storm at sea, they calmly continued their 
 songs, with death, but not its fear, before their eyes. 
 Iti the midst of the psalm v/ith which they began their 
 service, the sea broke over the ship, split the mainsail 
 covered the vessel, and poured in between decks as if 
 the great deep were about to swallow them up. A 
 dreadful screaminof was heard amongst the Enjxlish 
 colonists, but the Moravians calmly sung on. Wesley 
 afterwards asked one of them if he was not afraid at 
 the time. He replied, " I thank God, no ! " He was 
 then asked if the women and children were not afraid? 
 "No," he .said, "our women and children are never 
 afraid to die." So, too, Jerome of Prague, bound 
 naked to the stake, sang his hymns with untrembling 
 voice — that " voic^ which was ever clear, sonorous, and 
 with a certain dignity in its accents." The Christian 
 hero could emulate the Pajjan braves of whom Strabo 
 tells us, " They pealed forth the piean of victory from 
 the cross to which Roman cruelty had nailed them." 
 Mr. Jacox, author of Bible-music, says, " On the 
 memorable night when the Church of St. Thomas was 
 invested by the troops of Syrianus, the Archbishop 
 Athanasius, seated on his throne, expected, with calm 
 and intrepid dignity, the approach of death. While 
 the public devotion was interrupted by shouts of rage 
 and cries of terror, he animated his trembling congre- 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-WRITERS. 
 
 307 
 
 gation to express their religious confidence by singing 
 David's Psalms. 
 
 .A Ifred Tennyson, in " The Lady of Shalott," pictures 
 the power of song in the last hour. As the boatman 
 moved along, they on shore 
 
 " Heard a carol, mournful, holy, 
 Chanted loudly, chanted lowly, 
 Till her blood was frozen slowly. 
 And her eyes were darkened wholly. 
 
 Turned to tower'd Camelot. 
 For ere she reached upon the tide 
 The first house by the water side. 
 Singing in her song she died, 
 
 Thelady of Shalott." 
 
 When the time was come for Bunyan's last band 
 of pilgrims to cross the river, Mr. Despondency's 
 daughter, Much-Afraid, went through the river sinirino-. 
 but none could understand what she said. And away 
 across the river the good old Book says they sing a 
 " new song." For as surely as the soul is immortal, 
 and death has no dominion over it, and effects no 
 solution of continuity in its existence, so surely, if the 
 Christian creed be true and truly interpreted, the 
 voice of praise shall renew its strength in other worlds 
 than this : 
 
 "I'll praise my Maker while I've breath, 
 And when my voice is lost in death, 
 
 Praise shall employ my nobler powers ; 
 My days of praise shall ne'er be past. 
 While life, and thought, and being last, 
 
 Or immortality endures." 
 
m' 
 
 308 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 (.,3 '■. 
 
 t 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 To write a history of sacred song, would be to write 
 a history of the Church. Ever since the morning 
 stars sang together, music has exerted untold influence 
 over all classes. Some poet speaks of the time 
 
 " When the fawn and the spotted leopard, 
 The wolf and the young gazelle, 
 Came close to the sound of the singing, 
 As Eve's voice rose and fell." 
 
 In the days of David singing was well understood 
 and much practised, as four thousand singers were 
 appointed from among the Levites, having two hun- 
 dred and eighty-eight leaders ; and the whole duty of 
 this immense choir was to furnish music for the 
 temple service. Christ and His disciples sang together 
 during their last interview before the crucifixion, and 
 thus hymns were rendered sacred forever. The purity 
 and fervor of primitive faith, the early persecutions, 
 the profound stillness of the Middle Ages, and the 
 great awakenings of the sixteenth, seventeenth and 
 eighteenth centuries, are all intimately connected 
 with the history of hymnology. Prior to the Reforma- 
 tion hymns were comparatively scarce, but many of 
 them were of a superlative character. The hymns of 
 Ambrose, Aiiatolius, Prudentius, Jolm of Damascus, 
 and other early Latin and Greek writers, come to us 
 to-day freighted with melody and thought and beauty, 
 constituting one of the richest heritages of the Church. 
 The oldest Christian hymn is found in Greek, in the 
 books of Clement of Alexandria. It is difficult to 
 realize its age. It takes us back over the Dark Ages, 
 down to primitive days, to the immediate successors 
 
 IS ; 
 
 III 
 

 HYMNS AND HYMN-WRITERS. 
 
 309 
 
 of the apostles. Yea, it may have been sung by the 
 "beloved disciple" before he ascended to his reward 
 The compilers of our hymn-book have wisely given it 
 a place, and its sweet, tender r.ccents will be sung, we 
 doubt not, with i\n unction as divine as when it was 
 heard in the love-feasts and at the baptisms of the 
 early Christians : 
 
 " Shepherd of tender youth, 
 Guiding in love and truth, 
 Through devious ways ; 
 Christ, our triumphant King, 
 We come. Thy name to sing ; 
 Hither our children bring 
 To shout Thy praise." 
 
 There is a remarkable hymn, not in our book, 
 composed seven hundred years after the death of 
 Clement, by one Nutker, a Benedictine monk. He 
 saw some workmen building the bridge of Martins- 
 bruke, at the peril of eir lives. The terrors of 
 the spot and the exposure of the men suggested to 
 Nutker the hymn, two verses of which are here given, 
 and as we read them we can almost see the Alpine 
 gorge, the frail scaffold, and the men with only a 
 rope between them and eternity : 
 
 " In the midst of life, behold 
 Death has girt us round ; 
 Whom for help, then, shall we pray ? 
 Where shall grace be found. 
 
 "In the midst of death, the jaws 
 Of hell against us gape; 
 Who from peril dire as this 
 Openeth us escape?'' 
 
310 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 II:M 
 
 It is said that the ^reat Robert Hall once prepared 
 a sermon on the familiar words " In the midst of life 
 we are in death," and after finishing the discourse 
 looked throuf^h the Bible to find it, but looked in vain. 
 The words are first found in Nutker's hymn, and have 
 been embodied in the solemn burial service, and will 
 probably continue thus in use until the coming of our 
 Lord. 
 
 But the greatest hymn of mediaeval times is the 
 " Dies Irae,"* "the day of wrath," which has come down 
 to us enriched with the associations of centuries. Its 
 reputed author is Thomas Von Celane, a Franciscan 
 monk of the thirteenth centurv, to whom it was sug- 
 gested by Zephaniah's prophecy, "that day is a day of 
 wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness 
 and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a 
 day of clouds and thick darkness." Dean Stanley has 
 made a fine translation of this old hymn, which he has 
 allowed to be inserted in oijr book. (No, 882.) 
 
 Passing on, we come to the hymns of the Germans, 
 particularly those used by the Bohemian brethren, the 
 oldest hynms in the German tongue. In these we 
 have none of the stately grandeur of the old Latins, 
 but the simple breathing of the soul after God. One 
 
 ■''■ The tone of this hymn is a reflex of the theology of the time, 
 austere and severe, rather than living and hopeful. It forms a 
 part of the burial service in the Roman Missal, and is chanted 
 in magnificent style at the great Sistine Chapel at Rome. Dr. 
 Johnson and Walter Scott said they could never recite it with- 
 out tears, and Mozart, when he made it the basis of his 
 "Requiem," became so intensely excited by the theme as to 
 hasten his death. 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-WRITERS. 
 
 311 
 
 of them, a " Hymn to the Trinity," is a line expression 
 of the soul's wants. 
 
 These old Bohemian hymns had little artistic finish, 
 but they were endeared to the people by the holiest 
 memories. They told the children tales of martyrdom; 
 the aged spoke them with reverence ; martyrs s&nfr 
 them in the flames, and they trembled on the lips of 
 dying soldiers in the gory field. Thus in the same 
 age that witnessed obscene games and plays in the 
 churches of Paris, angels stooped down to hear the 
 rugged ballads in which the Hussites chanted their 
 faith — the genuine hallelujahs that were carried to 
 heaven from lone Bohemian hamlets and still forests, 
 from churches and from loathsome dungeons. 
 
 But the man who, more than any other, gave life 
 and power to German hymnody, is first brought to 
 our notice by this circumstance. On a cold, dark 
 night, Conrad, a worthy German, sat in his home 
 playing his flute, while Ursula, his wife, was preparing 
 supper. They heard a sweet voice singing outside, 
 and this was the sons: : 
 
 " Lord of heaven, lone and sad, 
 T would lift my soul to Thee ; 
 Pilgrim in a foreign land, 
 
 Glorious Father, look on me ; 
 I shall neither faint nor die 
 While 1 walk beneath Thine eye. 
 
 " 1 will stay my faith on Thee, 
 And will never fear to tread 
 Where the Saviour- Master leads, 
 He will give me daily bread ; 
 
ifilil 
 illhl 
 
 '•I 
 
 312 ADDRESSES. 
 
 Christ was hungry, Christ was poor, 
 He will feed me from His store. 
 
 *' Foxes to their holes have gone, 
 
 Every bird into its nest ; 
 But I wander here alone. 
 
 And for me there is no rest ; 
 Yet I neither faint nor fear, 
 For the Saviour, Christ, is near, 
 
 " If I live. He'll be near me ; 
 
 If I die, to Him I'll go ; 
 He'll not leave me, I will trust Him, 
 
 And my heart no fear shall know ; 
 Sin and sorrow I defy, 
 For on Jesus I rely. " 
 
 " I think that is the voice of a child," said Ursula ; 
 " let us open the door and see." Conrad opened the 
 door and saw a ragged child, who said : 
 
 " Charity, sir, for Christ's sake." 
 
 " Come in, my little one," said he ; " you shall rest 
 with me for the night." The boy said " Thank God," 
 and entered. The heat of the room made him faint, 
 but Ursula's care soon restored him. They gave him 
 supper, and then he told them that he was the son of 
 a poor miner, and wanted to be a priest. His kind 
 friends sent him to bed, and w^hen he was asleep they 
 looked in upon him, and were so pleased with his 
 countenance that they determined to keep him if he 
 was willing, for they had lost their own little boy not 
 long before. In the morning they found that he was 
 only too glad to remain. They sent him to school, and 
 he entered a monastery, found a Bible, and in time 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-WRITERS. 
 
 313 
 
 rest 
 God," 
 faint, 
 e him 
 son of 
 kind 
 they 
 jh his 
 if he 
 )y not 
 e was 
 l,and 
 I time 
 
 became Dr. Martin Luther, the champion of the 
 Reformation. Luther knew the worth of hymns ; he 
 called them " miniature Bibles." He wrote thirty- 
 seven, " which are to be weighed, not counted." So 
 great was the influence of his songs and chorals 
 that one of Rome's cardinals said, " By his songs he 
 has conquered us." During the time when he was 
 most busy composing his hymns, four printers in 
 Erfurt alone were kept at work in printing and 
 publishing them. They seemed to fly all over the 
 land as if on the wings of the wind. The 506th 
 hymn in our Book is a translation by Hedge of one of 
 Luther's most celebrated hymns.* In the town of 
 Cobourg, in Germany, is an old castle that rises five 
 hundred feet above the surrounding town. The chief 
 attractions to visitors now are the rooms and the bed 
 which Luther occupied, and the pulpit from which he 
 preached three and a half centuries ago. The time of 
 his sojourn here was in 1550 — during the meeting of 
 the Diet of Augsburg, where the great confession of 
 the Protestant Church was delivered. While Melanc- 
 thon and other theologians, together with the Elector, 
 went to the Diet, they left Luther on the way in 
 the refuge aflbrded by the castle, where he coulo 
 easily be reached by letter, and it is said that during 
 the Diet, when great dangers threatened the Church 
 he would daily go to the window of the castle, look 
 
 * It was written on the occasion of the evangelical princes 
 delivering that Protest at the Second Diet of Hpires in 1529, 
 from which we Protestants derive the name. It was a source of 
 great comfort to the intrepid reformer. 
 21 
 
Hi: '-.i 
 
 II 
 
 lij-' 
 
 i 
 
 314 
 
 ADDUESSES. 
 
 up toward heaven, and sing with great energy this 
 grand hymn of faith, our 500th. 
 
 This hymn may well be associated with castles. It 
 seems itself a tower of strength. It is founded on 
 the 46th Psalm, which opens with the words of power, 
 " God is our refuse and strenjjth." 
 
 After the Reformation the " old version of the 
 Psalms " was produced by Sternhold and Hopkins. 
 Thomas Fuller said of the rhythm of this, that " any 
 blacksmith with two hammers and an anvil could 
 make better music." To illustrate : the Psalmist says, 
 " O God, how long shall the enemy reproach ? Why 
 withdrawest Thy hand ? Pluck it out of Thy bosom." 
 This the poet renders : 
 
 " Why (lost withdraw Thy hand aback, 
 And hide it in Thy hip V 
 pluck it out, and be not slow 
 To give Thy foes a rap." 
 
 Tate and Brady's " new version " came out soon 
 after Sternhold's, of which Arch leacon Hare said, 
 " It had extraordinarv talent for woiflino; the life and 
 power of David's Psalms." 
 
 After this poets became very numerous, and all 
 classes from kings to cobblers tried their hand at 
 hymn-writing. Of the most of these it might be 
 said, as it was of Sir R. Black more : 
 
 " He took his muse at once and dipt her 
 Full in the middle of the Scripter ; 
 What wonders then the strange old man did, 
 Sternhold himself was out-Sternhold-ed." 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-WRITERS. 
 
 315 
 
 2V this 
 
 ,les. Ifc 
 
 ided on 
 
 power, 
 
 of the 
 [opkins. 
 it " any 
 il could 
 ist says, 
 ? Why 
 bosom." 
 
 ut soon 
 re said, 
 life and 
 
 and all 
 and at 
 ifjht be 
 
 The fact is, at this titne the art of hynin-makinfr 
 had embalmed itself — a revival of the art was neces- 
 sary, and the genuine revival was largely identical 
 with the rise of Methodism. Even Dr. Watts, who 
 has been called the father and inventor of English 
 hymns, and who certainly composed some of our 
 sweetest and best lyrics, had defects that unfitted him 
 for fully meeting the wants of the Church in this 
 respect. One of these arose from the fact that he 
 was no musician ; and therefore there is a lack of 
 variety of metre — nearly all his hymns being either 
 common, long or short metre — presenting a strong 
 contrast to Charles Wesley, who was a skilled musician 
 and had a wonderfully delicate ear, and whose variety of 
 metre is surprising. And then Watts in comparatively 
 few of his hymns sustains throughout strength of 
 thought. Some of his finest productions are marred 
 by a stanza weak in figure and harmony, while 
 there were many instances of positivel}'' bad taste. 
 Thus his hymn, 
 
 ' ' Let me hear my Saviour say, 
 Strength shall be equal to thy day," 
 
 closed with this ludicrous jingle: 
 
 " So Samson, when his hair was lost, 
 Met the Philistines to his cost, 
 Shook his vain limbs with sad surprise, 
 Made feeble fight, and lost his eyes." 
 
 I repeat it, a revival of hymnology was necessary, 
 and that revival dates from the time of John and 
 Charles Wesley. 
 
I 
 
 ,i i.>>' 
 
 h 
 
 1,1 
 
 '■4 
 
 ■?i 
 
 316 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 But it is time to come to the immediate notice of 
 our new hymn-book. The reason for this new collec- 
 tion for use in our Church, and the delicate and 
 important work of the Committee that made it, is 
 fitly told in the Preface to the Book. 
 
 In noticinf( the book, my purpose simply is to give 
 short biographical notes of some of the authors of the 
 hymns, to giv^e the circumstances in which certain of 
 the more popular hymns were written, together with 
 anecdotal illustrations of the effects produced by their 
 use, and to close with a brief survey of the book as a 
 whole. In carrying out this outline I must of course 
 begin with 
 
 Charles Wesley, 
 
 The poet of Methodism, and taken all in all, the finest 
 uninspired hymnist that has ever been given by 
 Providence to the Church. Of the nine hundred and 
 thirty-five hymns in this book, five hundred and thirty- 
 one are from Charles Wesley's pen, and these are not 
 a tithe of the hymns he wrote. " It may be affirmed," 
 S8.ys Isaac Taylor, " that there is no principal element 
 of Christianity ; no main article of belief as professed 
 by Protestant Churches ; that there is no moral or 
 ethical sentiment peculiarly characteristic of the 
 Gospel ; no height or depth of feeling proper to the 
 spiritual life, that does not find itself emphatically and 
 pointedly and clearly expressed in some stanza of 
 Charles Wesley's hymns." As we have already hinted, 
 one is struck with the amazing variety of subject, 
 illustration and metre in his hymns. Now he walks 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-WRITERS. 
 
 317 
 
 lotice of 
 ^ collec- 
 !ate and 
 xde it, is 
 
 s to give 
 •s of the 
 2rtain of 
 ler with 
 by their 
 Dok as a 
 )f course 
 
 he finest 
 fiven by 
 Ired and 
 id thirty- 
 e are not 
 iffirmed," 
 element 
 3rofessed 
 moral or 
 
 of the 
 T to the 
 ;ally and 
 tanza of 
 y hinted, 
 
 subject, 
 le walks 
 
 among the works of God on earth, and sings his 
 bounty and goodness, and now he sweeps through 
 the heavens amidst shining worlds and revolving 
 spheres, and anon he enters heaven itself and, prostrate 
 before God and the Lamb, sings the wonders of 
 redemption with the glorified multitude there. So 
 that, whether the Christian desires to pour out his 
 sorrow or sing out his joy, whether his mind may be 
 shrouded in gloom or looking out in sunshine, whether 
 on the Mount of Transfiguration or in the valley of 
 humiliation, whether celebrating nuptials or mourn- 
 ing the dead, he finds fit language to express himself 
 in Charles Wesley's hymns. The variety of metre in 
 his hymns shows with what wonderful aptness he 
 could express the varied feelings of the soul. These 
 hymns march at times like lengthened processions in 
 solemn grandeur ; they sweep at other times like 
 chariots of fire through the heavens, or they are 
 broken like sobs of grief at the grave's mouth, or play 
 like the joyful affections of childhood at the hearth, or 
 shout like victors in the fray of the battle-field. 
 Sometimes he makes you tremble as he sings of the 
 awful scenes of the judgment day. You hear the last 
 trumpet as its shrill notes reach the bottom of the sea 
 and stir up the dead there, or ring into the gloomy 
 depths of the grave and awaken the slur.ibers of its 
 inhabitants. 
 
 *' The great archangel's* trump shall sound, 
 While twice ten thousand thunders roar, 
 Tear up the graves and cleave the ground, 
 And make the greedy sea restore." 
 
! 
 
 • t 
 
 .•^18 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 I I 
 
 «! 
 
 And then how lie brings you up to heaven to behold 
 the Lord Jesus, who has entered the " Holy Place," 
 there to make intercession for us. 
 
 With the true spirit of a poet he presses everything 
 into the service of his sacred nui.se. The earth in its 
 grandeur and beauty, the sea in its vastness and 
 fulness, the heavens with their shining wonder.s, the 
 elements in quietude and commotion, all were taken 
 hold of by his genius and worked into his beautiful 
 compositions. Now he sweeps the harp of David and 
 awakens its holy harmonies, and now he plays on the 
 lute of Orpheus till the dream of Virgil becomes a 
 reality. The story told of Orpheus is that when he 
 played on his lute the stones rose from the quarry and 
 danced till they arranged themselves in the building, 
 and likewise the timbers from the forest came 
 together to their proper places in the roof, till the 
 whole building stood in its completeness a monument 
 of the power of the lute. 
 
 The first hymn in our book, and, indeed, in all 
 Methodist hymn books, 
 
 ^ " O for a thous<and tongues to sing," 
 
 was originally entitled, " For the anniversary day of 
 one's conversion." At the time of Charles Wesley's 
 conversion, May 21st, 1738, he was confined by a 
 severe attack of pleurisy to his room in the house of a 
 Mr. Bray, in London. Mrs. Turner, a good Moravian 
 woman, sister to Mr. Bray, was stopping in the same 
 house. After a night of agony, he awoke and cried 
 aloud, " Jesus, Thou hast said, I will come unto you ; 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-WUITEUS. 
 
 319 
 
 o behold 
 r Place," 
 
 erything 
 ih in its 
 less and 
 ders, the 
 re taken 
 Deautiful 
 avid and 
 3 on the 
 icomes a 
 when he 
 arry and 
 building, 
 3t came 
 till the 
 Dnument 
 
 , in all 
 
 day of 
 Vesley's 
 by a 
 use of a 
 oravian 
 le same 
 d cried 
 to you ; 
 
 Thou hast said, I will send the Comforter unto you ; 
 Thou hast said, My Father and I will come unto you 
 and will make our abode with you. Thou art God, Thou 
 canst not lie. I wholly rely upon Thy promise." As 
 Mrs. Turner heard these cries, she was constrained to 
 say, through the slightly opened door, " In the name 
 of Jesus of Nazareth arise and believe, and thou shalt 
 be healed of all thine intirinities." It was a word 
 fitly spoken. Said he, "Oh that Christ would but 
 thus speak to me!" and then he added, " I believe ! I 
 believe ! " The victory was won. Charles Wesley 
 was converted. On the first anniversary of this event 
 this hymn was written. When Charles consulted 
 Peter Bohler about praising Christ, Biihler replied, 
 " 1 ad I a thousand tongues, I would praise Him with 
 them all." This utterance of the pious Moravian is 
 enshrined in this glorious hymn, whose soul-stirring 
 music shall go down the line of the ages, till it mingles 
 with the music of the perfected Church in heaven. 
 Standing at the very portal of this temple of melody, 
 it fitly voices the song and sentiment of the ever- 
 multiplying hosts who chant their praises to the glory 
 of Him who redeemed them with His own precious 
 blood. 
 
 ' * Jesus, the name that charms our fears, 
 That bids our sorrows cease." 
 
 Dr. Theodore Cuyler says, "John Wesley was 
 system, Charles was song. John was the Bezaleel who 
 laid the foundations and hewed out the pillars of the 
 new tabernacle ; but Charles was the Asaph who filled 
 
320 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 im 
 
 
 •mf 
 
 iilt 
 
 > 
 
 v, 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 f 
 
 i 
 
 [ 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 it with melody. Methodism was builded rapidly, but 
 the walls never would have gone up so fast had they 
 not been built to music!' One immortal hymn has 
 gone far to justify Dr. Cuyler's words. If Charles 
 Wesley had written it only, his name would have been 
 cut on the arch of fame far above most others. I 
 refer to that tender metrical prayer, 
 
 " Jesus, lover of my soul." 
 
 Many who are perfectly familiar with it know not the 
 circumstances in which it was born. 
 
 Charles and John Wesley and Richard Pilmore were 
 holding one of their twilight meetings on the common, 
 when the mob assailed them and they were compelled 
 to fly for their lives. They succeeded in getting 
 beyond a hedge-row, where they prostrated themselves 
 on the ground, and placed their hands on their heads 
 as a protection from the stones which still came so 
 near that they could feel the current of air made by 
 the missiles as they went whizzing past then^. In the 
 night shades that were gathering, they managed to 
 hide from the fury of the rabble in a tenantless spring- 
 house Here they struck a light with a flint-stone, 
 and after dustLig their clothes and washing their 
 faces, they refreshed themselves with the cooling 
 water from a stream near by. Charles Wesley pulled 
 out a lead pencil, made by hammering to a point a 
 piece of lead, and from the inspiration of these sur- 
 roundings composed the precious hymn. 
 
 Some years ago a small steamer plying along the 
 coast sprang a leak. There were only three passen- 
 
 I H" 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-WRITERS, 
 
 321 
 
 gers on board — a gentleman and two ladies — sisters. 
 At dusk they were alarmed by the sudden stopping of 
 the boat. Rushing to the deck they were astonished 
 to see the captain and the crew in the only small boat 
 on board, pulling for the land, about a mile distant. 
 " Stop, stop, for heaven's sake, and save us too." " No ! " 
 said the captain, " the boat will hold no more ; some 
 one will have to be lost." The gentleman saw that in 
 a few minutes the vessel would go down, and finding 
 a small hatch, which was easily detached, he threw it 
 into the water and embarked upon it. Looking back 
 he saw the two brave sisters standinor on deck with 
 their arms around each other, singing, 
 
 "Jesus, lover of my soul," 
 
 and just as they were about finishing the verse, 
 
 "Other refuge have I none," 
 
 they sank to rise no more. 
 
 Great interest attaches to the 223rd hymn, but that 
 interest is well nigh lost by the pruning knife of the 
 compilers. 
 
 Charles Wesley was converted on the 21st day of 
 May, 1738. Two days after, he writes in his journal, 
 " At nine I began a hymn on my conversion, but was 
 persuaded to break off for fear of pride. Mr. Bray 
 coming in encouraged me to proceed, in spite of Satan. 
 I prayed Christ to stand by me, and finished the 
 hymn. Upon my afterwards showing it to Mr Bray, 
 the devil threw in a fiery dart, suggesting it was 
 wrong, and that I had displeased God. I saw, how- 
 
iHin 
 
 I r 
 
 
 '.H 
 
 H: 
 
 322 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 ever, it was a device of the enemy to keep back glory 
 from God. It is not unusual with him to preach 
 humility, when speaking^ will endanger his kingdom 
 or do honor to Christ. God has shown me He can 
 defend me from pride while speaking for Him." This 
 extract from the journal agrees with the spirit of the 
 hymn, as it is in the old book. The two verses that 
 have been left out, I have often found to be of great 
 use in urging young converts to witness for Christ. 
 
 Two days after this hymn was written, John Wesley 
 was converted, and Charles says, speaking of himself 
 and John, and Mr. Bray and others, *' We sang the 
 hymn with great joy and parted with prayer." In 
 the last verse of the hymn, however, our compilers 
 have wisely altered the line, " Languished for you the 
 eternal God," as it reads in the old book, to " Languished 
 for you the incarnate God." In several hymns expres- 
 sions occur like the above, or such as " the immortal 
 God hath died ; " in some other hymns, terms such as 
 ** dear," etc., are applied to God and Christ ; and all of 
 these are wisely expunged, or more befitting and 
 reverent terms are used. I am glad also that hymns 
 such as the 24th and 25th in the old book, made up 
 of minute descriptions of the physical sufferings of 
 Christ, are left out. The suffering of the Saviour was 
 too deep, and the whole of the scenes of Calvary are 
 too awful, to be made the subject of scenic description 
 How briefly and how tenderly the sacred writers 
 describe the agony of the garden and the cross. 
 Solemn awe checks multiplicity of words and re- 
 strains the flights of imagination. In this respect 
 the new is far beyond the old book. 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-WRITERS. 
 
 323 
 
 Few hymns are more in use amongrst us than thv> 
 
 119th : 
 
 "Let earth and heaven agree." 
 
 Sung to the old tune, " Lennox," and none fits it so 
 well as that, it has rendered signal service at pro- 
 tracted and camp-meetings, as well as the ordinary 
 services of the sanctuary. Eternity alone will reveal 
 how many poor souls, " stung by the scorpion sin," 
 have drank in the balmy sound of Jesus' love, and 
 been " at once made whole." Some time since I heard 
 the Hon. Vice-Chancellor Blake say at a meeting in 
 Shaftesbury Hall, Toronto, that the day he visited 
 the Zoological Gardens, in London, a man entered the 
 place where the serpents are kept, and, with the air 
 of a bravado, sought to do with them what their 
 keepers often do. He took one after another of the 
 venomous snakes and wound them round his neck, 
 put them under his waistcoat, swung them round and 
 round his head. At length he took one of the 
 smallest, but most venomous, whose bite is almost 
 instant death, held it by the neck, put its head almost 
 up to his forehead, and looked it straight in the eyes, 
 when in an instant the little red fang made a small 
 puncture in his face, and a single drop of blood 
 exuded. The keeper, knowing the danger, hurried 
 him into a cab and bore him to an hospital, but no 
 human power could save him, and in a short time he 
 died in agony. 
 
 One of the most impressive hymns that Charles 
 Wesley wrote is the 875th : 
 
 '* And am I only born to die ? " 
 
It 
 
 »! i 
 
 i I il I 
 
 324 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 An affecting incident will illustrate its power : 
 The daughter of an English nobleman became a 
 devoted Christian. She was the idol of her father, 
 but instead of rejoicing over the change in her con- 
 versation and conduct, he regretted it. He placed at 
 her disposal large sums of money, and by threats, 
 temptations to extravagance in dress, and by travelling 
 in foreign countries — yea, by every means in his power 
 — he tried to divert her mind from religion. But her 
 heart was fixed. At last he resolved on one more 
 desperate attempt. A large company of the nobility 
 were invited to his house. The drawing-room was 
 crowded. It was arranged that all the young ladies 
 present should sing a worldly song, and he determined, 
 and let his daughter know, that if she refused, so 
 far as property was concerned, she should be ruined. 
 She felt that if she complied she would grieve away 
 the Holy Spirit, and yet if she refused she would lose 
 caste and be disgraced in society. Dreadful was the 
 moment. She awaited the arrival of her turn to 
 occupy the piano and sing. At last her name was 
 called. For a moment all were in silent suspense to 
 see how she would act. Without hesitation she arose 
 and went to the instrument. She spent a moment in 
 silent prayer, and then with a sweetness almost 
 supernatural she sang through the hymn : 
 
 "And am I only born to die ? 
 And must I suddenly comply ? 
 With nature's stern decree ? " 
 
 The minstrel ceased. The solemnity of eternity 
 
 1. 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-WRITERS. 
 
 325 
 
 overshadowed the assembly. They dispersed in 
 silence. The father wept aloud. He sought the 
 instructions and prayers of his child. His soul was 
 saved ; and, after uniting with the Church, he con- 
 tributed to benevolent purposes over half a million of 
 dollars. 
 
 Equally striking is an illustration of the influence 
 of the 243rd hymn, one of the tenderest and most 
 plaintive in the book. An actress, in an English 
 town, whilst passing along the street, had her atten- 
 tion arrested by singing in a cottage. Curiosity 
 prompted her to look in at the open door, when she 
 saw a few poor people, one of whom was giving out 
 the hymn, 
 
 ' ' Depth of mercy, can there be 
 Mercy still reserved for me ? " 
 
 The tune was sweet and simple, but she heeded it not. 
 The words had riveted her attention, and she stood 
 motionless until she was invited to enter. She quitted 
 the cottage, but the words of the hymn followed her, 
 and she resolved to procure a copy of the book contain- 
 ing it. She read and re-read the hymn, attended the 
 ministry of the Gospel, and was converted. She 
 resolved to leave the stage. The manager tried to 
 overcome her scruples by ridicule, then by the loss he 
 would incur, and then, as the last thing, he requested 
 her to appear once more in a piece in which she was 
 very popular. She consented, and in the evening 
 appeared at the theatre. The play required her first 
 to sing a song, and when the curtain was drawn up 
 
!^^ri 
 
 it: 
 
 i'' 
 
 HI! ' ' ( 
 
 
 I' ' ' 
 
 I i 
 
 m 
 
 826 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 the orchestra began the accompaniment. But she 
 stood as if lost in thought. The music ceased, and, 
 supposing her to be embarrassed, the band commenced 
 again. A second time they paused for her to begin, 
 and still she did not open her lips. A third time the 
 air was played, and then, with clasped hands and eyes 
 suffused with tears, she sang : 
 
 " Depth of mercy, can there be 
 Mercy still reserved for me ? 
 Can my God His wratli forbear, 
 Me, the chief of sinners, spare ?" 
 
 The perform lance suddenly ceased. Some ridiculed, 
 but others were led to consider their ways and cry for 
 mercy. She lived a consistent life, and at length 
 became the wife of a minister. 
 
 At Portland, a peninsular section of England, noted 
 for its stone quarries, Charles Wesley commenced a 
 series of meetings for the benefit of the poor quarry- 
 men. With the sound of stone breaking all around 
 him, and in his mind Jeremiah's comparison of " the 
 word .... like a hammer that breaketh the rock in 
 pieces," he penned the well-known hymn, the 86th : 
 
 "Come, thou all victorious Lord." 
 
 A universal favorite is hymn 109 : 
 
 *' Jesus, the name high over all." 
 
 Having been preaching in a small church in Corn- 
 wall, and condemning the drunken revels of the 
 people, a man in the congregation contradicted him 
 
 ill 
 
 
 i 
 
■I 
 
 HYMNS AND HYMN-WRITERS. 
 
 327 
 
 
 and blasphemed the name of Christ. Charles asked, 
 " Who is he that pleads for the devil ? " The reviler 
 stood boldly forward ; the preacher fearlessly exposed 
 his iniquity, and showed the whole congregation their 
 state by nature. Wesley's withering exposure drove 
 the man in discfrace from the church. These circum- 
 stances gave rise to the hymn which has been sung by 
 the living and the dying ever since, and has been 
 greatly blessed of God in the conversion of souls. 
 John Wesley regarded the hymn commencing 
 
 "How happy every child of grace," 
 
 as one of Charles' finest and best compositions. Mar- 
 ried to the grand old tune " Coronation," it has rung 
 through the years, and will ring while there are happy 
 hearts on earth to sing it. 
 
 The Rev. Wm. Arthur, speaking of the death-bed of 
 Samuel Budgett, the "successful merchant," says» 
 " After the sacramental elements had been adminis- 
 tered to him he asked for a hymn to be sung. His 
 friends feared the effort would be too much for him, 
 but he said, ' Sing, sing.' One present then gave out, 
 ' Behold the Saviour of mankind.' He appeared quite 
 in an ecstasy as they sang. After a short pause he 
 said again, * Sing,' and they sang 
 
 ' How happy every child of grace.' 
 
 He joined heartily in that song of triumph. Shortly 
 p.fterwards he tried to repeat another hymn, * With 
 glorious clouds encompassed round,' but his work was 
 done, and his happy spirit passed away to the skies." 
 
328 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 Whose heart has not been thrilled by the singing of 
 the companion hymn to the above : 
 
 " Come, let us join our friends above, 
 That have obtained the prize." 
 
 A vast multitude followed to the grave a faithful 
 servant of God. The benediction had scarcely closed 
 the funeral service before they lifted up a mighty 
 voice and sang in thrilling tones : 
 
 *' Come, let us join our friends above." 
 
 Among the singer.': was one young man, who seemed 
 to be wrapt into ecstasy while he sung. ' Soon after he 
 was found on his death-bed. To a friend, who had 
 seen him at the grave, he said, " I am going, I am 
 going early, but God has brightened my short life 
 into a full one. Oh, those hymns. They have taught 
 me to live in the light of the future. They have been 
 my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. sir, do you 
 remember the singing at the funeral ? " " Yes," it 
 was replied, " and some thought then that you 
 would never sing again." " Never sing again, sir ! 
 Why I shall sing forever. Oh, that glorious hymn ! 
 let us sing it now," and he began a verse of " Come let 
 us join," etc. : — 
 
 "Oh, that we now might grasp our Guide ! 
 Oh, that the word were given ! 
 Come, Lord of Hosts, the waves divide, 
 And land us — land me in " 
 
 Heaven," he would have sung — but he was gone. He 
 had joined the heavenly choir. 
 
 I ; 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-WRITERS. 
 
 329 
 
 He 
 
 The name of Charles Wesley can .scarcely be men- 
 tioned without a thought about one hymn in which 
 his hallowed genius rises even above itself. Dr. Watts 
 said : " Charles Wesley's ' Wrestling Jacob ' is worth 
 all the verses I ever wrote." The Rev. John Kirk 
 says : " The dramatic form, so singular in hymnic com- 
 position, shadowing forth the action of the conversa- 
 tion ; the great force of its thoroughly English expres- 
 sion ; the complete finish and rhythm of its verse ; 
 its straightforward ease without any mere straining 
 at elegance, and the minuteness and general beauty 
 of its application of the narrative, have won the com- 
 mendation of all competent critics." Charles often 
 preached upon the subject of the hymn. One would 
 like to have heard the sermon, and at its close to have 
 heard him give out in his own impressive way : — 
 
 "Come, O thou traveller unknown." 
 
 The saintly poet had at length his own wrestling. 
 He left his brother John to give out the favorite hymn, 
 and thousands whom he had taught to wrestle re- 
 mained benind to sing of Israel's victory. Shortly 
 after his entrance into rest John was at Bolton. The 
 venerable man, eighty-five years of age, commenced 
 the service in the usual way, with singing and prayer. 
 For the second hymn he selected, " Wrestling Jacob," 
 and gave out the first verse with peculiar emphasis. 
 When he came to the words. 
 
 "My company before is gone, 
 And I am left alone with thee." 
 
 his emotion became uncontrollable. 
 
 22 
 
 He burst into a 
 

 :r '^ 
 
 -Tt- 
 
 330 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 flood of tears, sat down in the pulpit, and covered his 
 face with his hands. The people ceased to sing, sat 
 down, and sobbed aloud. 
 
 A tine spiritual hymn written by Charles Wesley is 
 the 474th. It is No. 256 in the old book, and de- 
 serves to be classed with Luther's immortal " Fortress " 
 hymn. This hymn 1 have never heard sung in any 
 of our congregations. It was born in the midst of 
 trouble, and is a tine song of gratitude for " deliver- 
 ance in a tumult." Just to what tumult it refers it is 
 impossible to say, for it fell to the lot of the Wesleys 
 to be in " tumults often." But the God who delivered 
 the young Hebrew heroes from the tire, and Daniel 
 from the lions, and Paul from hosts at Ephesus, 
 defended them. We can imagine how the early Metho- 
 dists would sing, after a tumult, this song of triuuiph : 
 
 ' ' Thine arm hath safely brought us 
 A way no more expected, 
 Than when Thy sheep passed through the deep, 
 By crystal walls protected. " 
 
 Never shall I forget with what unction and holy 
 joy an old believer in Montreal, once an important officer 
 in the East India Company, a man of strong intellect 
 and vigorous piety, repeated a few hours before his 
 death, the second verse of the 132nd hymn : 
 
 " Thy mighty name salvation is, 
 
 And keeps my happy soul above ; 
 Comfort it brings, and power, and peace. 
 
 And joy, and everlasting love. 
 To me with Thy dear name are given 
 Pardon and holiness and heaven." 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-WRITERS. 
 
 331 
 
 The last two lines of this hymn, 
 
 . " In griof my joy unspeakable, 
 
 My life in death, my heaven in hell." 
 
 have been wisely chanj^ed to read : 
 
 " My joy in grief, my shield in strife, 
 In death my everlasting life." 
 
 How beautifully does this hymn express Christ's 
 relation to the believer, by usin^ striking antitheses — 
 his life in death, shiehl in strife, joy in grief, light in 
 darkness, liberty in bondage, power in weakness, 
 supply in want, glory in shame, smile in frov/ns, gain 
 in loss, peace in war, medicine in sickness, ease in 
 pain, rest in toil — in a word, Christ is to h'.m " All IN 
 
 ALL." 
 
 An undying interest attaches to the 317th hymn, 
 
 " Let the world their virtue boast," 
 
 from the use which John Wesley made of it on his 
 death-bed. He preached his last sermon at Leather- 
 head, February 23rd, 1791 ; on the 25th, he returned 
 to his own house, at City Road, London. On the 26th 
 he was very feeble; on the 27th, was so much 
 exhausted that he said, " Speak to me, I cannot speak." 
 In the afternoon, feeling his end drawing near, he 
 said, " There is no need for more than what I said at 
 Bristol. My words then were : 
 
 " ' I the chief of sinners am, 
 But Jesus died for me.' " 
 
: I 
 
 i t 
 
 ; .1,; 
 
 332 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 Soon after he said, " He is all ! He is all ! " In the 
 evening he got up, and while sitting in his chair, he 
 said, ** How necessary it is for every one to be on the 
 right foundation. 
 
 *' ' I the chief of sinners am, 
 But Jesus died for me.* 
 
 We must be jusi .led by faith and go on to sanctifi- 
 cation." On Tuesday, March 1st, he tried to sing part 
 of two hymns. He also tried, but in vain, to write 
 the memorable words which he could only speak, 
 " God is with us," and afterwards, " The best of all is, 
 God is with us." After a while he said, " I'll praise! 
 I'll praise ! " These were the last words he uttered, 
 excepting that, shortly before he died, on Wednesday 
 morning, March 2nd, a few minutes before 10 o'clock, 
 he said to Mr. Bradford, a faithful friend, "Farewell." 
 The Hymn-b Committee have rendered signal 
 service to our On v.. M by the changes they have made 
 in Charles Wesley's hymns on the Lord's supper. 
 Ritualists have cla,imed him as belonginfr to their 
 school, and to establish their claim have reproduced 
 some of his hymns on the sacrament of the Lord's sup- 
 per. These hymns, however, were written at an early 
 period of his life, when he was " a legal Christian with- 
 out Christ, a Ritualist without spiritual life, living in 
 the letter only of the law, not having known the 
 Spirit which giveth life. The Rev. Dr. Rigg, in a very 
 able article, has shown that the teaching, preaching 
 and poetry of both John and Charles Wesley were 
 thoroughly Presbyterian, evangelical rnd spiritual, 
 
s sup- 
 1 early 
 with- 
 
 were 
 
 HYMNS AND UYMN- WRITERS. 
 
 333 
 
 from 1745 to the end of their lives." Our compilers 
 
 have made a fine sacramental hymn by expunging 
 
 very objectionable verses from hymns 546 and 753 of 
 
 the old book, and putting the remaining verses 
 
 together in hymn No. 695. Other hymns upon this 
 
 subject have also been pruned of fruitless branches. 
 
 It is hoped that some one may render a like service 
 
 for portions of our liturgy, particularly the baptismal 
 
 service, which is full of needless figures and heterodox 
 
 teaching. 
 
 Charles Wesley died March 29th, 1788. Always 
 
 delicate, yet he lived to be seventy -nine years and 
 
 three months old. Mr. Bardsley, one of the London 
 
 preachers, says : " He had no disorder but old age. 
 
 He had very little pain. His mind was calm as a 
 
 summer's evening. Some months before his departure 
 
 he said he should die in March, and so he did." 
 
 Shortly before his death he dictated to his wife the 
 
 lines : 
 
 " In age and feebleness oxtreme, 
 Who shall a sinful worm redeem ; 
 Jesus, my only liope Thou art, 
 Strength of my failing flesh and heart ; 
 O could I catch a smile from Thee, 
 And drop into eternity." 
 
 His last words were, " Lord — my heart — my God." 
 
 John Wesley writes: "My brother fell asleep so 
 
 quietly that they who sat by him did not know when 
 
 he died." 
 
 John Wesley. 
 
 In the new hymn-book there are fourteen hymns 
 translated by John Wesley from the French and Ger- 
 
li- 
 
 334 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 man, and seven of his original hymns. Nos. 72, 207, 
 2G9, 392 and 611 are original, as marked in the index. 
 With respect, howevr r, to No. 72, it is but a part of a 
 hymn, the commencement of which is No. 71 and its 
 close No. 73. These two are, by the index, attributed 
 to Charles Wesley, but Stevenson, in his " Hymn-book 
 and Its Associations," gives them to John, and the 
 internal evidence of the hymns themselves accords 
 with this statement. The three hymns constitute the 
 most exhaustive and superb paraphrase of the Lord's 
 prayer in any language. They are admirable speci- 
 raens of Wesley's style, clear analysis, freedom from 
 all redundancy of expression, exact terminology, and 
 deep scriptural and devotional spirit. Hymn 611, 
 
 " No foot of land do I possess," 
 
 originally contained nine verses ; in the old book it 
 has eight, in the new it is wisely cut down to five. 
 It was composed about five years before the author's 
 unfortunate marriage, and indicates views and feelings 
 upon that question which he, at all events, would have 
 done well to have retained. Three days after his 
 marriage he says, " I met the single men of the society 
 and advised them to remain so." The three verses 
 
 commencing 
 
 and 
 
 " I have no sharer of my heai t,* 
 *' 1 have no babes to hold me here," 
 
 " No foot of land do I possess," 
 
 are omitted from our book. No one will mourn the 
 loss of them. It is said that a Methodist preacher in 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-WRITERS. 
 
 335 
 
 the United States had a friend who gave him the 
 title deed of a farm. One dpy he came to him, and 
 said, " I want to give you back that deed." " What's 
 the matter ; any flaw in it ? " " No." " Why don't 
 you keep it, then ? " " Well," .said he, " I have not 
 been able to sing, ever since I got it, a very favorite 
 •hymn, a part of which runs this way : 
 
 " ' No foot of land do I possess, 
 No cottage in the wilderness ; 
 A poor wayfaring man,' 
 
 and I would rather sing that hymn than own 
 America." 
 
 If that man had a family it would have been well 
 for them if he had kept the farm even at the expense 
 of the loss of the hymn. 
 
 John Wesley was peculiarly happy in his transla- 
 tions from the German. One of these, constituting 
 Nos. 494 and 495 : 
 
 and 
 
 ' ' Commit thou all thy griefs, " 
 " Give to the winds thy fears," 
 
 is from Paul Gerhardt, who was born in Saxony, in 
 1606. 
 
 Hymns 130 and 131 are translations from the 
 works of Count Zinzendorf. In the first line of No. 
 130 it reads in the old book, "I thirst, thou wounded," 
 etc. The word seems wholly at variance with the 
 thought and figure that follow, — " Thirsting " to be 
 washed t J to rest. Possibly it would have been as 
 well to have omitted the first verse altogether, as 
 
w 
 
 
 
 ■ '< 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 F 
 
 ^ 
 
 f 
 
 ■" r 
 
 
 
 1 
 i 
 
 386 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 
 »■. 
 
 
 
 almost always we begin with the second, and the 
 idea of " dwelling " in the " wounds " of Christ is a 
 harsh expression of desire for Him. As it is, the 
 compilers have substituted "I come " for " I thirst." 
 No. 131, 
 
 " Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness," 
 
 thouf^h savoring somewhat of a Calvinistic form of 
 expression, is an exceedingly fine and popular hymn. 
 
 Zinzendorf was born at Dresden, in 1700. He is 
 said to have been converted while looking at a picture 
 of the Crucifixion, beneath which was the inscription, 
 " All this for thee, how much for Me ? " He is de- 
 scribed as " a noble, grand-looking man, wi^*i high fore- 
 head and blue eyes, manly in his bearing and above 
 medium height in stature." He was for many years a 
 most attached friend of the Wesleys, and one of the 
 most useful of men in promoting religion in England 
 and Germany, though sometimes there was in his 
 teaching an admixture of dangerous error. He died 
 in 17G0. His coffin was borne to the tomb by thirty- 
 two preachers and missionaries of the Moravian 
 Church, to which he belonged. They had come from 
 England, Ireland, Holland, Germany, Greenland and 
 America. The funeral procession was composed of 
 over two thousand Christian people. Was ever 
 monarch honored by such a funeral ? 
 
 A friend of Zinzendorf's, John Andrew Rothe, 
 pastor of the Moravian church, at Hainault, is the 
 author of that familiar hymn, 
 
 " Now I have found the ground wherein." 
 
HYMNS AND HYMIT-WRITERS. 
 
 337 
 
 Perhaps there is not in our whole collection a 
 hymn which is so full of Scripture truths expressed 
 in Scripture phraseology. A gentleman who compared 
 it with the Word of God found no less than thirty- 
 six distinct references to passages of Scripture. The 
 last two lines, 
 
 " While Jesus' blood, through earth and skies, 
 Mercy, free, boundless mercy, cries," 
 
 were almost the last words uttered by John Fletcher, 
 whose faith in the truths they contain was so strong 
 that his feeble voice re-echoed with surprising energy 
 the words, " Boundless, boundless mercy ! " 
 
 The Rev. John Haigh fell asleep in Jesus, with 
 these lines trembling on his lips, 
 
 " Mercy's full power I then shall prove. 
 Loved with an everlasting love." 
 
 Isaac Watts. 
 
 We have seventy-one of Dr. Watts' hymns in our 
 book. He was born in Southampton, England, July 
 17th, 1674. His precocious intellect soon began to 
 show itself. Before he could speak plainly, when 
 money was given him, he would say, " A book ! a 
 book ! buy a book ! " In his fourth year he began to 
 study Latin, in his ninth Greek, in his tenth French, 
 and in his thirteenth Hebrew. He was born a poet. 
 Like Pope " he lisped in numbers and the numbers 
 came." He was a very small man ; only five feet in 
 height, and of a slender frame. In a hotel he heard 
 one man say to another, " What ! is that the great Dr. 
 
i 
 
 
 til ' I 
 
 * ■"" U 
 
 I 
 
 338 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 Watts ? " Watts turned to the critic, and uttered 
 these well known lines: 
 
 *' Were I so tall to reach the pole, 
 Or grasp the ocean with a span ; 
 I must be measured by my soul, 
 
 The mind's the standard of the man. " 
 
 Watts lived and died unmarried. It was not his own 
 fault, however, for he once proposed but was rejected ; 
 the lady j^iving as a reason, " However much I admire 
 the jewel, I cannot admire the casket that contains it." 
 When quite a youn<^ man he attended church where 
 the hymnody and singing were execrable. Giving 
 vent to his feelings, the reply was, " Give us some- 
 thing better, young man." He complied, and that 
 evening the church was invited to close its service 
 with a new hymn, beginning, 
 
 "Behold the glories of the Lamb." 
 
 That was the first of the long list of hymns that 
 has wreathed the name of Watts with glory. 
 
 Some of his hymns are amongst the best known 
 and most popular of our collection. 
 
 Who has not sung, 
 
 "There is a land of pure delight," 
 
 written while the poet sat at a parlor window which 
 overlooked the River Itchen, and in full view of 
 the Isle of Wight, whose bewitching landscapes have 
 inspired the genius of many a poet ? The waters 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-WRITERS. 
 
 339 
 
 uttered 
 
 his own 
 ijected ; 
 admire 
 tins it." 
 where 
 Giving 
 3 some- 
 id that 
 service 
 
 s that 
 
 inown 
 
 which 
 
 ew of 
 
 have 
 
 vaters 
 
 before him were an apt image of the " narrow sea " 
 which divides " the heavenly land from ours," and the 
 deep green of the enchanting island beyond, which 
 must be seen to be appreciated, gave him the verse 
 which has been present to the mind of many a 
 pilgrim as his feet touched the waters of Jordan. 
 
 " Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood 
 Stand dressed in living green ; 
 So to the Jews old Canaan stood, 
 While Jordan rolled between." 
 
 Who has not had a vision of the saved, as in Isaac 
 Watts' words he has sung, 
 
 "Give me the wings of faith to rise," etc. 
 
 What a glimpse of Calvary has been obtained as 
 with him we have 
 
 " Surveyed the wondrous cross 
 On which the Prince of Glory died." 
 
 And how many thousands of God's redeemed ones 
 have 
 
 " Marched through Immanuel's ground " 
 
 to the music of 
 
 " Come, ye that love the Lord, 
 And let your joys be known." 
 
 Amongst the many hymnic renderings of the 51st 
 Psalm, none excels Isaac Watts' in the 259th hymn, 
 commencing, 
 
 " Show pity, Lord ; O Lord, forgive." 
 
Whf! 
 
 
 !l t 
 
 i I 
 
 i 
 
 340 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 In it deep penitence, hope in God's mercy, and earnest 
 prayer and consecration are tenderly blended. It 
 would seem almost impossible for a man to thought- 
 fully read that hymn through without bowing down 
 his heart in contrition before God. 
 
 Our compilers have done well in giving a place to 
 that long-time favorite with both old and young, 
 
 "When I can read my title clear." 
 
 A Christian officer in the American war lay all 
 night on the battle-field, wounded in both thighs. 
 Said he, "The stars shone clear over the dark battle- 
 field, and I began to think about that God who was 
 above those glorious worlds. I felt that I ought to 
 praise Him, .even while wounded on that field. I 
 sang that beautiful hymn, 
 
 " ' When I can read my title clear. ' 
 
 There was a Christian brother in the bush near me. 
 I could not see him, but I could hear him. He took 
 up the strain. Another beyond heard it and joined in 
 it, and another, and another, and many others. We 
 made the field of battle ring with that hymn of praise 
 to God." 
 
 Watts wrote that majestic hymn, 
 
 " Before Jehovah's awful throne," 
 which was somewhat changed by Wesley. 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-WRITERS. 
 
 341 
 
 earnest 
 ed. It 
 iiought- 
 ff down 
 
 3lace to 
 
 ■g> 
 
 lay all 
 thighs, 
 battle- 
 10 was 
 ight to 
 eld. I 
 
 ar me. 
 e took 
 ned in 
 1. We 
 praise 
 
 Very tender and sweet is the lG6th hymn: 
 
 *' Alas, and did my Saviour bleed, 
 And did my Sovereign die ? " 
 
 At Nashville cemetery, Tennessee, a stranger was 
 seen planting a flower on a soldier's grave. When 
 asked, "Was your 'on buried there?" "No," he 
 replied. " A relative ? " After a pause, the stranger 
 laid down a small board he held in his hand, and said, 
 " Well, ril tell you. When the war broke out I lived 
 in Illinois. I wanted to enlist, but was poor. I had 
 a wife and seven children. I was drafted. I had no 
 money to hire a substitute, so made up my mind that 
 I must leave my poor, sickly family and go. After I 
 had got all things ready to go, a young man whom I 
 knew came to me, and said, ' You have a large family 
 which your wife cannot take care of ; I will go for 
 for you.' He did go in my place, and in battle he was 
 wounded, and taken to Nashville hospital Here he 
 died. Ever since I have wished to come and see his 
 grave. I have saved up all the spare money I 
 could, and have come on and found my dear friend's 
 grave." With tears of gratitude running down his 
 cheek, he took up the board and pressed it into the 
 ground as a tombstone. Under the soldier's name 
 were written the words : 
 
 " He Died for Me." 
 
tl 
 
 I u 
 
 a, i 
 
 -1 i 
 
 im 
 
 
 342 addresses. 
 
 Dr. Doddridge. 
 
 The Methodist world will not forget Philip Dod- 
 dridge, while in their book is found the familiar hymn 
 of which he was the author : 
 
 '* O happy day that fixed my choice." 
 
 Doddridge was born in London, June 26th, 1702. At 
 his birth he showed so little sign of life that he was 
 laid aside as dead. But one of the attendants think- 
 ing she perceived some motion, took that necessary 
 care of him on which in these tender circumstances 
 the feeble flame of life depended, which was so near 
 expiring as soon as it was kindled. He was the 
 twentieth child of a mother, who was the daughter of 
 an exiled Bohemian minister, the Rev. John Bauman. 
 The mother had imbibed the devotional spirit of her 
 father, who, for conscience' sake, left Prague, in 
 Bohemia, about 1626, carrying with him nothing but 
 one hundred pieces of gold plaited in a leathern girdle 
 and a Bible of Luther's translation. 
 
 We have thirteen of Doddridge's hynms in our 
 
 book. One of them, the 369th, is a universal favorite. 
 
 I have found that hymn referred to on the death-beds 
 
 of our people more than any other. How sweetly it 
 
 begins : 
 
 " God of my life, through all my days." 
 
 The hymn is a ladder ; each verse a round, until at 
 last eternity of joy is reached — eternity gjverried by 
 thoughts of the love of God. 
 
 Lki. 
 
H\MNS AND HYMN-WRITERS. 
 
 343 
 
 Every one is familiar with Doddridge's Sabbath 
 hymn, the 642nd : 
 
 " Thine earthly Sabbaths, Lord, we love." 
 
 Mrs. Smith, a devoted missionary lady in the foreign 
 field, was dying. An eye-witness says : " We were 
 singing Doddridge's hymn on the eternal Sabbath. 
 We feared, after two or three verses, that we wearied 
 her, but she said " Go on," and though all were bathed 
 in tears we sanj^ : 
 
 " ' No more fatigue — no more distress, 
 Nor sin nor hell shall reach the [)lace, 
 No groans to mingle with the songs 
 That warble from immortal tongues.' 
 
 While singing these words she turned on me such a 
 heavenly smile as stopped my utterance. Before we 
 reached the end she raised both hands above her head, 
 and gave vent to her feelings in tears of pleasure and 
 almost in shoutings. Afterwards she said, ' I have 
 had a glimpse of what I am going to. It was a glorious 
 sight.' In a fe^ minutes she was gone." 
 
 HORATIUS BONAR 
 
 has given us seven hymns — Nos. 616, 361, 766, 238, 
 704 and 501. Dr. Bonar was born in Edinburgh in 
 1808, and is now pastor of the Chalmers Memorial 
 Church in that city, and editor of Christian Treasury. 
 He is one of Israel's sweetest singers. I remember 
 well hearing him a few years ago in his own church. 
 Large and manly looking, long white hair, a counte- 
 nance beaming with sympathy, a voice with a tear in 
 
344 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 the tone of it, he talked to his people like a father 
 speaking to his family. The hymns selected from his 
 poetical works will win their way to popularity with 
 our people. Some of them we are already familiar 
 with. Such for instance is the 361st : 
 
 *' I heard the voice of Jesus say, 
 Come unto Me and rest." 
 
 Blessed is he who, amidst life's troubles, can say in 
 the lanjTfuage of the 501st hymn : 
 
 " Thy way, not mine, O Lord, 
 However dark it be. " 
 
 The 704th will be sure to be sung very generally after 
 our sacramental service : 
 
 " Now in parting, Father, bless us, 
 Saviour, still Thy peace bestow." 
 
 ■m 
 
 Kev. Henry Francis Lyte. 
 
 Two hymns from this gifted minister are amongst 
 the most cherished treasures of hymnology. He was 
 born in Kelso, Scotland, June 1st, 1793. In 1818, 
 three years after he had entered the ministry of the 
 English Church, he was converted while at the death- 
 bed of a neighboring clergyman, who had sent for him 
 in great haste, because he was " unpardoned and 
 unprepared to die." As they searched the Scriptures 
 to find out the way of salvation, they both entered 
 into rest while perusing the Epistles of St. Paul. In 
 1823 he took charge of a church at Brixham, a small 
 fishing-port, " where he made hymns for his little 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-WRITEUS. 
 
 345 
 
 ) a father 
 from his 
 
 rity with 
 familiar 
 
 an say in 
 
 ally after 
 
 ! amongst 
 He was 
 In 1818, 
 ry of the 
 le death- 
 it for him 
 ned and 
 Jcriptures 
 h entered 
 i*aul. In 
 Q, a small 
 his little 
 
 ones, and hymns for his hardy fisheimen, and hymns 
 
 for sufferers like himself." What satisfaction in 
 
 Christ, what indifference to worldly things, what 
 
 eager longings after God are disclosed by his beautiful 
 
 hymn : 
 
 " Jesus, I my cross have taken, 
 All to leave and follow Thee." 
 
 Through failing health he was compelled to meditate 
 a journey to a more genial clime. Before leaving his 
 people, though hardly able to crawl, he made one more 
 attempt to preach and administer the sacrament. 
 Having bidden adieu to his flock, he retired to his 
 chamber, fully aware that his end was near. As the 
 evening of the day gathered its darkness, he handed 
 to a dear relative a hymn, which an eminent author 
 says is " almost perfect ;" certainly it is immortal : 
 
 *' Abide with me, fast falls the eventide, 
 The darkness deepens ; Lord, with me abide ! " 
 
 The Master did abide with him the few days more he 
 spent on earth. His end is described as that of a 
 " happy Christian poet, singing while strength lasted." 
 When entering the valley he pointed upwards and 
 whispered, " Peace — ^joy." He realized the words 
 which close his hymn : 
 
 " Reveal Thyself before my closing eyes ; 
 Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies ; 
 Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's \ain shadows flee, 
 In life and death, Lord, abide with me ! " 
 
 The Rev. Samuel Medley was a remarkable man. 
 He was born in 1738. In 1759, he closed his earthly 
 23 
 
 i 
 
m 
 
 / 1 1. ' 
 HliK, 
 
 
 
 L 
 
 346 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 career, joyfully exclaiming, " I am now a poor shat- 
 tered oark, just about to gain the blissful harbor, and 
 oh, how sweet will be the port after the storm ! laying 
 is sweet, sweet work ! Glory ! glory ! glory ! home ! 
 home ! " 
 
 Thomas Moore, the well-known Irish poet, has a 
 hymn in our book, No. 214. To some this may be a 
 surprise, for Moore has been usually regarded only as 
 a writer of songs and Irish melodies. In addition, 
 however, to his other poetry he wrote several " sacred 
 songs." Amongst these is a beautiful paraph I'ase of 
 the 60th of Isaiah and the 74th Psalm, also the well- 
 known hymn, " Sound the loud timbrel." Each verse 
 of the hymn we have : 
 
 " Come, yo disconsolate, where'er ye languish," 
 
 ends with 
 
 " Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal." 
 
 The three verses are as balm for the wounded, the 
 suffering and the sorrowful. 
 
 The name of the Ktv. Edward Perronet has been 
 immortalized by the fact that he wrote the hymn 
 aniversally known, and universally sung to the grand 
 old tune " Coronation," 
 
 " All hail the power of Jesus' name." 
 
 One evening, when John Wesley was preaching in 
 London, he saw Perronet in the congregation, and 
 without asking consent, announced that he would 
 preach there next morning at 5 o'clock. At the 
 appointed hour Perronet was in the pulpit. After 
 
poor shat- 
 
 irbor, and 
 
 ! Dying 
 
 y ! home ! 
 
 )et, has a 
 
 may be a 
 
 )d only as 
 
 addition, 
 
 il " sacred 
 
 phi'ase of 
 
 the well- 
 
 lach verse 
 
 .h," 
 
 ided, the 
 
 has been 
 le hymn 
 le grand 
 
 -ching in 
 
 ion, and 
 
 would 
 
 At the 
 
 After 
 
 HYMNS AND HYMN-WRITERS. 
 
 347 
 
 singing and prayer, he stated to the congregation that 
 he had been called before them contrary to his own 
 wish, nevertheless he would give them the best ser- 
 mon that had ever been delivered. Then opening the 
 Bible, he read our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, and, 
 without a word of his own by way of comment, closed 
 the service in the usual way. The effect was wonder- 
 ful, and souls were born to God. 
 
 This hymn has been translated into nearly all the 
 dialects of earth, and is sung the wide world over. 
 No new hymn-book would be complete without it. 
 Perronet was for a considerable time associated vrith 
 the Wesleys, then with Lady Huntingdon, but his 
 severe criticism of the Church of England in a poetical 
 satire, called " The Mitre," so displeased her ladyship 
 that she withdrew her favor from him. He ended his 
 days as the minister of a dissenting congregation. He 
 died in 1792, saying, " Glory to God in the height of 
 i^is divinity ! Glory to God in the depth of His 
 humanity ! Glory to God in His all-suflSciency ! Into 
 His hands I commend my spirit." 
 
 The Rev. John Mason Neale, D.D., has given us in 
 the S19.ih hymn a translation of a Greek hymn which 
 is said to be to the villagers of Scio and Mitylene, 
 what Bishop Ken's evening hymn is to the churches 
 of our land. Its simplicity and beauty will make it a 
 favorite. 
 
 One of the hymns that ought and will quickly find 
 a place in the hearts of the people is the 852nd : 
 
 *' Asleep in Jesus ! blessed sleep, 
 From which none ever wakes to weep." 
 
348 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 i I 
 
 |:il| 
 
 It was first published in Edinburgh in 1832. The 
 writer was Mrs. Margaret McKay, daughter of Captain 
 Robert McKay, who, after retiring from active service, 
 settled at Inverness. In 1820 she married Major 
 Wm. McKay, afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel of the 
 68th Infantry. She is the author of " The Family at 
 Heatherdale," and several other books in prose and 
 verse. She will be best known, however, as the author 
 of " Asleep in Jesus." 
 
 Michael Bruce was born in Scotland in 1746. He 
 wrote many poems and hymns of singular beauty and 
 pathos. He had an intimate friend, Mr. John Logan, 
 who got po-ssession of his manuscripts after his death, 
 under the pretext of publishing them for the benefit 
 of the family, but he published only a few, and in 
 later years he palmed off the remainder as his own 
 compositions. For years he succeeded in his treachery, 
 but his dishonesty is now satisfactorily proved. The 
 two hymns in our collection, Nos. 849 and 714, 
 vindicate Bruce's right to an honored place among 
 modern hymn-writers. The former, though a touching 
 description of the Simeons of the Church, can 
 scarcely be sung in a public congregation ; the latter 
 is a spirited picture of the triumphs of God's cause 
 in the earth. 
 
 The Rev. J. Fawcett, D.D., was one of Whitefield's 
 converts. He subsequently became a Baptist minister. 
 We have two of his hymns, Nos. 758 and 635. The 
 former became popular in Canada through being so 
 often sung at the close of Y. M. C. A. and Sunday- 
 
 L. 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-WRITERS. 
 
 132. The 
 f Captain 
 e service, 
 ed Major 
 il of the 
 b'aiiiily at 
 )rose and 
 he author 
 
 746. He 
 !auty and 
 n Logan, 
 lis death, 
 le benefit 
 V, and in 
 i his own 
 reachery, 
 ■ed. The 
 md 714, 
 ;e anionof 
 touchinsr 
 irch, can 
 the latter 
 )d's cause 
 
 litefield's 
 minister. 
 35. The 
 being so 
 Sunday- 
 
 school conventions. How grandly, yet tenderly, has 
 been sung at such times : 
 
 " Blest be the tie that binds." 
 
 Miss Annie Steele has given us four hymns. She 
 was born in 1716, and was the eldest daughter of the 
 Rev. Wm. Steele, a Baptist minister. She commenced 
 writing poetry in very early life, over the nom-de- 
 plume of " Theodosia." She was to have been married 
 to a Mr. Elscourt, but a few hours before the time for 
 the marriage ceremony he went out to a river to bathe, 
 and was drowned. It has been said that " no woman 
 and but few men ever wrote so many hymns that have 
 been so generally accepted in the Church as Miss 
 Steele." 
 
 There are three hymns from the Rev. F. W. Faber, 
 who was born in 1815 ; became a Church of England 
 minister, but, in 1846, disavowed his Protestantism, 
 and entered the Church of Rome. Many of his 
 hymns possess great beauty. Of these, the three in 
 our book are choice specimens. 
 
 The Christian Church will never let die the name 
 of Charlotte Elliott, who gives us three hymns — 
 amongst them, 
 
 " Just as I am, without one plea." 
 
 She was born in 1789. 
 
 A poor little boy came to a New York City mis- 
 sionary, and holding out a piece of worn-out dirty 
 paper, said, " Please, sir, father sent me to get a clean 
 bit of paper like that." On it was printed the hymn, 
 
350 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 t|. t .i 
 
 "Just as I am," etc. " Why do you want a clean paper ? " 
 " Well, sir, we found this in sister's pocket after she 
 died, and she u.sed to sint^ it all the time she was sick, 
 and she loved it so much that father wanted to (j;et a 
 clean one, and put it in a frame to hang it up. Please, 
 sir, won't you give us a clean one." Perhaps this 
 hymn has been blessed to the salvation of as many 
 souls as any other that was ever penned. Miss 
 Elliott died in 1871. 
 
 John Cennick, author of the 761st hymn, 
 
 "Jesus, my all, to heaven is gone," 
 
 and the 135th, 
 
 "Thou great redeeming, dying Lamb," 
 
 was born in 1717. For a time he preached amongst 
 the Wesleyans, then joined himself to Whitetield, and 
 ended his days as a dissenting minister. From the 
 frequent use of such terms as " the babe that lay in 
 swaddling clothes," while in Ireland the peasants nick- 
 named him *' Swaddler," or " Swaddling John," and 
 for many ^ ears the Methodists there were known as 
 the " Swaddlers." 
 
 That sweet, melting melody, 
 
 " Sweet the moments, rich in blessing. 
 Which before the cross I spend," 
 
 is set down in the index as belonging to Allen and 
 Shirley. The Rev. James Allen was born in Gayle, 
 Yorkshire, in 1734. He was editor and principal con- 
 tributor to several hymn-books. He accompanied the 
 Wesleys to Georgia, and on his return joined the 
 Moravian brethren. 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-WHITKKS. 
 
 351 
 
 paper ? " 
 ifter she 
 was sick, 
 to o^et a 
 Please, 
 aps this 
 as many 
 Miss 
 
 iinonofst 
 eld, and 
 ^om the 
 '< Jay in 
 ts nick- 
 a," and 
 lown as 
 
 3n and 
 Gayle, 
 al con- 
 ed the 
 ed the 
 
 The Hon. and Rev. Walter Shirlev was born in 1725, 
 and was descended from a family of the nobility. 
 He became a minister of the Established Church. He 
 was a friend of the Wesleys and the brother-in-law of 
 Lady Huntinj^don. The familiar line, " Lord, dismiss 
 us with Thy blessing," is from his fertile pen. 
 
 Hymn 838, 
 
 " I think when I read that sweet story of old, 
 When Jesus was here among men," 
 
 is from the pen of Mrs. Jemima Luke. She was born 
 in London in 1813. At the age of thi;:teen she be- 
 came a popular contributor to the " Infant's Magazine." 
 Her father, Thomas Thompson, was a philanthropist, 
 and took a great interest in the educatiom of poor 
 children. Mrs. Luke became much attached to a little 
 village school near her father's residence, and wished 
 to write a little song for it that would awaken an inter- 
 est in religion, and be impressed on the children's minds. 
 Christ's present sympathy for the little ones was the 
 leading thought in her mind, and while riding in a 
 stage-coach she composed the hymn which has been 
 embodied in our book. 
 
 Mary Lundie Duncan gives us Nos. 627 and 831. 
 
 It was in the spring of 1814, in the manse of Kelso, 
 that this gifted lady first saw the light. She married 
 the Rev. Wallace W. Duncan, and died at an early age. 
 To her we are indebted for the " Child's Evening 
 Prayer," which speedily became the last lispings of the 
 kneeling little one at the mother's knee, or by the 
 side of the little cot : 
 
 "Jesus, tender Shepherd, hear me." 
 
352 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 Thomas Olivers was born in 1725. He grew up to 
 be a blasphemer, and a ringleader in everything that 
 was notoriously profane. He was converted to God 
 through hearing George Whitefield preach from the 
 words, " Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire ? " 
 and soon after joined the Methodist society. Falling 
 heir to some property, he proved the reality of his 
 conversion by going round to every one whom he owec* 
 and paying his debts, though to clear himself fully he 
 had to sell his horse, saddle and bridle, which he had 
 procured in order to go through the country as an 
 evangelist. Wesley desired him to go to Cornwall 
 and preach the Gospel there. He footed it as far as 
 Tiverton, in Devon, where a friend asked him why he 
 had not a horse. The reason was easily given. " Go 
 and buy one," it was said, " and it shall be paid for." 
 " A few days after," he writes, " I went with a farmer 
 into his field. In a few minutes a colt two and a half 
 years old came to me and put his nose on my shoulder. 
 I asked the farmer what he would take for him. He 
 said five pounds. We struck a bargain at once, and in 
 a few days I mounted my horse, and have kept him to 
 this day, which is about twenty-five years. On him I 
 have travelled not less than 100,000 miles in preach- 
 ing the Gosnel. I parted with one horse rather than 
 bring a reproach on the Gospel, and as a reward God 
 provided me with an-^ther such as, in many respects, 
 none of my brethren could ever boast of." Olivers 
 now fairly entered on his life-work. Such was his 
 perseverance, that amidst all the vicissitudes and in- 
 conveniences of these early days, he became thoroughly 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-WRITERS. 
 
 353 
 
 versed in theology, and a very excellent Greek and 
 Hebrew scholar. He is the author of the hymn, " The 
 God of Abraham praise," divided into three parts in 
 our book. James Montgomery says of this hymn, 
 " There is not in our language a lyric of more majestic 
 style, more elovated thought, or more glorious imagery. 
 Its structure is, indeed, unattractive, and on account 
 of the short lines uncouth, but, like a stately pile of 
 architecture, severe and simple in design, it strikes 
 less on the tirst view than after deliberate examina- 
 tion. The man who wrote this hymn must have had 
 the finest ear imaginable, for on account of the 
 peculiarity of the measure, none but a person of equal 
 musical and poetic taste could have produced the 
 harmony perceptible in the verse." Richard Watson 
 died repeating portions of this hymn, so did the wife 
 of the saintly Carvosso and many others. Again and 
 again have these words cheered God's people while 
 going down into the valley : 
 
 " I shall behold His face, 
 I shall His power adore, 
 And sing the wonders of His grace 
 P^or evermore." 
 
 Sir Richard Hill, one of Wesley's bitterest oppo- 
 nents, tried to throw contempt on Olivers, calling him 
 " One Thomas Olivers, a^ias Olivers, a cobbler," referring 
 to his occupation before entering the ministry. This 
 drew from John Fletcher a testimony to the shoe- 
 maker's ability and character. " This author was 
 twenty-five years ago a mechanic, and like ' one ' 
 
354 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 I'M il ' I 
 
 II ! 
 
 Peter, * alias ' Simon, a fisherman, and like ' one ' Saul, 
 ' alias ' Paul, a tent-maker, has had the honor of being 
 promo yed to the dignity of a preacher of the Gospel ; 
 and his talents as a writer, a logician, a poet, and a 
 composer of sacred music are known to those who 
 have looked into his publications." Olivers outlived 
 Wesley. He died suddenly in London in 1799, and 
 his remains found rest in Wesley's own tomb. 
 
 Mrs. Sarah Flower Adams has won for herself ever- 
 lasting remembrance by writing 
 
 " Nearer, my God, to Thee." 
 
 She was the daughter of Benjamin Flower, editor of 
 the Cambridge Intelligencer, and the wife of Wm. B. 
 Adams, an eminent engineer, who contributed to some 
 of the principal newspapers and reviews. She was 
 born February 22, 180 J. Her mother was a lady of 
 talent, so also was her eldest sister Eliza, who was 
 also an authoress. She was noted in early life for 
 high literary taste and deep, earnest religious life. 
 She contributed prose and poetry to sev(iral periodi- 
 cals. In 1845 she wrote a catechism for children 
 called " The Flock at the Fountain," which is Unita- 
 rian in sentiment. She died August 13, 1849, eight 
 years £.fter the publication of " Nearer, my God, to 
 Thee," and was buried in Essex, England. This popu- 
 lar hymn is not faultless as d literary production, nor 
 is it the highest style of a Christian hymn, as the name 
 of Jesus is not in it. But as a poetical version of 
 Jacob's dream at Bethel, and as the devout aspiration 
 of a soul for God, it is worthy of a place in our hymn- 
 book. 
 

 HYMNS AND HYMN-WRITERS. 
 
 355 
 
 ne ' Saul, 
 r of beincr 
 e Gospel ; 
 )et, and a 
 bose who 
 outlived 
 1799, and 
 
 self ever- 
 
 The poet Whittier thus commemorates a visit made 
 to him by two young ladies, sisters : 
 
 "Years since, (but names to me before) 
 Two sisters sought at eve my door, 
 Two-song birds, wandering from their nest, 
 A gray old farm house in the west. 
 What could 1 other than I did ? 
 Could I a singing bird forbid ? 
 Deny the wild stirred leaf ? Rebuke 
 The music of the forest brook ? " 
 
 editor of 
 
 Wm. B. 
 
 to some 
 She was 
 
 lady of 
 i^ho was 
 
 life for 
 3us life, 
 periodi- 
 jhildren 
 
 Unita- 
 9, eight 
 God, to 
 s popu- 
 ion, nor 
 le name 
 sion of 
 )iration 
 
 hymn- 
 
 The wind that stirred the nest of these song-birds 
 was some unpropitious gale that made home uncom- 
 fortable after the death of a mother. So with much 
 faith and little money, the sisters bade adieu to the 
 home of their childhood and sought to make one for 
 themselves in the city of New York. They rented 
 two or three rooms, and busied hands and pen to make 
 a living. Success crowned their efforts and enabled 
 them to purchase a home on Twentieth Street, from 
 which in after j'ears they ascended to their home 
 above. The sisters bore the names of Phci'be and 
 Alice Carey. Alice is the writer of our 844th hymn : 
 
 " Earth, with its dark and dreadful ills, 
 Recedes and fades away." 
 
 and Phaibe is the author of that universally loved 
 
 song: 
 
 " One sweetly solemn thought 
 Comes to me o'er and o'er, 
 I am nearer home to-day 
 Than I ever have been before." 
 
''\ ' . 
 
 356 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 Two Americans were in a gambling saloon in China, 
 playing cards. While the elder one was shuffling the 
 cards the yoiinger began to hum " One sweetly solemn 
 thought." The other threw down the cards, and said : 
 " Harry, where did you learn that ?" " At Sunday- 
 school." " Come," said the elder one, " Come, here's 
 what I have won from you. As for me, as God sees 
 me, I have played my last game and drunk my last 
 bottle. I have misled you, and I'm sorry for it. Give 
 me your hand, my boy, and say that for old America's 
 sake, if for no other, you, too, will quit this infernal 
 business." Both these gamblers were perma- 
 nently reclaimed by that hymn. Miss Carey was 
 much charmed by this incident. Writing to a friend, 
 she said : " I enclose the hymn and the story for you. 
 You will feel a peculiar interest in the verses when 
 you know they were written eighteen years ago (1852) 
 in your house. I composed them in the little back 
 third-story bedroom one Sunday morning after com- 
 ing from church, and it makes me happy to think 
 that any word I could say has done a little good in 
 the world." 
 
 Another American hymn, a universal favorite, is 
 No. 400 : 
 
 " My faith looks up to Thee." 
 
 The author is the Rev. Ray Palmer, D.D,, an eminent 
 Congregational minister, now living, I think, in 
 Newark, N.J. It will be found serviceable in revival 
 meetings, its language being peculiarly titted to put in 
 the lips of the anxious. Dr. Palmer has two other 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-WRITERS. 
 
 357 
 
 n in China, 
 uffling the 
 tly solemn 
 and said : 
 Sunday- 
 me, here's 
 God sees 
 £ my last 
 it. Give 
 America's 
 I infernal 
 perma- 
 irey was 
 a friend, 
 for you. 
 ses when 
 ?o (1852) 
 tie back 
 ter com- 
 io think 
 good in 
 
 orite, is 
 
 eminent 
 ink, in 
 revival 
 3 put in 
 o other 
 
 hymns in our book, both of which will commend 
 themselves to our people for their devotional spirit, 
 elevated sentiment and smooth rhythm. 
 
 Bishop Heber is a name loved by the whole of 
 Christendom. He was born in 1783, at Malpas, Eng- 
 land. Fifty-nine of his hymns have been published ; 
 six of these are in our book, but the crown of them 
 all is the missionary hymn. 
 
 The two hymns, Nos. 498 and 726, are from the pen 
 of Rev. Wm. Williams, a celebrated Welsh poet, who 
 was born in Carmarthenshire, Wales, in 1717. He com- 
 menced the study of medicine, but after hearinf^ a ser- 
 mon by Howell Harris, he was led to Christ, and turned 
 his thoughts towards the ministry. He was ordained 
 deacon in the English Church in his twenty-third year, 
 but being encouraged by Whitefield and Lady Hunting- 
 don to become an itinerant minister, he united with 
 the Calvinistic Methodists. He labored most inces- 
 santly for half a century, travelling on an average 
 2,230 miles a year for forty-three years, when there 
 were no railroads and but few stage-coaches. He died 
 in 1791, aged seventy-four years. 
 
 The following anecdote, vouched for by a reliable 
 source, illustrates the guidance of the Great Jehovah, 
 of which Williams so beautifully sings : During the 
 American war a prisoner in Andersonville managed 
 one night to surmount his prison and get beyond the 
 picket-line, but it was so dark that he could not tell 
 which was north or south. He was afraid to move, 
 for fear of going still farther south into the ranks of 
 the enemy. He had a compass with him, but it was 
 
358 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 hi 
 
 useless without a li^ht. A candle, or even a match, 
 
 would have been of priceless value to him in his time 
 
 of need, for his very life seemed to hang upon the 
 
 needed light. In his extremity a little lire-fly wended 
 
 its way to his relief. He eagerly and gladly seized it, 
 
 and its wings gave out light enough to let him see the 
 
 finger on his compass, and thus his feet were directed 
 
 and he was led at lersgth to his home in safety. 
 
 The Rev. John Keble jjives us two hvmns, one of 
 
 them, 
 
 " Sun of my soul, Thou Saviour dear," 
 
 known and sung, especially at family worship, the 
 wide world over. 
 
 Wherever there are Christian hearts to praise God, 
 Bishop Ken's two hymns are known : 
 
 "Awake, my soul, and with the sun," 
 
 and 
 
 "Glory to Thee, my God, this night." 
 
 Ken was born in Berkhampstead, England, in 1G87. 
 He was appointed Chaplain to the Prince of Orange 
 in 1669 ; to Charles the Second in 1684, and to James 
 the Second in 1685. When the king ordered hi.n to 
 read the celebrated " Declaration of Indulgence " he 
 refused, and was imprisoned in the Tower. 
 
 Robert Robinson is the author of a hymn almost as 
 well known as " Rock of Ages." I mean : 
 
 *' Come, Thou fount of every blessing." 
 
 Robinson embraced Socinian views, and these robbed 
 him of his religious joys. Travelling one day by 
 
 •i 
 
HYMNS AND IIYMN-WRITERS. 
 
 359 
 
 coach, a lady who had been readinfif his hymn, " Come, 
 Thou fount," etc., asked him if he knew it. He tried 
 to parry her questions, until at length, bursting into a 
 flood of tears, he exclaimed, " Madam, I am the poor 
 unhappy man who composed that hymn many years 
 ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had 
 them, to enjoy the feelings I had then." 
 
 Hymns 619, 020 and 621 are worthy of much thought 
 and study. Dr. Schaff says, " This glowing description 
 of the celestial country is the sweetest of all the New 
 Jerusalem hymns of heavenly home-sickness which 
 have taken their inspiration from the last two chapters 
 of Revelations. It was composed about 1125 by 
 Bernard, a monk, of Cluny, in France, contemporary 
 with the more illustrious 8t, Bernard of Clair Vaux." 
 To appreciate it it should be read right through, and 
 one doing so will be lifted nearer heaven by the 
 exercise. 
 
 Two beautiful hymns, Nos. 110 and 127, were 
 composed seven hundred years ago, by Bernard, the 
 celebrated Abbot of Clair Vaux. He was born in 
 Burgundy, in 1091, and was consecrated to God from 
 the first, by Aletta, his mother. Her death-chamber 
 was his spiritual birth-place. She died responding to a 
 chant. Hg v/as selected with twelve others to build a 
 mo':iastery, which they accomplished, in a pathless 
 forest haunted by robbers. There they toiled with 
 songs of praise, till at length it became Clair Vaux, 
 "the bright valley." Luther held Bernard in high 
 esteem, and said he was the best monk that ever 
 lived. He has been designated the honeyed teacher, 
 
 m 
 
3G0 
 
 AnnUEHSES. 
 
 ' ' \ 
 
 t; 1 
 
 and his writinpjs a stream from Pdradise. He died 
 in 1163, beinjjf sixfcy-two years of age. 
 
 It was a fittino thing that our Canadian Methodism 
 i^hould be represented in our new hymn-book. This 
 has been done by inserting two hymns from the pen 
 of the Rev. Edward Hartley Dewart, D.D., editor of 
 the Christian Guardian. Dr. Dewart has vindicated 
 his claim to the possession of the poet's genius. In 
 the " Songs of Life," published by him some years ago, 
 there are some pieces that take a very high rank for 
 their apt imagery, lofty sentiment, and easy, smooth 
 verse. The hymns Nos. 925 and 927 — the one on 
 Christian education, the other a prayer for teachers 
 and students — meet a want, specially felt when using 
 the old book. There was really only one hymn in the 
 old book that was at all appropriate for an educational 
 meeting. These hymns combine good connected 
 thought with a deeply reverent spirit and a careful 
 comprehension of the needs of both teachers and 
 pupils. I am glad that these Canadian hymns are 
 inserted in a book that wili live through the centuries. 
 I fancy I could name other Canadian Methodist poets 
 also, from whose manuscripts a good selection might 
 have been made. 
 
 Hymn 607, commencing : 
 
 *' Jerusalem, my happy home, 
 When shall I come to thee ? " 
 
 has an interesting history. The prison cells of the 
 old Tower in London are covered with the marks 
 and memorials of many a hapless victim of tryanny 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-WUITERS. 
 
 301 
 
 He died 
 
 othodisin 
 )k. Tliis 
 the pen 
 Bditor of 
 indicated 
 lius. In 
 ears anfo, 
 rank for 
 , smooth 
 I one on 
 teachers 
 en usinjT 
 
 in in the 
 icational 
 )nnected 
 t careful 
 ers and 
 mns are 
 inturies. 
 ist poets 
 1 might 
 
 of the 
 
 marks 
 
 ryanny 
 
 and persecution. In the time of Queen Elizabeth, a 
 prisoner was shut up in one of those cells, who, in his 
 hours of imprisonment, composed the hymn in twenty- 
 six verses, a manuscript copy of which is now in the 
 British Museum. It is entitled, " A song, by F. B. P., 
 to the tune of ' Diana.' " The name of the prisoner is 
 lost in oblivion. The winged words of the hymn have 
 long since found their way into thousands of Christian 
 hearts, both in Europe and America. It was the 
 favorite refrain of the communion martyrs and 
 Covenanters, who sang it in the glens and on the 
 mountains of Scotland. The index of our book 
 attributes it to David Dickson, of Edinburgh, but he 
 only altered the original and aa 'ed thirty-six verses of 
 his own. About the beginning of this century an 
 unknown author made a variation of the hymn in six 
 verses, and this is the one found in our book. A 
 young Scotchman was visited on his death-bed by a 
 minister, but all the good man's efforts to reach his 
 heart were vain. At last he turned away, ard, scarcely 
 knowing why, hummed " Jerusalem, my happy home," 
 but that was enough, a tender chord was touched. 
 " My mother used to sing that hymn," he said, and the 
 way was open for spiritual counsel and instruction. 
 
 The name of Rev. W. M. Punshon, D.D., needs no in- 
 troduction to Canadian Methodists, either as a preacher 
 or a poet. They will all welcome hymns Nos. 438 and 
 645, from his facile and eloquent pen. 
 
 The 438th, 
 
 "Listen, the Master beseecheth," 
 
 24 
 
KF?. 
 
 i 
 
 ;l'^ ' r 
 
 I 
 
 362 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 was boin on Canadian soil. At a missionary meeting 
 in Montreal, Dr. Punshon heard Philip Phillips sing, 
 " Your Mission." He wrote this hymn as a companion 
 to that, and in a courteous note, presenting it to Mr. 
 Phillips, he suggested that Mr. Phillips might set it to 
 ar. appropriate tune. This the " Singing Pilgrim " has 
 done. 
 
 The 645th is from " Sabbath Chimes," a collection 
 of pieces written by })r. Punshon some years ago, 
 during a year's enforced rest from the work of the 
 ministry on account of illness. 
 
 Three hymns, 245, 894, G91, are from the pen of a 
 Wesleyan minister in England, whose name is the 
 synonym of all that is tender and enduring, Rev. W. 
 M. Bunting, son of the celebrated Dr. Bunting. 
 
 Of course, we have in our book the world-wide 
 
 known 
 
 "Rock of Ages," 
 
 by Toplady. 
 
 William Cowpei contributes to our book four 
 hymns. Of these the iwo most universally known 
 and sung are, 
 
 " God moves in a mysterious way," 
 
 and 
 
 '* There is a fomtaln filled with blood." 
 
 When under the iTifl"ence of the fits of mental 
 derangement to which he was subject, he meditated 
 drowning himself in the River Ouse, some two or 
 three miles from hifi residence at Olney. He called 
 for a post-chaise and ordered the driver to take 
 him to the spot. Though the driver well knew the 
 
ary meeting 
 billips sing, 
 1 companion 
 ag it to Mr. 
 ^ht set it to 
 *ilgrim " has 
 
 a collection 
 
 years ago, 
 
 i^ork of the 
 
 le pen of a 
 ame is the 
 ig, Rev. W. 
 ting, 
 world-wide 
 
 ^ook four 
 ly known 
 
 of mental 
 
 meditated 
 
 ■ne two cr 
 
 He called 
 
 to take 
 
 knew the 
 
 HYMNS AND HTMN-VVRITEllS. 
 
 363 
 
 place, yet in some unaccountable way the man lost 
 his way and failed to reach the place. The snare was 
 thus broken, and Cowper returned to his home, sat 
 down and wrote that tine hvmn, " God moves in a 
 mysterious way." 
 
 The hymn, " There is a fountain filled with blood," 
 was written for the little Olney prayer-meeting. 
 Little did Cowper imagine when he first heard John 
 Newton announce, and this small praying band unite 
 in singing, " There is a fountain," etc., that there was 
 starting a song that would afterwards be caught up 
 by untold millions, and that a century later, when his 
 
 " Poor, lisping, stammer! i-; tongue 
 Lies silent in the grave, 
 
 would still be repeated from the risiag to the setting 
 of the oun, and continue to echo round the globe 
 
 " Till all the ransomed Church of God 
 Bu saved to a no more." 
 
 Frances Ridley Havergal furnisheous with tenhymns. 
 
 The life of this gifted lady has been written by her 
 sister, who lays upon the tomb of one of the most 
 devoted women of the age a wreath of fragrant 
 white flowers. The book records a strong mental and 
 spiritual life ; a marvellous refinement of the aistheti- 
 cal powers, and a devotion to the divine service as 
 simple-hearted as complete. To the subject of it, 
 Christ was indeed " All and in all." Christians have 
 here a book which they may wisely put into the hands 
 of their friends, when they are feeling their way to 
 
 /■■*>. 
 
364 
 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 trust in the Redeemer and religious decision ; while 
 the most experienced Christian will find in it much to 
 stimulate faith, and lead to a fuller consecration to 
 God. The life will make the poems and hymns of 
 this sweet singer doubly interesting to devout hearts. 
 But I must close. In parting with the sweet com- 
 panionship of the gifted sons and daughters of song, 
 we part with cherished friends. We have shared 
 alike in their ecstatic raptures and their sorrowing re- 
 frains ; their beautiful lessons of wisdom and their 
 exulting prophecies. Many-hued have been their 
 bright creations, and many- voiced their melodious ut- 
 terances ; but the burden of their song is interpene- 
 trated by one great theme — the cross of Calvary and 
 the spiritual warfare which it inspires in every true 
 human soul. This great central fact in our Christian 
 faith has been throughout the procespion of the cen- 
 turies, the grand altar-shrine around which the 
 priesthood of sacred song have ever rendered the 
 homage of their votive offerings. As we have seen, in 
 the earliest ages the Hebrews chanted in solemn num- 
 bers their anthems of adoration by the inspired 
 lips of their prophet-bards ; and in the Apostolic 
 Church the same sublime chorus was taken up in the 
 language of the polished Greek ; while it was again 
 re-echoed in the majestic cadences of the Latin ; then 
 found heroic utterance in the German, and lastly, in 
 the rich combinations of our own vernacular. Nor 
 will the theme, so august and sublime, ever become 
 trite or lose aught of its soul-quickening energy, 
 either with past or present, so long as time shall last 
 
HYMNS AND HYMN-WRITERS„ 
 
 365 
 
 3n; while 
 i much to 
 cration to 
 hymns of 
 it hearts, 
 i^eet com- 
 
 of sonor, 
 e shared 
 Dwing re- 
 md their 
 ien their 
 Jious ut- 
 iterpene- 
 /ary and 
 'ery true 
 Christian 
 the cen- 
 hich the 
 3red the 
 ) seen, in 
 nn num- 
 
 inspired 
 Apostolic 
 p in the 
 IS again 
 in; then 
 astly, in 
 ir. Nor 
 ' become 
 energy, 
 lall last 
 
 or heaven endure ; for never shall it be forgotten that 
 among the royalties and beatitudes of that world of 
 light and life, evermore the voice of holy psalm and 
 glad hosannah thrills the happy spirits of its redeemed 
 and rejoicing multitudes with an ecstasy of bliss al- 
 together unknown to the denizens of this shadowy, 
 sin-smitten world of ours. Then let memorv be true 
 to her trust, and among the choicest of her spoils, as 
 a celestial benison will be the precious legacy thu^ 
 bequeathed to us by the gifted and the good. Like 
 some saintly evangel will these sweet lyrics ofttimes 
 prove their potency by urging our dull souls, full 
 panoplied for the warfare, with sandal shook and pil- 
 grim staff, onward and upward in the divine life, till 
 leaving the discordant accompaniments of earth all 
 forgotten, we attain to where 
 
 "No groans shall mine;le with the songs 
 That warble from immortal tongues."