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Les diagrammas s'^ivants illustrent la mAthod^ . rrata o Mlure. lA H azx 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 THE WEAVING OF CHARACTER, AND OTHER SERMONS AND ADDRESSES. BY G. M. Mbacham, Pastor of Union Church, Yokohama, Japan. ¥OKOHAMA. JAPAN: The Yokohama Bunsha. 1897. V\¥[(A- ANNEX ■ SUCK f To my dear people in Yokohama, from xvhom till now in the tenth year of my pastorate I have received many tokens of confidence and love, and to many valued friends of former years in Canada, this volume is affectionately dedicated. /^/ Zy 2- iii f PREFACE. HIS volume appears for the reason that the author has been occasionally solicited to publish single sermons, and lately has been urged to give to the Church a collection of them. It is owing to the persuasions of several friends that his portrait finds here a place. This is a sincere attempt to help sinful, suffering men to Christ and heaven. These sermons have been com- posed at different times during a ministry, which has already lasted more than two-score years. Some were written long ago, some very recently. They have all been preached except the one entitled, " God's Ancient People," the substance of which appeared in the columns of one of the daily papers in this city. It will be observed that in none of these sermons, with perhaps one exception, is there an attempt to prove the truths of revelation. It is the conviction of the author that the Gospel needs simply to be preached. There are always some who are feeling after Christ, if haply they may find Him. And it would delight the writer, more than gold or silver, if he knew his book was instrumental in leading some to Christ, and in building up others in their most holy iv PREFACE. faith. How high the honour and distinguished the privilege of being used by the Holy Spirit to make unseen realities tangible to men, and to assist those who have an occasional taste of transcendent good into its perpetual enjoyment ! Would that we, Christian people, more and more discerned the Lord's body, not only at the Table of the Lord, but also in the breaking of bread at the daily meal, heard the sound of His stately step- pings not only in the Sanctuary, but also in the move- ments of the events of every-day life, and felt His presence not merely in an occasional visit, but in His perpetual abiding in our hearts ! Errors have crept in or escaped scrutiny. Inter alia are the following : of punctuation, notably in the title of the sermon on page d'i ; of spelling, " gainsayed " for " gainsaid " on page 98 ; and of words, as in " nature " for "nations" 1,1 page 140, and «i " Hezekiah " for " Uzziah " on page 268. Thanks are hereby heartily rendered to the Rev, H. H. Coates, M.A., B.D., of the Central Tabernacle, Tokyo, for much assistance in selecting with painstaking care from among many sermons those that appear here, and to Geo. Braithwaite Esq., of the British and Foreign Bible Society, for the correction of proof. This volume goes forth with the earnest prayer that God will use it for His own glory and the salvation of men. May He, without whom nothing is good or wise or strong, vouchsafe His seiectest blessing ! CONTENTS. I. — The Weaving of Character 2. — Sowing and Reaping 3- — Buying up the Opportunity 4. — ^The Withered Hand ... ... ... ... 5- — Jesus Christ come to Church ; or, the Pharisee and the Publican 6. — The Dangers of Young Men 7. — The Detection of Sin i*. — Three Great Words 9. — Philip and the Eunuch 10. — The Call of Abraham II. — God's Ancient People 12. — ^The Plumbline 13- — ^The Christian Race 14- — ^The Alabastron and the Ointment ... , 15. — Christ, the Conqueror , 16. — ^The Lord's Candle , 17. — Esau Selling his Birthright , I '7 33 48 63 81 97 114 134 150 169 188 208 229 248 263 282 r vi CONTENTS. i8. — The Cup of Cold Water 296 19. — Christ Knocking at the Door 309 20. — Lessons from the Eagle's Eyrie 325 21. — The Existence and Influence of the Invisible. 342 CHARACTER-WEAVING. " I have cut oft" like a weaver my life." — Isaiah xxxviii : 1 2. Unquestionably our Lord established His Church in the world with the object of savinjj men from sin and its consequences; but He has had in view ulteriorly the ennoblement and perfection of the character of those who have been saved from the guilt of sin. Pardon is a great blessing, and salvation in heaven is a glorious destinj'. But he who is content with the knowledge that he is forgiven, and with a hope of entering heaven at last, is, I believe, mistaken in his conception of the nature of religion, and has failed to appreciate the claims of God upon him. To purify, to build up, to strengthen, to perfect character is a great end of the Christian scheme. For this Christ gave Himself "that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a people for His own possession, zealous of good works." For this, too, the Scriptures were given " that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto eveiy good work." For this He has instituted the ministry : " the perfecting of the saints, the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." CIIAKACIKK-WKAVINT. How the Apostle hibouis in these passaj,'es to express the lofty conception he has of the Christian priviL^je ! N,,w, how is this lofty character attained? Not without intelligent, well-directed effort. Hy no random strokes, by no careless, indifferent courses, much less by sinful ways, shall men reach perfection. Sometimes we are rei)resentcd as ,^ KllAl'INC. and advancinfj to full and eternal salvation, has supreme regard to the t,^ood pleasure of God. It docs not mean that we shall cease to gratify sense, to make money, to enjoy social pleasure, to cultivate mental power. It does mean subordinating all lower desires to the higher life of the Spirit. It means that diligence in business is to be combined with fervour of si)irit, that making money is to be redeemed from selfishness, that delight in society and ambition to make the most of our intellectual powers must be kept under control of the supreme motive of the Christian to glorify God. Bishop Lightfoot has well said that lying between flesh and Spirit, '* and occup) iiig neutral ground are whole regions which may be annexed to the one or the other as either becomes more powerful." The true Christian may embark upon any pursuit to which he is drawn, and be earnest in it, may mingle with any class of society, may intermeddle with all knowledge; but he must be very sure that he is sowing to the Spirit, that his motives will stand the strictest scrutiny of our future Judge. It may seem strange to aay that the words of our text were suggested to Paul by his exhortation to be gene- rous in giving. It was alwaj's his way to go down to the great principles which underlay his theme. Here he is saying that right giving is a spiritual act, that in giving when collections arc taken we may give to God, that it is an expression of worship, the language of which to God is, " I belong to Thee and all I have is Thine." Thus giving we place upon the altar not merely our money, but our very selves. If we give grudgingly we sow selfishness and covetousness ; if we i i SONVINC; AM) KKAriNC. 31 jjivc cheerfully, the haiTcst will be beauty and richness of soul. " (iocl lov'cth a cheerful jjlver." The harvest is everlasting; life, which means not simply endless duration of being, but everlasting enjoy- ment of the life of God in the souls of men, the life of love, rectitude and purity. Self has been annihilated, and nothing remains but jxirfect holiness and perfect love. This glorious promise of life everlasting tran- scends the highest conceptions of the human mind : It is eternal existence in ever-increasing happiness and excellence, in the power of holy habit, and with every accompaniment to render existence most blessed. Rest- ing upon this exceeding great and precious promise, we \vho have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us have strong consolation. " Shall reap life everlasting." Fellow Christians, as a matter of course we are sowing to the Spirit; but are we sowing with sufficient diligence? Are we mortifying the deeds of the body? crucifying the flesh with its affections and lusts ? keeping ourselves under strictest discipline? and looking to our all-gracious and almighty Saviour for the destruction of the body of sin? Are we improving the opportunities we enjoy of doing good, of instructing the ignorant, of com- forting the sorrowful, of relieving the distressed, of converting the erring, and of saving the lost? If a farmer knew that for every seed he sowed on a given day he should receive a definite and very large amount of money, would he not sow industriously and most liberally from early morning till late at night? Do we not sow too much to the flesh, If' I ft i 32 SOWING AND RKAPING. and too little to the Spirit ? O, break up the fallow ground of a stubborn and rebellious heart ! With gentle words and loving smiles, deeds of humbleness, cups of cold water, testimony for Christ, reproofs and rebukes in tender love, with looks and words of sympathy, go forth sowing the incorruptible seed of the Word of God. Sow it with tears and }'ou shall reap in joy ; sow it bountifully and you shall reap bountifully. " In due season ye shall reap if ye faint not." The day hastens on when all who have sowed to the Spirit and they who have reaped, the saints of the older dispensations, and those of the New Testament, the apostles and martyrs and confessors, and all in high places or in the most obscure, shall b*^ gathered to celebrate the great festival of the " Harvest Home." " Now He that ministereth seed to the sower," in the work of agriculture, " both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness, that ye may be enriched in everything to all bountifuiness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God." "They are sowing the seed of word and deed, Which the cold know not nor the careless heed, Of the gentle word or the kindly deed That have blessed the world in its sorest need. Snvi'f shall the harvest be. " They are sowing the seed of noble deed, With a sleepless watch and an earnest heed; With a ceaseless hand o'er the earth they sow, And the fields are whitening where'er they go. JCic/i will the harvest be. " Sown in darkness or sown in light Sown in weakness or sown in might, Sown in meekness or sown in wrath; In the liroad world's field or the shadowy path. Sure will the harvest be." L fallow With jleness, ofs and ipathy, Vord of ly; sow In due hastens ley who ns, and martyrs le most festiv^al listereth , "both )ur seed ess, that tifuiness, BUYING UP THE OPPORTUNITY. "Redeeming the time" {"^ E^ayopa^OfievOt TOV XaepSv''). Eph. V. i6. An Italian philosopher called his time his estate, but it is an estate which is too often little prized till it has been nearly run through by prodigal wastefulness. It has been well said and may well be repeated : " Lost wealth may be restored by industry ; the wreck of health regained by temperance ; forgotten knowledge restored by study ; alienated friendship smoothed into forgetf ul- ness ; even forfeited reputation won by penitence and virtue ; but who ever looked upon his vanished hours, recalled his slighted years, stamped them with wisdom, or effaced from heaven's record the fearful blot cf wasted time?" Mr. Carlyle expounds the thesis that Time and Space are but creatures of God, with whom as it is a universal Hire, so it is an everlasting Novj. Mortals, however, know time only by succession. Yesterday, as some one says, was the port which we left behind us as we sailed on our earth-ship through an ocean of ether. To-morrow we may never reach. It is beyond a dark and dangerous sail of many houis' duration — beyond the glittering midnight sky. When night comes we shall weigh anchor and sound our dim and perilous way 34 BUYING UP rilE OPPORTUNITY. across its dark- waters. But to-day, Ave have it, a harbour where we may stay for a little, into which the nations of by-gone times have brought their honor and glory. It is the heir of all the ages, the bright con- summate flower of history, the loftiest summit of time, the focus where all life, civilization and opportunity, all learning, culture and religion, conveige. It is all, moreover, of which we are sure. And now this to-day — a little section cut out of eternity and given us to do our work in, and so far as we know the only time in which we may work before we go to the results of probation — how shall we deal with it? Charlotte Corday after she had assassinated the in- famous Marat, and only a day or two before she died by the guillotine, said what was worth remembering ; " I have never esteemed life save for its utility." If life may be likened to a stream, shall we let it flow on un- arrested, unused, as Robertson well puts it, like " those marble statues in some public square, which art has so fashioned into a perennial fountain, that through the lips or through the hands the clear water flows in a perpetual stream on and on forever, and the marble stands there — passive, cold, making no effort to arrest the gliding water? " Shall it be so with us? Let us look at our text. Critics are generally agreed that the translation, " redeeming the time " is inaccurate. The English term "time" is of indefinite extent, a general term signifying the succession of mom..\ts, but the term here employed in the original is time sharply defined as a crisis or epoch, joint or articulation in that BUYING UP THE OPPORTUNITY. 35 it, a cli the or and it con- f time, tunity, is all, out of far as : before ve deal the in- le died iberiiig ; If life on un- " those has so ugh the \vs in a marble :o arrest r agreed Lccurate. Ktent, a .i\ts, but sharply I in that indefinite succession. Both terms are found in Christ's words to His disciples. — " It is not for you to know the times or seasons," etc. The latter is the word here used, which along with the article shows that the meaning is more than to gain time ; it implies the critical nick of time, which may be unfavorable, but more likely is not. Here, as it depends on the context whether it shall be a time to help or hinder, to malce or mar, the meaning is : " Amid evil days and unhappy surroundings, as out of a wilderness where little good is to be found, cull your seasons of good, your opportunities of usefulness." The word rendered * redeeming ' is a passive participle used with a middle signification, here in an appropriative sense, though the reflexive pronoun is not added, as it sometimes is, for sake of emphasis and perspicuity. Its meaning therefore is: "Buying up for yourselves." And the figure is that of a prudent merchant carefully looking at the market in hard times and considering how he may turn any good opportunity that may occur to his own advantage or that of others. I may add that the participle is compounded with a preposition which directs our thoughts to the undefined time or circumstances out of which the opportunity is to be bought up. Thus we have complete possession of the thought of our text. The Christian is not to allow the suitable moment to pass by unheeded, but to make it his own. Though it may involve self-denial, he must like a skilful merchant buy it up out of the possession of sin, slothf ul- ness and pleasure, and use it for Christ's sake. He sees that every moment because of its relation to eternity is I Si 'M % ■ ^ li-J 36 BUYING UP THE OrPORTUNri'V. of inexpressible value, hastens the more on account of the swiftness of its flight to use it as an opportunity of good, and makes traffic of time that he and his fellows may be the richer in eternity. This is true redemptioj. of time. I have said that opportunity is the crisis ; it may be passed by, and time still be left us. It is the /ozucr of time, which, unplucked because unnoticed, may fade and wither, but time still remain. There are moments, which, comparr i with other moments, are as gold among the baser metals. They convey untold enjoyment, or they carry with them such a world of influence that they cannot be forgotten. They stand alone by them- selves in rarity, in interest, and worth. Sometimes, however, men's eyes are holden so that they do not see how inestimably precious they are till long afterwards, and then they discover that at that moment they stood at the intersection of two roads, one of which led to honor and success and the other to shame and failure, and they having heedlessly taken the wrong road have suffered the bitter consequences ever since. Thus are wc taught that success in life often depends on one decisive act, one resolute breaking through one's hindrances. Failing that, the progress is downward, until the man of infirm purpose, as he glances back over the journey of life, strewn with the wreck of all his earthly hopes, wails out in the extremity of his anguish : Oh how different my life might have been ! And '• Of all sad words of tongue of pen, The saddest are these— it might have been." BUYING UP THE OPPORTUNIIY. 37 But opportunity consists not merely in some critical moment, fraught with richest blessings if turned to right account, but each section of human life is the oppor- tunity which bought up, or neglected, will enrich or impoverish all that follows afterward. If you have failed to improve it in its time and place, it is gone forever. It is the forelock on the brow of Time, which cannot be laid hold of when once he has turned his back. The habits and lessons of childhood, if unacquir- ed in their time, are never acquired, and youth and all that follows inevitably suffer. If the habits and studies proper to youth arc neglected in their time, all future life must of necessity be diminished in volume, power, beauty, sweetness and light. If the true habits and principles of manhood are not formed in their season, old age is in so far left cold, hard, empty, selfish. Not that eternal ruin is unavoidable, but who can deny that the character of the undying future must be wonderfully dimmed, enfeebled, and circumscribed, even in the case of those who are saved? And oh, how powerful are the temptations which abound on every hand to beguile us in every period of life from sternly and rigorously buying up every opportunity with which we are blessed ! What then is the lesson for us all in youth, vigorous manhood, and advanced years, but that noiu is a time of infinite value. O ye youth ! how by and by you will prize the treasures of time, wealth of opportunity, opulence of advantages, which you are wasting with such prodigal extravagance. Learn from the bitter regrets of your elders, and up and seize the passing moments as they fly ! i! 38 BUYING UP THE OPPORrUNirV. That sad saying of Horace Mann : " Lost somewhere betwee.i sunrise and sunset two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes ; no reward is offered, for they are gone forever," I doubt not may be truthfully taken up at the close of every day by many a man. For few men have ever deserved the title won by Henry Martyn— "The man that never wasted an hour." Think of its significance. Two hours a day for a year are equal to 730 hours, which at the end of ten years will be equal to two working years of ten hours per day. And who could not, by close watching and contriving, manage to save two hours more for study in the twenty-four? "Every day a little knowledge; one fact in a day. Ten years pass by. 3650 facts are not a small thing." — Again, to illus- trate the value of economy of time in earlier life, suppose one were to read nothing but what would feed the mind, strengthen the understanding, elevate the man, purify the taste, and accomplish fifty pages a week. That would be equivalent to 2,600 pages per year, and in ten years to 26,000 pages. What a treasury of knowledge in that time one would have amassed ! With wnat confidence in one's knowledge would one stand up among one's fellows ! How different from the guilty, shame-faced feeling of him who, having spent his life in reading trash, is ever afraid of having his ignorance detected, shrinks, therefore, from the society of well- informed men, and loses all the pleasure of association with gifted minds. To save these two hours for such purposes would not be difficult. Through the day there are many spare. BUYING UP I'lIE OPPORTUNirY. 39 moments. " As after you have filled a box with croquet balls, you may pour In a great quantity of sand before the box is completely full, and even then pour in a considerable quantity of water before it overflows, so in a day crowded with larger cares and duties, there are stray moments and snatches which may be turned to wise account." You have heard of the bootblack who saved odd minutes for study till he was prepared for matriculation at a college in America, and went on till he became a distinguished professor in another institution. His was the principle of Dionysius the Silician who emplojed his time so well that when acked by one who wanted to speak with him if he were at leisure, he replied : " Heaven forbid that I should ever have any leisure." It is thus that the greatest men have achieved the greatest things, not so much by occasional prodigious effoits as by steady incessant toil in the economy of spare moments. So Mr. Darwin composed his books as he drove about visiting his patients. So Elihu Burritt mastered eighteen languages and twenty-two dialects in fragments of time, when not engaged at his forge. The sayings are trite but how true : — " Time and tide wait for no man ; " " Time wasted is existence, used is life ; " " Wisdom walks before time, opportunity with it, and repentance behind it." All that has been said will have ten-fold emphasis when applied to what follows. What infancy and youth are to following years, tim- is to eternity, the seed-time of the harvests of the everlasting future. Probation is the opportunity which, bought up or 40 BUYING UP THE OPPORTUNITY. neglected, will make or mar the eternal destiny, It terminates with life and cannot be adequately prized. This is the day of salvation. The clear light of truth shines abroad. Spiritual influences accompany the faiihful ministrations of the gospel. The most ample opportunity is afforded for acquiring knowledge of and faith in Christ. But there are times when the Spirit is poured out in showers of blessing. What a golden opportunity for the people of Capernaum that night " when the sun did set, and they brought unto our Lord all that were diseased and them that were possessed with devils ! And all the city was gathered together unto the door. And He healed many that were sick of divers diseases and caFt out many devils." Thus it is when the Spirit is poured out. A tide in the affairs of men then sets in, which taken at the flood sweeps many humble penitent believers into the Kingdom of Heaven. We all have known such precious seasons. And in the remembrance of them perhaps some are saying now : " O that I had sought His favour, When I felt His Spirit move— Golden moments ! When I felt His Spirit move ! " But alas ! how many opportunities have been neglect- ed, and sins committed, and there they are in the light of the Divine countenance. How vast their number! How fearful their condemnation! Is there no sci nee to roll back the wheels of time, and place us as we were before we failed of the grace of God? Nay, present opportunity. with the gospel as with the offer of the sibyl. She mal, es BUYING UF THE OPPORTUNirY. 41 her offer and states her price. If it be refused, she consumes in part what has been offered, but holds her price as high as ever. The cost of religion is always the same, but its sweetness and light and untold pre- ciousness, when enjoyed from youth to age, are vastly greater than when secured only in advanced years. Still it is not imix>ssible for the aged to taste and see that the Lord is gracious. When Napoleon reached one of his battle-fields it was late in the afternoon and he saw that the battle was really lost, but glancing towards the sun he cried : " Only time enough to re- cover the day," and giving out his orders with his characteristic energy he turned defeat into victory. " This I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream : There spread a cloud of dust along a plain ; And underneath the cloud, or in it, raged A furious battle, and men yelled, and swords Shocked upon swords and shields. A prince's banner Wavered, then staggered backward, hemmed by foes. A craven hung along the battle's edge, .And thought, * Had I a sword of keener steel — That blue blade that the king's son bears— but this Blunt thing — ! ' he snapt and flung it from his hand. And lowering cr<;pt away and left the field. Then came the king's son, wounded, sore bestead, And weaporless, and saw the broken sword, Hilt-buried in the dry and trodden sand, And ran and snatched it, and with battle-shout Lifted afresh he hewed his enemy down. And saved a great cause that heroic day." My friend, you have time enough if you act vigorous- ly to recover the day. But neglect to buy up the opportunity that is left, and your defeat will be for ever 42 BUYING UP THE OPrORTUNirV. and ever. We are still, thank God ! at the foot of a tree, some of the fruit of which has withered and decay- ed, but some remains for us to gather. Let us not He down and starve. It is objected that we urge men to act inconsiderately in pleading with them to submit to Christ now. I grant that Kacon is right, when he tells us that if we had one hundred powerful and skilful hands like Briareus, and one hundred vigilant eyes like Argus, it would not be wise to set one of those hands to work till with all those watchful eyes the entire situation had been carefully considered. But take Whateley's figure ; Suppose one waked to find himself surrounded by water, shall he at once dash into the water and swim to the main land? No; let him take time enough to ascertain :— Is the water rising, falling, or stationary? If stationary, though there is no danger in delay, yet, as the intervening waters must be crossed sooner or later, it may be as well done now as at any time. If falling, he may after waiting a little escape dry-shod to the shore. But if rising then the sooner he escapes from his present position the better, for it may soon be too late forever. To apply : You are unconverted. Time is short and uncertain. It may terminate to-night. "No man has learned anything rightly," says Emerson, " until he knows that every day is Doomsday." There is a hell beyond. If you are not saved before death you are lost forever. You have had many opportunities of securing salvation. You have thrown them away. You have grieved God's Spirit. There is danger of quenching it. He that being iJUYiNt; UP riiK orpoRruNi'iY. 43 often reproved hardeneth his heart shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy. When such tremendous interests are at stake, delay is dangerous. Hence it is wise to place yourself at once in the hands of Christ, and secure eternal life. Having count- ed the cost, proceed rapidly to the execution of the counsels of wisdom. You are a Christian. The motto of Pittacus engraved on the walls of the temple of Delos — Fviodt xatpov — ' know thine opportunity,' you will lay to heart. That you may not live at random, consider the great ends of life and the means by which you accomplish them. There are many things which it is too soon to do, and there are many other things which it is too late to attempt. But in every given moment of time there is work for you to do, Our great Exemplar has said : " I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work." And Paul has said " As we have opportunity let us do good unto all men." He docs not urge us to do what he did not do himself. How he grasped each opportunity as it arose ! Now preaching before Felix on righteousness, temperance and judgment ; now proclaiming on Mars' Hill the God whom they ignorantly worshipped ; now confronting the sorcerer with fitting words of terrible and scorching rebuke ; now casting the spirit of divination out of the damsel ; then in the prison making midnight melodious with songs of praise ; and anon teaching the jailor the way of salvation. So by teaching the rising generation in the Sunday School, by going out among the homes of the poor, lifting up the disconsolate, administering 44 liUYING UP THE OrrORTUNITY. comfort to the forlorn, visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and warning our fellowmcn, we may buy up precious opportunities of usefulness. There is not one of us who may not by tenderness, sympathy, love and instruction be a fountain of per- petual strength and blessedness to those around us, many of whom groan bitter groans, and sweat bloody sweat of woe and anguish — na}', be the means of lead- ing them to Christ and holiness and heaven. This is to run back and fetch the age of gold. But if we would do so, we can only lyn sphere in his own way, and all obedient to the law of labour, and the Church will accomplish its great object in the world. There is much sound sense and true philosophy in the story of two negroes who were loading a cart. One was disposed to shirk his work. The other stopped and looking sharply at him said, " Sam, do you expect to go to heaven ? " " Yes," was the reply. " Then take hold and lift," said the other. Many are hoping to get to heaven, but unless they help to bear the burdens which others are bearing alone, unless they stir up their gifts by continual exercise, those gifts are likely to deterio- rate, and eventually disappear. Said our Lord of the unprofitable servant : " Take the talent from him and cast him into outer darkness where there shall be weep- ing and gnashing of teeth." S6 THE WriHERKl) HAND. f { t i My ineffective brethren, once you loved your Saviour, and rejoiced to serve Him. How came this change to pass that the hand that once was ready for service is powerless now ? Had your right hand, when you were a child, been bound fast to a board in such a way that it could not be used, long before you reached manhood your hand and arm would have gradually shrivelled and perished. The hand that is not trained and educated to skill, grace, and power will always be awkward, con- strained, and feeble. So in the spiritual realm. Love to the Saviour prompts us to serve Him. When we cease to love Him we cease also to serve Him, Feeling was given to lead us to action. It prompts to far more action than does "the resolution of the will." Emotion is the steam that drives the great engine of the world's activity. All emotion of a right sort should be turned into action. If not, the fountains of emotion will dry up, and the power of action pass away. Thus it is that the talent that is not used is withdrawn from us. Well says Dr. Cuyler : " How can a Christian be healthy, who never toils for souls, and never faces a head-wind? How can a man's faith be strong who never wrestles at the mercy-seat ? How can a man grow in spiritual knowledge, who never studies anything but his ledger and the daily newspaper? How can a Christian's lungs be strong when he is breathing the poisonous air of the house of mirth? How can he rejoice to meet his Saviour at the Communion Table, when he has been denying or betraying that Saviour everywhere beside? Weak hands and feeble knees are not merely the mis- fortunes of backsliders; they are their own sin and rilK WI'llIEREI) HAND. 57 shame. It is not a visitation of Providence that has laid them on their backs, and made them well-nigh useless in the Church, but a visitation of \\iQ great Tempter y If we trace this ineffectiveness back to its source we shall find it to be a remembrance of past sins, a present besctment, an evil habit, a secret lust, a concealed fraud, a cowardly spirit, and in the last analysis a preference of self-gratification to self denial. The ineffective man is always ready with his excuses when he is asked to do something for Christ — to-day one excuse, to-morrow another, till you are reminded of the Arabian saying : " They said to the camel-bird (the ostrich), ' Carry ; ' it replied, * I cannot, for I am a bird,' They said, * Then fly ; ' it answered, * I cannot, for I am a camel.* " What a glorious Gospel do I announce when I tell you ue have a Saviour who is able and willing to save us from all our disabilities, lie sees our needs, our dangers, our hindrances to healthful activity, feels for every sufferer and every sinner the intensest solicitude, singles out the humble publican, the blind beggar, the impotent man, the outcast leper, and the palsied cripple, and gives to each the strength and healing that he needs. He is ever present to heal, looking on every one of us who, having been injured or palsied by sin, feel ourselves wholly unable to do wha<: we are called on by our Lord to do. He calls on us all to stand forth and receive His blessing, without which we shall always be weak and useless, with which we shall be successful workers. O my ineffective brother, who complain that you can do nothing, come to him and you shall receive power, and henceforth answer to Carlyle's description 58 THE \vn"HKRi:i) hand. 1 1 I of a king, *' a can-ning man, a man who can do it, a king " and a priest unto God and the Father. But not without something to be done on your part. At Chri.^w's command the man with the withered hand stood forth and stretched out his hand. In this obe- dience there was a more or less conscious consecration of himself to the will of Christ. The hand was given up to Christ for Him to do what He would wi*'.i it. And in the instant he Telt the power of liod throbbing in the shrivelled hand ; the life-blood l^egan to pulsate in the shrunken member, its form to dilate, and lo ! the supernatural work was wrought. When Aaron and his sons had the blood of sacrifice applied to the right thumb, which represented the right hand, it implied a solemn oath of consecration of this and all their other members as instruments of righteousness unto God. The hand and every organ and member were devoted to al: the furictions to which the .service of Goii would call them. " Stretch forth thy withered hand," my brother. Say to your Lord : " Take my hand, and let it nove at the impulse of Thy love." That hand, with its four fingors and thumb, reached out in con- secration will be accepted, hallowed, vitalized, and in- vigorated for holy service. But you can never do any- thing effectively till you have caught the spirit of your work, till your hand move at the impulse of Christ's love. When you love Him with all your heart and your neighbour as yourself, you will not stop short with good desires, but will pass on to actual service. For the question is not what we can /^-r/ for Christ and our fellows, but what we can do for them, not how much riir, wrniKUKi) iiano. 59 v e can enjoy in the means of grace, but how much of the mind and heart we can exhibit in our dealings with our fellowmen. Along with your hand give to the Lord your whole being : " Take myself and I wilt be, Ever, only, all for Thee." And as you give yourself up, expect confidently that I le will accept you, and pour into you divine energy and saving power ; and according to your faith it shall be done. Then set to work for Ilim in humble dependence upon His cooperating grace, love, and power, and you shall be able to do all things to which He calls you. Only you must resolutely determine that you will not go about like men with withered hands, without power to serve God and man. We cannot be Christians and live for ourselves. We lose power if we do not use it. We must carry to others who need them the blessings God gives to us. " By love serve one another." Of serving there are multitudinous forms — sickness to soothe, misery to relieve, sins to rebuke, ignorance to instruct. There is work in your own heart, in your own home, in your own neighbourhood, in your own town. Be instant in season and out of season, always abounding in the work of the Lord, so shall you at last win Mis applause, "Well done." It is a striking fact that Christ laid His hands on many to help and to heal them. He touched the leper and healed him. He touched the hand of Peter's mother-in-law, and the fever left her. He laid His hands on the eyes of the blind. He touched the eyes 6o THE WnilKKED HAND. of another and gave him sight. He lifted Peter sinking in the sea, and the little daughter of Jairus. He laid his hands on the woman, bent beneath the burden of her infirmity, and i;he was made straight. We have not His healing power, but it is wonderful what blessings the magic touch of a loving hand may communicate. My Christian brother, your hand touched with the blood of Christ is now a priestly hand. Use it for God. Let it never hold bribes or touch any unclean thing. It is to handle gifts and sacrifices. It is to grasp our fellows and to lift them up. A reformed London criminal as- cribed his reformation to the late Earl of Shaftesbury. When asked what the Earl said to him, he replied, " It was not so much anything he said ; but he took my hand in his and said, ' Jack, we'll make a man of you yet.' It was his touch did it." This fashion of grasping by the hand is very ancient. Said Jehu to Jehonadab : " Is thy heart right with my heart? If it be, give me thine hand." How admirably the hand is fashioned for this very thing! Shake hands with the timid to encourage them ; with the troubled and cheer them vvith your warm-hearted sympathy ; with the stranger within these gates that he may be assured of welcome ; with your friends that you may grip them more closely to you ; and with enemies and defamers that you may by so doing heap coals of fire upon their heads. Let the ushers and officers of the Church and private members shake hands one vvith another, and with everybody else. Give a friendly grasp to everybody in the name of Christ. The consecration of the hand implies the consecra- tion of the tools and implements of one's vocation. THE WrrilEREI) HAND. 6i What is in your hand, Moses ? A rod. See that you wield it only in the service of the Lord, and you shall work many miracles, cleave in twain the waters of the Red Sea, and bring victory to Israel in the fierce con- flict of arms with Amalek. But if you use it otherwise than as He would have you use it, you dishonour Him, and bring upon yourself His great displeasure. What is in your hand, Uavid ? A sling and stone. Whirl it round your head in the name of the Lord, and the whizzing stone shall sink in the forehead of Israel's giant foe. What is in your hand, Dorcas ? A needle. Use it for God and humanity, and many shall arise and call you blessed. m " A servant with this clause makes drudgery divine, Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws, makes that and th' action fine." What is in your hand, writer? A pen. The pen of the accountant, of the poet, of the patriot, how it has served our race, and glorified our God ! " The pen became a clarion," says Longfellow. Take care to use it onlv for God. What is in your hand? Money. "Thoushalt remember the Lord thy God : for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth." There is but one absolute proprietor : we are only stewards. " What hast thou that thou hast not received?" It is a trust committed to your hand by Him who will exact a strict account. Use what you have for the benefit of the poor, of the struggling, of the tempted and tried. Use it for the cause of God. Consecrate everything to Him. " Honour the I-ord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits 62 THE WITHERED HAND. of all thine increase ; so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses burst out with new wine." Arise, O Church, in the name of the living God, whose you are, and give Him all your strength and enthusiasm, and life. Use everything for Him, the fervour of the pulpit, the splendour of music, the sweet- ness of the children, the charms of youth, the wisdom of age, and God will honour you and bless you. Let the spirit of consecration never flag, let it be kept perfect. Then the river which flows from you will never become a pool, never dry up, but carry life and health and gladness to all around you. Keep close to the very heart of Christ, and you shall be able to work. And as long as the day lasts, whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, for soon the busiest hands shall be folded in the repose of death. JESUS CHRIST COME TO CHURCH, OR THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. " Two men went up to the temple to pray : the one a Pharisee and the other a publican " — Luke xviii. lo. This parable was spoken to " certain which trusted in themselves that they were right ous and despised others." Our Lord had noticed in some of His disciples indica- tions of spiritual pride. They trusted in themselves, and not in the grace of God for righteousness, and lifted up in pride they looked down in contempt upon others. How strange that those who called themselves the children of Abraham, of whom it is recorded that he trusted in God for righteousness, could ever come to trust in themselves ! Yet so it was in the days of our Lord ; and so it is to-day, wherever the worship of God becomes a mere matter of form. Let us pray to be saved from the desolating influence of religious formality. It will be worth our while to notice, as we proceed in the discussion of the parable, how faithfully and fear- lessly our Lord spoke out the truth that was in Him, though He knew He would arouse against Himself hatred and opposition, and how admirably, now as always, 64 JESUS CHRIST COiME lO CHURCH. having a distinct aim, He hits the very centre of the target. In a few graphic words our Lord paints the portraits of two men : the one a Pharisee, the other a publican. They were alike in several respects — their nationality was the same ; they worshipped the One God in the same place, and assumed the same attitude in worship. So many are the points of similarity that it seems to be no easy thing to distinguish the one from the other. Yet it is evidently the intention of our Lord to present them in striking contrast. For after all, the points of resemblance are only superficial, which shows us we are not to judge by appearances. Here is a man who ap- pears decorous, devout, reverential, standing as near as he can to where the priests alone may worship, and though he utters words that sound very like true praise yet has no aspiration after God, no holiness of heart. Here is another : not with uplifted hands as the Pharisee, not with eyes turned heavenA\arcl but fixed on the ground, the hot tears streaming from them, beating his breast, and with groans and sighs uttering only, " God be merciful to me a sinner!" But it is enough. He goes down to his house justified rather than the Pha- risee ; for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased ; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Let us consider, then, the points of contrast between these two men, that we may know how to draw near to God, and how not to draw near to Him,. The points of contrast between the two men are their spirit, their prayers, and the treatment they meet with at the hands of God. THE niARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 65 I . The spirit of the two men. Like the sect to which he belonged, the Pharisee loved to be seen of men. He gave alms, but it was to the sound of a trumpet that he might have glory of men, He fasted and prayed, but not for acceptance with God, and the bless- ings of His love, but for the commendation of his fellows, and perhaps that he might the more success- fully carry out his schemes of villainy (Matt. vi. 1-18 ; xxiii. 14). All he did was apparently to be seen of men ; pride and vanity lay at the root of his religion. He went to the temple that men would say .to one another, " How devout he is ! " Had the Temple not been much resorted to, he would have contented himself with worship at the corners of the streets, where he would be sure to be observed by many. His piety was like the brawling mountain brook, which tears its way through the ravine of the mountain, noisily making itself heard and seen of men, but carrying no blessing to the banks of rock and sand between which it passes. See them now in the temple. The Pharisee has often been there ; the publican very rarely. How difTerent they are in their bearing ! The same Greek verb is used to express the attitude of the Pharisee and of the publican. And yet there is a difference : in the former case the participle has a middle force and expresses great assurance, not that he struck an attitude, but that he " took his position ; " while the publican simply stood " in no studied place or posture." The Pharisee assumes his proper position with " upper life state." He draws as closely as he can to the court of the priests. But the publican stands afar off, as if he would hide himself > in 66 JESUS CHRIST COME TO CHURCH. from the eye and ear of man behind some pillar of the Temple. Not with uplifted hands as the Pharisee, not with eyes directed to heaven, but cast down to the ground in the natural expression of shame and humiliation, while he smites his breast in self-accusation. It is not that he feels himself degraded as a publican in the eyes of the Pharisee. It is that he has been met by the Spirit of the Lord, and has been made to think of his crooked ways, how he has often oppressed the poor by severe exactions, and robbed the widow and the fatherless. For some time he has had no rest day nor night under the burden of his sin. But holy memories of his father's home visit him, and he bethinks himself of the Temple and the daily sacrifice. And here he stands a guilty wretch, filled with shame and remorse, not daring to lift his eyes to heaven. l^efore us are these two men, photographed for the race to look at to the end of time. Not merely do we see them as they outwardly appeared to the eyes of men. The Rontgen rays have pierced to their very hearts and disclosed to us the inner man. Are we in danger of being like the Pharisee ? Is our worship only pompous display and ostentation ? Are we here that we may be seen of men ? Oh may He, with whom we have to do, tear away the veil from our hearts, and let us see our- selves as we are seen by the pure eyes of heaven ! Then shall we quickly hasten from the side of the Pharisee and range ourselves by the side of the publican, albeit we shall be covered with shame and confusion of face. Notice, further, that self-satisfaction characterizes the one ; self-abasement the other. The Pharisee sees THE rHARISPIE AND THE rum.ICAN. ^7 nothing in himself to blame. He acknowledges no sin. He has no rezison to beat his breast or cast down his eyes. His mouth is filled with great swelling words of pride, coming from the abundance of a heart inflated with pride. The Lord does not call in question the truthfulness of his statement ; nor should we. He prays thus with himself. He says " God ; " he means himself. It is a case of Narcissus admiring his own perfections. Much that passes as prayer to God is only talking to one's self. Even if we do not render the passage, he " stood by himself and prayed thus," but he " stood and prayed thus with himself," we must remember that he is a Pharisee, which means " one who separates himself " from what is ceremonially unclean. And in his address he says, " I am not as other men are." He divides the human family into two classes : in the one class he stands alone ; in the other all the rest of the race. In the Jewish Talmud there are three benedictions whi( h the Jews were expected to repeat every day. " Blessed be thou, O God, ^vliQ hast not made me one of tlie ignorant. Blessed be thou, O God, who hast not made me a Gentile. Blessed be thou, O God, who hast not made me a woman." Women replaced the last benediction with " Blessed be thou, O God, who hast made me according to Thy will." But this Pharisee separates himself not only from the ignorant, the Gentile, and the woman, but from all his fellows. Society is made up of extortioners, unjust, adulterers, but he is siii ^mris, a class by himself ; he is not even like this contemptible publican, on whom his eyes happen to fall, whom as one well remarks " he drags into his prayer, making him ! 68 JESUS CHRISr COME TO CHURCH. supply the dark back-ground on which the bright colours of his own virtues shall more gloriously appear." As regards the duties which he owes to his fellow men he is without a spot. To be sure it never occurs to him that he ought to have been eyes to the blind and feet to the lame, that he should have been a father to the fatherless and a friend to the widow. Alas, with the Holy Scripture in his hands and texts of Scripture sewn on his dress, he seems to have but little idea of his duty to his neighbour. And as to the duties he owes to God, how faithful he has been ! He tells the Lord that he fasts twice in the week. According to the Mosaic law but one day in the year was appointed for fasting, that is to say he is one hundred times more strict in this respect than the law required. But the fasts which afflicted his body serve merely to inflate his soul with pride. He gives tithes, too, of all that he acquires. The law required only the tithe of the fruit of the field and the produce of the cattle; but he, righteous man, tithes mint and cummin and whatever else, even the smallest thing that comes into his posses- sion. He owes no rnan a cent, not even love, and as to God he is acting in such a manner as to make Him his debtor. Poor fool, not knowing that fasting was meant to afflict the soul, and to bring it into a condition of contrition before God, and that tithes were required by God in order to produce in men the sense that they are tenants on God's estate, and pensioners on His bounty, he makes what should have humbled him into the dust foster arrogance and pride. Why should he dread, he thinks, the judgment day, who had so rilE rilARISKE AND THE rUHLTCAN. 69 borne himself towards God as to have when the balance- sheet is struck a balance in his favour? Alas, how little he knows hirriself ! To him and to the many who are thus deceived we may apply the words of our Lord : " Thou sayest I am rich, and increased in goods, and have need of nothing ; and knowest not that thou art poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked." How un- seemly the sneer of such a man at the poor publican, who is just in the act of passing through the strait gate into the narrow way that leadeth unto life ! While the angels are singing songs of gladness over his re- pentance, who is now rich in faith and an heir of the Kingdom, this sanctimonious hypocrite is pouring upon him his unmeasured scorn. It is a relief to turn to the Publican. The Pharisee who introduces him into his prayer as a foil to set off to greater advantage his own virtues, himself becomes the dark back-ground, on which the profound humility of the publican shines with brighter lustre. He stands afar off, yet not afar from God, as Augustine says, for the Lord is nii^h unto all that call upon Him in truth. He feels himself unworthy to enter the house of God, for he fears that his presence will pollute the place of the holy. He seems to say, " I am not worthy to be called Thy son." Blessed are the poor in spirit ! He " would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven," though his thoughts and prayers are directed thither. With the Psalmist he says, " My sins have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up." For he has come to feel the Divine purity. With Job he says, " I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the 70 JESUS CHRIST COME TO CHURCH. ear, but now mine e>e seeth Thee, wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." He had deeply- offended God. He had injured himself and his fellows. And in a sense of uttei sinfulness and d )lation, he ** smites upon his breast." Thus do ;s he express his profound sorrow for sin. The heart that he smites is full of it ; it is a den of vipers and a nest of unclean birds. His life has been vile, but the h^^art that he smites is the fountain from which the pollution has flowed. Were justice dealt out to him, heavier blows by far would fall not upon his body, but upon his guilty soul. His iniquities, which have taken hold upon him, are more in number than the hairs of his head. His case is des- perate. And the blows that he inflicts upon himself are so many prayers to God for pardon and heart- renewal. How wonderful the contrast between these two men ! Is there such a contrast between any two men here to- day ? Our Lord Jesus lias come to church this morning, and He is searching is as ikeenly as He did these two. What does He find In us? Is our spirit that of the Pharisee or of the publican ? Pride repels and scorns those who occupy lower places, builds her nest in some cold and lofty summit, and isolates herself alike from the love of God and man ; while humility finds the one and only gate that leads to peace of mind, the love of God and man, and the joys and honours of heaven. How does the Lord regard us this morning ? It is well worth our while to enquire. 2. The devotions of the two men. In the one, there is a pretence of gratitude ; in the other, the spirit of deep ■w '11 IE rilARISEE AND HIE FUHIJCAN. 71 reverence and true prayci . Ihe Pharisee offers no prayer ; he neither confesses sin nor asks for pardon. He prays with himself, says our Lord. He says, " God, I thank Thee," We ought indeed to thank God. It is of His mercies that we are not consumed, and because His compassions fail not. Ho might have said, " 1 thank Thee that I am not in hell, that Thou hast kept me from outrageous and outbreaking sin." It is, moreover, our duty and privilege to thank God we are not as some other men are, crippled, ignorant, idiotic, or criminals. Right for you, sister, to thank God that you are not among the lost women that curse our cities. But to thank God that we are not as others, and to draw con- temptuous comparisons between ourselves and them is to glorify ourselves while professing to worship God. He concludes that he is very good by judging all others to be very bad. To thank God we are not as the un- fortunate or the wicked in the spirit of pity is good. The worst are members of the same great family to which we all belong. All are corrupt before God and equally helpless and hopeless. No one h is anything which he has not received. Daily must the holiest say, " Oh to grace how great a debtor ! " Only for grace the saintliest would be among the most abandoned. All need to be washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. But the Pharisee has no sense of his need of grace. And his prayer is no prayer to God ; it is a bit of self-communing. The Positivist worships collective humanity, but the Pharisee worships himself. His language is that of self-glorification, s6lf-worship. And he has no doubt but that he will have the approval of 72 JESUS CHRIST COME TO CHURCH. C . But how are we able to pronounce so positively on this point ? Confessedly we cannot read hearts. Professional mind-readers have not our implicit con- fidence, when they attempt to read motives. We know, because the Lord was in His holy temple, searching the hearts and trying the reins of the children of men. He is here to-day, searching and trying us, and seeing if there be any evil way in us. Does he see in you the self-deception and hypocrisy of the Pharisee ? In contrast with all this is the prayer of the publican. I have already said that he stands afar off, that he cannot draw near to God, that he cannot thank God for virtues, for he has none, that he cannot lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, and that he can only smite upon his breast. Here are awe, reverence, and penitence. Now let us look at his prayer : " God be merciful to me a sinner." It is a cry dc proftindis. It is the major part of the 130th Psalm epitomized. "Out of the depths do I cry unto Tiiee, O Lord." What a prayer, how brief and simple ! Thus men cry in time of ex- tremity. So Peter when sinking in the waves : " I-ord, save, I perish." So the Syro-Phoenician : " Lord, help me." The Pharisee thought of other men, and of this publican, not to pray for them, but to contrast himself with them, to his own great advantage. The publican thinks only of himself and God — himself and his sin, God and His mercy, The definite article before the word " sinner " — which however does not appear in our version — shows not only that he acknowledges himself to be a sinner, but seems to point to what the Pharisee had just said : " I am not as other men are, or even as Ill v. riiARisi:i: and riii: tudlican. 73 this publican." It would seem as if the publican has heard these words and accepts the Pharisee's disparaging estimate. It is as if he says: " Ves ; he is right. He may indeed be thankful that he is not like me. Can it be that God will have mercy on such a sinner as I am ?" Our Lord does not intimate that he was not a great sinner. He probably was. The Pharisee regarded him- self as the holiest. The publican looked at himself as the worst of men. So when fully convinced of sin, we feel that no others' sins can equal ours in heinousness. An illustration in point comes from a land, to which our attention has been recently drawn. A Hottentot in Southern Africa lived with a pious Dutchman, in whose house prayer was engaged in daily. One day the master read (Luke xviii), " Two men went up into the temple to pray." The poor black man, whose heart was already awakened, looked earnestly at the reader, and whispered ; " Now I'll learn how to pray." The Dutchman read on : " God, I thank thee that I am not as other men." " No, I am not, but I am worse," whispered the Hottentot. Again the Dutchman read : " I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess." " No ; I don't do that. I don't pray in that manner. What shall I do ?" said he. The good man read on until he came to the publican, who " would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven." " That's me !" cried the hearer. The farmer went on with his read- ing : " Stood afar off." " That's where I am," said the Hottentot. " But smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner." " That's me ! that's my prayer !" cried the poor creature. And, smiting on 74 JESUS CHRIST COME TO CHURCH. his breast, he prayed, " God be merciful to me a sinner," until, nice the poor publican, he went down to his house a saved and happy man. Mor' aver, the prayer was probably offered at the time of the daily sacrifice. Hence the expression — Wtadi^Ti p^oc — be propitious to me through sacrifice. For this word implies not reconciliation merely, but reconciliation throusfh sacrifice — a distinct reference to the doctrine of atonement. Like righteous Abel, the publican knew that without shedding of blood there is no remission. The appeal is to mercy, not to justice. There is no hope for a sinner apart from the cross of Christ. When you pray for mercy, let it be for the sake of Christ : Christ in Gethsemane, sweating great drops of blood ; Christ on the cross, bleeding, dying, our great accepted sacrifice. A very appropriate prayer, you will say, for the publi- can, for a murderer or any great sinner, but scarcely for me, who am moral and correct and reverent. Nay, my friend, whatever your position miay be, however highly esteemed among men, however free from gross sin you may be, you father or mother, you man of business, you child in a pious home, it is a prayer for you all. Archbishop Ussher often said he hoped to die with this prayer on his lips. His last words were, "God be merciful to me a sinner." " There is no difference," says Paul, between the most moral and most immoral, between the greatest saint and the greatest sinner ; all alike must be saved by the same boundless grace, washed in the same precious blood of Christ. We have only to know ourselves to know that this is true. Oh, let us pray I THE PHARISEE AND THE rUHLICAN. 75 this prn.yei*, you and I, over and over ^.jraia til! we feel our sins, pleading with sobs and cries and groans, our eyes melting with tears, our cries rending the heavens. It may be a comfort to know that the more your prayers are weighed down with sorrow for sin, the more accep- table your person and your prayers will be to God, who desires truth in the inward parts. Oh pray, ye children, that you may never lose a tender conscience, a power of instant recoil from temptation, or, if you have fallen into sin, that you may promptly return, wounded and penitent, to the feet of God. 3. TJic treatment the tzuo men received at the hands of God. The one \^2& justified ; the other was rejected. It is a good thing to go to the House of God, if you go to worship. It is like a river of water in a dry place, or the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Many derive no benefit from it, but it is because they are not seeking God. One may have the rarest privileges, and yet lose hi? soul. Archbishop Trench relates a Persian parable. In the Bustan of the famous Persian poet Saadi, is the following story which seems an echo of the evangelical history. Jesus, while on earth, was once entertained in the cell of a monk of eminent reputation for sanctity. In the same city dwelt a youth sunk in every sin, " whose heart was so black that Satan him- self shrank back from it in horror." This youth presently appeared before the cell of the monk, and, as if smitten by the very presence of the divine prophet, began to lament with tears the sins of his past life, and to implore pardon and grace. The monk indignantly interrupted him, demanding how he dared to appear in his presence ye JESUS CIIRISI- COME TO CHURCH. and in that of God's holy prophet, assured him that for him it was vain to seek forgiveness, and in proof how inexorably he considered his lot was fixed for hell, ex- claimed, " My God, grant me but one thing, that I may stand far from this man on the judgment day." On this Jesus spoke, " It shall be even so : the prayer of both is granted. This sinner has sought mercy and grace, and has not sought them in vain — his sins are forgiven — his place shall be in Paradise at the last day. But this monk has prayed that he may never stand near this sinner — this prayer too is granted : hell shall be his place ; for there this sinner shall never come." The prayer of the Pharisee, an abomination to Deity, and an outrage upon humanity, " is blown back like smoke into his own eyes," or, if answered, is answered like the prayer of the monk in that he goes down to his home as self-satisfied, cold and hard as ever. But the prayer of the publican, attended as it is with con- fession of sin, an appeal to God's mercy, and a trust in the appointed sacrifice, rises like a cloud of incense toward the sky, a sacrifice of sweet savour unto God. He goes down to his home justified rather than the other. The Greek woi d here used is the one that Paul takes to express the great doctrine of justification by faith in Christ. His relation to God, in the instant of the offer- ing of the prayer in humiliation and faith, is changed. I do not say that he is instantly acquainted with the fact. He may return home still brooding over his own sin, the storm passed indeed but the great ground-swell still rolling heavily ; while the Pharisee, who counts himself a just man, may leave the temple with not the ^N iiiE piiarisep: and the pubi.ican. 77 slightest suspicion that he has been pronounced in th'e secret counsels of heaven an unrighteous man. The man who beats his breast, and casts down his eyes, and con- fesses himself the sinner, the chief oi sinners, is evidently- passing through an agonizing spiritual struggle, which will perhaps for a while darlcen the heavens with clouds and turn sweetest music into discord. But when he comes to know his acceptance, who shall describe his joy? Who can describe the joy of the captive who, from the darkness and filth of a noisome dungeon, goes forth to liberty and home ? Sun never shone with such a lustre, birds never sang so blithely, flowers never bloomed so sweetly, as when he walks forth acquitted and justified by the law of the land. How much deeper the joy of the publican who ]<:nows he is justified ! " Tongue cannot express the sweet rapture and peace Of a soul in its earliest love." But whether he knows it instantly or not, the record is made in heaven : " This my son was dead, but is alive again ; he was lost, but is found." And may this great change pass upon us, who are aliens, and strangers, and enemies ? Yes ; and to-day. In the long history of souls from the time of Abel till to-day, such a prayer as that of the publican, offered in a lil-ce spirit, has never been unanswered. You may have come to this house all stained with leprous sins, and go home saved and healed. Only honestly and heartily confess your sin, implore grace to forsake it, believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart and you shall be absolved and saved. Come then at once to 78 JESUS CHRIST COATE TO CHURCH. Christ. Offer this prayer. Do it with all your heart, and " Though your sins as mountains rise, And sw ell and reach to heaven ; Yet mercy is above the skies, And you shall be forgiven. " You may deem yourself the worst of sinners ; you may think your case is hopeless ; but if you will breathe this prayer to Him who loves you, and longs to save you, you will find it is not in vain. He will save you from the uttermost, and in good time to the uttermost. Briefly let me little more than mention three lessons. I. Sclf-rigJUcoiisncs& is iinrti^-htcoiisncss. What if the Pharisee were socially free from sin and crime, and punctilious in his religious life, as he declared in his prayer he was, and Christ does not hint that he was not, he has nothing whereof to glory and nothing wherein to trust. Alas, he does boast of these things, and trusts in them for justification before God. At the best his virtues were negative. Abstinence from wrong is not rectitude. And his ceremonial observances apart from the true spirit were sins. To do right in a wrong spirit is unrighteousness, as the Searcher of hearts adjudges. Let us pray, "Enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified." And leaving the Pharisee to offer up hrs unseemly prayer, and sink into the destruction which pride prepares for him, let us take our stand with the publican, join with him in his earnest prayer, and with him find our way " To the mount above Through the low vale of humble love." ' THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 79 2. To judge of ow'sclvcs by others is unsafe. Paul tells us that they who measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves among themselves are not wise. Thus the Pharisee did, and how he erred ! He saw in himself what he deemed excellencies that others had not. His standard was low. No man is a suitable standard for another. God's requirement is not, " Be as good as the best man you know." But it is, " Be ye perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." If we want to know ourselves as we are, let us measure ourselves by our great Exemplar, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. The thing we most need is pardon and purity. Not till we have measured ourselves by Him shall we be filled with self-despair, and be driven to betake ourselves to the mercy of God. 3. The all-seeing Rye regards closely every luor ship- per None can escape His scrutiny. He sees not as men see. He looks past our dress, our professions, our prayers ; He searcheth the heart and trieth the reins of the children of men. Later he told the Pharisees that they were whited sepulchres, fair without but full within of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. There is no error in His judgment, no appeal from His decision. It is not well to tell God you are better than other men, mentioning any — even the most disreputable man. He may see that the poor fellow whom you scorn has fought more bravely for righteousness than you have ever done, but because of an inheritance of evil passions, and an organization so ill-balanced that he had no strength to resist enticements to sin, has fallen a prey to \ 8o JtSUS CHRIST CO.ME TO CHURCH. his enemies ; but in God's sight he may be a better man than you. Let us rather take part with the publican, like Grotius, who when dying was reminded by a clergyman of the prayer of the publican by which he obtained justification before God. The great theologian made answer, " I am that publican," and died. Be of the same mind and go home justified. For while the Lord uttered this parable, as the evangelist tells us, to rebuke the spirit of self -righteousness, without doubt He had in view also the gracious purpose of encouraging the sinner, in all lands and ages, to cast himself in penitence on the mercy of God, who will not break the bruised reed, or quench the smoking flax. Here in this touching parable is a gospel for trembling, dejected, broken-hearted ones, who are in danger of despairing of the grace of God. " Him that cometh unto me, 1 will in no wise — no matter how sinful and polluted, no matter how long given over to sin — I will in no wise cast out." r THE DANGERS OF YOUNG MEN. " My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not." Prov. i. lo. Youth is the time of special danger. Then it is that passions are strongest and call most loudly for indulgence. It is the time, too, of fewest cares and anxieties, and hence most open to temptation. In considering the dangers of young men we . must take into account the causes of these dangers as well as the persons in peril. The magnetic rocks would have been no peril to the vessel, but for the iron in her hull, which responded so promptly and so powerfully to their attractive influence. We have to do with a great adversary, who with infinite cunning and tact adapts the outward temptation to our inward aptitudes, limited experience and infirm principles. We have, therefore, far more to fear from the one inward traitor than from the serried ranks and marshalled hosts of the most powerful enemy that can approach us from without. Gibraltar, perhaps, could hold in check all the Powers of Europe, but it would be powerless to resist a contemptible force, if the ganison were tampered with and should prove disloyal. Let me shew you a few of the dangers of young men and the ruin they work, that you may be deterred from following to the doom of the lost. 82 THE DANGERS OF YOUNG MEN. I. Pride and Vanity. There is a distinction between them. Vanity is an inferior vice to pride. Vanity is a suppliant for the praise of others ; but pride disdains the praise of others, and rests back on its complacent consciousness of its own excellency. In either case impious self is sitting on God's throne and claiming the honour and glory due to Him alone ; in either case they are to themselves the centres of creation. Full of self-confidence like Rehoboam, the young man often sees no need for human counsel, divine guidance, or heavenly help, chooses companions from among the light and frivolous, disregards prayer, neglects the oracles of truth, and follows whither his instincts may lead him. When young men are just passing to self-government from subordination to parental rule, before they have received many checks from the rebukes of adversity or from the demonstra- tions of their own folly, they are apt to set aside experience and laugh to scorn the wise counsels and kind remonstrances of those who would fain see them well started in life. They are impatient of restraint. They know far more than their parents, or rather, they think they do. They have caught the vision and the spirit of a brighter time. So it has been with most of us seniors, I dare say. At that stage of transition we most likely behaved very foolishly, much to the discomfort of friends and the disgust of the wise. And if, after a little eccentricity of folly, we passed that experience safely and addressed ourselves to our life-work with some sense of our own insignificance and of the value of experience, it has been an unspeakable mercy. lg > I M ,M.Y. 14SI0 (7U)tn-4903 v\ % ^'*^ 86 THE DANGERS OF YOUNG MEN. the guest of distinguished public men, am lost, and all through bad company." Against such company you have been warned. Because of their disregard of such warnings, thousands have perished. It is, of course, one thing to be with bad men by chance, or for business purposes, and quite another to choose them as friends. It is a bad sign when the young man prefers for his friends the immoral and the profane, the Sabbath-breaker, the impure, and the scoffer, to the virtuous and the Christian. It is a proof that he is partaking of their spirit. His spirit determines his choice of company, and the company he chooses will confirm and establish his character in evil. And oh, the mischief that must ensue from an unhappy selection of friends I It is sometimes, however, a mis- take rather than a proof of deliberate wickedness. The youth feels the force of ripening passions. Me is full of trust in the honour of others. He has not, perhaps, the kindlj' influence of judicious friends, who would draw him to virtue by the cords of love. He is to be pitied because for the sake of gratifying his lusts he betakes himself to unworthy companionship. He is to be blamed because, knowing full well that he cannot touch pitch without defilement, he yet believes that he is a match for Satan's cunning emissaries. He has been led to the doors of the drinking saloon, of the strange woman, of the gambling hell, and has been shown the multitudes, now wretched, despairing, lost, who went in, all unsuspicious of evil, and have been swallowed up and destroyed, and yet he has ventured in. How long does it take to switch off to a wrong t THE DANGERS OF YOUNG MEN. 87 track the locomotive, which, once started on the down grade will" run more and more swiftly to destruction ! " What is the harm," says one, " of an innocent game of cards ? " " What is the harm of an occasional glass ? " " Why should we not see a little of life while we are young ? " Multitudes have thus asked, and they have taken the first glass and many more besides, and the habit is fixed, a dreadful tyrant, lording il over them with despotic sway. They have played the first game of cards, and have ventured into places of which they have heard that they who go in go in to be stripped and ruined, and it fares with them as with those who ventured before. Oh, the thousands that have been warned by their parents, by their con- sciences, by lurid anticipations of retribution, and yet go on and on, and are destroyed ! How many has the devil got upon his inclined plane, down which with cunning art he contrives to draw them — bad com- panions, disobedience to parents, late houi-s, drinking, gambling, bad women, lost character, lost reputation, shamelessness, crime ; and before half their days are ended the terrible tragedy is enacted and the curtain falls ! And of those who are not utterly ruined, how many are terribly injured : scarred, scathed, blighted, broken down by disease, — saved, perhaps, from hell, but saved only as by fire. A muddy stream and a clear sparkling one, flowing together in the same channel, keep separate for a little, each on its own side, but a little farther down they mingle and are alike impure. So it is with an innocent youth associating with the vile — for awhile he is chaste 88 THE DANGERS OF YOUNG MEN. and pure ; presently he becomes defiled. In the selection of a place for a home, remember the history of Lot, and have an eye to morality and relijjion first of all, maKinjj pecuniary consideration of secondary importance ; for money will afford no compensation for the evil of being brought constantly under a polluting influence. Be careful as to your boarding place. There are Christian women who keep boarding-houses, and who will with motherly solicitude be concerned for you as for their own sons. There are others who are anxious only to make money. Having secured a good home, live in it as if the million-eyed world were ever regarding you. Then as to your friends, I implore you, choose them with the greatest care. As one has well said, " God keeps the lightnings of heaven in his own scabbard, which He only can wield. But He gives to every innocent and ingenu- ous youth the lightning of an honest eye." If one tempt you to evil, give him a look which will make the wretch crouch and grovel at your feet. Surround yourself with Christian influences. Find your way into the Church. Above all, accept the proffered friendship of Christ. He is the friend that sticketh closer than a brother. You will find Him " a friend in need, a friend indeed." Companionship with Him will refine and elevate your character above the power of words to tell, and impart to you a sweetness in the esteem of higher worlds. " A Persian fable says • One day A wanderer found a lump of clay, So redolent of sweet perfume. Its odours scented all the room. * What are thou ? ' was his quick demand, ' Art thou some gum from Samarcand ? i THE DANCERS OF YOUNG MEN. 89 Or spikenard in a rude disguise ? Or other costly merchandise ? ' * Nay, I am but a lump of day.' * Then whence this wondrous sweetness, say ? ' ' Friend, if the secret I disclose, I have been dwelling with the rose.' Meet parable ! fur will not those Who love to dwell with Sharon's rose Distil sweet scent on all around, Though poor and mean themselves be found ? Good Lord ! abide with us that we May catch these these odours fresh from Thee." 3. Had Hooks. This is one of the very wide gates that lead to hell. A prosperous family in New York fell into ruin through the misdeeds of one of its members. The amazed mother said to the officer of the law : " Why, I never supposed there was anything wrong. 1 never dreamed there could be anything ; " but after she had gone, he said, " I found a bad book. That's what slew her ! " There are books more or less avowedly infidel, from the sophistries of Huine down to the ribaldry of Paine ; from the scepticism of certain scientists down to the low, ignorant abuse of religion to be found in the tracts which flood the West with their pestilential showers. They aim to produce doubt and disbelief. No man enters eternity an infidel. Beware of them. There are some books of mere fiction and fancy, which are of great moral value ; but there are many others the effects of which are to produce false views of human nature, disappointment in actual life, and a disrelish for simple truth ; to make reading of the Bible and other books requiring thought irksome ; to "J^] 90 THE DANGERS OF YG jNG MEN. belittle the intellect ; to degrade the soul ; to impair the influence of the pulpit ; and to grieve and quench the Spirit of God. 13cware of them. There are foul and exciting romances. Their tone is low, their taste coarse, their colouring voluptuous, their morality unsound. Licentious scenes and obscene imagery are unblushingly introduced, and suggestions made which are revolting to the refined and pure. But often this kind of sensational literature, embellished with engravings worthy of the greatest masters, and purified of excessive grossness, is still insidious and fascinating, and none the less demoralizing. And on this pestilential and deadly literature thousands feed with voracious appetite. " Every person," says Lord Macaulay, " knows that whatever is constantly present- ed to the imagination in connection with what is attractive, will itself become attractive." What then must be the influence of such works of fiction ? Of all such works beware. Tliere is a depth lower still, to which \'ou would scarcely believe that any vtan could descend. But this is, par excellence, Satanic literature, and the object of such writing and illustration is three-fold : to resolve the sacred relation of husband and wife into a ques- tion of convenience and merchandise ; to stimulate a diseased and morbid curiosity by depicting any incident of daily life which can be made the vehicle of prurient thought or immoral suggestion ; and to represent every act of crime, even the darkest and vilest deeds, as dramatic, chivalrous, and heroic, and as lifting the man who perpetrated them above the ordinary level of his THE DANGERS OF YOUNC. MEN. 91 fellow men. There is a " gallows literature " which depicts in glowing language the lives of murderers, banditti, and other malefactors of every type and shade. Do not touch the polluting stuff. Why should you forsake the living waters for such corrupting streams ? Why wallow in mire in the hope that you may after- ward be cleansed ? Tell me, what sin is equal to that of sinning because of the abundance of grace ? Cultivate a love for good books. Read only what will at once instruct, elevate and inspire. A certain great man attributes his success to three things : love of good books, early marriage with a virtuous woman, and early conversion to God. Beware of all bad books, for by reading them you will gain nothing helpful to your intellect or purifying to your heart. Beware of them, because your example is influential, and l^ecause such books are terribly destructive for time and eternity. 4. Si'fisitti/ Indulgence, The Lord Jesus is not a hard master. He asks us to give up only those pleasures which injure us, which war against the soul. They are the pleasures of sin, incomparably lower than those of virtue and religion. Fenelon in his Adventures of Telemach, the son of Ulysses, makes the m.entor say : " Shipwreck- and death are less dangerous then the vices which assail xirtue." When lofty aims are lowered, the enjoyments of the soul become sensual. Under one pretence or another, men betake themselves to intoxicating liquors. They are in trouble ; drink will make them forget their trouble. They are lonely ; drink will make them forget their loneliness. And fascinated and blinded, they 92 niE i»a>'*;eks of youno men. cannot bclie\'c that llujr shall ever become drunkarcls. The sentiments of the Kcxy men they see pcrishhig they ivili repeat as to the innocence of an occasional glass, and follow right on in their steps to destruction. Or, perhaps they fall into a class of society where they find it a strong temptation to be ashamed of too rigtd temperance principles, and they give way little by little till all power of resistance is gone. And then comes dependence upon stimulants for ability to do extra work, and after a while even to do ordinary work. When men reach this stage, the>^ are never likely to be reclaimed. A few will be saved, but more will go on to the bitter end. And when once the habit becomes fixed, and the poor slave has caught a glimpse of his prospective ruin, remorse, that cruel bird of prey, with her fearful talons and blc dy beak sei;%s uix)n his soul. And now what shall he do to obtain relief ? Shall he reform? Alas! he has no strength to keep his vow. There is a Saviour ni^htj* to save ; but he will not go to Ilim. There Is, as one has said, another relief to be found ; it is in the insensibility of deejoer potations. And when from these he recovers, remorse takes hold of him again with a firmer and deadlier grip than ever, from which he obtains onlj'^ a temix)rary respite in renewed indu%enoe. And thus ts he (x^rpetually driven from remorse to drunkenness, and from drunkenness to remorse ; but as, with each debauch his manhood is more thoroughly degraded, his ruin more complete, and his prospects more hopeless, his remorse becomes ever darker and more despairing and his drunkenness more dishonouring and disgusting. And the last stage of i THE DANGERS OF YOUNG MEN. 93 that man is a living death, for with a felt conviction of the truthfulness of the awful utterance of Scripture, " no drunkard shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven," he goes on in life looking forward to a fearful judgment, till the grave receives his loathsome body, and hell his ruined soul. " Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching," hundreds of thousands strong each year to drunkards' graves. And as they fall, their ranks are recruited from the lads and r.ien who have been drilling for it. Young man, turn ."xway from the intoxicating cup. The habit grows. Where one glass satisfied you, now perhaps you require two or three. Is it well to run further risk ? I do not say that every man who drinks will be a drunkard. He stands a fair chance of not becoming one if he is selfish, ungenial, cold, and, miserly. But I do say the danger is great for every man who tipples. And as for those who have hereditary predisposition to drink, the risk is so imminent and tremendous that the taste of intoxicating liquors should never be known. There is another form of self-indulgence, fraught with infinite peril to the young man. The pride which will not brook control, and the self-conceit which vainly dreams of security, send many a young man into the house of death. " The lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil, but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, her steps take hold on hell." Her house is the spider's web ; she, the active little spider, and he, the self- confident fly, who has incontinently dropped in. See 94 THE DANGERS OF YOUNG MEN. him presently struggling to get away ; but actively and quickly she throws over him fresh filaments until lie is hopelessly entangled, and finds it is for liim the house of death. Thus many perish. Have you not seen them ? Come, young man, beautiful in your chastity and luddy health, and look on yon cadaverous spectres with lack- lustre eyes and rottenness in their bones. Once they were bright and rosy as you, but alas ! they gave their honour unto others and their years unto the cruel. This is the reason why so many young men leave home strong and vigorous, and come back in a few short years to die, debauched and ruined by intemperance and profligacy. Thus many thousands perish every year. And the slums of the cities, whose reeking and swelter- ing populations die off, a generation of them every few years, are recruited from where ? From the rural dis- tricts. These young men and women, now degraded, came from homes, many of them, happy as yours. Is it not time to check the flood of human iniquity which is destroying many among you, and threatens to destroy many more ? For it is not merely ene.gy and life that are wasted ; souls are lost. If all the literature and all the treasures of art in the world were destroyed, this would be a dreadful calamity. But the books might be re-written, and the treasures of art replaced by man. But not all the churches or other organizations can save a lost soul. Nay, it is impossible even to the Almighty. The lost Pleiad, God may restore ; the ships that have foundered at sea, God can find : the lost arts, God has not lost ; but the lost soul (with reverence be it said), God cannot save. Once lost, it is lost forever. THE DANGERS OF YOUNG MEN. 95 Be not wise in your own conceit. Take advice from one who has seen much of the ruin wrought by this vice, and beware of the very beginning. This is the sin that takes away the heart, that leaves deep scars in the soul, that slays its multitudes, that has overthrown many a saint, that the God of holiness greatly abhors. Don't let this thin edge of the wedge find entrance, because it is the beginning of the end. Keep yourself in absolute chastity for the pure maiden whom God will give you in holy wedlock. As Miss Willard says," " A white life for two." Flee the occasions of this sin. Never talk of it ; never allow your mind to think upon it. Show that you have that which separates men from worms — backbone. Be resolute here. When tempted to the first sin, let your answer be a thundering, decisive "No." But if you find yourself borne away by the power of temptation, what then ? Is there no hope ? See yon teeble young man in his chariot, with a strong man as charioteer, and powerful horses driving swiftly down a pleasing slope towards a fearful precipice. At last he wakes up to his danger, commands the driver to turn about, and attempts to seize the reins, but all to no purpose. The charioteer lashes the steeds to fury, and down they rush with the speed of a hurricane to awful ruin. This is a picture of yourself, my friend. The horses are your passions ; the charioteer is Satan ; the young man, feeble and protesting, is your soul. What should you do? Cry aloud to Christ, and swift as lightning on wings of love He will fly to your relief. He will smite down the charioteer ; He will seize the 96 THE DANGERS OF YOUNO MEN. reins ; by His grace He will control the flying coursers, and guide them into the path of the Divine con^mand- nients and up to the gates of heaven. Satan wants to destroy you ; Christ longs to siive you. Which shall have his way ? Dante in his vision of hell sees one whom he does not name, but who, he says, made " the great refusal." Oh, be persuaded not to reject Christ's overtures of love ! N THE DETECTION OF SIN. " Be sure your bin will find you out." Numbers xxxii. 23. These words were spoken by Moses to the two tribes of Reuben and Gad to deter them from violating an engagcnjent into which they had voluntarily entered. They embody an important principle of the government of God, There aie state reasons for the exposu. .* of sin — reasons which have to do with God, and reasons which have to d'^ with man. For the vindication of the divine government and glory, for the sake of human safety and the conservation of human government, it is needful that sin should not lie long concealed. By the exposure of sin and its punishment Godstiives to educe from evil as much good as possible for the rest of the race. It is not for his sake alone that the thief and the murderer are detected and punished. Out of the wreck of eveiy wicked man, upon the very reefs where he was ruined, God builds a lighthouse to warn others from following to the same destruction. It may be relied on as the ordination of heaven that the ofTcndcr's sin will surely find him out. But as all sins arc not fully brought to light in this life, God has post- poned the judgment of each individual to the day of doom, when all mankind shall stand before the in- exorable throne. mm 98 THE DETECTION OF SIN. The detection of sin is our theme. i. T/ie contrivances of Providence for bringing to light the hidden things of darkness are manifold. Many of the inventions of this century have increased the machinery for bringing criminals to justice. Tiiey are a part of the plan of Providence for this end. The electric telegraph has done admirable service in this regard, and the submarine cables have enabled justice to lay her strong hand upon the runaway rascal, bank- defaulter, railway-embezzler, or other criminal, who had hoped to escape on the swift ocean steamer before tidings of his crime could overtake him. The megascope^ an instrument which produces enlarged copies of hand- writing more reliably than the most skilful expert, will reveal to the jury evidence that cannot be gainsayed of counterfeit bank notes, or of forgery, or of any altera- tion in a document. Edison is able to throw an electric current fully 50ft. through the air from one conductor to another, and thus transmit messages from and to a raih^ay train when moving, say, at the rate of forty miles an hour. " Should a criminal be supposed to have started by such and such a train, not only is it possible to transmit a full description of his i^erson to the con- ductor of the moving train, but also, if he is caught, notice can be transmitted to the next station to have the necessary officers ready to seize him, when the train enters the station." The photographic instrument is of use in the detection of crime in various ways — of which this is one : the picture of the rogue greatly assists the detective in his arrest. Notice what a detec- tive the microscope is. A man is murdered. An axe in i. - THE DETECTION OF SIN. 99 is found stained with 'blood. It is contended by the defence that the blood is that of a sheep, but the microscope shows that the corpuscles in that blood are those of a human being. Years ago a railway company in Germany found that a barrel of silver coin had somewhere between two distant stations ^been emp- tied of silver and filled with^sand. For some time no clue to the robber could be discovered. At la^t a learned professor was called in, who sent for samples of sand from each of the intermediate stations ; and then placing them under a microscope, was able by comparing them with the sand found in the barrel to identify the station at which the barrel had been filled. Little difficulty remained, for the servants at that station were so few that the culprit was readily detected. These ad- mirable inventions of genius may not perhaps elevate the moral tone of society. They may not produce a love of morality, but they will unquestionably assist in the detection of crime, and restrain many from immora- lity. But we are not 3hut up to these methods of detec- tion. It seems as if a fatality follows in the footsteps of the thief, the murderer, and such like criminals. So that though a man be able by a vast pair of wiiiskers and an ample moustache to hide such signs of guilt as the countenance may express, though he mask himself behind a decent and plausible exterior, though he be ever so careful to guard against detection, it is very seldom that he succeeds long in concealing his crime from the keen eyes of the curious and suspicious. Sometimes he is discovered in the act, or blood is found upon him, or certain properties of the deceased are seen lOO THE DETEC riON OF SIN. in his possession, or his shoe answers to the print in the soil, or false keys are found in his possession, or his victim is not quite dead, or an accomplice turns in- former, or his own subsequent conduct, when deserted by his usual prudence, turns Queen's evidence agrinst him. Very cunningly planned was the scheme to sell Joseph into Egypt. Well kept was the secret for many a year. But at last it suddenly came out and Jacob knew what his sons had done. " Murder will out," and so will other crimes. Saul was sent to destroy the Ama'/ekites and all their sheep and oxen ; but he spared the best of the sheep and the oxen. And when God sent Samuel to him, he told Samuel a lie (i Sam. XV. 1 3), when lo ! the sheep began to bleat and the oxen to bellow. Iniquity cannot be concealed. Sometimes as in the case of Jonah and Achan the community is visited for the sin of one, and when inquiry is made of the Lord as to the cause of His displeasure, it is made known, and Achan is stoned to death and Jonah pitched over the ship's side into the raging deep. Sometimes strange suspicions get into people's minds ; they become inquisitive ; and institute post-mortem examinations which tc il the tale of guilt ; they join together circumstances, each of which though apparently insignificant in itself is a link in a chain of circumstantial evidence, which binds fast the criminal to his crime. The merchant watches his till more carefully, and studies his books more closely; the deficit is observed and the culprit brought to justice. Sometimes his sin will haunt a man day and night like a ghost till, well nigh driven to despair, he is VSB THE DETECTION OF SIN. lOI compelled to make some kind of confession. It is related of an old pirate who had spent his manhood upon the ocean and had retired before the gallows had its due, that to relieve his troubled conscience without criminating himself he used to tell the horrid events of his own life, when his brows would knit, his eyes flash and his old spirit seem to return, his listeners in the meanwhile cower- ing with dread, breathless with terror, their lips white and trembling. But never quite forgetting himself as he lived over again the bloody scenes of earlier days, and not altogether carried away by his impetuous feelings, he always attributed them to some daring freebooter who even then was scouring the seas in a low rakish craft under the terrible flag of the death's-head and cross-bones. But sometimes conscience drives to a further confes- sion. Two Germans were seen to go together into a wood. A good while afterward the body of one was found under a certain tree. The other had in the mean- while escaped beyond the seas. But his conscience pursued him over the world, and one morning his body was found hanging from a limb of the tree at the foot of which, a long while before, they had found his victim. In a great trial for a dark and mysterious murder, in vindication of Providence and of the authority of con- science, Daniel Webster thus spoke : " The guilty soul cannot keep its own secret. It is false to itself . It labours under its guilty possession and knows not what to do with it. The human heart was not made for the res- idence of such an inhabitant. It finds itself preyed upon by a torment which it dares not acknowledge to I02 THE DETECTION OF SIN. God or man. A vulture is devouring it, and it can ask no assistance either from heaven or earth. The secret which the murderer possesses soon comes to possess him, and like the evil spirit of which we read, it overcomes him and leads him whithersoever it will. He feels it beating in his breast, rising to his throat, and demand- ing disclosure. He thinks the whole world sees it in his face and almost hears it working in the silence of his thought. It betrays his discretion ; it breaks down his courage ; it conquers his prudence. When suspicion from without begins to embarrass him, and the web of circumstances to entangle him, the fatal secret strufrijles with still greater violence to burst forth. It must be confessed ; there is no refuge from confession ; but suicide is confession." Thus are we led to consider that ii. God will oblige its to confess our sins ivillingly or unuillinq'ly. If our tongues refuse to tell, our coun- tenances shall proclaim our sins. God brands them upon our faces. - Just as under long continued trials, if the spirit is kept patient, the countenance will wear the impress of this grace ; so on the other hand, if the spirit is under those trials agitated by the passion of anger, there will be a legible inscription in the lineaments of the countenance that will bespeak the man of ire. God will have it that the varied passions and lusts shall write imperishable records upon the face. The drunkard may hope to destroy the effects of last night's potations by the use of soda and plantagenet waters and the liberal use of cloves ; but the bleared eye, the unsteady step and the THE DETECTION OF SIN. 103 rubicund nose, all tell of drunken carousals. Every form of uncleanness, unchastity, and intemperance writes its history upon the face as much as to say, * Behold my vile nature.' He who runs may read our characters in our countenances. We are living epistles known and read of all men. Just as the striai, or worn surfaces on the bare rocks of our country, tell of the forceful passage across our continent of mountain icebergs in some distant period of the physical history of the globe ; so, to say liOthing of the loss of beauty of person, grace of carriage and elasticity of step, there are lines in many a face which tell of the passage across the heart of some master passion, soirie monster lust. And well it is that it is so, for who would wish to live in a world where there are so many assassins, thieves, and hypocrites, without some established means of ascertaining charac- ter? iii. The system of nature, though it seems to be iinpereipienty is so constituted as to receive impressions from every movement %ve make^ every zvord ivc utter^ every action %ve perform. At first sight it would seem as if nature preserved an awful apathy with regard to human history, and were shockingly indifferent to the crimes which take place under her very eyes. She smiles alike on the evil and on the good. Her lightning flash kills indiscriminately the saint and the sinner. She lends her forces to the furtherance of missionary enterprise and to the promo- tion of the slave trade. Do you complain of this? She heeds not your complaints. Stolidly she proceeds on her way. The assassin's knife gleams for an instant in 7 I 104 THE DETECTION OF SIN. i the sunbeams, and then red w'th blood is drawn from his victim's breast ; but no arm of power smites him down. The sun smiles as serenely ; the birds warble as sweetly ; the flowers hide not their faces .'rom the sight. The earth drinks in the blood. Not even over rrd battle-fields does nature weep. It required the mysteri- ous and awful sufferings of the Son of God upon the cross, to elicit from her any expression of sympathy. Yet the Scriptures seem to regard her as a witness of man in his relation to God (Is. i. 2 ; Micah vi. i ; Ps. 1). Isaiah at the beginning of his prophecy by a bold apostrophe summons the heavens and the earth to consider and mark the ingratitude of Israel, and God's long continued patience and mercy. Science shows that a profound truth underlies this highly poetic form of address. It was nothing, therefore, but the truth that Joshua uttered when he took a great stone and set it up under an oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord, and said to the people : " Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us. For it hath heard all the words of the Lord which He spake unto us. It shall therefore be a witness unto you lest ye deny your God." Indeed there is not a movement of body or mind which does not affect the universe. The theory that our words, our actions, our very thoughts, make an indelible impres- sion on the universe, was first of all enunciated by Prof. Babbage in the ninth Bridgewater Treatise ; then Prof. Proctor in "The Stars and the Earth," Prof. Hitchcock in "The Telegraphic System of the Universe," and President Hill in " Geometry and Faith," besides I know not how many others, brought l: ma THE DETECTION OF SIN. 105 corroborative and collateral evidence to prove a sublime theory which seems scientifically demonstrable. In the words of Prof. Babbage : " The air is one vast library on whose pages are forever written all that man has ever said or" woman whispered." The word which is now passing out of my lips will cause undulations in the air, which will expand in every direction till they pass around the world, and affect the entire volume of the atmosphere for all time. Beyond the atmosphere there is a subtle fluid sensitive to the slightest disturbance, and so contrived as to carry on its bosom the undulations in the air to the utmost verge of creation. By the odylic force which streams from us evermore we make impression of our feelings, thoughts, volitions, on all living things and on inanimate objects as well. By the action of gravitation all the movements of man are recorded on the star-gemmed vesture of the night — ** in the seemingly fixed order of those blazing sapphires is a living dance, in whose mazy track is written the record " of every deed of kindness, of every deed of guilt, and even of the flutter of every insect's wing. Prof. Proctor has demonstrated that in our atmosphere and the more distant ether are inclosed pictures of the past which propagate themselves upon the wings of the rays of light, — all secret deeds thus glancing further and further into the spacious heavens. If then we are ever writing or printing indelible impressions upon, not merely the minds with which we come in contact, but the physical universe about us, so that these impressions become woven into its texture, and constitute a part of its web and woof forever, io6 TlIK PETECriON OF SIN. it is evident tlnat man will hereafter meet his own record, and that the conscquer.ces of his conduct will confront him far a^-ay in eternity. Professor H itchcock says that **anaIog>- makes it a scientific probability that ever}' action of man, however deep the darl