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Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Stre reproduit en un seul clich6, il est film6 d partir de Tangle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n^cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 YI THE BOND STREET PULPIT, BEING A SERIES OF DISCOURSES DELIVERED BY REV. JOSEPH WILD, M.A., D.D, FJLSTOTL 0:P BOND eT, CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, TORONTO, CANADA. AUTHOR OV "THE TEN LOST TRIBES." "HOW AND WHEN THE WORLD WILL END," " MANA8.SEH AND THE UNITED STATE.y," "THE FUTURE OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL," "TALKS FOR THE TI>fE8," ETC., ETC. TORONTO: YEIGH & CO., OFFICE OF THE "CANADIAN ADVANCE,' 10^ ADELAIDE STREET BAST. 1888. ■ ** l;.»'"*Ur;h &Xl^ 3 3 2034 Entered according to the Act of Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight, by Yeigh & Company, at the department of Agriculture. PREFACE. Messrs. Yeigh and Co. have asked and received my consent to publish the present volume of sermons. My Sunday evening discourses have been regularly printed for fourteen years. Those who have read them, and I suppose others as well, keep asking that the morning sermons should be printed also. To meet, in part, this request the present volume is sent forth that the friends may have a sample of what they are like. On reading them some will likely want more, and some will be satisfied. These discourses were de- livered in the regular course of my ministry, without any thought of their being published. As they were preached, so are they given to the public, in book form, with a sincere desire that they may do good. This the reader will keep in mind, and so pardon any want of order, clearness and finish. We all know there is a literature of hearing and one of reading, and with some ministers this makes a great difference. I mean to say some ministers appear to good advantage when seen and heard, much more so than when read. For myself, I am inclined to think that I am better heard than read. In all my preaching I try to meet the Apostle Path's idea, as recorded in I. Cor. 14, 3, " Speak unto men to edification, and exhortation and comfort." My chief IV PREFACE. 1 ! I I I I aim in the evening sermons is to edify, to expound the Bible, providence and passing events. Id the morning to exhort, persuade, and present the comforting fea- tures of the gospel. In an educational centre like Toronto my evening discourses draw on a larger and somewhat different public than those of the morning. This, I think, is the reason why my church is always crowded in the evening, and in the morning nicely and comfortably filled. My experience is that when I get a new church I at once set to work to appeal to this larger public, and from them gradually get my morning congregation, pew holders and members. The selection of the sermons has been miscellan- eous, one here and one there, that the reader might have an ideal average. In this book I say little or nothing about the great and important subject of the the ten lost tribes, the Jews and Manasseh. Tlie Jews, everybody knows ; the ten lost tribes I believe are to be found in an organized state in Great Britain, and the tribe of Manasseh in the United States. My church is prosperous and happy, and I pray the good Lord that the reader of these sermons will be blessed in like manner. Of the twenty-five sermons to be found in this volume, twenty have never before been published, the remaining five being discourses that are reprinted from the Canadian Advance. JOSEPH WILD. \. Toronto, Nov. lit, 1888. CONTENTS. « ♦ t SERMON I. p^oK THE FIRST THING CREATED - . '""■•- 1 SERMON II. OUR INVISIBLE FOBS - - - . . SERMON Iir. THE KB FSTONB PRINCIPLE .... «rt SERMON TV. PUT THERE ON PURPOSE . ^ 27 SERMON V. FALSE AND TRUE STANDARDS . o^ " - - - !)4 SERMON VI. CHILDRExX, THE HEATHEN, AND HELL 4| SERMON VII. THE CONFESSION OF A THUMBL ESS MAN . . - . 49 SERMON VI tl. WHAT SHOULD I BELIEVE ? - . . - 58 SERMON IX. HOW A MAN RECOVERED HIMSELF FROM SLIPPING - . . 67 SERMON X. A MOCKING FATHER-IN-LAW „^ SERMON XI. GOD WORKING IN US - . . - 84 SERMON XII. THE devil's fiGHT FOR THE BODY OF MOSES - . . . nj MiiS SP-ilFV '• ■■' • ' ♦ ii,«iiiMinipj|ii.yi. I !! 1 vi CONTENTS. SERMON XIII. PAGE. WILL THB ARK OF THE COVENANT EVER BE FOUND ? - - - 101 SERMON XIV. THB FIRST SACRED CONCERT EVER HELD .... HI SERMON XV. HUMAN SACRIFICR 119 SERMON XVI. R VBYLON AND THE TOWER OF BABEL - - - - - 134 SERMON XVII. WHEN THB WORLD WILL END 146 SERMON XVIII. QRUMBLINO WITHOUT REASON 162 SERMON XIX. THE BATILE OF THE GODS - 176 SERMON XX. SHALL WE KNOW BACH OTHER THERE ? - - - - . 184 SERMON XXI. A GRAND GATHERING ON A GREAT MOUNTAIN . - - . 192 SERMON XX 11. THE DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY 204 SERMON XX I II. HOW WB WILL PAY OUR TAXES ONE HUNDRED YEARS HENCE - 215 SERMON XXIV. CERTAIN GOD MAKERS 229 SERMON XXV. THE PLOUGHMAN OVERTAKING THB REAPKR - . . . 242 I! it I' I DR WILD'S SERMONS. SERMON I. THE FIRST THING CREATED. Text — ' ' And unto the angel of the church of the Laodice- ans write : These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the Creation of God." — Rev. iii. 14, The Book of Revelation is a revelation of Jesus Christ. John gives us to understand His personality ; His mission to this earth, His work, His victory, and now His reign, for the first verse of Revelation reads : " The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass ; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John." Jesus Christ and His gospel are counted as one, so the work of Christ and the gospel is spoken of as a creation through the repeating centuries. That which is described in Reve- lation is in veiled figures and symbolisms. The gos- pel, at the time Revelation was being written, was being taught in the Roman Empire. Hard things were said by the revelator as to the persecution by the Romans, and had the latter known they were the par- ties meant by the sacred writer they would have per- 'jLt DM. WILD'S SERMONS. secuted the Christians ten times more than they did. It was therefore to save hia church that these Chris- tian truths were put under a veil as it were, and couched in symbolisms by John, for while the Chris- tians would understand the references, their persecu- tors would not. So we often find it necessary to veil truth for the purpose of saving further revenge. When we talk of creation we speak of an unfathom- able fact, about which no one knows anything more than another. Eternity, space and God seem to the human mind to be co-equal. I do not know what idea may be in your mind, but it seems to me that there i3 an equality in these terms. These are the three ideas in my mind. We cannot, for instance, measure that which has no ijeginning or no ending. Some people when they touch creation touch it with the line of time and of course get a wrong idea, but metaphysical reasoning of the simplest order would correct them if they only stopped to thus reason : You say there has been a beginning — God, Creation. — So it says in the Bible, and we draw the inference that there has been a beginning of what now exists. There are tangi- ble evidences in ourselves that we have a beginning. We can sink back as it were to naught, and our growth implies that we came up from a tiny point. Some ask the question, that if God began to create, how long ago since He thus began ? It cannot be measured by years You say again, why did He not begin sooner ? Meta- physically that question is a vain one, for, however soon God began to create He could have begun sooner. Do you get that idea ? If you are measuring eternity •M DR. WILD'S SERMONS. ey did. } Chris- ere, and 3 Chria- Dersecu- to veil I. fathom- ng more I to the hat idea there i3 ee ideas Lire that s people ) line of physical them if y there says in lere has e tangi- ginning. ' growth ome ask by time, at whatever time God began we will be no nearer the end of duration in a thousand years tlian we are now. Though ten thousaiAd billion worlds come into space every second, space is not more full than if there had been but one created. Whatever was before what now exists I cannot say, but as far as known that which does now exist seems to have been created and to have had a beginning. To this nearly all Scientists agree. The world's miner- als, substances and forms have had a beginning ; even the very sun and stars give indications of a beginning, as seen through the spectroscope, just like this world (jf ours. We have no conception, of course, of creation, or as to its vastness or form, and can f oi m but little concep- tion of the variety oj existing life. Just imagine the different kinds of birds, beasts, insects, and invisible animals in which diseases lurk, such as bacillaria3. All space around us seems go be "full of life. We have not gone so deep in tlie ocean but what we find life treasured there. We have no conception of its propa- gation or duration. We can form but the slightest idea of the tiny creature that lights on a snowHake, deposits an Qgg, and thus produces a progeny; that lives and dies before the snowflake touches the ground. Our ideas of time are blown to the winds by such a thing and we say it cannot be true, but it is. We are constantly measuring things by our own rule, but our rule is our rule. That is all. The age of a man in this world is three score years and ten. What is the age of Gabriel ? Man begins to weaken at sixty, P.R* DR. WILD'S SERMONS. ! \ when the eyes grow dim and the hair turns gray and he trembles on the brink of time. Now, hojur long will it be before Gabriel will tremble or his eye lose its lustre, or his form become bent ? He seems to be an aged resident of the other world. I do not be- lieve time has anything to do with them. Time is only an idea that belongs to you and /, and we should be careful not to take the simple rules made for this world and apply them to eternity when we begin to reason. I do not think there is any such thing as time in eternity. There is somethinij else in its stead, though we cannot think what it may be. It is asked, what was the first thing created ? What was the first form jeing that first came into exist- ence ? Have you ever thought about it ? If there is a beginning there must be some first thing. All theologies and ancient religions have a first thing. If you were to ask me what was the first visibility or thing, I would simply have to answer you in the words of my text, which seem very plain, and yet, I suppose., there is an indefiniteness about it to some. May we not catch the idea from it as to the form, the visibility, the personality of the first thing created ? Read first Chapter of Colossians, verses 14-19, where you again get a very definite idea. " For by him were all things created," says the 16th verse, hence there was nothing before him. Christ was tlie first visible creation and form. But, you say, what do you mean by visibility of creation ? I mean this, that an infin- ity has no shape, no personality in the sense of locality, God Himself put Himself into shape. That shap is DR. IVILirS SERMONS. Christ — a shape that could move to and fro. The first shape made was God making Himself visible, by a vis- ible shape that is a personality, and that personality is Christ. It is God living in a form. Now, do yon sret an idea of what Christ is ? He is God in form, in shape, in person, in a location, in visibility. You can- not see God in any other way, for you cannot see in- finity. Christ became the central point from which all things radiated, and by and for Him are all things created that are. Supposing the second creature that came into exis- tence was an angel. That angel would see this pre- sence — Christ — and thus see God. So you see Christ is both uncreated and created, becaus<3 that form and personality is a creation, hence Christ is both made and unmade. He is infinite and omnipresent, and at the same time limited and local, and }ou cannot separ- ate one from the other. He is both God and human to U£. Turn to Colossians ii. 9-10, where you get another idea: "For in him dvvelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all [)rincipality and power." The whole Godhead is in this bodily shape ; that is, it is God. Another question comes up : What was the form or nature of His visibility ? What shape was i ? Have you ever put your thoughts in that direction in shape ? Was it like this church ? or like an eagle ? or a fish ? or this organ ? No, you say. What was it, then ? The Bible givep us the answer, or a clue, at least, in our own Christ. 6 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. i! " We were made in His image and likeness." If I have an image or likeness of any object I certainly can form an idea of what it was. Then I know the shape that God assumed — the shape that you and I have. Read Genesis v. 5 : " And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years ; and he died." Supposing I had never seen Adam and happened to meet Methusaleh, who would say, " Doctor, let me introduce you to Mr. Seth, Adam's third son." *' How do you do, Mr. Seth. You say your flesh is like your father's, and that you are like him as a thinkable being. You are a life — an individuality like your father." " Yes," he would answer, and would I not thus have an idea of what Adam was like ? Most certainly. We are in the likeness and image of Christ, who was God, hence I know the shape that God assumed was the shape human nature is now in. The Hebrew word " likeness " has reference to the essence or flesh. We are like God in substance. See Romans viii. 3, " For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." That is, Christ took upon Him human flesh and was like us, but without sin. It would not do to use the word image in that verse instead of likeness, for His was a whole life. We are sinners. He was not a sinner, but He came in our ikeness — flesh and blood — not in our image, because He would have to come as a sinner then. The word image in Hebrew means " life, emotion, character ; " that is, Adam had all these. In fact, we translate I! I I DR. WILUS SERMONS, image from the Greek word characterie. What is character ? It is the expression of your life. Can a thing have character that has no life ? No. Christ's character was an expression of His life — pure and holy. We are sinful, but He took our flesh that He might give us His character, holiness and purity. In Hebrews i. 3, it says : " Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image (characterie) of his person." It does not refer to His former substance in the word image here, but to His character as being holy, truthful, good and loving. Colossians iii. 10 : " And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him." This new life is the spiritual life. That image we lost through sin. Christ comes as a mediator and recovers this loss. We have broken that image and Christ re- news it. It is not a creation, because we had it in Adam. Christ restores both the image and the like- ness; that is, the likeness of this body. I do not know exactly the nature of the Adamic flesh. Some argue that there was no blood in Adam's body. How- ever that may be, it is certain that there will be no blood in the new body after death. What will be its nature I cannot say, but " flesh and blood cannot in- herit it." Having lost this likeness throusfh Adam, my body is diseased, which will waste and dissolve into dust, so that now I am not in the likeness of Christ. Christ came and took this kind of a flesh and blood body upon Him — sinless, however; passed through the grave with it ; had it renovated, as it were — and is a glorious body now in Heaven. He tells me He will 8 DE. WILD'S SERMONS. |M !:l come from Heaven and will change this vile body, and fashion it like unto His own glorious body ; that is, He will give me back the likeness which has been lost, new life will flow through me at the resurrection morning, and this new life will be put in a new body that will know no death nor decay, and I will thus be re- created and reclothed in the image and likeness of God in Christ. Adam had this likeness defaced, and his children continued it. We are all Adamic in this sense ; that is, we are not pure in thought and life, or in body. But have you not read that as we were born in the image of the earthly, so we shall bear the image of the heavenly ? That is in the future for us, and we are on our way towards it. Let us rejoice in this. Isaiah Ixv. 16, refers to " the God of truth." Christ is the faithful and true witness ; He is the beginning of the creation of God. Now my friends, we see that Christ was the first thing created ; that He assumed the form which en- closes my human spirit ; that in order to give me back the likeness which has been lost He came down and took a body upon Him, and became obedient to the law. If Adam went to Heaven when he died he could see God in Christ ; and when we pass from time to eternity we will see His spirit through a body as you see my spirit clothed in this body of clay. Wondrous things are revealed unto us in the Gospel. When our time comes, may we arise on that day in His likeness and in His image. Amen. SERMON II. OUR INVISIBLE FOES. Text. — " For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of t' is world ; against spiritual wickedness in high places." — Ephesians vi. 12. We find that the scientific men of the present day are becoming more scientific in this simple fact : that they are now seeking in every department the cause instead of the effect. We have been accustomed to deal with effects and will have to do so, no doubt, as long as the world lasts, but if we could only get at the cause of things that are wrong, how valuable it would be. If we could ascertain, for instance, the actual source of typhoid fever or cholera so as to cut them off in their inception, would there not be a great saving of life ? but we have been accustomed to deal with it in its effects and after it has taken hold of us. It is so in other departments. Prof. Pasteur, the eminent French savant, started on this line with the silk- worm. They kept dying off in France until their silk production was reduced by three-fourths. He, however, found out the basic cause and killed it there, and thus brought hundreds of millions of francs back to France. They might have kept dealing with the cause forever, but most of the silkworms would have died in the mean- time. The same may be said of the grapevines. They, 9 10 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. too, were being ruined, a kind of mould coming over them. They were constantly washed, but Pasteur went back and found the cause of the trouble to be a little insect. He discovered, too, the place where it was bred and then killed hundreds by touching one spot and destroying them at the start. So we will have to do in theology — get at the be- ginning of things. There are a great many evils. We deal with them as manifested in the person, but society is getting wise enough to take hold of them and sup- press them before they spread and multiply. We will have to do that in medicine — discover the sources of disease and deal with them there. Many of our evils are no doubt invisible to the ordinary eye, but we are gradually finding them out. The most effective work in the treatment of diseases is to try and catch the bacillariae, the spore, or germ-seeds, &.nd then kill them off. I believe we will do this yet arxd thereby free the world from scores of diseases, just as sanitary measures are curing certain diseases to day. In some of the western sections of this province large tracts of land, partially under water, gave out miasma and ague and fever until the drainage acts were passed and the foul spots cleansed, thus killing the miasma. Was it not better for the government to do that than to have its citizens suffering and dying ? Most certainly. Do 3^ou not suppose there are moral bacillarise or spores ? that just as the bacillarise can touch my organs and my body, so there is something equivalent to them in the spiritual world which touches my mind ? Am I capable of being influenced from invisible sour- DR. IFILD'S SERMONS. 11 ces ? We fight against invisible powers, as seen in the text. Are we not influenced by these for good or for evil ? Do not accidents run in a sort of rut ? Look at the railway bridge accidents of last summer. We may go a year now without any. You say they occur because there is no protection against them. But acci- dents come in clusters just as diseases, why is it so ? I do not know. Perhaps some day we will find out. Members of a family are often liable to the same dis- eases or the same kind of accidents. I know one family whose members are continually being burned ; another where they are being injured or killed by the kicks of horses ; others, again, by drowning. What was it in these families which would account for this ? There was something back which I cannot perceive ; I can only see the effect, yet these things do run on a line or in groups. Where is the cause ? I again ask. I be- lieve it is in what we call the invisible, and that the day will come when we will see how it is produced. Take diseases, for instance. There are certain com- plaints which, if they attack a family, mean death. I met a gentleman the other day who said that two of his little girls were down with typhoid fever. " They'll get over it," I said, but he replied '• no, they always die in our family when attacked by this fever." True enough, for I have just read in the papers of their death. Why should typhoid in that particular family invariably visit its members with the seal of death while others recover ? I do not know the cause. Evils group themselves, as I have said. Some fami- lies are always guilty of lying. They cannot get Jl! I! m. lii 111; 1 liiii Ml li li r !l 4 i -*t.-.m 12 DR. WILD'S SKRMONS. over it, and nearly all their troubles come from this failing, indeed it takes them half their time to rectify their own untruths among themselves or with their neighbors, and this to them is just as much an affliction as fever, though perhaps not as fatal. It is a mental or moral disease, however. Again, it is impossible for some people to keep from stealing, while forgery runs in other families. Others are continually at law. I know a man who is always engaged in legal contests. Indeed, I have never known him out of them, and now his oldest boy is at it just the same way, notwithstanding the fact that he rarely wins a case and has lost thousands of dollars. There is undoubtedly a mental and moral wrong back of these which are just as literal diseases as physical in- firmities. We cannot well separate the effects of our own sup- erstition from the influences of invisible agencies, and that makes it difficult to speak safely. I know a man who is sometimes thrown into intense anger without ap- parent cause. It comes over him like a cloud over the sun, getting darker and darker until his rage is intense. Where does this violent passion come from ? What influence brings it on ? It may be physical or mental or moral, but whatever the cause the effect is there, and he has to fight against that particular influence as we fight against physical disease. We should fight against all those depressing influences which interfere with our health or our spiritual life. There is just as much philosophy in a man finding out what depresses him and lowers his spiritual life as in discovering the DR. WILUB SERMON'S. IS fight cause of his physical ills. Why should you not study the fact that you do not want to go to prayer meeting ? Question yourself in this wise : " What is it that I do not like about it ? Can I remove the cause and thus put myself in a position to enjoy it ? for surely if you come you will find that some of us enjoy it, and why should you lose this enjoyment ? You say you do not feel like going. Why ? What is it that rules ? You have as much right to correct that state of feeling as if you were getting sick. Have we not a right to study these invisible impressions, and those influences that come upon us ? There are many passages in the Bible I should like to understand more fully. They always interest me and yet I cannot fathom them. Take the 12th verse of the 28th chapter of Genesis : " And he dreamed and behold a ladder set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven ; and behold the angels of God as- cending and descending on it." I like the idea this verse gives that there is no vacuum ; that there is no waste ; that God's shining ones are in the very air He simply saw what is continued on to this day, and when the fleshly eye is closing in death I believe that through the spiritual eye I can see angels hovering around and know they are near me, just as I knew who stood around my body. I believe this vision was a real fact, and that these passages give us a great deal of light. Read I. Samuel, xvi. 14 : " But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him." Saul was an amiable man, ex- cepting his liability to rage and passion. He was a u DR. WILUS SERMONS. [% fine man in many ways, and yet an evil spirit would come upon him which led him to take up the lance or javelin and throw them at whoever stood near. Does it mean that a spirit from without came rushing into his tabernacle of clay, or was it within himself ? Which, I cannot say, you see how it spoiled his life, however. We read in I. Corinthians, iv. 9 : " For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were ap- pointed to death ; for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men." I can easily under- stand the expression, " a spectacle unto the world." So they were, as Paul went forth, as they dragged him in the street, stoned him, imprisoned him, but ah, " the spectacle to angels " was not seen, and yet I presume the angels saw him as literally as men did ; I imagine they heard as literally as men heard. Can I not take that inference ? Most surely I can. Read again, I. Corinthians, ii. 10 : " For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels." " Because of the angels," there is an expression I cannot get at, I would like to understand its full meaning. Here is an argument given for a certain manner of dressing the head " because of the angels," What had the angels to do with the form of headdress ? What is the point the apostle wanted to make ? Is not the Bible a wonderful book ? I would like to live a thousand years, so as to understand the whole of it. It is a marvellous book. You refer to the com- mentator, and he simply suggests ideas. We can all DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 15 see that we have not got at the full truth. Let us take one more passage (I. Timothy, iv. 1.) : " Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils." " Seducing spirits." Is it possible that a spirit from the invisible world can influence my mind, and seduce it and turn it from the truth ? That, you say, leads me on the line of spiritual- ism. No matter about that. Here is the statment. Am I influenced by spiritual agencies from the invisi- ble world ? So it seems. Very much of what Paul says in the verse has been fulfilled, but we cannot understand the phrase, " seducing spirits." If there are such spirits from theinvisible world, good spirits must also be permitted. Take Hebrews i. 14 : " Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation ? " Here come in the good spirits — " ministering angels," those who serve and help us. How much we cannot tell. Ah, we know but little. I read in Rev. xix. 10 : "I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren who have the testimony of Jesus ; worship God ; for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." " I am thy fellow- servant," How does he serve me or help me ? So you may go through the Bible and take passage after passage that bring this idea of invisible agencies plainly to my mind. Take this wholesale passage : Ps. xxxiv. 7 : " The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." This is one of the sweetest verses of them all. What- ever seducing spirits may have power over me, I may 16 DH. WILD'S SERMONS. m i !! be sheathed in light divine and protected by the sword of the spirit ; some angel may encamp around about me, and because of this I will fear no evil. I believe we can be protected, whatever the meaning of the above passage may be. I question if there is an evil but what might be overcome ; I believe we might strike the very influence by our closeness to God. As to " deliverances ;" I cannot know a" deliverance." The thunderbolt might be coming down toward me, but I do not know why it should be turned to strike twenty yards away. A disease might be floating in my room in the shape of these bacilli and an angelic hand may wave them away, saying, " Don't touch him, he is sleeping," but I do not know of my deliverance ; indeed, we can never know how many evils God saves us from. We know we have been saved out of many evils through prayer, but what about those we are saved from J These help us to understand the possi- bilities and operations of the Holy Ghost. Now, I can easily understand, seeing the effects of these invisible influences, how the divine Spirit can influence my mind for good, and give me health and strength. God can touch my mind the same as a se- ducing spirit, do you not suppose ? Spiritualists say that their mediums have to be very careful to distin- guish between good and deceiving spirits. Whether they are correct or not in their claims, their ideas have some philosophy. If there is a seducing power for good or evil, have we not got to watch the influences of this world to see whet^ier they are for our good or not, and where they will lead us ? I am going into this form DR. WILI/S SERMONS. 17 of enjoyment. Whore will i\) land me ? Is it a seduc- ing spirit or a good one ? There is philosophy in the idea. I can understand how prayer becomes a power on this line of thought. I had a letter this week from a friend in Colorado, who had doubted a statement I made of an event which occurred in Libby Prison. I doubted it myself when first told of it, and wrote to the man who was the loader in the prayer. Great suf- fering was caused to the prisoners by the lack of pure water. One day a man by the name of David Davy, at present editor of The Solid Muldoon, of Ouray, Colo., jumped up and said " Gentlemen, all of you pretend to be Christians ! I am a Chiistian so far as that I be- lieve in a God who can give us a spring of water, if we ask Him rightly. Let every one pray whether he is a Christian or not," They all started to pray. After two or three days some fell away, there being no an- swer, when Davy said, " Come, boys, God is going to give us that water to-day. Now for a grand rally ! " A spring of water burst out in the ground of the gaol that day ! How would you account for that ? The God who can make the sun to shine ; who can make you and I, could make a common spring, do you not think ? Most certainly He could. Hundreds can tes- tify to the truth of this incident. Do you not see that prayer is a power ? But how did it touch the invisible, which in turn began to move upon the material and bring forth water ? We are subject, I believe, to influences, but we can- not say from whence they come. I used to be very much interested in Jesse Pomeroy, the boy murderer, his B 18 DR. WILUS SERMONS, cruelty leading him to stick pins into his playmates, and to cut them with a knife. He killed two or three children in this way, and when asked the reason, he said he did not know, only that " There is something that makes me do it." What about a case like that ? Take the case too of an eleven-year-old inraate of the Hospital for Crippled Children in New York, who made five attempts to burn that institution and at last succeeded. She simply said when questioned, that she did not know why she did it ; that at times she could not help it. Was she net fighting against the invisible powers of darkness. Are not many things to be ac- counted ior by the invisible forces ? The cyclone which devastated Mt. Vernon, III., re- cently, was preceded hy an unusual commotion in the electric batteries of that region — an unseen storm pre- ceding the visible one. The Sea of Galilee may be still at one hour, and the next the waves may be lashing the shore ; just like you or I when angrjr — every nerve and bone seems to be quivering and we feel as if hell were inside of us. We have these storms. Are they of hell or of self ? But He who spoke peace to the Sea of Gallilee can speak peace to you and me. A year ago a young man in Buffalo while at a party took a diamond he saw in a room. The theft was fin- ally discovered and he escaped to Canada. He could give no reason why he had committed the crime, which so weighed on bio mind that he drowned him- self in Burlington Bay. What instinct was it that compelled him to take that jewel and to sacrifice all for it ? DR. WILUS SERMONS. 19 There are a thousand things, my friends, that are mysterious, but w j can say that " an angel encampeth round about us." Whatever these mysteries are, one can feel sure that he who lives close to God, has the best chance in the visible and in the invisible. He is our shield, and no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. You then have all the protection that heaven can guarantee. SERMON III. i ! ! ! i i 1 1 i j i 1 1 ! I ' Ulil^ll THE KEYSTONE PEINOIPLE. Text. — "And if Christ be not riBen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." I. Cor. xv. 14. To have a proper idea of the gospel scheme of redemp- tion, one wants to look at the two Adams very care- fully, for one equalizes the other. If you get a proper idea of the first Adam, and understand who and what he was, and then get in your mind a second Adam, not inferior to the first, both direct creations in a measure (for Christ was not made after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life)., you will have no difficulty in seeing that the sins of the first Adam were rectified in the second Adam, Christ. I set myself right, when quite a young man, by a study of these two Adams, and I am somewhat amazed in the light of these latter days, when I read good old theological books, to see how they failed to get this idea in their minds. They did not see where the second Adam came to remedy the defects of the first, and that " as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." So that, whatever the difficulty with Adam was, no one now suffers on that account specially, nor will anyone be damned for Adam's sake. It would indeed be strange if the first Adam had made a wound that the second Adam could not heal. I would be loath to believe it; indeed there is no evidence for such an 20 ■I -as DR. WILUS SERMONS. 21 inference. We want to take in the idea that sin entered the world. We are conscious of its existence now. We may dispute as to its entrance but we cannot as to its existence, and when we find a good existing and sin existing, it is natural to suppose that Providence would make a provision somewhere to meet the defects of that sin. It is said that in the animal world there is an antidote for every evil. Creatures in their natural condition rarely suffer as we suffer because they are guided to the antidote. The deer, when bitten by a poisonous serpent, can run immediately to some herb that will correct the poison, and they do not die as you and I would. Now, if a kind Providence has made this provision in the natural world, would you not suppose if we were to be wounded and smitten and threatened with death that there would be a balm in Gilead ? Is there no physician ? no remedy ? no anti- ^dote ? no healing power for wounded men and women ? *3There surely is, and it is in this second Adam, Christ. We are to take in that sin did certain things, as all sequences must. It is not possible to stop hereditary descent. This is a matter of fact. If I as a father were worth a million and should spend it all in gamb- ling, my children could not inherit that money. If I were to entail disease, I would weaken the health of my children ; I would perhai)s reduce them to poverty. You say, children should not suffer for me, hut they do, and what is the use of men arguing about descent of this kind when the thing is a fact in their own selves and every one else ? If we are descended from Adam, and he was defective, we will suffer that iii !: ;''7 ii I 1 22 VR. JVILUS SERMONS. defect as well as your children inherit your defects. You cannot stop it. Nothing provokes laughter and yet a kind of anger in me so much as the attempts of men who try to argue that good but not evil has come down to us. There is nothing wrong in the accumulation of Adam's transorression. It is simply the accumulation of the ages and not that of Adam himself. Prof. Spencer has made a great mistake in one of his works, for an intelligent man, in attributing all the present evils to our first parents. He is wrong in thinking that all the evil of this present world should have come through the accident of one Adam It has not so come. Every generation is producing new sequences and introducing new dis- eases. Every generation has imitated the evils of its predecessor and added new ones, handing them down through all the six thousand years that have formed the world's history. This cannot all be charged to Adam ; not a millionth part belongs to him. This gen- eration suffers from the last, and the next will suffer from ours, and thus we keep creating and accumulat- in-' evils If we take the atonement of Christ, it is a simple remedy, whatever the defect might be, not only in Adam but in all the succeeding generations. What was the effect of sin ? It certainly means bodily and spiritual death, and a curse on nature and the world. Those are what we call unconditional curses. We ai e thus heirs of death. No one dies because he is either good or bad. In Adam I was to live forever, but he deprived me of that by simply eating of the Tree of DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 23 wrong in 1. It is not that e a great ;ent man, t parents, .1 of this e accident eneration new dis- dls of its lem down e formed larged to This gen- vill suffer 2cumulat- a simple t only in iVhat was ►dily and he world. We ai (! I is either r, but he e Tree of Life. Will I get it back ? yes, in Christ. One of the deprivations is that finally the soul separates from the body and there is a change called death. Will the body be destroyed ? Yes, this body that enwraps me I will lay down by and by, and it will be put in the earth, while the soul and the spirit within it will be reclothed with a new one. Will I ever get a body like my fii-st father, Adam, had ? I will, as surely as I will lose this. I will get another in Christ, and it is for this purpose that Christ came. How can a new body be given me ? you ask. As easily as the first one, so far as that goes. There will be no more difficulty in giving the second than the first. The lives that were breathed into the body of Adam were separate lives. The body itself has no life. That is a great point, and yet some people put all the life in the body, while Adam's body had no life until the Lord breathed into it thebreath of Zwes,and he became a living soul. Those lives are not dependent upon the body, but the body is dependent upon the lives. When they are withdrawn, it falls to dust. These lives are now covered by my body. You cannot see my soul and spirit ; yet they give vigor and life to these nerves and muscles, but the day will come when the muscles will stiflfen, the hand will fall, and the body will pass away. Can we live after this death ? Yes, Christ goes through the grave ; He dies and comes out of the grave again. You say that is a very strange change; so it is, but the evidences are very sufficient to prove that He did come out. Yet I do not take the fact that Christ came out of His grave after death as the vital point of liiiii iii; 24 DR. WILUS SERMONS. ill ''!t:|| I i \i l!;!.;!. the resurrection. His body was different from that of men, you say, and while He might be raised, how can we expect our poor sinful bodies to be resurrected ? Our Saviour meets that grandly in the oft-repeated passage in the 27th chapter of Matthew : " and many bodies of the saints that slept came out of their graves after his resurrection and appeared in the holy city." He not only conquered death in His own person, which in a measure is very fine evidence, but He also con- quered it in certain persons like you and me, and because He conquered it in Himself it can never conquer Him, and because He conquered it in persons like you and me, can He not do the same thing for us ? That is what He has promised to do, and in the last day He will reclothe every soul that has departed from this world. Those who shall be living shall get theirs by another way. We are too accustomed to limit Providence to our own ignorance. The millions that will be living will not die, but shall be changed in a moment ; in the twinkling of an eye, and the trumpet shall sound and the dead in Christ shall be raised and we shall be changed ; that is to say, those who will be living at the last day will be changed — by what magic spell of the Divine I cannot say — and all will have immortal bodies,. We will, too, have our individuality. As one one star difiereth from another star, so will it be in the resurrection. Our Saviour came to prove the resurrection possible in Himself and every human being. Paul is very fine on the resurrection ; there is nothing like the fifteenth Chapter of I. Corinthians in the world. Having been A A m DR, WILD'S SIBMONS. 25 m that of how can irrected ? -repeated id many ir graves .ly city." >n, which also con- d because aer Him, 1 and me, what He I reclothe . Those ' way. e to our ing will in the and and shall be ig at the of the tnmortal As one 36 in the possible ery fine ifteenth Lg been ■,5., into heaven in his v!«»ion, he saw those that had been raised from the dead ; in fact, he saw those that were in the third heaven and could well describe their celes- tial bodies, though his lips were sealed and he saw many things unutterable, yet as the result of his visit he has given us this grand work on the resurrection. To us who are living it is a cheering doctrine, — cheer- ing, too, as we put each other away, gathering home one by one. I may be permitted to stand and say a few words over many of you. I simply say they are laid away in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection morn- ing. " Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust." I know that a greater part of that will be true ; that these bodies will dissolve. In a hundred years from now not a fragment of this body of mine can be found, but the spirit has gone back to God who gave it ; it will come back and be clothed again with an Adamic body. This is a comfort to me, conscious as I am of the decay and death of the body ; it is a comfort to know that though I throw off this body and pass through the valley of the shadow of death, I will again appear on this earth. " Nevertheless, according to his promise we look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein will dwell righteousness." I firmly believe I will live on this earth again, after I have been in heaven ; that you and I will meet here, and that earth will be one grand Paradise, as it was intended to be through the first Adam ; the second Adam will restore every vestage of it, and fill it with the teeming millions without one speck of sin nor pain nor death. We will surely come back here if we remain faithful, believing these truths ! I' :'^:'^l^r.«?%^«i^CkSMi>bi'*^ Mm^ ■•M| 26 DR. WILUS SERMONS. I ,; and, as far as possible, meeting the approval of Him who is our Lord and Master ; that we may have this testimony in ourselves and live it for the benefit of others. Have you this testimony this morning ? It is a strange idea to go to the edge of time not knowing where you are going ; if we were to die with- out having a mansion and a home yonder, it seems to me the atonement would be incomplete, but there is another life and a home where we will be beyond distress and sickness. Let us make our election sure from the abundance of the grace to be found in our Lord. Amen. 1 ' 11' ! i lllll SERMON IV. PUT THERE ON PURPOSE. Text. — " For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed, and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this ? "- -Esther iv. 14. These are the words of Mordecai. The Book of Eether expounds and illustrates a divine Providence. That is what it has been specially given to us for. It makes a specialty of a certain line of conduct and ex- hibits it more clearly that it may strengthen our faith in a God and in an ovei ruling Providence, for the line of conduct that is produced is so extraordinary as to be unnatural, and there must have been therefore a Hand above and around it, touching it occasionally just as if you were to see a painting done by your children at college and detecting in it the touch of the master. So in the story of Esther there is something that is above the ordinary course of events — above that which men would produce of themselves. There is the master touch of the finger of God giving it shape. All things, animate and inanimate, are under divine supei vision. Ordinarily, of course, we do not discern the divine Hand, because it is working in harmony with nature. We do not discern the earth going around because it is harmonious. If this movement 27 28 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. ill ; 111 : llllir should stop, however, we would soon be rattled out of this church, but as long as all things are harmoniously adjusted we do not know anything about this control- ling power. There are a thousand forces in society, in nations and individuals that are directly of God, but which are so kindly adjusted that no man sees them. We can only argue them as a sort of dry mathematical problems. When the magicians withstood Moses they tested him successfully up to the fourth miracle. They could do what Moses did from human invention, but when the plague of lice came they lifted up their voice and said : This is the finger of God. How came they to see the finger of God in that ? Because by their own rule they could not offer a sacrifice if there was any vermin upon them, and now when God stopped them from worshipping they saw there was something more than human in it. Things work so harmoniously in nature that it is difficult at times to discern God's hand. There are occasions, however, in the lives of races, nations and individuals when divine interference and intention is easily discerned, they seem to happen so unnaturally and unexpectedly ; cause and effect appear to be divorced for a time. The battle does not seem to be to the strong, nor the race to the swift. We wonder at it, but it is an indication of a Providence; of a power beyond. Go back 520 years B. C. to Palestine. The land is desolate, and of the children of Abraham only a few sick, poor and feeble ones are to be found. Jerusalem fcii ^ DR. WILJyS SERMONS. 29 and the Temple are in ruins, and the Israelites are in bondage. The ten tribes have been away from their native land for over 200 years, and the Jews have been captives and slaves in Babylon for tifty years. During this half century the Babylonian empire has changed into the great Persian- Medo empire. The star of the world's empire was then Persia, with its summer palace at Shushan. That grand monarch, Ahasuerus, was on the throne — the great Xerxes of history, wealthy, mighty, powerful, luxurious. We are told in Esther i. 1, that he " reigned from India even unto Ethiopia." He has had a defeat in one of his war campaigns and seeks to rally the hosts of the empire by having a great feast continuing for a year, and by calling together the princes, nobles and captains. They were having a grand time, when he sends for the Queen, who wins our sympathy and respect for her courage in resisting the unlawful demand of the king to have her expose her- self before his drunken rabble. She will lose her crown before she will debase herself before her king ; and as a result she is dethroned. A queen or king of that empire could only come from one of seven fami- lies in Persia. Who will be the fortunate choice ? Messengers were at once sent out to gather together the fail est maidens of these seven families. At the main gate of the palace is an old Jew, the chief watch. I picture him as a man with a big beard, black, thick hair, and a grand nose. He is one of the captives, and paces up and down his beat when Haman approaches. It is astonishing how great men can become hateful on account of little things ! When we have great power 30 DR. WILI^S SERMONS. ,\m iiliiiii! lili '111 i ■ii;i;i w% we want all power. You would think Haman might have scorned to want Mordecai's obeisance, but the re- fusal of the old Jew to bend his head to the Prime Minister frets him and leads him to^et a decree passed that all the Jews in the land should be massacred — to have another St. Bartholomew's Day, when the soldiers and the inhabitants should be permitted, without com- mitting an offence, to kill every Jew and Jewess and take possession of their wealth. What an edict ! Haman's triumph has come at last ! But here comes in the choice of a queen. In the old watcher's house are several maidens — one a little fairer than the rest — very handsome, winning and enticing. The king's officers, T imajiue, say, " Mr. Mordecai, is this your daughter ? ' No, he would answer. She is a brother's daughter and I have taken her into my fam- ily. And so she is the chosen one, and yet she does not belong to one of the seven great families. How did she get to be the chosen one ? Can you explain all that a Jew doep ? No, sir. You would have said, she can never bf? ^ueen of Persia. The law of the land is against her. Her position is against her, her race a race of hated slaves, and her religion opposed to every- thing around her. The result, however, will depend upon an Unseen Hand — that Power above the thrones of earth. These captive Jews were to return to their native land in seventy years, and yet a decree has gone forth to kill everyone of them. Which will be carried out ? Not the king's decree. God will have His way in spite of ten thousand decrees of all the kings on earth ! I i i :; LR. WILUS SERMONS. 31 11 might t the re- le Prime 2e passed cred — to B soldiers out com- vess and n edict! n the old ,tle fairer enticing. 'decai, is She is a my fam- does not w did she ill that a she can land is ir race a to every - depend 3 thrones ir native 3ne fortli 'ied out ? y in spite Q earth ! m Kings and emperors are a.s weak as straws when they undertake to resist God. There is nothing so distinctly to be discerned as the finger of God in our own nation as well as in others. You can see the divine Hand overruling the measures and intentions of men and bafHing the grandest skill of statesmen and generals. Not one jot or tittle of Hia word fjhall fail j heaven and earth may pass away first. The orphan Jewess is now amongst those from whom the choice of queen is to be made, and she is the chosen one for " the kins: loved Esther above all the women, so that he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti." Mordecai makes known to her the decree about the destruction of the Jews in some secret way. Esther determines to save her race, although she takes her life in her hand, as anyone who intruded upon the presence of the king without be- ing invited, could be killed. There is a marvellous courage in this woman as she goes to plead for her people. The king sees her approach. Will the sceptre fall, indicatmg that her intrusion is all right ? What an agonizing moment ! Thousands upon thousands of" lives depend upon that one act. She looks up, the sceptre lias fallen and she is safe ! Perhaps I should not say it, but when you put God, a woman and a Jew together to carry out a plot they will succeed. The banquet is given and* the king and Haman are delighted. But the queenthas still another request — at a second banquet where she makes known her wish. To the half of the' kingdom, the king promises, but she does not warirthftlf-r-oi^ly Haman, She reveals ^ w m m 32 DE. WILD'S SERMONS. t.liii; m^ Vl;-' ■' 1| .:,.,,|. Iliilj yiiiiii'ii^'i the plot. The king's eye flashed. Is this the man I have exalted who is trying to destroy this people and thus take away my queen ? He at once issues another decree, as the first cannot be recalled, that will take precedence of it, and the Jews to-day celebrate this deliverance in their Feast of Purim. Is it not marvellous I I believe Esther was put there on pur- pose, as strongly as I believe that my hand is striking this pulpit. It was a direct interference by God on behalf of His people. How He overrides the world in His economy ! A thousand things are " put there on purpose " in this divine economy. My eyes were put where they are, on purpose, with mountains of bone around them to protect them. They were placed in these little valleys on purpose, don't you think ? Man is a bundle of designs at every point, as there are designs in nature. Turn a cow for instance into a field where there are two or three thousand different kinds of plants, most of them poisonous, and yet it will only select 270 and let the rest alone. It is as good a botanist as you or I for its own purpose. A goat would eat 449, a sheep 347, a horse 262, a pig 72. Did not God put the instinct into these creatures so they could protect and sustain themselves ? Joseph was " put there on purpose " when he was handed over to the Egyptians. It was a losing draw that the grand chess-player might catch his enemy. God sometimes, therefore, gives a point to nations and individuals and to the devil. But Joseph ultimately brought all his people out of the land of bondage. The lei^7D is that there is ft Providence. Let us DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 33 I have a restful trust in it, and believe that though at I times we cannot understand everything, there is an [all-ruling Providence that directs us wisely and to our [good. May the Lord bless us with a greater confidence fin Him. Amen. c ^s^i«i;^«i^!.v«S»f >t^«.v*i^^ ^Htmi^ SERMON V. FALSE MD TEUE STANDARDS. ;,;■ 1 1 m ■m. LI ll'i ''l I Text. — ** Who art thou that judgest another raau'a servant, to his own Master he standeth or falleth. Yea he shall be hold- en up, for God is able to make him stand." — Romans xiv. 4. The golden rule can easily be undoes, joa for it is a rule whose authority and explanation is planted in our | own constitution. Tt is a rule that is commensurate with our very being, and like all correct rules and measure- ments should be and was designed so to be by Provid- ence. This golden rule standard is always present with us, wherever we go and into whatever state we enter- Whether old or young, we can all grasp its spirit. '■ Take our rules for trado and commerce — a pound, a quart, a yard, etc, These are standards that arp o isen- tial for honesty in trade. You would not Vw. nei yard stick to be a yard and a quarter long, t: '■ . f i- other to be but three-quarters long ? You woulu liot like the store-keeper to fix his own idea of what quan- tity a quart should be. There must be uniformity, but 1 it can only come from some standard, and this standard | was originally I believe commensurate to the human body ; in other words, I believe all our English measure- ments are found in our human constitution, so that men who lived in the antedeluvian world, or iang after in the new world, could not be deceived. I believe A.dam was a perfect man and measured by his body, 34 mf.mmii& DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 35 spirit. a pound, a t are e.-'sen- WOUlu AkOt what quan- brmity, but lis standard the human ;h measurc- m, so that riang aft^'i I believe y his body, [as a painter measures the picture and makes the parts I in proportion, making the hand in proportion to the j rest of the body, the distance between the eyes equal to the width of one, and so every feature and figure is placed in commensurate^ relation to all the others. The inch, I believe, was the exact length of the joint of Adam's finger, it is nearly so with moderately formed men to-day. This joint is the first measure in the body Then come the hand-breadth, the span, the cubit, the [yard, the fathom and the foot. This system enabled [merchants in the eastern country to do business and jet full measure and length. God put the standard |of right and honest trade in every man's hand.. Man lis thus a standard in himself. On the human side )ur standard is ourselves. We are to do unto others we would they should do unto us. If you want to leasure out unto another you know exactly what standard is requisite, and there need be no trouble in getting things right. If we would be correct as individuals w^e must take Christ as our standard. He gives us the rule : " A new commandment I give unto you that ye love one an- other as I have loved you." This is the standard I j|must measure up to. In commerce we have standards from which our [weights and measurements are authorized, and so in morals and religion. For instance, the government [standard regulates and justifies all our weights and [measures, and the sanction of the government is our nuthority for using them. It is just so in spiritual [matters. He that doeth righteousness, is righteous, m 36 DM. fFlLD'S SERMONS. 1 i i 1 li i : 1! 1 : 1 liilji 1 !|| ! !:.ii !"'! :i' > j m .„;:|i!. f i I ! i i ;',: -'it^'i in lifflil^ 3! ,'i.r ''1 iiil: il even as lie is righteous. If my yard-stick therefore is like the standard and I use it honestly, I am righte- ous in its use. The Inspector of weights and measures goes to Ottawa for his standard, and the one in Ottawa is compared every three years with the yard-stick preserved in Westminster Abbey in a secret closet call- ed the Closet of the Pyx, to which there ate but three ke^s in the possession of the Queen, the Premier and the Master of the Golden Guild, and it can only be un- locked by the whole of the three keys. The original vard-stick, which cost several million dollars, was burn- ed when the Parliauient Buildings were destroyed in London in 1834<, but another is to be made. They are now working on another one which will cost millions of dollars. Strange as it may seem, this standard is decided by the simple diameter of the poles of the earth, and when this is accurately ascertained we will have an absolutely correct yard-stick. The standard used at present is one that was made in Queen Anne's time. This standard in Westminster Abbey is the master by which we are authorized to do business. What is our standard in morals ? Christ is the yard-stick of measurement, and unless 1 am measured up to Him 1 am not authorized or justified on the line of good. He is an unvarying and perfect standard. In our criti- cisms and judgment ot one another, we should have u proper standard. We should not make our standards out of creeds and rituals, rules and ordinances, Tin; fact is, several of our churches non-christianize me be- cause I do not come up to the rules of their own mak liliiil DR. WILD'S SERMONS 37 ing, not the rules of Christ or the Bible. They have invented rules and regulations of their own which they honestly believe in and conform to, but if you do not conform to them you are not one of them. The only eiTor in this is that tliey do not make a proper distinc- tion when making these rules. They should sa}' it is their oivn ideas, but they claim it is the will of Gad. It is nothing of the kind. It is a measure of vour own made independently of the standard. You have a pel feet right to make a standard of your own, but do not claim it as the government standard. There are two organizations that will not mingle with yoi^ on earth or join you in the kind of service we have this morning, one of which is the Plymouth Brethren. My close communion Baptist friends would exclude me from the Lord's table, although they would not exclude me from heaven. They thus make their church better [than heaven, and are more generous in heaven than [in their own denomination. Is there not a distinction we ought to recognize when dealing with ordinances of human invention ? Most certainly there is. I go to a minister and he tells me he would be glad to ex- change pulpits were it not that he is apostolically des- cended ! and he doubts that I can make the same claim. It is all right for him to believe in this succession, but when he says I have no right to be in the pulpit then comes the tug-of-war. While he excludes me from his pulpit, however, he is kind enough to think I will get to heaven. Now if I get to heaven how is it that I cannot get into his pulpit ? Is it more sacred than heaven ? ^ 38 DR. WILD'S SERMONS, m m "" ^xm. iiiii m .ill K 11! mm Can we not see in society and in our ideas differ- ences without a distinction ? People do not make a distinction between what we call the huuian side of the church and the spiritual side. ^ The spiritual church of Christ embraces all who are saved by the covenant mercies of God in Christ, of any race, people, creed, color, nationality or tongue ; but if we please to organ- ize and hedge ourselves round with rituals and rules, while we have a right to do so, we should make clear the distinction between the human organization which we call the church and the true church of Christ. This true church of Christ has its members in every human church I believe. The true church can get along without a building, without an organization, and without a creed. There are millions of Christians who have never entered a church or read a discipline or heard of Immanuel, and they are Christians as much as you and I, " for he that doeth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous." I am not pleading against organizations, I plead rather for them, but I plead at the same time that they are human and should be so classified, and that a man should not be ruled out as a Christian if he does not take the same view of them as you do. To be a Christian does not depend upon Methodism, Congregationalism or any other — ism. A man can be a Christian without the whole of them, or in any of them, and yet I suppose that not one out of ten in this city will admit this although it is as plain as ABC ; the admission of it, however, would make them kinder in their intercourse — it would enlarge their charity, and open their hearts. DR. WIRD'S SERMONS. 30 Some people confound the body with the soul ; so they confound their organization with the true spiritual church of Christ. They confound the visible Christ with the Invisible ; in fact, they go in for uniformity but they place it wrongly in ceremonies, rules and re- gulations. Supposing wc want uniformity in our phy- sical constitution, should we all eat the same food to obtain it ? No. Uniformity will not be found in the diet but in my health and strength. The unity of a Christian is in his spii'it, and the loveableness, purity and health of that spirit, and it makes no matter by what denominational name he calls himself, it is not essential that we should all belong to his particular denomination in order to be Christians. Who is the Master spoken of in the text ? He is Christ. See Matthew, xxiii. 10, " Neither be ye called masters, for one is your master, even Christ." It is to this Master I stand or fall — not to the Minister or the Board of Deacons or the Synod or Conference. I am responsible to Christ, alone and if He should justify me it would make but little matter what others would say. By Him alone I will be judged — not by a creed or a discipline. Human institutions T think have a tendency to en- slave us and make us bigoted and narrowminded be- cause we judge from false standards, condemning one another without cause, thus fettering ourselves by cere- monies and rules. It is a good thing to reach the point that Peter did when he exclaimed, " Of a truth I per- ceive that God is no respecter of persons." So it is my friends. Let us feel that Christ is our Master and that ■/iu nmrtm^'"-**^ Tw*.' aif Mi i ^ i '■■ 40 DB. WILD'S SERMONS. we are responsible to Him alone. " For every one of us shall give an account of himself to God." And shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ? The Lord knoweth His own, so if you are His no one can deceive you. Let our juduments he on our own character and life ; may we give such an example to the world that we will load none astray. Let this be the work and design of our life and our future. Amen. '■Mii '■^HU 1 .:ii..!ii 1 I i l!!l I 111 !||li|| SERMON VI. CHILDREN, THE HEATHEN, AND HELL. Text. — "The thief cometh not but for to steal, and kill, and to destroy ; I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly." — John x. 10. The Bible has been given to us to guide us in those matters where our own judgment and reasoning would not be sufficient, and where we would not find the an- swer to the inquiries that our affection might prompt. A parent's relation to the child is of the most tender kind ; it is so tender and strong that it is not possibi for aught to happen to the child without questions be- ing asked by the parents as to why this is so ? What is the result ? When we reason on any of these lines, if we reason on darkly and doubtfully, I mean if we cannot ascertain the truth satisfactorily, what should be the course we should pursue ? The same course the judge pursues when on the bench trying a criminal : to give the advantage of the doubt. Exercise mercy where you have not sufficient authority to declare otherwise. If we would follow out that principle in arguing doc- trines we would modify a great many now held by some persons. People prefer, however, to have theories ; to have certain kinds of doctrines which they well know they prove only in part. They are so sweeping and destructive in their result and application that I do not see why, when they are not absolutely certain about 41 m 42 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. \':$ I r:-\ ![ ■Hi! 1 ilill! il them, they should even aHSUine to express them, because expressions of that kind when incapable of being sus- tained, often do an injury to tender hearts and loving spirits. We must take into consideration the different moods and minds we may be in. An expression of doubt spoken to me when I am strong and happy would have no impression on me, while, on the other hand, I might, through some calamity or affliction, be brought into a tender, nervous state where doubt would greatly influ- ence me. You come to me in such a time with doctrines that are ha rsh in their sequences and you make an im- pression of which you have no idea. You may talk, for instance, of baptizing a child to a person in good health and strength and it makes but little matter what you say ; but if the child has died without baptism and you speak harshly to the parent of the result, you will grieve him sorely and yet you have not the slightest reason to so speak ; you have nothing in scripture to warrarjt it. It is simply traditional. Is it not a curious fact that the three subjects of my sermon are the points about which there has been the greatest variety of opinions you can imagine — opinions, too, that have no foundation in reason, none in affec- tion and none in God's word. It is curious to note how they have handled the child in relation to the atone- ment, and how the various ages and councils have hand- led it. Look, too, at the way we handle the heathen to-day. The mischief with so many ministers is that thej^ damn the heathen although he has not heard of Christ, has no Bible, knows nothing about the economy and iiiiii'i DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 43 plan of salvation as wo know it, and yet they will .swee[) him into hell. The controversy on this point is nearly splitting the church in the States and may do it yet. God's word is as assured and clear on this point as the sun that shines above us. It is a dispute over a theoiy and not over God's word and His rich and ample pro- vision. Is it not curious, too, to read of the queer theories that have been introduced rejjardino: hell, as to its lo- cation, its nature, its lastingness ? Do you suppose that the God who gives us an infancy would allow us to be born outside of the atonement and outside of the true church ? I mean by the church : all tliat are saved by the covenant mercies of God in Christ. Am I to take in the theory that God has thrown any child on the lap of time outside of His atone- ment ? If you do take such an idea, it is contrary to fact and there would not be any warrant for it ; at least, I tlo not see where you would get it. If Christ is going to redeem at all why not redeem the children ? Nearly all the churches, Catholic and Protestant, take this view with modification, although the change in theory does not appear in their creeds. That does not make so much difference, however, as people do not believe in creeds nowadays. Not one out of ten of my Episcopalian brethren believes in the whole thirty-nine articles. They make their individual reservations. Thev are few Me- thodists who take in the whole of their published doc- trines. People do not believe in the kind of hell taught in the catechisms. They are old institutions which have come down to us and we are slow to change them, ■3k 44 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. Hi li!! m \m and it is a good thin<( not to Vm) too eager to make changes because you are apt to begin an agitation that instead of ending to advantage will create trouble. What is the result of our ideas as to the recognition of children ? There is not a church that recognizes them as being in the church. I do not know a single Protes- tant or Catholic creed that allows them to be included in the church, and because they arc not in the church they have instituted other means by which they can be presented and taken in. One method has been that of baptism. They have introduced this ceremony on the ground that it is ne- cessary for the child to be baptised inasmu as it was born in sin, shapen in iniquity and is umL .uc curse and consequently is out of the church. A second cere- mony was then instituted and it was said that the spirit of God through a water baptism gave it a spirit of re- generation, making it clean inside because it has been baptized outside. Has this child sinned that there is this necessity for regeneration ? No, every child is bom in God's great church and under the living wings of the Savior of mankind. Every.child stands accept- able to God and needs no regeneration and needs no office performed on it in order to purify it. As to infant baptism, what should T baptize a child for then if it is not going to be regenerated or brought into the church ? Baptism is a simple fact of conse- cration. That child is owned by God as you are. He is the primary owner of every child, and it is befitting the parent to offer that child in consecration to Him, asking to be helped to train the child in the nurture DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 45 and fear of the Lord. Even the strictest Baptist could not object to a consecration, you are but acknowledg- ing God's primary ownership and i^etting His assistance in its trainin«^, nor will its consecration militate against its success when it gets older. Supposing I do not do this, does the child suffer ? Not at all, as a child's salvation is neither put in your hands nor mine, nor in those of devils or angels or any power in the universe but Christ: "Therefore we labor and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God who is the Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe!' That is, we are all sa- ;d first. What is that salvation we are all saved under ? An unconditional one, because the fall is an unconditional one. In other words, I fell in Adam by a sequence as if my father liad been wilful and spent every cent and I fell into poverty through him. We are all the time falling. You can make your children fall in you. If you are sober and upright they will have the advantage of your in- Huence and means, if you are drunken and wicked they will be the heirs of your wilfulness. You cannot .say : 1 will not let this evil go down to my children. As the Adamic fall comes down to all the children of men, so we are saved in the second Adam, Christ, uncondition- ally. " As in Adam all died even so in Christ shall all be made alive " — not a child left out ; " all" compre- hensive. Wo are all put in a SAved condition as we enter upon time, and remain so until the balances of eternal life are put in our hands and we are put in charge of our own character and destiny. Then, and not till then may we ask you : Will you continue in this •mi I i't! I lllill 46 DR WILD'S SERMONS. mm lii 1! true church, or will you depart from it ? Will you re- main under the care of this good shepherd ? Will you publicly acknowledge the outward form and become a member of the local church ? That is the point. There is a point of freedom in law we fix when a per- son becomes responsible before the law ; until then the law covers the child till it gets to maturity. Would the law of God be less sheltering and shielding ? Will we keep a child free from the harsh hand of the law, and then expose it to hell and damnation before it comes to years of discretion ? There is something in these old theories that is degrading to us and dishonoring to God. That such an idea should come into our minds that He would be so cruel touching human life in its infancy, is revolting. The little spirit is growing up in its house of clay, looking out into all the avenues of the world, struggling to learn the mysteries of life, and yet if it should happen to die it would be damned ! No, no ! God has made sure provision for it. I do not know that we would have been born at all but for sin ; and I ques- tion if we would have had any infancy. I believe that God, after the freedom of man had been perverted, saw what the result would be. I imagine, He said : " Now I can, by an honest plan, redeem the race of man, and ensure the salvation of one-half, for they will die before they get to years of maturity." " Of such is the king- dom of heaven." " I will secure all the children by one stroke of redemption. As they drop oft' I will gather them into heaven. I will make the kingdom of heaven all the larger, as I am not so sure they will all accept Me when they get older." And " of such " certainly im- plies number. DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 47 I think, too, that children have a place in the econo- my and provisions of the atonement of Christ. Our Saviour wished it to be distinctly understood that He had done such a great work for them as well : " Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones." Who is saying this ? The great shepherd. " For 7 say unto you " ; I know the place I am talking of; I know what is going on there, " For I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." The great shepherd has taken charge of them within the heavenly fold, beyond the sowing and reaping, beyond the temptations and dan- gers. One of the greatest consolations to anyone who loses a child must be that they can sing : " I have a baby in the promised land," I have a lamb in the heavenly fold. Christ further says : " Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." So that when I am converted I am put in the same condition in respect to salvation as my child. " What shall I do to inherit eternal life ? " says a man. The answer is : " Be converted and become as a little child ; come into the kingdom — your child is there already, but you have wandered away. Come back where you once were." Is not this inference correct ? No wonder the children carried the palm branches and sang " Hosannah to the Son of David ! " No won- der Christ rebuked His disciples and said, " suffer the little children to come unto me." " But if we bring ■^ 48 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. children unto the church it will be wrong," says one. " Whosoever receiveth one such little child in my name receiveth me." Would that be wrong ? I think not. The heathen stands in the same relation to the re- vealed gospel and its mission as a child does, because he is ignorant and knows not the law. He does not know the Bible and its revelation, or that Christ saved him, as the infant does not know the mother that presses it to the fountain of life, but shall its ignoraL>ce militate against it ? Not at all. There are heathens that know not the sound of Jesus' name and have never heard of the Bible. Has God made no provision for them until, we can carry them the gospel and lift them up to a higher plane of manhood ? He has. Read Romans ii. 11-12, " For there is no respect of persons with God, For as many as have sinned without law shall also per- ish without law ; and as many as have sinned in the law shall be jutlged by the law." There can be nothing plainer or more definite. They are judged by a law of their own and a proportion of them are being saved, just as a proportion are being saved in Christian society. Let us not be too harsh with them ; let us so lean to mercy's side as to make us more tender and loving. God has called your little ones to Himself ; some of your lambs are in the heavenly fold ; the iiock here is divided perhaps. Are you, as parents, within this fold ? If not, may I not invite you in ? (Jome and take the outward form— ^make a visible expression to the world that your testimony may be always an anchor to you, and help to save others. « SERMON VII. THE CONFESSION OF A THUMBLESS MAN. Text. — •' And Adoni-bezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table : as I have done, so God hath requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died. " — Judges i. 7. " Adoni " means Lord, and " Bezek " lightning. The latter was the name of two towns in Palestine — one but a few miles from Jerusalem, three miles from Beth- lehem, and the other forty-one miles from Jerusalem and seven from Shechem. The latter is the one proba- bly referred to. It had been destroyed by lightning and was afterwards conquered and rebuilt by this A.doni- bezek, who is therefore called " the lord of the light- ning." The Canaanites of course possessed this part of the land. Judah and Simeon were selected by Joseph to go forth and take this country for their use. It seems at first sight a little cruel that Providence should dis- possess those who had occupied the land for two hun- dred years. We are to go back to the original grant, however, when God granted to Abraham and his children the land of Palestine. These Canaanites came from another part of the country, having a roving dis- position, and settled in Palestine which rightly be- longed to the house of Israel, which had a perfect right D 49 r;v'rriifflkWif4f^3;*.;- it»*sirt^-Mi.. 50 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. L :ill!Hni :iili!illil 1 :ii! m i i III iil ' ■;,4ii 1 ■' l: 1 is < to dislodge the Canaanites, and to force them back to their own Idumean country. You will remember they pursued them, slaying ten thousand of Adoni-bezek's subjects and capturing the king himself. I judge he had been a powerful local king. Kings were very numerous in the early history of the world, and they will continue to grow less in number untilat the millennium there will be only one left, who will rule as a type and representative of the great King, the one true God. Democracies, monarchies and oligarcies will finally have to run into a theocracy, and God will have only one representative on earth, as under the old econ- omy He could have but one high priest, because the type must agree in number as in aught else. I have no doubt, as I have said, that this Adoni-bezek was a strong local king. When captured, after his at- tempt to escape, he honestly said : " As I have done, so God hath requited me," when, as a form of punish- ment, his captors cut off his thumbs and great toes, thus maiming him that he might be of no more service in war. He was in all probability a strong and powerful man physically, for that was an essential quality in a king in those days. Physical prowess was not exhibited at the cannon's mouth or with the rifle or sword, but in a soldier's strength and endurance to handle the bow and arrow and spear. In the pre- sent day, it is far different. The average size and height of soldiers is being graded down so that five feet is as acceptable in height as six feet. All little men therefore ought to be soldiers, as they are not so much a target as larger men. DR. WILUS SERMONS. 51 How would the cutting oft' of his thumbs and great toes ? you say, unfit him for fighting ? Remember that in seizing a bow and arrow, the thumbs of a man are his main leaders, one holds the arrow, the other pulls the bow, and a man without thumbs therefore could never be a bowman. The great toes are levers for the spring in the step, and their loss weakens them in drawing the bow. Thus Adoni-bezek was totally crippled and ren- dered unfit for further military service. It was quite common, as we read in history, to kill men who held valuable state secrets, or the architects of buildings, where vast treasures were held so that they would not impart their knowledge to others. If that rule were enforced in these days it would keep the architects a little scarce. They had also a custom of punishing for an equality — an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. The hand would be cut off" if a forgery were committed, as that would be the offending member, and the tongue would be cut out if guilty of false swearing. They were thus trying to be just as well as they could. One of the principal designs of Christianity is of course to temper justice with mercy by giving time to the offender to repent and receive forgiveness. The time given, how- ever, should be used for repentance and not to commit other sins. " Behold the goodness and severity of God," says Paul. That is. His goodness is seen in the lengthening out of our days and giving us repeated op- portunities. His severity is seen when He comes to judgment and brings us finally to the bar of God to give an account of the deeds done in the body, whether they shall have been good or evil. rifmmi 52 DR. WILUS SERMONS. ..ill' i % III .1.::;, , I , .11' :'!!i nil Ideas in older times ran on the line of simple punish- ment. They were governed by their idea of God. Our idea of God, in fact, is a ver}'- potent factor in re- gulating most things in this world, for whatever a man's idea of God is, it will tell in his conduct and thought. We find this true in history. Those that made gods for tliemselves were very much like the gods they made. The whole effort of those who had gods of cruelty and war, like the Norsemen, was to fight, for thus they thought they were serving God. It is true to-day that a man's idea governs his conduct. Our ideas of justice have changed as our knowledge of God has changed. When a man gets the idea that God is a father as well as a judge it tempers his thoughts and gives an increased value to life. If a man should kill a brother or relative of mine I was under obligation under the old law to kill someone in his family — a life for a life. They did not take in the idea that God was ruling and that He would by and bye recompense to men according to their deeds. They took the government in their own hands and became their own executioners. When clearer ideas of God came through further revelation we see the Mosaic law in its completion, and judgment is taken out of the hands of the people. When a man offended or broke the law it not left to those whom he had offended to pronounce judgment, but he was brought before the impartial judges who judged between those who had done the wrong and those who claimed to be offended. Christianity thus gradually lifted up the people, alid is not the advance on this line remarkable ? Supposing DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 53 we were left to-day without court, judge or executive, what would we do ? The men who are strong and courageous would kill off the timid and the weak. It certainly better that our offences shall be judged by impartial men a|)pointed by the law. A judge may not al'vays be right, but he will be right better than you and I likely. Let the court and the executive pun- ish the man — not man punish man. Even when we come to a fuller expression of God as His love is revealed in Christ, it woj'ks its way. Where Christianity is fully accepteil we see its marked results. It educates and regulates a man. We do not put men in jail today to punish them. We do not hang a man for his own sin, for if we thought no one else would murder we would not likely hang him. He is hung for those that are living, and that it may deter you and me from repeating his act. It is for you there- fore that he is hung. We do not glory in punishment but in forgiveness. We would let them all out of jail if we were sure they would do no further wrong, but as long as i)eaceable people are outside and they are in jails, and would assault and steal and murder if they were out, we cannot afford to leave the citizens unpro- tected. Now, this is Christianity in its very fulness. We do not go on the line simply of revenge. God does not inflict willingly. He will not put a man in hell willingly or because he loves it. The old theological idea that He took" pleasure in it is not correct, and is very little received to-day. Punishment is for a man's good. There is not a man in jail to-day but is there tor his own good — at least, wc think so. We are trying ^"Hffw^m 54 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. ■.,i ■"llii to do him good by restraining the evil in his nature and getting him to accept lines of honesty and upright- ness in thought and deed. So when God punishes He does so for the man's own good and for the good of all the rest ; it is not vindictive. When people arguee that God is vindictive, they argue without respect to the law. We find what methods of punishment men resorted to in early days when man's inhumanitv to man was something marvellous. Look at the confession made by this captured king — an honest confession that very few people imitate. He recognised a principle of equity in Providence that will always work out justly either in this world or some other. I do not suppose equity is fully reached in this world. This is not all of our life, and the man who does not get full justice here will in the next world. '* Say to the righteous it shall yet be well with him, for he shall eat of the fruit of his doing," says Isaiah. It is not well with me now, says a man. Very well, do not murmui or do wrong, for " it shall yet be well with you." The more you are unjustly abused here the greater will be your reward yonder. You are laying up treasures in heaven. It is seldom that we make an honest confession on certain lines. There is a principle running through all nature that provides for compensations. " Woe to the wicked. It shall be ill with him for he shall efc receive the reward of his doing," balances the passage I have above quoted. Some punishments take place in this world and some are deferred to the next, but the great judgment day will put everything right, !iK DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 55 How naturally we evade Providence and take away its honor. We are all more or less guilty of this. Talk with a man who has been very successful in life and began poor. He will tell you how he began very low and worked upward, through hardships and trials until he had established his home and his competency. He fails to give credit to God for it, however. In the language of Nebuchadnezzar they will boast : Is not this the farm / cleared ? Is not this the house 1 have built ? Have 3'^ou earned it alone I would ask ? Is there no God in your success ? Has there been no Providence in your life ? Give God a little credit. Say that the Lord has been good to you, and that He liath favored the work of your hand. Young man, do you want to succeed in life ? Acknowledge God and He will direct all your ways. Here is another man whose fortune has left him. He descends from his brick house to a log cabin again. Meet him alone and he will tell you that Providence is strange ; that he has been called to pass through very deep waters. My dear sir, the other man when he got his wealth had no God in it. Now you want to pile all your misfortunes on Him. You say Providence has been against you. In most cases a scrutiny of our conduct will show that our own avaricious dispositions, and our haste to be rich, and our own departure from God have been the cause of all the trouble. Were you at prayer-meeting as often when you were worth $30,000.00 as when you did not own a cent ? We leave God out in the first case, and do not make an honest confession like this thumbless man, when the results of our careless con- 56 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. M ■iJ!i ! duct are seen. It is a policy we should follow that what builds a man up let him stick to it. If fidel- ity to God and devotion to His work helps you in life, brings you friends and makes your money, keep to the same line of conduct that has done all this for you, for just as sure as you change the line of conduct you expose the results of your life. I have seen that illus- trated hundreds of times. As ye have received Christ so walk ye in Him. How did you receive Him ? Humbly and with the confession, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " Or after gaining success in life do you say, Oh, I will give you a little money but don't ask me to do anything more, as I have lots of business to attend to. The way you got lots of busi- ness was by attending to God and that put in you the ability to do what you are doing. You take the latter course at a great risk. This principle I have referred to may not always ap- ply, for the reason that justice may not be done in this world. A man may cheat me and I do not get it back. The principle does not end in this world ; it runs into another. You may have to struggle all your life be- cause of the wilfulness of some one else. But this you are to quietly bear, believing that this will work out for you a far more and exceeding eternal weight of glory. Whatever you suffer, or whatever is imposed upon you outside of your own conduct, is simply an accumulation of wealth and enjoyment that will visit you in the next world. Acts of retaliation run on cer- tain lines. " With what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to j^ou again," is more true than we are will- ing to admit. It comes back in this life sometimes, DR. IVILUS SERMONS. 57 especially in our children, and there is the necessity therefore of always doing that which when we get our recomj>ence will come back as a thing of love, mercy, and good will. Why should a man complain ? says Jeremiah. Because God punishes sin '' What would you do with sin and wrong if it is nut to have its mark ? I believe this principle is true all along the line of nations. I believe the United States had to .suffer because of slavery, and that God demanded ex- actly one white life for every black life, and every dollar made out of slavery was paid back in the accu- mulated debt. Brazil has just freed her slaves, with- out one stroke from the sword or boom from the can- non or shot from the rifle. I believe that in the great battle of Armageddon that China will retaliate upon us for forcing opium upon her people, and th;it for every Chinaman that has been slain by the deadly drug one Englishman will have to fall in the days that are com- ing, and that that great nation will stand in front of us in that great battle, under the sign of tlie " dragon," which figure she now has on her national emblem ; so that the sooner England stops the infamous traffic the bett'^r. It will be just * ^o same as to the evil of United States and Great Britain forcing rum into our mission- ary fields. God help us ! It will be taken out of our children when we are dead and gone. We are leaving a legacy they will have to pay. "As we have done, so will God requite us." Let us see God in all things, and let us feel that He enters into our lives, that He is in sympathy with us in all things that pertain to good. Amen. .!; h,llii||! 'ill III! 1 1 1 ' ; i R W m 1 Sffll ill 1 111 1 SERMON VIII. WHAT SHOULD I BELIEVE? Text. — *' Let ua therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another." — Rom. xiv. 19. Thk present life seems to be educational in its character, nature and design. The implanted love of life, our inability to conceive of death, our dread of cessation of being, our loathing of the thought of annihilation, and the promptings of the heart towards another life and world, are presumptive proofs in favor of our continued existence ; indeed, in these things there seems to be a provision for and an anticipation of a future existence. There is a correlative for everything in nature ; for evejy instinct ; for every hope and sensation. What is correlative with the instincts and longings we have touching existence ? The correlative for the eye, for instance, is light. You could see no use for eyes unless there was light, but the fact of eyes having been made implies that there would be some medium by which they can see and be of service. Providence does not make things without a correlative. As the eye implies light, the instinctive longings for a continuous exis- tence implies that there is another life. The constant promptings, the thinking about and looking forward to another life, are on the line of correlatives. All nature, I think, is properly indexed, pointing to 5{$ DR. WILD'8 SEUMONS. 59 work, place and destiny. You may easily verify this by turning to that which is within the i*ange of our senses in nature. Take the bird. How naturally it constructs its nest ! It knows where to select a place and material, and the shape of its little home. All this is done for a purpose. Instinct is in the bird and you could not instruct it. I watched an oriole for four successive years on my farm. It hangs its nest from a branch like a basket, entering from the side, the upper part of the doorway extending beyond the lower so as to keep the rain out. Long blades of grass woven together made a home beautiful and soft, and the little ones rock to and fro in their tiny cradle as the wind blows. The mother bird understood all this. Go through the whole animal world and each member of it is equipped and fitted for its station and place. Do you suppose Providence would have taught the oriole how to locate and build its nest if it never had to erect a home ? No. The very fact of conception implies a correlative. And so the instinctive longing of man for a future life implies such a life. We may have a life without being able to communicate a consciousness of that life, and it does not follow that we should be able to tell all about it even if we were actually living that life now. A child is life, but it cannot communicate to us its life. So we may be in the midst of immortal life, but it does not follow that we can communicate it. Life is not dependent upon communication. I believe we are immortal now — not that we become so, but we are so. One might ask whether we could not express our ideas more clearly or have more tangible 60 DR. WILUS SERMONS. V::ii 'ill li' Jl 111!, mil views of it, if this be so I repeat life may be hid and generally is until it is wanted. When, however, the proper correlative comes it will fit on to its corres- ponding instinct or aft'ection. You can see this illus- trated in a baby. It is not alone, for loving friends welcome it, and God has kindly provided for all its weaknesses. If a child lacks friends, God is making it up in the mother — piling the love higher in her. It will get many a kiss from her for it. God makes a wise provision in all things, especially where there is innocence and weakness. The proper correlatives will always chime in with our instincts, hopes, and fears. You need not fear to take the Gospel to any people in the world. They soon recognize the Bible's description of sin, and know that it is as true as the rising sun ; they soon recog- nize the great gift of the Atonement of Christ — it suits them as it does us. It is the correlative for which they have beer longing. They have been bowed down with guilt, and are hungry for peace. Here comes the missionary, who points them to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world, and the long looked-for peace comes to them. The Bible makes known to us our origin. A person may ask : What shall I believe ? A scientist teaches m? this, and the Bible teaches me that. The Bible has its theory of our origin. You say you do not know whether man was made as Scripture declares. Well, he was made some way. Find out something more reasonable than the Bible theory if you disagree with it, if you can. Do you suppose, honestly speak DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 61 ing, that of all the theories submitted by men of science, anything more simple, or more agreeable with common sense, has been presented than what the Bible asserts ? I believe not. They point out our nature. We find it kindly and pleasantly represented in this Book. The Bible is the book of man, and he finds his own experience recorded there. It is the book of the sinner, telling him how he feels ; it is the book of the Christian, telling him that the fruits of his following the Lord Jesus Christ are joy and peace : it fits his experience, too. In Nature there are antidotes for physical evils and diseases which experience and practice have proved. The gospel is about the best remedy we 'have for the removal of guilt, f r the suppression of evil and for the establishment of holiness and purity of life. There is perhaps an antidote in nature for every evil, if we only knew. In medicine, science, and mechanics we are seeking after peace. Disease means that there is something at war. The doctor tries to quiet the nerves and ease the pain ; he is doing those things that prudence and experience and the accumulated wisdom of the past have suggested. He is seeking peace through the body and mind. So in science we are following in the line of peace, and endeavoring to remove all danger in mechanics. We are asking for all the safety, speed, and use we can get. This is had in the Pullman railway carriage, as compared with the stage coach of the days gone by. In the department of morals and spiritual experience we misuse and disabuse certain provisions. Look, for ■:A*^ iB ll'lll 11 :iil i i I ! Ill' ■tPiu! "ilUliil iiiiiiii 11 ,t ' ': i' i M fi2 DB. WILD'S SERMONS. o o' instance, at the self-imposed suffering of humanity, See how much we impose upon ourselves for which there is no necessity ! How much we impose on other people too, for which there is no need, in the way of self-imposed suffering, sorrow, and trouble. The remedy for all this is in the gospel. The spirit of the gospel would save us and would be the best remedy that could po.ssibly be applied. Spiritually, men neglect and misuse and despise God's mercies. There are thousands of people who are poor and miserable and worried and sorrowful, while there is a fount of joy in the gospel, which they are asked t taste : " Come and take of the waters of life freely.' How many, like Hagar, are mourning and lamentin in the world, and yet desire peace — a peace that can be had for the asking. The whole Bible ' teaching is on the line of peace. The higher products of humanity — individually, socially and nationally — are the results of Christianity. I mean to say that the best product, humanly speaking, we have known, — the best kind of civilization, the best kind of political, social or labor life, is the product of Christianity ; at least, they are only found where Chris- tianity is. They have for their correlative the gospel of Jesus Christ. If then we mount higher in life and secure a greater peace and prosperity through and by means of this gospel of Christ, why should we not lay hold of it ? If, for instance, the gospel has blessed my father and mother and made them kind, peaceable and happy, more loving and better as neighbors, if it has contri DR. JFILD'S SERMONS. 63 biited to their success in life, why should I not follow their rules of life and accept the religion of Christ ? Another man may represent his views from an jigrnostic, a scientific or moralist point of view, and make claims based on one of these. I simply repeat that the highest product I have seen in this world is from the gospel of Christ. As I am seeking the best and I desire the best for myself, to be consistent I must be a Christian. If I want to believe I must be- lieve on the line of peace and edification ; on the line that brings the greatest good, and experience says the gospel is the fountain from which this peace and edifi- cation flow. A man can meet death, for instance, in himself or others, because it is found in the gospel. I can easily understand the hope of the Psalmist when he looks forward to the other life and rises from the pleading for the preservati a of his child. "Now he is dead, wherefore should I fa fc. I cannot bring him back again, but T shall go to be with him." I can under- stand, I say, 1 *w death in another is easy to that man ; how death ct \ing into a family where father and mother are Chn tians, they look through the tears to another life, to a meeting again. " Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil ; for thou art with me ; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me," says the Psalmist. I think a man living under such an inspiration has a better chance of enjoying life. He who looks to the end with an un- certainty of mind must question : I wonder where I will go ? and what my lot will be ? The inspiration ■ !-i m ■ : 11! lilllil! ■I ml 64 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. of a belief in the life to come and a heaven will make us handle the sorrows and trials of life better. Have we this inspiration and this hope ? It is good sense to believe what we do not under- stand sometimes, but not to believe that which is con- trary to I'eason and common sense. I can believe, for instance, in the incarnation of our Saviour, because it is the work and product of a God. However mys- terious it might be or difficult for me to understand 1 can see how God could bring incarnation to pass. " Great is the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh," says Paul. I say so, too, Paul. I do not underuLand it. When we study it over and try to understand it on human lines we say it is a mystery. Supposing a friend should ask me to believe in the doctrine of transubstantiation in connection with the. sacrament ; that the bread and wine are actually con- verted into the flesh and blood of Christ, and that there is life in each and every part, all this would be contrary to my common sense and I am not obliged to believe it. You say : you should believe contrary to your sense. If you ask faith of that kind you might ask me to believe anything, whether there was reason in it or not. The Catholics quote John vi. 53, literally. It reads : "Verily, verily I say unto you except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood ye have no lire in you." This verse has reference, no doubt, to that which is spiritual. The spiritual and inward man feasts upon the flesh and blood of Christ. Read the 63rd verse, where our Savior gives the key : "It is the spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth nothing : the words that I speak DR. WILD'S SSR.)fO]^S, 65 unto you, they are spirit, and they aie life." Some people, however, do not read on this far. I can take in the 53rd verse in the light of the 03rd an^ Ua \ k > ^ ^ k 86 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. :i i ! sou in which the parts play in harmony one with the other to a given result. Any note of an organ must be a unit in itself and if a true unit it will harmonize with the rest and do away with discord. Harmony is the aggregation of the units, and so it is in anything that is made. A single wheel in my watch must be perfect in itself, and then it will work in harmony with the watch. So there is a design in us. It is the design of Christ that we should walk in harmony — not only to be at peace with ourselves^ be right in ourselves, but be right with all the world, but I cannot be right with the world if I am wrong in myself. If a man gets angry he cannot think everybody is just right; while in those moods you are apt to blame some one else un- justly. God in nature, in His word, and by His spirit reveals His design and his intention to us. In the latter part of the last century the English government made pro- vision for shipwrecked sailors on certain islands in the South seas by building little houses and supplying them with canned meats and food. Supposing a shipwreck- ed crew saw the building and the flagstaff, and found the food and shelter, would they think it had grown there ? Would not even a heathen say it was put there, on purpose ? Exactly, that is design. So God has put through the atonement of Christ, salvation and grace for the shipwrecked sinner, and it is as much a design and for a purpose, as were the provisions of the English Government. Some mistake the divine design and the whole drift of the economy of Christ. They do not understand ¥ < f ^,j J)R WILD'S SEEMONS. 87 V- this double-working, — these two workers. Every man is in partnership with hell or heaven ; with God or the devil ! Some expect God to even will and do for them. They are not satisfied that they shall have work to do, but ask God to go farther and will and do it too. No, He stops with the willing. Some expect too much ; they not only want God to convict but to convert them, and make them do the right all the time and care for them in every way, like a girl or boy who may get an over confidence in their parents to the extent that they expect them to take complete care of them. You will never make a smart young man or woman if that is the course of your life. Their training in you is to be worked out by you ; they have qualified you for life's battles ; you must fulfil their hopes and wishes. So our heavenly Father works in us, turning us to- ward the good and operating upon our will that we should carry out His will and purposes. A great many people too say, in effect, If God thinks I should be converted He will do it in his own good clay. I do not believe He ever converted a single man or woman without their own help. If He ever did, I would say : My Father, why dost thou not convert the whole world ?, If He had this power, I believe He would sweep His divine and magic hand of love over all, converting everyone unto Christ. Why not ? Because He cannot. He has put the bar in His own way. He has made us free and He will not destroy His own law ; He is consistent. He has left something for us to do. Again, some expect to do all themselves in their ex- treme need, losing sight of this co-partnership with God, 88 />/;. WILD'S SEiaiONS. ill! ii"^ll'''''lStli"il^i ii il and trying to work out alone their own salvation, by self-sacrifice and hard and laborious toil. It is not pos- sible ! They go to an extreme here as where God is trusted to do everything. A man or woman has never lived on God's earth that could convert themselves or work out alone their own salvation. It must be ca joint work and a co-partnership. To expect God to do all, or to believe that we can do all in our own strength is fatal to salvation in either case. The human is based upon the divine. We originate nothing, but we execute certain things. The voluntary organs are based upon the involuntary. My heart is not dependent upon my will, and I am glad it is not. If I had to remember evejy time I breathed I would be apt to forget. God has put certain organs in us that go on whether we are telling the truth or lying — the lungs heave, heave, heave ; the heart beats, beats, beats, because they are continuous, and I have no con- trol over them. I lift my hand ; it is a voluntary organ, but I could not move it were it not for the un- ceasing work of the involuntary organs. God is the heart, the lung, the life; and I, as a volun- tary agent, can take hold of this life of God's. God is ever-present, always alive, ever willing to receive us, and whenever you voluntarily cease your rebellion, confess your sins, and ask His pardon, you may be free. God works in nature on the same principle. The sun is warming the earth. Seeds are hidden in the soil. The heat will penetrate to them, and the rain will fall, and the seeds will burst forth and grow. DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 89 ^ 1* That is the sun and the earth co-operating with God, a.s the basis of all. Some are always trying to analyze as to how much they ought to do, and how much God should do. The best plan is to do all you ought to do, and God will do His part. I once knew a Dr. Dwight, a delicate look- ing man, who analysed the food he ate. Bob, his ser- vant, however, who never troubled himself about dis- criminating as to his diet, was stout and jolly, and his master would have had more sense if he had been guid- ed by his taste and his stomach. If we have not got sense ourselve.' the Lord will put sense in a man's stomach, and teach him what to eat and what to reject. My dear friends, what good judgment dictates, what the very instincts of your soul prompt you, so do. If you feel that you ought to acknowledge Christ, do so ; if you are prompted to visit the sick, do so. Whatever line of good opens up, enter therein. God works in us, and some of you have a knowledge of this kind of work. You know it is your joy. This working of the Divine Spirit is the most tender thing that attends us in our life, I can remember the tender touches of that kindly Spirit making me feel, almost in childhood, that I ought to give my heart to Christ. How many of us can go back to the time when we first felt these kind promptings. But alas, there are men and women who have been almost persuaded ; almost compelled to acknowledge Christ. The preacher said : Is there anyone here who would like to be a Christian ? if so, rise. Oh, trembling soul, you held on to the seat in rebellion. It was a tender point with you. 1 ques- t'A 1 V- ■p mmamssmmm 90 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. tion if God ever lets a man or woman go into indiffer- ence without passing this critical period of decision or refusal. Every one has seen the time when they were on the verge. God had worked to the very edge of the will, when the manhood He crowned you with assumed its dignity and you said, I will not to-night. You made a fatal choice. I would say to you, young men and women, let these tender feelings work in you now that you are plastic. When you become older and the conscience is seared, and you are hardened by the world, can you feel these feelings ? not so easily. Tlie tender thoughts that within you burn in your young hearts is the Spirit of God striving with you. Do not quench this Spirit, I pray you. Some know the Spirit because of their resistance, others because they have yielded to it. God is more delicately related to us than most of us think, giving us kind impressions and influences. I am often glad that in early youth I was led to the Saviour. I think a man converted at fifty, who has led perhaps a rough and hard life in many senses, must be full of old sores and temptations left in his mind and soul and rooted in the flesh ; he must have a constant struggle trying to beat down this habit and that, watching his tongue lesL it bulge forth with an oath, watching his in- temperance lest he should fall again. Oh, my young friends, now is the time while youth is yours, and be- fore these habits are formed and their resultant tempta- tions are embedded in the flesh and soul. Give your heart to God this very morning. Be a co-worker with Him. God and nature are a majority. Amen. SERMON XII. THE DEVIL'S FIGHT FOE THE BODY OF MOSES. il Text. — " Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said. The Lord rebuke thee." — Jude i. 9. Two men have lived of whom we may say that they have done the world a great deal of good in a pre-emi- nent sense ; that they have given shape and tone and quality in a very remarkable degree to the course and force of civilization. The life and writings of the apostle Paul for instance, contained in his fourteen epistles in the New Testament, have been a potent factor in the uplifting of men and nations in their religious experience and practice. No emperor, nor king, nor great one among men in this world has so impressed the ages with a wholesome Christlike influence as Paul. Independent of his writings, the world would have been far behind what it now is, and we can only measure and take in his full stature and influence by believing what he tells us : that he was taught of God, that is, he was subject to a spirit of inspiration in a very high degree. For the second character, I call your attention to Moses, the Hebrew leader and lawgiver. What a colossal figure he is, standing out in bold relief in the flickering light of a decaying civilization ! A giant 91 M ■M^ JLj-- 92 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. i intellectually, in his influence and in his work, tlic head and centre of two million slaves. The Ei^yptians had exchanged the one true God for many gods. They were forgetting the example of Noah, the lessons of the flood and the holy teaching of the prophetic Shem. The farther they wandered from the Noachic centre of righteousness the dimmer the light became, the greater the confusion, and the more numerous their gods. That is always true of human nature. If you were not Christians in the sense you are, you would ofler twenty prayers a day instead of two, as you now do. If you were a heathen and had not been taught how to pray you would ofler ten times as many prayers as you now do. When you pray to-night thank the Lord that you are a Christian, because it relieves you of so much prayer, * Going to Egypt we find their temples, tombs, pyra- mids and monuments covering the land dedicated to every imaginable gotl. Their idolatry was impoverish- ing them by demanding their time in worship, feasts and fasts that otherwise should have been spent in lawful business ; by locking up their needed capital in useless and supei"stitious structures, and by polluting their morals, which, as fast as they became polluted, reacted on the gods till some of them were made patrons of lust, while their worship as a result degenerated into abominable debauchery. Idolatry ever tends to moral pollution, and the destruction of lawful commerce. No people yet have practised it that have been superior in morality. Picture, image, relic and saint worship have the same tendency now as then, in Ireland as in if .11 : 'i , DR. WILD'S SERMOISrS. 93 Egypt ; in Spain as in Canada. They never succeed in producing a better tone or a greater quantity of morality, or quality of spirituality. They invariably fail to answer their end as memorials or reminders, for veneration soon degenerates into adoration, Pygmalion like. If history teaches us a lesson at all on this point, it is that it is a dangerous experiment. In Egypt, idolatry had its best and fairest trial, royalty and princes, nobles and peasants patronizing it. Anaxandrides, a Greek writer, gives us a picture which is highly amusing. He is writing to the Egyptian priests and says : " I cannot agree with you Egyptians, our customs and laws differ so widely. You adore the ox ; I sacrifice it to the gods. You think the Eel a great deity ; we look upon it as the most delicious dainty. You abstain from the flesh of swine ; I delight in it beyond all things. You adore the dog ; I give him a good beating whenever I catch him stealing my meat. If you see a cat indisposed you weep ; I delight to kill it and take its skin. The Mygale with you has great influence ; with us none whatever." The state and condition of Egypt at this time, and the tendency of human nature to relapse into idolatry, is the key to many of the restrictive and peculiar laws of the Mosaic code. The children of Israel had been living in a land where idolatry was the predomi- nating religion, and these laws were essential for those who had been born in Egypt and who would be likely to follow its practices. And yet we wonder why some of these Mosaic laws were introduced, such aa in ¥: •^ Mi mmm wm 94 BR. WILD'S SERMONS. Leviticus xix. 27, " Ye shall not round the corners of your head, neither shall thou mar the corners of thy beard." This meant that for certain penance to a cer- tain god, the Egyptians cut off the corner of the beard and loft bare a portion of the head, thus showing to the world what they were doing. Again, in Leviticus xix. 19, " Neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee." The Egyj)tians had a god for the street and one for the flax and men. In order to placate these two gods, they would wear special garments made of both linen and wool for special ser- vices. By doing that, they believed the sheep would produce more wool and the field more flax. Moses says, " Don't you do that ; do not dress yourselves to please heathen gods." Read, too, in Deut. xxii. 5, " The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth to a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment ; for all that do so are an abomination unto the Lord." This has reference to a terrible form of worship. The difference in dress comes down to us as a line of dis- tinction, but the Egyptians did it for the purpose of worshipping the god Phalli — the worst and most abominable god this world has ever seen. Even ancient Rome when steeped in idolatry and a very hotbed of natural and unnatural vices, found it to be intolerable, and the Senate suppressed it. Moses, there- fore, made the statement in the verse to save his people from similar evils. And yet, many would read these verses and say, what nonsense ! In nine cases out of ten it means that we have not got the sense to under- stand them. Rabbi Maimonides, well says in respect ii'rt DK WILD'S SERMONS. 95 to the Jewish people : " The Mosaic laws were well designed to eradicate idolatry and to blot out the very memory of it ; to banish everything that might lead men to practise as soothsayers, diviners, enchanters, and necromancers and to prevent all assimilation to heathen practices." It was a difficult thing to keep this people from falling into idolatry. See the ten- dency they evinced in this direction in the wilderness ; how soon they fell back into its practices. How soon we can fall back into an early habit. How easily men once accustomed to swear can return to it again ! If you read the history of this people, you will see how frequently they relapsed into idolatry. When Moses went up on the mountain he had not been gone three days before^they were bowing down to the golden calf. They were constantly falling. Let me say here, that I would recommend to young men and women, if you intend to be Christians begin as soon as you can. I tell you honestly, from my own experience of society and men, that if you go on ac- cumulating habits, they will abide as old sores even after your conversion. You will have to battle them and watch them all your life. Give your heart to God before you get those habits of corruption in you. You must remember that idolatry pervaded all classes, races, and nations outside of the Hebrew people, and the laws of idolatry had labelled all birds, beasts, insects, fruits, etc., hence it was necessary for Moses to give his people rules and laws as to what was clean and unclean, and to command them not to walk in the manner of the nations round about them. The Jewish, c? ' i} I wm 96 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. Ill'- HM, Talmud says : " Keep aloof from their bread and their oil on account of their wine, and from their wine on account of their daughters, and from their daughters on arcount of their idols," No wonder the five books of Moses include 613 commandments — 248 affirmative, and 365 negative. The character and work of Moses are both sublime themes. Look at his work as a leader, leading thous- ands of slaves from a land where they had been in bondage for centuries, and yet look at the preliminary training he received : forty vears in the royal house- hold of the greatest king of that day, where he became polished and educated ; then banished for forty years leading a nomadic life, and then leading his people through the wilderness for another period of forty years. There is no romance that exceeds the life of Moses. And after all, see the result of his one fault alas, what a single fault can do ! One fault in this desk banishes me forever from ii. Moses' anger at Kadesh (Numbers xx. 12) prevents him from entering the land of promise. After forty years of toil and hope he fails to enter Canaan. What is the lesson, my friends ? Take care that the one fault does not cut us out from the heavenly land. Take one half of society, and it is one fault that dominates men. Moses' prayer on being told by the Lord that he should not see Canaan is one of the most plaintive prayers ever uttered, Deut. iii. 24 : " Lord God, thou hast begun to show thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand : for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might ? DR. WILUS SERMONS. 97 " I pray thee, let me go over and see the good land tliat is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Le- banon. ' " But the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me. v. " Get thee up into the top of Pis^ah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes : for thou shalt not go over "ihis Jordan/' What an answer to a prayer ! We see Moses as- cending the mountain, according to God's connnand, 120 years old wrapt up in that noble old frame, " the eye not dim nc his natural force abated." He bids ^ood-bye to liis people. 1 can imagine the tears fall- ing as they look up^.r him. " Good-bye," Moses might have said : " I have led you hexe. You are just at Kailesh. Just across that valley is the river of Canaan." I wonder he did not steal a march on God and step into the coveted land ! But he believed in his God too well. We often try to steal these marches but never succeed. - " So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord, and he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor. But no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day." (Deut. xxxiv. 5.) I take it for granted that this account was written by Joshua, or some one instructed of heaven, though Josephus says Moses wrote it himself before his death. The event of my text has of course certain forms of interpretation. Jude, in his epistle, probably' quoted a i . ;. % 98 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. ^'^' 111 m from one of the now Lost Books of Revelation, which was entitled, " The Ascension, or Assumption, of Moses the Servant of God." The Church Fathers refer to this book — Origen making special mention of it. But. like the Book of Prophecies of Enoch, from which Jude also makes a quotation, it has been lost. Perhaps they served their time and purpose, and there was no need of their coming down to us. There are two explanations of his death, both of which appear reasonable, one being that he did not literally die, but that his disappearance was actual and a death to the people ; that he was translated and carried away bodily as Enoch of old. That, in my opinion, is the con version, although it is difficult, without lengthy argument, to prove it. The other in- terpretation is that Moses died a natural death and that the body was literally buried. We know very little as to the powers and privileges of Satan. The Bible styles him, " The prince of the power of the air and God of this world," His titles give us the idea that he had charge of death. " Christ died that through death he might destroy him that hath power over death." Here is Moses who is not going to die a natural death. The devil says : that is wrong, I am the lord of death yet, and until the great Master comes and sub- jects me and destroys my authority. And Michael and Satan contended : Satan knowing the tendency of hu- man nature to idolize wants Moses embalmed and carried with them, like the bones of Joseph. Michael DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 99 dare not speak to him with " a railing accusation," but said : " the Lord rebuke thee." I believe Moses' body was separated for a short time from his spirit ; that he passed through that change, and it was during those few minutes that the spirit was absent from the body that Satan wanted him, but Moses was re-resurrected, as it were, like Lazarus, thrown back into his natural body and then passed on to heaven. Satan objected to such an evasion of the law and wanted the body. I believe Moses is in heaven now in a bodily form like Enoch, Elijah, and our Saviour ; Enoch standing for the antediluvian world, Moses for the Levitical, Elijah for the Prophetic world, and Christ for the Christian world : you thus have a sample in heaven of each of these great dispen- sations. Satan could have made use of the body of Moses, as I have said. Had his body been found it would pro- bably have led the Israelites astray, by leading them into idolatiy. He would have been the most wor- shipped of any person on the earth, and it was neces- sary therefore fcr God to hide his grave, and carry him away to another land. There are to be two witnesses at the last day in the time of Antichrist. Read Rev. xi. 3, and following verses. Who were the witnesses of the transfigurati* n that Peter, James and John saw ? They tell us that Moses and Elijah talked with our Saviour of his de- cease. We know that Elijah was caught up into heaven ; Moses was caught up too. I believe Moses is in heaven now, and that he will at the last day, lead 100 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. the Jews, who will be in the Antichrist rebellion. When the Jews hear and see Mosns, and he tells thein that Jesus is the very Messiah tliey will be converted in a day. Moses will come to the Jews ; Elijah will come to the Israelites, and show that they are brethren. i SERMON XIIT. WILL THE AEK OF THE COVENANT EVER BE FOUND? Text. — "And it shall come to pass, when ye bo mixltiplicd ai:J increased in the land, in these day.", saith the Lord, they shall say no more, The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord : neither shall it come to mind ; neither shall they remember it ; neither shall they visit it ; neither shall that be done any more." — Jeremiah iii. 16. You who are Masons present undei*stand a great deal of this verse without any exposition. I am free to say there is a degree in Masonry entirely founded upon the hiding of the Ark. That it was hid no man questions and that its hiding-place was made known to some- body who should know where to go an .1 how to bring it back when the time should arrive, is also beyond question. My text says, " It shall come to pass when ye be multiplied," referring to a future day; "they shall say no more, The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord," i.e., this degree, being founded upon the Ark. when it is once discovered, that portion of Masonry will cease to be. The deofree will then be of no use ; it will have passed out of existence, having served its end. Supposing you had never seen a house or a piece of furniture of any kind, and you were brought to this country, and a house was pointed out to you as a tit and proper place for you to live in, and you were asked to furnish it just as you chose; not having seen a 101 102 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. < ■ '%•:':■ 1! :.l chair, nor a table, nor a stove, nor any other article belonging to a house, I wonder how you would furnish it. Have you ever thought how easily things come to us that we have become familiar with from our child- hood up, but which would terribly puzzle us if wo had to begin anew ? When the inspector would come around to look at the house, what a queer lot of things he would see. Oui- heavenly Father has created this world ; He has furnished it according to His own desire, according to His ov,^n will, and it is marvellous- ly furnished. It is full of curious things in the air, forest, field, river, lake, and sea, under ground and above ground everywhere. He made it, He chose to furnish it just this way, and filled it with birds, fish, beasts, and man, all of His own pleasure. Now there are several things our Lord has done directly, for tliey were patterns of things that are in heaven. There aw. certain things He ordered to be done : He drew U)', for instance, the plan of the Tabermcle and its furni- ture ; He was the architect, and wanted it made the way He ordered — every board just that length, every piece of furniture just that shape, just that size and out of that material. He was a very particular house- keeper. He had a place for everything, and it was just to be there. That wonderful tabernacle could be taken down without injuring a board. It is only at this latter day that we can understand the science of that building ; it is a marvel of construction. It was as solid as this building. Of it we are told that these things serve for the mere shadow of heavenly things as Moses was admonished when he was about to make :' m DR. WILUS SERMONS. 103 the Tabernacle to see, so as to make it according to the pattern shewn in the Mount. These are all patterned from heavenly things. The Holy Ghost sanctified all those visible symbolisms, so that when we go from earth to heaven we would have some idea, I suppose, of cer- tain things. It would be a terrible thing to be put into a place, and not know anything of what was in it. I think this world is a great school. There is not a mineral or a vegetable here that does not give me some information that will be of use to me when I get to heaven. I believe it is just a great kindergarten, where everybody has to learn, through symbolisms, the grander, greater, and richer provisions of heaven. There are certain things the Lord made for us, which I mentioned to you in a former sermon. Let me repeat them. He made the Garden of Eden for His two first children, Adam and Eve. It was very large — 300,000 square miles. It would require some attention, some looking after. Some of us who have gardens 24< by 24 let the weeds grow. Just let your imagination carry you to this garden of 300,000 square miles. It was a magnificent garden. I think of it as well laid out. I imagine I see fountains playing, rivers running through it, one that is called the River of Life. I sup- pose that simply means pure water without any alloy, without any ingredients. We get no pure water. You cannot find a stream entirely pure, because, in passing through the country, they dissolve certain substances, and convert them into liquid. The River of Life was pure, clean ; it would do for a looking-glass, and doubt- less was so used. The Garden, I daresay, was complete 104 DR. WILUS SERMONS. i - t I ) :; , .. ...Ji 1 i in every dcpaitment, complete in its walks, its arrange- ments. Now, the next thing He made was a large ship, Noah's Ark. This was finely constructed. It is only about fifty years ago that we first knew the science of the construction of Noah's Ark. It was not until a Scotchman began to study over the best designs for Cunard steamers. They are drawn from the Ark now. With all our boast of inventions, we never struck the best lines for cutting the water, laying hold of power in wind, and resisting the wave, until we con- structed the same on that line. The dimensions are towards Noah's Ark. It seems an ugly and clumsy piece of machinery, but it was exactly constructed, and its dimensions and proportions are the proportions now used in the construction of all lar-ie steamers. The third thing He made was the Tabernacle. It also is a curious construction. With its covering, and its pecu- liar arrangements, all will strike you at first. What a curious construction that is. You wonder why it is that length, why that shape, why it is so divided, why built of a certain kind of material. It is patterned from something above. The Tabernacle is gone, the Ark is gone, the Garden is gone. He built another, a temple, which was fashioned after the Tabernacle; in simple fact, it is just an enlargement thereof. One sees the same proportions in Noah's Ark as are found in the Tabernacle and in the Temple ; just, for instance, as you painters would draw a larger or a smaller or a medium-sized picture, — keep it in proportion. It is the same figure, the same proportions running through them all. The Temple must have been a wondeiful M DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 105 fitrncture. I believe another was constructed — viz., tlie Great Pyramid, which is the only one of the five things remaining to this day. " The Greai, the Mighty G d, the Lord of Hosts, is His name ; great in counsel, and mighty in work ; for Thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men ; to give everyone accord- iii;,^ to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings; which has set signs and wonders in the land of Eijypt, even unto this day." — Jer. xxxii, 18, 19, 20. Tliat refers to the Great Pyramid. Here was the con- centration of divine wisdom. God saw what man would do, and hence justice and righteousness are treasured up in that building. We get our measures and weights from that buildincf, and through that we are enabled to do that -which is right and just if we choose to do so. Every man may be dealt with honorably and righteously. Noah's Ark, the Tabernacle, the Temple, and Para- dise, as we have said, are gone. In the Holy of Holies there was only one piece of furniture. Is that not re- markable that it should be so. Standing there all alone, the first Temple, constructed after the Taber- nacl(\ was not equal to it, for certain articles were not found in it. The second Temple, built by Herod after the Jewish captivities, lacked many things. First, in the second Temple, they had not the sacred fire. The first time we hear of this fire is when God came down and consumed the sacrifice of Abel and Cain at the gate of Paradise. When Solomon dedicated the Temple fire came down from heaven and lit the altar. Every priest who wanted to light his lamp, or to kindle a 106 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. :ii sacrifice, had fco light it from that fire, so that the fire of God should consume the sacrifice. We read in Lev. X. 1, that " Nadab and Abihu ofifered strange fire," — that is, fire of their own kindling. The God-fire consumed them. It is probable they were under the influence of strong drink. In the temple made by Herod there was none of thid sacred fire ; there was no Shekinah, because they lacked the Ark of the Covenant. That Shekinah came out from beneath the Cherubim. What its peculiar ap- pearance was we cannot say. The word itself has ref- erence to a bright light, that would assume different figures and changes with an inviting brightness. They had not then, as we have said, the sacred fire, they had not the Shekinah, they had not the Ark of the Covenant, nor had they the Urim and Thummum, nor had they the figure of the Cherubim. All these they lacked. God used to speak to them from between the Cheru- bim in certain ways. He could speak by a voice, by a cloud, and by brightness. In Exodus xxv. 22, He says, " I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat." You have seen the wings how they spread out from the centre of the ark — the voice and the brightness had their place in the front of it. These are the ways He chose to communicate. " For I will ap- pear in the cloud upon the mercy seat." Lev. xvi. 3. These are curious things to us ; yet the Lord chose these methods of communication. With regard to the Ark, what a wonderful piece of furniture it was, the most wonderful piece of furniture the world ever had, and perhaps the most valuable. I presume if it really DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 107 should be found, any nation of the civilized nations of tlie earth would readily give $500,000,000 to possess it. I think any price might be got for it. It is to go with the Jews back to Palestine to be placed in the Temple to be built as described ii. Ezekiel. Its shape, for in- stance, is 2i cubits long, \\ broad, and \h deep. It is an oblong chest of queer shape, is it not ? When you come to remember that it is just a diminutionof the earth, that it is just so many times less than the earth, you will see that it represents not only something in heaven but of this earth itself. Then the material out of which it was made, acacia wood, a very lasting wood which, if kept in a dry place, would keep until the judgment day. The Lord knew the best kind of material to make it of. It was not made haphazardly. Then, being overlayed with pure gold its lasting qualities were assured. The gold being pure it would withstand all rust and corrosion, and remain perfect. This was put into the Holy of Holies. It was to be a depository, that is, inside of it were put certain things, viz. : — The tables of the law, Aaron's rod that budded, and a pot of manna. I would like to see the two tables on which the finger of God wrote the very commandments and gave them to Moses. These are things we want to re- member, — Aaron's rod is just simply a standard yard measure. You must have a standard and you must keep it where people cannot tamper with it. It was necessary that they should be there, for no Hebrev^ however avaricious he might be would dare to enter there. Then the law being preserved there, if any dis- pute arose the priest could go in and bring out the 'W]-'i '^/mm f 'I, :V|)il t:^,I '.i -m \[ \M lOft DR. WILUS SERMONS. cotnmandments and read them to the peo]>le. Then this pot of manna was a liquid measure standard. In Westminster Abbey is one of the most secret phices in this world, locked with three keys, one held by Her Majesty for herself, one by the Trades Guild for the people, and one by the Prime Minister. Every new Premier is sworn to keep the secret, and the door thereto can only be unlocked by the three keys. In this secret place is kept the true standard of weights and measures, and whenever any dispute arises as to the same, the matter is settled by a reference to the ones kept by these three parties. It is necessary that they be kept secret lest some one should tamper there- with. This ark was a depository, and what is more, it was a centre where God could communicate with the people, it was a point where the Lord could be found, where He could be heard, and where He could be seen- What a voice His voice must have been that spoke be- tween the cherubim. Now, where is the ark, you may naturally ask. We find Jeremiah himself put many things away. He evidently was the last man who saw it. After Nebuchadnezzar came and despoiled the Temple, Jeremiah was the only prophet in the land ; he is the only one who would be permitted to touch it. Nebuchadnezzar took all the holy things, the vessels, etc., and took them to Babylon, and he tells his scribe to make an inventory of all the things even to the brass snuffers and tongs. Now, if he had taken the ark it would have been one of the first things he would have recorded, Jeremiah evidently secreted it. Perhaps the best description we find concerning it we find in DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 109 Maccabees ii, where it mentions that the prophet Jeremiah was warned of God, and commanded the tabernacle and the ark should go with him as he went forth into the mountain, where Moses climbed up and saw the heritage of God. And when Jeremiah came there he found a hollow cave where he laid the taber- nacle and the ark, and those that followed after hlra came to mark the way but they could not lind it. That is a piece of Jewish tradition that we find in the apocy- j)hra. The Abyssinians claim to have the real 'Ark. They have thirteen made exactly alike, so that they can- not tell the original from any of the others. I do not know whether they have it or not, and thus cannot say. Now then turn to Jeremiah xxxii. 14. This refers to some property ho bought, the title deeds of which he hid away in these vessels. These title deeds will be wanted some day. God does not order men to do these things in vain. These will yet come to light. In Jeremiah xliii. 8, it is written, " Take great stones in thine hand, and hide them in the clay in the brick- kiln, which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house in Tephanes, in the sight of the men of Judah." Mr. F. Petries, a grand scholar, but who does not believe much in Bible inspiration, if at all, in his researches in this very spot, declares to us that he found the actual stones that Jeremiah was commanded to hide away. Thus in that particular is the scripture con- firmed. With regard to the Ark of the Covenant, that is more difficult to comprehend. Jeremiah when last seen in the Bible was right there in Tephanes in Egypt. When he and the two king's daughters had to flee no , 1 •{■■. 110 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. man can say positively where they went. Ho went somewhere. There is no account of his death. They did not die in Egypt, because God promised they should not. Did they go back to Palestine ? It is not probable, because they were very much offended at him and he had to flee. He went somewhere. Now, not to trouble you with my theory, we trace him through Spain to Ireland. He rested there, some say, in Tara. Here are many evidences. Go to Lough Erin, a few miles from Enniskillen, and in a little island there, is an old grave- yard in which are some round towers. This island is called Davenish,or David's Island. In this graveyard they point out a tomb in the rock, and tell you it is Jere- miah's tomb ; that he was buried there. I do not know whether he was or not. He was buried somewhere, and if a man says he does not believe he was buried there, I say, " all right, bring better proof." As to where the Ark is hid, no man can say positively. All we can say is that the dealings of Providence are marvellous. Let us remember that we are temples of the living God, and as in the Temple was to be the true light, the true weights and measures, — have you got the true light, the true weights and measures in your temple ? Do you ask counsel from God as did the High Priest, " Lord what wouldst thou have me to do." Do you call for Divine guidance from Him in that inner temple, the Spirit ? If you do, I believe^ he will give it to you. Let us as we retire, each of us, ask, " Am I in God's ser- vice," " Am I endeavoring to assist His cause." The Lord grant that we may be blessed of Him. Amen. n SERMON XIV. THE FIRST SAORED CONCERT EVER HELD. Text. — Whereupon are the founiiations thereof fastened ? or who laid the corner stone thereof ; when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy ? — Job Mxviii. 6, 7. (The word " star" in the text means " daughter " in Hebrew, so that the literal rendition is : " When in the morning of the earth, the daughters and sons of God shouted for joy," in connection with the laying of the foundation of this earth in which we live.) There are three things the human nund comes at I think intuitively, which in after life can be logically and mathematically proved. The mind in its freest action cannot comprehend any one of the three no more than we comprehend the sun that shines to-day. We apprehend and know something but not all about it. Comprehension means going round and taking in the whole thing. To apprehend means to merely touch it. We can do no more than apprehend the three things to which I refer, and yet I am as sure of the sun as if I knew all about it. You say you cannot believe in the sun if you do not know everything about it. I know a little about the sun, however, and therefore ap- prehend it, in fact, I do not know what I do not know, and yet I am not going to throw away the sun because I do not comprehend it. Ill t -t~-f h^ 112 DB. WILD'S SERMONS. i ji !l :; ji ii 1 :!■ 'l j ] ! i; i '-' mil ' ;■" ii .itiaiBii •^m The freest action of the human mind is in the faculty called Imagination. It is wonderful what it can do in some people, what figures and fancies it can conjure up ! What a peculiar place Heaven is according to their ideas, and what a terrible place Hell is too, as pictured in their imagination. In some this faculty is very strong and vivid, in some it is very accurate, in others it is only dull and inactive. It is a faculty that can go into the unseen the farth- est, and that can do the most with that which we least understand. .. ; -i , . ■ What are these three things ? God, Space, and Enl- less Exi-.Lence. Just imagine the vastness of those three words as representing ideas. The possibilities of an infinite God none can conceive, in fact we Ccan l;o little farther within our own imagination than that we are led by what this great God has already done. I mean to say that we can conceive of nothing except God first reveals it to us. What could a God do ? What could He make ? You could no more set the limit than you could fly. What possibilities come within the range of this word God ! How it is tilled with majesty, power and wisdom, to do the very things that are pro- mised ! When you read of the great promises in the Bible, stand over against them God ; when you ccino into the presence of a great difficulty, stand over against it God ; when you are weeping and depressed au the grave as you hide the vacant house of clay in which some loved spirit has lived for a time but has flown away, and you wonder if it can ever be clothed again, say God ! and when you say God you name a name DR. WLID'S SERMONS, 113 that is representative of a power that could raise it just that moment i^ He chose, and can raise it in ten thousand years as easily as you bury it now. We weep oftentimes and mourn and grow discouraged because we do not get the idea of that word God — great in power and in wisdom. Think of the forms of life He has made manifest on this earth. Go through the forest, the field, the garden ; look in the air, hear the birds; peer into the great deep ; use the microscope, and you see everywhere Life ! Life ! Life ! in ten thousand different forms. I rarely eat a lobster but what the thought occurs to me, God must have laughed when He made it. I will put a claw here and a claw there, I will put it in every conceivable shape, He said, and I think he enjoyed making it as a parent fixes up an odd and curious thing for His child- ren. Let us go from this world and think of the millions of worlds there are in existence. If astronomers are correct and if inferences are at all favorable, these mil- lions of worlds are inhabited. We can only ask, what kinds of birds and animals do they have ? What is the leading intelligence there. Here, it is called man. We may wonder but we cannot conceive. When 3^ou get God in the mind you can meet your finest expressions of imagination. Take the boundless expanse of Space, How endless it is in comparison to our ideas of travel. The faster you travel the slower you go in space. If you were to go on a straight line at lightning rate, you would be no nearer the end after travelling ten million years than H 114 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. \-.y-i I i\M& m 1 \\ I '■\\ i'l '""If 1 • i ! the moment you started. Is it not confounding ? How confusing these words are, but in this vast, illimitable space there is a God. You have seen vast expanses- woodland scenes from the top of a mountain, and as far as the eye can carry you, the sloping dome of Heaven seems to confine you to a circle. You have been on a prairie where not a house or tree can be seen, and where the vision swings around the circle of the deep blue sky — a vast expanse. You have been on the ocean aud have looked from the deck, north, south, east and west, aud nothing but water meets the sky — what an expansive scene ! The Heavens bound the circumfer- ence of our view, but there is no sky to bound the in- finitude of space. Take the idea as given by Job (xxii. 12), "is not God in the height of heaven ? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are ! " We can now understand a verse like that when Job said, " behold the height of the stars." The world (outside of the limited circle ' f the Shemitic line) believed the farthest star was only three miles away, others thought they were only a mile or half a mile distant. You see therefore that science and astronomy are opening up the Bible to us. Job, however, knew what he was writing, and it was because of this that Eliphaz the Temanite rebuked him and said, " Hasl thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden, which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood," for you must remember that Job whose scriptural name is Melchizedec and whose Christian name was Shem, lived before the flood, and DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 115 was able to " mark the old way." Elipliaz simply means to say : art thou the man to repine (when Job mur- mured in his affliction), thou who hast seen so much ? The Bible deals very lari^ely in first things : the first man, the first woman, the first sin, the first marriage, the first birth, the first shepherd in Abel, the first tiller in Cain, the first builder in Jubal, the first bronze and iron mechanic in Tubal, and the mechanical idea has been running through men ever since. Every distinct idea is of God at first, and we manipulate them. The Bible, however, takes no notice of the present doctrine of evolution from atomic cells. It commences on the solid earth, and with tangible and real begin- nings. How beautifully the Bible opens up and closes : "In the beginning God created the heaven and the eaith." — "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." Could you begin and end a book any better ? Hardly. Looking at the genealogical tree, the Bible, I repeat, takes no notice of our evolution from atomic cells up- ward. Luke iii. 38 : — " Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the Son of God." Here is a genealogy well sustained. What do you want more, as God is the ori- gin and foundation of all ? No doubt my friends when this world came into existence it was levealed to Seraphim and Cherubim, to the angels, — the sons and daughters of God. The Bible leads us to imagine that it was inhabited before we came. Thus we read God's exhortation to Adam to re- fill the earth. I do not see why the prefix re would 116 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. d'Sci be used if this were not so. Noah was to replenish the earth : to fill it up again. Nor is the present founda- tion the original one. The basaltic rocks of granite, miles under 'js, are not the first foundation. Fires have been in there, consuming and terrible fires, destroyina the original, and changing the complexion and amal- gam of the different kinds of Jocks. Stoaes have been mixed by water and fire and other agencies. This earth, in its Adamic beginning, was revealed to the angelic hosts which began to rejoice. Another new world ! another new house ! they would shout. As when we build a new institution or church the laying of the foundation stone is a time of rejoicing. The ceremony connected with the laying of the founda- tion of our world made a rejoicing time in heaven. What a choir ! and what singing ! I would have liked to have been there. Singing lifts us up the nearest to heaven and the brightest and purest thoughts come from the influence of good singing. You get a higher inspiration then and a better idea of liow you would like to be in heaven when you are car- ied away by a song that thrills through every part, and moves every faculty with its harmony and cadence. I wonder what the heavenly choir sang ? The world began with singing and it has been singing ever since, and will sing on unto the end of time. When the Saviour came they sang His advent into the world, the angels chanting : Glory to God in the highest, pea( on earth, good- will to men ! And we will sing the song until this world closes and the foundations of the new earth are laid. We will be there to hear the songs DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 117 then. For we look for a new heaven and a new earth. I hope we will all meet there. You'll meet me perhaps and say : Well, Doctor, time is rolling on, is it not ? It is a long time since you were at Bond Street, and then we will talk about the aew earth and the old one we used to inhabit, and we will sing for joy and rejoice in the Lord. The joyful celebration told in our text is the first sacred concert of which I have read, and it must have been a grand one. Music was put into Jubal. Tliese thing run on lines. Who has given us the music of the world ? The Jews. If you were to take the Jewish music out of the world you would not have enough left for the Salvation Army. Who are the great composers ? Nine-tenths of them have been Jews. Jubal was the father of the harp and the organ. Exactly. And the Jews have a touch and taste for music that no other race can excel. Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer, Rossini, Jules Benedict, Stra- kosch, Grisi and Strauss were Jews. Remember Miriam's matchless song when, under the inspiration of beinij saved by the overthrow of the Egy{)tian hosts, she took the timbrel "and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them. Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath tri- umphed gloriously ; the horse and the rider hath he thrown into the sea." Singing comes best when you are filled by inspiration. And what a sound at the Sav- iour's birth — a song of triumph, a song of promised re- demption ! And there is a song in Revelations t(#o : " And they '[^^ ■A ■t 118 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and open the seals thereof ; for Thou wast slain and has redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and hath made us unto our God kings and priests, and we siiall reign on the earth." (Rev. v. 9-10.) What is our Christian duty, my friends ? Turn to Ephesians v. 18, 19, 20 : " Speak to yourselves in psalms, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." If you are filled with the Spirit you will be tilled with this melody too. If happiness gets into our hearts it will prompt us to sing, and singing is an expression of contentment. We all know our duty. Let us be faithful and tiue and sintTf unto God. Amen. SERMON XV. HUMAN SACRIFICE. Text. — '* And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. Aud he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah ; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of." — Gen. xxii. 1, 2. If we swing wide of Bible testimony and refuse its revelations and instructions, we will find ourselves in considerable difficulty in trying to account for some of the simplest facts of existence. Take, for instance, the origin of the human family, with respect to the time, or the status, or the place of the appearance of the first man, and among all the writers on this question you will discern that not one of them is as clear, as reason- able, and as intelligent in their description as is Moses. Ifc is much easier for persons to grumble against Moses, and deny the Scripture account, than to submit a better one. In my life-time I have read hundreds of authors on this subject, and among them all, not one equal to the Hebrew Lawgiver. You will hardly find two authors agree on this subject ; those who come nearest to a sensible account, you will at once discern, are men who have been trained and brought up under Bible teaching, and Bible influence. It you read and study the various accounts of men and nations who have 119 120 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. not known the Bible, you will find them very ridicu- lous and nonsensical in their ideas, as to the place and manner of the origin of man. The ethnology of the Bible, you will discover, is equally as intelligent and as definite. The Bible has not overlooked the origin of races and nations ; on these points you have a wonderful amount of informa- tion in the Book of Genesis alone. From Abraham, you will find, there come many races, and many nations, whose origin and history you may trace and no one can deny. As a fountain head and as a representative person, Abraham was indeed a remarkable character ; his very name indicates considerable after history. Abraham is a word composed of three othera, ah Father, rah (jYQB.i,hamon multitude, ^A-e great Father of a mul- titude ; so that you see the very name itself is indi- cative of what has actually taken place through Abra- ham's descendants. -There is no doubt but that Noah and his family were the best human seed with which to stock and replenish the new world after the flood. In Abraham's time, this seed seems again to have become degenerate, and the new world was fast approaching the ante-diluvian status of morality, men were becoming vile and corrupt, losing the true idea of God and becoming idolaters. What will be the remedy this time ? God has sworn that He would no more drown the world ; how, then^ will He stem the tide of wickedness and change the course of nations ? What method will He adopt ? Well, we know what the heavenly device and remedy was. Abraham was chosen and called, and from him and DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 121 through him God intended to . replenish this world. Humanly speaking, had the descendants of this patri- arch been true to the covenant and designs of Provid- ence, they would have filled and possessed the earth, the very law of Darwin would have been operative, " the survival of the fittest." The world outside would very soon have perished — for sin and idolatry are al- ways destructive of life, — while, if the Hebrews and their descendants had been faithful they would rapidly have multiplied and have filled the world. This is the way God intended to fill the earth, " with a righteous seed," and let the wicked die out. With this in view they were organized as they mul- tiplied. In their organization God has respect to this. You look at their dietary tables which were appointed of Heaven, who well knew what would best nourish and preserve and bless the race. The same was true of their sanitary laws ; none can be more excellent for the preservation of life, for the increase of population, and for peace and good will. You look at their social code, and it is constructed with this object in view — the preciousness of life, and the increase of population. This thing was kept in view in their religious rites and ceremonies. Take for example circumcision. It was to be, and was a preventive against two destructive diseases that are indigenous to hot climes, and this would save millions of lives, and so it was instituted. It was also a physical device from Heaven by which population would be greatly increased. I am often astonished and ashamed when I think how little is known of the science and wisdom of this Mosaic 122 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. economy ; the false modesty in the church, general ignorance outside, the presumption of agnostics, and the ignorance of infidels are all to blame. Do you know that drunkenness is not the greatest crime and curse of this day ? There is a crime that outranks that, and is doing more evil in society than drunkenness ever knew how to do. Against this evil the Mosaic law made the most stringent provisions, and had its penalties. They tried by this law to carefully guard against it, and the Church and Christian writers of this day wink their eyes and seal their lips against an evil that is the direct cause of two-thirds of the diseases, one half of the crimes, and two-thirds of insanity, and four- fifths of the failures in life ; and they have to tell you a lie when you go to the asylum because they dare not tell you the true case of half of the people sent there. And this is the nineteenth century ! This evil con- sumes the physical force, withers the brain, enfeebles the intellect, and corrupts the very mind, I have said enough. If I were to say more, your mock modesty would assail me. It is a strange thing that evils can so bind us, and our mouths must be closed ; but the Mosaic law was not silent on these points by any means, and it sought by every measure to give health and wealth to the person. It was necessary that Abraham leave his home and friends, break up old habits and associations and rela- tions ; for associations and relations are compulsory and compel a man oftentimes to do what he would not other- wise do. There are some men who, if you could trans- plant them from the old associations, really would, I i n% DR. WILjyS SERMONS. 123 think, be good. As long as they remain among com- panions who have an influence over them, they are led astray and they do contrary to their own best judg- ments. If Abraham had set up the manner of life which he was called to practi.se amongst his own kinspeople, they likely would have boycotted him ; for false reli- gions and false theories always assault their opponents by boycotting or force, because it cannot trust to the power of right alone. God kept moving him to and fro that he might form no associations that would unwisely influence him, until by this process of education he should be fit to be the fountain head and representative of the race. To make him know, and the world also then and especially after, the intentions of Providence, a son is given to him and Sarah in their old age, born when the disposition and habits of both were settled. This patriarchal couple had lived nearly one hundred years ere this promised gift is vouchsafed to them from Heaven. This would favorably impress Isaac ; it was designed to do so. He would be a child of rare affec- tion and hope. The two old people would love him with a fondness that would degenerate into dotage unless they were tested and tried ; and so the Lord comes to him, as in our text, and He tempted Abraham. The word we have rendered " tempt " here is the Hebrew word Nasah, and it means to try, to prove, to test. What has He got to try, to test, to prove in Abraham ? Whether Abraham's affection to that child is supreme to his affections to his God. That is the point. Affec- tion and hope, no doubt, very largely centered in the child Isaac. It would be very necessary to balance the human and divine affection, God and duty. i , < ,4 i. 121 DK. WILP'S SERMONS. This is a most difficult problem at any time to solve, my dear friends, what place a child or a friend shall liavtj in our affection or God shall have ? Which shall be first and supreme ? It is not so difficult when men are in paganism or in heathenism. They very readily offer their children as a sacrifice unto their gods. Pagans and heathens always concede that their gods have the right to their children and they kill them. Now, they are right in the idea that God has the first claim upon the children, and the first claim upon the parent, but they are wrong in sacrificing the children unto imaginary gods. We see that idolatory is lavish at this point, and even in lighter grades of civilization you find people, in m^ny lands, and especially 'Ti some of the past centur- ies, intluoncfcd by a superstition that they would ac- tually take their lives. Men voluntarily took their own lives in their hiding away into caves and starved them- selves to death ; they made their families exiles in order that they might appease the God of Heaven, according to their notions. It is dii't.ult, I say, to fix the line of demarcation be- tween thC; olaims of God and the claims of our loved ones. Men sacrifice very readily in other directions. The drunkard has no hesitation in sacrificing his wife. There are hundreds of poor wives being tortured to death from day to day, and slowly crucified and trembling over the very grave, and their children are being de- prived of wholesome food while the rascal goes stagger- ing and spends everything he can get. What is he do- ing ? He is doing it for hell and the devil ; he is offer- ing up his wife and children. Yet people will turn DR. JFTLD'S SERMONS. 125 around and say, " It is a strange thing God would want the sacrifice of a child from Abraham." Would it not be better to have slain twenty Isaacs instantaneously than slowly and cruelly as some ])eople are doing ? If men, out of love for all that is hellish, will offer up the wife of their bosom for the devil, what shall yra and I do for God ? We see people will sacrifice easy enough on other lines. Now, the ownership and the sovereignty of God is hard to accept at times, yet the law is laid down in Scripture. When God takes away the father from a family, it is hard work to recognize that He has a claim. When He takes your child it is hard work to let Him come in first. The mother stands in the way, "No, Lord ; It is mine." Whose was it before it was yours, eh ? "I cannot do this for God," you say. You see what that drunkard is doing for himself, and you can- not sacrifice the child of God out of your love and con- fidence in His wisdom ; yet that man can sacrifice his wife and children. It is a point we must settle. It is necessary that God should have first love, and be su- preme. Our Saviour laid down the same law, "father, mother, son or daughter, or lands must not be before Him." No man should put these before Christ. Now, it was this point God wanted to impress upon Abraham and from Abraham upon us all, that we must give our first love, and our absolute consent to God of all we have and are. That is the lesson. He wanted to teach Abraham ; Abraham was willing, and the disposition was there. That is all God wanted. God stayed the sacrifice for He accepted the ii^tent for the deed. He 126 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. a I ■■■'m doas not want us to slay anybody, but He wants to pre- serve in our hearts a love and reverence for Him that is supreme. You must have in governments the sa,me ; it is neces- sary that the Queen have, first my loyalty, then my obedience. " But," you say, " No, let us all issue sum- monses ; let us be founts of authority." Who would you resist, I pray ? You would have too many sum- monses, and people would not know what to do. It is necessary that the Queen be before your mother, that the Queen be before your father ; and if your child oflfends the law, the Queen must come in in spite of you. It is better it should be so, than that all mothers should be queens and all fathers kings; we should have a strange medley of affairs if we all took upon ourselves authority to judge and execute law. God must have our first love, our first obedience. Having that, we will bring the others in their proper relation, kindlier and more affectionately than if we had put them first. It does not argue any affliction, and so we have to yield to the State when it calls for our sons to do battle, as it has called, for our homes. Our young men have gone. Supposing everybody had a right, how few sisters, how few mothers, would have allowed the son or brother to go away ? How few mothers and fathers would be willing for these sons of theirs to go to perish in yon North- West plains ? By what rule do they go ? They go by the law of the country, which must be supreme, or we could not live at all in a few years. This sacrifice is necessary to preserve the law, and this law mjist be over father and mother- -•* DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 127 It must take precedence over you. You say, " I will keep my boy." " No, sir, you cannot keep your boy, we will have to keep tlie law." It seems a strange thing, but it is necessary, or we would soon degenerate and our children wo^ild be slaughtered by the thousands- God's ways and God's laws you will always find the safest. Abraham was tested at this point, and he is for us an example. And so we are often tested in Christian exr perience. The missionary is tested. He is called fiom his home and friends, and he carries his life in his hands ; but his Master, Christ, is supreme o'er his life, so he goes to the heathen and perishes in his effort to carry them the truth. How few missionaries would we have if the selfishness of life was before the claims of God. It is not until God has His place that we are willing to yield Him this service and obedience. Another point, I suppose, intended to be established by this text was family harmony. Sarah, as well as Abraham and Isaac, must all have been agreed on this point. You must not forget the willingness of Isaac, nor do I think that Sarah did not know anything about it, as some writers would have us believe. It would have been unjust in Abraham to have taken this son without letting the mother know. I will honor Sarah. I believe she knew all about it, that God commanded it, and He had the first claim, so they all agreed to it. It is not possible, my friends, that an old man of one hundred and twenty-seven years of age could bind a young man like Isaac at twenty-seven. There must be a willingness on the part of Isaac, or that thing could 128 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. Ml not have been done. And so this allegiance to God must come through the family, and produce harmony and unity and good-will, and bind us together in life around our God. That is what is intended to be taught also. The place was selected by the Almighty ; some forty - eight miles Abraham had to go, carrying with him the fire and the wood, that is, the fire that never goes out, which was in charge of Abraham. They lit the fire and kept it going, and when the sacrifice "»vo; W have been prepared, it would be lighted by the fire ot God. That is why he carried the firpi with him in those days. The place, you remember, was Mount Moriah,as I showed you in a sermon one Sunday night, it was where Paradi.se was before the flood. It is where stood the tree of know- ledge of good and evil. It was called in the antedihi- vian world the Mount of God, and Abraham called the place " Jehovah Jirah, as it is said to this day, in the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen." What shall be seen ? It shall be seen that He will provide a sf iHce, the Lamb for the atonement of the sin of tht > .'^d. Yes, there the Lamb was slain for a dying world. J' J did make provision, and Christ died on that very mounl. '* In the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen," he says. Why is it that this mount is called the Mount of the Lord ? Because it is the mount where our first parents lived before the flood, and that is why the typical sac- rifice had to be right there, so as to agree with the real place where Christ should be sacrificed when He should come. Moriah is a generic term including the site of Jerusalem. The satire on the King of Tyre, as given DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 129 in Ezekial, 28th chap., beginning at the 12th verse, I think, lets us into a secret about this Paradise or Eden. He says : " Thou sealest up the sum full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty." Such is my idea of Paradise. I think it was the very sum total, the very culmination of botanical beauty, of animal beauty, of human beauty, and of material beauty. I believe it was a grand place, that Mount of God ; I believe it glistened with all man- ner of precious stones, such as have been broken up by the flood and scattered here and there, which, in these days, we delight to find. Read a little further : " Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the dia- mond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold : the work- manship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth, and I have set thee so ; thou wast upon the holy Mountain of God ; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of these stones of fire." Talk of diamonds and rubies ; our first mother. Eve, walked on them. This Mount of God was covered from top to bottom with them. A grand place, and that is why, eveti after the flood. He chose that place as the identical spot upon which Abraham had to offer the typical sacrifice of his son. You may read in Exodus, 15th chap., and l7th verse, where Moses says : "Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the sanc- tuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established." I 130 DR. WILUS SERMONS. Hence the temple was constructed there, and the holy Shekinah came down to be visible there, as He used to be visible on the mount in Paradise. He was revealed again in the temple. It was fitting that here the typi- cal sacrifice should be offered, and here the telhple be built, so you read in 2nd Chronicles, 3rd chap., and 1st verse: "Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing-floor of Oman the Jebusite." This sacrifice has also a typical meaning. Isaac was a miraculous birth ; so was that of our Lord Jesus Christ. His name was chosen by God before he was born ; so was the name of Jesus chosen by heaven before He was born. It was the sacrifice of an only son beloved; so Christ is the only beloved son of God. There was will- ingness and harmony between the son and the father ; there was also willingness between Christ and His Father. The time was chosen by God for the birth of Isaac; the time was chosen by God for the birth of Christ. The place was chosen where the sacrifice should be off'ered to God ; the plaae was chosen by God where Christ should be offered up. Abraham obeyed the com- mand of the Lord, and so did Joseph and Mary. Isaac carried the wood ; so Christ carried His cross. They were three days more or less, in offering this sacrifice; three days more or less wjis Christ offered. So you might run the analogy between the two still further, but enough has been said to show you that it was in- tensely typical. 1)R. WILD'S SERMONS. 131 Dependence and ownership, we must rightly under- stand. When we do so it will bring us loyalty and peace and good-will in the family, in the church, in the nation, that nothing else can do. We often begin to make the first claim where we are only secondary, if we are not careful. A boy, a few years ago, ran away from his home in one of the New England towns, and found himself in New York City. He accidentally got run over by a horse. A gentleman pitied him and took him in his house and cared for him. Shortly after he began to be domineering and to speak unkindly to his benefactor, claiming actually a right to be there. The gentleman told me he thought of keeping him, but when he assumed to be the master of the house he had to dismiss him. " Well," you say, " it was very strange that he should assume to be master." So we must know, even when we lose our loved ones, that God gave them, and we must not assume to be master even in our father's house. We must do the best we can, and when we have done our best, we must leave all else in His kind hand. You know old Dr. Samuel Johnson is recorded as being a kind man. When he could aflford to rent a garret he used to let people come in. A couple of tramps, a man and his wife, several times called for lodging and the old doctor let them in. They came again and again, and he let them in each time ; they began to make their home there. One night he came home and they had the door locked, and when he had knocked for a considerable time the wo- man says, " If you cannot come home earlier you can «tay out." " Why," you say, " that is strange ; they ill ,*f i.j 132 DB. WILUS SERMONS. ought to know better than that." There is a place, a relation for things. That place was to acknowledge the head and the right of Br. Johnson to that house. And so it is our place to acknowledge God and His claims upon us, upon our time, and, mark you, upon our money. A tight thing, eh ! When a man can get even on money he is a great success. There is not a man but who has the right to contribute towards churches and benevolent institutions. God gave you the power to get the wealth and He has a right to it out of any man's pocket in this world, just as much right to it as your own children have. He can take it from you as He gives you the power to get it, and we should ac- knowledge His headship. Whether you are agnostic, infidel or Christian, always contribute something to benevolent institutions, and recognize that you are in God's house, that is this world, and not absolute mas- ter. That is the point. The right relation of ownership, my dear friends, is when he has God first and foremost, and who arranges all things according to that relation. Then a tender hand will fall upon the wife, a tender hand will fall upon the children, a tender hand will fall upon the neighbor, a kind hand will fall upon the world ; but when you put yourself or anybody else before God you are in danger and trouble. The relationship is set down in 1st Corinthians, 3rd chap., 21st verse, " For all things are yours ; whether Paul, or ApoUos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present or things to come ; all are yours." It does not stop there, " And ye are Christ's, DR. WILD'S SERAWNS, 133 and Christ is God's." That is the way, my dear friends, that is the ownership of this world. Let us recognize it, and when a man or woman can recognize that true relation is accepted by the test and proof in Abraham, he or she finds the true level of security, of peace and of prosperity. And now, my friends, God asks your heart to-night. Can you give it ? Do you think He has the first claim upon you ? He asks, and says, " Son or daughter give Me thine heart." Will you give it ? Has He a claim ? Is the claim a just one ? He wants you to give your bodies " a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto Him." " No, I want a little for myself," you say ; " I do not want to be bound down to any Christian rules." I say to you to-night, consecrate all to the Lord that you have in your business, in your heart, in your experi- ence, in the world. Who will acknowledge the Divine ownership ? The Lord bless us and help us to do so lovingly, cheerfully and earnestly. Amen. i SERMON XVI. BABYLON AND THE TOWER OF BABEL Text. — " I will also mako it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water ; and I will sweep it with the besom of destruc- tion, saith the Lord of hosts." — Isaiah xiv. 23. These words were spoken against the once famous city of Babylon. They are detailed and specific items in the bill of indictment presented by the prophet against this city. You must remember that this bill of indict- ment was presented over 200 years before the events therein set forth came to pass. Cyrus, the instrument of Babylon's first conquest, was not then born ; he did not become a king until about 556 b. c. ; and Darius, the second conqueror, was still unborn ; he ruled seve- ral years after Cyrus. At the time of this prophecy Media was a little dependent province of Assyria. To all human appearance it must have seemed impossible for the words of the prophet to come to pass, — that the vast empire of Assyria should be destroyed, and that this small province would gain its independence, and grow into a mighty conquering and ruling nation. Our wonderment is increased, too, when we remember that Babylon would be the very power that would aid this child of Media in obtaining its independence, Babylon would be the one to nurse it into manhood, and afterwards this very child would be the instru- ment of destroying its mother. Such, however, was 134 1 Hi] DR. WILD'S SERMON'S. 135 the case, for history asserts that tlie kingdom of Media came into existence, became mighty and powerful, and was the final destroyer of the kingdom of Babylon. Revolutions and changes impossible to human con- jecture had to take place ; and in spite of human im- possibilities they came to pass. It is reasonable to assume that, not one of the ancient cities had greater and safer guarantees for future continuance at that time, than had this same city of Babylon ; it was in fact the most unlikely city to go down of any known in the world. Look at its location, in the midst of a luxuriant, fertile, and extensive plain ; rich in all the productions that go to make a people strong, prosper- ous, and independent, and what is very essential in eastern countries, it was well watered. Thi 'igh the very centre of this magnificent city ran that grand river, Euphrates, with its never failing cool streams of water fed by the accumulated snows from the moun- tains of A.rmenia. Twenty miles west of the city was a lake forty miles square and forty-five feet deep; through each end ran a canal, one running into the Euphrates, and the other into that great river, Tigris ; so that they could water the whole plain if they chose. If you look into the matter of defence, perhaps no city was stronger ; it was walled all round with a wall 350 feet in height, 50 feet in breadth, with 250 strong towers around ; with its four entrances facing on the east, the west, the north and the south ; with 100 gates, 25 in each entrance. Surely a city like that, remem bering the instruments of assault of that age, could stand any enemy that should come against it. If you 136 DR. WILD'S SERMONS, look at its resources in men and means, — those would guarantee its future ; no city so wealthy, no city could raise such an army, no city had such political power as had this city ; and yet the prophet declares it shall be destroj'ed. Again, if you look at her influence by means of alliances with the other inferior nations and kings, you will find her a mighty power. You must also remember that this city was the centre of science, of religion, of theology, of governmental power and commerce. All these things make the words of the prophet seem impossible. The Scriptures embody these features of greatness in the following phrases : — " Baby- lon the great," " Babylon the praise of the whole earth," " Babylon the beauty of Chaldea's excellencies," " Baby- lon the lady of kingdoms," " Babylon the tender and delicate," " Babylon the hammer of the whole earth." But she gave herself over to vice, riot, incest, and every form of wickedness and luxurious gratification. One can give full and free play to the imagination in think- ing of the manner and the time of the destruction of this city. Just remember the " Feast of Belshazzar," as spoken of in Daniel v. What a gorgeous oriental gathering it was ; a thousand lords, princes and nobles gathered together to celebrate the grand annual feast day of the god who protected their city. You remem- ber also in the midst of that feast the handwriting upon the wall, that stayed them in their mad mirth, and brought them to their senses for a few moments. Per- haps this has never been better described than by that erratic, yet splendid poet. Lord Byron, in his poem en- titled, "The Vision of Belshazzar ": DR. WILD'S SEltMO.VS. The king was on his throne, The Satraps thronged the hall ; A thousand bright lamps shone O'er that high festival. A thousand cups of gold, In Juda deem'd divine — Jehovah's vessels hold The godless heathen's wine. In that same hour and hall, The fingers of a hand Came forth against the wall, And wrote, as if on sand ; The fingers of a man ; A solitary hand Along the letters ran, And traced them like a wand. The monarch saw, and shook. And bade no more rejoice ; All bloodless waxed his look. And tremulous his voice. " Let the men of lore appear The wisest of the earth, And expound the words of fear, Which mar our royal mirth." Chaldea's seers are good. But here they have no skill ; And the unknown letters stood Untold and awful still. And Babel's men of age Are wise and deep in lore ; But now they were not sage, They saw — but knew no more. A captive in the land A stranger and a youth, He heard the king's command, He saw that writing's truth. 137 138 DR. WILD'S SERMONS, The lamps around were bright, The prophecy in view ; He read it on that night, The morrow proved it true. Belshazzar's grave is made, His kingdom pass'd away, He, in the balance weigh'd. Is light and worthless clay. The shroud, his robe of state. His canopy the stone ; The Made is at his gate ! The Persian on his throne ! The prophecy against Babylon, '^ its detail, is so fanciful and unlikely that one mi be led to doubt it ; still, the Scriptures of late have been grandly illus- trated and sustained by history, and by recent explor- ations. Take, for instance, Isaiah xlvii. 8, 9, and just think that this particular prophecy was made some 200 years before its fulfilment : — " Therefore hear thou this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest careless- ly, that sayest in thine heart, I am and none else beside me ; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children : but these two things shall come to thee in a moment, in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood ; they shall come upon thee in their perfec- tion for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments." Now, when and how did this occur ? We can give you an answer from history. Let me quote a few words from the father of profane history, namely, Herodotus, the old Greek historian born in the year 483 B.C. These are his words: — "In the revolt of the Babylonians DR. WILffS SERMONS. 139 against Darius, in order to save provisions that they might not be compelled to submission by famine, they took this measure. Having first set apart their moth- ers, each man chose besides outside of his whole house- hold one woman, whomsoever he pleased ; these alone were allowed to live, while all the rest were brought to one place and strangled. The women chosen were kept to make bread for the men ; the others were strangled that they might not consume the stores. Darius, how- ever, through the stratagem of a Persian named Zopy- rus, again took the city, and having become master of the place, he destroye^^ the walls, and took down all the gates ; for Cyrus had done neither the one nor the other when he took Babylon. He then chose out nearly 3,000 of the leading citizens, and caused them to be crucified, while he allowed the remainder still to inhabit the city." Read that prophecy, and read the fact in pro- fane history, and say how it came to pass ; in a moment in one day. You need no more proof than that. The city of Babylon was a very old one. The empire of Babylon existed before the Assyrian empire ; in fact we learn from Scripture that the Assyrians came out from Babylon and built the city of Nineveh, as we read in Genesis x. 11. The Babylonians and Assyrians have been looked upon by historians for hundreds of years as being one race, and the Bible was supposed to be ignorant thereon ; but recent explorations go to shew that th 3 Babylonians were Cushites, and the Assyrians were Shemites. So says this great author, whom no one can doubt, Prof. Geo. Rawlinson in his work entitled, " Historical Illustrations of the Old Testament," page 32. 140 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 1 m m 1 ' You will find the Bible right every time, and yourself often wrong. The Bible is never wrong on a single his- torical fact ; and it was written before any historian ever touched h istory. Those two instances I have given you ought to be enough to convert any infidel on God's earth, because he cannot get rid of this idea that, pro- phecy means a Divine Being, and being written in this book it is a Divine book. I am not quoting simply from the Bible ; I am quoting also from history to which you have access as well as I have. The real Assyrians are now found in the Germans and the Prussians ; he^ce they are of the same stock as we are going back to Abraham. That is why we have always been friends, and always will be. The Babylonians are continued in the Russians of to-day, and as they were then enemies they are enemies to-dey, and always will be until the bear comes under the lion and keeps quiet. There is no fitness, my dear friends^ in a bear ruling a lion, the king of the forest ; but there is a fitness in the lion rul- ing the bear. Babjdon has been noted for two things, which have been ranked among the seven wonders of the world : First, those famous hanging gardens that this great monarch, Nebuchadnezzar, constructed to please his wife. That was one good feature in that man, to do so much for his wife. She came from a country that was hilly, and as Babylon was built on a vast plain, she wanted her sight broken ; so he constructed those huge gardens away up in the air. It was a marvellous work. That, however, which has made Babylon a place of re- nown is the famous Tower of Babel, of which so much urn DR. WILD'S SERMONS, 141 has been written, and upon which people have speculat- ed so considerably. This tower was built for a wicked purpose, as you will see in Genesis ix. 1. It was never finished, they having reached the eighth story only. The seven stories are perfect now, the eighth has fallen in, and is dilapidated. It is one of those monuments that comes forth from its slumbering and hidden grave to be a confirmation of this simple book. If that tower had never been found, many men, even in To- ronto, would have presumption enough to say : " That is a piece of allegory. That does not mean what it states," But now that it is found, and thousands have seen it, it is a confirmation of this book. You will read, as I have said, in Genesis ix. 1, ** And God bless- ed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." God wanted them, as soon as they came out of the ark and multi- plied, to scatter abroad on the difl^erent parts of the earth. These sons of Noah were climatically consti- tuted to live in the different climes, for there was the colored, or Negro, the red and Malayan, or Indian color, and there was the white ; and the difierent climes would best suit these three children and their descendants. But we read in Genesis xi. 3, that they found a beauti- ful place on the plains of Shinar, and here they agreed to settle and live together, so they said one to another, " Go to, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar." Now, this is perfectly true, for we can see from the remains that they had brick, and the mortar is slime. From time to time comes forward proof in pup 142 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. confirmation of this book. " And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top tnay reach unto heaven ; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." The intention is here stated : Let us make ourselves a memorial and name by building a city ; and, in the second place, let us construct a landmark and tower that shall be so that, wherever we go on this vast plain, we can see it, and come back to the centre, lest we be scatter- ed abroad upon the face of the whole earth. Now, this is the very thing God had commanded them not to do. God commanded Noah and his family, and repeated it to them, to scatter abroad and replenish the earth. They said, " We won't; we will build a city, and lest we be scattered abroad, we will build a tower that we can al- ways see to get back to the same place." You see the sin of building this tower. It was to resist the command of God. God, however, can accomplish His purposes many ways, and He took the means of fulfilling His purposes by confusing their tongues, as you will read in Genesis xi. 7 : "Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech: So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth ; and they left off to build the city. Therefore, is the name of it called Babel ; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth ; and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth." They said they would not go abroad, but He scattered them as soon as they could not understand each other in speech. He divided the language, and DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 143 they kept emigrating ; that is the way the world was filled up. Sin caused Babel, and sin caused the confusion and multiplicity of languages. There have been 5,000 lan- guages since that day, of which 3,o00 are what is called the colloquial, and 1,500 of what we call the primary. We would have had but one, if it had not been for sin, and as we fill up the world, languages will die out, and we will become of one language. That is what we are now doing. You see God's purposes ; as soon as He gets every nook and corner of the world filled up, we will all forget the babblings and turn to one simple lan- guage again. Now, science comes in to confirm this in the latter days. Philology proves the deviation from one type of race and of one language. This is sustain- ed by Max Muller, the best authority we have. Babylon was such a centre of wealth, power, pride, assumption, dominance and tyranny, that the word Babylon has become a symbolic term to denote these same qualities when found organized in any other na- tion or people. If you will read John's revelation you will read a good deal about the mystic Babylon, a Baby- lon that is to be possessed of great wealth ; a Babylon that is to exercise great power; a Babylon that is to rule with a strong hand. But that Babylon is to fall, and a cry is to ring through the earth some days, " Babylon is fallen, is fallen." Who is that Babylon ? If a mystic Babylon has ever had an existence, it existed in the Roman Empire, and in order that the saying of John may be true, this present Pope or his successor will have yet to come into possession, temporally, of a ^*;,i ",!,» Hi U4 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. .iPi lii \.^^ 1 : 1 ■ I' vast portion of Europe, and Rome will yet as a city be taken from the Italians in their present condition, and the city of Rome will be the centre for a short time of the Romish powers, but only for a short time, and then in the great struggle of the Battle of Armageddon this city goes to the walls, with all its accumulated wealth, and it falls forever, never to rise again. That is what the prophet shows. There are three items in ray text — " It shall be a pos- session for the bittern." Now, this strange bird, this lonely bird, this crooner of the night, this melancholy wailer in lonely spots, this bird that will not be where a human being is, where even domestic cattle roam ; even the city of Babylon is to become the habitation for the bittern. That means that it is to be vacated of every living creature, that there is to be no domesticity around it. " The Arab shall never pitch his tent there," says the prophet ; as luxuriant as the grass is he will never take his sheep there. You never see a shepherd within miles of these ruins. It is a strange thing Major Keppell, Dr. Porter and others, tell us, that the natives who act as guides there won't stay there all night for any price. Writers and travellers tell us when they are receding from the ruins, and going back to where they are to reside for the night, they will hear following in their wake the croonings of this bittern on the night air. " And it shall be a possession for the bittern." Oh, I would like some agnostic to go and sleep on the top of the ruins of Babylon and hear the croonings of this old bittern, and then remember what Isaiah wrote, and let him then take a description of that magnificent city in all its graqideur, and put the croonings of that bittern DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 145 and the mightiness of the city together and say, can one become true if the other has been ? If that would not convert him I don't know what would. Again, in the second place, "It shall be pools of water." How could this be ? The lake has been filled up, the canals and livers overflow, both the Tigris and Euphrates, and the explorers who have been digging great holes in differ- ent parts of these vast ruins, the water Hows in and it becomes full of pools. It is literally true to-night. And then, in the third place, " It shall be swept with the besom of destruction." This means a hard broom that sweeps very thoroughly the floor, and indicates that the destruction of Babylon is to be very complete. Noth- ing could be more complete, if you are to believe those who have visited it, and the various writers of the past. Now, my friends, what is the lesson to us ? If you can see God so faithful even along the line of prophecy, what do you believe about Him as a matter personally to you ? How do you stand related to God's declar- ations ? He says thus : — " Except ye be converted and be born again ye cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven." Are you born again ? You say, ^o. You will go under then as sure as Babylon went under ; you will go down to death and be lost. Mark my words, God will damn you just as soon as He damned that city. I cannot speak plainer words to you. If you do not obey God in the matior of salvation, I see no issue for you but to take the consequence of sin, as this city took the con- sequence of the prophecies. The Lord bring us up in conformity to His word and will, that we may have His protection rather than His condemnation. Amen. J SERMON XVII. WHEN THE WORLD WILL END. Text. — ** But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; ia the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up," — II. Peter, ill. 10. One of the hopeful signs of the times is, that the Bible is being studied generally, as well as speoifically. Its every utterance, its every statement, and its refer- ences even are being critically criticised. To this fact the liberal and intelligent Christian student can offer no reasonable objection, for he believes it to be an in- spired book ; hence he has no fears of any test that shall be honorably and reasonably made. In times past it has been the custom chiefly to study it speci- ally. Men sought not so much for the truth of the Bible as they did to make it prove and sustain certain isms, or theories and doctrines. Knowing and feeling that the book was an authority and power, they natur- ally desired to have it on their side, that it might give sanction to sects, to rites, to orders and to ceremonies. Even those who have written and spoken against it, were conscious of its power and influence on men and things ; and for this reason they sought power and favor by doing their best to destroy it. In ages of limited intelligence and opportunities these 146 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 147 special students foisted upon society their influences, formulations and creeds in place of the Bible. These were not the Bible, but they usurped its place and its authority. They were men's opinions, and they were palmed off as being God's. Between the best cate- chisms and the Scriptures there is a great difference. This, however, the multitude seemed not to have known ; and how could they when taught by their Spiritual teachers otherwise ? The first great work of the missionary is to undo, to overturn, to destroy the gods and theories that are around him, by presenting the simple truth of this book, and the one true God, Jehovah the God of Abra- ham. The missionary goes forth with this truth, like the immigrant into the bush, alone. He cannot begin to sow immediately he locates there, he cannot begin to plant, to reap, he has got to clear, cut down the trees, uproot the stumps and then begin the work of planting. This is the work that this age has largely to do, name- ly to undo, to upset, to overturn, to cast aside these creeds, and orders and catechisms, and put in place of them all the true word of God. Not an easy task, as simple and honorable as it appears ! The one great work and labor of the Christian teacher of to-day in civilized lands is to present this Bible as the only true means to a man's salvation, high over the ministry, high over the churches, high over sects, high over hierar- chies, over kings, queens, and presidents. When the Bible can get in the right place it will soon put the people right. The teachers of the past entailed upon succeeding !P^ 148 DR. WILD'S SERMONiS. generations numerous assumptions and presumptions which, in course of time, became crystallized and stereo- typed, so that it was reckoned heterodox to reason about them, or even to doubt them. God's word is true, and the truth maketh free. These old stereotyped ideas govern men in their views to-day, and hence very naturally clash with positive and unquestioned reve- lations of science. It really is not the Bible one has to prove and maintain by argument so much as it is those stereotyped ideas that are not the Bible. Half of the men are engaged in proving their sects and denom- inations, which are human expedients at the best, from the Bible. Take, for instance, some of these ideas that have come down to us and fastened upon us, unques- tioned for centuries. It has been the general impres- sion that the earth is about six thousand years old. The churches seem to have fostered that idea, and most people believe it. If you read in any scientific work that it was more they would suppose that man was not true. There was a conflict, a clash at once; but when you go to the Scriptures you find them silent as to the age of this earth. There are some here in this church who suppose that idea, but you never get it from the Bible. There are a few beautiful references to the age, but there is nothing that we can compass within years. It is a beautiful, as well as a scientific, utterance in Gene- sis, 1st chapter, 1st verse, — " In t' e beginning God created the heavens and earth." There are two ideas in that verse. The beginning ; when was that begin- ning ? How long ago ? Then, again, that word create, y r-*' DR. WILD'S SERMONS. U9 what does it mean ? Nobody knows, and yet every- body pretends to have an idea. Some will tell you it means to make somethinfj out of nothing, which is as ridiculous and as contradictory a statement as a man could ever say in his life. Of course, we all agree the world had a beginning. The scriptures frequently re- fer to the beginning. Read in Pioverbs, 8th chapter, 22nd verse, where you will find wisdom personified re- specting the word which afterwards was made flesh, that is Christ, and you will read, " The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ere the earth was." In this good book, both the be- fjinning and the end are recoofnized. Would von turn to the 102nd Psalm, 25th verse, " Of old hast thou laid the foundations of the earth ; and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure ; yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment ; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed." You will always find when referring to the beginning in the Bible, " of old" seems to convey tl c idea of great length of time. Men assume that God created this world from noth- ing ; of this the Bible is silent. Nobody ever fonnd such an idea in the Bible. He has not interpreted the word to create to mean that, but there are di fife rent ideas about the word create. It is our idea of creation that troubles us. We are all agreed that the world has been ma'le. If I want evidence, the best evidence is that which the Bible can give. It tells me that the world was made from things I \\ iplpl 150 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. that are invisible. Read in Romans, 1st chapter, 20th verse, " For the invisible things of him from the cre- ation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse." Instead of nothing, he says invisible things are made into vi.si- ble, and that is what he calls creation. Neither science nor theology knows the essence of matter. Some, and only some of its properties, its manifestation and its combinations are known. We may yet learn, wo may yet see how, even matter comes into existence, what its real essence is ; but at present, we are all ignorant alike. As T said we use the word create to stand for the unknown ; the Bible uses it to stand for 'invisible things. The distance and difference between and from the mineral and liquid are great, so from the liquid to the gaseous, and from the gaseous to the impenetrable, sucli as electricity. May I not ask, is the impenetrable the last change ? Can matter have any other form ? Can it not travel on along the line of the invisible ? It would be very difficult to conceive that without ex- perience. It was quite a work for Dr. Livingscone to persuade the inhabitants of Central Africa that water could be solid, thatyou could ride on it, jump on it, and it belike a stone. They resisted him ; they told him it could not be. It is a queer idea that smoke can be condensed to the diamond, go down to the hardest central point. We know it is a long way from smoke to the diamond; we cannot put it into distance it is such a long way off. How far can matter go and keep changing ? We have DR. WILD'S SEKMOm. 151 here four aspects. Is there a fifth ? I suppose there are a thousand for aught I know. If I were to say so nobody wonld dispute me. If you turn to the 11th chapter of Hebrews and 3rd verse, you will find the same idea of invisibility beiii ^' made visible as the act of God. " Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of Ood, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do ap- pear." How do you understand it ? Not by reason; you cannot reason how this world was made. Whether you are a scientific man or a theologian you must start at the beginning on the groundwork of faith. You know no more than I do, nor I more than you do, as to how the things did begin. We are to start in the realm of faith. TT^ie things we now see are made of things we cannot see ; it is by their combination, by their being put together that we see them. We can see no simple element. Take, for instance, water • '' Well," you say, " it is made up of two gases — 81 parts of Hydrogen, and 19 of Oxygen." Separate them and there is not a human eye can see the oxygen or hydro- gen. When they are together they make something you can see water. Water is made of these two in- visible gases. That is the way the world has been made. Substances can exist beyond our human ken, and by the manipulating and plastic hand of a great Creator they can be placed together, adjusted together, and come within the range of my senses and vision. This is not the first time they existed. Oxygen and hydrogen you can see only when put together. That is the doctrine of Scripture, which is at once both i^S^i! 152 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. scientific and good common sense, and is far encirrji for us to go. An}' body who undertakes to go any fur- ther imposes upon his own faith and upon others. When we get into another world, and see matter in some other form, we may have an idea of what matter is as to its essence. We do not know now. It is not natural that wc should. We are only students, scholars learning. We have a long time yet to be at school. Age after age the mind shall unfold from cycle to cycle along the line of an unending eternity. In the third place, scientists assume a good deal just as we theologians do. Scientists do not prove any of their beginnings. They begin with faith just as you and I do. There is not a scientific theory but what is based on faith. There is not a theory constructed in the world but what is on faith, its foundation is on faith ; something we do not know anything about, something they assume ir their theory. For instance, with re- gard to this earth, they assume that it was a kind of nebulae dust, or comet dust, very infinitesimal parti- cles of matter floating anywhere in space, but by some law of concentration they came together making them- selves larger, then came into gaseous form and finally they came into burning liquid ; that was the beginning of our earth they say. That is the first time they be- gin their faith. Now, there is not a scientific writer can prove that without he assumes it. He first lays it down as a matter of fact. He says the earth is flat- tened at the poles and that would require a liquid state. We have a bulge at the equator, and that would require a liquid state. There are evidences of fire in some of DR. WILfft SERMONS. 153 tlio rocks, just as in the granite, hence we must have begun all on fire. Now, he assumes it. Hp may forgot that every one of those points could be assumed from another starting ground. The Bible begins the world as a watery globe. The very first thing seen by Moses is an ocean of water, and an ocean of water would fiat- ten at the poles and bulge at the equator, and as vege- tation grew and laws appeared it would ignite just as well as hay now, put together without being seasoned. You need not hire a man to set it on fire. It will set itself on fire. That is the way the world got on fire at different points. Scientists tell you with reference to its crust, that perhaps it is about four miles thick. It is a good thing it is. That correspondent asking what hell is might get into a bad place if he should slip through. I am alway thankful they make it thick enough so that we can jump and stamp and have a good time here. Well, I was reading a scientific work, this last week, and the author says : We must average now by the time it has been cooling, four million years, that it must be four miles thick. Now, I suppose it is twice that if we begin at the top of the Himalaya mountain ; it would certainly be thicker under this mountain. Should a man stand on the top of the Andes I guess it would be nine or ten miles through. I would like to ask any man how, upon an ocean of liquid, mountains could exist, mountains like the Andes and Himalayas. They could not exist in a liquid ocean ; they would sink down and find their level. There could not be a mountain if the earth was a liquid volume within. Common sense tells us that, unless they believe there are arches below. ). 15t DR fVlLUS SERMONS. There are plenty of things kindly assumed. Men talk about science^ as if science had something better or grander than theology, whilst, on the whole, it is not as good, because theology comes within a man's experience, and he knows and believes, and feels a great many things which a scientist simply has to guess on the line of his theories. Take, for instance, the different layers and forma- tions of the earth. Now, here i^ the granite, at least 30,000 feet thick, laid horizontal. On this granite comes the silurian laid on top and this is 30,000 feet. On this comes the old red sandstone, 14,000 feet thick, and they are laid horizontally By some eruption they have been thrown up ; that is the way we can measure them. When these three layers were there, as every scientist v/ill admit they were, how far was it through then ? Fourteen miles at least. Ah, that is a strange thing that the world could be fourteen miles thick in the crust thousands of years ago, and only four in 1884". And supposing ^''ou come to the Carboniferous then the new red sandstone, you come to the chalk formation, you come to the diluvian formation, you have then about thirty miles that the earth has had a cvust by the least inferences. But, as I said, men assume. The Bible teaches a more sensible way : First, of its appearance from an ocean of water, everything emanating from the hand of God, and better than any scientific theory man ever submitted. If you want to read a nice description of the process of creation, independent of the book of Genesis, read 104th Psalm, read Job, 38th chap., this coming week, and you will be surprised at the neatness, m DB. WILD'S SERMONS. 155 the order, the beauty, the reason and the simplicity of the inspired word. The Bible does not teach clear enough the approxi- mate age of the present race of men on earth, and science does not contradict it. The present race have been up- on the face of the earth about 6000 years and no longer. There is not the slightest evidences to the contrary, and yet men assume they have been here for one hun- dred thousand or millions of years, from 200,000 to billions. Figures are nothing witli them when they leave the Bible. Do you know that science has no way for the world's ending 1 They are not at all agreed, and yet scientists cannot continue the world very long. I will not trouble you by shewing you the condensed views of "scientists at the present time. If I did any- thing, I would refer you to my second volume, " How and when the world will end," on page -il 6, where you will find all these theories condensed to ten. Ten dif- ferent ways they think the world will end, and yet not one of the ten can take place within a reasonable time that they are obliged to end it. You want more time than the other laws in operation will permit — the law of human increase. They boast in nature's uniformity, in nature's continuance, in nature's inflexibility. If you will abide by this statement I will show you as plain as ABC that this world cannot endure 1000 years unless thfcre is some marked or marvellous change takes place, or some of the laws are replaced by others. The population of the world, taking an average ac- cording to the countries where census have been taken, I find by the authority of Wagner and Boern, Ger- !'?" ,u ii I II 156 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. man Statisticians, the avera-ge will be that they will double every hundred years, that is, there are at pre- sent fourteen hundred millions alive. In one hundred years there will be twenty-eight hundred million. Well^ now, that I may be safe in the calculation I will give you four per cent. I will allow the world's population to double every 125 years, so that you can see I am not taking an advantage. We will start at the same num- ber, fourteen hundred millions, how many will you have in 1000 years ? We would have 3,584,000,000,000. Now, the world has only about 51,000,000 square miles of land surface, or in acres, 32,640.000,000, that will be 109 persons to the acre or 44 yards apiece. Science, eh ! Now, that is sure to take place unless you can prove tliat there is to come in the world a great change, or a law that will add a new farm to our earth. I bind you to your own statement that laws are inflexible and nature sure. If it shall be so then we will be in a pretty tight corner in 1000 years. Land will be very precious. Lots will be worth something. You say the Bible continues the world for one thousand years. That is true. How are you going to run it then ? We suppose the millennium will last 1000 years ; and I think we are all agreed that it has hardly begun yet. We are not far from it. This millennium period is spoken of by the prophet as a new heaven and earth because the change will be so great. So in Isaiah, G5th chap., 20th verse, where he shews you how it will continue a thou- sand years. How will it continue ? Births will cease, life will be lengthened out and those who are alive will continue for hundreds of years, and there will be no "i DR. WILUS SERMONS. 157 increase after a certain point is reached. I will read you these words, " There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days ; for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old sliall be accursed." No infants at the latter period of the millennium. There will be nobody but what will be lengthened out in life until the last sinner is dead and gone, and then finally Christians only will be living in the world. Thus, you see, the Bible provides for contingencies, so that there wnll be no crowding. Are we not to suppose that God has an idea of this world, of its ma- terial, how many it will contain ? Did He not provide for this ? Most certainly He did, and He knows how many the new earth will hold, and when that number is completed He will stop. God is not working at ran- dom, by haphazard or guessinsf. He knew at first how many He intended to live here. He knows every squa mile on the face of this earth, and He knows how many pe pie can live thereon, and when He has gob the number He will stop. He has provided for tha new earth, just as David is recorded as having pro\ led for the temple. So the Lord is gathering the redee aed ones and His elect in heaven. Read in Isaiah, 51st chap., 16th verse, referring to Christ and this great redemption, where he says, " And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people." Just as the gardener has plants which he intends to take up and plant out 158 DR. WILUS SERMONS. .!'4 Vi. 'I* 1 :j 1 doors, so God is gathering His elect in heaven — child- ren, parents, yonder — " That I may lay again the foun- dations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people." These heavenly plants will be brought back and planted in the new earth. And He knows how many He will want. There are cycles in Providence, there are cycles in nature. The moon's cycle is 28 years, the sun's cycle is 448 years, the sidereal cycle is 28,568 years, before the stars go around and come at noon again. It was noon in 2170 B.C., so this astronomical cycle is still going around. It will finish up sometime. That is, on the heavenly day. Our life is called a day. Why are our years only three- score and ten ? Why is seventy the standard ? If you take 365 days, and the fraction, and multiply by 70, you have 25,568. Just as our seconds are timed to the minute, our minutes to the hour, our hours to the day, and our days to the week, so we are timed to the great cycle, for we will have our completed period — just one day. Seventy years is just one of the daj'S of this great cycle. All is harmonious. Then the time shall come to close thB redemption cycle that began in silence, which silence was broken by the angel. This cycle began when the lion of the tribe of Judah stepped forth into the arena to the Re- deemer. He is working now ; He will work on ; He will have His work done sometime, and He will yield up to God the Father. It will end in a chorus, not in silence. It began in a silence that ran through the whole universe. It will end in a grand chorus. It was a grand time for America when Lord Cornwallis DR. WILUS SERMONS. 159 yielded up his sword to General Washington. It was a strange time when Napoleon yielded up his sword to Von Moltke. It was a grand time when Lee yielded his sword to General Grant. The war cycle ended. And this redemption will end, my friends. It will come to a close. Then cometh the end when He shall be delivered up to God, when He shall put down all rule and all authority. " For he must reign until he hath put all enemies under his feet, and the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." When this Hero, this Christ of God, has subjected all authority, like a Comwallis, like a Lee, like a Napoleon, He will yield up all things, and all will be settled. The last enemy He shall destroy is death, and He will destroy it two ways. Here are millions living upon the earth. By His own magic word He changes them into immorta- lity in the twinkling of an eye. Not a man of them will die. Everyone of them, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, will be changed from mortality to immortality, and death will not have been endured. That is a conquest over death. Those that are asleep, who have been in heaven without their bodies, are to be reclothed, and all the graves are opened, and death is left without an item, and Christ supreme rides over all. This is conquest. This is the work He will do. Then shall be brought to pass the saying, " Death is swallowed up in victory," and then the chanting mil- lions will engage in — • ** Lend, lend your wings 1 I mount ! I fly I O grave, where is thy victory ? O death, where is thy sting 1 " • \\ wr^m 160 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. m V.I. It will come as sure as we are here to-night. This cycle will close. And, just as after all such cycles and negotiations, proclamation issues, as did Grant after Lee's surrender, as did Von Moltke after Napoleon's surrender. What is the proclamation ? Read it in Revelations, 10th chapter, 5th verse, " A.nd the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him tliat liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer." No more reckoning by weeks, months, or years ! Time has ceased, and we are in eternity, where years are un- known. This is the way the Bible will end the world, and within a reasonable distance of time, and by rea- sonable provisions. Oh, He will save His people, for while they are raised from the grave, and those who are changed will be caught up with Him in the air, and the world set on fire. You see how philosophical : He does not set it on fire while they are there. It is wrapped in flame, new properties being imparted to it. It will come out in new order and form of matter and combination, of which, I presume, we have not the slightest idea, but we see the beautiful landscape. Citizens wanted for this new country ! Do you in- tend to have a lot — a home in the new earth ? An important question for you and me. We are not going to live this 1000 years. The world is going to end sooner with us. The cycle of time is working off. My heart will stop, my lungs will stop, I will cease to work, and all will be o'er. Are you going, as one of those DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 161 plants, to be hid in the cover of the hand of Christ, so that, when the time comes, you can be transplanted. Do you intend to have a home in the new earth ? You know that old hymn — Lo ! He comes, with clouds descending, Once for favored sinners slain ; Thousand thousand saints attending, Swell the triumph of His train : Hallelujah ! God appears on earth to reign. I hope, my friends, you will have a lot there. I hope we will have a home there, for I expect to meet some of you there, as I stand here to-night. It is but a change. We can pass beyond. God will restore it, hence, in the words of inspiration, " Nevertheless, ac- cording to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which shall dwell righteousness." May God bless you all, my friends. Amen. \ K fl ^^mm wmWI,. 'Mm ■■■:--"i*r.i i : m -fy SEKMON XVIII GRUMBLING WITHOUT REASON. Text. — " All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruc- tion in righteousness ; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." — II. Timothy, iii. 16, 17. The Bible is in fact a remarkable book, and rightly so if it be the product of inspiration. If we judge it by its moral tone we shall find it to be pure and true to the best interests of man, individually and collectively. It does not sanction evil in any shape or manner, neither privately nor openl)'-, personally or publicly. It re- quires that we be pure and clean within, as well as honest and upright without ; hence it is rather queer that some persons actually grumble at the fidelity and truthfulness and the purity of the Bible records. For instance, their modesty seems offended with Genesis ix. 21 about Noah, of whom it is said : — " And he drank of the wine, and was drunken ; and he was un- covered within his tent." Now this is a fact ; no doubt it took place, and though he was a good man he had his faults, for there is not a perfect character revealed in this Bible excepting our Lord and Christ. The Bible is the only truthful biographical book in existence that will tell the whole truth about a man, and forsooth because it has undertaken to tell the whole truth some 162 ■^ DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 163 people grumble. They do not like to think of Jacob and his treacherous conduct towards his brother Esau. No doubt it was true. They don't like to think of David and his adulterous manoeuvering in connection with Uriah. No doubt it was true. Human natiire is alike the M-^oi-ld over, in all ages ; therefore the re- corded errors of men in the past should not fail to guide and help us to right living in the present. They are there to show us what humanity truly is, and these things are written for our example that by them we may be instructed. This fact will be patent to every careful reader of the Bible, namely, that every kind of evil is prohibited, and all manner of good is encouraged and approved of. Take Paul's catalogue of goods and evils in Galatians v. 19, "Now the works of the liesh are manifest, which are these : adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like ; " but, " the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." What do you want more ? Besides, we have special rules for husband and wife, parent and child, friends and neighbors, masters and servants, rich and poor, ruler and ruled. What do we want more ? So complete is the Bible's code of morals and precepts that, neither scientists, infidels nor agnostics can name one that is needful that is not in this good Book, and whenever any one of these men finds any good thing for society the same has been in the Bible before he was born. It has special and general laws covering ^m^mmmm 164 Dli. WILD'S SERMONS. i all man's relations to man. The most brilliant reformer has nothing new to offer, yet you would think that they had. You would think they were wiser than the Bible, and yet I defy any man in this audieiice to pro- duce a single good advocated by any of these reform- ers, so called, that I cannot find taught in God's good Book. Put to the test these teachings by their practi- cal effect and the answer will be overwhelmingly in favor of the Bible, socially, intellect! illy, morally, commercially and jDolifically. This Bible meets man at every point. If we need soldiers, and they are a necessity, then lose of a Christian nation easily out- match the infidel, the pagan or the heathen. The South of Ireland stands no chance with the North because it has not got the same religion, no more than China could with Britain, or Africa with the United States, or Japan with Germany. Christianity fits a man for every lawful duty and makes him smarter in it than he would be without it. Why should we grumble at that which jtroduces the best at every point ? Why does the infidel want to throw away the Bible that is so effectively in favor of the legal and lawful development of the humanities ? Christianity is a grand scavenger, a mighty police fuice, a reducer of taxes, a fountain of peace, a generator of order, a guarantee of security and a dispenser and promoter of prosperity; yet some people grumble and d« 'claim against it. These people remind mt of the side-shows that go with Barnum's big show. They are generally outside, and the promoters will shout themselves hoarse to attract your attention, and you would think to hear DH. W TLB'S SERMOXS. 166 f'h- 'I! ■t them thnt there was noHiing in the big show, but it was all in tho little one ; but it is just the reverse. So, to hear these men talk about science and about this and that, and citing these things in op[)Osition to the Bible and Christianity, you would think really at first sound, that they had some reason. It is only a little side show. Go inside if you want to see anything. Like as Great Britain warriii-' with Ohiiii and other foreign nations has to meet her own discipline and her own cannon, and her own warships which she has taught them and sold to them ; so Christianity has to meet her own forces in the agnostic and infidel of to- day, and in the extreme leaders of Communism. The very learning, the very eloquence, the very courage and the definite conceptions of right are the product of Christianity. They are not the product of infidelity ; so we have to meet our own weapons. We have made them smart, just as the English send English officers to instruct the Chinese and sell tliem English gun- boats and then have to go and fight against their own weapons. It would not be much trouble to meet them if they had not these weapons ; but these men talk as if they had been brought up in infidel S( ciety. We recognize our own qualities in them, and that is the only part we have diificulty to overcome. There is nothing in it in itself. The third genera- tion of infidels are generally a band of lascivious, idolatrous, idle, ignorant outlaws. Now, some of you give me the opposite in any nation in the history •f the world ! I defy you ! If you do I will read it out next Sunday evening. Infidelity has always had 166 LR, WILD'S SERMONS. that sequence in the third generation. If in the first or second generation they are entrusted with power in the state they at once inaugurate a carnival of blood and disorder, and wreck the ship of state in a very few years. All civilized history confirms the statement I have just now made. How did sunny France fare when she came under the rule of atheism ? Mirabeau's bible of atheism, or system of nature, pub- lished in 1770, soon produced the effect of terrorism and demoralization. King, queen, nobility. Huguenots and Christians were mercilessly slaughtered at the guillotine. Thank God the atheist ship of state fortu- nately was soon wrecked and the people cried again for the recognition of God and Christianity. How true the statement in Proverbs xii. 1 0, " The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel." The best they ever did in that reign was cruel in comparison with the benign and gentle rule of Christianity. The fable of the killing of the hen that lays the golden Qgg has a masterly illustration in the efforts of those who seek to destroy the Bible. With feverish fervor some men seek to array the teachings of science ageinst the Bible. To hear them talk you would think the Scriptures actually contradicted nature. Because some men op- posed the declarations of science when first introduced in years past, they blame the Bible. Are we to despise labor reform because in the past the working classes fought against the introduction of labor-saving ma- chines, such as engines, railways, steamships, etc. ? Not at all. These men forget the changing theories, the diverse views of scientific men. I am not aware of a < 1:1 fT DR. WILD'S SERMONS 167 single scientific fact that the Bible contradicts. If my knowledge is not clear on certain things, you that are wiser give me light ; tell me some scientific fact, set- tled on by the world, that the Bible contradicts. Then you will have some ground for complaining. There are many wonderful facts made known, or what we may call incidentally referred to in this good book. Take a few references. Psalm cxxxv. 7, " He causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth." The Hebrew word ends means a circle, that is, all around ; hence it means that vapors ascend all around the earth. The sacred writer in this Psalm is illustrating the power of God. We now know, as they could not hun- dreds of years ago, in those early days, what a magni- ficent illustration that is. Look at the water that runs over Niagara Falls and one gets an idea of quantity and power, and one could be led to think that the lakes would be soon drained dry ; yet modern science tells us that from the Mediterranean sea there evapo- rates more in one hour than pours over the Niagara Falls in 24 hours. Dr. Halley, a scientist of good re- pute, assumes the amount at more than 20 million tons, that is some five thousand millions of gallons or about one and one-half million gallons every second. But the Mediterranean is only about a million miles square, while the surface of the whole globe of water is 150 times larger than it. The vapor that ascends all around the globe is more than 200 millions of gal- lons every second. In one hour seven cubic miles ; in one day 164 cubic miles of water lifted up a mile in height. Talk about power ; if you multiplied every 168 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. .,4 i r,.4.., . i ^. steam engine on the earth by ten thousand you could not touch the work of God in evaporation in one day. Prof. Joule, of Manchester, England, says that to evapo- rate by artificial heat one square mile of water six inches deep would require the combustion of f^0,000 tons of coal ; therefore to evaporate all the water that ascends from the earth in one day would demand more coal than could be stowed away in half-a-dozen world's like ours. " He causeth the vapors to ascend." I am glad He does. Arago, the noted French astronomer, r-omputes that it would require the constant labor of the whole human family for a period of 200 million years to do the work that the sun does every year in causing the vapor to ascend. The real truth is, we need advanced science to enable us to understand the Bible, and see the beauty of some of its statements, just as the investigation in meteorology has given us ability now to understand the grandeur of the Psalm- ists illustration in that verse. A few years ago nobody knew that there was a grand point there, but now we come to see and thoroughly understand its meaning. The Psalmist says in Psalm cxxxix., " For I am fear- fully and wonderfully made : marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. How sublime this statement in the light of the science of anatomy and physiology of to-day; the 245 bones, the 400 mus- cles with 20 thousand adaptations. A few hundred years ago they would not understand that statement. We need science to understand the Bible, and the man that is well posted in science is not very likely to be an infidel if he wants to be anything olse. In DR. WILD'S SERMOSS. 169 Job XXV. 5, it says, " Behold even to the moon and it shineth not. ' This is one of those facts only made known a few centuries ago. We know that the moon has no light of its own ; we know that it bor- rows it from the sun ; but the writer in the book of Job knew that long ago. In Job xxxi. 7 — " He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing." The ancients did not know that, but we know it now. See the beau- tiful illustration of the earth's revolution, which has been known but a few centuries. In Job xxxviii. 14, " It turneth as clay to the seal." : — the earth turns around. Take the statement in Ecclesiastes i. 6 «& 7 verses — "The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north ; It whirleth about con- tinually, and the wind returneth agaii/ .-occording to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea ; yet the sea is not full ; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again." This is a thing only known a few centuries, and are you aware that Lieutenant Maury in reading that verse and studying it drew up the famous sea charts that have produced such a wonderful effect in shortening voyages and pre- serving life, and that from them came our observations from which results of the probabilities of the weather are given us every day. You would not have the pro- babilities of to-morrow if it were not for that verse there. What do you think of science my friends ? when you and I become scientific enough to read the Bible with eyes brighter than we have to-night, we will see more and more, of the beauty and truth of '~^» 170 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. j. ■ n God's Holy Word. You would think to hear some people talk that the majority of scientific men were really infidels or agnostics. It will surprise such per- sons to know that, at the British Scientific Associa- tion held in 1865, that 617 gentlemen of the highest eminence in the various sciences, signed a document confessing their faith in God and the truth and au- thenticity of the Holy Scriptures. I will quote you the first clause of that document : " We the under- signed students of the National Sciences, desire to ex- press our sincere regret that researches into scientific truth are perverted by some in our own times into oc- casions for cas^,ing douot upon the truth and authen- ticity of the Holy Scriptures." Is not that a remark- able statement. Give me 617 infidels, give me 617 agnostics To lo so you would have to begin from Adam down, and even then you could not scare up enough. But we can find them in one church, in one meeting. When men in Toronto talk about scientific men being iniidels, tell them I say they are wrong. Do you want the names and the titles of these gentlemen ? I will put you in the way of seeing them, every one. If you cannot afford the expense to buy the book I will lend it to you. It is by Prof. Samuel Kinns, en- titled, " The Harmony of the Bible with Science," in the appendix to which is printed every name and title. It is no great matter with some who have any amount of faith for disbelieving to know as Prof. Kinns has shown in his book that the fifteen created events recorded in the first chapter of Genesis are in harmony with the highest and safest declarations of DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 171 science up to the present moment. More, these events could vary over a billion ways. The permutation of fifteen is over a billion. So, it was a billion to one that Moses should have recorded them in the order he did. Such surely is a proof, a sufficient proof, that the Scriptures are inspired of God; and yet, there are men that will put their faith and make this or that one an accident out of a billion. Well, I say an infi- del must have faith. A Christian is not greatly taxed because he has reason for his belief; but the infidels have not. Now, these fifteen events are just one after the other as they ought to be. They could have been put as I have said, a billion ways. How came Moses to put them just as they are ? Because God knew; and I take that as a positive proof outside of the Bible, of its inspiration ; it will stand against any argument produced by any living man. Science, common sense, practical experience, all confirm the truth of my text, that " the Scriptures are the products of inspiration." How else in those far off ages could men have known such scientific truths and proclaim such marvellous prophecies of individuals, of races, of nations, and of natural phenomena. In the second place, they are profitable for doctrine. You can get the best set of doctrines for human guidance from the Bible of any book in existence. They are for correction. You can correct errors from the Bible with a power that you can not from any other book. They are for instruc- tion. They do make us wise, and the people who have the Bible to-night are the wisest. That thing alone ought to rush the Bible through the common^ 172 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. schools without any nonsense, because the fact is as clear as A B C that the Bible makes people intelli- gent. In some way or other, men who have been be- lievers in Scripture have been the most perfect and the most abundant in good works. Who are the charitable ones of earth ? Who are the heroes of benevolence ? Who are the savers of the people and nation ? The majority, to say the least, are Christians who believe in this Word. It is well to remember that physical sciences are not yet perfect. The Bible being perfect in comparison it will be difficult to find exact harmonv for some time ; but the Bible will not suffer by the discovery, or the propa- gation, or the practical establishment of any scientific truth whatever. Scientific speculation of the creation of the world in time and order is not any clearer than the Bible ; whichever theory one accepts there will be a mystery left for liaith. In fact. Professor Herbert Spen- cer, who some claim to bo the agnostic leader, said, " A little more mystery with the scientific theory than with the Bible." So the grandest leader of agnosticism says, if a man has to believe about creation through science he has got to admit more mystery than if he believes it as recorded in the Bible. Well, I want to save : -y faith. I do not want to waste it, inasmuch as it costs less faith and there is more reason in the Bible state- ment ; I am going in for it. Those who have got faith, enough or to spare, they can take the scientific vagary. The best we can do, he says, is to trHiisfer the mystery from the old to the new. Wei!, I 'rof^'t ttfl"*; 'he trouble to transfer it and have more to otiny. To piove the DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 173 Bible we should do as our Saviour advises us in John vii. 17, " If any man do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God." Could you have a fairer test ? If you want to know whether this doctrine be from God, put that into practice, and the proof shall rest in that. I am sure there is nothing fairer. Repent, confess, and God will pardon you as sure as I am here to-night. " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and ye shall be saved." " In the world ye shall have tribula- tion, but in me there is peace." A thousand hearts can say to that, " Amen, I believe it." That grand Chris- tian scholar, Prof. Dawson of Montreal, in his book on "Nature and the Bible," on page 221 says, "Finally, I may state as the conclusion of the whole matter, that the Bible contains within itself all that under God is required to account for and dispose of all forms of in- fidelity, and to turn to the best and highest uses all that man can learn from nature." Are noo the words of such a man authoritative ? The grandest Scientist that the Dominion possesses holds fast to the good old book, and believes in its teachings. The greatest Geologist in the Dominion accepts the Bible. It is said in John x. 35, "And the Scripture cannot be broken." Now, sir, there is no man living can break them. Do you believe this Bible, from what I have said to-night ? Do you believe in its inspiration ? If you do not you have a miracle to account for by human agency. Throw this book back down into the dark ages as you call them, 3,000 years ago, and yet you find men are writing of things that we have been investigating and which they knew long 174 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. before we found them out. The Bible is true, my friends, and I advise every one to go home and believe every word of it. It is for correction, for reproof, for instruction, and makes us competent unto all good works. The Lord bless us all. Amen. i Illi, ■ it 'h i IK eal tu this battle law instead of being tried by a jury. If the court should grant his appeal, the accuser and the accused were brought face to face at an appointed place and time. The accuser held in his right hand the New Testament and in his left the right hand of the accused and took the following oath; — " Hear me, thou whom I hold by the right hand, I am not guilty of the felony with which thou hast charged me. So help me God, and His saints, and this will I defend with my body against thee as this court shall 176 ..lai 176 DH. fFILD'S SERMONS. I.. award." The accused afterward took the same oath. The court officer then handed to each person a rou■ course, to show the Israelites that the God whom MoF^s proclaimed as their deliverer was able to deliv- er thorn and that He was mightier than all the gods that had the gorgeous temples and the brilliant ritual- ism to sustain them. These n "racles too could be un- derstood by the people, for God contests with ten of their strongest deities. The first miracle was with Aaron's rod, which is turned into a serpent at the feet of Phara. The serpent was one of the leading gods w orshipped. There is a mystery about its worship. It comes to us in the ancient word Etheopia — E, she or the — the, from Theo8, God — opi, from opis, a serpent — and means location or country. Hence the meaning of the word Etheopia is the first country that worshipped the i er- pent as a god. The serpents of P iroah were brought in and mingled with that of Aaron's on the palace floor, but the latter destroys the others and >^,iius God is triumphant. The second miracle was the turning of the waters of the Nile into blood — the river whose waters irrigated the whole country. It was indeed to them as a God which had a yearly festival in its honor when they prayed him to send plenty of the sweet, delicious water that their land might be fruitful. But the water is turned into blood. What a sight it must have been — a rolling river of blood ! What a change it would be to the people — a change that their gods could not resist or overcome. The third miracle w.vs that of frogs which was also directed against the Nile, inasmuch as they made the l< IMAGE EVALUATJON TEST TARGET (MT-S) y A ^ :A fA & ^ 1.0 2.5 I.I |iO ""^S « KS 12.0 1.25 1.4 u Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 873-4503 "Q ,V K V <^.<^" .80 DR, WILD'S SERMONS. a i ■ s f i ii water undrinkable. They were the green frogs — the most offensive of its species, which multiplied rapidly and moved over the land like an army. No doubt they cried unto their God Tath that he might deliver them, but no response came. The fourth miracle v/as that of lice, which was an exceedingly great affliction to these clever and ftistid- ious people. One of the priest's rules of worship was that they had to be clean, and have on clean linen. But when the priests became covered with these ver- min, their very worship was stopped and now they are compelled to say : this is the finger of God. The fifth plague was that of flies, the God-Beelzebub, Kheper Ra. This, too, would be a great aflliction, as in a warm country like Egypt flies would become, not only a great nusiance, but a terrible calamity., The sixth miracle was in the nature of an aflliction upon their cattle. The Egyptians made cattle an object of special worship, having their sacred bulls, rams, and goats. It was especially necessary therefore that a miracle should be worked against this brute worship, and the cattle were killed \Sy thousands. The seventh miracle was that of boils, it being directed against their god Typhon. This god required human sacrifices, the ashes of which, when taken from the altar and scattered would, according to their belief, stop a plague. Moses went to this altar and threw a handful of the ashes abroad, scattering with it boils and sores, making it produce exactly the opposite of what they supposed it capable. DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 181 The eighth miracle was that of hail. They had a god dedicated to the weather which they called Isis, to whom they prayed whenever they wanted fine weather. The hail storm would thus shatter their belief in this god. .,, The ninth plague was locusts, and the miracle was directed against the god Serapis, whose duty it was to protect the country from this particular evil. The tenth miracle was that of darkness, which des- troyed the eflect of Osiris, the god of Light. Tiiis was one of their most beautiful gods, whose seat was sup- posed to be in the sun, and who gave the world its liofht. A darkness " that was felt " came over the land for three days and three nights, proving to them that their favorite god had absolutely no power to avert it- The last miracle was directed against all the gods, so as to convince them that the issues of life and death are in the hands of God alone. In Exodus xii. 12, God says, "Against all the gods of Egypt will I execute judgment, I am Jehovah." The first-born of each house is to be found dead on the coming morning, and so it was. This brought Pharoah and his people to their senses and they gave up the contest at this point. Je- thro said, when told of these miracles, " Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly He was above them." Ex odusxviii. 11. What a contest it was and what marvellous results ! The whole nation are made willing to let the Hebrews depart peacefully, and this was not an easy thing to do, because the Egyptians would naturally hate to give up 182 DR WILUS SERMONS. ■I m their slaves. The contest was successful on' God's side, and the children of Israel knew that their God was the one true God. It is impossible, as we read the description of the plagues, not to feel how much of force is added to it by a knowledge of the peculiar customs and character of the country in which they occurred. It is not an or- dinary river that is turned into blood ; it is the sacred, beneficent, solitary Nile, the very life of the state and the people, in its streams, and canals, and tanks, and vessels of wood, and vessels of stone, then, as now, used for the filtration of the delicious water from the sedi- ment of the river-bed. It is not an ordinary nation that is struck by the mass of putrefying ve rmin lying in heaps by the houses, the villages, and the fields, or multiplying out of the dust of the desert sands on each side of the Nile valley. It is the cleanliest of all the ancient nations, clothed in white linen — anticipating, in their fastidious delicacy and ceremonial purity, the habits of modern and Northern Europe. It is not the ordinary cattle that died in the field, or ordinary fish that died in the river, or ordinary reptiles that were overcome by the rod of Aaron. It is the sacred gont of Mendes, the ram of Amnion, the calf of Heliopolis, the bull Apis, the crocodile of Ombos, the carp of La- topolis. It is not an ordinary land, of which the flax and the barley, and every green thing in the trees, and every herb of the field, are smitten by the two great calamities of storm and locust. It is the garden of the ancient Eastern world — the long line of green meadow and corn-field, and the groves of palm, and sycamore, DR. WILD'S SURMO^S. 183 and fig tree, from the cataracts to the Delta, doubly re- freshing from the desert which it intersects, doubly marvellous from the river whence it springs. If these things were calamities anywhere, they were truly " signs and wonders " — speaking signs and oracular wonders — in such a land as " the land of Ham." What is the lesson to us, my friends ? May we not ask ourselves, are we fighting the battle of the gods this morning ? Are you worshipping and serving the one true God, or have you idols in your heart and mind ? K the god of pride supreme ? Is the god of self su- preme ? Is the god of pleasure sn|M eme ? What sort of gods are you creating ? Will they be able to help you in times of distress ? When the soul and body are about to part and you are nigh unto death and you cry unto the gods you have created, here^is a cheque for S5000, take away the disease and save my life. Will there be any answer to your appeal ? Will the god of pride help you when you come to appear before your God ? No, my friends. These will be of no avail, but a heart reconciled to God and at peace with Heaven; a con- science void of offence toward all mankind, will pave the way for you. If you rely on your own gods in the contest you will lose the battle. Cease to fight against God, lay down the weapons of your rebellion, acknowledge His victory, and pledge your life in hum- ble, loving service to Him, ^i SERMON XX. SHALL WE KNOW EACH OTHER THERE ? Text. — *' For now we see through a glass darkly ; but then face to face ; now I know in part ; but then shall I know even as also I am known. — I. Cor. xiii. 12. It is natural for us to be interested in the future. This interest is in harmony with science, which is strug- gling on certain lines to know what the future in na- ture will be, as in the weather probabilities and other directions. They would like to know what kind of a day it will be a year from now. In many departments, in fact, they are now making efforts to interpret the future. I presume this desire is in accordance with our intellectual endowments, and I «,m sure it is in accord- ance with our affections, so sweetly knit together in time, and we cannot help, through these affections, en- quiring, " Shall we ever be knit together again after the separations of earth have taken place ? " We now have a conscious life, we understand our own ex- istence in part, but what is the purpose of our being ? And what is our final destiny ? Who shall answer these important questions ? Who among us can solve the great problem of the destiny of our existence 'i And if an answer should be given, how may I know that that answer is the true one ? The world of men have been asking from Job's time along the line of the centuries, " If a man die shall he live 184 DB. WILD'S SERMONS. 185 airain ? " We are familiar with death as well as with life «A conscious identity, and an actual in- dividuality was ours in the womb, and it is ours to the present moment, notwithstanding the change of birth that we pass through. Will the consciousness and individuality we now possess survive the next change, called death, or will they succumb ? Or may we not rather conclude that death itself is but another birth, lifting us up to a higher plane of existence than that of earth. We can answer this question by saying that nature says yes ; our desires say yes ; the law of analogy says yes ; the Bible says yes ; history says yes. Some few among us say no, and still another few say they don't know, but if we turn to the Bible sufficient proof is there given that death does not end our exist- ence ; that we shall be privileged, and it will be a part of our very existence to meet again on loving and familiar terms in another life. I read in Psalms xvi. 11, " Thou wilt show me the path of life ; in thy pre- sence is fulness of joy ; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." The path of life goes through the gates of death ; through the valley and the shadow of death. I read in the Psalms xxii. 26, " Your heart shall live for ever." God be praised that it is so, for in that heart, taken in its spiritual sense, are clustered the most of our affections ; the most of those instincts that bind us lovingly, together. If this heart shall live forever, the co-relatives, that is the things that please this heart, shall be within its reach for its enjoyment. Proverbs xii. 28 reads, " In the way of righteousness is life, and in the pathway thereof there is no death." i| ', W-i 186 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. M n ! No, my friends, if we are born of God we go right on through this path of life ; He will show us the way, and there will be no death in this path, but joys and pleasures for evermore. Turn to John vi. 47, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on rae hath everlasting life," — a life that hell cannot quench ; that physical death cannot quench ; that cannot be cut off; that must survive forever. And if life continues, I would suppose that those things that constituted it in the past, and made it what it is in the present, must continue also. It always strikes me that if I were to ask, " Shall we know each other in the world to come ? or, shall we live after this change called death ?" that the very enquiry itself is the grandest proof I could possibly submit, for I have often said that I cannot understand how a negative can arise on any question unless there be an affirmative. I don't see how any one can ask a question about that which is not, will not be, and has never been. So, if a man asks will I live again ? — it is a positive proof that he will, or he would never have asked such a question. If he asks, is there a God ? — it is proof there is one., for he could not ask of that which never had an existence. You cannot ask about nothing. Have la spirit? Yes, because you are enquiring after it. I take these to be positive proofs, at least they are to my mind. I am willing to receive from you a question about nothing when you can find it. You and I are bound for eternity as sure as we are here, and if a man says there is no God, no heaven, no spirit, he has proved these three things by denying DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 187 fm them^ for how could you, I repeat, deny that which never had an existence ? An animal will go as far as its instincts lead it. It does not enquire after heaven, nor does it worship as we do, and it is therefore below us. It acts according to its instincts, and so do I. I am led out into the invisible in lonfrini; affection to meet again those who have gone before, and I am there- fore in the right direction. Instincts must have their correlatives. You may say to me that it is the duty of an affirmative to prove it: if satisfactorily. So it is in most cases, but when you come to ultimates you can- not prove them ; when you come to that which is ele- mentary or primary you cannot give any proof except in two ways, by analogy or by submitting the thing itself. Take gold, for instance, and speak of it to a per- son who has never seen gold. He will say, " What is it? " You will answer, " It is hard like iron but yellow instead of black," and so by analogy you convey to him some idea of what gold is, but if he knows of no min- eral and has never seen gold, how are you going to get at him ? He says, prove to me you have gold. What could you say ? What is it made of ? he asks. It is not made ; it is a created thing, sir. Made things are two or more things put together, " one things " must be creations. "But what is it ? " he repeats. " Well, sir, it is golcV " But what is it made of ? " "I tell you again it is gold." What else are you going to say to him ? Now, prove the affirmative ! I can by submit- ting the simple fact, that is all I can do. If you have never had pain how could I tell you what tooth ache is ? " What is it 1 " you enquire. " It is pain, sir," SSi,,: 188 DR, WILD'S SERMONS, pi \ ' •i m ''>H± |- m 1^ ^..to.-- •1 :. and I can say nothing more. If he had a little touch of it I could get at him. So I have a conscious affec- tion, an instinctive belief, that there is another life awaiting me beyond the bounds of time, and these in- stincts and affections are to me the grandest proofs that my hopes will be realized. The question of future recognition is freely sustain- ed — liberally so through Revelation. It is sustained, too, by the law of analogy and by history. We have our affections here, and we naturally mourn and grieve when we are separated. We can start a thousand ques- tions that we cannot answer, but the good Lord will make all things right, and it is hardly reasonable for me to tliink that I should be so closely knit to my family and friends on earth, and that wlien death takes place these are entirely cut off'. Such a separation would leave a great vacancy, and though there might be new things, and objects, and enjoyments submitted for my pleasure, I am still at a loss to understand how a part of my past existence shall be annihilated or done away with. You can see my individuality, and you can have some idea of the outlines of my real personal identity. I believe that when I throw off this body that my soul is the form and figure of my body ; that my spirit is life. We never read of spirit having form ; it is life which will live in the soul — the soul which sees through my eyes and face, and the last impress I make upon my eyes and face will be when my soul and spirit with- draw from this house of clay. There will be no more change. The personality within is gone. I will be absent from the body to be present with the Lord. DR. WILUS SERMONS. 189 Again, in the change called death, I will throw off a body as in birth, and continue on in my personal existence. Of course, those who have gone on before will, I believe, easily recognize us as we will them, be- cause they will doubtless have some knowledge of our coming. Being there, they will have information and light that we cannot gather this side of eternity. It may be when we are unclothed in death that we will be able more readily to recognize our friends than when clothed. I think we will. An English artist, visiting Toronto recently, recognized me in a street car, al- though ho had never seen me before, by certain lines ot the face which he knew in a brother of mine, whose portrait he had painted, and which he said were pe- culiar to our family. So I believe there will be a hun- dred lines by which, when we get to heaven, we will see our own. Ah ! this is mine, this is of our family, this is of our race, this is of our world, we will say. It would be almost cruel, after the struggles and hard- ships of life, to train up our families if there were not to be a meeting-place hereafter. I have told how my brother Barnabas was on the point of sailing to Amer- ica, in order to pay me a visit, but was suddenly taken ill and is now confined to his bed. A letter comes this week, and Brother ** Barney" says, "Tell Joseph we will meet in heaven." Yes, yes, I will not think that I will never see him again, and with the hope of meeting him beyond, I carry my grief. Surely our heavenly Father will let His children mingle together again. Light, distance, and time make a great difference in our views of things. We mourn and worry because ^^iw 190 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. we only see things partly ; our own experiences, in fact, teach us how foolishly we mourn. Distance in na- tural objects gives us a different view of them, and as things become distant in time they change in their in- terest towards us. When we think of our boyhood days, how intensely we were interested in some things that now have no charm for us ; and so when wo were young men and women the things that pleased us older people then, are gradually dying out and new things come in. Paul says, " Many things shall fail, })ut charity abideth for ever." The love that I have for my family and ray friends must .\bide forever. This is what it teaches in the chapter from which my text is taken. Our individualism will stand out clearly in the world to come. What is a man but what he has been ? What am I to day but wliat I have been \ Supposing I were to go to heaven and I wanted to tind my sister Martha. T believe that I will see all her past life ; that when I see her I will see the whole of her life from the beginning. I will see her at home, I will see myself talking to her, I will say : " Martha ! " No one will have the relationship to her that I had, and she will answer to my call. She will be made up of thoughts, acts, feelings that were in the past. Suppos- ing 70U were to take all emotion, thought and life away from a person, what would you leave ? Nothing but the essence of the soul. There are persons put in trances and fever states who will call the names of those long gone. They see them in their mind, and if we can do that here I believe we will yonder ; in fact, it is not possible to reason on any DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 191 basis but that we must conclude that we shall know each other in heaven. I have been asked to repeat the story of the child wliom I knew, and which was adopted by friends on the deatli of its parents. The fact of its parents having died was kept from the child. At eleven it was taken ill with scarlet fever. After it recovered it constantly repeated to its step-parents, " Oh, mamma, if you had seen one of those persons who kept calling to me when I was sick. I was so near I could see lots of people, but one woman wanted me to go to lier arms ; she kept trying to draw me toward her and I did so want to go, mamraii. ! " She then de- scribed her own mother in the person she had seen in her dreams. Some time after, while visiting the home where the little girl lived, I was loo .^ ng at a photo- graph of her own mother and afterward left it lying on a table. The child picked it up to satisfy her curiosity, and suddenly exclaimed, " Oh, mamma ! this is the picture of the woman that called me ! " Now, what would you make out of an occurrence like that ? I believe she saw her own mother ! My good old mother said on her dying bed, " Tell Joseph I will wait for him in heaven ! " and I expect to see her again. God bless us and help us so to live that we may have a happy meeting in heaven. Amen. SERMON XXI. I ;•■ ; w^. < • Ml- A GEAND GATHERING ON A GREAT MOUNTAIN. Text. — " But ye have come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an in- numerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and of God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus thb mediatof of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that spoaketu better things than that of Abel."— He- brews xii. 22-24. On the line of possibilities God is all sufficient for any reasonable purpose or work. On the line of space there is room enough for continued creation, ard on the line of time eternity is equal to both. Our faith and our conceptions and our imagination have a fine field for exercise and development in these infinitudes. Three large words, God, space and eternity, all warrant more than the human mind can take in. These facts should prepare us to receive wonderful things in a Divine re- velation. All things are great relatively in the Divine economy, though small when separate. A railway ex- press train could not run without a liotie oil : the tiny pins and screws and nuts, small in themselves, but big things because of their relative connection in the largest and best constructed machine. It makes a great difference in our estimate of a thing whether we look at it relatively or separately. The nut is of a different 192 DR. WrLiyS SERMON'S. 103 I'' I value when it is in itH proper place on the engine to what it is in your hand or on the roadside. Some things in the Bible look small — yes, look even trifling when viewed separately, but in their relative connec- tion and divine intent they are all important ; there is nothing trifling or unnecessary in the whole Bible. We should learn to study this book as a whole, and not con- tent ourselves with taking here and there a separate passage separating the same from all the rest. A cus- tom with many in studying the scriptures is in a frag- mentary manner, and this is a fruitful source of weak faith and a common source of what we call common er- ror. Specialties are allowable and even justifiable when they are studied in harmony with that which is gen- eral, but never otherwise. We have very propor.'y specialties in medicine, in law and in theology, but tbos medical man who makes the eye a specialty must first be a general doctor, and have a knowledge of the hu- man constitution, or he cannot be a specialist on the eye. He studies that eye not only with respect to its own construction, its organization and functions contained in itself, but he studies it also with respect to its rela- tion to the nervous system as well as the whole con- stitution. So a criminal lawyer and a Chancery law- yer must first be a lawyer and understand general law before he can be a specialist ; therefore anybody that makes for himself a specialty out of any one passage of the Bible should first understand the Bible generally, or they are not fit to be specialists on doctrine or any theory taught in Ood's Word. ML m I Mil •■■ ; i 194 DR. WILD'S SERMOJ^S. Suppose a company of angels were to visit our earth entirely ignorant of man, and prior to their visit a hu- man body had been dissected and the small parts of it scattered here and there. In the journeys to and fro of these angels, one of them finds an ear, another an eye, another a tongue, another a tooth, another a nose, another a hand, and another a foot, until they have found the complete parts of a human body, but each knows not what the other has found, I presume the angel that found the ear would see that it had been made — would have an idea of some purpose and de- sign in its construction, though it would be very dif- ficult to infer its full value and use, but when they came to see a man and see the ear in its proper place and learn its functions, and see the eye and see what it could do, and the hands, they would know more of the eyes and ears and hands than they could if they saw them separately ; they would have a meaning to them. So when you take an isolated passage, and study it apart from its connection, you know but little of the Bible truth, but when you study it in connection with the harmonious whole, it is of great value. I would not give five cents for the best ear you have got if I found it in the mud on the roadside, but I would give ten cents to keep it where it is on the best of you. We are apt to study our own life in a fragmentary way — some special sick ess, some special accident, or some special failure. v^e bruod over these things and give thum too prominent a place; we allow them to occupy our attention tar too much. We sepaiate them from the general experience of our life ; because we have been i <• ! DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 195 sorrowful for a week we think we have suffered for ten years. But if we are serving God, we may rest satis- fied that all things are working together for our good, and that it is true when we are afHicted, and it is true when we are at death's door. All these things will be lost in the beauty of a rounded and completed life. In studying the history of the Hebrew people, one should do so in a connective way. A good deal of the Divine and the human blends in this history, and it is the only ancient history that you need recognize that fact in. If you read Hebrew history just as you would read the history of China or India you won't under- stand it. There are certain things in this history that could not belong to any other history. In their whole history we have a blending of the Divine and the hu- man, and the hunan is very prominent sometimes, and the Divine is equally as prominent. In the call of Abraham we have a new race centre created, and radiating therefrom we have a new nation, a new religion, a new government, a new method of pro- vidential administration, and new forms of manifesta- tions by the Creator. However unnatural it may ap- pear, this race will be exceptional in several things, because it is an exceptional I'ace. It will be unlike others existing around it, or any other nation existing before it, hence it cannot be judged by the rules with which you judge other nations, We must be prepared for exceptional things in Hebrew history. God would reveal Himself to them by dreams, by angelic messen- gers, by visions, by voice, by prophetic endowment and other sources of power, by a cloud of glory that 190 DB. WILUS SERMONS. shall be the symbolized and localized embodiment of His presence. No other nation ever had such a cloud, such a symbolism among them. By means of the urim and thummim, they could hold special communication with God. No other people ever had such an instrument or method of communication. They had prophets who were the human voices of God. Look at them as a race leaving Egypt — their number between two anrl three millions, having been slaves for several genera- tions — what a marvellous deliverance ! Look at the place they are leaving, the place they are journeying to and the place they have got to go through — a wilder- ness — passing through a territory of sworn enemies, unskilled in war, unprepared from centuries of slavery, will they ever get through to Canaan ? you ask in doubt. Vou are looking only at the people — God is with them going through the mountains and seas and nations, that makes a difference. God will lead them by a cloud of glory that guides them exactly which way to go. No other nation has had such a leader, hence they will be successful. To understand my text read Exodus xix. " Li the third month when the child- ren of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they unto the wilderness of Sinai." There Israel camped before the mountain. In the rug- ged wilds of the wilderness of Sinai, where the moun- tains lifted up their heads to the clouds, there the peo- ple halted and camped in the front of these hills. They are here now for the purpose of making a covenant with God — fifty days since they left Egjrpt. The bar- gain is going to be made between the Divine Ruler 1 ,iii! >»<#'.ijiii DR. WlLTfS SERMONS. 197 and the people. This government is to be a theocracy, superior to democracy, superior to monarchy, superior t(j every other form of government. It is a pity that such a government was ever destroyed. Yet we as a nation have the least reason to grumble of any people who ever lived, from Adam till now, or perhaps, will ever live. There must be laws. The King will have His rights, and the people will have theirs. There must be an understanding between them, so He ar- ranges through their great leader Moses to give them ten commandments and other instructions for their guidance. A meeting took place. What are the at- tendant circumstances at the foot of Mount Sinai ? A plain stretches out there, sufficient for the accommoda- tion of the travelling host of Israel. The mountain is to be divided oft'; the human and the divine ground are to be made separate by a fence. Think of fencing God off*! That is what we do many a time. " So far shalt thou go, and no farther." Inside of the fence was Divine ground ; it was the King's demesne ; this is the King's own, and that is the people's. The King is to speak from the cragged cliffs and the people are to answer from the plain be- low, and so they did and said, We will do all the Lord shall say to us. You readily make promises. Will you keep them i Moses is invited up into the moun- tain to be a sort of mediator, and to visit God. What a strange sight I He announces to the people that the Divine presence is about to appear. The people have been preparing three days, washing their garments, getting them whole, and cleansing their persons before , i 1 : ■! 1 198 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. m " I ! '-<• . i ■ 1 i! \ ^ \ 1 •! 1 '1 , n m i ■ y ^jBI , 'iflj they can appear before the King. You cannot appear in filth and rags before Him, when you could as easily appear properly clothed and clean. Three days are up. It is morning — nine o'clock. There is the sound of the stately stoppings of the King of kings. Thunders herald His coming, crashing through the vales and ravines, echoing from hill to hill, from mount to mount, until the whole of Sinai seems to be crashing to pieces, and the lightnings reveal the dark clouds in which His Divine Majesty is veiled. This thick cloud lowers, and forth from it came the voice as of a trumpet, very loud, louder than any blast that mortal ear ever heard. The mount seems all smoke. In clouds it is ascend- ing, and down through the smoke come tires. The mountain quakes, the hills tremble, the peaks nod one at the other, at the presence of the King of kings, who appears amid clouds of smoke, tongues of fire, crashing thunders, quaking hills, terrided beasts, awe struck and trembling people, and He spake unto them. Now, re- ferring to Mount Sinai, Paul in this text turns our thoughts and our attention to another mountain in the universe, equally as interesting and equally as solemn, and equally as full of interest, — to Mount Sion. Where is it located ? In heaven. Where is that ? In the universe, very probably. Where is it ? you ask. You do not need to ask. More probably it is in the centre than at one side. You must reason on probabilities of things that you do not know. What are its dimen- sions ? I hardly know — a little over 1,500 miles high, a little over 1,500 miles in diameter. How do you know ? Very probably it overtopped the city, and the DR, WILD'S SERMONS, 199 New Jerusalem we are told in Revelation is 1,500 miles long, and 1,500 miles broad, and 1,500 miles high. I am under the impression that when people get on top of Mount Sion they will sec all over the golden city ; hence I think it is very high. Its shape I don't know. Perhaps it lies square something like the city. Do you know I think this Mount Sion is a cosmos of the universe with the flora and fauna of the ages. We have in this world circles wherein a certain kind of animal and vegetable life can live ; do you go into an- other circle and you have a new variety. I believe this mountain is built with the fauna and flora circles of the whole universe and when a person gets there, and wishes to see what is in Saturn or Jupiter or any of those worlds inhabited, they may do so. Here is the circle of Jupiter, he says, I wonder what kind of flowers and animals they have in that world ? Go up and see. I believe it will be an epitome of the whole uni- verse, as the city itself will be a rendezous for all the difi^erent intelligent beings saved through the Lamb of God. It is but natural that there should be such a centre, and being the centre of all centres it must be grand. The Scriptures speak of it quite fre- quently. In the old garden of Eden was a mount, the mount of God. That is a term quite frequently used in the Scriptures. Our instincts seem to want just such a city, such a mountain, and such a gathering place, and science seems to confirm our instincts and the Scriptures, for the more we know of astronomy the more assured are we of centres. Each system has a centre like our solar system of the sun ; but this is (iiiillfil ...... -vjij, ^ J Nil P ! 200 JJJi. WILD'S SERMONS. 'l: f \ 1 1 ! i 1 linked to another system, mightier than our own. Sys- tem is linked to system until you get to the centre of centres where heaven is, and God Himself abides. Why should there be centres for other systems, and no centre for Heaven ? You can see some grund gatherings in this world, but oh, the grand gathering in yonder city and on that mountain ! On the morning of Her Majesty's Jubilee, what a magnificent gathering in that venerable, an- cient and worthy institution, Westminster Abbey, where the heroes and great ones of the nation in their dust slumber. Look at the thousands present on that morn- ing. Never such a gathering of royalty, of princes, of nobility, of men of renown. Diamonds flashed, rubies sparkled ! What a sight it must have been ! Orna monts and insignias of heroism, of conquest, dangling from thousands of breasts. On that throne sat a queen that all the world may look upon to admire. Look up, my friends, to yonder great city. There is a throne. On Her Majesty's right hand was the Prince of Wales. On the right hand of the Father is a person like unto ourselves, the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ Himself, as visible yonder as I am here. What a gathering in this city of the New Jerusalem, from the uttermost parts of the universe, Paul tells us in detail some of the points. He says, first, an innumerable company of angels. I would like to see them. We have some fine descriptions of them in the Scriptures. The seraphim, these four radiant ones, with their six wings quivering in the halo of glory o'er the throne. T would like to see Michael and Gabriel. Then the twenty-four an- DR. WILiyS SERMONS. 201 cient guard cherubims. Oh, you veterans of the ages what you must have seen, what you must have known : you have only four wings, I see. Well you are pro- vided for your work and constitution. Just as well as the seraphim. I w^ould like to see you. We i.re look- ing upon the concentration of ages. Who are these around ? These are the myriads of angels. What a sight. And the next he says : The general assembly of the church of the first-born written in Heaven. Who are these, who do you suppose compose this gen- eral assembly ? This represents children saved with- out faith, saved without works, saved in the covenant of God's mercy in Christ. What a host ! I lived in Brooklyn, New York, where they have what was call- ed the May Day gatherings of the Sunday Schools, when by the thousands the children are massed together in one of the parks. It is a grand sight to see a min- iature world of innocence. Well might our Saviour say in Matthew xviii. 10.—" Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones ; for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." The disciples were the first to despise them, and our Saviour was not slow to rebuke them, and people ought to be rebuked in this day for doing the same thing toward children. In Matthew xix. 1, He says, when they tried to keep them back : — " Sufier the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of heaven." The greatest numbei , the grandest throng, on this moun- tain will be children. That will carry some of you there in your thoughts; you did not like to let your pi - 202 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. little pets go. If you covld see them now, would you rush to take them from the angelic circle ? Let them alone there, encircled in front of the throne. They are God's own precious jewels unsullied by sin. And the next he says : And God the Judge of all ! It is a grand sight to see some of these old British judges as they are arrayed in their robes of majesty — that is if you are not a prisoner, if you are free. But to see the Judge of all, what a sight it must be, for I presume He has some embodied presence to reveal Himself. Then he says: "The spirits of the just men made perfect." Those who are saved by faith, and through God's economy of grace in Christ Jesus. I know some of you cannot get spirits there ; you do not believe we have spirits. I believe in a heavenly state, in a spirit going home. I believe we can live separately from the body as well as in the body. There is such a place as heaven. Then he says: "To Jesus the mediator of the new covenant." This is not a covenant of law, not one of vengeance, but one of love and mercy. We have longed to see Him. He is a perfect model after which we shall be shaped at the resurrection morning. I would like to see what a resurrection body looks like, what kind of eyes, what the fingers are like, a body that is immortal and eternal, with youth flowing through every part. We shall behold Him for every eye shall see. " The blood of cleansing," he says, refer- ring to the Hebrew ceremony of cleansing. The blood of Christ cleansing from all evil, " Speak eth better things than that of Abel." Abel's blood called for re- venge, called out of the ground ; the blood of Christ calls for mercy, calls from heaven to earth. ■j. " < i -M DR. IVILUS SERMONS. 203 Now, my dear friends, many of us have loved ones we believe to be in that j^reat city, and exploring that wonderful mountain. Many of us can sing as we do ill Sunday school. I cannot go the whole round. I can go father, mother and sister. But there are some of you who can go the whole round. I can sing, " J have got a father in tho promised land," " I have got a mother in the promised land," " I have got a sister in the promised land." I stop right here, but some of you can say, " I have a son in the promised land," or a daughter or a little lamb in the promised land. It is pleasant to think we have them there ; but the great point with us is, Will we get there ourselves ? Oh, when the hour of departure comes, and the visions of that future land shall dawn upon us, it shall take away our fears, and inspire us with courage to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and fear no evil. The Lord bless us, my friends, and help us to be in readiness when He calls. Amen. i lii" I i.i SERMON XXII. THE DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY. Text, — "And the Lord (iod formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and man became a living soul." — Genesis ii. 7. I HAVE been asked to preach a sermon on the doc- trine of immortality from an Old Testament standpoint. Let me say, however, that the word immortality, strict- ly speaking and critically analyzed, means more than continued or eternal existence. The common dictionary gives the meaning of this word as derived from the Latin word imnmortalis — in, not, mortalw, mortal. Hence, when applied to man it means that he is not wholly a mortal being, but that he will live on forever. In critical theology it means more than simple exist- ence, for it conveys a quality of life ; it conveys the idea of a happy life — a life harmonious and joyous, so that, properly speaking, the righteous will not only live eternally, but they will be immortal — that is, happy. The wicked will live eternally also, but net happily ; they will not have this immortal life. They will have endless and eternal life, but not this kind of immortal life. This interpretation will help you to imderstand several New Testament sayings, for in- stance in Romans ii. 7, " To them who by patient con- tinuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life." Tou thus see this imnior- 204 DR. WILD'S SEimm^S. 20ft tality, or what in culled eternal life, sometimes is a thing that may be sought for, and if succosafuUy sought for may bo successfully gained. No man can seek eternal existence, for that he has, I will, however, use the word in its general meaning. All things considered, it is natural for the Old Testa- ment to have little to say on this point, because it was a plain, primary fact, well known to Adam and con- sequently to his descendants for thousands of years. Tradition would be explicit and sufficient to the ante- diluvians, and for a loig while to the post-diluvians. Millions could talk with and see Adam and ask him what he was made for, why he was made, how he came to fall and what were the conditions of his existence ; and millions more could visit the garden of Paradise and see the flaming sword, and could look on the tree of life which none could touch. That garden was 300,000 miles square, and remained until it was washed over by the flood of Noah. Its gate would no doubt be a point of pilgrimage to the ante-diluvians, hence they would say little in their writings as to proving the exist- ence of Paradise. So immortalitv was to them a truth so patent and plain that it would look tautological to them to be repeating it. From Adam to Abraham oral information would be both easy and safe. Let me name over a few persons who lived as cotemporaries with Adam, and the number of years : Lamech for 56 years ; Methuselah, for 243 years ; Jared, for 470 years ; Mahalaleel, for 335 years ; Cainan, for 605 years, and Enos for 695 years. These are on the family line. Doubtless there were millions of those not recorded ■':i^ Ifjl^l: ill IIP 206 DH. WILD'S SERMONS. ] ■ I I 1] . II here who would live as cotemporaries with our first parents, and, mark you, all these were cotemporaries with Noah, who lived after the flood 350 years, too : Lameeh, 595 years ; Methuselah, GOO years ; Jared, 3C6 years; Mali.' laleel, 243 years ; Cainan, 179 years, and Enos 84 years. It would be easy then for Noah to know the exact truth as to the first conditions of our first parents, as well as for millions more. Thore could O'^ly be one man between him and Adam, and thou- sands that had seen Adam would see and talk with Noah. Oral communication, as 1 have said, would be an easy and safe measure under such conditions. But beside this, look at some ol the cotemporaries of Shem, who was born one hundred years before the flood, and lived this side of the flood for five hundred years. Lameeh, 93 years ; Methuselah, 98 years ; Noah, 448 years; Abraham, 175 years; Isaac 90 j^ears, and Jacob 48 years. Jacob talked with Shem, and Shem talked with Me- thuselah, who had lived for hundreds of years with Adam, hence, as I have said, early tradition would render unnecessary a Bible, and that is why we have none for that time. When tradition began to be per- verted, and thus to be unsafe, then Providence begins to write the great truths in a book ; beginning at the beginning, and as tradition begins to vary, one book after another is added till the story of our life is re- LL»rded for the guidance of latei* ages. Any primary fact well known to a people or com- mon with them will be very little mentioned. When the telegraph was being mooted people talked about it, DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 207 and everybody wrote or gave their views about it. But there are too many telegraph j~ Dies and too many wires now for anyone to be asking whether the tele- graph is a fact or not, because the thing is so patent to us that we do not think of it specially. So the doc- trine of immortality would be so patent to these an- cients that they would not talk or write of it. It is not till people have forgotten the true story that God by inspiration restores it again for His own righteous- ness' sake, and for the good of His children. Take, fo^' instance, the Sabbath — an original institu- tion, one no doubt observed as the weeks went by from the time God sanctified it and set it apart as a day of rest, but yet it is not mentioned in the Book of Genesis. It is not mentioned till Exodus xvi. 23. Supposing a man says,' I do not believe there was any Sabbath for hundreds of years, because you do not find anything said about it. They did not need to say anything about it, because they had it. It is not, I repeat, till people have forgotten it and some one wants to restore it that they say, what is this thing ? It is a divine in- stitution. How do you prove it ? He would be a strange man who would undertake in our day in any book or by any method to say, I want to convince you Canadians that there is such an institution as the Sab- bath day. We would say, we all know that; we have oeen acquainted with the Sabbath all our lives. That is why a great many things are left out in the original books of Scripture that come in in later date. Man being made and created implies immortality. His body was made out of the dust of the ground ; hia w 208 DP. WILD'S SERMON'S. i |l H * . I'' i H l4i ; V; ip soul and spirit were created ; " And he breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives ' (for that is the trana lation). There are three lives to a complete man — one a derived one — bodily life ; and soul and spirit lives. Take the soul and spirit lives out of this body and thero is nothing left in it. It stood before God as a frame without a motion or movement, until God breathed into the frail house of clay, then life quivered through every part. When He withdraws His breath, the eye ceases to see, the ear to hear. There are two lives really, although in this state we appear to have three, the bodily life being simply the effect of the soul and spirit life. Hence you read in Job xxxiii. 4, " The spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life." Read also in Job xxxii. 8, " But there is a spirit in man : and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them under- standing." Proverbs xx. 27, reads, " The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly." What is a candle ? Something that shows the way and gives light. So the spirit of man is like a candle revealing to us our way and show ing us the path. Job says, " The candle of the wicked shall be put out, but not so with the righteous." Whatever that term " put out " may mean, it can have no application to the righteous. His lamp is not to go out, his candle is to burn on. Proverbs xiii. 9 says, " The light of the righteous rejoiceth : but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out." So with regard to a righteous person we can predicate this from the Old Testament that thev DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 209 will live on forever. Take another passage, Proverbs iv. 18, "But the path of the just is as a shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." There is, it seems, no night there. Man is presented in this passage as progressing unto a perfect day that never reaches a night. There is no night for him — no setting sun, no declining day, no waning light. You have often watched the sun as it goes across the heavens, paving its own way with light. You say it is dark beyond. When man dies, how dark ! you say. His hopes, his fears — all are gone. But, my friend, go a little ahead ; go to the Pacific where the sun is shining; go across the line of time and you will find men living there, progressing upward and onward. A man gets a passage from Ecclesiastes " that there is no more work nor devising," but he does not catch the term of limitation " under the sun." That is what we say when a man is dead physically. His work is done on eurth ; he has no hopes, no fears, no devising here. But does the passage above quoted mean that he has no hope, no existence beyond time ? It does not apply to a man beyond time in the slightest degree, but to the state he was in liere. Genesis i. 27, " So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him ; male and female created he them." If a man was made in the image of a horse, and I knew the length of the life of a horse, I would get an idea as to the length of this life, but being made in the image and likeness of God, an eternal being who lives on forever, it means to me that every child of Adam and Eve will live on forever also. N m % 1 i i j » .] t ;> i \ 1 ' I 1 i ! ! ^ 1 . i ■ I \^ iii ii i 210 DR, WILD'S SERMONS. There is no other inference to be drawn without a break of common sense argument. The bodily life of our first parents seems to have been conditioned on obedience. They sinned, and death ensued. In Genesis iii. 22, God said to Adam : " And the Lord God said. Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil ; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forevei'." That is, if he gets at this tree of life he will continue to live within the body forever, but I do not want him to live in such a broken-down house for all time ; I will make a new one for him hereafter, fash- ioned like unto the glorious body of Christ, letting the old one go which is tainted by sin, letting it drop in the grave by and by, but I will reclothe all once more. I. Corinthians xv. 22, reads : " For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." There will not be a single soul left. Christ will lift us up as far as we have fallen, anyway. He is as strong as the devil, and a little stronger. In the change called physical death the body returns to the earth and the lives — that is, the soul and spirit — return to God. Now T understand the following quotation from Job xxxiv. 14, "If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath." Here are the two lives plainly referred to. Read Eccles- iastes xii. 7, "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was ; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." Spirit and life, in my conception, I find are always together. I cannot think of a lifeless spirit. I have tried my best but have failed, I be- DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 211 lieve we can conceive of life without spirit, but I ques- tion whether any of you can conceive of spirit without life. Do you think spirit is like a piece of wood lying around somewhere ? Or is not spirit itself so intimately connected with life that you never get them separated ? Scarcely a passage in the Old Testament bears any other interpretation than the existence of man beyond the physical change called death. I believe Job when he says (xix. 19) , " And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." The true translation is, " out of my flesh I shall see God," so the new version has it. The Old Testament teaches, and the Hebrews believed, that the spirits of the departed gathered together in the invisible world, called in Hebrew Sheol. So you will find in Job XXX. 23, " For 1 know that Thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living" — beth moed translated here " house appointed " or " house of assembly," hence the patriarchs were said '* to be gathered to their fathers" — not simply to be buried in the same grave. Jacob believed his son Joseph was torn in pieces and devoured by wild beasts, but when the intelligence came to him he said (Genesis xxxvii. 35), " And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him ; but he refused to be comforted ; and he said, for I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning." The word "grave" here is translated SJteol. In this sense it is easy to understand many passages. Take II. Samuel xii. 28, referring to David mourning and pleading for the con- m[ ' i 1 212 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. t : ! 1 i i i 1 I 1 I . it m H tinuance of the life of his child : " But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again ? 1 shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." What does the passage mean ? It means what it says. It means to you, mother ; to you, father ; to you, friends, that when you stand on the edge of time and close your eyes and ears to earthly sights and sounds, new joys will spring up and a new life will welcome and bid you on. A mother's hand — a father's welcome — a child's caresses shall draw you sweetly from the house of clay, through the waters of death to the Eternal Day. You will come to that. God was present with His sons on earth, and He has promised to be with them in eternity. Psalms Ixxiii. 2S-2i-25 : " Nevertheless I am continually with thee ; thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterwards receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee." What would such passages mean if at death we go to sleep and never see heaven, and have no existence till the resurrection morning ? Perhaps I have quoted a sufficient number of pas- sages to show you that the Old Testament very clearly teaches the doctrine of immortality. Those who tell me that the Old Testament does not teach this doctrine, are not, in my opinion, critical readers of the Bible. I trust I have not perverted a single passage, nor taken one that you might call doubtful, and I think any common-sense man would take the very same meaning I have attributed to them. May DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 213 1 believe this, that whatever Adain was primarily, man will yet be finally ? Man has lost one Paradise, but there is another beyond this burning world that rises in verdure green — a new earth for God's people. Death is simply a change. Let us liv^ worthily and then prepare to meet our God. Whatever your view may be of soul-sleeping, annihilation or any other theory, prepare to meet your God. If you fly into eternal sleep, all right, but if you should fly into the glorious blaze of an eternal day, your joy will be increased for evermore. Proper views of death are consoling to us, because we know we have got to die. It gives us hope, too, for those who have gone before. In the language of Montgomery : Friend after friend departs ; Who hath not lost a friend ? There is no union here of hearts That finds not here an end ; Were this frail world our only rest, Living or dying, none were blest. Beyond the flight of time Beyond this vale of death, There surely is some blessed clime Where life is not a breath, Nor life's affections transient fiie, Whose sparks fly upwards and expire. There is a world above Where parting is unknown ; A whole eternity of love Formed for the good alone ; And faith beholds the dying here Translated to that happier sphere. Ul ■V f^W^ ' ? I 214 DR. WILD'S SERMON'S. Thus liar by star declineii Till all are passed away ; As morning high and higher shines To pure and perfect day ; Nor sink those stars in empty night, They hile themselves in heaven's own light. If you have lost father or mother, or the little pets of the household, be assured that they have fallen into a light too brilliant for human eyes to see. The hea- vens above this church this morning are studded with thousands of stars, but the light is too great to see them, and so saints and spirits are hovering here, but they, too, are in a light too great for us to see. Let you and me prepare to meet our God and our dear ones who have gone before. There are many other pass- ages that might be quoted equally as plain ; but I will close with Proverbs xii. 28, " In the way of righteous- ness is life ; and in the pathway thereof there is no death." Thank C od for that. Amen. ; H ^•■1 'if ! " .' ! . .1. mi SERMON XXIII. HOW WE WILL PAY OUR TAXES ONE HUN- DRBD YEARS HENCE. Text. — For thus aaith the Lord that created the heavens ; God himself that formed the earth and made it ; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited ; I am the Lord ; and there is none eUe. — Isaiah xlv. 18. The Bible teaches us that God created the heavens and the earth. Also the same book informs us that He created man. Of the existence of the universe and of the earth and of man none can doubt. When we come to study man and his preseni dwelling place, we find him to be constructed in harmony with the laws and forces of nature, and in harmony with the universe as far as we can reach. However great and distant the sun may be, we find ourselves beautifully adapted to its light and its heat. These tiny orbs of eyes very nicely receive the light produced by its presence. Our bodies receive generously and kindly the heat that it generates. The sun seems made for us, and we for the sun, in part. As naturally as the bird flies through the air, or the fish swims in water, man moves to and iro on the great globe. My text states that the earth was not created in vain ; that is, it was not created to be void and desolate, to be with- out life, but to be inhabited ; and surely inhabited it 215 „ iJS !;H ;l ti! 216 DR. WlLiyS SERMONS. has been in the past, if we are to believe the teachings of geology, and the myriads of divers forms of life of the present day which exist upon it and proclaim it to bo full of inhabitants. God is the original and primary owner of the earth, and we are His children, both by creation and redemp- tion. The primary design of the Creator touching man and nature, as begun and expressed for a short time in paradise, has evidently been thwarted. Sin has produced disturbance ; sin is a disorganizing force, and introduces restraining laws that a state of good- ness and freedom would not ask. Being His children, we read in this Book that He is no respector of persons ; but sin is. God is love ; but sin is hatred. God is just; but sin is unjust. There has been sin in the world in the past and there is sin in the world at the present time ; hence it follows that there will be in- justice, inequality, suffering and want in spite of all law and in spite of all legislation. The condition of society and the world is just such as we may expect when we measure the state and disposition of the human heart. A perfect state of society in a sinful world no man could reasonably expect. What ought to be and what is are wide apart, and it will take some time and much work to make the two equal ; but in the long run, no doubt, they will be, and the time will come when what ought to be will be. Theory and practice are also wide apart in many things and in many persons ; in some cases they are wilfully so, and in others they are of necessity so. Many persons do not sustain their theory by their DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 217 practice. They are well informed j they know the right ; they want the right in others ; they believe in the right, but the wrong they still pursue. What are you going to do with men in such a state as that ? It is not light that they want ; it is not argument that they want. Force cannot produce that disposi- tion of heart that is necessary. Many persons might be more cleanly, for instance, more healthy, more respectably situated, more com- fortable, and even more wealthy than they are. We will all agree to that. But why are they not ? The best answer we can give is, because they won't. Can we make a law to compel everybody to wash them- selves ? You might make the law but it would not accomplish the effect. The thing is, man is a free agent. These things might be, for to this end all means are at hand, and as free as the air that we breathe; but they will not use them. This wilful resistance vitiates many finely constructed arguments, and renders null and void many of the perfect theories, and the fallacy of theorizers is that they think if you could produce a perfect theory, logically well sustained by argument, that people would accept it. They will do nothing of the kind. In all legisla- tion, and in the presentation of all theories, this wilful resistance must be taken notice of, and must be cal- culated on. A perfect theory is not the end of the battle, but oftentimes just the beginning. Whatever the theory, however reasonable and logical, we must always remember that it is to be introduced, and en- ni 1 1 218 DR. WILirS SERMONS, il! forcod, and administered, and practised by iuiperfpct men and women. Would you be honest enough to administe*^ the law if it were put in your hands ? Would you be honest enough to practise that which is just and right ? You do not do so to-night ; scores of you. You resist God who calls you to His feet, and who has purchased you with His own great sacri- fice — Christ. How then am I to infer that vou would obey the right if it were presented to you in other matters ? What guarantee have I, what guarantee have you, that other people would deal justly and act wisely, and practise the whole of that which is good ? The present state of the human heart and state of society put unnecessary impediments in the way of carrying out some of the best theories. 'We find some debarments in the moral world as we do in the natural world. There is electricity enough to run all the machinery on the face of the earth, and to make night as light as day. Electricity is free, and it is universal, and it is not diminished by its use. What is the difficulty ? you ask. I a wer, the whole difficulty lies in the weakness and ^ i ^perf ection of the medium through which it has to pass. Carbon and other points are too readily consumed, so they have to be replaced for each night. Then, of course, the cost of the material and of labour will limit the light. If we had a metal or composition that would transmit freely and not consume, then electric lights could be stronger and cheaper and universal. Do not blame electricity ; that is all right. 4 DR, WILD'S SERMONS. 219 The fault \h in the medium. So do not blame cer- tain theories ; they are all right ; it m in the medium that we find the whole troubl 3. Henry George's land scheme may be right in argument, but wlien you come to put it into practice it shivers into pieces ; it will not work at the present time. The best wire will only conduct a certain amount of electricity. If you surcharge them with more, they will not remit any — they wUl not produce a single tick after a certain amount. If you give them that amount they will take, but they will not give you anything back. No, if we had wires that would bear surcharging with any amount, the more we charged them with, the more they would give us back; then we could run all the machinery on the earth, but we have not such wires. The trouble is in the medium. Just in like manner theories will sufler at the present time because of the imperfections of the mediums. I am surprised at writers on the land question, at writers on political questions, at writers on social questions, that they do not make the distinction between theories and the mediums. You find the same great difficulty confront- ing even Providence with respect to man when he first sinned. How shall sin be overcome and order restored ? Why, you say, send a reviving law through the human frame. You cannot do that. You say, legislate things right. You cannot do that. How will He overcome sin then? In Romans vii. 3, it says, "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own son in the likeness of sin- S IWlil HJl 220 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 'r.\ ! fui flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. ' You see the medium, which is the flesh, was too weak. Our Saviour spoke a mighty trutli in Matthew vi. 33, >vhen He said, " Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." That is the key to all reforms ; that is the key to all successful changes ; that is the key that will bring to pass the millennium. God's kingdom is first, and whoever agitates or legislates independently of that kingdom legislates and agitates wide of the mark, and can never be suc- cessful. Let this kingdom lead, and all things will ho given us. Henry George's land scheme and many other excellent schemes proposing reforms for society and nations should wait on this kingdom. If their schemes were introduced now, they would prove lamentable failures. All these schemes must fall in the wake of Christ's advancing kingdom. There is no wrong in studying theories. Let us seek to know and understand them, and then set ourselves diligently to work to prepare the way and the time for their introduction and their practice. As John the Baptist's mission was preparatory, only to prepare the way of the Just and High one, Christ, so the mission of this age can only be preparatory. We must prepare the way for the more perfect day, and for the coming gen- erations to enter into larger liberty, grander freedom, and more just and better conditions. Such a time will come, aa we are the more faithful in the discharge of GUV duties. : s DR. JVILD'S SERMONS. 221 There are two kinds of poverty in society that we have to meet with, that these theorists have to grapple with and provide for : first, the accidental ; second, the wilful. By the accidental I mean that which happens to us in spite of our best intentions and our best conduct. A man may be unfortunate, get sick and afflicted with poverty, after having done his very best. Should such a man be allowed to suffer ? He should not, for there is clothing enough to clothe him. bread enough to feed him, material enough to build him a house, room enough for him, and no man should suffer on that account. By the wilful I mean that which is produced by drunkenness, laziness, careless- ness, and other forms of delinquencies and excesses. It is this last kind of poverty that would play fun with some of our fine-spun theories, and knock Henry George's land scheme as high as a kite. Theories are very nice for some. If a foreigner should come from one of those worlds that Sweden- borg represents himself to have visited, and go with me on the cars westward I would show him some large buildings. I would step oflf with him, and go into the asylum, and he would say, it is a pity these people are restrained of their liberty. Pity it is, but it is the best we can do, sii', because they are crazy. Is that so ? Take him a little further to a brickyard, and show him some zebra-clothed human creatures digging and pushing clay, and men all around them watching with rifle in hand, marching to and fro. What is this, sir ? Well, sir, if any of these men should venture to come where you and I aie, he would fi 1 ■ i si' ;J • " n i ;' > 1 — - ■ 222 DJS. WILD'S SERMONS. be shot. It is a strange pity you cannot allow their liberty. It is, but it is the best we can do. We are very sorry for it. If we turned these people loose, there would be more shot than there are by those men with rifles. We are saving money and lives by keep- ing those fellows there until they can take care of themselves. It is a pity, certainly. It is not what we desire, but necessity forces it upon us. There are also two kinds of wealth — the individual and the collective. A person who is sober and hones;; industrious and careful, may accumulate some propor- tion of wealth and comfort. A person sacrificing and striving should have some reward for his extra toil. Providence does not put a premium on idleness and wastefulness, neither should our government; but I am sorry that our government and all Christian gov- ernments do. They give ar premium to laziness and tax industry ; the very opposite to what God intend- ed. For instance, let us suppose that two aen go and take up a homestead, with equal family, and an equal amount of land. One of these men and family are in- dustrious, careful, saving, improving the land, and add to its resources, fence it nicely and build a very com- fortable home. The other fellow idles away his time and is not very particular about working ; his land is not much improved ; there are no fences upon his land and but a poor little hut of a house. When they have both lived there for, say ten years, the assessor comes around, and looking at the home of the thrifty one he sees that there is some good stock upon the land and that it is in good trim ; so he says : " Yow \ DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 223 land is worth so much, and as we tax so much per dol- lar you are taxed $90." Then he goes around to the other fellow, who, he finds, has no stock, and whose land is not worth much more than it was in its virgin- ity, and he says : " You are taxed $18." Is there any reason why the industry of the thrifty man should be taxed to pay for the laziness of the other ? Do you call that equity in any government ? I call it the very opposite of equity. It is an oppres- S. sion that neither God nor the common sense of hu- manity could sustain for a moment. Supposing we have two mechanics, of equal conditions and ages, who by instalments obtain a city lot for themselves ; one diligent, careful of his means, and in his spare moments improves his lot, builds a house and puts a little gar- den in front of it, and makes it inviting and cheerful. The other spends his evenings carelessly, his time care- lessly, and wastes his little surplus means on drinking or gambling, or some other foolish kind of conduct. ^ u ten years there is a great contrast between the two. '.' )und comes the city assessor and he looks at the \i<}' y and lot of the diligent mechanic, and says: " Your house, I suppose, is worth about $5,000 ; you will be taxed, sir, $75." He goes to the other fellow, and says : " Your house is worth $1,500; you will be taxed $20." So you see the very thing that some Irishmen are complaning of in Ireland, about improve- ments being taxed, is what our very government, that had the presumption to send a resolution to England on Irish affairs, is doing on us. There is a great deal of modesty in our government, indeed ! They are very III sii/i] 224 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 1 '! !, il ' ' t ' , I presumptive in their interference with British affairs, when they do the very thing they are condemning without even allowing us the same privileges that are accorded to the people of Ireland, viz, : of selling their own holdings. It would pay Canadians to shut their mouths, and mind their own business until per- fect themselves. These are but a few examples of the injustice of our present laws. Taxation should not be on the production of a man's own labor. That is a man's own true reward, and no- body should take that by force ; but as we must have taxes, or we couid not run the government of the coun- try, we must seek for those taxes where the burden will be tlie least felt, and where the justice will be the greatest. The other kind of wealth is what we must call col- lective, that which comes to us through others. If I go and take up a homestead lot away on the prairie, and live alone, away from all railways and markets, my land will not increase very much in value, with all personal industry. I get a neighbour alongside, then another and another ; they flock in, and a village is started with stores, market, railway. My land is tre- bled in price ; but a good deal of this value is what the public have conferred upon it, and it is public pro- perty. It is not all my own ; I did not make it. I could not have made it if I had lived alone. We are all creating each other's wealth. Now, out of that superabundance we have a right to demand a little for the purpose of roads, and such other conveniences as our local desires may demand. A portion of this kind DB. fVILUS SERMONS. 225 of wealth that inheres in the land of course may be de- voted in this way ; but that which belongs to the indi- vidual, and is produced by the individual, should in no wise be taxed. All land in the first place belonged tD God, and should be free for us, the government regulating its use, and taxing the land simply as a rent, and anybody want- ing land can have it. When the population increases and there is not enough room, the government has a right to divide up my farm at Bronte into lots of 100 feet square. When that time comes I have no right to those hundreds of acres there. They are my own to use wisely till wanted for public good. Well, you say, Is that government policy ? That is what the govern- ment does when it wants. It legislates a railway right through my place without asking my permission. When I say to the men who receive the charter, '* You must not do that," they reply, " We will please our- selves, sir, the government has given us authority to expropriate this piece of your land." I have nothing to say to it. They say to me, " Tell us what you want for it, and if we feel like giving it to you we will, and if it does not suit us we will give you what we please." I say, " Thank you, sir ; I am very glad the government is absolutely the first owner, and that the public through the government owns the land." We acknowledge that, and that should be so with my land, and every other rich man's land in this country. When men hold land for speculation, and you, an industrious man own the land next to it, the land held for speculative purposes should be taxed o m 226 1)K. WILD'S SERMONS. •• '5 ■ % f = equally with your lot, because it receives the benefit of what improvements are made on your property by your own labor ; you make the land so much more valuable, yet you are taxed more than the other man. This is an injustice, and it should not be. It is an injustice and it is a sin against natural equity to allow a man to hold land and keep it in a nude state, through others' effort, to sell it and make money out of the public. I am paying taxes all the time on my improvements, and, because he does not wish to improve his lot he can make more money by sitting still than I can by doing something. There are a great many queer things in this world. All land should be free for occupation and cultiva- tion as directed by law. What would you advise then, as the first operation of the government ? To estab- lish farm schools throughout all the Dominion, scores of them, and train the rising youth for the cultivation of the soil. Then the government would be reimbursed rapidly and surely. That is the first work that should be done. Providence, my friends, will bring this to pass ; but He will not start it in Canada, nor in America. It will not be started simply by proposing a theory, as Henry George and others do. God has it all arranged for. He will start it in Palestine. He has a large block of land there already pre-empted for the first settlers, 192 million acres. He is going to take back the children of Abraham, especially that part of them called Jews. If you will read the last nine chapters of Ezekiel, you will find the land already surveyed. They can go on, and take their places there, and each ; illiii ■ DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 227 have his own homestead. Even the king will have His portion to live on ; He will not be kept by taxa- tion as now. God will give us the first pattern in Palestine. Then this grand economy is to be established all round the world after we have seen it working for a time in that grand central place. That is why He stated in Leviticus, xxv. 23, concerning this Palestine, " The land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is mine." The old Hebrew commonwealth has been the nearest approach to perfection of anything the world has yet seen. They had provision against accidental and wilful poverty in their jubilee. A man might be as reckless as he chose, spend all his money, waste his time (if he did so here his children would come under the burden of poverty and scorn), but let fifty years roll around, and then in those times the land was divided, and the children took the same, and all was made equal. We ought to copy our bankrupt laws from the one practised by the Hebrews. - We ought to rest from unnecessary labors at least once in seven years. We would then have no short time, no excess in markets ; we would then have good wages and plenty. What men want to study is the Gospel and Providential intentions. In Leviticus xxv. 24, it is said, " And in all the land in your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land ;" that is, no man could buy the land absolutely to be his own for- ever, but a man can be so indifterent to-day and own 100 acres, and sell it, and waste the money and leave his children without. Under the old Hebrew economy 11 f i mm i Wm i; ^^!; ii li .1 '.I 1 I 4\ M I m 228 DR. WILD'S SERMONS, he could not do that ; he could not take it away from his children permanently. No man ought to be allow- ed to do that now. People are studying wide of the Bible, wide of the intentions of a good God. He is working through His people Israel to bring these things to pass, and He will in his own good time. Who wishes to be a true reformer ? Vho of you wish to be true heroes ? Who of you wish to be agi- tators ? Who of you wish to be successful in introduc- ing any practical reform, that shall bring equality, justice and plenty lo all ? Your first grand duty is to be a Christian, You are powerless, and your labor without promise of success, unless you first accept the kingdom of God ; that is, accept it all through, and all things shall be added. The Lord bless us to see His own good purpose. Amen. k •m ' SERMON X XIV. CERTAIN aOD AKERS. Text. — "To whom will ye liken mo and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like. — Isaiah xlvi. 5. One of the chief characteristics of this age is the mis- sionary spirit and enterprise. The Christian church is beginning, it seems, to comprehend the force of its primary commission, and to feel the true spirit of ob- ligation and duty. " Go ye unto all the world " was the command of the world's Redeemer and rightful Sovereign to His disciples, and through them unto the church to the end of time. They were to preach His gospel to every creature. The territorial limitations and restrictions of the Jewish church were designed to yield to the wider range and greater liberty of the Gosi)el of Jesus Christ. From our Saviour's conver- sation at the well of Jacob with the woman of Sa- maria we gather the true intent of the Gospel dispen- sation. The Samaritans believed that true and per- fect worship in the sacrificial form could only be con- ducted at Samaria ; the Jewish brethren believed that only in the Temple at Jerusalem could such suitable and perfect service be carried out. Our Saviour told this woman that God was a spirit, and being a spirit He would naturally be everywhere ; so He said they that worship Him in spirit and in truth will be His servants, and He may be worshipped everywhere. 229 li :ii. 230 DR. WILUS SERMONS. Worship may be conducted in any place on the face of the earth, or ocean, or under the earth, wherever a sin- cere soul shall lift itself up in holy devotion to God. And from His own language when He makes this simple statement, " If I be lifted up from the earth I will draw all men unto Me." And He is drawing millions ; millions hang upon Him to-day, millions more on earth shall call Him brother, redeemer and friend. A missionary is a loving, sincere and intelligent iconoclast ; that is, he is a destroyer of gods ; that is his first great commission. Heathens and pagans, and people in a rude and barbaric state, are not mono- theists but always polytheists. In other words, these people do not believe only in one god, but in many gods. Man is never an infidel until he is trained to it ; there is no such instance in the world, hence there is no infidel outside of Christian society. In the des- truction of these gods there will naturally be a des- truction of certain customs, and service and trades. These things, joined with the habits and training and gain, will make the missionaries' work a difficult one. The jn-iests and their servants will be in danger; the manufacturers of gods and shrines, of images and charms, and other furniture and articles that are made for the poor and weak in Christian knowledge and faith — this business would be done away with. It would be a great temporary loss, for instance, to our Roman Catholic friends if all her members were to give up the use of beads, charms and images ; it would take out of their treasurj' millions of dollars, so that we can DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 231 naturally conclude ihat the priests would not V>e fav- orable to the wholesale destruction of this lucrative piece of business. Demetrius, the famous silver god manufacturer of Ephesus, saw that his trade was threatened and that his busines^4 would be ruined by the preaching of the apostle Paul, the missionary, if he was not stopped. So that in Acts xix. 25, we read how ho called his fellow-craftsmen together for con- sultation. Here are a few of the words he said, " Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth. More- over ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but al- most throughout all Asia, that this Paul hath both per- suaded and turned away much people, saying they be no gods which are made with hands." After hearing the speech of Demetrius they were tired with anger, and they moved out and began at once to persecute the first Christian they could lay their hands upon. They did it for the purpose of preserving their trade and their wealth, as he calls it. Temporal interests have very much to do with peo- ple's opinions. They have with politics. If a man is acquiring wealth he is likely to stick to his party. It is the same in religious things. A great many people hold on to certain ideas because it pays them to do so. When our Saviour fed the multitude with wholesome bread, and passed by the plough and the sowing, and the harrowing, and the reaping, and the harvesting and the threshing and the grinding, and gave them bread right off, they thought He would make a splen- did king ; when they eat of the good fish that were enough in quantity and wholesome in quality, and saw ii hiitii II 'l!J 11.: I *it. I f 232 DB. WIL/rS SERMONS. i| I I • ; i ■. i !»! t" ^'11 that He could pass by the vessel, the net, the dangers of the deep, and give them fish without any of this trouble, they asked Him if He would not be their king. People like a king that would feed them, give them splendid, good, wholesome bread with nice, fresh salmon-trout. If any man could set up a church and do that thing he would stand a sure chance of emptying many of the present churches, may be Bond Street, or some othoi" church. But notice : on a second visit to this Gadaiene country He met soine persons that were possessed of evil spirits and He cast them out, and those devils ran into a herd of swine that were on the mountain-side feeding, and the swine, not knowing what was the matter with them, ran headlong down into the sea and were choked ; that is, the swine were choked. That was a great loss to those that owned them, though they were Jews, and they were doing a thing contrary to their own law, for it forbid them to eat pork, and very naturally they ought not to be raising it for the mere sake of gain, but they were. The whole city was moved, and they went unto Him this time and they said, " We beseech Thee to depart from our borders." It would cost them their swine, and they did not like that kind of a king. How soon they changed opinion ! When their bread and fish were given them they wanted Him to be king, but when they had to lose a little pork they said, "We do not want you." This is the way with ourselves. People's instincts run very largely in the direction of gain. Christianity itself destroys some callings and some businesses, but it is a general creator of whole - i i M ■ ■ ■ m •I i DR. WILEfS SERMONS. 233 some enterprises. Ou Wilton Avenue, a little west of this church, is a bicycle (^hib-house, and a neat oie it is. I was coming by there last Friday nif^ht and saw a number of young gentlemen inside and out pleasant- ly passing the evening one with another. 1 was led to compare notes. I can remember when I was a boy that the amusement of young men chiefly consisted in that which was brutiil and destructive, such as prize- fighting, cock-fighting, dog-fighting and any other kind of fighting that was brutal. I am glad that these young men ride these bicycles, creating a new industry while serving themselves with pleasure, which s comely, and healthly and dignified to ; they benefit society ; their pleasure has engaged thousands of men and artisans to make and repair these machines ; that is ,vhat our pleasures should always do. We never ought to en- joy ourselves at the destruction of good enterprises. An^^thing that is lawful, and that chimes in with man's physical and moral and spiritual interests, will always boom up trade somehow. You have an instance there. Tradition, history and general practice join with the Scriptures in proclaiming man to be a worshipping creature. Man's spiritual instincts force a recognition, and demand a practice just as the instinct of hunger does. A man cannot pass by them. The frozen blub- ber of the Esquimaux, the snake and vermin of some of the Indians, the horse flesh of the Tartars, the fruits of the South Sea Islanders, the beef and plum pudding of the Englishman, the fasting of Dr. Tanner, all de- clare the needs of hunger. Those who are against it, and those who are for it, both pledge the instincts of 1 |: 1 , i |! ; ii ! 1 * i ! •». 1 ! j 1 1 1 ii i i '!P lii J 234 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. ,]'^ II hunger. . The agnostic as much proclaims the existence of a God by his denial as 1 do by my affirmative ; so the Christian temple, the heatiien shrine, the pagan idol, and the unknown god of the Athenians, all prove that man is a worshipping creature — worship he will somehow or some way. If he has got to be fed to meet the physical instincts, let him be fed by us in the most intelligent way, and if he has got spiritual in- stincts, let them be met the most intelligently, and in the most profitable way. The idea of God is fundamental ; it is a basic idea to all the great interests of humanity and the instincts of man. On this idea rests the true value of life, its origin, its duties, and its destiny. The social and com- mercial relations and contracts find their best impetus for being carried on by the true idea of God. Let the true idea of God slip out of the minds of people, and it will upset governments, it will upset social customs, it will take away the sanctity of the judicial bench, and it will turn us into the lines of superstition and fraud. The more truthful and clear our ideas of God, the more prosperous, progi'essive and happy we will be. History and experience make plain the fact that man conforms in his conduct always to his idea of God, so that it is very basic and very important. Now, whatever your ideas of God are, your conduct is just shaped to it. AYater will find its level, but it will not go above it, and a man will find his level in his conduct according to his idea of God, but he will never rise above it. He may at times sink below the level. Look at history, and the changed idea of God will I'M J)E. JVILD'S SERMONS. 235 bring lefoniiH and wise and benevolent legislation. It was, for instance, consistent with those stern pilgrims to be harsh and cruel with respect to their laws gov- erning Sunday and general intercourse. It would not do for them to allow themselves to have a fire on Sun- day, to cook a meal of victuals, or for a husband to kiss his wife, or for the children to walk out ; their idea of God was that He was a stern, unrelenting be- ing, and that they must, at least, once in seven days be quiet. Now, it was their idea that made their laws; the basic idea they had of God governed them in their legislation. The inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church in its time was all agreeable with the idea they had of God. They believed him to be a sort of infinite Nero -who liked to make torches of human be- ings, and so they thought they were doing God's will when they tortured men in that strange manner. It was in harmony with their ideas of God that He could take men's souls and plunge into purgatory and scorch them, keep them there for a few years to see if they would get bettei', and if they did not, then put them in a pit of fire from whence they would never get a chance to get out. What do you think of a people who had an idea of God like that ? They would put you on the rack and in purgatory as long as they have that idea of God. All churches have been consistent with their idea of God. It is basic. It governs the others. In the past the most prominent idea was that God was a king of arbitrary rule, and as kings did their own pleasure independent of law, so they looked upon the great King of kings as doing His own pleaa- '!)' .Ill !lil 1: I •'II i- ■t) '!•' 236 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. '] i ij . »■ ■ ■if I 4\ ure. The ultra- Calvinists had a kiugly idea of God , that He could for His own pleasure, without any re- cognition of the merit or demerit of the persons, select a certain number from the tiny infant to the hoary aged father, and plunge them into hell just to please Himself for His own glory. Now, there is not a great deal of glory to plunge little infants and up-grown people, irrespective of their conduct, into such a pit as that. It is consistent with their idea of God. They hpd that kingly idea of God, that He is not amenable to His subjects, that His own pleasure governs Him en- tirely. Hence, you see how they could move along. But the idea came next that He was a judge, and that is an advance upon the kingly idea ; a judge would be governed by the merits of the case ; he would be gov- erned by the law ; he would not be arbitrary in his ruling ; that is an advance on the other idea. As soon as the world got the judge's idea up came the Re- formation, and man mast be judged by his own merit or demerit. Law and reforms follow the idea of God ; they never rise higher in the individual or in the na- tion. Another view came to the front, namely, the Fath- erly idea of God ; that God is a Father that is the best, and will prove to be the most potent view of God that the world has ever had. A Father, loving and tender ; a Father interested and watchful ; a Father mindful of the morals of His children, anxious to do them good and lead them into life everlasting. T'rue, indeed, He is all these. He is King — a'good King — He is a Judge, a righteous Judge, He is a Father loving and true. i ' ^ DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 237 -grown You know that men form their ideas of God or at least most men, as I said once before, if you could have an exhibition of man's ideas of God, that is, if their ideas were put into shape, it would be a nice exhibi- tion to go through, would it not ? We would all have our ideas of God put into marble or wood, or in some mineral, now what would we see ? Let me try and picture. As we go in by the door, the first figure is large, expressive of majesty ; it is hoary with the wrinkles of wisdom and withered muscles of strength ; with faint motion, uninterested survey, and a sort of indifference, that is the God of some people. The sec- ond figure ; the countenance expresses solicitude, anxiety, he looks careworn, old and weary. The third figure seems to express the idea of indulgence ; a large, well-rounded, fed, satisfied figure ; not careworn, no expressions of weariness are upon his features. The fourth figure is small, sharp featured, vicious, rapacious, impassionate, destructive and revengeful ; we tremble to look at it, and so we might go on. These are the ideal gods some people have. Now if you were to go to the Scriptures, what would you find V We would find this as to essence, God is a Spirit. As to His ex- perience outside of Christ, He is Light, as to His dis- position. He is Love. The Scriptures guide us vory safely, and as to the peculiar qualities He ^ is wise, strong, benign and complacent ; He is interested. He is patient, He is peaceful. He is just. He is able, impartial, He is generous. He is frank. No signs of youth, or of age, or weaiiness, or of indifference. That is about the picture the Scriptures give us of God. Men have m ■ A'- ,i' ;!■ :i^S!l i . ■ i I -I 238 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. tried a!l through the ages to give us their ideal of Christ. When you travel over the C!oiitinent of Europe in those old cathedrals and othei- places of interest, you will see the painters' best effort to figure to you that divine man. From the child in the arms of the Virgin to His ascension from His disciples on Mount Olivet ; you will see the picture of Him as He hangs upon the cross; another expressing his ideal of the Saviour as He is rising from the grave ; another as He is rebuking the buyers and sellers in the Temple ; an- other, as a boy holding solemn but instructive conver- sation with the doctors. You will s(3e all these figures ; some will strike you as being what you thought He was ; others will not. Now, Christ is the express image of God. When I want to think of God, the Bible has taught me to think of Him as a human crea- ture in the best and most improved form I can possibly conceive of; for the Scriptures say He is the express image of the invisible God ; so God has given us what He is like, and we may look to Christ when we want an ideal ; I always find it better when I am praying with my eyes closed to think that I am speaking to somebody. I have in my mind's eye a throne : I think that I am talking to a person on it. I have on that throne a glorious person that seems to invite and en- list my attention, and listen to my utterances. Every person engaged in prayer erects an ideal. God knew that we would want to have it. He has given us a most lovely one in Christ. " The fairest among ten thousand and the altogether lovely." When I have no image before me I am not so safe in my prayer as I DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 239 I am otherwise ; I don't like to pray to a blank. So my friends, we see how man naturally creates ideals or gods. God we find through the Scriptures proved His own supremacy over other gods, and that He was the true God, by means of propliecy. He was always in- viting them to do something that would indicate what a true God was. In Isaiah xli. 21-23, you see what I mean : "Pro- duce your cause, said the Lord ; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen ; let them show the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them ; or declare us things for to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods." The proof of God is prophecy in the Bible, and the proof of the Bible is prophecy also. Prophecy, as John says, is the testimony of Jesus, and Peter calls it the sure word. Our neglect of prophecy is one of the causes of infidelity in our midst. No man can be an infidel that carefully studies the prophecy of God's Word. It is not possible for him. If I had a man here this morning at all acquainted with history, he would see that what the Scriptures have told concern- ing Babylon is true. But we pay very little heed to prophecy as a rule. The true conception of God, His independence and infinity, is very necessary. We mean to do Him ser- vice ; but we cannot feed Him, we cannot give Him drink. I cannot offer him a bouquet of flowers, nor a plate of fruit, personally. How shall I meet Him ? i % "I i ■ till 240 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. You see some weary one, some way-worn traveller; you gi"^e him a cup of water. " Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these my children, ye did it unto me," says God. He drinks with the poor traveller and unfortunate outcast. God eats with this man. It is God who is eating. Those who are without garments to keep out the cold, and through affliction and adver- sity are reduced to this strange state of necessity. You say, I want to give You a coat, God, You have done so much for me. Give it to that man that has no coat That is the way God is served. Some people like to serve Him by praying to Him a great deal. This is the service God wants. God says, if my child- ren are sick, visit them ; T will take it all as if it were done for Me. When I was last in Manchester, Eng- land, a mother came to me and said : " My son is in Montreal, and is sick. Will you attend him when you go there, and write me what you think ? " Now, I knew any little act I might do for that young man, I would do unto her. It would not have pleased her as well as if I had said, What a dear mother you are ; that son of yours is a nice young man, you are an ex- cellent mother ; I like you very much, you are very kind, you are splendid. That would not be half as good as if I were to see her boy and, if it were neces- sary, administer to his wants, and write her home what I had done. I would be doing it to her. God's hungiy, God's thirsty, God's poorly clad. God has out- casts in the world ; when we see them, let us take them in and treat them kindly. DR. WILjyS SERMONS. 241 The grand idea of the fatherhood of God is import- ant, for from it comes the brotherhood idea. Now, you Anti-Poverty men, that is your theory. First, the fatherhood of God, and we are His children. We could do nothing with the slave as to freeing him until we had made him out to be a man. I think all agree that our Father is so good that He would not enslave one of His children, and if He would not, brothers and sis- ters should not, and so the slave is made free. You cannot touch him effectually until you have brought Him prominently into the brotherhood of man. I am glad that Henry George and Dr. McGlynn and others can see a better state of things in the future ; but they will have to work on this line of the brotherhood of man. I am glad that Dr. McGlynn has seen a wider circle than he has been accustomed to see, unless he has seen it and never mentioned it before. " No man can expel me from the Church ; there are only two persons that can do that, and that is God and Dr. Mc- Glynn." You are right, sir ; you have got up into the fatherhood and brotherhood of God, where there is equality before God. Christians are all His children, and if they expel you from the Roman Catholic Church that don't expel you from the Church of God. A per- son can be expelled from the Congregational Church, but that does not expel him from the Church of Christ. I am glad that the minds of men are being led to see the true idea of God's fatherhood, from that to deduce the true idea of brotherhood that will re- gulate our conduct most efficiently one toward another. The Lord bless you. Amen. !! ■■ Hi .1 ,:. .i ■■'. i ii; SERMON XXV. THE PLOUaHMAN OVERTAKING THE REAPER. Text. — Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the tieader of grapea him that soweth seed ; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. — Amos ix. 13. The world is moving forward to its appointed destiny. According to Paul, in the first chapter of Hebrews, it is to perish and wax old as a garment, to be folded to- gether as a vesture and to be changed. But the mil- lions yet living will continue to plough and to reap. But, thank God, the ploughman is gaining on the reaper every day. Masters and servants, labour and reward, are not so far apart as they once were. In the old world and in this newer, there are some widows, some sisters, some children, some old folks and some cripples working hard, ploughing severely, at sewing, match box making, labouring as servants and in other callings where the ploughman is yet too far away from the reaper. The master has too much profit and the labourer too little pay ; the gospel plough, however, is busy making the master willing to be a servant and the servant more competent to be a master. Some day they will find a golden equilibrium, and lovingly bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. In the presence of inventions, and the march of science, the world's burden when equally divided is 242 DR. WTLUS SERMONS. 2i3 not going to be so much apiece for any one person. Science is fast converting toil into exercise, and the growth of common sense is rapidly wiping out the stain and dishonour that has been wont to attach to labour. The titles of the future are going to be merit- orious and not the product of fancy or of pride of kings or queens, of popes or parliaments. All essen- tial business will be praiseworthy, and those engaged in the same will be accounted honourable. The fact is that plenty and ease, liberty and comfort, are at our own bidding now. When we want them sincerely and intelligently, we can have them. Whatever foreordi- nation means, whatever foreknowledge means, it is a positive fact we are worse off' than we need to be in this world and the fault is our own. An improved way of doing things will be forced up- on us through the invention and progression of science. We will be forced to work less, and have more pay, in the days to come. A working week will very soon consist of five days and a working day of not more than eight hours. The God-appointed and unabro- gated Sabbath of rest will yet be accepted. I am glad to see that the Knights of Labour in Chicago and New York are demanding a half holiday entirely on Saturday. In Britain, the half of the Sabbath of rest is very generally consented to and enjoyed. Why not ask the whole of God's Sabbath which He appointed as a day of rest ? That is what Saturday is. As I have often said. Do you expect that business shall go on without friction when we are stealing a whole day from God's regular- ly appointed order of things ? You will never get 244 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. !i . f il ' I I 1 ll:. right as masters and servants by such disobedience, nor you can never work ovei* five days a week at your very best, year in and year out, becauso you will have to have short time and God will take it out of you whether you want to oi* not, by making business dull. We do not want more than five days' supply now. Then, as a Christian people, when you get the whole of this Sabbath of rest, you will consecrate Sunday the first day of the week to the Lord, to divine service and to holy meditation and worship. Creation is worthy of a day of rest, redemption in Christ is worthy a day of consecration. The early Christians kept both the Saturday and the Sunday. The ploughman will overtake the reaper before long on this line. I cannot help thinking touching these ploughmen, that we ask a little too much from them when we ask them to work six days per week and on Saturday till a late hour, as with clerks and many others, and then require that they shall get up early on Sunday morning and attend prayer meeting, morning preaching. Sabbath school in the afternoon, and preaching again in the evening. Religion becomes a burden under any such enforcement. We are crippled in business and we make religion repulsive because we are too stingy to give God His appointed day in this world and hence we must suffer. We need to do as we are told by the Prophet Hosea, chap. x. 12, " Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord till He come and rain righteousness upon you. You have ploughed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity." That is what we are doing. lirh DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 245 I am glad I believe in the gospel plough, and I be- lieve its !•( medial power is sufficient to bring about every reformation needed and advocated lawfully and legally by any society on the face of this earth, and I believe this plough will go on breaking up new ground^ improving the old ground, destroying the weeds and noxious plants, and more, | tutting in their places things that shall be serviceable, useful and beautiful. This process and progress may be seen in many ways if you will measure back one hundred years. The world is moving on ; the ploughman is getting nearer the reaper every day. Old laws are being rescinded and new ones more agreeable to equity and justice are being made. Take a few instances : Until last year in England a mother did not own her own children by law. The father was sole guardian both alive and dead, for before he died he could appoint his own guardian, and if he failed the mother could not do it. The court came in and did it for him. The widowed mother now, by law, is one of the guardians perforce ; she must be one, and before she dies she can appoint a successor. That is a great change in the line of ownership. On this line the ploughman will o\ crtake the reaper, and will yet make our mothers fuU-tiedged citizens, as sure as you live. The time will come when the fact of being a woman will not mean less wages for doing the same work, nor Jess protection in the courts of justice for mixed crimes, nor less rights than citizens in citizen- ship. We will cease to dishonour our mothers either by law or practice, as the ploughman works. The gos- pel is ploughing on the line of brotherhood. As in ag- riculture we have improved upon roots, upon grain and I: ii 246 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 1 upon fruit and every product of the field and farm, so in morals and in legislation we are improving, and shall continue to do so. Man in the true light of this Christian brotherhood is to be the standard value for the world, and not gold. Early in this century men were wont to sell their wives in England ; they can do so now if they choose. They put a rope around her neck and led her to the market, paid the market fee, received their price and let her go. Old Smithfield market, in London, had many such vic- tims every day of the week. When one wants to know if the world is moving on, he wants to look on certain lines where improvement is being made. At the beginning of this century life was very cheap. According to " McKenzie's History of the Nineteenth Century," English laws contained two hundred and twenty-three capital offences : *» man could then be hung for the crime of shooting «, rabbit, even though he missed it, they would not miss him, or for being in disguise on the road, or foi' cutting down a young tree, or for injuring Westminster Bridge, or for writing a threatening letter, or for stealing a sheep, or for steal- ing anything to the value of S1.25 he could be hung. In the year 1816, in England, fifty-eight persons were sentenced to death for these trifling offences, and one of them was a child ten years old, and yet you will hear people going around and saying the world is getting worse ; we are not improving. You want to keep your eye on the ploughman ; he is busy working ; he is turn- ing over the sod ; he is making a change as sure as you live, in this world. If you step back two centuries, you will find people were hung by the hundreds for '^^' ' -m: ■^I'i DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 247 witchcraft, even in the United States as well as in the older lands. In the beginning of this century British ships were fully engaged in conveying slaves to the United States ; as many as forty-five were at once laden with live cargo. British ships now scour the ocean, guard the inlets to the various parts of Africa and other conti- nents, ready to forbid and destroy such a traffic in any country. The ploughman is gaining there. In the be- ginning of this century, workmen had to work fourteen hours a day at least, for $1 a week. It is a wonder they did not strike. The simple fact is they were too poor to do that. People can only strike when they get better off. They Jived on herbs and black bread, porridge and treacle, and were housed and huddled to- gether in huts and hovels chimneyless and windowless. Thus were our fathers and mothers. We who are so comfortable and living in well-furnished houses to-day, if these poor fathers and mothers could come from their graves, and see what the ploughman has done, they would thank God that he was gaining on the reaper. When men become too valuable to be killed in war, the ploughman will have gained a considerable dis- tance. And men will yet become so valuable that they will not be offered as targets even by nations. Not even the poor Turk nor Russian nor Heathen nor Pa- gan nor Indian nor civilized man. Really on this line, the ploughman and the reaper are the widest apart in all humanity. Britain is liberal to the missionary cause ; she gives considerable, but compare her gifts on this line with the yearly sum that is appropi:iated for the purposes ji 1 I) ;*■ --t 248 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. of war — $260,000,000 her army costs every year. She appropriates thousands for the purposes of war, and hundreds for the purposes of the Gospel. The plough- man and the reaper are wide apart there. Do yon not believe that if they gave $260,000,000, and sent every Salvation lad and lassie over the world with their shouting and singing, they would turn the world up- side down and do more good than all that ? I m 'sh they would. Just send them every one through France, Russia. Germany, India and Turkoy. I wish, by some concession or other, nations would agree to let Britain try this experiment for a few years, and not go to war with her until she had tried it. They would do more good than all the big armies together in civilizing and blessing the world. We are plowing with old ploughs. We do not know that the nice new steel ones are ready to go through the furrow easily, and ease the beast and the man that is guiding it. What a glorious time when the missionary shall be overtaken by the reaper. W^hen a man says to the missionary board, " I want to go as a missionary," and they shall say, '* We have done. All know the Lord whom to know is life eternal ; we have no place to send you, unless we send you to Purgatory, and you will have to get permission from some other persons." When the glori- ous time coLies — and it will come just as sure as I stand here — the last man will go forth, and the world will be saved and nestle in peace. Nation shall not rise up against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. It is reasonable to suppose that in legislation we will yet find an end. I3o you suppose that we will keep \\.i • DR. JVILD'S SEmrONS. 249 legislating to fin'l the right and adjust difficulties, and never come to an end ? I believe the time will come when few new laws will be needed, and parliaments will have nothing to do for four or five years at a run. They are busy now, because we are trying to get at right; but do you suppose we will get at it '{ Are we going to be confused to the end of the world ? Is our statesmanship going to be baffled, and never attain to a golden mean ? Wo will, one day, as sure as we live. Will it not be so in church matters ? Will we con- tinue in separate sects and denominations and church- es ? Not at all. As I pointed out this morning, we will in due time coalesce on a generous platform, and we will be able to do just as much good with less means by far. Do you not suppose that on the line of medicine we will become so skilled in the knowledge of disease and the properties for curing the same, aided by the loyal fidelity of the nurse and the patient who will become honest and take medicine as prescribed by the doctor ? I believe we will ; I be- lieve we will gain at that point rapidly in the years to come. The world is moving on, when you come to think from Adam down to the present time. If a dozen of us were planted in this world now, think of what we would have to learn. Think of what these roots mean under the ground; some poisonous, some food; but we would have to find out what these leaves mean, what the juice in the tree means, what the fruit means, for some will kill and some will keep alive. It is wonderful what a lot the world is learn- ing about the things in it. We will learn all about it by and by. tmmmmi 250 DB. WILD'S SERMONS. I-' • 1' ' When you ask will the ploughman overtake the reaper, some of you will be surprised to find that lie cannot overtake the reaper until Israel is recognised and Judah is restored. Here come in the ten lost tribes again, you cannot keep them out. Now many good things that people are praying for and wishing for and longing for and talking about are all on the other side of Israel's recognition and Judah's restor- ation. My good friends, the Adventists, that have met over at Niagara the last few weeks, I have got some nice things sent from them. They think I am in error; I may be; it is likely I am in some things just as much as they are ; but if any man, Adventist or not, will show me the millennium, with the Jews scattered, Palestine desolate, and Israel unrecognised, I will confess I am in error. You cannot have any millennium on the face of the earth until these things have transpired. Why ignore the greatest fact that is to comprise all these ? When the ploughman will overtake the reaper these things will be accomplished. In that day, He says. What day ? The time referred to when Palestine shall be settled and Israel shall be quiet and at peace. Did you ever think of the unity of the various churches ? When will you get it ? Zephaniah, 3rd chap, and 9th verse : " For then I will turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve him with one consent." Do you see that you ca.mot get it now ? You have to believe in Israel and Judah as God's select people for civilizing and Christianizing the world ; until the Church and the whole world believe that, we can never be united. Then He will turn a DR. WILD'S SERMONS. 251 pure language upon the people. You may ask for it' and you have the answer given in Jeremiah, 32nd chap, and 39th verse, " And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear before me for- ever." But when will you get that one heart and one way ? After Judah is restored and Israel recognised. Yet people are praying and preaching all over to give us one heart, give us one way. God has got a way of His own about this thing, and He will have it. So you can find some other passages. Perhaps they would say, I wish you ministers could see eye to eye. You will by and by. But when ? In that day. But when is that day ? Isaiah, 52nd chap, and 8th verse, " Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice ; with the voice together shall they sing ; for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion." The time you see is that day. We will nev r see eye to eye till Judah is restored and Israel is recognise*^ Just so you will find the same idea borne out in the 11th verse of the chapter of my text : ' Tn that day I will raise up the taber- nacle of David hat is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof, and I ill raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old." That is just exactly what is to be done. If you will go to the 14th verse, he says : " And I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God." It is *,'^w""*VWi' 252 DR. WILD'S SERMONS. after they are settled there that the ploughman ia to overtake the reaper. And yet you want him to overtake him now. He cannot. What you have got to do, and what the Churches should do, is to recognise Israel literally, just as the Jews are. This is the order of God's work and His providence, Co-operate with Him, and bring these things to pass. Peace would be on the world in thirty years if we were to do it. But you will go out some of you and say, I do not believe in the lost tribes. You do not know what you be- lieve in. All the great events of the future for which the Church is praying are predicated upon this fact. I will ask any Adventist or any man, Give me a great fact that belongs to the future that is to come into force or play now before Israel is recognised and Judah re- stored. Now, my friends, just own up. You will al- wfiys find them when this great thing is done. If we want peace, goodwill and plenty, if we want sorrow and poverty wiped out, we shall have this thing done first, as you will read in Isaiah 51st chap, and 11th verse, "Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shal) re- turn and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their head ; they shall obtain glad- ness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away." Oh that people could see the will and purposes of God so simple, so plainly revealed in His Word, and be willing to co-operate v/ith Him. Let the technical- ities of theology go ; the great question is to recoguise God's purposes through the chosen seed of Abraham, their work, their place and their reward. May we thus be willing servants of God the Most High ! Amen.