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Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, In the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine by The Pools Printing Company, Limitko, at the Department of Agriculture. TO MY MOTHER, T<) WHOSE LOVE I OWE SO MUCH. PREFACE. This book contains the substance of sermons preached in Cooke's Presbyterian Church, Toronto. These sermons, when delivered from the pulpit, were instrumental in helping Christians and in leading many of the unsaved to put their trust in Christ. They are now sent forth with the earnest hope that they may be of some service to those who may read them. W. P. Toronto, Dec. 18th, 1899. CONTENTS. I. THE MISTAKES OF MOSES Pack. 11 THE ABUNDANT LIFE II. 'J2 PETER • ••'■■,.,• »■' 84 JESUS AND NICODEMUS IV. 43 THE LOGICAL LEPERS . 54 JONAH VI. 05 THE CHURCH'S GOOD VII. 74 SALVATION ILLUSTRATED VTII. 84 IX. *; SAMSON • . • . • 91 X. THE WATER OF LIFE ♦ I 101 CONTENTS. i) ' XI. THE VISION OF DRY BONES THE TWO SONS THE UNFORTUNATE MAN • t XII. XIII. XIV. MANASSEH ■ • * : > XV. THREE NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS THE GREAT FEAST PRAYER XVI. XVII. XVIII. THE YOUNG RULER AND THE BLIND BEGGAR JESUS ONLY XIX. XX. Page. 116 127 SOWING AND REAPING, A Sermon to Young Men 137 m 156 166 176 188 200 'ill I. THE MISTAKES OF MOSES. "And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens ; and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren. "And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian."— Exodus 2 : 11, 12. " And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Efeypt? "—Exodus 3:11. " And Moses answered and said ; But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice."— Exodus 4 : 1, "And Moses said unto the Lord, my Lord, I am not eloquent."— Exodus 4 • 10. " And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray Thoe, by the hand of him whom Thou wilt send."- Exodus 4 : 13. "And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels ; must we fetch you water out of this rock ? "And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice."— Numbers 20: 10, 11. Without any exception Moses was the greatest man in the Old Testatment dispensation, and of no man is more honorable mention made in the New Testament. In Revelation, when the celestial city is spoken of, we read of the song of Moses and the Lamb. Yet this man, who holds a position second to none, made a number of mistakes. I purpose referring to three of these mistakes, and the subject will be practical as they are mistakes which Christians are likely to make. The first mistake was after he had turned his back upon the house of Pharaoh, with all its pleasures and 12 THE MISTAKES OF MOSES. prospects, and had identified himself with the despised slaves, who were being crushed under the Egyptian power. He believed that in some way, through him, these people were to be delivered, but he made a mis- take by entering upon the work before he was called to it or qualified for it. His indignation at oppression and his compassion for the oppressed no doubt led him to make the mistake of slaying the Egyptian who was contending with the Hebrew. It is a mistake which Christians are likely to make when they are full of the enthusiasm of the new life. When they see iniquity abounding and the cause of God suffering, the ten- dency is to rush into service before they are sure that they have been called to that particular work or quali- fied for it. How often, for example, the student at college when reading about the multitudes in foreign lands who have never heard of the Christ, and sees around him the ravages of sin, feels like throwing his books aside and rushing into active service, forgetting that the time spent in preparation is not time wasted. John the Baptist was about thirty years old before he was called into active service, and Jesus was about the same age when He laid do^^Ti the plane and left the carpenter^s bench in Nazareth to preach to men con- cerning the kingdom of God. It is a great mistake for us to go before we are sent, or to enter upon any work before we are qualified for it. As a result of his mis- THK MISTAKES OF MOSES. i:i take, Moses fled into the wilderness. The life there was very different from that which he spent in Phar- aoh's court, but he had an opportunity not only of liolding fellowship with God but of becoming ac- (juainted with himself, and no doubt it was during tliese years of loneliness and of meditation that he came to realize how weak and helpless he was. There is nothing which will enable us so to realize the majes- ty and power of God and our own insignificance as the beholding of God's works in nature. The psalmist said. When I look up into the heavens which Thine own fingers framed, to the moon and the stars, then say I, AVhat is man that Thou are mindful of liini, or the son of man that Thou dost visit liim? After forty years of life in Midian the Lord a])- peared to Moses at Horeb, informing him that he was the chosen one to deliver Israel from the power and slavery of Egypt. Moses now makes the second mis- take, to which we purpose referring, by refusing to go. First of all he realized, as no other man did, the greatness and the power and the cruelty of Egypt ; and on the other hand he realized then as never before how weak and helpless he was in contrast to that mighty nation. Xot only so, but he had tried to help these people in the past and had miserably failed. Putting these things together he said, " Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?'' 14 THE MISTAKES OF MOSES. How often Christian people fail to enter upon work for the same reasons. They think of the great- ness of the work to be done, they think of their past failures and of their insufficiency for these things, and like Moses they say, " Who are we that we should undertake such a work?" For example, when Chris- tians think of the power of the liquor traffic, its power in the world of politics, and its power over those who have become enslaved by it; when they think of how efforts to overthrow it have failed in the past, how little they have been able to accomplish, they become discouraged and say, " What can we do?" The same is tnie in regard to may other evils that have lifted up their heads in the high places, and we are liable to make the same mistake that Moses made when, look- ing at the greatness of Pharaoh and his own weakness, he said, "Who am I that I should go?" Yet this estimate of the power of the enemy and of his own weakness was the best qualification for the work to which he was called. If a man has a high opinion of his own ability and under-estimates the strength of the foe, he will not accomplish very much; but when he realizes the greatness of the work and his own in- ability to accomplish it he will fall back upon the source of all power and seek for reinforcements. The Lord met the difficulties which presented themselves to Moses in connection with this aspect of the case. ^ THE MISTAKES OF MOSES. 1; but then a new difficulty comes up, and that is with reference to the people to whom God wishes to send him. He says, '^ This people will not believe me." He knew how they treated him forty years before this, when he slew the Egyptian and interfered in the quarrel between the two Hebrews; now he says, " There is no use, the very people I go to deliver will not believe me, will turn against me." "What a know- ledge of human nature he had and how true his estim- ate of these people was we see from the after history. Does not the same difficulty present itself to us when entering into Christian service? The very people that we are trying to help and seeking to deliver are the people who will probably give us the most abuse. It was so in the case of our Lord — the men He came to save despised, imprisoned and crucified Him ; and it has ever been the same. But what God said to Moses He said to Jeremiah, and He says to His servants in all ages, " Surely I will be with thee." Then Moses looks at it from another point of view and he says, " I am not eloquent," as if all success depended upon his eloquence. The Lord answers him by asking the question, " Who is it that made man's mouth ?" Fre- quently, when we are called to serv^ice, we raise the same objection. It may be we have not money, or we have not talents like other people, we have little time at our disposal; and so we present these things as ex- 10 THE MISTAKES OF MOSES. cuses, or, in our estimation, reasons wTiy wc slionlct not go where wo are being scut, or do what we arc commanded to do. The Lord would no doubt answer us as He answered Moses, that the success of our work does not depend upon ourselves or our abilities. Not satisfied with all the promises and assiu-ances that Clod liad given to him, however, Moses now says, " Send, I pray Thee, by the hand of another;" and the anger of the Lord was kindled against him. It is true he went aften^'ards, and the success which attended his elTorts was certainly marvellous, but because of the mistake which he made in not going when he was sent, Aaron, his brother, was sent with him as the spokesman, and we know from events which followed that Aaron was not a source of strength, but a source of weakness to Moses. He it was who yielded to the people and made for them the golden calf, when Moses was receiving the law in the mount. We have seen from the nar- rative that while it is a great mistake to enter upon service before we are qualified and have been commis- sioned by God, it is as great a mistake, if not greater, to refuse to go when we have been qualified and called of God. And this is applicable not only to ministers and missionaries but to every Christian, because God has a work for every man to do. We are created in Christ Jesus unto good works, and there is a sphere which He intends every Christian to occupy, and a THE MISTAKES OF MOSES. 17 should we arr , answer ur work 38. Not bat Crod = Send, I anger of he went lis efforts ! mistake t, Aaron, man, and .aron was akness to and made receiving I the nar- iter upon a commis- )t greater, and called ministers lause God created in 3 a sphere py, and a work He wishes every Christian to do. The practical question for us then is, " Have wo entered upon some work for which we are not qualified, and to which we have not been called, or are we refusing to enter into Service for which the Lord has qualified us, and to which He has called us?" The third mistake to which we shall refer was made at the waters of Meribah, where Moses lost his patience, spoke unadvisedly to Israel and failed to give to God the glory that was due to His name. This was a great mistake, and for this sin and mistake he was severely punished. It was because of this that he was not permitted to lead Israel into the land of prom- ise. Men tell us, of course, that if he did not enter the earthly Canaan he entered the heavenly Canaan. That is all very true; yet no greater punishment could have been inflicted upon Moses than his exclusion from the land of Canaan. Because of sin every man who left Egypt over twenty years of age died in the wilderness, save Joshua and Caleb, and now we have tlie great leader prohibited from entering because of what he did on this particular occasion. The question may be asked. Why was he punished so severely ? We must remember that this nation was beginning its history, and it was necessary for them to realize in the clearest manner possible God's hatred of sin, and that He would not give His glory to another. The 18 THE MISTAKES Ol'* MOSES. Hi same was true in the case of Acban at the beginning of the great campaign after they crossed the river Jordan. Also at the beginning of the (Jospel dispensation we have in the case of Ananias and Sapphira a terrible judgment, but it caused fear to come upon all who heard it, and enabled them to realize how God viewed such atts. The Lord could have easily removed the consequences of Moses' sin, but for the sake of the nation Moses had to suffer for his folly. This also is a sin and mistake which Christians are liable to make. Think of all that Moses had sacrificed for that people; think of all that he had endured from them and done for them during the many years that he was with them, and still they mur- mured ; and no doubt it seemed to him that they were getting no better, and he may have said to himself, What is the use, they are a lot of rebels? So his indig- nation was kindled against them and he gave expres- sion to his thoughts. How often, when we are mak- ing sacrifices for people, and are doing all that we pos- sibly can do in their interests, they are continually finding fault and sometimes, we think, becoming worse instead of better. There is a danger of us losing patience and looking upon them as hopelessly ungrate- ful rebels against God and those who are labouring for them. In Christian work there is great need for the exhortation, "Add to your virtue, patience;" and THE MISTAKES OF MOSES. 10 inning id the )f the ise of but it jnabletl le Lord Moses' suffer ) which it Moses t he had ■ing the ley mur- icy were himself, is indig- j expres- ire mak- t we pos- itinually ng worse IS losing ungratc- uring for d for the 3e;" and when we see that the meekest of men became im- patient and sinned so grievously along this line, there is reason for us to fear. Do we not frequently fail to give God the glory that is duo unto Him? Do we al- ways exalt the Lord in the midst of the people, and by our actions and words sanctify Him as we ought? These mistakes of Moses are recorded, not in order to lower him in our estimation, but to warn us so that we may not fall into the same errors. !K vv for a moment let us glance at the one like unto Moses who came in after years, and we will see that as far as the mistakes of Moses were concerned He was unlike the great statesman. In the book of Hebrews, where the superiority of the New Testa- ment dispensation over the Old is so clearly shown, the greatness of Christ is contrasted with that of Moses — Moses as a servant, Christ as a son — Moses the man who made mistakes, Jesus the one who never erred. He did not enter upon His special work until He was endued with the Spirit and until the hour had come. How His heart must have gone out to the multitudes that were as sheep without a shepherd, but He did not enter upon that divine work until the fullness of the time; and He commanded His disciples, when He was leaving them, to remain in Jerusalem until they would be thoroughly qualified for service. It is often far harder for the soldiers to stand by without taking !r ■mn II 99 THE MISTAKES OF MOSES. any part in the conflict while the battle is raging than it would be for them to rush into the fight. But to obey is better than sacrifice in the sight of God, and Christ was obedient even unto the death of the cross. He did not go irntil He was sent, but when He did receive the commission He went forth regardless of the consequences, and could say in sincerity and in truth, " My meat and My drink is to do the will of Him that sent Me." Again, we find Him continually glorifying the Father and saying, " Glorify Thyself in Thy Son." When it comes to the people, no matter how they treat Him He never becomes impatient. The disciples forsake Him, one of them denies Him, another betrfc^s Him; He is arrested, false charges brought against Hira, He is condemned, and nailed to the cross; men wag their heads at Him as they pass and spit in His face; but in all this He never becomes impatient, but cries from the cross, " Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." Putting to- gether the life of Moses and the life of the One con- cerning whom Moses spake when he said, " A Prophet like unto me shall the Lord your God raise up unto you," we see the marvellous contrast between them. Jesus was perfect in Himself and in all that He did. The imperfections of Moses were manifest, and his mistakes glaring. Yet Moses was the greatest of mere men, and notwithstanding his many imperfections, THE MISTAKES OF MOSES. 21 ; than Jut to 1, and cross, [e did iess of md in ^rill of nually ^self in matter )atient. 8 Him, jharges tiled to ^y pass ecomes forgive mg to- ae con- rophet p unto them, le did. ind his >f mere ctions, and his great mistakes, he was used by the Lord in a most wonderful manner. From this subject we can surely draw the concdusion that God can use us, not- withstanding our imperfections and faults. It is the line of argument that James follows in the fifth chap- ter of his Epistle, when speaking about the power of prayer. Lest anyone should think that absolute per- fection was necessary before prayer would prevail with God, he takes as an illustration Elijah, and after stat- ing that the prophet was a man of like passions with us he goes on to show that by his prayers he closed the heavens for three years and six months, and then by prayer he brought rain upon the thirsty earth, for though his judgment may have erred, his heart was right with God, and he was in earnest. So it was with Moses. His sincere desire was to do the will of God, and when he fell, through his mistakes and imperfec- tions, the Lord lifted, sustained, and used him. So it will be with us, if wb submit ourselves to God, and are willing to be in Hii hand, what the rod was in the hand of Moses, ajid what Moses was in the hand of God, for God is able to use the earthen vessel — even those that are marred in the making — for His own glorpr, and for the good of humanity. IT. THE ABUNDANT LIFE. "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."— John 10; 10. It is implied in this statement that the people to whom He spoke were without life, for He did not come to give men that which they were already in pos- session of. There are two kinds of life that He did not come to give, namely, physical life and intellect- ual life, though He had power to give such life. He manifested His power to give physical life by raising from the dead the widow's son at Nain, the daughter of Jairus, and Lazaraus,wlio had been four days in the grave, and He also showed His power to restore in- tellectual life by healing those in whom reason had been dethroned, and restoring them to their right mind. But the men to whom He was speaking had physi- cal and intellectual life, for many in those days wore great thinkers and scholars, — men such as Gamaliel under whom Saul studied. But His mission was to give spiritual life; and this life man was at one time in possession of, for when Adam came from the hand of his Maker, and when God walked with him in the THE ABUNDANT LIFE. m «,^arden in the cool of the day he had spiritual life and fellowship with God. That fellowship was broken, and that spiritual life destroyed when the adversary came between Adam, and God. On that day our first parents died spiritually, and all the race descended from them were separated from God through the fall. It was to restore this union that Christ came, to make God and man one, and the very word atonement means at-one-ment. The divine Son of God, equal with the Father, taking upon Himself not the form of angels, but the seed of Abraham, becoming bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, coming to unite God and man, and that union which He came to effect*s spoken of as life, — spiritual life. iNow this life is the gift of God, to be received by the hand of faith, as a physical gift is to be received by the physical hand. But what does He mean when He says that He is come to give them life and to give it more abundantly? Is there a distinction between life and abundant life? Does He pjive the life to some, and in addition to that the abundant life? We see from this text that there are degrees of life just ns there are different kinds, and in order to understand the spiritual better, we may adopt our Lord's plan, in His teaching, and find out more about the spiritual through analogy with that which is natural or physi- cal. A man may have physical life and have so little 24 THE ABUNDANT LIFE. of it that he will be unconscious that he possesses this life; and in the spiritual world are there not those pos- sessing spiritual life in such a small degree, that they are unconscious of the possession? Some, of course, tell us that a man, if he is saved, must know it; but on this point there is room for difference of opinion. However, we are all agreed that if a man has so little physical life that he is unconscious he is in a critical state, causing anxiety to his friends, and of no use as far as advancing the interests of the world is con- cerned. So, if a man is unconscious of his spiritual existence he is certainly in a critical state, and those who are interested in his spiritual well-being will necessarily be anxious about him while he himself will be absolutely useless as far as advancing the cause of Christ is concerned. There is another stage of life, however, when a man is conscious of his existence, and when all his friends know that he is alive, he may be in what we call a convalescent state, so weak that he is not able to do any work, ha\ang others wait upon him. In the church also there is a great multitude who have spirit- ual life, and who can say honestly that they know in whom they have believed and are persuaded that He is able to keep that which they have committed to His trust; their friends know, or believe, that they are Christians, and yet these people have so little of the -if- •ffx THE ABUNDANT LIFE. 25 )irit- Nv in He His are the i t divine life that thoy nre unable to accomplish any- thing in the spiritual world. To such the apostle spoke when he said they were weak and sickly and fn in ting, requiring to be fed on milk when they should be nourishing themselves with the strong meat. We come now to the highest stage of life, — the abundant life. We see it in the physical world where all that has been accomplished in the past has been brought about by men who not only possessed physical life but an abundance of it. Our cities have been builded, our railways made, and all the advancement in the physical world has been accomplished by those men who had life enough and to spare It is so in the intellectual world. Men who have had an abundance of intellectual life have brought about all the achieve- ments that have been accomplished in the intellectual world. And is it not so in the church? All the mis- sionary enterprises at home and abroad, works of phil- anthropy, everything that has been done to lift up fallen humanity and to advance the cause of Christ, has it not been accomplished not only by those who have had spiritual life, but by those who have had an abundance of it? It is not tlie water in the well which makes the grass grow all around it, but the water which flows out of the well. It is not the strength which we have in ourselves, but that which we are able 20 THE ABUNDANT LIFE. fti;ical gi'owth, and one reason wh}' so many Christians have so littl(» of this divine life is because they are starving them- selves spiritually or feeding upon that which does not sufficiently nourish the divine life within them. There is such a thing in the physical world as living im 28 THE ABUNDANT LIFE. skeletons, — ^men who have been starved for a time, and there are multitudes of spiritual skeletons in the church. A man cannot become physically strong on angel cake and mince pie, thou8;h there is nothing wrong in these things as dessert; and a Christian can- not become spiritually strong on a great deal of the light literature that is read in these days, though that literature may be harmless in itself. It has not the nourishment that is necessary to the developing of the divine life. The Word of God, biographies of the good and the great, and the best literature is essential to the spiritual and intellectual development of the Christian. Now with regard to the air. We know in the physical world that a great deal depends upon the kind hoMi„^- to fhc worM thaf, -pm-p religion and undofilod hoforo (iod and rlio Father is this, to visit tl.o fatl.orloss and wi,l.>ws in their affliction, Ind to Ivoop himself nimpoitod from tlie world." hy is it, ;ay of us 8 of His r\ii have jelievetli ^h faith, srine life, it, who ive very ,. They ase their it in the life is it 3 Adam, 1 because lour for- 3el, hohl out His i f 1 i i ' III. PETER. "Then began he to rur.;(> hitI in s\vc>> e man. — 'scariot, s Peter several First of vileged. 2,lory in ses and . The lira, for pistles. maiden lie three iu the (at con- rhcn he Ig God, -elation |f ul pro- would ling the •i dangers which lav ahead of hiin, and it is said that ii a man is forewarned he is half-armed. Still further, he failed Christ in tue hour when his presence and hie help were most needed. Wo cannot think of that night scene, without contrnptir.g the conduct of Peter with that of John, who vras the youngest of the dis- ciples, and who displayed the greatest courage and heroism. lie was the only one to stand by his Master, when all men had forsaken Him, and when the powers of liell were against Ilim. On the other hand it U probable that Peter was the oldest of the apostles, the one who had braved many a storm on the Sea ci (lalilee and displayed great courage on many occa- jiions; the one who should luive horu closest to the }\faster in the hour of Iii> need, hut at th.at time we find him in the coui'tyard, fir.-t denying that he knew Him, then emphasizing his denial, and finally cur;-iug and swearing that he knew not the man. AVhen one listens to these oaths of his and then thinks of his words in Caesarea Philippi vre cannot help exclaim- iriir i( TT IIow tho mighty have falh-'U.'' C'>ui'{ he h.iV(^ fallen any lower or committed a more grevious fi.i Against his Lord than he did on that eventful night ■ But what led to this terrible fall? First of all we might look at his self-confidence, for he had un- bounded confidence in himself, deelarlng that though all men should forsake Ohrist vet he would never do IM-.'fKR. I siicli a tiling-. This pride an.l coiiiidoiico in ono's sHf ns a general tbing" goes befovo a fall, but when we are thinking of this in the case of Teter do we not se(> traces of it sometimes in ourselves^ We hear of men who have fallen and have sinned, and we are liable to sav to ourselves, if not to others, we could never hv guilty of such things. This pride and confidence in one's self leads to the despising of others and in the case of Peter, while he did not say it, he inferred that the others might den^^ Christ. The more one tliinks of himself the lc8s he will think of others, and tlie more confidence he has in himself the less he will have in others. Still further, this led to his rashness in the garden, for when the men came out to arrest Jesus, J*eter drew the sword and rushed at them without first consulting Christ. It is the part of a soldier to wait for the command of his superior officer. It is the part of a true disciple to receive his commands from his Lord and Master. Peter did not say to Jesus, '' What wilt Thou have me to do, or wherein does my duty lie?" But without asking any advice or counsel, he drew the sword and cut oif the ear of the servant of the high priest, and for this act he was rebuked by .Tesus and told to put the sword up again. How often we do that which is similar. We act without taking counsel with the One whom we profess to serve, without finding out what Ilis will is in the m: I'KTKR. •> t I we av(^ not so(^ of llUMl liable t<» lever Ix' lence in d in tlu^ ■red that thinks and \\\r ,vill have ss in the 5t Jesus, without oldier to It is nnnands Jesus, loes my counsel, rvant of uked by We act ]irofe>^s s in the niatter, and what i)art He would have us take. The cause of Christ has always sutfered from the rashness of His followei-s and this rashness is due in a large measure to our confidence in ourselves, in our own wisdom and in our own powers. AVe are freciuently told that one of the causes of Peter's fall was the fact that he slept in the garden, when hv should have been awake. There is no two ways, but that it was wrong on his part, but we must remend)er that the other discii)les also sle}»t. Then he followed afar (►IT, but some of the others did not follow at all. They lied. Certainly it is a dangerous thing to follow afar *>f! when in the land of the enemy. Those who are in a border land in a time of war, as a general thing, suffer more than those who are in the heart of the country, and the nearer a person is to Christ the safer he is, and the further away, the greater the dan- ger. Then Ave find him with the enemies of his Lord whon he should have been with the Lord Himself. He was where he should not have been, hence he was in a place of danger. If a messenger had come from heaven he might have a^ked him the question that was asked of Elijah, '* What doest thou heref In after years he was ofVni among the enemies of the Lord, but he was there for the purpose of turning them from the en*or of their wavs, but now he is trv- ^ 'I i 38 PETER. ing to save his life and is in great danger of losing it, by the very efforts that he is Dutting forth to save it. Peter is not alone in this matter. Even in tliis age multitudes of Ch.rist's professed followers are often among the enemies of the Lord vrhen they should be with His friends, and they are there, not for the sake of turning the enemies into friends, but for the sake of gratifying their own desires, or of being amused. Xo doubt all these things to which we have referred had a great deal to do with Peter's fall, but we must remember that the devil played a very important part in connection with his sin. When Christ was looking forward to this night he said to Peter, " Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat." It would seem that all the powei*s of hell were let loose against Peter and that the great desire of the Evil One was to overthrow him, and perhaps the most important point in this whole history is the fact that Peter did not realize the greatness of the enemy with which he had to contend. Had he real- ized this he would not have had so much confidence in himself, he would not have slept in the garden, he would not have acted rashlv Avithout consulting his Master nor followed Him afar off, neither would be have remained with his Lord's enemies. And what was true of Peter is true of multitudes since then and now. It is because men do not realize th^ PETER. 39 strength of the forces which are mustered against them, that tlicy so often fall. It is this thought which Pniil wished to briii*^' before the church when he paid, " "W^e wrestle r.ot a.rrainst flesh and blood but ajrainst principMlities, against powei's, ajiainst the rulers of the darkiir?s of this world, against spiritual wickedness in liic:h places." And then he exhorts tliem to put on the whole armour of God that .they ni.nv be able to withstand in the evW day. Tt is tlie same thoua'ht that Christ brouirht before tbe disciples v.dien He told them tliat their adver- snry. the devil, was croinc: about as a roarinc: lion, soolsiiiiT whom ho miirht devour. And perhaps tbe wppjvPst point in the church to-day is the fact tlint sbe dors not r'^nli^e the 'S+renotb of the forces M'hich .^ ;is jin nncrel of lio-bt. and makincr many believe tb.at there is no devil. Tt is ber-nuse of this Ave p:o on in our own stroirtb. and the result is we fall. TThen we condemn Peter for lii-- ebamefnl conduct on the nip-ht of the betrnyal. h^t us not forji^et the tremendous powers which vovo n'Ntinst him, and tlie crent desire on the pnrt of tbe devil to have bim, and also that as Satan desired to bnve Peter so be desires to have us, and there i"^ no power which can save us except the power wbi'di resoued and saved Petf'r. To us it should bo n comfortiuc; thought that nil 40 PETER. 1 on** Lord not only knows the weakness of the flesh, hut He also knows the power of the adversary. lie is not only able to make ^1^ strong- in our weakness, hut He is able also to make us more than eoncjuerors over the enemy. This He did in the case of His apostle. It was the prayer of Christ which saved this man Avlien he was on the very brink of destruction. '' I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not," ann; and the necessity of the new birth, the work of tbe Spirit, the love of the Father, the mission nf the Son, the responsibility resting upon those who have heard the gospel, are all set forth by Jesus. Many blame Ai.odemns for coming at night, and think i't -OS a sign of cowardice on his part; but there is not a sentence in Scripture to justify such a theoiy. here was no reason why he should not have come J"rmg the day. He may have been among the depu- ' fl < ■^r ! i 'It IKSrS AM) MCODKMUS. tation wlio wont down to the Jordan to iiuinirc of Jolni concerning' liia mission, or if he was not he must have lieard the report wliich they brought back. Be- sides, owing to the position whieli he held in tlie great council, he had perfect liberty to ask any teacher whatever questions might suggest themselves to him. and at this time .Tesns was not iinjiopnlar with tlu? great council; tlie ^xriod of opposition had not set in, and no one would have thought it strange, neither would they have cast reilections upon Nicodemus if he had been seen talking with Jesus during the day. It is true John speaks of him as the one who came to Jt^sus by night, but that is for the sake of identify- ing the man; just as he speaks of himself as the dis- ciple whom Jesiis loved, or the one who leaned on liis bosom at supper, and as, in the eleventh chapter, he s}>o;iks of Miiry wiio t!m;inlcd the Lord, altlK>ugh the story of the anointing does not come luitil we reach the 12th chapter, but he wishes us to under- stand that it is the same ]\larv. So when he speaks of Nicodemus in this manner we understand that nothing further is meant than that men should re- cognize him as the same one who had the interview with Jesus, which interview i.-> recorded in this third chapter of John. And, from the way in which Jesus received ami treated him. v.-e must conclude that his motives in coming to ffcf^us were all right, but his i IK.SrS AN'l) X Iff") II I'M IS. ir. concrptions ol" the work wliich -Irsus onnio to do, ainl nf the nood of Israel wcro all wron^'. lie tlioufi'lit iliMt JoRis was a groat tcatdicr, conu^ Frt»in (lod, and lliat wliat tlio nation required was siudi a teacdier. 15nt Jesus wished to lianisli from his mind this erron- < ons idea, and that led Him to answer Nioodoinus in i! way whieh niifjlit seem to ns somewhat rude. It is true, Jesus was a teaeher, and the greatest of all teachers, for Uc tan^ht as never man taught, and it is also true that wherever His gospel is puhlislu d men are not only blessed spiritually, but they are do- veloped intellectually, for Christianity and education go hand in liand, but His mission to this world was not to teach them ])ut to save them. In Israel there had been great teachers before 1 1 is time — men who had come from God, men like the heroic Elijah or the seraphic Isaiah — and yet tlie nation kept going- down step after step, until they sat as ca])tives by the river in Babylon, where their harps hung upon the willows. But these very teachers all looked for- ward to a Redeemer, and Jesus wished to impress upon the mind of Xicodemiis at the ^ ; w out«et, that what Israel required was redemption, and tlr.it lb- had come as their Saviour. AVlien the angel an- nounced His birth he said that His name was to be called Jesus, for He was to save His people from their sins. He Himself said that He had come to 46 IFSfS AND NICODEMUS. i^eek and to save the lost, and the greatest of His apostles said that Josiis Christ came into the world to save sinners. In the interview He goes on to show Nicode? what this salvation means, that it is being borri again and that tlie new birth is brought about through tUe power of the spirit; tliiit while men can no more trace the spirit in His vv-orkings than they can toll from whence the v.'ind cometh or whither it goeth, yet they can sec the results. He assures Kicoileraus that this change is absolutely essential, that without it men cannot see, understand or enter into the kingdom of heaven. This change cannot be brought about mere education; for while we have sin in the ho. of the ignorant we also have it in the palatial homes of the refined and cultured. A man must be born of water and the Spirit, said Jesus, before he can enter into the enjoyment of the new life. Then ho goes on to speak of the Father's love, how that He looked down upon the race with such pity and com- passion that He was willing to give His only Son that they might be saved from their sins, and be- come the possessors of everlasting life. He reminds Nicodemus of a scene in the wilderness, when the brazen serpent was lifted up to save the bitten Israel- ites, in order that He may show tbis ruler the part that He was to have in this work. For, as Ikfoses Jfi:SUS AND NICODEMUS. lifted up the serpent, in the u-ildcrness, even so muf>i the Son of ^[an be lifterl up, that whosoever believetn on ITini shouhl not perish, but have everlasting life. Ho then speaks of the responsibility resting upon tliose who hear the story. lie says men shall bo con- demned, and are condemned, because they have not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. AVe cannot tell what impression this discourse made upon Xicodemus at the time. He went out into the night, and we hear no more of him until we reach the seventh chn})tcr of t\u) same gospel. Then a meeting of the council is being held, men have been pent out to arrest Jesus, they have returned without llim, they aro asked why they did not bring Ilim, ii- qneror over sin, when we tell him that if he aecej)ts the message and acts upon it not only will all of thi.^ take place but he will become heir to a glonons in- heritance, receive a title to a mansion in the skies, some day have placed upon his head a crown of right- eonsness and at last become like imto the Son of Mi\u who also is King- aH king-s and J^ord of lords. Such a message may seem very strange and improbal)le and no doubt it was listening to a message of this kind which led men to say of the apostles that they werc^ l)eside themselves, that they were mad. But the ])eople of Samaria found out that the story was not exaggerated; and so, when men come to Christ and receive from Him the blessings they hnxo heard of, they can then say, as did the Queen of Sheba when she beheld the glory of Solomon, that the half had not been told. The message of the lepers was told to the king 1)ut he was one of those wise men who think they H 60 THE LOGICAL LEPERS. 'liilj 1 I ! I know everything. He said, "I know what the Syrians have (lone, they have gone out and hid themselves in tlie fields expecting ua to go to their tentvS and then they will slay iis." A servant of the king, who had that some men liavc spent consldcr- ji])lo time mensurijjg tlie luouths of wliales lo asc.;rtiun il" il wuiilcl be jx-ssil^le for a whale to .'^wallow a man, M)(l from tlieir investigations they have come to the concinsion that the thing wonhl he impo£siI»h.' and that the book of Jonah on tluit account is only a myth. It would have l)een wiser on the part of these men to have found ont what the iiible did say about the (isli, before they commenced tlieir investigation; for ttie Bible no v/here as.sociates Jonah with whales, in lli{> book bearing his name wv arc simj)ly informed that the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow up -fonah; and the word which our Lord uses for the li'^h in the Xew Testa, cnt simply means a soa-mon^tt-r or great h'sh. But the translators of the Xew Testa- ment, who had probably never seen whales and knew uotliing about their swallowing capacity, translated the word whale. However, if the Lord made all the fish in the sea and made Jonah, He could surely prc^ pare a fish large enough to accommodate the prophet, 66 TON AH. i and who knows hut Jonah was a small man somethins: like Bildad, llic Shnhite, or Zaccheus, who was little of stature. There are great lessons, however, which we can learn from the storv of this prophet. He is the only one among the prophets who disoheyed the command of God. Other pro])hets, it is true, hesitat- ed frequently when they received great commissions, because they felt their own insufficiency and realized the magnitude of the work they were called to do; b\it all obeyed even when the^^ knew that they were risk- ing their lives and incurring the wrath and disjdeasure of those who were in authority. But Jonah disobeyed (lod and fled toward Tarshish. He told his story to the proprietors, or seamen, of the little vessel, and they promised to carry him across the sea. He paid the fare but never reached the desired haven. In the first place, we learn from this story that when a man refuses to go where God wants him to go, and to do what God wants him to do, he brings misery and imhappiness to himself; and, since no man liveth to himself, he brings unhappiness and often dis- aster to others How this is illustrated in the case be- fore us. I am sure we are all agreed that Jonah was not a happy man when on board that little vessel. It is true he slept, but it was not the sleep of the just. Then as far as the vessel is concerned, she suffered, her timbers strained under the pressure of the angry ■•■1. to Si AH. 67 fiea; the cargo suffered for it was thrown overboard; and the merchants who owned it met with a loss, asidt is probable there were no insurance companies in those days; and the fish or sea-monster which swal- lowed the disobedient prophet no doubt suffered con- siderably, at least, we would suppose so. This is al- ways the result of disobedience. We read about the stars singing together and about the music of the spheres, but we know that in this earth of ours there is a great deal of discord and suffering. It has all come through disobedience; for through the disobedi- ence of one man many have been made to suffer. Our first parents disobeyed. They lost the joy of the Lord, they lost the Paradise in which they were placed, they suffered, and all their descendants have suffered since that time. Not only has the disobedi- ence affected the human race, but we read that all creation groaneth and travaileth in pain; the earth it- self has been cursed and weeds and thorns grow where flowers and fruits might have been, had man barkened to the voice of his jMaker. No matter where we go we see the results of disobedience, and let no one think that he can disobey God, refusing to go where the Lord wants him to go and do what the Lord wants him to do, without bringing into his own life unhap- piness, and without being the means of bringing misery and unhappiness into the lives of others. 68 JONAH. I 1 1) Ti i 1^ j :l, I : ; I On the other hand, we see what comes from obedience. Jonah at last cries to the Lord, his voice is heard, he is delivered out of the prison-house, or whatever we may call it, and then he goes where he is wanted to go and does what he is told to do; for he enters the great city of Nineveh to deliver the mes- sage the Lord has given him. To him no doubt, it was a strange city; but his appearance and message we:re still stranger to the inhabitants of that city. At first they may have laughed at tL man and made a mock of his message. The children vould go home and tell their parents about the strange looking man they had seen and what they had heard him say. In the evening when the factories and shops closed, the employees, when coming home from work, would stop to look at him and listen to him, while many may have gone from their homes to see for themselves the man they had been hearing about. But after a time his message seemed to take hold of the people; fear took the place of mockery; his words were carried into the prison cell and they also reached the palace of the king. A great fear came over the inhabitants of Nineveh and a fast was proclaimed ; sackcloth cov- ered all the people and also the cattle; the king him- self was seen sitting in sackcloth with ashes upon his head, fasting and crying to the God of Heaven to have mercy upon hiva and his city. Not only did they JONAH. 60 fast and humble themselves in the sight of God, but they turned away from their iniquity; and the pity- ing God beheld the penitent people and had compas- sion upon the inhabitants of the city. Was ever a message delivered which proved more eft'ective? Was ever a preaclier more successful than Jonah when he hearkened to the voice of God and delivered the mes- sage g'ven to him? It is to this our Lord refers when He says, The men of Nineveh shall rise in the judgment against this generation; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And now, in order to see all that is in- volved in this sentence, and to see where the emphasis should be, it will be well for us for a few moments to take another look at this man, under whose preach- ing the inhabitants of this city repented. First of all he was, as we have seen, a disobedient, and the only disobedient prophet ; and we know how God views dis- obedience, for He tells us that to obey is better than sacrifice. Then let us look at the man after he has delivered the message, and we \vill see the spirit he displayed. He is sorrowing, not because the people turned a deaf ear to his words, but because they re- pented and are being spared or saved. Some tell us, of course, that the reason why he was so annoyed w^as because he feared that if Nineveh was spared she would injure his own country, and it was patriotism ! I 70 JONAH. I 1) I I i i: which led him to act aa he did. OthCTS, again, think that he was afndd ho woidd lose his standing or dig- nity as a prophet, since their reT)entance would make it appear that his predictions di'ho is trying to help the church to ful- fil her great mission and to c;iny