SEEMONS 
 
 BY 
 
 SOUTHERN METHODIST PREACHERS. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 T. O. SUMMERS, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 SOUTHERN METHODIST PUBLISHING HOUSE. 
 
 1881.
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, 
 
 BY THE BOOK AGENT OF THE PUBLISHING HOUSE or THE M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH, 
 
 in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THIS volume originated with the Book Agent and Business 
 Manager of the Publishing House. There is a demand for 
 homiletic literature, and they wish to do their part to supply 
 it. They have accordingly secured contributions from sev- 
 eral of the bishops and other ministers, whose discourses will 
 be read with pleasure and with profit 
 
 The Editor has not taken the liberty of making them 
 quadrate with his views, in the few instances in which, on 
 non-essential points, there may be a divergence; but, bating 
 a few unimportant corrections, the Sermons appear in the 
 printed page as in the manuscripts of the respective writers. 
 
 There is considerable diversity of style and method, as 
 well as of topics ; but the Sermons are all good to- the use of 
 edifying. 
 
 If this volume meet with a favorable reception, it may 
 soon be followed by another series of a similar character. 
 
 THE EDITOR. 
 
 Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South, ) 
 Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 23, 1880. /
 
 CONTENTS, 
 
 i. 
 
 THE WORLD IN THE CHURCH. BY BISHOP 
 
 PIERCE 9 
 
 II. 
 THE FIRST AND THE LAST. BY BISHOP 
 
 WlGHTMAN 24 
 
 III. 
 
 JOY IN HEAVEN OVER PENITENT SIN- 
 NERS. BY THE REV. EDWARD WADSWORTH, 
 A.M., D.D., Alabama Conference 38 
 
 IV. 
 
 ALL FOR GOD. BY THE REV. W. T. BOLLING, 
 
 Western Virginia Conference 55 
 
 V. 
 
 INQUIRY AND INVITATION; OR, PHIL- 
 IP'S PHILOSOPHY. BY THE REV. J. B. 
 McGEHEE, A.M., South Georgia Conference.... 72 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE THINGS PREPARED FOR THEM THAT 
 LOVE GOD. BY THE REV. LINUS PARKER, 
 D.D., Louisiana Conference 89
 
 6 CONTENTS. 
 
 VII. 
 
 PURE RELIGION. BY THE REV. H. PEARCE 
 
 WALKER, D.D., Kentucky Conference 101 
 
 VIII. 
 
 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. BY THE REV. 
 
 J. D. BLACKWELL, Virginia Conference 126 
 
 IX. 
 
 THE LAST ENEMY. BY THE REV. W. T. HAR- 
 RIS, Memphis Conference 153 
 
 X. 
 
 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. BY THE 
 REV. S. A. STEEL, North Mississippi Confer- 
 ence 165 
 
 XI. 
 
 THE HINDERANCES OF THE GOSPEL. BY 
 THE REV. A. W. MANGUM, D.D., North Caro- 
 lina Conference 185 
 
 XII. 
 
 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. BY THE REV. M. 
 CALLAWAY, A.M., D.D., North Georgia Confer- 
 ence 209 
 
 XIII. 
 
 THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE, AS ILLUS- 
 TRATING THE WISDOM AND GOOD- 
 NESS OF GOD. BY THE REV. WHITEFOORD 
 SMITH, D.D., South Carolina Conference 234
 
 CONTENTS. 7 
 
 XIV. 
 
 THE INTELLIGENCE OF FAITH. BY THE 
 REV. T. J. DODD, D.D., Vanderbilt Univer- 
 sity 258 
 
 XV. 
 FAITH IN CHEIST. BY BISHOP PAINE 277 
 
 XVI. 
 
 LESSONS FROM THE BAPTISM OF JESUS 
 BY JOHN THE BAPTIST. BY THE REV. 
 H. C. SETTLE, D.D., Louisville Conference 304 
 
 XVII. 
 
 FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 BY BISHOP KAVANAUGH 318 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. BY THE REV. A. 
 A. LIPSCOMB, D.D., LL.D., Vanderbilt Univer- 
 sity 340 
 
 XIX. 
 
 THE GREAT AWAKENING. BY THE REV. 
 O. P. FITZGERALD, D.D., Editor of the "Chris- 
 tian Advocate" 371 
 
 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. BY THE REV. 
 JOHN C. GRANBERY, D.D., Vanderbilt Univer- 
 sity 384
 
 THE RBV. BISHOP GEORGE F. PIEROE, D.D., 
 Of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
 
 I. 
 
 THE WORLD IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 BY BISHOP PIERCE. 
 
 " Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the 
 friendship of the world is enmity with God ? whosoever there- 
 fore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." 
 James iv. 4. 
 
 THE Epistle of James is general, addressed to 
 the twelve tribes scattered throughout the world. 
 Among them was great diversity of moral charac- 
 ter and condition. There were stout, inveterate 
 unbelievers, full of prejudice, and active in their 
 hostility to the gospel of Christ. Some were true 
 Christians, poor and persecuted, needing the conso- 
 lation which the apostle administers. Others were 
 merely nominal believers, united with the Church, 
 but corrupting it by their hypocrisy and worldli- 
 ness. These are specially characterized and con- 
 demned in the language of the text. 
 
 The Church has never been entirely pure. The 
 gospel net, when thrown, gathers in the good and 
 the bad. The time of separation is not yet; in- 
 deed, the work is divine. It belongs to God to dis- 
 cern between the righteous and the wicked. The 
 ministry sow the seed, the good seed, the seed of the 
 kingdom. In unguarded hours and in covert ways 
 an enemy, the great adversary of God and man, 
 1* ' (9)
 
 10 THE WORLD IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 scatters tares. "Let both grow together till the 
 harvest," is the Master's command. In the mean- 
 while, although despairing of universal success, the 
 ministry must so address the judgment and the con- 
 science of all and of each as if possible to increase 
 the number of the pure and faithful. The state of 
 the Church as a collective body is a subject full of 
 interest and of vast importance as to power among 
 men and as to final issues, but the question of our 
 individual salvation is yet more vital and absorbing. 
 
 To form a safe judgment of the Church or our- 
 selves, we must recur to first principles. The Bible 
 makes a broad distinction between the Church and 
 the world the flesh and the spirit. These are con- 
 trary the one to the other. They cannot be recon- 
 ciled. The antagonism is radical and immutable. 
 Yet the vain, wicked, corrupting experiment of 
 harmonizing the two goes on, perhaps in no age of 
 the Church more broadly and with less disguise than 
 now. Men and women, for the sake of interest and 
 pleasure, and in the spirit of a cowardly conformity, 
 are adopting the maxims and methods of the world, 
 and so obliterating the lines of dernarkation as to 
 confirm the world in its follies, and to demoralize 
 the Church in its principles and practice. 
 
 The "world" is a term of frequent occurrence in 
 the New Testament, and always of significant im- 
 port. We are not to understand by it the outward 
 frame of things, the visible heavens and earth, but 
 the inhabitants what we call "society," with its 
 imperious fashions, its giddy dissipations, its man- 
 ifold follies. The Apostle John, while he warns us
 
 THE WORLD IN THE CHURCH. 11 
 
 and sets up an infallible test of judgment, at the 
 same time defines the word in the following passage: 
 " Love not the world, neither the things that are in 
 the world. If any man love the world, the love of 
 the Father is not in him." These affections are un- 
 like stand opposed they cannot dwell together! 
 The expulsive power of either excludes the other: 
 if the love of the world dominates, the love of the 
 Father is cast out. "For all that is in the world 
 the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and 
 the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the 
 world." In the same line our Saviour said to the 
 disciples, " If the world hate you, ye know that it 
 hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the 
 world, the world would love his own; but because 
 ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out 
 of the world, therefore the world hateth you." At 
 another time he said to the Jews, "Ye are from be- 
 neath, I am from above; ye are of this world, I am 
 not of this world " not in sympathy with its tastes 
 or principles, its aims or ends. Now all these are 
 strong declarations. They are instructive and mon- 
 itory. Their meaning cannot be mistaken. They 
 discriminate sharply between the religion of Christ 
 and the world with its things and its ways. 
 
 The text implies that the world the vain, vicious, 
 defiling world is to be found in the pale of the 
 Church. Some have made a treacherous, profane, 
 unholy alliance with it. The epithets employed to 
 characterize them sound harsh and revolting, but 
 milder ones would utterly fail to intimate the enor- 
 mity of the sin condemned. In the language of
 
 12 THE WORLD IK THE CHURCH. 
 
 Scripture, idolatry is adultery. The friendship of 
 the world is in the same category. The relation of 
 the Church to God is referred to under the idea of 
 a marriage covenant. He is the husband, she the 
 bride. So Paul, writing to the Corinthians, said : 
 "For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy, 
 for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may 
 present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." If we 
 comprehend and appreciate this image as the true 
 exponent of the pure and delicate relations betwixt 
 Christ and the Church, no professor of religion can 
 fail to see in how many ways character may be com- 
 promised, and with what diligent circumspection 
 he must avoid the appearance of evil. 
 
 It is a melancholy fact that there are many in 
 the Church wholly oblivious of these great princi- 
 ples and relations. Let us briefly describe them. 
 There are some vain, giddy people thoughtless 
 and impulsive not vicious, perhaps, but carnal 
 not immoral, nevertheless irreligious. They have 
 no fixed habits, or purposes, or principles. They 
 float with the current, are carried about with every 
 wind that blows light, frivolous, unstable. They 
 are of the earth, earthy. 
 
 There is another class, worldly, unspiritual, who 
 " walk disorderly." These have low conceptions of 
 duty, and large ideas of personal rights and liber- 
 ties. They see no harm in many things against 
 which the Church in every age has borne the strong- 
 est testimony. Their senses have not been exercised 
 to discern good and evil. They walk in darkness 
 and indifference. The truth is, they have never
 
 THE WORLD IN THE CHURCH. 13 
 
 been converted, and, as natural men and women, 
 they do not discern the things of the Spirit. 
 
 Then, too, there are formalists, who have vague no- 
 tions about the Church and its ordinances, talk glibly 
 of baptism and communion, strangers to self-denial 
 as a rule of life, but pious enough for forty days to 
 lay np a surplus and purchase unlimited indulgence 
 for the rest of the year. These are they who tithe 
 "mint, anise, and cummin, and neglect the weight- 
 ier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith." 
 They lavish their sensibilities on the outward, the 
 non-essentials, the fringe and the flowers, until they 
 have no heart left for genuine self-denial or pains- 
 taking duty. 
 
 Besides all these are those who cherish a liberal 
 theology, holding very accommodating doctrines; 
 talk much of the age, its enlightenment and prog- 
 ress; rejoice in their freedom from old superstitions, 
 and mold their morals not by the pattern shown us 
 in the gospel, but by the conventional notions of 
 the social life to which they belong. The senti- 
 ments of "our set" are of far higher authority than 
 the deliverances of Sinai or Calvary. These poor 
 slaves of the ton, in their servile drudgery under the 
 behests of their idol, have neither time nor heart 
 for the holy, purifying tasks of a sanctified and 
 sanctifying godliness. Beguiled by the subtlety of 
 sin, they seem to be the victims of a hopeless in- 
 fatuation. 
 
 Now all these indicate their moral status in vari- 
 ous ways, and at all times, by taking their stand 
 against scriptural fidelity to conscience, and in favor
 
 14 THE WORLD IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 of worldly conformity. If duty exposes to reproach, 
 if difficulty makes obedience a tax upon the will, 
 if Christian independence and faithfulness are to be 
 maintained at a loss, why then adherence to .right 
 would be an unreasonable exaction. Thus they rea- 
 son : God is not such a tyrant as to demand it. The 
 Church that insists upon it is puritanical, supersti- 
 tious, ultra, over-righteous. They do not believe 
 in strait -jackets, arbitrary rules, or that unrelax- 
 ing rigor which drives a man along a given line in 
 the face of a burning furnace or a den of lions. 
 Their theory of religion is flexible, consults flesh 
 and blood, and allows fleshly wisdom to legislate 
 for them, legalizing every compliance which will 
 shun a cross or gratify the desires of a carnal nat- 
 ure. What is fashionable is a more controlling 
 question than what is right. The friendship of the 
 world is not to be jeoparded by intruding the claims 
 of a Christian profession. Martyrdom for truth 
 and righteousness and a good conscience did very 
 well in the dark ages the old -fogy times but 
 would be a folly in our advanced civilization. At 
 any rate, these people are courting the world do 
 not mean to forestall the marriage by magnifying 
 the trifles of religion into consequence enough to 
 disgust the liberal, the respectable, and the refined. 
 Of course, these people who live in the sunshine 
 of the world's friendship never take rank among 
 the witnesses of Jesus. If truth be derided, spirit- 
 ual religion laughed at, they join with the mockers. 
 If error grows presumptuous and defiant, assailing 
 all that is pure and of good report, they lift no voice
 
 THE WORLD IN THE CHURCH. 15 
 
 in rebuke. Whatever their private opinions or con- 
 victions may be, the circle of their chosen friends is 
 not to be broken, or even disturbed, by thrusting 
 the verities of Christianity upon their unwilling 
 ears. They do not confess Christ before men. They 
 would rather give up their place in the Church of 
 God than to lose caste among the devotees of fash- 
 ion. In the conflicts of conscience with inclination, 
 pleasure, honor, and profit, carry the day. They are 
 not dead to sin. They are not crucified unto the 
 world, nor the world unto them. The flesh, with 
 its affections and lusts, dominates taste, choice, and 
 action. A mess of pottage will bribe their con- 
 science. The excitements, sensations, and dissipa- 
 tions of society, interest and absorb them. They 
 know more about amateur theatricals than about 
 missions; enjoy festal concerts and suppers more 
 than revivals; will pay more for an "excursion" 
 than to build a chapel for the poor; wonderfully 
 active in getting up a tableau, or rehearsing for a 
 musical entertainment (working for the Church, they 
 call it) ; but they never attend a Church Conference, 
 or a prayer-meeting; never speak in love-feast, sel- 
 dom commune, and never exhort a sinner to flee the 
 wrath to come. Poor souls! they work upon the 
 ark, but they never enter in; they are counted with 
 the Church, but live in the world and for the world; 
 they swell our census, but encumber our progress. 
 
 There is hardly a sin so gross, or an evil so cor- 
 rupting, but that the world has something to say in 
 defense. Plausible pleas are made for suicide, duel- 
 ing, gambling, horse-racing, prostitution, the liquor
 
 16 THE WORLD IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 traffic. If it were possible, they would deceive the 
 very elect. The milder expressions of human de- 
 pravity are not only defended, but advocated and 
 highly commended, and to censure them is well-nigh 
 a personal insult. Such is the sophistry of passion 
 and the deceitfulness of sin that, through obsequi- 
 ousness to the sentiments and maxims of the world, 
 the Church is relaxing her discipline, and the card- 
 table, the theater, and the dancing -saloon, find 
 friends and advocates among the professed disciples 
 of Jesus Christ. 
 
 The unfaithful wife is universally condemned. 
 For her there is neither pity nor pardon. But the 
 gay, fast, fashionable woman, who, forgetful of the 
 proprieties of wedlock, flirts promiscuously with 
 men, and parades her sensuous charms for public 
 admiration, while she may be the subject of sharp 
 criticism, nevertheless is tolerated, and holds her 
 place in society! So in the Church scandalous sin 
 will exclude from membership, yet the doubtful 
 compliances with the follies and demands of the 
 world, now so frequent, are allowed an ominous im- 
 punity. In Christian morals it must be remembered 
 that to impinge upon principle to do a doubtful act 
 is not merely an impropriety, but a sin. " He that 
 doubteth is damned if he eat." " Whatsoever is not 
 of faith is sin." He who sacrifices an honest doubt 
 comes into condemnation for more reasons than one. 
 He consents under a slight temptation to offend 
 God to please himself, showing that under more 
 powerful solicitation he would yield to unquestioned 
 transgression. His eye is not single. He does not
 
 THE WORLD IN THE CHURCH. 17 
 
 aim to please God. The divine will is no bar to 
 self-gratification. His duty to God, his relation to 
 others, the influence of example, are all subordinate 
 to profession, to temptation, the impulse, the whim 
 of the hour. Like the wanton wife, who trifles with 
 her sacred obligations, these worldly people make 
 light of their vows and covenant with the Church, 
 and recklessly wound their Saviour in the house of 
 his friends. 
 
 These friends of the world are corrupting the 
 Church, mortifying their pastors, and giving occa- 
 sion to the enemies of Christ to blaspheme. The 
 process of amalgamation goes on almost without 
 let or hinderance. This discourse is entered as a 
 caveat. Having stated the principles of the text, 
 and the distinctive features of those who are con- 
 demned by them, I propose to make an application 
 of all to a single popular amusement. 
 
 I select dancing as the more common, most popu- 
 lar, the least defensible, and, in some respects, the 
 most demoralizing. In the cities other expressions 
 of the worldly spirit occur and abound. They are 
 in the same condemnation. Dancing is common to 
 town and country. The evil is ubiquitous, pervad- 
 ing all places and all grades of society. It identifies 
 itself as an evil by its effects on mind, character, 
 and social life. Whatever its form, from the reel to 
 the waltz, round or square, private or public, my 
 observation is that in spirit, tendency, and result, it 
 is inimical to every element of genuine religion. It 
 is death to spiritual life. It is a profane intruder 
 upon the sanctity of tho Church. A dancing com-
 
 18 THE WORLD IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 munity is not religious will not be, cannot be. 
 Bishop Mcllvaine uttered a great truth when, being 
 asked by a lady, "Is it any harm for a Christian to 
 dance? " replied, "A Christian never wants to dance." 
 He or she has no heart for it. It is a forbidden 
 thing, unbecoming, incongruous, out of character. 
 The desire for it is proof either that we never were 
 " renewed in the spirit of our minds," or that we 
 have forfeited the grace of God and are backslidden. 
 To patronize it, to defend it, to advocate it, is to 
 take sides with the world against Christ. Nobody 
 ever knew a vei~y religious person to engage in it.- 
 The fear and love of God, a life of prayer and holy 
 communion, the joy of the Holy Spirit, rule out 
 this vanity! 
 
 I confess I have no patience with it, no toleration 
 of it. I think it is the silliest, the most nonsensical 
 amusement, that rational beings, so called, ever en- 
 gaged in. It is heathenish in its origin a pastime 
 of savages is a part of idolatrous worship lewd, 
 sensual, obscene. This is its history. It appeals 
 to the lowest instincts of humanity, and is the 
 chosen sport of the vilest and most imbruted of our 
 race. The slum of society everywhere revel in it. 
 Rowdies and prostitutes these are its patrons. 
 It is wicked, vile in its origin, yet worse in its lower 
 associations, and worst of all in its last analysis. It 
 has been refined, polished, I grant, but it cannot be 
 dignified nor elevated. The venom of the serpent 
 is in it. The taint of its birth, the virus of its con- 
 stitution, is ineradicable. It is evil, only evil, and 
 that continuallv.
 
 THE WORLD IN THE CHURCH. 19 
 
 No one claims for it a place among the agencies 
 for promoting piety. No one has ever been made 
 better by it. It is not so designed or expected. It 
 is a carnal enjoyment, simple and uncompounded. 
 The public estimate of the moral character of all 
 Church-members who indulge in it is lowered. Take 
 any man noted for his piety, any saintly woman, 
 introduce them on the dancing-floor, and let them 
 " trip the light fantastic toe" the sight would be a 
 shock even to the bad. Everybody would feel there 
 had been a fall, a sad eclipse of consistency, a dis- 
 graceful betrayal of the Church and Christianity. 
 For some people to do this would excite no surprise 
 nothing better was expected of them ; but for 
 those of real Christian reputation to mingle in these 
 follies would be, not only in the Church, but among 
 decent sinners, a cause of sorrow, regret, and shame. 
 The well-nigh universal feeling would be that relig- 
 ion had been discounted, and the world damaged by 
 the Church. 
 
 There is nothing intellectual about it to redeem it. 
 A dog, an elephant, a monkey, can learn it. The 
 fact is, take away the glamour of fashion and the 
 countenance which men and women of culture give 
 it, the whole thing would be contemptible, and 
 would fall into desuetude in all respectable societ}'. 
 It is humiliating that our weddings, dinners, sup- 
 pers, picnics, levees, entertainments for friends and 
 visitors, are all degraded by this pagan, idolatrous, 
 barbarian pastime. It is a reflection upon the in- 
 telligence of our friends, as if they could not be in- 
 terested without this childish accompaniment; and
 
 20 THE WORLD IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 upon our own, as if we could not be polite and en- 
 tertaining without a, "hop." What a name for an 
 adult amusement! Come, now, we have exhausted 
 refreshments for the body, and the topics for thought 
 and talk, let us be children, play the fool, and " hop." 
 Angels of heaven, turn your eyes away ! Alas, to 
 think that the Church of Christ is represented on 
 these occasions! Inconsistency is the softest word 
 the truth allows in speaking of this shameful treat- 
 ment of a holy profession. 
 
 It is to be admitted that there are differences as 
 to time, place, and company. I am told there is a 
 difference (as the names imply) between square and 
 round dances. The proprieties are comparative. 
 So also between the simple cotillon and the intri- 
 cate and voluptuous waltz, between parlor-dancing 
 and the masquerade-ball. But the truth is, they are 
 all related blood-kin. The family is one. Private 
 dancing is the prelude and preparation for public 
 dancing. The simple leads to the complex, and the 
 delicate to the gross. The passion grows by indul- 
 gence. For this reason I include those Christian 
 parents who teach their children to dance in the 
 same condemnation with the more oj>en transgress- 
 ors who misrepresent their Master, outrage the 
 moral sentiment of the Church, and herd promiscu- 
 ously with the world of the ungodly. The knowl- 
 edge of the art involves the temptation to practice 
 it. Indeed, this schooling is a preparation for it 
 " a provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof." 
 The girl whose agility and grace is admired in the 
 circle of private friends will long to display her
 
 THE WORLD IN THE CHURCH. 21 
 
 charming accomplishment on a more public arena. 
 Would a thoughtful parent commit the manners 
 and the morals of his children to some strolling, 
 transient master of mazes and positions, if he did not 
 desire and intend them to shine with eclat in the giddy 
 throng of the vain, the frivolous, and the worldly? 
 Expecting them to love the world, they insure this 
 morally disastrous result by training, physical en- 
 dowment, and mental association. The friendship 
 of the world is too precious a boon to be foregone, 
 although the price of it be the loss of divine favor, 
 and the end of it enmity to God. " For whosoever 
 will be the friend of the world is the enemy of 
 God." 
 
 Now, bearing in mind that the Church stands re- 
 lated to Christ as the spouse to her husband, what 
 shall we say of the license and freedom with which 
 so many members fondle the world? How indeli- 
 cate! How suspicious! What occasion for sneer, 
 and criticism, and damaging rumor! As the wife, 
 by the wantonness of her behavior, reproaches her 
 husband, and smirks herself even when she has not 
 descended to positive infidelity, so these loose mem- 
 bers discount religion, and mar Christian fellowship. 
 When they joined the Church, they promised "to 
 renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp 
 and glory of the world, so that they would not fol- 
 low or be led by them." Into this solemn covenant 
 they entered voluntarily, understandingly. It was 
 an oath in substance, binding the conscience. They 
 accepted the pledge and promise, and enrolled them- 
 selves as disciples. In the sight of God and in the
 
 22 THE WORLD IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 presence of witnesses the betrothal was made, the 
 formula having sacramental force and sanctity. 
 "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that 
 ye should not obey the truth," fulfill your obliga- 
 tions, redeem your promise? These world-courting, 
 pleasure-seeking professors of religion, who esteem 
 the favor, friendship, and praise of men above fidel- 
 ity to Christ, are in a fearful dilemma. If, when 
 they took these holy vows before God and his peo- 
 ple, they were insincere, then they deceived the 
 Church, played the hypocrite, lied to the Holy 
 Ghost. Their sin is aggravated their very profes- 
 sion is a falsehood. If they were honest meant 
 what they said then their friendship with the world 
 is perfidy to Christ. They have denied their Lord 
 and Master, and gone into indiscreet, unchaste alli- 
 ance with his enemies. 
 
 The moral character of all the compliances and 
 associations which the text and the sermon con- 
 demn is determined by the fact that they who go 
 into them intended to court the world, to gratify 
 the flesh, to conform to fashionable society. They 
 did not design to honor Christ, to glorify God, to 
 promote their own salvation. These things were 
 not in all their thoughts. Their motives were sec- 
 ular and selfish, their policy carnal. They consent- 
 ed to grieve the Spirit, sacrifice their honest doubts, 
 break over the rules of the Church, to please un- 
 godly friends, and to indulge "the lust of the flesh, 
 and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." These 
 things cannot be defended, and ought not to be tol- 
 erated. No use to argue or deny they are iucon-
 
 THE WORLD IX THE CHURCH. 23 
 
 sistent, unscriptural, and corrupting. ]S[o Christian 
 society can long survive their allowance. In pro- 
 phetic imagery, the earth will swallow the woman 
 instead of the flood, and the tide of ungodliness 
 will sweep on, burying the hopes of the good, and 
 bearing the world farther from God and salvation. 
 O Church of the living God, "come out from 
 among them be separate," and singular the chil- 
 dren of God without rebuke, in the midst of a 
 crooked and perverse generation!
 
 II. 
 
 THE FIRST AND THE LAST. 
 
 BY BISHOP WIGHTMAN. 
 
 "And he said unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the 
 last; he that liveth, and was dead, and behold, I am alive for- 
 evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." 
 Eev. i. 17, 18. 
 
 IT is a wonderful thought how Jesus Christ is the 
 supreme glory of the universe " the first and the 
 last; " how he is the ground and motive of all duty, 
 in all relations, in all offices of life; the meritorious, 
 procuring cause of every blessing; the bond of con- 
 nection between the unseen, eternal Father, and the 
 spirit of man ; " made unto us wisdom, righteous- 
 ness, sanctification, and redemption" in a word, 
 " all in all." 
 
 In the gospel which affirms all this there is no 
 hesitation in the statement, at the same time of the 
 fact, that He who came in the fullness of the time to 
 his own nation was not received by his own people, 
 was rejected as their Messiah, was condemned in 
 the presence of the representative of the Roman 
 power, and crucified as a malefactor. These won- 
 derfully contrasted statements are both made with 
 pronounced and equal distinctness. They involve 
 in the person of Christ a dual nature the divine 
 sind the human; they ground fundamentally in the 
 
 (24)
 
 THE REV. BISHOP W. M. WIGHTMAN, D.D., 
 
 Of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
 
 THE FIRST AND THE LAST. 25 
 
 unfathomable mystery of the threefold unity of the 
 Godhead. The Father sends the Son ; the Son, co- 
 eternal with the Father, becomes incarnate, and is 
 invested with the office of Mediator; the Spirit, 
 proceeding from the Father and the Son, is the effi- 
 cient cause of all gracious, spiritual changes, "the 
 Lord, the giver of life." 
 
 Representations such as these had been made in 
 verbal statement. They were illustrated in a Chris- 
 tophany a glorious, transcendent manifestation to 
 the beloved disciple John, in the Isle of Patmos. 
 That disciple had often reclined on the bosom of 
 his Master; was the one whom Jesus loved, by em- 
 inence, and had been for forty years an apostle. 
 Now when that same Master speaks in person once 
 more to John, and John beholds the glorified, di- 
 vine-human, Lord Christ; sees him as Stephen saw 
 him, as Paul saw him not in visions of the night, 
 or in day-dreams, but directly, distinctly, unmis- 
 takably; heard his voice speaking human words; 
 -recognized his identity the occasion is as awful as 
 it is glorious. He stands in the midst of a tem- 
 plar-scene. Symbolical investitures surround him. 
 There are the seven golden candlesticks. He is 
 clad with priestly and kingly garments of resplen- 
 dent white, cinctured with a golden girdle. A daz- 
 zling brightness shines around his head; his eyes 
 flame with the divine holiness; his feet are lustrous 
 as molten brass ; his voice is as the sound of many 
 waters; his countenance is as the sun in its utmost 
 power of light. When an appearance of this sort, 
 the manifestation of Christ in his glory, broke upon
 
 26 THE FIRST AND THE LAST. 
 
 the apostle's startled vision, he fell at his Master's 
 feet as dead. That Master lays his right -hand 
 on his prostrate servant, and utters the words of 
 the text, the most sublime of all the words ever 
 spoken by him words that grasp eternities, solve 
 the awful mystery of the divine government, so far 
 as man's history and destiny are concerned, and 
 claim authority paramount, unalterable, universal: 
 "Fear not; I am the first and the last; he that liv- 
 eth, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forever- 
 more, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of 
 death." 
 
 There are several instructive lessons here pre- 
 sented for our consideration : 
 
 1. It might be remarked that this is the only man- 
 ifestation of the kind made to the beloved apostle. 
 Before the crucifixion he, with Peter and James, 
 had been permitted to see the transfiguration of 
 their Lord and Master. On Hermon, in the night, 
 the form of Christ shone in dazzling glory. Out of 
 the radiance a voice said, "This is my beloved Son; 
 hear him." This wonderful scene belonged to the 
 time of the Saviour's sojourn on earth. In the man- 
 ifestation before us it is the risen, glorified Lord, 
 the Eternal, Living One, who breaks with majestic 
 radiance from the dread secrecy of the world of 
 spirits. Why, it might be asked, have appearances 
 such as this been so rare? Why does the gospel 
 satisfy itself with sufficiency of evidence, while its 
 Author might, if he saw fit, shake the earth and 
 cry aloud to the nations in a voice louder than ten 
 thousand thunders?
 
 THE FIRST AND THE LAST. 27 
 
 "We might safely reply, leaving out the grand con- 
 sideration of man's responsibility, which is most 
 carefully guarded in the administration of God's 
 government in grace, that the momentous ques- 
 tions and concerns of spiritual religion connect 
 themselves mainly with the conscience and the will, 
 in the daily experiences of life that is, with those 
 elements of our nature which are moral, rather than 
 with the mere sesthetical. The imagination holds a 
 very subordinate part in the whole affair. On rare 
 occasions the mind may be awed, excited, moved, 
 by the grandeur of supernatural appearances; yet 
 the great and absorbing interest we have in the gos- 
 pel is of another kind. The supreme questions are, 
 How can sin be pardoned? how can reconciliation 
 with a holy God be secured? how may the media- 
 tion of Christ be made available, and peace of mind, 
 rectitude, holiness of heart, and joyous obedience, 
 become dominant and habitual ? The fervors of a 
 high-wrought imagination are one thing; quite an- 
 other is the play of the genuinely devout affections. 
 You may turn the worship of God into a magnificent 
 dramatic exhibition, until the elements of scenic 
 effect shall produce a spectacle transcending far the 
 most splendid shows of the old Greek and Roman 
 idol-worship. It is not difficult to conceive how 
 the imagination would be excited to the damage of 
 the moral sentiments and principles, had grand spec- 
 tacular displays been the rule, instead of the rare 
 exception, in that dispensation of grace which is to 
 authenticate the maxims of eternal wisdom and vin- 
 dicate the righteous government of God, while it
 
 28 THE FIRST AND THE LAST. 
 
 offers salvation to penitent sinners believing on the 
 Son of God. In the place of material images, pro- 
 ducing impressions of beauty, terror, or sublimity, 
 moral emotions, ideas of good and evil, of penitence 
 and trust, of righteousness and true holiness, flow 
 from the central facts of the Christian Revelation. 
 Its voice is, " Say not in thine heart who shall ascend 
 into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above; 
 or who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring 
 Christ again from the dead. But what saith it? 
 The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in 
 thy heart, that is the word of faith which we preach." 
 
 2. Behold in the words of Christ spoken on this 
 occasion a summary of the gospel for all time and 
 all men. 
 
 " I am the first and the last, and the living One." 
 Here he asserts his supremacy and his eternal ex- 
 istence as the Son of God. In the days of his flesh 
 he had said to the Jews, " Before Abraham was 1 
 Am." In his prayer to the Father he spoke of the 
 glory he had with him " before the world was." 
 Now the declaration in the text, " I am the living 
 One," sets forth his claim to be the living God from 
 all eternity. His eternal existence is the root and 
 foundation of his power to save to the uttermost, 
 to give life, to raise from the dead, to confer the 
 boon of everlasting life in the world to come. Here 
 we have the solid basis of redemption. 
 
 But this living One became incarnate in Jesus. 
 He took not on him the nature of angels, but the 
 substantial nature of humanity. He thus became 
 the Second Adam. In this human personality he
 
 THE FIRST AND THE LAST. 29 
 
 "tasted death for every man." The death was a 
 real separation of soul and body not an ideal or 
 imaginary one. The lance of the Roman soldier 
 pierced his heart. This death was sacrificial. "He 
 gave himself a ransom for all." " He suffered, the 
 Just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." 
 " Through the eternal Spirit he offered himself to 
 God." This death was an atonement, an expiation 
 for that essential element in sin, guilt. Remorse of 
 conscience testifies to the vital relation of sin to 
 law and justice, and the sacrificial expiation made 
 by the death of the Mediator is the sole objective 
 ground on which the subjective wants of a soul con- 
 scious of guilt can rest for satisfaction. A provision 
 for spiritual and entire sanctification is necessary in 
 its place, but, in the order of the plan of salvation, 
 atonement for guilt is first provided for. Hence 
 alone can come peace of conscience and reconcilia- 
 tion w r ith God. It will remain eternally true that 
 " when we were enemies we were reconciled to God 
 by the death of his Son." "We have boldness to 
 enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." 
 
 I " have the keys of hell and of death." In the 
 tone of absolute authority Christ proclaims that he 
 has obtained the government, and taken possession 
 of earth, the under-world, and heaven. Of these he 
 holds the keys, and maintains the dominion. So 
 that, according to St. Paul's view in the Epistle to 
 the Philippians, he receives the homage of "things 
 in heaven, and things in earth, and things under 
 the earth ; " of disembodied spirits, departed, blessed 
 saints, and of infernal spirits in the seats of de-
 
 30 THE FIRST AND THE LAST. 
 
 struction, after he had "spoiled principalities and 
 powers, making a show of them openly," triumph- 
 ing over them by their defeat and overthrow, and 
 stripping them of their power of injuring those 
 who believe in him, and bruising the head of Satan 
 as the earnest of the world's final deliverance from 
 the powers of darkness. 
 
 O Christian soul, is this th} T Saviour? Canst thou 
 fear the grave, or dread the state of separate spir- 
 its? When thy last moment comes, and thou must 
 depart, is it true that thy Christ is Lord of every 
 part of the universe? Then, if we are Christ's, all 
 is ours! We are in the dominions of our Sover- 
 eign. The ensign of his authority w T aves over sea 
 and shore, over planetary systems and solar uni- 
 verses. Take courage. He has closed the gates of 
 the under -world paradise for his faithful follow- 
 ers, and to die now is to depart and be with him. 
 At his ascension he " led captivity captive." Myr- 
 iads of angels did homage to him, and in his tri- 
 umphal train the spirits of the just, who in joy and 
 felicity had long waited in the under-world paradise 
 for their deliverance, formed in long procession and 
 went up to the upper paradise, where they are ever 
 present with the Lord. 
 
 3. "Behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen." 
 The resurrection of Christ forms the central point 
 of the world's history. Here is indeed the palin- 
 genesia. 
 
 This is the starting-point of the career of Chris- 
 tianity. Think you that such a religion as it was, 
 whose purity was opposed by the shameless vice of
 
 THE FIRST AND THE LAST. 31 
 
 that time, by the thousand deadly fascinations of 
 false religions, whose very worship was abomina- 
 tion; a religion which pretended to no resources of 
 learning, wealth, power, or influence; which had 
 neither s\"nagogue nor sword ; claimed no philoso- 
 pher, poet, or orator for its champion, no prince or 
 potentate as its patron could such a religion as 
 this have made its way in an historic age of the 
 world, in the face of the three great civilizations of 
 that time, unless it had been able to proclaim with 
 tongues of fire, in words that moved like the tread 
 of armed battalions, that Christ Jesus, the Son of 
 David and David's Lord, the Son of the living God, 
 had died for man's redemption, was buried in Jo- 
 seph's sepulcher, had risen from the dead the third 
 day? For the firm, constant, and triumphant proc- 
 lamation of the resurrection, of which they were 
 witnesses, by the apostles, there was their own con- 
 viction grounded on the strongest, most indubitable 
 evidence. In the case, for instance, of St. Paul, 
 ^nothing short of absolute certainty that the Jesus 
 whom he once persecuted was alive again, the Con- 
 queror of death, the glorified Son of God, and the 
 Lord of all, could have arrested the persecutor, and 
 bound him over, with passionate devotion and tri- 
 umphant confidence, to a life-long service. His let- 
 ters are in our hands. They abound in indications 
 of the honest, affectionate, intrepid, and virtuous 
 mind of the writer. They show a fine vigor of 
 style, a knowledge of affairs, a sincere piety with- 
 out hypocrisy or extravagance, and a hearty good- 
 will toward men. Is the fact of Christ's resurrec-
 
 32 THE FIRST AND THE LAST. 
 
 tion ever referred to in these Epistles? The world 
 has known for eighteen centuries in what terms, 
 with what emphasis, how often directly, how con- 
 stantly, indirectly taken for granted, this all-impor- 
 tant fact is mentioned in these writings. While 
 they are in existence, ample information, exact, 
 trustworthy, " fraught with the very soul of his- 
 tory," is in our hands, both as to the nature and 
 the original promulgation of Christianity. In re- 
 spect to recorded matters of history, the lapse of 
 time makes no abatement in the force of the evi- 
 dence. It has been well and finely said that " pil-. 
 lars of marble decay, and monuments of brass de- 
 cay; the Egyptian pyramids are crumbling into 
 dust; the earth itself wanes, and the heavens wax 
 old as doth a garment ; but written testimony endures 
 from age to age, and knows no change; and so long 
 as reason is the guide of man, whatever is estab- 
 lished by that testimony holds an undecaying au- 
 thority over his belief." And in respect to this 
 central, fundamental, vital fact of Christ's resurrec- 
 tion, no middle position can be maintained. No 
 vague neutrality is admissible. The fact is absolute- 
 ly true, and in accepting it we own the authority 
 of Christ's mission and doctrine; or it is wholly 
 false, and in denying it we take position with unbe- 
 lievers, and may be classed with those who love 
 their infatuations better than themselves. In deny- 
 ing Christ's resurrection we deny the personal union 
 of the divine and human in him. Denying this, 
 with the person of Christ would be abolished Chris- 
 tian testimony and truth, and the Christian Church
 
 THE FIRST AND THE LAST. 33 
 
 altogether. "But now is Christ risen from the 
 dead." The faith in this glorious fact, " old arid 
 ever young," has outlived all attacks, and is now 
 stronger than ever, the only refuge of a sinful 
 world. 
 
 4. In fine, we have in the text the assurance that 
 as Christ is eternally linked to the fortunes of the 
 race he died to redeem, so the august powers of an 
 " endless life " are now and shall forever be engaged 
 in the work of completing and eternally perpetuat- 
 ing the salvation of his people. " For if when we 
 were enemies " such is St. Paul's argument " we 
 were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, 
 much more being reconciled we shall be saved by 
 his life." 
 
 He is alive forevermore, to consummate his re- 
 deeming work through all the ages of the world's 
 future. 
 
 See this in the fact that he is present as glori- 
 fied Mediator, in all the assemblies of his people, 
 according to his own promise, " Where two or 
 three are gathered together in my name, there 
 am I in the midst." How high the honor, how 
 unspeakable the privilege, to have Christ's spirit- 
 ual presence wherever his people meet for prayer 
 or praise! 
 
 Besides, every true and faithful minister of the 
 gospel has his cooperation that of a present and 
 almighty Saviour. " Lo, I am with you alway, 
 even unto the end of the world." " So, then, nei- 
 ther is he that planteth any thing, nor he that 
 watereth, but God that giveth the increase." All 
 2*
 
 34 THE FIRST AND THE LAST. 
 
 the ability employed in planting the seed, and in its 
 after-culture, is from the Lord, on whose blessing 
 depends all success. His is the gift of the Para- 
 clete, the Comforter, who is to abide with the Church 
 forever. 
 
 But specially is he "the merciful and faithful 
 High-priest," " who ever liveth to make intercession 
 for us." This intercession grounds on the propitia- 
 tory sacrifice which made atonement for the sins of 
 the world, and opened a fountain for sin and un- 
 cleanuess. Being both the Victim and the Offerer, 
 the Mediator now in heaven holds forever the office, 
 of intercessor; and his ministry in heaven must be 
 conceived of as embracing a clear and comprehen- 
 sive view of the wants of his people; a perfect sym- 
 pathy, tenderer and more influential as their neces- 
 sities deepen and demand his help in time of need; 
 and intercessions, "each a distinct and separate act 
 of his pleading will in their behalf," before the Fa- 
 ther. How ample, then, is the provision made in 
 the plan of redemption to meet the full extent of 
 human guilt, spiritual pollution, infirmities, and 
 responsibilities! How profound the adaptations of 
 this scheme of heavenly mercy to an immortal spirit 
 longing after the attainment of perfect purity, 
 universal holiness, and a blameless and useful life! 
 Why, then, should we not have "boldness to enter 
 into the holiest by the blood of Jesus?" "Why 
 should not our devotions rise to higher and holier 
 ardor, and fill the soul with richer joys, and lead 
 up our spirits to ^their perfection of purity and 
 growth ? These provisions and adaptations, so lofty
 
 THE FIRST AND THE LAST. 35 
 
 and yet so lowly, so solid and so universal, sublime 
 as the height of heaven, and yet suited to all our 
 earthly needs ought they not to warrant "the full 
 assurance of faith?" that faith which brings the 
 soul into the clear light shining from afar on the ta- 
 ble lands that rise into the cloudless azure Pisgah- 
 summits whence Hope sees the promised land, and 
 hears the echoes of its angel-minstrelsy? 
 
 But not thus alone is the Mediator occupied in 
 the hallowed courts of the heavenly sanctuary; he 
 appears in the presence of God for us as Leader of 
 his people. "Father, I will that those whom thou 
 hast given me shall be with me to behold my glory." 
 The Precursor has entered heaven before his follow- 
 ers, "the Forerunner" has gone home to make ev- 
 ery thing read}^ for their glad reception. Ah! shall 
 we not be able to cry, as the light of this mortal life 
 fades from our darkening eyes, " Thou wilt show 
 me the path of life!" Yes, light from the shining 
 gates breaks in; on the air is heard the rustle of 
 angel-wings; lo, the prison-walls are giving way 
 " rise, let us go!" Were this matter of speculation 
 only, it would deserve to be pronounced the sub- 
 lirnest ever opened to the vision of the human im- 
 agination. But when we consider that the risen 
 Jesus, the victorious Redeemer, the Captain of our 
 salvation, was seen by his followers to pass through 
 the skies in his human body glorified; when we 
 are sure that he is in the heavenly places with the 
 Father, and lives forevermore, in majesty divine, 
 clothed with all power in heaven and earth, and 
 from the summit of glory and bliss eternal calls
 
 36 THE FIRST AND THE LAST. 
 
 us to follow him without fear, then we may confi- 
 dently affirm that, not as a lofty speculation, but 
 as a solid, stupendous fact, it has no rival in hu- 
 man experience. And in faith's grasp of this fact, 
 that our Christ is the eternal, "living One," who 
 holds the keys of all dominion, lies the power of 
 the organized Christianity of our time to conquer 
 the world. 
 
 You who feel the throb of immortal aspiration, 
 and hold heirship in the " power of an endless life; " 
 who sometimes tremble in the anticipation of possi- 
 ble events, now hidden in the abysses of an incon-- 
 ceivable infinite; who wonder if the "eternal life" 
 shall never ebb in its divine course, never falter in 
 its victorious power, never lose the virgin freshness 
 of its opening morning, take courage. This life, 
 which was originally manifested in Christ, and com- 
 municated by him, is irrevocably vested in him as 
 the eternal Son. He says, " I am alive forevermore, 
 Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." 
 The new, heavenly, immortal existence, on which 
 you shall presently enter, has the guarantee of his 
 own deathless life and power. And in that realm 
 of eternal life and love " there shall be no more 
 curse; but the throne of God and the Lamb shall 
 be in it; and his servants shall serve him, and they 
 shall see his face, and his name shall be in their 
 foreheads." Amen! So it is; so let it be forever. 
 Amen! Let the ages, as they roll on to join the 
 congregations of the mighty past, do homage to 
 Him whose years fail not, who is "alive forever- 
 more." Let them send on the echoing Amen to
 
 THE FIRST AND THE LAST. 37 
 
 Time's last hour. Let " every creature which is in 
 heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and such 
 as are in the sea, and all that are in them, say, Bless- 
 ing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him 
 that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb for- 
 ever and ever." Amen and amen!
 
 III. 
 
 JOY IN HEAVEN OVER PENITENT 
 SINNERS. 
 
 BY THE REV. EDWARD WADSWORTH, A.M., D.D., 
 
 Alabama Conference. 
 
 "I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over 
 one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine 
 just persons, which need no repentance." Luke xv. 7. 
 
 THE Bible depicts human character descriptively. 
 When we find our own persons described by marks 
 which we recognize, then we may apply to our- 
 selves whatever is mentioned as pertaining to those 
 described. This may consist of blessings or judg- 
 ment. In these descriptions the inspired word is 
 specific and clear. 
 
 In the text we have two characters described by 
 terms which may be accurately interpreted, and 
 then we have the two compared to each other, and 
 an assertion of interest taken in one of them by the 
 inhabitants of heaven which tills us with wonder 
 
 The two characters mentioned are, just persons 
 who do not need repentance, and the sinner that 
 repents. The former in this text consist of ninety 
 and nine; and the latter consists of one, solitary and 
 alone. The assertion is made that there is more joy 
 in heaven over this one than there is over ninety and 
 
 (38)
 
 THE REV. EDWARD WADSWORTH, D.D. 
 
 Ot the Alabama Conference.
 
 JOY IN HEAVEN OVER PENITENT SINNERS. 39 
 
 nine who do not need repentance. This assertion 
 is truthful. It is very encouraging to penitents. 
 
 We propose to consider: 1. The just persons who 
 do not need repentance; 2. The sinner that repents; 
 3. The great joy in heaven over the penitent sinner. 
 
 I. The just persons who do not need repentance. 
 
 The text, as expressed by the infallible Teacher, 
 uses an adjective with no noun ; and the translator, 
 according to usage which is approved by all learned 
 critics, puts persons as the noun which the adjec- 
 tive requires. Thus we have just persons. They 
 are very numerous "ninety- nine just persons." 
 In finding these, we have a very large field to search 
 for them. Some are now in glory; others are on 
 earth, on their way to glory. 
 
 1. In this class we put angels. 
 
 These are created beings, of whom we find much 
 in the word of God. That they were all in a state 
 of probation, when first created, we are well per- 
 suaded, because some of them fell from their high 
 position; they "kept not their first estate, but left 
 their own habitation," is recorded in Jude 6. 
 Those who kept themselves pure during their pro- 
 bation were so numerous as to be "an innumerable 
 company of angels," now in "the city of the living 
 God." Heb. xii. 22. These were present when 
 God "laid the foundations of the earth;" and as 
 they looked on his handiwork " they shouted for 
 joy." Job xxxviii. 4-7. We are informed that 
 they constitute a hierarchy in God's realm, and of 
 their employment we have one declaration, which 
 is infallible. It is made very strong by the use of
 
 40 JOY IN HEAVEN OVER PENITENT SINNERS. 
 
 the figure of interrogation : "Are they not all min- 
 istering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who 
 shall be heirs of salvation?" Heb. i. 14. 
 
 Instances of this wonderful ministration are very 
 numerous in the word of God. Lot was honored 
 by two guests, who accepted his invitation to the 
 hospitalities of his house in Sodom the night before 
 God rained fire and brimstone upon that city. 
 These guests were angels in the forms, or bodies, of 
 men. One of these messengers was employed to 
 punish David for his sin in numbering Israel when 
 he was warned of its offensiveness ; and he was 
 seen stopping by the threshing-place of Araunah, 
 the Jebusite, and was turned back from his destruc- 
 tive mission by prayer and sacrifice. Daniel, in the 
 lions' den, was saved from the ravenous beasts by 
 the interposition of an angel, for he said, in answer 
 to the king's anxious inquiry, "0 king, live forever! 
 my God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' 
 mouths, that they have not hurt me." Our blessed 
 Lord, in the unutterable agony of the garden of 
 Gethsemane, when he sweated great drops of blood, 
 and said, "Father, if thou be willing, remove this 
 cup from me; nevertheless, not my will, but thine 
 be done," was visited by one of these messengers in 
 his extremity, for Luke tells us, " There appeared 
 an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him." 
 
 These angels of God never sinned. They never 
 had need for repentance. They are persons, "just 
 persons." From their vast number, so great, that 
 Daniel tells us, "Thousand thousands ministered 
 unto the Ancient of days, and ten thousand times
 
 JOY IN HEAVEN OVER PENITENT SINNERS. 41 
 
 ten thousand stood before him." Dan. vii. 10. We 
 select ninety and nine for our purpose, and put 
 them in one company. ~VYe request you to look at 
 them. They are very lovely persons. God loves 
 them, and values them. His love for them is joyful. 
 
 2. In this same class we may put disembodied 
 spirits who are now in glory. 
 
 In respect to these, we are not left in uncertainty 
 as to their personality nor their habitation. Both 
 are made sure by the word. Among the innumer- 
 able company of angels, or associated with them, 
 who have entered into glory, and now enjoy the 
 felicity of heaven, mention is made of "the spirits 
 of just men made perfect, who are written in heav- 
 en." Heb. xii. 23. Therein we have not persons 
 only, but men men made perfect. They were inhab- 
 itants of this earth during their probation. This 
 world was the scene of their labors, their trials, 
 and their conquests. In this world they heard the 
 gospel, and were awakened by it; and under this 
 awakening they saw the light which shines in a 
 dark place; and, guided by it, they found their way 
 to the cross of Christ, and experienced salvation. 
 These have been washed and made clean in the 
 blood of Christ. Fitted for heaven while they were 
 on earth, they advanced onward and upward, until 
 their probation ended, and now they sit with Abra- 
 ham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the company of 
 prophets and apostles in the realm of glory. They 
 came into this kingdom by repentance. They re- 
 mained in this kingdom by faithful obedience. 
 They went out of the kingdom of grace into glory.
 
 42 JOY IN HEAVEN OVER PENITENT SINNERS. 
 
 It is certain that, in their present glorified state, 
 they are pure spirits, and do not need repentance. 
 Of their number we have this statement in Rev. vii. 
 9: "After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, 
 which no man could number, of all nations, and 
 kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the 
 throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white 
 robes, and palms 4n their hands, crying, Salvation 
 to our God which sitteth on the throne, and unto 
 the Lamb." Being among the inhabitants of heaven, 
 many of whom are called angels, God may employ 
 them as messengers to minister to them who are. 
 heirs of salvation. Doubtless they are ready for, 
 and they rejoice in, this employment. 
 
 3. In the same class we put righteous persons 
 who are adopted into the family of God, and are 
 now in the state of probation. 
 
 They are led by the Spirit of God, and are the 
 sons (or children) of God. They have not received 
 the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the Spirit of 
 adoption, whereby they cry, Abba, Father. Rom. 
 viii. 15. The population of the earth, from the 
 time of Adam to the present age, has always con- 
 sisted of two classes the saved and the unsaved. 
 The former were brought into salvation by the 
 grace of God working in them regeneration, and 
 when this is wrought in them the Spirit bears wit- 
 ness with their spirits to their adoption. Evidences 
 of this are abundant in the Holy Scriptures. "Abel 
 obtained witness that he was righteous, God testify- 
 ing of his gifts." Enoch was translated to heaven, 
 and "before his translation he had this testimony,
 
 JOY IN HEAVEN OVER PENITENT SINNERS. 43 
 
 that he pleased God." Noah showed his faith by 
 preparing an "ark to the saving of his household, 
 by which he became heir of the righteousness which 
 is by faith." As we come down the ages, the number 
 of sinners saved by grace increases enormously, and 
 we are sure that very many now living are righteous 
 persons, and on their way to heaven. Having ob- 
 tained forgiveness through the atonement appro- 
 priated by faith, and having witness that they are 
 righteous, they do not need repentance of the kind 
 described or referred to in the text. They remem- 
 ber their sins, and the remembrance is grievous 
 unto them. Being now children of light, and judg- 
 ing their sins by the light which is in them, the 
 guilt of these sins is to their vision, and in their 
 judgment, vastly increased so vastly increased that 
 they count themselves the chief of sinners, and 
 contemplate with adoring wonder the grace which 
 stooped so low as to reach them. But in the midst 
 of this wonder there is in them the conviction that 
 they have passed out of darkness into light, out of 
 bondage into liberty, out of condemnation into sal- 
 vation. 
 
 Out of this immense crowd of sinners saved by 
 grace sinners who came with broken hearts and 
 contrite spirits to God sinners who believed in 
 Christ with hearts unto righteousness sinners whom 
 God honors by making them witnesses, his own 
 witnesses yea, out of this crowd we select ninety- 
 nine for our purpose in explaining and enforcing 
 the truth contained in the text. We need them, 
 and shall use them in making the comparison em-
 
 44 JOY IN HEAVEN OVER PENITENT SINNERS. 
 
 bodied in the text as vivid and powerful as we 
 can. 
 
 We invite you to turn your eyes to and consider, 
 
 II. The sinner that repents. 
 
 In speaking or writing on this person, we remind 
 you that herein character is described, and our at- 
 tention should be fixed on the points, or qualities, 
 which constitute this character. Two are men- 
 tioned the sinner, and the sinner that repents. 
 
 1. A sinner is one who has committed sin. This 
 is an accurate definition. It requires transgression 
 of the law of God to fix this characteristic on a 
 person. " Sin is the transgression of the law." 1 
 John iii. 4. 
 
 The law is what is called the moral law. It is 
 contained in the Ten Commandments. The duties 
 we are to attend to, and the evils we are to shun, 
 are all condensed so rigidly as to be put in the space 
 on which Moses, by command of God, wrote the 
 Ten Laws. Of these laws we have commentaries. 
 They are written by inspired men,, and we rightly 
 judge them to be infallible. The Sermon on the 
 Mount, delivered by the great Teacher, and record- 
 ed in Matthew v., vi., and vii., explains the Ten 
 Commandments. By this sermon we learn that we 
 may transgress in our hearts, by cherishing evil pas- 
 sions and wrong motives, as well as by overt acts. 
 In this way the breadth or comprehension of law 
 may be known. 
 
 That all are sinners can be shown by proofs. 
 Memory acts by retrospection, and takes in all our 
 actions. It acts independently of the will, though
 
 JOY IN HEAVEN OVER PENITENT SINNERS. 45 
 
 it may be quickened into activity by the will. We 
 speak truthfully when we say we are forced to re- 
 member our actions. Conscience judges the quality 
 of actions by their conformity or opposition to law. 
 Conscience acts independently of the will. We are 
 forced to judge our actions. By this process all 
 men are convinced that they are sinners, because all 
 know that they have transgressed law. Whether 
 this is felt as a heavy burden or not, it is felt as a 
 fact, and it is a fact whose reality is permanent. 
 
 It is terrible to any thoughtful man to know that 
 he is a sinner, for every sinner must be punished or 
 pardoned. And in God's government forgiveness 
 is not arbitrary, but judicial. It is granted not above 
 law, nor contrary to law, but consistently with law. 
 The only relief to the sinner is found in this: "It 
 is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, 
 that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sin- 
 ners." 1 Tim. i. 15. By this wonderful revelation 
 the terror of being a sinner is much diminished by 
 the fact that we are redeemed sinners. Redemption 
 embodies provision for salvation. Appropriation 
 of the provision requires repentance, and to enjoy 
 this each one must be " the sinner that repents." 
 
 2. The sinner that repents may be recognized by 
 all who know the nature of repentance. To this 
 we address ourselves. 
 
 Repentance is used in the Scriptures sometimes 
 comprehensively and sometimes accurately. It 
 mingles with faith so constantly that faith is never 
 genuine and saving unless it is preceded by repent- 
 ance, and repentance never reaches its acme until it
 
 46 JOY IN HEAVEN OVER PENITENT SINNERS. 
 
 merges into faith. Many texts teach us that faith is 
 essential to salvation, and many that repentance is es- 
 sential to salvation. They are harmonized by the fact 
 above stated. Genuine repentance always leads to 
 the acknowledgment of truth. There is a distinction 
 between knowing the truth and acknowledging the 
 truth. The latter comprehends the former, but the 
 former does not comprehend the latter. The for- 
 mer is the act of the intellect, the latter is the com- 
 plex act of the intellect and the will. One embraces 
 truth, the other uses it. All need the Holy Spirit 
 to enable them to repent. In this essential work 
 God and man must be co-workers. When the sin- 
 ner submits, "God gives repentance to the acknowl- 
 edging of the truth," and the poor sinner " recovers 
 from the snare of the devil." 2 Tim. ii. 25, 26. 
 
 Many awakened sinners are perplexed and led 
 astray by looking for repentance in the sensibilities 
 chieflj'', and judging their cases by their feelings. 
 Repentance consists in conviction of sin and sorrow 
 for sin. These mental states are perceptible and 
 real. They are felt and acknowledged. At times 
 they burden the mind and produce a copious flow 
 of tears, but the tears relieve for a season, and the 
 sinner relapses into quietness which he considers 
 hardness. He tries to measure his sorrow as if it 
 had dimension, or to weigh it as if it had gravity. 
 All these efforts are fruitless and discouraging. So 
 long as he confines himself to the region of the 
 sensibilities, he wanders in shadows and darkness. 
 If he will change the field of examination from the 
 sensibilities to the will, ho can make progress in
 
 JOY IN HEAVEN OVER PENITENT SINNERS. 47 
 
 repentance, or he can judge his case profitably. Let 
 the question be, What am I willing to do? and not, 
 How much do I feel? Every sinner who is perfectly 
 willing to humble his heart, and confess his sins to 
 God, has conviction enough; conviction has done 
 in him all it can do indeed, all it was sent to do. 
 And every sinner who is perfectly willing to forsake 
 all sin, and consecrate himself unreservedly to God, 
 has sorrow enough; sorrow has done in him all it 
 can do indeed, all it was sent to do. 
 
 The contest between the flesh and the spirit is 
 carried on in the region of the will, and it is some- 
 times fearful, yea, terribly severe. Strong men are 
 seen writhing in agony. Dignified men sometimes 
 bow themselves in congregations, a-nd cry aloud in 
 anguish. The scene is similar to that described in 
 Mark ix. 20. The battle is between Satan and God. 
 They fight for an immortal soul. The victory al- 
 ways turns on the side which man's will takes. The 
 work of repentance is perfect when the sinner will- 
 ingly humbles his heart, willingly renounces sin, 
 willingly consecrates himself to God, willingly trusts 
 in Jesus Christ his Saviour. When the will acts 
 freely in trusting in Christ, committal is accom- 
 plished, and believing is so easy that the man won- 
 ders that he should have struggled so hard. Re- 
 pentance ever leads us to trust in Jesus Christ, and 
 trust is made perfect by the action of the will in 
 committing ourselves, with all our precious inter- 
 ests, to Jesus Christ. If we know Christ in his 
 true character we will commit all to him, and then 
 our souls will rest in consciousness of safetv. Of
 
 48 JOY IN HEAVEN OVER PENITENT SINNERS. 
 
 this kind of experience Paul is a witness, as we see 
 in 2 Tim. i. 12. 
 
 III. The wonderful assertion that over one sinner 
 that repents there is in heaven more joy than there 
 is over ninety and nine just persons who do not 
 need repentance. 
 
 1. This is so wonderful as to astonish us, but so 
 truthful as to command our faith it is a record of 
 fact. Ninety and nine persons in the state of sal- 
 vation are in one crowd. On them God lavishes 
 his love in the twofold form of benevolence and 
 complacency. They are righteous persons, and, as 
 such, they are partakers of the divine nature; they 
 are holy persons, and, as such, God has joy when 
 he looks upon them; they are heirs of the inherit- 
 ance in heaven, and, as such, they are now enjoying 
 it, and going on to enjoy it forever. In the range 
 of our vision there is one person, standing all alone, 
 and not in the crowd of the ninety and nine. In 
 his face there is no beauty, in his person there is no 
 attractive dignity, in his moral character there is 
 nothing but deformity. He has made himself loath- 
 some by nourishing his depraved nature. He has 
 made himself devilish by indulging in sin. But he 
 has one thing in him by which he is well marked, 
 one characteristic by which he is distinguished ; this 
 one thing is penitence he is contrite; he is the sin- 
 ner that repents. The astounding declaration of the 
 text is true: on this one sinner, because he is peni- 
 tent, God looks with more joy than on the ninety 
 and nine who are righteous. The joy is not in 
 God's heart only angels, and the spirits of jnst
 
 JOY IN HEAVEN OVER PENITENT SINNERS. 49 
 
 men in glory, and righteous people on earth, all re- 
 joice. It is not joy alone we have here, but we 
 wish all to see that it is a large measure of joy 
 "more joy." 
 
 2. One word in the text must be enunciated with 
 emphasis when the text is read in the church or in 
 public. This word is "likewise" It occurs twice in 
 the discourse reported in the chapter. The chapter 
 contains three parables, all turning on, and intended 
 to illustrate, this "more joy." And the truth is 
 brilliant when all three unite in shedding light on 
 it. We will make free use of the parables to enable 
 the reader of this sermon to see that more joy is felt 
 over one sinner that repents than there is over 
 ninety and nine just persons. We will take them in 
 the order that suits our taste. 
 
 1. A woman had ten pieces of silver, and lost one 
 piece. The loss was the cause of sorrow. It caused 
 diligent search, by the help of a lighted candle and 
 a broom, until the silver was found. When it was 
 faund, she called her friends and neighbors together, 
 and said, "Eejoice with me, for I have found the 
 piece which I had lost." And then the Saviour 
 says, "Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the 
 presence of the angels of God over one sinner that 
 repents." 
 
 2. A shepherd had in his flock one hundred sheep, 
 and lost one. He left the ninety and nine in the 
 wilderness, and went after the lost until he found it. 
 His joy is so great he takes it in his arms, puts it 
 on his shoulders rejoicing, carries it to his home in 
 safety. The sheep could riot walk fast enough the
 
 50 JOY IN HEAVEN OVER PENITENT SINNERS. 
 
 shepherd carries it himself. All the way home he 
 goes rejoicing. He calls together his friends and 
 neighbors to share his joy. It was not joy over the 
 ninety and nine that were safe, and had not been 
 lost; over these the neighboring shepherds had 
 never been called to rejoice. The lost one, when 
 found, gives them joy " more joy" than the ninety 
 and nine. And then the text occurs with the im- 
 pressive expression, "I say unto you," and the em- 
 phatic word of comparison, " likewise." 
 
 3. A certain man had two sons. This introduces 
 a parable whose beauty has excited the world's ad- 
 miration. We use it to illustrate the text; so the 
 great Teacher invented and used it. And we use 
 it to illustrate one thing in the text, the " more joy;" 
 so the great Teacher used it. The younger of the 
 two sons was profligate, very wicked, and licentious. 
 He wasted his property. He reduced' himself to 
 beggary, and to the point of starvation. He hired 
 himself out to feed hogs, and longed to partake of 
 the food which he gave to the hogs. In his reduced 
 condition and squalid poverty, "he came to him- 
 self," and said, "How many hired servants of my 
 father have bread enough and to spare, and I am 
 perishing with hunger! I will arise and go to my 
 father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned 
 against heaven, and before thee, and am no more 
 worthy to be called thy son : make me as one of thy 
 hired servants." That is what he said he would 
 say. Immediately he set out for his father's house. 
 Evidences of joy at his return must be noted. His 
 father saw and ran to meet him before he got to the
 
 JOY IN HEAVEN OVER PENITENT SINNERS. 51 
 
 house. He fell on his neck. He kissed him. In 
 his overflowing joy he stopped him in his confession. 
 The son did riot say what he said he would say. 
 He ordered the best robe to be put on him. He 
 put a ring on his finger. He killed the fatted calf, 
 and called his friends to share his joy. Had the 
 narrative ended here, it would not have illustrated 
 the text in the chief thing, the "more joy." Who 
 could say that this had never been done to and. for 
 the elder son if he had not charged his father with 
 partiality? The great Teacher is a Master in nar- 
 ration ! The elder son becomes angry, and gives as 
 his defense the fact that his father never exhibited 
 such joy over him as was lavished on the prodigal. 
 The father defends himself with dignity. His words 
 move our hearts. This anger of the son, and his 
 reason for it, bring out clearly, very clearly, that 
 there was "more joy" over the penitent prodigal 
 than there ever was over the obedient son. The lat- 
 ter was not a sample of the righteous man. The 
 Teacher does not use him as such, no more than 
 he uses "nine pieces of silver," and "ninety-nine 
 sheep," as samples of righteous men. The thing 
 aimed at and accomplished was to illustrate the text, 
 and encourage sinners to repent. It does this with 
 wonderful force. The joy of the father over the eld- 
 er son is strongly expressed in these words: "Son, 
 thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." 
 In them we have approval and commendation. 
 
 In all the words used in this parable there is not 
 one that expressed approval of the conduct of the 
 prodigal before he returned to his father. His con-
 
 52 JOY IN HEAVEN OVER PENITENT SINNERS. 
 
 duct was very bad. The narrative exhibits this 
 clearly, and his own words show his opinion in 
 respect to himself. "Father, I have sinned against 
 heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy 
 to be called thy son." His sense of guilt is shown 
 very plainty. And his remorse is bitter. But re- 
 morse is not repentance. It must be accompanied 
 by,< and productive of, unreserved renunciation of 
 sin and consecration to God. In these the will is 
 active, and when the will consents to renounce all 
 sin, and to return to God with honest confession, 
 then we see "the sinner that repents." God helps 
 us to do this, for without him we cannot repent. 
 He helps when we seek his help by prayer. He 
 works in the intellect to convict, and in the sensi- 
 bilities to produce sorrow, and this is done by his 
 word and Spirit. But man's will is never forced to 
 submit to the will of God in repentance and faith. 
 When the sinner yields, willingly yields, then "God 
 works in him to will and to do of his good pleasure." 
 Phil. ii. 13. 
 
 In some men God works with much power to 
 produce repentance. Their conviction is deep and 
 their sorrow is great, and the evidences of it are 
 harrowing. And these are often used as samples, 
 after whom we must fashion ourselves. Such are 
 seen in Luke vii. 44-46, and xv. 17-21, and in 
 Psalm li. But in others repentance is equally gen- 
 uine and saving, without signs of harrowing grief 
 and dreadful anguish; and it is so because they 
 yield readily to conviction, and humble their hearts 
 in confession of sins, and freely consent to forsake
 
 JOY IN HEAVEN OVER PENITENT SINNERS. 53 
 
 sin and consecrate themselves to God. The contest 
 between the flesh and the spirit is soon ended by 
 their invincible resolution to submit to the will of 
 God. In this contest God looks on with much in- 
 terest, and when the contest ends, then "there is 
 joy in the presence of the angels of God." 
 
 In concluding this discourse, and representing 
 the conflict between God and man, we will use two 
 extracts. The first is taken from Hickok's Science 
 of the Mind: "When the awakened sinner yields 
 to his animal nature, and descends into degrading 
 vices, the enslaved man knows, and sometimes 
 keenly feels, the deep degradation of his soul. The 
 rational has most absurdly bent in servitude to the 
 animal; the spirit has most unnaturally fixed its 
 end in nature; but the reason sees the absurdity, 
 and the spirit feels the indignity, and hence the 
 wretched man cowers in shame and guilt before 
 the upbraidings of his own conscience. He knows 
 the alternative is open; the perpetuation of his 
 "shame and guilt is avoidable; that if he persist in 
 his baseness it will not be nature holding him down 
 under any form of necessity, but that his spirit 
 freely stays, as it voluntarily went down into the 
 place of its degradation. Every hour's delay, every 
 fresh act of sensuous gratification, brings down 
 another stroke of the whip of scorpions, for he is 
 choosing carnal happiness, when he might be, and 
 ought to be, aspiring after, and reaping, the immor- 
 tal dignities and honors of his spiritual birthright." 
 
 The second is taken from Watson's Institutes. In 
 the process of pardon there are three parties. " God,
 
 54 JOY IN HEAVEN OVER PENITENT SINNERS. 
 
 as Sovereign: 'Who shall lay any thing to the 
 charge of God's elect? it is God that justifieth, 
 who is he that condemneth?' Christ, as Advocate: 
 not defending the guilty, but interceding for them: 
 *It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen 
 again, who is even at the right-hand of God, who 
 also maketh intercession for us.' Kom. viii. 33, 34. 
 'If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the 
 Father.' 1 John ii. 1. The third party is man, who 
 is, by his own confession, guilty, a sinner, ungodly; 
 for repentance in all cases precedes remission, and 
 it supposes and confesses offense and desert of pun? 
 ishment. God is Judge in this process; not, how- 
 ever, by the law of creation and of works, but by 
 the law of redemption and grace; not as merely 
 just, though just, but as merciful; not as merci- 
 ful in general, and without any respect to satisfac- 
 tion, but as propitiated by the blood of Christ, and 
 having accepted the propitiation made by his blood; 
 not merely propitiated by his blood, but moved by 
 his intercession, w T hich he makes as our Advocate 
 in heaven ; not only pleading the propitiation made 
 and accepted, but the repentance arid faith of the 
 sinner, and the promise of the Judge before whom 
 he pleads. Thus, as pardon does not take place 
 but upon propitiation, the mediation and interces- 
 sion of Jesus Christ, and on the condition, on the 
 part of the guilty, of repentance and faith in Christ's 
 blood, it is not an act of mere mercy, or of prerog- 
 ative, but one which consists with a righteous 
 government, and proceeds on grounds that secure 
 the honors of the divine justice."
 
 ALL FOR GOD. 
 
 BY THE REV. W. T. BOLLING, 
 
 Western Virginia Conference. 
 
 "And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in 
 two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him 
 his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That 
 this poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have 
 cast into the treasury." Mark xii. 42, 43. 
 
 THE Master had finished a most remarkable dis- 
 course in the temple, in which he had fully un- 
 masked the shallow hypocrisy of the Pharisees, and 
 had put to shame the skeptical Sadducees. With 
 his disciples he sat in the court, a silent yet deeply- 
 interested spectator, while the people deposited their 
 offerings in the treasury. The Pharisees, yet smart- 
 ing under the severe rebuke administered, were of 
 their abundance now casting in much, hoping not 
 only to gain the plaudits of the multitude, but to 
 draw some word of approbation from the great 
 Teacher. No word, however, escaped him as he 
 sat reading deeper than the act, penetrating to and 
 analyzing the motive which prompted each donor. 
 At last there came forward one whose face-lines of 
 sorrow betokened a child of suffering, and whose 
 garb proclaimed her at once poor and a widow. 
 
 This woman deposited her gift, two mites, aggre- 
 
 (55)
 
 56 ALL FOR GOD. 
 
 gating in value one farthing, the price of two spar- 
 rows. No gift yet deposited was so small, and yet 
 the little pieces had scarcely left her lingers before 
 the Master broke the silence in the words of our 
 text. Nothing in the great gifts of the rich was 
 worthy his approbation, yet two mites despised of 
 man called forth the beautiful words and lesson 
 from the Lord. To the thoughtless these are strange 
 and meaningless words, while to the earnest and 
 patient searcher after truth they come richly laden 
 with instruction and comfort. The child of God, 
 in studying them, feels as though he was passing 
 from the shadows of night into the beautiful light 
 
 o o 
 
 of a cloudless morning. They reveal the scope of 
 God's law the basis of divine valuation and light 
 up the path of practical living, and have been the 
 source of comfort to thousands, as they were to this 
 woman and his disciples. We should not confine 
 the teaching here to the mere matter of giving, for 
 giving was not the cause, but the occasion merely, 
 of the utterance of these words. The Master, in 
 making the time of giving the occasion, has given 
 it its true value, and proclaimed giving as an im- 
 portant part of worship and a divinely-appointed 
 means of grace. He who gives not receives not, 
 for it is true here that " with what measure ye mete, 
 it shall be measured to you again." The tendency 
 of man is to stop here, and hence our Lord leads us 
 far beyond the mere occasion, and points to the 
 deeper cause which called forth his gracious appro- 
 bation of this woman's course, and directs us beyond 
 the mere letter to the spirit of worship. Let us,
 
 ALL FOR GOD. 57 
 
 therefore, humbly and prayerfblly consider the deep 
 meaning of these words, that we may profit by the 
 gracious lesson they contain. From them we may 
 find set forth the lesson : 
 
 1 . That the law of God demanding performance of 
 duty extends to every intelligent being. 
 
 No circumstances, no condition in this life, can 
 release any subject from its demand. How prone 
 is man to neglect duty and plead circumstances as 
 an excuse to his protesting conscience ! This lesson 
 will, if we consider it, awake us from this dream. 
 The law of duty is coextensive with the provision 
 for man under grace. " Christ Jesus tasted death 
 for every man," and hence every man is called upon 
 to consecrate his being to Jesus Christ, and there 
 can be no exception. In this instance we find the 
 law as recognized and enforced by our Lord as ex- 
 tending from the greatest to the smallest, from the 
 Pharisee to the poor widow, from millions to mites. 
 If there could be an exception, certainly this poor 
 woman would have been that exception. Think of 
 her condition, consider her surroundings, and think 
 of the insignificance of her possessions. A widow, 
 alone, and dependent upon her own exertions for a 
 living. How small her all was! two mites a sin- 
 gle farthing! Might she not have paused and asked, 
 What good can these do? Human sense would sug- 
 gest they can do nothing, and surely they can never 
 become factors necessary to the solution of the sub- 
 lime problem of human happiness and divine glory. 
 Compare these mites under human valuation with 
 the golden deposits of the rich, and how Pride, that 
 3*
 
 58 ALL FOR GOD. 
 
 spirit of Sataii, would urge, If you go with such an 
 offering, the rich will laugh you to scorn! Surely, 
 if any could find a just excuse, she could. The law 
 of God demanded, and well for us this noble wom- 
 an's conscience answered to its demands, deposited 
 her mites, and made an investment which has 
 brought a sin-burdened world a fortune, and caused 
 millions of human hearts to rejoice in the light of 
 the law of God as the Master unfolds its scope 
 holding the great and wealthy in its grasp, and yet 
 calling to the poorest and weakest in that vast 
 throng of humanity. Thousands are kept back from 
 the enjoyment of all good by a failure to recognize 
 and live under the law demanding the use of all 
 man's powers and possessions, much or little, to the 
 glory of God. Law pervades the universe, and un- 
 der it alone is a wise end to be worked out by the 
 harmonious development of all forces. There is no 
 waste in the physical universe, and we have as wise 
 an end to be worked out through the ephemera as 
 the eagle, through the mole as a mastodon. So in 
 the sphere of spirit-forces there must be no waste. 
 Every being is important none can for a moment 
 be excluded as a factor in the unfoldment of the 
 sublime end in view, the elevation of humanit} r in 
 the scale of holiness and happiness, and the glory 
 of God. The mighty instrument of universal cre- 
 ation must be in tune, and its highest harmony pro- 
 duced only when the fingers of God sweep its keys, 
 from atoms to angels. So the Master here recog- 
 nized the rich and this poor widow as common sub- 
 jects of the same inexorable law.
 
 ALL FOR GOD. 69 
 
 This law does not merely come to man as a fam- 
 ily, but presses upon each and every individual of 
 our race. Christ Jesus suffered and provided for 
 every man as a separate being, and every individual 
 may claim all the blessings, and must recognize all 
 the responsibilities, provided for under the gracious 
 plan of redemption. Every man is a sovereign, 
 governing a most wonderful realm, and the manner 
 of his individual living here must settle his individ- 
 ual destiny in the world to come. While we should 
 never forget that "none of us liveth unto himself, 
 and no man dieth unto himself," yet we should ever 
 remember that we have individual powers, privi- 
 leges, and responsibilities, and that "every one of 
 us must give an account of himself unto God." 
 This poor woman's success, and our profit arising 
 from this lesson, was and is the result of a proper 
 conception upon her part of her duty as an indi- 
 vidual, separate and distinct from every other being 
 in that temple - throng. Whatever others might 
 or might not do was no question with her. Had 
 she paused to consider this question, she would 
 have failed. The neglect of duty upon your part, 
 dear reader, may carry some one down to woe, but 
 the neglect of duty by some one else wilt never jus- 
 tify you or lift you up to heaven. Every man must, 
 in this sense, "bear his own burden." Such was 
 the conception of the great leader of the people of 
 God when he said, "As for me and my house, we 
 will serve the Lord." Such was the conception of 
 the iron-nerved man of God when he stood at Car- 
 mel face to face with false prophets, a wicked king,
 
 60 ALL FOR GOD. 
 
 and the wavering thousands of Israel. The great 
 Apostle to the Gentiles realized this individual re- 
 sponsibility to law when, facing false teachers and 
 a misguided people, he exclaimed, " God forbid that 
 I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ!" Whatever course others may pursue, 
 every man must remember his own individual re- 
 sponsibilities growing out of his own powers and 
 privileges. These responsibilities we can by no 
 process rid ourselves of; they come with our com- 
 ing, go with us along the path of life, go with us 
 into the mists of the valley and shadow of death, 
 and more, must accompany us along the path of 
 destiny even to the judgment-seat of Christ. Man 
 is prone to forget that he must hold a personal, in- 
 dividual, interview with God. Alone with God he 
 must be alone with his life-record, to stand or 
 fall upon his personal course while on probation. 
 No doubt these truths pressed home upon this good 
 woman, and though every Pharisee laughed, though 
 the littleness of her offering caused a blush to man- 
 tle her face, though all else was gone but a tender 
 conscience answering to the demand of the law of 
 God, she came forward to duty, and blessed the 
 world through all the ages, and went home happy 
 in the consciousness of the approval of the Master, 
 and renewed in strength. 
 
 2. The Master demands that we do all we can, and 
 gauges our responsibilities by our ability and opportuni- 
 ties. 
 
 None are neglected in the distribution of divine 
 gifts, and none can be excused for the want of op-
 
 ALL FOR GOD. 61 
 
 portunitj to do good. All in tlie temple on this 
 occasion have something, and every one the same 
 opportunity to perform duty. Many, however, failed 
 then, as many fail now, not for want of ability and 
 opportunity, but from a refusal to recognize the law 
 of God, requiring us not to do merely what we will, 
 but to do all we can. God measures our responsi- 
 bilities by our possibilities, and in all that throng 
 this poor woman was the only one who measured 
 and met the possibilities of the hour and the sur- 
 roundings. The rich of their abundance gave much, 
 but after all it was only a part. The widow gave 
 less than they, and yet she gave more, for it was 
 her all. No half-hearted service is acceptable to 
 God. Nicodemus never gained by coming at night, 
 and Ananias was lost by keeping back a part. The 
 world would willingly give a part, and, indeed, all 
 men do; yet few, comparatively, enjoy, because 
 few give all. The great day will reveal the fearful 
 woe coming upon many, not because of what they 
 "have done, but rather of what they have not done. 
 How clearly is this revealed in the parable of the 
 talents! The demand was made upon each in 
 accordance with his ability and opportunities for 
 improvement. Those who received five and two 
 talents respectively, traded to the full measure of 
 their ability and opportunities, and doubled their 
 lord's money. The servant with one talent proves 
 utterly criminal, and is cast out, not because he had 
 squandered his lord's money, but because he had 
 done nothing. He was not required to improve 
 more than he had ability to improve, and yet it
 
 62 ALL FOR GOD. 
 
 would require all his ability exercised to improve it. 
 Here, then, we see God's law measuring our respon- 
 sibility by our ability and opportunities. 
 
 The Master here did not condemn the rich for 
 giving much, and commend the widow for giving 
 little, but condemned those who kept more for them- 
 selves while giving to God much, and commended 
 the poor widow who met the measure of possibility, 
 and gave all she had, and thus coming entirely to 
 God, and placing herself in his keeping. The idea 
 that we are to do only what is pleasant to do is a 
 most fearful device of Satan, leading thousands down 
 to woe. It was pleasant for the rich to give some to 
 God, with no inconvenience to themselves, but it 
 was hard for this woman to yield her last farthing, 
 and turn her face away from the temple with noth- 
 ing left all given to God. This was a grand faith 
 giving all to God, and trusting him for every 
 thing. The religion of Jesus is one of crosses, of 
 constant crucifixion of human pride and power. 
 The man who serves God and despises evil must 
 have a religion which costs him something; and 
 if it cost nothing, he will soon give it away. The 
 disciple must make a deliberate choice between val- 
 ues. God and the world both claim man, and he 
 must give up one or the other, for " ye cannot serve 
 God and mammon," for such is the constitution of 
 humanity that "no man can serve two masters." 
 The world must be used as a means to a higher end. 
 Moses must give up the pleasures of sin, turn his 
 back upon the crown of Egypt, to become the leader 
 of, and a sufferer with, the people of God. Mat-
 
 ALL FOR GOD. 63 
 
 thew must resign his place at the receipt of customs, 
 and leave all to become an acceptable disciple. Pe- 
 ter, James, and John, when the night of weary. and 
 fruitless toil was over, were ready for any change; 
 but Jesus did not call them then. It was only when 
 they, by his command, had pushed out into deep 
 water, and casting their nets, had filled their boats 
 with the coveted load of worldly value, that the 
 call came to them, " Follow me." They now knew 
 its deep import, and left all, and followed him. Let 
 us rest assured we can never enjoy the approval of 
 the Master by a half-hearted service, which will 
 prompt us to give of abundance even much to him. 
 He demands a consecration of all we have. En- 
 dowed as man is with all-sufficient ability, and sur- 
 rounded by abundant opportunities to call all his 
 possible capacities into play, God demands that he 
 do so, and whatever we have, millions or mites, all 
 must be yielded to his glory. Moses on ]STebo, view- 
 ing the promised land, and contemplating the glo- 
 rious coming and conquering of the King of kings; 
 Elijah, driving the chariot of God along the celes- 
 tial way, above the path of death, and going home 
 to rest; St. Paul, rising on the tides of assurance 
 and joy, and from the crest of the last wave shout- 
 ing the song of triumph back to a sorrowing world 
 all who ever stood in the glorious light of God as 
 it makes beautiful the valley of death all have re- 
 joiced by doing not what they would, but, in conse- 
 cration to God, doing what they could in the sphere 
 where God places them. The great want of the 
 world to-day is not mere hearers of the word, but
 
 64 ALL FOR GOD. 
 
 doers of the works as well. " Whoso looketh into 
 the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, 
 he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the 
 work, this man shall be blessed in his deeds." 
 Right-thinking is very necessary, yet right-think- 
 ing, uncoupled with right-doing, is utterly value- 
 less. The duty of every follower of Christ is to 
 do all he or she can, and that, too, just when and 
 where God in his wisdom has placed them. This 
 woman's presence in the temple at this time was 
 an all-sufficient evidence of her orthodoxy of be- 
 lief; yet, without the actual doing of her duty 
 under the demand of the law of labor, she would 
 never have received the blessed commendation of 
 the Master, and the world would have lost the rich 
 legacy of his words, and the comforting lessons they 
 contain. We should ever remember the lesson here, 
 that we are to do as we have ability. God knows 
 us and our capacities. We frequently remain idle 
 because we can find no great thing to do. How 
 frequently do men fail at this point! Let me do 
 some great thing! is the cry of Pride. All this is 
 sin. We must labor just in the field God has se- 
 lected for us. If, with small capacity, we fail to 
 labor in a small field, would we not fail, with large 
 capacity, to labor in a large field? Remember, our 
 capacity is the measure of our responsibility. Had 
 this woman possessed three mites, and given two, 
 she would never have been noticed more than oth- 
 ers; but when she gave all, though that all was al- 
 most as nothing, she met the demand, and her gift 
 measured her capacity, and met her responsibility.
 
 ALL FOR GOD. 65 
 
 Because God has not given us much, we will be 
 none the less guilty if we fail to use our little for 
 his glory. If God has given you five talents, he will 
 be satisfied only with five talents more at his com- 
 ing. If he has given you two talents, he will re- 
 quire two more. Few may do great works, yet all 
 may do important work. "As ye have opportunity, 
 do good unto all men." This world is very wide, 
 and as a vast ocean is lashed by the storms, so is 
 this poor world lashed by the storms of trial. Ah, 
 how poor humanity is suffering all over the sin- 
 cursed sphere! The field is very large large 
 enough for us all to work in. The minister and 
 the layman alike can find plenty to do. The clouds 
 of woe, which hang so loweringly over the people 
 who know no gospel light, tell us where much may 
 be done, and the sorrow -burdened millions all 
 around us are calling us to a duty we owe them. 
 How strange it is that professed Christians say, "I 
 cannot do any thing!" God bless you, my brother, 
 or sister, it is because you will not do something. 
 God is not calling alone for the millions of the rich, 
 but for your two mites. You can do something for 
 him if you will, and woe unto you if you fail in 
 this duty! 
 
 3. The Master values our efforts not by their apparent 
 magnitude, but by the spirit in which they are put forth. 
 
 Neither the much cast in by the rich nor the mites 
 of the widow were within themselves of any value 
 in the eyes of our Lord. No system of calculation 
 could make much mites, or mites much. They had 
 their human value, and no process could alter them.
 
 66 ALL FOR GOD. 
 
 In the eyes of the Master they had no value in 
 themselves. 
 
 Deeds, labors, however great, can never, in the 
 eyes of God, be meritorious in themselves. God is 
 cau se not effect. He searches the heart, and re- 
 gards not the mere act. He demands all, and that 
 we do all we can, and then tells us : " So likewise 
 ye, when ye have done all these things which are 
 commanded you, say we are unprofitable servants, 
 we have clone that which was our duty to do." To 
 assume that the Master will reward us according to 
 the magnitude of our works, from the stand-point 
 of human valuation, would have excluded this poor 
 woman, and would indeed give the rich rewards of 
 heaven to the more favored few, and cut off the vast 
 majority of our race. Happily for us, the blessed 
 Lord does not so judge. This woman's mites were 
 of more value than all the rich cast in, not merely 
 because they were all she had, for deeper yet lies 
 the reason. These two mites stood out as her heart's 
 offering to God in contrast with the pride-offering 
 of the rich the basis of divine valuation being 
 not the earthly value, but the deeper cause, the 
 prompting motive. Seeing, then, that there must be 
 something deeper than the mere act, and that a cer- 
 tain spirit lends value even to the smallest offering, 
 and its absence makes the much valueless, we may 
 inquire what this is. One simple word answers, 
 Lore. The smallest labor performed by my child 
 from love is precious to me, while the day's toil for 
 wages is utterly of no pleasure to me. So no labor 
 is rendered acceptable to the Master unless it spring
 
 ALL FOR GOD. 67 
 
 from love. No matter how much a man may do, 
 yet he must fail if he have not love as its basis. 
 "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let 
 him be Anathema, Maran atha." No man was ever 
 more deeply versed in the things of God than the 
 great Apostle Paul. Religion with him was his 
 daily life. He was ever calm, and yet moved pro- 
 foundly ; while his heart was always hot, his head 
 was always cool. He sounded the depths and as- 
 cended the heights of personal religious experience. 
 Neither the serpent of Miletus, beasts at Ephesus, 
 jail at Philippi, nor death at Home, could cause him 
 to hesitate for a moment; but amid all these things 
 he exclaimed, " None of these things move me ! " 
 "What does he tell us? hear him: " Though I give 
 all my goods to feed the poor; yea, though I give 
 my body to be burned, and have not charity [love], 
 it profiteth me nothing." The reason he gives us 
 for his giving up all, and counting suffering pleas- 
 ant, and loss gain, is, " The love of Christ constrain- 
 eth us." And he made this the basis of all his re- 
 ligious life. 
 
 No; these two mites were but little, yet this 
 woman's all. No process of human reasoning, no 
 pride could get them. It was only when love 
 came in, and she valued God and his law above 
 all worldly things, that her little mites became as 
 nothing to her, and valuable to the Master. Peter 
 and John seem at first to be led by very different 
 motives, though at last they were in perfect agree- 
 ment. John, from the first, was "that disciple 
 whom Jesus loved," because from the first John
 
 68 ALL FOR GOD. 
 
 was that disciple who loved Jesus. Simon's profes- 
 sion was great, and his outward acts of devotion 
 many, but never until the moment of his trial 
 did he realize that love alone could make a true 
 disciple. When afterward the Master asked him, 
 " Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?" did he feel 
 the full import of the divine requirement, and his 
 throbbing heart answered its demands when he 
 said, "Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest 
 that I love thee." St. John gives us the reason of 
 this requirement when he tells us, " God is love." 
 Pride, or even fear, may cause us to give God some 
 of our abundance, but love alone can lead us to the 
 cross, and induce us to leave there our all as a pure 
 heart-offering to the blessed Saviour. 
 
 The words of the Master are beautiful words ; 
 the works of the Master were grand works, but the 
 love of the Master for a lost world contains the sub- 
 lime force of the gospel. No human power, no 
 wisdom of man, no wealth, could save a world lost 
 in the gloom of the sin-night. The love of God, as 
 unfolded in the gift of his Son, has concentrated and 
 flashed its life-giving light upon us, kindled the 
 fires of love upon the altars of human hearts, and 
 moving them to labor until the truths of God are 
 hung upon the mystic thread of the ages, sparkling 
 with renewed beauty beneath each successive cent- 
 ury's sun, raising poor humanity from the dust of 
 woe, and making it rich in precious hope of eternal 
 life. How precious is the truth that millions and 
 mites are of equal value in themselves in his sight! 
 Dives cannot purchase a mansion, yet poor Lazarus
 
 ALL FOR GOD. 69 
 
 can gain one without money and without price. 
 Pride may come, laden with its costly gifts; Fear 
 may come, staggering under its heavy burden of 
 duty; but the mists of selfishness will shut out the 
 light of hope, and fearful silence will be unbroken 
 by any word of commendation by the Master. Love 
 may come, clothed in garments of poverty, or bathed 
 in tears of sorrow, and yet her precious gift will be 
 received, and the rich benediction, " Well done,thou 
 good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful 
 over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many 
 things," be heard. These lessons should impress us 
 with the fearfulness of human life, with its vast 
 privileges and great responsibilities. The Master 
 sits in the great temple to-day, and watches each one 
 of us in our coming and going, viewing and ana- 
 lyzing our motives, penetrating to the inmost depths 
 of our souls. 
 
 The law of duty, demanding that we do some- 
 thing for God, holds us in its iron grasp. In the 
 great Avorld-temple we stand with the Pharisees or 
 the widow in spirit, and our course in time must 
 settle our estate in eternity. No circumstances can 
 release us from its demands. All can do something 
 for the Master casting in much or mites. Though 
 all cannot do great things, we can all do important 
 things; for nothing can be so small but that, if done 
 through love, it will be received as of value by the 
 Lord. Brother, sister, wait not for greater oppor- 
 tunities, but go out to-day in the field God has as- 
 signed you, and where in his grace he has placed 
 you; sflean it, and brins; the results much or little
 
 70 ALL FOR GOD. 
 
 and consecrate it to his service. Remember, even 
 if you can do no more than give a cup of cold wa- 
 ter to one of his suffering, thirsty ones, he has 
 promised you shall not be unrewarded. Go out and 
 perform duty succor the distressed, relieve the 
 needy, pray for the oppressed, even suffer for God, 
 and leave results with him. How little did this 
 woman know of the final results of her course in 
 its effects upon the world! The Master's blessing to 
 her was the least of it. That was a grand hour 
 for her when she went home conscious of having 
 then performed duty and received the blessed Sav- 
 iour's benediction of approval; yet how small a part 
 was this of the result of his words of comfort, drawn 
 forth by her spirit and walk! how they have come 
 to the weary millions with the ages, making the 
 souls of men glad, even when curtained by the 
 shadows of sorrow's dreary night! Her poverty has 
 become a fortune to humanity, and the results of 
 her performance of duty a heritage precious to the 
 world. Let us do as she did, and thus bless our- 
 selves and the world about us. 
 
 Child of God, look around you. A gladsome uni- 
 verse in the sublimity of its harmony invites us to 
 join it in its mighty and harmonious anthem of 
 praise to God. The bending heavens of the future, 
 unflecked by clouds, and jeweled with stars of prom- 
 ise, are just before us. The redeemed, washed in the 
 blood of the Lamb, await us just beyond the river, 
 while the angels busy workers for God stand 
 ready to greet and hail us as fellow-laborers and citi- 
 zens in the kingdom of our Father. You may be
 
 ALL FOR GOD. 71 
 
 poor, very poor, and be scorned by the rich so was 
 this poor woman ; you may be wrapped in sorrow 
 and so was she. Remember, dear reader, all times, 
 places, and circumstances, reveal something to do, or 
 to be suftered, for the Master. " Our labor is not in vain 
 in the Lord." This poor woman has no mites now, 
 and no sorrow. Her mites have grown into a crown, 
 a robe, a home, " an inheritance incorruptible, un- 
 defiled, and that fadeth not away." All these await 
 us if we do all we can where God in his wisdom 
 places us, using our all much or mites for his 
 glory. Bring your gifts to the Master, dear reader. 
 Bring your mental powers, bring your heart, bring 
 your life to Jesus, and consecrate them all to him 
 keeping back nothing from him and then will you 
 be happy here; and when the end shall come as 
 come it must then, above the grand, solemn dox- 
 ology of fading spheres, you may join the glad an- 
 them of praise which, from his laborers, called to 
 an eternal rest, shall swell in billowy tides of joy- 
 ous harmony, " Unto Him that loved us and washed 
 us in his own blood." God help us to be faithful 
 in all things much or little so as to live and die 
 to his glory!
 
 V. 
 
 INQUIRY AND INVITATION; OR, PHIL- 
 IP'S PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 BY THE REV. J. B. McGEHEE, A.M., 
 
 South Georgia Conference. 
 
 "And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing 
 come out of Nazareth ? Philip saith unto him, Come and 
 see." John i. 46. 
 
 NATHANAEL was not a free-thinker, skeptic, or ra- 
 tionalist. Had he been either, or worse, he is enti- 
 tled to the benefit of correct criticism a hearing 
 characterized by candor and charity. This is digni- 
 fying in itself, advances the cause of truth, and 
 should be awarded all men and every measure. 
 "With thinking men, impromptu and indiscriminate 
 censure or praise are little more than the ebullitions 
 of a madman and the flattery of a fool. 
 
 To these tests we propose to subject the question 
 and conduct of Nathanael. Let us see if that char- 
 ity which "thinketh no evil" does not acquit him 
 of doubt, or downright denial. More let us ask 
 if the inquiry of the one was not as practical and 
 profound as the invitation of the other was wise 
 and weighty. 
 
 Nazareth was situated in Lower Galilee. Here 
 was the home of our Lord for thirty years. Though 
 a small city, it was not destitute of attractions and 
 
 (72)
 
 THE REV. J. B. McGEHEK. 
 Of the South Georgia Conference.
 
 INQUIRY AND INVITATION. 73 
 
 advantages. Beautiful in scenery, commanding in 
 situation, its sublime surroundings fully atoned the 
 presence of difficult ascent, rugged rocks, and hills 
 made bald by dashing rains. If we may credit 
 Geike's admirable " Life of Jesus," " in spring-time 
 Nazareth was the prettiest place in Palestine." In 
 school and synagogue it was not wanting, nor in 
 inlet and outlet. The old Roman road ran near the 
 foot of the hill, and was* intersected by other high- 
 ways. These blessed or cursed the mountain city 
 with the civilization, commerce, and crimes of Rome, 
 Phenicia, and Arabia. Thus opened to the world, 
 Nazareth increased in corruption. Her citizens 
 grew turbulent; her own hands led her Christ "to 
 the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, 
 that they might cast him down headlong; but he, 
 passing through the midst of them, went his way." 
 
 Some have supposed that exhibitions like this 
 spread a film of prejudice over the eyes of Nathan- 
 ael, and thus caused him to suspect the merit of 
 any thing emanating from such a source. We are 
 not surprised. The judicious Hooker himself in- 
 dulges the thought that " the subtilty of Satan, 
 casting a mist before his eyes, putteth in his heart 
 the commonly -conceived persuasion concerning 
 Nazareth." 
 
 Sentiments like these merit regard and remark, 
 because they accord with our knowledge of Satanic 
 working, man's weakness, and the law -world in 
 which he lives. Between cause and effect, parent 
 and offspring, government and citizen, home and 
 character, there are, and will be till the trump 
 4
 
 74 INQUIRY AND INVITATION; OB, 
 
 sounds, relation and likeness. Name and nativity 
 adjudge us little or large. Nothing is more com- 
 mon than the association of high expectation with 
 many and high-sounding titles. We pause to see 
 if we are in the presence of a human. Left to our- 
 selves, we cannot see how that crying child, buried 
 in the bulrushes, can ever be learned in the wisdom 
 of Egypt, the leader of all Israel, the lawgiver of 
 the world. Like the son of Socrates, we are ever 
 saying, "If we would develop a perfect man, we 
 must surround him with perfect circumstances." 
 
 Does nothing correct this? We answer, Yes. 
 There is a day-dawn that chases away the mists of 
 the morning. There is a "day-star that arises in 
 our hearts." Was not Philip's message the dawn 
 of day to the mind of Nathanael? Was it not fol- 
 lowed by the day-star flooding his moral being with 
 beauty and ineffable bliss? We shall see. 
 
 The short, simple story that brought him to Jesus 
 was this: "We have found him of whom Moses in 
 the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Naz- 
 areth, the Son of Joseph." Conversant with the 
 law and the prophets, having so often heard "And 
 thou Bethlehem of Judea," it was both practical and 
 pious for him to ask, " Can any good thing [that 
 good thing] come out of Nazareth?" Far from pro- 
 faning, he was in intent guarding the sacred Script- 
 ures. Free from deceitful ness a vice so common 
 with Jews he was " an Israelite indeed, in whom 
 is no guile." Fixing his eye on Jesus, and firm in 
 the faith, grander discoveries, graver duties, and a 
 glorious destiny, were in prospect. The sincere in-
 
 PHILIP'S PHILOSOPHY. 75 
 
 quirer becomes Bartholomew one of the twelve 
 and a life initiated by honest inquiry exchanges the 
 cross of a martyr for the crown of a king. 
 
 Turning from these thoughts, indulged largely 
 for the help they bring to a proper analysis of the 
 text, we submit the following propositions: 
 
 I. All inquiries into the great truths of the gos- 
 pel, if successful, should be conducted in reverence 
 and profound humility. 
 
 II. The greatest truths of our holy religion the 
 good emanating from Nazareth are apprehended, 
 not by logical process, but by personal approach 
 and individual experience. 
 
 III. The benefits flowing from such an investiga- 
 tion justify all the expenditure involved in Chris- 
 tian life. 
 
 I. Inquiries into the great truths of the gospel. 
 
 1. Are they admissible? We readily answer, 
 They are. God has implanted in man a disposition 
 to inquire into the origin and nature of things, 
 ^ind this in part distinguishes him from beast and 
 bird, and assimilates him to loftier and purer intel- 
 ligences. Inquisitiveness is a valuable ally. The 
 spirit of search lies at the foundation of all mental 
 progress. Right education seeks to foster it. To 
 stimulate it, books and maps, pictures and prizes, 
 lectures and essays, address the eye, ear, and heart, 
 of youth. To its altar the sons of science and song 
 bring their daily oblations. Born in the nursery, 
 developed in the school-room, common to all ranks, 
 essential to every avocation, it was given for great 
 mental and moral ends. Sanctified, it sends forth
 
 76 INQUIRY AND INVITATION; OK, 
 
 waters for the healing of the nations, clear as crys- 
 tal. Secularized, it is a fountain of unmixed evil. 
 The abuse of it gave the world " The Age of Rea- 
 son," a publication as shallow and slanderous as 
 Paine's life was licentious. Loosely reined, it led 
 the well-intentioned Kant to diverge, till the defend- 
 er of the faith developed into the father of German 
 infidelity. Our own Commonwealth furnishes a sad 
 illustration of its abuse. Proud intellect and brill- 
 iant oratory associated with irreverence and absence 
 of regard for the living and the dead! What a 
 monster! Let his name remain unmentioned. This 
 is one side, but splendid illustrations of the other 
 are not wanting. The names of Moses and Paul, 
 Newton, Hugh Miller, and Livingstone, are as 
 household words. Benefactors of the ages, their 
 memory is as ointment poured forth. For the 
 beauty and benedictions of their lives the world 
 acknowledges its obligations to a patient, well-dis- 
 ciplined spirit of investigation. 
 
 That this spirit may be introduced into the realm 
 of religious thought none can deny. "All Script- 
 ure is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable 
 for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruc- 
 tion in righteousness." These things are to be in 
 our hearts, and we are to teach them diligently to 
 our children. The Bible belongs to the world, and 
 should be studied, and may be understood. It does 
 not shun, but seeks, investigation. The practice of 
 it supposes search and a right understanding. He 
 who discourages this search is unlike Jesus and the 
 apostles. The priest or Church though Rome her-
 
 PHILIP'S PHILOSOPHY. 77 
 
 self should grow so arrogant that locks up these 
 sacred truths, and withholds their light from the 
 masses, is an apostate from the faith, no friend to 
 Jesus an enemy to all civil and religious liberty. 
 
 2. How far may these inquiries be indulged? 
 Lest our meaning be lost in words, we answer, As 
 far as human intellect and things revealed will al- 
 low. Beyond the former we cannot go. Any effort, 
 yea, even wish, to transcend the latter is impious and 
 profane. The two were made for each other, and are 
 in happy harmony. Taken together, they illustrate 
 the unity of God, and the divine philosophy that 
 pervades the world. To be loyal and normal, mind 
 must respect revelation as revelation respected mind. 
 Harmony must continue. Long ago the question 
 was asked, " Canst thou by searching find out God? " 
 "Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection?" 
 and there was but one response "The world by 
 wisdom knew not God." What is true of God is 
 true of all the fundamental doctrines. Familiar as 
 we are with the Apostles' Creed, what unsealed 
 heights it contains! what fields yet unexplored! 
 Where God leads and lights the way we can go 
 not beyond. In the nature of the case we know 
 but in part. A unit cannot compass a million. 
 
 We speak of limitations. God's revelation every- 
 where regards man as man. Man's ability and in- 
 ability receive equal and proper emphasis. Both 
 are visible in the facts that God made revelation, 
 and that this revelation proceeds as far as it does, 
 and pauses at the proper place. Somewhat of its 
 grand truths, so much as is said, I can comprehend;
 
 78 INQUIRY AND INVITATION; OR, 
 
 but each truth can spring a thousand questions I 
 cannot answer. Had it been possible, and had God 
 revealed all the modes by which these truths exist; 
 all the reasons affecting the existence of each; all 
 their connections and dependencies, arid all the 
 philosophy of any thing the adorable Trinity has 
 said or done for us, such a revelation would have 
 bewildered the world. 
 
 But such is not the case. Heaven sees us as we 
 are, not as we pretend or presume to be. What is 
 needful, and admits of comprehension, God reveals. 
 What is speculative, and beyond our capacity, he 
 wisely withholds. 
 
 There may be other reasons for the restriction. 
 In placing facts above philosophy, no doubt great 
 moral ends were subserved. As a creature, man 
 was under a government which supposed probation, 
 and extended to all the powers that make up a free 
 moral agent. To make this rule successful, to edu- 
 cate, purify, and save this subject, a revelation must 
 needs appeal to more than his intellect. Faith has 
 a function, and so have hope, humility, patience, 
 and love. All these are to be trained and tried; and, 
 in doing this, what better methods than those fur- 
 nished by the callings and conflicts of this life? Do 
 men complain that revelation does not declare all? 
 that it does not compel faith, but leaves room for 
 doubt? Do they reject it because they cannot solve 
 every thing suggested by revealed facts? If so, they 
 are in arms against probation, and all around them 
 other books, systems, kingdoms, objects, atoms, 
 have their fastnesses which human power cannot
 
 PHILIP'S PHILOSOPHY. 79 
 
 penetrate. As in this department we are exercised 
 for our good, so in the other "tribulation worketh 
 patience, and patience experience, and experience 
 hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because -the 
 love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the 
 Holy Ghost." 
 
 For one, we are sick of the senseless cry of 
 "Mystery! mystery! nobody can understand the 
 Bible." It is a reflection on its divine Author, and 
 not honoring to man. The difficulty is not in the 
 book, but in a want of proper study. Take it as it 
 is a publication of facts and we have the plainest, 
 best-established, most beautifully-illustrated book 
 in the world. No doctrine is incomprehensible, no 
 precept impracticable, no promise precarious. All 
 may be seen, illustrated, and enjoyed. 
 
 3. With what spirit should these inquiries pro- 
 ceed? "If thine eye be single, thy whole body 
 shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy 
 whole body shall be full of darkness." In pursuing 
 the truth, care should be taken to ascertain all that 
 may cause us to stumble. Should indifference, vain 
 conceit, prejudice, previous opinion, or evil in- 
 tent, prove a hinderance, it should be put away. 
 More: "If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out." As 
 ancient Israel, consulting Urim and Thummim, put 
 away uncleanness, and presented the required offer- 
 ings, in like manner must we knock at the door of 
 truth. The sacred awe and reverent posture that 
 transfixed and transformed Moses, as the first beam 
 from the burning bush fell on his astonished gaze, 
 should be seen in all who would know more of the
 
 80 INQUIRY AND INVITATION; OR, 
 
 deep things of God. These are his truths from 
 him, by him, for him. From such a source, con- 
 veyed to us through the flesh of the Only-begotten, 
 waiting to be crystallized in the songs and hallelu- 
 jahs of the saved, no wonder angels desire to look 
 into these things. Ranged about the throne, they 
 rejoice in the simplest edict that calls a human be- 
 ing to worship or work. If we would be like them, 
 if we would grow in knowledge, we must imitate 
 their reverence and humility. 
 
 But this is not all. So far no real step has been 
 taken. The labor, though not lost, is chiefly pre-r 
 paratory. With the mind thus cleared, some one 
 must be seen who can say, " We have found him" 
 some Philip who, taking the honest inquirer by the 
 hand, will lead him to a loftier plane and larger 
 enjoyment. And this introduces our second prop- 
 osition. 
 
 II. The greatest truths of our holy religion 
 Nazareth's substantial good are apprehended, not 
 by logical process, but by personal approach and 
 individual experience. 
 
 We say the greatest truths, without reflecting on 
 any part of the inspired volume. The gospel con- 
 tains no unimportant fact all are edifying. By the 
 greatest we mean fundamental doctrines. 
 
 Our reference to "logical process" should not be 
 construed into an assault on real science, advanced 
 education, high culture. The ability to pursue a 
 train of thought, embellish and enforce it, has a price 
 above rubies. Nor should it be confined to acade- 
 mies, Congress, and Parliament. The parent, man
 
 PHILIP'S PHILOSOPHY. 81 
 
 of business, Sunday-school teacher, and embassador 
 of Jesus, cannot be too highly endowed. Exhorta- 
 tion may fire a field-piece, but it requires trained 
 thought to forge, bring into position, and give aim 
 to these weapons of war. 
 
 Important, however, as training is, it is not the 
 great requisite. This is found in Philip's philoso- 
 phy. How wise he was! When Nathanael would 
 find the chief good, he engaged him in no contro- 
 versy; nor did he remand him to a metaphysical 
 treatise on the "isms and ologies" of the day; but, 
 like a well-instructed scribe, he found in " come and 
 see" a more excellent way. Concise, direct, suffi- 
 cient, it recognized the fact that the hearer had no 
 time to lose, and the preacher no vanity to indulge. 
 It enthroned the idea that motion toward Christ is 
 worth a thousand dry discussions about the " absolute " 
 and " infinite." With Philip, doing was better than 
 thinking. The one was a mere path that might find 
 the highway, but the other was the royal road lead- 
 ing to real attainment and rich adornment. No 
 wonder he said, "Come," enlist head and heart, 
 hands, feet, all nothing can substitute approach, 
 contact, and consecration. 
 
 It is no arrogance to say this should be the prac- 
 tice of every minister and all Churches. At a time 
 when infidel publications flood the world, and the 
 cry of " mystery " falls on every ear, the little ones 
 who cannot come to Christ should be carried in the 
 arms of the Church, and adults, already perplexed, 
 should be started into action toward him. " If the 
 trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall pre- 
 4*
 
 82 INQUIRY AND INVITATION; OR, 
 
 pare himself to battle ? " Can we do better than 
 fill the world's ear with the stirring strains of Phil- 
 ip's philosophy? We cannot, if our proposition is 
 true. 
 
 1. Let us test it by the Scriptures. The author 
 of the seventy-third Psalm, speaking of his experi- 
 ence, says: "My steps had well-nigh slipped, for I 
 was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosper- 
 ity of the wicked. When I thought to know this 
 [the knowledge of God's purpose], it was too pain- 
 ful for me, until I went into the sanctuary of God; 
 then understood I their end. Thou shalt guide me 
 with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. 
 My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the 
 strength of my heart, and my portion forever." 
 The congregations of the great Teacher were not 
 unlike ours. Comprehend the deep spirituality of 
 the law they did not, but rather made it void 
 through their traditions. How the Master pitied 
 them! How his heart was moved as he saw them 
 bending under "burdens which neither they nor 
 their fathers were able to bear! " Standing in their 
 midst, stretching out his arms, the Prince of com- 
 passion cries, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and 
 are heavy-laden. Take my yoke upon you, and learn 
 of me; and ye shall find rest unto your souls." 
 Take another picture. The scene is laid in Jerusa- 
 lem. It was the Feast of Tabernacles. " Now about 
 the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple 
 and taught. And the Jews marveled, saying, How 
 knoweth this man letters, having never learned? 
 Jesus answered them, My doctrine is not mine, but
 
 PHILIP'S PHILOSOPHY. 83 
 
 his that sent me. If any man will do his will he 
 shall know of the doctrine." 
 
 Turn we to Saul of Tarsus, sitting at the feet of 
 Gamaliel. What opportunities for knowing the 
 truth! Who can predict that this conscientious 
 soul, consecrated to the study of the learned expo- 
 sitions around him, will ever count them " as loss 
 for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ 
 Jesus?" Alas! sitting at Gamaliel's feet left him 
 far from truth from Jesus the same blind, big- 
 oted, blood-thirsty Saul of Tarsus. St. Luke records 
 the story of his progress. Somewhere between Je- 
 rusalem and Damascus he realizes the necessity of 
 learning himself, and getting to and into Jesus Christ. 
 By some means he recognizes the voice of that 
 Christ, saying, " If any man will be my disciple, let 
 him deny himself, and take up his cross." It is 
 enough. He begins to do by praying, " Lord, what 
 wilt thou have me to do ? " The sequel we know. 
 His after-life a living epistle known and honored 
 by all we need not detail. Let Paul speak: "I 
 neither received it of men, nor was I taught it 
 but by the revelation of Jesus Christ it pleased 
 God to reveal his Son in me." His life accorded 
 with his experience. Ever afterward he cautioned 
 the Churches against philosophy, vain deceit, and 
 the rudiments of this world. To him, as Meander, 
 " the heart was the best theologian." With him, 
 the" great obstacle to the progress of the gospel was 
 moral obliquity. Of the gospel he was not ashamed, 
 for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. 
 If hid, " it is hid to them that are lost, in whom
 
 84 INQUIRY AND INVITATION; OB, 
 
 the god of this world hath blinded the minds of 
 them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious 
 gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should 
 shine unto them." " To this man will I look even 
 to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and 
 trembleth at my word." " The secret of the Lord 
 is with them that fear him; and he will show them 
 his covenant." 
 
 2. Tried by the soundest philosophy common 
 sense and Philip's philosophy holds good. A 
 visit to a place modifies our opinion of that place. 
 Reading men at a distance is a slow, uncertain proc-> 
 ess. Approach, spirit-communion, correct our prej- 
 udices and change our estimate. Merchandise 
 ordered is not so satisfactory as stocks selected. 
 Matrimonial alliances conducted by telegraph have 
 a spice of novelty, and create a sensation, but sel- 
 dom bring the glowing sunshine and unmixed sweet- 
 ness of married life. These are most apt to flow 
 from the lifted latch, quiet approach, gentle rap, and 
 soft-sitting sofa, where eye speaks to eye, and each 
 heart fancies it hears the throbbings of the other. 
 
 The praise of practice is on the lips of every pro- 
 fession. Great masters in science, poetry, diplomacy, 
 and war, were men who moved up doers, and not 
 idle dreamers. The pen, chisel, plane, plow, sword 
 grasped and in motion are more potent for the 
 solution of difficulties, and more prolific of results, 
 than those locked up or idle at our side. Nothing 
 is equal to taking hold of a thing. Contact brings 
 inspiration and strength. This is the philosophy 
 of invitations to the altar. On this principle a sin-
 
 PHILIP'S PHILOSOPHY. 85 
 
 ner that will comply with some proposition move 
 in some direction, however slight the motion may 
 be called hopeful; but one that stands aloof, stands 
 still exeepts to every thing, and does nothing places 
 himself where his personal salvation would vio- 
 late the laws of common sense and revealed re- 
 ligion. 
 
 We cannot conclude this branch of the subject 
 without emphatic reference to the world's folly. In 
 matters trivial, compared with the interests of the 
 soul, how many try every issue! Here they bring 
 their batteries, collect crucible and chemical, and 
 exhaust every energy; but in things that aftect their 
 souls the -great, .green, fresh forever how many 
 occupy the seat of the scoruer and skeptic, and de- 
 cline Bible-reading, prayer, and every thing that 
 might better them or confirm the truth of Chris- 
 tianity! To all such we would say, This system is 
 true or false. If true, it is graciously yet fearfully 
 true, and it becomes you to avail yourselves of all 
 the blessings these truths impart; and you should 
 do it at once, lest that come upon you which was 
 spoken of Jerusalem: "If thou hadst known in 
 this thy day the things which belong unto thy 
 peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes." If 
 false, it is harmless, and as such is unlike any other 
 falsehood the world ever saw; if false, the might- 
 iest intellects have failed to detect the sophistry; 
 if false, no combination has been able to effect its 
 overthrow. Down to this day no sincere Christian 
 has regretted his allegiance; and not one has died 
 exclaiming against his principles, and exhorting his
 
 86 INQUIRY AND INVITATION; OR, 
 
 son, as did the expiring Altamont, not to follow his 
 footsteps. But we will not anticipate. 
 
 III. The benefits flowing from an investigation, 
 as already foreshadowed, justify all the expenditures 
 involved in Christian life. 
 
 Christianity brings with it gifts far surpassing 
 those the wise men laid at the feet of the world's 
 Redeemer. As a system of doctrines, it is instinct 
 with authority, beauty, certainty, harmony, bespeak- 
 ing its divine origin, and proclaiming it unique and 
 unrivaled. In the light of this blazing constella- 
 tion the world deciphers its high-born parentages, 
 the source of evil, the remedy of the lapsed, the 
 path of life, and the changeless destinies to come. 
 Far removed from atheism, fate, materialism, it 
 dignifies the soul, and would elevate it to associa- 
 tions and employments angelic and endless. 
 
 Its worship of denial and duty, prayer and praise 
 no mean exercise should hereafter prove a fable 
 is a fit acknowledgment of our dependence, and a 
 nearer approach to those loftier intelligences who 
 find ecstatic joy in tributes of thanksgiving to " the 
 only wise God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." 
 
 Its incomparable morals command the admiration 
 of the ages. Beneath their sheltering wings fami- 
 lies repose in safety, society dwells secure, and na- 
 tions find a bulwark unknown to bristling guns and 
 frowning fleets. 
 
 But these benefits are not confined to homes, com- 
 munities, and commonwealths. The kingdom of 
 which we speak corneth not with observation; it is 
 a kingdom within you. Its benefits are personal,
 
 PHILIP'S PHILOSOPHY. 87 
 
 spiritual, saving. To one properly testing these 
 truths there arises a stability of sentiment, and a 
 sweet serenity of soul, not unlike that which comes 
 to him who, long tossed on some uncertain sea, sees 
 the distant land. Long driven here and there, the 
 sport of every wave, now he finds a footing on his 
 native shore, and smiles adieu to ocean-fears. He 
 who effects a landing on credenda of the Nazarene, 
 finds " solid rock and all is sea beside." 
 
 Did Christianity pause here, and do no more than 
 aft'ord an anchorage for the world's faith, who does 
 not see in that ample remuneration for all the thought 
 and effort expended? Improved self-respect, born 
 of a consciousness that we have a faith, and are no 
 longer " like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind 
 and tossed," is worth thousands of gold and silver. 
 
 But creed and stability of soul are not all man 
 needs, or Nazareth affords. He must have some- 
 thing to restore his relations, return forfeited estate, 
 witness his enrichment, guide his goings, sanctify 
 his labors, losses, and life, stand by his dying couch, 
 and bid him " Go thou thy way till the end be; for 
 thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of 
 the days." Vast as are these requirements, Jesus 
 of Nazareth is equal to all. " In him dwelleth all 
 the fullness of the Godhead bodily." He " by the 
 grace of God tasted death for every man." " He that 
 spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for 
 us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us 
 all things?" Already multitudes have been justi- 
 fied and adopted into the family of God. "And 
 because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit
 
 88 INQUIRY AND INVITATION. 
 
 of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." 
 Living, they desire to depart and be with Christ; 
 dying, they sing, 
 
 Jesus can make a dying-bed 
 
 Feel soft as downy pillows are, 
 While on his breast I lean my head, 
 
 And breathe my life out sweetly there. 
 
 What a cloud of witnesses compass us about! They 
 are from the north, south, east, and west. Among 
 them are those who loved and prayed for us. 
 Throned and harped, they speak to you and me. 
 From every cliff of glory these voices come. There 
 is no discord. There is but one message, and that 
 is, " Come and see." 
 
 Gentle reader, accept the invitation; approach, 
 and dismiss your doubts; see and live, and live for- 
 ever!
 
 VT. 
 
 THE THINGS PREPARED FOR THEM 
 THAT LOVE GOD. 
 
 BY THE REV. LINUS PARKER, D.D., 
 
 Louisiana Conference. 
 
 :t But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
 neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which 
 God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath 
 revealed them unto us by his Spirit." 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10. 
 
 THIS passage is quoted substantially from Isaiah, 
 illustrating what the apostle means by " comparing 
 spiritual things with spiritual." The product is a 
 sort of double inspiration, and the authority irre- 
 sistible. Through Isaiah and Paul a great truth is 
 declared. In this case it has to do with something 
 exceedingly momentous, and relates to that which 
 is most vital in doctrine and experience. 
 
 I. The things prepared of God. 
 
 A clew to these may be obtained by reference to 
 the words of the prophet: " For since the beginning 
 of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by 
 the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, besides 
 thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth 
 for him. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and 
 worketh righteousness, those that remember thee 
 in thy ways." Manifestly the things in the proph- 
 et's mind were spiritual, such special blessings of 
 
 (89)
 
 90 THE THINGS PREPARED 
 
 grace and providence as are prepared for them that 
 wait on God. The drift of the apostle's discourse, 
 and the whole connection, limit the things prepared 
 to the gospel and its privileges, the revelations of 
 truth by it, and a spiritual and supernatural experi- 
 ence of its benefits. They are "the things of God," 
 " the deep things of God," " the things of the Spirit 
 of God," that " which none of the princes of this 
 world knew." There is in all this no direct allusion 
 to the marvels of the future life, none to the heav- 
 enly glory. Grace finally ripens into glory, and 
 that glorified state is something wondrous fair, and 
 beautiful beyond conception, transcending all we 
 have seen, or heard, or imagined. But the language 
 of the text describes the present experience of the 
 child of God. They are things now felt, realized, 
 possessed. It is a present salvation through faith, 
 and what is revealed by the Spirit in the believing 
 heart; for, what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
 neither have entered into the heart of man, God 
 hath revealed unto us by his Spirit. These won- 
 derful things, if anywhere, are in the heart, and 
 manifested to the loving soul. 
 
 They are described as things " which God hath pre- 
 pared." The gospel is of God. Neither angels, men, 
 nor devils, could have been the authors of it. The 
 moral evidences are sufficient. Whatever may be 
 the weight of prophecy and miracles, to us the more 
 direct and convincing proof is in the divine teach- 
 ing, in the person and character of Christ, and in 
 the power of the gospel to save, to change the heart, 
 and to reform the conduct. The world, with all its
 
 FOR THEM THAT LOVE GOD. 91 
 
 wisdom, and learning, and philosophy, could never 
 have produced the Bible or invented Christ. Sal- 
 vation is of God the plan is his the execution of 
 the plan, and all the doctrines connected with it, are 
 of God. It is the wisdom of God, distasteful to the 
 wisdom of men, and infinitely above the grasp of 
 human reason. 
 
 The blessings of the gospel are "things pre- 
 pared." In the most obvious sense of being ar- 
 ranged beforehand, "which God ordained before 
 the world unto our glory," here is the foreknowing 
 and the predestinating the preparing of salvation 
 for a race that, in the divine presence, had fallen 
 into sin, and come short of the glory of God. The 
 ideal of grace existed before the actual catastrophe. 
 It goes back into the abyss of eternity, and into the 
 depths of the preexistence of the Son of God. It 
 was " the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the 
 hidden wisdom." It was long preparing; how long 
 we cannot tell. But before the world it was or- 
 dained. The universe, in all its vast and remote 
 economies, the divine government, and the work of 
 creation, were all adjusted with reference to the 
 plan of redemption, and the rescue of a ruined 
 world. Noah prepared the ark for the saving of 
 his house a preparation extending through more 
 than a century. David, with lavish expenditure 
 and almost incredible industry, prepared for the 
 building of the temple. On a grander scale, and 
 with a sweep sublime in its vastriess, God has pre- 
 pared the blessings of salvation for them that love 
 him, "even the mystery which hath been hid from
 
 92 THE THINGS PREPARED 
 
 ages and from generations, but now is made mani- 
 fest to his saints." 
 
 The things were prepared in the kindred sense of 
 being stored up and held in reservation. As Joseph 
 prepared against the famine in Egypt by filling the 
 granaries, and laying up for the time of dearth, so 
 it may be said that God has prepared for human sin 
 and woe. The store-house of grace is full. The 
 means of meeting the terrible outburst of sin are 
 at hand, and ready. As God in his providence has 
 stored up coal and oil for our comfort, and all min- 
 eral treasure for the benefit of men, so has he pre- 
 pared these spiritual things. They are things pre- 
 pared, the remedy for the disease that preys upon 
 us, the provisions which our desperate condition 
 calls for. " Thou meetest him that rejoiceth, and 
 worketh righteousness." A Saviour is ready for the 
 lost, a sin-oftering is at the door, the light of the 
 Holy Spirit meets the soul at the dawn of conscious- 
 ness. 
 
 Since before the world, and through all the ages 
 and generations, God has been arranging for and 
 providing the things of salvation. That they are 
 thus prepared of God, ordained before the world 
 unto our glory, indicates the surpassing excellence 
 of them. God has been occupied about them, and 
 bringing them to perfection. His power, wisdom, 
 and love, are displayed in redemption as these attri- 
 butes could never have been exhibited in material 
 creations. In the fact of the divine preparation we 
 see how wonderful these things must be, and how 
 exalted the privilege of believers, " to whom God
 
 FOR THEM THAT LOVE GOD. 93 
 
 would make known what is the riches of the glory 
 of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ 
 in you, the hope of glory." The feast, long in pre- 
 paring, is ready; it is a royal spread of all that the 
 heart hungers for, a munificent provision, and the 
 invitation is, Come, for " all things are now ready." 
 
 II. The things prepared revealed to the heart by the 
 Holy Spirit. 
 
 They are not revealed through the physical senses. 
 " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard." These and 
 other senses connect us with the outer and material 
 world, but they cannot of themselves put us in con- 
 nection with the things of God. The eye cannot 
 see God it cannot take in spiritual forms. The 
 ear cannot hear the divine voice. 
 
 Nor have these spiritual things entered into the 
 heart of man. The world by wisdom knew not 
 God. None of the princes of this world knew the 
 hidden wisdom. Whether princes of the Jewish 
 hierarchy, the princes of worldly power and domin- 
 ion, or the princes of thought and learning, this was 
 something beyond their grasp. Taken for the rea- 
 soning faculties, or for the sensibilities, for the imagi- 
 nation and the affections, it is still true that the things 
 prepared have not entered into the heart of man. 
 
 Sense and reason, apart from the supernatural 
 work of the Spirit in the heart, have never been 
 able to comprehend spiritual things. They are be- 
 yond the reach of the senses, and above the unaided 
 reason of men. No glimpse of them comes to the 
 eye, no echo of them to the ear, no conception of 
 them ever reaches the heart of the natural man.
 
 94 THE THINGS PREPARED 
 
 He can take in the sublimities and beauties of land- 
 scape, enjoy the harmony and melody of music, and 
 revel in the fields of poetry and science, but he 
 knows nothing of spiritual things. 
 
 The things of the Spirit must be made plain to 
 us by the direct operation of the Holy Spirit in the 
 heart. " But God hath revealed them unto us by 
 his Spirit." The word inspired is not sufficient in 
 itself. There must also be a revealing Spirit, to 
 open the blind eyes, and to unstop the deaf ears, 
 and to shine into the dark and sinful soul. The 
 gospel was not understood by the apostles till the 
 Pentecostal baptism. Christ was to be glorified by 
 the Spirit. "He shall glorify me; for he shall take 
 of mine, and shall show it unto you." We are ab- 
 solutely dependent upon the aid of the Spirit to 
 apprehend Christ truly and savingly, and to grasp 
 any spiritual truth whatever. The natural man is 
 spiritually blind, and he " receiveth not the things 
 of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto 
 him; neither can he know them, because they are 
 spiritually discerned." The Bible is largely a sealed 
 book until the Spirit comes to us with this inner 
 revelation, until he shines upon the sacred page, 
 and floods the heart with a divine light. The gos- 
 pel is the wisdom of God in a mystery to every 
 reader and hearer until the Spirit opens the eyes of 
 the understanding. The Spirit must take of Christ, 
 and show it unto us. No matter how plain the 
 word maybe, how clear the teaching, neither senses 
 nor reason can comprehend without the aid of the 
 Spirit. The divine Healer must touch the sightless
 
 FOR THEM THAT LOVE GOD. 95 
 
 eye, and utter the powerful " Ephphatha," before we 
 can see, or hear, or comprehend. 
 
 We were once in a blind asylum on a 'visit. 
 There were none but the blind there. But the in- 
 mates were moving about as if they could see. A 
 lady was playing on the piano, and others were en- 
 gaged in conversation. In the beautiful grounds 
 without boys were at play, seemingly intent on their 
 sports, running, leaping, and laughing. It was not 
 easy to realize that the world of light, of color, of 
 form, the bright flowers, the luxuriant shrubbery, 
 the blue sky, and the green earth, were all a blank 
 to them. There was the noonday sun, and all the 
 brightness of a perfect day, but the world was dark 
 to them. Thus, in a world of light, with the open 
 Bible before us, with the gospel sounding in our 
 ears, there is spiritual darkness because we are 
 spiritually blind. The need of the Holy Spirit, the 
 absolute need, is emphasized here. David's prayer 
 must be ours: "Open thou mine e} r es, that I may 
 behold wondrous things out of thy law." "Lord, 
 that I might receive my sight," should be the cry 
 of the dark and benighted soul. Our prophesy- 
 ing must be in this felt dependence upon the Spirit: 
 " Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe 
 upon these slain, that they may live." 
 
 The things prepared are revealed by the Spirit in 
 Christian experience. "Now we have received, not 
 the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of 
 God, that we might know the things that are freely 
 given to us of God." Nicodemus could know noth- 
 ing of them; he could neither see nor enter the
 
 96 THE THINGS PREPARED 
 
 kingdom until born again. In conversion, the light 
 breaks upon the soul. In penitence and prayer, 
 and In humble trust, the riches of grace pour into 
 the hungering and thirsting heart. The cross is 
 illuminated, Christ is apprehended, and the great 
 plan of mercy stands out in its symmetry and maj- 
 esty, radiant with divine wisdom and love. It is 
 out of darkness into God's "marvelous light." 
 Even outward nature seems transfigured to the 
 new-born soul. There is a new earth. The inward 
 glory invests nature with a shining livery, and 
 clothes the entire outer world with a new and pe- 
 culiar beauty. Surely, eye hath not seen, nor ear 
 heard, neither has entered into the heart of man, 
 any thing that approaches the peace, the rest, the 
 raptures of the soul that feels the unutterable bless- 
 edness of sins forgiven. 
 
 And the things prepared unfold more and more 
 as experience advances. Peace at length passes 
 understanding, there is "joy unspeakable and full 
 of glory," and as the soul presses on to know the 
 love of Christ which passeth knowledge, it is " filled 
 with all the fullness of God." How inexplicable to 
 human reason, to all ordinar} T human experience, is 
 the grace that sustains the Christian in suffering, 
 and that brings holy triumph in the hour of death! 
 How utterly above all natural reason the death of 
 Stephen, with his shining face, heavenly visions, 
 and unconquerable love! There is in these experi- 
 ences something abundantly supernatural, some- 
 thing transcending all that men have seen, heard, 
 or thought.
 
 FOR THEM THAT LOVE GOD. 97 
 
 Grace, as a conflict and a victory, as a period of 
 suffering made joyous by spiritual consolation, as 
 a nature weak and fallen made pure and holy, is 
 something very wonderful. Can there be any thing 
 surpassing this in heaven? The pure in heart see 
 God in this world. Through this medium God is 
 seen in his works, in his providence, and as spirit- 
 ually manifested to the eye of faith. Save what 
 heaven may be, there can be nothing greater. To 
 be the sons of God, to have the witnessing Spirit, 
 and to realize that we are heirs of God and joint- 
 heirs with Christ, are among the privileges of every 
 Christian. To unbelievers the preaching of the 
 cross is foolishness, but to them which believe it is 
 the power of God. What eye hath not seen, nor 
 ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, 
 God hath revealed to the humblest of his children. 
 His experience exceeds all that men have seen or 
 imagined. 
 
 III. The things are prepared for them that love God. 
 ~We know that the provisions of salvation are for 
 all. Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for 
 every man. "For God so loved the world, that he 
 gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
 in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 
 Salvation is freely offered to all. The invitation is 
 to all that labor and are heavy-laden. "And the 
 Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that 
 heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst 
 come. And whosoever will, let him take the water 
 of life freely." In the divine intent there is mercy 
 for every sinner. God " will have all men to be 
 5
 
 98 THE THINGS PREPARED 
 
 saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the 
 truth." This is beyond doubt, that the scope of 
 redemption takes in the entire world of sinners. 
 And yet the things prepared can be known and 
 possessed only by loving hearts. 
 
 It is only to the eye of love that they are manifest. 
 Love sees and hears, and receives into the heart, 
 what no stretch of divine power can make the prop- 
 erty of unbelief. Love itself is light, it is divine 
 communion, it is peace and victory. It is the vital 
 element in salvation, it is salvation realized in purity 
 of heart, and in all the fruits of the Spirit. Love 
 only can comprehend love. It alone can understand 
 God. It is something so potent that " we know that 
 all things work together for good to them that love 
 God." It turns every thing into good. It extracts 
 the good even from affliction, and compels tribute 
 from every thing within the range of providence 
 arid grace. Such is its celestial armor, that nothing 
 can hurt Love. It is the one safe, invincible, all-ap- 
 propriating grace. It outstrips the senses, it moves 
 easily and luminously in a plane higher than reason. 
 The things are prepared for them that love God, 
 because only love can receive and apprehend them. 
 
 And because love only has the capacity to enjoy 
 them. They are foolishness to the natural man. 
 They are offensive to him. Without love neither 
 grace nor heaven could be enjoyed. God can make 
 no soul happy without love. The things prepared 
 are such as only loving hearts delight in; hence it 
 could be no other way. This is the distinguishing 
 privilege and blessedness of love. All the wealth
 
 FOR THEM THAT LOVE GOD. 99 
 
 of the divine love, all the riches of glory, all the 
 products of the infinite wisdom and mercy, are laid 
 at the feet of Love. So it is appointed a rapture, an 
 insight, an inheritance that palls all other brightness 
 with its surpassing splendors. What an amazing 
 declaration, that the things prepared, things employ- 
 ing the hand and heart of God before the world, 
 should all be poured into the soul opened in love to 
 the light of God! 
 
 We have kept back from this exposition all direct 
 reference to the future glory. We have been care- 
 ful to direct the application rather to the present 
 experience. Such we believe to be "the mind of 
 the Spirit" in this scripture. We would, if possible, 
 magnify this matter of experience, the supernatural 
 character of it, and the greatness of the blessings in 
 it. It is the miracle of miracles, as much above 
 material miracles as soul and spirit are above the 
 dust beneath our feet. The things prepared are in 
 the believing heart. They are the present heritage 
 of God's children. We are to look for them, and 
 to find them, in conversion, in holiness of heart, in 
 growth in grace, and in victory over the world. 
 And yet the things prepared for them that love 
 God, as felt and known here in the realm of grace, 
 are things immortal. " It doth not yet appear what 
 we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear, 
 we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." 
 In the breadth and enlargement of what love now 
 enjoys we can begin to imagine what heaven will be. 
 If eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have 
 entered into the heart of man the things that God
 
 100 THINGS PREPAKED FOR THEM THAT LOVE GOD. 
 
 hath prepared for them that love him here, what 
 must not that world of perfect day be? We may 
 stand upon this Nebo and look across Jordan, and 
 obtain, at least, a distant view of the goodly land 
 of promise. From this high place of grace experi- 
 enced, of love, with its clear, far-sighted vision, we 
 may see the New Jerusalem, and, standing in this 
 grace, we may rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 
 The present grace is the earnest and assurance that 
 "thine eye shall see the King in his beauty; they 
 shall behold the land that is very far off."
 
 VII. 
 
 PURE RELIGION. 
 
 BY THE REV. H. PEARCE WALKER, D.D., 
 
 Kentucky Conference. 
 
 f 'Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father." 
 James i. 27. 
 
 WHILE all professing Christians believe that re- 
 ligion is in some sense divine, yet both the thing 
 itself and its psychological manifestations are vari- 
 ously understood. Upon both these, as also upon 
 many doctrinal and ecclesiastical points, widely di- 
 vergent, often contradictory views obtain. Of two 
 or more contradictory theories some must be false, 
 but not necessarily all. Something must be true, 
 else the opposite could not exist. "Wherefore, the 
 effort to ascertain what is truth, as regards the es- 
 sential nature and manifestations of religion, cannot 
 be a work of supererogation. 
 
 When we survey the Christian world, notwith- 
 standing the points of agreement, it presents a 
 strange scene of clashing and confusion. That great 
 body of Christian professors united in protesting 
 against the corruption and tyranny of Romanism, 
 and in giving the Bible to all the families of man- 
 kind in their native tongues, is itself split up into 
 manifold, and in many instances antagonistic, sects 
 and parties, each perhaps holding some grains of 
 
 001)
 
 102 PURE RELIGION. 
 
 truth covered up in heaps of chaff. To determine 
 the exact proportions of truth and error in each 
 would be difficult, perhaps impossible; not, howev- 
 er, because truth is inscrutable, but because of our 
 partly necessary, partly volitional, and partly adven- 
 titious, limitations. 
 
 Whether this Babel of tongues and this multipli- 
 cation of sects be the better, or the best, state of 
 things in the present condition of the race, judge 
 ye; we shall not undertake to decide this question; 
 still, may we not be allowed to say that it does not 
 seem to be in accord with the genius of Chris- 
 tianity? nor does it favor the most faithful and effi- 
 cient use of means for the conversion of mankind. 
 From the first chapter of Genesis to the last sen- 
 tence of the Apocalypse, the Almighty seems to 
 have contemplated the most perfect unity of the 
 body of Christ; nor shall we ever believe that Chris- 
 tianity is so imperfect, or the Holy One of Israel so 
 poor in resources, as to make error a necessary fac- 
 tor in the success of the gospel scheme. I know 
 the defendant's plea by which it is sought to reconr 
 cile the existence of some hundreds of separate, in- 
 dependent, and fragmentary bodies of Christians 
 with the teaching of revelation; but the reasons 
 assigned seem to be purely apologetical, rather than 
 necessary and scriptural. 
 
 It is true that, between all these separate organic 
 bodies of professed Christians, claiming to stand on 
 the Bible, there are points of agreement as well as 
 points of disagreement. Between some, more be- 
 tween others, less. Some forms of Christianity have
 
 PURE RELIGION. 103 
 
 become quite exclusive, placing all, or nearly all, the 
 other forms quite outside the pale of the Christian 
 religion; while other bodies are latitudinarian, in- 
 cluding all forms of professed Christianity as valid, 
 however widely sundered in doctrinal, ecclesiastical, 
 and practical teaching. At least one of these ex- 
 tremes must be wrong possibly both. The truth 
 may lie imbedded in the mean, with increasing de- 
 grees of error upon either side; or, it may be, and 
 we believe, that there are Christians among them 
 all even where they belong to false forms of Chris- 
 tianity. Yet none, nor all, of these facts can ever 
 pronounce a single one of these forms to be genu- 
 ine, or justify its independent existence. Questions 
 of this sort can be settled by the living oracles 
 only. 
 
 However much we may be interested in knowing 
 whether the points of agreement and the points of 
 disagreement between the various organic bodies of 
 Christianity are for the most part essential or non- 
 essential to Christian experience and growth in 
 grace; whether some or many of these bodies con- 
 tain error that maybe fatal; or, whether most or 
 all of them are to be esteemed as having salt enough 
 to preserve them, are questions of vital importance, 
 which we can commend only now to the prayerful 
 study of every soul. But when we approach ques- 
 tions which relate directly to truths essential to sal- 
 vation, the order in which they stand related each 
 to the other, and the manner of holding them, we 
 are in the presence of vast, of momentous, concerns 
 that ought not to be passed lightly over.
 
 104 PURE RELIGION. 
 
 The tendency of this age is latitudinarian. A dis- 
 position prevails to ignore doctrinal differences as 
 obstructive to improvement in practical godliness, 
 or at least to hold them in private, and make an out- 
 ward show of unity in spirit. This is due in part, 
 perhaps, to the recoil from the strait-laced, hy- 
 percritical orthodoxy of the past, and partly to the 
 republican doctrine that men are not to be pro- 
 scribed for opinion's sake. The idea is already pop- 
 ular that one has the right to believe what he pleases 
 that it does not matter what principles are held, 
 if the life be right. Nothing could be more false. 
 Never was the faithful advocacy of sound doctrine 
 a bar to progress or a hinderance to true unity. 
 Never was the advocacy of principles, in the Chris- 
 tian spirit, the enemy of justice and harmony. 
 Truth is foe to all that is false the enemy of all 
 unrighteousness. Error of the head leads often to 
 wrong-doing. Men of bad principles are men of 
 bad lives. Men without principles are variable, un- 
 reliable, the dupes of error, open to temptation, 
 easily drawn into sinks of evil. It is false teaching 
 that men are never to be proscribed for opinions. 
 It is false doctrine of the worst sort to teach that 
 men have the right to believe error to believe all 
 things or nothing. Things different must not be 
 confounded. The human mind often rushes from 
 one extreme to its opposite. Doubtless, when re- 
 ligion was a thing of mere forms and creeds, much 
 wrong was committed in the name of orthodoxy, 
 and harmless opinions were treated as crimes. Still, 
 it does not follow that one extreme is right because
 
 PURE RELIGION. 105 
 
 the other is wrong; nor should error be commended 
 because truth has been abused. Error must be re- 
 futed, denounced, proscribed. Wrong-doing must 
 be condemned. Truth and righteousness must be 
 maintained. While sedulously guarding the doors 
 against the spirit of persecution, we must not throw 
 them open to welcome error, nor close them against 
 truth and justice. The apostle tells us to "contend 
 earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints; " 
 and the history of the past shows that all our lib- 
 erties have been achieved, under God's blessing, not 
 by the sacrifice of truth, not by compromise with 
 error, but by conflict with it. 
 
 I do not undervalue the honest efforts of Chris- 
 tians to establish unity; I rejoice in it; only I pro- 
 test against all sham unity by the sacrifice of sound 
 doctrines. I mean only to warn the American peo- 
 ple against the false glare of a mere formal frater- 
 nity, an irresponsible evangelism, an apparent unity 
 by the compromise of truth, the effect of which is, 
 perhaps, to certify a dangerous heresy to public con- 
 fidence, and give a passport to error to corrupt 
 the fountains and to eat away the core of vital god- 
 liness. 
 
 Are we in danger of forgetting the warning of 
 Jesus against deceivers " wolves in sheep's cloth- 
 ing? " or that of Paul and John against false teach- 
 ers? Surely we cannot fail to know that not all 
 who bear the name Christian are entitled to the dis- 
 tinction. What revolting scenes have been enacted 
 in the name of Christianity! How cunning has 
 error ever been to lift itself into public favor, either 
 5*
 
 106 PURE RELIGION. 
 
 under the garb of religion, or on the ground of re- 
 ligious tolerance! These are the same old tricks 
 which deceivers have " played oft' before high heav- 
 en" upon mankind from the beginning of the temp- 
 tation in paradise down to the present day; and 
 they are none the less successful because so old and 
 so well known. " By their fruits ye shall know 
 them." Always ready, then, to recognize a disci- 
 ple of Christ where differences of opinion exist on 
 many points, we must be careful, nevertheless, not 
 to indorse and encourage a "form of godliness with- 
 out the power thereof," from which the apostle com- 
 mands us to "turn away." 
 
 But viewing this subject in its personal relations, 
 we enter the Christian world with questions like 
 these trembling on our lips, viz.: What is religion? 
 how shall I obtain it? and how know that I am re- 
 ligious? I find myself in the presence of three 
 massive systems, viz.: Catholicism, Calvinism, and 
 Arminianism. The first is founded on the papacy, 
 the second on the eternal decrees, the third on the 
 universality of the provisions of the atonement and 
 the free moral agency of man. The answers they 
 give to my questions are in substantial agreement 
 with the foundations on which they rest. What- 
 ever their views may be as to what religion as a 
 principle is, the following- is patent: with the Ro- 
 manist there is no salvation for me, unless I am 
 united to the papacy; with the Calvinist there is no 
 salvation for me, unless I am included in the eternal 
 decrees predestinating me to everlasting life; with 
 the Arminian there is no salvation for me without
 
 PURE RELIGION. 107 
 
 the exercise of my free moral agency in coopera- 
 tion with God's grace to appropriate to myself by 
 faith the special benefits of the atonement of Christ. 
 Here are wide divergences. But I continue to pro- 
 pound the inquiry throughout all the societies of 
 Protestant Christendom, What must I do to be 
 saved ? One tells me to repent; another to confess; 
 another to believe; and another to be immersed. 
 Here I am told that repentance and faith are fruits 
 of regeneration; there I am informed that they are 
 precedent, indispensable conditions. One tells me 
 religion is a gift, and I must seek it; another assures 
 me it is a work, and I must do it; a third declares 
 it to be a state, and I must enter into it by an act 
 of obedience. Finding myself at the intersection 
 of so many cross-roads and sign-boards, each pur- 
 porting to be the way, and to point the way, what 
 confusion, and fears, and doubts, must result! Fort- 
 unate for me if, instead of hesitating, doubting, 
 fearing, and lingering in the midst of the confusion 
 of this moral mist, which covers me like the dense, 
 fog thrown over the shoulders of the mountain, or 
 drawn like a thick covering over the sleeping form 
 of the valley, I betake myself prayerfully to the 
 written word, and there search with "trembling 
 awe " for the light that shineth in darkness. While 
 I believe that there is saving truth held by many of 
 the Churches of this day, yet am I satisfied that, in 
 the midst of these opposing views, many earnest, 
 anxious souls are at a loss to know which way to 
 turn, or what to. do. Their doubts and reasonings 
 are aptly expressed in these lines:
 
 108 PURE RELIGION. 
 
 So many people, in these latter days, 
 Have taught religion in so many ways, 
 That few can tell which system is the best; 
 For every party contradicts the rest. 
 
 Let us endeavor to ascertain, in the light of the 
 divine word, what pure and un defiled religion is, 
 and what its essential manifestations are. Webster 
 derives it from religare, to bind anew or back, to 
 bind fast. He defines it: 1. The recognition of God 
 as an object of worship, love, and obedience; right 
 feelings toward God as rightly apprehended; piety. 
 A high sense of moral obligation and spirit of rev- 
 erence and worship, which aft'ect the heart of man 
 with reference to the Deity. 2. A system of faith 
 and worship. 3. The rites or services of religion. 
 The Greek word threeskeia signifies worship, piety, 
 service. 
 
 By accommodation it is used to denote a system 
 of rules and doctrines, a creed, acts of worship, but 
 properly it signifies more than these. It signifies a 
 certain state of mind and heart in relation to God. 
 Religion is a word expressive of all that is compre- 
 hended in piety, devoutness, righteousness, godli- 
 ness, reverence, holiness. Hence, we may say that, 
 in the true sense of the word, it is a life in God, and 
 a life of union and communion with God. As a 
 principle, or essence, it is the divine life in the soul : 
 " That by these ye might be partakers of the di- 
 vine nature." " He that believeth on the Son hath 
 everlasting life." " He that hath the Son hath life, 
 and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." 
 This life of God in the soul is religion in essence, or
 
 PURE RELIGION. 109 
 
 principle, und as such it is the gift of God through 
 Jesus Christ. This life cannot be considered as an 
 abstract principle wholly separate from God himself. 
 In fact, it is God with us and in us, imparting to us 
 his own life and likeness. It is an immediate con- 
 junction of the Holy Spirit with our spirit. Hence 
 the Holy Spirit is given unto the believer, not to 
 endow him with the miraculous gift of tongues and 
 the power of working miracles, as with the apostles, 
 but to give him the life and the likeness of God. 
 By the impartation of this spiritual life by the Holy 
 Ghost we are begotten of God, have given us a new 
 nature, become a new creation, or a new creature. 
 The result of the gift of spiritual life is the new 
 birth of the Spirit into the kingdom of God, and 
 all the experiences and activities of the soul flow 
 from it such as love, joy, peace, long -suffering, 
 meekness, temperance, and brotherly kindness. 
 This divine life in the soul is a life of growth and 
 development manifesting itself on all sides of our 
 being in acts of worship, such as prayer and praise; 
 in deeds of benevolence and kindness, such as visit- 
 ing the sick, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, 
 instructing the ignorant, comforting the distressed; 
 in the practice of self-denial and cross - bearing, 
 keeping one's self "unspotted from the world;" 
 and in an obedient, consecrated disposition of mind 
 and heart, conforming the whole life to the will of 
 God in Christ. This principle of the divine life in 
 the soul by which it is begotten of God, and born 
 of the Spirit, is religion, and all these soul-experi- 
 ences of love, joy, peace, etc., and the activities of
 
 110 PURE RELIGION. 
 
 the daily life in self-denial, deeds of benevolence, 
 and acts of worship, are the results, the effects, the 
 croppings out, the manifestations, of the indwelling 
 principle and power of th'e life received from God. 
 Hence we read, " Of his own will begat he us with 
 the word of truth." " Being born [begotten] again, 
 not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by 
 the word of God, which liveth and abideth for- 
 ever." Every act of Christian obedience, all the 
 Christian virtues, all the pure, holy, beatifying 
 emotions, desires, and affections of the soul, all the 
 fruits of the Spirit, are referred by the Holy Script- 
 ures to the Spirit of God, which is the principle 
 and power of the life imparted to the soul by God 
 through Christ, and the efficient cause of all our 
 spiritual life and godliness. The Holy Ghost is the 
 agent and power by which the soul is begotten of 
 God and born again, by which it is quickened, 
 raised from a state of death, and fructified with vir- 
 tue and holiness. By him we receive the essence 
 and power of religion. In him is found the fact 
 and philosophy, the origin and power, of all spirit- 
 ual life, its experiences and its activities. Hence we 
 read again, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the 
 Christ is born [begotten] of God; and every one 
 that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is 
 begotten of him." " For whatsoever is born of God 
 [begotten] overcometh the world; and this is the 
 victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." 
 " If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that 
 every one that doeth righteousness is born of him." 
 " Whosoever is born of God [begotten] doth not
 
 PURE RELIGION. Ill 
 
 commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him; and he 
 cannot sin, because he is born of God." "For love 
 is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, 
 and knoweth God." " Except a man be born again 
 he cannot see the kingdom of God." Whatever 
 else any of these passages may teach, one thing is 
 undeniable, is certain, that is this, that love, entering 
 into and enjoying the kingdom of God, righteous- 
 ness, doing righteousness, the faith itself that over- 
 cometh the world, in fact, all spiritual life in us, all 
 truly religious experience, and all works of right- 
 eousness that are pleasing and acceptable to God, 
 have their origin in an indwelling principle of divine 
 life, and spring from it. The spiritual begetting 
 and birth, by the presence and power of the Holy 
 Ghost, giving us a new nature and a new source of 
 life in God, is the prime cause of all the good that 
 exists in us. To the same effect are the teachings 
 of John on the holy anointing, or the ointment from 
 the Holy One, which abides in believers, and so 
 effectually teaches them that they have no need that 
 another should teach them. What is this chrism 
 but the Holy Ghost? Thus Christ was anointed with 
 the Holy Ghost, and thus Christians are anointed. 
 Dr. Braune says, " The chrism, or ointment, will have 
 to be understood as the Holy Spirit, and humeis ekete 
 chrisma" you have an ointment, or an anointing 
 " reminds the readers of the great gift which makes 
 them priests, kings, and prophets, the genos ehlekton, 
 basileion hierateuma, ethnos hagion, of 1 Pet. ii. 9 " a 
 chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. The 
 same author says, " Christians are anointed, and
 
 112 PURE RELIGION. 
 
 their name should daily remind them of what they 
 owe to God and their neighbor, as spiritual kings, 
 priests, and prophets." "As is a king without a 
 kingdom, a ruler without subjects, a general with- 
 out soldiers, so is a Christian without the anoint- 
 ing" only in name. "None but those who have 
 the Holy Spirit and the anointing can be sufficiently 
 on their guard against the lies of antichrist. All 
 other knowledge is too weak by far to be able to 
 withstand temptation and spiritual conflicts." Dr. 
 Mombert, translator of Dr. Braune's Commentary 
 of John's Epistles, sums up the benefits of the Holy 
 Spirit, or holy anointing, to all believers thus: "1. 
 The chrism (Holy Spirit) is a general gift, vouch- 
 safed to all Christians ; 2. Not transient, but perma- 
 nent; 3. Leads them into all truth; 4. Moves them 
 to the practice of all the precepts of Christ; 5. As- 
 sures them of their Christian privileges (children of 
 God, members of Christ, and inheritors of the king- 
 dom of heaven); 6. Teaches them in all things 
 they are therefore disciples and learners all the days 
 of their life; 7. Preserves their fellowship with the 
 Father and with the Son; 8. Makes them temples 
 of God." Again we read, " There is a divine seed 
 in those who are born of (out of) God; they have 
 not become God, deified, or absorbed, in God, or 
 God in them, but only partakers of the divine nat- 
 ure, germ-like, like new-born babes, so that a begin- 
 ning has been made, but only a beginning, although 
 the beginning of a life, divine, coming from and 
 leading to God. This birth out of God is a transla- 
 tion of man from death to life, brings him to the
 
 PURE RELIGION. 113 
 
 Light of the world, and gives him eternal life, and 
 effects the blessed result that God is in us and we 
 in him, as the children of God out of God." " The 
 cause of regeneration is the righteous God, and an 
 ethical status is its mark and sign. God gives, and 
 man not only has but becomes (comes into existence). 
 God rules over thee, and has his work in thee, that 
 thou mayest become and remain his child. God's 
 attribute of righteousness is not only energetically 
 active, but also communicative. The import of re- 
 generation should be laid hold of by its indispensa- 
 ble consequence, viz. : Poiein teen dikaiosuneen [doing 
 the righteousness], and even its nature defined as a 
 beginning of a new, divine life." 
 
 I have been thus particular to define and set forth 
 what religion is, in the true scriptural sense, whence 
 its origin as a controlling principle of life in the soul, 
 and what are its effects, because we so often hear it 
 taught now that religion consists in doing some- 
 thing that is, in keeping the commandments; or, 
 that the observance of certain preceptive require- 
 ments constitutes religion, and makes one religious. 
 The idea is being extensively circulated, that a re- 
 ligion of inward life and power, effectuated by the 
 personal power of the Holy Spirit, operating direct- 
 ly on the soul, regenerating it, and giving it life and 
 purity, is absurd, a dream of the imagination, and 
 groundless in reason and Scripture. The doctrine 
 that seeks to displace this regards religion as wholly 
 educational and practical. We are told that religion 
 is obedience to the law, and that this is secured by 
 instruction. So that religion, according to this view,
 
 114 PURE RELIGION. 
 
 consists of two parts, viz., theory and practice. One 
 learns the theoretical part as a child learns the mul- 
 tiplication table, and he practices the precepts as a 
 man practices medicine, or farming, or mechanics. 
 Even the scriptural doctrine of the vicarious atone- 
 ment of Christ is set aside as repugnant to reason, 
 and opposed to justice, and in its place is set up the 
 poor, puny offspring of a rationalistic philosophy, 
 which teaches that God had no need to be recon- 
 ciled to man, because he was already reconciled, but 
 that the simple design of the death of Christ was 
 to afford to man a display of the love of God, and 
 furnish him with an example of self-denial and 
 submission to the Father's will, thus seeking, in a 
 purely educational and moral way, to reconcile man 
 to God by the influence of ideas. According to this 
 view, no satisfaction was made to divine justice, and 
 no benefits were procured by the death of Christ. 
 Hence man is redeemed and regenerated by the in- 
 fluence of ideas, and his own deeds of righteousness 
 which result from them. Alas, for mankind, when 
 religion falls into the hands of professional huck- 
 sters, who dilute it into thin gruel, consisting of a 
 few emasculated ideas and perfunctory services; or 
 reduce it to an unsubstantial wafer, and then ped- 
 dle it out at cheap cost to men's worldly wisdom! 
 
 How unscriptural these views are will readily ap- 
 pear from all those scriptures which represent our 
 recovery from sin, and death, and misery, to God, 
 and life, and holiness, as effected by himself: "You 
 hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and 
 sins." " By grace are ye saved through faith, and
 
 PURE RELIGION. 115 
 
 that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." "Who 
 hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not 
 according to our works, but according to his own 
 purpose and grace." " Not by works of righteous- 
 ness which we have done, but according to his mer- 
 cy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and 
 renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us 
 abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour." " In 
 whom after that ye believed ye were sealed with the 
 Holy Spirit of promise." " But ye are washed, but 
 ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name 
 of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." 
 Whatever be the term used to express our moral 
 recovery, whether delivered, redeemed, quickened, 
 reconciled, begotten, born, raised up, justified, sealed, 
 created anew, or saved, the Scriptures- uniformly. re- 
 fer the work to God as the doer, the author of it. 
 Paul shows conclusively that something more than 
 motives, arguments, ideas, is required to convert and 
 save, for he declares that " his speech and preach- 
 ing ""was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, 
 but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; 
 that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of 
 men, but in the power of God." Spiritual conver- 
 sion, according to the sacred teachings, is effected 
 by a personal power, the power of God, or of the 
 Holy Spirit, and not by arguments, or works of 
 obedience to law. The intellectual relation to God 
 is of a secondary character, because it is mediated 
 by ideas, thoughts, and images; but the religious 
 relation is one of real existence, of personal life and 
 being. Scientists, philosophers, artists, and moral-
 
 116 PURE RELIGION. 
 
 ists, together with all religious formalists, " have 
 God only in the reflected images of thought and 
 fancy, while the devout Christian has him in his 
 very being. The reality of this difference forces 
 itself upon us when we set prophets and apostles 
 over against poets and philosophers." 
 
 The religious relation to God must be one of per- 
 sonal holiness. The voice of the unrenewed con 
 science is a continuous demand for it. It is equally 
 true that man cannot make himself holy by any act 
 or series of acts of any kind whatever, for then he 
 would have no need of a vicarious offering, or a 
 Holy Spirit. He might make his own atonement, 
 and be his own saviour. But the Bible, recognizing 
 man as utterly lost, and unable to save himself, 
 teaches that '' without shedding of blood there is 
 no remission" of sins; that "it behooved Christ to 
 suffer" and to die, in order "that repentance and 
 remission of sins might be preached in his name 
 among all nations;" that man is "elect" only 
 "through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedi- 
 ence, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." 
 
 This demand for holiness to fit man for fellowship 
 with God is the grand characteristic of the Christian 
 religion. It belongs to no false religion, but it runs 
 all through the word of God, from its Alpha to its 
 Omega. Every essential fact of revelation looks to 
 it. To raise up a holy seed, to make man a holy 
 being, a vessel and abode of Deity, and an organ 
 for the revelation of the Holy God, is the grand 
 aim of the whole gospel scheme. This is the tele- 
 ological design of Holy Love, both in creation and
 
 PURE RELIGION. 117 
 
 in redemption, and the reason for its marvelous 
 manifestation on the theater of time. This is the 
 meaning of Bethlehem and Gethsemane, of Calvary 
 and Pentecost. " Without holiness no man shall 
 see the Lord." 
 
 The source of this holiness is in God, not in us. 
 It is an essential attribute of Deity. He is the God 
 of holiness, and his is the Spirit of holiness. And 
 it is not till the human -created will, in its relative 
 freedom, influenced by grace, meets with and merges 
 into the absolutely free and uncreated will of God, 
 that a spiritual transfusion of the divine nature into 
 ours takes place, and we become partakers of the 
 divine holiness. The entrance of the holy person- 
 ality of God in all his communicable fullness into 
 the human personality, without the loss of either, 
 thus making the human nature a partaker of the 
 divine nature of holiness, was the miracle of the 
 incarnation; and it is precisely this miracle that is 
 repeated, or rather continued, throughout the new 
 creation, throughout the whole body of which Christ 
 is the head. " I in them, and thou in me." There 
 is an organic, vital, essential unity between the vine 
 and its branches, the same life in all, running from 
 the vine into the branches, as the cause of all their 
 vigor and fruitfulness. Holiness of heart and life 
 is the fruit of an indwelling personal Christ. This 
 is the essential relation, without which the intellect- 
 ual, the natural, the moral, and the formal relations 
 to God are miserable abortions; and the soul that 
 is not brought into this relation to God of personal 
 holiness is fit only to be cut oft' from the true source
 
 118 PURE RELIGION. 
 
 of life, as a diseased limb is amputated from its 
 trunk, and cast into the abyss of things that might 
 have been, but never were. 
 
 The very fact that genuine religion requires holi- 
 ness demonstrates it to be the religion of conscience. 
 Conscience is the co-, or concordant, knowledge of 
 man with God, of the relation of his personal being 
 to God. For I am what in conscience I know my- 
 self to be. Conscience puts us into the most direct 
 personal relation to God. It relates not directly to 
 the moral law, but to the holy personality of God. 
 No one can be said to have a conscience for law, for 
 abstract truth, or for an impersonal power. It is 
 the perception and feeling of the moral relation be- 
 tween two personalities, in whom there exists, on 
 the side of conscience, obligation and freedom, and 
 on the side of the Holy Being, to whom we are 
 bound, power, goodness, arid justice. The moral 
 law, a divine revelation, does not create conscience, 
 but enlightens it as to the way by which the human 
 personality is to be reconciled to the divine; and it 
 is the office of conscience to bring our moral relation 
 to God into the light of self-consciousness. This it 
 does by means of its two great constituents, percep- 
 tion and feeling. Hence it is the culminating point 
 of thought, of desire, of emotion, and of volition. 
 The soul's telegraph -office, all its moral activities, 
 meet and break into the light of self-consciousness 
 here. For this reason it is the very seat, the sanc- 
 tum sanctorum, of pure and undetiled religion, which 
 can never be personal, holy, and regnant, until it is 
 the religion of conscience. Seated here, religion
 
 PURE RELIGION. 119 
 
 becomes a personal possession, a controlling power, 
 dominating the will, the desires, and the affections, 
 in the light of the knowledge of our obligations to 
 the Holy God. As all the juices of the tree run up 
 into the fruit and make it, so all the sap of the soul, 
 all its sweetness and vigor, run up into conscience 
 and nourish religion, the life of the soul; and from 
 this the soul's inmost adytum go forth in conscious 
 approval or disapproval of all its sustaining or de- 
 pressing power. Hence, the " relations between God 
 and ourselves acquire religious significance only as 
 they spring from, or are received into, this funda- 
 mental relation; and certainty about divine and 
 human things of a religious cast becomes religious 
 certainty only when it is the certainty of conscience." 
 Here, then, we discover the fact that one of the 
 profoundest psychological manifestations of religion 
 is that of feeling. Not that feeling is the sole ex- 
 clusive form of its manifestation, but one which is 
 inclusive of perception and volition. The Bishop 
 -of Holland, while admitting that feeling denotes 
 the most immediate contact of consciousness with 
 its object, and therefore denotes the foundation, 
 though not the completion, of religious character, 
 nevertheless says, " We are to treat the question [of 
 religious manifestation] no longer as one of an 
 either, or, but as one of a both, and." Schleier- 
 macher makes the feelings the exclusive seat of re- 
 ligion, and the form of feeling in which religion 
 manifests itself that of absolute dependence. An- 
 other tells us it is the feeling of unbounded rever- 
 ence; while the mystics describe piety as a theo-
 
 120 PURE RELIGION. 
 
 pathic state in which one feels his inmost soul 
 touched by the power divine a holy pathos in 
 which man feels himself to be a vessel and an abode 
 of the Deity. Certainly all these views, which do not 
 differ essentially, are scriptural, when not exclusive 
 but inclusive of all the possible forms of religious 
 feeling, such as love, joy, and peace. I cannot con- 
 ceive religion as a principle in the soul, as a divine 
 power, creating it anew in Christ, quickening it into 
 spiritual life, and raising it up from a state of death, 
 and translating it into the kingdom of light, with- 
 out at the same time effecting a radical change in 
 thought, feeling, and volition ; and I cannot conceive 
 of such a change taking place without the corre- 
 sponding idea of the soul's consciousness of it. And 
 I apprehend that the first, most reliable, and satis- 
 factory evidence to the personal Ego of the work 
 of the Holy Spirit in regenerating and sanctifying 
 the soul, is to be found in its consciousness of the 
 feelings of love, joy, peace, and unbounded reverence. 
 According to the word of God, one of the divinest 
 and most sensible experiences of the converted soul 
 is love. So much is this emphasized in Scripture, 
 that we are told plainly, " Love is of God, and who- 
 soever loveth is born of God, and knoweth God;" 
 and Paul tells us that we come into the possession 
 of love by the Holy Ghost, who sheds it abroad in 
 our hearts. Along with the feeling of love conies 
 the knowledge of what God has done for us and in 
 us, for the soul is immediately conscious of its own 
 experience, and the Holy Spirit comes and dwells 
 in it, and bears testimony with it that it is a child
 
 PURE RELIGION. 121 
 
 of God. Speaking of the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, 
 "But ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and 
 shall be in you. At that day ye shall know that I 
 am iu my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." 
 John is equally clear on this point in his Epistles. 
 Kot only does he affirm that "he that believeth on 
 the Son hath the witness in himself," but he gives 
 several infallible proofs by which we know that we 
 have passed from death unto life, are born of God, 
 are the children of God, and have him abiding in 
 us. Such are, 1. The anointing; 2. The love of 
 God and of the brethren; 3. The indwelling Spirit 
 of God; 4. Obedience; 5. Faith. Four of these 
 proofs are objects of conscious knowledge, and one 
 relates to our external duties, which are also objects 
 of consciousness in the volitions whence they spring. 
 First, then, we have the Holy Spirit regenerating 
 the soul; from this, feeling; from this, conscious 
 knowledge of what has taken place in us, and of our 
 saved relation to God; from this, volition, resulting 
 in acts of worship, deeds of kindness and love, and 
 resistance to all evil, keeping ourselves " unspotted 
 from the world." Thus we see that, in perfect keep- 
 ing with the teaching of the Master, religion begins 
 with a principle and power of life in the soul, and 
 works from within out. It has its origin in the 
 mysterious depths of our spiritual being, its visible 
 manifestation in the outward life. It has its Geth- 
 semane and Calvary, but they lead to a triumphant 
 resurrection and a glorious Pentecost. It has its 
 sowing-time, its growing-time, and its harvest-time; 
 but there is hope in the first, and joy in the second, 
 6
 
 122 PURE RELIGION. 
 
 and glory in the last. What a divine fullness in 
 religion! It has truth for the miud, love for the 
 soul, joy for the heart, and God for its object. 
 
 A danger to which men are ever exposed, more 
 particularly in an age like this, when so many minds 
 are occupied with the study of material facts and 
 forces, with money-making and pleasure-seeking, is 
 that of holding religion at second-hand. This is 
 the case when religion is sundered from its vital 
 source in the affections, when religious views are 
 held in a merely intellectual, or aesthetic, or formal 
 way, because these persons know nothing of the 
 personal feelings and determinations of conscience. 
 However correct in theory, or refined and beautiful 
 in its forms, a religion which does not originate in 
 conscience, and is not sustained by a personal, ex- 
 perimental knowledge of God's saving power, is 
 nothing more than second-hand, because it is wholly 
 mediated by ideas, and not by the soul's personal 
 contact with God's holy love. The holding of a 
 comprehensive system of religious truth is no proof 
 that one is religious. Thousands have represented 
 religious ideas with great plastic power without any 
 personal possession of it in themselves. Paul shows 
 us that tongues, and knowledge, and self-sacrifice, 
 and miracles, even faith itself, were it possible to 
 separate it from love all these, however great and 
 powerful in themselves, are insufficient, nay, worth- 
 less, without love. And a religion in which the Holy 
 Spirit of life and love is an unknown quantity is 
 second-hand, a mere sham, a disgustingly useless 
 and puerile thing with the Almighty.
 
 PURE RELIGION. 123 
 
 Let us make ours the religion of conscience and 
 personal holiness a religion of character, of " per- 
 fect love that casteth out fear." Then we shall find 
 every noble purpose that breathes across the laws 
 of life refreshing, and every effort to walk in the 
 broad daylight of duty invigorating, and down 
 every channel furrowed out by prayer in its flight to 
 heaven will rills of joy descend to make green and 
 flowery the banks of life, and to pitch the song of 
 all its shores on the key in which its raptures came. 
 
 What a wonderful accumulating and self-regis- 
 tering power is conscience! It stores up both good 
 and evil. The most trivial event can no more escape 
 detection than a single drop of blood can evade the 
 heart. A faithful scribe, he records each moment's 
 work. A polished mirror, it is stained by the faint- 
 est breath of evil. We see the foot-prints of time 
 in the granite, and glide back over ages to note the 
 route he took, and the road he traveled. Sin leaves 
 its foot-prints on conscience, and after ages they 
 will be traceable unless erased by the blood of Jesus. 
 The diary of conscience is a minute-book of the 
 life, and from these records the historian of eternity 
 will gather the materials for a faithful history of the 
 generations of time. 
 
 What has happened when success justifies its own 
 cheating, when vice is respectable because it is titled, 
 when the steal of millions makes gentlemen out of 
 rogues, and evil-doing pleads the authority of great- 
 ness? Evidently the public conscience is warped, 
 and travels over crooked routes, or " else it slinks 
 home by the alleys, and frets because it has lost its
 
 124 PURE RELIGION. 
 
 right of way." "What then is needed? A Samuel 
 to hew the guilty Agags in pieces? Some stripling 
 David to slay the haughty warrior? A John the 
 Baptist, or a John Wesley, to cry in the wilderness 
 and in the crowded city with a voice that wakes the 
 dead? Alas! we forget, perhaps, that it is ours to be 
 simple in the midst of fashion, to be truthful when 
 duplicity meets with flattery, to be sincere when 
 trickery is applauded, and to keep conscience pure 
 when the multitudes are false. Had we, to-day, 
 enough men and women of independence, of strong, 
 quick, robust conscience, full of faith and the Holy 
 Ghost, and steady as the magnetic needle to its 
 pole, a grand reformation would sweep the nation, 
 purge it of its crimes, and make it a very garden of 
 the Lord. 
 
 To have a religion of conscience so true in the 
 midst of an evil and adulterous generation, bold 
 enough to plow deep furrows of conviction across 
 continents of vice, to cut out the very heart of sin 
 with the sword of the Spirit, and to sow precious 
 seeds when there are no clouds in the sky and no 
 moisture in the ground, to bear on the cross in the 
 face of opposition till it waves grandly over the 
 ruined battlements of vice, and truth and righteous- 
 ness go forth to meet the glad welcome of millions 
 how great the work! Founders of empires never 
 equaled it; explorers of worlds never went so far; 
 warriors never achieved such victories. And though 
 our powers are feeble, our spheres limited, our op- 
 portunities seemingly few, let us toil on in the "good 
 old way." We are sowing an incorruptible seed,
 
 PURE RELIGION. 125 
 
 which will spring up somewhere on the " planet's 
 made soil;" and if not at once, after generations. 
 Not one drop is lost in the ocean. Let us be en- 
 couraged. The Gulf-stream sets out upon its' jour- 
 ney through the deep, and, after it has gone thou- 
 sands of miles, may still be tracked by its genial 
 breath; and though it is comparatively small, and 
 has traveled so far, its influence is still perceptible 
 on Greenland's ice-ribbed coast. 
 
 Were this not so, it is enough that thrilling duty 
 invites us out upon God's highway of holiness. 
 Opportunities are at hand. Some face of truth 
 looks iu upon us, points to her crown of thorns, and 
 begs us wear it awhile; some wail of suffering hu- 
 manity falls upon the ear to waken our pity; some 
 work, some cross, some self-sacrifice for Christ's 
 sake, is ever and anon knocking at the door. Have 
 we heeded? Is our religion pure and undefiled? 
 Has our faith been made perfect by works? Do 
 we add to inward experience volition and action, 
 according to the requirements of the law of love 
 and the example of Christ? In that day when the 
 Son of man shall sit upon the throne of his glory, 
 and all the holy angels are with him, and before 
 him shall be gathered all nations, shall we hear him 
 say to us, " Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit 
 the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation 
 of the world; for I was a hungered, and ye gave 
 me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I 
 was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye 
 clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was 
 in prison, and ye came unto me ? " Amen and amen !
 
 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 
 
 BY THE EEV. J. D. BLACKWELL, 
 
 Virginia, Conference. 
 
 " Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, there- 
 fore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But 
 they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel." 2 Chron. 
 xxviii. 23. 
 
 CONTINUED prosperity and signal adversity are 
 alike unfavorable to true submission to God. " Give 
 me neither poverty nor riches, lest I be full, and 
 deny thee, saying, Who is the Lord, or lest I be poor, 
 and take the name of my God in vain," arraign the 
 wisdom of his providence, and fret against him. 
 Uzziah and Jotham, the immediate predecessors in 
 the kingdom of Judah to Ahaz, had marked pros- 
 perity in their reigns. They defeated their enemies, 
 enlarged the borders of their kingdom, built cities 
 in the conquered territory and towers in the desert, 
 adorned and fortified their capital, and strengthened 
 themselves exceedingly. Of Uzziah it is said, "As 
 long as he sought the Lord, God made him to pros- 
 per;" and Jotham, we are told, became mighty be- 
 cause he prepared his ways before the Lord his God. 
 Yet, as our context and the first chapters of Isaiah 
 clearly testify, this prosperity, with its power and 
 voluptuousness, engendered in Judah a proud self- 
 
 .(126)
 
 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 127 
 
 confidence, removing from the minds of the nation 
 all sense of dependence on Jehovah. 
 
 Ahaz, whom our text brings before us, was as- 
 sailed by sore misfortunes. The kings of Syria and 
 Israel, the Edomites and Philistines, invaded his 
 land, slew tens of thousands of his soldiers, took 
 possession of some of his cities, and when he sought 
 aid from the Assyrian king, Tilgath-pilneser ac- 
 cepted his gifts and came unto him, "but he helped 
 him not." He was in great straits, and sorely trou- 
 bled, and our text points to the result: "And in the 
 time of his distress did he trespass yet more against 
 the Lord: this is that King Ahaz. For he sacrificed 
 unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him; and 
 he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help 
 them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they 
 may help me." 
 
 Our text suggests as the theme for our considera- 
 tion, The wickedness and folly of making worldly 
 success the supreme aim of life. This seemed to be 
 the purpose of Ahaz. He was in great distress. 
 Edom had smitten Judah, and carried away captives; 
 the Philistines also had invaded the cities of the 
 low countries, and of the south of Judah, and dwelt 
 in his land. In his extremity he had hired the king 
 of Assyria to aid him, but this ruler came to him 
 and helped him not; he only smoothed his way for 
 the conquest of Judah by crushing the intervening 
 kingdom of Syria. Trouble, instead of humbling 
 Ahaz, made him desperate and defiant. Tell me 
 not of patience and submission, of trust in the God 
 of Israel; every thing is going to ruin; all will soon
 
 128 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 
 
 be lost. I will try other plans. I must have suc- 
 cess, and as these gods prosper those that worship 
 them, I will worship them too, that they may give 
 me prosperity. 
 
 In the present age this same device is often re- 
 sorted to. We are determined on success in busi- 
 ness. We rise early, sit up late, eat the bread of 
 frugality, toil with persevering diligence, and yet 
 all our efforts fail. Others succeed, but we observe 
 that they do not sacrifice to the God of integrity 
 and uprightness. They are unscrupulous in their 
 policy. They suppress conscience, and rail at it. 
 "It is a dangerous thing a man cannot steal but it 
 accuseth him. 'T is a blushing, shame-faced spirit 
 it beggars any man that keeps it. It is turned out 
 of all towns and cities for a dangerous thing, and 
 every man that means to live well endeavors to 
 trust to himself and live without it." 
 
 Why should not conscience have vacation 
 As well as other courts o' the nation? 
 
 Folding up this prying spirit with their Sabbath- 
 robes, they say, Live thou there, and let my business- 
 hours alone. Or they are purely selfish; they gath- 
 er, but never give. They hoard and gloat upon 
 their treasures, but never open the hand to the 
 needy, or contribute to move the world heavenward. 
 They worship mammon, and seek self-interest alone. 
 Still they prosper. Whatever they touch turns to 
 gold. We fail with our plans and principles; we 
 will adopt their course. Success will atone for 
 every thing. "Because the gods of the kings of
 
 TUB SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 129 
 
 Syria help them, therefore will we sacrifice to them, 
 that they may help us." 
 
 Or our business prospers, and we desire social 
 success. We look around, and find that the giddy 
 and frivolous, they who %alk in a vain show, are 
 frequently the honored of the w r orld those who 
 never dream of talent to he improved, or of good to 
 be done; who laugh to scorn the antiquated notions 
 of duty and usefulness, and hold in contempt the 
 idea of labor and sacrifice for others; who seem to 
 value the ornament of the head, the product of the 
 grass and the silk-worm, more than the immortal 
 mind that labors "in the secret chambers of the 
 brain," and spend their time in garlanding the body 
 as an offering on the world's altar; the bright queens 
 of fashion, or the foppish young men, who never 
 resisted a temptation, and never thought of reach- 
 ing the lofty goal of victory through patient endur- 
 ance and heroic battle; victims of appetite, and idle- 
 ness, and ennui. We find that these are often the 
 staves in fashion's circle, and we say, Thus they suc- 
 ceed, and we will follow their example. We will 
 worship the goddess of pleasure; we will vitiate 
 the taste, cramp the aspirations of the soul and the 
 expansive energies of the mind within the procrus- 
 tean dogmas of fashion's god. Because others thus 
 reach that pinnacle of glory, we will adopt their 
 plans, worship their divinities. 
 
 Perhaps our lot seems a hard one in the Church. 
 
 We have much to do and to endure, and yet receive 
 
 but little present reward hewers of wood and 
 
 drawers of water in the camp of Israel. We are 
 
 6*
 
 130 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 
 
 sent out as pioneers among the marshes and mount- 
 ains, the hedges and highways of earth, we sojourn 
 "in the tents of Kedar," and are never permitted 
 "to rest within the curtains of Solomon." We are 
 detailed to guard the Thermopylae of Church and 
 State, to meet and conquer the great multitudes 
 that threaten to overthrow the truth, to evangelize 
 the poor. There we bear, and tight, and fall, but, 
 like Joseph in prison, we are ignored by the Church, 
 or receive only that patronizing notice deemed need- 
 ful to keep us at our undesirable post. Others re- 
 fuse to stand there we should say, do not stand in 
 that Thermopylae practically ignore the duty to 
 carry the gospel to the poor, or to the millions of 
 idolaters; equally called, as it seems to us, they ap- 
 pear to flee as Jonah from an unpleasant mission, 
 and take what, to our distorted view, appears a 
 higher sphere of labor, where the world's eye will 
 observe and the world's praise will greet them. 
 
 Or, perhaps, with the voluptuous, self-indulgent, 
 and proud, the plain and direct methods and the 
 old doctrines have become distasteful. They de- 
 mand teachings congenial to their careless mode of 
 life. Pride must be flattered, fancy pleased, the ap- 
 petite for novelty gratified; all the stern demands 
 of law kept out of view, and Elysian mansions pro- 
 claimed as their future homes. And we note that 
 they who seem to neglect the poor, and bow to the 
 demand of those haying itching ears, prosper in the 
 world, are applauded of men and crowned by so- 
 ciety, and the temptation arises to say, Thus they 
 prosper; these methods, these gods to whom they
 
 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 131 
 
 sacrifice, help them, and we will sacrifice unto them, 
 that they may help us. We find the temptation 
 which ruined Ahaz is very general, and, alas! often 
 triumphant, in the present day. It has broken down 
 many a manly purpose, and wrecked the character 
 of multitudes who still live around us. May the 
 spirit of wisdom and love aid us in an earnest effort 
 to arrest its progress! 
 
 In setting forth the wickedness of making world- 
 ly success the supreme object in life, we state that 
 Jehovah is acknowledged by us as our God, and the 
 Bible is recognized as our guide. We cannot go back 
 to the heathen worship of ancient Greece and Rome, 
 of Nineveh, Babylon, or Egypt. Judaism, as de- 
 signed for the peculiar people, Hindooism, Islarnism, 
 do not challenge our faith. We can neither wor- 
 ship Brahma, nor receive the Vedas, the Talmud, or 
 Koran, as our rule of life. If we look to the grand 
 attainments and wisdom of this nineteenth century, 
 we find no religion which can for us substitute the 
 ^religion of the Bible. One of the inventions, or, as 
 it claims, one of the discoveries, of this century is 
 Mormonism. This system evidently does not com- 
 mand our conscience. We feel no obligation to be 
 controlled by the sacred books of the Mormons. 
 Positivism, which is identical in a great degree with 
 the system more recently called the religion of sci- 
 ence, claims, also to be the result of the investiga- 
 tion and learning of this century. 
 
 But this religion makes no claim upon us which 
 we recognize as binding. It is indeed a negation, 
 either denying flatly that there is a God, or assert-
 
 132 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 
 
 ing, if there be a God, we have no means of know- 
 ing either the fact or the nature of his being. As 
 man is the creature of evolution, the result of a 
 force originating this system knows not whence, 
 and moving it knows not whither, we are left, with- 
 out any sense of obligation, to be what we are 
 forced to be. Nor have all the efforts of modern 
 skepticism availed to loose us from a sense of obli- 
 gation to follow the rule of life laid down in our 
 sacred book. Indeed, these modern guides, while 
 claiming to be the only advanced thinkers, the only 
 truly wise men released from the shackles of super- 
 stition, frankly tell us they know nothing of the 
 great themes which most strongly excite our anx- 
 iety. They talk with much complacency of " the 
 future religion of all sensible men," but promptly 
 acknowledge that they do not know what that re- 
 ligion will be. Their investigations do not bring 
 them in palpable contact with Jehovah, and they 
 therefore assure us that there is no God, or none 
 that we need concern ourselves about, as we can 
 know nothing of him. They have, of course, in 
 their system nothing of sin against God, or guilt 
 nothing of pardon or blessedness from Heaven. 
 They seem not to know that our sacred books 
 taught, thousands of years ago, that Jehovah could 
 not be seen by mortal eye, that the world by wisdom 
 knew not God, that the blessed truths of Christian- 
 ity were hidden from self-sufficient men " the wise 
 and prudent" and revealed only to those who were 
 willing to receive instruction, as from an authorita- 
 tive teacher. They convince us, with great force of
 
 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 133 
 
 argument, that he who rails at or repudiates the 
 conclusions of science, but will not investigate for 
 himself, can have no claim to consideration; that 
 the man who denies that electricity will shock the 
 system, and yet will not test the truth of his state- 
 ment by placing his hands on the opposite poles of 
 a charged battery, is a vain babbler, unworthy our 
 notice as a teacher in science. And vet, though the 
 
 * 9 C7 
 
 Christian system claims to subject its truth to the 
 test of experiment; though its great Author says, 
 "If any man wills to do his will," brings an honest 
 purpose to practice as he learns, "he shall know of 
 the doctrine; " if any man will receive him and trust 
 in him, he shall find rest, peace, joy, and strength. 
 Though Christianity thus declares itself an experi- 
 mental science, these guides laugh at the idea of 
 thus testing our system, and instead of ranking 
 themselves among the unwise for their unscientific 
 course, reversing their own logic, they do not hesi- 
 tate to place in that list all who adopt the scientific 
 method of receiving as true what they have ascer- 
 tained by experiment. Though they feel at liberty 
 to place among the unwise all who receive the faith 
 of Newton, and Bunsen, and Hooker, and Milton, 
 and Chalmers, and J. Edwards, and Watson, etc. 
 men who would be giants in any age and proclaim 
 themselves leaders in thought, yet we, the serious 
 people of this generation, cannot accept them as our 
 teachers in religion. They tell us that our religion, 
 with its Heavenly Father and heavenly home, with 
 its blessed consolations, its rich experiences of 
 strength and joy imparted, is effete and passing
 
 134 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 
 
 away, and yet they acknowledge that they are blind 
 and in the dark. They say, "Never did tempest- 
 tossed mariner long for the haven more earnestly 
 than we for some certain light. We cry aloud in 
 the dark, and the only answer is the wailing echo 
 of our own cry." These men, groping in the dark, 
 wailing in their wretched orphanage, have not only 
 utterly failed to convince us that we should renounce 
 our blessed Christianity for their blank and cheer- 
 less system, but they have convinced us that they 
 are totally ignorant of the religion they criticise, 
 furnishing an illustration of the word, "These 
 things are hidden from the wise and prudent." 
 
 We can never be convinced that a system, the 
 sum of whose teaching is love supreme to a holy 
 and wise God, and love to our fellow, love such as 
 we have for ourselves, can become effete or out of 
 date. Those Ten Commandments given in the dim 
 twilight of the past, and thousands of years before 
 science had its birth given, not like the laws of 
 England and America, as the gradual growth of 
 centuries, but as Minerva from Jupiter's brain, wis- 
 dom full-formed and perfect those ten precepts can 
 never be annulled with safety. Written with the 
 finger of God in the rock, the imperishable nature 
 of man, they must live forever. The human mind 
 can conceive of no grander life than such as is the 
 prompting of supreme love to a holy and good God, 
 and a proper love to humanity. Such a rule of life 
 would banish all selfishness, all purposed wrong, 
 exalt mankind to its highest point of excellence, 
 and make of earth a paradise. As well say, Because
 
 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 135 
 
 the soil is now cultivated with more skill, the old 
 king of day has grown effete, and we need a new 
 sun, as to teach that because there is now more 
 mental culture, and because eccentric or self-suffi- 
 cient men now as indeed they have done in all 
 ages fail to see the excellency of the Christian sys- 
 tem, we need a new Sun of righteousness. No! no! 
 Man can never be elevated above the claims of the 
 law of love, and will never be so strong that he will 
 not need aid, so that he may measure up to its 
 claims. After all that has yet been said, the truth 
 remains that the serious men of this age and of our 
 country believe that the Bible contains the rule of 
 life appointed by Heaven for man. The evidences 
 of its divine authority are ample and conclusive. 
 Its teachings find much corroboration in our own 
 experience, and we admit them to be true. Now, 
 this word tells us that not worldly success, but a 
 holy, noble character, and right conduct, are the true 
 end of life. 
 
 The conviction is in our minds, too, that success 
 and right are entirely distinct that they may not 
 be found always united in the life of the same indi- 
 vidual. Right has reference to the rule and the aim 
 of life success, to our achievements. He who aims 
 to develop all his powers to glorify God by useful- 
 ness to man, under the guidance of the Golden Rule, 
 furnishes an example of right conduct. He who 
 conquers the outer world to himself gains wealth, 
 or fame, and power, among men secures success. 
 Now, our own nature, that which we feel to be au- 
 thoritative in our minds, commands us to heed the
 
 136 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 
 
 law of right, whatever may become of success. 
 Our convictions harmonize with the divine law in 
 teaching that the true end of life is that to which 
 we are prompted by love to God and to man; they 
 both unite in the charge 
 
 Be just, and fear not: 
 
 Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, 
 Thy God's, and truth's. 
 
 When, then, we -seek success at the expense of 
 right, we not only defy God, but we spurn the au- 
 thority of our own mind we trample under foot 
 the law of our own nature. Is there no sin in this? 
 to do violence to our own convictions, and to turn 
 lightly away from the divine command? 
 
 How great, how heinous the sin, none can esti- 
 mate till he is able to comprehend the majesty and 
 grandeur of the divine nature, and to estimate the 
 value of peace, order, and righteousness to a govern- 
 ment whose extent is unlimited, whose period is 
 eternity, and whose citizens, with godlike natures, 
 no man can number. God, the Infinite, the Incom- 
 prehensible, the Awful One; he who can say, I kill 
 and I make alive, I wound and I heal, I lift up my 
 hand to heaven, and say, I live forever; he who 
 whets his glittering sword, and, taking hold on 
 judgment, renders vengeance to his enemies; he 
 who is merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and 
 abundant in goodness and truth; who built the uni- 
 verse by his word, and upholds its worlds by the 
 might of his will this grand, unique Being, infinite 
 in nature and absolute in perfection, fearful in maj- 
 esty and power, has proclaimed himself the cham-
 
 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 137 
 
 pion of right right under all circumstances, at all 
 hazards, whatever may be its relation to worldly 
 success. To the extent of his resources of wisdom 
 and power has he declared that he will uphold and 
 establish the cause of right. So important did he 
 deem it to the honor and stability of his govern- 
 ment, to the interests of his subjects, that no doubt 
 should linger around this question, he spared not 
 his own Son to make it clear. His fellow and equal, 
 his well-beloved Son, undertook the cause of right. 
 But it happened that the path of right led him 
 away from the path of worldly success. To do 
 right in his sphere on earth he must stand alone, 
 and see his wisdom reviled and his counsel spurned; 
 he must be poor, without a shelter for his head, 
 "despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, 
 and acquainted with grief;" he must be condemned 
 unjustly, mocked, and scourged, and crucified, amid 
 the hootings of the rabble and the sneers of the 
 rulers; he must endure all that is suggested by the 
 words, " My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto 
 death," and by the thrice-repeated cry, " my 
 Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me! " 
 and yet the Father makes no effort to relieve his 
 well-beloved, and the Son makes no effort to dash 
 that cup of gall from his lips. The Father saw the 
 shrinking of his Son; he heard, as the dark cloud 
 gathered over him, his lamentable wail, " My God, 
 my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" and yet, the 
 Father approving, and the Son enduring, they vin- 
 dicated the right; they taught on a platform visible 
 to the universe, and with an emphasis that made all
 
 138 THE SUPKEME AIM OF LIFE. 
 
 the domain of darkness to tremble, that any sacri- 
 fice, however great, or suffering, however intense, 
 must be endured rather than swerve from the right. 
 We see this effort of the Eternal Father to establish 
 a kingdom of light, strong in truth and righteous- 
 ness, a kingdom with absolute repulsion, in absolute 
 antagonism, to the kingdom of darkness; we see 
 him interested to the limit of his resources, and to 
 the extent of the sacrifice of his only-begotten Son ; 
 we hear his summons to all intelligences to rally to 
 the standard of right; and yet, in the light of this 
 great interest, and of this mighty struggle, and of 
 this authoritative call, we abandon right for a mess 
 of pottage. Our conscience, the recognized regent 
 in our mental nature, sides with God; we feel and 
 know that we cannot answer the questioning of our 
 own nature, nor the demands of Jehovah, if under 
 any pressure we swerve from the right, and bow 
 down to the idols of the Nebuchadnezzars of this 
 world. And can we disregard God and conscience, 
 and be guiltless? Can we adopt the policy of King 
 Ahaz, and because we see others reach worldly suc- 
 cess by unrighteous methods, can we worship mam- 
 mon, or the goddess of pleasure, and say, Because 
 these gods prosper their worshipers we will sacrifice 
 to them, that they may help us can we act thus 
 and be without sin? Ah, no, my brethren. We 
 need no grand assize, no great white throne, no un- 
 erring Judge, to settle this question. Our own 
 hearts interested judges in the very days of our 
 success, will ever declare such conduct sinful. As 
 the Jews, to their own condemnation, said, "He
 
 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 139 
 
 will miserably destroy those wicked husbandmen, 
 and let out the vineyard to others," so we shall be com- 
 pelled to brand as sinful every act which seeks suc- 
 cess at the expense of right. Who can draw in 
 colors sufficiently dark the conduct of Balaam, 
 laboring to move Jehovah to curse Israel, to destroy 
 an entire nation God's chosen ones that Balaam 
 might secure the wages of iniquity, the reward of 
 Balak? And when the kingdoms of light and dark-- 
 ness, truth and error, are arrayed in deadly hostility, 
 when we recognize that the very existence of order, 
 peace, and blessedness, in the universe, depends on 
 the triumph of the kingdom of truth, and see that 
 God and all the good are staking all on the success 
 of the right, what can be said of us if, for a tempo- 
 rary gain wealth, pleasure, power we abandon 
 the right, and ally ourselves with the armies of 
 vice? brethren, we shall need no word from the 
 King on that day! Our own consciences will stamp 
 the brand of guilt on the soul, and drive us away to 
 the kingdom of darkness. 
 
 We remark, that if this conduct of Ahaz is wick- 
 ed, it is characterized also by signal folly. God has 
 taught, as clearly as the nature of the case will admit, 
 that " he who walketh uprightly, walketh surely " 
 that the right, and all the friends of the right, will 
 ultimately triumph. In such a world as ours, tempo- 
 ral success to all the servants of God, and because 
 they serve him, would not accord with the highest 
 wisdom. The government of God among men seeks 
 to develop, strengthen, and manifest character. We 
 are unable to see how our first parents could have
 
 140 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 
 
 developed or manifested character if there had been 
 no temptation. Doing the divine will as easily and 
 as naturally as the stream flows down its channel, 
 would develop no character, and secure no com- 
 mendation. We must have burdens to lift before 
 we can gain strength. Or how could we manifest 
 character devotion to the right and love for God 
 if worldly prosperity were invariably the result of 
 obedience to God? Perhaps the strongest desire 
 of the natural man is for worldly success riches, 
 honors, power. If these should always be given to 
 the children of God, how could it be shown that 
 they who professed loyalty to Jehovah really loved 
 him and his law? "When Satan should appear, as 
 he did in the case of Job, and charge that these all 
 serve God because he puts a hedge about them, and 
 prospers them on every side, how could his cavil be 
 met? The most selfish and base would, of course, 
 rally to Christ's standard under this arrangement; 
 the great, carnal crowd, as of old, would be in haste 
 to make him a king, but only a bread-king not 
 the King of truth and righteousness. The blighting 
 of temporal schemes, the withholding of worldly 
 success, is one of the burdens, one of the forms of 
 trial, to which God wisely subjects his people, that, 
 like their great Captain, they may be " made perfect 
 through sufferings," and demonstrate, under any 
 pressure, in every trial, their loyalty to the right. 
 
 Should absolute worldly prosperity be always the 
 lot of the disciples of Christ, there would be no 
 grand character among men constant under pressure 
 and gold in the furnace; no patient endurance, no
 
 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 141 
 
 heroic self-sacrifice, no manifestation of love to 
 truth stronger than love of life, no victorious shout 
 from the scaffold or the stake, "The blood of the 
 martyr is the seed of the Church," no possible way 
 of proving to a gainsaying generation how sweet 
 and all-conquering is the love of God. 
 
 Jehovah, in the history of his people, has taught 
 on a national platform the connection of prosperity 
 with righteousness; he has given many illustrations 
 in the case of individuals of prosperity because of 
 fidelity to the truth; he declares, in the most em- 
 phatic manner, that it shall be well with the right- 
 eous; "that all things work together for good to 
 them that love God;" and he has impressed the 
 conviction on the minds of all his people that the 
 faithful shall be blessed forevermore. And while 
 the man of integrity often fails of worldly success, 
 it is a great slander upon God and his intelligent 
 creatures to hold that selfish principles and corrupt 
 practices are essential to prosperity. The active, 
 enterprising, industrious man, who honors God and 
 loves his neighbor, will most frequently be success- 
 ful in business. " The very hairs of your head are 
 all numbered," and not a sparrow "shall fall on the 
 ground without your Father." " Fear ye not there- 
 fore, ye are of more value than many sparrows." 
 " For your Heavenly Father knoweth that you have 
 need of all these things," and whatsoever success is 
 best for them he will grant to his faithful ones. He 
 has done all that could be done through his word, 
 and providence, and Spirit, to convince us, and he 
 has convinced us, that devotion to right will secure
 
 142 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 
 
 ultimate and eternal prosperity. How unwise, with 
 this conviction upon us, to turn aside from the path 
 that leads to countless riches and fadeless glory, that 
 we may pluck the fruit of Sodom, or obtain " the 
 meat that perisheth ! " 
 
 The folly of this course will appear more evident 
 when we remember that worldly success at the ex- 
 pense of right conduct is not a blessing, but a curse; 
 not a stepping-stone to aid us in our upward prog- 
 ress, but a millstone to sink us deeper in darkness 
 arid difficulty. The divine word says, " They that 
 will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and 
 into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown 
 men in destruction and perdition." " Go to now, ye 
 rich men; weep and howl for your miseries that shall 
 come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, your 
 gold and silver are cankered, and the rust of them 
 shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your 
 flesh as it were tire. Behold, the hire of the laborers, 
 which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth." " He 
 that makest haste to be rich shall not be innocent." 
 These words are not directed against rich men be- 
 cause they are rich. Riches are a talent, and may 
 bring a great reward to their possessor. If wise in 
 their use, he will make friends who will receive him 
 into everlasting habitations. He will secure the 
 approval of the King, and be intrusted with tenfold 
 more possessions. Wealth is a talent of great pow- 
 er. The rich man of the present age occupies a 
 vantage-ground for the securement of improvement 
 to his race, honor to himself, and glory to God, sel- 
 dom reached by other classes a vantage-ground of
 
 THE SUPREME AIM OP LIFE. 143 
 
 great possibilities, but imposing fearful responsibili- 
 ties. The warnings of these scriptures are directed 
 to those who, like King Ahaz, make worldly success 
 the ruling aim of life those who will be rich, 
 who hasten to be rich, who, at all hazards, by fraud, 
 oppression, keeping back the hire, are resolved to 
 accumulate too restive to tread the sure path of 
 providence, they resort to all tricks and devices 
 any scheme, any plan, by which they may hasten to 
 be rich. 
 
 The wise man, guided by inspiration, says, " There 
 is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun: 
 riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. 
 But those riches perish by evil travail, and he beget- 
 teth a son, and there is nothing in his hand. As he 
 came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he 
 return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of 
 his labor which he may carry away in his hand." 
 "And what profit hath he that hath labored for the 
 wind? All his days also he eateth in darkness, and 
 bath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness." 
 "What a picture! and how often verified in the life 
 of those who make worldly success their highest 
 aim! Riches gained and kept for the owners there- 
 of to their hurt! Secured by evil practices, they 
 bind their possessors to those evil practices by all 
 the strength of their influence. Their splendid 
 mansions and hoarded treasures stand between them 
 and eternal life. Each one whose success is the re- 
 sult of wrong may well say, 
 
 What form of prayer 
 Can serve my turn ? Forgive my foul murder!
 
 144 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 
 
 That cannot be, since I am still possessed 
 Of those effects for which I did the murder 
 My crown, my own ambition, and my queen. 
 May one be pardoned and retain the offense ? 
 In the corrupted currents of this world, 
 Offense's gilded hand may shove by justice; 
 And oft 'tis seen, the wicked prize itself 
 Buys out the law ; but 'tis not so above. 
 There is no shuffling, there the action lies 
 In its true nature; and we ourselves compelled, 
 Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, 
 To give in evidence. 
 
 No one can say, with any hope of success, Forgive 
 my foul offense, while he holds with loving clutch 
 the fruits of that offense. To enter the kingdom 
 of heaven, his penitence must be so genuine as to 
 command restoration as far as possible. And how 
 many of the multitude, who have made worldly 
 success their chief end, can receive this saying? 
 The rich young ruler, whose morals were pure, 
 weighing heaven and earth, deliberately turned 
 away from the proffered crown of eternal life, that 
 he might still possess his earthly treasure. But 
 when our purpose at the beginning, and every step 
 onward, is a practical subordination of every thing 
 to the one object of worldly success, how can we, 
 with wrong principles strengthened by life-long ex- 
 ercise, with a conscience seared, with the entire mor- 
 al nature perverted through the love of gain how, 
 when called to repentance, can we tear away our 
 hearts, so wedded to our treasures, and restore those 
 treasures for the kingdom of heaven's sake? The 
 man who subordinates all things to worldly success, 
 and is therefore at liberty to gain, and liable to gain,
 
 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 145 
 
 by evil practices, knows not what he does. As the 
 mason, building day by day the lofty tower from 
 whose summit he is to fall and be dashed to pieces, 
 so this man is binding himself, with well-nigh ada- 
 mantine bonds; and through principles and practices 
 strengthening daily, and with all the weight of his 
 accumulating treasures, he is throwing up almost 
 insurmountable difficulties across the track that 
 leads to life. It is easier for a camel to go through 
 a needle's eye than for such a rich man to enter the 
 kingdom of heaven. And how often these ill-got- 
 ten gains bring ruin to our children! With God's 
 curse upon them, too, the same evil practices by 
 which they were accumulated tear them from us 
 they perish by evil travail. How often does such 
 success vanish as the morning cloud and early dew ! 
 It comes, bringing in its train into the household 
 idleness, extravagance, vanity, and pride often, and 
 as it departs, leaving its wretched train, a heritage 
 of woe, it croaks in our ear the sad inquiry, Where 
 is now thy god? "What profit hath he that hath 
 labored for the wind?" 
 
 Whether retained or not, their possessor " all his 
 days eateth in darkness, and hath much sorrow and 
 wrath with his sickness." As he nears the end of 
 life, conscience will gather about him the victims 
 of his wrong, who will take up a parable and taunt- 
 ing proverb against him, and say, "Woe to him 
 that increaseth that which is not his own! Woe to 
 him that gaineth an evil gain to his house, that he 
 may set his nest on high ! The stone shall cry out 
 of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall
 
 146 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 
 
 answer it. Woe to him that buildeth a town with 
 blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity!" The 
 great Teacher makes the solemn inquiry, " What is 
 a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and 
 lose his own soul? " 
 
 When we survey man as he is so grand and 
 godlike in his nature that earth, with all its treas- 
 ures, its Elysian fields, its Tempean vales, its happy 
 isles, its voluptuousness, its magnificence and grand- 
 eur, could never satisfy him when we view him 
 with so vast capacities, and yet destined to live and 
 grow forever, and then think of his deliberately 
 wrecking these immortal energies, and bartering all 
 that is implied in eternal life in the kingdom of 
 heaven for worldly gain a gain that cannot satisfy, 
 a gain that can last only for a transient flash of 
 time we are constrained to acknowledge that there 
 is infinite folly in the transaction. 
 
 Who in all the range of history has found world- 
 ly success at the sacrifice of right profitable? Jez- 
 ebel and Ahab secured the vineyard of Naboth; 
 Judas got his thirty pieces of silver; but did they 
 bring a blessing in their train? The rich man, who 
 said to his soul, "Take thine ease, eat, drink, and 
 be merry," has no crime laid at his door but that 
 of making worldly gain and its enjoyment the chief 
 end of life; and when God tears him away from his 
 treasures, and, branding fool upon his forehead, 
 sends him out into a dark universe without a far- 
 thing or a friend, he but gives another illustration 
 of the great folly of valuing worldly prosperity 
 above right and responsibility.
 
 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 147 
 
 Again, the success is always transient. Admit, 
 if you please, that it brings a blessing, that we may 
 obtain and enjoy it through life without qualms of 
 conscience, or fears of the future, still we must soon 
 part with this source of enjoyment. We shall retain 
 a remembrance of it, and that remembrance will be 
 a bright background, which will but intensify the 
 gloom of our eternal future. " Son, remember that 
 thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things, and 
 now thou art tormented." The sad contrast will 
 live forever. But as a blessing, a source of enjoy- 
 ment, our worldly success, if secured by making it 
 the supreme object in life, parts with us forever at 
 death. To our rank and power, our treasures and 
 honors, at the end of life here, we must bid a final 
 farewell. As a blight to our joy, a curse upon our 
 brow, or a millstone about our neck, these may 
 survive ; but as blessings they part with us at the 
 grave. I care not how vast our possessions, or lofty 
 our throne. As we walk in the midst of the great 
 ^Babylon which we have built by the might of our 
 power, our great success may prompt us to believe 
 that we shall ascend into heaven and exalt our throne 
 above the stars of God, that we shall be like the Most 
 High, that our mountain shall never be moved; but 
 soon the grave will be moved at our coming. Our 
 enemies will break forth into singing, " Hast thou 
 become like one of us? how art thou fallen from 
 heaven, O day-star, son of the morning! " We have 
 surveyed, in the light of history, the great kingdoms 
 which have ruled the world, and we learned that 
 the mighty monarchs, surrounded by their posses-
 
 148 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 
 
 sions, and guarded by invincible legions, at the be- 
 hest of the great King each one was compelled to 
 leave all and return to the dust. 
 
 Almost in our century a mighty god of war arose, 
 who threatened to subdue the earth. His lowering 
 brow shrouded in darkness the political horizon of 
 the world. At his nod nations trembled. As his 
 humor dictated, he pulled down and set up king- 
 doms. His disciplined armies, his vast conquests, 
 his stronghold in the affections of his people, his 
 towering genius and invincible will, seemed to 
 promise for him permanent power. Surely, if any 
 could resist the stern rule of fate, and lift his throne 
 above the clouds and the reach of change, it was this 
 mighty god of war. But soon we see him contem- 
 plating the setting sun as he throws his lingering 
 beams on the wide waste of waters. His crown 
 dishonored, his scepter broken, his power gone, far 
 from his home and his kingdom, without any army 
 or a soldier, poor and naked, he went down to his 
 grave in a rocky isle of the ocean. We have seen 
 but as yesterday the young man who would be rich. 
 With eager zeal he proclaimed Mammon as his god, 
 and worshiped at his altars. Wealth came, millions 
 were poured into his coffers, yet in the prime of life, 
 forsaken of his own god, haunted by an evil con- 
 science, pursued by men and cursed of Jehovah, in 
 a felon's cell he went down to his grave, " unwept, 
 unhonored, and unsung," and inspiration writes his 
 memorial, " He that getteth riches, and not by right, 
 shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at 
 his end shall be a fool." The world hath seen error
 
 THE SUPREME AIM Ol 1 LIFE. 149 
 
 and wrong trample down all opposition, and stalk 
 the earth as a mighty giant. Ascending the lofty 
 summit of success, we have seen it crowned, and 
 wave its palm in triumph; but there, on its pinnacle 
 of glory, and amid the exultant songs of its disci- 
 ples,*we have seen it languish and die. 
 
 Error, wounded, writhes in pain, 
 And dies among her worshipers. 
 
 God's curse rests upon it, and it must be crushed. 
 As Jezebel and Ahab had learned, when the dogs 
 licked their blood and ate their flesh by the wall of 
 Jezreel, and in the portion of Naboth; as Judas felt 
 when the price of innocent blood so burnt in his 
 conscience that he threw it from him and hanged 
 himself; as all the tyrants and monsters of iniquity 
 whom history has branded have learned, under the 
 ruling of Jehovah, so every one, however lofty or 
 low his station, shall be taught, and feel with strong 
 intensity, that any success secured at the sacrifice 
 of right, or through subordinating right to worldly 
 prosperity., is a bitter curse, and never a blessing. 
 
 Jehovah has declared that he who subordinates 
 right conduct and eternal life to worldly success 
 chooses his " good things " in this world shall be 
 bound in the next world by that choice; that he 
 who barters the divine approval and heaven for a 
 mess of pottage shall not be counted worthy to 
 enter his kingdom. He assures us that the feet of 
 such " shall slide in due time," that " they stand in 
 slippery places." While the righteous "shall flour- 
 ish like the palm-tree," green and vigorous through 
 winter's frost and summer's drought, and "grow
 
 150 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 
 
 like a cedar in Lebanon," whose age is counted by 
 centuries; while they shall stand like Mount Zion, 
 that can never be moved, " the wicked shall spring " 
 only "as the grass," and "the workers of iniquity 
 flourish, that they shall be destroyed forever; " they 
 shall not prosper, a ruin shall overtake them Suffi- 
 ciently awful to send a pang through all the realms 
 of benevolence and love. " I have seen the wicked 
 in great power, and spreading himself like a green 
 bay-tree; yet he passed away, and lo, he was not; 
 yea, I sought him, but he could not be found." 
 
 Away, then, with the idea everywhere, that we 
 must have success, wealth, fame, power! These are 
 not necessary; they can never satisfy; if made 
 supreme, they never ennoble, but dwarf and de- 
 grade; they perish in the using, and must all be 
 abandoned at the grave. But a good conscience 
 and God's approval are essential. These give a 
 power which all the wealth and armed legions of 
 the world cannot equal, and will sustain in peace 
 and assurance " when suns have waned and worlds 
 sublime their final revolutions told." Away with 
 that demoralizing notion that " nature chooses the 
 fittest" -fittest signifying those who gain secular 
 wealth and power; that they alone are valuable, or 
 worthy to live, who can press themselves into the 
 front ranks of worldly success! Away with the un- 
 principled and cowardly example of this degenerate 
 king, teaching that our methods and our very God 
 may be abandoned in the hope of gaining a success 
 which, like a millstone, will sink us forever! Diffi- 
 cult it is to get beyond the shadow of this world.
 
 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 151 
 
 Its palpable influence is ever present; the circling 
 waves of its power, as a mighty maelstrom, drive 
 us along their whirling track. Its ease, its wealth, 
 its honors, its magnificence and splendor, its re- 
 proach, and scorn, and ridicule, O how they make 
 the brain to burn, and enslave the mind ! But we 
 know that another day is coming. The clock of 
 eternity shall strike twelve; the visible universe, 
 waxed old, shall be folded up and laid aside as a 
 garment, and the new heavens and the new earth 
 shall appear. In that hour, as we see our present 
 home, its silver and gold, its honors and power, 
 pass away, and as we take in the vast scope of Je- 
 hovah's reign and of eternal life, in what light will 
 appear the choice which now prefers the visible and 
 perishing to the eternal which sides with the 
 doomed kingdom of evil, repudiating the dynasty 
 of righteousness, whose flag shall wave in triumph 
 forever? How ruinous and wicked then will seem 
 the policy which says, Because these practices secure 
 worldly gain, therefore will I adopt them! 
 
 O no ! stand bravely by the right, and seek the 
 return of the heroic days, when men of the world 
 could say, " I would rather be right than ruler." 
 I would rather be a door-keeper with the holy than 
 prosper among the wicked! Poor you may be, 
 possibly starve, but the angels who bore Lazarus to 
 the skies have lost neither power of opinion nor 
 loyalty* to the will of our Father. Your schemes 
 and plans may all fail, but they fail in the cause 
 and under the eye of Him who knows your wants, 
 and who is pledged to make "all things work to-
 
 152 THE SUPREME AIM OF LIFE. 
 
 gether for good" to his friends. You may be the 
 scorn and derision of the prosperous around you, 
 the frown of the world's Caesars may rest upon yon, 
 but you shall have the countenance and the smile 
 of the King of kings. Your names may be un- 
 known to the registry of earth's renowned, but they 
 will live on the abiding records of heaven. No 
 grand mausoleum may stand over your grave, but 
 God will mark the spot, and " when the holy angels 
 come, it surely will be found." And on that day 
 when, Truth's reign secured, she shall raise her pae- 
 ans of everlasting triumph, you, as the friends of 
 truth, who sold it not, will join in her song of joy, 
 and shout, " They shall prosper that love thee!"
 
 s 
 
 THK REV. W. T. HARRIS, D.D.. 
 Of the Memj.liis .Conference,
 
 IX. 
 
 THE LAST ENEMY. 
 
 BY THE REV. W. T. HARRIS, 
 
 Memphis Conference. 
 
 "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." I Cor. 
 xv. 26. 
 
 WE are in a world of enemies enemies of soul 
 and body. Some of them are stout, and stubborn, 
 and cruel, and hard to overcome. None may be 
 entirely subdued and conquered without assistance 
 without divine grace. Our souls have enemies 
 all about, inside of us and outside of us, and they 
 are dangerous. And our bodies have enemies in 
 the earth, in the sky, in the air, in the waters 
 everywhere. 
 
 The great enemy of the soul is sin, for all the 
 different forms of evil, and foes of humanity, with 
 all their different phases, and characters, and classes, 
 and degrees, when aggregated and considered, may 
 be pronounced in one word sin. 
 
 The body has lustful passions, and libidinous pro- 
 pensities, and carnal desires, and pains, and aches, 
 and many infirmities all leading to and resulting 
 in death. According to the teachings of the text, 
 the last enemy " death " shall be destroyed, shall 
 be counterworked, subverted, and finally overturned. 
 But death cannot be destroyed by there being sim- 
 7* (153)
 
 154 THE LAST ENEMY. 
 
 ply no farther death; death can only be destroyed 
 and annihilated by a general resurrection. Then, if 
 there be no general resurrection, it is most evident 
 that death will still retain his empire. Therefore, 
 the fact that death shall be destroyed assures the 
 fact that there shall be a general resurrection; and 
 this is proof also that after the resurrection there 
 shall be no more death. 
 
 1. The resurrection of the dead is no new doctrine. 
 It is most clearly and elaborately taught, and fully 
 explained, in the New Testament, and likewise set 
 forth, and with the utmost exactitude, in the Old 
 Testament. This doctrine is as old as the Church 
 of God believed and taught by patriarchs, and 
 prophets, and apostles the great doctrine of every 
 dispensation, and of eve^ age of the world. 
 
 This heaven-revealed and heaven-attested truth, 
 in the ages long gone, kindled the fire that burned 
 in the heart and flashed in the eye of the prophet 
 of God, and enabled him to rise above the darkling 
 and hurtling clouds of mysticism, and pierce the 
 unborn future, and read on the ghastly mouth of 
 the moldering tomb light, life, immortality! 
 
 Foreshadowed all over the Old Testament. Moses, 
 the earliest writer, and who gave an account of the 
 creation of the world, and man, and all things else, 
 in the infancy of time, when the young world 
 swung down in the warm, fresh breath of heaven, 
 and sparkled in the early dews of eternity, believed 
 it, and looked forward to the day of triumph. How 
 sublime the faith of that grand old Jewish legisla- 
 tor, God's own amanuensis, standing near the burn-
 
 THE LAST ENEMY. 155 
 
 ing bush, and calling the Lord "The God of Abra- 
 ham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; 
 for he is not a God of the dead, but of the living!" 
 
 And Job, the very embodiment of all physical 
 suffering, and disease, and persecution, in the midst 
 of all exultingly shouted, "I know that my Re- 
 deemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter 
 day upon the earth; and though after my skin 
 worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see 
 God." 
 
 And Isaiah, the great evangelical prophet, mourn- 
 ing over the devastation and ruin of city, and coun- 
 try, and people, attributing all to the just judgments 
 of a righteous God : " For thou hast made of a city 
 a heap; of a defensed city a ruin; a palace of 
 strangers to be no city; it shall never be built." 
 And of the people he said: "They are dead, they 
 shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise; 
 thou hast destroyed them, and made all their mem- 
 ory to perish." Then he rises with the inspiration 
 of hope thrilling his heart and flashing in his eye, 
 and God's own living fire touching his tongue, and 
 in the majesty of unconquerable faith he cries, " Thy 
 dead men shall live, together with my dead body 
 shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in 
 dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the 
 earth shall cast out the dead." And language equal- 
 ly strong and pertinent may be quoted from Daniel, 
 Hosea, and others. 
 
 2. This doctrine was derided by the Greeks. When 
 Paul, God's great apostle, appeared in the celebrated 
 Grecian city Athens and stood on the renowned
 
 156 THE LAST ENEMY. 
 
 Areopagus, or hill of Mars, in the midst of that 
 pompons court, confronting the learned infidelity 
 and false philosophy of the age, and preached Jesus 
 and the resurrection, a sublimer exhibition of moral 
 heroism, and intellectual grandeur, and unflinching 
 nerve, the world never saw. " It is not possible to 
 conceive a situation of greater peril, or one more cal- 
 culated to prove the sincerity of a preacher, than that 
 in which the apostle was here placed; and the truth 
 of this, perhaps, will never be better felt than by a 
 spectator, who from this eminence actually beholds 
 the monuments of pagan pomp and superstition by 
 which he, whom the Athenians considered as the 
 setter-forth of strange gods, was then surrounded 
 representing to the imagination the disciples of 
 Socrates and of Plato the dogmatist of the Porch 
 and the skeptic of the Academy addressed by a 
 poor and lowly man, who, 'rude in speech,' without 
 the 'enticing words of man's wisdom,' enjoined pre- 
 cepts contrary to their taste, and very hostile to their 
 prejudices." 
 
 There he stood, towering above that sea of up- 
 turned faces, and fiery, glancing eyes, and infuriated 
 hearts of infidelity the unmoved, intrepid servant 
 of God, like a beetling rock in mid-ocean, breasting 
 the waves, lashed by the wing of the tempest the 
 grand, God-sustained, God-honored apostle! And 
 above the low, sullen murmur of dissent, and the 
 sharp, loud clamor of bitter opposition, rang the 
 heaven-inspired words, Jesus and the resurrection! 
 
 "Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans 
 and of the Stoics encountered him, and some said,
 
 THE LAST ENEMY. 157 
 
 "What will this babbler say? he seemeth to be a 
 setter-forth of strange gods. And when they heard 
 of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, and 
 others said, We will hear thee again of this mat- 
 ter." After their derision and mocking, some be- 
 lieved and, indeed, all the Jews, as a nation, be- 
 lieved this doctrine all the Pharisees, all the scribes 
 only the Sadducees dissenting. 
 
 3. The resurrection of Christ insures the resurrection 
 of humankind. "Now is Christ risen from the dead, 
 and become the first - fruits of them that slept. 
 For since by man came death, by man came also 
 the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all 
 die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But 
 every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; 
 afterward, they that are Christ's at his coming." 
 After the crucifixion of our Lord, his body was 
 placed in the new tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, 
 " in which never man was laid." Of course, should 
 a resurrection take place, it must be that of Jesus 
 it could be of no other person. On the third day 
 the tomb was empty. What became of the body? 
 We know the plain, unvarnished statement of the 
 evangelists, the straightforward, unembellished way 
 the gospel answers the question, and to the satisfac- 
 tion of men, and angels, and God. We have gone 
 with the body of Jesus from the cross to the tomb; 
 we have seen the tomb sealed ; have left the Roman 
 guard at the mouth of the sepulcher. Now, let in- 
 fidelity, the chief priests, the enemies of Christ, 
 produce the body, on or after the third day, in order 
 to silence the clamor of the deluded multitude, and
 
 158 THE LAST ENEMY. 
 
 put this question to rest forever. We have read the 
 predictions of the prophets and of Jesus, and now 
 the eager eyes of an excited world are fixed with 
 intensest gaze upon the result, and all hearts beat 
 with the extremest concernment; but show the dead 
 body, and the claims of Christianity are at once and 
 forever hushed: her fair temple totters and falls, 
 and with a crash that sends waking echoes all along 
 down the ages, and through all time! It was not 
 done. The soldiers say, " While we slept the disci- 
 ples came and stole it away." Where are the dis- 
 ciples? They have not fled the country, have not 
 attempted to escape; here they are, standing up 
 boldly in the face of the excited multitude, discom- 
 fited infidelity, and enraged chief priests, preaching, 
 "He is risen; come see the place where he lay." 
 Why did they not arrest the disciples, and make 
 them produce the body ? They had all power, all 
 authority both civil and military and the blood- 
 thirsty crowd, the influential chief priests, and the 
 strong military arm stretched out for their protec- 
 tion and assistance. Why did they not arrest and 
 crucify every one of them? They put to death the 
 Master surely they would not scruple to kill the 
 servants. But this was not done. Strange, indeed ! 
 Why did not the enemies of Jesus, determined to 
 crush Christianity in its infancy, seize upon this 
 wonderful advantage, and blot out every record, 
 every word of the doctrines promulged by the 
 great impostor and his despised disciples? The 
 world was standing on tiptoe, infidelity raging, and 
 the minds of the people inflamed with the most in-
 
 TI1E LAST ENEMY. 159 
 
 veterate hate. Why let this best opportunity the 
 world ever saw pass by unimproved? They had 
 the power, the authority, and the sympathy, of 
 the Roman governor and the whole Jewish nation. 
 Under the law, they should have arrested the guards, 
 who were self-convicted and self-condemned sixty 
 men on watch, all asleep at once and pronounced 
 upon them the penalty of the law, "Death." That 
 was not done. Ah, let stultified infidelity blush with 
 very shame ! 
 
 What became of the crucified body of Jesus? In- 
 fidelity has never answered the question, and never 
 will. 
 
 Hear the response of the gospel the plain, con- 
 sistent, and harmonious statement of the two an- 
 gels, all of the apostles, the pious women, and more 
 than five hundred brethren at once "He is risen." 
 Christianity finds the crucified body of our blessed 
 Lord, but it is not dead, but alive forevermore! 
 Christianity saw him at the mouth of the tomb, on 
 the way to Emmaus, on the mountain-top, on the 
 bright cloud, and in the company of marshaling 
 angels ascending to the right-hand of the Majesty 
 on high ! Christianity sees him to-day, with the 
 eye of faith, high seated upon the eternal throne 
 of his glory, an exalted and interceding Saviour, a 
 High - priest passed into the heaven of heavens, 
 where he ever liveth to make intercession for us. 
 Pray on, thou risen, exalted, glorified One! By faith 
 we see thee. 
 
 4. Order of the resurrection. The dead saints will 
 be raised first. In that last day of earth, that day
 
 160 THE LAST ENEMY. 
 
 of God's power and glory, into which the destiny 
 of unnumbered millions will be crowded, that day 
 of nameless terror to the wicked, of ineffable joy to 
 the righteous, and of unutterable splendor to all, 
 God will honor his followers. When all the aerial 
 regions, all space between earth and heaven, daz- 
 zle with the glory of the descending Lord, and 
 brighten with the flash of angelic wings, God will 
 dignify, invest with honor, and glorify, his trusting 
 saints. "For the Lord himself shall descend from 
 heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archan- 
 gel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in 
 Christ shall rise first." But what will become of 
 the saints still living, who have never tasted death, 
 never gone into the silence of the grave, still walk- 
 ing the earth, actively engaged with the vocations, 
 and professions, and duties, of this life? In the 
 gospel plan of full redemption they are not over- 
 looked, not forgotten. "Then we which are alive 
 and remain shall be caught up together with them 
 in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so 
 shall we ever be with the Lord." Then the wicked 
 shall be raised ; but not until the God-man has 
 gathered up all his jewels from the earth, and from 
 the waters, and from every part of the globe, as 
 brilliant stars with which to bedeck his resplendent 
 crown of glory forever. Not until the joyful meet- 
 ing of the saints with the Lord in the air, shall the 
 deep slumber of a sinner be disturbed, or a grave 
 cracked, or a tomb opened, of the ungodly! 
 
 When the wicked do come forth, it will be to 
 shame and everlasting contempt. " They that have
 
 THE LAST ENEMY. 161 
 
 done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they 
 that have done evil, unto the resurrection of dam- 
 nation." They would rather slumber on, hid for- 
 ever in the thick darkness of the grave, or concealed 
 
 deep down in the bowels of the earth forever, or 2:0 
 
 . .#-'' 
 
 straight to hell, than meet the flashing eye ot the 
 
 omniscient Judge, and see the bursting light of that 
 terrible day. And when they do come at God's 
 command, pale and trembling, it will be with a cry 
 that will startle the earth, and ring to hell, and 
 thunder to heaven: "Rocks and mountains, fall 
 upon us, and hide us from the presence of Him that 
 sitteth upon the throne ! " 
 
 5. Nature of the resurrection -body. We may say 
 but little on this subject, for Paul has treated it with 
 the hand of a master and the heart of a prophet. 
 It will be incorruptible, not subject to decay will 
 live and bloom in fadeless beauty and immortal joy. 
 It will possess glory and power. " Sown in weak- 
 ness, raised in power." How much glory, and how 
 much power, God only knows; and with what ce- 
 lestial brightness and supernatural luster it will be 
 invested, God only knows; and what marvelous 
 strength and wonderful activity, we cannot con- 
 ceive. 
 
 It will be a spiritual body. "Sown a natural 
 body, raised a spiritual body." And above all, and 
 grander than all, it will be like Christ's glorified body. 
 " For our conversation is in heaven, from whence 
 also we look for the Saviour, who shall change our 
 vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his 
 glorious body." " It doth not yet appear what we
 
 102 THE LAST ENEMY. 
 
 shall be; but we know that when he shall appear, 
 we shall be like him." " I shall be satisfied when 
 I awake with thy likeness." 
 
 6. The resurrection will be the victory over man's last 
 enemy. " The last enemy that shall be destroyed is 
 death." "Death is swallowed up in victory." 
 
 Death, king of terrors! Thou merciless, vaunting, 
 cruel, triumphant enemy of humankind! Broad 
 has been thy empire, stretching from pole to pole, 
 from north to south, from sea to sea, engirding the 
 whole earth! Broad, and firm, and impregnable, 
 and high as heaven, has been thy throne, built of 
 human bones, and cemented with human gore! 
 And the din and noise of thy building was the 
 shriek of widowhood and the cry of orphanage! 
 Innumerable, and active, and cruel, have been the 
 agents, and emissaries, and engines of destruction, 
 at thy command! Long, and dreadful, and corn- 
 passionless, has been thy reign of terror! Thy 
 bloody scepter, that waved over dying Abel, has ex- 
 tended to every people, every country, every clime, 
 every tribe, and every home-circle! Where is there 
 a family he has not entered, and broken into frag- 
 ments? a heart he has not made to bleed? an eye 
 he has not learned to weep? a voice he has not 
 stifled in grief? 
 
 And on he strides to-day, building cities, and peo- 
 pling them with his pale and pulseless victims, and 
 scattering solitary graves all over the land, and fill- 
 ing up the oceans with his slain ! No human power 
 can stop his wild, impetuous tread; no human hand 
 can wrench from his grasp the iron scepter; no
 
 THE LAST ENEMY. 163 
 
 voice of pleading, nor streaming eye, nor breaking 
 heart, nor bending knee, can move him to pity, or 
 drive him away. O there is but one Power in the 
 universe that can arrest and stop his triumphant 
 march; but one Arm that can take from his hand 
 the bloody scepter; but one Being in earth or heav- 
 en that can conquer and drive him away! the Lion 
 of the tribe of Judah! And, thank God, he has un- 
 dertaken our cause, become the Captain of our sal- 
 vation, and will fight our battles for us, and over- 
 throw our enemies. "And the last enemy that shall 
 be destroyed is death." 
 
 7. Then death shall be dethroned; his empire con- 
 quered, subjugated; his sepulchral cities depopu- 
 lated; his solitary graves emptied; oceans dis- 
 gorged! When Jesus speaks, his throne shall totter 
 to the fall, and the king of terrors shall come, with 
 unresisting submission, tamely crouching to his feet! 
 
 Our " last " great " enemy " has heard the voice of 
 Jesus before. When death, that tyrannical, gloat- 
 ing, cruel monster, reigned over the grave of Laza- 
 rus, and the bending forms, and the pleading cries, 
 and the gushing tears, and breaking hearts, of in- 
 consolable sisters could not move his merciless heart, 
 or make him relinquish his cold and iron grasp, the 
 omnipotent voice of the God-man sounded in his 
 ear, and then he quailed, and cowered, and turned 
 him loose! 
 
 Jesus met him once in the city of Nain, with his 
 mournful, slow-moving cortege, holding his scepter 
 over the only son of a bereaved widow; and when 
 Jesus touched the bier, and said, "Young man,
 
 164 THE LAST ENEMY. 
 
 arise!" death fled, and the boy sat up, and "began 
 to speak!" 
 
 And when the last trump shall sound, and the 
 voice of the archangel shall be heard, and a mighty 
 shout from heaven, the dead, small and great, shall 
 rise. Heaven's gates will open for the righteous; 
 hell's gates will open for the wicked. Then death 
 and hell will be cast into the " lake that burns with 
 fire and brimstone" forever!
 
 THE REV. S. A. STEEL, 
 
 Of tlie Korth Mississippi Conference.
 
 X. 
 
 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 BY THE REV. S. A. STEEL, 
 
 North Mississippi Conference. 
 
 "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power 
 is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, 
 and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching 
 them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded 
 you ; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the 
 world. Amen." Matt, xxviii. 18, 19, 20. 
 
 THE gospel is for everybody, and it must go every- 
 where. This was its scope when Jesus gave the 
 great commission to the disciples, and this is its 
 scope now. It proclaimed then, and it proclaims 
 to-day, that the world is the field of its intended 
 expansion, and the fealty of universal man its due. 
 Unlimited enlargement is a necessity of its nature, 
 and the miracle of its progress the sublimest evi- 
 dence of its truth. God has no favorites. 
 
 The main point in the text is the missionary ob- 
 ligation which it imposes on the Church. There are 
 other and important elements in its exegesis, but 
 this is the central thought that lies at its very heart. 
 The imperfect apprehension of these words is the 
 chief obstacle to the religious development of man- 
 kind. Whenever they press upon the conscience 
 of the Church, the advance of the gospel is rap- 
 
 (165)
 
 166 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 id and glorious. Their spirit is like fire in the 
 bones. 
 
 The text, therefore, contains the indestructible 
 germ of human progress. The moral antecedents 
 of the world's advancement lie in the crystal depths 
 of this passage. The present activity of the globe 
 has sprung from Christianity, has a deep and essen- 
 tial connection with the gospel, and is a predicted 
 result of the plans and policy of Providence in re- 
 lation to mankind. As long as that text lives on 
 the page of inspiration there will be a stir on this 
 planet, and hope for our race. 
 
 There is a wideness in the idea of the text that 
 befits the mind of God. It is forever conclusive as 
 against every form of moral apathy, religious nar- 
 rowness, and spiritual repose. It creates an obliga- 
 tion that would stand firmer than adamant against 
 universal unbelief, and imposes a duty as lasting as 
 time itself. The whole thought, purpose, plan, pol- 
 icy, and reason, of the missionary work of the 
 Church originate here. Every aspect of the gos- 
 pel, every subsequent utterance of its history, every 
 development of its truth in the personal conscious- 
 ness of the believer, but emphasizes this orig- 
 inal disclosure of the aim of the Christian religion. 
 The missionary obligation could have no higher 
 source. 
 
 The text gives ns this proposition: It is the su- 
 preme duty of the Church to send the qospel to all na- 
 tions. We shall try to prove it. We shall analyze 
 this duty into its original elements, and endeavor to 
 show why it is supreme. It hns a broad base lying
 
 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 167 
 
 deep in the region of eternal truth, but it has too 
 often been hidden from view by an undue regard 
 for the superficial and incidental reasons of this 
 work. At best, these possess only a temporary and 
 fluctuating value, and we prefer to clear our way 
 through them to the great scriptural truths and 
 facts of Christian consciousness that lie below them, 
 and from whose conclusions there can be no rational 
 dissent. We want a foundation of rock. 
 
 I. This duty originates in the fact that all the world 
 needs the gospel. 
 
 There is a universal capacity for religion in our 
 race. Human nature is a unit, and however modi- 
 fied by external conditions, retains its fundamental 
 attributes. N"o divergence from the original stock 
 can extinguish the elementary instincts of its being. 
 The moral feeling is constitutional in man, and a 
 moral belief, with its superior motivities, is its nec- 
 essary correlate. The moment thought unfolds in 
 consciousness, the essential instinct of religion 
 emerges into light as a coefficient element of hu- 
 man nature; and it grows deeper and stronger, as 
 reason develops, until it asserts supreme lordship 
 over his being, and demands that every thing be 
 sacrificed to satisfy it. No part of our race has 
 been found incapable of mental and moral eleva- 
 tion. Even the lowest types of savages have been 
 lifted up, and civilized, and redeemed. This fact 
 conditions a universal faith, justifies the world-em- 
 bracing scope of the gospel, and furnishes valid 
 proof of the divinity of a system that, getting back 
 of the multifold manifestations of humanity, plants
 
 168 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 itself on the primal instincts of our nature as the 
 indestructible base of its operations. 
 
 Left to themselves, mankind have always striven 
 to rise out of this darkness. The spontaneous im- 
 pulse of moral feeling has originated schemes of 
 relief. The grandest efforts of the human intellect 
 have been exerted at this point, in vain attempt to 
 pacify the eternal anxieties of conscience, and fill 
 the vast aching void of immortal aspirations. We 
 can trace the struggle of moral thought and feeling, 
 floundering slowly upward and onward from the 
 base forms of nature-worship to the divinest con- 
 cepts of philosophical imagination, in mighty but 
 abortive efforts to find out God. Men have found 
 the highest summits of their speculations sheeted 
 in pitiless snows, and have sunk down in voiceless 
 despair on the glacial wastes of error. Paganism 
 is the product of their discoveries. It is utterly in- 
 adequate to the moral necessities of mankind; yet it 
 to-day holds under its blighting curse the largest 
 portion of our race, and the fairest regions of our 
 earth. By every rational test, the independent re- 
 ligious movements are stupendous failures; but they 
 show the depth of the moral consciousness of man- 
 kind, and are a tremendous argument for the spread 
 of the only true religion. 
 
 The depravity of the race is universal. All na- 
 tions are debauched in crime. The ravages of sin 
 are coextensive with the residence of man. The 
 doom of death hangs like a pall upon our planet. 
 The gospel is the only remedy for sin the cross of 
 Jesus the only hope of our race. It exhibits a per-
 
 THE SPREAD OP THE GOSPEL. 169 
 
 feet correlation with the demands of our universal 
 nature, offers adequate, ample, and available, relief 
 for every human woe, and furnishes the only con- 
 ception of destiny compatible with the dignity of 
 our being, and commensurate with the range of our 
 desires. The loftiest thought of man has never got 
 above it, or beyond it. Wherever it goes, prostrate 
 humanity rises from its degradation, and begins its 
 appropriate activity. Nations without the gospel 
 have been stagnant from an immemorial period; 
 nations with the gospel have always been restless, 
 aggressive, powerful, borne onward along the path 
 of progress by an internal force which they could 
 not resist; and they are so just in proportion as the 
 gospel gets hold of them, and puts its almighty en- 
 ergy into them. It not only accelerates human 
 progress, but imparts dignity and distinction to all 
 its achievements. Civilization is a product of its 
 power, and is coterminous with its expansion. It 
 is universally and gloriously adapted to the eleva- 
 tion of our race. Repose is guilt in the presence 
 of the awful distress of the world. The displeasure 
 of righteous Heaven must be upon us if we rest on 
 our oars and see unmoved the wreck of our race, 
 while louder than the thunders of the storm the 
 vast, deep cry for help is rolling up from millions 
 going down to death. 
 
 II. This duty originates in the fact that the gospel 
 is designed for all the world. 
 
 Inspiration is burdened with the evidence of its 
 universal scope. Prophecy everywhere, and in the 
 clearest voice, foretold its illimitable range. Its
 
 170 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 earliest utterances declared that all nations should 
 be blessed in faithful Abraham, and its latest pro- 
 claimed that whosoever will may come. The hea- 
 then were to be given to Christ for an inheritance, 
 and the uttermost parts of the earth for a posses- 
 sion. He was to be a light to the Gentiles, and the 
 salvation of God to all the ends of the earth. All peo- 
 ple, nations, and languages, were to serve him. By 
 the grace of God he tasted death for every man. He 
 gave himself a ransom for all. He is the Lamb of 
 God that taketh away the sin of the world. He is 
 the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, 
 but also for the sins of the whole world. He com- 
 mands the gospel to be carried to all nations. John 
 saw the symbol of the Christian ministry in the 
 Apocalyptic angel, flying in the midst of heaven, 
 having the everlasting gospel to preach to every 
 nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, that 
 dwell on the earth. 
 
 Such is God's purpose in the gospel. It knows 
 no limits but the boundaries of the globe. Shall 
 we nullify the fundamental aim of its revelation? 
 Shall we content ourselves with a selfish monopoly 
 of its blessings, or imagine we are the pets of the 
 Almighty because we have it? Shall we fold our 
 arms in guilty indifference to its spread, and para- 
 lyze its progress by withholding our aid, when the 
 whole world is dying for it, and it proclaims by 
 every oracle that it is designed for the whole world, 
 and is the gift of God to all our race? Can we love 
 Jesus and do it? 
 
 This aim of universal dominion is peculiar to
 
 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 171 
 
 Christianity. It lifts it immeasurably above its 
 rivals, attests its divinity, and guarantees its final 
 triumph. It assumed at the first, and maintains 
 from age to age, the position of an exclusive re- 
 ligion, itself essentialfy right, and all others neces- 
 sarily wrong, and its destiny absolute and universal 
 supremacy. It refuses to coalesce with other sys- 
 tems. It rejects every offered compromise, and 
 scorns all proposals of armistice. It came to ex- 
 terminate all other forms of moral belief, and moves 
 steadily onward to realize its aim, guided by the 
 wisdom, and sustained by the power, of God. It 
 overthrew the paganism of Europe, and destroyed 
 that of America, and is invading Africa and Asia, 
 intent on its primal aim. It is the only religion 
 that has followers in every land. It has enrolled 
 representatives of every nation under its banner. 
 Its camp-fires illuminate every region, glitter on 
 the far-off isles that gem the ocean, flame like a zone 
 of living splendors along the vast realm of China, 
 and flash high "up the stainless ramps of huge 
 Himalaya's wall." It is organized, active, aggres- 
 sive, triumphant from west to east, through all the 
 latitudes of the habitable earth, illustrating its eter- 
 nal energy in ever-enlarging efforts for the recovery 
 of man. The artificial distinctions of mankind dis- 
 appear in the light of its impartial love, for it came 
 to make the blessings of redemption flow far as the 
 curse is found. 
 
 This design is deep, permanent, fundamental, 
 lying at the very base of the whole economy of 
 mofcil purpose and endeavor. It is organic in the
 
 172 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 very nature of Christianity. The missionary obli- 
 gation therefore springs from an internal necessity 
 of the system, is grounded in the first principles of 
 religion, is inexorable as a moral law, and is of uni- 
 versal and perpetual force. Therefore we cannot 
 be truly loyal to Jesus Christ, and out of sympathy 
 with the sublime and all-embracing purpose of his 
 mission. If we feel no concern for the heathen, and 
 take no interest in the wider and larger range of 
 religious effort, it is the sign of a disastrous defect 
 in our piety, and a melancholy weakness in our 
 faith. Selfishness -is sin. 
 
 III. This duty originates in the express command of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 " Jesus came, and spake unto them, saying, All 
 power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go 
 ye, therefore, make Christians of all nations, bap- 
 tizing them in the name of the Father, and of the 
 Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to ob- 
 serve all things whatsoever I have commanded you; 
 and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of 
 the world." The whole genius of the new dispen- 
 sation flashed forth in that word, Go ! No mightier 
 word ever fell upon the ear of the world. Its vibra- 
 tions have shaken the kingdoms of the globe, and 
 still agitate the ages. The force of an omnipotent 
 imperative is in it. It contains the embryonic pos- 
 sibilities of a world's progress. It is not a sugges- 
 tion; it is not advisory ; it is not instructive; it is 
 not a permission; it is not a commission only; but 
 it is a mandate full and deep as the authority of 
 God.
 
 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 173 
 
 This lofty commandment was given to the disci- 
 ples at the special meeting on the mountain in Gal- 
 ilee. It was the most august conference ever held. 
 Jesus Christ himself presided, and settled for all 
 ages to come the functions of the ministry, and the 
 policy of the Church, and gave the plenary com- 
 mission to subdue the world. Amid the solemn 
 hush of that assembly we hear nothing of the pri- 
 macy of Peter, of apostolic succession, of pontifical 
 vicarship, of priests, sacraments, or ritual. The 
 thought of the Church was focalized upon one tre- 
 mendous idea, which not only lay back of all organ- 
 ization, and beneath all outward effort, but Avas 
 thenceforward to absorb into itself the resources of 
 the world, and direct the progress of the race. In 
 one word Jesus gave the philosophy of the Chris- 
 tian system, and unveiled the rationale of the new 
 and wondrous manifestation of Providence. The 
 grand basal principle of Church-order, the puissant 
 norm of the whole economy of Christianity, is the 
 everlasting itinerancy of the gospel. "All nations" 
 was the wide range of the holy evangel, and the 
 primal appointment secured the perpetual mobility 
 of the ministry to the end of time. 
 
 The apostles did not then understand it. It was 
 a revelation which anticipated the profoundest de- 
 velopments of their faith and the grandest reaches 
 of their experience. This sudden burst of the illim- 
 itable magnificence of the gospel purpose and pros- 
 pects blinded and bewildered them. But the bap- 
 tismal fire of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pente- 
 cost swept them into deep and blessed sympathy
 
 174 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 with the immense conception, and they gradually 
 rose to the unequaled height of its apprehension, 
 and one after another sped away on glorious errand 
 to tell the joyful uewo. 
 
 But we understand it; and we cannot escape the 
 inflexible obligation of a positive commandment, 
 emanating immediately from the Source of all au- 
 thority and power, and emphasized by the excep- 
 tional circumstances of its delivery. We have no 
 discretion in the matter. A divine compulsion is 
 upon us. The inexorable condition of our exist- 
 ence enforces the missionary attitude and effort. 
 Coming over all the mountains, sweeping upon ev- 
 ery wind, crossing all the seas and lands, and break- 
 ing from the bending heavens, like the thunders of 
 Divinity, we hear the sovereign mandate, Go! The 
 primal obligation has not been lowered, or the pri- 
 mal command revoked. The boundless scope of 
 redeeming love has not been restricted, or the an- 
 cient counsels of Almighty Goodness canceled, or 
 the glorious word of the Lord bound. That word 
 is as fresh to-day as when it leaped from the lips of 
 Jesus on the Galilean mount. It is as strong, as 
 glorious, as grand, as when the waiting disciples, in 
 obedience to its divine behest, seized the banner of 
 the cross, starred with the splendors of everlasting 
 light, and startled the nations with their grand ad- 
 vance. We need no other argument for missions. 
 It is injustice to truth to put the claims of this cause 
 upon any lower ground. It is fixed upon us by the 
 fiat of Jehovah. We plant our cause right here, 
 and defy all controversy to lower its claim, or escape
 
 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 175 
 
 the duty it imposes without guilt. Long as the 
 curse endures, the disciples of Jesus Christ must 
 send the gospel to all lands. 
 
 IV. This duty is still more dearly defined and greatly 
 strengthened by the fact that the Church has always rec- 
 ognized it as supreme. 
 
 The outward organization of the Church has 
 always conformed to this inner idea of expansion, 
 and its history has been that of steady progress it 
 sweeps a wider circle in every age. The providen- 
 tial arrangements for its spread were few and sim- 
 ple, but adequate and effectual. An itinerant myi- 
 istry was the central idea of Jesus in forming this 
 Church. The apostles became active and invincible 
 emissaries of the cross, who bore the gospel into 
 every accessible region of the earth. Paul, the 
 grandest of the band, was specially set over the 
 foreign work. The wider policy of religious ef- 
 fort, the larger outreachings of gospel progress, re- 
 quired the ripest intellect and greatest heart of the 
 Church. God put the best man the Church had in 
 charge of the foreign field. He sent the most elo- 
 quent preacher off as a missionary. He took him 
 away from a large city-station, broke up his settled 
 pastorate at Antioch, and hurried him to the front 
 to lead the van of the infant Church right into the 
 heart of heathendom. Some of our modern object- 
 ors to missions would have thought that a great 
 waste of talent. Paul, the man of massive brain, 
 of deep and swift insight into truth, of high and 
 liberal culture, of polished manners and fiery elo- 
 quence, of catholic sympathies and safe judgment,
 
 176 TUE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 could have been useful in any place. Wherever he 
 might have been sent, he would have shaken the 
 very foundations of paganism. But men exist for 
 the work, not the work for men, and God's plan is 
 to send men where they are needed most; so he or- 
 dered Paul " far hence." That shows us God's esti- 
 mate of the foreign missionary work. Is it yours, 
 my brother? If not, who is right? 
 
 Ever since then the spirituality of the Church and 
 its zeal for missions have coincided. Left to its nat- 
 ural tendency, Christianity always sweeps straight 
 ino this* great channel, and flows onward with 
 widening volume and increasing might. It has often 
 been arrested, and its energies diverted to other 
 ends, but with the revival of primal simplicity there 
 reappears the indestructible purpose of expansion. 
 The nearer the Church draws to its center of light 
 and life in Jesus, the profounder becomes the con- 
 viction, and more imperative the impulse, to send 
 the gospel to every creature. At the feet of Jesus 
 we are melted into love for all mankind. The 
 moral antecedents of missionary zeal are among the 
 deepest forces of faith in Jesus Christ. 
 
 In the light of such facts and principles, what 
 becomes of the objection to missions on the ground 
 that we have enough to do at home? Bid the apos- 
 tles hold such an opinion, or pursue such a policy? 
 Can the objection be reconciled with the Master's 
 words, or the deep and divine purpose of the gos- 
 pel? We cannot forget that our remote ancestors 
 were pagans; that they were civilized by foreign 
 missions; that our civilization has flowed down
 
 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 177 
 
 from this source. Shall we receive the boon of life, 
 and then not only refuse to convey it to others, but 
 denounce the very policy by which it came to us as 
 a mistake? The objection is unworthy of a rational 
 mind, and betrays a dense ignorance of the gospel. 
 Let it be at once and forever hushed among the 
 people of God, and a generous emulation mark our 
 efforts to extend the Saviour's reign throughout the 
 world. 
 
 Y. This obligation is heightened by the unparalleled 
 opportunity offered by the existing state of the world for 
 the spread of the gospel. 
 
 This opportunity is seen in the political changes 
 which have opened all nations to its entrance. 
 Christianity has won the freedom of the world. It 
 has access to all lands. There is no legal proscrip- 
 tion against it anywhere, except where Rome holds 
 sway. The fires of persecution are dying out, ex- 
 tinguished by the growing spirit of liberty and sense 
 .of human rights. The blood of the martyr, it may 
 be, is yet needed to plant the Church in some places; 
 but the public sentiment of Christendom resents re- 
 ligious intolerance as an outrage upon her character 
 and a violation of her rights. 
 
 This opportunity is seen in the improved facilities 
 of travel which have made all lands easy of access. 
 The most distant regions have been brought near 
 together. Steam-ships and railroads have narrowed 
 oceans and continents, and bade the poles clasp hands 
 in brotherly embrace. The electric telegraph anni- 
 hilates time and space, and binds the ends of the 
 earth in fellowship. Paul had more trouble getting 
 8*
 
 178 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 from Jerusalem to Rome than Bishop Marvin had 
 to circumnavigate the globe. Missionaries come 
 and go between the remotest fields with ease and 
 safety, and with trifling cost. The effect of this 
 commingling of mankind is clearly visible in the 
 production of a higher and broader type of civiliza- 
 tion, and the disappearance of exclusiveness, preju- 
 dice, and ignorance all of which eminently favor 
 the spread of the gospel. 
 
 This opportunity is seen in the immense advan- 
 tages we possess for reaching the people. The conditions 
 of missionary labor have vastly changed within the 
 past decade, and wonderfully improved. A great 
 deal of preparatory work has been done. Gigantic 
 clearings have been made. The soil has been bro- 
 ken in many countries, and is waiting for the holy 
 seed; in others the harvest has already come, and 
 the ripe grain waits for the reaper's blade. The 
 gospel is now translated into the principal languages 
 of the world; has taken strong root in many heathen 
 lands; has established numerous flourishing centers 
 of expansion; has obtained legal protection, enrolled 
 converts, erected churches, built colleges, organized 
 conferences, founded hospitals, and published news- 
 papers, periodicals, and books. In most heathen 
 lands the whole economy of effort is thoroughly 
 organized, and in active and successful operation. 
 We have not so much to send a forlorn hope to lead 
 the charge, as to support the column already far 
 into the breach. 
 
 This opportunity is seen in the spirit of the age. 
 Men no longer ridicule the missionary. He is the
 
 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 179 
 
 moral representative of a progress that is widening 
 every realm of thought, and pushing every depart- 
 ment of human activity toward the boundaries of 
 the world. The pulse of civilization throbs in uni- 
 son with his toil. Wherever he goes, Freedom's 
 banner mounts the breeze, and the clarion blast of 
 her bugles rallies our race from the inertia of de- 
 spair, to lead them up to the high places of life and 
 the wide prospects of immortal glory. He is sus- 
 tained by the new and nobler feeling of the universal 
 brotherhood of man, which is ascending to control 
 the destiny of our world. Never before have the 
 prevailing sentiments of mankind been so in accord 
 with this work, or did the missionary have behind 
 him such a wealth of sympathy and prayer. The 
 vast, deep river of human improvement is rolling on 
 in grandeur, and its course is bending toward the 
 throne of God. 
 
 This opportunity appears in the great resources of 
 the Church. 1. Resources of men and women. Our 
 ministry is full of strong young men educated, 
 gifted, consecrated who are, or ought to be, ready 
 to go to the front, and toil and die for Jesus. Chris- 
 tian women are ready to go to the rescue of perish- 
 ing millions in the land of darkness. 2. Resources 
 of wealth. Christianity is the richest religion on 
 the planet. Ours are the gold, and silver, and 
 armies, and navies, and colleges, of the world. We 
 have all the materials of progress. But we squander 
 millions in luxury, we waste millions on lust, we 
 hoard up millions to rust and rot the life out of 
 society. Every dollar belongs to God. He needs it
 
 180 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 now. It ought to go into the elevation and salva- 
 tion of our race. 3. Resources of faith. The Church 
 believes more than it ever did in this work. It 
 makes it more prominent, urges its claims more 
 generally and earnestly, and is more liberal to it. 
 It has a deeper trust in God, a nearer view of the 
 field, a more vivid and convincing knowledge of 
 its necessities. 4. Resources of hope. There is not 
 a note of discouragement from any quarter of the 
 field. Success salutes us everywhere. Here and 
 there the forces appear to retreat, but it is only a local 
 maneuver to secure a larger advantage and a quick- 
 er victory. Along the whole line the ringing com- 
 mand, Forward! breaks above the clang of clashing 
 steel and roaring thunder of the strife, and the 
 tramp of the conquering legions shakes the gates 
 of hell. Tidings from the front, my brother, and 
 everywhere we win the day! 
 
 This age is the crisis of the world. The gospel 
 never had such a chance as now. Every circum- 
 stance conspires to facilitate its progress and has- 
 ten the period of its universal sway. God speaks 
 by his opportunities. They are the oracles of his 
 providence. He prepared the world to receive the 
 gospel. The union of so many different countries 
 under the imperial sway of Rome; the large security 
 of law; the safe and rapid means of transit; the cos- 
 mopolitan activity of commerce; the general hush 
 of the world's strife; the giving way of the older 
 forms of thought, and the deep and universal desire 
 for higher and better things, and the vast forward 
 impulse of humanity which was a resultant of all
 
 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 181 
 
 these moral and political causes all this was in 
 providential coincidence with the advent of the Son 
 of God. But ours is a yet greater, a far grander 
 opportunity. Every thing that has gone before has 
 been preliminary to the universal advance we are 
 called upon now to make. O Church of the living 
 God! throw thyself forward upon this wide and 
 glorious opportunity! Go up and possess the land 
 which the Lord thy God hath given into thy 
 hand! 
 
 VI. Finally, this obligation is intensified to a degree 
 absolutely painful by the fact that we are responsible for 
 the spread of the gospel. 
 
 Paul says, "How shall they believe in him of 
 whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear 
 without a preacher? and how shall they preach ex- 
 cept they be sent? " The gospel will go only where 
 we send it. There is no other agency for its pro- 
 mulgation. God will not work a miracle to convey 
 it to the heathen. He has done every thing that 
 infinite goodness ought to do. He has redeemed us 
 by his own precious blood; he freely gives us the 
 offer of salvation ; he enables us to send it to others; 
 he opens wide the opportunity; he commands us to 
 speed it on its all-embracing mission. The solemn 
 responsibility is upon us. We cannot evade it. We 
 are utterly without excuse for failure to comply with 
 the highest injunction of our risen Saviour the last 
 benevolent appointment of his love. The world 
 ought to have been converted long before now. No 
 decree of God has kept it back. He does not mock 
 the sorrows of a world by blocking the way of its
 
 182 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 deliverance. He has moved the heavens to save us. 
 Nothing hinders the universal spread of the gospel 
 now but the unbelief and apathy of the Church. 
 God is ready; China, India, Africa, are ready; but 
 we are not, and the whole work halts, and the prog- 
 ress of the gospel is retarded, and millions grope 
 on in darkness, and sink into hell! 
 
 My brethren, while we recline in our soft places, 
 while we feast on the gospel in our cushioned pews, 
 while the sacramental chalice is at our lips, and, 
 amid the altar's holy hush, we say, "Our Father, 
 who art in heaven," the distant wail of dying mill- 
 ions breaks upon our ear. A lost world's appeal 
 for help sweeps up over the roar of all the storms, 
 and rebukes the unchristlike indifference of the 
 Church. It is no fiction of thought. It is not a 
 fancy picture. We make no appeal to the imagina- 
 tion. We state sober facts, and address the honest 
 reason of every professed believer in Jesus Christ. 
 We defy the world to show why we are not guilty 
 of our brother's blood! If the gospel is true, if our 
 religion is not a solemn sham, if life itself is not an 
 illusion, and universal depravity a conceit of the 
 enthusiast, then, in the name of all that is in earth 
 and heaven, we are fearfully recreant to our trust, 
 and disloyal to our Lord, in that we monopolize the 
 benefits of the gospel, and will not give it to all the 
 world! 
 
 We submit our argument. We are willing to 
 abide by the verdict of the intelligent conscience. 
 The whole world needs the gospel; the gospel is 
 designed for the whole world; Jesus Christ com-
 
 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 183 
 
 mands us to send it to the whole world. The 
 Church has always regarded this as her chief work; 
 she never had such a chance as now; on every prin- 
 ciple of equity she is responsible for the result; 
 therefore it is the supreme duty of the Church to send 
 the gospel to all nations. 
 
 If, then, this is our duty, let us faithfully discharge 
 it. We may not be able to do much, but we can do 
 something, and God will recognize and hallow all 
 we do. By earnest faith, by joyous hope, by fervent 
 zeal, by the power of Christian sympathy, by the 
 offering of our wealth and the riches of liberality 
 abounding out of our deep poverty, by the benison 
 of self-sacrifice, and the benevolence of the Christly 
 spirit, let us have a part in the uplifting of our 
 race. 
 
 There is no prospect like that of a world at the 
 feet of Jesus. Everywhere the scene of moral reno- 
 vation unrolls upon our vision, and the watchers her- 
 -ald the approaching dawn from all the towers of the 
 field. Nearer and yet nearer sweeps the glorious 
 victory of the Son of God, when every knee shall 
 bow, and every tongue shall confess his everlasting 
 name. Lo, 
 
 'Tis coming up the steep of time, 
 
 And this old world is growing brighter; 
 We may not see it dawn sublime, 
 
 Yet high hopes make the heart throb lighter. 
 We may be sleeping in the ground 
 
 When it awakes the people's wonder; 
 But we have felt it gathering round, 
 
 And heard its voice of living thunder. 
 Christ's reign ah, yes, 'tis coming!
 
 184 THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 Ay, it must come! The tyrant's throne 
 
 Is crumbling, with men's hot tears rusted; 
 The sword, the great have leaned upon, 
 
 Is cankered, with men's heart-blood crusted. 
 Room! for the men of love make way! 
 
 Ye selfish great ones, pause no longer ; 
 Ye cannot stay the opening day 
 
 The world rolls on, the light grows stronger- 
 The Master's advent 's coming !
 
 XI. 
 
 THE HINDERANCES OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 BY THE REV. A. W. MANGUM, D.D., 
 
 North Carolina Conference. 
 
 "But suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of 
 Christ." 1 Cor. ix. 12. 
 
 IN this language St. Paul presents an example of 
 self-denial worthy of universal admiration. While 
 vindicating his rights as an apostle, he farther 
 teaches that such was his devotion that he willingly 
 yielded his own just claims to earthly reward for his 
 labor, and unmurmuringly suffered all things, lest 
 he should hinder the gospel of Christ. But in this 
 he was simply consistent. He was a member and 
 -minister of the Christian Church, and the one di- 
 vinely-appointed work of that Church is to evan- 
 gelize the world. The principle involved in his 
 example commends itself to our most careful con- 
 sideration. The duties and privileges of the gospel 
 of Christ have been transmitted to us. The work 
 of evangelization, so nobly begun, so heroically 
 prosecuted, now rests upon those that constitute the 
 Church of to-day. After all that has been done in 
 the long centuries, a great part of the human race 
 are still without the word of God, or the institutions 
 of Christianity, while vast numbers in this and other 
 
 (185)
 
 186 THE HINDERAJfCES OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 Christian lands are wandering in the ways of sin, 
 and dying in the horrible gloom of rayless unbelief. 
 The Church, in its various divisions, though still 
 making high professions, and still presenting an 
 imposing array, is sadly unsatisfactory in moral in- 
 fluence, and alarmingly slow in conquest. With 
 more educated mind gathered around the cross than 
 in any preceding age, with unprecedented auxilia- 
 ries in the printing-press, in the means of rapid in- 
 tercourse, and in the wide-spread diffusion of knowl- 
 edge, there is ominous necessity for fierce struggles 
 on the part of Christianity, that it may maintain its 
 ground, and win even slight and occasional advan- 
 tages over the opposing world. The love of many 
 of the professed followers of Christ is cold, the faith 
 of many is weak, the fears of many are tormenting, 
 the conduct of many is wicked. No wonder that 
 the language of the enemies of the gospel becomes 
 bold and threatening. True, the Church continues 
 to grow, but, alas, how slowly ! Surely it is incum- 
 bent upon those that sincerely believe and teach the 
 gospel to ascertain, if possible, the causes of this sad 
 truth. 
 
 I. What are the hinderances of the gospel in our day? 
 
 It is not within the compass of the text, and it is 
 not necessary, to consider at length the palpable 
 and acknowledged opposition of the ungodly world. 
 Sin is older than the Church, was the occasion of 
 the whole economy of redemption, but cannot be 
 at once removed by the will and effort of the serv- 
 ants of God. In all our calculations respecting 
 Christian progress we must incorporate as a factor
 
 THE HINDERANCE* OF THE GOSPEL. 187 
 
 the truth that sinners are free agents, and that if 
 they will not yield they cannot be saved. It is 
 enough for us to know that we have the perfected 
 plan of salvation the power that can and will over- 
 come the world. We are chiefly concerned in the 
 hinderances for which the Church is primarily re- 
 sponsible. What are they? 
 
 1. Formality having the form, without the power, of 
 godliness. This evil appears most flagrant in the ex- 
 travagant ritualism that is so great a reproach and 
 curse to some other divisions of the Church. It is 
 the miserable delusion from which earnest souls 
 escaped before Methodism could be founded, and it 
 has never been able successfully to tempt us to re- 
 turn to its baleful influence. With us the danger 
 lies rather in too complacent trust in those forms of 
 worship that are in themselves proper, commenda- 
 ble, and even indispensable. Many, while criticis- 
 ing and pitying the ritualist, vainly linger in those 
 mere ceremonials, through which they ought in con- 
 sistency to pass, until they apprehend the glowing 
 spiritual realities that constitute the only genuine 
 object. There is too much dependence on nominal 
 membership and the mechanical, or conventional, 
 observance of the externals of piety. The public 
 worship is well attended, the demeanor in the 
 church is unexceptionable, the words of moving 
 hymns are sung, some reverent posture in prayer is 
 observed, respectful attention to lessons and sermon 
 is seemingly paid, the contributions to the holy 
 cause may be promptly offered, and the ministers, 
 institutions, and doctrines, of the Church are es-
 
 188 THE HINDERANCES OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 teemed and defended, but, alas! how faint the signs 
 of spiritual life! how slight the appearances of hun- 
 gering and thirsting for the things of God ! how 
 rare the actions that tell of a holy love for the 
 brethren! how feeble the efforts to sustain the 
 tempted, reclaim the backslidden, and bring sinners 
 to Christ! Think of the waste of precious means 
 and talents in the worship of a single congregation 
 that seeks no fervor, shows no inner life, and makes 
 no direct assaults on Satan! The assumed conflict 
 between such a Church and the powers of darkness 
 does not rise to the dignity of a mock-battle. It is 
 the orderly dress-parade amid flying shot and shell, 
 while duty shouts for the spirit and struggle of the 
 field. It soon becomes but the brandishing by de- 
 luded prisoners of beautiful but worthless weapons 
 in the walls of what they deem their camp, but of 
 what is their prison, lorded by their wily and tri- 
 umphant foe. What rational hope can there be for 
 victory? 
 
 2. Sectarianism. True loyalty to one's denomina- 
 tion is highly praiseworthy. No one can voluntari- 
 ly become and continue a member of any organiza- 
 tion and knowingly neglect the obligations assumed 
 without downright inconsistency. This is preemi- 
 nently true of the Christian and his Church. But 
 there is a tendency to pay excessive regard to what 
 may be relatively called the non-essentials in the 
 denominational economy. The prosperity of the 
 individual Church often appears as the supreme 
 object. There is not sufficient care to make the 
 denominational interest contribute directly to the
 
 THE HINDER ANCES OF THE GOSPEL. 189 
 
 achievement of the one ultimate purpose of the di- 
 vine religion. He is not a true friend to his own 
 Church who does not desire and strive above all 
 else to secure the salvation of souls. Whatever his 
 profession or belief, he is an actual foe to the cause 
 he nominally espouses. Too much sectarian feel- 
 ing invariably implies too little love for the real 
 kingdom of Christ. Are there not those who are 
 more jealous of the success of other Churches than 
 of the dread conquest of souls by Satan? Have we 
 not reason to fear that there is a kind of sectarian- 
 ism that is less disturbed by the prevalence of spir- 
 itual declension and death than by the knowledge 
 that showers of revival grace are descending upon 
 other divisions of Zion ? By such the peculiar rit- 
 ual and creed are recklessly magnified and exalted 
 above the true, essential spirit and aims of Chris- 
 tianity itself. They love their individual Church 
 more than souls, more than the gospel, more than 
 Christ. Surely this is the deadly ichor of ungodly 
 ^selfishness, a daring violation of the supreme duties 
 of the child of God, a direct and shocking contra- 
 diction of all the impulses of an enlightened con- 
 science. It involves a deplorable misapprehension 
 of the character and design of evangelical agencies. 
 Mere instruments are prized and honored, while 
 the author and wielder of the instruments is disre- 
 garded or forgotten. The melting hymn and fer- 
 vent prayer win ready compliments to the sweet 
 singer and eloquent suppliant. There is eager de- 
 mand for fine sermons, and the "worth 'of ministers 
 is measured solely by the degree of their reputed
 
 190 THE HINDERANCES OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 eloquence. When elegant periods, beautiful im- 
 agery, and fascinating originality, have wooed and 
 won the fanciful admiration of those who have 
 " itching ears," every tongue praises the excellent 
 preacher as a model, eulogizes his lofty discourses, 
 and by every available art fosters in him the dan- 
 gerous ambition to be noted and lauded for his su- 
 perior learning and brilliancy. In accordance with 
 this misguided opinion and influence, the main re- 
 liance is placed upon the minister's power to make 
 a display of his extraordinary endowments. The 
 earnest and devout believers, that walk humbly be- 
 fore God, draw near to the mercy-seat, and bring 
 down the blessings of divine love, are simply toler- 
 ated, instead of being gratefully esteemed. The 
 long-tested instrumentalities, that have so often 
 aroused slumbering consciences and imparted new 
 life to the languishing hopes of the children of 
 God, are deliberately abandoned for empty, popular 
 attractions. The paramount idea being to please 
 and to be pleased, but little attention is given to 
 that which aims directly and only to humble and 
 save. 
 
 - 3. False ideas of religious culture. Complacently 
 cherishing the persuasion of their superiority, and 
 diverted from the character of true religion, deluded 
 members of the Church give more and more regard 
 to that which the world loves and envies. The rest- 
 less fancy roams delighted in the vision of splen- 
 did churches, artistic music, and large, wealthy, 
 and cultivated, congregations. Elegance, refine- 
 ment, fashion, become the cardinal virtues, para-
 
 THE IIINDERAXCES OF THE GOSPEL. 191 
 
 mount to all spiritual requirements. The loftiest 
 spire, the loudest bell, the grandest organ, the cost- 
 liest chandelier, the richest carpet, the most luxu- 
 rious pews, the most spacious nave, the most 
 operatic choir, the most sensational pulpit these 
 become the leading objects of interest, while simple- 
 heartedness, humility, self- denial, and Christlike 
 sympathy and devotion, are relegated to those who 
 are not too high in the world, or in their own esti- 
 mation, to be in earnest about the verities of relig- 
 ion. The sesthetical is thrust out of its proper 
 relations to the cause it is intended to subserve, and 
 is installed in the chief place in the temple of human 
 excellency. Here links on the whole mechanism 
 of changing fashion all that misguided enthusi- 
 asm associates with the sentimental theories of 
 higher culture. Under such a reign of the exquis- 
 ite taste of deluded pride, there is no time or room 
 for the cry of the mourner, for the wrestling prayer 
 in the altar, for the stirring revival-hymn, for the 
 -joyous exclamations of the young convert, or the 
 rapturous shouts of those that are baptized anew 
 with a Saviour's love. Alas! such are the life and 
 conduct of some Churches that, without being either 
 unreasonable or unkind, one may ask the question, 
 Is it not generally true that the intensity of spirit- 
 ual devotion is inversely as the measure of worldly 
 wealth and social position? It is not surprising 
 that in such Churches the ministers sometimes yield 
 to the prevailing influence, and turn away from the 
 infallible word of God, to dazzle the minds of 
 admirers with brilliant displays of pleasing but
 
 102 THE HINDERANCES OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 powerless and unsanctified learning. Let it be re- 
 membered that these congregations, as united bod- 
 ies, and many of their members, as individuals, 
 owing to their social prominence, are sure to im- 
 press their peculiarities, to some degree, upon the 
 multitude of their susceptible, imitative observers. 
 Should we wonder at the slow progress of the cause 
 of God? 
 
 4. Want of self-denial. The surrendering of all 
 for Christ is the beginning of all genuine religion, 
 and the constant subordination of all that one con- 
 trols to the will of God is indispensable to a relig- 
 ious life. In this we have the secret of the hard 
 struggles of the penitent, and the reason why there 
 is necessity for faithful watching and prayer through- 
 out the life of the Christian. But, alas! how hard 
 it is to give up the world! Often, when conscience 
 and self-love drive the imperiled soul into the visi- 
 ble Church, the continued love of that which is for- 
 bidden leads to the lowering of the standard of re- 
 ligion to the plane of worldly indulgence. There 
 is a restless eifort to make unauthorized compro- 
 mises with sin. There is an unwarrantable blending 
 of those principles and practices that are unmistak- 
 ably incompatible. Self-denial is pledged in profes- 
 sion, but self-indulgence is betrayed in the conduct. 
 Christian duty is blindly wedded to ungodly cus- 
 tom. The card-table and the communion-table, the 
 prayer-meeting and the ball-room, the theater and 
 the sanctuary, devotion to the crucified Saviour and 
 to the "pride of life" these all appear to be placed 
 unbliishingly in the same category. But no man
 
 THE IIINDERANCES OF THE GOSPEL. 193 
 
 can serve two masters. The experiment always re- 
 sults in peculiar but positive service to the world, 
 and direct and terrible injur}^ to the real interests 
 of the Church. But this inconsistency is not lim- 
 ited to that alone which is generally designated by 
 the name of pleasure. There is much self-indul- 
 gence under the garb of reputable business. In this 
 stirring age, multitudes are devoting to their secu- 
 lar employment much of the time and care that 
 justly belong to their religious duties. There is 
 fearful potency in the charm that the daily occupa- 
 tion fastens upon every power of the soul. The 
 eager rush of trade-life, the stimulus of fierce com- 
 petition, the abundant pretexts of professional en- 
 gagements, the exacting demands of social customs, 
 the claims of numerous enterprises and societies 
 with specious names and purposes the unresisted 
 sway of partisan feelings, and the presumptuous 
 dictates of one's political party these, each and all, 
 make tremendous drafts upon the time, talent, and 
 treasure, that are due to the paramount interests of 
 immortal souls. 
 
 5. Loss of the sense of responsibility on the part of 
 the private members of the Church. There is very 
 much greater capability for moral achievement in 
 the vast multitudes of private members than in the 
 comparatively few that are ministers, or that hold 
 official positions. The general spread of useful 
 learning, the extensive dissemination of religious 
 intelligence, and the peculiar genius of modern so- 
 ciety, render it possible for all classes in the Church 
 to exert a telling influence, and perform highly 
 9
 
 194 THE HINDERAXCES OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 effective service, in behalf of the vital interests and 
 leading objects of Christianity. Hence, the princi- 
 ple of wise economy unites with the law of the 
 talents in requiring every professed disciple of Jesus 
 to do what he can, not only in working out his own 
 salvation, but also in extending all possible aid unto 
 others. But what do we see as the usual policy of 
 Churches respecting this main department of their 
 strength? While they zealously contend for the 
 right of private judgment, and to a degree accept 
 the doctrine of personal accountability to God, there 
 is still a tendency in congregations and in individ- 
 uals to impose nearly all of the many and arduous 
 duties involved in religious work upon those who 
 hold some official position. The Church is an army 
 in which many seem to think the leaders are to do 
 not only the planning and directing, but also the 
 lighting. Multitudes of those who consider them- 
 selves the servants of God have little, if any, appre- 
 ciation of the labor to be done. Though they bear 
 the name of the children of God, they do not realize 
 the fearful obligation resting upon them to look 
 after the interests of their Father's kingdom. As 
 they have no experience in Christian effort, they 
 live and die without a practical knowledge of the 
 methods and means of Christian usefulness. As 
 they do not exercise their special gifts, they never 
 attain unto godly skill, or learn for themselves, or 
 reveal to others, their latent powers. As they do 
 not faithfully cultivate Christlike sympathy, inter- 
 cession, toil, and sacrifice, they develop no glowing 
 zeal, feel no assurance of Heaven's approving smiles,
 
 THE HINDERANCES OF THE GOSPEL. 195 
 
 and enjoy no inspiring prospects of glorious reward. 
 They are burdens when they should be blessings. 
 They are stumbling-blocks when they should be 
 helpers. Their talents are buried. Their work is 
 undone. "Clouds they are without water;" "trees 
 whose fruit withereth, without fruit." Verily, the 
 inactivity of the laity is a great hinderance to the 
 gospel. 
 
 6. Errors respecting public opinion. The common 
 judgment of society, when based upon a reasonable 
 degree of interest, integrity, and information, should 
 be respectfully considered. But when public opin- 
 ion, as often obtains, means merely the wayward, 
 popular voice, or the general sentiment of the min- 
 gled multitude, without regard to their qualifica- 
 tions to form an intelligent judgment on the subject 
 in question, it must not be admitted as a potent 
 factor in deciding the words and actions of one who 
 is pledged to the right. Yet it is a deplorable truth, 
 that many members of the Church deliberately de- 
 termine the course they will pursue in servile defer- 
 ence to what they believe others will think and say. 
 They do despite to that authority which their vows 
 at God's altar bind them supremely to respect. The 
 imperative dictates of conscience are traitorously 
 ignored for the voice of the unregenerate world, 
 and of cold, unfaithful professors. This false re- 
 gard for public opinion has often prevented the 
 confession of penitence, sealed the lips to prayer and 
 praise, checked the tears of holy sympathy, sup- 
 pressed the voice of Christian counsel, turned the 
 feet into forbidden wavs, seduced the heart to sinful
 
 196 THE HINDERANCES OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 pleasures, left the truth without defense, and even 
 caused the soul to deny its Lord. 
 
 7. Forget/illness of the immediate providence of God. 
 The word of God assures us that "all things work 
 together for good to them that love God, to them 
 that are the called according to his purpose." 
 
 There are some who emhrace this doctrine in a 
 spirit of unwarrantable self-esteem, appearing to be- 
 lieve that the Father of all is gracious and loving to 
 them in a peculiar sense and extraordinary degree. 
 This is selfishness, and selfishness is sin. Others 
 rashly assume the merciful interposition of divine 
 favor in their behalf, although they are conscious 
 of frequent willful violations of the commandments 
 of God. They boldly claim the promises, while they 
 constantly neglect the conditions. The man that 
 does not lead a Christian life has no right, in self- 
 complacency, to say of any event that "all's for the 
 best." 
 
 But the most common error in respect to divine 
 providence consists in the failure to recognize the 
 active presence of God in all the interests and facts 
 in common life. It is difficult to appreciate the ex- 
 tent to which this error prevails. It permeates the 
 whole body of our language. Every page of the 
 English lexicon shows "a mingling of accident with 
 order, of chance with design." Common speech not 
 only expresses but influences and fashions common 
 thought. Thus our ideas pass from mind to mind 
 on a bridge composed in part of language-skepti- 
 cism. The very word "providence" supplants the 
 idea of God, and often gets between the mind and
 
 THE HINDERAXCES OF THE GOSPEL. 197 
 
 the divine presence. Men that are learned in many 
 respects often substitute the mere name laiv, law of 
 nature which is but the name of the methods of an 
 ever-present, acting God for the real divine agent 
 by whose immediate will all of nature is unceasing- 
 ly upheld, directed, and controlled. Multitudes of 
 those who profess to be Christians too often form 
 their opinions, guide their actions, and interpret 
 events, by their own or other human judgment, 
 without the slightest recognition of Him who gov- 
 erns all things from the least unto the greatest. It 
 .is distressingly common for avowed believers in 
 Christ to show, by word and deed, that they place 
 more reliance on the temporal, the natural, and the 
 human, than upon the word and providence of their 
 Heavenly Father. Thus they come to think of God 
 as far off. By this dim, cold, distant idea of him, 
 they are inspired with superstitious dread rather 
 than peaceful confidence and grateful love. Forget- 
 ful that God is supreme, and that his promises cover 
 all the possible, they murmur at reverses that are 
 trivial, stagger under crosses that are light, and re- 
 coil before opposition that the weakest Christian 
 need not fear. Surely this is not vital Christianity. 
 It ought to be called pitiful infidelity. It contra- 
 dicts the word of the Lord. It most grievously af- 
 fects the influence and progress of religion. 
 
 8. Neglect of proper discipline. When a person 
 joins-the visible Church, he thereby enters volunta- 
 rily into a formal covenant. His vows at admission 
 bind him to a faithful obedience to the specified re- 
 quirements, and to a consistent exemplification of
 
 198 THE HINDERANCES OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 the doctrines, by a godly walk and conversation to 
 the end of life. As long as his vows are maintained, 
 his ecclesiastical rights cannot justly be taken from 
 him ; but as soon as his vows are violated, his claim 
 to membership is essentially forfeited, and he re- 
 mains in the Church only through neglect or tolera- 
 tion. But the benign spirit of Christianity moder- 
 ates the discipline that untempered justice would 
 inflict. That spirit dictates that the offender shall 
 be dealt with in reference to the threefold object of 
 his own restoration, the admonition of others, and 
 the vindication and protection of the Church. When 
 an offense is committed, the first object should be to 
 induce the offender to recover what he has lost, and 
 to repair, as far as possible, the injury he has done. 
 "When the forbearance and effort that are consist- 
 ent with both charity and integrity have failed to 
 accomplish this, his positive excommunication is 
 the only reasonable alternative. It is then necessa- 
 ry to the safety and success of the Church. Purity 
 is an indispensable condition of moral influence. 
 Gross infractions of the laws that God has instituted 
 for the regulation of the spiritual life will surely 
 lead to the shame and overthrow of the Church that 
 tolerates them. There is no consistent judgment 
 or mercy in the blind forbearance that shields an 
 offender to the injury of religion. The Church of 
 Christ was never intended to be the resting-place 
 of those who are traitors to the sacred cause. The 
 word of God and the history of his Church prove 
 that if those members that bring reproach on their 
 profession are permitted to hold their places, and
 
 THE HINDRANCES OF THE GOSPEL. 199 
 
 continue their demoralizing course, it is impossible 
 for the Church to which they belong to maintain its 
 influence with Heaven, or to exert its full measure 
 of saving -power upon the world. While this is 
 unmistakably plain to all, we must with sorrow say 
 that there are some Churches in our land that do 
 not have a discipline as high as the merely moral 
 requirements of the Decalogue. How many are 
 subject to covetousness! and " covetousness is idol- 
 atry." How common in Churches are those " works 
 
 of the flesh, hatred, variance, emulations, 
 
 wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyiugs, 
 
 revelings, and such like!" " They which do such 
 things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." How 
 often do members escape even admonition, not to 
 say prosecution, when they are known to be guilty 
 of profaning the Sabbath, or drinking or selling 
 spirituous liquors, or practicing dishonesty in busi- 
 ness, or indulging in ungodly conversation, or pat- 
 ronizing wicked amusements, or violating their plain 
 obligations in trade-life, or withholding what God 
 requires for the poor, or wasting their time in idle-' 
 ness or folly, or neglecting the plainest and most 
 important Christian duties such as attending the 
 public worship, taking the sacrament of the Supper, 
 holding family-prayer, observing proper secret devo- 
 tion, and studying the Holy Scriptures! 
 
 9. Want of consecration. True religion means all 
 the heart, and all the powers, and all the life, for 
 Christ. No man becomes a Christian until he gives 
 all to God; no man continues a Christian, with pow- 
 er to prevail at the throne of grace, any longer
 
 200 THE HINDERANCES OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 than he maintains this attitude of complete surren- 
 der. How does the average Church-life compare 
 with this? Nominal Christians possess abundant 
 strength, influence, property, and education, to se- 
 cure the rapid progress of Zion, and the speedy 
 evangelization of every nation on earth; but, alas! 
 the spirit of entire consecration is wanting. This 
 subject rises into stupendous significance when we 
 consider that whatever is withheld from God is 
 thereby unquestionably added to the resources and 
 agencies of the world-power that is essentially ar- 
 rayed against the cause of Christ. How can it be 
 said that one belongs to the Church while his time, 
 and money, and skill, and influence, and effort, are 
 constantly given to the world? Who wonders that 
 the world is not conquered ? 
 
 II. The duty of the earnest Christian in view of these 
 hinderances. 
 
 First, it should be remembered that there have 
 been hinderances throughout the history of Chris- 
 tianity. While their phenomenal forms have changed 
 from age to age, their real nature has continued the 
 same. What sins can be mentioned that did not 
 brand the character of individual disciples and blot 
 the name of Churches in the apostolic age? Greater 
 crimes were more common among the professed 
 disciples of Jesus then than now. What sickening 
 depravity has been revealed by the Church itself, in 
 every Christian land, from the first century to our 
 own day! It is a bold declaration, but confidently 
 made, that, in view of all involved, there is relatively 
 less opposition to genuine religion in this day than
 
 THE HINDERANCES OF THE GOSPEL. 201 
 
 in any other of its career. The power and prestige 
 of the Church have been incalculably aughiented. 
 Christianity is now so interwoven with the lan- 
 guage, character, aims, customs, laws, and interests 
 of the mightiest nations on earth, that its complete 
 overthrow and eradication may justly be declared 
 an absolute impossibility. Its achievements in the 
 salvation of men, in the exaltation of nations, and 
 in the promotion of all human welfare, stand forth 
 in the brightest light of history as an unparalleled 
 glory, and an unanswerable vindication of its claim 
 to superhuman origin, spirit, and power. To-day 
 it has more disciples, greater advantages, and might- 
 ier instrumentalities at its command, than it could 
 have claimed in any other age. There may have 
 been times when a larger proportion of the world's 
 powers were professedly devoted to its interests, 
 but those powers were directed too much by world- 
 ly ambition or deplorable fanaticism. Its eventful 
 past and fortified present are the convincing proph- 
 ecies of its victorious future. Its sufficiency under 
 indescribable sufferings in the periods of its com- 
 parative weakness assures us that there can be noth- 
 ing too formidable for its strength in these grand 
 years of its disciplined power and stupendous devel- 
 opment. There are shadows, dark shadows, now 
 and then, but the sun shines on, and, when the 
 clouds are driven by the winds, the undimmed ra- 
 diance gleams over mountain and plain. The un- 
 precedented advancement in art and science in this 
 century of wonders has furnished corresponding 
 facilities for the advocacy and dissemination of di- 
 9*
 
 202 THE HINDERANCES OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 vine truth. While the doctrines of the great Teach- 
 er are constantly tested and verified by thousands 
 of the wisest and best of our race, there is a most 
 auspicious ecclesiastical enterprise, in the main pe- 
 culiar to this century, that gives cheering promise 
 of invincible organization and glorious progress for 
 the Church of God in the next generation. I refer 
 to the work of the Sabbath-school. Before science 
 can bewilder, or fashion delude, or wealth corrupt, 
 or vanity inflate, the impressible minds of the chil- 
 dren are preoccupied with the ineradicable convic- 
 tions of the truth, the efficacy, and the preciousness, 
 of the gospel. Thus all the insidious plans of the 
 enemies of the soul are wisely forestalled. Better 
 means are provided for the godly training of the 
 young to-day than have been furnished by the fol- 
 lowers of Christ in any land in any other age. In 
 this grand movement the men of God are like the 
 wise Highlanders in their plans to extinguish the 
 tornadoes of fire that were blasting their forest-hills. 
 With purpose bold and hearts of hope those hardy 
 peasants rushed away before the defiant flames, and 
 cut the broad lane through the crowded wood, so 
 that the baffled fire sought in vain for fuel when it 
 reached the scene of their battling toil. Thus, when 
 the multiplying millions of the Sabbath -school chil- 
 dren are reached by the threatening forces of shame- 
 less vice and arrogant infidelity, the well -trained 
 host wilt be prepared, with both heart and skill, for 
 determined and triumphant resistance. It may rea- 
 sonably be doubted whether the history of Chris- 
 tianity furnishes, since the day of Pentecost, another
 
 THE UES 7 DERANCES OF THE GOSPEL. 203 
 
 chapter so full of all that should inspire confidence 
 and exultation as that which is presented in the 
 work of the Church for the children in our day. 
 
 Secondly, in view of the hinderances, the para- 
 mount duty that which stands as an absolute pre- 
 requisite to all other duties consists in individual 
 fidelity to God's righteous requirements. There 
 must be a consecrated purpose to have life and 
 power in personal devotion zeal and activity in 
 one's own work for religion. Simplicity, fervor, and 
 whole -heartedness, must characterize the prayers 
 and deeds of every disciple. Above all claims of 
 creeds, all teachings of example, all tendencies of 
 fashion, all allurements of the world, all demands 
 of business, all pressure of the multitude, there 
 must be prompt, unwavering obedience to the com- 
 mandments of the Lord in respect to purity in one's 
 heart and life, and to enthusiasm and sacrifice in 
 labor for the salvation of souls. This involves faith- 
 ful seeking for the testimony that God is well pleased 
 with the condition of the heart, the character of the 
 motives, and the methods of the work that is per- 
 formed ostensibly for the sake of Christianity. Yes; 
 the true test is in the consciousness in the heart. 
 The religion that withstands temptation and perse- 
 cution must be sustained by indubitable assurance 
 resting on intellectual conviction and correspondent 
 feelings. First, there is faith in the truth of God's 
 word; then, holy impulses to duty; then, self-sur- 
 rendering trust in the Father of Mercy, through the 
 merits of Christ. This trust, which is the free-will's 
 offering of self and all to the Saviour, is what is
 
 204 THE HINDERANCES OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 called saving faith. It is followed immediately by 
 some measure of peculiar peace and joy. Hope is 
 kindled. Love wells up in the soul. There is a 
 sense of the warming of the heart toward God. 
 When we feel that we love God, we feel sure that 
 God loves us. The knowledge of his love fortifies 
 us against all evils and foes, and prepares us for 
 sacrifice, toil, and suffering, in his cause. It makes 
 the heart feel " I can do all things through Christ 
 that strengtheneth me." Profound consciousness 
 of the divine favor is the true panoply of the soldier 
 of the cross. Without that consciousness he is weak 
 in desire, purpose, and effort; but with it, he is an 
 invincible hero. Those who wish to be useful as 
 Christians must, by maintaining humble trust and 
 singleness of purpose, have in themselves continually 
 the all-sustaining testimony that they please God. 
 
 As a necessary condition of peace, welfare, and 
 usefulness, it is the privilege and duty of the Chris- 
 tian to apprehend the doctrine of God's providence 
 in all things. The realization of his loving pres- 
 ence makes faith stronger, and hope brighter, and 
 love intenser. When thoroughly realized, it re- 
 strains the soul from sin, perpetually impresses 
 the necessity of purity, keeps the heart aglow with 
 the fervor of grateful love, and stimulates to a 
 watchful and zealous performance of the divine will 
 in every duty. It sweetens the simplest pleasures, 
 it ennobles the humblest tasks, it illumines the dark- 
 est hours, and solves the gravest problems of human 
 life. It is the vital breath of prayer, the basal faith 
 on which all other Christian faith must rest, the
 
 THE HINDERANCES OF THE GOSPEL. 205 
 
 grand, essential requisite for loyal work and tri- 
 umphant success in the service of God. Under its 
 inspiration, every object that is beheld utters a voice 
 of more than earthly significance; every pleasure, 
 small or great, is rendered precious by the ennobling 
 benediction of Heaven; every trouble is softened 
 and subdued by the melting smiles of Redeeming 
 Love; and the whole spiritual nature, kept in lively 
 exercise, finds in every experience something that 
 stimulates its energy, expands its capacity, and fur- 
 nishes new weapons and skill for godly achieve- 
 ment. Thus God becomes " a very present help," 
 a constant companion, feeling ever nearer and nearer, 
 growing ever dearer and dearer. The soul, enjoy- 
 ing a perpetual consciousness of infallible security 
 and unearthly peace, by day and night, in all pos- 
 sible changes, in toil or rest, in hope or fear, in pain 
 or pleasure, in smiles or tears, may exultantly ex- 
 claim, My Saviour knows, directs, and sanctifies it all! 
 In such a state the heart beats always in holy trust 
 to the heavenly refrain of "All is well!" 
 
 But the safety and usefulness of the Christian ab- 
 solutely require fidelity in maintaining good works. 
 He must have that mind in him that was in Christ 
 Jesus. He must take up his cross and follow Jesus. 
 The only work of Jesus is to seek and to save the 
 lost. If we expect his companionship, sympathy, 
 and cooperation, we must be engaged in the same 
 purposes and efforts in which he is engaged. If 
 we enjoy the presence and help of the Holy Ghost, 
 we must be aiding in his work of seeking to con- 
 summate the glorious enterprise of the world's salva-
 
 206 THE IIINDERAXCES OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 tion. To work sincerely for God is to work with God. 
 To work with God is to become more and more 
 partakers of his nature, to grow more and more 
 like him. It exalts every act in life to an ennobling 
 relation to the heavenly. It links every day in life 
 by the golden chain of obedience to the grandeur 
 of the everlasting. It gives to human life on earth 
 much of the genius of immortality. It makes the 
 voices of memory mingle in sweet harmony with 
 the songs of hope and the benedictions of Sov- 
 ereign Mercy. It enables the soul to look back and 
 know that it has done something for God, and laid 
 up some treasure in heaven. Be not cast down, 
 though you may be feeble, faint, and poor. The 
 Lord will help you to work. He can and does 
 work by few or many, by great or small. Do what 
 you can God will require no more. Pray for the 
 right. Pray in faith and love. Be true in all things, 
 that you may be able to prevail when you pray. 
 Talk for Jesus. Be a consistent Christian, that your 
 words, though broken and plain, may ring with the 
 superhuman eloquence of piety and truth. Live 
 out pure and undefiled religion before the world, 
 that your example may be an effectual instrument 
 of salvation in the hands of Almighty Love. I en- 
 treat you, I implore you, I warn you, before you go 
 to the bar of final judgment, strive to do more, to 
 do better, for the cause of Ciirist, than you have 
 yet done. Let what remains of your life of proba- 
 tion be more wisely spent. Be not dismayed by the 
 coldness of the Church, the assaults of skepticism, 
 or the wickedness of the age. All this is but the
 
 THE IIINDERANCES OF THE GOSPEL. 207 
 
 peculiar form of trial for the Church of God in our 
 day. There have always been great trials for the 
 followers of Christ. Sometimes there is bloody 
 persecution ; sometimes, dangerous worldly prosper- 
 ity; sometimes, wide-spread apostasy; sometimes, fa- 
 natical heresy; sometimes, bold and powerful attacks 
 upon the Bible; but God's grace has always been, 
 is to-day, and will forever be, sufficient for all. There 
 is no just cause for alarm. The Church has been a 
 safe refuge in the past it will be a safe refuge to 
 the end of time. It will never be destroyed. It is 
 the only institution on earth whose foundations are 
 eternal. It is the fold of Christ; and the omnipo- 
 tent Shepherd never slumbers. It is the "habita- 
 tion of God," and therefore the very home-love of 
 the Infinite will defend it. It is the " body of 
 Christ," and has therefore already passed through 
 the final resurrection unto immortality. It is the 
 "strength and glory of God," and that strength is 
 unbounded, and that glory everlasting. 0, then, 
 cling to it, pray for it, toil for it, live for it, die for 
 it! Its ruler is the Lord of lords and King of kings. 
 Trust in Him, and faithfully serve Him, and you 
 shall enjoy His richest blessings on earth, and His 
 endless salvation in heaven. Let the most anxious 
 cry of your longing spirit ever be: 
 
 Father, haste the promised hour 
 
 When at His feet shall lie 
 All rule, authority, and power, 
 
 Beneath the ample sky ; 
 When He shall reign from pole to pole, 
 The Lord of every human soul ;
 
 208 THE HINDERANCES OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 When all shall heed the words He said, 
 
 Amid their daily cares, 
 And by the loving life He led 
 
 Shall strive to pattern theirs ; 
 And He who conquered death shall win 
 The mightier conquest over sin !
 
 THE REV. MORGAN CALLAWAY, D.D., 
 
 Ot the North Georgia Conference.
 
 XII. 
 
 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 
 
 BY THE REV. M. CALLAWAY, A.M., D.D., 
 
 North Georgia Conference. 
 
 "Therefore let no man glory in men: for all things are 
 yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or 
 life, or death, or things present, or things to come ; all are 
 yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's." 1 Cor. 
 iii. 21-23. 
 
 A CLUSTER of paradoxes. We are not to "glory 
 in men;" nevertheless, "Paul, and Apollos, and Ce- 
 phas," are ours, and ours rejoicingly. "The world, 
 and life, and things present," are ours; yet elsewhere 
 we are taught to "love not the world, neither the 
 things of the world; " to "take no thought for our 
 life, what we shall eat, or what we shall drink, nor 
 yet for our body what we shall put on." "Death 
 and things to come" are ours, yet we are to "take 
 no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall 
 take thought for the things of itself." And death is 
 spoken of as a shadow, a terror, an enemy, the last 
 to be overcome. Stranger than all, this group of 
 properties is ours because "we are Christ's, and 
 Christ is God's." 
 
 What means the apostle? Evidently he purposes 
 to rebuke the party spirit then prevailing, to har- 
 monize the rivalries, to heal the divisions forming 
 
 (209)
 
 210 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 
 
 and threatening the unity of the Church, to correct 
 the tendency to saint-worship, and to indicate the 
 untrustvvorthiness of men as spiritual guides. He 
 would fix forever in our memory a reminder that 
 Christ is the head of his own Church, that he alone 
 is its lawgiver, and that he only is worthy of wor- 
 ship. The admonitions are generally as well as 
 specifically just, for the Church at Corinth is not 
 hy itself in unseemly variances and in unchristianly 
 followiugs. The history of the Church at large is 
 largely the history of the Church at Corinth. 
 "Who shall be greatest?" had been asked with 
 reference to the coming, and doubtless felt as to the 
 present kingdom, by those who stood nearest Jesus 
 while on earth, arid now thoughtless Christians are 
 vaunting devotion to men as zeal for Christ. All 
 down the Christian centuries this shameless folly is 
 repeated, for rarely has the Church been without 
 men ambitious of leadership, or of those who were 
 ready in unholy subservience; nor is it to-day, 
 though growing in grace, so spiritual as to follow 
 men only as they follow Christ. 
 
 Our own heart-history, it would seem, should sug- 
 gest the probability of human error, unless, forsooth, 
 we rely confidently on our insight, feel no confusion 
 from doubts, and no shame from sins. If, however, 
 we be conscious of vitiated powers, and of a per- 
 verse use of them at their best estate, we shall at 
 once accept the warning of the apostle as timely 
 and deserved. 
 
 Important as this admonition is, it is but prelimi- 
 nary to a broader, deeper truth of the text. Paul
 
 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 211 
 
 is urging the Church to review her possessions, and 
 contemplate her pledged inheritance, and in so doing 
 the cluster of paradoxes becomes a coronet of pearls. 
 As the resultant teaching, he presents what we shall 
 designate a doctrine of Christian Communism. 
 
 We transfer the term from a civic to a Christian 
 office, premising that communism in name is mod- 
 ern, but in spirit ancient as old, indeed, as populous 
 cities and poverty. In its last analysis communism 
 is self-indulgence at the expense of others. By its 
 advocates it would be defined as the championship 
 of the rights and interests of the many as against 
 the wrongs and tyrannies of the few: by the people 
 it is understood as the proposed universal pooling 
 of estates for equal redistribution. 
 
 Christian communism essays to appropriate the 
 possessions of all Christians to each, and of each to 
 all, with loss to none, but gain to all. In the matter 
 of doctrine and representative men it declares, 
 " Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, all are ours." 
 In the Christian family, and probably not elsewhere 
 so unmistakably, does community of interest work 
 good to the individual, and the individual interest 
 work to the good of the community where the 
 happiness of one person is in sharing the property 
 of all, and all in contributing to the happiness of 
 each. Communism receives the Scriptures as a 
 whole, but a whole made up of parts; as "profit- 
 able for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for in- 
 struction in righteousness," but not all delivered in 
 one book, by one man, or class of men; that one 
 doctrine is not to be magnified to the overshadow-
 
 212 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 
 
 ing of another; that one true representative man is 
 not to be heeded to the discount of another; that 
 all measures of inspiration, all grades of culture, 
 all orders of talent, so far as intrinsically and oper- 
 atively good, are to be counted worthy of study and 
 imitation. 
 
 Passing without pause the unbrotherly dispute of 
 Paul and Barnabas, the blameworthy lapses of 
 Peter, the necessity to Apollos of having "the way 
 of God more perfectly expounded," it may be truly 
 said that no one of them so knew "the truth as it 
 is in Jesus," or had so experienced of his grace, 
 that he should alone present the doctrine of the 
 cross in its fullness, or furnish in his, own life il- 
 lustration for all of the largeness of its blessing. 
 Were one person sufficient to construct the canon 
 of truth, but one would have been inspired; were 
 one life adequate for the illustration of Christian 
 biography, but one would have been portrayed. 
 Were these eminent three able to compass in their 
 life and teaching the sphere of Scripture verities, 
 the Father would doubtless have omitted the anoint- 
 ing of others for sacred writing and speaking. Not 
 to mention the writers of the Old, the .New Testa- 
 ment is distinctly distributive of topics of histo- 
 ry and doctrine, of experience and discipline, as 
 forming the full-orbed gospel of the Son of God. 
 So marked, indeed, is this feature of Holy Writ, 
 that the least learned see it when pointed out. The 
 synoptic Gospels, for instance, are notably occupied 
 in narrating the life of the Son of man, while the 
 fourth Gospel engages us with the Christ, the Son
 
 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 213 
 
 of God. Not, indeed, that the divine nature of our 
 Lord is unnoticed in the synoptic, or that his human 
 nature is slighted in the fourth; gleams of the 
 divine-human appear in both, but the Son of man 
 is the subject of the former, the Son of God of the 
 latter. "Of the generation of Jesus," opens the 
 one; "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word 
 was with God, and the Word was God," is the lofty 
 exordium of the other. Nay, moreover, in the ex- 
 pansion of the teaching of the Gospels, in the Acts, 
 and in its discussion too in the Epistles, order and 
 progress are observable, not unbroken, it is true, by 
 rehearsals of facts and principles previously stated. 
 The stream of Christian story meanders, but it 
 moves, and deepens as it moves in its enriching flow. 
 As the evangelists in the Gospels, so the apostles in 
 the Epistles, and in the Revelation, formulate their 
 own teaching, and after their own manner. The 
 teaching is as unique as the character and capacity 
 of the several authors, and no one character is the 
 counterpart of another, no single mind emphasizes 
 the same phase of truth as another, no single school 
 measures the circle of Christian science. 
 
 Paul was much engaged in deducing Christian 
 doctrine from Scripture narrative, and, we may say, 
 in modifying it by the richness of his own experi- 
 ence, more, probably, than all other New Testament 
 writers, and, by consent of theologians, more suc- 
 cessfully. His conspicuous conversion, his ready 
 submission, his unselfish surrender, his personal 
 "perils," his extraordinary labors, together with 
 his forceful statement and eloquent defense of Chris-
 
 214 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 
 
 tian doctrine, constitute him the hero of Protestant 
 Christendom. His prominence, however, and his 
 learning, and even his apostolic call, did not free 
 him from the disabilities of the race; he was yet 
 but a man, and, as such, subject to the limitations 
 imposed by the Creator on the knowledge of man. 
 He saw not, it may be, " through a glass darkly," 
 but he " knew but in part, and prophesied but in 
 part." 
 
 Before science had declared the form of our earth, 
 or the Northmen, followed by Columbus, had pop- 
 ularly verified it by the discovery of the Western 
 Continent, one might have complacently but igno- 
 rantly supposed the Eastern Continent the whole of 
 our habitable planet. Realizing its existence as we 
 do, it is hard for us to understand how men could 
 so long be ignorant of its place and power in the 
 equipoise of the universe. Did we not know of the 
 fourth Gospel, and the Epistles of John, and of 
 Peter, and of James, we might content ourselves 
 with the other Gospels and the Epistles of Paul; 
 but we have listened to the " beloved disciple" in his 
 narrative moods, and in his high discourse of the 
 Logos, and, following him in his Epistles, we have 
 heard like simple, deep, soulful utterances. He 
 wins our heart mayhap as, leaning on his bosom, 
 he communes with the Master; or draws us by the 
 stronger but kindred reason that, in his way, he 
 gives us the comforting last words of our ascending 
 Saviour; or in his Epistles, as his heart, not so 
 much toned by time as mellowed by holy fellowship 
 with Christ, he illustrates more intimately his spe-
 
 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 215 
 
 cial doctrine, and pleads the more winningly with 
 us, "Little children, love one another, for love is 
 of God;" or he impresses us with his cordial and 
 brotherly greeting of the "elect lady; " or, as else- 
 where, he buoyantly but unboastfully reminds us 
 who we are, and intimates what we shall be, con- 
 firming our faith by the ardor of his own ; or, with- 
 out modifying our estimate of his theme, still 
 warmly appreciative, and undisturbed in our rev- 
 erent love, he establishes himself in our heart by 
 vindicating his suppressed manliness and sense of 
 right, when justly aroused and dealing with willful 
 wrong, as a " son of thunder" he righteously flash- 
 es indignation on the offender. As the foliage of 
 our American forests, beauteous in the emerald of 
 spring, becomes resplendently so in the gold and 
 scarlet of autumn, so, advancing in years, but clear- 
 ing in prophecy, John caught, as it were, from the 
 lips of the Master, messages to the seven Churches 
 of Asia, commending the good, rebuking the bad 
 messages so manifesting the scrutiny, and yet the 
 compassionate watchfulness, of Him who " walked 
 in the midst of the golden candlesticks," that we 
 conclude that the communion of John and Jesus is 
 closer now than when they reclined in brotherly in- 
 timacy at the feast of the Passover in the upper 
 chamber; and that, as he neared the city of his vis- 
 ion, he took on more of the character of its citizens 
 and more of the likeness of its King. 
 
 ISTo; as much as we need Paul and his gospel of 
 faith, we cannot do without John and his gospel of 
 love.
 
 216 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 
 
 Besides grasp of doctrine, there are happy sur- 
 roundings, providences of position, personal knowl- 
 edges, which fit the minister of every order for 
 labors, clothe him with potencies, and adapt him 
 for exigencies, which otherwise could not be so fort- 
 unately met. And so of the apostles. 
 
 In the nature of things, Paul could have no ac- 
 quaintance with Jesus as man with man, or as liv- 
 ing disciple with living Master. In all that pertains 
 to the heroic, his life is rich in incidents, but to 
 some it may be fearful in tragic impressiveness. To 
 Paul it was not granted to look upon the face of 
 the Son of man, only as veiled in blinding light; 
 nor to hear his voice, only as rousing a Pharisaic 
 conscience to Christian wakefulness, or in answer 
 to agonizing prayer. As he went up to Damascus, 
 Paul saw the light and heard the voice that wrung 
 from him recognition and obedience; and again, as 
 he was crying with self-repeating earnestness to be 
 delivered from the " thorn in the flesh," the same 
 voice said, " My grace is sufficient for thee." These 
 two occasions were enough to bring home to him 
 Christ's power to convict, sustain, and save. Be- 
 sides, " Blessed," says Christ to Thomas, " are they 
 that have not seen (me), and yet have believed." 
 
 John, however, writes "of that which we have 
 heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we 
 have looked upon, and our hands have handled," 
 and, at the same time, "of that which was from the 
 beginning, and was the Word of life." John sees 
 and knows Jesus as Mary and they of Bethany 
 know him; is with him as he "goes about doing
 
 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 217 
 
 i 
 
 good," as he teaches, or as he works miracles; is one 
 of the honored coterie with Jesus in the death-cham- 
 ber of the maiden, in the garden of the "bloody 
 sweat," and in the overpowering splendor of Tabor; 
 is at Calvary, too, sustaining Mary, and giving all 
 he could express the sympathy of his presence to 
 the Crucified; there, furthermore, to take upon him, 
 at the request of the dying Son, the care of the 
 holy mother; is with the eleven when the risen 
 Saviour makes himself known unto them; and later 
 he enters anticipatively the New Jerusalem, walks 
 its streets, numbers its gates, counts its towers, 
 stands near the throne, bows with the elders before 
 the Lamb, and with the one hundred and forty and 
 four thousand swells the song of the redeemed. So 
 favored a mortal an intimate of Jesus, a man hoty, 
 a disciple teachable, an apostle faithful, a saint hon- 
 ored his life can but be exemplary and stimulat- 
 ing to the brotherhood, as his doctrine is vital to the 
 creed of the Church. 
 
 ~ Stress is placed on the life and labors of Paul and 
 John because, though, of all writers of the New 
 Testament, they are most able to stand unsupported, 
 and most nearly embrace the cardinal tenets of our 
 religion, differing widely, as they do, in tempera- 
 ment and scope of inspiration, and yet are indis- 
 pensable to each other and the system of truth ; for 
 the greater reason every other writer needs the sup- 
 port of all the canonical writers. We merely for- 
 mulate what is partially disclosed in the discussion 
 when we say that the Christian ministry, in its 
 variety of gifts and grace, learning, zeal, and elo- 
 10
 
 218 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 
 
 qnence, is a benediction. But how blessed soever 
 each teacher and doer of the truth may be to the 
 Church and the world, no one of them preaches the 
 whole gospel, or discharges all its holy ministries. 
 If Paul is to be sustained by John, and John by 
 Paul; if Peter, and James, and the rest, is necessary 
 to supplement the truth as taught by Paul and John, 
 may we not wonder at the bigotry of sects that 
 blinds them to their own deficiencies, and enlight- 
 ens them as to the supposed deficiencies of others? 
 nay, may we not "do well to be angry" with the 
 ecclesiastic who assumes the exclusive shepherding 
 of God's flock, the lording it over his heritage, 
 whether he sits in the Vatican of Roman power, or 
 rules the chapel of some mean village? 
 
 Christian Communism must be discriminated from 
 Optimism, who is so kindly in spirit that she dis- 
 cerns no faults and foibles, and is too complacent to 
 be wise. Her glasses are rose-colored, disclosing to 
 her naught but images of beauty. Were she not 
 so amiable, we should be disposed to laugh at her 
 mistakes. Communism is amiable too, but not 
 blindly so. Her eyes sparkle as she looks abroad 
 on the goodly heritage of the Church, and her face 
 beams at the evidences of its prosperity; but objects 
 to her return their true color, and a shadow there- 
 fore sometimes flits over her countenance. She is 
 seeking the good, and, of course, comes at times on 
 the evil ; but she delays, not as the mud-wasp, to take 
 np a soil, but only as a bee, to carry off a sweet. 
 Her censures, then, are negative, but none the less 
 pointed, for praise of virtue is condemnation of vice.
 
 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 219 
 
 Religious narrowness is an offensive weakness, 
 for it comes of ignorance of self and of society, and 
 is damaging to the spiritual growth of the individ- 
 ual and of the Church. Paul is here commending 
 broadness of view, catholicity of sentiment, and of 
 consequence denounces narrowness and sectarian- 
 ism. The philosophy he inculcates is in accord 
 with that of the thirteenth chapter, " it thinketh no 
 evil." It significantly, on the one hand, rebukes 
 the Protestant who denounces Romanism unquali- 
 fiedly, by pointing out her good works, and discrim- 
 inating properly between perversions developed and 
 wrestings maliciously devised; arid on the other 
 hand, the Romanist for his sweeping denunciation 
 of Protestantism, by showing that the policy of 
 Protestantism toward learning and freedom is based 
 on the Rock of Ages. Again, it rebukes Protestant- 
 ism because in her own family the daughters differ 
 in the theory and use of the sacraments and cere- 
 monies of the Church; and Romanism again, be- 
 cause she excommunicates all who refuse to sub- 
 scribe to the primacy of Peter; and the Church at 
 large, because she neglects to take sisterly notice of 
 other religions, especially of Judaism, the school- 
 master that brought her to Christ; because, secure 
 in her own faith, she is severe on the doubting and 
 disbelieving, admitting the worth of no half-truths 
 nor half-virtues, shutting off theism and pantheism 
 abruptly though the one adoringly seeks to re.move 
 God from possible contact with sin, the other solac- 
 ingly to bring him home to every burdened heart 
 haughtily exclaiming to all, Christ or nothing!
 
 220 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 
 
 This doctrine of communism leads us to honor 
 Christ, by acknowledging his presence in the germ, 
 flower, and fruit, of Christian growth; in the shrink- 
 ing but loving woman who bathed his feet with her 
 tears; in the busy Martha and contemplative Mary; 
 in conservative Thomas and aggressive Peter; in 
 every state of grace, and strength of faith, finding 
 something to admire and imitate, causing us to 
 reach forth the hand of welcome, and utter words 
 of greeting to all who "name the name of Christ." 
 Christianity knows no differences of race or color, 
 no forms of government, civil or ecclesiastic, as pe- 
 culiarly deserving its favor, or qualifying for a mo- 
 nopoly of its blessings. "There is neither Jew nor 
 Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is 
 neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ 
 Jesus." It is implied in the doctrine of the text 
 that nations may be better than their religions, and 
 that Churches may be orthodox in practice, though 
 heterodox in belief, just as French moralitj' is su- 
 perior to French religion, and the piety of the Kirk 
 of Scotland is below the standard of the catechism. 
 Communism obeys the injunction, " Prove all things, 
 hold fast that which is good;" claims the theologies 
 of Christendom as ours; and that we can no more 
 exhaust the truth by our requisitions than the air 
 by our breathing; that it is common property, and 
 if divided and sequestered we have the warrant of 
 the King for its search and restoration to the com- 
 monwealth. Our interest in the truth is commen- 
 surate with our desire, and as attainable as our ef- 
 forts are earnest. It is not to be carried off as gold
 
 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 221 
 
 in bags to the loss of depositor or depositee. Its 
 method of communication is reciprocal. Like the 
 duplex interchange of messages on the wire, its 
 giving and receiving are virtually one. As the 
 earth draws upon the sun only as she can utilize his 
 light and heat, so truth is dependent on the recep- 
 tivity of the seeker for what is given out, and the 
 quality of its display. Christian truth is a possible 
 universal property, for it is the most needed form of 
 knowledge, and is self-generating. 
 
 The Church is unconsciously and slowly, but 
 steadily and surely, rising to the height of this 
 argument of communism. Here and there, now 
 and then, a word is spoken, or a work done, in its 
 furtherance. Now we see hints of closer fraternity 
 by sects of the same creed, but of sometime variant 
 usage; now a call for an evangelical, now an ecu- 
 menical, council. In the fellowship of the Spirit we 
 sing the classic " Rock of Ages," and " Jesus, lover 
 of my soul," little caring whether Toplady and 
 Wesley side with Calvin or Arminius, and pray as 
 expressive of thankfulness, or of wants unsupplied, 
 in a common language, just as the one hundred and 
 twenty, invoking the descent of the Holy Ghost, 
 demonstrated the probability of a common tongue 
 through the heavenly motion of a common senti- 
 menj. The Spirit makes us free and one. 
 
 Communism leads us out of Christendom, for 
 Christianity, which it seeks to spread and develop, 
 is not exclusive. It visits the Ganges as well as the 
 Jordan, for there is something sacred in the one 
 locality as in the other, for Buddha is a prophet as
 
 222 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 
 
 well as John, and though he saw not "that Light," 
 yet he longed for its illumination; that in theVedaa 
 and Koran, as in the Bible, there are truths, buried 
 it may be in a matrix of error, but truths giving 
 promise of potency which the Christian philosopher 
 slights at the risk of dimming the brightness of his 
 own jewels; for honor to the Master is interest in 
 men, and forgetfulness of men is a slighting of God. 
 " By unduly depreciating all other religions," says 
 Max Miiller, " we have placed our own in a position 
 which its Founder never intended for it; we have 
 torn it away from the sacred context of the history 
 of the world ; we have ignored or willfully narrowed 
 'the sundry times and divers manners' in which in 
 times past God spake unto the fathers by the proph- 
 ets, and instead of recognizing Christianity as com- 
 ing in the fullness of time, and as the fulfillment of 
 the hopes and desires of the whole world, we have 
 brought ourselves to look upon its advent as the 
 only broken link in that unbroken chain which is 
 rightly called the divine government of the world. 
 Nay, more than this, there are people who, from 
 mere ignorance of the ancient religions of man- 
 kind, have adopted a doctrine more unchristian than 
 any that could be found in the pages of the religious 
 books of antiquity, viz.: That all nations of the 
 earth, before the rise of Christianity, were mere 
 outcasts, forsaken and forgotten of their Father in 
 heaven, without a knowledge of God, without a 
 hope of salvation." 
 
 "The world, life, and things present, are ours." 
 The blessings of our religion are for to-day as well
 
 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 223 
 
 as to-morrow. We do not forget the seriousness of 
 life, our dependence on our Lord, as beneficiaries 
 of his bounty, as subjects of his grace; but he no- 
 where requires us to repress the cheerful, hopeful, 
 joyous elements of our nature, for religion is for 
 men. Earth is as much our home now as heaven 
 shall be hereafter. Something richer hereafter, 
 something rich now. No chancery delays to keep 
 us out of possession and use: prospective increase, 
 consummation, but no break, no interregnum of dis- 
 order, no orphanage or widowhood, no isolation or 
 ostracism, but peaceful occupancy and home-felt joy. 
 With the remembrance of the intervening curse, 
 Christianity repeats the declaration of the Creator, 
 that the earth is good its streams, mountains, for- 
 ests, birds, beasts, men, are good, and that whatever 
 is bad is of the enemy; that there is no flower, or 
 fruit, or soil, or mineral, or living creature, but may 
 be made to minister to man's happiness and God's 
 glory; and to him "who hath ears to hear" there 
 tomes a response from Nature joyously confessing 
 God, as he has gladly recognized her: 
 
 Tell the silent sky, 
 
 And tell the stars, and tell yon rising sun, 
 Earth with her thousand voices praises God. 
 God ! let the torrents like a shout of nations 
 Answer ! and let the ice-plains echo God ! 
 God! sing, ye meadow-streams, with gladsome voice, 
 Ye pine-groves, with your soft and soul-like sound. 
 And they too have a voice, yon piles of snow, 
 And in their perilous fall shall thunder God! 
 
 But this, perhaps, is the least important of the 
 lessons of the passage. With a purpose of rational
 
 224 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 
 
 indulgence, the Christian life floes not separate us 
 from the world; for in trade, it is not buying and 
 selling, but "bulling" and "bearing," that is censur- 
 able; in business, it is not diligence, but dishonesty, 
 that is denounced; in home politics, it is not the 
 advocacy of the rights of the people, nor even the 
 platform of a party, but the foisting of an unworthy 
 person on the suffrages of the citizens, that is to be 
 condemned; in foreign politics, it is not diplomacy, 
 but deceit, that is reprehensible; in war, it is not so 
 much the hot blood of the field, as the bad blood of 
 the council-chamber and the cabinet, that is open to 
 the criticism of the Christian. Among the pleasures, 
 it is not the grace of the dance, but the "german" 
 of it, that is sensuous; it is not the smile of inno- 
 cence, but the smirk of wantonness, that is frowned 
 at; not joyous laughter, but such as suggests the 
 "crackling of thorns under a pot," that is ranked 
 as a folly. In racing, it is not the speed and bottom 
 of the horse, but the jockeying and gambling, that is 
 vicious; in the fruit of the vine, it is not its refresh- 
 ing and strengthening properties, but its epicurean 
 and excessive indulgence, that constitutes sin; in 
 society, it is not the gleam of humor, the flash of 
 wit, the sparkle of repartee, the glance of affection, 
 the look of admiration, but the coarse mirth, the 
 unfeeling sneer, the satiric sting, the wily coquetry, 
 the empty adulation, at which Christianity shakes 
 her indignant head. No inhibition against joy or 
 activity, except such as grows out of our weakness 
 or waywardness. Charged with the grace of Christ, 
 the heart is responsive to all tokens of his presence,
 
 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 225 
 
 and appropriative of all communicable good. " God 
 giveth us richly all things to enjoy." Christianity 
 does not cloister her devotees ; superstition does that. 
 She rather invites them to walk through the marts 
 of business, the forum, the senate-chamber; wher- 
 ever men " most do congregate " she would introduce 
 her representatives, for her concern is for men ; and 
 though she moves a queen among them, she mani- 
 fests all the sympathy of a sister, keeping her gar- 
 ments unspotted, and indicating by her own walk 
 the better way of religion. She "renders unto 
 Caesar the things that be Csesar's," and thinks it no 
 crime to discuss his policy; it is only exaggerated 
 religiousness that does. She knows full well that 
 without government strong and stable, the things 
 of God are endangered, and that without the bind- 
 ing power of religion, government becomes disor- 
 ganized. She takes part in the industrial enter- 
 prises of the day, directly or indirectly managing 
 many of them. She invests in rails and engines, in 
 "wires and batteries, encourages the tunneling of the 
 Alps, the bridging of the Mississippi, advocates the 
 opening of Suez and Panama, that the nations may 
 be neighborly, and the peoples flow together like 
 long-barred oceans, and that the continents of hea- 
 thendom may come to Christ. She takes stock in 
 the learning of the day and its achievements not 
 simply editing the Bible, works of theology, and re- 
 ligious journals, but supplying authors and editors 
 for scientific and literary treatises. She muddies no 
 stream of truth, clogs no wheel of progress, puts no 
 veto on investigation, interdicts no work of litera- 
 10*
 
 226 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 
 
 ture, lays no embargo on the press. If, as is the 
 fact, an expurgatorium has been kept, it is but 
 charity to say that it originated in a misguided zeal 
 "for the faith once delivered to the saints," or is 
 chargeable to men who audaciously arrogate the 
 vicarship of Christ. 
 
 She does not array herself against science; igno- 
 rance does that. Her energies and resources are 
 specially devoted to the science of religion, but as 
 contributory to this she draws from all. Strictly 
 speaking, she is no specialist, though she smiles on 
 specialists, for her elective instinct conducts her to 
 the best. The illustration, if not the embodiment, 
 of many sciences, she patronizes them all. Hammer 
 in hand, she walks over the earth with Lyell and 
 Miller, taking the <' testimony of the rocks," har- 
 monizing geology and Genesis; or, with Bopp and 
 Grimm, cons the grammars of the races, that phi- 
 lology may corroborate the ethnology of Paul, that 
 " God hath made of one blood all nations of men for 
 to dwell on all the face of the earth." She accepts 
 the demonstrated, though her cheek mantle at the 
 memory of the now historic blunders of her zealous 
 but sometimes inconsiderate adherents. She may 
 not be able at all times to demonstrate, or even dis- 
 cern, the relations of the several sciences to herself, 
 but she is a philosopher, and trusts to the ultimate 
 solution of the revelations, as she does to the vindi- 
 cation of God, for God is truth. 
 
 The progress of religious thought and sentiment, 
 and their climax of influence in our present civili- 
 zation, she considers; but, that she may estimate
 
 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 227 
 
 rightly their share in the elevating process, she con- 
 siders also, in the interest of her chief work, the 
 value of the fine arts. She exercises not merely 
 her taste, but her godly judgment, in choosing from 
 ancient and mediaeval art such excellences as may 
 be promotive of refinement and worship, holding 
 surveillance over the sensuous, lest in her love for 
 the aesthetic she be imposed upon by that which is 
 insidiously harmful. She enters for nothing for- 
 bids, except the sour severity of Puritanism the 
 galleries of paintings, the studios of sculpture, the 
 conservatories of music, and appropriates whatever 
 of inspiration or suggestion they have to offer. She 
 does not hesitate to subsidize the genius of a Mozart 
 for the expression of praise, admires the majesty 
 of the "Moses," meditates on the ennoblement of 
 womanhood in the "Madonna," or the glorified hu- 
 manity in the "Transfiguration;" but since God is 
 a Spirit, and is to be worshiped in spirit, and jealous 
 of the displacement of heY Christ, she refuses them 
 a niche in the house of his worship. 
 
 But "the world, life, and things present," are ours 
 specially, because the present is the only time when 
 the Christian life is really lived, and the cross glori- 
 fied in the victories of its followers over sin. We 
 are invited to inspect the armory of Israel, and 
 make requisition for what is needful for the war- 
 fare. "Other men labored, and we are entered into 
 their labors." We stand in our lot, we enter on 
 our labors, we shirk not our duty. We take part 
 in the enterprises of our Zion, we build up her walls, 
 we restore her waste-places, we go up against her
 
 228 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 
 
 enemies, we contribute to her resources, we pledge 
 her our energies, and dedicate ourselves to her ser- 
 vice. Under the charter of liberties, as laid down 
 by the apostle in Philippians, "Whatsoever things 
 are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever 
 things are just, whatsoever things are pure, what- 
 soever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of 
 good report if there be any virtue, and if there be 
 any praise, we think on these things," and on these 
 things act. 
 
 We come now to solve a paradox not always un- 
 derstood by the regenerate, and never by the unre- 
 generate. 
 
 "Death and things to come are ours." If it re- 
 quire some consideration to induce us to perceive 
 that "the world, life, and things present," are ours, 
 much more in this case shall the heart hesitate un- 
 til the eye of faith scan the character of this prop- 
 erty, and the conditions of its conferring and ac- 
 ceptance. 
 
 A property? Is it not that over which we have 
 control for our advantage as against contingent dis- 
 advantages? Death bring us service? Is he not 
 the universal robber rather? A friend? Who un- 
 derstands him as such? Has he not defied the de- 
 scriptive powers of pagan and Christian poets, and 
 yet remains, not the riddle of the sphinx, but the 
 enigma itself of the universe? Dreadful in the 
 favoring distance, and in the irrepressible forebod- 
 ings of the soul, how shall we endure him in the 
 horror of his actual presence? Are we not his at 
 the meeting? comes he not, and sees, and conquers?
 
 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 229 
 
 There are no answers to these race questions out- 
 side the gospel, for death is its mystery and majesty 
 too. And so deaf and dull are we that not always 
 do we hear the oracles distinctly, nor understand 
 them rightly. To some, the dread of death vanishes 
 as ghosts before the dawning day, for to them the 
 gospel gives forth no uncertain sound; with others, 
 fear lingers as the twilight of the Arctic regions, 
 for the heart is yet divided in its trust. "According 
 to our faith," so is our fear. Christ's victory over 
 death shows us God. No wonder the resurrection, 
 the proof of the victory, was the theme of the 
 apostles and early preachers; it is the heart of the 
 gospel. If Christ be not risen, then is our preach 
 ing vain, and your faith is also vain, and of all men 
 we are most miserable. But Christ is risen, and 
 Christians are of all men most blessed. 
 
 Strong Son of God, immortal love, 
 Whom we, that have not seen thy face, 
 By faith, and faith alone, embrace, 
 Believing where we cannot prove; 
 Thine are these orbs of light and shade: 
 Thou madest life in man and brute; 
 Thou madest death ; and lo, thy foot 
 Is on the skull which thou hast made. 
 Thou wilt not leave us in the dust. 
 
 What Christ hath done for himself he hath done 
 for us. He died, that we may live; he lives, that 
 we may die in assurance. " For we know that if our 
 earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we 
 have a building of God, a house not made with 
 hands, eternal in the heavens." He who cannot 
 look into the new tomb of Joseph and believe, has
 
 230 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 
 
 no quieting for his instinctive fears but fatalism, 
 and fatalism is death. 
 
 But we have looked, have we not? and believed; 
 not, perhaps, with the eagerness of Peter : we may 
 have required the articulate tests of Thomas; but 
 yet we believe, and are going on to believe the 
 more. We have feared death, but we are fearing 
 him less. Our faith in the miracle of Christ's death 
 satisfies us with the mystery of our own. His power 
 over death is our power over life. Needful was it 
 for Christ to die, else he would remain unglorified; 
 needful for us, that we may be glorified with him. 
 As Christ in the flesh manifested something of his 
 divine nature, so we who have "known him in the 
 regeneration " manifest something of the Christly 
 character, and that supremacy of composure which 
 comes with the new life. Really, we have already 
 entered upon our heritage. The retroactive power 
 of our property is seen in our wise and happy ap- 
 preciation of the "world, life, and things present." 
 It has made us strong, and gentle, and true, and 
 loving; for the great issue is settled, and in our 
 favor. The relief it brings fills the world with 
 beauty and gladness for us. A righted judgment, a 
 wider knowledge, a freedom from restraint, a con- 
 scious at-homeness, a restored soul, an insight and 
 security as to the uses and objects of life, rob death 
 of his power to threaten at a distance. Nay, this 
 is scarcely different from the dialect of the uncon- 
 verted. Death is to us a Master of the Rolls, who 
 issues our patent of nobility, conducts us to our 
 manor, and will in due time introduce us to the
 
 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 231 
 
 King and his court. A marvel of mercy in this en- 
 nobling graciousness is, that the disaffected and dis- 
 loyal share now in the munificence of the provision. 
 The security of civil government, the sanctities of 
 home, and all that these imply, are hought with a 
 price for those who disregard, if they do not disdain, 
 the sacrifice. But to us who believe Christ is pre- 
 cious, and his work paramount bound together 
 by the sacrament of death, but death robbed of his 
 sting, there grows up among us a oneness of senti- 
 ment, a holiness of joy, a peace in believing, deep, 
 settled, prevailing. 
 
 There is much significance in the record of Luke 
 that, after the resurrection, but while the miracle 
 was fresh in the minds of the disciples, and the 
 closing proof of the Messiahship of Christ was de- 
 scending in the cloven tongues of Pentecost, "All 
 that believed were together, and had all things com- 
 mon; and sold their possessions and goods, and 
 parted them to all, as every man had need." The 
 highest spiritual state comes of assurance of power 
 over death, and makes the resultant blessings com- 
 mon. This is "the law and the testimony." The 
 death of Christ is the seal and sanction of Christian 
 Communism. 
 
 Prospecti vely of death what shall we say? Casts 
 it a shadow athwart the hereafter? and does the 
 valley of the shadow deepen and descend into 
 Stygian wave and darkness? Not for us, not for us! 
 By a fiat as omnific as that which said, "Let there 
 be light, and there was light," the gloom of the 
 grave has been kissed into gladness, and its dark-
 
 232 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 
 
 ness made all luminous by the light of the Sun of 
 righteousness. Yet scant are the reports of the in- 
 heritance of the saints. Moses and Elias came back 
 for a moment to dazzle us with their garments of 
 light; but an Eshcol token of the goodliness of the 
 Canaan is ours. Even John, as we have seen, when 
 in the Spirit on the Lord's-day, chiefly reveals to us 
 the objective glories of heaven, whatever reserve, 
 like Paul, he may have made of "unspeakable 
 words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter." 
 He speaks as inspired, and we can but study the 
 attractive but unsatisfying picture, until, from the 
 opulence of our "faith, hope, and charity," it shall 
 glow in the soft beauty and spiritual home-likeness 
 of our Father's house, secured to us through the 
 sacrifice of his First-born, our Elder Brother. We 
 rest on the coincident and cumulative testimony of 
 David and John: "I shall be satisfied when I awake 
 with thy likeness;" and "We shall be like him; for 
 we shall see him as he is." 
 
 Our Father, however, fetters us not in our efforts 
 to rise to the conception of the blessedness and en- 
 gagements of the heavenly state. As the angels, 
 we desire to look into the "sufferings of Christ and 
 the glory that shall follow." We have been rapt in 
 the Spirit; have gone up in the luminous clouds 
 of contemplation; have breathed the high air of 
 heaven ; have felt, as we stood before the throne, the 
 hush of reverence, the awe of majesty, the holiness 
 of the sacrifice, the Godhead of the Lamb. What- 
 ever may be the engagements of the unfallen and 
 redeemed ministering to the untranslated, and
 
 CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM. 233 
 
 solving the delayed problems of life, or in carrying 
 the gospel to other worlds, and the projection of 
 new and godlike enterprises we shall share them, 
 and share them in the vigor of conscious capability; 
 for our ignorances no longer cramp and disqualify 
 us, the mists of error dissolve, and truth stands out 
 in the bold relief of the everlasting mountains. 
 " We know even as also we are known." The su- 
 pernal light vivifies and deifies our intelligence. 
 Verily, " now are we as gods, knowing good and 
 evil." The fell work of the deceiver is more than 
 met by our walk in the light of the Lamb. He 
 shall lead us through the courts of celestial learning, 
 and all the desires of our souls to know and to do 
 shall be satisfied. " We follow whithersoever he 
 leadeth." 
 
 Our sins shall shame us no more; we are washed 
 from them in the blood of the Lamb, and are made 
 kings and priests unto God and his Father; and 
 through the ages he shall be the ever-present me- 
 morial of our interest, and guarantee of our right 
 to the blessedness of the sanctified and the saved. 
 "One faith, one Lord, one baptism," on earth; one 
 joy, one throne, one salvation, in heaven.
 
 XIII. 
 
 THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE, AS ILLUS- 
 TRATING THE WISDOM AND GOODNESS 
 OF GOD. 
 
 BY THE EEV. WHITEFOORD SMITH, D.D., 
 
 South Carolina Conference. 
 
 " For the poor shall never cease out of the land." Deut. 
 xv. 11. 
 
 "For ye have the poor always with you." Matt. xxvi. 11. 
 
 MANY of the evils which afflict society are the re- 
 sult of our efforts to make better what God made 
 good. Not satisfied with the order which Infinite 
 Wisdom has established, men have vainly imagined 
 that it was susceptible of improvement, and in their 
 endeavors to convert a system of beneficence into 
 what they conceive would be a system of optimism, 
 "after the manner of the giants, they have warred 
 against the laws of the universe, and the wisdom 
 that created it." 
 
 The successive disappointment of these attempts 
 has not deterred from their repetition, and the ex- 
 ploded follies of one generation have been adopted 
 by another, to result only in the same disappoint- 
 ment and mortification. If these experiments were 
 harmless, and made only on insensate matter, they 
 might be the subject of ridicule, and excite but a 
 
 (234)
 
 THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 235 
 
 smile of contempt at their absurdity; but when 
 they disturb the relations of society, and introduce 
 confusion and discord, awakening hopes only to be 
 disappointed, and promising good which can never 
 be attained, they are too serious for laughter, and 
 deserve a stern denunciation. 
 
 Conspicuous among these vagaries of the human 
 mind is the attempt to set aside the immutable law 
 of Nature which has established the inequality be- 
 tween man and man. Under the specious guise 
 of philanthropy, it is sought to establish, not what 
 Heaven ordained a law of universal brotherhood, 
 but as if there were something degrading in being 
 a younger son a law of universal primogeniture. 
 
 It might be supposed that the glaring absurdity 
 of such a proposition would carry with it its own 
 confutation, and render needless any reply; yet it is 
 not less true than surprising that many, whose in- 
 telligence would seem to place them beyond the 
 reach of deception, have been beguiled by this Uto- 
 pian dream. The voice of Nature, even in the in- 
 animate world, declares against universal equality. 
 From the lowliest shrub to the stateliest tree, the 
 law of inequality prevails; while, by the beneficent 
 provision of a gracious God, each in its place sub- 
 serves the end of its creation, adorning the earth 
 with a beautiful variety, and administering to the 
 gratification and happiness of man. The midnight 
 heavens proclaim alike to the infidel astronomer 
 and to the believing Christian that "one star 
 differeth from another star in glory." And so far 
 as it has pleased the Almighty to reveal to us the
 
 236 THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 
 
 secrets of the invisible world, it has been declared, 
 "So also is the resurrection of the dead." 
 
 When the Israelites, having been delivered out 
 of the land of Egypt, and led through the wilder- 
 ness for forty years, were about to enter upon the 
 possession of the promised Canaan, Moses, while 
 directing and exhorting them to the duties which 
 would insure their permanency and prosperity, 
 uttered the remarkable and prophetic declaration, 
 ''The poor shall never cease out of the land!" There 
 might seem something strange in such a declaration 
 at such a time. Were they not about to inherit a 
 land of promise, lovely for situation, salubrious in 
 its climate, and fertile in its productions? And was 
 not that land, for plenty, described as flowing with 
 milk and honey? Was it not about to be divided 
 to their tribes and families according to the princi- 
 ples of a just and impartial distribution? And was 
 not the patrimony of every man to be secured by a 
 homestead law which rendered it inalienable, so 
 that if necessity drove him to sell, he might redeem 
 it at any time, and if unredeemed, it reverted to 
 him or his family at the year of jubilee? How, 
 then, should there be any rich or any poor among 
 this people? Whence should arise those inequali- 
 ties which should clothe one in purple and fine 
 linen, and spread for him a sumptuous table every 
 day, while another should be in rags, a beggar at 
 his gate? Was this peculiar people, under a the- 
 ocracy, to be subject to the same contingencies to 
 which all other people were liable? Yes; the un- 
 alterable law of Heaven, decreed as well in kindness
 
 THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 237 
 
 as in wisdom, was neither to be abrogated nor sus- 
 pended even for them; the inequalities that existed 
 in Egypt under the Pharaohs should exist in Judea 
 under David and Solomon ; and the rich and the 
 poor, the strong and the weak, the wise and the 
 ignorant, the master and the servant, should be 
 found as well upon the banks of the Jordan as by 
 the waters of the Nile. 
 
 And when, after long centuries, the Prophet came 
 of whom Moses spake, like to himself, but greater 
 far than he, he confirmed the truth of the ancient 
 lawgiver's words when he said, " The poor ye have 
 always with you." The experience of every age 
 and every clime attests the truth of the divine utter- 
 ance; for since the primeval bankruptcy in Eden, 
 when the wealth of innocence and the divine simili- 
 tude were lost, where have not the poor, beggared 
 children of our race been found, wandering in the 
 deserts, or crouching under the shadows of the rich 
 man's palace, asking for sympathy too oft denied, 
 for charity too oft withheld? Even where civiliza- 
 tion and refinement most prevail, and where the 
 sublime teachings of Christianity have done most 
 to mitigate the evils of our fallen condition, the 
 alms-house, arid the orphan asylum, and the widow's 
 home, standing beside the lofty dwellings where the 
 children of affluence reside, bear, their perpetual and 
 emphatic testimony to the truth, " The poor ye have 
 always with you." 
 
 Shall we be told that these are but the artificial 
 distinctions of society? that they are no part of the 
 divine economy, but an infraction of the great
 
 238 ' THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 
 
 order of Heaven? Why, then, let us ask, have 
 these inequalities in wealth, and wit, and worth, 
 been always found among all people? It is not 
 alone where a rank civilization has fostered an un- 
 natural growth that these inequalities are found. 
 On the contrary, they exist everywhere. The In- 
 dian acknowledges for his chief the brave whose 
 strength in battle has won the victory for his tribe, 
 and yields a superstitious reverence to the aged seer 
 whose sagacity and experience have distinguished 
 him among his people. The inequality between 
 man and man is found in the submission rendered 
 to the leader of the robber-band, and of the pirate- 
 crew, as well as in the honors conferred upon the 
 gifted few in the higher ranks of civilized society. 
 It is seen not only in the forum and the senate-house, 
 where genius wins unfading laurels, but also in the 
 dungeon, where true greatness bears with dignity 
 its cruel sufferings, or on the scaffold, where con- 
 scious innocence triumphs over the doom to which 
 tyranny consigns it. 
 
 To test the soundness of this wild conceit of uni- 
 versal equality, let us imagine for a moment the ex- 
 periment to be made. Let us suppose it possible 
 that, on a given day, the entire wealth of a nation 
 should be divided, upon principles of the strictest 
 justice, impartiality, and equality, among all its 
 people. How long could this condition of things 
 remain ? How many disturbing causes would oper- 
 ate immediately to destroy the nicely-adjusted bal- 
 ance? The skill and ingenuity of one would soon 
 augment his share, while the ignorance and thrift-
 
 THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 239 
 
 lessness of another would make him the victim of 
 his more crafty neighbor. The ordinary casualties 
 of life would deprive one of the ability to labor, or 
 a protracted and wasting sickness would utterly 
 exhaust his means, while his robust and healthy 
 brother would be rapidly increasing in wealth. The 
 family of one would be numerous and expensive, 
 while that of another would remain unenlarged. 
 The father of one family would be taken away by 
 death in the midst of his years, and a widow, per- 
 haps feeble and sickly, be left to struggle for the 
 support of numerous children, too young to provide 
 for themselves. What principle could be introduced 
 into this system to prevent or correct these occur- 
 rences, which would be constantly destroying the 
 desired equality? Would you rectify the aberration 
 by a new division every year? Then yon remove 
 every incentive to industry; for no man would labor 
 only to distribute the fruits of his toil among the 
 unfortunate, the idle, and the vicious. 
 
 Nor are the inequalities of life confined to the 
 circumstances of our physical condition. They are 
 equally apparent in all that relates to our intellect- 
 ual being. Nearly a century ago, a French philos- 
 opher advanced the theory that in each individual 
 his talents and his virtues are not the effect of his 
 organization, but of the education he receives. In 
 our own day, precisely the reverse of this has been 
 taught by those phrenologists who have found all 
 human talents and virtues located in the several 
 divisions of the brain, and, by an examination of 
 the head, profess to tell at once the character and
 
 240 THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 
 
 future history of the man. Thus error is always 
 found oscillating between opposite extremes, while 
 truth, like the polar star, maintains its permanent 
 and unalterable position. Surely the mind must be 
 blinded by prejudice until it is incapable of any just 
 perception that does not recognize the infinite di- 
 versity of intellectual gifts with which the Creator 
 has endowed our race! 
 
 How variously diversified are the intellectual gifts 
 of men! In one, the fires of imagination burn with 
 uncommon luster, and burst forth in the highest 
 displays of poetry and eloquence. In another, the 
 strong powers of argumentation or reasoning are 
 displa3 7 ed, carrying conviction to the minds of the 
 multitude. In one, the genius for music displays 
 itself, and listening thousands are entranced by the 
 sublime oratorios of "Creation" and "The Mes- 
 siah; " while another, investigating the profoundest 
 truths in science and philosophy, gives to the world 
 a "Novum Organ um," or reveals the great secrets 
 which for ages had been buried in the bosom of 
 Nature. And will it be pretended that all these 
 have been endowed with no higher gifts than the 
 multitudes among whom they lived? Why, then, 
 does not every age and every clime boast its Demos- 
 thenes and its Homer, its Shakespeare and its Mil- 
 ton, its Plato and its Aristotle, its Paley and its 
 Whately, its Handel and its Haydn, its Copernicus 
 and its Galileo, its Bacon, its Newton, and its Locke? 
 
 Talk of mental equality as a law of the human 
 race! The school-boy, who witnesses daily the tri- 
 umphs of genius in the contests of the school, will
 
 THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 241 
 
 give the lie to the ridiculous proposition. How 
 admirably has an eloquent writer denounced this 
 absurd hypothesis: "Law! if the whole world con- 
 spired to enforce the falsehood, they could not make 
 it law. Level all conditions to-day, and you only 
 smooth away all obstacles to tyranny to-morrow. 
 A nation that aspires to equality is unfit for freedom. 
 Throughout all creation, from the archangel to the 
 worm, from Olympus to the pebble, from the radiant 
 and completed planet to the nebula that hardens 
 through ages of mist, and shines into the habitable 
 
 world, the first law of Nature is inequality 
 
 Ko; while the world lasts, the sun will gild the 
 mountain-top before it shines upon the plain. Dif- 
 fuse all the knowledge the earth contains over all 
 mankind to-day, and some men will be wiser than 
 the rest to-morrow." 
 
 Education can, doubtless, do much to lessen the 
 difference between mind and mind. To a certain 
 extent it can arouse the imagination, strengthen the 
 reason, improve the judgment, elevate and purify 
 the taste; it may fit a man to move with ease and 
 grace in the society of the wise and learned, but it 
 never has made, and never can make, a philosopher 
 of a fool a Solomon of a Rehoboam. 
 
 They who have studied well the nature of man 
 in the light of experience have been constrained to 
 acknowledge the inequality among men in morals 
 as well as in mind. While the theologian maintains 
 that all are fallen, and finds no exception in the 
 race, from the effects of the primeval sin, he will 
 not deny the differences that exist between the ami- 
 11
 
 242 THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 
 
 able and the morose, the gentle and the turbulent, 
 the meek and the passionate. It may safely be ad- 
 mitted that the influences of education and religion 
 can and do exert a larger power here than else- 
 where. It has been wisely and mercifully arranged 
 that they should, for however little the true happi- 
 ness of man may depend, upon his fortune or his 
 intelligence, it does depend upon the soundness and 
 purity of his morals. Yet even here a judicious 
 observer cannot fail to notice the differences that 
 exist even among those who are acknowledged to 
 be good men. The homely saying, that a peck of 
 grace will go farther with some men than a bushel 
 with others, is only a confession of the natural ine- 
 quality which marks the race. That parent must 
 have been unobservant indeed who has not recog- 
 nized this great law as manifesting itself among his 
 children at an early age, when the gentlest rebuke 
 will suffice to correct an evil in one which the se- 
 verest chastisement will scarcely correct in another. 
 Every teacher, too, must often have noticed among 
 his pupils the different effects produced upon them 
 by his appeals to their sense of honor, or propriety, 
 or to the gentler sympathies of their nature. 
 
 It is not our purpose on this occasion to enter at 
 any length into the question of the political equality 
 of men. Such an investigation, properly and thor- 
 oughly conducted, would require more time and 
 space than the limits of this discourse will allow. 
 Perhaps it is sufficient, in connection with this ar- 
 gument, to say, that the history of the past, as well 
 as all just and sound views of government, would
 
 THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 243 
 
 exhibit the doctrine to be as wild and visionary as 
 any other phase of human equality. From the pa- 
 triarch who exercised authority over his family 
 from Nlmrod, who sought to extend that authority 
 into the rule of a king, and became a hunter of men 
 down through the ages to the present hour, men 
 have been subjected to the government of their fel- 
 low-men. Whether that power has been exercised 
 jure divino or jure humano whether the popular 
 voice has called to the throne, or the right to do- 
 minion has been founded on might, in all ages, and 
 among all men, savage or civilized, political inequal- 
 ity has existed always and everywhere. No matter 
 upon what principles government may be founded, 
 whether monarchical, aristocratical, or republican, 
 the very elevation to power marks the inequality, 
 and places man over man. 
 
 They tell thee in their dreaming school 
 
 Of power from old dominion hurled, 
 When rich and poor, with juster rule, 
 
 Shall share the altered world. 
 Alas I since time itself began, 
 
 That fable hath but fooled the hour: 
 Each age that ripens power in man, 
 
 But subjects man to power. 
 
 But why multiply illustrations of a truth which 
 stands out conspicuously written on every page of 
 the history of our race? a truth which must com- 
 mend itself to every mind not warped by prejudice, 
 or blinded by error? A far more grateful task 
 awaits us, to contemplate the infinite wisdom and 
 benevolence evinced in this seemingly partial ar- 
 rangement, and to hush into silence those murmurs
 
 244 THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 
 
 of envy and discontent which this eternal law of 
 Nature is so apt to excite. 
 
 It is only because the spectacle never has been, 
 and never can be, presented to our sight, or because 
 we have not calmly considered what the effect would 
 be if it were possible, that we do not realize how 
 great a curse the wished-for equality of men would 
 be. Let us endeavor to bring the matter home to 
 our minds by a contemplation of such a state of 
 things as actually existing. Suppose, then, that the 
 Creator, listening to the repiuings of his weak and 
 erring children, should reverse the law he has es- 
 tablished, and gratify their foolish desires by making 
 all men equal equal in wisdom, equal in goodness, 
 equal in physical strength, and equal in fortune. 
 Suppose an angel from heaven commissioned to 
 bring to our world the intelligence that the law of 
 human inequality was abrogated that henceforth 
 there should be no poor in the land to utter their 
 plaintive cries and supplicate a brother's help no 
 rich to look down in the pride of their opulence 
 upon their poorer brethren no weak to depend 
 upon the aid of the strong no strong to look with 
 pity or contempt upon the feeble. Let the procla- 
 mation be made, as the fiat of the Almighty, "All 
 men are equal." Let us imagine the announcement 
 received witli acclamations of joy by the whole fam- 
 ily of man, as the inauguration of a new era in the 
 history of the race, perchance, as the dawn of the 
 long-expected Millennium. Methinks no band of 
 angel-rninstrels would hover over the world to repeat 
 the song they sung over the plains of Judea long cen-
 
 THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 245 
 
 turies ago, " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 
 peace, good-will toward men." O no; for that song 
 proclaimed a birth of poverty, and celebrated the 
 swaddling-clothes, the stable, and the manger. But 
 methinks, rather, the loud laughter of infernal fiends 
 would be heard, as they contemplated the utter ruin 
 of that world, for the master}' of which they had 
 so long contended. 
 
 What would be the first effect of this new law of 
 universal equality? What, but the independence 
 of every man upon his brother -man, and the in- 
 troduction of the most complete and unmitigated 
 selfishness? The bond which now holds society to- 
 gether, in all its various and beautiful relations, is 
 Sympathy. Its chords are struck by the cry of dis- 
 tress, from whatever source it comes, and the appeal 
 for help from the desolate and the suffering awak- 
 ens the noblest sensibilities of the heart. O blessed 
 human sympathy! how it speaks to the mother's 
 heart in the feeble wail of her dying babe ! How 
 it weeps with those who weep, 
 
 When, sorrowing, o'er some stone they bend, 
 Which covers all that was a friend 1 
 
 How it hears the faint cry of the famine-stricken, 
 borne across the great sea, and vibrates with a deep 
 emotion as it loads its ships with bread for the per- 
 ishing ! 
 
 O human sympathy! how it binds up the bruises 
 of the wounded, and speaks the words of comfort, 
 and recognizes even in a fallen foe a brother-man! 
 How glorious are the exhibitions which it every- 
 where presents, binding families together in holy
 
 246 THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 
 
 love, maintaining the peace of States and nations, 
 ministering in hovels and hospitals where wretch- 
 edness may be relieved and vice reformed! What 
 is it but the regulator of human society the salt 
 of the earth which preserves society from moral 
 putrefaction? 
 
 But the establishment of universal equality would 
 drive it from the world there would be none to 
 need it, there would be none to give it. Universal 
 equality would be universal selfishness. And what 
 darker doom could be visited upon the world than 
 to give it over to the dominancy of this ungodlike 
 passion? Imagine every individual of our race cut 
 loose from all those sympathies which now bind us 
 together, each bent only on what he thinks will ad- 
 vance his own greatness or fortune, and determined 
 to pursue his own interests independent of all around 
 him. Every generous impulse of nature would be 
 destroyed, and the spirit of selfishness would be the 
 prolific mother of a brood of evil passions, which 
 would make every man an Ishmaelite, whose hand 
 would be against his fellow. Where, then, would be 
 all those beautiful relations which now adorn and 
 sanctify human life? In the present constitution 
 of things, there is none so rich, or so exalted, that he 
 is independent of the services and sympathies of 
 others. The rich are dependent on the poor, as well 
 as the poor upon the rich. What the genius of the 
 wise may invent, the skill and strength of the com- 
 mon laborer may be necessary to execute. How many 
 alleviations of our miseries come from the sympathy 
 and aid of the weak? It was the little captive
 
 THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 247 
 
 handmaid of his wife, whose pity, on beholding the 
 leprosy of Naaman, suggested the prophet in Sama- 
 ria as the healer of the Syrian captain. And the 
 affectionate remonstrances of his servants overcame 
 his proud rage when he scorned the direction of the 
 prophet, deeming the rivers of Abana and Pharpar 
 better than all the waters of Israel. 
 
 The man who does violence to this great law of our 
 nature the law of universal sympathy and depend- 
 ence who, aiming only at his own aggrandizement, 
 seeks to live to himself alone, passes through life 
 devoid of the sweets of friendship, and descends to 
 the grave, " unwept, unhonored, and unsung." But 
 he whose life is given to deeds of benevolence, whose 
 path is radiant with acts of noble generosity, is 
 greeted everywhere as the friend and benefactor, 
 lives in the affections of those whom he has blessed, 
 and leaves behind him a name embalmed in the 
 hearts of men. A community where the names of 
 friend and benefactor are unknown, where the tear 
 of compassion never flows, and the smile of grati- 
 tude is never seen, would resemble the arid desert, 
 where no verdure blooms, no gushing fountain 
 springs, and no bird of morning greets the traveler 
 with its joyous song. 
 
 What would be the condition of society, let us 
 ask, if there were no intellectual inequality ? " Uni- 
 versal equality of intelligence, of mind, of genius, 
 of virtue! No teacher left to the w r orld? no men 
 wiser, better than others? Were it not an impossible 
 condition, what a hopeless prospect for humanity! 
 . . . . The few in every age improve the many; the
 
 248 THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 
 
 many now may be as wise as the few were, but im- 
 provement is at a stand-still if you tell me that the 
 
 many now are as wise as the few are And this 
 
 is not a harsh, but a loving, law the real law of 
 improvement the wiser the few in one generation, 
 the wiser will be the multitude in the next." 
 
 Will not these observations apply with equal 
 force to those moral inequalities that meet us every- 
 where? In the Scriptures themselves these inequal- 
 ities are recognized as the order of the divine ad- 
 ministration. The master, who was leaving his 
 house for a season, intrusted his goods to his serv- 
 ants, not upon the principle of an equal distribution, 
 but he gave to one five talents, to another two, and 
 to another one to every man according to his sev- 
 eral ability. And the responsibility of each was 
 proportioned to his endowments, for he who had 
 improved two talents was commended in the very 
 same words with which he was applauded who had 
 improved five. 
 
 The world is to be instructed and elevated, not 
 by precept alone, but by example also. Nothing is 
 more encouraging to one who is struggling for a 
 higher condition in virtue than to see that condition 
 made attainable by the examples of others around 
 him. Without such incentive he might willingly 
 acknowledge the excellence and desirableness of the 
 state, but yet regard it ns impracticable. To teach 
 by example is the noblest mode of instruction; and 
 He who alone of all our race exhibited the perfec- 
 tion of every virtue, summed up the essence of all 
 his lessons in one injunction, "Follow Me" But
 
 THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 249 
 
 admit the theory of universal equality, and there 
 can be no example of superior virtue to excite our 
 emulation, or to encourage our exertion. Then 
 the value of history as philosophy teaching by ex- 
 ample is lost; for why commend the patience and 
 labor, the self-denial and perseverance, the generos- 
 ity and magnanimity, the benevolence and unselfish 
 devotion of those whose names are illustrious in the 
 calendar of patriots, philosophers, philanthropists, 
 or saints, if there be nothing above or beyond us to 
 which we can attain? 
 
 But the law of human inequality orders other- 
 wise. The bright examples of the past are not in 
 vain. Over the generations that follow they weave 
 their spell and wave their enchanted wand. The 
 plains of Marathon, and the bay of Salamis, and 
 the pass of Thermopylae, identified as they are with 
 the names of the men who have made them illus- 
 trious, and the noble deeds of which they have been 
 the theater, awaken the inspiration of patriotism, 
 and excite a holy emulation in the hearts of poster- 
 ity. In the retirement of his closet, where the stu- 
 dent toils over the hardest questions of science and 
 philosophy, the shadowy forms of the mighty, who 
 have trod this path before him, beckon him on, and 
 cheer him in the pursuit. In the busy struggle of 
 daily common life, the recollection of the virtuous 
 triumphs of predecessors in the same field of labor 
 counteracts the weariness of the conflict, and en- 
 courages the hope of similar success. Everywhere 
 rise up the forms of the wise, and the great, and 
 the good, animating the soul to persevering effort, 
 11*
 
 250 THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 
 
 by pointing to the dangers they have braved, the 
 obstacles they have overcome, and the laurels they 
 have won. 
 
 Is it hard to discover the benevolence of the 
 Deity in this arrangement of our human condition, 
 "that to every station there should be its care to 
 every man his burden?" In the eloquent words of 
 the author already quoted, "If the poor did not 
 sometimes so far feel poverty to be a burden as to 
 desire to better their condition, and (to use the lan- 
 guage of the world) 'seek to rise in life,' their most 
 valuable energies would never be aroused, and we 
 should not witness that spectacle which is so com- 
 mon in the land we live in, namely, the successful 
 struggle of manly labor against adverse fortune a 
 struggle in which the triumph of one gives hope to 
 thousands. . . . If all men were equal, if there were 
 no suffering and no ease, no poverty and no wealth, 
 would you not sweep with one blow the half, at 
 least, of human virtues from the world? If there 
 were no penury and no pain, what would become 
 of fortitude ? what of patience ? what of resignation ? 
 If there were no greatness and no wealth, what 
 would become of benevolence, of charity, of the 
 blessed human pity, of temperance in the midst of 
 luxury, of justice in the exercise of power? Carry 
 the question farther: grant all conditions the same 
 no reverse, no rise and no fall, nothing to hope 
 for, and nothing to fear what a moral death you 
 would at once inflict upon all the energies of the 
 soul! and what a link between the heart of man 
 and the providence of God would be snapped
 
 TIIE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 251 
 
 asunder! If we could annihilate evil, we should 
 annihilate hope, and hope is the avenue to faith." 
 
 Accept these inequalities as the behest of Heaven, 
 and how wide the field for the exercise of every 
 virtue! and how rich the records of the race in 
 these sublime achievements! 
 
 How palpable, then, are the great moral lessons 
 which this condition of things is calculated to teach! 
 Let the lowlier children of our race in poverty and 
 sorrow, struggling with the evils of their hard es- 
 tate, remember that this estate is not one of their 
 own choice, but the allotment of Infinite Wisdom; 
 that the Universal Father, who has assigned them 
 this position for reasons and for ends they cannot 
 now discern, but which they shall fully comprehend 
 hereafter, is equally pleased with their patient ac- 
 ceptance of his will as he is with the obedience and 
 service of the principalities and powers in the 
 heavenly places. Discarding the envy which they 
 may be tempted to indulge toward those in higher 
 or more favored positions, let them learn the les- 
 sons of contentment and submission. Forget not, 
 ye children of want and misery, that the fragrance 
 of the lowly violet is not less precious than that of 
 the more gorgeous flower; and that when the chill- 
 ing blasts of winter have disrobed the roses of their 
 glory, the humble violet still blooms in beauty, and 
 regales us with its sweet perfume. 
 
 Let the rich and the great remember the uncer- 
 tainty of all earthly good, and, while they rejoice 
 in the possessions of the present, forget not the pos- 
 sibilities of the future. The times in which we are
 
 252 THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 
 
 living have forcibly illustrated before our eyes how 
 frail is the tenure by which we hold our earthly 
 goods. The rich of to-day may be the poor of to- 
 morrow. The sovereign who feels his throne secure, 
 and may be contemplating still larger acquisitions of 
 territory, that he may leave a boundless empire to 
 his heir, may read in the history of no very remote 
 times how near is the scaffold to the palace, or how 
 soon the scepter of power may be exchanged, for the 
 exile's staff. 
 
 Away, then, with boastful pride. Let the rich be 
 clothed with humility. Lay to heart the admoni- 
 tion of the prophet, "Let not the wise man glory in 
 his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his 
 might; let not the rich man glory in his riches." 
 There is one terminus to all the inequalities of life, 
 and to that the rich and the poor, the wise and the 
 ignorant, the great and the mean, are all rapidly 
 approaching. There is but one true leveler, who 
 effects his purpose, not by elevating the humble and 
 abasing the proud, but by laying low alike all the 
 hopes of the greatest and meanest of mankind. The 
 distinctions of life are swept away by his power, 
 and over the common ruin he rears the memorial 
 of his conquests. Proudly he rebukes the restless 
 ambition which frets at the inequalities of life, and 
 asks: 
 
 Can monarchs compass aught that hails their sway, 
 
 Or call with truth one span of earth their own, 
 
 Save that wherein at last they crumble bone by bone? 
 
 Let us not forget that the poor are the representa- 
 tives of Christ on earth; that he has scattered them
 
 THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 253 
 
 through all the lands to give opportunity to those 
 who love him to minister to their wants, and that 
 he will declare in that day, "Inasmuch as ye have 
 done it to one of the least of these, ye have done it 
 unto me." Surely, if there he any thing by which 
 our nature is most exalted, and in which we may be 
 godlike, it is in the noble privilege of doing good 
 to others, of being the benefactors of the poor, of 
 emptying ourselves that* we may enrich others, as 
 He who, "though he was rich, yet for our sakes be- 
 came poor, that we through his poverty might be 
 rich." 
 
 There is yet another particular which vindicates 
 the wisdom and beneficence of this divine order in 
 the affairs of men. If the happiness of man were 
 dependent upon fortune, or power, or intelligence, 
 then indeed there might seem to be some cause of 
 complaint at the inequalities of which we have been 
 speaking. But the law of compensation seems to 
 be commensurate with the law of inequality. If 
 poverty deprives a man of many of the advantages 
 which wealth confers, it also exempts him from its 
 cares, its anxieties, and its responsibilities. If a 
 humble position in life debars him from the honors 
 and prerogatives of power, it saves him from being 
 the object of envy and malignant hate. If it con- 
 demns him to labor and to toil, it blesses him with 
 health, and brings to him the welcome visits of re- 
 freshing sleep. If it denies him the advantages of 
 high mental cultivation, it frees him from a thou- 
 sand perplexing doubts, and from much study, which 
 is a weariness of the flesh. For, alas! the records
 
 254 THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 
 
 of our race are but too replete with illustrations of 
 capacious minds wrecked upon the dark rocks of 
 infidelity and skepticism, or perishing in the fires 
 which their own genius had enkindled. 
 
 The traveler who scales the summit of the highest 
 Alps may look clown for a moment with enthusias- 
 tic delight upon the world beneath him, and in the 
 temporary delirium forget the pains and perils of the 
 ascent, and all the dangersthat await the downward 
 way; but the humble peasant of the vale below may 
 have enjoyed an equal feast, where Nature smiled in 
 perpetual verdure. 
 
 He who takes a broad and philosophic view of 
 men in all the various departments of life, from the 
 highest to the lowest, cannot fail to be struck with 
 the fact that, however different may be the pursuits 
 and fortunes of men, happiness is distributed among 
 them with a wonderful equality; for, while the poor 
 may often feel the emotions of envy arising within 
 them when they witness the pomp and pageant at- 
 tendant upon wealth, it is equally true that from the 
 pride of place and the pinnacle of power the opulent 
 and the mighty look down with envy too upon the 
 tranquil enjoj'ments of the poor. Could we see 
 into the hearts of men, and read all the repinings 
 that are written there, it is probable that this uneasy 
 feeling of discontent would be found as often among 
 the one class as the other. It is not wealth, or fame, 
 or power, or the noble gift of high intelligence, that 
 brings to the mind that sweet content and cheerful- 
 ness of heart that constitute what the world calls 
 happiness. Alike from the palace and the hovel
 
 THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 255 
 
 proceed those vain regrets and murmu rings against 
 our earthly lot, which bear a constant testimony to 
 the dissatisfaction and restlessness of man. It is 
 virtue alone virtue, in the highest, widest, and 
 noblest acceptation of the term, embracing all the 
 good which religion teaches and enjoins which can 
 still these wild cries of discontent, and bring to the 
 heart the blessed solace and the soothing balm. 
 
 For not with natural or mental wealth 
 Is God delighted, or his peace secured; 
 For not in natural or mental wealth 
 Is human happiness or grandeur found. 
 
 If we confine our views to the present state of 
 man, and contemplate him only in reference to this 
 life if we divest our earthly condition of all its re- 
 lations to the eternal future if, in a word, we shut 
 our eyes to the immortality which religion reveals, 
 then indeed is human life, with all its varieties and 
 inequalities, an unsolved and inexplicable enigma. 
 "We are but feathers wafted by the wind, bubbles 
 tossed on the great sea of life. The only appropri- 
 ate superscription over the great panorama of the 
 world would be the bitter expression of disappoint- 
 ment and regret, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity 
 and vexation of spirit." 
 
 But when life is viewed in the light of its con- 
 nections with another and an endless state of being, 
 where virtue shall receive its appropriate reward, 
 and vice shall meet its just condemnation where 
 these rewards shall be measured, not by the splendor 
 which may have shed a false halo around the act, 
 but by the motives which have prompted it, and the
 
 256 THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 
 
 proportion it bore to the ability of the agent where 
 earth's mightiest and most renowned shall stand re- 
 vealed in all their selfishness, the objects of disgust 
 and loathing, while the humble and unknown, who 
 have labored only for the good of others, and been 
 the ministers of mercy to the suffering of their race, 
 shall be honored as the truly great all these ine- 
 qualities we now behold are but little mole-hills on 
 the surface of society, not to be noticed when they 
 are past, or only remembered as manhood in the 
 fullness of its intellectual strength remembers the 
 trifles of childhood which perplexed its feeble pow- 
 ers, or disturbed for a moment its infant glee. 
 
 If, then, at any time the scene of human disap- 
 pointment shall tempt us to adopt the beautiful but 
 sad lines of Gray 
 
 Full many a gem of purest ray serene 
 
 The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear, 
 
 Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, 
 And waste its sweetness on the desert air 
 
 a nobler inspiration shall prompt us to add, 
 
 But raised by power divine, each gem shall shine; 
 
 Each flower exhale in heaven its rich perfume ; 
 Each owned by thee, Eternal Sire, as thine, 
 
 Shall with effulgence glow, with beauty bloom. 
 
 "We may indulge in the pleasing anticipation of a 
 time when the oppressions of tyranny shall cease 
 throughout the world when the tocsin of war shall 
 be heard no more, and no more shall be seen the 
 garments of warriors rolled in blood when the re- 
 pinings of discontent shall be hushed in perpetual 
 silence when the gifts of genius shall never be
 
 THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 257 
 
 prostituted to the service of licentiousness and sin, 
 nor the lights of science lead into the mazes of 
 doubt and error when the glorious principles of 
 truth and virtue, coming forth triumphant from the 
 conflict of ages, shall assert their high-born right to 
 universal supremacy. But even then, in the bright 
 millennial reign, the blended notes of the high and 
 the low, of the rich and the poor, of the wise and 
 the simple, of the master and the servant, shall still 
 be heard, mingling in sweet concord, full of peace, 
 and exultant hope, and everlasting joy.
 
 XIV. 
 
 THE INTELLIGENCE OF FAITH. 
 
 BY THE EEV. T. J. DODD, D.D., 
 
 Vanderbilt University. 
 
 "At thy word I will let down the net." Luke v. 5. 
 
 THIS act of casting the net has sometimes been 
 referred to as an instance of blind faith upon the 
 part of Peter. A blind faith, however, is a thing 
 which has no existence. " The eye of faith " and 
 " the visions of faith " are figures which had never 
 been used but for the fact that faith sees, and is intel- 
 ligent. There is a faith which takes God at his word, 
 believing and obeying immediately, without hesita- 
 tion or objection; but this is really the most intelli- 
 gent faith that is ever exercised. It is immediate, 
 because it instantly perceives the grounds upon 
 which it should proceed, and acts accordingly. 
 Just in proportion as we fail to perceive these 
 grounds will be our hesitation either to accept 
 the promises, or to obey the commandments, of 
 God. 
 
 There is no such thing as faith without a reason. 
 The reasons for belief may be very different for dif- 
 ferent individuals, and even for the same individual 
 at different periods of his life; but whenever one be- 
 lieves, his mind must act in consequence of that 
 
 (258)
 
 THE REV. THOS. J. DODD' D.D. 
 Of the Kentucky Conference.
 
 THE INTELLIGENCE OF FAITH. 259 
 
 which appears to himself, at least, to be a sufficient 
 reason. The little child believes in God because of 
 his confidence in the superior wisdom of those who 
 have so instructed him, just as the Romanist, for a 
 similar reason, accepts with full confidence many 
 of the teachings of his priesthood. Most of the 
 earlier belief of us all arises from our submission 
 to authority recognized as the source and standard 
 of our faith. There is a time when we are perfectly 
 satisfied with this, and our belief is just as positive 
 and assured as if resting upon the best-ascertained 
 facts of history or science, or as if settled by our- 
 selves only after the most painstaking and impartial 
 investigation. As we advance, however, in the use 
 of our intellectual faculties, and realize the necessity 
 of having, each for himself, a foundation for our 
 faith, we throw aside the influence of instruction or 
 authority, and seek other grounds of belief; but, 
 after all, we attain no conclusions more satisfactory, 
 or more reasonable, than at the time was the sim- 
 ple, confiding faith of our childhood. Now, in the 
 maturity of our years, we read, we think, we travel, 
 we explore, we pile fact upon fact, and we have our 
 own reasons for accepting God and the Bible; yet 
 these are no more reasons, relatively, than was the 
 artless recital to which our little hearts responded 
 as we sat upon our mother's knee, and heard her 
 tell of God and Jesus. 
 
 At whatever period of life, whatever the degree 
 of our intellectual or moral culture, and in whatso- 
 ever realm of thought or knowledge, if we believe 
 at all, we believe for a reason; and this is saying no
 
 260 THE INTELLIGENCE OF FAITH. 
 
 more than that faith, like all things else, must have 
 a cause. Nor is there a faith opposed or contrary to 
 reason, or a faith that is above reason. If we do not 
 believe without a reason, much less can we when 
 reason is against us; much less, again, can we disre- 
 gard reason, forming beliefs in a realm that is above it 
 reason entirely out of view, not consulted, ignored. 
 
 In saying this, we do not mean that we never be- 
 lieve that in which, or of which, we do not perceive 
 the reasonableness; in other words, that which we 
 cannot comprehend. We are compelled to believe 
 in thousands of instances where we may never ex- 
 pect to understand. Out yonder is a landscape 
 wide-spreading, beautiful; it is taken in by the eye, 
 and impressed upon the retina; we believe that we 
 behold it there, pictured like a painting on the wall, 
 and we also believe that all others who look upon 
 it behold the very same thing; yet the vision itself 
 no man can comprehend. We cannot understand 
 the omnipotence, or the omnipresence, or the self- 
 existence, of our God; yet we find not the least diffi- 
 culty in believing that he is possessed of these attri- 
 butes. Just so in regard to all of our most familiar 
 and most dearly-cherished beliefs those in the sim- 
 plest equally with those in the most recondite truths 
 of nature, experience, providence, God. 
 
 Right here we may determine, to some extent, 
 the province of reason in its relations to the revealed 
 word of God. The question, here, should not be as 
 to the reasonableness, to us, of the contents of the 
 book, but as to the evidences which can be found of 
 its being, indeed, a divine revelation. Upon this
 
 THE INTELLIGENCE OF FAITH. 261 
 
 point we are to satisfy our reason, whatever be the 
 kind or degree of the argument required. To say 
 that we must take the book upon faith is merely 
 telling us that we must believe the book to be from 
 God; but the question comes up, Why so believe? 
 
 The volume accepted as of God, we should admit 
 its statements in whatever light they may appear to 
 us. We cannot believe that God would utter that 
 which is either untrue or unreasonable, and it is 
 highly irrational in us to expect to understand all 
 things in the divine word, while there is such an 
 infinitude of things about us in daily life which far 
 transcend our comprehension, but which, neverthe- 
 less, we must accept with the most assured convic- 
 tion. 
 
 As regards faith in the promises, and obedience 
 to the commands, contained in the book, the prov- 
 ince of reason is to fix the meaning of these not to 
 ascertain the grounds upon which they have been 
 based of God. We have no right to call God to ac- 
 count, and ask him why he has commanded thus; 
 nor may we require of him 'how he can verify his 
 promises to us. Ours is to obey the commands, and 
 to trust the promises, as we understand them not as 
 we understand the divine counsels concerning them. 
 There doubtless are many instances in which we 
 think we can see the grounds of the divine require- 
 ments, and the means by which God accomplishes 
 his purposes in our behalf; but these are not proper 
 subjects of inquiry on our part at least, of such in- 
 quiry as determines to relax pursuit only when a 
 satisfactory result is attained. What has God or-
 
 262 THE INTELLIGENCE OF FAITH. 
 
 dered? what promised? what does he mean in his 
 revelations to the world? These are the subjects 
 upon which we are to employ our reason ; and it is 
 thus only, assisted, of course, by the Divine Spirit, 
 that we can either believe or obey the word of God. 
 We can neither trust nor obey that which, in this 
 sense at least, we cannot understand. 
 
 There is no such thing as an unreasoning faith. 
 On the other hand, every act of faith is the result 
 of a process of argument in all regards the very 
 same as takes place in investigations of a most 
 strictly scientific character. In that faith which is 
 immediate, we do not perceive the successive actions 
 of the mind; but this is because of our rapid darting 
 from premises to the conclusion. There are courses 
 of reasoning through which we work our way toil- 
 somely and slowly: .we are distinctly conscious of 
 every mental operation involved, because we have 
 to w r eigh evidence, to examine the bearings of prop- 
 ositions and fit them together, as it were, before our 
 minds can arrive at the general result. This is usu- 
 ally the case when we are not previously familiar 
 with the subject-matter of the occasion, or entertain 
 beliefs opposed to the conclusion to which the argu- 
 ment would conduct us. At one time it required 
 labored demonstration to convince the world of the 
 revolution of the planets; but let a new planet now 
 be discovered, and we immediately believe that it 
 revolves both upon its axis and around the sun; yet 
 this latter belief comes from a process of ratiocina- 
 tion as real, though different in kind, as that in the 
 former belief, accepted only after years of painful
 
 THE INTELLIGENCE OF FAITH. 263 
 
 doubt and fearful apprehension. Were one wholly 
 destitute of all idea of God to receive, for the first 
 time, instruction upon the divine existence, attri- 
 butes, and providence, we may readily conceive that 
 much time might elapse, and much argumentation 
 be required, to induce him to trust His promises or 
 order his life by the precepts of His law; while the 
 man who has long known God, and really believed 
 in his character as revealed, trusts and obeys with a 
 readiness almost equal to that of opening the eye 
 to sight or the ear to hearing. When truths have 
 been long established in the mind, we may instant- 
 ly perceive their logical relations when brought to- 
 gether as premises; and then we form our conclu- 
 sions without either conscious effort or conscious- 
 ness of time just as the light shoots across the 
 heavens without our observing its pathway, or tak- 
 ing note of the duration of the transit. In general, 
 this rapid, unconscious argumentation makes up the 
 greater part of our lives, and is really the most logi- 
 xjal, accurate, and reliable, in which our minds are 
 employed. Let any thing occur which checks the 
 mind in its rush from the premises to the conclu- 
 sion, and we very clearly perceive the process 
 through which it has advanced. When there is 
 no cause for apprehension or suspicion, we accept 
 the national currency without in the least consider- 
 ing that such acceptance is the result of an argu- 
 ment drawn from our confidence in the financial 
 character of the Government and the genuineness 
 of the bill; but let suspicion once arise as to either 
 of these things: then, being arrested and thrown
 
 264 THE INTELLIGENCE OF FAITH. 
 
 back toward a consideration of the honesty or abil- 
 ity of the Government, or the possibility of counter- 
 feit in the currency, we immediately see that a regu- 
 lar train of reasoning must take place before the 
 promissory note is accepted in lieu of gold or silver. 
 The reasoning is of the very same nature, when, 
 without check or hinderance, the mind, with a single 
 bound, leaps to its conclusions; and this is true 
 whether the subject-matter be of a secular or relig- 
 ious nature. Every act of faith is a distinct logical 
 process. 
 
 The phrase, unreasoning faith, is, however, perfect- 
 ly allowable, if by it we mean the faith which does not 
 object to, or dispute with, the word of God understood 
 as such. In this sense Abraham believed and obeyed 
 with an unreasoning faith; so Peter in the history 
 which contains our text; and so all who have ex- 
 hibited the faith that pleases God. This is the faith 
 which takes God at his word, and obeys because it is 
 his word. 
 
 The faith of Peter appears to have been blind and 
 unreasoning, in the ordinary use of the terms, (1) 
 because he nowhere seems to have doubted or en- 
 tered into argument with Jesus in regard to the 
 command which he had given, and (2) because it 
 seems to have been a faith against reason. The rea- 
 son of things, the nature of the case, appeared to be 
 against all farther eftbrt at fishing, at that time and 
 place, and, accordingly, the fishermen had given up 
 their enterprise, and were preparing to rest from 
 their labors. But if we look a little more closely 
 at the transaction, we shall see that reason was upon
 
 THE INTELLIGENCE OF FAITH. 265 
 
 the side of Peter, and that his faith was the direct 
 result of an argument as real as that by which any 
 conclusion in life is attained, or any act performed. 
 No one would suppose that, after having toiled all 
 night and taken nothing, Peter would have heark- 
 ened to the word of any other one than Jesus. His 
 reply, most probably, would have been: "Sir, it 
 is useless to fish here any longer; we are going 
 home!" But to Jesus, while he asserts their want 
 of success so far, he takes a second thought: "Nev- 
 ertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net." At 
 thy word. We see here exactly how Peter reasoned 
 upon the subject. He saw clearly what, in ordi- 
 nary circumstances, had been the folly of regard- 
 ing the words just spoken; on the other hand, he 
 knew Jesus knew his character, his power, wis- 
 dom, loving-kindness knew that in every command 
 of his was implied power, and the promise of suc- 
 cessful obedience, to every one who would obey. He 
 knew that while Nature might refuse the demands 
 which he himself might make, she could not refuse 
 to hearken to the voice of the Master. Time and 
 again Peter had seen Nature yield immediate obedi- 
 ence to the word of Jesus. In his own little village 
 he had beheld him, with a word, expel an unclean 
 spirit, so that the spectators cried out, amazed, 
 " What a word is this, for with authority and power 
 he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come 
 out;" in his own humble home he had been with 
 Jesus, when, by the utterance of a word, his wife's 
 mother was healed of the fever; and that same day, 
 as the sun was setting, he had seen all that were sick 
 12
 
 266 THE INTELLIGENCE OF FAITH. 
 
 with diverse diseases brought forth before him, and 
 Jesus had restored them all. Peter thus understood 
 that Jesus was the Lord of Nature, and at his word 
 was ready to do that which, but for such knowl- 
 edge, had appeared in the highest degree absurd. 
 There is no blindness here on the part of Peter, no 
 faith without reason, no faith against reason, or 
 without reasoning; the faith and the obedience are, 
 in every sense, intelligent, clear-sighted, rational: 
 not to have believed and obeyed had been blind, ir- 
 rational, insulting to reason. 
 
 There was another thing that assisted Peter's faith 
 in the case before us. He desired to believe belief 
 lay along the line of his interests. Generally, we 
 are not aware to how great a degree our beliefs are 
 assisted by our interests, our affections and desires. 
 Arguments which, on ordinary occasions, are of no 
 weight or value whatsoever, present themselves 
 with a most persuasive eloquence when we find it 
 greatly to our advantage to become convinced. We 
 may now understand one great element, perhaps the 
 distinguishing element, of what is called saving faith 
 in Jesus; it is the interest which we have in the 
 matter of salvation our desire, our determination 
 to be saved. The chief reason why so many per- 
 sons have no faith at all, not even the mere histori- 
 cal faith, so called, is that they have no desire to 
 believe, and oftentimes their determination is not 
 to believe, in Jesus. Others really have such faith, 
 believing as truly as any of us the great doctrines 
 of Christ and his salvation, yet are conscious to 
 themselves of having no such faith as saves the soul.
 
 THE INTELLIGENCE OF FAITH. 267 
 
 This is because, though believing all the truths of 
 the gospel, they are almost wholly without concern 
 or interest as regards the responsibilities therein in- 
 volved. The great difference between those who 
 have the mere intellectual assent, and those who 
 believe to the salvation of the soul, is that the for- 
 mer merely believe, while the latter are more properly 
 said to trust. We must be careful not to confound 
 these two acts of the mind. 
 
 One may believe that a certain enterprise, dili- 
 gently pursued, will conduct to ease, wealth, fame; 
 but he cannot be said to trust the enterprise so 
 long as he wholly disregards it, and devotes his 
 energies to a different one. The trust comes in 
 only when we desire, seek, determine, act in the 
 case. The devils referred to by St. James really 
 believed, as did likewise those indifferent members 
 of the Church to whom the apostle wrote, but nei- 
 ther the one nor the other trusted, because they 
 cared not, and were not intent upon securing to 
 themselves the benefits of their faith. It is trust in 
 Jesus which brings salvation, because the sinner, 
 awakened, desiring to flee from wrath, seeing no 
 help in himself, no help in his fellow-man, none in 
 ordinances or works of his own, throws himself 
 upon the mercy of God in Christ as his only but all- 
 sufficient refuge. He that merely believes will never 
 come to Jesus a penitent, sin-smitten soul : he that 
 desires release from sin, and resolves that eternal 
 death shall not become his doom if there is any 
 possible way of escape, will never rest in mere be- 
 lief; he will determine upon eternal life; will re-
 
 268 THE INTELLIGENCE OF FAITH. 
 
 pent; will renounce his sins; will cry out, "God 
 be merciful to me a sinner;" he will seek the 
 promises graciously given; he will find peace by 
 trusting in the Son of God. 
 
 Is this faith that saves any the less intelligent 
 than that which merely believes? or is its intelli- 
 gence of a different character from that of the mere 
 intellectual assent? Some would throw the matter 
 of faith entirely out of the realm of our intellectual 
 powers by calling it the belief of the heart, meaning 
 thereby, if they really attach any definite meaning 
 to the phrase, belief of, or by, the emotional nature. 
 But the emotions do not believe, neither can the 
 heart, as the word is used by us of the modern day. 
 Belief is the action of the heart, as the term is em- 
 ployed by St. Paul when he declares that with the 
 heart man believeth unto righteousness; but Paul, 
 like the rest of the Hebrews, used the word heart in 
 the sense in which we employ the intellect, mind, rea- 
 son, understanding. This meaning of the term we 
 might illustrate by numerous references to the Sa- 
 cred Scriptures, but a very few must suffice: "An 
 heart to perceive " Deut. xxix. 4; "The heart know- 
 eth " Prov. xiv. 10 ; " The heart of the rash shall 
 understand knowledge" Isa. xxxii. 4; "A man's 
 heart deviseth his way" Prov. xvi. 9; "Thou shalt 
 also consider in thine heart" Deut. yiii. 5; "The 
 former shall not be remembered, nor come into 
 mind" (heart) Isa. Ixv. 17; "The imagination of 
 man's heart" Gen. viii. 21; "Every imagination of 
 the thoughts of his heart" Gen. vi. 5. 
 
 Even allowing that we might believe by the emo-
 
 THE INTELLIGENCE OF FAITH. 269 
 
 tions or affections, these are not the action of 
 the heart, as we understand the word, for this can 
 no more have emotion than the arm, foot, or leg. 
 There are certain emotions which make themselves 
 felt at the heart, but so there are those which are 
 felt in other parts of the body in the knees, for in- 
 stance, as when Belshazzar, seeing the hand writing 
 upon the wall, felt the joints of his loins loosed, 
 and his knees smiting together, but no one would 
 suppose that the monarch's knees were affrighted 
 at the thought of the impending doom. Emotion 
 is the movement of the mind, and in no sense of the 
 heart, unless in the use of the term we, like the an- 
 cient Hebrews, designate all the powers and achieve- 
 ments of the spiritual man, with no exclusive or 
 even partial reference to the emotional nature. 
 
 In this we are not saying that there is no emo- 
 tion attendant upon the exercise of faith that trust 
 which saves the soul. There must be emotion 
 both antecedent and auxiliary to it, and it is 
 utterly inconceivable that no emotion in the way 
 of joy or hope should arise consequent to the reali- 
 zation of its power upon the soul. We have just 
 endeavored to show that where no interest or de- 
 sire is felt and these are emotions there will be 
 no coming to Christ; and when one does trust, in 
 the evangelical sense of the word, it is because of 
 his conviction of sin, and his desire of pardon and 
 eternal life. There can be no religion without emo- 
 tion not by any means, necessarily, emotion dis- 
 playing itself by any particular marks or demon- 
 strations, but emotion in the sense of feeling such
 
 270 THE INTELLIGENCE OF FAITH. 
 
 feeling as desire, purpose, hope, love, adoration, joy. 
 But it must be borne in mind, nevertheless, that 
 all these are exercises of the mind, not of the heart 
 of the very same mind that reasons, thinks, calcu- 
 lates, forms plans, concludes. When God requires 
 of us the heart, he means the entire spiritual nature, 
 the complete manhood, intellect, reason, judgment, 
 understanding, conscience, imagination, thought, 
 purpose, faith, love. 
 
 Let us here remark upon several terms popular- 
 ly used to express the religious life and character 
 spiritual religion, religion of the heart, old-fashioned re- 
 ligion, scriptural holiness, and others of like import. 
 These phrases may develop, each, certain distinctive 
 aspects or features of the religious life, yet there is 
 really but one kind of religion that which has just 
 been referred to by whatsoever name it rnay be 
 known or called. If one has religion, in the very na- 
 ture of things it must be a spiritual religion; it can- 
 not consist in any mere bodily sign, movement, or 
 expression; it cannot be of the voice, in either song 
 or shout, nor of the eye in tears; it must likewise be 
 a religion of the heart, comprehending both the in- 
 tellectual and the emotional faculties of our nature; 
 it must be an old-fashioned religion, at least as old 
 as Jesus, Paul, and Peter, as old as David, Moses, 
 Enoch, Seth, Adam; and it must be scriptural, for 
 we know of no other religion than that which has 
 been taught us in the Scriptures of divine truth. 
 All religion is summed up in "Thou shalt love the 
 Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy 
 soul, and with all thy might," and " Thou shalt love
 
 THE INTELLIGENCE OF FAITH. 271 
 
 thy neighbor as thyself" the entire manhood, in 
 all its powers, consecrated to God. 
 
 The question is sometimes asked whether we 
 have the exercise of faith under our own control, 
 the idea being that we are compelled to believe or 
 disbelieve, according to the nature of the evidence 
 brought before us. We have no hesitation whatso- 
 ever in saying that every man may either accept or 
 reject the gospel of Jesus, just as he prefers or de- 
 termines. It cannot be that God has required us to 
 believe in Christ at the peril of our souls, while at 
 the same time he has failed to give us either suf- 
 ficient evidence of his being the Saviour of the 
 world, or ability properly to appreciate the evidence 
 bestowed. If God has commanded men to believe, 
 he has certainly given evidence upon which we may 
 found belief, and likewise the power so to employ 
 the evidence that we may arrive at the knowledge 
 of the truth. This is not saying that one can, by 
 an immediate determination or resolve, persuade 
 himself of the truth of the gospel, and then, by an- 
 other exercise of will, attain the faith which is ac- 
 counted righteousness: what we mean is, that one, 
 desiring and determining to believe, may put him- 
 self upon a course of inquiry which will termi- 
 nate in the desired result. Here we revert to our 
 statement that our beliefs are largely dependent 
 upon, and modified by, our special interests and af- 
 fections. One has certainly had but little experi- 
 ence of his reasoning powers not to have perceived 
 how easily he may feel the weight of evidence, or not 
 feel it at all, according to his predisposition as re-
 
 272 THE INTELLIGENCE OF FAITH. 
 
 gards the proposition in hand. It is this predispo- 
 sition adhered to and followed out, oftentimes un- 
 consciously, through the investigation, which large- 
 ly accounts for the great variety of conclusions to 
 which men arrive in their inquiries. The evidence 
 is the same as presented to all, but far is it from be- 
 ing the same as perceived by all. A determination, 
 or even a little preference for disbelief, if allowed 
 to influence the mind while weighing evidence, will 
 almost surely conduct to a rejection of that which, 
 but for such preference, or with preference the oth- 
 er way, had been admitted among the most positive 
 convictions of the mind. How natural it is for men 
 w,ho have placed certain conclusions before them- 
 selves, toward which they are going to argue, to 
 find a thousand convincing considerations of which 
 their opponents had never dreamed; while these lat- 
 ter, on the other hand, draw forth just as many, 
 and, in their own estimation, far more convincing, 
 in support of their denial of the point in question; 
 and, at the close of the strife, each party withdraws 
 more firmly set in their previous beliefs, and won- 
 dering at the dullness or dishonesty of their adver- 
 saries. We forbear to say more in proof of the 
 power of interest, or preconceived result in the 
 formation of our beliefs. We think our statement 
 will be accepted by all that we have never known 
 a man come to a saving faith in Jesus while his 
 thoughts, reasonings, inclinations, predilections, 
 were running the other way; nor have we known 
 one to fail of the attainment of such faith who has 
 perseveringly and sincerely sought the same.
 
 THE INTELLIGENCE OF FAITH. 273 
 
 There are, we know, numbers who inquire into 
 the evidences of Christian truth who never come 
 to an acceptance of it, while their inquiry is fre- 
 quently made in the spirit of candor and impartial- 
 ity; but these men have not been seeking Jesus so 
 much as the evidences of his life and mission. There 
 is a broad distinction to be noted here. To attempt 
 to know the truth in Jesus by investigating the 
 difficulties of the Mosaic record, by the study of 
 protoplasm, of the nebular hypothesis, or the mon- 
 uments of Egypt, is beginning too far off away 
 out in the darkness and the cold. Christ himself 
 is the light of men, and in his light are we to 
 see light. The command is, Look unto me, Come 
 unto me, Call upon the name of the Lord. One 
 may not believe, but let him call. God is near; his 
 ear is open; he is a present help: Him that com- 
 eth unto me, I will in nowise cast out. What one 
 needs, who desires to believe, is repentance of sin, 
 and calling upon God for pardon. This is the way 
 to Jesus the shortest way, the scriptural way, the 
 only sure way a way in which no man need err. 
 
 But the power to come to God no man can have 
 until he comes, starts, or resolves, to come. He 
 need not bewail his weakness; he need not call for 
 help until he says, I will arise, I will go to Jesus 
 and then! there is no weakness then! Arise, take 
 up thy bed, and the man arose. He did not parley; 
 he resolved to obey, and with the resolution came 
 the power. Stretch forth thy hand, and he stretched 
 it forth. Ephphatha! be opened, and his ears were 
 opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and 
 12*
 
 274 Till] INTELLIGENCE OF FAITH. 
 
 he spoke plain. When God commands, he bestows 
 the grace, if one will obey; when Jesus calls, he im- 
 parts the power, if one will only come; when one 
 cries, Save, Lord, I perish, the Hand that made the 
 worlds is extended to bear him up. 
 
 Faith is not a mere arbitrary appointment of God 
 as the condition of our salvation. The reasonable- 
 ness of it is seen in the fact that, in matters of this 
 present life, it is the great bond of union between 
 man and man the great agency, or power, by which 
 almost all of our interests are subserved. It is by 
 faith in our fellow-man, by faith in the working of 
 natural law, and in the general connections of cause 
 and effect, that all the departments of business are 
 conducted, and all the varied enjoyments of social 
 and domestic life experienced. In ordaining, then, 
 that the just should live by faith, and that by 
 faith we should be first inducted into the hopes and 
 privileges of the gospel of Christ, God required 
 of the world the exercise of no new faculty, nor any 
 new method in the exercise of a faculty long since 
 known; he only required that a power, familiarly 
 used in matters of the secular life, should be em- 
 ployed in the interests of the life to come that he 
 himself, through Christ, should be made the great 
 object of trust, and that the all-prevailing sacrifice 
 of Jesus not any so-called righteousness of men 
 should be looked to as the ground of our salvation. 
 
 Faith, therefore, is the means by which we enter 
 and continue the service of God, as well as the con- 
 dition upon which Christ's death is made available 
 to us. It must, consequently, be regarded, not as
 
 T1IE INTELLIGENCE OF FAITH. 275 
 
 an end toward which we are to aspire, but as an 
 agency by which, once admitted into the household 
 of God, we are to abide dutiful servants and loving 
 sons, ever accomplishing the will of the Father in 
 the use of all our powers to the glory of His name. 
 It is not the consummation, but the beginning and 
 the instrument, of the Christian life. Hence, we are 
 exhorted to leave the principles of the doctrine of 
 Christ, not laying again the foundation of repent- 
 ance from dead works, and of faith toward God, and 
 to go on to perfection! Whatever perfection here 
 may mean, it means advancement, growth, develop- 
 ment, ascent; height on height, Alp upon Alp, the 
 Christian character rises high above any elevation 
 we have thus far attained. Let us not yet count 
 ourselves to have apprehended; forgetting those 
 things which are behind, and reaching forth unto 
 those things which are before, may we press to- 
 ward the mark for the prize far on, ahead and 
 above! We have every assurance that, by grace, 
 through faith, we may make an ever-onward prog- 
 ress. The entire eleventh chapter to the Hebrews 
 is a bright array of the triumphs, by faith, of those 
 who have gone before us, and the twelfth opens by 
 exhorting us to lives of like earnest, energetic, lofty 
 achievement, in the service of God: "Compassed 
 about with so great a cloud of witnesses," testify- 
 ing the power which they, under God, had wielded 
 in his cause, let us be confident, hopeful, bold, de- 
 termined. 
 
 The cloud of witnesses! how sublime! how in- 
 spiring the conception ! The long roll of the sainted
 
 276 THE INTELLIGENCE OF FAITH. 
 
 dead pressing round us, giving testimony to what 
 they had severally done through faith ! Abel that 
 through faith he had offered the sacrifice by which 
 no obtained witness that he was righteous; Enoch 
 that by faith he had been translated, that he 
 should not see death; Noah that by faith he had 
 prepared the ark, saved the race from annihilation, 
 and become heir of the righteousness which is by 
 faith ; Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Moses, Gedeon, Ba- 
 rak, Samson, Jephthae, David, Samuel, the proph- 
 ets that through faith they had subdued kingdoms, 
 wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped 
 the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, 
 escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness 
 were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned 
 to flight the armies of the aliens! 
 
 Compassed about with so great a cloud of wit- 
 nesses, and their testimony sounding in our ears, 
 shame upon us if we halt or falter in our course! 
 Let us lay aside every weight, lift up the hands 
 which hang down and the feeble knees, make 
 straight paths for our feet, and look to Jesus. He 
 is the author and the finisher of our faith, and to 
 us is secured, through him, all needed grace and 
 strength, for we are complete in him the Head of 
 all principality and power. Rooted, and built up, 
 and stablished in the faith the word of Christ 
 dwelling in us richly in all wisdom we seek those 
 things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the 
 right-hand of God. When Christ, who is our life, 
 shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in 
 glory.
 
 FAITH IN CHRIST. 
 
 BY BISHOP PAINE. 
 
 " Let not your heart be troubled : ye believe in God, believe 
 also in me." John xiv. 1. 
 
 THE whole history of our Lord is full of sublime 
 incidents. Wonders crowded his life, presaging 
 and accompanying his birth, and crowning his death 
 with demonstrations of his divinity. The circum- 
 stances under which he used the language of the 
 text impart to it a specially impressive significance. 
 It was on the night of his betrayal, and between the 
 institution of the Eucharist and his mysterious ag- 
 ony in Gethsemane. It was the beginning of his 
 maledictory to his disciples, who were soon to be be- 
 reaved by his death, uttered in tones of tenderest 
 afiection, yet enjoining a duty which, to them, and 
 to all men to the end of time, is conditional of sal- 
 vation. 
 
 Foretold by prophecies which pointed to this pe- 
 riod, and to the place and circumstances of his ad- 
 vent, and described with wonderful minuteness his 
 person, his offices, and the leading incidents in the 
 history of a life that never had a parallel, the ma- 
 jority of the Jews had been ready to come by force 
 and make him their King. They recognized in him 
 
 (277)
 
 278 FAITH IN CHRIST. 
 
 the realization of their ideal, the great Antitype of 
 the signs and symbols hitherto veiled by gorgeous 
 ceremonies and obscure rites, the complement of a 
 thousand apparently incongruous parts lying (as the 
 disjecta membra of prophetic conceptions) all along 
 the line of their inspired books and daily ceremo- 
 nies. In him, and him only, all these seemingly 
 incompatible parts united to form an harmonious, 
 grand, and all-perfect character. But alas! while 
 " the common people heard him gladly," and, prompt- 
 ed both by patriotism and piety, were anxious to 
 hail him a lineal descendant of David, and heir to 
 the Messianic throne, yet, misled by their ecclesi- 
 astical rulers, and deterred by the iron despotism 
 of Rome, the popular enthusiasm subsided, and 
 Christ's enemies were now determined and united. 
 
 The tribes had assembled to celebrate their greatest 
 national feast. The recent raising of Lazarus from 
 his grave within two miles of Jerusalem, followed 
 by his arrival with his disciples at the house of the 
 newly-raised man, had stirred the hearts and con- 
 centrated the attention of all. The crisis had come. 
 Impelled by curiosity, and stimulated by hopes 
 founded on prophecies, through the gates of the 
 city, and from the thousand tents which dotted the 
 valleys and hill-tops about Jerusalem, a living stream 
 was moving toward Bethany to see the man who 
 had been dead four days, and the more than man 
 who held the keys that unlocked the hitherto im- 
 pregnable gates of death and hell. 
 
 Who is he? where is he? will he come to the 
 feast? were on every lip, from the Sanhedrim to the
 
 FAITH IN CHRIST. 279 
 
 dwellers in the mountains of Lebanon and the des- 
 ert of Gaza. The company from Bethany, head- 
 ed by Jesus, and accompanied by Lazarus, Barti- 
 mens, and others who had joined the little band of 
 his disciples, met the surging throng, and, after a 
 pause on the summit of Mount Olivet, slowly swept 
 down to the eastern gate, amid the shouts of thou- 
 sands, in which the clear, sweet voices of innocent 
 children mingled, bearing into the holy temple 
 the "King of Israel," the "Son and the Lord of 
 .David." Assuming the office, he at once exercised 
 the authority of King of Zion, by exposing the cor- 
 ruption of the hierarchy, expelling by force the mer- 
 cenaries who infested the temple, and proclaiming 
 the subjects and laws of the mediatorial kingdom. 
 He had accepted the position, and no longer post- 
 pones the trial; but, the time having fully come, he 
 moves to the front to meet the momentous issues 
 involving the interests of heaven, earth, and hell. 
 
 Twice afterward did our blessed Lord seem to 
 shudder and draw back for awhile from the fierce 
 and terrible ordeal once, late in the night, after 
 our text had been spoken, the night of betrayal and 
 blasphemy, when, alone in grief and agony incon- 
 ceivable, he had thrice uttered those words which 
 no man should ever hear without shame and awe 
 " Father, let this cup pass, if it be possible ; " but 
 that involuntary outburst of grief and prayer hav- 
 ing been answered of his Father by the strengthen- 
 ing presence of an angel, the sufferer at once became 
 calm, and, rising up, went forth to meet the conspir- 
 ators, saying, "Thy will be done." Again, at the
 
 280 FAITH IN CHRIST. 
 
 memorable ninth hour of the day, when, after a 
 night of unparalleled horrors, tried, rejected, insult- 
 ed, condemned, crucified having hung three hours 
 on the cross in such bitter agonies as only his pure 
 and sensitive soul could feel under the burden of the 
 sins of the world he was forced to confess him- 
 self forsaken by his Father: "My God, my God, 
 why hast thou forsaken me?" To this appeal no 
 strengthening angel nor assuring answer came; but 
 the sky grew darker; the vail of the temple was 
 rent; an earthquake shook the frame- work of the 
 globe; rocks burst asunder, and graves yawned. 
 Amidst all these scenes, and notwithstanding these 
 portents, the brave and still confiding Son exclaimed, 
 "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!" 
 and, bowing his bleeding, thof n-crowned head, gave 
 up the ghost. 
 
 O Lamb of God, was ever pain, 
 Was ever love, like thine! 
 
 No; Christ could not withdraw from the conflict 
 or, if ever it might seem to have been possible, 
 certainly not after he had " come up openly to the 
 Passover." He had committed himself and his 
 helpless followers, and put himself and them in the 
 power of his foes. Henceforth every thing rapidly 
 converges to the great end. Foreseeing all the 
 scenes in the progress of this drama, and submit- 
 ting to endure them not the less willingly because 
 he foreknew them all, the meek and blessed Prince 
 of Peace seeks to counterplot their diabolical aims 
 by inspiring and arming his followers by his last 
 address. It was all that he could now do, and what
 
 FAITH IN CHRIST. 281 
 
 he only could do. "Let not your heart be troubled: 
 ye believe in God, believe also in me." How appro- 
 priate to the condition and circumstances was the 
 theme! There were troubled hearts in that room 
 "on that dark and doleful night." The sudden re- 
 treat of Judas after he received the sop, and heard 
 the significant admonition, uttered in tones inau- 
 dible to the other disciples, " What thou doest do 
 quickly," followed by the rebuke to self-reliant Pe- 
 ter, and the prediction of his denial of the Master 
 before the third crowing of the cock, must have 
 troubled and startled them all. No wonder the dis- 
 ciples " looked upon one another " in alarm. A wolf 
 in the fold! To add to this, and worse than this, 
 he had just told them that it would be only "trlittle 
 while I am with you; " and, worst of all, " Whither 
 I go ye cannot come." Could they hear this un- 
 moved? Was not the Master also troubled? Often 
 had he been grieved before, but now the dagger is 
 from the hand of a trusted friend. What a spec- 
 tacle! a deeply-troubled heart pouring out its pent- 
 up sympathies in soothing others ! And who so 
 competent to minister to the sorrowing and suffer- 
 ing as he who has himself "felt the same"? An 
 indispensable qualification for the high-priesthood 
 of our troubled and tempted race is to have realized 
 "in all points" the trials and troubles of humanity. 
 The supernatural loveliness and adorable perfection 
 of Christ's character are most impressively seen in 
 the closing days of his life. Well might he then 
 say, "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is 
 glorified in him." The last rays of closing day are
 
 282 FAITH IN CHRIST. 
 
 the more .precious because they are the last. The 
 last words from the pale and quivering lips of a 
 loved and honored friend are treasured imporisha- 
 bly in the memory of survivors. 
 
 " Let not your heart be troubled." But what is 
 meant by this prohibition? Is it such a stoicism as 
 renders us indifferent to passing events? a stolid 
 condition of mind, which deadens our emotional nat- 
 ure, and paralyzes action? Is it a Dead Sea state 
 of the heart, without wind, waves, or current, when 
 the sluggish soul floats and drifts without aim or 
 effort? or is it merely want of thoughtful ness as 
 to the present and future welfare of ourselves or 
 others? Nothing could be farther from the mean- 
 ing of the text. He knew they would have tribu- 
 lation in the world; their faith and patience would 
 be tried. It must be so so while life should last. 
 It had been so with him, and he was just then de- 
 scending into an abyss of darkness and trouble 
 which extorted even from him the confession, " My 
 soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death ! " This 
 mystery of mysteries can only find its solution in 
 the vicarious character of the Sufferer, the neces- 
 sity of his personal experience to fully qualify him 
 for the office of the priesthood, and to demonstrate, 
 by passing triumphantly through this last great 
 trial, his just claim as Son of God and Saviour of 
 man. The text does not say, Let not your heart 
 be sensible of grief and sad on account of your 
 present condition or prospective trials, but be not 
 so distressed and cast down as to abandon your 
 vocation and disqualify you for duties. You must
 
 ^FAITH IN CHRIST. 283 
 
 temper your natural sorrow by a supernatural joy 
 may be cast down without being destroyed. Judas 
 may betray me, Peter deny me, Caiapbas and Pilate 
 unite to revile and crucify me, and men and devils 
 hold a jubilee over my death and your mart} T rdom; 
 but keep heart and hope. It is only for a little 
 time. "I will come again." My degradation is a 
 preliminary to my exaltation our temporary sep- 
 aration to my speedy return and our eternal re- 
 union. In order that this end may be attained, it is 
 necessary on your part that you shall not only be- 
 lieve in God, as you do, but you must " believe also 
 in me." From which we inkier that a belief in God 
 is not sufficient to relieve the heart from trouble, but that 
 a true and .abiding faith in Christ will do it. 
 
 No Christian can deny the existence of God. It 
 is the foundation-doctrine of all religion as well as 
 of all true philosophy. The atheist is a heresiarch 
 in theology, a sophist in science, the foe of all order, 
 moral, social, and political. He ignores the rela- 
 tions between beings the fatherhood of God and 
 the brotherhood of men, and their consequent mut- 
 ual obligations, and, by thus destroying the basis 
 of duty, resolves all virtue into policy, and consigns 
 a life evolved by chance to a grave unillumined by 
 hope. His creed, if he may be said to have one, is 
 such a monstrous contradiction of the laws of evi- 
 dence, of the dictates of reason and common sense, 
 and the instinctive cravings of the human heart, 
 that we need no argument to show its fallacy. Its 
 philosophical absurdity is equaled only by its horrid 
 impiety. And yet he has a heart which will throb
 
 284 FAITH IN CHRIST. 
 
 with troubles that will not down at his bidding. 
 He can no more prevent it than he can resist the 
 law of gravitation. He is isolated from his normal 
 relation to his great Father, and his soul cries out 
 for divine sympathy, but it is a cry in a desert. 
 No answer comes back but the echo of his own de- 
 spairing wail. There is none to reply. Whether 
 there are really any theoretical atheists, and whether 
 the belief in God is natural or educational, it is not 
 necessary to argue. It would be as difficult as use- 
 less for our purpose to test the question. While 
 "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the 
 firmament showeth his handiwork," and "things 
 that are made make known his eternal power and 
 Godhead " to all who in any way may have attained 
 the conception of a supernatural being, yet, whether 
 such a concept would originate in the mind, is 
 thought very doubtful. Nor is it probable the ex- 
 periment has been or will be made. Tradition, and 
 revelation in some form, have traveled with the 
 race, insomuch that no considerable number of peo- 
 ple have been found together who have not received 
 the great primal truth of history. But what if Nat- 
 ure could teach the superhuman origin of the world, 
 can it make known God's will, his character, and his 
 designs, with sufficient clearness and authority as to 
 constitute that idea a rule of action and a solace in 
 trouble? It is a mere negation, and consequently 
 is utterly inoperative. 
 
 Nor can deism, any more than atheism, meet the 
 wants and relieve the troubles of the human heart. 
 No view which simple deism presents of God, provi-
 
 FAITH IN CHRIST. 285 
 
 dence, and futurity, can satisfy it. The disciples to 
 whom the text was addressed were Jews they be- 
 lieved on God it was the highest type of theism, 
 vastly higher than that held by Mohammedan or 
 pagan philosophers. They believed in the one true, 
 only Lord God the God of the old covenant but 
 still their minds and hearts were deeply troubled. 
 Like the eunuch reading Isaiah, they needed an in- 
 terpreter. Is Nature a competent one? Are there 
 thousands of gods, as then taught in the mythology 
 of the most cultured and noblest nations in the pa- 
 gan world? Or is he "One"? Is he to be loved 
 and trusted, or feared and shunned? If propitious, 
 how can his favor be retained? if forfeited, how re- 
 gained? Is he good essentially and unchangeably? 
 or capricious, by turns kind and cruel? Does Nat- 
 ure satisfactorily answer these questions? We as- 
 sert that reason, unaided, does not it never has. 
 Can it reconcile the present condition of our 
 world with infinite wisdom, power, and goodness, 
 without assuming the historic truth of the Bible? 
 Who is so blind as not to perceive that, amidst the 
 displays of wisdom and goodness in the physical 
 universe, disorder and evil on our planet are equally 
 apparent? 
 
 See the ocean! What a mirror of the glorious 
 stellar world! Imagination hears in the gentle 
 heaving of its billows, ceaselessly chafing its re- 
 sounding shores, the pean of its great Creator; but 
 when the heavens grow black with clouds, and the 
 tempest, with its blazing and blinding lightning, its 
 crashing thunder, and the deafening roar of its wild
 
 286 FAITH IN CHRIST. 
 
 waves, comes down upon its late peaceful bosom, 
 lashing it into a furious and destructive whirlpool, 
 ingulfing innocent thousands who look up and cry 
 in vain for rescue, what lesson does this scene of 
 death and ruin teach? Is this the voice of the great 
 Creator in tones of wrath or mercy? Do the doubts 
 and fears of the troubled hearts subside into filial 
 trust? If we turn to the sky the heavens which 
 declare his glory when calm and transparent by 
 day, or when gemmed with countless stars of ra- 
 diant beauty at night, shedding down their twink- 
 ling sheen upon mountains and vales, rivers and 
 rivulets, tombs and turrets it may easily be imag- 
 ined that we catch the low, sweet notes of a celestial 
 
 minstrelsy, 
 
 Forever singing as they shine, 
 The hand that made us is Divine. 
 
 But when every heavenly light is eclipsed, and the 
 dread monotone of the coming tornado is heard ap- 
 proaching, interrupted only, as it rolls on its path- 
 way of clouds, by coruscations of lightning and 
 bursts of thunder, until, presently, it sweeps in re- 
 sistless fury, like the very genius of destruction, 
 through venerable forests, cultivated plains, and 
 marts of commerce, does it not seem that the prince 
 and power of the air has assumed his throne? 
 
 Nor does the earth itself, the abode of our race, 
 which, according to the Bible, was adorned and 
 beautified as a paradise of fertility, beauty, and pu- 
 rity fit home for our ancestors, " who were made 
 only a little lower than the angels " the antecham- 
 ber of heaven itself, where God held audience with
 
 FAITH IN CHRIST. 287 
 
 them more clearly solve the great questions of the 
 character of its Maker, when unassisted reason be- 
 comes Nature's interpreter. Its changing livery, as 
 the seasons succeed each other; its undulating hills 
 and valleys; its mountains, rising into the region of 
 perpetual snow, and glittering in mid-heaven like 
 icebergs in a great aerial ocean ; its unbroken ranges 
 of frowning ramparts, which stretch across wholo 
 continents; its majestic rivers; its cataracts; its sil- 
 very lakes; its murmuring rills; its verdant plains; 
 its grass, herbs, flowers, and fruits, proclaim his good- 
 ness and his power. But these mountains have been 
 thrown up by deeply-seated internal fires, and three 
 hundred active volcanoes now throb and glow in 
 the interior, and anon pour forth rivers of blazing 
 lava to devastate the land. Not more than one- 
 tenth of the earth's surface is fit for the comfortable 
 residence of man. Rocks and desert wastes, frozen 
 seas and burning sands, precipitous cliffs and fright- 
 ful chasms, make up a large portion of its crust. 
 The nutritious products of the earth of spontaneous 
 growth are few, even in the most favored latitudes. 
 The sweat of the brow is the price paid for daily 
 bread, and many fail to obtain it even at that price. 
 The irregularities of the seasons, storms, depreda- 
 tions of insects, floods, and other unavoidable cas- 
 ualties, frequently frustrate the honest, hard toilers, 
 leaving many to suffer, and some to starve. Every 
 year gaunt Famine, with hollow eyes, emaciated, 
 outstretched hands, and sepulchral voice, lifts the 
 wail, " Come over and help us ere we die!" Even 
 to-day, before the cry of the Irish famine has died
 
 288 FAITH IN CHRIST. 
 
 away, or the ships that bore them the generous gifts 
 of fraternal sympathy have returned, there comes 
 the same appeal from the cradle of our race : Mill- 
 ions in Asia perishing for bread! Surely earth has 
 long ago lost her paradise, and it has not yet been 
 regained. 
 
 But consider man himself. If his present condi- 
 tion is the direct result of divine agency, as deism 
 must maintain, how does his physical, intellectual, 
 and moral state illustrate the character of his Ma- 
 ker? Discarding the biblical history of his creation 
 and fall, infidels have not only been sadly puzzled 
 to account for his origin, but scarcely less so by 
 his recorded history. " Fearfully and wonderfully 
 made " as to his physical organization, invested with 
 astonishing powers of mind, and a still more myste- 
 rious moral sense, taking cognizance of right and 
 wrong, and approaching a loftier order of beings 
 in his capabilities and aspirations alas, how often 
 are these noble endowments subjected to the despot- 
 ism of passion and beastly instincts, illustrating the 
 fable of the Centaur half-human and half-beast! 
 History shows war to have been his occupation, 
 sensuality his chief enjoyment, and self his divinity. 
 The exceptions to this rule have been so few, espe- 
 cially out of Christian countries, as to prove the rule. 
 
 But it is held that the uniformity of Nature's laws 
 furnishes sufficient ground as to the character of 
 God as to induce to piety, trust, and filial love. We 
 deny it. While there is a general uniformity in the 
 operations of the material universe, we deny that 
 to man, individually, it is so obvious as to remove
 
 FAITH IN CHRIST. 289 
 
 doubt, and relieve the heart from trouble upon the 
 momentous issue of his present relation to his Cre- 
 ator, or his final welfare. God's providential deal- 
 ings with man, viewed from a deistical stand-point, 
 do not harmonize always with the doctrine that he 
 is the object of divine favor. Whence come sorrow 
 and suffering? and, if suffering is natural, why may 
 it not be perpetual? Why is disease in various 
 forms universally prevalent ? Whence those terrible 
 epidemics which spring up suddenly and sweep 
 away millions to an untimely grave ? Infantile in- 
 nocence and hoary age, the pure and the vicious, the 
 benefactors and malefactors of society, statesmen, 
 poets, orators, patriots, female beauty, maternal gen- 
 tleness, and manly nobleness, suffer and die alike. 
 " There is no house without a skeleton," no hearth- 
 stone without a shadow. Often the fairest flowers 
 are the first to fade the most worthy and useful 
 the first to die. Is not some revelation wanted to 
 explain these apparent contradictions, in order to 
 assure our faith and assuage our grief ? Does a kind 
 father treat his children thus, and leave them igno- 
 rant both of the cause and design of their condition? 
 Nor let it be thought sufficient to reply, as to the 
 cause of this disorder and suffering, that " Deity is 
 not bound to explain, nor to interfere with, the 
 course of events; " v for, if we might forego a knowl- 
 edge of the cause, may we not, with good reason, 
 reverently urge to know if there is a remedy, and, 
 if so, what it is? 
 
 Heretofore our remarks have had reference main- 
 ly to the conflict between Nature, as seen in the con- 
 13
 
 290 FAITH IN CHRIST. 
 
 dition of our planet, and more especially in the phys- 
 ical infirmities and afflictions of men, and our con- 
 ceptions of the Deity; but when we consider man 
 in his higher and nobler relation of a moral, spirit- 
 ual, and accountable being, the question assumes a 
 graver aspect. How deep and wide the chasm 
 yawns between what he might be, and ought to be, 
 and what he is! Who can bridge that abyss? Hu- 
 man reason, conscience, and laws, have all tried it 
 for ages, and failed. This difference between the 
 ideal and the real of human character and conduct 
 proves his guilt and consequent degradation, and 
 presents him in an attitude toward his Maker 
 which no other creature on earth sustains. Vege- 
 tables and animals, in their natural state, attain 
 their legitimate end, and, after their kind, reach 
 perfection. But man is the anomaly. He, alone, 
 fails to fulfill the purpose for which his intellectual 
 and moral attributes adapt him. In him only con- 
 science resides, and is in ceaseless antagonism with 
 passion, and is often its victim. He believes in God, 
 but, ignoring him, neither fears nor loves him with 
 capabilities which assimilate him to angels, he too 
 often resembles the infernal spirit, and counterplots 
 his Creator. An eagle, made to roam the sky, he 
 dabbles in the mire of the barn-yard for the filthy 
 muck-worm. A lion, and "monarch of all he sur- 
 veys," he is the degraded vassal of ignoble animal 
 instincts, notwithstanding all the restraints which 
 can be found in civilization, example, and the de- 
 nunciations of " eternal judgment." 
 
 Let it not be objected that this picture is darker
 
 FAITH IN CHRIST. 291 
 
 than the reality. Would that it were! but, alas! we 
 know it is not. Nor let it be said that, while athe- 
 ism and deism, as formerly inculcated, may be in- 
 adequate to the demands of the mind and heart, the 
 late discoveries in science and theology have devel- 
 oped in pantheism, naturalism, and rationalism, a 
 solution of the problems of humanit} 7 . But while 
 these several systems differ apparently from those 
 already discussed, and also from each other, they are 
 only the same old theories of infidelity modified to 
 suit the emergency the rallied remnant of the de- 
 feated cohorts falling back to a new position their 
 names changed, but not their identity, nor their 
 animus. Their common origin and their " name 
 is Legion " is atheism under different aliases. Old- 
 fashioned atheism denied God; pantheism denies his 
 personality; rationalism, while in words it acknowl- 
 edges his existence, banishes him to a distant soli- 
 tude, and practically dethrones him. The natural- 
 ists talk flippantly about him, and yet substitute the 
 laws of nature for him, as if laws enact and execute 
 themselves. In fact, the latest theory of the ad- 
 vanced scientists the evolutionists have practi- 
 cally discarded an actual God, and reverted to bald 
 atheism. Spiritualism, as taught by some who wear 
 the name and livery of the Christian ministry, is 
 only baptized rationalism. It admits only a nomi- 
 nal difference between natural and revealed religion, 
 their favorite maxim being that " every man pos- 
 sesses in his own mind the absolute truth, and that 
 the objects of worship are accidental circumstances 
 peculiar to the age, sect, nation, or individual ; " and
 
 292 FAITH IN CHRIST. 
 
 finally, that " the next great reformation is to de- 
 liver us, by philosophical spiritualism, from the 
 two great idols the Bible and Christ," "as Prot- 
 estantism delivered us from the tyranny of the 
 Church and the pope." May we not respond, in 
 the name of God and humanity, From such reform- 
 ers "good Lord deliver us!" 
 
 Having looked in vain into these empty cisterns 
 of philosophic speculations, and found in them no 
 water of life for famishing and sorrowing souls, the 
 great question recurs, Is there any remedy? May 
 deliverance be found and felt deliverance from 
 doubts of mind and troubles of heart, from the 
 domination of evil passions, the crushing sense of 
 guilt, and the foreshadowing dread of avenging jus- 
 tice? To the agonizing soul which asks this ques- 
 tion there comes from all the schools of philosophic 
 speculation no reliable reply. 
 
 Having attempted to show that the contemplation 
 of God without reference to Christ cannot relieve 
 the heart of trouble, we proceed to explain 
 
 How the Christian revelation accomplishes this 
 end. 
 
 1. It exhibits the true character of God, and the real 
 condition and wants of man. As the basis of every 
 system of religion is the character of its God, so, to 
 err here, is to err fundamentally. It is an error 
 which cannot be eliminated from the system, but is 
 inseparably interwoven with the whole theory of its 
 doctrines, precepts, and practice. A bad foundation 
 ruins the whole superstructure. While gratefully 
 accepting the truths taught us in Nature that first
 
 FAITH IN CHRIST. 293 
 
 volume of revelation and in those great historic 
 and theocratic developments of his character made 
 in the inspired writings of the Old Testament, and, 
 therefore, like the disciplos, we " believe in God" 
 we hold that these revelations, however true and suf- 
 ficient for their time and purpose, were incomplete. 
 They marked out the foundation and reared the 
 frame- work; but to beautify, perfect, and fully util- 
 ize the great temple, the Lord himself must come 
 into it, and fill it with his glory. We must see his 
 glory as revealed in the Son, " the only-begotten of 
 the Father, full of grace and truth." 
 
 The deistical view of God represents him as the 
 cause, and the biblical view as also the Father and 
 Governor, of the universe; and, while the former 
 stops there, and practically neutralizes the efficiency 
 of this great doctrine, the Bible announces that, "in 
 the unity of nature in the Godhead, there are three 
 Persons the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit 
 of one substance, power, and Godhead." To the 
 first is ascribed creation and preservation; to the 
 second, redemption and mediation ; and to the third, 
 regeneration and comforting. Now, inasmuch as in- 
 finite perfection excludes all imperfection, or what- 
 ever is essentially different, so any number of infi- 
 nitely perfect beings must be alike. They cannot 
 differ in nature, and thus must be in reality one Be- 
 ing. In this sense, " these Three are One" Between 
 these Three there is a distinction of personality, with- 
 out a difference of nature. This distinct personality 
 is not to be understood in a strictly philosophical 
 sense, or of official relations, but to each distinct vo-
 
 294 FAITH IN CHRIST. 
 
 litions and works are ascribed, and worship offered, 
 as to the Supreme Divinity. As to the manner of 
 their union in the Godhead, that is, of course, in- 
 comprehensible to a finite mind. 
 
 The necessity for a farther revelation of God than 
 Nature can give grows out of the fact that sin has 
 been introduced, and it is to explain the discrepancy 
 between the character of the Creator and the con- 
 dition of his creatures, and at the same time present 
 through Christ an all-sufficient remedy for sin, and 
 all the troubles and ills flowing from it. The en- 
 trance of sin into the world is the key that unlocks 
 the mystery of the present state of the moral and 
 physical world. Every form of speculative philote- 
 ophy ignores this fearful factor in the solution of the 
 problem. The Bible only furnishes it. It shows 
 that moral evil was introduced by an act of a hu- 
 man free agent, to forcibly prevent which act would 
 have destroyed his freedom and his responsibility, 
 and would have been a virtual admission that the 
 divinely-instituted plan of the creation, endowment, 
 and government of man, was wrong. With sin, this 
 new element, " came death and all our woe." It 
 teaches that this sin, being the act of the first man as a 
 probationer, and the federative representative of his 
 race, not only brought guilt upon himself, but death 
 also upon his posterity; and that it is not merely a 
 negative thing, a defect of positive goodness, but a 
 positive evil in the heart, affecting all the mental 
 powers, and manifesting itself in the conduct of all 
 men. May we not say reverently that, in this great 
 emergency, only one of two things remained either
 
 FAITH IN CHRIST. 295 
 
 let the divine economy proceed to the full execution 
 of the penalty of the violated law, and thus sustain 
 its dignity and the authority of its Maker, or in- 
 tervene in such a manner and degree as to attain this 
 end of the divine government, and at the same time 
 provide for the rescue of the culprit, and the salva- 
 tion of his hapless descendants. If the latter could 
 be done without detracting from the authority of 
 the law, obscuring the majesty of the Lawgiver and 
 the heinousness of sin, it would seem to be a rea- 
 sonable conclusion that it would be done. If the 
 penalty incurred should be executed on the trans- 
 gressor to its full extent, then, as we apprehend it, 
 the race would have terminated by the death of the 
 personally guilty. How this result would have af- 
 fected the subsequent history of our planet, or what 
 course the divine economy would have adopted in 
 substitution of the original one, belongs to the realm 
 of speculation, into which we do not choose here 
 to intrude. Suffice to say, for the present, that the 
 resources of the infinite God were equal to this mo- 
 mentous emergency, and the alternative of redemp- 
 tion was projected by the All-prescient Mind. 
 
 2. It offers a competent Saviour and a full salva- 
 tion upon reasonable conditions. Intervention, or 
 redemption, by power alone would be ineffectual, 
 because it would only act externally; and the rem- 
 edy must also be intellectual, moral, and spiritual, 
 to meet all the demands of the case. An advocate 
 was needed a redeemer, a ransom, and reconcilia- 
 tion. It must be by one not himself disqualified by 
 sin not a disloval advocate of traitors. In nature
 
 296 FAITH IN CHRIST. 
 
 and character he must rise to the dignity of his high 
 commission, and yet not be insulated from the low- 
 liness and infirmities of those whose cause he rep- 
 resents. He must know both parties fully com- 
 prehend the law and facts must be in sympathy 
 with both, and the equal of either. While, as an 
 actual sinner, he could not be heard at the bar of 
 supreme justice, he must be the sinless, piacular 
 substitute of a world of sinners. Above the law, 
 its claims and curses, he must come under it, and 
 atone for its violation. He must be more than man, 
 and less than God, and yet be truly God and man. 
 Where can such a one be found? In whom may 
 such seemingly paradoxical and incongruous char- 
 acteristics inhere? Where is he? From the throne 
 of the doomed prince, hell, and the wide domain of 
 sin and woe, the answer comes, "Not here." From 
 the higher seat of Michael, the archangel warrior, 
 " who standeth for thy people," and from Gabriel 
 and the countless hosts in that glorious, wider realm 
 of light and life eternal, the reply is, " We are not 
 able;" and earth, with despairing wail, cries, "Not 
 here! not here!" 
 
 Well might the holy apostle say of that awfully 
 sublime scene, as unfolded to him in that apocalyptic 
 vision, "And I wept much." And then "the Lamb 
 came forth and took the book out of the right-hand 
 of him that sat upon the throne," and all those first- 
 born sons of glory "fell down and worshiped before 
 the Lamb, and sung a new song" Nor is it strange 
 that John ceased to weep, and joined in the anthem 
 which celebrates the redemption of humanity. Men
 
 FAITH IN CHRIST. 297 
 
 and angels sing this song in unison. In the bibli- 
 cal doctrine of the Trinity in Unity the possibility of 
 redemption is laid. A tripersonality in unity of nat- 
 ure is indispensable. " Lo, Jcome to do thy will, O 
 God ! " " If I go, I will send the Comforter to you," 
 " and he shall reprove the world," etc. 
 
 The second Person in the adorable Trinity, who 
 was in the beginning with God, and was God, the 
 Son whose throne is forever and ever, whom all the 
 angels are commanded to worship, who created all 
 things for himself, and was before all things, who is 
 God over all, and blessed forever, was incarnated, 
 born of the Virgin very God and truly man being 
 begotten of the Holy Ghost, came forth from the 
 bosom of the Father as Mediator between God and 
 man. Such he was preeminently qualified to be, 
 perfectly meeting all the demands of the divine law 
 and the necessities of man. He, and he only, in all 
 God's universe, was able to save man, and, in saving 
 a lost and ruined race, glorify God. This process 
 required atonement, regeneration, and the resurrection 
 from the dead. Without an atonement there could 
 be no pardon ; " and without shedding of blood 
 is no remission of sin." The penalty of sin is 
 death, temporal or natural, moral or spiritual, and, 
 by consequence, eternal. Whether we consider the 
 object against whom it is committed, the far-reach- 
 ing consequences of unrestrained and unpunished 
 transgression, we must feel that satisfaction must be 
 made, or the penalty be inflicted. Justice, truth, 
 and even divine goodness, required it to maintain 
 order essential to the welfare of the universe and 
 13*
 
 298 FAITH IN CHRIST. 
 
 the glory of God. To subserve this great purpose 
 the Son of God, in the person of Jesus Christ, comes 
 forth. As God incarnate, he stands as a fit Media- 
 tor, being equally allied to both parties. In his hu- 
 man nature, of " soul and body subsisting," he places 
 on the altar of sacrifice his all his mind and will 
 to obey, his body to be tortured, and to die " his 
 soul as an offering for sin " until, wrung to the 
 height of distress, he exclaims, " Now is my soul 
 troubled what shall I say? " " Thy will be done." 
 " It is finished," and " gave up the ghost." The 
 mysterious union of his divine with his human 
 nature, which constituted his personality as Jesus 
 Christ our Lord, and imparted to this " oblation of 
 himself" a moral and legal worth and merit, is, and 
 ever will be, without a parallel. The character of 
 the Sufferer, the nature and intensity of his suffer- 
 ings, his voluntary sacrifice of life upon which death 
 had no original claim, the acceptance of the substi- 
 tution of the Advocate for the criminal by the 
 Father, as shown by the voice from heaven as he 
 hung on the cross, his resurrection from the tomb, 
 his triumphant ascension, and his installation as 
 High-priest of humanity, demonstrate both the fit- 
 ness of his claim and his recognition as Redeemer 
 and Mediator. He had the power and the right to 
 lay down his life and to take it again. And he did 
 it. It was a voluntary, vicarious, and piacular of- 
 fering for the sins of the world. It originated in 
 the love of God, satisfied justice, and while it showed 
 his hatred of sin, it sustained all the righteous ends 
 of his government by the conditions of salvation;
 
 FAITH IN CHRIST. 299 
 
 it so gloriously illustrated his character of God, as 
 Father and Governor of the world, as to give the 
 highest incentive to true piety and the sternest re- 
 buke to sin. 
 
 In tracing the outlines of the redemptory scheme, 
 and defining the parts borne by the respective di- 
 vine persons in accomplishing it, let us bear in mind 
 that the resurrection of the body is, in the order of 
 time, the final great act in the triumph of Christ 
 over natural evil. At death the soul passes into 
 paradise Abraham's bosom. The body returns 
 " to earth as it was; " but " all that are in the graves 
 shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that 
 have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and 
 they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of 
 damnation " (John v. 28, 29). And when the last 
 echo of that "voice" shall have returned, changing 
 the living and awakening the dead when every 
 grave shall have yielded its prisoner, the ocean 
 given up its slurnberers, and the countless myriads 
 of humanity of all climes and ages shall have come 
 
 forth, 
 
 From world to luminous world afar, 
 
 As the universe spreads its flaming walls, 
 
 assembled by the resistless call of God, shall stand 
 for trial in the universal judgment at the bar of God; 
 then, having finished his Mediatorial commission, 
 will the Son receive, by acclamation, his promised 
 throne, and proceed to execute supreme judicial 
 power. The scenes that follow will be retributive, 
 the results unchangeable and eternal. The drama 
 of probationary existence will be closed forever.
 
 300 FAITH IN CHRIST. 
 
 " They that were ready " entered with the bride- 
 groom into the marriage-supper of the Lamb, and 
 the door be shut; and those not ready, driven to the 
 prison of the damned, and that door too be closed 
 forever and ever. 
 
 Inseparably associated in this system with the 
 works and offices of Christ is the doctrine of the 
 third Person in the adorable Trinity the Holy 
 Spirit. All those scriptural arguments which so 
 clearly prove the personality and divinity of the 
 Son, apply to establish the same claims to him; and 
 but for him, and his cooperation with the Father 
 and the Son, the great scheme would fail. The 
 moral depravity of our race, our infirmities and 
 heart -troubles, would render the efforts of the 
 Father and the Son abortive without his regen- 
 erative, strengthening, and comforting agency. 
 The new birth and holiness are as needful as par- 
 don. "Ye must be born again born of the Spirit." 
 " Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." And 
 these are the works of the Holy Spirit. Like to the 
 Father, and the Son, he is in the Scriptures called 
 God (Acts v. 3). Divine attributes and acts are 
 ascribed to him (Heb. ix. 14; Ps. cxxxix. 7; John 
 xiv. 20; 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11). He is worshiped as God 
 (Matt, xxviii. 9). His name is associated with the 
 names of Father and Son in baptism, and a special 
 degree of guilt and punishment are denounced to 
 sins against him. He " proceedeth from the Father 
 and the Son is of one substance, majesty, and 
 glory, with the Father and the Son, very and eternal 
 God>
 
 FAITH IN CHRIST. 301 
 
 Having attempted to show the insufficiency of 
 mere theism, and of every form and modification of 
 skepticism, to afford substantial comfort to hearts 
 troubled by doubts, fears, and trials, and, on the 
 other hand, the abundant provision presented in the 
 gospel scheme for all our wants by the gracious co- 
 operation of the Godhead, as manifested through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, let us inquire how we can 
 avail ourselves of the benefits of this provisionary 
 plan. The answer is, "Believe also in Me." 
 
 The entire plan of salvation is conditional. "What 
 the Redeemer only could do, he has done for us. His 
 death was the condition upon which " we were rec- 
 onciled to God." The benefits of his vicarious suf- 
 ferings extend to the race he represents. The curse, 
 or condemnation for original sin, is lifted from it by 
 Him who " was made a curse for us;" and the free 
 gift is come upon all to justification to life, inso- 
 much that all the race who are incapable of comply- 
 ing with the laws of Christ are unconditionally 
 ~saved from condemnation. But those who can 
 understand their obligations, and the reasons for 
 obedience, are placed on a different foundation. 
 Their salvation is conditional. They must accept 
 the provision made and tendered them, or they can- 
 not be saved. Who but Christ has the right to pre- 
 scribe this condition? He has done it, and it is 
 faith in him. 
 
 This is a most wise and gracious prerequisite. It 
 recognizes our faculties and all our wants, and is 
 adapted to our condition. It says to sinful and 
 troubled man, Lift your eye to the Redeemer. He
 
 302 FAITH IN CHRIST. 
 
 is not only faultless in himself, but, standing in the 
 relation he sustains to God and man in the economy 
 of redemption, his character is surpassingly interest- 
 ing. Faith and philosophy, reason and revelation, 
 point alike to him as the visible representative of the 
 Godhead, and the sympathizing friend of humanity. 
 His is the bright excellence which has disarmed hos- 
 tility, on which so many millions have dwelt with 
 unmingled love and veneration an excellence 
 which no fiction or history besides furnishes us in 
 whom power and wisdom are subordinated to per- 
 fect love. It is the picture of one gentle toward the 
 infirmities and follies of man patient with his way- 
 wardness, lovingly forgetful of his wrongs of one 
 who " never broke the bruised reed," who came to 
 soothe and bind up the troubled heart, to give de- 
 liverance to the captive, to welcome penitence to 
 his feet, and to offer to the weary rest. In a word, 
 jt is a picture whose whole life was one long yearn- 
 ing of sympathy with the sorrows of humanity, 
 whose death expiated the sin of the world, and 
 whose resurrection and mediation reopened the 
 long-closed gate of paradise to the troubled in heart. 
 To Him, then, let the weary and heavy-laden bring 
 their burden of sin, doubt, and grief, and lay them 
 at the foot of the cross. Let all who believe in God 
 and tremble, believe also in Him to whose divinity 
 heaven, earth, and hell, bore testimony. Are they 
 ignorant, he is their wisdom; are they condemned, 
 he is their justification; are they depraved, he is 
 their eanctification ; are they blind, impotent, friend- 
 less, and wretched, he is an ever-present and all-
 
 FAITH IN CHRIST. 303 
 
 sufficient Saviour. All this assuredly he is to them 
 that believe in him. Faith in him honors the Father 
 who sent him, the Holy Spirit who testified of him. 
 It is his due. To discredit the Son is to give the lie 
 direct to God, who declared him to be his Son to 
 angels, who worship him, and to millions of the 
 wisest and best men, living and dead, who trusted 
 him. A humble, penitential faith in Christ, and 
 an implicit trust in him as our Redeemer, is the 
 condition of forgiveness the only one adapted to 
 our state and practicable to us the only one which 
 protects the divine government by leading to loving 
 obedience to God, practical charity to men, insures 
 the victory "that overcometh the world," and pro- 
 vides for all our wants here and hereafter. This is 
 our remedy. We have no other we need no other. 
 " Earth hath no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal."
 
 XVI. 
 
 LESSONS FROM THE BAPTISM OF JESUS 
 BY JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 BY THE REV. H. C. SETTLE, D.D., 
 
 Louisville Conference. 
 
 " Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all 
 righteousness." Matt. iii. 15. 
 
 THE earthly life of Jesus was a model life. At 
 twelve years of age he was thoughtful and studious. 
 His life-work was well defined even then, and ear- 
 nestly and wisely he engaged in the preparation for 
 it. He was about thirty years old when he spake 
 the words of the text, but still unprepared to enter 
 upon his ministry. Eighteen years have passed 
 away since he spake those strange words to his 
 troubled parents : " Wist ye not that I must be 
 about my Father's business?" And he has not yet 
 presumed to feel that his time for work has come. 
 Although Jesus began a preparation for work ear- 
 lier in life than do most children, he was also longer 
 engaged in that preparatory course, and entered 
 upon the responsibilities of public life at a later pe- 
 riod than do most men. If the life of Jesus be 
 God's ideal of a correct human life, may not the 
 length of time spent in preparation for work be an 
 important feature in this model life? May not 
 Heaven be teaching us this truth not the number 
 
 (304)
 
 LESSONS FROM THE BAPTISM OF JESUS. 305 
 
 of years given to work, but the nature of it, and 
 the spirit of engagement in it, and the manner 
 of its performance, are the subjects of interest to 
 Heaven ? 
 
 The importance of this lesson can scarcely be 
 overestimated. The great fault of our times is 
 haste. Our people are indeed a fast people. Young 
 men, certainly not more highly gifted than Jesus, 
 have finished their education, graduated, mastered 
 professions, and entered upon public life, and as- 
 sumed the responsibilities of important offices, be- 
 fore they have attained the age of Jesus, at which 
 he stood in the presence of John the Baptist, mod- 
 estly but earnestly asking baptism at his hands. 
 Girls eighteen years of age enter, without fear, upon 
 the delicate duties and weighty responsibilities of 
 womanhood. 
 
 It is probable that this contrast between human 
 lives, as we see them, and Heaven's ideal life, as 
 realized in Jesus, explains the fact that his life, 
 ^commencing without promise, was successful, grand, 
 and beneficent; while multitudes, beginning with 
 promise, end in failure. 
 
 Hasty commencement of work, assuming respon- 
 sibility before thorough preparation to bear it has 
 been made, will go far toward a satisfactory expla- 
 nation of the demoralization of our timee. To 
 work well in any department of life, something 
 more than information is required. There is a dif- 
 ference and a distance between knowledge and wis- 
 dom ; and some time must elapse between the 
 acquirement of knowledge and the acquirement, or
 
 306 LESSONS FROM THE BAPTISM OF JESUS 
 
 development rather, of ability to wisely and thor- 
 oughly use what we have. The child is physically 
 a man in miniature. He never will have an addi- 
 tional sense, nor an additional member. Muscles 
 and sinews are all in place, but who would think of 
 putting a man's burden upon a child's shoulders? 
 He has all that is necessary to man's work save the 
 development of muscle and sinew. Until that de- 
 velopment is brought about by preparatory exercise 
 he cannot do a man's work. And woe to him if he 
 seriously and persistently attempt it! and bitter 
 disappointment to those who expect it of him ! 
 
 There are intellectual sinews and muscles, and 
 there are sinews and muscles to the moral man. To 
 bear responsibilities, to meet the obligations of a 
 public life, to carry the burdens and resist the strains 
 that try all who work among men, something more 
 is needed than that which our parents and teachers 
 can give us something more than can be acquired 
 in any way. Knowledge of men, knowledge of self, 
 knowledge of God, all are important; but these must 
 do in us, intellectually and morally, what food and 
 exercise are doing for the boy physically; and, in- 
 tellectually and morally, we must become what the 
 boy, at last, becomes physically, ere we are fitted for 
 life, and prepared to "quit us like men." Three 
 years of a man's work is worth far more to the 
 world than many years' work of a child. Three 
 years of work wisely done is better than fifteen 
 years of unwise work. This thought is so impor- 
 tant as to justify a repetition. The world is more 
 benefited by three years' earnest work of a wise
 
 BY JOHN THE BAPTIST. 307 
 
 man than it can possibly be by the life-time of one 
 who goes from school into life confident that the 
 professors have furnished all that is necessary for 
 the march and the battle. 
 
 If there ever was a life and work which justified 
 haste, it was the life and work of Jesus. In mo- 
 ments of careless thinking we have wished that he 
 could have lived longer, or commenced his public 
 ministry sooner. But the time of his work was 
 inconsiderable in contrast with the time of prepa- 
 ration for it. The world can better do without you, 
 young man, for years to come, than it could spare 
 Jesus all the eighteen or twenty years he spent in 
 obscure preparation. And the world will be the 
 better, and you the happier, if you will lay to heart 
 this lesson from the model life, and think upon the 
 important duties and weighty responsibilities you 
 are expected to meet and discharge, and be not rash 
 in assuming them, but, like Jesus, prepare for them, 
 that you may do your work, and exclaim, at the 
 close of your life, with satisfaction akin to his, " It 
 is finished." 
 
 Let us now come to the study of the words of the 
 text in search of other lessons from this model life. 
 " Suffer it to be so now." This is the language of 
 one who "is to increase" addressed to one who "is 
 to decrease." To John, who has just now said of Je- 
 sus, " He that cometh after me is mightier than I, 
 whose shoes I am not worthy to bear" to John, 
 who thus recognizes himself as unworthy to be even 
 the servant of Jesus, does Jesus say, "Suffer it to 
 be so now." These are strange words. "Suffer"
 
 308 LESSONS FROM THE BAPTISM OF JESUS 
 
 what is its meaning? Used in this way, its mean- 
 ing is this, according to the dictionaries: Allow, 
 permit, do not forbid, do not hinder. But there is 
 another meaning in this word thus used by Jesus, 
 the Model-man, emerging from his obscurity and 
 about entering upon his public career, which is to 
 end not upon the cross of shame, but upon the 
 throne of universal empire. In this word is recog- 
 nition of John's position and authority. Here, at 
 the very threshold of his wonderful life, Jesus gives 
 us a lesson of subordination. 
 
 The speaker is the Son of God, fully conscious 
 of his relationship, and of his consequent inherent 
 superiority to John, and of the greater glory of the 
 work he will soon begin; for all this John has de- 
 clared, or intimated, and Jesus has admitted; never- 
 theless, he says to John, " Suiter it to be so now." 
 In official position John is superior now to Jesus, 
 the Son of man. And Jesus recognizes this fact, 
 and would not have John forget it, or ignore it. 
 Subordination, therefore, is the lesson taught us in 
 this portion of the text. 
 
 Insubordination appears in the fatal transaction 
 of Eden, and through all the sighing ages since it 
 has been the leading evil spirit whose wings have 
 eclipsed the light, and by whom individuals, and 
 families, and States, and nations, have been led into 
 dissatisfaction, and rebellion, and grief. The disci- 
 pline of the family and school cannot create the 
 spirit of subordination. Ordinarily, recognition of 
 parental and collegiate authority is constrained. 
 Though outwardly the boy may be submissive, yet
 
 BY JOHN THE BAPTIST. 309 
 
 inwardly he chafes, and is longing for the time when 
 he shall be his own man independent of all re- 
 straint. It is not a willing, cheerful recognition of 
 authority, and submission to it, that exists, and are 
 manifested by the masses of young people; hence 
 the departure in after-life from old land-marks 
 hence the erratic thoughts, the erratic speeches, and 
 the libertine-lives of many who, in early youth, 
 seemed observant of the proprieties. The Apostle 
 Paul declares that the carnal mind is not subject to 
 law of God, neither indeed can be. Now, it appears 
 evident that, if we will not recognize the authority 
 of God, and cheerfully submit to do and to be what 
 he wills, there certainly can be no authority which 
 we will recognize, and no law that we will obey, but 
 as we are compelled. But, though this is true, and 
 men, natural men, still aspire to be as gods, that 
 they may be a law unto themselves, no man is pre- 
 pared to work among men and for men, wisely and 
 efficiently, until he has learned subordination. We 
 think, therefore, it was not without design that the 
 first revelation Jesus gives us of the spirit of his 
 mind, when he emerges from the eighteen years of 
 obscurity spent in preparation for his life's work, 
 is in this recognition of the superiority of John's 
 present position, and his deference to him, expressed 
 in the words, " Suffer it to be so now." They may 
 be thus paraphrased without violence to the truth 
 in outward fact or inner thought of Jesus : Suffer 
 it to be so now. It may be true that thy work is 
 nearly done, and mine is about to commence. Thou 
 wilt decrease, I shall increase. Thou mayst be but my
 
 310 LESSONS FROM THE BAPTISM OF JESUS 
 
 herald, my messenger going before me; but I am a 
 Jew, thou art a prophet, teaching and baptizing the 
 Jews. Thy work is not finished, thine office is not 
 yet passed away. My work is not begun, I have 
 not yet entered into my office. I recognize thee in 
 thy official capacity, and, as one of the people for 
 as yet I am officially nothing more I come to thee 
 for baptism. Suffer it to be so recognize thy po- 
 sition, magnify thy office, and baptize me. 
 
 This important lesson of the text escapes the ob- 
 servation of some, it is to be feared, because they do 
 not regard that which Jesus was seeking at the 
 hands of John as the baptism administered to the 
 masses of the Jewish people, but an induction cer- 
 emonially into the high-priesthood. It is modestly 
 suggested that there is no hint of any such thing 
 in any part of the ministry of John, nor in any part 
 of the conversation between him and Jesus. There 
 may be some coincidences, some analogies, between 
 the ceremonial induction into the priesthood, under 
 the Jewish economy, and the baptism of Jesus, and 
 the descent of the Holy Ghost upon him afterward. 
 But these, at best, fancied resemblances should not 
 lead us to forget that it was to John the Baptist 
 that Jesus came. John claimed no such office as 
 would qualify him to induct any one into the priest- 
 ly office. His work was clearly defined. Jesus re- 
 vealed to him no new work that was expected at 
 his hands. That, therefore, which was asked of 
 John was baptism nothing more and it must 
 have been the baptism John had been administer- 
 ing to other Jews. But one may ask, What need
 
 BY JOHN THE BAPTIST. 311 
 
 had Jesus of John's baptism? In reply it may he 
 asked, What need had he of circumcision? what 
 need of an} of the ritual and sacrificial service of 
 the temple? This, however, would be trifling. It 
 is repeating about Jesus what so many ask about 
 themselves: What need have I of this ordinance? 
 What good will this sacrament do me ? Cannot I 
 neglect this privilege, or pass by this unpleasant 
 duty, without damage? O how common, and yet 
 how strange, this error! The question is not of 
 personal need, nor of personal benefit to be derived 
 from any observance; but the question, all-impor- 
 tant and fateful, is of duty. John at Jordan fell 
 into this common error. He had cried, Prepare ye 
 the way of the Lord, and make his paths straight. 
 He bad gathered Jerusalem and all Judea to his 
 preaching, and had baptized multitudes, turning 
 away, we suppose, no applicant for baptism. Now 
 there stands before him a Jew who has been strict 
 to observe all the requirements of the law. This 
 Jew conies to him recognizing his official position, 
 and asking baptism, but John answers, You do not 
 need to be baptized of me. True, I have baptized 
 all others who have applied, but I will not baptize 
 you, for I need rather to be baptized of you. To 
 which Jesus replies, It may seem strange that I 
 should ask, and improper for you to grant me, bap- 
 tism; but I am a Jew, and if it were your duty to 
 administer it to other Jews, and it was their duty 
 to ask it, then is it my duty to be baptized, and your 
 duty to baptize me. It becomes us thus to fulfill all 
 righteousness, I have been obedient in all else, and
 
 312 LESSONS FROM THE BAPTISM OF JESUS 
 
 would not fail in this. This is all that remains of 
 the religions rites made binding by God upon those 
 who would be prepared for that kingdom which 
 you have been declaring to be at hand. Paul, in 
 Hebrews v., recognizes and declares this feature in 
 the life of Christ. He says: "Christ glorified not 
 himself to be made a high-priest. Though he were 
 a Son, yet learned he obedience." 
 
 The baptism of Jesus by John is then an example 
 to us not an example of baptism, not a model of 
 place or mode, but an example of subordination, 
 and that strict obedience which flows from it. 
 
 Whatever the ordinance of God, we should not 
 think ourselves exempt from its observance on any 
 consideration. Whatever the requirement of the 
 Church, we should comply with it, not raising the 
 question of personal need, nor asking about expedi- 
 ency. It is always proper to do what Heaven re- 
 quires when we can, and it becomes us to leave no 
 duty unperformed, no privilege unenjoyed. Noth- 
 ing of Church-duty was neglected by Jesus. And 
 this last extraordinary demand upon the people of 
 God, preparatory to the revelation of the Messiah, 
 he wished to meet. Whether he knew that his 
 baptism would be followed by the descent of the 
 Holy Ghost, and the public recognition and declara- 
 tion of himself by the Father, is a question with 
 which we now have nothing to do. We know that 
 it was no thought of this which prompted him to 
 press his claim for baptism. He did not say to John, 
 " If you baptize me, the Spirit will descend upon 
 me, and the Father will reveal my true nature and
 
 BY JOHN THE BAPTIST. 313 
 
 work" not that, but simply this: "Thus it be- 
 cometh us to fulfill all righteousness." 
 
 Let this be to us sufficient inducement to obey all 
 law, to use all means of grace. It becometh us thus 
 to fulfill all righteousness. Duty is a word lost, we 
 fear, to many; or if the word be retained, its force, 
 and meaning, and application, are lost; else many 
 of the excuses with which they attempt to salve 
 wounded consciences would appear to them worse 
 than frivolous, exceedingly sinful. Pleasure hath 
 no rightful place in opposition to duty. Appear- 
 ance hath no right to absolve from duty. Loss 
 or gain has naught to do in the question of duty. 
 Suppose we do not feel like doing some particular 
 Church-work is that work, therefore, any the less 
 important, or any the less binding upon us? Sup- 
 pose it is not pleasant does it cease to be duty when 
 it becomes unpleasant? Suppose it appear to be 
 unnecessary and unprofitable, as some argue the 
 baptism of innocent babes to be is it, therefore, not 
 binding upon you? Scripture and reason unite in 
 answer: With duty made plain in statute or ordi- 
 nance, or temple regulation, or extraordinarily, as 
 was the case in John's baptism, appearance of need- 
 lessness and unprofitableness has naught to do with 
 the decision of obedience or disobedience. How did 
 it appear for John to baptize Jesus baptize unto 
 repentance one who was without sin, and his supe- 
 rior in every sense save official .position? It matters 
 not. Appearances, worldly questions of propriety, 
 and human questions of profit, must give way before 
 duty. It is John's duty to baptize, it is the people's 
 14
 
 314 LESSONS FROM THE BAPTISM OF JESUS 
 
 duty to be baptized by him; and Jesus, as the Son 
 of man, and the Son of David, stands in his lot with 
 the people before John for baptism. 
 
 Let us not turn hurriedly away from this lesson 
 of subordination and obedience. Here is the open- 
 ing of a model life here is the beginning of a reve- 
 lation of God's ideal of a perfect man, who is to 
 master all things, and govern all things, because he 
 is worthy. But he can never rule others who has 
 not learned to govern himself, and he can never 
 know how to govern who has not been governed. 
 
 " Let every soul be subject to the higher powers," 
 an inspired injunction, was illustrated and enforced 
 throughout the life of Jesus. His parents complied 
 with the law, notwithstanding the peculiarity ofhis 
 conception and the wonders attending his birth, and 
 presented him for circumcision ; he was subject unto 
 his parents; at twelve years of age he sought in- 
 struction from the teachers appointed by the Church ; 
 he strictly observed all the requirements of the law 
 of God, and all the regulations of temple service, and 
 he recognized John in his office, and received bap- 
 tism at his hands. 
 
 Subordination in all the relations of life was thus 
 taught by him in rendering unto Csesar the things 
 that were Csesar's, and unto God the things that 
 were God's. 
 
 The third lesson we find in the baptism of Jesus 
 is one of encouragement. 
 
 It has already been said that questions of expedi- 
 ency have no rightful place in the decision to do or 
 not to do duty. "It becometh us thus to fulfill all
 
 BY JOHN THE BAPTIST. 315 
 
 righteousness" will be sufficient to the true man 
 sufficient in the face of inexpediency or of useless- 
 ness, yea, even of impropriety, as it was with John 
 and Jesus. But this is so not without reason. Duty 
 may seem to be unnecessary and unprofitable, but 
 it is not so. He that goeth forth bearing precious 
 seed, though he may go weeping, perplexed, be- 
 wildered, and saddened by the seeming loss of time, 
 and labor, and treasure going forth because he is 
 bidden to go shall surely return; yea, come with 
 rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Duty is 
 never inexpedient, never unnecessary, never un- 
 profitable. A man's work may be better than he 
 supposes it to be. This may be made stronger and 
 fuller: every man's work, done from sense of duty, 
 is more important than it appears to him, and far 
 more fruitful in good results to himself and others 
 than he imagines when he enters upon it and con- 
 tinues in it. 
 
 Pharaoh's daughter knew not the work she was 
 doing when she rescued the Hebrew babe, arid pro- 
 vided for its protection and instruction. His mother 
 knew not the work she was doing for her people 
 and the world when she trained Moses to fear God 
 and obey his word. The instructors of Luther knew 
 not the work they were doing for the enlightenment 
 and blessing of the Church and the world. John 
 knew not what he was doing when he baptized Je- 
 sus. His objection was based upon his Jewish hope 
 of a Messiah who would reign an earthly king, and 
 deliver his people from political bondage. The 
 opening heavens, the divine voice, the words spoken,
 
 316 LESSONS FROM THE BAPTISM OF JESUS 
 
 the descent of the Holy Ghost upon Jesus, were all 
 unexpected revelations, following not successively 
 merely, but as consequences of his obedience to duty, 
 which had seemed unnecessary and unprofitable. 
 Not until then did he know, and probably not 
 otherwise could he have ever known, that Jesus is 
 the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the 
 world. 
 
 Father, mother, teacher, minister of the gospel, 
 class-leader, steward, officer and teacher in the Sun- 
 day-school, to you may come the words, " Suft'er it 
 to be so now." What is required of you in your 
 place may be unpleasant, or difficult, or may seem 
 to be unnecessary to be done, or vain and fruitless 
 in your hands. Are you in your place? Then do 
 your work; do it despite discouragements; do it in 
 the face of failure and defeat; do it though your 
 reason may whisper it is useless and profitless. 
 Fulfill all righteousness, however difficult the task 
 or disagreeable the duty; if a subordinate, submit; 
 if a superior, exercise authority and execute disci- 
 pline. Let nothing turn you from duty. It was in 
 discharge of duty, by fulfilling all righteousness, 
 that Joseph passed through the hands of envious 
 brethren, through the pit, through the prison, to 
 the second place in Egypt, and became the blessing 
 of the world. It was in the line of duty that the 
 wise men of the east saw the herald-star in the mid- 
 night skies, and found the " Desire of all nations." 
 It was in the place and performance of duty on 
 the plains watching their flocks that the shepherds 
 received the angelic announcement of the birth of
 
 BY JOHN THE BAPTIST. 317 
 
 Jesus. It was Simeon, a just and devout man, wait- 
 ing in the temple of his God for the consolation of 
 Israel, who received the infant Jesus into his arms 
 and rejoiced. To them who, from a sense of duty, 
 left all to follow Christ, was it given to behold the 
 goings forth of his divinity in miracle-working 
 power. It was to them who were called to the 
 privilege, and availed themselves of it, that Jesua 
 showed his glory in the mount. 
 
 It was Stephen, falling and dying under a shower 
 of stones, hurled upon him because of his allegiance 
 to duty, who saw- heaven open and Jesus sitting on 
 the right-hand of God. It was John, banished to 
 Patmos because of his devotion to duty, who had 
 presented to his enraptured spirit grand apocalyptic 
 visions. And Jesus hath formulated the whole, and 
 made this cheering truth universal in its application : 
 "If any man" that brings you, reader, old or 
 young, wise or simple, great or humble, within the 
 circle of glory upon which we have been looking 
 " If any man will do his will " is willing to do his 
 will " he shall know of the doctrine whether it be 
 of God." 
 
 The revelation made to John at Jordan is not 
 singular his experience was not peculiar to him- 
 self. The heavens open, the Spirit descends, and 
 God reveals Jesus to all his dutiful servants. " The 
 secret of the Lord is with them that fear him." 
 Within the soul of him who "fulfills all righteous- 
 ness" the words of God are heard: "This is my 
 Son." And that soul rejoices to behold the Lamb 
 of God which taketh away the sin of the world.
 
 XVII. 
 
 FUTURE RE WARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 B Y BISHOP KA VA NA UGH. 
 
 "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but 
 the righteous into life eternal." Matt. xxv. 46. 
 
 OUR subject presents us with the solemn and final 
 issues of our entire race, which are made to turn 
 upon the character acquired in a probationary rela- 
 tionship of the creature to the Creator as one has 
 expressed it, " The great day of dread decision and 
 despair," in regard to one class; and it may be add- 
 ed with respect to the other class, a day when hope 
 meets its consummation, and bliss its perfection and 
 eternity. 
 
 This great subject is introduced and delineated 
 in a pretty extended discourse of our Saviour, in 
 the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth chapters of Mat- 
 thew. In the twenty-fourth chapter he describes 
 the then coming destruction of Jerusalem in terms 
 so strong and high as to intimate the destruction 
 of the world. In allusion to the destruction of the 
 temple, and of Jerusalem, the disciples had asked, 
 "Tell us when shall these things be? and what 
 shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of 
 the world?" He answers the last of these questions, 
 concerning the end of the world, in the twenty-fifth 
 chapter. This he describes, 1. By the parable of 
 
 (318)
 
 THE REV. BISHOP H. H. KAVANAUGH, D.D. 
 
 Of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
 
 FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 319 
 
 the ten virgins; 2. By the parable of the talents; 
 and, 3. Without a parable he describes the coming 
 of the Son of man : " When the Son of man shall 
 come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, 
 then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and 
 before him shall be gathered all nations; and he 
 shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd 
 divideth his sheep from the goats; and he shall set 
 the sheep on his right-hand, but the goats on the 
 left. Then shall the King say unto them on his 
 right-hand, Corne, ye blessed of my Father, inherit 
 the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation 
 of the world." Then follow the reasons for this glo- 
 rious invitation : " For I was a hungered, and ye 
 gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; 
 I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye 
 clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in 
 prison, and ye came unto me." The modest right- 
 eous, not remembering to have seen their Saviour 
 in all this variety of condition, shall inquire, When 
 saw we thee thus conditioned, and ministered unto 
 thee? "And the King shall answer, and say unto 
 them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have 
 done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, 
 ye have done it unto me. Then shall he also say 
 unto them on the left-hand, Depart from me, ye 
 cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil 
 and his angels. For I was a hungered, and ye gave 
 me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no 
 drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; na- 
 ked, and ye clothed me not. Then shall they also 
 answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee a hun-
 
 320 FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 gered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or 
 in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then 
 shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say nnto you, 
 Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, 
 ye did it not to me." Then comes the language of 
 the text, "And these shall go away into everlasting 
 punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." 
 
 Thus coming to the language of the text, we pro- 
 ceed to the discussion of the points suggested by the 
 language it contains. 
 
 I. The characteristics of the subjects under the 
 judgment process. 
 
 1. The points to be established by the facts of the 
 case. The grand point on which the decision turns 
 is, Have you loved the King now on the judgment- 
 seat? The evidence taken in the case are the works 
 done by the parties. In Matt. xii. 36, 37, we read, 
 "But I say unto you, That every idle word that 
 men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in 
 the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt 
 be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be con- 
 demned." 
 
 The justification presented in this passage, and in 
 others that will be adduced, is taken in a second 
 sense in the work of our salvation. Where the 
 question of pardon is concerned, faith is the only 
 and indispensable condition of justification as 
 unbelief is the ground of condemnation damna- 
 tion to the unbeliever; because, while faith accepts 
 and appropriates the great provisions of salvation 
 in the gospel of the grace of God, unbelief rejects all 
 the love, blood, suffering, and glorious, godlike work
 
 FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 321 
 
 of triumphs over sin, death, and devils, and cuts 
 off all the possibilities of salvation; for St. Paul 
 informs us, in Heb. xi. 6, "Without faith it is im- 
 possible to please him." 
 
 The justification we now have under considera- 
 tion is the evidence offered in works of the genu- 
 ineness of our Christian pretensions the reality of 
 our faith and love. It is affirmed that faith works 
 by love, and purifies the heart. On this subject 
 James (ii. 14-18) speaks with force and point: 
 " What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man 
 say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith 
 save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and des- 
 titute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, 
 Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwith- 
 standing ye give them not those things which are 
 needful to the body, what doth it profit? Even so 
 faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. 
 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have 
 works : show me thy faith without thy works, and 
 I will show thee my faith by my works." This is 
 a forcible way of putting the question, as it is im- 
 possible to show faith without adequate evidence, 
 and we can see faith only through works. The 
 apostle proceeds: "But wilt thou know, O vain 
 man, that faith without works is dead?" He then 
 adduces, as a fine illustration, the case of Abraham 
 in the offering of his son : " Was not Abraham our 
 father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac 
 his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith 
 wrought with his works, and by works was faith 
 made perfect?" 
 14*
 
 322 FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 Abraham was justified by faith when, despite the 
 circumstances, he believed that Isaac would be born, 
 and that specific act of his faith was counted to him 
 for righteousness in the sense of pardon. It is gen- 
 erally estimated that it was twenty-four or twenty- 
 five years afterward when he was called upon to 
 sacrifice Isaac as a burnt - offering on the altar. 
 Abraham's faith was still living, and he gave a sub- 
 lime illustration of it when, without hesitation or 
 remonstrance, he proceeded to the awful work; and 
 though the promise of God concerning the prom- 
 ised seed was involved, in whom the hopes of the 
 world were placed, yet he asks no questions, sug- 
 gests no incongruities, makes no pauses on the path 
 of duty, though he thought of the covenanted seed, 
 and appreciated the blessings for the world con- 
 tained in him; for his faith, reposing in the veracity 
 and power of God, believed that though he should 
 burn Isaac to ashes, he would raise him up, and 
 fully redeem all that was in that broad promise, 
 that proposed the highest blessings for all nations, 
 and all the families, to the end of the world. Here 
 was splendid work, but it was faith that made it 
 perfect faith wrought with the work. 
 
 These quotations show the doctrine of justifica- 
 tion before men in this life, and before God at the 
 day of judgment, not by the merit, but by the evi- 
 dence, of good works. I may add that an obedient 
 life is evidence to ourselves. 1 John v. 2, 3: "By 
 this we know that we love the children of God, 
 when we love God and keep his commandments. 
 For this is the love of God, that we keep his com-
 
 FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 323 
 
 mandments; and his commandments are not griev- 
 ous." 
 
 Then, at the day of judgment, there is nothing 
 said about repentance, faith, pardon, regeneration, 
 adoption, sanctification, orthodoxy, or heterodoxy, 
 but of such conduct as shall prove that we love God. 
 To love God, or not to love God, then, decides the 
 destiny of those before the final Judge. 
 
 Since this principle of love to God holds so con- 
 trolling a position in the destiny of our race, let us 
 look into the nature and character of the principle. 
 The Saviour says of it, as exercised toward God and 
 man, according to the standards he specifies, that on 
 it hang all the law and the prophets. The Apostle 
 Paul says, " Tlie end of the commandment is char- 
 ity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, 
 and of faith unfeigned." Again he says, "It work- 
 eth no ill to his neighbor ; therefore love is the ful- 
 filling of the law." Again, " Owe no man any thing, 
 but to love one another; for he that loveth another 
 hath fulfilled the law." 
 
 The moral quality of an act lies in the intention. 
 Love cannot intend harm to its object, and hence 
 it regulates all the aims of the mind. Hence, in 1 
 Cor. xiii. 4-8, the apostle says, "Charity suffereth 
 long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity 
 vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Doth not be- 
 have itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not 
 easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in 
 iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all 
 things, belie veth all things, hopeth all things, en- 
 dureth all things. Charity never faileth." In an-
 
 324 FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 other Epistle the apostle, after exhorting to the ob- 
 servance of some important duties, adds, "And above 
 all these things put on charity, which is the bond 
 of perfectness." This principle springs from God, 
 belongs to holy angels, is imparted by the Holy 
 Ghost to regenerated men, maintains the harmony 
 of heaven, prompts all holy spirits to the adoration 
 and praise of God. It is a principle of loyalty to 
 the Sovereign of the universe, and therefore must 
 forever be maintained. It is a principle that God 
 must approve, and bless forever. 
 
 This is the grace must live and sing 
 
 When faith and hope shall cease, 
 Must sound from every joyful string 
 
 Through the sweet groves of bliss. 
 
 It is joyful to think of heaven, "where all the 
 loul is love" where every spirit is filled and fired 
 with a joyful consciousness of a free and full fel- 
 lowship with God, with the angels that kept their 
 first estate, and with the spirits of just men made 
 perfect where God is known to be love, and where 
 all heaven is filled with the blessings which love 
 imparts, forever flowing from the infinitude of God. 
 It is enough to make the adoring minds of heaven 
 burst with the thunder of eternal praise, saying, 
 "Alleluia! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!" 
 
 Love is the fairest flower that blows, 
 
 Its beauties never die ; 
 On earth among the saints it grows, 
 
 And ripens in the sky. 
 
 So much for that great principle, the proof of 
 having which is required at the last great day.
 
 FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 325 
 
 II. Our second point for consideration is the 
 character and duration of the punishment and the 
 reward proposed in the text. 
 
 The text uses the words " everlasting punish- 
 ment" and "life eternal." The Greek Testament 
 uses the same word for the duration of punishment 
 and reward, hence the one is as long as the other. 
 
 God, by all the force of motive, has labored to 
 prevent sin, and hence his legislation has moved 
 upon the deepest feelings and the most enduring 
 interests of mankind. To keep Adam in a state of 
 blessedness and life, God gave him an Eden-home, 
 abundantly furnished, as it is stated in Gen ii. 8, 9: 
 "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in 
 Eden ; and there he put the man whom he had 
 formed. And out of the ground made the Lord 
 God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, 
 and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst 
 of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good 
 and evil." Thus furnished, and also blest with the 
 visits and association of his infinite Maker, he had 
 all the elements of physical and mental happiness. 
 A holy and good God must design this happy con- 
 dition. The point of danger in the man was the 
 fact that he was made a free moral agent. He had 
 intelligence enough to perceive his relations and 
 feel his obligations. To enforce these obligations, 
 his Maker gave him a positive law and a moral fac- 
 ulty to feel its force, and the power of the will to 
 determine for or against his duties; and, to keep him 
 to his obligations, he fixed a fearful penalty to the 
 transgression of the law. The death -penalty was
 
 326 FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 the greatest barrier that could be raised against 
 allurement or temptation. To intensify the death- 
 penalt} r , the Lord has called our attention to what 
 he has set before us in Deut. xxx. 19, 20: "I call 
 heaven and earth to record this day against you, 
 that I have set before you life and death, blessing 
 and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou 
 and thy seed may live; that thou mayest love the 
 Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, 
 and that thou mayest cleave unto him; for he is 
 thy life, and the length of thy days." 
 
 The appalling penalty of death and cursing does 
 God interpose to keep us from sinning. And the 
 whole book of God keeps this fearful warning be- 
 fore us, saying, " The soul that sinneth it shall die." 
 " The wages of sin is death." And in the fervor of his 
 love to us he follows us on our way to death, crying 
 out, "As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in 
 the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn 
 from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your 
 evil ways, for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" 
 
 To escape this penalty, and avoid a hell, the Uni- 
 versalists generally try so to interpret the language 
 of the, New Testament as to destroy the common 
 idea entertained of hell, by criticisms on the orig- 
 inal words which have been translated hell in our 
 English version of the Scriptures. 
 
 I have lately read, with much satisfaction and 
 edification, a work of Bishop S. M. Merrill, D.D., 
 of the Methodist Episcopal Church, on " The JSTew 
 Testament Idea of Hell." I shall avail myself of 
 some of his critical remarks on those Bible-terms:
 
 FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 327 
 
 The Old Testament word Sheol is used with some latitude 
 of meaning and application. It, however, always relates to 
 the state of the dead, unless used in a metaphorical sense of 
 something in this world; but sometimes it expresses the state 
 of the body, and at other times of the soul. It does not ex- 
 press duration. It means, in general, the unseen world the 
 state of departed souls. It is not the decisive word in this 
 discussion, and its use will occupy but little of our attention. 
 
 Tartarus occurs but once in the Scriptures, and will require 
 but brief consideration. It is found in 2 Pet. ii. 4: " For if 
 God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down 
 to hell [Tartarus], and delivered them into chains of dark- 
 ness, to be reserved unto judgment," etc. It is the prison of 
 the fallen angels. 
 
 Hades is a more important word. It occurs eleven times 
 in the New Testament, and is translated "hell" ten times, 
 and "grave" once. It is the Greek equivalent for the He- 
 brew Sheol. When a passage is quoted in the New Testament 
 from the Old, containing Sheol, it is rendered Hades. There 
 is no disagreement among scholars as to the meaning of Hades. 
 Some difference of application may be found, but, upon the 
 whole, there is substantial agreement. This fact renders our 
 task comparatively easy, so far as the word is concerned. It 
 means the unseen world, the place of departed souls, and ex- 
 presses nothing as to their character or condition. It always 
 relates to the soul in a disembodied state, and never to the 
 body ; so that it should never be rendered grave. There are 
 other Greek words that express the receptacle of the dead 
 body, such as are rendered grave, tomb, sepulcher, etc., but 
 this word has no such meaning, and admits of nothing mate- 
 rial. Hence, its true and only application is to the state of 
 the dead between death and the resurrection. This point is 
 to be emphasized in this treatise. 
 
 Gehenna is the next word. It occurs in the New Testament 
 twelve times, and with a single exception (James iii. 6, where 
 it is used metaphorically) it occurs in the discourse of our 
 Lord alone. It related to the Jews primarily, and would only 
 be understood by them. Here, also, there is substantial
 
 328 FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 agreement among scholars. The origin and meaning of the 
 word are not in dispute. It is composed of two Hebrew words 
 which together mean the valley of Hinnom. This was a place 
 in the valley south of Jerusalem, once the seat of idolatrous 
 worship, where stood the image of Moloch, where the Canaan- 
 ites, and afterward the Israelites, in their backslidden state, 
 performed the cruel rites that distinguished the worship of 
 that monstrous idol. King Josiah destroyed this worship, 
 and polluted the place, so that it became the receptacle of 
 the filth of the city. In the Old Testament it was also called 
 Tophet, in allusion to the beating of drums that was kept up 
 during the worship of Moloch. The name of this place be- 
 came the synonym of all that was opposed to God, and hate- 
 ful to his people, and very naturally came into use to express 
 the Jewish idea of the punishment of the enemies of God 
 after death. In this condition of things, and in this sense, 
 our Saviour used Gehenna, with reference to the ultimate pun- 
 ishment of the wicked. Its use comes nearer to the mean- 
 ing which the popular sentiment attached to the English 
 word hell than does any other of the terms so translated, and 
 yet it is a proper name the name of a place well known 
 and should have been transferred, and not translated. The 
 discussion of this word has reference not to its origin, history, 
 or meaning, but to its application. The questions raised are 
 as to whether the Saviour used it literally or figuratively, and 
 whether he designed it to apply to punishment in this world 
 or the next world. 
 
 It is certain, from the above scrutiny of these 
 words, as made by the Bishop, that the Saviour 
 used the term Gehenna in a figurative sense, apply- 
 ing it to future punishment; but he sums up a re- 
 view of his criticism of these words in the following 
 manner: 
 
 Here, then, is the arrangement to be observed : Sheol is 
 translated by Hades; and Hades being the New Testament 
 word, we take it in the truest sense as applying to the invisi-
 
 FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 329 
 
 ble world, the state of the dead between death and the resur- 
 rection, and never to any thing beyond the resurrection. 
 Tartarus is another word for the same thing, with only the 
 difference that it is the prison of the fallen angels this side 
 of the judgment. It is, therefore, substantially the same as 
 Hades, and may be considered as a part of Hades. In other 
 words, Hades covers the entire ground this side of the resur- 
 rection. Gehenna applies to nothing till Hades is past. It 
 relates to the period beyond the resurrection and the judg- 
 ment the final state. This is the true distinction, and it is 
 certainly plain, and easily comprehended, and quite as easily 
 demonstrated. 
 
 This well-stated position of Bishop Merrill brings 
 the intermediate state impressively before us, and 
 inclines us to look after our condition during so 
 protracted a period. Fortunately for us, it appears 
 pretty clear that, though it may not be our final 
 state, nor, as Christians, the best state we have in 
 prospect, yet we think that there is a very glorious 
 heaven, as well as a fearful state of punishment, in 
 the intermediate state. 
 
 The Saviour called that Paradise in which he and 
 
 <& 
 
 the penitent thief were that day to meet. Paul, 
 when taken up into the third heaven, calls the place 
 Paradise, and, from his account of it, it is an over- 
 whelmingly glorious place ; for when he writes about 
 it, fourteen years after its occurrence, he had not 
 settled the question " whether he was in the body 
 or out of the body." So intensely charmed was he 
 by the grand disclosures of the place, both to sight 
 and hearing, he "heard unspeakable words," and 
 the translators make him say, "not lawful for a 
 man to utter." The marginal reading is, " not pos- 
 sible for & man to utter;" and with the marginal
 
 330 FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 reading the commentators generally concur. It 
 was above what human language has the power of 
 expressing. Then what a glorious destiny awaits 
 the child of God, even in the intermediate state! 
 In the view of this, the apostle is well sustained 
 when he says that, " For to me to live is Christ, and 
 to die is gain. For I am in a strait betwixt two, 
 having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, 
 which is far better." Phil. i. 21, 23. And again, 
 2 Cor. v. 1-4: "For we know that, if our earthly 
 house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have 
 a building of God, a house not made with hands, 
 eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, ear- 
 nestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house 
 which is from heaven ; if so be that being clothed we 
 shall not be found naked. For we that are in this 
 tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that 
 we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mor- 
 tality might be swallowed up of life." 
 
 These declarations clearly indicate that when the 
 earthly house the body of man is laid aside, the 
 soul maintains its consciousness; and the language 
 suggests that the soul passes into some sort of spir- 
 itual incasement, that it might be clothed upon, and 
 not be naked. And this cluster of passages farther 
 indicate a heavenly locality so rich in its resources 
 as to be called * The Paradise of God." These 
 passages conduct us to the conclusion that in the 
 intermediate state and in the bosom of Abraham 
 there is a large comfort. 
 
 In this intermediate state there is also a terrible 
 amount of suffering. In the parable of the rich
 
 FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISUMEJJTS. 331 
 
 man and the beggar, as given in Luke xvi. 22-25, it is 
 stated: "And it came to pass that the beggar died, 
 and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bo- 
 som; the rich man also died, and was buried; and 
 in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and 
 seeth Abraham afar oft', and Lazarus in his bosom. 
 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mer- 
 cy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the 
 tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for 
 I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, 
 Son, remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst 
 thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; 
 but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented." 
 Here are two individuals that pass into the inter- 
 mediate state, and one is comforted, and the other 
 tormented. The comfort of Lazarus was such as 
 Paradise could afford, which doubtless was of a 
 very great character; and were he to describe the 
 case, he would likely find the language of the apos- 
 tle important to his task. The rich man confesses 
 himself tormented in a flame, and begs a drop of 
 water to cool his tongue. This suffering is aggra- 
 vated by the fact that he obtains no relief, and is 
 reminded that in his life-time he had his good things 
 and Lazarus his evil things he is now tormented, 
 and Lazarus comforted. His farther information 
 is sadly discouraging. The Saviour adds : "And 
 beside all this, between us and you there is a great 
 gulf fixed; so that they which would pass from 
 hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us 
 that would come from thence." 
 
 This intermediate state, then, has place and con-
 
 332 FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 dition. The condition is "comfort and punishment, 
 or torment." The places are divided by an " im- 
 passable gulf." A poor prospect for the exchange 
 of places. The language may be figurative or lit- 
 eral in either case I think the sense is not 
 changed. 
 
 The rich man, despairing for himself, then makes 
 a feeling and affecting appeal to Abraham in behalf 
 of his five brothers yet at his father's house, and 
 says, " I pray thee therefore, father, that thou 
 wouldest send him to my father's house; for I have 
 five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest 
 they also come into this place of torment." How 
 affecting that the lost in perdition should be entreat- 
 ing for those who are neglecting their opportuni- 
 ties! And how solemn and impressive is the an- 
 swer of Abraham! "Abraham saith unto him, They 
 have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. 
 And he said, Nay, father Abraham; but if one went 
 unto them from the dead, they will repent." O let 
 the living hear this voice from the dead, and repent! 
 But how true it is, as Abraham affirms: "And he 
 said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the proph- 
 ets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose 
 from the dead." 
 
 To the doctrine of future and eternal punishment 
 Universalists have offered various systems of escape. 
 They have hell -redemption no hell at all God 
 saving from his great mercy his love in the exer- 
 cise of his sovereignty, making every man holy and 
 happy. If it shall appear that for their sinfulness 
 some men or persons are finally lost, when all the
 
 FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 333 
 
 methods of salvation are exhausted, or done away, 
 then the doctrine of universal salvation is not true. 
 
 Except the doctrine of a final restoration from 
 hell-torments, every other system of Universalism 
 proposes the salvation of the sinner this side of the 
 resurrection of the dead and of the final judgment. 
 To settle the question clearly, we must follow up 
 the sinner to the final close of the case, and see what 
 his destiny is. Well, when the resurrection occurs, 
 the judgment ensues, as we have already seen in 
 the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew. There are the 
 sheep and the goats the righteous and the wicked, 
 all nations all that are in their graves the just 
 and the unjust. The decisive sentence is pro- 
 nounced in strong, clear, and well-defined terms. 
 And it is the last thing done on that fearful occa- 
 sion. There is nothing else, affecting the human 
 family, said or done to secure salvation. The sol- 
 emn and fearful doom of the wicked is to a lake of 
 fire and brimstone, prepared for the devil and his 
 angels. Let Uuiversalists, or any others, find a de- 
 liverance from this awful doom, which is styled the 
 second death, and they will teach the world more 
 than they ever learned before. 
 
 Some startled minds shrink from this awful sen- 
 tence, and affirm that they cannot believe this of a 
 good and merciful God; but they should remember 
 that, in a wicked and persistent abuse of their free 
 agency, they forced our merciful, loving, and gra- 
 cious God, to the reluctant necessity of pronouncing 
 this fearful doom upon them. God, in his good- 
 ness, had " wooed, blessed, and chastised them, and
 
 334 FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 still they were rebels amidst the thunders of his 
 throne." It is stated in Prov. i. 24-30: "Because 
 I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out 
 my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at 
 naught all my counsel, and would none of my re- 
 proof; I also will laugh at your calamity; I will 
 mock when your fear cometh; when your fear com- 
 eth as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a 
 whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon 
 you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not 
 answer ; they shall seek me early, but they shall 
 not find me ; for that they hated knowledge, and 
 did not choose the fear of the Lord; they would 
 none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof." 
 Here is a stubborn fight against all the efforts of 
 the God of goodness and love, and, never yielding, 
 he " will laugh at your calamity r and mock when 
 your fear cometh." All this time thou " treasurest 
 up to thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and 
 revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who 
 will render to every man according to his deeds." 
 Rom. ii. 5. Under such persistent rebellion against 
 all these efforts to save the rebel, what could God 
 do, as the Governor of the race, but execute the 
 penalty of his violated law? No wonder that in 
 the resurrection we should find such characters 
 described in the language of the Prophet Daniel 
 (xii. 2) : "Arid many of them that sleep in the dust 
 of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, 
 and some to shame and everlasting contempt." 
 Here is the resurrection, and all the time of the 
 soul-saving process of the Universalist (except that
 
 FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 335 
 
 of the hell-redemptionist) is past, and souls standing 
 before you, risen to shame and everlasting contempt. 
 What an awful resurrection this! To shame! 
 Shame is one of the most unmanning passions that 
 ever comes over the soul of a man. It recognizes 
 a deep sense of degrading personal guilt. The per- 
 son stands self-condemned, and perhaps it is the 
 loyal angels of glory, and the spirits of just men 
 made perfect, that pour upon this quailing spirit 
 of guilt the contempt due to the rejecter of the sal- 
 vation prepared at so great a price, and offered as a 
 gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Shame 
 in one's self, and a burning contempt from all that 
 is wise, and good, and pure, with the everlasting 
 appended to it, is a fearful damnation, from which 
 may God save the poor sinner! 
 
 In view of the awful condition of the sinner 
 doomed to so dreadful a punishment, I have started 
 in my mind the inquiry: " May there not be a sec- 
 ond probation in which the sinner may return to 
 God, receive pardon, and enter into rest?" But I 
 know nothing in the Scriptures to authorize such a 
 hope, or prospect. The Bible idea is, the judgment 
 turns upon the deeds done in the body, on the testi- 
 mony of the works we have performed in time; and 
 the case is finally settled here, and on this ground. 
 The sentence here rendered settles the case for eter- 
 nity. "As the tree falls so must it lie." We are 
 told in Rev. xxii. 10-12: " The time is at hand. He 
 that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which 
 is filthy, let him be filthy still ; and he that is right- 
 eous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy,
 
 336 FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; 
 and my reward is with me, to give every man ac- 
 cording as his work shall be." 
 
 Bishop Merrill says, " Death stereotypes charac- 
 ter; the purgatorial probation of Romanism is a 
 myth; prayer for the dead is a cheat." 
 
 The idea of a second probation is rather discour- 
 aged by the fact that sinners with whom God has 
 great forbearance and long-suffering grow harder, 
 more indifferent to religion, become settled in hab- 
 its of neglect, also a habit of indulgence in sin which 
 they persuade themselves that they cannot break, 
 and by neglect of duty on one hand, and hardening 
 in sin on the other, they become vessels fitted to 
 destruction; and thus may so provoke the wrath 
 of God that he may swear in his wrath that they 
 shall not enter into his rest. 
 
 To overcome this indisposition to obedience to 
 God they have him to exert his almighty power to 
 make them holy, that they may be happy. It is in- 
 congruous, in the very nature of the case, that God 
 should make a free moral agent, and then control 
 him as though he had no such agency. Again, if 
 God be so disregardful of free moral agency, why 
 did he not interpose his almighty power to prevent 
 the occurrence of sin? To have prevented the oc- 
 currence of sin would have saved a world of woe 
 in this world, and also the deeper sorrows of the 
 world to come, on the part of transgressors. It 
 would have saved himself the sacrifice of his Son 
 his life of humiliation, suffering, and death, to save 
 the involved; but such a procedure would contradict
 
 FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 337 
 
 every rational idea of a moral government, consist- 
 ing of law, motive, persuasion, threats, and penal- 
 ties the will of the agent rewards and punish- 
 ments praise and blame in a word, the whole 
 system of things that now exist, in fact, by divine 
 arrangement. 
 
 God, having established this system of moral 
 government, based on the freedom of man, and 
 the righteous requisitions of his holy law, had to 
 save us according to this system of things, or not 
 at all. And of one thing I feel fully assured, that 
 at the day of judgment (if never before) it will ap- 
 pear that God has done all that he could do, consist- 
 ently with his moral government and the freedom 
 of the human will, to save every human being; for 
 he is " no respecter of persons." What knowledge 
 did we need that he has not revealed? "What law 
 did we require that he has not enacted? What 
 warning did our condition demand that he has not 
 given? What grace did our guilt require, in order 
 to obtain pardon and salvation, that he has riot pre- 
 sented to us in his Son Jesus Christ? What light 
 do we need that his word does not afford? What 
 power do we want that his Spirit cannot bestow? 
 Does not this provision for our every necessity show 
 us that God cannot be blamed for the unhappy des- 
 tiny of any human being? 
 
 We will conclude these remarks with some review 
 and reflections on the results of character noticed 
 in the text. 
 
 The characters alluded to in the expression, 
 "these," is well defined in the context, and has 
 15
 
 338 FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 been noticed so far as to need only a remark or two. 
 This final punishment is called the second death. 
 It is a final separation from God, the fountain of all 
 life, and the source of all blessing. And then to en- 
 dure "the vengeance of eternal fire," in the "lake 
 of fire and brimstone, where they shall be torment- 
 ed, day and night, forever and ever!" It is an ap- 
 palling punishment, which is announced to men as 
 a motive to keep them out of it, and a vindication 
 of divine justice should the sinner force him to put 
 him in it. 
 
 The issues of a righteous life, according to the 
 text, is " life eternal." Life, whether considered 
 as vegetable, animal, or spiritual, is a most myste- 
 rious existence, and, with sentient beings, a thing 
 greatly enjoyed. To have a consciousness of being, 
 of enjoyment, of satisfaction, a realization of the 
 thousand things that minister to our enjoyment 
 in the present state of things; and then the higher 
 and more extended hopes that we are allowed to 
 cherish in regard to the future to take in the sweep 
 of the plans and purposes of God concerning us, 
 which culminates in a final exemption from every 
 disturbing element that might intermeddle with our 
 joys ! Then comes the broad benediction of our 
 Father and God, springing from the fervor of his 
 infinite love to his spotless child, washed in the 
 blood of the Lamb pure as wool white as snow 
 glowing in his likeness and image, who assures us 
 that our life is eternal. " Our inheritance is incor- 
 ruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away." He has 
 gotten np for the good man a whole eternity of
 
 FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. 339 
 
 heaven, with all that can make a heaven complete, 
 produced by infinite wisdom, power, and goodness, 
 with all the gracious designs that the love of an in- 
 finite Being would suggest. And then we have an 
 immortality of being to take in the boundless pros- 
 pect, with no drawbacks, such as disease and death, 
 failure of property and means, to check the eternal 
 advancement, or curtail the boundlessness of pros- 
 pect. This glorious amplitude of arrangement looks 
 like the doing of a God who can with infinite ease 
 accomplish it all, and in doing so gratify his father- 
 ly feeling as well as the cravings of his own intel- 
 lectual and immortal child. 
 
 Will you accept these chances of eternal well- 
 being? Will you strive to escape the torments to 
 which sin exposes you, and aspire to the sublime 
 privileges to which your Father and God calls his 
 immortal offspring?
 
 CUEIST AND HIS WOEK. 
 
 BY THE REV. A. A. LIPSCOMB, D.D., LL.D., 
 
 Vanderbilt University. 
 
 "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" 
 Luke ii. 49. 
 
 " I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." 
 John xvii. 4. 
 
 EACH of the four evangelists was so intent on 
 giving his own personal view of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ as unconsciously to make his narrative one 
 of a fourfold biography. Our final impression of 
 the Man Divine is not taken from what St. Matthew, 
 St. Mark, St. Luke, or St. John, individually re- 
 cords, but from that unity of character in which 
 their representations coalesce a unity altogether 
 independent of a set purpose on their part. The 
 unity is complete because the individuality is per- 
 fect. These writers knew that they were inspired 
 by the Holy Ghost; yet this inspiration, proceeding 
 from the source of eternal wisdom, penetrated their 
 minds deeper than they understood. So it is, in- 
 deed, with all our higher knowledge. It illumi- 
 nates, and it darkens. It excites and restrains. It 
 reveals our strength, that we may be more sensible 
 of our weakness. Like the light of day, it ascends 
 from the night of the east, and sinks down into the 
 
 C340)
 
 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 341 
 
 night of the west. Not strange is it, then, that 
 these inspired evangelists were wiser than they 
 knew. After all, the conscious man is only a frag- 
 ment of the unconscious man; and it is in the lat- 
 ter, alike in the supernatural and the natural, that 
 the Holy Spirit chiefly works. 
 
 Imagine such a genius as Michael Angelo con- 
 ceiving the plan of the dome over St. Peter's. Sec- 
 tional drawings are made and given to his work- 
 men. Each of these workmen executes his allotted 
 part. Ignorant of the general design, he keeps at- 
 tention fixed on his special task, and performs it all 
 the better since it alone engages his thought. The 
 different portions are afterward brought together. 
 Each takes its predesigned place, and when the 
 whole has been completed, a thoughtful spectator 
 sees how division of labor rests on division of mind, 
 and how division of mind depends on the unity of 
 a presiding mind, supreme over all the details. Thus 
 it was with these evangelists. Four they were, four 
 very unlike men, four with tastes and habits of 
 thinking wide apart. And yet they were one. Be- 
 neath their active consciousness lay the secret unity 
 of unconsciousness, known only to the Holy Ghost, 
 and controlled by him in fulfillment of his purpose. 
 Instance the two texts we propose to discuss. One- 
 third of a century, perhaps more, lay between the 
 times when they were written. The intervening 
 period was violent, revolutionary, and destructive. 
 A scattered nation, an extinct hierarchy, the ashes 
 of Jerusalem and her temple, separated the era of 
 St. Luke from that of St. John. Very different
 
 342 CHRIST AND 11IS WORK. 
 
 also were the two writers. St. Luke had the eye 
 of a scientific observer. Keen perception and calm 
 meditation were singularly blended in his intellect. 
 He saw things twice once without, then within 
 analyzed his impressions, estimated his facts, after 
 poising them, by the principles they contained, and 
 gave nothing to his pen which had not been accu- 
 rately considered. On the other hand, St. John was 
 the most instinctive of thinkers. The inner eye in 
 him was large and lustrous. Had he not lain on 
 the bosom of Jesus, and heard the throb of eternity 
 in the beatings of his heart ? And how else could 
 he think save in rapt contemplation, his faculties 
 forgetting their distinctions, and cooperating in rare 
 oneness under the mastery of that sublime theme 
 which was as habitual to his thoughts as breath to 
 the lungs? Despite of this dissimilarity, St. Luke 
 and St. John afford us a unitary view of Christ's 
 work. Picture it to yourselves: Yonder in the 
 temple is the little boy. A wonder he is, and yet 
 perfectly simple, natural, appreciable, in his won- 
 derfulness. And there in the upper chamber at 
 Jerusalem is the mature man, some thirty -three 
 years of age, as men reckon years. What is the 
 uppermost idea in the boy's mind? "My Father's 
 business." And what is the opening thought in 
 that prayer which had been reserved as the closing 
 grandeur of his divine ministry? " I have finished 
 the work which thou gavest me to do." The con- 
 sciousness of an infinite work is the same; the ut- 
 terance in the gentle accents of the child and the 
 firm emphasis of the man is essentially the same;
 
 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 343 
 
 so that the circle, which had drawn its unbroken 
 line around his native land, and inclosed in its ma- 
 jestic curve every possible act of beneficent service, 
 closes its line at the point whence it started. No- 
 tice 
 
 I. Christ's early consciousness of his divine work. 
 
 The story, as narrated by St. Luke with such 
 touching simplicity, need not be repeated. Like a 
 marvelous apparition, he is found in the temple, 
 " sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing 
 them, and asking them questions." Long after- 
 ward the people "were astonished at his doctrine," 
 but even now " all that heard him \vere astonished 
 at his understanding and answers." Our first 
 glimpse of him is as a learner, and the impression 
 he makes is remarkable. Observe, however, it is 
 not in contact with the learned doctors, but in con- 
 nection with his mother, that the depth of his wis- 
 dom is most apparent. Nothing that he said to the 
 doctors is reported. Yet he could hardly have 
 spoken any thing to them so wonderful as the 
 words addressed to his mother. The surprise of 
 Mary, that he should have lingered behind in the 
 temple, contrasts strikingly enough with his half- 
 concealed astonishment that she should not under- 
 stand the reason of his conduct. Did you not know 
 " that I must be about my Father's business?" To 
 realize our true relation to God as our Father is al- 
 ways, under all circumstances, the supreme act of 
 human intelligence; and this the holy child Jesus 
 evinces in the reply to his earthly mother. There 
 in that famous hall, there in the presence of priests
 
 344 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 
 
 and teachers, he will let her know gently and 
 earnestly what his true Sonship is, and what his 
 "business "in the world. Who taught him that? 
 How knew he it? The order of Nature is reversed 
 the child teaches the mother. The order of Nat- 
 ure is reversed again elderly men, life-long stu- 
 dents, celebrated instructors, the Hillels, the Sim- 
 eons, the Gamaliels, of the day, are " astonished," 
 and the child-pupil is calm, meek, unamazed. The 
 order of Nature reversed, did we say? Rather let 
 us say, an expansion of Nature in that Temple of 
 Transfiguration. Was Nature ever so natural, so 
 beautiful, so resplendent, in the stage of childhood? 
 Many scores of times has genius painted and sculpt- 
 ured childhood. Oftener still has imagination sig- 
 nalized its power by giving its image in poetry 
 and prose. Fiction has delighted in its exquisite 
 ideal. Yet here in the third Gospel is the solitary 
 picture, once sketched, never anticipated by a prec- 
 edent, never followed by an imitation. 
 
 It is worthy of the closest study. No human in- 
 vention has ever been competent to create such an 
 idea, such a form, such a scene. At an age when 
 boyhood is fully open to all the accesses of the ma- 
 terial universe; at an age when it is the creature of 
 fresh and eager senses, and lives only or chiefly in 
 the stir of the blood and the flush of sensation; at 
 an age which, if it has thoughts of God, it catches 
 them as soft gleams from maternal eyes, or has them 
 throbbing in its pulses while asleep and dreaming 
 on the maternal breast; at this age, when even the 
 most exceptional boyhood, though favored with
 
 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 345 
 
 spiritual influence, never associates it with God as 
 the " business " of life, we find the boy Jesus giving 
 utterance to the sublime consciousness of a divine 
 Sonship and a divine duty. Yet, if we recall the 
 Annunciation of Gabriel to the Elect Virgin, and 
 the language of Simeon and Anna, instead of start- 
 ling us, it is thoroughly congruous with what we 
 have been taught to expect. Too many wonders 
 are here in close and bright array for any one to as- 
 sume preeminence of augustness. When we look 
 at the nightly heavens, radiant from the dim line 
 of the horizon to the splendor of the zenith, it is the 
 oneness of the magnificent scenery that makes the 
 thought of God so welcome and so powerful. We 
 see it all, and it satisfies the imagination. The 
 wholeness is the grandeur. Precisely in this way 
 a devout mind is affected in contemplating the life 
 of the Lord Jesus. Childhood, youth, and mature 
 age; sorrow and joy; silence and speech; home and 
 homelessness; love and hatred; the friendship that 
 honored and the betrayal that cruelly wronged him; 
 his birth and death what a mysterious force of af- 
 finity binds them together! A typical example of 
 this is presented in the incident connected with the 
 text. Had " the child Jesus tarried behind in Jeru- 
 salem?" The act is prophetic. Years hence he 
 will have to detach himself from his mother, and 
 the quiet associations of Nazareth, that he may re- 
 appear in that same temple, and assert its sanctity 
 as the house of his Father. Had his mother sought 
 him " sorrowing? " Twenty years subsequent to 
 this occurrence she left her home "sorrowing," 
 15*
 
 346 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 
 
 hastened to him after his final rupture with the 
 Pharisees, and, on reaching the scene of his minis- 
 try, desired an interview with him. But his words 
 were, "Who are my mother and my brethren?" 
 Each time, yea, many a time besides, Simeon's dec- 
 laration came true: "A sword shall pierce through 
 thy own soul also." Even in the outset of his ca- 
 reer, did not his loving and " sorrowing " mother 
 learn the same lesson at the wedding in Cana? 
 The place, the circumstances, the action, the words, 
 of "the child Jesus" on the occasion in the temple 
 were not only prophetic, but symbolic of his destiny. 
 " I must; " " Father; " " business," or " work "how 
 frequently was this first utterance of his repeated! 
 
 Let us be careful, however, that we do not mis- 
 understand this matter. " The child Jesus " was a 
 real child a divine child, indeed and yet thor- 
 oughly human, and all the more so because divine. 
 It was this sense of the human in him that spoke 
 the great words of the text. So far from denying 
 the motherhood of the Virgin Mary, he admits and 
 honors it to the full, and his surprise is that his 
 earthly mother fails to recognize his heavenly Fa- 
 ther. Hence, the unqualified admission of his child- 
 hood as to its nature and limitations must be felt 
 before the profound wisdom of his language can be 
 appreciated. It is not, then, the consciousness of a 
 child that speaks, but the consciousness of " the child 
 Jesus." St. Luke is careful to guard this point. 
 Mistakes here were not only possible, but very 
 probable, as we see in the apocryphal gospels; and, 
 therefore, the wise evangelist informs us that " Je-
 
 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 347 
 
 sus increased in wisdom and stature," no distinction 
 being allowed between his conformity to physical 
 laws and to intellectual laws. Such a conscious- 
 ness, though existing under the conditions of child- 
 hood, was entirely adequate to express the thought 
 and feeling contained in the text. The firmament 
 could not be reflected in the ocean unless it were 
 pictured in a drop of dew, for the ocean is only an 
 immense globule of water. The consciousness of Je- 
 sus as a child was perfect as the consciousness of one 
 only twelve years of age, and accordingly just as 
 perfect for that period of life in him as it was when 
 he entered on his public ministry. Here in this 
 small room a tiny lamp is burning; yonder in that 
 hall a large lamp is blazing; the degree of illumi- 
 nation varies, and yet in both instances there is 
 light sufficient. The tiny lamp does its work just 
 as well, and answers its purpose just as completely, 
 as the large lamp. So with Christ's consciousness 
 as a child. Time, meditation, experience, all the 
 various constituents of human growth, would en- 
 large and intensify that consciousness because they 
 would expand and deepen his human nature. But 
 these means of development would add nothing, 
 and could add nothing, to the fact of the conscious- 
 ness itself, nor by any accretion vary the essential 
 quality of the consciousness peculiar to him as the 
 Son of God. Nothing that he ever said was more 
 like him than the words, " Wist ye not that I must 
 be about my Father's business?" Observe 
 
 II. Eighteen years followed of preparation for his di- 
 vine work.
 
 348 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 
 
 Over these years a veil of obscurity is drawn. 
 Beyond the facts that he lived at Nazareth, was 
 " subject " unto his parents, "increased in wisdom 
 and stature, and in favor with God and man," 
 wrought at the trade of a carpenter, and attended 
 the synagogue on Sabbath, we know nothing. 
 "Great is the mystery of godliness;" and it was 
 fit and proper, suited to the laws of the human in- 
 tellect and to the conditions of Christ's own develop- 
 ment, that " God manifest in the flesh " should not 
 make a sudden and premature display of his glory. 
 On Christ's account as Son of man, on man's account 
 as a fallen and imperfect being who must be put in 
 a position to learn before he can be instructed, this 
 period of solitude was ordained. Had not Christ 
 been more than a man, it is quite probable that we 
 should have had his continuous history. A mere 
 teacher, exemplar, benefactor, could hardly have 
 made his position tenable in the absence of a con- 
 tinuously open career. For us likewise this seclu- 
 sion was necessary. We have in our souls a sense 
 of solitude, a deep and mighty sense of isolation and 
 loneliness, and it has to be educated by Providence 
 and the Holy Spirit to fulfill its high purpose. To 
 be "made like unto his brethren," Christ's biogra- 
 phy for these eighteen 3 r ears was written on his 
 heart alone. Aside from this, who can prize the 
 worth or realize the beauty of another's character 
 unless there be some hidden ness? If facts teach, 
 hints and suggestions quicken and excite; yea, 
 they often inspire the mind's best efforts, and lead 
 to its grandest achievements. Now, as it respects
 
 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 349 
 
 this season of Christ's obscurity, how very happily 
 has inspiration consulted the profound needs of our 
 mental nature! The darkness is not unrelieved. 
 Gleams of light direct our thoughts. " Hail, holy 
 Light, offspring of Heaven first-born, . . . bright 
 effluence of bright essence increate!" for by it we 
 see Jesus submitting to the terms of earthly exist- 
 ence, taking on himself in advance the burdens and 
 sorrows of human kind, dignifying common toil, 
 sanctifying the home of humble life, and illustrating 
 in his own history the content and qniet satisfac- 
 tions of an honest and cheerful poverty. Surely, 
 among the many lessons he came to teach the world, 
 this was not the least of those so much needed. 
 
 This period of eighteen years was a period of 
 constant and diligent preparation for his great work. 
 The wise thinker must precede the wise worker 
 this is Nature's law, and Providence sees to its stern 
 enforcement. Experience is worth little in active 
 life if no basis has been previously laid; and the 
 knowledge of the world, and of the world's affairs, 
 especially the knowledge of human nature, is piece- 
 meal and fragmentary where one has not studied his 
 own soul in privacy the supreme blessing of youth 
 and early manhood. Christ was in no haste to be- 
 gin his public ministry. For thousands of years 
 he had delayed his incarnation by waiting for "the 
 fullness of time," and now he would repeat that 
 same principle of his divine economy, and gather 
 "the fullness" into his humanity before he mani- 
 fested his glory. How much of the work afterward 
 done in Jerusalem and Galilee was virtually accom-
 
 350 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 
 
 plished iu the retirement of Nazareth it is easy to 
 conjecture. In every parable, in every miracle, in 
 every discussion with wily Pharisees, every time he 
 was tested by casuistical questions, whenever he had 
 to confront danger and face imminent peril, he was 
 not only beforehand with the occasion, but before- 
 hand with himself; every nerve trained, every mus- 
 cle obedient, every faculty disciplined; so that he 
 was incapable of irritation, and of spasmodic im- 
 pulse, and of sudden surprise, and never other than 
 ready for whatever might need his sympathy or de- 
 serve his rebuke. The " fullness of time " was in 
 all his hours, and with it the " fullness " of wisdom, 
 love, power, and majesty. 
 
 It is with this period we connect his culture. It 
 was self-culture in an eminent degree. Of educa- 
 tion, in the rabbinical sense of the term, he had lit- 
 tle or none. Likely enough he may have attended 
 the school of the synagogue, but he was never a 
 pupil of the rabbis. No doubt his mother taught 
 his boyhood. One accustomed to analyze thought 
 can easily detect the unmistakable impress of wom- 
 anly mind, both in the contents of his ideas and the 
 peculiar mode of their expression. That depth of 
 sentiment lying beneath every principle he unfolded 
 was due to his mother, and could not have been ac- 
 quired, the natural laws of mind being assumed as 
 dominant, except in very early life, and under cir- 
 cumstances of unusual impressionableness. Next 
 to maternal influence, we trace the effect of Moses, 
 David, and Isaiah, on his intellect. In the culture 
 of his profound sense of law that realization of
 
 CHRIST AND llIS WORK. 351 
 
 law which is infinitely higher than mere deference 
 to rules, and which produces habits of thinking, 
 feeling, acting, even when apparently most sponta- 
 neous, by the secret virtue of obedience to lofty 
 conceptions Christ was evidently the pupil of Mo- 
 ses. His very heart was closely akin to the great 
 lawgiver. Imagine with what personal emphasis 
 he uttered the words, " Had ye believed Moses, ye 
 would have believed me, for he wrote of me." In 
 fact, the main controversy of his life was on the dis- 
 honor of Moses by the oral law. If he vindicated 
 the Sabbath against superstitious observance, if he 
 reclaimed for marriage its original sanctity, if he 
 protected family relationships against the corban 
 in brief, wherever he touched the sordid, hypocrit- 
 ical, vindictive spirit of the ruling portion of the 
 Pharisaic sect, it was in defense of Moses, whose 
 seat these fanatics had usurped, and under cover of 
 whose authority their mad zealotry was driving the 
 nation into the abyss of ruin. 
 
 Like his ancestor David, he loved Nature, and de- 
 lighted in its communion. This was a marked trait 
 in his character. If it emerged in his intellect, and 
 through it in his parables and discourses, it was be- 
 cause of its deeper hold upon his heart. He did 
 not like cities. The freedom, the simplicity, the 
 buoyancy of rural life, were ever welcome to him, 
 and, like all reflective minds, he courted the com- 
 panionship of the fields, the mountain, the flower- 
 ing meadow, the terraced hillsides, the orchards of 
 the olive, and the winding aisles of the graceful 
 palms. Far more than Solomon, or any Jew of a
 
 352 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 
 
 later day, he reproduced and perfected David's mode 
 of regarding the physical universe, looking on it 
 as a transparency, through which the infinite glory 
 shone in the gorgeousness of the day and the brill- 
 iancy of the night. Poetry had always found its 
 emblems here, but the psalmist saw in these things 
 the ordained symbols, far more expressive than fig- 
 urative signs, of truths which addressed sentiments 
 in man other than those belonging to the imagina- 
 tion and its distinct order of emotions. Christ car- 
 ried this habit of viewing Nature, and of presenting 
 its illustrations in parables, much beyond David. 
 Yet David, in this, was one of his teachers. And 
 how favorable was Nazareth for this form of self- 
 development! The hill, rising between four and 
 five hundred feet in the rear of the town, afforded 
 u view of a landscape as wonderful in extent as in 
 the diversity and interest of its objects. Toward 
 the west, some twenty miles distant, Carmel lifted 
 its wooded head over the white sands of the Medi- 
 terranean shore. Northward were the uplands of 
 Galilee. Hill rose above hill, mountain over mount- 
 ain, till Hermon, ten thousand feet above the sea- 
 level, bounded the magnificent panorama with its 
 crowning sublimity of snow. On the east, Tabor 
 was visible, with its summit of oak and terebinth. 
 The famous Plain of Esdraelon lay southward, and 
 beyond it the broken surface of Samaria. Safed, 
 " the city set upon a hill," at an elevation of nearly 
 three thousand feet, was within reach of the eye. 
 Great roads, extending in various directions over 
 the country, were the highways of caravans and
 
 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 353 
 
 the busy thoroughfares of a swarming population. 
 Greeks, Romans, Phenicians, Arabians, Samaritans, 
 Jews, were in daily transit from point to point 
 where trade had concentrated. Yet, with all this 
 activity of life near by, Nazareth was sheltered 
 within its inclosure of hills, as a cove safe from a 
 stormy sea. Here it was, then, that Christ's human 
 soul grew into fuller light and larger freedom un- 
 der the quickenings of King David's more kingly 
 Psalms. But, at the same time, his own conscious- 
 ness gave him an insight into their meanings the 
 royal psalmist never saw. Therein, too, he saw 
 himself revealed as none but an inspired poet, and 
 he a monarch, could portray him. The inmost sen- 
 timent of his nature as Son of man, which held in 
 itself alone the keenest capacity of suffering in its 
 relations to his family and countrymen, was found 
 only in these Psalms; and what an infinite import 
 the contact of his own mind gave to them! 
 
 Arid was he not to be a suffering Messiah; "de- 
 spised and rejected of men;" to be " stricken, smit- 
 ten of God, and afflicted; " to be " a man of sorrows, 
 and acquainted with grief; " to be led " as a lamb to 
 the slaughter;" to be " bruised " and " put to grief," 
 and to make his "grave with the wicked and with 
 the rich in his death?" Deeper than all else in his 
 soul lay that instinct of sorrow, by means of which 
 he was to render the highest obedience to law, and 
 through it to infinite justice. Who was the prophet 
 of this atoning grief, of its multiplied agony, of its 
 sacrificial death, but Isaiah ? Think of the prophet's 
 large and generous views, of his glowing sympathy
 
 354 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 
 
 with the Gentiles, of his quick and tender humanity, 
 of his indignation at wrong, of his exposure of the 
 sins and crimes of his nation, of his sublimity, of 
 the easy access of pathos to his patriotic heart, and 
 you can form some conception of how Isaiah must 
 have impressed the opening mind of Christ. Re- 
 turning to Nazareth after the opening of his minis- 
 try, how natural it was that he should preach to his 
 townsmen from the passage Isaiah Ixi., and declare 
 to them the fulfillment that day, in that synagogue, 
 in their presence, of those memorable words uttered 
 seven hundred years before! 
 
 Most of all, during these eighteen years, was the 
 growth of Christ's consciousness enlarged and in- 
 tensified by communion with his Father. No incite- 
 ment needed he for contemplation, for prayer and 
 praise, for the awe solemnized by grandeur, and for 
 the holy joy kindled by the glories of infinite love. 
 These were in him ever. Yet he was " made under 
 the law " the law requiring growth by experience 
 the law of " perfect through suffering." " Holy, 
 harmless, and undefiled," he needed no grace to 
 conquer sin or fortify him against evil propensities. 
 Such a nature, however, as his was far less at home 
 in this world than we are. The contrast between 
 him and the condition in which he placed himself 
 amid poverty, adverse criticism, false views of his 
 motives and purposes, and whatsoever else was in- 
 cluded in " the form of a servant," was infinitely 
 greater than any contrariety we know in our exist- 
 ence, or can imagine. To adjust himself to the state 
 of things about him was a constant and grievous
 
 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 355 
 
 trial not a trial in the sense of probation, nor a 
 trial that involved the risk of failure, but one of that 
 higher discipline which consisted in adapting him- 
 self to the work he had undertaken. It was because 
 he was perfect, " separate from sinners, and made 
 higher than the heavens," that such a peculiar train- 
 ing of himself was required. Nor was it more nec- 
 essary at any period of his life than in those years 
 of seclusion. Impulses, natural and innocent, had 
 to be kept in check. His goodness had to be veiled. 
 A young villager, the sole possessor of an infinite 
 secret, he had to be reticent. The virtues in him, 
 superior incomparably to any religious excellence 
 in Nazareth, could make no manifestation proper to 
 his divinity. Instincts, high and holy instincts, had 
 to be restrained. Too early a bloom in that Asiatic 
 spring might have invited the frost of blight and 
 death. Self-denial, such as only a perfect man could 
 practice, nay, such as only the Son of man could ex- 
 ercise, was a constant and urgent duty. For all 
 these varied tasks, for submission to daily toil in 
 the workshop, for the long concealment of his self- 
 recognition as the Son of God, what communion 
 with his Father was needed! With whom else was 
 the fellowship of his soul possible? Only one out- 
 let to his pent-up heart existed intercourse with 
 his Father. Consider 
 
 III. The spirit of Christ's work. 
 
 It was a spirit of profound reverence for law. 
 Not only did he evince this with regard to the law 
 of eternal right, but toward every form of law with 
 which his position brought him in contact." John
 
 356 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 
 
 the Baptist had an insight into the holiness of 
 Christ when, in remonstrance against baptizing 
 him, he said, "I have need to be baptized of thee; 
 and com.est thou to me?" But the Lord Jesus will 
 take his place among the multitude John is bap- 
 tizing, conform to the rite of a preparatory econ- 
 omy, and so "fulfill all righteousness." Nothing 
 could be as to outward aspect more remote from 
 his baptism in the Jordan than his payment of the 
 tax by the coin from a fish. Here as before, " suf- 
 fer it to be so." The same condescension is exhib- 
 ited; and while claiming immunity from the tem- 
 ple-tax on the ground of his divine Sonship, he 
 instructs St. Peter to pay the demand; yet, at the 
 instant, he works a miracle to show that, while he 
 obeys law, he is Lord over all laws. 
 
 Sovereignty over law and submission to law are two 
 facts that Christ never allowed to be separated in 
 his personal history. Men must have in him a per- 
 son to adore as well as an example to imitate. Dis- 
 join the imitation from the adoration, take the for- 
 mer alone, admit its perfect beauty, and then tell 
 us what is there in it peculiar as to the principle 
 involved. To be of any avail, imitation must rest 
 on authority. This was Christ's method, and ac- 
 cordingly he conjoined in his acts sovereignty and 
 submission. 
 
 Take two illustrations. Notice his obedience to 
 the laws of the human body. He was never sick, 
 never an invalid, never so much exhausted that food 
 and rest did not promptly restore his strength. 
 Probably he was the healthiest man that ever lived.
 
 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 357 
 
 Three years of extraordinary labor, three years of 
 most exhaustive duties, three years during which 
 he combined the offices of Healer, Teacher, Preach- 
 er, Benefactor, Founder and Administrator of a 
 new economy of providence and grace, left him 
 unimpaired, so that he came to the last night in the 
 garden fresh and strong. Hours of the night could 
 be spent in prayer with no loss of energy for the 
 next day's tasks. This was due, we apprehend, to 
 the wisdom and fidelity with which he obeyed the 
 laws of physical manhood. Remarkable as was the 
 care of his body, how the wonder increases when 
 we see that he could at any moment set aside the 
 laws of the body, vanish from a turbulent crowd, 
 or tread the thin crests of a billowy sea! Here, as 
 subjecting himself to physical laws in their closest 
 connection with our nature, he permits no interest 
 of benevolence, no pressure of sympathy, to lessen 
 his working force. And here, in the same domain 
 of life, he suspends those laws when occasion de- 
 mands. Subject and Sovereign! In the one he 
 will be imitated, in the other adored. 
 
 Turn from this to his obedience of the law of 
 prudence in his public ministry. There was danger, 
 very serious danger, that others would bring on a 
 conflict between him and the Roman government. 
 Friends were often injudicious. His own family 
 tried to press him into an open and formal inaugu- 
 ration of his Messiahship. On the other hand, his 
 enemies, with adroit malignity, sought to put him 
 iu an attitude of hostility to the political authority. 
 Rome never had so turbulent a race as the Jews to
 
 358 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 
 
 govern, and in Christ's day Rome's suspicions were 
 more easily aroused than at any previous time. 
 Christ, at every step, was liable to be mistaken for 
 an insurrectionist. Fortunately enough, the "Sica- 
 rii" had not yet been introduced from Rome, the 
 reign of the dagger had not begun, and " blood- 
 money," common so soon afterward, was not now 
 known. Nevertheless, Jerusalem was in the pre- 
 lude to this condition, and already the air was trem- 
 ulous with the coming tempest. Under such cir- 
 cumstances, how acutely perplexing was Christ's 
 position! Not a miracle could be wrought, not a 
 parable spoken, not a kindness shown to a poor out- 
 cast, not a quotation drawn from the Jewish Script- 
 ures, not a visit made to the temple, not a Sabbath 
 passed in a synagogue, not a benediction pronounced 
 on little children, not a tear shed over the grave of 
 a friend, that was not misunderstood, perverted, 
 turned against him. Can it surprise you that he so 
 often imposed secrecy on the beneficiaries of his 
 mercy, laid gratitude under the stern injunction of 
 silence, and even sealed the lips of the apostles, his 
 chosen witnesses? Had the glory of the transfigu- 
 ration to be remanded to the night, out of whose 
 bosom it had flashed in unwonted splendor? Why 
 make the first clear announcement of his Messiah- 
 ship to a fallen woman, and she a Samaritan? The 
 answer to all such questions is found in the fact that 
 Christ had to observe the utmost prudence while 
 his work was unfinished. Men need an example 
 like this of strict conformity to the law of prudence. 
 The want of prudence is the next evil to the want
 
 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 
 
 of conscience, and it became Him who was made 
 "under" this "law" to set us an example of the 
 blessedness abiding in that obedience which renders 
 it honor. But here too he is a sovereign. When the 
 hour comes to withdraw self-protection, he resigns 
 himself to his enemies. " I lay down my life." "No 
 man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of my- 
 self." So that in this instance, as before, we have 
 an exemplar to. follow, and the eternal Son of God 
 to worship. 
 
 Furthermore, the spirit of his work was the spirit 
 of infinite love. It was not a love that grew out of 
 tastes and imaginative emotions. It was not a love 
 that consulted fluctuating interests and momentary 
 gratifications. It was not a love that exists because 
 of reciprocation, for " his own received him not." 
 Not an element of luxury, of romance, of self-regard, 
 such as we find so generally in human affection, be- 
 longed to it. Son of man was he, and the love was 
 therefore tenderly human. Son of God in an exclu- 
 sive sense was he, and hence the love was divine. 
 The two natures, although perfectly distinct, were 
 as perfectly united; and they formed one Person, 
 who, out of his infinite fullness, the fullness that 
 " filleth all in all," gave complete expression to the 
 interblended attributes of humanity and divinity 
 not only in wisdom and power, but preeminently 
 in love. The grandeur of that love was in its self- 
 origination, its self-inspiration, its self- direction. 
 It knew no will but the Father's will. It desired 
 no glory save the Father's glory. Toward man it 
 sought his earthly welfare in harmony with provi-
 
 360 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 
 
 dential laws, while securing his spiritual and eternal 
 well-being in reconciliation with God and conform- 
 ity to his character. 
 
 Intelligent love how rare it is in its higher forms! 
 Christ was wise in every act of affection. Martha 
 and Mary, dear to him as friends, sent for him when 
 Lazarus was ill, but he loved them too much to grat- 
 ify their longing for his presence. The tenderness 
 was postponed till it could become a miracle. Dis- 
 criminating love how seldom seen! Christ showed 
 his regard for St. Peter and St. John very differ- 
 ently. So, too, he touched the hearts of the two 
 publicans, Matthew and Zaccheus, in unlike ways. 
 But in every case his sympathy assumed the ex- 
 pression adapted to the object. Teaching love, that 
 labors to instruct the ignorant, and binds itself down 
 to the wearisome monotony of helping the dull, the 
 obtuse, the froward are not men agreed that it is 
 beautiful? Christ's immediate pupils, after three 
 years' instruction, forsook him and fled. Were the 
 Teacher's love and faithfulness of no avail? If the 
 pupils failed to understand, they failed not to re- 
 member, and, in a short time, out of those memories 
 came Christianity, destined to reproduce for myriads 
 the words and images of the Divine Master. Mis- 
 represented love does it not find its patience sorely 
 taxed ? To have its motives impugned, its integrity 
 slandered, its generosity vilified, its patriotism stig- 
 matized as treachery, its philanthropy hated as Sa- 
 tanic all these Christ had to bear. Despite of in- 
 gratitude, annoyance, vexation, persecution, his acts 
 of benevolence surpassed detail; so that frequently
 
 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 361 
 
 we have no record except in language like this: 
 " He healed many that were sick of divers diseases, 
 and cast out many devils." Again, it was atoning 
 love. If Christ's love differed from all other love in 
 the variety and extent of its earthly offices, so that, 
 while being human, it was human in an extraordi- 
 nary degree, we must seek the cause and reason of 
 this in something beyond the merely human. There 
 is no foundation in our ordinary nature for such a 
 superstructure as the Gospels present of the teach- 
 ings, deeds, and self-denial of the Lord Jesus. View 
 him as only a man, and you cannot account for his 
 manhood. He was " meek and lowly." Meekness 
 and lowliness are human; Christ's meekness and 
 lowliness were human; but the meekness of his 
 character, and the lowliness of his outward condi- 
 tion, as the sign of his lowly spirit, were impossible 
 on any known laws of earthly combination. Men 
 have been poor, but not as Christ was poor. When 
 he gave the measure of his poverty, he did not com- 
 pare it with that of Lazarus at Dives's gate: " Foxes 
 have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but 
 the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." 
 Moreover, poverty and meekness are not natural 
 allies. Still less are they able to say, " Learn of 
 me." Moses was the meekest of men, and he gave 
 up Pharaoh's palace and its " pleasures," yet he 
 never taught these virtues to the Israelites because 
 they were traits of his personal character. On the 
 contrary, Jesus made them fundamental to the 
 Christian life. "Blessed are the poor in spirit," 
 opens the beatitudes as the day opens in a low line 
 16
 
 362 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 
 
 of brightness along the horizon. Did Christ teach 
 these qualities as matters of mere law and ethics? 
 Nay; but as qualities personal to himself, and com- 
 municated from himself to his disciples. Most of 
 Christ's ministry consisted in revealing his nature, 
 character, and offices, and he left it to his apostles 
 to preach the Christianity which was in him before 
 it assumed form in doctrines, duties, and sacraments. 
 And hence, we urge, that Christ's wisdom and good- 
 ness, while thoroughly human, were yet human with 
 a spirit and in a way inexplicable by any facts of 
 mere humanity. He was a man. He was a perfect 
 man. Farther than this, he was the ideal man, not 
 son of a man, but " Son of man," humanity beget- 
 ting him (so to speak) in her ancient womb as the 
 first and last product of her supreme capacity. As 
 such, he was a man of love. But the man, the per- 
 fect man, the ideal man, was not the atoning man. 
 The atoning Son of man was the divine man. And 
 so here, as before, we have something to admire and 
 imitate, but infinitely more to honor, to reverence, 
 and to adore. 
 
 Such a love could only consummate its self-denial 
 in self-sacrifice. Eighteen years at Nazareth, three 
 years of public ministry these were his years of 
 self-denial. It is the self-denial which unites the 
 two periods. Otherwise, they have no official rela- 
 tion, no peculiar connection, and, indeed, are con- 
 tradictor} r . Christ's work was mainly done before 
 entering on it publicly; and it was done by that 
 calm, steady, and thorough-going culture which had 
 its root, trunk, branches, foliage, fruit, in patient
 
 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 363 
 
 and persistent self-denial at Nazareth. No word 
 describing a locality has such significance in the 
 New Testament as Nazareth, Calvary excepted. 
 Recall the scene in the orchard of olives on the last 
 night. " Whom seek ye? They answered him, 
 Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he." 
 Recall the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. " Saul, 
 Saul, why persecutest thou me? And I answered, 
 Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am 
 Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest." When 
 he, in his public career, so often " charged them that 
 they should tell no man " who he was, it was Naza- 
 reth and its seclusion over again. Concealment of 
 what is lofty, elevated, glorious; concealment of ma- 
 jestic power, and of those attributes which endow 
 intellect with rarest grace and loveliness, is an ex- 
 ceptional form of self-denial. This is what Jesus 
 of Nazareth practiced in Capernaum and Jerusalem, 
 and never so signally as before Caiaphas, Herod, 
 and Pilate. Yet it was only one of the manifold 
 forms which it assumed. Is not reputation the last 
 thing that men, good and true men, ever think of 
 foregoing? Christ " made himself of no reputa- 
 tion." The friendship, services, devotion of his 
 friends to him, so often mixed with those infirmities 
 which have a certain touch of beautiful weakness in 
 them, Jesus restrained. Neither in his friends nor 
 in himself would he be other than one who had 
 " emptied " himself of the glory belonging to his 
 nature. Immediate success he might have had. 
 The thousands he healed, comforted, and cheered, 
 might have been gathered as a retinue about him.
 
 364 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 
 
 Little children would have flocked in his path and 
 sung the ancient hosannas of Israel in his praise. 
 But these were all denied. The diet of his daily 
 life was the simplest hospitality of very plain peo- 
 ple; and when he would work his two great mira- 
 cles for the benefit of multitudes, a few loaves and 
 fishes were all that could be commanded. Now, 
 these things, taken in themselves, may be viewed 
 by some as commonplace matters; but in Jesus 
 Christ they had an infinite significance. With 
 other men, they are the accidents, or the incidents, 
 of human relations. With him, they were the laws 
 of his being, inward and spiritual forces, expres- 
 sions of his soul, just as words were the utterance 
 of his thoughts, or acts of healing the manifesta- 
 tion of his sympathies. Yet why all this? The 
 self-denial is unique. Nothing like it was ever seen 
 before. What can it mean? On its own ground, 
 and for its own sake, it cannot be justified. In its 
 mere physical results of diseases healed, and tem- 
 poral blessings bestowed, it cannot be vindicated. 
 As an example only,, the means employed are out 
 of all proportion to the apparent end. Was the 
 alabaster-box of a precious life to be at last rudely 
 broken, its contents poured on the ground, and its 
 fragrance scattered to the winds of the desert and 
 the sea? 
 
 Thanks to God, there was no "waste!" The 
 wondrous childhood of Jesus, the next eighteen 
 years, the three years following, went forward in 
 oneness of spirit and aim to their ordained consum- 
 mation on the cross. Whv ho had humbled him-
 
 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 365 
 
 self, and taken the form of a servant; why he had 
 repeated so far as possible the original act of humil- 
 iation, and descended to circumstances of poverty, 
 homelessness, isolation, and dependence; why he 
 was man in such a true sense, and yet in a sense so 
 exceptional; why he dwelt apart from the world in 
 a loneliness experienced by no other, the solitude 
 broken by none save the Father, but, notwithstand- 
 ing, touched life at every point this is all plain 
 enough when we see him accept the cross, on which, 
 " by the grace of God," he " should taste death for 
 every man." In the immortal issues of that sacri- 
 ficial altar self-denial, such as he had exhibited in 
 manifoldness of shape, and in life-long intensity of 
 degree, has its explanation and supreme warrant in 
 the final act of self-sacrifice. The human was there 
 to suffer visibly and palpably, and likewise intellect- 
 ually and morally, his body nailed to the cross, his 
 "soul an offering for sin." The Godhead was there 
 to impart dignity and merit by its infinitude, so 
 that the sacrifice should be as divinely glorious as 
 it was humanly perfect. -Various terms present the 
 relations and aspects of Christ's death. Not one 
 of them can be spared. Whether, then, it is spoken 
 of as vicarious, expiatory, propitiatory, or in what- 
 ever images and illustrations, make sure for your- 
 selves of this one paramount idea, that the death 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of man, Son of God, 
 was a death of reconciliation the reconciliation of 
 God to man, and of man to God. " Through the 
 eternal Spirit" he " ottered himself without spot to 
 God." The ottering was sacrificial in every thing
 
 366 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 
 
 to which the word "sacrifice" can be applied. It 
 was perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Justice 
 could ask no more than he rendered to its majestic 
 claims, and the transcendent epoch in the annals of 
 its sovereignty occurred when he died on the cross. 
 Law had never heheld its image so mirrored in 
 beauty, so irradiated in truth, so magnified in holi- 
 ness. Grace had now free course, and its freedom 
 was the possible freedom of Adam's enslaved race. 
 It could institute a new scheme of Providence. Its 
 reign was proclaimed universal. Angels were ar- 
 rayed in its service, and commissioned to be " min- 
 istering spirits " to the " heirs of salvation." All 
 things in heaven and on earth were made one. Ris- 
 ing with instant swiftness from sea and land, the 
 "great cloud of witnesses" filled the ample spaces 
 of the firmament, and beyond the darkening winds 
 lay in their moveless folds over a redeemed world. 
 Side by side in the administrations of love should 
 henceforth be found the cottages " where poor men 
 dwell," and the sainthood in " Caesar's household; " 
 side by side the lowly huts of sorrow and the pal- 
 aces of joy and renown; side by side the dynasties 
 of the world's worthiest and best, though here un- 
 recognized; and the thrones, principalities, domin- 
 ions of heavenly hierarchies, enriched in their first 
 estate, and made happier by accessions of glory from 
 the coronation splendors of Him who had returned 
 as their Head and Lord. 
 
 Blessed be God for such a Christ! for a Christ 
 who " learned obedience," that we might not only 
 understand the law as transferred from " tables of
 
 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 367 
 
 stone " to his heart, but see how to obey by the light 
 of his divine example ! for a Christ whose right- 
 eousness is reckoned as ours when we believe and 
 enter thereby into the fellowship of his suiferings 
 and death ! for a Christ whose perfection of merit 
 covers our infirmities no less than our sins, redeems 
 us from the insignificance and wretchedness which 
 plunge us deeper into the abysses of evil, and com- 
 pletes the motives to holiness by making us "joint- 
 heirs " with him in the glories of his kingdom ! Only 
 through him have we the true sense of sin, so much 
 more profound and self- revealing than the super- 
 ficial sense of sins. Evil has ingrained itself no- 
 where in our nature so thoroughly as in the capacity 
 to believe, and hence unbelief is the stronghold of 
 depravity. Christ taught the faith of the heart, and 
 thereby secured its ascendency among the principles 
 of human action. The heart had lost its rightful 
 place in man. Conscience still uttered its witness, 
 though faint, in behalf of truth and goodness; but 
 the heart had been dethroned from its seat, its influ- 
 ence sacrificed to the intellect of the senses, and its 
 authority crushed beneath the tyranny of Satan. 
 Christ restored the heart's supremacy. Follow his 
 footsteps day by day, and whither is he treading? 
 Always in some pathway leading to human affec- 
 tion. One hour he is gaining access to a father's 
 heart, as in the instance of the ruler (Matt. ix. 18); 
 then to a mother's heart, as in the cases of the 
 widow of N"ain and the Syrophenician woman; 
 again to a sister's heart, as in the example of the 
 bereaved Martha and Marv; and oftentimes to
 
 368 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 
 
 hearts barred against society, as Levi's and Zac- 
 cheus's, or to those in whom it lay buried beneath 
 the ashes of despair outcasts, lepers, demoniacs to 
 whom gentle tones and tender acts were alien and 
 forgotten things. In all these beneficent deeds he 
 was seeking the soul of the sinner. Bread from 
 heaven was in those Galilean baskets that were 
 .filled on the mountain-side when the multitudes 
 feasted on his bounty; Bread from Galilean bas- 
 kets still supplies the world. The spiritual Physi- 
 cian, the spiritual Benefactor and Friend, appeared 
 in the earthly Healer and Helper. So that we never 
 hear such words as Behold the Philanthropist, the Hu- 
 manitarian, the Reformer! but those other and infi- 
 nitely greater words, ''Behold the Lamb of God, which 
 taketh away the sin of the world!" 
 
 Thus it is that we are " complete in him." Late 
 in life, St. Paul's absorbing idea was the " plenitude " 
 in Christ, Image of the Invisible God, First-born of 
 creation, eternal Word, only Potentate, only Medi- 
 ator. Though not obscured in the earlier Epistles 
 to the Corinthians and Romans, it is set forth in the 
 Epistles to the Philippians and Ephesians in a man- 
 ner signally resplendent. Nor is this .surprising. 
 A great river like the Amazon, as it approaches its 
 mouth, feels the strong waves of the ocean pressing 
 up into its channel, and mingling the mighty tide 
 with its own waters. Overhead the sky is changed. 
 No longer in its bosom lie the shadows of forests 
 and mountains, but instead thereof the tranquil 
 heavens reflect their beauty. So it was that the 
 Apostle of the Gentiles, feeling " the powers of the
 
 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 869 
 
 world to come," expanded in the conception and re- 
 alization of Christ's fullness. Natural age is a fore- 
 tokening of death Christian age a prophecy of im- 
 mortality; and how much it was like "Paul the 
 aged" to anticipate the near future in outbursts of 
 rapture! 
 
 Such a Christ! What a dreadful mystery it is 
 that any man should be willing to live and die un- 
 saved by him! It is to the heaven of his presence 
 to which his followers are exalted, but it is to the 
 hell " prepared for the devil and his angels " that 
 his enemies are banished. The everlasting anguish 
 of remorse will be not merely the loss of the soul, 
 but, greater still, the loss of Christ. " Depart from 
 Me!" This, ah! this is the woe of exile! 
 
 Such a Christ ! The idea of human nature, which 
 found its first embodiment in Adam, is now per- 
 fected in the ideal revealed in him. " What lack I 
 yet? " asked the young man. Wealth, virtue, beauty 
 of character these he had; but he lacked Christ. 
 And of what avail were all his possessions? Man- 
 hood now has a value immeasurable. Its capacity 
 to sufier and enjoy has been largely enhanced. Its 
 destiny for good or evil has been vastly augmented. 
 If we view this matter rightly, it is a glorious thing 
 to be a man. Long time the one-hundredth Psalm 
 waited the fulfillment of its joy. Only a few elect 
 spirits entered into the meaning of the words, " It 
 is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves. . . 
 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his 
 courts with praise." Long time men understood 
 not that human nature was a ground of " thanks- 
 16*
 
 370 CHRIST AND HIS WORK. 
 
 giving" and "praise." Alas! many are in our 
 midst who hear no melody in this sublime hymn 
 of gratitude. But wherever Christ Jesus is ac- 
 cepted, loved, and served, there the soul rejoices in 
 the blessedness of humanity, and looks forward ex- 
 ultingly to the day when it shall utter its thankful- 
 ness in the song, " Unto him that loved us, and 
 washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath 
 made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, 
 to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. 
 Amen."
 
 THK HRV. O. P. FITZGERALD, D.D., 
 Of the Pacific Conteience.
 
 XIX. 
 
 THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 BY THE REV. 0. P. FITZGERALD, D.D., 
 
 Editor of the "Christian Advocate." 
 
 "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the 
 kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent taketh 
 it by force." Matt. xi. 12. 
 
 JOHN THE BAPTIST was the agent, under God, of 
 the greatest religious awakening ever known. Let 
 us consider 
 
 I. THE CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF THIS AWAKENING. 
 
 The general conditions were favorable. The nation- 
 al mind was in a state of excited expectancy. The 
 people were looking for the Messiah not the meek 
 and lowly Jesus, but a mighty prince of the line of 
 David, who would unfurl the conquered banner of 
 Israel, lift it aloft, and call her sons to follow it to 
 victory. 
 
 The hour had come, and the man appeared. In 
 those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wil- 
 derness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye, for the king- 
 dom of heaven is at hand. . . . Bring forth fruits meet 
 for repentance. This was the stern and fiery mes- 
 sage of the man of God. It went home to the 
 hearts of the people, and soon was witnessed the 
 sublime spectacle of a whole nation awakened, re- 
 penting, and seeking baptism at his hands. 
 
 (371)
 
 372 THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 The great movement went forward. John, fear- 
 ing not the face of man, preached repentance and 
 restitution to the wicked Herod, and was thrown 
 into prison. He had done his work. No! his work 
 was not fully done, nor his ministry ended, until he 
 had sealed the truth with his blood. His last ser- 
 mon was preached in the tyrant's palace, when his 
 trunkless head, with glazed eyes and lips that were 
 mute, was presented to Herod and his partner in sin, 
 and woke a Sinai of terror in their guilty souls. 
 John's ministry would have been incomplete with- 
 out its tragic ending. I greatly misjudge him if 
 death by martyrdom was not the very thing that 
 suited his heroic nature. John was in every respect 
 adapted to his work. The agent employed by God 
 is adequate to the task in hand, whether it be to 
 nurse a little flock in the wilderness, or to shake a 
 kingdom. There is no provision for doubt or dan- 
 ger of failure in any enterprise sanctioned by the 
 authority and backed by the power of the Highest. 
 The minister of the gospel, fortified and inspired by 
 this conviction, feeling assured that God has called 
 him to do a special work, enters upon it with a se- 
 rene confidence utterly inexplicable to the world. 
 The handful of Protestant missionaries among the 
 hundreds of millions of heathen in the vast Chinese 
 empire are as hopeful of ultimate success as the 
 great lights of the pulpit in the capitals of evangel- 
 ical Christendom. They have the promise of God, 
 and know that the infinite resources of the Al- 
 mighty One guarantee its fulfillment. This is the 
 hiding-place of ministerial power. They who lack
 
 THE GREAT AWAKENING. 373 
 
 
 
 this inwrought persuasion of the divine presence 
 and help become the Jonahs that shirk, the Demas- 
 es that go back, and the Judases that betray. With 
 the divine afflatus upon him, and the word of the 
 Lord as a fire in his bones, John neither doubted 
 nor delayed. 
 
 The people were expectant and receptive. They were 
 looking for the birth of some great event. This 
 is an important fact in this connection. Almost 
 any thing is better than apathy and dull stagna- 
 tion. Where there is no expectation there shall 
 be no achievement. The Jewish people had passed 
 through such a phase of experience. Their relig- 
 ion had lost its vitality. Their national life had 
 been crushed under the iron heel of Rome. They 
 had sunk into the gloom of sullen despair, relieved 
 by an occasional flicker of the dying lamp of their 
 nationality-. Their teachers and guides, the scribes 
 and Pharisees, were corrupt, and the masses of the 
 people were no better than their leaders. A few 
 still read the Scriptures, studied the prophecies, 
 maintained their faith in God, and were looking for 
 the redemption of Israel. But a change had come 
 over the spirit of the people a mighty reaction. 
 The prophecies concerning the Messiah were re- 
 membered and repeated; the patriotism of the na- 
 tion, dormant under the stern and cruel repression 
 of Roman policy, awoke to new life and multi- 
 tudes were looking for some new manifestation of 
 the power of God. The feeling deepened, the ex- 
 citement increased. With some, it was a correct 
 understanding of the Scriptures that kindled expec-
 
 374 THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 tation; with others, doubtless, it was simply sym- 
 pathetic feeling that swept them on with the tide 
 of popular excitement. There is in all communi- 
 ties a large class of persons who float with the cur- 
 rent. Happy is it for them when, as in this instance, 
 the current flows in the right direction ! As men's 
 sympathies so often lead them hellward, why not 
 allow their sympathies to lead them heavenward? 
 Every instinct and susceptibility of human nature 
 may be made to work for, not against, the salva- 
 tion of the soul. When a great movement sets 
 the right way, move with it. Take the flood-tide. 
 Know the day of your visitation, and make the 
 most of it. Do not be afraid of excitement. The 
 excitements of the world draw our loved ones from 
 the altars of the Church into the paths of sin, and 
 down to hell, and it requires a counteracting excite- 
 ment to bring them to Jesus. There is nothing to 
 fear from excitement if God be in it in the power 
 of his truth and the demonstration of the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 The special circumstances were favorable to the con- 
 centration of thought upon the subject of religion. It 
 was a happy inspiration in John that led him to 
 call the people out of the cities and towns into the 
 country. The country is the place for concentrated 
 and earnest thought. The voices of Nature " soothe 
 the throbbing passions into peace," her sights charm 
 and tranquilize the soul, and it is thus made more 
 receptive of truth and grace. When a man begins 
 to think earnestly, he will soon begin to feel deeply. 
 The trouble with many is that they will not think;
 
 THE GREAT AWAKENING. 375 
 
 they smother thought on the solemn and moment- 
 ous questions of religion. The consequence is, that 
 their lives are as purposeless and unstable as their 
 ideas are vague. / thought on my ways, and turned 
 my feet unto thy testimonies, was the testimony of a 
 man who had sounded all the depths of religious 
 experience. Ponder the paths of your feet. Get 
 away from the crowded haunts of men; recover 
 your individuality; " re-collect " yourself, as the old 
 German divines express it. Stop and think now, 
 lest too late you wake to thoughts of despair. 
 
 Under the mighty impulse that stirred their hearts, the 
 people broke through all conventionalities. An earnest 
 man was preaching the kingdom of God with strange 
 boldness and power. Called of God, he had waited 
 for no other credentials, but began at once to pro- 
 claim his message. Here was a new thing under 
 the sun. Like cobwebs before a tornado, conven- 
 tionalities were swept away by the breath of the 
 Lord. Ecclesiastical and social barriers were broken 
 through; temporizing regard for popularity and 
 profit was laid aside. The people pressed into the 
 kingdom of heaven; they took it by the force of an 
 earnestness that could not be resisted. Know ye 
 that the kingdom of heaven can be entered in no 
 other way. But to how many are the petty con- 
 ventionalities of life impassable obstacles in the 
 way of their salvation! The traditions of family 
 prejudice, the dicta of a circle of triflers, the sneer 
 of a skeptic, or the laugh of a fool these bar the 
 way, and nothing but the holy violence of genuine 
 earnestness will be able to break through them.
 
 376 THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 He that loveth mother or father, or houses or lands, 
 more than Me, is not worthy of Me. That is to say, 
 all family ties, all social surroundings, all temporal 
 advantages, must be held in subordination to the 
 claims of God and the paramount interests of the 
 immortal soul. There is no salvation promised or 
 possible to temporizing and compromising. All 
 must be given up for Christ. 
 
 The people, in their earnestness, got ahead of their re- 
 ligious teachers. Their instructors and guides were 
 asleep. They would neither enter the kingdom of 
 heaven, nor permit others to enter in if they could 
 prevent it. It was impossible for a self-seeking, 
 conceited, ambitious hierarchy, to accept the gospel 
 of repentance and restitution. This was substan- 
 tially affirmed of them in the scorching reproach of 
 Jesus: How can ye believe which seek honor one of an- 
 other, and seek not the honor that comethfrom God only ? 
 As much as was in their power they obstructed the 
 way to the kingdom of heaven. So the common 
 people had to push by them or over them and this 
 they did. Even the publicans and harlots pressed 
 into the kingdom of heaven before them. This is 
 the earnestness that succeeds. When the salvation 
 of the soul is at stake, let nothing hinder you, let 
 nobody get in your way. Do not wait to be coaxed, 
 or led, or propped, or lifted by human agency. Lay 
 hold of the hope set before you in the strength of a 
 fixed determination, with reliance upon God, know- 
 ing that the excellency of the power that saves is 
 his. Human agency is not to be despised or re- 
 jected. It pleases God to employ men in saving
 
 THE GREAT AWAKENING. 377 
 
 one another. But, after all, it is not by might, nor 
 by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. The 
 honest, earnest soul will find the kingdom of heaven 
 to such it is always at hand. 
 
 The people, in their earnestness, did not shrink from 
 a little discomfort. They left their pleasant city 
 homes, and went out to hear the great preacher 
 who used such plainness of speech, and who de- 
 manded an obedience so rigid. They did not prize 
 their ease above their salvation. Laziness and lux- 
 ury destroy their thousands. He who prefers to 
 spend the precious hours of the holy Sabbath-day 
 in novel-reading, or to sleep them away in luxurious 
 unconsciousness, rather than undergo the exertion 
 of an hour's serious thought, repels all gracious in- 
 fluence, and forfeits every promise made to the ear- 
 nest seeker after God. He who shrinks from the 
 penitential pain resulting from self-examination 
 and true self-knowledge is far from the kingdom 
 of heaven. The philosophy of the success of camp- 
 meetings, and other special agencies of like charac- 
 ter, may here be found. The very effort necessary 
 to make use of such agencies detaches the people 
 from their settled habits, lifts them out of the ruts 
 into which they had sunk, and prepares them for 
 new departures and better lives. Old truths are in- 
 vested with a fresh interest when presented under 
 new conditions. The crowds that hung upon the 
 lips of John on the sacred banks of the Jordan, un- 
 der the broad, blue sky, amid the capaciousness and 
 freedom of Nature, were affected very differently 
 from what would have been the case had the same
 
 378 THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 truths been spoken amid the cramped convention- 
 alities and traditionary routine of a synagogue in 
 the city. 
 
 John's preaching. That strange, wild man, with 
 his lion heart and tongue of fire, preaching repent- 
 ance and announcing the coming kingdom of heav- 
 en, touched the conscience of the nation, arid there 
 was a mighty stir in that mass of formalism, big- 
 otry, and hypocrisy. There was a national revival 
 of religion on that basis. There is no other basis 
 for a real revival. The preaching that does not 
 reach the conscience falls short of its true aim, 
 which is the conversion of souls. Paul, Peter, and 
 all the apostles, preached to the consciences of their 
 hearers. The sermon that cost Stephen his life, and 
 hastened his ascent to meet his Lord in the heavens, 
 was such an indictment of his audience, such a 
 searching of their evil consciences, that when they 
 heard they were cut to the heart, and by the power 
 of truth were brought to a moral crisis where they 
 must yield to the messenger of God, or silence his 
 fearless voice by murder. Our Lord himself ad- 
 dressed the consciences of his hearers with a direct- 
 ness and pungency that left no room for evasion or 
 escape. Preaching directed to the sensibilities, the 
 imagination, and to the logical faculty, has its place. 
 The moral nature of man is a unit, and every part 
 of it is moved upon by the gospel, and molded, 
 guided, and developed, in the process of salvation. 
 But for purposes of real awakening and conversion, 
 the conscience must be laid hold of by that truth 
 which is 9. discerner of the thoughts and intents of
 
 THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 the heart. The will, the rudder that directs the 
 course and destiny of the soul, never turns to God 
 until an enlightened and awakened conscience rouses 
 it to action. John Wesley was in respect to this 
 truth a second John the Baptist. The great relig- 
 ious movement inaugurated by him was in its be- 
 ginning simply an awakening of the conscience of 
 a sleeping, backslidden people. The superficiality 
 and feebleness of religious life in our Churches to- 
 day is doubtless largely due to the fact that this 
 feature is less prominent in our pulpits than in the 
 days of our fathers. The humanitarian philosophy 
 that attracts applauding crowds to the ministry of 
 men who have the gift of genius, but not of the 
 Holy Spirit; the salvation-made-easy methods of a 
 class of modern teachers who reduce the whole proc- 
 ess of the regeneration of a soul to the assent of 
 the mind to a syllogism; the substitution of exter- 
 nal ceremonies for the internal work, the soul-awak- 
 ening and soul-subduing power of the Holy Ghost; 
 the tendency observable in so many who are set for 
 the defense of the faith to come down from their 
 vantage-ground and fight the battles of the Lord 
 with the carnal weapons employed by their adver- 
 saries are not these the main causes of the weak- 
 ness of the Church and the growing infidelity of the 
 age? In every pulpit in the land is needed a John 
 the Baptist to proclaim the law of God as with the 
 thunder and flame of Sinai, that a righteous and 
 holy God may be reenthroned in the consciences, 
 the hearts, and the lives, of a favored but thankless 
 and sinful people. God of our fathers, call, com-
 
 380 THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 mission, anoint, and send forth men after thine own 
 heart for this mighty work ! 
 
 Such were the characteristics of the great revival 
 under the ministry of John the Baptist. It was 
 under these conditions and in this spirit that the 
 people pressed their way into the kingdom of heav- 
 en, taking it, as the text tells us, by violence. It 
 remains briefly to speak of 
 
 II. THE FRUITS OF THIS AWAKENING. 
 
 An interesting inquiry presents itself: What was 
 the blessing obtained by the subjects and beneficia- 
 ries of this great revival ? It seems enough to say that 
 the kingdom of heaven is ever the same in its essen- 
 tial elements the same in its Author, the same in its 
 principles, and essentially the same in its methods. 
 The people pressed into the kingdom of heaven as 
 it was then presented to them. They laid hold of 
 the hope set before them. And it was a tangible 
 thing to them, something they knew they possessed, 
 and in the possession of which they rejoiced. Our 
 Lord himself testified to this fact, saying: He 
 [John] was a burning and a shining light; and ye were 
 willing for a season to rejoice in his light. It matters 
 not that many of them failed at the last, stumbling 
 at the cross, rejecting the crucified Jesus. John did 
 his appointed work. He prepared the way of the 
 Lord. By him Peter, and James, and John, and 
 the other disciples, were made ready for the moment 
 when the One greater than he should say to them, 
 Come, follow Me. The "great multitude" of Jews 
 that believed had received the baptism, and realized
 
 THE GREAT AWAKENING. 381 
 
 their first impulse toward the kingdom of heaven, 
 from the Forerunner, whose light was as that of the 
 glad dawn between the star-illumined night of the 
 law and the prophets and the full-orbed glory of the 
 risen Sun of righteousness. 
 
 After the crucifixion, the ascension, and the Pen- 
 tecost, there was a fuller development of the king- 
 dom of heaven; but, let it be repeated, there was no 
 essential change in its operative agencies, its prin- 
 ciples, or its methods. The kingdom of heaven is 
 at all times that revelation of the truth, and that 
 manifestation of the grace, of God that satisfies the 
 inquiring mind and the receptive heart. 
 
 We may then ask, What is the kingdom of heav- 
 en now? And we are not left in any doubt: The. 
 kingdom of heaven is righteousness, peace, and joy, in 
 the Holy Ghost. (See Horn. xiv. 17.) 
 
 1. Righteousness. The righteousness of the king- 
 dom of heaven is the righteousness of pardon and 
 of purity, of justification and regeneration. Being 
 justified by faith, and born of the Spirit, the king- 
 dom of heaven is set up within the believing soul. 
 Its reception is conditioned on nothing but the faith 
 of the heart and the obedience of the will. Blessed 
 be God, nothing can prevent the entrance of the 
 willing soul into this kingdom of heaven ! Its door 
 was opened wide by the hand that was nailed to the 
 cross for sinners, and none may shut it against him 
 who heeds the voice of Jesus saying, Come! 
 
 2. Peace. Peace follows pardon. This peace is 
 the believer's consciousness of the favor of God 
 by the witness of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit itself
 
 382 THE GREAT AWAKENING. 
 
 beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children 
 of God. The fruit of the Spirit is peace. He who 
 is a stranger to this peace is a stranger to the king- 
 dom of heaven. Whoso possesses it has the secret 
 of the Lord. Perfect trust brings perfect peace. 
 The kingdom of heaven! The words are deep in 
 their meaning, and carry a whole heaven of sugges- 
 tion to him who knows by experience. It is the 
 land of Beulah this side the river of death, where 
 the sun shineth night and day, and where pilgrims 
 may rest and rejoice safely, their King having 
 brought them to his banqueting-house, where his 
 banner over them is love. The kingdom of heaven! 
 It is the blossom here of the flower whose fruit is 
 eternal life, the possession by the believer initially 
 of that winch is to constitute the essential elements 
 of his eternal felicity when, freed from the disabili- 
 ties and limitations of earth, he shall join the glo- 
 rified millions on the mount of God. 
 
 3. Joy. Peace deepens into joy in the soul in 
 which the kingdom of heaven has been set up. It 
 is the consciousness of the love of God shed abroad 
 in the heart by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto 
 all true believers. It is the assurance of faith, the 
 joy of an assured hope. We are the sons of God 
 now, but it doth not appear what we shall be. The 
 kingdom of heaven, which begins in grace here, 
 shall culminate in the glory that excelleth hereafter. 
 The sure word of promise is ours, and we rejoice in 
 hope. We hope for that we see not except with the 
 eye of faith, and with patience we wait for it. We 
 can afford to wait, and rejoice while we are waiting,
 
 THE GREAT AWAKENING. 383 
 
 for the philosophy of our faith is this: that as God 
 is true to every blessed promise that has reference 
 to the kingdom of heaven now, so he will also fulfill 
 every promise that has reference to the better life to 
 corne. He gives grace now, he will give glory then. 
 
 Seek now this kingdom of heaven. Whosoever 
 will may take it now. All things are ready. Take 
 it by the force of an earnest purpose; take it in the 
 strength of the Lord; take it by the exercise of a 
 courage that defies all opposing influences, and a 
 faith that claims what God offers so freely to give. 
 
 The "now" of the text is not an echo, but the 
 voice of the living Jesus. The door of the kingdom 
 of heaven was not shut when John's faithful voice 
 was silenced, but only opened wider, that every pen- 
 itent, earnest, yearning soul, may press into it, and 
 possess its righteousness, peace, and joy, forever.
 
 XX. 
 
 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. 
 
 BY THE EEV. JOHN C. GRANBERY, D.B., 
 
 Vanderbtti University. 
 
 " He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth 
 his life for my sake shall find it." Matt. x. 39. 
 
 A MAN sits at night-fall in his own chamber with 
 bowed head and troubled face. What is the matter? 
 " I have lost a whole day," is his sad reply. No 
 small loss is this to one who knows the value of 
 time. It is irreparable. Where shall he search for 
 the lost hours? The shadow goes not back upon 
 the dial. Time is ever giving to eternity past, and 
 never recovers. Time is ever borrowing from eter- 
 nity to come, but our days are numbered, and soon 
 they will all have been told, and not one can be add- 
 ed this makes them precious. 
 
 " I have lost a day! " How shall he be consoled? 
 But hear the cry of this despairing wretch: "My 
 life is lost!" The lost life, neither in whole nor in 
 part, can be restored. 
 
 Many spend life without learning its true worth. 
 They never taste its sweetest flavor. They never 
 use its mystic power. Life is to them like a rough 
 gem in the hands of a rustic ignorant of its pre- 
 ciousness: he has it, and yet he has it not; for it is 
 no better in his eyes than a common pebble, and it 
 
 (384)
 
 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. 385 
 
 does him no service. Life is to them like a rare 
 medicinal herb in the garden of a man who con- 
 founds it with useless weeds; he understands not 
 its healing virtue, and is not advantaged by its pos- 
 session. Life is to them like a magnetic needle to 
 a traveler who knows not its relation to the polar 
 star, and therefore finds in it no guidance; it is to 
 him a dull mineral, or, at most, a pretty toy. 
 
 In an English graveyard is this epitaph: " What 
 I kept, I lost; what I spent, I had; what I gave, I 
 have." Confederate money furnishes a good illus- 
 tration : What you kept proved an utter loss ; what 
 you spent, you enjoyed at the time; what you gave 
 to the relief of need and the cause of Christ, you 
 still have in the testimony of conscience, the knowl- 
 edge of good done, and the blessing of God. The 
 same principle applies to all worldly treasure, for it 
 possesses value only during a limited period. 
 
 Who loses his life? He that tindeth it, says the 
 text. " Whosoever will save his life," we read in 
 Mark that is, whosoever wills to save it. " He that 
 loveth his life " is John's statement of the Master's 
 words. Who finds his life? "He that loseth his 
 life for my sake shall find it; " " Whosoever shall 
 lose his life for my sake and the gospel's the same 
 shall save it ; " " He that hateth his life in this world 
 shall keep it unto life eternal." Let us study this 
 paradox. 
 
 I. It is true of life in its literal sense. 
 
 He who supremely loves and seeks life loses this 
 blessing. In the excess of his zeal he overshoots 
 the mark. He is in perpetual terror lest it be lost. 
 17
 
 386 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. 
 
 He fears the assassin. He fears fatal accident. He 
 fears the epidemic. Sick, he fears that he will grow 
 worse and die. Strong, he fears that he will he 
 stricken down by a sudden attack. He fears in the 
 storm, on the rail, on the sea. He is ever haunted 
 and hunted by this grim specter, Death. The un- 
 certainty of life is to him a torment, and there is no 
 means by which it can be assured even for an hour. 
 The absolute certainty that it is wasting, and will 
 in a few years be gone, is another torment; for he 
 loves nothing except this life, and he shudders and 
 shrinks back at the cold, dark, desolate prospect of 
 the grave. Does he not lose his life ? If his fears do 
 not actually extinguish like a blast the vital flame, do 
 not hurry him to the hated tomb, they do prevent 
 the use and pleasure of life. % He resembles Damo- 
 cles, who sat at the sumptuous feast with a keen 
 appetite, until his eye caught the glittering, sus- 
 pended sword, and then for terror he could not taste 
 a morsel. The undue intensity of the love of life 
 keeps the skeleton ever present to his imagination. 
 Neither day nor night can calm that fluttering heart. 
 He dies a hundred deaths. He can say, but in a 
 very different sense from Paul, " I die daily; I have 
 the sentence of death in myself." The apostle was 
 peaceful and confident amid the thick-flying darts 
 of death, and in bodily weakness and pain ; this man 
 is pale with fright in health and apparent safety. 
 
 The Christian may be said to lose his life in the 
 act of consecration. He becomes a free-will offer- 
 ing, a living sacrifice. He parts with life in giving 
 it to the Lord. He is not his own; his life is the
 
 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. 387 
 
 property of another. He claims not the right to 
 control it; he seeks to please and serve not self, but 
 Christ; he is self-devoted. He lives not, nor does he 
 die, unto himself, but unto the .Lord. To Christ, 
 therefore, he leaves the question when and how he 
 shall die. He takes, indeed, all proper precautions 
 against danger; he uses all prudent means to pro- 
 long life; this he does as a faithful servant in the 
 interest of the Master. But he would not protract 
 life save as the Lord wills, and for his glory. 
 
 This man, my brethren, belongs to the noble army 
 of martyrs. In the first centuries of Christianity 
 some disciples coveted the martyr's crown. They 
 were eager to die for the honor of the gospel. They 
 shrank not from torture and a violent end. They 
 longed to be wrapped in a robe of flame, that their 
 names might be enrolled on the honorable list of 
 martyrs, and that they might be exalted to the high 
 rank which martyrs receive from their Lord. There 
 was too much of self in this ambition, and it was 
 not wise. If he wills that we tarry, why should we 
 be in haste to depart? Christ looks upon the heart, 
 and we have already died for his sake who are will- 
 ing to die when it shall please him. It was formerly 
 the usage that ministers on joining an Annual Con- 
 ference, if willing to serve in a foreign laud, should 
 place their names on a separate list; they were not 
 yet missionaries in fact, but they were in spirit, and 
 might be sent to any part of the globe. So ought 
 each of us to place his name on the roll of Christ's 
 servants as fully consecrated, ready for any service, 
 ready for any length of life, ready for any hour and
 
 388 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. 
 
 mode of death. There is sometimes in an army a 
 picked body, a forlorn hope, men who are willing 
 to be sent on the most desperate enterprise, to be 
 placed in the forefront of danger. The soldiers of 
 the cross should not court peril for its own sake, but 
 not one of them should refuse to encounter the se- 
 verest at the command of the Captain. 
 
 The man who thus loses his life by self-surrender 
 shall find it. God is able to bring him safely out of 
 the thick of the battle. We forget that " unto God 
 the Lord belong the issues " (the escapes) " from 
 death." Life is among the promises to his servants, 
 and an untimely death one of the threatening! 
 against transgressors. Safety is nowhere found 
 except beneath his sheltering wing. Abigail under- 
 stood this truth. She had a strong faith which 
 prevailed against appearances. Saul sat on the 
 throne, and hated David with a deadly hate. David 
 was a fugitive, hiding in wilderness and mountain. 
 Yet Abigail said to him : " The Lord will certainly 
 make my lord a sure house; because my lord fight- 
 eth the battles of the Lord, and evil hath not been 
 found in thee all thy days. Yet a man is risen to 
 pursue thee, and to seek thy soul; but the soul of 
 my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with 
 the Lord thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, 
 them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a 
 sling." Perhaps you are thinking that this was 
 under the old dispensation, when the divine promises 
 referred more to temporal blessings than under our 
 spiritual economy. But listen to Peter as he repeats 
 the words of the psalmist: "For he that will love
 
 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. 389 
 
 life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue 
 from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile ; let 
 him eschew evil, and, do good; let him seek peace, 
 and pursue it." I doubt not that God ofttimes 
 spreads his shield around his servants in the hour 
 of danger, because they have not hesitated to risk 
 life in his service. They are kept alive in the time 
 of famine ; they are delivered from the snare of the 
 fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. " With long 
 life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation." 
 
 The consecrated man truly enjoys so much of 
 life as it pleases God to give him. His is a charmed 
 life. I do not say that he is not mortal, that his 
 life is secure against disease, accident, and murder; 
 but he wears a charm against anxiety and alarm. 
 Fear has not a weapon in all her armory that can 
 harm him. Death stands in his path, and bran- 
 dishes a resistless dart; but he does not quit the way 
 of duty, nor slacken his pace, nor tremble and grow 
 pale: his strong enemy is defeated. The intensest 
 anxiety cannot preserve life, and may cut it short; 
 but the servant of Christ can derive from life the 
 greatest profit, because saved from tormenting fear. 
 Calm and confident, he makes the best use of all 
 his hours, and commits to Providence the question 
 how long he shall live and labor. He walks amid 
 dangers, and fears not. 
 
 II. The paradox is true of all those blessings which 
 make life happy and desirable. He who seeks them 
 as his chief end suffers their loss; he who sacrifices 
 them for Christ thereby gains them. 
 
 Even life in its narrowest sense is often lost in the
 
 390 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. 
 
 eagerness to gain the world. Men toil beyond their 
 strength for mammon and honor, or expose them- 
 selves to voluntary danger, and meet a premature 
 end. They are immoderate in pleasure and fashion, 
 and their race is soon run. They live fast: the can- 
 dle is soon consumed to make a bright blaze. Many 
 men and women put themselves in an earl} 7 grave 
 by over-devotion to the world. 
 
 If they do not shorten life, they reduce the stock 
 of earthly goods by the very means employed for 
 their increase. Avarice, grasping after more, drops 
 from her hands what she already held. Ambition, 
 eager to climb some towering height, grows dizz}^ 
 heeds not the slippery rocks, and is dashed against 
 the rocks below. Vanity, ever listening for praise, 
 and boastful, provokes contempt and ridicule. Pride, 
 casting away with scorn all friendly support, trips 
 and falls, and there are none to help him to his feet 
 again. Greed is punished by satiety; pleasure, too 
 long pursued, produces exhaustion and ennui; the 
 edge of appetite is dulled, and the choicest luxu- 
 ries cannot whet it; gluttony becomes gout, and 
 drink mania; the craving grows stronger, but the 
 capacity of enjoyment lessens, and the worst of the 
 wine is at the last of the feast; life indeed has lost 
 its wine, and has become mere dregs, if not worm- 
 wood and gall. 
 
 Besides, we should take into account the retrib- 
 utive providence of God. World-worship and self- 
 worship are idolatrous, and all idolatry is accursed 
 of God. Often he breaks to pieces the idol. This 
 may be a mercy as well 0.8 a judgment: peradvent-
 
 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. 391. 
 
 ure, when the idolized object is removed, we will 
 seek the Creator, and give him our hearts. But 
 often men lose the world without gaining the soul. 
 Haman thought only of self and the glory of the 
 world ; he would have poured forth the blood of 
 the whole Jewish captivity as a libation to his 
 wounded pride; but just Providence thwarted his 
 revenge, and hung him on the gallows he had built 
 for a better man wealth, honor, family, and life, all 
 destroyed in a day. 
 
 When the man of the world loses his portion, he 
 is deeply grieved and disconsolate, for it is his all, 
 and his heart was so set upon it. " He that loveth 
 his life shall lose it." He is like Jacob mourning 
 over Joseph, his favorite son. He is desperate as 
 Micah when he cried with a loud voice after the 
 children of Dan, who had stolen his ephod, and ter- 
 aphim, and graven image, " Ye have taken away 
 my gods which I made, and what have I more?" 
 The gloss is worn off from life, and it appears a dull 
 and worthless thing. The sparkle and the sharp- 
 ness are vanished from the bowl, and it is hence- 
 forth flat and insipid. The remainder of his days 
 are spent in complaining of the injustice or caprice 
 of fortune, in grieving over riches that have flown to 
 return no more; honors that have withered never to 
 rebloom ; youth, and health, and flow of spirits, 
 that have given place to the depression, querulous- 
 ness, and infirmities of sickness and old age; joys 
 which like torches are consumed, and leave an un- 
 cheered gloom to deepen into the despair and hor- 
 ror of the grave.
 
 392 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. 
 
 The believer, in consecrating life to Christ, con- 
 secrates also whatever is accessory to life. Life, with 
 all its incidents, he puts into the hands of the Mas- 
 ter. Not only how long he shall live, but his lot 
 and the mode of his service, are matters not self- 
 elected, but surrendered to Christ, whose he is, and 
 whom he serves. lie thus loses, places out of his 
 own choice and control, the good things of life; and 
 in the loss he finds. He gets back what he has 
 given up, and he gets it back with a heightened 
 value. The true use and enjoyment of the world 
 are possible only on condition of entire devotedness 
 to Christ. 
 
 We must glance at the attitude of the Christian 
 toward the good things of earth I mean riches, 
 honor, friendship, domestic happiness, health, and 
 like comforts. In the strong language of the Mas- 
 ter, he is required to forsake, and even hate, them 
 all for his sake. But he has explained the sense in 
 which this renunciation and hatred are to be un- 
 derstood. " He that loveth father or mother more 
 than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth 
 son or daughter more than me is not worthy of 
 me." The hatred is, therefore, a relative term 
 they are to be hated in comparison with Christ. 
 They are not the principal thing. They are not su- 
 premely loved. They are not sought as the prime 
 end of life. They are counted loss for the excel- 
 lency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. 
 The disciple has virtually forsaken them in the 
 fixed purpose to do so, rather than let them hinder 
 him in the service of Christ, and in his willingness
 
 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. 393 
 
 that they be taken away at God's pleasure. But 
 these things are promised to the faithful servant, and 
 therefore he does not cease to prize and desire them, 
 if they can be enjoyed consistently with duty. 
 
 This is true of riches. " The blessing of the Lord, 
 it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it." 
 
 It is true of esteem and friendship. "A good 
 name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and 
 loving favor rather than silver and gold." " When 
 a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his 
 enemies to be at peace with him." 
 
 It is true of promotion. " I will set him on high, 
 because he hath known my name." " Length of 
 days is in her right-hand, and in her left-hand 
 riches and honor." 
 
 It is true of the endearments of home. "Whoso 
 findeth a wife, findeth a good thing, and obtaineth 
 favor of the Lord." "A prudent wife is from the 
 Lord." " Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord." 
 " Thy children shall be like olive-plants round about 
 thy table." 
 
 Now these things are doubly blessed to the faith- 
 ful man. They give him the greater pleasure be- 
 cause his heart is not set on them because they are 
 not his sole, nor his chief, portion. For, instead of 
 insatiate craving, he has a thankful and contented 
 mind; he enjoys what it pleases Providence to fur- 
 nish. Instead of anxieties lest what he has be lost, 
 he is peaceful and fearless. Every worldly posses- 
 sion is precarious and perishing. The apprehen- 
 sion of its near destruction, and the assurance that 
 after a few years it will be no more, embitter the 
 17*
 
 394 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. 
 
 present use to him who loves it with supreme affec- 
 tion. But the Christian depends not on these things 
 for his happiness, and can innocently enjoy them 
 while they last without being cast down by their 
 insecurity. 
 
 Moreover, his enjoyment is not poisoned by re- 
 morse. It is heightened by a good conscience. 
 Whatever he possesses he has acquired in an honest 
 and honorable manner. He puts it to a pure and 
 proper use. He holds it in subordination to God, 
 as a loan or trust from him. This gives to every 
 treasure an enhanced value, and to every enjoyment 
 a keener relish. Let us apply these general truths 
 to certain details of life. 
 
 Take two soldiers at the close of a day of deadly 
 struggle. Each is alive and unhurt. But one, su- 
 premely and selfishly loving life, skulked and ran: 
 the other hated life, in comparison with duty, and 
 seemed ready to throw it away as a vile thing; it 
 would have been vile in his eyes if bought by cow- 
 ardice and desertion of his post. Which of the 
 twain has the happier feeling, the richer enjoyment 
 of life and health, when the battle is over? Or take 
 two members of the same family, when the house 
 is visited by a fearful contagious disease: one flees 
 for safety; the other watches day and night by the 
 bed of the sick, not loving life so as to interfere with 
 this task of duty and affection. One saves life by 
 flight, the other is preserved amid dangers. Who is 
 the happier? 
 
 See this man, who is not a money-lover, not cov- 
 etous, nor penurious; he has wronged no man, de-
 
 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. 395 
 
 frauded no man ; he has taken no short cuts to 
 fortune by impure, crafty, harsh means; he has not 
 withheld bread from the hungry, nor gold from the 
 Lord's treasury. He has been diligent and prudent 
 in business, and at the same time faithful to God, 
 and full of good deeds; and he has prospered. Now 
 that riches have increased, he sets not his heart on 
 them; he knows that they are uncertain and un- 
 trustworthy; he is willing that God who gave shall 
 take away, and meanwhile he is rich in good works, 
 ready to distribute. Does he not enjoy wealth far 
 more than the avaricious? 
 
 See this man who is not selfishly ambitious. He 
 has not been a worshiper of fame, a seeker of place 
 and praise. He has striven to serve Christ, the 
 Church, and humanity, with a pure motive, in for- 
 getfulness of self. But others have discovered and 
 recognized his worth, and said, " Friend, go up 
 higher." They have felt their need of his talents 
 and integrity, and, like the ointment which Mary 
 poured on the feet of Jesus, the fragrance of his 
 virtues and charity has spread abroad; what he did 
 with a single eye for Christ's sake has come back 
 to him in the shape of esteem, confidence, and an 
 enviable reputation. Modestly he wears the honors 
 he did not seek, but does not make of them an idol 
 does not consider them essential to his happiness. 
 Has he not a fuller enjoyment than the most suc- 
 cessful aspirant after office, rank, and fame? Joseph 
 risks every thing rather than sin against God, and 
 God raises him to power and dignity only less than 
 royal, and by him dispenses greater than royal
 
 396 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. 
 
 bounty. Was not his a richer satisfaction than if 
 ho had gained the same height by crime? 
 
 See this man in the bosom of his own family, and 
 among friends. He has never sought favor at the 
 expense of duty. He does not love wife and chil- 
 dren more than Christ. Not even to please them, 
 not even to enjoy their dear society, would he re- 
 lax principle, or neglect the service of his Lord. 
 He loves them in the Lord. He seeks not self, but 
 them, in his daily course; and they love him with 
 a depth and intensity proportionate to his generous 
 worth; and he enjoys their happiness and affection 
 in the degree of his own pure love. But he loves 
 and cherishes them in the spirit of consecration to 
 the Master, and commits them, as he does himself, 
 to the gentle care of his faithful Saviour. Is he not 
 the happier husband, father, friend, because of this 
 spirit? Isaac, child of love and promise, is offered 
 and restored; but henceforth he has a higher value, 
 he is a greater blessing, because the father had not 
 withheld his loved son. 
 
 III. The paradox is fulfilled even in those cases 
 in which the devotee of worldly good not only seeks 
 but finds it; the finding proves to be not profit, but 
 loss; and in those cases in which life and its com- 
 forts are not only risked, but lost, for Christ, the loss 
 proves to be gain. 
 
 Excessive love of the world unfits for its proper 
 use and enjoyment. The miser is a notable instance. 
 He is possessed with a demon of avarice an insane 
 and insatiate greed of gold. Does he enjoy his 
 wealth? He begrudges every penny spent on him-
 
 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. 397 
 
 self or his family. He hates to pay his taxes and 
 debts. He is in the fire of torment through dread 
 that all he has will be lost. He is never satisfied, but 
 his hungry heart ever cries out, " Give! give ! " He 
 finds and loses at the same moment, and in the same 
 process. Avarice may gather and hoard, but can- 
 not enjoy; half-starved, it keeps the manna until 
 it rots. 
 
 A like misery is the curse of inordinate ambition. 
 The man of ambition, in seeking honor, is uneasy 
 and fearful of failure. As soon as the summit is 
 gained, he trembles lest he be cast down; or, in rest- 
 less aspiration after something higher, he loses the 
 joy of the triumph already achieved. 
 
 The selfish man, if vain and athirst for flattery, 
 vexes himself when praise is withheld or faint, or 
 by the suspicion that it is insincere; and every slight 
 or censure is like a poisoned arrow in his sensitive 
 soul, or like a wound in itself trifling, when the 
 blood is bad, for it festers, and cannot be healed. 
 The selfish man longs for esteem, confidence, and 
 love; but if he be able, despite his un worthiness, 
 to draw forth such sentiments, he can have little 
 gratification, because we must love with a pure and 
 generous heart in order to enjoy the happiness of 
 being loved; the feeling must be mutual. The self- 
 ish man is willful, head-strong, jealous, envious; and 
 thus he makes his own rough road to travel by day, 
 and his own bed of thorns on which to lie down 
 at night; for he ever provokes, or else imagines, 
 opposition. If there be no substantial cause for jeal- 
 ousy,
 
 398 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. 
 
 Trifles light as air 
 
 Are, to the jealous, confirmations strong 
 As proofs of holy writ. 
 
 And however prosperous and exalted he may be, he 
 will find some rival of whom to be jealous, or some 
 superior whom to envy. 
 
 Let me cite a few examples: See King Ahab in 
 all his pride and affluence. Is he the happiest per- 
 son in all the kingdom ? There is many a maiden 
 dowerless who sings merrily at her task, early and 
 late; there is many a peasant in rented cottage who 
 owns no foot of land, but goes forth with light heart 
 and quiet countenance to his daily toil for humble 
 hire; but this king is heavy and displeased, and 
 shuts himself up in his house and chamber, and lies 
 abed, and turns his face to the wall, and will not 
 taste food. What has happened? He is not sick; 
 none of his children have died ; no enemy makes 
 war against him. But Naboth, one of his subjects, 
 has a vineyard near the palace which Ahab fancies 
 as a garden of herbs for himself, and offers to buy 
 it, or to give a better vineyard for it ; and Naboth 
 refuses to part with this land, which has come down 
 from his fathers. Did not Ahab, in his coveting 
 and willfulness, lose all benefit of his wealth and 
 royalty ? 
 
 See the first prince of Assyria, the favorite of 
 Ahasuerus. We will look into his heart, not when 
 the color fled his cheeks and strength his joints, and, 
 all his pride and insolence crushed, he fell at the 
 feet of Esther to beg his life; not when he was 
 dragged forth to the gallows he had made for Mor-
 
 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. 399 
 
 decai; but when he stood proudly erect, a pillar of 
 state bearing up the weight of an empire, when he 
 was in the midst of his untold wealth, and many 
 children, and peerless honors. Shall I call him a 
 wretch ? Shall I declare him more miserable than 
 his own servants, than even the despised and down- 
 trodden Jews? I will let him tell the tale himself. 
 I bid you listen when, in a moment of confidence, his 
 overcharged heart uttered itself to a council of his 
 friends, and of Zeresh his wife: "And Haman told 
 them of the glory of his riches, and the multitude 
 of his children, and all the things wherein the king 
 had promoted him, and how he had advanced him 
 above the princes and servants of the king." Elo- 
 quent description! Fortunate man! Do they listen 
 with real envy, through pretended sympathy? or is 
 he too great for their envy? and are they content to 
 catch a few drops of happiness that overflow his 
 cup, and to shine in his favor as he shines in the 
 light of the royal countenance ? But he has not 
 told all. His honors are not stale. The charm of 
 novelty, the happy surprise of fresh favors, still re- 
 mains. He is mounting, and his foot is well-nigh 
 on the top-round of a subject's possible attainment. 
 He has not one competitor. " Haman said, more- 
 over, Yea, Esther the queen did let no man come 
 in with the king unto the banquet that she had pre- 
 pared but myself; and to-morrow am I invited unto 
 her also with the king/' Now hear the conclusion 
 of this glowing description of Haman 's glory : " Yet 
 all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mor- 
 decai the Jew sitting at the king's gate." He goes,
 
 400 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. 
 
 by the advice of his wife, to ask the immediate and 
 ignominious death of Mordecai, as a sweet morsel 
 to appease the gnawing hunger of his proud heart, 
 that made vain and empty all, all the glory of his state. 
 
 With light tread stole he on his evil way, 
 With light tread Vengeance stole on after him. 
 Unseen, she stands already dark behind him 
 But one step more he shudders in her grasp ! 
 
 Yet life was wretched, its profit and pleasure lost, 
 before he met his doom on the gallows; no gifts of 
 fortune could avail him aught, because be had a 
 selfish, haughty, greedy, cruel heart. 
 
 Life is really lost when saved at the expense 
 of conscience, honor, character of those principles 
 which are too precious and sacred to be bartered 
 away for any price. Satan said, "All that a man hath 
 will he give for his life." But life, though weight- 
 ed and glittering with all earthly jewels, is a dear 
 bargain when purchased with guilt and shame; it 
 will prove, like the fabled apples, beautiful and in- 
 viting to the eye, but rottenness within. Macbeth 
 listened to the "juggling fiends" who cried, "All 
 hail ! thou shalt be king hereafter," and, by the mur- 
 der of his friend, guest, and king, seized the " gold- 
 en round," and crowned his own brow. But what 
 value had his crown when he exclaimed, 
 
 I have lived long enough; my way of life 
 
 Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf. 
 
 And that which should accompany old age, 
 
 As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, 
 
 I must not look to have ; but, in their stead, 
 
 Curses, not loud, but deep, mouth-honor, breath, 
 
 Which the poor heart would fain deny, but dare not.
 
 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. 401 
 
 Herodias indulged a guilty love for Herod, or an 
 ambition to be his wife, and she forsook her own 
 husband, his brother. She attains what she sought 
 Herod's fondness, a share in his wealth, the flattery 
 of the courtiers, all the gayeties and splendor of his 
 position. But is she happy in this criminal course? 
 There is one eating ulcer in her heart an evil con- 
 science that keeps her uneasy with fear that Herod 
 will cast her off; that excites a deadly, implacable 
 rancor and hatred against John the Baptist, who re- 
 buked the sin. She rests not until the head of the 
 prophet is brought to her in a charger by that beau- 
 tiful and graceful Cancer, Salome those lips forever 
 silenced which had declared her shame. But does 
 she rest now? Did her crime need an outward voice 
 to proclaim and denounce it? Did not conscience 
 speak within conscience, whose lips could not be 
 sealed by the knife of the executioner? Did the 
 fresh sin of a good man's blood soothe her troubled 
 breast? 
 
 Take another case Judas Iscariot. Money was 
 life in his estimation, for he had a covetous soul, and 
 was a thief. He sold his Lord, and the silver coins 
 were counted, and paid into his hands. He wins and 
 loses loses far more than he won. What shall he 
 do with the money? The rust, the canker of the 
 innocent blood upon the silver, eats into his flesh 
 like fire. He is self -consumed by remorse. He 
 dashes down the wages of his treachery, and hangs 
 himself, losing at once riches and life. 
 
 To-day men live who, in the too eager craving for 
 life, or for life's treasures and joys, have saved life
 
 402 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. 
 
 when endangered, have saved property, have ac- 
 quired wealth, office, rank, the brave show and glit- 
 ter of the world, by fleeing from duty, by the com- 
 promise of principle, by the violation of truth, justice, 
 honor; they have lost self-respect, and the respect 
 of their fellows; they have offended God, and put 
 into the hand of Conscience a scourge ; life is robbed 
 of all peace and comfort, and becomes a burden; 
 they loved it too well, they were too hot and hasty 
 to preserve it, and they have gained only a loss and 
 a grievance. 
 
 Life is lost also when its opportunities for noble 
 self-culture and useful deed slip away unimproved. 
 Youth passes, and all its facilities for the education 
 of the heart, for the acquisition of true wisdom and 
 of pure and generous habits, are neglected and de- 
 spised. That soul is bare and barren ground, or a 
 wilderness of weeds, which should be a beautiful 
 and fruitful garden unto the Lord. Manhood ad- 
 vances to the fullness of strength, and declines to 
 old age; but no pains have been taken to cultivate 
 the spiritual nature, and enjoy the hallowed delights 
 of fellowship with God. Means are plentifully fur- 
 nished by Providence for works of piety and use- 
 fulness the whole world, from his own doors to 
 the most savage wilds, calls aloud for help; but he 
 heeds not the call; he squanders the hours and all 
 his resources in idleness, intemperance, extrava- 
 gance, or selfish pursuits. At length life's limit is 
 reached, and he looks back with vain and bitter re- 
 gret, saying, " My life is lost, lost, lost. It has been 
 a long one. I had many advantages to make it
 
 LIFE LOST AND. FOUND. 403 
 
 happy, exalted, and beneficent. Some may call it 
 fortunate. I have had my pleasures, friendships, 
 success. But what profit is there in it all? I have 
 thrown away my soul. I have not used my privi- 
 leges. I have not finished the work which God gave 
 me to do. Life has not been adorned with good 
 deeds; and when I sleep, no holy influence shall sur- 
 vive my body to bless the world. Nothing of solid 
 and permanent worth has been accomplished. The 
 very blessings of life have drawn away my mind 
 from its real purpose, its highest aims. I have found 
 only to lose." 
 
 He who not only surrenders, but actually loses, in 
 Christ's cause the good things of this world, finds 
 life in a nobler sense, and is far more than compen- 
 sated. In the language of our Lord, he receives a 
 hundred-fold now in this time. For the true life, 
 rny brethren, does not consist in, does not depend on, 
 the outward, capricious condition on the measure 
 of riches, reputation, and honor not even on the 
 health of the body not even on the lives of our 
 household. The true life is of the soul, of the con- 
 science, of the higher and immortal affections, of 
 spiritual desires and capacities. This is the life 
 of God in us, our life in God, our life hidden with 
 Christ in God. " To me to live is Christ." 
 
 O my brethren, never is the question so inappro- 
 priate, never is the reproof so unjust, "Wherefore 
 all this waste?" as when Avarice asks it in refer- 
 ence to the service and costly gifts poured forth 
 freely for Christ's sake! 
 
 You have taken precious time away from your
 
 404 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. 
 
 business, and spent it in doing Christ's work, look- 
 ing after his poor and afflicted brethren, or study- 
 ing and toiling for the advancement of his kingdom. 
 Is it time lost? Are you not rewarded in the ap- 
 proval of conscience, in the knowledge of useful- 
 ness, in the testimony of Christ's love, in the ex- 
 pansion and refinement of your own nature? 
 
 You have given money to the cause of God, or 
 refused money because of a scruple of conscience. 
 I do not promise that if" will be returned in silver 
 and gold; butisitlost? It will come back, and with 
 a manifold increase, in the luxury of doing good, in 
 the peace of a good conscience, in the thought that 
 you have testified your love to Christ, in the spirit 
 of unselfish benevolence you have cherished. 
 
 You have left for a season family and home, and 
 gone on a wearisome journey for the sake of Christ 
 and souls. But were you not repaid in the assur- 
 ance of his presence and smile? Though your house- 
 hold lacked your care, and perhaps you could not 
 hear for weeks how they fared, and could not have 
 hasted to their side if they had fallen ill, yet was 
 there not a pro founder peace, a better security, in 
 intrusting them to the Master you served ? 
 
 Health, reputation, friendship, may be sacrificed 
 for Jesus; but a joy infinitely sweeter and deeper is 
 derived from the loss, because his love exceeds them 
 all. Whatever we give up in his name is restored 
 in patience, resignation, fortitude, courage, faith, 
 hope, charity, a closer clinging to Christ, a stronger 
 conviction of the value and substantial truth of 
 eternal things.
 
 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. 405 
 
 IV. That life is lost which makes no preparation 
 for the endless hereafter; and though life be actu- 
 ally lost for the sake of the gospel, it is kept unto 
 eternal life. 
 
 How will you think of it, friend, on your dying- 
 bed? I grant you a long and prosperous career on 
 earth ; but it is finished. I grant you great riches 
 here; but you have not laid up any treasure above.. 
 I grant you the honor which comes from men ; but 
 no crown of fadeless glory awaits you yonder. I 
 grant you a merry and joyous lot; but you antici- 
 pate no delight in the eternal future. Every arrow 
 in the quiver is spent. Each day was a diamond of 
 greater value than all the crown -jewels of earth; 
 but the store is exhausted these gems have dropped 
 into the bottomless sea of the past. The oil of life's 
 lamp is consumed, and its bowl is shattered. What 
 remains? Too late to think of that now. Hope, 
 that would have allured you to a better land, and 
 thrown upon the future a radiance more intense by 
 contrast with the deepening darkness of life's close, 
 has left you, reluctant to leave, but slighted, scorned, 
 driven away has left you, never to return has left 
 you, and will not hear, however loud you call ; and 
 eternity has for you no promise, no light, no treas- 
 ure. You will be flung, a miserable wreck, upon the 
 coasts of the eternal hereafter, when you might have 
 entered with swoln sails the haven of heavenly hap- 
 piness. 
 
 The believer, in dying, does not lose, but finds, life. 
 He loses the wants, pains, infirmities, sorrows, of 
 life; he gains rest, joy, honor, plenty. He puts oft'
 
 406 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. 
 
 the mortal ; he puts on immortality. He dies as 
 the grub dies into the butterfly; as the seed dies 
 into the beautiful flower, and the grain into the 
 fruitful stalk; as the night dies into the day, and 
 the winter into the quickening spring; as faith dies 
 into sight, and hope into full fruition. He now finds 
 all that he ever lost for Christ. The moth-and-rust- 
 eaten riches he gave up are here in the form of in- 
 corruptible treasures. The honors, withering as the 
 grass of the field, which he forsook, are here in the 
 form of a crown of imperishable glory. The friend- 
 ships he sacrificed rather than violate duty, which 
 might have been a solace and support a few years 
 below, are here in the form of the family of God, 
 never to be parted. The labors he performed for 
 Christ are here in their testimony in his favor, and 
 in the reward his Lord bestows. The hours spent 
 for Christ come trooping to bear record to his fidel- 
 ity and useful deeds, arid Jesus will not fail to say, 
 "Well done!" 
 
 The life he lost for Christ's sake is here, but, it 
 must be confessed, can scarcely be recognized as 
 the same. We have never witnessed rejuvenescence, 
 but we may imagine the reverse of the change by 
 which a young man grows old; yet this will not suf- 
 fice to illustrate the change from a mortal to an im- 
 mortal life. We have seen the weak and wasted 
 invalid who could not move a limb, or speak a word, 
 raised to health and strength again; but this can- 
 not compare with dropping corruption and being 
 clothed with incorruption. The transfiguration of 
 our Lord may represent it to us. Our life here shall
 
 LIFE LOST AND FOUND. 407 
 
 be transfigured, glorified the same, yet how dif- 
 ferent! The same for if we have not the true life 
 of God and heaven in us now, we cannot enjoy it 
 hereafter : there must be the germ, the principle, of 
 love and holiness; yet different, for the decrepitude, 
 the soil, the dullness, the burden, the sorrows, the 
 temptations, of life shall have forever vanished, and 
 the soul be disencumbered, enlarged, invigorated, 
 exalted, glorified. 
 
 Here would we end our quest : 
 
 Alone are found in Thee 
 The life of perfect love, the rest 
 
 Of immortality. 
 
 THE END.
 
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