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 f Unexpected 
 Christ 
 
 BY 
 
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 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 Chap. Copyright No. _. 
 
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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
THE 
 UNEXPECTED CHRIST 
 
 A SERIES OF 
 EVANGELISTIC SERMONS 
 
 BY 
 
 RET. LOUIS ALBERT BANKS, D. D. 
 
 PASTOR FIRST METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 
 CLEVELAND, OHIO 
 AUTHOR OF " CHRIST AND HIS FRIENDS," " THE FISHERMAN AND HIS FRIENDS,' 
 "PAUL AND HIS FRIENDS," "HEROIC PERSONALITIES," ETC. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 WILBUR B. KETCHAM 
 
 7 AND 9 WEST EIGHTEENTH STREET 
 
*t&. 
 
 1303 
 
 Copyright, 1898, by 
 Wilbur B. Ketcham 
 
 S REC 
 
 ^^U^ 2 ™* COPY, 
 
 (\ t*r^sb ,^Sb 
 
 1893. 
 
TO MY FRIEND 
 
 JESSIE ELIZABETH BELL 
 
 THIS VOLUME IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 The Unexpected Christ 
 The Expectant Christ 
 The Lost Christ 
 The Borrowing Christ 
 The Blessed King . 
 The Cost of a Christian Life 
 The Corner- Stone of a Noble Life 
 Christ Cleansing the Temple of the 
 Christ as the Gardener 
 The Coin of the Heart 
 The Beauty of Service . 
 Jesus at Matthew's Dinner . 
 The Three Good Cheers of Jesus 
 Christ with the Wild Beasts 
 Christ the Soul's Master 
 For Love's Sake . . . 
 Sharing the Inheritance with Jesus 
 The Messenger of Salvation 
 The Ideal Character 
 Christ's New Road to Heaven 
 Three Christian Certainties 
 
 5 
 
 Soul 
 
 7 
 
 17 
 
 28 
 
 39 
 
 48 
 
 58 
 
 69 
 
 82 
 
 93 
 
 103 
 
 112 
 
 122 
 
 132 
 
 143 
 
 156 
 
 166 
 
 177 
 
 188 
 
 198 
 
 210 
 
 220 
 
6 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Christ the Pardon-Bringer 230 
 
 The Lord of Peace 241 
 
 The Keeping Christ 251 
 
 The Heroic Christ . 263 
 
 The Angel in the Garden 275 
 
 A Friend of Jesus Warming Himself at the 
 Enemy's Fire . . . . . . 284 
 
 Christ Fainting under the Cross . . . 297 
 Christ Triumphing on the Cross .... 307 
 
 Human Life as an Evergreen . ... . 317 
 
THE UNEXPECTED CHEIST. 
 
 "Jesus himself drew near, and went with them."— 
 Luke xxiv. 15. 
 
 Most Bible-readers have taken it for 
 granted that both of these two disciples of 
 Christ who were taking this walk to Emmaus 
 and to whom Christ paid this unexpected 
 visit were men. Only one of them is named 
 — Cleopas. Mr. Moody has recently raised a 
 question which is new to me, but which seems 
 to me to be very well sustained, suggesting 
 that the disciple not named was Mary, the 
 wife of Cleopas. John tells us that one of the 
 three Marys who remained at the cross after 
 the crucifixion of Jesus was Mary the wife of 
 Cleopas, and I agree with Mr. Moody that it 
 does not seem at all probable that Cleopas 
 would go off into the country seven or eight 
 miles and leave his wife in the city in the 
 perilous times in the midst of which the disci- 
 
 7 
 
8 THE UNEXPECTED CHBIST. 
 
 pies found themselves after the trial and cru- 
 cifixion of Christ. It seems, therefore, very 
 reasonable to suppose that these two disciples 
 mentioned were Cleopas and Mary, the uncle 
 and aunt of Jesus. 
 
 These two near relatives and friends of 
 Christ evidently had their home at Emmaus, 
 and in this sad trial which had come to them 
 in the death of one whom they had loved all 
 his life, and whom during the last few years 
 they had come to trust as their Eedeemer and 
 Lord, it was very natural that they should go 
 to their home. " Be it ever so humble, there's 
 no place like home"; and especially is this 
 true in a time of sorrow. The curiosity of the 
 world is very trying then, and one longs to 
 get home, where he may be free from prying 
 eyes and questioning tongues. 
 
 As they walked along the way they were 
 talking over all the strange and wonderful 
 events connected with the trial and crucifixion 
 of the Saviour, dwelling on little details, no 
 doubt, as one will, concerning a great tragedy 
 which leaves the soul stunned and in awe. 
 All their hopes were buried in the tomb, and 
 the glory of the Easter truth had not yet il- 
 luminated their hearts. As they thus walked 
 and talked, their attitude as well as their 
 
THE UNEXPECTED CHRIST 9 
 
 words showing the sorrow which depressed 
 them, a stranger drew near and joined them. 
 He who appeared to Mary Magdalene in the 
 garden in the form of a gardener, to Abraham 
 as a traveler, and to Joshua as a soldier, ap- 
 peared to these disciples as some strange 
 teacher, some wise rabbi, passing through the 
 land. They did not know it was the Christ 
 about whom they were sorrowing. A sure 
 way to find Christ is to talk about him to an- 
 other friend who loves him with the same 
 tenderness as ourselves. The promise of his 
 presence where two or three are gathered 
 never fails. We rob ourselves of a great deal 
 of Christian joy by hiding in our hearts, so 
 often, the longing, hungry thoughts we have 
 about Jesus. If we would talk more with 
 each other concerning him our experience 
 would be sweeter and richer. 
 
 Christ still comes to his disciples in unex- 
 pected places. It is not necessarily in the 
 church that we shall find him, but wherever 
 we need him and our longing hearts cry out 
 for him we may expect him. He has not de- 
 serted his world. He visits the market-place 
 now as in the days of old, and even a tax-col- 
 lector may know his presence as did Zacchaeus 
 or Matthew. He does not fail to pause in 
 
10 THE UNEXPECTED CHBIST. 
 
 sympathy where the unfortunate are, and 
 blind men and poor may yet hear the sympa- 
 thetic call of him who stopped on the road to 
 Jericho to open the eyes of blind BartimaBus. 
 He who was the fishermen's friend by the 
 little Sea of Galilee, and who liked to go fish- 
 ing with Peter and John, and watch them as 
 they mended their nets, will not scorn the 
 docks or the fishing-boats of our own time. 
 The Carpenter of Nazareth has not forgotten 
 his brethren of the hammer and the saw. In 
 all the common ways of life where men toil 
 and dig, where they bargain and trade, where 
 they feast or faint, where they rejoice at the 
 wedding or mourn at the funeral, Christ is 
 still in his world, and hearts going out after 
 him in loving memory may not be surprised 
 to find him coming to walk with them by the 
 way. They may not always know who he is 
 until he is gone, for that many times happens 
 to us, but afterwards looking back we know 
 that it was the Christ. 
 
 The presence of Christ communing with 
 us, causing our hearts to burn with gladness, 
 fills the Scriptures with meaning and makes 
 the Bible yield treasures that on other days we 
 would not find. You might bring me a basket 
 of minerals from the Klondike, and looking 
 
THE UNEXPECTED CHRIST. 11 
 
 at them I would know that here and there a 
 specimen contained gold, because I could see 
 occasional points of a yellow tinge ; but many 
 other light and dark points I would not under- 
 stand. But let a metallurgist glance at the 
 specimens and he would not only know that 
 they contained gold, but silver and lead and 
 iron, and could indicate each metal. So to a 
 man untaught of the Spirit the Bible will 
 have here and there a hint of golden trea- 
 sures, but when he comes under the teaching 
 of Christ he sees revealed on every side riches 
 before undreamed of. "There are promises 
 in God's Word that no man has ever tried to 
 find; treasures of gold and silver in it that 
 no man has ever taken the pains to dig for. 
 There are medicines in it for the want of a 
 knowledge of which hundreds have died." Mr. 
 Beecher once said that the Bible seemed to 
 him like some baronial estate that has de- 
 scended to a man who lives in a modern house 
 and thinks it scarcely worth while to go and 
 look into the venerable mansion. Year after 
 year passes away, and he pays no attention to 
 it, since he has no suspicion of the valuable 
 treasures it contains, till at last some man 
 says to him, " Have you been up in the coun- 
 try to look at that estate ? " He makes up his 
 
12 THE UNEXPECTED CHBIST. 
 
 mind that lie will take a look at it. As he 
 goes through the porch he is surprised to see 
 the skill that has been displayed in its con- 
 struction ; he is more and more impressed as 
 he goes through the halls. He enters a large 
 room, and is astonished as he beholds the 
 wealth of pictures upon the walls, among 
 which are portraits of many of his revered 
 ancestors. He stands in amazement before 
 them. There are splendid paintings by Titian 
 and Baphael, and Correggio. He says, "I 
 never had any idea of these before." " Ah ! " 
 says the steward, " there is many another 
 thing that you know nothing about in this 
 castle " ; and the keeper takes him from room 
 to room, and shows him carved plate, and 
 wonderful statues, until the owner exclaims, 
 " Here I have been for twenty years the 
 owner of this estate, and have never before 
 known what things were in it ! " But there 
 never was such an estate as G-od's Word. 
 There are no such halls of paintings as those 
 found in the Old Testament Scriptures. There 
 are no such treasure-vaults of golden wisdom 
 as may be found in its Proverbs; no such 
 libraries of poetry as in the Psalms and the 
 Book of Job. No wonder Cleopas and Mary 
 remembered afterwards and said to each other, 
 
THE UNEXPECTED CHRIST. 13 
 
 " Did not our heart burn within us, while he 
 opened unto us the Scriptures," for he began 
 at Moses and came along down over the high 
 plateaus of prophetic uplands, and set a blaz- 
 ing torch on the hill-tops where Moses, and 
 David, and Isaiah and Daniel had foretold 
 his own coming. To their astonishment the 
 Old Testament Scriptures revealed a high- 
 way, lighted with the flame of prophetic light 
 all the way from the beginning of Genesis, 
 that led ever onward toward their own time 
 and to the Messiah who had been their 
 Leader. Christ will open the Scriptures like 
 that to us when we meditate on him and on 
 them. 
 
 The sweetest touch in the story is where 
 they reach the home of Cleopas and his wife, 
 and Jesus, who has not yet revealed himself 
 to them, makes as if he would go on. We 
 cannot doubt that he would have done so if 
 they in their keen interest had not urged him 
 to remain. Christ will not force his love upon 
 us. It is ever the characteristic of a great 
 love that it wishes to be desired and appre- 
 ciated. But they constrained him to remain 
 with them to their evening meal. I think 
 with Mr. Moody that this is another indica- 
 tion of the fact that it was indeed Cleopas and 
 
14 THE UNEXPECTED CUBIST. 
 
 his wife, and not two men who were only- 
 friends stopping at the same place. A hus- 
 band and his wife together might naturally 
 give an urgent invitation to a stranger whose 
 company had been so precious to them, and 
 in the light of whose conversation their great 
 sorrow had passed away and hope had taken 
 its place. And while the evening meal is be- 
 ing prepared Christ talks with them, and after 
 a while, when it is ready, he breaks bread with 
 them, and tenderly blesses it, and in that act 
 of worship he is revealed to their hearts and 
 they know it is their risen Lord whose fellow- 
 ship has given them such great joy. 
 
 Let us not fail to learn this great lesson : If 
 you would come to know Christ as your risen 
 Lord and Saviour you must not only meet 
 him on the highway of human life, and listen 
 to his conversation, and be moved to admira- 
 tion at the charm of his presence, but you 
 must constrain him to come home with you 
 into your inner heart experience. If you con- 
 strain him to enter into that fellowship of 
 soul he will not only charm you with his con- 
 versation, but he will dispel your sorrows, par- 
 don your sins, and transform your life into his 
 own likeness. No doubt I speak to some one 
 who needs just this appeal. You have heard 
 
THE UNEXPECTED CHRIST. 15 
 
 of Christ many times, your heart has been 
 drawn out to him in admiration, and you do 
 not hesitate to admit that among all the 
 names in history his is the fairest and the 
 noblest. But all your meetings with him 
 have been, as it were, upon the highway. 
 You have never invited Christ into the temple 
 of your own heart and home. Only in that 
 way can you really come to know him and 
 realize his power to save. 
 
 ^ A minister in Philadelphia preached on a 
 recent Sunday evening on "The Greed of 
 Gold." He called special attention to the fact 
 that at the bottom of most of the institutions 
 of our land which hurt rather than help is the 
 desire for wealth. Among other things he 
 mentioned the liquor traffic. Early the next 
 morning there came into this minister's study 
 a fine-looking, intelligent man about forty 
 years old. As he entered the room, before 
 giving his name or telling his mission, he 
 spoke thus, earnestly and nervously: "Is it 
 better for a man to sell liquor or starve?" 
 This was his story : He was the traveling rep- 
 resentative for a large distillery in another 
 city. In the interest of this business, for 
 which he had been successfully soliciting for 
 years, he came to Philadelphia. He had gone 
 
16 THE UNEXPECTED CHEIST. 
 
 to the church with another commercial trav- 
 eler on Sunday evening, and the minister's 
 sermon had been an arrow from the quiver of 
 God straight to his heart. He left the church, 
 went back to the hotel, sent that very night a 
 letter to the firm for which he was traveling, 
 and whose remuneration for his services was 
 generous, resigning his position and saying 
 that he could no longer conscientiously repre- 
 sent them. " And," said the manly man be- 
 fore he left the minister, "last night I slept 
 with a sense of peace and security such as I 
 have not enjoyed for years. I have no pros- 
 pect for a new position, but upon this I am 
 determined: I shall starve before I sell another 
 drop of liquor. God help me ! n At noon the 
 next day the minister was in conversation 
 with one of the leading business men of his 
 church, to whom he told this story. Imme- 
 diately upon hearing it the merchant said, "I 
 am in need of just such a man." In less than 
 twenty-four hours he was in an honorable 
 position with a good salary, illustrating the 
 words of Christ : " Seek ye first the kingdom 
 of God, and his righteousness; and all these 
 things shall be added unto you." 
 
THE EXPECTANT CHRIST. 
 
 " From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made 
 his footstool." — Hebrews x. 13. 
 
 "I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the 
 goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait 
 on the Lord : be of good courage, and he shall 
 strengthen thine heart : wait, I say, on the Lord." — 
 Psalm xxvii. 13, 14. 
 
 Dueing the war of the rebellion, when vic- 
 tory was swaying from side to side, the com- 
 missioners from the Confederate States, in an 
 interview, which they obtained with President 
 Lincoln, sought to compromise with him on 
 condition of the independence of a part of 
 the States in rebellion. They knew the ten- 
 der-heartedness of Mr. Lincoln, and appealed 
 to him to stay the effusion of blood which, at 
 the moment, was flowing in torrents. These 
 commissioners were willing to forego several 
 of the States for which they had hitherto 
 fought if he would consent to the remainder 
 
 17 
 
18 THE EXPECTANT CHBIST 
 
 being independent. They pleaded with him 
 for hours, and made use of the strongest argu- 
 ments and considerations they could adduce 
 to gain their object. When they had finished, 
 the President, who had patiently and atten- 
 tively listened to all that had been said, 
 raised his hand, and then bringing it down 
 with emphasis on the map which lay before 
 him, replied: "Gentlemen, this government 
 must have the whole." 
 
 Jesus Christ confidently expects the dawn- 
 ing of the day when all his enemies shall be 
 made his footstool, and he shall hold sway 
 over all the nations of men. Before his cru- 
 cifixion he declared, " And I, if I be lifted up 
 from the earth, will draw all men unto me." 
 His expectant eye ran down the line of his- 
 tory and saw the day when the cross would 
 become a battle-cry for millions and a watch- 
 word for the liberty and hope of mankind. 
 
 It is this expectant attitude of Jesus which 
 gave him while on the earth undying enthu- 
 siasm and ever-fresh courage. The fact that 
 the majority was against him, that his gospel 
 of peace and love and purity had all the hate 
 and greed and bloodthirstiness of the world 
 against it, never caused him to hesitate for 
 a moment. To his expectant vision all the 
 
THE EXPECTANT CHRIST 19 
 
 devils were dethroned. Sure of his divine 
 power, certain that love is stronger than hate, 
 rejoicing in his beneficent mission to the 
 world, his enthusiasm never waned in his 
 struggle for the salvation of the human race. 
 His hope was not in any earthly power, but 
 in the saving influences of divine love. 
 
 If we turn from Christ to David, we find in 
 him also a perennial fountain of enthusiasm 
 and courage, because his hope was centered 
 not on earthly things, but on the faithfulness 
 and benevolence of God. Throughout all his 
 youth, from the day that Samuel called him 
 from his flock of sheep in the Bethlehem hills to 
 pour the anointing oil on his head in prophecy 
 of the day when he should be king, David 
 was surrounded by enemies who were treach- 
 erous, cruel and powerful. Many times, like 
 a hunted fox, he was chased to some den or 
 cave on the mountain-side, and, like the Mes- 
 siah that was to come, had not where to lay 
 his head. But throughout all these experi- 
 ences, in his psalms, which are the breathing 
 out of his heart to Grod in bursts of thanks- 
 giving or appeal inspired by his own expe- 
 riences, you see revealed the secret of his lofty 
 courage and unquenchable enthusiasm. His 
 faith was not in man but in Glod. He was of- 
 
20 THE EXPECTANT CHEIST. 
 
 ten deceived and found those wjiom lie trusted 
 to be treacherous, but he did not despair be- 
 cause of that. At such a time he would cry 
 out: 
 
 " Put not your trust in princes, 
 Nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. 
 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth. 
 
 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, 
 Whose hope is in the Lord his God : 
 Which made heaven and earth, 
 The sea, and all that in them is ; 
 Which keepeth truth for ever : 
 Which executeth judgement for the oppressed; 
 Which giveth food to the hungry : 
 The Lord looseth the prisoners ; 
 The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind ; 
 The Lord raiseth up them that are bowed down ) 
 The Lord loveth the righteous ; 
 The Lord preserveth the strangers ; 
 He upholdeth the fatherless and widow ; 
 But the way of the wicked he turneth upside down. 
 The Lord shall reign for ever, 
 Thy God, Zion, unto all generations. 
 Praise ye the Lord." 
 
 What are you going to do with a man like 
 
 that?— when some powerful prince has gone 
 
 over to Saul, his enemy, and the news comes 
 
 like a blow straight between the eyes, and he 
 
 > turns himself about and takes up his harp and 
 
THE EXPECTANT CHRIST. 21 
 
 sings a song like that ? Nothing earthly can 
 daunt a man's enthusiasm whose expectancy 
 is not in man but in God! 
 
 We lose our enthusiasm because it has been 
 aroused by such little things, and is not nour- 
 ished by a sufficiently worthy purpose. 
 
 About twenty-five years ago a farmer's wife 
 up in the Province of Ontario was searching 
 the woods surrounding their farm for a cow 
 that had strayed, and, becoming thirsty, 
 stooped to get a drink from a spring. Slip- 
 ping, she fell against a small loose rock which 
 rolled to her feet and which proved to be a 
 twenty-pound nugget of almost pure gold. 
 Within six months of this discovery a city 
 called Bridgewater sprang into existence with 
 five thousand inhabitants. An immense quarry 
 of purest white marble was discovered near, 
 and the town was practically built of marble. 
 It is the only town in the world which has a 
 hotel, church, school-house, court-house, and 
 the great majority of its dwellings constructed 
 of white marble. Strange to say, although 
 enormous sums of money were spent in sink- 
 ing shafts, there was never enough gold dug 
 out of the entire district to pay for the sink- 
 ing of a single shaft, and to-day that marble 
 town is like Goldsmith's "Deserted Village," 
 
22 THE EXPECTANT CHBIST. 
 
 almost entirely without inhabitants. It was 
 built up on a wave of enthusiasm that had no 
 real gold-mine to back it. Who of us does 
 not remember such deserted enthusiasms 
 along the pathway of our own lives ? There 
 have been times when we have thrown our 
 whole selves into something that has seemed 
 of great importance and out of which we ex- 
 pected to obtain great good and blessing, but 
 no real gold of happiness came from it, and 
 to-day it is only a reminiscence of a deserted 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 But I am sure that for every sincere Chris- 
 tian there is one enthusiasm that does not 
 lose its interest as the years go on. Other 
 interests may come and go, but if you have 
 given your heart to Christ and come into per- 
 sonal communion and fellowship with him, 
 then the happiness of serving him and the 
 expectation of becoming like him and living 
 with him in glory forever not only does not 
 wane, but it waxes more splendid as the 
 things of earth lose their hold with the pass- 
 ing years. 
 
 All great Christian work must be accom- 
 plished in this spirit of expectancy. We 
 never can do our best when we go dragging 
 our feet along the ground. The best work of 
 
THE EXPECTANT CHRIST. 23 
 
 the world is done by people who walk on tip- 
 toes in expectant attitude, rejoicing in the 
 blessed privilege of Christian service. Such 
 an expectancy of victory in our work for the 
 Lord makes the smallest service worth doing. 
 Lucy Rider Meyer tells of one of the Chicago 
 deaconesses who was ill, and was taken to a 
 hospital. While there she was put under the 
 influence of chloroform for a surgical opera- 
 tion. As she began to recover consciousness, 
 she looked up into the physician's face and 
 murmured, "Doctor, what do you do with 
 your old clothes ? " She had her poor parish 
 on her mind, and was all the while expecting 
 a windfall in their direction. She had the 
 same spirit in her work that gave Spurgeon, 
 and has given every great soul-winner, his 
 greatest power — the expectancy of victory. 
 Spurgeon made a man feel while he preached 
 that the preacher expected he would then and 
 there give his heart to Christ. A young man 
 who visited London went to hear Spurgeon in 
 his great Tabernacle. He wrote home to his 
 mother that night, " They tell me that there 
 were six thousand people present; but it 
 seemed to me while he was preaching as 
 though I were the only one in the congrega- 
 tion, and he were pleading with me." God 
 
24 THE EXPECTANT CUBIST. 
 
 give us the same expectation of victory in the 
 performance of our daily duties ! 
 
 This holy expectancy keeps us from faint- 
 ing by the way. Well may David say, " I had 
 fainted, unless I had believed to see the good- 
 ness of the Lord in the land of the living"; 
 but the heart that was ready to faint was 
 nerved again by the conviction that it is not 
 the devil's world, but God's. Though wicked 
 men and devils may make a great deal of 
 noise, no real harm can come to those who 
 love God, and whose expectation is in him. 
 What a splendid illustration of this same kind 
 of holy expectancy of faith we had in Mr. 
 Gladstone in the great suffering through 
 which he passed in the closing days of his 
 life ! He courageously remarked one day to 
 one of his friends who was condoling with 
 him on his affliction, "It is a great lesson." 
 How that takes all the bitterness out of it! 
 He was not the plaything of some heartless 
 chance, or the foot-ball of some cruel fate, 
 but a pupil in God's school, and, just before 
 his graduation into the mysteries and glories 
 of the heavenly world, was learning a final 
 lesson at the feet of the Divine Teacher to 
 better fit him for the joys of heaven. 
 
 There must be some of us who need to learn 
 
The expectant chbist. 25 
 
 this lesson. Life is so full of sorrow and 
 trouble, and there are so many burdens that 
 make the heart weary and ready to faint, that 
 I doubt not some of you need this message 
 from God's Word to rouse your faithful ex- 
 pectancy from the things that try you and 
 trouble you to the God who is your sure ref- 
 uge and defence. When some unusual trouble 
 comes to us, which seems hard to bear, and, 
 it may be, has, so far as we can see, no rela- 
 tion to any wrong in us, it is hard to repress 
 a sense of injustice and very natural for us to 
 cry out in our smarting impatience, "What 
 have I done that I should have to bear this 
 cruel cross?" In such an hour we need to 
 catch sight of Jesus Christ our Saviour, who 
 pressed forward with joy toward the crown 
 of thorns and the cross on Calvary, because 
 his expectant soul saw the profound good that 
 was to come to humanity and was satisfied. 
 When we catch his spirit we will know that 
 trouble does not necessarily mean that we 
 have sinned, and most certainly not that God 
 is angry with us, or is punishing us ; but that 
 in his infinite love he is seeking through dis- 
 cipline and cultivation to develop in us the 
 noblest and grandest manhood or womanhood 
 of which we are capable. Let us have our eye 
 
26 THE EXPECTANT CHBIST. 
 
 on the splendid results that are to be attained 
 through this divine teaching and discipline. 
 
 How insignificant will these burdens seem 
 when the days of burden-bearing are over 
 and we stand to be crowned before our Lord ! 
 I was greatly impressed in reading a single 
 sentence by Mr. Landor, the explorer, who 
 was captured while trying to make an en- 
 trance into the sacred city of Thibet. He was 
 treated with the most awful cruelty, and un- 
 derwent as brutal torture as any man, per- 
 haps, ever experienced who survived to tell 
 the story. Finally he escaped to his friends, 
 his wounds were ministered to, and he had 
 opportunity for food and nursing. His nor- 
 mal high spirits, that were beginning to fade 
 away, came back as by magic. His sentence 
 which inspired and thrilled me was this : " It 
 is strange how one moment of happiness 
 makes you forget months of hardships and 
 sufferings." Mr. Landor is wrong. It is mar- 
 velous, but not strange. Grod has set the 
 world to that key. Joy shall forever conquer 
 pain. Let us lift our souls into this expectant 
 spirit. Let us rest our hearts on Grod's prom- 
 ises and live in that spirit day by day. We 
 are the children of God, and are marching 
 onward to eternal victory. One day in heaven 
 
THE EXPECTANT CHRIST. 27 
 
 will make us forget all the sorrowing experi- 
 ences of fourscore years of earthly life. The 
 times of burden-bearing and hardship will, as 
 we look back on them, catch a glow of beauty 
 from the lessons we have learned, and the 
 graces which have been developed in the 
 school of the Spirit and by the hard side of 
 life will never be remembered except with 
 thanksgiving for the wisdom and tenderness 
 with which Grod has led us. 
 
THE LOST CHRIST. 
 
 "Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and 
 his mother knew not of it. But they, supposing him to 
 have been in the company, went a day's journey; and 
 they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. 
 And when they found him not, they turned back again 
 to Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass, that 
 after three days they found him in the temple." — Luke 
 ii. 43-46. 
 
 Maky and Joseph set a bad example. Peo- 
 ple have been losing Christ in the city ever 
 since their day. Joseph and Mary lived in a 
 country town and not many people came to 
 the quaint little carpenter shop in Nazareth. 
 The city was so full of interest, and there were 
 so many things to see, that they forgot to take 
 special care to know that Christ was with the 
 company when they left. A great many peo- 
 ple bring Christ to the city with them, but 
 allow the new sights and interests which 
 crowd upon them in the city streets to draw 
 
 28 
 
THE LOST CHRIST. 29 
 
 their thoughts away from him. The jostling, 
 noisy crowd awes them, and they get timid 
 and afraid that somebody will notice their 
 great love for Christ, and they go feasting 
 their eyes on all the worldly things that are 
 new to them until they have lost Jesus out of 
 their hearts and lives. 
 
 The conductor and other railroad officials 
 at Oakland, California, were puzzled one day 
 over a mysterious passenger who arrived 
 there on the Central Overland train. A young 
 woman was found sitting among her bag- 
 gage in one of the cars when the train arrived, 
 and appeared disposed to remain. Being 
 informed that she was at the end of the 
 route, she looked up in a bewildered way and 
 tried to speak, but could not. After a time 
 she recovered her voice, but was unable to 
 give any account of herself. She could not 
 remember where she came from, nor whither 
 she was going, nor even her own name. She 
 made a brave mental struggle to answer the 
 questions put to her, but gave it up in despair. 
 She had apparently full possession of all her 
 faculties except that of memory, and that was 
 a complete blank. She was finally sent to a 
 hospital to see if the doctors could give her 
 any help, while the police sought for her 
 
30 THE LOST CHBIST. 
 
 friends. It was a pitiable condition, doubt- 
 less the result of some form of disease of the 
 brain. So utter a lapse of memory is uncom- 
 mon, but many people who have been brought 
 up in Christian homes, and have been taught 
 to read the Bible and pray and trust Christ 
 from childhood, come to the city from the 
 farm, or the village, and in worldly society, or 
 places of sinful amusement, seem to forget all 
 about the Christ whose gracious presence 
 made beautiful and sweet their childhood and 
 youth. 
 
 In the case of Joseph and Mary starting 
 home without Jesus we have a very striking 
 illustration of the fact that suppositions are 
 very poor things in which to trust. They sup- 
 posed he was with their company. They did 
 not take the trouble to make sure, but took it 
 for granted that he was along. After they 
 had made a whole day's journey from Jerusa- 
 lem their hearts began to get lonely for the 
 lad and they looked about to find him. Sup- 
 positions will not feed an aching heart. Home- 
 sickness and loneliness must cast eyes on the 
 object that is beloved. When they began to 
 search among the company of friends and 
 kinsfolk, it soon became apparent that their 
 easy-going suppositions had no base-work of 
 
THE LOST C HEIST. 31 
 
 fact, and that all day long they had been 
 going away from Jesus. They are a type of 
 many others in this respect. People go along 
 supposing it is all right, but get careless and 
 worldly and do not search their hearts daily 
 to find out whether Jesus is with them or not. 
 Sometimes when I ask a man if he is a Chris- 
 tian, he answers, "Oh, I suppose so." But 
 one must always doubt the background of 
 such an answer. The Christian religion is 
 one to be tested by experience. In its very 
 essence it is a personal friendship and com- 
 munion with Christ. I know whether I have 
 seen my friend to-day or not. If a man should 
 ask me whether I am living in close touch 
 and fellowship with some personal friend, I 
 would not be likely to say, "I suppose so." 
 I would know about it. Let us ask ourselves 
 some heart-searching questions concerning 
 our relation to Christ. When did you meet 
 Jesus last? When did you have deep and 
 tender conversation and communion with him 
 in your heart of hearts ? Or is it true that in 
 the multitude of other things you have for- 
 gotten about him, and have been going days 
 and weeks without calling yourself to account 
 and questioning whether Christ is really in 
 your company or not ? 
 
32 THE LOST CHBIST. 
 
 If Joseph and Mary set a bad example in 
 losing Christ, they certainly set a good exam- 
 ple in this: that they refused to go farther 
 away from the place where they lost him, but 
 started back at once for Jerusalem, deter- 
 mined to seek for him there until they found 
 him. They made a blunder, however, when 
 they got to the city. For three days they 
 went searching about the streets from one 
 place to another before they thought of going 
 to the temple. They might have found him 
 the very first day instead of the third if they 
 had gone straight to the temple. I suspect they 
 scarcely thought to find him when they went 
 there. Possibly they were so worn out and 
 disheartened that they went to the temple 
 with broken hearts, to pray to Grod for com- 
 fort, and to ask for divine wisdom in their 
 search. One thing is sure: whatever drove 
 them there drove them to Jesus. 
 
 The temple — the church — is still the best 
 place to find Jesus. Some of you have been 
 restless and uneasy because of your sins, and 
 you have been trying to find happiness and 
 peace. You have gone everywhere else search- 
 ing for rest, but the place to find it is here, 
 at the mercy seat. Wherever you find Jesus, 
 there you will find peace and rest. Christ is 
 
THE LOST CHRIST 33 
 
 always keeping tryst in the church where his 
 name is loved and honored, and at the altar 
 where men seek him with penitence and faith. 
 No matter how blindly you seek him here, if 
 you are only honestly feeling after him you 
 shall find him. 
 
 Horace Bushnell, the great New England 
 preacher, found Christ in a strange way. He 
 was a professor in Yale College, and lived a 
 very correct moral life, but knew nothing of 
 Christ or the joys of salvation. A great revi- 
 val began in New Haven, and swept through 
 the college. Scores of young men were being 
 converted. A large company of young men 
 who were BushnelPs pupils, and who greatly 
 admired him, stood out against the revival in- 
 fluence, following his example. He became 
 convinced that he was doing wrong in influ- 
 encing these young men against Christ. One 
 day he said to a fellow-professor: "I must 
 get out of this woe. Here I am, and these 
 young men hanging to me in their indiffer- 
 ence, amidst this universal earnestness." He 
 had long been troubled by doubts, and was 
 not sure whether he believed in Christ, or 
 even in a God. Finally he inquired of him- 
 self : " Is there, then, no truth I do believe ? 
 Yes, there is one. I never doubted a distinc- 
 
34 THE LOST CHBIST. 
 
 tion between right and wrong. Have I, then, 
 ever taken the principle of right for my law ? 
 No. Here, then, I will begin. If there is a 
 God, he is a right God. If I have lost him in 
 wrong, perhaps I will find him in right. I 
 will do the truth I know." He dropped on 
 his knees and began to pray, and as he prayed 
 light burst in through his darkness, and the 
 Christ appeared to him, as never before, " the 
 One altogether lovely ? That very night he sent 
 word to his students, and when they came he 
 told them of the great sunrise that had come to 
 his heart. They fell upon their knees around 
 him, sobbing and weeping, and were nearly all 
 converted. Some of the students afterwards 
 declared that so marvelous was his spiritual 
 power that first night of his new life that 
 when he left the room at the close of that 
 memorable service he seemed to be followed 
 by a blaze of glory. 
 
 The Christ that revealed himself to Bush- 
 nell when he thus searched after him, though 
 blindly, will also reveal himself to you if you 
 will only seek for him. 
 
 It is said that the most simple and kind- 
 hearted monarch in the world to-day is King 
 Oscar of Sweden. He is a tall and fine-look- 
 ing man, and is adored by the Swedes, who 
 
THE LOST CHRIST. 35 
 
 frequently find themselves brought into closer 
 and more familiar relations with him than is 
 generally the case between subjects and their 
 sovereign. The king has a day every week 
 when he is at home to any of his people who 
 care to come to see him. The only formality 
 consists in the visitor sending up his card, 
 whereupon he is immediately ushered into the 
 royal presence, and received with a simplicity 
 and friendliness which entirely do away with 
 nervousness. 
 
 Our King, Christ, is at home to the hum- 
 blest and poorest not only one day in the 
 week, but all the days. His ear is ever open 
 to hear our plea, his hand and smile are ever 
 ready to bless and comfort us. The only bar- 
 rier between our hearts and Christ is the sin 
 which keeps us from coming to him, There is 
 no sin which his love is not great enough to 
 pardon and forgive if we will come to him in 
 humility and trust. How foolish we would 
 consider any subject of the King of Sweden 
 who required royal help to relieve him from 
 some oppressive burden, who yet went on car- 
 rying his load in sorrow rather than avail 
 himself of the opportunity which that gracious 
 king has provided ! Yet that is what some of 
 you have been doing for a long time. You 
 
36 THE LOST CHRIST 
 
 have been carrying a heavy burden of sin and 
 sorrow, without necessity, for not a day has 
 passed but Christ has been willing to lift the 
 weight from your weary shoulders and dispel 
 the sorrow from your heart. I beg of you 
 who have lost the way to the mercy seat, 
 that you will find it again now! Come to 
 Christ's altar, confessing your sins, and Christ 
 will meet you there in gracious forgiveness. 
 
 There was once a remarkable picture in the 
 old Spanish cathedral in Seville. A thief who 
 feared neither God nor man, hoping to obtain 
 a large ransom for its recovery, cut this pic- 
 ture out of its frame and carried it away. 
 This bold and sacrilegious robbery served to 
 spread the fame of the picture to the ends of 
 the earth. It represented Saint Anthony of 
 Padua, kneeling in the cell of his convent, 
 waiting and praying, with arms outstretched, 
 that Mary, the mother of Jesus, would let him 
 clasp to his breast the little Christ-child. The 
 old monk is kneeling in the shadows on the 
 stone floor of his cell. The brown hood and 
 gray garb of the Capuchin friar have fallen 
 back from his eager, supplicating face. The 
 girdle of knotted cord hangs loosely at his 
 side. Out of the shadow deepening slowly 
 into the darkness of the cell his face shines 
 
THE LOST CUEIST. 37 
 
 with an anguish of pleading love. He looks 
 as if all his life had been sore and hard ; as if 
 he had wearied and was ready to faint by the 
 way ; as if his only hope of strength to rise up 
 and go on the hard path of life was in the joy 
 and strength that might come to him from 
 the smile and touch of the Christ-child. And, 
 as he gazes, he sees the clouds part, and down 
 through the radiance the virgin mother comes 
 with the child extended in her arms, as if she 
 would lay the little golden head, crowned 
 with its aureola of light, upon the old monk's 
 breast. 
 
 If I speak to any heart that is weary and 
 sad with the struggle of life, longing for some 
 new hope and inspiration that will give new 
 impulse and meaning to your human living, I 
 have the promises of Grod's Word to assure 
 you that as in the old legend God gave Jesus 
 to the waiting arms of the weary monk of 
 Padua, he will give him to your heart if you 
 make for him a place, and to whomsoever 
 Christ comes there will come renewal of hope. 
 Where Jesus is there is new life, new vigor, 
 and the heart is renewed again with the glory 
 of springtime. There is something glorious 
 in that statement of Jesus to the disciples, 
 that we must come to him like little children. 
 
38 THE LOST CHRIST. 
 
 Thank God, a man scarred by sin and broken 
 down by troubles may, through the mercy 
 and tenderness of God's grace, come back 
 again to the gentleness and hopefulness of 
 childhood. Come to the mercy seat, and find 
 again your lost childhood and your lost hope 
 in finding the lost Christ ! 
 
THE BORROWING CHRIST. 
 
 " The Lord hath need of him." — Mark xi. 3. 
 
 The ministry of Jesus Christ was drawing 
 to a close. The Passover day arrived, and the 
 Master sent his disciples into the city to 
 secure a colt upon which he was to ride into 
 Jerusalem. He told them to go to a certain 
 place and there they would find tied a young 
 colt on whose back no man had ever ridden. 
 They were to untie this colt and bring it to 
 him. If any one sought to interfere with 
 them, or inquired into their reason, they were 
 to simply say that he had need of it. In all 
 probability the colt belonged to some acquain- 
 tance or friend of Christ on whose kindness 
 and generosity he felt sure he could rely in a 
 time like this. They went as directed, and, on 
 telling the owner who it was that desired the 
 animal, were permitted to bring it to Christ. 
 We can well imagine that any friend of Jesus 
 
 39 
 
40 THE BOBBOWING CHBIST. 
 
 would have been very happy indeed to ac- 
 commodate him with so slight a loan of his 
 property. This incident may suggest a far 
 more important loan which Christ asks of 
 every one of us. The Lord hath need of us, 
 and of the treasures which we are able to put 
 at his disposal. We are usually accustomed 
 to look at it on the other side. Our own 
 needs are so great that prayer very often takes 
 the form simply of petition and appeal in 
 behalf of our own necessities. There is, how- 
 ever, something very inspiring and comforting 
 in the thought that he also has need of us. 
 
 The strong needs the weak as often as the 
 weak needs the strong. The little helpless 
 babe has need of the mother's brooding ten- 
 derness and the father's strong arm of protec- 
 tion, but the father and mother also have 
 need of the love and nestling trust of the little 
 child. Christ needs our love and devotion. 
 By every art of a great soul's tenderness he 
 has sought to draw us into secret prayer and 
 communion which are seasons of love-talk 
 with Christ. It is in such seasons of inner 
 fellowship that we gain those resources of 
 spiritual character and strength that make it 
 possible for us to help forward the work of 
 our Lord in public. As a tree has a large 
 
THE BORROWING CHRIST. 41 
 
 part of its life in the roots underground out 
 of sight, so every public deed of importance 
 has its background of invisible preparation. 
 Just now there is a good deal of speculation 
 in the newspapers about the naval battles of 
 the future, which they claim will be fought 
 under the water, out of sight. If that should 
 prove true it would only be in harmony with 
 what is true now of the greatest battles in 
 every one of our lives. For, after all, the 
 greatest struggles that any one of us know 
 are the invisible, un journalized battles that 
 are fought out in our hearts. 
 
 When you see a man or woman doing saintly 
 deeds of self-sacrificing devotion in the name 
 of Jesus, you may be sure that in secret places 
 they have given themselves to his divine 
 hand. Did you ever hear the chime of bells 
 ringing out some old hymn-tune from the 
 tower of a great cathedral and wonder how it 
 was played ? If you would see the musician 
 you must go into a little chime-room on the 
 ground floor, hidden away from public view, 
 and there, at a key-board looking very much 
 like that of an old-fashioned melodeon, you 
 will see possibly a young girl, playing away as 
 quietly as though she were playing the tune 
 for the hymn at evening prayers. But the 
 
42 THE BORROWING CHRIST. 
 
 electric current connected with her keys 
 touches the great bells in the cathedral tower 
 and sets them in motion and harmonious 
 ringing. No force is exerted more than the 
 organist uses in playing, but the bells peal 
 out a cheerful invitation to the passers-by. 
 The busy throng half pause, look up and re- 
 member that a service is about to begin; a 
 few turn their steps toward the church and 
 silently pass in and find others here and there 
 through the great auditorium, called out from 
 the rush of the street — souls that long for 
 quiet and for worship called together by the 
 music of the great bells overhead that was all 
 awakened by the touch of a girl's fingers on 
 the key-board in the chime-room. Every 
 human heart that surrenders itself to Jesus 
 Christ becomes a chime-room where invisible 
 keys are touched by the great Musician who 
 awakens a melody of life that is full of the 
 sweetness of heaven. 
 
 The Lord has need of our testimony — the 
 testimony of our cheerful faces and our happy 
 hearts. Not long ago a man of my acquain- 
 tance gave his heart to Christ, and has since 
 lived a very happy Christian, who for a long 
 time prior to his conversion had been so eaten 
 up by care and anxiety that he had been a 
 
THE BOBBOWING CUBIST. 43 
 
 dyspeptic. His religion had the happy effect 
 of healing not only his mind and heart, but 
 his body. "When he became happy in the 
 consciousness of the forgiveness of his sins, 
 and rejoiced in peace with God, his mind was 
 at rest. He quit worrying. He did not fret. 
 He slept well. He had a good appetite and 
 digested his food without difficulty. He had 
 a friend who was an infidel, who did not be- 
 lieve in the Bible, or in Christ, and who was 
 also a dyspeptic. They had been accustomed 
 to meet and lunch together in a restaurant. 
 When the skeptic saw that his friend's dys- 
 pepsia was gone he was anxious to know what 
 had cured him. And when he was told, with 
 a happy, sincere face behind it, that it was the 
 joyous heart that had come to him through 
 Jesus Christ, you may be sure that it aroused 
 that man's attention as a thousand sermons 
 from the pulpit never could have done, and 
 the skeptic has promised to go with his Chris- 
 tian friend to church, and give himself a fair 
 chance to meet with the same cure. There is 
 no such evidence of Christianity as the testi- 
 mony of a transformed life made happy by 
 the Saviour's presence. 
 
 Many years ago a distinguished physician 
 of Philadelphia left his house one morning 
 
44 THE BOBBOWING CHBIST. 
 
 and was hurrying down the street when he 
 noticed a peculiar and ferocious-looking man 
 whose gaze was fastened upon him. Being 
 one of the most kind and polite of men, he 
 smiled benignly, raised his hat, and passed on, 
 when suddenly he heard a shot. Turning, he 
 found that the stranger had just left his home 
 with the insane intention of killing the first 
 man he met. He was the first man ; but his 
 kind face and gentle smile had thrown the 
 man off his guard, and the next passer-by had 
 caught the bullet intended for him. That 
 smile and bow saved his life. 
 
 In the early days of the colonies in Amer- 
 ica, a gentleman upon the frontier was hunt- 
 ing with his friends, when he became separated 
 from them and completely lost his way. 
 Every effort to retrieve his steps led him still 
 farther into the wilderness, and night over- 
 took him in a dense forest. Overcome with 
 fatigue, he lay down under a tree and slept 
 heavily. In the morning he awoke with a 
 start, oppressed with that indescribable feel- 
 ing that some one was looking at him, and, 
 glancing up, saw that he was surrounded by 
 hostile Indians, and that the chief of the 
 band, in war-paint and feathers, was bend- 
 ing over him with bitter hate depicted in his 
 
THE BOBBOWING CHRIST. 45 
 
 features. He took in the situation at a glance 
 — knew his immediate danger, and had no 
 means of averting it; neither did he under- 
 stand a word of their language. But he was 
 self-possessed, knew the universal language 
 of nature, and believed that even under war- 
 paint and feathers "a man's a man for a' 
 that." He fixed his clear eye upon the Indian, 
 and — smiled ! Gradually the fierceness passed 
 away from the eye above him, and at last an 
 answering smile came over the face. Both 
 were men — both were brothers — and he was 
 saved ! The savage took him under his pro- 
 tection, brought him to his wigwam, and after 
 a few days restored him to his friends. His 
 kindly smile had saved his life. No man can 
 tell the power — or, rather, exaggerate the 
 power — of Christian good cheer — the power 
 of a human life that is completely surrendered 
 to Christ to reveal to men and women who are 
 in sorrow and discouragement and sin the 
 cheerfulness, the hopefulness, the infinite love 
 of Jesus Christ. In no way can we bless the 
 world so much as to lend ourselves to Jesus 
 for that purpose. 
 
 The Lord needs us to encourage and inspire 
 others with the hope of salvation. There was 
 sold the other day in London at a public 
 
46 THE BOBBOWING CHBIST. 
 
 auction the famous trumpet upon which Trum- 
 pet-Major Joy, of the Seventeenth Lancers, 
 sounded the order for the charge of the Light 
 Brigade at Balaklava. That little piece of 
 metal brought four thousand dollars because 
 of the famous charge which it once sounded. 
 But I would rather a thousand times use my 
 voice, whether in public or in private conver- 
 sation, to inspire some sin-discouraged soul to 
 begin its march toward heaven with faith in 
 Christ's love, than to blow the trumpet for a 
 thousand charges like that of the Light Brigade, 
 which sent them to death and disaster. For 
 when we use our voices as a trumpet for Jesus 
 Christ we never send men to death, but to life. 
 No other work will ever give you so much joy 
 and gladness as that. I knew a woman, a 
 faithful Christian, but one who was timid 
 about speaking to others concerning salva- 
 tion, who in the midst of a revival became 
 interested in a man who was deeply under 
 conviction of sin. Others pleaded with him, 
 but he stubbornly held out against the Spirit's 
 moving, and their pleading. Finally she sum- 
 moned up courage to whisper to him her timid 
 word of invitation, which seemed to be just 
 the trumpet-call he needed, and he surren- 
 dered himself to Christ. Afterwards when 
 
THE BORROWING CHRIST. 47 
 
 that man would rise to speak in the meeting 
 with a boldness of which she herself had 
 never dreamed, her face would light up with 
 joy, and his testimony was the sweetest mu- 
 sic to her ear, because he was her convert. 
 Christ had used her words for his salvation. 
 
 Let us remember that Christ needs us for 
 the salvation of those about us, to whom it is 
 possible for us to introduce him. 
 
 But if Christ needs us, how much more ap- 
 parent it is that we need him. Useless we are 
 without him. We get our value when we come 
 to him and yield ourselves to his hands. The 
 gold lying in the dirt and rock of the moun- 
 tains is as useless as any base metal ; but the 
 gold in the miner's hands, the gold in the mint 
 under the stroke of the die that stamps upon 
 it the nation's honor — how much dignity has 
 come to it now! Christ comes offering to 
 take you out of the mire and the clay, out of 
 the dirt and rock of sin ; to cleanse and purify 
 you from all the filth of evil ways; to put 
 upon you the badge of the cross, the insignia 
 of his own love ; to put his own good name 
 in your hands and send you forth to represent 
 him in bearing blessings to mankind. 
 
THE BLESSED KING. 
 
 " Hosanna ; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of 
 the Lord."— Mark xi. 9. 
 
 The Christian religion is a religion of enthu- 
 siasm. It is not mere cold logic of righteous- 
 ness and justice — it is righteousness glorified; 
 it is justice aglow with mercy. To be a 
 Christian is to be like Christ, and Christ is 
 humanity in earnest for goodness. There was 
 enthusiasm over the birth of Jesus. The an- 
 gels who came to sing the anthem about Jesus 
 to the shepherds were happy angels, filled to 
 overflowing with enthusiastic delight. They 
 could not contain their joy, but shouted aloud 
 their "Glory to God in the highest!" John 
 the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus, was a man 
 of great enthusiasm whose magnetic earnest- 
 ness was so contagious that it drew multitudes 
 out from the city into the wilderness to hear 
 his flaming words. Christ himself throughout 
 
 48 
 
THE BLESSED KING. 49 
 
 all his ministry gave to every one who came in 
 contact with him the impression that he was 
 an earnest, enthusiastic soul. He had the 
 quality, also, of arousing enthusiasm in others, 
 and on the day when he came into Jerusalem 
 to eat the Passover feast with his disciples his 
 friends gave vent to their loyalty and devotion 
 in shouts of praise, crying out their " Hosan- 
 nas ! " and casting their garments and palm- 
 branches in the way over which he was to 
 travel. Some people who were looking on, 
 who were great sticklers for the proprieties, 
 asked Jesus to forbid the people this extrav- 
 agant expression of their gladness, but the 
 Master refused to interfere with them. He de- 
 clared that it was natural and proper. That, 
 indeed, if they were to hold their peace the 
 very stones along the wayside would cry out 
 their praises unto his name. 
 
 I am very sure that many circles of modern 
 Christianity need to re-learn this great truth 
 that enthusiasm in Christian sendee and 
 praise is the normal and not the extraordi- 
 nary thing. Christianity is robbed of its 
 power to bless and comfort and save in many 
 churches, because it is shorn of the fervor 
 and pathos which rightfully belong to it. A 
 man is ever at his best in hours of enthusiasm 
 
50 THE BLESSED KING. 
 
 and devotion. If we were to choose a time 
 when we would like to have our personality 
 remembered by those who are dear to us, and 
 whose good opinion we most fondly crave, it 
 would be the time when we are mentally and 
 morally aroused to some high and holy pas- 
 sion for a noble cause. Charles Dickens, in 
 " David Copperfield," pictures the parting that 
 took place between the two young men, 
 Steerf orth and Copperfield. Young Steerf orth, 
 placing both his hands upon Copperfield's 
 shoulders, says : " Let us make this bargain ! 
 If circumstances should separate us, and you 
 should see me no more, remember me at my 
 best." The great novelist was true to human 
 nature when he put that sentence on the lips 
 of Steerforth. We all have a desire to be re- 
 membered at our best, and we are never at 
 our best except when we are enthusiastic. 
 
 Our Christianity is a religion not only of 
 truth and righteousness, but it is full of sing- 
 ing and praise. David's expression of salva- 
 tion from sin was : "He hath put a new song 
 in my mouth, even praise unto our God." The 
 great oratorios and the famous choruses have 
 all been inspired by the enthusiasm of the 
 Christian faith. The Christian soul bubbles 
 over in music and shoutings of thanksgiv- 
 
THE BLESSED KING. 51 
 
 ings. The poet gives a true insight into the 
 spirit of Christianity incarnate in a human 
 life in the verse: 
 
 u My life flows on in endless song 
 
 Above earth's lamentation ; 
 I catch the sweet though far-off hymn 
 
 That hails a new creation ; 
 The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart, 
 
 A fountain ever springing ; 
 All things are mine since I am his, 
 
 How can I keep from singing ■? " 
 
 Christ has this power of arousing the hu- 
 man soul to its loftiest courage and noblest 
 devotion. Every strong personality has power 
 to exalt or depress those who are weaker. In- 
 deed, we should each be astonished if we knew 
 the influence which we exert either in dis- 
 heartening and discouraging those whom we 
 meet in the most casual way, or in arousing 
 in them the spirit of hopefulness and good 
 cheer. Some people have the power to evoke 
 that which is best and strongest in every one 
 with whom they come in contact; others 
 again arouse that which is worst. 
 
 A teacher once asked her little scholars if 
 they wished to take part in a Fourth of July 
 celebration by marching in the procession. 
 She spoke happily of the music, the banners, 
 
52 THE BLESSED KING. 
 
 the crowd who would be looking on, and then 
 inquired, "How many will march ?" Every 
 hand went up. Then she changed her man- 
 ner and spoke in doleful tones of the long 
 dusty road, the heat, the loss of their dinner, 
 ending with the inquiry, " How many of you 
 really think you would like to march ? " Only 
 three or four hands went up, and they were 
 very timid and doubtful. Again with an ani- 
 mated voice she spoke of the bright side of 
 the occasion and of the beauty of keeping in 
 remembrance deeds of heroism, ending, " How 
 many will go ? " Every hand went up with a 
 will. The teacher was playing upon a mu- 
 sical instrument more susceptible than any 
 organ or piano. So it is that we are always 
 either cursing or blessing one another. Christ 
 is the matchless leader of humanity because 
 he has the power to arouse every noble quality 
 into its best life. 
 
 Christ has the power to cause common duties 
 to appear glorious with the glow of romantic 
 and heroic motives. Gloethe tells the story of 
 a rude fisherman's hut which was transformed 
 to silver by the placing in it of a little silver 
 lamp. It was a homely old place, built of 
 logs, but in his fairy story its rude floors, its 
 heavy doors, its unsightly roof and ugly fur- 
 
THE BLESSED KING, 53 
 
 niture were all transformed to shining silver 
 by that magic lamp. What was only a crea- 
 tion of Goethe's imagination is more than 
 realized in actual fact when a human heart 
 opens the door to the incoming of Christ. Not 
 only is the entire character transformed, so 
 that the evil things that were once loved are 
 now loathed and hated, while the good things 
 that were once indifferent or undesirable are 
 now admired and loved, but the whole life is 
 transformed when one comes into fellowship 
 with Jesus Christ. Duties that have seemed 
 unlovely and repulsive when looked at from a 
 distance by a heart unchanged by Christian 
 love, are transfigured with glory when they 
 are performed for Christ's sake. Christian 
 love is a magic lamp which changes all these 
 hard restraints and burdens into the silver of 
 loving service. The Christian comes to know 
 that even drudgery is blessed if it strengthens 
 his soul in patience and enlarges his nature in 
 brotherly sympathy. Hardships and trying 
 experiences lose all their bitterness when he 
 can look at them as Paul looked at his scars, 
 and count them "the marks of the Lord 
 Jesus." 
 
 It is but a step from laughter to tears, from 
 the shouts of Christian joy to the passionate 
 
54 THE BLESSED KING. 
 
 tenderness that weeps over the sinful, and we 
 see both in this picture of Christ. One mo- 
 ment the glad shout of " Hosanna ! " is ringing 
 in his ears, and the smile of loving apprecia- 
 tion is on his face; the next moment his 
 glance has taken in the wicked city that had 
 rejected him and was to crucify him, and in 
 an agony of grief the tears pour like rain down 
 his cheeks as he cries out, " How oft would I 
 have gathered your children together, as a 
 hen gathereth her brood under her wings, but 
 ye would not ! " 
 
 Surely there is nothing more blessed about 
 Jesus Christ than his infinite compassion 
 toward those whose sins and hardness of 
 heart are bringing them into sorrow and de- 
 spair. A Jewish surgeon was working among 
 the wounded soldiers in the hospital just after 
 the battle of Gettysburg. He was about to 
 operate on a young man who declined to in- 
 hale chloroform to deaden the pain. When 
 the doctor urged it, fearing he would not live 
 through the operation, the young soldier said : 
 "I have a Saviour whom I love and trust. 
 He will support me." 
 
 For such a faith the Jewish doctor could 
 feel no sympathy. To him it was supersti- 
 tion, and homage to Christ was only a foolish 
 
THE BLESSED KING. 55 
 
 idolatry. He suggested to his patient that he 
 might at least take a little brandy. 
 
 The wounded man looked up with mingled 
 pleading and resolve in his eyes. " My father 
 died a drunkard," he said, " and my mother 
 has prayed ever since that I might be kept 
 from indulging in strong drinks. I am nine- 
 teen years old, and I do not know the taste of 
 liquor. I suppose I must die soon, and be in 
 the presence of Christ. Would you have me 
 leave the world for his presence intoxicated ? n 
 
 The surgeon was silenced. As he said years 
 afterwards, "I hated Jesus, but I respected 
 the boy." He did what he had never done be- 
 fore — sent for the chaplain of the regiment, 
 who knew the young soldier and could talk 
 with him. He saw the brave boy give the 
 chaplain his Bible, and heard his last message 
 to his mother. 
 
 " I am ready now, doctor." 
 
 During the operation the young hero lay 
 whispering prayers and murmuring the name 
 of his Master. 
 
 Five days passed, and there was some hope 
 of life. Then a change came. The surgeon 
 was suddenly sent for. 
 
 "Doctor, it's nearly over. I want you to 
 stay and see me die. You do not love my 
 
56 THE BLESSED KING. 
 
 Saviour; but I have been praying that he 
 would teach yon to love him." 
 
 But the doctor would not remain. He 
 could not bear to see the Christian boy die 
 rejoicing in the love of One whom he had 
 been taught to hate. 
 
 The heroic youth soon breathed his last, 
 and the surgeon tried to forget him. But the 
 young soldier's dying words followed and dis- 
 tressed him for years, till one evening he went 
 into a Christian meeting, determined to sur- 
 render his heart to Christ. 
 
 At that meeting an elderly lady told of her 
 boy, "now in heaven," who had lost a limb 
 and his life at Gettysburg, and how he had 
 prayed for his surgeon, who was an enemy to 
 Christ. The Jew started to his feet as soon 
 as she had done. " My sister," he said, " the 
 blessed Lord heard your dear boy's prayer. I 
 am that surgeon, and since I came into this 
 meeting I have been led to love him whom I 
 once hated." 
 
 Our blessed King is as full of tenderness 
 and compassion to you as he was to that Jew- 
 ish surgeon, and if you will come back from 
 your wandering, you will find home and wel- 
 come in his heart. 
 
 There is a quaint old custom which still 
 
THE BLESSED KING. 57 
 
 clings to the House of Commons in England 
 and marks the termination of its every sitting. 
 The moment the House is adjourned, stento- 
 rian-voiced messengers and policemen cry out 
 in the lobbies and corridors: "Who goes 
 home \ " u Who goes home ? " For centuries, 
 during the sessions of Parliament, these mys- 
 terious words have sounded every night 
 through the Palace of Westminster. The cus- 
 tom dates from a time when it was necessary 
 for members to go home in parties accom- 
 panied by soldiers for common protection 
 from the highwaymen who infested the streets 
 of London. But though that danger has long 
 since passed away, the question, " Who goes 
 home f " is still asked, night after night. 
 
 I sound that old question in your ears. 
 Many a danger lurks beside the way of life, 
 and those who go without a guide and with- 
 out protection are ever and anon beset and 
 destroyed. But Christ will guide you home. 
 Who goes home ? 
 
THE COST OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 " For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth 
 not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have 
 sufficient to finish it ? Lest haply, after he hath laid the 
 foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it 
 begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and 
 was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make 
 war against another king, sitteth not down first, and 
 consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet 
 him that cometh against him with twenty thousand ? Or 
 else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth 
 an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So like- 
 wise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that 
 he hath, he cannot be my disciple." — Luke xiv. 28-33. 
 
 This passage with its striking illustrations 
 is very pertinent and interesting at the present 
 moment. At this season of the year, when on 
 every hand the workmen are digging deep 
 that they may lay the solid foundations for 
 new buildings, and in the present emergency 
 when the whole world is taking interest in the 
 war-cloud which hangs over our nation, we 
 
 58 
 
THE COST OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE. 59 
 
 are able to appreciate both of these significant 
 figures. The parable suggests the earnest and 
 serious character of a Christian life. It is not 
 a mere matter of impulse, or simply turning 
 over a new leaf, the signing of a pledge or 
 making of a new resolution. It is far more 
 important than that. Christ compares it to 
 the building of a tower, or the going to war, 
 and advises that upon entering upon so im- 
 portant a matter it is highly essential that a 
 man shall sit down and count the cost, and 
 fully make up his mind to the thoroughgoing 
 conditions which are at the foundation of a 
 Christian life. It is my desire to briefly, but 
 frankly, count the cost with some of you who 
 have not yet entered on a Christian life. 
 
 First, it should be understood that to be- 
 come a Christian costs every sin that you 
 have. Sins must be not only deplored and 
 repented of in the sense that you feel sorry for 
 and regret them, but they must be resolutely 
 thrown overboard. It is easy to see what 
 Christ thinks of it when he declares in sub- 
 stance that if you have a sin that is as dear 
 to you as a right eye, you must pluck it out 
 and cast it away ; or if it be dear as a right 
 arm, you must deliberately cut it off and bury 
 it out of sight forever. Christ never lowers 
 
60 THE COST OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 the standard of discipleship. He always de- 
 mands of everybody as the very first condition 
 of conversion a thorough repentance of every 
 known sin. 
 
 Pezon, the great French lion-tamer, owed 
 his success to the use of electricity in taming 
 his beasts. When a wild lion or tiger was to 
 be tamed, live wires were first rigged up in 
 the cage between the tamer and the animal. 
 After a time Pezon would turn his back, and 
 the treacherous creature would invariably 
 make a leap at him, but on encountering the 
 charged wires would receive a paralyzing 
 shock. This lesson rarely had to be repeated, 
 as the mysterious shock was not readily for- 
 gotten. There have been many efforts in the 
 past to tame the human soul and give peace 
 to the human heart in some such way as that, 
 but they have always failed. Christ's way is 
 not to frighten the appetites and lusts and 
 passions of sinful human nature into an arti- 
 ficial docility, but to cleanse the heart of every 
 evil thing. Christ met many people in his 
 ministry who were so possessed by evil spirits 
 that every form of discipline and punishment 
 had failed to heal them or tame them, but 
 when he had bidden the evil spirits depart 
 they became his obedient and loving disciples 
 
THE COST OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE, 61 
 
 If you would be a Christian, decide at once to 
 cut loose from every sin. Only in that way 
 may you have the blessings of forgiveness 
 and the joy and gladness of the Christian 
 life. 
 
 To be a Christian will cost you, also, the 
 giving up of your self -righteousness. If ever 
 a man could plead his self-righteousness, it 
 would have been the rich young ruler who 
 came to Christ claiming that he had kept all 
 ten of the commandments, according to the 
 law of Moses, from his youth up, and whose 
 life was so correct and beautiful in many 
 ways that Jesus looking on him loved him. 
 But Christ saw that he based his great hope of 
 happiness upon the comforts that came to him 
 from his earthly possessions, and told him that 
 he must sell all that he had and give to the poor 
 and follow him. Correct as the young man 
 thought he was, when it really came to the 
 point of going out from his beautiful home 
 and sharing the wandering fate of Jesus, he 
 went away with a frown on his brow. The 
 trouble was that down at the heart, under- 
 neath all the pleasant exterior, he was proud 
 and self-willed and would not surrender his 
 will in obedience to Christ. 
 
 There is in the North Sea an island called 
 
62 THE COST OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 Keldive, which contains perhaps the most 
 curious lake in the world. The surface of its 
 waters is quite fresh, and supports fresh-wa- 
 ter creatures and fresh- water vegetation ; but 
 deep down it is as salt as the bluest depths of 
 the sea, and sponges and salt-water fish live 
 and have their being there, to the despair of 
 the scientists. Nansen found much the same 
 thing during his drift in the Fram across the 
 polar sea. He was often able to find per- 
 fectly fresh water on the surface of the sea, 
 for drinking purposes, while a few feet un- 
 derneath it would be the saltest brine. There 
 are many people whose hearts are like that. 
 They have grown up in the midst of Christian 
 civilization, and have been so influenced by 
 Christian standards in conversation and con- 
 duct that many people taking only casual 
 observation imagine that their goodness is as 
 true as if they were sincere Christians. Some- 
 times these people are very self-complacent 
 about themselves and very proud of their own 
 morality. They congratulate themselves that 
 they are as good as their genuine, whole- 
 hearted Christian neighbors. But it is all on 
 the surface, though often unconsciously so. 
 Let some sudden emergency arise, let some 
 great temptation, or heart-probing trial, 
 
THE COST OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE. 03 
 
 awaken the profound depths of the soul, and 
 up through this sweet surface sentiment that 
 has seemed so true will boil the salt brine of 
 a sinful and selfish heart. Be sure that what 
 the heart is in its depths it will some time be 
 throughout. Christ saves by cleansing the 
 whole heart fountain. Make the fountain 
 pure and all the streams that flow from it 
 will be clean and sweet. If the heart is pure 
 throughout you may stir the waters of life to 
 the very bottom in the stress of trial and 
 temptation, and you will bring up nothing 
 but the life-giving water. 
 
 To become a Christian costs a public confes- 
 sion of faith in Christ, and a brave and honest 
 following after Christ throughout our lives. 
 To be a Christian is to be a sincere and lov- 
 ing friend of Christ and have a willingness to 
 share his fate. While Captain Dreyfus, the 
 disgraced French army officer, is passing his 
 days in maddening solitude on Devil's Island, 
 his wife is making every effort to join him, 
 that she may share his fate. The political 
 prisoners of France who are sent into exile 
 are usually accorded the privilege of having 
 their wives with them if they so desire, and 
 many a brave Frenchwoman has given up 
 home and friends, and has sacrificed every- 
 
64 THE COST OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 thing to be near her husband in his time of 
 tribulation. Although Captain Dreyfus is be- 
 ing treated with the most horrid cruelty, being 
 kept in an iron cage, like a wild beast, cut off 
 entirely from communication with the out- 
 side world, his wife is not only willing but 
 eager to share her husband's lot, and is fully 
 prepared to submit to the same rigorous dis- 
 cipline as that imposed upon him. How soon 
 we could capture the world for Christ if every 
 man and woman who professed discipleship to 
 him were as thoroughly devoted and faithful 
 as this heroic woman is to her husband ! Yet 
 the relation of husband and wife is the very 
 illustration that Christ uses to show the rela- 
 tion between himself and the church. In be- 
 coming a Christian we pledge to the Lord an 
 open and faithful fellowship and service. The 
 church is often hindered in its progress by 
 the compromising entanglements which its 
 members make with the world. We have no 
 right to desire to be more popular and suc- 
 cessful than is compatible with being perfectly 
 true to Christ. If Jesus must go into exile, 
 we should be ready to go with him, with brave 
 hearts and shining faces. 
 
 While a Christian life brings infinite peace, 
 and the only deep and abiding peace which it 
 
THE COST OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE. 65 
 
 is possible for us to have in this world, it also 
 calls us to be soldiers and enter into war. We 
 are to fight the devil, and are to seek to de- 
 stroy his works. We can make no compro- 
 mise with any sin that fights Christ or hurts 
 mankind without dishonor to our Lord. 
 
 It is this earnest, thoroughgoing, heroic life 
 to which I call you when I ask you to be a 
 Christian. I do not mean any mere play on 
 the surface of things; I am asking you to 
 summon all the forces of your will and sur- 
 render all that you have and are to Jesus Christ. 
 And I stand ready to prove to you that, cost- 
 ing as much as it does, it is the most profitable 
 investment that any man can make. All that 
 you have to give up is either your sins which 
 are harmful to you, or some temporary advan- 
 tage which will soon pass away, while the 
 blessings which will come to you as a Chris- 
 tian will endure forever. 
 
 The tenure by which we hold earthly power 
 and riches is very frail. There was a strange 
 auction in London the other day. The trea- 
 sures to be sold were the mummies of three 
 royal personages. One of these was what was 
 left of the mortal form of a once proud queen 
 of Babylon in the palmy days of its national 
 glory; one was Philadelphus, the son of the 
 
66 THE COST OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 greatest of the Ptolemies; and the third was a 
 once powerful king of Assyria. Accompany- 
 ing the muminies were letters from Dr. Birch 
 of the British Museum and other famous 
 scholars, which certified to these facts. They 
 were all three sold for seventy-five guineas. 
 Once they could make the whole proud world 
 tremble at a frown or the wave of a hand; but 
 now, thousands of miles from their native land, 
 their poor dust, torn from the gorgeous tombs 
 in which they were once laid with pomp and 
 glory, has become goods for auction among 
 curiosity-seekers. It is only the treasures of 
 the soul that last. Death has no power to 
 bring them to the dust. 
 
 The Queen of Austria is said to be mistress 
 of the finest collection of jewels in Europe. 
 The jeweled arms are quite magnificent, among 
 them being the lance of St. Maurice, blazing 
 with precious stones. The regalia of Charle- 
 magne, taken from his tomb at Aix-la-Cha- 
 pelle, is also in her jewel-box. She is a great 
 lover of emeralds, and one of her prettiest 
 ornaments is a watch composed of one dark 
 emerald hanging on a chain of emeralds and 
 diamonds, which was a gift from the late Shah 
 of Persia. God compares those who yield their 
 hearts to him to serve him loyally to crown 
 
THE COST OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE. 67 
 
 jewels, and assures us that out of all the beau- 
 tiful things in the universe he has chosen 
 loving human hearts to be his peculiar treasure 
 " when he cometh to make up his jewels." All 
 that we can give up is a small price to pay for 
 the immortal glory that shall come to us as 
 the crown jewels of the heavenly world. 
 
 Death loses all its shadows to the soul that 
 has lost all, and gained all, for Christ's sake. 
 As Frances Willard lay quietly waiting for 
 her summons, on the morning of her depar- 
 ture, she said suddenly: "Come, dear, sing 
 my favorite hymn." And Miss Gordon sang, 
 "Gently, Lord, oh, gently lead us." After- 
 wards a friend came in, and she said, with a 
 happy smile: "Dear Clara, I have crept in 
 with mother." Her faithful heart had never 
 ceased to yearn for this dear mother who had 
 passed to the better land before her. It was 
 the morning after the explosion of the battle- 
 ship Maine, and the air was full of wars and 
 rumors of wars; but these did not reach that 
 calm death-bed. Asking Miss Gordon to take 
 her picture of Hoffman's "Christ" to Lady 
 Henry Somerset, she said : " Have engraved on 
 the top of it, i Only the golden rule of Christ 
 can bring the golden age of man.' Below en- 
 grave, ' Neither do I condemn thee: go, and 
 
68 THE COST OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 sin no more.'" A little later, smiling upon 
 those around her, she uttered her last words : 
 " How beautiful to be with God ! " Surely 
 Frances Willard found that the Christian life 
 was worth all it cost and a thousand times 
 more, and it shall be so to every one of you 
 who will pay the price of a whole-hearted sur- 
 render of yourself to Jesus. 
 
THE CORNER-STONE OF A 
 NOBLE LIFE. 
 
 " Now therefore ye are no more strangers and for- 
 eigners, but fellow -citizens with the saints, and of the 
 household of God ; and are built upon the foundation of 
 the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the 
 chief corner-stone." — Ejph. ii. 19, 20. 
 
 Jesus Christ is the foundation of all that 
 is noblest and best in our human lives. When 
 a man becomes a Christian he comes into close 
 relation with the best company, whether in 
 history, or literature, or among living men, 
 that the world has ever known. Paul puts 
 this thought very strongly here. In becom- 
 ing Christians we become fellow-citizens with 
 such men as Enoch, who walked with Grod; 
 as Abraham, who was the friend of God; as 
 Joseph, the wise and heroic statesman, whose 
 bough of humanity ran over the wall in abun- 
 dant blessing to his age. We become brothers 
 of such men as Moses, who chose rather to 
 
 69 
 
70 THE COBNEB-STONE 
 
 suffer affliction with the people of God than 
 to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season ; we 
 join in the anthem of confidence in God with 
 Miriam, the sweet singer of Israel; we take 
 our stand with Daniel, who could in his youth 
 keep sober in the midst of a drunken court, 
 and as a consequence could look a lion out 
 of countenance in his old age. The Christian 
 has fellowship with such heroes as the three 
 Hebrew princes who dared the king's furnace 
 rather than worship his image. Esther, the 
 heroine of her age, and Ruth, the sweet em- 
 bodiment of womanly devotion and fidelity, 
 become our sisters. Elijah and Elisha are 
 fellow-citizens with us. David and Isaiah and 
 Malachi, and Paul and Peter and John, and 
 all the long line of prophets and apostles and 
 singers of the faith are in the goodly company 
 of our holy brotherhood. 
 
 If we come down to our own day, it be- 
 comes more apparent still that the best com- 
 pany in the world is to be found among 
 those who have come into fellowship with 
 Jesus Christ. A heart and life built on Jesus 
 as its foundation is introduced into the com- 
 munion of the noblest spirits that the world 
 knows. A few years ago, when Dr. Talmage 
 visited Mr. Gladstone, who has but recently 
 
OF A NOBLE LIFE. 71 
 
 passed so triumphantly beyond, he asked him 
 if the passage of the years confirmed or 
 weakened his faith in Christianity. The two 
 men were walking together on a hillside 
 when the question was put. The greatest of 
 modern Englishmen, and the greatest citizen 
 of the world for a generation, halted at the 
 question, and looking his visitor in the eyes 
 with earnestness and solemnity replied : " Dr. 
 Talmage, my only hope for the world is in 
 the bringing of the human mind into contact 
 with the divine revelation. Nearly all the 
 men at the top in our country are believers 
 in the Christian religion. The four leading 
 physicians of England are devout Christian 
 men. I have been forty-seven years in the 
 Cabinet of my country, and during those times 
 I have been associated with sixty of the chief 
 intellects of the century, and I can think of 
 but five of the sixty who were not professors 
 of the Christian religion, and those five were 
 all respecters of it. Talk about the questions 
 of the day ! There is only one question, and 
 that is how to apply the gospel to all circum- 
 stances and conditions. It can, and will, cor- 
 rect all that is wrong. I am, after a long and 
 busy life, more than ever confirmed in my 
 faith in Christianity." 
 
72 TH£ CORNER-STONE 
 
 There is something very striking in the way 
 in which Paul sets forth the truth that Jesus 
 Christ is not only the foundation of our hope, 
 and of all nobility of life, but of the prophets 
 and the apostles also. He was the burden of 
 their message and the center of their hope as 
 he is of ours. We have here the order in 
 which we come to God : we find the prophets 
 in the Bible, and they bring us to Christ, and 
 Christ brings us to the mercy seat — to the 
 heart of our Heavenly Father. Jesus Christ 
 is the foundation-stone of our love for the 
 Bible. As we come to love him we love his 
 words and the whole book which tells about 
 him and makes clear his message to humanity. 
 There was a certain literary woman who stood 
 high among book critics. One day, in review- 
 ing a book, she said : " Who wrote this book ? 
 It is beautifully written, very nice, but there 
 is something wrong here and there ! " She 
 proceeded to criticise it with a good deal of 
 severity. Some months afterwards this lady 
 became acquainted with the author of the 
 book, fell in love with him, and married him. 
 She took the same book up again, and said : 
 " What a beautiful book ! What a nice book ! 
 There are some mistakes here and there, but 
 they ought to be overlooked." The book was 
 
OF A NOBLE LIFE. 73 
 
 just the same as it had been before, but the 
 critic had changed. When she began to love 
 the author it changed her attitude toward the 
 book. So it is with us about the Bible. Peo- 
 ple do not love the Bible because they do not 
 love Christ. But you never yet heard of a 
 man or woman who came to love Christ sin- 
 cerely to whom the Bible did not become 
 precious. 
 
 Christ is the foundation motive of all that 
 is noblest and sweetest in men's conduct 
 toward each other. A very beautiful illustra- 
 tion of this is seen in the hearty letter of com- 
 mendation received from the Roman Catholic 
 priest who was chaplain of the wrecked bat- 
 tle-ship Maine concerning the character of 
 Carlton Jencks, one of the seamen who went 
 down to death in the waters of Havana har- 
 bor. He was a member of the Christian En- 
 deavor Society, but his love for Christ made 
 him seek to help the Roman Catholic sailors 
 on the ship, and help the priest of that faith 
 in building up what was best in their hearts 
 and lives. After the explosion the priest 
 wrote home to the dead sailor's friends : " He 
 was one of our best men, and, although not of 
 my belief, was one of my greatest comforts. 
 He was a zealous promoter of the evening 
 
74 THE COBNER-STONE 
 
 services on the ship." The religion of this 
 disciple of Jesus Christ made him seek to be 
 a helpful Christian brother among these men 
 whose faith was different from his own. He 
 helped to get his messmates together when 
 the chaplain was waiting to give them reli- 
 gious instruction. So sincere and genuine 
 was he in this that the priest says : " Our men 
 admired him for his attention to religious 
 duties." In every land and every clime where 
 Christianity has gone it has had that kind of 
 effect on the hearts of those who have really 
 built upon Jesus Christ as the corner-stone of 
 their living. 
 
 After one of England's wars in Africa was 
 over, Lord Napier, being about to leave Africa, 
 found he had a soldier with a broken leg, and 
 did not know what to do with him. He was 
 too sick to take along with them, and he did 
 not like to leave him among barbarians. So 
 he said: "Fetch him along anyhow; better 
 have him die on the way than leave him among 
 these savages." They took him part of the 
 way, but the poor man became so very ill they 
 could not take him any farther. So Lord 
 Napier went to a woman who had caught 
 some little glimpse of the divine life and was 
 distinguished on account of it for her kind- 
 
OF A NOBLE LIFE. 75 
 
 ness, and said to her : " We have with us a 
 soldier with a broken leg, and we must leave 
 him. "Will you take care of him?" and he 
 offered her ten times as much money as could 
 have been expected, hoping by excess of pay 
 to secure for him great kindness. And what 
 do you suppose she said to him ? She said : 
 " No ! I will not take care of this sick soldier 
 for the money you offer me. I have no need 
 of the money. My father and mother have 
 a comfortable tent, and I have a good tent, 
 and why should I take the money ? I will 
 not take care of the soldier for the money, 
 but if you will leave him here I will take 
 care of him for the sake of the love of 
 GrodP' That is the supreme motive of the 
 most splendid deeds that are being done on 
 the earth to-day. Men are bearing heavy 
 burdens with cheerful hearts, and delicate 
 women are going into attics and cellars of city 
 slums seeking out the sick and the poor, the 
 broken-hearted and the sinful, with faces 
 aglow with the light of heaven — not for 
 money, for ten thousand deeds are done every 
 day that no money could hire — for the sake 
 of the love of G-od and of his Son Jesus Christ ! 
 Jesus Christ is the corner-stone of our con- 
 fidence and trust in Grod. It is only when we 
 
76 THE COBNEB-STONE 
 
 stand upon Christ as the solid rock under our 
 feet that God changes from the Monarch and 
 the Ruler before whom we tremble, and comes 
 to be the tender, loving Heart to whom we 
 may say in trustful confidence, " Our Father 
 who art in heaven." St. Luke tells us that 
 when those first seventy disciples were sent 
 out to preach, and had come back with the 
 wonderful story of the divine blessing that 
 had attended their mission, the heart of Jesus 
 was filled with joy as he listened to them, and 
 he cried out aloud in his thanksgiving to God: 
 " I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and 
 earth, that thou hast hid these things from the 
 wise and prudent, and hast revealed them 
 unto babes." Mark Guy Pearse, commenting 
 on this utterance of Christ, says that while 
 none of us can touch the sky, all of us can 
 touch the ground, and remarks on the bless- 
 edness of the fact that the highest things 
 of God and the greatest good of life do not 
 require men of genius and vast ability, but 
 are put within the reach of the lowly and the 
 lowest. The life of God in the soul is like the 
 light of the sun that bathes the hill-tops with 
 glory, but also creeps down into the valley 
 and fills the buttercup with gold up to the 
 brim ? and unfolds the daintiness of the daisy. 
 
OF A NOBLE LIFE. 11 
 
 In these days when so much is made of the 
 intellect it is blessed to know that the great 
 mysteries of life are those which we mastered 
 as little children. None of us ever went to 
 school to learn the art of eating and drinking, 
 of breathing and sleeping, and yet if we had 
 not learned these we could not have learned 
 anything else. Mr. Pearse says he likes to 
 think of some old German professor sitting 
 down amid his dusty volumes in the sacred 
 stillness of his study, to master the English 
 language. How he is perplexed with the law- 
 lessness of our pronunciation! He does not 
 know how to put his tongue to his teeth to 
 get off many of those difficult words. At 
 last he thinks he knows enough to visit Eng- 
 land, and reaches the shores of that land. 
 He speaks what he thinks is English, though 
 the people who hear him think it is German. 
 But into his presence there trips some bright- 
 faced little girl of five or six years. She has 
 no trouble with this language of ours. She 
 knows how to put her tongue to her teeth; 
 she can prattle away without a moment's hesi- 
 tation. Why ? She has not learned it with a 
 grammar and a dictionary ; it is her mother 
 tongue. She lay as a little one in her mother's 
 arms, and looked .into her mother's face, and 
 
78 THE CORNER-STONE 
 
 watched her mother's lips, and listened to her 
 mother's voice, and learned to talk. Alas ! 
 there are a great many people who are trying 
 to find Grod with a grammar and a dictionary! 
 But a man can never learn to say " Our Father 
 who art in heaven " in that way. It is in the 
 arms of the shepherd Christ, who brings us 
 back again to the spirit of childhood, that we 
 learn to say those blessed words of affection 
 and confidence. 
 
 Christ is the corner-stone of the only thor- 
 oughly well-rounded and complete human life. 
 Man was made in the image of God, and 
 though he wanders far away, and is awfully 
 marred and scarred by sin, we are many times 
 astonished at the sudden flashes of nobler life 
 in him which tell of his divine lineage. But 
 all such flashes are evanescent and transient 
 except when rising upon the solid foundation 
 of Jesus Christ. He alone has power to trans- 
 form the nature and bring a man's entire 
 being into submission to the heavenly life. 
 Many who build upon frail foundations may do 
 occasionally beautiful deeds, but they relapse 
 again into the quicksands of sin. Only Christ 
 can [keep a human life ever strong and steady 
 like the lighthouse flame that streams forth from 
 above a foundation built into the solid rock. 
 
OF A NOBLE LIFE. 79 
 
 In a hotel parlor in New Orleans, recently, 
 a number of ladies and gentlemen were en- 
 gaged in conversation. Suddenly a very re- 
 pulsive-looking man came into the parlor. He 
 had a disagreeable and forbidding face and 
 manner. His countenance bore the marks of 
 dissipation and degradation, and his eyes were 
 bleared. He was ugly both in person and 
 movement, and when he took a chair the con- 
 versation ceased, and there was an unpleasant 
 constraint as if an evil spirit were present. 
 The ugly man remained seated, with his head 
 bowed down, frowning at space. Little by 
 little the conversation began to revive, but 
 attention never completely left the ugly man. 
 Suddenly he arose from his chair. Every eye 
 was glancing furtively after him as he walked 
 nonchalantly to the piano and opened it. 
 There was a death-like silence. " Who asked 
 for music ? " was the involuntary thought, but 
 no one had the courage to speak to the intru- 
 der. He ran his fingers carelessly over the 
 keys and his ugliness disappeared. From a 
 demon he was become an angel. He seemed 
 to be playing to please his own fancy, wan- 
 dering without effort from one theme into 
 another. The listeners were charmed; tears 
 came to the eyes of the ladies. The music 
 
80 THE COBNEB-STONE 
 
 was telling of life: its joys and sorrows; of 
 deep woods with, the sun in lace- work on the 
 ground, and birds singing in the trees; of 
 moonlight in the far-away, dreamy places ; of 
 recollections of departed friends, and the sad- 
 ness of disappointment. How could such a 
 delicate, soaring spirit, moved by the mysti- 
 cal expression of harmony, be lodged in that 
 coarse, degraded body ? The ugly man, charm- 
 ing his listeners so that they were enraptured 
 with him, was like Caliban, the vicious, de- 
 structive demon, who dreamed of the music 
 on his island: a The isle is full of noises, 
 sounds, and sweet airs that give delight and 
 hurt not." The playing ceased abruptly ; the 
 player turned on his stool and gave a harsh, 
 guttural laugh. He was the ugly man again. 
 The angel had disappeared, and the demon 
 was again in power. 
 
 Thank God, Jesus Christ has the power to 
 take hold upon a nature that has been made 
 ugly by sin and wicked ways, and transform 
 it by his divine grace into his own beauti- 
 ful likeness. He can take the ugliness away, 
 with all that is forbidding and repulsive. 
 Many a face that has borne its inheritance of 
 unattractive features has been so lighted up 
 with love, and patience, and gentleness, and 
 
OF A NOBLE LIFE. 81 
 
 compassion that it has become beautiful as 
 an angel's. Christ is the one being who has 
 power to expel the demon from the human 
 soul, and bring the angel into constant do- 
 minion. If I speak to any who are conscious 
 of ugliness of nature, manifested in marks of 
 jealousy and envy, or hate, or greed, that 
 wrinkle and distort the soul, I preach to you 
 as the foundation of your hope the divine 
 Christ who is able to transform your nature 
 and make it beautiful. He will bring you into 
 fellowship with himself. He will live with you 
 day by day, and living with him you shall 
 catch his spirit, and after a while, when you 
 shall awake to immortality, your heart shall 
 glow with gladness and delight, in that land 
 where you shall know as you are known, to 
 see that your once ugly and distorted moral 
 features have been transformed into his like- 
 ness, and you have come to share the beauty 
 of your Lord. 
 
CHRIST CLEANSING THE TEMPLE OF 
 THE SOUL. 
 
 " He went into the temple, and began to cast out 
 them that sold therein, and them that bought; saying 
 unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer : 
 but ye have made it a den of thieves." — Luke xix. 45, 46. 
 
 The temple in Jerusalem is not alone in 
 having been invaded by thieves. The temple 
 of the human soul, which belongs to God, and 
 in which he should ever dwell, is often made a 
 rendezvous for thievish lusts and passions 
 which ravage that holy sanctuary of all that 
 is most noble. Sometimes we contrast two 
 men — the one strong and pure, surrounded 
 by an atmosphere of benevolence and mercy, 
 his conversation and life giving utterance and 
 expression to a mind and heart full of rever- 
 ent thoughts toward God and sympathetic 
 and. helpful interest in humanity; while the 
 other is drunken and degraded, surrounded 
 
 82 
 
THE TEMPLE OE THE SOUL. 83 
 
 by an atmosphere of profanity and vulgarity, 
 his conversation and life expressing the most 
 reckless and defiant spirit toward God, and a 
 selfish and vengeful attitude toward his fel- 
 lows. The two men seem as far apart as 
 heaven from hell; it seems scarcely possible 
 that they can belong to the same order of be- 
 ings. Yet they are brothers, and the one 
 great difference between the two is that the 
 temple of the soul in the one case has retained 
 its true character as a temple unto the Lord, 
 while in the other case evil appetites and pas- 
 sions and unholy imaginations have ravaged 
 the temple and hold it as a place of revel. 
 Between these two characters which stand 
 out in such startling opposition are many 
 others where the contrast is not so striking, 
 where the class to which they belong is not 
 so easy to designate. It behooves those of us 
 who are Christians to interrogate our own 
 hearts very frequently and see if they are in- 
 deed the temples of the Holy Spirit. To be a 
 genuine Christian requires that Christ shall 
 dwell in the temple of the heart, and that the 
 supreme motive of the life shall be to serve 
 him and please him. 
 
 Mr. Spurgeon said that in his young minis- 
 try he received a tremendous spiritual uplift 
 
84 CHBIST CLEANSING 
 
 which was felt through all his later life by a 
 strange revelation which came to him in a 
 dream. He was sitting in an arm-chair, wea- 
 ried with his work. He had fallen asleep in a 
 very self-complacent sort of mood, as his work 
 at the time was unusually successful. As he 
 slept he thought a stranger entered the room, 
 and though his face was benign, he carried 
 suspended about his person measures and 
 chemical agents and implements, which gave 
 him a very strange appearance. The stranger 
 came toward him, and extending his hand, 
 said : " How is your zeal ? " 
 
 Mr. Spurgeon supposed when he began his 
 question that the query was to be for his 
 health, but was pleased to hear his final word; 
 for he was quite well pleased with his zeal, and 
 doubted not that the stranger would smile 
 when he should know its proportions. In- 
 stantly he conceived of it as physical quan- 
 tity, and putting his hand into his bosom 
 brought it forth and presented it to the 
 stranger for inspection. He took it and 
 placed it in his scales, weighing it carefully. 
 Mr. Spurgeon heard him say : " One hundred 
 pounds ! n He could scarcely suppress an 
 audible note of satisfaction; but he caught 
 the visitor's earnest look as he noted down 
 
THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. S3 
 
 the weight, and he saw at once that the man 
 with the scales had drawn no final conclu- 
 sions, but was intent on pushing his investi- 
 gation. He broke the mass to atoms, put it 
 into his crucible and put the crucible into the 
 fire. When the mass was thoroughly fused 
 he took it out and set it down to cool. It- 
 congealed in cooling and when turned out on 
 the hearth exhibited a series of layers which, 
 at the touch of the hammer, fell apart, and 
 were severely tested and weighed, the stranger 
 making notes as the process went on. When 
 he had finished he presented the notes to Mr. 
 Spurgeon, and gave him a look of mingled 
 sorrow and compassion as, without a word 
 except "May God save you!*' he left the 
 room. The astonished Spurgeon opened the 
 notes and read as follows: " Analysis of the 
 zeal of a candidate for a crown of glory — 
 weight in mass, 100 pounds. Of this, on 
 analysis, there proved to be : Bigotry, 10 
 parts ; personal ambition, 23 parts ; love of 
 praise, 19 parts ; pride of denomination, 15 
 parts ; pride of talent, 14 parts ; love of au- 
 thority, 12 parts ; love to God, 4 parts ; love 
 to man, 3 parts. Total, 100." 
 
 Of all the hundred parts, according to this 
 analysis, only seven parts, comprising love to 
 
86 CHEIST CLEANSING 
 
 God and love to man, were pure zeal. Mr. 
 Spnrgeon said that lie had become troubled 
 at the peculiar manner of the stranger, and 
 especially at his parting look and words ; but 
 when he looked at the figures his heart sank 
 as lead within him. He made a mental effort 
 to dispute the correctness of the record. But 
 he was suddenly startled into a more honest 
 mood by an audible sigh — almost a groan — 
 from the stranger, who had paused in the hall, 
 and by a sudden darkness falling upon him, 
 by which the record became at once obscured 
 and nearly illegible. He fell upon his knees 
 and cried out: "Lord, save me!" As he knelt 
 there the paper with its terrible analysis be- 
 came a mirror, and he saw his heart reflected 
 in it. The record was true ! He saw it ; he 
 felt it; he confessed it; he deplored it, and 
 besought God to save him from himself with 
 many tears, until at length, with a loud and 
 irrepressible cry of anguish, he awoke. He 
 had prayed in years gone by to be saved from 
 hell, but his vow to be saved from himself was 
 now immeasurably more fervent and distress- 
 ful ; nor did he rest or pause till the refining 
 fire came down and went through his heart, 
 searching, probing, melting, burning, filling 
 all its chambers with light, and hallowing 
 
THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 87 
 
 his whole heart to God. He declared ever 
 afterwards that that day was the crisis in his 
 history. 
 
 Let ns search our hearts and see if there be 
 any false motives or wicked way in us. Let 
 ns pray God to reveal the inmost recesses of 
 the heart's temple to our gaze that we may be 
 sure that our whole souls are surrendered to 
 him. It is better to be weighed in the balance 
 and be found wanting now, while yet trans- 
 forming grace and cleansing power may be 
 found at the mercy seat, than to be weighed 
 in the balances of the judgment-day and be 
 found wanting then when it is too late to 
 change. There are no heart thieves so power- 
 ful that Christ cannot drive them out and 
 transform the temple into a fit dwelling-place 
 for the Divine Presence. 
 
 There is a spot in southern Idaho, a few 
 miles below the Great Shoshone Falls, which 
 until recently was called the " Devil's Corral." 
 For thousands of years this " Devil's Corral " 
 had lain a silent, ghostly, hollow, and un- 
 fruitful desert, surrounded by giant lava walls 
 towering above almost perpendicularly from 
 five to eight hundred feet. These lava walls, 
 burnt, rent, torn and twisted into confusing 
 shapelessness, shut in an apparently irrecov- 
 
88 CHRIST CLEANSING 
 
 erable desolation. Even the Indian passed 
 around it when fishing along Snake River; 
 and the more daring white man looked at it, 
 gave it its ugly name, and made money out 
 of other white men by bringing them to see 
 it. One day a young man of ideas went down 
 into the strange place, and saw that it might 
 be reclaimed. He saw how the rock wall 
 might be turned to good account, and he said : 
 " The north wind can never find its way down 
 here. This place ought to be transformed 
 into a garden or a fruit-farm. 7 ' He discovered 
 in the highest part two small cold-water lakes 
 which were connected. From these the entire 
 basin might be irrigated. He also discovered 
 several hundred acres of very choice soil. 
 Against the undertaking was the tremendous 
 work necessary to clear and level and irrigate 
 the land. He homesteaded a part of the land, 
 made a desert entry on the balance, and began. 
 He blazed out a trail along the rocky descent, 
 down which pack-mules could travel. Wagons, 
 harrows, plows, and all sorts of things that 
 pack-animals could not carry, were lowered 
 with ropes over a perpendicular lava wall of 
 six hundred feet. After a while he engineered 
 a road, which he blasted out with dynamite 
 from the rock walls. Now, a four-horse team 
 
THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 89 
 
 can be taken down into what once was the 
 11 Devil's Corral," and it has been transformed 
 into four hundred acres of paradise, blooming 
 into life with five thousand fruit-trees. The 
 luscious fruit is a continual joy and fortune 
 to its owner, and a source of pleasure to visit- 
 ing thousands. That is an illustration of the 
 transformation which Jesus Christ can bring 
 to a human heart and life. He can take a 
 poor sin-possessed heart that has been only a 
 devil's corral, yielding nothing that is good, 
 and transform it into a blossoming paradise 
 where all the sweet graces of the Spirit yield 
 their fragrance and their fruit. 
 
 The serious questions pertinent for every 
 one to ask at this moment are : What is the 
 condition of the temple of my own heart? 
 What would Jesus do if he were to visit it ? 
 Are the thoughts and meditations and pur- 
 poses which live in my heart pleasing to 
 Christ ? If these questions can truthfully be 
 answered only in the negative then there can 
 be no question about your duty at this time. 
 On your knees before the mercy seat you 
 should implore him who drove out the swin- 
 dling money-changers from the old temple in 
 Jerusalem to visit your heart and drive out 
 every unholy guest. 
 
90 CHRIST CLEANSING 
 
 Jesus can never come into the temple of 
 your soul and drive out the evil guests that 
 are despoiling you, except by your invitation. 
 Even a little child has the absolute power of 
 choice and may keep Christ out of his heart, 
 if he so wills. We cannot throw off this per- 
 sonal responsibility for our own conduct. 
 
 In the midst of the civil war, when there 
 had been a meeting of the governors of the 
 Northern States which had passed resolutions 
 declaring that there ought to be a more ag- 
 gressive campaign, a congressman from Rhode 
 Island, Mr. Dixon, was appointed to represent 
 their wishes to the President. This gentleman 
 went to the White House one evening to de- 
 liver himself of his mission. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln listened without interruption to 
 what Mr. Dixon had to say. When he was 
 through, the President said to him : " Dixon, 
 you are a good fellow, and I have always had 
 a high opinion of you. It is needless for me 
 to add that what comes from those who sent 
 you here is authoritative. The governors of 
 the Northern States are the North. What 
 they decide must be carried out. Still, in 
 justice to myself, you must remember that 
 Abraham Lincoln is the President of the 
 United States. Anything that the President 
 
THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 91 
 
 of the United States does, right or wrong, will 
 be the act of Abraham Lincoln, and Abraham 
 Lincoln will by the people be held responsible 
 for the President's action. But I have a propo- 
 sition to make to you. Go home and think the 
 matter over. Come to me to-morrow morning 
 at nine o'clock, and I will promise to do any- 
 thing that you by then have determined upon 
 as the right and proper thing to do. Grood 
 night." 
 
 Mr. Dixon left the White House feeling 
 highly gratified by the honor that had been 
 put upon him. He soon dismissed this pleas- 
 ant thought, however, and began seriously 
 consulting with himself as to what should 
 be done when the responsibility fell on him 
 to decide the policy of the President of the 
 United States. Many suggestions occurred to 
 him, but one after another each was dismissed 
 as for some reason out of the question. When 
 the morning light broke he had not deter- 
 mined upon his course, upon the policy which 
 he was to impose upon the President. He 
 decided he would not go to the White House 
 that morning. He did not go the next day, 
 nor the next. 
 
 Indeed, three weeks went by before he saw 
 the President. Then it was at a reception at 
 
92 THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 
 
 Secretary Seward's, and Mr. Dixon tried to get 
 by in the crowd without attracting special at- 
 tention. But the long arm of the President 
 shot out, his hand grasped Dixon's and drew 
 him one side. 
 
 " By the way, Dixon," said Mr. Lincoln, " I 
 believe I had an appointment with you one 
 morning about three weeks ago." 
 
 Mr. Dixon said he did recall a mention of 
 something of the sort. 
 
 "Where have you been all these weeks?" 
 asked the President. 
 
 "Here in Washington," said Mr. Dixon; 
 " but to tell the truth, Mr. President, I have 
 decided never to keep that appointment." 
 
 " I thought you would not when I made it 
 for you," was Mr. Lincoln's comment. 
 
 And it is just as hard, just as impossible, 
 for you to put off the responsibility of your 
 own conduct as it was for Abraham Lincoln. 
 You are the keeper of the temple of your own 
 soul, and although Christ will come to the 
 door and knock, he will never come in unless 
 you open the door and invite him. Will you 
 not do that this very hour ? 
 
CHRIST AS THE GARDENER. 
 
 " She turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and 
 knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, 
 why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, sup- 
 posing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if 
 thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid 
 him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, 
 Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni ; 
 which is to say, Master." — John xx. 14-16. 
 
 In the days immediately after the resurrec- 
 tion Jesus appeared to his disciples in many 
 forms. And that is what he is always doing 
 to men and women in our own time. He ap- 
 pears in a different form to every one of us. 
 To some he comes as he came to the disciples 
 in the storm at night, when they thought he 
 was a spirit and cried out with fright. There 
 are many people to whom Christ now appears 
 to be only a ghost to haunt them on the 
 stormy voyage of life. If they would but 
 listen to him, however, they would hear him 
 
 93 
 
94 CHRIST AS THE GARDENER. 
 
 saying as of old, " Be of good cheer ; it is I ; 
 be not afraid." To some Christ comes as a 
 deliverer. Their sense of bondage to sin is so 
 keen that the supreme cry of their hearts is 
 for some one strong enough to unlock the 
 prison doors and spring back the great iron 
 bolts that hold fast the dungeon walls of their 
 prison. To such Christ comes as the liberator 
 to set them free, and they ever think of him 
 as a heroic Saviour. Others there are, whose 
 souls have long been hungry and starved for 
 hope and sympathy and love, to whom Christ 
 comes as does the harvest after an Indian 
 famine, with abundance of bread. Jesus to 
 them is the bread of life ; they feed upon the 
 bread sent down from heaven. Still others, 
 like Paul, are smitten down by the light at 
 noonday ; by the glory of that Light which is 
 greater than the brightness of the sun, and 
 ever after, looking backward to the old days 
 of blindness and darkness, Christ seems to 
 them to be the light-bringer. Christ comes 
 to many in childhood with the tenderness of 
 a shepherd who carries the lambs in his 
 bosom. A little boy who had been accus- 
 tomed to seeing every day in his play-room 
 a picture of the Good Shepherd carrying a 
 little lamb in his arms was confronted with 
 
CHRIST AS THE GARDENER. 95 
 
 the picture of the Madonna and her Child. 
 He looked up into my face and asked, "Is 
 that the Good Shepherd when he was a baby?" 
 There are many to whom Christ comes as 
 naturally as that, and who are led on through 
 all the days of childhood by his gentle spirit, 
 who never know what it is to stray away from 
 the Shepherd's side. There ought to be many 
 more than there are of that class. I doubt if 
 Christianity, or rather the Christian church, 
 is acting with so little wisdom at any other 
 point as it is in relation to children. Our 
 children should be consecrated to Christ in 
 infancy and be given over to his care and 
 training with never a thought of a period for 
 the sowing of wild oats which must be up- 
 rooted again in penitence and sorrow. Isaiah 
 says, " Peace to him that is far off, and to him 
 that is near," and if we do our full duty by 
 childhood the overwhelming majority of our 
 children reared in Christian homes will be 
 kept ever near to the side of the Shepherd 
 Christ. 
 
 But I wish especially to call your attention 
 to the form in which Christ appeared to Mary 
 at the sepulcher. Joseph's tomb, where Christ 
 had been buried, was in the midst of a garden ; 
 and when Mary turned about and saw Jesus 
 
96 CHRIST AS THE GARDENER. 
 
 clothed in the ordinary garb of a gardener 
 she thought he was the gardener. What pur- 
 pose Christ had in thus appearing to her we 
 do not know, and yet we surely do not in any 
 way distort Scripture meaning by studying 
 this figure as representing Christ's cultivation 
 of our hearts. Christ is the gardener of every 
 soul that yields to him. In one of his parables 
 he especially sets himself forth as a gardener. 
 He tells the story of a certain man who had a 
 fig-tree in his vineyard; and this man came 
 and sought fruit year after year, but the tree 
 was always barren and fruitless. So there 
 came a day when he said to the gardener, " I 
 have been coming every year now for three 
 years to taste the figs on this tree and have 
 never found any. Cut it down; why should 
 it be left to cumber the ground?" But the 
 gardener had sympathy for the tree and pleaded 
 for it. He begged the owner of the vineyard 
 to let it alone for another year and during 
 that year he would fertilize the soil, and dig 
 carefully about the roots of the tree, and if it 
 bear fruit, well and good; but if it still re- 
 mained barren after that, it should be cut 
 down. I think we can take that parable as 
 illustrating Christ's gardening in human hearts. 
 There is a sense in which we are all trees in 
 
CHBIST AS THE GABDENEB. 97 
 
 God's vineyard. Some of us are barren trees, 
 yielding no fruit; but as the barren tree in 
 the vineyard drinks in the sunshine and the 
 summer dew and the spring showers the same 
 as the trees that are full of fruit, so God sends 
 his rain upon the just and the unjust, and the 
 sinful man receives the blessings of God, giv- 
 ing opportunity and privilege for every good 
 thing to come into his life, the same as does 
 the righteous. Not one of us is so poor and 
 barren in moral and spiritual inheritance but 
 that it is possible for us to bear fruit unto 
 God ff we yfeld ourselves completely to the 
 Heavenly Gardener. 
 
 It is the glory of the skillful gardener that 
 he is able to make common plants develop 
 into forms of beauty and usefulness that the 
 ignorant gardener would never dream of pro- 
 ducing. In the great gardens scientific men 
 are every year producing new combinations in 
 roses and carnations and many other flowers. 
 I remember last year a certain Eastern florist 
 paid many thousands of dollars for the exclu- 
 sive privilege of growing in America a new 
 carnation which had been developed in Eng- 
 land. It is the glory of great artists in every 
 department of life that they are able to bring 
 much out of little ; that they can give value 
 
98 CHRIST AS THE GARDENER. 
 
 and splendor to common things. Dr. W. L. 
 Watkinson says that on visiting an art-gallery 
 recently he noticed that some of the greatest 
 pictures had not a splendid thing in them. 
 The ordinary artist when he wants to be effec- 
 tive paints in a breadth of golden harvest, or 
 he portrays a kingfisher or some other iri- 
 descent bird, or a tree in bloom, or that capti- 
 vating thing, a rainbow. But you will notice 
 that some of the greatest painters that ever 
 lived never touch these things. They take 
 common things — a railway cut, a plowed 
 field; no conspicuous object; only the black 
 earth, the brown earth, the red earth; but 
 their touch is a supreme touch, so that you 
 can see the blossom in the dust, and the rain- 
 bow in the cloud; and the picture, although 
 it contains not a brilliant thing, is bathed in 
 imagination, poetry and beauty. So Christ 
 can take the most common human plants in 
 his garden and develop them into the most 
 indescribable beauty and interest. 
 
 Just think of some of the human plants that 
 grew in Christ's garden when he was here on 
 earth — a man who had a whole legion of 
 devils ; and Mary Magdalene, who had seven ; 
 and fretful and peevish Martha ; an old beg- 
 gar, Bartimaeus, blind since he was born; 
 
CHEIST AS THE GARDENER. 99 
 
 Zacchaeus, the tax-collector ; a handful of 
 fishermen without education or standing. 
 Jesus picked up people like that, and how 
 they blossomed under his hands ! They have 
 grown into the heart of the world for eighteen 
 hundred years, and the sweet fragrance of 
 their Christian graces bless humanity in every 
 land. 
 
 What Christ did with these people he can 
 do with us. In soul-gardening it is possible 
 for the gardener to impart his own nature to 
 the sensitive human plant under his care. It 
 is said that among the Dutch the rose is some- 
 times cultivated by planting a rose of ordinary 
 variety close to a rose of unusual beauty and 
 fragrance. The common rose is carefully 
 watched and its anthers removed so as to 
 avoid its propagating its own species ; the ob- 
 ject being that it shall be pollenized by the 
 superior rose. Gradually the rose thus treated 
 takes upon itself the characteristics of the 
 nobler and sweeter life of its neighbor. This 
 is a striking illustration of what happens when 
 we permit ourselves to be planted in the gar- 
 den of Jesus. Our lives receive the gracious 
 influences of his own divine spirit. We be- 
 come like him. We lose the characteristics of 
 the lower life to which we have been accus- 
 
100 CHRIST AS THE GABDENEB. 
 
 tomed, and begin to show the indications of 
 the nobler and sweeter life of him who is the 
 Bose of Sharon. How can any intelligent 
 man or woman refuse to yield the heart to 
 this Divine Gardener ? 
 
 I do not doubt that some of you are greatly 
 discouraged by your own lives. You have 
 had much higher ideals for yourself than you 
 have ever realized. You have meant to live 
 a much nobler life, and to perform deeds of 
 rarer value, than any that have ever been put 
 down to your credit. But you have never 
 yielded your heart to the care of him who is 
 able to make out of your life something far 
 better than the things you have hoped for but 
 failed to accomplish. If you have tried in 
 your own strength and are not satisfied with 
 your success, why not give your life over into 
 Christ's hands ? A young man who was con- 
 verted a few months ago told me recently that 
 when I had long pleaded with him to come 
 to Christ, and seemed ready to give up in dis- 
 couragement, the thing that started him was 
 my final sentence, "It cannot do you any 
 harm, anyhow." And so I say to you, it can- 
 not, by any possibility, do you any harm to 
 obey Jesus Christ, and yield yourself to be led 
 by his hand. This young man says now that 
 
CHRIST AS THE GARDENER. 101 
 
 it not only did him no harm, but has been of 
 more good to him than anything that has ever 
 come into his life. You will say the same if 
 you surrender your life to the training of 
 Jesus. 
 
 There is something very touching in the 
 parable of the unfruitful fig-tree, where Christ 
 pictures himself as interceding in behalf of the 
 unfruitful soul. How many years has Grod 
 been coming to your life seeking in vain for 
 the fruit of thought and conversation and 
 conduct which he had a right to expect. In- 
 stead, perhaps, there has been bitter fruit, 
 fruit that could do no one any good, and it 
 may be has done much harm. Bring this 
 home to your own heart, and think of that 
 barren tree as yourself. Hear Glod saying : 
 "Cut down the unfruitful tree. Cut down 
 this useless life. I have been coming year after 
 year to this man, or this woman, seeking for 
 fruit and finding none. Cut them down. Why 
 should they cumber the ground ? " And then 
 hear Jesus as he pleads for you: "Let him 
 alone one year more ; let me fertilize the soil 
 with the preaching of the gospel, and the 
 invitation of Christian neighbors, and the re- 
 bukes of conscience, and the whispered plead- 
 ing of the Holy Spirit ; perhaps he will turn 
 
102 CHRIST AS THE GARDENER. 
 
 and repent, and all will be well; but if he 
 does not, then shall he be cut down." ' When 
 that last year's limit is made, none of us can 
 tell. You may be in that period now. Possi- 
 bly it is already drawing near to a close. It 
 is a solemn thought. But, thank God, the 
 probation has not yet ended, and this very 
 hour you may by the divine grace and the 
 forgiving mercy of Christ be transformed in 
 your inmost nature so that you will begin to 
 bear fruit unto righteousness. 
 
it, 
 
 xxii, 
 
 THE COIN OF THE HEAET. 
 
 " Whose is this image and superscription'?" — Matt. 
 ii. 20. 
 
 The enemies of Jesus were deep in plans 
 and plots to get him into trouble with the 
 Roman government. They had concocted a 
 scheme which they thought was sure to suc- 
 ceed, whatever course he should pursue. They 
 would ask him whether it would be right to 
 pay tribute to Caesar. They reasoned that if 
 he said "No," the Roman authorities would 
 have him arrested as a traitor and disturber 
 of the peace; while if he said "Yes," he would 
 become unpopular with the people, who de- 
 spised the Roman government. But these 
 plotters were caught in their own trap. Christ 
 at once perceived the malice of their purpose 
 and said to them : " Show me the tribute- 
 money." Upon this they brought him a 
 penny and he, taking it in his hand, inquired : 
 
 103 
 
104 THE COIN OF THE HEART. 
 
 "Whose is this image and superscription?" 
 On their replying that it was Caesar's, he an- 
 swered: "Render therefore unto Caesar the 
 things which be Caesar's, and unto God the 
 things which be God's." When they heard that 
 they went away biting their lips. 
 
 The thought I wish to present is the simple 
 fact that the heart of man belongs to God. 
 Man is, so to speak, God's coin. As Queen 
 Victoria appears in her image on the coins 
 of Great Britain, so God's image is on the 
 human heart. No race has been found so 
 lost in heathenism but that some trace of 
 God's superscription and image is found in it. 
 Over the trails into the Klondike thousands 
 of men, good and bad, are tramping, but no- 
 thing more splendid will ever happen there 
 than the act of an Indian mother who, caught 
 in the first winter storm on the mountain pass, 
 stripped herself almost to the skin while she 
 kept her babe warm and safe. She was dis- 
 covered kneeling in the snow with the un- 
 harmed babe in her arms. It is not hard to 
 trace in that child of the forest the superscrip- 
 tion of him of whom it is said that he will 
 comfort his people as a mother comforteth 
 her child. 
 
 The church needs to keep this great fact 
 
THE COIN OF THE HEART. 105 
 
 ever before its eyes. We must never lose out 
 of our hearts the living, vital knowledge of 
 the truth that all men belong to Grod. How- 
 ever sinful they now are, however defaced the 
 image of God may be, down in the human 
 heart there lies the divine coin that is worth 
 saving, and which may be saved by devotion 
 and by the aid of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 A remarkably interesting experiment in 
 gold-mining is being successfully worked in 
 the Snake Eiver in Idaho. It has long been 
 known that enormous quantities of fine gold 
 are washed down the creeks and rivers from 
 the great gold-yielding mountains of the 
 Northwest and lost in the gravel-bars and 
 mud-flats of the larger streams. Now and 
 then a gravel-bar has been worked with suc- 
 cess, but nothing has been done on a large 
 scale. An enterprising man has now con- 
 ceived and built a number of boats fitted to 
 work backward and forward across the stream, 
 with an immense suction-pipe worked by steam, 
 the nose of which is kept to the gravel-bar in 
 the bed of the river, which sucks up the sand 
 and gravel, or anything else within its reach. 
 All this material is delivered into a sluice on 
 board the boat. The coarse stones are carried 
 by an endless chain over the side of the boat 
 
106 THE COIN OF THE HEAET. 
 
 into the water again, and the gold-bearing 
 sand is carried over burlap tables, and finally 
 over copper plates, where the gold is amalga- 
 mated and saved. 
 
 The Christian church may learn a lesson 
 from this experiment in mining. Innumera- 
 ble particles of human gold have been swept 
 away by rapid currents of evil from the home 
 veins of settled and successful life. This 
 drift-gold, which in our American cities 
 comes not only from our own farms and 
 villages but from the homes of every nation 
 under heaven, we have been altogether too 
 ready to give over as hopeless of salvation. 
 All we need is the devotion and consecration 
 and faith that was evinced by the disciples at 
 Pentecost, and this human drift-gold shall be 
 amalgamated and saved. God is as willing 
 now as then to give the Holy Spirit in the 
 same mighty power. We need to feel to the 
 very core of our hearts that every man we 
 meet, no matter how defiled by sin, is, after 
 all, one of God's coins and has in his heart 
 somewhere that which answers to the message 
 of the gospel. 
 
 Seeing that our hearts are God's coins, we 
 ought to give him the complete possession of 
 them for this divine service. The great work 
 
THE COIN OF THE HEART 107 
 
 that tells most is that in which the whole heart 
 is thrown. Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, the author of 
 " The Battle Hymn of the Republic," in telling 
 how she came to write those famous lines that 
 sent a thrill of inspiration through all loyal 
 hearts, says that her heart was filled with 
 yearning to do something for her country. She 
 could not fight, and could not leave her family 
 to go as a nurse. This thought continued to 
 oppress her, and before long the conviction 
 possessed her mind that she should write a 
 war-song. It seemed a spirit within her striv- 
 ing for freedom. She retired one night with 
 this subject uppermost in her thoughts and 
 awoke in the night to find the verses had al- 
 most written themselves. " I wrote ' The Bat- 
 tle Hymn of the Republic,'" said Mrs. Howe, 
 "because I could not help it." Great things, 
 happen in the salvation of souls wherever 
 there are men and women who serve Grod and 
 who carry the good news of Jesus Christ and 
 his salvation in that spirit. There is a joyous 
 inspiration, an ecstasy of gladness, about such 
 whole-hearted service which is irresistible. 
 John Burroughs says that the most interesting 
 feature of bird-songs is the wing-song, or song 
 of ecstasy. It seems to spring from some more 
 intense excitement and self-abandonment than 
 
108 THE COIN OF THE HEART. 
 
 the ordinary songs delivered from the perch. 
 "When the bird's joy reaches the point of rap- 
 ture it is literally carried off its feet, and up 
 it goes into the air, pouring out its songs as 
 a rocket pours its sparks. We ought to learn 
 a lesson from the skylarks and bobolinks and 
 vesper-sparrows. You may rest assured the 
 gospel will never sound so sweet on a sinner's 
 ear as when he hears it from the lips of a 
 Christian who yields himself up completely 
 as a coin in the hand of God and pours his 
 whole heart into a delightful service of love. 
 When men and women serve God in that 
 way they are like old violins — they con- 
 stantly get sweeter. Expert violinists tell us 
 that the tones of all violins become mellower 
 with age and use. When new, they have a 
 certain thickness or woodiness of tone, which, 
 in most of them, degenerates into an actual 
 harshness. Where this woodiness is very 
 marked, the violin seems to the player him- 
 self to have a very powerful tone, but to the 
 listener stationed at a little distance the tone 
 may sound very weak. Many human hearts 
 are so given over to worldliness that even 
 though they bear the name of Christian the 
 tone is worldly, and gives out little of the at- 
 tractive music of the skies; but if we yield 
 
THE COIN OF THE HEART. 109 
 
 ourselves to be completely used by Christ, as 
 the years go on our hearts will become mel- 
 low and sweet with the spirit of our Lord. 
 
 But I am sure there must be some message 
 here for those of you who are not Christians. 
 Some of you are allowing the image of God 
 in your heart to be covered over by sin. This 
 coin which belongs to Grod is being used by 
 the evil one. You are losing the richest trea- 
 sure of life in your pursuit of treasures that 
 will soon perish. Last summer a man took 
 a band of sheep to Alaska expecting to sell 
 his mutton to the miners at Dawson City. 
 He drove the sheep in over the Dawson trail. 
 Some time before the mining city was reached, 
 cold weather came on, and he decided to kill 
 his sheep. He killed and sold three hundred 
 and received nearly twenty thousand dollars 
 for them. Then he concluded to hold what 
 he had left for a better market. He killed 
 the remaining four hundred in a secluded 
 place off the line of travel, and suspended the 
 carcases on poles far enough above the ground 
 to be out of reach of bears, wolves, or other 
 wild animals. He left two young men to 
 watch the mutton and started out prospecting 
 for gold. His stay was so prolonged that the 
 young men determined to pay a visit to Daw- 
 
110 THE COIN OF THE HEART. 
 
 son, which they imagined to be only a few 
 miles away. It proved to be one hundred 
 miles to Dawson, and when the owner of the 
 sheep returned to inspect his wealth, he found 
 four hundred bleaching skeletons. The eagles, 
 ravens, crows, kites, hawks, and other birds of 
 prey throughout all that region, had gathered 
 together and feasted on his mutton until it 
 was all gone. Alas ! there are many who lose 
 far more valuable treasures in the same way. 
 Men think the treasures of the soul can wait 
 while they go prospecting for all manner of 
 earthly good. Many a father and mother 
 neglect the spiritual training of their children 
 while they are little, thinking that it is more 
 important to get rich, or to make a success of 
 earthly life, and expecting after a while to win 
 them all to Christ; but they awaken when it 
 is too late to find out that while they have 
 been bent on worldliness the devil's birds of 
 prey have plucked from their children's hearts 
 that which was most valuable. 
 
 No man can afford to let his spiritual nature 
 wait on anything. Whatever else a man may 
 lose, he cannot afford to lose there. Other 
 losses are only temporary, but that loss is 
 eternal. What matters it if a man gains the 
 whole world and then loses his own soul? 
 
THE COIN OF THE HEART 111 
 
 One Sunday evening an earnest pastor spoke 
 to a bright and attractive girl and, urging that 
 delay might be dangerous, pleaded with her to 
 accept Christ then. But the words were vain. 
 As the pastor turned away with a heavy heart, 
 the girl hastily wrote in her song-book the 
 fatal words, " I'll risk it." A few months later 
 the minister was called in haste to speak if he 
 could a word of comfort to this same young 
 woman, who had been suddenly smitten down 
 with illness and had been given up to die. 
 Again the pastor pleaded for a changed heart, 
 but with a look of despair in her eyes the 
 dying girl replied : "It cannot be ; my heart is 
 cold, dead. When you spoke to me months 
 ago I was moved, but I stifled the nobler im- 
 pulse, and as you left wrote in a book the 
 words, 'I'll risk it.' And the Spirit left me." 
 And she died in despair. I beg of you not to 
 take that awful risk. The interests at stake 
 are too great, and the loss is too irretrievable. 
 Give Christ your heart here and now ! 
 
THE BEAUTY OF SERVICE. 
 
 u My soul is weary of my life." — Job x. 1. 
 " For to me to live is Christ." — Phil. i. 21. 
 
 This first text sounds like the wail of a 
 lost soul. The second is a shout of victory. 
 They represent two extremes of human living. 
 They are both common experiences in human 
 life. Many of us have known each of them, 
 at different times in our experience. One of 
 the saddest things one meets in this human 
 procession which never ceases to throng about 
 us, is the many people who have lost hope ; 
 for whom all enthusiasm and attractive charm 
 of life have died out. With some it died hard, 
 like the dying nerve in a tooth ; but the life- 
 less eye, the languid step, and the hopeless 
 conversation tell the sad tale of a soul that 
 has wearied of its existence. 
 
 The increasing number of people who, under 
 
 such circumstances, wickedly put an end to 
 
 112 
 
THE BEAUTY OE SERVICE. 113 
 
 their own existence is an alarming feature of 
 our own times. Only this week, in a neigh- 
 boring street, a young wife, yet in the flower 
 of her girlhood, destroyed by her own hand 
 the beautiful creation of womanhood which 
 God had committed to her. The reason seems 
 to have been that she had wearied of life and 
 it had lost its charm. Hope and love disap- 
 pearing, there was left an aching void which 
 nothing else could fill and the pain of which 
 she could not endure. 
 
 ^Vhile the temptation to suicide is probably 
 not common to any of you who hear me, yet 
 I am sure that all will bear witness that there 
 is no harder burden to carry than the mere 
 monotony of existence, when life has lost its 
 attractiveness. It is what the French call 
 ennui It is the most trying disease and the 
 most incurable, from a worldly standpoint, 
 that afflicts humanity. Colton says : " Ennui 
 has made more gamblers than avarice, more 
 drunkards than thirst, and more suicides than 
 despair." The strongest minds have suffered 
 most keenly from this affliction. Aristotle, 
 the mightiest of merely human philosophers, 
 suffered untold agony from what we com- 
 monly call the " blues," and finally so wearied 
 of his existence that he died the death of 
 
114 THE BEAUTY OF SERVICE. 
 
 a suicide. Bismarck, the greatest German 
 statesman for a hundred years, and one of 
 the greatest in the world's history, suffered 
 from the same cause. The fact is that it is 
 impossible that a worldly life, no matter how 
 intellectual, or how high the scale on which it 
 is lived, or how wide the reach of its power, or 
 how rich the treasures of wealth at its dis- 
 posal, should fail to pall on the palate of an 
 immortal being. Men high and low, rich and 
 poor, have come at last to cry out with Solo- 
 mon, " All is vanity and vexation of spirit ! n 
 It is well for us to lay the emphasis on the 
 truth that not only is a sinful life disappoint- 
 ing, but that however harmless it may seem 
 to be, a merely worldly and selfish life must 
 in the end prove to be only ashes to the man 
 who leads it. Struggle, physical, intellectual 
 and spiritual, is necessary to real human in- 
 terest. It is said that of all fascinating places 
 under the sun the island of Tahiti, one of the 
 Society Islands, takes the lead. In that coun- 
 try — a little earth lost in a vast ocean — 
 nature has done everything which could be 
 done in a physical way to make indolent souls 
 happy. The climate is temperate and equable 
 all the year round ; the vegetation is luxuriant 
 and the nights full of perfume and mystical 
 
THE BEAUTY OF SERVICE. 115 
 
 light. The influence of this dreamy, lazy life 
 is very insidious. It is not necessary to work, 
 as the island furnishes food without the labor 
 of tillage. Many Americans and French, hav- 
 ing gone there for a visit, have become so en- 
 raptured with the languorous existence that, 
 like the visitors to Lotus Land, they lie down 
 and forget friends, home, ambition, and every- 
 thing. It is, however, the languor of stupe- 
 faction and death. One never heard of any 
 great soul emerging to any worthy purpose or 
 deed out of such an existence. The barren 
 sands of Cape Cod with its thin soil and harsh 
 climate are a thousand times more likely to 
 develop men and women into worthy beings 
 than such an Eden-like paradise. 
 
 It is a comfort to turn away from this as- 
 pect of life, the temptation to which we have 
 all known, and listen to Paul's triumphant ex- 
 clamation, " For to me to live is Christ." Life 
 was constantly interesting to Paul because it 
 was unselfish. Selfishness had died out in his 
 heart. Had he been wrapped up in himself, 
 thinking of his own disappointments and de- 
 feats, and figuring constantly on the outlook 
 for his own future in this world, he would 
 certainly have had a most monotonous and 
 weary time. But Paul had consecrated his 
 
116 THE BEAUTY OF SERVICE. 
 
 life to Jesus Christ. His scars were the " marks 
 of the Lord Jesus." His chains were the 
 badge of the fact that he was the " prisoner of 
 Jesus Christ." Wherever he was, he was stand- 
 ing in Christ's stead as Christ's minister, as 
 Christ's man, to show forth his Lord and pro- 
 claim his message. As Christ was in the 
 world to minister to its needs, so Paul was in 
 the world to share the Christ-life. It was im- 
 possible that such a life should grow monot- 
 onous or dull. Paul obtained his happiness 
 and joy through this supreme devotion to 
 Christ. If Paul had been seeking for happi- 
 ness it is hard to think of a place in his whole 
 ministry where he could have found it. The 
 storm at sea, the shipwreck, the island fire 
 where the viper fastened on his hand, the 
 Ephesian amphitheater where he fought with 
 wild beasts, Lystra where he was mobbed and 
 stoned, Philippi where he was thrust into the 
 stocks, Rome where he was the prisoner of 
 Nero — surely none of these were hopeful 
 places in which to seek after happiness, and if 
 this had been Paul's purpose in life he would 
 have come to old age one of the most miser- 
 able of men. 
 
 Happiness is one of the most elusive things 
 in the world. The people who seek it never 
 
THE BEAUTY OF SERVICE. 117 
 
 find it. The men and women who live that 
 they may be happy, and are always planning 
 and scheming with that end in view, never 
 know what really pure happiness is. Happi- 
 ness comes to people, if it comes at all, as the 
 reward of service. It comes because of what 
 a man is and what he is doing. Paul and 
 Silas, for instance, were very happy in the 
 dungeon at midnight. They had been whipped 
 until their backs were sore, they were physi- 
 cally hungry and tired, but they were full of 
 joy as the servants of Christ, and their songs 
 and triumphant spirit led to the conversion of 
 the jailer and his family. Happiness will come 
 to us when we live in the same spirit. It was 
 infinite joy to Paul to lift men and women 
 upward out of their sins and their littleness 
 into the great spirit in which he lived, and into 
 the higher and holier manhood which he had 
 come to know in Jesus Christ. The degrada- 
 tion of the heathen world preyed upon him 
 and became the haunting man of Macedonia 
 to him because the possibilities of manhood 
 which he had come to know in Christ Jesus 
 seemed so high and so precious. The beauty 
 and joy of service cannot be fully known to 
 us unless we have given ourselves to Christ in 
 the same way and see in the splendor of 
 
118 THE BEAUTY OF SERVICE. 
 
 Christ's character the manhood which is pos- 
 sible to the most degraded of our fellow- 
 beings. 
 
 In a Western town, not long ago, a crowd 
 had gathered before a large glass window 
 fronting on the street. They were attracted 
 by a magnificent white-headed eagle which 
 was held a prisoner inside the window. 
 There was a chain from its right foot to a 
 huge piece of iron, some water in a pan, an 
 untouched piece of fish, a few sods, and a 
 large card with the words, "For Sale." The 
 big bird's wings drooped to its feet on either 
 side ; its eyes were glazed and dim ; it opened 
 and shut them now and then, but never once 
 turned them to the jostling, noisy crowd that 
 stood just outside the glass. There were no 
 marks of violence to be seen, but the dull 
 pathetic eyes, the drooping wings, the soiled 
 white about the head, and the ruffled feathers 
 over the body showed that the captive had 
 been in chains much longer than it had been 
 in the window. Suddenly a young moun- 
 taineer who had just come to town pushed his 
 way to the front and for a long time looked 
 silently at the great helpless bird. He was 
 sure he had seen it before. It had been cap- 
 tured, he learned from what some of the 
 
THE BEAUTY OF SERVICE. 119 
 
 crowd said, in the country from which he had 
 come. That settled it ; it was the same bird. 
 He had seen it on the mountain where he 
 sometimes had hunted for a stray sheep. He 
 knew the big pine in the top of which it had 
 its nest. He had noted it soar majestically 
 about him as he worked in the valley, and he 
 had seen it sit motionless for hours on the top 
 of some tall, distant crag. The mountaineer 
 elbowed his way along the window to the 
 door of the store and went in. 
 
 "What d'ye want for that bird?" he said. 
 " I'd like to buy him." 
 
 " Two dollars," was the reply, 
 
 " Very well ; I'll take him." 
 
 He paid over the money, and the bird was 
 handed out to him. The crowd at the window 
 watched eagerly as the mountaineer came out 
 with the big eagle under his arm, and went 
 straight across the street to where a ladder 
 leaned against a bill-board that was some ten 
 or twelve feet high. At the foot of the ladder 
 he stopped and took the chain from the bird's 
 leg; then he went slowly up and placed his 
 old friend on the top of the bill-board and 
 came down. 
 
 The great bird seemed for a time to have 
 forgotten how to be free. It sat stupidly 
 
120 THE BEAUTY OF SERVICE. 
 
 as it had in the window. But gradually it 
 came to itself. It lifted first one drooping 
 wing and tucked it closely to its side, then the 
 other. It raised itself slowly to its full height, 
 and stretched out its great head toward the 
 sky. The dullness went out of the eyes, and 
 a fierce new light flashed in. Then, nervously 
 stretching out its huge pinions on either side 
 and taking a step forward, it rose with a 
 hoarse scream and swept out toward the sun. 
 
 A burst of applause from the crowd met 
 the mountaineer as he recrossed the street. 
 He simply said: "I had seen him on the 
 mountain, and I couldn't bear to see him 
 there." 
 
 So a man who has seen humanity glorified 
 in Jesus Christ, who has seen it on the moun- 
 tain-top in the noble life of Jesus, and has 
 come into fellowship with that life, can never 
 again see humanity in chains, held down by 
 wicked habits, degraded by impure and vulgar 
 living, without a deep longing to give back 
 again its wings, and its freedom, and the 
 mountain air of holiness to which it belongs. 
 About such service there is a joy infinitely 
 more precious than can come from any lowly 
 source. It is the joy of the life of Christ. 
 The more thoroughly we throw ourselves into 
 
THE BEAUTY OF SERVICE. 121 
 
 that life the more complete will be our joy. 
 We shall thus come to understand what Christ 
 meant when he said to his disciples that he 
 would leave his joy with them and no man 
 would be able to take it away from them. 
 
 Let us seek to know the joy of Christ, to 
 enter into the beauty and the gladness of ser- 
 vice. Often when we have been giving our- 
 selves up to work for the church and to 
 service in Christ's kingdom, we have been 
 tempted to yield before criticism or other 
 difficulty and imagine that we would be hap- 
 pier to give it all up and live our own self- 
 indulgent life, seeking only our personal good. 
 All such temptations are from the evil one. 
 The only truly happy people in this world, 
 the people who have an abiding joy, are those 
 who are able to say with Paul : " For to me 
 to live is Christ." 
 
 People who live lives like Frances Willard, 
 and Lord Shaftesbury, and Clara Barton, who 
 enter into the fellowship of suffering with 
 Christ's poor and burdened and tempted 
 brothers and sisters, rise up also to the moun- 
 tain-top of beauty and joy that the world 
 cannot give and cannot take away. 
 
JESUS AT MATTHEW'S DINNER. 
 
 " He went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sit- 
 ting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, 
 Follow me. And he left all, rose up, and followed him. 
 And Levi made him a great feast in his own house : and 
 there was a great company of publicans and of others 
 that sat down with them. But their scribes and Phari- 
 sees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye 
 eat and drink with publicans and sinners ? And Jesus 
 answering said unto them, They that are whole need not 
 a physician ) but they that are sick. I came not to call 
 the righteous, but sinners to repentance." — Luke v., 27-32. 
 
 Heke is a man who got a new name by 
 coming to Christ. His old name was Levi, 
 which signifies a link ; but when he followed 
 Christ and became an apostle his name was 
 changed to Matthew, which means " the gift 
 of God." Matthew was a cousin of Jesus 
 Christ. His father was Cleopas, and his 
 mother a sister of Mary, the mother of Christ. 
 Jesus had known him all his life. Matthew 
 
 122 
 
JESUS AT MATTHEW'S DINNER. 123 
 
 was a stray sheep in the family. He was the 
 skeleton in the household closet of Cleopas. 
 There was not anything that he could have 
 done to hurt and shame his family more than 
 to become a tax-collector of the hated Roman 
 government. How it ever came about we do 
 not know. Perhaps he fell into bad company, 
 and, the family being poor, determined to 
 make money at any cost. At any rate we are 
 sure that his father and mother never thought 
 of him without great pain, and it was, no 
 doubt, the one theme about which the neigh- 
 bors never spoke to them. 
 
 Knowing what we do about the character 
 of Jesus, we are not surprised that he should 
 seek to bring this wanderer back to the family 
 flock, or to learn that one day he determined 
 to make a special effort to save Matthew. He 
 walked straight down to the place where 
 Matthew was busy collecting taxes from fish- 
 ermen and traders. We do not know what 
 he said except that the great burden of his 
 theme was that Matthew should follow him ; 
 but there was such a charm about his words 
 that they took hold of Matthew's heart, and 
 without waiting to think the matter over 
 further, he got right up from his desk, or 
 money-changing table, and followed Christ. 
 
124 JESUS AT MATTHEW'S BINNEB. 
 
 We may learn from this that Christ does 
 not give a man up because he is a hard case. 
 We give people up altogether too easy. Be- 
 cause a man is worldly, and given over to 
 money-getting or sinful pleasure, is no sign 
 that he is happy in such a course. Many a 
 man so situated thinks nobody cares for his 
 soul. Possibly Matthew was having that sort 
 of a feeling the day Jesus came along and so 
 lovingly entreated him to become one of his 
 disciples. If we take Christ with us we need 
 not be afraid to go to any one and urge him 
 to forsake his sins. 
 
 Doubtless Christ found it much easier to 
 persuade Matthew to come back again to a 
 righteous life because of his memory of a 
 good father and mother. He had not forgot- 
 ten the prayers that he had heard offered up 
 at the fireside. I wish we could have more 
 open and earnest expression of family reli- 
 gion than we do. Mr. William Shaw, the 
 treasurer of the Christian Endeavor Society, 
 fell into a conversation with a gentleman in 
 the writing-room of a city hotel, who told 
 him this story : For many years he had been 
 a nominal Christian, but never took any ac- 
 tive part in church work. He had one child, 
 a sturdy boy a little past three years old. 
 
JESUS AT MATTHEW'S DINNER. 125 
 
 They had no family prayer ; but his wife, 
 who was an earnest Christian woman, always 
 had the little boy say his prayers before he 
 went to bed. Frequently, after his prayer was 
 finished, the little boy would look up into his 
 mother's face and say, " Mamma, why doesn't 
 papa pray ? " The wife often told the husband 
 about it, and urged him to have family pray- 
 ers, but he was indifferent to her request. 
 One Sunday evening their pastor's sermon 
 contained a message for this man, and he 
 went home from the service, took down the 
 Bible, and said, " Wife, we'll have family 
 prayers to-night." 
 
 The boy was all attention as he read the 
 chapter, and when they knelt while he offered 
 a brief and broken prayer. Then the little 
 fellow climbed up into his father's lap, put 
 his arms around his neck, and said as he 
 kissed him, " I'se so glad papa prayed." 
 When his mother put him to bed that night, 
 he kept repeating over and over, " I'se so 
 glad papa prayed." 
 
 The next day the father went to his work, 
 and in the middle of the forenoon he was called 
 home. While his mother was in the back 
 part of the house, the child had climbed up 
 on the open fire-grate to get something off 
 
126 JESUS AT MATTHEW'S DINNER. 
 
 the mantel. His little dress caught fire, and 
 he ran screaming into the front yard. Before 
 any one could get to him his clothes were all 
 burned off and he was unconscious and lived 
 but a short time. 
 
 The father said that as he looked at the 
 little body from which the spirit had gone to 
 the Saviour of the little ones, his sweetest 
 comfort was the words, "Pse so glad papa 
 prayed." " I would not take all the wealth of 
 the world," said the father, " in exchange for 
 the memory of those last words of my boy, 
 4 Pse so glad papa prayed.' w 
 
 There is nothing parents can do for their 
 children that will be so great a comfort to 
 their heart in the future, or so rich a treasure 
 for the children themselves, as to set before 
 them the example of a genuine and faithful 
 Christian life. A boy who has had a home like 
 that finds it easy to believe that God's heart 
 has the tenderness of the old home feeling for 
 him, even though he has wandered far into 
 sin. 
 
 An observer watching the sailing of the 
 steamship Australia from San Francisco for 
 the Klondike, the other day, specially noted 
 two interesting farewells. One strapping young 
 fellow wrung the hand of an old man of mili- 
 
JESUS AT MATTHEW'S DINNER. 127 
 
 tary bearing. " Well, Jack," the father said, 
 " I wish you all kinds of good lnck, and, my 
 boy, whatever you do, don't drink ! " A mo- 
 ment later, with a gulp in his throat, he said : 
 " Grood-bye. I can't stand about here or I will 
 lose my courage and beg you to stay." And 
 with another handshake he was gone. Another 
 young man was given Grodspeed by his old fa- 
 ther, and the parent's voice broke as he said : 
 " Now, George, you know there is always a 
 good home to come to if you don't strike any- 
 thing. Don't stay up there and suffer because 
 of any false pride. If you can't get a fortune 
 this season come back. You will have as good 
 a show here as many others, and you can al- 
 ways count on a good home ! " Now I can 
 imagine that one of those boys would be 
 touched in a tender place when he read in 
 his Bible, " As a father pitieth his children, 
 so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." 
 
 Matthew did the very best thing possible 
 when he made his discipleship as open and 
 public as he could. The next thing we hear 
 about him is that he has made a public dinner 
 for Christ and invited in his acquaintances. 
 He sent out invitations to publicans and sin- 
 ners who would be most likely to profit by 
 coming into close personal touch with Jesus. 
 
128 JESUS AT MATTHEW'S DINNEB. 
 
 He made this dinner in his own honse and 
 invited his old friends to come and meet 
 Christ there. If Matthew had any fear that 
 he might be drawn back into his old associ- 
 ations he couldn't have done a shrewder thing 
 to defeat the devil than to make this dinner 
 for Christ. If any of you who have recently 
 become Christians have old associates that 
 would tempt you away from Jesus, you may 
 learn a lesson from Matthew. It is never safe 
 to go to their feasts of worldliness, but it is all 
 right to bring them to the church to your 
 feast with Jesus. I am sure that dinner was 
 a great success. It is probable that many 
 years afterwards, when the men that were 
 young then — as most of them were, no doubt, 
 for both Matthew and Jesus were young — 
 came to be old, they talked about that dinner 
 as one of the greatest events in their lives. 
 
 The charm of Christ's personal conversation 
 must have been marvelous. Men lost their 
 devils and their diseases and turned away 
 from their sins as they talked with Jesus. 
 There was a fragrance about his life that was 
 indescribably sweet ; and the best thing about 
 it all is that he is coming to some of you now, 
 and saying to you in your inmost conscience, 
 "Follow me." If you will only answer that 
 
JESUS AT MATTHEW'S DINNER. 129 
 
 call as Matthew did, and rise up and follow 
 him, he will come into your heart, and into 
 your home, and fill them with sweetness and 
 blessing. 
 
 One of the most interesting curiosities in 
 Germany is the rose-tree at Hildesheim, which 
 is more than a thousand years old. Its exis- 
 tence can be traced back to the time of Char- 
 lemagne, and it is a fact that it was mentioned 
 as a curiosity in old chronicles of the ninth 
 century. It twines around a large part of the 
 ancient Cathedral of Hildesheim near Bruns- 
 wick, and with its countless blossoms presents 
 in the season an entrancing spectacle. This 
 venerable witness from bygone ages has been 
 attacked by some insidious insect that threat- 
 ens it with destruction. The Hildesheimers, 
 to whom the roses are a sacred heirloom, have 
 summoned the best authorities in arboricul- 
 ture to their aid, but the fate of their tree fills 
 them with anxiety. There is a rose-tree older 
 than that, and ten thousand times more won- 
 derful and beautiful. It is the Rose of Sharon, 
 which has sent its roots under the sea into 
 every land, and is sending forth its blossoms 
 to gladden the hearts of all peoples. It has 
 been often attacked by secret foes, but was 
 never so fruitful as now, Its fragrance makes 
 
130 JESUS AT MATTHEW'S DINNER. 
 
 many a home represented here glad with re- 
 joicing. No heart here is so barren, so like a 
 desert, that the Rose of Sharon will not grow 
 in it if planted there with penitence and faith. 
 
 There is something infinitely hopeful and 
 precious for us in Christ's response to the 
 scribes and Pharisees when they criticised 
 him for eating with publicans and sinners. 
 He told them frankly that he was a physician, 
 and, as such, naturally ministered to the sick. 
 His mission to the world is to save sinners, 
 and the fact that you need him, and need him 
 very badly, is the surest guarantee that he 
 will accept you — just as a physician will go 
 quickest to the man who is nearest to death. 
 Suppose two men come to the doctor, and one 
 says, " My boy has only cut his 'finger, and is 
 not very badly off, and doesn't need you very 
 much " ; but the other says, " My boy has a 
 dangerous wound, and we fear his life-blood is 
 ebbing away, and he may not live till we 
 reach him." The doctor will go with the 
 latter messenger and let the other wait. So 
 when you tell me you are a poor sinner, past 
 all help in your own strength, I tell you that 
 Christ waits with greatest tenderness and 
 skill to come to you the moment you invite 
 him with all your heart. 
 
 " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are 
 
JESUS AT MATTHEWS DINNER. 131 
 
 heavy laden," are the words of Jesus. Mr. 
 Moody recently said that he had been racking 
 his brain trying to find out how to explain to 
 people that word " Come." But he had made 
 up his mind that the best definition of 
 " Come " is just " Come." We were all taught 
 to come before we could speak or remember. 
 
 A woman once came to him and said : " Mr. 
 Moody, I would like to become a Christian ; but 
 I'm so hard-hearted." 
 
 He replied: "My good woman, did the 
 Master say : ' You soft-hearted people, come ' f 
 Nothing of the kind, He said: 'Come unto 
 me' — all black hearts, vile hearts, corrupt 
 hearts, deceitful hearts — ' all.' If your heart 
 is hard, who will soften it ? You can't. The 
 harder the heart the more need of coming. 
 Isn't that so? The harder, the viler, the 
 more deceitful the heart, the more need there 
 is for the Saviour; so come along and get 
 rest. If you can't come as a saint, come as 
 a sinner ; if you can't run, walk ; if you can't 
 walk, creep to him ; but come." 
 
 I am sure some of you ought to do that. 
 Christ is saying to you as he did to Matthew, 
 "Follow me"; happy, indeed, will it be for 
 you if, looking back after years have passed 
 away, you are able to say with him, " I rose 
 immediately, and left all, and followed him." j 
 
THE THREE GOOD CHEERS OF JESUS 
 
 " Son, be of good cheer ; thy sins be forgiven thee." — 
 Matt. ix. 2. 
 
 " But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be 
 of good cheer ; it is I ; be not afraid." — Matt. xiv. 27. 
 
 "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of 
 good cheer ) I have overcome the world." — John xvi. 33. 
 
 Some years ago I read a book entitled "In 
 the Cheering Up Business." That is the busi- 
 ness of Christianity in this world. No one 
 ever put into three years of life so much good 
 cheer as did Jesus during those three years of 
 his earthly ministry when he " went about do- 
 ing good " among the hills and valleys of Pal- 
 estine. The world is full of lonely, burdened, 
 homesick hearts that need more than anything 
 else a word of good cheer. Christianity could 
 never fulfill its claim of being the gospel for 
 the whole world if it did not have in it this 
 
 132 
 
THE THREE GOOD CHEERS OF JESUS. 133 
 
 dominant element of good cheer. The Chris- 
 tian religion is one that wipes away tears, that 
 inspires hope, and nerves its disciples with 
 courage. To me there is something very sig- 
 nificant in the three occasions in the story of 
 the life of Jesus in which he used this happy 
 phrase, " Be of good cheer." 
 
 The first of these is the good cheer of for- 
 giveness. A sick man had been brought to 
 Christ by four friends who carried him there 
 by main strength. From the conversation con- 
 nected with his healing it would seem quite 
 probable that the man's sickness was directly 
 caused by his sins. There would be nothing 
 uncommon about that, because sin is very 
 often the cause of disease. There are doubt- 
 less those who hear me who are suffering, 
 even now, physical pain and inconvenience 
 caused by sins long since repented. As a tur- 
 bulent, overswollen stream pours its muddy 
 waters out into the lowlands in flood-time, 
 and leaves many a swamp and slough to grow 
 stagnant and be a breeding-place for reptiles 
 long after the soiled torrent has buried itself 
 in the sea; so many a time a man has the 
 aching body, and the shattered nerve, and 
 the deadly thirst of appetite which is an echo 
 of a sin long ago committed, But Jesus Christ 
 
134 THE THREE GOOD CHEERS OF JESUS. 
 
 both healed the man and forgave him his sins. 
 Probably he had been sick a long time and 
 had grown discouraged about himself ; no 
 doubt the feeling that his affliction had been 
 brought upon himself by his own sins had 
 made keener his sense of hopelessness and 
 despair. Nobody could ever read human na- 
 ture like Christ, and he saw the deep sorrow 
 of the man and had pity on him, and with an 
 infinite hopefulness in look and tone that went 
 like a flash from a galvanic battery to the very 
 core of the man's being, he said : " Son, be of 
 good cheer ; thy sins be forgiven thee." 
 
 Notice how tender and generous and great- 
 hearted is the forgiveness of Christ. Paul 
 says in the twelfth chapter of Romans that 
 we should always show mercy "with cheer- 
 fulness," and in doing so we only follow the 
 example of Jesus. Study any one of the 
 instances where Christ forgave sins, and I 
 am sure the cheerfulness and hopefulness in 
 which he performed the deed will impress you 
 more than anything else. Take the case of 
 the poor woman who had been taken in adul- 
 tery. Christ does not berate her and send her 
 away feeling that she was the off scouring of 
 the earth, and that it made little difference 
 whether she were good or bad ; but he opened 
 
THE THREE GOOD CHEERS OF JESUS. 135 
 
 a sweet and happy and hopeful future to her 
 as he said, " Neither do I condemn thee : go, 
 and sin no more." Take the case of the other 
 woman, who came to the house of Simon, and 
 in her penitence and love broke the alabaster 
 box of ointment above his head, and washed 
 his feet with her tears. Christ not only for- 
 gave her sins with gentleness, but what a 
 world of good cheer he opened up to her 
 thought when he declared that the story of 
 her kindness and her ministry to him should 
 be remembered and told to the end of the 
 world. And the poor demon-possessed man 
 who was found in the tombs of G-adara — 
 when Christ met him and cast out the devils 
 that had been his tormentors, he wanted to go 
 with the Lord, but Jesus said : " Gro home and 
 tell how great things the Lord hath done for 
 thee." Poor fellow ! he had been such a victim 
 of his sin that he had forgotten that he had a 
 home ; but the good cheer of Christ's outlook for 
 him made its sweetness a glorious reality once 
 again. 
 
 Christ has not lost his cheerfulness in deal- 
 ing with sinners. Sin discourages always. 
 Sin makes a man believe that he is too bad 
 to be saved ; that it is too late to mend ; that 
 whatever it may be to others, the Christian 
 
138 THE THREE GOOD CHEERS OF JESUS. 
 
 life is impossible to him. But Jesus is ready 
 to say to you, if you will only turn to him in 
 faith, " Son, be of good cheer ; thy sins be 
 forgiven thee." 
 
 The second good cheer is connected with 
 trouble and danger. It was the night when 
 the disciples were out on the lake in the 
 storm. They did not know that Jesus was 
 anywhere near, but he was watching close at 
 hand, and in the hour of their danger he 
 appeared for their relief, calling out to them, 
 " Be of good cheer ; it is I ; be not afraid." 
 
 Christ has not deserted his world, but is 
 still watching over his disciples, ready to help 
 when they need and save them from ship- 
 wreck. There is an organization in New 
 York city called the " Don't Worry Society," 
 but our Lord intends the Christian church 
 to be that society in every community. If we 
 trust Christ absolutely we must, in the very 
 nature of things, be saved from worry. In 
 the darkest storm we know that he is not far 
 off, and will not desert us or allow us to sink. 
 Our greatest blunder and sin is to suppose 
 that we can be saved from dark hours by 
 mere circumstances, or by the ministrations 
 which money or any earthly power or influ- 
 ence can give us. It is the great things, the 
 
THE THREE GOOD CIIEEES OF JESUS. 137 
 
 spiritual realities that center in Christ, which 
 alone can give us the support and good cheer 
 that we need in the great emergencies and 
 storms of life. As Dr. Ames has well said, 
 at such a time trust gives strength. When a 
 man really believes that invisible and gra- 
 cious powers attend his life, no burden is too 
 heavy for him to carry. Then it is that hope 
 gives strength. "We turn on our trouble and 
 say: "I shall soon leave all this behind. I 
 shall outlive my trial ; and, in time, I shall 
 even forget it." "When a man attacks his 
 trouble like that, courage springs anew : the 
 beggar's pack of sad memories and weakening 
 fears drops off, and he takes up the real 
 burden with a song. In such hours love gives 
 strength. We can do for others many things 
 which we cannot do for ourselves, and in- 
 spired by love we forget to be tired. Christ 
 brings all these forces with him when he hails 
 our hearts in time of storm. The conscious- 
 ness of his presence assures us of the genuine- 
 ness and integrity of our own inner self. We 
 are always strong when we know we are right. 
 As Tennyson makes Sir Galahad say : 
 
 " My strength, is as the strength of ten, 
 Because my heart is pure." 
 
138 THE THREE GOOD CHEERS OF JESUS. 
 
 There is no voice so full of good cheer as 
 that of Christ if we have once given our 
 heart's affection to him. It is no longer the 
 voice of a great teacher, or a philosopher, or 
 some historic character ; but the voice of our 
 Saviour, with a music in it full of heavenly 
 love, which can touch the fountain of thanks- 
 giving and happy tears quicker than any 
 other voice. The message of the voice de- 
 pends upon its effects on the soul of the man 
 to whom it comes. One will hear a strain of 
 music and be entirely indifferent, while an- 
 other is roused to the highest enthusiasm by 
 the same sound. John Burroughs, the natu- 
 ralist, relates that some years ago a friend in 
 England sent him a score of skylarks in a 
 cage. He gave them their liberty in a field 
 near where he lived. They drifted away, and 
 he never heard or saw them again. But one 
 Sunday a Scotchman from a neighboring city 
 called upon him, and declared with visible 
 excitement that on his way along the road he 
 had heard a skylark. He was not dreaming ; 
 he knew it was a skylark, though he had not 
 heard one since he had left the banks of the 
 "bonnie Doon" a quarter of a century or 
 more before. The song had meant infinitely 
 more to the old Scotchman than it could have 
 
THE THREE GOOD CHEERS OF JESUS. 139 
 
 meant to Mr. Burroughs. Many years ago 
 some skylarks were liberated on Long Island, 
 and they became established there and may 
 now occasionally be heard in certain local- 
 ities. One summer day a lover of birds made 
 a journey out from New York city to observe 
 them. A lark was soaring and singing in the 
 sky above him. An Irishman came along and 
 suddenly stopped as if transfixed to the spot. A 
 look of mingled delight and incredulity came 
 into his face. W&s he indeed hearing the bird of 
 his youth ? He took off his hat, turned his 
 face skyward, and with eyes streaming with 
 tears stood a long time regarding the bird. 
 " Ah,' 1 thought the ornithologist, " if I could 
 only hear that song with his ears ! " To the 
 scientific man it was only one bird-song out 
 of scores of others with which he critically 
 compared it ; but to the other man it was like 
 a message from heaven. It brought back his 
 youth and all those long-gone days on his 
 native hills. So a man who has never given 
 his heart to Christ and known him as his 
 Saviour and personal Friend may read the 
 promises of Jesus in a cold-blooded, philo- 
 sophical spirit; but to the sincere Christian, 
 to whom Christ is the nearest and dearest 
 friend, these " good cheers " spoken in times 
 
140 THE THREE GOOD CHEERS OF JESUS. 
 
 of discouragement and despair come as a 
 message from heaven itself. 
 
 When Nansen went into the frozen arctic 
 sea he took with him, among other things, a 
 phonograph. Into this his wife had sung her 
 sweetest songs, and the prattling voice of his 
 little babe had uttered its childish tones. In 
 the loneliness of the arctic midnight he could 
 again listen to the familiar tones of those who 
 were dearest to him. In the most discourag- 
 ing hour he had the good cheer of loving 
 voices to beckon him onward to success. 
 These stories of the life of Jesus are a phono- 
 graph into which Christ has spoken. When 
 our boat is rocked by the waves and the 
 night grows dark, if we will listen we can 
 hear Christ saying to us, as to the frightened 
 disciples long ago, "Be of good cheer; it is 
 I ; be not afraid." 
 
 The last good cheer Jesus uttered was in 
 one of the closing conversations with his dis- 
 ciples, when they were very lonely and sad. 
 The world seemed so large and they were so 
 small; it was so strong and they were so 
 weak. But Christ said to them: "In the 
 world ye shall have tribulation: but be of 
 good cheer ; I have overcome the world." He 
 assures them of his own triumph over the 
 
THE THREE GOOD CHEERS OF JESUS. 141 
 
 world, and that in the same faith and spirit 
 they, too, shall conquer. Christ came and 
 lived in the midst of this world as a working- 
 man, as an earnest reformer, as a brotherly 
 helper, throwing himself into the thick of 
 the fight, never dodging contact with any- 
 body because of his poverty or sickness or 
 sinfulness, and yet came off conqueror over 
 the world. The world with all its wickedness 
 could not soil his purity, or break down his 
 courage. Let no man hesitate to become a 
 Christian for fear that the world will slay 
 him, for in Christ's strength the weakest may 
 conquer. Did you never see an opal that 
 seemed lusterless, without life or special 
 beauty? But shut your hand about it and 
 let it lie for a moment in your warm palm ; 
 it is all changed ; there is not even a needle's 
 point of its surface that does not glow with 
 the beauty and splendor of the rainbow. The 
 reason is that the opal is a sympathetic jewel 
 and needs contact with the human hand to 
 bring out its richest beauty; so you need, in 
 order to bring out the nobility and strength 
 of your character, and the beauty and grace of 
 soul which are possible to you, to come into 
 close touch and fellowship with Jesus Christ. 
 Only in that magnetic atmosphere can you 
 
142 THE THREE GOOD CHEEBS OF JESUS. 
 
 come to the manhood or the womanhood which 
 God sees is possible for you. A little over 
 a year ago, in New York city, I was with an 
 old Sandy Hook pilot, a great, weather-beaten, 
 bronzed man of the sea, the hero of a hundred 
 storms, when by the grace of God he emerged 
 from darkness to light and was happily con- 
 verted to Christ. I saw him every day for 
 a few days afterwards, and then on a Friday 
 night he came to me and said : " It's my turn 
 to go out to-morrow to the sea to meet a ship 
 coming in, but I never went with so light a 
 heart. I've been going out past Sandy Hook 
 for nearly fifty years, but to-morrow will be 
 the first time that the Great Pilot has gone 
 with me, holding the wheel of my heart " ; 
 and the tears of joy ran down the old man's 
 weather-beaten face as he said, " It will be the 
 happiest going to sea I have ever known." 
 
 I bring you the "good cheer" of the Sa- 
 viour. Wherever you may be — in sin, or 
 sorrow, or weakness; or if, indeed, they all 
 gather about you with lowering clouds — I 
 bring you this trinity of hopeful messages, 
 with the Saviour's love, and beg that you 
 make of them a threefold cable to draw you 
 out of the darkness, and the doubt, up to the 
 solid rock of perfect confidence in Christ. 
 
CHRIST WITH THE WILD BEASTS. 
 
 " The spirit driveth him into the wilderness. And he 
 was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan ; 
 and was with the wild beasts.' 7 — Mark i. 12, 13. 
 
 The great work of the world which has 
 tended to cure the savagery of mankind, and 
 lift the race upward, has been done by Spirit- 
 driven souls — men like John the Baptist, who, 
 whether in the desert or in the palace of 
 Herod, preached the gospel; men who, like 
 Philip, turn from the city where they are pop- 
 ular, their name on every lip, and go unhesi- 
 tatingly to strange fields and climb into any 
 passing chariot toward which the Spirit drives 
 them ; men like John Howard, who, forsaking 
 home and ease and luxury, went from land to 
 land, from prison to prison, into dungeon cell 
 and fever-fetid hole, driven of the Spirit to 
 find out the worst of man's inhumanity in 
 order to make protest for the weak and for- 
 
 143 
 
144 CHRIST WITH THE WILD BEASTS. 
 
 gotten; women like Dorothea Dix, who took 
 up the cause of the insane when there was not 
 a humane asylum for that afflicted class on 
 the earth, and became a wanderer on the face 
 of the globe in their behalf, driven of the 
 Spirit to agitation until humanity should pro- 
 vide better things for the unfortunate; wo- 
 men like Florence Nightingale, whom the 
 Spirit drove from England to the Crimea to 
 care for the sick and wounded soldiers; wo- 
 men like Clara Barton, driven of the Spirit 
 into Armenia when the terror of the Turk kept 
 back all others, that she might carry food and 
 comfort to the outraged and helpless Chris- 
 tians, and later to Cuba, going from hut to 
 hut as the messenger of mercy and of Christ. 
 Oh, for sensitive hearts — sensitive enough to 
 be Spirit-driven to the work which lies all 
 about us waiting for willing and skillful 
 hands ! 
 
 But the theme to which I wish specially to 
 call your attention is suggested in the strange 
 statement that Christ was "with the wild 
 beasts." I confess to you I do not know what 
 it means. The whole statement is full of 
 mystery, and one man's guess is as good as 
 another's. Just what is meant to be taught I 
 cannot say, and yet this weird declaration 
 
C HEIST WITH THE WILD BEASTS. 145 
 
 necessarily gives added emphasis to the great 
 fact of Christ's perfecting himself through 
 suffering to be the Captain of our salvation. 
 Just how much Christ suffered of loneliness 
 and conflict in those dark days in the wilder- 
 ness with the wild beasts we do not know; 
 but we know all that is necessary for us to 
 know about it, and the knowledge is fraught 
 with encouragement — that however terrible 
 was that lonely conflict with Satan and the 
 wild beasts, Christ was more than a match for 
 them all and came off victorious. 
 
 This theme, it seems to me, is very simple 
 and plain and full of teaching — Christ is in 
 this world to destroy all that is vicious and 
 wicked; indeed, to destroy the works of the 
 devil. 
 
 The wild beast of war that stalks abroad 
 to-day and roars like a lion seeking its prey, 
 Christ shall yet slay. There shall come a 
 time when ravenous war will cease to threaten, 
 when men shall beat their swords into plow- 
 shares and their spears into pruning-hooks. 
 How the old world will blossom then! It 
 makes one's heart ache in Germany, and 
 other countries abroad, to see in many fields 
 the harvesting all done by women and chil- 
 dren; and when you ask the reason why, 
 
146 CHRIST WITH THE WILD BEASTS. 
 
 they tell you the men are in the army, and 
 that, too, in time of peace. Ah! war is a 
 bloody beast ; let it die. 
 
 The brutal prize-fight and the brutalizing, 
 soul-destroying liquor saloon and gambling 
 hell shall go down and be slain like wild 
 beasts as Christ advances into dominion. 
 God give us the faith of our holy religion to 
 dare to believe that if a thing is sinful and 
 wicked and man-killing it must perish out of 
 the world which Christ ransomed ! The awful 
 folly of our land and our time is that we com- 
 promise with these giant sins and license wild 
 beasts to raven. It costs the State of Mon- 
 tana nearly half a million dollars a year in 
 bounties for their destruction to keep the 
 wolves from increasing in numbers. Now if 
 that State should license a farmer in every 
 community to breed wolves to add to the 
 number which prey upon its flocks of sheep 
 and herds of cattle, it would only be guilty of 
 the same sort of folly of which the State of 
 Ohio, as well as Montana, is guilty in licensing 
 men in every community to sell intoxicants 
 that prey like wild beasts upon the homes of 
 the people. 
 
 A friend of mine went into the Bowery Mis- 
 sion in New York city one evening, and had 
 
CHRIST WITH THE WILD BEASTS. 147 
 
 his attention drawn to a man near by who 
 was leaning forward to catch every word of 
 what was said. A refined, intelligent, gentle- 
 manly face was concealed behind a patch of 
 mud and clots of blood. His clothes were 
 torn and covered with dirt from the gutter. 
 He did not accept the invitation to remain at 
 the close of the service, but was hastening 
 toward the door when my friend took him by 
 the arm and pulled him back. He said to the 
 stranger, " My friend, you are in trouble, and I 
 came here to-night hoping I might be helpful 
 to some man who is in trouble." Startled at 
 being held, the man wheeled about and faced 
 the one who had spoken to him. Two bruises 
 were on his head, and the blood from a cut on 
 his chin was dripping down upon what was 
 otherwise a clean shirt and collar. M Yes," said 
 he, "I am in great trouble, I assure you. This 
 morning I left the hospital and I am still very 
 weak. I have had but three drinks, and I 
 have fifteen cents left to get some more, and 
 then Grod only knows what will happen." But 
 the Christian man was not to be put off. He 
 took him to a wash-basin, and saw the dirt 
 and blood removed from as refined a face as 
 he had ever seen. The promise of coffee and 
 food in the restaurant below, with a clean bed 
 
148 CHRIST WITH THE WILD BEASTS. 
 
 above, touched the man's heart and brought 
 out his story. He was a college graduate, 
 a member of a well-known family, and had 
 been a professional man of distinction. He 
 had gone from honor and influence down to 
 the gutter because he had been caught and 
 thrown by the wild beasts that were licensed 
 to ravage in his city. God help us to join 
 with Christ in fighting these wild beasts, till 
 they are overthrown ! 
 
 The Christian church and the liquor saloons 
 in these cities live altogether too peaceably. 
 I saw the other day that through some strange 
 freak a saloon-keeper had put up in his 
 saloon window one of the announcements of a 
 lecture to be given by me in a neighboring 
 church. Perhaps he did it as a joke, but it 
 stirred me to the bottom of my heart, and I 
 wondered if I had been doing my whole duty 
 in fighting the liquor saloons of this city. 
 God knows I do not desire to be any more 
 popular with a liquor-seller in this town than 
 Jesus Christ would be if he were the pastor of 
 this church. There can be no peace between 
 the church and these vile institutions that 
 does not mean dishonor to the church. When- 
 ever the Christian church is doing its duty 
 the saloon will hate and abuse and slander it, 
 
CHRIST WITH THE WILD BEASTS. 149 
 
 and do everything that it can against it. Did 
 you ever go through the wild-beast section of 
 a zoological garden as the hour for feeding 
 the animals drew near, and hear the lion 
 roar, the wolf howl, the hyena gnash his teeth, 
 and the serpent hiss ? So whenever political 
 party or church or minister really starves the 
 wild beasts of wickedness, you hear wicked 
 men and cowardly dupes roar and snarl and 
 hiss. We ought to rejoice when we hear that, 
 for it means that we are on Christian ground 
 and are loyal to our Lord. If we are faithful 
 to him, victory will come in his own good 
 time. 
 
 Let us bring our message closer home, and 
 reflect that every heart that has not surren- 
 dered itself to the will of Christ is a cage of 
 wild beasts. Shakespeare makes one of his 
 characters say of another: "I think he be 
 transformed into a beast; for I can nowhere 
 find him like a man." Another exclaims : 
 " tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide ! " 
 And still another bitterly says of himself that 
 he is a " hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in 
 greediness, dog in madness," and a "lion in 
 prey." Christ called Herod an "old fox." 
 Each of us has in our own nature the factors 
 of our ruin ; but Christ does not tremble be- 
 
150 CHRIST WITH THE WILD BEASTS. 
 
 fore the wild beasts of the human heart : he 
 has met and vanquished them in many a soul. 
 If we could look into each other's hearts 
 to-night, we would be astonished to see how 
 necessary it is that Christ should deal with 
 these wild beasts. Some of you have that 
 same tiger thirst for strong drink about 
 which I have already spoken in a general 
 way. How like a tiger it is ! You have often 
 seen the phrase " a man-eating tiger." It 
 arises from the fact that when a tiger has 
 once tasted human blood he is never satisfied 
 with any other food. He will prey on other 
 things to keep from starving, but he lurks 
 about the villages and watches the lonely 
 paths where men straggle, that he may slake 
 his thirst again on human blood. The thirst 
 for strong drink is like that. A man who has 
 that thirst in him, no matter how he came by 
 it, is no match for it in his own strength. 
 One of the saddest funerals I ever attended 
 was that of a young man to whose funeral I 
 was called just before coming to this church. 
 He was a son in one of the best homes in my 
 congregation, a college man and a splendidly 
 educated physician. He had been sent to 
 Germany to finish his professional studies. 
 He was a bright, brainy fellow, who might 
 
CHRIST WITH THE WILD BEASTS. 151 
 
 have stood at the very head of his profession. 
 But he toyed with the wine-cup and the beer- 
 glass until the tiger-like thirst was on his 
 track. His father picked him up out of the 
 wreckage three or four times, and would start 
 him in again in a new city, where he always 
 won immediate success ; but it was only tem- 
 porary, for there was a man-eating tiger in 
 his own breast. Finally, when he ought to 
 have been in his prime, he came home to die, 
 a despairing, hopeless wreck. 
 
 While no man can fight that wild beast 
 successfully in his own strength, Christ is 
 more than a match for it. There are men in 
 this congregation who were once torn and 
 scarred by this awful foe. They sought to 
 contend against it in their own strength and 
 failed, but when they came to Christ, and in- 
 voked his aid, they found one strong and 
 mighty to deliver. To-night they are living 
 sober and happy lives because Christ is bring- 
 ing them off more than conqueror. 
 
 Others there are who are ravaged by the 
 lion of lust. How many it has slain ! In 
 his godly youth, while yet the atmosphere of 
 his pure home was about him, and ere he had 
 fallen into sin, Samson met a young lion and 
 rent it in twain as though it had been a kid ; 
 
152 CHEIST WITH THE WILD BEASTS. 
 but there came a day when Samson, fallen 
 
 •i 7 
 
 away from his prayerful and pure life, was 
 slain by the lion of lust. This lion ravages 
 in these cities, and many go down before 
 him. Beware of this temptation, as you 
 would shun the path where a vicious, hun- 
 gry lion lay in ambush. Beware of those 
 thoughts, and associates, and books, and pa- 
 pers, that inflame the imagination with false 
 pictures of sinful pleasure, and gloss sin over 
 until your innocent youth and your pure home 
 seem dull and commonplace. Many a time a 
 youth dallies with forbidden pleasures, think- 
 ing only to toy with them, and not to fall into 
 open sin. That is only a delusion of the devil. 
 Tens of thousands have yielded to that insidi- 
 ous temptation and have awakened afterwards 
 to the awful fact that the slime of hell itself 
 had besmirched their souls. Many a youth 
 as innocent and pure as a child has uncon- 
 sciously been led down the winding stairway 
 until the moral nature became leprous and de- 
 praved. But Jesus Christ is more than a match 
 even for the lion of lust. He alone has power 
 to transform the heart, to cleanse the secret 
 chambers of the imagination, to fill the tem- 
 ple of the soul with pure thoughts, and 
 strengthen you for every good purpose. 
 
CHBI ST WITH THE WILD BEASTS. 153 
 
 Then there is that wolf -like temper which 
 is likely to flare out at any time until you are 
 torn in shame and disgrace. Perhaps there 
 is no sin that men excuse in themselves so 
 easily as the sin of uncontrolled anger. A 
 man congratulates himself that he is a good 
 man — only "I am hot-tempered." Many a mur- 
 derer has been that kind of a good man. No 
 man is safe for a moment who does not seek 
 from Christ the divine power to aid in the 
 control of his own spirit. Christ can tame 
 the wolf -like temper and domesticate it, and 
 train it to do the bidding of the will, so that 
 it will no longer be a wolf to ravage but a 
 watch-dog to stand sentinel. 
 
 Then there is the hyena of greed. This 
 snarling beast often drives out all others, and 
 so keeps the whole kennel to itself that a 
 man congratulates himself that he is better 
 than others, and can hardly be counted a sin- 
 ner at all, because he has no temptation to 
 drink, or to lust, or vicious anger. But don't 
 congratulate yourself, for the hyena of selfish- 
 ness and greed is enough to destroy any soul. 
 It slew Ananias, it made a suicide of Judas, 
 and it will just as surely strangle you unless 
 by the aid of Jesus Christ you strangle it. 
 
 In other hearts there is heard the hissing 
 
154 CHRIST WITH THE WILD BEASTS. 
 
 serpent of falsehood. Untruthfulness honey- 
 combs a character and eats out all its strength. 
 One of the most tragic things about politics 
 and business and social circles to-day, as per- 
 haps it has been in every day, is the prev- 
 alence of insincerity and untruthfulness. A 
 man deceives and is untrue in politics, and 
 yet imagines that somehow he is an honor- 
 able man. A business man will sometimes 
 admit that he is not straightforward and 
 square in business transactions, and yet is 
 deluded into thinking that he is an honest 
 man and a gentleman in spite of it. A min- 
 ister urging upon a man not long since the 
 necessity of his conversion, received this an- 
 swer: "It is true that I sometimes shark a 
 man in a trade, but I'm all right in my heart." 
 How utterly self -deceived the man was! Per- 
 haps some of you are being deceived the same 
 way. Your nature is sympathetic, and you 
 mistake pity for piety. Because you can be 
 touched by a tender story you think yourself 
 a Christian, in spite of the fact that your 
 honesty in any place where you can deceive is 
 not to be counted on. You will take advan- 
 tage of a man in dealing with him, and yet 
 you comfort yourself that your intentions are 
 pure. You ought to put to yourself the rough 
 
CHBIST WITH THE WILD BEASTS. 155 
 
 and rugged, but true, imagery of Spurgeon 
 when he said that u a man might as well walk 
 into a horse-pond and hope to keep dry, as to 
 turn his face toward hell and hope to get to 
 heaven." That untruthfulness and insincerity 
 will poison your whole life and banish you 
 from the presence of God forever unless the 
 serpent of falsehood is killed and your nature 
 brought to health and genuineness. Christ is 
 able to do that for you. He is more than a 
 match for the hissing serpent of insincerity. 
 In him you may find your soul's lost manhood. 
 Shall we not have an honest heart-searching 
 here and now ? Nothing is more foolish than 
 self-deception. No man who covers his sins 
 shall prosper. Accept the offer of Christ to 
 come now into your heart and destroy every 
 wild beast and make your soul the temple of 
 the Holy Spirit. 
 
CHRIST THE SOUL'S MASTER. 
 
 " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " — Acts ix. 6. 
 " Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." — John ii. 5. 
 
 Chkist is the soul's rightful master. The 
 way of peace is the path of surrender to the 
 will of Christ. Many are like Paul, stubborn 
 and self-willed, and come to the day of sur- 
 render through a hard path ; and many others 
 there are who, unlike Paul, refuse to yield 
 in the face of light as bright and convincing 
 as that which shone upon him on the way to 
 Damascus. They know their duty, they see 
 that Christ is Lord, but taking the bits be- 
 tween their teeth, like some reckless, runaway 
 steed, they dash recklessly on to eternal dis- 
 aster. Happy is the soul that, seeing the 
 danger, heeds it ! 
 
 There is in southern France the old town 
 of Avignon, where there is a strange ruin of 
 a bridge which was built in the twelfth cen- 
 
 156 
 
C HEIST THE SOUL'S MASTER. 157 
 
 tury, but has long since been abandoned. The 
 old bridge spans the River Rhone, which is 
 very wide at Avignon. That is, it seems to 
 span it, but does not quite do so. Only four 
 arches remain to-day of the nineteen that 
 once existed, fifteen of them having been 
 swept away by a terrible flood. These four 
 arches only take the road from the eastern 
 bank to about a quarter of the breadth of the 
 river, and there leave it. At one time there 
 was a little chapel in the middle of the bridge 
 which was said to contain the relics of one 
 of the saints, and the wayfarer was asked to 
 halt to get the blessing of this saint; but 
 about a hundred years ago that part of the 
 bridge was swept away, and there is a legend 
 that the devil came in place of the saint to 
 lure his victims to death. In the disguise of 
 a benevolent monk he would join himself as 
 a guide to strangers arriving in the town, and 
 at night would take them to this broken 
 bridge in order to lead them to the other side 
 of the river, going before them in the darkness 
 to show them the way. At the end of the 
 bridge he would be seen still advancing, while 
 the trusting strangers, following on, would 
 step over the broken edge and plunge with a 
 wild cry into the dark river below. In this 
 
158 CHRIST THE SOUL'S MASTEE. 
 
 manner he led many victims to destruction, 
 and the broken bridge of Avignon got an evil 
 name from the number of such tragic acci- 
 dents that happened on it, until at last the 
 authorities made it altogether inaccessible to 
 the public. 
 
 The evil one has many broken bridges by 
 which he lures the unwary to their destruc- 
 tion. I have in my thought at this moment 
 a young man who came to the city last autumn 
 from a home where he had been the object of 
 everything that love and abundant means 
 could do to hedge about and carefully prepare 
 him for a manly career. Coming into the 
 midst of the temptations of the city, he was 
 drawn into the association of fast young men 
 and flattered by those who desired to profit 
 by his self-indulgence. The path before him 
 seemed very pleasant. He had never asso- 
 ciated with young men of such brilliant parts 
 and who seemed to him to be so thoroughly men 
 of the world. Under the spell of their flattery 
 his mother's path of total abstinence and 
 church-going seemed very narrow and mean. 
 That might be all well enough for women, but 
 it was much more manly to have his glass of 
 wine with the fellows, and his game of cards 
 in one of the many semi-public gambling hells 
 
CHBIST THE SOUL'S MASTER. 159 
 
 which the police wink at in this city. The 
 road before him seemed solid. All the warn- 
 ings of the Bible about the way of the trans- 
 gressor being hard, and the dangers lurking 
 in paths of self-indulgence, seemed to him 
 but idle tales. He threw himself into this 
 seductive way with all his heart. What was 
 the result? In three months' time he was a 
 drunken, soiled, bankrupt, shamefaced wreck 
 of a youth. His mother came and took him 
 home, though her heart w T as broken. Surely 
 Solomon was right when he said, " There is a 
 way which seemeth right unto a man, but the 
 end thereof are the ways of death." 
 
 Do any congratulate themselves that, though 
 they are not Christians, they are not tempted 
 to the same kind of self-indulgence ? But the 
 devil has many another path besides that of 
 the appetites and the passions by which he 
 lures souls to their ruin. Sometimes men are 
 led away from Christ, and brought into dan- 
 ger of losing their souls, through their own 
 self-complacency. Many to-day are as proud 
 of their self -righteousness as the Pharisee who 
 thanked Grod that he was not like the poor 
 publican. Yet he went down to his house 
 condemned. It is obedience which Christ asks 
 of us. He declares that if we love him we will 
 
160 CHBIST THE SOUL'S MASTER 
 
 " keep his words " ; that is, we will obey him 
 and seek to please him. 
 
 Many when urged to be Christians seek to 
 thrust aside the direct issue by pleading their 
 morality and comparative goodness. A man 
 will enumerate the many bad things he will 
 not do, and urge the many good deeds which 
 may be credited to his account ; yet all the 
 time the one thing which Christ asks of him, 
 and without which everything else is of no 
 avail, he refuses to do. Christ asks for the 
 heart, for the surrender of the will to him. 
 Only obey him in that respect and everything 
 else will follow as a matter of course ; but so 
 long as we refuse that nothing else counts. 
 
 Every earnest pastor is often pained by the 
 failure of many people who come very near 
 to the kingdom and yet fail to enter in and 
 be saved. Very probably there are those to 
 whom I am now speaking who are at the 
 very doorway of salvation. You have never 
 doubted that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of 
 the world. You may have had doubts about 
 many things that hang like fringes about 
 Christianity, but the great central fact that 
 Christ is the Saviour of the world, and that 
 you should accept him as your Leader and 
 your Lord, you do not doubt. Salvation 
 
CHRIST THE SOUL'S MASTER. 161 
 
 would come to your house the very hour you 
 put this dormant faith into action by obedi- 
 ence to Christ. 
 
 Dr. Henry C. Mabie relates that there once -/ 
 came to him, in an inquiry meeting, a bright 
 young German, in a very forlorn state reli- 
 giously. He said : " Sir, I have become very 
 skeptical. I have drifted in my religious 
 thinking so far away that I am frightened." 
 
 "That is a good sign," replied Dr. Mabie, 
 "for when a man is alarmed at his own think- 
 ing, there is some hope for him in the gospel. 
 And now, what can I do for you ? n 
 
 "Well, I thought you might give me some 
 clue or other. I don't want to go any farther 
 in the direction in which I have been going." 
 
 " Well," said the doctor, " you need not tell 
 me anything about what you don't believe. 
 Will you be kind enough to tell me some one 
 thing which, after all, you do believe ? " 
 
 The German thought a moment, and an- 
 swered: "Well, I yet believe in God." 
 
 "Do you? Do you really?" 
 
 "Oh, yes; I believe in God. I will never 
 give that up." 
 
 "Very well; so far, so good. Now, how 
 much do you believe in him?" 
 
 "Why, I told you I beljeyed in him." 
 
162 CHBIST THE SOUL'S MASTER. 
 
 " Do you believe in your God enough to act 
 on your belief ? w 
 
 " Why, a man ought to." 
 
 "Certainly," said Dr. Mabie, "or he isn't 
 candid. Now Jesus Christ assures us if any 
 man will act on the amount of light he has, 
 he shall have more. I am going to call on 
 you here and now to act on your belief. I 
 want you to do the very simplest thing I can 
 think of in the way of acting out your belief 
 here and now. I want you to speak to God." 
 
 " What ! do you want me to pray ? I can't 
 make a prayer." 
 
 " Well, don't call it a prayer if that frightens 
 you. I want you to talk to God in your own 
 way, as you talk to me, and thus prove the 
 reality of your faith in God. God does not 
 ask you to make my prayer, or anybody 
 else's. You couldn't do so if you tried. Do 
 your own praying. Have your own notion of 
 God. You cannot have mine, anyway. No 
 two men require to have the same amount of 
 light, or the same convictions concerning God; 
 but every man is required to act upon the con- 
 viction he does have ; to risk himself on the 
 truth he does avow; to treat the measure of 
 truth he clings to as if it were actual and not 
 a pretence." 
 
CHRIST THE SOUL'S MASTER. 163 
 
 " Well," said he, " with that explanation of 
 it, I think I could begin." 
 
 The two men knelt down, and the young man 
 listened while the minister prayed. When he 
 had ceased, after a short struggle, he broke 
 forth himself, " my Glod ! " and he went on 
 step by step, pouring out a very torrent of 
 confession, until suddenly, springing to his 
 feet, he exclaimed: "Oh, sir, I feel wonder- 
 fully changed. Could you lend me a Bible? 
 I want to read the Bible." 
 
 The man was gloriously converted in that 
 first act which he put forth on the faith he 
 had. And this is not an uncommon occur- 
 rence except in its details. Many souls are 
 held back in a deadly lethargy when one act 
 of self-surrender, or confession of Christ as 
 the soul's master, would bring into their lives 
 infinite joy. 
 
 A minister was one day calling on a lady 
 in his parish, when her husband came in. 
 The husband was not a professor of Chris- 
 tianity, and, on meeting his wife's pastor, he 
 said: "Sir, we are very glad to see you in 
 our home. My wife is a member of your 
 church; I am not. Indeed, there are many 
 things in your creed I could not accept. But, 
 sir, I believe more than some people suppose." 
 
164 CHBIST THE SOUL'S MASTER. 
 
 "What, for example, do yon believe," said 
 the interested pastor, " more than people sup- 
 pose I " 
 
 " Oh," was the reply, " I believe that Jesus 
 Christ is the greatest teacher the world ever 
 saw." 
 
 " Do you believe that ? " said the minister. 
 
 "I do." 
 
 "Well, then," continued the preacher, "would 
 you mind coming to our prayer-meeting, next 
 Wednesday night, and saying that much ? " 
 
 " What ! " said he. " Think of me coming to 
 a prayer-meeting and saying that ! Would you 
 make me a hypocrite ? " 
 
 "Didn't you speak as an honest man just 
 now when you said you believed more than 
 some supposed ? And where would be the 
 hypocrisy in saying in public what you have 
 said to your wife and to me ? " 
 
 " Well," said the man, " that is a new way of 
 putting it ; I will think about it." 
 
 He came to the next prayer-meeting, and 
 when occasion was offered he arose and re- 
 peated the conversation which the pastor had 
 had with him, confessing to more faith than 
 he supposed he had. And while he stood 
 there talking his heart was melted, the hea- 
 venly light shone in upon him, and he was 
 
aim si 1 the sours master. ic5 
 
 converted ! He went out of that prayer- 
 meeting the most surprised and happiest of 
 men. 
 
 There are many here now who would go 
 away with untold happiness if they would 
 only act on the faith which they have. I beg 
 of you to use the light which God has given 
 you. If as yet the light is not bright enough 
 to show all the way to heaven, there is surely 
 enough to show you the first step, which is to 
 obey Jesus and confess before men that he is 
 the Master and Lord of your soul. 
 
FOR LOVE'S SAKE. 
 
 " Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath 
 given himself for us." — JEph. v. 2. 
 
 One of the surest evidences of the superna- 
 tural character of Christianity is the high 
 demand which it makes upon us. The life 
 which it sets for us is the noblest that has 
 ever been conceived. He who is the one al- 
 together lovely character in human history is 
 set not only as our Ideal, but as our Model, 
 after which we are to build our own lives. 
 The Christian life is not one simply of duty 
 harnessed down to service, however noble; 
 but it is duty led by the silken leash of love, 
 which changes burdens into wings and makes 
 all service light. It seems strange to many 
 people who are not Christians to hear us talk 
 about a life of sacrifice and a life of joy and 
 gladness in the same breath. But it is all 
 simple enough when the spirit of this life, as 
 
 166 
 
FOR LOVE'S SAKE. 167 
 
 suggested in our text, is taken into consid- 
 eration. The Christian life attempted in any 
 other spirit is a mockery. It is the glow of 
 the supernatural, the presence of the divine, 
 the glorious self-surrender, the supreme pas- 
 sion of love, which gives to the Christian life 
 a charm and a beauty that the world can 
 know nothing of. If one undertakes to live 
 a Christian life simply as a formality, it is dry 
 and hard and ugly. 
 
 One of the old and magnificent ruined cas- 
 tles in Ireland came to an end in a strange 
 manner. It was the ancient seat of the Cas- 
 tlereaghs, and was at one time one of the most 
 princely residences in the Green Isle. Finally 
 it fell into decay and was not inhabited. As 
 usual under such circumstances, when the peas- 
 antry wanted to repair a road, or build a chim- 
 ney, or a pig-sty, or anything of that sort, they 
 went for the stones to the ruined castle. One 
 day Lord Londonderry paid a visit to his Irish 
 property. "When he saw the state the castle 
 was in, and reflected on the fact that it was so 
 closely identified with the history of his family, 
 and even as a ruin was one of the glories of 
 Ireland, he determined to put an end to the 
 encroachments that had been made on it. He 
 sent for his agent and gave orders to have the 
 
168 FOB LOVE'S SAKfi. 
 
 castle enclosed with a wall six feet high and 
 well coped, to keep out trespassers. That 
 being done, he went his way, and did not 
 return to Ireland for three or four years. 
 When he did return he was amazed to find 
 that the old castle had completely disappeared, 
 and in its place there was a huge wall en- 
 closing nothing. He sent for his agent and 
 demanded to know why his orders had not 
 been carried out. The agent insisted that 
 they had been. "But where is the castle?" 
 asked the marquis. "The castle, is it? I 
 built the wall with it, my lord ! Is it for me 
 to be going miles for materials with the finest 
 stones in all Ireland beside me ? " Lord Lon- 
 donderry had his wall — but the castle, without 
 which the wall meant nothing, had disappeared. 
 Alas ! I fear that many of us are in danger in 
 our church life of building our devotions into 
 walls of formality that may be very strong, 
 very orthodox, very rich in their display and 
 mechanical equipment; and our thought and 
 attention becoming so set upon the forms that 
 we lose out of them the spirit of our Chris- 
 tianity, the fervor of our devotion, the flaming 
 fire of our zeal for God without which all our 
 churches and church machinery have no sig- 
 nificance and are as senseless as Lord Lon- 
 
FOB LOVES SAKE. 169 
 
 donderry's wall about a castle which had 
 disappeared into the wall itself. 
 
 It is good for us to bring ourselves fre- 
 quently into the presence of him who is our 
 Model and our Inspiration. We are to give 
 ourselves up to the life of love even as Christ 
 loved us and gave himself in sacrifice for us. 
 The world which approaches us through the 
 senses is always so near and so noisy that it 
 is sure to lower our standard of living unless 
 we keep in constant touch with Christ. We 
 need to have line upon line and precept upon 
 precept to keep us alert" and conscious of the 
 high life to which we are called. 
 
 This life of Christian love is very unworldly 
 in many things. For instance, love never asks 
 the question which is on everybody's lips in 
 this commercial age — "Will it pay?" It is 
 enough for love that it may serve its beloved. 
 Love surrenders itself, thinking not of return. 
 Love exults that it can give. Sometimes we 
 see church life conducted on the worldly plan, 
 and about every movement in pulpit and pew 
 the interrogation point goes up, "Will it 
 pay ? " — meaning, though it would not always 
 be accepted in so many words, will it bring 
 money into the church treasuries, or crowd 
 the house with popular throngs, or attract 
 
170 FOB LOVE'S SAKE. 
 
 the rich and cultured; and not meaning, the 
 one thing for which the church exists, and 
 has a right to exist — the expression of loving 
 devotion to the Christ whose name it bears by 
 carrying the good news of his willingness and 
 power to forgive sins to every listening soul. 
 How different is the spirit of that love about 
 which Christ talks to us ! The father who 
 welcomed home the prodigal never asked, 
 when taking him back in his rags, "Will it 
 pay ? " There was no talk about putting him 
 down in the back kitchen to a supper with 
 the servants off the fragments left from the 
 household table. Nothing was said about half 
 the family living squandered and a stranded 
 youth thrown on his hands. No ; the father's 
 love was speaking when he said : " Make ready 
 the feast ; find the best robe ; bring love's 
 most precious ring ; let all the house be 
 merry. For my lost son is found again, and 
 he whom I mourned as dead has come back 
 alive." Wherever that spirit possesses the soul 
 to-day, there is the victorious life; wherever 
 it dominates in a church, speaking from the 
 pulpit and echoing back from the pews, the 
 angels rejoice over sinners who are attracted 
 to enjoy its warmth. 
 Love never asks, "Will the burden be 
 
FOE LOVE'S SAKE. 171 
 
 heavy?" Love is never looking for light 
 things, easy things, to do. It always wants 
 to carry the heaviest end of the load. 
 Christ's yoke is easy to every one of us who 
 have completely given ourselves up to his 
 service, because his supreme love causes him 
 ever to bear the heavy end of the yoke. If 
 we live in his spirit, living with us will be 
 very pleasant, and the world cannot help 
 being made better and happier because we 
 are in it. This spirit is illustrated on every 
 side by those who have been transformed into 
 the image of Christ through his love. 
 
 When Alexander Mackay bade farewell to 
 his native land, in company with other young 
 men, to carry the news of the Saviour's love 
 into Central Africa, he said to the missionary 
 committee, " Is it at all likely that eight Eng- 
 lishmen should start for Central Africa and all 
 be alive six months after ? One of us at least — 
 it may be I — will surely fall before that. But 
 what I want to say is this : When the news 
 comes, do not be cast down, but send some 
 one else immediately to take the vacant place." 
 That is the spirit which is capturing the world 
 for Christ. If all of us who name his name 
 lived ever in that spirit we could very shortly 
 bring about the final victory of Christ. 
 
172 FOB LOVE'S SAKE. 
 
 Love never asks, "Am I doing more than 
 my share?" Love never whines about its 
 work. Its joy is that it may go into the hard 
 places where the need is greatest. The shep- 
 herd in Christ's story does not grumble at the 
 darkness of the night, or the depth of the 
 canon, or the folly of the lost sheep. It is one 
 of his flock that is in danger of the wolf, and, 
 leaving the ninety and nine in the fold, he 
 seeks patiently until he finds it ; and when he 
 finds the wanderer, he tenderly carries it on 
 his shoulder to safety and rejoices over it. It 
 is a thing to tell the other shepherds about ; a 
 thing to sing over. Nothing can stand in the 
 way of a Christian who attacks duties in that 
 spirit. A poor Swiss boy, so sickly that he 
 was confined to his bed for years, as he could 
 do nothing else, read everything that he 
 could lay his hands on, and learned several 
 languages. Being a Christian, his heart be- 
 came captivated with the needs of the poor 
 natives of Africa. He prayed for strength, 
 and when it came he crossed the ocean and 
 put himself under Bishop Taylor, in whom he 
 found a kindred spirit. And so it came about 
 that Heli Chatelain made his explorations into 
 Africa and gave himself up to the mission of 
 helping as best he could to bring the light of 
 
FOB LOVE'S SAKE. 173 
 
 Christ into the midst of that great darkness. 
 He has just been writing home to some of the 
 religious newspapers, recounting his experi- 
 ences ; and as we read of the difficulties — not 
 only in the country and the climate, but, 
 worse than forests and swamps and fevers, 
 the horrible forms of heathenism and bar- 
 barism — we wonder how any man can keep 
 his courage and hope under such circum- 
 stances. But instead of being cast down he 
 says in his last letter : " Grod is blessing us 
 abundantly, so that I could sing all the time. 
 He alone can reform this evil society. We 
 realize our helplessness. God can and will use 
 us." And then this brave man closes his letter 
 by saying, with what impressed me as a touch 
 of pathos : " My candle is burnt out, it is late, 
 and I must be up early, before day." As I 
 thought how rapidly this man and others like 
 him are burning themselves out in the Master's 
 service, I thanked Grod that it was possible for 
 us to be the candles of the Lord, and to be 
 lighted at Heaven's fires with a passion so 
 holy and so deathless. 
 
 Love never asks, "Who will get the credit 
 for it ? " It is glad it may do the service ; 
 willing to be only the vase covered by the 
 flowers which it holds ; willing to be only the 
 
174 FOB LOVE'S SAKE. 
 
 packing which wraps the Saviour's image; 
 willing to be only the channel, hidden, it may 
 be, through which may come his love, which 
 is to ransom and redeem those who shall be 
 jewels in his crown. If our love to Christ is 
 supreme, it is not credit for ourselves which 
 we desire, but credit for Christ. A man 
 went to hear Spurgeon preach, and a friend 
 asked him: "What do you think of him?" 
 " Nothing," was the reply. Then, seeing the 
 look of astonishment and sorrow on his friend's 
 face, he said again : " No, nothing." But his 
 eyes filled with tears of joy as he added : " All 
 I can think of is the preacher's Saviour!" 
 Every one of us who carry the banner of 
 Christ should be so given up in spirit to this 
 great love for him and for his cause that our 
 Christ shall have the credit for illuminating 
 and transforming our lives. 
 
 Love never faints by the way. A lady 
 visiting on one of the fashionable streets in 
 Chicago, last summer, was called to the door 
 to meet a man who asked permission "to 
 have a fit on her porch." The poor fellow felt 
 the premonitions of his'affliction, and, knowing 
 it was bound to come, sought a convenient 
 place for the inevitable performance. It would 
 use up a good many porches, I fear, to furnish 
 
FOR LOVE'S SAKE. 175 
 
 convenience for all the fainting Christians. 
 But we do not need to have these times for 
 fainting. " They that wait upon the Lord 
 shall renew their strength ; they shall mount 
 up with wings as eagles ; they shall run, and 
 not be weary ; and they shall walk, and not 
 faint." 
 
 If any hear me who are not Christians, I 
 would not close without urging upon you the 
 truth that this life of supreme sacrifice and 
 self-surrender, which seems so unworldly and 
 so "contrary to the wisdom of the world, is, 
 after all, the most joyous and the only safe 
 and sure life. Dr. F. B. Meyer recently said 
 that we need not be afraid to trust God utterly. 
 As we go down the long corridor of life we 
 shall find that he has preceded us and locked 
 many doors which we would have been glad 
 to enter; but we may be sure that beyond 
 these there is one which he has left unlocked. 
 When we open that door and enter we will 
 find ourselves face to face with a bend of the 
 river of opportunity, broader and deeper than 
 anything we have dared to imagine in our 
 sunniest dreams. We may fearlessly launch 
 forward on it, for it will conduct us to the 
 open sea. The launching out on a life of 
 supreme devotion to Christ is an occasion of 
 
176 FOB LOVE'S SAKE. 
 
 heavenly joy and promise. When a vessel 
 is launched by the Japanese, they do not 
 " christen " it, as we do ; but, instead, they 
 hang over the ship's prow a large pasteboard 
 cage full of birds. Directly the ship is afloat, 
 a man pulls a string, the cage opens, and the 
 birds fly off and make the air alive with their 
 songs and the whir of their wings. The idea 
 is that the birds welcome the vessel as she be- 
 gins her career as a thing of life. Give your- 
 self up to Christ with all your heart ; launch 
 your soul on the ocean of his love, and all the 
 birds of the Spirit shall sing in your ears 
 songs of forgiveness and hope until every- 
 thing that is good enough to be true will 
 seem to be, as it is, possible for the future of 
 your soul. 
 
SHARING THE INHERITANCE WITH 
 JESUS. 
 
 "Heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ."— Bom. 
 viii. 17. 
 
 Theee is no richer promise in the Bible 
 than that set forth with differing phraseology 
 in many passages assuring us that we may be 
 adopted into the family of God and share in 
 all the inheritance of Jesus Christ our Saviour. 
 We have known this always, and the story has 
 been so oft repeated to us that it may have 
 lost the keenness of delight which it ought to 
 give. Men take great pride in tracing their 
 family relationships back to some royal per- 
 sonage, or to some famous historic character ; 
 but it is scarcely worth while when a far 
 greater honor is assured to every one, however 
 poor and humble he may be, who will accept ' 
 the brotherhood of Jesus Christ. The most 
 splendid character in the ages, the one per- 
 fectly ideal character, on whose record for 
 
 177 
 
178 SHABING THE INHERITANCE 
 
 heroism and goodness and power there is not 
 a stain, offers to lift us out of the mire and 
 clay of sin, and set our feet upon the solid 
 rock of heirship with him, in an inheritance 
 nobler than that which any man of wealth or 
 any king in the world could bestow. 
 
 This is the great central fact of Christianity. 
 The chief characteristic of the Christian life is 
 that we are to share the inheritance of Jesus. 
 To be a Christian is to be like Jesus. We are 
 to share his fate in all worlds. It is impossi- 
 ble that we can go our own way in this world 
 and share the inheritance with him in the 
 next. If we are to have part in the heavenly 
 mansions we must not shun his yoke of ser- 
 vice or sorrow in this world. In the very 
 verse from which we have taken our text, 
 Paul continues — "if so be that we suffer with 
 him, that we may be also glorified together." 
 The servant is not greater than his lord, and 
 we ought not to desire to be more popular or 
 successful in business, or society, or church 
 circles, than Jesus Christ would be were he 
 here. We are joint-heirs with Christ. We 
 must not evade our fellowship with him in 
 sharing temporary discomforts or burdens, 
 but, like him, must have our eyes on the goal 
 at the end of the race. 
 
WITH JESUS. 179 
 
 There is a very striking illustration of the 
 kind of spirit wo ought to show as Christians 
 in the single reference which is made in the 
 New Testament to Onesiphorus. Paul, in his 
 last letter to Timothy, burst forth into this 
 exclamation of gratitude: "The Lord give 
 mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus : for 
 he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of 
 my chain." Paul was a poor prisoner in 
 Rome, with money gone, friends far away, 
 and in great need of somebody to love and 
 comfort him, Onesiphorus hunted him up, 
 and, counting Paul's chain a badge of honor 
 rather than of shame, loved him all the more 
 when he saw this indication of Nero's cruelty. 
 He was so true a Christian that he was willing 
 to share the fate of every true friend of Jesus. 
 We want that spirit to-day — men and women 
 who will stand by the right because it is right, 
 whether it is popular or not. The church of 
 Christ is not to be a poor time-server waiting 
 on politicians and demagogues to lead the 
 way toward public or private righteousness, 
 but wherever the issue rises we are to stand 
 by the plain and simple standard of our Lord, 
 and if for the time being it is in the minority, 
 never haul down our colors, but go with them 
 if need be to our cross. There is an Easter 
 
180 SHAMING THE INHERITANCE 
 
 for every such crucifixion. In sharing Christ's 
 inheritance there may be times that are full 
 of trial, like the forty days which Christ spent 
 in the wilderness with the wild beasts ; but if 
 we share the wilderness with Jesus we shall 
 also share with him the Mount of Trans- 
 figuration. It is better to go through the 
 darkness with Christ, than to walk in the 
 blazing noon without him. 
 
 A novel method of treatment for a sick 
 child has been adopted with success by a 
 druggist in an Eastern city. About nine years 
 ago the wife of the druggist died, leaving a 
 delicate baby boy to her husband's care. All 
 his soul was wrapped up in the child, and he 
 watched him tenderly and saw that the people 
 with whom he placed him gave him the most 
 careful attention. But in spite of their care 
 the child dwindled and faded. He was afflicted 
 with a nervous disease which developed into 
 spinal trouble. When he was eight years old, 
 the physicians who had been attending him 
 almost broke the father's heart by telling him 
 that there was no hope of saving his little 
 son's life. But the father had been studying 
 the disease himself, and he determined, as the 
 physicians had given up the case, that he 
 would treat him on a system of his own. His 
 
WITH JESUS. 181 
 
 theory was based on the benefit of complete 
 seclusion and unvarying conditions. Under 
 his store he had a large cellar hewn from the 
 solid rock and perfectly dry. He partitioned 
 off a square of about twenty feet of this area, 
 laid a thick carpet, and furnished it with mini- 
 ature furniture of the most beautiful and 
 comfortable kind. No ray of sunlight was 
 permitted to enter this underground room, 
 but a cluster of electric lights in the ceiling 
 gave uniform light night and day. Music- 
 boxes made soft melody, and toys such as 
 boys love were scattered about. Into this 
 room the father brought his boy and made 
 him understand that the luxurious nest was 
 his own and that the remainder of the cellar 
 was his playground. No one else was ever 
 permitted to enter. The boy heard no voice 
 but that of his father and saw no one else. 
 At the beginning he was terribly thin; he 
 could not dress, and could scarcely feed, him- 
 self. In a few weeks a decided improve- 
 ment was seen. The boy grew stronger and 
 showed more intelligence. The absolute quiet 
 and seclusion suited him and he gained cheer- 
 fulness and courage. His father spent as 
 much of his time as he could in the cellar 
 with him, and slept there. As his strength 
 
182 SHARING THE INHERITANCE 
 
 increased gymnastic appliances were intro- 
 duced, and one day the father brought him 
 a set of carpenter's tools, which proved a 
 great source of amusement. After twenty 
 months of this secluded life, the boy is al- 
 most robust, his nervousness has disappeared, 
 and he can talk intelligently. The father pro- 
 poses now to gradually introduce him to ordi- 
 nary life and send him to a kindergarten 
 school. It has been a strange method of 
 cure, but it has been a wonderful success. 
 Now if you were to hear that a father who 
 was well-to-do and had a fine house had shut 
 his son up in the cellar under his store for 
 twenty months, and did not understand his mo- 
 tive or know the circumstances, you would be 
 very likely to pronounce him cruel. So God's 
 dealings with us are often misunderstood. 
 Many times in the wilderness of temptation 
 we misunderstand God's motive, and men 
 looking on may imagine that we are hypo- 
 crites and unworthy of God's deliverance, or 
 else that it is not true that God interferes in 
 behalf of his children in times of calamity. 
 We are very short-sighted when we reason in 
 that way. Perhaps I speak to some at this 
 moment who are in the cellar of trial and 
 darkness. Do not take it for granted that 
 
WITH JESUS. 183 
 
 God is angry with you because the darkness 
 curtains you in. Grod may see that the one 
 thing above all else that can strengthen you 
 and build you up for time and eternity is 
 the experience of darkness and trial. No 
 sincere Christian ever has to go into the 
 place of trial alone ; our Saviour will visit us 
 there — nay, more ; he will abide with us there 
 and comfort us in the darkest hour. 
 
 No really great Christian work can be ac- 
 complished except by one who has a keen 
 sense of sharing the fate of Christ. The 
 presence of the divine Christ lifts us up into 
 a new atmosphere and strengthens us to do 
 great deeds. Saul is only a common perse- 
 cutor, hunting men down for opinion's sake, 
 until a vision of the glorious Christ startles 
 him out of himself and transforms him into 
 the clear-eyed, broad-souled, brave Paul who 
 forever after shares the inheritance of Jesus 
 with all gladness. If he fights with beasts for 
 the pleasure of a brutal populace, he glances 
 at the scars left from the tiger's claw and calls 
 them " the marks of the Lord Jesus." If he 
 is a prisoner, he is not Nero's prisoner, but 
 with tender pathos and comfort he writes 
 himself down as "the prisoner of Jesus 
 Christ." No wonder Paul is ready to say, " If 
 
184 SHAMING THE INHEBITANCE 
 
 so be that we suffer with him, that we may be 
 also glorified together. For I reckon that the 
 sufferings of this present time are not worthy 
 to be compared with the glory which shall be 
 revealed in us." 
 
 If we share Christ's sufferings with com- 
 plete devotion, we shall share his inheritance, 
 also, in the joy and glory which reward his 
 service both in this world and in the world 
 to come. When Jesus was going away he 
 comforted his disciples with the assurance 
 that they should not only continue his work 
 in the world, but should do greater works 
 than he had done, by the aid of the Holy 
 Spirit whom he would send unto them. 
 What we need above all else is a supreme 
 consecration of ourselves, with everything 
 that we have and are, to the service of Christ, 
 that we may share also in that divine power 
 which is the inheritance of the wholly conse- 
 crated life. There has been many another 
 man like Mr. Moody, who preached many 
 times without bringing about conversions 
 before he made the supreme self-surrender 
 to Christ which brought the enduement of 
 power and transformed him into the marvel 
 of spiritual energy and effectiveness he has 
 been ever since. Tamil David, the wonderful 
 
WITH JESUS. 185 
 
 Hindoo evangelist, though yet a young man, 
 has won to Christ tens of thousands of men 
 and women in many lands. He preached for a 
 long time, however, without this power. One 
 day, after preaching, he met a Salvation Army 
 captain. He was not an educated man, but 
 he was practical. He was a man wise in 
 spiritual things. He said: "David, my friend, 
 come here. I see you have good material. I 
 heard you preaching. You are strong, you 
 have a good voice, but do you know there is 
 one thing lacking ? " 
 
 David said : " What is that ? » 
 
 "You haven't the fire as yet; accept the 
 fire." 
 
 " What makes you say that ? Tell me." 
 
 "My dear brother, unless you get the life 
 more abundant, you may preach as much as 
 you like, but you cannot win souls for Christ; 
 you may preach and preach, but all will be in 
 vain. You have all the materials; only one 
 thing is lacking in you. As soon as you get 
 the fire you will be a different man and souls 
 will be converted." 
 
 That poor Salvation Army captain led 
 Tamil David tenderly to a complete conse- 
 cration of himself, with all he had and was 
 and hoped for, to be the servant of Christ — 
 
186 SHAKING THE INHERITANCE 
 
 to simply share the fate of Jesus; and, sure 
 enough, from that day David was a trans- 
 formed man. He went into the streets and 
 groves to preach, and every man that heard 
 him felt that some marvelous power had 
 fallen upon him. More than ten thousand 
 people were converted within three months. 
 People were filled with the Holy Ghost. The 
 Hindoo priests crowded around and asked : 
 "What is this?" David answered: "The 
 same power as at Pentecost." Many priests 
 fell down and cried for mercy. And during 
 the last few months thousands of men and 
 women in Chicago have been converted under 
 the simple preaching of this consecrated man. 
 He calls it " the abundant life." Whatever it 
 is, it is what we want. I covet it for myself, 
 and for you, more than any earthly good. It 
 is possible for us to have it. God is not par- 
 tial, to grant this abundant life only to Peter, 
 and Moody, and Tamil David and their com- 
 peers. Christ came to give us more abundant 
 life, also. We have a right to this inheritance 
 of spiritual power. If we do not share it, it 
 will be our own fault. God make us worthy 
 to share it ! 
 
 If we are joint-heirs with Christ here, we 
 shall also share his inheritance in heaven; we 
 
WITH JESUS. 187 
 
 shall rejoice with him through the immortal 
 years. If we confess him here, he will con- 
 fess us there. If we bear the cross now, we 
 shall wear the crown then. Many of our 
 friends and fellow-Christians who have shared 
 the battle with us, whose courage has often 
 comforted us and inspired us, have already 
 laid down the sword for the scepter of im- 
 mortal glory. How rapidly they pass away 
 from our side, making earth almost lonely, 
 and filling heaven with attractive faces which 
 beckon us onward. If we are faithful the day 
 shall come when we shall hear, as they have 
 already heard, the good cheer of our Lord's 
 voice saying unto us, "Come, ye blessed of 
 my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for 
 you from the foundation of the world." 
 
THE MESSENGER OF SALVATION. 
 
 " The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath ap- 
 peared to all men." — Titus ii. 11. 
 
 Men have always been trying to devise 
 some scheme by which they might buy salva- 
 tion from their sins. The young ruler who 
 came to Christ crying out, " Good Master, 
 what good thing shall I do, that I may have 
 eternal life?" had this idea in mind. He 
 thought there must be some way by which he 
 might earn heaven. He was, no doubt, ready 
 to set off on a pilgrimage like the later Cru- 
 saders, or like Sir Launfal and his compeers 
 who went in search of the Holy Grail, if in 
 that way he might make sure of a happy 
 immortality. Many people in our own time 
 are expecting somehow to work out salvation 
 by an act of penance — as if by torturing the 
 body one might cleanse and adorn the soul ! 
 And even among people who do not believe 
 
 188 
 
THE MESSENGER OF SALVATION. 189 
 
 in the efficacy of penances there is still a feel- 
 ing that they may fit themselves by deeds 
 of benevolence or righteousness for entrance 
 into the kingdom of God. 
 
 The whole spirit of the Bible, however, is 
 in line with our text, that salvation comes to 
 us, if it comes at all, by the free grace of God. 
 It is God's gift. Paul puts it very clearly in 
 his letter to the Eomans when he says, " The 
 wages of sin is death ; but the gift of God is 
 eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." 
 It is not possible for us to lay by any store of 
 virtue, or extra stock of goodness, by which 
 we may merit salvation. Here is a man who 
 is in debt to his employer, and he goes on 
 necessarily spending everything that he earns, 
 week after week, in order to live. The months 
 pass, and it is impossible for him to lay by a 
 cent to pay on his debt. How can that man 
 ever get free from his debt? Suppose the 
 employer should come to him some day and 
 say, "I find that you are hopelessly in debt. 
 My heart is touched to see you going on this 
 way, with that old debt forever hanging over 
 your head, and with no prospect of ever 
 escaping from under its pall. I have taken 
 compassion on you, and am ready to cancel 
 all the old indebtedness, and take you into the 
 
190 THE ME S SEN GEE OF SALVATION. 
 
 business as though you were my own son, and 
 let you share with me in all the pleasures and 
 profits of the estate." What would you think 
 of a man to whom such an offer was made if 
 he should say, " No ; it is really very kind of 
 you to offer it, but I am not fit yet ; I must 
 wait until I save up a small sum at least to 
 pay on that old debt " ? And yet that is what 
 men are doing who are trying to get to heaven 
 through some righteousness of their own. My 
 brother, it is a hopeless task. You are in debt 
 already beyond possibility of payment. Your 
 sins hang over you a sentence of condemna- 
 tion. If you were never to sin again in your 
 life the sins of the past would yet mean sorrow 
 and disaster. You can never blot them out, 
 and you can never atone for them, because 
 the Lord has a right to all your service. If 
 you were to live a spotless life from now on 
 till the judgment, you could not lay up any- 
 thing in the way of righteous conduct to can- 
 cel the debt of your sin already committed. 
 Here is where God's free grace comes in. 
 " God so loved the world" — that is the mes- 
 sage which tells the story of the beginning of 
 salvation; u the grace of God bringeth sal- 
 vation " is the message of our text. 
 That word " grace " many people use with- 
 
THE MESSENGER OF SALVATION. 191 
 
 out thinking what it means. As we use words 
 now, it means to favor one; to give some- 
 thing out of pure generosity. In business, 
 men talk about certain days of grace, which 
 means that certain days will be granted in 
 the meeting of an obligation which by stern 
 legal right you would not have. So salva- 
 tion through Christ was born not of justice, 
 but of love, and every one of us, whatever we 
 may consider our degree of sinfulness to be, or 
 whatever the world may think about our level 
 of character, must take salvation humbly as 
 the free gift of Grod. 
 
 The note which runs through this text, and 
 which, indeed, is the key-note of all the Bible, 
 is in that word " salvation." At the bottom of 
 all religions that fill the earth are the deep un- 
 rest of a guilty conscience and the cry of a 
 sinful heart to be freed from its consciousness 
 of guilt and find peace with Grod. If we could 
 only know what struggles are going on every 
 day in the hearts of men and women who are 
 fighting to be free from some evil tendency 
 or wicked habit, and yet fighting in vain, we 
 would stand back aghast at the spectacle. 
 There are more tragedies in real life than are 
 ever put on the stage or find their way into 
 fiction. The grace of G-od through Jesus 
 
192 THE ME S SEN GEE OF SALVATION. 
 
 Christ comes to bring salvation to men and 
 women in such a case. 
 
 There is a curious old tradition connected 
 with the park and manor house of Lambton, 
 on the estate of the Earl of Durham in Eng- 
 land. The tradition is that in the fourteenth 
 century the heir, young John Lambton, was 
 leading a dissolute life which was punished 
 in a strange way. He was one day fishing in 
 the river, when he invoked the powers of evil 
 to give him aid and success in one last cast of 
 the rod. A great strain came upon the line, 
 and, after a tremendous effort, he landed an im- 
 mense and hideous worm. This in disgust he 
 threw into a well close by, where it grew with 
 such marvelous rapidity as soon to fill it up 
 with its body and limbs ; and consequently it 
 was able to scramble out. This horrid worm 
 made its headquarters on a large rock in the 
 center of the river, coiling about it, and at 
 night raided the country round about, feed- 
 ing upon the young of the cattle and the 
 sheep, and causing men and women and 
 children to flee for their lives. It finally 
 threatened the castle itself. To propitiate it 
 the Lord of Lambton placed troughs of milk 
 in the way by which it was to approach ; but 
 all to no avail. One brave knight after an- 
 
THE MESSENGER OF SALVATION. 193 
 
 other sought to make way with this terrible 
 monster, but every one that attempted it was 
 crushed to death in its tremendous folds. At 
 last there came a knight of Bhodes, who took 
 his position on the summit of the worm-rock 
 to beard it in its own fortress. Sword in 
 hand, he awaited the coming of the monster. 
 At last the worm of Lambton had met its 
 match and was slain. 
 
 Sin yielded to is like the worm of Lamb- 
 ton. It grows with every day of life; it 
 becomes more ravenous as it is conciliated. 
 The more men compromise with their sins, 
 the more completely are they brought under 
 their power. There is only one Knight who is 
 able to make ever-successful war against the 
 sinful habits which devastate and despoil the 
 soul — Jesus, the Knight of God's grace, who 
 comes with the sword of the Spirit. Many 
 who hear me can testify that before his sword 
 the most tyrannical and oppressive sin goes 
 down in defeat. Many of you have appealed 
 to other sources of help and have failed, but 
 Christ always conquers. He will come into 
 your heart, where sin has made its fortress, 
 and, making his stand in the country which 
 the enemy has invaded, he will fight to the 
 death every sin which threatens you with 
 
194 THE MESSENGER OF SALVATION, 
 
 ruin. He will dwell in your heart, and it is 
 easy to be good in fellowship with him. 
 
 A little girl suddenly died out of a home 
 which she had filled with gladness and joy 
 by her sweet temper and genuine goodness. 
 When her parents came to select a motto 
 for the stone which marked her resting-place 
 they had chiseled these words : " Of whom 
 all her playmates said, it was easy to be good 
 in her company." Could a prettier thing than 
 that be said of any one? We all know how 
 hard it is to be good in some people's com- 
 pany, and how in the company of others the 
 very moral atmosphere that breathes from 
 face and conversation seems healthful and 
 wholesome, so that we go away feeling, " It 
 is easy to be good in their company." A dis- 
 tinguished infidel once said that he did not 
 dare to stay any longer at the residence of 
 a certain Christian man for fear he might 
 become a Christian in spite of himself. What 
 he meant was that the spirit of Christ was 
 so manifest in this man, and his sincerity and 
 righteousness were so apparent, that it was 
 almost impossible not to believe in the divine 
 Christ when in his company. One of the most 
 glorious things about inviting men to accept 
 
THE MESSENGER OF SALVATION. 195 
 
 the grace of God which offers them salvation 
 is that we may promise to them the fellow- 
 ship of Christ in their daily lives. Many times 
 men and women say to me, "I can't live a 
 Christian life situated just as I am." But 
 if you give your heart to Christ you will 
 not be situated just as you are. You will 
 have this great difference to begin with, that 
 the pure and loving Saviour will become as 
 real and conscious a personality to you as 
 your dearest earthly friend; and of all the 
 people that ever lived, Christ is the one in 
 whose company it is easiest to be good. If 
 some of you only knew how the volcanic 
 anger and bitterness of your heart which have 
 caused you so much sorrow might be forever 
 flooded over and drowned out by the peace of 
 God, you would not hesitate a moment. 
 
 One of the most beautiful sights a traveler 
 sees in Europe is the Bay of Naples. No one 
 who has ever seen it on a quiet summer even- 
 ing, and watched it as the night gathered and 
 through the darkness the flashes of fire from 
 the summit of Vesuvius, like some torch of 
 God, lighted it, can ever forget the scene. 
 But scientific men tell us that that lovely 
 Bay of Naples is the crater of a worn-out and 
 
196 THE MESSENGER OF SALVATION. 
 
 flooded volcano. In the early morning of the 
 world's history it was perhaps the greatest 
 volcano on the earth; it belched forth from 
 its heart floods of seething lava. At last it 
 sank down and down, its fiery heart was 
 quelled, the lava ceased to flow, and in from 
 the Mediterranean, perhaps first in some glo- 
 rious day of storm, swept the white caps of 
 the sea and overflowed the crater and filled 
 it full, and to-day the beautiful waters lie 
 in peace and mirror back the shining heavens 
 above. 
 
 There are men listening to me who have 
 had an experience like that in their own lives. 
 There was a time when evil temper, or fiery 
 lust, or vicious habit, burned and flamed in 
 your heart until to your aroused conscience 
 it seemed like the very gaping mouth of hell. 
 And then in some tender way God brought 
 his free grace through Jesus Christ to your 
 attention. With trembling, almost hopeless, 
 heart you opened the door to him, and into 
 your heart and life there have poured the beau- 
 tiful waters of salvation. The old crater is 
 filled up with the waves of peace. Your heart 
 no longer belches forth flames of evil, but is 
 a mirror where God looks and sees his own 
 face. Oh, my friend, you who are ready to 
 
THE MESSENGER OE SALVATION. 107 
 
 despair because of your sins, what lias been 
 wrought in others may be accomplished in 
 you ; for the free grace of God brings salva- 
 tion to all men. Will you accept it here and 
 now? 
 
THE IDEAL CHARACTER. 
 
 " The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the ex- 
 cellency of Carmel and Sharon ; they shall see the glory 
 of the Lord, and the excellency of our God." — Isa. 
 xxxv. 2. 
 
 This is a grand and suggestive picture of 
 the union of strength and beauty in Christian 
 character. In Bible times the cedar of Leba- 
 non was the ideal of grandeur and strength. 
 When Ezekiel desired to sketch the strong- 
 est possible picture in describing the Assy- 
 rians, he did so in these most beautiful words 
 representing a forest of cedar-trees in the 
 Lebanon mountains: "A cedar in Lebanon 
 with fair branches, and with a shadowing 
 shroud, and of an high stature ; and his top was 
 among the thick boughs. The waters made 
 him great, the deep set him up on high with her 
 rivers running round about his plants, and sent 
 out her little rivers unto all the trees of the 
 field. Therefore his height was exalted above 
 
 198 
 
THE IDEAL CHARACTER. 199 
 
 all the trees of the field, and his boughs were 
 multiplied, and his branches became long be- 
 cause of the multitude of waters, when he shot 
 forth. All the fowls of heaven made their 
 nests in his boughs, and under his branches 
 did all the beasts of the field bring forth their 
 young. . . . Thus was he fair in his great- 
 ness, in the length of his branches : for his 
 root was by great waters. . . . The fir-trees 
 were not like his boughs, and the chestnut- 
 trees were not like his branches ; nor any tree 
 in the garden of G-od was like unto him in his 
 beauty." When one reads a description like 
 that and remembers that it is such strong and 
 splendid things in nature which God uses to 
 set forth the ideal which is in his mind con- 
 cerning the life and character which it is pos- 
 sible for us to illustrate, he is humbled and 
 inspired at the same time. There is certainly 
 in this picture the strongest possible sugges- 
 tion that the Christian is to live a strong and 
 vigorous and useful life. There is nothing 
 weak or feeble in the outline of character sug- 
 gested to us here. Indeed, the whole Bible 
 idea of righteous character is strong and mus- 
 cular. Over and over again some prophet like 
 Elijah stands on his Mount Carmel and says, 
 " Choose ye this day whom ye will serve ! " 
 
200 THE IDEAL CHABACTE&. 
 
 The Christian life is a life of will, and deci- 
 sion, and purpose. There is no idle drifting 
 about it. Jesus himself said : " If any man 
 will come after me, let him deny himself, and 
 take up his cross, and follow me." The Chris- 
 tian life is one that is lived on purpose, a life of 
 deliberate intention. Dr. Charles Parkhurst, 
 in an editorial in " Zion's Herald,' 7 eloquently 
 says that intention is an important element in 
 the fashioning of the religious life. It enters 
 into the beginnings and remains in the prog- 
 ress of our religious experience. Intention 
 is the attitude of the mind when ready to 
 act, and always indicates a certain kind of 
 strength, a consciousness of power. Like 
 Paul's racer in Hebrews, there is the firm 
 planting of the foot, the bending toward the 
 goal, and the girding of the loins for the race. 
 The gaze is steady, the muscles tense, and the 
 energies are compressed for the forward leap. 
 This deep, earnest intention goes before all 
 great achievements and is the crowning char- 
 acteristic of all superior and masterful lives. 
 
 One of the greatest of the Florentine paint- 
 ers was Bartolommeo. His great success in 
 producing works that are immortal was made 
 possible by a strong moral revolution wrought 
 in his soul under the preaching of Savonarola. 
 
The ideal chaeacteb. 201 
 
 It was while he was painting " The Last Judg- 
 ment " in St. Mark's. Savonarola was preach- 
 ing in Florence with a fiery fervor and fearless 
 eloquence that burned the heart of prince and 
 of pauper alike. Under the inspiration of his 
 wonderful sermons the artists of Florence re- 
 enacted the scenes that were witnessed in 
 Ephesus when, under the preaching of Paul 
 and Silas, a certain class of men brought their 
 vicious books to the value of thousands of 
 dollars and burned them in the public streets. 
 So it was in Florence with the painters. Bar- 
 tolommeo was so profoundly affected that he 
 united with others in kindling a bonfire on 
 the main street of Florence, into which he cast 
 all his designs, drawings and studies which 
 represented profane or lascivious subjects. 
 From that day on Bartolommeo ceased to 
 paint for his own honor or gain, but as a 
 son of Glod he consecrated his art to Grod's 
 glory. 
 
 Strength in Grod's world always indicates 
 usefulness. The lofty mountain is high not 
 for itself alone, but that it may be a reservoir 
 for the valleys. The cedar of Lebanon did 
 not lift its branches into the clouds for its 
 own glory only, but that it might be a safe 
 nesting-place for the birds of the air and give 
 
202 THE IDEAL CHARACTER. 
 
 shadow for man and beast on the earth be- 
 neath. So in Christian character, as in physi- 
 cal things, the condition of strength is useful- 
 ness and one feeds the other. The story is 
 told of a rich Hollander who had an only 
 daughter whom he loved exceedingly, and he 
 ransacked the earth for beautiful things to 
 satisfy her wants. But after a while she 
 seemed to lose all joy in living. Her health 
 became delicate, she had no zest in life ; and 
 in spite of all he could do it seemed as though 
 she would fade away before his eyes. The 
 greatest physicians exerted their skill in her 
 behalf in vain. Finally, the father heard of a 
 physician in the city whose practice was 
 largely among the poor, yet the report of 
 whose marvelous cures had repeatedly spread 
 throughout the entire community. This man 
 was recommended to the rich Hollander. At 
 first he would not think of employing him, so 
 great was his contempt for his plebeian asso- 
 ciations. But he finally became so alarmed 
 for his child that he thrust his pride away and 
 sent for him. The doctor came, saw and 
 heard. The father related to him the long 
 story of the sickness of his daughter, and 
 then conducted him to his patient. The phy- 
 sician examined and questioned, and received 
 
THE IDEAL CHARACTER. 203 
 
 languid answers. Then he had his patient 
 pass back and forth before him in the room a 
 few times, when, exhausted, she sank into an 
 easy-chair. Finally the father, with beating 
 heart, asked him : " Doctor, is it possible to 
 help her ? " "I hope God will help," answered 
 the physician ; " but you must implicitly follow 
 my advice." " What kind of treatment, then, 
 do you expect to begin ? " " You procure for 
 her a neat, substantial dress, such as the com- 
 mon people wear, and a hat to match the dress. 
 I shall make calls with your daughter to-mor- 
 row," answered the physician. The father 
 clasped his hands together above his head and 
 exclaimed : " Make calls with her ? She has 
 not been in the open air for days and weeks ! " 
 To this exclamation the physician shrugged 
 his shoulders and said : " If you will not fol- 
 low my advice, then I cannot help you. To- 
 morrow at ten o'clock I shall be here again, 
 but for the last time if you do not follow my 
 advice." With this he departed. The pecu- 
 liar conduct of the man had a great influence 
 on the father, and he concluded, after much 
 reflection, to follow the advice of the new 
 doctor. The prescription was filled. The ap- 
 parel, new and uncommon to her, aroused 
 new life in the girl, so that she was dressed 
 
204 THE IDEAL CHARACTER 
 
 and ready at the appointed hour. The physi- 
 cian came, and, taking her arm, left the house, 
 while the father with great anxiety watched 
 them from his window until they disappeared. 
 On the street the doctor told her : " We shall 
 not go far to-day." On the next street they 
 entered the second story of a house wherein 
 poverty and sickness had held sway for a long 
 time. The mother, a widow, was severely 
 bedridden ; the children, with emaciated faces, 
 stood about her ; and poverty was written in 
 only too readable terms in the whole room. 
 The doctor instructed and encouraged them, 
 and left them some medicine without charg- 
 ing for it. His companion, who had not vis- 
 ited anything similar in all her life, was as- 
 tonished ; her heart went out in sympathy for 
 this distressed home. As they left the house, 
 she took the doctor's arm, and, looking him in 
 the face, said: "But, doctor, my father must 
 help in this case." Upon this a color came 
 into her face, such as had not been there for 
 a long time. And the physician answered: 
 " Yes ; do not forget to most earnestly entreat 
 your father for help ; but remember there is a 
 greater Helper than your father, and entreat 
 him also." By this time they had reached 
 the street, and the physician said: "Well, 
 
THE IDEAL CHARACTER. 205 
 
 shall we go to another place ! " And she an- 
 swered : " Yes ; I will go with you." There they 
 found distress again, only in a different form, 
 which also aroused her sympathy. After this 
 lie took his patient home. To the questions 
 of her father as to how far they had gone and 
 where they had been she scarcely replied. 
 She began at once : " Father, I have seen 
 great distress, and you must help." Then the 
 story was told him. When the father saw 
 these signs of life in his daughter, he gladly 
 granted her requests. Brit the doctor had 
 again particular instructions. He said to his 
 patient : " All that these poor people are to 
 have, you must yourself deliver. Your ser- 
 vant may carry it, but you must accompany 
 her. You must give no money ; but clothing, 
 things to eat, and such like. Every time you 
 call you must read to the sick mother a 
 Psalm which yon have previously been care- 
 ful to select." This new prescription worked 
 marvelously. As the young woman fulfilled 
 these instructions she found herself on the 
 highroad to health. She was again interested 
 in something; she learned to pray, to love, 
 and to rejoice. The dress of the common citi- 
 zen, worn in service, became to her the dress 
 of salvation. There are many whose Chris- 
 
206 THE IDEAL CHABACTEB. 
 
 tian life is weak and languid who might be 
 saved if they would follow the same prescrip- 
 tion in giving themselves up to humble imita- 
 tion of the Master in going about doing good. 
 The chief glory of Lebanon is not, after all, 
 in its height and majesty of appearance, but 
 in its being a great reservoir to make fertile 
 the long slope and to fill with beauty the 
 flowering plains and valleys. So a Christian 
 character is not for strength only, but for 
 beauty as well. It is beautiful in its strength. 
 The sweet graces of the Christian life, such as 
 love, joy, peace, gentleness, kindness, are blos- 
 soms which are the outward manifestation of 
 those deep underlying roots of purpose which 
 nourish a Christian character. It is said that 
 there are certain kinds of weeds that lie at 
 the bottom of the sea, but when their flower- 
 ing time comes they shoot long, slender ten- 
 drils up through the salt water toward the 
 light, and float upon the top, so that their 
 flowers may open in thankfulness to the sun. 
 So in the depths of the soul, imbedded in our 
 hidden nature, lie the roots of purpose and 
 ambition which are the sources of our growth; 
 but the sweet graces of the Christian life must 
 blossom and shed their fragrance where they 
 may give joy and blessing to all who see. 
 
THE IDEAL CHARACTER. 207 
 
 And there are no flowers so beautiful as 
 those which bloom upon a true Christian 
 character. 
 
 A very pretty little story is told about 
 Edward Everett Hale: A few years ago a 
 man who has now made a name for himself 
 found himself in London, utterly discouraged, 
 and, as the phrase goes, " stranded." There 
 was no one to whom he could turn, and in 
 despair he took passage home on the first 
 steamer. To cap the climax of his misfor- 
 tunes, a felon broke out on his right thumb, 
 so that it was impossible for him to hold a 
 perk When he stepped on the gang-plank of 
 the steamer, whom should he see but Dr. 
 Hale ! Now this gentleman had met Dr. Hale 
 but once in his life, and had no claim on him 
 and no reason to believe that he would be 
 remembered at all. But to his delight, be- 
 fore he had a chance even to test the recogni- 
 tion, he was grasped by the hand and Dr. 
 
 Hale said : " I am delighted, Mr. , to see 
 
 you. I had no idea that I should know a soul 
 on board, and now we'll have a pleasant pas- 
 sage over." It was not very long until, with 
 characteristic sympathy, Dr. Hale had learned 
 all his young friend's woes. "Let me write 
 your letters," he said ; " there is nothing I en- 
 
208 THE IDEAL CHARACTER. 
 
 joy so much as writing." So Dr. Hale became 
 the poor fellow's stenographer, and from dic- 
 tation wrote up all his correspondence. When 
 his friend was confined to his stateroom, Dr. 
 Hale went down and spent hours every day 
 telling him stories, cheering him out of him- 
 self, and acting like a professional entertainer, 
 until, before the voyage was over, he had made 
 a new man out of the despairing fellow. When 
 they arrived in Boston Dr. Hale did not rest 
 until he had put the young man on his feet 
 again. It is said that when this story was 
 told to a literary man in Boston he turned 
 and said: "We don't consider that much of 
 anything for Hale to do. Why, there is 
 hardly a man of my age about Boston who 
 has been suffering or friendless or discour- 
 aged, but Dr. Hale has put him on his feet, 
 and at what cost to himself no man knows. 
 There are a dozen well-known men I could 
 mention who, but for that grand man, would 
 have gone to the dogs. I am one of them 
 myself — Grod bless him ! " And yet, as in 
 this case of the poor fellow on shipboard, it 
 seems such a little thing to do that many peo- 
 ple would not have thought it worth while ; 
 but the value was priceless to the man who 
 received it. 
 
THE IDEAL CHARACTER. 209 
 
 u It was only a sunny smile, 
 And little it cost in the giving : 
 But it scattered the night 
 Like morning light, 
 And made the day worth living. 
 
 Through life's dull warp a woof it wove 
 In shining colors of hope and love ; 
 And the angels smiled as they watched above, 
 Yet little it cost in the giving. 
 
 " It was only a kindly word, 
 A word that was lightly spoken ; 
 Yet not in vain, 
 For it stilled the pain 
 Of a heart that was nearly broken. 
 It strengthened a faith beset by fears, 
 And groping blindly through mists of tears 
 For light to brighten the coming years, 
 Although it was lightly spoken." 
 
CHEIST'S NEW ROAD TO HEAVEN. 
 
 " A new and living way." — Heb. x. 20. 
 
 Many times in our Eastern cities I have seen 
 at the corner of the street the sign, " Danger- 
 ous Passing," or " No Thoroughfare," or " Not 
 a Highway." There may be a way through, 
 but such notices are intended to indicate that 
 if one undertakes to pass he does so at his 
 own peril. It is not a living way in the eye 
 of the street commissioner, or the city gov- 
 ernment; it is a dead way. Under the He- 
 brew dispensation there was a way of sacri- 
 fice through the blood of goats and lambs and 
 calves, which led earnest souls toward heaven ; 
 but when in the fullness of time Christ came 
 into the world and made once for all a sacri- 
 fice for our sins by giving his own body to be 
 slain, the old way became dead, and Christ 
 opened up the new and living way — a way 
 which shall be alive with welcome and hope 
 
 210 
 
CHRIST S NEW UOAD TO HEAVEN. 211 
 
 until the final judgment shall settle the des- 
 tiny of every human being. 
 
 There are many reasons for calling the way 
 of salvation through Christ a living way. It 
 is a living way because Christ is living. He 
 became our way of salvation through death, 
 but he hath broken the bands of death asun- 
 der and forever liveth to make intercession 
 for us. At the court of heaven he ever keeps 
 the way of mercy open through his interces- 
 sions. Beautifully does the poet sing of this 
 precious intercession : 
 
 u Where is my God I Does he retire 
 Beyond the reach of human sighs ? 
 Are these weak breathings of desire 
 Too languid to ascend the skies ! 
 
 " Look up, my soul, with cheerful eye ; 
 See where the great Redeemer stands, 
 The glorious Advocate on high, 
 With precious incense in his hands ! 
 
 " He sweetens every humble groan, 
 He recommends each broken prayer j 
 Recline thy hope on him alone, 
 Whose power and love forbid despair." 
 
 It is a living way, also, because new trav- 
 elers are all the time coming into it. The 
 gates are open day and night, and every one 
 
212 CHBISTS NEW ROAD TO HEAVEN. 
 
 who leaves his sins behind him finds abundant 
 welcome. The wages of sin is death, and no 
 seeds of death are allowed on that highway of 
 holiness ; the one condition of entrance is that 
 we turn away from sin. No one is so de- 
 graded, no one so handicapped by inheritance 
 of evil, but that he will be given most abun- 
 dant entrance if he will give up his sins. 
 
 A Christian woman once visited an insti- 
 tution where homeless and friendless children 
 are cared for. Among the little inmates she 
 came to one to whom her heart went out, and 
 she said, " This child I want for my own." 
 
 " He is not for adoption," said the person in 
 charge. 
 
 The woman looked around, but saw no 
 other child that attracted her as this one had, 
 and went away sorrowful. In a few days she 
 came again to visit the child. 
 
 At length, with tears in her eyes, she said : 
 " Why cannot I have the child I want ? " 
 
 They told her then the story of the baby, 
 and of the utter depravity of its parents. 
 There was bad blood in the child, and it would 
 be a terrible risk to take it. 
 
 The woman went away, but after three or 
 four days she returned, saying: " I have come 
 for my baby. If you think he will be more 
 
CUBIST'S NEW BO AD TO HEAVEN. 213 
 
 likely to be a good boy and man with my 
 mother love, brought up in a Christian home, 
 give him to me. God will take care of the 
 rest." 
 
 Her love and prayers prevailed. They gave 
 the ill-born waif into her hands. She took 
 him to her heart and consecrated him to 
 Christ. Many years have passed — the lit- 
 tle, helpless, hopeless waif has grown into a 
 magnificent specimen of Christian manhood. 
 Thank God, this new and living way is open 
 for the steps of the waifs of sin on the same 
 terms as to the heirs of culture and fortune. 
 
 It is a living way in another important 
 sense, and that is that the travelers in this 
 way grow more vigorous and alive the farther 
 they go. What a popular road it would be if 
 there were anywhere in the country a high- 
 way charged with vigor and life, so that a man 
 walking on it would lose his rheumatism, and 
 his weariness, and the stiffness in his joints, 
 and with every step he made on the road 
 there should be communicated into his limbs 
 from the way itself some electric health re- 
 storer to supply the freshness and supple- 
 ness of youth as he walked. The way of 
 salvation is like that. It is the way of life. 
 Men get more abundant life as they pursue 
 
214 CHEISTS NEW ROAD TO HEAVEN. 
 
 this heavenly way. There is no disease or 
 death there. Some people wander off the 
 road and fall into spiritual disease and death ; 
 but no man walks straight forward on the 
 highway of holiness without finding that life 
 grows stronger and more vigorous with the 
 years. " The vulture's eye hath not seen " this 
 path. Vultures are always looking for dead 
 carcasses, and there are none on this new and 
 living way. The Christian life is safe to every 
 one who keeps to the path. No ravenous 
 beast treads on that road. There is no lion 
 there : " The lion's whelp hath not trodden it, 
 nor the fierce lion passed by it." 
 
 It is a new way. It never gets old. It is 
 ever fresh and beautiful. It is not only new 
 to the people who have just come into it, but 
 if you talk with those who have been on the 
 way for half a century, they will tell you it 
 gets more delightfully fresh and beautiful as 
 they go on. It is new and strong, solid and 
 safe, and will never break under your feet. 
 
 There was a terrible scene in an opera-house 
 in a great city recently. ThG play on the 
 stage bore the appropriate title, " The Dan- 
 gers of a Great City." Suddenly in the midst 
 of a performance there was a crash, and the 
 central dome of the ceiling fell, killing and in- 
 
CUBIST'S NEW ROAD TO HEAVEN. 215 
 
 juring many of the spectators. An investiga- 
 tion revealed the cause of the disaster to be 
 that the heavy dome was held up merely by 
 wooden trusses and joists. These, worm-eaten 
 and rotten through and through, were warped, 
 the nails and bolts were rusty and loose, the 
 brick walls at the side were old and crum- 
 bling. The wonder was that it had not fallen 
 long before. There is a broad road that leads 
 to death which is built like that. Ever and 
 anon men are breaking through into eternal 
 disaster and despair. 
 
 What road are you on ! This is the impor- 
 tant question. Is it the way of sin that leads 
 down to death, or is it the new and living 
 way that leads to heaven? Dr. Joseph F. 
 Berry relates that he was on a train a little 
 while ago which had gotten several miles out 
 of the city when the conductor came around 
 after the tickets. A quiet-looking gentleman 
 just in front of him handed over his ticket. 
 
 " You are on the wrong road," said the con- 
 ductor ; " this ticket reads to Detroit, and you 
 are now on your way to the South." 
 
 " The wrong road ! Is it possible ? Then 
 you must stop the train, sir. I am due to fill 
 an important engagement at Detroit to-night, 
 and I must be there. Stop this train. Stop 
 
216 CHltlSTS NEW BO AD TO HfiAVEN. 
 
 at the junction and let me off ! I think I can 
 get back, and catch a later train East. 
 
 The conductor said he was already behind 
 time and could not stop. 
 
 " You must stop ! " thundered the passenger, 
 now thoroughly aroused, and stepping out into 
 the aisle. 
 
 The conductor looked into his resolute face, 
 hesitated only a moment, and then seized the 
 bell-cord. The train came to a sudden stop 
 just beyond the junction. It so happened 
 that a north-bound train stood on the siding. 
 It was boarded by the determined passenger, 
 and before the train he had been on was well 
 under way again, he was speeding back to 
 Chicago. 
 
 Some who hear me to-night, if they could 
 only realize how rapidly sinful habits were 
 speeding them away from Grod and heaven, 
 would cry out with all the energy of their 
 souls: "Stop this train!" 
 
 Alas ! it is not always that a traveler who 
 has mistaken the way so readily turns about 
 toward his destination. Sometimes a mistake 
 of that kind, even though finally rectified, 
 may cause large expense and much anxiety 
 and sorrow. 
 yNot long since a citizen of Chicago had 
 
CHBISrS NEW ROAD TO HEAVEN. 217 
 
 been spending a few days at Victoria, British 
 Columbia. His business in the town being 
 finished, he inquired the best way of reaching 
 Taconia, the next city on his route. He was 
 told that a steamer would sail for Tacoma 
 that afternoon, and he promptly packed his 
 valise and started for the dock. He knew 
 that he had no time to spare, so when he 
 reached the dock and saw a steamer prepar- 
 ing to leave, he hurried to get on board. The 
 gang-plank had already been drawn in, but 
 he tossed his valise on board and jumped 
 after it. He congratulated himself on the 
 triumph, always so gratifying to a busy man, 
 of just catching a departing ship or train, and 
 speedily went below to make himself at home 
 for the trip. When he came back on deck, 
 he made some inquiry which elicited the fact 
 that the steamer on which he was traveling 
 was bound not for Tacoma, Washington, as 
 he had supposed, but for the Hawaiian Isl- 
 ands. The Tacoma steamer had been lying 
 next to the one he was on, and in his hurry 
 he had not noticed the difference in the size 
 of the two vessels. There was no way to 
 get ashore, and he was compelled to travel 
 twenty-five hundred miles out of his way, 
 and will have to travel the same distance 
 
218 CHRIST'S NEW ROAB TO HEAVEN. 
 
 back again, to reach, his destination. It is 
 probable that that man will never again start 
 on a journey without making sure that he is 
 traveling in the right direction. 
 
 And yet many of you are traveling in just 
 the opposite direction from where you say 
 you want to go. You say you want to go to 
 heaven, and yet you refuse to enter the way 
 which leads there. You are going on in the 
 path of sin, getting deeper into the mire 
 all the time, and every step is taking you 
 straight away from heaven. Many who have 
 found the way of salvation in later years 
 have come to it by going a long way around, 
 like the man who went to Honolulu in order 
 to go to Tacoma. There have been scores of 
 men and women converted in this church 
 recently who will earnestly tell you that if 
 they had taken the straight path into the new 
 and living way to heaven from the Sunday- 
 school, or from the knee of their praying 
 mother, life would have been infinitely hap- 
 pier for them. There is nothing that they 
 regret so bitterly as the fact that through sin- 
 ful habits, and experience in wickedness, and 
 days and nights of remorse, they wandered 
 from the way that was only a step from them 
 in their childhood. 
 
CHRIST'S NEW ROAD TO HEAVEN. 219 
 
 But, alas ! many who go on the other way 
 never get back. We rejoice over the prodi- 
 gals who get home, but angels weep over 
 the prodigals who die away from home. 
 Come straight into the new way to-night ! 
 You will find that in youth or in old age, 
 in prosperity or in adversity, the new and 
 living way will be a way of freshness and 
 beauty. You need Christ as much in the 
 light as in the darkness; you need him in 
 success as much as in defeat. In the new way 
 he will walk with you in blessed fellowship. 
 
 Somebody said recently to " Fanny Crosby," 
 the blind poet and hymn-writer : " You never 
 refer to your affliction in your hymns, unless 
 it is in the one entitled 'All the Way my 
 Saviour Leads Me.' " Her reply was : " I never 
 thought of it while writing that hymn; we 
 need the Saviour to lead us even if we can 
 see;" and the bright smile that played upon 
 the face of the blind hymn-writer revealed 
 the fact that Christ was ever guiding her. 
 
 I bid you welcome at this hour, out of all 
 the darkness and perilous ways of sin, into 
 the new and living way which leads ever 
 upward to the heavenly city. 
 
THEEE CHRISTIAN CERTAINTIES. 
 
 " One thing thou lackest."— Mark x. 21. 
 " One thing I do."— Phil. iii. 13. 
 u One thing I know." — John ix. 25. 
 
 Hebe are three great Christian certainties. 
 The first was spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ 
 himself. An aspiring ambitions young man 
 who was desirous of making the best of him- 
 self, and who saw in Christ something more 
 splendid than he had ever seen in any one else, 
 came pressing through the crowd as Jesus 
 walked on the highway. With the impulsive- 
 ness of youth and the energy of an earnest 
 soul he fell on his knees before the Saviour, 
 exclaiming : " Good Master, what shall I do 
 that I may inherit eternal life ? " Christ in- 
 quired of him about the commandments and 
 named some of them ; and looking the Master 
 straight in the eye, with unaffected honesty 
 he declared, " Master, all these have I observed 
 
 220 
 
THREE CHRISTIAN CERTAINTIES. 221 
 
 from my youth." And then there is said of 
 this young man what is not said of any one 
 else whom Jesus met among all the people 
 who thronged him from time to time, with the 
 exception of the little band of his personal 
 friends. Mark says : " Then Jesus beholding 
 him loved him." But Jesus perceived the se- 
 cret danger of this young man to be his love 
 of the world and its treasures, and so went 
 straight to the mark with his unerring accu- 
 racy and said: "One thing thou lackest." 
 Had he told the young man how to become a 
 Christian by any sort of works, or at any cost 
 save the surrender of his whole heart and 
 treasure to the will of Grod, he would no doubt 
 have heard him gladly; but he went away 
 with a cloud on his brow, grieved and sad, 
 because of his unwillingness to cut the cord 
 of his worldliness and follow Christ in humble 
 service. What a great blunder it was ! We 
 have no knowledge that he ever became a 
 Christian. We are very sure he did not 
 during the life of Jesus, for so interesting an 
 event would have been mentioned in one of 
 these gospels. Poor man ! he clung to his 
 worldly treasures a little while longer, and 
 they probably caused him as much sorrow as 
 they did joy, and then he went, bankrupt, into 
 
222 THREE CHRISTIAN CERTAINTIES. 
 
 eternity. If lie had followed Jesus' advice 
 and put his purse at his disposal, he would 
 have had a hundredfold more joy in this 
 world, and in the world to come all the trea- 
 sures of heaven. 
 
 Dr. Junker, the Russian explorer, was much 
 wiser than that when he found himself far up 
 the Nile with the warlike Mahdists blocking 
 his way to the coast. There was only one 
 chance for his life, and that was to persuade 
 some Arab trader to become responsible for 
 him. But the Arabs would not take him 
 in their caravans for fear they would lose 
 the friendship of the native chiefs along the 
 road. At last, Junker went to one of the 
 traders with this proposal : " You cannot take 
 me with you as a friend," he said, " but you 
 can take me as a slave. Look at this." And 
 Dr. Junker showed the trader an order writ- 
 ten in Arabic and signed by a well-known 
 firm in Zanzibar, authorizing the doctor to 
 make any arrangements he desired with the 
 Arabs of Central Africa and the firm would 
 honor his drafts. " Now," continued Dr. Jun- 
 ker, "I have written out a contract, and if 
 you will sign it with me I shall reach the 
 coast. It provides that when you deliver me 
 alive at Zanzibar, the sum of fifteen hundred 
 
THREE CHRISTIAN CERTAINTIES. 223 
 
 dollars will be paid to you by this firm. You 
 cannot take me with you as a traveler or a 
 friend, and you must therefore take me as a 
 slave." The contract was made on this basis. 
 In passing through the hostile tribes, the 
 white man was represented to be a slave who 
 had been purchased from a negro tribe far- 
 ther north. As a slave he passed muster even 
 at the court of cruel King Mwanga, and was 
 allowed to pass on in peace with his supposed 
 master. 
 
 What was a deception in this case is a gen- 
 uine truth in our escape from the condem- 
 nation of the broken law of God. Our only 
 hope of salvation is that Jesus Christ hath 
 redeemed us from under the law. No man 
 or woman in this world will ever be saved be- 
 cause of merit. We are all sinners against 
 God. We have broken the law which says, 
 "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." The 
 hope of salvation comes through Jesus Christ 
 our Saviour, who has ransomed us by his 
 own blood, and God has promised that who- 
 soever will accept this redemption may be 
 saved as the servant of Jesus Christ who has 
 redeemed us, and who has the right to our 
 love and our service. And so to every one 
 here who has not accepted Jesus, and rendered 
 
224 THREE CHRISTIAN CERTAINTIES. 
 
 him the obedience of an open confession, Christ 
 is saying, " One thing thou lackest." But, 
 alas ! it is as bad to lack that as to lack every- 
 thing. It is like the drowning sailor missing 
 the life-line ; he misses only one thing, but, 
 missing that, misses all. 
 
 The next Christian certainty is the decision, 
 with the eye on the prize at the end of the 
 race, to concentrate your will and purpose as 
 Paul did, in saying, " This one thing I do." 
 Paul did that through storm and shine, and 
 wrought out for himself a glorious immortality. 
 Oh, that God may give to you who are halt- 
 ing between two opinions a new drawing of the 
 Holy Spirit that will enable you to turn your 
 face toward Christ and say : " One thing I do "! 
 I would that you could feel the importance 
 of it as did a man to whom Bishop McCabe 
 spoke a few weeks ago. He was in a strange 
 city, and as the hackman got down off his box 
 and opened the door the bishop grasped his 
 hand as he paid his fare, saying : " Good night ; 
 I hope to meet you again in glory." The 
 bishop had often done that, and he gave the 
 matter no special thought at this time. He 
 went into the house, met his host, and retired 
 to his room for the night. About midnight 
 his host knocked at his chamber door and 
 
THREE CHRISTIAN CERTAINTIES. 225 
 
 said : " Chaplain, that hackman has come back, 
 and he says that he has got to see you to-night. 
 I told him that he had better wait until morn- 
 ing, but he said, ' No, sir ; I must see him to- 
 night, and I know that he will be willing to 
 see me.'" When the hackman came up, a 
 broad-shouldered, rough-looking man with a 
 whip in his hand, and stood there in the bish- 
 op's presence, great tears were rolling down 
 his cheeks. Said he : " If I meet you in glory, 
 I've got to turn around. I have come to ask 
 you to pray with me." With a joyous heart 
 the bishop got down on his knees and prayed 
 with that man, and pointed him to Christ, 
 "the Lamb of Grod, which taketh away the 
 sin of the world." That man had the right 
 spirit and the right attitude toward his 
 soul's salvation. He dared not wait until 
 morning, for fear that with the night should 
 go the drawing of the Holy Spirit which 
 he felt had come to him from heaven. Some 
 of you stand at that place. G-od's Spirit 
 has called you again and again, and at this 
 hour you feel that you ought to be Chris- 
 tians. Don't let anything keep you back, but 
 decide, this very moment, " This one thing 
 I do." 
 
 Of some of you who have been so strangely 
 
226 THREE CHRISTIAN CERTAINTIES. 
 
 moved toward heaven recently, I have grave 
 fears that if you fail to come into the king- 
 dom of Grod now you will be forever defeated. 
 Dr. John Watson says that years ago on a 
 summer afternoon he stood on a little harbor- 
 wall and saw two vessels trying to make the 
 entrance. They were in a narrow channel, 
 and, since there was not water enough to 
 keep them up, were lying on their sides. 
 But far out the tide had begun to turn. 
 One wave after another passed under them 
 until soon the water was twelve feet deep in 
 the harbor and the green foaming billows 
 rushed in like a mill-race. He looked again 
 toward the narrow passage. On one vessel 
 they had taken advantage of the wind at 
 the right moment, and floated in on the full 
 tide ; on the other vessel they were not on 
 the alert, and when they tried to make the 
 harbor the tide had turned and they could 
 not. The water grew more shallow, they 
 gave up the attempt, and gradually the ves- 
 sel heeled over and lay just as before on 
 the bank of sand. At nightfall he went down 
 again, and in the gathering darkness, as he 
 saw the forsaken vessel, he prayed that he 
 might not miss the tide which God gives to 
 our souls, nor quench his Spirit within his 
 
THREE CHRISTIAN CERTAINTIES. 227 
 
 heart. I offer the same prayer for you. The 
 tide is running in, and if you will you may 
 be saved ; but, if you are neglectful, for some 
 of you the tide will swiftly turn and you may 
 be stranded for eternity. 
 
 Do not imagine that anything short of the 
 open confession and frank surrender of your 
 will to Christ can possibly bring you into 
 the harbor of safety. Some of you have gone 
 as far as the young man about whom we were 
 speaking a moment ago; you, as he, have 
 turned to Christ in prayer; but unless you 
 make an open surrender of yourself to him, 
 he will still say to you, and continue to say it 
 at the judgment-seat, "One thing thou lack- 
 est." In the name of your Saviour I appeal 
 to you to remedy that lack by the new pur- 
 pose, " One thing I do." 
 
 If you do that, you will know the joy and 
 the gladness suggested in our third Christian 
 certainty, " One thing I know." A blind man 
 to whom Christ had given sight said this. 
 There was great excitement in the town as 
 to who had healed the man and concerning 
 the character of Jesus. They even went so 
 far as to declare that the man had never 
 been blind. But when his father and mother 
 were called they said he was their son, and 
 
228 THREE CHRISTIAN CERTAINTIES. 
 
 had been born blind, but he would have to 
 speak for himself as to how he had come 
 to have his sight. Then the enemies of Jesus 
 urged him to give the praise to God, instead 
 of to Christ ; for, they said, " We know that 
 this man is a sinner." Then the blind man 
 answered: "Whether he be a sinner or no, 
 I know not : one thing I know, that, whereas 
 I was blind, now I see." 
 
 Thank God, this is a religion that a man 
 may test. There are many now who in a 
 spiritual way can bear the same testimony 
 as did this man concerning the opening of 
 his eyes. One thing we know, that whereas 
 once sin blinded our eyes and burdened our 
 hearts and filled our consciences with reproof, 
 Jesus Christ has taken it all away. This is 
 not a matter of theory, but a matter of expe- 
 rience. Men who were once the slaves of 
 strong drink are now sober, and the power of 
 the appetite is broken. One thing they know, 
 that whereas they were once the slaves of that 
 wicked habit, Christ has set them free. Men 
 who were once profane and prayerless are 
 now reverent in heart ; prayer is their natural 
 atmosphere and songs of love and confidence 
 in Christ rise spontaneously to their lips. 
 One thing they know, that their irreverence 
 
THREE CHRISTIAN CERTAINTIES. 229 
 
 has changed to adoration and love. Those 
 who once cared for nothing but the pleasures 
 and follies of life now find that to do good 
 for Christ's sake, to lift the burdens from 
 the shoulders of the weak, to dry the tears 
 of the sorrowing, gives them infinitely more 
 joy than they ever knew in the old life. One 
 thing they know, that giddiness and folly 
 have changed in them to loving devotion to 
 Christ and their fellow-men. So I might go 
 on through all the phases of human life and 
 call witnesses to testify to the transforma- 
 tions which have come in their experience. 
 I do not call you to a life of theorizing, but 
 to a life of experience. The psalmist says, 
 "O taste and see that the Lord is good." 
 Do not worry about things you do not un- 
 derstand. Christ foresaw that some people 
 would do that, and hence he said for their 
 benefit : " If any man will do his will, he shall 
 know of the doctrine, whether it be of Grod, 
 or whether I speak of myself." Obey Christ, 
 and sufficient light will fall upon your path 
 for all your needs. If you obey him you 
 shall have the witness of the Spirit, agree- 
 ing with your spirit, that you no longer 
 belong to the kingdom of evil, but are a 
 child of God, a fellow-heir with Jesus. 
 
CHRIST THE PARDON-BRINGER. 
 
 " The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive 
 sins." — Mark ii. 10. 
 
 These words are connected with one of the 
 most interesting stories in the life of Jesus. 
 A man who was sick of the palsy had four 
 friends who, knowing of the wonderful works 
 of Christ in the healing of disease, determined 
 to give their helpless friend the benefit of his 
 treatment. We do not know how much diffi- 
 culty they had to persuade him to make the 
 attempt, but it is likely that a man suffering 
 from the palsy would not be very hard to per- 
 suade to try a new doctor who made no 
 charge for his cures and the fame of whose 
 deeds was on everybody's tongue. It is quite 
 probable that these men had themselves been 
 healed by Christ, and in their joy at their re- 
 newed strength they thought of their friend 
 lying helpless, and agreed that he, too, should 
 
 230 
 
CHRIST THE VA1W0N-BUINGER. 231 
 
 have the advantage of the wonderful power 
 of Christ. When we think of the remarkable 
 faith and energy which they showed later, it 
 is easy to believe that there was some per- 
 sonal experience of this kind behind their 
 confidence. 
 
 The sick man was so utterly helpless that 
 the only way to bring him to Christ was for 
 one man to take each corner of the bed ; and 
 thus they came carrying him through the 
 street. When they came to the place where 
 Christ was, they found not only the house full, 
 but the street as well, and it was impossible 
 for them to get even as far as the door. So 
 they got the man to the top of the house, and 
 opened the roof and let down the bed with the 
 sick man on it at the very feet of Jesus. The 
 record says that "when Jesus saw their faith, 
 he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy 
 sins be forgiven thee." 
 
 There were in the crowd a number of crit- 
 ical people who were watching to pick flaws 
 in Jesus, and find some reason to accuse a 
 man who was becoming so suddenly famous. 
 These people immediately put their heads to- 
 gether and said : " Why doth this man thus 
 speak blasphemies ? who can forgive sins but 
 God only ? " Jesus, perceiving their attitude to- 
 
232 CHRIST THE PARDON-BRINGEM. 
 
 ward him, said to them, " Why reason ye these 
 things in your hearts f "Whether is it easier to 
 say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be for- 
 given thee ; or to say, Arise, and take up thy 
 bed, and walk ? But that ye may know that 
 the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive 
 sins (he saith to the sick of the palsy), I say 
 unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go 
 thy way into thine house. And immediately 
 he arose, took up the bed, and went forth be- 
 fore them all; insomuch that they were all 
 amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never 
 saw it on this fashion." 
 
 I wish we could get groups of fours who 
 would join together in uniting their influence 
 in bringing their friends to Christ. Mr. Moody 
 says that such a combination of influence will 
 nearly always win a man to the Lord. And 
 it seems reasonable. Suppose a man when he 
 gets up in the morning should hear his wife 
 saying to him in tearful earnestness, " Dear, I 
 am greatly concerned about your soul." When 
 he goes down-stairs, his daughter meets him 
 and tells him she is praying for his conver- 
 sion. After breakfast, his son follows him to 
 the door and says, " Papa, I do wish you were 
 a Christian." When he gets to his private 
 office, one of his most trusted business asso- 
 
CHRIST THE PARDON-BRINGER. 233 
 
 ciates calls on him and asks him to yield to 
 God. " That man," says Mr, Moody, " would 
 probably surrender that day." 
 
 But it is not this interesting story nor the 
 important suggestion about our own soul-win- 
 ning to which I wish particularly to call your 
 attention at this time, but rather to empha- 
 size the great central fact that Jesus Christ is 
 the Pardon-Bringer from Grod to this world, 
 and that he still " has power on earth to for- 
 give sins." No matter how the message comes 
 to men, if they get it into their hearts that 
 Christ has power to save them, and turn to 
 him with penitence and faith, the divine par- 
 don is always sure. There is in New York a 
 Bible which changed the wicked and heathen 
 Pitcairn Islanders to peaceable and sweet- 
 natured Christians. A vagabond and an out- 
 cast, by name John Adams, fleeing from the 
 English government because of his crimes, had 
 among the neglected things at the bottom of 
 his trunk a Bible which his Christian mother 
 had given him when he was a boy. He had not 
 looked at it for thirty years ; but one day he 
 brought it out, and as a matter of curiosity 
 began to read it aloud to some of the natives. 
 The Holy Book changed his life and theirs. A 
 few months later the island was found by a 
 
234 CHRIST THE PABDON-BMNGEB. 
 
 Nantucket whaler, and since that time it has 
 been frequently visited. Through that forgot- 
 ten Bible, which brought the mercy and pardon 
 of Jesus Christ, it is to-day a happy Christian 
 community. 
 
 All the fitness Jesus requires of those who 
 desire the forgiveness of their sins is what he 
 required of the sick whom he healed — that 
 they shall feel their need of him. " A broken 
 and a contrite heart " never fails in its plea at 
 the feet of Christ. Such a heart as had Job 
 when he said : " I have heard of thee by the 
 hearing of the ear ; but now mine eye seeth 
 thee : wherefore I abhor myself, and repent 
 in dust and ashes." Or as David had when he 
 said : " I acknowledge my transgressions : and 
 my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee 
 only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy 
 sight." A heart like that which throbbed in 
 Ezra's breast when he said : " I am ashamed 
 and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God." 
 The young Isaiah had this same contrition of 
 spirit when he said : " Woe is me ! for I am 
 undone ; because I am a man of unclean lips, 
 and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean 
 lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the 
 Lord of hosts." The publican who met the 
 approval of Jesus had such a heart — he who 
 
CHRIST THE PARDON-BRINGER. 235 
 
 smote upon his breast and said : " God be mer- 
 ciful to me a sinner ! " And if you feel that 
 you are a sinner against God, you need not 
 wait to try to make yourself more presentable 
 at the mercy seat. That very consciousness 
 of your great need is your strongest appeal, 
 and if you will come as you are, Christ will 
 at once receive you, as he did the man sick 
 of the palsy, and say : " Thy sins be forgiven 
 thee." 
 
 We cannot purchase our salvation by good 
 works. It is characteristic of all the highest 
 and holiest things that they cannot be pur- 
 chased by money, or indeed in any other way. 
 The best things cannot be bought, for they 
 are never for sale. True friendship, genuine 
 love, inspiring hope, courageous faith — none 
 of these things are in the market. Hence we 
 have to take salvation as a free gift of God, 
 and the only return we can make is our love 
 and our service given in the spirit of love and 
 because we love him. 
 
 There was a ripple of excitement, not long 
 ago, in an orphan asylum, because a beautiful 
 and wealthy woman had come in her carriage 
 to take away one of the inmates, a little girl 
 named Jane, whom she had adopted as her 
 daughter. Jane herself was bewildered with 
 
236 OHBIST THE PABDON-BBINGEB* 
 
 the thought. The kind matron led her down 
 the wide stairway, and as she passed the hall 
 door she saw the shining carriage, the fine 
 horses, the liveried servants, and it seemed 
 like a dream. 
 
 " I hope she is glad to go," said the great 
 lady, in a gentle tone. " Do yon want to go 
 home with me and be my child, my dear?" 
 
 " I don't know," said Jane, timidly. 
 
 "But I am going to give you beautiful 
 clothes, and a gold ring, and a box of candy, 
 and books, and dolls, and blocks, and a swing. 
 Now do you want to go ? n 
 
 " I don't know," said the child, still fright- 
 ened. 
 
 " You shall have a little room of your own, 
 with a beautiful bed, and table, and chair ; 
 you shall have a bird in a cage, and a little 
 dog with a silver collar. Don't you want to 
 go with me, Jane f " 
 
 There was a moment's silence, and then the 
 little one said anxiously : " But what am I to do 
 for all this?" 
 
 The lady burst into tears. " Only to love 
 me and be my child," she said, and in a mo- 
 ment their arms were around each other. 
 
 All the wealth of the universe belongs to 
 Grod; our lives are in his hand. We can- 
 not pay him for salvation. He finds us poor 
 
CHRIST THE PARDOJV-BKINGER. 237 
 
 orphans, defiled by our sins, and he takes us 
 into his own family and gives us the name of 
 Christ as a badge of glory, not only forgiving 
 all our past offences, but dwelling in our 
 hearts by the Holy Spirit, comforting us in 
 all the trials of life, and inspiring us with the 
 hope of an inheritance incorruptible and full 
 of glory. And all that it is possible for us to 
 do in return is to give him our love and 
 openly confess that love and gratitude before 
 all the world. How strange it is that we 
 should ever hesitate for a moment when asked 
 to do that! If hitherto, not seeing it in its 
 proper light, and not recognizing in Jesus 
 the " altogether lovely " being he is, you have 
 withheld from him the affection which his 
 love merits and the open confession which 
 alone can be worthy of you, I appeal to you 
 now to change your neglect and refusal into a 
 willing surrender of your heart and life to him. 
 There is a very pretty story told of how 
 Henry M. Stanley wooed and won Miss Doro- 
 thy Tennant. Miss Tennant, it is well-known, 
 was the original of Sir John Millais's famous 
 picture, " Yes or No ? " On Stanley's return 
 as the founder of the Congo State, he met 
 Miss Tennant, became very deeply attached 
 to her, and asked her to be his wife ; but the 
 reply was, " No. w 
 
238 CHBIST THE PABDON-BRIJS GEE, 
 
 He went to Africa again, and was gone 
 for several years on his tour in search of 
 Emin Pasha. When he returned to London 
 he was for the time the most famous man of 
 his day. The thought of Miss Tennant was still 
 uppermost in his mind, and he resolved that 
 his first visit should be to her home. In his 
 impatience for the morrow, when he could 
 call, he turned over the cards and notes of 
 invitation with which the table was strewn, 
 and selecting one haphazard, decided to while 
 away the time by attending a certain recep- 
 tion. The first person he met there was Miss 
 Tennant. They greeted each other formally, 
 but later in the evening Stanley retired to a 
 small anteroom, only to find that Miss Ten- 
 nant had likewise sought solitude. A some- 
 what embarrassing silence ensued, broken at 
 last by the woman saying with the manner of 
 one " making conversation " : 
 
 "Do you find London much changed, Mr. 
 Stanley?" 
 
 " No ; I haven't found London changed, and 
 I have not changed, either," returned the ex- 
 plorer, with his usual courage. "Have you 
 changed ? " 
 
 "Yes; I've changed," answered Miss Ten- 
 nant, softly. 
 
CHEIST THE PARDON-BRINGER. 239 
 
 A few days later Millais, who had long be- 
 fore painted her into his famous picture, 
 received a note from his former subject, 
 beginning: "My dear Sir John: The mo- 
 mentous question has been at last decided. 
 It is a joyful and triumphant ' Yes ! ' " 
 
 Jesus Christ has been long wooing your 
 soul; he speaks of himself often as the 
 Bridegroom, to express the tenderness which 
 he feels for us and the love with which he 
 seeks to win us, .And you have turned away 
 from his love, and have grieved his heart, 
 and refused him again and again. I pray 
 that the Holy Spirit may now cause you to 
 so see him in all his wondrous beauty and 
 glory that you shall change from your atti- 
 tude of neglect and refusal and give to 
 your divine Lord a joyful and triumphant 
 acceptance ! 
 
 Do not, I beg of you, wait for some over- 
 whelming tide of feeling that will break down 
 your power to resist. It may never come to 
 you. Grod has given you your will and your 
 power of choice, and you ought to choose to 
 stand on the Lord's side because it is the 
 right side and it is your duty to be there, 
 and because your safety and happiness and 
 peace for time and eternity depend upon 
 
240 CHEIST THE PABDON-BBINGER. 
 
 your being there. How weak it seems, when 
 there is so much at stake, when your eternal 
 destiny may hang upon your decision, for you 
 still to say, " I must wait till I feel more like 
 it." It is not feeling that you need, but deci- 
 sion, and every hour you neglect your duty 
 makes it harder to decide to do it. 
 
 Dr. George C. Wilding, now of Jersey City, 
 told me that he once went to speak to two 
 young ladies who were standing together, 
 while others were pressing forward to the 
 altar to seek Christ. He earnestly pleaded 
 with them to accept Jesus. One of them 
 yielded at once, and, as she started, said : " I 
 cannot possibly stay away from Christ any 
 longer." The other girl, looking after her as 
 she went, turned to Dr. Wilding, and said, 
 with a look of decision in her face : " I could 
 stay away from Christ, but I must not? And 
 she, too, went down the aisle and bowed at 
 the mercy seat beside her friend. There are 
 many of you who have that same feeling that 
 you are able to resist the Spirit which draws 
 you to Christ; but oh, my friend, you must 
 not do it, at the peril of your eternal salva- 
 tion ! Choose Christ and his peace, with all 
 that it means in this life and in the next, and 
 it will be a glorious victory for your soul ! 
 
THE LOED OF PEACE. 
 
 " The Lord of peace himself give you peace always." — 
 2 Thess. iii. 16. 
 
 Nothing in the world is so common as 
 trouble. It is knocking at our doors early 
 and late, from youth to old age. It is a 
 world full of strife, full of unrest, and multi- 
 tudes go up and down the highways of life 
 crying out in their anguish, or, like the man 
 from the tombs in the country of the Gada- 
 renes, go raving in the wildness of their de- 
 spair. The secret of the trouble of the world 
 is sin. Not that all men who have trouble 
 to-day have it because of their own sin: but 
 sin has demoralized the world; it has sown 
 the seeds of disease and pain and strife and 
 war and crime of every sort in the fertile 
 fields of the human heart. 
 
 Strange it is that while all the world seems 
 so full of unrest and trouble everybody is 
 
 241 
 
242 THE LOED OF PEACE. 
 
 seeking after peace. The men who are the 
 most reckless in their sins are also planning 
 and scheming how they may find peace. The 
 man who drinks the baleful glass which is 
 destroying all possibilities of happiness in his 
 life is often trying to drown his conscience 
 and his sorrow and thus find peace. Many 
 a man whips himself over the track in a wild 
 race for wealth, stopping not at dishonesty 
 and wickedness to attain his end, because he 
 imagines that in wealth there is peace. 
 
 There is only one Lord of peace, and that is 
 Jesus Christ our Saviour. He who spake to 
 the troubled waves of the little Sea of Galilee, 
 " Peace, be still ! " and there was a great calm, 
 is the only one who is able to speak to the 
 troubled waves of the human soul and bring 
 peace out of its chaotic turmoil. 
 
 It is impossible that a sinful soul should 
 have peace. The striking illustrations that 
 are used in the Bible to make clear the char- 
 acter of sin and its effects make it very plain 
 that there can be no peace without sin being 
 cast out. It is said of Cain that sin made him 
 a vagabond on the earth. A vagabond cannot 
 have peace. He is an outcast; fears pursue 
 him from behind; danger and starvation 
 threaten him in the future ; memories of hap- 
 
THE LOUD OF PEACE. 243 
 
 pier days rise up to distress him. The vaga- 
 bond is in the very nature of things restless 
 and uneasy and beyond the possibility of 
 peace. If we could gather all the vagabonds 
 of sin here to-night, — but, alas ! there is no 
 church or hall that would hold them, — every 
 one that was honest would testify that when 
 sin drove him out from innocency and from 
 communion with God and put its brand of 
 evil habit upon him, and he became a vaga- 
 bond from purity of life and purpose, peace 
 forsook him. There may have been hours of 
 revel and debauch ; hours of stupor and indif- 
 ference ; hours of recklessness and presump- 
 tion ; but among them all not one single hour 
 of peace. 
 
 David compares sin to a fire in his bones ; 
 there is no peace in a lawless fire, whether it 
 be ravaging on a dwelling, or a storehouse, or 
 in the heart of a man. It means disorder and 
 pain and anguish. Sin is a fire which, unless 
 quenched by the Lord of peace, will burn for- 
 ever. The story is told of McCheyne, the 
 famous Scotch preacher, that on one of his 
 evangelistic tours through the Highlands of 
 Scotland, after preaching one Sunday morn- 
 ing, he rode on several miles to a small town, 
 hoping to have an opportunity to arouse the 
 
244 THE LOBD OF PEACE. 
 
 people to earnestness and pluck some souls 
 as brands from the burning. Arriving in the 
 little town, he went to the house of the only 
 minister, and asked if he might preach for 
 him at the afternoon service, but was told that 
 there would be no more services that day, and 
 that the people were widely scattered through 
 the country. 
 
 "Will you not summon them to hear me 
 preach by ringing the bell ? " McCheyne 
 asked. 
 
 " If you were to do that," the minister an- 
 swered, " they would think there was a fire." 
 
 " But it is a case of fire," said McCheyne, 
 gravely ; " the fire that is never quenched." 
 
 The astonished preacher rang the bell, and 
 the people gathered from all over the country 
 in haste, and that man on fire with the Holy 
 Spirit spoke to them of the danger of the fire 
 of sin, as though a live coal from Grod's altar 
 had touched his lips. 
 
 On another occasion, McCheyne was riding 
 along the road on horseback when he came to 
 a blacksmith's forge. He pulled in his horse, 
 alighted, and went up to the blacksmith, who 
 was using his bellows to fan the flame, and 
 said solemnly : " What does that fire remind 
 you of ? " Without saying another word he re- 
 
THE LORD OF PEACE. 245 
 
 mounted his horse and rode away, but it was the 
 arrow of God that went straight to the heart 
 of the blacksmith and aroused him to great 
 conviction of sin which led to his salvation. 
 So I urge upon you that sin is not to be tam- 
 pered with; it is a fire burning at the very 
 heart of life. 
 
 In the prophecy of Isaiah sin is compared 
 to mire and dirt which the sea is forever cast- 
 ing up, showing that peace is impossible so 
 long as the sin is there. " Peace, peace to him 
 that is far off, and to him that is near, saith 
 the Lord; and I will heal him. But the 
 wicked are like the troubled sea, when it can- 
 not rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. 
 There is no peace, saith my God, to the 
 wicked." The ocean cannot rest because it is 
 at the mercy of the winds and may be lashed 
 into fury by a storm sweeping over its surface 
 at any time. It is like that with the man or 
 woman who depends upon outward circum- 
 stances for peace. While all things are pro- 
 pitious they may have much joy and gladness, 
 but a storm is likely to sweep over their sea 
 at any time, and then, if they have no 
 other source of happiness, they are the most 
 wretched of beings. 
 
 I knew two merchants who lived side by 
 
246 THE LOBD OF PEACE. 
 
 side on the same street. For many years they 
 had both been prosperous men — had made 
 money, had a good position in the business 
 world, ' stood well socially, were happily mar- 
 ried, and had pleasant families of children. 
 Suddenly, in the stringency of hard times which 
 almost came to be a panic, both of these men 
 lost very largely, and it was evident that their 
 fortunes had taken wings and flown away. At 
 fifty years of age they must start in again. 
 
 One of them was a Christian, and the other 
 was not. The man who was not a Christian 
 came home in the evening and went up-stairs 
 as if to dress for dinner. When he did not 
 return, his daughter went to call him, and 
 found him dying the death of a suicide from 
 poison he had swallowed. What tongue could 
 ever describe the sorrow and anguish and 
 unrest that drove that poor man from the tor- 
 tures of earth to the tortures of eternal re- 
 morse, or describe the distress left behind 
 him among those who loved him so dearly? 
 
 The Christian merchant was obliged to give 
 up his great store, and his family moved out 
 of their fine house; but his manhood was all 
 left. He took a place as a clerk in another 
 store, and rented a small house. His Christian 
 wife and children loyally gathered around 
 
THE LORD OF PEACE. 247 
 
 him. He was in his place in church the same 
 as ever ; his testimony in the prayer-meeting 
 expressed, if anything, a little more sweetness, 
 and there was more comfort in it than ever to 
 the listeners who knew the brave struggle he 
 was making and saw the peace of God in his 
 face. 
 
 That is the contrast between the soul which 
 depends on circumstances for its peace and 
 the one relying on him who is Lord of peace 
 and over whom circumstances have no control. 
 As some one has said, it makes a vast differ- 
 ence into what well we let down our bucket. 
 If it is the well of worldliness, no matter how 
 abundant it may seem in days of prosperity, 
 it is likely at any time to go dry ; but if we 
 draw out of the wells of salvation, there will 
 be plenty of water all the year round and 
 abundance for all the seasons of human life. 
 And as the well on the mountain-side seems to 
 give forth water more cool and refreshing on 
 the summer day, when the heat parches the 
 surface of the earth most and makes the stag- 
 nant pools that lie in the sun lukewarm and 
 distasteful, so the water from the wells of sal- 
 vation is more than ever refreshing and satis- 
 fying in those experiences which try men's 
 souls. 
 
248 THE LOUD OF PEACE. 
 
 The secret of a peace which never changes 
 is a communion and fellowship with him who 
 is the Lord of peace. We cannot fail to have 
 peace if we rest ourselves in his arms, and 
 know that our lives are pleasing to him. Cold 
 as it has been these last few days, if at any 
 time you had held the bulb of a thermometer 
 in your hand until it became warm, you would 
 have seen the mercury shoot up to summer 
 heat. Worldliness and sin. freeze the heart, 
 but if we give our hearts into the keeping of 
 Christ our Saviour, the warmth of that hea- 
 venly climate in which he dwells will come with 
 its own sunshine and summer into our souls. 
 
 The ocean cannot rest not only because of 
 wind and storm, but also because the mire and 
 clay and the multitude of things forever drifting 
 into it are always being cast up. A sinful soul 
 is like that. Memory will not let the sinner 
 rest. He may forget for a time, as the ocean 
 is sometimes peaceful and quiet and its waters 
 clear; but the tide is likely at any time to 
 bring up the mire and the clay from the depths. 
 So long as there is sin in one's heart, Grod may 
 cast it up at any moment. As Frederick 
 Robertson says, this is the misery of remorse 
 — the worst torment of man's stormy mind. 
 For after a while, when the body which some- 
 
THE LORD OF PEACE. 249 
 
 times now causes us to forget the sins of the 
 soul shall pass away, there will begin the 
 eternity of a hell of recollection — when every 
 act of bygone guilt which has not been sunk 
 in the blood of Christ shall be as fresh and 
 vivid before a sinner's eyes as it was at the 
 moment when it was committed. 
 
 The Lord of peace proposes to give us peace 
 by taking the mire and dirt of sin out of our 
 hearts. A clean heart may have peace. John 
 Ruskin says: "Make yourselves nests of 
 pleasant thoughts." A man can have no 
 such nesting-place in his heart if he is con- 
 scious that he is a sinner. From such a heart 
 there must always come up thoughts that are 
 like ghosts which frighten their victim out 
 of all possibility of peace. But a Christian 
 heart that has pleasant memories of God's 
 great goodness, of his sweet loving-kindness, 
 that treasures up happy recollections of the 
 forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ, and 
 of self-sacrificing fellowship with him, is a 
 nesting-place of thoughts and meditations that 
 are ever happy and full of peace. 
 
 We may be absolutely certain that in all 
 worlds sin and sorrow must in the long run be 
 joined together. The wicked soul cannot 
 have peace. Some of you to whom I speak 
 
250 THE LOBD OF PEACE. 
 
 have no peace because of your sins. Pleasure 
 you have sometimes, but deep, abiding peace, 
 in which the soul nestles in perfect repose, which 
 thinks upon death and eternity with composure 
 and courage and joy — of that you know no- 
 thing, and can know nothing until your sins are 
 blotted out and the Lord of peace has healed 
 your unrest. Thank Grod, you may know that 
 peace, and you may know it now ! Zacchaeus 
 had no peace until Christ came to visit him, 
 but that very hour salvation came to his house. 
 The poor demoniac had no peace till he met 
 Christ, but then he sat clothed and in his right 
 mind. The disciples on the storm-tossed sea 
 had no peace until Jesus came, and then all 
 was calm. The same Lord of peace is here, 
 ready to speak peace to your soul, ready to bid 
 hate and anger and lust and evil appetite and 
 sinful desires begone, as he cast out the devils 
 from the tormented souls in the days of his 
 earthly life. He is ready to speak peace to 
 every warring element in your heart — to say 
 to your doubts and fears, "Peace, be still." 
 What shall be your answer to-night ? Shall 
 it be peace, or no ? 
 
THE KEEPING CHRIST. 
 
 " But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and 
 keep you from evil." — 2 Thess. iii. 3. 
 
 In the defence of a fortress a great deal 
 depends upon the sentinel. If the sentinel is 
 treacherous, and at heart an enemy, he may 
 be able to give over the entire fortress into 
 the hands of the foe. If he is indifferent and 
 careless, he may sleep on guard or be other- 
 wise so negligent that the result will be as 
 bad as if he were treacherous in purpose. A 
 weak man, who can be easily deceived or im- 
 posed upon, may also prove fatal to the safety 
 of the garrison. A fortress situated in an 
 enemy's country sleeps in peace only when 
 the sentinels are trusted men, men who are 
 alert, intelligent and experienced, and whose 
 fidelity can be relied upon. It is a picture 
 like that which Paul presents to us here. He 
 writes to these Thessalonians that Christ is a 
 
 251 
 
252 THE KEEPING CHBIST. 
 
 faithful sentinel who will keep guard over 
 them with sleepless vigilance, and protect 
 them from all evil. It is a very striking pic- 
 ture, I think, and one that certainly appeals 
 to the condition in which we find ourselves in 
 this world. It enlarges, too, our conception 
 of Jesus Christ, if we have been thinking of 
 him only, or in most part, as the One who 
 came to bear our sins in his own body on the 
 cross and to open up a divine way for our 
 salvation. It is comforting to think of him 
 also as the One who has conquered death, 
 who has come off triumphant over the grave, 
 and is living to-day to keep faithful watch 
 over the hearts of those who have accepted 
 his offer of salvation. 
 
 It is a very common thing for people who are 
 deeply convicted of sin, and are moved upon 
 by the Holy Spirit to accept Christ, to give as 
 an excuse for neglecting to render him obe- 
 dience and open confession the danger of not 
 being able to live up to the profession they 
 would make. To any such there is here a 
 message of peculiar interest; for the same 
 Christ who died to redeem you, and who 
 stands knocking at the door of your heart, 
 desiring to enter in as your friend and Sa- 
 viour, is presented by Paul, who had tested 
 
THE KEEPING CHRIST. 253 
 
 him so thoroughly, as one who will stablish 
 you in every good way, who will not only 
 start you on the way heavenward with a clean 
 heart and a right spirit, but will keep you from 
 evil. And this which Paul has said of Christ, 
 all sincere Christians know to be true. I ven- 
 ture the assertion that there does not live on 
 the earth to-day a man who was once a genu- 
 ine Christian, who has fallen back into sin, 
 who is both intelligent and honest, who will 
 not confess that the cause of his falling was 
 the taking of his life out of the hand of Christ, 
 his refusing to yield his heart to be governed 
 by the Saviour. Of course a man does not 
 lose his free will by becoming a Christian. 
 He still has the power to choose, and it is 
 as possible for him to turn Christ out of his 
 heart as it is for you to turn your best friend 
 out of your home and grieve the one who 
 loves you most. Every honest backslider will 
 admit that so long as he trusted Christ and 
 obeyed him he did keep him from evil, and 
 that it was only when, by wilful sin, or by 
 wilful neglect of prayer and trust in Christ, 
 he grieved away the Saviour, that he lost 
 the experience of his divine presence. 
 
 Christ keeps us by taking possession of the 
 central fortress of a human life, the heart, 
 
254 THE KEEPING CHBIST. 
 
 where imaginations and purposes are formed, 
 filling it with good thoughts and holy pur- 
 poses so that there is no room left for the old 
 schemings and plottings of evil. This a man 
 often leaves out of account when balancing 
 the possibilities of his living a Christian life. 
 A man says : " My thoughts and imaginations 
 are not only not Christian, but are often de- 
 cidedly unchristian. I have many good im- 
 pulses, and fondly imagine I am going to do 
 right, but the first thing I know I am caught 
 in the grip of some strong temptation to do 
 wrong, and all my resolutions go for naught." 
 A man fails to recognize, when he talks like 
 that, that the moment he surrenders his will 
 to Christ a new power comes upon the throne 
 of his life. It is not a negative life to which 
 I call you. I am not asking you simply to 
 make a new resolution not to do wrong, that 
 would, no doubt, be as hopeless as a thousand 
 others you have broken. I am asking some- 
 thing very different. It is that you shall in- 
 vite the Lord Jesus Christ to come into your 
 heart with the cleansing power of his pres- 
 ence. You have felt many times the power 
 of the presence of some people to smother 
 out bad thoughts in you. Many a young man 
 who has gone into sinful indulgences would 
 
THE KEEPING CHRIST. 255 
 
 never go there again if in order to go his pure 
 mother must go with him. You have seen 
 people the very atmosphere about whom was 
 so positively and strongly good that when you 
 were with them in close association it seemed 
 as though anything that was good would be 
 easy to perform, and low and groveling 
 thoughts were never so vulgar and hateful to 
 you as when you were with them. Sometimes 
 you say within yourself : "If I could only live 
 in intimate association with such pure souls, 
 goodness would be as natural as the air I 
 breathe, and I could overcome all my sins." 
 Now, the truth is that what you have felt in 
 these saintly souls is only a faint reflection of 
 what you would feel if you were to come into 
 close fellowship with Jesus Christ himself. 
 The moment you yield your heart to him in 
 obedience, according to his promise he will 
 come into your heart and into your life, and 
 will give you holy thoughts and noble desires 
 and good purposes. 
 
 The Lord keeps our hearts from evil not by 
 keeping us always standing on monotonous 
 guard dut y for fear we will do wrong. If that 
 were all, it would be an awful drudgery. But 
 he thrusts us out into the doing of positively 
 good things, on a career of usefulness in fel- 
 
256 THE KEEPING CHBIST. 
 
 lowship with himself, and makes#all our com- 
 mon life seem sacred and hallowed with the 
 beauty of his presence. The kind deed we do 
 for the weak we do in his name ; and there is 
 a new joy in it when we feel that, whatever 
 lack of gratitude there may be in the one for 
 whom we do the kindly act, the glorious Christ 
 receives the service at our hands as though we 
 did it for him personally. In the doing of 
 good things we are established and strength- 
 ened and made to rejoice. The useful life is 
 always the happy life. To know that we glad- 
 den others, that we are living such lives that 
 if people follow our example they are not 
 led astray, but are conducted safely toward 
 heaven, is in itself a wonderfully comforting 
 thing. Christ puts us forward — not only 
 ministers, but the newest convert — as his 
 representatives, and to feel that in the small- 
 est way we are standing in Jesus' stead to 
 win men away from their sorrows and their 
 sins, and lead them toward new courage and 
 strength and heaven, is a marvelous help in 
 keeping us from evil. 
 
 Christ keeps us from evil associations, or, if 
 duty calls us into them, he gives us the inner 
 power to resist them. He keeps us from 
 forming evil associations for our own pleasure, 
 
THE KEEPING CHRIST. 257 
 
 because we no longer have pleasure in those 
 things that we feel would be displeasing to 
 Christ. People before they become Christians 
 often think a great deal, and some talk a great 
 deal, about the things they would have to give 
 up in order to be open and consistent disciples 
 of Jesus Christ ; but I have never heard of 
 an earnest and sincere soul who after having 
 given the whole heart up to Christ in love and 
 devotion had any such trouble. Christ doesn't 
 ask us to give up anything that gives us joy 
 and pleasure unless it is something that harms 
 us, or harms our neighbors ; and when we love 
 Christ and have the happiness of knowing 
 that he loves us, we no longer desire to do 
 anything that will grieve him. We all know 
 what this means in common life ; Every one 
 of us has friends who are so dear, and whose 
 happiness we hold so jealously, that we often 
 change our conduct because of their plea- 
 sure? And we do not think it a hard thing 
 to do, because the knowledge of giving plea- 
 sure to one we love changes our very desire 
 and purpose. You have only to lift that up 
 into the higher sphere to see that when we 
 have given our hearts to Christ, and he has 
 forgiven our sins, and wrapped us about with 
 his love, nothing could be more bitter to us 
 
258 THE KEEPING CHBIST. 
 
 than to do the things that would grieve him or 
 bring reproach on his name. 
 
 Christ keeps us by the presence of the Holy 
 Spirit, who dwells in our hearts and who shines 
 upon the Bible and makes it an altogether dif- 
 ferent book to us. It is impossible that an 
 unconverted man or woman should think 
 about or enjoy reading the Bible as does one 
 who has given his heart to Christ and looks 
 upon it as the treasure store of information 
 concerning his Heavenly Father and his Sa- 
 viour. Perhaps some of you say: "I have 
 never had any pleasure in reading the Bible ; 
 it is not an interesting book to me, and I don't 
 see how it could be of any help in this rugged 
 every-day life of mine in keeping me from 
 evil." But when once you have turned away 
 from your sins and surrendered your will to 
 God, the Holy Spirit will make the Bible the 
 sweetest book in the world to you. I think a 
 little reflection will make this seem very natu- 
 ral. Here is a man who has no fancy for legal 
 papers ; the formalities and rather stiff rhet- 
 oric of such documents are repulsive to him ; 
 and he says : " I don't see how a man could be 
 a lawyer and willing to spend his time read- 
 ing wills and things of that sort." But some 
 day a man comes along and tells him that a 
 
THE KEEPING CHBIST. 259 
 
 will has just been offered for probate in which 
 he is named as an heir to a great inheritance ; 
 that the sum which is coming to him is large 
 enough to set him free from his poverty and 
 give him all the enjoyment of riches. Do you 
 not think that all his repugnance to wills and 
 legal documents would vanish in a moment ? 
 The phraseology of the will which granted 
 him his inheritance would become to him the 
 most interesting bit of literature in the world. 
 The reason is that his personal attitude is en- 
 tirely changed. He is an heir, and it is under 
 this will that the property is described and 
 guaranteed. Have you ever thought what 
 those words mean — the Old Testament and 
 the New Testament ? And have you compared 
 them with the phraseology of wills in convey- 
 ing inheritances ? In a will a man usually 
 writes of it as his " last will and testaments So 
 the Bible, Old and New, is Q-od's will toward us. 
 It tells all about the story of our family ; it 
 tells of its riches, of its sins, of its sorrows, of 
 its bankruptcy and poverty; but, thank God! 
 it tells us also of him who came to redeem us 
 and bring us back again to the wealth and 
 glory of heaven. 
 
 The moment you give your heart to Christ 
 you become an heir to treasures of immortal 
 
260 THE KEEPING CHRIST. 
 
 value under conditions set forth in these Tes- 
 taments of God. How sweet to your heart all 
 the promises of that Book will then be, and 
 what power they will have to keep you in 
 comfort and in peace! Listen to some of 
 them : " All things work together for good to 
 them that love God." " My God shall supply 
 all your need according to his riches in glory 
 by Christ Jesus." " There is therefore now 
 no condemnation to them which are in Christ 
 Jesus." " Let not your heart be troubled. . . . 
 In my Father's house are many mansions. . . . 
 I go to prepare a place for you. ... I will 
 come again, and receive you unto myself ; that 
 where I am, there ye may be also." " Hold 
 that fast which thou hast, that no man take 
 thy crown." " Him that overcometh will I 
 make a pillar in the temple of my God, and 
 he shall go no more out : and I will write upon 
 him the name of my God, and the name of the 
 city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which 
 cometh down out of heaven from my God: 
 and I will write upon him my new name." 
 
 The more you read this Holy Word with 
 this new sense of ownership in it, the more 
 you will be drawn out in prayer and conver- 
 sation with Christ, until you will become con- 
 scious constantly that the presence of Christ 
 
THE KEEPING CHBIST. 261 
 
 abides in your heart and in your life. You 
 will feel that he is never far from you, but is 
 more real to you and more surely present than 
 any other friend. Oh, my friend, he is able 
 to keep you. All about you are men and wo- 
 men who can bear testimony to the power of 
 Christ to keep. He has rescued many of them 
 from the power of wicked habits ; has cleansed 
 them from impure imaginations; has taken 
 their feet from wicked ways; has brought 
 them up on to the Highway of Holiness, and 
 though lions may sometimes have growled 
 along the path, no ravenous beast has ever 
 met them on that holy way. 
 
 But have you reflected that you who are so 
 fearful about being kept after you become 
 Christians are entirely unprotected now? 
 Every day you live in sin the sentence of 
 G-od's broken law hangs over your head. A 
 man does not have to wait until the judg- 
 ment to be condemned. If he is an unpar- 
 doned sinner, he is condemned now. Is it 
 not strange for you, about whose head every 
 dart of evil is hurled, with no shield to ward 
 them off, with no armor to protect you, to 
 allow the devil to deceive you into doubting 
 Christ's power to keep you and save you? 
 Christ never yet broke his word with a human 
 
262 THE KEEPING CHRIST. 
 
 soul, and if yon will trnst him, yon will be 
 able to say with Paul : " I know whom I have 
 believed, and am persnaded that he is able 
 to keep that which I have committed to him 
 against that day." 
 
THE HEROIC CHRIST. 
 
 " The glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad 
 rivers and streams ; wherein shall go no galley with 
 oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. For the 
 Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is 
 our king; he will save us." — Isa. xxxiii. 21, 22. 
 
 This is a picture, seen in prophetic vision, 
 of the triumph that Jesus Christ is to have 
 in the world. The campaign which is to end 
 in that victory is now on, and we have our 
 part in it. It presents Christ to us as "the 
 glorious Lord," and predicts that he shall go 
 on "conquering and to conquer" until no 
 slave-ship shall be left in the world, for that 
 is what is meant by a " galley with oars." 
 And what is still more startling, it is boldly 
 predicted that the time shall come when he 
 shall have driven all the "gallant ships" — 
 that is, the war-vessels of the world — off 
 the seas. 
 
 There is something splendid in the audacity 
 
 263 
 
264 THE HEROIC CHRIST. 
 
 ^nd daring of these prophecies concerning 
 Christ, which was fully borne out by his own 
 attitude while on earth, and the progress of 
 his influence in the world in the nearly two 
 thousand years that have passed since his 
 death and resurrection. The world is fond of 
 heroes, and Christ is its greatest hero. Hero- 
 ism of the highest sort demands the giving 
 up of one's own personal comfort and ease — 
 indeed, the risking of one's whole personality 
 — for a high and worthy purpose. We have 
 just been witnessing in this country an illus- 
 tration of hero-worship with that sort of a 
 basis. The crowds have flocked to see Nan- 
 sen, the arctic explorer, not simply because 
 he had gone farther north than any one else, 
 but because of the innate heroism of the man 
 in giving himself up to an idea. One cannot 
 read Nansen's books without feeling that in 
 all those years of drifting through the ice- 
 seas of the arctic he would much rather have 
 died than that his theory should prove to be 
 false. He was never thinking about freezing, 
 or moaning over his own sufferings, or worry- 
 ing about dying; his whole thought was on 
 the success or the failure of the expedition. 
 His great anxiety was that his theory should 
 be proved correct. The supreme aim and ob- 
 
THE HE HOI C C HEIST. 2G5 
 
 ject of his life for the time being was entirely 
 outside of himself. It is this rising above the 
 personal attitude into the nobler struggle for 
 the benefit of the race that makes the hero. 
 
 Nansen is an illustration, living and vital, 
 of the fact that all the great things that are 
 done in the world are accomplished by faith. 
 Though not especially in this matter a hero of 
 " the faith," this viking explorer is as much 
 a hero of faith as Abraham was. On his faith 
 in his theory concerning the arctic currents 
 he risked everything that was dear to him in 
 the world. He committed himself absolutely 
 to the faith that if his ship was once locked 
 in polar ice, it would drift for a while toward 
 the pole, and afterward away from it, into 
 open waters. He burned every bridge of 
 safety behind him when he gave himself up, 
 absolutely, to his great faith. The world 
 crowns him a hero because he counted his 
 life not dear unto himself when his faith was 
 at stake. 
 
 Christ is the matchless hero of humanity. 
 Nansen had the scientists of the world largely 
 against him, but Christ had all the world 
 against him. All men's sins, all their preju- 
 dices, all the trend of wicked habits, all 
 respectability, all government, all the world 
 
266 THE HEBOIC CHBIST. 
 
 frowned on him. Herod sought him in his 
 babyhood with a bloody sword. The very 
 church to which he came to bring larger 
 light hunted him with bitter cruelty to the 
 death. And yet this Nazarene peasant with 
 no human power to back him, with no gov- 
 ernment on his side, with no newspapers to 
 extend his views, with no friends except the 
 poor and despised, deliberately set himself to 
 fulfill this prophecy and others like it. 
 
 We want to catch this spirit of Christ. We 
 are not in the world as the disciples of Jesus 
 to stand abashed before or make compromises 
 with any evil thing. The Christian church 
 has been so slow in making progress through- 
 out the world simply because so many of its 
 members, and often its leaders, have left the 
 sublime and heroic faith of their glorious 
 Lord. If a thing is evil it is doomed in this 
 world. All slavery is to cease on the earth. 
 No " galley with oars " is to be left to run its 
 piratical way. We are easily scared by a 
 great show of physical force, but that is only 
 because we lack faith in Christ and fail to 
 appreciate the power of ideas to break down 
 and disintegrate physical forces. There never 
 was a period in the history of African slavery 
 when it was so boastful, or so confident of 
 
THE HEROIC CHBIST. 267 
 
 wider dominion, as it was less than ten 
 years before the Emancipation Proclamation 
 of Abraham Lincoln. It was intrenched in 
 wealth; intrenched in State and national 
 government; intrenched everywhere but in 
 righteousness. But steadily there grew up 
 in the hearts of men a feeling that it was 
 wrong, and this conviction deepened and 
 gathered force until slavery was smitten to 
 the death. 
 
 Every other evil thing that is hurtful to 
 mankind and which brings humanity into 
 bondage will go down before the widening 
 sway of Jesus Christ. We have been having 
 an ebb-tide in the war against the liquor 
 traffic, and for the last few years the liquor 
 influence has been stronger in politics and 
 in government and more intrenched in wealth 
 than ever before. Many earnest Christian 
 people who see clearly the despoiling of hu- 
 man life by this vile traffic, and whose ears 
 are keen to hear the heartbreaking moans 
 that come up from desolate homes and 
 blighted lives, have been, and are, greatly 
 discouraged. But we have no reason to be 
 discouraged. Lincoln once said about sla- 
 very, "If slavery is not wrong, then nothing 
 is wrong." So I say that all distinction be- 
 
268 THE HEROIC CHRIST. 
 
 tween right and wrong is but the babbling 
 idiocy of a fool unless the liquor traffic is 
 wrong. Being wrong, it is doomed; and up 
 from this ebb-tide we shall see, in days that 
 are near, the coming in of a wave for tem- 
 perance and righteousness that will carry us 
 far beyond anything the world has yet seen. 
 What we need is the spirit of Christ — the 
 heroic spirit that will not crouch and cower 
 before any evil because it has wealth and 
 popularity or numbers on its side. Any man 
 who is right, however humble he may seem, 
 need never fear to plant his fist straight be- 
 tween the eyes of anything that is evil, how- 
 ever monstrous and giant-like it may appear. 
 
 Christ has set out to capture this world. Its 
 desert places are to have broad rivers ; its dry 
 and parched uplands are to abound in springs 
 and living streams. Already the human 
 deserts of the world in the great lands of 
 China, and India, and Africa are beginning to 
 be touched by these living fountains, and it- 
 shall go on until the whole world of humanity 
 is refreshed and saved by our Christ. 
 
 All this seems possible to us when we are 
 ourselves alive to the presence of Christ in our 
 own hearts and personally engaged in bringing 
 about the salvation of others at our own door. 
 
THE HEROIC CHRIST. 269 
 
 If we lose the fire of divine life out of our own 
 hearts it is easy to doubt the supernatural 
 character of our gospel and its power to save 
 the heathen. 
 
 In New South Wales there was an old local 
 preacher who had apparently outlived his use- 
 fulness. He had lost the enthusiasm and 
 fervor of his devotion to Christ. The super- 
 intendent of the circuit at last went to inter- 
 view the old man, when the following conver- 
 sation ensued : - 
 
 " My brother, I wish you could see your way 
 to retire from the plan." 
 
 " How's that, sir?" asked the old man, in 
 unfeigned surprise. 
 
 " So many complaints reach me," said the 
 superintendent, "that I fear I shall not be 
 able to give you any more appointments." 
 And then, after an embarrassing pause, he 
 added: "Do you know what they call you, 
 through the circuit ! " 
 
 " No, sir," tremulously answered the old man. 
 
 " They — call — you — old — Brother — Dry 
 — Stick," slowly and with difficulty answered 
 the superintendent. 
 
 For a few moments the old man was like 
 one paralyzed. Then, with tears raining 
 down his furrowed cheeks, he pleaded to be 
 
270 THE HEROIC CHRIST. 
 
 allowed to preach " just once more." The con- 
 cession was granted. 
 
 Away to his little room went that clry-as- 
 dust old preacher. He wept and pleaded 
 with God. He went again and again. Like 
 Jacob at the Jabbok ford, he wrestled with 
 God until his heart was strangely refreshed 
 by the messenger from heaven. 
 
 Still trembling and anxious, he went off to 
 that strangest of trial sermons. The people 
 who had come expecting to sleep or to be 
 bored soon found that they had reckoned with- 
 out their host. One after another they looked 
 at the old man and then at each other with 
 amazement. He seemed like a new being, and 
 before long the audience was shaken with 
 divine power. Tears took the place of criti- 
 cism, and ere the service ended, sinning souls 
 had sought and found forgiveness. It was so 
 everywhere he went. " Old Dry Stick " became 
 a flaming evangel throughout the country, 
 and remained so until his translation. 
 
 It is like that in our faith concerning the 
 salvation of the world through Jesus Christ. 
 Show me a man whose heart is on fire with 
 love for Christ, joyous because of his own sal- 
 vation, and who is personally leading souls to 
 Christ in his own neighborhood, and I will 
 
THE HEROIC CHRIST. 271 
 
 show you one who finds it easy to believe that 
 Christ can and will capture China and India 
 for the banner of the cross. 
 
 It makes a great deal of difference in the 
 carrying on of the church whether we do it 
 with a painful sense of duty, as though we 
 were carrying a burden, or in the heroic spirit 
 of Jesus, finding it a joy because of the vic- 
 tory our faith sees in the end. 
 
 An eight-year-old child with a cut in her 
 hand was brought to a physician. It was 
 necessary for the best results to take a few 
 stitches with a surgeon's needle. "While the 
 physician was making preparations the little 
 girl swung her foot nervously against the chair, 
 and was gently admonished by her mother. 
 
 " That will do no harm," said the doctor, 
 kindly, " as long as you hold your hand still ; " 
 adding, with a glance at the strained, anxious 
 face of the child : " You may cry as much as 
 you like." 
 
 " I would rather sing," replied the child. 
 
 "All right; that would be better. What 
 can you sing?" 
 
 " I can sing ' " Give, give," said the little 
 stream.' Do you know that?" 
 
 "I am not sure," responded the doctor. 
 u How does it begin ? " 
 
272 THE HEROIC CHRIST. 
 
 The little patient proceeded to illustrate. 
 
 " That's beautiful," said the doctor. "I 
 want to hear the whole of it." 
 
 All the while the skilled fingers were sew- 
 ing up the wound the sweet, childish voice 
 sounded bravely through the room, and the 
 only tears shed on the occasion came from 
 the eyes of the mother. 
 
 I wish we might all do our Christian work in 
 the singing, heroic spirit instead of the whining 
 spirit. How much better it would illustrate and 
 bear testimony to the character of Christ ! 
 
 Christ has made it very certain that in self- 
 forgetfulness, while carrying good cheer to 
 the poorest and most needy of our fellows, we 
 come into closest fellowship with him, and 
 may often thus, unconsciously, do heroic 
 deeds for which we shall receive his applause 
 in the day of final accounting. 
 
 A shoemaker whose name was Martin had 
 a great longing to do some special service for 
 Jesus Christ. One night, in a dream, he re- 
 ceived the promise that the Saviour would 
 visit him on the morrow. Martin's dwelling 
 was a cellar, and his work-bench stood beside 
 the low window, from which he saw nothing 
 but the feet of those who passed by. He rose 
 early in the morning, and at breakfast he said 
 
THE HEROIC CHRIST. 273 
 
 with great joy to himself: " To-day the Lord 
 Jesus will visit me." Looking up, he saw a 
 pair of shabby feet wearily dragging them- 
 selves past his window. Full of pity, he went 
 out and found a poor woman, hungry and 
 homeless, who had wandered about the streets 
 all night long, carrying a sick babe in her 
 arms. Martin took her into his dwelling, gave 
 her the remnant of his breakfast, and fed the 
 child with milk. When she had gone he again 
 sat down to work, hoping that now the Lord 
 Jesus would soon appear. About noon he 
 saw another pair of tired feet shuffling past. 
 Hurrying out, Martin found an old man who 
 had not tasted food that day. He invited him 
 in and shared his dinner with the hungry 
 guest. When he had gone, Martin thought 
 sadly : " The day half spent, and the Lord 
 Jesus has not yet come." Toward evening 
 he saw more feet in violent movement, hur- 
 riedly flying hither and thither, and when he 
 went out he found an old fruit-seller and a 
 street-boy in a fierce fight. The woman 
 clutched the sleeve of the boy's threadbare 
 jacket and screamed: "He stole my apples, 
 and I will beat him for it ! " Martin made 
 peace between them, and, finding that both 
 were hungry, took them home and shared 
 
274 THE HEROIC CHRIST. 
 
 with them his supper. The day being ended, 
 he went to bed with a sad heart, for the Lord 
 Jesus had not visited him, as it had been 
 promised him in his dream. He slept, and 
 again he dreamed. And behold, in his dream 
 appeared first the tired woman and her sick 
 child ; she looked into his eyes and said : "Mar- 
 tin, dost thou know me ? " And the old man 
 came, and the fruit-seller, and the poor boy, 
 each asking: " Martin, dost thou know me?" 
 Then Martin understood, and he remembered 
 the words of the Master: "Inasmuch as ye 
 have done it unto one of the least of these 
 my brethren, ye have done it unto me." 
 
 What a glorious thing it will be, when the 
 privileges and opportunities of life are over 
 and all earth's treasures shall have passed be- 
 yond our grasp, to have our glorious Lord call 
 up before us ransomed and redeemed spirits 
 from China and India and Africa and Japan, 
 as well as from the slums of our own cities, 
 and say to us, as with astonished eyes we gaze 
 upon these whom we do not remember ever 
 to have seen before, but to whom, when we 
 could not go, we cheerfully gave our money to 
 send the messenger: "Inasmuch as ye have 
 done it unto one of the least of these my 
 brethren, ye have done it unto me." 
 
THE ANGEL IN THE GARDEN. 
 
 " And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, 
 strengthening him." — Luke xxii. 43. 
 
 The hours which Jesus spent in the Garden 
 of Gethsemane on that fateful night of his 
 arrest are overhung with mystery which will 
 never lift for us until we are in that land of 
 light where we shall know even as we are 
 known. We can approach the scene only 
 from the human side ; but it is fraught with 
 the greatest interest when viewed from that 
 standpoint. 
 
 One of the most touching things connected 
 with the evening's story is the illustration that 
 is given us of the hunger of Jesus for human 
 sympathy and fellowship. It stirs our hearts 
 to the very depths as we see him coming again 
 and again to tenderly and sadly arouse his 
 sleeping friends to keep watch with him in 
 his great agony. Nowhere does the tender- 
 ness of Jesus shine forth more beautifully 
 
 275 
 
276 THE ANGEL IN THE GARDEN. 
 
 than in his gentle treatment of the disciples 
 as they lift their sorrowful and shamed faces 
 from their slumber as he speaks to them. 
 We surely should find in this scene the 
 assurance of Christ's personal joy in our 
 devotion and service. It is still possible for 
 us to watch with Jesus in alert and loving 
 fidelity to his poor, whom he regards as his 
 very self. Reflection on Christ's great sacri- 
 fice for- us, as illustrated in the drops of bloody 
 sweat that rolled from his brow that awful 
 night in the garden, cannot but inspire in our 
 hearts grateful love. A member of the 
 Knights Templars in Chicago was recently 
 told by his physician that he would surely 
 die unless some of his friends would con- 
 sent to sacrifice sections of their healthy 
 skin that it might be grafted upon his body, 
 and forty members of his lodge volunteered 
 to give their own flesh and blood for the 
 healing of their friend and brother. It is 
 said that the patient was not only filled with 
 gratitude to these men, but regards every one 
 of them with the most loving affection, con- 
 sidering them the saviors of his life. How is 
 it possible for us, who have received such testi- 
 monies of the affection and sacrifice of Jesus 
 in our behalf, to rescue us from sin and despair, 
 
THE ANGEL IN THE GARDEN. 277 
 
 to fail to pour out our love and gratitude at 
 his feet? 
 
 An incident of exceeding interest is the 
 appearance of the angel to strengthen our 
 Lord in the great weakness and loneliness 
 which came upon him in his agonizing struggle. 
 Angels are very intimately connected with the 
 story of Christ. It was an angel who an- 
 nounced to Mary the coming incarnation. It 
 was an angel who sounded to the shepherds 
 the first note of the birth of Jesus in Bethle- 
 hem, and a great company of the same heavenly 
 host who sang the anthem in the astonished 
 ears of those who watched their flocks. Angels 
 ministered to Jesus in the wilderness, after his 
 forty days with the wild beasts and the temp- 
 tations of Satan. It was an angel, also, who 
 announced his resurrection to the women who 
 came seeking him in the tomb; and angels 
 were the comforters of the disciples when 
 they gazed after his retreating form at his 
 ascension. So it does not seem strange that 
 in this hour of lonely agony one of these 
 heavenly visitors who were so interested in his 
 work of salvation should appear as his com- 
 forter. Surely there is no angel more inter- 
 esting to us than this messenger of consolation 
 to our Lord in this dark hour. 
 
278 THE ANGEL IN THE GARDEN. 
 
 On a certain occasion, when Rev. J. Robert- 
 son had been preaching a series of sermons on 
 "Angels in their Revealed Connection with the 
 Work of Christ," Dr. Duncan came into the 
 vestry and said : " "Will you be so kind as to let 
 me know when you are going to take up the 
 case of my favorite angel ? " 
 
 " But who is he, doctor ? " 
 
 " Oh ! Guess that." 
 
 " Well, it would not be difficult to enumerate 
 all those whose names we have given us." 
 
 "But I can't tell you his name; he is an 
 anonymous angel. It is the one who came 
 down to Grethsemane and there strengthened 
 my Lord to go through his agony for me, that 
 he might go forward to the cross and finish my 
 redemption there. I have an extraordinary 
 love for that one, and I often wonder what I '11 
 say to him when I meet him first." 
 
 We have no reason for not believing the 
 angels to be as much interested in us as they 
 were in our Saviour. It is not a dumb, dead, 
 material world ; it is a world tremulous with 
 eternal things, a world full of spiritual realities. 
 Angels are looking on and taking an interest 
 in our conduct. In our lonely hours of sorrow, 
 when weakness comes upon us, and human 
 fellowship seems to fail, as it did with Christ, we 
 
THE ANGEL IN THE GABDEN. 279 
 
 may be sure that the angels of God are hovering 
 near, ready to comfort us and strengthen us. 
 In a world such as ours this is of infinite im- 
 portance, for sorrow must be the common lot 
 of all. 
 
 An Indian prince once sent Prince Bis- 
 marck a pair of strange doves, which came 
 from a little island in the Pacific known as 
 Blood Dove Island. These doves, on account 
 of a blood-red mark on their breasts, are called 
 "doves with bleeding hearts." There were 
 many newspaper comments as to the propri- 
 ety of such a gift to the stern old statesman 
 who was known so long and so widely as the 
 man of blood and iron. Whatever one may 
 think about that, it is sure that the dove 
 of peace in this world must still carry a bleed- 
 ing heart, and every Christian will experience 
 his hours of agony. In such a time only the 
 consciousness which Christ had of the nearness 
 of the spiritual world, and the certainty of 
 heavenly association, can give strength to the 
 soul. 
 
 Dr. George H. Hepworth tells how he was 
 one day riding with a comrade through some 
 of the grandest scenery on the face of the 
 earth. They were toiling up the last spur of a 
 mountain so high that the clouds would have 
 
280 THE ANGEL IN THE GARDEN* 
 
 rested on its summit had there been any in 
 the sky. They almost seemed to have left this 
 little globe behind them and to be on their way 
 to another world. Naturally they talked of 
 that Great Beyond which was apparently not 
 far distant. His comrade spoke freely of a 
 loss he had suffered. A little child had been 
 called from the family circle — had sped away 
 in the night and gone where no human eye 
 could follow her. With a broken heart, but 
 still in somewhat stoical language, he referred 
 to that vacant chair. " Gone ! gone ! " was his 
 despairing exclamation. Dr. Hepworth listened 
 to the story, and at its close quietly remarked : 
 " Yes, gone, but not gone far ! In the brighter 
 land we will see her again." "If I could 
 believe that," he said, after a little, "nine- 
 tenths of the burden would be removed. But 
 to feel that such farewells are forever, that is 
 very hard ; " and the strong man trembled with 
 suppressed emotion, while tears made it im- 
 possible to continue the conversation. 
 
 Of how little worth is anything in this 
 world, if this world is all ! The world gets its 
 value from our faith that its atmosphere is full 
 of angels; that there is a shining stairway 
 that leads up to God, and another world where 
 all that is good of this shall be harvested. 
 
 
THE ANGEL IN THE GARDEN. 281 
 
 Surely it is true that " if love can die, then love 
 is only prolonged agony; but the conviction 
 that love can never die strengthens, broadens 
 and ennobles the soul." 
 
 Perhaps I speak to some who are now con- 
 fronting such an hour of struggle. The very 
 air you breathe seems to be full of enemies 
 and your progress is contested at every point. 
 But you need not fear so long as you main- 
 tain your faith in God, and are conscious of 
 the presence of his angels, who in answer to 
 your prayer nerve your arm to renewed 
 strength. To all human eyes the odds may 
 seem to be greatly against you, but with the 
 hosts of God on your side, you are certain to 
 win. He who surrounded Elisha at Dothan 
 with a mountain full of chariots of fire, is 
 able to strengthen you in any battle that is 
 in your path, and to aid you in cutting your 
 way through all opposition. 
 
 Just how one comes into this conscious- 
 ness of communion and fellowship with the 
 spiritual world peopled with God's angels no 
 one can ever adequately describe in human 
 language. It is the miracle of simple faith 
 and childlike confidence and prayer. One of 
 the most remarkable surgical cases on record 
 was witnessed recently in Cleveland, Ohio. 
 
282 THE ANGEL IN TEE GARDEN. 
 
 A little girl about five years old, while romp- 
 ing on the floor, accidentally ran a needle 
 into her right knee-joint. In attempting to 
 pull it out, the father broke off the bit of 
 steel, leaving more than half of it embedded 
 in the flesh, and when she was taken to the 
 doctor, repeated probing failed to locate the 
 fragment of the needle. At the doctor's sug- 
 gestion, the child was taken to the power- 
 house of an electric company and placed on 
 the dynamo in such a manner that the right 
 knee-joint pressed against a powerful magnet. 
 When it was withdrawn the troublesome bit 
 of steel clung to it, and the experiment was 
 a perfect success. The surgeons could not 
 explain the power of the magnet to draw 
 the steel out of the limb, but they knew 
 that it would do it, and therefore they used 
 it. So I could not give a scientific explana- 
 tion of the power of faith to eliminate sin 
 from the heart, to lift the sinner out of the 
 mire and clay, and fill his mouth with songs 
 and his soul with angelic communion; but 
 I know that it has that power, and that 
 every one who yields himself to Christ in 
 childlike confidence and self-surrender be- 
 comes a part of the flock of the Shepherd 
 King, and is able to sing: 
 
THE ANGEL IN THE GARDEN. 2S3 
 
 " The King of Love my Shepherd is, 
 Whose goodness faileth never ; 
 I nothing lack, if I am his, 
 And he is mine forever. 
 
 " Where streams of living water flow 
 My ransomed soul he leadeth, 
 And, where the verdant pastures grow, 
 With food celestial feedeth. 
 
 u Perverse and foolish, oft I strayed, 
 But yet in love he sought me, 
 And on his shoulders gently laid, 
 And home, rejoicing, brought me. 
 
 " In death's dark vale I fear no ill 
 With thee, dear Lord, beside me ; 
 Thy rod and staff my comfort still, 
 And thou before to guide me. 
 
 " And so through all the length of days 
 Thy goodness faileth never ; 
 Good Shepherd, may I sing thy praise 
 Within thy home forever." 
 
A FRIEND OF JESUS WARMING 
 HIMSELF AT THE ENEMY'S FIRE. 
 
 " Did not I see thee in the garden with him <? " — John 
 xviii. 26. 
 
 This question of the servant in the house 
 of the high priest brings out very clearly 
 the strange character of Peter's sin. The 
 servant himself seems to have been aston- 
 ished that any one who had shared Christ's 
 vigil in the Garden of Gethsemane could now 
 be denying him. Peter had had such pre- 
 cious opportunities of fellowship with Jesus, 
 and had gone with him through so many 
 experiences, both of joy and sorrow, of de- 
 feat and victory, that it seemed strange he 
 should have so collapsed in this peculiar 
 hour of the Saviour's loneliness and trial. 
 
 It is well for us to permit this to suggest 
 the sacred fellowship which every one of us 
 has enjoyed who has been accepted in the 
 
 284 
 
AT THE ENEMY'S FIEE. 285 
 
 circle of friendship of Jesus Christ. We, too, 
 have been in the garden with him. We have 
 known the beauty and graciousness of the 
 garden of his heart. We have known the 
 truth of his words which John records : "If 
 a man love me, he will keep my words : and 
 my Father will love him, and we will come 
 unto him, and make our abode with him." 
 Many of us have been with him, also, in 
 the garden of suffering, and have rejoiced 
 in the fidelity of a Friend who seemed all 
 the more real to us because of our trial. 
 There are many friends for sunshiny days, 
 but Christ never deserts us in time of storm. 
 
 An old lady who for many years has been 
 a most devoted friend in trouble to her neigh- 
 bors, and to many poor people, found her eye- 
 sight failing, and while on a visit to a niece in 
 Boston went to an oculist to obtain a pair of 
 spectacles. 
 
 " My dear madam," said the young oculist, 
 after a careful examination, " there is no dan- 
 ger to be apprehended if you take proper 
 precautions, although your eyes at present 
 are not in as good condition as I could wish. 
 The glasses will be of great assistance, of 
 course. Besides that, however, I should ad- 
 vise entire relaxation of the nerves for some 
 
286 A FRIEND OF JESUS 
 
 time to come. You should be free from an- 
 noyance and excitement, and even from care, 
 for the next six months. And, above all, 
 my dear madam," he added impressively, 
 "you should avoid all trouble and worry. 
 Do not associate with sickness and distress. 
 The effect of such things is to increase the 
 difficulty which you experience." 
 
 "Why, child," said the old lady, "you 
 mistook my meanin'. I came to get fitted to 
 a pair of specs so I could better help people 
 that are in trouble and distress. I wasn't 
 calculatin' to wear 'em to heaven, but right 
 here in this world of sin and trouble. Pm 
 afraid maybe you'll have to fit me all over 
 again ! w 
 
 Jesus Christ is a friend who sticks to us in 
 this world of sin and trouble and will never 
 desert us to our foes. No wonder that the 
 high priest's servant was astonished that Peter 
 should desert such a leader, and no wonder 
 that the world now expects that those who 
 assume fellowship with Christ will be faithful 
 to him and his cause. 
 
 Sad effects always come from unfaithfulness 
 on the part of the friends of Jesus. If we 
 fail, we discourage the other friends of 
 Christ. Every man who is faithful under trial 
 
AT THE ENEMY'S FI11E. 287 
 
 encourages his brethren, as in line of battle 
 one brave man steadies trembling soldiers on 
 either hand, and one self-possessed leader may 
 be able to stop a panic. On the other hand, 
 the cowardice of one may stampede a whole 
 army. When the spies came back to the 
 camp of Israel after their scouting trip into 
 the promised land, they all agreed that 
 it was a rich country and a beautiful place 
 to live, and they brought back the most 
 wonderful clusters, of grapes and the sweetest 
 honey; but some cowards among them told 
 of the giants who were so large that the spies 
 felt like grasshoppers in their presence, and 
 their cowardly example communicated itself to 
 the whole army, so that, in spite of the coura- 
 geous attitude of Caleb and Joshua, they turned 
 away from the very door of the promised land 
 to forty years of wandering in the wilderness. 
 Such conduct on the part of a friend of 
 Christ has sad effects upon those who do 
 not know him. How impossible it would ever 
 have been for Peter afterwards to have made 
 converts to Christ in the house of that high 
 priest ! They would have remembered him as 
 the man who denied his Lord in the hour of 
 danger. Contrast Peter's conduct, and its 
 natural effect, and the action of Paul when he 
 
288 A FRIEND OF JESUS 
 
 was a prisoner for Christ's sake in Rome. He 
 was so faithful to his Lord that the house of 
 Nero was honeycombed with Christianity until 
 Paul could speak in his letters of " the saints 
 of Caesar's household." An inconsistent Chris- 
 tian can never know what sad results may 
 come from a single hour's failure to do his 
 duty. On the other hand, our fidelity to Christ 
 in times of peculiar trial may do more in an 
 hour to make those who witness it believe in 
 our Lord than years of ordinary service. 
 
 A very curious and beautiful letter was once 
 written to President Lincoln, that would cer- 
 tainly have given him keen pleasure if he had 
 read it, but he never did. In 1863, some pirates 
 from Peru captured and carried off some 
 natives from the Marquesas Islands in the 
 South Seas. One of them was the son of a 
 powerful chief, and the father made a vow that 
 he would, for revenge, eat the first white man 
 who fell into his hands. A man named Wha- 
 lan, the first mate of a New Bedford whaling- 
 ship, was before many months captured by 
 the Marquesans ; he it was who must furnish 
 a feast for the cannibal chief. All the people 
 of these islands, however, were not cannibals. 
 Among them was a native missionary from 
 Hawaii, named Kakela. Kakela had just 
 
AT THE ENEMY'S FIEE. 289 
 
 received a present of a boat from a church 
 in Boston, a valuable six-oared boat that he 
 needed much in his missionary work. He set 
 about trying to save Mr. Whalan's life ; but the 
 chief would give him up only on one condition 
 — that he should have the new boat in ex- 
 change for the captive. Kakela bought him 
 at that price and helped him to leave the 
 islands. The story came to President Lincoln's 
 knowledge, and in the midst of the terrible 
 cares that the life-and-death struggle of the 
 nation threw on him, he characteristically 
 found time to send a message and a new boat 
 to the poor South Sea missionary. Kakela 
 wrote a letter of thanks in return, which closed 
 with these sentences: "As to this friendly 
 deed of mine, its seed was brought from your 
 great land by certain of your countiymen who 
 had received the love of G-od. It was planted 
 in Hawaii, and I brought it here that these 
 dark regions might receive the root of all that 
 is good and true, which is love. How shall I 
 repay your great kindness to me f Thus David 
 asked of Jonathan, and thus I asl#of you, the 
 President of the United States, f This is my 
 only payment, that which I reg^nd from the 
 Lord — love. May the love 4H Ksus Christ 
 abound toward you till the enoM: this terrible 
 
290 A FRIEND OF JESUS 
 
 war in your land." Before the letter reached 
 the White House, President Lincoln had died 
 at the hands of the assassin. 
 
 So there is only one way that we can repay 
 our Saviour for his sacrifice in our behalf, and 
 that is by giving to him our love and fidelity. 
 Anything less than loving faithfulness in life 
 and in death is unworthy of us and unworthy 
 of him. 
 
 We cannot show this love for Christ in any 
 way where it will count for so much as in 
 being careful to always throw our influence 
 on the side of Jesus so as to lead others to 
 love and trust him. The true Christian can 
 never inquire, with Cain: "Am I my bro- 
 ther's keeper ? " The whole teaching of Chris- 
 tianity is that we are our brother's keepers 
 in so far as it is possible for us to influence 
 him. We do not live to ourselves. The Chris- 
 tian man or woman who feels that he might 
 be able to moderately drink wine or beer, dare 
 not lose out of the question the weight of 
 his example on others to whom a single glass 
 of strong drink is like a match applied to a 
 magazine of gunpowder. There are many 
 other places where the same law applies. In 
 the question of amusements and recreations 
 the Christian man or woman, in the very 
 
AT THE ENEMY'S FIBE. 291 
 
 nature of the case, must ask not only if what 
 they are tempted to do is wrong in itself, but 
 whether their influence and example will be 
 used to make a weak brother or sister stumble 
 and fall into sin. There are many things 
 that are on the border-line, as it were, many 
 questions of conduct that have to do with 
 disputed territory between what is Christian 
 and unchristian. In every such case the 
 wise Christian will run no risk of warming 
 himself at the enemy's fire. It is better for 
 us to walk on the open highway of holiness, 
 where all may see that our feet are clean and 
 our hands washed from every questionable 
 enterprise. Whoever follows us there will 
 walk safely. " No lion shall be there, and no 
 ravenous beast shall go up thereon." 
 
 No temporary pleasure which may come to 
 a Christian by indulging in doubtful pleasures, 
 and no worldly success which he may gain by 
 indulging in questionable business enterprises, 
 can repay him for the sad loss of an unshad- 
 owed conscience before Grod and a testimony 
 for Christ before his neighbors that is clear 
 and unmistakable. Poor Peter found no joy 
 in wandering from his Lord, and shivered over 
 the enemy's fire as the cowardly lie stuck in 
 his throat. 
 
292 A FRIEND OF JESUS 
 
 A wealthy man of Ithaca, New York, dis- 
 appeared from his home awhile ago, and after 
 many weeks of search he was found in an 
 almshouse in Connecticut. He had wandered 
 away from home, suffering from mental trou- 
 ble, and for weeks, while his friends were 
 scouring the country on his behalf, this man, 
 who was the owner of a beautiful home, where 
 luxury and comfort waited his every wish, 
 was living amid the hard surroundings and 
 subsisting on the unpalatable food of an alms- 
 house. The Christian who has known the 
 joys of communion with Christ, and has 
 shared the feast in the kingdom of heaven, 
 and then wanders back to the world's alms- 
 house to seek for comfort or pleasure, is as 
 lacking in wisdom as was this unfortunate 
 man. 
 
 But how great was the tenderness of Christ 
 to Peter in that sad and disgraceful hour ! As 
 Professor Henry Drummond very impres- 
 sively points out, it was not Peter who turned 
 and looked on the Lord when the cock crew 
 for the second time after his denial, but it 
 was the Lord who turned and looked upon 
 Peter. "When the cock crew, that might have 
 recalled him to himself, for he was in the very 
 act of sin : but he did not turn ; he was like a 
 
AT THE ENEMY'S FIBE. 293 
 
 horse that has taken the bits between his 
 teeth, and is running to his ruin. But the 
 Lord turned and looked upon Peter. Surely 
 Drummond is right when he reasons that 
 there is nothing more sensitive in all the world 
 than a human soul which has once been quick- 
 ened into its delicate life by the touch of the 
 divine. Men seldom estimate aright the ex- 
 quisite beauty and tenderness of a sinner's 
 heart. We apply coarse words to move it, 
 and coarse, harsh stimulants to beat it into 
 life. And if no answer comes, we make the 
 bludgeon heavier and the language harder 
 still, as if the soul were not too fine to respond 
 to weapons so blunt as these. It is a great 
 blunder, such as David perceived when he de- 
 clared that it was " the gentleness of God " 
 that had made him great. The soul is as fine 
 as a breath, and still preserves through misery 
 and cruelty and sin the marvelous delicacy 
 which tells how near it lies to the Spirit of 
 God who gave it birth. Peter was naturally, 
 perhaps, the coarsest of all the disciples. Our 
 picture of him is a strong, sun-browned fish- 
 erman, robust and fearless in disposition, hot- 
 tempered and rash, a man who would bluster 
 and swear — as Peter often did until Christ 
 took hold of him, and, through infinite ten- 
 
294 A FBIUND OF JESUS 
 
 derness and gentleness, mastered his spirit 
 and made him a saint. Oh, the tenderness of 
 Jesns Christ that looked, no doubt, through 
 tear-filled eyes, on Peter, as he shivered over 
 the enemy's fire ! 
 
 He is the same tender, loving Christ now, 
 and if some of yon have been painting your 
 own portrait into Peter's story of sin and fail- 
 ure, I pray God you will continue and follow 
 Peter in his penitence. "There is a greater 
 fact in Peter's life than Peter's sin — a much 
 less known fact: Peter's penitence. All the 
 world are at one with Peter in his sin ; but 
 not all the world are with him in his penitence. 
 Sinful Peter is one man, and repentant Peter 
 is another ; and many who have kept his 
 company along these well-worn steps to sin 
 have left him to trace the tear-washed path of 
 penitence alone. But the real lesson in Peter's 
 life is the lesson in repentance. His fall is 
 a lesson in sin which requires no teacher, but 
 his repentance is a great lesson in salvation. 
 And Peter's penitence is full of the deepest 
 spiritual meaning to all who have ever made 
 Peter's discovery — that they have sinned." 
 I am very sure this message must come from 
 God to some of you. You are conscious of 
 
AT THE ENEMY'S FIBE. 295 
 
 the bitter loss which has come to your own 
 heart and life because of a lack of supreme 
 fidelity to Jesus. Like Peter, you have fol- 
 lowed Christ at a great distance. Instead of 
 seeking your highest joy in the service of the 
 Lord, you have made that service a secondary 
 matter, and have sought for real warmth and 
 comfort, not in the Bible, not in the church, 
 nor in self-sacrificing fellowship with Jesus 
 Christ, but at the fire of the enemy, among 
 people and associations whose spirit is worldly 
 and, if not hostile to Christ, at least indiffer- 
 ent toward him. Do not, I beg you, go on 
 in such a course. Call a halt here and now to 
 a career which can only end in despair. Better 
 to follow Peter out to tears of repentance, 
 that shall issue in joy and lead you on to a 
 Pentecost of victory and a crown of glory, 
 than continue your cold and cheerless associa- 
 tion in the camp of the enemy. Christ will 
 forgive you, as he did Peter, if now, when you 
 see his loving, reproving eyes upon you, and 
 feel the sting of penitence, you turn to him in 
 loving appeal. Peter went away from the ene- 
 mies of Jesus after his repentance, and went 
 back again to the old loving fellowship with 
 the friends of Christ. It is there that he is 
 
296 A FRIEND OF JESUS. 
 
 found after the resurrection. So, if you have 
 grown cold and wandered to the enemy's fire, 
 the surest way back into fellowship with the 
 Lord is a repentance that will bring you again 
 into close and tender relation to the disciples 
 of Jesus. 
 
CHRIST FAINTING UNDER THE CROSS, 
 
 " He bearing his cross went forth." — John xix. 17. 
 " They found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name : him 
 they compelled to bear his cross." — Matt, xxvii. 32. 
 
 We know from this diversity of statement 
 that although Christ started out from Pilate's 
 judgment-hall bearing his own cross, he had 
 not gone far before Simon, a man from Africa, 
 probably a black man, was forced into service 
 by the soldiers and compelled to carry the cross 
 for him. We are sure that they did not do it 
 through any kindness to Jesus ; but the pain 
 and suffering and long abstinence from food 
 which he had undergone left him weak, and 
 they doubtless feared that he would not live 
 to be crucified, and so, rather than have the 
 horrid sport spoiled, they pressed Simon into 
 carrying the heavy load to Grolgotha, where 
 the crucifixion was to take place. This weak- 
 ness on the part of Christ must have come very 
 soon after leaving the hall, for John is the only 
 
 297 
 
298 CHRIST FAINTING UNDER THE CROSS. 
 
 one of the four biographers of Jesus who 
 recalls the fact that on leaving the hall he was 
 bearing his own cross, while Matthew, Mark, 
 and Luke all make special mention of Simon's 
 being compelled to carry that sacred burden. 
 
 In the great cathedral at Antwerp there is a 
 series of splendid pictures which represent 
 Christ on his way from the hall of judgment 
 to Calvary. In the first one of these pictures 
 the Saviour stands calm and erect. His great 
 physical exhaustion has not yet made itself 
 dominant, and, buoyed up by his exalted 
 spirit, the body has not yet given way. In the 
 second picture, however, there is every indica- 
 tion of speedy collapse, and his body is bend- 
 ing under the weight of the cross, until, as you 
 look, your heart beats quick with a desire to 
 get your own shoulder under the load and 
 relieve him by your fresh strength. In the 
 third picture he has fallen to the ground 
 beneath the great burden, and it is at this 
 point that Simon, happening along, is ordered 
 by the soldiers to take the cross from off its 
 prostrate victim. 
 
 We do not know about Simon, whether 
 he was a good man or a bad, but we know 
 that this cross must have been very unex- 
 pected to him that day. Whether he had 
 
CHRIST FAINTING UNDEB THE CROSS. 299 
 
 been in the company, looking on during the 
 trial of Jesus, or whether he had overtaken 
 the procession in the street, in either case we 
 are sure that he had not expected to carry this 
 cross for Christ. He did not volunteer to do 
 it, but did it under compulsion. I have no 
 doubt that that other Simon, whose surname 
 was Peter, in the long years of his after 
 ministry, never ceased to regret that he had 
 not kept close to Christ and volunteered to 
 carry the cross of Jesus on that black Friday 
 which we have learned to call Grood. What a 
 romantic and heroic experience that would 
 have been for Simon Peter! But it came 
 very unexpectedly to this Simon of Cyrene. 
 Is it not true that the crosses are always com- 
 ing to us unexpectedly ? Who of us does not 
 bear crosses because we must ? 
 
 A minister was driving through a moun- 
 tainous region one bleak November day. It 
 was cloudy, and the air was raw and chill with 
 a threat of snow. A turn in the road brought 
 him near an old weather-beaten house. In his 
 astonishment he stopped his horse suddenly. 
 A little woodpile was heaped in front of a 
 tumble-down shed, and an old woman, thinly 
 clad, with only the protection of a handkerchief 
 tied over her head, was chopping wood with 
 
300 CHRIST FAINTING UNDER THE CROSS. 
 
 great vigor. The chips were flying fast, and 
 so intent was she upon her work that she had 
 not heard the sound of the wheels, and did 
 not hear his salutation until it was repeated. 
 
 " Why are you doing such cold, hard work ? 
 It is too much for a woman's strength," said 
 the minister, looking with pity at her slender, 
 bowed figure, and gray hair. 
 
 " Yes, I s'pose it is," was the answer ; " but 
 I have to." 
 
 Further tact brought out the fact of much 
 severer service. She lived alone with her 
 infirm, bedridden husband, and not only cared 
 for him, but managed somehow to do the whole 
 work of their small place. 
 
 " And he's been sick going on seven years — 
 ever since he had a shock of the numb palsy," 
 she stated, in a matter-of-fact way ; adding, as 
 an item of no special consequence, " and I ain't 
 what you call rugged, myself." 
 
 " But how can you do it all ? " said the won- 
 dering minister, with thoughts of his own care- 
 fully sheltered womankind in his heart. " It 
 is surely too hard and discouraging for you." 
 
 Like an embodiment of endurance, she 
 stood, ax in hand, evidently in haste to go on 
 with her work. Something flashed from her 
 faded eyes as they dwelt for a moment upon 
 
CHBIST FAINTING UNDER THE CROSS. 301 
 
 the warmly clad gentleman in his comfortable 
 carriage. But all she said was, " I have to," 
 and then she turned to her chopping and the 
 chips flew again. 
 
 That woman was a Christian philosopher. 
 We are likely to be deluded into thinking, 
 sometimes, that to be compelled to do a thing 
 under the pressure of the inevitable is some- 
 thing hard and dreadful. But have we any 
 right to feel that way ? Is it not rather an indi- 
 cation that it is Grod's will ? And if that is so, 
 it is the best thing that can happen to us. David 
 prays : " Teach me thy way, Lord ; lead me 
 in a plain path." What is that but praying that 
 the way shall be shut up to just the one path 
 so that he can't make a mistake ? Of course, 
 our crosses sometimes come to us through our 
 own folly and sin ; but if we are sincerely try- 
 ing to do right, and unexpected crosses lie in 
 the way, and we are compelled to take them 
 up whether we will or no, we ought to take 
 them up readily and make the best of them, 
 for in every such cross we shall be sure of the 
 sympathy and fellowship of our Divine Master. 
 
 We ought to learn also from this study 
 that sudden weakness and threat of failure 
 does not mean that all is hopeless for future 
 success. Christ, who seemed so near fainting 
 
302 CHRIST FAINTING UNDER THE CROSS. 
 
 and failure under his cross, went on through 
 his great sacrifice with matchless courage and 
 self-composure; and so may we rise out of our 
 weakness through the same divine strength 
 which was given to him. The devil is always 
 trying to make us believe that some tem- 
 porary collapse that may have come from 
 ill health, or a hundred other local causes, is 
 the end of hope, and we might as well give 
 up. A few croaking doubts and fears can 
 make a fearful amount of noise. 
 
 I have heard of a man who came to a hotel- 
 keeper and asked him if he would buy two 
 car-loads of frogs'-legs. 
 
 " Two car-loads ! " exclaimed the astonished 
 landlord. " Why, I couldn't use them in twenty 
 years." 
 
 " Well, will you buy half a car-load ? " 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Twenty or thirty bushels ? * 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Twenty or thirty dozen ? " 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Two dozen?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "A few days later the man returned with 
 three pairs of legs. 
 
 "Is that all?" said the landlord. 
 
CHRIST FAINTING UNDER THE CROSS. 303 
 
 "Yes; the fact is that I live near a pond, 
 and the frogs made so much noise that I 
 thought there were millions of them; but 
 I dragged the pond with a seine, drained it, 
 and raked it, and there were only three frogs 
 in the whole thing." 
 
 The devil is able to handle his frogs of 
 doubts and suspicions and fears in the same 
 way. You need not think you are the only 
 person that after faithfully doing good for 
 a long time has been suddenly beset by the 
 enemy and scared into believing that there 
 was nothing left to do but to faint and die. 
 Moses thought it was all up with him, and 
 fled away from Egypt into the desert, and 
 herded sheep for forty years — he that had 
 been educated for a king. Elijah, after his 
 splendid triumph on Mount Carmel, ran like 
 any other coward before wicked Jezebel, and 
 hid his head in the sand under a juniper-tree, 
 and begged to be allowed to die. Poor 
 Jonah! Even being swallowed by a whale 
 was not enough for him; he must have also 
 the lesson of the withered gourd. But God 
 was tender in all these cases, and infinitely 
 compassionate. Don't be discouraged. Christ's 
 greatest triumph came after he fainted under 
 his cross. Easter dawn was only three days 
 
304 CHBIST FAINTING UNDER THE CROSS. 
 
 away. God has a to-morrow for you, if you 
 will pour out your heart at his mercy seat. 
 
 " Beyond the heartache and the falling tear, 
 Beyond the days with sorrow's presence drear, 
 Beyond the shadows filled with nameless fear, 
 Waits God's to-morrow. 
 
 " So courage, heart ! press upward day by day, 
 And o'er thy path let hope shed this bright ray, 
 That in God's own good time, some sweet, glad day, 
 Shall dawn his morrow." 
 
 Out of fainting hours of poverty and cross- 
 bearing comes wealth too rich for the weigh- 
 ing of earth's scales. Raphael, the great 
 Italian painter, whose marvelous pictures are 
 worth fabulous sums of money, was a very 
 poor man when young, and had some hard 
 experiences. Once, when traveling, he put up 
 at an inn, and remained there, unable to get 
 away through lack of funds to settle his bill. 
 The landlord grew suspicious that such was 
 the case, and his request for a settlement 
 grew more and more pressing. Finally young 
 Raphael, in desperation, resorted to an inge- 
 nious device. He carefully painted upon a table- 
 top in his room a number of gold coins ; and, 
 placing the table in a certain light that gave 
 a startling effect, he packed his few belong- 
 
CHRIST FAINTING UNDER THE CROSS. 305 
 
 ings, and summoned his host. " There," he 
 exclaimed, with a lordly wave of his hand 
 toward the table, " is enough to settle my bill 
 and more. Now kindly show the way to the 
 door." The innkeeper, with many smiles and 
 bows, ushered his guest out, and then has- 
 tened back to gather up his gold. When he 
 discovered the fraud his rage and consterna- 
 tion knew no bounds, until a wealthy English 
 traveler, attracted by his anger, discovered 
 the value of the art put in the work, and 
 gladly paid the landlord many times the price 
 of the artist's bill for the table. So out of 
 burdened, cross-bearing lives to-day come the 
 works of spiritual insight and genius which 
 wealth and ease would never develop. Christ 
 never could have been what he has been to 
 our world if he had been born in a rich 
 banker's house in Jerusalem and had lived 
 a life of wealth and self-indulgence. It is 
 the Christ born in a manger, reared in a 
 carpenter's cottage, who went about on foot, 
 who was lonely, and tearful, and fainting — 
 that is the Christ who has captured the heart 
 of the world and enriched it forever ! Do not 
 imagine that all the wealth is gone out of 
 that gold-mine yet. Days of sorrow, times 
 of weakness, dark hours when we faint under 
 
306 CHRIST FAINTING UNDER THE CROSS. 
 
 the cross, have their value, and if we keep our 
 hearts steadfast in fellowship with Christ, all 
 life's trying experiences shall work together 
 for our good. 
 
 " I cannot say, 
 Beneath the presence of life's cares to-day, 
 
 I joy in these ; 
 
 But I can say 
 That I would rather walk the rugged way 
 
 If him it please. 
 
 " I cannot feel 
 
 That all is well when darkening clouds conceal 
 
 The shining sun ; 
 
 But then I know 
 
 God lives and loves — can say, since it is so, 
 
 ' Thy will be done.' 
 
 " I do not see 
 Why God should e'er permit some things to be, 
 
 When he is love ; 
 
 But I can see, 
 Though often dimmed through mystery, 
 
 His hand above. 
 
 " I may not try 
 To keep the hot tears back, but hush the sigh, 
 ' It might havo been, ' 
 And try to still 
 All rising murmurs, and to God's sweet will 
 Respond, i Amen ! ' " 
 
CHRIST TRIUMPHING ON THE CROSS, 
 
 " Truly this man was the Son of God." — Mark xv. 39. 
 
 This is the testimony of the officer who had 
 charge of the crucifixion of Christ. This man 
 was a Roman soldier, to whom the execution 
 of Jesus was simply a matter of official duty. 
 We do not know what his personal feelings 
 toward Christ had been before, but it is quite 
 probable that he knew or thought very little 
 concerning him. He doubtless received the 
 command to put Christ to death by crucifixion 
 with very much the same thought and feel- 
 ings that he would have had if the prisoner 
 had been any one else, or one of the two 
 thieves who were delivered over to him for 
 punishment at the same time. But this man 
 had a most excellent opportunity to study the 
 conduct of Jesus under supreme trial, and the 
 result of that study and observation was that 
 this hard-headed, veteran Roman soldier was 
 
 307 
 
308 CHBIST TBIUMPHING ON THE CBOSS. 
 
 convinced that Jesus was the Son of God. 
 This was a great triumph for Jesus. 
 
 The triumph of Jesus on the cross was a 
 triumph of love and forgiveness over anger 
 and revenge. He was being treated with the 
 greatest severity, and the mob were crying 
 out at him with contempt; but he met their 
 anger with compassion, their contempt with 
 pity, their railing with prayer, and their ven- 
 geance with tenderness. Was there ever such 
 tenderness as that illustrated in the triumph 
 of Christ on his cross ? 
 
 Dr. Meyer recalls the story of a poor dis- 
 tracted man who used to travel up and down 
 one of the provinces of France, going from 
 house to house, wandering from village to 
 village, accosting the men, women, and chil- 
 dren whom he met, always with the same 
 question : "I am looking for tenderness. Can 
 you tell me where to find it ? " The simple 
 country folk made light of his innocent ques- 
 tions, and would say : " Have you not found 
 it yet ? " " No," would be the sad reply; "and 
 yet, I have searched for it everywhere." 
 " Perhaps you will find it in the garden." Off 
 he would hurry. The gardener would refer 
 him to the stable, and the stable to the next 
 house, and the next house to the next village; 
 
CHRIST TRIUMPHING ON THE CROSS. C09 
 
 and so, mournfully, to the end of life, the poor 
 weak-minded man, half conscious of his hope- 
 less search, half realizing the ridicule with 
 which he was everywhere received, died with- 
 out finding it. 
 
 This simple story, so full of pathos, is sug- 
 gestive of what multitudes of people are ever 
 illustrating. Their lives are a search for this 
 marvelous grace of human tenderness, and 
 often a search in vain. But no man ever 
 searched in vain for tenderness at the feet of 
 Jesus Christ. How wonderfully his tenderness 
 triumphs in his prayer on the cross for his ene- 
 mies ! Call up the scene before you — the three 
 crosses standing in a row, with all eyes fas- 
 tened on the central cross, to which is nailed 
 the Christ. The crowd vent all their spite 
 and cruel feeling on him. They rail at him. 
 They say : " He saved others ; himself he can- 
 not save." And at first, both the thieves, in 
 spite of their agony, join in the abuse of 
 Jesus ; and they, too, shout at him : " If thou 
 art the Christ, save thyself and us." Then 
 the lips of Christ move, and the noise of the 
 crowd is hushed to listen. They doubtless 
 thought he would rail back in return; but 
 from those patient lips came the strange 
 reply, not addressed to them, but to God: 
 
310 CHRIST TRIUMPHING ON THE CROSS. 
 
 "Father, forgive them; for they know not 
 what they do." That prayer won a great 
 triumph at once in the case of one of the men 
 who was being crucified. He had never seen 
 a man like this. Poor fellow! he had con- 
 sorted with bad men, and he knew what anger 
 was, and vengeance, and he could harden his 
 heart against any sort of rebuke or threat of 
 punishment; but before this Divine Being 
 who was reviled, and yet reviled not again, 
 and who prayed for his murderers with such 
 infinite tenderness, the hardness of his heart 
 broke down. He could have resisted any kind 
 of threat of future punishment from Jesus, 
 and retorted to it with bitterness, but to have 
 Christ pray for him with such love in speech 
 and tone melted down all his hate, and he 
 cried out: "Lord, remember me when thou 
 comest into thy kingdom." Ah, what a tri- 
 umph was that ! It was a triumph not only 
 over the man's hardness of heart — it was a 
 triumph over his sinful nature ; and Christ's 
 forgiving tenderness cleansed that wicked 
 heart as Jesus answered: "This day thou 
 shalt be with me in paradise." The sinful 
 heart of this man, which had been the cause 
 of all his wicked conduct, was suddenly 
 changed and transformed. 
 
CHBIST TRIUMPHING ON THE CROSS. 311 
 
 Men are not sinners only because they 
 break God's law, but they violate the law of 
 God because they are sinners in their hearts 
 and characters. Dr. W. A. Robinson gives a 
 very simple but clear illustration of this 
 important truth. He was surprised, one day, 
 to find that his watch was running too fast. 
 It had been good, and keeping correct time ; 
 but here it was " transgressing the law." He 
 knew that the fault was not with the hands. 
 It had not suddenly become unreliable because 
 the hands were sinners, but the watch itself 
 had in some way become deranged, and caused 
 the erratic movement of .the hands. To set 
 them back would do no permanent good ; the 
 trouble was inside. He took his watch to a 
 competent jeweler for inspection. He sub- 
 jected it to some sort of a test, and in a moment 
 said : " The trouble is, it has been magnetized ; 
 it is charged with too much electricity." 
 
 " Why, I don't know how that could have 
 been," the minister protested. 
 
 " Oh, it was probably the result of an electric- 
 car ride, and stole in unawares ; but that is 
 neither here nor there, how it got in; the 
 problem now is to get it out." 
 
 " But can't you regulate it — slow the hair- 
 spring a bit ? " the doctor suggested. 
 
312 CHBIST TBIUMBHING ON THE CBOSS. 
 
 " No ; you would have it forever running too 
 fast or too slow; the only thing to do is to 
 demagnetize it," was the jeweler's reply. 
 
 Now that is the way with a sinful soul ; a 
 man does wrong because he is himself wrong 
 at the heart. The whole moral nature has 
 been magnetized by evil. A subtle influence 
 of wickedness and worldliness has in some 
 way taken possession of the affections and 
 powers of the soul, and given the whole nature 
 a wrong bias, and nothing will ever make it 
 right, or make it possible for the man to do 
 right, until that is expelled. There is the 
 deadly secret of sin. The uncontrollable tem- 
 per, the pride, the desolating explosion of 
 passion and lust and appetite, the jealousy 
 and envy that ever and anon spring from 
 ambush — all these are only manifestations of 
 the real wrong which is in the heart, which is 
 sinful and must be cleansed by divine power. 
 David had the right thought when he cried 
 out : " Create within me a clean heart, God ; 
 and renew a right spirit within me." And 
 Jesus, who wrought that wondrous triumph 
 in the salvation of the poor dying thief on the 
 cross, is able to work the same glorious trans- 
 formation in any one. 
 
 Christ's triumph on the cross was the 
 
CHBIST TRIUMPHING ON THE CROSS. 313 
 
 triumph of the mind and heart, the triumph 
 of the spirit, over pain and suffering and 
 death. None of the things men fear when 
 permitted to do their worst had the power to 
 dim the victory of Christ's supreme ideal 
 which he had marked out for himself as the 
 Saviour of the world. The devil is always 
 tempting us, when in times of trial and sorrow 
 we are nailed to our cross, to believe that the 
 noble ideals with which we were once inspired 
 in happier days were too good to be true, and 
 are not practicable in this every-day world, and 
 especially for hard times and days of disap- 
 pointment. But Jesus deserted none of his 
 ideals on the cross. Some one has written a 
 very striking book entitled "The House of 
 Dreams." The story begins with a conversa- 
 tion between the author, who is the dreamer, 
 and a sad-minded, hopeless friend, who inter- 
 prets the multiplied sorrows and miseries of 
 the world as proofs of the non-existence of 
 an immanent, benevolent God. The dreamer 
 and his pessimistic companion make tours of 
 discovery through the streets of a large city, 
 taking account as they go of the many people 
 who are in poverty and trouble of body and 
 mind. As they look upon these evidences of 
 misery the hopeless man becomes more hope- 
 
314 CHRIST TRIUMPHING ON THE CROSS. 
 
 less and outspoken in his bitter skepticism; 
 but all these sights fail to cloud the faith of 
 the dreamer in a loving Heavenly Father who 
 knows and cares for his children. One night 
 the dreamer sees a great vision. Led by an 
 angel, he enters the other world through the 
 gate of sorrow. His experiences are described 
 with remarkable power and interesting detail. 
 There was one hall into which he was led 
 where were placed the tablets of judgment. 
 Each new-comer from the earth had to stand 
 before two of these solemn tablets. One was 
 of silver, the other was of gold. On the first 
 the whole life of the gazer was reproduced ; 
 on the latter all the good deeds he or she had 
 done passed as in a living panorama again. 
 Among those who stood in front of the tablets 
 of judgment was a poor woman whom the 
 dreamer remembered to have seen during the 
 investigations which he had made in company 
 with his hopeless friend. He had noticed her 
 particularly because of the sad plight in which 
 she seemed to be. She was shivering in the 
 cold street, but keeping a child alive by the 
 warmth of her thin breast. Now this poor 
 woman stood before the tablets of judgment, 
 and scene after scene in her past life rose 
 before her. In one she was a girl who 
 
CHRIST TRIUMPHING ON THE CROSS. 315 
 
 stooped above her mother to comfort her. 
 When the mother took greedily, without 
 thanks, the food she gave her, the girl said 
 nothing, but smiled to see her mother eat. 
 Other scenes followed in rapid succession. 
 The girl grew into a heroine, all the more 
 splendid because so utterly unconscious of her 
 heroism. With hands that were hardened and 
 made coarse by toil, she supported her mother 
 until she died, and afterwards she toiled in 
 the same way to support her invalid husband 
 until he died ; and when these were gone she 
 toiled for her children. Love was the only 
 light in her darkened life, and she had clung 
 to it with passionate devotion. Out of the 
 greatness of her love and self-sacrifice came 
 her transfiguration. As the pictures increased 
 upon the golden mirror, the dreamer marveled 
 to behold the figure of the human creature 
 in foul rags grow fainter, and the spiritual 
 figure, with face like the dawn of a summer 
 morning, grow clearer. And at the last the 
 rags and the poverty and the misery all dis- 
 appeared, and only the spiritual, the beautiful, 
 and the glorified was left ; for this was a woman 
 in whom the ideal had survived amid all the 
 degradations of the real ; so that the shining 
 figure in the golden mirror was but the reflec- 
 
316 CHEIST TRIUMPHING ON THE GROSS. 
 
 tion of the woman who herself stood watch- 
 ing it. 
 
 So it may be with every one of us if through 
 the trials and sorrows and crosses of life we 
 are faithful in our devotion to the high calling 
 to which we have been called through Christ 
 Jesus our Lord. The trials of life are only 
 temporary, but the spiritual graces which 
 they produce in character are eternal. Cal- 
 vary, with its bloody cross, its hooting mob, 
 its blackened sky, its quaking earth and open 
 sepulcher, was only a gloomy background for 
 Easter morning, with its vision of angels and 
 its glorified and triumphant Christ. We, too, 
 may be triumphant on our crosses if we keep 
 close to God, as Jesus did. 
 
 It was the triumphant spirit of Christ, con- 
 quering hate and revenge, exhibiting patience, 
 tenderness, love, and confidence in God, that 
 conquered the centurion and conquered the 
 dying thief. If on your day of crucifixion 
 you exhibit the same spirit of forgiveness and 
 tenderness toward man, and loving confidence 
 toward God, those who are beholders of your 
 cross will also be persuaded of the divinity 
 of your Divine Lord. 
 
HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVERGREEN. 
 
 u Because I live, ye shall live also." — John xiv. 19. 
 
 The Christian life is an evergreen. Some 
 trees go barren through the winter ; others, al- 
 though they catch new impulse from time to 
 time, and seem to rejoice in sympathy with 
 the other trees in the forest in their new dress 
 every springtime, never in any winter storm 
 lose the green credentials of life. Human life 
 was meant to be like that, ever fresh and 
 abundant in the revelation of spiritual graces 
 which come from sonship to Glod. 
 
 The words of our text were spoken with 
 the shadow of his death upon the cross already 
 falling across the Saviour's path. He had 
 come up close to death and taken its measure, 
 and was speaking of his own immortality, over 
 which death could have no power, and the 
 fellowship of life which he was in the future 
 to have with his disciples. We may be sure 
 
 317 
 
318 HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVEBGBEEN. 
 
 that Christ meant something more than mere 
 continued existence. Man's immortality is 
 guaranteed to him in his creation. But the 
 life which we have because of the life of Jesus 
 is a life of spiritual elevation which comes to 
 us in fellowship with him, and is a life over 
 which the body can have little control. As 
 Paul says, the earthly house of our tabernacle 
 may be dissolved, but this glorious life of 
 faith and hope and love which we have in 
 friendship with Jesus shall be clothed upon 
 with a house which is from heaven. 
 
 The inner life is of infinitely more impor- 
 tance than the outer life. Many now, as in 
 the days of Jesus' life on earth, are careful 
 to keep the outward life respectable and pre- 
 sentable, while the inner life of the soul is full 
 of hate, and anger, and envy, and greed — a 
 veritable parallel to those whom Christ de- 
 clared were whited sepulchers, full of dead 
 men's bones and all uncleanness. A gentle- 
 man was one day walking down the street, 
 when he passed a store where a man was 
 washing the large plate-glass show-window. 
 There was one soiled spot which defied all ef- 
 forts to remove it. After rubbing hard at it, 
 using much soap and water, and failing to af- 
 fect it, he found out the trouble. "It 's on 
 
HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVERGREEN. 319 
 
 the inside," he called out to some one in the 
 store. There are a great many people who 
 are striving to cleanse the soul from its stains. 
 They wash it with the tears of sorrow ; they 
 scrub it with the soap of good resolves ; they 
 polish it with a chamois-skin of morality, but 
 still the consciousness of guilt is not removed. 
 The difficulty lies in the fact that the trouble is 
 on the inside. It is the heart which is corrupt. 
 So long as the fountain is bitter, it is useless 
 to seek for a draught of sweet water from the 
 stream that flows from it. The glory of Chris- 
 tianity lies in the fact that Jesus Christ has 
 power to cleanse the fountain of the heart and 
 make the stream of life sweet at its source. 
 Men only begin to live in this divine sense 
 when they are aroused to high things by the 
 Saviour's smile of forgiveness and good cheer. 
 Christ has power to waken the dormant ca- 
 pabilities and sleeping faculties of nobler life 
 into being. A mother left her babe for a few 
 moments in the care of a little brother. In 
 her absence the boy sketched the picture of the 
 child. When the mother returned and saw 
 the picture, she gave the boy artist a kiss of 
 approval. " That kiss," said Benjamin West, 
 many years afterwards, " made me a painter." 
 The kiss of Jesus Christ and the good cheer 
 
320 HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVEBGBEEN. 
 
 of his presence arouse holy ambitions until 
 men and women under the magic of his touch 
 feel that nothing that is good enough to do is 
 too hard for them. Illustrations are every- 
 where of the men and women who began to live 
 only when they became acquainted with Jesus. 
 Bishop Whipple, the great apostle to the 
 Northwestern Indians, relates an incident 
 which illustrates the vital power of Christ's 
 gospel whenever it enters the human heart, 
 even though it be under unfavorable circum- 
 stances. Some thirty-seven years ago the 
 bishop knew a great orator of the lower Sioux, 
 Red Owl. He never attended church, for he 
 was afraid he would lose his influence among 
 his people. One day he came into the school- 
 room, and stopped before a picture, "Ecce 
 Homo," and asked: "What is that? Why 
 are his hands bound ? Why are those thorns 
 on his head ? " With patient gentleness the 
 school-teacher told again the old, old story of 
 him who was rich and yet for our sakes be- 
 came poor, and who wore the crown of thorns 
 through his deathless love for us. Red Owl 
 was so touched by the story of the love of 
 "the Son of the Great Spirit" that he came 
 again and again to ask about Jesus. One day 
 the bishop was going to Wabasha's village, 
 
HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVERGREEN. 321 
 
 and saw on the prairie a new-made grave; 
 over it was a plain wood cross. He learned 
 that Red Owl was dead. He had been taken 
 ill suddenly, and when dying he said to his 
 young men : " That story which the white man 
 has brought into our country is true ; I have 
 it in my heart. When I am dead I wish you 
 to put a cross over my grave, that the Indians 
 may see what is in Eed Owl's heart." 
 
 Christ is the power of Grod unto salvation to 
 every one that believeth, whether he is Jew or 
 Greek, Indian or negro, black or white, the 
 wide earth around. He has power to resur- 
 rect within us the spiritual life-plant which 
 has been covered over by sin and choked out 
 by worldliness. In a heart so earthly and sen- 
 sual that to human eyes there is no evidence 
 of divine sonship, Christ is able to cause to 
 spring into verdure and life a new sprout shoot- 
 ing out from the buried root of childhood. 
 
 When Bishop Asbury was making a great 
 preaching tour on horseback through the for- 
 ests of South Carolina, in 1788, he came one 
 day upon a negro who was sitting on a creek 
 bank, fishing. 
 
 11 What is your name, my friend f " asked 
 the bishop. 
 
 " Punch, sah." 
 
322 HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVEBGBEEN 
 
 " Do you ever pray, Punch ? " 
 
 "No, sah." 
 
 That was enough for the bishop. This was 
 just the kind of man he was seeking. He got 
 down from his horse, and had a long talk with 
 this ignorant black sheep in the wilderness. 
 For over an hour he talked with him, telling 
 him in the simplest way he could the story of 
 God's love for us in Jesus Christ. Then he 
 got Punch down on his knees and prayed 
 with him, bade him a brotherly good-bye, 
 mounted his horse, and rode away. 
 
 Twenty years passed away, and Bishop 
 Asbury, one of the most tireless evangelists 
 that ever lived, was again on a long preaching 
 tour through the South. One day a travel- 
 stained negro came to the house where he was 
 stopping, and begged to see him. It was 
 Punch. He had walked seventy miles to get 
 a glimpse of the man who had brought the 
 dawn of life into the darkness of his " valley 
 and shadow of death." The bishop learned 
 then, for the first time, that he had no sooner 
 passed out of sight, after that memorable in- 
 terview twenty years before on the creek 
 bank, than Punch shouldered his fishing-rod 
 and made for the " quarters," his whole soul 
 aflame with the wonderful truths he had 
 
HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVERGREEN. 323 
 
 heard. In that day he was a new man. He 
 had been sleeping all the years before. He 
 knew how to hoe and hunt and fish, but that 
 he was a man who could love and hope and 
 pray and live forever had not penetrated into 
 the depths of his soul. The bishop's story 
 of Christ had been like a lightning-flash that 
 had illuminated at once his intellectual and 
 spiritual darkness. He went back to the 
 plantation with his whole heart on fire, and 
 soon developed talents which nobody had 
 dreamed of his possessing, least of all himself, 
 which made him an irresistible force for good 
 in the community. It was not long before this 
 strange new life which had transformed Punch 
 began to tell on the lives of his fellow-slaves. 
 They ceased to steal their master's rice, and 
 drunken carousals on Sunday soon passed 
 away. At first the overseer tried to stop 
 Punch from preaching, but he might as well 
 have blown with a hand-bellows against the 
 whirlwind. Punch's conduct under persecu- 
 tion was so full of the spirit of Christ that the 
 next order he received from the overseer was 
 to come and pray for him. In a few months 
 Punch was at the head of a large plantation 
 church to which he ministered in spiritual 
 things. 
 
324 HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVEBGBEEN. 
 
 Twenty-eight years after Bishop Asbury's 
 second visit, a Methodist missionary among 
 the slaves, passing through that section of the 
 country, heard of this church in the wilder- 
 ness, and went to find it. Meeting a negro 
 on the road, he inquired if there was a preacher 
 on the plantation. 
 
 " Oh, yes, massa," said the man; " de bishup 
 lib hyar." 
 
 Following the slave's directions, he came 
 after a little to the " bishup's " cabin, and 
 knocked. The door opened, and Punch, now 
 a hoary-headed patriarch, stood before him, 
 leaning upon his staff. The old man regarded 
 his visitor a moment in silence, and then, 
 perceiving that he was a minister, lifted his 
 eyes to heaven, and devoutly exclaimed: 
 "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart 
 in peace: . . . for mine eyes have seen thy 
 salvation." 
 
 "I have many children in this place," he 
 explained, "and I've been praying the Lord 
 to send somebody to look after them when I 
 am gone ; and now he has sent you, my child, 
 and I am ready to go." 
 
 Standing by his bed a day or two after- 
 wards, the missionary heard him murmur: 
 " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in 
 
HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVEEGBEEN. 325 
 
 peace ; let — let — le — " and immediately his 
 prayer was answered. 
 
 The Christ who had power to transform the 
 Sioux Indian, Red Owl, and the South Caro- 
 lina negro, Punch, from ignorant heathen into 
 men of Grod whose hearts were filled with spir- 
 itual graces and whose lives were fragrant 
 with goodness, has not lost his power to 
 waken such life into being in human hearts in 
 our own time. We must never for a moment 
 lose sight of this power or lose the emphasis 
 of it in our Christian work. It is not a mere 
 matter of education or morality which we 
 have to preach to the world : it is the gospel of 
 life — a gospel which has power to resurrect 
 a man from the dead; a gospel which can 
 purify a wicked heart ; a gospel which can set 
 free a captive handcuffed by sinful habits, 
 which can throw open prison doors and lift 
 men out of the mire and the clay of the 
 Slough of Despond. We must keep the em- 
 phasis there. The whole air of Christendom 
 gets full of doubt and hopeless with spiritual 
 malaria when the emphasis is taken off of 
 that, no matter where else it is put. We 
 want life ! — life in the pulpit, and life in the 
 pew; life in the prayer-meeting; life at the 
 family altar; life in the aggressive work of 
 
326 HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVEBGBEEN. 
 
 the church, which seeks sinners to transform 
 them, and] seeks the fortresses of the devil to 
 destroy them. 
 
 This spiritual life which we have in fellow- 
 ship with Jesus Christ defies the power of age. 
 Passing years leave their mark upon the body. 
 The almond-tree flourishes on the head; the 
 grinders cease from very lonesomeness ; the 
 windows become vague and uncertain in their 
 vision ; and after a while the pitcher of earthly 
 life itself is broken at the fountain: but all 
 this has no power to wither the green leaf of 
 that spiritual life which is fed from the heart 
 of God to those who are in fellowship with 
 Jesus. 
 
 Not only does the Christian keep the green 
 leaves of spiritual life into old age and across 
 the river of death, but the memory of his fidel- 
 ity and the fragrance of his conduct remain 
 ever green and beautiful after he has passed 
 away from the earth. Thaddeus Stevens, a 
 great political leader in his time, was visited 
 in his last illness by a clergyman, who said 
 to him : " It is no idle curiosity that has in- 
 duced me to call on you, but a desire to know 
 your sentiments on the subject of religion. 
 Should you die in this attack, what shall we 
 say about your faith in the Bible ? " 
 
HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVERGREEN. 327 
 
 Raising himself in bed, adjusting his gown 
 and cap, he said : " The Bible, the Bible — 
 take that away and there is nothing left.' 7 
 
 Pressed with the question as to a personal 
 interest and experience, he said : " I do not pro- 
 fess to have religion in that way, but my old 
 Baptist mother had it, and I believe in my 
 mother." The one thread that held the dying 
 statesman to a possibility of faith and forgive- 
 ness through Christ was in his mother's expe- 
 rience and his faith in her. 
 
 John Randolph, an earlier statesman in 
 American history, once said : " When I try to 
 make myself an infidel, I fancy I feel the hand 
 of my mother on my head, and her voice 
 sounding in my ear as she taught me to say : 
 4 Our Father which art in heaven.' " 
 
 Let us not forget that if our memories are 
 to grow green with immortal comfort and 
 blessing for our children, and for the people 
 that are to come after us, it will be because 
 there has been in us, in our conversation and 
 our deeds, the seeds of this divine life which 
 is victorious over sickness and death and the 
 grave. 
 
 If we live this life with Christ on earth, we 
 do not need to worry about the life which is 
 to come. Christ will take care of that. He 
 
328 HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVERGREEN. 
 
 says himself that when death comes to his 
 friends he shall never be permitted to come 
 alone. The white horse and his rider may 
 come alone to the man of the world and of 
 sin, but he never comes alone to the Chris- 
 tian. Our Lord has promised his friends that 
 he will come to receive them and welcome 
 them to life in the mansion which he has pre- 
 pared for them. A balsam fir does not lose 
 its evergreen quality when transferred from 
 some low valley to the hills. So the Christian 
 whose heart is full of spiritual communion, 
 and the branches of whose life are ever green 
 with hope and love, will not lose his quality 
 when transplanted from the valleys of earth 
 to the highlands of heaven. It is not that life 
 we should be careful about, but this life. The 
 interesting question is not how we are going 
 to live there, but how are we living here ? If 
 we are risen with Christ now, and have our 
 affections set with him upon things that are 
 above, death will come as a promotion at 
 Commencement-time, and set us free from 
 the school-time conditions of earth for the 
 wide career toward which our Lord has been 
 leading us. 
 
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 SERMON STORIES FOR BOYS AND GIRLS ♦ U00 
 
 CHRIST AND HIS FRIENDS . J.50 
 
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 HEAVENLY TRADE WINDS ♦ J.25 
 
 THE HONEYCOMBS OF LIFE . U50 
 
 IMMORTAL HYMNS AND THEIR STORY . 3.00 
 
 AN OREGON BOYHOOD U25 
 
 SEVEN TIMES AROUND JERICHO . .75 
 
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