Chapter XIV: Part 14

In reply, I would say that a full answer to that problem has not been furnished us, and yet there is some light cast upon it by this and other accounts in God's Word.--First of all, would we ward off the rash conclusion, so commonly heard and everywhere repeated, that because we are afflicted, we cannot be the objects of God's love, that, if a person is sick and suffering, he must have done something, committed some sin or sins which have brought upon him such affliction. How frequently does this lamentation reach a pastor's ear, "What have I done that God should thus deal with me?" The Savior distinctly warned His disciples against such a conclusion, that particular suffering is always the consequence of some particular wickedness. It is clear that all such reasoning in the case of Hezekiah was unwarranted; he had done no special sin; he was not a sinner above all other sinners; his ailment came in the course that all bodily ailments come. Why, then, make such conclusions regarding ourselves and others? No, God's Word offers a different explanation. The Savior, on one occasion, speaking of the sickness of His friend Lazarus, said, "This sickness is for the glory of God." Let us mark that statement. The design of God in the affliction of His people is to show forth His glory. In what respect? How? In two respects, in the afflicted one himself and upon others. God's glory is advanced by the afflicted person, if the person afflicted is helped by the affliction in his spiritual growth, is made firmer in faith, established in Christian character. Luther numbered trials as among his best instructors. The Psalmist records the experience of multitudes when he says: It is good for me that I have been afflicted. When afflictions have this effect, they are to the glory of God. Then, again, the afflictions of God's people may redound to His glory in the effects which they may have upon others, to silence the gainsayer, convert the careless, or educate the weak believer into stronger faith. An instance of that is Job. The calamities came upon him to prove the utter falseness of the assertion made by Satan that Job was serving God for what he could make thereby; and I doubt not that even in our days many Christians have been sorely afflicted just to show the unbelieving, scoffing element by whom they are surrounded how firm and abiding their faith is, and how lovingly God can sustain them in their deepest distress.

Sometimes, too, through the sufferings of a believer the indifferent and careless are awakened and led to the Lord. The affliction of a parent has been a blessing to a son or daughter; the illness of a wife, borne with Christian submission, has led many a man to Christ, while all of us are strengthened in our faith by the sight of the calm and simple trustfulness of a dear one on whom God's hand has been laid. Afflictions are often to the glory of God. These reflections may not, indeed, fully explain the mystery why God lays low His people, but it lessens it. In any case it ought to keep us from that rash and altogether too common conclusion that because we are afflicted we are particularly faulty. The contrary seems really true. When the teacher desires to demonstrate his own excellence as an instructor, he takes not the poorest, but the best pupil and subjects him to the severest examination; so sometimes, I think, the Lord exposes His dearest people to fierce trials, just because He knows their strength and would thereby commend that faith by which they stand to the acceptance of their fellow-men.

That is the first consideration that we would direct attention to: Hezekiah, the beloved, pious, God-praying King of Judah, was laid low with a serious malady. And so, as the Apostle expresses it, let God's people not think it strange concerning the fiery trial that cometh upon them as though some strange thing had happened unto them. The very best of men are often the greatest sufferers.

Again, we notice the conduct of Hezekiah. His case was hopeless. The prophet had been directed to tell him: "Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live." What does the king do? The record says: "He turned his face to the wall." Was it to conceal his grief at the fatal intelligence he had received from the prophet? Was it to be more unmolested from the presence of his attendants, or because the wall was on that side of his mansion which faced toward the Temple of God? We are not told; but it says: "He turned his face to the wall, and prayed." He had a place whither he went in his distress. When all earthly hopes vanished and all help seemed at an end, he addressed himself directly and immediately to Him in whose hands alone rests the outcome of life and of death. Pouring out his heart in tearful sobs, he pleads with the Lord, tells Him of his sincerity of life and purpose to serve Him, and of God's promises to His people to give length of days; and He who by the mouth of His prophet had directed: "Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee," had His ears open unto his cry. He is not displeased with the outpouring of their souls to Him, He delights in it, and it has power with Him. Yes, it is by this very conduct that one can test whose they are and whom they serve. To whomsoever they first go in the time of their extremity, to which refuge they betake themselves when calamity is overtaking them, determines, more than anything else, whether they are God's followers or not. To use an illustration: Traveling once, there was among my fellow-passengers a little girl who romped about and was at home with everybody, and while she was frolicking around it might have been difficult to tell whom she belonged to, she seemed so much the property of every one; but when the engine gave a loud, long shriek, and we went thundering along into a dark tunnel, the little one made one bound and ran to nestle in a lady's lap. Then one knew who was her mother. So in the day of prosperity, it may be occasionally difficult to say whether a man is a Christian or not, but let him be sent through some dark, damp tunnel of severe affliction, and you will see at once to whom he belongs. That will infallibly reveal it. Take a note of it, my beloved hearer, and when affliction comes, observe to whom you flee for help; that is a sure test whether you are Christ's and Christ is yours.

To recur to the narrative,--Hezekiah's appeal was not without results. As he lay there tearfully communing with his own heart and with God, Isaiah returned to his chamber with a message of healing assuring him that he should go up to the temple on the third day, and directed him to take a lump of figs and place it upon the boil. This simple direction goes to refute and correct some errors very common in our day. The one is that remedies are to be absolutely tabooed, that they do no good; faith and prayer alone are to be resorted to to effect a cure. The theory, and the heresy that has prompted it, are set at naught by this one direction, in which God's prophet, under the direction of the almighty Physician, specified the remedy to be used. And the other error which it sets at naught is, that medical remedies have, in themselves, aside from God, any virtue or value. Too much does suffering humanity rely upon medicine; the drug bottle has become with many a veritable idol; that is their god who is going to help them. The application of figs to boils was a remedy known before Isaiah suggested it, in all likelihood it had been tried in Hezekiah's case without result; now, at the prophet's injunction, it is tried again and effectively. In other words, this time God worked through it, and so it proved of value. All the medicine in the world is worthless if He does not put divine properties into it. And so let us beware of idolizing the medicine, and forgetting over it Him who put the good into it, and when we take it, let us not fail to offer up with it prayer to Him who can and must make it efficacious.

And so it came about, through the use of the means which the prophet prescribed, that Hezekiah improved,--_improved_, I repeat, only physically, to natural strength and health? Is that all that his sickness was intended for, that is included in his recovery? Is that all that our affliction is intended for, that, having been confined to the sick-room for a while, we return to our work and calling as before? Hezekiah was a wiser man than that. The song that he wrote after his recovery, recorded in the 38th chapter of Isaiah, shows that looking death in the face had not failed of good results. No man, if he be a thinking man, can be brought to the brink of the grave, and raised almost as if from the dead, without some benefit from the experience. For one thing, it ought to make him a better Christian. "Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee, e'en though it be a cross that raiseth me." Luther was wont to say that his three great teachers were prayer, study, and trial, and any reader of his life can perceive that if it had not been for the experiences that he passed through, he would not have been the sturdy character that he was. What the tempering is to the iron, giving it the toughness and endurance of steel, that afflictions are to the soul. The wind might shake and uproot the stripling of a tree, but its blasts are harmless to the oak that has passed through many a hurricane and storm. And so unbelief may give out its miserable twaddle, the faithless world raise its scoffing and deriding tongue, the man who once turned his face to the wall and prayed will not be upset, he knows whom he has believed, what he has experienced in his own soul and life.

And, again, as it strengthened his faith in God, Hezekiah, after his recovery, was a faithful servant of the Lord, using his kingly authority to bring his people back to the true worship of Jehovah. Simply enough; a man who has been in the very grip of the last enemy and has recovered, cannot but reason thus: "What if I had died? These possessions would have been no longer mine. They cannot, therefore, be mine at all in the highest sense; they must have been entrusted to me by God, and I must use them for God." Usefulness, in most cases, is the result of discipline, the trials we have passed through. Who is the sympathetic person? You will find it to be him who has passed through similar affliction that you are passing through. Who is the one that is willing to give a helping hand? Not the priest and the Levite, who, if we knew their prior testing, never knew a serious affliction,--but the Good Samaritan, who very likely knew from personal experience what it meant to be waylaid.

And so, to conclude, despise not the chastening of the Almighty. Learn to look upon it aright; go to the right source for relief, and thus derive from it the spiritual benefit which God designs. May you lay up what you have heard against that time when you need it, for there comes a time when you will need it. Amen.

SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is
Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold,
silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work
shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it
shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's
work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath
built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work
shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be
saved, yet so as by fire.--_1 Cor. 3, 11-15._

In order to understand these startling words we must, in the first place, gain a clear idea of the picture which lay before the Apostle's mind. He sees the Church of Christ as a building, harmonious in structure, every part fitting into, and each stone supporting, the other, thus presenting that oneness which the divine Architect designed it to have. The foundation of the building had been laid once for all, but for the uprearing of the walls men are to bring the materials.

No materials except those worthy of God and of the precious foundation on which they are to be built, ought to be brought and laid there. Nothing but the pure and eternal truths of the faith revealed in the Scriptures ought to be preached as the doctrine of the Gospel and the Church. This was the ideal, perfect picture which stood out before the mind of the Apostle. But he also spoke of men placing perishable and vile materials upon the walls of God's building, using "wood, hay, stubble," substances unworthy to be made a part of Christ's spiritual temple. What did the Apostle mean by "wood, hay, and stubble"? The Church of Corinth, whom he addresses, had lost, so far as some of its members were concerned, that perfectness which ought to characterize the whole body. There was a working towards disunion. Envying and strife, factions, and a disposition to make this or that man the religious leader and guide, had been allowed to disturb the harmony of the congregation. The names of men had become watchwords. Parties rallied around Apollo, mistaking his eloquence for the Gospel to which it ought to lead; around Cephas, that is, Peter, because of his prominent position; around Paul, because he brought out certain doctrines into special prominence. And so, instead of regarding these men as doing each his own part in helping to maintain and preserve the whole truth, they foolishly set up this or that one, Apollo, or Peter, or Paul, as their favorite. Still, notwithstanding all these outworkings of a carnal or earthly spirit, there was as yet no rupture. The organic unity of all believers and builders remained unbroken. Individuals differed in opinions, but the Church had still only one creed. There were parties, but no denominations; factions, but no sects; strifes, but no schism. But even these cannot be allowed to disfigure the furnished temple, the Church of the final future. The Apostle looked beyond the poor work which narrow-minded men were doing at Corinth to the day when, as he tells in another place, that same Church which had been built upon the one foundation shall be presented to God, "not having spot or wrinkle," but "holy and without blemish." That day, he says, "will try every man's work, of what sort it is." Whatsoever is worthy of Christ, the solid and precious stone, shall abide, and the builder thereof shall have, along with eternal life, a reward due to his faithfulness to God's plan and design. But the human materials which unwise and ignorant workmen brought--all these shall be burned with the cleansing fire and go for nothing, but the builder himself shall be saved, because his own soul was built upon Jesus Christ, as the foundation of his faith and as his Redeemer. That is the meaning of the Apostle's solemn teaching. And now for the application.

That application may be made unto each Christian. We are all builders, and it is for us to use the proper materials. What is built upon Christ, from faith in Him and love to Him, according to His mind and the honor of His cause and Church, is "gold and silver and precious stones." What is done to serve self, the gratification of one's vanity and ambition, is to heap up stubble for themselves which cannot abide in the day of testing fire. But the more special application in accord with the text is that which pertains to the Church as a whole, of the various bodies of Christians, the many denominations of Christendom. Concerning these let us speak a few words, taking occasion, _I. to explain our position_, _II. to regard our duty in this respect_.

"Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." The Church is a building reared upon that foundation. Therefore, there is and can be but one Church. As the Apostle says in the Epistle-lesson: "One Lord, one faith, one baptism," so he says there is _one body_. To rend the body of Christ, to divide His Church into different sects, where altar is set up against altar, ministry against ministry, is contrary to the will and purpose of its Founder. Some look amiably upon this Babel of beliefs and unbeliefs and counterbeliefs, think well of and would justify all so-called churches, consider one as good as another, and meekly settle down in the nearest, because "they are all aiming at the same end." This is not the teaching of the Bible nor the position of our Church. Not as if we read the members of these denominations out of the Church of Christ. We admit that they are built upon Christ, the Foundation, and we furthermore admit that they are building some gold, silver, and precious stones upon that foundation. To be more specific. Take the Roman Catholic Church. We have many things in common with the Catholic Church. It believes with us in the divinity of the Trinity, in the Godhead of Christ, in the personality of the Holy Ghost, in the divinity of the vicarious atonement, in the inspiration of the Scriptures. Far be it from me to contend that in the Catholic Church souls cannot be saved. Notwithstanding the many grave errors the Catholic Church has clung to up to this hour, it has produced characters, true, noble children of God, whose lives we may profitably study. Nearer to us stand the so-called Reformed Churches, by which term we understand the Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Methodists, Baptists. With these Protestant Churches we have in common the great fundamental principles of the Reformation, namely, first: that the Word of God is the only source of religious knowledge and the only judge in matters of salvation, and secondly, justification before God by Christ through faith only. Thus it stands in the matter of doctrine; nor can we dispute that in matters of practical Christianity they are zealous, even putting us to blush. We all love to hear that the Bible is the most widely read book in the world. But to whose efforts is this mainly due? What little we do is far outdistanced by the work of societies principally supported by Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians.

We glory that we accept the whole Bible, but who studies the Bible as a whole most earnestly? I well know that we teach Bible History in our schools, and that we also have many earnest Bible readers, but if I could show you at greater length what is done for the study of the whole Bible by both young and old people in some of the churches mentioned, you would confess that at least many of our younger and older people are put to shame in this respect too. We point with satisfaction and pride to the mighty changes which the Gospel has wrought in heathen lands,--but who for the most brought them that Gospel of Christ? Who has footed the bills? We preach as no other church does that the grace of Christ is powerful to rescue the vilest, the most degraded sinners,--but who goes after them and labors the most extensively among them? Who, to mention one more particular, gives most liberally for the support of the Church and for charity? Lutherans? Roman Catholics and others. Of course, it is not all gold that glitters, and splendid things could also be said to the glory of our Church. Who first gave the Bible to the people? Through whom has the whole Church been redeemed from the bondage of Antichrist? Who was the first to begin modern mission work? But our present purpose is to point out that the various Churches are, thank God, also adding gold, silver, and precious stones upon the foundation which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus. But is that all?--Fair-minded as we are to the one, should we be short-sighted as to the other, namely, that they are also building worthless, perishable material, material of their own human choosing, "wood, hay, and stubble"?

Who, enlightened by the plain Gospel, as it shines to us from every page of the sacred Book, can help but see that the errors of the Roman Catholic Church are many; that they seriously obscure the truth; that they lessen the merits of Christ; that, among the masses, they produce a mere formal religion devoid of soul and life? Their divinity of the Church, with its visible head upon earth, the Pope, of purgatory, mass, worship of the Virgin and the saints, indulgences, confessional,--are these not wood, hay, and stubble? And coming to the Reformed Churches, which of them believes in baptismal regeneration, accepts Baptism to be a christening? Which believes in the real presence of Christ's body and blood in the Sacrament? Not one. Then, again, the Baptists insist, contrary to God's Word, that immersion is the only mode of baptism; he that has not been completely put under water has not been baptized. Likewise they sneer at infant baptism. The Episcopalian upholds as divine his form of church government,--so that, if a minister has not been ordained by an Episcopalian bishop, he is no minister. The Methodist overestimates the knowledge of one's conversion, and, like all of the Reformed Churches, cultivates a spirit of legalism, placing religion in such things as abstaining from intoxicants. The Presbyterian Church has never yet revoked the teaching of their catechism that God has elected certain persons to damnation, and insists upon its form of government as divine. "Wood, hay, and stubble," teachings and practices that are not according to the teachings of God in His Bible. What about them? The text declares that the fire will try the Christian work of all the ages. Every religious system not in harmony with God's will, all human speculations which men have woven around the truths of the Bible, all the wood and the stubble, though brought with pious hands and placed in sincerity upon the one foundation, shall turn to ashes and wither like grass. And yet, because of that foundation, and the faith of those who wrought thereupon, they themselves shall be saved. We would distinguish between sectarian systems and the individuals gathered under them. We recognize the unity of all Christians as believers in Christ, but we can never recognize these divisions of Christ's spiritual body. That would be sanctioning the "wood, hay, and stubble."

What, then, is our duty--to come to the second consideration--in this respect? So sensitive, my beloved hearers, have people become these days that when a clear Scriptural presentation of this matter is given, they will stop up their ears, and without giving thought or attention, will say: illiberal, uncharitable, bigoted! We are none of these. Not illiberal; we are just as liberal as God's plain Word permits us to be. We are not uncharitable;--the greatest charity is to tell a person the greatest amount of truth. And as to the charge of bigotry, that shows so much ill-feeling and bad judgment that we dismiss it without comment.

The truth is, that, guided by the Bible, we cannot justify and hold fellowship with religious societies that teach doctrines contrary to the Bible, without sinning in a twofold way. First, we would mislead our own people to believe that the differences are of no fundamental character, that it makes no difference whether you believe that Christ's body and blood are in the Sacrament, or not, whether children are baptized and regenerated in baptism, or not, and so forth. That would be practically denying the faith; and secondly, by fellowshiping with these denominations, we would be endorsing their errors, and arouse the impression that it makes little or no difference whether they believe in the Bible, or not.

When a man builds a house, he is very much on the alert that no shoddy, inferior material enters into the building; not one joint or door but it should measure up to the specifications. Strange that in the infinitely more important building of Christ's Church, people should be so indifferent as to the material and of things measuring up to the specifications of God's Word, and allow "wood, hay, and stubble" to take the place of gold, silver, and precious stones.

God protect us against indifference. And then, to conclude, the members of what Church are we? The character, legitimacy, and proper Christianity of a church is its true, clear, unmistakable confession of the doctrines of the Scripture, and it is our right to say that these doctrines are embraced, held, and taught by us, and were thus held and taught by us before any of the multitudinous sects and parties about us had a being. The Mother of Protestantism,--what church is it? It was born, existed, and was mighty in strength before them all, and upon them rests the burden of proof and apology for their separate being. And we should go borrowing to them, or hesitate to speak a modest word in our favor?

My Church, my Church, my dear old Church!
I love her ancient name,
And God forbid a child of hers
Should ever do her shame.
Her mother-care I'll ever share,
Her child I am alone,
Till He who gave me to her arms
Shall call me to His own.

Amen.

EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

And Elijah came unto all the people and said, How long halt
ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him; but
if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a
word.--_1 Kings 18, 21._

It was a remarkable, but wise decision that King Solomon once rendered in a difficult case which was brought before him. Two women came to him with an infant to which they both asserted a mother's claim, the one contending that the other had overlaid her child, and taken hers from her before she was awake, and laid her own dead child in its place, whilst the other asserted that the contrary was the truth, saying, "The dead child is hers, and the living is mine." And now it was for the King to decide. But how was it to be done? Solomon calls for a sword. "Divide," he commands, "the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other." Then spake, says the Holy Record, the woman whose the living child was unto the King, for her bowels yearned upon her son, "O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it." But the other said, "Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it." Solomon instantly recognized the true mother's heart. "Give her the child," he said. The same it is with God, our true heavenly Parent. He does not want His children divided; He will have them entirely, as a whole living sacrifice, or not at all. The sum of His commandment and will regarding us, as repeated in to-day's Gospel lesson, is: "Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with _all_ thy heart, and with _all_ thy soul, and with _all_ thy mind." Of that would we remind ourselves in our present worship, taking for our instruction the Scripture read as our text.

With the aid of the Holy Spirit we note Elijah's challenge on Mount Carmel,--_A call to Christian decision_. _I. The question at issue: "Is the Lord God?"_ _II. The obligation involved, "Then follow Him."_

Israel had had many wicked kings since the suicide of its first monarch, Saul, upon Mount Gilboa, but none more so than Ahab. The crowning iniquity of this unprincipled and despicable prince was the introduction of the idol called Baal into Israel. Baal signifies governor or ruler, and was the name given in the East to the chief male idol of the heathen. To the honor of this idol, temples were erected, bloody sacrifices offered, and the most shameful things perpetrated. Ahab had married Jezebel, the daughter of the idolatrous King of the Sidonians, and under her sway the worship of this idol had become sinfully popular in Israel. Four hundred and fifty priests served at his altar, and nearly an equally large number were appointed to the worship of his mate, Ashtaroth, for every male idol was wont to have his goddess. This abominable form of idolatry was going on in the land where God had thundered from the sides of Sinai as His first requirement: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," and had declared: "My glory will I not give to another, nor my praise to graven images"; and in consequence the judgments of Jehovah were not slow to follow. No rain or dew had fallen for the space of three years, the heaven was as brass, and the earth like a nether grindstone.--Famine stalked throughout the land, when one day, as Ahab was wandering up and down the country searching for food, he met the stern and fearless prophet of Jehovah, Elijah, called the Tishbite. "Art thou he," asks the King, "that troubleth Israel?" Elijah retorts: "Not I have troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandment of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim."

And so the contest is on, not so much between Elijah and Ahab as between the supremacy of Jehovah and Baal. How is the dispute to be settled? Elijah proposes a method. All Israel should be convened at a place specified, Mount Carmel. Two altars were to be erected, one by the champions of Baal, another by himself. Sacrifice was to be laid thereupon, and the God that would answer by fire to devour the sacrifice should be recognized victor. The test is accepted. You, as well-informed Bible readers, know the outcome. After futile attempts by the priests of Baal to secure the hearing of their God, Elijah addresses his God. In fervent prayer he raises his eyes and hands and heart to heaven. No sooner had the last words escaped the prophet's lips than down came the fire of God consuming the whole sacrifice and the wood, the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench, whilst the fickle people fell on their faces, crying: "The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God." Elijah then follows up his victory by commanding them to seize the whole group of Baal's priests and slay them at the brook Kishon. Thus did Jehovah terribly and surely vindicate His honor and majesty.

What lesson may be gathered from this thrilling story? Beloved, the conflict between the forces of the true God and His opponents is not yet over, and, as of old, that conflict, in the final issue, centers in a question. At that time it was, "Is Jehovah the Lord God?" Formulated by the Lord Himself in the Gospel-lesson of this day, it now reads: "What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is he?" Or, in other words, Is He, Jesus Christ, God? Around that question are rallied the religious forces of to-day. The answer to that question determines men's attitude, their position on the one side or on the other; their answer to that question decides the destiny of every individual soul. According as the Gospel of Jesus Christ is accepted or rejected, will men stand or fall. What is it in its significance but the conflict of Mount Carmel over again? And how is this vital question to be decided? For the determining of the question, "Is Jesus Christ God?" there are many proofs, all of them conclusive and incontrovertible. We might point to Christ's spotless character and His immaculate life. "Which of you," He challenged His enemies, "convinceth me of sin?" And none who has ever examined into His life and character but is unstinted in His admiration and praise. "He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners"; He was divine. We could point furthermore to His teaching. Merely human mind and merely human lips never conceived and spake as He spake. As you study our Lord's utterances, what loftiness in His maxims, what profundity of wisdom in His discourses! The hearers of His time were constrained to exclaim, "Never man spake as this man speaketh," and He taught as one having authority and not as the scribes. No wonder, for He was the teacher come from God,--He was God.

We could point out the divine influence His religion has exerted upon the world. Why do the nations write 1912 in the enumeration of time? Who has taken possession of everything great and grand in our age? Rather, should I say, who has made that which is great and grand in art, in music, in literature--the masterpieces, the sublimest productions? Whom do they treat of? The civilization of to-day--whose product is it but of His religion? thus stamping it and its Founder as divine, as God.

But, my beloved, after all these and manifold other proofs have been adduced, there remains one more which, more than any other proof, brings home to us the conviction that Christ is God, not only intellectually, but morally, spiritually. From the scene upon Mount Carmel I would direct you to a scene upon another mount, Mount Calvary. There, too, we witness a sacrifice; there, too, lies a victim upon an altar, the altar of the cross. The fire of God's wrath comes from heaven to consume that sacrifice. How is that a proof of Christ's divinity? Because it solves, as nothing else can solve, the great problem of Religion, "How can man be saved, justified before God?" "No man can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him." It required one more than mere man to do that--God Himself. What man can look upon that Calvary scene and contemplate the significance of it, but exclaim with the Roman centurion under the cross, "Truly, this was the Son of God,"--nor gaze upon the print of the nails in His hands, and the mark of the spear gash in His side, but confess, with the multitude upon Mount Carmel, "Jehovah--Jesus, He is the God! Jehovah--Jesus, He is the God!" There is no proof so powerful that Christ is God but the sacrifice of Calvary; yea, he who accepts not that sacrifice, together with the resurrection of Christ, believes not in Christ. That Old Testament scene and sacrifice points, and is a type, of the New Testament scene and sacrifice. May the impression and the confession it produced be the same on the lips of every one of us, as it was yonder on Mount Carmel,--"The Lord, even Christ, is God. He is my God."

And now let us note the obligation it involved. The particular offense with which Elijah charges the people on this occasion is "halting." The word translated "halting" is old English. It does not mean standing still, but limping. Elijah's question, "How long halt ye between two opinions?" accordingly means, "Why do you not make up your minds; why do you not take a positive stand one way or the other and instead of vacillating between the worship of Baal and the worship of Jehovah, accepting neither fully, seize on to one or the other with full conviction, and follow that with _all_ your heart?" Decision, the taking of a position and holding to it, is the appeal of the prophet. And is his appeal not applicable in our own day? Is there no halting, limping, swaying, and swerving between two opinions? It is of just such people that our modern and immediate community is full; they take an intermediate position, a sort of betwixt and between; they are not out and out Christians, and still they wish to be rated as Christians. They admit their reverence for the Bible; they would not question anything taught on its testimony; they take delight in hearing occasionally a Christian preacher, attending upon Christian services; there is scarcely a mental or moral persuasion in favor of Christianity which they do not cheerfully entertain; they would not think of having their children grow up unchristened or a marriage in the family performed without a Christian minister, and when trouble and sorrow comes upon them, they look to Christian sources for consolation. And still, when the test comes for them to confess themselves in the appointed way as Christ's disciples, to take their places at the family table of the Christian Church, they have their excuses; they turn their backs and go off on to something else. "They've not been confirmed"; perchance, "they want to consider." As stated, our immediate neighborhood is full of such halting, compromising, so-near-and-yet-so-far people. What they want is not to "consider," but to act. Time for deliberation they have had plenty and long enough. One year, ten years, finds them still "considering." What they need is decision, action, and not to arrive at that is to remain in a state of sin and of danger, of ingratitude to God and discomfort to their own soul. If I am addressing any such, and I know that I am, let them not be offended, but earnestly regard and give up a position so unworthy, unsatisfactory, God and Christ-dishonoring.

But does the appeal of the prophet in no wise apply to those who have made a pronounced confession, who have taken a stand, and whose names appear on the roster as His followers? Is there no indecision of conduct there, no limping, no dividing of one's heart between Baal and Jehovah? The ordinary type of Christian and church-member is not a person of fixedness, determination, neither in doctrine nor in practice. Baal still has his altar, only decked out in a different shape:--in the market-places of business, in the houses of amusements, in the halls of secret organizations and lodges. It is not an unusual thing to see men and women in our churches going to the Lord's Sacrament and belonging to societies which know not Christ and will have none of Him, reject His Godship and His sacrifice upon Calvary. It is not an unusual thing to hear men and women, young and old, singing hymns and doxologies and speaking words of Christian prayer, and then lifting up their voices in speech and song that tells not whose they are and whom they serve. The trouble with all of us is that we are not as outspoken in our testimony, as consistent and faithful, and unflinching as we ought to be, as our Christian duty and the honor of our Lord calls for and deserves. Having performed our vows and service to God in His temple, we are content to go back to the world and to business, forgetful that there, too, we should bear faithful witness for our Lord. From the text of the day may you form the noble resolution: "I will be always and altogether the servant of God, the follower of Christ; in which resolution do Thou, Lord, sustain me to the end."

Thine forever! God of love,
Hear us from Thy throne above.
Thine forever may we be
Here and in eternity.

Amen.

NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up
to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem, by the sheep-market,
a pool which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having
five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk,
of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.
For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and
troubled the water; whosoever, then, first after the troubling
of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he
had. And a certain man was there which had an infirmity thirty
and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had
been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou
be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no
man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool; but
while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus saith
unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the
man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the
same day was the Sabbath.--_John 5, 1-9._

The most serious charge that can be placed against mankind is this, that when the Gospel is proclaimed to them, that Gospel is rejected, that when pardon and salvation of God is offered, that offer is coldly and indifferently turned aside. We are sometimes surprised at this. We ought not to be. The same coldness and indifference was manifested years ago. It says: "Christ came into His own, and His own received Him not." To-day's Gospel records to us the cure of the paralytic. It was a most remarkable and convincing evidence that He who could bring to His feet this debilitated and disabled man was indeed the Messiah, the Savior of the world. But no; it started a wrangling among His enemies about the power of forgiveness of sin, and caused Him to be haunted with hatred and malice. And as a parallel passage to that Gospel miracle is the record here in the fifth chapter of St. John, part of which we have just heard. Let us notice now, _I. the history of the miracle_; _II. the instruction it imparts_.

"After this," says the Evangelist, that is, after Jesus had conversed with the woman of Samaria at Jacob's well, and after He had healed the nobleman's son who was lying sick at Capernaum, "there was a feast of the Jews." The feast, it is generally supposed, was the Passover. And "Jesus went up," out of Galilee into Judea, "to Jerusalem." He went thither not only that He might pay all due regard to the Temple and to the Law, but also that He might have an opportunity of manifesting Himself and His doctrine to a greater number of people. "Now," says the next verse, "there is at Jerusalem by the sheep-market," or sheep-gate, a "pool," or a bath, the ordinary purpose of which was for bathing or swimming, but on account of the supernatural character of the water was called Bethesda, that is, the House, or Place, of Mercy. Around this pool, or bath, were built five porches, porticos, or verandas, which served to shelter from the heat and the cold those who frequented the place. In these porches "there lay a great multitude of impotent folk;" some of them were "blind," some "halt" (or lame), and others were "withered," that is, their sinews and muscles were disabled, withered in one particular part of the body, as the man with the withered hand, or all over, as in the case of the paralytic, whose friends had to bear him on a litter. These patients, at least most of them, were probably deemed incurable by ordinary methods, and therefore they were carried to Bethesda to wait and hope for a miraculous recovery there; for it pleased God (in order to show that He had not forsaken His chosen people, but was operating among them) to send "an angel" who went down at certain seasons into the pool and "troubled the water," by which troubling of it, and by the extraordinary motion that followed, the sick were informed of the time of the angel's descent, and, "whosoever then first, after the troubling of the water, stepped in" was instantly healed, while those who bathed afterwards obtained no relief. All sorts of opinions have been advanced as to this healing spring. That it was not the natural virtue, as in the case of mineral springs in this country, that wrought the cure, is evident from the circumstance that not one disease, but all manners of disease were healed by it; that these cures were performed not always, but only at the seasons appointed by God, and that not all who stepped in, but _one_ only was healed after the troubling of the water. What became of this fountain we are not told; very likely its miraculous properties did not continue for many years. In the porches around this pool was an impotent man; he had labored under a bodily infirmity for thirty and eight years. How long he had waited at the pool we know not, but certainly for a considerable period. But it was hoping against hope. The man was so utterly helpless that even if he saw the water disturbed, whilst he was slowly dragging himself along, another stepped in before him. When Jesus, therefore, passed by and saw him in this helpless condition, and knowing his past history, He asked him, "Wilt thou be made whole?" The man does not even give direct answer, but narrates the story of his long and futile expectation, whereupon Jesus gives this command: "Rise, take up thy bed and walk," when instantly, easily, as if the withered limbs had been thrilled with electric sparks, the man arises, takes up his bed, and walks away. Such is the history of the miracle; and now let us regard some of the instructions it imparts.

Our interest is naturally divided between the man who had lain sick such a number of years, the pool, and the cure. And, surely, a long and wearisome time he had had of it,--thirty and eight years. The woman with the issue of blood who touched the hem of our Savior's garment, had borne her affliction twelve years, but that was scarcely one-third as long, and she was still able to be up and about. As then, so now. The number of those who lie on pallets and are bent low with sickness is larger than superficiality credits; in fact, those who have never been racked with pain, distressed with fever, are few and far between. How many ever give thought as to this providential dealing--have stopped to ask whence it comes, or what profit and lessons may be in it? It has been remarked by a famous writer that there are two chapters of human history that shall never be read upon the earth; the one chapter is the chapter of the dying. The feelings and emotions, the inexpressible thoughts and sensations that pass through the soul when the things of this world fade upon the senses, and the doors of eternity are about to swing open, is an experience which no human tongue or pen can describe, is something which none but ourselves can discover. And another chapter is the chapter of the sick and the ailing, as it is written in quietness within the narrow space of a couch and four walls, alternating perhaps with the operating table and passing through the dark valley of the Shadow of Death. And yet, something of this chapter may still be read, and most remarkable, significant, and ofttimes blessed things are experienced in the sickroom. Who dare say that the world in its present condition would be what it still is without this check, this intruder upon the affairs of life? Most men are inclined to regard sickness as a calamity, as a positive misfortune, a smiting scourge. It is not that. It has blessings both to the one afflicted and to those around him. Sickness may contribute to the development of the noblest qualities of the mind and heart. In the rush and tug of life men are too much inclined to concern themselves with the affairs of this life, to lose sight of the greater value of the unseen and eternal. Put such a one from the excitement of business and the frivolity of this world's fashions and pleasures prostrate upon his back with the hot fingers of disease clutching for his vitals or the sharp pains striking upon the heartstrings, and he must be thoughtless, even base, whose appreciation of the merely earthly things does not fall, and who does not learn that with all his boasted strength and all that he has and hopes for, he is only a pilgrim and stranger on this earth, and that there is something more worthy than what is seen and temporal. Oh! the quiet reflections of a sickbed. Many a man is indebted to them for a revelation which has been the wisdom and power of God unto his salvation when the message of Church and its servant had but very little effect. The parched lips of disease are often more eloquent and effective than man's lips. And he that fails of this salutary end of affliction, does not come forth a better person, more devoted and consecrated to his God, has missed the purpose for which it was sent, and gone out of the way of the Almighty. Of this man in the text we may have the assurance that the experience of thirty-eight years remained indelibly upon his mind and enrolled him among the faithful disciples of Christ. May it serve likewise in your case, my dear hearer, at the sickbed of many of whom I have had occasion and may yet be called to minister. And not only for the person afflicted, but for those attending and affected by the affliction, sickness is a blessing, a positive messenger of good and mercy. It is when disease has broken in upon their habitation that many a man has first learned to appreciate the kindly ministry of his life's partner; has keenly felt what this world would be like should death part them asunder, and the hearts sometimes estranged have again become reconciled and determined to bear and forbear. It is when the little cheek is hard pressed against the feverish and aching pillow that we feel how intensely we love that boy and girl and would sacrifice everything else dear to us to keep them. Yes, there is nothing in human experience to bring into larger and better exercise our common love and sympathy and to show that there is still some nobility, kindness, and pity in our shattered humanity than in the care and memories that cluster around the sickbed. Would to God that these experiences touching the hearts that perhaps for long time were dead would be of longer duration, for commonly they are so quickly forgotten and so easily erased from the mind.