2 Timothy 2

2 Timothy 2:1-5

THE WARRIOR 2 Timothy 2:1-5. Sermon by W. B. Riley, D. D., First Baptist Church, Minneapolis, May 24, 1914. Soldier Memorial Day! THIS Sabbath in America is touched by the martial spirit! The men who have been upon battle-fields will fill many church-houses today. Their orderly tread in attending, the martial music with which they come, not to make mention of uniforms, flags and the rest, reminds us of the great conflicts of the past, the battles in which living brethren engaged.Some years ago the uncle of the Czar of Russia, Grand Duke Michael, said, “War is devilish, I want to see no more of it.” He was over seventy-two years of age, and had seen a vast deal of field service, and he spoke from bitter memories. And yet, after all that is said concerning the hideousness of war—and no language is now adequate to its description—we will see more of it! The right is triumphed by battles, and the truth has emerged again and again from the baptism of blood.There is a sense in which conflict is essential to all that is true and good. The Christian religion has taken note of this. While Christ is named “The Prince of Peace”, He is also called, “The Man of War!” The original company of His Apostles was as truly a Salvation Army as General Booth ever conceived; and Paul, the latest chosen Apostle, introduces into many of his Epistles an appeal to the martial spirit.This remark finds its illustration in our text, the advice of the senior minister to Timothy, his junior, and the proper interpretation of that text might be expressed by three thoughts—The Call to Conflict, The Conditions of Conquest, and The Crown of the Conqueror. THE CALL TO “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also”. Christ’s service demands strong men. If, in the original instance, Christ selected for the Apostles of His faith men of might, men of power, it is a parody on the Christian profession to speak of it now as “something fit only for the entertainment, or possible enjoyment, of women and children.”To call the very names—Peter, James and John—is to suggest stalwarts; and to make mention of Paul is to present to the mind’s eye a warrior, clad and equipped for battle: a man who had the “helmet of salvation”, and the “Sword of the Spirit” and the “breastplate of righteousness”; whose feet were “shod with the preparation of the Gospel”, and who was ready to withstand “principalities” and “powers”, John, in his First Epistle, says: “I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong”.The Bishop of Exeter had the right conception of the Christian religion when he wrote the poem entitled, “Give us Men!”“Strong and stalwart ones; Men whom highest hope inspires, Men whom purest honor fires, Men who trample self beneath them, Men who make their country wreathe them As her noble sons, Worthy of their sires, Men who never shame their mothers, Men who never fail their brothers, True, however false are others. Give us men—I say again, Give us men!” The century will never be born in which the call of Christ will not be to strong, stalwart men!This Christian conflict must have its captains! In writing to Timothy Paul urges him to be “strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus”, and to “commit” the things he has heard of him “to faithful men”.In other words, Paul looked upon Timothy as a leader among his fellows—a man whose creed and conduct would profoundly affect that of throngs; a man with a following. Christianity must have its captains. “The Army of the Lord” is not an idle phrase! Far back in the Old Testament, and in the day of Moses, we see the organization for battle. Every man of the Children of Israel is enjoined to appear by his own standard, and to each of the tribes is appointed a captain. Nahson was to be the captain of the Children of Judah, and there were 74,600 in that company.

Nathaneel was to be the captain of Issachar, and there were 54,400 in that. And Eliab was the captain of the tribe of Zebulon, and there were 54,700 in that.

These made up the vanguard of Israel’s army—186,400. No mean company!Then to the South, the captain of the Children of the company of Reuben, was Elizur, over 46,500; and of the tribe of Simeon which was commanded by Shelumiel, 59,300; and of the tribe of Gad, Eliasaph, 45,600. 151,450 made up this company. And we are told, significantly, that they set forth in two ranks.On the west side 108,100 under captains, and on the north side, 157,600 men—they were the rearguard. The phrase was: and “they shall go hindermost with their standards”.The Lord’s army in that day was not to be despised. Many nations crumpled before it; and the Lord’s army in this hour needs its captains as much as our country needed them in 1861—65, or again in our Spanish and Philippine trouble.Increasingly does the fact appear that any great cause conquers largely through its leaders. John Watson, in his “Mind of the Master”, writes after this manner: “Do you wish a cause to endure hardness, to rejoice in sacrifice, to accomplish mighty works, to retain for ever the dew of its youth?

Give it the best chance, the sanction of love. Do not state it in books; do not defend it with argument.

These are aids of the second order; if they succeed, it is a barren victory—the reason only has been won; if they fail, it is a hopeless defeat— the reason has now been exasperated. Identify your cause with a person. Even a bad cause will succeed for a space, associated with an attractive man. The later Stewarts were hard kings both to England and Scotland, and yet women sent their husbands and sons to die for ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie,’ and the ashes of that romantic devotion are not yet cold. When a good cause finds a befitting leader, it will be victorious before set of sun. David had about him such a grace of beauty and chivalry that his officers risked their lives to bring him a cup of water, and his people carried him to the throne of Israel on the love of their hearts.” Jesus Christ Himself, in the Old Testament, is described by the pen of the Prophet as “Captain and Leader;”But His cause demands many capable men.

This is why Paul wrote to Timothy concerning the things which he had spoken, that they should be committed by Timothy to faithful men. Herein is involved a principle upon which Christ worked, He only “began both to do and teach”.Under His hand labors were distributed and colaborers appointed.

He expected Peter and James and John and the rest to undertake with Him; yea, and to continue after Him.The great general may have much of the laudation of war. The truth is that victories have come because of the combined wisdom and bravery of inferior officers, non-commissioned men and privates. It is not always the man who is the most in the public eye, upon whom the cause of righteousness rests. The humblest station, and the inconspicuous name—these do not destroy opportunity any more than they spell cowardice. The Carnegies and Rockefellers are well known to the whole world of benevolences; they are millionaires with a name; but Slimmers, the wealthy Hebrew of Waverly, Iowa, and Yauders, the Indianapolis bachelor, were men of means whose names are seldom heard, and yet, their works of righteousness have not been exceeded in a generation. Their princely offerings to benevolent institutions have proven them not only men of might, but men of heart, chosen spirits of the select circle of God. Their hands have been mighty to help, and struggling institutions and hundreds of young men and women have felt the uplift.Ella Wheeler Wilcox is justly regarded worthy the name poetess, and under the title of “Which Are You?” she writes:“There are two kinds of people on earth today, Just two kinds of people, no more, I say. “Not the sinner and saint, for His well understood The good are half had and the bad are half good. “Not the rich and the poor, for to count a man’s wealth You must first know the state of his conscience and health. “Not the humble and proud, for in life’s little span, Who puts on vain airs is not counted a man. “Not the happy and sad, for the swift flying years Bring each man his laughter and each man his tears. “No, the two kinds of people on earth that I mean Are the people who lift and the people who lean. “Wherever you go you will find the world’s masses Are always divided in just these two classes. “And oddly enough, you’ll find too, I ween There is only one lifter to twenty who lean. “In which class are you? Are you easing the load Of overtaxed lifters who toil down the road? “Or are you a leaner, who lets others bear Your portion of labor and worry and care?” But we call your attention further toTHE OF Paul tells Timothy what they are.The ability to endure hardness, he makes a first essential.“Endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ”. And the encouragement to so endure is—“If we suffer, we shall also reign”. The relationship of enduring and reigning is logical and direct. Christian could come to a throne; not so with Pliable. The man who cannot struggle through any Slough of Despond, face calmly any mortal foe, fight with any Apollyon when he opposes the way, and do it all without complaint, is not in the line of conquest.We admire men who are difficult to discourage; we are attracted to those who can take hard knocks without howling; and we applaud those who press on in spite of every opponent that may appear in the way. With delight we do honor to the battle-scarred, especially if they have retained their courage, and the spirit of conquest. The longer I live the more am I impressed with the blight of that life which easily loses heart; and with the beauty of that character which faces any hardship with might and courage and even hope.

I was reading a bit ago about Thane Miller who, in speaking of the day when the celebrated occulist told him he was blind and his sight could never be recovered, said, “What do you think I did? Do you suppose I cursed God? No, I did not, for when the Doctor told me my eyes were gone, I felt the loving touch of the arms of Jesus Christ and heard Him say, ‘I will never leave thee’; and so I rose up and went out to live the best life I could in spite of these untoward circumstances.”One reason why the early Church, within the first hundred years after Christ, won its way to the then known limits of the earth, is found in the fact that its Apostles knew how to endure hardness as good soldiers. When you have time, sit down and read the eleventh chapter to the Hebrews and you will have learned a lesson that will help to make you a warrior among men.Father Ryan, speaking of the things that cloud our paths and discourage our spirits, says: “And our dim eyes ask a beacon, and our weary feet a guide, And our hearts of all life’s mysteries seek the meaning and the key; And a Cross gleams o’er our pathway, on it hangs the Crucified, And He answers all our yearnings, by the whisper, ‘Follow Me.’ “Life is a burden; bear it; Life is a duty; dare it; Life is a thorn-crown; wear it; “Though it break your heart in twain; Though the burden crush you down; Close your lips, and hide your pain, First the cross, and then the crown.” The readiness to sacrifice non-essentials is Paul’s further suggestion. No one going as a soldier entangleth himself with the affairs of this life. I remember to have heard my friend Dr. Gambrel, of Texas, in speaking on this text, tell the story of one young man’s equipment when he went to war. He was in the confederate army, and he appeared with a splendid outfit. He had clothes to spare, and trappings galore. Among many other things he had taken along his violin. He said, “One by one he began to drop these things off.

He found he was too heavily loaded for service; and he also discovered that the retention of these things was not essential to success in the conflict, but that they impeded rather. He threw away his violin— or sold it. He got rid of his dress suit. Finally he disposed of everything portable except his knapsack and rifle. He could not be a good soldier until he was disentangled.”And there is many a man who is too much overloaded to lead the life of a warrior. He has simply lumbered himself and weighed himself down until he can “neither fly nor go.” Sometimes he has weighed himself down with means of entertainment—represented by the violin; sometimes he is weighed down with excessive style, represented by the1 sumptuous clothes; sometimes he is weighed down by accumulated wealth, represented by the provisions my friend had tried to make against the future.It is a great thing to be so stripped that one is ready for the real conflict of life.

It is a great thing to “lay aside every weight”, as well as “the sin which doth so easily beset us” and “run”.The name of Lincoln stirs not alone the hearts of you men who saw the service of ‘61—’65, but it stirs the heart of every man who has made himself familiar with history, and who knows greatness when he sees it. General Palmer, who was a friend of Lincoln’s, went down to the Capital city to visit him during the stormy days of the Civil War, as it drew near to its close.

It was in ‘65. He went into the ante-room, and waited while the senators came and went, until finally he was called in. When he entered he found Lincoln shaving, and he said: “Palmer, you are home folks; so I can shave before you.”General Palmer said: “Had I supposed, at the Chicago convention that nominated you, that we would have this terrible war I would never have thought of going down to a one-horse town and getting a one-horse lawyer for President.”Palmer did not know how he would take it, but expected some answer at which he could laugh; but, on the contrary, he brushed aside the barber, and with a perfectly sober face, he said: “Neither would I Palmer! But I tell you what I think now. I do not think any great man with a policy could have saved the country. It is because I have attended to the duties of each day with the hope that when to-morrow came I would be equal to the duties of that day that I am guiding the ship of state through this storm.”In all history I do not know of any man who swept all non-essentials aside in favor of the great issues of life as did Abraham Lincoln, and that is one of the things the Apostle Paul is writing to his Junior.But there is another suggestion equally important, namely, The spirit of loyalty to the chosen leader.

Mark the language of Paul, who is himself a general of immortal fame. He says that the reason for the soldier not entangling himself with the affairs of this life is that “he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier”.

Ah, truly, that is not only a law of warfare, but that is one of the lessons of the Christian life. I know by whom I have been enlisted! He is the Captain of my salvation and to Him I own allegiance, loyalty and obedience.Dr. Basil Manly was my professor in the school days. He was also a good soldier in the Southern cause in the Civil War. He tells how one day a little company of Confederates attempted to hold a knoll against the raking fire of the Northern army. They were shot to pieces; their General died on the battle-field, and their Captain, the son of the great Dr. Poindexter, fell also in that same conflict.

When the battle was almost over, the superior officer rode up and said, “Where is your General?”“There he lies,” they said, pointing to his prostrate form.“Where is your Captain?”“Yonder he lies,” they replied, moving a finger in the direction of the dead Poindexter.“What are you doing here?”“Holding this ground,” they answered. “He told us that this was a place of importance and to hold it or die, and we are just doing what he said.”I know that the soldier hearts of the men who sit before me today respond in admiration to that sort of courage, to that display of loyalty to leader, even when both were exercised by a foe. I know also that that illustration has its application in the higher army, and that Christ is both Captain and Leader to the hosts of God. Loyalty to Him and obedience to His every command is the thing that will characterize the individual or the host who is worthy to conquer in His Name.Yet, Paul is a good preacher; he never concludes his sermons without giving one an uplifting thought and an encouraging outlook, and even in this brief text, taken from his Epistle to Timothy, he expresses the same by speaking ofTHE ’S CROWN “And if a man strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully”.What does he mean? Well one thing he means is this:The soldier’s reward is a crown. And yet, I would not have you misunderstand the use of Bible words. The Christian’ conception of a crown is not something made of gold and set with diamonds and other precious stones, and fastened down upon the head of him who is to wear it, with weight and possibly with pain.The “crown of life”, spoken of in the Book of Revelation, is a better interpretation of this term. That is the thing that Paul must have had in mind, and that truly is a conqueror’s crown. I have been in the Tower of London!

I have looked on the crowns assembled there. I have seen the great diamonds, worth their millions and millions, and I can imagine no mortal use for such display.

True, they add a bit to England’s conceit of history, but she doesn’t need it. True, they provide interest for the American globe-trotter, but he is already surfeited with seeing of sights. If I had my way with the crown jewels of England I should convert them into flesh and blood and brain. In other words, I would sell them and set them about the Master’s business, giving boys and girls greater opportunities, and making men and women to be morally better. For, after all, life is the great thing, and eternal life the acceptable reward; and this is the prospect for the Christian soldier.This crown of life is by the grace of His King. In the Old Country when a man is knighted at the King’s hands, it is a remarkable ceremony; and it attracts the attention of the civilized world, and sends forth the man who is the subject of such favor with an international name.

Do you remember that years ago that marvelous young man Stanley set out for Africa in search of Livingstone? Far in the heart of the dark continent he found him—sick, weary, alone.

His wife was dead; his children were in far-away England; the weight of years was pressing upon him; prostrating illness was his frequent experience. The men to ‘whom he had looked had deserted him, and the means for which he had prayed had not come. In view of all this Stanley besought and begged that he come home to England, and said: “You will be knighted upon your arrival by the Queen. You will be welcomed by thousands of admiring hosts; your name will make the big head lines of every newspaper of the world, and you will be the most talked of man among the living!” To which the old warrior answered: “No! No! It must not be!

It cannot; I will not. I am here to finish my task and that I must do!”Who questions that his crown is richer and more glorious to-day; that his honor is more honorable; that his name is more imperishable, in consequence of the fact that he turned from the proffer of his noble Queen to the commission of the King of kings, and trusted not men but God to take care of his name, to look after his fame, and beyond all, to keep his influence alive?This all leads to the last remark: The crown of life is conditioned by conduct.

Paul tells Timothy, that “if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully”. Yes, I lift the remark to a higher level—“the rules” of high and holy living, he must observe them! In other words, he must do the right because it is right, and do good because good is of God.Dr. J. B. Gambrel of the Southland is very much of a philosopher. In a volume published some years ago, and entitled, “Ten Years in Texas,” he tells his readers, “People who do exactly right, are the ones who always lead and come out ahead. God is not with the man who aims to be half right, three quarters right, or ninety per cent, right.

God is with the man who aims to be entirely right! Daniel was a do-right man; Moses was a do-exactly right man. The three Hebrew Children were of the same type. Neither waters, nor lions, nor fire were able to harm them.” Some writer has said: “The strength of man is in proportion to his conquest. The man who receives a flagrant insult and answers quietly; the man who conquers a mighty temptation—these are the strong men of the world.” And they are not strong for their own sakes alone; the influence of such men and such women will be felt and the cause they champion will be won.A friend said, “I sat one day in the station waiting for the train and one near me remarked, referring to one who had just come from the train, ‘He has been a soldier, I know by his walk!’” The words referred to his erect, firm tread. The remark is significant!

It has an application to the army of the Lord as perfectly as to the army of the Potomac or to the Philippines. Christianity is a walk, and the crown of life is its reward.

2 Timothy 2:15

THE METHOD OF BIBLE STUDY 2 Timothy 2:15. WE are going to interpret this text in the light of two other texts, namely, “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all” (1 Timothy 4:15) and,“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly?” (Matthew 6:6). The object of this address is not to excite to Bible study only, but to present the related subjects that look to the highest development of a spiritual life. Beyond all question, a phrase adopted some years ago by the Christian Endeavorers, “The Quiet Hour,” supposed to be used in Bible study, spiritual meditation and secret prayer, anticipated the enrichment of spiritual life. That fact kept in mind, it may be said that “The Quiet Hour” is the greatest need of American Christianity. Our strenuous living opposes spirituality and slows the progress of the Christian Church. We have laid our emphasis upon the wrong word. It rests now upon “Endeavor”; it should be shifted to “Christian.” An ounce of effort, with God back of it, is worth more than a ton apart from Him, for the truth of Scripture, “Without Me ye can do nothing”, finds its perfect illustration in experience.But what do we mean by “The Quiet Hour?” At least three things: Scripture Study, Spiritual Meditation, and Secret Prayer. STUDY A knowledge of the Bible is basal! It is fundamental to the individual life and development. It is the “sine qua non” of the Church’s progress; and it is the chief cornerstone in Christian civilization. I wonder if any one of us has ever fully imagined what it would mean to be without the Bible? Arthur T. Pierson reminds us of Henry Rogers’ unique way of impressing this thought.

He records a dream entitled, “The Blank Bible.” He thought that, taking up his Greek Testament one morning to read a chapter, he found the old familiar book a total blank, without a character in it or upon it. Thinking that someone had played a practical joke upon him, he took down successively a large quarto Bible containing both Testaments, then a Hebrew Bible, but these also were of perfect blanks. While musing on this mystery his servant came to tell him of a queer robbery—that some thief had stolen her Bible and left in its place a book exactly like it, but full of blank paper. Going into the street he met a friend, who excitedly told him that during the night every copy of the Bible had been taken from his house, and volumes of the same size, but containing only pure white paper, left in their stead. On pursuing further investigation it was discovered that it was so universally; and even the Bible Society and large depositories of books could produce not one copy in which the same miracle had not taken place. In fine, as though in judgment on the race for the abuse of God’s Book, He had actually withdrawn it from among men, and not a sentence from the Word of God remained in all human literature. Moreover, Mr. Rogers thought in his dream that as soon as men lost the Bible, they began to attach a value to it never appreciated while it was possessed. Any price would now have been paid for a single complete copy. Some to whom it had always been a “blank” book were loud in their laments over its disappearance. One old sinner declared it “confounded hard to be deprived of religion in his old age”; and another, who seemed, from his practice, to have indorsed Mandeville’s opinion that “private vices are public benefits”, was greatly alarmed for the morals of mankind, now that the great guide to duty was lost.” The dream is an instructive parable, and may well lead us to consider what human life and society owe to the Word of God.Permit a few words then upon the Way of Bible Study, the Will for Bible Study, and the Wonder of Bible Study.The Way of Bible Study. I have often commended Dr.

James Gray’s suggestions on the way of Bible study. He gives five little rules for Bible study:Read the Book. Read it consecutively—at a single sitting, if possible. Read it repeatedly—over and over again. Read it independently. Read it prayerfully. A. C. Dixon says that a man went into an old German library and put up his hand and took an ancient looking volume off of the shelf, and as he lifted it down he noticed that the light was shining through it, and holding it up to the window, he said, “Look what the bookworm has done; he has gone clean through this book!” The volume was a Bible and Dixon remarks, “I want to be a bookworm like that. I want to enter in at Genesis and come out at Revelation.” Such a bookworm will not perish, but with wings will sweep the sky.The Will for Bible Study. Undoubtedly the way of Bible study effects the will. The reason many people do not like the Bible is that they have not fed upon it often enough to have acquired a taste for it.

The first olive I tasted I spewed out, but after a few minutes I found there was an agreeable taste left and again I tried out two or three; and now my purse is the only thing that checks my appetite. There is a principle employed here.

The world around, people come to like the things upon which they feed; and the only reason that some people have so little appetite for the Word of God, and so much for all the wickedness of the world, is that they feed upon the latter and utterly neglect the former.O. P. Gifford tells of a superior officer who was going over the fields one day and saw a lone soldier in a persimmon tree, filling himself up on the green fruit. “What are you doing there? Is that your diet?” he inquired. To which the man replied, “No, I am shrinking my stomach to fit my diet!” Even a soldier of the Cross, if he feed long enough upon the green persimmons of worldliness, will so reduce his spiritual capacity that a study of the Word of God will only fling him into pain, and he will put it away imagining that it is dry and difficult, when the trouble is not with it, but with him; for at the very time that one is eschewing it entirely, another is saying with the Psalmist: Thy Word is “sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb”; or with the little negro boy in the South, who had been converted and learned to read the Bible, “It’s sweeter than ‘lasses!”The Wonder of Bible Study. This grows upon one who becomes a good student of God’s Word.

More and more he stands amazed at its heights and depths and more and more he says, “I cannot explore the one, nor sound the other.”A few years ago thousands of acres in Northern Minnesota were regarded as useless. The timber had been taken off of it; the rock soil could not be ploughed, and the owners attempted to shift it to the names of straw men and escape any taxation.

The government forced them to acknowledge their ownership, and shortly they discovered that underneath its surface there was a wealth of iron ore worth millions. Many a man has a richer mine in his house and never digs into it, but in poverty of spirit passes his life, when his wealth might exceed that of Croesus a thousandfold if he only went beneath the surface of the Word and brought it forth. The elder Spurgeon—Charles’ grandfather—was visited one day by a neighbor. Spurgeon was reading his Bible and after he had admitted his guest, he dropped into his big chair and picked up his Bible again, and seemed to have forgotten that his neighbour had come. And the neighbor sat and looked upon the old face, and saw the lips frequently move, and pronounce the word, “Wonderful!” No wonder the poet wrote:“Oh, wonderful, wonderful Word of the Lord! True wisdom its pages unfold. And though we may read them a thousand times o’er, They never, no never grow old! “Each line is a treasure; each promise a pearl, That all, if they will, may secure. And though time and earth pass away God’s Word shall forever endure.”

Scripture study demands it; the Quiet Hour expresses it; the soul needs it. In factThe soul is born of spiritual meditation. No man is converted to God or regenerated by His Spirit until meditation characterizes his conduct. He must stop, he must think, ere he can be quickened into life. David said: “I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto Thy Testimonies. I made haste, and delayed not to keep Thy Commandments”.There are those who object to evangelistic, or protracted meetings. Their objections are poorly based! The one thing in favor of a protracted meeting is that it compels the men who attend it to think—to turn their eyes in, to study themselves.

We have jested a good deal about “Ten Nights in a Barroom.” We know how it can bloat the body, blight the mind, and blemish the soul. But I promise you that ten consecutive evenings before the judgment bar of God, as depicted by an earnest and intelligent preacher, will lift the clouds from the mind, reveal the iniquities of the soul, the destruction of sin, and compel the cry of penitence: “What shall we do to be saved?” I saw an atheist in central Illinois attempt to sit through five consecutive nights in such a meeting, but by the fifth, he had changed front and given a good confession in the Name of the Lord Jesus.The soul is nurtured by meditation. Phillips Brooks has a remarkable sermon on the text: “Jesus said, Make the men sit down”. His interpretation of that text is as unique as was Brooks preaching. He described the multitude that had followed the Lord across the water, and were filling the empty fields with clamor and confusion. A multitude in which curiosity was rife; a multitude with condemnation and criticism made up a constant cross fire; a multitude of whom every man was on his feet, gesticulating furiously, uttering hard words, and firing angry glances when there came the command from Jesus, “Make the men sit down”.

And Brooks says: “This meant a change from the active and restless to the receptive and quiet state, from the condition in which all life was flowing outward in eager self-assertion, to the other condition in which the life was being influenced; that is, being flowed upon by the richer power which came forth from Christ.” Truly there is too much outgo with most of us, and too little inflow.One day in Liverpool I went down to the Mersey. She was shallow; her stream was on its way to the sea, and the great vessels in the dock were stranded, many of them resting upon dry ground, and could not go, and I said, “How is this?” and they answered, “The tide is out now, but it will turn after a bit, and instead of this river continuing to the sea, the sea will have made its contribution to the river and fill it in and overflow it, and lift the last one of these vessels to places of power and possible motion.” That is what meditation ought to mean.

By it men come into receptive attitude; by it men open their souls, and so the God of all fulness flows in and fills him with Himself. The man who can say, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight”, is very likely to call Him, “My strength, and my Redeemer”.By meditation the soul is inspired! No man can ever go forth to a large undertaking and find himself equal to it who has not first meditated upon it. The Christian world stands amazed today at the progress of Buddhism. Its aggressive missionary spirit is the effective challenge of conquest at every point. It not only has more followers today than Jesus of Nazareth, but it is taking other lands with a rapidity which astounds the world, putting its missionaries even into America and England, though they must be renamed in order to deceive if possible even the elect.

And yet, Buddhists are not the strenuous folk that Christians are. What is the secret, then, of their power?

Possibly in meditation. Brooks says: “You let your boat drop quietly down the Ganges today, and along its banks the silent figures sit like carved brown statues, hour after hour, day after day, with eyes open and fixed on vacancy, clearing themselves of all thought, emotion, and desire, that being emptied of self, they may see God. The most popular religion of the world today is that which flows out from the sacred seat, under the sacred tree at Gaya, where Buddha sat for six years silent, receptive, until the great illumination came.”This is what Jesus desired of His Church: “Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high”. The men who waited in the upper room were the ones whose minds were illuminated, whose hearts were fired, and whose missions were successful. “Wait, I say, on the Lord”.SECRET PRAYER In it one sees himself! Jesus believed in the quiet hour. In the great Sermon on the Mount there is more than the beatitudes; there is much of instruction concerning the development of the spiritual life, and infinitely more important, there is the injunction, “Pray”. “Enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy father which is in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly”.The picture of yourself cannot be developed in the light; the dark-room is essential to the bringing out of its every feature; yea, even to the realization of the last line of the face. No man ever sees himself as he ought to see himself; no man ever has a perfect picture of himself before his eyes until he can go into the dark-room to get it—into the room, the door of which is shut to the great wide world; into the room every window of which is closed down; into the room, where every curtain is drawn. Jesus knew it, and hence advised, Enter that room.It is in the place of secret prayer that the soul is uncovered and man sees his spiritual infirmities, and realizes the white plague that may have attacked the immortal part; or looks upon the cancer that may be eating out the spiritual life, and decides that he will perish apart from the great Physician.In secret prayer you see the face of God. Only those who know the quiet hour can become acquainted with the Father.

Edward Everett Hale preaches a theology so liberal that I seldom quote from him, yet Edward Everett Hale spoke a great truth when he said: “Form the habit of giving up a fixed hour every day to see what God has to say to you. I have known a man who told me he had such a place of rendezvous in the attic of his store.

He went upstairs every morning. He dropped his business; he came to his oratory. He let the downstairs cares drop off. He forgot the price of sugar and flour and candles and the rest. He left the morning mail unanswered so that he could ask God what He wanted him to do and be that day. He asked and waited five minutes before he went downstairs, to see what answer came. Sometimes he had an answer. Sometimes he thought he did not.” But Edward Everett Hale said: “I think he went down with God’s reply to his question whether he knew it or not for in those five minutes he was better able to carry out the larger laws of life than he ever would have been had he not been face to face with God.This brings me to the last suggestion.

Secret prayer is the source of strength. Perhaps the most remarkable preacher in America today is J. H. Jowett. Jowett says: “Gentlemen, we are not always doing the most business when we seem to be most busy. We may think we are truly busy when we are really only restless, and a little studied retirement would greatly enrich our returns. We are great only as we are God-possessed; and scrupulous appointments in the upper room with the Master will prepare us for the toil and hardships of the most strenuous campaign.”There is a hymn entitled, “My Lord and I”, with which the most of you are acquainted; and there is another that must have been suggested by it, which begins after the same manner, but reaches other and quite as important conclusions:“In the secret of His presence,I am kept from strife of tongues His pavilion is around me,And within are ceaseless songs;Stormy winds, His words fulfilling,Beat without but cannot harm,For the Master’s voice is stilling Storm and tempest to a calm.“In the secret of His presence,All the darkness disappears For a sun that knows no setting,Throws a rainbow on my tears;So the day grows ever brighter,Broadening to the perfect noon,So the way grows ever brighter,Heaven is coming near and soon.“In the secret of His presence,Never more can foes alarm;In the shadow of the Highest,I can meet them with a song;For the strong pavilion hides me,Turns their fiery darts aside,And I know whatever betides me, I shall live because He died. “In the secret of His presence, In the sweet, unbroken rest, Pleasures, joys, in glorious fullness, Making earth like Eden blest; So my peace grows deep and deeper, Wid’ning as it nears the sea, For my Saviour is my Keeper, Keeping mine and keeping me. “In the secret of His presence, How my soul delights, delights to hide There I long to rest in the arms of love, There forever to abide.”

2 Timothy 2:16-18

SPIRIT IN STUDY 2 Timothy 2:15-19. THE most ardent opponent of the so-called “New Theology” is not a conservative “Modern” but a progressive “Ancient.” In Germany Bettext was looked upon by Liberals as a most ardent opponent of their opinions; in France the scholarly Gaussen was feared, and with good reason, by the professed Progressives; in Scotland James Orr stood like a granite shore-line to resist the rising tide of skepticism; in England such men as Spurgeon, Parker, Meyer and Young have made the endeavors of so-called progressive pulpits appear almost pitiful; while in America, the names of the truly noble who have not become enamored of Athenian theology, but who have answered every critic so eloquently as to exasperate him, are too numerous to mention.And yet, towering above any one of them, and all of them, as an opponent of so-called “New Theology,” is a man who was put to death two thousand years ago for the faith that was in him, but who though dead, yet speaketh, and from whose pen we take our text—even Paul. It is little wonder that the Athenian theologians have asserted that he was not inspired and have sought to discredit him, since his writing anticipated them with an eloquence that is commanding, and a logic that is relentless. If one deny the inspiration of the Apostle he is yet compelled to attend upon what he says. So colossal a figure cannot be counted out when subjects to which he addressed himself are under discussion; and, certainly he wrote concerning the scientific spirit in Scripture study.What are the suggestions of this text? Four at least, with their subdivisions: The Scientific Spirit, The Inspired Scriptures, The Skeptical Professor, and The Philosophy of the Steadfast.THE SPIRIT Paul was no poor student! Never once did he set his approval upon ignorance, lack of study or research. The language of this text is a revelation of the Apostle’s character and customs. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth”. That is the scientific spirit.The scientific spirit manifests itself in diligent research. Modernists say, “The time has come when the scientific spirit must be adopted in Bible study.” Who objects? Who ever did object, and when? The point of controversy between Progressives and Conservatives is not a question as between the scientific and the unscientific spirit. Every intelligent Conservative believes in the research that is scientific.

And, well equipped Conservatives are quite as capable of determining what is scientific as are Liberals. It is a singular circumstance when a man like R. J. Campbell, better known because he was the successor to the conservative Joseph Parker than for all other reasons combined, prated about the “conclusions of science” and talked as if he were an expert in the whole realm, when the truth was, that he needed only time to cure his conceit. So long as he was a Liberal, there was a wide-spread opinion that he was learned. Alas for the conceit that “skepticism” and “smartness” are synonymous!

It was of that very thing the Apostle wrote when he said concerning some, who “when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and * * changed the Truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator” (Romans 1:21-22; Romans 1:25).The great scientists of the past have, with wonderful unanimity, believed the Bible, and neither Faraday, Kepler, nor Newton ever felt that they had to surrender “the scientific spirit” in order to accept Scripture conclusions, while Lord Kelvin, who, from the early age of twenty-two, at which time he became Professor of Natural Philosophy in Glasgow University, down to the ripened period of eighty-three—or sixty-one years—brought his scientific mind to bear upon the inspired Book and never found occasion to cast any part of it away, or call into question its utter authority.

Not many in America but know something of the scientific accomplishments and professional skill of Dr. Howard A. Kelly of Baltimore. He once contributed an article to Appleton’s Magazine entitled, “Out of Uncertainty and Doubt into Faith,” the purpose of which was to show that when he brought his well-trained mind and an open heart to the study of the Bible, he was not only convinced that it was inspired, but compelled to accept every one of its great doctrines, approve its plan of salvation, and to yield his intellect and will to the authority of its commands. He says, “I found that the Bible claimed to be the authoritative Word of God, and by taking it as my text-book of religion, testing it by submitting to its conditions, I came to believe the Book the inspired Word of God; inspired in a sense utterly different from that of any merely human book. I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, without human father, conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary; that all men, without exception, are by nature sinners, alienated from God, and when thus utterly lost in sin, the Son of God Himself came down to earth, and by shedding His Blood upon the Cross, paid the infinite penalty of the guilt of the whole world.

I believe he who thus receives Jesus Christ as his Saviour, is born again spiritually as definitely as in his first birth, and, so born spiritually, has new privileges, appetites and affections; that he is one body with Christ the Head and will live with Him forever. I believe no man can be saved by what is known as a ‘moral life’ such works being but the necessary fruits and evidence of the faith within.”And Kelly concludes, “If faith so reveals God to me, I go without question wherever He may lead me.

I can put His assertions and commands above every seeming probability in life, dismissing cherished convictions and looking upon the wisdom and ratiocinations of men as folly if opposed to Him. I place no limits to faith when once vested in God, the sum of all wisdom and knowledge, and can trust Him though I should have to stand alone before the world declaring Him to be true.”Who are these that are boasting their scientific ability, and insinuating that the Scriptures are to go down before it? Had they lighted their little candles from Kelvin’s torch they might live their lives in greater light, and certainly would have less to say concerning “the conflict of science and the Scriptures.” Had they given one-half as much time to the earnest study of science as has Howard A. Kelley, and like him, turned from the study of God’s revelation in the physical world to a careful and prayerful perusal of the Sacred Scriptures, they might have come to the same conclusions. Let us have a scientific spirit; but let it be the spirit of science and not the spirit of shallowness.The scientific spirit will concern itself with the Divine approval. As some one has put it, “So far as a man is at all scientific he is thinking God’s thoughts after Him.” And the true Christian will be vastly concerned to so think as to meet the Divine approval.

We are told that Da Vinci’s first great endeavor to produce a work of art resulted solely from the desire to please his studio master, and that when the great teacher came and looked upon it, it was so surpassingly beautiful that he looked upon the lad and said, “I shall never paint again.” The truth is that our God has deliberately decided to paint no more pictures of revelation, and to write no more His revealed will; but He lays it upon us to incarnate His conceptions and translate His revelations, that the world shall see His work in us. A true student, therefore, can but desire to secure the Divine approval upon his research.The scientific spirit will be careful in the use of the Divine Word.

The discoveries of today always demand the preservation and propagation of yesterday’s knowledge. The man who proposes, therefore, to begin the study of the Bible by despising the conclusions of his fathers, may be regarded as an iconoclast, but can hardly be considered a scientist. This is not the morning of scientific research! The day of scientific discovery is well advanced! We are not emerging out of darkness that makes every vision new, and every treatise original. We have to give consideration to what our fathers thought, and attend upon what our teachers have said.

The Bible has been too long in use for people to talk as if none of its tenets were true. The youth of this country, listening to the talk of present-day Critics, have been brought to think that the Koran, the Eddas of the Scandinavians, the Tribitaka of the Buddhist, the Five Kings of China, the three Vedas of the Hindoos and the Zend Avesta, are all as ancient as the Scriptures, if not more so.

Well-instructed men know this is false. The Scandinavian Eddas are 1400 years younger than the latest Scripture; the Koran 700; the Buddist revelation, while it antedates Christ, could easily have borrowed its best parts from the Sacred Books of the Old Testament. Practically every one of them was written before it came into existence; while much of that Old Testament antedates the so-called revelations of China, of India, and of Persia. Its very age, therefore, demands a reverential use; while its accomplishments command and compel its sacred study.He who professes to study light, scientifically, will be compelled to take the sun into account; and the man who proposes to introduce the scientific spirit into the study of religion will be equally compelled to consider the moral luminary of the universe, the Book of books, known throughout the world as the Bible. By all means let us be scientific!THE What does the Apostle mean by his phrase, “The Word of Truth”? Jesus had already spoken to this theme, praying to His Father to sanctify His disciples “through Thy Truth”, and adding, “Thy Word is Truth”. Paul, writing to the Ephesians of the hope we have in Christ in whom “ye believed” says, Having “heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation”.Unquestionably James was speaking of that part of the Bible with which he was familiar, when he declared that God “of His own will begat ** us with the Word of Truth”. The very language employed involves the doctrine of inspiration, the necessity of illumination and the truth of Spirit-instruction.Inspiration alone can insure the Truth. The reason the writings of the most scientific men the world has known go out of date and pass away, is because their successors discover error in their conclusions. The most scientific spirit does not insure unchangeable conclusions; inspiration alone can do that.

If you are going to have a Gospel that will forever remain “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”, it must be inspired. No fault must be found in it.

The reason Harvey’s discovery of the circulatory system will remain forever a fact, is not because Harvey said it, but because when Moses wrote, “The life of the flesh is in the blood”, he voiced what was intrinsically true. The reason why the law of gravity will have to be regarded by all great scientists, is not because Newton affirmed it to be a fact—Newton sometimes made mistakes—but because God Himself bethought and spoke it, as Job long since wrote, “He * * hangeth the earth upon nothing”. The reason why our modern scientists are eschewing certain animals as unfit to eat and favoring others, is not because of physicians only (they are too often in error), but because when Moses wrote the Book of Leviticus he was so perfectly inspired as to make no mistake as to what was under the ban and what in favor from the standpoint of human health. Science reaches accuracy only after a thousand experiments, and climbs into the light only after a long journey out of enveloping darkness; but inspiration speaks once and it “standeth fast.” It turns its face to the rising sun and wears light as a garment! Of no other book written in the world can it be said, as Christ has already affirmed concerning the Bible, “Thy Word is Truth”.And yet, illumination is essential to the understanding of the Scriptures. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned”.Beecher was right when he said, “The Bible will not give up its secrets to those who approach it with their bellowing passions and perverted intentions.”Darwin was supposed to be a great scientist, but confessed that that part of his nature which might have enjoyed painting or music was atrophied. Does any man mean to suggest that the carnal man may not be so thoroughly lacking in all religious intuitions as to make the meaning of revelation to him impossible?When Abraham Lincoln, the great President, was visiting in the Soldier’s Home, Joshua F.

Speed, his intimate friend, came to the Home to spend the night with him. Rising just after sunrise he ran up to the President’s room.

He found him reading a book. Looking over his shoulder he found it was the Bible. Jocularly, Mr. Speed said, “I am glad to see you so profitably employed!”“Yes,” answered the great Lincoln; “I am profitably employed!”“Well,” said Speed, “I wonder if you have recovered from that skepticism that once characterized you. I confess frankly that I have not.”Lincoln looked into his face for a moment, and then rising, put his hand on his shoulder and tenderly said, “You are wrong, Speed! Take all of this Book upon reason that you can and the rest on faith, and you will, I am sure, live and die a better and a happier man.” But whether one receives it on reason or on faith, if he is to understand it, the Spirit must instruct him and he must bring to that holy instruction a teachable spirit.

Of the office of the Holy Ghost, Christ Himself said, “When He * * is come, He will guide you into all Truth”. He cannot guide a man who rejects Him; nor yet the man who refuses Jesus as Teacher, for of Him again it is said, “He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come”.THE Here is Paul’s description of him: “Shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; who concerning the Truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some”. What about the skeptical Professor? Three things!First, he has erred concerning the Truth. Paul says, in illustration of his charge, that he has denied “the resurrection”. That is definite and marvelously up to date. George Burman Foster denied the resurrection; R. J.

Campbell once denied the resurrection. Modernism now commonly denies the resurrection! John is as much inspired as Paul, and John says, “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ”? (1 John 2:22). Concerning the Virgin Birth it is written, “That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost”. To deny that is to face another indictment from the pen of the Apostle John, “He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son” (1 John 5:10). In talking some time since with a conservative minister concerning certain utterances by a Modernist, of which excerpts had appeared in the papers, he said, “I am glad to see that he does not deny the resurrection of Jesus.” But is not the denial of the Virgin Birth equally infidel with the denial of the resurrection?

Either of them puts a man outside the pale of evangelical fellowship.Again, the skeptical professor has overthrown the faith of his fellows. The word is, men “who concerning the Truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some”.How often that thing has occurred, who can tell?

Not a few times in recent years have we had young men confess to us that in the course of their studies they had lost their faith in Christ as God, and the Bible as the Word of God. One of these, said, “I would give the world to believe in the Bible as you seem to do.” It is a terrific arraignment Jesus Christ brings against those who destroy the faith of their fellows, “Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh”! Walter Scott writes regarding the Bible:“Within this simple volume lies The mystery of mysteries! Happiest they of human race To whom God has given grace To read, to fear, to hope, to pray, To lift the latch, to force the way. And better had they ne’er been born Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.” It is the boast of Higher Critics that they are building men up in the faith, increasing their confidence in the Word, and so on. Where? When? Who?It is said there was a lawyer in the early days of the Indian Territory, named Mullins, who practiced in the minor courts and who made a great reputation for his ornate language. He was engaged in defending a man charged with hog-stealing one day, and, when it came time to sum up, he arose and assumed a portentous attitude before the jury: “If your Honor please,” he said, “and gentlemen of the jury: I would not, for a moment, mutilate the majesty of the law nor contravene the avoirdupois of the testimony. But, and I speak advisedly, I want you homogeneous men on the jury to focalize your five senses on the proposition I am about to present to you.

In all criminal cases there are three essential elements: the locus in quo, the modus operandi and the corpus delicti. In this case I think I am safe in saying the corpus delicti and the modus operandi are all right, but, gentlemen, there is an entire absence of the locus in quo.”That is the difficulty with Higher Criticism. Where and when did they ever do less than destroy the faith of their fellows? Even Godless Goethe was wiser than the followers of his own philosophy, for he said, “If you have convictions, give them to me; if you have doubts, keep them to yourself; I have doubts enough of my own.”He has cleared the path for moral perversion.“Shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And their word mil eat as doth a canker”. One of the most definite reasons for the prevalence of present-day gilded vice is in the loss of faith on the part of the people. Our infidel teachers have brought them to doubt whether there be a personal God in the heavens, whether sin is regarded of Him, whether judgment is certain and whether hell is a reality, and the result is not only impenitence but moral pandemonium. In the old day when our fathers stood in the pulpits and in burning words declared, “It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment”, their auditors believed them and believed God. Penitence resulted; pentecosts came to pass; regeneration was produced and reform was witnessed. But where now do you find a man weeping over his sins? And when did any new theologian bring his auditors to alarm like that which smote the hearers of President Edwards, lest they had walked so long in the evil way that their feet were on the brink of hell?

When Jonah preached “Judgment” in the streets of sin-besotted Nineveh, prince and peasant alike repented and reformed! But a more unalarming proclamation has never reached the ears of men than that which is phrased in the so-called “New Theology.” When its sermons are finished sinners applaud the! opinions expressed and “increase unto more ungodliness”.THE OF THE “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His. And, Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity”. That philosophy has three features:The first is an inspired Book. “The foundation of God” is found in that all Scripture is God-breathed. The Law of Moses is a living Law. The Song of David is an inspired song. The Gospels of the four writers are a revelation of grace. The Word of the Lord is an end of controversy. The sentences of the Bible are both ancient and modem.

Like the sun, it is a long time since they found expression, but their shining is dimmed in nothing. A Hindoo convert, who had carried one Bible until it was worn out, spoke of it as “ancient,” and then corrected himself, “I beg pardon, the cover and paper are ancient, but its Truths are ever new.”The steadfast have an assured acceptance. “The Lord knoweth them that are His”. The names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. His promise is, I shall lose not a one. And of the Father He declared, “No man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand”. No wonder Isaac Watts wrote:“Firm as the earth Thy Gospel stands, My Lord, my hope, my trust; If I am found in Jesus’ hands, My soul can ne’er be lost. His honor is engaged to save The meanest of His sheep; All whom His Heavenly Father gave, His hands securely keep. Nor death nor hell shall e’er remove His favorites from His breast; Within the bosom of His love They must forever rest.” But the third feature of this steadfast philosophy is an irreproachable conduct. “Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity”. When all is said that ought to be said in defense of the Old Book against every critic, it remains a fact that the world will never be won by argument. Contend for the faith we should; but its incarnation in our lives is our best contention. Whatever men may do with the written Epistles of Paul, John, Peter, or James, when they come into contact with those living epistles of Jesus Christ— consistent Christian men and women, who live unselfishly, who devote time to intelligent Scripture research, and who keep themselves unspotted from the world, then they will be most profoundly impressed. No argument can stand against “the Word”—incarnate!

2 Timothy 2:19

IS THERE ANY SAVING POWER IN THE ? 2 Timothy 2:19. THIS sentence, lying as it does at the heart of the second chapter of II Timothy, is a sort of key sentence of the chapter itself, and is also a succinct presentation of the Christian profession. The times upon which we have fallen are evil. This is not to say that they are worse than they have ever been, nor yet to claim that they are worse than may yet be; but it is to recognize the common, almost the uniform, opinion. Leading editorials of our greater American newspapers are calling attention to this fact, and, as one remarks, “practically every editor in towns, little and big, is taking his turn at this subject—the wave of crime.”Not long since an ambassador contributed a series of articles on crime to the “Saturday Evening, Post”, and one great daily said concerning it, “The problem is the gravest one of the day—so grave that the statement of its enormity can scarcely be exaggerated.” It will be remembered that Judge Kavanaugh of Chicago, within the year 1927, has discussed this subject in something like a dozen extensive articles, and it cannot be forgotten that in practically every state in the union, from which capital punishment has been banished, there is now an active movement to reinstate the same, as a deterrent against the spread of crime that threatens the entire land. Practically every writer upon this subject has his suggested remedy, his philosophical prescription; and yet, up to the present hour there has risen no Moses to guide us out of this Egyptian danger save Jesus Christ, and no philosophy has been invented that successfully compares for one second with Christianity. That fact alone answers our question: “Is there any saving power in the Christian profession?” And that fact also provides a basis upon which we can proceed in this discourse.Following closely, then, the lines of the text, I call your attention to The Christian Profession, The Practice of Righteousness, and The Secret of Power.THE “Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ”. Christ is basal in the Christian profession. The men and women who make that profession declare their acceptance of Him as God’s Son and man’s Saviour. They announce, at the same time, their intention of loyalty to Him, and they affirm not only their belief that He is alive for evermore, but also their conviction that by His Spirit He lives in them. They hold first of all to the historic Christ; they believe what the Bible says about Him; they believe that He was the Child of Prophecy; they believe that He was born of a Virgin; they believe that event occurred in Bethlehem of Judea; they believe that His Deity manifested itself when, as a boy, His wisdom confounded the learned men of His day; they believe that His miracle-working was further proof of His Deity; they believe that on Calvary’s Cross He suffered in the stead of sinners, and that when He arose from the grave He conquered against death, not for Himself alone, but for all that put their trust in Him. They believe that He bodily ascended to the right hand of the Father, and there abides as our High Priest, and they believe that He will come again to take the world’s throne and reign on earth for a thousand years.To the skeptical all this is a mere superstition, but to the thoughtful it rests on unshaken facts. That such a character came into history, no unprejudiced student doubts; that He was crucified is no longer a debatable question, and as one man recently said, “On the night His body was sealed in the tomb, His enemies were sure He would never be heard from again.” Now, after nineteen centuries, He is the outstanding Name of all ages— the outstanding personality of all races.

He is too great to be memorialized in any earthly hall of fame. His millions of followers feel that, reducing Him to such a level as that comparison would create, would be nothing short of disgraceful to His incomparable character.

And this is not because He wrote many books; not because He surpassed in any particular profession; not because He headed great armies, overturned bad governments, and created an ideal state in the world, but rather because, by the Spirit He revealed when living, and through the Holy Ghost sent to the world after His ascension, He has regenerated individuals and become the Saviour of such institutions as will put their trust in Him, and even touches an unbelieving world with a masterly and ameliorating hand.At this present moment war is the world’s one fear. The experience of 1914—18 was so horrible that the hearts of all men chill with the thought of its repetition on a larger and infamously more destructive scale. To that possibility science daily contributes, and against that certainty there stands but one figure, and that is Christ. The anti-military movement of the present moment is the product of Christ’s Spirit. Recently, the “Literary Digest” called attention to the proposed action of the Federal Council of Churches, through a resolution presented by Dr. Charles Clayton Morrison, suggesting the cessation of chaplain appointments to the army and navy.

But upon sober consideration it was decided that these pronounced Christian men in the army were an anti-war influence, and that their numbers should not be decreased, but increased instead. Whether that reason was sound or not, it is absolutely certain that Christ, while “a Man of war” against all wrongs, is “the Prince of Peace”, and His Second Appearance is the only prospect of that prophetic time when men shall learn war no more forever.Christ’s reception or rejection is a personal decision.

There are so-called ministers of the Gospel—modernists—who are undertaking now the task of bringing the nations to Christ. We admire their heroism, but hold in little esteem their judgment. Christ came not to call states, but rather “sinners to repentance”. The wisdom of that fact appears upon a moment’s reflection. States are only collections of individuals under an agreed government, and you can’t change the character of the former until you have changed that of the latter. States do not determine the character of individuals, but individuals do determine the character of states.

So, then, it is written, “every one of us shall give account of himself to God”.When the late war was on, there were men who blamed the Church for not stopping it. But how can minority determine the conduct of the majority?

The following statistical report was recently put forth in a Scranton, Pennsylvania publication. There are approximately 53,000,000 people in the United States under twenty-five years of age. Only about 16,000,000 of these are getting any kind of Christian instruction. 37,000,000 of them are without Sunday School, parochial school, or week-day Bible instruction. In fact, some years ago a somewhat careful survey was made. There were at that time 1,000,000 children in the Chicago public schools and 800,000 of them were receiving no religious education of any sort. That is to say, four out of five were taught nothing of Christ and of His redeeming love.

And yet, there are those who would tell you that Christianity is to blame for the present holocaust of crime, but all such speak without any rational basis. When it is remembered that not anything like all those who were taught the Christian faith, accepted it, their greater minority is understood, and the Christless estate of the people at large is evidenced.Conduct in its last analysis is a question of character.

Character is not something that comes to us by birth. There may be an inheritance of some better traits. We believe there are! But character rests in the adoption and practice of right principles. That Christianity has been and abides the best embodiment of those principles, only blatant atheists debate.Recently the world has been shocked by the brutal crime of Edward Hickman. The newspapers of the country have played up the fact that he was a faithful attendant upon a Sunday School; and, of course, atheistic publications and superficial skeptics seize upon that and try to make it appear that such conduct might be expected from such an institution.

Alas, how far fetched the argument! History attests the opposite truth.The “Literary Digest” of January 21, 1925, contributes an article on “The Sunday School a Crime Antidote”, and says, “Regular attendance upon Sunday School during the period of character formation would cause the criminal courts and jails to close, for there would be no Taw material’ to work on.

This is not a platitude from the pulpit. It is an expression of belief of a judge who has had long experience. In the eighteen years that he has sat on the bench in two courts, Supreme Court Justice Lewis L. Fawcett, of Brooklyn, has had more than 4,000 boys less than twenty-one years arraigned before him, charged with various degrees of crime. But, of this large number, only three were members of a Sunday School at the time of the commission of their crimes.” And, says Justice Fawcett, as he is quoted in the “New York Herald”, “Even these three exceptional cases were technical in character and devoid of heinousness, so that they are scarcely worth mentioning. * * In view of this significant showing, I do not hesitate to express the conviction that attendance by young men at Sunday School or other regular religious work, with its refining atmosphere, is signally preventive against crime and worthy of careful study by those who are dismayed by the increase of crime on the part of the young men of America!” About all that men who profess to be “Truthseekers” need is one case in 4,000, provided they can employ that one case to the discredit of the Christianity they hate. But could any higher compliment be paid to the Christian profession than to find out that of 4,000 criminals, 3,997 of them were without Christianity in any form?However, this should not be a surprise, even, for the character of Christianity is also suggested by the text. It is by natureTHE OF Hence, Paul’s words to Timothy, “Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity”.Of the Christian, righteousness is expected. That would not be true if Christianity had not a past history. But from the day when Paul turned from his egoism to humility, from his persecutions to compassion, and from the spirit of a murderer to the Gospel ministry, Christ has commonly so influenced the lives of men that they have, like Paul, looked on Him and believed.The volume by Harold Begbie, “Twice Born Men”, proves how radical that reformation often is, taking the murderer and making him a man of the kindest and most compassionate sentiments; a drunkard, and making of him the most sober and upright of citizens; the whore-master, and filling his mind with purity. And its influence is not restricted to the individual, but, from him, radiates into society.Rabbi Albert G. Minda recently said truly, “Are our human relationships built on justice or injustice? Is society being solidified through the power of love and mercy or being undermined by the corroding forces of hatred and malice?

The answers to these questions will indicate to what degree God is functioning in modern life as a Power making for righteousness.” And then he adds, “The major religious denominations have framed ‘programs of social justice’ which enunciate the ideals of justice, love and humility, as they apply to all spheres of present-day life and human endeavor.” And while he does not name the Name of Christ, it is absolutely known that that Name gives meaning to his further words, “To a humanity suffering the wounds of war and ever fearing Mars, they hold forth the vision of universal peace * * and unto a society divided by the barriers of race, color, creed, they offer the ideal of a common brotherhood.” That’s absolutely true of Christianity.This leads, then, to a second statement:With a Christian righteousness is commonly found. This is so true that even unbelievers have been compelled to admit it.

Here is a pronounced illustration of that fact with which the world has long since been made familiar. In 1832, when Charles Darwin was making his trip around the world—a trip on which he was building up his infidel philosophy of evolution—he speaks of stopping on the coast of Tierra del Fuego, the most savage spot in all the world—so savage that he would not put the practice of that tribe into writing, and gave it as his opinion that that tribe was the missing link between man and monkey, and that it would be useless to attempt civilization with such people. And yet, at that very time there was playing in the yard of an English almshouse a little boy who was destined later to accept Christ as his Saviour and become a missionary to this people. He told them of Jesus, the Saviour from sin, and the truth at his lips transformed them, and the savage people became one of the most Christian tribes in all the world; so much so that when Darwin saw them again he was amazed at the mighty change that had come over them, and admitted the desirability of Christian missions. Is it any wonder that one speaking of it says, “If, then, there is a continent so low and loathsome that it has no hope, send Jesus to that shore. Or, if there is a drunkard or harlot, or blasphemer you want to see reclaimed, preach Christ.” When the time comes that our atheists can show such an uplift in morals and life as the Christian missionary brought to Tierra del Fuego, they can speak.

Until that time, they should be silent.The exceptions in conduct, with the Christian profession, only prove the rule. It was said to be true that Adolph Hoetelling, Michigan’s recent brutal murderer, was a deacon in the Christian church.

And it is a fact that in Illinois a while ago a minister participated in poisoning his own wife and aided and abetted the poisoning of a paramour’s husband, that these barriers to their illegitimate love might be removed. But, do such exceptions demonstrate the non-desirability of Christianity?By no means! Their newspaper value was found in the fact that they were exceptions. If they were everyday occurrences, nobody would be shocked by it; but they are so rare that all society is amazed.When Loeb and Leopold murdered, in the most unthinkable manner, their little friend, and even blood cousin of one, the newspapers did not play up the fact that they were both unbelievers in the Christian faith, or even that one of them was a boastful atheist. That circumstance leaked out in connection with their trial, when Clarence Darrow sought to soften the crime by showing its agreement with the university philosophy that Babe Leopold had imbibed. When the three D’Autremont boys shot down and killed, in cold blood, conductor, engineer and fireman on an Oregon train, that they might loot it of its wealth, the newspapers did not play up the fact that they were ardent advocates of evolution, but one of them later announced the same as a partial explanation of his conduct.But has any living man ever been heard of who defended a crime in the name of Christianity?

Or can any man, intelligently reading the Scriptures and without prejudice, charge up criminal conduct to Christian teachings? Hardly!

For the morals of the Old Testament even, and every sacred sentence of the New, harmonizes with the demand of Paul, namely, that “Every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity”. When, therefore, a professed Christian commits the same, he is transgressing not only the precepts of his profession, but doing an irreparable violence to its plain demands.No, Christianity is not responsible for crime. Christianity is the enemy of every wrong, personal, domestic and national, and the friend of every right. And when you go back into history you find that it was Christianity that ended piracy at sea, Christianity that abolished slavery from the practice of nations, Christianity that opposed child-abandonment, child-neglect and child-abuse of every sort. He who took the little ones up in His arms, laid His hands upon them and blessed them, has been their defender in all ages. It is Christianity that cares for the weak and incites its devotees to build hospitals, provide nurses, and inspire the greatest physicians.

It is Christianity that fights the white slave traffic; that forced the adoption of the Eighteenth Amendment, and lies back of every great moral reform. And it is Christianity that creates such organizations as the Antisaloon League, and that blessed organization, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, wearing its white ribbon before the world, attesting its faith in purity and its demands for sobriety.

It is Christianity that will keep the Eighteenth Amendment on the statute books of our nation and make impossible the election of the wet Governor Smith to the presidency of the United States.Do I need, then, to discuss the question, “Is there any saving power in the Christian profession?” The answer is evident.I conclude, however, with the discussion ofTHE SECRET OF POWER The Bible, Christianity’s text Book, is a volume of moral uplift. Recently a speaker in our prayer meeting, said in his address, “There are some portions of the Bible that I do not care for,” and later in a personal conversation, I asked to know what he meant by such a statement. He said, “Well, the Bible is to me like a well-filled table and I can feed on what I like.” I said, “Then do you mean to say that it contains aught that is not needful for you or for some other man.” He said, “No, I believe everything found in it is profitable for somebody at sometime,” and then he added further, “It is like a medicine chest; today I need this portion of it; tomorrow another may meet my demands.” The figures are apropos. Some years since I was in St. Louis. It was a Saturday night and I was in my room at a hotel.

Waking at one o’clock in the morning I found that my tonsils were rapidly swelling and fear seized me that I should be incapacitated for the three services of the Sunday. I wished for a physician, and particularly did I crave hydrogen dioxide, for more than once had I been able with that gargle to reduce the fever and recover from the danger.

Little dreaming that there was any near me, I rose and went to the bathroom to gargle hot water, and lo, in my bath room I saw a medicine chest. Eight or ten different remedies were before my eyes. Twenty-five cents in the slot would secure any one of them; and lo, to my delight, dioxide was there. I dropped my quarter in, took the bottle out, and through the hours of the night gargled it again and again. By morning I was myself, the disease had subsided, and three times that day I preached the Gospel with increasing physical strength.How many and what frightful moral diseases the Bible has cured! It is a panacea indeed; and it is doubtful if there is a single moral affliction that has befallen man for which it is not a sufficient antidote if it were but taken.

It was almost an accident that I discovered in my bathroom that night exactly what I needed; and had I not been in diligent search of the best at hand—hot water— I never would have known that the medicine chest was there with the very thing that would effect a cure.How many men are suffering from moral afflictions who could, if they would but search the sacred pages of this Book, find in them an antidote! No less an authority than William E.

Gladstone said: “Who doubts that, times without number, particular portions (of the Bible) find their way to the human soul as if embassies from on high, each with its own commission of comfort, of guidance or of warning? What crisis, what trouble, what perplexity of life has failed or can fail to draw from this inexhaustible treasure-house its proper supply? * * In the retirement of the chamber, in the stillness of the night season, upon the bed of sickness, and in the face of death, the Bible will be there, its several words, how often winged with their several and special messages, to heal and to soothe, to uplift and uphold, to invigorate and stir.” Our own ex-President, Mr. Coolidge, speaking a while ago, said, “It would be difficult to conceive of any kind of religious instruction which omitted to place its main emphasis on the precepts of this great Book. It has been the source of inspiration and comfort to those who have had the privilege of coming in contact with it, and wherever it goes, it raises the whole standard of human relationship.”But there is another secret of power in Christianity of which I want to speak:The Church—Christ’s Body—provides wholesome companionship. The time used to be when there were three institutions that were linked hand in hand in a righteous endeavor to lead our youth. They were the Christian family, the Christian school, and the Church of God.

It is a sad fact, and one that we grieve deeply, that, in the majority of instances, the so-called Christian school is no longer a contributor to that end, but a purveyor of skepticism instead, with its immoral results. And it must be admitted also that there are apostate churches whose atmosphere, while not all unwholesome, is not spiritual, and consequently ineffective.

But thanks be to God for those churches where Christ is honored, His precepts are revered and the atmosphere of which is Christian! There, people, old and young, may find the finest companionship.One morning not long since a dear girl came into this church. She came, sensible of her sin; she came out of moral struggle in the hope of extricating herself from companionships she knew to be not helpful but hurtful. She told us, in the after-meeting in the side room, of her struggle and how she had decided to divorce unwholesome friends, but in loneliness had gone back to them again. I exacted a promise from her that she would appear in the Girls’ Club. Whether she kept that promise or not, I do not know.

I have never learned; neither have I seen her since, but more than once in the night watches I have prayed, and in my thinking in my own study she has been before me; and I have known perfectly that her need was Christ first, but instantly thereafter, companionship of the sort that the Church of God alone can give and would contribute.A young woman, or man, of good health and youthful spirit, tempted by nature itself and by the untoward conditions of the city life, can scarcely hope for spiritual or moral victory apart from companionship of another and better sort. We believe that the Church of God was given to that very end and that no institution ever known to earth is comparable to it in such service.Personally we are grateful for the memories of a Christian family in which to grow up; and never while breath is in our body will we cease to recognize the refining and morally exalting influence of the Presbyterian Christian college from which we graduated, and yet, when the last word is spoken that may be spoken for family and school, the Church of God remains as the most exalted and exalting of all the institutions known to life itself.

It has been more to me than flesh and blood, and more than college culture, for it has not only provided me with Christian companionship, but kept before my eyes the Christ.And after all, it is Christ who imparts the power that proves victory. The world has its millions to bear testimony to that fact; and among those millions there are literally thousands who were flung away and forgotten By the world, to whom Christ came, and in Him they found not only a Friend but a Saviour indeed.Not long since, “The Associated Press of America” carried a very pitiful, and yet inspiring story. It was the story of a little news lad who, on a Christmas Eve in 1864, crawled into a packing box, and taking his little street chum with him, they covered themselves with old newspapers and rags. And yet, just because it was Christmas Eve, the night that commemorated Christ’s coming into the world, these waifs entertained hope, and Johnnie Carroll took off his stocking and hung it outside the box, hoping for a visit from Santa Claus. The night passed, the cold was increasing, and when the morning broke, and these little, neglected waifs crawled from beneath the heap of old papers and rags, gathered from the alley, the stocking was as empty as ever, and Johnnie’s foot was badly frozen. He pulled himself into his ragged clothes and climbed out of the box to find his foot was so painful that by the time he had limped his way through the alley to the street, he sat down on the sidewalk to cry.His father, a Union soldier, had died in a military hospital in the South.

His mother, trying to reach him, had left this little lad in a Cincinnati station until she could go out and make a few purchases, and for some reason, never known to the lad, she never came back.Flung thus upon the world at the tender age of five, he turned to the task of caring for himself. And now on this morning in his seventh year, he sat on the curb sobbing with pain, attended only by George Wilson, his waif friend.That morning, however, there passed that way a wealthy and kindly man.

Hearing the sobbing and seeing the child, he inquired what was the matter. On listening to the child’s story, Murray Shipley believed it, took the child home with him, and later established a children’s home, placing John and his street companion, George, in the same.Out of that Home Johnnie was adopted by a well-to-do Quaker family living near Indianapolis. They treated him as though he had been their own flesh and blood. They educated him in a law college at Cincinnati. He rose in his profession until James J. Hill learned of him and made him chief counsellor in the legal department of his Railroad Systems, and he is now the chief counsellor of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway.

During President Wilson’s tenancy of office he was his technical advisor.Such is the marvelous illustration of what a man may do for a waif without parents, without friends, without means, cold, hungry and neglected! And every man who read the story, deep in his heart, thanked God for Shipley who picked up the waif and put him on the way to such eminent success.But through the ages Jesus Christ has touched many a lad with His tender hand and made him to live the largest, most beautiful, and blessed life.

Many a Magdalene He has lifted out of her sin into the most consecrated character. Many a bigot He has changed from a Saul to an apostle of the faith as He did with Paul. Yea, even murderers may hope in Him, since to one who hung on the cross, and in answer to his cry for mercy, He said, “To day shalt thou be with Me in paradise.”Young men and women, may I remind you tonight, in concluding this sermon, that even the most sinful are sure to come to feel their need of Him. Hickman, the braggart, is now spending his time with the Bible, so the press tells us. Ruth Snyder, whose lust led her to be a murderess, feared to go before God until she had turned to the Church of Rome and had sought through it, absolution. And Judd Gray, her weak paramour, for months before he paid the awful price of life for his guilt, pondered day and night, we are told, the Sacred Word; and through its study came to hope that God would have a mercy that State and Society refused to show.It may be easy enough to be an infidel—yea, even a braggart atheist—when health is riotous, when food and clothing are at hand, when human companionship is not denied us; but when the day of death draws nigh, whether it come through stealthy sickness, sapping strength, or in the hangman’s noose that will express at once the frightfulness of crime and at the same time end the period of probation, then, oh, then, we know our need of Christ: Christ—God manifest in the flesh, Christ— God’s messenger of mercy, Christ—man’s Saviour from sin, Christ—the sours only hope!