James 5

James 5:14-16

DIVINE HEALING,—OR DOES GOD ANSWER PRAYER FOR THE SICK? James 5:14-16. TO properly interpret this text, or better still, not to interpret it at all, but to accept it for what it says—to believe it because God has uttered it—is to preach what many eschew as false. It requires no special courage to condemn the faiths that one’s own folks condemn; but to set up as Scriptural what has long been overlooked by one’s own people is to bring upon the speaker criticism, and, often, even rebuke. And yet no man is quite so safe in standing firmly by the text of Scripture as is the preacher, the first article of whose denominational faith reads like this: “We believe that the Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired, and is a perfect treasure of heavenly instruction; that it has God for its Author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture or error, for its matter; and is the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and opinions should be tried.”I should hesitate for a long time to overthrow any dogma that had the support of a few sacred texts, but to cut the cable of tradition and set sail by the chart and compass of God’s Word is always a safe course for a believing soul.“To the Law and to the Testimony: if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them”. And if those who hold another opinion “speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them”.To the text then:“Is any ask among you? let him call for the elders of the Church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the Name of the Lord: “And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed”. Three great truths, with their minor and constituent suggestions, stand out in it. IS REAL First, the Scriptures speak of sickness as real. The Old Testament and the New know nothing of the modern “illusion” theory. “Behold, thy father is sick”: was said of Jacob (Genesis 48:1). “And the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife bare unto David, and it was very sick”, is said in II Samuel (2 Samuel 12:15). “And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days”; Daniel says (Daniel 8:27).These three samples of Old Testament statements might be followed by fifty passages out of that part of the Word that uses the same expression “sick”, and never once suggests that it is not a substantial fact, a bitter experience.In the New Testament we read how “a certain man was sick, named Lazarus”, and to Jesus they said, “Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick”. And “when Jesus heard that” He did not say, “This is not sickness, but a delusion.” But He did say, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God”.All through the New Testament Christ goes healing the sick, and never once does He explain to them that they are not sick, but are suffering from an “illusion.” On the contrary, it is reported that they were sick and that He “healed all that were sick”, and “oppressed of the devil” (Matthew 8:16; Acts 10:38).The Scriptures teach that sickness is real, and to deny that is neither scriptural nor reasonable. The unreasonableness of the “illusion” theory appears at once in the face of a story I heard a few years since.A gentleman down in the southern part of this state was sick. The wife—a Christian Scientist— was met on the street by a neighbor who said, “Your husband is sick?” “Oh, no,” she replied, “he only thinks he is sick.” The small boy of the family heard the mother’s answer. Three days later the same neighbor met him on the street and said, “How’s your father?” To which the youth replied, “He thinks he’s dead!”The Scriptures commonly attribute sickness to Satan.

Present-day preachers commonly attribute it to God. It would be well for those of us who stand in the pulpit to study the Scriptures upon the subject of sickness, and cease maligning our Father in Heaven who is not disease, but is health instead.In all the cases of sickness reported in the Bible, I could count on my fingers those instances for which God assumes the responsibility.Miriam was smitten by God of leprosy; David’s son was smitten of the Lord; Herod was smitten of God; and there are a few other instances.

These are exceptions to the rule; they are dire judgments against sins. Satan is back of the ordinary sickness and suffering.Job and his wife alike supposed that God had smitten him with loss of children, of property, and with loathsome disease. But the Scriptures expressly teach that Satan was back of the whole business.In the New Testament it is said of Christ that He cast out the evil spirit in one, and compelled the “dumb and deaf spirit” in another to come out; and out of the lunatic He cast out the evil spirit. The woman who had an infirmity of eighteen years, He speaks of as one bound by Satan lo these many years. And then the general assertion is made that He healed all that were sick and “oppressed of the devil”.When my children were small, suffering, it was impossible for me to keep my conception of God, as a God of goodness and of love, and yet believe that He was afflicting the innocent little ones with dread disease.That the devil would delight in such business, is just like him; and so when I found them suffering I was not surprised, for Satan is “the god of this world”, including the flesh.Along with this unscriptural teaching that God is the Author of disease is a common assertion that sickness is a means of grace.Those who say this remind us of the Scripture, “Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth” (Hebrews 12:6). The son in my house that I loved best, perchance, I chastened oftenest; and yet I never put disease upon him, nor could I have, so long as a father’s heart was in my breast.

Shall men be better than God?Is it a means of grace? Are the sick people of this world, as a rule, its sweetest spirits, its most enthusiastic Christians?

Nay, verily, the majority of them, I believe, are soured by their experience, and lose heart and hope in consequence. Impatience and selfishness are their common traits.There are beautiful exceptions, but that is the rule.Do we believe it to be from God, and a means of grace? Then why on earth do we send for a doctor to get us well as shortly as possible? Do we prefer health to holiness? You people who contend that it is a means of grace, why don’t you encourage sickness for the sake of spiritual growth? Personally, I have not found it to be a means of grace, and I do not believe it to be from God, and hence I have no hankering for unhealth.I feel about the sick-bed as the colored boy did about his place on a Southern plantation.

Before the slaves were freed, he fled North. Reaching Boston, he took refuge with an abolitionist, who fell to talking with him and said, “Didn’t you have a good master in the South?” “Yes, sah.” “Did he let you sleep in the house?” “Yes, sah.” “Did he give you a good bed?” “Yes, sah.” “Give you plenty to eat?” “Yes, sah.” “Well, what did you want to run away from him then for?”“Look hea’h, Boss,” the black boy replied, “if you thinks you wants the place, it’s open to you.” And that’s what I have to say concerning the sickbed.

I believe it to be from Satan, as a rule, and so the Scriptures teach.An old writer says, “The Lord often sharpens His saints on the devil’s grind-stone,” and concerning this Dr. Gordon adds, “We admit the truth most fully, but we do not, therefore, advise that the grind-stone be set up as a part of the furniture of the Lord’s House.”The Lord may use sickness for the good of man, for He makes “all things work together for good”. Sometimes God has made sin to work our salvation. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid” (Romans 6:1-2).Recently I have known two men whose salvation has resulted from the bitter experience of sin and its consequences. Shall we sanctify sin and sickness into ordinances of God?

By no means, lest we make God the minister of each.Christ is offered in the Word as the sickness-bearer. The Hebrew in Isaiah 53:4-5 reads:“Surely He has borne our sicknesses and carried our sorrows. “But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed”. In Matthew’s Gospel—Matthew 8:16-17 we read:“When the even was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils: and He cast out the spirits with His word, and healed all that were sick: “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the Prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses?”. Commenting upon this, Dr. Gordon remarks, “The yoke of His Cross, by which He lifted our iniquities, took hold also of our disease, so that it is in some sense true that as God made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, so He made Him to be sick for us, who knew no sickness.”GOD’S FOR IS AND PRAYER The elders, by request of the sick, shall anoint. “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the Church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the Name of the Lord”, You may ask, “Where are the ‘elders’?” And I am compelled to answer that, at this point, Baptist churches and others have likely departed from the Scripture, and today the deacons are doing the work that the elders were originally appointed to do, while the deacon’s office is filled by men named trustees.The early Church had as its officers—the pastor, or bishop, elders and deacons. Now in my denomination—the Baptist—we have the pastor, deacons, and trustees. The deacons in such churches perform largely the same office as the elders in the New Testament Church; while the trustees have been assigned the work that gave rise, originally, to the appointment of deacons. So I reckon my deacons as the elders in my church.According to this text, they are not to hunt out the sick, but are to respond to the request of the sick. For three centuries after Christ that was the universal custom. Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Clement, and others tell us of cases of devils cast out, of tongues given, of poison failing of its effects, and of the sick raised to health in answer to prayer.

Such authors as Waterland, Dodwell, and Marshall insist that miracles of healing did not fail until the rise of the Catholic Church, and we know from history that since that time they have appeared among God’s most devout people—the Waldenses, Moravians, Huguenots, Friends, Baptists, and Methodists, not to speak of the experience of the Scotch Covenanters, Knox, Wishart, Livingstone, Welsh, Baillie, Peden, Craig; as, also, with George Fox, the father of Quakerism, and our own Baptist fathers, Powell, Knollys, and Jessey; and these were men that followed the letter of our text.The “oil” here is the symbol of the Holy Ghost; and is applied as such. It is hardly medicinal, for if God is any sort of a physician, He is not a quack who would prescribe oil for all diseases.In the Old Testament and in the New, olive oil was used for anointing and, almost without exception, as a symbol of the Holy Ghost.

The fact that the elders, and not physicians, were to apply it, makes this view the more reasonable, and the additional words, “And the prayer of faith shall save the sick”, puts beyond dispute the thought that the oil had any other significance than symbolizing the Spirit.Lange, one of the greatest of Bible students and scholars, commenting on Mark 6:13, and they “anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them”, says, “Oil here is simply a symbolic medium of the miraculous work, and that the anointing was a symbol of the bestowing of the Spirit as a prerequisite condition of healing.”Prayer and confession were the essentials to restoration. Five times in as many verses here “prayer” is divinely appointed. Is any among you afflicted? let him pray”. “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the Church; and let them pray over him”. “The prayer of faith shall save the sick”. “Pray one for another, that ye may be healed”. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much”. Prayer! Prayer! Prayer!

Prayer! Prayer!The most of us never stop to pray when our people are taken ill.

We have professed to believe in God, and insist that what He says in the Scripture is so, but how easily we forget “Whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My Name, He may give it you” (John 15:16); “That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in Heaven” (Matthew 18:19); and even the more specific promises: “And these signs shall follow them that believe; * * they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Mark 16:17-18).When I make this plea, I am not speaking against physicians, but I am speaking for God. I am not even saying that I would not, under any circumstances, call a physician; but I am saying that I have a scriptural warrant for prayer.It is all right for the unbelieving world to make their first appeal to human help. It is all wrong for the followers of Jesus Christ to make their last appeal to Divine help. I have found Christian physicians—friends of the doctrine of Divine healing. One of the first physicians in the city of Chicago, a man who was prominent in two medical institutions, one of them famed the world around, said to me years since, that the Scriptures plainly taught that God would raise the sick in answer to prayer; and at his request, I went into one of those institutions twice to speak to the medical students from this text.As God’s men and women, we have not begun to understand the power of prayer.And confession is also essential. “Confess your faults one to another” We readily understand the necessity of that. Crying to God is not praying! The man who has sin in his heart might cry to God forever, and receive no answer. “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God” (1 John 3:21).I heard once the cries of a woman who died in the home where we boarded. For many days before her death she cried for peace of mind, but none ever came. At last she told me of a trouble she had had with a step-mother, and the bitter things that had been said. We sent for the woman. Mutual confessions were made, and “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding” possessed her, and her prayers, after that, availed for peace and grace.Prayer and confession, they are Divine appointments.GOD’S PROMISE IS AND The Scripture plainly says, “The prayer of faith shall save the sick”. Mark you, it is not the oil that you use, but the prayer of faith.It is not supposing that sickness is an “illusion” that is to save, but “the prayer of faith”.It is not conversing with departed spirits that saves, but “the prayer of faith”.Blessed the man who can make “‘the prayer of faith”.That is a mighty tribute that Paul pays to Abraham, he “believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (Romans 4:3). To believe— that is the climax of Christian blessedness. To believe God—that is truly the divinest of all human accomplishments.Russell Conwell, in his life of Charles Spurgeon, says: “There are now living and worshipping in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, hundreds of people who ascribe the extension of their life to the effect of Mr. Spurgeon’s personal prayers. They have been sick with disease, and nigh unto death; he has appeared, kneeled by their beds and prayed for their recovery.

Immediately the tide of health returned, the fevered pulse became less, the temperature was reduced, and all the activities of nature resumed their normal functions within a short and unexpected period.”The success of our own A. J.

Gordon in this experience, the blessings that were upon the petitions of A. B. Simpson, and the wonderful things that have come into the work of many others, have, in my judgment, one explanation—they were men who “believed God”.But I want you to notice the next sentence, “and the Lord shall raise him up”. The woman who comes to me saying that, as a medium, she can accomplish health, incites a reply that “if so, you must do it through Satan’s power, for God has never given this to mortal man. He alone has this power.”The newspapers used to speak of Dr. Dowie, “the Divine Healer”. They used to apply a kindred term to Dr. Cullis, “the Faith-cure Man”; and to a multitude of others whose claims have better or poorer foundations.

But such men as love the Scriptures reject instantly, and almost with insult, having any such abilities assigned to them.When Peter and John, in the Name of Jesus Christ, had spoken the word of healing to the lame man at “the Beautiful gate of the Temple”, we read:“All the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering. “And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk”? (Acts 3:10; Acts 3:12). Some of the Lord’s people seem to think that if one teaches the doctrine of “Divine Healing,” he assumes to himself some peculiar “power of holiness,” but Peter utterly repudiated the thought,“as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk”? “The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified His Son Jesus;” “And His Name through faith in His Name hath made this mm strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by Him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all” (Acts 3:13; Acts 3:16). We do not deny that Theosophy has its healing. We do not question that healing has come out of Spiritualism; nor can we doubt that Christian Science has seen much of physical improvement and health. But we say this, that any system that does not conform its teaching to the truth in God’s Word, must explain its healing upon some other ground than that of the intervention of the Divine One.He would not, He could not cooperate with error. The author of sickness, even Satan, if he could, by associating healings with heterodoxy and all error, deceive God’s people and lead them into darkness—would delight himself in so doing.We read in the Word that “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light”, and would “deceive the very elect”.If we be men of God, our faith ought to be firmly grounded in the Word of God. What it does not teach, we dare not accept; what it plainly teaches, we dare not reject.And more blessed still, He who heals the sick, forgives sins.“And if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him”. Physical health is a good thing. Second to a saved soul, I count of consideration a sound body and a balanced mind, which is health. But it is second. The first thing in importance, the thing all-essential in importance, the thing without which life is a failure, the thing in the lack of which death is doom—is sins forgiven and the soul saved.Divine healing rests in Divine love. “God is love”. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins”. (1 John 1:9).There is no way in which to put God to pain, more effectually, than to call into question His Spirit of love, or disposition to forgive.Henry Moorehouse was in Dublin one day, when a friend asked him to go and see an old lady who was in great trouble. He found the poor old woman in a modest cottage, rocking herself to and fro, and moaning as if her heart would break. Moorhouse asked her what the trouble was and she answered, “My boy has broken my heart,” and then explained, “You must know, sir, that he went away and has done things that he thinks are wrong, but I could forgive him that, if only he would let me.

But here is a letter that breaks my heart”; and she picked it up and began to read and finally came to this sentence, “Dear mother, if you can never forgive me for my sins, don’t curse me.” Then she broke out, “I never knew how much I loved him until he went away, and now to think he should say, ‘Mother don’t curse me.’ That breaks my heart.” She saw in that sentence the thought that she might refuse to forgive, and then, “curse him”; therein was the sorrow.It must be an infinite sorrow to the infinite heart of God for the man, in whose behalf He has given His Son, to doubt that He will forgive. Don’t do it, my friend! Come back to God, and come now, for the promise is, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out”, and the invitation, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”.

James 5:19-20

A WORK James 5:19-20. IT seems almost amazing that a man should have ministered in the Gospel for twenty-six long years before addressing himself to this text: all the more amazing that one who is deeply interested in soul-winning Scriptures should do so; and the wonder is in nowise reduced when you remember that I had spoken from this fifth chapter of James on occasion, and discussed almost every other verse in it before the 19th and 20th. The only suggested defense of this conduct is in the double circumstance that the Bible is so rich a mine of truth that one who works it is compelled, in passing, to leave many of its most precious nuggets; and that the Spirit whose gracious office it is to dictate what He would have us say, has never deeply impressed me with this text until the elapse of many years.We want, therefore, this morning to deliver to you that which we have received.This passage involvesTHE BROTHER “Brethren, if any of you do err from the Truth”. A brother, then, may be badly backslidden. To be converted is not to be fully sanctified. To be regenerated is not to be wholly removed from weakness, error, and sin.There are people who trouble new converts with a doctrine of “holiness,” which, if it were possible at all, would be only the result of an advanced Christian experience, and unto which God’s greatest men do not seem to have consciously attained.Old Eli was a good man, but God brought an indictment of sin against him and judged his house in righteousness. David was a man after God’s own heart, and yet he was compelled to say to the Lord, “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight” (Psalms 51:4).Isaiah, God’s greatest Old Testament Prophet, said, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King” (Isaiah 6:5).When Peter looked upon Christ, accomplishing His miraculous work, and recognized in Him the very God, on His face, he confessed, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8).John was easily one of the sweetest and most holy men of the New Testament, and yet John wrote, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).I have been in the world for some years now, and have known men and women, not a few, and I say it without a moment’s hesitation, the most holy men I have ever met have been men who frankly confessed their infirmities, and grieved over their sins. I am compelled to agree with old Matthew Henry, who is an illustration of what I am saying, that “It is no mark of the wise or holy man to boast of being free from error, or to refuse to acknowledge when he is in error.”To the most sanctified man, sin seems the most horrible. That is why Paul, consciously contending against the lusts of the flesh, admitted his carnality, saying:“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death”? (Romans 7:18-19; Romans 7:24). Yes, if a man err from the Truth he may yet be a brother. A few nights since in this room a young man said to me, “I have quit the church because I was inconsistent, and if you preachers did your duty you would kick out of the church every man who does not live up to his profession.”There are two answers to that. First, is it Christian to summarily dispose of one because he is weak, or should the strong bear his infirmities instead? And second, if every man who does not live up to his profession, were kicked out of the church, where is the church? Under that condition Peter would have appeared as an Apostle no more after the day of Christ’s arrest; and Thomas would never have been named after the day of his doubts; and even the beloved John would have been discarded, since he, after having held up perfect sanctification as the ideal of the Christian life, confesses to sin. The longer I live, the less I am disposed to severe church discipline.

The weakest babe in the family has lavished upon it the most affection and care; and I know not but the weakest brother and sister in the household of faith should be the subject of the utmost concern.The believer’s hold on the Truth may be broken.If it were not so, the Psalmist would not have needed to pray so earnestly: “Lead me in Thy Truth, and teach me: for Thou art the God of my salvation” (Psalms 25:5).If it were not so, Paul would not have needed to enjoin upon Titus to be “a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; holding fast the faithful Word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers” (Titus 1:8-9).If it were not so, Paul would never have written to Timothy to, “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us” (2 Timothy 1:13-14).If it were not possible for the believer’s hold upon the Truth to be broken, Paul would never have needed to write to the Hebrew Christians: “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip” (Hebrews 2:1).It is perfectly understood in this city and, for that matter, in all the land, so far as I am at all known, that I have no sympathy whatever with the conclusions of “Higher Criticism,” or the conduct of the higher critic; and I consent to the fearful excoriation pronounced upon them by that great statesman and scholar, B.

H. Carroll, that “the cuckoos of skepticism have first covertly laid their eggs in the nests of Christian colleges and seminaries; and an alien brood has been hatched out, which, in turn, openly defies and assails every vital doctrine of the Gospel.”With him I would say, “No vagaries of speculation and unverified philosophy have been too extravagant for their advocacy. The inspiration of the Scriptures, the Divinity of our Lord, the whole office work of the Holy Spirit, and the very necessity for the Saviour, they have openly and scornfully denied. The Lord’s Sabbath, the sanctity of the home and the marriage relation, the church and its ordinances, and God’s supernatural intervention at any time, place or form, have been scouted.”‘With him I believe that: “A wild boar making havoc in a garden of rare plants and flowers could not be more irreverent. Rending, rooting, gnashing with tusk and trampling with hoof, they revel in the destruction of most sacred things. Their effrontery is colossal and brazen.

Their deification of self, and insensibility to moral considerations makes them to be properly named pachyderms!”Carroll’s accusation is just: “Antiochus Epiphanes, sacrificing a hog on the Jewish holy places, robbing the Temple of its sacred treasure to supply the means of their aggressions, at least did these things as a heathen outsider,” and it was not so much of an insult to God as that skepticism should be arrayed in high collar and a white tie and essay to preach.I am compelled also to believe with John, that we should not receive even into our houses those who deny the Father and the Son (2 John 1:10), and yet I should not be surprised to find some of these “brethren”.Bewitched they are, turned from the Truth to believe a lie, since it is Satan’s special endeavor, I fear also his successful one, to “deceive the very elect”. Yes, a “brother” may “err from the Truth”.His conceptions will affect his conduct.“As he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). Deeds are only thoughts materialized—opinions incarnate. David had to think wrongly before he did wrong. Esau had to plan evil before he accomplished it. The girl who proposes to transgress God’s Law must first forget the instructions of her youth. Aaron Burr did not begin life a lecherous man and a murderer; but when he was seventeen, a student at Princeton, he resisted the Spirit, decided that Christ had no claims upon him, and adopted a theology that was atheistic; and lechery, murder, treason and death resulted.Goethe once said, “Tell me with whom thou dost company, and I will tell thee who thou art.” Without being a prophet, if one knew a man’s thought, his inner, most intense thought, his most dominating thought, he could forecast his conduct and prophesy his coming character.It is no slight thing to “err from the Truth”! The man who does that will shortly be found in an “evil way”, as our second verse suggests.

Our brother may be so backslidden, that whatever hold upon the Truth he once had may have been broken, and his conceptions are sure to affect his conduct. What about it then?It presents the opportunity forTHE BROTHER “If * * one convert him; let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins”. But that work involves some things that are unpleasant for the man engaged; unpalatable to the one for whom he works. The social reformer, the personal worker, and the true prophet of God are alike unpopular. The people who walk the broad way that leads to death prefer to be let alone; but the Christian’s business recognizes such action as impossible.Bothersome though he may be, two or three things the Christian should accomplish.He should probe into his brother’s opinions!“If any of you do err from the Truth, and one convert him”. There has never been a time since the morning stars sang together when men, who? know the Truth and know that they know it, should be more assiduous in correcting their fellows. These are days of fads and false philosophies, of wretched theologies. Oh, I know that as Beecher said, a man may take his opinions and put them together and construct a throne of them, and mount it, and call all the world to come to his feet and learn of him, when his message has little or no kinship to the revelation of God. I am not speaking now of those people who think your whole soul’s destiny turns on the question as to whether you believe in the “trans-substantiation” of the communion bread; I am not thinking now of those people who say we must “speak with tongues” or we have no evidence whatever of the baptism of the Spirit; I am not speaking now of those people who demand that you believe that Christ Jesus came in 1874 and revealed Himself in the War of 1914.God’s Truth does not rest on minor points. It is as full and round as His globe, and it is one’s business to sweep its whole circle, and it is equally his business to go after his brother who is missing it all, or at least all of its essentials.When Martin Luther stood up against the Roman Church, he did it, not because she had gone astray at a single point, but because she had gone astray at a hundred, and had denied or contorted the major part of revealed truth; had turned people from the faith that is in Jesus to a false position of justification by works; and from the salvation wrought out on the Cross to an expectation from meaningless ceremonies. He probed his brother’s opinions and found that he had erred from the Truth, and set himself to work out his conversion, and he was in line with the Divine will.The true believer also concerns himself with his brother’s conduct.

Life is a social thing; relations are mutual! “None of us liveth to himself”. It is impossible for one to sin and others not suffer evil consequences.

It is inconceivable that one should be a gross violater of the Law and the rest of us lose nothing thereby. You have all heard the story of the two Jews who had taken passage upon a great steamship. It had sprung a leak, and one of the brothers hearing of it, rushed to the stateroom crying, “Oh, Ikey; this boat has a leak!” But the other complacently answered, “Veil, Vhat of it? Ve don’t own this boat, do ve?”But if the boat went down, so would they; and your life is so linked with that of others that no mortal craft is sunken without disturbing the ones all about it and putting them in peril.I can think of nothing that is more selfish and swinish even, than the man who cares nothing about the conduct of his fellows, for to be indifferent to these is to be indifferent to final fate. That is known to us as inhumanity, and falls a thousand miles short of Christianity. Christianity is illustrated rather in the conduct of him who, with a fellow-laborer, was sinking a shaft.

It was a dangerous piece of business, for they were blasting the rock. Their custom was to cut the fuse with a knife.

One man then got into the bucket and was hauled up, then it was lowered again and the other man lifted him to safety. One day the knife was forgotten and they cut the fuse with a stone. Instantly it took fire and they jumped into the bucket, but it refused to carry them both. In a moment one had leaped out, crying, “Go ahead, I will be in Heaven in an instant!” The bucket was hauled up. They went back and at the bottom of the mine they found that a great rock which had been loosened, was so lodged as to protect the man, and they brought him forth alive. They insisted on knowing why he had jumped out to most certain death and sent his fellow-laborer forth.

He said, “Because I knew that my soul was safe, for I have yielded it into the hands of Him of whom it is said, faithfulness is His girdle. I am saved; my brother was not.”That was Christian conduct.

Oh, brother mine, a bother it may seem to be to probe into your brother’s opinions and find out his purpose; yet his destiny is to be the issue, and with all the powers at your command, point him toward, and if necessary even pull him into, the path of right.Strange that men object to this behavior on the part of their fellows. A thousand times have I seen a sign-board in the country telling men where they were, and pointing them the way, and never once have I heard a man object to it. Why then should they object when we remind them that they are turning from the Truth and that their feet have drifted into an evil way, and warn them against the end.Charles Spurgeon tells the story of a stiff-necked fellow who refused to be approached by anybody wanting to address themselves to the subject of religion. He hated the very mention of the word. He answered all the appeals coarsely and by sheer rudeness he sought to intimidate those who were even tempted to name Christ in his presence.Finally a neighbor fellow felt forced to go to him. Early in the morning he knocked at his door saying, “I beg your pardon, my brother, for coming so early; but I have been thinking about you all night and I couldn’t rest until I saw you. “What do you want?” “Oh,” said the other, “want?

If you were to die you would go down without hope.” “Mind your own business,” was the surly reply. “But I am; it is my business. My heart would break if you were to die without hope.” “Away with you; do not come with your cant,” and the man turned away weeping.

But the bearish man went to his house and calling his wife said, “I can answer these fellows; I do not care for your ministers, but that neighbor of mine has been over here weeping for me, and I am undone!” And he was. Out of a sort of pity for his weak brother he went to hear the preaching of the Word, and that night he was saved. Brother; be bothersome! Would God we had more bothersome brothers!If we had we would have the last point of our text,THE , BLESSED! Look into it now,“Brethren, if my of you do err from the Truth, and one convert him; “Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins”. There is a double blessing in every step of this; a blessing to the converted, and a blessing to the man who is his saviour.The man who is converted has his mind righted. The man who turned him to the Truth has the sweet sense of that marvelous accomplishment. If I Were asked today what I had rather do than anything else possible to human power, I should say, second only to soul-winning, I would rather build men’s minds. The greatest miracle Jesus Christ ever accomplished was not when He raised Jairus’ little daughter, nor by His word ended the death of the Nain widow’s son, nor yet when, by His command, He called Lazarus—four days dead—from the grave; it was not the opening of the eyes of the blind; it was not the rebuke of the evil spirit; it was not the calming of the fevered child; it was not the making whole a lame man so that he leaped as an hart; it was not the cleansing of the leper: these were all physical effects. It was an infinitely greater miracle Christ wrought, in the tombs, when he cast a legion of spirits out of the man and put him into his right mind.It is a rare opportunity the school president and the school professor enjoys, that of taking deficient minds and perfecting them by training. Oh, what a pleasure!

Oh, what a wonder! It is full of inspiration.

It has its matchless reward. The architect who takes his friend to the building which is the proudest product of his skill—as a few days since one did a company of us—shows him all its splendid appointments, calls attention to its matchless harmonies and color conceptions, and his breast beats high while he is about the business.But I would rather have a part in building such a mind as Abraham Lincoln’s, and a portion in developing one such an intellect as that of Wendell Phillips, than to be the architect of the world’s most costly and beautiful cathedral or the author of the noblest piece of statuary ever carved from marble. He who converts a sinner from the error of his way, has that as a sort of first fruit of his work. Oh, what a blessing to both the converted and his saviour!Again, his conduct is corrected. He not only converts him, but he reaches him at a time when his error from the Truth has affected an error in his way. Campbell Morgan tells of holding a meeting in the north of England, and going one day, at the request of the minister, to a miserable little hovel where a woman in faded, ragged clothes, and with shamed face, received them; but she could not seat them because there was nothing but a broken chair and rickety bed in the room.

Little children fled at their approach, for they had learned to fear the face of man, and their almost lack of clothing made them not presentable, and they knew it.They pleaded with the woman and begged her to try to bring her drunken husband to the meetings.That night they were in the service, and Morgan poured out his soul in an appeal to the prodigal, and that night the man was redeemed. A year later Morgan was again in that same city, and his friend said to him, “I want you to go and see some people,” and “When I asked who, he reminded me of the woman we had gone to see whose husband was converted.

We found the wife neatly clothed. The bloom of beauty had returned to her cheek. The well-dressed and well-fed babies climbed at once upon the minister’s knee and prattled without fear. Shortly the man came in, sober, clean, Christian and said, ‘Sirs, we have bought this little cottage and these chairs; this carpet and other furniture, and these blooming flowers are ours.’ ” And Mr. Morgan remarked, “I never heard a sweeter song than the kettle on the hob sang that evening, and I said, ‘Oh, such a change, and only twelve months to bring it about!’ ” Only Christ could accomplish it! Oh, the results of correcting men in their conduct!Yet this is not all; there is another blessing in which this bothersome man and blessed brother shall share.He shall save a soul from death. “Death”.

Oh, a strange something! Men cannot define it.

They speak of it as an “angel”; but that is not the definition in the dictionary; and necessarily that is not the definition in God’s Word. “Death”! That is the blackest word in the language! “Death”! That is the dark angel, whose fluttering wings overpass to produce confusion! “Death”! That is the most malignant spirit that ever came from the pit to ply his hellish art in the midst of men! “Death”! That is the most terrible foe that human life has ever faced, and the most ardent enemy that ever lifted a hand against the Christ; and he will be the last foul spirit to fall before the mighty hand of God. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is “Death”! “Death” cannot be defined, but, oh, the sadness of its work can be felt.

To save men from such an experience, and to know it; how blessed for them; how blessed for us! And yet, the end is not, for once more:“And shall hide (or cover) a multitude of sins”. Now I hold that the proper interpretation of this text means practically that he shall prevent a multitude of sins, because when a man errs from the Truth, and one convert him, it does not cover a multitude of sins at once, but the final effect of that hour a full harvest! To turn him back in the beginning is to prevent that harvest, and hence to cover a multitude of sins.One day some time since I came into a new understanding of this text and, it has been upon my heart since. I believe it accounts for God having burned it into my heart and mind. By a mere circumstance an acquaintance was made. When my profession was understood, confidence was given and one opened the heart and said, “You are a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; I can tell you what I have hid from others.” Oh what a tale of sorrow! What a tale of terrible temptation!

Pitfalls had been dug already; the trap had been set and the poor, fluttering bird was just ready to be entangled. In fact, a pledge had been made that looked to the wreck of all, and when the story was finished, I said, “This must not be!

This cannot be! This cannot be!”And then I started to unravel the meaning of it; to picture the inevitable, far-reaching, all-involving results; to paint the likeness of what would be, when destruction had done its work. Disgraced and discarded, stripped of all honor, denied all pure love, despised of God, with children suffering from a mother’s misstep, and past friends holding their hands over their hearts as they remembered the one they once loved, but lost; beloved relatives hanging their heads at the mention of the name; and concluded by saying, “Will you pay that sort of a price, even to extricate yourself from the untoward and intolerable and almost inexorable circumstances into which the misfortunes of life have led you?” The blood was gone from the face, and the lips were dented until they would have bled had there been any blood there, and finally she said, “No! You may take it into your own hands, if you will, and break this engagement;” and I waited not a moment to get off that telegraph message.When I returned from the telegraph office I found that one sitting in a corner, sobbing out her soul, yet saying between sobs, “You have done right, and you have saved me.”I said, “I never in my life knew the meaning of Jas 5:20 until today.” She said, “I am not well versed in the Scripture; tell it to me.” And I quoted, “Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins”. I am not charging you tonight with gross conduct; you are just at the beginning; you are just entering upon this wicked way; you can turn now and escape it all. But if you had not turned, death would have been the result.”But oh, what a multitude of sins are covered; you are saved and your sins are hidden!But it has the other thought also, not only preventing the sins that might occur, but hiding those that have occurred already.Take Valentine Burke as an illustration.

He was a burglar. His gun and his kit were always at hand.

His picture adorned many rogue galleries. The jobs that he had done were desperate. Twenty years of his life he had spent in prison. He was a big, strong fellow, with a hard face and a terrible tongue, and sheriffs and jailers feared him. Dwight L. Moody was then a young man. He was in St. Louis preaching and the “Globe Democrat” published his sermons.

One of them was flung into Burke’s prison cell, and when he saw the headlines of the sermon—“How the jailer at Philippi got caught,” the theme interested him. “Philippi,” he thought, “that’s up in Illinois; I’ll read about it.” But when he had started in he found out that it was a sermon, and calling it rot, he flung it to the far end of the room. But time hung heavily on his hands. The next morning he picked it up, then he threw it away. Once more he went back to it, until finally he finished the whole sermon. It was God’s arrow of conviction. It went straight to the heart.

Burke found himself getting down on his knees as his mother had taught him as an infant, and the next thing he believed that God had pardoned him. When the sheriff came in Burke greeted him cordially and told him he had found the Lord through reading Moody’s sermon.

The sheriff suspicioned him; ordered the jailer to keep a closer watch than ever on him. Finally when his case came to trial, through a mere legal entanglement, they failed to convict him and he went free. Immediately the minions of the law began to shadow him. They followed him to Chicago; they followed him to New York; they checked up on his every movement. They expected to catch him in a new crime. But at the end of months they came back and reported that although he could not find work, and at times must have been on the point of starvation, he had not deviated from the path of rectitude by an inch. They believed he was really converted, for he was living like a Christian. So the sheriff who had suspected him sent for Burke.

He went immediately to the courthouse and said, “I suppose you have got some old case against me and I am guilty; tell me what it is and I will confess up.” The sheriff slapped him on the back and said, “No, Burke, we have not a thing against you; you have gone straight ever since you got out of jail. We believe in you now and I have got a job for you. I want to make a deputy out of you.”One day when Mr. Moody was passing through St. Louis he went to see Burke, for he had learned all about his conversion through his sermon and had come to be greatly interested in his Christian career. He found Burke in a closed room in the courthouse, guarding a big bag of diamonds that had just been recovered from thieves and were worth $60,000, and when Moody came in, calling attention to these diamonds, Burke said, “Just see what the grace of God can do for a burglar. Time was when I would risk my life to steal these; now the time has come when the sheriff picks me out of his entire force to guard them.” And then he sobbed like a saddened child, and yet in his sobs there were smiles of joy.The text is true: “He which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins”.