SQLite format 3@ (b(- ii!%%atableTopicsTopicsCREATE TABLE Topics (Title NVARCHAR(100), Notes TEXT) uTitle & Foreword{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deftab1134{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\sb240\sa120\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\lang1033\b\f0\fs32 CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH\par \pard\nowidctlpar\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx792F 01-B.H. Carroll - An Appreciat   Z 0\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\b0\fs24\tab\par \pard\nowidctlpar\qc\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080 CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH\par \i Containing Great Sermons Concerning the Church of\i0\par \i Christ, Elaborate Discussions of the Baptist View\i0\par \i of the Lord\i0\rquote \i s Supper and a Heart-searching\i0\par \i Analysis of the Church Covenant \par \i0\par \b BY\par \b0\par B. H. CARROLL, D.D., LL.D.\par \i For Almost Thirty Years Pastor of First Baptist Church, Waco, Texas,\i0 \i and Founder and First President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary,\i0\par \i Fort Worth, Texas\par \i0\par \b COMPILED BY\b0\par J. W. CROWDER, A.B., D.D.\par \par \b EDITED BY\b0\par J. B. CRANFILL, M.D., LL.D.\par \par \b\i To\b0\i0\par \b\i TOM M. CRANFILL\par \b0\i0\par \i My beloved grandson, scholar, teacher and courteous\i0\par \i Christian gentleman, who loves to serve and bless humanity, this\i0\par \i book is of affectionately dedicated by The Editor.\i0\par \pard\nowidctlpar\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080 \tab\par \tab\par \pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\sb240\sa120\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\b\fs32\page FOREWORD\par \pard\nowidctlpar\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\b0\fs24 \tab B.H. CARROLL looms larger the further we recede from his commanding personality. \par \tab It would be difficult to determine which of his altitudes was most impressive, and equally difficult to prophesy which of his great qualities will longest survive in our Baptist literature. \par \tab As an interpreter of the Bible, he has had no superior in any land or in any age. As a preacher he combined the eloquence and power of the greatest men of this and former times. As a leader he had few peers and no superiors. As a kingly Christian and gentle-hearted, never-failing friend he was a man apart. \par \tab While it is impossible that any one great preacher or teacher can combine all the high qualities of all of his contemporaries or predecessors, I do not hesitate to declare that B.H. Carroll came nearer to this ideal than any man I have ever known or studied. \par \tab We find, therefore, without surprise, that his knowledge, interpretation and elucidation of Ecclesiology takes first rank in the fourteen sermons herewith presented. He traverses the e ntire gamut of the subject in hand, and when he has finished a discussion of any topic that is here presented, there is nothing left that can profitably be added to what he has said. \par \tab There are many readers who will find in the second chapter of this volume a long and eagerly desired answer to vital questions concerning the establishment of Christ\rquote s church. Dr. Carroll treats the subject frankly and presents his views in that loving kindness so regnant in all his discourses. The answers t o these questions presented here will establish many hearts in the faith of the Gospel and will re-establish many who may have wavered in their concept of the New Testament presentation of this most important matter. \par \tab His treatment of the widely discussed question of Communion, or the Lord\rquote s Supper, is unexcelled. If there is in any Baptist literature an analysis of this important theme more informing or convincing than that found in this volume, it has never come to my attention. \par \ tab Another feature of unusual quality is his analysis of our Baptist Church Covenant. \par \tab Every Baptist pastor will find increased and increasing loyalty in his church membership if he will place this marvelous and penetrating discussion of our church obligations in their hands. \tab\par \tab While no man is a competent judge of his own Christian activities, I often wonder if my humble service in the preservation of B. H. Carroll\rquote s work is not the greatest single service of my Christian l ife. \par \tab In the production of this volume I am deeply indebted to Professor J. W. Crowder, of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, for assistance of inestimable value. \par \tab While he and I may differ on other points, we are at one concerning the greatness of B. H. Carroll and the fadeless value of his work. \par \tab The present volume of sermons is the twenty-sixth Carroll book I have been privileged to give to the world. The first was \ldblquote Sermons,\rdblquote a volume of thirty discourses, and this was followed by \ldblquote Baptists and Their Doctrines,\rdblquote \ldblquote Evangelistic Sermons,\rdblquote \ldblquote The River of Life,\rdblquote \ldblquote Inspiration of the Bible;\rdblquote \ldblquote The Day of the Lord,\rdblquote \par \tab\ldblquote Jesus the Christ,\rdblquote \ldblquote The Holy Spirit,\rdblquote \ldblquote Revival Messages,\rdblquote \ldblquote Ambitious Dreams of Youth,\rdblquote and \ldblquote The Faith that Saves.\rdblquote Contemporaneous with the issuance of these books of sermons, there began to appear \ldblquote The Interpretation of the English Bible,\rdblquote consisting of thirteen volumes. Strangely enough, the first volume of this\par \tab\ldblquote Interpretation\rdblquote to appear was \ldblquote Revelation,\rdblquote which was followed by \ldblquote Genesis,\rdblquote and on through a golden galaxy of the most luminous discussions of the English Bible known to me. \par \tab And now this book is sent out on the wings of Christian love to the Baptist brotherhood near and far. If those who read it find the help and blessing in its perusal that came to me as its pages fell under my own eyes, they will in their hearts thank God for the privilege of owning and reading this book. \par \tab J. B. CRANFILL\par \tab \i Dallas, Texas\i0\par \tab\par \tab\par \tab\par \tab\par \pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\sb240\sa120\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\b\fs32\page\par } CY=00-Title & Foreword{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deftaCY=00-Title & Foreword{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deftab1134{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\sb240\sa120\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\lang1033\b\f0\fs32 CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH\par \pard\nowidctlpar\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx792 <<n!I02-Foundation of the Church of Christ{\rtf1\ansi\deff0\deftab1134{\fonttbl{!01-B.H. Carroll - An Appreciation{\rtf1\ansi\deff0\deftab1134{\fonttbl{\f0n!I02-Foundation of the Church of Christ{\rtf1\ansi\deff0\deftab1134{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}} {\colortbl ;\reds\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\sb240\sa120\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\lang1033\b\f0\fs32 1. B. H. CARROLL-AN APPRECIATION \par \pard\nowidctlpar\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\b0\fs24 \tab \i By His Son, \i0\par \tab REV. CHARLES C. CARROLL, D.D. \par \par \tab Mr. President, Members of The Faculty, Fellow Students, and Visiting Friends: In expressing the usual salutations of a speaker upon this occasion I would like to have your indulgence in mentioning an unusual appreciation upon my part due to the relationship borne to the Founder of this Seminary in whose memory this day is annually observed. Because your first president was my father in the flesh, and because also, according to Paul\rquote s exegesis in the 4th Chapter of 1st Corinthians, he had in Christ begotten me through the Gospel through spiritual travail, I would stifle every impulse of natural and spiritual affection if what I try to say here today should be in any way impersonal or should fail in any particular that last full measure of devotion due him from a doubly filial heart. But from that realm of personal and loving relationship I would jealously banish any insensate thought of saying anything transgressing the extreme bounds of delicacy and good taste, or of unworthily slipping from the decorum of biography into auto-biography. \par \tab And most sincerely would I avoid the projection of any personal relationship to him as a special privilege except love into the relationships established in either the foundation of this Seminary or its progress both before and after he ceased from his labors. And above all else, while recognizing this institution and the spread of its continued activities to be in a certain sense a cenotaph to its human founder, God forbid that any impious word of mine should ever disturb his own subordination to the institution itself and its real Founder, or blur his devoted expectation that in HIM it might become an eventual part in that city with foundations whose builder and whose maker is God. \par \tab It was for that cause he wanted to make here on Seminary Hill a citadel of orthodoxy. And being come as your guest, and left at liberty in the courtesy of your invitation to speak, to choose what I might say, and freely accepting all the knightly strictures of that courtesy, I still shall not hesitate to place first the co-operation of all, from the least to the most, who helped to rear this structure. In doing so I am sure I but add my willingness to his. \par \tab So, if, after this restriction, under the exigencies of the hour he is most my theme, it is due to that temporary exaltation to which you yourselves have raised him. He least of all would have contended for your momentary promotion, but with its advancement his greatest wish would be for this hour to burn with some added fire to warm the iron of your resolution to carry on for Christ. And I, who all my life have coveted his approval, would like to think, if not presumptuous, that \ldblquote I sat in my musing until the fire burned, and then I spake.\rdblquote \par \tab Were I to take a text today I think it would be the Messianic summons in the fifty-first chapter of Isaiah combined with the Messianic progress in the forty-sixth Psalm:\par \tab\ldblquote Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are: digged. \par \tab Look unto Abraham your father, and to Sarah that bare you; for I called him alone, and blessed him and increased him.\rdblquote \par \tab\ldblquote There is a River, the streams whereof shall make glad the City of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High.\rdblquote \par \tab I would not want the Rock less magnified than Daniel\rquote s prophecy of a stone mountain, less vibrant than God\rquote s voice at Sinai, less luminous than the scene of the transfiguration, less basic than Peter\rquote s exegesis of the foundation stone, less prospective than Pisgah, nor less triumphant than Paul\rquote s explanation to the Hebrews of Matthew Zion. Nor would I narrow the River to lessen the proportions of Ezekiel\rquote s vision nor dull its clarification in John\rquote s apocalypse. Both Rock and River are part of the imagery of prophecy depicting the character and mission of Jesus Christ. \par \tab It is in the relationship to Jesus that a man\rquote s life is a success or a failure. Especially is this true of a preacher\rquote s life. The summation of his life lies in his laying hold of all for which Jesus Christ laid hold of him. The mark of his success is his constant approach to that apprehension. It is hardly necessary to say that an appreciation and seizure of such a mission and purpose demands self-abnegation. It is only when we are dead and our lives are hid in Christ Jesus that we are most alive as preachers. And because I would like to think my being here today is a part of preaching and because I do think a part of preaching is to point to Jesus, as lifted up, drawing all men unto Him, I would like to preach Jesus unto all the nations of men today, seething and striving as they are, as their real desire. \par \tab National strifes are peculiarly an exhibition of, not so much racial differences, as a common racial covetousness. The essential facts of their warrings are not new. The incitation to their mutual enmity is still the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, and to some of us at least, there still remains the fixed belief in the existence of that Satan under whose methodizations the principalities and powers of world wickedness are arrayed against the testimony of the Son of God and His messengers of Divine love; that Serpent of old, the Slanderer, who is king over all the sons of pride and whose deceptions not only carry the peoples away under the political guidance of idol shepherds, but seduce ecclesiasticisms to a harlotry whose path leads down to death and whose feet take hold on hell; that the accentuation against the Jews has been recently more acute in particular nations and more general in many; that governments have made repudiation of the Bible a way of governmental insistences as to the direction of the lives of their citizenry; that religious intolerance and even persecution begin to find expression in the general political unrest; that the surrender of individualism, the unconditional surrender of individualism, has been demanded everywhere as the foundation of new orders of national existence \u-1817? all combine to make a world condition that becomes a huger interrogation for the future than the late world war. Everywhere there are voices until the earth has become a tower of Babel, and all clamorous in a world colluctation of sound. The issues are not new but they are more vocal, more mult itudinously vociferous. Nor is the answer new. \par \tab Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives and outlined in prophecy the world condition projected till the end of time, and in His anastrophe at Jerusalem in the Person of the Holy Spirit proclaimed with tongues of fire Himself the gospel for every man\rquote s soul. \par \tab And Pentecost still pleads, and will until God closes the door to eternal life, that every man hear in his own tongue in which he was born, God speaking to him through His Son. And be!cause, as a young man, my father, already embittered, disillusioned, impoverished and on crutches, from an unhealed wound, received at the battle of Mansfield, La., found, after the Civil War, at a Methodist camp meeting, faith to receive Jesus Christ as a personal Lord and Redeemer, he accepted with the gift of God, the Bible as a revelation from God, of God, worded to and by men officially set apart by the Holy Spirit and under His direction into a completed book, the Scriptures of which cannot be broke"n, as an expression of His wisdom, will, purpose and plan for man and the universe. \par \tab Because he had found it a living word, able to make him personally wise unto salvation, and because with his sense of redemption and regeneration there had come a conviction that God had chosen him to be a preacher, he dedicated himself to the study and promulgation of the Scriptures. His regeneration not only bound him irrevocably into the household of God in a sonship that was his increasing delight to explore# and magnify, but it established his own individual place and purpose in the kingdom of God as a child of the King. \par \tab There was a joyousness about his preaching. His regeneration carried with it a revitalization of his interest in people that grew until he died. He was eager to receive from and impart to all men. He loved to preach, and as a \ldblquote preacher sought to find out words of delight: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth. \par \tab The words of the wise are as$ goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.\rdblquote His impulsion to preach, coming as he increasingly believed, as a direct commitment from Jesus Christ, was a constant command to an active life in the ministry. \par \tab In order to preach a preacher should have a vocabulary. The place to find it was in, the Bible, first, as he saw it. He never doubted but that words have a power of impact on the soul. He never questioned the words of the Bible as t%he messengers of the Almighty. A sermon to perform its mission must be a chariot of Christ. \par \tab He believed thoroughly that God has given preaching a positive and distinct place in the affairs of men until the end of time. He saw a continuity of its office work from living men to living men in the laying on of hands by the presbytery. But the presbytery must consist of ordained preachers and the laying on of hands must be officially done by vote of the church after satisfactory examination into the& candidate\rquote s personal experience of grace, his assurance of his call to preach as from God and this corroborated by the faith of his brethren that he had been so called, and finally as to his soundness in the faith once for all delivered unto the saints. And since this examination must be doubly satisfactory, or rather triply satisfactory, for lest the candidate himself find himself by the examination unsatisfied as to his fitness or faith, or the presbytery so find him, or the church, he held the 'examination should take place before the whole church duly assembled, as being the sole authority on earth to defer, refuse or confirm the credentials that would send him forth as a duly authorized minister of the Gospel. \par \tab And because he held the church to be an assembly of regenerated people, baptized, organized in conformity to New Testament teaching and practice, and that only, and covenanting together to hold in sacred stewardship the manifold grace of God as displayed in all the commitments( from Jesus Christ to the assembly as such, and to forward them as so committed so long and so far as He commanded, he held the preaching of a minister authorized by the assembly and faithful to his trust, to be authoritative preaching. He believed it because he held to the New Testament doctrine that such an assembly was baptized by the Holy Spirit and endued with witnessing power, and so he believed in successful preaching. \par \tab He believed that God in Christ through the Holy Spirit brings the ind)ividual man into a participation in the nature of Jesus enabling Jesus to tell His disciples: \ldblquote Because I live ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.\rdblquote And just as he believed the assembly of Jesus Christ to be the temple of the Holy Spirit, the Alter Ego of Jesus, so he believed the Holy Spirit accompanies and empowers the preached word of God and by His concomitant work makes the preached word a savor of life unto life or death* unto death. \par \tab The association of heaven and earth appealed to him as an essential of true preaching. The action of God in the gift of His Son was meant to operate in the human life on earth and in heaven in time, and to continue in a new heaven and a new earth in eternity. So nothing employed by Divine Love, Wisdom and Power as a means of conveying the truth, showing the way, or revealing the life, should be confused in significance. \par \tab When Jesus said \ldblquote I am the way, the truth +and the life,\rdblquote He revealed the mission of every means, every person, every organization, every agency, every memorial, every ordinance, sent forth, authenticated and established for testimony to Him. To discern the broken body of the Lord and His shed blood for the remission of sins in the memorial of the Lord\rquote s Supper does not require a transubstantiation of the body, soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ from the ground and cooked wheat and the crushed out fruit of the vine. Both memorial a,nd prophecy unite in the significance of baptism as they do in the Lord\rquote s Supper and in the Sabbath-keeping that remains to the children of God. \par \tab Jesus alone is the great High Priest in that He as the Lamb of God is the propitiation for sin; He as the true mercy seat is the propitiatory or altar upon whom the blood of the eternal Covenant could be offered, and He is the Priest who passed through the heavens into the Holy of Holies of God\rquote s presence once as Priest, to offer once and- forever, the one offering for sin, that can and does cleanse forever all who believe on His Name. It is not the translation of bread and wine into Deity but the translation by the birth from above in regeneration, of the redeemed and cleansed soul by the precious blood of Christ, into the kingdom of the Son of God\rquote s love, and the imputation of His righteousness because of being begotten of God of an incorruptible seed, that provides the atonement. \par \tab It is only after our hearts have been s.prinkled with the blood by Him of an evil conscience and we have been born into the Kingdom that we should have our bodies washed in the baptism which is the figure of His burial and resurrection from the dead, He who was offered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. \par \tab For if we are planted in the likeness of His death we are raised up in the likeness of His resurrection when we are baptized for the dead. \par \tab My father unhesitatingly believed that baptism originated in t/he peculiar mission of John as the herald of the Messiah and that the act and its significance, together with his authority to administer it and the revelation of the subjects of its recipience had the direct definition of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus assumed the authority of the act and committed its perpetuity to the assembly of His own institution, John recognized both the innate and official right of Jesus in the procedure and completed the office work of his own testimony to Jesus by the recognition o0f the assembly as the bride of Christ and expressed his joy as fulled in the presence of Jesus as the proper. \par \tab Bridegroom. And as the office of baptism is to reveal Jesus and the content of His relationship to God and man, first to the Jews by John and then to the whole race of man by the Church, neither the act, nor its significance, nor its recipiency, is subject to change. \par \tab Equally so God\rquote s order in the Gospel of His Son leaves the Lord\rquote s Supper and the stewardship of 1its commission not subject to change. Baptism, Church organization, and the Lord\rquote s. Supper antedate the cross, the passage of the Great High Priest through the veil of His flesh and on through the heavens to the completion of His offering of blood, and His coming back, to enter the body prepared for Him in His resurrection from the dead, and neither the figure nor the memorial of His sacrificial office, nor the agency established and sent forth by Him to proclaim the power and glory of its consumma2tion could take the place of what He did as the Savior of men. \par \tab My father believed that what was done to Jesus at Golgotha by men, by angels, by God Himself, and what He did in connection therewith, and the result of all the action involved, constitutes the supreme expression of God\rquote s love of the world an expression that was necessary if the world through Him should be saved. \par \tab I realize this hour has been more particularly set apart to a contemplation of the closing years of my 3father\rquote s ministry, which might best be studied in the light of this city set like Jerusalem of old, upon a hill, and in the practical completion of the Interpretation of the English Bible for which he expressed in his last will and testament his intention of their formulation into a text book for the course in the English Bible. I know he had accepted the task of these two things as a personal direction of Jesus Christ of his labor in the ministry toward the completion of what Jesus wanted him to d4o as a preacher. \par \tab One afternoon when his lecture for the day was over and I had listened to him for an hour in a deliverance of what I knew he had spent six hours that day preparing, he took me in his buggy with him and drove over and around Seminary Hill while he told me of the growth of his conviction that God wanted him to finish his ministry with the Seminary and his Interpretation of the Bible. The idea of such a work was of long standing. He felt that it should be done and wrote to Dr. Joh5n A. Broadus suggesting that he, being so eminently fitted to write such an Interpretation, should do so and incorporate it in the body of the instruction a Louisville. In reply Dr. Broadus placed the burden upon him as an expression of his own conviction. He finally came to believe that it was God\rquote s will for him to find in actual teaching the development of the Interpretation of the Bible. And he wanted a Bible Department in Baylor University to be the channel of his instruction associated with al6l that the education of preachers might require, and the department itself in due articulation an co-ordination with the rest of the University departments. \par \tab It is not my province today to discuss the final eclosion of this Seminary by tracing its history through all its pupa stage, but I do want to recall so long as I live his exposition that afternoon of what he believed to be the Holy Spirit\rquote s office work in the production and exhibition of the Scriptures together with His residence in7 the individual Christian and each particular assembly and His co-ordination of their martyrdom into the co-operation which under His guidance and power would in the appointed times and seasons accomplish the purpose of God in Christ Jesus. \par \tab Counting one phase of the Spirit\rquote s work as being the illumination of the Scriptures in an enablement of a preacher to rightly divide the word of truth and in the comparison of spiritual things with spiritual things to find the interpretation of that H8oly Book for a presentment of Jesus Christ to lost men as a Savior and to redeemed men as the expansion and extension of their lives into eternal glory, my father told me that afternoon as I watched his face with the evening sun upon it, \ldblquote I believe God has given me a gift of interpretation.\rdblquote \par \tab There is a rough ashlar over a grave in a cemetery at Baltimore under which rest the ashes of Sidney Lanier and on the stone a metal marker on which is the sun displayed and the words, \9ldblquote I Am Lit With The Sun.\rdblquote And to me the very granite seems to glow with the vision and burn with the warmth of Lanier\rquote s memory of sunrise over the Marshes of Glynn, as dying he wrote his last poem in the mountains of North Carolina. And once at eventide I saw from a street in Interlaken, the Yungfrau mountain in majesty of stone and snow clothed with the golden beauty of sunset, and I can understand how the face of Jesus Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration transcended the glory: of created light. \par \tab To preach of Christ and the church when viewed in the light of God\rquote s revelation in the face of Jesus becomes the most important thing on earth, especially when coupled with the realization that the message of preaching has the right of eminent domain on earth until the end of time. \par \tab Speech and the power of words were a constant rapture to my father. It seemed a reasonable thing to him that God in the mystery of His unity and the companionship of His Person sh;ould have planned and decreed a universe and brought it into existence by fiat establishing space in immensity and time in eternity. And if in that space veiled in the ordained darkness of genesis the waters should have gushed forth as from the womb of time and over them the Spirit of God in obedience to the Word of God Who had voiced the will of God, should have quivered until the waters became a saturate solution of the atomic dust of the world and instinct with the energy in which was the residence of Son as voicing the will of the Father, completed Wisdom\rquote s house of creation with its seven pillars, and completed the Tabernacle of Redemption in raising the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, and Who witnesses with the blood and the water and regeneration can irradiate the last shadow of spiritual darkness down to the last descendant of Adam to be born into the Kingdom, and following \ldblquote the roar of final fire\rdblquote complete the testimony of the redeemed in the glorification of their bod?ies. \par \tab The power of words! Man was made by the Word of God, man was redeemed by the Word of God, and the hour cometh when all that are in their graves shall hear His voice and come forth to acknowledge the justice of His words of judgment. The power of preaching! Because he believed the Scriptures cannot be broken and are assured in their heavenly mission by the judicious exercise of the Holy Spirit, ever present in their proclamation, of their content and power, \ldblquote I preach,\rdblquote m@y father declared, \ldblquote believing that men shall be saved by the preaching, and not merely to bear witness.\rdblquote He believed the entering in of God\rquote s Word gives light to the sinful heart and mind and for all who will receive the light and walk in the light while they have the light, God will take away the hearts of stone and give hearts of flesh upon which the tables of His law may be written that with the hearts they may believe unto salvation. \par \tab The progress in the preached WAord of God was inexpressibly beautiful to him in its irradiation of spiritual darkness. I heard him once, thirty-nine years ago, portray in preaching the spread of the gospel from Pentecost to Patmos in that period of evangelism during which the New Testament was written and with its completion the completion of the canon. I had been ordained that day, and had insisted that he preach that night instead of the newly ordained minister. As he explained how the number of witnesses increased and the churches aBnd pastors were multiplied under the power of preaching, he was caught in the narration of it for an inexpressible moment by the splendor of God, and then told us as he spread wide his arms in awed confidence, \ldblquote It was like the bursting out of stars.\rdblquote \par \tab I had been teaching English literature and had but recently called attention of my class to the influence of Chapman\rquote s Homer on the mind of John Keats, who first looking into it had \ldblquote felt like some lone watcher Cof the skies when a new planet swims into his ken,\rdblquote but never before had I seen imperishable flame so float forth in speech and cluster in galaxies of fire. It is a logical thing that the works of God in creation should corroborate the law of the Spirit of life in redemption and the whole creation should travail together in Christ, while the travail of regeneration continues, awaiting the manifestation of the sons of God. And there is a spiritual correspondence between the fire stuff of music, aDrt, architecture and poetry and the flaming tongues of Pentecost. I saw the grave of John Keats at Rome and in spite of the pathos of his epitaph still believe that \ldblquote A thing of beauty is a joy forever,\rdblquote and that he wrote more than upon water. \par \tab My father believed genius to be a gift of grace, the recipient of which is due acknowledgment to the Giver. He wrote me once, \ldblquote I am no great admirer of Walt Whitman. It is a poor return to the Father of Lights and the Giver ofE human faculties and powers to use these free gifts of grace against the homage due to the Giver. The infidelity which hurts is not so much the outright, blatant assaults of men like Voltaire and Paine, but it is the infidelity that surreptitiously creeps into literary works of genius, and will poison while it beguiles by beauty of expression and thought.\rdblquote \par \tab It was just a month later he enclosed me a typewritten copy of \ldblquote The Man with the Hoe,\rdblquote with this inscription oFn the right hand side of the page, written in his own hand:\par \tab\ldblquote Prof. Edwin Markham\rquote s poem on Millet\rquote s painting: The Man with the Hoe. Quoted by B. H. Carroll in a Sermon on Christ\rquote s Compassion for the Multitude, preached before First Baptist Church, Waco, Sunday, 11 a.m., April 9, 1899,\rdblquote and underneath the poem:\par \tab\ldblquote This, my son, is a masterpiece. A gem of richer lustre than has sparkled in literature for 100 years. - B. H. C.\rdblquote \parG \tab Twenty-one years later at the seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding of Baylor University, when in the long lists of names associated with the memorabilia of the school, no single word of reference appeared to recognize forty years of devoted service, not even the initials of my father\rquote s name, I met Prof. Markham and told him of the letter and the sermon preached a fifth of a century before. \ldblquote I have been hearing about that sermon all over Texas ever since I came into the state,\Hrdblquote he replied. \par \tab It was not only in the worded expressions of life, but in the movements of a people in building a city, or the marts of trade, that life expands in the individual. \par \tab I venture to quote from still another letter out of some seventy I received from my father during the years. This is from one between the two cited above. \par \tab\ldblquote Your stay in Chicago, if you thoroughly brace yourself against the evil influences there, will be of incalculable benefit in Ibroadening your views of men and things, and the contacts with large currents of life will necessarily enlarge your own conceptions and perceptions. It was principally with this end in view that I urged you to go to Chicago. There is an education that comes from association and contact with immense vital forces and with various orders of men that, while not exactly definable, or susceptible of being reduced to exact proportions, yet counts much in the life of one who receives it; even more than any learniJng from text books. After your sojourn in Chicago, you will find it impossible to ever come back down to the plane of thought once occupied. The horizon will have widened, and mere localities and local things will have diminished in size and relative importance.\rdblquote \par \tab Incidentally I may add very soon after my sojourn in Chicago, he wrote me that it would take me a little while to get down off of my stilts. He knew that in vital relationships Bethlehem can easily be greater than the world mKetropolis and a nearer approach to the Holy City. Without discussion as to how he came to address the Southern Baptist Convention at Chattanooga when Home Board Evangelism struggled for birth, I well recall his statement that while he did not hear the discussions the day before, he had felt the vibrations of a great movement, and when in pleading to\par \tab\ldblquote deny not fins to things that swim, nor feet to things that run, nor wings to things that fly,\rdblquote \par \tab I knew he had found GoLd\rquote s pathway through the seas for His Gospel until the sea gives up the dead; that he had heard the echoing of beautiful feet upon the mountains of the ones bringing glad tidings of great joy, and there had come to him from Patmos the \ldblquote noise of wings\rdblquote of an angel flying and carrying the everlasting Gospel. \par \tab Not a great while before he had written me at Ocala, Florida:\par \tab\ldblquote I am also desirous that you cultivate the habit of having on hand always some speciMal, profound study of some great topic or of some book of the Bible, apart from any apparent present need of that study. One who neglects this duty finds himself at last deep and proficient on nothing, the life merely diffused, over the multitudinous things of one\rquote s environment. \par \tab\ldblquote All my life, I have had under special study either some great theme or some Bible book, even when there seemed no call for it in the round of present things claiming attention. The opportunity for usingN the results of such study always comes and gives such student great advantage over those who must meet the emergency or seize the opportunity handicapped by only cursory information and impromptu preparation.\rdblquote \par \tab He told me once that no matter how carefully he prepared an address he always left room for that part of his message which comes in the delivery of the message itself, and that when it came he gave it place regardless of anything else, and if at such time he could catch an answOering gleam in the eyes of just one of his hearers, he knew he had his audience with him. And that was his reason for preaching, to win his hearers. \par \tab Skyrockets and sheet lightning had no attraction for him in his oratory. He focused his fire believing the lightning flash that found a single heart struck in some way the whole congregation. I am sure his great metaphors were fused largely in such moments. \par \tab One of his brethren asked me once if his theological concepts were not more the sPatisfaction of an intellectual desire than anything else. I assured him on the contrary they were the result of humble and reverent research and spiritual approaches for the definite purpose of lovingly knowing and faithfully presenting the being, person, character, nature and mission of our Lord. He wanted to know Him and the power of His resurrection in the fellowship of His suffering and conformity to His death. But he did delight in mental exercise and intellectual explorations. \par \tab Once he verQy gravely asked me to name the presidents of the United States in three separate orders giving dates in each instance. First, in the order of their births, second, in the order of their inaugurations and third, in the order of their deaths. I didn\rquote t do it. But he did and generously threw in the vice-presidents. It was more than a mere memory test, however. It was principally an expression of knowledge due to his analysis of men in their relationship to times and events. \par \tab Repeatedly he advRised me to read biographies, memoirs, auto-biographies, in connection with a study of history. I have the copy he gave me of the Life and Letters of John A. Broadus, who, as was my mother, was a descendant of Edward Broadus of Caroline County, Va. \par \tab\par \tab \b\i\ldblquote Presented to Rev. C. C. Carroll by his father May 10, 1901 - Read - mark - study - follow - \rdblquote \b0\i0\par \tab Under this I find a citation of my own as of August 6, 1935, as having marked the greatest name in the bSook. \par \tab Among the something more than a thousand volumes which I eventually received from him are the fifty-four with the list written in his own hand which he sent me about two months before I was ordained:\par \tab Volumes\par \tab Comprehensive Commentary - Very good and rare\par \tab 5\par \tab Fuller\rquote s Works - Very good and rare\par \tab 3\par \tab Notes on Pentateuch - McIntosh - Rich in Spirituality\par \tab 6\par \tab Inspiration - By Manly of S. B. T. Sem. \par \tab 1\par T \tab Grounds of Theistic Belief - Fisher (Seminary text book)\par \tab 1\par \tab Philosophy of Plan of Salvation - Walker\par \tab 1\par \tab Light of Nations - Deems - (Deems a Methodist - Good Book)\par \tab 1\par \tab The Argument for Christianity - Lorimer\par \tab 1\par \tab Messages of Today to Men of Tomorrow - Lorimer\par \tab 1\par \tab Needham\rquote s Spurgeon\par \tab 1\par \tab Moody and Sankey\par \tab 1\par \tab Life of Reuben Ross\par \tab 1\par \tab Salvation by Christ -U Wayland\par \tab 1\par \tab Baptist Principles - Wayland\par \tab 1\par \tab Sermons by B. H. C. \par \tab 1\par \tab Sermons by McNeil\par \tab 1\par \tab Sermons South Church Lectures\par \tab 1\par \tab Sermons Methodist Pulpit South\par \tab 1\par \tab Sermons Ministry of Healing - Gordon\par \tab 1\par \tab Sermons Grace and Glory - Gordon\par \tab 1\par \tab Sermons Bible Difficulties - McArthur\par \tab 1\par \tab Sermons Triumphant Certainties - Maclaren\par \tab 1\par \tab HaVrmony of Gospels - Broadus\par \tab 1\par \tab Jesus The Nazarene - Bagby\par \tab 1\par \tab Three Reasons - Pendleton\par \tab 1\par \tab Bible Hand - Book - Chambliss\par \tab 1\par \tab Layman\rquote s Hand-Book - Venable\par \tab 1\par \tab Baptist Pamphlets\par \tab 2\par \tab N. T. Baptisms - Belcher\par \tab 1\par \tab Immersion - J. T. Christian\par \tab 1\par \tab Pedobaptism - Frost\par \tab 1\par \tab Pencilly & Booth\par \tab 1\par \tab Lord\rquote s Supper - Williams\par W \tab 1\par \tab How Christ Came to Chruch - Gordon\par \tab 1\par \tab\par \tab Orthodoxy - Joseph Cook\par \tab 1\par \tab In His Steps - Sheldon\par \tab 1\par \tab Volumes\par \tab 49\par \tab Have ordered to you from Dallas -\par \tab Systematic Theology by Strong\par \tab 1\par \tab Christian Doctrines - Pendleton\par \tab 1\par \tab Revised O. T. \par \tab 1\par \tab Revised N. T. \par \tab 1\par \tab Harmony of The Acts\par \tab 1\par \tab Total\par \tab 54\par \par \tab InX his accompanying letter he notes: \ldblquote In box of books is January number Current Literature. Have ordered the other numbers to you direct.\rdblquote The letter is dated January 11, 1900. As my ordination was the first Sunday in the following April, I met him in Shreveport for a conference on the examination which I had already been told he would conduct. Every time I suggested the conference, which was my appointment, not his, he merely said, \ldblquote We will discuss that later,\rdblquote and wYe did, but not until I sat before the Presbytery in the presence of the church. \par \tab Noting one by Dr. Christian in the list above, I am minded of an incident connected with our later association. We were going to Hattiesburg, Miss., where we were both to preach but at different churches, and enroute I told him how my father asked \ul me one day if I had ever preached on \cf1 1Ch_1:1\cf0 , and added, \ldblquote I know you \ulnone haven\rquote t because you don\rquote t even remember what it says \lqZuote Adam, Sheth, Enosh,\rquote\rdblquote and how I had persuaded him to give me the outline of his own sermon on the text. \par \tab That night I finished first and went around to hear the close of Dr. Christian\rquote s sermon, and as I went in and sat down, he looked at me and said, \ldblquote I will now repeat my text, Adam, Sheth, Enosh.\rdblquote \par \tab There is another sermon I treasure particularly, one on the Millennium and the final advent of our Lord, preached by my father at Owensboro, [Ky., Dec. 12, 1909, which he gave to me as I had it stenographically reported and afterward published in the Green River Baptist. It is possibly the most lucid and triumphant utterance by him on the relationship of these events. \par \tab There is still another which I heard him preach, on The Love of the Spirit, \cf1\ul Rom_15:30\cf0 , in which he showed the Holy Spirit loving us should be the object\ulnone of our personal devotion. For thirty-nine years in the ministry I have heard no other sermon on \that text. I may be wrong but there may be two reasons for this. One, we preachers lose sight of the Holy Spirit as a Person in the Godhead, and the other that He so lovingly manifests the Son and the Father through the Son to us that their love is shown in the beauty of His own subordination to the Son, as the Son in His kenosis subordinated Himself to the Father and the Spirit. \par \tab Desiring now to turn for a little while to recalling those earlier associations with my father when in my boyhood da]ys he was, as now, the tallest figure of a man on my horizon, I ask your indulgence to do so through an inscription in a book given to my father by my elder brother, who told me before he died in a confidence which I do not betray now that he is dead, that the most treasured thing that he received as Consul at Venice in the World War was the statement by the Commander of an Italian Brigade which my brother addressed just before they went into battle, \ldblquote I feel that we have been in the presence of ^some great evangelist.\rdblquote The book in reference was the inaugural dissertation in German my brother wrote for his degree at Frederick William University, Berlin, of Philosophiae Doctoris Et Artium Liberalium Magistri, with this inscription in his own hand:\par \tab \b\i\ldblquote With best love to the\b0\i0\par \tab \b\i Greatest and Best Beloved\b0\i0\par \tab \b\i of all my teachers\b0\i0\par \tab \b\i To my Father\rdblquote \b0\i0\par \tab As he had one degree from Baylor, another fro_m the State University of Texas, had been a Fellow in Hebrew at Chicago under Dr. Harper, and had both Theological degrees from Louisville Seminary, I would call it the great tribute. \par \tab My father gave much personal companionship to his children when we were boys. I remember swimming on his shoulders in the Bosque River, riding behind him horseback to visit Baptist Associational Meetings, hunting with him in forest and field, sitting on a magic carpet of the imagination as in the evenings he told `us stories. \par \tab And once when I carried home a cadet sword he took it in his hand and stretched it forth as though it were a living thing, then turned to me and smiled, saying it was the custom of the Irish Nobles to knight their sons, and struck me on the shoulders and said: \ldblquote Arise, Sir Charles.\rdblquote And once when he and my mother were telling us of the Civil War and her seven brothers who saw service, one dying with wounds from Shiloh, he showed us the scar he wore from Mansfield aand told us to remember the Confederacy in such terms. And those ties of home where love was law are \ldblquote dear as remembered kisses after death.\rdblquote And after he was nearly to the journey\rquote s end, I have the memories of night after night, when insomnia kept him awake, of hearing him expand the great themes he had studied. And when through no volition of my own I became less active in my cherished calling, I have spent some hours in the fascinating study of genealogy, finding in the tracebry of ancient records the remnants of the woven threads that held the patterns of family successions. \tab\par \tab I know genealogy is confessedly inferior in every way to regeneration, but even then it has some place in the magnalia of the saints. In the democracy of the children of God all genealogies are subject to the adjustments of grace. But genealogy is perhaps a privilege of age, and it may be found useful in an appeal to Caesar, or satisfactory in dealing with the insolence of the Sanhedrin. Ict may find place in rebuking the cheatery of snobbishness, rebelling against the robberies of special privilege and repudiating the viciousness of bureaucracy behind which mediocrity is wont to sit. And moreover it has ever been accounted a meritorious thing that a man should find in the valorous deed or worth of another, and especially one of his own blood, an example that may become a fax valoris, a torch of some Promethean fire, to augment the glow of his own life\rquote s purpose. \par \tab\ldblquoted For, of illustrious men,\rdblquote says Pericles, \ldblquote the whole earth is the sepulchre; and not only does the inscription upon columns in their own land point it out, but in that also which is not their own there dwells with every one an unwritten memorial of the heart, rather than of a material monument.\rdblquote \par \tab Was it not Carlyle who said history is the distillation of biography? And it may be added the incentives to biography are stemmed in genealogy. Of course whoever enters inteo the research of its records for personal information must remember the discipline of family pride is the realization of the universality of those elements which make for what the world counts greatness and that there is an enforced humility in the comparison of the character and deeds of valiant men and women regardless of tribal, national or geographical distribution. \par \tab Due to fire, war, migrations, frontier conditions, loss of place and wealth, the ravages of moths and mice, the crumbling of fmonuments and the decomposition of paper and parchment, and that slow decay in cemeteries \ldblquote because the lichens of forgetfulness love the stones of remembrance,\rdblquote there are detours in all genealogical research and all too frequently the trail is lost, but the subject is of intense interest. \par \tab My father\rquote s name like so many others as a family name was taken from a surname. \par \tab Family names in England came into use largely because of the Norman Conquest in 1066, and ign Ireland under Brian Boru earlier by nearly three quarters of a century. \par \tab The apotheosis of all surnames is contained in the prophecy, \ldblquote Thou shalt call His name Jesus because He will save His people from their sins.\rdblquote All human achievement and resultant pride bow before the cross. \par \tab The name Carroll, very variously spelled down the years, is an Anglicized old Irish word meaning literally, massacre, which was applied to Tagdh, the grandson of Olliol Ollum, King of Munhster, and his wife Sawe, daughter of Conn of the Hundred Battles, because of a battle brightness in his eyes at the battle of Crienna Chin Chumair, about 226 A.D. The first of his descendants to take Cearbhal as a family name under Brian Boru, was slain at the battle of Clontarf, 1014 A.D., when the might of the Danes was broken in Ireland. His son Maonigh called himself ea Cearbhail, and his territory as head of his sept was called Eile from his ancestor Eile Righ Deargh, the red king. The successive taniists of the ea Cearbhals were entitled Princes of Eile until their final dispossession of territory in the plantations following the irruptions of the forces of Cromwell. \par \tab Many of the name fought in the American Revolution, among whom was Jesse, who obtained land grants along the Six Runs in what is now Sampson County, N. C. He is given in the first U. S. Census as having in 1790, five slaves. He accumulated by grant and purchase some 2,000 acres of land. His wife was Mary Gavin who was the greajt granddaughter of Charles Gavin who came from Ireland to North Carolina about 1712 and whose descendants were extensive land owners in Duplin and Sampson Counties. \par \tab Jesse\rquote s oldest son, John, married two sisters Elizabeth and Ann Hollingsworth who were great great granddaughters of Valentine Hollingsworth who came to Pennsylvania in 1682 and was a signer of Penn\rquote s great charter. John Carroll\rquote s second son by his second wife was Benajah who married Mary Eliza Mallard, great grkand daughter of George Mallard, and Comfort Woodstock, both of Hugenot French descent. Benajah Carroll had eight sons and four daughters. He was my father\rquote s father. So far as I have been able to find he was the first preacher among the descendants of Jesse Carroll. \par \tab Whether Jesse Carroll changed from the Episcopal to the Baptist faith as a result of the missionary labors of Lemuel Burkett and his \ldblquote big book,\rdblquote Commentaries on the New Testament, which prevailed along bothl sides of Six Runs, and David Thompson of New Jersey whose sermons, prepared largely from Burkett\rquote s Commentaries, played such a dominant part from 1737 until his will probated in 1793, left the \ldblquote big book\rdblquote to his son, I do not know, but I do know the descendants of him and his wife, a daughter of a vestryman, have their names on record for over a century in the Old Eastern Association of North Carolina; that both Thompson and Burkett had loving namesakes among them, and that fromm his direct descendants at least ten Baptist preachers have carried the gospel throughout the realms of the Southern Baptist Convention. \par \tab Benajah Carroll, before leaving North Carolina for Mississippi, organized two Baptist churches, one of which at Magnolia, N. C., celebrated, its centennial in 1935\par \tab and the other at Kenansville, in 1937, and though he had died without seeing the conversion of my father, the church at Caldwell, Texas, where he had been pastor, ordained my father to prenach. No man knows his eventual audience, or the final scope of his influence, but in the dispersion and intermarriages of families God lays, hereditary foundations for preachers of His Word. That family traits may be changed, corrected, or developed under Grace and energized into action by the personal power of the Holy Spirit for the proclamation of the Gospel has been demonstrated too frequently to be denied or set aside. \par \tab I met an English preacher in New Orleans who told me he had heard whileo chaplain in Australia the commander of an American battleship tell his fellow officers he had been baptized by B. H. Carroll of Texas. And how he loved the word, Texas, is of record in all his preaching. Somehow he wanted this mightiest state from the loins of freedom to have this Seminary as a pulpit for the dissemination of civil and religious liberty to the world. He believed beyond measure in the evangelization of the world and through the proclamation of the Gospel. \par \tab He held that the martyprdom of the followers of Jesus Christ would bring in the millennium, expand the power of voluntary co-operation of the saints among all peoples into the full harvesting of souls in that chiliad of peace and individual development, and by the stamina of their testimony the post-millennial pastors and churches would remain on earth to bear witness against the Man of Sin and witness his destruction by fire at the advent of our Lord. \par \tab He had the \ldblquote passion of patience\rdblquote in looking uqnto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross treading down its shame, and is seated upon the right hand of the Majesty on high, in the great expectancy of His reign. \par \tab I can see my father now as I saw him that day at Hot Springs, Arkansas, after declaring that Texas as was Judah is a lion\rquote s whelp, go on to analyze the place of this nation in the progress of the Gospel:\par \tab\ldblquote It was the struggle for civil and religious liberrty that brought about that voluntary Baptist co-operation, which today enables our independent churches to elicit, combine and direct their resources in behalf of missions, education and fraternity. When they learned to co-operate voluntarily, without an autocratic pope, without a hierarchy, without a cast-iron organization, they settled the question of the ages. They took the Divine precept, Love the Brotherhood, and made it the centripetal force of church independence and the tangential force of individual liberty so as to bring about that circular motion which makes the orbits and preserves the harmony of the heavenly bodies.\rdblquote \par \tab\par \tab And as it is in accordance with Divine precept and example that the son should honor the father, I thank you, his co-laborers, for permitting me the freedom of this hour. \par \tab\par \tab\par \pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\sb240\sa120\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\b\fs32\page\par } t0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\sb240\sa120\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\lang1033\b\f0\fs32 2. THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST\par \pard\nowidctlpar\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\b0\fs24 \tab TEXT: Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail againsut it. \ul - \cf1 Mat_16:18\cf0 . \ulnone\par \tab We come now to consider perhaps the most remarkable passage in the New Testament: \ldblquote Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.\rdblquote Here almost every word calls for explanation and occavsions controversy. Who or what is the \ldblquote rock\rdblquote upon which the church is founded? In what sense is the term \ldblquote church\rdblquote used? What is the import of Hades and what signifies \ldblquote the gates of hell shall not prevail against it?\rdblquote \par \tab What signify the \ldblquote keys of the kingdom,\rdblquote and the binding and loosing power? \par \tab The first thought that I would impress upon the mind is that Christ alone founded His church. I mean that the churchw was established in the days of His sojourn in the flesh; that the work of its construction commenced with the reception of the material prepared by John the Baptist; that organization commenced with the appointment of the twelve Apostles, and that by the close of His earthly ministry there existed at least one church as a model, the church at Jerusalem. We find in the history immediately succeeding the Gospel account that this church at Jerusalem began to transact business by the election of a successor xto Judas; that they were all assembled together in one place for the reception of the Holy Spirit, and that to them were added daily the saved. Hence, we are prepared to ask: On what did Christ found His church? What is the rock? \par \tab After mature deliberation and careful examination of all the opposing views, and after a thorough study of the Word of God, it is clear to my mind that the rock primarily and mainly is Christ Himself. If it seems to violate the figure that He, the builder, should buildy upon Himself, the violation is no more marked here than in the famous passage in John where He gives the bread to the disciples and that bread of life is Himself. I would have the reader note the scriptural foundation upon which I rest my conclusion that the rock is Christ. The first argument is from the prophecy:\par \tab\ldblquote Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not makze haste,\rdblquote \cf1\ul Isa_28:16\cf0\ulnone ). This prophetic Scripture clearly declared God\rquote s purpose to lay in Zion a foundation, a stone foundation, one that was to be tried, that was assured, a foundation on which faith should rest, without haste or shame. We next cite the 118th Psalm, 22nd verse:\par \tab\ldblquote The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. This is the Lord\rquote s doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath {made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.\rdblquote \par \tab In fulfillment of these prophecies we cite first the testimony of Peter, unto whom the language of our passage was spoken: \ldblquote To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Ye also as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, Behold I lay in Zio|n a chief corner stone, elect, precious; and he that believeth on Him shall not be confounded,\rdblquote (\cf1\ul 1Pe_2:4-6\cf0\ulnone ). The spiritual house of which Peter \tab here speaks is unquestionably the church. The foundation upon which that church as a building must rest is unquestionably our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He claims this as a fulfillment of the prophecies which have been cited. Our Lord\rquote s own words in another connection (\cf1\ul Mat_21:42\cf0\ulnone ) claim the same fulfillm}ent: \ldblquote The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner.\rdblquote With any other construction it would be impossible to understand Paul\rquote s statement (\cf1\ul 1Co_2:11\cf2\ulnone ; \cf1\ul 1Co_2:16-17\cf0\ulnone ) \ldblquote For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the templ~e of God is holy, which temple ye are.\rdblquote Here again the church is compared to a building. The foundation of that building is distinctly said to be Christ. It is also worthy of note that any other foundation for the church than Christ Himself would be wholly out of harmony with the Old Testament concept, as given by Moses, Samuel, David and Isaiah, and Paul\rquote s New Testament comment in the following passages, which the reader will please examine: \cf1\ul Deu_32:4\cf2\ulnone ; \cf1\ul Deu_32:15\cf2\ulnone ; \cf1\ul Deu_32:31\cf0\ulnone ; \cf1\ul 1Sa_2:2\cf0\ulnone ; \cf1\ul 2Sa_22:2\cf2\ulnone ; \cf1\ul 2Sa_22:32\cf0\ulnone ; \cf1\ul Psa_18:2\cf2\ulnone ; \cf1\ul Psa_18:31\cf2\ulnone ; \cf1\ul Psa_61:2\cf2\ulnone ; \cf1\ul Psa_89:26\cf2\ulnone ; \cf1\ul Psa_92:15\cf2\ulnone ; \cf1\ul Psa_95:1\cf0\ulnone ; and \cf1\ul Isa_17:10\cf0\ulnone ; \cf1\ul 1Co_10:4\cf0\ulnone . Do not understand me to affirm that all these passages refer to God as a foundation. The thought is that the Bible concept regards God as the rock of His people under every variety of image, and so uniformly that to make a mortal and fallible man that rock on the doubtful strength of one doubtful disputed passage, does violence to the rule of the faith, as well as to the usage of the term. \par \tab In a secondary sense, indeed, other things may be called the foundation and are so called, but all these senses support the view that Christ is the rock, primarily and mainly. By examining and comparing \cf1\ul Isa_8:14\cf0\ulnone , \cf1\ul Luk_2:34\cf0\ulnone , \cf1\ul Rom_9:33\cf0\ulnone , \cf1\ul 1Pe_2:8\cf0\ulnone and \cf1\ul Luk_20:18\cf0\ulnone , we may easily see how the faith which takes hold of Christ may be compared to a foundation. This accounts for the fact that many of the early fathers of the church understood the rock in this passage to be Peter\rquote s faith in Christ, and also explains how others of the fathers understood the foundation of the church to be Peter\rquote s confession of faith. The great majority of Protestant scholars regard the confession of faith as the rock, and it is a notable fact that Baptists particularly make this confession or its equivalent a term of admission into the church. Indeed, in a certain sense, both the faith and the confession may be regarded as the foundation of the church. From \cf1\ul Eph_2:20-22\cf0\ulnone and \cf1\ul Rev_21:14\cf0\ulnone , we see that the apostles are called the foundation. But \lquote it is only because they teach Christ. They are but instruments in leading souls to Christ, and are not the true foundation. By so much as Peter was more prominent than the others, in this sense the church may be said to be founded on Peter. The scriptural proof of Peter\rquote s prominence is clear. Though not the first apostle chosen, his name heads all the \tab recorded lists of the twelve, (\cf1\ul Mat_10:2\cf0\ulnone ; \cf1\ul Mar_3:16\cf0\ulnone ; \cf1\ul Luk_6:14\cf0\ulnone ; \cf1\ul Act_1:13\cf0\ulnone ). He also leads the movement in filling the place of Judas (\cf1\ul Act_1:15\cf0\ulnone ). He opens the door to the Jews on the day of Pentecost \cf1\ul Act_2:14\cf0\ulnone ). And he is selected to open the door to the Gentiles (Acts 10 and 15:7). By noting \cf1\ul Heb_6:1-2\cf0\ulnone , we see that the primary doctrines concerning Christ may well be \tab called a foundation, and at the close of the Sermon on the Mount, obedience to Christ is compared to building a house on a rock (\cf1\ul Mat_7:24\cf0\ulnone ), but all these secondary senses derive their significance from their connection with Christ, the primary and real foundation. \par \tab To put it in plain English then, the confession upon which the everlasting church of the Lord Jesus Christ is built, is a God-revealed faith that He is the Messiah, the Son of God. As it is expressed in another passage: \ldblquote But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name; who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.\rdblquote The faith upon which the church of the Lord Jesus Christ was to be built was an acceptance, a reception of Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, the Son of God, and every church instituted in apostolic times of which we have any account in the Bible, was established on that proposition as spiritually accepted by the men and women that confessed it with their lips. \par \tab Whatever you may say of it, it is true that when men believed that Jesus was both Lord and Christ they were received into the church; that so long as they rejected that, and did not, from their hearts, accept that, they were not admitted into the church. And as no other was received into the church-whether man, woman or child-so that, without discussing this matter, I merely wish to get the thought of it before you, as the fundamental principle of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, that there shall be a personal, hearty and spiritual acceptance of Him as the Messiah and the Son of God. \par \tab To accept Him as the Son of God is to acknowledge His divinity. To accept Him as the Messiah is to accept Him as the anointed one, for that is what the word means-Messiah in Hebrew, Christ in Greek, Anointed in English. And it implies all of the objects for which He was anointed; all of the offices to which that anointing consecrated Him, and those offices are expressly set forth in the Word of God as the Supreme Teacher, as the only Savior, as the Supreme King, Sovereign Lord of Heaven and earth. So that when a man, in the scriptural sense, believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, he accepts Him as his only religious teacher. His words are to be law. \par \tab He accepts Him as his only Savior. He accepts Him as his only Ruler and King. And he accepts Him as a Divine Teacher, a Divine Savior and a Divine Ruler. And less than that is not the faith of the Gospel. \par \tab Now, let us look at that a moment while I state another proposition: This question of religion is the great question in every man\rquote s life. No other is comparable to it. It is not merely a speculative question. It is an intensely practical one. It enters into one\rquote s home and heart. It touches his life here, his departure from this world, and the world into which that exit introduces him. It touches his children: It touches their birth, their sickness, their death, their destiny. It touches our conduct between each other in the varied relations of life, as husband and wife, as parent and child, as brother and sister, as friends to each other, as fellow-citizens in time and fellow-citizens with the saints of the Kingdom of God in Heaven. There never has been compressed in so few words such a far-reaching and comprehensive proposition as that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah of the Old Testament and the Son of God. \par \tab The first thought that I want to present is this: I go back to the questioning of my own mind and take up a part of the experience of my own life, as that experience began in trying to understand the problems of life. I recall with great distinctness the first time that my mind ever came into contact with what is called \ldblquote heredity\rdblquote \u-1817? what you inherit. That is, when I saw in myself a disposition of temperament that was merely a reproduction of my father\rquote s. I saw that in some way I had derived, unconsciously and irresponsibly, from my father certain tendencies, a certain bias, and that it had moved upon me before I was able to recognize the law according to which it worked. I could even see in me a reproduction of some of the temperaments and characteristics of my grandparents, and I was told by the only grandparent that I ever knew that there were in me some of the traits and dispositions of her grandparents. \par \tab\par \tab In other words, I confronted this proposition: That here I was in the world without my knowledge or consent, coming into it under conditions with the shaping of which I could possibly have nothing to do. Coming into the world predisposed, in certain directions, and all of the plastic and pliable part of my life that could be moulded and shaped by other people, so moulded and shaped before I began to be conscious of personal moral accountability. And yet that these inherited instincts and traits and pre-dispositions, when aided by local surroundings, and by influences brought to bear upon me by others before I could possibly know what to do myself, that these had established the trend of my life; that they shaped its direction. And I began to say: \ldblquote When did I commence? When did \i myself \i0 commence? Just where is the line where I crossed the border of accountability?\rdblquote \par \tab I saw that I had inherited many things that to me seemed bad; that I wished that I did not have; that I could not but recognize as evil. A proneness, a susceptibility, an easily yielding pre-disposition in certain cases, and at last the question forced itself upon me: \ldblquote What is to be the measure of accountability that comes to me as an individual?\rdblquote And if, starting as I did, conditioned as I was, wrapped about by an environment with which I had nothing to do, would it be right at the judgment bar of God to send my soul to hell? I asked my heart that question. And there is not a thoughtful man that ever grappled with the problem of life that has not at some time propounded just that question to himself, especially after he had studied what is called the law of heredity and environment. Now, I have said these things for a very special purpose. I have said them on account of a difficulty that has lodged right in the way of an earnest inquirer after truth, and my business is not to preach sermons in this meeting, but it is to get the stumbling blocks out of the way of men that they may come to eternal life. \par \tab I put to an inquirer this question: \ldblquote From what you have read of the Bible, tell me the difference between an angel and a man.\rdblquote After reflecting a moment, he very readily saw the difference, to-wit: That every angel that God ever made He made full grown, with full maturity of intellect and without one atom of inherited bias, from the fact that he never had a father and mother, and his whole influence centering in himself, from the fact that he would have no wife, no children. And therefore, coming into existence with full and mature powers of mind and measures of life, and with no inherited pre-disposition, and standing or falling for himself alone, if he sinned he could not have a Savior. There could be no Gospel preached to him. There could be no basis upon which it could be offered, and there is not a word in that book that holds out the hope that any angel that kept not his first estate will ever be saved. \par \tab Then why was the Gospel preached to me? Think about it. Did I start full grown? \par \tab Did I start with full maturity of mind? Did I start without any inherited predisposition? \par \tab\par \tab Did I not fall far back in the past in an ancestor? And do I not see that the sins of the father have been visited upon the child? Do I not see it every day? Does it not follow that if a father is thriftless and a spendthrift, that his children bear the penalty? That if he is a drunkard, he transmits to his child a pre-disposition to drunkenness? \par \tab Now comes the thought: The Lord Jesus Christ took not upon Himself the nature of angels, and there was no basis for an offered Gospel to an angel; but He took upon Himself the nature of the seed of Abraham, of a man who had fallen in the first Adam, the first federal head; that he might be made alive in the second Adam, the second federal head. While I utterly disclaim any obligation binding God antecedent to His love, to make this provision, yet I submit that there is a propriety and a suitableness in a substitute for man, in the intervention of a third party, in the introduction of salvation by grace through another, since I find myself starting in this world lost; lost by another. Therefore when a Savior was to come into the world, He was to come and take upon Himself human nature, not angelic. \par \tab Now, I want to lay down a proposition, not argumentatively. My mind is not running in that direction, but as I see it, as I feel it, as my heart takes hold of it, that Jesus of Nazareth was God, was divine; that He was the God that made this world. \ldblquote In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.\rdblquote God incarnate, and why? On what principle? I repeat a Scripture I read to you: \ldblquote Because the children were partakers of flesh and blood He likewise took part of the same, that through His death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage.\rdblquote And that He Himself, having been tempted like as we are, having suffered as we do, having been cold and hungry and full of pain and sickness as we are, might know, experimentally, how to sympathize with us in the trials and difficulties of our lives, and might put Himself in a position where we could get to Him and understand Him. \par \tab Hundreds of years before He came, four thousand years before He came, on the very day that man sinned and entailed upon his posterity the dreadful evil of inheritance that I have been speaking about on that very day God said: \ldblquote The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent\rquote s head,\rdblquote and from that day He held out the hope of a Savior, whose mother was to be a woman, and whose, Father was to be God. Hence we read in the annunciation to Mary: \ldblquote The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee, and therefore that holy thing that is born of thee shall be called the Son of God.\rdblquote And the annunciation to the shepherds: \ldblquote Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.\rdblquote \par \tab\par \tab The record in the Scriptures upon this point is unequivocal. A man cannot accept them at all and reject the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Before every audience He proclaims: \ldblquote I and my Father are one. I had glory with Him before the world was; I am going back to that glory. I am He that came down from Heaven, and I lay down my life and no man can take it away from me. And if I lay it down I will rise again on the third day.\rdblquote The first thought with reference to Jesus Christ is His divinity; that He is God. And I frankly say to you tonight that I would have regarded it as an insult if any man had brought a mere human being to me as an object of my worship. Before no man that this earth has ever known would I get down on my knees; would I prostrate myself, nor have I ever known the time that I would. Nor would I worship the brightest angel that stands before the throne of God. And when I bow down to Jesus Christ, I bow down to one of whom the ancient prophet justly spoke: \ldblquote For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulders; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.\rdblquote \par \tab Now, the second point is this: Why did He come? He came that in His humanity He might stand in the relation to all redeemed people that the first Adam stood to all lost people. That as they died in Adam, they were to be made alive in Jesus Christ; that as death passed upon them through the sin of a forefather, so without obtaining any help at all from us, the Lord Jesus Christ worked out the obedience in which we stand and in His death paid the penalty that we owe to the divine law. \par \tab Now, we come right up to the question of religion. It has made me sick at heart and I have wept bitter tears during this meeting as I have talked with men and women who have not even a conception of the first principle of the Christian religion, who say: \ldblquote I am religious; I have always been religious.\rdblquote Well, so has every other man. \par \tab There never has a man lived upon this earth that was not religious. It grows out of the fact that he has a soul; it grows out of the fact that he is related to God; it grows out of the fact that by the very constitution of his being he is a worshiper, that he will have \i some kind \i0 of religion. And he will try to have some form to that religion. But is that the Christian religion? I find that people say, \ldblquote I have been religious ever since I was a little child, and I determined to live right and I determined to do right, and I knew that if I would be good I would get to Heaven. So I joined the Sunday-school and I joined the church, and I was baptized, and I helped pay the preacher, and I helped build the church, and while I have never been satisfied with what I have done, I am going to keep on trying, and if I get to be good enough God will save me.\rdblquote \par \tab Never! Never! You have not even touched the first principle of the Christian religion. \par \tab\ldblquote Upon this rock will I build my church.\rdblquote What is it? Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Thou art my Savior, thy righteousness is my righteousness; thy death is in payment of the penalty to God\rquote s infracted law. O, I wish I could get you to see tonight what is meant by being saved by faith instead of being saved by works; instead of relying upon your good resolutions. Anything you have done, anything you can do, now or hereafter, as a ground of justification before God, amounts not to a snap of the finger. I, too, try to do right, but I would rather deliberately walk into the jaws of a crocodile, I would rather leap into an eruption of Vesuvius, I would rather plunge into the heart of an earthquake, than to trust my righteousness as a covering at the judgment bar of God. On what are you going to build your church? I am going to build my church upon this: My faith in Jesus Christ. Perhaps you say: \ldblquote What do you mean by your faith in Jesus Christ? If that is to be the rock upon which the church is to be built, let me see what you mean by it.\rdblquote \par \tab Now, let us look at it. Being lost and fallen in the first Adam, having a disposition that is prone to evil, born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward, and then having personally committed sin which I knew so well, there is no use discussing it. As an honest man I am bound to admit it, and I see that my neighbors have sinned, and I believe that God\rquote s Word is true, that there is not a just man upon the earth that liveth and sinneth not, our sinless perfection brethren and sisters to the contrary notwithstanding. What then? Shall I come before God and say: \ldblquote I am a sinner, therefore acquit me?\rdblquote What think you of that? What think you of a man, a criminal, standing before an earthly court and expecting to be acquitted on a plea of guilty? \par \tab That first word that falls from his lips, \ldblquote I have sinned,\rdblquote makes it utterly impossible for him to be justified in the sight of God on his own righteousness. Impossible. Now, you may think about it. I want to press it home upon you because some people are being lost in this town on that thing. It appalls me. I tell you that cold chills have swept over me, with my conception of divine truth, when I have seen men and women walking, as I believed, blindfolded into hell. I have no objection to any man trying to be good, but O my soul, let me not stand before the bar of God expecting to be justified upon my goodness. How then can I be justified? We are coming to that. \par \tab I give you some illustrations I think you can take hold of. I will suppose a case in the lowest form, a commercial form. A man finds upon looking into his books that he is $10,000 indebted beyond all his assets, counting every one of them, and he is $10,000 in debt more than he is able to pay, and a note is made for it drawing interest, and he says, \ldblquote Give me time and I will pay it. I will work every day, and I will work hard, and I will pay something on it.\rdblquote And at the end of the first year he looks and he finds that he has not even paid the interest. And he says again, \ldblquote Give me time.\rdblquote And next year he makes another payment, and then another little payment, and not withstanding these little driblets of payments that he makes from time to time, the debt compounds, growing larger and larger, huger and huger. What on earth is he to do? He faces the situation: \ldblquote I am gone! Tomorrow is the day of final settlement. \par \tab Tomorrow bankruptcy will be written over the door of my business house, and it pains me to think about it.\rdblquote You begin to see the furrows come into his face. Anguish pierces him and care crushes him. He goes off alone to commune with despair. But a friend comes to him and says: \ldblquote What\rquote s the matter with you? Something is the matter with you.\rdblquote \ldblquote Yes,\rdblquote he says, \ldblquote there is a great deal.\rdblquote \ldblquote Will you tell me?\rdblquote \ldblquote It will do no good to tell you.\rdblquote \lquote But I wish you would tell me.\rdblquote \ldblquote Then look here at my books. I am lost! There is no escape in the world for me. Do you see that balance? And it gets bigger all the time. What am I to do? Tomorrow I will be pronounced a bankrupt.\rdblquote \par \tab That friend says: \ldblquote You wait here a minute.\rdblquote He goes over to where the debts have been pooled and are consolidated in the hands of one relentless creditor, and he draws a check for the whole amount and takes a receipt for the whole amount, and he comes back to that friend, who is groaning when he thinks of tomorrow, and he says, \ldblquote Look here, my friend, here is a clear receipt, every dollar paid, paid right now. Will you take it? Will you accept it? I don\rquote t want you to pay a nickel on it. I want to know if you will take this clear receipt.\rdblquote And the debtor looks at it in perfect astonishment. He cannot realize it, but he slips it in his book, yet thinking about the next morning. When the next morning comes he goes up where he knows the judgment is to be rendered, and he hears his case called, and the question is asked, \par \tab\ldblquote Did you contract this debt?\rdblquote \ldblquote I did.\rdblquote \ldblquote Have you paid it?\rdblquote \ldblquote I have not.\rdblquote \ldblquote Can you do it?\rdblquote \ldblquote I cannot.\rdblquote \ldblquote Then can you give any good reason why judgment should not be rendered against you?\rdblquote \ldblquote Nothing in the world but this receipt.\rdblquote The judge looks at it. \par \tab\ldblquote Why,\rdblquote he says, \ldblquote this is payment in full. This case is discharged.\rdblquote \par \tab And the man is dazed. As he walks out, the sense of being free comes on him. \par \tab\ldblquote Free; the debt paid, all the debts I owe paid \u-1817? paid and I am free!\rdblquote So he comes up to the friend and he says to him, \ldblquote What made you do that; I want to know what induced you to do that?\rdblquote \ldblquote Love. I loved you and I could not endure to see you in that situation.\rdblquote \ldblquote What do you charge me for it then?\rdblquote \ldblquote Not a cent in the world. I loved you, I came and paid it for you.\rdblquote Jesus Christ so loved us that He took upon Himself our nature and came here as a man, as a man who obeyed the law, and as a man died under the penalty of the law when the law had nothing in the world against Him. He came and said, \ldblquote I will take that. Put that to my account; put all of it to my account. Mass it up. That cursing; that drinking; that lying; that cheating; that anguish of sin; that anger. Bring it up. I am going to pay it. I come before God. O law of God, I am the sinner\rquote s substitute. I come to take his place. Put the sins on me. Bring them up; no matter how black; no matter how putrid; no matter how many; no matter whether committed by white men or black men, bring them up and pile them on the Son of God.\rdblquote \par \tab How it towers; what a mountain; how it blackens; how the poison exudes from it! \par \tab Sin, loathsome sin, piled on the sin bearer. And when the sins are on Him, stand back; He is there now as the sinner, and God is going to strike Him. Sword of justice, awake, unsheathe thyself, flash in the sunbeams of heaven and smite the sin-bearer! And, ah me! The hurtling and pitiless storm of God\rquote s wrath that fell on Him! \par \tab So thick and dark the clouds they hid the face of the sun; so dark that moon nor stars could be seen, and still the storm goes on and the devils come to gloat over Him like vampires. They flock about Him as birds of prey, and the devil comes to triumph over Him because He is dying as a sinner. And now, listen: \ldblquote My God, my God, O my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?\rdblquote \ldblquote Because you are in the sinner\rquote s stead. You are dying for a sinner and you must die as a sinner; die alone; die in darkness; die while devils gloat on you; die with sins piled on you.\rdblquote \par \tab And that is what the Scriptures mean when they say that Christ died for our sins. \par \tab God made Him to be sin who knew no sin. Why? That we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And I take Christ\rquote s pure life, Christ\rquote s sacrificial death, and I go trembling up to the bar, and the law of God speaks to me and says, \par \tab\ldblquote Sinner,\rdblquote and I answer, \ldblquote Here I am.\rdblquote \ldblquote When you lived in yonder world, didn\rquote t you violate God\rquote s law?\rdblquote \ldblquote I did.\rdblquote \ldblquote Did you violate it many times?\rdblquote \ldblquote Many.\rdblquote \ldblquote Did you sin against light and knowledge?\rdblquote \ldblquote I did.\rdblquote \ldblquote How do you expect to be justified here?\rdblquote \par \tab And I wrap Christ\rquote s righteousness around me, cover myself from head to foot, and gazing at the law, I say, \ldblquote Who shall lay any charge to Christ\rquote s elect? I believe in Him. \par \tab I take Him. He is my substitute. And, O Lord, every farthing of the debt is paid. I did not pay it, but He did. Here is the bill receipted. I believe in Him. I received Him, and I stand not on my record, but on the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.\rdblquote \par \tab Now, one other point and I am done. That being so, the man is only judicially clear. \par \tab He is justified. The law speaks and the sins are removed. But what about that nature you spoke about a while ago \u-1817? the pre-disposition to sin? Are you going to take him to heaven with that? No, not with that. What then is the provision for that? There comes in what is called in the Bible regeneration and sanctification. A principle of life is implanted within him which we call putting off the old man and putting on the new man, Christ. The Spirit, the Holy Spirit, has put within that man a love of holiness, of righteousness, practical righteousness, and now with this new disposition he begins to say: \ldblquote The things that I once loved I hate. I don\rquote t like them now. They are distasteful and I turn away from them. I love God, Jesus, God\rquote s people, the songs of God\rquote s house; new affections stir within me.\rdblquote But you do not mean to say such a man is personally and absolutely pure? No, he will have many a fight. Flesh will fight against you as long as you are in the flesh. But when he dies his spirit will be perfected and made pure forever and his soul will be saved, fully saved. But what about his body? \par \tab The same principle operates there. Though after his skin worms destroy his body, yet in his flesh will he see God. He will rise up in that day, redeemed from the power of the grave through the Lord Jesus Christ, and his body will be glorified. No spot, no wrinkle no blemish, no weakness, no infirmity, no pre-disposition to evil, clean within, clean without, glorified all over, full of glory. That is the salvation that comes by the Lord Jesus Christ. \par \tab When I try to lead people to God and to salvation, how it does hurt me to hear them say, \ldblquote I have been trying all my life to be a Christian. I have been trying to be a righteous person all my life, and I am going to keep on trying. I am going to join the church. I want to join the church. I want to be baptized. I want to be in the Sunday School, and I expect after a while that I will be good enough to go to heaven.\rdblquote O my soul, how I do dread to hear them talk that way. By faith in Jesus Christ and in that way alone are you made fit to join the church. \ldblquote On this rock I build my church.\rdblquote \par \tab\ldblquote Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God.\rdblquote The church is for believers only. \par \tab And if you will read the New Testament, you will see that every man that joined the church in apostolic times joined that way. For instance, when the jailer cried out, after the earthquake shock in the darkness of that awful night, \ldblquote What must I do to be saved?\rdblquote Paul said, \ldblquote Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.\rdblquote \par \tab\ldblquote On this rock I build my church,\rdblquote on that rock and no other. He would not build it on the water. The Lord have mercy on a man that will go and look in a pool of water to find the remission of sins. Why, the idea of it! The Lord have mercy on a man that will put a piece of bread in his mouth or a little wine and say, \ldblquote This is salvation.\rdblquote \par \tab\ldblquote Upon this rock will I build my church.\rdblquote \ldblquote Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God.\rdblquote That is what we mean when we say, \ldblquote Have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; take Him as your divine Teacher; as your King; take Him as your Savior.\rdblquote \par \tab Now I have just this last word. I was a sinner. My old comrade who was up here last night knows when we were together in the army how great a sinner I was, and I would not let any man living call me to bow down before a piece of bread or wine or water or an angel, and if I could not have seen God in Christ, I never would have accepted Christ, but when I saw that He was an everlasting Father, the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and that out of His love He came and took upon Himself my nature here in the flesh to live, and in the flesh to die, that through death He might destroy him that hath the power over death, that is, the devil, I Could fall down and worship Him, and like Thomas say, \ldblquote My Lord and my God!\rdblquote \par \tab I hold up the Godhead of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever, the immutable, the everlasting God. I hold Him up to you as a Savior and the One in whom to trust. Will you take Him? O, will you seek salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? \par \tab Now, while we sing, I invite \i you \i0 to come to that Savior and no other Savior. Never, never come to the church first. Come to the Savior first. Never come to the water first. Come to salvation first, and when saved by your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, why then decide where to go and what you are to do as a Christian man or woman. \par \tab But salvation is of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and no other way. The sole question now is, Will you take Him? Will you take Him, without paying a cent for Him, free? By grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. Salvation is free mercy, not justice, remission through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. O sinner, don\rquote t go about and busy yourself to establish a miserable, ragged righteousness of your own. \par \tab That bed is too short for you to stretch yourself on. That covering is too narrow for you, to wrap yourself in it. Don\rquote t come before God in it. Don\rquote t do it. But take the fullness, the sufficiency of the payment made by the Lord Jesus Christ, and then if you want to do good works, you will find a new life put in you by which you can do them. That will give you the true morality. \ldblquote Created in Jesus Christ unto good works.\rdblquote \par \tab\par \tab\par \pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\sb240\sa120\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\b\fs32\page\par } \tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\b0\fs24 \tab\b TEXT:\b0 These things write I unto thee that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground o f the truth. And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the nations, believed on in the world, received up into glory. - \cf1\ul 1Ti_3:15-16\cf0\ulnone . \par \par \tab There is a word which means to call, a Greek word, \i kalleo, \i0 I \i \i0 call. This word is united sometimes with a preposition which means \ldblquote out of,\rdblquote the preposition \i ek, \i0 and thus you have \i ekkalleo, \i0\ldblquote\i I \i0 call out.\rdblquote And from that you have \i ecclesia, \i0 which means \ldblquote the called out.\rdblquote And that is the word which one hundred and fifteen times in the New Testament is translated \ldblquote church,\rdblquote the \ldblquote called out.\rdblquote \par \tab The word was not coined for the occasion. It was in good use among the Greeks when our Savior employed it. In the nineteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, we have three instances of its use in the Greek sense. Ephesus was a Greek town and had Greek customs and laws, and they had an assembly which transacted the business of the town. And this assembly, in order to transact the business committed to it, had to be regularly summoned by a town-crier, who went around and issued his call, calling out this man and that man; then the \ldblquote called out\rdblquote would come together for the transaction of the business committed to them. \par \tab On one occasion they were illegally called out. It was not done according to Greek law, and hence the town clerk said that it was an unlawful assembly, in that the forms of law had not been complied with in the calling out, and he said that if any man had any business to come before the assembly, the \i ecclesia \i0 of that town, there was a lawful way in which it could be done. These three instances are the only ones in the Bible in which the word is used in its ordinary Greek sense. In the seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles it is applied to the people of Israel, whom God called out of Egypt. The assembly in the wilderness, that national congregation, by the call of God, came out from Egypt to go to the Promised Land which God should give them. This was a national assembly and organized for national purposes. \par \tab In other places in the New Testament the word is applied, not to any particular assembly, but to the church as an institution. Allow me to illustrate: Suppose I were to say that upon certain principles of civil liberty the jury was established. I would not have in my mind any particular twelve men when I used the word \ldblquote jury\rdblquote in that sense, but the institution called the jury. Now, in that sense the word \i ecclesia, \i0 or church, is used by our Savior when He says that upon the public profession of faith in Him as the Messiah, the Son of the living God, \ldblquote I will build my church. I will call out from the world a people who believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Son of the living God, and upon that professed faith in Him, I will build the institution, my church.\rdblquote Now He has no particular local congregation in His mind when He says that. The term is used just as I used the term \ldblquote jury\rdblquote a while ago. But in ninety-five out of the one hundred and fifteen instances in which the word is translated \ldblquote church,\rdblquote it refers to a local congregation assembled together in one place. In a few instances it refers to all of the saved people who are called from the earth up to heaven, as \ldblquote the general assembly and church of the first-born who are written in heaven.\rdblquote \par \tab But in the ordinary use of the word it applies to a congregation called out for a specific purpose, and \i organized for \i0 that purpose, \i legally \i0 organized for that purpose, and the basis upon which it is called out is that every member of it is a personal believer in the Messiahship of Jesus Christ and His divinity; no other may lawfully enter it; whether man, woman or child, there must be personal faith God-revealed faith in Jesus. It is based upon that. \par \tab Do you personally, for yourself, without the intervention of-any third party, and from God\rquote s individual dealings with you, do you, from your heart, accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Divine Teacher, as your Divine Savior, as your Divine King, making His word the law of your life, and His atonement the basis of \i your\i0 salvation, and His government the rule of your life? \par \tab Now, in that sense of the word, Paul says to Timothy in this text: \ldblquote I write to thee that thou mayest know the kind of life (it does not refer to proprieties and civilities) thou must live as a member of the church.\rdblquote The word house in the text in no sense means the external building in which the people assembled. It never had that sense until modern times. People now sometimes build a house, and they dedicate it and they consecrate it, but that is not the Bible idea. This building here where we are is but brick, mortar and wood. It is for convenience. It is not the church but is built for the church to assemble in. It is not the church. \i You \i0 are God\rquote s building, the \i congregation, \i0 not this structure, and there is no use for this building beyond the purposes of affording a convenient, comfortable and suitable place for the gathering together of the Church of God. And I would have you disabuse your mind of any sort of conception that any kind of building of brick or mortar is the house of God. \par \tab I repeat, you, you converted people are God\rquote s building, and you would be God\rquote s building if you did not have a house to meet in; you would be God\rquote s building on the prairie, and all this idea about the special sanctity attaching to the building that we put up, is the veriest superstition, and very destructive of the souls of men. \ldblquote Joining the church,\rdblquote then, never means joining the house. I mean the house that we put up; the house of God is built by the Lord Jesus Christ. He says: \ldblquote Upon this rock I (not you) will build my church.\rdblquote Now, the ancient temple of the Jews is not to be imitated in modern buildings; that was a type, but it was not a type of any other building to be erected of an earthly character. It was a type of the spiritual building, the true church. \par \tab For instance, God says: \ldblquote You are God\rquote s temple, you converted people; you called out people; you people called out from the world by the Spirit of God, and trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, and assembled together for the purpose that I am going to tell you directly. You are God\rquote s temple; you are built up for an habitation of the Spirit of God, and in this spiritual temple every stone is a living stone; not a dead one in it.\rdblquote \par \tab It makes no difference whether you are eighty years old or ten years old; whether you are a man or a woman; whether you are a Jew or a Greek; whether you are a barbarian, bond or free. If ever you become a part of the true house of God, of which the Temple was the type, you will be made alive by the Spirit of God; you will be a living stone. And you have no more place in the church of God, in the true house of God, if you are an unconverted man, than the devil himself. \par \tab I do want to make this point clear to you today, that the most destructive idea that was ever presented to the minds of the people is that anybody or anything is the Savior except the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And it is a deadly sin, by whomsoever propagated, that any ordinance, like baptism, or the Lord\rquote s supper, or any church organization is a saving machine in the sense you must be in it to be saved. \par \tab Jesus is the Savior. He builds the true church, and you do sin against your own soul, and you do love death rather than life, whenever you go to any ordinance or any organization in order to be saved. The church can no more save you than the angels can, and the angels can not save you. You are to be saved by the power of God, or you are lost, and it is high treason, and I do impeach any man living today of high treason against God that makes any ordinance or any church organization on this earth the Savior. I impeach such an one of a direct and palpable violation of the law of salvation. I have no ambition for \ldblquote broadness\rdblquote contrary to God\rquote s Word. I have no authority to palm off my \ldblquote broadness\rdblquote on the credulity of men. I am just as broad as God\rquote s law. \par \tab Suppose a judge, sitting on a bench, with the statutes before him, and a criminal for trial before him, should say: \ldblquote This is a broad court; if you think you have kept the law I will acquit you; if you intended in your mind to obey the statutes, whether you obeyed them or not; this is a broad court; it justifies on your intent.\rdblquote Such a judge would be impeached and removed from the bench. He has no right to be broad beyond the law, and if he speaks not according to the law and the testimony, there is no judicial honor in him. The church of the living God, the called out assembly, was not instituted by man. Why, I have no authority to start a church, unless I claim to be God. The conditions of membership are not matters to be settled by the fancies of people. No number of them can get together and say: \ldblquote Let\rquote s organize a church that will suit us.\rdblquote It is not a question of whether it suits us or not. Any man who is thoughtful, and who really wishes to be saved, will, in his heart, look with contempt upon any human organization that assumes to save his soul. Why? He says, \ldblquote I am a man myself, and if you people can organize a saving machine, I can do it myself, and who are you that I should bow down before you as my Savior?\rdblquote \par \tab If the legions of God\rquote s angels, in the sheen of their heavenly apparel, were to come down in one blaze of splendor and cover Waco with the dazzling glory of their heavenly appearance, I pledge you my word, so great is my idea of the dignity of manhood, that I would not fall down and worship that assembly of flaming spirits. I would not kneel to any angel that ever carried a message of God. Whenever I bend the knee, I must bend it to Divinity; not to man; not to angels. \par \tab Now we come to the purpose of the church. Let us look at it: \ldblquote The pillar and ground of the truth.\rdblquote The church was established by the Lord Jesus Christ, called out from the world, upon principles which He prescribed, not which were convenient and suitable to them or pleasing to their fancies. He prescribed everything and consulted them in nothing. He organized them, not for their delectation, nor for the accomplishment of their purpose, but to hold up the truth by which men could be saved. And if I stood here in this pulpit as the mouth-piece of this local organization, and were to present to men anything which had not a \ldblquote thus saith the Lord\rdblquote for it, which is not bottomed upon a plain passage of the Word of God, I would deserve the repudiation of the just, and the contempt of all the honest and earnest who are seeking salvation by the power of God, and not by the sleight-of-hand or craftiness of men. I have no message of my own. I am no more than one of you. I am a sinner just like you are. I claim no special superiority over any of you. If I get to heaven, it will be by no superior sanctity of my own, but it will be by the grace of God that saved me, as I invite you to be saved. \par \tab Now, let us see what this truth is that the church is to hold up. Listen to the items of it. \par \par \tab\b 1. God Was Manifest In The Flesh.\b0 \ldblquote In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.\rdblquote The first item of the truth is that the one to whom we ask you to come as a Savior is God Himself. Would I ask you to come to a pope? Would I ask you to come to the Virgin Mary? Would I ask you to come to Gabriel or Michael? Would I ask you to come to a poor sinner like myself? Shall I come to you as an intelligent man, and ask you to accept as a Savior anybody who is not divine? Why, you would tell me at once that when a man can save, you will save yourself. \par \tab Now, look at this picture; I want it to be vividly before you. In the old Aztec government when they captured a royal prisoner, they would say to him: \ldblquote We receive you as our distinguished guest. We appoint you the most luxurious room in our palace; we provide for you the most delicate viands upon which man could wish to feed; we fill your room with the most subtle and pleasant aroma; we cause the most beautiful women to stand before you, and with their fans of gorgeously variegated feathers of birds, to keep even the smallest insect from lighting upon you. \par \tab You are very precious to us. We honor you very much.\rdblquote And the unsuspecting victim smiles at his royal treatment, and they continue their deceptive compliments. But on a certain moonless night, when everything is dark, they come with soft and flattering words, take that man by the hand and lead him out. They furnish him a grand escort of robed priests. Each one holds a flaming torch in his hand, and they come to that vast tower of the war god, around which winds an outside spiral staircase, leading up to the top. And as that crowd moves up, and the torches go round, it seems like a glittering serpent of fire climbing up in that dark night to the top of that temple. And when they get the victim up there, still speaking soft and flattering words, they gently lay him down upon a huge rock and bare his breast, and suddenly a priest steps out with a sharp knife and rips his breast open, and plucks out his heart \u-1817? the palpitating and smoking heart \u-1817? and thrusts it down at the foot of his war god. \par \tab O, no; they did not intend to hurt him; they simply wanted to take his heart out. And so when men say, \ldblquote If you will preach Jesus Christ as a man, I can take hold of that,\rdblquote \par \tab I tell you before God today that that would heart the Gospel; that would take the heart out of it. And you might cover that book with fulsome compliments, and you might pat obsequious and truckling ministers upon the back and say: \ldblquote How broad; how liberal; how catholic! Why, you will spread it out so any of us can come in.\rdblquote I tell you no honest man would come in. He would say: \ldblquote If you have nothing more to present to me as a Savior than a man, I am a man myself, and I bow down my knee to no man.\rdblquote There never was a shrewder trick of the devil than his saying to preachers: \ldblquote You be broad; you be liberal; you take out the supernatural; you reject the miracles; you reject the divinity of Jesus Christ; you preach Him as a man; you hold Him up as merely a pattern, as an example.\rdblquote Ah, me, it would not save a soul, not a soul. \par \tab My Savior is Divine, and the very minute that I repudiate His divinity I step out of the pulpit and I say: \ldblquote Gentlemen, do not ask me to preach a man as a Savior; I won\rquote t do it.\rdblquote It is the mission of the church to hold out before lost souls a Divine Savior, who was God before He created this world; who was God in eternity; but who, to save men, took upon Himself human nature, and in His humanity suffered and died for men. \par \tab When I was an infidel, in some respects at least, I was an honest one, and talking once with a Christian, who began to lower the bible down so as to make it fit me, I said: \ldblquote Stop. Whenever you put it down that low, then quit preaching; if it ever touches me in the world, it must touch me on its divine claims; it must touch me upon its supernatural origin; it must touch me because it is from God and not from man; and if you take out the supernatural, then I tell you frankly I had as soon adopt any other old wives\rquote fable as that. I put it with other myths and legends of men. If you can prove to me its divine authority; if the Lord Jesus Christ can come before me as God, and I can see it, I will bend my knee to Him that very moment.\rdblquote \par \tab I have had men in this town to come to me with wonderful compliments to the Bible. \par \tab\ldblquote Marvelous book,\rdblquote they say, \ldblquote and if you will eliminate the supernatural, take out those miracles, take out the divinity of Jesus Christ, I will come and stand with you.\rdblquote \par \tab I don\rquote t care whether they come or not. I mean to say that not to gain the approval of a man would I lower the divine plan of salvation the ninth part of a hair; and it is for his good I would not do it, for whenever I lower it he turns his back on it with contempt. The devil does not fear a \ldblquote broad church.\rdblquote He has no fear of it at all; the devil does not fear baptism as a Savior; the devil does not fear the church as a Savior. It pleases him when people join the church to be saved. He doesn\rquote t care how many times you look in a pool of water for the remission of sins. He doesn\rquote t care how many times you appeal to a woman, and say, \ldblquote Mother of God, do thou intercede for me!\rdblquote He doesn\rquote t care how many times you try to get to heaven by joining the Sunday School. Why, he knows you cannot get there that way, and if he can side-track you on that delusion he has accomplished his purpose. \par \b \tab 2. Notice the next point. God was not only manifest in the flesh but justified in the Spirit\b0 . When He took upon Himself human nature, there had to be some attestation that He was the Divine One, that He was God Incarnate. It required credentials; it needed authentication; and if Jesus of Nazareth is not justified as God by the Spirit, I for one disclaim Him as my Savior. When God sent John the Baptist to preach, He says: \ldblquote I send you that in your baptizing the true Messiah may be made manifest.\rdblquote \par \tab John says: \ldblquote How am I to know Him?\rdblquote That was a very sensible inquiry. \ldblquote That baptized man upon whom you shall see the Spirit of God descending and resting, He is the one.\rdblquote And when the Spirit did rest on Him, the devil also knew He was the one, and he did not waste any more time. He determined to meet that being upon whom the Spirit of God rested and test His divinity; and into the wilderness the Spirit led Jesus in order that His divinity might be tested in conflict with Satan himself, the arch enemy of man; and if the devil had triumphed over Him, He would not have been God. \par \tab Then look at the attestation of the Spirit when He ascended into heaven. He based all His claims to the Messiahship upon that fact. What was the fact? That if He ascended up into heaven, and He was preached as God manifest in the flesh, as the Divine Savior, that the Spirit of God would attest that preaching until the end of time. \par \tab Why, do you think I would get up before you here today, and preach the divinity of Jesus Christ, and no way to authenticate it this side of Pentecost? I tell you He will authenticate it in this house today. He has authenticated it here one hundred and fifty times since this meeting commenced. Jesus Christ as God manifest in the flesh, has been justified by the Spirit time after time since we commenced these services; and I do not ask any man to rise up and say, \ldblquote He is my Savior,\rdblquote unless the Spirit of the great God has moved upon that man\rquote s heart, and has by divine power convinced him of the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know how, as cold as an icicle and with my mind analyzing every sentence that the preacher spoke, I looked in calm, proud scorn upon what I regarded as the preaching of the gospel, and it was only when the proposition was made to me that I was to have an experimental demonstration in my heart, in my conscience, in my spirit, in my judgment, that Jesus Christ in my soul was to be justified as Divine, as God, by the power of the Spirit of God-I acted on that proposition in a minute. \par \tab So I have seen gray-headed men, who have lived in this town as unbelievers, upon the witness in their hearts, acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Divine Lord. And it does seem that with the vast deal \u-1817? and you must excuse the expression \u-1817? the vast deal of superstitious stuff oftentimes presented for men\rquote s acceptance, there is some sort of an extenuation of their unbelief. They see no power in it; the whole thing seems to them as an empty shell, a system of mere rites and ceremonies, of formal professions, of unchanged lives, and in their hearts \i they \i0 say, \ldblquote If you cannot give me something better than that, you let me alone.\rdblquote And I will let them alone, unless I can offer them immediate and personal demonstration of Christ\rquote s divinity. Not by an argument, for many of them can outargue me; their minds are equal to mine, their powers of analysis perhaps superior; I would not try to argue one of them into salvation, but I say: I offer you a proof, not of my own manufacture; I offer you a proof not even of angelic, origin; I offer you a proof not found in running or standing water, however it may sparkle or gurgle or thunder in its downpour; I offer you a demonstration, not in a wafer that you put on your lip, not in a little wine that you take into your mouth. I offer you a demonstration of the almighty power of God in His working on your heart and in your soul, so that after a while you can stand up and with a perfectly clear eye look out in the face of your neighbors, and with whom you have been associating all your life, and say: \ldblquote Friends, I once spoke evil of this way. I did not think there was anything in it; but a change has come over me; I do not see it as I once saw it, and there is in me the witness of my conscience that God, for Christ\rquote s sake, has forgiven my sins. I do not know how to explain it, but now I love Thy church, O God; I love Thy worship; I love Thy songs; I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ; I love the meeting of Thy people. My affections have been changed, and I am willing for Jesus Christ to be my teacher, because He is not a man, and to be my Savior, because He is not an angel, and to be my King, because He is the only true and living God.\rdblquote \par \tab\b 3. Now take the next point of the truth of which the church is the pillar and ground: \ldblquote Seen of angels.\rdblquote\b0 Not only was He to be authenticated by the Spirit of God, but He was to the angels that stand around the throne of God, to \i appear to be \i0 the Son of God. They were to recognize His divinity. When the shepherds were watching in the field a bright light shone around them, and there was heard a voice (and not an earthly voice): \ldblquote Unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ, the God, the Lord. Behold, it is good tidings for all men.\rdblquote They saw it. They recognized His divinity in the cradle. He appeared unto them in the temptation to be divine, and when the devil left Him, the angels came and ministered unto Him. He appeared unto them to be divine in the Garden of Gethsemane, when after His prayer one of them came and held up the head of His humanity. He appeared unto them to be divine when they came to His tomb and looked upon its emptiness, and testified to the disciples, \ldblquote He is not here; He is risen.\rdblquote He appears unto the angels to be divine, whenever God\rquote s people come together, for by the church the manifold wisdom of God is to be made known unto the principalities and powers that are in heavenly places. \par \tab When He came into the world, all the angels of God worshipped Him. So instead of bowing down to an angel, I kneel down by the side of the angel, and I hear that angel say, \ldblquote I am thy fellow servant, as I was the fellow servant of the prophets, and I, too, will bend the knee when you bow down to Jesus Christ.\rdblquote And any Savior that the bright spirits above do not recognize as the Savior cannot be my Savior. \par \tab\b 4. Now notice the next point: \ldblquote Preached unto the nations.\rdblquote\b0 This God that was manifest in the flesh, that was justified in the spirit, that appeared unto the angels to be God, He was preached unto the nations. Who was preached? We preach not ourselves, no; we are sinners. We are your servants for. Christ\rquote s sake. God forbid that I should ask you to look to me or to trust in me. We preach \i Christ. \i0 He is the one to be held up before the world as the Savior of the world. Suppose I go out here in Waco to an unconverted man, and say, \ldblquote You are a good man; you ought to stand on the side of whatever is right, and now you come and join the church.\rdblquote Shall I preach the church to him? Shall I? God forbid. Shall I not preach Christ to him? \par \tab Shall I not hold up before him as a Divine Savior the Lord Jesus Christ? Preached among, the nations, all nations; if He is the God of the Jews only, He is not my God. \par \tab If there is no way of salvation by Him for me, then how can He claim to be God? \par \tab Has God only one little people here? Did He not reach out His strong hand and break down the wall, the partition, between Jews and Gentiles, and say in His wrath against bigotry: \ldblquote God is no respecter of persons. In every nation, whosoever feareth Him is accepted of Him?\rdblquote What are you, just one little people among so many, that you should monopolize Divinity and salvation? Break down that wall; pull up its foundations; let the world in. Go, preach this salvation to every tongue and tribe and kindred upon the face of the earth. When you take away the \i catholicity \i0 of this means of salvation, I for one will reject it. \par \tab\b 5. Now, not only preached among the nations, but \ldblquote believed on in the world.\rdblquote\b0 You say it is incredible; I say it is credible. Now, which of us is right? You say it is incredible, I say it is credible; and I can prove what I say by a fact that you cannot gainsay; and that is the fact that \i He has been believed on in the world. Will \i0 you say great men have not believed on Him? I point to Gladstone, to Washington, to Justice Marshall, to Greenleaf, to the mightiest minds that this world has ever known. \par \tab They have delighted to believe in Him. And then I will give you a grander proof than that. I will go down where humanity has suffered, where the people are poor, where they are sick, where they are distressed, where they are blind. I will go down to the mud sills and leave the upper crust, and go where human hearts are bursting and breaking, and I tell you that He is believed on there. O blindness, thou didst see Him, and see forever; O deafness, thou didst hear Him and hear forever; O death, thou didst receive Him, and He burst thy narrow boundaries and came out, because it was not possible that He should beholden by them. Believed on in the world! Why He is believed on \i here in Waco. \i0 He has been believed on one hundred and fifty times already by new born souls since this meeting commenced. Believed on? Yes, and will be until the last syllable of time. And whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That is why we preach Him. We preach that He may be believed upon, and He is believed on, by strong men and weak men, and great men and little men, and rich men and poor men, kings and slaves. O let them come; let them come as sinners, not to waters, not to wine, not to bread, but to God. God God manifest in the flesh; O Divine Savior, thou living God, save men today. Who else can save? Accursed, accursed is the man that trusteth in an arm of flesh. \par \tab\b 6. Now, here is the last item of the text \u-1817? \ldblquote received up into glory.\rdblquote\b0 Am I to preach that? I do. I am to preach that Jesus of Nazareth came into this world, not by ordinary procreation,: but by the over-shadowing of the Eternal Spirit, was manifested in the flesh and justified by the Spirit, was seen of angels, was preached to the nations, and was believed on in the world, and what? Received up into glory. \par \tab Do you believe it? If I did not believe it, I would be a fool to stand up here and preach. Him to you. While they were standing looking at Him after His resurrection, He began to rise, rise, rise, until a cloud received Him out of their sight. But God permits us to go above the cloud. Come up with me \u-1817? in your mind. Let us go up above the cloud and see where He goes. We have a clear sweep of vision, as He rises to the highest heaven; we hear His voice: \ldblquote Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and let the King of Glory come in.\rdblquote \ldblquote Who is this King of Glory?\rdblquote \ldblquote The Lord, mighty to save, He is the King of Glory.\rdblquote And I believe, just as much as I believe that I am alive, that He is enthroned as King of kings and Lord of lords; that all power in heaven and on earth is given unto Him. Received into glory! O, blessed thought! \par \tab This overwhelms me; this takes my breath away, that He said, \ldblquote Where I am, there shalt thou be also. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterwards receive me into glory.\rdblquote I shall follow the Lord out of this land of darkness and sin and death and be received into glory with Him, to be forever with the Lord. \par \tab Dear brethren, sisters, grounded in the faith of the Gospel, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, let me tell you, you will never die, never. I do mean to say that when you come to what is called death, it won\rquote t be death to you. The river will be divided and you cross over dry shod, and there shall be no taste of death to you. You will never die; you will be received up into glory. O, the chariot of God, the chariot of God and the horsemen thereof! Thou vehicle of fire, thou vehicle to which is harnessed flaming steeds, thou conveyance of the redeemed, thou takest every Christian when he dies up immediately into the presence of God to be received up into glory. \par \tab Now, you understand what I mean by the church and by the business of the church, that no man on earth has any business in the church unless God by His Spirit has called him out from the world, called him to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as Divine, as God, as the Savior, and when God for Christ\rquote s sake has forgiven his sins and he is one of the redeemed, then I am willing to baptize that man. But I would let this right arm drop in everlasting paralysis at my right side, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, before I would baptize man, woman or child, if I did not have evidence that such a one was saved, saved by the power of God. But perhaps someone may say: \ldblquote We are broad enough to take our children with us.\rdblquote I take my children with me. That is, I take them to Jesus, not to the fount. \ldblquote Suffer them to come unto me and forbid them not.\rdblquote Don\rquote t forbid them to come to Christ. Come, boys, come little girls, I will take you with me. I went to Jesus; I found Him to be my Savior, and when you find Him to be your Savior we will go along together. But I could not pick you up unsaved and take you with me. \par \tab That would be a cruel thing, for me to have my soul washed and made clean in the blood of Jesus and give my child only a water washing. \par \tab Shall I trust him to water when I demanded blood for myself? God forbid. When he comes just like his father did, then we go together; never until then, never, never, forever. \par \tab Men of Waco, look at me for a few minutes. I want to speak some earnest words to you right now. I know that I desire the salvation of your souls. As the Lord God is my judge, there is not one of you against whom I have an unkind feeling; on the contrary, to every one of you I come with tears in my eyes, and, God knows, love in my heart, while I say, \ldblquote Friends, look here, I do not ask you to a man, I do not ask you to a church, I ask you to the Lord God Himself, and if you will meet Him, come to Him, come just as you are today, you will be saved.\rdblquote And let me ask you if it is not true: Have you not had many heavy burdens in your time? Have you not in many respects had a hard time? O, many a time have you not had the bitter cup pressed to your lips? Have you not felt, when you looked out around you, O, what a problem is life? Is there nothing better than what I have come to? Is there nothing beyond the miserable things that I have reached? O immortality, immortality! I stand an immortal spirit, but when out of an old broken cistern I try, to draw up water, I hear my little bucket hit the bottom, and the dust arises while I die of thirst. O God, shall this man be forever unsatisfied? Shall he be forever restless? Shall he forever desire and have naught? O Spirit, omnific Spirit of God, Thou justifier of Jesus Christ, Thou accreditor of the Gospel: O Spirit, in mighty power today behold the hearts of these disappointed men and women and children and lead them from broken cisterns which hold no water to the Fountain of Livings Waters. \par \tab\par \tab\par \pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\sb240\sa120\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\b\fs32\page\par } ZZ5 04-Objects of the Church!0!03-Salvation Not in Church Ordinances{\rtf1\ansi\deff0\deftab1134{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\sb240\sa120\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\lang1033\b\f0\fs32 3. SALVATION NOT IN CHURCH OR ORDINANCES, BUT IN CHRIST\par \pard\nowidctlpar\tx720\tx1440\tx2160 VVym04-Objects of the Church{\rtf1\ansi\deff0\deftab1134{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fprEu%05-The Glory of the Church{\rtf1\ansi\deff0\deftab1134{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\sb240\sa120\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\lang1033\b\f0\fs32 5. THE GLO,q2\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\sb240\sa120\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\lang1033\b\f0\fs32 4. OBJECTS OF THE CHURCH\par \pard\nowidctlpar\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\b0\fs24 \b\tab TEXT:\b0 (The text selected combines the 10th and 21st verses of the 3rd Chapter of Paul\rquote s letter to the Ephesians:) To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God Unto Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations forever and ever. Amen. \par \par \tab The letter to the Ephesians is a circular letter-that is, not intended for the church at Ephesus particularly but for that church and a number of others to whom copies of it were sent. It presents to us the following thoughts: That the church as set forth in this letter has a three-fold sense. It has the sense of an institution, as for example, \ldblquote Upon this Rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.\rdblquote It has, in the second place, the sense of all of the redeemed from the first man saved to the last man saved. In this case it refers to the church in glory and is prospective except as an ideal or conception of the mind. Then it means the particular church in any given place, as the church at Ephesus. \par \tab In all three of these senses Christ is the head of the church. He is the head of the church as an institution. He is the head of the church in glory. He is the head of each particular church, as the church at Waco. \par \tab This letter also sets forth the objects of the church, and the objects are those to be accomplished by each particular church or else by the church as an institution. These objects are three-fold. As said by the Apostle Paul in the letter to the Corinthians, the apostles are a spectacle to the angels. Here he uses language common to the show in Rome and in the great Greek cities where a great amphitheatre accommodates the hundreds of thousands of people assembled. There are the spectators; in the arena is the spectacle. The church is said to be a spectacle to the angels.- To get the full grammatic thought of the Apostle, let us conceive of heaven and earth as a great amphitheatre. The earth is the arena; the heavens are the galleries where the angels are l ooking down upon the church. \par \tab The second object of the church is to instruct the angels that are so looking down upon it. These angels, while great in knowledge, are not omniscient. They have an intense desire to look into all the workings of the wisdom of God. That curiosity of their, is represented as if to discern the great object of God in the appointment of that mercy seat. These angels regard the unfolding of the wisdom of God as the most worthy thing of angelic knowledge. But this unfoldi ng is not entrusted to them. The unfolding of the much diversified wisdom of God is committed to the church, to the church as an institution and to each particular church. Each church unfolds the much diversified wisdom of God, and as it unfolds, the angels above, the interested spectators, are instructed in the development of that wisdom. \par \tab The next object of the church is that in thus unfolding God\rquote s wisdom to the angels, they declare the glory of God, and hence the last part of the text , that in the church throughout all ages shall be declared the glory of God. In this connection this letter sets forth the time in which the church is to be a spectacle to angels, the time in which the church is to occupy the position of instructor of angels, the time in which the church shall declare the glory of God and it is to the end of this age, until the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the mission of the church of Christ. \par \tab Now, the latter also sets forth what is necessary  on the part of the church in order for these great things to be accomplished. Every member of a particular church must have a vital connection with the Head of the church-a living connection, not a nominal connection. \par \tab The objects that God had in view in the institution of a church are thwarted just to the extent that there are on the rolls of the church men and women who have no real vital connection with the Head. It is utterly impossible for one who has only a nominal connection with Jesus Ch rist to declare the glory of God or to unfold His wisdom. \par \tab The next thing necessary is that there shall also be a vital connection between all of the parts which constitute the church. There must not only be a living connection with Jesus Christ, but there must be a living connection with each other. Therefore, any member of the church who is out of fellowship with his brethren, anyone who from any cause is incapacitated for working with the rest of the members, just by that much he thwarts the object of God in the institution of the church. We must be in touch with each other as well as in vital touch with the Lord Jesus Christ as the Head. \par \tab The next thing is that the church is to be for a habitation of God through the spirit. \par \tab The congregation has a house. The church (not the building) is the house of the living God. The One who dwells in this house is the holy spirit. Now any member of a church in whose individual heart there is no indwelling of the spirit is a handicap to the rest of the congregation. He is a drag upon the church. He is a burden to it. They have to carry his share in doing the work which God has given the church to do. \par \tab The letter then goes on to show that in order to afford the proper spectacle to the angels, and in order that the angels may perceive in the work of the church the unfolding of the much diversiformed wisdom of God, it is necessary that the congregation shall, as a congregation, upbuild. \par \tab Let us suppose that a congregation for five years of its life has been growing as a congregation in grace and in members, in brotherly love. That far, then, they have been active instructors to the onlooking angels. \par \tab But there comes a halt in the upbuilding of the church. Things are at a standstill. They exhibit the same old picture lessons to the angels that \i they \i0 have been exhibiting for the last five years. Nothing new is presented to them. There is no changing progress that brings out any new thought of the wisdom of God. \par \tab The upbuilding of a congregation, then, is absolutely essential to the accomplishment of the object of the institution of the church. \par \tab But this is incidental. There is a higher object than that. The church best shows to the angels the wisdom of God by the saving power which it exercises upon outsiders. \par \tab Not merely that there is growth in grace in each individual member and that the bond of unity between the members is continually strengthened, but that the church, as a saving power, is bringing in the lost. So that if within any given period of time, say one year, nobody is converted through the ministration of the church, the spectators in heaven, those angels that hover over the assemblage of God\rquote s people, those angels, intently curious to observe the unfolding of the wisdom of the power of God, how impatient must they become when no progress is made in the unfolding! No sinner is saved. The roll stands just as it was before with no increase except by letter. \par \tab They have a pastor perhaps, they have a building perhaps, they go through all regular forms of public worship. But in some way their services are of a kind that convicts no sinner of sin and saves nobody. You will see at once that by lack of the exercise of saving power the church defeats the object of God in its establishment. \par \tab This upbuilding which constitutes the first means by which the church declares the glory of God may be of two kinds. One of the most interesting kinds is in special cases where one who has united with a particular church in some hour of revival power grows from a baby in Christ to a stalwart man or woman in Christ, becomes a character. People observe this remarkable development of practical, individual Christianity. They say of this man, \ldblquote He is a monument of the grace of God, a monument covered with inscriptions, and any eye may read the story that the monument tells.\rdblquote In all the history of the church these titles of grace, these colossal developments of individual character and power have challenged the admiration of the world. \par \tab\par \tab Now and then you see some layman developed by the power of Christianity within, until everybody that knows him respects him to the full extent that the human heart and mind can entertain respect. They believe in his personal integrity, they believe in his veracity, they believe in his honesty, in his practical piety, and when he passes away, it is as if the lordliest and most wide-branching tree of a forest had fallen. It leaves a vacancy in the sky. The very birds themselves are startled when they fly over an empty space that once had been for them a resting place. \par \tab This upbuilding, this resting place, constitutes one of the things that the angels admire most. They look at it just as spectators would look at a statue carved by a mighty artist out of hard granite, and as they behold that work taking shape and each outline softened and the marvelous symmetry brought out under the skillful stroke of the mallet and the chisel until that statue seems to live and breathe, they glorify the artist in what he has accomplished. \par \tab But this upbuilding also looks to a congregational up building. Not merely that one here and there may be so developed by the power of Christianity as to gain the respect and warm love of all who know him, but that the progress of a whole congregation as such may attract the attention of the world. Not merely that, but that this congregation as a congregation may send out the praises of God throughout the whole world by their example, the record that they make so that other churches far off may look at that church and say, \ldblquote It is a banner church. It is in the lead in the great work of God. When we want to know what is best for a church, we study the example of that church and we see how unselfish, how self-sacrificingly, with what spiritual consecration they do what God would have them to do, in missions, in all other things in which the commands of God rest upon them.\rdblquote In that way this church may be built up and it may teach this lesson to the angels. \par \tab Now, the Apostle having set forth the idea of a church in its three-fold sense, as an institution, as a particular congregation and as an ultimate body in glory, and having shown that there must be vital connection between each member and the Head and that there must be vital connection between one part and all the rest, and that so knit together and compacted they shall constitute the house in which the Holy Spirit dwells, and that so constituted it becomes the spectacle of angels, the instructor of angels in the manifold wisdom of God and that it displays the glory of God throughout the ages, and having shown that it does this through the upbuilding, the bringing about of exceptional cases of character in individuals and in the general upbuilding of the membership, and also in saving the unconverted with which it comes in touch \u-1817? having presented all these thoughts and knowing how much that particular church at Ephesus and every other particular church in the world needs some things in order to thus serve God, he offers a prayer. \par \tab\par \tab This prayer consists of five petitions, and the first petition is this: \ldblquote I pray that you may be strengthened with power in the inner man, with power inside.\rdblquote \par \tab There is no power in external things to a church. \par \tab If it be a power that can attract the attention, and inform the minds of onlooking angels, it must be an inward power, a power of which the soul is conscious. \par \tab Jacob had power with God and with man. He is therefore called a priest. That power came to him through prayer, and therefore the Apostle Paul prays that the members of the Ephesian church might be strengthened with power in the inner man. \par \tab Every individual Christian should take an inventory of his internal powers. One who is devoid of consciousness of internal power can have no confidence in addressing himself to great exploits. He is too timid to undertake them. He feels his incapacity to do such things, but if this power is felt in his heart he is not overawed by any threatening danger. He is not discouraged by any postponement of success. He is not diverted from a straightforward march to the accomplishment of his object by any sidetracking thing that is presented to seduce his mind and turn him away from his work, if he has this power. Therefore Paul prays that they may have that power. \par \tab The second thing that he prays for is: That Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith. \par \tab The dwelling of Christ in the heart can only come through faith in Christ. \par \tab It is much to be feared that to a great many people Christ is only an occasional visitor, and if He chances to spend an hour with you, you feel like you have a strange company and that you must put on company manners because a certain worthy one is spending an hour with you. \par \tab But if our faith be strong enough, Christ dwells in the heart; that is His home. He has formed in the heart His image, so that if the heart were opened to the light of Heaven, the first thing that that light would shine on would be the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other image in any way daring to rival. \par \tab I believe I told you once of a woman who intensely loved her husband. He had gone to the wars. It was doubtful if he would ever return. Indeed, he never did get back, but every morning she would put his picture on the ma ntel-piece and stand before it and gaze long at it and say, \ldblquote Oh, my husband, if you were here today what would you have me to do? What conduct upon my part would please you the most?\rdblquote Now, his image was in her heart. She had faith in him; he had faith in her. \par \tab Now Paul prays in order to the accomplishment of the objects, the great and glorious objects of the church, that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith. \par \tab\par \tab Third, he prays that we may be rooted and gr!ounded in love. Here are two figures: One is agricultural and the other is architectural. The sending down of the tap root insures the life of the transplanting. You may never count the transplanting a success until the tap root has gone deep down into the ground and touched the hidden source of moisture in the earth. He says, \ldblquote I pray that you may be rooted in love and that you may be grounded in love.\rdblquote \par \tab In building a house, a house that you expect to stand, you dig deep and "lay a broad and a very firm foundation. Now he says, I pray that you may have that kind of a foundation in love. It is necessary that you should have it if you are to do these things that God commands you to do. \par \tab The next petition is that they may comprehend \u-1817? that means to lay hold of-the dimensions of the love of God. And these dimensions are expressed in the length, breadth, height and depth of the love of God. \par \tab It is very much to be feared that many of us have made but littl#e progress in laying hold upon the dimensions of the love of God which surpasses all knowledge. We have some conception of God\rquote s love. Every Christian must have some conception of it. But we have not studied the subject. We have not given it profound and continuous thought. We have not given it that heart study, we have not given it that experimental study, as when a man reading in the Bible about God\rquote s love not only intellectually understands the signification of the terms and their grammat$ical construction, but puts his very heart against that description and feels and then in his life lives so that he will say, \ldblquote Since my conversion I have been all the time increasing my acquaintance with God\rquote s love.\rdblquote \par \tab It was very sweet to my soul when I first found it. I had not tried it much then. I have found as years roll on and as new experiences come and go that God\rquote s love is higher than I thought at first. Oh, it is very much higher than any mountain, any %cloud, any sky! I have found out that it is very deep \u-1817? that it is deeper than any thought of mine can measure, deeper than the earth itself, deeper than the space in which the earth floats, this love of God that reached down to the very depths of hell in order to pluck me as a brand from the burning and has now lifted me up, up, higher, higher, until at last I am by that love to be made a joint heir with the Lord Jesus Christ and to sit with Him on the throne of His glory. \par \tab And then the &length of it and the breadth of it. Go straight forward until you have made the circuit of the earth and the love is there. Go right and left in either direction until you strike the shores of space itself and the love of God is there. Now he says, \par \tab\ldblquote Brethren, if the church is to accomplish its mission of instruction to the angels and is to show forth God\rquote s glory, you ought to lay hold with some kind of a grasp upon the dimensions of God\rquote s love.\rdblquote \par \tab Oh, h'ow old it is! It commences before the world was made. Oh, how precious it is! \par \tab It found me when I was an enemy of God, an alien from the commonwealth of Israel and it changed me from an enemy to a friend. And, oh, how, while revolutions have overtaken earthly governments, and inexorable laws have written change upon every earthly thing, time writes no wrinkle on the brow of the love of God, which as creation\rquote s dawn beheld it, shineth now. \par \tab Then he prayed that they might be fille(d with all the fulness of God. There was a time when that statement staggered me. I confess I did not understand it. He evidently isn\rquote t praying for something unattainable. It is an intensely practical prayer. He means they were to get what he asks for, that a church of the Lord Jesus Christ should be filled with all the fulness of God. The thought is this, and in this way a child can understand it: God in the Holy Spirit inhabits every true church. Now the Holy Spirit does not come into a church wi)th only a part of himself. He comes in all the fulness of God, the fulness of His wisdom, the fulness of His power, the fulness of His love. \par \tab He is there that way. But when the Apostle Paul prays that we may be filled with that fulness the thought is this: That there might come into our hearts a realization of that presence of the Holy Spirit in that power. \par \tab Now, in order to enable you to step up on the thought, let us make a stepping stone of the great commission. Christ says to His p*eople: \ldblquote Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, making disciples of all nations.\rdblquote He precedes that statement with, \ldblquote All power in Heaven and on earth is given unto me and lo, I am with you in the exercise of that power.\rdblquote \par \tab That power is there. It is there all the time with that presence. The only thing is, will the church lay hold of it? Will they appropriate it? Very dimly we see it, very feebly we touch it. Sometimes in hours of m+ighty spiritual power, the thought overwhelms us and we begin to realize that if two or three be gathered in the name of God, the Omnipotence is with the two or three, that no command is impossible, that anything He says do, can be done. \par \tab Now, the Holy Spirit dwells in this church I doubt it not. It was intended to be a house for Him and He has been living in the house, but we have shut up a good many of the rooms from Him. We have barred Him out of a great part of His mansion. \par \tab Now, when He prays that we may be filled with the fulness of God, it means that we must open up to Him all the rest of the chambers. Let Him in, not only partially, but altogether. Let Him in, not as limited, but as unlimited. Let Him in, not only as a prevalent love, but as an all prevalent love. That is the exposition of this text. \par \tab\par \tab\par \pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\sb240\sa120\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\b\fs32\page\par } -RY OF THE CHURCH\par \pard\nowidctlpar\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\b0\fs24 \tab TEXT: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known, by the church, the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Unto Him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. - \cf1\ul Eph_3:10\cf2\ulnone ; \cf1\ul. Eph_3:21\cf0\ulnone . \par \par \tab The church is a Divine institution. It is the only visible religious organization that is of specific Divine appointment. It is to the church that God has committed the preaching of the Gospel to a lost world, and to it committed the memorials which He instituted concerning His death and resurrection. This appointment was made by the Omniscient One, looking to the end of the world, taking into account perfectly all of the coming developments of nations, of society, /and all the changes to be wrought in the world by science, philosophy or any other force of civilization. And having in view the end from the beginning, He deliberately appointed the church as a perpetual institution for the purposes specified, and distinctly declared that the gates of hell should not prevail against it. \par \tab It is important to understand, then, the meaning of the church. After the last man is saved, after the resurrection and the judgment, the anti-typical church then will consist 0of all the redeemed, from the beginning of the world to the end of the world. \par \tab That will he the true temple of God. That temple is in process of construction, but will not be completed until the last man is saved, and will not be inhabited by the Holy Ghost as a temple until it is completed. Hence it is evident that is was not to the church in that ideal future sense, that is, to the completed family of God, that were committed the official activities by which God intends to accomplish His purpo1se on earth, and in time. Our text refers to a visible organization. \par \tab The next thing to be determined is whether in any New Testament sense this visible organization is, a federation of all the local organizations as its constituency and subordinated to some common earthly head. If there be a federation like the United States government, there must be an earthly head there must be a President. If a hierarchy be contemplated, there must be an earthly head, such as patriarch or pope. \par \tab In2 the case of either federation, hierarchy or autocracy, responsibility keeps shrinking away from the individual and from the local community, and keeps drawing together wherever the head is. The natural tendency is, that the sense of responsibility is taken from the individual, leaving more and more the fate of the whole, the work of the whole, the development of the whole, to be determined either by some general congress, if it be a federation, or by the dictum of a pope or of a council. \par \tab But t3he New Testament distinctly teaches the contrary idea. It teaches that the responsibility in every instance rests upon the local, visible organization. The scriptures expressly declare that each local congregation is the temple of the Lord, so that there is no way by which the local duties which rest upon one congregation can be shoved off upon some other congregation. We cannot wait in matters local until we call together all the people of God upon the earth to determine what is duty. \par \tab We canno4t wait until there be assembled a council even of all the Texas brethren to determine duties which peculiarly concern us here in Waco. \par \tab When, then, our text says that, \ldblquote Unto Him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages,\rdblquote it means that the glory is to be rendered by each local congregation in its assembly and in its specific work. Not the vague kingdom at large typifies the future heavenly temple, but as the scriptures in this very context declare, \par 5\tab\ldblquote In whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord.\rdblquote (R.V.). That brings home to us the sense of our responsibility to God, and it makes it easy for each individual member of the church to understand his part of the matter. \par \tab As set forth again in the context, \ldblquote From Christ, the Head, all the body, fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each seve6ral part, maketh the increase of the body into the building up of itself in love.\rdblquote \par \tab I state then as the first proposition that it is essential to a due sense of responsibility in a local congregation, and it is essential to a due sense of responsibility in the individual, that the whole idea of a future temple of God should be represented in each local church. \par \tab The conception of all local congregations in federation,, or of all denominations in congress, constituting the chur7ch on earth or even representing the church in heaven, is unscriptural. Beyond the ideas of comity and voluntary cooperation there is no such thing as the Lord Jesus Christ dealing with churches in groups. It is true that He addressed a communication to the seven churches of Asia, but it is also true that He dealt with each of the seven according to its particular condition. He did not hold Smyrna responsible for the state of affairs in Philadelphia, and what He said to Thyatira was widely different from 8what He said to Laodicea. He came directly to each congregation and looked upon the condition of that congregation, and held pastor and church responsible for their local condition; and He deals with us also just that way today. \par \tab\par \tab The next point which I wish to present is, that being built up, edified, depends upon compactness of organization, compacted by that which every joint supplies. Now, if any part of the church be loosely attached, that destroys compactness. There must be cohesi9on in order to unity. You may lift up a woven garment by one thread, because the different threads are interwoven. You may lift up a coat of mail by one steel scale because all are linked together. If the local congregation is the church in the sense in which duties are to be performed, memorial services are to be held, and the gospel to be preached, we can readily understand how the head is Christ. As the scripture expresses it, \ldblquote Speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things wh:o is the head, even Christ.\rdblquote \ldblquote Christ is the head over all things to the church.\rdblquote We are the body and He is the head. The pastor is not the head of the church. The deacons do not make the head of the church. The Lord Jesus Christ is the head of the church. \par \tab It follows, therefore, that for compactness and for each part to work according to its measure, there must not only be a connecting bond between the parts holding them together compactly, but there must be some co;nnection between each part and the head. In order to be a church in the highest idea of life, there must be a vital connection between each member and the head, which is Christ. It follows, at once, that if there be in a congregation one member who has no living connection with Jesus Christ, that member is so much incumbrance and dead weight on the church. It is impossible that strength can be imparted to the church by that man\rquote s being a member of it. It needs must follow that his connection with thead. \par \tab It is also true that there is no way by which compactness with other parts can be maintained when this circulation is interrupted; when there is a loosing from Christ, the head, there is a loosing from every part. If a man\rquote s communication with Jesus Christ be real, if it be daily, then is he a profitable part of the organization, and the more nearly he touches Christ the more nearly he can be made to touch his brethren. \par \tab The next thought that I would impress is that our L?ord has not left us free to seek relief from paralyzed or enfeebled church life in organizations devised by our own wisdom. Whenever the church as an organization, as a body, is loose-jointed, not compact, when it rattles as it moves, whenever it is carrying a large number of members that have no vital connection with the head, the remedy is not to be sought in our own expedients. We must have recourse to the means of resuscitation prescribed in the scriptures: \ldblquote Unto the principalities and power@s in heavenly places are to be made known, throughout all ages, by the church the manifold wisdom of God.\rdblquote We are to renew the unity of the church by compacting its members, causing their minds to flow together and their wills to merge and their movements to harmonize in time and step. We must do the things that will bring this about. Such is the great problem always. And so whenever a church loses all compactness, there remaining no bond of cohesion between its members, and there is no living cAonnection between most of the members and Christ, that church as an organization must die. Nothing else remains. The converted souls in it are saved, but that particular church, as an organization, passes away. It no longer has a name or a place in history. That is the provision of God. It simply loses its life. When there is no light, there is no need for a candlestick, and the candlestick is removed. \par \tab Consider ourselves shut up to this. We have nothing else to think about. There is no other diBrection to which we can profitably turn our attention. If God is to be glorified in this world, He is to be glorified by the institution which He appointed, and if that institution is to accomplish the ends for which it was designed and established, it must be by attending to the means which He sets forth in His word. \par \tab Our hope then to reach men, our hope to save men is through the church. That being true and being unwilling to concede that this organization is lifeless, being unwilling to conceCde that all touch between the members is destroyed, and that all connection between the head and the members is destroyed, we should, in proposing to hold a meeting, honor and magnify the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the institution which He appointed, in which, through which and by which we will do what He has commanded us to do. \par \tab My hope then in going into this meeting rests upon the fact that if it be attempted at all it will be attempted by the church. We are called upon to vote upon Dthat officially. \par \tab Some of us have been meeting together and praying about it ever since Wednesday night, and those of us at these meetings have felt impressed that we ought, as a congregation, to hold a meeting. That is the impression made on our minds, at least all who spoke out, and there seemed to be concurrence upon the part of those who did not speak. But we were only individuals. \par \tab Now, when you come together in conference this afternoon you are to intelligently vote upon this matEter. One of the objections considered particularly last night was this: The untimeliness of such an effort, and humanly speaking the conditions every way seemed to be unfavorable, but when we began to look at each one of these seemingly unfavorable conditions by itself and reduce the difficulty to its real and last analysis, it became to us evident that each difficulty was more apparent than real; that it was more in apprehension than in substance, and that so far from the approaching period in which ChriFstians are accustomed to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ being an inappropriate time, it is a more appropriate time, if there be any distinctions in time, than any other in the world. \par \tab It will not be considered today, whether December 25th is the birthday of our Lord. \par \tab But we may well remember that when He was born, whatever the time, Heaven sent all its choir of angels to sing in the hearing of the astounded shepherds, and to make known to a startled world that there was born untoG them a Prince and a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord, and that His advent meant glory to God in the highest, peace on earth and good will among men. Let us be willing enough, heartily willing, to co-operate in all innocent measures which look to making children happy and households happy, and let us exchange suitable gifts, though they only relate to time and timely things. These things are not only innocent in themselves, but commendable. Yet, our greatest desire, if we would harmonize with the higher anHd deeper spirit of our Lord\rquote s advent, should be to turn men\rquote s thoughts to greater gifts, gifts from God\rquote s free grace, eternal life and the indwelling Spirit. \par \tab It cannot be inappropriate and untimely to signalize this December by the reconciliation of difficulties, by bringing brethren wide apart closer together, by comforting hearts that are stricken. And we may make the occasion glorious in the sight of God by carrying the good tidings of that Prince of Peace to some soul iIn bondage and darkness, thus accomplishing the highest aim and holiest mission of the church of Jesus Christ. The thing to do, then, is to catch the spirit of such an effort, realize that this is an appropriate thing to do, and that this is a good time to do it; be persuaded that it is in accordance with the commandment of the Lord Jesus Christ that it be done. As glory to God in the highest came on that birthday of our Lord, surely it cannot be incompatible with the Divine Will that the same glory shouldJ come now, nearly two thousand years later. \par \tab Looking back to the advent as the greatest event in the history of the world to that date, and to be paralleled only by the second advent, when our Lord comes to take His people to Himself, my own heart and spirit need no stimulus to work heartily now in a revival meeting. No abstract reasoning of any kind is necessary to induce me to readily take hold, and work as joyfully as the ancient German went forth to battle, as gladly as the long-waiting husbKandman goes out to thrust his sickle into the ripening grain fields upon which he has bestowed his labor, expecting to hear the shouts of the harvesters as they garner in the precious grain. So does my own heart leap and throb at the thought that this church, by the glory and power of God, is waking up to a meeting just at this time. \par \tab Being now prepared for it, let us consider for what purpose I read the other Scripture: \ldblquote Simeon hath declared unto you,\rdblquote saith James, \ldblquotLe that God purposed to take out of the Gentiles a people for Himself.\rdblquote Indeed, He has a purpose to take out of each community a people for Himself. For example, when the difficulties at Corinth, humanly considered, seemed to Paul to be insuperable, when his own brave heart was daunted, when his own firm grasp was ready to relax, God came to him in a vision by night and told him not to be afraid, but to speak out, because He had much people in that city. Equally are they here. God knoweth. You doM not, but God knoweth. The things we may do, let us consider them. And one of the things is that God hath ordained that through the church He obtains His glory in the salvation of these people. \par \tab Let us face that, and we also know that God\rquote s word has declared that if a sinner will seek Him while He may be found and call upon Him while He is near, God will abundantly pardon him. Let us know that thoroughly. And know that though you be not a good man, or though you are in a backslidden condiNtion, though you have allowed your heart to become as hard as the nether millstone, though it has been years since you shed a religious tear, though your heart may be a long desert waste far back to an oasis, showing that then your heart was fresh and your soul was full of love for your brethren, and then the outgoing of your spirit was for the salvation of men all this may be so and yet it does remain true that God\rquote s Divine appointment is that the church shall make known His wisdom, and the churcOh shall declare His glory, and the church shall proclaim His gospel, and the church shall be the blessed instrument which, set on fire by the Spirit of God, shall give life, and light and salvation to men. \par \tab That is true and I stand on that truth. And I stand on the eternal purpose of God to save men, and I stand upon His declarations that if the sinner will call upon Him he will be saved. We can make no greater mistake than to imagine that everything depends on any one man. It may be that on accPount of your coldness of heart your attention has been withdrawn from religious things. Your business may have absorbed you. Political affairs may have diverted you. Unhappy tragedies may have caused you to forget that the Lord God omnipotent reigneth, and you may be this day living in sin. God knoweth. But I do know that if you are a Christian, you can be reached. If there was ever kindled on the altar of your heart one spark of the divine light, the devil cannot put that light out. There may be a big fiQre revived there by piling on the proper fuel, when we rake among the smouldering ashes of your heart, and find one coal not extinct, if so be the breath of God\rquote s Spirit blow upon it and the fuel of duty piled on it. It is with a reasonable expectation that you, my brother, notwithstanding your present wretched condition, may be by the grace of God brought back to compactness with your brethren and into uninterrupted communication with Christ, the head. \par \tab It is worth working for. One of thRe things then clearly before my mind as visible as a mountainous coast to a mariner at sea, one huge substance that rears itself up into the sky, so that the eye cannot help but see it, is that backsliders may be healed. God has made abundant provision for their healing. And\rquote it seems to me that you ought to be unwilling for this year to close, if your spiritual affairs are not in good, condition, leaving them in a wretched condition. \par \tab Why should there not be on your part an adjustment beSfore this year closes? Why not seek to commence the new year with fresh views of divine grace, with new sensations of religious joy, and with quickened purpose of religious life? I invite you to that as personally as if I were to call your name and step down from this pulpit and walk down the aisle, and take you by the hand, singling you out from everybody else in the world, to ask these questions: Is it well with your soul, my brother, my sister? Will you help your pastor? Will you respond to the trumpetT commandment of your Redeemer? Will you yield yourself to the impressions of the Eternal Spirit by seeking a deeper and a richer spirituality before this year closes? Then remember that whet God \i says \i0 that it is His purpose to take out a people, that He does not mean to take all the people. You torture yourself to no good end, you afflict your soul without accomplishing any good result, if you seek to satisfy all outside people. \par \tab All men have not faith. Some of them will never have it. SoUme of them have already sinned against the Holy Ghost. Some may call you hypocrites. Some may hate the doctrine you preach. Some may work against it. These possibly would be glad if every one of you were dead. Let it be so. Allow not their criticisms to influence your action in this matter. \par \tab But there are also some people in this town that may be saved. And here I suggest two or three things to think about as you go out and try to save them. These are thoughts worth ten thousand volumes of philoVsophical speculations which deride the Word of God. The first thought is that man by nature is religious. Man, by nature, as God made him, is endowed for religion, and infidelity is simply a veneer. Under the veneer the eternal truth remains that man is religious by nature. There is a craving for something better than anything this earth can give. There is the restlessness of an immortal spirit. There is a longing for something more gratifying than anything he has ever yet found. He feels that earth\rquotWe s foundations and songs and glories and honors and powers and emoluments cannot satisfy the inner man. Now you have that to work on. \par \tab Then remember this, that whatever may be the ten thousand objections sinners may allege at any particular time, whatever their charges against you or any other Christian people, these things are evanescent. They do not abide. There comes one breeze from God, and as autumn leaves are stripped from the boughs of the trees which gave them birth and are carried awayX, so these objections that sinners regarded as insuperable and multitudinous, and that you regarded as beyond your power to break down, one single breath of God may sweep them all away, every one of them, in an hour. \par \tab Go out then on these thoughts:\par \tab\b (1)\b0 God has appointed the church as the institution for the accomplishment of His purposes; \par \tab\b (2)\b0 that God has a purpose to take out of the Gentiles a people, so that while confessedly you cannot reach everybody, since aYll people have not faith, there are some people reachable and it is your duty to reach them; \b (3)\b0 that difficulties which at one time may appear to both you and sinners as insuperable as granite mountains, melt away and vanish before one breath of the rising day. \par \tab So let us have faith and go to work. Are you out of touch with your brethren? Get in touch. Are you out of touch with Jesus Christ, the Head? Get in touch. And as a church which God has wonderfully blessed in the past, and for which, as I trust, He has reserved greater blessings in the future, I invite you to move together, honor the institution of the divine appointment, keep the bond of unity, and for Christ\rquote s sake, who loved you and cleansed you from your sins and made you kings and priests of God, let us render glory to Him in this December. \par \tab\par \tab\par \pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\sb240\sa120\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\b\fs32\page\par } 4nd  M08-Judgment at the House of God{\rtf1\ansi\deff0\deftab1134{\fonttbl{\,!E06-The Convicting Power of the Church{\rtf1\ansi\deff0\deftab1134{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\[F 07-God's Enlargement of a Church{\rtf1\ansi\deff0\deftab1134{\fonttbl{\fd  M08-Judgment at the House of God{\rtf1\ansi\deff0\deftab1134{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fprq2\fcharset0\sb240\sa120\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\lang1033\b\f0\fs32 6. THE CONVICTING POWER OF THE CHURCH\par \pard\nowidctlpar\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\b0\fs24 \tab TEXT: And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth. - \cf1\ul 1Co_14:25\cf0\ulnone . \par \par \tab If y]ou should go out and try to count the stars tonight; try to comprehend all the glory that the heavens declare; try to trace all the handiwork of God in the skies, your finite mind would break down under the vastness and complexity of the problem. If, you should turn to earth and attempt to number the leaves on the trees, the green blades of grass and nodding flowers on wide, rolling prairies, or the sands which gulf billows fondle, you would equally fail; if you should try to master the height and the dep^th and the scope of the law of God, you would make a greater failure, for the commandments of God are exceeding broad. \par \tab But you might just as well try to master every secret of nature, whether revealed by stars in their shining, or by night in her deepest and darkest character, as to try to comprehend all the mysteries of our inner nature. Who can know? Who can sound the depths of one human heart? Who can lay bare all of its most secret thoughts? \par \tab Who can measure the flight of its erra_tic fancy? Who has ever been able to ascend to the top of its aspiration \ldblquote and vaulting ambition? Who has ever been able to measure its presumption? Who, its lusts? Who, its blasphemies? Who, its wishes which night curtains from the sight and that would eclipse the moon if it should fully shine in the dark faces of those hideous secrets? \par \tab Why is it that the heart is so much more difficult to understand than astronomy? \par \tab Because, vast as is the page which God unrolls in the skie`s to the upturning reverent eye, and as complicated as is the system of worlds, and boundless as are the orbits in which they roll, there is nothing deceitful in their motions, not even in a comet whose flight, to us, seems erratic. \par \tab All heavenly bodies pursue the several paths marked out for them by their Creator, with unerring accuracy and without collision. There is no deceit in nature. Everything is evenly balanced and adjusted to all other things in the vast correlated system, and while youa may become appalled by the vastness of it, yet you can make definite progress in your investigation and you may know that what you have learned is sure. \par \tab But who can say, in trying to aggregate the results of the investigation of his own heart, \ldblquote that this much is certain?\rdblquote You revise tomorrow your seemingly best conclusions of today. The heart is deceitful above all things. Nothing that ever yet throbbed with life in the universe of God takes such protean shapes, that so turbns and twists and doubles, that assumes so many colors. Who can know it-who can know it? Almighty God alone. \par \tab There is nothing in the world fresh from God\rquote s hands out of plumb, out of harmony, out of adjustment. All of it moves silently and yet certainly and surely in its allotted direction. But the heart of man is wicked-desperately wicked. Wicked to a degree that when you attempt to rectify it, despair comes to you, despair to understand it, despair to manage it, despair to cleanse it. cNo Augean stable is comparable to it. \par \tab Who can know it? Who can cleanse it? Who can fathom its mysteries? Desperately wicked! \par \tab And yet, there is \i a way \i0 by which the secrets of the heart may be ascertained. There is a light which can shine down into its depths. By the law comes the knowledge of sin. The law of the Lord is perfect. The light of God\rquote s truth enlightens our eye and we can never know our hearts (I mean even approximately) until we have brought them under the focdus of God\rquote s law. Then you begin to find it out. When the law says, \par \tab\ldblquote Thou shall not covet,\rdblquote the heart covets. There is the standard with its straight line, and here the warped and biased affection of the heart and its crookedness and defects and iniquities made manifest by laying the straight edge of the law to it. \par \tab\ldblquote Judgment will I lay to the line and righteousness to the plummet,\rdblquote saith the Almighty. \par \tab And when the law of God is aeligned with the heart, we find how very, very much it is missing the mark, how far astray it is going. We can then determine something of the latitude and longitude of the ship of the soul that has been driven by adverse winds far out of its course and is now rotting on seas of calm or tossed by storms on dangerous shores. \par \tab A farmer once said to me that he never had great trouble in dealing with the breaks and gaps in his fence that were known to him, but always suffered the greatest loss from sfecret breaks and gaps in his fence. Those he never watched. He didn\rquote t even know they were there. Hence, the Psalmist says, \ldblquote Who can understand his errors?\rdblquote \par \tab Who can locate, who can enumerate, who can measure them? And being ignorant of them, what provision can be made against them? Who can guard a breach in the wall of which he knows nothing? Who will stop a leak in the ship of which he is unconscious? Who will guard against the approach of an insidious disease that thgrows out no visible symptom and does not indicate by any pain, any present pain, that it is stealing up to take by surprise the unprepared citadel of life? \par \tab And hence he prays, \ldblquote Cleanse Thou me from secret faults.\rdblquote And hence Job, when he offered sacrifices for his children, was accustomed to pray, \ldblquote Oh God, forgive the boys and girls for the sins of ignorance-sins unwittingly done.\rdblquote He had some conception of the nature of the heart. \par \tab\par \tab It his a dark subject, and it is an unhappy thing to think about. It is an awful pit to explore. It is worse than a cage where unclean birds are housed. It is worse than a cave where wild beasts have dwelt and fed their young. And yet, it is essential that you should look at it somewhat. It is essential that the law of God should enlighten our eyes. \par \tab It is essential that we should know something of sin and realize something of its terrible consequences. And why? I do not believe that anybody ever hais sound doctrinal views who has light views of human depravity. How can he believe in the doctrines of grace, in the necessity for the work of the Holy Spirit, in the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, in the perseverance of the saints, unless he looks at the pit from which he was digged, and the hole in the rock from which he was hewn? And not only is this true, but you will never see one truly humble in the sight of God who has not had some light shining on the secret depravity of his heart, unless you cajn make him feet and know somewhat of his moral deformity, of his unworthiness, of his utter unfitness to stand in the presence of God. \par \tab He will he proud-proud as Lucifer-proud as the devil, and arrogant in his pride, and for that pride to fall as a tree falls beneath the stroke of the woodman\rquote s ax, it is necessary that the Spirit of God shall come with the keen edge of the law and not only cut it down but dig it up by the roots and let that man see that there is no good in him no good utkterly unworthy to come into the presence of God; that all of his righteousness in which he prides himself is but as filthy rags in the sight of God. \par \tab Otherwise, he never has sound views of doctrine. He is never humbled, and never appreciates a Savior unless he sees his need of a Savior. \par \tab Oh, when he is sick and knows it, when he is dying and knows it, when he is condemned to eternal death and knows it, when hell is the suitable place for him and he knows it, and he is nearly there, andl the gravitation of sin is dragging him down, he then knows that only Omnipotence can suspend that law of gravitation, and only grace, the grace of a Divine Savior, can ever save him. \par \tab I confess that I stand appalled at the slowness and lightness of men\rquote s convictions of sin. It can only be accounted for by the fact that they have never known their hearts. \par \tab You say of a certain one: \ldblquote He is a good-hearted man.\rdblquote Let me show you. See yonder beautiful mountain. Seme how it catches the sunlight. See the flowers; they are blooming on its grassy side; that beautiful mountain! But come nearer to it and behold the mouth of a cave that hollows it. Now watch when the sun goes down. \par \tab Behold! There creep out with stealthy tread a pack of ravening wolves, or fiercer beasts of prey. These are not so fierce as a troop of evils lurking in a wicked heart, ready to issue forth on occasion. \par \tab\par \tab There comes out murder, dagger in hand. There comes out fouln-mouthed blasphemy. \par \tab There comes out a troop of evil thoughts fiercer than wild beasts. Out of what come they? Out of the heart; out of the heart proceed these children of the devil. You hear the sharp crack of the pistol on the streets. You rush to the spot. See a man weltering in a pool of his own blood, and a good man, one who had committed no offense. You hear the night air pierced by a scream, and there comes rushing with unlifted hand and with quivering lip, and shrieks that rend the air, othe wife to look upon the body of her husband, dead, dead! See little children rushing out and walking barefoot in that father\rquote s blood. Murder, murder, murder! Where did it come from? Out of the heart, out of the heart of one who was called, perhaps, a good-hearted man. There it is; look at it. \par \tab There was a man once standing before a prophet of God, and the prophet being able to read the heart, or to look far ahead and see of what development the man was capable, seeing the unfolding of hpis as yet unformed character, tears began to run down his face and shudders shook him. \ldblquote And Hazael said, Why weepeth my Lord? \par \tab And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: Their strongholds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child. And Hazael said, But what is thy servant, a dog, that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The Lord hatqh shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria.\rdblquote \par \tab And yet he did more than that and it was in him then, but the circumstances had not called it out. There are restraints built up by society. There are restrictions called\par \tab\ldblquote good manners\rdblquote which fence in a man and say to him, \ldblquote It is proper not to go over this line, and it is better for propriety\rquote s sake to stop here.\rdblquote But let poverty try him; let worry try him; let temptation try him; rand afterward a chance for the possibility and potentiality of his wicked nature to develop, and who would recognize the development? \par \tab Now, I want to bring out a special thought: The last Scripture which I read, the one from which the text is taken, describes a company of God\rquote s people assembled to worship as you are here assembled to worship, as you are here gathered tonight. Let us restate it: \ldblquote If therefore the whole church be come together in one place, and all speak with tongsues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad? But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all. And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.\rdblquote \par \tab\par \tab This scripture teaches most profitable lessons. It shows that every unbeliever who attends a church servtice goes away either better or worse than when he came. He is never the same. It shows that the church service impels him to form a conclusion in his mind as to the worshippers. If disorder, confusion or a bad spirit prevail, he says within himself \ldblquote They are mad.\rdblquote If piety, love and edification prevail, he reports to other outsiders that truly God is with those Christian people. But the thoughts most pertinent to our theme are these:\par \tab\b 1. \b0 A bad service shows the infidel uobserver our sins. \par \tab\b 2. \b0 A good service shows him his own sins. \par \tab\b 3. \b0 A good service for Christian edification is the most potent of all services in convicting sinners. \par \tab See the whole ministry of Spurgeon as an illustration. It is a great mistake that you can reach sinners only by direct sermons to them. They are watchful, distrustful, on their guard against impressions from such services. But when they are merely observers of the effects of worship on Christians, tvhey are not guarding against impressions on their own heart. And so by the order, spirit and power of Christian worship, \ldblquote he is convinced of all, he is judged of all.\rdblquote Every Christian rightly serving God, unwittingly shoots an arrow of conviction into his heart. Christian character judges and condemns him. \par \tab\b 4. \b0 \ldblquote And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest.\rdblquote \par \tab This last is the point which connects with all previous statements. If no mwan can understand his errors or be able to number his secret faults, if the heart is so deceitful and desperately wicked that none can know it and yet, if a knowledge of its disorder and depravity must be obtained before \ldblquote he will fall on his face and worship God,\rdblquote and if the quiet, orderly, spiritual worship of Christians does reveal to him the secrets of his heart, how solemn is the thought of public worship and how great its responsibility. \par \tab Perhaps today there is present xsome ignorant, unlearned or unbelieving man. He is seeing, hearing, comparing, thinking. Impressions are being made on his mind favorable or unfavorable to you. And on his own mind that will attract him Heavenward or push him toward something about you or about himself. If your sins are revealed to him he will say you are mad, you are fanatics. Or, by observing you, by listening to what you say, by hearing the testimony which you offer of the power of God, by seeing your sincerity, by realizing that therey is a power in you that he does not understand, what follows? \par \tab\par \tab The secrets of his heart are made manifest. He had never seen them before. He walked with a face that indicated no knowledge of his own depraved and fallen nature. He came in a sinner. He came in an unbeliever. He came in ignorant. He came in loving sin and hating righteousness, and yet thinking himself better than most people. But he hears something in the song, or something in the prayer, or something in the testimony of zGod\rquote s people that strips off his disguises and lays bare his soul, and his own heart, and its fearful secrets, which have been covered up from his own sight, are brought to light, and he falls down and says, \ldblquote I am a sinner. I am a sinner. I am convicted, I am judged; Lord God, I am a sinner!\rdblquote The secrets of the heart are made manifest by the presence of the Spirit of God resting on His people, and evidencing Him in the very tones of their voices, in the earnestness of their hear{ts, and in the sincerity and Christliness of their manner and bearing. \par \tab A public assembly of God\rquote s people is like a mirror. When God\rquote s people are moved properly by His Spirit, when they come praying, when they come humbling themselves, when they come longing after richer blessings and hungering after righteousness, when they come with charity for each other and love for the lost, I tell you it is a mirror, and the man looks into it, and there in that mirror is reflected his own tru|e likeness. He never saw it before. The secrets of his heart are made manifest. He sees how vile, how abhorrent, how loathsome, how debased, how besmirched and defiled he is, and he says of himself, \ldblquote unclean, unclean, unclean! I am convicted, I am a moral leper! Oh, is there not some place of cleansing, is there not some fountain into which I can plunge and wash away these sins that stain me and defile me and chain me to the devil\rquote s chariot wheel?\rdblquote \par \tab The law of God give}s the knowledge of sin, and nowhere is that law such a perfect mirror to reflect as when it is embodied in the saints of God, in God\rquote s people, in their devotions, in their worship. When sinners come up before the law, oh, how bright and true is that mirror! Who can stand before it? \par \tab Now, I want to ask you if this is not true. Didn\rquote t you see that thing last year time and again? Didn\rquote t you see men come in here and just take one look and begin to get restless and directly get u~p and leave the house? They saw a sight of heaven. They were convicted, they were judged. The secrets of their hearts were made manifest and they could not face the record. And then they would come back again and stop just in the door and maybe come up nearer and look and look and look. \ldblquote Who is that I see? Oh, is it me, myself? Am I like that? I am lost! Oh, people of God, pray for me that God, for Christ\rquote s sake, may forgive my sins.\rdblquote And this would follow, as the text says. Listen at it: \ldblquote He would fall down on his face and worship God, being convinced of all, being judged of all.\rdblquote \par \tab\par \tab And then what? It says that he will go away and report \ldblquote that of a truth God is among you. How do you know God is with them? I know it. I will tell you; I saw something that revealed to me everything I ever did. There was a light there that shone down into the chamber of my heart, revealing things of whose very existence I was unconscious. There was a power there that lifted the veil off of my past and waved its wand over the graves and caused the dead to rise up like spectres and shake their ghastly fingers in my face and say: \lquote Thou art the man; thou didst this; thou didst commit this sin.\rquote And I was convicted of sin by the light of the law of God shining through His people.\rdblquote \par \tab Yes, the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know, who can understand his error? I stand before you tonight, having come here with just one great burning desire in my heart, for I see what is the matter. It is just as plain before my eyes as the shining of the light in that chandelier. Men do not feel that they are sinners. And I have prayed God, \ldblquote Oh, turn on the light! Let it shine! It is a sickening revelation, but it is a necessary revelation. Give them a sight of iniquity. \par \tab Uncover the pit and let them see what they are in thy sight, and that they are lost.\rdblquote \par \tab And now, brethren, the last thought I have for you is this: You do not understand the desperate wickedness of the men we are trying to save. You do not realize it. It does seem to me that if you did, it would take sleep from your eyes. It would put fire in your bones. It would make your tongue when you speak a tongue of fire. Oh, if you saw the awful, lost condition of men, their nearness to hell and its death and its darkness and its hopelessness and its eternity and its horrors and its wailing and its despair oh, if you saw it; if you saw it, you could not be willing to let one moment pass without bringing to bear all the power of Christianity to save that wretched soul. \par \tab Why, if a man were to rush up here tonight and ask me to announce that a house was burning down, with two children in it, this whole congregation would turn out to save the burning children. If a messenger should come and say that one of your little boys or girls that you left at home was lost, a thousand men would be on the search before midnight. Lost! A child lost! A little, helpless child lost! A woman shut up in a burning building! But what is that loss, and what is that burning to the everlasting burning of hell? If a town were on fire and kept burning and burning like Chicago when it was on fire and the firemen could not put it out, every man would shut his door, close his business, turn from the most important interests of his life, and say, \par \tab\ldblquote God helping me, I will have no other business as long as those people are suffering and dying.\rdblquote And if God were to send the realization of the condition of sinners here in Waco into the hearts of these church members, every merchant that is a member of this\rquote church would lock his store door; every lawyer would lock his office; every business man would turn away from goods and groceries and realty and say: \ldblquote Let me save life, life, life! Let me help in the salvation of the lost!\rdblquote \par \tab God Almighty alone can give us a new heart. Will you come? Will you ask Him for it? Will you seek to be renewed? Will you seek the birth from above? I ask you to come. Oh, bring your heart, bring it with all of its wickedness and scars! Bring your sins, crimson red, bring them all and put them upon the Lord Jesus Christ and have them blotted out forever! Will you try it? \par \tab\par \tab\par \pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\sb240\sa120\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\b\fs32\page\par } 0\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\sb240\sa120\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\lang1033\b\f0\fs32 7. GOD\rquote S ENLARGEMENT OF A CHURCH\par \pard\nowidctlpar\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\b0\fs24 \tab \b\i TEXT: Run, speak to this young man. - \cf1\ul Zec_2:4\cf0\ulnone . \par \b0\i0\par \tab A great many years ago in the city of Waco I heard a distinguished evangelist preach a sermon from this text, and he applied it in this way: That every Christian should take notice of every unconverted man in the city and run and speak to him about the salvation of his soul. He preached a very fine sermon, but not at all from this text, for it has no such application. And you may take it for granted that however good a sermon one may preach from a misconception of a text, there is always a better one to be found in that text, and which should have been the sermon preached. \par \tab The circumstances of the text are these: A vast deal of interest centered in the Jewish people about the time of their captivity in Babylon, and many of the later books of the Old Testament are expressions of that interest. Much of the books of Jeremiah, Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah and others bear upon that captivity or upon the deliverance from it. \par \tab Now, Zechariah especially was commissioned to prophesy concerning this deliverance and restoration. I have read to you a number of his visions. The first was the vision of a man with a measuring line in his hand, going out on the ground where Jerusalem had stood, just as Chicago looked after it had been burned by fire, the whole city swept away. And the prophet asked this man with the measuring line what he intended to do. He replied that his purpose was to measure the length and the breadth of the Jerusalem to be restored, and mark out the lines where its new walls should be. But before he commenced his measurement, there came another angel from heaven with this word: \ldblquote Run, speak to this young man,\rdblquote i.e., the man with the measuring line, the man who is laying off such a small space for God\rquote s city, and tell him that Jerusalem shall overflow these limits, that it shall go out into the country, that it shall be as an unwalled city that takes in all of the surrounding country, and God will be the wall to it, even as a wall of fire, and God will be the glory of it. \par \tab The lesson, in a few words, was this: In the beginning of this enterprise, those who could not see with God\rquote s sight, and who could not rightly calculate the extent of God\rquote s power, nor understand the exceeding greatness of His precious promises, would, if left to themselves, lay off the boundaries of the new city on too small a scale. So my theme tonight is, \ldblquote God\rquote s Enlargement of a Church; and His Glory in That Church.\rdblquote \par \tab\par \tab The appropriateness of the theme can be seen in a moment. You commenced an enterprise here some three years ago, with what calculations as to the outcome, I do not know, but I venture to say that those who started it, if everything had been built according to the highest calculation then in mind, would have been compelled by this time to revise that calculation and provide for greater things. \par \tab The prophecy here primarily relates, as has been stated, to the restoration of the city of Jerusalem, but you do not read far into the book before you see that the prophet\rquote s eye is passing on from the literal Jerusalem to the spiritual Jerusalem, the true church of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is evident from the reading of the book. \par \tab But I will first discuss the subject somewhat in its primary reference. Even in that undertaking there was this danger, that they might measure and lay off the enterprise according to the misfortunes which had come upon them. The whole nation had been subjugated. The city had been destroyed. There was scarcely a vestige of it left. The people had been led into captivity. Consider that condition from its human viewpoint. \par \tab There would not be hopefulness enough in them to project the enterprise on a sufficiently broad scale. Each would take counsel of his misfortunes and would gauge what was to be attempted by the magnitude of the reverses and losses that had come upon him in the past. We may safely say that in religious enterprises we should never lay out our work, we should never put the measuring line to the boundaries of our plans, prompted by despondency of heart arising from our past misfortunes. \par \tab In the next place, those who started that new enterprise would, humanly speaking, be influenced by the poverty of the people who were to engage in it, who had been stripped of all their possessions by the captivity to which they had been subjected. A people that had been in slavery and deprived of the means of making and accumulating riches, going back to that burnt district, going back to rebuild a city, would likely, in laying out the work, look too much at the leanness of their purses, and so in endeavoring to restrict the length and breadth to their means, they would put it upon too infinitesimal a scale. \par \tab And yet again, they were prompted to narrow the proposed boundaries of their enterprise by reason of their difficulties. Those difficulties assumed the proportions of a vast mountain. It was no small molehill. A huge, impassable granite mountain seemed to stand in their path, and when they saw that this mountain must be gotten out of the way and looked at their resources, the difficulty seemed to them to be insuperable. And so, having made their first calculation in view of these difficulties, it needed to be reconsidered. \par \tab When a man taking counsel of his fears gazes upon the obstacles in his path, that seem to him to be more than he can possibly remove, and he begins to put down on his chart what, in view of these difficulties, he can accomplish, then he needs to hear the Word of God, \ldblquote Run, speak to that young man. Drop that measuring line. You are not in the frame of mind to be an architect for God\rquote s work. You lay the work out on too small a scale.\rdblquote \par \tab And still again, there were very active human enemies in the way of this enterprise. \par \tab The Samaritans and other old foes of Israel who had rejoiced in its downfall were still ready enough to obstruct the re-establishment of that power which they dreaded and hated. They gathered themselves together to discourage and discomfit those who were engaged in the work. Now, one who proposed to lay out the boundaries of this work, and turned aside to consider its enemies and hearken to their words and sneers, who would, instead of hearing God, hear only Sanballat and Tobias mocking their feeble wall as they said, \ldblquote Why, even if a fox should run against it, it would fall,\rdblquote would make slow progress. Whoever intends to work for God should never go into the camp of the enemy to get advice as to how big a piece of work to undertake. If you consult your cowardice you can always be driven away from any grand, brave and heroic achievement. The man that takes counsel of his fears can never build for God. \par \tab Yet again, these people looked at the infirmities and blemishes of the human instrumentalities that were to be employed in this work. Their high priest, instead of standing before them in the gorgeous apparel of Aaron, seemed to them to be clothed with filthy rags, and here stood Satan, ready to point at him and say, \ldblquote Look at him. Behold his rags. See his infirmities. See what a fallible man he is. See his many faults. What can he do?\rdblquote It is the object of this book to show that the Lord rebuked Satan, and that He commanded the filthy rags to be stripped from Joshua, the high priest, God putting away his iniquity and re-clothing him with the glorious insignia of his, priestly office, and giving power to his feebleness, so that he could accomplish this work. \par \tab Then when they looked at that mountain that has just been described, the angel caused the prophet to see a golden lamp-stand with seven lamps on it, and an olive tree standing on each side of it, and pipes going from the olive trees and connecting with the bowls of the lamps, and he said, \ldblquote Do you know what this means?\rdblquote \ldblquote No, I don\rquote t know what it means.\rdblquote \ldblquote Well, it means this: What art thou, O mountain, before Zerubbabel? It is true that there may not he much oil in these lamps. It is true that \i they \i0 may be just now shining dimly. But those olive trees are rich with their own fatness, and the pipes from the olive trees connect with the lamp bowls, and while the supply of oil seems low, it shall never entirely cease. It shall be continually fed, and God Himself will supply strength that will compensate for the feebleness and the infirmity of the human agents employed in this work.\rdblquote \par \tab\par \tab\ldblquote Then, as to those enemies, do not look at them. Look up yonder. What is it you see?\rdblquote \ldblquote I see a flying book.\rdblquote \ldblquote That is the book of God\rquote s curses, and that book, like a hawk circling in his flight and coming lower and lower, and hovering over his prey, is ready to swoop down upon the foe of God, and that book of curses is ready to light upon the house of the adversary and to be as a consuming fire to it, so that you need have no fear of an enemy when you consider the provision that God has made for their discomfiture.\rdblquote \par \tab So the leaders of a new church enterprise should never consider the smallness of their monetary resources, nor the magnitude of the difficulties in the way, nor the opposition of the enemies of, God. And more than that, they should never measure a result by the smallness of the beginning. The prophecy goes on here to declare, \par \tab\ldblquote Despise not thou the day of small things.\rdblquote A mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds, and yet behold, it grows until it becomes a tree in which the fowls of the air can find shelter. \par \tab That was a monster image looming up before Nebuchadnezzar the king, a stupendous, towering, colossal image, taller than the Statue of Liberty, taller than the Colossus of Rhodes, higher than the Pyramids, with its head of gold, its breast of silver, its body of brass, its legs and feet of iron, and yet there was cut out of the mountain, and without hands, a little stone, a pebble. What a little thing! But when it started coming down that mountain it increased in size and in momentum and in weight, and as it rolled it gathered solidity and substance and power and impetus and struck that image, and crushed it and pulverized it, and rolled on and swelled as it rolled, and grew larger by rolling until it filled the whole earth. \par \tab Out on the streets of some crowded city at night, a match may be thrown down and fall upon a single shaving, and it will catch, and burning, curl, and curling, fall over on a pile of shavings, and from the shavings extend to a shed, and from the shed to a house, and from the house through a block, and from the block through a mighty city. A boy walking along the dykes of Holland, those mighty upheavals of earth that constitute the breakwaters of the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, may notice just a little crack on the top of the levee, through which trickles, drop by drop, a tiny stream. A little child could dam it up with his foot, but it grows, and deepens and widens the channel, until at last through the mighty crevasse an angry ocean pours in and floods a state. Who can forecast the outcome from a small beginning? I say to you, brethren, that in your enterprise you should but consider the following things: First, what has God commanded? Let us lay off our work according to the commandment, and if the commandment is exceedingly broad, we will yet follow that precept, and if we are staggered at the magnitude of what we are commanded to do, then let us look at the promises, and see how large they are, how exceedingly many, and how glorious in the effulgence of their brightness, and so lay off our work by the commandments and promises of God. \par \tab And not only this, but we should take into account the power of God. It is not, What can I do? Let me not consult my feebleness. But is anything too hard for God to do? \par \tab Are there any impossible things for Him? And if we forget what He has commanded and what He has promised, and the greatness of His power, and still are troubled by our own infirmities, by our feebleness, by the difficulties, by the dangers, by the sneers and prophecies of evil, oh! then we need in that hour of trembling and of despair that the angel voice shall be heard, \ldblquote Run, speak to that young man, and tell him that Jerusalem shall be too big for walls to enclose it. It shall grow out into the country. It shall take in the villages, and I will increase it with men like a flock.\rdblquote \par \tab Perhaps in every congregation are some who partake in large measure of the pessimistic spirit. They are not equal to great undertakings. As Spurgeon said, in speaking about the ark with its three stories, there are some good souls always anxious to go as steerage passengers; they want to be next to the bilgewater where they can be frightened enough by the sound of the waves striking upon the sides of the vessel. They need to come up where the window is, where they can look out and behold how strong and how mighty God is. So God, wherever He has authorized His people to form a church, has promised them enlargement, and all calculations should be made with reference to that. \par \tab It may be unsuitable to such a grave theme to refer to a little matter that occurred when I was a young man, but I will state it. I had been but a short tithe in the ministry and with Rev. Martin V. Smith, of Belton, was making a visit to Brenham. He said to me, \ldblquote I want you to go with me to a certain house today to take dinner. I am authorized to invite you, and you will see the strangest house you ever did see.\rdblquote \par \tab Well, when the time came, we went up to this place to take dinner, and as soon as I got in sight of the house I commenced laughing I could not help it. It was indeed the strangest and most composite structure I ever saw. The premises occupied a whole block, and the house had the capacity to front in any direction. It was only one story high, but it was built all over that yard. It was the home of that well known and large hearted Baptist, Charlie Breedlove, who thus explained his habitation:\par \tab\ldblquote The truth of the business is, when I first married I didn\rquote t know much. I didn\rquote t have much sense nor much faith, and we built this first room you see here. Then when the first baby was born, we added that room, and when the next baby was born, we added another room, and when the next baby was born, we added still another room, and we have kept on adding a room whenever a baby was born, until now this house covers all the yard.\rdblquote In other words, his habitation had to be continually reset. The original boundaries never did fit the subsequent conditions of the household. Applying this now to the case before us: There are, as I stated, certain pessimistic people in every congregation. To them the world seems to be growing worse all the time. All of the bright days, are in the past, and all of the good people lived a long time ago. The lights are continually going out and the darkness is continually approaching. In their view of it, the whole kingdom of God is continually narrowing, the flock of God getting smaller and smaller, and the flock of the devil getting bigger and bigger, until they expect at the last day there will be just a handful of God\rquote s people on the earth. \par \tab But when our Lord speaks on the subject, He speaks in a different way. In the day that Abraham had faith in God, he was told to look up and count the stars in the heavens, and see if he could number them. \ldblquote I say unto you that your seed shall be more than the stars of heaven. Count the leaves on the trees of the forest. They shall be more than the, leaves. Go down where the ocean kisses and fondles the white sand of the beach, and these shall not sufficiently express the number of the redeemed.\rdblquote And when our Lord was exalted to the right hand of the- Majesty on High, this special declaration was made: \ldblquote In the day that thou leadest out thine armies thy young men shall be more multitudinous than the drops of the dew in the dawn of the morning.\rdblquote And when the outcome was seen by the Apostle John, he says: \ldblquote I saw a multitude that no man could number, out of every nation and tribe and tongue and kindred; all of them washed whiter than snow; all of them with palm leaves of victory in their hands; all of them with harps of music, upon which to strike with skillful fingers the paeans of praise and of victory; all of them crowned kings and priests unto God.\rdblquote \par \tab O young man, measuring the length of Jerusalem, measuring the breadth of Jerusalem, never measure it by your feebleness, your power, your enemies, their prophecies, their sneers. Never measure it by the mountains that rise up in the way. \par \tab But only measure by God\rquote s command, God\rquote s promise and by God\rquote s power. \par \tab Very briefly I refer to the next thought of the text: Jerusalem, like every other city of its day, depended upon its walls and so, when the measure is taken, these walls were built very high, and even when Titus came to besiege that city, they trusted in the height and solidity of their walls. But God had in view a different Jerusalem; a Jerusalem on no such narrow basis; a Jerusalem that would include the entire Gentile world. And He says, \ldblquote Say to this man with the measuring line that Jerusalem shall not be as a walled city, it shall be as an unwalled country, and if you want a wall, God, who enlarges it, will also defend: He will be a wall of fire around about you to protect you.\rdblquote \par \tab The ingenuity of fear has exhausted itself in providing coverts where it can flee in the time of danger, or in providing defensive armor impervious to the arrows and spears and bullets of an adversary, but we may go on multiplying our defenses, and there is no secure defense except the word of God\rquote s promise. If God be between us and our foes, what signify their numbers? If God be upon our side, and we are really carrying out His commands, why stop to talk of the difficulties? And if that injunction does rest on us, why stop to consider the smallness of our crowd? Was there a mighty host with Gideon when with his lamps and his pitchers he went forth to smite the enemy? Were there not just twelve humble men sent out to bombard by their gospel the fortifications of idolatry throughout the heathen world? \ldblquote It is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.\rdblquote And that congregation that will go forth trusting not to numbers, trusting not to wealth, fearing not an adversary, undaunted by any degree of difficulty or obstacle that may intervene in their pathway, and that will lean hard upon the encircling arm of Divine Providence, that congregation will have between them and all the spears and arrows of opposition thick bosses of Jehovah\rquote s buckler, and in God they will conquer. \par \tab Look now at the last thought of the text: They were very much concerned when they built their temple, because of its inferiority to the temple which Solomon built, and the old men were weakened, \ldblquote Ah, me! I recall that first temple. Oh, it had gold and jewels and precious stones! It was a glorious building.\rdblquote God says, \ldblquote Go, do what I have commanded, and I will be the glory. I will be the glory of this building which you erect.\rdblquote And then He stated that on account of the presence of the Messiah the glory of the latter temple should exceed the glory of the former temple, so that we look to this as the crowning thought. \par \tab Now, to summarize: First, enlargement from God; second, protection from God; and third, God the glory of what we do. It was a little tabernacle that Moses erected, that little cube of a place called the \ldblquote Most Holy Place;\rdblquote what an insignificant room it was, and yet there was in that room an unquenchable tongue of fire that represented the eternal presence and power of God. God was the glory o at tabernacle, the same glory that filled Solomon\rquote s temp and will fill this prophetic Jerusalem of which the prophet Zechariah is speaking. What signified that typical flame of fire that burned between the cherubim? There was to be a different light, a real luminary, which when it came into the building however infinitesimal, however contemptible in the sight of those who did not favor it, when that luminary descended and filled this house of God, it made it brighter than if you had gathered into one ball of light every star that ever sparkled, and then wound up on your finger every ray of sunshine that ever radiated from that central orb, and had put it all into one great shining ball of fire, brighter than all that. \par \tab It was the holy spirit of God, and on the day of Pentecost the spiritual Jerusalem that Zechariah saw was filled with that spirit, and that spirit was the glory of it, and where that spirit was, the timid became brave. The Peter that cowered before a maid-servant is now as bold as a lion. The men who despaired having once trusted that this was He that would deliver Israel, now lifted up their heads, which had been hanging down like the bulrushes, and confronted their fellowman, courageous in their faith, undismayed by any combination that could be brought against them, and under the power and glory of the holy spirit, even when they prayed the ground was shaken where they knelt down. And the work spread and went beyond Jerusalem. \par \tab The spiritual Jerusalem enlarged and took in Alexandria in Africa, and enlarged and took in ancient Babylon, and still enlarged and took in Ephesus and Tarsus; and still enlarged and went over into Europe and took in Philippi and Corinth and Athens, and still enlarged and took in Rome and Spain and England, and spread its wings and crossed the Atlantic and took in the New World and the Ads of the sea. \par \tab If, when that great work was being out, some man, near-sighted, unable to see the things that were afar off, some man taking counsel of his fears, had taken up the measuring line and had said, \ldblquote I will lay off the metes and bounds of God\rquote s Kingdom,\rdblquote O, run and speak to that young man! Tell him to expect great things and to attempt great things. Tell him to enlarge the place of his tent and lengthen its cords and strengthen its stakes, and open his heart, and lift up his eyes, as the prophets did, and hear Jerusalem saying: \ldblquote Who are these? Who are these? Who are these? What means this rush of many pinions, that like doves come flying to my window?\rdblquote These are the children that God is giving to thee. They come from Arabia. They come from heathen lands. They come from the islands of the sea. And as they come they bring their power and their resources to the City of God. \par \tab Brethren of the Columbus Street Church, if you have set up a banner for the Lord, if, in your judgment, it is necessary to establish this church, if it yet seems to you that the work of a church should be done here, then let me urge you to beware of little measuring lines. Look at God\rquote s commands. Look at His promises. Look at His power. Do not look at your poverty. Do not look at your fewness. O, be brave, be hopeful, be courageous, and all the time ready to increase and grow in grace, and in numbers and in power! I am sure that enlargement ought to be the destiny of every church established in accordance with the will of God. \par \tab I have thought it proper, on your third anniversary, to call your attention to these things. I do know that the most deadly virus, the most dangerous poison, that ever entered into the veins of a congregation is the feeling of despondency and discouragement to go and look at the Promised Land, spy it out and say, \ldblquote It is a fine country, but, oh! those sons of Anak are there, and we are just grasshoppers in their sight, and in our own sight.\rdblquote It makes no difference about your being a grasshopper in other people\rquote s sight, but whenever you are but a grasshopper in your own sight, then you are whipped already. No man that stands for God and does God\rquote s work ought to count himself less than a giant. He does not represent himself. He represents the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. \par \tab I recall, and I close with this declaration, the meetings, many years ago, of our general bodies in this State, to which those who wanted to work would go up heart-broken and urge, \ldblquote Brethren, are we never going to do anything but quarrel when we meet? Are we never going to move out? Are we never going to send the Gospel to the destitute places in this State? Oh, for mission progress, for some trumpet voice that will wake us up to do what, under God, we are able to do and ought to do.\rdblquote \par \tab And now you see when they lay out the plans they lay them out with perfect coolness on a basis of $100,000 a year. It would have frightened the Baptist crowd in Texas half to death, twenty years ago, to have mentioned that much enlargement. I commend the thought, bright enough in my own mind, but so imperfectly presented. I commend it to you in the name and in the fear of God. Measure as God measures, \par \tab\ul and trust Him and let Him be the wall, and let His be the glory. f2\ulnone\par \tab\par \tab\par \pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\sb240\sa120\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\b\fs32\page\par }  Times New Roman;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\sb240\sa120\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\lang1033\b\f0\fs32 8. JUDGMENT AT THE HOUSE OF GOD\par \pard\nowidctlpar\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\b0\fs24 \tab TEXT: For the time is come for judgment to begin at the house of God: and if it begin first at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God? - \cf1\ul 1Pe_4:17\cf0\ulnone . \par \par \tab The history of Christianity is a marvelous history. There have been ebbs and flows of popular favor. At times it has become so attractive that men by violence have pressed into the church, if not into the kingdom. There have been times when its power was so recognized that all people who wished to get the benefit of power have tried by methods direct and indirect, to align themselves with it. \par \tab This history shows that the greatest danger to the cause of Jesus Christ may arise from its popularity. There seems not to be half so much danger when the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not popular. The danger comes from people who would join the church without religion-who would join the church to use it as an instrument for accomplishing some secular or worldly purpose. On this account, as has been well said in a great sermon by Dr. Gordon, God has given to His cause a repulsive power as strong as its attractive power. If it did nothing but draw, then it would become corrupt through irreligious material brought into the church; but it has a repulsive force that drives those away who ought to be driven away. \par \tab In the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John we find our Savior deliberately stating certain doctrines in the harshest, strongest terms, and with a view to repelling people. \par \tab He said to them that He was the bread that came down from heaven, and that unless a man would eat His flesh and drink His blood he could have no life in him; that He was the heavenly manna. And then He said: \ldblquote None of you can come to me except the Father who hath sent me draw him.\rdblquote \par \tab At that time the crowds following Christ were immense. The gospel was drawing tremendously by its miracle-working force. Christ had been feeding thousands. They were following Him for the loaves and the fishes. He saw that this kind of following promised-no good to His cause, and so said, \ldblquote No man can come to me except the Father who hath sent me draw him.\rdblquote They said, \ldblquote This is a hard saying: who can believe it?\rdblquote Then the record adds, \ldblquote From that time many of His disciples followed Him no more.\rdblquote \par \tab Now it was every way essential to the sure and permanent upbuilding of the cause of Christ that a certain following should be repelled. And what was that following? All who wanted to become open followers of Christ without regeneration. \ldblquote No man can come to me except the Father who hath sent me draw him.\rdblquote It was the doctrine preached to Nicodemus: \ldblquote Except a man be born from above he cannot see the kingdom of God.\rdblquote Strange as the doctrine may be, difficult to understand as Nicodemus found it, yet it stands before the door of the church like the cherubim with the flaming sword at the gate of Paradise, keeping the way to the Tree of Life, repelling any who would seek to attain eternal life except through the regenerating power of the Spirit of God. \par \tab The lines of thought upon which I wish to speak today are these: God cares for His cause by a direct agency and a permissive agency. In the direct agency God Himself continually sifts His people as wheat, in order that the chaff may be separated from the wheat. And for the same reason God permits Satan to sift His people as wheat, in order that the chaff may be separated from the wheat. When God sifts, the design is benevolent; when Satan sifts, the purpose is malignant; but the end attained is the same. \par \tab Now, let us see how this sifting process works as conducted by these two agencies, one heavenly and the other from hell, one direct and the other permissive. When our Lord Jesus Christ sifted the crowds that followed Him after the miracle of the loaves and fishes, He had no evil end in view. He meant no harm at all, but only good. It was a sad thing to Him that when He came to save men, and great crowds would gather about Him, they would try to become His followers without entering in at the strait gate and walking over the narrow way that leads to life. He stood at the portals to sift that crowd. \par \tab There has been no time in the history of the world when the necessity of preaching the same sifting doctrine was greater than it is today. The church of today needs to invoke all the repelling power of the cause of Christ, in order to shut out the unregenerate, those who are not at heart Christians, those who have never been drawn to Jesus Christ by the Father who sent Him, those who have never been really breathed upon by the Holy Spirit from on high. I say there never was a time in the history of the church of Christ when the necessity was greater than right now to insist upon this sifting process at the portals. \par \tab Let us see how the same idea is manifested in the case of Simon Magus. Simon Magus could do a great many wonderful things. He himself knew that there was a large element of imposture in what he did, and when Philip came to Samaria to preach, it was not so much Philip\rquote s preaching that impressed Simon Magus as the wonderful things that Philip did, which were in the line of Simon Magus. He was himself a wonderworker and now here is another wonder-worker that surpasses him. He did not understand how Philip could do such marvelous things. He knew he could not do them. But never for one moment did he attribute this extraordinary power to the right source. He had been himself so much accustomed to practice deception upon the people in order to magnify himself before the community as some great one, he naturally supposed that Philip had found a way of trickery surpassing his own. It occurred to him in a moment that he ought to express his faith in Jesus Christ and be baptized. \par \tab Jesus had said, \ldblquote No man can come to me except the Father who hath sent me draw him.\rdblquote Had the Father drawn Simon Magus? Was he really a-converted man? Was there a radical, internal, fundamental change in the man? He believed, and he was baptized upon that belief, but was his a gospel faith? \par \tab Without some sifting process the church will be filled up with men like Simon, men who look at a proposition that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and reach an intellectual conviction that the claim is made good by the fact that certain miracles have been wrought. \ldblquote I will accept that. I cannot account for it. I cannot explain it; but I concede the fact.\rdblquote \par \tab When Peter and John came down to Samaria, they went a step beyond anything that Philip had done. Philip himself could work miracles, but Philip had no power of communicating this miracle-working capacity to others. Philip could not by laying on of his hands impart to others the same power to work miracles he himself possessed. \par \tab But Peter and John did that very thing. They kneeled down and prayed for Philip\rquote s converts, and the miraculous power of the Holy Ghost came upon them. \par \tab Now when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles\rquote hands the holy ghost was communicated, he recognized its force, and he wanted to possess the power. He knew he did not have it. It was perfectly evident that these men had it, and he proposed to get it in a business way. All along it was business with this man. \par \tab He thought that like everything else it could be bought, that it had its price and he also supposed that if he possessed it he could become immensely rich. This surpassed anything that he had ever known in the way of divination or witchcraft, or necromancy. And so he offered money: \ldblquote I will pay whatever this costs. I suppose you have a world-wide patent right. I would like to get the patent right for a certain section of the country. I will pay you so much money for it.\rdblquote \par \tab The proposition was a revelation. It revealed the internal attitude of Simon. It showed that the Father had never drawn him. It showed that he had gotten into the church by a mere intellectual faith that bad not been wrought in him by the power of the Holy Ghost. Hence Peter said to him: \ldblquote Thou and thy money perish together, because thou hast thought to purchase the gift of God with money. Thou hast no part nor lot in this matter.\rdblquote \par \tab\par \tab There is the sifting, sifting at the portal, insisting that whoever is a member of the church should have a genuine part, a genuine lot, in this matter. But what was the trouble with Simon? \ldblquote Thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Thou art in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity. Thy whole church connection is a fraud. There is nothing spiritual in it. Verily, verily I say unto you, except a man be born from above he cannot see the kingdom of God.\rdblquote He cannot understand it. He cannot appreciate it. There is nothing in it palatable to him. The carnal mind is enmity against God and is not subject to His law, and with that mind unchanged, it is impossible to become a subject of Jesus Christ. You may whitewash, you may put on a thin veneer over the internal depravity and hide it from sight, but the dry rot is inside, the element of death is in the soul, and if a man be \ldblquote in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity,\rdblquote , there is no power in an ordinance to make him a child of Jesus Christ. \par \tab We need now to stand right there with a sieve, and as representatives of Jesus Christ to sift the people as wheat, in order to separate the chaff from the wheat. Are you God\rquote s child? Is your heart right in His sight? Are you \ldblquote in the gall of bitterness?\rdblquote Are you \ldblquote in the bond of iniquity?\rdblquote \ldblquote No man can come to me except the Father who hath sent me draw him.\rdblquote And it is time, as our text says, that \ldblquote judgment should commence at the house of God.\rdblquote \par \tab Now let us see how it is that Satan sifts. Take the case of Peter. The case of Simon Magus shows how Jesus and His agents sift those who would become members of the church, but let us see how the devil sifts. \par \tab The devil had looked at the group of apostles. There were twelve of them. One\rquote\par \tab might have supposed that he would have contented himself with sifting the recent converts, or, at least, the unofficial members of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. But he had long been a student of human nature. He had a skepticism that had grown on him since the time he himself fell through pride, and his theory was that no man does anything except from selfish reasons; and while sometimes it is difficult to get at, yet if you can make a complete analysis you will be able to show that the best seeming men in the world are influenced in private and public life by self-interest. And he was not disposed to except any from the general classification because they were apostles. \par \tab Just so he had his opinion about Job. He had walked around him. He had studied him. He arrived at a conclusion about him. And while Job seemed a good man, while he was \i very \i0 attentive to his religious duties, while he offered sacrifices for himself and for his children, the devil said, \ldblquote Does Job serve God for naught? I would be a Christian myself if He would do me that way. Why, just look how the Lord has blessed him! Who has as many cattle as Job? Who has such healthy, stalwart sons, such beautiful, accomplished daughters? Who has such a reputation for sanctity? \par \tab Who has such hoards of stored up wealth? God has built a hedge all around Job. \par \tab The wind cannot blow on him. Enemies cannot get to him. Doth Job serve God for naught?\rdblquote \par \tab And with the very spirit that prompted him to sift Job, he proposes to sift the twelve apostles. He thinks that all of them are either hypocrites or deluded men. The devil knows that all men are not hypocrites, but he divides them into two classes, those who are hypocrites and those who are deluded. And he believed that if Jesus would let him do the sifting, that his sifting would be a fairer test than if Jesus did it; that Jesus would manifest too much love in the matter, too much tenderness. He would allow His great, warm, loving heart to be too partial. And so the devil comes up to Jesus and makes a request: \ldblquote You say that you come to establish a kingdom here on the earth that is not to be of the world, but a spiritual kingdom, and you have selected the leaders. Here they are, these twelve men, James and Andrew, Peter, John, Bartholomew, Judas and others, and with these twelve men you propose to establish a spiritual kingdom in this world that is not to be of the world. Now I request that you let me have the sifting of these twelve men.\rdblquote \par \tab Jesus determined to grant his request, and He said to Satan, \ldblquote You may sift them.\rdblquote \par \tab But just as soon as Jesus gave the permission to Satan to sift them, He commenced praying for Peter: \ldblquote I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.\rdblquote He knew there would be no mercy in the devil\rquote s test, that it would come from as deep a malignity as hatred could furnish, and that sorely tried would be each of these twelve men. \par \tab It is somewhat remarkable that He prayed for Peter, but not for Judas. Why? Why this discrimination? It is said in the context that \ldblquote Jesus knew from the beginning who believed on Him,\rdblquote who were at heart believers, and He knew Judas was not. Here was a man like Simon Magus. He had gotten into the external camp of God, but not into the spiritual camp. The Father had never drawn him. In order to the purity of the church there must be given to it a repelling power that will push off the Judases and the Simon Maguses. There must be some way by which the unspiritual element shall be eliminated or sloughed off and if necessary let the devil take the sifting process in hand. \par \tab And so the devil put those twelve men in his sieve and commenced sifting. We have not much record as to how that sifting affected ten of these men. We have a little-not much -but that little says that they all, after Christ died and was put in the grave, became oppressed with gloom. They fled. They hid. They did not avow openly that they were the followers of Jesus Christ. All through the darkness of the time that Jesus was on trial, and on the cross, and in the grave, the hour of the power of darkness had come to each of these twelve men. But we have a particular account of the sifting of two of them, and when the devil sifted these two they bounced around in the sieve very much. Peter was light weight, but wheat. Judas was chaff altogether. \par \tab As the devil continued to sift, it looked like Peter would go out with Judas, but Christ prayed for him: \ldblquote I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not.\rdblquote Peter was retained and Judas was lost. \par \tab Take another case; and this is the last historical instance for today. After the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit had been poured out and great power had been conferred upon God\rquote s children, and they had favor with all the people, it seemed then that the hazard was that everybody would come inside the church, ready or not ready. They were the centers of attraction. They filled men\rquote s vision. There was more talk about the apostles of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem than about all the great men of the world put together, and crowds that could not be numbered were going into the temple in order to hear them preach, and multitudes of men and women were professing the faith and were being baptized, three thousand in one day, five thousand men alone on another occasion, not counting the women. Thousands upon thousands poured in, and the apostles worked mightily in signs and wonders, electrifying and thrilling that capital of Judea with the displays of the power which God had conferred upon them. \par \tab The heat became so intense that there was just one mind and one heart. First of all, unity, one mind and one heart; and then community; they had all things in common. \par \tab Men were so much impressed with the power of the Christian religion, they were so drawn by the attractive power of the world to come that when they compared this life\rquote s wealth with the treasures in heaven, when they compared the fading with the unfading, the temporal with the eternal, the visible with the invisible, the transitory with the eternal; they counted property as nothing and began to sell it. \par \tab You may understand the power of that meeting by this fact. They began to sell their property and to bring the price of it and put it into the common fund. \ldblquote The earth is fading. Its foundations are shaking. Eternity is coming. Its dawn already has made rosy our sky. The judgment of God is at hand. Heaven has come down to earth. \par \tab What do we want with property?\rdblquote And they sold it, and they brought the money and laid the price of it at the apostles\rquote feet, saying, \ldblquote Who is hungry let him be fed; who is naked let him be clothed. We are all one. We are brethren.\rdblquote Unity! Community! \par \tab Well, there were some people in the church who could not understand this enthusiasm. Why didn\rquote t they understand it? They had no spiritual insight, and spiritual things can only be spiritually discerned. They were just as much puzzled with that phenomenon as Simon Magus was by the wonders wrought by Peter and John. \par \tab\par \tab They saw there was some tremendous power at work. They could not understand it, and they determined to do this: \ldblquote I will divide my investment. This seems to be a bonanza. This new thing looks like it. I am not prepared, however, to venture all, but I will give a part, and lest this is only seeming, lest it is only a bubble that will burst, I will save back part of it. I will hold on here to earth with one anchor, and then I will cast an anchor to the windward.\rdblquote \par \tab One man who happened to be a member of the church, not a Christian, but who got in like Simon Magus and Judas did, had a talk with his wife about this thing. That must have been a strange family conversation: \ldblquote Wife, what do you think of this movement? There is something here. What do you think of it?\rdblquote \ldblquote Well, I don\rquote t know.\rdblquote \ldblquote What are we going to do about it? You see how this enthusiasm is running. \par \tab You see what Barnabas has done. You see what the others have done. Now, we cannot be behind the procession. What are we to do?\rdblquote \par \tab And they agreed together. The husband and wife conspired. They entered into a solemn covenant, each knowing what the other would do and say, and their conspiracy went so far in duplicity as to court the appearance of investigation. \par \tab It was arranged that Ananias should go to Peter at one time, and his wife should come after, to avoid the appearance of collusion, so that Ananias could be examined by himself and the wife by herself, and therefore the husband would not seem to dominate the wife, nor the wife dominate the husband. And so, having sold a piece of land, they cut it in two. They kept back a part. \ldblquote This new religion of Jesus Christ may come to an end in a little while, and we had better have something left down here in this world. We will keep that part hid.\rdblquote \par \tab So they arranged that Ananias should go first, and his wife should come after. And Ananias came and laid his money down at the feet of Peter, saying, \ldblquote I have sold my possession and here is the price of it. I want to put it into the common fund. I feel this new spirit. I want to move on with the rest of the disciples of Jesus Christ. Here is the price of my land.\rdblquote \par \tab Peter had here the gift of discerning spirits just as later, in the case of Simon Magus. \par \tab This case was too artificial. It was managed too cleverly. There were too many protestations concerning it. It did not \lquote come up naturally. So Peter says, \ldblquote Tell me, did you sell the land for so much?\rdblquote \ldblquote Yes, so much.\rdblquote \ldblquote Is this all of it?\rdblquote \ldblquote Yes.\rdblquote \par \tab\ldblquote Ananias, you have not lied to men; you have lied to God. You have lied to the Holy Ghost; you have committed an unpardonable sin. It hath never forgiveness, neither in this world nor in the world to come.\rdblquote And he fell dead at the feet of the apostles, and they took him up, the dead man, whose soul was in hell, lost forever. They took up the dead body and carried it out and buried it, to rest there until the resurrection comes. \par \tab Just about the time they got back, here comes the wife. She looks very religious. She has all the external seeming of a Christian. She comes and stands before Peter. The wife has an interest in community property. And Peter puts the question, to her: \ldblquote Tell me, did you sell that land for so much?\rdblquote \ldblquote Yes, for so much.\rdblquote \ldblquote Is this the whole price of it?\rdblquote \ldblquote Yes.\rdblquote \ldblquote Woman, woman, you have lied to God.\rdblquote And down she fell at his feet. \par \tab There was one swift and sharp and fatal exposure of hypocrisy. There was a judgment in the house of God. There was a sifting under the direction of God Himself. This man, Ananias, had no part or lot in the matter. He was \ldblquote in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity.\rdblquote He thought to hoodwink the eye that never sleeps and lied to the Holy Ghost, and he perished. \par \tab Now, why did God strike down Ananias and Sapphira? Why did He? Were they greater sinners than all the sinners of Jerusalem? Not so. I doubt not there were in Jerusalem many sinners as heinous in God\rquote s sight as this man and this woman. But this man and this woman were in the church. This man and this woman were pretending to superior sanctity. This man and this woman at the very time that the spiritual evidence was being given of the power of God in the church, were knowingly perpetrating a fraud. They were not required to sell their land. There was no law in the church that everybody should sell his property and put it into a common fund. Peter said, \ldblquote Before you sold it, wasn\rquote t it yours? And after you sold it, wasn\rquote t it yours?\rdblquote There was no compulsion about this. \par \tab Here were some good Christians so impressed with the power of the world to come that they sacrificed all their property and put it into the common fund, but there was no law to that effect. There was no statute demanding a community of goods. It was the voluntary, unprompted act of the soul of the religious enthusiast. Ananias and Sapphira did not have that enthusiasm, but they thought they must follow along after that procession some way, in order to keep up pretenses, to make it seem that they were all right. That this judgment in the house of God accomplished its purpose appears in this record, \cf1\ul Act_5:13-14\cf2\ulnone \cf0 : \ldblquote And of the rest\ul \ulnone durst no man join himself to them; but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.\rdblquote So now let not the unprepared dare to unite with thy people, so that the people may magnify their cause, and believers the more may seek admission. \par \tab\ldblquote The time has come that judgment should commence at the house of God.\rdblquote The repelling power is essential. If the church lays too much stress on the attraction, if the church uses worldly means of drawing people, don\rquote t you see how fatal that influence becomes? \par \tab Out in the unregenerate world are a great many nice people. They do not belong to the riff-raff. They are exceedingly respectable and high-toned, and they are willing to belong to some church, saying, \ldblquote If you will just let the gap down low enough-if you will not stand there with a flaming sword and demand regeneration, we will come in.\rdblquote \par \tab If you will quit preaching the necessity of regeneration, if you will quit preaching salvation by the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, if you will lower the doctrine, why you can get the multitude. They will come in. And then lay a little more stress on the aesthetical parts of your worship. Bring in art. Be a little more artistic. Employ some fashionable singer, whose reputation is for song and song only, and put her in the church, and let her draw. Let her draw! \par \tab Oh, the repulsion of the ancient Gospel, when the people of God would rely upon the truth and power of spiritual religion rather than factitious, adventitious aids from other sources! God needs no such help. It is a question of life and of death. You are lost if you are not regenerated, and you are guilty of suicide if you deceive yourself by any whitewashing or veneering on the subject of religion. \ldblquote It is time that judgment should begin at the house of God.\rdblquote \par \tab Away, and forever away, with every appliance that appeals to men except as to lost sinners, guilty before God and needing the regenerating power of the Spirit and the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when the church forgets, when it turns away from its ancient source of might, to make alliance with the feeble forces of time, and surrenders the dignity and majesty and sublimity and omnipotence of God\rquote s methods in order to adopt some time-serving method, it stands accursed. The curse of God is on it. \par \tab I would rather see this house unroofed, each timber taken down, cast off brick by brick its walls, its foundations dug up and the trench of the foundations filled with salt; I would rather that the congregation itself, all in one place, by one bidding of Jesus, should be called through the portals of death to heaven, and leave not one upon the earth, than for this church to turn aside from God\rquote s holy way of saving men to the miserable frauds and shams and impostures that are sometimes employed. \par \tab\ldblquote It is time that judgment should commence in the house of God.\rdblquote This is true, brethren. It is true no matter who is hit by it. Even if it lifts out your pastor and every other preacher in the church, and all your deacons, it is true that you have no religious power in the sight of God that is not in the line set forth in that book. You fail in your mission as a church when you abate one jot or tittle, when you lower the standard by a hair\rquote s breadth, when you turn aside to any flimsy method of time, when you go away from that simple foundation: \ldblquote Verily, verily, I say unto you, except you be born from above you can never see the kingdom of God.\rdblquote Let Judas go to his own place. Let Ananias and Sapphira, with lies on their lips, go down to their doom. Let Simon Magus clank the chain of his bondage, his fetters never having been broken. But let the church of Jesus Christ stand for the simplicity of the Gospel as it is in our Lord. \par \tab Do thou, Lord, give equipoise to thy church and cause. Make great the centripetal attraction. But also make great the centrifugal force. Let thy cause draw all men, but let not it draw them except by spiritual force. Oh, let not the builders of Zion\rquote s walls daub with untempered mortar! Neither let them work wood, hay and stubble. Keep us forewarned of the trial by fire, lest we suffer loss in the day of fire. \par \tab\par \tab\par \pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\sb240\sa120\tx720\tx1440\tx2160\tx2880\tx3600\tx4320\tx5040\tx5760\tx6480\tx7200\tx7920\tx8640\tx9360\tx10080\b\fs32\page\par } t~}|{zy+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~ keep the or\nowidctlpar\s1\sb240\sa120\lang1033\b\f0\fs32 15. OUR CHURCH COVENANT OBLIGATIONS\par \pard\nowidctlpar\b0\fs24 \tab On Sunday, August 18, Dr. Carroll preached a remarkable sermon on \ldblquote Little Christians.\rdblquote Evidently he was aiming at something. He closed by calling a meeting of the deacons and other prominent members. There was a solemn meeting of these leaders on Tuesday. It was followed by a printed, private letter addressed to hundreds of the members. On Saturday there appeared in the city secular papers the following pastoral circular:\par \par \tab\ldblquote Dear Brethren: By order of the church our morning services Sunday, August 25, will be devoted exclusively to a consideration of our covenant obligations. These vows are set forth in the printed manual furnished free on application to any church member. \par \tab\ldblquote It is intended that this shall be a family meeting strictly, and hence, at this one service, none but actual members of our church are invited or expected to be present. This invitation is so restricted, however, from no desire or necessity for secrecy. Baptist churches have no secrets. It is not even a meeting for business or discipline. The whole object is stated fairly in the first sentence of this notice. \par \tab\ldblquote We desire to make plain to each other and impress suitably on our own hearts what joining the church obligates and how the blessings of church connection depend upon fidelity to these obligations. A sad experience demonstrates that many assume these obligations lightly and esteem them slightly. It is purposed therefore by this meeting to make us all realize the solemnity of uniting with the church, to emphasize both the sanctity and paramount nature of its vows, and to convince all of the great evil of disregarding or despising any religious duty. To this end every member is urged to be present to make sacrifices therefor if necessary indeed, to allow nothing but providential hindrance to prevent attendance. \par \tab \i\ldblquote Very truly your servant, \i0\par \tab\ldblquote B. H. CARROLL, Pastor.\rdblquote \par \par \tab Of course, this awakened wide-spread interest. It was the first time that sinners were invited not to come. And of course when the pastor writes that way the church members respond. At 11:00 a.m. the house was full-yes, full of church members. \par \tab The pastor came down out of the pulpit to get nearer his people. The exercises were profoundly impressive, especially to some who had never witnessed a covenant meeting. \tab After reading \cf1\ul Rom_12:1-5\cf0\ulnone ; \cf1\ul 1Co_12:12-27\cf0\ulnone ; \cf1\ul Eph_4:16\cf0\ulnone ; \cf1\ul 1Ti_3:14-15\cf0\ulnone , the pastor led in a most earnest and touching prayer. Then came the old-fashioned song, \ldblquote I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord.\rdblquote The pastor now rose and said:\par \tab Brethren, my published circular fully explains the object of this meeting. I need not repeat its statements. We are but following an old-time Baptist custom. We meet to reconsider our covenant vows. To impress them more deeply on our hearts. To renew them today before God and to perform them. It is my part of this day\rquote s program to expound the covenant of this church. This exposition should take the simplest form. And hence I now invite your attention to\par \tab\par \b A CATECHISM ON THE COVENANT OF THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH AT WACO\b0\par \tab\b 1. \b0 What is a covenant in general? \par \tab An agreement or compact between two or more persons or parties. \par \tab\b 2. \b0 What does it mean in theology? \par \tab The compact between God and sinners setting forth the terms of salvation; as the Covenant of Works called the \ldblquote Old Testament,\rdblquote and the Covenant of Grace, called the \ldblquote New Testament.\rdblquote \par \tab\b 3. \b0 How is the word derived? \par \tab The Hebrew word means \ldblquote to cut,\rdblquote referring to cutting the animal sacrifices in two, and passing between the severed parts for solemn ratification of the agreement. \par \tab\b 4. \b0 What is the- ecclesiastical meaning of the word as used by Baptists? \par \tab It means that agreement between saved individuals by which they associate themselves into a local church, setting forth their mutual engagements as members of one body. It is usually appended to their Articles of Faith because a common belief is a necessary condition of fellowship and cooperation. \par \tab\b 5. \b0 What is a church of Jesus Christ? \par \tab A local congregation of baptized believers in Christ united in the belief of His doctrines and covenanting to do what He has commanded. \par \tab\b 6. \b0 You say \ldblquote covenanting to do what He has commanded.\rdblquote Must every church have a covenant? \par \tab There cannot be an organized association without a covenant expressed or implied. Terms or bonds of agreement are essential to agreement. They constitute not only the basis but the coherence and power of the association. \par \tab\b 7. \b0 What good purpose is served by a written covenant? \par \tab Many people have such confused ideas of what \ldblquote joining the church\rdblquote means, they are apt to assume its obligations lightly and esteem them slightly. When afterwards admonished, they plead ignorance and deny that they intelligently and voluntarily made such engagements. A covenant promotes a clear understanding at the start and calls attention to the more prominent obligations of church membership. It serves fair notice upon every applicant of what \ldblquote joining the church\rdblquote means. \par \tab What should be the characteristics of a written covenant? \par \tab First of all, it should be Scriptural throughout. Second, it should be short, embracing only the leading duties essential to church usefulness and prosperity. Third, it should be couched in clear and simple terms, easy to be understood. \par \tab\b 8. \b0 What is the covenant of this church? \par \tab\par \b CHURCH COVENANT\b0\par \tab Predicate Having been brought, as we trust by divine grace, to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, and having given up ourselves wholly to Him; and as in Him we are dead to sin, the world and the flesh, and have been buried with Him in baptism and raised again, we do now solemnly and joyfully covenant with each other to walk together in newness of life with brotherly love to His glory as our common Lord. \par \tab We do therefore, in His strength, particularly engage: \par \par \pard\nowidctlpar\fi720\i First,\i0 that we will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together at such times and places as the church may appoint for instruction, prayer, business or evangelizing. \par \pard\nowidctlpar \tab \i Second, \i0 that we will exercise a mutual care, as members one of another, to promote the growth of the whole body in Christian knowledge, holiness and comfort in all the will of God. That we will frequently exhort, and if occasion require, admonish one another (according to \cf1\ul Mat_18:15-17\cf0\ulnone ) in the spirit of meekness, considering ourselves lest we also be tempted. \par \tab \i Third, \i0 that we will cheerfully and according to ability, contribute of our property for the relief of the poor of the church, and for the maintenance of a faithful ministry of the Gospel among us, and for the spread of the Gospel throughout the world. \par \tab \i Fourth, \i0 that we will not omit closet religion, nor family religion at home, nor allow ourselves to permit the too common neglect of the great duty of religiously training our children and others under our care, with a view to the service of Christ and the enjoyment of heaven. \par \tab \i Fifth, \i0 that we will walk circumspectly in the world, refraining from such of its games, amusements and, fashions as are foes to spiritual mindedness; and that we will abstain from the use or sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage, in order that we may win souls, remembering that God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. \par \tab And the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great Shepherd of the flock, through the blood of the everlasting Covenant, make us perfect in every good work; working in us that which is wellpleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. \par \par \tab\b 9. \b0 Give an analysis of this covenant. \par \tab It consists of three parts: The predicate, the vows and the invocation. \par \tab\b 10. \b0 What is the predicate? \par \tab\ldblquote Having been brought, as we trust, by divine grace, to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior; and having given up ourselves wholly to Him; and as in Him we are dead to sin, the world and the flesh, and have been buried with Him in baptism and raised again.\rdblquote \par \tab\b 11. \b0 What two distinct ideas does this language convey as a suitable basis of an agreement to associate? \par \tab \i First, \i0 that each individual party to the proposed agreement has first been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. \i Second, \i0 that he has given up himself wholly to Christ, which means absolute submission to His authority and acknowledgment of His absolute ownership. In other words A has been saved and belongs to Jesus, his Savior. B has been saved and belongs to Jesus, his Savior. C has been saved and belongs to Jesus, his Savior. Here then are two things common to A, B and C, to-wit: Salvation and complete surrender to the Savior. Hence upon this ground common to the three, they may lawfully and profitably associate, and may agree as associated to do anything that fairly relates to the common ground on which they stand. It would not be a proper basis for association in any work irrelevant to the common ground, for this would make the superstructure broader than the foundation, and unlike it. \par \tab\b 12. \b0 What then is the nature or character of this basis? \par \tab \i First, \i0 it is purely spiritual and religious. \i Second, \i0 it concerns the will of Christ alone. Hence, there must be correspondence between the basis and the agreement arising from it. \par \tab\b 13. \b0 What, in general, is the covenant, based on this common ground? \par \tab\ldblquote We do now solemnly and joyfully covenant with each other to walk together in newness of life, with brotherly love to His glory as our common Lord.\rdblquote \par \tab\b 14. \b0 Who are the parties to this covenant? \par \tab All the saved individua ls given up wholly to Jesus, who associate themselves, i.e., all who voluntarily \ldblquote join the church.\rdblquote \par \tab\b 15. \b0 What do they agree to do? \par \tab\ldblquote Walk together,\rdblquote i.e., form a company. \par \tab\b 16. \b0 \ldblquote Walk together\rdblquote in what? \par \tab\ldblquote In newness of life,\rdblquote i.e., form a company to walk together in newness of life. \par \tab\b 17. \b0 How? \par \tab\ldblquote With brotherly love,\rdblquote i.e., form a company of loving brothers to walk together in newness of life. \par \tab\b 18. \b0 To what end? \par \tab\ldblquote To His glory as our common Lord,\rdblquote i.e., form a company of loving brothers to walk together in newness of life that we may glorify our common Master. \par \tab\b 19. \b0 As this agreement is very general and broad, what particulars of newness of life does this covenant specify? \par \tab There are five specifications under the following heads:\par \tab\par \pard\now idctlpar\li720 \tab\b (1)\b0 in the assembly, \par \tab\b (2)\b0 mutual care, \par \tab\b (3)\b0 contribution, \par \tab\b (4)\b0 alone and at home, \par \tab\b (5)\b0 before the world. \par \pard\nowidctlpar \tab\b 20. \b0 Recite the covenant obligation in relation to the assembly. \par \tab\ldblquote That we will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together at such times and places as the church may appoint for instruction, prayer, business or evangelizing.\rdblquote \par \tab\ b 21. \b0 What is intended by the terms \ldblquote instruction, prayer, business and evangelizing\rdblquote ? \par \tab By instruction is meant the regular morning and evening services on the Lord\rquote s day and the Sunday school. By business is meant the conference meetings. By evangelizing is meant protracted meetings of days for the revival of the church and the salvation of sinners. \par \tab\b 22. \b0 What is the importance of the public assembly? \par \tab A company that never meets is no  company. They cannot \ldblquote walk together\rdblquote \par \tab unless they get together. In the public assembly is to be found mainly the means of grace by which they know the will of Christ, grow in that will and make it known to others. He who without providential hindrance forsakes the assembling of God\rquote s people, necessarily violates a fundamental and vital part of his covenant obligation, and necessarily destroys his usefulness and happiness as one of the company of brothers. His frequent absence, unless divinely hindered, is prima facie evidence that he is a back-slider in heart and life, if a real Christian, or that he was never a child of God. It is no excuse to say that he absents himself to promote piety at home. Piety at home measurably fails when public worship is abandoned: \ldblquote The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling of Jacob.\rdblquote \par \tab\b 23. \b0 What is the covenant vow as to \ldblquote mutual care\rdblquote ? \par \tab\ldblquote That we will exercise a mutual care, as members one of another, to promote the growth of the whole body in Christian knowledge, holiness and comfort in all the will of God. And that we will frequently exhort, and if occasion require, admonish one (according to Matthew, 18th chapter), in the spirit of meekness, considering ourselves lest we also be tempted.\rdblquote \par \tab\b 24. \b0 What is meant by \ldblquote members of one another\rdblquote ? \par \tab There is allusion to the teaching of the Scriptures in \cf1\ul Rom_12:4-5\cf0\ulnone ; \cf1\ul 1Co_12:12-27\cf0\ulnone ; \cf1\ul Eph_4:15-16\cf0\ulnone , which compares the whole church to a body with many members or parts, of which Christ is the head, and shows the mutual dependence and connection of these several parts. \par \tab\b 25. \b0 What is meant by admonishing one another according to Matthew, 18th chapter? \par \tab It refers to our Savior\rquote s direction: \ldblquote Accordingly if thy brother sin, go right along and convince him of (make him see) his sin between thee and him alone.\rdblquote \par \tab\b 26. \b0 But ought not that to read, \ldblquote If thy brother sin against thee,\rdblquote limiting it to personal offenses? \par \tab No. The \ldblquote against thee\rdblquote is unsupported by the oldest and most reliable Greek manuscripts, both here and in the parallel account in \cf1\ul Luk_17:3\cf0\ulnone . Of course, it includes personal offenses, but it is much more comprehensive. If he sins against thee or anybody else, or if he sin at all, though not against any person in particular, go right along-make him see and feel and renounce the sin. The limitation would imply that there is no obligation on me to admonish unless the offense was against myself, which is an unscriptural thought. Those who insist on such limitation ease their consciences by leaving admonition for all but personal offenses to the deacons. If the hand sins against the eye, the whole body feels it and is concerned in it. If the hand sins against itself or in any other way, though not particularly against any member, yet it is the concern of all the members. \par \tab\b 27. \b0 What is the covenant vow on giving? \par \tab\ldblquote That we will cheerfully contribute, according to ability, of our property to the support of the poor of the church, and for the maintenance of a faithful ministry of the Gospel among us, and for the spread of the Gospel throughout the world.\rdblquote \par \tab\b 28. \b0 What are the three elements and the three objects of this sacrifice? \par \tab The three elements are:\par \pard\nowidctlpar\li720 \tab\b 1. \b0 Honor the Lord with thy substance; \par \tab\b 2. \b0 Give cheerfully; \par \tab\b 3. \b0 Give according to ability. \par \pard\nowidctlpar \tab The three objects are: \tab\par \pard\nowidctlpar\li720 \tab\b 1. \b0 The poor of the church; \par \tab\b 2. \b0 The Gospel at home; \par \tab\b 3. \b0 The Gospel abroad. \par \pard\nowidctlpar \tab\b 29. \b0 To what does the covenant obligate the church member when alone and at home? \par \tab\ldblquote That we will not omit closet religion and family religion at home, nor allow ourselves to permit the too common neglect of the great duty of religiously training our children and others under our care, with a view to the service of Christ and the enjoyment of heaven.\rdblquote \par \tab\b 30. \b0 What are the three elements of this vow? \par \tab \i First, \i0 personal, secret devotion; \i second, \i0 a Godly life at home and family worship; \i third, \i0 the religious training of our children and any others whomsoever under our care. \par \tab\b 31. \b0 What is the true test of personal Christianity? \par \tab What one is at heart when alone, his secret thoughts and desires. \par \tab\b 32. \b0 Where is the surest manifestation of it? \par \tab In his life at home, where the eye of the public is not on him. \par \tab\b 33. \b0 What is the covenant obligation on the church member when before the world? \par \tab\ldblquote That we will walk circumspectly in the world, refraining from such of its games, amusements and fashions as are foes to spiritual mindedness, and that we will abstain from the use or sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage; in order that we may win souls, remembering that God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.\rdblquote \par \tab\b 34. \b0 On what Scriptures is this vow founded? \par \tab\ldblquote My kingdom is not of this world.\rdblquote \cf1\ul Joh_18:36\cf0\ulnone . \ldblquote The fashion of this world passeth away.\rdblquote \cf1\ul 1Co_7:31\cf0\ulnone . \ldblquote Love not the world, neither the things \tab in the world.\rdblquote \cf1\ul 1Jn_2:15\cf0\ulnone . \ldblquote The friendship of the world is enmity with God.\rdblquote \cf1\ul Jam_4:4\cf0\ulnone . \ldblquote If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him.\rdblquote \cf1\ul 1Jn_2:15\cf0\ulnone . \ldblquote Be not conformed to this world.\rdblquote \cf1\ul Rom_12:2\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab\ldblquote Let your light so shine before men,\rdblquote etc. \cf1\ul Mat_5:16\cf0\ulnone . \ldblquote It is good neither to eat flesh (offered to idols), nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.\rdblquote \cf1\ul Rom_14:21\cf0\ulnone . \ldblquote Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest the bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness.\rdblquote \cf1\ul Hab_2:15\cf0\ulnone . \ldblquote Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! And the harp and the viol, the tabret and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts, but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of His hands.\rdblquote \cf1\ul Isa_5:11-12\cf0\ulnone . \ldblquote Wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging; whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.\rdblquote \cf1\ul Pro_20:1\cf0\ulnone . \ldblquote Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. \par \tab Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder.\rdblquote \cf1\ul Pro_24:29-32\cf0\ulnone . \ldblquote Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess.\rdblquote \cf1\ul Eph_5:18\cf0\ulnone . \ldblquote Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are revellings, and such like: Of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.\rdblquote \cf1\ul Gal_5:19-21\cf0\ulnone . \ldblquote In time past ye walked according to the course of this world.\rdblquote \cf1\ul Eph_2:2\cf0\ulnone . \ldblquote For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world, And the world passeth away, \tab and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.\rdblquote \cf1\ul 1Jn_2:16-17\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab\b 35. \b0 Can any member of the church keep these vows of himself No. Nor does he so promise. The words are: \ldblquote We do engage in His strength.\rdblquote \par \tab\b 36. \b0 To whom, therefore, does this covenant in its conclusion direct the church member who takes upon himself so great obligations? \par \tab\ldblquote And the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great Shepherd of the flock, through the blood of the everlasting Covenant, make us perfect in every good work; working in us that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.\rdblquote \par \tab\b 37. \b0 But as the Scripture says, \ldblquote it is better not to vow than to vow and not pay,\rdblquote is it right in itself to bind ourselves with such difficult obligations? \par \tab The Scripture quoted refers to vows concerning optional matters. But the obligations of this covenant inhere in a profession of religion. Their binding force is not optional. They are on you by nature of your relation to Christ. \par \tab You only sin the more not to acknowledge them. The object of the covenant is to place them clearly before you. \ldblquote Vow and pay unto the Lord your God.\rdblquote \cf1\ul Psa_76:11\cf0\ulnone . \ldblquote Thy vows are upon me, O God for thou hast delivered my soul from death.\rdblquote \cf1\ul Psa_56:12\cf0\ulnone . \ldblquote What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people.\rdblquote \cf1\ul Psa_116:12-14\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab\b 38. \b0 Do you mean that the obligations of this covenant are binding on every member of this church, and that he is fairly! amenable to this law though when he joined the church he was not aware of the existence of such a document? \par \tab Just that and all of it is meant. He would naturally, as a member of any organization, be bound by its decisions, but the reason here is infinitely higher. The covenant is not a device for making discipline easy, i.e., it was not contrived as a lever or handle by which the church could more readily and expeditiously reach and dispose of cases of discipline. Indeed, one is tried not by t"he covenant, but the Scriptures. But the covenant is binding because all of its items are but restatements of divine laws previously recorded in the Holy Scriptures. Every one of them is binding on the church member though he may never specifically promise to keep any one of them. \par \tab These are not optional matters. Their obligation is entirely independent of a man\rquote s promises. They inhere in his relation to Christ, and are inalienable, irrevocable and indissoluble. \par \tab\b 39. \b0 Wi#ll you make this somewhat plainer by particular illustrations? \par \tab That is quite easy. Your covenant refers to baptism as in itself imposing an obligation. Read carefully \cf1\ul Rom_6:14\cf0\ulnone , and it will be manifest that baptism in its burial implies a previous death to sin and in its resurrection obligated to \ldblquote newness of life,\rdblquote even though the lips pronounce no vow. \par \tab Again, the word \ldblquote debtor\rdblquote very strongly expresses obligation. The fact t$hat I contract a debt constitutes the obligation and not my after promise to pay it. \par \tab My veracity only is involved in the latter case, but my honesty in the former. \par \tab A mere promise to pay does not validate a note of hand. There must appear the valuable consideration which makes a debt. Now apply this well known term \ldblquote debtor,\rdblquote and the reasoning given to two very plain passages of Scripture: \i\par \par First, \cf1\ul\i0 Rom_8:9-12\cf0\ulnone shows that the beli%ever in Christ dies to sin and is made alive in the Spirit:\par \tab\par \tab From which facts, independent of any promises whatever, yea, from the nature of the case, the apostle shows that he becomes a \ldblquote debtor\rdblquote not to the flesh, but to the Spirit to live after the Spirit. \par \par \i Second, \i0 in \cf1\ul Rom_1:14\cf0\ulnone , Paul says: \ldblquote I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians,\rdblquote i.e., I am under obligation to give the Gospel to the heathen.& In other words, his obligation to aid the foreign mission work did not arise from his promise to aid-did not become operative only after his promise, but his debt was there whether he made promises to pay it or refused to promise. \par \tab So none of you can claim exemption from the duty expressed in your covenant to contribute of your property for the spread of the Gospel throughout the world merely because you have not personally and consciously agreed to that covenant. The covenant does not create 'obligations-it only avows them. \par \tab Take another case-that covenant promise to give money for the relief of the poor of the church. Can you evade the obligation by refusing to subscribe to the covenant? \par \tab Read \cf1\ul Jam_2:14-17\cf2\ulnone \cf0 : \ldblquote What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, \lquote Depart in peace, be ye warm(ed and filled\rquote ? notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.\rdblquote \par \tab Yet again, that covenant promise to contribute for the maintenance of a faithful Gospel ministry among us. Can you escape this obligation by saying: \ldblquote Oh, I never subscribed to the covenant,\rdblquote or \ldblquote I never promised the deacons anything.\rdblquote Does this criminal failure on yo)ur part nullify these two divine laws? \cf1\ul 1Co_9:14\cf2\ulnone \cf0 :\par \tab\ldblquote Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel.\rdblquote \cf1\ul Gal_6:6\cf2\ulnone \cf0 : \ldblquote Let him that is taught in the Word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.\rdblquote You may thus see the difference between a vow which is optional and whose only obligation lies in the promise, and a vow imposed by our relations to Christ. \par *\tab And now, my brethren, I desire to hear from you. I call not only for expressions but confessions and reformations. It is well known to all of you that many church members seem to regard religious obligations as merely optional. They forsake the assembling of God\rquote s people. They are never seen in the Sunday school and prayer meeting. They contribute nothing to the Gospel at home or abroad. They cherish personal difficulties and refuse to seek or accept reconciliation. They walk disorderly before the world. And those who are spiritual neglect to admonish and restore them. \par \tab These things ought not to be. They must not be. God our Savior calls upon us to rise from our wicked sleep-to do our duty if it kills us. O come then, and let us not only renew but pay our vows. Try it, brethren! Try it now and faithfully, and see if there will not be revival grace poured out until there is not room to receive it. \par \tab\par \tab\par \pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\s1\sb240\sa120\b\fs32\page\par } ,on, he will be saved. But if he build upon that foundation wood, hay and stubble, in the fiery ordeal through which all men\rquote s actions must pass, \i his works will be burned up \i0 and \i he shall suffer loss. \i0\par \tab But the man himself, if on the rock, shall be saved, \ldblquote though as it were by fire,\rdblquote \cf1\ul 1Co_3:11-15\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab These scriptures and principles apply to Baptists as well as others. If it is our people holding traditions and making void the law -of God, their works will be burned up. \par \tab Brethren, forget not the day of trial the ordeal of fire. But if Baptist principles be correct then OPEN COMMUNION MAKES VOID THE LAW OF GOD, in the following particulars:\par \tab\b 1. \b0 The bread and wine are given to some who do not even profess conversion. To those who are unbaptized. To some who are under church censure and who have been disciplined. As far as the subjects are concerned, the law of God is thus made void in three specifications. .\par \tab\b 2. \b0 The object God had in view is \ldblquote laid aside.\rdblquote He said, \ldblquote This do in remembrance of me.\rdblquote Open communion invites the unconverted to commune \ldblquote as a means of grace.\rdblquote \par \tab Sometimes it is said, \ldblquote If ever I was converted in the world, it was in the act of communing,\rdblquote thus making a mere emblem a converting agency and glorifying an act of rebellion. \par \tab Open communion loses sight of God\rquote s object /in being administered to show fellowship for other denominations. The Savior said, \ldblquote This do in remembrance of me.\rdblquote Fellowship among denominations is a great thing, but if the shadow of our coming together darkens the cross of Calvary, and causes us to lose sight of the Redeemer, then, O mighty God, \i keep us forever apart! \i0\par \tab Open communion is observed sometimes that husband and wife, belonging to different organizations, may eat at the same sacramental table. When two are0 agreed it is well to see them walk together. The Word of God commands the husband to love his wife even as his own body. Let him love her, guard her from peril and make all his faculties the servants of his love in her behalf. Let her be dearer than all the world to him. But, O husband, exalt her not above God! Why should \ldblquote a man\rquote s foes be those of his own household?\rdblquote Thy wife may be wondrously fair, but though the orange bloom be fresh in her hair, let her not be obtruded befor1e a dying Savior! In communion He says, \ldblquote Remember me\rdblquote not your wife. \lquote Tis not the time to think of her. Scourged from our hearts in that hallowed hour be every image but that dear face, \ldblquote marred\rdblquote for us \ldblquote more than that of any of the sons of men.\rdblquote \par \tab\b 3. \b0 Open communion makes void the law of God in setting His table out of His kingdom. He said: \ldblquote I appoint unto you a kingdom, to eat and to drink, at my table, in my ki2ngdom.\rdblquote Open communion gives the bread and wine to some who have never been baptized, or who have been excluded from the church. For when a man is excluded from one denomination, he has only to join another, and then come to that table from which he had been expelled. \par \tab That emphatic triple prohibition of Paul, \ldblquote Touch not, taste not, handle not,\rdblquote is far more pertinent to this subject than to the drinking of ardent spirits. It has no direct reference to whiskey-drink3ing, but primarily refers to something even more obnoxious to God\rquote s law, i.e., to partaking of \ldblquote ordinances after the commandments and traditions of man.\rdblquote It is a downright close communion text. \par \tab If, as they confidently believe, the Baptists hold the traditions, it says to all PedoBaptists desiring to approach our communion table, \ldblquote Touch not, taste not, handle not.\rdblquote If, as we confidently believe, they are making void God\rquote s law by their tradit4ions, it comes like the point of a two-edged sword to the heart of thee open communion Baptist, \ldblquote TOUCH NOT, TASTE NOT, HANDLE NOT.\rdblquote We therefore cherish the conviction that no just censure attaches to the Baptist practice because it is the Lord\rquote s table. Let us then, in our search for \ldblquote Baptist bigotry,\rdblquote examine another query:\par \tab\par \tab Are Baptists bigoted because they make baptism a prerequisite to communion? Let an appeal be made to the Word of G5od. From that holy book we learn: \b 1. \b0 That baptism was first appointed and practiced. The first baptizer never saw the communion table. Jesus Himself was baptized, then made and baptized disciples, long before He Himself commanded or appointed communion for others. See \cf1\ul Joh_3:22-23\cf2\ulnone ; \cf1\ul Joh_4:1\cf0\ulnone ; \cf1\ul Mat_26:26\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab\b 2. \b0 First in the commission. \ldblquote Go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and Holy S6pirit, teaching them \i to observe all things whatsoever I\i0 \i have commanded you, \i0\rdblquote \cf1\ul Mat_28:20\cf0\ulnone . Here the order of the commandment is\par \tab\b (a) \b0 make disciples, \par \tab\b (b)\b0 baptize them, \par \tab\b (c) \b0 teach them to commune. \par \tab For communion is one of the things He had commanded them to observe. \par \tab\b 3. \b0 \i We find that the apostles so understood this order by their practice. \i0 Take the first instance, with which all t7he rest harmonize. On the day of Pentecost Peter preached a sermon. The people were convicted and said, \ldblquote What must we do?\rdblquote The apostle replied, \ldblquote Repent and be baptized,\rdblquote etc. Then the record says, \ldblquote They that gladly received the word were baptized,\rdblquote and then adds, \ldblquote They continued steadfastly in the apostles\rquote doctrine and fellowship and \i breaking of bread, \i0\rdblquote \i etc. \cf1\ul\i0 Act_2:38-40\cf0\ulnone . Even a child c8an see that the people were baptized before they communed. \par \tab\b 4. \b0 \i In instructing the churches the connection shows that baptism was first. \i0\par \tab Take one instance as an illustration that one most relied on by open communionists. It is that much quoted Scripture, \ldblquote Let a man examine himself and so let him eat.\rdblquote By this Scripture they seek to prove that the individual and not the church must judge. Ten thousand times it has been quoted in triumph, as if it wer9e the \ldblquote end of the controversy.\rdblquote \par \tab Let us fairly test this invincible (?) argument. \i Unto whom was this language\i0 \i addressed? \i0 To everybody? Where do we find the language, \ldblquote Let a man examine himself and so let him eat\rdblquote ? It is found in \cf1\ul 1Co_11:28\cf0\ulnone . What do we know about these Corinthians to whom Paul was writing? Turn to \cf1\ul Act_18:1-11\cf2\ulnone \cf0 : \ldblquote After these things Paul came to Corinth-and reasoned in the :synagogue and Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; \i and many\i0 \i of the Corinthians hearing believed and were baptized. \i0\rdblquote \i \i0 This is the account of their baptism. \par \tab\par \tab Now mark the beginning of that letter in which the expression occurs: \ldblquote Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, \i unto the church of God, which is at Corinth, \i0\rdblquote \i \i0 ;etc. This shows that they were organized into a church. Finally, examine carefully the very chapter in which the expression occurs, and you will find (\cf1\ul 1Co_11:18\cf2\ulnone ; \cf1\ul 1Co_11:20\cf2\ulnone ; \cf1\ul 1Co_11:22-23\cf0\ulnone ) that when assembled together, in one place, in church capacity, then, and only then, it is said to these baptized Corinthians, \ldblquote Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup.\rdblquote It is a perversion of the Word oEACH THAT BAPTISM MUST PRECEDE COMMUNION. And every denomination determines for itself what is baptism. I submit, as a fair sample of a great mass of testimony, the following:\par \tab Wall (noted Pedo-Baptist historian), in his \ldblquote History of Infant Baptism,\rdblquote Part 2, Chapter 19, says:\par \tab\ldblquote No church ever gave the communion to any persons before they were baptized. \par \tab Among all the absurdities that ever were held, none ever maintained that any person should part?ake of the communion before he was baptized.\rdblquote \par \tab To the same effect speaks Dr. Doddridge, \ldblquote Lectures,\rdblquote page 511:\par \tab\ldblquote As far as our knowledge of primitive antiquity teaches, it is certain that no unbaptized person ever received the Lord\rquote s Supper.\rdblquote \par \tab Note again the testimony of Dr. Timothy Dwight, President of Yale College:\par \tab\par \tab\ldblquote It is an indispensable qualification for this ordinance that the candida@te for communion be a member of the visible church of Christ, in full standing. By this I intend that he shall be a person of piety; that he should have made a public profession of religion; and that he should have been baptized.\rdblquote \par \tab The only scriptural grounds on which any minister can invite other denominations to commune is that they are members of the church of Christ and baptized. The denial of this necessarily precludes communion. As proof, I submit the following quotations from DAr. O. Fisher, the great Methodist baptismal debater:\par \tab\ldblquote The Baptists, setting themselves up for the only right ones holding all others as out of the church, because unbaptized, they themselves are after all proved to be just what they have held others to be, unbaptized, as they certainly have neither the mode nor design of baptism, and have only a part of its subjects. And it may be seriously questioned whether the baptism administered by our Baptist brethren, holding the views they do rBespecting it, ought to be received as valid by the other evangelical churches, and \i therefore-whether it be truly and strictly lawful to hold communion\i0 \i with them, even where they are willing. \i0\rdblquote \i \i0 (\ldblquote Christian Sacraments,\rdblquote section \ldblquote History of Immersion\rdblquote pages 184, 185). \par \tab This then is the true issue: What is a visible church of Christ? What is baptism? \par \tab Never, while remains the testimony of Mark, that. \ldblquote John Cbaptized the people in the river of Jordan\rdblquote ; never, while Enon, the place of much water, remains in the bible; never, while it is said \ldblquote that Philip and the Eunuch both went down into the water\rdblquote ; never while the record of our blessed Savior\rquote s baptism remains, concerning whom it is said, \ldblquote When He was baptized He came up straightway out of the water,\rdblquote and with whom, Paul says, \ldblquote we are buried in baptism\rdblquote ; never, while these remain, wDill Baptists concede that moistening the forehead from a pitcher is baptism; and so never can\rquote invite with consistency the Pedo-Baptists to communion with them. \par \tab Since the great principles which underlie the communion question are held in common by all denominations, to all the fair minded and candid I submit the question: Is it right to attribute our practice to bigotry? Let a great Methodist historian answer. \par \tab Hibbard, in his \ldblquote History of Methodism,\rdblquote says:\Epar \tab\ldblquote It is but just to remark that in one principle the Baptist and Pedo-Baptist churches agree. They both agree in rejecting from communion at the table of the Lord, and in denying the right of church fellowship to all who have not been baptized. Valid baptism they consider as essential to constitute visible church membership. This also we hold. The only question, then, that divides us is: What is essential to valid baptism? The Baptists, in passing a sweeping sentence of disfranchisementF upon all the Christian churches, have only acted upon a principle held in common with all other Christian churches, viz: That baptism is essential to church membership. They have denied our baptism and, as unbaptized persons, we have been excluded from their table. That they greatly err in their views of Christian baptism we, of course, believe. But according to their view of baptism, they certainly are consistent in restricting this their communion. We would not be understood as passing a judgment of apGproval upon their course; but we may say their views of baptism force them upon the ground of strict communion and herein they act upon the same principles as other churches. They admit only those whom they deem baptized persons to the communion table. Of course they must be their own judges as to what baptism is. It is evident that according to our views we can admit them to our communion; but with their views of baptism, it is equally evident they can never reciprocate the courtesy; and the charge of \iH close\i0 \i communion \i0 is no more applicable to the Baptists than to us; insomuch that the question of church membership is determined by as liberal principles as it is with any other Protestant churches-so far, I mean, as the present subject is concerned, i.e., it is determined by valid baptism.\rdblquote \par \tab Will my Methodist brethren allow me to call special attention to this extract? They have no greater man than Hibbard, of New York, and very few of his equal in candor. The points to wIhich attention is especially directed are as follows: \par \pard\nowidctlpar\fi720\b 1. \b0 He says that Baptists, in determining church membership, are governed by as liberal principles as any other church. No bigotry there. \par \pard\nowidctlpar \tab\b 2. \b0 The charge of close communion is no more applicable to them than to PedoBaptist churches. No bigotry there. \par \tab\b 3. \b0 In making baptism precede communion, they act on principles shared by all PedoBaptist churches. No bigotry thereJ. \par \tab\b 4. \b0 The Baptists are consistent in their restricted communion. No illiberality there. \par \tab\b 5. \b0 They must be their own judges as to what baptism is. \par \tab\b 6. \b0 The only question that divides us is, What is valid baptism? \par \tab Will our brethren of other denominations follow this magnanimous leader and do us common justice at least? And since they hold baptism as an indispensable prerequisite to communion, I have another question to ask them: Is it right or Kfair to quote Robert Hall, the open communion Baptist, against us, since they despise his premise? Do they really respect his position? Listen to his words, and as they love his conclusion, let them accept his premise. Either retain both or reject both. He says:\par \tab\ldblquote We certainly make no scruple in informing a Pedo-Baptist candidate that we consider him as unbaptized, and disdain all concealment on the subject. If we supposed there were a necessary, unalterable, connection between the two Lpositive Christian institutes, so that none were qualified for communion who had not been previously baptized, we could not hesitate for a moment respecting the refusal of Pedo-Baptists, without renouncing the principles of our denomination.\rdblquote Vol. I, pages 403 and 445, Hall\rquote s works. \par \tab In other places he argues for open communion on the ground of human weakness, their weakness in the faith. Thus we see that Robert Hall receives Pedo-Baptists to the communion only on two grounds:\Mpar \tab\b (1)\b0 That baptism is not essential to communion. \par \tab\b (2)\b0 In condescension to their weakness. \par \tab Let us propound yet other queries: Are Baptists censurable in making the church and not the individual the judge of external qualification? By external qualification I mean a credible profession of religion, baptism, church connection and orderly walk. \par \tab When God sent out His ministers to disciple the nations, do you suppose that Paul or John or Peter ever left iNt to the candidates to say what was baptism, or for what purpose they were baptized? Were a group of converts left free to determine the form of church government? Or did the apostles go out discipling according to the Savior\rquote s method, \i baptizing \i0 as He was baptized, and organizing churches according to the Divine model? Let candor and common sense answer. But whatever may be the scriptural argument, as long as their position is the same as ours, let them pass no censures. \par \tab Just heOre the question will arise in the Baptist mind, Why this late war on the communion question? It is not the ancient battleground. There are men living, nearly old enough to remember when communion with Baptists was never sought when Baptists were not accredited worthy to commune at their table. Stripes and fagots have given place to kisses and embraces. \par \tab Again the question recurs, growing mightier and more massive from every consideration of the past, Why is the battleground shifted, and the weaPpons of warfare changed? Baptists believe it is because Pedo-Baptists have been driven to the wall on the baptismal question. They are profoundly conscious that the young convert, unbiased by prejudice, finds in his Bible that the Savior was immersed. That he ought to follow Christ. And all the power of childish associations, and all the memories of father and mother are not sufficient to make this convert believe in infant baptism. He wants to be baptized for himself, and upon a profession of his own faiQth. \par \tab How shall he be hindered? \par \tab By presenting to his heart, all aglow with the freshness of love, close communion all invested with horror. By darkening it with epithets and clothing it in mantles of bigotry and intolerance. What community has not its adept in this work? But after Hibbard and men like him have spoken, surely none but the ignorant, or those blinded by prejudice, or those thoroughly carried away by the popular clamor for charity, will continue the work of misrepresentaRtion and darkening counsel. \par \tab But are Baptists censurable for refusing to make this ordinance a means of exhibiting Christian fellowship for other denominations? Are we driven to such straits to show our Christian love, that an ordinance of God must be perverted? Is the arena for the exhibition of Christian charity so circumscribed as to warrant such a report? Is the field of Christian co-operation so narrow that we must have recourse to such an expedient? How many times must it be repeated, thaSt in communion the local congregation of Baptist believers, assembled together in one place as a church, as a bride, \ldblquote remembers Jesus, the absent husband, and shows forth His death until He comes\rdblquote ? All other objects of communion are foreign to God\rquote s one, original purpose. \par \tab In prayer, by the bedside of the dying, in life\rquote s multiform battles, we can evidence our love and Christian fellowship. \par \tab BUT DOES NOT CLOSE COMMUNION UNCHRISTIANIZE OTHER DENOMINATTIONS? \par \tab No true Baptist ever believed it or taught it: Baptists, alone, of all denominations, can clearly show that their standard works teach that neither baptism nor communion is essential to salvation. Their uniform doctrine has been salvation essential to baptism. \par \tab They have ever been taught that \ldblquote whosoever believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation.\rdblquote That even out of Rome, \ldblquote the mother of harlots,\rdUblquote will God call many of His people. \par \tab But one single fact settles this question forever. Here on my left sits a brother whom we have just received. He is adjudged a Christian by the unanimous vote of the church. He is to be baptized this evening. And yet, until baptized, our communion table is closed against him. We believe him to be as much baptized as any PedoBaptist. \i Shall we allow more privileges to other denominations than to those\i0 \i converts received for our baptism? \i0\parV \tab But more to the point: Does our close communion unchristianize this brother, who, by the undivided voice of the church, has been declared a Christian? If our reason has not lost its balance, we must answer, No! There can be no sectarian bigotry here. Where then in our practice shall it be found? \par \tab Is there any force in that threadbare statement that hackneyed phrase \ldblquote WE SHALL COMMUNE TOGETHER IN HEAVEN, WHY NOT ON EARTH?\rdblquote This is one of the sophisms referred to. All Wgreat logicians, Aristotle, Hedge, Whately and others, unite in anathematizing the sophist. Surely if an attorney-at-law is disgraced who wilfully uses a sophism to gain a case, no man can be held guiltless who uses one in religious controversy. Under the fair surface of this much quoted and popular expression there lurks a fallacy. But little attention is necessary to point it out. It is the use of the same word in both premise and conclusion, when the word has a very different meaning in the one form frXom what it does in the other. It is the word COMMUNION. The premise is \ldblquote We shall, all commune together in heaven.\rdblquote The conclusion is \ldblquote Therefore we should all commune together on earth.\rdblquote The communion referred to on earth is a communion of bread and wine. The communion in heaven referred to is a spiritual communion. No one expects a communion table of bread and wine to be set in heaven, because such communion expires with the coming of the Savior. He says, \ldblquoYte Ye do show the Lord\rquote s death until He come.\rdblquote The earthly communion table has fulfilled its mission when Shiloh comes again. \par \tab In order for premise and conclusion to harmonize and the one to necessarily flow from the other, the meaning of the word must be the same in both. If our PedoBaptist brethren say, \ldblquote We shall all hold \i spiritual \i0 communion in heaven, therefore we ought to have spiritual communion on earth,\rdblquote we accept the conclusion, and claim thaZt we do have with all Christians Christian fellowship and spiritual communion, as the whole world knows. \par \tab But if they say, \ldblquote All denominations will gather around one communion table of bread and wine in heaven, just such one as we have here, therefore the earthly practice should conform to the heavenly,\rdblquote we reply:\par \tab\b (1)\b0 The premise is false, as it is not in evidence from the Bible that there will be such a table set. \par \tab\b (2)\b0 Even if the premise is[ true, the conclusion does not follow, because in heaven, if we ever get there, we shall all have one faith and shall have left behind us in the ashes of the great conflagration those differences which necessitate different tables here. \par \tab Thus the emptiness and fallacy of this redoubted sophism is made manifest; but let us put the question to them: Do they receive all to their communion table whom the Lord proposes to save? Is this their law of communion? All whom Jesus receives? \par \tab\par\ \tab They make no pretension to it. Brethren of other denominations, all of you who love justice and truth, I make my appeal to you. Is that man guiltless before God who, to the detriment of another denomination, perpetrates this sophism? If to pervert Scripture be criminal, how much more to misuse the heavenly glory? \par \tab Is there any force in the objection that \i close communion separates members of\i0 \i the same family from the same sacramental table? \i0 In the first place, if close com]munion is of divine appointment, it is not the separating power. God said to the Jews, \ldblquote Your sins have separated between you and me.\rdblquote It was not the law that separated, but sin. Law was ordained to life. Its purpose was to bind to God. But transgression may make that which was ordained to life a means of death. See Paul\rquote s argument Romans 7. There is, however, a secondary sense in which it divides families or arrays them against each other, so that \ldblquote a man\rquote s foes^ are those of his own household.\rdblquote But whatever of force there is in this objection against restricted communion applies with equal power against the Christian religion. \par \tab Our Savior says:\par \tab\ldblquote Think not that I am come to send peace on the earth; I came not to send peace but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man\rquote s foes shall be they of his_ own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me.\rdblquote See \cf1\ul Mat_10:34-39\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab This was the very objection the enemy used against the Christian religion: \ldblquote They are come here also who have turned the world upside down.\rdblquote \par \tab In these latter days religion is wounded in the house of its friends. Principle is sacrificed to convenience and pleas`ure, and family relations are exalted above God\rquote s Word. The dignity and majesty of law is sold out to gratify human passions and to conciliate the world. How often you hear it: \ldblquote Join that church where you can enjoy your religion the best.\rdblquote \ldblquote You had better go along with your wife or your husband or father.\rdblquote As if our enjoyment had anything to do with it. O God, send thy Spirit to impress us, until we ask no longer, \ldblquote What will I enjoy? What will pleasae my husband or wife?\rdblquote but \ldblquote\i What wilt thou have me to do? \i0\rdblquote \par \tab In the next place let us inquire: IS CLOSE COMMUNION A BAR TO CHRISTIAN\par \tab UNION? I know that this charge is made all over the land. Papers that profess to be non-sectarian thus covertly thrust at our beloved principles. The pulpit, the press, the parlor and the kitchen unite in the declaration. The impression is made that if it were not for \ldblquote those bigoted, close communion Baptists,b\rdblquote the Protestant world would be a unit. Now, is there a shadow of truth in this assumption* If facts ever did explode a fallacy, they have burst this air-bubble. Facts! Yes, well-established, stubborn facts give it the lie. \par \tab If close communion were the bar to Christian union, then where there is no close communion there would be Christian union. But let one solitary instance stand up as a colossal monument sublimely protesting against this phantom of the brain. Let it be written in brcoad capitals over ever communion table\par \tab CHARLES H. SPURGEON WAS DEBARRED FROM THE BRITISH EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE AND IN CONSEQUENCE FROM THE WORLD\rquote S EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE! \par \tab Yes, the world\rquote s greatest and most influential open communion Baptist, a man whose pulpit efficiency, whose height and depth of influence have had no equal since the Apostle Paul, this man representing the open communion Baptist churches of England had no part in the far-famed World\rquote s Evangelical dAlliance, while J. L. M. Curry, the silver-tongued orator of the close communion Baptists, not only held in that august body an honorable position, but made before it the grandest speech delivered at its late session in the United States! \par \tab\ldblquote O Tempora! O Mores!\rdblquote Did Spurgeon\rquote s open communion sentiments save him? \par \tab No. Do they exempt him from Pedo-Baptist onslaught? Nay, verily. Exists there as much Christian union between him and the open communion churches aned the PedoBaptists of England, as between the Pedo-Baptists and the close communion Baptist churches of America? Most certainly not. The fact is, open communion forfeits rather than secures Pedo-Baptist regard. \par \tab In going to the table of another denomination, a Baptist makes the fatal concession that it is the church of Jesus Christ and its members baptized. Making this, \i it \i0 is \i his\i0 \i duty to join \i0 it. The assumption that close communion is the bar to Christian union is as unsufbstantial as an idle dream, a hallucination lighter than a gulf cloud. \par \tab But- I have yet other questions to urge: Do Pedo-Baptists regard Baptists as acting conscientiously in their communion views? If not, how dare they invite to God\rquote s table those whom they regard as unprincipled and unconscientious? If they do, how can they have the face to ask a fellow Christian to violate the promptings of his conscience? Upon which horn of the dilemma do they desire to be impaled? \par \tab Yet agagin: As they admit our baptism and church membership, and can therefore, as far as that is concerned, invite us to commune with them without violation of conscience, and as we do not admit their baptism or church connection, and cannot therefore invite them without violation of conscience, where is our illiberality? Where is the bigotry? The principle on which both proceed is precisely the same. \par \tab Let me ask the fair-minded and candid among them to show me a way out of this dilemma: Shall I invithe them to the communion as baptized? This stultifies my principles. Shall I invite them as unbaptized? They themselves regard this as rebellion against God. What kind of an invitation would they have, an honest or a dishonest one? If it be dishonest, who shall answer for us to God? If honest, will they accept? \par \tab How much would they be flattered with such an invitation as this, and how much would it recommend us:\par \tab\ldblquote Brethren Pedo-Baptists, we do not regard you as baptized; we agiree with you that baptism is necessary to communion, but respecting your views more than our conscience or the Word of God, we ask you to come along with us to the communion table. We do not regard it as appointed to show Christian fellowship, nor to unite husband and wife, nor as a means of grace, but in deference to your superior judgment we yield these matters.\rdblquote \par \tab Who of them would accept the invitation thus given? \par \tab And now to my own brethren I turn, with the question: DOjES OPEN COMMUNION\par HAVE A TENDENCY TO PROSPER AND PERPETUATE BAPTIST CHURCHES? As an answer, \par \tab\b (a)\b0 Look to the melancholy history of John Bunyan\rquote s church. He stood out with Robert Hall as one of the champions of open communion. He believed, preached and practiced it. How did it affect his church? After his death, PedoBaptists claimed that they had the right to vote as well as to commune. \par \tab As none could consistently deny it, they exercised that right, and for a hundredk years put Pedo-Baptist preachers in old John Bunyan\rquote s pulpit and pastorate. From 1688 to 1788, no Baptist preacher was pastor. And when the last of these pastors was converted to the Baptist faith, he was retained only on the condition that he would not preach on baptism. \par \tab He was gagged in his own house. Yes, open communion throttled him and made him keep back part of the counsel of God. In 1700, and again in 1724, they refused to grant letters to their members desiring to unite with cllose communion churches. \par \tab Open communion is to Baptists what the Trojan horse made by Greeks was to Troy. \par \tab It pretended to be an offering to the immortal gods. But it was made so large that the walls had to be broken down for its reception, and in its cavernous interior many of the bravest Greeks were concealed. \par \tab\par \tab\b (b)\b0 Look next to the fading glories of the Free-will Baptists, and last \b (c)\b0 to the shameful downfall of Dr. Pentecost. But yesterday he casmt a shadow across a continent-now none so poor to do him honor. \par \tab The prosperity of Spurgeon\rquote s church is attributable to the fact that their open communion has never had a chance (and could not in his lifetime) to be carried to its legitimate consequences. Wait until, like Bunyan, he has been sleeping one hundred years, then read the history. \par \tab Again: DOES OPEN COMMUNION ENABLE BAPTISTS TO MAKE CONVERTS MORE RAPIDLY OF PEDOBAPTISTS? As a test, take an instance: The Rev. John Fosnter, of London, left his church to accept the call of the Independent Church at Piner\rquote s Hall. \par \tab But though for years their pastor, he never baptized one of them. They, of course, concluded that if he would accept the pastoral care of their church, they were near enough right. If you ever want to convert Pedo-Baptists, make no compromise with their errors. \par \tab But does the avowal of opera communion sentiments and the most earnest invitations for intercommunion ever secure much of iot? \par \tab No Pedo-Baptist regularly communed with Robert Hall\rquote s open communion church. \par \tab It existed in name almost altogether. Inter-communion with Spurgeon\rquote s church was infrequent, and never, except in the case of isolated individuals. It is beyond my knowledge if there was ever any church communion in his case. It is known that Pedo-Baptists do not throng the tables of the Free-will Baptists. And how long and how far did they follow the misguided Pentecost? It is either a frpuitless theory, or the fruits are apples from Sodom for Baptists. I desire to stand by the old landmark today and lift a voice of warning to my brethren OPEN COMMUNION IS THE ENTERING WEDGE OF DEATH TO OUR CHURCHES. \par \tab The kiss of intercommunion is as the kiss of Judas, and their embrace the embrace of death. In preference, give us back the fagot, the dungeon and the martyr fires. These were the portions of Baptists not many years ago. No Pedo-Baptist denomination sought communion with us then. qRead the history of ecclesiastical affairs in the reign of Elizabeth, and since that time. If my statement is questioned, let me be put to the proof. \par \tab \i What, then, should be done with the Baptist minister who preaches and\i0 \i practices open communion? \i0 If he be an Apollos in eloquence, a Rothschild in wealth, or a Jesse Mercer in influence, let his name be blotted from our records. He costs us far too much to retain him. We cannot pay the price of existence for the honor of having himr among us. \par \tab\par \tab \i What shall be done with a private member who practices open communion? \i0 If he be sound in the faith in other particulars, kindly admonish him and have patience with him, that you may gain your brother. Show him how it is far better to comply with the genius and rules of his church. Bear with him. But if he persists, the welfare of the church imperatively demands his expulsion. He is walking disorderly. Let the fellowship of the church be withdrawn from him. If he sis sincere, if he is conscientious and determined in his practice, his common sense, as well as our discipline, will show him that the Baptist church is no place for him. If he persists for popular effect, for any unworthy, time-serving motive, he is unworthy of membership in any church. \par \tab Politics as well as religion might well unite in the prayer, \ldblquote\i From all trimmers, \i0 Good Lord, deliver us!\rdblquote \par \tab Those of our brethren who are Baptists upon all other points, andt simply have doubts upon the communion question, and who do not purpose practising open communion, nor propagating it, but can conscientiously comply with the church regulations, had better remain in the Baptist church, because \par \pard\nowidctlpar\fi720\b (1)\b0 in going to another church they do not secure open communion, since by going they lose Baptist communion and\par \pard\nowidctlpar \tab\b (2)\b0 in joining a Pedo-Baptist organization they will have to endorse and support many things obnoxuious to their faith. \par \tab It certainly is passing strange that for the sake of anything so empty of practical good as open communion, a man will give up his convictions\par \tab\b (1)\b0 That immersion alone is baptism. \par \tab\b (2)\b0 That believers only are subjects of baptism. \par \tab\b (3)\b0 That the church of Jesus Christ is a democracy. \par \tab And now in all kindness let me once more impress upon the minds of my brethren THE SIN OF OPEN COMMUNION. At the bar of God\rquote V=16-Footnotes{\rtf1\ansi\deff0\deftab1134{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Georgia;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\x \tab\ul Ft2 The reader has observed that this sermon was preached at Columbus Street, now\ulnone\par Columbus Ave. Baptist church at Waco, but it will be borne in mind that Dr. Carroll was then and for years thereafter pastor of the First Baptist church at Waco. He preached this sermon on the third anniversary of the Columbus St. church, just as he often preached special sermons in other Texas churches. \par \tab\par \tab\par \pard\cf1\f1\fs22\par \par \par \par \par \par \par \fs22\par } vth the feeling in my own heart that these words concerning B. H. Carroll by his surviving preacher son should be a part of the present volume, it is herewith presented. The address speaks for itself and the intelligent reader will form his own estimate of its excellence. As for me, I regard it as a great deliverance and as not only an eloquent and deserved tribute to his immortal father, but as a production that for all time will reflect credit upon his much loved son, its author. - J. B. CRANFILL. \par wviewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\s1\sb240\sa120\lang1033\b\f0\fs32 FOOTNOTES\par \pard\nowidctlpar\b0\fs24 \tab\ul Ft1 This address, designated as \ldblquote Founder\rquote s Day Address,\rdblquote was, upon the invitation\ulnone\par of the President and faculty of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, of Fort Worth delivered at the Seminary March 14, 1939. By an enthusiastic unanimous vote, request was made that this address be published, -and in response to that request and in accordance wizer and the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.\rdblquote \par \tab So the truth of God smites the great image of open communion upon its earthen foundation, and shivers into countless fragments its incoherent particles. \par \tab\par \tab\par \pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\s1\sb240\sa120\b\fs32\page 1{0. GOD IS FAITHFUL\par \pard\nowidctlpar\b0\fs24 \tab TEXT: But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and keep you from evil. - \cf1\ul 2Th_3:3\cf0\ulnone . \par \par \tab A proposition introduced by the conjunction \ldblquote but\rdblquote implies opposition to or contrast with preceding matters: \ldblquote But the Lord is faithful.\rdblquote Hence I read the context to show you that a great many people in this world have not faith, that they have not faith because they receive not the lo|ve of the truth, and as they will not receive the truth they become the subjects of delusions, the easy prey to the crafty. \par \tab If a man does not love the truth, let him beware of the snare of the fowler. He can walk in no safe place. He can promise himself no immunity from danger. He can build on no stable foundation. However promising the outset, he cannot expect in the outcome to win, to be saved, to be happy. He will not only, as a natural consequence that is, following inexorable law reap t}hat which he has sown, but above natural law is the decree of God\rquote s just judgment, that a man who turns away his ear from the hearing of the truth, and pulls away his shoulder from the restraining hand of admonition, the man who lends easy credence to whisperings of evil, comes under the judicial condemnation of God,\rquote and that condemnation is that he shall believe a lie. \par \tab Now, over against that insecurity, that bad outcome, is the text, \ldblquote But the Lord is faithful, who sha~ll establish you, and keep you from evil,\rdblquote or to give it a better rendering perhaps, \ldblquote keep you from the evil one.\rdblquote \par \tab There are three thoughts in the text which I wish to elaborate somewhat in discussion. The first is the faithfulness of God in general: \ldblquote But God is faithful.\rdblquote The second is the faithfulness of God in this particular, to-wit: Establishing His people, and the third is the faithfulness of God in another particular, to-wit: Keeping His people from evil. \par \tab The first thought, then, is \ldblquote The Lord is faithful.\rdblquote Four or five times in the book of Revelation we have this appellation applied to our Lord, \ldblquote The faithful and true witness.\rdblquote The fidelity of God! It is the ground of all of our hope. I hope to be able to make that plain to you. I want you to get close up to the thought, not only to be able to see it and feel it, but embrace it, and receive it into your inmost souls. The faithfulness of God! \par \tab Let us consider first this expression, \ldblquote This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.\rdblquote That presents the faithfulness of God in His tender of salvation to the lost, and in the adequateness of the provisions of that salvation. Some people allow their views concerning election and predestination, with kindred doctrines, to limit their conception of the fidelity of God, in their tender of salvation to all men. But God is faithful in the saying that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. There is no mental reservation in that statement. It is as broad as the term, \ldblquote sinners.\rdblquote Hence when He sends His preachers out He says, \ldblquote Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.\rdblquote He says, \ldblquote Go make disciples of all nations.\rdblquote He says, \ldblquote I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.\rdblquote \ldblquote As I live, saith the Lord, I prefer that they would turn and live.\rdblquote \par \tab Now, we must believe that God is faithful in that statement, for in going out to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, if I distrust the fidelity of His offer of love and life to all men, if I circumscribe the scope of His offered mercy, if I narrow down to some cast-iron conception of my own the universality of His tender of salvation to fallen men, then I cannot preach right. And the church that, in its feelings, in its thoughts, in its plans and work, practically excludes from the domain of possible salvation any race of men, black or white, intellectual, stupid, civilized or barbaric, or any church that circumscribes the influence of salvation within certain social limits, dishonors God and doubts His faithfulness in the saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. This is not only a faithful saying, but is worthy of all acceptation. I stand upon the fidelity of God in that statement. \par \tab Let us notice further His general faithfulness. After you become a child of God and I quote a Scripture \ldblquote If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.\rdblquote I plead for the acceptance of God\rquote s faithfulness in that statement. There is infidelity in the heart of the backslider who stands aloof and distrusts God\rquote s promise to forgive him if he will confess his sins. If we confess our sins God is faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. \par \tab A man may be a liar indeed, all men are liars but God is faithful, and when God says that if we confess our sins He will forgive our sins and cleanse us from unrighteousness, let no breath of distrust darken the clear crystal of promise through which shines the fidelity of God. He says that He will forgive you and that He will cleanse you and heal you of that backsliding if you will come to Him and confess it, and though mountains may crumble to a level with the plain, and great glaciers, that have been congealing since creation, may dissolve into the main, yet the Word of God abideth forever. Heaven and earth may fail, but not one jot or one tittle of God\rquote s Word shall fail. When He tells you that if you will confess your sins He will forgive your sins and cleanse you from that unrighteousness, O, remember that God is faithful. \par \tab\par \tab Let us take up another instance. In the Letter to the Hebrews, the tenth chapter and the twenty-third verse, we have this language: \ldblquote Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful that promised.\rdblquote The general faithfulness of God then with reference to His promises is expressed in the Scripture: \ldblquote All the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus.\rdblquote \par \tab You see a Christian disposed to waver, to drop out of line, to lay aside his armor, to cease from doing good, to absent himself from the assembly of God\rquote s people, to become discouraged and demoralized, ready to halt, ready to faint, ready to turn loose, to him like the clarion notes of a trumpet comes the exhortation of this context:\par \tab\ldblquote Hold fast the profession of your faith.\rdblquote Why? Because God is faithful to His promise. In view of which declaration there is no reason in the world for you to turn loose. If, indeed, God has forgotten, if God is asleep, if the Lord said some precious things years ago that have escaped His recollection, if God in any sense is unfaithful, then you do well to turn loose, but I do maintain that as long as God, who promised, is faithful, there is no warrant for any Christian\rquote s turning loose his profession of faith. \par \tab Notice again, in the second letter to Timothy, second chapter and thirteenth verse, we have this language: \ldblquote If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful: He cannot deny Himself.\rdblquote You may deny yourself, but God cannot deny Himself. That is the reason that the gifts and callings of God are without repentance, that is, without a change of mind. He says, \ldblquote I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.\rdblquote You would have been consumed long ago if He had been as changeable as you are. You may not believe, but He abideth faithful, because He cannot deny Himself. \ldblquote With Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.\rdblquote \ldblquote Jesus Christ, yesterday, today and forever the same.\rdblquote He cannot deny\rquote Himself. \par \tab The fidelity of God, His faithfulness, is predicated upon His immutability. God can not lie. God can not change. God is not a man that He should repent, and His word is not dependent upon the ever shifting and fainting fears and hopes, and confidences and despairs of men. \par \tab Again, in consummating His work He is faithful. Consummate means to make a finish, that is to say, He knew all about the case before He started that good work. \par \tab Known unto God was the end as well as the beginning. He commenced that good work in you and He will finish it until the day of Jesus Christ. \par \tab I want to read you two passages of Scripture bearing upon God\rquote s faithfulness in consummating the work that He commences. In the first letter to the Corinthians, first chapter, eighth and ninth verses, we have this statement:\par \tab\par \tab\ldblquote God shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom ye were called into fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.\rdblquote \par \tab Yes, God, who calls you is faithful, and \ldblquote whom He called, them He justified, them He glorified.\rdblquote The Lord will finish His work, and His faithfulness is pledged to the absolute blamelessness of every job that He undertakes. \par \tab It makes no difference from what pit you were digged. It makes no difference if a Syrian was your father. It makes no difference from what dregs of social outlawry you were rescued by His call to salvation. It makes no difference how feeble is your perception of truth, how slow you are to advance, nor how many thousand enemies obstruct you, nor how many hateful passions struggle in you to defeat the purposes of God, He will finish that work, and when He gets through with you there won\rquote t be a spot in you. You will be as white as snow. You will be blameless and faultless before the throne of God. What He commenced in regeneration He will carry on through both departments of sanctification, to-wit: The purification of the spirit and the glorification of the body. \par \tab Now, this other scripture, in the first letter to the Thessalonians, fifth chapter and twenty-third and twenty-fourth verses: \ldblquote And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it.\rdblquote Now that is a very precious scripture. The first part of our text then speaks of the faithfulness of God in general. And that faithfulness is the reason that the outcome of the Christian life is not so disastrous as the outcome of the infidel life. It explains the stability of the foundation resting on this Rock everlasting, and that Rock is Christ. And in Christ are the promises. And the guaranty of the promises is the faithfulness of God. \par \tab More briefly let us consider the two particulars of God\rquote s faithfulness cited in this text, quoting the text again: \ldblquote But God is faithful, who shall establish you and keep you from evil.\rdblquote \ldblquote Who shall establish you.\rdblquote A number of scriptures refer to the establishing of God\rquote s people. Establishment assumes that when we enter the Christian life we are only babes in Christ, and need to have our faith increased, our Christian character built up. We need to attain to assurance of faith and hope. We need to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We need to so grow that we shall attain to the stature of a man or woman in Christ Jesus. In other words, there is a Bible doctrine of confirmation not what people teach, that confirmation is a rite, a ceremony, that at a certain time you come up for Episcopal hands to be laid upon you and thereby be confirmed. There is nothing in that figment, but it is a doctrine of God that His people shall be confirmed, that they shall be established, strengthened, rooted, grounded. That is true. The whole matter of it depends on the fact that God is faithful. \par \tab You remember, some of you, the humorous turn that Bro. W. D. Powell once gave to the doctrine of establishment. A little boy who had been listening to a talk on establishment in Christian faith was asked to explain what he understood by it. \par \tab\ldblquote Well\rdblquote he says, \ldblquote I think it is like this: My father was going to town the other day, driving in his wagon. There had been a big rain and for a good deal of the way matters were not established. The wagon would move some, some this way and some that way, but finally it got stuck so deep and tight in the mud it was fixed, and dad stood off and said, \lquote That wagon is established\rquote .\rdblquote \par \tab Now, that was his idea of it; that is, you may be established in wrong as well as established in good. And I am sure there are some people who started out on the road, the wagon rumbling lightly along, singing jolly songs, full of shouting, who long since have stuck in the mud and have become established. But that is the establishment of the devil. \par \tab If I had time, I would like to say a number of things on this, but I pass it to consider the last thought. \ldblquote The Lord is faithful; He shall establish you and keep you from evil.\rdblquote \par \tab Whether you render this, \ldblquote keep you from the evil one,\rdblquote or \ldblquote keep you from evil,\rdblquote is immaterial to our argument. There is a power of comfort in it either way. \par \tab My little girl recited to me the other night the Lord\rquote s Player -what is called the Lord\rquote s Prayer-it is our prayer; the Lord told us to pray that, and one of the things that He tells us to pray is, \ldblquote Deliver us from evil,\rdblquote or, as the Revised Version has it, \par \tab\ldblquote from the evil one.\rdblquote She asked me what it meant. I read to her its correspondent in our Lord\rquote s own prayer, recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John. He uses this expression: \ldblquote Father, I pray not that they be taken out of the world, but that they be kept from evil,\rdblquote or \ldblquote the evil one.\rdblquote He tells us to pray, \ldblquote Deliver us from evil.\rdblquote He Himself prayed, \ldblquote Father, deliver them from evil.\rdblquote Now, our text says, \ldblquote The Lord is faithful, who will keep you from evil,\rdblquote or \ldblquote the evil one.\rdblquote \par \tab Then I called her attention to the fifth chapter of John\rquote s first letter where he is discussing the outcome of faith and sin, where he says that all unrighteousness is sin-no matter who does it, if it is unrighteousness it is sin-and where he says that all sin is not unto death. \ldblquote There is a sin which is unto death; I do not say that you should pray for it,\rdblquote and then adds, \ldblquote Whoever is born of God sinneth not.\rdblquote Sinneth not how? \par \tab\ldblquote Unto death.\rdblquote Why? \ldblquote That evil one toucheth him not.\rdblquote The Lord is faithful in that He will keep you from the evil one. \par \tab\par \tab Oh! many a time since you, heart-broken with sorrow, eloquent in sighs of contrition, turned your first gaze of pleading toward salvation, many a time since then, the devil has wanted to sift you as wheat. He has been near to you. He has walked all around you and considered your case, as he considered Judas Iscariot\rquote s, and you would have been snatched from your place in the church down to the very depths of hell a thousand times if God had not been faithful. But doubtless God said to the evil one, in your case, after the manner of His reply to Satan concerning Job, \ldblquote For purposes of my own I will let you touch his property, but touch not his life.\rdblquote The devil shall never touch that eternal life which we find in Christ Jesus. God is faithful in that He will keep us from the evil one. \par \tab In the first letter to the Corinthians, in the tenth chapter, speaking of the difficulties of the Christian life, the Apostle Paul uses this language, bearing directly upon the point under discussion: \ldblquote There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able.\rdblquote It is a mistake if you think that you are to be tempted above your ability. You would be if God were not faithful, but God is faithful and He will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. \par \tab Now, there is an evil that comes, we may say almost directly, if not directly, from the devil, that is called the final calamity of the wicked. I mean when God\rquote s hedges of restraint are all cut down. I mean when God\rquote s restraining Spirit is all withdrawn. I mean when the spirit to pray for those that are in danger is taken out of the hearts of God\rquote s children, when all of the opposing forces that have stayed the coming of the awful calamity upon the lost souls are withdrawn, when all of the props that held up the trembling walls of the doomed house are knocked from under it, when all of the foundations under the fabric where the thoughtless one is sleeping are weakened by withdrawal of restraining grace, then indeed has Satan the power of death. That calamity is instant, final, overwhelming. Now from that death God is faithful to deliver His people. \par \tab Suppose we look at the case presented in the second letter of Peter and in the second chapter, which is merely a sample: \ldblquote The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.\rdblquote That is the general proposition. Then he cites as an instance of it, Sodom and Gomorrah, where He \ldblquote delivered just Lot,\rdblquote but He turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes. He also refers to the case of Noah. He delivered Noah, but overwhelmed the wicked world. So God is faithful in that He will keep you from evil. God was faithful to Noah. Though the flood came; though all the skies were black; though shrouded in impenetrable gloom the whole heaven; though the only ray of light in that darkness is the leaping of the lightning; though the earth is quaking and\rquote\par yawning to engulf the wicked world; though the foundations of the great deep are surging up to ,meet the down-pouring of the floods from above, which have been kept apart since God separated the waters in the days of ancient chaos; and though millions perish, God is faithful not to let a single one, not one, of His children perish. \par \tab He knows how to deliver Lot, though he be but one in Sodom and Gomorrah. He knows how to deliver Noah, though only eight of the world are to escape. He knows how to deliver David, the lad. He knows how to deliver Peter, down in chains and guarded by Roman soldiers. He knows how to deliver Paul and Silas when they sing and pray in the Philippian jail. He knows how to send the comfort of the Holy Ghost through the bars of the prison of. John Bunyan and flood that soul with the light of heaven, and fill that brain with the conception of the greatest book, except the Bible, that was ever printed upon the earth, and finally to throw open that prison gate and bring out that man, the tinker, and crown him, and have a statue erected to him by the descendants of his very enemies. He knows how to deliver. God is faithful. \par \tab Disbelieve what else you will, discredit any statement of man, discount any promise of father or mother, or brother or sister, but remember, as you value the things that make for your peace, that God is faithful in every one of His promises. It is our sure hope. It is granite under trembling feet. It is the green shore of the long expected land to the storm-tossed mariner. It is the harbor of safety to the sinking ship. It is the heaven, that home of light, to the prisoners of hope here on this earth, who have been groaning and travailing in spirit. \par \tab God is faithful. Tell it to the sick when fever burns them, or rigors chill them: \ldblquote Sick one, God is faithful.\rdblquote Tell it to the dying when earth\rquote s shores recede: \ldblquote Dying one, God is faithful.\rdblquote Tell it to the lost, without God and without hope in the world: \ldblquote Lost one, only believe it, God is faithful.\rdblquote Dear Lord, help this church to stand on this declaration: \ldblquote God is faithful, who shall establish you, and keep you from evil.\rdblquote Let us pray. \par \tab\par \tab\par \pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\s1\sb240\sa120\b\fs32\page 11. THE NAME, THE EYES AND THE HEART OF GOD\par \pard\nowidctlpar\b0\fs24 \tab TEXT: My name shall be there, and my eyes shall be there and my hear shall be there forever. - \cf1\ul 1Ki_9:3\cf0\ulnone ; \cf1\ul Heb_4:16\cf0\ulnone .\par \par \tab It may be, I cannot recall it, that somewhere I have read a sermon on this text, whose thoughts are blended with my own. Be that as it may, my heart today is full of this theme, \ldblquote the throne of God\rquote s grace.\rdblquote I am not referring to His throne as the King and Governor of the world, but to the throne where He hears and passes upon the petitions which His people send up to Him. \par \tab Because of their necessities, the people intensely desired that God would put His name in some place where they would come to Him and offer sacrifices and make known to Him their troubles, and where they could find an answer suitable to their necessities. Therefore Solomon built a house for that purpose, according to the direction of God, and the sacrifices all looked to the place where God was to put His name. His name was not put at the entrance of the house. His name was not placed in the outer court. His name was not placed at the altar of sacrifices; but His name was placed inside of the veil, where the golden altar was, called the Altar of the Mercy Seat God\rquote s name was there. The blood shed upon the altar of sacrifice was sprinkled there, because His name was to be there. He was to be found there, and nowhere else. \par \tab Solomon, in his inspired petition, asked that God\rquote s name might be placed at the golden altar, this Mercy Seat, and then went on to enumerate the reasons for making this request. The \i \i0 first was based upon the fact that all men are sinners. He says: \ldblquote No man liveth and sinneth not.\rdblquote The people will certainly sin and therefore will be in very great extremities, and we want a place where they may come and find mercy and forgiveness for their sins. Hence, in elaborating his petition: \ldblquote If the people go to war and are in extremity on account of the number and strength and fierceness of their enemies, and feel that they are in need of help, because not able to cope with such formidable adversaries, then, Lord, if at that time they pray toward this place where Thy name is, hear Thou in Heaven and help them. And if there should come upon the land mildew, drought, plague, famine, earthquake or any general calamity, filling the hearts of the people with trouble and distress, and they feel unable to meet the terrific danger that has come upon them, then, Lord, if they pray toward this place where Thy name is, hear them and deliver them from their trouble. And if the people commit sin, and on account of their sin are delivered into the hands of their enemies, and are led away into captivity, no difference how far, and no difference how deep is the wretchedness of their lot as captives, if far away in alien lands they turn unto this place where Thy name is, and they confess their sins, and ask God to forgive them, then, Lord, hear Thou in heaven and forgive.\rdblquote \par \tab I wish to elaborate the thought that is presented in this general way by calling attention to the three separate ideas set forth in God\rquote s answer to Solomon\rquote s petition. \par \tab He says, \ldblquote My name will be there.\rdblquote That is the first thought. \ldblquote My eyes will be there.\rdblquote \par \tab That is the second thought. \ldblquote And my heart will be there.\rdblquote That is the third thought. \par \tab The name of God in the Bible stands for His power, as when Peter says that he healed that lame man through the name of Jesus that is, through the power of Jesus. When the Lord says then, that \ldblquote I will put my name\rdblquote in a certain place, He simply means, \ldblquote At that place I will concentrate my omnipotence.\rdblquote The reason that the power should be put there was that a necessity on the part of the people would cause them to go there to obtain the strength of that power. \ldblquote My name shall be there, right there at that mercy seat shall be all the omnipotence of God, so that it does not make any difference how weak you are, how few in number you are, there is my name, and that represents all power in heaven and on earth, and I put it there for you that pray.\rdblquote \par \tab Next He says, \ldblquote My eyes will be there.\rdblquote The thought is this: \ldblquote My omniscience shall be there.\rdblquote That door will never be closed. It makes no difference what time of the year you come, nor what time of the day you come, nor what time of the night you come. \par \tab Not only will the door be there, but \ldblquote I will be there to see you.\rdblquote Just as soon as you come, God will see you. You need never expect to come and find Him absent. You need never expect to come and find the door locked so that you cannot get at me. \par \tab\ldblquote My eyes will be there. Dark as the night may be, and dire as your extremity may be, you kneel down toward this place. My eyes are there and I will see you. You will never get beyond my sight and power.\rdblquote \par \tab The third thought, \ldblquote My heart will be there,\rdblquote which shows that the omniscience and omnipotence which are to be at that place are there as instruments of His love, servants of His affection, as if He had said: \ldblquote Omnipotence is the right hand of love, and omniscience is the left hand of love, and the power that is there and that omniscience that is there, are to be exercised by infinite love in behalf of those who seek my help.\rdblquote \par \tab Now, very briefly, that, is the very cream of the thought of the text. The trouble will be to get you to realize it. You can take that thought in mentally, but to get you to realize how much it means and how intensely practical it is in its application to us at the present day, that will be the difficulty. \par \tab\par \tab The Bible gives us an account of a man who went away from the presence of God.. \par \tab He did it designedly. He fled from God\rquote s presence, and there came a storm at sea upon the vessel that harbored this fugitive, and in the midst of the storm men began to cast about for > 5U11-THE NAME, THE EYES AND THE HEART OF GOD{\rtf1\ansi\deff0\deftab1134{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\s1\sb240\sa120\lang1033\b\f0\fs32 11. THE NAME, THE EYES AND THE HEART OF GOD\par \pard\nowidctlpar\b0\fs24 \tab TEXT: My name shall be theproblem. As a mother\rquote s heart aches for a long absent and erring child, so aches my heart for the members who for months and years remain astray. Oh! Thou Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, fulfill here in Waco thine own ancient promise: \ldblquote I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick!\rdblquote \par \tab\par \tab\par \pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\s1\sb240\sa120\b\fs32\page\par }  s blood. \par \tab Oh, my brethren! Are not these incentives? Why will you not understand me? My heart is breaking for a revival of religion! And do you not see the hindrance and how it may be removed? I am not troubled about you mature Christians. \par \tab You are ready any day or night. Nor do young converts give me concern. Their salvation is fresh in their memory. But oh! The little Christians the great host of the undeveloped ones long ago converted but not grown in grace these these are my life; and he shall never perish, neither shall any wolf pluck him out of my hand.\rdblquote \cf1\ul Joh_10:28\cf0\ulnone . How can I despise this deathless one? \par \tab Oh little sheep, thou shalt live forever! God decrees it. Thou shalt stand on the right hand at the judgment when He separates the sheep from the goats (\cf1\ul Mat_25:31-33\cf0\ulnone ), for thou art a sheep. Thy smallness doth not make thee a goat. Thou shalt be whiter than snow, little sheep, washed all white in thy Redeemer\rquote and nine which went not, astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.\rdblquote Glorious, sublime, uplifting peroration! So far as you are concerned, big Christian, he was left to perish. You even tell how you heard the wolf howling where you abandoned him lost and helpless. But the great Shepherd of the flock, the good Shepherd, also heard the wolf and the bleating of the poor stray sheep. Hear Him: \ldblquote I give unto him eternal saw them more than once. \par \tab\b 2. \b0 Jesus died for him. \ldblquote And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?\rdblquote \cf1\ul 1Co_8:11\cf0\ulnone . His value must be estimated not from my opinion of him, but from the price Jesus was willing to pay for him. \par \tab\b 3. \b0 No matter how little, he shall never perish. Verses 13 and 14: \ldblquote And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more over that sheep than over the ninetyhem? Can you not see the argument? One\rquote s importance must be judged by the number and quality of his servants. Angels excel in strength. They are flaming spirits and potentialities. And yet great and glorious and holy as are the angels, they are but ministering spirits to them that are the heirs of salvation. Shall I despise one whose very servants stand before the glorious face of the Almighty? Yes, little Christians, there are angels hovering round you day and night. That little Christian, Jacob, eive little Christians, however little, and feed them baby-diet until they grow stronger, no matter how long it may be, and not despise them and not cause them to sin, but go right along and reclaim them if they do sin, and forgive them when reclaimed, and keep on reclaiming and forgiving. Here are the reasons:\par \tab\par \tab\b 1. \b0 Verse 10: \ldblquote In heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.\rdblquote But how ought this fact to keep us from despising tist. Yours, brother, is a ten thousand talent case inquiring about a hundred pence case. Hence, the parable which closes the chapter. Do read it. When you have reclaimed and forgiven the erring brother seventy times seven, that is only one hundred pence; but when Jesus sought you out and saved you, that was ten thousand talents. Ah me! In that light not even Peter could ask another question. \par \tab And now in conclusion I desire to impress on your hearts three most marvelous reasons why we should recat is no sooner found than he goes astray again? \par \tab Brother, brother, bow your head to the Master. Submit to His will. Hear His solemn reply to Peter: \ldblquote I say not unto thee, until seven times, but until seventy times seven.\rdblquote \par \tab This is a staggering doctrine. There is only one standpoint on earth from which you can fully accept it, and that is from a consideration of the number of times God has forgiven you and from the consideration of your infinite sin forgiven in Chr\par \tab Just here in our chapter Peter propounds a most thoughtful and practical question:\par \tab\ldblquote Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?\rdblquote \par \tab Ah! What a searching question! The force of it is evident. This laboring with erring brethren is no light matter. We can very well stand it once and by exceptional grace perhaps seven times. But surely there must be a limit somewhere. How can we devote our lives to hunting up a sheep ththe little Christian when he is so brought to penitence? \par \tab His heart is broken. His spirit is contrite. He confesses and deplores and renounces his sin. What then? Forgive him fully, freely and forever. Let it be as if he had not gone astray. Put no reproaches on him. Revive no bitter memories. Show him that you love him with the old-time love. I repeat the scriptures: \ldblquote Be ye kind to him, tender-hearted, forgiving him, even as God for Christ\rquote s sake hath forgiven you.\rdblquote is the scriptural doctrine of infallibility. I am frank to confess, however, that the one and the three and the whole church are most fallible when in letter or spirit they depart from Christ\rquote s law. But think of it if one be a genuine Christian if God ever did for Christ\rquote s sake forgive his sins-if on the altar of his heart there sparkled one ray of the Spirit\rquote s light, surely Christ\rquote s law, faithfully administered, will reclaim him. \par \tab\b 5. \b0 What must be done with m back, Jesus went with the one. And when the three so tenderly united for the same end, Jesus went with the three. And when the whole church earnestly sought to reclaim the erring one, Jesus went with the church. Thus three times the delinquent said, \ldblquote No,\rdblquote to Jesus Himself. And as he thrice trampled on our Lord\rquote s authority on earth, heaven ratifies the Spirit-prompted decision of the church: \ldblquote Let him be as a heathen or publican.\rdblquote \par \tab\par \tab This f this infallibility on earth, confirmed by heavenly ratification. What is the philosophy of it? Here is the answer: Jesus promised to be with His people always unto the end of the world, in their obedience to His will. The abiding Holy Spirit fulfills this promise. \par \tab Under the prompting of this Spirit if two or three agree as touching any request, the Father grants it. And when two or three so assemble there is He in their midst. So when the one saw a brother sin and lovingly sought to bring hi church does on earth in compliance with Christ\rquote s law and in the spirit of it. \par \tab I repeat with awful solemnity that a decision reached by the church in compliance with the letter and spirit of Christ\rquote s law is infallible and is ratified in heaven. \par \tab It is an amazing thing that some who ought to be better informed count a church interposition or a church censure as a matter of little moment. \par \tab But let us enter deeper into the thought by inquiring into the reason o demonstration that he was never a Christian, and so must be put with heathens and publicans. \par \tab In either alternative the decision is infallible. Do you doubt it? Listen then and tremble, ye that despise church authority. Hear our Savior add these awful words:\par \tab\ldblquote Verily, I say unto you, what things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven\rdblquote \par \tab i.e., heaven ratifies what theithdraw from the one who persists in walking disorderly. \par \tab It is amazing how little respect some have for church authority. But there are conditions under which a decision of the church is infallible. The conditions have been stated. If every step required by Matthew, 18th chapter, has been complied with in both letter and spirit, then one of two things infallibly follows: \par \pard\nowidctlpar\fi720\b (1)\b0 You gain the erring brother, or\par \pard\nowidctlpar \tab\b (2)\b0 you reach thedo?\rdblquote \par \tab\ldblquote Is this report correct, Brother A?\rdblquote \ldblquote Yes.\rdblquote \ldblquote Do you corroborate it, Brother B?\rdblquote \ldblquote I do.\rdblquote \par \tab\par \tab\b 4. \b0 Now, the church officially and as a united body intervenes. \ldblquote Erring brother, hear the church. Your course is wrong. Will you not confess and forsake this sin?\rdblquote \par \tab If he hear not the church, then let him be to thee as an heathen or publican. \par \tab We endeavors. The three failing, report the case to the next conference meeting, or if necessary, have a meeting called at once. Tell it to the church: \ldblquote Brethren, my heart is sad. I saw Brother A sin. Tenderly and privately I tried to reclaim him, but without success. I then, while the case was fresh, took with me Brethren B and C, who lovingly added their labors to mine. We all failed; we tried our best. We had his good at heart. But he is still going astray. Oh, Church of Christ, what will you to see sin on you. This was wrong. It was against Christ, who died for you, and the Holy Spirit, who sealed you unto the day of redemption. It is against your baptismal vow. Brother, be candid, does not your own heart condemn it? Will you not now and here repent and renounce this sin?\rdblquote \par \tab If you fail to gain him, then promptly take with you others, those in whom the offender is likely to have most confidence, and with them seek again to gain him. Let there be no long interval between thtle Christians remain little from the lack of proper treatment than from any other cause. \par \tab Passing down the street you see a church member enter a saloon and take a drink. \par \tab Ah! That is an awful, blood-curdling sight. Go right along and seek a private interview. Don\rquote t wait. The brother is going astray - he is drifting away on a remorseless tide. Perils are all about him and more somber woes ahead. Speak now, while you may, in hope: \ldblquote Brother, I love you. I cannot bear ty to fall into sin. These clear and unequivocal prescriptions of what you must do are prescriptions of what you must not do. You are not to get mad at him. You are not to tell his sin to others, not even to your wife, that she may tell your neighbors\rquote wives, nor complain in conference meetings against him. Alone with him you must honestly and earnestly labor to gain him. Oh, how we do trample on Christ\rquote s laws - all of us preachers, deacons and all the rest! I do venture to say that more litt be gained except on his own conviction. He is both judge and the accused. You must get a verdict from his own conscience. Therefore, go in meekness. Affected superiority will prejudice the court whose concurrent judgment you must have. Therefore go alone. \par \tab Your mission is not to humiliate him. To needlessly wound his self-love will lessen your chances before the court of his heart. Therefore, consider thyself also, lest thou be tempted, i.e., go from the standpoint of any man\rquote s liabili than not to take \ldblquote the step\rdblquote at all. \par \tab Indeed, one is not far from the unpardonable sin who cunningly contrives to shelter himself under technical compliance with the letter of Christ\rquote s law, while at heart violating its spirit. Your object must be to gain your brother. You have a difficult task. Not to tell him or accuse him of wrong; that would be easy. But to so conduct the case as to make him see and feel and renounce the wrong. Your object is to gain him. One cannoailing, why did you not make it known to the whole flock?\rdblquote \par \tab To return to the literal: You see a brother sin. If you love him you cannot bear to suffer that sin on him. You go after him, not formally, not merely that you may be able to prove that you took the \ldblquote first step\rdblquote required in Matthew 18, but because you love him. \par \tab To comply with the letter of the law in order to gain a technical advantage, while despising its spirit, is a much more heinous offenseall behind early this morning near yonder cavernous mountain. By noon he was out of sight, though later even I could faintly hear his far-off cry for help. Towards night I also heard over there the howling of a wolf.\rdblquote \par \tab\ldblquote You wicked sheep, false to the tie of brotherhood. You waited until night to report a comrade lost. Why did you not, when you say him begin to go astray, go right along and bring him back? If unable alone, why did you not summon others to help you, and these fhe flock in full view of others. He lags farther behind and wanders more and more. He is lost utterly at last and mournfully bleats in his loneliness and peril. The wolf marks his isolation and gloats over his piteous cry, crouching nearer to his victim as night approaches. Yonder, safe in the fold, the rest are being counted. One is missing. The reckoning comes. \ldblquote Where is thy brother sheep? Who saw him last and where?\rdblquote A comrade answers: \ldblquote I saw him limping and beginning to f the going astray. The reckoning comes for the witness: \ldblquote Did you see your brother sheep sin and go astray?\rdblquote \ldblquote O yes, I saw it.\rdblquote \ldblquote Why didn\rquote t you try to bring him back?\rdblquote \ldblquote It was no concern of mine. If he had butted me over I would have gone after him.\rdblquote \par \tab Continue the parable: A flock of sheep are on the range. One, from any cause, perhaps because he has hurt himself, begins to drop out of line and separate from tpoint of this question: \ldblquote You big Christian, willing to labor with a little Christian if he sins against you, but unwilling to so labor if he only sin against Christ, do you not thereby count yourself more important than Christ? And if only the offended one must seek to reclaim the offender, who will reclaim the man who sins only against himself?\rdblquote \par \tab Throw it back into a parable: A flock of sheep are on the range. One wickedly butts another over and runs away. A third witnesseshost, call for reclamatory labor. As any man will go out to seek and bring home any of his sheep, gone astray from any cause whatever, \ldblquote accordingly if thy brother sin,\rdblquote whether against thee or himself, or anyone else, \ldblquote go right along,\rdblquote whoever sees it, \ldblquote convince him of his sin, between thee and him alone; if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.\rdblquote \par \tab I dare any narrow constructionist of this passage to expose his naked heart to the nal offense is against me, I have a duty, not otherwise. The public or general offenses call for no laboring; let the deacons, our ecclesiastical grand jury, return a bill against them. \par \tab The true rendering of \cf1\ul Mat_18:15\cf0\ulnone , like a deep running plowshare, uproots - and buries out of sight this narrow, noxious construction. It immeasurably widens the horizon of Christian responsibility. All offenses, whether personal or general, public or private, except the sin against the Holy G I must go and tell him his fault. If, however, he wrongs someone else, let the wronged person see to it. If I see him commit the greatest sins, not personally injurious to me or others, let the deacons attend to those cases.\rdblquote \par \tab In other words, \ldblquote my responsibility for reclaiming the erring is limited to so much of his wrong as personally injures me.\rdblquote We Baptists distribute offenses into two classes: private and public, or personal and general. If the private or perso law for settling personal offenses. The context here and in \cf1\ul Luk_17:14\cf0\ulnone clearly establishes its application to such cases. But the immeasurable gain is that the true rendering is not limited to personal offenses. It includes that, of course, but it is far more comprehensive. The boundless evil of the old rendering consisted of this: Christians limited the obligation of reclaiming the offender to the one offended. Conscientious church members would say, \ldblquote If a brother wrongs me,m death, and shall hide a multitude of sins,\rdblquote \cf1\ul Jam_5:19-20\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab It would be difficult to describe my feelings when I first examined the original of \cf1\ul Mat_18:15\cf0\ulnone . I felt that I had lost something valuable. That my most reliable proof text on settling personal difficulties was taken away. But later, I saw clearly that nothing was lost, but something immeasurably great was gained - that God\rquote s way is always the best. Just as much as before it is the9:17\cf0\ulnone , which means that you do hate your brother if, seeing sin on him, crushing and defiling him, you do not rid him of its weight and slime by convincing him of its heinousness and leading him to penitence and pardon. \par \tab So also does it accord with that famous teaching of James:\par \tab\ldblquote Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him (that is, turn him back), let him know that he who converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul froalone.\rdblquote This makes it a substantial equivalent of \cf1\ul Gal_6:1\cf2\ulnone \cf0 : \tab\par \tab\ldblquote Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye that are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself lest thou also be tempted.\rdblquote \par \par \tab You find another equivalent in the Mosiac law: \ldblquote Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart; thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon him.\rdblquote \cf1\ul Lev_1es. Hence, this precept explains\rquote how to go after the stray sheep. What then is the rendering? \ldblquote Accordingly if thy brother sin, go right along, convince him of his sin between thee and him alone.\rdblquote \par \tab To show the connection more forcibly, let us repeat: \ldblquote If any man has one hundred sheep and one of them go astray he leaveth the ninety and nine and goeth after the stray. Accordingly, if thy brother sin, go right along convince him of his sin between him and thee , when He is come, will convict \i (elegson) \i0 the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.\rdblquote In the phrase below, \ldblquote tell it to the church,\rdblquote the \ldblquote tell\rdblquote is a good rendering of an entirely different word. \par \tab Now, to sum up these objections, remember that the Greek particle \ldblquote\i de\i0\rdblquote \i \i0 denotes that its clause is explanatory of what precedes. But \ldblquote going after the stray sheep\rdblquote precedmeans \ldblquote to make one see and feel his fault,\rdblquote \ldblquote to convict or convince of wrong.\rdblquote It is such a conviction as reaches the emotions. \par \tab Hence, in Homer it means \ldblquote to shame one,\rdblquote and in the New Testament \ldblquote to convince one of wrong and so as to shame him.\rdblquote Merely to tell one that he has been guilty does not touch the meaning. The same word is used in \cf1\ul Joh_16:8\cf2\ulnone \cf0 : \ldblquote And He (i.e., the holy spirit)\ldblquote go thy way\rdblquote in \cf1\ul Mat_5:24\cf0\ulnone , and the \ldblquote goeth\rdblquote of \cf1\ul Mat_13:44\cf0\ulnone , where the man, full of joy at finding a treasure, hastens to sell all he has, that he may buy the field. \par \tab Yet more seriously do I object to the phrase, \ldblquote tell him his fault,\rdblquote as anything like a fair rendering of the one original word. The Greek word \ldblquote\i elegson\i0\rdblquote\i is\i0 nowhere else in the New Testament so rendered. It ldblquote and\rdblquote altogether in the phrase \ldblquote go and.\rdblquote The \ldblquote and\rdblquote is not in the text and its use weakens the liveliness of the precept. \ldblquote Go\rdblquote should be \ldblquote Go right along,\rdblquote i.e., be lively and prompt about it; step off as if you were going after a doctor. Doctor Broadus, in his commentary on the passage, cites as similar in meaning the same word in \cf1\ul Mat_4:10\cf0\ulnone . \ldblquote Get thee hence, Satan;\rdblquote and ddle of the 25th chapter of Matthew. But the \ldblquote against thee\rdblquote is wanting in the other two and is also wanting in all three of them in the subsequent statement of the same precept recorded in \cf1\ul Luk_17:3\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab A scholar may well argue that it means \ldblquote against thee,\rdblquote on account of the context, but no scholar can fairly argue that it says \ldblquote against thee.\rdblquote Again, I object to the tameness of the \ldblquote go\rdblquote and to the \original is \ldblquote\i amartese, \i0\rdblquote which means \ldblquote sin.\rdblquote Then I object to the limiting clause, \ldblquote against thee,\rdblquote because it is not in the text of the most reliable manuscripts. To be explicit, the concurrence of the Vatican, Sinaitic and Alexandrian manuscripts for or against a reading is almost absolutely decisive. In this case we cannot have the testimony of the Alexandrian, because the first part of it is lost; the extant copy commences only with the miuote as the clearest rendering here of the Greek particle, \ldblquote de.\rdblquote This particle distinguishes the word or clause connected with it from the preceding statement as either adversative or explanatory. Here none will deny that it is explanatory of what precedes, hence it should be rendered \ldblquote namely\rdblquote or \ldblquote accordingly.\rdblquote I object to the mild word \ldblquote trespass\rdblquote as a rendering of the old-fashioned, ugly word, \ldblquote sin.\rdblquote The eceding parable. It tells just how we are to go after stray sheep. It expounds the parable. Do give it your most thoughtful attention: \ldblquote Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone; if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.\rdblquote (Common version.)\par \tab Now, I do most seriously and in several important particulars object to this misleading rendering of the original Greek text. I object to \ldblquote moreover\rdblq let him come in.\rdblquote He is estranged now and will not enter in. It may be witty but it is not loving for you to mock at his danger by saying: \ldblquote Any fool sheep that will not come home when called ought to be caught and eaten by wolves.\rdblquote Our Savior does not say so. He says, \par \tab\ldblquote You go after him.\rdblquote \par \tab And now we come to one of the most important and least understood and least obeyed precepts in all the Word of God. It is the application of the prhowever, it refers expressly to unconverted people. Here our Savior applies it to erring Christians little Christians gone astray. What is its solemn lesson to us? It imperatively binds us to go out after the strays. It will not do to say:\par \tab\ldblquote He was worth nothing when we had him and is not worth bringing back.\rdblquote Nor is it enough to ring your church bell he will not come if he hears-it. Nor is it enough to throw open the gates of the fold and say, \ldblquote Here is protection;his point our chapter employs a beautiful and touching parable: \ldblquote How think ye? If any man have a hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine and go into the mountains, and seek that which goeth astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth over it more than over the ninety and nine which have not gone astray.\rdblquote \par \tab You remember this same parable is just as appropriately used in the 15th chapter of Luke, where, t whoso shall cause one of these little ones to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck and that he should be sunk in the depths of the sea. Woe unto the world because of occasions of stumbling, for it must needs be that the occasion come; but woe to that man through whom the occasion cometh!\rdblquote \par \tab\b Third\b0 What is our next duty toward them? If the little Christian does go astray, the big Christian must find him and bring him back. On t older church member give card-parties, why may he not gamble? If the one attend the theater, why not the otter the variety theater? If the one patronizes a saloon, why not the other keep a saloon? If the one may hate his brother and refuse to be reconciled to him, why not the other kill a man? \i Facilis\i0 \i descensus averno! \i0\par \tab\par \tab Cain was the author of the proverb: \ldblquote Am I my brother\rquote s keeper?\rdblquote Hear these burning and terrible words of Jesus: \ldblquote Bu or teacher should, because of cheap rates, go off on a Sunday excursion, what prevents one more backslidden than himself from drawing the conclusion that the fourth commandment is altogether a Jewish superstition irreconcilable with the \ldblquote Christian liberty\rdblquote of the nineteenth century? If his Sunday school teacher can devote one holy day to a pleasure excursion because the fare of travel is so cheap, why may not he, being hard pressed for money, devote all of them to business? Or, if theght living, but arguing badly, as sin ever makes us do, they deduce most illogical and horrible conclusions from the facts gathered, and then following their logic plunge into excesses and run lengths in the downward direction wholly unwarranted by the premises which started them. \par \tab It is idle to say that no sane man ought to have stumbled over so small a thing as an inconsistency in older members of the church. The fact is, they do so stumble. For example: Suppose a Sunday school superintendentr is always greatest when they feel that better developed Christians hold them in contempt. It makes them reckless. Not finding in themselves the grace of others and writhing under the sense of scorn and scolding, they will likely conclude that they are not Christians at all and so be tempted to abandon their very profession of faith. \par \tab Then watching every careless or injudicious or even sinful habit of older church members, they not only make this a justification of their own departures from riucated. And just so, let me assure you, many a little Christian remains little because apprehensive of the scorn of the better developed. \par \tab On this very point Paul is urgent in exhortation that those who have superior knowledge or gifts must take heed lest their very superiority become a stumbling block over which that weak brother may fall. And this leads us naturally to the next thought. \par \tab\b Second\b0 We should be careful not to cause little Christians to fall into sin. Their dange not like this school. They have put me in the primary department.\rdblquote \ldblquote Well, ought you not to be just there, since you are not prepared for higher grades? \ldblquote Yes, I know I am not further advanced than that.\rdblquote \ldblquote Why then object to your proper classification?\rdblquote \ldblquote Oh! It\rquote s not that, it is because they despise me.\rdblquote \par \tab Thus many a young man from sensitiveness to the contempt of those more advanced than himself, remains unedrs old, coming to a city school. Perhaps his opportunities in the past have been few and third rate, and now his greatest dread is that he may be despised on account of his backwardness-his body is so big and his mental culture so slight. Unless the teacher be careful he will despise this boy, and unless the more advanced students be considerate, they will often wound his feelings. \par \tab Then, keenly sensitive to contempt, whether manifested by teacher or pupil, this big boy may say: \ldblquote I dolp lift it. You even sleep in line of battle, with armor on, ready to fight when the alarm is sounded. Your leader always knows where to find you and confidently relies upon your watchfulness and fidelity. Indeed, he is proud of you, and glories to head such a column of veterans in any kind of a charge. But are not veterans of the line somewhat prone to despise the irregulars? \par \tab Indulge me in a homely illustration. You know the peculiar difficulty in the way of an awkward country boy, twenty yea to feel good before he does anything is yet a Christian. And being a Christian, the question recurs: What are you going to do with him? \par \tab Take heed, you brethren and sisters who live by principle, that he be not driven away by your very superiority. You are here at prayer meeting. I meet you nearly every Wednesday night. You are here in Sunday school. You attend the business meetings and are informed as to all our plans and methods. You are always ready when a burden oppresses the church to henvidious comparisons with a view to self-complacency. On the other hand all backwardness is acutely sensitive to these very comparisons and resentful of overshadowing. \par \tab The little Christian, who after lapse of time and perhaps of opportunity and instruction, remains undeveloped, who has never cultivated habits of Christian thinking and doing, who is untrained, never having disciplined himself to walk according to a rule of life, who is yet a bondsman to impulse, whim and caprice, waiting alwaysarset0 Times New Roman;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\s1\sb240\sa120\lang1033\b\f0\fs32 10. GOD IS FAITHFUL\par \pard\nowidctlpar\b0\fs24 \tab TEXT: But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and keep you from evil. - \cf1\ul 2Th_3:3\cf0\ulnone . \par \par \tab A proposition introduced by the conjunction \ldblquote but\rdblquote implies opposition to or contrast with preceding matters: \ldblquote But the Lord is faithful.\rdblquote Hence I read the context to show you that a great many people in this world have not faith, that they have not faith because they receive not the love of the truth, and as they will not receive the truth they become the subjects of delusions, the easy prey to the crafty. \par \tab If a man does not love the truth, let him beware of the snare of the fowler. He can walk in no safe place. He can promise himself no immunity from danger. He can build on no stable foundation. However promising the outset, he cannot expect in the outcome to win, to be saved, to be happy. He will not only, as a natural consequence that is, following inexorable law reap that which he has sown, but above natural law is the decree of God\rquote s just judgment, that a man who turns away his ear from the hearing of the truth, and pulls away his shoulder from the restraining hand of admonition, the man who lends easy credence to whisperings of evil, comes under the judicial condemnation of God,\rquote and that condemnation is that he shall believe a lie. \par \tab Now, over against that insecurity, that bad outcome, is the text, \ldblquote But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and keep you from evil,\rdblquote or to give it a better rendering perhaps, \ldblquote keep you from the evil one.\rdblquote \par \tab There are three thoughts in the text which I wish to elaborate somewhat in discussion. The first is the faithfulness of God in general: \ldblquote But God is faithful.\rdblquote The second is the faithfulness of God in this particular, to-wit: Establishing His people, and the third is the faithfulness of God in another particular, to-wit: Keeping His people from evil. \par \tab The first thought, then, is \ldblquote The Lord is faithful.\rdblquote Four or five times in the book of Revelation we have this appellation applied to our Lord, \ldblquote The faithful and true witness.\rdblquote The fidelity of God! It is the ground of all of our hope. I hope to be able to make that plain to you. I want you to get close up to the thought, not only to be able to see it and feel it, but embrace it, and receive it into your inmost souls. The faithfulness of God! \par \tab Let us consider first this expression, \ldblquote This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.\rdblquote That presents the faithfulness of God in His tender of salvation to the lost, and in the adequateness of the provisions of that salvation. Some people allow their views concerning election and predestination, with kindred doctrines, to limit their conception of the fidelity of God, in their tender of salvation to all men. But God is faithful in the saying that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. There is no mental reservation in that statement. It is as broad as the term, \ldblquote sinners.\rdblquote Hence when He sends His preachers out He says, \ldblquote Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.\rdblquote He says, \ldblquote Go make disciples of all nations.\rdblquote He says, \ldblquote I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.\rdblquote \ldblquote As I live, saith the Lord, I prefer that they would turn and live.\rdblquote \par \tab Now, we must believe that God is faithful in that statement, for in going out to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, if I distrust the fidelity of His offer of love and life to all men, if I circumscribe the scope of His offered mercy, if I narrow down to some cast-iron conception of my own the universality of His tender of salvation to fallen men, then I cannot preach right. And the church that, in its feelings, in its thoughts, in its plans and work, practically excludes from the domain of possible salvation any race of men, black or white, intellectual, stupid, civilized or barbaric, or any church that circumscribes the influence of salvation within certain social limits, dishonors God and doubts His faithfulness in the saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. This is not only a faithful saying, but is worthy of all acceptation. I stand upon the fidelity of God in that statement. \par \tab Let us notice further His general faithfulness. After you become a child of God and I quote a Scripture \ldblquote If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.\rdblquote I plead for the acceptance of God\rquote s faithfulness in that statement. There is infidelity in the heart of the backslider who stands aloof and distrusts God\rquote s promise to forgive him if he will confess his sins. If we confess our sins God is faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. \par \tab A man may be a liar indeed, all men are liars but God is faithful, and when God says that if we confess our sins He will forgive our sins and cleanse us from unrighteousness, let no breath of distrust darken the clear crystal of promise through which shines the fidelity of God. He says that He will forgive you and that He will cleanse you and heal you of that backsliding if you will come to Him and confess it, and though mountains may crumble to a level with the plain, and great glaciers, that have been congealing since creation, may dissolve into the main, yet the Word of God abideth forever. Heaven and earth may fail, but not one jot or one tittle of God\rquote s Word shall fail. When He tells you that if you will confess your sins He will forgive your sins and cleanse you from that unrighteousness, O, remember that God is faithful. \par \tab\par \tab Let us take up another instance. In the Letter to the Hebrews, the tenth chapter and the twenty-third verse, we have this language: \ldblquote Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful that promised.\rdblquote The general faithfulness of God then with reference to His promises is expressed in the Scripture: \ldblquote All the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus.\rdblquote \par \tab You see a Christian disposed to waver, to drop out of line, to lay aside his armor, to cease from doing good, to absent himself from the assembly of God\rquote s people, to become discouraged and demoralized, ready to halt, ready to faint, ready to turn loose, to him like the clarion notes of a trumpet comes the exhortation of this context:\par \tab\ldblquote Hold fast the profession of your faith.\rdblquote Why? Because God is faithful to His promise. In view of which declaration there is no reason in the world for you to turn loose. If, indeed, God has forgotten, if God is asleep, if the Lord said some precious things years ago that have escaped His recollection, if God in any sense is unfaithful, then you do well to turn loose, but I do maintain that as long as God, who promised, is faithful, there is no warrant for any Christian\rquote s turning loose his profession of faith. \par \tab Notice again, in the second letter to Timothy, second chapter and thirteenth verse, we have this language: \ldblquote If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful: He cannot deny Himself.\rdblquote You may deny yourself, but God cannot deny Himself. That is the reason that the gifts and callings of God are without repentance, that is, without a change of mind. He says, \ldblquote I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.\rdblquote You would have been consumed long ago if He had been as changeable as you are. You may not believe, but He abideth faithful, because He cannot deny Himself. \ldblquote With Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.\rdblquote \ldblquote Jesus Christ, yesterday, today and forever the same.\rdblquote He cannot deny\rquote Himself. \par \tab The fidelity of God, His faithfulness, is predicated upon His immutability. God can not lie. God can not change. God is not a man that He should repent, and His word is not dependent upon the ever shifting and fainting fears and hopes, and confidences and despairs of men. \par \tab Again, in consummating His work He is faithful. Consummate means to make a finish, that is to say, He knew all about the case before He started that good work. \par \tab Known unto God was the end as well as the beginning. He commenced that good work in you and He will finish it until the day of Jesus Christ. \par \tab I want to read you two passages of Scripture bearing upon God\rquote s faithfulness in consummating the work that He commences. In the first letter to the Corinthians, first chapter, eighth and ninth verses, we have this statement:\par \tab\par \tab\ldblquote God shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom ye were called into fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.\rdblquote \par \tab Yes, God, who calls you is faithful, and \ldblquote whom He called, them He justified, them He glorified.\rdblquote The Lord will finish His work, and His faithfulness is pledged to the absolute blamelessness of every job that He undertakes. \par \tab It makes no difference from what pit you were digged. It makes no difference if a Syrian was your father. It makes no difference from what dregs of social outlawry you were rescued by His call to salvation. It makes no difference how feeble is your perception of truth, how slow you are to advance, nor how many thousand enemies obstruct you, nor how many hateful passions struggle in you to defeat the purposes of God, He will finish that work, and when He gets through with you there won\rquote t be a spot in you. You will be as white as snow. You will be blameless and faultless before the throne of God. What He commenced in regeneration He will carry on through both departments of sanctification, to-wit: The purification of the spirit and the glorification of the body. \par \tab Now, this other scripture, in the first letter to the Thessalonians, fifth chapter and twenty-third and twenty-fourth verses: \ldblquote And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it.\rdblquote Now that is a very precious scripture. The first part of our text then speaks of the faithfulness of God in general. And that faithfulness is the reason that the outcome of the Christian life is not so disastrous as the outcome of the infidel life. It explains the stability of the foundation resting on this Rock everlasting, and that Rock is Christ. And in Christ are the promises. And the guaranty of the promises is the faithfulness of God. \par \tab More briefly let us consider the two particulars of God\rquote s faithfulness cited in this text, quoting the text again: \ldblquote But God is faithful, who shall establish you and keep you from evil.\rdblquote \ldblquote Who shall establish you.\rdblquote A number of scriptures refer to the establishing of God\rquote s people. Establishment assumes that when we enter the Christian life we are only babes in Christ, and need to have our faith increased, our Christian character built up. We need to attain to assurance of faith and hope. We need to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We need to so grow that we shall attain to the stature of a man or woman in Christ Jesus. In other words, there is a Bible doctrine of confirmation not what people teach, that confirmation is a rite, a ceremony, that at a certain time you come up for Episcopal hands to be laid upon you and thereby be confirmed. There is nothing in that figment, but it is a doctrine of God that His people shall be confirmed, that they shall be established, strengthened, rooted, grounded. That is true. The whole matter of it depends on the fact that God is faithful. \par \tab You remember, some of you, the humorous turn that Bro. W. D. Powell once gave to the doctrine of establishment. A little boy who had been listening to a talk on establishment in Christian faith was asked to explain what he understood by it. \par \tab\ldblquote Well\rdblquote he says, \ldblquote I think it is like this: My father was going to town the other day, driving in his wagon. There had been a big rain and for a good deal of the way matters were not established. The wagon would move some, some this way and some that way, but finally it got stuck so deep and tight in the mud it was fixed, and dad stood off and said, \lquote That wagon is established\rquote .\rdblquote \par \tab Now, that was his idea of it; that is, you may be established in wrong as well as established in good. And I am sure there are some people who started out on the road, the wagon rumbling lightly along, singing jolly songs, full of shouting, who long since have stuck in the mud and have become established. But that is the establishment of the devil. \par \tab If I had time, I would like to say a number of things on this, but I pass it to consider the last thought. \ldblquote The Lord is faithful; He shall establish you and keep you from evil.\rdblquote \par \tab Whether you render this, \ldblquote keep you from the evil one,\rdblquote or \ldblquote keep you from evil,\rdblquote is immaterial to our argument. There is a power of comfort in it either way. \par \tab My little girl recited to me the other night the Lord\rquote s Player -what is called the Lord\rquot e s Prayer-it is our prayer; the Lord told us to pray that, and one of the things that He tells us to pray is, \ldblquote Deliver us from evil,\rdblquote or, as the Revised Version has it, \par \tab\ldblquote from the evil one.\rdblquote She asked me what it meant. I read to her its correspondent in our Lord\rquote s own prayer, recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John. He uses this expression: \ldblquote Father, I pray not that they be taken out of the world, but that they be kept from evil,\rdblq uote or \ldblquote the evil one.\rdblquote He tells us to pray, \ldblquote Deliver us from evil.\rdblquote He Himself prayed, \ldblquote Father, deliver them from evil.\rdblquote Now, our text says, \ldblquote The Lord is faithful, who will keep you from evil,\rdblquote or \ldblquote the evil one.\rdblquote \par \tab Then I called her attention to the fifth chapter of John\rquote s first letter where he is discussing the outcome of faith and sin, where he says that all unrighteousness is sin-no ma tter who does it, if it is unrighteousness it is sin-and where he says that all sin is not unto death. \ldblquote There is a sin which is unto death; I do not say that you should pray for it,\rdblquote and then adds, \ldblquote Whoever is born of God sinneth not.\rdblquote Sinneth not how? \par \tab\ldblquote Unto death.\rdblquote Why? \ldblquote That evil one toucheth him not.\rdblquote The Lord is faithful in that He will keep you from the evil one. \par \tab\par \tab Oh! many a time since you , heart-broken with sorrow, eloquent in sighs of contrition, turned your first gaze of pleading toward salvation, many a time since then, the devil has wanted to sift you as wheat. He has been near to you. He has walked all around you and considered your case, as he considered Judas Iscariot\rquote s, and you would have been snatched from your place in the church down to the very depths of hell a thousand times if God had not been faithful. But doubtless God said to the evil one, in your case, after the m anner of His reply to Satan concerning Job, \ldblquote For purposes of my own I will let you touch his property, but touch not his life.\rdblquote The devil shall never touch that eternal life which we find in Christ Jesus. God is faithful in that He will keep us from the evil one. \par \tab In the first letter to the Corinthians, in the tenth chapter, speaking of the difficulties of the Christian life, the Apostle Paul uses this language, bearing directly upon the point under discussion: \ldblquote There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able.\rdblquote It is a mistake if you think that you are to be tempted above your ability. You would be if God were not faithful, but God is faithful and He will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. \par \tab Now, there is an evil that comes, we may say almost directly, if not directly, from the devil, that is called the final calamity of the wicked. I mean when God\rquote s hedges of restraint are all cut down. I mean when God\rquote s restraining Spirit is all withdrawn. I mean when the spirit to pray for those that are in danger is taken out of the hearts of God\rquote s children, when all of the opposing forces that have stayed the coming of the awful calamity upon the lost souls are withdrawn, when all of the props that held up the trembling walls of the doomed house are knocked from under it, when all of the foundations under the fabric where the thoughtless one is sleeping are weakened by withdrawal of restraining grace, then indeed has Satan the power of death. That calamity is instant, final, overwhelming. Now from that death God is faithful to deliver His people. \par \tab Suppose we look at the case presented in the second letter of Peter and in the second chapter, which is merely a sample: \ldblquote The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.\rdblquote That is the general proposition. Then he cites as an instance of it, Sodom and Gomorrah, where He \ldblquote delivered just Lot,\rdblquote but He turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes. He also refers to the case of Noah. He delivered Noah, but overwhelmed the wicked world. So God is faithful in that He will keep you from evil. God was faithful to Noah. Though the flood came; though all the skies were black; though shrouded in impenetrable gloom the whole heaven; though the only ray of light in that darkness is the leaping of the lightning; though the earth is quaking and\rquote\par yawning to engulf the wicked world; though the foundations of the great deep are surging up to ,meet the down-pouring of the floods from above, which have been kept apart since God separated the waters in the days of ancient chaos; and though millions perish, God is faithful not to let a single one, not one, of His children perish. \par \tab He knows how to deliver Lot, though he be but one in Sodom and Gomorrah. He knows how to deliver Noah, though only eight of the world are to escape. He knows how to deliver David, the lad. He knows how to deliver Peter, down in chains and guarded by Roman soldiers. He knows how to deliver Paul and Silas when they sing and pray in the Philippian jail. He knows how to send the comfort of the Holy Ghost through the bars of the prison of. John Bunyan and flood that soul with the light of heaven, and fill that brain with the conception of the greatest book, except the Bible, that was ever printed upon the earth, and finally to throw open that prison gate and bring out that man, the tinker, and crown him, and have a statue erected to him by the descendants of his very enemies. He knows how to deliver. God is faithful. \par \tab Disbelieve what else you will, discredit any statement of man, discount any promise of father or mother, or brother or sister, but remember, as you value the things that make for your peace, that God is faithful in every one of His promises. It is our sure hope. It is granite under trembling feet. It is the green shore of the long expected land to the storm-tossed mariner. It is the harbor of safety to the sinking ship. It is the heaven, that home of light, to the prisoners of hope here on this earth, who have been groaning and travailing in spirit. \par \tab God is faithful. Tell it to the sick when fever burns them, or rigors chill them: \ldblquote Sick one, God is faithful.\rdblquote Tell it to the dying when earth\rquote s shores recede: \ldblquote Dying one, God is faithful.\rdblquote Tell it to the lost, without God and without hope in the world: \ldblquote Lost one, only believe it, God is faithful.\rdblquote Dear Lord, help this church to stand on this declaration: \ldblquote God is faithful, who shall establish you, and keep you from evil.\rdblquote Let us pray. \par \tab\par \tab\par \pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\s1\sb240\sa120\b\fs32\page\par } [ }09-A Discussion of the Lord's Supper{\rtf1\ansi\deff0\deftab1134{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\s1\sb240\sa120\lang1033\b\f0\fs32 9. A DISCUۂu U%10-God Is Faithful{\rtf1\ansi\deff0\deftab1134{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fprq2\fch > 5U11-THE NAME, THE EYES AND THE HEP 1}12-Good, Acceptable & Perfect Will of God{\rtf1\ansi\deff0\deftab1134{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\s1\sb240\sa120\lang1033\b\f0\fs32 12. THE GOOD, ACCEPTABLE AND PERFECT WILL OF GOD\par \pard\nowidctlpar P 1}12-Good, AccepKYM13-The House of God{\rtf1\ansi\deff0\deftab1134{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\e_]q14-Little Christians{\rtf1\ansi\deff0\deftab1134{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Npen this scripture in response to the question: \par \par HOW SHALL I TREAT A LITTLE CHRISTIAN? \par \tab\b First\b0 Negatively, in the words of Jesus: \ldblquote Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones,\rdblquote or as Paul puts it, \ldblquote Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not.\rdblquote It is the tendency of knowledge to puff up. When it inflates one with conceit it is hateful. Spiritual pride is intensely offensive to both God and man. It is prone to institute iautions in behalf of older people equally ignorant and helpless. Just so in spiritual matters. Just so in regard to \ldblquote little Christians.\rdblquote \par \tab A proper treatment of them calls for great grace, patience, love and caution. And as the majority of Christians are \ldblquote little Christians,\rdblquote how important that we should carefully study and apply the 18th chapter of Matthew, which is a divine discourse on how to treat them. Do then give me your heartfelt attention while I omind. So all Christians delight to instruct a new convert, patiently and lovingly administering the \ldblquote sincere milk of the word that he may grow thereby.\rdblquote But how few enjoy giving spoon diet to one who has been a church member twenty years. \par \tab\par \tab Few of us object to placing a chair across an open window or barricading the head of the stairs or the door of the cellar to keep an adventurous baby from getting a fall, but many of us ungraciously and reluctantly use such precshall look toward this building as the wanderer, after a long absence, looks toward home when the familiar fields and houses, and the curling smoke of the chimneys, and the watch-dog baying, and the light in the window, are near to him. \par \tab\par \tab Lord God, turn the hearts of the children that are yet unborn to this house, that here they may come to find the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. \par \tab\par \tab\par \pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\s1\sb240\sa120\b\fs32\page\par } n of God, dear people, come down upon your pastor\rquote s head, as the oil that was poured on the head of Aaron until it ran down to the skirts of his garment. \par \tab O Father God, let Thy Spirit clothe George W. Truett with salvation as with a garment, and make his heart hot within him as he speaks Thy truth. And may the deacons,, monuments of grace, under that spirit that is in them, be as pillars about him. And Lord God, grant that the boys and girls that now are and the children that are unborn g and it is as sweet as life. \par \tab It is light that dispels the darkness of despair and the gloom of the grave and the black horror of hell. It is light that kindles in the heart an inextinguishable flame that cannot be fanned out by adverse winds, nor quenched by down pouring torrents of rain, but that shall burn, rising higher and higher, until it touches the person and presence of God in heaven. \par \tab O, East Waco Church, how proud I am today that you stand where you do. May the benedictio until thousands of souls have been converted in it. May its walls enwrap an atmosphere so vibrating with the presence of the Eternal Spirit of God, that just as soon as a man comes in at yonder door he will say, \ldblquote God is in this house, of a truth God is in this house.\rdblquote Oh, there is something in here, when those people come together, when they pray, when they sing, when the Word of God is preached, there is something in here that we have not out in the world, and that something is savinace for the assembling of God\rquote s people, where your children can be taught in His Word, and where His Word can be preached regularly without regard to weather. It is of vast practical utility, is this house, and let it be used for that purpose. By way of directing it to this end, I do not expect to see anything today like sprinkling of holy water, but I do expect you will offer it to the dear Lord. Offer it to Him in prayer and ask Him to take it and make it the gate of heaven. I trust it will stand one of the universe, and there, brethren, He ever liveth to make intercession for us. He is alive. \par \tab Jesus is risen. Now you can prove it today by evidence more vivid than that supplied by the carnal sense of those who witnessed it nearly 2000 years ago. There is a more impressive demonstration of the Spirit. \par \tab And now, if the congregation is the building, the true building, then what purpose does this house serve? It does this: It gives you a convenient, a commodious, a comfortable pl!t of death, from the conflict with the devil, binding him, chaining him to His chariot wheels, rising above all Jerusalem to the top of Olivet, rising above Olivet higher than Hebron or Lebanon, above Alps or Pyrenees, higher than the clouds or the stars, taken up, up, up, He goes up shouting, \ldblquote Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and let the King of Glory come in. Who is the King of Glory? I, the Lord, mighty to save.\rdblquote And so He mounted to the thr"blquote \par \tab Yes, He was believed on then, is believed on now. You believed on Him, brother, and you, sister, and you know it. Your soul is a witness that you did believe on Him. \par \tab Now let them argue as they please, and say what they please, there stand the facts in your consciousness that you did from your heart believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and that God did for His sake forgive your sins. \par \tab\b Sixth\b0 , Received up into Glory. Resurrection and Ascension! Risen from the pi#his world had never had before. \par \tab\b Fifth\b0 , Believed on in the world. Men priding themselves upon their shallow philosophical analysis may say, \ldblquote Why, you cannot believe in the incarnation of God. \par \tab You cannot believe in the resurrection, you cannot believe in the power of the Holy Ghost,\rdblquote and they will prove it to their satisfaction; but over against their sophistries stands the indubitable fact that men did believe on Him. \ldblquote Believed on in the world.\rd$pirit and seen of angels, was preached among the nations. If it had been said, \ldblquote preached to the Jews,\rdblquote that would have been a different thing, but for one coming as He came, to be preached to Gentiles; to the world, the whole wide world, the vast, lost world, the fallen and sinful world, the world of liars and thieves and murderers and backbiters, and for Him to say, \ldblquote Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature,\rdblquote why that was a thought such as t%\par \tab\ldblquote He is dead and there is no resurrection,\rdblquote and when the Pharisees said, \ldblquote He is dead,\rdblquote and set a watch at His tomb, the angels saw Him, and though marred with gaping, bloody wounds they recognized Him the Son of God, and they came down and rolled that stone away and the Divine Being stepped forth. \par \tab\b Fourth\b0 , Preached to the Nations. This incarnated Jesus Christ, dying upon the cross as the Savior and substitute of sinners, justified in the S&he angels saw. Him, and as soon as the devil left, they came and ministered unto Him. When Gethsamane left Him lonely and no man watched, the angels watched while Jesus prayed, and when He said, \ldblquote O my Father, my Father, let this cup pass from me if it be possible,\rdblquote and it could not pass and men be saved, an angel came and held His head while He drank the bitter cup to its dregs. And when He slept in death and Pilate said, \ldblquote He is a dead man,\rdblquote and the Sadducees said, ' We see the Master. We recognize His divinity.\rdblquote And instantly spreading their wings, they came down in flight like lightning, and with rustling sweeter than song, hovered over the heads of the upgazing shepherds, and said to them, \ldblquote Unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.\rdblquote We know it. We see Him. Yes, they saw Him when, in the temptation, the devil crawled around Him his tortuous, slimy length, and when the wild beasts came around Him, t( that when incarnate, the veil of the flesh was transparent to an angelic sight. Man might be slow to recognize the \ldblquote Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,\rdblquote in the babe of Mary, but the angels knew Him. They saw Him, a babe in a manger, a cow trough, born that night, in a scene of poverty, and men saw nothing in that baby, but angels from above looking down upon the earth saw the baby and grouped together and leaned over and said, \ldblquote)ed,\rdblquote and again: \ldblquote Anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power,\rdblquote and yet again: \ldblquote The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.\rdblquote \par \tab\b Third\b0 , \ldblquote Seen of the Angels,\rdblquote which means* it in the world.\rdblquote No man can rightly be called a disciple of our Lord who denies it. It is fundamental and vital. \par \tab\b Second\b0 , He was justified in the Spirit, which means that the Holy Spirit bore witness to His divinity and mission when incarnate. For example, just after His baptism and while He prayed, the Spirit in the visible and bodily form of a dove descended upon Him, accrediting His mission and qualifying Him for it, as it is written: \ldblquote Him hath God the Father seal+e, work, doctrines, vicarious death, burial and resurrection as set forth by the Gospel historians, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Paul. It is a crucial doctrine, for says the Apostle John, \ldblquote Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God; and this is that spirit of anti-Christ, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is, \tab\ldblquote And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.\rdblquote - 1 Timothy \tab 3:16. \par \tab This summary embodies six constituent parts:\par \tab\b First\b0 , God was manifest in the flesh. This is the doctrine of the incarnation of Deity in the person of Jesus of Nazareth and embraces all the facts of His miraculous birth, lif-peaceful village. I say, all this was preached as a sermon,, not only without a word of the Gospel peace in it, but actually substituting for \ldblquote Christ Jesus and Him crucified\rdblquote the theme of \ldblquote John Brown and him hanged,\rdblquote on which the secular paper comments: \ldblquote That was a sermon indeed.\rdblquote \par \tab We come now to the last thought of the text: What is that truth of revelation of which the church is the pillar and ground? Our context gives it thus:\par .to Washington City and, climbing into a belfry there, virtually worshiped the bell that tolled when John Brown was executed for insurrection and murder, and what feelings of reverence he had for him whose hand was red with blood unlawfully shed from Osawotamie to Harper\rquote s Ferry, who, in time of peace, led an armed invasion, looking to bloody, servile insurrection against an unoffending sister state, and who, by violence, seized upon United States property and crimsoned with murder the streets of a /tab Could you rely on the secular press? As a rule they decry that truth now and count that church or preacher the best who leaves it out and substitutes the chaff of so-called philosophy and humanitarianism instead. \par \tab Let a preacher betray his solemn trust and use the pulpit for publishing infidelity and he becomes their hero. Take an example: Not long since there appeared in the Washington Post, afterwards copied into a Waco paper, a so-called New York preacher\rquote s account of how he went 0ped rather than the Creator. And even then that is better than a mythical, impossible thing, unknown to history, a Deist world, for\par \tab \b\i\ldblquote To own a god who does not speak to men, \b0\i0\par \tab \b\i Is first to own and then disown again; \b0\i0\par \tab \b\i Of all idolatry sure the total sum\b0\i0\par \tab \b\i Is counting it a god that is both deaf and dumb.\rdblquote \b0\i0\par \tab I say, destroy the church and what or who becomes the pillar of revealed truth? \par \1 on whose sufferings only pitiless stars looked down in unsympathizing silence a world claiming indeed a God of nature, but a dumb and deaf God who heard no prayers and spoke no words-no voice of love. \par \tab Ah me! What then would be in the world? Without the church, a Deist world would come, you say. Wouldn\rquote t? From what page of history do you learn it? Divorce man\rquote s worshiping heart from the God of revelation and \i heathen idolatry \i0 comes. \par \tab The creature then is worshi2orship and instruction, when the organic bond of the worshiping congregation was dissolved? How long would Sunday Schools, and Christian colleges, and orphanages and asylums continue when the organizations which established and nourished them are dead? How long would family religion maintain her altars in the homes after public instruction ceased? And when the Sabbathless, churchless wave of cold, hard secularism had swept over the world, leaving no light of revelation to shine on a Godless world, a world3uld publish it by a living ministry to earth\rquote s remotest bounds, generation by generation? Who would illustrate it in holy words after the teaching power forever had ceased? Who would believe it, with none to bring it to hearing? Who would vindicate it by discipline when organization ceased? Who would pictorially represent it when ordinances and other monumental evidences had been pulled down with the organizations which administered them? How long would survive even one vestige of the holy day of w4l cannot prevail, rests the truth. As a marble column upholds the superincumbent structure, so the church is the pillar of the truth. To blot out the church organizations, if one could do it, would be a blighting thing, for truth would fall. Conceive of the blotting out of all solar and stellar lights. How cold and dark and dead the world! Oceans are adamant, rivers but stiffened, winding blocks of lice. But blot out the churches and who or what would hold up revealed truth, the truth of salvation? Who wo5eat. \par \tab But to what end does God inhabit His church? \ldblquote The pillar and ground of the truth.\rdblquote \par \tab Truth itself conceived of as a temple, like the Athenian Parthenon. Its ground, what? \par \tab The everlasting rock of the Acropolis. Its supports, what? Those glorious pillars, matchless masterpieces of marble sculpture. \par \tab What then is the office of the church? The pillar and ground of the truth. On the church, as a rock foundation against which the gates of hel6my, but of the living God, here accessible, now to hear our prayers now to shake the ground where the pious kneel, now to quicken the dead. It flushes the heart to think of it. God is alive! Yes, ye Sunday School children, Jesus is alive - hear His voice in your spirits today: \ldblquote Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me.\rdblquote Power, present power, saving power, omnipotent power, power to cast out Satan, power to send down heaven\rquote s glory to cover the earthly mercy s7 \par \tab But, brethren, our God is alive! He inhabits His church and vitalizes it. He \ldblquote inhabitest the praises of Israel\rdblquote and His life gives power to preaching, unction to prayer and sweetness to song. \par \tab Ours is not a God of mere history, a reminiscence of yesterday, last year, ancient times, but a living, present reality, now, here. God is alive. Jesus is risen indeed. Oh! \par \tab My brethren, the joy of being the ambassador, not of a defunct dynasty, a desiccated mum8d them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is musing or he is gone aside or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked. And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lances, till the blood gushed out upon them. And it was so, when midday was past, that they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening oblation; but there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.\rdblquote - \cf1\ul 1Ki_18:27-29\cf0\ulnone .9r \tab\par \tab The temple of Diana, at this same Ephesus, held an image, not the sculptured form embodying in marble the beautiful Greek conception of the chaste Diana-but a monstrous prodigy, a hideous wooden image representing nature. But there was no life in that image. It was dumb and dead. No voice, no hearing, no feeling, no love. \par \tab How it recalled the sarcasm of old Elijah, taunting the 400 vociferous priests of Baal:\par \tab\ldblquote And it came to pass at noon that Elijah mocke: community, \i0 but \ldblquote every congregation for itself\rdblquote is a temple-building. He then cites \cf1\ul 1Co_3:16\cf0\ulnone , a part of our text, as an instance where the conception of the general \ldblquote collective body of Christians\rdblquote is, to use his own words and emphasis, \ldblquote linguistically impossible.\rdblquote So you also, the East Waco Baptist Church, (not this beautiful meeting house) are the house, the temple of the Living God, mark you -\par \tab LIVING GOD. \pa;a holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also (the congregation at Ephesus), are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.\rdblquote - \cf1\ul Eph_2:21-22\cf0\ulnone , R. V. \par \tab Meyer, the greatest exegete of the New Testament text, thus elucidates: \ldblquote\i In whom\i0 \i each congregation, in whom also yours, organically develops itself unto its holy\i0 \i destination, \i0\rdblquote \i \i0 and further shows that Paul\rquote s conception is not of the \i whole Christian\i0 \i by you East Waco people who shall be the next president of the United States, and maybe (I don\rquote t know) some of you are interested somewhat in the pending election for mayor, but these are much more important questions to you: \ldblquote What shall be the order of our worship what the doctrines preached to us and hence, who shall be our pastor?\rdblquote Solemn question! To be left at God\rquote s feet. \ldblquote O Providence, guide our choice! O Thou Holy Spirit, whose province it is to make o?assembly. For example, he distinguishes in the \i prayer \i0 service between the respective parts of men and women, the men to pray everywhere, the women to learn in silence and subjection, just as he had required particularly in the congregation at Corinth, and \ldblquote in all the churches of Jesus Christ.\rdblquote - \cf1\ul 1Co_14:26-34\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab Then comes the importance and functions of the pastoral office and the office of deacon. It is doubtless deemed a matter of some importance@Gospel order the affairs of the church established at that place by Paul, its doctrine, its order of public worship, its officers and their official duties. To this he refers in the phrase:\par \tab\ldblquote That thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God.\rdblquote \par \tab\par \tab Proprieties are quite important, but the reference is to the conduct and order of worship by the congregation, and not to the amenities and civilities of social etiquette in the place of AI tarry long, that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; He who was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, received up into glory.\rdblquote - \cf1\ul 1Ti_3:14-16\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab The preceding chapters show that Timothy was left at Ephesus to set in Bhism, causing divisions in a congregation of God\rquote s people, it is yet as much graver a crime than stealing or murder as the first table of the law excels the second table. Our first and holiest and most far-reaching relation is our relation to God. A church of Jesus Christ is the only organization on earth inhabited as a home by the Holy Spirit. \par \tab Here let us consider the latter part of our text:\par \tab\ldblquote These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly; but if Ccongregation of Christ\rquote s baptized disciples, the true \i habitat \i0 of God\rquote s eternal Spirit. With what painful tardiness does the conception enter our minds that to destroy the unity and fellowship of one of God\rquote s churches is as much more heinous a sacrilege as the antitype surpasses the type! \ldblquote Whoever destroys the temple of God, him will God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.\rdblquote \par \tab However slight some may regard the offense of scD God is holy, which temple ye are.\rdblquote (\cf1\ul 1Co_3:16-17\cf0\ulnone .) Now, if it were accounted sacrilege to defile the temple of Solomon, to make it a place of barter and exchange, to crowd its courts with doves and oxen, to erect in its holy place \ldblquote the abomination of desolation\rdblquote -if it were sacrilege to mar the sanctity of that mere type of cold rock which never had in it more than a symbol of the Divine Presence, how much more sacrilegious to mar the spiritual antitype a Encient synagogues, which, after the return from the Babylonian captivity, were erected by pious Jews in every place, not as temples, but as houses of religious instruction. \par \tab Solomon\rquote s temple has but one antitype in this world today, a congregation of Christ\rquote s baptized disciples. What \i says \i0 our text: \ldblquote Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple ofFthe beggary rags and wretchedness of Italy with the uncountable millions squandered on the cathedrals, sarcastically remarked: \ldblquote The amazing thing is that it never occurred to them to rob the churches.\rdblquote The congregation, whether meeting in groves, or tents or private houses, or structures specially erected for permanent use as a place of worship the organized congregation, that is God\rquote s building. \par \tab If our modern meeting-houses are the successors of anything, it is the aGit remain true that ye worshipers are God\rquote s building and not the structure made by human hands. Not only so, but every part of any meeting house, and all ornamentation whatever, that diverts the mind from the simplicity of New Testament worship, and detracts from the utility of any auditorium where God\rquote s word is preached, is more than a blunder; it is a crime. Let us bless God that we are emerging from the dark ages, the idolatrous cathedral ages. No wonder that Mark Twain, when contrasting H Father seek to be His worshipers. God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.\rdblquote (\cf1\ul Joh_4:21\cf2\ulnone ; \cf1\ul Joh_4:23-24\cf0\ulnone ). Moreover, it diverted attention from God\rquote s true house, which house are ye. \par \tab I would not disparage your meeting-house, brethren, nor underestimate its uses. But if its walls were Parian marble, its roof a poem of architectural beauty, its spire gilded, cloud-piercing and diamond tipped, yet would I around a structure which covers holy ground. The place became the attraction of pilgrimages and the alleged \i locale \i0 of miracles and so fostered colossal superstitions subverting our Lord\rquote s glorious doctrine: \ldblquote Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father.\rdblquote \ldblquote But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth theJip are the successors of Solomon\rquote s temple and so must have altars and priests, and so must be dedicated with imposing rites and ceremonies, and so when dedicated became holy places, a violation of whose sanctity became sacrilege. \par \tab Hence the gorgeous cathedrals of the dark ages whose ornamentation cost millions of money and whose services became idolatry. The painter\rquote s art and the sculptor\rquote s chisel were employed to minister to a man\rquote s aesthetic taste and throw a haloKhouse of brick and wood. Do allow me to impress most solemnly on your minds today that ye people making this congregation of Christ\rquote s baptized disciples are the husbandry the house of God. Nowhere in the New Testament is the meeting-house called a church. Modern usage has so applied the, name \ldblquote church,\rdblquote to the place of assembly that much hurtful confusion arises in the minds of the thoughtless. The usage doubtless grew out of the gross misconception that Christian houses of worshL I am of Peter,\rdblquote the whole of them go down in a moment before the words, \ldblquote Ye are \i God\i0\rquote \i s\i0 building.\rdblquote But the thought most pertinent to this occasion is suggested by the next question:\par \pard\nowidctlpar \tab\par \b 4. What is the field-what is the building? \par \b0\par Again emphasis is brevity. \ldblquote\i Ye \i0 are God\rquote s field Ye are God\rquote s building.\rdblquote Let the emphasis on that pronoun contradistinguish from this meeting-Mership set up by any preacher himself or by his friends, for him that emphasis is final: \ldblquote\i God\i0\rquote \i s\i0 Field-God\rquote s Building.\rdblquote Should Paul say: \ldblquote The church at Corinth is \i my \i0 building,\rdblquote or should Apollos say, \ldblquote No, it is mine,\rdblquote and Peter say: \ldblquote But it is mine,\rdblquote or these being silent, their respective friends should say: \ldblquote I am of Paul,\rdblquote \ldblquote I am of Apollos,\rdblquote \ldblquoteN. Judgment will be God\rquote s line, and righteousness His plummet when He comes to inspect our work on the wall. Let us next inquire, Where so many work:\par \par \b 3. Whose is the field whose the building? \par \b0\par \pard\nowidctlpar\fi720 Here emphasis is brevity. It saves the use of labored explanation. Mark then the emphatic word: \ldblquote Ye are \i God\i0\rquote \i s \i0 Field, \i God\i0\rquote \i s \i0 Building.\rdblquote In contradistinction to and in rebuttal of any claim of ownOr acceptably to men the pastor toiled, if he \ldblquote daubed with untempered mortar,\rdblquote or if he built of wood or stubblequicker than lightning, in that fire, will his wall tumble into ruins or his thatch roof go up in flame and smoke-counting for nothing that day. One flash of that flame supersedes all argument as to respective merit, and reveals the enduring or evanishing character of each man\rquote s work. He himself, if a converted man, will be saved, but if his works be bad-he suffers lossP. It must correspond to the foundation. True, you may, if you will, reject the costlier marble with its garniture of silver and gold, and build a cheaper wall of wood, and thatch it with straw. But one thing is certain, when Jesus comes, there will be no need for the several pastors themselves, or their partial friends in their behalf, to dispute about respective credit and reward. For, says the Apostle, \ldblquote That day itself will declare it\rdblquote declare it by fire. Then however hard or long oQwment of body or mind no physical or mental acquirement, no trick of elocution no well-rounded period of rhetoric. He came among them in fear and trembling, relying, not partially but absolutely and wholly, upon the demonstration of the Spirit, that their faith might not stand in men, but in God. \par \pard\nowidctlpar \tab No man could lay any other foundation, though he might build thereon. But he urges that in the great variety of building material, let him be careful what he puts on that foundationRfirmed, that each laborer will receive an equitable reward. But we cannot make the award. Who then and how? Look at the case before us suggesting the text. Paul started that work at Corinth. He planted that crop. He laid the foundation of that building. Others came after him to cultivate the field planted by him or to carry up the wall on the foundation he had laid. And he insists that he started the work right; holding up before those people one theme: Christ and Him crucified; relying on no natural endoSon earth, we understand the justice of Paul\rquote s conclusion: Glory not in men, but in God. The honor of the laborer is the association of his work with God\rquote s work-God\rquote s fellow-worker. But where there have been successive laborers in the same field, it becomes a question: \par \pard\nowidctlpar\fi720\par \pard\nowidctlpar\b 2. How can we apportion to each his credit and reward? \par \pard\nowidctlpar\fi720\b0\par We can\rquote t do it. We may not even try it. It is not denied, but afTs Apollos and what is Paul?\rdblquote \ldblquote Servants.\rdblquote Whose servants? God\rquote s. What is their service? To lead men to faith in Christ and build them up together in that faith. But the servant is only an instrument in the hands of God a minister through whom men believe as God gives to every man. One servant may plant:, and another may cultivate, but God makes it grow. Thus are they fellow-workers with God. Bearing in mind, therefore, the subordinate position of the greatest preacher Ue preacher\rquote s labors with another preacher\rquote s labors, for they were successive, not conjoined, but to the conjunction of their work with God\rquote s work. God works. God does die divine part-man the human part. Under the agricultural figure of a field, God created the seed, sends sunshine and fruitful seasons, making it to germinate, grow and mature. \par \tab Man plants and cultivates. \par \tab Hence Paul\rquote s question, not \ldblquote Who is Apollos,\rdblquote but \ldblquote What iVeral men are \ldblquote fellow-workers\rdblquote with each other. Their labors were successive, not contemporaneous. They are God\rquote s fellow-workers, that each one in his time was a fellow-worker with God. For example, the present pastor does not say to his predecessor: \ldblquote We are fellow-workers,\rdblquote but \ldblquote I am God\rquote s fellow-worker, as you were God\rquote s fellow-worker in your day.\rdblquote \par \tab Fellow-worker, therefore, has no reference to a conjunction of onW the grandest theme to which the Christian mind can be directed after the first sight of his Savior the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. In expounding the text, let us consider: \par \par \b 1. The term, \ldblquote Fellow-workers.\rdblquote \par \b0 \tab Usually the establishment and development of a church is the result of the labors of many preachers. It was true in the case of the church at Corinth, and is equally true with the East Waco Church. But mark you, the text does not say that these sevX, gathered in this house, whose happy conception and speedy consummation are due to his counsel and labors. \par \tab And so much did my own heart rejoice in your prosperity that when I was invited to preach this opening sermon in the new building, I fully purposed to prepare one worthy of the occasion. But an attack of erysipelas in the foot has confined me to my bed until this very morning, and so you must be content with such a sermon fresh from my heart as may be preached under the circumstances, onY pastors of this church four of whom sit behind me today in this pulpit. Particularly is this true with regard to your present pastor, Rev. G. W. Truett. \par \tab\par \tab Your committee which sought my advice concerning his suitableness for the position, will recall my heartiness in recommending him; and the earnestness with which the growing importance of East Waco was urged as a suitable field for the development of a strong church. Well, you got him; and right glad of it you ought to be this dayZe log house prayer-meeting, which three years later led to the organization of the East Waco Baptist Church. \par \tab Again, on a later visit, in July 1868, this church having been organized the May previous, I united with its first pastor, Bro. Walker, in aiding Bro. J. M. Wright in a meeting seven miles below this point, which resulted in the organization of the New Hope Church, to which I was called as pastor in October, 1869. Since that time I have been intimately associated with all the successive[o a prayer-meeting in East Waco, where, as he said, it would be necessary to establish a church some day. So, fording the river, we came to that old log house and there, without a word to me about it, he announced to the few country people present that there was with him a young Christian who would probably become a preacher, and who ought then and there to get up and tell those people what he knew of the grace of God. And thus, after such a method, I was literally thrust forth to testify for Christ in th\d John Bunyan. My difficulty on sanctification was not at all in the direction of the modern holiness idea, but to determine whether the Bible taught an imputed holiness or a personal holiness. If imputed, it was instantaneous and contemporaneous with justification. If personal, then the Baptist view was right. So, as Dr. Burleson was my old teacher, I concluded to ride the intervening 100 miles and consult him on these two points. While we were considering these matters, he invited me to drive with him t]e, conformed to the mother church at Jerusalem-the model established by our Lord?\rdblquote \par \tab With the New Testament before me as the only standard of authority, I had little trouble in deciding in favor of the Baptists except upon two points commonly called \ldblquote close communion\rdblquote and sanctification. On these two doctrines I had not reached a satisfactory conclusion. On the communion question I had but recently read the views of two authors whom I greatly admired, Robert Hall an^r from this site. The occasion was a prayermeeting conducted by Dr. R. C. Burleson, in the fall of 1865. In the summer of that year I had been converted, but had not as yet united with any church. Indeed, the church question was occasioning me no little trouble. \par \tab My conscience was much exercised on that grave question, which, when decided, so largely affects the Christian\rquote s after-life: \ldblquote What church shall I join? Which, if any extant is, in form of government, polity and doctrin_t a temple. \par \tab One object of the sermon today is to justify the simplicity of the dedication of a Baptist house of worship, if indeed services so very simple may be called a dedication at all. And now, brethren, before entering upon the exposition of the text, bear with some brief personal references, which will explain somewhat the pleasure with which I respond to your invitation to preach this opening sermon. \par \tab The first public talk I ever made as a Christian was in a log house not fa` whatever. The service will be exceedingly simple, a sermon deemed appropriate to the occasion, a brief history of the enterprise from its inception to completion, read by the clerk, a final report of the building committee, a prayer offering the completed house to the Lord and invoking His acceptance and blessing, and a song of praise to Him whose grace prompted His people to undertake the work and enable them to complete it. This is all. And when done it is only a meeting house of wood and brick, and noany system of taxation, but from the voluntary contributions of the members of this congregation and such of their friends as chose to aid them. It is doubtless a matter of curiosity with some to note the character of the services by which this meeting house will be set apart to sacred use and to discover what special sanctity will attach thereto by reason of its consecration. From the outset we will be candid with all who may cherish this natural curiosity. There will be no imposing ceremony no ritualismbo ordinary occasion. The occasion is the setting apart of this goodly structure to exclusive religious use. It is not intended as a hall of justice, like the court rooms beyond the river, nor for political uses, nor for any secular use, however good and profitable any of these may be in their place. \par \tab The building and furniture as it now stands cost about $10,000, as will appear directly from the report of the Building Committee. This large sum of money comes not from any public fund, nor from acIf any man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. The house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground, of the truth. - \cf1\ul 1Co_3:9\cf2\ulnone ; \cf1\ul 1Co_3:16-17\cf0\ulnone ; \cf1\ul 1Ti_3:15\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab Brethren of the East Waco Baptist Church, with the pastor and deacons, visiting brethren from other churches, and friends of whatsoever religious name or state: We are all here before God upon nds1 heading 1;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\s1\sb240\sa120\lang1033\b\f0\fs32 13. THE HOUSE OF GOD\par \pard\nowidctlpar\b0\fs24 \tab ( \i Dedication Sermon of East Waco Church House where \i0 \i George W. Truett was Pastor\i0 .)\par \par \tab TEXT: For we (preachers) are God\rquote s fellow-workers: ye (church members) are God\rquote s field, God\rquote s building. Know ye not that ye are a temple o f God, and that the Spirit o f God dwelleth in you? rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low; and when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail.\rdblquote \par \tab All women, and most men, occasionally enjoy feeding with a spoon, a laughing, crowing, chubby baby. But it revolts most people, male and female, to feed with a spoon one twenty years old who remains a baby in body and fdy or mind. \par \tab Indeed, it is difficult to reverence even old age when it reaches \ldblquote second childhood,\rdblquote \par \tab when, in the matchless imagery of Ecclesiastes the period arrives: \ldblquote In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few; and those that look out of the windows be darkened, and the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low; and he shall ger able to work well or walk much, or their minds continued feeble. Such spectacles excite our pity, it is true, but do they not also excite our contempt? In our conscious knowledge and strength, in our exemption from infirmity, are we not liable to despise them? Before such helplessness, do we not experience sensations quite different from those awakened by the sight of the natural helplessness of infancy? We are not tempted to despise babies. We are liable to despise older people who remain babies in bohnd his grade in weight enhances his value. But that stunted runt, what is he good for? It is little wool, little mutton and poor stock to keep. It would seem to call for the highest order of love to feed the \ldblquote little sheep.\rdblquote Anyhow in the best texts feeding the \ldblquote little sheep\rdblquote is the climax of our Savior\rquote s test of Peter\rquote s love. \par \tab Many of us have seen persons who, notwithstanding the lapse of years, remain children in body or mind. They were neviittle sheep.\rdblquote \ldblquote Simon, do YOU love me? Feed my young converts. Simon, do you LOVE me? Shepherd my mature Christians. Simon, do you love ME? Feed my dwarfs.\rdblquote \par \tab The world over, men care less for the runts than for either lambs or full grown sheep. \par \tab If any class is neglected or held in slight esteem it is the runt class. A lamb touches our heart. We also have reasonable hope that he will become a big sheep, We are proud of the big sheep. His fleece is heavy ajated to confer spiritual health and strength? When will they turn their feet to the ascending path, however narrow, that leads to usefulness, peace and God? \par \tab\par \tab In the best Greek text of John\rquote s gospel, 21st chapter, we have three classes of Christians: \i (ta arnia mou) \i0\ldblquote My lambs;\rdblquote \i (ta probata mou) \i0\ldblquote my sheep;\rdblquote \i (ta\i0 \i probatia mou) \i0\ldblquote my little sheep.\rdblquote \ldblquote Feed my lambs-shepherd my sheep feed my lkrs and post books, but have no time for church or Sunday school. \par \tab O Lord, what can we do with so many little Christians? How can we war with such an army? The drums beat the call to arms and the bugle sounds the charge, but they think it is only a brass band playing for amusement or entertainment. They ask: What harm is this? What harm is that? O Lord, when shall we hear them say: What good in this? What good in that? When will they inquire for the things which are wholesome, nutritious, calculluestion submitted to them and they are just as apt to call white black as anything else. They never look below overt acts of manifest wickedness. \par \tab They see no harm in pleasures, games, fashions and associations that are peopling hell with victims. They have no definite convictions on -the Sunday question. They go off on Sunday excursions to the shame and reproach of religion. They have time to come down town for their mail on Sunday and then go to their business offices to answer business lettemuse they are right, and for Christ\rquote s sake, whether they feel like it or not, doing them regularly, systematically, habitually, they know nothing about. They have not become veterans. They remain militia and never enter the regular army except for a bounty or when conscripted. \par \tab You can\rquote t trust their discrimination on moral questions. Never \ldblquote by reason of use have their spiritual senses been exercised to discern both good and evil.\rdblquote Complicate a little any moral qnfrom transient impulse as when first converted. \par \tab Modern little Christians are like them. If they feel like going to prayer meeting or Sunday school or church or conference meeting, they go. Otherwise they stay away. \par \tab If they feel like making a contribution they make it. Otherwise they let it alone. If they promise to contribute, they seem not to feel bound to pay it. It is all optional. If they pay, it is grace; if they withhold, it is no sin. Doing things from fixed principles, becaoen those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.\rdblquote \cf1\ul Heb_5:12-14\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab Here unquestionably were \ldblquote little Christians.\rdblquote That is, people who had been Christians long enough to be developed, but remained undeveloped. By this time they ought to be able to eat meat but must yet be fed on milk. They have had both time and opportunity to acquire Christian habits of right thinking and right doing, but they act yet as much ps do not pass as rapidly as they should from childhood in Christ to maturity, is further evident by his complaint against the Hebrews:\par \tab\ldblquote For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness; for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, evqe name of Jesus,\rdblquote but who \ldblquote followed not with\rdblquote the apostles. \par \tab Again, in his letter to the Ephesians Paul shows that our Lord gave the ministry to the church that Christians might not remain children, \ldblquote tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but attain to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.\rdblquote \par \tab But that all Christianrck of moral fiber; but though \ldblquote weak\rdblquote must be received, his path cleared of stumbling blocks and the strong must bear his infirmities, just as the \ldblquote little ones\rdblquote of Matthew 18 must be received, must not be caused to offend, must not be despised, making the cases fairly parallel in import. \par \tab Paul\rquote s \ldblquote weak brother\rdblquote then is Jesus\rquote \ldblquote little one,\rdblquote and is also John\rquote s man \ldblquote casting out demons in thse \cf0 : \ldblquote Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.\rdblquote \ldblquote We then that are strong, ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.\rdblquote \ldblquote But take heed, lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak.\rdblquote \par \tab The context of these several passages shows that the \ldblquote weak brother\rdblquote was one liable to stumble through ignorance, infirmity, latgly presented in Broadus\rquote Harmony. This man casting out demons was a believer. But he was a \ldblquote little one.\rdblquote He was ignorant of many things John knew. He was not so well developed. John did not \ldblquote receive him\rdblquote because he was little. \par \tab How well this dovetails into Paul\rquote s lesson on the believers who are \ldblquote weak in the faith.\rdblquote Do carefully study \cf1\ul Rom_14:1\cf2\ulnone ; \cf1\ul Rom_15:1\cf0\ulnone and \cf1\ul 1Co_8:9\cf2\ulnonudrink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.\rdblquote \cf1\ul Mar_9:39-41\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab\b (2)\b0 His immediate addition of the words of our text:\par \tab\ldblquote But 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.\rdblquote \cf1\ul Mat_18:6\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab The parallel accounts are strikinvte he must be permanently stopped in his work. \par \tab Now, that Jesus counts the fact cited by John\rquote s case in point directly relevant to His preceding instructions and violative of it, appears from two overwhelming proofs: \b (1)\b0 His reply to John:\par \tab\par \tab\ldblquote But Jesus said, forbid him not; for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against me is for me. For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to we he forbade this man to cast out devils, on the ground of not following with them. In other words, John counted this unnamed man a \ldblquote little one.\rdblquote And his \ldblquote littleness\rdblquote in John\rquote s mind consisted in not \tab\ldblquote following with them.\rdblquote That is, though a believer in Jesus, and though casting out demons in the name of Jesus, he was not a sufficiently developed disciple to fall into line with the trained apostles. Hence, being \ldblquote little\rdblquox applied His teaching: \ldblquote And John answered.\rdblquote \par \tab Answered what? The object lesson of the little child. \ldblquote And said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbade him, because he followed not with us.\rdblquote Now this man casting out devils in the name of Jesus was evidently no little child in a fleshly sense, and yet John\rquote s sensitive conscience is rebuked by what Jesus taught about \ldblquote receiving one such little child\rdblquote becausyHe applies His lesson to a treatment of little ones. Not children in years and stature, but \ldblquote little ones that believe.\rdblquote Not \ldblquote little\rdblquote because their own modesty and humility so classified them, but \ldblquote little\rdblquote because of their liability to stumble, their too easy susceptibility to sin from external causes and influences. \par \tab Both Mark and Luke cite a case introduced by John in immediate illustration, which shows how correctly their conscienceszistian stature. One might hastily infer from some expression employed that the \ldblquote little ones\rdblquote of our text meant children in a physical sense, or with greater plausibility, \ldblquote little ones\rdblquote in their own esteem, humble disciples. \par \tab But the whole context seems to exclude either interpretation. The disciples evidently did not understand Jesus to refer to either class. While He had distinctly rebuked the littleness of pride and commended the greatness of humility, {ng the sphere of home and its sacred domestic ties, unsex and belittle themselves by unseemly and immodest intrusions into the sphere of men. \par \tab But for \ldblquote little women\rdblquote and men like them, impostors and quacks in spiritual things would have to go out of business. Gullibility invites fraud. Passion solicits slavery. \par \tab As Bible usage thus properly applies the term \ldblquote little\rdblquote to moral stature, so with equal propriety it may be applied to spiritual or Chr|ity of character as renders truth unattainable. \par \tab\b (4)\b0 By this very littleness of mind and heart they become the easy victims of any passing imposition. Crafty and designing teachers of any imposture, creeping into houses, looking for weak and silly objects of prey, take them captive at the first venture. \par \tab\par \tab Such are \ldblquote little women.\rdblquote They are great in nothing. Sometimes they turn from the great and sweet and holy ties of motherhood and wifehood, scorni}here\rdblquote and the \ldblquote lo there,\rdblquote momentarily attracted by every novelty in philosophy or worldly pleasure, and by every sensational preacher or startling development in church services. Modern Athenians, every whit. \par \tab\b (3)\b0 They are \ldblquote ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth,\rdblquote \par \tab i.e., a restless and habitual quest for self-gratification, by the very fickleness of desire, which will result in such permanent instabil~tude of their offenses, or perhaps, rather, as Alford suggests, to the felt weight of sin on their consciences acting as an impelling force, driving them in search of ease to the other things mentioned. \par \tab\b (2)\b0 They are \ldblquote led away by divers lusts,\rdblquote i.e., not merely sensual lust, but they itch after new doctrines, new teachers, new fashions, new sensations. Governed by self-gratification rather than by fixed Christian principles, they constantly run after the \ldblquote lo  of endearment, nor refers to their humble self-estimate, but does refer to moral character, the internal nature, and in this instance is a contemptuous expression signifying weak or \ldblquote silly\rdblquote women, and is so rendered in our English versions. Paul in the context further expounds his term by showing that \ldblquote little women\rdblquote have these distinguishing characteristics:\par \tab\b (1)\b0 They are \ldblquote laden with sins,\rdblquote which may refer to the number and magniare or measure material things. \par \tab For example, in saying of one, \ldblquote He is a little man,\rdblquote we may as properly refer to the \ldblquote inner man\rdblquote as to the \ldblquote outer man.\rdblquote So Paul evidently employs the diminutive term, \ldblquote little women,\rdblquote (Greek \ldblquote gunaikaria\rdblquote ) in \cf1\ul 2Ti_3:6\cf0\ulnone , which manifestly has no reference to either age or physical stature, nor implies a recent profession of faith, nor is a diminutivef \ldblquote little Christians\rdblquote as thus defined, now let Bible proof be submitted of the propriety of using such language, and of the fact affirmed and of the correctness of the definition:\par \tab First, the propriety of using such language. All thoughtful minds recognize analogies between material things on the one hand and moral or spiritual on the other hand. \par \tab Because of these evident analogies reputable usage applies to the moral or spiritual terms that commonly describe, compwifter than the lightnings. His chariot passes our way. It represents the will, of God. \par \tab Will you get in the chariot and sit down by the divinity and let Him drive these fiery steeds, and carry you safely and gladly and happily with Him, or will you remain outside, chained to that chariot and dragged along and become finally a mangled corpse and a mangled spirit? I don\rquote t know of any other alternative. \par \tab\par \tab\par \pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\s1\sb240\sa120\b\fs32\page\par } e was any propriety in your mentioning names-you know people right here in this city that are trying to live as if there were no God; trying to live as if there were not an infinitely higher mind; trying to live as if there were not a sovereign and absolute will which is above theirs; trying to live as if there were not a standard to which they must conform. You may be like them, or the aged young people mentioned. I leave you with the option. Here comes the triumphant chariot of Jehovah. His steeds Are so butt your head against a wall if you will. Go wring your hands in hopeless repining, if you choose. Go wrinkle your face with corroding anxieties if you prefer it. \par \tab It will do you no good. \lquote Rather conform yourself to that good and perfect and acceptable will of God. That is the option you have. Now, which will you elect? It is an exceedingly practical question. It touches every affair of this life. You know certain people, you could call their names today if you felt disposed, and therg, and will cross over with a smile into the eternal spring of the other shore. Why? Because of their habit of adjusting themselves to the good and perfect and acceptable will of God. Because of the trend of their minds in acknowledging God as wiser than they are and better than they are, causing their minds to melt into the greater mind of God, like the little stream melts into the broad river into which it flows, and loses its own current in the broader current of the mightier stream. \par \tab Now, gt allowed their resistance to the dispensations of God, which are irrevocable, to so bow them down and crush out their spirits that they are prematurely aged. Hence they are young yet. They are in the springtime, though the hair is white on the brow, and I imagine that when they die they will die in the springtime-die not in cold winter (I speak figuratively), not while trees are bare, not while the whole earth is locked in the iron of ice; but they will die while birds are singing and flowers are bloominote s Convention! One of them, seventy years old, and who knew me when I was a little boy, and who used to call me \ldblquote her boy,\rdblquote and the other two were venerable, aged parents, whose son was president of the Convention, and yet I said: Are not these people young? Is not the dew of their youth on them? Is not the light of youth yet on them? And why? Because they have not wasted their energies in fighting God. They have not allowed unhallowed desires to consume them internally. They have nopar \tab\ldblquote Saul, Saul, it is hard for thee to kick against the goad.\rdblquote The supreme folly of it ought to strike any mind at a glance. It cannot possibly accomplish any good. \par \tab I want to illustrate, finally, what I mean by an observation passed upon some of the attendants at the Young People\rquote s Convention, which has just adjourned in this city. \par \tab The question curiously came up in my mind as I looked at my own part of the guests: What guests for a Young People\rquhat his hand is against every man, and every man\rquote s hand is against him, and what is the good of it, after all? What purpose does it serve? \par \tab Does it amount to anything that a man should pitch the puny straws of his opposition against the thick bosses of Jehovah\rquote s buckler? Will it accrue to his advantage in anything for him to impudently confront Omniscience and say, \ldblquote My strength is stronger than God. My ignorance is wiser than His wisdom?\rdblquote See the folly of it! \me about that he never counted on, and he is going to be a chronic grumbler. He is going to become soured on the world. He is going to carry a face that will bear, its own story of unsoothed and unprofitable sorrow and disappointment and sadness, and care will come and furrow the brow with wrinkles and whiten his hair, and take the sweetness out of his disposition, and curdle the milk of human kindness in him, and at last he will be an embodiment of complaint, a bundle of murmurings and grudges, feeling tnother year, and then I will come back with my increased gains.\rdblquote And James adds: \ldblquote Why not say, \lquote If the Lord wills\rquote ,\rdblquote for if the Lord does not will it cannot be done. His counsel stands and He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven and in the affairs of this earth. And that man who lays his plans without any regard to the sovereign and absolute and divine will of God is a man who is all the time going to meet with disappointment. Things are going to co without a rebellious thought, and I will do it with the absolute knowledge that God\rquote s withholding that desired thing from me is good and perfect and acceptable and bound to be so in the nature of the case.\rdblquote \par \tab See how James brings up the thought in questions of trade. He says a merchant deliberates and he says then to himself \ldblquote Tomorrow I will start to a certain city and there I will purchase goods and trade for a year. And then I will go to another city and trade for ais best for the good of all and for thy glory that I should have a certain object, I would like to have it. But, if its attainment will injure me, if its attainment will injure my neighbor, if its attainment will be contrary to your own purposes for the general good, then, Lord, thwart me in this. Do not let me have it, and I will bear the disappointment. \i I will \i0 be conformed to thy will. I will adjust myself to the divine requirements, and I will do it without an argument and without a murmur, andso many minds, and chaos, such as Ovid describes, when all the elements commingled, when fire and air and earth were one heterogeneous mass of matter that did not coalesce and yet would not separate-such chaos would result in the affairs of this world. \par \tab There must be one high, holy, good, perfect, infinite and loving will that is supreme, and to which every other will must be subordinate. And men ought to pray this way:\par \tab\ldblquote Lord, if it be thy will, if it is best for me, if it he same object. And you both say: \ldblquote We will pray about it.\rdblquote And A kneels down and prays that the Lord will let him have it, and B prays that the Lord will let him have it. Now, if man\rquote s will is to he the standard concerning prayer, how is that matter to be adjusted? Here is a direct conflict between the two human wills. \par \tab Each man wants, as his own peculiar possession, a certain thing. It is absolutely impossible that its ownership be peculiar to both. And as there are  and what are the affairs of all the rest of the world put together in comparison with mine? \par \tab Am I not more prominent than all other people? Are not my wishes more sacred?\rquote\rdblquote \par \tab Just think of the presumption of it. See the overweening conceit and vanity that are involved in it. \par \tab\par \tab Take another case. There are two of you. One of you fastened his heart upon the acquisition of a certain object. Another man has fastened his heart upon the acquisition of t us see what would be the result of it. Here is a ship on its way to Europe. At a certain season of the year, in accordance with the providence of God, which providence is related to the good of the whole world, the trade-winds blow that way all through that season of the year. Well, now, you are in a hurry and you are on a sailing vessel, and you say: \ldblquote I will go and ask God to change this wind. I will kneel down here and I will say, \lquote Lord, reverse this trade wind. I want to go to Europe, because it is pleasant to be rich, and I like luxury? Shall I ask for power because I enjoy being above other people? Shall I ask for the gratification of the carnal desires of my nature because they clamor for gratification? Listen! If we ask anything which is in accordance with His will, He heareth us. That is the end of it. \par \tab Well, now, would you have it otherwise? When you think soberly would you have it that God should allow your will to be the standard of answered prayers? \par \tab Letrd, is brought and placed right under this precept, that we should conform our selves to the good and perfect and acceptable will of God. \par \tab Suppose you are going to pray, and every time you are in any serious trouble you will be disposed pray; now, what are you going to ask for? That comes instantly; what are you going to ask for? What is to be the nature of the petition you send up to God\rquote s throne? Shall I ask that my hand be placed in the neck of my enemy? Shall I ask that I may be richer that has not proceeded from the same usurpation of the divine prerogative. That man is unwilling for God to be the judge, either of himself or other people, but he claims to be his own judge, not only of his own affairs, but of the affairs of his neighbors. In every one of these several instances in this twelfth chapter, some of which relate to business, some of which relate to family affairs, and some of which relate to the very thought and intent of the heart the whole, comprehended in, one single woastening up to take his place on the judgment throne in order to dispense judgment in his own behalf, but this text arrests him and says, \ldblquote Stop! You get out of the way. Give place. Here comes the wrath of God. Give way! Give place to His wrath! Don\rquote t claim your own. Let Him come up and take His position on that throne and investigate that case. Let God\rquote s will be done in this matter.\rdblquote \par \tab There never has been a murder committed but it has been a stroke given in anghe text, says: \ldblquote Brethren, avenge not yourselves.\rdblquote God\rquote s law is good. There is no evil in it. God\rquote s law is perfect. There is no fault in it any way. \ldblquote Give place to wrath,\rdblquote which is an obscure translation of the original. It means, You give way and let God\rquote s wrath sit upon the throne of judgment. Here is a picture of it: A wrong has been done you and a judgment has been set for investigation of the case. The wronged man is in the attitude of one heven look at a thing that does not coincide with his view of the case, his feelings, the outrages that he seems to be conscious of, are all that he thinks of. There is no thought of God, no thought of the other man, but it is, \ldblquote I, myself.\rdblquote I have been wronged. My sacred person has been violated. The things which are peculiar to me have been interfered with, and who is God that He should trespass on the boundaries which belong to me? And hence this chapter, in making an application of tenalty. And all vengeance that is ever exercised by human hands is just of that kind. \par \tab The one who exercises it claims to be judge and prosecutor, and witness, and then assumes the only remaining right to execute the penalty. Every prerogative of government is thus usurped, whether it be legislative, judicial or executive. The man claims it all for himself. And when you talk to him in his excitement over a wrong that he thinks has been done to him, and you see his eye is on fire, and he cannot ger, and with the rapidity which characterizes the human mind when selfishness touches the wavering balance, we call for instant judgment. We march up and take our seat in the judge\rquote s chair, and while we sit in the judge\rquote s chair we stand up also in the prosecutor\rquote s place. And occupying this double position we summon ourselves also as a witness, and upon our own ex parte testimony, as prosecuted by ourselves before the court of our own heart, we pronounce a judgment and then assess a pone.\rdblquote That restiveness under Godly restraint, that impatience to hurry on the way we wish to go, that shaking of the hour-glass to make its sands run out faster, or that endeavor to lock the wheels of time and clog them, that they may not go so fast it all grows out of the desire in the human heart to subordinate God to man. \par \tab Take the illustrations that are given in this chapter. One of them is a case of vengeance. A man has wrought an indignity upon us. He has greatly excited our an to your judgment, and not according to my judgment. \par \tab I want to ask you a question in this connection. If, in your past lives you have not found your chief trouble to be this: The difficulty in you of adjustment to what God has purposed? Whence come our murmurs? Whence come our complaints? \par \tab Whence come our rebellious feelings? What is the source of them? They all grow out of the fact that we stand there and stubbornly say: \ldblquote Let my will be done and not God\rquote s will be d scissors of fate are in your hands that shall clip the cord of life and hasten your exit from this world. It is to be a sacrifice that absolutely submits to God the full length of its continuance, whether it be years or whether it be hours. It is with the Lord. Lord, you know how frail I am. You are acquainted with my being. Your knowledge is infinite, and your nature \i is \i0 perfect in goodness, and your love is infinite. I just leave the matter with you. Portion it out to me, give it to me accordingpar \tab It is an easy thing to present a dead sacrifice. It is an easy thing for anyone, when the burdens on him get to a certain point, to say, \ldblquote Now, I am willing to quit. I accept it. I am willing to quit.\rdblquote That is, I am willing to die. That is not a living sacrifice; that is a dying one. The will of the Lord be done, even if He calls upon you to live, to endure, to hold out faithfully, to leave to Him the day of your death as well as the day of your birth, and not to say that theiles to be followed by final mercy to both, and all according to the counsel of God, who makes no apologies for Himself, not even feeling called upon to explain Himself to men, but from the height of eternity and from the immutability of His counsel, and omniscience and wisdom of His intelligence, directing all things to one glorious consummation. On this, Paul exhorts, \ldblquote Therefore, by the mercies of God, I beseech you, brethren, to present your bodies a living sacrifice to the Lord.\rdblquote \n to the Jews, and other nations looked at Him and said: \ldblquote Is God partial? Has He exalted one people and conferred upon that people privileges that He confers upon no other people?\rdblquote There came a time when this people, that had enjoyed those mercies, were outcast. The Kingdom of God was taken from them and given to another people; and now here was mercy to the Gentile, and that mercy continues to this day. Standing over against the first mercy to the Jews was the second mercy to the Gent they should triumph rather than that the purposes of God should be executed? \par \tab Now, it is this view of the subject that I wanted to present to the congregation today, because the Apostle here bases all of his exhortations to practical Godliness upon that subject: \ldblquote I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God.\rdblquote Now, what he refers to are the mercies that have been stated in the context. What are they? \par \tab There was a time when His mercies seemed to be giveto all troubles which come upon us in this life. I mean sickness in the family; the death of some member of the family; any reverse is business. It does not make any difference what it is; before the eye of the creature should ever be this supreme object: The will of the Lord be done. If I am well, His will be done. If I am sick, let His will be done. If my day must be eclipsed in the meridian, His will be done. What am I, and who is the Lord, that I should bring my wishes and my pleasures and demand thatod has permitted him to vent his spite on me in this sad condition for my good? \par \tab Let him curse on.\rdblquote He submitted himself to circumstances over which he had no control, knowing that above all human malice and all spite, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth, and that His will is supreme, and that ultimately He will bring out everything into glorious daylight, and vindicate all truth, and will punish all falsehood. David knew it and felt it. \par \tab This is certainly true with reference Lord. \par \tab You remember when David, on one occasion, was followed by a very wicked man, who took advantage of the misfortunes that had come upon him; when his heart was broken with domestic sorrow; when his heart was careworn with the disastrous affairs of his kingdom; when there was none to do him reverence; when for the time being he was a fugitive then this wicked and vindictive man followed him and cursed him and threw stones at him, and David said: \ldblquote Let him curse on. Who knows but Gaw is over it all. And, therefore, if there should come to be a wrong done by any man, God permits that wrong to be done. If there should come to be a calamity of any kind, God permits that calamity, and He permits it for purposes that He will ultimately bring out when He vindicates Himself before the eyes of the assembled universe at the Judgment of the last day. I abide that final decision. I leave my vindication to Him. I leave His vindication to Himself, and it is for me to accept what comes from the ion of His law, but He does come within it in one sense. \par \tab I will take a case to illustrate. Take Herod, take Pilate, take the Sanhedrin, that pronounced judgment upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and carried out their wishes and their malice and their scorn, and yet above all that they boasted or did was the determinate counsel of God. And in the broad sweep of God\rquote s will, as an outer circle, revolve all of the inner circles, all human law and Satanic law, the law of devils, and God\rquote s luote s will; and from the nature of the case we are to account it good and perfect and acceptable. And every creature should seek in the lights that are given concerning that will, in Providence, in prophecy, in the gospel, to know just what it is. It is useless to talk about anything being beyond the range of that will. Startling as it may sound, it is true nevertheless, that every evil thing that happens comes in some way within His will. I do not say that God is the author of sin. Sin is the transgresso His omnipotence, and how could our ignorance have assisted His wisdom? The shortest way to the solution of every earthly trouble, the one that has no windings in it, the one that admits of no appeals to future tribunals, is just this: That in everything we should seek to know and be conformed to the will of God. There must be something fixed. There must be some standard which does not waver. There must be some tribunal whose decisions are beyond controversy, and that standard and that tribunal is God\rqst for the universe; it is the best for all people, if God wills it. \par \tab Now, our prayer is that His will should be done here upon earth as it is done in heaven. Our context asks the question, \ldblquote Who hath known the mind of the Lord?\rdblquote \par \tab How are you and I going to understand His mind? With which one of us did He consult? And if He had consulted with us, how could we have aided ominiscience in devising any of His plans, and how could our feebleness have imparted strength till be done. \par \tab Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.\rdblquote In all the heavenly courts there is not an intelligence that questions for one moment the wisdom, the goodness, or the perfection of any purpose of God. That He said it, is enough. It stands as approved in the intelligence of every heavenly being that God purposes it, no matter what it is. \par \tab And they know that that is the best thing for all parties concerned. It is the best for God\rquote s glory; it is the beures, we stand upon the border of atheism-we stand on irreverent ground. \par \tab No matter what light may be thrown on the subject, considering the limitations of our being, our short-sightedness, the imperfection of our comprehension, and the small scope of the affairs of the universe that comes within the range of our observation, it is utterly impossible for us to sit in judgment upon the will of God. When the Lord Jesus Christ taught men to pray, He taught them after this fashion: \ldblquote Thy w it is, it is good, it is perfect, it must be acceptable to me. If in the accomplishment of His purposes in the universe, and with relation to all the complicated affairs of the system of worlds which He has made, it is best that I should suffer; that is good, that is perfect, that shall be acceptable to me. In other words, there is nothing better. Whenever we begin to question the actions of God as judged from the standpoint of our individual necessities, or our individual wishes, or our individual pleascreatures whom He has made, no matter what it is. So that when we reflect upon the nature of God and the manifestation which He has made of Himself, there ought to be but one supreme object before any finite being, and that is this: To do and submit to the will of God. Not, \ldblquote How can I understand it?\rdblquote Not, \par \tab\ldblquote Does it accord with my pleasure?\rdblquote Not, \ldblquote Does it glorify me, or diminish my name,\rdblquote \par \tab but, what is that will? And, wherevers actions cannot be determined by anything outside of Himself. \par \tab The will of such a being must be Himself. The will of God is God willing, and such a will, being according to the eternity and immutability of His nature, and according to His infinite goodness and love, and according to His power, must be such a will as besides which there can be no other. From the nature of God it must be good. From the nature of God it must be perfect. From the nature of God it ought to be acceptable to all the \b0\fs24 \tab \b\i TEXT: That good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. - \b0\i0 \cf1\ul\b\i Rom_12:2\cf0\ulnone . \par \b0\i0\par \tab The bible represents God to us as a being whose existence ante-dates all other existence; as one not only eternal in His being, omniscient in His wisdom, omnipotent in His power, omnipresent in His pervading being, and as infinite in holiness, but as being love in His essence, and in His nature. Such a being must have in Himself all of the causes of actions. Hi babe in Christ, whatever his age in the world. \par \tab Nor yet do I refer to one, small in his own esteem, poor in spirit, for he is only apparently little, while in fact the greatest in the kingdom. \par \tab But I do refer to a child of God who remains undeveloped in Christian graces and character though there have been both sufficient time and instruction for development since conversion. I mean one whose Christianity remains little a spiritual dwarf. \par \tab Having affirmed the existence oormal;}{\s1 heading 1;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\s1\sb240\sa120\lang1033\b\f0\fs32 14. LITTLE CHRISTIANS\par \pard\nowidctlpar\b0\fs24 \tab \b\i TEXT: Little ones that believe on me. - \b0\i0 \cf1\ul\b\i Mat_18:6\cf0\ulnone . \par \b0\i0\par \tab Perhaps no chapter of the New Testament is more familiar to Baptists than the eighteenth of Matthew. Every paragraph in it has been often cited as decisive upon matters of discipline, church government and authority, terms of membership, methods of reconciliation and the law of forgiveness. In the course of the service today it is purposed to make a running comment on the whole chapter, because it is regarded not as a group of detached and loosely connected precepts, but a logical and well-connected discourse on a single subject. Incidentally its several teachings may admit of just applications to many things wide apart, but primarily the whole chapter in all its parts refers to this one theme: How to treat little Christians. \par \tab The whole story may be gathered by comparing Matthew\rquote s report with the parallel accounts in \cf1\ul Mar_9:33-50\cf0\ulnone and \cf1\ul Luk_10:46-50\cf0\ulnone , and with a re-statement of some of its matter on a later occasion recorded in \cf1\ul Luk_17:1-4\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab The scene is Capernaum, probably in Peter\rquote s house. The time is about the close of our Lord\rquote s great ministry in Galilee. The occasion is a dispute among the disciples on the way from the regions of Caesarea Philippi. The great teacher read their hearts and finally drew from their reluctant lips a statement of the controverted matter in the form of the question: \ldblquote Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?\rdblquote \par \tab Their views of the kingdom were yet secular, and their concern for prominent places was great. He rebukes their pride and selfishness by an object lesson in the person of a little child, showing that the humblest should be the greatest. From this predicate He passes to the great theme of the chapter: How to treat little ones that believe in Him. Hence our theme today: \par \par LITTLE CHRISTIANS. \par \tab There are little Christians. I do not refer to age or physical stature. A child in years and stature may be a big Christian. A much older person, though small in stature like Zaccheus, may be a big Christian. Nor do I refer to a recent convert. In one sense he is a little Christian, because just born into the kingdom-a new born and it shall be opened unto you; seek and you shall find,\rdblquote and there lift up your hands and cry, \ldblquote Lord God, for Christ\rquote s sake help and save me,\rdblquote then the salvation that found Jonah at the depths of the ocean and at the roots of the mountain, will find you at the gate of hell, and bring you from that deep and dark descent by a sudden exaltation to the heights of the glory of heaven. \par \tab\par \tab\par \pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\s1\sb240\sa120\b\fs32\page\par } e quenchless fires of eternity, and at the last moment the eye was turned toward the place where the name and the eyes and the heart of God are, and the petition was sent up to heaven. \par \tab I do not hesitate to say to you today, with all the earnestness of my soul, that no extremity excluded one from that Mercy Seat. Even though the portals of hell are opened and you have lifted your foot to step inside, if there you will turn around and read the writing, \ldblquote Ask and it shall be given; knockied out, \ldblquote God help me; God be merciful to me, a sinner!\rdblquote \par \tab And His name was there, His power, His omnipotent power, was there, and the brand was plucked from the burning, and the fire was quenched in the blood of the Lamb, and it was exhibited in triumph before the Court of God, and the question asked: Is not this- a brand plucked from burning? See how close it was to hell. See where the flames had commenced to take hold upon it. See where it had commenced to crackle under thd, I do not care what, and any kind of extremity. I do wish you would get the thought of the throne of grace before you in its richness, in its power. O bow many men have tasted its sweetness! How many people who felt that they were standing on barely ground enough to uphold their feet, and the dirt crumbling away; how many people have felt that they were actually sinking down into darkness beneath the angry frown of God, with a weight of sin on them, and hell from beneath moving to meet them, and have crnse of guilt and condemnation, and does bring into the heart that sense of helplessness and powerlessness and want, and if you have not wanted it, and if you think you have found the strength anywhere else, it argues a delusion, a delusion of the devil. \par \tab I sometimes, for an hour at a time, sitting perfectly still, generally at night, have silently fastened my mind upon this thought: At any hour of the day or night His name is there, His eyes are there, His heart is there and for any kind of nee He says: \ldblquote My name is there. I put my power there. I put it where the blood is sprinkled. I put it where the High Priest stands. I put it where the atonement is made. I put it where the provisions of grace are garnered. I do not put it outside of Christ and His blood. It is a delusion if you think you have found it anywhere else. If you have had no sense of the need, then I do not see how you can claim to have been under the influence of the Holy Spirit of God, for that Spirit does bring that seon on you: Have you found that Mercy Seat, and are you in the habit of finding it? I put it, that way, for l ere there is no \i habit \i0 of prayer, I do not see how anyone can be a Christian. If your soul does not habitually go to that throne of grace to find mercy and grace to help in time of need, then it must rely upon one of these two \lquote assumptions:\par \tab\par \tab That you do not need any aid, or that you find what you need somewhere else. You do not find it from God anywhere else, forld put His eyes there. Why be there to look if this man is never coming? Why should God put His love there, since this man claims to get at the power and at the omniscience and at the infinite love, without going to the throne of grace? \par \tab It is one of the best tests that I know anything about of practical Christianity, Christianity every day. You may test it right here and now, you may be your own judge and your own witness, and being a witness at the court of your own heart, I press this questil.\rdblquote And I regard it as the most soul-destroying heresy that ever fell from the lips of man at the instigation of Satan, that there is a way to God, to that Mercy Seat, without asking, without knocking, without seeking, without crying out, \ldblquote God be merciful to me, a sinner.\rdblquote If such a man, what need has he for the throne of grace? According to his doctrine and according to his life, it was a work of superfluity that the Lord God should put His name there, that the Lord God shouver the road of petition, or prayer to God for mercy, as did that publican, that man convicts himself at once, in the light of the declarations of God\rquote s Word, of not being there at all not at all. \par \tab You have heard me say it before, and I repeat it with all possible emphasis, that no man on this earth has a right to ever conclude himself to be a Christian who did not seek mercy of God through prayer. \ldblquote All the nations that call not upon the name of the Lord shall be cast into helthought I present in connection with the subject is this: Pray to God first for mercy that is, for forgiveness of sins and prayer to God for grace to help in every time of need, no matter what it is, is a supreme test of Christian character. The man who has never found his way to that throne of grace as a lost sinner, asking God to have mercy upon him, cannot be called a Christian. And whoever claims that he now stands in a state of grace and salvation, and yet did not get to the place where he stands oote s love, in exercising itself through omniscience and omnipotence in helping His people, is everywhere, and we are no longer troubled with the thought of this place and that place, but wherever the soul is, wherever the need is, wherever the sense of sin is in the heart, wherever the conscience is smitten, wherever God\rquote s Spirit has sent conviction unto an transgressor\rquote s soul, there is the name of God, n there are His eyes an there is heart and there is His love. \par \tab Now, the last ave discussed it up to the present moment, and says, \ldblquote Seeing that we have a High Priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.\rdblquote \par \tab So, now, Christians who are enlightened know that God\rquote s name in its power is anywhere, everywhere; that God\rquote s omniscience in taking cognizance of human sin and human need is everywhere, and that God\rqu It was so expressed on account of our infirmities. But our Savior divests the thought of such local limitations. \par \tab He says: \ldblquote The hour cometh when not at this place (meaning in Samaria), nor in Jerusalem, shall men worship God. God is a Spirit and God must be worshiped in the spirit and in truth.\rdblquote He lifted up and lifted off and put away forever that idea of locality. \par \tab In the letter to the Hebrews, the Apostle Paul speaks of the imagery of the subject, such as I htification went forth from the court of heaven. Jesus says he went down from that house justified. \par \tab On account of human weakness and our inability to comprehend infinite things, God r resented the thought of all this as being confined to a certain spot. \ldblquote I will put my name there on Mount Zion, there in Jerusalem, and whenever you go away from that place you go away from the presence of God; but if, when away, you will just look back toward that place my name will be there.\rdblquoteserable and wretched and sinful life, and he felt that he was a sinner. He could not sleep for the awful thought that he was a sinner against God and he concluded to venture where God\rquote s name was, and very modestly, very timidly, he goes just inside. He does not go up close, but standing afar off he smites upon his heart and says: \ldblquote God be merciful to me, a sinner!\rdblquote And God\rquote s name was there, and His eyes were there, and His heart was there, and in a moment the decree of jus the triple-colored veil and came up to the Mercy Seat sprinkled with blood, and there said: Lord God, help Daniel! And God\rquote s name was there, and His eyes were there, and His heart was there, and the power was given and their: man and his people were redeemed. \par \tab In the third case selected to illustrate the text, our Savior himself gives an account of a man who was a very great sinner. He was engaged in a business that made him a social outcast, and then, personally, his life had been a miwindow was opened toward Jerusalem. And three times every day he would kneel down and present his petitions to God, telling Him all his needs and all the needs of his people. \par \tab O, how wonderful is the story! How that voice, that gentle voice, that trusting voice, spoken through the window, went out across the burning sands of the intervening deserts, went on until it came to Mount Zion, went until it came to the entrance of the Temple, went until it passed the Altar of the Sacrifice, went behindg trumpet, or roared in the thunder of cannon. \ldblquote My name shall be there and I will deliver him.\rdblquote \par \tab The second case which I select is that of Daniel. The people had sinned, one of the very contingencies about which Solomon had spoken in his prayer, and they had been carried into captivity, and there in that far-off land, this young man turned his heart toward God. Every day, three times a day, he would open his window that looked toward the place where was the name of God. His hen it is tossed by the winds, and the fishes that inhabit the great deep, and shall reach unto the roots of the mountains in the bottom of the sea, where the sea-weeds are wrapped around the head of a disobedient man. That name has power to reach there. There is no depth that power can not sound. There is no distance so great but the feeblest cry that ever fell from the lips of a sufferer can be carried just as plainly and audibly to the ears of God as if it had been spoken near at hand through a speakind: \ldblquote I am cast out of Thy sight; yet I will look again toward Thy Holy Temple.\rdblquote And God\rquote s eyes were there, God saw this man down in the depths of the sea, and in that awful supernatural extremity, God heard the prayer that was offered, and His Spirit moved the fish to come to the surface and cast up the man on the dry land. \par \tab How hard it is to measure this fact, \ldblquote My name shall be there!\rdblquote It shall be there with power to control the winds and the sea wr him, and away down in the depths of the sea a huge fish swallowed him whole, and, having swallowed him, instantly went deeper down to the very bottom of the ocean. The record says, \ldblquote He went to the roots of the mountains that are in the sea, and the sea weeds were wrapped around the man\rquote s head,\rdblquote and he was miraculously preserved alive in the body of this sea fish, and away down in the bottom of the ocean, where no man in the history of the world had gone and lived, there he saim up and state the case to him. He says, \ldblquote I am the man. I am running away from God, running away from God\rquote s presence, sinning against Him. Now, the ship will be lost unless you throw me out.\rdblquote \par \tab Well, it was a sad thing to have to do that, and they prayed over it and asked God to hold them guiltless if they made a mistake about it. But when they found that nothing else would avail, they tossed that man overboard and he went down, down, sinking until the waves rolled ovetorm at sea upon the vessel that harbored this fugitive, and in the midst of the storm men began to cast about for its occasion. It seemed such a sudden and awful storm that they attributed it to the direct intervention of Providence, and that He was sending it for some special purpose, and therefore the question was, \ldblquote Who has sinned? Who has brought this storm?\rdblquote And by casting lots they ascertained that it was Jonah. He was the one. He was asleep in the hold of the ship. They bring hipar \tab Now, very briefly, that, is the very cream of the thought of the text. The trouble will be to get you to realize it. You can take that thought in mentally, but to get you to realize how much it means and how intensely practical it is in its application to us at the present day, that will be the difficulty. \par \tab\par \tab The Bible gives us an account of a man who went away from the presence of God.. \par \tab He did it designedly. He fled from God\rquote s presence, and there came a ssight and power.\rdblquote \par \tab The third thought, \ldblquote My heart will be there,\rdblquote which shows that the omniscience and omnipotence which are to be at that place are there as instruments of His love, servants of His affection, as if He had said: \ldblquote Omnipotence is the right hand of love, and omniscience is the left hand of love, and the power that is there and that omniscience that is there, are to be exercised by infinite love in behalf of those who seek my help.\rdblquote \ of the night you come. \par \tab Not only will the door be there, but \ldblquote I will be there to see you.\rdblquote Just as soon as you come, God will see you. You need never expect to come and find Him absent. You need never expect to come and find the door locked so that you cannot get at me. \par \tab\ldblquote My eyes will be there. Dark as the night may be, and dire as your extremity may be, you kneel down toward this place. My eyes are there and I will see you. You will never get beyond my the omnipotence of God, so that it does not make any difference how weak you are, how few in number you are, there is my name, and that represents all power in heaven and on earth, and I put it there for you that pray.\rdblquote \par \tab Next He says, \ldblquote My eyes will be there.\rdblquote The thought is this: \ldblquote My omniscience shall be there.\rdblquote That door will never be closed. It makes no difference what time of the year you come, nor what time of the day you come, nor what timehat he healed that lame man through the name of Jesus that is, through the power of Jesus. When the Lord says then, that \ldblquote I will put my name\rdblquote in a certain place, He simply means, \ldblquote At that place I will concentrate my omnipotence.\rdblquote The reason that the power should be put there was that a necessity on the part of the people would cause them to go there to obtain the strength of that power. \ldblquote My name shall be there, right there at that mercy seat shall be all elaborate the thought that is presented in this general way by calling attention to the three separate ideas set forth in God\rquote s answer to Solomon\rquote s petition. \par \tab He says, \ldblquote My name will be there.\rdblquote That is the first thought. \ldblquote My eyes will be there.\rdblquote \par \tab That is the second thought. \ldblquote And my heart will be there.\rdblquote That is the third thought. \par \tab The name of God in the Bible stands for His power, as when Peter says te where Thy name is, hear them and deliver them from their trouble. And if the people commit sin, and on account of their sin are delivered into the hands of their enemies, and are led away into captivity, no difference how far, and no difference how deep is the wretchedness of their lot as captives, if far away in alien lands they turn unto this place where Thy name is, and they confess their sins, and ask God to forgive them, then, Lord, hear Thou in heaven and forgive.\rdblquote \par \tab I wish to f their enemies, and feel that they are in need of help, because not able to cope with such formidable adversaries, then, Lord, if at that time they pray toward this place where Thy name is, hear Thou in Heaven and help them. And if there should come upon the land mildew, drought, plague, famine, earthquake or any general calamity, filling the hearts of the people with trouble and distress, and they feel unable to meet the terrific danger that has come upon them, then, Lord, if they pray toward this placand then went on to enumerate the reasons for making this request. The \i \i0 first was based upon the fact that all men are sinners. He says: \ldblquote No man liveth and sinneth not.\rdblquote The people will certainly sin and therefore will be in very great extremities, and we want a place where they may come and find mercy and forgiveness for their sins. Hence, in elaborating his petition: \ldblquote If the people go to war and are in extremity on account of the number and strength and fierceness ouse. His name was not placed in the outer court. His name was not placed at the altar of sacrifices; but His name was placed inside of the veil, where the golden altar was, called the Altar of the Mercy Seat God\rquote s name was there. The blood shed upon the altar of sacrifice was sprinkled there, because His name was to be there. He was to be found there, and nowhere else. \par \tab Solomon, in his inspired petition, asked that God\rquote s name might be placed at the golden altar, this Mercy Seat, ons which His people send up to Him. \par \tab Because of their necessities, the people intensely desired that God would put His name in some place where they would come to Him and offer sacrifices and make known to Him their troubles, and where they could find an answer suitable to their necessities. Therefore Solomon built a house for that purpose, according to the direction of God, and the sacrifices all looked to the place where God was to put His name. His name was not put at the entrance of the hore, and my eyes shall be there and my hear shall be there forever. - \cf1\ul 1Ki_9:3\cf0\ulnone ; \cf1\ul Heb_4:16\cf0\ulnone .\par \par \tab It may be, I cannot recall it, that somewhere I have read a sermon on this text, whose thoughts are blended with my own. Be that as it may, my heart today is full of this theme, \ldblquote the throne of God\rquote s grace.\rdblquote I am not referring to His throne as the King and Governor of the world, but to the throne where He hears and passes upon the petiti )Y 13-The House of GodX1 12-Good, Acceptable & Perfect Will of G_]q14-Little Christians{\rtf1\ansi\deff0\deftab1134{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\greenX%15-Our Church Covenant and Obligations{\rtf1\ansi\deff0\deftab1134{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green128\blue0;\red0\green0\blue0;} {\stylesheet{ Normal;}{\s1 heading 1;}} {\*\generator Riched20 5.40.11.2210;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\keepn 16-FootnotesSSION OF THE LORD\rquote S SUPPER\par \pard\nowidctlpar\b0\fs24 \tab (This sermon is respectfully and kindly dedicated to all fair-minded, truth-loving PedoBaptists. Most earnestly does the author disclaim any intention or desire to wound their feelings, but makes his appeal to their reason and love of justice. \i B.H. Carroll,\i0 Pastor First Baptist Church, Waco, Texas.)\par \par \tab TEXT: Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you, brethren, that ye*** keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you*** For I have received o f the Lord, that which I also delivered unto you, etc. - \cf1\ul 1Co_11:1-2\cf2\ulnone ; \cf1\ul 1Co_11:23\cf0\ulnone . \par \par \tab For preaching this sermon, my own mind is satisfied with the following reasons: \par \pard\nowidctlpar\fi720\b\tab 1. \b0 It is ever the duty of the pastor to instruct his congregation in doctrine. Especially is this so with regard to positive institutions. Everything relating to a positive institution should be clearly set forth and understood. What is it, and how is it to be administered? \par \pard\nowidctlpar \tab\b 2. \b0 The scriptural observance of the Lord\rquote s Supper is inseparably connected with efficient church discipline. \par \tab\b 3. \b0 Several true, earnest Christians, who are anxious to do right, and therefore seek to know the truth, have requested me to preach on this subject. They are Baptists upon all other points. Upon this, their minds have been perplexed and annoyed by suggestions from without and doubt from within. This sermon is for them. \par \tab\b 4. \b0 I am desirous of relieving my beloved church from unjust censure-from the unwarrantable charges of bigotry and illiberality. \par \tab\b 5. \b0 Restricted communion is necessary not only to the wellbeing but to the perpetuity of Baptist churches. \par \tab\b 6. \b0 Its importance to the prosperity and perpetuity of Baptist churches, makes it the chief point of attack by our enemies. They evidently regard it as our Gibraltar. \par \tab Beyond all question it is the citadel of our beloved Zion-that key position, which when once lost, ultimately necessitates the lowering of our flag all along the line of our fortifications. When then the enemy makes any one of our distinctive features the chief point of attack, let that assailed principle be our chief point of defense. In defense let me not be content with exculpating our close communion from the charge of bigotry, but make a sally beyond our fortifications and establish in the sight of God\rquote s truth THE SIN OF OPEN COMMUNION. \par \tab\par \tab\b 7. \b0 As the last reason necessary now to assign, it is claimed that this attack is masked. \par \tab It is not an outright, downright assault. It appears to be masked because -\par \tab\b (a) \i \b0\i0 Communion with the Baptists is evidently not the thing desired. A careful survey of the situation would not lead us to conclude that their solicitude for inter-communion is the occasion of all the mighty outbreaks of indignation against \ldblquote close communion.\rdblquote \par \tab\b (b) \b0 I regard the attack as masked because they make no war on the principles which underlie the communion question. All denominations, with remarkable unanimity, agree to the principles which control the communion. \par \tab If they admit that the tree is good, let there be no quarrel with the fruit. \par \tab\b (c)\b0 The attack seems masked because it is generally made in private circles, where it cannot be met. The mischief is accomplished before it is discovered. \par \tab\ldblquote I like Baptists very much. I have charity for all denominations, but Oh! \i that\i0 \i close communion! \i0\rdblquote \par \tab\b (d)\b0 Yet again it seems masked, because sophistries are used instead of arguments. That is, they use a word that has a different meaning in the conclusion from what it has in the premise. It is adroitly managed by a misuse of terms to array against our communion of bread and wine the scriptural communion of heaven and the Christian communion of earth. \par \tab\b (e)\b0 It is masked because the true Baptist position is misstated. What Baptist minister accustomed to conduct his protracted meetings has not met with these difficulties? How often he leaves a young convert, happy in the hope of glory and about ready to obey the Savior, to find on his next visit that something has intervened. The convert hesitates, speaks evasively and ambiguously. What is the difficulty? It seems to have no head, no shape, no tangible form. Perhaps at last it will be developed that somebody has made an impression on the young convert\rquote s mind that Baptists \ldblquote will get people to work for them and they won\rquote t feed them;\rdblquote that \ldblquote they believe baptism essential to salvation;\rdblquote that \ldblquote they unchristianize other denominations;\rdblquote that\par \tab\ldblquote they refuse to receive people that the Lord Jesus Christ receives;\rdblquote that \ldblquote in heaven they are going to have a separate table from the rest of the redeemed;\rdblquote that \ldblquote they separate the husband and the wife from the same communion table, though the Lord has said, \lquote What God has joined together, let not man put asunder.\rdblquote\rquote In a word, that \ldblquote they are exclusive, illiberal and bigoted.\rdblquote \par \tab\par \tab These are some of the reasons that have induced me to discuss this subject today. \par \tab The discussion is entered in kindness, bluntness and with such ability as I possess. \par \tab Preparatory to the discussion, let terms be defined. \par \tab What is communion? Joint participation of the Lord\rquote s Supper. \par \tab What is Free or Open Communion? That in which everybody, \i without any\i0 \i restrictions whatever, is \i0 invited and allowed to partake. \par \tab Without the fear of successful contradiction, I affirm that there is \i none such in the\i0 \i world. \i0 Upon a real \i bona fide\i0 open communion table the sun of God or the light of stars or lamp or torch never shone. \par \tab What is Close, or Restricted Communion? \par \tab When a church administering the ordinance limits the invitation to participate. ALL IN THE WORLD ARE SUCH. \par \tab Some have fewer limitations than others but all have limitations. Some open the door wider than others, but all open it. \par \tab With regard to restrictions, they are either HUMAN OR DIVINE. The divine are to be observed, the human rejected. It is the acknowledged prerogative of the Son of God \ldblquote to open so that no man can shut, and to shut so that no man can open.\rdblquote In all the universe lives there no intelligence high enough in authority to lift from the communion table of Jehovah a single restriction imposed by Almighty God. \par \tab From what ought communion to be free? Dare the arch angel affirm that it is free from a Divine limitation? Who of the created beings presumes to impose a limit more than Jehovah has imposed? It is a remarkable fact, attested by the Word of God, that the prevalence of a human restriction or tradition \i makes void\i0 the Divine. \par \tab God has said, \ldblquote Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother.\rdblquote The Pharisee by his limitation of that commandment made void the law of God by his tradition. (See \cf1\ul Mar_7:11\cf0\ulnone .) Let this fact and illustration be retained in mind for application after a while. \par \tab In this connection it is proper to call attention to the obstinacy of error-to mark its power of retention and tenacity of life. It may be embedded in truth, like a worm in the heart of an apple. It may be as tares in a wheat field, planted when the ground was made mellow for the reception of the good seed. As the tares have grown up side by side with the wheat, so has error matured side by side with truth. To pull it up seems to uproot truth. It may be a false thread interwoven in the warp and woof of a fabric of cloth. To destroy it you must rend the garment. It may have been made sacred by hallowed associations. To assail it seems to lift a hand of sacrilege against holy things. \par \tab Like the devil, it comes as an angel of light. It may be so connected with marriage that to smite it seems to strike that holy institution of God. It may be so associated with maternity that he who assails it is regarded as the murderer of a mother\rquote s joys, as one who mocks her sorrows. It may be so associated with old age-with burials-with the holidays of a people, that to strike it seems like scorning the hoary head-like overturning the tombstones of the dead-like calling of a weary people from their festivities. \par \tab When a man has thus imbibed error, to abandon it seems to repudiate his childhood, to abjure parental influence, to pull off the wedding ring, to tear down the Christmas garlands and to strip life of its sweetest memories. Every passion, every prejudice of his nature is aroused. His ear cannot hear the truth, his eye cannot see its beauty, his heart cannot receive it. A direct attack upon the error is as mad as the charge of the\par \tab\ldblquote Light Brigade.\rdblquote He who assaults it is regarded as a personal enemy. No power of argument, no array of facts, no accumulation of testimony, though \ldblquote Pellon be on Ossa piled,\rdblquote can move him. \par \tab The only remedy is to let the error alone. Fight it not. But teach truth. Truth received into the heart expels the error. \i The expulsive power of truth received is the only\i0 \i hope. \i0 They must be led to consider religion as relating to God, that repentance is towards God, faith is in God, that Jesus and His authority are higher than father, mother, brother, sister, husband or wife. \par \tab One of the most seductive and at the same time fatal forms of error is a FALSE LIBERALITY, a spurious charity, a fictitious sentimentality. Instead of \ldblquote rejoicing in the truth,\rdblquote it rejoices in uniting with everybody, in admitting all claims, in fellowshipping all claimants. He who opposes this broad platform of never-ending compromise is ostracized as a bigot. \par \tab With this statement of these preliminaries the question is now asked, WHAT IS THE BAPTIST POSITION? \par \tab \i\ldblquote It is an indispensable qualification for this ordinance, that the\i0 \i candidate for communion be a member o f the church o f Christ in full\i0 \i standing; that he shall be a person o f piety; that he should have made\i0 \i a public profession o f religion; and that he should have been\i0 \i baptized.\rdblquote \i0\par \tab\par \tab I suppose there is not a close communion Baptist on earth who would refuse to receive this as expressive of his position. To a man they would endorse it, item by item, and as a whole. And yet this is the language of Timothy Dwight, D.D., President of Yale College, and Professor of Divinity in that institution the Agamemnon of Pedo-Baptists. What then, according to this great Presbyterian, are the qualifications for communion? \par \tab\b 1. \b0 Church membership. \par \tab\b 2. \b0 Good standing in the church, that is, he must not be under discipline. \par \tab\tab The idea - is that communion and church discipline are co-extensive. \par \tab\tab And what are his qualifications for church membership? \par \tab\tab\tab\b 1. \b0 Practical piety. \par \tab\tab\tab\b 2. \b0 Profession of religion. \par \tab\tab\tab\b 3. \b0 Baptism. \par \tab Where is there a Baptist who wants communion any closer than that? That such a platform is derived from the Word of God, let us see what are the doctrines of the text. \par \tab\b 1. \b0 Jesus delivered His ordinance to Paul. (\cf1\ul 1Co_11:23\cf0\ulnone .) God alone is lawgiver. He ordains-churches keep ordinances. \par \tab\b 2. \b0 Just what Paul received he delivered to the church. See \cf1\ul 1Co_1:1\cf0\ulnone and the text. \par \tab\b 3. \b0 Just what they received they were to keep, maintain, perpetuate. \par \tab\b 4. \b0 They were to keep the ordinances as he \i delivered \i0 them, in the place, in the manner and for the object instituted. \par \tab\b 5. \b0 Paul himself, though he had been caught up to the third heaven, was to be followed only, as he followed Christ. Mark the power of this last doctrine. Paul elsewhere said, \ldblquote Though an angel from-heaven teach any other gospel, let him be accursed.\rdblquote \cf1\ul Gal_1:8\cf0\ulnone . \ldblquote Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you,\rdblquote were among the last words of Jesus. \cf1\ul Mat_28:20\cf0\ulnone . \ldblquote Let God be true but every man be a liar.\rdblquote \cf1\ul Rom_3:4\cf0\ulnone . \ldblquote All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth and the flower thereof fadeth away; \i but the word o f\i0 \i the Lord endureth forever. \i0\rdblquote \cf1\ul 1Pe_1:24\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab\par \tab If there be any force in this doctrine, corroborated by these Scriptures, why is it that some hesitate to obey truth because so many wise, good men preach and practice error? \par \tab\b 6. \b0 The sixth doctrine of the text is that the church received praise, in faithfully observing God\rquote s commandments. \cf1\ul 1Co_11:1-2\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab\b 7. \b0 That the church was condemned in making any departure from the divine requirement. \cf1\ul 1Co_11:22\cf0\ulnone . As an illustration of the last two doctrines, take the decree referred to in \cf1\ul Act_15:28\cf0\ulnone . This decree was referred to the churches to be kept. \cf1\ul Act_16:4\cf0\ulnone . For failing to keep it the Savior threatened to remove the candlestick of one of the seven churches of Asia. \cf1\ul Rev_2:14\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab With these seven doctrines of the text confronting us, let us ask the following questions:\par \par \tab Was the church of Corinth free to substitute the paschal lamb for the appointed bread and wine? Were they free to add bitter herbs to the elements of communion? \par \tab Were they free to withhold the cup from the laity, when the Savior had said, \ldblquote\i All \i0 ye drink of it?\rdblquote Were they free to set the table \i out of the kingdom, \i0 when the Savior had said, \ldblquote I appoint unto a kingdom to eat and to drink at my table \i in my\i0 \i kingdom? \i0\rdblquote \cf1\ul Luk_22:30\cf0\ulnone . Were they free to commune to \i satisfy hunger and\i0 \i thirst, \i0 when Paul said, \ldblquote What! have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God?\rdblquote \cf1\ul 1Co_17:22\cf0\ulnone . Was \ldblquote the believing wife\rdblquote (\cf1\ul 1Co_7:13\cf0\ulnone ) allowed to commune with her unbelieving husband, when the Word declares, \ldblquote Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils; ye cannot be partakers of the Lord\rquote s table and the table of devils?\rdblquote Were they free to commune as individuals or in groups, when Paul said, \ldblquote My brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another?\rdblquote \cf1\ul 1Co_11:33\cf0\ulnone . Were they free to extend the communion to a man not in good standing, when God\rquote s Word emphatically commands, \ldblquote But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, \i with such a one no not to eat? \i0\rdblquote \par \tab Has any church on earth the right to tempt a man \ldblquote to eat and drink damnation to himself?\rdblquote And yet the Word of God declared that every communicant does this who \ldblquote does not discern the Lord\rquote s body.\rdblquote \cf1\ul 1Co_11:29\cf0\ulnone . And as spiritual things have to be \ldblquote spiritually discerned,\rdblquote (\cf1\ul 1Co_2:14\cf0\ulnone ), which is by faith, were they free to invite a man to commune who had no saving faith in Christ? \par \tab\par \tab A heretic after the first and second admonition was to be rejected (\cf1\ul Tit_3:10\cf0\ulnone ), and they were commanded to withdraw from the disorderly, \cf1\ul 2Th_3:6\cf0\ulnone . A man thus rejected, from whom the fellowship of the church was withdrawn, was to be to them as \ldblquote a heathen man and a publican,\rdblquote \cf1\ul Mat_18:17\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab Now, were they to have a communion so \i open \i0 that this excluded heretic could come up to the communion table of that church from which he had been expelled? Any right thinking mind, attentively considering the bearing of these questions, must conclude that Almighty God is the author of close communion. \par \tab Having read the Baptist position in the language of President Dwight, I now submit it in the language of a Baptist, with some of the terms defined:\par \tab\ldblquote We believe the Scriptures teach that CHRISTIAN BAPTISM is the immersion in water, of a believer, by a qualified administrator, to show forth in a solemn and beautiful emblem our faith in the crucified, buried and risen Savior, with its effect in our death to sin, burial from the world and resurrection to newness of life; that this baptism is a prerequisite to the privileges of a church relation, among which is the Lord\rquote s Supper, in which the members of the church, by the sacred use of bread and wine are to commemorate together the dying love of Christ; always preceded by solemn, self-examination.\rdblquote \par \tab With this position before us, let us test some of the objections urged against our practice. \par \par \tab\b Query 1st. \b0 Is the Baptist practice censurable because it is the \ldblquote Lord\rquote s table\rdblquote ? Surely they cannot be censured because they fail to teach that it is the Lord\rquote s table. With great emphasis they quote Jesus as saying, \ldblquote My table,\rdblquote \cf1\ul Luk_22:30\cf0\ulnone . And Paul, in calling it \ldblquote the Lord\rquote s table,\rdblquote and \ldblquote the cup of the Lord,\rdblquote \cf1\ul 1Co_10:21\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab John, the first Baptist, never denied more emphatically that he was the Christ than Baptists since then have disclaimed all ownership in the Lord\rquote s table. With remarkable unanimity they say, \ldblquote To our own private table we cordially invite PedoBaptists, but God alone can invite to His table.\rdblquote \par \tab It is equally evident that they cannot be justly censured in declaring \i what is meant\i0 by its being the Lord\rquote s table. They say it is His table because -\par \pard\nowidctlpar\fi720 \tab\b 1. \b0 He instituted it, \cf1\ul 1Co_11:23-25\cf0\ulnone ; \cf1\ul Mat_26:26:2\cf0\ulnone . He prescribed the elements, bread and wine. \tab\par \pard\nowidctlpar \tab\b 3. \b0 He located it \ldblquote In His kingdom,\rdblquote in His church, (\cf1\ul Luk_22:29\cf0\ulnone ), and compare1 Corinthians 1:1 with \cf1\ul 1Co_11:22-23\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab\b 4. \b0 He distinctly stated its object: \ldblquote This do in remembrance of me-as oft as ye do this ye do show my death until I come.\rdblquote \par \tab\b 5. \b0 He defined qualifications for the communicant, that he must be a disciple, a penitent believer, a baptized man. Not only baptized, but a member of the church and in good standing. Less than this no church of Jesus can require. This, according to Dr. Dwight, is God\rquote s law of communion. \par \tab\b 6. \b0 It is the Lord\rquote s table, because He fixes even the manner of observing it. \par \tab Communicants must eat and drink in a worthy manner. That decorum and solemnity becoming the church of God in remembering earth\rquote s greatest tragedy must be observed. It was no heathen festival-no drunken orgy of Bacchus. \par \tab\b 7. \b0 As, the Lord\rquote s table, and not a table of the church, Jehovah left no arbitrary discretion to the church, as to the bidding of guests, but fixed, by express and irrevocable statutes, the character of the communicant. As the church was to withhold the bread and wine from the heretic, the heathen, the adulterer, the covetous man and all that walked disorderly, the Lord of the Table, by this prohibition, made the CHURCH and not the INDIVIDUAL the judge of heresy, adultery, covetousness and order. \par \tab\b 8. \b0 It is the Lord\rquote s table, because He alone must prescribe in what the \i communicant\i0 \i must judge. \i0 The judge cannot read the heart. In communion the Lord\rquote s body and blood must be discerned spiritually discerned. Our faith must see Him and rest in Him. Without this faith we eat and drink condemnation to ourselves, though we be members of the church. Nor is the church to blame if we have made credible profession of religion and in all outward deportment carried ourselves circumspectly and prudently. A tree may be covered with green foliage and yet be rotten to the core on the inside. Their heart may be as empty of life as a blasted nut. This is a matter between the communicant and the heart-searching God. Hence, to every church member the law is, \ldblquote Let a man \i examine himself, \i0 and so let him eat.\rdblquote \par \tab These then are some of the considerations that induce Baptists to believe, teach and call it the Lord\rquote s table. They mean by it that Jesus instituted it, located it, prescribed the elements, object of it, qualifications of communicants, manner of observing it, in what the churches were to judge and in what the individual communicant. Can any reasonable censure be attached to their construction of the phrase, \ldblquote the Lord\rquote s table\rdblquote ? \par \tab\par \tab But perhaps they censure us because of the conclusions we deduce from this construction. With Christian candor and fairness, let us examine their deduction, and see if bigotry does not lurk in it. \par \tab The Baptist Conclusion. As it is not our table, but the Lord\rquote s, it is unhallowed presumption and rebellion for a church to violate any of these requirements of the Master. We dare not add one. Noah, however indignant at the blasphemies of the people before the flood, dared not shut the door of the ark as long at God\rquote s Spirit was striving. And after God shut the door, he dared not take in any drowning wretch through the window. While this is not in itself a question of salvation, it is a question of obedience to God. \par \tab Over our own table we have authority. We can set it where we please-in the parlor, dining room or yard. We can put on it what viands we please, invite whom we please, and withhold invitation from any. God has left some things to our control. As a beautiful and forcible illustration of the distinction  between the personal right of the subject and the right of the sovereign, I quote from Sir Walter Scott. King James of Scotland had sent the English Ambassador, Lord Marmion, to be entertained by the Earl of Douglas. When about to leave the castle of Douglas, Lord Marmion said, holding out his hand:\par \tab \b\i\ldblquote Part we in friendship from your land, \b0\i0\par \tab \b\i And, noble Earl, receive my hand.\rdblquote \b0\i0\par \tab \b\i But Douglas round him drew his cloak, \b0\i0\par  \tab \b\i Folded his arms, and thus he spoke:\b0\i0\par \tab \b\i\ldblquote My manors, halls and bowers shall still\b0\i0\par \tab \b\i Be open at my sovereign\rquote s will, \b0\i0\par \tab \b\i To each one whom he lists, howe\rquote er\b0\i0\par \tab \b\i Unmeet to be the owners here; \b0\i0\par \tab \b\i My castles are my king\rquote s alone\b0\i0\par \tab \b\i From turret to foundation stone, \b0\i0\par \tab \b\i The hand of Douglas is his own, \b0\i0\par \tab \b\i And never s hall in friendly grasp\b0\i0\par \tab \b\i The hand of such as Marmion clasp.\rdblquote \b0\i0\par \tab But it is charged against us that we get others \ldblquote to work for us and then will not feed them that we will not eat with other Christians that we deny hospitality and Christian courtesies to Pedo-Baptists.\rdblquote These are grave charges and ought not to be lightly made. Is it true that Baptists are dishonest, denying food to the laborer? Do they go beyond the Pharisees, who would not  eat with publicans and sinners, and actually decline to sit down at the same private board with other Christians? Are they so inhospitable as to shut their doors in the face of Pedo-Baptist guests? \i In the\i0 \i name of Almighty God I deny it, \i0 and call for proof of that which, without proof, is slander. \par \tab\ldblquote Oh, no!\rdblquote they say, \ldblquote you misunderstand us; we are not talking about your house, your table; but you will not invite us to the Lord\rquote s table.\rdblquote Then in the name of fairness, why use equivocal expressions? Why array prejudices against us by casting a reflection upon our courtesy, hospitality and honesty? The world knows that Baptists are behind no denomination in welcoming guests to their homes, tables and hearthstones. \par \tab Brethren, Baptist brethren, set \i your \i0 table where you will, but dare not move the \i Lord\i0\rquote \i s table \i0 out of the church. Invite at your discretion to your own board, \i but\i0 \i allow the same privilege to Almighty God. \i0 Usurp not the prerogative of Jehovah. \par \tab If a man is hungry, feed him from your own table, but appease not his hunger with the sacramental bread. Do not rob God that you may appear benevolent. Upon all proper occasions show your fellowship for all Christians, and your regard for the sacred relations of husband and wife. But don\rquote t prostitute the Lord\rquote s Supper for such a purpose. Lead the poor sinner to the Savior, but dare not administer God\rquote s holy ordinance to him as a \ldblquote means of grace.\rdblquote God never intended to make baptism and the Lord\rquote s Supper converting agencies. \par \tab Shall we quail before the loud clamor raised against us? Shall unjust charges of bigotry and inhospitality coerce us to abandon principle? Forbid it, Almighty God! \par \tab Paralyzed be the Baptist hand that reaches that bread and wine over one of God\rquote s limitations, and \ldblquote to the roof of his mouth may the tongue of that Baptist cleave,\rdblquote who gives an invitation broader than the warrant of God. The ground is perilous and borders on rebellion and blasphemy. Listen to the Scriptures:\par \tab\ldblquote Whatsoever thing I command you observe to do it. Thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish therefrom,\rdblquote \cf1\ul Deu_12:32\cf0\ulnone . \ldblquote Add not then to His work, lest He reprove thee and thou be found a liar,\rdblquote \cf1\ul Pro_30:6\cf0\ulnone . \ldblquote Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you,\rdblquote \cf1\ul Mat_28:30\cf0\ulnone . \ldblquote If ye love me, keep my commandments. Ye are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you.\rdblquote \par \tab Of the Pharisee, Jesus said: \ldblquote In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God ye hold the tradition of men. *** Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition.\rdblquote \cf1\ul Mar_7:7-13\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab Upon the same subject Paul wrote: \ldblquote Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, are ye subject to ordinances after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship and humility, etc. Touch not, taste not, handle not, which all are to perish with the using,\rdblquote Substantially \cf1\ul Col_2:20-23\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab In allowing a sickly sentimentality, an affectation of charity to transport us beyond a divine requirement, we may expect the chiding God\rquote s prophet gave to Saul: \ldblquote Who hath required this at your hands?\rdblquote Of such a one the Lord Himself asks: \ldblquote Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things I command?\rdblquote Again He says:\par \tab\ldblquote Wherefore, whosoever shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.\rdblquote \par \tab These scriptures establish broad principles. From them we deduce the doctrines that human traditions respecting any ordinance of God if\par \tab\b (a)\b0 mere will-worship; \par \tab\b (b)\b0 impugns the authority of God; \par \tab\b (c)\b0 makes void His law; \par \tab\b (d)\b0 perishes with the using; \par \tab\b (e)\b0 that such traditions we are to touch not, taste not, handle not. \par \tab\b (f)\b0 That he who teaches them diminishes his importance in the kingdom of heaven. \par \tab If a man be on the rock Christ Jesus, that only foundation, he will be saved. But if he build upon that foundation wood, hay and stubble, in the fiery ordeal through which all men\rquote s actions must pass, \i his works will be burned up \i0 and \i he shall suffer loss. \i0\par \tab But the man himself, if on the rock, shall be saved, \ldblquote though as it were by fire,\rdblquote \cf1\ul 1Co_3:11-15\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab These scriptures and principles apply to Baptists as well as others. If it is our people holding traditions and making void the law of God, their works will be burned up. \par \tab Brethren, forget not the day of trial the ordeal of fire. But if Baptist principles be correct then OPEN COMMUNION MAKES VOID THE LAW OF GOD, in the following particulars:\par \tab\b 1. \b0 The bread and wine are given to some who do not even profess conversion. To those who are unbaptized. To some who are under church censure and who have been disciplined. As far as the subjects are concerned, the law of God is thus made void in three specifications. \par \tab\b 2. \b0 The object God had in view is \ldblquote laid aside.\rdblquote He said, \ldblquote This do in remembrance of me.\rdblquote Open communion invites the unconverted to commune \ldblquote as a means of grace.\rdblquote \par \tab Sometimes it is said, \ldblquote If ever I was converted in the world, it was in the act of communing,\rdblquote thus making a mere emblem a converting agency and glorifying an act of rebellion. \par \tab Open communion loses sight of God\rquote s object in being administered to show fellowship for other denominations. The Savior said, \ldblquote This do in remembrance of me.\rdblquote Fellowship among denominations is a great thing, but if the shadow of our coming together darkens the cross of Calvary, and causes us to lose sight of the Redeemer, then, O mighty God, \i keep us forever apart! \i0\par \tab Open communion is observed sometimes that husband and wife, belonging to different organizations, may eat at the same sacramental table. When two are agreed it is well to see them walk together. The Word of God commands the husband to love his wife even as his own body. Let him love her, guard her from peril and make all his faculties the servants of his love in her behalf. Let her be dearer than all the world to him. But, O husband, exalt her not above God! Why should \ldblquote a man\rquote s foes be those of his own household?\rdblquote Thy wife may be wondrously fair, but though the orange bloom be fresh in her hair, let her not be obtruded before a dying Savior! In communion He says, \ldblquote Remember me\rdblquote not your wife. \lquote Tis not the time to think of her. Scourged from our hearts in that hallowed hour be every image but that dear face, \ldblquote marred\rdblquote for us \ldblquote more than that of any of the sons of men.\rdblquote \par \tab\b 3. \b0 Open communion makes void the law of God in setting His table out of His kingdom. He said: \ldblquote I appoint unto you a kingdom, to eat and to drink, at my table, in my kingdom.\rdblquote Open communion gives the bread and wine to some who have never been baptized, or who have been excluded from the church. For when a man is excluded from one denomination, he has only to join another, and then come to that table from which he had been expelled. \par \tab That emphatic triple prohibition of Paul, \ldblquote Touch not, taste not, handle not,\rdblquote is far more pertinent to this subject than to the drinking of ardent spirits. It has no direct reference to whiskey-drinking, but primarily refers to something even more obnoxious to God\rquote s law, i.e., to partaking of \ldblquote ordinances after the commandments and traditions of man.\rdblquote It is a downright close communion text. \par \tab If, as they confidently believe, the Baptists hold the traditions, it says to all PedoBaptists desiring to approach our communion table, \ldblquote Touch not, taste not, handle not.\rdblquote If, as we confidently believe, they are making void God\rquote s law by their traditions, it comes like the point of a two-edged sword to the heart of thee open communion Baptist, \ldblquote TOUCH NOT, TASTE NOT, HANDLE NOT.\rdblquote We therefore cherish the conviction that no just censure attaches to the Baptist practice because it is the Lord\rquote s table. Let us then, in our search for \ldblquote Baptist bigotry,\rdblquote examine another query:\par \tab\par \tab Are Baptists bigoted because they make baptism a prerequisite to communion? Let an appeal be made to the Word of God. From that holy book we learn: \b 1. \b0 That baptism was first appointed and practiced. The first baptizer never saw the communion table. Jesus Himself was baptized, then made and baptized disciples, long before He Himself commanded or appointed communion for others. See \cf1\ul Joh_3:22-23\cf2\ulnone ; \cf1\ul Joh_4:1\cf0\ulnone ; \cf1\ul Mat_26:26\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab\b 2. \b0 First in the commission. \ldblquote Go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit, teaching them \i to observe all things whatsoever I\i0 \i have commanded you, \i0\rdblquote \cf1\ul Mat_28:20\cf0\ulnone . Here the order of the commandment is\par \tab\b (a) \b0 make disciples, \par \tab\b (b)\b0 baptize them, \par \tab\b (c) \b0 teach them to commune. \par \tab For communion is one of the things He had commanded them to observe. \par \tab\b 3. \b0 \i We find that the apostles so understood this order by their practice. \i0 Take the first instance, with which all the rest harmonize. On the day of Pentecost Peter preached a sermon. The people were convicted and said, \ldblquote What must we do?\rdblquote The apostle replied, \ldblquote Repent and be baptized,\rdblquote etc. Then the record says, \ldblquote They that gladly received the word were baptized,\rdblquote and then adds, \ldblquote They continued steadfastly in the apostles\rquote doctrine and fellowship and \i breaking of bread, \i0\rdblquote \i etc. \cf1\ul\i0 Act_2:38-40\cf0\ulnone . Even a child can see !that the people were baptized before they communed. \par \tab\b 4. \b0 \i In instructing the churches the connection shows that baptism was first. \i0\par \tab Take one instance as an illustration that one most relied on by open communionists. It is that much quoted Scripture, \ldblquote Let a man examine himself and so let him eat.\rdblquote By this Scripture they seek to prove that the individual and not the church must judge. Ten thousand times it has been quoted in triumph, as if it were the \"ldblquote end of the controversy.\rdblquote \par \tab Let us fairly test this invincible (?) argument. \i Unto whom was this language\i0 \i addressed? \i0 To everybody? Where do we find the language, \ldblquote Let a man examine himself and so let him eat\rdblquote ? It is found in \cf1\ul 1Co_11:28\cf0\ulnone . What do we know about these Corinthians to whom Paul was writing? Turn to \cf1\ul Act_18:1-11\cf2\ulnone \cf0 : \ldblquote After these things Paul came to Corinth-and reasoned in the synagog#ue and Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; \i and many\i0 \i of the Corinthians hearing believed and were baptized. \i0\rdblquote \i \i0 This is the account of their baptism. \par \tab\par \tab Now mark the beginning of that letter in which the expression occurs: \ldblquote Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, \i unto the church of God, which is at Corinth, \i0\rdblquote \i \i0 etc. Th$is shows that they were organized into a church. Finally, examine carefully the very chapter in which the expression occurs, and you will find (\cf1\ul 1Co_11:18\cf2\ulnone ; \cf1\ul 1Co_11:20\cf2\ulnone ; \cf1\ul 1Co_11:22-23\cf0\ulnone ) that when assembled together, in one place, in church capacity, then, and only then, it is said to these baptized Corinthians, \ldblquote Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup.\rdblquote It is a perversion of the Word of God t%o make this justify open communion. \par \tab\b 5. \b0 \i The scriptures make baptism the initiatory ordinance. \i0 It is the emblem of the beginning of spiritual life. Communion is the emblem of the nutrition of that life. Shall we reverse the analogy of nature and adopt the absurdity that food must be given to the non-existent? \par \tab\b 6. \b0 There is some analogy between the Lord\rquote s supper and the Jewish passover; and some analogy between circumcision and baptism, though baptism did n&ot come in the place of circumcision. The Jewish law was explicit (\cf1\ul Exo_12:48\cf0\ulnone ) \ldblquote No uncircumcised man must eat thereof,\rdblquote and following the analogy, and in the language of a distinguished Methodist, \ldblquote No unbaptized man must eat of the Lord\rquote s Supper.\rdblquote \par \tab All Baptists make these arguments from the Scriptures; but they do not stand alone in thus interpreting the Word of God. It is common ground, for, ALL\par \tab DENOMINATIONS TEACH TH'AT BAPTISM MUST PRECEDE COMMUNION. And every denomination determines for itself what is baptism. I submit, as a fair sample of a great mass of testimony, the following:\par \tab Wall (noted Pedo-Baptist historian), in his \ldblquote History of Infant Baptism,\rdblquote Part 2, Chapter 19, says:\par \tab\ldblquote No church ever gave the communion to any persons before they were baptized. \par \tab Among all the absurdities that ever were held, none ever maintained that any person should partake of (the communion before he was baptized.\rdblquote \par \tab To the same effect speaks Dr. Doddridge, \ldblquote Lectures,\rdblquote page 511:\par \tab\ldblquote As far as our knowledge of primitive antiquity teaches, it is certain that no unbaptized person ever received the Lord\rquote s Supper.\rdblquote \par \tab Note again the testimony of Dr. Timothy Dwight, President of Yale College:\par \tab\par \tab\ldblquote It is an indispensable qualification for this ordinance that the candidate for )communion be a member of the visible church of Christ, in full standing. By this I intend that he shall be a person of piety; that he should have made a public profession of religion; and that he should have been baptized.\rdblquote \par \tab The only scriptural grounds on which any minister can invite other denominations to commune is that they are members of the church of Christ and baptized. The denial of this necessarily precludes communion. As proof, I submit the following quotations from Dr. O. F*isher, the great Methodist baptismal debater:\par \tab\ldblquote The Baptists, setting themselves up for the only right ones holding all others as out of the church, because unbaptized, they themselves are after all proved to be just what they have held others to be, unbaptized, as they certainly have neither the mode nor design of baptism, and have only a part of its subjects. And it may be seriously questioned whether the baptism administered by our Baptist brethren, holding the views they do respecti+ng it, ought to be received as valid by the other evangelical churches, and \i therefore-whether it be truly and strictly lawful to hold communion\i0 \i with them, even where they are willing. \i0\rdblquote \i \i0 (\ldblquote Christian Sacraments,\rdblquote section \ldblquote History of Immersion\rdblquote pages 184, 185). \par \tab This then is the true issue: What is a visible church of Christ? What is baptism? \par \tab Never, while remains the testimony of Mark, that. \ldblquote John baptize,d the people in the river of Jordan\rdblquote ; never, while Enon, the place of much water, remains in the bible; never, while it is said \ldblquote that Philip and the Eunuch both went down into the water\rdblquote ; never while the record of our blessed Savior\rquote s baptism remains, concerning whom it is said, \ldblquote When He was baptized He came up straightway out of the water,\rdblquote and with whom, Paul says, \ldblquote we are buried in baptism\rdblquote ; never, while these remain, will Bap-tists concede that moistening the forehead from a pitcher is baptism; and so never can\rquote invite with consistency the Pedo-Baptists to communion with them. \par \tab Since the great principles which underlie the communion question are held in common by all denominations, to all the fair minded and candid I submit the question: Is it right to attribute our practice to bigotry? Let a great Methodist historian answer. \par \tab Hibbard, in his \ldblquote History of Methodism,\rdblquote says:\par \.tab\ldblquote It is but just to remark that in one principle the Baptist and Pedo-Baptist churches agree. They both agree in rejecting from communion at the table of the Lord, and in denying the right of church fellowship to all who have not been baptized. Valid baptism they consider as essential to constitute visible church membership. This also we hold. The only question, then, that divides us is: What is essential to valid baptism? The Baptists, in passing a sweeping sentence of disfranchisement upon a/ll the Christian churches, have only acted upon a principle held in common with all other Christian churches, viz: That baptism is essential to church membership. They have denied our baptism and, as unbaptized persons, we have been excluded from their table. That they greatly err in their views of Christian baptism we, of course, believe. But according to their view of baptism, they certainly are consistent in restricting this their communion. We would not be understood as passing a judgment of approval 0upon their course; but we may say their views of baptism force them upon the ground of strict communion and herein they act upon the same principles as other churches. They admit only those whom they deem baptized persons to the communion table. Of course they must be their own judges as to what baptism is. It is evident that according to our views we can admit them to our communion; but with their views of baptism, it is equally evident they can never reciprocate the courtesy; and the charge of \i close\1i0 \i communion \i0 is no more applicable to the Baptists than to us; insomuch that the question of church membership is determined by as liberal principles as it is with any other Protestant churches-so far, I mean, as the present subject is concerned, i.e., it is determined by valid baptism.\rdblquote \par \tab Will my Methodist brethren allow me to call special attention to this extract? They have no greater man than Hibbard, of New York, and very few of his equal in candor. The points to which at2tention is especially directed are as follows: \par \pard\nowidctlpar\fi720\b 1. \b0 He says that Baptists, in determining church membership, are governed by as liberal principles as any other church. No bigotry there. \par \pard\nowidctlpar \tab\b 2. \b0 The charge of close communion is no more applicable to them than to PedoBaptist churches. No bigotry there. \par \tab\b 3. \b0 In making baptism precede communion, they act on principles shared by all PedoBaptist churches. No bigotry there. \par 3 \tab\b 4. \b0 The Baptists are consistent in their restricted communion. No illiberality there. \par \tab\b 5. \b0 They must be their own judges as to what baptism is. \par \tab\b 6. \b0 The only question that divides us is, What is valid baptism? \par \tab Will our brethren of other denominations follow this magnanimous leader and do us common justice at least? And since they hold baptism as an indispensable prerequisite to communion, I have another question to ask them: Is it right or fair to4 quote Robert Hall, the open communion Baptist, against us, since they despise his premise? Do they really respect his position? Listen to his words, and as they love his conclusion, let them accept his premise. Either retain both or reject both. He says:\par \tab\ldblquote We certainly make no scruple in informing a Pedo-Baptist candidate that we consider him as unbaptized, and disdain all concealment on the subject. If we supposed there were a necessary, unalterable, connection between the two positiv5e Christian institutes, so that none were qualified for communion who had not been previously baptized, we could not hesitate for a moment respecting the refusal of Pedo-Baptists, without renouncing the principles of our denomination.\rdblquote Vol. I, pages 403 and 445, Hall\rquote s works. \par \tab In other places he argues for open communion on the ground of human weakness, their weakness in the faith. Thus we see that Robert Hall receives Pedo-Baptists to the communion only on two grounds:\par \6tab\b (1)\b0 That baptism is not essential to communion. \par \tab\b (2)\b0 In condescension to their weakness. \par \tab Let us propound yet other queries: Are Baptists censurable in making the church and not the individual the judge of external qualification? By external qualification I mean a credible profession of religion, baptism, church connection and orderly walk. \par \tab When God sent out His ministers to disciple the nations, do you suppose that Paul or John or Peter ever left it to th7e candidates to say what was baptism, or for what purpose they were baptized? Were a group of converts left free to determine the form of church government? Or did the apostles go out discipling according to the Savior\rquote s method, \i baptizing \i0 as He was baptized, and organizing churches according to the Divine model? Let candor and common sense answer. But whatever may be the scriptural argument, as long as their position is the same as ours, let them pass no censures. \par \tab Just here the 8question will arise in the Baptist mind, Why this late war on the communion question? It is not the ancient battleground. There are men living, nearly old enough to remember when communion with Baptists was never sought when Baptists were not accredited worthy to commune at their table. Stripes and fagots have given place to kisses and embraces. \par \tab Again the question recurs, growing mightier and more massive from every consideration of the past, Why is the battleground shifted, and the weapons of9 warfare changed? Baptists believe it is because Pedo-Baptists have been driven to the wall on the baptismal question. They are profoundly conscious that the young convert, unbiased by prejudice, finds in his Bible that the Savior was immersed. That he ought to follow Christ. And all the power of childish associations, and all the memories of father and mother are not sufficient to make this convert believe in infant baptism. He wants to be baptized for himself, and upon a profession of his own faith. \pa:r \tab How shall he be hindered? \par \tab By presenting to his heart, all aglow with the freshness of love, close communion all invested with horror. By darkening it with epithets and clothing it in mantles of bigotry and intolerance. What community has not its adept in this work? But after Hibbard and men like him have spoken, surely none but the ignorant, or those blinded by prejudice, or those thoroughly carried away by the popular clamor for charity, will continue the work of misrepresentation an;d darkening counsel. \par \tab But are Baptists censurable for refusing to make this ordinance a means of exhibiting Christian fellowship for other denominations? Are we driven to such straits to show our Christian love, that an ordinance of God must be perverted? Is the arena for the exhibition of Christian charity so circumscribed as to warrant such a report? Is the field of Christian co-operation so narrow that we must have recourse to such an expedient? How many times must it be repeated, that in co will God call many of His people. \par \tab But one single fact settles this question forever. Here on my left sits a brother whom we have just received. He is adjudged a Christian by the unanimous vote of the church. He is to be baptized this evening. And yet, until baptized, our communion table is closed against him. We believe him to be as much baptized as any PedoBaptist. \i Shall we allow more privileges to other denominations than to those\i0 \i converts received for our baptism? \i0\par \tab? But more to the point: Does our close communion unchristianize this brother, who, by the undivided voice of the church, has been declared a Christian? If our reason has not lost its balance, we must answer, No! There can be no sectarian bigotry here. Where then in our practice shall it be found? \par \tab Is there any force in that threadbare statement that hackneyed phrase \ldblquote WE SHALL COMMUNE TOGETHER IN HEAVEN, WHY NOT ON EARTH?\rdblquote This is one of the sophisms referred to. All great l@ogicians, Aristotle, Hedge, Whately and others, unite in anathematizing the sophist. Surely if an attorney-at-law is disgraced who wilfully uses a sophism to gain a case, no man can be held guiltless who uses one in religious controversy. Under the fair surface of this much quoted and popular expression there lurks a fallacy. But little attention is necessary to point it out. It is the use of the same word in both premise and conclusion, when the word has a very different meaning in the one form from whatA it does in the other. It is the word COMMUNION. The premise is \ldblquote We shall, all commune together in heaven.\rdblquote The conclusion is \ldblquote Therefore we should all commune together on earth.\rdblquote The communion referred to on earth is a communion of bread and wine. The communion in heaven referred to is a spiritual communion. No one expects a communion table of bread and wine to be set in heaven, because such communion expires with the coming of the Savior. He says, \ldblquote Ye dBo show the Lord\rquote s death until He come.\rdblquote The earthly communion table has fulfilled its mission when Shiloh comes again. \par \tab In order for premise and conclusion to harmonize and the one to necessarily flow from the other, the meaning of the word must be the same in both. If our PedoBaptist brethren say, \ldblquote We shall all hold \i spiritual \i0 communion in heaven, therefore we ought to have spiritual communion on earth,\rdblquote we accept the conclusion, and claim that we doC have with all Christians Christian fellowship and spiritual communion, as the whole world knows. \par \tab But if they say, \ldblquote All denominations will gather around one communion table of bread and wine in heaven, just such one as we have here, therefore the earthly practice should conform to the heavenly,\rdblquote we reply:\par \tab\b (1)\b0 The premise is false, as it is not in evidence from the Bible that there will be such a table set. \par \tab\b (2)\b0 Even if the premise is true, Dthe conclusion does not follow, because in heaven, if we ever get there, we shall all have one faith and shall have left behind us in the ashes of the great conflagration those differences which necessitate different tables here. \par \tab Thus the emptiness and fallacy of this redoubted sophism is made manifest; but let us put the question to them: Do they receive all to their communion table whom the Lord proposes to save? Is this their law of communion? All whom Jesus receives? \par \tab\par \tabE They make no pretension to it. Brethren of other denominations, all of you who love justice and truth, I make my appeal to you. Is that man guiltless before God who, to the detriment of another denomination, perpetrates this sophism? If to pervert Scripture be criminal, how much more to misuse the heavenly glory? \par \tab Is there any force in the objection that \i close communion separates members of\i0 \i the same family from the same sacramental table? \i0 In the first place, if close communion Fis of divine appointment, it is not the separating power. God said to the Jews, \ldblquote Your sins have separated between you and me.\rdblquote It was not the law that separated, but sin. Law was ordained to life. Its purpose was to bind to God. But transgression may make that which was ordained to life a means of death. See Paul\rquote s argument Romans 7. There is, however, a secondary sense in which it divides families or arrays them against each other, so that \ldblquote a man\rquote s foes are thGose of his own household.\rdblquote But whatever of force there is in this objection against restricted communion applies with equal power against the Christian religion. \par \tab Our Savior says:\par \tab\ldblquote Think not that I am come to send peace on the earth; I came not to send peace but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man\rquote s foes shall be they of his own hoHusehold. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me.\rdblquote See \cf1\ul Mat_10:34-39\cf0\ulnone . \par \tab This was the very objection the enemy used against the Christian religion: \ldblquote They are come here also who have turned the world upside down.\rdblquote \par \tab In these latter days religion is wounded in the house of its friends. Principle is sacrificed to convenience and pleasure, anId family relations are exalted above God\rquote s Word. The dignity and majesty of law is sold out to gratify human passions and to conciliate the world. How often you hear it: \ldblquote Join that church where you can enjoy your religion the best.\rdblquote \ldblquote You had better go along with your wife or your husband or father.\rdblquote As if our enjoyment had anything to do with it. O God, send thy Spirit to impress us, until we ask no longer, \ldblquote What will I enjoy? What will please my huJsband or wife?\rdblquote but \ldblquote\i What wilt thou have me to do? \i0\rdblquote \par \tab In the next place let us inquire: IS CLOSE COMMUNION A BAR TO CHRISTIAN\par \tab UNION? I know that this charge is made all over the land. Papers that profess to be non-sectarian thus covertly thrust at our beloved principles. The pulpit, the press, the parlor and the kitchen unite in the declaration. The impression is made that if it were not for \ldblquote those bigoted, close communion Baptists,\rdblquKote the Protestant world would be a unit. Now, is there a shadow of truth in this assumption* If facts ever did explode a fallacy, they have burst this air-bubble. Facts! Yes, well-established, stubborn facts give it the lie. \par \tab If close communion were the bar to Christian union, then where there is no close communion there would be Christian union. But let one solitary instance stand up as a colossal monument sublimely protesting against this phantom of the brain. Let it be written in broad capLitals over ever communion table\par \tab CHARLES H. SPURGEON WAS DEBARRED FROM THE BRITISH EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE AND IN CONSEQUENCE FROM THE WORLD\rquote S EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE! \par \tab Yes, the world\rquote s greatest and most influential open communion Baptist, a man whose pulpit efficiency, whose height and depth of influence have had no equal since the Apostle Paul, this man representing the open communion Baptist churches of England had no part in the far-famed World\rquote s Evangelical AlliancMe, while J. L. M. Curry, the silver-tongued orator of the close communion Baptists, not only held in that august body an honorable position, but made before it the grandest speech delivered at its late session in the United States! \par \tab\ldblquote O Tempora! O Mores!\rdblquote Did Spurgeon\rquote s open communion sentiments save him? \par \tab No. Do they exempt him from Pedo-Baptist onslaught? Nay, verily. Exists there as much Christian union between him and the open communion churches and the PNedoBaptists of England, as between the Pedo-Baptists and the close communion Baptist churches of America? Most certainly not. The fact is, open communion forfeits rather than secures Pedo-Baptist regard. \par \tab In going to the table of another denomination, a Baptist makes the fatal concession that it is the church of Jesus Christ and its members baptized. Making this, \i it \i0 is \i his\i0 \i duty to join \i0 it. The assumption that close communion is the bar to Christian union is as unsubstantiOal as an idle dream, a hallucination lighter than a gulf cloud. \par \tab But- I have yet other questions to urge: Do Pedo-Baptists regard Baptists as acting conscientiously in their communion views? If not, how dare they invite to God\rquote s table those whom they regard as unprincipled and unconscientious? If they do, how can they have the face to ask a fellow Christian to violate the promptings of his conscience? Upon which horn of the dilemma do they desire to be impaled? \par \tab Yet again: As Pthey admit our baptism and church membership, and can therefore, as far as that is concerned, invite us to commune with them without violation of conscience, and as we do not admit their baptism or church connection, and cannot therefore invite them without violation of conscience, where is our illiberality? Where is the bigotry? The principle on which both proceed is precisely the same. \par \tab Let me ask the fair-minded and candid among them to show me a way out of this dilemma: Shall I invite them Qto the communion as baptized? This stultifies my principles. Shall I invite them as unbaptized? They themselves regard this as rebellion against God. What kind of an invitation would they have, an honest or a dishonest one? If it be dishonest, who shall answer for us to God? If honest, will they accept? \par \tab How much would they be flattered with such an invitation as this, and how much would it recommend us:\par \tab\ldblquote Brethren Pedo-Baptists, we do not regard you as baptized; we agree witRh you that baptism is necessary to communion, but respecting your views more than our conscience or the Word of God, we ask you to come along with us to the communion table. We do not regard it as appointed to show Christian fellowship, nor to unite husband and wife, nor as a means of grace, but in deference to your superior judgment we yield these matters.\rdblquote \par \tab Who of them would accept the invitation thus given? \par \tab And now to my own brethren I turn, with the question: DOES OPENS COMMUNION\par HAVE A TENDENCY TO PROSPER AND PERPETUATE BAPTIST CHURCHES? As an answer, \par \tab\b (a)\b0 Look to the melancholy history of John Bunyan\rquote s church. He stood out with Robert Hall as one of the champions of open communion. He believed, preached and practiced it. How did it affect his church? After his death, PedoBaptists claimed that they had the right to vote as well as to commune. \par \tab As none could consistently deny it, they exercised that right, and for a hundred years Tput Pedo-Baptist preachers in old John Bunyan\rquote s pulpit and pastorate. From 1688 to 1788, no Baptist preacher was pastor. And when the last of these pastors was converted to the Baptist faith, he was retained only on the condition that he would not preach on baptism. \par \tab He was gagged in his own house. Yes, open communion throttled him and made him keep back part of the counsel of God. In 1700, and again in 1724, they refused to grant letters to their members desiring to unite with close comUmunion churches. \par \tab Open communion is to Baptists what the Trojan horse made by Greeks was to Troy. \par \tab It pretended to be an offering to the immortal gods. But it was made so large that the walls had to be broken down for its reception, and in its cavernous interior many of the bravest Greeks were concealed. \par \tab\par \tab\b (b)\b0 Look next to the fading glories of the Free-will Baptists, and last \b (c)\b0 to the shameful downfall of Dr. Pentecost. But yesterday he cast a shaVdow across a continent-now none so poor to do him honor. \par \tab The prosperity of Spurgeon\rquote s church is attributable to the fact that their open communion has never had a chance (and could not in his lifetime) to be carried to its legitimate consequences. Wait until, like Bunyan, he has been sleeping one hundred years, then read the history. \par \tab Again: DOES OPEN COMMUNION ENABLE BAPTISTS TO MAKE CONVERTS MORE RAPIDLY OF PEDOBAPTISTS? As a test, take an instance: The Rev. John Foster, ofW London, left his church to accept the call of the Independent Church at Piner\rquote s Hall. \par \tab But though for years their pastor, he never baptized one of them. They, of course, concluded that if he would accept the pastoral care of their church, they were near enough right. If you ever want to convert Pedo-Baptists, make no compromise with their errors. \par \tab But does the avowal of opera communion sentiments and the most earnest invitations for intercommunion ever secure much of it? \parX \tab No Pedo-Baptist regularly communed with Robert Hall\rquote s open communion church. \par \tab It existed in name almost altogether. Inter-communion with Spurgeon\rquote s church was infrequent, and never, except in the case of isolated individuals. It is beyond my knowledge if there was ever any church communion in his case. It is known that Pedo-Baptists do not throng the tables of the Free-will Baptists. And how long and how far did they follow the misguided Pentecost? It is either a fruitlessY theory, or the fruits are apples from Sodom for Baptists. I desire to stand by the old landmark today and lift a voice of warning to my brethren OPEN COMMUNION IS THE ENTERING WEDGE OF DEATH TO OUR CHURCHES. \par \tab The kiss of intercommunion is as the kiss of Judas, and their embrace the embrace of death. In preference, give us back the fagot, the dungeon and the martyr fires. These were the portions of Baptists not many years ago. No Pedo-Baptist denomination sought communion with us then. Read thZe history of ecclesiastical affairs in the reign of Elizabeth, and since that time. If my statement is questioned, let me be put to the proof. \par \tab \i What, then, should be done with the Baptist minister who preaches and\i0 \i practices open communion? \i0 If he be an Apollos in eloquence, a Rothschild in wealth, or a Jesse Mercer in influence, let his name be blotted from our records. He costs us far too much to retain him. We cannot pay the price of existence for the honor of having him among [us. \par \tab\par \tab \i What shall be done with a private member who practices open communion? \i0 If he be sound in the faith in other particulars, kindly admonish him and have patience with him, that you may gain your brother. Show him how it is far better to comply with the genius and rules of his church. Bear with him. But if he persists, the welfare of the church imperatively demands his expulsion. He is walking disorderly. Let the fellowship of the church be withdrawn from him. If he is sinc\ere, if he is conscientious and determined in his practice, his common sense, as well as our discipline, will show him that the Baptist church is no place for him. If he persists for popular effect, for any unworthy, time-serving motive, he is unworthy of membership in any church. \par \tab Politics as well as religion might well unite in the prayer, \ldblquote\i From all trimmers, \i0 Good Lord, deliver us!\rdblquote \par \tab Those of our brethren who are Baptists upon all other points, and simply] have doubts upon the communion question, and who do not purpose practising open communion, nor propagating it, but can conscientiously comply with the church regulations, had better remain in the Baptist church, because \par \pard\nowidctlpar\fi720\b (1)\b0 in going to another church they do not secure open communion, since by going they lose Baptist communion and\par \pard\nowidctlpar \tab\b (2)\b0 in joining a Pedo-Baptist organization they will have to endorse and support many things obnoxious to^ their faith. \par \tab It certainly is passing strange that for the sake of anything so empty of practical good as open communion, a man will give up his convictions\par \tab\b (1)\b0 That immersion alone is baptism. \par \tab\b (2)\b0 That believers only are subjects of baptism. \par \tab\b (3)\b0 That the church of Jesus Christ is a democracy. \par \tab And now in all kindness let me once more impress upon the minds of my brethren THE SIN OF OPEN COMMUNION. At the bar of God\rquote s truth_ I impeach it of sin and of treason, because\par \tab\b (1)\b0 It violates the law of God making it a church ordinance. They set their table \ldblquote out of the Kingdom.\rdblquote \par \tab\b (2)\b0 It is a sin, because it gives the bread and wine to the unconverted. \par \tab\b (3)\b0 It is a sin because given to the unbaptized. \par \tab\b (4)\b0 I impeach it of the sin of substitution. God\rquote s reason for communion is superseded,, and it is received to show Christian fellowship and t`o unite husband and wife. \tab\par \tab\b (5)\b0 It is treason, in that it makes \i void the law of discipline. \i0\par \tab\b (6)\b0 It is sin in being used \ldblquote as a means of grace.\rdblquote \par \tab\b (7)\b0 It is a sin in that it seeks the destruction of Baptist churches. \par \tab\b (8)\b0 It is a sin, in that it is founded upon a sickly sentimentality, an affected charity, and upon fallacies and sophisms, and teems with glaring inconsistencies. In all the universe of created thaings, animate and inanimate, it has no counterpart. It stands before us like Nebuchadnezzar\rquote s dream. \par \tab\ldblquote Thou, O King, sawest and beheld a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee. And the form thereof was terrible. This image\rquote s head was of fine gold, his breasts and his arms of silver, his body and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.\rdblquote \par \tab Such is its picture, and, as in theb case of that other image set up by Nebuchadnezzar, the whole world is called upon to fall down and worship it, and \ldblquote wonder at the beast with a great admiration.\rdblquote This luminous, this terrible image! Who can stand before it? \par \tab\ldblquote Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon its feet, that were of iron and clay, (which could not cleave to one another), and brake them in pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.\rdblquote \par \tab So the truth of God smites the great image of open communion upon its earthen foundation, and shivers into countless fragments its incoherent particles. \par \tab\par \tab\par \pard\keepn\nowidctlpar\s1\sb240\sa120\b\fs32\page\par }