The magnetism of mystery : and other sermons

Foreword

DR. McKEAN is a virile, upstanding, hardhitting man, and his sermons are like him. He occupies one of the commanding pulpits of the Middle West, located in the Capital and largest city of his state. His ministry in it has been of unusual power and success. The people to whom he preaches are overwhelmingly American, sturdy, straightforward, and of high average intelligence. They demand directness and plain speaking in their sermons, as they demand it in business or politics. They have scant patience with the subtleties of life anywhere, or with the man who utters them, be he in the pulpit, the legislative hall or the professor's chair. They are an easy people to preach to if the preacher has something worth while to say, but hard to satisfy with platitudes.

The sermons contained in this volume are not " specials," but represent the average of Dr. McKean's preaching. He has a rugged, forthright theology, and preaches it without pruning, and for this reason his hearers respect and follow him. The expository, as well as the doctrinal element, is strong in them. His aim is to make the truths of the Bible plain, and then force them home with all his power.

FOREWORD

In reading a sermon one is always interested to see the use the preacher makes of it. Some rest their case when they have clearly and definitely stated their theme, unfolding and illustrating it so as to make it understood. Others are not content until they have applied and urged and enforced it so as to produce decision and action. Dr. McKean is clearly of the latter class. His sermons are shafts with points, and he hurls them with vigor and sureness. They will be read with interest, not only for what they are in themselves, but as types of the pulpit ministry that is making the Church of the Middle West

JOHN A. MARQUIS.

New York.

Introduction

THE sermons in this little book were not written for publication. They were prepared in the workshop of a busy down town Pastor, with no thought other than his own congregation in mind. Every sermon was delivered from the pulpit the Sabbath following its preparation. The writer never has been able to keep sermons " in advance." Each week his flock of sheep keep his pastures nibbled bare.

The manuscripts, therefore, will give evidence of the labours of one who speaks more than he writes, and who writes in order that he might speak. They are messages from the heart to his own people, many of whom have been kind enough to suggest that they might prove helpful to others if given a larger audience. No claim is made for literary style, but a plain practical gospel is proclaimed with the prayer that some life may be strengthened, some heart comforted, and some spiritual hope attained.

If the Christ we all love can be glorified and some soul brought nearer to Him, thereby to enjoy the peace and rest which comes from a saving knowledge of Him, the writer will be satisfied. He has no other motive in presenting his pulpit product in the printed page.

F. C. McK.

Des Moines, Iowa.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Magnetism of Mystery . . 9 Rom. ii :33

II. The Temptation ...... . .21

II

" Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." — Matt. 4:8-9.

TO the person seeking rest from the daily routine of life the mountains have a mystic charm. The high altitude, the rarified air, the warm sunshine, the cool shade and the rippling brooks with their refreshing water have an exhilarating effect upon the human system which is not to be found on the plains.

As we take a retrospect of our own times and remember the thousands of tourists who repair every year to the mountains for pleasure and rest, need we marvel that the mighty men of old used these places of solitude and grandeur to recuperate their wasted bodies, and feast their weary eyes upon the sublime pictures of nature conceived in eternity and executed in time by the touch of a Master Hand.

There, away from the cares of the busy world, they could listen to the wind as through the pine trees it chanted a requiem for a broken heart, or to the laughter of the waterfall whose music would soothe a mind, tired from battling with the deep problems of life.

A glance through the Bible reveals many interesting mountain scenes. It would seem as if they sought a more conspicuous setting in which to occur than was afforded by the common plain, for almost every prominent peak is immediately associated with some notable event in the lives of God's great men.

In the dawn of early history all that remained of the human race rested in the Ark upon the lofty summit of Ararat. At the beginning of Israel's long march from Egypt to Canaan it was to the smoking summit of Sinai that Moses retired, and there received the tables of stone on which the moral law had been written by the finger of God. When this man of God laid his armour down, it was from Pisgah's towering peak that he was given a farewell look down the valley of the Jordan into the beautiful Canaan beyond. And somewhere in the crags of that wonderful Mount all that is mortal of that statesman, warrior, prophet and judge is sleeping its dreamless sleep awaiting the Resurrection morn when the dead in Christ shall rise. It was from the rocky sides of Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim that the tribes of Israel spoke their curses and blessings which echoed down the valley of Shechem. It was along the slopes of Mt. Gilboa that Gideon and his immortal three hundred shouted that Hallelujah war cry, " The sword of the Lord and of Gideon." On the top of Mount Carmel, the prophet Elijah witnessed the battle between Jehovah and the hosts of Baal, and saw rising from the waters of the Mediterranean that small cloud like a man's hand which forecast the end of the long drouth. It is fitting then, that the rocky land of Palestine should be rendered immortal by the footprints of our Lord and that its rugged mountain peaks should present scenes from the theatre of His life.

Amid all the shifting changes of the Saviour's remarkable career we find none more thrilling, and none which meant more to human destiny than when the Son of God stood before the Arch Enemy of the world.

In the northern part of the wilderness of Judea as the traveller passes southwest from Jericho, he is shown the summit of a small mountain which tradition has assigned as the scene of the Temptation. It can scarcely be called a mountain, being little more than a hill, about the size of Gibraltar and perpendicular in shape. It is called " Quarantania," which means the space of 40 days, because Jesus is supposed to have fasted His 40 days within the vicinity of this mount. Here the Saviour had come seeking solitude. Well might He feel the need of it as standing at the portal of His ministry He contemplated God's plan for His life. After 40 days of deep meditation, knowing full well the disappointment the world would experience with His life, He comes face to face with one of the great moral crises of His career. It was a hand to hand conflict with an arch conspirator. Well did Jesus know that if He were to conquer the world He must first conquer self. When the first man, Adam, was placed in the Garden of Eden he was subjected to a great test — a temptation which was representative and which decided the future of the human race, so the second Adam, the representative of a loving God to sinful men, was subjected to a great temptation which decided the destiny of mankind. A temptation which overcame all that the first Adam had lost and gave to the world life for death, victory for defeat,

When John, the Forerunner, baptized His Lord with the waters of the Jordan, Christ by the reception of that Sacrament, signified His willingness to take up His Father's work. The Temptation was the first act of God in that work. We say act of God because the same spirit which descended upon Christ at Baptism likewise drove Him into the wilderness. If Christ were to be the Saviour of the world He must first prove by outward act His statement, " I have overcome the world." Satan was the embodiment of evil. He stood as the personal representative of Sin. Unless Christ conquered him at the beginning He could never redeem the world. If He allowed Satan to triumph He never could with authority cast out demons. Christ's mission in the world was to enter the house of evil and destroy its goods. To do this He must first bind the strong man.

In a study of the Temptation the first question which naturally presents itself is : Was this scene real ? The reality of this scene is the most natural thing to believe if we accept the divine mission of Christ and the authenticity of the Scriptural narrative. All the Evangelists describe the Temptation as an outward event. There is no shadow of evidence for a vision, a dream or a parabolic representation. The writers have given us the simple story as it was doubtless told to them by their Divine Teacher. The Greek word for Tempter is " Diabolos," from which springs such words in our own tongue as diabolical. It means slanderer or accuser. The Hebrew word Satan signifies an adversary or opponent. In Scripture the word Devil is always used in the singular number prefixed by the article. Wherever the term " devils " is used it has reference to another word meaning demons. The man who looks at the world around him can scarcely deny the existence of evil as a positive working force, if he be of a rational mind —so a mere denial of the personality of the evil one places a heavier charge of evil upon the manhood and womanhood of the world than the average Christian cares to make. If a man admits the personality of the Good (and most men do), why not the personality of the Evil ? There is just as much evidence for the one as for the other. I am frank to say that I have met but few men who brazenly denied the personality of Satan, who did not display by the outward acts of their own lives that they were living witnesses against their side of the case. The majority of thinking people in this world know from personal experience that they are tempted and that by something more than a mere influence or a blind force. It is mind against mind, intelligence versus intellect, will opposed to will. As we proceed in the unfolding of this narrative I think that all will be able to see how we answer the question which no doubt has often appealed to you. How could the Divine Christ, the Incarnate Son of God, be tempted ? To appreciate this we must not look upon Christ as we would upon ourselves, for the Saviour was an unfallen man. He was sinless and yet He possessed the ability to sin. If He had not there would have been no temptation.

Therefore, it was possible for Him to be tempted outwardly without inwardly assenting to it. Now a temptation is the endeavor on the part of one mind to call into action some desire which already exists in another. When a man tempts you he does not inject sin into your heart. Neither does he create in your heart a desire to sin. He seeks rather to arouse into activity a desire which is already there. Such was the case with Jesus. The Devil was endeavouring to call into action a desire. Unless a man has an inclination or desire to do a certain thing there is no temptation for him. I have no inclination to drink liquor. I never did have. When the fumes of beer and whiskey come into my nostrils, the effect upon me is one of disgust for the business and pity for the poor unfortunates who are tempted. As a boy I was in saloons many times. I stood beside the bar with fellow companions and watched them drink, but I never drank a glass of liquor in my life. For not being a drinking man I deserve no particular commendation because the desire for it is not in me. The man who deserves the praise is the man who has the desire and yet triumphs over his temptation.

This desire which must exist is of a two fold character. It may be sinful or sinless. Between the temptation which came to Jesus and a temptation for us today we must be careful to draw the line. Sinful desires did not come to Christ because there was no germ of sin in Him. Christ was like our first parents before the Fall. They had a desire to eat of the fruit of the tree. There was no sin in that for it was a perfectly natural desire. The sin lay in the act which sprung from the desire, and that act was sin solely because it was a violation of one of Jehovah's express commands. Had God not placed a prohibitory law around the tree in the midst of the Garden there would have been no sin in the partaking of its fruit. So in the personality of Jesus Christ, the desires which were in His heart were perfectly natural desires. There

THE TEMPTATION"

was no sin in them. Herein lies the subtlety of the Temptation. Why should not Jesus desire to rid His mind of the pangs of hunger and that by miraculous power? Why should He not desire to have angels serve Him in the presence of men? Why should He not long to manifest His power and authority over the kingdoms of the world? Who had a better right to go well fed and be attended by angels, and exercise authority in the world than the Divine Son of God sent as a Saviour to humanity ? These desires were all right in themselves. At the same time to have yielded and satisfied them would have been sin. Because God the Father had mapped out for His Son the way of the Cross. Jesus stood pledged to carry out man's redemption, not by miracles to set forth worldly glory, but by miracles as a means to an end: as witnesses to His divine authority and power. Christ's mission in life was not to enthrone Himself as an earthly king crowned with the purples of authority, but to redeem mankind by the way of the Cross. His was to be a life of humiliation, not exaltation: a cross, not a crown was to be His earthly inheritance; no place to lay His head was to be His earthly lot, not to live in the palace of a king. To be sure this life seemed out of harmony with His divine self, but it was His Father's way, therefore He would obey.

No one understood this better than the Tempter and the Tempted. To obey God was the divine purpose of Christ. To thwart the plans of God for His Son was the object of the Devil. To appeal to the pride of Jesus and show how incompatible with His divinity was His lowly humanity — to brand Him with the scar of disobedience, and overthrow the whole plan of Salvation; this was the object of the Tempter. It was deliberately planned and maliciously done. This was the most likely place for the Devil to attack. If Christ would yield anywhere it would be here and if He yielded the Devil would accomplish His purpose. For to disobey God is sin. If Christ had refused by outward act to take up His cross, it would have disqualified Him; for humanity is redeemed by a perfect, sinless Christ and not by a sinful Saviour.

This, then, was a life and death struggle. The subtlety of Satan was matched against the submissive, self surrendered spirit of Jesus. Upon the result hung the destinies of the human race. Therefore it must be borne in mind, that to Jesus in the Temptation there was an appeal to desires which in themselves were not sinful but to have yielded to them would have been sin. To Christ there were presented positions in life to which it might seem to the casual observer He was justly entitled, and yet of which He could not partake. The Devil held out the exalted side. God said, " To the Crown by way of the Cross, to glorification by way of humiliation.' '

With these ideas in mind let us examine the three

Temptations and bear in mind that these are not three degrees of one but three different temptations. Each must be examined from a different view point bearing in mind that the motives which prompted all three were the same — the overthrow of the Messianic Kingdom.

Satan's first move was an endeavor to persuade Christ to assert His own power rather than display a child-like faith and trust. He tried cunningly to incite Christ to give proof of His power on the plea that if He could not save Himself from hunger He never could convince the people that He had the power to save them. To get Christ to throw off His cloak of humiliation which the Father had placed upon Him before it was time for Him to cast it off, this was the object of the Devil. " If Thou be the Son of God"; this condition in no wise implied any doubt on Satan's part that Jesus was the Son of God. The very fact that he was endeavouring to accomplish His overthrow shows that he knew all too well with whom he had to deal. The idea of the conjunction "if" is " since " or u inasmuch " as you are the Son of God. In other words the Devil said : " It is beneath the dignity of You as the Son of God to be out here in the wilderness hungry when You have the power at your command to cause these stones to be made bread. Assert Your power ! Get into Your true station as a Redeemer! Your suffering is all to no purpose. When you return to

Your people they will have lost all confidence in You."

To have persuaded the Saviour to draw on His power for relief would have caused Him to manifest a lack of Faith. Christ implicitly felt that His present condition was by the will of God and His submission to it was the test of His loyalty to His Father. It was to break down this loyalty and throw Christ upon His own powers that the first taunting challenge was sent forth.

Failing in this the Devil goes to the opposite extreme. He asks Christ to do an act which apparently would show great faith in God, when in reality it would have produced the very opposite effect. " If Thou be the Son of God cast Thyself down." God is all powerful. If you trust in Him He will save You. The world will see Your faith, Jehovah will save you and you will have the confidence of the people and none will deny Your Messiahship. In other words the act would be an experiment. Its purpose would be to test God to see to what extent He would exercise His power. It would have overthrown Christ's life of humiliation and substituted for it the life of a miracle worker.

In the last temptation Satan throws off his mask and comes out boldly. In the first two, Satan asked Christ to do something under the pretext of accomplishing His divinity when in reality the purpose was to overthrow it. Now he asks Christ to come into open rebellion. He must not only throw aside His lowly life, and accept a temporal kingdom, but He must attain success by doing wrong. Christ is on a high mountain. As His eye gazed over Judea and into far off Edom, across Arabia to the rich valley of the Euphrates, and north to the Lebanon Mountains, pre-eminent in snow, and to the western cities of Herod, as these visions of world wide power swept before His eyes and He beheld their price, think you not that there came to His mind that thought which later He expressed in words, " What shall it profit a man — to say nothing of the Son of God — if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul."

There was no hesitation. No pondering or faltering. In clear ringing notes there came the answer : " Get thee hence Satan, for it is written ' Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve.' " The assault was over, the Tempter vanquished, and the ministering angels came.

How little some people realize the significance of this scene. If Jesus had yielded, His ministry of usefulness would have been at an end and humanity would have been crying today : To whom shall I go to be saved? That moral victory in the wilderness of Judea made Calvary's cross effectual for you and for me.

Let us present a few lessons from this scene which are applicable to every day life. The only way to interpret the motives which prompted Satan is to remember that he knew God's plan of redemption through the lowly life of Jesus Christ. He realized that his own kingdom was doomed if Christ carried out that plan. So he attempted to thwart it at the very beginning.

The Devil still has knowledge of God's plan for us ; how through the life of this same Jesus God would take us from the dominion of Satan. The Devil will thwart that plan if he can. He will come to you with the same allurements, the same enticing snares, presented with the same malicious intent. Two thirds of the temptations which come to us are those which seek to arouse into action some desire which is all right in itself, but the satisfying of which will sidetrack us from the true way.

Remember that the Devil if he can (and he usually can) will attack you in the very weakest point in your character. He came to Christ after His forty, days' fast with the suggestion of bread. He will come to you with something just as plausible and just as hard to resist. If there is a breach in your wall of defense there the Devil will turn loose his battering rams and he will storm that wall until he breaks it down or is repulsed. There are some temptations which fall as harmless from a man's character as arrows from a coat of mail. There are others which pierce the heart. The Devil does not hold the sparkling wine-cup before some man who has never had the taste for liquor, but he takes some weak fellow who has the taste bred in every bone and fibre of his being and when he is tired physically and mentally and most liable to yield then he holds it out. Our lives are castles, our hearts citadels. Some kingdom will rule them. It is for us to decide who shall reign, Christ or Satan,

Our Saviour was tempted when He was alone. How true it is with us. Most of the great moral battles of the individual life are won or lost in private ! The man who wins is the man who does as Christ did, conquers self. It is well for us to deliberate upon what principle shall actuate our lives. A man must think right before he can act right. He must remember that the Devil paints just as alluring a picture now as he did 2000 years ago. The pleasures of life sparkle with the same brilliancy now as did the cities of the Orient in that faraway Jordan plain. The only way for a man to do is to follow God and say : " My allegiance is to Thee, I will follow Thee, do Thy will and conquer in Thy name."

Overcoming one temptation does not mean that others will not come. The Devil only left Christ for a season. He came again, but never with the same power. So with all of the people of God. If we conquer at the first the rest of the way will be easier. Conquering temptation makes a man strong. The ablest lives in the world are those who have been tried in temptation and remained true. Temptation is a fire which to the faithful life removes the dross and leaves the gold.

If any one were to ask how can I best overcome, I would give him the Saviour's reply, " Watch, and Pray lest ye enter into temptation." A man must be constantly on the lookout else the Devil will make a night attack. Prayer must be his preparatory means of defense. He must do that before the Devil comes. No man ought to dally with temptation or argue with it. When the foe appears his business is to fight else his watching will be in vain. Let us fight Satan as Christ did with the word of God. It is the great sword of the Spirit which never fails.

If Christ overcame the world for us is it not our duty to make an honest endeavour likewise to conquer in His name? If the victory of Jesus decided the future of God's plan of redemption, so will our victory decide our destiny.

Let us go forward sharing His sufferings, bearing His cross, working in His service. Then after the suffering will come the glory, after the Cross the Crown, after the labour, rest and consolation in victory.

Ill

" HIS NAME SHALL BE CALLED WONDERFUL "

"For unto us a child is bom, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

WHATEVER possesses qualities of such a nature as to be awe-inspiring, or sets before the world something marvellous and extraordinary can rightly be called wonderful. The visitor at Niagara stands beside the water of that mighty river and watches it silently and swiftly drop over the falls into that roaring abyss below, then on with a rush akin to the wildest of delirium, down that narrow rocky gorge, one set of rapids following another with increasing swiftness, through the swirling eddies of the treacherous whirlpool, and suddenly emerge into the placid calmness near Lewiston, and he epitomizes his thoughts and feelings into one exclamation — Wonderful !

As he passes along the roads of our beautiful Yellowstone National Park hidden away in the heart of the Rockies surrounded on three sides by, its grim, gray mountain peaks, some of which like ancient monsters, belch forth fire, and vapor, and smoke. As he beholds those desolate cliffs rising like sentinels bold under the turquoise sky, and his eyes watch the L,one Star geyser or " Old Faithful " spout with clocklike regularity; as he catches the majestic sweep of Mammoth Hot Springs, the Fire Hole River, the gorgeous water terraces, the dashing cascades, and the beautiful Falls, he cannot but be thrilled in his soul as he realizes that in that secluded spot an All-Wise Creator has left a special imprint of His divinity, and he sums up the ecstacy of his heart in one word — Wonderful !

As his eyes gaze amid the myriad raptures of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, two hundred miles long and a mile deep, ghastly and desolate, yet glorified with its tinted strata, its glowing colors and its sombre hues; as he beholds that stupendous panorama stretching before him amid kaleidoscopic scenes, growing resplendent as far as the eye can see, now with the gorgeous glory of the rising sun, now sinking silently into the arms of night — he murmurs once again with strange feelings in his soul — Wonderful. Yes, wonderful are the works of God. Wonderful are the Himalayas and the Rockies, as they lift their snow capped summits 14,000 feet into the blue. Wonderful, the temples of nature planned in eternity and executed in time by the touch of the hand of a divine sculptor. Wonderful the dome of day, as the heavens glow with the rays of the rising sun.

'Wonderful the dome of night which sends forth its myriads of constellations blazing as beacon lights before our wistful eyes and " forever singing as they shine, the hand that made us is divine." Wonderful are the winding rivers and the peaceful valleys; wonderful the minerals in the heart of the earth ; wonderful the flowers and herbs of the field, wonderful the trees of the forest and the waving grain.

Wonderful is man. Man, with his wonderful physical mechanism, and his far more wonderful mind ; man, with his marvellous intellect, his acute perceptions, his fine sensibilities, his creative genius, his keen delicate eye, his sensitive ear, his nervous system, his digestive apparatus, his living, feeling, thinking soul. Yes wonderful is man and his works. Wonderful to see a Leviathan of the deep plough its way from New York to Liverpool in five days; wonderful to behold a Pullman train speed a thousand miles in eighteen hours ; wonderful to watch the workings of the automobile, the linotype and the X-ray. Wonderful to see a great printing press, print, fold and count out thousands of many paged papers every hour. Wonderful to watch a surgeon stretch out his patient under the influence of a powerful anaesthetic and then cut deep into his vitals for the salvation of life. Wonderful to behold an engineer who could think out and execute such colossal undertakings as the Keokuk Dam or the Panama Canal. We read the lives of Hannibal, Napoleon and Julius Caesar, and we marvel at their military sagacity. We read Socrates and Shakespeare and Emerson and are inspired by their brilliancy of intellect. We scan the careers of Luther in the Reformation and Lincoln during the Civil War. We watch the influence of Louis Kossuth on Hungary, Cavour in Italy, and Gladstone in the British Isles. We stand with head uncovered at the tomb of our great dead at Mount Vernon, and as our feelings are quickened and our hearts throb we murmur, " These were wonderful men. They lived wonderful lives and wrought out wonderful deeds."