The heavenly vision and other sermons

Contents

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I. — The Heavenly Vision, 5

II. — The Religious Opportunities of Suburban

I. The Heavenly Vision

"Whereupon, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision." — ACTS xx vi. 19.

The Apostle had reference to the memorable crisis, which was his introduction to the Christian life. He had lived long enough to appreciate the significance of that crisis, both as to purpose and influence. In it, he had discovered the ideal, which he had been trying to realize ever since ; and in it, also, he had found a sacred magnetism, which had been to him a perpetual solicitation. He had been like Moses, to whom God had revealed the plan of the Tabernacle. From Mount Sinai to the plain of the Hebrew encampment, the venerable leader had carried the plan, which skilful workmen had afterward expressed. The impression of the crisis had never ceased to control Paul. He had crossed the continents, and had encountered every variety of thought ; he had endured hardships, and had passed through many eventful experiences ; he had advanced from youth to maturity and thence to old age ; and yet he had never lost

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sight of the ideal, whose welcome invitation had called him " to press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

In the presence of King Agrippa and a splendid retinue, the Apostle had appeared to explain his conduct. He was a prisoner of the Romans. Jewish enmity charged him with sedition and conspiracy. He had made an appeal unto Caesar, and was awaiting the time of his departure for the Imperial City. The Procurator, Porcius Festus, was interested in his case, and was glad of the opportunity of bringing him before his royal guests. The occasion was one of unusual magnificence. Paul was facing a brilliant court, as he stood to relate the circumstances of his life. This was not a defence. His appeal had transferred the trial to Rome. He was simply responding to the orders of the Procurator, who had summoned him from his prison to entertain Agrippa and Bernice.

With intense enthusiasm, the Apostle described his conversion, dwelling minutely upon the vision which he had, as he was on his journey to Damascus. That vision was to him a convincing argument. So evident, so satisfactory was it, that he promptly yielded his life to its control. From that hour, he had been a Christian. His subsequent career had confirmed the faith, which he then exercised, as he had practically made himself over into a new man under the influence of the heavenly vision. Thus as he stood in the presence of royalty, his simple manhood — so heroic, so pure, so Christlike — was more brilliant than all the glitter of the pompous, licentious court. Never, for one moment, had he been disobedient unto the heavenly vision. The recompense had been secured, and Paul's life and work were its grand realities.

This same heavenly vision presents to us its glorious possibilities of purpose and influence. We may not, it is true, see a bright light and hear a divine voice upon the Damascus Road. There are many travellers who make the journey from Jerusalem to Damascus without any consciousness of visions ; and yet there are many pilgrims who never visit the Holy Land, whose march is directed and cheered as they become conscious of this same heavenly vision. They share with Paul the ecstasy, and unite with him in acknowledging their dependence upon the strength. They " endure as seeing Him who is invisible." The heavenly vision commands their obedience at every step of this heavenward progress — beginning, middle, and end. It is the sun of their spiritual firmament, whose genial rays address the feeble infancy of experience with promise, the strong maturity of realization with fulfilment, and the timidity of the earthly termination of life with hope. Always present, and yet always ahead, the heavenly vision is constantly announcing new revelations, and as constantly afford-

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ing new delights. Oh ! that we might be led, by the Holy Spirit, to a happy appreciation of its place and opportunity ! Oh ! that we might exhibit the fidelity of Paul, which appeared in his noble Christian life ! Oh ! that we might be permitted to make his good confession : " I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision ! " But just what is this heavenly vision ? How is it possible that we, in our day and country, should accept this as our purpose and influence?

1st. The heavenly vision is the revelation of Christ. To Paul, this vision was a clear, definite manifestation of the Redeemer, which qualified him for his Apostleship. "Am I not an Apostle?" he asked as he addressed the Corinthians. "Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ, our Lord?" Then he declared positively, that "last of all He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time." Thus he placed himself on an equality with the other Apostles, who had known Christ after the flesh. It would appear — and yet we must not be too confident — that an objective revelation was granted, that he saw with his eyes the Lord Jesus, and heard with his ears the voice of the Son of man. However that may be, it certainly pleased God to reveal His Son in him in sugh manner that he was convinced of the divine authority of Jesus of Nazareth. This was the essential thing. We need not press^ the narrative un-

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duly. It is not possible that we should understand the heavenly vision as to its method. " The wind bloweth where it listeth." The methods of spiritual phenomena are always obscure, even when their results are evident. He, who is caught up into Paradise, will certainly hear unspeakable words. We must not be surprised. The revelation of Christ is for life, not for philosophical speculation, for service rather than for forms of words. " If," say Farrar,* " we would in truth understand such spiritual experiences, the records of them must be read by a light that never was on land or sea. Paul arose another man ; he had fallen in death, he arose in life ; he had fallen in the midst of things temporal, he arose in awful consciousness of the things eternal ; he had fallen a proud, intolerant, persecuting Jew, he arose a humble, broken-hearted, penitent Christian. In that moment, a new element had been added to his being. Henceforth — to use his own deep and dominant expression — he was in Christ — God had found him ; Jesus had spoken to him, and in one flash changed him from a raging Pharisee into a true disciple — from the murderer of the Saints into the Apostle of the Gentiles."

The revelation of Christ still announces the divine realities of the Gospel. Individuals are now permitted to appreciate and to enjoy these eternal facts.

* " Life and Work of St. Paul." Vol. I., 198.

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They make their appeal, and that appeal is within the range of a sanctified, personal consciousness. I may know, and I may know convincingly, that Jesus Christ is my Saviour, " whom having not seen I love ; in whom, though now I see Him not, yet believing, I rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." If this is not true, then Christian consciousness is a delusion, and Christian history is the record of the weakest credulity. For Christian consciousness is based upon a faith in the presence of our blessed Lord, and Christian history describes the fidelities of many holy spirits whose lives have been hid with Christ in God. You may ask the disciples of Jesus as to their holy aspirations, and they will answer that the Lord Jesus Christ has appeared to them. " Christ stood before me," was the confession of a devout woman, " and I saw Him with the eyes of the soul more distinctly than I could have seen Him with the eyes of the body." In such a confession, we are able to advance a little in our knowledge of this revelation. The eyes of the soul are contrasted with the eyes of the body. When we speak of seeing a person, we usually have reference to the sight which is afforded by the eyes of the body, as when we say that we see a friend upon the streets or at his own door. But that is not the only sight. The eyes of the soul can also see, as when we are asked to approve a description of virtue or grace. There are mental photo-

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II graphs ; there are word pictures. In a proper sense, you and I see the German Emperor or the British Queen, because we have been made acquainted with their intellectual and moral characteristics. Perhaps we see them more clearly and intelligently than he does who catches a glimpse of their countenances and knows nothing of their spirituality.

We have been taught that Christ is the divine incarnation of certain most excellent qualities, that truth and goodness are present in Him, that forgiveness and mercy and love and hope are His announcements, that in His face the glory of God appears. This is the teaching of the Bible, and this teaching reaches us in the person of Christ. Can we then see Christ without seeing the lineaments of His countenance and His human form ? If we may not bring back in bodily presence the Jesus who lived for three-andthirty years in Galilee, may not Christ still be in us the hope of glory? Most certainly! The reality has frequently commended itself. As a revelation, Christ has appeared to weary, anxious souls with hope and blessing, opening to faith the splendid possibilities of life with God, and shaping life here upon the earth in every least particular. Men have seen Christ, as the artist sees his conception of statue or cathedral : as the poet sees the thought which he must elaborate in Iliad or Lost Paradise ; as the musician sees the symphony, whose matchless harmonies he reduces to

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the order of an orchestra. Christ is there, and we are here. The heavenly vision is evident. There is no doubt that God is speaking. The divine call awakens a response. Every energy is aroused. The pulse-beats are quick and eager, as the endeavor to apprehend that for which also we are apprehended of Christ Jesus becomes influential. Thus Pres. Edwards — a man of unusual mental grasp — describes his own happy experience when he says : " I had a view, that for me was extraordinary, of the glory of the Son of God as Mediator between God and man, and His wonderful, great, full, pure, and sweet grace and love, and meek and gentle condescension. The person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thought and conception." Was not that a heavenly vision ? Did he not see Christ as truly as Paul did ? Can we fail to discover the influence of the heavenly vision upon the subsequent life of that great man ? When the eyes of David Livingstone — one of Africa's heroes — • were opened to behold the Saviour, the strong impulse of a holy love filled his soul with most real and earnest and effective ambitions. He did not know it then, but he knew it afterward, that for him the heavenly vision meant Africa's redemption, with the toilsome life, which he ended on his knees in the rude hut in Ilala. It was so too with Gordon, England's lonely' sentinel at Khartoum. The heavenly vision

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outlined his duties to him, and then held him firmly, with its divine constraint, while all the world wondered at the spectacle of courage and consecration.

" Warrior of God, man's friend, not here below, But somewhere dead in the far waste Soudan, Thou livest in all hearts ; for all men know

This earth hath borne no simpler, nobler man."

It is to this heavenly vision, this revelation of Christ, that I would direct your thoughts. You may believe in its reality. It is for you, as it was for Paul. What then will life mean, if once you appreciate this inspiration, if always you are controlled by your estimate of Christ?

2d. The revelation of Christ presents the ideal which is a constant solicitation to holy endeavor. This ideal is practical and at the same time progressive ; it is within my reach and also ahead of me. Many of our ideals are exhausted. We quickly come up to them, and their advantages are utilized, and they are left behind. I suppose that every one has found this to be true. In childhood we had our ideals, and we look back at them now with amusement, or pity, or both. Then other ideals became influential, but they had their day too, and disappeared. Strength or wealth or beauty or pleasure or fame have all solicited us, and over each, perchance, we have raised the bitter lamentation of the preacher, " Vanity of vanities." We will not learn

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from the experience of others. Every one must become an experimental philosopher for himself. The follies and the mistakes of the generations are repeated year by year. We are no wiser than our fathers were. Our ideals are so many of them like the pot of money which is said to lie at the point of the rainbow. The earthly vision lures us on to disappointment and despair. We are seldom successful with our cherished plans, and when we are, we are not happy. The question, " Is life worth living?" is soberly discussed ; and a pessimistic philosophy wins adherents in the circles of fashion and pleasure.

This should not be. Life should be sweet and interesting, progressive and spiritual. Where the heavenly vision is distinctly recognized, its powerful influence will be felt in calls to service, in bright anticipations of a future state, and in most delightful communings with God. The revelation of Christ promotes Christian optimism which is intelligently hopeful. Therefore with this conviction we can hardly fail to prize the heavenly vision. It is our ideal, whose influence we cordially respect.

The ideal meets us constantly, and is always practical. The revelation of Christ is for every age and condition, and it is within the reach of all. Inasmuch as it presents a complete salvation, its appeal is addressed to sinners everywhere. Sin is an interest which is common to the race. " All have sinned

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and come short of the glory of God." There is a taint in human nature which grace must remove. No rank, no station, no ancestral advantages can secure an exemption from this condition. By the divine law of heredity we appear in the world with a sinful tendency. It is as certain that a child will sin, as it is that a child will speak. Yes ! and more so. This sinful tendency antagonizes God and the authority of God. Its selfishness is conspicuous. Without restraint, it develops into immorality, and crime, and death. " Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." In and of itself it is hopeless. Facing the wrong way, it advances, with more or less rapidity, to despair and remorse. There is but one hope, and that is given in the revelation of Christ.

This revelation — the heavenly vision — meets sin in all its stages with pardon, renewal, and perfect holiness. A child may respond to this ideal, and many children have. Their determination to accept Christ has been the earnest of a happy life. Under His guidance they have formed strong and beautiful Christian characters. The traits which He exemplified have been secured by them in the progress of the years. They have " grown up into Him in all things which is the head, even Christ." He has always been kept in view. Every interest has been referred to Him. The plan of life has been definitely conceived, and the important work of lifei6

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building has gone steadily forward. What a splendid career has thus opened before childhood ! Christ. The child is to be like Christ. He may occupy this or that sphere of life ; he may engage in this or that pursuit ; he may be rich or poor ; he may be merchant, farmer, lawyer, scholar, soldier; but he must be increasingly like Christ. And what does this mean, except that he must be transferring to himself and appropriating " whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report "? Christ is a generic, personal expression, which covers every desirable characteristic. The Christian should exhibit the finest types of manhood or womanhood. A base Christian, a mean Christian, an impure Christian ! What shall we say of such ? They travesty the Gospel, and bring reproach upon the Master, whose name they bear. Christ is nobility and largeheartedness and purity. He rebukes our miserable selfishness, and calls us ever to

How gladly then do we encourage childhood to choose Christ as the only perfect ideal ! How delightful it is to see youth advancing toward the perfection which Christ reveals ! We want nothing less ;

we can be satisfied with nothing less. Let the end of their conversation be " Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever."

Then what a grand encouragement the heavenly vision is to the wasted, dissolute life ! Alas, that we must say so, but the Parable of the Prodigal Son is as fresh and pertinent as an item in the daily paper. The far country is populous, and the journey thereto is as direct as the route of a trunk-line. The law of degeneracy is painfully evident. With or without their portion of the estate, so many of the sons of God leave the Father's house to waste their substance with riotous living. Often we meet them in despair, poor, ragged, forsaken, with nothing to eat but the wretched husks, which are fit only to feed swine. Now, what can we say? What vision can we offer them ? Will they be received if they return in their rags, after these years of wickedness? Can they find their way back to the Fathers house ? Is their condition hopeless? No! We may speak of the heavenly vision ; we may encourage them to look for it ; we may assure them that a welcome will be theirs ; we may even convince them that they may be washed, that they may be sanctified, that they may be justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. Surely that is good news ! Think of what it would have been to the Prodigal Son in his misery and loneliness among the swine, if

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one of noble aspect, and generous resources, and tender sympathies had appeared to say : " My brother, this is not the life for you. You are wanted in the old home. There a welcome is prepared for you. I will be your companion. In time, you may become as noble and generous and happy as I am." Think of the influence of such an assurance ! Yet precisely that — yea, and much more — meets every wayward, profligate life, when Christ is present. " The wages of sin is death ; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Another phase of the subject appears when service is considered. The heavenly vision is a call to service. John, the aged Apostle, appreciated the Gospel when he wrote : " Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him ? " The Gospel is love, and the love of the weak, of the stranger, of the degraded, of the enemy. Around this estimate of the Gospel, the bright Christmas legends, known and read of all men, have grouped themselves with the evident design of enforcing the truth that Christ is served in the service of humanity, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Among these legends, I recently found one which is associated with the ancient Saxon custom of burning the yule-log " to keep the divine in-

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fant from the cold/' A selfish man, who had plenty of money, but no sympathy, was keeping his Christmas all alone, and out of deference to the day, he kept a little log burning with a very feeble flame. As he shivered in the chilly atmosphere of his desolate room, he fell asleep and dreamed. In his dream he heard a voice which drew his attention to a beautiful child who stood near to him, and said, " Jesus is cold." With an impatient movement, the selfish man stirred the fire a little, and said : " Why don't you go to the farm-house down the lane? You'll be warm enough there." "Yes!" replied the child, "but you make me cold. You are so cold." " Then what can I do for you ? " " You can give me a gold coin." With a great deal of reluctance the money-chest was opened, and a gold coin was given to the child. He took it. Instantly the dingy room became bright and cheerful as the child hung up some laurel and holly, saying, " These are for life" and placed two candles on the shelf, saying, " These are for light" and stirred the fire, saying, " That is for love" Then the door was thrown open, and a poor widow, and a sick man, and orphan children were brought in and seated at a beautiful repast, while the child kept saying, " Jesus is warm now," and the selfish man found that he was enjoying the scene, so that he presently confessed, " I think that I am warmer too." But the child suddenly disappeared, and in his place there was a divine

Presence, and solemnly the words were pronounced : " Although I am in Heaven, I am everywhere ; for everywhere is Heaven if I am there. I can not sufferas I once suffered, but whenever my children are cold, or hungry, or persecuted, or neglected, I suffer with them : and whenever they are warm, and fed, and sheltered, and loved, I rejoice with them. So that Jesus is often cold, and Jesus is often warm/'

Looking into the faces of your fellow-men, can you see the possibility of the Christ-likeness there ? Looking beyond the seas to distant continents, and to races hardly known, can you believe that Christ calls you to bring them out of heathenism into the glorious liberty of the sons of God ? Looking at the grave problems of social life, can you realize the responsibility which Christ puts upon you in this behalf? Looking at yourself with your equipment of talent and influence, can you hear any message from the skies which commands you to serve? If so, then do you behold the heavenly vision. You are not dependent upon the fancy or caprice of men. You are not recompensed by the returns of effort. A grand ideal has presented itself. You are conscious of a divine inspiration. Your truest recompense is this glorious fact, that you, a poor mortal, that you, a creature of yesterday, are associated with the infinite God in the accomplishment of the plans for whose consummation He gave His own dear Son. God grant us

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all a clear perception of the vision so heavenly ! May we make it both purpose and influence, and thus serve our generation until we fall on sleep, and are gathered to our fathers !

3d. A constant solicitation to holy endeavor met a response in Paul, whose significance was expressed by his splendid life. " He was not disobedient unto the - heavenly vision." In other words, and more positively, he was faithful. The heavenly vision captivated him. He surrendered absolutely to its control. Friends were forsaken when friendship meant the denial of Christ. Pharisaism with all its worldly preferment was despised in comparison with the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Ease was exchanged for hardship. Perils were freely encountered. Prisons and dungeons became familiar. And for what ? In order that Paul might finish his course with joy, and the ministry which he had received of the Lord Jesus. Was he wise ? Was his life a success ? Did the heavenly vision lure him on to disappointment? Consult his biographer and answer ; read his letters and know ; consider his influence, and appreciate its permanent, pervasive strength, as the bounds of Christendom are enlarged. Paul wrote his life upon the centuries, and above his name there stands but one, and that is the name which is above every name — the name of Jesus.

Shall we share with him the service, the joy, and

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the crown, if we are not disobedient unto the heavenly vision ? Most assuredly, because God is no respecter of persons. The promise is for us, as it was for Him. We may see Christ. Are we watching for Him ? Would we know Him if He should appear? May we hope to keep to Him faithfully ? The Holy Spirit waits upon our response to questions such as these. He can open the sightless eyes, and He can train the soul to see the unseen things. He can give steadfastness of purpose and fixedness of endeavor. He can enlarge experience and quicken faith. He can do what was done for Moses, when from the top of Pisgah, the Land of Promise was made known. He can anticipate the hour of death, which to the Lawgiver was the hour of vision; and He can bring this revelation of Christ to the soul's perception, when the feet are upon the threshold, and the years have just begun to be numbered. Welcome, then, the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit. Yield cheerfully to its control. Make Christ your choice. Regard the heavenly vision. Greet its sublime inspiration. March under its glorious leadership. Other ideals — minor and subordinate — will be reached and left behind you in the advance. This never. Like the star that led the wise men of the East, it conducts always to Christ. When you have reached His perfection, when your strength is His, when your beauty is His, when your resemblance is complete, then may you speak of other and grander ideals. But then, in that happyconsummation, you will be with the multitude which no man can number, whose hearty sympathy is their adoration of the Redeemer, Jesus Christ. There the ideal will never more be questioned, for purpose and influence will be one in Christ.

II. The Religious Opportunities Of Suburban Life

" And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany ; and he lodged there" — Matthew xxi. 17.

BETHANY was a suburb of Jerusalem. Many lawyers and merchants of the city resided there. The town was pleasantly situate upon the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. It was reached by three roads — » one of which was the highway to Jericho and the country beyond the Jordan. A grove of palm-trees afforded a delightful shade in the Summer ; while the overhanging cliffs were a secure protection against the rough winds of the Winter. In the distance, the Peraean hills were visible, and the foreground of the landscape was made attractive and beautiful by the orchards and gardens, whose fertility was contrasted with the barrenness of the Desert, which was constantly invading the territory of " the house of dates."

The population of Jerusalem could not be accommodated within the walls of the city. Numerous (24)

public buildings occupied many desirable locations, while the ordinary business — religious, political, military, and commercial — pressed the home-life of the more wealthy citizens out through the gates to enjoy the villas which had been built upon the surrounding hills. Roman law gave safety to the unwalled towns of Judea. The Jews quickly appreciated the favorable opportunities which were thus presented to them. They could secure the advantages of their sacred city without encountering the disadvantages of a city life. The Temple was accessible. The courts of law were within easy reach. The libraries were open to them. The shops and the exchanges were not far away. The suburbs became attractive. Lightfoot — a careful scholar — warrants the statement that " if there were no gardens in Jerusalem, there was a girdle of them, reaching from its very walls and down the valleys, and up the opposite hillsides. On the hills around rose the mansions of many citizens, and at the bend, where the valleys of Kidron and Hinnom met beside the Pool of Siloam, the eye regaled itself with the wide and rich verdure of the royal gardens."

Bethany was the suburban home of the friends of Jesus, Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. They were evidently persons of consideration, for many of the Jews came from Jerusalem upon visits of sympathy after