Living for the Master : sermons

Contents

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I. The Touch of a Hand u

II. The Palm and the Cedar 25

Introduction

The following Sermons have been selected with the hope that they may prove acceptable for general use. It is intended that nothing shall be found here that is not held in common by the great body of Christ's disciples. A pastor in the course of his ministry will treat of a variety of subjects. He has the whole field of truth before him ; and some of his discourses will be exegetical and critical, some doctrinal and ethical, and some homiletical and practical. All will be affected by the particular mould of the creed which he holds and the character of the field that he occupies. He must be his own judge as to the things new and old which he shall bring forth from his treasury. He may enjoy certain departments of study, and he may show his ability as a dialectician in some branches of theology ; but his business is to preach the gospel, to bring believers into closer fellowship with Christ, and to rouse the sinful to repentance and the acceptance of Christ as a personal Saviour. To do this most effectually he must address the heart rather than the head ; he should convince the understanding, but he will labor in vain if he does not reach the feelings. The writer will be thankful if these Sermons shall prove useful for private reading, or convenient for lay reading in congregations temporarily without a pastor.

L. H. R.

THE TOUCH OF A HAND.

There is an old legend of the white hand. There was a king who gloried not in pomp and power, but in deeds of love. He scattered blessings everywhere. He took the food from his own table and gave it to the poor. Nothing in his possession was withheld when human need cried in his ear. He would give the last he had to help some suffering one.

One day a bishop seized the royal hand and blessed it, saying, "May this fair hand, this bounteous hand, never grow old!" Soon after this war came and the king was slain in battle. His conqueror gave command to sever his limbs and expose them to view, according to the cruel custom of the time, on poles and stakes. It was done ; but that hand which had thus been blessed, and which had wrought so many beautiful deeds of love, when all else had perished in the bleaching sun remained unblemished, unwasted, wondrous white and fair, pointing still upward toward heaven as if raised in prayer.

James R. Miller.

I. The Touch Of A Hand

And He came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them. — Mark i. 31.

" T T E took her by the hand, and lifted her up." It A A was in Capernaum, the city by the sea. Peter lived there, and had just been called from his fisher's net to become a fisher of men. Jesus also had His home there during the three years of His public ministry. It is spoken of as " His own city." Into that home of sickness Jesus entered, and coming near to the sick one took her by the hand and lifted her up. He did not now, as in the case of the centurion's servant and the nobleman's son, in that same city, speak the word from a distance. He stood by the side of the bed, and taking that thin, fevered, and sick hand in His, lifted up and gave healing. It is quite remarkable how often Jesus took people by the hand. In this same chapter we read that a leper came to Jesus ; " and Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth His hand and touched him." Touched a leper! So when He restored to life the daughter of Jairus, " He took the damsel by the hand." When He gave sight to the blind man, " He took him by the hand and led him out of the town." When a son was brought

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to Him possessed of an evil spirit, "Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up." Indeed, the use of the hand was the universal rule. People came to ask that He would lay His hands on them. Mothers brought their children, and begged that He would touch them. He did more than touch them ; He took them in His arms and blessed them. The inquiry even was raised, " How are such mighty works wrought by His hands? " A like power He imparted to His apostles: " And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people."

The hand is a study. Art finds it difficult to chisel or paint a well-formed hand. The hand is wonderful in its organization. An English nobleman, the Earl of Bridgewater, who died in 1829, left by will forty thousand dollars to the writers of eight treatises — five thousand dollars to each — " On the power, wisdom, and goodness of God as manifested in the creation." One of these treatises, by Sir Charles Bell, was on " The hand, its mechanism and vital endowments as evincing design." But if the glory of God is to be seen in the structure of the hand, may not a higher glory be revealed in the right use of the hand ?

Character comes out in the hand. Says a popular writer: "There is as much diversity in the character of hands as in faces. Some are very white and shapely, and a diamond flashes prettily upon them ; but having said this you have said all. Others suggest honest work and plenty of it, and for such the sensible will ever have real respect. There are some hands that make you think of creatures whose blood is cold. A lady's hand in society often suggests

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feebleness, lack of vitality, a thing to touch decorously ; and if feeling betray you into giving a hearty grasp and pressure, you find that you are only causing pain and reducing the member to a confused jumble of bones and sinews. There are hands that suggest fancy-work, light crochet needles, and neuralgia."

There are many uses of the hand. Art has given it attention. It speaks in pictures, and becomes a symbol in stone. A well-known picture of Washington with hand extended seems to say, " See, here is a hand that never did its neighbor wrong. It signed the death-warrant of Andre, it struck for liberty, but it wrought for the good of man." A picture of the crucifixion represents the rabble with hands uplifted and fingers spread, seeming to voice the cruel sentiment, " Crucify Him, crucify Him." Secret societies and various crafts speak through the hand. The life or death of the Roman gladiator hung upon the turning of the hand, the thumb being up or down. The raised hand accompanies the judicial oath. Palmistry pretends to find prophecies in the lines of the hand. With the laying on of hands kings were crowned, priests were consecrated, and presbyters were ordained.

But the grandest use to which the hand was ever put, the holiest laying on of hands, is that of which I wish now to speak. It is such a use of the hand as we can all practise. It requires not wealth, nor position, nor gifts of intellect. The feeblest and the humblest are privileged here. Oh, these ministries of the hand ! What opportunities to heal and help, to bless and comfort in a simple way! In the words, " Jesus took her

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by the hand and lifted her up," we seem to find a hidden meaning. I hear the Great Physician saying, " See, this is the way in which you are to do good to men, — take them by the hand." You must come near to men ; give them the benefit of a close personal contact. You must touch them if you would do them good. You recall the parable of the good Samaritan. The priest and the Levite passed by on the other side. The Samaritan came to the suffering man, stooped over him, bound up the wounds with his own hands, and then threw his strong arms around him, lifted him upon his own beast, and brought him to the inn. That was Christianity ; that is the way. To be Christ-like, you must come where the needy and suffering are; you must feel a sympathy and furnish a relief that is wholly your own. You cannot do good by proxy. It is well to send ; it is better to go. Jesus does not say, " I was sick, and ye inquired after Me; " but, "ye visited Me." He does not say, " I was in prison, and ye sent to Me; " but, "ye came unto Me." Words are cheap; deeds cost. There are persons who feel more compassion for men far away than for the suffering at their own door. They will weep over ideal cases, but to touch a degraded brother, or to help up a fallen sister, is too defiling for their dainty hand. The heart compassionates, but the hand draws back. Says the writer from whom I have quoted : " Suppose a doctor should address his patients through a speaking-trumpet, and hand them his remedies on the end of a very long rod. Death would laugh at his efforts. People can be saved only as Christ saved them. We must go where they are, lay our hands upon them, and look sympathy and

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is hope right into their eyes." Many of you will recall this passage in a well-known book : —

" ( People can love you if you are black, Topsy,' said Eva ; 1 Miss Ophelia would love you if you were good.'

" ' No/ replied Topsy, ' she can't bear to touch me ; there can't nobody love me.'

" ' Oh, Topsy, poor child ! I love you,' said Eva, laying her thin white hand on Topsy's shoulder, — ' I love you and want you to be good.'

" ' It puts me in mind of mother ; ' said St. Clare, who was watching them. 1 It is true, what she told me ; if we want to give sight to the blind, we must be willing to do as Christ did, — call them to us and put our hands upon them.' "

This is what I say : The example and voice of Jesus is, " Put out your hand ; raise the fallen ; be close, direct, personal in your acts of love." The world honors those who, walking in Jesus' steps, have shown this love. The names of John Howard, Elizabeth Fry, Florence Nightingale, and others, speak of personal sacrifice, and devotion to the cause of suffering humanity, and will live as long as the world stands.

It is to the credit of Christianity that it originates benevolent societies, founds humane and charitable institutions, and sustains the great missionary movements of the present age. Jesus set an example of sympathy for the suffering ; He enjoins love, and out of His gospel the charities of the world spring. Natural religion has never founded hospitals and asylums. The people of pagan and half-civilized countries have not provided for their helpless and needy ones. On the contrary, they have put to death the weak, practised infanticide, and left aged parents to die through starvation and neglect. Christianity seeks to preserve the life of the feeblest. It founds asylums and hospitals, establishes homes for the friendless, gives instruction to the ignorant, takes poor children into the country on summer excursions, and in various ways shows kindness to the needy and the weak. But there must be something more than a general benevolence. We cannot credit to ourselves personally what is done by all. Of each of us, as individuals, it is demanded that we shall exhibit the Christ-spirit. As opportunity is given we must enter the home of sickness, the abode of poverty, the habitation of grief, and by the word of encouragement and the touch of the hand strengthen and lift up. We claim to be followers of Him who went about doing good ; that is to be our mission still. We must illustrate our faith by our works. The heart and the hand must keep time. To say, " Be ye warmed and filled," will not profit. The hand must put a garment upon the naked and set food before the hungry, and then the faith is proven and a real good is done. Paul advocated faith in the heart ; James said, " If it is there, you will see it in the hands." Orthodoxy in the head and heart has its flower and fruitage in the hands. You cannot feed the poor with Bibles. Give them bread with the Bible, and you will do them good. Show them religion, and then the Book into which its life-roots strike and out of which it grows. It would not be strange if it were your mission literally to take a fallen man or woman by the hand. What a power did John B. Gough, with his redeemed and useful life, become, all because of a kind word and an uplifting

THE TOUCH OF A HAND.

hand ! And even a fallen woman Jesus did not despise, but said, " Go and sin no more." With the woman also at the well He held friendly conversation; reminded her of her sinful life, and while drinking from her earthen pitcher gave to her in exchange " living water." Doubtless there are many men and women, who might be reclaimed from a life of sin if they could but feel the gush of a warm heart and the grasp of a helping hand. Says one : —

" I went to the orchard, where men and boys were picking apples. There hung the fruit in red and tempting beauty on branches very difficult to reach. Here was a twenty-foot ladder set up, and on it a man was stretching out, right and left, almost bursting his jacket, to pluck the coy and unwilling fruit. There, again, was another ladder forty feet long, and on it stood another man, at a giddy height, reaching all around him for the apples. A strong wind the day before had shaken off one half the fruit, and there it lay plump and perfect on the ground. 'Look here,' said I, 'why not put in these apples? They are perfectly sound.' 'No,' said the farmer, ' not one of those will answer for winter use. They will show a bruise in thirty days and will begin to perish. Don't put an apple into the barrel which is not hand-picked. Those are the only ones you can rely upon.'

" My blunder over the apples was the blunder of many a gatherer of spiritual fruit. It is a popular fallacy of good people that soul-saving can be done in some wholesale way. Some rushing mighty wind is looked for to shake down the fruit which we are sent to hand-pick with pains and care. All Scripture, as all experience, exposes the mistake. The way of the Spirit of God is through one heart to another heart ; through one eye into another eye; through one inviting voice into the ear of a friend who listens apart. Handi3

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picking is the rule of saving the fruit of the kingdom. Great revivals are merely wide-spread efforts of pious people to bring others to Christ. Given the longing, the asking, and the doing, and there is the revival. The fruit for winter use must all be hand-picked. The fruit of the kingdom, if you could but see, would all bear traces of some loving touch."

I desire, my friends, to impress upon you the mighty power of a loving hand. Do not leave it to the pastor or to the few to build up the church. Draw by the magnetism of your own warm heart and loving hand. Let no one call you cold, selfish, and unfeeling. Smile, speak to children, put out a warm, loving, helping hand to all. Ah, in how many cases, if men, Christ-like, would take the prostrate by the hand, — those down in heart, down in circumstances, down in fortune, and down in character, — might they lift up, inspirit, and make whole ! That hand was given you not simply for personal ends, but as imposing an obligation to grasp the fevered hand of some feebler brother, to bear the compliments of a loving heart, to feed, clothe, cheer, welcome, and lead to Him who is the Saviour of sinners and the Light of the world.

We are not done with the text yet. Read it again : " And He came." That is, Jesus. It is Jesus whom the sick one needs. Fevered soul, it is Jesus whom you need. Great Physician ! He alone can give you health ! You show the symptoms of a dreadful malady; you feel the pain and weariness of this universal complaint; you are like one who tosses from side to side by turns ; you change the place, but

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keep the pain ; you burn with fever, and are withered like a leaf. Why do you not seek the aid of this Great Physician? He is near. He came to Peter's home ; He will come to your heart. He is even here to-day; will you not tell Him your difficulty? will you not take the healing that He brings ? As certainly as He stood by the bedside of the sick of old and extended a healing, helping hand, so certainly does He offer to you that same hand to-day. Place your hand in His ; let Him lift you up.

Again, note: How much did Peter's wife's mother do toward her own restoration? Not anything. She simply put her thin withered hand in the hand that was extended to her. This is all you have to do. We do not make ourselves well. We simply accept, receive, say yes, are willing to be healed, and Christ does it all. There are no wearisome processes to be gone through with. It is not, Do so and so, and you will get well. They err who tell us that coming to Jesus is a gradual growth into a better life ; that reformation can be effected only by long protracted struggles, and after months and years of watchfulness and toil. Improvement may go on, but the regenerating act is instantaneous, and is wholly Christ's. Note those words, "And immediately the fever left her." She was not put under treatment ; she had nothing to do. And you have nothing to do but simply to submit; to let Christ do His work. Give Him your hand and say, Great Physician, heal. The new life is simple. Christ is the author of it, and He gives it to those who earnestly desire it. Will you receive it now?

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Note further ; the sick one did not sit down to enjoy her newly restored health. " The fever left her, and she ministered unto them." She entered immediately into the service of the Healer. She proved the genuineness of the miracle by showing that she was well, by the exertion of the strength imparted. But in addition to this she used her strength in behalf of those who had brought her this blessing. " She ministered unto them." See the reciprocal power of a good deed. You cannot lift up another, but that that other shall in some way serve you. It may be your turn to fall ; you may need a helping hand ; and then the men whom you have blessed may impart a blessing to you. Or if not that, the kindness done shall open to you a mine of joy. The thankfulness of the one befriended, the improved condition in which you have placed him, the hope and courage that you have awakened, and the strength that you have inspired, shall be an ample recompense, — a reciprocated ministry that shall make you feel that every word of kindness and every act of love pays.

And then this new life is a consecrated life ; it ministers to Christ. It is true of all whom Christ makes whole that immediately they rise and minister to Him. He laid His hands on Saul of Tarsus, on John Bunyan, on John Newton, — men in whom the malady of sin was violently raging, — and instantly they became His devoted followers. The first cry of restored life was, " Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" All are expected to rise from the sick-bed of sin to enter most heartily into the service of Christ. You who claim to be restored, are you ministering to

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Him? Do you take this imparted health and strength and soundness to serve yourself with? If not restored, call on the Physician now; obtain the healing, and begin, from this hour, to be an earnest, wide-awake, warm-hearted, hand-helping Christian. That hand must not be idle; what it finds to do, it must do; its time of service is now.

And cannot some of us act the part of Peter, telling Jesus of the sick, and escorting Him to the home where His mercy may be shown? It is our part to bring together the Healer and the people to be helped. Here are the sick, and yonder is Jesus by the sea. Let us bring Him up the Capernaum streets, and halting at Peter's door say, " Here, Great Physician, enter, approach the bed of sickness, show Thy power, and mercifully heal." Let us try to bring together the sick and the Physician, our friends and Christ. Let us urge them to seek and accept this Saviour; and let us with unwonted importunity pray Him to come and visit our sick, and raise them up from the gates of death. My friends, if souls perish around us, it will largely be because we do not personally speak to the Physician for them; and because we do not take them by the hand and commend them to Him who is able and ready to heal.

THE PALM AND THE CEDAR.

Other trees when old leave off bearing ; not so God's trees. The last days of the saints are sometimes their best days, and their last work their best.

Matthew Henry.

II. The Palm And The Cedar

The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree : he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanoii. — Psalm xcii. 12.

HERE are two trees mentioned that were indigenous to the land of Palestine. Both, from their structure, characteristics, and uses, were regarded as symbolical trees. The palm-tree with its tall slender trunk, having no branches save a tuft of leaves at the top, is noted for the variety of uses to which it is put. The fruit of this tree is often eaten in the form of dates. The leaves are made into palm-leaf fans, and the juice, whether fermented or not, is used at the East as a pleasant beverage. A writer says : —

u The date is a favorite fruit with many, few of whom have any knowledge of the extensive date forests which in the Barbary States are sometimes miles in length. When thus grown the palms are exceedingly beautiful. Their towering crests, touching each other, form an immense natural temple, in which brilliantly plumaged birds sing their morning and evening hymns. The ground below is carpeted with exquisite wild flowers of every tint and color.

" The tree when in its prime bears about two hundred and fifty pounds of dates ; but its value is not by any means

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confined to the fruit. A pleasant beverage called palm wine is djawn from the trunk by tapping, as they do sugar-maples in New England. The trunks of the old trees furnish a hard and durable wood for building purposes and making furniture. The leaves make baskets, hats, and various household utensils, and the fibres of the leaves are stripped out and made into twines and ropes. Even the stones are of use, — the fresh for planting, and the dried are turned to account in Egypt for cattle feed, in China for the manufacture of Indian ink, and in Spain for making the tooth-powder sold as ivory black."

The finest palm-trees grew about Jericho, and hence it was sometimes spoken of as the " City of palm-trees." The presence of this tree was an indication of water even in the midst of the most desert country. The palm-tree is first mentioned in Exodus xv. 27. The Israelites, we are told, encamped at " Elim, where were twelve wells of water and threescore and ten palm-trees." The fruit of the trees, besides the shade and the wells, may have had some influence in leading them to encamp there. It is said that whole tribes of Arabs and Africans find their chief sustenance in the date. The leaves of the palm are from four to six and eight feet in length, ranged in a bunch round the top of the stem. They are used at the East not only for fans, but for covering the roofs or sides of houses, for fences, framework, mats, and baskets. Palm-leaves were used in celebrating the feast of Pentecost. The command is : " And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm-trees," etc. So also when Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem the people " took branches of palm-trees and went forth to meet Him." For this reason the last Sunday in Lent is

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2 7 known in some churches as Palm-Sunday. In some parts of Europe, particularly in Italy, France, and Spain, the palm is cultivated, and its leaves sold for Jewish and Christian festivals. As the palm abounded in Judea, and it was there where the Greeks and Romans in proceeding south would first meet with it, it was natural that the Roman conquerors of that country should place on their coins and medals the image of a woman sitting under a palm-tree weeping, with the inscription " Judea Capta." As a symbol of victory the palm is mentioned as used by the glorified above. They " stood before the throne with white robes, and palms in their hands." In the Song of Solomon it is said of the Church, " Thy stature is like to a palm-tree."

The other tree mentioned in the text, — the cedar, — is also much celebrated, and is frequently referred to in the Scriptures. It is described as shooting out its branches at a distance of ten or twelve feet from the ground. Its leaves are always green, and it distils a kind of gum, to which different effects are attributed. The wood of this tree is incorruptible, beautiful, and solid. It was used not only in the form of beams and planks for the covering of edifices and for ceilings to apartments, but was placed in the body of the walls themselves and so disposed that there were three rows of stone and one of cedar-wood. Of the Temple of Solomon it is written: "And he built the inner court with three rows of hewed stone and a row of cedar beams." The prophet Ezekiel is adduced as giving the most magnificent and at the same time most graphic description of this tree : " Behold the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and

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with a shadowing shroud, and of a high stature ; and his top was among the thick boughs. . . . Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth. All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs." A remarkable characteristic of the cedar is the great age which it attains. The cedars of California are supposed to have been standing before the Christian era. One, a section of which was brought to the Atlantic coast some years ago from California, was judged to have stood three thousand years. There are cedars standing on Mount Lebanon now which are supposed to have existed in Old Testament times.

Thus viewing these trees, how apt and beautiful does the language of the text appear, — "The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree : he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon " !

I. We have here a symbol of moral beauty. As the eye rests with delight on a large and well-formed tree, its extended branches, its variegated leaves, or its countless blossoms, so the life of a truly godly man appeals to our spiritual apprehension, fixes attention, and awakens feelings of approval and joy. Much is said in the Scriptures of the beauty of holiness. It is in the " beauty of holiness " that we are to worship the Lord. It is the prayer of the righteous, " Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us." It is also written, " Thy people shall be willing " — that is, free-will offerings — " in the day of Thy power, in the beauties of holiness."