Memorials of the Rev. Charles W. Baird, D.D. ...

Prefatory Note

The wish has been widely expressed by those who hold the noble Christian life of the late Rev. Dr. Charles W. Baird, of Rye, in grateful and affectionate remembrance, that the accounts of the last exercises in his honor might be gathered and placed in a permanent form.

It has been urged that many of his parishioners and personal friends would esteem it a privilege to possess the record of the tender words spoken in the church, the very appreciative delineations of his character and work as pastor, preacher, and historian, given later at the memorial services, and some, at least, of the tributes rendered in the public press to his useful and honored course.

In response to such appeals this little volume is printed. To gratify those who may be less fully acquainted with the incidents of the life of Dr. Baird, a brief biographical sketch is prefixed, written by his brother, Professor Henry M. Baird, of the University of

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the City of New York. The nature of the addresses, and the different occasions on which they were delivered, will account for a certain number of unavoidable repetitions of statement. Some of these it has been deemed difficult or undesirable to remove. In many cases, however, passages have been left out, whose omission is, for the most part, indicated by the use of periods

Such a memorial as this would have been manifestly incomplete had it contained nothing from the pen of him to whom it principally refers. Ten of Dr. Baird's sermons are therefore inserted, together with a few sacred poems, as constituting a fitting conclusion of the book. The choice from among so many discourses which seemed entitled to a place has been by no means an easy one, and has been influenced somewhat by preferences expressed. Those which have been finally chosen for publication are now given, with the fervent hope and prayer that the blessing of God may accompany them to the conversion and edification of those who read. Thus will the highest purpose be fulfilled of the beloved dead, who, through his long and faithful pastorate, felt that he had no other commission than to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

M. E. B.

Contents

PAGE

Biographical Sketch i

Dr. Hitchcock's Address 13

I. The Yoke And The Cross

Matt. xi. 28.

" Take My yoke upon you.'

Mark. x. 21.

" Take up the cross."

Here are two invitations to a duty — the duty of serving Christ ; and here are two images of that service — the yoke, and the cross. It would not occur to any one of us to select either of these images for the purpose of an invitation. Both the objects named are uninviting, displeasing. The yoke, as it was in use in our Saviour's time, and as it is still used in Eastern countries, a heavy wooden frame, designed for beasts of labor. And the cross, familiar to the Jews in our Saviour's day, though a Roman and not a Jewish instrument of death, a heavy wooden frame designed for condemned criminals. Both of these objects were burdensome. Both were imposed, unwillingly endured, never assumed. The yoke was put upon the neck. The cross was laid on the shoulders, and carried by the criminal, or by some one acting for him, to the place of crucifixion. " Him they compelled to bear his cross."

The first thing then that we notice in these sayings of Christ is the seeming contradiction involved in each of

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them. Each contains a double paradox, or seeming contradiction. First, in the command, Take My yoke, Take the cross. Submit, we should rather expect to hear it said, in connection with figures like these, yield to the yoke, the cross ; not, assume it, lay hold upon it, appropriate it. And secondly, in the design of the command. The yoke is for labor. All its associations are with toil hard and strenuous work. Yet Christ bids us take it in order to rest. Ye shall find rest unto your souls. The cross is for suffering and death. All its associations are with pain and sacrifice. Yet Christ says to the young man who comes to Him asking, what shall I do that I may have eternal life ? take up the cross ; choose that, and you choose eternal life.

Thus we see that these sayings of our Lord, have this in common with each other, that they present to us a great duty in a very striking form. The duty, I repeat, is that of giving ourselves to His service, submitting ourselves, freely and gladly, to the obedience of His will, following Him in a path of self-denial. And the paradox^ the seeming contradiction involved in the use of the strong figure employed in each case to set forth this idea, stamps the thought upon the mind in a form most definite. " Take My yoke upon you. Take up the cross."

Another fact to be noticed is that these are the only sayings of Jesus in which that duty is thus stated. We meet with no other images in the Gospel, of submission to Christ, obedience to His will, self-denial for His sake, at all analogous to these in our text. The yoke and the cross are the two chosen emblems of His service. And the command coupled with these images — " Take My yoke upon you, take up the cross " — is like nothing else in the Saviour's teachings.

THE YOKE AND THE CROSS.

Again, these sayings of Christ have this in common with each other, that the object mentioned by the Saviour is in each case an object identified with Himself, to receive which is to come into fellowship with Him. Take My yoke upon you. Share this service, this toil, with Me. Take up the cross — the cross that speaks of My sufferings and death. Each of these objects is His. And to appropriate it is to be brought into a close relation and companionship with Christ.

Again, these two invitations of Christ to men have this in common, that both were addressed to persons in whom the Saviour was deeply interested, whom He was exceedingly anxious to win to His service, and who seemed peculiarly susceptible to His persuasions, and very likely to be influenced by them. You remember in what connection it was that Jesus spoke to men of His service as a yoke. Come, He said to those among the multitudes whom He saw to be unsatisfied, unhappy, longing for inward peace, and weary of seeking that peace through the outward forms of a ceremonial religion. " Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you." And you remember on what occasion it was that Christ spoke to a man of His service as a cross : when one came running, and kneeled to Him, and asked with such earnestness and ingenuousness, What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? " Come," said Jesus, beholding him with a love that sought his salvation, " take up the cross and follow Me."

But now with these points of correspondence, there are certain points of marked difference between these sayings of Christ, which I shall ask you to consider also. And first, the Lord Jesus spoke to men of bearing His

SERMONS.

yoke, before He mentioned His cross to them. It was many months after that invitation addressed to the laboring and the heavy-laden, in which He used the former of these emblems, that Jesus began to show unto His disciples how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day ; and that for the first time He made use of this image of His sufferings and death, the cross, as an emblem of the self-denial that would be necessary in the case of every one who should follow Him. The yoke preceded the cross in the order of Christ's teachings as we have them in the Gospels. And so, we may remark, in the order of the Saviour's dealings with us, the duty of submitting to Christ comes first. Take His yoke upon you, and learn of Him. This is the first thing to do. What there will be for you of cross-bearing you cannot foresee now. The present, the immediate duty for you, is to assume His yoke.

In the second place, I remark that the Lord Jesus spoke to men of bearing His yoke in terms which He never used when He spoke of bearing the cross. He said : " My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." Those who come to Him to seek rest, in submitting to His authority and will, find it so. Love to Him makes it pleasant to obey Him. His commands indeed are no other than those which once seemed irksome and displeasing when the heart had not yielded to God. But now that the heart is changed, now that it feels a Saviour's love, duty ceases to be viewed as repugnant, hateful. For the sinful nature indeed that has not been utterly destroyed, it will still be what it was, hard and against the grain. But for the new man, the nature that

THE YOKE AND THE CROSS.

has been created in you by God's good spirit, duty is light, and grace makes the doing of it easy. But observe that Christ never spoke of His cross as light, or of cross-bearing as easy. It is not joyous but grievous. Religion in one of its aspects is stern and trying. Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life. There are struggles with sin that are like resisting unto blood. There are self-denials that are like plucking out an eye or parting with very life. Christ does not call these things easy.

Thirdly, let us notice that of the two images before us, and of the ideas that are connected with them, the one was much more familiar to our Lord's hearers than the other. It was far less difficult to understand Him when He spoke of taking on a yoke, than when He spoke of taking up a cross. The Jews could not be surprised when the Saviour referred to His service under this name. They themselves were in the habit of speaking of their religious law, the ceremonial law of Moses, as it was interpreted to them by the Scribes and Pharisees, as a yoke, and they were accustomed to this image as an emblem also of political subjection. At this very time, the iron yoke of Roman despotism was resting upon their nation, just as in former ages their fathers had groaned under the burden of the Assyrian and Babylonian rule. Besides, they were familiar with this image, as it frequently appeared in their Scriptures. God said to His people, when He had brought them forth out of Egypt: " I have broken the bands of your yoke." The Jews were warned by Moses, that if they should forsake the Lord, He would put a yoke of iron upon their neck, till He should have destroyed them. Isaiah prophesied of the coming of Christ, to break the yoke of His people's burden. Jere-

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miah was directed of God to make yokes, and send them to the kings of Edom and Moab and other neighboring nations, with a message from God bidding them submit to the king of Babylon and serve him, until the time should come for the downfall of that kingdom. All men know that such yoke-bearing, whether for individuals or for nations, though it may not be pleasant, is often necessary and useful. Human nature needs restraints, and God in His wisdom sees to it that we shall have them. Providence lays them upon us, and whilst the yoke is not of our choosing, often the safest and best thing for us to do is to submit to it. Hananiah, the false prophet, took the yoke which Jeremiah had placed upon his own neck, as a sign to his people that they must submit to the dominion of the king of Babylon, and broke it in the presence of all the people, and said : "Thus saith the Lord, even thus will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years." But God sent word to him : " Thou hast broken the yoke of wood, but I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations." Often the very worst thing that could befall us would be the sudden removal of providential checks and burdens from us, a sudden emancipation from bonds which we have thought severe, a freedom to act our own pleasure and serve our own ends. How many have lived to testify to the truth of the prophet's words : " It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth." Better a strict rule than no rule. Better a stern, hard discipline than lawlessness. For the heaviest, sorest yoke that can be laid upon us, is the yoke of Satan's service ; and when the sinner thinks himself most free, to find his happiness in the pleasures of sin, he is most a slave.

THE YOKE AND THE CROSS.

I say, then, that in using this image to represent His service, our Lord employed language very familiar to His hearers, and very clear, I add, to us. Submit we must in this life, and as the finite and mortal beings that we are, to discipline, to restraint, to bounds and limitations that may fitly be likened to a yoke. There is no escape for us, no choice between service and freedom ; but ah ! we have a choice as to the service. The Lord Jesus Christ invites us to choose His service, and tells us that in so doing we shall find rest for our souls. In every other service, under every other yoke, we shall experience, sooner or later, dissatisfaction, weariness, unrest. It may be from no fault in the service. You are tied down to business. It is an honest, a useful employment to which Providence has manifestly called you, and in which Providence manifestly detains you. But you chafe under its burdens and amid its restrictions ; you weary of its monotony; you droop under its narrow and low prospects ; you are disappointed with its poor and mean rewards. Or, though the occupation be congenial, and though prospered in it beyond all expectation, still, it is in vain that you seek in its gains and profits the rest and the peace of soul for which you secretly thirst. " The world can never give the peace for which we sigh." Much more, if the service be in itself sinful, if the yoke be the yoke of self-indulgence, of sensuality, of grasping covetousnesss, much more must there be discord in the soul, from an outraged conscience and from opposition to a holy God. But Christ says : " Take My yoke upon you. Come to Me for rest. In My service you shall have peace with God, and peace with self, and peace with nature, and peace with all the orderings and appointments of Providence." Your yoke, your burden, the pressure

SERMONS.

of which you will feel in your daily duties and under your daily trials — it will not be the claims of business, the necessities of your position, the force of circumstances, the responsibilities of life, so much as Christ's service, into which duties and trials and responsibilities shall all resolve themselves ; and though you seem to be the busy, toil-worn man of trade, or the patient worker in the home, you shall have it to say: " I serve the Lord Christ " ; and you shall be able to testify, His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.

But the cross was no such familiar object to those who heard it mentioned in the Saviour's later teachings. It was an unusual, a mysterious, and an awful emblem ; and such it continued to be when men came to understand its meaning, and to see that it represented the trials, the sacrifices, the self-denials of the Christian life.

Once more, I remark, our best preparation for the trials and self-denials that may await us in the Christian life, is to be found in meek submission to the Saviour, and simple obedience to His commands. The easy yoke will prepare us for the hard and painful cross. Sometimes, it is true, difficulties and sufferings meet the disciple at the threshold of the Christian's life, and the first step he takes, in following the Saviour, is the step that costs the most of sacrifice and self-renouncement. So the convert from heathenism has often found it, when all the ties of nature, and all the bonds of friendship held him back from Christ, and only by a wrench that seemed to tear the heart asunder could he break away from the old life and free himself to serve the Lord ; and so Christ set His service before the rich young man, who was so wedded to his possessions, and so encased in his self-righteousness, that the only hope to win him to that service was by setting

THE YOKE AND THE CROSS.

before him at once its stern requirements, and calling up the cross. But more usually, under the preaching of the Gospel, and amidst the influences of religion, the invitation that goes forth to men, is to take Christ's yoke upon them, to yield their hearts to Him, to engage at once in the work of doing His will, and accustom themselves to His service. More usually, the dealings of God with the young especially are very gentle and gracious ; and whilst He bids them count the cost of entering upon that service, and forsaking the service of a sinful world, it is the yoke and not the cross which they have in present, immediate view. God in His providence so orders it that they may first learn the sweet lesson of submission to Jesus, of believing in Him as their Redeemer and obeying Him as their Master, and experiencing the happiness of serving Him in all things, and enjoying the blessed freedom that He gives from the service of sin, and the heavy burden of care, and the weary effort to work out their own righteousness; before they shall know much of religion as a cross ; before any great sacrifices will be demanded of them ; before any fierce temptations will assail them ; before they shall have to drink deep in the cup of sorrow. And this, dear friends, is a very merciful arrangement of our loving Saviour. O how tenderly and how beseechingly He says now to you in the morning of life, comparatively shielded from the troubles of life, and yet really burdened with sin, and needing to be delivered from the bondage of Satan, and from the accusings of a conscience that is not at peace, Come unto Me, and take My yoke upon you ! What are all these dealings of your heavenly Father with you, dealings peculiarly gentle and gracious, but opportunities to engage in this good service, to accustom yourself to this light and easy yoke, to

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acquaint yourself with this kind Master, to exercise yourself in the daily and common duties of the Christian life that you may be prepared for the stern trials, the sharp conflicts, the bitter sacrifices that maybe to come? I do not say that God has promised to keep the cross faraway out of your sight, even for the present. Very possibly you may see something of it now. Christ gave intimations of His own approaching sufferings to His disciples long before He began to speak to them plainly on the subject. He told Nicodemus, who came to Him by night, in strange and mysterious language, of some future provision for saving men ; of the lifting up of the Son of man, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, long before He even mentioned the cross to Peter and James and John. And so for the young Christian there may be some early foretaste of the trials and self-denials that he must needs endure if faithful to his Saviour ; and he must count the cost. He must give himself to Christ for all time and all eternity, and for every service and every experience that may be in keeping for him. He must be willing to take up his cross now. Self is to be denied, sin is to be crucified from the first. "Whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after Me cannot," says Christ, " be My disciple." But as yet probably it is only a dim and remote conception to you, this cross-bearing, this endurance of great trial, much suffering, for Jesus' sake. What you have to do now is chiefly to bear His yoke. O, see to it that you do that, and do it faithfully and heartily ! Learn to accept all duties as part of Christ's service. Home duties, week-day duties, Sabbath and sanctuary duties, labors in the Sabbath-school, secret prayer, Bible study, daily and hourly watching over the life, deeds of kindness towards

THE YOKE AND THE CROSS.

8 9 others, gifts to the poor and to the Church and Kingdom of Christ — learn to accept all these things as forming part of the service which He invites you to render Him, and which you promised to render Him when you took His yoke upon you. Do not call these duties crosses. Cross-bearing is another thing. Ah ! you will know the cross when it comes — when the Master sees fit to lay it upon you. That cross may be bitter reproach for His sake. It may be chronic infirmity or acute suffering. It may be the giving up of cherished plans and purposes, and the taking up of unwelcome and difficult duties. It may be the fight with temptation, the resisting unto blood, striving against sin. But the practice of these quiet duties of the home life, and the daily calling, and the Sabbath and the secret walks with God — this is bearing the yoke of Jesus ; and it is an easy yoke. Easy, not to our selfish and corrupt nature, that rebels against any work that is not in harmony with its evil inclinations, but easy to that in you that loves Christ and desires to be holy ; easy to the new man, which is renewed after the image of that Saviour, and wants to grow more and more like Him. And the faithful bearing of this yoke will prepare you to endure the cross when God shall send it. Learning of Jesus, as thus you strive humbly to serve Him in lowly, quiet ways, submission, obedience, will bring you so close to Him, into such sweet and blessed sympathy with Him, that when trial comes it will be found that nothing can separate you from His love. Neither life nor death, nor things present nor things to come, shall be able to separate you from the love of God which is Christ Jesus your Lord.

Follow the disciple who has grown accustomed to the Master's yoke into the world of temptation. Follow him

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SERMONS.

into the valley of affliction and the shadow of death, and will he deny the Lord who bought him, when the light burden of His services is exchanged for the heavy cross? The young Christian goes forth from the home where he has felt the gentle constraint of holy influences, from the Christian fold, where he has become well acquainted with the Shepherd's voice. He goes forth with grateful love and humble confidence towards his Redeemer, to find himself surrounded, in strange scenes, by those who make a mock at sin; to find himself beset with persuasions and enticements to evil, and with the mightier arguments of scorn and ridicule of all that is good. What better preparation could he have for that great trial of principle, that heavy cross, than the bearing of his Saviour's yoke in the times of his security and peace ? The Christian who has led a life singularly placid and prospered, with few experiences that could be called crosses, but steadily and earnestly striving to bear the yoke of submission and obedience to his dear Lord, is suddenly brought to know severe suffering or fierce temptation or crushing affliction. What better preparation could there have been for him against that hour than the long acquaintance with Jesus and His service which he has been enabled to gain while wearing that yoke. " Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He hath never wronged me," said Polycarp, the early martyr, when commanded to renounce his faith in Christ, that he might escape the flames; "and shall I deny Him now? You threaten me in vain."

Blessed yoke of Jesus ! may we bear it willingly, cheerfully, and be ready for the cross, when it shall please Him to send it, that we may honor Him in His own appointed way !

Blessed religion of the Lord Jesus Christ ! so beautifully

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9 1 adapted to our wants ; so admirably suited to this life of ours, that flows on uniformly and quietly, and uneventfully, and that yet has its great emergencies, its great catastrophes ; a life to live which, we need daily guidance and discipline, and preparation too for the great trials and perils, and for the end that surely cometh !

What folly and what guilt to reject such a Friend and Saviour as the Lord Jesus Christ, whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light !

II. Go And See

Mark vi. 38.

" He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? Go and see."

Five thousand men, besides women and children, were gathered in a lonely spot, east of the Lake of Galilee, far from town or village. They had been listening for many hours in rapt attention to the words of the Lord Jesus ; and He, moved even more than usually with compassion at the sight of so great a multitude, so ignorant, so dependent, so like unto sheep not having a shepherd, seemed as indifferent as they to the lapse of time. But the sun was now sinking behind the hills of Naphtali, and the shadows were lengthening across the little plain where they were met. The disciples are the first to notice the approach of evening, and to bethink themselves of the necessities of the hour. They venture to interrupt their Lord, and remind Him : " This is a desert place, and the time is far passed ; send the multitude away, that they may go into the country round about, and buy themselves bread." Jesus " knew what He would do"; but His purpose of mercy toward the famished multitude was a purpose also of wise instruction for His disciples. Before resorting to the expedient of His omnipotence to meet the exigency of the occasion, He sets them upon

GO AND SEE.

contriving how to meet that exigency with their own narrow devices and slender resources. He fastens upon them their responsibility in the matter. And He answered and said unto them : "They need not depart ; give ye them to eat." At the same time, calling to Him one of the disciples, Philip of Bethsaida, who was a native of that region, and might therefore be supposed to be better acquainted than the rest with the ways and means for the supply of this urgent want, He said unto him, " Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat ? " Philip, making a rough estimate of the numbers present, pronounced the plan impracticable. Two hundred pennyworth of bread — a sum much beyond their collective means — would not begin to satisfy the hunger of so many. Clearly the people must be sent away, to shift for themselves. But this thought was one which the Master would not entertain for a moment. He will hold His disciples to the duty. They must provide for the necessities of this multitude. If they cannot buy bread for them, they must give them what they have, be it ever so little. And so, dropping the plan of supply by purchase, and following up His first startling suggestion, ''Give ye them to eat," He asks them, " How many loaves have ye ? Go and see."

" Go and see." It is possible that these words may have been added to the question, in order to prevent a hasty and inexact reply. The disciples were doubtless ready with the answer. " We have none. We brought no bread along with us. We came on short notice and in secret with Thee to this desert place, not expecting to remain here so long, and we have no provisions, or none worth mentioning." The answer would have been natural, and it would have been true, so far as their knowledge at

SERMONS.

the moment extended. For it was only upon inquiry that one of the disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, learned what he hastened to report to the Master: " There is a lad here, which hath five barley-loaves, and two small fishes; but what are they," he added, "among so many?" What, indeed. These loaves were little cakes, three of which were required for the meal of a single person; and the whole stock of the young commissary would not have exceeded the want of one hungry man at that late hour of the day. It was to draw out this fact, which Andrew thought so slight and insignificant, that our Lord added to the question, " How many loaves have ye?" the command, " Go and see."