Sermons, lectures and essays

Front matter

I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.!:

| UNITED STATES OP AMERICA, f

Lectures, and Essays.

Contents

SERMONS.

PAGE.

I. The Scriptures, . . . • . .9 II. What Think Ye of Christ ? . . . 30

II. What Think Ye Of Christ?

" What think ye of Christ?" Matt, xxii, 42.

It will not be disputed that about eighteen hundred years ago, when Augustus Caesar was Emperor of Rome and Herod was Governor of Judea, a remarkable person appeared, whose whole life and teachings were altogether different from, and often the reverse of, other great philosophers and leaders of schools. We say it will not be disputed, for his name and history are easily traced through all the times down to the present day— traced not only in friendly but unfriendly history. Even profane history establishes the existence and history of Christ as certainly as that of Caesar, Plutarch, Mark Antony, Pliny, or Cicero.

Of his personal appearance it is noteworthy that, though the New Testament writers describe him so fully, as to birth, life, doctrines, sayings, doings, travels, and death, not one word is given to gratify our curiosity as to his stature, complexion, or countenance : nothing from which the painter, sculptor, or relic-hunter can get a single hint. And we feel very sure, from his doctrines and examples, that he

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?

never designed the world to know this. No good could come of it. Indeed Paul says expressly: " We are to know him no more after the flesh." (2 Cor. v, 16.) He told those that were referring to his kindred after the flesh, that his brother was " he that doeth the will of my Father in heaven." There are innumerable pictures of Him, all claiming to be true; but they differ from each other, and must all differ from the real person. One of the most noted is that of the Romish Church, which was made from a description of Christ by Lentulus, said to be written to the Roman Senate ; he claiming to be a Roman of Palestine. This picture has been imposed upon thousands of credulous Catholics, and even some Protestants. Learned men, that have examined the subject, say that it bears the marks of deception in several points, and, instead of the account being written in the first century, must have been written in the fourteenth. Its spurious 'origin is evident from the idiom of the language, as well as the contradictions in it. And even if Lentulus had written a true description of Christ, no artist could make a true likeness from a written description. We often see pictures of our Lord in Bibles, with a nimbus round his head, and with a grave, and, somefmies, corpselike countenance, all of which is false and in bad taste, and should never be encouraged. No sculptor or painter should ever attempt a picture or likeness of him who was " made flesh and dwelt among us," but was to be " Mown no more after the flesh." And

SERMONS.

if for no other reason, it is enough that no true likeness can be obtained, so that all the pictures are mere fancy.

Christ's body is not an object of worship. Whatever interest we may have in his holy body, as did Joseph, who honored it with his new tomb, yet he that would worship him "must worship in spirit." His body can not be every-where at the same time, and could not be an object of worship; but his spirit is every-where, and is the true object of worship. The world has often mistaken the nature of Christ's mission to earth. He did not come as a hero, or commander of armies, or a mere temporal ruler, or teacher. He was not a Hercules, or a Theseus, performing mighty muscular deeds. Whoever loses sight of his true mission will be sure to temporalize his religion, and miss the mark entirely. He came to "seek and to save that ivhich was Zos£." Temporal blessings, many and great, did attend his ministry; but only as the little benefits to servants in the palace of a great king.

The one great and all-important object was salvation from sin. This great central idea was continually kept before the people. And the whole history of his wonderful life is a rebuke to human pride and vanity. He always teaches the pure unearthly doctrine of humility and purity. When they would make him a king, he disappears from the company. He says: "My kingdom is not of this world." He " made himself of no reputation." Every thing in his

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?

life differed from all other systems of religion. His very dress was and is a standing rebuke to the vanity of personal adornment, and making a show in the flesh, and u admiring men's persons."

Of course his life was a standing mystery to the haughty Jews, who were expecting the Messiah to come in the clouds with chariots and the pomp of earthly power, destroying the Romans, and all their other enemies, and setting up a magnificent earthly kingdom, giving them high seats of power and profit in his kingdom. His power they could not dispute ; but the nature of it their earthly stupid minds could not comprehend. Hence, they said to him, " Come down from the cross/' showing their ignorance of Christ's mission.

Power without limit he had, and wealth without count ; but the great work he was to do was to put forth a power which was unto salvation to them that believe. This being accomplished the world will be rich enough. Poverty and crime will flee his approaching truth, as did the devils in Judea when he rebuked and sent them back to hell.

Christ was either a divine person, having all power and wisdom, or he was the greatest of all impostors. He could not be a good being, and profess what he did not possess ; especially to be the Messiah, and lord of heaven and earth, by whom the worlds were made. As to belief there is no middle ground ; there is no modification of claim. To say he was a good man, and then deny his divinity, is absurd. It

SERMONS.

would be much more consistent to reject him altogether.

Many persons are puzzled in their minds on the fact that the whole world do not believe in Christ at once, and become converted. Say they, if he be a divine teacher, why are his doctrines so slow in spreading over the earth ? Let us examine the question. Do mankind readily discover truth, and do they readily believe it when discovered for them ? What has been the history of man's slowness or quickness to receive new and useful discoveries? We answer that nothing is more characteristic of man than the stubbornness with which he holds on to his old errors, and the slowness with which he receives new and useful discoveries. Let us see his disposition to discover truth in nature. It will not be disputed that this earth went round the sun many thousand years before any one knew it ; and when it was made known by Pythagoras, it was rejected by the whole world; till two thousand years elapsed, then Copernicus proclaimed the fact again, which brought a storm of persecution upon him, and which left the subject in the dark for one hundred and forty years more, before it was generally believed. And though the earth attracts the body of every man to itself, the law of gravitation was never understood till the sixteenth century of the Christian era. And even when published and explained by Newton, it met, as did all other important truth, a fierce opposition.

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?

We might call attention to most of the useful discoveries that have ever been made, from the days of Pythagoras to the pulling down of Arkwright's woolen-mill and the mobbing of poor Kay for inventing a fly-shuttle, and innumerable instances of the stubbornness of the human mind to receive good; so that we need not be surprised if, when the Lord of life appeared, this same dark-mindedness of fallen men met and rejected him. Human nature is the same in every age. and though Christian civilization has greatly cleared away the darkness of past ages, still the same natural principles remain.

Not only do w T e see this opposition to the good and useful, but w T e also see the want of accuracy and truth in what is received and what is doggedly established for ages ; for men hold on to error as persistently as they reject new truth. The heathen world at this day have almost every thing wrong, and hold on to their old superstitions with a tenacity that shows what human nature is, and what may still be expected of it.

We have mentioned these things to show that if Christ has been rejected by large numbers of the race, it is not evidence that he is not true.

After all these adverse principles he has been received by millions, and there has not been a year that his doctrines have not spread, or his name been proclaimed where it was not known before ; and this by some of the best minds in the human race, and certainly w T ith the best results to mankind of any religion or philosophy ever promulgated since the world was.

SERMONS.

But Christ is not upon trial for authenticity be fore this fallen world, numbers being the rule. The question is on the benefits, results, and practical working. The trial is between a real Christian and a real pagan: and between the state of a soul before he embraces Christ as his Savior, and the same man afterward. Witnesses, without number, testify to the wonderful change, the inestimable gift, the all-satisfying change. The trial is not between a Christian and a Christian moralist, who has his birth and education, and very existence, all surrounded and steeped in Christian ethics ; whose very thoughts and consciousness is all Christian without knowing it. We say Christian : but we mean as to his morality and citizenship. Such a man may indeed be without a true Christian change of nature; and yet, from the effect of circumstances, may live a more correct outer life than some professed Christians.

A belief in Christ is not founded on a few things found in an old book, or because our fathers believed in him. But the materials for evidence are many and various. Evidence comes from many sources, and if properly examined, becomes irresistible.

If we had no other evidence of Caesar than that written by Plutarch, we might doubt; but mention is made of Caesar by all the histories of those times, by enemies and friends. So with Christ: the world is full of his history ; enemies as well as friends refer to him ; numerous historians refer to his peculiarities. Monuments, arches, coins, temples, tablets, and books,

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?

are full of him. And then we have his peculiar teachings, and are capable of examining their quality and testing their use. We have the historic and the internal knowledge of Christ : we have often tested the truth of his doctrines, and, as we say of certain questions in arithmetic, they will "prove."

But let it be remembered that evidence may be accepted, examined, tested, or rejected, as we choose. The heavens were just as plainly marked from the first as when Pythagoras and Copernicus took their positions for the true philosophy ; but men did not believe, because they did not use the powers God gave to investigate. And then there is a particular reason why Christ is rejected. He reproves sin, and teaches self-denial: so that to believe and embrace his doctrine is more than simply to believe in an abstract truth, such as the Copernican system of astronomy. This is why it is said: "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." It is also said that "if any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God." A belief in Christ will no more be forced on the mind than a belief in astronomy. Our faculties must be used, and our evils must be laid aside.

Believing the truth has a very intimate connection with doing the truth. The reason some minds are troubled about knowing the will of God is, they are not determined to do it. If the fifty sons of the prophets had gone over Jordan with Elijah, they, too, as well as Elisha, might have had the grand sight of the

SERMONS.

fiery chariot and horses that carried Elijah up to heaven. If Mary had gone away from the sepulcher as the disciples did, she would have missed the privilege and honor of first seeing and talking with the Lord when he arose from the dead.

What think ye of Christ f is a great question, for "as a man thinketh, so is he." There is a wide difference in what and how Christians think of Christ. A nominal Christian may have a tolerable idea of him : not questioning his doctrines or power, and, in a low sense, be a worshiper, but have no heart experience or joyful acquaintance with him. But a real Christian with no better historic knowledge, but by prayer and faith, obtains incalculably more knowledge. This is what the apostle calls the "excellency of the knowledge of Christ." This is the greatest of all knowledges, the highest of all associations, and is an indescribable advantage in getting through life, far above the friendships of men or angels. This intimacy and knowledge of riches and power no one will believe till he gets the experience. The full enjoyment of this accounts for Paul's wonderful life and labors, and his abounding liberty in the midst of persecutions.

But though the gifts were peculiar to him, the riches and love are for us, as we may learn from the great number of promises such as this : " That the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints ;

WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?

and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to his mighty power." (Eph. i, 18, 19.) There are a great many other such strong texts, entirely above the appreciation of the nominal Christian. He reads them over as one walks over a gold mine, without discovering the wealth.

Not that this wonderful knowledge is of any private interpretation or occult mystery held back from the membership of the Church, and only discoverable by a few favored ones; but, on the contrary, nothing is more free to all, nor is the condition hard or heavy. The only reason why all believers do not enter fully into this glorious liberty of the children of God is, they will not believe. Surely, the Word of God abounds with the doctrine, negatively, positively, figuratively, literally and experimentally, commanded and promised. It is found in Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypse, set forth in every possible way with bold, strong language, such as no uninspired pen could write. Who will- now be introduced to the King in his beauty ?

" Jesus, the vision of thy face Hath overpowering charms, Scarce would I feel death's cold embrace, If Christ be in my arms."

SERMONS.

III. Miracles

"Many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did." — John ii, 23.

A miracle is an event out of the common order of nature or Providence, differing from common events as observed by experience, and produced for the establishment of some new doctrine or authority of some person, and must be produced by supernatural power. All intelligent minds will admit that every thing in the universe is under law. What is called nature is only a uniform procedure of law, and that instituted by the Supreme mind.

ISTow the question is, not whether God can do any thing different from what we have yet seen, but has he so done? If it be asserted abstractly, and without knowledge of concomitant circumstances, that a miracle has been wrought, the probabilities are against it. So of many things in nature, when first known, and wonderful in themselves.

Evidence of Scripture miracles does not rest on a few things, but many, and not at all on what infidels seem to think. Hence the misapprehension of most writers who try to disprove or ridicule. For instance,

MIRACLES.

Mr. Hume's assertion stows how easily one who does not see the wide field of evidence may start wrong, and yet seem to argue fairly. He says, " A miracle is something contrary to experience ; and as experience is the strongest evidence of any thing, therefore miracles were never wrought." But his statement is not well made. Miracles are not contrary to experience, but different from experience. The question is not whether our experience is the first and last of all events, as to what may have been, but whether the Creator, who is the author of all that is wonderful in nature, can himself depart from or add something more, or vary what he has made; and all this for the purpose of establishing doctrines and settling truths far more important than all the fixed laws of inert matter. Established laws, as they have been called, and to which the skeptic continually points, are not nearly so well settled, after all, as he imagines. This is certainly true of what we call our knowledge of them.

YTe will take a few instances. Until recently oxygen had been considered one or the most clearly defined and well-established of simple bodies; all its fixed affinities and definite proportions seemed to determine this with a clearness and varied evidence that scarcely any other substance had. But all at once ozone was discovered, which, for one whole year, puzzled all the chemists. It was oxygen, and yet it was not quite of the same properties. At last the irreconcilable puzzle was laid aside by supposing electric

SERMONS.

disturbance among the particles called polarization. This settles the question, if the theory is true ; if not true, we have nothing better, and must wait.

Before 1869, if any one had said or written that water is found to be magnetic, all the scholars in the world would have said, in the language of Hume, "contrary to experience." In no book, from the days of the alchemists down to the founding of the Smithsonian Institute, has any thing of the kind ever been known. Such was our remark when it was first said the waters of St. Louis Spring, in Michigan, are magnetic. But when we saw a man, of well-known veracity, dangling a key from the point of his pen-knife, and asserting that he was eye-witness to the immersion of the knife and this result, we changed our mind, and said, This is not now contrary to experience, but it differs from experience, and becomes new experience.

Suppose some one who first discovered the skeleton of the monster megatherium, in the plains of India, had made a statement of the fact, an infidel might have said: "Whether is it most credible for such a monster to have lived, or for some one or more men to lie ?" But, after all, there is the veritable skeleton in the British museum.

Mr. Meehan, of Philadelphia, was charged with saying that European strawberries would never do well in America. He replied in his journal that he had said no such thing— that he never predicted any course for nature, nor found it safe to say what

MIRACLES.

might be ; that we had too much predicting ; but that what he had said was, they never had done well yet. We well remember how incredulous the people were at the first statements that certain trees had been discovered in California that are more than three times the size and height of common trees ; and some ridiculed, and it was doubtless said, "this is contrary to experience/' But the facts are now established, so that the discovery was only different from experience.

Even nature itself, with all its thousands of years of steadiness, is not without its anomalies, as if to rebuke proud man for any atheistic sentiment he might offer. Every anomaly in the universe is a standing argument for miracles ; if not for their truthfulness, at least for their probability. These anomalies exist in all the known regions of the universe. It may not be amiss to note a few. All woody plants grow out of the soil in all climes of the earth, with one single exception, — the mistletoe (phoradendron flavescens) — which ^rows out of some tree. All the organs of the animal body have a manifest use but one — the spleen, which is a continual puzzle to physiologists, who have not yet discovered its use. All the planets and moons known to astronomers move from West to East, with one single exception — the moons of Uranus, v/hich move from East to West.

These things, and many more like them that might be mentioned, should have a very humbling effect on minds that are in haste to determine what the unsearchable God has done, or will do. We found

SERMONS.

our belief of miracles on none of these things, but mention them to show how careful and modest the greatest men ought to be in the presence of such wonders.

On what, then, do we found our belief of Scripture miracles ? We answer, on the power of God in connection with that stupendous scheme of human redemption, whieh is greater than nature, more wonderful than orbs or ecliptics, and dearer to God and more interesting to man than all the definite proportions below, and all the librations above.

Belief in miracles belongs to a belief in the authenticity of the Scriptures, which must be settled before. It also goes along with the belief in the attributes of God, and the office of Christ and the Holy Spirit. These great doctrines must be studied together to be seen, understood, and admired. When Job came to see and feel the great power of God, he exclaimed: "God can do every tiling !" When we consider the ignorance of the writers, generally, who have tried to bring this subject into doubt, we are not surprised. They are very much like one examining a beautiful mountain or frescoed wall with a microscope instead of taking the whole grand design at a glance.

But the most absurd view of this subject is taken by certain writers who profess to believe the Scriptures, and yet deny miracles, as such, and try to account for them on common or natural principles, or excuse them (as if the Bible needed an apology for its extravagant expressions), paying much tribute to

MIRACLES.

infidelity on the one side, and yet forced to assent on the other. Now, whether conclusive or not in our answer, we have a short method with all these nominal Christians. We say their position is harder to maintain than either that of the infidel or the orthodox Christian. They face an absurdity whichever way they look. While they would persuade the infidel and teach the Christian, they disgust both. If Jesus Christ is not the Son of God, and did not actually and many times work real and stupendous miracles in daylight, exactly and literally as he said, and as his many disciples testified, and that without any exaggeration of language, he is the greatest impostor that ever lived, and his followers, in all ages, have been the greatest dupes. There is no ambiguity about this matter; the language of Scripture is not dark or double, like that of the Delphic oracle, when it said : "If Croesus cross the Halys, a great nation will be destroyed." Of course it would — either his own or his enemies'.

The recorded miracles are not few, and they are not all of a kind : they are plain, simple, clear declarations of fact or falsehood, with no middle ground. There is no mistaking what the writers mean. There are no marks of intentional hiding-places. We have much more respect for the mental process of the man that would conclude the whole New Testament a fable, than for one that would undertake to account for these miracles, explaining away the supernatural.

A question is sometimes raised why miracles do

SERMONS.

not continue to this day. A little observation will show the reason to complete satisfaction. The working of them was not intended but for a specific purpose, and when that was accomplished, they were to cease. Their object was to arouse a slumbering world to the truth of certain new doctrines, while those doctrines were new, and before there was time or opportunity to test them as we have time, and have a history of them. Hence, the beginning of both Old and New Testament doctrines were attended with miracles. This most evident necessity has always been acknowledged; so, when Swedenborg, Joseph Smith, and others came out with new doctrines, they were called on for miracles, which they tried to produce. Can it be supposed that we would be entitled to all the evidence we now have, having extensive history of the dealings of God with man, and also our own religious experience, and then demand that of miracles, too, giving us five times the light and force of evidence that the first Church had? We have as much evidence without as they had with miracles. A holy man, accustomed to sweet communion with God, would say we have more. The process of being born again is far more wonderful and thrilling than the observance of any miracle.

Did I not know more of God's power and love when he raised me from my dead state, not of body, but of soul, than the bystanders who heard Christ's voice and saw Lazarus get up and walk ? I did. It was far more direct and personal, interesting and

MIRACLES.

impressive, and, from its peculiar nature, must be more lasting.

We conclude, therefore, that the days of miracles were for a particular purpose. We light candles before the sun is up, but not afterward. We prop and stake up a tree till it has time to take root and grow. But if an older tree should say, Why not give me a stake? we would reply, You have had time to grow and gain strength for yourself. So, now, with the accumulated evidence of history and experience — we need no miracles in our day. Mark this: no regenerated man asks to see a miracle. If you question him you will find this true in every case.

But for the commonness of the laws of nature all around us they are as wonderful as miracles. The growth of an acorn into an oak in an hour would be a miracle : but the natural law of growth would be the very same, all but the length of time. A thousand things in nature are as wonderful in themselves and show the hand of design as perfectly as if the order of things were changed. Now will any one deny that the Creator may not add to or change what he has made? We do not believe in miracles from a few, but many kinds of evidence. Nor do we believe the Scriptures from a few facts but many, and varied truths. How do we believe any thing that we do not see ? We answer, On testimony. But how do we credit testimony ? There • are various ways by which we arrive at a belief. None of us have seen Washington, but who doubts

SERMONS.

his existence? We do not arrive at this belief by the testimony of one person, but many kinds of evidence taken together.

We inquire the way to some place. A stranger tells us to go on a mile and we shall come to a mill; then turn to the right and go half a mile, and when we come to a bridge cross it and turn to the left, and go up the hill, and just over the hill in a large white house lives the man we want to see. Now how do we know that this stranger tells the truth? There is a way to find out. So we start on, and sure enough at the end of the first mile there is the mill. So much truth begins to encourage, and we go to the end of the half mile and there is the bridge, and we feel strengthened in our opinion of that stranger, and turn, as he said, beyond the bridge, and there is the hill; by this time we almost know the stranger was truthful ; and though we have not yet arrived at the white house, we are almost certain that one who would tell the truth so often and so accurately could be trusted for the remaining part. So we are far more certain now than if we had never carried out his directions. In like manner, when we examine Scripture doctrine, the general as well as particular truthfulness, and agreement with known facts, strengthen our belief till there is an accumulation of facts so varied and numerous that we have no doubt at all. We so often find the word agreeing with what we do know that we credit some things we could not know without pure revelation.