The wicket-gate

Front matter

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

THE WICKET-GATE.

Preface

"The man therefore, looking upon Evangelist very carefully, said, 'Whither must I fly?' Then said Evangelist (pointing with his finger over a very wide field), 'Do you see yonder wicket-gate?' The man said, 'No.' Then said the other, ' Do you see yonder shining light?' He said, 'I think I do.' Then said Evangelist, ' Keep that light in your eye, and go up directly thereto, so shalt thou see the gate ; at which when thou knockest, it shall be told thee what thou shalt do.' So I saw in my dream that vi Preface.

the man began to run. Now he had not run far from his own door when his wife and children, perceiving it, began to cry after him to return ; but the man put his fingers in his ears and ran on, crying, ' Life ! life ! eternal life ! ' So he looked not behind him but fled towards the middle of the plain." — Pil~ grim's Progress

Contents

3. Lamps, Pitchers, and Trumpets ... 71

9. The Fourfaced Cherubim — 1. The Face

of a Lion 237

I

First of all, then, we must find out what this strait gate is. It isn't the way that leads up to Mount Sinai, where the Ten Commandments were given. It isn't the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, where Peter and John healed the lame man. It isn't the gate that leads into the Church. Our Lord himself tells us what this gate is : " Then said Jesus, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers : but the sheep did not hear them. i~ am the door : by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture."

Again in another place he says, "I am the way."

Many years ago, in Switzerland, there was a great battle fought between the Swiss, who were trying to be free, and the Austrians, who were trying to conquer them. It was before the days of gunpowder. The Austrian knights were clad in steel armor and formed themselves into a solid square. This was called, in old times, forming a phalanx. Whichever way the Swiss patriots tried to reach their foes, there was this bristling front of spears, through which it was impossible for them to force their way. At last one of their number, seeing the utter uselessness of attempting to fight in this way, seized a dozen of the Austrian spearpoints, and planting them in his own breast, exclaimed — "Make way for liberty." His companions rushed in over his dead body, and got inside the hollow square of Austrian knights and utterly routed them. This Swiss hero was named Arnold Winkelreid, and the battle is known in history as the battle of Sempach. Perhaps some of you may remember a piece which is often spoken on declamation days at school. It begins in this way:

" 'Make way for liberty!' he cried. 'Make way for liberty,' and died."

That was a very narrow way into the Austrian phalanx over the dead body of Arnold Winkelreid. When the sun set that day it set upon the happy and rejoicing Swiss, who were so glad to be free once more; but it also set upon the dead body of the one who died to make them free. He opened a way of escape for them from the tyranny of their enemies. But it was a very strait or narrow way: it cost him his life to make his country free.

And we sing sometimes in the Te Deum, or Chant of Praise to God,

"When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers."

Some time ago, here in Boston, there was a man who called himself a Christian minister, who said one day, from the pulpit, that it was time this idea of entering heaven by a trap -door covered with blood was done away with ! What a dreadful thing to say ! How else can we be saved but by the life and death of Jesus Christ? If there had been any other way of being saved would it not have been told us ? If the law given upon Mount Sinai could have saved us, if the prophets or the apostles could have saved us, would not that have been enough? Where would have been the need of Christ?

But, my dear children, there are no words truer than those of that lovely hymn we sometimes sing. They are the very essence of the Gospel — the good news brought to us by Jesus Christ.

" There is a green hill far away Without a city wall, Where the dear Lord was crucified, Who died to save us all.

" We may not know, we can not tell, What pains he had to bear; But we believe it was for us He hung and suffered there.

" He died that we might be forgiven, He died to make us good, That we might go at last to heaven, Saved by his precious blood.

" There was no other good enough To pay the price of sin, He only could unlock the gate Of heaven, and let us in.

" Oh dearly, dearly has he loved, And we must love him, too, And trust in his redeeming blood, And try his works to do ! "

II

Secondly, we must find out why this gate is so narrow. Why must we enter in at this narrow gate? Why must it be so strait?

"Enter ye in at the strait gate" — are our Lord's words.

My dear children, even Jesus found this way of submission to the will of God a strait or narrow way. Don't you remember he cried out in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he was all alone, and the disciples were asleep, and the glancing lights of Judas and the Eoman soldiers were seen in the distance, coming along the road over the brook Kedron, "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee ; take away this cup from me : nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt."

It is always a hard or narrow way when we have to give up our own wills for the sake of another. This was why our Lord said it was so hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. It was hard for him to crowd down his will and enter in at the narrow entrance — the wicket-gate of obedience to God's will.

Last summer, when I was in London, I went to the great Zoological Gardens, and saw all the animals there. There were a lot of young elephants bathing in a pond. Presently the keeper ordered them out and marched them into the stable for the night. But there was one elephant which ran off by himself. He didn't want to go to bed yet. So he ran down the garden path, and all the people got out of his way. But presently he came to one of these same turnstile gates, such as they had at the Centennial Exposition. There the fellow stuck. He moved his head and trunk and his forelegs, and tried every way he could to get through the gate. But it was of no use : he couldn't crowd himself down. He couldn't manage it at all. He was like a camel going through the eye of a needle. And his keeper caught him and paddled him back with a long wooden paddle, on a trot home, while the poor elephant who would have his own way, kept his trunk up in the air and snorted and bellowed like a puppy dog when you spank him.

Well ! we are all very much like this elephant at the gate. When we start out to have our own way at the beginning, though it may seem broad, it's very hard to get through the narrow gate at the other end of the journey.

Look at Benedict Arnold! In the beginning of the Eevolutionary War he was a brave and true soldier. He fought in Canada, and had a good reputation for faithfulness and bravery. But, after awhile, he grew tired of his country's service. He thought he had not been treated rightly. He had his feelings hurt. He was jealous of attentions shown to his fellow-officers. His pride was touched. He grew very big in his own eyes, and presently he found that the path of obedience to General Washington, and those in authority, was becoming very strait or narrow. It crowded him. He was like Balaam on the ass, driven to the wall by the angel which blocked his way. There wasn't room enough for three in the road at the same time. He was like the elephant trying to crowd through the turnstile.

So you all know what he did ! He jumped over the wall on the narrow way of obedience to his country, and landed ont in the broad way of disobedience, or of pleasing himself. He betrayed the forts on the Hudson, and fled in a boat to the British sloopof-war Vulture, and became a British officer. But Washington arrived just in time to save the Highland forts, and nothing came, after all, of Arnold's treachery, save the death of poor Major Andre, who was hung as a spy. The way of his country's service was too narrow a way for Arnold, and so he became a traitor to his country, merely to please himself and have his own wishes gratified.

There was a country boarding-school once which was beautifully situated in the town. There were high walls all around the garden. But on one side the house joined on to the wall, so that from the windows one could see right down into the street below.

One week before Christmas, in a certain year, the boys saw written up in the large school-room these words, on a scroll:

No Christmas Pies, No Frosted Cakes,

No "Weeping Eyes, No Pains or Aches.

Nobody could find out what this notice meant, until the day before the school closed for the term. Then the principal explained this motto. He told the boys that they could eat as many Christmas cakes and pies as they wanted to at home, but that they must not bring these things back with them in their trunks; since they made themselves ill with eating them, and then their parents blamed the teachers. So the boys promised, all but one of them, that they would try to do what the teacher wanted.

When the school opened again, after the Christmas holidays, the principal told the boys that he was sorry to say that he had some suspicions that they had not all complied with this new rule. He said that in order to be sure about this, two of the tutors would now examine their trunks, and mark them off in the way the custom-house officers did with the trunks of passengers from Europe.

There was one boy, named Ernest, who had told the other boys the day the school broke up that he meant to bring back a frosted plum-cake as large as a bucket. He said he wasn't going to mind any such ridiculous rule.

When he heard the principal say that the tutors were coming around to examine the baggage, he flew up into his room, locked the door, opened his trunk, seized his precious frosted cake and then was wild to

know what to do with it. He couldn't hide it in the closet, or under the bed ; it wouldn't go into his bureau drawer; what was he to do? He heard the tutors coming; in a moment more they would be at his door. He flew to the window and looked out into the road. It was dark, but he knew there were some tall bushes growing up by the wall. " Rat-a-tat-tat," went the tutors at the door: down went the cake into the bushes!

"Come in," said Ernest, "I was changing my clothes."

Two sins in five minutes — deceiving, and then lying about it. That is the way in which one sin always leads into another. The tutors came in and examined Ernest's trunk and valise, and marked them with a big letter P, for "passed" and then went away. That night Ernest kept looking out of the window to see if he could find out any thing about his cake ; and then he could not go to sleep — for thinking about it.

Early in the morning, as soon as it was light, he looked out of the window again. There he saw the big yellow parcel, tied up with the four pieces of red tape, just as he had thrown it down. It wasn't broken; it had lodged in the bushes. Now how was he to get it up ? He mustn't make a noise about it, and he must get it up in his room before any of the school were stirring. Presently he saw a boy driving some cows to the pasture. Instantly he got out his fishing-line, tied the end of it on to his kite cord, and put on the fishhook a piece of white paper, on which was printed these words:

HOOK THAT THERE BUNDLE ONTO THIS LINE AND I'LL GIVE YOU A SILVER QUARTER.

Ernest printed this message, for fear the boy might not be able to read it. The boy took it up, spelled it out, looked around for the bundle, while Ernest all this time was making signs to him, and pointing out where the cake was lying. Presently the boy found the cake and hitched it on to the string ; Ernest pulled it up to his fourth-story window, just as if it had been a big blue-fish he was landing, and then wrapped up a silver quarter in a piece of paper, and threw it out to the boy.

So Ernest got his cake again. What was he to do next? Why, he must eat it; he must eat it all alone, for fear some of the boys would tell on him; and he must eat it up quickly, for fear the chambermaid or some one would find out that he had been eating a cake. So he began to stuff himself with this rich, black plum-cake. He ate it before breakfast and after breakfast, before dinner and after dinner, before supper and after supper, before he went to bed and after he was in bed. He wished now that his cake was smaller. He could not leave the crumbs around, he could not give it away, he could not hide it. The second night after eating the cake he was taken ill, and the doctor said he had been eating something that disagreed with him. Ernest would not tell w r hat it was, but before very long the cake told the story itself, and the whole truth came out. Out of sixty-five boys Ernest was the only one who wouldn't walk in the narrow way of obedience to the rules of the school, and his sin found him out and told on him, as sin always does.

It is true what one has said on this subject: "If a man commits a murder, it seems as if nature sent a snow-storm on purpose, that his footsteps may be tracked."

Ernest was dismissed from the school for disobedience. He went on in the broad way of doing just what he wanted, going on from bad to worse, untill at last he joined some counterfeiters, and was arrested for forging a note, and served out his days in a penitentiary. And all this was because he was not willing to enter in at the strait gate of obedience. Truly does our Lord warn us about the power of our own evil hearts, when he said "Strive" — that is: try hard, try many times, again and again — "to enter in at the strait gate."

III

And now, lastly. We are to find out why it is that we must enter in at this gate. Why can we not go to heaven by the broad way of sin? Why can't we go there by doing just as we please? Why must we enter in at this narrow gate?

Why did the angels rebel in heaven? Why did Adam sin in the garden? Why are our jails and penitentiaries filled to-day? Simply because it is so very hard to enter in at this narrow gate. It is so much easier to go with the crowd and do just as we want to do.

But just as surely as we must take the train south when we want to go south, and not the cars for the north when we want to go south, just so surely must we enter in at the strait gate of obedience to Jesus Christ, if we want to get started right for heaven! We must be like Christian coming up to the wicket-gate; we can not be fairly on our way to God, until we have put ourselves in the path which he has told us will lead to him.

There was a poor fellow in the slums of London who used to love to go to a certain dog-pit with his pet dog Tiger. The mans' name was Jonas Higgins. He was at times a good-hearted kind of man, but when a new dog was brought into the pit to fight Tiger, Jonas would bet his money on his dog, and then after the betting would come the drinking, and Jonas would go home as drunk as a fiddler. Tiger was a great fighter; one ear was gone, his upper lip was all torn away and showed his great white teeth, one eye was out, and his tail had been bitten off. All he had left was a bit of a stump, which he wagged like a drummajor's baton ! Tiger was a good, kind-hearted dog. It was only in the dog-pit, when he was in his professional character as a fighter, that he was so fierce. He loved Jonas, and Jonas loved him with all the poor remains of his heart. Tiger came first in the love of Jonas, and then the wife and children came next. Jonas was known as "Tiger's man." Tiger was never spoken of as Jonas' dog. Well, it came to pass that right in the midst of this wretched place where Jonas and Tiger lived together, a mission was established. The children of Jonas went to the school, and Jonas went to church, and before long Jonas became a changed man. Tiger was kept chained to his kennel; Jonas stopped drinking, and didn't go to the fighting pit any more. The home began to look clean and bright, and the poor wife was as happy as a queen. This went on for six months, when one Sunday the minister missed Jonas in church. After service the wife waited to tell the sad story. Jonas had fallen ! His evil companions had tried in vain to tempt him back to the pit. At last they advertised that there would be a great dog-fight there, and that a big Scotch dog from away up at the north of Scotland would fight. It was said that this dog could whip any dog in England, since he had whipped Tiger. This was a lie. This was too much for Jonas. He had taken Tiger from his kennel and had gone to the pit. Tiger nearly killed the Scotch dog;, and Jonas came home drunk. The minister went to see Jonas. He was very sorry for what he had done and promised to do better and he did. He went right back to his good ways and went steadily on for six months more. Then he fell again. This time it* was a Dutch dog, from Holland, which it was advertised could whip Tiger. Again Jonas carried his dog to the pit, again Tiger whipped the other dog, and again Jonas came home drunk. This time he had the delirium tremens and was raving !

When he got well, the minister went to see him. He warned Jonas about this terrible temptation, and told him he must part from Tiger, or part from his Lord. He told him he could not serve two masters : that he must either deny his Lord, or deny the dog.

"Now," said he, "mark my words, Jonas. Take Tiger this very night, sew him up in a meal bag, and run with him to London bridge and throw him over, or else give up all hope of serving Christ any longer."

This was very hard for Jonas. He went out in the back yard to look at old Tiger.

'■ Poor old fellow," said Jonas.

"Don't stop!" cried the minister.

"Dear old dog," said Jonas.

" In with him ! " said the minister.

It seemed as if that minister never conld get Tiger into the bag. His head would be out, or his stumpy tail would be out, as he backed his way out ; and if Jonas hadn't kept talking kindly to him he would have killed the minister.

At last they got Tiger in. Then Jonas began to cry. He couldn't do it.

"You must," said the minister.

" I can't," replied Jonas.

"Yes you can," the minister answered. "Now then, there he is" — and lifting up the bundle — " there he is on your shoulder — now run!"

So Jonas ran, and the minister ran. Jonas cried all the way, and when he got onto the bridge he wanted to compromise.

" Let me sell him," said Jonas, " or let me give him away."

"No, sir!" said his friend, "you'll never be safe while that dog is alive! So over with him — now then — when I say three over he goes —

" One !

"Two!!

"Three!!!"

What a struggle for poor Jonas ! No one knew what it cost him, but he heard the splash in the water and ran home, crying like a child returning from a funeral ! Parting from Tiger almost broke his heart, but it took the temptation away from him and saved his soul!

Now I call that — throwing ones sin overhoard. It was indeed casting his sin behind his back, when Jonas consented to make such a sacrifice for the sake of his soul. Tiger was dearer to that poor, degraded sinner than any thing else in the world, and yet he parted from Tiger at the last, hard as it was to do so, when he felt that Tiger stood between his soul and his Saviour.

It was necessary for that man to enter in at a very narrow gate of sacrifice and obedience, if lie wished to be saved. And he was strong enough to do it.

And so must we all, my dear children, give up our darling sins, and our pet habits, if they are in the way of our serving Christ.

We must head right for the kingdom of heaven if we are in earnest; and if there is any thing which is in our way, we must be willing to part from it, no matter what it may cost us.

Jesus said to cast away our eyes, or to cut off our arms, if they hindered us from entering into the kingdom of heaven.

He won for us eternal life by entering in at the strait gate of his Heavenly Father's will; and we must follow in his footsteps, for he himself has told us that the disciple can not be above his Master!

II.

%\t $HI Hag in a it.

THE EVIL MAGICIAN.

"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness ; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter ! " — Isaiah v, 20.

£^HIS sermon is about the evil magician ^/ and his hocus-pocus. Do you know what that word hocus-pocus means ? If you do not, let us try and find it out.

Here we are, then, all of us, in a magician's room. There is the curtain, and there are the lights. Presently the bell rings, the curtain rolls back, and the magician comes forward upon the stage with a wand or rod in his hand, and begins to show us his wonders. Boys all love these tricks of magic, and there is a time in our history when we like to have magician's boxes, and do magician's tricks ourselves.

You all know what these tricks are. There is the wonderful egg-bag, and the hat out of which the flowers come; and there are the canary-birds, which are killed and made alive again ; and there are the bowls of goldfish, which change places from one side of the room to the other. Then there are the wonders of second-sight, by which certain persons can be blindfolded, and yet can describe every article which is held up by another, though the eyelids are closed and the eyes are bandaged. Then there is the Indian basket trick, where a man gets into a basket and is locked down, and just when a second person is about to run a sword in the basket and apparently kill him, — when every one is breathless with astonishment and fear, — lo and behold! the man whom every one supposed to be in the basket is out in the hall, calling out, "What are you going to do?"

Now this whole world of magic is a wonderful world. And this word "hocus-pocus" is the old magical word which used to be spoken when any great trick was to be performed, or any great wonder was to be wrought. The magician would wave his wand over the place where the trick was to be made, and would make a long pow-pow, and say, " Hocus-pocus ! hocus-pocus ! " and in this way it came to pass that the word hocus-pocus was used for any thing which is intended to deceive us, or throw us off our guard, or play a trick upon us. Some people have said that this word comes from the Latin words " Hoc est corpus" — which are the words the priest uses in the Roman Catholic Church, at the altar, when the bread is declared to be the body of our Lord; when, according to their belief, this wonderful change takes place.

But, however this may be, we know that it is^a very old word, and that the entire world of magic is a very old world. Look at the Indian jugglers, away off in India. For ages and ages they have performed their tricks, and they are perhaps the most wonderful tricks that the world has ever seen. These magicians don't require any stage, or lights, or trap-doors, or side scenery. They perform right on the grass, or on the sand, or wherever they may happen to be. I once heard a missionary from India, the Kev. Dr. Scudder, tell about these Indian magicians, . and he said that in one of their performances they would take a little Indian girl, and lock her up in a basket, and instantly run a sword through the basket, in and out and every way, and that he heard her scream and saw the blood flow out of the basket, when — all of a sudden — ever so far back of the ring of people looking on, they heard a merry shout of laughter, and there stood the very little girl whom they supposed was dead. And then there are the Chinese and Japanese jugglers. They do the most wonderful things you can imagine. If you have never seen them there is no use in attempting to describe them. They throw knives at one another against a board, and make a rude image of a , man out of the knives they throw that stick against this board. And they roll big barrels on their feet, and hold ladders on their chins, and men run up and down on these ladders. There used to be a company of these Japanese jugglers in the United States, with a little boy called "Allright." When he would do these dreadful things, and people would hold their breath and shut their eyes for fear of seeing him fall down and be killed, he would call out, in a shrill voice, after he had jumped, or got on his feet again, or landed on a rope, "All — right;" for this was all the English he knew; and so he was called little "Allright."

And then, too, we read about magicians in the Bible. The eastern countries used to be filled with them. We read about Moses, in the book of Exodus, having to deal with the Egyptian magicians who hung about Pharoah's court. When he went in before the king to show his signs and wonders, in order to induce him to let the Israelites go free, these magicians came up also and performed their tricks. When Aaron threw down his rod before the king and it became a serpent, we are told that the Egyptian ma- 4 gicians and sorcerers threw their rods down, and that they too became serpents. In St. Paul's second epistle to Timothy he speaks of certain men who were like "Jannes and Jambres," who withstood Moses. No doubt these were the names of some of these Egyptian magicians.