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THE VOICE OF GOD
IN
THE PRESENT HOUR
By R. A. TORREY, D.D.
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THE VOICE OF GOD
IN
THE PRESENT HOUR
BY
R. A. TORREY, D.D.
AUTHOR OF
" What the Bible Teaches," " How to Work for Christ,"
" Revival Addresses" etc., etc.
NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO
Fleming H. Revell Company
LONDON AND EDINBURGH
Copyright, 1917, by
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
JEMMANUEl
New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.
Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W.
London: 21 Paternoster Square
Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street
PREFACE
I HAVE received urgent requests, especially from
evangelists and ministers, to publish another
volume of sermons. I am putting forth this
volume in response to this request. Quite a number
of requests have come for the publication of different
sermons preached in The Church of the Open Door
in Los Angeles, the past winter. Almost all the ser
mons found in this volume were preached to this con
gregation in the autumn of 1916 and winter and
spring of 1917. The sermons, of course, bear the
marks of their having been preached in the midst of
the anxieties and perplexities that are in many hearts
because of present war conditions in this and other
lands. It is the hope and prayer of the writer that
they will not only be blessed to those who read them,
but also that the material found in them may be used
by others in preaching and teaching the truth of God.
It has been a great joy to the writer that so many
evangelists and preachers have used so generously
material found in his previous volumes of sermons.
Sometimes such use has not been acknowledged ; but it
frequently has been acknowledged and, even when not
acknowledged, I have reason to think that great good
has been accomplished by the truth thus given. In
deed, I have reason to know that some have used the
material found in my sermons with an effectiveness
far beyond that with which I used it myself, and it has
6 PREFACE
been a great joy to me to have it thus used. As the
purpose of the publication of these sermons is the con
vincing of unbelievers, the salvation of sinners, and
the confirmation and guidance of God's people, it
does not matter at all to me whether there is any
acknowledgment on the part of those who use the
material or not. If good is done, and I know much
good is done, I therein greatly rejoice. (Phil. 1: 18.)
R. A. TORREY.
Los Angeles, CaL
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAOB
I. NOT A WORD OF CHRIST SHALL EVER FAIL 9
II. WHEREIN THE BIBLE DIFFERS FROM ALL
OTHER BOOKS . . . 20
III. Is THE BIBLE IN DANGER? 32
IV. WHY I BELIEVE THAT JESUS CHRIST is
GOD IN HUMAN FORM 51
V. JESUS THE WONDERFUL 64
VI. THE FOOL'S CREED 75
VII. No HOPE 85
VIII. WHERE WILL You SPEND ETERNITY?. . . 100
IX. WHICH SHALL WE BELIEVE, GOD OR MAN? 112
X. THE NEW BIRTH AS SET FORTH IN JOHN
3:2-21 125
XI. GOD'S GUIDANCE AND How TO GET IT. . 137
XII. How GOD GUIDES 152
XIII. GOD'S KEEPING AND How TO MAKE SURE
OF IT 171
XIV. THE COMPLETE AND SYMMETRICAL LIFE
AND How TO ATTAIN IT 184
XV. THE SECRET OF BLESSEDNESS IN HEART,
BEAUTY IN CHARACTER, FRUITFULNESS
IN SERVICE, AND PROSPERITY IN EVERY
THING 197
7
8 CONTENTS
XVI. LOVE CONTRASTED, DESCRIBED, EXALTED
(1 Cor. 13) 210
. XVTI. A CHRIST-LIKE MAN 220
XVIII. WALKING AS JESUS WALKED 231
XIX. THE SECRET OF ABIDING PEACE, ABOUND
ING JOY, AND ABUNDANT VICTORY IN
WAR TIMES AND AT ALL TIMES. . . 243
NOT A WORD OF CHRIST SHALL EVER FAIL
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, lut my word
shall not pass away." — Matt. 24: 35.
JESUS CHRIST here asserts that His words are
more stable and enduring than heaven or
earth: that while heaven and earth shall pass
away, His word shall not pass away. When we con
sider the position that Jesus Christ occupied when
He made this extraordinary claim, it appears absurd
in the extreme. He was an uneducated artisan of an
obscure and despised people. Furthermore, it was
only a few days before His crucifixion. The man who
uttered these words in less than a week was to be the
butt of the scorn and ridicule of jeering mobs as He
ended His life as a condemned malefactor on a gibbet,
only a short walk from where He was now speaking.
If these words spoken by such a man, at such a time,
prove true, then He must be more than appears at
first sight. Indeed, He must be as He claimed to be,
Divine. Heaven and earth are God's own handiwork,
and if Christ's words prove more stable than they,
then He Himself must be Divine.
10 THE VOICE OF GOD
I. CHRIST'S WORDS ARE SURE.
But these remarkable words of Christ after the
lapse of more than eighteen centuries are proven to
be true. This stupendous claim of Christ that not a
word of His shall ever fail has been substantiated.
That the words of Jesus Christ shall^never pass away
is proven by the tests that they have already stood.
1. First of all, the words of Jesus have stood the
test of bitterest opposition. No sooner had Christ's
words fallen from His lips than they were hated.
They have been hated through the nearly nineteen
centuries that have elapsed since they were spoken.
This hatred has been most bitter, most relentless,
most energetic, most skilful, most wily, most power
ful, but it has been utterly ineffective. This hatred
manifested itself in literary attacks upon the words
of Christ, like that of Lucian the great master of
satire in his day, in philosophical attacks like that of
the great philosopher Porphyry, in learned attacks
like that of the scholar Celsus, in physical attacks
like that of the great Roman Emperor Diocletian, in
which he summoned all the political and military
forces of the empire with torch, and stake, and prison,
and wild beast to obliterate from the pages of history
the memory of Jesus Christ and His words. From
those early days to this, this opposition has gone on,
more than eighteen centuries of it. All the artillery
of science, literature, philosophy, political intrigue,
sarcasm, ridicule, worldly ambition, force, all the artil
lery of earth and hell, have been trained upon the
words of Christ, and for centuries at a time an almost
incessant cannonade has been kept up. Sometimes
NOT A WORD OF CHRIST SHALL FAIL 11
weak hearts have been shaken by the roar of battle,
but the words of Christ have remained absolutely un
shaken. There has not been one single stone dis
lodged from these fortifications. Words that can come
out of eighteen centuries of such experience as that
unscathed, unscarred, unmarred, will stand forever.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the words of
Christ shall not pass away.
2. In the next place, Christ's words have not only
stood the test of bitter opposition, but they have also
stood the test of time. The test of time is a severe
test of men's utterances. What seemed like wisdom
when uttered a few years ago is seen to-day to be con
summate folly. Ptolemy was by far the greatest as
tronomer of antiquity, and his utterances were con
sidered the sum of all wisdom, but they have not stood
the test of time, and his theories are to-day the laugh
ing-stock of the schoolroom. What is true of the
words of Ptolemy is true of all other books of the past
but one; they are outgrown, but the utterances of
Jesus Christ are not outgrown, they are as precious
to-day as in that long-ago time when they were first
spoken. They are as perfectly applicable to present-
day needs as to the needs of that day. They contain
the solution of all modern individual and social prob
lems; they have perpetual youth. There is not one
single point at which the teachings of Jesus Christ
have been outgrown or become antiquated. The
human mind has been expanding for more than eigh
teen centuries since Jesus Christ spoke here on earth,
but it has not outgrown Him. Words that can en
dure eighteen centuries of growth and still prove as
thoroughly adequate to meet the needs of the race
12 THE VOICE OF GOD
and each member of it as when first given will stand
forever. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the
words of Jesus Christ shall not pass away.
Let me say in passing that in the light of history it
is nothing short of preposterous, and even ludicrous,
to hear men put forward the claims of the newly
hatched philosophies of a day against the utterances
of Jesus Christ that have stood the test of more than
eighteen centuries, especially in view of the well-
known fact that just such philosophies, full of self-
confidence, have appeared by the thousands in the
past, and after a brief day of notoriety have flashed
out again into the darkness from which they had so
recently emerged. The history of eighteen centuries
of human thought is largely a history of men who
counted themselves wiser than Christ, but whom it
took only a few years to prove utter fools.
3. The words of Christ have stood a third test, the
test of rigid scrutiny. No other words have ever been
so examined, scrutinized, analyzed, pulled to pieces,
subjected to the most minute, microscopic and unspar
ing examination, as have the words of Christ. They
have undergone eighteen centuries of scrutiny, and
what is the result ?
a. The first result is, not one single flaw has been
discovered. What would not men give to find one
real flaw in the words of Jesus ? What would not Tn-
gersoll have given in his day ? What would not some
of our liberal teachers who would like to set themselves
up by putting Jesus Christ down, give ? What would
not some of our professedly orthodox preachers, who
care far more for a petty reputation for originality
and advanced scholarship than they do for the untar-
NOT A WORD OF CHRIST SHALL FAIL 13
nished splendour of the Son of God, give ? They have
searched for a flaw — generation after generation of
the enemies of Christ. One generation failing to find
such a flaw has bequeathed the search to another, and
this search has gone on for more than eighteen cen
turies with the best microscopes that could be devised,
and the search has failed, utterly failed. The words
of Jesus stand out absolutely flawless. The words
that have stood eighteen centuries of such scrutiny will
stand forever. Heaven and earth will pass away, but
the words of Jesus Christ shall not pass away.
Z>. But there is a second result of this scrutiny:
the words of Christ have not only proven themselves
flawless, but inexhaustible. These eighteen centuries
have not only been centuries of scrutiny, they have
also been centuries of profound, earnest, and honest
study as well. Men have dug and dug for eighteen
centuries into this mine of precious metal that they
have found in the words of Christ. Thousands and
tens of thousands have dug and the mine has proven
absolutely inexhaustible. There is more for the new
miner that comes to-day than there was for the first
digger. Eighteen centuries of digging and discovery
and no hint of touching the bottom of the mine. The
bottom is farther off than ever. The mine that has en
dured eighteen centuries of such digging and not given
out never will give out. With the confidence born of
eighteen centuries of experience, we can shout,
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the words of
Jesus shall not pass away."
4. The words of Jesus Christ have stood another
test, the test of history, measuring the accuracy of His
prophecies. Jesus Christ was a prophet. He under-
14 THE VOICE OF GOD
took to tell the things that were to be. History is the
touchstone of prophecy. The prophet who is not of
God falls before the test of history, but Jesus Christ
stands. Jesus Christ, while Jerusalem and the temple
were still standing in their pride, magnificence and
seeming security, foretold that the armies of Rome
would come and besiege the city, that there would be
a siege of such horror as was absolutely unparalleled
in history; that not one stone should be left upon
another, and that for long periods of time to come
Jerusalem would be trodden under foot of the Gen
tiles. So it has come to pass to the letter, and so it is
being fulfilled even to our day. Jesus foretold that
the Jew, though crushed, scattered throughout the
earth, subjected to unparalleled tyranny, would pre
serve his race identity until the Christ should come
again. Centuries have rolled on, nations have arisen,
fallen, been obliterated and forgotten, the Jew has
not had a foothold anywhere for centuries, yet the
Jew retains his race identity to this day as perfectly
as he possessed it in the first century. It is the miracle
of history, and the words of Christ stand. Jesus
Christ predicted furthermore that the little church He
was founding of obscure men in that obscure corner
of the earth would spread throughout the earth until
the nations of the earth took shelter under the
branches thereof. The prediction seemed utterly wild
and preposterous, but it has come true. The words of
Christ have stood the test of history. He predicted
furthermore that His church having spread thus out
wardly, corruption would begin inwardly and that this
corruption would spread "until all was leavened."
It was a passing strange prediction to make about
NOT A WORD OF CHRIST SHALL FAIL 15
one's own kingdom, but it has been fulfilled to the
letter. The apparently preposterous and impossible
words of Christ have stood the test of more than
eighteen centuries of history. The words of prophecy
that can stand the rigid test of eighteen centuries of
history will stand forever. Heaven and earth shall
pass away, but Christ 's words shall not pass away.
5. The words of Christ have stood the test of more
than eighteen centuries of practical application.
Through these more than eighteen centuries men and
women have had these words of Christ before them to
live by if they would, and thousands and tens of thous
ands, hundreds of thousands, millions, have decided
that they would. Men and women have tested the
words of Christ, His promises, His moral precepts, His
commandments, His warnings, in all the relations of
life. They have tested His promises and His precepts
in the home, they have tested them in the church life,
in the place of business ; they have tested them in pros
perity and in adversity ; they have tested them in sick
ness and in health ; they have tested them in the joys
of peace, and in the horrors of war ; they have tested
them in life, and when face to face with death ; they
have tested them in the sweet fullness of the unbroken
family circle, and in the desolation when every earthly
friend has been taken away. For eighteen centuries
men have tested these words of Christ from the cradle
to the grave, and the words of Christ have stood the
test. They never fail, they never will fail. In all,
these words of Christ have stood millions upon millions
of tests and not one single case of failure. What may
we say then without the shadow of the shade of a
doubt? Not one word of Christ shall ever fail.
16 THE VOICE OF GOD
Heaven and earth shall pass away but the words of
Jesus Christ shall not pass away.
If there is anything absolutely sure it is the words
of Jesus Christ. Heaven and earth may pass away,
they are material and subject to the changes and decay
that are always going on in matter. They have stood
for ages, but they will not always stand. There was
a time, as both the Bible and science tell us, when the
heavens and earth did not exist, and there will be a
time when they do not continue to exist in their pres
ent form; but Christ's words are spiritual not mate
rial, unchanging not changing, eternal not temporal,
and while the endless ages of eternity roll on they will
still endure. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but
the words of Jesus Christ shall not pass away.
II. SOME OTHER THINGS THAT ARE SURE ALSO.
We see that Christ's words are absolutely sure.
Not one word of His shall ever fail. But, if Jesus
Christ's words are sure, some other things are sure
also.
1. It is sure that there is a future eternal heaven
and eternal hell. This, Jesus Christ plainly declares.
The doctrines of an eternal heaven and an eternal hell
are not speculations of the theologians, but proclama
tions of the Son of God. Jesus says that at His coming
again all nations then living on the earth shall be
gathered before Him and He shall separate them one
from the other as a shepherd separateth his sheep from
the goats, and that He shall set the sheep on His right
hand and the goats to the left, and of those on the left
hand He says, " These shall go away into eternal
NOT A WORD OF CHRIST SHALL FAIL 17
punishment: but the righteous into eternal life."
(Matt. 25:31-34, 41, 46.) Remember that these are
not the words of some ' ' antiquated, mediaeval, bigoted
theologian," they are the words of the Son of God,
the words of Him not one word of whom shall ever
fail.
2. It is sure again that anyone who believes in
Jesus Christ shall receive forgiveness of sins and
eternal life, no matter how greatly nor how long he
may have sinned. Jesus says that He "has power on
earth to forgive sins" (Mark 2: 10). He says again,
"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of man be lifted up : that who
soever believeth in Him may have eternal life" (John
3: 14, 15). These words seem incredible. They seem
too good to be true, but Jesus Christ is the speaker and
not one word of His shall ever fail. The heavens and
the earth shall pass away, but His words shall not
pass away. This statement that there is pardon and
eternal life for anyone who will believe in Jesus
Christ is absolutely sure. Is there anyone here to
night who is heartily sick of sin, and heartily tired of
death? Come, believe on Jesus Christ arid be saved
and get pardon and eternal life to-night.
3. It is sure again that no one who rejects Jesus
Christ shall see life, but the wrath of God dbideth upon
him. Men do not like that doctrine. They like to
think they can reject Jesus Christ and yet be saved
by their imagined morality, or in some other way.
There is absolutely no foundation for such a hope.
It is not the doctrine of "fierce old John Calvin" nor
of "bigoted Jonathan Edwards," it is the declaration
of Jesus Christ, who says in John 3 : 18, 19, "He that
18 THE VOICE OF GOD
believeth on Him is not condemned. But he that be-
lieveth not, is condemned already, because he has not
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation that light is come into
the world and men love darkness rather than light,
because their deeds were evil." He says again in the
14th and 15th verses of the same chapter, "As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness : even so must
the Son of man be lifted up : that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,"
the unmistakable implication of which is that the one
who does not believe shall perish, no matter what else
he may do, and John sums up the teaching of the Lord
Jesus on this point by saying, "He that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life; and He that believeth
not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God
abideth on Him." Before you dare question the
statement to your own eternal ruin, remember who
makes it, the One not one of whose words shall ever
fail.
4. There is another thing that is absolutely sure, it
is sure that if a man is not born again he shall not
enter into the kingdom of God. This is the word of
Jesus Christ who says in John 3 : 3, 5, "Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot
see the kingdom of God. ' ' And again, ' ' Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and
of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of
God. ' ' It becomes a matter of tremendous importance
to each one of us that we know whether we have been
born again. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but
Christ's words shall not pass away, and Jesus Christ
says that no one who has not been born again shall
NOT A WORD OF CHRIST SHALL FAIL 19
enter His Kingdom. Oh man, oh woman, have you
been born again ?
5. Still another thing is sure : it is sure if one seeks
to be a Christian without letting the world know it,
seeks to be a Christian in the privacy of his own heart,
it is sure that Jesus Christ will not acknowledge such
a disciple when He comes. His words on this point
are very plain. He says in Mark 8 : 38, " Whosoever
shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this
adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall
the Son of man be ashamed when He cometh in the
glory of His Father, with the holy angels." And
again He says in Matt. 10: 32, 33, "Whosoever there
fore shall confess me before men, him will I confess
before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever
shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before
my Father which is in heaven." Your own deceitful
heart may seek to make you think that you can be a
Christian and not tell it. False friends may try to
persuade you of the same thing, but He, not one word
of whose shall ever fail, says, "Whosoever shall be
ashamed of me, and of my words, of him also shall the
Son of man be ashamed, when He cometh in the glory
of His father with the holy angels." Your opinion
will pass away; your friends' false arguments shall
pass away, heaven and earth shall pass away, but
Christ's words shall not pass away.
II
WHEREIN THE BIBLE DIFFERS FROM ALL
OTHER BOOKS
Sermon to the graduating class of Bible Institute of
Los Angeles, June 25, 1916.
"The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a
dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my
word faithfully. What is the straw to the wheat f
saith the LORD."—Jer. 23:28 R.V.
THE Bible stands absolutely alone. It is an en
tirely unique book. All other messages com
pared with the message of the Bible are as
chaff as compared with wheat. The attempt to com
pare the Bible with other books as if it were one of a
class, possibly the best of the class, arises either from
ignorance or thoughtlessness, or else from the fixed
determination to do the Bible an injustice. We shall
see this morning that there is none like it. The Bible
is not a book, it is the Book. It is an often repeated
incident that Sir Walter Scott, when he was dying
asked his son-in-law Lockhart to read to him, and that
Lockhart asked, "What book shall I read?" to which
Sir Walter Scott replied, "There is but one book."
Beyond a question Sir Walter Scott was right. But
20
WHEREIN THE BIBLE DIFFERS 21
some one may challenge that statement that the Bible
stands absolutely alone as an entirely unique book.
Anyone has a perfect right to challenge the statement
and demand wherein the Bible differs from all other
books, and this morning I propose to take up the chal
lenge and answer the question.
I. IN ITS DEPTH.
First of all the Bible differs from all other books in
its depth. The Bible is unfathomable and inexhaust
ible. It is unfathomable not because of the obscurity
of its style, but because of the profundity of its teach
ing. No other book is more simple in its style than the
Bible. Its style is so simple and clear that a child
can understand it, but its truth is so profound that we
explore the Book from childhood to old age and can
never say we have reached the bottom. However
deep we may go there are always deeper depths be
neath. For eighteen centuries many of the greatest
minds the world has ever known have been sounding
its depths, but the bottom is not yet reached. Men of
the greatest possible intellectual reach and power have
devoted a lifetime to the study of this book, but what
man has ever dared to say or dreamed of saying, "I
know now all that the Bible contains." If any man
should say that he would be unanimously voted a sub
lime egotist or an egregious simpleton. Whole genera
tions of scholars have devoted their lives to the study
of this book, each generation having the advantage of
the labours and researches and discoveries of preceding
generations, but can even the latest generation say,
1 1 we have discovered it all now, there is nothing left in
22 THE VOICE OF GOD
the Bible for the next generation to discover"? The
whole human race has been unable not only to exhaust,
but even to fathom this book. Well may we exclaim
with the Psalmist, ' ' Thy judgments are a great deep ' '
(Ps. 36:6). The judgments of God, God's thoughts
as revealed in this book, are beyond any man and be
yond any generation of men. They are beyond the
whole race. This Book, like God's other book, the
book of nature, and unlike any book of man, is un
fathomable and inexhaustible by men. This fact, if
it stood alone would be sufficient proof of its Divine
origin.
1. There are whole volumes of meaning in a single
and apparently simple verse. A single verse of Scrip
ture has often formed the basis upon which a literature
of many volumes, both of prose and poetry, has been
erected. This is true, for example, of John 3 : 16, "For
God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish but have everlasting life." It is true of 1 John
4:8," God is love. " It is true of Ps. 23 : 1, ' ' The Lord
is my shepherd; I shall not want." What single
utterance of any other book could be the foundation
of so much thought and expression as these utterances
of the Bible. Who but God could pack so many vol
umes into one little verse, or part of a verse ?
2. The Bible is always ahead of man. The world is
certainly making progress in its thinking. It is con
stantly leaving behind the scientists, philosophers, and
sages of the past. But the world never leaves the Bible
behind. It has never caught up with it. Show me a
man who says he has outgrown the Bible and I will
WHEREIN THE BIBLE DIFFERS 23
show you a man every time who is ignorant of the
Bible and is talking of what he knows nothing about.
Whence comes this Book which is always ahead of the
age?
"What other book ought to command the attention,
the time, and the study that this book does, which is
deeper than all other books, ahead of all other books,
and ahead of every age. You study to-day the latest
things in science and it will be out of date in less than
ten years, but the Bible is never out of date. It is not
only up to date, but ahead of date. If you wish to be
not only abreast of the times, but ahead of the times,
study the Bible. Jesus was ahead of His times be
cause He studied so much of the Bible as then existed.
Paul was ahead of his times for the same reason. Huss,
and Wycliff, and Luther, and John Knox, and Wes
ley, and Finney, and Moody were ahead of their times
simply because they sought their wisdom from this
book.
II. IN THE ABSOLUTE ACCURACY OF ITS STATEMENTS.
The Bible differs from other books in the second
place in the absolute accuracy of its statements. The
Bible is the only book that always says all that it
means to say and never says anything more than it
means to say. The more rigidly one examines the
Bible and the more closely he studies it, the more will
he be filled with admiration for the accuracy with
which it expresses the truth. It never overstates, it
never understates the truth. There is not one word. too
many and not one word too few. It is the model wit
ness: it tells "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
24 THE VOICE OF GOD
but the truth." A very large part of man's difficulties
with the Bible comes from not noting exactly what it
says. Time and time again men have come to me
and said, "I cannot believe this which the Bible
says/7 and then have quoted something which they
supposed the Bible said. But I have replied, "the
Bible does not say that, ' ' and when we have looked it
up, lo, it is some minute modification of what the
Bible really says that has given rise to the difficulty.
The Bible is always so absolutely exact, that I have
found the best solution for very many apparent dif
ficulties in the Bible to be to take the difficult verses
precisely as they read.
III. IN ITS POWER.
In the third place the Bible differs from all other
books in its power. There is perhaps no other place
where the supremacy and solitariness of the Bible
shines out as in its power. Col. Ingersoll once said in
Chicago that the money expended in teaching the
supernatural religion of the Bible was wasted, and
advised the ministers to "take for a series of sermons
the history of the philosophy, of the art, and the gen
ius of the Greeks. Let him tell," he continued, "of
the wondrous metaphysics, myths, and religions of
India and Egypt. Let him make his congregation con
versant with the philosophies of the world, with the
great thinkers, the great poets, the great artists, the
great inventors, the captains of industry, and the
soldiers of progress." This suggested scheme of Col.
Ingersoll 's was no new scheme, it has been tried over
and over again, and I challenge any man who has
WHEREIN THE BIBLE DIFFERS 25
eyes and is honest to say that the pulpits that have
tried it have the power to elevate, save and gladden,
that the pulpits have that preach the supernatural
religion of the old Bible. The man who thus talks is
either talking about something of which he has made
no thorough and candid study, or else he is delib
erately shutting his eyes to very evident facts. In
either case he is playing the hypocrite in posing as a
teacher.
In what directions does the Bible show a power that
no other book or books possess ?
1. First of all, in its saving power. Does it need
any proof that the Bible has a saving power that no
other book possesses, and that all other books together
do not possess?
a. The Bible has a unique saving power in individ
ual lives. What book or books can match the Bible's
record of men and women saved from sin and vice in
all their forms, saved from drunkenness, drugs, lust,
greed, ruffianism, barbarism, meanness, selfishness, by
the power of this Book? Worthless sots transformed
into honest citizens and fathers ; degraded prostitutes
transformed into holy women of God; savages who
drank blood from human skulls transformed into noble
lovers of friends and foes ; murderers transformed into
ministering angels. Single verses of this book have
more saving power than all other books put together.
John 3:16 has saved more men from sin to holiness,
from degradation to honour, from bondage to the
Devil to sonship of God, than all books outside of the
Bible. Try and account for it as you may, the fact
stands and does not admit of a moment's honest
denial or question.
26 THE VOICE OF GOD
b. But the saving power of the Bible is not limited
to the lives of individuals. It has saving power in
national life. Try to obscure the fact as you may, all
that is best in America, Germany, and England is due
to this Book, and in our own day nations have been
lifted out of savagery into Christian civilization by
this book. If this Book had been heeded the awful
cataclysm of war that is devastating Germany, France
and England to-day would have been avoided. The
undermining of faith in this Book is the real cause
of the present murderous war with all its unspeakable
and immeasurable calamities, atrocities and horrors.
2. But the Bible has not only a saving power that
no other book possesses, it has also a comforting power
that no other book possesses. What book like this can
stay the human heart in sickness and adversity, and
comfort it in the bereavement that takes from us the
light of our eyes and the joy of our homes. There is
no heart wound for which the Bible has not a balsam.
I hold in my hand a New Testament that is very
precious to me because it was the gift of my mother
to my grandmother, my father's mother, which was
the stay of her life in her closing years. On the title-
page of his Bible is written in my mother's hand,
"Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal."
This is true, but thank God something better is true,
and that is, earth has no sorrows that the Bible can
not heal even in the life that now is.
3. Furthermore, the Bible has a joy-giving power
no other book possesses. There is no other joy so
great, so exceeding, so overflowing, and so enduring
as those know who study and discover the truth con
tained in this Book. This is a fact that any of you
WHEREIN THE BIBLE DIFFERS 27
can discover by observation, and better yet, that all
of you can know if you will by blessed experience.
There are many who have sought joy wherever it was
to be found, in pleasure, in study, and in sin, and
have at last found a joy in the Bible they found no
where else. There is a countless multitude who have
been lifted out of awful depths of despair into lofty
heights of unutterable joy by the truths this Book
contains, and the speaker of this morning is one of
them.
4. The Bible has a wisdom-giving power that no
other book possesses. "The entrance of thy words
giveth light." (Ps. 119 : 130.) I have known people of
very meagre educational advantages but who have
studied the Bible, who have more wisdom in the things
of greatest practical and eternal import than many
very learned men who have neglected this Book of
matchless wisdom.
5. The Bible has a courage-giving power no other
book possesses. No other book has made so many and
such peerless heroes, it has made them too out of most
unpromising stuff. It has transformed beardless boys
and tender maidens into heroes.
6. The Bible has a power to inspire activity that
no other book possesses. It makes lazy men indus
trious; half alive men fully alive. There are said to
be but two things of which a professional tramp is
afraid, water and work, but I have seen the very
tramp from whom I got this information transformed
into a man of untiring industry by the matchless
teaching of this Book.
28 THE VOICE OF GOD
IV. IN ITS UNIVERSAL ADAPTABILITY.
The Bible differs from all other books in its uni
versal adaptability. Other books fit certain classes or
certain types, or certain races of men, but the Bible
fits men universally.
1. It fits all nations. No nation has ever been dis
covered that the Bible does not fit. Charles Darwin,
the greatest naturalist of his day, thought he had dis
covered in the Terra del Fuegans a people the Bible
would not fit, and frankly stated that missionary work
among them would be in vain. His exact words writ
ten after his visit to Patagonia were, ' * Nothing can be
done by mission work ; all the pains bestowed upon the
natives will be thrown away, they never can be civi
lized." But more humble believers in the universal
adaptation of the Bible and the gospel it contains
thought differently, and proved their faith and so
thoroughly convinced Charles Darwin by facts of his
mistake, that he became a regular subscriber to the
funds of the society they represented.
2. The Bible not only fits all nations, but it fits all
ages. It is the child's book, the young man's book, the
book of the middle-aged, and the book of the old.
3. -The Bible fits all classes. It fits the poor and it
fits the rich. It fits the palace and it fits the garret.
It fits the learned and it fits the ignorant. It fits the
nobleman and it fits the peasant. It fits Gladstone,
and James D. Dana, and Eomanes, and Neander, and
it fits the man so illiterate that he can scarce spell out
its words.
4. The Bible fits all experiences. It is the book for
the hour of gladness, and the book for the hour of
sadness ; the book for the day of victory, and the book
WHEREIN THE BIBLE DIFFERS 29
for the day of defeat ; the book for the day in which
we have achieved the greatest moral triumph, and
for the day when we have fallen deepest into sin ; the
book for the day of clearest faith, and the book for the
day of darkest doubt ; the book for the wedding day
and the book for the day of funerals. There is not
an experience in life wherein the Bible does not have
the message which we most need. To that fact there
are tens of thousands of people of all classes in many
nations ready to testify. The testimony is from such
a host of witnesses and such competent witnesses that
the only one who can doubt it is the man who is bound
he won't believe.
V. IN ITS HISTORY.
The Bible differs from every other book in its
history.
1. The Bible lias been hated as no other book. No
book has ever aroused the animosity of men of all
classes as the Bible has. The Bible has been hated by
rich men and it has been hated by poor men. It has
been hated by the scholar and it has been hated by the
fool. It has been hated by common people and it has
been hated by rulers, governors, and kings. No^ other
book has so aroused the bitterest antagonism. Men
of seeming moderation and kindness of heart have been
aroused to such a pitch of hatred by the Bible that
they became murderers and torturers of men, women,
and children; for example, Marcus Aurelius Antoni
nus. Even in our own day kind fathers and tender
husbands have been moved by hatred of this Book to
brutal treatment of children and of wives who have
been led to accept the truth it contains.
30 THE VOICE OF GOD
2. It has been loved as no other book. If it has been
intensely hated it has still more been intensely loved,
loved by all classes, loved by the rich and loved by the
poor ; loved by the illiterate and loved by the greatest
scholars the world has ever known ; loved by men dig
ging in the ditch, and loved by men ruling on a throne.
Men, women and tender children have gladly laid
down their lives for this Book.
3. It has been victorious as no other book. Though
the Bible has been so bitterly hated and so vigorously
assaulted, it has come off a complete victor. Centuries
of assault have served only to prove its indestructibil
ity and confirm its power. Celsus, Porphyry, Lucian,
Diocletian, Voltaire, Volney, Hume, Tom Paine,
Wellhausen, Graf, Kiihnen, Cheyne, and an innumer
able host have trained their mighty guns against this
Book. They have brought to bear against it all the
powers of science, philosophy, literary criticism, ridi
cule, force, political and military power, and every
other form of power that they possessed, and all their
assaults have come to nothing. The Bible has come
off a complete victor in every conflict. Anyone who
will take the pains to consult history will have no
doubts as to the outcome of the present attacks upon
the Bible. Individuals of the past have talked just as
boastingly of what they would do with the Bible in a
few years as do the individuals of to-day, and with far
more show of reason. But their confident boasts
proved empty and futile and as we recall them now
in the light of the established facts of subsequent his
tory they only move us to a pitying smile. Voltaire
is dead and forgotten, but the Bible is still alive and
marching on. Attacks on the Bible may do injury to
WHEREIN THE BIBLE DIFFERS 31
a few weak individuals, principally callow young men
and romantic young maidens in high schools, colleges
and universities, who allow themselves to be thus
robbed of the saving, comforting, joy-giving, en
nobling power there is in the Bible, but they do not
hurt the cause of truth, for they but prove anew the
Divine indestructibility of the imperishable Book of
God
VI. IN ITS AUTHORSHIP.
Finally, the Book differs from every other book in
its authorship. Other books are men's books. This is
God's Book. Much that has already been said proves
this. Its inexhaustible depth proves it. Only an in
finitely wise God can be the author of an inexhaustible
book. Its absolute accuracy proves it. Men under
state or overstate: God alone always states things
just as they are. Its Divine power proves it. Only a
book that comes down from God can lift men up to
God as this Book does. Its universal adaptability
proves it. Only the Creator of all men can make a
book that is fitted to all men and every need of these
men. Its history proves it. Only God can make a
book so indestructible against assault, against human
reasoning, and human philosophy as this. An omnip
otent book must have an omnipotent author. There
are many other facts about this Book that prove its
Divine authorship, but these are enough. There is
evidently a certain Infinite character about this Book
that points unmistakably to the Infinite character of
its author. What this Book says God says, and who
ever speaks according to this Book speaks the message
of God and God speaks through him. He is God's
mouthpiece.
Ill
IS THE BIBLE IN DANGER?
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words
shall not pass away." — Matt. 24: 35.
SOME weeks ago I preached on this same text,
but we are going to approach it to-night from
a different standpoint. The question before
us is, is the Bible in danger ? Our text asserts that it
is not, and I propose to show you to-night some reasons
why the Bible certainly is not in danger. There are
two classes who think that the Bible is in danger:
first, there are those who think it is in danger because
they are glad to think so, because it gives their con
sciences some little consolation in a life of sin to think
that the Bible will not stand. But there is another class
who fear the Bible is in danger, and it is with great
reluctance that they think that it is; they love the
Bible, they would be glad to believe the Bible, but they
are afraid the old book must go. Let us then honestly
face the question, Is the Bible in danger? I shall
prove to a demonstration that it is not in danger. I
will not deny that the Bible has enemies, and most
able enemies, most persistent enemies. Eighteen years
ago when Col. Ingersoll suddenly died there were
many who breathed a sigh of relief, for they thought
that the most dangerous enemy of the Bible was gone.
32
IS THE BIBLE IN DANGER? 33
But Col. Ingersoll was not the most dangerous enemy
of the Bible. There were more dangerous enemies of
the Bible even during his lifetime than he himself was,
and there are far more dangerous enemies of the Bible
than he to-day. They are more dangerous because they
do not make the mistake that he made of thinking that
the world would accept caricature for argument, and
ridicule for reason, and rhetoric for logic. They are
more dangerous also because they do not come out into
the open, as he did, and frankly avow themselves to
be infidels. They claim, in some sense, to believe in the
Bible, but all the while that they claim to believe in it
they are seeking, consciously or unconsciously, to un
dermine the faith of others in the absolute inerrancy
and authority of the Bible. The most dangerous ene
mies of the Bible to-day are the college professors and
principals of high schools, and even theological profes
sors who, while they claim to be endeavoring to estab
lish faith upon a broader and therefore better basis,
are all the time attempting to show that the Bible is
full of errors and not in accord with the assured re
sults of modern science and history. These enemies are
legion, they are found practically everywhere, many
of them are able men, and they have formulated a skil
fully planned campaign against the Bible. Neverthe
less the Bible is in no danger. There are six reasons
why the Bible is not in danger.
1. BECAUSE THE BIBLE HAS ALREADY SURVIVED THE
ATTACKS OF MORE THAN 1800 YEARS.
The attacks now being made upon the Bible are not
something new. The Bible has always been hated and
34 THE VOICE OF GOD
assaulted. The Bible's stern denunciation of sin, the
Bible's uncompromising demand of a holy, unselfish,
consecrated life, the Bible 's merciless laying of human
pride in the dust, have aroused for the Bible a more
bitter hatred from men than any other book has ever
met. No sooner was the Bible given to the world than
it met the hatred of men and they tried to stamp it
out by every method and instrument of destruction
they could bring to bear against it. The arguments
that are brought against the Bible to-day are not new
arguments, all of them were met and answered long
ago. I am not aware of one single new argument that
has been brought forward against the Bible in the last
ten years. The antagonists of the Bible have tricked
out the old arguments in new and more attractive
garments, but they are the same old arguments. The
arguments brought forward by the most learned and
most able enemies of the book to-day are the very ar
guments that have been employed for more than a
century. If anyone will take the trouble to read Tom
Paine 's Age of Reason, he will be amazed to dis
cover how many of the positions which men persist
in calling ' ' the new views ' ' of the Bible were exploited
by Tom Paine in his Age of Reason more than a cen
tury ago. Dr. Howard Osgood, a great scholar, in a
discussion with the destructive critics some years ago,
read a statement of the positions of the destructive
critics as he understood them, and then turned to
President Harper and inquired if the statements that
he had read were not fair statements of the positions
they held. President Harper replied that they were,
and then Prof. Osgood startled his auditors, and espec
ially his opponents, by saying, "In this statement that
IS THE BIBLE IN DANGER? 35
I have just read of your position, I have been reading
verbatim from Tom Paine 's Age of Reason." With
all the researches and all the laboured efforts to find
something against the Bible, not one single new argu
ment has been forged in the last twenty years. There
have been times in the past when the Bible has seemed
to be in more peril than to-day, but when the storm of
battle was over and the smoke of conflict had cleared
away from the battlefield, this old, impregnable citadel
of God's eternal truth has been seen standing there
absolutely unhurt and unscarred, and the battle has
only served to illustrate how impregnable is the cita
del. Those who fancy that they are going to destroy
the Bible with their puny weapons, and those also who
fear it is going to be destroyed, would do well to re
flect upon its history. The Book that has so trium
phantly withstood the terrific assaults of eighteen cen
turies is not likely to succumb in a day. Voltaire, a
far more gifted, versatile and skilful enemy of Chris
tianity than any enemy living to-day, once boasted,
"It took twelve men to establish Christianity. I will
show the world it takes but one to destroy it." But
somehow or other it did not destroy as easily as he
imagined it would. Voltaire has passed into history,
and largely into oblivion, and he will soon pass into
utter oblivion, but the Bible has gained in power, and
the very room in which Voltaire wrote the words
quoted has been packed from floor to ceiling with
Bibles for distribution, owned by the British and
Foreign Bible Society. The advance of research from
excavations in Bible lands, the advance of historical
investigation, and the advance of science, have all
served to confirm the truthfulness of the Bible. For
36 THE VOICE OF GOD
example, the unearthing and deciphering of the cunei
form inscriptions, and the Moabite stone have shown
the truth of Bible statements that were once ques
tioned by scholars. As another illustration, not so
many years ago ridicule was heaped upon the Bible
implication of the existence of a great Hittite people.
The investigations of comparatively recent years have
proven the Bible right, and the critics utterly wrong.
The sceptics of my early years made merry over the
Bible mention of light before there was a sun, but
to-day every man of science knows that according to
the generally accepted nebular hypothesis there was
light, cosmic light, before the sun became a separate
body, and he also knows that even after the sun had
become a separate body and the earth had been thrown
off from the sun and the moon from the earth, that
such dense clouds surrounded the earth for a long
period of time that no light either from the sun or
moon could reach the earth, and that afterwards the
clouds became thin and dissipated and then, and only
then, in that day, or period, of the earth's history did
the sun and moon appear as definite heavenly bodies,
giving light upon the earth by day or night. A very
few years ago the destructive critics ridiculed the 14th
chapter of Genesis and its mention of Amraphel, whom
they asserted was an altogether mythical character,
and many of them asserted that Abraham himself was
a mythical character, but inscriptions made by this
very Amraphel, or to use the modern name Hammu-
rabbai, have been discovered, and a code of laws issued
by him has been found, a code of a very lofty char
acter, and now instead of sneering at Amraphel as a
mythical character, the critics are trying to make us
IS THE BIBLE IN DANGER? 37
believe that Moses derived his legislation from him.
The greatest scientist that America produced in the
nineteenth century, my friend and beloved instructor
in geology, Prof. James D. Dana, said, "The grand
old book of God still stands; and this old earth the
more its leaves are turned and pondered, the more
will it sustain and illustrate the sacred word." Eigh
teen centuries of triumphant history and eighteen cen
turies of accumulating confirmation show that the
Bible is not in any peril.
II. THE BIBLE is NOT IN DANGER BECAUSE IT MEETS
AND SATISFIES THE DEEPEST NEEDS OP MAN IN EVERY
GENERATION.
Arthur Hallam said, "I see that the Bible fits into
every fold and crevice of the human heart. " This is
true, but more than this is true. The Bible has an
answer to every cry of the human souL a balm for
every wound of the human heart, a supply for every
need of man. What are the deeper needs of man?
1. First of all, the need of pardon and peace. We
are all sinners. We may try to dispute or obscure that
fact, but we all know it is true. The Christian
Scientist may assert that there is really no such thing
as sin, that sin is only "mortal thought," or "illu
sion," and yet the Christian Scientist himself shows
that he really believes that there is such a thing as sin
by his holding other men responsible for their wrong
acts. New theologians of the Reginald Campbell type
may assert that the supposed fall of man was a fall
upward, and that even man when he gets drunk or
goes into lust is seeking after God, but in our deeper
38 THE VOICE OF GOD
moments we all know that this is utter nonsense. In
our deepest moments we all know we are not right and,
though we may try to question it, we also fear that
there is a holy God to whom we shall have to give
answer for this sinful life of ours, and even if there
is not such a holy God we know we shall have to give
answer to our own consciences, which, like Banquo's
ghost, will not down. Man is a sinner. Every man is
a sinner. The great question then is, is there any place
where pardon from God and peace in our own con
sciences can be found? The Bible answers this all-
important question. It tells us that pardon and peace
can be found in Jesus Christ through His atoning
blood, and when we seek pardon and peace in Him we
find that what the Bible says on this point is true.
There are many on every hand who can testify that
they have found pardon and peace in Jesus Christ to
whom the Bible pointed them. Years ago in Chicago
a woman came to me who had been in a very real hell
for fourteen years. For fourteen years conscience had
tormented her with the thought of the man into whose
throat she had driven a dagger and killed him. Often
times in her agony she had gone down to Lake Michi
gan by night and thought of plunging into its dark
waters to drown herself and thus be free from her
accusing conscience, but she hesitated to do it for fear
of the awakening that might lie beyond death. I
pointed her to Isa. 53 : 6 and she found pardon and
perfect peace through the One who had borne in her
place the murder she had committed. The last three
days of week before last and the first two days of last
week I was in Chicago again. The first day I was there
this woman came to me with a smiling face and told
IS THE BIBLE IN DANGER? 39
we how happy she was in Christ, and time and again
she came to me at the close of some of the meetings,
telling me how God was using even her in service for
Him. This book has saved many a conscience-tortured
one from suicide and despair.
2. The next need of man is deliverance from sin's
power. Men are in the grip of sin, we all know that.
They are unable to break away from the grip of sin.
It is well enough to tell a man to assert his manhood,
but it doesn't work. The very lecturer who tells men
that they do not need a Saviour, Jesus, to set them free
from the power of sin, that all they need to do is to
assert their manhood, has not asserted his own man
hood and broken away from sin's grip. This slavery
of sin is awful ; the soul cries out, where is deliverance
to be found? The cry of Paul in his failure and de
feat is the universal cry of the thoughtful heart, ' ' Oh,
wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me out of
the body of this death?" (Rom. 7:24). The Bible
answers the question in John 8 : 36, ' ' If the Son shall
make you free, ye shall be free indeed. ' ' When we try
it we find it is true. How many men there are whom
we know who have been saved from lives of drunken
ness and sin by this book ? How many homes there are
in Los Angeles and throughout the land that were
once poor, and dirty, and quarrelsome, that to-day are
clean and well supplied and loving through the in
fluence of this book? How many men and women
have been saved from lives of sin by this book ? With
this, contrast infidelity. Where is the man who has
been saved from drunkenness by the power of infi
delity? Where is the home that was once poor and
dirty and quarrelsome that is to-day clean and well
40 THE VOICE OF GOD
supplied and loving which has been made so by the
power of infidelity ? "Where is the sinning woman who
has been saved from a life of sin by infidelity in any
form?
3. The next need of man is comfort in sorrow. We
live in a world that is full of sorrow and bereavement.
Families are broken up, dear ones taken away. Man
needs consolation as he stands by the dying bed of wife
or child or mother; he needs consolation as he looks
into the grave into which the dearest one of earth has
been lowered. Where can he find consolation in such
an hour? In the Bible, and in the Bible alone. On
October 19, 1894, five years after the Johnstown flood,
I stood in Johnstown cemetery. I looked upon the
graves of several thousand who were in one day, May
31, 1889, swept into eternity — 816 unknown ones lay
in a single plot. I read the inscriptions on the tomb
stones. What stories of sorrow they told. There lay
side by side a young mother and her baby child; in
another place lay ' ' father, 34 years ; Anne, 10 years ;
Tommy, 6 years ; Elmer, 2, ' ' and the rest of the family
were left to mourn. In another place lay seven of one
family side by side. There was need of consolation in
those days in Johnstown. Was there any place where
it could be found? Yes, in the Bible, and in Jesus
Christ of whom the Bible tells. On one tombstone I
read, "Annie Llewellyn, died May 31, 1889, five years,
three months, seventeen days, 'Safe in the arms of
Jesus.' ' Was there any comfort in that for those
parents as they thought of their little one caught by
the swirling flood, tossed about mid trees and crash
ing ruins, buried at last in the awful mass of drift and
dying ones at the bridge? On the family tombstone
IS THE BIBLE IN DANGER? 41
mentioned above I read these words, "Be ye also
ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of
man cometh." (Matt. 24:44). I read not one single
inscription from Tom Paine, Voltaire, Col. Ingersoll,
or from any infidel writer or speaker, ancient or mod
ern. Why not ? Because there is no comfort in them.
A few years before his death Col. Ingersoll wrote
recommending suicide as the best refuge he could sug
gest in great sorrow and failure. The Bible has some
thing immeasurably better to offer.
4. Man's next need is hope in the face of death.
We must all sooner or later stand face to face with
death, then the soul of man, unless it has been burned
out by sin, cries, Does this end all, is there no light in
the grave? The Bible again meets and satisfies this
cry. Col. Ingersoll onoe asked in a lecture delivered
in Chicago, (October 13, 1894), "Why did not He
(Christ) say something positive, definite and satis
factory about another world? Why did He not turn
the tear-stained hope of heaven into glad knowledge of
another life ? ' ' Then he answered his own question in
this way : "I will tell you why. He was a man and
did not know." The audacity of such an answer to
an intelligent audience with an open Bible, is amazing.
To imply that Christ did not tell something "positive,
definite, and satisfactory about another world." To
imply that He did not "turn the tear-stained hope of
heaven into glad knowledge of another life, ' ' and then
try to account for His not doing so! Col. Ingersoll
must have thought that his hearers either had no Bible
or else would not read it. Jesus said in John 14 : 1-3,
"Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God, be
lieve also in me. In my father's house are many
42 THE VOICE OF GOD
mansions ; if it were not so, I would have told you ; for
I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will
receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye
may be also." Is not that something positive, some
thing definite, something satisfactory about another
world? Again Jesus says in John 11: 25, 26, "I am
the resurrection, and the life : he that believeth in me,
though he were dead yet shall he live. And whosoever
liveth, and believeth in me shall never die." Is not
that something positive, something definite, something
satisfactory about another world? Again He says in
John 5 : 28, 29, * ' The hour is coming, in which all that
are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come
forth, they that have done good, unto the resurrec
tion of life, and they that have done evil, unto the
resurrection of judgment." That certainly is plain
enough, though it is not very satisfactory to those who
are living lives of sin. But has the critical Colonel
himself ever said anything "positive, definite and sat
isfactory" about another world? He had a most
excellent chance to do so if he had anything to say,
when he stood beside the grave of his own brother, but
his pathetic but hollow eloquence on that occasion
served only to illustrate the utter hollowness and
emptiness of scepticism. The Bible has given men
courage to die bravely and triumphantly in all the
ages of its history. Infidels sometimes die stolidly and
clinch their teeth and face it out, but they never die
joyously and gloriously.
We might go on and show other needs of man that
the Bible meets, but enough has been said to show that
the Bible meets the deepest needs of man. As long
IS THE BIBLE IN DANGER? 43
as man needs pardon and peace, as long as man needs
deliverance from the power of sin, as long as man
needs comfort in sorrow, as long as man needs hope in
the face of death, the Bible is not in danger. Man will
not give up to satisfy any number of keen satirists
or carping critics or plausible reasoners, the book that
meets his deepest needs, that brings pardon and peace
instead of guilt and remorse, that brings liberty, man
hood and nobility instead of bondage to sin, that
brings comfort in the darkest hours of sorrow, trans
forming the thunder-cloud into the rainbow, that in
spires man with unquenchable hope in the face of
death and its terrors.
III. THE BIBLE is NOT IN DANGER BECAUSE THERE is
NOTHING ELSE TO TAKE THE PLACE OP THE BIBLE.
The Bible contains all the truth on moral and spirit
ual subjects that all other books together contain. It
contains more than all other books put together, and
it contains all this in portable compass. Not a truth
on moral or spiritual topics that cannot be found for
substance within the covers of this little book. Even
infidels' best thoughts are stolen from this book. For
example, Ingersoll once said, "The doctrine that
woman is the slave, or serf of man — whether it comes
from hell or heaven, from God or demon, from the
golden streets of the New Jerusalem or the very Sodom
of perdition — is savagery pure and simple/' This
statement is true, but where did Col. Ingersoll learn
this doctrine of woman's equality with man? He
either learned it from the Bible or from some one else
who had learned it from the Bible. What is the first
44 THE VOICE OF GOD
thing that the Bible says about woman ? You will find
it in Gen. 2: 18, "And the LORD God said, it is not
good that man should be alone; I will make him a
helpmeet for him." Here in its opening chapters the
Bible proclaims the equality of woman with man.
It declares that woman is not "the slave, or serf of
man, ' ' but his companion and equal. Ingersoll was all
right in his doctrine about the equality of woman, but
he was unfortunately three thousand five hundred
years behind the book that he sought to hold up to
scorn. Turning to the New Testament he might have
read in Gal. 3 : 28 the statement that in Christ Jesus
"there is neither male nor female." He might have
read again in Eph. 5 : 25, "Husbands, love your wives,
even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself
up for it.'7 Certainly there is no suggestion there
that "woman is the slave or serf of man." And he
might have read a few verses further down in verses
28 and 29, "So ought men to love their wives as their
own bodies. He that loveth his own wife, loves him
self. For no man ever hated his own flesh ; but nour-
isheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church."
And then he might have read two verses still further
down, "For this cause shall a man leave his father and
his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two
shall be one flesh." All the respect and honour and
love and care bestowed upon woman to-day, woman
owes to the Bible. But not only can we find every
truth in the Bible that we find elsewhere, but there is
more truth in the Bible than al] other literature put
together, and it is in portable compass. In the lecture
already referred to Col. Ingersoll proposed to give to
the world another and better Bible in place of this one,
IS THE BIBLE IN DANGER? 45
but where is it? Listen to what he says: "For thou
sands of years men have been writing the real Bible,
and it is being written from day to day and it will
never be finished while man has life.
1 1 All the wisdom that lengthens and ennobles life —
all that avoids or cures diseases, or conquers pain —
all just and perfect laws and rulos that guide and
shape our lives, all thoughts that feed the flames of
love, the music that transfigures, enraptures, and en
thralls, the victories of heart and brain, the miracles
that hands have wrought, the deft and cunning hands
of those who worked for wife and child, the histories
of noble deeds, of brave and useful men, of faithful,
loving wives, or quenchless mother-love, of conflicts
for the right, of sufferings for the truth, of all the best
that all the men and women of the world have said
and thought and done through all the years.
"These treasures of the heart and brain — these are
the sacred scriptures of the human race."
That sounds pretty, doesn't it? I challenge any
man to say that that is not a masterpiece of diction.
But after all it is only rhetoric. Where is this Bible
of which Ingersoll spoke? People want a Bible that
they can lay their hands on, that they can make use
of, that they can carry with them. A poor man can
not very well carry a Carnegie library in his trunk,
and it would not do him much good in the great
emergencies of life if he could. But here in this book
we have a Bible that a man can carry in his pocket
wherever he goes, and in this one small book he
has more of truth of eternal value than in all the
libraries of the world. No, the Bible is not in any
danger, for there is nothing else to take its place.
46 THE VOICE OF GOD
IV. THE BIBLE is NOT IN DANGER BECAUSE IT HAS
A HOLD THAT CANNOT BE SHAKEN, ON THE CONFI
DENCE AND AFFECTION OF THE WISEST AND BEST
MEN AND WOMEN.
The Bible has the distrust and hatred of some, but
it has the confidence and affection of the wisest, and
especially the holiest of men and women. The men
who know the Bible best are the men who trust it
most and love it best. A superficial knowledge of the
Bible, such as Col. Ingersoll, for example, had, or Tom
Paine had, or that many a college and even theolo
gical professor to-day has, may lead one to distrust it
and hate it, but the deep and thorough knowledge of
that book comes from a pure heart and profound study
will always lead one to love and trust it. The Bible
is distrusted and hated by those whose influence dies
with them. The Bible is loved and trusted by those
whose influence lives after them. Lucian, Celsus, and
Porphyry were great men, but their influence died
with them, but the influence of John and Paul lives
on in ever- widening power. Voltaire and Volney were
able men, among the ablest men of their day, but their
influence belongs wholly to the past, but the influence
of Whitfield and Wesley is greater to-day than when
they were here on earth. Col. Ingersoll was a man of
brilliant gifts, but his influence has not lived after
him. Indeed it is amazing how completely he has
sunken out of sight in the eighteen years that have
elapsed since his death. But the influence of Spur-
geon and Moody is with us still. No, the Bible is not
in danger, for it has the ever-increasing confidence of
the best men and women, of those men and women
IS THE BIBLE IN DANGER? 47
whose influence lives after them, and only the dis
trust and hatred of those whose influence dies with
them.
V. THE BIBLE is NOT IN DANGER BECAUSE IT is THE
WORD OF GOD.
I have not space to go into that at this time. Many
things prove that the Bible is the Word of God : its ful
filled prophecies, its unity, its Divine power, its in
exhaustible depth, the fact that as we grow in knowl
edge and holiness — grow Godward — we grow toward
the Bible. Just a moment on its fulfilled prophe
cies. Look at the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. This
chapter has been the rock upon which infidelity
has always gone to pieces. Men have tried to get
around the force of the argument by the desperate
expedient of saying that the chapter does not refer to
the Christ but to suffering Israel, but even one careful
reading of the chapter will show that it cannot refer to
suffering Israel. Look at Dan. 9 : 25-27 with its pre
diction of the exact time of the manifestation of the
Messiah to Israel and its prediction of His death and
what would follow. ' Look at Mic. 5 : 2 and its pre
diction of the very place in which the Messiah should
be born. Right before our own eyes in the last two
years we have seen predictions from the Bible fulfilled
that men said never could be fulfilled. They told us
that wars were at an end forever, that man had made
such progress in his evolution that a great war would
never be possible again among civilized nations of the
earth, and that the predictions of the Bible that
greater wars and times of distress were coming than
48 THE VOICE OF GOD
the world had ever seen were foolish and impossible of
fulfilment, but to-day we see these prophecies being
fulfilled before our very eyes. The other arguments
to prove that the Bible is the Word of God I have
not time to go into at all, but they are absolutely
conclusive. The Bible is not in danger because it is
God's book. "Heaven and earth may pass away but
God's Word shall not pass away" (Matt. 24:25), or
to put it as Peter puts it in I Peter 1: 24, 25, "All
flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower
of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof
falleth away: but the word of the Lord abideth for-
VI. THE BIBLE is NOT IN DANGER BECAUSE ANY HON
EST AND EARNEST SEEKER AFTER TRUTH CAN FIND
OUT FOR HIMSELF THAT THE BIBLE is GOD'S WORD.
In John 7 : 17 Jesus offers a test that any man can
try for himself. He says, "If any man willeth to do
his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is
of God, or whether I speak from myself." Many
have tried this test and it has never failed. A few
weeks ago at the close of one of our evening services
a man came to me saying that he was full of doubts,
that while he believed that there was a God, he doubted
that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, or that the
Bible was the Word of God. He said further, he had
been advised to accept it on blind faith without evi
dence. I told him to do nothing of the sort. I told
him that believing without evidence was not faith but
credulity, and that God did not ask any man to believe
without evidence. Then I gave him the passage just
IS THE BIBLE IN DANGER? 49
quoted, "If any man willeth to do his will, he shall
know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether
I speak from myself." I told him to surrender his
will to God and then ask God to show him whether
Jesus Christ was His Son or not, and whether the Bible
was His Word or not, and to take the gospel of John
and read it, not trying to believe it, but being willing
to be convinced if it was true, and promising God that
he would take his stand upon everything in it that he
found to be true. Within a week I received a letter
from this man telling me how he had come out into
the clear light of faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of
God. I have seen the man again to-day and not only
has his own scepticism entirely vanished, but he is
leading other sceptics to Christ.
The Bible is in no danger. As far as the Bible is
concerned all these attacks from different sources upon
the Bible do only good, they set people to thinking
about the Bible, they set preachers to preaching about
the Bible, they serve to illustrate the invincible truth
and power of the Bible by showing the ease with
which such fierce attacks upon it are repelled. But
while the Bible itself is in no danger, those who vent
their spleen upon it are in danger. It is no small sin
to ridicule the Word of an all holy and all mighty
God. There are others also who are in danger, those
who listen to the fascinating eloquence of gifted unbe
lievers and allow it to lull them to repose in a life of
sin, they are in danger. Men, and especially young
men, your consciences were once troubling you and
you were contemplating forsaking your folly, but you
have allowed yourselves to be blinded by the voice of
some brilliant agnostic and you are now about to tram-
50 THE VOICE OF GOD
pie under foot the Word of God and the Christ of
God. Do not be deceived, these voices that speak to
you are not the voices of truth but the voices of false
hood, infamous, dastardly, soul-destroying falsehood.
To listen to these voices means ruin, eternal ruin. Do
not listen to such voices, listen to the voice of God that
speaks to you in wondrous love from this book and
says, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the un
righteous man his thoughts : and let him return unto
the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him, and
to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." Yes,
and there is another class in danger. All those who do
not accept Jesus Christ are in danger. This book is
not in danger, every utterance of it will stand, and this
book declares in John 3 : 36, "He that believeth on the
Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not
the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God
abideth on him. " It is true, and if you do not believe
on Christ, if you do not speedily give up your unbe
lief and put your trust in Him, you must perish.
IV
WHY I BELIEVE THAT JESUS CHRIST IS GOD
IN HUMAN FORM
THERE is no subject more important than that
of the Deity of Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ
is not God manifest in the flesh, then Chris
tians are idolaters, for Christians worship Jesus
Christ. If Jesus Christ is God, then all who do not
acknowledge Him as such and accept Him as their
Divine Saviour and surrender absolutely to Him as
their Divine Lord, and worship Him as God, are guilty
of the awful sin of rejecting a Divine person and rob
bing Him of the honour due to His name. It is then
of the highest importance that each of us know
whether Jesus Christ is God or not. I am to give you
to-night some of the reasons why I believe that He is
the Son of God in an entirely unique sense, the Son
of God in a sense in which no other person is or ever
was the Son of God, the Son of God in such a sense
that all the attributes and perfections and glory of
God dwelt in Him. There was a time when I doubted
it ; very seriously and very earnestly and very honestly
doubted it. I doubt it no longer and will tell you why
not.
51
52 THE VOICE OF GOD
I. I BELIEVE THAT JESUS CHRIST is THE SON OF GOD IN
AN ALTOGETHER UNIQUE SENSE, THE ONLY BE
GOTTEN SON OF GOD, THE SON OF GOD IN SUCH A
SENSE THAT GOD THE FATHER DWELT IN HIM IN
ALL THE FULNESS OF His ATTRIBUTES AND GLORY,
BECAUSE OF His OWN CLAIM TO BE THE SON OF
GOD AND THE WAY IN WHICH HE SUBSTANTIATED
THAT CLAIM.
There can be no honest doubt in the mind of any
man who will study the subject candidly and carefully
that Jesus Christ claimed to be the Son of God in a
sense in which no other was the Son of God. In the
twelfth chapter of Mark He speaks of all the prophets
that had gone before Him, even the greatest of them,
as servants of God, and of Himself as the only Son of
God (v. 6. K. V.). In the third chapter of John, the
sixteenth verse, He speaks of Himself as the only be
gotten Son of God. In John 5 : 23 He claims all men
should honour Him "even as they honour the Father."
In John 8: 24 He says, "If ye believe not that I am
He, ye shall die in your sins. ' ' During His last hours
before His crucifixion the Jewish high priest said to
Him, "I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell
us whether thou art the Christ, the Son of God,"
and Jesus replied, "Thou hast said." This was the
strongest form of affirmation, and He went on to em
phasize what He had said by adding, "I say unto you,
Henceforth ye shall see the Son of Man sitting at the
right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of
heaven." Now throughout the Old Testament the
only one who made the clouds His chariot was
Jehovah, and Jesus here affirms in the most striking
WHY I BELIEVE JESUS CHRIST IS GOD 53
way under oath that He is a Divine person, that He
is Jehovah. In John 14 : 9 He went so far as to say,
"He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." From
these and from many other utterances of our Lord, it
is perfectly plain that the Lord Jesus claimed to be the
Son of God in a sense that no other was the Son of
God, in the sense that in attributes and authority and
worthiness of worship He was on an equality with
God the Father. HE CLAIMED TO BE DIVINE. But a
claim to be Divine does not prove one to be Divine.
Men rightly demand that such a claim be substan
tiated, and / do not believe that Jesus Christ is Divine
simply because He claimed to be, but because of the
way in which He substantiated the claim.
CHRIST'S CLAIM TO BE DIVINE is SUBSTANTIATED.
1. First of all by His character. The beauty and
strength and nobility of the character of Jesus Christ
is well-nigh universally admitted. The Jew admits
it, both Rousseau and Renan, the great French sceptics,
insisted upon it, even Colonel Ingersoll spoke most
beautifully of it. On one of his last visits to the city
of Chicago he repeated what he had often said before,
"I wish to say once for all that to that great and
serene man I pay, I gladly pay, the homage of my
admiration and my tears." But here is this man
whom all admit to have been a good man, a man of
honour, humility, truth, and nobility, claiming to be
Divine. IF HE WAS NOT DIVINE HE WAS THE BOLDEST
BLASPHEMER AND MOST ARRANT IMPOSTOR THIS WORLD
HAS EVER SEEN. Can any honest man who has ever
read the story of Jesus Christ with any attention and
54 THE VOICE OF GOD
candour believe He was a blasphemer and impostor?
That is the only alternative: you must either admit
the lofty claims He made about His Deity, or hold
Him to have been a blasphemer and an impostor.
Every one who denies the Deity of Christ practically
lays at His door the charge of blasphemy and im
posture. Men sometimes say to me, "I do not believe
that Jesus was Divine, but I believe He was a good
man." I reply, "No, if He was not Divine, He was
not a good man." If Jesus was not Divine He was
rightfully put to death according to Jewish law. The
manner of His trial was illegal, the mode of death
by which He was executed was not that prescribed,
but the death penalty was the right penalty according
to Jewish law. The one who denies the Divinity of
Christ justifies His killing.
2. Jesus Christ's claim to be Divine is substantiated
by the miracles which He performed. Herculean
efforts have been put forth to discredit the gospel
stories of His miracles, but these efforts have all failed.
It was first attempted to prove that these recorded
miracles were simply natural events, but this at
tempt failed. It was then attempted to prove that
the reports were fabrications, pious frauds, of Christ's
disciples, but this attempt likewise failed. It was
then attempted to prove that the gospels did not be
long to the time of Christ's disciples, but were written
at a later period and palmed off as the productions
of men who did not really write them. This last
attempt was made in a most skilful, laborious and
scholarly way. For a time it almost seemed as if
the attempt might succeed, but at the last it broke
down utterly. The argument for the early date and
WHY I BELIEVE JESUS CHRIST IS GOD 55
historical accuracy of the gospel stories in the ultimate
outcome was only brought out the more clearly by
the attacks made upon them, and the argument is
absolutely unanswerable. It is an interesting fact
that the final and decisive blow in favour of the
authenticity of the most important of the four gospels,
the gospel of John, was struck by a Unitarian, Dr.
Ezra Abbott. Dr. Ezra Abbott's demonstration of
the Johannean authorship of the fourth gospel was
written many years ago, but all attempts to answer
it have failed utterly. The miracles then attributed
to Jesus Christ He actually performed. But these
substantiate His claim to be Divine. Not that the
mere performance of miracle proves one to be Divine,
but when one claims to be Divine and then performs
miracles of the character that Christ performed, not
merely healing the sick, but stilling the wind, calming
the waves of the sea, raising the dead, casting out
demons, by His mere word, these works taken in
connection with His character and His teaching and
His claims prove Him to be Divine.
3. Christ's claim to be Divine is substantiated in
the third place ~by His influence on the history of the
world. It needs no argument to prove that Christ's
influence upon the history of the world has been bene
ficial immeasurably beyond that of any other who
has ever lived. His influence upon domestic life,
His influence upon social life, His influence upon in
dustrial life, His influence upon political life. It
would be foolish to compare that of any other man,
or that of all other men together, with His. Other
men have had as many or more followers than He,
but what is the quality of the influence of these men ?
56 THE VOICE OF GOD
Go to Turkey and note the influence of Mohammed;
go to India and Ceylon and Japan and note the
boasted influence of Buddha; go to China and note
the influence of Confucius. No, Christ has had an
incomparably Divine influence upon men of all suc
ceeding generations. Now, as already seen, if Jesus
Christ was not Divine He was a blasphemer and an
impostor. Is it conceivable that an arch impostor
should have such an incomparable influence over men
in all the relations of life? The question needs no
answer, it answers itself.
4. Christ's claim to be Divine is substantiated, in
the fourth place, ly His resurrection from the dead.
We have not time to-night to go at length into the
argument for the truthfulness of the gospel stories of
Christ's resurrection from the dead, but the argument
is clear and conclusive. In my book, The Bible and
Its Christ, I have taken up the argument for Christ's
resurrection and shown how it is impossible for any
honest man to study the argument for Christ's resur
rection and come to any other conclusion than that
Jesus really rose from the dead as is recorded in the
four gospels. Now the mere fact that one rose from
the dead would not necessarily prove him to be
Divine, but when one claims to be Divine and is put
to death for making the claim, and before dying
asserts that God will raise Him from the dead and
thus endorse His claim, if then God actually does
raise Him from the dead at the appointed time, cer
tainly God does by that act in a most unmistakable
way set His seal to the claim, and in this way God
has in fact set His seal to Jesus' claim to be Divine.
As Paul puts it in the Epistle to the Romans, Jesus
WHY I BELIEVE JESUS CHRIST IS GOD 57
Christ was "declared to be the Son of God with power
by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom. 1:4).
All these things taken together are my first reason
for believing Jesus Christ to be Divine, because of
Eis own claim to be, and the way in which He sub
stantiated this claim, by His character, His miracles,
His influence, and His resurrection. The argument is
a compound one, composed of several strong strands,
and when these strands are woven together there
results an argument that it is absolutely impossible
to break.
II. I BELIEVE JESUS CHRIST TO BE DIVINE BECAUSE OP
THE OTHER TEACHINGS OP THE BIBLE BESIDE His
OWN.
The Bible is the Word of God. I have given on
many occasions my reasons for believing the Bible
to be the Word of God. (See book, The Bible and
Its Christ.) The argument for the Divine origin of
the Bible is unanswerable. The Bible is the Word
of God and therefore true. Whatever the Bible says
about Jesus Christ is the truth about Jesus Christ.
But the Bible in the most unmistakable terms declares
Him to be Divine. The Bible ascribes Divine at
tributes to Jesus Christ, it attributes Divine works to
Him, in the New Testament it applies passages to
Jesus which in the Old Testament are spoken of
Jehovah, it couples the name of the Lord Jesus with
the name of God the Father in a way in which it
would be impossible to couple that of any finite being
with that of the Deity, and it demands for Him
Divine homage and worship. John tells us that his
whole purpose in writing his Gospel was that men
58 THE VOICE OF GOD
might "believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of
God; and that believing" they might "have life in
His name." Paul tells us "that in the name of Jesus
every knee" shall bow, "of things in heaven and
things on earth, and things under the earth, and that
every tongue" shall "confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, to the glory of God the Father. " He is quoting
here a statement made in the Old Testament of Je
hovah (Isa. 45:21-23). In Rom. 9:5 Paul unhesi
tatingly declares that Christ "is over all, God blessed
forever," and the author of the epistle to the Hebrews
says, "When he bringeth in the first begotten (that
of course is the Lord Jesus, as the context clearly
shows) into the world, he saith, And let all the angels
of God worship Him." The Bible then, in the clearest,
most definite and most decisive terms teaches the true
Deity of Christ, and therefore I believe Him to be God
in human form.
III. I BELIEVE THAT JESUS CHRIST is DIVINE, GOD
MANIFEST IN HUMAN FORM, BECAUSE OP THE
DIVINE POWER HE POSSESSES AND EXERCISES
TO-DAY.
It is not necessary to go back to the miracles of
Christ when upon earth to prove He has Divine
power. He exercises that power to-day and anyone
can test it.
1. He has power to forgive sins. He claimed this
power when here on earth and the scribes accused
Him of blasphemy for making the claim, and if He
had not been Divine they would have been right in
accusing Him of blasphemy, but He silenced them
WHY I BELIEVE JESUS CHRIST IS GOD 59
by demonstrating the claim (Mark 2: 5-12). He has
the same power to-day. Thousands can testify that
they came to Christ burdened with an awful sense of
guilt and that Christ has actually given their guilty
conscience peace, absolute peace.
2. He has the power to-day to set Satan's victims
free. He sets the one chained by drink free from
the power of drink; the one chained by opium or
other drugs, free from the power of drugs. He sets
the slave of lust free from the power of lust. You
may say that Keeley sets the one chained by drink
or the power of drugs free, but the cases are not at
all parallel. Keeley uses drugs, Christ merely spoke
a word. Thousands and thousands have been set free
from the power of drink and transformed into noble
men and women of God by the simple word of Jesus
Christ. Christ sets free not merely from drunkenness
and other vices, but from sin. He makes the impure
man and woman pure. He makes the selfish man un
selfish. He makes the devilish man and woman Christ-
like. I believe Jesus Christ is Divine because of the
Divine power I see Him exercising in the lives of
many men and women. I know Jesus is Divine be
cause of the Divine work that He and He alone has
wrought in my own life.
IV. I BELIEVE THAT JESUS CHRIST is DIVINE, GOD
MANIFEST IN HUMAN FORM, BECAUSE OF THE
CHARACTER OF THOSE WHO ACCEPT HIM AS
DIVINE.
Those who accept Jesus Christ as the Son of God
are those who live nearest God, in most intimate com
munion with God, and who know God best. Those
60 THE VOICE OF GOD
who know God best and live nearest to God have no
doubts whatever that Jesus Christ is His Son. The
cry, "I do not believe Jesus to be the Son of God,"
never comes from those who are living nearest God
and know God best. It comes most often from those
who are living farthest from God and know God least.
Those who once believed Jesus Christ to be the Son
of God as they drift away from God into worldliness,
selfishness and sin often find themselves questioning
the Deity of Christ. On the other hand, those who
once questioned the Deity of Christ when they come
nearer to God, when they turn their backs upon sin
and selfishness and give themselves up more wholly
to find and do His will, find their doubts about the
Deity of Christ rapidly vanishing.
V. I BELIEVE JESUS CHRIST TO BE DIVINE BECAUSE OF
THE EESULTS OP ACCEPTING His DEITY.
The religion that accepts God the Father but
rejects Jesus Christ as His Son has no such deep
and lasting moral power as the religion that accepts
Jesus Christ as Divine. Unitarianism has always
proved to be impotent. Unitarianism does not save
the fallen. Wherever you find a rescue mission that
is doing a real and permanent work in lifting up the
fallen, you will always find it manned and womaned
by persons who believe in Christ as the Son of God.
Unitarianism can do philanthropic work, it can build
hospitals and operate soup kitchens and various kinds
of clubs for helping the needy, but it does not save.
I do not mean merely that it does not save from hell
hereafter, it does not save from sin here and now.
WHY I BELIEVE JESUS CHRIST IS GOD 61
It is the gospel of the Son of God that does this.
Unitarianism never begets a missionary spirit. With
all its members and wealth by a mighty effort it
induced one man to go as a foreign missionary for
a little while, but even that poor lone missionary soon
returned. Faith in Jesus as Divine makes mission
aries and martyrs and produces men of prayer and
faith, it produces consecrated living. The denial of
the Deity of Christ tends to prayerlessness, religious
carelessness, unbelief, worldliness, selfishness, and
easy-going living. There is a power in the prayers of
those who approach God in the name of Christ that
there is not in the prayers of those who reject His
Deity. While Mr. Moody was still in business, before
he had taken up Christian work as his exclusive oc
cupation, he often went out holding meetings. One
time he was holding meetings in one of the smaller
towns in Illinois, the wife of the district judge came
to Mr. Moody and asked him to speak to her husband.
He replied, "I cannot speak to your husband. Your
husband is a book infidel and I am nothing but an
uneducated boot clerk from Chicago." But the wife
was so insistent that Mr. Moody finally called upon
the judge. As he passed through the outer office the
law clerks tittered to themselves as they thought how
the learned judge would make mincemeat of the
uneducated boot clerk from Chicago. Mr. Moody said
to the judge in the inner office, "Judge, I cannot
talk with you, you are an educated man ; I am nothing
but an uneducated boot clerk, but I just want to ask
you one thing. When you are converted will you
let me know?" "Yes," the judge replied banter-
ingly, "when I am converted I will let you know."
62 THE VOICE OF GOD
And then he raised his voice louder and said, "Yes,
young man, when I am converted I will let you know.
Good-morning." As Mr. Moody passed into the
outer office the judge raised his voice still louder so
all the law clerks could hear, "Yes, young man, when
I am converted I will let you know." And the law
clerks tittered louder than ever. But the judge was
converted within a year. Mr. Moody revisited the
town and called upon the judge. He said, "Judge,
will you tell me how you were converted?" "Yes,"
the judge replied, "one night my wife went to
prayer meeting as usual, but I as usual stayed at home
and read the evening paper. I began to get very
uneasy and miserable, and before my wife returned
from the prayer meeting I was so miserable I was
afraid to face her and retired for the night. On her
return, finding me in bed she came to the door and
asked if I were sick. 'No,' I replied, 'I am not sick,
only I was not feeling very well. Good-night/ I
had a miserable night and was so miserable in the
morning that I dared not face my wife at the break
fast table, and I simply looked in the door and said,
'"Wife, I am not feeling very well this morning, I will
not eat any breakfast.' I went to my office and told
the clerks they could take a holiday. I locked the
outside door and then went into my inner office and
locked the door to that. I sat down, getting more
and more miserable all the time. At last, in my
misery and in my overwhelming sense of sin I knelt
down and cried, 'Oh, God, forgive my sins.' But
there was no answer. Again I cried, 'Oh, God, for
give my sins. ' But still no answer. I would not say,
'Oh, God, for Christ's sake forgive my sins,' because
WHY I BELIEVE JESUS CHRIST IS GOD 63
I was a Unitarian and did not believe in the Divinity
of Christ. Again I cried, 'Oh, God, forgive my sins,'
but still there was no answer. At last in despera
tion I cried, 'Ofo, God, for Jesus Christ's sake forgive
my sins/ and instantly I found peace. " By their
fruits ye shall know them. There is a Divine power
in a faith that accepts Jesus Christ as the Son of
God that there is not in a faith that denies His
Deity.
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is Divine. He
is God in human form. His own claims substantiated
by His character, by His miracles, by His influence
upon the history of the world, by His resurrection
from the dead, prove it. The teachings of the Word
of God prove it. The character of those who accept
Him as Divine proves it. The results of accepting
Him as Divine prove it. The Divine power He pos
sesses and exercises to-day proves it. Jesus Christ is
Divine, He is God in human form. And now some
one will say, well what of it ? Everything of it. Jesus
Christ is the Son of God and if you reject Him you
are rejecting the Son of God. That is the awful sin
that lies at the door of every man and every woman
in this audience, out of Christ, REJECTING THE SON
OF GOD ! If your hearts were not hardened and
blinded by sin you would tremble at that indictment
(Acts 2:36, 37). In the light of the clear proof of
the Deity of Christ I call upon you to-night to accept
Him as your Divine Saviour. I call upon you to sur
render to Him as your Divine Lord. I call upon you
to submit your life to Him as your rightful sovereign,
and to manfully confess Him before the world as
your Divine Lord.
JESUS THE WONDEKFUL
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is
given: and the government shall ~be upon His shoulder:
and His name shall ~be called Wonderful, Counsellor,
The mighty God, The everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace."— Isa. 9:6.
THE prophet Isaiah with a mind illumined by
the Holy Spirit, looked down 740 years and
saw the coming of Jesus of Nazareth and
uttered the sublime words of our text. In them is
wrapped up a world of meaning concerning the
Divine glory, the matchless character, and wonderful
offices of our Lord. But to-night we must limit our
thought to one clause in this great verse, "His name
shall be called Wonderful. ' ' In the Bible names have
meaning, especially when applied to God the Father,
the Son or the Holy Ghost. The name is a revelation
of what one is. Jesus is called * * Wonderful ' ' because
He is wonderful. First Jesus is Wonderful hi His
nature ; second Jesus is Wonderful in His character ;
third, Jesus is Wonderful in His work.
1. JESUS is WONDERFUL IN His NATURE.
First of all Jesus is wonderful in His nature.
1. He is a Divine Being. He is Divine in a sense
in which no other man is Divine. The Bible, both the
64
JESUS THE WONDERFUL 65
Old Testament and the New, is full of that great
truth. He most unhesitatingly made the claim. In
Mark 12 : 6, after speaking of the Old Testament
prophets as servants, He speaks of Himself as the
"beloved" Son of God, and "only" Son of God. In
John 10 : 30 He says, * ' I and my Father are one. ' ' In
John 14:9 He goes so far as to say, ' ' He that hath
seen me hath seen the Father, ' ' and in John 5 : 23 He
says, "All men should honour the Son even as they
honour the Father. ' ' The Apostle John said of Jesus
in the opening verses of His gospel, ' ' In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. The same was in the beginning with
God. All things were made through Him ; and with
out Him was not anything made that hath been
made" (John 1:1-3). And further down in the
14th verse he says, "And the Word (that is this Word
that was in the beginning and that was with God and
was God) became flesh and dwelt among us (and we
beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the
Father), full of grace and truth." The Apostle
Thomas after the resurrection of our Lord, fell at the
feet of Jesus and cried to Him, "My Lord and my
God" (John 20:28). The Apostle Paul said of Him
that "In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily" (Col. 2:9), and he says of Him again in
Rom. 9: 5 that He "is over all, God blessed forever."
The Apostle Peter in Acts 10 : 36 says of Him, "He is
Lord of all." The author of the epistle to the
Hebrews said of Him, "He is the effulgence of His
(God's) glory, and the very image (or 'exact ex
pression') of his (God's) substance," and that He
upholds all things by the Word of His power (Heb.
66 THE VOICE OF GOD
1:3). And Paul in Phil. 2:6 says that before He
became man He existed originally "in the form of
God." If the Bible makes anything as plain as day,
it makes it plain as day that our Lord Jesus is a
Divine being with all the attributes, glory, majesty,
and power that belong to God. He is God. Well
then might the prophet Isaiah in his inspired vision
of the coming of Jesus, cry, ' * His name shall be called
Wonderful." If Jesus was not "very God of very
God," then John was mistaken, and Paul was mis
taken, and Jesus Himself was mistaken, and only that
denomination that has never been noted for its
prayerfulness, its spirituality, its devotion, its self-
sacrifice, its missionary enterprise, that denomination
which has only a history of building churches to see
them die, that denomination alone is right, and John,
Peter, Paul, and Jesus are wrong. Do you believe
that? Can you believe that? No, a thousand times
no. No man who is thoroughly sane in his head and
thoroughly honest in his heart can believe that. Jesus
then is a Divine being. He is wonderful, most won
derful, wonderful beyond description, wonderful be
yond conception. The wonderfulness of His being
and nature will be the object of our glad and adoring
contemplation and the theme of our highest praises
throughout the endless a?ons that are to come, through
out eternity.
2. But there is another wonderful thing about the
nature of Jesus. While He is Divine He is at the
same time a real man. "In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God." But "the Word became flesh and dwelt
among us." He was "the only begotten Son of
JESUS THE WONDERFUL 67
God," but He is at the same time the Son of man.
He is, Paul tells us in 1 Tim. 2:5, the ''mediator
between God and men, Himself man, Christ Jesus."
Do you ask how are the perfect Deity and the perfect
humanity united in Jesus? I do not know. Neither
do I know how spirit and body are united in myself,
but I know that they are. I do not know how the
Divine nature that I received in the new birth is
united with the physical and intellectual and moral
nature that I received by my natural birth, but I
know that it is, and so also I know that Jesus is per
fectly Divine and perfectly human. Well might the
prophet say, "His name shall be called Wonderful."
II. JESUS is WONDERFUL IN His CHARACTER.
But while Jesus is wonderful in His nature, in His
Divine glory and perfect humanity, He is not won
derful in His nature alone, He is wonderful in His
character. His character was absolutely perfect. He
was absolutely without blemish and without spot. He
was not only faultless, but every possible perfection
of character rested upon Him. There is not a per
fection of character of which we can think that is not
to be found in Him, and found in Him in its fullness.
As the years go by and we study Him more and
more carefully and come to see Him as He was and
is more fully, the more the absolute perfection of His
character shines forth. For thirty-four years He
lived in a hostile world that sought to find some im
perfection in Him, but they could find none. For
eighteen centuries since, infidels have been hunting
for some flaw in the character of Jesus and they
68 THE VOICE OF GOD
cannot find it. "What would not the infidels give if
they could only put their finger upon one single flaw,
even one little defect in that character, but they can
not. Even the bitterest and boldest and most un
scrupulous infidel of his day was forced to say, "I
wish to say once for all that to that great and serene
man I pay, I gladly pay, the homage of my admira
tion and my tears." Jesus in the perfection of His
character is indeed wonderful. He is the wonder of
the ages. He stands out absolutely peerless and alone.
When any man ventures to put anyone else along
side of Jesus Christ he at once loses the confidence of
all candid and fair-minded men.
1. Jesus was perfect in holiness. Peter spoke of
Him as ''The holy One and the just" (Acts 3:14).
John spoke of Him as ' ' the Holy One " ( 1 John 2 : 20 ) .
Even the unclean spirits when they met Him were
forced to cry out to Him, "I know thee, who thou
art, the Holy One of God" (Mark 1 : 24). The epistle
to the Hebrews speaks about Him as "holy, guileless,
undefiled, separated from sinners." He passed
through all our experiences of conflict and temptation
yet "without sin" (Heb. 4: 15). The dazzling white
light that glorified the face and garments of Jesus
on the Mount of Transfiguration was the outshining
of the moral purity within.
2. But He was not only perfect in holiness, He was
also perfect in love. His love to God was perfect
and so was His love to man. His love to God re
vealed itself in His unhesitating obedience to every
command of God, in His unreserved surrender to
God's will, in His drawing back from no sacrifice that
God demanded, in His delight in doing God's will,
JESUS THE WONDERFUL 69
a delight so great that forgetting the long denied
demands of bodily hunger, He could triumphantly
say, "My meat is to do the will of Him who sent
me and to accomplish His work" (John 4: 34, E. V.).
His love to God was absolutely perfect, but so was
His love to man. His love to man took in all men,
it took in the good, but it took in the vilest as well.
It took in men like John and Nathaniel, but it took
in also the demoniac of Gadara, the thief on the cross,
the woman with the seven devils, and the woman who
was a sinner. It took in His enemies for whom He
prayed even as He endured the agonies and the re
proaches and the shame they heaped upon Him,
" Father, forgive them for they know not what they
do." His love hesitated at no sacrifice. "Though
He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that
we through His poverty might become rich" (2 Cor.
8: 9, R. V.). "Being in the form of God, He counted
it not a thing to be grasped to be on an equality with
God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a
servant, being made in the likeness of men ; and being
found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, be
coming obedient unto death, yea, even the death of
the cross" (Phil. 2:6-8). Wonderful, wonderful,
wonderful love, that seeing full equality with God
Himself in honour and glory, turned His back upon
all this and chose the cow stable for His birthplace,
the poor carpenter shop for His school, the contempt
and rejection of men for His reward, the agony of
Gethsemane and the shame and ignominy and torture
of death upon the cross for its consummation, be
cause by these things He could save the vile and
worthless and outcast. "Well might Isaiah say that
70 THE VOICE OF GOD
Jesus' name should be called Wonderful. There are
many other perfections in the character of Jesus,
e.g., the perfection of His meekness and gentleness
and humility and patience and courage, and manli
ness, but we cannot stop to dwell upon these now.
Enough has been said to show that He is wonderful
in character.
III. JESUS is WONDERFUL IN His WORK.
But as wonderful as Jesus is in His nature and in
His character, He is not wonderful in His nature
and character alone, He is also wonderful in His
work.
1. In the first place He made a perfect atonement
for sin. "All we like sheep have gone astray; we
have turned every one to his own way; and the
Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all"
(Isa. 53:6). Every sin of ours was settled by the
death of Jesus upon the cross. "Christ hath re
deemed us from the curse of the law, having become
a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one
that hangeth upon a tree" (Gal. 3:13). The death
of Christ so perfectly atones for sin that the moment
I believe in Jesus Christ and thus accept the atone
ment He has made for me, every sin of mine is
blotted out from God's account and God reckons me
as perfectly righteous in Him: "Him who knew no
sin He made to be sin in our behalf; that we might
become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor.
5:21). Is not this wonderful ? Is it not amazing ?
that the vilest sinner there is in Los Angeles, or
anywhere else on this earth, the liar, the thief, the
JESUS THE WONDERFUL 71
blasphemer, the murderer, the harlot can come into
this place to-night all crimson with the sins they
have committed, and yet the death of Christ so per
fectly atones for them all that the moment they accept
that atonement all their sins are blotted out and they
become as white as snow. Oh, when the sins that I
have committed come up before me, and they have
been great (the sins of every one here to-night have
been great), but when they come up I look away at
the cross and I see Jesus hanging there, I hear His
dying cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou for
saken me ? ' ' and I hear His other cry, ' * It is finished, ' '
and I can see the Roman soldier draw back his spear,
and I see it go crashing into that side. I see the life
blood pouring out, and I know that all my sins are
atoned for. I know that,
" Jesus paid my debt,
All the debt I owe,
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow."
Oh, it is wonderful : the sin of the whole race atoned
for at Calvary, and all that any man has to do to
enjoy the fruits of that atonement is, just to accept it.
2. But Jesus not only made an atonement for sin,
He also saves from sin's power. Jesus Christ has
power to set any man who will put his trust in Him
free from any sin, and the power of all sin. He
Himself said, "If the Son shall make you free, ye
shall be free indeed" (John 8:36). Is it not won
derful that there is not a man on earth to-day so
completely in sin's power but that Jesus Christ can
72 THE VOICE OF GOD
set him free? 'One night many years ago I met a
man who had been a wanderer on the face of the
earth for many years, but had come of a good family,
had been well educated, had moved in good society,
but who had turned his back on all this and had given
himself up to a life of sin, and now -at the age of
perhaps 45 he was completely in sin's power. He
was a large, powerful man, but he approached me
with such hesitation and whispered in my ear the
question, "Do you think Jesus Christ can save me?"
I replied, "I know He can." Then I sat down and
reasoned with Him out of the Scriptures and He
listened and believed and was saved. For years he
was a happy Christian and enslaving sins were things
of the past. To-night he is with Christ in the glory.
That is but one case out of thousands and tens of
thousands. I have known many, many such, person
ally. I have seen Jesus Christ set men free from
sin in pretty much every state in the union. I have
seen Him do it in England, Scotland, Ireland, Ger
many, France, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania,
China, Japan and India. There are right in this
audience to-night many men and women whom Jesus
has set free from an awful slavery that once held
them captive. Indeed Jesus completely transforms
men. The man who was once a blasphemer now
prays. The man who once loved the vile book, now
loves the Bible. The man who once told questionable
stories now sings hymns of praise. The men and
women who once gave themselves over to sin and vice
are now working for their fellow men. "If any man
is in Christ, He is a new creature; the old things
are passed away; behold, they are become new" (2
JESUS THE WONDERFUL 73
Cor. 5:17). Oh, the work of Jesus is wonderful
indeed, transforming demons into angels. One Sun
day night I heard a man who a few years before
was a ruffian, a drunken, profane, cruel brute, speak
ing to the best people of one of our eastern cities with
great tenderness and pleading that they too accept
the same Jesus who had so wonderfully transformed
his life and that of his wife. Jesus is indeed won
derful in His work.
3. But Jesus will do even more wonderful things
in the future. When He comes again He will raise
the dead with His voice, and we shall be caught up
with them to meet Him in the air. He will transform
us into His own perfect likeness. This old, weak,
sickly, pain-racked body will be changed into the
likeness of His own glorious body, free from every
ache and pain, free from every weakness, free from
every limitation, resplendent with a beauty never
seen on earth, capable of unlimited activity. And
He will transform us morally also, so that in our
inmost character we shall be made just like Him.
He will bring us fully into our glorious inheritance
as heirs of God and joint-heirs with Himself, heirs
of all God is and all God has, heirs of His wisdom,
His power, His holiness. Oh, it is wonderful !
Jesus is indeed wonderful. He is wonderful in the
infinite glory of His Divine nature. He is wonderful
in the matchless perfection of His character. He is
wonderful in His work, blotting out all sin by His
death, delivering from all sin by His resurrection
life, transforming us from all remaining imperfection
into the full glory of sons of God by His coming
again. Jesus is the Wonderful One. Now what will
74 THE VOICE OF GOD
you do with Him? What will you do with this
wonderful Jesus? Will you accept Him or reject
Him? Oh, the wisdom and the blessedness of those
who accept Him. Oh, the folly and wretchedness of
those who reject Him. What will you do to-night with
this wonderful Jesus ?
VI
THE FOOL'S CREED
"The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God."
—Ps. 14:1.
OUR subject to-night is The Fool's Creed.
Every intelligent man has a creed. You hear
men in our days inveighing against creeds,
but every man who thinks has a creed. A man's
creed is what a man believes, and every man who
thinks at all must believe something. The only man
who believes nothing is the man whose mind is a
perfect blank— the utter idiot. If any man says, "I
believe nothing," he is either mistaken or deliberately
lying. If he believes what he says to be true, when
he says "I believe nothing," then he must at least be
lieve that he believes nothing, and in that case he is, of
course, mistaken when he says that he believes nothing.
But if he is not mistaken when he says "I believe
nothing," then it cannot be that he believes that he
believes nothing, and in saying "I believe nothing," he
is saying what he does not believe ; in plain English,
he is lying. To think is to believe, and the only man
of whom it can be truly said he does not believe any
thing is the idiot. Our subject, however, to-night is
not creeds in general, but a specific creed, The Fool's
Creed. You will find a brief and plain statement of
The Fool's Creed in Ps. 14: 1, "The fool hath said in
75
76 THE VOICE OF GOD
his heart, there is no God." The fool's creed has at
least the merit of brevity, you can put it in two
words, "no God." There is a great cry in our day
for short creeds. The fool's creed ought to satisfy
this demand. He has reduced his creed to two short
words, to five letters, "no God." Why is the one
who says in his heart "no God" a fool, or rather,
why is he not merely a fool but "the fool," the fool
of fools, the one consummate fool?
I. THE MAN WHO SAYS THERE is NO GOD is A FOOL,
BECAUSE THERE is A GOD.
The first reason why the man who says there is no
God is a fool is because there is a God. The proofs
of the existence of a God, of an intelligent and
beneficent Creator and Governor of the physical and
moral universe are manifold and conclusive.
1. First of all, the observed facts of the physical
universe point conclusively to the existence of an
intelligent and beneficent creator and governor of
that universe. There are four kingdoms in the uni
verse as modern science investigates and knows it:
(1) the inorrganic kingdom, i.e., the non-living world
with its mechanical and chemical forces; (2) the
vegetable kingdom; (3) the animal kingdom; (4)
man. The inorganic kingdom is the least wonderful
of all, yet how wonderful even it is in its vastness,
in its conformity to law, in its structure and its opera
tions, in the mechanical and chemical forces, ever
working out such beneficent results. But when we
come to the vegetable kingdom we take a great step
upward into a kingdom whose unveiled mysteries
fill the soul with increasing admiration and astonish-
THE FOOL'S CREED 77
ment the more we explore them. The laws of nutri
tion, of growth and reproduction, how marvellous they
are. Even the smallest of the plans, the plants that
can be seen only with the aid of the microscope present
models of symmetry, proportion and beauty that man
can only try to imitate but cannot succeed in imitat
ing. When we come to the animal kingdom we see
superadded to the wonders of nutrition, growth and
reproduction the still greater wonders of sensation
and instinct. But take the last step upward to man,
and we have superadded to these wonders the won
ders of man's intellectual, moral and spiritual powers.
Now all these things must be accounted for. We live
in a wonderful world. The more we study it the
more wonderful it appears, until it leads us on and
out into the infinite, and until w* see new mean
ing in the words of Ps. 19:1, "The heavens declare
the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His
handiwork," and in the words of Paul in Rom. 1 : 20,
"For the invisible things of Him (i.e., God) since the
creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived
from the things that are made, even His everlasting
power and Divinity; that they may be without ex
cuse." More and more as our knowledge enlarges
do we find that everything has its use, even down
to the house fly, or the infusoria in the brook.
Everything performs its functions according to law,
from the sun one million two hundred and eighty-
three thousand times as large as the earth and mov
ing through space with incredible rapidity, down to
the microscopic cilia of some simple form of life that
sway lazily to and fro. Even the seeming monstrosi
ties of nature are in accordance with law. It takes
78 THE VOICE OF GOD
no profound knowledge of nature to see manifold
adaptations to intelligent purpose. Take for example,
the eye, the most marvellous camera obscura that was
ever constructed, with its wonderful chemical and
mechanical and sensatory arrangement for vision,
protection, and voluntary and involuntary use. Take
the bird, with its hollow bones, its light feathers
rendered waterproof by oil secretions. A scientific
acquaintance with nature enlarges our view. The tele
scope can find no spaces so vast that order and law
cease, nor can the microscope discover particles so
small that they lack in symmetry, beauty and adapta
tion to their end. We live in a universe of law,
beauty and utility. Now comes the question, how did
this universe come to be as it is to-day. There are
four possible suppositions about it':
(1) First, that it was always as it is now.
(2) Second, that it came to be as it is by chance,
that the atoms that constitute the universe, in their
eternal dance, have at last assumed their present as
sociations and relations.
(3) Third, that there existed from all eternity
certain material atoms containing in themselves the
power of uniting and acting upon one another and
developing into the present condition of the universe.
(4) Fourth, that the universe is the work of God.
This covers all the possible suppositions. Which
is the true one? The first we know to be false. We
know that the universe was not always as it is. The
second is easily seen to be false. There is a chance
that the atoms that constitute the universe in their
eternal dance might assume the present associations
and relations displayed in such marvellous orderli-
THE FOOL'S CREED 79
ness, obedience to law, perfection of construction,
and adaptation to intelligent ends. I say there may
be a chance that that is true, but while there is one
chance that it might be so, there is an infinite number
of ehances against it. The bringing in of infinite
ages in which it might happen does not help the
theory, for while there might be one chance of our
living in that particular age in which it did happen,
there would be an infinite number of chances against
it. Now the man who chooses to believe that in favour
of which there is one chance, and against which there
are an infinite number of chances can be justly char
acterized as in our text, "a fool." What would you
call a man who believed that Webster's dictionary
was not the intelligent product of a reasonable being,
or a number of reasonable beings, but that the letters
that constitute it were thrown down by chance and
happened to fall into the shape we find them in the
dictionary. There is only one word in the English
language by which you would dream of characterizing
such a man, you would call him a fool. But the theory
that Webster's dictionary came to be in that way
would notJae a fractional part so foolish as the theory
that the atoms that constitute this universe in their
eternal dance at last assumed their present associa
tions and relations displayed in such marvellous order
liness, obedience to law, and perfection of construc
tion, and adaptation to intelligent ends, as we now
find in the physical universe. The third theory, viz.,
that there existed from all eternity certain material
atoms containing in themselves the power of uniting
and acting upon one another and developing into the
present condition of the universe, is untenable :
80 THE VOICE OF GOD
First, because if the atoms had existed from all
eternity with the inherent power of combining into
the present universe, they would have combined into
it ages ago.
Second, because, while we have abundant experience
of the construction of works exhibiting design by in
telligent agents, we have absolutely no experience of
unintelligent atoms having power of combining them
selves into works exhibiting the marks of intelligence.
Suppose one should attempt to throw a thousand dice
and have them all turn up sixes, and succeed, what
would you say? Every intelligent man would say
the dice were loaded. But who loaded the dice of the
universe? It is evident the third theory will not
hold.
We have only the fourth theory remaining, viz.,
that the universe is the work of an intelligent
and beneficent Creator. There is a God. The theory
of evolution does not in the least affect the argument.
If the theory of evolution were true it would only
show the wonderful method by which this intelli
gent and beneficent Creator worked out His plans.
2. Not only do the observed facts of the physical
universe point conclusively to the existence of God,
the facts of history point to the same thing. The hand
of an intelligent, beneficent, just governor of the
destinies of men is clearly seen in history, not only
in Bible history but in all secular history as well.
Anyone who carefully studies history will see that
throughout the whole history of the race, as Coleridge
puts it, "one increasing purpose runs." We see that
above the human actors, kings, generals, statesmen, and
commoners trying to carry out their own ambitions
THE FOOL'S CREED 81
and purposes, there has been the guiding hand of
One who has made even the wrath of men to praise
Him, and who has worked out good from the lowest
ambitions and vilest passions of men. Cities, kings,
dynasties, and empires fall, but history marches right
on to the goal that God has set for it — the kingdom
of God on earth.
3. The Bible as it lies before us proves that there
is a God. Here is a book altogether unique to be
accounted for. It must have an author. It is entirely
different from any book, or all books, men have written
it differs from them in its fulfilled prophecies, it
differs from them in its indestructibility and invul
nerability against all assaults ; it differs from them in
the purity and loftiness and comprehensiveness of its
teachings; it differs from them in its power to save
men and nations; it differs from them in its inex
haustible depths of wisdom and truth. This book,
to anyone who will study it deeply and thoroughly
and candidly, is manifestly not man's book. Whose
book then is it? The more I study this book the
more overwhelmingly convinced I am that there must
be a God back of it.
4. Individual experience proves that there is a God.
(1) Individual experience regarding answered
prayer proves this. If I should go to a hole in the
wall and order beefsteak rare, and beefsteak rare
should be passed out, and then order mutton chops
and mutton chops should be passed out, and some
other time should order turkey and cranberry sauce,
and turkey and cranberry sauce should be passed
out, and if this should go on day after day, and
what I ordered was passed out, I should certainly
82 THE VOICE OF GOD
soon conclude that there was some intelligent person
there attending to my orders, even though I saw no
one. This is my exact experience with God. There
have been many things that I have needed, that I
have gone to God alone about and have told him of
the need, and no human being knew of the need, and
He has supplied the need, supplied it oftentimes in
such a way that the connection between the prayer
and the thing obtained was of such a character that
it was clear that the prayer brought the gift. There
have been times in my life when I have risked every
thing that men hold dear upon there being a God
who answered prayer on the conditions laid down in
the Bible. I have staked my health and that of my
family, my temporal needs, my reputation, every
thing that men hold dear for time and eternity, on
God's answering prayer on the conditions laid down
in the Bible, and I have won. For sixty years George
Mueller housed and fed orphans by the thousand and
secured the supplies for the work entirely by prayer.
No one was ever told of the need, no one but God,
and not one penny of debt was ever incurred; and
money and supplies came, oftentimes came only at
the last moment, sometimes came when it would seem
impossible that they should come on time, but there
was never a day nor a meal in which God failed to
answer prayer.
(2) Individual experience in regard to salvation
proves that there is a God. Lost men, men utterly
lost, men with,, whom every human effort to save has
failed, have at last cast themselves upon God, the
God of the Bible, the God who could only be ap
proached through Jesus Christ, God in Christ, and
THE FOOL'S CREED 83
have found salvation, such a salvation as God alone
could work. They have been recreated, made new
creatures, they have been raised from the dead.
The man who in anything proceeds upon the sup
position that there is a God, just such a God as the
Bible pictures, will always find this supposition works
well in practice. To sum up thus far, the observed
facts of the physical universe, the facts of history,
the absolutely unique and undeniable character of
the Bible, and individual experience all prove to a
demonstration that there is a God. Therefore, he
that says "no God" is a fool.
II. THE MAN WHO SAYS THERE is No GOD is A FOOL
BECAUSE NOT ONLY is THERE A GOD, BUT IT is
WELL THAT THERE is.
In the second place, the man who says in his heart
that there is no God is a fool, not only because there is
a God but also because it is well that there is a God.
Please notice that it is "in Ms heart" that the fool
says, "no God" ; i.e., he denies the existence of God be
cause he does not wish to believe that there is a God.
For a man to wish that there were no God shows him
to be a fool because there not only is a God, but it is
well that there is, and to wish that there were not is a
mark of consummate folly. If there is a God, a God
such as the Bible describes, the present life and the
future life is full of brightness and hope to anyone
who will take the right attitude toward that God ; but
if there is no God, then the sun has gone out of the
heavens and a darkness that can be felt broods over
the universe. If there is no God we know nothing of
what is in store for us, the present apparent harmony
84 THE VOICE OF GOD
and orderliness of the universe mav cease any moment,
and all plunge into chaos. If there is no God history
has no guiding hand and no certain destiny. If there
is no God, reason and thought, conscience and right,
purity and love have no certain and eternal basis. If
there is no God we have no security for a moment that
blind fate that rules all may not seize, and rend and
crush us and plunge us into dark, unutterable, eternal
misery. This is a true picture of our position in the
universe if there is no God. What intelligent man
would wish to live in a universe without a God?
Surely it is the fool, the fool of fools, the consummate
fool of the ages, who says in his heart, "no God."
There are many who do not say with their lips, "no
God," but who say it in their "heart." They are not
theoretical atheists, but they are practical atheists.
Anyone who does not surrender his will to God is a
practical atheist. Anyone in this building to-night
who has not surrendered to God is practically saying
in his heart, "there is no God," and is, therefore, a
fool. To sum up there is a God. Thank God that
there is. There is just such a God as the Bible reveals.
There is then but one right thing, but one wise thing
for any man here to-night to do, that is surrender to
His will. The only path of wisdom in the face of the
proven facts, is to give ourselves in utter obedience to
Him, and to accept as our mediator Him whom God
has set forth to be the mediator between us and Him
self, accept Him whom He has provided to be a sin-
bearer, as our sin-bearer, accept Him whom He has
exalted to be both Lord and King, as our Lord and
King to-night. Who will do it? Who will do it now?
VII
NO HOPE
"Ye were at that time separated from Christ, alien
ated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers
from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and
without God in the world." — Eph. 2: 12.
THESE words describe the appalling condition of
the Ephesians before they were saved, but to
night I wish to impress upon you just three
words in this dark picture, " having no hope." There
are no words in the language more dreadful than those
two words, "no hope." A doctor stands beside a bed
upon which lies a man who is very ill. The doctor's
finger is upon the sick man's pulse; he is looking in
tently into the sick man's eyes; he is eagerly watching
every movement and the way in which the sick man
breathes. The sick man's wife and children are gath
ered around the bed, looking anxiously first at the
husband and father, and then at the doctor. At last
the doctor looks up and says, "no hope." A ship has
sprung a leak in mid-ocean; the sailors are working
with all their might at the pumps ; the water from the
hold dashes across the deck into the ocean. An officer
stands by, now and then dropping a line into the hold
measuring the depth of the water, seeking to find if it
85
86 THE VOICE OF GOD
is falling or increasing. At last he looks up and cries,
"It is no use, boys; there is no hope." A man has
been making every effort to keep off financial ruin, but
at last he is obliged to throw up his hands in despair
and cry out, ' * No hope. ' ' A little company of men are
defending a citadel against a yelling horde of murder
ous, bloodthirsty Turks without. Gathered in the
citadel are not only the men who are defending it, but
A company of women and children. The men know
well that if they surrender it means death to them and
rrorse than death to the women and children, and
bravely they fight on to defend the citadel, but now
their last round of ammunition is exhausted ; there is
a crash as the doors give way below, and a cry rings
through the citadel, c ' No hope, no hope ! ' ' Ah, those
are dark words, but they are even darker yet in import
in the connection in which we find them in our text.
Better be without anything else than be without hope.
We may be in great present distress, but if we have a
good and sure hope for the future, it matters little.
We may have great present prosperity, but if we have
no good hope for the future it is of little worth. I
would rather be the poorest man who walks the streets
of this city to-night and have a good hope for the
future, than to be the richest millionaire and have no
hope for the future.
I. WHO HAVE No HOPE 1
There are three classes who have no hope. But what
do we mean by hope? Desire, no matter how strong
it may be, is not hope. Mere expectation, no matter
how confident it may be, is not hope. We use the word
hope in a very careless way in much of our modern
NO HOPE 87
speech, but in the Bible the word is used with great
care. Hope is a well-founded expectation for the
future. Any expectation that has not a sure founda
tion is not really hope.
1. First of all the man who denies or doubts the ex
istence of a personal God, a wise, mighty, loving ruler
of the universe, has no hope. He may cherish fond
wishes about the future ; he may even entertain confi
dent expectations about it, but wishes are not hope,
and expectations, no matter how confident, are not
hope. His expectations are not well founded, and
therefore they are not hope. The man who denies or
doubts that a wise, mighty and loving Father presides
over his destiny and that of others, can have no well
founded expectations for the future. If he has what
he calls a hope it is utterly irrational and baseless. If
there is not a God who is wise enough to know what is
best, and loving enough to desire what is best, and
powerful enough to carry out what is best, if there is
not such a God as that, there is absolutely no guar
antee that at any moment nature may not plunge into
chaos and human history into pandemonium, absolute
ly no guarantee that both nature and man may not be
involved any day in a universal sway of pain, destruc
tion and despair; no guarantee that both nature and
society may not become hell. Man's only rational
foundation for hope in the future is the existence of
an intelligent, beneficent, and omnipotent God ruling
nature and the affairs of men. Atheism and agnosti
cism are unspeakably dark faiths if any man has the
courage to think them out to their logical conclusion ;
most atheists and agnostics dare not do it. But some
agnostics and atheists have done it. Listen to the
88 THE VOICE OF GOD
words of two men men who were agnostics and who
have thought through their creed of unbelief toward
its logical and utterly dark conclusion. First of all
listen to the words of David Strauss, who began by
questioning the miraculous and by trying to recon
struct the life of the Lord Jesus from the Gospel ma
terial, eliminating the supernatural and having the
character and conduct left, but who wound up in
blank agnotisticism. He says : 1 1 In the enormous ma
chine of the universe, amid the whirl and hiss of its
jagged iron wheels, amid the deafening crash of its
ponderous stamps and hammers, in the midst of this
whole terrific commotion, man finds himself placed
with no security, for a moment, that on an imprudent
motion a wheel may not seize and rend him, or a ham
mer crush him to powder." That is an awful picture,
but if there is no personal God, no God wise enough to
know what is best, loving enough to desire what is best,
and powerful enough to carry out what is best, no such
God as the Bible presents, then Strauss 's conclusion is
inevitable, only he has understated rather than over
stated the darkness of the outlook. Now listen to an
other, Morley: "The millions of hewers of wood and
drawers of water, come upon the earth that greets
them with no smile, stagger blindly under dull bur
dens for a season, and are then shoveled silently back
under the ground with no outlook and no hope."
Pretty dark is it not this creed of agnosticism ? but if
there is no God these statements, terrible as they are,
appalling as they are, full of utter despair as they are,
are understatements of the hopelessness and blackness
of the outlook. One night some years ago the thought
came to me, suppose that instead of the God of wisdom
NO HOPE 89
and love in whom we believe, there sat upon the throne
of this universe a malignant being, a being just the
opposite of the God of the Bible, what then? and I be
gan to think it out until my brain almost reeled. ^The
denier or the doubter of the existence of an omniscient,
omnipotent, loving God, has no hope, no rational, well-
founded expectation for the future, a very dark hell
may be his portion any moment. No wonder the in
spired Psalmist calls the one who says in his heart
there is no God a fool (Ps. 14 : 1) .
2. The man who denies the truth of the Bible has
no hope. It does not necessarily follow because a man
denies the truth of the Bible that he does not believe
in the existence of God. A man may believe in God,
he may be a theist, and yet not believe the Bible. But
even though a man is a believer in God, if he rejects
the Bible he has no hope, i.e., he has no expectation
for the future that has a solid and certain foundation
underneath it. The conception that one gets of God
from mere philosophy and pure reasoning is alto
gether too inadequate to form a rational foundation
for an intelligent hope. Furthermore, the God of
philosophy is necessarily an ever vanishing quantity,
for philosophy is always in a flux. Philosophy never
reaches conclusions that are final and settled. I once
was very fond of the study of philosophy ; I waded
through the teachings of the great philosophers from
the time of Socrates down to the time of the modern
German philosophers. It seemed a fascinating study.
At times I thought I had reached settled conclusions,
but at last I discovered what every other thoughtful
student of philosophy discovers sooner or later, that
one philosopher comes upon the scene to demolish all
90 THE VOICE OF GOD
who have gone before him, only in turn to have his
own conclusions demolished by those who follow him.
The only conception of God that gives a man a good
basis for expectation for the life that now is, or the
life which is to come, is the conception of God found
in the Bible. It is true many who reject the Bible
borrow their idea of God from the Bible and build up
a superstructure of hope upon the conception of God
which they have borrowed from the Bible, and then
fancy they have reasoned it out, and then they go on
to discredit the Bible and throw it away; but by so
doing unwittingly they tear out the very foundation
of their own faith. If you give up the Bible you most
logically give up the contents of the Bible, the teach
ings of the Bible — and if you give up the teachings of
the Bible you must give up hope. There is no hope
for the man who discards the Bible; that is, no well
founded expectation for the future. Discard the
Bible, discredit the Bible, and the future is dark and
full of possibilities of evil, awful possibilities of evil.
3. Tlie man who believes in the Bible but does not
accept and confess the Christ the Bible presents as his
own personal Saviour and Master, has no hope. Many
a man fancies he has a ground for hope because he is
not an infidel or an atheist. Many a man says to me,
"Why, I believe the Bible, sir," but that is not the
whole question. Have you accepted the Christ of the
Bible as your own personal Saviour, and are you con
fessing Him before the world as your Lord, and are
you proving that to be an honest confession by doing
as He says? The Bible holds out absolutely no hope
to any except those who accept the Saviour whom it is
its main purpose to reveal. In this Bible which you
NO HOPE 91
profess to believe we read in John 3 : 36, "He that be-
lieveth on the Son hath everlasting life ; and he that
believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of
God abideth on him." Again we read in this Bible
which you profess to believe, in 2 Thess. 1: 7-9, "The
Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with the
angels of His power in naming fire, rendering ven
geance to them that know not God, and that obey not
the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall suffer
everlasting destruction from the face of the Lord and
from the glory of His might." And still further we
read in this Bible which you profess to believe, " If we
sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of
the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery
indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He
that despised Moses' law died without mercy under
two or three witnesses ; of how much sorer punishment,
suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath
trodden under foot the Son of God (and that is what
you are doing if you have not accepted Him as your
Saviour and confessed Him as your Lord), and hath
counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was
sanctified, a common thing, and hath insulted the
Spirit of grace 1 ' ' Heb. 10 : 26-29 ) . The one who be
lieves the Bible but rejects the Saviour whom the Bible
presents, has every vestige of hope swept away by that
very book he believes. The man who believes the
Bible but rejects the Christ of the Bible has no hope,
the future has in it nothing but the appalling black
ness of utter despair.
92 THE VOICE OF GOD
II. IN WHAT SENSE HAVE THESE THREE CLASSES
No HOPE?
"Wo see, then, that the atheist and the agnostic have
no hope, that the infidel and sceptic have no hope, that
the orthodox believer in the Bible who rejects Christ
as a personal Saviour and Lord has no hope. In
what sense have they no hope?
1. They have no hope for the life that now is, no
well-founded and sure expectation of blessedness for
the life that now is. (1) In the first place, they have
no guarantee of continued prosperity. They may be
very prosperous to-day, they may have perfect health,
a comfortable income, hosts of friends, every earthly
thing that heart would desire, but unless they are
right with God, unless they have accepted His Son
Jesus Christ and therefore have a right to claim the
promises of the Bible as their own, there is absolutely
no guarantee that these things which they now possess
will continue to be theirs twenty-four hours. A thou
sand things may occur to change it all. Upheavals of
nature may come, such as laid San Francisco in ruins
a few years ago, wrecking the fortunes of thousands
and bringing bereavement to many homes; social up
heavals may come, political catastrophes may come,
war may come ; indeed the black portent of war over
hangs every people on earth to-day. This country by
its recent election may have expressed its unwilling
ness to go to war, but that will not necessarily keep us
out of war. What may other countries plan regarding
us ? Innumerable other diverse occurrences may come.
A thoughtful man can conceive of many things that
might occur that would sweep away in a few minutes
NO HOPE 93
the vast fortunes of even a Eockcfeller or a Morgan.
Indeed, I am strongly inclined to believe that it is al
most certain that all these fortunes will be swept away
in the next ten or twenty years as an outside limit,
either by great social and political revolutions, or by
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. (2) In the next
place they have no guarantee of continued capacity to
enjoy prosperity, even if it continues. A man's pros
perity may continue and he lose all capacity to enjoy
it. When I lived in Chicago, one of its wealthiest men
had been for several years in a madhouse. His busi
ness continued to prosper, prosper enormously, but
what good did that fact do him ? He had no capacity
to enjoy what he possessed. No man out of Christ has
any guarantee of continued capacity to enjoy the
things of the life that now is. He may have the money
to spread his table with all the delicacies that a gour
mand might desire, but if he has dyspepsia what good
will it do him? No, the man out of Christ has no
hope, no well-founded expectation, for the life that
now is. (3) Furthermore, the man out of Christ has
no guarantee of continued life. There is never but a
step between any man and death. Every step that
each one of us takes each day is but a march toward
the grave. Every step we take is along the edge of the
grave, and any moment the edge may crumble away
and we fall into the grave. It takes but one little snip
of the shears of fate to sever the cord of life. Of
course if a man is a true Christian this fact has no ter
rors for him ; for what men call death is simply depart
ing to be with Christ, "which is very far better. " No
man out of Christ has a good hope for the next ten
minutes. Let us go back some years and go to New
94 THE VOICE OF GOD
York City. "We stand in the doorway of the library of
the richest American of his day. His property inven
tories at one hundred and ninety-six millions of dol
lars. He is in close conversation with a business
friend ; they are discussing how to make that one hun
dred and ninety-six millions a little more. Ah, you
say, as you look on that multimillionaire, he has bright
hopes for many years to come. You are absolutely
mistaken; no hope, absolutely no hope, for ten
minutes; even as you look at him he pitches forward
from the chair to the floor, and when Mr. Garrett picks
William H. Vanderbilt from the floor he is a corpse.
How much is he worth now? The next day one man
asked another on 'change in New York, ''how much
did William H. Vanderbilt leave ? ' ' The other man re
plied, ' ' He left it all. ' ' Yes, he left it all. Men out of
Christ have "no hope" for the life that now is.
2. But infinitely worse than this is the fact that
they have no hope for the life that is to come. This
earthly life is but a brief span at the very longest.
Earthly life when I was a boy appeared very long to
me, but the other day I was reading some words that
I wrote about twenty years ago. I said, ' ' Life used to
appear long when I was a boy, but now that I have just
passed the fortieth milestone and feel confident my
race is more than half run, it seems very short, very
short. ' ' But now that twenty years more have passed,
it seems shorter still. It seems shorter every year. I
never knew time to fly as it has the past month. We
are hurrying on toward the grave and eternity faster
than the automobiles yesterday whirled around the
course in the Vanderbilt Cup Race. Do you realize,
men and women, that in thirty years you will be in
NO HOPE 95
heaven or in hell? Yes, some of you in twenty years,
some of you in five years ? Do you realize that some of
you who are here to-night will be in heaven or hell
within a year ? But ETERNITY is LONG ; how it stretches
out. Let us stand now and look out down through the
stretches of eternity, look yonder, a thousand years
have passed, are we any nearer the end of eternity?
No. A million years have passed and still it stretches
on before us; a billion, a trillion, a quadrillion, a
vingintillion, are we any nearer the end? Ah, no ! On
and on and on ! The farther we look ahead the longer
it stretches out. It is an awful thing to have no hope
for eternity. (1) The man out of Christ has no hope
of blessedness after death. No, there is no light in the
grave for the Christless man. Let us stand and look
into the Christless man's grave right now. What do
you see ? Oh, it is dark and cold. Black, black, black,
eternal blackness, eternal despair. (2) There is no
hope of glad reunion with friends who have gone or
who may go. The believer loses his friends, but he
does not sorrow as those w^o have no hope (1 Thess.
4 : 13) , he knows that the time is fast hurrying on when
the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the
trump of God ; and when the bodies of his loved ones
who have gone before shall be raised, and when he
"shall be caught up together with them to meet the
Lord in the air," and so shall they ever be with the
Lord and with one another (1 Thess. 4:14-16). Ah,
Christless man, you will never meet that sainted
mother again. What a noble woman she was, what a
dark hour it was when she left you to depart and be
with Christ. How you have longed for a reunion with
96 THE VOICE OF GOD
that woman who, as you thought, was the noblest wo
man that ever lived on earth. But you will never meet
again. Ah, Christless woman, you will never meet
again that sweet and innocent babe who has departed
to be with Christ. When God put that babe in your
arms how you hugged it to your breast; how as the
days went by you looked down into those eyes so full
of mystery and meaning ; but the day came when God
in His infinite wisdom took that child from this world,
and now it is safe in the arms of Jesus, but you are out
of Christ and you will never depart to be with Christ.
You will never meet that sweet babe again. Oh,
Christless husband, how dear and noble was that
woman who for some years walked by your side, and
then she was called away and now she is with Christ
in the glory, but you will never meet her again. No,
there is no hope for the man out of Christ of happy
reunions in that world where there is no sorrow, no
pain, no sickness, no death, no separation.
3. For the man out of Christ there is not hope of
pardon in the eternal world. Pardon is freely offered
here to any one who will accept Christ, but there is no
pardon beyond the grave. Our Lord Himself has told
us that those who die in their sins, whither He goes
they cannot come (John 8: 21). There is no hope of
escaping from the wrath of God against the sin of
unbelief. "The wages of sin is death. The gift of
God is eternal life," but that life is "in Jesus Christ
our Lord," and if you reject Him and die without
Him there is no hope. "He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life, but he that believeth not the Son,
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth upon
him." No, there is no hope of escaping the wrath of
NO HOPE 97
God against sin and unbelief, if one goes out of this
world without Christ.
1 ' No hope, " ' ' no hope, " ' ' no hope, ' ' for the man out
of Christ, no hope for the life that now is, no hope for
the life to come, no hope for time, no hope for eternity.
There is nothing ahead but the blackness of darkness.
The joys of the present may last a few days, but even
that is not certain, but it is certain that they cannot
last long, and then nothing left but separation from
God with all its consequent misery and degradation
for all eternity.
III. THE BELIEVER IN CHRIST HAS HOPE.
Before we close let it be said that the believer in
Christ has hope.
1. He has hope for the life that now is. It is true
that he does not know what the future may bring, but
he has the sure Word of God for it that it will bring
nothing but good, he knows that all things work to
gether for good for those that love God (Rom. 8 : 28).
He knows that he needs to be careful for nothing, but
in everything by prayer and supplication with thanks
giving, make his requests known unto God, and that
the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall
keep his mind and heart in Christ Jesus. He knows
that God will supply his every need according to His
riches in glory, in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4 : 6, 7, 19) . He
knows that "God spared not His only begotten Son
but freely gave Him for" him, and by that guarantee
he knows that He will withhold no good thing from
him, that with Him He will freely give him all things
(Rom. 8:32).
98 THE VOICE OF GOD
2. The Christian has hope for the life to come; he
has "hope of eternal life which God who cannot lie
hath promised" (Tit. 1:2). How certain that hope,
resting upon the Word of God who cannot lie; how
magnificent that hope, eternal life. He has in the
world to come "an inheritance incorruptible and unde-
filed, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven
for" him (1 Pet. 1:4). He has the assurance of the
"Word of God and the indwelling Spirit of God that he
is a child of God, and if a child, then an heir, an heir
of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ, and that
any "sufferings of this present time are not worthy to
be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in" Him (Rom. 8:16). Wonderful hope, immeasur
able hope, glorious hope of the Christian, but the man
out of Christ has "no hope."
Friends, which do you prefer to-night, the no hope
of a man out of Christ, or the glorious hope of the one
who has received Christ as his Saviour, surrendered to
Him as his Lord and Master, and confessed Him as
such before the world ? You have your choice. Every
one here has his choice. Which will you take ? All of
us here to-night are like men standing on the seashore
and looking out over the boundless ocean of eternity.
Toward some of us, toward every one of us here to
night who is a true Christian, there come gallant
vessels loaded with gold and silver and precious stones,
with every sail set, wafted swiftly toward us by the
breezes of God's favour. But toward those of us who
have rejected Him or neglected Him, those of us who
have never publicly confessed Him before the world,
there come no vessels, but dismantled wrecks, with no
cargoes but the livid corpses of lost opportunities, over
NO HOPE 9$
which hover the vultures of eternal despair, driven on
toward us with mad velocity before the fast rising
tempest of the wrath and indignation of an all holy
and almighty God. Glorious hope, and no hope, which
will you take ?
VIII
WHERE WILL YOU SPEND ETERNITY?
"Whither goest thouf'—John. 16: 5.
OUR subject to-night is, Where Will You Spend
Eternity? You will find the text in John
16: 5, "Whither goest thou?" Jesus Christ
was about to leave this world. He told the disciples
that he was going, but none of them asked Him
whither He was going. He reproved them for not
asking. Well He might, for the most important ques
tion that can face any man when he comes to leave
this present world is "Whither goest thou?" or
"Where will you spend eternity?" A friend of mine
was in a store one evening and an elderly man came in
and said to the proprietor as he bought a cigar, "Dr.
Torrey is going to preach to-morrow night on 'Where
will you spend eternity ? ' "It had been an exceedingly
cold winter, and the proprietor replied, ' ' Some of the
poor people around here recently have felt as though
they would like to spend it in some place where it was
hot." I suppose the man was simply thoughtless
when he said it, but it marks a shallow man, a very
shallow man, to be thoughtless on a question like this.
It will not do to dismiss a question like this in that
way. Some of you would like to dismiss it in some
100
ETERNITY? 101
such light, thoughtless way. You will play the fool if
you do. When Harry Hay ward, the brutal Minne
apolis murderer, who murdered a woman who had
been kind to him in order to get a few dollars from
her, stood upon the gallows and the drop was about to
fall, he made a funny speech and at the last jestingly
twitched the rope about his neck and said to the sheriff,
"Let her go, I stand pat." I fancy he thought he was
smart. No intelligent man thought so. They set him
down as a fool and a brute. And so, my friends, you
who are disposed to joke about this solemn question
we have before us to-night, I beg of you do not do it.
Your friend out of courtesy, may laugh at your joke,
but in his inmost heart he will think you a fool, and in
your inmost heart you will know he is right. That
then is our subject to-night, "Whither goest thou?"
or "Where will you spend eternity?"
1. First of all, REMEMBER THAT THERE IS
AN ETERNITY. That is certain. We may try to
shut our eyes to the fact, but the fact stands. Look
ahead to-night. You may live five years, ten years,
twenty years, thirty, forty, fifty years. But then
what ? The fifty years will soon be gone. Then what ?
ETERNITY ! On it stretches before us, on and on and
on. Never ending centuries will roll on, ages roll on,
but still eternity stretches on and on. It will ever
stretch on, never any nearer an end. Oh, thank God
for eternity. If I knew I were to live a thousand years
it would not satisfy me. If I were to live a million
years it would not satisfy me. I would always be
thinking of the end that would come some time. I am
glad that as I look out into the future I see an eternity
that has absolutely no end. There is an eternity.
102 THE VOICE OF GOD
II. In the second place, REMEMBER YOU MUST
SPEND THAT ETERNITY SOMEWHERE. The
time will never come when you cease to be, the time
will never come when you pass into the nowhere. You
will be somewhere throughout all eternity. Men some
times try to believe that when they die they will cease
to be. A friend of mine once told me that that was
what he believed; that when he died that would be
the end of him. He was very sure of it. Not long
after his mother died and he wrote me a letter about
her having passed into a better life. His atheistic
philosophy would not stand. Men who live like beasts
naturally wish to believe that they will die like beasts,
but there is something in all our souls that tells us that
it is not so. It is your 6 easily self that says that death
ends all. Your better self denies it. But, however
that may be, there is One who came to us out of eter
nity, came to us from the unseen, eternal world, came
to us from God, with whom He had been through all
eternity. He presented His perfectly satisfactory
credentials of His divine origin, of His having come
from eternity, Jesus Christ, and He has told us that
there is an eternity for each of us and that we must
spend it somewhere.
III. Remember in the third place that THE QUES
TION WHERE YOU WILL SPEND ETERNITY IS
VASTLY MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE QUES
TION WHERE YOU WILL SPEND YOUR PRES
ENT LIFE. How anxious we are about where we
shall spend our present life. Shall I spend my life in
a cottage or in a palace ? Shall I spend my life in the
midst of the luxuries of wealth or amid the privations
of poverty? Shall I spend my life in the midst of
ETERNITY? 103
congenial companions or amid bitter foes? Shall I
spend my present life in health and happiness or in
pain and weariness and sorrow ? How anxious we are
about these questions. But they are of comparatively
no importance. Suppose I spend my life in a palace.
Suppose that I have all that money can buy. I dress
elegantly and fare sumptuously every day. I go to
gay parties and often off to Florida, the Sandwich
Islands or Europe. Oh, what a happy life ! Not very.
But suppose it is. How long will it last ? Ten years,
twenty years, forty years, fifty years, and it is all over.
What then? What then? The coffin, the grave, eter
nity. On the other hand, suppose I spend my life in
poverty. I have little cooped-up rooms, not very
clean. I have very poor food, and perhaps oftentimes
not enough of that. I wear shabby clothes. I have
to work hard for very small pay. The rich brush by
me and my children in the street, and think us of little
more account than the dogs and cats. Oh, what a
wretched life! Not necessarily. It may be a very
happy life. But suppose it is wretched. How long
will it last ? Ten years, twenty years, forty years, and
it is all over. And what then ? Eternity ! An eter
nity of joy, or it may be an eternity of woe, to which
any wretchedness I knew here is as nothing, nothing
at all. Ah, the question of where we shall spend
eternity is the important question. Suppose I am
taking a day's journey to a place where I shall spend
forty years. Which is the more important, the accom
modations I shall have on the cars or the accommoda
tions I shall have when I get there? This life is a
day's journey to an endless eternity. Some travel the
journey in a common day coach, a poor one at that,
104 THE VOICE OF GOD
but they travel to a mansion to which the stateliest
palace on earth is as nothing. We can easily put up
with some inconveniences by the way. Some travel in
a very sumptuous Pullman palace car, or on a De Luxe
train, but they are travelling to a hovel, poor, loath
some, pestilential, nay, they are travelling to a prison-
house, to a dungeon, nay they are travelling to hell
itself, where they shall spend eternity. I don't envy
them. Take the multimillionaires who are travelling
at express speed to hell. Do you envy them? I don't.
Poor wretches ! This question of where we shall spend
eternity is a far more important question than the
question of the comforts we shall enjoy by the way.
Are you giving this question the consideration its im
portance demands? Many of you will soon be there.
The brother of a friend of mine lay near death, near
eternity's door. He had been a professed Christian in
early life, but he had become a backslider, and very
bitter. He would not allow anyone to speak to him
about Christ or the future. His wife and daughters
and mother were praying constantly. They could not
let him die thus. His brother was praying. At last
he could keep silence no longer. He said " Willie,
when you used to go off on a journey did you make
preparations for it?" He looked up with surprise,
"Why, certainly." "Willie, do you know you are
about to take a long journey? Have you made any
preparations?" "No, none." "Don't you think you
ought?" "It's no use. Jesus won't take me now, I
am too great a sinner." His brother quoted to him
the wonderful promises to sinners found in this Book,
and he found peace at last. But what if he had gone
to that great eternity persistently refusing to make
ETERNITY? 105
preparations? Men and women, young men and
young women, don't be foolish. Face this great ques
tion, ''Where shall I spend eternity?"
IV. The next point to consider is that IT IS POS
SIBLE FOR US TO KNOW WHERE WE SHALL
SPEND ETERNITY. Some think it is all guesswork.
It is with some. It need not be. Jesus knew where
He would spend eternity. He said, " I go to Him that
sent me. ' ' Paul knew where he would spend eternity.
He said, "For me to die is gain." And again, "I
depart to be with Christ which is very far better"
(Phil. 1:23). And still again, " I have fought the
good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the
faith ; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge,
shall give me at that day : and not only to me but also
to all them that have loved His appearing" (2 Tim.
4:7,8). Albert Cookman knew where he would spend
eternity. As he was dying, he lifted up his voice and
shouted, "I am sweeping through the gates to the New
Jerusalem. " D. L. Moody knew where he would spend
eternity. As he was slipping away from life he said,
"This is my coronation day, I have long been looking
forward to it. " I know where I shall spend eternity.
"How do you know?" some one will ask. I have the
sure word of God for it. You can anyone of you know
if you will. Now you nien who call yourselves agnos
tics, sceptics, and infidels and Universalists and Uni
tarians and Spiritualists, and Christian Scientists and
thesophists, do you know where you will spend eter
nity? Do you really know? Be honest with your
selves now. You cannot afford to be deceived, do you
106 THE VOICE OF GOD
know ? No, no, no, you don 't know. "Well I do, so I
have the better of you.
V. The fifth fact to bear in mind is that WE "WILL
SPEND ETERNITY IN ONE OF TWO PLACES—
IN HEAVEN OR IN HELL. The exact location of
Heaven and the exact location of hell is not a question
we need to enter into. The character of the places is
the important question. Heaven is a place of holiness,
happiness and love. Hell is a place of violence, misery
and hate. In one or the other you and I shall spend
eternity. "With Christ or with the Devil. With the
holy and pure or with the profane, the blasphemous,
the vile. Which will it be for all eternity ?
VI. Now let me pin into your memory another
thought, WHERE YOU W^ILL SPEND ETERNITY
WILL BE SETTLED IN THE LIFE THAT NOW
IS. Jesus Christ says in John 8 : 24, "I said therefore
unto you, that ye shall die in your sins. For if ye be
lieve not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins."
And we read in the twenty-first verse of the same
chapter, "Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my
way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins,
Whither I go, ye cannot come. ' ' In other words Jesus
says that unless we believe in Him we shall die in our
sins, and that if we do die in our sins our eternal des
tiny is sealed. Again the apostle Paul says in 2 Cor.
5: 10, "We must all appear before the judgment seat
of Christ, that every one may receive the things done
in his body, according to that he hath done, whether
it be good or bad." This makes it clear that where we
will spend eternity is decided by the deeds done in the
body, the things done this side the grave. It makes it
clear that where we will spend eternity will be settled
ETERNITY? 107
in the life that now is. Now many people do not like
to believe that. They know that their present life is a
very poor preparation for eternity, so they don't like
to think that their present life settles their eternal des
tiny. But it does. Jesus taught that plainly enough
when He said as quoted above : i l If ye believe not that
I am He, ye shall die in your sins, Whither I go ye can
not come." Schemes of future probation are pure
speculations with absolutely no foundation in fact and
contrary to the plain teaching of the Book that never
lies. It is not a question, friends, of what we would
like to believe, but what is true. But some man rises
and says, "I don't think that where we shall spend
eternity is settled in this life. I think men will have
another chance. ' ' I reply, l ' It doesn 't make a particle
of difference what you think, or what I think. The
question is what does God say. ' ' But you still persist
in saying, "But some very scholarly men and some
very brilliant men like Lyman Abbott, for example,
think there is to be another chance." I reply, "Who
is Lyman Abbott ? A man who some eighty years or so
ago came out of the great unknown, grew to manhood,
talked a good deal, said some wise things and, as every
one knows, a good many foolish things, and in five
years or less he will disappear again and soon be for
gotten. ' ' But who is Jesus ? One who was in the be
ginning, was with God and was God. Some eighteen
centuries ago He took upon Himself a human form,
lived thirty odd years on this planet, spake as never
man spake before nor since, revealing the truths He
had learned in eternal fellowship with God, was killed
by those of His time for claiming to be the Son of God,
was raised from the dead by God Himself in testimony
108 THE VOICE OF GOD
that His claim was true, was exalted to God's right
hand "far above all rule and authority and power and
dominion and every name that is named in this world
or in the world to come. ' ' Which are you going to be
lieve Lyman Abbott or Jesus Christ. Pastor Russell
or Jesus Christ? If you have any sense you will be
lieve Jesus Christ. Through all the centuries of Chris
tian history men have appeared who have differed
with Jesus Christ, men who have been accounted just
as scholarly and brilliant by their generations as these
men who to-day presume to set up their opinions
against the teachings of Jesus Christ, and they have
disappeared from the stage again and their vaunted
discoveries have not stood the test of time; but the
teachings of Jesus Christ have stood the test of nearly
nineteen centuries. It ought not to take a man of fair
average common sense very long to decide whom to
believe under such circumstances. Believe Jesus
Christ. "Well, if you do believe Jesus Christ, write it
down that where we shall spend eternity is settled in
this life, settled this side of the grave.
VII. Just one point more, WHERE YOU SPEND
ETERNITY WILL BE DETERMINED BY WHAT
YOU DO WITH JESUS CHRIST. If you accept
Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour you will spend
eternity with Him. If you reject Jesus Christ you will
spend eternity away from Him. Listen to the sure
word of God. "He that believeth on the Son hath
everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son
shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on
Him" (John 3 : 36). Listen again. "The Lord Jesus
shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels,
in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know
ETERNITY? 109
not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ: who shall suffer punishment even
everlasting destruction from the face of the Lord
and from the glory of His might " (2 Thess. 1:7-9,
see Revised Version). Where we spend eternity will
be determined by what we do with Jesus Christ in the
life that now is.
Let us sum up what we have seen to-night. First
there is an eternity ; second, we must spend that eter
nity somewhere; third, the question where you will
spend eternity is vastly more important than the ques
tion of where you will spend your present life ; fourth,
it is possible for us to know where we shall spend
eternity; fifth, we shall spend eternity in one of two
places, in heaven or in hell; sixth, where we spend
eternity will be settled in the life that now is ; seventh,
where you spend eternity will be determined by what
you do with Jesus Christ. My friend, whither goest
thou? "Where will you spend eternity? There is a
story that has been often told, but I wish to repeat
to-night. In 1867 a young French nobleman went to
London to consult Dr. Forbes Winslow, the eminent
pathologist in diseases of the mind. He took letters
of introduction from eminent men in France, among
others one from Napoleon III, who was then Emperor
of France. Reaching London he called upon Dr.
Forbes Winslow and presented his letters of introduc
tion. Having read them Dr. Winslow asked him what
was the trouble. The young man replied, "I cannot
sleep. I have not had a good night's sleep for two
years, and unless I get sleep I will go insane." Dr.
Forbes Winslow asked him why he could not sleep.
He replied he could not tell. * * Have you lost money ? ' '
110 THE VOICE OF GOD
"No." "Have you suffered in honour or reputa
tion?" "Not that I know of." "Have you lost
friends?" "Not recently." "Why then can you
not sleep?" The young man replied that he would
rather not tell. Dr. Winslow said, "Unless you tell
me I cannot help you." "Well then if you must
know, I am an infidel. My father was an infidel
before me, but strange as it may appear to you,
though I am an infidel and though my father was
an infidel before me, when I go to bed at night
I am haunted with this thought: Eternity, and
where shall I spend it? And it drives all sleep from
me. It haunts me the whole night through. If I suc
ceed in getting a little sleep my sleeping thoughts are
worse than my waking thoughts, and I start from my
sleep haunted with the question, Eternity, and where
shall I spend it. " "I cannot help you, ' ' Dr. Winslow
quietly replied. "What," exclaimed the young man,
"you cannot help me? Have I come all the way from
Paris to London, to have my last hope taken away."
"No," replied Dr. Winslow, "I cannot help you, but I
can tell you of a Physician that can." He walked
across his office and took from the table a Bible and
pointed to Isa. 53 : 5 and read, " 'But He was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our ini
quities : the chastisement of our peace was upon Him ;
and with His stripes we are healed. ' That is the only
Physician in the universe who can help you, Jesus
Christ." The lip of the young French nobleman
curled with scorn. "What," he said, "do you mean to
tell me, Dr. Forbes Winslow, that you, one of the lead
ing scientists of the day, the most eminent pathologist
in the diseases of the mind in the world, that you be-
.ETERNITY? Ill
lieve that effete superstition of Christianity ?' ' "Yes,"
replied Dr. Winslow calmly, "I believe in Christ, and
believing in Him has saved me from becoming what
you are. ' ' The young Frenchman stood a moment in
deep thought, then he looked up at Dr. Winslow and
said, "Well if I am honest I ought at least to be ready
to consider it, ought I not?" "Yes." "Well, will you
be my teacher?" "Yes," replied Dr. Forbes Wins-
low, and the eminent pathologist in diseases of the
mind became the physician of the soul. For several
days he opened the Word of God about Christ and His
salvation to the young nobleman until the light dawned
in upon his soul, and his heart was at rest and he
went back to Paris with the great question settled of,
Eternity, and where shall I spend it? Eternity, and
where shall I spend it ? ETERNITY, AND WHERE SHALL
I SPEND IT ? I thank God I know where I shall spend
eternity. I shall spend it with Christ in the glory.
IX
WHICH SHALL WE BELIEVE, GOD OR MAN?
"For what if some did not believe f Shall their un
belief make the faith of God without effect f God
forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar." —
Horn. 3:3,4.
WHAT I say to-night is going to save some of
you and it is going to damn some of you.
Some of you are going to heed the truth and
repent. Some of you are going to harden your hearts
against the truth and this will come up against you in
the day of judgment. Our subject is, Which Shall We
Believe, God or Man ? You will find the text in Rom.
3 : 3, 4, "For what if some did not believe ? Shall their
unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God
forbid : yea, let God be true, but every man a liar. ' '
I. GOD'S WORD BETTER THAN MAN'S WORD.
My main proposition to-night is that God's word is
better than man's. We live in a day when men are
disposed to put great faith in what men say, especially
in what learned men say, but little or no faith in what
God says. Let some great man of science announce
some discovery and no matter how incredible it may
appear, no matter how much there is about it that we
cannot understand, we believe it at once. But let a
112
GOD OR MAN? 113
man find something in the Word of God that is con
trary to his notions, or that has something in it that he
cannot understand, and he discards it at once. Tell
men what the Bible says and they look wise and shrug
their shoulders and say, ''Yes, but I do not think so.
I think this way. ' ' Tell them what some great scien
tist or some leading literary critic, or some brilliant
but erratic preacher says, and they think that settles it.
What foolishness, what consummate foolishness. The
opinion of the greatest scientist that ever lived, or the
greatest philosopher, or the most learned Hebrew or
Greek scholar, or the most brilliant pulpit orator is of
no value whatever against the word of the infinitely
wise and eternally truthful God, of God who is never
mistaken and cannot lie. The opinion of all men to
gether is of no weight against the Word of God. "Let
God be true, and every man a liar. ' ' The man who be
lieves any man against God is a fool. The man who
believes any company of men against God is a fool.
The Bible is the Word of God. That can be proven by
many unanswerable proofs. I have proven it from
this platform. On the other hand, for eighteen cen
turies and more the opinions of scientists and philoso
phers have come and gone, to-day regarded as the final
word of wisdom, and to-morrow regarded as sheerest
folly. But the teachings of this book for all these
centuries have stood fast amid all the wreckage of
man's thinking. The experience of eighteen centuries
proves that the man who banks on the Bible is wise.
The man who throws the Bible overboard and turns
to any other source of light and guidance always
misses it in the long run. He always has for eighteen
centuries, and he always will for all the centuries that
114 THE VOICE OF GOD
are to come. The truly wise man is he who always
believes this book against the opinion of any man,
against any scientist, against any philosopher, against
any literary scholar, against any council of theologians
or any congress of philosophers and savants. If the
Bible says one thing and any body of men, or any
company of men say another, the truly wise man will
say, "Let God be true, but every man a liar."
II. SOME POINTS ON WHICH MEN DIFFER FROM GOD.
1. Let us look at some points at which many men
differ from God. First of all, a great many men, men
who are considered wise, unusually wise, differ from
God about the existence of a personal devil. A very
large number of men in our day, including some prom
inent theologians, laugh at the idea of their being any
such person as the Devil. One frequently hears men
say, ''There is no Devil but sin." Now that is what
men say, very many men, but what does God say?
Turn to Eph. 6 : 11, 12 and you will see what God says :
' ' Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able
to stand against the wiles of the Devil. For our
wrestlings is not against flesh and blood, but against
the principalities, against the powers, against the .
world — rulers of this darkness against the spiritual
hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. ' ' Turn to
1 Pet. 5 : 8 and you will see again what God has to say
on this point. He says, ' ' Be sober, be watchful : your
adversary the devil as a roaring lion, walketh about,
seeking whom he may devour." God says that there
is a devil, a being of great cunning and great power,
as well as great malignity, a being who is more than a
GOD OR MAN? 115
match for you or me, and that he is plotting our de
struction and all the time working to accomplish it.
God is certainly right about this, and, if you believe
there is no devil but your own sin you are a greatly
deceived individual, and the very devil you think does
not exist has deceived you, and he has done it in order
to destroy you. An Indian in ambush is a particularly
dangerous Indian and a devil who has persuaded peo
ple that he does not exist at all is a particularly dan
gerous devil. No other class of people fall so easily a
prey to the devil's subtlety as do the people who do
not believe there is any devil. Show me a man or
woman who does not believe there is a devil and I will
show you every time a man or woman whom the devil
has blinded and on whom he is getting in his work.
The Christian Scientists are among the leaders of
those who deny the existence of a personal devil, and
what other class of intelligent people are there on
earth to-day who are so evidently blinded by the devil
as they are. Many of the Christian Scientists are peo
ple of unusual intelligence in many matters, but when
they come to talk about their peculiar theories their
reasoning is the most absurd and preposterous and
ridiculous and ludicrous that was ever foisted upon a
credulous and devil-blinded people.
2. Many men differ from God about a future judg
ment. Many and many in this day do not believe that
there is to be a future judgment. Tell many men in
our day that there is a time coming when they shall
have to stand before the judgment bar of God with
His holy and all-seeing eye piercing them through and
through, and answer for all their deeds done in the
body, and for all their words that they have spoken ;
116 THE VOICE OF GOD
tell them that for every idle word a man speaks he will
have to give account thereof in the day of judgment,
as the Lord Jesus Christ says they will (Matt. 12 : 36),
and they will laugh at you in scorn. But what does
God say? Turn to Acts 17 : 30, 31 and you will find
what God says. ' ' The times of ignorance therefore God
overlooked; but now He commandeth men that they
should all everywhere repent: inasmuch as He hath
appointed a day in which He will judge the world in
righteousness by the man whom He hath ordained;
whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that
He hath raised Him from the dead." Turn to Rom.
14 : 12 and you will hear what God has to say on this
subject, * * So then each one of us shall give account of
himself to God." Turn to 2 Cor. 5:10 and you will
hear again what God has to say, "For we must all
appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every
one may receive the things done in his body, ac
cording to that he hath done, whether it be good or
bad." Turn once more to Matt. 12: 36 and you will
hear God's very plain utterance on this subject spoken
by the lips of His own Son, our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, "And I say unto you, that every idle
word that men shall speak, they shall give account
thereof in the day of judgment." God is right again.
There is one thing absolutely sure about the future
and that is that there is going to be a judgment day.
How this present war will turn out I do not know and
no other man knows. A few weeks ago we were told
that it was absolutely sure that Germany would be
conquered in three months, but now they are telling
us that it will take three years, and the fact is we do
not know that it will be conquered at all. It is not
GOD OR MAN? 117
absolutely sure. It is not absolutely sure that there
will ever be another summer or another election or
another Christmas, but it is sure that there will be a
judgment day. It is absolutely sure that you and I
will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give
account of the deeds done here in the body, and the
words spoken here. It is absolutely sure that each
one of us will give account of himself to God.
3. Many men differ from God about Hell. (1)
There are many in our day who do not believe that
there is any hell at all. There are many who say
in the most positive way, " There is no hell." A lady
once said to me, "Why, Mr. Torrey, you do not believe
in hell ? " It is not a question what I believe, but what
God says. What does God say? He says in Matt.
5 : 29, 30, which by the way is a part of the Sermon on
the Mount which all men say they believe, even though
they do not believe the rest of the Bible: "And if thy
right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast
it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of
thy members should perish, and not thy whole body
be cast into hell. And if thy right hand causeth thee
to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is
profitable for thee that one of thy members should
perish, and not thy whole body go into hell." I have
quoted these words of God from the Revised Version,
for many foolishly say that hell while it is found in
the Authorized Version has disappeared from the Re
vised Version. They evidently know as little about the
Revised Version as they do about the Authorized.
Again you will find what God says on this subject in
Luke 12 : 4, 5, "And I say unto you my friends, Be not
afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have
118 THE VOICE OF GOD
no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom
ye shall fear : Fear him, who after he hath killed hath
power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear
him." Let me say in passing that the one who has
power to cast into hell is not the devil. The devil has
no power to cast into Hell nor in Hell, in Hell he him
self is one of the prisoners. God is the One who has
power to cast into hell and He is the One whom we
should fear. Turn once more to Kev. 21 : 8 and you
will see a very plain statement of God about hell:
"But the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable,
and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers and
idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake
that burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the
second death. "
(2) There are some again who believe there is a hell
but they do not believe it is an everlasting hell. Many
say, "You do not believe in everlasting punishment, do
you ? ' ' Again I say it is not a question of what I be
lieve, or what you believe, but of what God says.
Read Matt. 25: 41, "Then shall he say unto them on
the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into the
eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his
angels." As to how long that punishment lasts that
is prepared for the devil and his angels, you will find
it set forth in Rev. 20 : 10, which describes what will
occur at the end of the millennium, after the beast
and the false prophet have been in hell a thousand
years: "And the devil that deceived them was cast
into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the
beast and the false prophet (remember they have al
ready been there a thousand years) ; and they shall be
tormented day and night for ever and ever." Listen
GOD OR MAN? 119
again to what God says in Rev. 14:9-11, "And the
third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice,
If any man worship the beast and his image, and re
ceive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the
same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,
which is poured out without mixture into the cup of
his indignation ; and he shall be tormented with fire
and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and
in the presence of the Lamb, and the smoke of their
torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have
no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his
image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name."
Listen once more to what God has to say on the sub
ject of eternal hell in Rev. 20:15, "And if any was
not found written in the book of life, he was cast into
the lake of fire." Is your name written in the book
of life ? If it is not you will spend an endless eternity
in hell. I do not state that as my opinion, but as God's
Word. Make it sure to-night that your name is in the
book of life by accepting Jesus Christ.
4. Again men differ from God about a future proba
tion. There are many men who say, and they are
oftentimes men whom the world considers wise, and
they say it with great positiveness, that if men do not
repent of their sins and accept Christ now in this life
they will have another chance to repent and turn to
Christ after they are dead. I formerly believed and
preached that myself, but what does God say? Turn
to John 8 : 21 and you will find what God says. God
tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ said unto the people
that gathered around Him when He was here on
earth, "I go away, and ye shall seek me, and shall die
in your sin: whither I go, ye cannot come." In other
120 THE VOICE OF GOD
words, God says through His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, that if a man dies in his sin he cannot go where
Jesus Christ does, that he has no other chance. Turn
again to Heb. 9 : 27 and read what God says about a
future probation: "It, is appointed unto men once to
die, but after this cometh judgment." Listen once
more to what God has to say about a future probation.
You will find it in 2 Cor. 5:10, "For we must all
appear before the judgment seat of Christ that every
one may receive the things done in his body, according
to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."
Note that carefully. The basis of judgment will be
"the things done in the body," the things done in this
present life, the things done before we shuffle off this
mortal coil, the things done this side of the grave.
When a man's life on earth is ended his eternal des
tiny is settled.
5. Men differ from God about the way of salvation.
Many men say that if a man lives a good moral life
he will be saved ; he may be a Jew or a Mohammedan,
or a Bhuddist, or a Christian, but if he is only sincere
he will be saved. They say no man will be lost simply
because he does not believe in Jesus Christ and con
fess Jesus Christ before the world. At the time of
Col. Ingersoll's death a Chicago preacher who claimed
to be a Christian said, "Heaven or any good country
will welcome a man like Col. Ingersoll." Of course,
the infidels applauded when he said it, and I suppose
that this professedly Christian preacher was glad to
get the applause of the avowed enemies of Jesus
Christ. But what does God say? Listen to John
14: 6, "Jesus saith unto him, I am the "Way, the Truth
and the Life : no man cometh unto the Father but by
GOD OR MAN? 121
me." Listen again to what God says in Acts 4:12,
11 Neither is there salvation in any other (than Jesus
Christ) : for there is none other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. ' ' Listen
still again as God speaks in John 3 : 18, "He that be-
liveth on Him (i.e., on Jesus Christ) is not con
demned: but he that believeth not is condemned al
ready, because he hath not believed on the name of the
only begotten Son of God." Listen still again to the
voice of God as He speaks to us in John 3:36, "He
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life : and he
that believeth not the Son shall not see life: but the
wrath of God abideth on him." Listen still again as
God speaks in Rom. 10: 9, 10, "If thou shalt confess
with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy
heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved: for with the heart man believeth unto right
eousness ; and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation. ' ' Listen once again, and now God is speak
ing through the lips of His Son, Jesus Christ, Matt.
10 : 32, 33) , "Every one therefore who shall confess me
before men, him will I also confess before my Father
who is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before
men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in
heaven."
6. Many men differ from God about the conditions
of entering the kingdom of God. Many men say that
the way to get into the kingdom of God is by leading
an upright life, by treating your wife well, and your
children well, and being honest in business, and kind
to the poor, and doing other good things. Others say
the way to enter the kingdom of God is by being bap
tized and uniting with the church and partaking of
122 THE VOICE OF GOD
the communion, and reading your Bible, and saying
your prayers, and going to confession, etc. But what
does God say? Listen, John 3:3, 5, "Jesus answered,
and said unto him, Verily, verily I say unto thee, Ex
cept a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can
not enter into the kingdom of God." Listen again on
the same point to the voice of God as He speaks in Tit.
3 : 5, 6, "Not by works done in righteousness, which we
did ourselves, but according to His mercy He saved
us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Spirit, which He poured out upon us
richly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour."
7. Men differ from God about the best time to repent
and accept Christ. Many men are saying that there
will be some day a better time than to-night to repent
of our sins and to turn to Christ. Many of you here
to-night are saying that, or thinking it if you do not
say it, or acting it if you do not think it. But what
does God say? Listen. 2 Cor. 6:2, "Behold, now is
the accepted time, behold now is the day of salvation."
Listen again, Heb. 3:7, "The Holy Ghost saith to
day." Listen still again (Prov. 27:1), "Boast not
thyself of to-morrow ; for thou knowest not what a day
may bring forth." And now listen once more (Prov.
29: 1), "He that being often reproved hardeneth his
neck shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without
remedy." When the Apostle Paul reasoning before
Felix, the corrupt Roman governor, told him of right
eousness and self-control, and the judgment to. come,
Felix was terrified, but he thought there would be a
better time to repent than just then, and said, "Go
thy way for this time, when I have a convenient sea
son, I will call for thee. ' ' He thought some other time
GOD OR MAN? 123
would be more convenient than that time, but he never
found the more convenient time, and that is why he is
in Hades now and why he will spend eternity in
hell.
These are some of the things that men say and some
of the things God says. Which will you believe? I
say, "Let God be true, and every man a liar." But
perhaps some one will say, "But I do not believe that
the Bible is the Word of God, ' ' My friend, did it ever
occur to you that your not believing that the Bible is
the word of God does not alter the fact at all? At the
time of the Boxer uprising in China some of the
Boxers did not believe they could be killed by bullets,
they thought that their incantations and their magic
rites made them invulnerable against bullets. They
were very sincere in their belief. A Chinese officer
asked them to prove their sincerity by drawing up in
line and he would have his soldiers shoot at them.
They consented. They drew up in line before the muz
zles of the guns. They were very sincere. The Chinese
soldiers blazed away and every Boxer dropped dead.
Their doubt of the power of the bullets to kill them
did not alter the fact. Your doubt that the Bible is
God's Word does not alter the fact that it is. Sup
pose for a moment that the Bible turns out to be the
Word of God, as all those who know it best and know
God best say that it is. You must at least admit that
it is possible that it is the Word of God. You must
admit that the men and women who are really living
nearest God and know God best believe that the Bible
is the Word of God. Suppose they prove to be right,
where will you be? Damned. And that is exactly
what you will be if you go on doubting God's Word
124 THE VOICE OF GOD
and rejecting God 's Son, listening to the voice of man
rather than the voice of God.
God says that there is a devil and that you need
Christ's help against his cunning and power. God
says that there is a future judgment and that we must
all give account to God. God says that there is a hell,
and that it is a place of torment where all who reject
Christ will spend eternity. God says there is no future
probation, that the issues of eternity are settled in the
life that now is. God says there is but one way to be
saved, i. e., by the acceptance of Jesus Christ as our
Saviour, and surrender to Him as our Lord, and con
fession of Him before the world. God says that the
only way to enter the kingdom is to be born again.
God says that the best time to accept Christ and be
saved is right now. "Now is the accepted time; now
is the day of salvation." "The Holy Ghost saith to
day." "Boast not thyself of to-morrow, for thou
knowest not what a day may bring forth." "He that
being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall sud
denly be destroyed, and that without remedy. ' ' Who
of you will turn from sin and unbelief and turn to
Jesus Christ and accept Him as your Saviour and
surrender to Him as your Lord and Master, and con
fess Him as such right now?
THE NEW BIRTH AS SET FORTH IN
JOHN 3 : 2-21
THE subject of our study this morning is The
New Birth. One of the most fundamental
and vital doctrines in Christianity is the doc
trine of the New Birth. If men are wrong here they
are likely to be wrong everywhere, and if they are
right and clear in regard to this doctrine, they are
pretty sure to be right and clear on every doctrine.
We shall study the doctrine of the New Birth as it is
set forth in the third chapter of John, the 1st to 21st
verses. In this chapter our Lord tells us first of the
Necessity of the New Birth; second, the Nature of the
New Birth, and third, the Method of the New Birth.
1. THE NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH.
1. The first thing that our Lord Jesus teaches us in
the third chapter of John in regard to the necessity of
the new birth is that that necessity is UNIVERSAL.
In the third verse He says, " Verily, verily I say unto
thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God." Literally translated, these words
would read, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except
anyone be born again (or, from above), he cannot see
125
126 THE VOICE OF GOD
the kingdom of God." Not one single man or
woman or child will be able to see the kingdom of
God except they be born from above. In verse 7
our Lord says, "Marvel not that I said unto thee,
Ye must be born again (or from above)." The
emphasis is upon the "thee" and "Ye." Nicode-
mus would not have been at all amazed or surprised if
the Lord Jesus had taught that a Gentile needed to be
born again, what surprised him was that the Lord
should have said it to him, and that he and other men
of his class must be born again. Our Lord's words
when taken in their connection, set forth in the most
forcible manner possible that there is not one single
man on earth who can see the kingdom of God ex
cept he have a personal experience of the New Birth.
If any man could get to heaven without being born
again Nicodemus was the man. He seemed to have
pretty much everything that would entitle one to
an entrance into the kingdom of God. He was a
man of most scrupulous morality, he was a man of
lofty aspirations, he was a man who longed to know
the truth and was willing to make sacrifices in order to
know it, he was a man who was endeavouring to live up
to the truth as far as he did know it, he was a generous
man, giving a tithe of all that he got as a starting
point in his giving, and added to that generous free
will offerings; he was an intensely religious man, a
man who studied his Bible, and a man who prayed, he
was a man who carefully observed the ceremonials of
the Jewish religion (which was a Divinely revealed re
ligion, Jno. 4: 22), he was an active worker, he was a
teacher of the truth as far as he knew it, indeed he was
"the teacher of Israel." What more could a man need
THE NEW BIRTH 127
in order to fit him to see and enter the kingdom of
God ? And yet the Lord Jesus said to him, " You need
to be born again." If Nicodenras could not see nor
enter the kingdom without the experience of the New
Birth, certainly none of us can. The necessity of the
New Birth is absolutely universal, there are no ex
ceptions. The teaching is very common to-day that
while certain classes of men and women, those that
have gone into sin and whose characters have become
corrupted, may need to be born again, people who are
well born the first time, of pious parents, and who have
a naturally amiable disposition, and who have been
reared morally and religiously from early childhood,
do not need to be born again. The Lord Jesus Christ
says that they do. Not one man, woman or child shall
see or enter the kingdom of God without being born
again.
2. The seventh verse teaches us that the necessity of
the New Birth is not only universal, but that it is also
IMPERATIVE. Our Lord Jesus says to Nicodemus,
"You must be born again," not merely you may be,
but "you must be." The New Birth is not merely
a matter of privilege, it is a matter of solemn and
imperative necessity, and I say to every one of you
here to-day, who has not already been born again,
"You must be born again."
3. The third thing that Jesus taught regarding the
necessity of the New Birth is that it is also ABSO
LUTE. Nothing else will take the place of the New
Birth. (1) Reform will not take the place of the New
Birth. Many of the preachers of our day are preach
ing reform, they are telling men, and telling men very
forcefully, that they must give up this sin and that
128 THE VOICE OF GOD
sin in their lives. Well, reform is well enough in its
way, but mere reform will not save, no matter how
thoroughgoing the reform may be. Men need some
thing deeper and more radical than reform, they must
be "born again." The central teaching of one great
preacher in this land was "Quit your meanness," and
he led thousands of people in this country to quit
their meanness in many forms, but quitting one's
meanness is not enough, however desirable it may be,
as far as it goes. What men need to be told is, "You
must be born again." There must be not mere refor
mation but regeneration.
(2) Morality is not enough. Morality is an attrac
tive thing, but it is an external thing. Nicodemus had
morality, but he needed something more, something
deeper, something that underlies a true and abiding
morality. Our Lord said (Matt. 5:20), "I say unto
you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in
no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. " The
Pharisees were moral, scrupulously moral, but their
morality was superficial, it was not a morality of
the heart. The only man who will enter into the king
dom of heaven is the man whose morality is of that
deep kind, affecting the will and the affections and the
whole inner life, that results from the New Birth.
(3) Baptism will not take the place of the New Birth.
In the fifth verse we are told, "Except a man be born
of water and tlie Spirit, he cannot enter into the king
dom of God." Even if we take the water in this pas
sage to refer to the water of baptism (which it does
not) still we find our Lord saying that it is not enough
to be born of water, but that we must be born, "of
THE NEW BIRTH 129
water and the Spirit." The birth from above, the
birth by the power of the Holy Ghost, is necessary,
even though one has been baptized by water in any
form of baptism. In the eighth chapter of the Acts of
the Apostles we read of Simon Magus who was bap
tized, and whatever the proper form of baptism may
be, he was certainly baptized by the proper form for
the work was done by a Divinely appointed man, and
yet further on in the record we hear Peter saying unto
this same properly baptized Simon Magus, "Thou
hast neither part nor lot in this matter : for thy heart
is not right before God .... For I see that thou art
in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity."
The baptism of Simon Magus was not enough, it was
not the new birth, and he needed to be born again.
(4) Religion will not take the place of the New Birth.
Religion is all right in its way, if it is true re
ligion, but religion will not save. No amount of
observation of the externalities of true religion, Bible
reading, prayer, churchgoing, observation of the ordi
nances, will save. No man can see or enter the king
dom of heaven, no matter how religious, except he be
born again. Nicodemus was religious, extremely re
ligious, but he was unsaved until he was born again.
(5) Generosity in giving will not take the place of the
New Birth. How many there are to-day who are really
depending for their hope of heaven upon their gener
ous giving, and how many there are who think of
others who are generous givers that these men cannot
be lost because they give so much for the poor and for
God's work, but even though one should give all his
goods to feed the poor, and have not that love which
comes from being born again it would profit him noth-
130 THE VOICE OF GOD
ing (1 Cor. 13:3). The Pharisees were generous
givers, they were careful to tithe absolutely everything
they received, down to the mint and anise in their
gardens, but they were unsaved and needed to be born
again. (6) Conviction of sin will not take the place
of the New Birth. Many think that they are saved
because by the power of the Holy Spirit they have
been brought under deep conviction of sin, but after
they have spent days or weeks in agony over
their sins they find that conviction is not conver
sion, much less is it the-. New Birth, and though
one should sob and wail over his sins for years
or his whole life, he could not by that means
enter the kingdom of heaven. No amount of sobbing
and wailing and doing penance will take the place of
the New Birth. (7) Culture will not take the place of
the New Birth, even though it be " ethical culture" or
religious culture. Everywhere through Christendom
the churches are substituting culture, ''ethical cul
ture," or religious culture, or intellectual culture, for
the New Birth, but culture will not do "you must be
born again." Nicodemus was one of the most cultured
men among his people, he was "the teacher of Israel,"
but he was lost, and the most cultured people of
America to-day, the most cultured men and women of
Los Angeles are lost men and women, unless they have
been born again. (8) Prayer will not take the place
of the New Birth. A man may spend hours a day in
prayer and yet be a lost man. Cornelius was a man of
prayer and a generous giver, so notable was he for
prayer and almsgiving that his prayers and alms went
up for a remembrance before God (Acts 10 : 4), but he
needed to be saved by being born again through faith
THE NEW BIRTH 131
in Jesus Christ, and the angel said to him to send to
Joppa for a man called Peter who would speak unto
him words whereby he should "be saved" (Acts
11: 13, 14). Evidently he was not saved as yet. The
necessity of the New Birth is absolute, there is nothing
else that will take its place.
4. Why is the New Birth absolutely necessary?
Verse 6 tells us why the new birth is absolutely neces
sary, why nothing else will take its place. The reason
is because "that which is born of the flesh is flesh;
and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." In
other words, all that we can get by our human parent
age, no matter how godly or pious or moral or cultured
our parentage may be, is that which is natural and not
that which is spiritual, and the kingdom of God is
spiritual and in order to enter that kingdom we must
be born of the Spirit. Human nature is rotten to the
core.
II. THE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH.
In this chapter we have a very clear explanation of
just what the nature of the New Birth is.
1. First of all it is a RADICAL TRANSFORMA
TION OF OUR INMOST NATURE. This comes out
in the very wording of what our Lord said, "Ye must
be born again (or, anew, or, from above)." It is not
a mere outward change, but a birth, a new birth.
Elsewhere we are told it is a new creation. Paul says
in 2 Cor. 5 : 17, "If any man is in Christ, he is a new
creation (or, there is a new creation) : the old things
are passed away; behold they are become new." Evi
dently the New Birth is a radical transformation in
132 THE VOICE OF GOD
the deepest depths of our being, the impartation of a
new nature, a new intellectual nature, a new emotional
nature, a new volitional nature. That is to say, new
thoughts, new ideas, new ambitions, new desires, new
feelings, new emotions, a new will. It is an imparta
tion of God's own nature to us. As the Apostle Peter
puts it in 2 Pet. 1 : 4, "By these (that is by the Word
of God, by God's exceeding great and precious prom
ises) " we "become partakers of the Divine nature. "
We are born into this world with a corrupt nature in
every part of our mental and moral being. Our minds
are blind to the truth of God. As Paul puts it, "the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of
God for they are foolishness unto him; and he can
not know them, because they are spiritually dis
cerned" (1 Cor. 2:14) ; our feelings are corrupt, we
love the things that God hates and hate the things that
God loves ; our will is perverse, our wills are set upon
pleasing ourselves instead of upon pleasing God. In
the New Birth we get a new mind, a mind that is open
to the truth of God, that thinks the thoughts of God
after Him; we get new affections, we now love the
things that God loves and hate the things that God
hates ; we get a new will, a will that is in harmony
with the will of God, a will that is set upon pleasing
God and not set upon pleasing self.
2. The New Birth is also a BIRTH FROM ABOVE. We
learn this from verses 3 and 7. Jesus said, "Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born from
above, he cannot see the kingdom of God." And
again, "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be
born from above." In our Authorized Version we
find the words "born again," and in the Revised Ver-
THE NEW BIRTH 133
sion, "born anew," but a more exact translation is
"born from above." The New Birth is a birth from
above, it is a heavenly birth, it is a birth from God, a
direct work of God in the individual heart.
III. THE METHOD OF THE NEW BIRTH, OR How MEN
ARE BORN AGAIN.
We come now to the directly practical questions,
how are men born again, and what must we do in
order to be born again. This question is answered
plainly in the chapter we are studying.
1. First of all we are born again by the Holy
Spirit's power. We read in verses 5 to 8, "Jesus
answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a
man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter
into the kingdom of God. ' ' The New Birth is the Holy
Spirit's work. The Holy Spirit is a living person to
day who operates directly upon the spirits of men,
quickening them, and by His transforming power
working directly in our spirits we are regenerated.
The Holy Spirit imparts a new nature to us.
2. The new birth, while wrought by the power of
the Holy Spirit, is wrought through the instrumen
tality of the Word of God. This comes out in the fifth
verse, "Except a man be born of water and the Spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." There is
reason to believe that the water here means the water
of the Word, but we will not go into that at this time.
Whether that is taught here or not, it certainly is
taught elsewhere in the Bible. For example, we read
in 1 Pet. 1 : 23, "Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, through the Word of God,
134 THE VOICE OF GOD
which liveth and bideth. ' ' And we read in Jas. 1 : 18,
"By His own will He brought us forth ly the word of
truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his
creatures." The Spirit of God is the one who works
the New Birth, the Word of God is the instrument
through which He does it. We preach the Word of
God to men, God quickens it by the power of His Holy
Spirit as we preach it, it takes root in the human
heart, and the result is the new nature. If we wish to
see others born again we should give them the Word
of God in the power of the Holy Ghost, and the result
will be that they will be born again. If we have not
been born again ourselves we should read and ponder
the Word of God, and while we do so look to the Holy
Spirit to quicken it in our hearts, and the new birth
will be the result.
3. The new birth is wrought by the Holy Spirit
through His Word in us when we look to or believe on
Jesus Christ. This comes out in verses 1-4 and 15.
Nicodemus had asked the Lord how these things could
be, and how one could be born when he is old, that is,
how one could be born again. Verses 14 and 15 con
tain the Lord's answer to the question. He said,
"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of man be lifted up ; that whoso
ever believeth in Him should not perish, but have
eternal life. ' ' The Lord was referring to an incident
in the Wilderness when the murmuring Israelites were
bitten by fiery serpents and were dying from the bite,
and Moses cried to God for deliverance and God com
manded Moses to make a serpent of brass (in appear
ance like to the fiery serpent that had bitten them) and
to put it on a pole and that it would come to pass that
THE NEW BIRTH 135
every one that was bitten when he looked at the ser
pent on the pole would live (Num. 21:5-9). We all
have been bitten by the serpent of sin. His bite is
death, eternal death. But the Lord Jesus Christ has
been made in the likeness of sinful flesh and "lifted
up" on the cross of Calvary where He made a perfect
atonement for sin, and as soon as we look at Him on
the cross and put our trust in Him as our sin-bearer,
that moment we are born again. The same thought
is found in the 16th verse, "For God so loved the
world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that who
soever lelieveth on Him should not perish but have
eternal life. ' ' All anyone has to do to be born again is,
to look and live, to look at Jesus Christ, putting his
confidence in Him, to look at Christ crucified and put
faith in Him as our atoning Saviour, and the moment
we do thus put our faith in Him, that moment the
Spirit of God, through His "Word, which presents Him
to us as our atoning Saviour, imparts to us God's own
nature and we are born again. The same thought is
presented very clearly and very simply in the first
chapter and the 12th and 13th verses, "As many as
received Him (i. e., the Lord Jesus), to them gave He
the right to become children of God, even to them that
believe on His name : which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but
of God." All anyone has to do then to be born again
is to receive Jesus Christ, to receive Him as that which
He offers Himself to be to us : as our atoning Saviour,
who bore all our sins in His own body on the cross ; as
our risen Saviour and Deliverer from the power of
sin ; as our Teacher sent from God, who spoke the very
words of God; as our Lord and Master, who has a
136 THE VOICE OF GOD
right to, and to whom we surrender, the absolute con
trol of our lives ; and as our Divine Lord. If there is
anyone here this morning who has never been born
again, all you have to do to be born again is to thus
receive Jesus this moment, and the moment you do so
receive Him you will be born from above, born of God.
XI
GOD'S GUIDANCE AND HOW TO GET IT
"/ will instruct thee and teach thee in the way
which thou shalt go; I will guide thee with mine
eye." Ps. 32:8.
"But if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask God,
who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not;
and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith,
nothing doubting; for he that doubteth is like the
surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. For
let not that man think that he shall receive anything of
the Lord; a double-minded man, unstable in all his
ways." Jas 1:5-8.
I. THE POSSIBILITY AND BLESSEDNESS OF BEING
GUIDED BY GOD.
ONE of the greatest and most precious privileges
of the believer is to have the guidance of God
at every turn of life. One of the most im
portant of all practical questions is how to get this
guidance. There are many who say very positively
that they are guided of God who are not so guided.
The event proves that they are not so guided. Some
months ago a young woman informed me that she was
guided of God to leave for Africa at a certain date and
that God had given her positive assurance that the
137
138 THE VOICE OF GOD
money would be provided for her to leave at that date.
I was not at all sure that she was guided as she said
that she was, and the event proved she was not ; for the
money was not furnished for her to leave at that date.
As we see so many people apparently absolutely sure
that God is guiding them when in the event it becomes
clear that He is not, does it not prove that the sup
posed guidance of God is a fancy and not a fact ? It
does not. The fact that some people are confident
that they are guided when they are not is no more evi
dence that there is no such thing as guidance than the
fact that some people are sure they are- saved when
they are not is an evidence that there is no such thing
as salvation, or assurance of salvation. The fact that
some people are misled in no way proves that all peo
ple are misled. There is such a thing as guidance,
and there is a way to get guidance. There is a way
to avoid the illusions regarding guidance into which
many fall through ignorance of the Word of God.
II. How To GET GUIDANCE.
We come now face to face with the question of how
to get God's guidance. There are seven steps, clearly
set forth in the Word of God, in the path that leads to
God's guidance.
1. The first step toward obtaining God's guidance
is that we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our own
personal Saviour, and surrender to Him as our Lord
and Master. This comes out very plainly in Jas. 1 : 5,
''If any of you lacketh wisdom, let Mm ask of God."
It is clear that the promise is only made to believers.
James does not say, "If any man lacketh wisdom, let
GOD'S GUIDANCE— HOW TO GET IT 139
him ask of God, ' ' but, ' ' If any of you lacketh wisdom,
let him ask of God. ' ' There is no promise in the Word
of God that God will guide anyone but the believer in
Jesus Christ. Indeed there is no promise in the Word
of God that He will answer the prayers of unbelievers
about anything. God's guidance is the privilege of
the believer in Jesus Christ and of him alone. By be
liever I do not mean the one who merely has an ortho
dox faith about Jesus Christ, but the one who is a be
liever in the Bible sense, that is, the one who has that
living faith in Jesus Christ that leads him to receive
Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour, and to surren
der his life to His service and control. If then, we
would have God's sure guidance, the first thing to
make sure of is that we really are believers, that we
really are children of God, that we really have ac
cepted Jesus Christ as our Saviour, and really have
surrendered our lives to His Lordship.
2. The second step toward obtaining God's guidance
is that we clearly realize our own utter inability to
decide for ourselves the way in which we should go.
The promise, as we find it in the Word of God, makes
this very plain. James says, "If any of you lacketh
wisdom, let him ask of God, etc." The promise is
made to the one who lacks wisdom, not the one who
has it. It is made to the one who realizes the limita
tions of his own wisdom and realizes his dependence
upon God for His wisdom. It is at this point that
many, very many, fail of guidance. They have such
confidence in their own opinions, in their own judg
ment, in their own ability to decide the course that
they should pursue, that though they may as a for
mality ask God for His guidance, they do not really
140 THE VOICE OF GOD
Jiave any deep sense of their need of His guidance, and
they have such confidence in their own wisdom that
they mistake their own judgment for the guidance of
God. Having prayed for Wisdom, but still being con
fident in their own judgment, they become all the
more sure that their opinion is right and they at
tribute their own opinion to God. If we are to have
God's guidance we must be utterly emptied of all con
fidence in our own judgment; and, in a sense of our
own inability to decide for ourselves, we should come
to God, putting our own notions utterly aside, for
Him to tell us what He would have us to do, and we
should wait silently before Him to make known His
will.
3. The third step toward obtaining Divine guidance
is that we really desire to know God's will, and
are thoroughly willing to do it whatever it may be.
This also comes out in the promise. It reads, * ' If any
of you lacketh wisdom let him ask of God." Of
course, the asking must be genuine, and there is no
genuine asking wisdom of God unless we are eagerly
desirous of knowing God's will and heartily willing to
do it when that will is made known. The genuine and
absolute surrender of the will to God is the great
secret of guidance. The promise, "I will instruct
thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go;
I will counsel thee with mine eye upon thee, " as is evi
dent from the context, is made to the one whose will
is surrendered to God, for the next verse reads, "Be
ye not as the horse, or as a mule, which have no under
standing: whose trappings must be bit and bridle to
hold them in, else they will not come unto thee. ' ' If
we are mulish, that is if we are bent on doing our own
GOD'S GUIDANCE— HOW TO GET IT 141
will, then God must guide us with "bit and bridle,"
and oftentimes must break our jaw before we submit
to Him. His instruction, teaching and guidance, His
gentle guidance "with His eye upon us," is for the
one whose will is entirely surrendered to Him. The
surrender must be real surrender. There are many
who think they wish to know and are willing to do
God's will, and that it is God's will that they are
waiting to know, but, what they are really seeking, is
to get God to say yes to their own plans, and get God
to endorse the plan they themselves have already sub
consciously formed, and they are not waiting, as they
suppose they are, until God tells them what His will
really is, they are waiting until God tells them to do
the thing that they want to do and, in their subcon
scious self, have made up their mind to do, so they
think and think and think, and pray and pray and
pray, until they think themselves into thinking that
God tells them to do the thing that they themselves
wished to do from the outset, and this thing that they
wanted to do from the outset may not be God's plan at
all. This is one of the most frequent causes of think
ing we have the mind of God when we are only doing
the thing that we want to do. Men and women who
go to God for guidance in this way, i. e., without hav
ing absolutely put aside their own will and their own
opinion, when they do think themselves into the place
where they fancy that God has endorsed their plan,
are the most positive in saying that "God tells me to
do thus and so." So then, we must, if we would be
guided of God, make absolutely sure that we have put
away our own will entirely and are utterly willing to
and desirous of doing God's will, whatever it may be.
142 THE VOICE OF GOD
We must be sure that we are silent before God and
truly listening to His voice, and not still listening
to this desire that we have in the depths of our
heart that God shall tell us to do the thing that we
want to do. When Mr. Moody invited me to take up
the work in Chicago in 1889, I went to God to show
me what might be His will. There was a great conflict
in my heart. There were reasons why I wished to
go to Chicago; there are reasons why I wished to
stay in Minneapolis, or why I thought I must stay
in Minneapolis. It took me three days to get abso
lutely silent before God, and to put away my own
conflicting ideas on both sides. When I did come to
the place where I had no will whatever in the matter,
but simply wished to know what God's will was,
whichever way it might be, when I became absolutely
silent before God, God soon made the path in which
He would have me go as plain as day.
The fact that the thing that we are contemplating
doing is a hard thing, that it requires great sacrifice,
does not by any means make it sure that it is God's
will and not ours. Our hearts naturally are deceitful
above all things, and oftentimes wilful persons will
set their heart on doing a very hard thing. They
may set their heart upon doing it out of spiritual
pride, or for many other reasons than because of sur
render to the will of God. They want to do this
hard thing, and they pray and pray and pray, and
brood and brood and brood until they make them
selves think that this hard thing is the will of God,
when very likely the thing that God would have them
do is some very humdrum, everyday sort of a thing.
There is many a man and many a woman determined
GOD'S GUIDANCE— HOW TO GET IT 143
to be a foreign missionary, and a foreign missionary
under the most difficult circumstances, whom God has
called to a very quiet life at home, and while they
are willing to endure the severest hardships in the
foreign field, they are not willing to plod on quietly
and unseen and unnoticed at home. But the best
thing is God's will, whether that will be in a quiet
humdrum life at home, or whether it be a notable
life of courage and self-sacrifice in the foreign field;
and, if we are to have God's guidance we must, as
already said, become absolutely silent before God, and
be willing and glad to serve Him in the most ordinary
sort of life, a life that seems far beneath our talents
and our training, if that be His will, just as ready
to do that as to serve Him in a field that demands
large abilities and great sacrifice. Satan cheats many
of God's children out of accomplishing the things that
God would have them do by making them restless
in the homely paths that God opens up to them of
doing things that they can do, and sets their heart
upon doing things that they cannot do ; and thus they
leave the path of actual achievement to brood over
things they would like to do, but which it is not God 's
will for them to do, and which they never will do.
Oftentimes a whole life is spoiled in this way.
4. The fourth step toward obtaining God's guidance
is definite prayer for that guidance. "If any of you
lacketh wisdom," says God, "let him ask of God."
There should be definite prayer for definite guidance.
We should ask God's guidance at every turn of life;
we should ask His guidance not merely in the great
crises of life, but in the ordinary matters of everyday
life, in our business, in our domestic work, in the
144 THE VOICE OF GOD
most simple things. None of us knows enough to
direct our own steps in the simplest matters of every
day life. We need God's guidance at every turn of
life, and we can have it, and the way to get it is
to ask for it. But the asking will do no good unless
we have already taken the other steps that have been
mentioned. The definite prayer is the fourth step
and not the first, and we should be sure we have
taken the first three steps before we take the fourth.
5. The fifth step toward obtaining God's guidance
is positive expectation that God will grant our prayer
and give us the guidance that we ask. This also
comes out in the exact wording of the promise. It
reads, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of
God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth
not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in
faith, nothing doubting: for he that doubteth is like
the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed.
For let not that man (i.e., the man that doubts, the
man who does not confidently expect) think that he
shall receive anything of the Lord." Here is where
many miss God's guidance. Their wills are sur
rendered, they really desire to know and do God's
will, and they ask God for His guidance, but they do
not confidently expect that God will give the guid
ance they ask. They hope He will, but they are not
at all sure that He will. If we have taken the other
steps, when we ask God for His guidance we may be
absolutely sure that God will give it. Some one may
say, "But others have asked God's guidance and
thought they had it, when the event showed they did
not. May not I also be mistaken?" No, not if you
have taken the other steps already mentioned and
GOD'S GUIDANCE— HOW TO GET IT 145
will take the steps that we are still to mention. We
have God's absolute promise of guidance made to
those who meet the conditions which we have de
scribed, and therefore we may ask guidance with the
absolute certainty that we are going to receive it.
When we ask for God's wisdom, if we are of those
to whom the promise is made, we know that we have
asked something according to God's will, for He has
definitely promised it in His Word, and, therefore,
we have a right to know that our prayer is heard and
the thing we have asked is granted ( 1 John 5:14, 15 ).
Some years ago I was speaking at a Bible Conference
of the Y. M. C. A. at White Bear Lake, Minn. I
was speaking on the subject of prayer. As I left
the platform to hurry to a train I found the next
speaker waiting for me on the outside of the audience.
He was greatly excited. He was a gifted teacher of
the Word of God and had been much used of God.
He stopped me as I passed by hurrying to the train
and said, "I am going to tear to pieces everything
you have said to these young men." I replied, "If
I have not spoken according to the Book I hope you
will tear it to pieces, but what did I say that was
not according to the Bible?" He answered, "You
have produced upon these young men the impression
that we can ask things of God and get the very
thing we ask." I replied, "I do not know whether
that is the impression I produced or not, but that is
certainly the impression that I meant to produce."
"But," he said, "that is not right. We should pray,
'if it be Thy will.' " "Yes," I replied, "if we do
not know what the will of God is in the case we
should say 'if it be Thy will,' but if God has revealed
146 THE VOICE OF GOD
His will in any specific instance why should we put
in any 'if?' " "But," he said, "we cannot know
the will of God." "What is the Word of God given
to us for/' I asked, "if it is not to show us what the
will of God is? For example, we are told in Jas.
1 : 5-7, ' if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask
of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and up-
braideth not.' Now," I said, "when you ask for
wisdom do you not know by this specific promise that
you have asked something according to the will of
God, and that you are going to get it?" "But," he
replied, "I do not know what wisdom is." I said,
"If you knew what wisdom was you would not need
to ask for it, but whatever wisdom may be, do you
not know that when you ask for wisdom God is going
to give it?" He made no reply. What reply was
there to make? Here we have a definite promise of
God ; and, if we meet the conditions of that promise,
we may be, and ought to be, absolutely sure, that God
will do as He says, absolutely sure that God will
give us wisdom in this specific case in which we ask
it. // we have any uncertainty at this point God will
not give us the wisdom we ask. We should rest abso
lutely on God's plain promise, and when we ask for
wisdom be absolutely sure that that wisdom is com
ing. How God gives wisdom we will consider later.
6. The sixth step toward obtaining God's guidance
is to follow God's guidance a step at a time as He
gives it. Here again is where many miss their way.
Many seek to know the whole way before they take
a single step, but God's method is to show us a step
at a time. Look at Peter in Acts 12. God led him
a step at a time: first the angel smote Peter on the
GOD'S GUIDANCE— HOW TO GET IT 147
side and a*voke him, and told him to arise up quickly.
This Peter did, and his chains fell from his hands.
Then the angel said unto him, ' ' Gird thyself and bind
on thy sandals," and he did so. Then the angel
said, * l Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me, ' '
and Peter did exactly as he was told. He was not
even sure that he was awake, but he followed step
by step, even when he thought he might be asleep.
They passed the first and second guard and came to
the iron gate that led into the city. Peter did not
stop and argue as to whether the gate would be
opened or not, but just followed up to the gate, and
when he got to the gate the gate opened of its own
accord. Thus God led him step by step, and thus God
leads us. The Word of God tells us that "The steps
of a good man are ordered of the Lord" (Ps. 37 : 23).
The trouble with many of us is we wish God to show
us the whole path, and are not willing to go a step
at a time. Look at Paul in the 16th chapter of the
Acts of the Apostles, the 6th to 8th verses. Paul
and his companions went through the region of
Phrygia and Galatia and would have passed into the
province of Asia to preach the Word there, but the
Holy Ghost said, "No." So Paul passed over against
Hysia and was about to go into Bithynia, the next
province. At that point "the Spirit of Jesus" again
said, "No"; so passing by Mysia he came down to
Troas, and there a vision appeared to Paul in the
night, leading him to go over into Macedonia. Step
~by step the Spirit led, and step by step Paul fol
lowed on. The thing for us to do is to take the next
step that God shows us in answer to our prayer and
not wait until God shows us the whole way. A college
148 THE VOICE OF GOD
student once came to me at the Northfield Students'
Convention, telling me that he was greatly perplexed
as to his future life, that he had been asking God's
guidance and could not get it. I asked Him what
he was asking God's guidance about and he said,
about what he should do when he got out of college.
I said, "How far are you along in college?" and he
said that the following fall he would begin his junior
year. I said, "Then you have two years left in
college. " "Yes." "Are you sure you ought to take
those two years in college?" "Yes." "Then what
you are perplexed about is because you cannot get
guidance for two years from now. " " Yes. " " Well,
just go on as God leads you, and in the two years
if not before God will show you what to do next."
A very large share of our perplexity about the will
of God is of this kind. "We are troubled because God
has not shown us what He wants us to do next year,
or it may be next month. All we need is God's guid
ance for to-day. Follow on step ~by step as He leads
you and the way will open as you go.
7. There remains just one more step in the path
that leads to God's sure guidance, and that is that
we always I) ear in mind that God's guidance is clear
guidance. Here is where many go astray. They have
impulses, they know not from what source ; they have
what appear like leadings, for example, to go to the
foreign field, or do some other thing, but they are
not at all sure it is God's leading. Very likely it is
not God's leading; and yet they follow it for fear
they may be disobeying God, or, perhaps they do not
follow it and then get into condemnation lest they
have disobeyed God. I have met many in the deepest
GOD'S GUIDANCE— HOW TO GET IT 149
gloom from this cause. They had an impression they
ought to do a certain thing, they were not at all clear
the impression was from God, they did not do the
thing, and then the devil has made them think that
they have disobeyed God, and some even think they
have committed the unpardonable sin because they
did not obey this prompting (of the origin of which
they were not at all sure). If we will only bear
in mind that God's guidance is clear guidance we
will be delivered from this snare of Satan. "We are
told in John 1 : 5 that * i God is light, and in Him is
no darkness at all." Any leadings that are not abso
lutely clear, provided our wills are surrendered to
God, are not from Him as yet. We have a right in
every case where we have any impression that we
ought to do a certain thing, but where we are not
absolutely sure it is the will of God, to go to God
and say to Him, "Heavenly Father, I desire to do
Thy will ; my will is absolutely surrendered to Thine,
now if this is of Thee, make it clear as day and I
will do it, ' ' and if our wills are absolutely surrendered
to God and we fully realize our own inability to
decide and are ready to be led by Him, God will
make as clear as day if it is His will, and we
have a right not to do it until He does make it clear,
and we have a right to have an absolutely clear con
science in not doing it until He does make it clear.
God is a Father and is more willing to make His will
known to us than we are to make our will known to
our children, provided we really wish to know and
wish to do His will. We have no right to be in
mortal dread before God and to be in constant appre
hension that we have not done His will. When we
150 THE VOICE OF GOD
accepted Christ and surrendered our wills to God we
did ' ' not receive the spirit of bondage again unto fear, ' '
but the Spirit that gives us the place as sons where
we cry, "Abba, Father," in perfect childlike trust in
Him (Rom. 8:15). We would not mislead our chil
dren in such a case, we would not leave our children
to any doubts or uncertainty, we would make our will
as clear as day, and so will God make His. Satan will
prevent a man or woman making a full surrender to
God just as long as he can, but when a man does make
a full surrender, then the devil will do everything in
his power to torment him. He will suggest all kinds
of ridiculous things for him to do, and then the man
will not do them and Satan will torment him by mak
ing him think he has gone back on his surrender to
God. Let us never forget that not all spiritual im
pressions are from the Holy Spirit. There are other
spirits beside the Holy Spirit and we need to try the
spirits whether they be of God (1 John 4:1). Some
people are so anxious to be led of the Holy Spirit
that they are willing to be led by any spirit and thus
plunge into the delusions of spiritualism or "the
tongues" business or other forms of fanaticism. I
repeat it again, God's guidance is clear guidance and
we should not follow any impression until God makes
it as clear as day that it is from Him.
The main point in the whole matter of guidance is
the absolute surrender of the will to God, the delight
ing in His will and the being willing to do joyfully
the very things we would not like to do naturally, the
very things in connexion with which there may be
many disagreeable circumstances because of associa
tion with or even subordination to people that we do
GOD'S GUIDANCE— HOW TO GET IT 151
not altogether like, and difficulties of other kinds,
doing them joyfully simply because it is the will of
God, and the willingness to let God lead in any way
He pleases, whether it may be by His "Word or by His
Spirit. If we will only completely distrust our own
judgment and have absolute confidence in God 's judg
ment, and God's willingness to guide us, and are abso
lutely surrendered to His will, whatever it may be,
and are willing to let God choose His way of guidance,
and will go on step by step as He does guide us, and
are studying His word to know His will, and are listen
ing for the still small voice of the Spirit, going step
by step as He leads, He will guide us with His eye.
He will guide us with His counsel to the end of our
earthly pilgrimage, and afterwards receive us into
glory (Ps. 73:24).
XII
HOW GOD GUIDES
"Nevertheless I am continually with thee: tlwu hast
holden my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with
thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory." —
Ps. 73 : 23, 24.
TWO weeks ago this morning we considered the
question of God 's guidance and how to obtain
it. We have to-day a closely related subject,
How God Guides. There are no promises of God's
Word more precious to the man who wishes to do His
will, and who realizes the goodness of His will, than
the promises of His guidance. What a cheering,
gladdening, inspiring thought that contained in the
text is, that we may have the guidance of infinite
wisdom and love at every turn of life and that we
have it to the end of our earthly pilgrimage.
There are few more precious words in the whole
book of Psalms, which is one of the most precious
of all the books of the Bible, than these: "Thou hast
holden my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with
thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory. "
How the thoughtful and believing and obedient heart
burns as it reads these wonderful words of the text.
I wish we had time to dwell upon the characteristics
152
HOW GOD GUIDES 153
of God's guidance as they are set forth in so many
places in the Word of God, but we must turn at once
to consideration of the means God uses in guiding us.
I. GOD GUIDES BY His WORD.
First of all God guides ~by His word. We read in
Ps. 119:105, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
and a light unto my path," and in the 130th verse
of this same Psalm we read, ''The entrance of thy
words giveth light ; it giveth understanding unto the
simple." God's own written word is the chief in
strument that God uses in our guidance. God led the
children of Israel by a pillar of cloud by day and
a pillar of fire by night. The written Word, the
Bible, is our pillar of cloud and fire. As it leads we
follow. One of the main purposes of the Bible, the
Word of God, is practical guidance in the affairs of
everyday life. All other leadings must be tested by
the Word. Whatever promptings may come to us
from any other source, whether it be by human coun
sel, or by the prompting of some invisible spirit, or
in whatever way it may come, we must test the
promptings, or the guidance or the counsel by the
sure Word of God, ''To the law and to the testimony;
if they speak not according to this Word, it is because
there is no light in them" (Isa. 8:20). Whatever
spirit or impulse may move us, whatever dream or
vision may come to us, or whatever apparently provi
dential opening we may have, all must be tested by
the Word of God. If the impulse or leading, or
prompting, or vision, or providential opening is not
according to the book, it is not of God. "The prophet
154 THE VOICE OF GOD
that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that
hath my Word, let him speak my Word faithfully.
What is the chaff to the wheat f saith the LORD"
(Jer. 23:28). If Christians would only study the
Word they would not be misled as they so often are
by seducing spirits, or by impulses of any kind, that
are not of God but of Satan or of their own deceitful
hearts. How often people have said to me that the
Spirit was leading them to do this or that, when the
thing that they were being led to do was in direct
contradiction to God's Word. For example, a man
once called upon me to consult me about marrying a
woman who he said was a beautiful Christian, and
that they had deep sympathy in the work of God,
and the Spirit of God was leading them to marry one
another. "But," I said to the man, "you already
have one wife." "Yes," he replied, "but you know
we have not gotten on well together. " " Yes, ' ' I said,
"I know that, and furthermore, I have had a con
versation with her and believe it is your fault more
than hers. But, however that may be, if you should
put her away and marry this other woman, Jesus
Christ says that you would be an adulterer." "Oh,
but," he replied, "the Spirit of God is leading us to
one another." Now whatever spirit may have been
leading that man, it certainly was not the Spirit of
God, for the Spirit of God cannot lead anyone to do
that which is in direct contradiction to the Word of
God. I replied to this man: "You are a liar and
a blasphemer. How dare you attribute to the Spirit
of God action that is directly contrary to the teaching
of Jesus Christ?" Many, many times Christian
people have promptings from various sources which
HOW GOD GUIDES 155
they attribute to the Holy Spirit, but which are in
plain and flat contradiction to the clear and definite
teachings of God's Word. The truth is, many so
neglect the Word that they are all in a maze regard
ing the impulses and leadings that come to them, as
to whence they are ; whereas, if they studied the Word
they would at once detect the real character of these
leadings.
But the Word itself must ~be used in a right way if
we are to find the leading of God from it. We have
no right to seek guidance from the Word of God by
using it in any fantastic way, as some do. For ex
ample, there is no warrant whatever in the Word of
God for trying to find out God's will by opening the
Bible at random and putting our finger on some text
without regard to its real meaning as made clear by
the context. There is no warrant whatever in the
Bible for any such use of it. The Bible is not a
talisman, or a fortune-telling book, it is not in any
sense a magic book; it is a revelation from an in
finitely wise Go(Ly made in a reasonable way, to reason
able beings, and we obtain God's guidance from the
Bible by taking the verse of Scripture in which the
guidance is found, in the connexion in which it is
found in the Bible, and interpreting it, led by the
Holy Spirit, in its context as found in the Bible.
Many have fallen into all kinds of fanaticism by
using their Bible in this irrational and fantastic way.
Some years ago a prediction was made by a somewhat
prominent woman Bible teacher that on a certain
date Oakland and Alameda and some other California
cities, and I think also Chicago, were to be swallowed
up in an earthquake. The definite day was set and
156 THE VOICE OF GOD
many were in anticipation, and many in great dread.
A friend of mine living in Chicago was somewhat
disturbed over the matter and sought God's guidance
by opening her Bible at random, and this was the
passage to which she opened: Ezek. 12: 17-28, " More
over the word of the LORD came to me saying, Son
of man, eat thy bread with quaking, and drink thy
water with trembling and with carefulness; and say
unto the people of the land, Thus saith the Lord GOD
of the inhabitants of Jerusalem,, and of the land of
Israel: They shall eat their bread with carefulness,
and drink their water with astonishment, that her
land may be desolate from all that is therein, because
of the violence of all them that dwell therein. And
the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and
the land shall be desolate; and ye shall know that I
am the LORD. And the word of the LORD came
unto me, saying, Son of man, what is that proverb
that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, The days
are prolonged, and every vision failethf Tell them
therefore, Thus saith the LORD God; I will make
this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it
as a proverb in Israel; but say unto them, The days
are at hand, and the effect of every vision. For there
shall be no more any vain vision nor flattering divina
tion within the house of Israel. For I am the LORD :
I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall
come to pass; it shall le no more prolonged: for in
your days, 0 rebellious house will I say the word, and
will perform it, saith the Lord GOD. Again the
word of the LORD came to me, saying, Son of man,
behold they of the house of Israel say, The vision that
he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth
HOW GOD GUIDES 157
of the times that are far off. Therefore say unto them,
Thus saith the Lord God; There shall none of my
words le prolonged any more, but the word which
I have spoken shall le done, saith the Lord GOD/'
Of course, this seemed like a direct answer, and, if
it were a direct answer, it clearly meant that the
prophecy of the destruction of Oakland, Alameda, and
Chicago would be fulfilled at once, on the day pre
dicted. The woman told me of this that very day,
but I was not at all disturbed. As we all know, the
prophecy was not fulfilled, and this would-be prophet
ess sank out of sight, and as far as I know has not
been heard from since. Many years afterward an
earthquake did come to San Francisco and work
great destruction, but San Francisco was not in this
woman's prophecy , and Oakland and Alameda were,
and they were left practically untouched ~by the
earthquake and certainly did not sink out of sight as
the woman predicted. And furthermore, the earth
quake that came to an adjoining city was many years
after the prophesied date. This is only one illustration
among many that might be given of how utterly mis
leading is any guidance that we get in this fantastic
and unwarranted way.
Furthermore, the fact that some text of Scripture
comes into your mind at some time when you are
trying to discover God's will is not by any means
proof positive that it is just the Scripture for you
at that time. The devil can suggest Scripture. He
did this in tempting our Lord (Matt. 4:6), and he
does it to-day. If the text suggested, taken in its real
meaning as determined by the language used and by
the context, applies to your present position, it is,
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THE VOICE OF GOD
of course, a message from God for you but the mere
fact that a text of Scripture comes to mind at some
time, which by a distortion from its proper meaning
might apply to our case, is no evidence whatever that
it is the guidance of God. May I repeat once more
that in getting guidance from God's Word we must
take the words as they are found in their connexion,
and interpret them according to the proper meaning
of the words used and apply them to those to whom
it is evident from the context that they were intended
to apply. But with this word of warning against
seeking God's guidance from the Word of God in
fantastic and unwarranted ways, let me repeat that
God's principal way of guiding us, and the way by
which all other methods must be tested, is by His
written Word.
II. GOD LEADS BY His SPIRIT.
God also leads us ~by His Spirit, i.e., "by the direct
leading of the Spirit in the individual heart. Beyond
a question there is such a thing as an "inner light."
We read in Acts 8:29, "And the Spirit said unto
Philip, Go near and join thyself to this chariot. ' ' In
a similar way we read in Acts 16 : 6, 7, of the Apostle
Paul and his companions: "And they went through
the region of Phrygia and the region of Galatia, hav
ing been forbidden of the Holy Spirit to speak the
word in Asia ; and when they were come over against
Mysia they assayed to go into Bithynia ; and the Spirit
of Jesus suffered them not." In one of these passages
we see the Spirit of God by His Holy Spirit giving
direct personal guidance to Philip as to what he should
HOW GOD GUIDES 159
do, and in the other passage we see the Spirit re
straining Paul and his companions from doing some
thing they would otherwise have done. There is no
reason why God should not lead us as directly as he
led Philip and Paul in their day, and those who walk
near God can testify that He does so lead. I was
once walking on South Clark Street, Chicago, near
the corner of Adams, a very busy corner. I had
passed by hundreds of people as I walked. Suddenly
I met a man, a perfect stranger, and it seemed to me
as if the Spirit of God said to me, " Speak to that
man." I stopped a moment and stepped into a door
way and asked God to show me if the guidance was
really from Him. It became instantly clear that it was.
I turned around and f ollowed the man, who had reached
the corner and was crossing from one side of Clark
street to the other. I caught up to him in the middle
of the street. Providentially, for a moment there
was no traffic at that point. Even on that busy street,
we were alone in the middle of the street. I laid my
hand upon his shoulder as we crossed to the further
sidewalk, and said to him, "Are you a Christian?"
He replied, "That is a strange thing to ask a perfect
stranger on the street." I said, "I know it is, and
I do not ask every man that I meet on the street that
question, but I believe God told me to ask you." He
stopped and hung his head. He said, "This is very
strange. I am a graduate of Amherst College, but I
am a perfect wreck through drink here in Chicago,
and only yesterday my cousin, who is a minister in
this city, was speaking to me about my soul, and for
you, a perfect stranger, to put this question to me
here on this busy street!" I did not succeed in bring-
1GO THE VOICE OF GOD
ing the man to a decision there on the street, but
shortly afterward he was led to a definite acceptance
of Christ. A friend of mine walking the busy streets
of Toronto suddenly had a deep impression that he
should go to the hospital and speak to some one out
there. He tried to think of anyone he knew at the
hospital and he could think of but one man. He took
it for granted that he was the man he was to speak
to, but when he reached the hospital and came to this
man's bedside there was no reason why he should
speak to him, and nothing came of the conversation.
He was in great perplexity, and standing by his
friend's bed he asked God to guide him. He saw a
man lying on the bed right across the aisle. This
man was a stranger, he had been brought to the hos
pital for an apparently minor trouble, some difficulty
with his knee. His case did not seem at all urgent,
but my friend turned and spoke to him and had the
joy of leading him to Christ. To everybody's sur
prise, that man passed into eternity that very night.
It was then or never. So God often guides us to-day
(if we are near Him and listening for His guidance)
leading us to do things that we would not otherwise
do, and restraining us from doing things we otherwise
would do. But these inward leadings must be always
tested by the Word, and we do well when any prompt
ing comes to look up to God and ask Him to make
clear to us if this leading is of Him, otherwise we
may be led to do things which are absurd and not at
all according to the will of God.
But though it is oftentimes our privilege to be thus
led by the Spirit of God, there is no warrant whatever
in the Word of God for our refusing to act until we
HOW GOD GUIDE ,1G1
'are thus led. Remember this is not God's only method
of guidance. Oftentimes we do not need this particu
lar kind of guidance. Take the cases of Philip and
of Paul to which we have referred. God did not
guide Philip and Paul in this way in every step they
took. Philip had done many things in coming down
through Samaria to the desert where he met the
treasurer of Queen Candace, and it was not until the
chariot of the treasurer appeared that God led Philip
directly by His Spirit. And so with Paul, Paul in
the missionary work to which God had called him had
followed his own best judgment as God enlightened
it until the moment came when he needed the special
direct prohibition of the Holy Spirit of his going into
a place where God would not have him go at that time.
There is no need for our having the Spirit's direction
to do that which the Spirit has already told us to do
in the "Word. For example, many a man who has
fanatical and unscriptural notions about the guidance
of the Holy Spirit, refuses to work in an after meeting
because, as he says, the Holy Spirit does not lead him
to speak to anyone, and he is waiting until He does.
But as the Word of God plainly teaches him to be a
fisher of men (Matt. 4:19; 28:19; Acts. 8:4), if he
is to obey God's word then whenever there is oppor
tunity to work with men he should go to work, and
there is no need of the Holy Spirit's special guidance.
Paul would have gone into these places to preach the
gospel if the Holy Spirit had not forbidden him. He
would not have waited for some direct command of
the Spirit to preach, and when we have an opportunity
to speak to lost souls we should speak unless restrained.
What we need is not some direct impulse of the Holy
162 THE VOICE OF GOD
Spirit to make us speak, the Word already commands
us to do that; what we need, if we are not to speak,
is that the Spirit should directly forbid us to speak.
Furthermore, let me repeat again that we should
bear in mind about the Spirit's guidance, that He
will not lead us to do anything that is contrary to the
"Word of God. The Word of God is the Holy Spirit's
book, and He never contradicts His own teaching.
Many people do things that are strictly forbidden in
the Word of God, and justify themselves in so doing
by saying the Spirit of God guides them to do it,
but any spirit that guides us to do something that is
contrary to the Holy Spirit's own book cannot by any
possibility be the Holy Spirit. For example, some
time ago in reasoning with one of the leaders of the
Tongues Movement about the utterly unscriptural
character of their assemblies, I called his attention to
the fact that in the 14th chapter of 1st Corinthians
we have God's explicit command that not more than
two, or at the most three, persons should be allowed
to speak "in a tongue" in any one meeting, and that
the two or three that did speak must not speak at the
same time, but "in turn," and if there were no in
terpreter present, not even one should be allowed to
speak in a tongue, that (while he might speak in
private with himself in a tongue, even with no in
terpreter present) he must "keep silence in the
church." I called his attention to the fact that in
their assembly they disobeyed every one of these three
things that God commanded. He defended himself
and his companions by saying, "But we are led by
the Spirit of God to do these things, and therefore
are not subject to the Word." I called his attention
HOW GOD GUIDES 163
to the fact that "Word of God in this passage was
given by the Holy Spirit for the specific purpose of
guiding the assembly in its conduct, and that any
spirit that led them to disobey these explicit com
mandments of the Holy Spirit Himself, given through
His Apostle Paul and recorded in His Word, could
not by any possibility be the Holy Spirit. Here again
we should always bear in mind that there are other
spirits beside the Holy Spirit, and we should "try
the spirits whether they be of God," and we should
try them by the Word. One of the gravest mistakes
that anyone can make in his Christian life is that of
being so anxious for spirit guidance that he is willing
to open his soul to any spirit who may come along
and try to lead him.
Further still, we should always bear in mind that
there is absolutely no warrant in the Word of God for
supposing that the Holy Spirit leads up in strange
and absurd ways, or to do strange and absurd things.
For example, some have certain signs by which they
discern, as they say, the Holy Spirit's guidance. For
example, some look for a peculiar twitching of the
face, or for some other physical impulse. With some
the test is a shudder, or cold sensation down the
back. When this comes they take is as clear evidence
that the Holy Spirit is present. In a former day,
and to a certain extent to-day, some judge the Spirit 's
presence by what they call "the jerks, " that is, a
peculiar jerking that takes possession of a person,
which they suppose to be the work of the Holy Spirit.
All this is absolutely unwarranted by the Word of God
and dishonouring to the Holy Spirit. We are told dis
tinctly and emphatically in 2 Tim. 1 : 7 that the Holyj
164 THE VOICE OF GOD
Spirit is a spirit "of power, and of love, and of a
sound mind." The word translated "sound mind"
really means ' ' sound sense, ' ' and, therefore, any spirit
that leads us to do ridiculous things, cannot be the
Holy Spirit. There are some who defend the most out
rageous improprieties and even indecencies in public
assemblies, saying that the Holy Spirit prompts them
to these things. By this claim they fly directly in the
face of God's own Word, which teaches us specifically
in 1 Cor. 14: 32, 33, that "The spirits of the prophets
are subject to the prophets; for God is not a God of
confusion, but of peace." And in the 40th verse we
are told that "all things" in a Spirit-governed as
sembly should be 1 1 done decently and in order. ' ' The
word translated "decently" in this passage means
"in a becoming (or respectable) way," and this cer
tainly does not permit the disorders and immodesties,
and confusions and indecencies and absurdities that
occur in many assemblies that claim to be Spirit led,
but which, tested by the Word of God, certainly are
not led by the Holy Spirit.
III. GOD GUIDES Us BY ENLIGHTENING OUR
JUDGMENT.
In the third place God guides us by enlightening
our judgment. We see an illustration of this in the
case of the Apostle Paul in Acts 16 : 10. God had been
guiding Paul by a direct impression produced in his
heart by the Holy Spirit, keeping him from going to
certain places whither he would otherwise have gone.
Then God gives to Paul in the night a vision, and, hav
ing received the vision, Paul, by his own enlightened
HOW GOD GUIDES 165
judgment, concludes from it what God has called him
to do. This is God's ordinary method of guidance
when His Word does not specifically tell us what to
do. "We go to God for wisdom, we make sure that
our wills are completely surrendered to Him, and
that we realize our dependence upon Him for guid
ance, then God clears up our judgment and makes it
clear to us what we should do. Here again we should
always bear in mind that "God is light and in Him
is no darkness at all," and that, therefore, God's
guidance is clear guidance, and we should not act
until things are made perfectly plain. Many miss
God's guidance by doing things too soon. Had they
waited until God had enabled them to see clearly,
under the illumination of His Holy Spirit, they would
have avoided disastrous mistakes. The principle that
"he that believeth shall not make haste" (Isa. 28 : 16)
applies right here. On the other hand, when any
duty is made clear we should do it at once. If we
hesitate to act when the way is made clear, then we
soon get into doubt and perplexity and are all at sea
as to what God would have us do. Many and many
a man has seen the path of duty as clear as day
before him, and instead of stepping out at once, has
hesitated even when the will of God has become per
fectly clear, and before long he was plunged into
absolute uncertainty as to what God would have
him do.
IV. GOD MAY GUIDE BY 'VISIONS AND DREAMS.
In Acts 16:9, 10, we are told how God guided
Paul by a vision, and there are other instances of
such guidance not only before Pentecost, but after.
166 THE VOICE OF GOD
God may so guide people to-day. However, that was
not God's usual method of guiding men even in Bible
times, and it is even less His usual way since the
giving of the Word of God and the giving of the
Holy Spirit. "We do not need that mode of guidance
as the Old Testament saints did, for we now have
the complete Word and we also have the Spirit in
a sense and in a fullness that the Old Testament
saints did not. God does lead by dreams to-day.
When I was a boy, sleeping in a room in our old
home in Geneva, N. Y., I dreamed I was sleeping
in that room and that my mother, who I dreamed
was dead (though she was really living at the
time) came and stood by my bed, with a face
like an angel, and besought me to enter the min
istry, and in my sleep I promised her that I would.
In a few moments I awoke and found it all
a dream, but I never could get away from that
promise. I never had rest in my soul until I did
give up my plans for life and promise God that I
would preach. But the matter of dreams is one in
which we should exercise the utmost care, and we
should be very careful and prayerful and Scriptural
in deciding that any dream is from Him. Only the
other day a brilliant and highly educated woman
called at my office to tell me some wonderful dreams
that she had and what these dreams proved. Her
interpretation of the dreams was most extraordinary
and fantastic. But while dreams are a very uncertain
method of guidance, it will not do for us to say that
God never so guides, but it is the height of folly to
seek God's guidance in that way, and especially to
dictate that God shall guide in that way.
HOW GOD GUIDES 167
V. GOD DOES NOT GUIDE BY CASTING LOTS IN THIS
DISPENSATION.
In Acts 1 : 24-26 we learn that the Apostles sought
guidance in a choice of one to take the place of Judas,
by the lot. This method of finding God's will was
common in the Old Testament times, but it belongs
entirely to the old dispensation. This is the last case
on record. It was never used after Pentecost. We
need to-day no such crude way of ascertaining the will
of God, as we have the Word and the Spirit at our
disposal. Neither should we seek signs. That belongs
to the imperfect dispensation that is past, and even
then it was a sign of unbelief.
VI. GOD GUIDES BY His PROVIDENCE.
God has still another way of guiding us beside those
already mentioned, and that is by His providences,
i.e., He so shapes the events of our lives that it
becomes clear that He would have us go in a certain
direction or do a certain thing. For example, God
puts an unsaved man directly in our way so that
we are alone with him and thus have an opportunity
for conversation with him. In such a case we need
no vision to tell us, and we need no mighty impulse
of the Holy Spirit to tell us, that we ought to speak
to this man about his soul. The very fact that we
are alone with him and have an opportunity for
conversation is of itself all the Divine guidance we
need. We do need, however, to look to God to tell
us what to say to him and how to say it, but God
will not tell us what to say by some supernatural
168 THE VOICE OF GOD
revelation, but by making clear to our own minds
what we should say.
In a similar way if a man needs work to support
himself or family, and a position for honest employ
ment opens to him, he needs no inner voice, no direct
leading of the Holy Spirit, to tell him to take the
work, the opening opportunity is of itself God's guid
ance by God's providence.
We must, however, be very careful and very prayer
ful in interpreting "the leadings of providence."
What some people call "the leading of providence"
means no more than the easiest way. When Jonah
was fleeing from God and went down to Joppa he
found a ship just ready to start for Tarshish (Jonah
1:3). If he had been like many to-day he would
have interpreted that as meaning it was God's will
that he should go to Tarshish, as there was a ship just
starting for Tarshish, instead of to Nineveh, to which
city God had bidden him go. In point of fact, Jonah
did take ship to Tarshish but he was under no illusion
in the matter, he knew perfectly well that he was
not going where God wanted him to go, and he got
into trouble for it. Oftentimes people seek guidance
by providence by asking God to shut up a certain way
that is opening to them, if it is not His will that
they should go that way. There is no warrant what
ever for doing that. God has given us our judgment
and is ready to illuminate our judgment, and we
have no right to act the part of children and to ask
Him to shut up the way so we cannot possibly go
that way if it is not His will. Some fancy that the
easy way is necessarily God's way, but oftentimes the
hard way is God's way. Our Lord Himself said, as
HOW GOD GUIDES 169
recorded in Matt. 16:24, ''If any man would come
after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross
and follow me." That certainly is not the easy way.
There are many who advise us to " follow the path of
least resistance," but the path of least resistance is
not always God's way by any means.
Some ask God to guide them providentially by re
moving all difficulties from the path in which He
would have them go, but we have no right to offer
such a prayer. God wishes us to be men and women
of character and to surmount difficulties, and He
oftentimes will allow difficulties to pile up in the very
way in which we ought to go, and the fact that we
see that a path is full of difficulties is no reason for
deciding it is not the way God would have us go.
Nevertheless, God does guide us by His providence,
and we have no right to despise His providential
guidance. For example, one may desire to go to
China or to Africa as a missionary and God does not
give them the health requisite for going to China or
to Africa. They should take that as clear providen
tial guidance that they ought not to go, and seek
some other opportunity of serving God.
There are many people asking God to open some
door of opportunity and God does open a door of
opportunity right at hand, but it is not the kind of
work they would especially like to do ; so they decline
to see in it a door of opportunity. The whole difficulty
is that they are not wholly surrendered to the will of
God.
Before we close this subject let us repeat again
what cannot be emphasized too much nor too often,
that all leadings, whether they be by the Spirit, by
170
THE VOICE OF GOD
visions, by providences, by our own judgment, or
advice of friends, or in any other way, must be tested
by the Word of God.
The main point in the whole matter of guidance is
the absolute surrender of the will to God, the de
lighting in His will, and the being willing to do joy
fully the very things we would not like to do naturally,
the very things in connection with which there may
be many disagreeable circumstances, because, for ex
ample, of association with, or even subordination to
those that we do not altogether like, or difficulties of
other kinds, doing them joyfully, simply because it
is the will of God, and the willingness to let God
lead in any way He pleases, whether it be by His
Word, or His Spirit, or by the enlightening of our
judgment, or by His providence, or whatever way
He will. If we will only completely distrust our own
judgment and have absolute confidence in God's judg
ment and God's willingness to guide us, and are ab
solutely surrendered to His will, whatever it may
be, and are willing to let God choose His way of
guidance, and will go on step by step as He does
guide us, and if we are daily studying His Word
to know His will, and are listening for the still small
voice of the Spirit, going step by step as He leads, He
will guide us with His eye ; He will guide us with His
counsel to the end of our earthly pilgrimage, and
afterwards receive us into glory.
XIII
GOD'S KEEPING AND HOW TO MAKE SURE
OF IT
OUR subject this morning is God's keeping and
how to make sure of it. How to enjoy or
make sure of God's keeping will come out
when we come to a consideration of whom God keeps.
The Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, is full
of passages on this important subject of God's keep
ing and we shall look at quite a number of these
passages this morning, but no one of them can properly
be considered the text of the entire sermon. I am
going to give you a Bible reading rather than a
sermon. Let us look first at John 17:11 (This
comes nearer being the text of the whole sermon
than any other, "And I am no more in the world,
and these are in the world, and I come to Thee.
Holy Father, keep them in the name which Thou hast
given me, that they may be one even as we are."
This was Jesus' prayer. I am glad He offered it;
for the Father heareth Him always, and I am sure of
God's keeping because the Lord Jesus asked that I
might be kept. Most wonderfully does this prayer
of our Lord and Saviour bring out the security of
those who belong to Him. In the next verse He
goes on to say that while He was with His disciples
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172 THE VOICE OF GOD
He kept them in the Father's name. Yes, He says
more than that, He says, "I guarded them, and not
one of them perished. ' ' The son of perdition perished
and he was one of the apostolic company, but he was
never really one of those who belonged to Christ, he
was not one of those whom the Father had given
to Jesus Christ. Christ Himself declares that Judas
was a devil from the beginning (John 6:70).
But now our Lord was leaving His disciples and
He turned their keeping over to the Father, and
it is now the Father who keeps us, and it is this
keeping which we are to study this morning. What
the Bible tells us of God's keeping can be clas
sified under fiva main heads: (1) Whom God
keeps; (2) What He keeps; (3) From what He
keeps; (4) How He keeps; (5) Unto what He keeps.
I. WHOM GOD KEEPS.
We look first at whom God keeps, and by discover
ing that we will discover how any one of us may be
sure of His glorious keeping.
1. Whom He keeps we are told in the very verse that
we have just been reading, John 17 : 11, 12. Here
the Lord Jesus prays to the Father to keep those
whom the Father Himself hath given to Christ, and
says that He himself during His earthly life had kept
these whom His Father had given Him. Those
whom God keeps then are those who belong to Christ,
those whom the Father has given to Him. The clear
teaching of these verses is that there is a body of
persons who belonged in a peculiar way to God, and
whom God gave to His Son. This company of people,
GOD'S KEEPING 173
and their security and privileges, are frequently men
tioned in the Gospel of John. Those whom God keeps
are those who belong to this company. The way
then to be sure of God's keeping is to make sure that
we belong to this company whom the Father has given
to Christ. But who are these, and how can any one
of us tell whether or not we belong to this privileged
company.
(1) This question is answered in John 6: 37 where
Jesus is recorded as saying, "All that which the
Father giveth me shall come unto me; and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." From this
it is clear that all those who come to Christ belong
to that elect company whom the Father has given
unto Him. Every man who really comes to Christ,
comes to Him as his Saviour, as his Master, as his
Lord, and commits himself unreservedly to Him, for
Christ to save and to rule, he is one of those whom
God has given to Christ, and whom God therefore
keeps. Are you one of this number ? Have you come
to Christ in this real way ? If you are, God will keep
you. If not, will you come to Christ to-day and thus
make sure that you will be kept?
(2) We have still another description of those whom
God has given to Christ, in John 17 : 6, He says, ' ' I
manifested Thy name unto the men whom Thou
gavest me out of the world: Thine they were and
Thou gavest them to me; and they have kept Thy
Word." Here we are told that those whom the Father
gave to the Son were those who kept God's Word.
Every one who keeps God's Word may be sure that
he belongs to the eleet company whom God the Father
Himself will keep. Notice carefully Christ's descrip-
174
THE VOICE OF GOD
tion of them: "they have kept Thy Word." That is
to say, they not only hear God's Word, not only obey
it, they keep God's Word, i.e., they treasure it, they
regard it as their most precious treasure and they will
not give it up for any gain that may be offered them
in place of it. These are those whom God keeps. //
we keep God's Words God Himself will keep us.
Are you keeping God's words?
2. Isa. 26 : 3 also tells us whom God keeps. Here
the prophet says in speaking to God, "Thou wilt keep
him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee:
because he trusteth in Thee." God keeps the one
whose mind is stayed upon Him, the one who looks
not at self but at Gody looks not at circumstances,
but at God; the one who puts confidence in God. The
keeping of this passage is a different one from that
which is spoken of in John 17. There it is a keeping
from perishing, here it is a keeping from all anxiety
and worry. We shall see this more clearly when we
come to speak of from what God keeps us.
II. WHAT GOD KEEPS.
Now let us look at what God keeps. Paul tells us
in 2 Tim. 1:12 just what God keeps. He says, "I
know whom I have believed, and am persuaded
that He is able to keep (guard) that which I
have committed unto Him against that day." The
word translated "keep" in this passage in the Ke-
vised Version is rendered "guard," but it is the
same word that is used in John 17 : 2, though not the
same word that is used in John 17:11. Here we
are taught that God keeps (or guards) that which is
GOD'S KEEPING 175
committed unto Him. Some commit more unto God,
some less, but what is committed unto Him He keeps.
Some commit the keeping of their souls unto God (1
Pet. 4:19), some commit their temporal affairs unto
Him, some commit their health unto Him, some more,
some less, but whatever is committed to Him He
keeps. Dorothea Trudel, a German woman, tells how
her mother was a woman of great faith in prayer,
and though her father was a drinking man who made
little or no provision for the family, and the children
numbered eleven, and their straits were sometimes
great, they always were saved from suffering. She
says : ' ' There were times when we had not a farthing
left in the house. None but God knew of our con
dition, and He who feedeth the young ravens when
they cry was not unmindful of the petitions of His
faithful child. He ever helped us in our time of
need. It was on this account that our mother's
favorite motto, 'Pray, but do not beg/ has been so
impressed upon our minds. When one of the children
was asked on what her mother relied in her poverty,
the child said, 'On God alone.' She never tells us
how God is going to help, but she is always certain
His aid will come at the right time. ' ' ' The experience
of this German woman could be duplicated in the ex
perience of thousands in our own land and other
lands. It was related of Mrs. Jane C. Pithey, a
member of the Centenary Methodist Church in
Chicago, that for years she was disabled by the shaking
palsy and received all her supplies in answer to
prayer. When her husband died he left in his pocket-
book two silver quarters. Besides the little cottage,
this was all that she had to support herself and a
176
THE VOICE OF GOD
bedridden mother of nearly ninety years of age. It
is said "she went to God in prayer and day by day
each want was met. Each needed article was asked
for by name until her hired girl was astounded at
the constant answers given. One morning as Mrs.
Pithey was rising from her knees at the family wor
ship, the girl burst out, 'You have forgotten to pray
for coal and we are entirely out/ So, as she stood,
she added a petition for the coal. About an hour
after, the bell rang, she went to the door and there
was a load of coal sent by a man who knew nothing
of her want, and who had never sent anything before,
nor ever has since. ' ' Many other instances are related
regarding her of God's keeping and supplying all her
needs. Some commit their work to God, some com
mit everything. His keeping will be just in propor
tion to our committing.
III. FROM WHAT GOD KEEPS.
1. First of all, God keeps those who belong to His
Son Jesus Christ from perishing. This comes out very
plainly in the passage with which we started, John
17:11, 12. Our Lord prayed, "Holy Father, keep
them in Thy name, which Thou hast given me, that
they may be one even as we are." Then He goes on
to say, "While I was with them, I kept them in Thy
name which Thou hast given me : and I guarded them,
and not one of them perished, but the son of perdi
tion." The one who truly comes to Christ, the one
who enters with his whole heart in the fellowship of
Christ, the one who fully receives Christ as his Saviour
from the guilt and power of sin, the one who whole-
GOD'S KEEPING 177
heartedly and unreservedly surrenders to Christ as
his Master, God keeps from ever perishing. No matter
how numerous, how subtle, how mighty the assaults
of Satan, of sin, and of error may be, God will keep
him. As the Lord Jesus puts it in another place
(John 10:28, 29), ''I give unto them eternal life;
and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch
them out of my hand. My Father which hath given
them unto me, is greater than all and no one is able
to snatch them out of the Father's hand." This is
the position of the one who belongs to Christ, the
almighty hand of Jesus Christ the Son underneath
him, the almighty hand of God the Father over him,
and there he is, in between those two almighty hands,
perfectly sheltered, and no person and no power in
heaven or earth or hell can ever get him.
2. But it is not only from perishing that God keeps,
He also keeps from falling. As we read in Jude 24,
He "is able to keep us from falling and to present
us faultless before the presence of His glory with
exceeding joy." The word translated "falling" in
this passage is translated "stumbling" in the Revised
Version and this is the exact force of the word. One
may fall without perishing, but one need not even
fall, indeed he need not even stumble. God can keep
us from even this, and will keep us from this if we
look to Him and trust Him to do it. But when we get
our eyes off from Him down we go, but He still keeps
us from perishing. He sees to it that we get up again
even if we do stumble. Though we stumble we are
still kept, just as Peter was, from making utter ship
wreck. Peter was in Satan's sieve, but nevertheless
he was still kept by God in answer to Christ's inter-
178
THE VOICE OF GOD
cessory prayer, and Christ always lives to make in
tercession for us and so "is able to save to the
uttermost" (Heb. 7:25). "What comfort there is in
this verse to the one who hesitates to begin the Chris
tian life because he knows his weakness and is afraid
that he will stumble and fall. If you will only put
yourself wholly in God's hands He is able, no matter
how weak you may be in yourself, to keep you even
from stumbling.
3. But it is not only from perishing and from
stumbling that God keeps, He keeps the one whose
mind is stayed upon Him in perfect peace. This glad
gospel we find in that book in the Old Testament
which is so full of the gospel, the prophecy of Isaiah.
We read in Isa. 26 : 3, " Thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he
trusteth in Thee." Then Isaiah goes on to say,
"Trust ye in the Lord forever: for in the Lord Je
hovah is everlasting strength." God keeps from all
anxiety those who may stay their minds upon Him.
If we will only take our eyes off from ourselves and
off from men, and off from circumstances, and stay
our minds upon God and upon Him alone and upon
His sure promises, He will keep us in perfect peace.
These are precious words for such a time as that in
which we live, where one does not know any morning
when he takes up his paper what he may read. No
matter how perilous our position may seem, no matter
how unlooked for and how unwelcome our surround
ings may be, if we stay our minds upon the Lord
Jehovah He will keep us in perfect peace. We have
an illustration of this in Caleb and Joshua in the
Old Testament (Num. 13:17, 26, 28, 29, 30; 14:1, 3,
GOD'S KEEPING 179
7-9). The ten spies that accompanied Caleb and
Joshua into the land looked at circumstances and
were filled with dismay. Caleb and Joshua looked
away from circumstances, they looked right over the
heads of the giants, they looked at God and His Word.
They stayed their minds on Him and He kept them
in perfect peace. It was so with Paul also in the
awful storm and impending shipwreck on the Medi
terranean. The crew and soldiers were cowering
with fear as they heard the howling of the wind and
saw the fierceness and force of the dashing waves,
but Paul looked over the waves and over the storm
at God and His Word, and stayed His mind on Him,
and God kept Him in perfect peace so that Paul
could say to his cowering companions, "Sirs, be of
good cheer: for I 'believe God that it shall be even
so as it has been spoken unto me" (Acts 27:25).
Oh, we need men and women of just such imperturb
able calm as that in such days of stress and storm
as those in which we are now living. If we would
only stay our minds upon God, if we would only
really trust Him, if we would only really believe His
Word that it will ~be even as it has been told us, we
would never have a single ruffle of anxiety. There
is one passage in the Word of God which taken alone
would be able, if we would only bear it in mind and
believe it, to banish all fears and all anxiety for ever,
that passage is Rom. 8: 28, "We know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are the called according to His purpose."
Whatever comes to us must be one of the "all things"
and if we believed this passage we would know that
however threatening it may appear, and however bad
180 THE VOICE OF GOD
in itself it may really be, that it must work together
with the other things that God sends into our lives,
for our highest good. How then can we ever have
a moment's worry?
IV. How GOD KEEPS.
Now let us turn to the question of how God keeps.
1. We are told in Deut. 32 : 9, 10, that Jehovah
keeps His people "as the apple of His eye." The eye
is the most wonderfully protected portion of the body,
and "the apple" or pupil of the eye is the most im
portant part of the eye, the lens, and is especially
provided for and protected. The mechanism of the
eye and the provision for its welfare that God has
made has always awakened the wonder and admira
tion of men of science. It is shielded and guarded
in every conceivable way, and just so God guards
His people with the utmost care, with every conceiv
able and inconceivable safeguard against their injury.
Each year brings into view some new provision God
has made for our safety.
2. We are taught in Gen. 28:15 that God keeps
those who trust and obey Him "in all places whither
soever'' they go. He kept Joseph in his father's
house ; He kept him in the pit in the wilderness ; He
kept him in Potiphar's house; He kept him in the
Egyptian prison; He kept him in the palace. God
kept David from the fury and power of the lion and
the bear as he watched the sheep in the wilderness;
He kept him in security through all the years that
Saul hunted him like a partridge in the mountains
(1 Sam. 26:20); He kept him in the face of the
GOD'S KEEPING 181
many foes that arose against him when he became
king; He kept him everywhere, so that David could
write, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art
with me." And so God keeps us if we trust and
obey Him, in all places whithersoever we go.
3. In Ps. 121 : 3, 4 we are taught God keeps His
people at all times. He that keeps us never "slumbers
nor sleeps." We are not only kept in all places, but
also at all times. God is never off guard, He never
sleeps at His post. Satan can never catch one of
God's children when their watchman is sleeping. I
am glad of this. You and I are often off guard.
Satan can often catch us napping, but he can never
catch us when our Watchman is napping.
4. But there is another thought about God's keep
ing which, if possible, is even more precious, and
that is He keeps to all eternity. Here again we think
of John 10 : 28, "I give unto them eternal life : and
they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them
out of my hand." Those who trust in Christ shall
"never perish." This is one of the most precious
facts about God's keeping, it never ends. We may
prove unfaithful but He ever abideth faithful, He
cannot deny Himself (2 Tim. 2: 13). He keepeth to
the end. We shall never perish, or, to translate more
literally as well as more expressively, "in no wise
(shall we) perish, for ever." We stand to-day and
look forward into the never-ending future. If we
know ourselves well and look at ourselves alone we
may well tremble at the thought of how utterly we
may fail some time in those ever rolling years; but,
if we look up to God and know Him, we will not
182 THE VOICE OF GOD
tremble, for He never faileth, and we have His "Word
for it that He will ever keep us. He keeps me to-day
"as the apple of His eye," He will keep me in all
places, He will keep me at all times, He will keep me
to all eternity.
V. UNTO WHAT GOD KEEPS.
We have seen whom God keeps ; we have seen what
God keeps; we have seen from what God keeps; we
have seen how God keeps; one thought remains, unto
ivhat does God keep. This question is answered in
1 Pet. 1 : 5, We "are kept by the power of God unto
a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."
Upon this we have no time to dwell. Simply let me
say this, that the salvation that we have to-day, no
matter how complete it may seem, even though we
know not only the forgiveness of sins and adoption
into the family of God, but also deliverance from
sin's power, a life of daily victory, is not the whole
of salvation. Completed salvation lies in the eternal
future. In includes not merely the salvation of the
spirit and the soul, it includes the salvation of the
body, that " salvation ready to be revealed in the last
times, " is the salvation that we shall possess when
the wondrous promises about our being transformed
into the perfect likeness of Jesus Christ, not only
spiritually and morally and mentally, but also physi
cally, have their fulfilment, and unto that salvation
God keeps us.
Beloved fellow believer in God and in Jesus Christ
His Son, have you realized fully what God's keeping
means ? Have you enjoyed the security that is yours,
GOD'S KEEPING 183
and the rest of mind that might be yours ? Have you
put as much into His hands to keep as He is willing
to keep? Are you letting Him keep you in perfect
peace in the midst of the trial and uncertainty and
travail and turmoil and storm and stress of these
trying days ? If not, will you do it to-day ?
And friends, you who are not Christians, do
you not see how precious a thing God's keeping is?
Is it not immeasurably better than anything this
world has to give? Some trust in riches, some in
their own abilities, some in powerful friends, some in
national leaders and "preparedness," but better, in
finitely better to trust in God, for "He will keep him
in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon Him,
because he trusteth in Him." Will you not put your
trust in Him and have a share in this wondrous prayer
of the Saviour, "Holy Father, keep through Thine
own name those whom Thou hast given me."
XIV
THE COMPLETE AND SYMMETRICAL LIFE,
AND HOW TO ATTAIN TO IT
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
long suffering, gentleness (kindness), goodness, faith
(faithfulness), meekness, temperance." — Gal. 5 : 22, 23.
THE average life is a very partial life. Even
the life of the average Christian is a very
partial life, a one-sided life, it is a life in
which there is much lacking. There may be many
admirable things about it, but there is a deplorable
lack of other things — the life is incomplete, it is devoid
of balance and symmetry, strong in some directions,
perhaps amazingly strong in those directions, but
lacking, perhaps amazingly lacking, in other direc
tions. It is like an imperfect rose, perfectly formed
and beautifully tinted in one part, but blasted and
withered in another part. "What each one of us needs
is a full life, a well-rounded life, a well-balanced life,
a symmetrical life. There is a passage in the "Word
of God that wonderfully pictures such a life, complete
in all its parts and symmetrical in its every detail.
This passage not only pictures this life, but tells us
how to attain to it. The passage is Gal. 5: 22, "But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffer
ing, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temper-
184
THE COMPLETE LIFE— HOW TO ATTAIN IT 185
ance." Some years ago during attendance at a Bible
Conference in St. Louis, I was entertained at a private
home. When I awoke in the morning the first thing
that I saw as I opened my eyes was these words
looped around the room in large and beautifully col
oured letters, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance." They brought a blessing to
my heart that morning and set me to thinking deeply
upon the words. From that day to this I have had
a longing to preach on this text but have never done
it until this hour. The text presents to us two main
thoughts, the complete and symmetrical life described,
and how to attain to this complete and symmetrical
life.
I. THE COMPLETE AND SYMMETRICAL LIFE DESCRIBED.
1. The first characteristic in this life is "LOVE."
"The fruit of the Spirit is love." Paul does not say
whether he has in mind love to God or love to man,
he just says "LOVE," without definition as to its
objects, so love as here spoken of includes all objects.
The complete life is characterized by love to both God
and man, and love to all classes and conditions of
men. It obeys the first and great commandment,
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, ' '
and it also obeys the second command, "Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself." Yes, it goes beyond
the second commandment and obeys the new com
mandment which the Lord gave to His disciples, that
they love one another, even as He loved us (John
186 THE VOICE OF GOD
13:34). In moral attributes, "love" is the one pre
eminently Divine thing, ' ' God is love " ( 1 John 4:8).
If love is lacking, all else counts for nothing, and
the life is not only incomplete, it is worthless. "If I
speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but
have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a
clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy,
and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I
have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have
not love, I am nothing. And if I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be
burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing (1
Cor. 13:1-3). "The old time religion," as the son-
goes, "makes me love everybody," and the complete
life is the life of the one who "loves everybody."
There is absolutely no man whom the Spirit-filled man
does not love. No matter how grievously one may
have wronged us, no matter how grossly they may
have slandered us, no matter how gravely they have
injured us, if we are filled with the Spirit we will
love them.
2. But while "LOVE" is the first thing and the
supreme thing in the complete life, it is not the only
thing. Following "Lovs" comes "JOY." "The
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy." A life that is not
a radiantly joyful life is an incomplete life and un-
symmetrical life, it is lacking in one of the principal
elements that go to make up the complete life, it is
not a life after God's pattern. Even if our lives
were given up wholly to serving God and our fellow
men with utter devotion and utter forgetfulness of
self, if they were not joyful lives, they would dis
honour God. Jesus was called upon to be a propitia-
THE COMPLETE LIFE— HOW TO ATTAIN IT 187
tion for sins, to be a substitute Saviour, to take our
sins and their penalty upon Himself, and He was,
therefore, "a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief," nevertheless, He was a joy-full man. On the
night before His crucifixion, only an hour or so be
fore the agonies of Gethsemane, He said, " These
things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may be
in you, and that your joy may be filled full" (John
15: 11). To have His joy then is to have fullness of
joy, and, if our joy is to be "filled full" by having
His joy, He must Himself have been a joy-full man.
Constant joy is the commanded duty as well as the
promised privilege of a child of God, a believer in
the Lord Jesus Christ. * * Kejoice in the Lord always, ' '
the Holy Spirit commands us in Phil. 4 : 4, then adds,
' ' again I say, Kejoice. ' ' When Paul wrote these words
he was a prisoner under most distressing circum
stances, and awaiting possible sentence of execution,
yet the whole epistle that he wrote is jubilant from
start to finish. The Spirit-filled life will always be
joyful and jubilant, nothing can disturb its joy. No
matter how adverse its circumstances, its joy abideth ;
for its joy is not in circumstances but in Him who
is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. The Holy
Spirit is called, in Heb. 1:9, "The oil of gladness,"
and when God pours out His Holy Spirit upon us,
"He anoints us with the oil of gladness," and the
oil of gladness flows down over us and suffuses the
whole person.
3. But even "Lovs" and "JOY" together, won
derful as they are, do not constitute all that there is
of the complete and symmetrical life. Following
"LovE" and "JOY" comes "PEACE." "The fruit
188 THE VOICE OF GOD
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace." Paul does not
say whether he means peace in our own hearts or
peace with others. The reason that he does not say
which he means is because he means both. The Holy
Spirit brings peace into the heart in which He rules,
and He brings peace with others to the one in whose
heart He rules. In the verse almost immediately fol
lowing the command to "rejoice always," the Spirit
of God goes on to say, "In nothing be anxious; but
in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanks
giving, let your requests be made known unto God.
And the peace of God, which passeth all understand
ing, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in
Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:6, 7). Oh, how wonderful
is the deep, serene, unruffled peace with which the
Holy Spirit fills the heart. Some years ago a minister
at a Bible Conference at Grove City came to me and
said, "Two young men, college students, from my
church were at the Northfield Conference this sum
mer, and when they returned from the Conference
they called on me and said, 'Pastor, we think we have
heard of something that you do not know/ " This
was a rather presumptuous thing for two young col
lege students to say to a pastor over sixty years of
age who was well known for his knowledge of the
Word of God and the faithfulness of his ministry,
but the minister showed the real depth of his earnest
ness and spirituality by his reply. He said, "Well,
young men, if you have something good that I haven't
I want to know about it." The pastor continued,
"They told me of an address they had heard on the
baptism with the Holy Spirit, and how the baptism
with the Holy Spirit was to be obtained. When they
THE COMPLETE LIFE— HOW TO ATTAIN IT 189
left my study," the pastor continued, "I took my
hat and went out into the woods and sat down upon
a log that had fallen and thought over what they
had said, and then I looked up to God and I said,
Oh, God, if these young men have something that
I have not, I want it. Now, oh, God, the best I
know how, I absolutely surrender my will to Thee,
to be whatever thou wishest me to be, to go wherever
thou wishest me to go, to do whatever thou wishest
me to do. Immediately after I had done this," he
continued, "there came into my heart such a won
derful peace and rest as I had never known." What
was the explanation? The pastor had fulfilled the
conditions of receiving the Holy Spirit and He had
come to do His work, and part of His fruit is
"PEACE." But the Holy Spirit brings us into
peace with others as well as bringing peace into us.
He saves us from contentiousness. I knew a man
who was naturally a man of war, he was a born
fighter; he delighted in a scrap from early boyhood
as in almost nothing else, but the Spirit of God got
control of his life, and in so far as the Holy Spirit
did gain control of his life he became a man of
peace. Many and many a time he was able to keep
peace under most aggravating circumstances without
even a struggle. Yes, the Holy Spirit brings peace
between men, especially peace between brethren.
This is the immediate thought of the context in which
we find our text. Going back in the chapter to the
14th and 15th verses, we read, "For the whole law
is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye lite and
devour one another, take heed that ye be not con-
190 THE VOICE OF GOD
sumed one of another." Then going down to the
19th verse we read, "Now the works of the flesh are
manifest, which are these: fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife,
jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, parties, envy-
ings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of which
I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they
who practise such things shall not inherit the king
dom of God." Then comes our text, "The fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, etc." Two lives are
placed in vivid contrast to one another, the life of
the flesh, full of contention and strife and quarrelling,
and the life in the Spirit, full of peace, long-suffering,
etc. The perfect man keeps out of war, even under
great provocation. As the Holy Spirit puts it through
the Apostle James in Jas. 3:14-18, "But if ye have
bitter jealousy and faction in your heart, glory not
and lie not against the truth. This wisdom is not
a wisdom that cometh down from above, but is
earthly sensual, devilish. For where jealousy and
faction are, there is confusion and every vile deed.
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then
peaceable, gentle, easy to le entreated, full of mercy
and good fruits, without variance, without hypocrisy.
And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for
them that make peace." Oh, that the Holy Spirit
ruled among nations as well as in individuals to-day,
the war would end in five minutes, and when the Holy
Spirit rules in a church, church quarrels cease in
stantly.
4. But "LOVE," "Joy," "PEACE/' as beautiful
as they are, do not constitute the whole of the com
plete and symmetrical life. Following "LOVE,"
THE COMPLETE LIFE— HOW TO ATTAIN IT 191
"Joy," and "PEACE" come "LONG-SUFFER
ING." "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
long-suffering." This fourth characteristic of the
complete and symmetrical life, the Spirit-filled life,
is closely connected with the third. The truly strong
man does not quickly resent injuries done by others.
He is never suspicious nor sensitive. No matter how
great and strong a man may be in other respects, if
he is quick to imagine that others are wronging him,
or quick to resent the insult or injury which is not
imaginary but very real, he is not a truly strong
man, and he surely is not a Spirit-governed man, he
is governed by the flesh and not by the Spirit. Oh,
how beautiful is the attitude of long-suffering in an
individual or a nation, what a mark it is of real
strength. The nation that is not quick to take um
brage nor "defend its honour" is not dishonoured,
but great and strong.
5. The fifth characteristic of the complete and sym
metrical life is "GENTLENESS." "The fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentle
ness." The primary meaning of the adjective from
which the noun translated "gentleness" is derived
is "fit for use," or "useful," then it comes to mean
"mild," "pleasant," as opposed to "harsh," "hard,"
' ' sharp , " " bitter. ' ' Then it comes to mean ' ' gentle, ' '
' ' pleasant, " " kind, " " benevolent, " " benign. ' 7 How
beautiful it is when a great man is also a gentle
man, a gentleman in the true sense, a kindly man.
The great example of gentleness or kindness is Jesus
Himself. So many leading men in the church in our
day, gifted men, go pushing through the common
crowd regardless of the slow and dull, regardless of
192 THE VOICE OF GOD
whose toes they step on ; they are brusque and push
ing. Not so was Jesus, "The bruised reed" He would
"not break" and "the smoking flax" He would "not
quench," and not so is the Spirit-filled man, he is
"kindly." The Revised Version translated the word
here "kindness" but I like "kindliness" better than
either "gentleness" or "kindness." Are you a
kindly man ? Jesus was. Are you a kindly woman ?
If not, you have not entered into the complete and
symmetrical life, not yet.
6. The sixth characteristic of the complete and
symmetrical life is "GOODNESS." "The fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentle
ness, goodness." The word so translated is a word
of wide meaning and is difficult of exact definition,
but the thought here, as determined by the setting,
is that attribute that leads men to be always looking
for and improving opportunities for doing any kind
of good to anybody and everybody, in every possible
place, and at every possible time. The tenth verse
of the following chapter gives the thought, "So then,
as we have opportunity, let us work that which is
good toward all men."
7. The seventh characteristic of the complete and
symmetrical life is "FAITH." "The fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith." The Revised Version reads "faith
fulness," but without any warrant whatever either
in usage or context. The word is the same word
which is translated "faith" 238 times out of the
242 times that it is used in the New Testament, and
in the four remaining instances it is translated "be
lief" or "believe/* and never once is it translated
THE COMPLETE LIFE— HOW TO ATTAIN IT 193
"faithfulness." True faith will inevitably lead to
faithfulness, and thus implies faithfulness, but
"faith" is what Paul wrote, or rather the Holy Ghost
wrote through Paul, and the Holy Ghost meant just
what He wrote. A life without "FAITH," faith in
God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, is a sadly
incomplete and altogether unsymmetrical life. The
Holy Spirit begets simple, childlike, imperturbable
faith in the heart He rules, faith in God, faith in
Jesus Christ, faith in the Word of God. Jesus says
in John 7 : 17, "If any man willeth to do His (God's)
will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it be of
God, or whether I speak from myself." He here
makes obedience the condition of faith in the "Word
of God, but in Acts 5 : 32 we are told that God gives
the Holy Spirit to them that obey Him. Oh, when
a man submits his life to the absolute control of the
Holy Spirit, his whole thought and feeling and will
are irradiated with faith, and because he has faith in
God and faith in God's Word he has great expecta
tions, he is never discouraged, he is never pessimistic,
never despondent, he marches forth confidently every
day to victory. He is sure he will win, and w'in
he will.
8. The eighth characteristic of the complete and
symmetrical life is "MEEKNESS." "The fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentle
ness, goodness, faith, meekness." The exact meaning
of the word rendered "meekness" in this passage is
that attitude of mind that is opposed to harshness and
contentiousness, and that shows itself in gentleness
and tenderness in dealing with others. The man who
has attained to the complete life is never harsh.
194 THE VOICE OF GOD
Stern and severe he may sometimes have to be out of
regard to the best interests of the offender himself,
but his sternness and severity are aflame with gentle
ness. Read the first verse of the next chapter and
you will get the exact thought, "Brethren, even if
a man be overtaken in any trespass (the thought is
of a man caught in the act of wrong-doing, wrong
doing even of the grossest kind), ye which are spir
itual, restore such a one in a spirit of meekness;
looking to thyself, lest thou also be tempted."
9. The ninth and last characteristic of the complete
and symmetrical life is "TEMPERANCE." "The
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."
The Revised Version says "SELF-CONTROL," and
that gives the thought, though it is not really self-
control, but Holy Spirit control, but it is self that
is controlled. It does not mean temperance in the
narrow sense we have given it in modern parlance,
as applying to only one kind of excess, excess in
alcoholic drinks, it means mastery of self along all
lines. The highest form of mastery in the world is
self-mastery. "He that ruleth his spirit is better
than he that taketh a city" (Prov. 16:32). This
then is the complete life, a life manifesting love, joy,
peace, long-suffering, kindliness, goodness, faith, meek
ness, self-mastery. You will note that our text says
that these things are "the fruit of the Spirit," not
the fruits of the Spirit. They are the many delicious
flavours of the one fruit. Wherever the Holy Spirit
is given control, not some, but all of these will be
seen.
THE COMPLETE LIFE-HOW TO ATTAIN IT 195
II. How TO OBTAIN THE COMPLETE AND SYMMETRICAL
LIFE.
We come now to the very practical question how
to obtain this life, or how to attain to it. We have
but a few minutes to answer the question, and we
need but a few minutes. The verse makes the way
of attainment as clear as day. We are told that these
things are "the fruit of ihe Spirit." They are set
over against "the works of the flesh" described in
the verses that immediately precede. In other words,
the things described under "the works of the flesh"
are the things that are natural to us, these things
are what the Holy Spirit works supernaturally in
us. They are the fruit the Holy Spirit bears in us,
and all that we need to do is to come to the end of
ourselves and realize our own utter inability to at
tain to the complete and symmetrical life here pic
tured, and having first received the Lord Jesus Christ
as our Saviour, and through receiving Him as our
Saviour, having received the Holy Spirit to dwell in
us (for He does dwell in every believer) just sur
render the entire control of our lives to His dominion
for Him to work in us what He will, and when the
Holy Spirit is thus given complete control, the result
will be that His fruit will appear on the tree of our
own lives. There will be love, joy, peace, long-suffer
ing, kindliness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control.
Wonderful indeed is the privilege of the Spirit-filled
life. Will you to-day give up your fruitless struggles
after holiness, your self efforts to lead a "life well
pleasing to God," come to the end of yourself and
196 THE VOICE OF GOD
realizing that in you, that is in your flesh, dwelleth
no good thing, surrender your whole life to the control
of the Holy Spirit, then on your life will hang this
"sun-kist" fruit, "love, joy, peace, long suffering,
kindliness, faith, meekness, self-mastery.'1
XV
THE SECRET OF BLESSEDNESS IN HEART,
BEAUTY IN CHARACTER, FRUITFUL-
NESS IN SERVICE, AND PROSPERITY IN
EVERYTHING.
"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel
of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his de
light is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth
he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a
tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth
forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not
wither; and whatsover he doeth shall prosper." —
Ps. 1:1-3.
IN these verses, God speaking through the Psalmist
sets before us the secret of blessedness in heart,
beauty in character, fruitfulness in service, and
prosperity in everything. Are not these the four
things that we all desire for ourselves ? These verses
tell us in the plainest sort of way how we may obtain
them. They tell us that if we will not do three things
and will do two things, we shall have blessedness in
our hearts, beauty in our characters, fruitfulness in
our service, and prosperity in whatsoever we do.
197'
198 THE VOICE OF GOD
I. THE THREE THINGS WE MUST NOT Do.
The three things that we must not do are, First,
Walk in the counsel of the ungodly; second, Stand
in the way of sinners; third, Sit in the seat of the
scornful, i.e., we must come out from the world and
be separate in our walk, in our standing and in our
sitting. As to our walk, we must not walk in the
counsel of the ungodly; we must get our directions
as to our walk from God and not from the world.
We must not ask what the world does or advises, we
must ask what God tells us to do. As to our stand
ing, it must not be in the way of sinners; as to our
sitting, or continuous fellowship, it must not be in
the seat of the scornful. We will not dwell on these
three things that we must not do for the words are
so plain as to need no comment; what they need is
not so much to be expounded as to be obeyed, and
furthermore, if we do the two things which we must
do we will be sure not to do the three things which
we must not do.
II. THE Two THINGS WHICH WE MUST Do.
The first of the two things which we must do is
"Delight in the law of the Lord." The Law of the
Lord is God's will as revealed in His Word and these
words tell us that it is not enough merely to read
God's Word; indeed, that it is not enough even to
earnestly study God's Word, we must delight in God's
Word. We must have greater joy in the Word of
God than in any other book, or in all other books put
together. Now doubtless many of us will have to
SECRET OF BLESSEDNESS 199
admit that we do not delight in the law of the Lord.
Probably we read it, quite likely we study it dili
gently, but we read it and study it simply because we
think it is our duty. As to delighting in it, we do
not. If many of you were to reveal the exact facts
about yourself, you would have to say, "I would
rather read the newspaper than the Word of God.
I would rather read the latest novel than the Word
of God." When I was thirteen years of age, I was
told that if I read three chapters in the Bible every
week-day and five every Sunday, I would read the
Bible in a year, and I started out to do it, and I have
read the Bible every day of my life from that time
to this, but for years I did not delight in it. I read
it simply because I thought I ought to, or because I
was uneasy if I did not, but as for delighting in it,
it was the dullest, stupidest book in the world to me.
I would rather have read last year's almanac than
the Bible. And what was true of me then, and re
mained true for years, is true of many a professed
Christian to-day. They may study the Bible every
day but simply do it from a sense of duty or because
their conscience is uneasy if they do not.
What shall one do if he does not delight in the
law of the Lord? The answer is very simple.
(1) First of all, he must be born again. The one
who is truly born again will love the Word of God.
The Lord Jesus says in John 8:47, "He that is of
God heareth God's words: Ye therefore hear them
not, because ye are not of God." The little Greek
word which is translated "of" in this passage is a
very significant word. It really means and should
be translated "out of," i.e., in this connection "born
200 THE VOICE OF GOD
of"; and what Jesus said was that the one that was
born of God would have an ear for God's word, and
that the reason that the Jews did not really have an
ear for God's Word was because they were not born
of God. One of the clearest proofs that a man is born
of God is that he loves, delights in God's Word. I
have seen men and women pass in a moment from an
utter distaste for God's Word to an abounding delight
in God's Word by simply being born again.
"But," some one will say, "how may I be born
again ? ' ' God Himself answers the question in a very
simple way in John 1:12. "But as many as RE
CEIVED HIM, to them gave He power to become the
sons of God, even to them that believe on His name."
According to these words the way to be born again is
by simply receiving Him, receiving the Lord Jesus.
The moment any man, woman, or child really receives
Jesus to be to themselves all that He offers Himself
to be to anyone, to be their Saviour from the guilt
of sin by His death upon the cross, to be their Saviour
from the power of sin, by His resurrection power
(Heb. 7 : 25) and to be their Lord and Master, to whom
they surrender the entire control of their lives (Acts
2 : 36), that moment that man, woman or child is born
again and with the new life thus obtained they will
get a new love, a love for God and a delight in His
Word.
(2) In the second place, in order to delight in the
law of the Lord we must feed upon it. Jeremiah says
in Jer. 15 : 16, "Thy words were found, and I did eat
them ; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoic
ing of mine heart." The reason why many do not
delight in the Word of God is because they do not eat
SECRET OF BLESSEDNESS 201
it. They read it ; they skim over it, they smell of it,
but they do not eat it, and yet they wonder why they
do not delight in God 's Word. What would you think
if some day some friend came to visit you who had
never eaten strawberries, and you should get for him
a dish of our wonderful California strawberries. You
tell him how delicious they are and set them before
him— you are called away but in an hour or two you
come back and you say to your friend, "How did you
like those strawberries?" He replies, "I did not care
for them. I have seen many things that I have enjoyed
more." In surprise you say, "What, did not care for
them ? " ' ' No, they seemed very ordinary to me. ' ' For
a moment you are puzzled, and then you say to him,
"Did you eat the berries?" "No," he answers,
"I did not eat them. I smelled of them and I have
smelled many things that smell better." Well, that
is the way that many, even of professing Christians
treat the Word of God. They just smell of it, they
skim over a few verses, or many verses, or many chap
ters, but they do not stop to eat a single verse. They
do not chew the words, swallow them and assimilate
them. Oh, how different the Word of God becomes
when we really eat it. Take for example, the most
familiar passage in the Bible, the verse that most of
us learned first of all, Ps. 23:1, "The LORD is my
shepherd; I shall not want." It sounds beautiful
even when we merely read it, but how sweet it be
comes when we stop and ponder it, weigh the meaning
of the words, chew each word in it. When we ask
ourselves first of all, "Who is my shepherd?" And
then stop for a while to meditate upon the fact that it
is JEHOVAH who is our Shepherd. Then ask ourselves,
202 THE VOICE OF GOD
" 'What is Jehovah?" "My Shepherd." And then
stop and think what is involved in being a shepherd
and what it means to have Jehovah as our SHEP
HERD. Then ask ourselves "Whose shepherd is
Jehovah — My Shepherd." Not merely the Shepherd
of men in general but my own Shepherd. A stranger
entered a Presbyterian Church one day and was shown
to a pew. The congregation rose to read the 23rd
Psalm. A young lady sitting next to him, handed him
one corner of her Bible as they read. As they read
the first verse, he took a pencil out of his pocket and
drew a line under the word "My." When the service
was over, the young lady said to him, "Do you mind
telling me why you drew the line under the word
'My'?" "Well," he replied, "The Lord is my Shep
herd. I was wondering if He were yours." Next
dwell on the word, "I," then on the word "shall"
with all the certainty that there is in the word — then
on the word "not" then on the word "want" and ask
yourself all that is implied in the statement, "1 shall
not want." Ah, the old familiar verse becomes so
much sweeter as we eat it, chew and chew it and
swallow it and digest it and assimilate it. If we thus
eat different portions of the Bible day by day we
would soon find a joy in it that we find in no other
book. The only word that would express our relation
to the book would be "DELIGHT." The second of
the two things that we must do is "meditate in the law
of the Lord day and night." These words tell us how
to study the Word and when to study it.
(1) First, How to study it. "MEDITATE" therein.
We live in a day in which meditation is largely a lost
art. It is largely a lost art in all our study. We send
SECRET OF BLESSEDNESS 203
our children to school, they are not allowed to think;
they are simply crammed and crammed — we cram
them with physiology, biology, psychology and all the
rest of the ologies ; until they themselves become mere
ape-ologies for real thinkers. We try to see how many
branches we can cover in a few years and how much
of each branch we can cram in. A child in the Gram
mar School grade has twelve studies ; a child of thir
teen will be set to writing a criticism on Tennyson's
"In Memoriam." This is a good way to develop con
ceited fools, but it is no way to develop thinkers.
Set a child of thirteen to criticizing Tennyson's "In
Memoriam" and by the time she is eighteen she will
be criticizing the Word of God itself. But cram, cram,
cram, is the word of the hour in modern education. If
our children studied fewer subjects and really studied
and mastered those they did study, they would know
more and be of more use in the world. But it is in
Bible study especially that meditation is a lost art.
We try to see how many chapters we can study in a
single day. We get up a chart that covers the whole
plan of the ages and all of God's dealing with men,
angels and devils, from the eternity back of us to the
eternity before us and expect to master it in thirty
minutes or an hour. This is an excellent plan for
making ourselves think that we are very wise — it is
a miserable plan for getting the real nourishment out
of the Word and the real ' ' honey out of the rock. ' ' We
should not so much say, ' ' I will read so many chapters
in a day," as "I will spend so much time each day in
really studying and feeding upon the Book." Some
times we will give to a single verse, or a single word,
that will arrest our attention, all the time we put into
204 THE VOICE OF GOD
Bible study that day. There is no greater enemy to
successful study than hurry, and this is especially
true of Bible study. One night I was teaching a Bible
class in Minneapolis. A travelling man from New
York, a very active member of St. George's Episcopal
Church, dropped into my class. He had to take the
train for the Far West soon after the class and I
walked down to the station with him. As we walked
he said to me, "Tell me in a word how to study my
Bible. " That is a pretty large contract to put into
a single word, How to study the Bible, and I replied,
"If I must put it into one word, that one word would
be Thoughtfully. Think on what you study; look
right at it, weigh it, weigh every word, turn it over and
over and over — meditate upon it."
But the words of the Psalmist tell us not merely how
to study the Word but when to study it, "DAY AND
NIGHT." Many people are asking, "Must I study
the Bible fifteen minutes every day, or a half hour a
day or two hours a day?" "Day and night," replies
the Psalmist. This, of course, does not mean that we
should be sitting with an open Bible before us every
moment of the day and night. But it does mean that
having had some regular time for Bible study, that
after that time for Bible study is over we should carry
away in our mind and heart what we have studied and
meditate upon it as we go about our business, our
household duties, or whatsoever we have to do. Oh,
how much lighter and pleasanter the drudgery of life
becomes if we go about it with the Word of God in
mind and heart, meditating thereon in the midst of
our wearing toil. I know of nothing else that will
keep one in such perfect peace and abounding joy in
SECRET OF BLESSEDNESS 205
these days of war and gloom and agony as meditating
on the Word of God day and night.
III. THE RESULT.
And now what will be the result of our separating
from the world in our walk, in our standing, in our
sitting and of our delighting in the law of the Lord
and meditating thereon day and night?
1. First of all, we will have blessedness in heart.
"Blessed is the man," says our text that "walketh
not/' etc. The Hebrew word translated "blessed" is
a very peculiar word in the Hebrew. It is not a par
ticiple at all, but a noun and a noun in the plural.
Literally translated it would be "blessednesses of the
man," i. e., how manifold and varied is the blessedness
and happiness of the man that does not do these three
things and does do these two things. This world knows
no joy so varied, so full, so manifold, so wonderful as
the joy that comes to the one who is separated from
the world and who meditates on the "Word. I know
all about the joy that comes from reading good lit
erature ; I have been a passionate devourer of books
from early childhood. When I was a boy. I would
get a book and hide away in some corner and devour
it until my mother would come and say, ' ' Oh, Archie,
why don't you take your gun and go out hunting?"
But all the joy that I have found in the study of the
best literature, in the study of science, in the study
of philosophy, can never for a moment compare to the
joy that I have found in meditating on the Word of
God. So sweet has that joy become that oftentimes I
am tempted to say that I will read no book but the
206 THE VOICE OF GOD
Bible. I remember one night the first winter I was
in Chicago. I had been very busy that day, answer
ing my correspondence, and teaching in the Bible
Institute in the morning, studying in the afternoon,
and preaching that night. I got to my house late,
after 11 o'clock, pretty thoroughly tired. I sat down
for a little while to find rest in Bible study before I
went to bed. I was reading the Bible through in
course and had reached the last book in the Bible.
In those days I did not care as much for that book
as for other books — sometimes I had even been tempted
to wish that the book was not in the Bible, but as that
was where I was in my reading the Bible in course,
I began reading the llth chapter of the book. When
I reached the 15th verse, ' ' The kingdoms of this world
shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His
Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever, ' ' such joy
swept into my soul as I took in the meaning of the
words that I — do you know what I did? Of course
you do. I shouted aloud. I was not brought up to
shout in meeting. I was brought up in the Presbyter
ian and Episcopal churches. I never heard anyone say
"Amen" except where it came in the regular place
in the service until after I was in the ministry, and
the first time a man said "Amen" when I was preach
ing it so upset me that I nearly lost the thread of my
discourse. I cannot shout to this day in public, but,
oh, when alone with God and His Book sometimes
such a joy sweeps into the soul that nothing but a
shout will give relief.
2. Second, we shall have beauty of character, "He
shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water."
What is more beautiful than a well-watered tree in
SECRET OF BLESSEDNESS 207
full leaf, the maples and the oaks and the beeches in
the East, our palms and pepper trees and umbrella
trees here in the "West? Well, the one who refrains
from doing the three things mentioned above and does
the two things mentioned will be just like that tree
in full leaf. His character will be full of beauty. If
we had time, I could show you from the Word of God
how every grace of character is the result of Bible
study. The Psalmist says in Ps. 119:9, "Where
withal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking
heed thereto according to thy word." In the llth
verse he says, ' l Thy word have I hid in my heart, that
I might not sin against thee." Nothing else has the
power to keep a man from sinning and nothing else
has the power to adorn a man with all possible graces
of character that the study of the Word of God has.
3. Third, we shall have fruitfulness in service.
I 1 Bringeth forth his fruit in his season. " Do we not
all long to be fruitful Christians ? So many of us are
fruitless. The great secret of being fruitful is intel
ligent study of the Word of God. The Apostle Paul
in writing to Timothy in 2 Tim. 3 : 16 says, "All Scrip
ture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruc
tion in righteousness. That the man of God may be
perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works."
The Revised Version says, "complete, furnished com
pletely unto every good work." How? Through
what the Apostle has just said, through the study of
the inspired Word of God. A man may study every
thing else in the world, psychology, philosophy, peda
gogy, and even theology, but if he does not study the
Word of God he is not fitted for real work for God.
208 THE VOICE OF GOD
He will have no measure of success in winning souls.
But a man may be quite ignorant of other branches of
knowledge but if he really studies and understands
his Bible, he will have all the knowledge one needs
to be a fruitful Christian and an efficient winner of
souls.
4. Fourth. There will be one other result of not
doing the three things and doing the two things, and
that is prosperity in everything: "whatsoever he doeth
shall prosper." Are we not all seeking for prosper
ity ? There is no other way to get it than the way laid
down in our text, but this road to prosperity is safe
and sure. No one ever walked it without becoming
prosperous in whatsoever he did. This, of course, does
not mean necessarily that he will have what the world
calls prosperity. He may not become a rich man,
but he will have real prosperity in everything he
undertakes. Some years ago I preached in Chicago
a sermon on "The Power of the Word of God," or
"The Advantages of Bible Study." I had in my
congregation that morning a young man who was
leading a rather defeated life. He was a Christian,
but not a very effective Christian. He was a married
man with a small family of children and was getting
$12.50 a week. His work required him to get up at
two or three o'clock in the morning to go on the
market to buy for the house for which he worked. As
he listened to the sermon that morning he made up
his mind that instead of getting up at two o'clock or
three o'clock in the morning, he would get up at one
or two o'clock in the morning in order that he might
have a solid hour for Bible study before going to his
work. He came on in his Christian experience by
SECRET OF BLESSEDNESS 209
leaps and bounds and he came on in his business
relations too. "Within a year he went into business
for himself. The first year he made $5,000 in his
business, the next year I have been told that he made
$10,000, and some one has told me that the next year
he made $15,000, and he has gone on advancing from
that day until this; but that is not the best of it,
he came on in his Christian character and in his effi
ciency in Christian service. He is to-day one of the
most used laymen in Chicago, identified with and a
leader in every aggressive movement that is taken up
by the Christians of the city, a tower of strength in
his own church, a generous giver to the work of
Christ at home and abroad, with three sons and one
daughter following in his steps. "Whatsoever he
doeth prospers."
Now I am not saying that if anyone will begin to
study the Bible an hour a day he will spring from
$12.50 a week to $5,000 a year, but I am saying, and
what is better, God's Word says it, he will have real
prosperity in everything he undertakes. Do you want
blessedness in your heart, beauty in your character,
fruitfulness in your service, and prosperity in every
thing you do, — then stop walking in the counsel of
the ungodly, stop standing in the way of sinners, stop
sitting in the seat of the scornful and begin to delight
in the law of the Lord and meditate therein day and
night.
XVI
LOVE CONTRASTED, DESCRIBED, EXALTED
1 COR. 13.
OUR subject this morning is Love Contrasted,
Love Described, Love Exalted. Our text is the
whole of the thirteenth chapter of First
Corinthians. This chapter, which we are to study this
morning is not only one of the most familiar, but also
one of the most important and remarkable in the
whole Bible. If there were no other proof of Paul's
inspiration, this chapter would go far toward estab
lishing it. The translation of the chapter found in
the Revised Version is far better than that found in
the Authorized Version, but by far the best translation
of all is the translation into life. Every Christian
should read and re-read this chapter until mind and
heart and will are saturated with it, until its fragrance
distils itself in our every act and word and thought.
The chapter naturally divides itself into three parts;
the first part, verses 1-3, Love Contrasted, or the
Absolute Indispensability of Love; the second part,
verses 4-7, Love Described, or the Everyday Mani
festations of Love ; the third part, verses 8 - 13, Love
Exalted, or the Peerless Pre-eminence of Love.
I. LOVE CONTRASTED OR THE ABSOLUTE INDISPENSA
BILITY OP LOVE.
Let us first look at Love Contrasted, or the Indis
pensability of Love. "If I speak with the tongues of
210
LOVE 211
men and of angels, but have not love, I am become
sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And if I have
the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all
knowledge; and if I have all faith so as to remove
mountains but have not love, I am nothing." Here
love is contrasted with five things in succession, each
of which was held in great esteem in Corinth, and each
of which is held in great esteem to-day. But Paul says
no one of them, nor all of them together, will supply
the lack of love.
1. The 'first thing that Paul contrasts with love is
the gift of tongues, and the gift of tongues in its
highest conceivable form: " Though I speak with the
tongues of men and of angels. ' ' How the world would
admire and applaud a man who could do that. A
man upon whom the Spirit fell in such mighty power
that not only the Pentecostal wonder would be re
peated and Parthians and Medes and Elamites and
Libyans and Romans and Cretes and Arabians hear
men talking in their own tongues, but also the man
would talk with the tongue of angels as well as the
tongues of men. That would be great and marvellous
in the eyes of the world, but Paul says that even
thought that should happen, if that man had not love
he would after all be only sounding brass or a clang
ing cymbal, just a brazen noise. The world looks
at the eloquence on a man's lips. God looks at the
love in his heart. The gifts of the Spirit are greatly
to be desired; but the graces of the Spirit are far
more to be desired, especially the grace of love (1 Cor.
12:31). We look oftentimes in wonder and admira
tion at the eloquent preacher, but God looks down
into his heart and sees no love there, and says,
212 THE VOICE OF GOD
"nothing but noise — sounding brass and a clanging
cymbal. ' '
2, Tlie second thing Paul contrasts with love is the
gift of prophecy. He describes this gift in the very
highest form of its manifestation, ' ' If I have the gift
of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowl
edge. " Surely this is something to be much coveted
and greatly admired. Surely this will win God's ap
plause. The man of great theological learning and
perfect spiritual vision must occupy a very high place
in God's estimation. Listen to what God says, "even
if a man have all this and have not love, he is
NOTHING." Think of it, just nothing. How the
world applauds the seer irrespective of what he is in
heart, but God asks, "Is he also a lover?" If not,
he is nothing, absolutely nothing.
3. Noiu Paul brings forward a third thing and con-
trasts it with love — faith, miracle-working faith f
miracle-working faith in the highest conceivable form,
faith so as to remove mountains. Surely this will
count for something with God. Surely this will give
a man eminence in His sight. Even though a man
is very faulty in character, if he can do wonders by
the power of faith, he must stand high not only in
the estimation of man but God. Listen to what God
says, "If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains,
lut have not love I am— NOTHING." Think of
that — nothing! There are those in these days who
are counting upon their gifts of healing and their
extraordinary manifestations of faith to commend
them to God. They would better ask themselves,
"Have I love?" Some of them do not seem to have
according to the description given in verses 4-7.
LOVE 213
4. Paul next brings forward a fourth thing that
men count much on as commending them to God —
magnificent giving, ( l If I bestow all my goods to feed
the poor." Surely a man who does that is a great
man in God's sight. Surely he will get rich reward.
But the inspired Apostle shakes his head, "not neces
sarily," he says, "you can give all you have, every
dollar, every cent, and that too for the most philan
thropic purpose, to feed the poor; but if you have
not love, you will gain by it just nothing. How
many false hopes that annihilates. Men with hearts
full of selfishness are building great hopes for time
#nd eternity upon the fact that they have given so
much to the poor and to various charitable enter
prises. But God puts the very searching question to
you, "Have you love?" If not, your gifts will do
you no more good than squandering your goods in
riot and folly would. It will all profit you nothing.
5. And now Paul takes up a fifth thing, and that
which above all others is supposed to entitle one to
a crown — martyrdom, "If I give my body to be
burned. ' ' Surely we have at last found one for whom
God will have words of unstinting commendation —
the brave martyr who marches to the stake for con
victions, for truth, for right. For him there must
be a sure and great reward, the martyr's crown.
Listen, "and if I give my body to be burned, but
have not love it profieth me — NOTHING." Oh, you
who think so much and talk so much of what you
have suffered for Christ, think of that. It all counts
for nothing if you have not love.
There is nothing then, absolutely nothing, that will
take the place of love. Gifts of speech, great knowl-
214 THE VOICE OF GOD
edge of the deep things of God, miracle working
faith, the greatest possible giving, extreme martyrdom,
will not take the place of love. Nay, further, they
count for nothing if love is lacking. One question
then is driven home with tremendous emphasis to
each one of our hearts, ' ' Have you love f ' ' This brings
us to the second division of the chapter.
II. LOVE DESCRIBED OR THE EVERYDAY MANIFESTA
TIONS OP LOVE.
God will not leave us in any self-deception or any
doubt as to whether we have love or not. He gives
a very plain description by which love can be known,
wherever it exists, and by which its absence can be
known wherever love is lacking. Love has fifteen
marks, not one of which is ever wanting where love
exists. We cannot dwell at great length upon each
one, nor do we need to.
1. The first mark of love is that it "suffereth long."
Love endures injury after injury, insult after insult,
wrong after wrong, slander after slander, and still
keeps right on loving and forgiving and forgetting.
It wastes itself in vainly trying to help the unworthy
and ungrateful, and still it loves on. That is the first
mark of love. Do you show it?
2. The second mark of love is, it "is kind." It
knows no harshness. It may be severe even as Jesus
Himself was on occasion, but its necessary severity is
shot through with gentleness and tenderness and pity.
That is love.
3. The third mark of love, <(love envieth not."
Love knows no envy. How could it ? He that really
LOVE 215
loves is as much interested in the welfare of others
as in his own. How then can he envy? Does a
mother ever envy the prosperity of her child? Is it
not her chief delight ? Love never envies, never. Do
you love? Do you ever secretly grieve over and try
to discount another's progress, temporal or spiritual?
Then you have not love. You may speak with the
tongues of men and of angels, you may have the
gift of prophecy, know all knowledge, you may have
all faith so that mountains are disappearing before
your onward march, you may be giving all your
goods to feed the poor, you may be ready to die at
the stake for your convictions, but you have not love,
and you are nothing. Oh, friends, how often when
we hear of another's prosperity or the great work
of another Christian or Church, how often we say,
"Yes, but — ah — er." Or if we do not say it, we
think it, and try to make the progress of the person
or church not so much greater than our own after
all. Why is this? Because we envy. And why do
we envy? Because we have not love, and not having
love we are ciphers in God's sight.
4. The fourth mark of love is that it " vaunt eth not
itself." There is no surer mark of the absence of love
and the dominance of selfishness than that we talk
about ourselves and our achievements. If we really
love, the achievements of others will be more important
to us than our own, and it is about them we will
talk, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
speaketh.
5. The fifth mark of love is that it is {tnot puffed
up." It is quite possible for one to have good sense
enough not to vaunt himself, and yet in his heart be
216 THE VOICE OF GOD
puffed up over his own virtues or victories. But
love is not even puffed up. Love is so much taken up
with the excellencies of others that it will not even
dream of being inflated over its own.
6. The sixth mark of love is that it "doth not
behave itself unseemly/' i.e. doth not do rude, ill-
mannered, boorish things. Love is considerate of the
feelings of others and therefore avoids all that might
offend or shock them. Nothing else will teach good
manners and true etiquette as love will. Those pro
fessed Christians who delight in trampling all con
ventionalities under foot and playing the boor are
utterly lacking in one essential thing, love.
7. "Love seeketh not its own." These words need
little comment. They demand exemplification rather
than elucidation. It does, however, suggest a ques
tion. The question is a personal one: Are you seek
ing your own, or others' good? You haven't time
to think it out now, but I hope you will get your
Bible and think it out when you get home.
8. "Love is not provoked." The translators of
the King James Version seem to have staggered at
this statement, and so inserted a qualifying word,
1 'love is not easily provoked." But that is not what
God said. ''Love is not provoked" was the state
ment. Love knows no irritation. It is often grieved,
deeply grieved, but never irritated. How searching
these words are! We get so hot over the unkind
words that are spoken to us. I think some of us, as
we read these words, will ask, "Have I any love?
Am I not sounding brass or a clanging cymbal?"
9. "Love taketh no account of evil." Love never
puts the wrong done it down in its books or in its
LOVE 217
memory. Some of us do. Some one does us an in
justice or a wrong of some kind and we store it
away in mind, and whenever we think of that person
we think of the wrong they did us. That is not love.
Love takes those pages of memory on which the wrongs
done us are written and tears them up. If wrong
is done it, it keeps no account of it.
10. Love "rejoiceth not in unrighteousness/' It is
not for ever telling and glorying in the wrong that
exists in individuals and church and state. Brethren,
why is it that some of us are so fond of dwelling on
the evil that exists in church and state? I will tell
you, we do not love.
11. Love "rejoiceth with the truth." Oh, if we
love how our hearts will bound when we discover
truth in others. How gladly we will call attention
to it. This is a sure mark of love. Let me ask a
question, Are you much given to that sort of thing?
Some of you come and tell me this wrong and that
wrong that you see in others. Don't you think it
would be well to come occasionally and tell me of
this excellence or that that you have discovered in
others? Paul says that is the way love behaves.
12. "Love beareth all things." The word trans
lated "beareth" means primarily "covereth" and
may mean so here, though the New Testament usage
is against it. That, however, will be quite true, love
is always covering evil up. We are told in 1 Pet.
4:8 that "love covereth a multitude of sins." The
word translated covereth in this case is an entirely
different one, however, from the one used in the pas
sage before us. Love does not go round telling all
the sin it has discovered in men, it hides it. That is
218 THE VOICE OF GOD
a manifestation of love greatly needed in our day.
But the words before us seem to mean more than
that. They seem to mean that no matter what evil
is done love, love bears it without revenge or com
plaint or bitterness or resentment.
13. "Love believeth all things." How proud some
of us are of our powers to see through men and of
the impossibility of gulling us. But that is not love,
that is selfish shrewdness. Love is far greater than
shrewdness. Love is very easily gulled. Indeed love
would rather be gulled a hundred times than to mis
judge once. "Love believeth all things/' and when
love has been deceived once it goes right on believing
next time. We have heard it said of some men that
they were forever being taken in by designing per
sons. Well, that speaks well for them, for "love be
lieveth all things."
14. "Love hopeth all things." When it gets beyond
believing, when one has proved a deceiver so often
and is so manifestly a deceiver still that believing is
simply impossible, then love hopes for the future.
Love does not look at the bad as they now are, but
as they may become by the transforming grace of
God. When love looks at a drunkard, it does not
see that poor, bloated, vile, enslaved thing that
now is. It sees the clean, upright, intelligent, Christ-
like man of God that is to be. When love looks at
the troublesome Sunday School scholar it does not
see the shameless, vicious, unreasonable, almost idiotic
boy that now is, but the attentive, obedient, gentle
manly boy that is to be. I tell you, friends, love is a
great thing, but I fear it is a rare commodity.
15. Now comes the fifteenth and last mark of all,
LOVE 219
"Love endureth all things." When believing is im
possible, when even hoping seems utterly out of the
question, love endures. It does not get angry, it
does not give up, it loves on, works on, endures on.
Let Jesus serve as an illustration. How long Jesus
has borne with men, but for love He has gotten back
only reproach and sneers and spitting and blows and
crucifixion. Reproach has broken His heart, and He
is fast dying, but He summons all His waning
strength, and cries, "Father forgive them, for they
know not what they do" (Luke 23:24). That was
love.
Friends, let me ask you a question again. Exam
ined in the light of the fifteen marks of love Paul
gives, have you much love ? Have you any ? If not,
whatever else you may have, you are nothing.
III. LOVE EXALTED, OR THE PEERLESS PRE-EMINENCE
OF LOVE.
We have no time left for the third division of the
chapter, Love Exalted, or the Peerless Pre-eminence
of Love. To sum it all up in a few words, prophecies,
tongues, knowledge, have their day, love is eternal.
God is love, and love partakes of His eternal nature.
"Love never faileth." If you want something that
will last, get love. All other things are partial, love
is complete, perfect. There are three abiding things,
faith, hope and love, but even of these thre^, the
greatest is love. V •«
XVII
A CHRIST-LIKE MAN
THERE is one man who is pictured to us in
the Bible who appears to be more like Christ
than any other man of whose life we have an
account. That man is Stephen, the first deacon in
the Christian church, and the first Christian martyr.
There is no fairer life recorded in history than that
of Stephen, excepting, of course, the life of Him of
whom Stephen learned and after whom he patterned.
The character of Stephen presents a rare combination
of strength and beauty, robustness and grace. Stephen
occupies small space in the Bible, two chapters, Acts
6 and 7, and two verses in other chapters, Acts 11 : 19
and 22 : 20, yet in this short space a remarkably com
plete analysis of his character and the outcome of it
is given.
1. STEPHEN'S CHARACTER
Let us look first at Stephen's character. One word
occurs again and again in the description of Stephen.
It is the world "full" He was a remarkably full
man.
1. First of all he was "full of faith." The record
reads, "They chose Stephen, a man full of faith"
(Acts 6:5). Stephen had unbounded confidence in
God and in His Word; he believed implicitly in the
220
A CHRIST-LIKE MAN 221
certainty of every statement in the Word of God re
garding the past, and he believed implicitly in its
promises regarding the future. He had no fear of
consequences when God's Word, or God's Spirit bade
him do anything, he simply did it and left the conse
quences with God. It was God's to promise and to
command, it was his simply to believe and obey what
God said, and leave the outcome with God. Even in
that awful moment when he was surrounded by a
howling mob with gnashing teeth, when the pitiless
rocks were crushing his body and face and brain, he
quietly looked up and said, "Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit," and then kneeling down uttered a mighty
prayer for his enemies, and gently "fell asleep."
Oh, that we had more men and women of Stephen's
faith, men and women who believe all God says and
do all He commands in His Word and leave the
results entirely with Him ; men and women who walk
straight on with childlike, unwavering confidence in
Him in the path He marks out. There was never a
day when men and women of that sort were more
needed than to-day. Our power and our accomplish
ment will be proportionate to our faith in God and in
His Word. Faith is the outstretched hand that helps
itself to all God 's fullness. The Lord Jesus is ever
saying, "According to your faith be it unto you"
(Matt. 9:29), and of many of us it must be said
that Jesus « ' could do no mighty work there because of
their unbelief" (Mark 6:5; Matt. 13:58).
2. In the next place Stephen was "full of grace."
This we find in verse 8, B. V. The Authorized Ver
sion reads that he was "full of faith and power,"
but the Kevised Version reads that he was "full of
222 THE VOICE OF GOD
grace and power." It is true, as already seen, that he
was full of faith, but he was full of something be
sides faith— "full of grace." His faith in God and
His Word brought the grace of God into his heart
and life. He not only had grace, he was full of it —
"full of grace." He was completely emptied of self,
of his own will, of his own plans, of his own goodness,
of his own thoughts, of his own strength, and the
grace of God had just come in and taken complete
possession of his heart and affections and will and
character and life. This was the reason why he was
so much like Christ Himself, Christ was just living
His own life over again in Stephen. As we look at
Stephen with his face shining like an angel's (Acts
6 : 15), and listen to the words that fall from his lips,
it seems as if Jesus Himself had come back to earth
again, and so He had: He had come back into
Stephen's heart and was manifesting Himself in
Stephen's life. And in the same way Jesus Christ is
ready to come back again in your life and mine if
we are only willing to be emptied of the self-life and
filled with grace. Then we can say with the Apostle
Paul, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is
no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and
the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the
faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and
gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20, B. V.). Ah!
friends, most of us have some grace, but let us be
full of grace, let us allow grace to fill every corner
of our lives.
3. Stephen was also "full of power!" Grace and
power are not one and the same thing, though all
real power comes from grace, i.e., it is a gift of God's
A CHRIST-LIKE MAN 223
grace. However, the graces of the Spirit are different
from the gifts of the Spirit. "Love, joy, peace, long
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and
self -control' ' are the graces of the Spirit (Gal. 5: 22).
The various gifts of power for service are the gifts
of the Spirit. Many a man has the graces of the
Spirit in rich measure who has not much of the power
of the Spirit in his work. Others have very much of
the power of the Spirit in some directions, but are
greatly lacking in the graces of the Spirit, but Stephen
was full of faith, grace, and power, and so ought we
to be. The graces of the Spirit ought to be richly
revealed in our lives; the power of the Spirit ought
to be mightily manifested in our work. It is the
privilege of every believer to be a man of power in
service. Grace and power are both at our disposal,
grace for living like Christ, power for working like
Christ. (John 14: 12). The men and women needed
to-day are the men and women who live graciously
and work mightily.
4. Stephen was also full of the Word of God.
There is but one sermon of Stephen's reported. You
will find it in the seventh chapter of the Acts of the
Apostles. But what a sermon that one sermon is.
It is Bible from beginning to end. When Stephen
opened his mouth to speak the Scripture just flowed
forth. As it is "out of the abundance of the heart
that the mouth speaketh" (Matt. 12: 34), it is evident
that Stephen's heart was full of God's Word. He had
pondered the Word of God deeply ; he had discovered
the deeper meanings of its precepts, promises, history,
and prophecies ; he had hidden the Word of God in
his heart; he was full of the Word. This goes far
224 THE VOICE OF GOD
toward explaining why he was also full of faith and
grace and power. It is vain for one to pray to be
full of faith if he neglects the Word of God, for
' 'faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word
of God" (Rom. 10:17). I remember a time when
I longed for faith, and tried hard to get it, but I
never succeeded until I began feeding upon the Word
of God. It is vain to seek for grace in the life and
neglect the Word of God, for the Bible is ' ' the Word
of His grace, which is able to build you up" (Acts
20: 32). It is vain to pray for power and neglect the
Word of God, for it is when "the Word of God abid-
eth in you" that "ye are strong and overcome the
wicked one" (1 John 2:14). Faith and grace and
power all come from the Word of God, and in order
to be full of them we must be full of it. How much
we need to-day men and women like Stephen who are
full of the Word of God, who have such a command
of the Bible that none are "able to resist the wisdom
by which" they speak, and men also who have the
Word of God not only upon their lips, but in their
hearts and lives. But we cannot be full of the Word
of God if we do not study it, study it long and ear
nestly and prayfully, study it (really study it) every
day of our lives.
5. But Stephen was full of something else yet, he
was "full of the Holy Ghost" (Acts 6:5). Being full
of the Word of God and being full of the Holy Ghost
go hand in hand. In Eph. 5 : 18, 19, R. V., Paul says,
"Be filled with the Spirit; speaking one to another in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and
making melody in your heart to the Lord." And in
Col. 3:16 he says, "Let the Word of Christ dwell in
A CHRIST-LIKE MAN 225
you richly in all wisdom ; teaching and admonishing
one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." By
the comparison of these two passages we see that what
in one place is attributed to being full of the Spirit,
is in the other place attributed to being full of the
Word of God. The two go naturally together, but
they are often divorced. I know men who are full of
the Word, i.e., they have a very large technical and
formal knowledge of the Word, but who are not full
of the Spirit. They are well instructed but they have
no unction. They are dry as chips. Indeed, I have
known men who were once full of the Spirit, but
they have lost the manifestation of His presence and
of His power. As far as the form of knowledge of
the Word goes, they know as much as they ever did,
but the power has gone out of their words. But
Stephen was "full of the Spirit " of God as well as
full of the Word of God. His enemies were not able
to resist, not only "the wisdom/' but also "the Spirit
by which he spake" (Acts 6: 10). Let us seek to be
full of the Holy Ghost. Without this our lives will
be graceless and our efforts will be powerless. The
Holy Spirit's power was manifested in Stephen, as
we have already seen, in a twofold way : in his life,
and in his work.
6. Stephen was also full of love. In Acts 7 : 57-60
we see how absolutely his whole inner and outer life
were under the control of love. In no other man,
"perhaps, except Christ, has love shone out as it did
in Stephen. Look at Stephen as he falls beneath the
stones hurled at him by his infuriated antagonists
and assassins. He can no longer stand, and he sinks
226 THE VOICE OF GOD
to his knees. His crushed forehead is throbbing with
pain, his strength is fast waning, but he summons all
his remaining strength and utters a loud cry. What
is it ? Is it, ' ' Lord curse these my murderers ' ' ? No,
"Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. " Here we
see love for enemies triumphant even in death. There
is perhaps no lesson of Stephen's life harder to learn
than this, and yet there is no other lesson that we
more need to learn than this, and there was never a
time when we more needed to learn it than to-day,
when we are face to face with a mighty foe who may
do us or our loved ones awful harm. Let us never
forget to be full of love. Love is the one Divine
thing. "If I speak with the tongues of men and of
angels, but have not love, I am become sounding
brass, or a clanging cymbal" (1 Cor. 13:1, K. V.).
Ah ! it is easy to love the lovely, in fact it is not hard
to have a certain sentimental love for the unlovely,
provided they have never crossed our path in any \vay ;
but to love the one who lies about you, as these did
about Stephen, to love the one who does you harm,
seeking, it may be, your very life, as they did the
life of Stephen, this is the hard thing, this is the
supreme test of whether the Lord Jesus be indeed
dwelling in us or not. There are many of us here
to-day who have coveted earnestly that we might be
full of faith and grace, and power, and the Word of
God, and the Holy Spirit, but are you full of love?
Do you really wish to be full of love? Remember in
answering that question that while love is the divin-
est thing in the world, it is also the most costly.
7. Stephen was not only full of love, he was also
full of courage. Many men seem to be 'forgiving
A CHRIST-LIKE MAN 227
simply because they have not sufficient energy of char
acter to be vengeful, but Stephen's forgiveness was not
of that kind. He was a man of almost matchless
energy and fearless courage ; he knew the Jews, he
knew what they had done to his Lord, and yet, know
ing their history, he faces his angry antagonists and
boldly says: "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in
heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost;
as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets
have not your fathers persecuted ? and they have slain
them which shewed before of the coming of the Just
One" (Acts 7:51, 52), and then when they gnashed
upon him with their teeth, he beat no retreat; but
looking up steadfastly into heaven, and seeing the
glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand
of God, he says, ' ' Behold, I see the heavens open, and
the Son of man standing on the right hand of God"
(Acts 7:56). Do we not sorely need courage like
that to-day, courage to face the enemies of Christ, and
give our uncompromising testimony for Him? How
unlike this is to the timid, cringing, sentimentality
and gush that passes for Christianity to-day. We
need Stephens in business, we need Stephens in
society, we need Stephens in public affairs, we need
Stephens in the home and in the church.
There was then this seven-fold fullness in Stephen :
he was "full of faith," "full of grace," "full of
power," full of the Word of God, "full of the Holy
Ghost," full of love, full of courage.
8. There was one more thing about Stephen's char
acter that needs to be noted, he was a man of prayer.
Prayer was the spontaneous utterance of his heart
in the hour of trouble. The last two utterances of his
228 THE VOICE OF GOD
life were prayers (Acts 7:59, 60) just as were two
of the last utterances of his Master, and Stephen's
prayers were closely modelled after those of his Mas
ter. No man can be a man of power who is not a man
of prayer. No man can be full of grace who is not a
man of prayer. No man can be full of the Holy Ghost
who is not a man of prayer. Of all the sad neglects
in present day Christian living there is perhaps none
so sad and fatal as the neglect of prayer. Why is
there so much striving after holiness and so little ob
taining of it? Neglect of prayer. Why is there so
much machinery in the church and so little real work
turned out? Neglect of prayer. Why is there so
much preaching and so few conversions? Neglect of
prayer. Why is there so much Christian enterprise
and so little Christian progress? Neglect of prayer.
What the church of Christ needs to-day above all else,
as in the day of Jonathan Edwards, is a call to
prayer. What the individual church and the individ-
nal Christian needs to-day is a call to prayer. Oh,
that some mighty voice might be heard sounding from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, and then around the world :
LET US PRAY. Our nation to-day is at the great
est crisis in its history, and what our nation needs to
day above all else is prayer, real prayer, prayer by
multitudes of men and women who know how to
pray. The great majority of our statesmen are right
when they say that the great need of our day is pre
paredness, but the preparedness that we need is not
the preparedness that is wrought out by Germanizing
our land, building up a vast military system; it is the
preparedness that is wrought out by prayer.
A CHRIST-LIKE MAN 229
II. THE OUTCOME OF STEPHEN'S CHARACTER
There is little time left to dwell upon the outcome of
Stephen's character and life.
1. His face shone like an angel's (Acts 6 : 15). The
face of any man who is full of faith, and grace, and of
the Spirit, and of the Word of God, and of power,
and of love, will shine.
2. He preached with unanswerable wisdom and re
sistless power (Acts 6:10).
3. He "wrought great wonders and signs" (Acts
6:8).
4. "The Word of God increased, and the number
of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly"
(Acts 6:7). The "Word of God is bound to increase,
and the number of disciples is bound to multiply ex
ceedingly when we have deacons and workers like
Stephen.
5. Men were "cut to the heart" by his preaching
(Acts 7 : 54) . The preaching of such a man, full of the
Holy Ghost, is sure to bring deep conviction. Our Lord
told His disciples that when the Holy Ghost was
come He would "convict the world in respect of sin."
There will be convicting power in the preaching and
personal work of any man or woman who is full of the
Holy Ghost.
6. But this conviction in Stephen's case did not
result in conversion. As men could not gainsay the
truth of what he said, they took to lying about the
preacher (Acts 6 : 13) . But they did not stop at that,
they gnashed upon him with their teeth (Acts 7 : 54),
and they did not stop at that, they stoned and killed
him (Acts 7 : 58-60). This is the sort of treatment that
230 THE VOICE OF GOD
a man like Stephen may expect from a God-hating
and Christ-hating, and truth-hating world. In all
probability there will be conviction of sinners and con
version of sinners, but sooner or later there will be
hatred and persecution and suffering, and it may be
death.
7. But there was another outcome of Stephen's
character, Stephen had his exceeding great reward,
a reward that far more than compensated for the
cruel treatment that he suffered. The heavens were
opened and he saw Jesus and the glory of God (Acts
7: 55), then he gently fell asleep and departed to be
with Christ, which was "very far better" (Acts
7: 59, 60; cf. Phil. 1 : 23), and out of that seemingly
fruitless sermon and triumphant death there sprang
the prince of Apostles, Paul. Paul and all his mighty
ministry and all the results of that wonderful minis
try were the outcome of what Stephen was.
XVIII
WALKING AS JESUS WALKED.
"He that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself
also to walk even as He walked." — I John 2:6.
THE one great secret of a life full of blessedness
is abiding in Christ. Abiding in Christ is
the one all-inclusive secret of power in
prayer : our Lord Jesus says in John 15 : 7, "If ye
abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask what
soever ye will and it shall be done unto you." Abid
ing in Christ is also the secret of f ruitfulness : our
Lord Jesus says, ' ' I am the vine, ye are the branches :
he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth
much fruit: for apart from me ye can do nothing."
And abiding in Christ is the secret of fullness of
joy: in the same chapter to which we have referred
twice, the Lord Jesus says, " These things have I
spoken unto you (i.e., these things about abiding in
Him), that my joy may be in you, and that your
joy may be made full," a clear statement that our
joy is made full, or filled full, when we abide in Him,
and then alone. But according to our text this morn
ing the one proof that we do abide in Him is that we
walk even as He walked. The great test of whether
we are abiding in Christ or not is not some ecstatic
feeling, but our daily conduct. If we walk as He
231
232 THE VOICE OF GOD
walked that is proof, conclusive proof, that we are
abiding in Him whether we have ecstatic feelings or
not. On the other hand if we do not walk as He
walked, that is conclusive proof that we are not abid
ing in Him, no matter how many ecstasies and rap
tures we may boast of. So the practical question that
faces each one of us this morning is, Am I walking
as Jesus walked? This brings us face to face with
the question, How did Jesus walk?
I. How JESUS WALKED.
Some years ago Charles Sheldon brought out a book
named "In His Steps," in which he tried to imagine
how Jesus would act in various imaginary relations
of life ; how, for example, He would conduct a news
paper, etc. The book awakened a great deal of
interest, but was necessarily not very satisfactory.
We are not left to our own imaginations in this
matter. Far more practical than the question of
what Jesus would do in various imaginary relations
of life is to find what He actually did when He was
here on earth, and find out how He really walked.
How did Jesus walk?
1. First of all He walked with an eye absolutely
single to the glory of God. He says in John 8:50,
seek not mine own glory." In no act of His
whole life did He have regard to His own honour
or glory, He was entirely absorbed in the glory of
lim that sent Him. In the prayer which He offered
the night before His crucifixion He said, "Father
the hour is come: glorify thy Son." Now that looks
at the first glance as if He were seeking His own
WALKING AS JESUS WALKED 233
glory, but listen to the rest of the petition: "that the
Son may glorify Thee." It was not His own glory
that He was seeking, but altogether the Father's, and
He simply asked the Father to glorify Him that the
Father Himself might be glorified. In the fourth
verse of the same chapter we hear Him saying, "I
glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the
work which Thou gavest me to do." His own glory
was a matter about which He was entirely uncon-
cerneci; the glory of the Father was the one thing that
absorbed Him. In every act of His life, small or great,
He was simply seeking the glory of God. He had
an eye absolutely single to the glory of God. Even
in the eternal world before He became incarnate,
when He was existing in the form of God, when the
whole angelic world saw by His outward form that
He was a Divine person, and when He might have
retained that Divine glory, He thought it not a thing
to be grasped to be on an equality with God, but
emptied Himself and took upon Him the form of a
servant and was made in the likeness of men, and
being found in fashion as a man He humbled Him
self, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the
death of the cross (Phil. 2:5-8), because by this
giving up His own Divine glory and taking upon
Himself humility and shame, greater glory would
come to the Father. And now may I put the ques
tion to you, and to myself as I put it to you, are you
walking with an eye absolutely single to the glory
of God? Is there but one thing that concerns you
in determining upon any course of action, viz., will
I glorify the Father more by doing this than by not
doing it? I heard two Christian women discussing
234 THE VOICE OF GOD
the other day the relative merits of the East and
West as a place to live. One spoke about the maples
and the oaks and the beeches of the East, about the
various social and other advantages. The other dwelt
upon the fruits and flowers of Southern California,
upon the air and the cleanliness. But if we are to
walk as Jesus walked we will not determine our
home by such considerations as these, the whole ques
tion will be will it be more to God's glory for me to
live in the East or the West ?
2. In the second place, we find from a study of
the walk of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels, that
He walked in whole-hearted surrender to and delight
in the will of the Father. Not only could He say,
"I do always the things that are pleasing to Him,"
but He even went so far as to say, "My meat," i.e.,
His sustenance and delight, "is to do the will of Him
that sent me, and to accomplish His work. ' ' The cir
cumstances under which He said this were significant ;
He was tired, hungry, and thirsty, so tired that when
His disciples went into the neighbouring village to
buy food for Him and them, He was unable to go
along, but rested wearily upon the well at Sychar.
As he rested there He looked up the road and saw
a sinful woman coming toward Him. In His joy in
an opportunity of doing the Father's will in winning
that lost woman He entirely forgot His weariness
and His hunger, and step by step led her to the
place where she knew Him as the Christ. At that
moment His disciples again appeared and wondered
that He was talking with a woman, and then urged
Him to eat of the food which they had brought from
the village, saying, "Kabbi, eat." He looked up at
WALKING AS JESUS WALKED 235
them almost in wonder and said, "I have meat to
eat that ye know not." In other words, He says,
"I am not hungry; I have been eating." The dis
ciples were filled with surprise and said one to
another, "Hath any man brought Him aught to eat?"
Then Jesus answering their thought said, "My meat is
to do the will of Him that sent me, and to accom
plish His work." All the joy He asked, all the grati
fication He asked was an opportunity to do the
Father's will. He not only did His Father's will
always, but He delighted in doing it, it was His
chief gratification, the very sustenance of His inner
most being. Are you walking as Jesus walked? Are
you walking in whole-hearted surrender to the will
of God, studying His Word daily to find out what
that will is, doing it every time when you find it,
finding your chief delight in doing the will of the
Father, no matter how disagreeable in itself that will
may be? This is the way Jesus walked. Are you
walking as He walked?
3. Furthermore, He walked in utter disregard of
self. This is involved in what we have already said,
but we mention it separately in order to make it clear.
His own interests, His own ease, His own comfort,
His own honour, His own anything were nothing to
Him. "Though He was rich, yet for our sakes He
became poor, that we through His poverty might be
come rich" (2 Cor. 8:9). Not His own interests, but
those of others were His sole consideration. What
riches did He give up? The greatest that any one
ever knew; all the possessions and glory of God.
How poor did He become? The poorest man the
world ever saw. He not only became a man, taking
236 THE VOICE OF GOD
all a man's dishonour upon Himself, He became a poor
man, a despised man. When He went out of this
world He went out of it stripped of everything. He
had not had food for many long hours; every shred
of clothing was torn from Him as they nailed Him
to the cross; He was stripped of all honour and
respect, lifted up on the cross as a condemned felon,
while jeering mobs passed by mocking Him, and this
end He Himself chose because by thus emptying Him
self of everything He secured eternal life and an in
heritance incorruptible, undefiled and that passeth
not away, for others. His own interests were nothing,
the interests of others were everything. Are you
walking as Jesus walked? Are you living your life
day by day in utter disregard of your own interests,
your own reputation, your own authority, your own
comfort, your own honour, doing the things that will
bring blessing to others, no matter what loss and dis
honor the doing of them may bring to you ? "He that
saith he abideth in Him, ought himself also to walk
even as He walked."
4. Furthermore, He walked with a consuming pas
sion for the salvation of the lost. He Himself has
defined the whole purpose of His coming into this
world ; in Luke 19 : 10 He says, ' ' The Son of man came
to seek and to save that which was lost." He had
just one purpose in leaving heaven and all its glory
and coming down to earth with all its shame, that
was the seeking out and saving of the lost. The sav
ing of the lost was the consuming passion of His life.
For this He came, for this He lived, for this He
prayed, for this He worked, for this He suffered,
for this He died. Are you walking with such a
WALKING AS JESUS WALKED 237
consuming passion for the salvation of the lost? Oh,
how many are there of us who indeed are doing
something for the salvation of the lost, but what we
do is perfunctory; we do it simply because we think
it is the thing we ought to do, not because there is a
consuming passion within that will not let us rest
without doing everything in our power to save the
lost, to bring the lost to a saving knowledge of Jesus
Christ. If the professedly Christian men and wo
men walked with such a consuming passion for the
salvation of the lost as Jesus walked, how long would
it be before hundreds and thousands were turning
to Christ here in Los Angeles.
5. He walked in a life of constant prayer fulness.
In Hebrews 5 : 7 we read that in the days of His
flesh He "offered up prayers and supplications with
strong crying and tears." His whole life was a life of
prayer. The record that we have of His life in the four
gospels is very brief, only eighty-nine very short chap
ters in all, and yet in this very brief account of the life
of our Lord the words "pray" and "prayer" are used
in connection with Him no less than twenty-five times,
and His praying is mentioned in places where these
words are not used. People wonder what Jesus
would do in this relation or that, but the Bible tells
us plainly what He actually did do, He prayed.
He spent much time in prayer. He would rise a
great while before day and go out into the mountain
to pray alone. He spent whole nights in prayer.
If we are to walk as Jesus walked we must lead a
life of prayerfulness. The man who is not leading a
life of prayer, no matter how many excellent things
he may be doing, is not walking as Jesus walked.
238 THE VOICE OF GOD
6. He also walked a walk characterized by a dili
gent study of the Word of God. We see this in many
things. His whole thought and the things that He
said showed that He was saturated with Old Testa
ment Scripture. He met each one of the three as
saults of Satan in His temptation in the wilderness
with a quotation from the Old Testament, and we read
in Luke 24 : 27 that * ' beginning from Moses and from
all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the
Scriptures," conclusively showing that He had pon
dered long and deep all parts of the Old Testament,
the only written Word of God then existing, and in
the forty-fourth verse of the same chapter we read
that He said, "All things must be fulfilled which are
written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the
Psalms, concerning me." He himself was the incar
nate Word of God, neverthless, He diligently studied
and steeped Himself in the written Word in so far
as it then existed. Are you in this matter walking
as Jesus walked? Are you digging into the Bible?
Are you saturating yourself with the Word of God?
Are you permitting your whole thought and the very
language you use to be saturated with Scripture?
It was thus that Jesus walked, with an eye absolutely
single to the glory of God, in whole-hearted sur
render to and delight in the will of the Father, in
utter disregard of self, with a consuming passion
for the salvation of the lost, with a life of constant
prayerfulness, in diligent study of the Word of God.
Are you thus walking? Many of us doubtless will
have to say this morning, "I am not," and that
brings us to the next question.
WALKING AS JESUS WALKED 239
II. How CAN WE WALK AS JESUS WALKED ?
It is a very practical question, and the all-sufficient
answer to it is in our text: "He that saith he abideth
in Him, ought himself also to walk even as He
walked." It is clear from this that there is only one
way by which we can walk as He walked, and that
is by abiding in Him. But what does that mean?
Our Lord Himself has explained this in John 15 : 1-5.
In these verses He tells us that He is the vine and we
are the branches, and that if we would have fruitage
and power in prayer, and joy, we must abide in Him,
just as the branch that bears fruit must abide in the
vine. That is to say, abiding in Him is maintaining the
same relation to Him that a fruitful branch of a grape
vine bears to the vine ; it has no life of its own, all its
life is the inflow of the life of the vine, its buds and
leaves and blossoms and fruit are not its own, but
simply the outcome of the life of the vine flowing
into it and bearing fruitage through it, so that if we
are to abide in Him and bear fruit we must seek
to have no life of our own, we must renounce all our
self-efforts after righteousness, not simply renounce
our sins, but renounce our own thoughts, our own
ambitions, our own purposes, our own strength, our
own everything, and cast ourselves in utter depend
ence upon the Lord Jesus for Him to think His
thoughts in us, to will His purpose in us, to choose
His choice through us, to work out His own glorious
perfection of character in us. Many try to be like
Christ by imitating Christ. It is absolutely impossible
for us to imitate Christ in our own strength. The
240 THE VOICE OF GOD
most discouraging thing that any earnest-minded man
can attempt is to imitate Christ. Nothing else will
plunge a man in deeper despair than to try to imitate
Christ in his own strength. Instead of imitating Him
we should open our hearts wide for Him to come in
and live His own life out through us. Christ in us
is the secret of a Christian life. The only Christ that
many professed Christians know is the historic Christ,
that is the Christ who lived nineteen centuries ago
on this earth and died on the cross of Calvary, an
atoning sacrifice for sin. They only know the Christ
who died for us on the cross. Oh, we need to know
something further than that if we are to be like
Him ; we need to know a living Christ to-day, a Christ
who not only arose and ascended to the right hand
of the Father, but a Christ who has come down and
dwells in us, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). From
the bottom of my heart I praise God for Christ for
us on the cross. All my hope of acceptance before
God is built upon Him bearing my sins in His own
body on the cross, and I do praise God for Christ
for us. But, oh, how I praise God, not only for
Christ for me on the cross, but for Christ in me, a
living, personal Christ in me to-day, living His life
out through me, and causing me to walk even as
Jesus walked. How we may thus have Christ in us
Paul tells us in Gal. 2:20, A.R.V. He says, "I
have been crucified with Christ/' i.e., when Christ
was crucified on the cross He was crucified as our
representative and we were crucified in Him, and we
must see ourselves where God put us on the cross
in the place of death and the curse, and thus cease
to live in our own strength. Then he goes on to say,
WALKING AS JESUS WALKED 241
"It is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me ;"
i.e., as he had been crucified with Christ he counted
himself what he really was in his standing before
God, dead, and as a dead man, no longer sought to
live his own life, but let Jesus Christ live His life
out through him. And then he goes on still further
to say, "That life which I now live in the flesh I live
in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who
loved me and gave Himself for me." The whole
secret of being like Christ is found in these words.
We must count self dead; we must give up our self-
efforts after likeness to Christ; we must distrust our
own strength as much as we distrust our own weak
ness and our own sin, and instead of striving to live
like Christ, let Christ live in us, as He longs to do.
Of course we cannot thus have Christ in us until we
know Christ for us, making a full atonement for our
sins on the cross. Paul explains the whole secret of
it in another way in Eph. 3 : 16-20. Here he prays
for the believers in Ephesus that they "may be
strengthened with power through His Spirit in the
inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts
through faith." The thought is, it is the work of the
Holy Spirit to form an indwelling Christ within us,
and the way to know Christ in us is to let the Holy
Spirit form Him within us.
Are you walking as Jesus walked? Do you wish
to walk as Jesus walked, cost whatever it may? Well
then, realize that you have not been walking as
Jesus walked, and that the reason you have not
walked as Jesus walked is because you have been
trying to do it yourself, and give up your own at
tempts to do it and just look up to the Risen Christ,
242
THE VOICE OF GOD
through, whose death on the cross you have found
pardon and justification, and let Him come and dwell
in you and live His life out through you ; to have His
perfect will in you, and just trust the Holy Spirit to
form this indwelling Christ in your heart.
XIX
r
THE SECRET OF ABIDING PEACE, ABOUND
ING JOY, AND ABUNDANT VICTORY IN
WAR TIMES AND AT ALL TIMES.
"Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for
God took him."— Gen. 5:24.
OUR subject this morning is The Secret of
Abiding Peace, Abounding Joy, and Abun
dant Victory in "War Times and at All
Times. You will find the text in Gen. 5 : 24, "Enoch
walked with God: and he was not; for God took
him." In this description of Enoch's walk we find
the secret of abiding peace, abounding joy, and
abundant victory in war times and at all times. To
my mind the text is one of the most fascinating and
thrilling verses in the entire Bible. It sounds more
like a song from a heavenly world than a plain state
ment of historical facts regarding a humble inhab
itant of this world of ours, but such it is, and it is
possible for each one of us to so live and act that it
may be recorded of us, "He walked with God," and
later, "and he was not; for Go.d took him." The
position of this verse in the Bible is significant and
suggestive. There has been, in the verses immediately
preceding, a very prosaic, monotonous, and at first
sight tedious recital of how one man after another
of the olden time lived so many years, begat a son,
243
244
THE VOICE OF GOD
continued to live so many years and begat sons and
daughters and then died. Then suddenly Enoch is
introduced and the story begins just as the other
stories begin and goes on just as the other stories go
on, and seems about to end just as the other stories
end, but no, there is this fresh breath from heaven and
these melodious tones sound out: "And Enoch walked
with God: and he was not ; for God took him." Then
the story goes on again in the same old strain. Re
member that this account belongs to a far-away time,
thousands of years before Christ, and about a thou
sand years before the flood, and yet what depth of
truth and beauty there is in it. Are there not lessons
for us to learn from that far, far away olden time?
The entire authentic history of Enoch is contained in
nine verses in the Bible, six in the Old Testament,
three in the new. History outside of the Bible is
utterly unacquainted with him, yet he stands out as
one of the most remarkable and admirable men of
whom history speaks, a man whom God honoured as
He has but one other member of the entire race.
His greatness was of the kind that pleases God. We
are told in the llth chapter of Hebrews and the
fifth verse that "he hath had witness borne to him
that before his translation he had been well pleasing
to God. ' ' Quite likely his greatness did not win very
hearty commendation from his- contemporaries. How
ever, that was not of much consequence. His great
ness did not consist of military renown, political
power, profound scholarship, successful statesmanship,
splendid artistic or architectural genius, nor even
magnificent philanthropic achievement. It was great
ness of a more quiet and less pretentious and visible
SECRET OF ABIDING PEACE 245
nature, but of a far more real and lasting nature ; it
was greatness of character, "he walked with God,"
arid God so enjoyed his society that he took him to be
with Himself permanently.
I wish to make clear to you all to-day three things :
first, what it is to walk with God; second, what are
some of the results of walking with God; third, how
we may get into such a walk ourselves,
I. WHAT Is IT TO WALK WITH GOD?
First of all then what is it to walk with God? I
think I may safely say that with some of us here this
morning that question needs no answer, God Himself
has answered it to us in blessed, unspeakably blessed
experience. But with some of us — yes, many of us —
it does need an answer. We have read the words of
the text before, perhaps we have read them often.
Thy have charmed us, soothed us, thrilled us, and yet
often the question has arisen in our hearts, just what
do they mean. This question admits of a very plain
and simple answer: to walk with God means to live
one's life in the consciousness of God's presence and
in conscious communion with Him, to have the
thought constantly before us, ' ' God is beside me, ' ' and
to be every now and then speaking to Him, and still
more listening for Him to speak to us. In a word, to
walk with God is to live in the real, constant, con
scious companionship of God. We read that Enoch
walked with God, not on a few rare occasions of
spiritual exaltation, such perhaps as most of us have
known, but for three hundred consecutive years after
the birth of Methuselah (Gen. 6:22). It is possible
246 THE VOICE OF GOD
for us to have this consciousness of the nearness and
fellowship of God in our daily life, to talk with Him
as we talk to an earthly friend; yes, as we talk to
no earthly friend, and to have Him talk to us, and
to commune with Him in a silence that is far more
meaningful than any words could be. I would gladly
linger here in this sweet and holy place, but let us
pass on to the results of walking with God.
II. THE RESULTS OF WALKING WITH GOD.
1. The first result of walking with God is great
joy, abounding joy. "In thy presence," sings the
Psalmist, "is fullness of joy" (Ps. 16: 11). There is
no greater joy than that which comes from right
companionship. Who would not rather live in a hut
with congenial companions than in a palace with
disagreeable associates. Who would not rather live
on a bleak and barren isle among real Christians than
in the fairest land the sun ever shone upon among
infidels, blasphemers, drunkards, ruffians and liber
tines. The most attractive feature of heaven is its
society, especially the society of God and the Lord
Jesus. Well might Samuel Rutherford say : I would
rather be in hell with Thee than in heaven without
Thee: for if I were in hell with Thee that would be
heaven to me, and if I were in heaven without Thee
that would be hell to me." But when we have the
conscious presence and companionship of God on
earth, "we have two heavens, the heaven to which
we are going and a heaven to go to heaven in." In
one of the loneliest hours of His lonely life Jesus
looked up with radiant joy and said, "Yet I am not
alone, because the Father is with me" (John 6:32).
SECRET OF ABIDING PEACE 247
Can you not remember some ecstatic hour of your
life when you walked, and sometimes talked and
sometimes were silent, with an earthly companion
whom you loved as you loved no other? Oh, happy
hour! but only faintly suggestive of the rapture that
comes from walking with God, for He is an infinitely
dearer and better and more glorious companion than
any earthly one could be. How the homely details
of everyday life are transfigured if we have the
constant fellowship of God in them. There lived in
the Middle Ages a lad named Nicholas Hermann.
He was a raw, awkward youth, breaking all things
that he touched, but one day the thought was brought
to his mind with great force that God was every
where and that he might have the constant thought
of His presence with him and do all things to His
glory. This thought transformed his life. He soon
went to a monastery. His duty there was of the most
menial character, in the kitchen, washing pots and
kettles, but to use his own way of putting it, he
11 practised the presence of God" in the midst of his
humble toil. That kitchen became so holy a place that
men took long journeys to meet Nicholas Hermann
and to converse with him. Some of his conversations
and letters have been published under the title "The
Practise of the Presence of God."
2. The second result of walking with God is a
great sense of security, abiding peace. In the Psalm
already quoted the Psalmist sings again : " I have set
the Lord always before me, because He is at my right
hand I shall not be moved" (Ps. 16:7). Certainly
not. How can we be moved if God is with us, what
harm can befall us? How often God says to His
248 THE VOICE OF GOD
servants as they begin to tremble before approaching
danger: "Fear not, I am with thee" (Isa. 41:10).
How safe the trusting child feels with father or
mother by its side. A little girl was once playing in
a room below while her mother was above, busy
about household duties. Every little while the child
would come to the foot of the stairs and call up :
"Mamma, are you there?" "Yes, darling, what is
it?" "Nothing, I only wanted to know if you were
there." Then again a little while: "Mamma, are
you there ? " " Yes, darling, what is it ? " " Nothing,
I only wanted to know you were there. ' ' Ah ! is not
that all we want to know, that God is here, right
here by our side? There may be pestilence, there
may be war, there may be famine, there may be
thugs upon the street, there may be burglars in the
house, there may be haunts of sin, and unprincipled
men arid women on every hand ; yes our wrestling may
not be with flesh and blood but "against the prin
cipalities, against the powers, against the world rulers
of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wicked
ness in the heavenlies, ' ' but what does it matter ? God
is with us. Oh, if we only bore in mind at every
moment the thought of His presence with us, if we
could only hear Him saying, "Fear thou not, for I
am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God:
I will strengthen thee; yea I will help thee; yea I
will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteous
ness," there would never be one single tremor of
fear in our hearts under any circumstances. No mat
ter .how the war increases, no matter how near it may
come to our own doors, there would be unruffled
calm, abounding peace, we could constantly say under
SECRET OF ABIDING PEACE 249
all circumstances, ' ' The Lord is my light and my sal
vation ; whom shall I fear ? The Lord is the strength
of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the
wicked, even my enemies and my foes came upon me
to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though
a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not
fear: though war should rise against me, in this will
I be confident." No wonder the Psalmist wrote in
this connection, "One tiling have I desired of the
LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the
house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the
beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple."
The conscious companionship of God is the great
secret of abiding peace.
3. The third result of walking with God is spiritual
enlightenment. Communion with God rather than
scholarship opens to us the mind and thought of God.
There is no hint that Enoch was a man of science or
letters. I am very sure he was not a higher critic,
and yet this plain man by walking with God and
talking with God got such an insight into the pur
poses of God as no other man of his time had. In
the epistle of Jude, the 14th and 15th verses, we learn
that even in that far-away day, a thousand years be
fore the flood, Enoch got hold of the great truth
of the second coming of Christ. So to-day some old
washerwoman, some humble cobbler, who walks with
God may know more of the mind of God than many
an eminent college professor, or even professor in a
theological seminary. The important question con
cerning points in dispute in religion and spiritual
life is not what do the scholars say, but what do the
men and women who walk with God say. If one is
250 THE VOICE OF GOD
considering going to some one for spiritual instruc
tion, the first question is not how much of a scholar
is he, not how much does he know of Latin and
Hebrew and Greek and Syriac and philosophy and
psychology, but does he walk with God. This is the
great condition of spiritual insight, wisdom and un
derstanding.
4. The fourth result of walking with God is purity
of heart and life. Nothing else is so cleansing as the
consciousness of God's presence. Things that we
have long tolerated become intolerable when we bring
them into the white light of the presence of the Holy
One. How many things we do in the darkness of the
night, yea, even in the broad light of day, that we
could not for a moment think of doing if we realized
God was right there by our side — looking. Many
deeds we now do would be left undone if we realized
this. Many words we now speak would be left un
spoken, many thoughts and fancies we now cherish
would be speedily banished. There are certain things
that we do in the absence of certain holy friends that
we would not for a moment do in their presence, but
God is always present whether we know it or not,
and if we walk in the consciousness of His presence,
if we walk with God, our lives and hearts will
speedily whiten. I have a friend who in his early life,
though he professed to be a Christian, was very pro
fane. He tried hard to overcome his profanity, but
failed. He felt he must give up his attempt to be a
Christian, but one day a wise Christian to whom he
appealed for help, said to him, "Would you swear if
your father were present?" "No." "Well, when
you go to your work to-morrow remember that God is
SECRET OF ABIDING PEACE 251
with you every moment. Keep the thought of God's
presence with you." At the end of the day to his
amazement he had not sworn once. He had had the
thought of God with him through the day and he
could not be profane in that presence. The conscious
ness of the presence of God will keep us from doing
all the things that we would not dream of doing in
His presence. Herein lies the secret of a holy life.
5. The next result of walking with God is closely
akin to this, beauty of character. We become like
those with whom we habitually associate. How like
their parents children become. How many mothers
and fathers have been startled by seeing their own im
perfections and follies mirrored in their children.
Husband and wife grow strangely like one another,
thus also the one who associates with God becomes like
God. John Welch, a spiritual hero of the 16th century
(1590 A.D.), son-in-law of John Knox, is said to have
" reckoned that day ill spent if he stayed not seven
or eight hours in prayer. ' ' One who well remembered
his ministry said of him: "He was a type of Christ."
Association with God made him like God. If we
walk with God, more and more will his beauty illu
mine and reflect itself in our lives. Moses' very face
shone as he came down from the forty days and forty
nights of converse with God. So will our whole life
soon shine with a heavenly glow and glory if we
habitually walk with God. "With unveiled faces
reflecting as a mirror the glory of God" we shall be
"transformed into the same image from glory unto
glory" (2 Cor. 3:18).
6. The next result of walking with God will be
eminent usefulness. Our lives may be quiet and even
252 THE VOICE OF GOD
obscure, it may be impossible to point to what men
call great achievement, but the highest usefulness
lies not in. such things but in the silent, almost un
noticed but potent and pervasive influence of a holy
life, whose light illumines, whose beauty cheers, and
whose nobility elevates all who come in contact with
it. Enoch has wrought out immeasurably more good
for man than Nebuchadnezzer, who built the marvel
lous structures of Babylon, than Augustus who ''found
Rome brick and left it marble, " than the Egyptian
monarchs who built the pyramids to amaze and mys
tify the world for thousands of years to come; and
to-day the man or woman, no matter how humble
or obscure, who walks with God is accomplishing more
for God and man than Morse with his telegraph, Ful
ton with his steamboat, Stevenson with his locomotive,
Cyrus Field with his Atlantic cable, Roebling with
his marvellous bridges, Marconi with his wireless tele
graphy and telephony, Edison and Tesla with their
electric and electrifying discoveries, or any of the
renowned political reformers of the day, with all their
futile schemes for turning this world into a terrestrial
paradise. Friends, if you wish to be really, per
manently, eternally useful, walk with God.
7. But there is a still better result than this from
walking with God, we please God. Before his transla
tion Enoch had this testimony borne to him that he
"was well pleasing to God" (Heb. 11:5, R.V.),
This is more than to be useful. God wants our com
pany, God wants us to walk with Him, and He is well
pleased when we do. God is more concerned that we
walk with Him than that we work for Him. Martha
was taken up with her service for her Lord, but Mary
SECRET OF ABIDING PEACE 253
was taken up with her Lord Himself and He testified
that Mary had chosen the better part. It is quite
possible to-day to be so occupied with our work for
God that we forget Him for whom we work. If we
would please Him we should first see to it that we
walk with him.
8. There is one result of walking with God still
left to be mentioned, that is, God's eternal companion
ship. " Enoch walked with God: and he was not;
for God took him." The man who walks on earth
with God, God will sooner or later take to be with
Himself for ever. "If any man serve me," says
Christ, "let him follow me; and where I am there
shall also my servant be." If we do not walk with
God on earth we are not likely to live with God in
Heaven. If we do not care to cultivate His society
now, we may be sure that He will not take us to be
in His society for ever.
III. How TO ENTER INTO A WALK WITH GOD.
These eight immeasurably precious results come
from walking with God: abounding joy, abiding
peace, spiritual enlightenment, purity of heart and
life, beauty of character, eminent usefulness, pleas
ing God, God's eternal companionship. Do we not
all then long to walk with Him? To come then face
to face with the great practical question, what must
we do that we ourselves may enter into this joyous,
blessed walk with Him. The question can be plainly
and simply answered.
1. First of all we must trust in the atoning blood
of Christ. "By faith/* the record reads, "Enoch
was translated" (Heb. 11:5; cf. v. 4). Comparing
254
THE VOICE OF GOD
this with what is said immediately before about Abel,
we see that the faith by which he pleased God and
was translated was faith in what God said about the
blood. God is holy and we are sinners. Sin separates,
as a deep and impassable chasm between us and Him.
There can be no walk with Him until sin is put away
and the chasm thus bridged, and it is the blood, and
the blood alone, that puts away sin (Heb. 9:22).
It is vain for us to attempt to cultivate the presence
of God until we have accepted the provision that
God Himself has made for putting away sin from
between us and Himself. Indeed, if we have any real
thought of God's holiness and our sinfulness there
could be no joy, but only agony, in fellowship with
Him, unless our sin was covered up, washed away,
blotted out by the blood. There are many to-day who
are spurning the blood and still attempting to walk
with God. Vain attempt! It is utterly impossible.
2. If we would walk with God we must obey God.
Jesus said, ' ' If a man love me, he will keep my word :
and my Father will love him, and we will come unto
him, and make our abode with him" (John 14:23,
R.V.). Obedience to God, absolute surrender to His
will, is necessary if we are to walk with Him. We
cannot walk with God unless we go His way. Two
cannot walk together unless they be agreed (Amos.
3:3). There are many who once knew the presence
of God every day and every hour. They know it
no longer. The old and heavenly joy has faded from
their lives. They wonder why it is. Ah ! there is no
mystery — disobedience. Come back, get right with
God, surrender anew absolutely to His will.
3. There is but one thing more to say. // we would
SECRET OF ABIDING PEACE 255
walk with God we must cultivate the thought of His
presence. As Nicholas Hermann, or Brother Law
rence, put it, we must "practise the presence of
God" constantly. Call to mind the fact that God is
with you when you are about your work. Often say
to yourself, "God is with me." When you lie down
at night say, "God is with me." If you wake at
night remember ' ' God is here with me. " So in all the
relations and experiences of life. There are four
great aids to this: First, the study of God's Word.
When we open this book we realize, or ought to real
ize, that God Himself is speaking to us. Second,
prayer. In prayer we come face to face with God.
Third, thanksgiving. In intelligent and specific
thanksgiving to God He is more real to us than even
in petition. Fourth, worship. In worship we bow
before God and contemplate Himself. Oh, how near
He gets at such a time. It is the Holy Spirit who
will make our walk with God true and real. It is in
connection with the coming of the Spirit that Christ
speaks of His own manifestation of Himself to us
and of the coming of the Father and of Himself to
be with us (John 14: 16, 17, 18, 21, 23). Look then
to God Himself by His Spirit to make His presence
known and felt.
Brethren, shall we walk with God? God is saying
to each of us to-day, "Come, take a walk with me."
If we accept the wondrous invitation He will lead
us on as long as we will let Him, and some day it will
be true of us, as some one has quaintly said of Enoch,
we will walk so far with God we will not come back,
and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
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