USA > Delaware > New Castle County > Wilmington > Centennial services of Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church, Wilmington, Delaware, October 13-20, 1889 > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28
There are two or three classes of these promises I might mention. How clearly defined, how distinct do they stand out, on this great background of God's everlasting oaths of fidelity; and God will come down from heaven and die, ere He will allow a single one to go unful- filled.
(a) Willing obedience the solvent of doubts.
While on earth Jesus left this test: "If any man will do His will. he shall know the doctrine, whether it be of God." The revised ver- sion makes it clearer, and renders the Greek more accurately: "If any man wills to do His will, he shall know." Here is a pledge, a. promise, a test. God says he will. not leave such a one in the dark.
-
23
ASBURY METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
When I was a young pastor in New York City I had a call from a young art student, the son of a Canadian Methodist minister. It was not long before he brought it around in conversation so as tell me that he did not believe in the Bible. His father a minister of God, his mother a Christian woman, and the son did not believe in the Bible! I was so surprised I asked him over again: "You say you do not be- lieve in the Bible ?" "No. " "Well how did you come to disbelieve the Bible? If you were trained by a Christian father and mother, you sure- ly must have believed in the Bible when a child ; then how it is you do not believe now? Certainly upon so important a subject you must have spent much time and study before rejecting the Bible? I suppose you have read the Bible through two or three times at least?" "No; I have never have read it through." "Did you ever read the New Testament through?" "No." "How long since you read your last chap- ter?" "O, about five or six weeks." I must confess I felt like saying to him what Dr. Lyman Beecher said to a man who was ranting about his scepticism: "You are no sceptic, it takes brains to be a sceptic." Here was a beardless youth of nineteen, who had never read even the New Testament through in his life, pretending to deny the Bible of his father and mother! But I did not say anything sharp like the master when a certain young man came to him, and when "he looked on him he loved him;" so as I looked on this young man I loved him; and I determined to save him if I could, looking at him I said gently, "Pardon me, but may I ask if your Bible is not now in your trunk?" He answered that it was. "And is it not away down in the bot- tom of your trunk under all your clothes?" He blushed and said. "Yes, it is at the bottom." "Pardon one more question; when you left home to come to New York, did not your mother put your Bible in your trunk with her own hands, right on top of everything, so that it would be in full view the moment the lid was opened?" I saw his embarrass- ment, and his evident confusion; and as he did not reply at once I continued. "now no one has told me anything about it ; I never saw you or heard of you in my life until you introduced yourself a few minutes ago ; and all I know about you is what I have gathered during our conversation." He then acknowledged that iny surmise had been cor- rect. After chatting a few minutes he arose to go and I said, " Well, my young friend, you have taken an hour of a very busy man ; I have given it to you cheerfully, however, and am willing to do what I can for you: may I make one request of you .? " "Why, certainly, I will do any- thing I can for you ; what is it ?" " Before you retire to-night will you not take your Bible out of your trunk and read two or three chapters of the gospel according to Luke? and do this every day until I see you ?"
24
CENTENNIAL EXERCISES
At first he hesitated ; but at last he promised to do as I requested, and he went home.
Three weeks from the next Sunday I baptized that young man into the Church of God, the happiest of converts.
Young brethren of the ministry, what are you going to do abou it ? How shall doubters be convinced ? Will you refer them to the large volumes of Watson, or Pope, or Butler? Do not do this. Send them to the Bible. The New Testament and prayer is the short road out of scepticism. The way of salvation is by faith; and to get faith we must come to Jesns, for He is both the " Author and Finisher of our faith."
(b) Another class of promises: "He that believeth shall be saved." Does anybody know that? [Voices, "Yes!"] "We are witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God giveth to them that obey Him." We must emphasize the teachings of the Holy Ghost.
Some time ago I heard a most able address by Dr. Patton, of Princeton, before the convention of the Y. M. C. A. He was speaking of the evidences of the truth of the Bible and religion. He said it was as a man going on a journey of a thousand miles, but stops a half mile from home. He is not at home. So he argued that all the authority of the scriptures and of tradition, all history and all logic, all learning, does not complete the journey. What about that last half mile ? The Holy Ghost takes you the last half mile. "We are his witness of these things, and so is also the Holy Ghost."
Does any body know that ? Saint Paul insists that he has no remedy in his whole Materia Medica but "Believe and thou shalt be saved." I see him in Troas, alone, meditating. One comes unto him saying, "Come over into Macedonia and help us." He takes it as the voice of God, sets sail across the blue ægean, and finds his way to Philippi. He goes out to the place of prayer and finds there certain faithful women, whom he tells of Jesus. Among these is Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, whose "heart the Lord opened;" and Lydia believed and was converted, the first convert in all Europe. "O, well she was only a woman; a good, pure, gentle woman. It is easy enough to get her to believe and profess. Let us have another case, Paul. Lydia won't do. We want to see you try it on some bad, sin-polluted, determined man. Take another case, Paul, before you ask us to believe you have a sure cure." All right. Here he is, right in this same city of Philippi, the hard-hearted, iron-handed Roman jailer. Paul and Silas have been thrown into prison. With
25
ASBURY METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
backs gaslied by the scourge and bleeding, with their feet fast in the stocks, these two sing hymns and praise God. It is no low humming; but they sing out so loud "all the prisoners heard them." It is mid- night; and as they pray God sends in his "amen" with an earthquake. The foundations of the prison are shaken, the doors are all open, and .the shackles fall from every prisoner. The jailer in alarm springs from his bed to find the doors all open; and thinking the prisoners are surely gone he draws his sword and is about to fall on it when Paul calls out, "Do thyself no harm, we are all here." The jailer calls for lights, and comes in; and falling down before Paul and Silas asks, "What must I do to be saved ?" Now, Paul, here is your case. Here is a poor, hardened wretch. What will you do with him? And Paul pulls out the same old medicine, saying, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." The remedy works just as well as in the case of Lydia; for he believed, and was converted and baptized, and received into church all between midnight and day.
I know something of this from personal experience. From nine years of age until I was eighteen I was bowing at every Methodist altar I could get to. Never was an invitation given but I accepted it and went forward. All these years I was seeking for light and pardon -praying and groaning for salvation. I wondered how it was that God would convert harlots and drunkards and all that were vile, and leave me, a good, moral, truthful boy, who had never done anything very bad, in the dark. But at eighteen I saw that during all these years I had been a poor, little, miserable Pharisee, thinking I was some- thing when I was nothing. Then I cried, "O Lord, I am poor and vile, and I cannot save myself. Have mercy upon me, poor, miserable sinner." And the Lord heard me, and answered me; and I knew for myself that God does forgive sinners. The same God that converted that little son of a poor Methodist preacher will save all who put their trust in him.
Does anybody else know this ?
Years ago I heard Bishop Janes tell of a little Jewess who lived in Baltimore. Her husband was a gay young man, who spent his even- ings away from home, and his wife was left to entertain herself as best she could. One evening having nothing else to do, merely for the sake of amusement she went into the basement of a church where they were holding a protracted meeting, and heard for the first time in her life a Gospel sermon. She was highly amused at the singing and prayer, and the preaching seemed perfectly ridiculous to her. Being so much entertained she came the next evening, and was, if possible, even more amused than the first time. But somehow during the hours
1
26
CENTENNIAL EXERCISES
of the next day she could not help but think, "Well, now suppose what the preacher said is true ; suppose this Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah." She went to the meeting the third evening, and she became very much exercised. It seemed that the sermon came directly to her. She left the church at the close of the sermon feeling that "this Jesus must be the Christ, the Messiah for which the Jews . have been looking ; and my people murdered him." She was under deep conviction. She could not go to bed. Her husband came in about midnight and found her bathed in tears. He wanted to know what the matter was, and she told him. He begged hier to come to bed, telling her that she was just nervous and excited ; but she said no : she could not go to bed. She wanted him to go right out and get her a New Testament. He told her the stores were all closed, and she must wait until morning ; and besides what a curse would come on them from their people. "No," said she, "I must have it now. Please go get me one from a neighbor's." When he found he could not dissuade her he set out, and going to the house of a Christian neighbor rang the bell. Ronsed from his slumber the good man came to the door and in- quired what was wanted. The husband replied, "I am sorry to trouble at this hour of the night ; but my wife wants a New Testa- ment." "You shall have it," replied the good man ; and gave him the desired Testament. As soon as the young husband was gone the good neighbor, one of those lynx-eyed watchmen on the walls of Zion, always looking about to see where the arrows from the pulpit are strik- ing, put on his clothes and went to call up another brother. "What do you want?" asked the brother disturbed. "Put on your clothes and come go with me. I think the Lord has a mission for us to-night. You remember that little Jewess who has been to our meeting for three nights ? Well, her husband has just been to my house and got a New Testament, saying his wife wanted it. I think we ought to go see if we can not help her." So these two started to the Jew's house.
Meanwhile, the husband of the Jewess had returned to his home, and handed his wife the much coveted New Testament. She re- ceived it with as much reverence as if it had been the Ark of Jehovah itself. She hastened to her own room, and clasping the book in her arms prayed "O God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, give me light ! give me light ! give me light !" With trembling hands and palpitat- ing heart she opened the book. Her eye fell upon the first chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans; and with bated breath she read : "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his prophets." "Why that means our Jewish prophets. So then they, our own prophets, prophesied of this Jesus,-'Concerning IIis son Jesus Christ.' Why
27
ASBURY METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
here again this Jesus is called the Christ, the Messiah -- 'our Lord." Why this Jesus is here called our Lord. Can it be so ? 'Which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. ' Why that was what our prophets all said the true Messiah should be. . And declared to be the son of God with power, '-son of God ? Why this must be true. This Jesus must be the true Messiah. Help me, O Lord !" and on she read and prayed, on down to the sixteenth verse where she read. "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." Every one that believeth ; why that must mean me. . Every one!' . Unto the Jew first !' Is it so? 'Unto the Jew first ?' Why praise the Lord, that means me sure. Unto the Jew first ; I see it now ! I am saved. This Jesus is the Messiah, and He is my Savior." When the two good brethren rang the door bell she had no need of their help ; but filled with joy, she shouted to them, " I have found Jesus, the son of God, the son of Mary ; and He is MY Savior."
"O, that is all imagination !" Imagination ? Then in the name of scientific honesty give us a fact ? Do we know anything that we can not see and hear? Do I know that I love my wife and children when I return from my long journeys ? And my boy, just budding into manhood, and my darling daughter, and my faithful loving wife meet me with kisses and words and looks of tenderest affection ? Do I know that I love them ? If so, why do I not know that I love my God, who has done and is still doing so much for me ?
Bishop Janes said that to his personal knowledge, for fifteen years from that midnight hour, that woman showed forth by her walk and conversation that she had indeed found Jesus. You want facts ? The Roman Empire and the old red sandstone are no more facts than are such experiences in religion.
Have no more doubt about experimental religion. Here is the citadel. Here is the central, pivotal point of the war against sin. Never worry about scepticism, or rationalism, or pantheism, or any other "ism," as long as you are living "witnesses of these things." Twenty or thirty men raised from the death of sin to life in the Lord Jesus Christ is a standing argument that religian is true ; and all the argument in the world can not overturn such evidence.
In my world-ranging tours I find everywhere men and women who rise and testify that they know that they have proved God-they know they have peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. There are living to-day a host as great as that John saw, "that no man can number, " who can truthfully testify that they have tried and proved that God is true, and that He does fulfill His promises to men.
28
CENTENNIAL EXERCISES
Yet there are those who say they doubt about there being any such thing as experimental religion: That such talk belongs to the old days of superstition (by which they mean theology). "But we have reached a higher plane in learning now -- we have got to the solid basis of fact."
Now, my doubting friend, I want to ask you two or three plain questions, to see what you mean by your oft-repeated boast of scientific knowledge. In the first place I will ask you :
(a) Is mystery the proof of absurdity ?
You claim that it is, in the case of religion; and because of its mysteries you refuse to believe the Bible and its teachings. Then where, prey you, is your boasted science ? I have a handful of cambric needles, and I throw them on the Bible here. I take an ordinary horse- shoe magnet and move it near then, and find the needles at once follow the magnet. No matter which way I turn the magnet the needles follow. I ask some bright school boy of twelve, "What makes the needles follow the magnet ?" at once he replies, "Magnetism." I ask, "And what is magnetism ? Can't tell me, eh ? Don't know ? Very well my lad, don't worry; Professor Tyndale says he don't know either. I raise this hymn book a few inches and let go of it, and down it falls; why? "Gravitation," you reply. Yes; but what is gravitation? No man on earth knows, or ever will know. Here are these simplest of scientific facts that no scientist can explain-mysteries just as great as those we find in the spiritual world. Explain to me, who can, the mystery of magnetism, and I will undertake to unfold to you the mystery of the Trinity. When you can tell me the mystery of gravitation, whether it is in the matter, or outside of matter, or something different and apart from matter, then it will be my time to tell you the mysteries of sal- vation.
It is strange, yet not strange, to see what men will believe, and what they refuse to believe. A heathen king of an oriental country was being entertained by a philosopher, who had been traveling in Arctic regions, with an account of his travels. The traveler was re- counting a series of sights and adventures as marvelous as those of Munchausen or the Arabian Nights; and the king drank in every word as the most sacred truth. Presently the traveler said that he had seen water frozen hard into a substance called ice; and when this frozen it became so hard that men and horses, and even elephants, could walk on it like it were the solid ground beneath their feet. "O stop, stop," said the now excited king; "now I know you are lying." He refused to believe, because in his hot country he had never seen ice.
29
ASBURY METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
Walking down the street there comes a lean, lank, parchment-faced philosopher, whose head is packed with what he calls "scientific learning." On her way to school comes tripping past a bright-eyed little girl with her satchel of school books on her arm, singing out from her merry heart,
"Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so ; If I love Him, when I die, He will take me home on high."
The cold-hearted philosophier looks after the child in pity, and says " What a shame that the Sunday School should teach that bright child such nonsense. What a shame to impose so upon hier childish credulity. However, I will not undeceive her." Which of the two is to be pitied ? O, sing on, little maid, sing on. You are not deceived. You are only practicing the song of salvation which you shall one day sing with the redeemed in Glory. Sing on, and do not let the grim- bling of the philosopher whose soul is blind hinder you in your happy march to Zion, the bright city of God.
And I would ask my scientific doubter one other question :
(b) Do you not hold that the law of need is universal ? That for every need there is, there must be, a supply ?
Certainly science does hold this as a cardinal truth. Light is for the eye, honey for the honey bee, water for the fish.
Blasting in a mine five hundred feet below the surface a skull is found. At once science says, "this creature moved upon the surface of the earth." It may be a skull like none other ever found. It may seem to be that of neither bird, beast, nor human ; and yet at once the scientist says, "the owner lived on the surface of the earth." Why ? Because in this skull are sockets, and sockets mean eyes for the sockets, and eyes mean light, demand light. So disease demands a cure ; and I have no question that there are hidden in mineral and vegetable a cure of every disease. It is the part of medicine to hunt these out.
But there is something else beside these material demands. I have an intellect that demands truth ; it craves knowledge. Well do I remember how the blood tingled in my very finger tips and in my toes when I mastered the multiplication table. Truth ! my mind demands it ! the whole universe is my teacher : mountain, river, ocean, plain, my text books.
Is that all ? No, I worship. I want a God ; I want salvation ; I want immortality. Saint Paul but voiced the wail of thoughtful men
30
CENTENNIAL EXERCISES
of all ages when he cried, "O, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver ine from the body of this death?" These are the seers of the race. Men have gone up and down this earth weeping and wailing, "O, where is my Father ? where is my God ?" The thunder peals in the Heaven above, and some say "that must be God ;" and worship. Some beholding the sun shining in his strength and bringing light and life, say " that must be our God, " and worship.
The storm, the wind, the rushing waters, each have spoken ; and various races have said, "these must be God ;" and have worshiped. I hear a voice. Whenee is it, of Heaven, or earth, or from within ? False or true, whence is it ? It is beside me, it is within me, sweetly saying, "Our Father." Praise His name! I have found Him! my God, and my Father !
Now a word in elosing.
There are those who are practically infidels. I take my Bible and start through this congregation and ask you one by one, "Do you believe this book?" Every one of you would indignantly reply, "Yes." Let me ask you one more question before leaving you, "Do you live as though you believed it?" You hang your heads, and mumble something about "doubting experimental religion." Then why say you believe the Bible, when all the time you are practically living an infidel life? Doubt on, and you can only have, and you must surely have, the same terrible fate as those who refuse God.
Passing along the street I meet a man of fair intelligence, and pointing to the second brightest star that to-night is shining in the heavens, I say, "Does not Jupiter and his four moons look beautiful to-night." He replies. "I don't believe in Jupiter's having four 1110ons. Such talk is all nonsense. I never saw them in my life, and I don't believe any one else ever did. " "Well, my friend, you may not be able to see them with the naked eye ; only about one man in ten thousand can ; but if you will come home with me and look through my telescope I will show them to you." So together we go to my home. As he takes my arm to climb the observatory steps, I notice he leans rather heavily on my arm. Reaching the top I turn niy telescope upon the planet Jupiter, fix the focal distance until it is just right, then ask him to come look. He comes stumbling along and puts his eye to the glass, and grumbles out. "I see no Jupiter, nor the four moons." Amazed I look at the man, and see he is blind ! No wonder he does not see. But shall I let that blind man made me believe that the four moons of Jupiter all imagination merely because he can not see them ? So in spiritual things. It is not to be expected that the natural man shall see and understand spiritual truth. They
31
ASBURY METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
are spiritually blind. The Bible distinctly says, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
But suppose the blind man refuses to put his eye to the glass ; is he not still more inexcusable ? Blind at best, and now refusing to put his eye where he might have his vision aided ; would you not say he was a most presmuptuous man to dare stand up and speak against the four moons of Jupiter as being a fable ? That is just the position of some here to-night ; blind, and yet refusing to come put their eye to the only place on earth whence they may be able to see. The Master when on earth at one time cried out, " Ye will not come unto Me that ye may have life." "Ye WILL, not." There is the trouble. You refuse to do just what God says you must do in order to see. How long will you go on in your blind, stubborn way, refusing the mercy of God ?
Suppose, however, I get the blind man to believe that if he will only come and put his eye to the telescope, he will receive his sight, and will be able to see just as well as I. He has never seen in all his life before ; so he makes up his mind to try. With trembling step he approaches the telescope, puts his eye close up to the lens, turns his face up toward heaven, and at once the scales fall from his eyes. ** Why, I do see something. I see a beautiful bright spot of light, set in a background of richest, deepest blue ; is that Jupiter ?" "Yes." "And I see circling about that bright spot four brilliant points of light. Are they the four inoons?" "Yes." "(, then I see them, I see them too. No doubt about it. Whereas I was once blind now I see, " You now have a life witness that Jupiter has four moons.
(), blind man, troubled with doubts, if you would see and know for yourself the power of God to save sinners, come put your eye to the Gospel telescope. Don't doubt, don't scoff; but try it ! try it ! ! TRY IT ! ! !
32
CENTENNIAL EXERCISES
-
The Joy of the Lord.
SERMON BY THE REV. JOHN A. ROCHE, D. D.
Nel. 8 : 10. The joy of the Lord is your strength.
With nations and churches as with individuals, "There is a time to weep and a time to laugh." In ancient times (Dut. 16: 15) the feast was to be kept with rejoicing. The context presents an occasion that justified intensest joy. We witness one of the sublimest spectacles in the world's history. God's chosen people, long in captivity, have returned to Jerusalem. They who "by the rivers of Babylon sat down and wept, when they remembered Zion, "are back in the city of Solemni- ties, male and female-all of understanding assemble, as upon a plazza before the water gate and ask Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses. He stood upon a pulpit of wood and read and caused them to understand. He blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people with uplifted hands and bowed heads, answered amen. Memory awoke, gratitude glowed, hearts melted.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.