USA > Delaware > New Castle County > Wilmington > Centennial services of Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church, Wilmington, Delaware, October 13-20, 1889 > Part 6
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"And let this feeble body fail, And let it faint and die My soul shall quit this mournful vale And soar to worlds on high."
then cover me up and sing, Praise God from whom all blessings flow, ' then go to your homes and leave me until the morning of the
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resurrection." The Christian in his dying hour realizes the presence of Jesuis with him and therefore witnesses the truth and attests the power of Christ's resurrection and he will witness the same glorious truth in his resurrection. If you believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so also them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him at His coming. Then-
"Break off your tears ye saints and tell How high your great Deliverer reigns. Sing how He spoiled the hosts of hell And led the monster death in chains."
I shall close with an inference or two; first, if the Christian witnesses the truth and attests the power of Christ's resurrection, we infer that Christianity carries with it its own attestation. Everyone who embraces it knows the truth for himself ; he becomes conscious that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and under the enlightening, renewing and attesting influences of the Holy Spirit he can say, "I know that my redeemer liveth." No man need travel in search of evidence to sustain the truth of the Christian religion ; 10 inan need devour books to find proof of its sustaining power ; only let him come and test its truths by actual experience and he will have evidence sufficient to prove that the religion of Jesus can accomplish what it proposes to do. A camp-meeting was held, as I have been informed, in one of the townships of Penn, in a grove owned by a man who was skeptical in his religious views. That gentleman, although a skeptic, attended the meetings and was present at nearly all of the services. During the meeting prayer was offered for his conversion. The preachers knowing his condition so constructed their sermons that he might see his error and forsake it ; but nothing seemed to move him, and the friends of Jesus began to fear that the meeting would close without producing any good results on his mind. Towards the close of the camp, an experience meeting was held, and during the progress of the meeting, two men in the congregation were seen to rise and lift up a chair upon which sat a poor little crippled boy. The child proceeded to tell how the spirit of God strove with his heart and how he had been brought to a saving knowledge of the truth ; and then he said, "Although I am crippled and deprived of the sports of other children, I am happy in God, my Saviour." As he reached this point, the skeptic rose to his feet, and with tears in his eyes, started towards the cripple exclaiming as he went, "There must be something in it. there must be something in it." Yes, there is something in it ; all that we ask is that you shall come and try it, then you will know for yourself and not another. Come, touch but the hem of His garment and you will feel healing and cleansing virtue to flow into your soul and as you feel it you will exclaim with us,
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Jesus' blood hath healed my wounds, O the wondrous story ! I was lost but now I'm found Glory, glory, glory.
Again, I infer that there is no saving religion without the knowl- edge of a living Redeemer. There is no other name given under heaven among men, whereby a man can be saved. Paul was willing to count all things but loss, if he might thereby know Jesus and the power of his resurrection. Men may talk of their morality and church membership ; they may talk of confirmation and baptism ; they may speak of orthodoxy and consistency ; they may be possessed of every- thing else besides, but if they have not the knowledge of a living Redeemer, it is of no avail. Other foundations can no man lay save that which is laid. A knowledge of Christ in the remission of sins is indispensible to salvation. Christ is to the sinner what the life-boat is to the drowning mariner. He is the only passage from the power of darkness into the kingdom of grace, for he hath said, "I am the way, the life and the truth, no man cometh unto the Father but by mne." Therefore without the knowledge of a living Redeemer we can not be saved. This being true, let ine ask, Have you felt the resurrec- tion power raising you from the death of sin to a life of righteous- ness ? Can you say with Job, "I know that my Redeemer liveth ?" If so, hold on to this knowledge, hold everything in subordination to it, maintain it at all hazzards. If you will, it will sustain you in the midst of life's trials, it will disarm death of its sting and will be the condition on which you will be received into everlasting habitations, where you will dwell in the immediate presence of Him who sits upon the throne and be forever with the Lord. But if you have not this knowledge of a living Redeemer, if you do not know Him in the power of His resurrection, whatever hope you may indulge in is as worth- less as the baseless fabric of a vision. God can only save you through the son of his love. Time is short with you, life is uncertain, the thunders of God's violated laws are against you, the horrors of an endless hell are moving to meet you at your coming, death is pursuing you, the decisions of a general judgment are just before you, there is 110 safety for you, not a shadow of hope anywhere but in the knowl- edge of a living Redeemer. Then come to Jesus just as you are. Come, confessing your sins ; come and accept Him as your Saviour, and as you accept Him, He will receive you. He says, "Behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man," no matter who he is, no matter if lie is almost damned, "if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in unto him and will sup with him and he with me." May the Lord help you to come !
REV. WM. C. ROBINSON,
Pastor of Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church, 1863-'65.
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Religious Meditation.
BY THE REV. WM. C. ROBINSON.
" My meditation of Him shall be sweet, I will be glad in the Lord." Psalms civ : 34.
There is, in all probability, no religious exercise that sustains a more important relation to our spirituality than religious meditation : and there is no duty more uniformly neglected. How few among us of set purpose and at fixed times engage in close consecutive religious thought. As remarked by one "It is easier, after listening to a sermon, to walk six miles than to meditate upon it for fifteen minutes :" and I may add that there is no fact in our experience which reveals more potently, though secretly and silently, the alienation of our nature from God than this indisposition to engage in religious thought. How cheering is the assurance brought to us in the Gospel that one of the sublime achievements it accomplishes in the life and upon the heart of the believer, is that of "Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exaltetli itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." (II Cor. x : 5.) Accordingly says the Psalmist in the words of my text, "My meditation of Him shall be sweet."
MEDITATION.
By meditation is to be understood the exercise of the power of continued thought. This power is God-given. "There is a spirit in man, and it is the inspiration of the Almighty that giveth him under- standing." It may be employed in Divine contemplation or in the consideration of the leading truths of the Gospel and of practical piety. This power distinguishes our species from the lower order of animals ; a power possessed by all men in a greater or less degree ex- cept of insanity or idiocy, or as may be in the case of very little child-
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ren. A power by which we are enabled to analyze, to compare, to judge and to act wisely ; in the rightful exercise of which we are so happy ; in which is constituted to so large an extent our personal re- sponsibility before God, and for the abuse of which the eternal displeasure of God will be visited upon us. "The wicked shall be turned into hell with all the nations that forget God." (Isa. ix : 17.)
THIS POWER INFLUENCED.
Our knowledge will be found to be the substance of our meditation and at the same time will prove its limit. The man of capacious in- tellect well stored with knowledge will enjoy the advantage arising from meditation to a much larger extent than the man of feeble intellect, however great may have been the latter's opportunities for the acquisition of knowledge. A Newton, a Locke, a Bacon, a Wes- ley, a Watson, and a Clarke enjoyed the advantages of continued re- flection in a fuller measure than most of their contemporaries. Like- wise, in our times, those who improve their opportunities for enlarging the bounds of their knowledge enjoy an intellectual life which is far above and beyond that enjoyed by those who neglect to add to their intellectual stores.
Our five senses are not only the avenues through which we form an acquaintance with the material world but they are stimuli to thought. What the eye sees or the ear hears awakens a corresponding perception in the mind. All our sensations have the power of suggest- ing ideas.
The tempers we cherish will assert a mastery over our thoughts. The avaricious man, the great object of whose life is to get gain, will find it much more difficult to withdraw his thoughts from these objects than he who considers himself the steward of a Divine Master. So, like- wise, is it with those who have cherished the passions of vanity or pride ; who are fascinated by a beautiful face, an elegant form or a large estate and expensive equipage ; who are happiest when they can excite the envy of others. The staple of their thought will be on the line of the passion they have indulged. A miser who had hidden his treasure in the ground was robbed and found a stone put in the place of his hoarded wealth, was lamenting his loss to a friend, when his friend remarked, "You are really none the worse off, for you would never use the money." "True," replied the miser, "but I am mad- it almost kills me to think that some one else is so much richer." The same is true of the licentious who live to the gratification of the "lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life ;" they
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will find that, notwithstanding the impulses of a nobler nature, their thoughts will be controlled by the momentum of their passion.
The habits formed by us will exert a most potent influence over our thought. It has been remarked, "Habits are chronic diseases of the mind," and we are accustomed to say, "I am so habituated to the thing that I did it without thought." Some are constitutionally indolent and stupid; others, through excessive eating or drinking, have their perceptions blunted or inflamed according to temperament; and, if circumstances prohibit the gratification of their desires, they become violent.
Our associations will be found to be commanding in their influence. We are social beings physically, intellectually and morally, and formed for one another's society. How readily we imbibe one another's spirit. We mutually impart our spirit and partake of the spirit of the society we enter. It is impossible to accept voluntarily the society of the pro- fane, the licentious and the proud without contamination. "Can two walk together except they be agreed?" (Amnos iii: 3.) The influence of these associations will extend beyond the moment of contact, intrud- ing upon the privacy of the closet, arresting and polluting our thoughts, and we would give worlds, if we had them, to be released from their power. Herein lies the hidden virus of novel-reading in which one associates with the characters figuring prominently in the plot. The Rev. Robert Hall, of England, who was induced to read thie novels of a distinguished authoress of his day, declared the effect to be the des- truction of all spiritual enjoyment and this condition of mind continued for weeks.
There is another agency influencing our meditation which should not be overlooked in this discussion-I allude to the power of the Evil One. Through any of the means mentioned or independent of them all he can inject a thousand thoughts. This will not be doubted by any who believe in the divine inspiration of the scriptures and the immateriality of the human soul, or by those who have simply noted the operations of their own minds. A single example will suffice: When the devil tempted Jesus, "Command these stones that they be made bread, " and upon the pinnacle of the temple, "Cast Thyself down from thence, for it is written I have given my angels charge over Thee, " and upon an exceeding high mountain where he showed Him all the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them saying. "All these will I give unto Thee if Thou wilt fall down and worship me." I will not discuss the questions as to whether the devil appeared to Jesus in a bodily shape or spoke in an audible voice. The only use I desire to make of this allusion is that the devil did have the power
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to insinuate thoughts of evil into the mind of Jesus. If this were possible with the immaculate Jesus he certainly possesses the same power over the human mind.
"Angels our march oppose Who still in strength excel, Our secret, sworn, eternal foes Countless, invisible. From thrones of glory driven By flaming vengeance hurled, They throng the air, they darken heaven And rule this lower world."
THE VARIED EFFECTS OF THESE AGENCIES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHARACTER.
With the unconverted these agencies, i. e. knowledge, the senses, tempers, habits and associations are like so many demons let loose from the bottomless pit goading the wicked onward to the gratifica- tion of every depraved appetite, propensity, and disposition, until, insane with passion, he plunges into the abyss of endless woe. These are the suicides, the assassins and the vile of every age. Here we have a development of that doctrine-Total Depravity-so largely taught in the Word of God, confirmed to our experience and observa- tion. Total, not in the sense that men cannot become worse but as involving every faculty, function and power. It is only upon this theory that the appalling character of crime can be explained. Other- wise, how could the drunkard with his eyes open to the ruin that is impending to health, to reputation, to estates, to family and to his immortal soul, press the fatal cup to his lips? Otherwise, how could a man consent to such villiany as to rob his benefactor of his hard earned and honestly gotten gains, merely to enrich himself or to expend it on his lusts ? Otherwise, how could the assassin place the knife at the throat of his fellow and with one stroke put out that light that no power at his command can relume? It is only explicable upon the theory that the human heart, unrestrained by Divine grace, is a perfect hell of passion. "For the imagination of a man's heart is evil from his youth." (Gen. viii : 21.) It is true that there are divinely appointed restraints upon the thoughts and passions of men secured through the atonement of Jesus; namely: the power of truth, the influence of the Holy Spirit, the society of the godly and the Church of God. To these and kindred agencies is to be attributed the civiliza- tion we enjoy, the good order we witness in society and the respect of ungodly men for what is right. Until the renewing and sanctifying grace of Christ asserts its power upon the hearts of men, society has nothing to expect but that men will continue to become vile in every
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form. Education will not correct the evil, it will only make a inan refined and accomplished in his wickedness.
OUR NATURE FITTED FOR RIGHT THOUGHT.
It is the work of our holy Christianity to sanctify knowledge, to to make a man to see witlı new eyes, to hear with new ears, and to taste, smell and feel with new emotion. It awakens heavenly tempers, leads to the formation of new habits and introduces into new associa- tions. The converted man is begotten again to new hopes, new long- ings, new joys, a new life, and, in an important sense, a new world. The den of vipers, the cage of unclean birds, the sephulchre of dead men's bones, the strong man armed, the legion of devils have all been cast out and substituted by tempers of a heavenly origin. The image of the devil has been effaced and the image of God has been restored. Old things have passed away and behold all things have become new. The things once loved are hated and the things once hated are loved, and thus the circumstances of life which hurry the unconverted onward to perdition, give impulse to the good in the way to heaven!
The religion of Jesus alone fits the mind for devout meditation, for it alone can bring man's nature into harmony with God. Previous to conversion the understanding was darkened. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned." (I Cor. ii: 14.) His thoughts are now in harmony with the Infinite Mind : the will, once opposed to the law of God and His Providence, is now brought into subjection to the Will of God. The new convert can say, "It is the Lord ; let Him do unto me as seemeth to Him good." (I Sam. iii: 18.) "Let me not fall into the hands of man but into the hands of God." (I Chron. xxi: 13.) "Not my will but Thine be done."' (Luke xxii: 42.) This is one of the most difficult lessons to learn, and the Christian character has no more positive test of its genuineness than this. A Christian lady whom I knew told me that in the course of six short weeks she was bereaved of her husband and three children, and lost an estate worth $35,000, and through it all she was enabled to say, " The will of the Lord be done." The affections are now in harmony with God. We love Him perfectly, whereas we were His enemies, and can say with Peter, "Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee" (John xxi : 17), and with the Psalmist, " Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none uron earth I desire beside Thee." (Psalms 1xxiii : 25.) In fact the whole nature is brought back into harmony with God. We are one with God as the foundation is one with the superstructure built upon it, as the branch is with the vine, as the head, the hands and the feet are one
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with the body. So are we as Christian members of His body and His flesh and His bones ; "For this cause," says Paul, "shall a man leave father and mother and cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery but I speak of Christ and His Church." (Matt. xix: 5.) Our life is hid with Christ in God. We are lost and swallowed up in Him. As Christ prayed " That they all may be one, as Thou Father art in Me and I in Thee, that they may be one in us that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." (John xvii: 21.) These are not mere figures of speech but the statement of a great fact which has taken place in the life of the believer. It is by this change that we are brought into sympathy with the Triune God, as well as the author of my text.
FITTING THEMES FOR MEDITATION.
I. The being and perfections of God. It is true we may never fully comprehend the Nature of God. "Canst thou by searching find out God ? Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection ? It is as high as heaven, what canst thou do ? It is as deep as hell, what canst thou know? And the measure thereof is wider than the earth and broader than the sea." (Job xi : 18.) A certain Armenian philoso- pher when asked, "What is God?" after prolonged study replied, "The more I think of God the more incomprehensible He seems." Nevertheless to the extent He has been pleased to reveal Himself, He is an inexhaustible source of thought. In His works, in the natural world, above us, beneath us, around us and within us, and through every season of the year. There are but few studies in which the lit- tleness of man's knowledge is more apparent than in astronomy. " The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork." (Psa. xix : 1.) "The invisible things of God are clearly seen being understood by the things He has made, even His eternal power and Godhead." (Rom. i: 20.)
2. In providence He covers the heavens with clouds and causes the grass to grow upon the mountains, filling His hands with bounties and satisfying the wants of every living creature. He causeth the sun to shine upon the evil and the good and sendeth the rain upon the just and the unjust. He controls amid the circumstances of life and all things work together for good to them that love Him. "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how un- searchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out." (Rom. xi : 23.)
3. In the great work of human redemption the love of God is the moving cause, the sacrifice of Christ is t !. procuring cause and the Spirit and the word are the instrumental causes. "God commendeth
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His love to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." Rom. v: 8.
"Here the whole Deity is known Nor dares a creature guess Which of the glories brighest shone The justice or the grace."
4. We may meditate upon Him in His word, in the privacy of the closet, in the sick room and by night upon our bed. What ad- monition ! What comfort ! "Oh how I love Thy law." (Psalms cxix: 97.) "More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold." (Psalms xix: 10.)
ĮHAPPY THOUGHTS TO-DAY.
This day, as we participate in these centennial services, our atten- tion is arrested by the events of a hundred years. We are delighted to be reminded of the labors of such Christian heroes as Captain Webb, who was said to equal Whitefield as a declaimer ; Francis Asbury, the self-forgetful apostle ; Richard Whatcoat, who resolved never to be angry under any provocation; Thomas Coke, the ardent missionary, and others whose memory we cherish with equal warmth, going as far back as 1769. What Gospel sermous have been preached in this place and on this spot. How great has been the power of God displayed on these occasion in all these years. "Old Asbury." What a host of souls have been saved through the instrumentality of these services. How vast the number that have passed triumphantly through the changes of death into the realities and circunstances of another life. These all are interested in the scenes which now engage us. There is an unusual sensation to-day among those who have gone up from "Old Asbury" redeemed and glorified.
"Shall we in heaven ne'er review The scenes from which we sever ? Or will our recollections leap. O'er death's dark gulf at times, To keep with earth's acquaintance ever ?
In life we love the blessed past, It clings upon us ever, The songs of childhood and of home, Like music when the minstrel's gone, Live in the heart forever."
I congratulate the pastor and members of this goodly old church. as well as the Methodism of Wilmington and throughout the State of Delaware, and in all the peninsula, because of this centennial and the important relation this church organization has sustained to the success of Christ's cause throughout the whole land, in all of which our God has been so w idrously glorified.
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The Fathers and the Secret of Their Victories.
BY THE REV. ENOCH STUBBS.
Text, Ps. xliv: 1 .- "We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us what work Thou didst in their days, in the time of old."
The wonderful works of God are accomplished mostly by human instrumentality, even if all that man can do is to stretch forth a rod for God, or to blow a ram's horn. We look back to-day to times of wonderful accomplishment ; what victories were achieved through the labors of our fathers of a hundred years ago upon the spot where we now stand.
OUR THEME
is "The Fathers, and the Secret of their Victories."
We are ever fascinated with the past. We stand amazed before the accomplishments of the ages gone by. Stone Henge, Karnac and Solomon's Temple astonish us. We read Homer's Iliad and study Plato's Philosophy, feeling "there were giants in those days." The past is too precious to be forgotten, hence we carve it in stone and write it in history. But there is no department so full of wonderful achievements as that of religion. Its activities are on a higher plane and in a wider sphere than any other, and its victories are more mighty, far-reaching and enduring. The battle may look ridiculous to a world that cannot comprehend spirtual issues, but the result con- cerns every member of the human race. When John Wesley, struggling through the slough of religious uncertainty, reached a place where "his heart was strangely warmed," it was a victory, not for himself alone but for the millions who have pressed after him into the same assurance of Divine acceptance. Hence the veneration in which he is held. So those who opened to us the gates of conscious
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