"Notice right here the striking similarity of the text to what Paul says. What does my text say? "Behold, I make all things new." What does Paul say? "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are pa.s.sed away. Behold, all things are become new." What is it to be in Christ? It is to be filled with his truth as a sponge is filled with water when immersed in it. It is to be filled with gospel light as a healthy eye is filled with light in the blaze of a clear day. And when the spiritual eye is single, that is healthy, not double-sighted, our Lord says the whole spiritual body shall be full of light. The light is in the body, because the body is in the light.
I mean just what the Lord meant, the spiritual body, for Paul says: "There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." But he goes on and says: "However, that which is natural is first." This we can all see and know. We know that we were not naturally born of G.o.d.
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit," and what is born of the Spirit is the spiritual body.
"To be in Christ is to be in his love. I was once asked this question by an individual who probably wished to puzzle me. He said: "You preach that a man must be in Christ to be saved, and at the same time say that Christ must be in the man. How is this?" I answer by using a very plain ill.u.s.tration. I said to him: When you get uncomfortably cool in the shade, and move to where the sun can shine full upon your body, do you not feel its warmth? Now, I said to him, the warmth of the sun is in your body, because your body is in the warmth of the sun. Just so we may say it is with us in a spiritual sense. The love of Christ enters our hearts when we place ourselves where that love can reach us. Now let me say, by way of digression from my main point that the love of Christ will never enter a man in a drinking saloon or in a gambling hall, because it is not there. Such places are as dest.i.tute of the truth and divine love of Christ as the darkest and coldest night is dest.i.tute of the light and heat of the sun. "Behold, I make all things new." This is just what the Lord will do in every man"s mind and heart, spirit and soul, thoughts and affections, purposes and their accomplishments, who opens the door and bids him come in. This is the glorious work of regeneration.
"But, Brethren beloved, let us inquire a little as to whether the church, our own church I mean, needs to be made over anew, or as we may say, needs to be renovated. Can any brother or sister in this house say: "I am just as pure in heart as I desire to be. My faith never grows weak; my love never grows cold. I am as innocent and pure in all my affections and thoughts as a little child. I have no jealousy or envy in my soul. I never get angry, or think of wishing evil to any one. I have the spirit of Christ in me in all perfection, and have purified myself even as he is pure"? I repeat the question with emphasis, Is there a soul in this house who can truthfully say all this? I can answer boldly that there is not, for it is not given to man away down in his imperfect state here to have such sinless perfection. The most heavenly-minded amongst us have often to mourn over our shortcomings; and the holiest man or woman, looking into his or her own heart with an eye filled with the light of gospel truth, can but at the best say, with the poor publican: "G.o.d be merciful to me a sinner."
"But there is a day coming when all things shall be made new, and we shall be made new with the rest. I do not want to be understood here, however, as believing that G.o.d will in any sense force his renewing power upon any one; or that this renewing power will be enjoyed in the world to come by any but such as earnestly desired it here. I believe that when we get into the other life our eyes will open to such clear visions of the beauty of holiness and the excellencies of heavenly love, all thoughts of evil will be rejected with a repugnance something like what we would feel here by having the most offensive or poisonous substance thrust into our mouth. It is declared concerning the New Jerusalem that nothing shall enter therein that defileth, or worketh abomination, or maketh a lie. Nothing shall enter therein that defileth. Our Lord has graciously told us the things that defile a man. He says: "Evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man." Now, these are the Lord"s own words; and they enable us to understand just what is meant by the words, "nothing shall enter therein that defileth."
"Now, Brethren, when the angels that meet us at the gate of the Golden City shall take of the blood of the Lamb, and, with gentle hands, wash away every stain of defilement from the sins here enumerated, and we, thus cleansed, find ourselves safe, forever safe, within its blessed walls, will we not shout and say: "Behold! all things have become new"?"
Stay nineteenth night with Brother Eli d.i.c.key. We are now in Ashland County, Ohio. Heavy rains to-day, and waters very high.
MONDAY, May 22. Pa.s.s through Richland County, and stay twentieth night with Brother Samuel Shaffner, four miles from Bucyrus in Crawford County.
TUESDAY, May 23. Night meeting at Benton. Subject: "The Miracles of Christ"s Healing Power." TEXT.--"And he healed all that came unto him."
We hardly need being told that man is composed of body and soul; that the body is the visible, material part of man, in which the soul, man"s invisible part, finds its home. Man"s material part is but little superior to that of the rest of the animal creation. It is subject to the same laws. It must be fed and sheltered. It finds enjoyment in food and drink, and comfortable surroundings, very nearly akin to what we see in the life of brutes. Like them it is subject to natural decay, liable to disease; and like them, must die. But man is in possession of capacities and capabilities infinitely superior to anything the rest of G.o.d"s sentient creation enjoys. He has a soul which is capable of unlimited attainments in the knowledge and love of G.o.d, and in the knowledge and love of his fellowman. The heathen philosophers supposed they had done their whole duty to themselves and the world when they could vainly believe that they had realized in their experiences what they thought a compliance with their favorite maxim: "Know thou thyself." Whilst Christians believe and feel that self-knowledge, or the knowledge of one"s self, is very important, at the same time they have longing aspirations to know all they can of the Being who created this self, this thinking, reasoning, loving, restless thing within them, called a living soul. Brutes have no aspirations, no desires of this kind.
Right here we may see what G.o.d loves. It was not man"s animal or bodily life that brought the Lord into our world, for this is not the man. It is the soul or spirit within the body that is the real man, and all these souls collectively make the world that G.o.d so loved that he gave his only begotten Son to save it. G.o.d never loved trifles. The fact that G.o.d loved the world of man is proof that man, as a being capable of glorifying G.o.d by reciprocating his love, was worthy of it.
This key opens the way to a glimpse of man"s high destiny, attainable by his taking hold of the Hand reached down in love to lift him up.
G.o.d"s Word is the only book that can give man a true knowledge of himself. It is the only source from which he can learn that he is a sinner by his habitual transgressions of the great, law of love that would bind all the units of G.o.d"s intelligent creation into a brotherhood of ineffable and eternal happiness. It was to redeem man from this deplorable state, and deliver him from the destroying power of sin, that Jesus came into the world. But when he came he found man so low down in the darkness of ignorance, so stupid and slow to open his eyes, so benumbed by the chilling power of the love of self, so infested and possessed by evil spirits of h.e.l.l, that but little impression could be made upon him, except such as could be felt and seen by means of his bodily senses.
These statements, which are true, account for the miracles wrought by the Lord. In working them, however, he had a two-fold purpose. The first was to arouse the people from their dormant state to one of consciousness that a Being of superior power was among them. This they were made to feel by his healing touch, his cleansing hand, and his life-restoring virtue. And what was the effect of all this? It had very much the same effect in one way that kindness toward children in the way of giving them little presents, and gentleness and tenderness in the way of gratifying their bodily desires and wishes, has upon them. They love the one who treats them in such ways. Now, the Lord healed the people. He healed all that came to him, of whatever bodily ill they were suffering. He fed them, too, and did it all so lovingly that they believed him to be the best and most powerful Friend they had ever known. They followed him in throngs. They felt secure, bodily secure and safe when they were with him. But we must not forget that they followed him, not on account of the words he had spoken to them, the instructions he had imparted, but "for the loaves and the fishes."
We almost instinctively say, in our meditations upon these things: What a pity they could not discover in him something higher to believe in and love than the mere power and will to heal their bodily ills and minister to their bodily wants! This strong faith in his power and readiness to minister in a miraculous way to their external, worldly enjoyments and comforts is what led them to try to take him by force and make him their king. Having now given you his first object in working miracles, I turn to the second.
Here a great field for thought opens to our view, from which a volume could be written. Every miracle the Lord wrought, just like every parable he spoke, has a double line of truth, an inner and an outer sense. These are related to each other as the soul and body are related. Jesus says: "My words are spirit, and they are life." His miracles, when rightly understood, are the same. "They are spirit and they are life." Their spirit and life enter us through the light they contain. Let us look at one or two with a view to find what spirit and life we can: One Sabbath day Jesus met a man in a Jewish house of worship, called a synagogue, whose right hand was WITHERED. Notice, the man"s hand was withered. This means that it was dead, just as we mean that a plant is dead when it is withered, or so nearly dead that its life is almost gone. This man"s hand must have been powerless. He could not use it to do anything; and it was his right hand. He could not move a joint of it. It was simply powerless.
But notice particularly what Jesus commanded him to do. He said to this very man: "Stretch forth thy hand." Does not that look like an unreasonable command? The man might have plausibly said: "I cannot do this. I have not been able to reach my hand to my mouth in the past year. I can not do as you tell me." But instead of urging objections he instantly obeyed, for the words, "Stretch forth thy hand," were not more than out of the Lord"s mouth when we read, "And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other." Now I ask, Did this man have any part to act, or duty to perform in this miracle of healing? I answer, He did; and without his obedient cooperation his hand would have been left dangling powerless at his side.
Is there not a lesson here? Let us try to gather crumbs of instruction from it. If you take your Bible and concordance, and hunt up the places where the expression "right hand" is used, you will plainly see that "right hand," when spoken of as the "right hand" of G.o.d, means _power_, the power of G.o.d. As applying to man, it means the same, the _power_ of man. In this sense the right hand of every unconverted man and woman is _withered_ under the blighting curse of sin. But Jesus is present to heal. He is ever ready to heal all who have need of healing now, just as truly as when he was visibly among men. But he cannot heal you without your willing consent to obey his commands. He first of all commands you to repent, for now "G.o.d commandeth all men everywhere to repent." The moment you are willing to obey this command, that moment he will give you the power to obey. Without aid from the power of the Lord that man never could have stretched forth his withered hand; but the instant he was willing to obey, that very instant he received the power to obey.
Again he says: "Give me thy heart." But your heart is all withered too. It is so chilled and blighted by the cold, and damp, and darkness of sin, that, like the man"s right hand, without help of the Lord, it is powerless. But the instant you feel a _desire_ to give your heart to the Lord, such desire as the blind beggar had to receive his sight; such desire as the poor leper had to be cleansed; such desire as the publican had that G.o.d would be merciful to him a sinner; I say the instant you feel such desire to give your heart to G.o.d, that instant he will give you power to do so. It surely was a great relief to that man to have his withered hand restored to healthy activity. It may not have been very painful; indeed, it may have been so lifeless that there was not much feeling in it. So it may be with your heart. And let me say to you that if you really give G.o.d your heart in faith and love he will so effectually heal it that it will beat with new life, and the warm blood of love and truth from his Word will flow through it until your greatest joy will be found in doing his will.
Stay twenty-first night in Benton.
WEDNESDAY, May 24. Stay twenty-second night at Lupton"s.
THURSDAY, May 25. Go to Squire Knapp"s and make deeds. Then to meeting at Brother Heastand"s. Part of John 1 is read. In afternoon return to Lupton"s and finish business with him. Stay twenty-third night at Lupton"s. Fine weather.
FRIDAY, May 26. Stay twenty-fourth night at Brother Jacob Bowers"s.
Beautiful weather.
SAt.u.r.dAY, May 27. Council meeting at Brother Jacob Bowers"s, Jr. Night meeting at Brother Thomas"s, where we stay twenty-fifth night. Fine weather continues.
SUNDAY, May 28. Meeting at Brother Jacob Bowers"s, Sr. Speak from Matthew 3. John"s baptism was unto repentance. The people came to him and were immersed of him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. This was their first step in repentance. From this they were to keep on bringing forth fruits meet for, or corresponding to, repentance. The outside life was to be the exponent of the penitent heart within. He also pointed them to him who was to come after him, that is, Christ.
He would baptize them in the Holy Spirit and fire. This was literally fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Baptize one person to-day. Stay twenty-sixth night at Brother Rotebauch"s.
MONDAY, May 29. Go westward to Daniel Miller"s, Solomon Wine"s, Jacob Miller"s, and stay twenty-seventh night at Samuel Miller"s.
TUESDAY, May 30. After meeting we go to Isaac Miller"s in Richland County, where we stay twenty-eighth night.
WEDNESDAY, May 31. Stay twenty-ninth night at Jacob Miller"s.
THURSDAY, June 1. Visit Daniel Wine"s, David Good"s, Jacob Earley"s, David Weaver"s, where we have meeting; then go to Samuel Earley"s, where we stay thirtieth night. A very fine day.
FRIDAY, June 2. Stay thirty-first night in Tymocaty.
SAt.u.r.dAY, June 3. Dine in Upper Sandusky, and stay thirty-second night at Brother Heastand"s. Rain this forenoon.
SUNDAY, June 4. Meeting at Brother Solomon Miller"s on Silver Creek.
First Peter 2 is read. Two persons baptized. Evening meeting at Stone meetinghouse, on Honey Creek near David Rupp"s. Luke 14 is read. Stay thirty-third night at Brother Rupp"s.
MONDAY, June 5. Stay thirty-fourth night with Brother Isaac Hartzog.
TUESDAY, June 6. Stay thirty-fifth night with Brother Jacob Harshbarger. Fine day.
WEDNESDAY, June 7. Stay thirty-sixth night with Brother Cober.
THURSDAY, June 8. Stay thirty-seventh night with Brother Jonas Kline, nine miles from Ashland.
FRIDAY, June 9. Get back to Brother Jacob Kurtz"s, eight miles from Wooster, in Wayne County, where we stay thirty-eighth night. Fine day.
SAt.u.r.dAY, June 10. Annual Meeting begins. Peter Nead and I speak.
Three persons baptized. Love feast this evening. Delightful weather.
Stay thirty-ninth night at Brother Kurtz"s place.
SUNDAY, June 11. Public meeting to-day. A great concourse of people.
Preaching at both house and barn. Fine weather continues. Stay fortieth night at same place.
MONDAY, June 12. Council meeting is ready for questions. But few are handled. Business goes on slowly. Stay forty-first night at same place. Fine, clear day.
TUESDAY, June 13. This day we progress briskly. Much business is transacted. Very fine weather continues.
WEDNESDAY, June 14. Finish business, and in afternoon we come to Brother Sprinkel"s, one mile from Canton, Stark County, where we stay forty-third night. Very fine weather, but somewhat dusty.
THURSDAY, June 15. Call at Brother George Shiveley"s; and have night meeting at Brother Rothrock"s, where we stay forty-fourth night. Speak on John 1. Warm day.
FRIDAY, June 16. Stay forty-fifth night at John Sh.e.l.ly"s, five miles from Richmond, Jefferson County. Fine weather.
SUNDAY, June 18. Dine with Brother Jacob Shideler"s and stay forty-seventh night with Charles Guthrie, near Brownsville, in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Rain to-day.
MONDAY, June 19. Stay forty-eighth night with Brother Michael Thomas.
Rain this afternoon and night.
WEDNESDAY, June 21. Stay fiftieth night at Brother Daniel Arnold"s in Hampshire County, Virginia.
THURSDAY, June 22. Dine at Brother Zachariah Arnold"s and stay fifty-first night in Moorefield, Hardy County, Virginia.