25. It is a Word, says James in conclusion, "which is able to save
your souls." What more could be desired? You have the Word, the
promise of all divine blessings and gifts. It is able to save you if
you but steadfastly cleave to it. Why, then, need you take any account
of the world, and anything it may do, whether good or evil? What
injury can the world render, what help can it offer, so long as you
hold the treasure of the Word? Observe that the apostle ascribes to
the spoken Word, the preached Gospel, the power to save souls.
Similarly, Paul commends it to the Romans (ch. 1, 16), in almost the
same words, as "the power of God unto salvation to every one that
believeth."
26. Now, the Word is implanted within you in a way to give you the
certain comfort and sure hope of your salvation. Be careful, then, not
to permit yourselves to be wrested from it by the wrath or the filth
of the world. Take heed to accept in purity and to maintain with
patience the Word so graciously and richly given you by God without
effort or merit on your part. Those who are without the Word, and yet
endeavor to attain heaven, what efforts have they made in the past!
what efforts are they making today! They might torment themselves to
death; they might institute and celebrate every possible service--they
would accomplish nothing. Is it not better to cling to the Word and
maintain this treasure whereby you attain salvation and divine sonship
than to permit the world to wrest you from it through persecution,
passion or moral filth the source of its own ruin and perdition?
_Fifth Sunday After Easter_
Text: First Corinthians 15, 51-58.
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We all shall not sleep, but we shall
all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the
last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised
incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must
put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 But
when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that
is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is thy
victory? O death, where is thy sting? 56 The sting of death is sin;
and the power of sin is the law: 57 but thanks be to God, who giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Wherefore, my beloved
brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of
the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not vain in the
Lord.
You will find this lesson explained in the special sermons on the same
chapter.
_Ascension Day_
Text: Acts 1, 1-11.
1 The former treatise I made, O Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus
began both to do and to teach, 2 until the day in which he was
received up, after that he had given commandment through the Holy
Spirit unto the apostles whom he had chosen: 3 to whom he also showed
himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing unto them by
the space of forty days, and speaking the things concerning the
kingdom of God: 4 and being assembled together with them, he charged
them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the
Father, which, said he, ye heard from me: 5 for John indeed baptized
with water; but ye shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days
hence.
6 They therefore, when they were come together, asked him, saying,
Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? 7 And he
said unto them, It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the
Father hath set within his own authority. 8 But ye shall receive
power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be my
witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto
the uttermost part of the earth. 9 And when he had said these things,
as they were looking, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of
their sight. 10 And while they were looking stedfastly into heaven as
he went, behold two men stood by them in white apparel; 11 who also
said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? this Jesus,
who was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner
as ye beheld him going into heaven.
This epistle text is simply a narrative concerning the visible
ascension of Christ into heaven. It is in itself clear. Whatever it
may be necessary to say relative to the article of Christ's ascension,
we shall leave for the sermons on the Festivals of Christ as they
occur at intervals during the year, at which times it is fitting to
speak particularly of each article concerning Christ.
_Sunday After Ascension Day_