To do all the good I can this year.
To shun all evil in thought, word, and deed as far as I can.
To learn all I can of wholesome truth.
To make the best use I can of what I learn and know. To do all this
with an eye single to the glory of God and the good of mankind.
Could any one resolve better? Could an angel from heaven, if sent down
to live with men on earth, resolve to a better purpose? But it is
easier to resolve than to carry into effect; easier to think wisely
than to _act_ wisely; easier to plan well than to execute. But of this
one thing I am sure: If Brother Kline failed in any of the above
resolutions, his failure was not chargeable to his _will_, but to his
weakness. Even Paul could say: "To will is present with me, but how to
perform that which is good I find not. When I would do good, evil is
present with me." The cause of this conflict in the course of every
Christian's experience is what has been very appropriately called
"_indwelling sin_." The serpent's head may be bruised to death, but
the tail will not die until the sun goes down. It is true, the tail is
not at the dangerous end of a snake; but while the tail rattles and
wriggles it gives evidence that there is still some life left; and
before one turns away from it in the satisfied assurance that it needs
no further attention it might be well for him to look again and make
_sure_, beyond all doubt, that the _head end_ has been crushed to
death.
_A Funeral Sermon by Elder John Kline._
_At the Burial of Mrs. Lauck,
Feb. 7._
TEXT.--Man that is born of woman, is of few days, and full of
trouble He cometh forth as a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth
also as a shadow, and continueth not.--Job 14:1, 2.
The bulk of Divine Truth is addressed to our faith. We are not
expected to receive it as we receive knowledge that is based upon our
own experience, or upon the experience of others. God expects us to
take his Word for the truth of what he says, whether we fully
understand it or not. He addresses our faith, as a father does his
child when he seeks to inculcate some truth or principle which the
child cannot fully comprehend. But the text selected for this occasion
is not of this character. It is addressed to our knowledge and every
day's observation and experience. We have only to look at ourselves
and at others to see and feel the truth that it tells. It is not,
therefore, given to teach, so much as to remind us of what, in the
busy whirl of life, we may for a time partially forget. The benefit of
being reminded of our mortality comes to us in the way of leading us
to seek for something better than this world can give.
The phraseology of the text is exquisitely beautiful. Notice the
smoothness of its rhythm, the simplicity of its style, the harmony of
its cadences: "_Man that is born of woman, is of few days, and full of
trouble._" This is the direct opposite of what all naturally desire.
All living human beings would rejoice in a life of many days, exempt
from trouble. "_He cometh forth like a flower._"
"They bloom in beauty, side by side;
They fill one home with glee."
This is pleasant to contemplate; and if the beauty could but last,
forever free from all decay, few would wish for aught of life or love
beyond the things of time and sense. But, alas! "_he is cut down_--"
and soon
"Their graves are severed far and wide,
By mount, and stream, and sea;"
and these graves all tell a tale of buried hopes, buried love, buried
peace.
"The same fond mother bent at night
O'er each fair sleeping brow;
She had each folded flower in sight:
Where are those dreamers now!"
We can but sigh our sadness in the closing lines of this beautiful
poem--
"Alas, for love! if thou wert all;
And naught beyond, O earth!"
Thus do Inspiration and Poetry alike paint the sombre realities of
life and death; and point to death as the doom of life.
But I do not love to dwell upon these sad scenes, and will turn your
attention at once to a birth that knows no death, to a flower that
never fades, to a beauty that knows no decay. And can this be true?
Can it be that there is a deathless life, a fadeless flower, a
shadowless beauty? It may be that some of you are skeptical about
things like these. You may have the unbelief that held the heart of
Aaron Burr's daughter against all comfort, when she saw her son die.
In her agony of despair she cried out: "Omnipotence itself can never
restore to me what I have lost in my only boy."
Your faces may be turned the wrong way. You may be like Lot's wife,
_looking back_. And one might just as well talk to a pillar of salt
about the glory, and the beauty, and the bliss of the eternal state
of the righteous after death, as to talk to men whose backs are
heavenward and their faces earthward. You have no eyes in the back
part of your heads. Your ears are set to hear what is said to your
face, and to catch the sounds that meet you in front. You must turn
yourselves round. And more than all this, you must open the eyes of
your understandings that the light may shine in, and take the wads of
earthly wax out of your ears that you may hear the Savior's words of
"_spirit_ and _life_," and loose the strings of your hearts that the
_good_ and _truth_ of God's Word may enter. If you will do this I will
show you wonderful things. I will show you a fountain from which, if
you drink, you will never thirst again. Not like the fabled "Fountain
of Youth," which many sought, but never found. The fountain I mean has
been found by millions of the human race. It has quenched their thirst
forever.
Do not, I beseech you, understand me to mean that _one_ drink of its
water is sufficient to do this. No! no! But I do mean that after you
have come to the spring and taken _one_ drink it is your privilege to
stay by it forever: nay, more; the spring, like the Rock in the
wilderness, will follow you wherever you go; and by and by a spring
will be opened up in your own heart, flowing with the same sweet water
of everlasting Life, and then you can sing:
"I heard the voice of Jesus say,
Behold, I freely give
The Living Water: thirsty one,
Stoop down and drink, and live.
"I came to Jesus, and I drank
Of that life-giving stream:
My thirst was quenched; my soul revived:
And now I live in Him."
But I will show you bread also. It is wonderful bread. The Israelites,
many centuries ago, kept a representation of this bread upon the table
connected with their altar of worship; and they called it "showbread,"
because it showed something to come. A kind of bread also fell upon
the face of the ground all around them, when they were encamped in the
wilderness; and they called it "MANNA." They gathered this in the
morning, and the supply never failed. But it did not keep them from
dying. They died all the same as if they had lived on wheat bread, as
we do. It is of this that Jesus says: "Your fathers did eat of the
manna in the wilderness, and they died." But our Lord, in speaking of
the Bread of Life, which is none other than the great love of God in
Christ Jesus, says: "This is the bread which cometh down out of
heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread
which came down out of heaven: if any man eat of this bread he shall
LIVE FOREVER."
_Live forever!_ Does not that sound pleasant in your ears? Does it not
have the note of solid comfort? If you believe it, it does. It is on
this account that our Lord says so much about FAITH. Faith makes a man
thirsty for the water of eternal life, and faith makes a man hungry
for the bread of eternal life. Millions in heaven to-day, each one out
of his own heart, can sing:
"I heard the voice of Jesus say:
I am the Bread of Life:
Eat of this Bread, O hungry one,
And have eternal life.
"I took the Bread he gave me then:
My hungry soul it fed;
For this, he said, I gave my life,
And on the cross I bled."
When our Lord was on earth he spoke to the people and to his disciples
mostly in parables. In fact we are told that "without a parable spake
he not unto them." It is from this that so many similitudes, and
metaphors, and figures of speech are found in the New Testament. Thus,
_water_ and _wine_, in many places, mean divine truth; and _bread_
means divine love. And now I will venture to make a statement for the
consideration of every thinking mind in this house--a statement which,
if it be true, is of infinite and eternal importance--and it is this:
_Love and truth support and keep life in man's spirit, just as bread
and water support and keep life in man's body_.
Jesus said to the tempter: "Man does not live by bread alone." Do any
of you suppose that Jesus meant to inform the devil that man needs
other kinds of food in addition, such as meats, and fruits, and
vegetables? He had no such thought. He did not mean to inform or
instruct the devil by anything he said to him. But he did mean to
teach his tried and tempted followers to the end of time that _love_
and _truth_ are the very life and support of man's spirit. "My words,"
says he, "are spirit, and they are life." Man may love, and ardently
love, what is evil. But divine truth tells him what to love. Hence our
Lord's answer is about equivalent to this: "Man does not live by bread
[_love_] alone; but by [water also, which is the _truth_ of] every
word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
And now, in conclusion, I will ask you, friends, do any of you desire
everlasting life? If you do, I say unto you, Come to Jesus. Accept his
love. He loved _you_ "_and gave himself for you_." Accept him by
faith. He is the Bread of eternal Life. "Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved." He invites you to come and take of
the water of life freely. This water is none other than the _truth_ of
his Word. Be filled with it. Be immersed in it. As a most impressive
emblem of your willingness to be thus, submit to the ordinance of
baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost.
By your immersion in the name of the Father you declare to the world,
and say to the church that you believe that God the Father loves you,
and wills your salvation; that you accept his love in faith, and prove
your faith by this act. By your immersion in the name of the Son you
profess your faith in the efficacy and sufficiency of what Jesus
Christ did to save you, that he is the Word made flesh, and that men
should honor him, even as they honor the Father. By your immersion in
the name of the Holy Ghost you profess your faith in the power and
everlasting presence of the Holy Spirit in your heart, to lead you
into all truth, to make you more and more holy by means of this truth,
until you are filled with it, thoroughly leavened with "the leaven of
truth and sincerity." The Holy Spirit is called "The Spirit of Truth,"
and "if the truth make you free, ye shall be free indeed;" free from
falsities in your faith. What benefit can there be in believing what
is not true? Whoever yet found any substantial good in believing a
delusion, a falsehood, an error? But we do read of some who "believe a
lie that they may be damned." This sounds rough I know; but it is
their own fault, because they _love_ a lie; and "whosoever loveth a
lie" is excluded, shut out of the Holy City, because nothing but truth
and love can enter there. I again call upon every one here present to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and, believing, he shall have life
in his name.