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•The Pulpit. 1 fr "t-Vfr ^ ^ ^ ^ w xt* >t* fe.?k v i ■ *'. • ■- '' ■ W ' . Why Christ Failed. ' 1 -V BY REV. JAMES MAPLE, D. D. Te will not come to me, that ye may have life. John 5:40. ’ God had a plan of salvation in his mind,t and an object in view in send; • fag his son into the world. It was to .1 save man from sin, death, and hell. v J6hn 3:16-17; Lake 19:10; I Tim. 1:15. ' *> Christ realized the importance of the work committed to his bands, and was intensely in earnest. Isa. 53:11 j Lake 19:41. Christ did not succeed in saving all with whom he came in contact. John 1:10-11. Those whom he came to save murdered him. * Why was this? .Christ gives the answer in our text.” Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” Why was it that men did not ac cept Christ as their Lord and Saviour? Let us take three representative characters that Christ sought but fail* ed to save,, and learn the reason of ‘his failure. The cause of the failure was not in himself. Ueb. 6:25; Matt. m. 28:18. The first man that 1 call your at tention to is Judas. He was intima tely associated with Christ, enjoyed his teaching, witnessed his miracles, and had many manifestations of bis loving interest in him. Christ sought to save him even when he was in the act of betraying him. Matt. 26:14 22. The cause of Christ’s failure to Judas was his covetousness. save *Jndas loved money. This was strong er than his love of justice and truth, or his sense of gratitude. It was the master passion of his soul. The sin of the world is essentially the sin of Jndas. Men do not disbe ht Christ, but they will sell Riches may increase and not a man if his heart is not set on Matt. 19:16-26. George Rea commenced life without a pen 4- ny, but he accumulated a princely ’ .fortune. He was a Christian man, and knew his danger. He said that made it his daily prayer to his venly Father that he would en* able him by his wealth tp render some benefit to his fellow creatures, Sr ' ’.* But alas! how rdre 'are as his!. The master of this day is m >n«y getting; worthy of man, bis nature i we run over the world’s list men we find that they were not rich in this world’s goods.' Was Christ rich? Were ^he apostles rich? Wesley, the great religious reformer, when he died left an estate of two silver spoons. “Michael Faraday said he had no time to make m'oney and so also did the noble Agassiz. Poor John Ban yan, the Bedford tinker, did far more for his fellow-men than did Jay Gronld. Many a poo» Christian wo man, some Sister of Charity, is doing infinitely more to bless and help her fellow creatures than the woman of wealth who'spends season after Lea son in the mete exhibition of jewelry and finery*. * And yet there are thous ands of youn^ men' in this city who ‘are altogdlHer neglecting the claim of Christ and1 religion upon them, be cause they feel, and rightly, that they can’t serve Him and Mammon too. They ’are ruling Him out of their lives, because they are bound to be rich at any and every hazard. “Alas! the pity and the insanity of it. Make out your list of what money can do for a m$n and 1 will make out one of what Christ can do, and we will compare. You write houses, lands, wine, purple, and fine linen, equipage, servants, and ‘so forth*, and I write truth, purity, manhood, kindness, unselflshuess, self abnega tion, and instead of your ‘so forth’ 1 will write eternal life. Men in the pursuit of wealth stifle conscience, and prush out conviction of duty to God and their own souls. Mark 10:17-22. The second failure that I will men tion is Pontius Pilate. He came into close quarters with Christ, and Christ powerfully in fluenced him. They were alone to gether in the inner chamber and alt that had passed between them, we-do not know. But the magnet drew tremendously' on Pilate. But it didn’t draw him fully to Christ: it failed in the end. Pilate fell wholly, and why? Because of Pilate’s moral cowardice. He hadn’t the courage of his convictions. He wasn’t man enough to do his duty when he knew it. He could not make up his mind to do anything which might jeopar dise bis political ambition. So he stifles conscience, and crowds back his convictions, and gives up Christ. How many Pilate’s there are in the world today? How many there are in this house now: How many men who have not the courage of their convictions, with reference to Christ, who if they acted upon them would turn to Christ at once. Christ can not do much for such-aman. He is not man enough to go forward in the path of duty" where it is plainly set before him. This is why Christ fail ed to save Pilate. ,...ir.; There whs a crisis in the life of Pi late, but his moral courage failed him in that hour. He was not like Moses in the court of Egypt. “Moses, when 40 years old, experi enced a crisis in his life He made a choice, and he embraced the relig ion of the Lord Jesus.- There was %' royal feast in Pharaoh’s magnif icent palace. The kingly robes of bright purple were bedecked with gold* and silver and jewels, and gems of the richest luster and sparkled from the regal diadems. There was wine and' frankincense and bewitch ing music and gathering of captains, courtiers and princes of the realm. In the midst of the nobility reclining on easy couches of blue and gold and scarlet and tapestry and fine twined linen stood the' supposed grandson of Pharaoh, the King of Egypt. “One of the courtiers who stood near him, emboldened with wine, in quired of him, ‘Who was that iEgyp tian you killed the other day and hid him in the sand? Truly you can do as you like because you are the son of Pharaoh’s daughter ’ “A bright light suddenly flashed across the conscience stricken Moses. ‘Shall iny whole life be founded upon a lie?' be inquires within him, and he determinedly reacnes the decision which is the turning point in his ca reer, “l am not the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” •> He quits the palace with all its glittering allurements and hurries away to his room. There he casts aside his princely robes, tramples 4he richest jewels of royalty beneath his feet and leaves the palace in beggar ly simplicity. It requires a man to make that choice, to throw off the royal dignity, only to be cloft&d in the rags of a Hebrew slave. He .publicly disclaimed the lie upon which his life was based. - He was true to himself and his God. Every thing that is worth having costs something.' Thus it is with the religion of Christ. •- - “I would not give the snap of my finger for a man’s religion which has not cost him anything. ‘Give and it shall be given unto you.’ God measure* unto you happiness, health, hope, pleasures, and blessings of every kind just in the proportion to which you have given Him. ‘'Religion with you should be a matter of careful calculation. Not emotional, not a surmise; not brought about by any sensational pulpit ora tory ; but it should be a question of careful calculation with the nicest exactness. The Lord said,: Count the cost ” A true disciple must deny himself of many things. There must be no rush or gush in your religion. It does not mean a regular occupying of your seat each Sunday, nor mere ly a respectable outside. Are ! you willing to persevere as Moses did in the wilderness for forty yearn? You must make your choice. You must sacrifice and persevere in the work until God calls you to great success. To be a success in life you must be a religious man of the right sort. Remember the divine truth: 'Godliness is profitable in dll things, a promise of life that now is, as well as the life to come.* “God saw Moses in the fiery hush. He saw him.at the head of pyer half a million of His people proudly marching out of Egypt apd Pharaoh and his army swept oyer by the sea. The Lord God says: ‘Prove Me and I will open the window of Hea ven and let down a blessing.’ The third signal failure to which 1 will refer was those who were about the "bar of Pilate, who chose Barra b is instead of Christ. Barr J laa was a robber. Christ had lived a noble and useful life in their midst, but thef cared nothing for this when they came to choose. The robber and the benefactor were standing to gether, the robber and the benefac tor, and they prefer the robber. Wby? Because 'the benefactor told them the truth—told them that they were sinful men, and needed the Saviour, and that he had come to save them. < “But they didn’t want a Saviour, they wantejl a temporal prince They wanted show and glitter, not salva tion. . Christ became their enemy bees use He told them the truth? How many of tfs can bear the truth? How many of us are turning away from Christ because He tells us that we -are lost sinners to he saved only by His precious blood, instead of our own righteousness? Notice in each of these three cases the terrible Nemesis. Judas reject ed Christ for gold, and what were the results? What did he gain? In a few hours his conscience was quick ened, and the gold burned his soul so that that he flings it at the feet of the High Priest, and went out and bang ed himself. He could not endure the fire of remorse that burned hotter than the fires of Tophet in his soul. How many who have sold Christ for gold suffered the same dreadful an guish of soul. A rich landlord, or dered his steward to turn out a poor widow with four cbildreh, -one of "them too sick to be removed, because she could not'pay the rent. They were driven out, and the sich child perished in the woods. The land lord lay down to rest in his summer house; but the murmuring of a brook that flowed near by seemed to him to imitate the crying of the poor child ren. Then he heard distant thunder that sounded to him gf the voice of justice, pis gardens became hatful to delirious. Every casing vpice. So l c ■
The Christian Sun (Elon College, N.C.)
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April 20, 1893, edition 1
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