Matthew 14

Matthew 14:1-13

HEROD AND HIS FOOLISH PROMISE Matthew 14:1-13. Compare Mark 6:14-29 and Luke 9:7-9. THIS man, Herod, of whom I shall speak this evening, is a man who attracts to himself a morbid interest. He is an improvement upon his father, Herod the Great, in that he was not as bloody and conscienceless, but still the greater characteristics of his life were his sins.Perhaps the most marked incidents of his life, were his shameful relations with Herodias, wife of his half-brother, Herod Philip (Matthew 14:1-3); his part in having John the Baptist beheaded; and his connivance at the crucifixion of Christ.A sermon would be easy from either and each of these circumstances, but I propose, this evening, to speak to none of them, save as the first relates itself to the promises made to the daughter of Herodias.It would also be interesting to speak of Herod’s faith, for he was a Sadducee, or a Liberalist, and believed in no angel, spirit or resurrection, so he said, but like most liberalists, when the time of fear was on; when the miracles of Jesus Christ were making a mighty stir throughout his kingdom, he got alarmed and expressed his conviction that Christ was John the Baptist risen from the dead. Matthew 14:1-2 : “At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus, and said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him”.So in times past, as at the present, such theology was seen to be a poor life-preserver, and was cast aside for something more Scriptural when the ship was threatened.But still more important than a man’s creed is his conduct, and I invite your attention this evening to Herod’s behavior under the condition of our text,“But when Herod’s birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod; whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask. And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist’s head in a charger. And the king was sorry: nevertheless for the oath’s sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her. And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison. And his head was brought in a charger, and given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother. And his disciples came, and took up the body, and buried it, and went and told Jesus” (Matthew 14:6-12).From this we learnTHE OF PASSION ARE .It was one of Herod’s rash moments, when to the daughter of Herodias he said, “Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee”.

In the midst of his nobles and flatterers, he was filled with pride. In the midst of his festivities, he was inflamed with wine; and as this lascivious woman danced before him, there was an appeal to baser passions, the poorest possible preparation for promise-making.

Let us beware of making promises under the impetus of personal pride.The besetting sin of so many lives is self-esteem. We hold ourselves in such honor that we are constantly watching for ways and means to bring our fellows to believe that we are some great ones, that we are people of power, folks who keep their word, semi-gods who can speak what they will and have it come to pass. And there are not a few who would conserve this dignity at any possible expense. The heaviest load that small men have to bear is their dignity. There are so many things that they would like to do and can’t, because of their dignity. Doubtless that word “dignity” was a good one originally, but it does the devil many turns at the present time.

There is so much of the needful work of this world—the work that would set things right, that is beneath the dignity of men, that it seems a pity that we cannot drown our dignity in the sea and be done with it.Many years ago, when the late Dr. A.

C. Dixon, began to speak in the streets of Baltimore, there were certain fastidious folks in his first Baltimore church who felt that it was unbecoming their pastor to get on a dry-goods box, and address the curious street-crowd; and so they got one of their most important representatives to approach the preacher and mildly suggest to him that his conduct seemed a little questionable. When he asked “Why?” his member replied, “We hardly think it is as dignified as one in your position ought to be”. To this Dr. Dixon answered, “Well, that may be right, but I am trying to walk by the Word, and I will study the Scriptures to see what they have to say on ‘ministerial dignity’ ”. A few days later he met this officious friend, and he said, “Oh, Brother Blank, I wanted to say that I have looked up that matter of dignity, and the principal thing that I can find in the Bible touching the subject is in Ecclesiastes 10:6; ‘Folly is set in great dignity’For his oath’s sake.

Herod had to keep this promise when once he had made it, in his pride; and, as we have seen, he made it while inflamed with wine. Poor condition for promise-making.

The drunken man is never quite responsible for his words, and the drinking man is never-as-clear-eyed and levelheaded as one ought to be to make important promises.The contracts in intemperance have wrecked many a house as certainly as they have destroyed a soul. People who put the wine glass into their festal hours do well to recall that record of history.It is said that a single glass of wine changed the history of France for a quarter of a century. Louis Phillipe had a son, Duke of Orleans, and heir to the throne. On a festive occasion, he drank one glass too many, in consequence of which he was unable to manage the horses, and they dashed him to his death. As a result, his property was confiscated and his family exiled, and the whole history of France sadly effected.You men who are going to drive business bargains, or stand in social circles, or propose marriage and domestic relations, remember that you are unfitted for any one of these when inflamed with wine, and if the higher call of the soul’s interest is to be considered, no man, under the influence of liquor, can make the promise that every man ought to make before God.And then this promise, as we have said, was stimulated by baser passions still. The scant dress of this dancing maid, in this festal hour, stirred the lust of the man whose illegal relations with her mother was sufficient proof of his immoral character.

And if there is ever a time when the tongue should be still, and not a word spoken, lest by our speech we should sting ourselves and strike venom into the veins of others, it is under such circumstances. I believe with Quarles when he says, “Oh, lust, thou infernal fire whose fuel is gluttony, whose flame is pride, whose sparkles are wanton words, whose smoke is infamy, whose ashes are uncleanness, whose end is hell!”Be careful what promises you make under that Satanic stimulant, for there is a second lesson suggested in this text.SORROW NEVER CAN SAVE FROM SIN. As a boy, I used to believe that our sorrow saved us from sin, and I almost wish it did, for if so, the world might be redeemed. Surely, there is enough sorrow in it.As Dr. Talmage says, “The earth is covered with a deluge of sorrow. The very first utterance when we come into the world is a cry; without any teaching we learn to weep. What has so wrinkled that man’s face? What has so prematurely whitened his hair? What calls out that sigh? What starts that tear?

Trouble! Trouble! I find it in the cellar of poverty, and far up among the heights; for this also has gone up over the tops of the mountains. No escape from it. You go into the store and it meets you at your counting desk; you go into the street and it passes you on the corner; you go into the house and it welcomes you at the door. Tears of poverty, tears of persecution, tears of bereavement, a deluge of tears gathered together from all the earth. They could float an ark larger than Noah’s, and yet they do not save you”.Sorrow does not undo the sinful act. Matthew 14:9-10.“And the king was sorry: nevertheless for the oath’s sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her.

And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison”.Charles the 9th of France, who murdered the Hugenots, went mad in consequence of his deed, and used to rave in his remorse, “If I only had spared the infants, there might be some forgiveness of my sins. If I only had!” But his remorse could not bring to life again the murdered ones.Sorrow does not stop the effects of sin. When John Newton was a youth, he engaged aboard a trading vessel, and shipped to the South Seas, and later to Africa, and was shortly the most accomplished sinner of his age. On the same vessel was a young Englishman with whom Newton chummed, and had shortly corrupted and led into a dissolute life. When Newton was converted, he sought out this young man, and strove to lead him to Christ, but he laughed in his face and said, “You taught me my infidelity; how dare you come to me now and talk of God”. Few men ever had a more successful ministry than John Newton, but it was claimed by those who knew him that he seldom smiled, and his intimate friends believed that all his days were spent in bitter sorrow over the circumstance of having corrupted a man, and starting him on the road to Hell.Not long since, a gentleman who supposed himself to be converted, asked me if I believed that he was saved, and when I said, I thought so, he replied, “How can I be saved, when there are so many in the world still walking in sinful ways, whom I tempted to take their first sinful steps?” I want you to remember, young men, when you are leading your companions into vice, that though you may one day keep your purpose to reform, you have put into an evil way others who will perish, and whose fate will forever seem like God’s frown.Sorrow does not atone for sin.

I used to suppose if I could only weep enough, mercy would come in consequence of my penitence. The older brethren used to sing,“Weeping will not save me; Though my face were bathed in tears; That would not allay my fears; Could not wash the sins of years, Weeping will not save me”, and I wondered at it; but I have come to understand it. Sorrow can never atone for sin.Dr. Gordon tells of one of our missionaries who relates the terrible suffering of a heathen whom he had found. This heathen had for many years lived with his body immersed in water; he had hung on hooks piercing through his flesh—a horrid record of studied penalties inflicted upon the body. He was trying to make peace with God through his own wounds. But, beloved, I come to tell you tonight that that is not the way; and Jesus Christ set forth another, as He stood before that little group of disciples.

He said, “Peace be unto you”, and then He showed them the wounds in His body by which He had purchased that peace.“No longer”, said Gordon, “are we to make peace with God, since the Scriptures declare that He has made peace. By His Cross, the Gospel which we preach now to the world is not ‘make peace’, but ‘take peace’ I wish we could see that truth tonight for it is the only escape from our sins.Dr.

Torrey went to a woman who had requested prayers for her daughter, and said, “Is she here?” and she was pointed out. At the close of the service, he spoke to the young woman, and said, “Do you not want to accept Christ as your Saviour tonight?” She stamped her foot in anger and replied, “My mother should have known better than to speak to you. She knows that that only makes me worse”. But Torrey called her aside and said, “Won’t you read this Scripture?” and opening to Isaiah, he pointed out the words,“He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace is upon Him and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all”.And the Spirit of God sent the truth into that girl’s heart and that night she surrendered herself to the Lord. It is not sorrow, I repeat, that can save us from our sins, but rather the wounds of the Son of God.LET US SET ASIDE SATAN- . It is bad to make a bad promise, but it is better to break a bad promise than to keep it.You young people at your courting still, let me advise you to be careful in your engagements. Broken engagements mean much sorrow, but a mistaken wedding means still more. And you young men, in dealing with your friends, be careful what promises you make. I was present, a few days since, when two young men agreed together to go out in the darkness of that night to do the very devil’s work; infinitely better to break that promise than to keep it.In Chicago, a young girl of 16 came to me in great trouble, and told me of a promise she had made to meet one whose intentions were evidently evil, and said, “What shall I do? I dislike to break my word?” And I said, “Your word won’t be worth much to you when all else is gone”. If we make pledges which the devil has inspired, we ought to dash them in pieces before his face.I often think of Miriam, in Hawthorne’s “Marble Fawn”.

You remember that one engagement, one mis-step, made her miserable, though she sought many times to be separated from him to whom she had made her pledge. It was in vain!

Hawthorne concludes one of his chapters by saying, “But the stream of Miriam’s trouble kept its way through this flood of human life, and neither mingled with it nor was turned aside. With a sad kind of feminine ingenuity, she found a way to kneel before her tyrant undetected, though in full sight of all the people, still beseeching him for freedom, and in vain”.It is wisdom, then, when one has made a promise, inspired of Satan, to break it before the hour of keeping it comes on. For while a purpose can be set aside, an overt act is eternal.To set such pledges aside may mean salvation. I recall that before I was converted, when listening to preaching, I was often convicted both of my sin and of my need of a Saviour; but without exception, Satan would bring to my memory some promise or engagement for the future that was out of keeping with a profession of faith. And so, month after month, and year after year, he delayed my decision, until he had well-nigh destroyed my soul.I don’t care what the promise is; with whom it is made; how much it seems to involve. Decide tonight to set that Satanic promise aside, and let God’s Son come to save.There is a story told of a minister who met a working man one morning, and said, “What a beautiful day.

How grateful we ought to be to God for all His mercies”. The laborer replied, “I don’t know much about that”. “Why”, said the minister, “I suppose you always pray to God for your wife, and family, for your children, don’t you?” “No”, said the laborer, “I do not”. “Do you ever pray?” “No”, was the man’s reply. “Then, I will give you half a crown if you will promise me you never will pray as long as you live”.

The workman smiled and said, “I will take your offer. A half crown will get me a good deal of beer”. The money was paid and the preacher went his way, thinking that would bring him face to face with how little he cares for his soul.The workman said to himself, “This is a queer thing I have done—to take money and promise never to pray as long as I live”. It worried him, and when at the noon-hour he met his wife, he told her of it, and she replied, “Well, John, you may depend upon it, it was the devil, and you have sold your soul for half a crown”. This drove him well-nigh to distraction and he could not rid himself of the thought, that, for a pittance, he had parted with every spiritual help; and so he began to attend church seeking some way of escape. One night he was in a crowd.

This same preacher who had given him a half crown, came into it, and stood forth to preach, and his text was, “What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” And as he went on, his remarks were, “I bought a man’s soul for Satan, and paid him half a crown for it”. The poor fellow could stand it no longer, and rushing up, he flung the money at the minister’s feet, and said, “Take it back!

Take it back!” “But”, said the minister, “didn’t you agree to it?” “Yes”, answered the man, “I did, but it was a bad promise, and I break it. A half crown and never pray? I would give the world to be permitted to pray now”. The preacher said, “Then pray, for God is still merciful and a contract with Satan ought not to stand!” That night the man who had sold himself for so little, abrogated the contract and accepted Christ.There are people here that are selling themselves for small prices. Men and women who will lose their souls for a less consideration. Get me plead with you to despise the overtures of the evil one and accept that which is offered you in the Son of God.

Satan may tell you that your past sins are such that it is needless for you to expect mercy, but he is a liar from the beginning, and you are very foolish to believe it. The Scriptures say, “God is love”, and with Him is mercy.F.

B. Meyer, of London, tells of a lady friend whose little boy came home from school with scarlet fever. They brought him in a carriage, wrapped in warm blankets, and as they were carrying him through the hall, the mother said, “My darling, mother has a room upstairs for you and herself, and she is going to sit by your bed and never leave it until you are well, And mamma is going to help you fight against this fever”. And she shut herself up in the bed room with him and for weeks watched with a mother’s love. One day he said to her, “Mother, you have not kissed me lately. Don’t you love me quite as much since I have got all these marks?” She put her arms about his face, and kissed him many times, and said, “I loved you before, my baby, but I never loved you so well as now”.

And Meyer comments, “So, dear soul, cursed with the sin which thou hast taken into thy heart, God hates the sin, but He loves thee. He will never love you less.

Your sinfulness, your weakness, your spiritual relapses, all appeal to the great heart of God, who, like a mother, is full of love”. And if you will tonight, you can, by your very weakness, make saving appeal to His strength, and He will come to your health and fight with you against the fever of sin, until you have had the victory and stand complete in His Son.

Matthew 14:14-21

CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH AND THE HUNGRY Matthew 14:14-21. Compare Mark 6:34-44; Luke 9:12-16; John 6:5-13. ONE time when Hugh Price Hughes had pled with his East London congregation to go to the polls and cast their votes for vestry-men of character, he received on the succeeding Monday morning a letter from a man who said that he had gone from the hall very much grieved. Pie had been delighted to see so great a congregation assembled, and rejoiced at Hughes’ opportunity to present the Gospel, but disappointed that Hughes, instead of preaching the Gospel, had only talked upon the duty of citizens to elect vestry-men who would faithfully perform their public functions, and added that “it was only too possible that some who had heard Mr. Hughes, and might have been saved, had he used his opportunity of preaching the Gospel, were lost for evermore, destined to suffer the torments of the damned”.In referring to the letter, Mr. Hugh Price Hughes said, “The gentleman speaks throughout his letters of ‘souls’, ‘dealing with souls’, ‘saving souls’, and so on; but I have to answer that I have no disembodied souls in my congregation, but souls incarnate, souls attached to bodies”, and he added further, “If I had a congregation of disembodied souls who had no physical wants and no connection with London, I might take a very different course, but there is too much truth in the saying, I have often quoted of late, ‘that some very earnest Christians are so diligently engaged in saving souls that they have no time to save men and women’”.Now I cannot imagine anyone of my auditors supposing me to be indifferent to the salvation of souls, and yet I must express my entire sympathy with Hugh Price Hughes in his endeavor to save men and women, to save the entire man, the entire woman, body, soul, and spirit. Christ’s ministry measured that whole field. When He found one sick, the first thing He did was to save his body.

When He found one in darkness, the first thing He did was to enlighten the soul; when He found one in unregeneracy, He talked to him of a new spirit begotten by the Holy Spirit; and, on the occasion to which our text refers, He ministered to body, soul, and spirit by meeting the demands of hunger. One studying this text with its context ought to get from it two or three very clear and very practical suggestions. First of all we seeCHRIST BY THE CHURCH. “And when it was evening, His disciples came to Him saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past, send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves victuals”.That was the Church assuming to counsel Christ. The result was what might be expected—a mistake. The disciple who attempts to counsel his Lord, does that which is not right. And, when the Church undertakes to counsel Christ, it is guilty of the greatest folly. We remember how, on one occasion, when Jesus had told His disciples of His coming sorrow, His sufferings, and death at Jerusalem, that Peter attempted to take control of affairs and said, “This shall not he unto Thee, Lord”, and Jesus said, “Get thee behind Me, Satan”. And we remember how, on one occasion, when they brought to Him young children that He should put His hands upon them and bless them, that the disciples rebuked those that brought them, and Jesus replied, “Suffer the little ones to come unto Me and forbid them not”.And now, when the multitudes are hungry, the disciples again attempt to tell Jesus what He ought to do with them.

But who shall instruct God? Who shall counsel the Almighty?

One of the troubles with the Church is that Peter has so many successors in office. I do not refer to the 200 and more Popes who are paraded of Rome as his successors, for Peter never knew anything of popery; but I refer to that great crowd of Christian men and women, including more of us than we have imagined, who take it on them to counsel Christ; who make up their minds what ought to come to pass, and set doggedly about bringing Jesus to see eye to eye with them, consent to their propositions, and cooperate in the execution of their plans. Suggestion is not the business of the disciple. It is his to listen to his Lord instead. Counsel is not the business of the Church of God; her right and her only right is to execute her Captain’s commands. And whenever the disciple, or the congregation of disciples come up to a hard question, up to a large proposition, up to a difficult problem, it is theirs to wait what the Master will speak; to “stand still and see the salvation of the Lord”.The Church in this text also attempts to shift personal responsibility.

The speech sounds like an unselfish suggestion. The holy tone of it impresses the auditor with the consideration these Christians are showing for the multitude.

They practically say, “We don’t want to see them spend a night in a desert place. We don’t want them to suffer hunger”. But it is just possible that another consideration plays a part in this plan. It is growing late. The disciples are weary and want to sleep, and hungry, and have whispered it from one to another that a lad present had five loaves and two fishes, and if the multitudes were gone, with Jesus’ blessing, this might meet their own demand. One of the difficult things in the Christian life is to keep ourselves free from that Satanic deception which makes us half believe that a scheme of self-advantage is benevolent toward others.

This deception is the fly in the ointment of much of so-called Christianity. Men get together to organize a church whose mission it shall be to reach the needy and the sinful, and help, and save; and by and by officers are to be elected and ambition rises within the breast, and one comes to the conclusion that his selection is for the public good; and, if it does not fall out so, he forgets all his plans for the public and pouts as injured, and he may even try to tear the whole to pieces.Churches confederate their forces to organize missionary societies, and purpose through these institutions to give the Bread of Life to a hungry world, and, by and by, the organization overlooks some courtesy it owes to the local church, or forgets to express its obligation to the tireless pastor, and the church reduces its gifts, and the pastor ceases from his endeavors, all of which only means that self-love has come in to crowd aside Christ; it has come in to send away the multitudes; it has come in to disprove the professed Christianity.

We need to sound our hearts well at this point and watch them carefully, for it is the very point at which Judas was probably deceived and by which he was destroyed. Most students of the Word are agreed, you know, that Judas never expected Jesus Christ to go to the Cross, but thought to send Him to the Throne instead, by forcing on Him the declaration of His Divinity and the manifestations of His power, while making himself thirty pieces of silver richer by the process. And it was that spirit of self-advancement that sent Judas to the gallows and Christ to the Cross, and wherever it has existed since that day, it has meant spiritual suicide for its subject, and a fresh crucifixion for Christ.The Church here also favored forcing on the world self-support.“And when it was evening, His disciples came to Him saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves victuals”.One of the charges laid by the world at the door of the Church is that she is indifferent to the world’s needs; that she demands of the world that it take care of itself. Personally I do not believe that the Church is open to that charge, broadly made. I think the disciples of Jesus have shown more unselfishness than any other class of men the world has ever seen. They have given more without hope of return than others have ever done.

And yet, no sincere mind will deny that the churches come short of meeting their Master’s demands in dealing with the multitudes. If she had fed them more often, she had made more converts.

If her ears had been the more sensitive to the cries of the starving, the saints in heaven and the saints on earth had been a greater company. If her heart had responded to the appeals of poverty, and her hand had remained ever open, to provide bread, clothing, and home for those who are unable to provide it for themselves, her millennium would be nearer at hand. One of the troubles of the Church has been her disposition to make the world support her, instead of her Master’s Spirit of giving all to and for the world. She has often gone with hat in hand to the unregenerate, and today she is doing the same, pleading for the small sums that represent a ticket of admission to a church entertainment in which the worldlian has no interest, all the way up to the hundreds of thousands, gotten from the same unregenerate, with which to endow a so-called Christian college.An editorial in a leading religious paper once called attention to the fact that a certain man, after ten years of noble service, has been compelled to retire from the presidency of a great denominational university because he lacked “the golden touch”, namely, the ability to extract thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars as an endowment fund for that institution, from the pockets of men whose consciences had never stood in the way of moneymaking.I often wonder if one of the secrets of George Mueller’s life is not to be discovered in the second article of the series of principles adopted on the occasion of the inauguration of what he termed, “The Scriptural Knowledge Institution”, for that article read, “The Lord helping us, we do not mean to seek the patronage of the world; that is, we never intend to ask unconverted persons of rank or wealth to countenance this institution, because this, we consider, would be dishonorable to the Lord! ‘In the Name of our God we set up our banners’ (Psalms 20:5). He alone shall be our Patron, and if He helps us, we shall prosper; and if He is not on our side, we shall not succeed”. And, as everybody knows, while Mueller and his associates asked nothing from the world, they gave everything to the world. Never once did they send the multitudes away that they might go into the villages and buy themselves victuals; but, gathering waifs and orphans by the thousands, they invoked the Master’s blessing, and then gave out their last fish and their last loaf.In the second place we seeTHE CHURCH BY CHRIST. He calls upon them to attempt the apparently impossible.You remember that in John’s report of this miracle, Philip is recorded as saying, “Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little” (John 6:7), by which he meant to tell the Master how impossible it was for them to feed the multitude. And yet, when He commanded it, there is nothing left for His disciples to do but to attempt it. I wish that I could properly impress that lesson today, the lesson long since voiced in the couplet,“It is not ours to reason why, Ours but to do or die”. My revered teacher, Dr. Basil Manly, speaking to some students in the East years since, sought to impress this thought upon them, by a story brought from his service in the Confederate Army. He related how, in one of the severest battles of the Civil War, a little squad of men stood among their slain on a commanding position, a mere fragment left. The storm of battle had just swept beyond them. A general officer came riding up and asked, “Where is your colonel?” “Dead!” “Where is your Captain?” “There he lies”, they said, pointing to the prostrate form of Dr. A. M. Poindexter’s son. “What are you doing here?” He told us to hold this point, and we are just doing what he said”.

And, beloved, when, as I have thought upon the world’s needs, upon the extent of it, the dreadful appalling degree of it, and Satan has come with his whispers, “It is too great for you! Your little gift, or even the greater one of your church, would be but a drop in the bucket! What are a few hundred dollars when millions of men are dying”, I have found adequate answer to his argument by listening afresh for my Master’s commands,“The poor ye have always with you and whensoever ye will ye may do them good”.My Master’s teaching,“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto Me”;my Master’s assertion,“Whosoever hath this world’s goods and seeth his brother in need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?”Help, is His command. He is saying to us today, as clearly as He ever said it to His disciples, “Give ye them to eat”, and it is ours to attempt what He tells us.His commands commonly compass self-sacrifice. Only when the Church is willing to make herself poor for the sake of the world, is she able to make herself rich by saving the world. You have heard the story, have you not, of how a famous Roman prelate, looking one day upon the splendid appointments of a cathedral, and counting over the money in the church treasury, said, “Brother Thomas, the church can no longer say, as Peter said at the Gate Beautiful, ‘Silver and gold have I none’ ”, and Aquinas answered, “No, neither can she say, ‘In the Name of Jesus of Nazareth, arise and walk’, and take the cripple by the hand and lift him up”.

It is not when the Church of God accumulates that she comes to power, but when she distributes instead. It is not when by withholding, she grows rich, that miracles come to pass at her word, but rather when for the redemption of others she parts with all she has.“There is that scattereth and yet increaseth.

There is that withholdeth more than is mete and it tendeth to poverty”.One of the noble men of modern times was Mazzini—broad-minded, big-hearted, public-spirited, and yet he deliberately rejected the religion of Jesus Christ. And, when asked to assign his reasons, he replied that it seemed to teach men to be selfish, absorbed them in the thought of their own salvation, and so far wrapped them up in concern of the future, that they neglected their duties here on earth. But we know that while this charge may be made against the Christian, it is only when he fails to represent Christ, who laid down His life for others, whose concern was wholly in behalf of His fellows, and who, when in the world, gave as much of His ministry to the present and pressing needs of men’s bodies and minds as He gave to instruction touching the way of salvation for their souls. Beloved, if ever the Christians of America are to take hold of the hand of the heathen millions, and help them to Heaven, it can only come to pass when we release our hold upon the silver and gold for which their bodies are at times starving, and without the use of which their souls may remain forever in spiritual destitution.When Christ said, “Give ye them to eat”, He expected it to cost something, but sacrifice is the “sine-que-non” of Christianity.And, finally, Christ’s command stimulates the Church to the consciousness of her ability. Personally, I do not believe that Christ ever gave a command, the execution of which was not possible to His Church. It is written in the Word, “With God all things are possible”.

But, is it not also asserted, “All things are possible to them that believe?” There are few illustrations in the New Testament of conscious ability comparable to this of the text where the disciples deliberately start in to feed thousands of people with five loaves and two fishes. That they should submit to have them seated in companies; that they should receive the bread at Jesus’ hands, and set about its distribution, is proof positive that they had come to feel the possibilities under the blessing of the Son of God.

Oh, I would that modern believers might feel the same; I would that we might see that with Christ’s blessing, nothing is beyond the power of the Church! She could evangelize the world in a year, if she would.Dr. Pierson has told us that if we but stripped our persons of needless adornment—gold and jewels—and our homes of the needless silver-ware, we could send a teacher to every fifty, and a preacher to every 500 of the world’s population with the result. I would that the Church of God might see her ability to give a Christian education to every child of the world; if only the billions of dollars which are hoarded today by church-members in America alone, were contributed to that cause, what child need to remain in ignorance, or pursue his studies in heathen or skeptical school? If today, the Church of God presented in its every member, a “living epistle” of righteousness, “known and read of all men”, within ten years, she could make every immorality of the age ashamed, and establish righteousness in conduct from sea to sea. I protest against any excuse for our failure that suggests our inability.

We could feed the world, body, mind and soul. We could, if we were willing, satisfy India’s hunger, and bring to a speedy end her terrible famines.

We could, if we were willing to make the sacrifice, meet China’s mental wants, and stay her degradation, her threatened dissolution and her death. We could, if we were willing, answer Africa’s cry, “Come over and help us”, and bring her dark sons under a beneficent scepter as much better than that which now seeks control, as Heaven is above Old England, and the Son of God above the Christian king.One time, years ago, at our dinner table, I told my little boys the story of India’s suffering, (she was then in a famine) emphasizing, of course, the hunger of the little children, and the baby boy, Herbert, left his meal unfinished, to bring three pennies, his entire moneyed possessions, and putting them into my hands, he said, “Send them to the little hungry children, daddy”; and I wonder today, if it may not be that those of us who are older have not retained so much of that same tenderness, that same milk of human kindness, even in our maturer years, as that we are willing to cut a meal in two, if need be, or make such other sacrifice as our God may suggest, that starving bodies and souls may live.

Matthew 14:22-33

SINKING AT SEA Matthew 14:22-33.“SINKING at sea” is a phrase that was given new and awful meaning by the Titanic disaster of years since. Throughout the length and breadth of the civilized world, men and women who read the reports of eye witnesses, found themselves waking in the night with the cries of the drowning in their ears, disturbed by dreams little more terrible than were their waking thoughts of the same event. Editors and ministers made no small amount of the moral lessons to be drawn from that sad event; and I bring to you a kindred subject, seeking, if possible, to deepen the impressions of truth which must have been suggested to even the most casual reader or superficial thinker of that time.The Scripture read in your hearing contains one of the remarkable miracles of Jesus Christ, together with its interesting setting. His disciples had been constrained to enter into a boat and dismissed to the other side of the sea, while He remained behind to send away the multitudes. That once done, He went into the mountain, as was His wont, to pray, and when the evening was come, He was there alone. But the boat was now in the midst of the sea, disturbed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.

All the night long, it fought an unequal battle. The brawny men bent to the oars, but their progress was so slow that in the fourth watch of the night, they were both exhausted and far from land. Then it was that Christ came, walking upon the sea, and in the words which His very presence always expressed—“Be of good cheer”, He enheartened those who were well-nigh hopeless.The astonishment past, Peter, the impulsive, said,“Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come to Thee upon the waves; and He answered, Come. And Peter went down from the boat and walked upon the water to come to Jesus, but when he saw the wind he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save. Immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand took hold of him, and said unto him, Oh, thou of little faith, why dost thou doubt? And when they had gone up into the boat, the wind ceased”.Three things: The Presumption of Peter, The Explanation of Trial, and The Parable of the whole Event.THE OF PETER. The conduct was characteristic. It expressed Peter’s conscious superiority of vision. When the other disciples were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost”, and cried out for fear, Peter, who may have joined with them for a moment, swung back at the speech of Jesus, saying, “Lord!” He would have no man recognize Christ sooner than himself. Had he not, on a previous occasion, when Jesus put to him and others, the question, “Who am I?” answered, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of God”, and received the Divine approval and compliment? Here again was his opportunity to show the quickness of his wit. While the dull or excited vision of others was still questioning, he concluded, “It is the Christ”, and hurried to express himself.Newell Dwight Hillis says, “The first trait of a gentleman is that he is a good listener.

Only the selfish are willing to monopolize conversation. All good talk is an exchange, and alas, for the dinner party that has an egotist at the table!

He will lift up the capital letter “I” and turn it into an intellectual hitching-post, and ask every one to stand round about and worship at his shrine and altar”. One would hesitate to pronounce severe judgment against this great Apostle, and yet, that his impulsive speech often made him appear egotistical, no one can question. It was Peter who answered the statement of Jesus, “The time is coming when you will all desert Me and leave Me alone!” “Though all man desert Thee, I will never: I will die with Thee”. There is no question that the “I” in Peter’s life loomed large. A recent editorial in a religious magazine declared that, while the egotist was a disagreeable man, he was often a man of much power, and Peter is an instance and illustration.His speech also betrayed a conviction of superior faith. “Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come to Thee”, as if to say, “Whatever may be true of timid souls who will cry out at the approach of what seems to be a spirit walking in a storm, I trust Thee so implicitly that if Thou art here and speak the word, I will leap upon the waves and look to see them bear me up”. It is a high sounding statement, and yet, there was some ground for it.

Peter did believe in Jesus, and Peter thought that, if Christ were present, there was little likelihood that he could perish in the sea; and great likelihood that he could even tread under foot its waves. Henry Clay Trumbull used, we are told, to tell with keen appreciation of the glimpse he once had into the secret of Napoleon’s power over his soldiers.

Happening to meet a French veteran who had served under the great Commander, Dr. Trumbull asked him, “Did Napoleon’s soldiers like him?” “Like him!” the old veteran exclaimed excitedly, while he straightened up and his eyes snapped, “Like him! We believed in him. Napoleon say, ‘Go to the moon; every soldier start. Napoleon find the way’”. That was the confidence that Peter felt in Christ in his truer moments; and in part, at least, that was the confidence he thought to express when he stepped from the boat to the rolling waves.And yet, one cannot read this record without feeling alarmed lest, beneath the real fervent spirit of the marvelous and mighty man, there was also the spirit of self-assertion, to the effect that, whatever my brethren of little faith may think, I’ll show them my trust by treading upon that which is regarded as a liquid grave.And yet once more, Peter may have evinced some egotism of physical strength.

Had he not grown up by this sea? Had he not fished it from shore to shore?

Had he not by accident and on purpose been flung into it again and again? Was he not a capable swimmer, and if Christ should fail him, his own strength might be easily fallen back upon? The very thought involves an impossible proposition. The man who trusts in the least to his own strength has not fully committed himself to Christ; and the man who commits himself to Christ cannot go back to his own strength at will. I shall never forget a conversation I had with a truly great preacher of the Gospel on the subject of Divine healing. He was talking of another man, equally notable with himself, and of the fact that he let his little children lie upon a sick bed without calling a physician, and he said, “I think I could almost help to mob a man who would behave after that manner”.

But to so speak is to forget that there come times in the lives of some of God’s saints when by faith they are lifted to that level of conduct where they commit all to Christ, and where they feel conscientiously that they cannot take back that which they have laid upon the altar; nor having accepted Divine strength as sufficient, turn easily from it to put their trust in that which is purely human. While not always acting in concert with these, I confess candidly that they have not only enjoyed my sympathy, but have commanded my admiration because of what seemed to be a course of life compelled at once by strictest logic and commended by the signs of Divine love.This very thought suggestsTHE OF THE MASTER’S CONDUCT. I doubt if any intelligent reader has passed through this portion of the Scripture without asking, “Why did Christ permit Peter to sink? And if such was His purpose, why did He dare to say, ‘Come!’ thus encouraging an attempt which would end in humiliation and failure?”Such questions are not impossible of answer. So long as men have any disposition to trust in their own strength, it is good to let them try it out; or even if they think they trust in the strength of God, let them also put their faith to the test. The struggle can but result profitably in either case. If they are trusting in themselves and sink, they will see the folly of it and seek a Saviour’s help. If they are trusting in the Saviour, and are permitted to sink a little, they will but give opportunity both to His power and grace.

The very struggle through which they pass proves their spiritual profit. It would be a mistake for Christ to keep His hands forever beneath men.

To the limit of their own strength, it is best that they should exercise it; and in order to teach them dependence upon God, it is often best to let them attempt that which is beyond their own strength. A prominent pastor tells the story of a naturalist who was studying a cocoon in which a butterfly was struggling to be free. He heard it beat against the sides of its little prison, and his heart went out in pity for the helpless creature, and taking a tiny lancet he cut away the fragile walls and released it. To his amazement, it was not the beautiful creature he had expected to see. It lay struggling upon the table, a broken, unlovely object. Instead of gorgeous wings, there were only shriveled members.

He had offered help before there was need; he had removed the obstacles against which it were better to let the little thing beat itself, until by the struggle it had strength to the point where it could soar into the sunny skies and descend at will to the perfume of flowers.I confidently believe that Christ never puts out His hand to a man too soon; and I am equally persuaded that He never withholds His hand too long. The sinking of Peter was essential to Peter’s instruction.

Many a man, like an elevator, must go down before he can come up. I met a young man a year or two ago who had what he regarded as an amazing patent, and upon listening to his description, I was fully persuaded that it was valuable. He was ready to withdraw from a good position and push his patent, and in vain was he reasoned with to the effect that it would take a million dollars to properly advertise and get it to the public, and that he had better sell it out, retaining only a commission. His reply was, “Other men have succeeded even in youth, and I shall do the same”. He put his last penny into it; he borrowed from every credible friend; he sunk it all and quit the locality, discouraged, down and out. But his mother, in speaking of it said, “In the end, it will be good for him.

It has taught him his limitations, and the crosses he has born in connection with it will turn out to his profit”.Ugo Bassi’s sermon contained a poem which sought to show men the relation of the cross to both character and accomplishment. It runs after this manner:“If thou impatient do let slip thy cross,Thou wilt not find it in this world again;Nor in another: here and here alone Is given thee to suffer for God’s sake.In other worlds we may more perfectly Love Him and serve Him, praise Him,Grow nearer and nearer to Him with delight.But then we shall not any moreBe called to suffer, which is our appointment here,Cans’t thou not suffer, then, one hour or two?If He should call thee from thy cross today Saying: ‘It is finished, that hard cross of thine From which thou prayest for deliverance,Thinkest thou not some passion of regret Would overcome thee? Thou would’st say,‘So soon? Let me go back and suffer yet awhile More patiently. I have not yet praised God’. Whensoe’er it comes, that summons that we look for,It will seem soon, too soon. Let us take heed in time That God may now be glorified in us”.Christ was adequate to Peter’s recovery.“Jesus stretched forth His hand and took hold of him, and said unto him, Oh, thou of little faith, wherefore dost thou doubt?”.Students are pretty well agreed that Peter sank because he got his eyes off the wonderful Son of God and upon the wind and waves. The lesson isLook out, not in Look up, not downand look to Christ and not to self or circumstances. Oh, it is a great lesson that poor Jonah learned in the whale’s belly, “Salvation is of the Lord!” Father Ryan once penned this into a beautiful poem entitled, “Out of the Depths”.“Lost! Lost! Lost! The cry went up from a sea—The waves were wild with an awful wrath,Not a light shone down on the lone ship’s path;The clouds hung low: Lost! Lost! Lost! Rose wild from the hearts of the tempest-tossed.“Lost! Lost! Lost! The cry floated over the waves—Far over the pitiless waves;It smote on the dark and it rended the clouds The billows below them were weaving white shrouds Out of the foam of the surge,And the wind-voices chanted a dirge: Lost! Lost! Lost! Wailed the lips of the tempest-tossed.“Lost! Lost! Lost! Not the sign of a hope was nigh,In the sea, in the air or the sky;And the lifted faces were wan and white,There was nothing without them but storm and night,And nothing within but fear;But far to a Father’s ear, Lost! Lost! Lost! Floated the wail of the tempest-tossed.“Lost! Lost! Lost! Out of the depths of the sea—Out of the night came He,And the waves and the winds of the storm were hushed,And the sky with the gleams of the stars was flushed. Saved! Saved! Saved! And a calm and a joyous cry Floated up through the starry sky,In the dark—in the storm—‘Our Father’ is nigh”.THE PARABLE OF THE . This whole incident is marvelously full of suggestions. It is more than a miracle; it is both a miracle and a parable.The sea in which Peter sank is the symbol of the grave. Concerning the sorrows that were smiting Jesus and which were to end on Calvary, He said, “All Thy waves and Thy billows have gone over me”. It was in the Red Sea that Pharaoh and his hosts found their burial. How often we speak of those dying in the language of the sea! “He is sinking rapidly” is the common phrase to describe the approach to death.We are told that the most painless end a man can know comes to the drowning; but the scientists now say that, so far as death is concerned, it is practically a painless experience; that to live is often to suffer in the body; but to die is to be released. The whole thinking public would have been delighted to have known that when the great ocean-liner, the “Titanic”, sank, she carried with her to an instant end the 1700 immortals.

The reports of an awful hour, or two, or more, of men and women struggling in freezing cold, and against an ever-increasing despair, made an almost unbearable memory. But, for the saints at least who were involved in that awful hour, it was not an end. The papers appalled us with a report that a vessel was not more than five miles away, its lights openly gleaming to the eyes of the perishing, and their agony was increased by that which excited hope, and then in turn, mocked their expectations, and turned its course to another shore while they perished. Brave deeds are recorded; heroic things were done.“Tears for the dead, who shall not come again Homeward to any shore on any tide! Tears for the dead! But through that bitter rain, Breaks like an April sun the smile of pride. “What courage yielded place to others’ need, Patient of discipline’s supreme decree, Well may we guess who knows that gallant breed, Schooled in the ancient chivalry of the sea”. The question as to whether the band played, “Nearer My God To Thee” will never be settled. One asserts and another disputes; but no one disputes what John Harper did. That noble Christian preacher was seen just a few moments before the event on an upper deck, leaning against the railing and was heard pleading the cause of Christ to a young man, who, though he had been a sinner, was giving his every word an eager audience. And when the “Titanic” perished and carried down the man who had been chosen to be the pastor of the Chicago Moody Church, the lights went not out for him, for “this is also a parable of the resurrection day”.Christ, who stretched forth His hand and lifted Peter out of the Sea of Tiberias, will descend from heaven with a shout, and with the voice of the archangel, call forth not only those who sleep in their graves, but every saint that sleeps at sea, to light and life and eternal love.Alfred Noyes wrote:“Pilot, how far from home? Not far, not far tonight, A flight of spray, a sea-bird’s flight, A flight of tossing foam, And then the lights of home! “And, yet again, how far? Seems you the way so brief? Those lights beyond the roaring reef Were lights of moon and star, Far, far, none knows how far! “Pilot, how far from home? The great stars pass away Before Him as a flight of spray, Moons as a flight of foam! I see the lights of home!” They did not recover the body of John Harper. Men who know the sea say it may be held by the vessel two miles deep. But John Harper’s spirit that night saw the lights of home, and the hour will come when John Harper’s body shall be brought forth for “the sea shall give up its dead, and death shall have no more dominion over them”.It is an awful thing for a sinner to sink at sea. He goes down without promise or prospect. But a saint at sea is safe whether he ride in the well-trimmed ship or be swallowed down by the salty waves, for in either instance, God is present to watch over him if living; or to mark his resting place when men shall say, “he is dead”, and surely bring him home! Oh, it is a good thing to be able to say with Alfred Noyes:“Pilot, how far from home? Not far, not far tonight, A flight of spray, a sea-bird’s flight, A flight of tossing foam,. And then the lights of home!”