SERMON. III – William Elbert Munsey
A DISEASE; A PHYSICIAN; A REMEDY; A CURE; A REASON
” Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? ” — Jer. 8:22.
THE children of Israel are here represented by the prophet as having a disease which the well-known balm of Gilead would cure, if properly administered by a compe- tent physician. ” Why then,” he very mournfully queries, “is not the daughter of my people recovered ? ” The reason was obvious : they would not apply to the physician, or use the remedy. The whole was figurative, and had special ref- erence to their spiritual state. As figurative, and of general application, I will use it to-day ; discussing the text with the following analysis : a disease ; a physician ; a remedy ; a cure ; a reason.
I. A Disease. — Whenever a living organization is disor- dered, and it is disturbed or interrupted in the natural exer- cise of its constitutional functions, the state of that organiza- tion is properly expressed by the word disease — it is diseased. Man was made constitutionally agreeing with archetypal con- stitutional God, and with all things under all laws. The moral constitution of man is disordered in the natural exercise of its functions by sin. Sin produces spiritual disease. Man is spiritually diseased. But let us form our diagnosis from the symptoms : He is false to all his relations — false to God, his fellows, himself — out of harmony with universal being. His understanding is feeble and benighted, especially with reference to religious matters ; his memory is weak and treacherous, often stupidly forgetting his duty and interest . his imagination is corrupt, sentimentally debauched, or ex- travagantly dreamy. His reason as often leads him into er- ror as into truth ; his will is unreasonably and senselessly ob- stinate ; his conscience is obdurate and slow ; his affections defective, or sweeping in whirlwinds of passion upon the wildest extremes. He is more or less selfish, proud, cove- tous, envious, impatient, ungrateful, jealous, hypocritical, re- vengeful, malicious, perfidious, false, treacherous, cruel, su- perstitious, and bigoted — bigoted often in the very religion he professes. Created by a holy God, for holy ends, he sins with his body, heart, and mind — head, face, eyes, ears, lips, tongue, palate, stomach, arms, hands, and feet. Is he not diseased? Sin is<4:he violation of law, and law is the basis of order; therefore to be a sinner is to be in a state of dis- order, hence diseased. Is this man’s normal state ? Is this the creature God made and pronounced ” Good “? No.
This disease is hereditary, universal, fatal, and incurable by man. — It is hereditary. Radically, it is not a contagious disease, neither is it radically infectious — though in some senses it is both — but it is truthfully a hereditary disease, de- scending from parent to child. It is a necessary and funda- mental law of nature that like will beget like. Such a law is essential to the order and harmony of things, essential to natural progress, essential to the ideas of completion and perfection. Trees and plants beget their kind ; animals be- get their kind — in appearance, nature, and qualities ; man begets his kind, like begetting like, therefore we are often told in Scripture of obliquities of character descending from the parents to the children, through several generations. Our first parents sinned, and their sin diseased their consti- tutions ; and according to the laws of cause and effect, like begetting like, their diseased constitutions descended to their children. Their disease was constitutional, and only consti- tutional diseases are hereditary ; being constitutional they are always hereditary ; therefore, their constitutional disease affected without exception all their descendants. Analogous cases might be cited in the pathological part of the science of medicine. In the descent of this hereditary disease from our first parents to us, the responsibility of their personal acts remained with themselves — the constitutional disease descended without the responsibility of its original contrac- tion. We are only responsible for our personal acts. // is universal. — It is not an endemic, peculiar to the people of one country ; it is not an epidemic, affecting great numbers of people, it is more ; it is a pandemic — pas, pan, all, demos, people — affecting all people — peoples of all ages, from Adam to now. Not one exception can be found in the history of any race. Is the disease of sin universal ? It could not be otherwise from the philosophically legal principle of hereditary transmission, if all mankind descended from one common parentage, and that parentage was con- stitutionally diseased. Is it universal ? Read history. It is but a record of men’s vices — the stage upon which all men have played their parts in the mournful drama of human life, and left the footprints of sin as their appropriate memorials. The history of one nation and age, is the history of all na- tions and ages.
Is it universal ? Read the laws of all nations and ages. They are but human statutes to restrain and suppress uni- versal iniquity. The universality of human laws, is evidence of the universality of sin. Is it universal? Go to Europe, Asia, Africa, America ; go to the city, the country ; the palace, the hovel ; the abodes of civilization, the abodes of barbarism ; it is seen in the girl, the boy, the woman, the man, the aged. It is seen in the king, the subject ; the master, the servant ; the rich, the poor ; the learned, the unlearned. Are graves, battlefields, widows, orphans, xnd suffering universal ? Then it is. Born in hell, it rushed to earth and spread wide its wings over all climes, oriental and occidental, from pole to pole, dropping pestilence from its sable plumes till the whole earth is sick.
It is fatal. — I mean such is its philosophical tendency — ultimating in a final fatality. This disease is fatal, because it implies a derangement of the vital functions of spiritual life, ultimating necessarily in a final destruction of spiritual life itself, producing spiritual death. The principle of sin being unbelief, its essence enmity to God, its development being the transgression of law, it naturally destroys faith in God the principle of spiritual life, love to God the essence of spiritual life, and obedience to God the development of spiritual life. Every element of spiritual life depends upon man’s constant communion with God, and sin philosophically makes communion with God impossible.
It is incurable by man. — i. Because it is a disease of man’s nature — that which constitutes himself. It is a con- stitutional disease. Being constitutional all the powers of man are involved, so that there is no individual power free upon whose nature or action any system of reformation or recovery can be founded, by any power save that which made him.
2. Man’s disease being one of nature and constitution, he cannot be cured without a change of nature and con- stitution— the change of that constitutional entity which is the background of his feelings, the substratum of his powers, the ground of his identity, the substance of himself. He cannot be cured without a change equivalent to a new generation, new conception and new birth — without a change equivalent to being “born again,” as Christ expresses it. Such a change can only be effected by the power which made him. For a man to effect such a change in himself, he must first be able to destroy himself, then be able to re- produce himself upon the basis of a higher existence. To say nothing of other insuperable difficulties, he must exist after he is destroyed that a power might be left to reproduce himself. Self-redemption or self-regeneration is the greatest of absurdities. The power necessary to change man’s na- ture, and effect a radical cure of his disease, must proceed from a source extrinsic to himself. Had the world known this we would have been spared much philosophic lumber; and men would not have tried to accomplish that which God and nature said was impossible. I have presented you an awful disease, hereditary, universal, fatal and incurable by man. I now present you :
II. A Physician. — He is infinite in his knowledge. He knows all about God, His law, His system, His government, the unity and relations of universal being. He knows all about man, his origin, nature, constitution, powers, relations, influences, duties and destiny. He knows all about man’s disease, its nature, its effects, its causes, and all the reme- dies necessary for his cure. He is infinite in His wisdom. As his wisdom is his knowledge in the concrete, if his knowl- edge is infinite his wisdom must be. Wisdom is knowl- edge in action. This Physician has actually and effectively brought his vast fund of knowledge into exercise in the scheme of Redemption, selecting the best remedies, and em- ploying the best means, and agents for their application, that man might be cured. Such is wisdom. He is infinite in the means at his command. The stupendous energies of his own being, the Holy Ghost, angels, men, principles, things, are but his employees to fulfil his plans. The resources of heaven, earth, the universe, are his. The treasuries of im- mensity are his. He has under his control every dispensa tion and event of Providence to accomplish the salvation of sinners.
He is equitable in his ministrations. — He is impartial ; learning, wealth, position, influence him not. Wherever the disease is there he is. Voltaire said in a letter to Frederick of Prussia, who were both infidels, ” Give us the princes and philosophers, and we freely leave the lower class to the fish- ermen and tent makers.” Many of the apostles were fisher- men, and Paul was a tent maker. But listen to the Physi- cian of Gilead : ” Go and tell John, the poor have the gospel preached unto them.” Your humble home, your plain garb, your scanty board, and hard bed, do not deprive you of the impartial attendance of the world’s physician. O, had I the voice of an archangel, I would send it breaking with joy through every hovel in our extended country, ” The poor have the gospel preached unto them.” The nature and genius of our Christianity require impartiality.
He is free of charge, as well as equitable, in his ministrations. Free of charge his ministrations must be if impartial. They are so from the very necessity of the case. In all pur- chases there is an equivalent value between the thing pur- chased, and the price paid for it. This idea of equivalency is involved in all trade. In the nature and contraction of this fearful disease there is an infinite criminality entailed upon the sinner. The guilt of an action consists in its being a violation of an obligation ; man’s obligations to God, how- ever estimated, are infinite ; hence the guilt of sin is infinite. If the guilt of sin is infinite, the remedy to cure it must be infinite. In other words, the nature and medicinal proper- ties of the remedy must be equal to the nature and malig- nancy of the disease. According to the principle of equiva- lency in trade, between the thing bought and the price paid for it, man must pay a price equal to the nature of the rem- edy, and equal to the corresponding value of the physician’s services who administers it. Can he do it ? Finite in his nature, finite in his resources, can he pay a price of infinite value ? No ; if not bought by one whose merits are infinite, therefore equal to man’s demerits, and presented to man as a gift, man’s disease is incurable.
He is always easily accessible. — However great his quali- fications, without accessibility, we would not be benefited — but his language is : ” Come unto me, all ye that are weary * and heavy ladened, and I will give you rest.” Not only ac- cessible, but easily accessible. Not embarrassed with courtly forms, polite introductions, or the mediation and attention of ushers — no, but easily accessible. Not only easily accessi- ble, but always easily accessible. His attention upon others never prevents his immediate attention to your smallest wants.
III. A Remedy. — It was instituted by God. Its origin is not earthly. It is not the result of human learning, the ward of human reason, the triumph of human philosophy. No ! it is the result of Divine wisdom, the transcript of God’s coun- sels, the embodied duplicate of God’s perfections, the mas- terpiece of His mind, the child of Heaven. It is infallible in its curative powers. The disease is sin. Is the guilt of sin infinite ? Christ’s merits are infinite. Does the law re- quire suffering and death ? Christ has suffered and died. Do the merits of man weigh too lightly in the scales of Divine Justice ? Christ’s merits make up the lack, and in- cline the beam to -salvation’s level. The merits of Christ are as far above law, as the demerits of man are below it, and by the philosophic action of faith upon the part of the crea- ture, the two are united, and an equilibrium and status are attained according to the highest standard of Justice, and satisfactory to its highest claims. Does God’s truth require the sinner’s death ? The merits of Christ are equal to the ag- gregated demerits of the world, and according to the legal prin- ciples of equivalency and substitution fulfil the requirement
Does the Divine holiness assert its claims ? It has been fully illustrated in the sufferings and death of a sacrifice, and provisions of purification are made to rise to its highest de- mands. Does God’s majesty scorn the sinner? The sinner is elevated by the price paid for his redemption. Has man sinned ? Is the law unable to forgive ? Does the law re- main in full force ? Is man unable to recall his sin ? And is God incompetent to pardon from mere prerogative ? This remedy has satisfied the law, maintains its authority and majesty, and has placed the seal of forgiveness in the hand of God, and administers pardon to the sinner. Has sin cor- rupted the soul, and left its hellish contagion skulking in the fractures, and cleaving to the walls of its terrestrial temple ? This remedy neutralizes the poison, and tracks with deter- gent wing and curative power every nerve and vein which sin has envenomed, purifies the soul, and out-streaming sanctifies the body. Do idiosyncrasies of mind, peculiarities of constitution, and abnormal developments of bodily passion furnish strongholds for sin j and like other diseases, does it fasten its fangs more deeply in constitutional weaknesses ? This remedy has power sufficient to upheave the strongest ramparts of iniquity, rout the monster, and pour a flood of cleansing grace and conserving strength into the weakest points of character.
Has sin distracted soul and body, reversed man’s nature, destroyed the harmony of his powers, and made him eternally unhappy ? This remedy eliminates the disease, restores the order of his constitutional being, tranquillizes his powers, and makes him constitutionally happy. It fills him brim-full of mercy, it raises the spirit, it puts the God back into man. Is the throne of sin in the nature ? It is there this remedy strikes, tears down the carnal nature and erects a spiritual one, a fair and beautiful structure fit for the temple of God. It obliterates all the moral effects of sin, and in their room inimitably pencils the image of God upon the soul, and writes His blessed ” new name ” there.
Sin sundered the cord of love, the centripetal force which held man to God his vital centre, and his independent exis- tence the centrifugal and counterbalancing force flung him travelling out from God into immeasurable darkness. Dis- orbed, and away from the source of all light, he wandered in derangement through the interminable fields and leagues of night — lost, erratic, ungoverned, miserable. But this remedy readjusts man’s sundered and distracted relations to univer- sal being, and fastens again the cord of love, cemented by the blood of Jesus, and brings the wandering orb rolling back in reclaimed glory to its native orbit, to revolve in eternal brotherhood and fraternal love with its fellows around the throne of God forever.
It is infallible to cure. Infallible to cure ? Ask its author, God. Infallible to cure ? The earthquake and dark- ness of Calvary, the fiery tongues of Pentecost answer you. Infallible to cure ? A thousand burning stakes and dying beds answer you. Infallible to cure ? Universal Christen- dom answers you in the affirmative, and a million converts starting into life from the altar of prayer defy hell to dispute it. Saints in heaven, and Christians on earth are its witnesses ■ — we are its witnesses.
It is universal in its applicability. There are thirteen hundred millions of human beings now living. All of them by nature sinners. Some of them are enlightened, some are civilized, some are barbarians, some are pagans ; some are learned, others unlearned; some are children, some are adults, others hoary and trembling with age ; some are rich, others poor ; some are princes and masters, others subjects and servants ; some have pursuits and professions, others none. Yet in all this vast throng no two are alike. They differ in body, differ in mind, differ in feeling, differ in attain- ments, differ in morals, differ in theory, differ in practice. Every unit in the thirteen hundred millions of our tremen- dous race possesses characteristics and peculiarities of mind, character, and condition, which distinguish it from all the race. In other words, in the thirteen hundred millions of human beings, there are thirteen hundred millions of indi- vidual varieties. Yet this remedy is adapted in its nature to cure all of them.
What a vast remedy ! Spreading itself over a densely populated world, preserving its unity as a system, yet adapt- ing itself pertinently and perfectly to every peculiarity of mind, soul, nature, character, and condition of every indi- vidual in the grand aggregate. Still this is but a glimpse at its universality. All ages have been distinguished from all former and subsequent ages by the peculiarities of their co- temporary generation. What an immensity is imparted to the universality of Redemption’s plan, as a remedy commen- surate with the ravages of a universal disease. It is a remedy which stretches its wing over all time, and adapts itself to all peculiar wants, of all peculiar men, of all peculiar ages, from Adam till now, and till the Judgment.
IV. A Cure. — This remedy can cure. This cure is radi- cal : Because the remedy strikes at the root of the disease and removes its cause — radical, radix, a root. This remedy is not a mere palliative ; it has nothing to do with symptoms or effects, but strikes beyond the intellect, the sensibilities, right at sin, the cause, lodged in the nature, and drags it struggling and howling out of the temple of God, and flings it into hell. The cause of the disease gone, the constitution with its tendencies, desires, aspirations, and affections, soon healthily adjusts itself, and the man is cured — he is a new creature. The skill of the physician, and the power of the remedy are equal to the disease. Are you healed ? No. Whv not ? ” Is there no balm in Gilead ? Is there no physician there ? ” This brings us to the last proposition in the analysis.
V. A Reason. — To assign a sensible reason why men are not healed, is certainly very difficult. They are afflicted with a disease which is hereditary ; there is a physician pre- sented to them infinite in knowledge, with a remedy institu- ted by God, and a promised cure, radical in nature ; ” Why, then, is not the health of the daughter of my people recov- ered?” Why? Because they will not apply to the physi- cian nor use the remedy — because they will not. It is a de- liberate act of rejection performed as a matter of choice. All reasons why men are not healed group themselves under this one — generic one — they will not. But I will be more specific. Why will not men be religious ?
1. Because some men have doubts about the truth of Christianity. Such doubts are generally the result of igno- rance of the evidences and nature of Christianity. If it was a matter which affected their temporal interests, they would have carefully and impartially examined it, with all the helps they could employ, long ago. But, inasmuch as it is religion and not money, and relates to the soul rather than the stomach, to eternity more particularly than to time ; and as this life is the whole of man’s existence, and if a man grati- fies every want now it makes no difference about the future — though that future might happen to be unending ; they have so little interest in Christianity, and care so little about it, they have never thought it worth the while to study whether these things are so or not. But it does seem that some men would reason this way : ” I had better accept Christianity, as I have nothing better. If it should happen to be untrue I am not injured by the acceptance ; if it should happen to be true, however, and I do not accept it, I am ruined for- ever.”
Go home, friend, and study it — and remember you gain nothing if you prove it false — study it impartially. If you find anything in it you cannot understand, do not therefore reject the whole system. You do not reject the science of Chemistry because there are affinities you cannot under- stand. You give the unexplainable in Science the advantage of the explainable, and receive the whole as truth ; but some men in religion act conversely, they give the explainable the disadvantage of the unexplainable, and reject both as false. Act in religion as you do in everything else. Christianity lays down its evidences, and upon them demands the faith of mankind. That it has lain down a sufficiency of evidence is clear from the fact that the most intelligent of mankind have believed it. It has nothing to gain or lose by your dis- belief. Though you may conscientiously disbelieve it, yet this will not relieve you in the Judgment from the penalty of unbelief. God has given you what He regards a sufficiency of evidence, and He will regard your unbelief as wilful.
2. Because some men love sin so well. It does seem that the love of some men for sin is so great, they would rather enjoy it here for a season and suffer eternal punishment, than to deny themselves here for a season and enjoy greater hap- piness even in this world and eternal happiness hereafter.
3. Because some men are so indolent they dislike the work of repentance. A lazy man never dreaded the harvest in midsummer more than they dread to repent. They seem to prefer to sit down in idleness here and run the risk of working in the forges of hell forever, than to work here and rest in heaven forever.
4. Because some men are wedded to the pleasures of this world. It does seem that they would prefer to dance in the maddened and sensual whirl of worldly pleasures, than to career amid the beauties of heaven and around the throne of God. It does seem they would rather join in the baccha- nalian shouts of reprobates accursed, then go to hell, than to exchange them for higher pleasures here, then go to heaven and be happy forever. The Christian is happier here than the sinner — I can prove it by one hundred witnesses in this congregation.
5. Because some men love to make money so well that they cannot spare the time to be religious. Behold their folly ! Time was given for a purpose ; they pervert it, neglect the true riches, and go to hell poor, when they might be rich forever. 6. Because some men are so senselessly proud they would rather carry a rankling disease all their days, and go to hell with it, than simply to ask the Physician of Gilead to do for them what they are too proud to acknowledge they cannot do for themselves.
7. Because it is a remedy they cannot buy. If church subscriptions, church attendance, church pride, or some great thing or work, could have purchased it they would have been religious long ago. Naaman refused to use the means for the cure of his leprosy, because of its simplicity ; the prophet had sent him word to wash in the Jordan seven times. His servants remonstrated and said, ” My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it ? How much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash and be clean.” Said Simon of Samaria to Peter and John, (when he saw that men received the Holy Ghost by the laying on of their hands) offering them money, ” Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay my hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.” ” But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased wrth money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter : for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness ; and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.” They will not receive it because it is a gift ! ! !
8. Because some men try to heal themselves, or apply to other men to do it. Hence medicine is administered to symptoms and effects ; miserable palliatives are used, and the disease rendered more incurable by being rendered more bearable to the patient, hence lessening his disposition to apply to the Physician of Gilead and have the cause of all his maladies removed, and be cured in God’s way.
9. Because they do not feel like it. Lack of feeling is the worst symptom of the disease. Then, they will not be healed because their disease has assumed its most dangerous and fatal form. They have less use for a physician when their disease is worst. Yea more, they want a state of feel- ing which a cure can only impart, before they will consent to be cured. Even more than this, they expect God to con- vict them more deeply, without their making any use what- ever of the conviction they already have — as if God would give great grace, when they obstinately refuse to improve the little given. It is an effort to throw the responsibility upon God. They will die with a disease which might be cured, because they do not feel like making use of the remedy ; yet, if their neighbor were to die of the fever because he re- fused to take the medicine prescribed from the simple rea- son he did not feel like it, they would accuse him of folly. You never will feel like it.
10. Christians, why are not you healed ? Sinner, why will ye die ? Would you be healed ? The conditions are sim- ple. Repent of your rejections hitherto of the Physician and his remedy, of your acts aggravating the malignancy of the disease, and receive the Physician by faith. You can- not heal yourself — the guilt of your sin is infinite, — the merit of any work you might perform can be but finite ; yet you must do something, and what you must do must give you the benefit of merits which are infinite, merits equal to your guilt ; and yet what you must do, must imply the renunciation of anything you can do, as the condition of availing your self of the merits of another. Faith is the only thing which will meet the legal conditions involved. It is the act of the creature — he does something. Yet what he does im- plies the renunciation of himself and every thing which he can do, for it is faith in Christ, faith in another. And it is faith called into action by feelings excited in him by what Christ did for him — faith working by love. You must have faith in the physician and the remedy. The faith must amount to an entire dependence on the physician, and an entire renunciation of all other remedies. This remedy or death is the condition of your soul.
The point of faith into which a common belief and assent to the principles and provisions of Christianity rises to the dignity of a saving trust — at which point only faith is availa- ble for salvation — may be illustrated : A man is hanging by his hand, holding to a feeble vine on the side of a smooth perpendicular wall of a gigantic precipice, whose summit and boundaries are almost out of sight. Beneath him is a chasm, vast, deep, dark, and wide. Pale with terror, there he hangs with no crevice in which to place his foot, swinging by his hand to a single, dry, withered vine growing out of a small fracture high above his head. He looks to the right and left, he sees nothing but a ledgeless cliff widening into tangled brushwood at its far extremes. He looks down with a sickening and reeling brain into the black rugged chasm over whose jaws he is swinging in horror. He looks above, and an unscalable precipice of rocks, in whose lightning- splintered crags are the eyries of the thunder, towers hundreds of feet above and forms the frowning crest of some mountain spur. There he swings, ever and anon a fibre of the creaking vine snaps, and cold chills course through his every vein.
He feels he cannot save himself. He looks around him and below him for help, but there is none. He looks above and behold a light glittering and spangling down the rocks, and a strong angel shaving the dizzy cliff with broad wings of flashing alabaster, and resting in a perfect balance, every dazzling plume quivering in the subtle air, just beyond his reach over his head. ” Save me,” cries the affrighted man. ” Do you believe I am able to do it ? ” replies the angel. The man sees in a glance the strong wing and mighty arm, and answers, ” I do.” ” Do you believe I am willing to do it ? ” says the angel. The man gazes at the benignant and loving face, and joins it to the fact of the angel’s coming, and answers, ” I believe that thou art willing to do it.” ” Then,” says the angel, ” Let go.” If the man believes in the ability and willingness of the angel to save him he will ” let go ” and depend upon the angel to catch him at the end of his own dependence, and in the act of his perfect faith.
The Physician of Gilead with his healing balm has come. He enters the door. His weary feet fall noiselessly along the aisle. He steps gently, yet firmly into the chancel. He turns about and faces you — Behold him ! The dew of Her- mon is upon his locks, the dust of the highway clings to his garments ; his sandals are worn — he has travelled a long way. He once was a king, with a crown, throne, and king- dom. His crown excelled the value of gold, and the beauty of diamonds ; His throne was imperishable in strength, and unequalled in splendor ; His kingdom was supreme, abso- lute, universal. Yet for our sakes he left all and came to the earth ; and passing by the way of Gethsemane, Calvary, and Joseph’s grave, has come here to-night. In his hand he holds the remedy which cost him his life, and is ready now to heal you. Again, I say, Behold him ! His face is all be- nignity and love ; His wounds are bleeding afresh ; tears of entreaty gush from his eyes, and trickling down his face fall upon the floor. Strange the Physician should have to en- treat the patient to be cured, yet it is so — he bids you come.
Arise, young lady, arise, young man, arise, sinner gray with years and gray in sin, and come and kneel at his feet, or turning, his departing footsteps sound your funeral knell upon the steps of the church, and he will leave forever. He has not long to wait. The remedial dispensation, is rapidly sweeping to a close, and your probation hangs on a thread. It may end in an hour — a moment. The harvest will soon be past, the summer ended, and you are not saved. But now you may be — for still he waits. As his ambassador he tells me to announce it — still he waits. Will you reject him ? Your best friend, your only Savior, will you ? He turns — and O, how sorrowful ! He steps into the aisle again, and walks slowly, reluctantly, wearily, sadly, away — bearing his remedy with him. He has made this long jour- ney for nothing. You have wilfully rejected him — rejected as a matter of choice. He is near the door — some of you there fall across his way, and pray him to stop — You will not — then he is gone, gone ! O come back ! Come back !
