Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1863-11-25
Sermon Preached at the New Jerusalem
Church, Urbana, October l9, 1868,
by Charles HardOn.
TEzT.-'' To me 6slongeRf geagsaos."

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TEXT To ne 6sloagetF vengeance"
-Deut. XXXII, S5.
THESE are the Lord S words, and are
part Of the Song of Moses, which he spak
, to the Children of Israel when he wa
about to die. The same language
+ quoted by the Apostle Paul in the fol
lowing passage from his Epistle to tn
Romans; dearly beloved, avenge no
yourselves, but rather give place unit,
wrath for it is written, Vengeance i
mine; 1 will repay, saith the Lord. :"
Vengeance has reference to injuries
that are done, either directly or indirect
ly, to ourselves. They are done to u.
directly when their object is our OWL
persons or property; but when they are
done, not to US personally, but to our rel.
atives, our friends, our church. or our
country, they are still done to as, though
indirectly; for sOe, too, suffer in sympa-
thy with what we love.
1t comes within the scope of the text
to show what our duty is in case of such
real OF supposed injuries; and. also, what
belongs strictly to the Lord, and uot
/ to US.
1t is well te remind ourselves here that
the Lord work is not always done inde-
Pendcntly Of US. lie may do a part Of
what He does In and ifroagl as. What
We do in ojco}icaes {, Him is His work,
and is done by Him, though He docs it
through rs; as he builds hou.e who ori-
ginates The purpose to build it, and hires
and pays tllc gorknen, although he may
not hin elf DO any part Of the manual
labor. Whatever we do that is rig5t for
US to 10, is the Lords work through us
70 acknowledge it as such is to give the
Lord what is due to Him; not to acknowl-
edge it, is spiritual theft, and makes that
eel IN as which may be outwardly good,
and which would be good in US if We as
cribed ii to the Lord, to whom all GOOD
belongs, and did not appropriate -st-ta-
muselves.
WhiIe, therefore, vengeance belongs to
the Lord, and tits Ills to say what shall
he the nature, the time, the manner and
degree Of it, yet the external agency of il
may sometimes belong to US. It may
become our duty to assist in the execu-
ton Of vengeance upon evil doers. Under
what circumstances Ibis may be done will
be further shown before we leave the
subject.
The text itself declares tbas vengeance
belongs to the Lrl, implying that it
does . belong to US and Is MT "a s. It.
remains, therefore, for US to consider
what part, if any, We may have in taking
vengeance On those who, either directly
or indirectly, injure US, and what is the
nature Of the vengeance that belongs to
the Lord.
But frst, I wish to say few words
about the Importance Of the truth con
tanned in tile text, and Of our observing
it. The words are the LoRDs words,
and, as such, they should command our
souls and hold them in awe. The i'm
portance of our observing the Lords
words is shown chiefly by this-that He
is raised infinitely high above US, so that
our conduct cannot affect Him, whether
il be Of one kind or another.
What He says, therefore, He says en-
-irely + as He has a cause and king !
lom-in other words, church. among
men; but that church is solely for the
Development, perfection and happiness of
nan, and not for any personal interest of
His own. Indeed, He has no personal
interests; but His interests are others
In this is love, which is tho
livine nature, and we arc made partakers
# it 50 far as we avoid acting for person
i interests, Now, we give weight to a
mans words according to our conviction
hat he does not speak from personal or
motives, or that he speaks what
le does in spite of such motives. We
hould, then, give as much greater weight
o the words Of the Lord, as His under
tanding and knowledge is greater than
hat Of any man. In nothing is our wis
lom or folly more clearly shown than
n the estimate which we, in our hearts, h
lace upon the Lords words. What
makes it to be folly and Insanity for us to 4
them is this fact-thot He !
peaks them for US, and not for Himself.
Are We SO stupid as not to perceive the
From the Lords own es
entail nature it follows that not the least (
hing can ever be gained to ourselves by t
isreSarding what He says, 1t is inva- {
iably and inevitably followed by an
nhappy result. We lose by so doing. {
o disregard the Lord words, then, were
in natural things, would be to want {
God sense; in spiritual things, we call it