The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-05-18
TIE VOICE OF THE PULPIT.
Rev. Reuben Jeffrey at the First Baptist,
on the Translation of EnOch.
Rev. DR.. Radcliffe Fills DR.. Rondthaler's
Pulpit and Takes Three Suggestions
frem the Song Of Deborah.
THE TRANSLATION OF ENocH.
The Morning Sermon by Rev. Reuben Jeffery
mt the First Baptist Church.

mt the First Baptist Church
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not
seo death, and he found. for God had trans
tatec ha.--Heb. Xi. >.
1t is worthy of note, in the first place. that in
every age of the world God has not been without
sonic fsz= faithful witnesses Even in this ante
diluyian period, when the world was in the in
fancy of its history, there was line of men mhe
were actuated by the principles and convictions
of the true religion, and by the consistency of
the example bore unequivocal testimony against
Tho prevailing wiekedness. Abel and Seth,
Enoch and Methuselah are names that serve 5
guide posts and light to Immortality along the
track OF ancient time.
Another fact to be remembered is that true
religion in its essence is the same in all ages
The circumstances may vary. the forms and
modes of expression may be different, the hori-
zon of practical issues may be enlarged in the
progress OF the ages. and the area of discussion
as TO the philosophy of religion may be in
creased, but the calculations of piety are un-
changed and unimproved. Christianity is not a
new religion, but simply ar enlarged statement
of principles germinal in the very earliest reve-
1ation of God to man. a clearer illustration and
announcement of truths adumbrated in the
twilight of human history, and working out
into actual facts of truths limited at and pre-
uiCteQ In the earliest pSI1Ou OF Time
Enoch walked with God in his day,
and the most exalted saint Of our own times
can do no better. Enoch believed that God is
the rewarder of them that diligently seek
Him; in the exercise of this faith he pleased God.
The piety OF to day can recognize no higher ele
ments of faith, and God makes no different condi
tion for the securing of his favor
In fact, it would seem that we. In these latter
days, are the rather to be instructed and rebuked
by the lesson Of Enoch's testimony Euoch be-
h nfn v,ol
God. He recognized his immediate accounta-
bility in every detail of life. He believed that
God would reward life inspired by regard to
His will by special tokens of His presence He
believed in future state and regulated his con
duet by conviction that what he sowed here he
would reap hereafter He trusted in God for
guidance through this life and for blessedness in
the life to come. He delighted in God, and
sought companiorship with Him. And though
it is not specially stated that he had any appre-
hension of the doctrine of mediation. we know
that God had already instituted worship through
sacrifice: therefore we may not doubt that Enoch
svinced his faith by the maintenance of the altar
FIRE and the continuous offering of the sacrifcial
victim; and so proclaimed his time for pardon nd
eternal life through the sacrifice of the Lamb of
God who should yet appear to put away sin.
And Enoch maintained his piety under much
greater discouragements than need attend our
walk with God. In the first place, notice the
great length there was allowed to an earthly
life Men did not ordinarily die until they
had lived from five to nine hundred
years The human race was then
IN its infancy, and we can well imagine
that deaths were very infrequent Men knew
that they might die from violence; but finding
century after century to elapse without any per-
ceptible evidences of physical decay it is easy
to suppose that men began TO question whether
they need TO die at all. At any rate, why might
not each man hope to live q thousand years? Is
it surprising, with such probabilities of ionSey-
ity before them, that men should not be partic-
ularly interested in any of Enoch's notions about
q life beyond the present? Nay, rather, the
motto was not thus: ''Let us eat. drink and be
merry, for to morrow we die;' but rather, LET
US eat, drink and be merry, for We shall not die
tomorrow. For that matter, we do not expect
to die for thousand years; and as for the ques-
ton of hereafter, that hereafter, if there is
one, is too far off to demand our immediate at
tentioR. 1t is ours to have q good time and
long time out of the life that now is" Such, l
think. must have been the philosophy of the
antediluvians.
Suppose. my hearers. that people in our age
expected to live thousand years. Do you
think we would be apt to trouble ourselves
about what might or might not occur after
death9 | trow not. We find it very hard to win
men from lives of worldliness now, despite all
we have to say about the brevity and uncertain
ty of life; but what if we had to preach, as
Enoch did, to generation that expected to
dwell on this earth through the centuries? Think
Jon we should be better able to turn their
thoughts to things that are unseen, and that be-
1eng TO the problem of existence after deathl
May. my Christian friends you who profess to
be walking with God suppose you were under
taking to maintain this walk in generation in
which you expected to live for eight or nine
hundred years before YOU went to the heaven
you now are looking for, and so soon expect to
enter, do you believe that with such a large
earthly journey before you. you would mai ntan
as close walk with God as you do even now2
Would you be able to resist sin more easily
M~n1G hn Lass Nvl.4 ILL.,
Would YOU be more prayerful and more spirit
nall Wonld Christ be more precious, and
would your anticipatiols OF heaven be more
vivid and controlling} Yet. Enoch walked with
800 In just such an age-i1n age in which men
expected TO live through decade OF centuries
and in which he might, ike Nethuselah expect
to almost reach in. Heaven must have seemed
to him q long way off: and if we may Judge by
our own experiences, this very distance of vista
must have operated as strong temptation to
loiter by the way, and to allow his interests in
the world that now is to control the purposes of
his life
But at length, in commiseration for the weak
ness of the human race, Sod shortened the days
OF man ON the earth. This is the meaning of
the statement, MY spirit will not always strive
with man. for that he is but flesh" Ihatts, God
would not subject man to such pro-
tractea strain. Man had had the chance
10 attain spiritual excellence as den
izen OF earth, bat had disastroulv failed
The whole world became exceedingly wicked and
corrups The longer the period of human life
axe greater the measure of human sinfulness
We are mercifully spared the severity of such
prolonged strain, ard yet, though our days are
comparatively few, how difficult for us 10 have
the patience TO bear its trials and resist IT'S fas-
einations Surely, if Enoch kept his integrity,
despite the length of the way, how much more
ought we to be willing toenter upen the heavenly
path and walk in it, under the assurance that
che trial of our faith is so shortdurafion Again,
Enoch walked with God in an age in which the
Inducements 10 worldliness were much stronger
than they are with US. We hear so much IA orr
day about the elevation of the race that we are
apt to imagine that tho antedluvians were a
race so low in the scale of intelligence as to be
Dnly slight advance on the brute creation, but
there are strong indications that the people OF
that period, especially IL that portion of the
globe were, in many respects, surrounded with
forms of civilization that far exceed even those
Of our own more boastful age. We read of such
s.sfes as Bahlyon with It's marvellous monuments