Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-07-08
largo and Enthusiastic Audiences Greet
Him Everywhere - A Sermon ON
the Lilo and Death of Jesus
Christ.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE.

LONDON, Englanu july ., LEVITT. ldiliaSo
continues TO receive from all classes OF the En-
giish people the warmest Of welcomes and the
heartiest greetings. The work OF arranging
his tour has been. eXGec dinghy dih1cult SO
numerous were the Invitations awaiting him
that 10 aceeHt some and decline others equally
pressing seemed invidious, Wherever he has
gone the largest churches IA the cities have
been crowded TO excess and could have been
filled many times over. Among the sermons
he has preached, the one selected for publica-
ton this week is from the text Matthew 2T:2s
What Shalt Do With JesunY"
PLATE was an unprincipled politician.
He had sympathies, convictions of
right, and desires to be honest; but all
these were submerged by wish to be
popular, and TO please the people.
Two distinguished prisoners were in
the grasp of government and the
proposition was made to free one of
them. There stands Barabbas, the muir
derer; there stands Christ, the Saviour
/ of the world. At the demand of the peo-
Pile the renegade is set free, but Jesus
is held. AS the hard-visaged and cruel
eyed Barabbas goes among lis sympa-
thizers, receiving their coarse congrat-
ulations, PLATE turns to his other dis
tinguished prisoner mild, meek, inof-
fensive, loving, self-sacrificing-and he
is COMPOUNDED as to what course he had
better take, so he impanels the mob as
a. jury to decide, saying to them,
. "What shall do then with Jesus?
Oh, il is no dried or withered ques-
ton, but one that throbs with warm
and quick pulse in the heart of every
man and woman here. We must do
something with Jesus He Is here.
You and are not so certainly here as
he is, for no fills all this place-the
loving, living, dying Christ-and each
one of us will have to ask and answer
for himself Che question, What shall
do then with Jesus?" Well, my
friends, there are three or four things
you can do with him.
You can, in the first place, let him
stand without word of recognition;
but do not think your sense of COM
mon courtesy will allow that He
comes walking on such long journey,
you will certainly give him chair on
which he may he sit. He is so weary,
you would not let him stand without
recognition. If a beggar comes to
your door, you recognize him and say,
"What do you want?" If you meet a
stranger faint in the streets, you say
"What is the matter with you?"
and your common humanity, and your
common sympathy, and your common
sense of propriety will not allow you
TO let him stand without recognition
the wounded one of the hills. You
will ask, what makes him weep? where
was lac hurt? who wounded him?
whence he came? whittier he goes?
know there have been men who have
with outrageous Indifference hated
/ Christ, but know very well that that
Is not what you will do with Jesus.
Another thing that you can do with
him-you can thrust him back from
your heart, and tell him TO stand aside.
il an inoffensive person comes and per-
sists in standing close up to you, and
you have in various ways. given him to
understand that you do not want his
presence or his society, then you ask
, the reason Of his impertinence and bid
him away. Well, that is what we can
do with Jesus He has stood close by
us a great while-ten, twenty, thirty,
forty years. He has stood close by you
three times day, breaking bread for
your household, all night watching by
your pillow lie has been in. the nur-
sery among your children, he has been
in the store among your goods, he has
been in the factory amid the flying
wheels, and .now if you do
not like his society you can
bid him away. ay, if he
will not go you can take him by the
throat and tell him you do not want
his interference, that you do not want
his breath on your check, that you do
want his.eye on your behavior. You
cap Did bip 1p3, q, ishe wils not EJ
insthat fvaS, tlHeR ySu cas- stamp your
fdpt, ''as you would st q dog, and cry,
"Begonep' Yet j AnpwSyqr win sot
treat Jesus that way. When Plate
could not do that, you could not. Des-
peradoes and outlaws might do so. but
l know that that is not the way you
will treat him, that that is not what
you win do with Jesus. There
is another thing you can do with him:
you can look on him merely as an opti-
: clan DO cure blind eyes, CT an aurist 10
tune deaf ears, q friend, n good friend.
a helpful companion, a cheerful passen-
ger on shipboard; but that will amount
to nothing. You can look upon him as
/, a God, and bs abashed while he rohses
Nths storm, Or blasts the fig-tree, or
heaves a rock down the mountain. side.
That will not do you any good; no
more save your soul than the admira-
ton you have for John Milton or Will
liam Shakespeare. can think of only
one. more thing you can do with
Jesus, and that is TO take him into
yonr hearts. That is the best
thing you can do with him; that is the
only safe thing you can do with him;
aud may the Lord Omnipotent by his
spirit help me to persuade you to do
that. A minister of Christ was speak
ing to some children, and said: II will
point you to Christ. ~ little child
rose in the audience. and came mp and
put her hand in the hand OF the PASTOR
and said, hrlease, sir, take me TO
b. lesus upy..ttI want to 90, now" oh.