The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-09-19
DIR. CHAPMANS SERMON
A SUNDAY DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
PAsToR.EVANcELlsL


New YoRR CRY. The sermons Of the
Rev. DR.. J. Wilbur Chapman are now
heard and read by more people than are
those Of any American pulpit orator. His
style seems TO have made a deep impress
sion on that portion of the public which
likes 10 read its discourse IN the weekly
paper For these admirers DR.. Chapman
has prepared the following sermon. enti-
tied "The Seeking Saviour and a Seeking
Sinne-" IL Is preached from the texts.
"Zaccheus. make haste and come down.
Luke 10: s. "The Son Of Man is come 10
seek and TO save that which was lost
Luke 10. 10.
These two texts form a part Of the story
Of the meeting OF two men. each very dit
ferent from the other The one Is FAC
cheus the publican a rich man because he
was the tax gatherer and had detrauded
the people. The other is the Son OF God,
who was rich, yet for our sakes became
poor The one comes from the presence
Of God and the company OF the angels,
the other down from the sycamore tree
and from his doubt, and the result OF the
meeting OF the seeking sinner and the
seeking Saviour was the salvation OF the
| sinner This has always been the result.
/ IF any one reading this message is not
| Christian to-day il is simply because he
/ has not sought Christ in the right way
| We shall seek Me and shall find Me when
YOU search for Me with all your heart. In
| the book of Proverbs when men seek for
/ God as they seek for silver or for any hid
! den treasure then He will be found for
| them.
It was my privilege once in Colorado to
! enter what is called a nocket mine.
saw a man engaged in work there who was
/ VatwtaH a1rk IN me a a Graduate NJ HaT~
ward College, vet he was telling away so
industriously that he did not hear nv ap.
| preach in the mine, and when ] asked him
! why he was thus working he simply
| stopped down and gathered IN handful
| At dust and held it out at arms length so
| that the light in his miners hat would
strike upon it, and there I saw the glisten-
ing particles Of silver This was more elo.
quent than anything he could have said
and the wise man spoke truly. Put two
locomotives upon the same track, both
going in the same direction and at the
same rate Of speed, and If the track is long
enough one cannot overtake the other ex.
eept in case of accident. but If they are on
the same track headed toward each other
and one Of them is going with the speed OF
the wind, while the other travels with the
! proverbial snaips pace, it will be but q
short time before they will come together,
The Son of Man has been n seeking Sa-
viour ALWAYS. with tears in His eyes and
sorrow in His heart He has been seeking
every one of u.s. The very moment we
turn toward Him that moment He will
claim us as His own.
The division of the New Testament into
chapters is sometimes embarrassing. Not
infrequentlv the division is in the midst Of
a story. Sometimes between an introduce
| 49,, 10 he rNr =, IL T,-,
back to the close of the eighteenth chapter
of Luks and YOU read the story Of Barti
maeus. Mr.. Moody used to describe one
Of his friends stopping to say, "I have good
news for you. / have seen the Galilear
prophet, and l saw Him cause a man blind
as yourself to see. and He is coming thi:
wsY speedily" We can only imagine how
Bartimaeus listened for the approach oi
the Saviour, but finally when He did come
near enough he began to shout, "Jesus
Thou son of David, have mercy upon me,
and the Master gave HIM his sight instant
ly. Following this healing of the blinC
man certain rich man in the city hearing
of the approach of this notable character
determined to see Him, but as ne passed
out of his office and mingles with tn,
crowd he realizes that the task is hope
less. He is a man small of stature and thu
others tower head and shoulders above
him, but suddenly bright thought strikes
HIN. lie will go out along the highwa,
and climb 8ome elevation and then behold
Him as de comes near. So he climbs thu
; celebrated sycamore tree and waits for tn,
approaching multitude. At last his ev,
lights upon the Saviour. A strange fascin
alton must have held him until suddenl,
Jesus standing underneath the tree look
up and says. "Zaccheus, make haste ant
| HNNryv f,,, l., L. II
house" and he made haste and cam
down, confessed that he was a sinner. ant
Immediately the Saviour said, "The Sol
of Man is come to seek and to save tina
which was lost"
He is the Son Of Man Whatever othe
Interpretation may be given to this ex
preston IN Scripture this at least is true
lie is presented to us in such a way tina
no one need shrink back from Him. | cal
well understand how men could be afrai
of God. He holds the winds in His fists
and in the hollow of His hand the sea
wash to and fro, but we need not be afrai
of the Son of Man. Homer tells us tina
when Hector was parting from his wifi
with all his armor on he walked by he
side through the streets of the city unit
he reached the gates Following then
came the nurse with the soldiers littl
child in her arms, and as he turned t
leave them putting out his arms, havin
kissed his wife he would take his littl
child to his heart and say goodbye. IN
little fellow looked just an instant the
burst into tears, threw his arms about hi
nurses neck and refused to be comforteC
Hector had a fathers instinct. Liftin
his hand he removed the helmet fro1
which the plume was flying, and when TIL
child could see the face of his father h
smiled through his tears, sprang into hi
arms, and Hector kissed him and wa
gone. So Jesus comes not simply as tn
Son of God, but as the Son of Man, or, a
it were, with the helmet and the plum
laid aside. He was the Babe of Bethl
hem, the man of Nazareth, the carpente
aboring at the bench. He was temple
in all points like as we are that no on
| rnimht shr.nl- LanL- Era... IN. NJ IL