The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1905-01-13
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE BY THE
REV. HUGH BLACK, M. 4,

6uDJECts "ObSu5 lAAb own DiSh ANA HA
aele"-Mere Wonder Working is No
Evidence of the Things Christ Came
TO Teach the World.
New York CITY.-Fifth Avenue Pres
byterian Church, which is a very large
building, was filled in every part Sunday
morning to hear the Rev. Hugh Back
st. Georges Church, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Mr.. Black had for his subject Jesus His
Own Sign and Miracle" The text was
from Matthew xii:3S: "Then certain of
the scribes and of the Pharisees answered,
saying: Master, we would see sign from
them, An evil and adulterous generation
seeketh after a sign; and there shall no
sign be given to it, but the sign of the pro-
plet Jonas" Mr. Black said:
We gather from its source, as coming
from the Pharisees, that this question had
a malicious purpose to undermine the au'
thority of the new Teacher with the peo-
pie by asking from Him what He could
not or would not perform, but from the
historical connection in which the evan
gelists place it the purpose was not only
malicious, but almost insulting. Our Lord
had been in the pursuit of His beneticent
healing ministry, had cured many suffering
men and women, and the Pharisees expla-
nation was that He had power from an
evil source; He did it, they asserted, by
virtue of His connection with BeelZebub,
the prince of devils. And now, after this
explanation of the signs and wonders
Jesus did among men, they came with the
a sign from Thee" What sort of a sign
did they want, and what sort of evidence
could convince them if they could attrib-
ute His healing ministry to diabolic art?
The yelled insult of the demand is the
supercilious passing over of all He had
been and of all He had done, as if it did
not count and as if He must now begin to
do something of sufficient magnitude to
convince them that His pretensions were
trustworthy.
Now there is demand for evidence
which is legitimate, evidence which is
necessary for the highest faith, but in this
case, apart from the hypocrisy of The ques-
ton, there underlay wrong conception of
revelation and wrong conception of the
nature and the place of miracles. They
wanted Christ to perform some prodigy, as
! if piece of woodworking could be real
evidence of spiritual things; hence, our
/ Lords rebuke. 1t is religious rebu&e.
God should be recognized for what He is,
and the recognition of Him should not be
dependent upon external signs, which in
themselves, after all, have no spiritual sig
nifcance. Christ's feeling as regards this
is seen through a graphic touch recorded
| by st. Mark, who writes that when the
Pharisees came seeking a sign from Him
Jesus sighed deeply in His spirit. 1t
| showed to Him a lamentable dullness of
soul, to think that the recognition of the
spiritua should be made to hang on prodi-
! gies and or miracle-mongering of any kind.
"There shat no sign be given unto this
/ generation" This attitude of our Lord,
notice, is not contradictory to the value
He elsewhere placed on miracles as evil
tenee. He pointed, you remember, to His
deeds of mercy TO authenticate HIS claims
| when, as in the case of John the Baptist,
! there was a sincere desire to know the
marks Of the Messiah, but His miracles
| were moral acts to educate and to reveal,
not to surprise and to astonish. He knew
| from sad experience that it was possible
for men to believe in the reality OF miracles
and at the same time lose al its true evil
dental force, even to ascrlbe 1T to evil
powers as the Pharisees did.
"There shall be no sign given to curios-
ity mongers." There can be no sign given
to those who imagine that the spiritual
can be proved by the material. Mere Won
der working is no evidence of the things
which Jesus came to teach the world Men
are not to be led to God. then or now
men are not to be led to God, in the sense
that Jesus meant-by displays and conjur-
ing tricks The demand of the PhRrisees |
showed a radically false idea of the whole !
nature and place of the miracle and the
same mistake is possible to us. and posi-
BILE to us in many ways and forms. We
| make the same mistake. for example, when |
we think that faith in God would be easier |
to us if only some portept were vouch- |
safed to u.s. if only we could see some ply |
steal evidence especially designed to con-
vince us We fall into the Pharisees' error
and merit their rebuke when we sigh for
the gertrude which we imagine would |
come from celestial appearance or from
on 1
finger into the print of the nails.
To understand Christs attitude on this |
question we need to have our minds dis |
abused Of the idea that mere miracle in
the sense of prodigy is ever evidence of
spiritual things. Some miracles arc signs
indeed, but only when there is spiritual |
evidence in them; that il, when they are
more than mere wonder-working, which |
the Pharisees here desired For example,
our Lords healing ministry was great
and constant sign Of the love of God, car
rying a revelation with as truly as any low
ing word of the Master ever did. This let's
light in upon the true way in which to
viaw the whole question. Our Lords mir
acies cannot be separated from the great
revelations of His whole life and teach
ing. His words and His works arr. Aco-re-
lated the miracles are not to be locked on
as isolated exhibitions of power, bbtN as
themselves contributing to the revelation.
They were not signs, but vehicles of(teachA
ing. They are not signs externally at 4
tached to the teaching to give it weight, |
and therefore to make it creGitable; NOT
unexplained occurrences testfying in |
mysterious fashion to the possession of di-
vine power; they did not evidence the |
teaching, they themselves are the teach,
ing. They are parallels in action instead |
of in words, moral and spiritual in their
effect, not evidential at all, except by the
way. They are an integral part Of the rev.
elation of the love of God in Christ Jesus
our Lord. They have an essential place in |
the whole round of the Christian revela-
ton as fruits-fruits of the pity of God. |
as manifestations of the divine love and |
wisdom; they are part of the manifesto
ton of Christ: they are not guarantees of