Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1907-09-26


kingdom not from hence" In other
words, the man who was offered Da-
vid's throne deliberately turns his
back upon 1t, and yet he claims a d.
vino kingship. From q human stand
point, could you ina CINE anything
more inexplicable2
While thinking along this line my
mind naturally ran back to the scene
Of Christ's great temptation. You
know the story. After Jesus had
fnsted forty days the devil came to
him and said, "1f thou be the Son Of
God, command that these stones be
made bread" But Christ said, 1T Is
written Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that pro.
ceedeth out of the mouth Of Cod"
Then the devil took Jesus upon one
Of the temples pinnacles and said,
Throw myself down, and God will
send his angels to keep thee from be-
ing destroyed" But Christ said, at
Is written again. Thou shalt not
tempt the Lord thy Cod" Then the
devil took Jesus up on a high noun
tain and showed him all the Kingdoms
Of the world and said, Fall down,
worship me, and all these will give
thee" But Jesus said, Get thee
hence, Satan; for 1t Is written Thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and
him only shalt thou serve" In plain
English. Satan wanted Jesus to demand
a visible manifestation Of Gods pow
er. He would have Christ do some
thing practical. He know men, and
he knew that they would follow n man
who could turn stones into bread; who
could ding himself from dizzy height
and alight unhurt; who could achieve
worldwide rule by compromising with
evil. But not by such means would
Jesus win the worlds faith and love.
Satan could not understand the spirit
ual, could not conceive Of that ineffa-
Bile power by which IL Christ was
lifted up he would draw all men unto
him.
Was II an Alegory7
Now, l always used to look upon
this story as an allegory. l never be-
lieved that in truth this happened But
the older l grow the more | believe 1t
is literally true. Satan always was
and always will be of carnal mind
He can never understand anything
which does not appeal to the carnal
mind. He is great deal like that
brutal man who one day asked Ben.ia-
min Disraeli why he had married SO
unattractive a wife. Disraeli was in
conspicuous until he married a widow
who was some years older than he,
but she lavished her wealth upon him
and gave him his first step in political
life. The prime minister answered:
MY friend, | cannot tell you because
l do not think you could understand
my motive. You do not know what
gratitude means" So Satan was and
always will be of carnal mind IL
Christ could not sit upon an earthly
throne and manacle Satan with chains,
he does not believe Christ has any
power. Thus with the Hebrews. They
could not understand why Christ the
spiritual king would not become
Christ the temporal king They could
not understand why Christ, who claim
ed TO I've spiritual ruler would not
re-esta blish the Davidic throne in Je.
/ ruSalem.
And yet is 1t not always the men
who have willingly turned their backs
upon thrones of earthly power who
have established kingdoms Of spiritual
power? Take the life of John Wesley,
with his marvellous orga nizing ability,
his wonderful literary gifts, hts silver
tongue and his power OF polemic
could he not have been the greatest
statesman or lawyer or ecclesinstic Of
his time had he wished? Was not the
palace or the arch bishops chair with
In his grasp had he sought it? And
yet today do we not honor and love
the founder Of MetLodism more than
II he had been an archbishop? Eng
land has produced many great men,
but seldom a greater than David Liv-
inGstone. But do we not honor him
today because he gave up all for
Christ?
I do not care where you go In his
tory, the men we honor most today
and whom God honors most have been
and are the men who have turned
their backs upon thrones Of temporal
power In order to spread the higher
kingdom Of truth and purity and spir-
ituhlity. The carnal mind cannot grasp
this sacrifice, but the spiritual mind
can. In order to truly appreciate the
divine sacrifice we must first have
the divine love in our own hearts.
Lastly. the Hebrews Of old could not
understand this new Teacher because
he was going to establish his spiritual
kingdom out Of the vlest Of the vile.
He was not like the architect who
goes to the purest and whitest quar-
ries to get the stones for the walls OF
his marble palace. But he goes to the
dirt and mire Of sin. He collects the
most debased And out OF the yIlest
humanites he expects to build his pur-
est palaces. If there was q sinner
about he always hunted him out If he
could do that sinner any good He
even went and lodged in his house, as
he did with Zaccheus. And yet,
strange as 1t may seem, 1t is almost
impossible to do Gods work Alright
unless we are willing TO associate with
those who are despised by their fell
low men Now comes the practical
questions: Are we, for Christ's sake,
willing to become socially ostracized
by those who thlSk 1t Is not proper for
us to go with those who have gone
astray? Are we willing to do this for
Chriet nc Christ did this for us?