CHRIST THE ONE THAT SHOULD

COME.

REV. CHARLES FOLLEN LEE. "Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them. And blessed is. he whosoever shall not be offended in me."--ST. MATT. 11: 3-6.

Such was the question addressed to our Lord by the messengers of John the Baptist. I do not suppose that the latter himself stood in need of information concerning Jesus, for he had seen Him, and on a certain occasion, pointing Him out, had said, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." His object in sending his followers on this errand seems to have been to convince them that He whom they sought was indeed the Christ. The stern Forerunner's mission was almost accomplished. He had obeyed the Divine call he had received, and loyally proclaimed that the King of earth was at hand. He had exhorted the people to make ready for their

spiritual Monarch by repenting of their sins, and by bringing forth fruits meet for repentance. And now, lying in prison amid the gathering shades of death, he wished his disciples to transfer their allegiance to Christ, and under that mighty Leader go forth to the warfare of God. So he sent his messengers to our Lord with the question, "Art thou he that should come? or do we look for another?" That, he would impress upon them, was the burning question with them. Let them and their brethren be satisfied that they had found the true Messiah, and the Herald's work would be done. He then could calmly resign his neck to the headsman's axe, and die in the sweet comfort of the thought that he had performed the task that Heaven. had given him to do.

"Art thou he that should come? or do we look for another?" This, my brethren, is practically the question that multitudes still ask of the Jesus of the Gospels. Indeed, we may say that it is the religious question of the hour, since it respects not only the person and office of our Lord, but kindred matters of importance

now uppermost in thoughtful minds. You do not wonder, then, why I have chosen it for our consideration at this time. As a religious body, com-. mitted by our Profession of Faith to belief in Historical Christianity, it directly concerns us; and upon our steadfast conviction that Christ is the One that should come, both in fulfilment of Messianic prophecy, and in response to humanity's prayer for a revelation from on high, depends not simply the prosperity, but the very existence, of our communion.

I have said that the question of the text is practically that which multitudes are now raising. Phrased in the language of the times, it may be made to read, Is Christianity a revelation? or only a religion? And this, I need not say, is a question of gravest moment, and one covering a broader range of doctrines and consequences than many, at first thought, imagine. It bas to do with the authenticity of the records, and the truth of the teaching of both the Hebrew and the Christian Scriptures. It concerns the authority and mission of our Lord. It involves the right of the Church to teach and admonish, and also her future as one of the great forces of civilized society.

It is not the purpose of this discourse to enter into a critical examination of the various objections ad.vanced to what is sometimes called Supernatural Christianity, and objections that not infrequently, although quietly, win favor in quarters where we should hardly think to find them. Accordingly I wish now to remind you of doctrines to which, as a religious body, professing, among other things, belief in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as containing "a revelation," and likewise in God, as "revealed in one Lord Jesus Christ by one Holy Spirit of Grace," the words of our text com

mit us; and having done that, I desire additionally to remind you of the part that should be played by us in the Christian warfare of the age.

I. Let me ask you first, to take a brief reveiw of the doctrines involved in the question of our text and its answer. Familiar as they are, it will be well to refresh our minds respecting them, and thus, if possible, obtain a clearer conception of our bounden duty as the members of an organization professing allegiance to the Christ of the Evangelists.

1. At the very outset we are reminded of those Messianic expectations of the Jewish people that were warranted by the promises of their Scriptures. "Art thou he that should come?" was the anxious inquiry of John's disciples-" Art thou he that should come?" and at once we think of the stream of cheering prophecies that pours its broadening, deepening current through the landscape of the Old Dispensation. We remember

how the stream has for its source the sublime declaration that the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head; how to Abraham the promise. is made "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth he blessed;" how the dying Jacob, as he looks into the distant future, sees that "the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come," and that "unto him shall the gathering of the people be;" and how Moses declares to his countrymen the word of the Lord to him: "I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee." We dwell upon the Messianic anticipations of the Psalms, such as "His name shall endure forever; His name shall be continued as long as the sun; and men shall be blessed in him; all nations shall call him blessed;" and "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make

thine enemies thy footstool." The melodious strains of the prophet-bards fall like rich and solemn music on our ears, as when Isaiah sings"Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”—“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not."

Such are some

of the Old Testament promises of Christ that are suggested to us by the question of the Baptist's messengers "Art thou he that should come? or do we look for another?"only a few, indeed, of the links in the golden Messianic chain that stretches from Genesis to Malachi.

2. We next consider our Lord's answer to John's disciples-"Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see; the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have the Gospel preached unto them." The answer is in the affirmative. Our Lord appeals to His miracles, in effect declaring that He is the One that should come, and that the messengers need not look elsewhere for the Christ. In other words, He sets the seal of His royal approval upon their belief that the Hebrew Scriptures do teach that Messiah should come, at the same time affirming that He and Messiah are one. Here His

attitude is the same as when he says to the Jews: "Search the Scriptures: for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me;" and "Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me."

Nor do we fail to remember that our Lord's doctrine concerning Himself and His mission, as advanced in the text, is nothing more than what He advances from first to last. He claims to be not only the promised Messiah, but "the only Begotten Son" of the Father. His word to the unbelieving Jews is, "Before Abraham was, I am." In His conversation with Nicodemus He says, "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." As the doom of the cross draws nigh, "lifting up his eyes to heaven," He says, "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." He teaches" as one having authority, and not as the scribes." He lays down rules for the government of human conduct, and tells His hearers how heaven may be won. He forgives sins, saying that He has power to do So. He calls Himself" The Light of the World," "the Way, the Truth, and the Life"-supplementing the latter declaration with the words, "No man cometh unto the Father but by me ""the Bread of Life," "the Living Bread" and "the Door.” "If I be lifted up from the earth," He says, "I will draw all men unto me."

Before His ascension, declaring that "all power" is given unto Him "in heaven and in earth," He orders His disciples to go forth to the moral conquest of the world. "Teach

all nations," he says, "baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

Our Lord's answer to John's messengers was, therefore, only in keeping with His utterances on numerous occasions; and accepting Him as our guide to the truth, we at once see how the text imposes upon us the defense of time-honored doctrines that many would have us to reject-the inspiration of the Old Testament Scriptures in all matters requi ing the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Divine nature and mission of Jesus Christ, and, consequently, His superhuman authority to teach and to command, His miraculous power, employed in works of mercy and demonstration, and the existence among men of a Kingdom of God against which the "gates of hell" shall not prevail. Accepting the word of Christ as the word of truth, I repeat that these are among the doctrines that we, in common with the members of older Christian organizations, are called upon to advance and defend. We may, and should, accord a respectful hearing to the "Newer Criticism," and give the mythical theory of the Dutch school such attention as it deserves; but, however we may modify our previous interpretations, we cannot deny the divineness of Israel's mission, and the special inspiration of her true leaders and teachers, without opposing ourselves to the express words of him whom we receive as Prophet, Priest and King. We should carefully examine the latest views of the Rationalistic school respecting the nature and office of Christ; but we cannot adopt them without impeaching the authenticity of the Gospel record, or

without reducing our Lord either to the level of an impostor, or to that of an extravagant dreamer. No "mere man" theory, no theory that styles Him a "man with a genius for religion," can be made consistent with the testimony of the Evangelists as to what He said about Himself and the work that He had come to do. Christ must be to us what the Messianic prophecies declared He should be, and what the Gospel historians, in so many instances professing to quote His own language, taught that He was, or He is nothing more to us than a fallible mortal, like many before and since His time, who have identified their names with famous moral and religious movements. is only as the Christ of the Prophets and the Evangelists, that He has a peculiar claim upon our allegiance. It is only as we accept Him as such, that we have a right to demand a place among the Christian munions of our day, or can hope to do a legitimate work among men.

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Returning to our text, and taking it in connection with our Lord's repeated recognition of the authority of the Hebrew Scriptures, we find ourselves as Christians compelled to accept the Old and New Testaments as the records of Revelation and not of religions. Accordingly we agree with the author of The Republic of God, when he says: "The Old Testament is not primarily the record of a religion, or of a system or science of religion.

It is not the revelation of a religion, but it is the revelation of God to the world; His revelation to the family which He has formed, and to the nation which He has founded, and thence to the world." And, thinking of the New Dispensation, with the same writer we say "The Revelation of and in the Christ is not a religion and it is not a philosophy." Regarding the Bible in this light, we