Experience as a Witness

“Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.” — Is. 43: 12.

THIs is an age of experiment. Christianity is challenged to enter the labaratory and prove its claims. We accept the challenge, and this morning enter the laboratory of experience. If Christianity fails to do what it claims, then reject it; and, if it proves its claims by tests of experience, you of the scientific mind must be honest enough to accept it.

Bear in mind that some people cannot understand certain experiments. Let a painter illustrate ever so faithfully before an audience of blind people, or a musician before an audience of deaf people, and they will be none the wiser. We are at the same disadvantage in illustrating the workings of spiritual forces before any part of an audience who have no spiritual discernment. ‘* The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.’’ (1 Cor. 2:14.) A worldly man on reading a page of Whitfield’s diary pronounced it all cant. A convention of moles who had met to discuss the experiences of eagles would naturally make some mistakes, while eagles discussing the experiences of moles would doubtless talk wide of the mark. A man, to appreciate the experience of another, must have a similar experience. We are all in danger of supposing that what we have not experienced has never been experienced. A man near the equator would not believe a missionary who told him that he lived in a country where, in cold weather, the water became hard enough to hold up the weight of his elephant. An artic explorer tells us that, after two years of life amid the northern ice, he found it difficult to conceive that there was any open water or land in the world. Such is the power of experience to unfit us to judge of experiences with which we are not familiar. And yet the facts of Christian experience are so evident that we have hope of at least gaining a hearing from those whose lives do not verify them, and our prayer is that they may be led to desire such an experience and to seek it, for, ‘‘If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God.’’ (John 7:17.) And now to the tests:

I. DoES GOD ANSWER PRAYER IN THE NAME OF CHRIST? A few years ago, Mr. Huxley challenged the Christian world to produce a single unmistakable answer to prayer. George Muller accepted the challenge, not by parading himself before the world as a man of great virtue and faith, but by quietly praying and trusting God to supply the needs of a large orphan asylum at Bristol, England. There it stands to-day with its hundreds of orphans fed and clothed, and no one solicited to do it but God. J. Hudson Taylor sees the need of missionary work in the interior of China, and prays to God for men and money. At this moment there are in the China Inland mission more than three hundred and fifty missionaries, all supported without soliciting a dollar from any one but God. And, in order that we, as a church, may not have a shadow of doubt on this subject, two men known to us all, one of them a member of this church, are now in North Africa with their families working for the salvation of the Mohammedans, dependent on no Board or ‘convention for supplies, but trusting God for daily bread. What better answer could be given to the challenge?

But those of us who have been praying and receiving answers from God for many years need not be referred to these world-wide demonstrations. We have enough in our own experiences to satisfy us. I could prove by one-half of this congregation that they have asked of God and received just what they asked, in ways which left it beyond doubt that God had answered their prayers. Excuse me for referring to just one instance in my own experience. In my first pastorate I preached on alternate Sundays to two smallchurches. I was to remain nine months, and then go to the Seminary. After the first three or four weeks I found myself praying daily that I might be permitted to baptize one hundred people before leaving the field. The burden of desire grew, and the prayer in hours of rest or devotion became almost as constant as my breathing. It at last took the form of Gideon’s prayer that, if God would give me just one hundred, I would have a proof never to be doubted that he answers prayer. To make a long story short, persons were converted and baptized from time to time, till on the last Sunday of my pastorate the number had reached ninety-four. As I rode to the country church to preach my lastsermon, I was full of praise, and more than once told God that I accepted the prayer as answered, for more than one hundred had professed conversion, though only ninety-four had been baptized. Attheclose of the sermon five more presented themselves for baptism, with the request that I baptize them that afternoon. Imagine, if you can, my feelings, as I rode to the mill-pond, three miles distant, to see my prayer answered within one. And I praised God as if not one were lacking, having accepted his answer as already given. While we were singing and praying by the side of the mill-pond, a man touched me on the shoulder and said: **Mr. D., you know I have been a believer for several months, and I must follow Jesus, if you will baptize me.’’ ‘* Are you ready with a change of clothing,?’? I replied. ‘‘No matter about that,’? was the ready response. I baptized him, and he went home three miles in his wet clothes. Just one hundred, not one more nor less. No theory of accidental circumstances can explain this, as you would see more clearly, had I time to trace the chains of providence which during those nine months led up to it. Within the past two months there have been many answers to prayer in connection with our work here. The sceptic need not tell us that God does not answer the cries of his people. Wehavemade the scientific test, for we have been in the laboratory of experience, and what we have learned by such experience it is very unscientific to doubt. The Bible is full of answers to prayer, — and the lives of God’s people are just as full as the Bible. Our text-book and our experiments agree. And for men to doubt the Book and the experiments who know little of the former and absolutely nothing, as they confess, of the latter, marks them as unscientific and unworthy of respect. If they would know for themselves, let them come into the Christian laboratory of experience by trusting God and living for him. Those who really do that never doubt that God answers prayer.

II, DorEs GOD REGENERATE MEN THROUGH FAITH IN Curist? If we can produce a man or woman who has been not only reformed in life but renewed in nature so thoroughly as to have receivedanew character, the question is answered, for this scientific age clamoring for facts cannot afford to set aside the facts when they are presented. Thousands of the best men and women in Baltimore claim that by faith in Jesus Christ they have been made to hate what they once loved and love what they once hated; and that not by a gradual process, but suddenly. A gentleman of this city, whom many of you know, went into the Reformed church, on Fayette street, to hear Mr. Moody. He was at the time a drunkard. Mr. Moody held forth Jesus Christ as the only Saviour from sin and habit. The man believed, and has told me that from that day to this he has had no thirst for strong drink. His life has been a continual consecration to Christ who delivered him. I look now into the face of a man who fourteen months ago was delivered from the clutches of the demon of drink, after everything else had failed, by simply committing himself to Jesus Christ. Paul was not more suddenly converted than hundreds of men have been in this city, and changed from bold persecutors to bold defenders. Do you doubt the facts? Then you can doubt the testimony of men whose word you would take on any other subject. A lawyer attended an experience meeting in which he heard sixty men tell what Christ had done for them. At the close he arose and said: ‘‘I entered this house a sceptic, but I am used to weighing testimony, and I have heard men whom I know to be truthful testify to-day to the fact that they have been saved and given new experiences. I would not dare to impeach their testimony in court, and shall I do it here? I will not. I believe that they tell the truth, and if their experience is for me, I want it.’? A Christian need not be told that he soon had what he wanted, and himself became a witness to the facts he had called in question. A man in the village of my boyhood had to be kept in jail as a protection to the people. I have used him as an illustration of a lost soul, when all the the good is removed and nothing but evil remains. He had killed several men, and, when under the influence of drink, had no regard for human life or property. During a service of an hour and a half in a country church in which the gospel was preached, and Christians joined in prayer for his salvation, that man of sin was so changed that he became not only a good citizen but a meek, quiet worker for the good of others. When J heard from him last, he was still an earnest Christian. ‘Thomas Bilney confessed to Hugh Latimer, the priest, and Latimer perceived that the humble Thomas had something in his heart which he did not possess. Soon Latimer was confessing to Bilney that he wanted such an experience of grace, and the result is known to history. When the priest learned that he was completely saved by the merit of Christ, he ceased to urge the people to do penance, left the confessional, and joyfully went to the stake,, supported by the new experience he had first heard of from Thomas Bilney. The sceptics had much to say against the doctrines of Peter and John, but there was one argument they could not answer. The blind man at the gate of the temple had certainly been healed, ‘‘and beholding the man healed standing among them, they could say nothing against it.’? (Acts 4:14.) And Christianity continues to present the same unanswerable argument. Here are the men who have been healed standing among you. A live Lazarus, who was once dead, is our test of the power of Christ. The men whose eyes have been opened are of age, ask them, and they will testify that once they were spiritually blind; faith in Christ gave them a new soul-sight, and they have seen things of which they had never dreamed. ‘* Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.”

III. IN THIS LABORATORY OF EXPERIENCE DO WE FIND THAT CHRIST AND THE BIBLE MEET THE NEEDS OF OUR BEING? Let us see. We have bodies. Is the health of the body promoted by faith in Christ and his Book? The best code of sanitary laws ever given to the world was written by Moses, and the Jews, who even partially keep those laws, are to-day the -longest-lived people in the world. Faith in Christ makes men hopeful, cheerful, happy, and such a state of mind promotes health. The lack of faith gives gloom and melancholy. Itisa sad perversion of Christianity, that associates faith with penance and self-torture. We are commanded to ‘rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.’’ (Phil. 4:4.)

We have minds. Does the Bible give us sufficient food for thought? Dou you want history? It is the best history ever written, and contains much that can be found nowhere else. Do you like poetry? The Psalms and the prophets have never been excelled. Are you fond of law? Here you can find the foundation of all civil and moral law. Have you a mind for logic? <A finer specimen of reasoning than Paul’s letters we have never seen. As two infidels were sailing past a lonely island, one asked the other what book he would choose if he had to live alone on that island with only one book. ‘‘Shakespere,”’ he replied. ‘* Well, I should select the Bible’’ said the other, ‘¢ for its resources are inexhaustible.’? Whatever else the second infidel lacked, he had a mind. Men of mind prize the Bible. Even Shakespere borrowed from it so largely that to rob his works of biblical thought would well nigh pauperize them. Take the Bible out of literature,and you have removed the sun from the heavens.

Need we stop to prove that Christianity makes the highest manhood and womanhood known to the world? Just in proportion as men and nations follow the precepts of Christ they — are strong in character. When an Indian prince asked Queen Victoria the secret of England’s greatness, she handed him a Bible. It is no accident that the nations who honor the Bible are to-day foremost in the march of civilization. A legend says that Chiron, the centaur, who had charge of Achilles, fed him on the marrow of lions. God’s word is, indeed, the marrow of

EXPERIENCE AS A WITNESS. v

lions to the men or nations who feed upon it. But for the individual Christ has done more than for the nation. He satisfies the soul. He gives peace of heart. His cross is the cyclone’s centre where there is perfect rest. He has answered Job’s question, **Can a man be justified before God?’’? Through him we get rid of our sins. He has taught us to look up and worship. The man who is content with merely a moral life is to be pitied. He sees flowers about his feet and beauties in a narrow range, but he has never seen the stars. Christ bids hin look up into a heaven of constellations.

Sin has not only separated us from God, but from one another. Christ binds us together again. Even the revenge of an Indian’s nature has been conquered by His love. He leads us to help the helpless. Christianity builds asylums and homes for the friendless. Paganism and infidelity never did either. In building the Hoosac tunnel two gangs of men started to work at the same time on opposite sides of the mountain. The survey was so accurate, and the work so well done, that when they met the sides of their tunnels came within an inch of tallying. So man’s need is exactly met by God’s provision in Christ and the Bible..

PRAYER IS ANSWERED, MEN ARE REGENERATED, AND ALL THE NEEDS OF OUR BODIES, MINDS AND MORALS ARE MET BY CHRISTIANITY. Surely it has stood the test of experiment,