A LUXURY UNKNOWN IN ENGLAND! FRENCH COFFEE, AS USED IN PARIS. IN ITS HIGHEST PERFECTION, TENPENCE PER POUND. BARBER AND COMPANY, 93, Market St. and Smithfield Market, Manchester, And 14, CHURCH STREET, LIVERPOOL. THE PULPIT RECORD. No. 13.-Vol. I. Notes CONTENTS. SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 1883. Sermon by the Rev. R. WILBERFORCE STARR, at the Wesleyan Chapel, The Reformation........... Parliamentary Orators. XII.-Richard Lalor Sheil Lecture "The Women of To-day"-by Miss MARIANNE FARNING- NOTES. PAGE 149 150 153 155 157 158 The Bishop of Manchester has been served with a writ of quare impedit from the Queen's Bench Division at the instance of Sir Percival Heywood, in the case of his refusal to institute to the benefice of St. John's, Miles Platting, the Rev. H. Cowgill, who was nominated by Sir Percival Heywood, patron of the living. [PRICE ONE PENNY. At this point the rev. gentleman seems to have noticed that Mr. Bailey was laughing, for, turning towards him, he remarked that laughing in church was brawling, and that he would summon him for it. To this Mr. Bailey replied that the rev. gentleman should not indulge in personalities. Some excitement was created by this scene, and was increased when a man rose in the body of the church and in a loud voice proclaimed that he was a witness as to the charges against the rev. gentleman. Mr. Bailey and about a score of persons, including the man who had interrupted, then left the church, and the service proceeded. The German Government has not yet received the reply of the Pope to the last letter addressed to him by the Emperor. As to the proposals of the Centre party to abolish the May Laws, they are regarded as intended only to disturb direct negotiations with the Vatican. Dublin, has just been published by Messrs. Sutton Sharpe A very splendid monograph on Christ Church Cathedral, and Co., of Victoria-street. It was commenced by the late Mr. R. J. King, but it has been finished by Mr. Street himself, and is probably the last work of the lamented architect. The magnificent restoration of the cathedral, at the sole cost of Mr. Henry Roe, jun., is an accomplished fact, and this appears to be a worthy record of the event. Mr. W. H. Smith, speaking at a meeting at Reading, over which the Bishop of Oxford presided, for the purpose of making arrangements for the Church Congress in October, said that if there was anything in favour of Church Congresses it was that every opinion which could fairly and legitimately Gustave Doré died on Monday night at Paris of angina be expressed within the Church of England might be debated. pectoris. He was born at Strasburg in January, 1882, and Those who were attached to an institution desired to see the when only sixteen years of age contributed humorous sketches principles which belonged to and sustained it defended and to the Journal pour Rire, and exhibited pen-and-ink drawings maintained in public. There was a conviction that what at the Salon. In 1857 he obtained an honourable mention could not be defended and maintained was not so strong as but he had already, in 1856, sent certain remarkable drawfor a landscape and a painting of the "Battle of Inkerman ;" those who believed in it knew it to be. They must be pre-ings to illustrated journals. His reputation increased with pared to defend the institution which they believed to be his successive illustrations of Rabelais, "The Wandering necessary to the interests, the happiness, and prosperity of Jew," the "Contes Drolatiques," by Balzac, &c. After these this kingdom. It was a great honour, and for the advantage he achieved a world-wide renown by the illustration of Dante of the country, that the Church of England did not exclude in 1861, "Don Quixote" in 1863, the Bible in 1865 and 1866, men who held the true faith, however differently they exLa Fontaine's "Fables" in 1867, Tennyson's "Idylls," &c. pressed it. He exhibited in Paris a great number of paintings which are even better known in London, for almost all were purchased by an English Society which has established a permanent rium," "The Dream of Pilate's Wife," and other important exhibition, where may be seen "Christ Leaving the Prætopictures. Doré was also a sculptor of no ordinary merit. In the Exhibition of 1878 he exhibited a gigantic vase, now at the Palais d'Industrie. On Sunday morning an extraordinary scene was witnessed at St. Jude's, Liverpool. The Rev. E. A. Fitzroy, the incumbent, said that a statement had been made by Mr. Hakes, a member of the Church Association, and also by Mr. Bailey, one of the churchwardens, at public meetings in the city, that the incumbency was about to become vacant. He denied that report, and asked his communicants to meet him on Wednesday, when he would make a statement with reference to the circumstances which led to those rumours. He further remarked that he would take the matter before the Archbishop of York, as he could not get fair play at Liverpool. The death is announced of M. Geefs, the distinguished sculptor, aged seventy-seven. There is scarcely a town in Belgium that does not contain bronze or marble statues from his chisel. In Brussels there is a monument commemorative of the Revolution of 1830, and at Antwerp there is the statue of Rubens. SERMONS. among the rocky boulders of this round shoulder of the hill By the Rev. R. WILBERFORCE STARR, at the Wesleyan Chapel, his name. This is the man who comes forward to meet the Withington, Sunday evening, 21st January, 1883. "And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. And when He was come out of the ship, immediately there met Him, out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains, because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces; neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off he ran and worshipped Him, and cried with a loud voice, and said: What have I to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of the most high God? I adjure Thee, by God, that Thou torment me not.' For He said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.' And He asked him, What is thy name?' and he answered, saying, My name is Legion; for we are many.' And he besought Him much that He would not send them away out of the country. Now, there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding, and all the devils besought Him, saying, 'Send us into the swine that we may enter into them.' And forthwith Jesus gave them leave, and the unclean spirits went out and entered into the swine, and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea (they were about two thousand,) and were choked in the sea. And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city and in the country, and they went out to see what it was that was done. And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind; and they were afraid. And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine. And they began to pray Him to depart out of their coasts. And when He was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed that he might be with Him. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, 'Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him; and all men did marvel."-St. Mark v. 1-20. on thee.' MY Y text, which is my second lesson of to-night, brings before us, in this narrative form, three points closely connected with one another, to each of which it lends strong illustrative force and lights up with a strange distinctness a matter that concerns every one of us, and that is--prayer. In the narrative we have three prayers embodied. They are offered by different petitioners. Their subject matter is very diverse and the prayers are answered in a different way. Two of the prayers are answered in accordance with the wish of the petitioners. The third prayer is not so answered. It is answered; for prayer will have an answer of some kind. The Hearer of prayer will ever be the Answerer of prayer; but His answers will not always come when we expect them, and in the way we expect them, but some kind of an answer is always sent. We may not recognise it; we may not detect its value. Our diagnosis of the case may be quite at fault, and our search may virtually break down, but there will be an answer. First, we will consider the prayer of the demons; secondly, the prayer of the Gadarenes; thirdly, the prayer of the dispossessed. What a frightful photograph we have before us, in the account given by St. Mark, with a strength and weird particularity that almost startles us; the hell-ridden, devil-smitten man, who casts away from him the chains with which he has been bound, and flings them at the heels of his would-be captors,-the man who finds his home Lord and Giver of Life when He comes amongst these rocks of Gadara for the first time. Here, we may remark, what a wonderfully different outline the two sides of the lake repre sent :-Capernaum,—a fair and beautiful city surrounded by gardens, and vineyards, and fishermen's cottages, perched there on the side of the hill,—everything betokening peace. On the other side the rough, wild, and savage outline of the hill (as wild then as it is at this day), was suggestive of the moral character of the people. There they heard Him gladly, they thronged Him, they even compelled Him to solicit the use of a little boat on one occasion, and from this strange pulpit He speaks to the people on the sandy shore. Here, no crowd comes forth to meet One who spoke as never man spake, the only soul that comes across His path is this man in moral ruins, a study for those who pore over a ruin. A mere fabric of a man upon whom no one could look without tearful regret, though, alas, many men think far more of a mass of ancient masonry than of a man in ruins. Here is a study for us to-night. It is strange to know that in all ages men have condemned this story. They have suggested, and they suggest to-day, with a wonderful amount of emphasis, and a great degree of plausi bility, that if the knowledge we have to-day of mental afflic tions had been extant eighteen hundred years ago, and if the merciful modes of treating the insane now pursued had been in vogue at the time when the Saviour went about doing good, we should have heard nothing of this case of demoniacal possession. Men say, with wonderful fluency, these are cases of moral mania, of moral breakdown, or epilepsy. Well, it is very prudent of them to be wise eighteen hundred years after the event, when all that they have before them is the story itself; but to my mind, however, there are two things which prove the truth of the narrative, to any one who believes in the Bible at all. The Lord and Master, not only of this world, but of the unseen, spoke to this demon which seemed enshrined in the man. Now we may make mistakes, the most cautious and observant of us, but He who needs not that any should testify as to what was in man, had a perfect inventory of the man before Him. Good Bishop Hall says, "He is not the jailer of demons, yet are they not under His mighty sway?" And do not we sing sometimes with great emphasis and hope Jesus, the name high over all, In Hell, or Earth, or Skies? He knew He was not deceived by what men call diseases. He spoke to those beings of darkness. And the second point is this:-They answered Him back. They said, "Art Thou come hither to torment us before our time," on one occasion; and here, they join together and recognise His authority, and as they could not enter into the man without permission, so, they could not go out until they got permission. I put this point before our modern Sadducees, who are quite behind the ancient Pharisees, for they said He casteth out devils by the Prince of devils. They allowed the miracle, though their conclusions were erroneous and blasphemous. We seldom meet with cases of possession after Christ's time. How was it that they flitted across His path? Is it that He might give an ocular demonstration in His day of the power which He exercises? Is not it His specific work to destroy the work of the devil, and even in this sceptical age is there not ample proof that He had power to accomplish His great errand? It is very interesting, too, to consider where He worked these miracles. On one occasion Christ takes the roll in a synagogue of Capernaum to read, and a man with an unclean spirit interposes and cries out, "Let us alone." There you have Satan in the church. Here we find a group of people in commotion on the roadside. A father almost on the verge of despair, has grasped his son almost with superhuman strength. What is the mat. ter? Listen to the plaintive cry, "The devil taketh him, and oft-times it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him." Think of the vigils under that roof; of the careworn parents anxious to keep their son from harm. Think of the lines of care in that father's brow. What have we here? Satan in the home, disturbing its peace and tranquillity. On the lonely hillside the great destroyer of man finds congenial work in detaining captive one man. Oh! yes; not only in the crowded city, where there is abundance of employment, and where men's sins abound, but on the hillside and amongst the sepulchres of the dead Satan finds it worth his while to put his hand upon just one. I ask you to notice these three things:Satan in the church. You find that he is an old hand at this business. You find people who pride themselves on church-going and chapel-going. All very good, but if you will go back into the primitive ages, you will read that "there was a day when the Sons of God came to present themselves before our Lord, and Satan came also." When has he been absent? He is here to lull souls to sleep again who are roused up by the Gospel message. He is here to beat back the blows of the Spirit. He is here, like a clever musician, to lull souls into the torpor of moral slumber, souls that have been awakened by the clarion trump of the Gospel. He is here to neutralize the power of the truth as it is in Jesus. Then we have Satan in the home, where he turns joy into misery and sunshine into tears; and even amongst the solitude, where we are told we can be good if it is possible to be good anywhere, and where we shall most likely be exempt from temptation and sin; here we find the solitary man under the powerful influence of the Prince of Evil. When then can we get beyond his influence ? It was in Paradise itself that our first parents were tempted. It was in the wilderness that the second man, the Lord Christ Jesus, was assailed. It was on the house-top that David was molested. It was in the Judgment Hall that Peter came so ignominiously down. Satan has great power, but his power is controlled by One greater. Here is comfort for saints. Satan has not unlimited power, this prayer shews it in a very remarkable way. What a mighty Saviour we have. I look again, in the next place, at the prayer of those Gadarene people. Christ answers the prayer of the demons, their wishes are realised, and they go forth to do their work of destruction. Having done their worst upon man, they go forth to do their worst upon property, and now news of this strange incident had reached the scattered owners of the herds of swine. Messengers had, in a breathless manner, told them what had occurred. By putting bit to bit the owners had gathered the import. Timid at first, they go forth and gain courage as their numbers increase, and when they reach the spot they see this wonder-worker on the one hand, and the despised man on the other; but they also have a prayer. They pray him "to depart out of their coasts." The words seem to almost freeze on one's lips. On the other side of the lake they that heard Him asked Him to tarry with them. Here the guilty fears of these people, associated with the sorrow connected with the loss in their mercenary business, prompts this prayer. Curiosity ought to have kept back a prayer of this kind. 66 "Let us see the kind of man whom we have here, who has opened the eyes of the blind in many a Syrian village, and at whose voice the dead have come forth from the charnel house. Let us see the man whose words are so wonderful, and whose claims are so unique." Curiosity, one would have thought, would have held them in check for a time. The demoniac was a sufficient object of interest. "Is this the man who has given us no peace and of whom all were afraid?" There is something even stronger than curiosity. One would have thought that they would have brought out their old people to have looked in the face of one of such wonderful pretentions, the man of such wonderful words and deeds. They might have brought out their sick fathers, for if the shadow of Peter, the servant, could accomplish so much, at a later time, what would not the actual presence of the Master do. They might have brought out their little ones to the Master, who had said that they were welcome in His presence. But all these considerations had no power with them for a moment; they were bowed down by others of a weightier nature. "We have lost so much, and if this Jesus of Nazareth abides longer, there is no knowing what may go next." The selfish ground is associated with their fearful foreboding, and they asked the Lord to leave them. That was a day of opportunities for the Gadarenes. Some nations have had their opportunities and have not used them. Spain may be said to have had her opportunity but has given it up. France has had her opportunity but despised it. Those nations are behindhand because they have missed their chance. It seems to me to be so in the case of those countries that have not availed themselves of evangelistic enterprise. They seem to be withered and dead. But how true this is of a man. Christ comes and wishes to be a man's companion and his friend; the man looks around upon that by which he is surrounded, and he sets a higher value upon the things which he possesses and which he is likely to possess, than upon the friendship of Jesus. Oh this is done to an alarming extent, done every day by people who do not think they are doing it. It may be objected to-night, "well but you do not put us on a level with those people, we are not likely to speak in that fashion." That is just where this failure comes in. It is said indirectly. We are not likely to say it as we look up to the vaulted sky, we are not likely to say depart from us," We should not be prepared to say, "Oh, Divine Spirit leave me, let not the 66 Bible say more to me, do not trouble me with any serious moral problems any more, leave me alone." We are not prepared to say that. But, my dear friends, while we should not be prepared to say words of this emphatic character, there is, nevertheless, a swinging off and wandering away from the will of Christ. You know yourselves it is possible to show a person very plainly that his room is better than his company, without telling him so in so many words. You meet with people who tell you "I could see I was not wanted there." There is something in the deportment, it is not so much what is said, it is rather what is left unsaid; and so, you need not open the door and tell the obnoxious visitor that that is the best way into the street. You may get rid of him in a much more polite manner than that. You may pay strict attention to etiquette, and yet none the less give decided manifestations of dislike. Ah, my dear friends, we may sometimes use polite language from politeness, and yet at the same time there may be cold unfriendliness in the heart, the heart which opens to receive all sorts of communications from all comers, but which closes its doors when He draws nigh who has a right to a welcome to its best. Oh! let us take care that we are right in this particular matter. We may call him Master and Lord; we may think of Him with admiration, he does not want our admiration, we may think of Him with respect, but He does not want our respect. If we halt there, if we go no further, if there is nothing more we are prepared to give but a cold admiration or a distant respect, He turns away. Oh, He wants the love of a living heart, He wants the enthusiasm of a spiritual life; He wants a busy activity; He wants the strength of an intelligent zeal. The Christianity that He established is something more than a creed, it is a life. The third prayer is the prayer of the saved man. allows the demons to go forth, and He himself goes forth at the call of the Gadarene people, and He also hears the third prayer, "Let me be with Thee." How naturally simple, how appropriate. The only prayer of the three, one thinks, that would have been regarded; and yet this prayer is not answered in the way the petitioner desires, it is answered, but not in the man's way. 'Let me be with Thee!" Why does not the Master permit this. He allows some men to cry with a loud voice, drawing attention to their wonderful cure, and in stentorian tones praising the Lord. If Christ desires attention to be called to His wonderful works and words, why not let this man go forth? Had the Master ever an illustration more unique than this case? I look at that man's prayer, and as I dissect it I think I can find in it a number of elements that are in each instance only natural. Here it seems to me as if there is fear, "Oh, do not leave me here among these people; if I stay here these demon spirits will come back in their dreadful throng, I shall find their work to be more destructive than in the past, do not leave me to their mercy." That was my feeling when the Lord saved my soul at the age of eighteen. I remember when my sins were driven forth and I had glorious peace, the peace that comes through believing, and the first temptation was this: now all these sins will come back. When you go down from the hill-top of this Sunday-night into the valley of the week, you will fall. Wait until you come into the ordinary toil and life, all these things will go. Christ But, blessed be God, I have found that He that is able to save is able to keep, He that is able to save is able to support. Am I speaking to a man who is thinking about being a Christian, but who does not set out for the cross. Let him not fear. He will not fail to keep you. We may sing this truth in this chapel. 66 Myself I cannot save, But strength in Thee I surely have, I have no doubt this thought was in this poor man's mind, perhaps he thought these Gadarene people would annoy him, he felt he had no friend, it was love springing up, he wanted to go with Christ, it was to prove his gratitude. Many of us can go back to that day when Jesus took our sins away, and we think of this prayer, "Let me be with Thee." Now Christ seems to take that prayer up into His hands and say in effect, "you wish to glorify Me, and so you shall, but in My way." You see, dear friends, we have to leave a wide margin when we go with an intended request; "Should it be according to thy mind," following the prayer of Him who teaches us when we pray to say, Thy will be done." Why, you do not give your children all that they ask for. Your wisdom, experience, the result of years, forbids it, our love for our children dictates our action. We look down at the little one, and we say, "poor little soul, save your tears Heavenly Father with cheerfulness? for greater sorrows.' How is it we cannot look up to our We do look up, but tears are in our eyes, and we wonder that He does not answer according to our wishes, which are very often opposed to our real welfare. Christ says, "your prayer shall be heard; go home to your friends. The way I want you to glorify Me, is not by going over the lake, but by going around Decapolis, to tell men what the Lord hath done for you. They won't have go and tell them." What a sweet and glorious word is this; me, they will listen to you, they know your antecedents; teaching us how our first efforts ought to be at home. Who ought to know first of our conversion but that mother whose heart has been well-nigh broken by the prodigal son. Who but the wife whose life has been well-nigh blasted by the man and ought not that woman to be the first of all to know that who swore to love and protect her at the altar of God's house, the man had given his heart to God. As in the There was a home before there was a church. There was a home before there was a state. The home life of this country is its glory and its strength. I notice another thing here. Christ does not tell this man that in order to be good world. On some hands we see the doctrine of three or four and pure he must leave the world. He must go into the centuries ago revived, that men should go into monasteries, and women into convents, which certainly have not made men and women better. Locks, bars and bolts cannot keep evil outside. Is it philosophical, is it scriptural ? streets of Manchester the gas-lights are not all collected in alleys, far apart. So God in His wisdom expects Christian one place, but are distributed down streets, and lanes, and influence to be distributed. He does not say to a house-full of people, "now you get together with your goody, goody songs, and your goody, goody books, and you will be very happy, far away from the distracted world." No. He rather says "Away! to the carpenter's shop, and let your light so "Away! to the Manchester Exchange, and let your bound for Bombay, and let your light so shine." Men think light so shine." 'Away! to the forecastle of that vessel it a hardship, let it be considered an honour, let the man consider himself a champion for Christ, as one proper to bear shine." |