TUESDAY, March 8.  Morning meeting at same place.  Speak on Jude third verse, “the faith that was once delivered to the saints.”  I have somewhere read that the faith, or rather the doctrines, upon which the faith of the saints reposes, has never but once been delivered to the saints, that since Jude’s day it has been so much perverted, and so much mixed up with the opinions and doctrines of men that the saints never more have it declared unto them exactly as Jude understood and believed it.  But I do not think exactly with that man.  Church history does disclose lamentable departures from the true faith; and we witness the same, with their evil results, in our own times; still God has had, even in the darkest hours of the Christian era, “a people prepared for the Lord.”  I believe that what he said to Elijah he might have said at any time since:  “I have yet left unto me seven thousand in Israel; all the knees that have not bowed unto Baal, nor worshiped his image.”  We still have “the sure word of prophecy unto which we do well to take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place;” and that word of prophecy is the Bible.

Something like this was the introduction to my discourse this morning.

Night meeting in Churchville.  Speak on John 1:11, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”  His coming was not to their minds, nor according to their expectation.  If earthly glory had been the goal of Christ’s ambition, and he had promised them a large amount of stock in it, his welcome, on the part of the Jews, would have been sounded and sung from Dan to Beer-sheba.  Jerusalem would have been illuminated in honor of him, and banners would have waved in praise of him.  But how different from all this were the surroundings of his coming!  Born in a stable—­and if a certain poet has beautifully and truthfully sung,

  “The manger of Bethlehem cradled a King:” 

still is his “kingdom not of this world;” and the King, instead of having the “right royal part,” is “meek and lowly in heart; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.”  And no wonder.  The cross stands between him and the crown.  “His own” could not understand this; and once he was rebuked by one of his disciples for making mention of the fact.  They could not comprehend the spiritual character of his kingdom—­that love was the throne and righteousness the scepter.  The Jewish race, which are meant in the text by “his own,” were not prepared for the kingdom of heaven, and on that account they “received him not.”  May there not be some in this house to-night who feel toward Jesus as these Jews felt?  If he would confer upon them a large share of wealth, honor and power, would they not willingly accept him?  I imagine he would be the very sort of King they would like to govern them.  He would be the man for them.  When such are told that worldly wealth, honor and power are not the foundation of the Lord’s reign on earth and the glory of the heavens, and that these must be forsaken in heart as the chief good by all who would follow him, they shrug their shoulders, shake their heads with a down look and a half-suppressed smile of unbelief, and say:  “Not yet awhile.”  Self-denial is the exact opposite of self-gratification.  But our Lord declares that “except a man deny himself, he cannot be my disciple.”