Jesus, the Source of Spiritual Blessing to men
I. When men speak, as they do now, so much of Jesus Christ as only one amongst the many great teachers and benefactors of our race, does it not occur to them as strange and unaccountable that He alone He alone of all those whose names have come down to us with this honour attached to them should, in the midst of this advanced and enlightened age, possess a living power and a devoted and loving following. The writings of many of the great thinkers of antiquity are still in our hands. We value them for what we think they are worth. But, I ask, over whom do they rule? By whom are their authors reverenced and worshipped? We may delight our intellects with the hard, keen reasoning of an Aristotle, or delight our souls with the sublime conceptions and dulcet words of a Plato; but what man in his senses would now profess himself an Aristotelian or a Platonist? Their power has long since passed away; their sceptre is broken; and to most men, even in civilised countries, they are nothing but a name. But Jesus Christ is still in the midst of us as a living power. Men believe in Him, receive His teachings, confide their highest interests into His hands, love Him with an all-mastering love, and if need be, are ready to sacrifice even life itself for His sake. And if we have yet to expect a further development of thought which is to supersede Christianity, why has it been so long in coming? Centuries have passed, and yet no sign of its approach is to be seen. Is not the world's last hope in Christ? Is not our last alternative this: Jesus Christ for all, or a dark, dreary, and hopeless nothing.
II. The moral judgments and the spiritual wants of men are the same now as they were when Christianity was first preached, as they have ever been during the whole period that Christian truth has been the object of thought. Why should men wish to change what has already been found to meet the end it was designed to reach in satisfying the intellectual, the moral, and the spiritual wants of men? Let search be made by men into their spiritual necessities, let them survey and catalogue their spiritual wants, let them gather into one sum all their needs and all their longings as moral, accountable, and immortal beings, and then let them come unto Jesus Christ and see whether He is not ready and sufficient to do for them all they need. He alone who came forth from the bosom of the Father can reveal God to men.
W. Lindsay Alexander, Penny Pulpit,No. 699, new series.
References: John 15:5. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. vi., No. 345; vol. xxvii., No. 1625; Preacher's Monthly,vol. i., p. 348; Church of England Pulpit,vol. v., p. 201; Homilist,vol. vi., p. 145; Ibid.,3rd series, vol. x., p. 277; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. ii., p. 267; vol. xv., p. 101; R. Tuck, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xiii., p. 213; H. W. Beecher, Plymouth Pulpit,5th series, p. 293; W. Page Roberts, Liberalism in Religion,p. 137. John 15:5-8. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iv., pp. 85, 224.John 15:7. A. Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer,pp. 156, 164; J. Keble, Sermons from Ascension Day to Trinity,p. 474.John 15:7-11. W. Roberts, Christian World Pulpit,vol. x., p. 237.