The King of Glory.

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THE KI G OF GLORY. BY LOUIS ALBERT BA KS

< ' Who is this King of glory ? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. — Psalm xxiy. 8. In the old days, when the king of England wished to enter the city of London, through Temple Bar, the gate being closed against him, the herald advanced and demanded entrance. **Open the gate," shouted the herald. **Who is there?" questioned a voice from within. **The king of England !" answered the herald. The gate was at once opened, and the king passed, amid the acclamations of the people. But the custom was an old one, and stretched back perhaps thousands of years before England was known under that name. It is probable that to a custom like this allusion is made in this Psalm. Its direct and immediate reference was no doubt to the bringing of the ark into the tent David pitched for it, or into the temple Solomon built for it. The porters are called upon to open the doors, and they are called ** everlasting doors" because much more dura73

74 THE KI G OF GLORY. ble than the doors of the tabernacle, which were but a curtain. And the porters asked, '* Who is this King of glory ?" very appropriately, for the ark was the symbol or token of God's presence. But the ark was a type of Jesus Christ, and the message we have in it

is its proper and fitting description of Jesus. He is our **King of glory." He is our Lord, "strong and mighty in battle." We may apply it very fitly to Christ's ascension to heaven after his life, and suffering, and death, and resurrection here on the earth. When Christ came to be born in Bethlehem he put aside the glory which he had before the world was, and, tho he was rich, for our sakes he became poor. While on earth he bore our flesh, he was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. He was an hungered, he thirsted, he was weary, he was criticised, he was lonely, he was insulted and abused, he was betrayed by false friends, he was denied by some that were nearest to him, he was beaten, he was crowned with thorns, he was crucified on the cross, his body was laid in a borrowed grave ; but there his humiliation ended. He rose from the grave in mighty power, with angelic attendants, and ascended into heaven as a conqueror.

TEE KI G OF GLORY. 75 Isaiah had a vision of that time and cried out, ** Who is this that Cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah ? This that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength ? " And he answers, " I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save." " Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat ?" And the answer comes ringing back, " I have trodden the winepress alone ; of the people there was none with me. . . . And I looked, and there was none to help ; and I wondered that there was none to uphold ; therefore mine own arm brought salvation." As one of the old preachers said, Christ has gone to heaven as a victor ; leading sin, Satan, death, hell, and all his enemies in triumph at his chariot wheels. He has not only overcome

his enemies for himself, but for all his people, whom he will make conquerors, yea, " more than conquerors." As he has overcome, so shall they also overcome ; and as he has gone to heaven a victor, they shall follow in triumph. He is in heaven as a Savior. When he came from heaven it was in the character of the Savior ; when on earth he obtained eternal salvation ; in heaven he lives as a Savior ; when he comes again from heaven he will come

76 THE KI G OF GLORY, as a Savior ; and when he returns he will return as a Savior. He is also gone to heaven as the rightful heir. He is not gone to heaven as a sojourner, but as '*the heir of all things." He is the heir of heavenly glory and happiness, and all who become his friends and disciples become ** heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." Christ went back to heaven after the mightiest battle ever fought in the universe, and went back triumphant over sin and death. We might properly apply these words to the coming of Christ to the life of man, and to the civilization of the world. Christ has been taking possession of the life of mankind. He is King of glory in modern civilization. In spite of all the wickedness there is in the world, it has already come about that the most dominant personality in it is Christ. Take the discussion that is now going on as to whether this year 1900 is the last year of the nineteenth or the first year of the twentieth century. What is the meaning of it all ? It means that nineteen hundred years ago there was born in the little stable at Bethlehem a child \ a child so marvelous, a child so wonderful, a child so given of God, that all the ages before the birth of that child became time before Christ, and all the centuries since have become time in the '*year

THE KI G OF GLORY. 77

of our Lord." Christ has possessed and become King of glory in the very counting of the years in modern centuries. Christ has knocked at the gates of the world of art, and he is the King of glory in it. Go back and look at the works of the great masters and you will see that they are pictures of the Christ. And when in modern times has the world of art and modern invention in illustration been so stirred as in Tissot's, ^' Life of Christ in Art " ? Christ has knocked at the door of literature and he is the King of glory in the literature of the world. Where there is one book written against Christ there are a hundred thousand books written to illustrate his teaching or impress the lessons of his life. Some man of great learning and scholarship writes a book of skeptical philosophy, and if it has sold ten thousand copies the publishers think it has done well ; but a humble preacher in a modest little Congregational church in Kansas writes a book in the simplest language and imagery, trying to show how men may live like Jesus, and three millions of copies are sold in less than five years. We may apply it also with great appropriateness to the door of our hearts. Many commentators think that was the original mean-

78 THE KI G OF GLORY. ing, the direct reference, and they believe it to mean the same as in Revelation v>rhere Christ said to John, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock ; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him." One of the old Bible students calls attention to the fact that in the Gospel history Christ had four different kinds of entertainment among men. Some received him into their houses, but not into their hearts. Simon the Pharisee was one

of these. He gave Christ a great dinner, but he gave him no kiss. Some people received him into their hearts, but not into their houses. The Roman centurion who was convinced of Christ's divine mission was one of these. He did not esteem himself worthy that Christ should come under his roof. Another class would receive Jesus neither into their houses nor their hearts, and their only prayer was that he should leave them alone and not disturb them. The people of Gadara, where Christ saved the poor demoniac and where the people lost their herd of swine, were an illustration of this class. But there was still a fourth class, who received Jesus both into their houses and into their hearts. That home in Bethany where Lazarus lived with Mary and Martha, his sisters, is an illustration of this class.

THE KI G OF GLORY. 79 There are the same classes in the world today. Some of you who hear me to-night have received Christ into your houses but not into your hearts. Somewhere about your house probably there is a big family Bible. It may not have been opened for a long time, and you could probably write your name with your finger where the dust has gathered at the edges, but somehow you would not want the house to be without it. In your pictures, in your music, in your books, in your friends, in many ways, you have received Christ into your house ; but you have shut him out of your heart. You are willing to go as far as Simon and make him a dinner now and then, for the sake of some charity carried on in his name, but you refuse him access to your heart. Like Simon of old you let him sit at your table, but you give him no kiss of love. Yet if you could but for one moment imagine that Christ would finally be shut out of your lives completely, you would not wait another hour, would not wait another moment, without inviting Jesus to enter your hearts. I am sure you would not want to live

in such a black world as it would be if Christ were gone out of it entirely. But there must come a time when in your world, in all the realm where you live and have your being,

80 THE KI G OF GLORY. there will be no Christ, nothing that is Christian, unless you shall turn from your indifference and sin, and open your heart to the King of glory who knocks at your door. Have you ever seriously thought what a dark midnight it would be if there were in your sky no Christ, no Christmas, no Easter, no Thanksgiving, no Sunday, no Christian books, no Christian pictures, no Christian churches, no Christian hospitals, no Christian homes of benevolence, no Christian spirit of love in the earth at all ? Ah, that would be hell indeed ! And yet that is what you are planning for yourselves if you persistently refuse Jesus Christ. Once take the hope of Christ and goodness out of the heart, and you have reached the realm of despair. Dr. John W. Hamilton says that he once found that realm in Southern Europe. It was the Suicides' Cemetery at Monte Carlo. Many travelers have denied the existence of this graveyard, but it does exist and is not hard to find after you know where to look for it. It cannot be found near the grounds of the beautiful palace where the sound of the whirling ball mingles vs^ith the chink of gold. either the croupers nor the porters will tell you about it. If you ask them they will smile incredulously, and shake their heads.

THE KI G OF GLORY. 81 Guide-books do not mention it — the owners of the gambling hell at Monte Carlo pay them to keep it out. But go to the old priest in Monaco and ask him where the cemetery is. He will

tell you gladly. It is about three miles from the gambling house. Bronze gates open to it from the beautiful drive. Climb up over the hill and you will come to a little stone house built partly in the hillside. Here lives Gilbert, the gravedigger of the Suicides' Cemetery. If he has any other name he keeps it to himself. He claims to be French, but has more the appearance of an Italian or a Spaniard. He speaks the three languages perfectly, and has a smattering of English. *' I am the greatest man in the world," said Gilbert to Dr. Hamilton. '' All these graves I've dug myself. They are all mine, and so are the people in them — all mine. I spend my days here, and sometimes my nights. When another friend is ready to come and sleep in my house, they send for me and I go bring him." The old gravedigger leaned on the handle of his shovel and looked across the blue waters of the Mediterranean on one of the most beautiful sights on the face of the earth and said : " What matters it how a man leaves the world ? See,"

82 THE KI G OF GLORY. said he, going to the edge of an open grave, '^ this is ready for somebody. Who ? It may be me ; it may be you. We cannot guide our own lives any more than we can guide the ball that whirls in the roulette wheel. All life is chance. We love chance and stake our lives on it. If we win we are happy ; if we lose we weep ; or, like my friend here, end our lives bravely. I never think of to-morrow : if I am to suffer, I will suffer ; if I am to be glad, I will be glad. After all, it matters little in the end. That's the same in all cases. But I wonder where the man is now who will fill the grave I have just dug. Perhaps he is ready for me." The old gravedigger was a type of the utter

hopelessness of agnosticism and atheism, rejecting Jesus our Savior and the hope of eternal life in him. Blot Christ out and the whole world becomes like that '^ Suicides' Cemetery." Thank God, man was not made to go down into the darkness and silence like that. Ingersoll died on the banks of the Hudson a few months ago and there was no singing, no music, no hope ; only a going down into silence. But Moody died the other day at orthfield, and as death came to him his friends stood about with tears indeed, but with hopeful, triumphing hearts as the warrior of a hundred battlefields

THE KI G OF GLORY. 83 for Christ exclaimed, *' I see earth receding, heaven is opening. God is calling me ! " Songs were triumphantly sung about his coffin, songs were sung victoriously over his grave, the King of glory had thrown the mantle of his own glory over him in his dying as in his living. Which death will you die ; the death of Ingersoll or the death of Moody ? It is for you to decide. obody can decide it for you. Oh, for decision here and now ! o man becomes a Christian who lingers to dally with excuses. What you need is to decide and to act. The question of our personal allegiance to Jesus Christ is not one we can transfer to any other court than that of our own conscience, and ^* He who hesitates is lost." o one can decide this momentous question but yourself, and no other time is promised you but now. I must call upon you to decide it to-night. In 1871 Mr. Moody preached a series of sermons on the life of Christ, in old Farwell Hall, Chicago, for five nights. He took Him from the cradle in the manger, and followed Him to the Judgment Hall, and on that occasion he committed what I once heard him say was the greatest blunder of his life. It was on that memorable night in October, and the court house bell was sounding an alarm of fire, but

84 THE KI G OF GLORY Moody paid no attention to it. He finished his sermon on the question of Pilate, *' What shall I dowith Jesus? "and said to the audience : ** ow I want you to take the question home with you and think it over, and next Sunday I want you to come back and tell me what you are going to do with Him." '^ What a mistake ! " said Moody. ** It seems now as if Satan was in my mind when I said this. Since then I never have dared give an audience a week to think of their salvation. If they were lost they might rise up in judgment against me. *'I remember," said Moody, *' Mr. Sankey singing, and how his voice rang when he came to that pleading verse : — * < ' To-day the Savior calls ; For refuge fly ! The storm of justice falls, And death is nigh.' ** After the meeting we went home. I remember going down La Salle street with a young man and saw the glare of flames. I said to the young man : * This means ruin to Chicago.' " About one o'clock Farwell Hall was burned ; soon the church in which I preached went down and everything was scattered. I never saw that audience' again."

THE KI G OF GLORY 85 Many years afterward I heard Moody tell that incident, and I never shall forget the impression made on me. His voice broke into sobs, and the tears ran down his cheeks, as he

declared that it was the greatest blunder of his life, to send those people away that night without calling them to decision then. Dear friends, God helping me, I will not make the same blunder with you. one of us know what will happen to-morrow. But there is one thing we all know, and that is that the King of glory is knocking at the door of your heart to-night, and if you open the door and let him in it will all be well with you. Disease or fire or death may come, but you can triumph over all if Jesus Christ is your Savior and your King. Will you admit Jesus Christ as Lord over your heart ? Will you decide now ?

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