1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



621 



lur 



»• 



Pil-te thprctore said unto him. Art thnu a Uing 

 then? .1h,>.us answered, Thou saynst that I am a 

 king'. To this end was I born, and for this cause 

 came I into the worM, that I nhiuld bear wiuiess 

 unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth hear- 

 eih my voice.— John 1.H:37. 



^^UU will remember, friends, that there 

 W was a discussion goin^ on in regard to 

 the chargr« against Jesus of wanting 

 tobeking, and Pilate was questioninghim in 

 regard to this charge. Jesus told liim, simply 

 and plainly, he had no interest in the king- 

 doms of tliis world; for he had, but a few mo- 

 ments before, forbidden his followers to light 

 at all, and had. ev^n by a miiacle. restored 

 the mischief that rash Peter, in his blindness 

 and misconc^^ption, had caused. Pilate w.is 

 not a Jew, and cared little about the .lewish 

 wrangles, and seemed anxious only tol'tthis 

 poor, unoffending, and singularly innocent 

 man go free, if lie could do so. and at the 

 same time avoid having any trouble with the 

 clamoring Jews. While .Jesus declined an- 

 swering or saying even a word in his defense 

 before the hypocritical chief priests, he talk- 

 ed freely and candidly with Pilate. After 

 Jesus had said his kingdom was not of this 

 world, Pilate says, in sut>stance, '" Well, then 

 you are a king in some sense, and of some- 

 thing. The statement your enemies make, 

 that you claim to he a king, is at least in some 

 sense true." To the words, "Art thou a king, 

 thenV' the reply that our Lord, in his won- 

 derful innocence and childlike humility 

 makes, is one of those texts that can be read 

 over and over again; and every time I read 

 them, the beauty and grandeur of the words 

 thrill my very soul. " Tlu)u sayest that I am 

 a king," which means, " You say rightly, I 

 am a king;" or, "• Ves, I am a king, as you 

 say." Now comes in a point where the God 

 part of his wonderful nature asserts itself. 

 " To this end was I born, and for this cause 

 came I into the world." 



Remember, friends, it is the selfsame man 

 who was "despised and rejected of men; a 

 man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," 

 and who, " as a sheep before her shearers is 

 dumb, yet opened not his mouth." This last 

 has just been verified, as he stood before the 

 chief priests and false witnesses. There ions 

 nothing to be said before those deliberately 

 bad, wicked, and false men Pilate was a bad 

 and wicked man too, but he has no preju- 

 dice against Jesus, and so he speaks out 

 plainly to him. Christ frankly tells him all 

 about his kingdom, for which he came into 

 the world, and for which he is the born mon- 

 arch. Now. what is the great cause he came 

 into the world to found? Simply truth, hon- 

 esty, uprightness, and purity. In other words, 

 " That I should bear witness unto the truth." 

 Simnle truth. He did not come into the 

 world to rule with a rod of iron, nor to show 

 his power and his might, as kings do, nor to 

 impress the world with his grandeur and 

 magnificence in any worldly sense. He knows 

 of these things, and their allurements; for 

 Satan once tempted him. lie came into a 

 world full of nntruthfiilness and selfishness; 

 and he, by his pure, spotless life, bore wit- 

 ness unto the truth. 



One of my skeptical friends some time ago 

 sent me a pamphlet denying tiie divinity of 

 Christ, with a most urgent request I wudd 

 read it. I did read it, and, to my great sur- 

 prise, it impressed me stronger tlian ever be- 

 fore with the beauty of Christ's pure, simi)le 

 character. It endeavored to sliow he was 

 but human, because he was so humble and so 

 lowly; and the author coidd not comprehend 

 how one having the universe under his com- 

 mand could take up such a humble station 

 in life volimtarily. To his mind, it was be- 

 yond belief that the Scniof God could, of his 

 own accord, wander about the connlry among 

 the lowlv and the pooi'and humble, spending 

 his time in ministering, and nursing sick peo- 

 ple. A p >or harmless mistaken man, with a 

 mere handful i)f followers, wlio clung to him 

 almost to the last moment, he wandered 

 from place to place, disappointed and reject- 

 ed at almost every turn, said the writer in 

 substance. Unconsciously he almost said, 

 " Despised and rejected of men, ^' and yet did 

 not seem to remember it had been said of him 

 before he came here on earth. This same 

 strange, mistaken, simple-hearted man was, 

 however, so the author said, loved so devoted- 

 ly by some of his fi lends tliat they would at 

 any time lay down their lives forhitn and his 

 cause. Do you know what that cause was, 

 dear reader? Our text tells; it was for the 

 cause of truth, against falsehood ami injust- 

 ice. Do you think there is any need now of 

 men who will give up their lives in the cause 

 of truth? 



"For this end came 1 into the world." Je- 

 sus came into the world for no end or plan of 

 his own. His enemies said of him jeei ingly. 

 " He saved others, himself he can not save." 

 They told the tiulh, though not, perhaps, in 

 the sense they intended, lie could not. con- 

 sistently witli his mission to the world, save 

 himself. He came to bear witness unto the 

 truth, and to save men Irom sin, from selfish 

 untruth. There is a great deal in this world 

 that is false and untrue, and almost all un- 

 truth comes from selfishness. We use false- 

 hood, because truth would cost us something. 

 We should lose by letting the full truth come 

 out, so we evade and prevaricate. As Jesus 

 came to save others, and not himself, his life 

 was pure and truthful. Not even his enemies 

 have ever accused him of any selfish plans or 

 work during all the time he was here upon 

 earth. Now, my friends, a man who cimies 

 into the world solely to get as much as he can 

 of every thing for himself, will be pretty sure 

 to be an untruthful and false man. The 

 Bible says, " Thou s'^alt love the Lord thy 

 God with all thy heart, and with all thy 

 soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy 

 strength, and thy neighbor as thvself ;" luit 

 suppose one instead of doing this should put 

 in practice, " Thou shalt make thyself thy 

 God, and love tliyself with all thy heart, anil 

 with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. and 

 with all thy strength, and thy neigiibor must 

 look out f(>r /;i?H.se//'." Such a man w<mld 

 live only to please himself. Jesus "pleased 

 not himself." The life and teachings of our 

 Savior are such a constant leproach to a self- 

 ish man, tiiat he hates him instinctively, or, 

 what amounts to the same thing, he hates 

 the very mention of that spirit. The spirit 



