Professor W. G. Elmslie, D.D.: Memoir and SermonsElmslie, William Gray
Religion
Professor W. G. Elmslie, D.D.: Memoir and Sermons
Elmslie, William Gray
Elmslie, William Gray, 1848-1889; Sermons, English -- 19th century; Theologians -- Scotland -- Biography
Perhaps you say, "What! can it be right to feel pity, kindness,
compassion, love for men who have gone astray from Christ, rebelled
against the Master, forsaken and denied the Saviour?" Remember how Jesus
treated the eleven, who deserted Him, Peter, who denied Him, Thomas, who
would not believe. Nay, more, can you for one moment doubt the
rightfulness of feeling so to sinning brethren, be they as bad as they
may, and of treating them so, you who do believe that from all eternity
God set His love, compassion, saving purpose on sinners—rebellious,
hateful sinners—without one spark of merit or goodness in them to
deserve it? Brethren, it is not wrong, it is not weak, it is noble,
Christlike, Godlike to pity, to love, to tenderly seek and save the
lost, the sinning, the erring, the fallen.
* * * * *
Finally, remark how the text suggests that you are to render them
assistance and support. Suppose it is a brother becoming involved in
worldly or dangerous entanglements, lapsing into doubtful courses, or
yielding to the freezing influence of ungodly or sceptical companions.
Now, direct interference, immediate intervention, is not always
possible, is often difficult, sometimes impossible. Besides, often the
mischief is already done ere you perceive it. Or again, it is
intellectual difficulty or doubt that you have to deal with. To meet the
objections, to remove the doubts, would be well, but perchance you are
not skilled, competent to do that; or it may be they are such as cannot
be removed. Here, again, direct remedies may be impracticable. Are you,
then, powerless, helpless to aid? Far from it. A method better than all
immediate and special action lies open for you, for all Christian men
and women. "Make straight, smooth paths with your feet." It may be you
cannot personally do anything to support the maimed or arrest the
erring, but you can nevertheless render most important service. As a
flock of sheep, by all moving on regularly in one united mass, with
their feet smooth down the roughnesses and entanglements of the way,
breaking down the entrapping brambles, clearing away the furze and
tripping briers, leaving behind them a plain and open track, trodden
down and freed of obstructions, stones, and stumbling-blocks, so that
the weak and crippled are not turned aside or overthrown; so if the
strong and whole body of Christian men and women will but move
steadfastly on amid the mazes of temptation and over the
stumbling-stones of evil, the feeble, tempted, erring will be helped
forward, and, borne along in the united, combined advance, will not fall
behind or be baffled, overthrown, or led astray by difficulties and
impediments. Yes, infinitely more powerful than any isolated rebuke, or
warning, or intervention, is the force of united Christian example and
protecting aid, to keep in the right path the halt, the maimed, the
blind. What the tempted, the world-seduced, the doubting, the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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