Matthew 11:4

CHRISTIANITY AND HUMAN SORROW

‘Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see.’

Matthew 11:4

What answer did our Lord send back to the Baptist? It is very suggestive; He let the messenger see how Christianity lent itself to alleviating human sorrow.

I. Is Christianity true to its ideal.—How far has Christianity been true to the conception of it which Christ formed, wherein have we fallen short in our ideal living? What were the parting words which the Great Master whispered into the ears of the messengers when He sent them forth two and two on His errand? He said to them: Go and preach; say that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils, raise the dead. Freely ye have received, freely give. Christianity does not come to men with an indefinite message of the future, and with blind eyes to all the necessities and suffering of the present. It is the work of the Church to-day still to heal the lepers—moral and social, as well as physical lepers; to inquire into the causes which produce the evils and help to get rid of them.

II. The message of the Gospel comes as a ray of hope for time and for eternity. It takes hold of the present wrong and tries to set it right, and it gives a hope of a glorious immortality hereafter. The message of the Gospel in all its fullness is for the pale and stunted children of our overcrowded dwellings and, oftentimes, pestilent alleys of life. The message of the Gospel is to the honest, hard-pressed working-man who cannot find employment. It tells them not only of the rest for the people of God, but it says: ‘We are concerned, my brother, at this condition of affairs, and we will see, in God’s Name, what we can do to remedy the wrong.’ Christianity has accomplished a mighty work in the history of nations, and those who are foremost and best are those nations who have most adopted the teaching of the Gospel. No other teacher has ever done for mankind what Christianity has done with that new commandment of Christ’s—‘Love one another.’ Christ’s very credit is entrusted to us, and He longs for us to be the exponents of His idea of religion. What is that? To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world—that is religion.

The Rev. C. J. Procter.