Vou. VIZ No:
NEW HAVEN, CONN., W
WATSON DAY AT YALE.
Verbatim Reports of Ian MacLaren’s
Sermon in Battell Chapel and
Talk in Dwight Hall.
[Copyrighted by Yale Alumni Weekly.]
Dr. John Watson (Ian MacLaren),
of . Liverpool, preached in Battell
Chapel last Sunday, Feb. 20, at the
regular morning service, and talked
to the students in Dwight Hall in the
evening. It was an unusual Sunday for
the University and the interest of the
student body showed a keen apprecia-
tion of the opportunity. The sermon
was on the text of the eulogy of John
the Baptist. by- Jesus. It was in a
simple form and rose to high dramatic
force towards the close.
be given days in advance that it would
be absolutely impossible to seat any
but those directly connected with the
University. As it was, the capacity of
the building was overtaxed and very —
many were turned away from the doors.
President Dwight opened the service
and Dr. Watson offered the prayer as
iollows:
Almighty God, most holy and most
sracious, who doth not refuse the
prayer of any true heart nor despise the
sorrow of them that feel penitent, we be-
seech Thee to grant unto Thy servants,
now and always, a contrite heart for all
their sins, and a true desire for holy
living, and by Thy great goodness and
according unto Thy promises, declared
unto us by Christ Jesus, that Thou
wouldst lessen the intolerable burden
of our sins through Christ’s sacrifice.
We beseech Thee to grant unto us peace
of conscience and pure hearts, that we
may serve Thee all the days of our life.
Oh God, who art the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, we render
Thee thanks that Thou hast sent Thy
beloved Son into this world and that
he has overcome the power of sin and
the power of the present world and the
power of death. Unto Thee we render
thanks that Thou raised him from the
dead and set him at Thine own right
hand in the heavenly places and that
he has all power in Heaven and out,
unto salvation. And we pray that our
faith in the midst of this mortal conflict
may be established in the risen and tri-
umphant Christ, and that~ through
Christ we may obtain the victory over
all our temptations and over all our
sins, and come at last, through him, into
the holy and perfect life.
Oh God, who rulest in Heaven above
and on the earth beneath, we beseech
Thee to shed forth the spirit of Thy be-
loved Son into the heart of His church
the world over. Protect by Thy provi-
dence all the missionaries of the Cross
in distant places and their companies
of lonely converts, wherever they carry
the preaching of Christ in our own
country or any other country of the
world, and hasten the day when all.
Christ’s disciples shall stand together,
and so through Thy mercy hasten
everywhere the second coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ. :
We beseech Thee to send Thy bless-
ing upon this country, giving Thy ser-
vant, the ruler, heavenly wisdom, and
all associated with him in government
and every person in authority, and unit-
ing all the Commonwealth together in
brotherly love and the fear of God. And
bless unto the advancement of Thy
kingdom on earth, all recent events in
the history of this country, that every-
where the kingdom of God may come
and stand in peace and righteousness
and order and good government.
Most pitiful Father, we entreat Thee
Notice had to .
to have compassion on those who are
in sorrow and in tears, for all who are
in danger by land and sea, for every
one who has lost the kindly light of
reason or is in despair of faith; for all
who have secret trials and for whom the
help of man is vain; for all lonely, dis-
appointed and burdened men, and for
REV. DR. JOHN WATSON.
anyone whose name may now be men-
tioned. We beseech Thee that all that
serve the country, both soldiers and
sailors, and everyone toiling for our
comfort and watching our way, that
Thou wilt give them aid and merciful
deliverance. And also for all who have
sinned and for such who are appointed
unto death. We pray for all of those
who are near and dear to us; the old
folks at home; those of our families
who are far away, and anyone dear to
us whom case and circumstance are
lying upon our hearts.
Almighty God, who art the only
source of our righteousness and faith,
we beseech Thee that Thy holy spirit,
the spirit of knowledge and wisdom,
may be sent forth upon the President
and teachers of this ancient University,
and upon all who learn within its folds;
that here, light may ever grow brighter
and stronger and that knowledge may
never cease, until it rises to the knowl-
edge of Him, whom to know is life
everlasting.
Finally, we render Thee thanks for
all ordinary mercies which we enjoy
from day to day, and for the means of
grace, by which, we pray, prepare our
hearts to receive Thy word, and keep
us this day and all the days of our life
in the paths of peace and righteousness,
and grant us at last to come into Thy
heavenly kingdom and to serve Thee
there in perfect knowledge for ever and
ever. For all of these things we be-
seech Thee, through the merits and in-
tercession of Jesus Christ, our Lord, to
whom and to Thee, the Father, the
Holy Ghost, be all glory, as it was in
the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
Dr. Watson’s sermon, which was
without notes, was as follows:
The Sermon.
The subject of the sermon this morn-
ing is Jesus’ eulogy of John the Baptist
and the text is in the 11th chapter of St.
Matthew’s Gospel: “Among them that
are born of women, there hath not
risen a greater than John the Baptist.”
Two men stand in the background
of Jesus’ life whose histories are woven
like a net of golden threads through
the story of the Gospel and whose
characters touch the extremes of moral
contrast. One was Jesus’ forerunner,
who only saw the Lord once, when he
results.
EDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1899.
acknowledged him as the Messiah, and
the other was Jesus’ king, who only saw
his subject once, when he took the op-
portunity of insulting him.
When Jesus was at work in Galilee,
Herod and John the Baptist were in
Herod’s castle. One of them was in the
banquet hall in luxury and wantonness,
‘and the other was in his dungeon below,
in affliction and in irons. Both of these
men bethought themselves of Christ,
one of them shortly before, when he
sent the message to Jesus and asked if
he was the Messiah, and the other
shortly after, when Herod was afraid
that Jesus was John arisen from the
dead. To each man Jesus sent word.
To John he sent: “Blessed is he who-
soever shall not be offended in me,”
and to Herod he sent: ‘Woe unto
Thee.” — :
For John’s mission, very peculiar
qualities were required; not because
the mission was dangerous (though it
was), but because it was so humble.
In the way John fulfills his remark-
able mission, one catches sight of an al-
most unique, if not an entirely unique
nobility of character. It is easy enough,
as you know, to obtain men of animal
courage, who will take great risks and
rejoice to be in the forefront of the
battle; who will not be afraid to lay
down their lives, and who will have a
man’s joy in danger—ageressive, mas-
terful, determined, full-blooded men!
They can be found any.day upon the
street, and they can be found in any
place by hundreds, in any society which
is not absolutely decadent and rotten.
It is far more difficult to get men who
are willing to forget themselves, and to
do obscure work; to be the pioneers
of great causes, and to sink themselves,
their lives and their reputations in their
cause.
WHAT JOHN'S CHARACTER MEANS.
Such a character means utter self-
regardlessness and a mind cleansed from
vain ambitions; an elevation above this
present world and a pure vision of
noble ideals. Such was the character
of John.. And they are the men that
are a rebuke to you and me, and a stim-
ulant. |
Between John and the apostles of
Jesus there was an enormous differ-
ence. The apostles went everywhere
with the message of a triumphant cause,
of a Christ, who had died and risen
again; and wherever they - went
throughout the cities of the Roman em-
pire, signs and wonders followed them.
Of course, they had to suffer; but then
no man cares anything about suffering,
pure suffering. It is the lot of the sol-
dier, and if an apostle had to die, why,
he died, with the sound of victory in his
ears, and the last-thing he saw was the
Cross, for which he had fallen, moving
triumphantly forward, as he _ died.
John had to preach of a. Christ no
person had seen; of a kingdom of God
that had not yet come. He had to do
his work in the desert, in the company
of the wild beasts, with no visible
No Christ, mark you! no
Christ kept vigil with him. John’s
humiliations had not the partnership of
Christ. John was alone; and even when
John died, he died just in the grey
dawn, and died never having had a hand
in the battle that was to be. That was
the hardship of John’s condition.
KEEPING RIGIDLY HIS COMMISSION.
-John kept himself very rigidly within
his commission, and never once allowed
himself to be intoxicated by popular
applause, which is the danger of all
professional men and of all artists—the
danger of every man who figures in the
eyes of the public. Is there any object
-tion?
Price Ten Cents.
under Heaven so sad as the decadence
of a prophet—when a man who has a
mission to perform, becomes intoxi-
cated with his own message. When a
man who has to prepare a way to the
kingdom of God, comes at last to think
himself greater than the kingdom,
when the bearer of a great and immor-
tal truth thinks himself greater than
the truth he bears? The corruption of
the best is the worst, and when a
prophet goes astray it is the greatest
catastrophe in ethics and in religion.
John maintained an even mind.
When asked who he was, he did not
require to say that he was the Messiah.
There are a hundred ways in which a
man may politely turn aside a compli-
ment but accept it all the same. He
might have allowed them to think,
though he disclaimed it, that after all
he was the Messiah. But what did he
say to those who asked him that ques-
I, the Messiah! Never! Foolish
to suppose that I am the Messiah.
Elias? No, not Elias!’ (He was)! A
prophet! Nota prophet, not a prophet
at all! He did not have to say that he
was a prophet. By and by men would
see whether he was a prophet or not.
What are you, then, what are you? I
will tell you. This is what I want to
be, a voice that sounds across the desert
air and behind that, a man unknown.
A name to be disregarded, to be forgot-
ten. That is John.
When Jesus came it was a moment of
great joy to John. It was also a mo-
ment of great sorrow, for the coming
of Jesus meant the close of John’s work.
He could still approach the Messiah,
and he could send disciples to the
Messiah. But his disciples belonged to
the Messiah now, and his message was
completed. The very earnestness of his
life had made him unfit to be one of
Jesus’ apostles. For Jesus could not
take an ascetic from the desert, who
had separated himself from men, and
make him the apostle of this new yospel
of the Cross. When Jesus came, John’s
work was done, and this was a tremen-
dous trial to the man.
THE HARDEST TIME.
You are young now, and I pray you
may have a great work to do in the
learned professions, and in all the other
spheres of enterprise in your country.
But the day will come when you grow
old, and the younger man has to do
the work, and then will come the trial.
For a man to be’able and to have an
opportunity to do the work is happi-
ness. But O, to lay it aside and to
give it to another man. We may be
thanktul if that time does not last
long. John would not have wished to
have lived, after his work was done
and his message had been delivered. PS
man with no message, nothing left him,
and no share in the big work. His
work was done. And when a mans
work is done, let him die. The man
(John) would have chosen death. His
death crowned and completed and en-
tirely satisfied and glorified his life.
I have not exhausted the nobility of
John for I have not exhausted his
temptations. Isn’t it a desperate thing
when you and I are fighting a spiritual
battle and have enough to do with the
enemies in our own soul; that people
will rush in from the outside, not to
help the better self in a man, but to
help the worst self. People looked on
and saw Jesus and John. They saw
Jesus succeeding and saw John silent.
Now came the chance for the Pharisees.
They hated John because John had told
the truth. They suspected Jesus be-
cause Jesus had not yet lent himself to
the traditions of the period. Now was
the opportunity. Is there anytinne
more agreeable to a certain kind o
