Jesus said to the tempter:  “Man does not live by bread alone.”  Do any of you suppose that Jesus meant to inform the devil that man needs other kinds of food in addition, such as meats, and fruits, and vegetables?  He had no such thought.  He did not mean to inform or instruct the devil by anything he said to him.  But he did mean to teach his tried and tempted followers to the end of time that love and truth are the very life and support of man’s spirit.  “My words,” says he, “are spirit, and they are life.”  Man may love, and ardently love, what is evil.  But divine truth tells him what to love.  Hence our Lord’s answer is about equivalent to this:  “Man does not live by bread [love] alone; but by [water also, which is the truth of] every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

And now, in conclusion, I will ask you, friends, do any of you desire everlasting life?  If you do, I say unto you, Come to Jesus.  Accept his love.  He loved you “and gave himself for you.”  Accept him by faith.  He is the Bread of eternal Life.  “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”  He invites you to come and take of the water of life freely.  This water is none other than the truth of his Word.  Be filled with it.  Be immersed in it.  As a most impressive emblem of your willingness to be thus, submit to the ordinance of baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

By your immersion in the name of the Father you declare to the world, and say to the church that you believe that God the Father loves you, and wills your salvation; that you accept his love in faith, and prove your faith by this act.  By your immersion in the name of the Son you profess your faith in the efficacy and sufficiency of what Jesus Christ did to save you, that he is the Word made flesh, and that men should honor him, even as they honor the Father.  By your immersion in the name of the Holy Ghost you profess your faith in the power and everlasting presence of the Holy Spirit in your heart, to lead you into all truth, to make you more and more holy by means of this truth, until you are filled with it, thoroughly leavened with “the leaven of truth and sincerity.”  The Holy Spirit is called “The Spirit of Truth,” and “if the truth make you free, ye shall be free indeed;” free from falsities in your faith.  What benefit can there be in believing what is not true?  Whoever yet found any substantial good in believing a delusion, a falsehood, an error?  But we do read of some who “believe a lie that they may be damned.”  This sounds rough I know; but it is their own fault, because they love a lie; and “whosoever loveth a lie” is excluded, shut out of the Holy City, because nothing but truth and love can enter there.  I again call upon every one here present to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and, believing, he shall have life in his name.

AN ENCOURAGING THOUGHT.