, in these
days they are dead in sins and as his messengers we carry the message
of love.

I

This expression of the text meant very much to the Oriental, for as a
matter of fact the salutation of the Eastern people frequently took a
half an hour of time, and sometimes an hour would be consumed. They
touched their turbans, fell upon their knees, saluted one another with
a holy kiss, talked together concerning their own interests. These
things were a part of the salutation. Jesus says to the seventy,
"Salute no man as you go." They were not bidden to be impolite--this
is farthest from the spirit of the Christian--yet they were
commissioned to be about the king's business and the king's business
required haste.

The idea of the text is that there must be definiteness of purpose in
Christian work. When Elisha kept his eyes fixed upon Elijah there came
to him as the result the mantle of Elijah and he was clothed with
power. When Gehazi followed Elisha's command and as he went to the
home of the Shunammite saluted no one he became the forerunner of life
to the child. And when Paul said, "This one thing I do," and nothing
could swerve him from his path of duty, he became the mightiest
preacher in the world's history since Christ. But let it not be
thought for a moment that we are advocating a gloomy religion; far from
it.

I like the story of the little girl who went one day into her
grandfather's room to ask him to read to her and found him asleep with
his head upon the back of the chair, his Bible upon his knees and the
sunlight coming through the window at the proper angle to cast about
him a halo of glory, and she ran to her mother saying, "I have been in
grandpa's room and I have seen God." If as a Christian the people of
the world can have any thought other than this, that we at times at
least remind them of Christ, something is wrong with our Christian
experience.

There were two sides to the experience of Jesus. In one we see him at
the wedding rejoicing with those that did rejoice, making wine out of
water and contributing to the happiness of all those who were present.
In the other instance we see him upon the mountain side and crying out,
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!" with an almost breaking heart.

When Charles G. Finney was in Utica there came down to see him a woman
who was concerned for the town in which she lived. She returned to her
home and through days and nights found it impossible either