Let us consider, first, the way in which the Apostle commends the great saying to us — it is (1) "faithful," and (2) "worthy of
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all acceptation." Next, let us look at the saying itself. And, then, let us see how St. Paul adds his own fervent Amen to it : " of whom I am chief."
I.
The Apostle's Commendation of the Saying.
"Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation."
1. It is faithful. — It is faithful because men have proved it so in their experience, and because it agrees with sense and reason.
(1) When a man in the middle of some slight plank thrown across a stream tests it with a stamp of his foot, and calls to his comrades, " It is quite firm," then they may venture upon it too. That is exactly what St. Paul is doing here. How does he know that " faithful is the saying " ? Because he has proved it in his own experienoe, and found that in his case the salvation which Jesus Christ was said to effect has been effected. Now there are many other grounds of certitude besides this, but, after all, it is worth men's while to consider how many millions there have been from the beginning who would be ready to join chorus with the Apostle here, and to say, " One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." My experience cannot be your certitude ; but if you and I are suffering from precisely the same disease, and I have tested a cure, my experience should have some weight with you. And so, we point to all the thousands who are ready to say, " This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him."
^ Go to-day whither you will, north or south, east or west, and find the homes that are happiest, the lives that are sweetest, the souls that are sunniest, the hearts that are most helpful and most eager in helping others, you shall find all this among those who set their seal to this as true — " It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Go to-day amongst the roughest and the "vilest, the drunken and the brutal, the coarsest and the most depraved. What can uplift them ? Bring education, good houses, pure water, good food and enough of it — by all means get these things, it is a duty to demand them. But none of them, nor all of them put together, can cast out devils, or loose the
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82 A FAITHFUL SAYING
chains of sin. Here in the West End of London, amidst stately architecture and splendid luxury, there is a show of vice more crowded and more hopeless than anything in the East End. Have education, or art, or any of these agencies wrought the cure of humanity anywhere ? They have their place, and a lofty and noble place it is ; but the maladies of humanity are beyond their power to heal. But we can show thousands and tens of thousands who will tell us : "I was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, injurious." Ask them what has made them so different, and they will tell you, " It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." ^
^ On New Year's Day, 1894, seeing a favourable opportunity to have a serious and pertinent talk with Keamapsithyo (Philip), the first Indian who had shown any really marked interest in Christianity, I walked out with him some distance from the village, and sat down on the bank of a stream. After a long conversation, I told him that, although his knowledge was exceedingly rudimentary, chiefly owing to my inadequate command of his language, and consequent inability to put the truths of the gospel clearly before him, yet he had been able to comprehend sufficiently to warrant him in deciding there and then to abandon heathenism once and for all, and follow Christ as his Chief. He replied that it was as I had said, only that I had not seemed to understand how sinful his past life had been ; he knew that, to follow Christ, he would have to give up that life of sin, but, as it had such a hold upon him, he felt that he could not ; furthermore, his sins had been so many that he felt sure the Christ about whom he had been taught could not possibly go so far as to forgive him. He added that, of course, in my case it was different, because I was a good man, as all the Indians knew, and doubtless Christ had been quite pleased to receive me, seeing that I had never committed such and such sins. In his own case, however, it must be otherwise. I went over with him in detail the particular sins which he had instanced, and assured him that many of them I had myself committed innumerable times ; that others, although not committed in act, I had committed in intention ; and that he knew, according to the theories of his own people, as well as from the teaching of Christ Himself, that the sin of the will was as much a sin as the deed itself. I tried to convince him that I was really in no way a better man than himself, in spite of his opinion of me and that of his people, who had only judged me superficially, yet Christ had accepted me, and therefore would accept him. I showed him that I still had the