Sexagesima Sunday.
The Number of the Elect.
"And some fell upon good ground and sprung up and yielded fruit a hundred-fold. Now the good ground are they who, in a good and perfect heart, hearing the word keep it, and bring forth fruit in patience" — Luke viii. 8, 15.
SYNOPSIS.
Ex. : I. Farm. II. Will it pay? III. Number of elect.
I. Mystery: 1. Theologians and Index. 2. Christ's reply. 3. Many called, few chosen.
II. Study of men : 1. Unbelievers and believers. 2. Heretics and Catholics. 3. Good, bad.
III. Study of Saviour: 1. Why He came. 2. Attitude towards sinners. 3. Crescendo of love.
Per. : 1. Courage. 2. Love for God. 3. Charity for men.
SERMON.
Brethren, the old-fashioned New England farm is a fairly good picture in miniature of God's spiritual estate in the hearts of men. There are long stretches of highway, hills rocky and barren, patches of unreclaimed brushwood, and, finally, some acres of arable land. And, as with the farm, the all-important question is: " will it pay? " so with God's earthly estate the question of greatest moment is: "which is greater in area, the productive soil or the barren? " In the autumn, the harvest of time, what will be the relative proportion of the wheat and the chaff? In other words, on the great judgment-day, which will be numerically greater — the blessed company of the elect or the woeful throng of the reprobate?
