First Peter and the fourth chapter. It is sobering to think how quickly we have come to this time again, this time of New Year's admonition. Makes me to think of the great Charles Dickens who said, as a fountain drops water in another village, imperceptibly and unceasingly. So our lives like minutes drop from the fountain of time. If you'll forgive me the unorthodox, I will save our passage for today as our closing words. And may all that intervenes between now and then serve, if you please, as an introduction to that verse. Sometimes we are lulled into false impressions of the way things are. Sometimes our weekly interactions with those around whom we spend little intimate time outside of a more formal setting like church can lead us to two false conclusions. First, we may conclude that we are more broken in our interactions with other people than average folks are. Secondly, we may conclude that those other people rarely ever battle the particular troubles we face in our relationships. And although I am tempted to arrive at these conclusions at times, I cannot allow myself to be so naive. Just a few years' experience with humanity will inform us that the same sorts of flaws and challenges are woven through all of mankind. That's what we find woven through our own personal experiences. If the sins that we struggle with were not common to mankind in all ages and places, the Bible could be considered an oversight on God's part, if not a total failure. But on the contrary, the revelations of the Bible are so potent for all of mankind precisely because their author was aware that every man inherits the same palette of sins at birth, giving a great uniformity of disease no matter the time or place or individual characteristics of each person. But I am not altogether daft. I am aware that some saints struggle with particular sins more than other saints. And I am aware that due to a variety of factors like birthplace or genetic disposition and family composition, some saints may not have measurable struggles with certain sins, not because they are stronger saints, but only because they have not had occasion yet to be confronted with these sins on a larger or more open scale. However, I am not interested today in various degrees of need among my hearers. It is enough for me to know that there is a real need among all my hearers to one degree or another. And my authority for this belief is the record of the Scriptures. To find anything declared in Scripture, even once, ought to be enough to instruct us that there is an important thing. To find something declared in Scripture again and again and again and with the most emphatic forms of expression ought to be enough to assure us that here is a universal need and an urgent need and to fix that thing in our hearts like a great anchor bolt into the bedrock of a mountain. For this new year then, and with that careful preface, I give you these familiar and penetrating words, which I invite you to listen to rather than to turn to. They are collected from 1 Corinthians. Even though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. and though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity. I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity. I am nothing. Charity suffered long and is kind. Charity envieth naught. Charity vaunteth not itself, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked. Thinketh no evil, Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. Charity never faith. Not my gifts, not my experience, not my age, not my doctrines, not my skills, not my losses, not my crosses, not my rights, not my illnesses, not my reputation, not my ambitions, not my own conception of my worth, nothing but this is allowed as the measure of our profitability before God, love. Without love, I am nothing. This is the cauldron into which all of our good deeds and services are thrown by the Holy Spirit. Will they survive the test? But alas, as powerful as this admonition is, there are few things more impenetrable in this world than a calloused heart, chafed to insensitivity by repeated pain. And there are few things more likely to freeze the fire of love's entreaty than the icy hands of disappointment. And this is nothing to say nothing of the common vice of self-conceit or the impregnable defenses that are thrown up around a fear of shame or embarrassment. It was noted by Augustine that familiarity breeds contempt. I say this is no more so than with the pain of division among friends, among family, among Christians. The more familiar one is with this sort of pain, the more contemptible and unbearable it is to me. It is an especially unpleasant sort of pain from the first experience we have of it. But it is a sort of pain that evolves and it imprisons. What starts as a sharp but seemingly manageable sting morphs with repeated exposure to a deep aching and soon into a disgust that reaches deep to the inside of a man until at last even the hint of more such pain has sufficient leverage upon the heart of the sufferer to elicit a visceral reaction that is felt, strangely, even more deeply than the original injury, and suggests to the weary and susceptible mind a sort of insanity that feels certain to happen apart from avoiding any further exposure immediately and forever. I am convinced to give in to these processes of unbelief is a sort of bondage to madness. And yet it is the easiest thing to do. To concede the field to sin and agree with the devil that sin's effects are greater than the sinner's redeemer is a sure way to remain in a desolate condition. There's no time to speak today of the obligations that each person has toward the other. Or of how love never improves sin. There's no time now to explore the biblical directions for altering our behavior towards unrepentant offenders. I did not say repeated offender, I said unrepentant offenders. There is only time to focus now on this unilateral, this unbending declaration of God himself without love. I am nothing. Charity is a source of immeasurable blessing among us. where it exists. But I remind you, it is also a duty. And this duty rests on everyone, even if the blame of misbehavior does not. But, where the duty is not exercised by all, then the blame becomes universal. Oh, but if I have to exercise charity, that means I'll have to exercise patience and forgiveness towards those who irritate me and who I feel have wronged me. Yes, that is correct. And there are hardly two more basic and simultaneously two more under practiced exercises of the Christian religion than these. Patience. and forgiveness. But my dear fellow saints, these are the feet on which charity must run if it is to run at all. If not, it will be forced to crawl upon the knees of remorse and frustration. Is your Christianity going along awkwardly, upon the knees of remorse and frustration? I repeat, without love, you are nothing. And where patience and forgiveness are not active and swift, a thousand griefs will grow But let us be warned of writing those griefs wholly over to the account of someone else. Whatever assessment we may make of an unhealthy state of affairs among people and of what blame belongs where, in our estimation, the Holy Spirit cares nothing for our delusion. to whatever we may attribute our misbehavior or excuse our lack of charity, whatever notions of righteous vindication we may cherish to ourselves, short work is made of our self-righteous explanation of the facts by these plain words, Proverbs 10 and 12, hatred stirreth up striers, but love covers all sin. And for when we fancy, we may claim vindication, even a measure of honor in our bitter unloveliness. We are smitten down by this searching, simple declaration. Proverbs 13 and 10, only by pride comes contention. Doubtless there is much good to be said for the devout and powerful reformer John Knox. Yet he is well known for being fiery, bold, and sharply sensuous. Such was his nature and at times his talent. But I remind myself that Jesus is best remembered for his candidness, yes, but his gentleness, his kindness, his long-suffering, his forgiveness, and his self-sacrifice for those who mistreated I leave you to be the judge of which is the more inspiring legacy and of which you have chosen for yourself. I part with the words of my text for today, giving attention to the Greek, 1 Peter 4 and 8. Before everything else. fervent love having among yourselves. Because love shall cover a bundle of sins. Hosea chapter six. In your bulletin, you have chapter six, verses one through three. I will also read chapter five in verse 15, as the verses of our text today properly belong to preceding verses. The Lord says, I will go and return to my place. till they acknowledge their offense and seek my face. In their affliction they will seek me early. Come and let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn and he will heal us. He hath smitten and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us, In the third day, he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know, we follow on to know the Lord. His going forth is prepared as the morning, and he shall come unto us as the latter, as the rain, as the late rain unto the earth. As I stand before you, being the least of you all, I confess that I know not what to deliver unto you except that which has ministered unto my own soul. The text before us has been effectual, I hope, in my heart in recent days. And it is my prayer that it may be now so in yours. And so I do not offer any profound thoughts. We have not the time to flesh them out until they're in completely. And so I proceed with just a few simple thoughts with only the words of Calvin in mind. When commenting on this passage, he said, the prophet does not say, go return to Jehovah. but come let us return unto Jehovah. We then see that each one begins with himself and then that they mutually exhort one another. And this is what ought to be done by us. Come return was the pleading cry of the prophet to the erring Israelites. What more appropriate cry is there for the church in America in 2025? Yea, what more appropriate cry to my soul? And if you find this to be a cry that catches your ear or startles your soul, then notice with me a few things about this cry to return unto Jehovah. Notice the nature of this return. The Hebrew word shuab is here used, and it means to turn back. However, it is often accompanied with the adverb again. The prophet cries out, come return again. Turn back again. This was a path that the Israelites were accustomed to walking. And now they're being called back again. Oh, my soul, have I not been here before? And now I find myself needing to return again. Do you find it to be the same for you? Would to God that we would only stray once. find that sin is not to our benefit, and then return once for evermore. But alas, the nature of this returning is that it is repetitious, because the love for self and sin is ever luring our affection for God away. Therefore, we are being called to return again. But then I noticed here the calls of this return. The Lord said in verse 15, in their affliction will they seek me early. The prophet likewise calls out, let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn and he hath smitten. It is the rod of affliction that has alerted their senses to their unholy position. The Lord has sent unto them heavenly displeasures, and now they must return. Oh, brothers and sisters, is it not a painful thing to be separated from our God? Have you felt the tearing and the striking of the Almighty upon your life? Yet it is a necessary thing, for we in our blindness and hardened unbelief do stray unawares from the loving care but take heart that He has afflicted you for your good and to drive you to seek His face. Return then, would you not? All that is required is that you acknowledge your offense, verse 15, and turn back from it. Return, though you are afflicted and hurting, though you must crawl upon your belly for lack of strength, return to the Lord. and what is associated with this return. Ah, but a promise of life. In verse 2, after two days will He revive us. In the third day He will raise us up and we shall live in His sight. A promise it is indeed, for there is left no doubt. If we return, He will revive. Though we be left as dead from our chastisement, though we be crushed under the weight of our affliction, He will raise us up. And if you would say to me, ah, but I have returned and I am not yet revived, then I would direct your attention to the text again. He has not promised an immediate healing, but a healing that will come with the passing of time. as one who is severely wounded must await patiently for this healing before his strength comes to him again. So it is with you and I when the rod of affliction has laid us upon our backs. If you have indeed returned unto Jehovah, then you may still have some time to lay, listen, and learn in his infirmary. But again, I say, take heart. Notice from the text, there's special care to the appointment. First, the prophet says, he hath torn. The Hebrew word Torah there means to pull to pieces or to rend in pieces. And what does he do after to those he has rent? He, as the Hebrew is translated, mends by stitching. Oh, dear soul, though he tears the pieces well indeed, his mending is most excellent. And to those he has smitten or given wounds, ah, to those he wraps firmly the wounds. For every specific affliction, He has a specific remedy. Are you afflicted in your body? He is the Great Physician. Are you tormented in your mind and soul? He is the still, small voice that speaks, Peace, be still. Whatever may be your particular anguish, spend but some time in His care, and you will live in His sight. But then finally, from the text, I notice the result of all that has taken place. First there was a return. Then there was a revival. But what is the result of it all? It is a desire to know. You look in Jeremiah 24-7. The prophet speaks here. speaks here. And he says in verse 7, And I will give them in heart to know me, that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. For they shall return unto me with their whole heart. This is the chief end of man. But it is only those who live unto the Lord who truly desire this. One writer said this, What is the great end of man's being? What is the thing that chiefly concerns him? To such questions, various answers will be returned according to the taste or habits or capacity of the individual. Some will answer and say that life itself, its preservation and well-being is the great concern of man. or that health, health of mind with health of body, a sound mind and a sound body is chiefly to be attended to. Others again will reply that the advancement of one's family or the increase of one's fortune is the main thing to be sought and attained. Whatever truth may be in any of these, it is not the right answer. There is something higher and holier, nobler and better than any of the things specified. The glory of the Creator must be placed above everything else. But to glorify the Creator and thereby and therewith to attain the good of the creature, we must know God. We need to know God as our God through Jesus Christ our Lord. We need to know by happy experience His love to our souls. We need to know the duty which we are bound to render Him in gratitude for His amazing lovingkindness and in love to Him who first loved us. And so the prophet cries, Then we shall know. After we return, after we are revived, we shall know. Is it your desire? today to know Him more. Oh, was this not Paul's great desire in Philippians 3? Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dumb that I may win Christ. and be found in him not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Just as Paul speaks, so speaks the prophet. He speaks of a desire to know, but also of a dedication to know. The conjunction if is not in the original wording of the text. And it reads more accurately as, let us know. Let us follow on to know the Lord. The words follow on here are translated from a singular Hebrew word rolled up. It literally means to run after with hostile intent, to chase or to hunt. This dear friend is the desire and dedication we need in 2025. to hunt after the knowledge of God, to pursue it at all costs, to run after the kingdom of heaven with violent intent. And to those who join in this pursuit, there is a great reward. The prophet says, his rising up is as established as the morning dawn. And He shall come unto us as the plenteous rain, as the late rain unto the earth. As the morning is to the night, and as the late pleasant rain is to the parched earth, so is the presence of the Lord to those who pursue Him. Oh, brothers and sisters, in 2025, would you join me in pursuing after this great God? If we return and live in His sight, we will follow on to know the Lord, and He will rise up and come unto us. I leave you at last with the blessed words of the Redeemer in John 17. as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." If you will please pardon my voice this afternoon. I have been sick most of this week, but the good Lord knows best, does he not? Oftentimes, when I go before him in prayer, I find that I am focused, sometimes inordinately, on what he can do. More specifically, what he can do for me. But I'm thankful today that there's a few things God can't do. And one of them is be unkind. Too wise to be mistaken. Too good to be unkind. And I'm here to tell you today over the last year, over and above my failings and in spite of my sin, God was good to me. He was good. I would like to look with you today for just a moment at a glorious contradiction. One of the most captivating features of scripture to me is the beauty of contrasting parallels. Our Lord Himself provides the most obvious example of this concept in His varying descriptions throughout Scripture. He is said to be a mighty man of war who will bear his right arm in defense of his people. And yet, He is tender and observant enough to care for a little sparrow falling to the ground. What manner of man is this? The singular voice that is described as the sound of many waters is the very same one that cried out from the cross, I thirst. We know that his power is such that he could rain down enough fire from heaven to destroy two entire cities in an instant, or to consume Elijah's unlikely sacrifice on Mount Carmel. We're told in 1 Kings 18 that Elijah's bullet was cut into pieces, laid on stone, surrounded by a trench, and covered in water. Four barrels full, the text tells us, three times. 12 barrels of water poured on that sacrifice, and then, the text says, the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, weight now, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. What am I trying to say? This is the same God who is so delicate that he will not quench a smoking flax. The same God that destroyed the entire earth with waters called out from the great deep kisses the flowers each morning deep because he is the lily of the valley and he is the rose of Sharon. I could go on and on today, but you understand there is beauty in scripture's cooperation of opposing parallels. If you'll look with me today, in Hebrews chapter 12, we see one such instance. Hebrews chapter 12, in verse number one, we'll read verses one and two. Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Bless his holy name. There is rich abundance in this passage, but today I would like to draw our hearts to the simple phrase, run with patience. This counterintuitive phrase at a passing glance seems to be an oxymoron but it captures a powerful admonition. Running, of course, is for making haste, whether excitement, fear, pursuit, or flight. Running is what we use when a sense of urgency is required. And yet, the writer commands that our urgency be bound by acceptance of time's providential passage. This is noteworthy for us as we stand on the threshold of another year, another milestone to God's grace and long suffering. Reflecting over the past year, I find that I have erred to one extreme or the other. At times I have sprinted impatiently, without prayer and without regard to the hand of Providence. I've been impetuous like dear Peter, cutting off Michael's ear or denying my Lord with profanities. At other times I have excused laziness and lukewarmness in my own heart and in my walk as patience. I'm just waiting on the Lord's hand. I've convinced myself at times that failure to trim my lamp anticipating the husband's return is just humble resignation. to his timing, but in simple English, it is not so. Instead, composure and urgency must be inseparable companions if you desire to walk in the presence and footsteps of Christ. Stillness and motion must be combined to gain entrance into the celestial city. How hard then do we run Trekoima is the word translated run in our text. This is the same word for some idea that appears in that blessed account of the two women who went to our Lord's empty tomb in Matthew chapter 28. Listen now, beginning in verse number five, we find these words. And the angel answered and said unto the women, fear not ye, For I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. Bless his holy name today for that past tense. The angel said, he is not here, for he is risen, as he said. Come and see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead. And behold, he goeth before you in the Galilee. There shall you see him. Lo, I have told you. And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy, and did run to bring his disciples word. You see, this is the kind of running that can only be inspired by the news of a Christ who was crucified but now is on the right hand of God the Father and is crucified no more because he said it is finished. Hallelujah. They ran with fear and great joy every single stride. If that's how we should run, how should we wait? In the original text, we find the word upomones translated patience. This word used eight times throughout the New Testament can be fairly translated endurance or perseverance. However, in the New Testament, it is always translated patience in RKJV. That is the capacity to endure. Dear Dr. Gill noted that this patience is quote very necessary because of the many exercises in the way and because of the length of the race. There are no by path meadows that will lead back to the heavenly way. Ease and brevity are not marks of the way to the celestial city. Enter ye in at the straight gate Matthew 17, seven, excuse me, 13 to 14. For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. This is the sobering reality of the Christian father. Matthew Henry, commenting on this verse, captured the dawning task with these words, Let us then frequently consider him. What are our little trials to his agonies, or even to our deserts? What are they to the sufferings of many others? There is a proneness, perhaps not a word strong enough, in believers to grow weary and to faint under trials and afflictions. This is from the imperfection of grace and the remains of corruption. Christians should not faint under their trials, period. Yes, indeed, Mr. Henry, and yet we find ourselves in prayer asking the Lord to be long-suffering and merciful to us when we are positively unwilling to practice even a modicum of endurance or patience. What an irony. May the good Lord help us this year to sanctify our impatience and create in us an enduring spirit of urgency to fight all the way to the end, redeeming the time every moment that He gives us. Run and not be weary. Walk and not faint. It is through His grace administered solely by the faithful attendance on prayer and through His Word that we'll see it through. Determine with me, brothers and sisters, dear ones, to run patiently every last day this year. Look with me unto Jesus, because he is indeed sat down at the right hand of God. Never have two people been happier to look for someone and not find him than those two blessed women on that morning. So look with me again, full in his wonderful face, and see that it is indeed possible to run with patience. Ask your attention. Luke's account of our Lord's life and ministry. In Chapter 17. Beginning in verse 15. Reading through verse 18. I'm sure you will recognize this is a familiar. Passage to your memory and one of them. when he saw that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice glorified God and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks. And he was Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, were there not 10 cleansed? But where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God. Save this stranger. How can we fail to be lost in wonder as we read over again and again the miraculous works of the Lord in the days of his flesh. Each of them and all of them contain an individual and a peculiar glory as bright in their own way as those moments on the mount. when he was transfigured in the presence of his disciples. And yet the more familiar they become, the more I seem to see for myself as well a bitter sweetness in them. Bitter for the revelation that they make. of any shortcoming in the master's perfections, no. No, rather in the awful demonstration made in them of man's abject misery of body and destitution of soul. As every work of his hand is pregnant with instruction to us, and as he never lost any opportunity to instruct the participant and the observer of his miracles in the multitude of the lessons from those acts of compassion. So it is again in this account, familiar as it may be to each of us, Did time permit we might plunge ourselves into the ocean depths of meaning to be found here? But for today, we notice only one. And yet that one itself is raised to a paramount significance by the Lord's piercing question concerning it. Where are the nine? Ten came, ten cried, ten heard, and ten obeyed the command to go. And we have full assurance from the Master's own lips that ten were indeed healed. But one, and one alone, returned to offer the sacrifice of praise. Do you not hear, do you not hear, can we rightly call it the astonishment in the God-man's question, in this terse interrogation as it is in the original, the nine, where? Do I hear its echo in my own heart? And you, do you hear it in yours? Does he not press the inquiry deep into our souls, where are the nine? I questioned turned into a declarative 18 centuries later by none other than the poet Wordsworth. Alas, alas, the gratitude of men hath left me oftener mourning. Ought it not startle and amaze us that we must be admonished to praise and worship and thanksgiving. And yet the Lord's question peels down through the century. Where? Where? Lepers, lepers all these were outcast and wasting away and yet yet having all received nothing less than the rebirth of their bodies. Only one, only one found his heart in such a frame as to move his lips to shouts of praise. and his face to the dust at the feet of Christ. Such were some of you, said the apostle Paul. Yea, worse than lepers, dead, blind, halt, maim, aliens, strangers, far off Gentiles. But ye are washed, ye are sanctified, but ye are justified. And having given us his Christ, Has not the Father with Him also freely given us all things? Then where are our returns? Might we rightly say failures to return for such kindness? Is it now somehow less true than in the sacred poet's day, that streams of mercy never ceasing call for songs of loudest praise? Have the rivers of his goodness diminished to mere drops, or is your cup of blessings dry? Is he suddenly measuring out his gifts and his graces by a miser's portion, No, a thousand times no, brethren. His mercies run as full and overflow their banks as continually today as they ever have and always will. His provision is measured to us, what did Paul say, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Yet this Samaritan, this Samaritan shames us by his, how is it in the original? His phonese megales, great sounds, great sounds glorifying God in His blessing of Christ? Is the silence of our thanklessness deafening? Have we grown so dim of sight that we see not His hand of kindness in everything? And have we become so entitled to His gift that we reckon, as Israel did, tomorrow shall be as this day and much more abundant. O believer, it is true, gloriously true, that He has, according to His own Word, forgotten our sins. But I remind my own heart and yours that he has recorded forever his mercies. And he keeps an everlasting account of his goodnesses. Have I? Have you kept so exact a record and made appropriate returns? This poor Samaritan's service was immediate. So soon as he was aware of his benefit, he rushed to bless his benefactor. How swift are our feet, how accustomed are our knees, how tuned is our voice, to a quick and constant and loud giving of thanks for His condescending kindness. Is it to be feared of us, O saint, is it to be feared of us that our God and His Christ will hear the rocks cry out sooner than He will hear our voices shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David! How different would our prayers be if we attended wholly to that which the Savior instructed himself should be the first of all our petitions. Hallowed be thy name. Far better that we should lay at the Master's feet like this Samaritan in self-forgetful adoration writing on our hearts an encyclopedia of His mercies and making abundant returns for them than we should ever lengthen out our trials and sorrows to the neglect of praise. Set yourself upon this praise work, this hallowing, and we shall find, we shall find like the Samaritan, we shall have received at last more than we thought to ask in petition. Even the oft-tempest-tossed William Cooper could see clearly enough and feel deeply enough of his father's care to exhort his readers, having no words I think again, words flow apace when you complain. Oh, my brethren, speak no word of complaint until you have written volumes sent to heaven's courts with your thanksgivings. Brethren, are we of such small hearts and such withered souls that we shall come behind ancient Israel when they heard from the lips of Moses of God's pardon of their sins at Sinai. For afterwards, when it was proclaimed that the Lord would receive again from his people an offering, we find that the people had to be restrained from giving. How long, how long, O my soul, or could it ever be said of my thank offerings and praise offerings as it was said of them, the people bring much more than enough. Exodus 36 verse 5 and ultimately it was said in verse 7 that they bring too much Too much Oh God let me aspire to imitate Abraham's earthly seed at least in this great work Our mercies said one clear-sighted preacher of old, our mercies accumulate faster than our necessities. So then let our thanksgiving and worship accumulate in such an exact proportion to our positions. One final thought, and I have to You will recall in the text that the Lord called this Samaritan, stranger. Or as it is in the original, one of an altogether different race of persons. Commentators down through the ages have looked at that word and interpreted it as a term of disregard toward this worshiper. his feet. I personally cannot be persuaded that the condescending Christ should express himself in such a way concerning the one, the one who returned. Might it not? Yes, yes, I think it quite likely. and most probable that however others observing that day and in the centuries since have mistaken the master's thought that he fully intended it as a crown of commendation on this Samaritan's head. Yes, yes, yes, he was indeed a stranger. a complete stranger to ingratitude and unthankfulness. Yes, he was indeed a man of an entirely different race. A race of men, kin to Paul and to David, ever ready and constantly exalting. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. and giving voice to his soul's delight, I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. Yes, yes, a stranger and a man of a different race indeed. Oh, to be kindred with and fellow to such a race. the opening of this year. May I, may we, may we all be found henceforth among such a noble company as this stranger and find ourselves strangers to all but worship and thanksgiving. Where are the nines? Where are the nine, my brethren? Search your soul with that question today, every day, and covenant with your heart that today, even if you must return alone, you will. So soon as you receive each benefit returned with great sounds, and lose yourself at the feet of the God that performeth all things for me. We will cry out with the psalmist in Psalm 9. I will praise Thee, O Lord, with my whole heart. I will show forth all thy marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in thee. I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most high. Let's pray together.