THE QUEEN OF THE SOUTH

VERSUS

THE MEN OF THIS GENERATION.

A Sermon

DELIVERED IN REGENT SQUARE CHURCH, ON SUNDAY MORNING, JAN. 19TH, 1890.

BY THE

REV. JOHN MCNEILL.

1 KINGS X. 4-9.

YESTERDAY I Could not help feeling a little the reaction. from incessant work in connection with our Special Meetings. I bent myself somewhat reluctantly to study a new subject. Still, as I bent over this passage, there came even from the dull printed page some glimmering of the glory, and the gladness, and the wonderment, and the mingled fainting and exhilaration of spirit that are recorded here. And my hope is that the Spirit of God may make up for my deficiency, and for yours also; that the eyes of our hearts may see the greater than Solomon, who is here with us in our own day and in our own generation, by His Word of wisdom, by His spiritual presence, with all its spiritual glory. May no ears be dull, may no eyes be dim, and may the preacher, notwithstanding all physical and mental lassitudes and drawbacks, may he also see and hear, and may he get the tongue of fire to tell out in your No. 11.

hearing the grace and glory of the heavenly Solomon, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Oh, it is here! If the Spirit of God would only bring it out, what a sight we might get to-day for these eyes of ours, that would send us away with our very faces shining because of the abundance of the revelation of Christ's grace and glory that has been given to us!

"And when the Queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom, and the house that he had built, and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord; there was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard. Happy are the men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighteth in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the Lord loved Israel for ever, therefore made He thee king, to do judgment and justice."

miles

In those days long pilgrimages to see great persons and famous places were more remarkable, perhaps, than they are now. There were no railways, no ocean steamers, nor newspapers. Men trailed themselves for many weary —and travelling then was trailing in the most painful and tedious way over great leagues of country-to meet some great celebrity face to face. People travelled wearily from one country to another to see some great temple or other world's wonder. Here we have an express illustration in the Bible of that spirit which was abroad in the ancient world in ancient times. The Queen of Sheba, far, far away from the little country and kingdom of Judæa, heard of the wisdom and fame of Solomon, and with great expense and preparation, with care and toil and

trouble, she started off with her retinue, and with a sample of her kingdom's wealth, and the glory of it, that she might come worthily before this greater monarch than herself, and hear his wisdom, and see his might and majesty and magnificence with her own eyes. And, let me say here, that perhaps that which most of all helped to start her out was this: she very likely heard of Solomon's fame through the widespread trading that radiated out from Judah and Jerusalem in Solomon's day.

Alas, alas! to-day we have it on indubitable, indisputable testimony that the trading of Christian Britain with certain. far-off lands is not telling for Jesus Christ, but against Him. We are so trading in guns and gunpowder, and gin and rum, that far off lands are getting to hear about us, through our ships and merchants and sailors, anything but a good report. May it soon be changed, and may our commerce become one of the means by which the name and fame of Jesus Christ shall be extended to all lands, so that in the uttermost parts of the earth our trade shall be so Christian, so saturated with the Gospel and Spirit of Christ, that the far-off places of the earth shall know us as a Christian nation, the very centre and circumference of all whose grandeur and glory is Christ Jesus, whose we are, and whom we serve! May the Lord speedily take away the reproach that has fallen upon our foreign commerce, and may He make our foreign trading a foreign mission, and a means of spreading His glory! And further, the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon "concerning the name of the Lord." You see, after all, there was a spiritual element in this great fame. It was not his fame simply as a wise man and great monarch, but "concerning the name of the Lord." Wherever these traders went they evidently carried the name and the report of the great king who was in Jerusalem; but they carried this report also, that he was great, not simply in himself and from himself and because of himself, but that Jehovah, the God whom he knew, had given him this extra might and majesty, this glory and magnificence.

And that lands me at once into the heart of things, and into that line out of which I wish to make spiritual profit for Jesus Christ to-day. There is with us to-day in the land, in the city, in our assembly, One greater than Solomon, the Lord Jesus Christ; worthy to be admired, worthy to be adored, worthy of great pilgrimage and great sacrifice, if only we can get to know Him, and put our own heart-questions to Him, and taste upon our own mental palates and tongues the richness and the ripeness of His wisdom, and see with our own understanding His matchless grace and glory. He said it Himself, and He said it truly, standing in Israel, "A greater than Solomon is here ;" and He implied, "People's eyes are so filled with the things of time, people's ears are so filled with the common gossip, that although I am here, Incarnate Wisdom, the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of His Person, few, few, few are the people that come to see Me; few are those who come to see My glory, to bear My wisdom, and to be blest for ever out of the abundance of My endowment of grace for all who come to get their share.” May it not be so among us to-day? But if there is anything in us, if there is anything in any soul here, that draws you out of your orbit and beaten track to see with your own eyes, may that be used to move your soul into the very presence of the King to-day! And there is. Did not I see you scampering, you City man, with all your staidness and steadiness and sobriety-did not I see you with my own eyes on a recent Saturday fling all your dignity behind you, and scamper like your own officeboy, to get to some coign of vantage that you might seeumph! that thing of tinsel, of pinchbeck, and of tawdriness, the Lord Mayor's Show? Did not I see London turned out in a mass, rich London, poor London, wise London, foolish London, London lay and London clerical?—we were all there on the gape, with our very faces curled into points of interrogation," When will he be here?-who? what? why?

oh!"

Now what I want to bring out is this: that element, my friend, is in the Gospel. Although you are sitting there with your face as dull as the clay it is made of, that element is in the Gospel, it is in Christ. The shame

is that we can go to earthly shows, and sit down at earthly banquets, and our faces sparkle, and we lick our lips over earthly wines and earthly dishes; and, alas, alas! it is so hard for us to broaden and widen and expand and strike our hands, and say, "Blessed be God! Christ is getting to be to me more than all that I have heard about Him. Glorious things are said of thee, O city of the living God, O Christ of God, and I'm beginning to find it is not rhapsody, it is not 'high falutin', not mere singing and shouting, 'It is true, and the half has not been told, or believed. The Lord Jesus Christ is a wonder; glories on Glory's head accumulate the more steadily the eyes of my heart fix upon Him and His Gospel, and all that He has done and all that He is doing, and the glorious things that He has promised, which are all yea and amen, and sure to come to pass." Waken up, man, waken up, let some of the brightness that fills your face at the big feast or big dinner-God save you!-let it get into your eyes and countenance, where there is a greater than Solomon and a greater than Sheba—where Christ is preached, where His Word that reveals His grace and glory to the eyes and ears of our hearts is sounding freely forth.

When the Queen of Sheba came to Jerusalem, “she came with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she communed." Don't you see, she came in a worthy way, not-not with one or two coppers jingling in her pocket that you fetch to the offertory; she came worthily, she came believingly, she did not expect that when she came she would find out that it was all a myth? She did not come to find fault, she did not come to drive away whatever she might see by an envious or jealous, or petulant or unbelieving, questioning disposition. She evidently was