Our text this afternoon will be found in Isa. 61:1-3, and especially the latter clause of the third verse. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; the Lord has anointed me to preach the good tidings, to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes."

Our remarks today are a continuation of the last few Sunday sermons, accounts of which have been published in the Pittsburg Dispatch and the Ft. Wayne News of Ft. Wayne, Ind.

In a previous consideration of this first verse, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me to preach the good tidings," we called attention to the fact that this primarily applied to our Lord Jesus, and when the Father would have Him proclaim the great message He was first anointed to preach. You remember the record he gave to John. While being baptized the anointing of the Holy Spirit came upon him. From God's standpoint all the members of the body of Christ are included in this anointing, and all His consecrated people are members of His body. As the apostle says: "Members in particular of the body of Christ." The hand and the foot and the eye and the ear are represented in these different members. That is God's standpoint in this general order to the whole Church of Jesus Christ, of which Jesus is head and we are members. Now this whole body is anointed to preach, and here we see that our view of preaching differs widely from the ordinary view. All the members of the body of Christ are anointed to preach; they and they alone. Just so surely as you are one that has come through justification of faith and sanctified, the anointing is upon you, and just so surely as you come under the anointing it is your commission to preach. Why? The prophet tells us.

I want in this connection to call your attention to the point that not merely those that preach from the public platform are preachers. Every child of God must be a preacher; it is impossible to be a child of God without being a preacher. If he is derelict he is sure to begin to wane and lose his life. So you will find it in your experience; from the time you came into relationship with the Lord, as a member of the body of Christ, under this anointing, you felt that the greatest privilege was that granted of being a co-laborer with the Lord, a preacher of the good tidings of great joy. Those that are of this way are noted everywhere. What are we anointed to preach? Jesus and the resurrection.

There is another way of preaching: according to the Scriptures there is no authority for the sisters preaching in a public manner. How shall she minister then? There are many ways in which she can preach. He here gave an illustration, telling how at one time he was holding a meeting in New York and some lady came to him and asked him to pray for her that she might get more light on the truth. She had been an agnostic, but her sister had come into Present Truth, and it had worked such a marvelous change in her that she herself now wished to get the truth. We are to preach the truth by whatever talents we have, public or not. We are to be living epistles, and no way will send it to the heart quicker than living the truth, as did the sister in the above illustration.

Now we come down to the particular words of our text for this afternoon, "Beauty for Ashes."

Part of the preaching is to comfort all that mourn. A great many people seem to think they are to shake people over torment and comfort them with that. We find that our commission is that we are anointed to preach the good tidings, to bind up the broken-hearted not to break them. All that ever came into the truth had their hearts broken. It was not the Lord's saints that did it. I am sorry if they did. There are plenty of circumstances all around us that are breaking men's hearts, and our part is to "bind up the broken hearts;" the part of the "Good Samaritan;" to tell them of the good tidings of great joy, which shall be shall be. It has not been, but it shall be unto all people; it is bound to come in "God's due time."

It might seem strange, dear friends, that the Scriptures speak of the Lord's people having considerable to mourn for. "Blessed are they that mourn, etc." We are not to comfort those that do not mourn. They do not need our comfort. Let those go who are rejoicing, who have all the hilarity. You are neither to break their hearts, nor are you to comfort them. They do not need the comfort, neither [HGL298] have we the commission to break their hearts, but "bind up the broken hearts."

In Jesus' special message He called upon the "weary and heavy laden to give them rest," not to dangle them over hell. He said, "Come unto Me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest." Those that are not weary and heavy laden are neither in danger of torment.

Our friends say that they have no time to talk to Christians, but that we must go to the profane and wicked, but the Lord addressed His message and all the epistles are addressed to those that believed His disciples. He told His disciples that He sent them to the lost sheep of the house of Israel those to whom God had committed His oracles, those who had had Moses and the prophets for their teachers. Our Lord Himself preached to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and not to the heathen; there were plenty of believers to preach to all the household of faith. Our message is the same and to the same class of people, the household of faith. Our Lord's plan is to "Gather My saints unto Me saith the Lord, those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice." Others feel that they are justified by their own self-righteousness. The saint class, those whose hearts are broken, are the ones that need binding up.

The remainder of this article is found in Harvest Gleanings Vol. 2, Page 221 under the title "Anointed To Preach Good Tidings".