The Scripture, dear friends, that will furnish as our text tonight is found in first Peter, second chapter, ninth verse: "For ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light."

We will not attempt to take up the whole verse, but there is just one clause we want to emphasize: "A holy nation." "For ye are a holy nation." We find that our Heavenly Father in his wonderful plan had purposed to have a special nation, a holy nation, and He determined that through that holy nation some time blessings should be distributed to all the families of the earth. And we are interested in knowing where that holy nation is, and what is that holy nation, because we want to have our citizenship in it. As we look over the human race we find mankind divided by various national lines, and we talk about the American nation, the British nation, but it requires no argument to convince anybody that none of these is the nation of our text. None claim to be a holy nation. We recognize that among the men at the very head of our government there are some that have no moral and religious convictions, and are not of holy character, and we find that our nation follows many unholy methods. The Lord said if the man strike thee on one cheek turn and let him smite you on the other cheek. Our nation does not do that; if one should insult it, would it turn the other cheek? No indeed. It would send a war fleet and fight back very hard. We find that this nation has certain unholy laws on its books. We find that the poor widow who has nothing but a home to shelter her cannot pay her taxes that are already over her head, and it is not holy about that. And yet we will have to confess that this nation in all respects has many superiorities above all the nations of earth.

So we all recognize that unholiness is really indispensable for the preservation of the various nations of the earth. And so we look at none of them as we think of this holy nation; but we find according to the word of God our Heavenly Father purposed to give to the nation of [PE294] Israel the first privilege of becoming that holy nation. If you will look in the ninth chapter of Exodus, fifth and sixth verses, you will find the Lord told the people of Israel what would be the result of obedience to Him. He told them if they would obey His word and keep his covenant then they should become a holy nation. You will notice that promise was a conditional one. There were several "ifs" to it.

It was "if" ye will obey my word; "if" ye will keep my covenant; and we find years went by and still the Jewish nation did not become a holy nation, and it was not anything special in the days of David and Solomon, and Jeremiah and Isaiah, and Ezra and Nehemiah. Of course, there was a certain sense in which we could speak of them even then as holy, as set apart, but in the higher sense they were not a holy nation.

But nineteen hundred years ago John the Baptist appeared and you remember his message was: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." As much as to say, You remember God promised that if you would keep His promises He would make of you a holy nation, and now He has come; so repent and be baptized, and follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Then came Jesus, and Jesus started in to make a holy nation of them, and Jesus told them what they ought to do. He told them they ought to love God with their whole heart and mind and their neighbor as themselves. He told them how they ought to pay more attention to just ice and mercy and not make the keeping of the law a mere method of tithe paying. He emphasized meekness and humility and all those other qualities the Jewish people had largely ignored. He not only told them what they ought to do in order to become a holy nation, but He even offered himself to them.

You remember how they were reminded of the statement of Zechariah: "Behold thy King cometh unto thee, etc." They didn't want the instructions Jesus gave unto them. You remember how Pilate gave them the last chance to accept that King. They said, "Away with Him; we have no king but Caesar; crucify this man; give us Barabbas." I often thought how the Lord took them at their word, and gave them Barabbas. You remember who Barabbas was. Barabbas was a highwayman, a robber, and they have had Barabbas for 1900 years. It has been the Barabbas of Russia that has been taking their stores. It has been Barabbas that has plundered them for the last 1900 years. I think they have had enough of him by this time. Probably they will choose Jesus next time. But they proved themselves unfit to be that holy nation.

They were not willing to accept that holy king. But what did the Lord do? Did He change His plan? Did the Lord say, I had a plan and in that plan I made provision for a holy nation and now you have upset my plan entirely. I will have to do without a holy nation. No; the Lord [PE295] never changes. He says in Malachi: "I am the Lord; I change not." James says with Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. No; God never changes. So He cast them off and sought a holy nation elsewhere. Well, where did he get it? Did He take the Roman nation? Did He take the German nation? No; it is not any more likely that they would be any more fit than the Jewish nation. Well, how was He going to get that nation? Well, the Lord decided to look up a new nation. And what was that new nation? Why, the new nation was to be the church. Is the church a holy nation? You remember how it says in Peter: "Peter an Apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontos, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia." He was not writing to any earthly nation, and he says, "Ye are a holy nation." Well, one might say, The church is not a nation; Why does the Lord call the church a nation? Well, dear friends, we see from the human standpoint it is not, but from God's standpoint it is. In Deuteronomy, the Lord speaks to the Jewish nation and says they moved Him to jealously with those who were no gods. So he says something like this: I am going to treat you just exactly as you treat me. You put these idols of wood in my place; they are no gods, but you pretend they are, and you give the reverence I ought to get to those idols. I am your God, but you have rejected me; you are my nation, but I am going to reject you. I am going to take my church and put it in your place. It is not a nation any more than these are gods, but I am going to call it a nation just as you take your reverence and give it to those you call gods, and I am going to take all those favors and give them to those who are not a nation, but I will call them a nation. And so we see God is treating the Jewish nation just as they treated Him.

"Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." Take also this next verse: "Which in times past were not a people, but are now become the people of God." So we find the Apostle is writing to the church, and these are the ones he says through the Apostle Peter is a holy nation.

Now, dear friends, we recognize there are certain things which constitute a nation. There are certain traits, national qualities and characteristics which go to makeup a nation. When we get through we will find that the church is more of a nation than we think it is. I hope it will make us appreciate more our citizenship in that holy nation.

In the first place, we remind you that a nation is a body of people united together under a certain authority. The American nation consists of all the people who look up to the President as their ruler. The British nation consists of the people who look up to the king of Great [PE296] Britain as their ruler. The German nation is the people who look to the Emperor of Germany as their ruler. But we find that these individuals who thus rule always partake of the nature of the nation. For instance, the American nation has an American president; the British nation has a British king; the Germans have a German emperor, the Russian nation has a Russian czar, and so if it is a holy nation, it would imply a holy people, and if it is a holy nation it would have to have a holy king. Where is there a class of people bound together under a holy king? We all recognize that on this earth there is not a holy kingdom. But there is a king here not in visible form. That king is Jesus. Every one who has accepted Jesus as his holy king has become a member of the holy nation. It means something, dear friends, to accept Jesus as our holy king. It does not mean that we merely believe there was a man named Jesus, that he merely came down from heaven, that He died for us and gave Himself, but it means on top of that that we are willing for Him to rule or reign over us, and the moment we were willing that Jesus should reign over us, that was the moment we were made citizens of that holy nation. There are people in Germany today that know there is a man named Taft over here. They know he is President Taft; they know he is a pretty good man, and they even call him President Taft when they speak of him, but not because he is their president; and so there are people today who believe Jesus died for sin, that He came to be their Savior, but He doesn't reign over them. They do their own wills.

To accept Jesus as our King does not mean that we are willing to follow His counsel on certain points, but it means that we will be what He wants us to be, and go where He wants us to go. We want Him to rule over our thoughts so that we will be doing the things that will be in harmony with His will. We want Him to rule over our feet, sour feet will go just where He would have them go. We want Him to rule over our pocket-book so we will spend our money just as He would have us spend it. We want Him to rule over our time; over our interests. We want Him to rule over our ambition; overall all our welfare, and over all the affairs of our lives. If we have come to the place where Jesus occupies a throne, where the Lord has become King, dear friends, we are members of that holy nation. We find a large part of those who are calling themselves Christians never get to that place. I think it is so well expressed in that song we often sing. The first verse begins:

O, the bitter pain of sorrow
That a time could ever be,
When I proudly said to Jesus,
"All of self, and none of Thee."

I am glad, dear friends, I never said that. I do not think I ever expressed those kind of sentiments one moment in my life. I always wanted some of Him. But my experience began rather with the second verse:

Yet he found me; I beheld him
Bleeding on the accursed tree;
And my wistful heart said faintly,
"Some of self and some of thee."

That is the way a great many feel about it. "Some of self and some of thee." They say: Lord I'll tell you, we will have a division. Now on Sunday, I will do what you want me to do, but on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday I will do what I want to do. Now, my money, I will give you one-tenth and the balance is mine. The thought is, they want the Lord to get some glory out of their lives, but they want to divide with Him. They treat the Lord Jesus somewhat like a beggar who comes to your door and is hungry; here is some bread for you; now take it and go. Some say, Well, Lord, I am very busy, but I will give you some of my time. But we come to the next verse:

Day by day His tender mercy,
Healing, helping, full and free,
Brought me lower, while I whispered,
"Less of self, and more of thee."

This represents the progress of the Christian life, "Less of self." We are getting to the place where that one says, I will say more for the Lord than I said at first; Lord, you know I want some of self. Now, I will do almost anything you want me to do, Lord; I will take you advise on everything just as long as it suits my convenience. Lord, you told me to love my enemies; why, I love them just as long as I haven't got any, and if I ever get any, I do not know whether I will love them or not. But friends, finally the Christian comes to the statement expressed in the last verse:

Higher than the highest heaven,
Deeper than the deepest sea,
Lord, Thy love at last has conquered:
"None of self and all of thee."

And the moment we said that, it meant that was the moment we joined the holy nation, then and there. Jesus ruled over us now; Jesus is King; we have got a holy King.

But some one will say, I can't live a life like that. Do you think we [PE298] ought to say just what He says, and think what He wants us to think? My time is so taken up with various things that I could not do it. Why, dear friends, of course you can't. We realize for every one the impossibility of living a perfect life, and the Lord won't expect that of us, dear friends. But He will expect us to want to be perfect. It is one thing to want to be perfect and another thing to be perfect. You will often hear people say, I do the very best I can. Well, dear friends, nobody does; there isn't a man in world that does. We all have to realize that we could have done better. We need not expect that we will be perfect in this life. I have a slim chance today, a very, very slim hope that before I die I will live just one perfect day while in the flesh.

We see, dear friends, that here is where the blood of Christ comes in. If you and I could do just as he wants you to do, we would not need any Savior; we would get along without any Savior, any advocate. It does not mean that we will do everything perfectly, but that we will want to do it perfectly and do the best we can. There is the difference between the Lord and ourselves-He keeps all of His promises, and we try to keep ours.

But then some will say, Oh well, even then, I tell you that would be the dullest kind of a life-to think that we should accept Jesus as a King and go where he wants you to go. It seems to me that would be the dullest kind of a life; I know He would want me to give up these pleasures, this, that and the other thing. Well, it is true, friends, it looks that way when you first stop to think of it. But it is really just the opposite from that. I know I have been seeking to follow in the Lord's footsteps for twenty years. When I first gave myself to the Lord in this way I thought it was going to be a great trial, that it was going to make life empty and desolate in some respects, but dear friends, it is just the other way. After looking back over those twenty years, the favors of the Lord have meant so much blessing that when I think of it, what a dreadful loss it would have been if I had chosen the other way, to have lost all these good things that have been mine as a member of that holy nation. I do not think there is a man in this world that will tell you he is satisfied with this life. I am sure that on the contrary, those who have been seeking to follow in the Lord's steps have found satisfaction-not satisfaction in their own condition, but satisfaction in the Lord's plan. It seems to me when we recognize the life the Lord wants us to live, that we will find it to be the very best kind of a life. I view it in this way.

Suppose I was the first man the Lord ever made, and suppose I was made away off on another planet. Suppose the Lord was thinking of putting me on this earth. Suppose I got so close to the earth that I could see it revolving. Do you suppose that I would think I would be happy [PE299] on this earth? Do you think I would want to be half the time on my head? When I saw the earth revolving, would I want to get on it? Do you know how fast this earth revolves? At the equator it revolves at the rate of seventeen miles a second. Do you suppose I could enjoy the thought of getting on an earth like that? Why it seems to me that I would be like a fly on the teeth of a buzz-saw to get on an earth like that. If I had my way I would not think it ought to be like a half top and have me standing on my head half of the time. Who would have supposed that this would be the right kind of an earth to live on? It shows the superiority of Divine wisdom over our wisdom. This was illustrated so well by a scientist some time ago. The scientist said that anything that God made was all right and would stand magnifying, but anything that man made would not. He says, I will give you an illustration of that. In his study he had a microscope. He went out and got some sand, some dirt. Now there is some sand, he said, God made that. He put it under the microscope, and when you looked through that microscope it was wonderful. When that sand was magnified you could see the creases in it and it was a beautiful sight; it was something very interesting to look at. No one could have told that dirt would be so interesting. Now that is God's work. Now I want to show you man's work. He went into the house and brought out a ring belonging to his wife. Part of it was smooth and part of it was ornamentally decorated. He put that under the microscope. The part of the ring that was smooth seemed rough and looked like it had lumps sticking to it, and the part of the ring that looked so beautiful, it looked just like a lot of old twisted mats.

Now you see the lesson-anything God ever does, you can magnify; anything man has ever done, if you want to enjoy it never magnify it or you will not enjoy it any more.

Here is a man that makes two hundred visits a year to the theater, he has good health, pleasure and song; he attends card parties every week, and he has ten hundred thousand dollars in the stock market. Now let us see the other life: No theater; no card parties; we can't see any signs of making two hundred thousand dollars in the stock market; we would not find much worldly pleasure; I tell you, that looks bad; that would be a mighty dull life, but put it under the microscope of God's wisdom; then we begin to see the emptiness of it and how impossible it would be for us to be satisfied now. On the other hand, let us examine this divine life; oh, how glorious it appears under the microscope! Why we begin to come to see that we had put our judgment as superior to God's; that is exactly what we mean when we refuse to let Jesus be our King.

I have an illustration of this of a very pronounced character at the [PE300] present time; When I gave up my church eleven years ago, among my friends were two prominent lawyers in Philadelphia. Everything was seemingly before them. When they found that I was going into this work they said I was foolish.

Dear friends, I have thought how different it is now. Today everything those men were aiming for has been lost; a large part of the money they had is lost; they have lost their health. They had a quarrel between themselves and lost all those pleasures they thought of having in their latter years, and today their lives have been failures in every sense. And now, dear friends, I think when we view the matter, possibly instead of thinking of this consecrated life as a dull life, we will see that it is the finest kind of a life. Do you and I feel sorry that we have chosen it? Sometimes I feel sorry, but I wish I had chosen it more quickly; I wonder why I didn't choose immediately without losing a minute of time.

We come to the next phrase of this subject-Every nation not only has its rulers, but also has its code of laws. The American nation has an American code of laws; the British nation has British laws, and the German nation has German laws. But we find that these laws are always unholy; that is why they are being amended. They often say of a law that it is unconstitutional; that means that it is unholy. A holy nation would have to have a holy law. Does it have a holy law? Yes. Where is it then? Why, in this book. Let me read: "Finally my brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are just, ... think on these things." That sounds rather holy does it not? Listen to this one: "Speak evil of no man." Listen to this one: "Love your enemies, do good to them that despitefully use you and persecute you." Oh, friends, these are holy laws.

In the American nation the President of the United States does not go around and whisper in the ear, you must do this or that; the President of the United States expects that the people of this land will acquaint themselves with the laws, and so Jesus expects that we will acquaint ourselves with his laws. And thus we can understand why the Psalmist could say: "In thy law do I meditate day and night." Oh, how we appreciate the laws of this holy nation.

A holy nation would not only have a holy king to be a holy nation, but it would be made up of holy people. The American nation is made up of the American people; The British nation is made up of British people, the German nation is made up of Germans; and the holy nation is made up of holy people. We must not confuse the idea of holy people with perfect people. A man that is holy is one who wants to be perfect, but he could not be perfect, and so the Lord expects that we will love perfection, but He knows we can't be perfect while in this [PE301] earthen vessel. We are glad to know that this holy nation will be consummated in a perfect sense when we get a perfect vessel in the resurrection.

Each nation also has its tongue, its language. The English nation has the English language, the German nation has the German language, and so the holy nation would have to talk the holy language. What would it mean to talk a holy language? Why, it would mean to talk like Christians. If we talk patience we would talk the holy language. You can tell a German by his language, by his German accent; and so people ought to say, There is a Christian. How do you know? By the language he talks. But of course we have got to learn to talk it gradually; you never knew a man from Germany to come over here and talk our language well at first. He learns it and gets better and better, and so with this holy language. A brother in Chicago some time ago went with another brother to go to dinner one day. It seems while he was in the restaurant the waiter poured quite a cup of coffee down the brother's back, and the brother got quite angry about it. Then says to him afterward, "You didn't glorify the Lord today." The brother says, "I know I haven't, and I am ashamed of it. When I felt that cup of coffee going down my back I couldn't help getting angry and saying what I did." Some time ago they met again, and the brother says to him, "Do you remember that day how angry I got?" "Yes, I remember it all right." "Well, brother, I am making progress; the other day I went into the restaurant and he spilled an egg over me; I didn't say anything, but, Oh, I was boiling inside. This time I was angry inside, but not out; now I want something to happen so I can be neither angry inside or outside."

We want to talk this language, so we want to have holy thoughts. Sometimes there are brethren who, if you would say, Now brother, about ten o'clock I am going to give you a terrible jolt; I am going to say something that will be a terrible trial to you. Why, that brother would have from now to ten o'clock to see what he was going to say. But suppose you give him no warning, then about ten o'clock say that thing and see what the brother would say. I am afraid he would not talk the holy language, but we want to talk that language on the spur of the moment and where we can give the soft answer that turneth away wrath.

A good many people can talk the German language when you talk about easy things, every-day matters, but if they would talk about history or astronomy they couldn't do it. That is the way with the holy language. When they have little trials they can talk it, but not when the big trials come. I remember a sister at the Mt. Lake Park Convention. She was in one of the hotels getting dinner one day. While getting dinner one of the young ladies met with an accident and poured a bowl [PE302] of soup over the sister's dress. She didn't say one unkind word, and I congratulated her on that. I said to her, "I am glad you have gotten to the place where you can take a trial like that." "Why, Brother Barton, I couldn't help taking a trial like that, but I wondered if I could have stood it if it was my best dress." But the Lord wants you and us to come to the place where we can stand to have soup poured on our best dress and take it in the right manner.

We can never get to the place where we can talk this holy language perfectly while in the flesh. You know a German comes over here and he never can talk our language accurately; a native-born never has an accent to his language. You know Jesus never did have any foreign accent to his language; he could talk it perfectly, but we can't. We must talk it with an accent and we will have to put up with it down to the day of our death; but in the resurrection we will not have even an accent.

We will also remind you of another national characteristic, and that is the fact that almost every nation has a national debt. The American nation debt is $125,000,000; the French nation about $5,000,000, but these debts are unholy debts because they were contracted in unholy ways, and we find that the taxes, the interest, is raised on those unholy debts in unholy ways. A poor widow loses her property in order to raise her share of the taxes.

Dear friends, the holy nation has got a national debt, but it is a holy debt. It is the holy debt of gratitude we owe to the Lord Jesus, but dollars would not estimate that debt. We owe Him for the air we breathe, the food we eat; we owe Him for our hands and we owe Him for our feet; we owe Him for our homes and the comforts and advantages of life; we owe Him for the gifts of His love and for His precious promises; we owe Him for the gift of the holy spirit; we owe Him for the loving way in which He has taught us His will, and we owe Him for the wonderful hope respecting the future. Dear friends, how much we owe Him for that Bible, and so on. Do you know you will owe Him more the next day than you do today, and, dear friends, we will have to pay our interest on this holy debt. How will we pay Him? By giving Him our devotion, by seeking to serve Him, and the poor widow who has not a dollar in the world can pay her interest on that great holy debt, even though she can't pay her interest on this debt to the American nation.

The Psalmist says: "What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits to me?" How shall I pay my interest on that great holy debt? How strange that we would accept all these things and would not be willing to return something to Him. Wouldn't it seem unjust, unreasonable, dishonest? I will imagine you bought a piece of land; it is your ground. I will suppose you put up a factory, a great mill, or something [PE303] of the kind. I will suppose you put in the machinery and supply the power to run it, the raw material and the hands to do the work, and you pay them their wages; and suppose the man you made the superintendent of the mill took all the money that the mill earned. If you had bought the ground, provided the machinery, fuel, and everything, and paid the workmen, and he had taken all the money and run off with it, and left a little note in the drawer and would say on it, Mr. So and So, I have run off with your money. What would you think about it? Dear friends, don't you think a lot of Christians are doing that? I am a mill and you are a mill. We are turning out cloth out of this factory, the goods we are turning out are thoughts and actions and words, etc. These are the goods we are turning out every day.

Now, dear friends, the Lord sent one who purchased the ground, the earth, and to whom the earth belongs. The Lord made the earth and He made the factory; the Lord made us, and He placed all the machinery in the factory, the stomach, the lungs, the heart, and everything else, all the machinery He put in-all was complete. He also supplies the mill. He is the One that provides the food we eat and the water we drink and the air we breathe. He is the One who pays the wages to the workmen, who gives us the ability to enjoy these things, and yet, dear friends, isn't it a dreadful thing to think that the Lord owns the mill and yet He gets so little out of it? He put us in charge of the mill and yet we walk off with the profit. That is what millions of people are doing. All they leave is a little bit in the drawer for the Lord.

Dear friends, I am glad we appreciate this great national debt and are seeking to glorify the Heavenly Father. And now we come to another point in connection with this, and that is a warfare connected with this holy nation. The American nation has fought its wars, the British nation has fought it wars, but most of those wars have been unholy, but you and I have a war, but it is a holy war. It is not a holy war because we will fight to injure somebody else, but we will fight ourselves, that pride, that impatience, that lack of faith; how we fight them to get rid of them! We want to get to the place where the Lord will look down and say: "Well done, good and faithful servant." I have no need to fight you and you me, but we have got to fight ourselves. We don't fight the devil; if there was no selfishness for the devil to work on, no pride, what a poor show the devil would have. Why he wouldn't have any chance at all. The Lord Jesus didn't have any of those weaknesses in his flesh that the devil could take advantage of.

We are glad that in the Lord's providence we are in this fight, engaged in this holy war, seeking to crush the flesh, seeking to come to the place where we can more and more come to the image of God's [PE304] dear son. And now, dear friends, I shall mention something else of that holy nation we don't want to forget, and that is, to let our flag fly all the time. You go to Washington and see a flag flying at a certain home and you are told that is the home of the German ambassador, and in another place you see another kind of a flag and you are told that is the home of the French ambassador; they keep their flags flying. Dear friends, let us fly our flag.

Let them know that we are followers of Jesus Christ. Don't let us hide that we belong to Jesus Christ. Don't let us give one impression to the Lord and another impression to our neighbors; don't let us put our flag out only when the Lord comes around and then hide it at another time. I remember one place I was asked to return thanks, and the children wondered what kind of an operation it was. The thing for us, dear friends, is for us to have that spirit where all our neighbors will know that we are members of that holy nation. Let us have our flag flying so that when the time comes to die they will say, There is one thing about that man, if there ever was a man that wanted to serve the Lord in the way He wanted him to serve Him, it was that man. And that is the way our text says: "Ye are a holy nation...that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into light." The words "show forth" are hard to get the real thought. They convey the thought we are to be messengers; not merely a message inside, but that we are showing forth, holding this message so that others will realize that we are citizens of that holy nation, by the lives we live, by the way we conduct ourselves and glorify our Father which is in heaven.