Brands Plucked Out of the Fire

A Sermon

De: Richard Chenevix Trench

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

“Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” IN nothing does the Church of Christ so plainly vindicate her true character and mission, in nothing does she affirm so clearly that she is a divine institution, and not a merely human, as in bold assaults upon the kingdom of Satan; challenging the adversary on his own ground — not timidly content if only she can shield and shelter from his malice and his wiles those who have always continued with her, but winning back from his dominion those whom for a while she has lost, and he had won; daring the strong man in his own stronghold, and, in the strength of a Stronger yet, taking from him his armour in which he trusted, and dividing his goods. To the question, “Is the Lord among us or no?” the true answer must be ever, not in word, but in deed. He is among us, if we are doing mighty acts, which only can be done through Him, through His presence, and in His power. A character of daring will ever mark a Church in which the Spirit of Christ effectually dwells. To go upon forlorn hopes, to believe everything possible,—that mountains can become plains, that lost can be found, and lame can walk, and lepers be cleansed, that dry bones can live, and brands half consumed be plucked from the fire, that clods of earth may be transmuted into stars of heaven, that Sauls may be transformed into Pauls, persecutors of the faith into preachers of the faith, beggars taken out of the mire and set among princes, women that were sinners be changed into women that shall be saints; to believe all this, and to embody this belief in acts, in acts of faith and love, “believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things,” this is the true glory of the Church. Thus, in such acts of holy daring, she avouches her conviction that she indeed wields powers of the world to come, dispenses sacraments of heaven, that His name whom she preaches, through faith in His name, is able to make the weak strong, and the sick whole, and the dead alive; that as nothing is impossible to Him, so nothing ought to be impossible to that Church which represents Him, and carries on His work in the world.