Comments(0) I have made the decision to fast from the internet for the foreseeable future here in Tokyo. I have so much to do, and the internet is a huge distraction! Sorry, no more M’Cheyne sermons for a while, not that anyone was reading them besides me.
Comments(0) OUR DUTY TO ISRAEL.
“To the Jew first.” -Rom. i., 16
MUST people are ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. The wise are ashamed of it, because it calls men to believe and not to argue; the great are ashamed of it, because it brings ail into one body; the rich are ashamed of it, because it is to be had without money and without price; the gay are ashamed of it, because they fear it will destroy all their mirth; and so the good news of the glorious Son of God having conic into the world a surety for lost sinners, is despised, uncared for -men are ashamed of it. Who are not ashamed of it? A little company, those whose hearts the Spirit of God has touched. They were once like the world and of it, but He awakened them to see their sin and misery, and that Christ alone was a refuge, and now they cry, None but Christ, none but Christ! God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Christ. He is precious to their heart; he lives there; he is often on their lips, he is praised in their family; they would fain proclaim him to all the world. They have felt in their own experience that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Dear friends, is this your experience? Have you received the Gospel not in word only but in power? Has the power of God been put forth upon your soul along with the word? Then this word is yours; I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.
One peculiarity in this statement I wish you to notice. -He glories in the Gospel as the power of God unto salvation to the Jew first, from which I draw this DOCTRINE, -That the Gospel should be preached first to the Jews.
1. Because judgment will begin with them. -Rom. ii., 6-10. “Indignation and wrath, to the Jew first.” It is an awful thought that the Jew will be the first to stand forward at the bar of God to be judged. When the great white throne is set, and He sits down upon it from whose face the heavens and earth flee away; when the dead, small and great, stand before God and the books are opened, and the dead are judged out of those things that are written in the books, is it not a striking thought that Israel, poor blinded Israel, will be the first to stand in judgment before God?
When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, when he shall sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; when the awful sentence comes forth from his holy lips, depart ye cursed; and when the guilty many shall move away from before him into everlasting punishment; is it not enough to make the most careless among you pause and consider, that the indignation and wrath shall first come upon the Jew; that their faces will gather a deeper paleness, their knees knock more against each other, and their hearts die within them more than others?
Why is this? Because they have had more light than any other people. God chose them out of the world to be his witnesses. Every prophet was sent first to them; every evangelist and apostle had a message for them. Messiah came to them. He said, “I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” The word of God is still addressed to them. They still have it pure and unadulterated in their hand; yet they have sinned against all this light, against all this love. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” Their cup of wrath is fuller than that of other men, their sea of wrath is deeper. On their very faces you may read in every clime that the curse of God is over them.
Is not this a reason, then, why the gospel should first be preached to the Jew? They are ready to perish, to perish more dreadfully than other men. The cloud of indignation and wrath that is even now gathering above the lost, will break first upon the head of the guilty, unhappy, unbelieving Israel. And have you none of the bowels of Christ in you, that you will not run first to them that are in so sad a case? In a hospital, the kind physician runs first to that bed where the sick man lies who is nearest to die. When a ship is sinking, and the gallant sailors have left the shore to save the sinking crew, do they not stretch out the arm of help first to those that are readiest to perish beneath the waves? And shall we not do the same for Israel? The billows of God’s anger are ready to dash first over them; shall we not seek to bring them first to the rock that is higher than they? Their case is more desperate than that of other men; shall we not bring the good physician to them, who alone can bring health and cure? for the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
I cannot leave this head without speaking a word to those of you who are in a situation very similar to that of Israel; to you who have the word of God in your hands, and yet are unbelieving and unsaved. In many respects, Scotland may be called God’s second Israel. No other land has its Sabbath as Scotland has no other land has the Bible as Scotland has; no other land has the gospel preached free as the air we breathe, fresh as the stream from the everlasting hills. O then, think for a moment, you who sit under the shade of faithful ministers, and yet remain unconcerned and unconverted, and are not brought to sit under the shade of Christ, think how like your wrath will be to that of the unbelieving Jew. And think, again, of the marvellous grace of Christ, that the gospel is first to you. The more that your sins are like scarlet and like crimson, the more is the blood free to you that washes white as snow; for this is still his word to all his ministers, Begin at Jerusalem.
8. It is like God to care first for the Jews. -It is the chief glory and joy of a soul to be like God. You remember this was the glory of that condition in which Adam was created. “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” His understanding was without a cloud. He saw, in some measure, as God seeth. His will flowed in the same channel with God’s will. His affections fastened on the same objects which God also loved. When man fell, we lost all this, and became children of the devil, and not children of God. But when a lost soul is brought to Christ, and receives the Holy Ghost, he puts off the old man, and puts on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. It is our true joy in this world to be like God. Too many rest in the joy of being forgiven, but our truest joy is to be like him. O rest not, beloved, till you are renewed after His image, till you partake of the Divine nature. Long for the day when Christ shall appear, and we shall be fully like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Now, what I wish to insist upon at present is, that we should be like God, even in those things which are peculiar. We should be like him in understanding, in will, in holiness, and also in his peculiar affections. Love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love.” But the whole Bible shows that God has a peculiar affection for Israel. You remember when the Jews were in Egypt, sorely oppressed by their taskmasters, God heard their cry, and appeared to Moses -”I have seen, I have seen, the affliction of my people, and I have heard their cry, for I know their sorrows.”
And, again, when God brought them through the wilderness, Moses tells them why he did it; Deut. vii., 7. “The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you because ye were more in number than any people, for ye were the fewest of all people, but because the Lord loved you.” Strange, sovereign, most peculiar love. He loved them because he loved them. Should we not be like God in this peculiar attachment?
But you say God has sent them into captivity. Now, it is true God hath scattered them into every land. “The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers!” -Lam. iv., 2. But what says God of this? “I have left mine house, I have forsaken mine heritage, I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.” -Jer. xii., 7. It is true that Israel is given, for a little moment, into the hand of her enemies, but it is as true that they are still the dearly beloved of his soul. Should we not give them the same place in our heart which God gives them in his heart? Shall we be ashamed to cherish the same affection which our heavenly Father cherishes? Shall we be ashamed to be unlike the world, and like God in this peculiar love for captive Israel ?
But you say God has cast them off. Hath God cast away his people which he foreknew? God forbid! The whole Bible contradicts such an idea. Jer. xxxi., 20, “Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still. Therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.” “I will plant them again in their own land assuredly, with my whole heart and with my whole soul.” “Zion saith, the Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.” -Isaiah xlix., 14. “And so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” Now the simple question for each of you is, and for our beloved Church, Should we not share with God in his peculiar affection for Israel? If we are filled with the Spirit of God, should we not love as he loves? Should we not grave Israel upon the palms of our hands, and resolve that through our mercy they also may obtain mercy.
3. Because there is peculiar access to the Jews. -In almost all the countries we have visited this fact is quite remarkable; indeed it seems in many places as if the only door left open to the Christian missionary is the door of preaching to the Jews.
We spent some time in Tuscany, the freest state in the whole of Italy. There you dare not preach the Gospel to the Roman Catholic population. The moment you give a tract or a Bible, it is carried to the priest, and by the priest to the Government, and immediate banishment is the certain result. But the door is open to the Jews. No man cares for their souls; and therefore you may carry the Gospel to them freely.
The same is the case in Egypt and Palestine. -You dare not preach the Gospel to the deluded followers of Mahomet; but you may stand in the open market place and preach the Gospel to the Jews, no man forbidding you. We visited every town in the Holy Land where Jews are found. In Jerusalem and in Hebron we spoke to them all the words of this life. In Sychar we reasoned with them in the synagogue, and in the open bazaar. In Chaifa, at the foot of Carmel, we met with them in the synagogue. In Sidon also we discoursed freely to them of Jesus. In Tyre we first visited them in the synagogue and at the house of the Rabbi, and then they returned our visit; for when we had lain down in the khan for the heat of mid-day, they came to us in crowds. The Hebrew Bible was produced, and passage after passage explained, none making us afraid. In Saphet, and Tiberias, and Acre, we had the like freedom. There is indeed perfect liberty in the Holy Land to carry the Gospel to the Jew.
In Constantinople, if you were to preach to the Turks, as some have tried, banishment is the consequence; but to the Jew you may carry the message. In Wallchia and Moldavia the smallest attempt to convert a Greek would draw down the instant vengeance of the holy Synod and of the Government. But in every town we went freely to the Jews -in Bucarest, in Foxany, in Jassy and in many a remote Wallachian hamlet, we spoke without hindrance the message to Israel. The door is wide open.
In Austria, where no missionary of any kind is allowed, still we found the Jews willing to hear. In their synagogues we always found a sanctuary open to us, and often when they knew they could have exposed us, they concealed that we had been there.
In Prussian Poland, the door is wide open to nearly 100,000 Jews. You dare not preach to the poor Rationalist Protestants. Even in Protestant Prussia this would not be allowed; but you may preach the Gospel to the Jews. By the law of the land every church is open to an ordained minister; and one of the missionaries assured me that he often preached to 400 or 500 Jews and Jewesses at a time. Schools for Jewish children are also allowed. We visited three of them, and heard the children taught the way of salvation by a Redeemer. Twelve years ago the Jews would not have come near a church.
If these things be true, and I appeal to all of you who know these countries if it is not; if the door in one direction is shut, and the door to Israel is so widely open; O do you not think that God is saying by his Providence as well as by his Word, Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel? Do you think that our Church, knowing these things, will be guiltless if we do not obey the call? for the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
4. Because they will give life to the dead world. -I have often thought that a reflective traveller, passing through the countries of this world, and observing the race of Israel in every land, might be led to guess, merely from the light of his natural reason, that that singular people are preserved for some great purpose in the world. There is a singular fitness in the Jew to be the missionary of the world. They have not that peculiar attachment to home and country which we have. They feel that they are outcasts in every land. They are also inured to every clime; they are to be found amid the snows of Russia and beneath the burning sun of Hindostan. They are also in some measure acquainted with all the languages of the world, and yet have one common language -the holy tongue -in which to communicate with one another. All these things must, I should think, suggest themselves to every intelligent traveller as he passes through other lands. But what says the Word of God?
Zechariah viii., 13. -”It shall come to pass, that as ye were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah and house of Israel; so will I save you, and he shall be a blessing.” To this day they are a curse among the nations, by their unbelief; by their covetousness; but the time is coming when they shall be as great a blessing as they have been a curse.
Micah v., 7. -”And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.” Just as we have found, among the parched hills of Jadah, that the evening dew, coming silently down, gave life to every plant, making the grass to spring, and the flowers to put forth their sweetest fragrance, so shall converted Israel be when they come as dew upon a dead dry world.
Zech. viii., 23. -”In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold, out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you; for we have heard that God is with you.” This never has been fulfilled; but as the Word of God is true, this is true. Perhaps some one may say. If the Jews are to be the great missionaries of the world, let us send missions to them only. We have got a new light let us call back our missionaries from India. They are wasting their precious lives there in doing what the Jews are to accomplish. I grieve to think that any lover of Israel should so far pervert the truth, as to argue in this way. The Bible does not say that we are to preach only to the Jew, but to the Jew first. “Go and preach the gospel to all nations,” said the Saviour. Let us obey his Word like little children. The Lord speed our beloved missionaries in that burning clime. The Lord give them good success, and never let one withering doubt cross their pure minds as to their glorious field of labor. All that we plead for is, that, in sending our missionaries to the heathen, we may not forget to begin at Jerusalem. If Paul be sent to the Gentiles, let Peter be sent to the twelve tribes that are scattered abroad; and let not a by-corner in your hearts be given to this cause -let it not be an appendix to the other doings of our Church, but rather let there be written on the very front of your hearts, and on the banner of our beloved Church, ” To the Jew first,” and “Beginning at Jerusalem.”
Lastly, Because there is a great reward. Blessed is he that blesseth thee; cursed is he that curseth thee. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love her. We have felt this in our own souls. In going from country to country, we felt that there was one before us preparing our way. Though we have had perils in the waters and perils in the wilderness, perils from sickness, and perils from the heathen, still from all the Lord has delivered us; and if it shall please God to restore our revered companions in this mission, in peace and safety to their anxious families,*(Drs. Black and Keith were at this time still detained by sickness abroad) we shall then have good reason to say, that in keeping his commandment there is great reward.
But your souls shall be enriched also, and our Church, too, if this cause find its right place in your affections. It was well said by one who has a deep place in your affections, and who is now on his way to India, that our Church must not only be evangelical, but evangelistic also, if she would expect the blessing of God. She must not only have the light, but dispense it also, if she is to be continued as a steward of God. May I not take the liberty of adding to this striking declaration, that we must not only be evangelistic, but evangelistic as God would have us to be -not only dispense the light on every hand, but dispense it first to the Jew.
Then shall God revive his work in the midst of the years. Our whole land shall be refreshed as Kilsyth has been. The cobwebs of controversy shall be swept out of our sanctuaries, the jarrings and jealousies of our Church be turned into the harmony of praise, and our own souls become like a well-watered garden.
(Preached Nov. 17, 1839, after returning from the Mission to the Jews.)
Comments(0) THE VOICE OF MY BELOVED.*
(* August 14, 1836, when he preached as candidate -the first day he preached in St. Peter’s)
“The voice of my beloved! behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My beloved is like a roe, or a young hart: behold he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, showing himself through the lattice. My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; the fig-tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines; for our vines have tender grapes. My beloved is mine, and I am his; he feedeth among the lilies. Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe, or a young hart, upon the mountains of Bether.” -Song of Solomon ii., 8-17.
THERE is no book of the Bible which affords a better test of the depth of a man’s Christianity than the Song of Solomon. (1.) If a man’s religion be all in his head -a well set form of doctrines, built like mason work, stone above stone -but exercising no influence upon his heart, this book cannot but offend him; for there are no stiff statements of doctrine here upon which his heartless religion may be built. (2.) Or, if a man’s religion be all in his fancy -if, like Pliable in the Pilgrim’s Progress, he be taken with the outward beauty of Christianity -if, like the seed sown upon the rocky ground, his religion is fixed only in the surface faculties of the mind, while the heart remains rocky and unmoved -though he will relish this book much more than the first man, still there is a mysterious breathing of intimate affection in it, which cannot but stumble and offend him. (3.) But if a man’s religion be heart religion -if he hath not only doctrines in his hsad, but love to Jesus in his heart -if he hath not only heard and read of the Lord Jesus, but hath felt his need of him, and been brought to cleave unto him, as the chiefest among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely, then this book will be inestimably precious to his soul; for it contains the tenderest breathings of the believer’s heart toward the Saviour, and the tenderest breathings of the Saviour’s heart again towards the believer.
It is agreed among the best interpreters of this book -(1.) That it consists not of one song, but of many songs; (2.) That these songs are in a dramatic form; and (3.) That, like the parables of Christ, they contain a spiritual meaning, under the dress and ornaments of some poetical incident.
The passage which I have read forms one of these dramatical songs, and the subject of it is, a sudden visit which an Eastern bride receives from her absent lord. The bride is represented to us as sitting lonely and desolate in a kiosk, or Eastern arbor, a place of safety and of retirement in the gardens of the East, described by modern travellers as “an arbor surrounded by a green wall, covered with vines and jessamines, with windows of lattice work.”
The mountains of Bether (or, as it is on the margin, the mount; of division), the mountains that separate her from her beloved, appear almost impassable. They look so steep and craggy that she fears he will never be able to come over them to visit her anymore. Her garden possesses no loveliness to entice her to walk forth. All nature seems to partake in her sadness; winter reigns without and within; no flowers appear on the earth; all the singing birds appear to be sad and silent upon the trees; and the turtle’s voice of love is not heard in the land.
It is whilst she is sitting thus lonely and desolate that the voice of her beloved strikes upon her ear. Love is quick in hearing the voice that is loved; and, therefore, she hears sooner than all her maidens. and the song opens with her bursting exclamation, “The voice of my beloved!” When she sat in her solitude the mountains between her and her lord seemed nearly impassable, they were so lofty and so steep; but now she sees with what swiftness and ease he can come over these mountains, so that she can compare him to nothing else but the gazelle, or the young hart, the loveliest and swiftest creatures of the mountains. “My beloved is like a roe, or a young hart.” Yea, while she is speaking, already he his arrived at the garden wall, and now, behold “he looketh in at the window, showing himself through the lattice.” The bride next relates to us the gentle invitation, which seems to have been the song of her beloved as he came so swiftly over the mountains. While she sat alone all nature seemed dead -winter reigned; but now he tells her that he has brought the spring-time along with him. “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.” Moved by this pressing invitation, she comes forth from her place of retirement into the presence of her lord, and clings to him like the timorous dove to the clefts of the rock; and then he addresses her in these words of tenderest and most delicate affection, “O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the precipice, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.” Joyfully agreeing to go forth with her lord, she yet remembers that this is the season of greatest danger to her vines, from the foxes which gnaw the bark of the vines; and, therefore, she will not go forth without leaving this command of caution to her maidens, “Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes.” She then renews the covenant of her espousals with her beloved, in these words of appropriating affection: “My beloved is mine, and I am his; let him feed among the lilies.” And last of all, because she knows that this season of intimate communion will not last, since her beloved must hurry away again over the mountains, she will not suffer him to depart without beseeching him that he will often renew these visits of love, till that happy day dawn when they shall not need to be separated any more -”Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart, upon the mountains of Bether.”
We might well challenge the whole world of genius to produce in any language a poem such as this, so short, so comprehensive, so delicately beautiful. But, what is far more to our present purpose, there is no part of the Bible which opens up more beautifully some of the innermost experience of the believer’s heart.
Let us now, then, look at the parable as a description of one of those visits which the Saviour often pays to believing souls, when he manifests himself unto them in that other way than he doeth unto the world.
1 . When Christ is away from the soul of the believer, he sits alone. -We saw in the parable, that, when her Lord was away, the bride sat lonely and desolate. She did not call for the young and the gay to cheer her solitary hours. She did not call for the harp of the minstrel to soothe her in her solitude. There was no pip, nor tabret, nor wine at her feasts. No, she sat alone. The mountains seemed all but impassable. All nature partook of her sadness. If she could not be glad in the light of the Lord’s countenance, she was resolved to be glad in nothing else. She sat lonely and desolate. Just so it is with the true believer in Jesus. Whatever be the mountains of Bether that have come between his soul and Christ; whether he hath been seduced into his old sins, so that “his iniquities have separated again between him and his God, and his sins have hid his face from him, that he will not hear;” or whether the Saviour hath withdrawn for a season the comfortable light of his presence for the mere trial of his servant’s faith, to see if, when he “walketh in darkness and hath no light, he will still trust in the name of the Lord, and stay himself upon his God;” whatever the mountains of separation be, it is the sure mark of the believer that he sits desolate and alone. He cannot laugh away his heavy care, as worldly men can do. He cannot drown it in the bowl of intemperance, as poor blinded men can do. Even the innocent intercourse of human friendship brings no balm to his wound, nay, even fellowship with the children of God is now distasteful to his soul. He cannot enjoy what he enjoyed before, when they that feared the Lord spake often one to another. The mountains between him and the Saviour seem so vast and impassable that he fears he will never visit him more. All nature partakes of his sadness -winter reigns without and within. He sits alone, and is desolate. Being afflicted, he prays; and the burden of his prayer is the same with that of an ancient believer -”Lord, if I may not be made glad with the light of thy countenance, grant that I may be made glad with nothing else; for joy without thee is death.”
Ah! my friends, do you know anything of this sorrow? Do you know what it is thus to sit alone and be desolate, because Jesus is out of view? If you do, then rejoice, if it be possible, even in the midst of your sadness; for this very sadness is one of the marks that you are a believer; that you find all your peace and all your joy in union with the Saviour.
But ah! how contrary is the way with most of you? You know nothing of this sadness. Yes. perhaps you make a mock at it. You can be happy and contented with the world, though you have never got a sight of Jesus. You can be merry with your companions, though the blood of Jesus has never whispered peace to your soul. Ah! how plain that you are hastening on to the place where “there is no peace, saith my God to the wicked!”
II. Christ’s coming to the desolate believer is often sudden and wonderful. -We saw in the parable, that it was when the bride was sitting lonely and desolate that she heard suddenly the voice of her lord. Love is quick in hearing; and she cries out, “the voice of my beloved!” Before, she thought the mountains all but impassable; but now she can compare his swiftness to nothing but that of the gazelle or the young hart. Yea, whilst she speaks, he is at the wall, at the window, showing himself through the lattice. Just so is it oftentimes with the believer. Whilst he sits alone and desolate, the mountains of separation appear a vast and impassable barrier to the Saviour, and he fears he may never come again. The mountains of a believer’s provocations are often very great. “That I should have sinned again, who have been washed in the blood of Jesus. It is little that other men should sin against him; they never knew him, never loved him as I have done. Surely I am the chief of sinners, and have sinned away my Saviour. The mountain of my provocations hath grown up to heaven, and he never can come over it anymore.” Thus it is that the believer writes bitter things against himself; and then it is that oftentimes he hears the voice of his beloved. Some text of the Word, or some word from a Christian friend, or some part of a sermon, again reveals Jesus in all his fulness, the Saviour of sinners, even the chief. Or it may be that he makes himself known to the disconsolate soul in the breaking of bread, and when he speaks the gentle words -”This is my body broken for you; this cup is the New Testament in my biood shed for the remission of the sins of many; drink ye all of it:” then he cannot but cry out, “The voice of my beloved; behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.”
Ah my friends, do you know anything of this joyful surprise? If you do, why should you ever sit down despairingly, as if the Lord’s hand were shortened at all that he cannot save, or as if his ear were grown heavy that he cannot hear? In the darkest hour say, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Still trust in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.” Come expectingly to the word. Do not come with that listless indifference as if nothing that a fellow-worm can say were worth your hearing. It is not the word of man, but the word of the living God. Come with large expectations, and then you will find the promise true, that he filleth the hungry with good things, though he sends the rich empty away.
III. Christ’s coming changes all things to the believer, and his love is more tender than ever. -We saw in the parable that when the bride sat desolate and alone, all nature was steeped in sadness. Her garden possessed no charms to draw her forth, for winter reigned without and within. But when her Lord came so swiftly over the mountains, he brought the spring along with him. All nature is changed as he advances, and his invitation is, “For the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.” Just so it is with the believer when Christ is away; all is winter to the soul. But when he comes again over the mountains of provocation, he brings a gladsome spring-time along with him. When that Sun of Righteousness arises afresh upon the soul, not only do his gladdening rays fall upon the believer’s soul, but all nature rejoices in his joy. The mountains and hills burst forth before him into singing, and all the trees of the field clap their hands. It is like a change of season to the soul. It is like that sudden change from the pouring rains of a dreary winter to the full blushing spring, which is so peculiar to the climes of the Sun.
The world of nature is all changed. Instead of the thorn comes up the fig tree, and instead of the brier comes up the myrtle tree. Every tree and field possesses a new beauty to the happy soul. The world of grace is all changed. The Bible was all dry and meaningless before; now what a flood of light is poured over its pages! how full how fresh, how rich in meaning, how its simplest phrases touch the heart! The house of prayer was all sad and dreary before, its services were dry and unsatisfactory; but now when the believer sees the Saviour, as he hath seen him heretofore within his holy place, his cry is -”How amiable are thy tabernacles. Lord of Hosts; a day in thy courts is better than a thousand.” The garden of the Lord was all sad and cheerless before; now tenderness towards the unconverted springs up afresh, and love to the people of God burns in the bosom; then they that fear the Lord speak often one to another. The time of singing the praises of Jesus is come, and the turtle voice of love to Jesus is once more heard in the land; the lord’s vine flourishes, and the pomegranate buds, and Christ’s voice to the soul is, “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.”
As the timorous dove pursued by the vulture, and well nigh made a prey, with fluttering anxious wing, hides itself deeper than ever in the clefts of the rock, and in the secret place of the precipice, so the backslidden believer whom Satan has desired to have that he might sift him as wheat, when he is restored once more to the all-gracious presence of his Lord, clings to him with fluttering, anxious faith, and hides himself deeper than ever in the wounds of his Saviour. Thus it was that the fallen Peter, when he had so grievously denied his Lord, yet when brought again within sight of the Saviour standing upon the shore, was the only one of the disciples who girt his fisher’s coat unto him and cast himself into the sea to swim to Jesus; and just as that backslidden apostle, when again he had hidden himself in the clefts of the Rock of Ages, found that the love of Jesus was more tender towards him than ever, when he began that conversation which, more than all others in the Bible, combines the kindest of reproofs with the kindest of encouragements, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?” just so does every backslidden believer find, that when again he is hidden in the freshly opened wounds of his Lord, the fountain of his love begins to flow afresh, and the stream of kindness and affection is fuller and more overflowing than ever, for his word is. “Oh, my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the precipice, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely.”
Ah, my friends, do you know anything of this? Have you ever experienced such a coming of Jesus over the mountain of your provocations as made a change of season to your soul? and have you, backslidden believer, found, when you hid yourself again deeper than ever in the clefts of the rock, like Peter girding his fisher’s coat unto him and casting himself into the sea, have you found his love tenderer than ever to your soul? Then should not this teach you quick repentance when you have fallen? Why keep one moment away from the Saviour? Are you waiting till you wipe away the stain from your garments? Alas! what will wipe it off, but the blood you are despising? Are you waiting till you make yourself worthier of the Saviour’s favor? Alas! though you wait till all eternity, you can never make yourself worthier. Your sin and misery are your only plea. Come, and you will find with what tenderness he will heal your backslidlngs, and love you freely; and say, “Oh, my dove,” &c.
IV. I observe the threefold disposition of fear, love, and hope, which this visit of the Saviour stirs up in the believer’s bosom. These three form, as it were, a cord in the restored believer’s bosom, and a threefold cord is not easily broken.
1. First of all, there is fear. -As the bride in the parable would not go forth to enjoy the society of her lord, without leaving the command behind to her maidens to take the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines, so does every believer know and feel that the time of closest communion is also the time of greatest danger. It was when the Saviour had been baptized, and the Holy Ghost, like a dove, had descended upon him, and a voice saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” -it was then that he was driven into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil; and just so it is when the soul is receiving its highest privileges and comforts, that Satan and his ministers are nearest, the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines. 1. Spiritual pride is near. When the soul is hiding in the wounds of the Saviour, and receiving great tokens of his love, then the heart begins to say, Surely I am somebody, how far I am above the everyday run of believers. This is one of the little foxes that eats out the life of vital godliness. 2. There is making a Christ of your comforts, looking to them, and not to Christ, leaning upon them, and not upon your beloved. This is another of the little foxes. 3. There is the false notion that now you must surely be above sinning, and above the power of temptation, now you can resist all enemies. This is the pride that goes before a fail; another of the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines. Never forget, I beseech you, that fear is a sure mark of a believer. Even when you feel that it is God that worketh in you, still the word saith, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; even when your joy is overflowing, still remember it is written, “rejoice with trembling;” and again, “be not high-minded, but fear.” Remember the caution of the bride, and say, “Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes.”
2. But if cautious fear be a mark of a believer in such a season, still more is appropriating love. When Christ comes anew over mountains of provocation, and reveals himself to the soul free and full as ever, in another way than he doth unto the world, then the soul can say. “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” I do not say that the believer can use these words at all seasons. In times of darkness and in times of sinfulness the reality of a believer’s faith is to be measured rather by his sadness than by his confidence. But I do say, that, in seasons when Christ reveals himself afresh to the soul, shining out like the sun, from behind a cloud, with the beams of sovereign, unmerited love; then no other words will satisfy the true believer but these, “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” The soul sees Jesus to be so free a Saviour; so anxious that all should come to him and have life; stretching out his hands all the day; having no pleasure in the death of the wicked; pleading with men, “Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?” The soul sees Jesus to be so fitting a Saviour; the very covering which the soul requires. When first he hid himself in Jesus, he found him suitable to all his need; the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. But now he finds out a new fitness in the Saviour, as Peter did when he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, and cast himself into the sea. He finds that he is a fitting Saviour for the backslidden believer; that his blood can blot out even the stains of him who, having eaten bread with him, has yet lifted up the heel against him. The soul sees Jesus to be so full a Saviour; giving to the sinner not only pardons, but overflowing, immeasurable pardons; giving not only righteousness, but a righteousness that is more than mortal, for it is all divine; giving not only the Spirit, but pouring water on him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. The soul sees all this in Jesus, and cannot but choose him and delight in him with a new and appropriating love, saying, “My beloved is mine” And if any man ask, How darest thou, sinful worm, to call that divine Saviour thine? the answer is here. For I am his: He chose me from all eternity, else I never would have chosen him. He shed his blood for me, else I never would have shed a tear for him. He cried after me, else I never would have breathed after him. He sought after me, else I never would have sought after him. He hath loved me, therefore I love him. He hath chosen me, therefore I evermore choose him. “My beloved is mine. and I am his”
3. But, lastly, if love be a mark of the true believer at such a season, so also is prayerful hope. It was the saying of a true believer in an hour of high and wonderful communion with Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here.” My friend, you are no believer if Jesus hath never manifested himself to your soul in your secret devotions, in the house of prayer, or in the breaking of bread, in so sweet and overpowering a manner, that you have cried out, “Lord, it is good for me to be here.”‘ But though it be good and very pleasant, like sunlight to the eyes, yet the Lord sees that it is not wisest and best always to be there. Peter must come down again from the mount of glory, and fight the good fight of faith amid the shame and contumely of a cold and scornful world. And so must every child of God. We are not yet in heaven, the place of open vision and unbroken enjoyment. This is earth, the place of faith, and patience, and heavenward-pointing hope. One great reason why close and intimate enjoyment of the Saviour may not be constantly realized in the believer’s breast is, to give room for hope, the third string that forms the threefold cord. Even the most enlightened believers are walking here in a darksome night, or twilight at most; and the visits of Jesus to the soul do but serve to make the surrounding darkness more visible. But the night is far spent, the day is at hand. The day of eternity is breaking in the east. The Sun of Righteousness is hasting to rise upon our world, and the shadows are preparing to flee away. Till then, the heart of every true believer, that knows the preciousness of close communion with the Saviour, breathes the earnest prayer, that Jesus would often come again, thus sweetly and suddenly, to lighten him in his darksome pilgrimage. Ah, yes, my friends, let every one, who loves the Lord Jesus in sincerity, join now in the blessed prayer of the bride -”Until the day break and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.”
Comments(0) A COMMUNION SABBATH IN ST. PETER’S.
1. SERMON.
“Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. -John xvii., 24.
I. The manner of this prayer. -”Father, I will.” This is the most wonderful prayer that ever rose from this earth to the throne of God, and this petition is the most wonderful in the prayer. No human lips ever prayed thus before -”Father, I will.” Abraham was the friend of God, and got very near to God in prayer, but he prayed as dust and ashes. “I have taken upon me to speak unto God that am but dust and ashes.” Jacob had power with God, and prevailed, yet his boldest word was, “I will not let thee go except thou bless me.” Daniel was a man greatly beloved, and got immediate answers to prayer, and yet he cried to God as a sinner “O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hearken and do!” Paul was a man who got very near to God, and yet he says. “I bow my knees to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” But when Christ prayed, he cried, “Father, I will.” Why did he pray thus? He was God’s fellow. “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow.” “He thought it no robbery to be equal with God.” It was he that said, “Let there be light, and there was light.” So now he says, “Father, I will.”
He spoke as the Intercessor with the Father. -He felt as if his work were already done -”I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” He felt as if he had already suffered the cross, and now claims the crown. “Father, I will.” This is the intercession now heard in heaven.
He had one will with the Father. -”I and my Father are one.” One God -one in heart and will. True, he had a holy human soul, and, therefore, a human will; but his human will was one with his divine will. The human string in his heart was tuned to the same string with his divine will.
Learn how surely this prayer will be answered, dear children of God. It is impossible this prayer should be unanswered. It is the will of the Father and of the Son. If Christ wills it, and if the Father wills it, you may be sure nothing can hinder it. If the sheep be in Christ’s hand, and in the Father’s hand, they shall never perish.
II. For whom he prays. -”They also whom thou hast given me.” Six times in this chapter does Christ call his people by this name -”They whom thou hast given me.” It seems to have been a favorite word of Christ, especially when carrying them on his heart before the Father. The reason seems to be that he would remind the Father that they are as much the Father’s as they are his own; that the Father has the same interest in them that he has; having given them to him before the world was. And so he repeats it in verse 10, “All mine are thine, and thine are mine.” Before the world was, the Father chose a people out of this world; he gave them into the hand of Christ, charging him not to lose one, to bear their sins on his own body on the tree, to raise him up at the last day. And, accordingly, he says, “Of all whom thou hast given me have I lost none.” Is there any mark on those who are given to Christ? They are no better than others. Sometimes he chooses the worst. A. Yes. “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.” One of the sure marks of all that were given to Christ is that they come to Jesus -”They all come to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling.” Are you come to Christ? Has your heart been opened to receive Christ? Has Christ been made precious to you? -then you may be quite sure you were given to Christ before the world was. Your name is in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and your name is on the breastplate of Christ. It is for you he prays, “Father, I will that that foul be with me.” Christ will never lose you. The Father which gave you to him is greater than all, and none is able to pluck you out of the Father’s hand.
III. The Argument -”For thou lovest me.” He reminds the Father of his love to him before the world was. When there was no earth, no sun, no man, no angel -when he was by him -then thou lovest me. Who can understand this love, the love of the uncreated God to his uncreated Son? The love of Jonathan to David was very great, surpassing the love of women. The love of a believer to Christ is very great, for they see him to be altogether lovely. The love of a holy angel to God is very ardent, for they are like a flame of fire. But these are all creature loves; these are but streams; but the love of God to his Son is an ocean of love. There is everything in Christ to draw the love of his Father. Now discern his argument -If thou love me do this for my people.
Just as he said to Paul, “Why persecutes! thou me?” he felt himself one with his afflicted members on earth, Just as he will say at the last day, “Inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, ye did it unto me.” He reckons believers a part of himself -what is done to them is done to him. So here, when he carries them to his Father, this is all his argument, -”Thou lovedst me.” If thou love me, love them, for they are part of me.
See how surely Christ’s prayer will be answered for you, beloved. He does not plead that you are good and holy; he does not plead that you are worthy; he only pleads his own loveliness in the eyes of the Father. Look not on them, he says, but look on me. Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
Learn to use the same argument with God, dear believers. This is asking in Christ’s name -for the Lord’s sake -this is the prayer that is never refused. See that you do not come in your own name, else you will be cast out.
Come thus to his table. Say to the Father, accept me, for thou lovedst him from the foundation of the world.
IV. The prayer itself. Two parts.
1. “That they may be with me.” (1.) What does not mean. -He does not mean that we should be presently taken out of this world. Some of you that have come to Christ may this day be favored with so much of his presence, and of the love of the Father -so much of the joy of heaven, and such a dread of going back to betray Christ in the world -that you may be wishing that this house were indeed the gate of heaven -you may desire that you might be translated from the table below at once to the table above. “I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ.” Still Christ does not wish that. “I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but thou shouldst keep them from the evil.” ” Whither I go thou canst not follow me now.” (Like that woman in Brainerd’s journal -”O blessed Lord, do come! O do take me away; do let me die and go to Jesus Christ. I am afraid if I live I shall sin again.”) 2. What he does mean. He means that when our journey is done we should come to be with him. Everyone that comes to Christ has a journey to perform in this world. Some have a long and some a short one. It is through a wilderness. Still Christ prays that at the end you may be with him. Every one that comes to Christ hath his twelve hours to fill up for Christ. I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day. But when that is done, Christ prays that you may be with him. He means that you shall come to his Father’s house with him. “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” You shall dwell in the same house with Christ. You are never very intimate with a person till you see them in their own house -till you know them at home. This is what Christ wants with us -that we shall come to be with him at his own home. He wants us to come to the same Father’s bosom with him. “I ascend to my Father and your Father.” He wants us to be in the same smile with him, to sit on the same throne with him, to swim in the same ocean of love with him.
Learn how certain it is that you shall one day soon be with Christ. It is the will of the Father; it is the will of the Son. It is the prayer of Christ. If you have really been brought to Christ, you shall never perish. You may have many enemies opposing you in your way to glory. Satan desires to have you, that he may sift you like wheat. Your worldly friends will do all they can to hinder you. Still you shall be with Christ. We shall see your face at the table of glory. You have a hard heart, an unbelieving heart, a heart deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. You often think your heart will lead you to betray Christ. Still you shall be with Christ. If you are in Christ today, you shall be ever with the Lord”. You have lived a wicked life. You Have dreadful sins to look back upon. Still if you are come to Jesus, this is his word to thee, “Thou shall be with me in paradise.” In truth, Christ cannot want you. You are his jewels, his crown. Heaven would be no heaven to him, if you were not there. This may give you courage in coming in the Lord’s table. Some of you fear to come to this table because, though you cleave to Christ to-day, you fear you may betray him to-morrow. But you need not fear. “He that hath begun a good work in you, will perform it till the day of Jesus Christ.” You shall sit at the table above, where Christ himself shall be at the head. You need not fear to come to this table.
2. To behold my glory which thou hast given me. -There are three stages in the glory of Christ. It will be the employment of heaven to behold them all.
1st. The original glory of Christ -This is his underived, uncreated glory, as the equal of the Father. It is spoken of in Prov. vii., 30, “Then I was by him as one brought up with him; I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.” And, again, in this prayer, verse 5, “The glory which I had with thee before the world was.” Of this glory no man can speak -no angel -no archangel. One thing alone we know, that we are to honor the Son even as we honor the Father. He shared with the Father in being the all-perfect one, when there was none to admire, none to adore, no angels with golden harps, no seraphs to hymn his praise, no cherubim to cry, Holy, holy, holy. Before all creatures were, he was. One with the infinitely perfect, good and glorious God. He was then all that he afterwards showed himself to be. Creation and redemption did not change him. They only revealed what he was before. They only provided objects for those beams of glory to rest upon, that were shining as fully before, from all eternity. Eternity will be much taken up with praising God that ever he revealed himself at all; that ever he came out from the retirement of his lovely and blissful eternity.
2d, When he became flesh. -”The Word was made flesh.” Christ did not get more glory by becoming man; but he manifested his glory in a new way. He did not gain one perfection more by becoming man; he had all the perfections of God before. But now these perfections were poured through a human heart. The almightiness of God now moved in a human arm. The infinite love of God now beat in a human heart. The compassion of God to sinners now glistened in a human eye. God was love before, but Christ was love covered over with flesh. Just as you have seen the sun shining through a colored window. It is the same sunlight still, and yet it shines with a mellowed lustre. So in Christ dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. The perfection of the Godhead shone through every pore, through every action, word and look the same perfections; they were only shining with a mellowed brightness. The veil of the temple was a type of his flesh; because it covered the bright light of the holiest of all. But just as the bright light of the shechinah often shone through the veil, so did the Godhead of Christ force itself through the heart of the man Christ Jesus. There were many openings of the veil when the bright glory shone through.
(1.) When he turned the water into wine. -He manifested forth his glory, and his disciples believed on him. Almighty power spoke in a human voice and the love of God, too, shone in it; for he showed that he came to turn all our water into wine.
(2.) When he wept over Jerusalem. -That was a great outlet of his glory. There was much that was human in it. The feet were human that stood upon Mount Olivet. The eyes were human eyes that looked down upon the dazzling city. The tears were human tears that fell upon the ground. But oh, there was the tenderness of God beating beneath that mantle. Look and live, sinners. Look and live. Behold your God. He that hath seen a weeping Christ hath seen the Father. This is God manifest in the flesh. Some of you fear that the Father does not wish you to come to Christ and be saved. But see here, God is manifest in the flesh. He that hath seen Christ hath seen the Father. See here the heart of the Father and the heart of the Son laid bare. O wherefore should you doubt. Every one of these tears trickles from the heart of God.
(3.) On the cross. -The wounds of Christ were the greatest outlets of his glory that ever were. The Divine glory shone more out of his wounds than out of all his life before. The veil was then rent in twain, and the full heart of God allowed to stream through. It was a human body that writhed, pale and racked, upon the accursed tree; they were human hands that were pierced so rudely by the nails; it was human flesh that bore that deadly gash upon the side; it was human blood that streamed from hands, and feet, and side; the eye that meekly turned to his Father was a human eye; the soul that yearned over his mother was a human soul. But O, there was Divine glory streaming through all; every wound was a mouth to speak of the grace and love of God. Divine holiness shone through. What infinite hatred of sin was there when he thus offered himself a sacrifice without spot unto God? Divine wisdom shone through! all created intelligence could not have devised a plan whereby God wouid have been just, and yet the justifier. Divine love: every drop of blood that fell came as a messenger of love from his heart to tell the love of the fountain. This was the love of God. He that hath seen a crucified Christ hath seen the Father. O, look on the broken bread, and you will see this glory still streaming through. Here is the heart of God laid bare, God is manifest in flesh. Some of you are poring over your own heart, examining your feelings, watching your disease. Avert the eye from all within. Behold me, behold me! Christ cries. Look to me, and be ye saved. Behold the glory of Christ. There is much difficulty about your own heart, but no darkness about the heart of Christ. Look in through his wounds; believe what you see in him.
3d, Christ’s glory above. -I cannot speak of this. I trust I shall soon one day see it. He has not laid aside the glory which he had on earth. He is still the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. But he has got more glory now. His humanity is no more a veil to hide any of the beams of his Godhead. God shines all the more plainly through him. He has got many crowns now, the oil of gladness now, the sceptre of righteousness now.
Heaven will be spent in beholding his glory. -We shall see the Father eternally in him. We shall look in his face, and in his human eye shall read the tender love of God to us for ever. We shall hear from his holy human lips plainly of the Father. “In that day I shall no more speak to you in parables, but show you plainly of the Father.” We shall look on his scars, healed, yet plain and open on his hands, and feet, and side, and heaven bright brow, and shall read eternally there the hatred of God against sin, and his love to us that made him die for us. And sometimes, perhaps, we may lean our head where John leaned his, upon his holy bosom. Oh! if heaven is to be spent thus, what will you do who have never seen his glory?
O beloved, if your eternity is to be spent thus, spend much of your time thus. If you are to be thus engaged at the table above, be thus engaged now at the table below.
Communion Sabbath, Jan. 19, 1840
2. FENCING THE TABLES.
“But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down, and gave up the ghost; and great fear came on all them that heard these things. And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him. And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much. Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway at his feet and yielded up the ghost; and the young men came in, and found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things. And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them; but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both, of men and women).” -Acts v., 1-4.
THERE have been hypocrites in the Church of Christ from the beginning. There was one, Judas, even among the twelve Apostles: and in the Apostolic Church there was an Ananias and a Sapphira. Attend, 1. To their sin -a lie. When so much of the spirit was given, all were of one heart and one soul. Those that had estates sold them, and brought the price and laid it at the Apostles’ feet. It was a lovely sight to see. Among the rest came one Ananias; he was rich. From some worldly motive, he had joined himself to the Christians, husband and wife, both Christless, graceless souls. He sold his possessions to be like the rest, and brought a part and said it was his all! He pretended to be a Christian, he pretended that grace was in his heart. It was not a lie to man only, but to the Holy Ghost; for he was declaring that God had wrought a change upon his soul, when there was none, he was still old Ananias. 2. Their punishment. -They fell down and gave up the ghost. Oh! it is an awful thing when sinners die in the act of sin, with the lie in their mouth, with the oath on their tongue. So it was with poor Ananias and his wife. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, they were in the place where all liars go. 3. The effect -great fear came upon them all. None dare to join themselves to the Apostles’ company.
Dear friends, these things are written for our learning. Are there none come up here to-day with Ananias’ lie in their heart?
The broken bread and poured out wine represent the broken body and shed blood of Christ. Oh! it is enough to men the heart of the stoutest to look at them. To take that bread and that wine is declaring that you do close with Christ, that you take him to be your Saviour, that God has opened your heart to believe. In marriage, the acceptance of the right hand is a solemn declaration, by sign, that you accept the bride or bridegroom: and so in the Lord’s supper. If it is not so with you, then it is a lie; and it is a lie to the Holy Ghost. Ananias came declaring that he had got the Spirit’s work upon his heart. It was a time when much of God’s spirit had been given, verses 31, 32. It is likely he and his wife had some convictions. But since it was false, since he was not really what he pretended to be, it was said, “he lied to the Holy Ghost.” So, dear friends, the Holy Ghost is peculiarly present in this ordinance. He glorifies Christ. He has converted many in this place. To sin to-day is to lie against the Holy Ghost. By coming to the table, you profess that you are under the Spirit’s teaching. If you are not, you lie unto the Holy Ghost!
Now, do you know that you have not come to Christ ? Do you know that you are unconverted? And will you sit down there and take the bread and wine? Take heed, Ananias! Thou art not lying to a man but unto God.
Perhaps there is one among you who is secretly addicted to drinking, to swearing, to uncleaness. Will you come and take the bread and wine? Take heed, Ananias!
Perhaps there are two of you, husband and wife, who know that neither of you were ever converted. You never pray together, and yet you agree together to come here. Take heed, Ananias and Sapphira!
Is there none of you a persecutor? Suppose a father, whose children have come to Christ, but in your heart you hate their change; you oppose it with bitter words; and yet, with a smooth countenance, you come to sit beside them at the same table! O, hypocrite, take heed lest you drop down dead! Draw back that hand lest it wither! If we should see the cup drop from your hand, and the eye glaze, and the feet become cold. Oh! where would your soul be?
Dear children of God, do not be discouraged from coming to this holy table. Il is spread for sinners that have come to Jesus ” O, come and dine.” Some of you say, “I do not know the way to this table.” Jesus says, ” I am the way.” Some of you say, “I am blind, I cannot see my sins, nor my Saviour.” Go wash in the pool of Siloam. Some of you say, “I am naked.” Jesus says, “I counsel thee to buy of me white raiment that thou mayest be clothed.” You are polluted in your own blood; but has Jesus thrown his skirt over you? Then, do not fear; come with his robe on you. Come thus, and you come welcome.
3. TABLE SERVICE.
(The only specimen of his Table Services, found in his own handwriting, but without date.)
“My beloved is mine, and I am his” 1. “In the arms of my faith he is mine.” I was once of the world, cold and careless about my soul. God awakened me, and made me feel I was lost. I tried to make myself good, to mend my life; but I found it in vain. I sat down more lost than before. I was then told to believe on the Lord Jesus. So I tried to make myself believe. I read books on faith, and tried to bend my soul to believe, that so I might get to heaven; but still in vain. I found it written, “Faith is the gift of God.” “No man can call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” So I sat down more lost than ever. Whilst I was thus helpless, Jesus drew near, his garments dipped in blood. He had waited long at my door, though I knew it not. “His head was filled with dew, and his locks with the drops of the night.” He had five deep wounds; and he said, “I died in the stead of sinners; and any sinner may have me for a Saviour. You are a helpless sinner, will you have me?” How can I resist him! he is all I need! “I held him, and would not let him go.” “My beloved is mine.”
2. In the arms of my love, he is mine. Once I did not know what people meant by loving Jesus. I always wished to ask how they could love one whom they had never seen, but was answered, “whom not having seen, we love.” But now that I have hidden in him, now that I am cleaving to him, now I feel that I cannot but love him; and I long to see him that I may love him more. Many a time I fall into sin, and that takes away my feeling of safety in Christ. Darkness comes, all is clouded, Christ is away. Still even then I am sick of love. Christ is not light and peace to me; but I follow hard after him amid the darkness, he is precious to me; and even though I be in darkness, he is my beloved still. “This is my beloved, and this is my friend.”
3. He is mine in the Sacrament. -Many a time have I said to him in prayer, Thou art mine. Many a time when the doors were shut, and Jesus came in showing his wounds, saying, “Peace be unto you,” my soul clave to him, and said, “My Lord and my God!” My beloved thou art mine! Many a time have I trysted with him in lonely places, where there was no eye of man. Many a time have I called to the rocks and trees to witness that I took him to be my Saviour. He said to me, “I will betrothe thee unto me for ever;” and I said to him, “My beloved is mine.” Many a time have I gone with some Christian friend, and we poured out our trembling hearts together, consulting one with another as to whether we had liberty to close with Christ or no, and both together we came to this conclusion, that if we were but helpless sinners we had a right to close with the Saviour of sinners. We clave to him. and called him ours. And now have we come to take him publicly, to call an ungodly world to witness, to call heaven and earth for a record to our soul, that we do close with Christ. See he giveth himself to us in the bread; lo! We accept of him in accepting this bread. Bear witness, men and angels, bear witness, all the universe -”My beloved is mine.”
(The communicants then partook of the broken bread and the cup of blessing.)
(It was his custom, after they had communicated, to speak briefly on a few suitable texts, before dismissing them from the tables. On Sabbath. January 19, the texts were -”Love one another;” “Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it;” “In the world ye shall have tribulation, but in me ye shall have peace.”)
4. ADDRESS AT THE CLOSE OF THE DAY.
“Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.” -Jude 24.
There is no end to a pastor’s anxieties. Our first care is to get you into Christ; and next, to keep you from falling. I have a good hope, dearly beloved, that a goodly number of you have this day joined yourselves to the Lord. But now a new anxiety begins, to get you to walk in Christ, to walk after the Spirit. Here we are to tell you of what God our Saviour is able to do for you: 1st, To keep you from falling all the way; 2d, To present you faultless at the end.
I. To keep you from falling.
1. We are not able to keep you from falling. Those that lean on ministers lean on a reed shaken with the wind. When a soul has received saving good through a minister, he often thinks that he will be kept from falling by the same means. He thinks, “O if I had this friend always beside me to warn me, to advise me.” No; ministers are not always by, nor godly friends. Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever? We may soon be taken from you, and there may come a famine of the bread. And, besides, our words will not always tell. When temptation and passions are strong, you would not give heed to us.
2. You are not able to keep yourselves from falling. At present you know little of the weakness or wickedness of your own heart. There is nothing more deceitful than your estimate of your own strength. O if you saw your soul in all its infirmity; if you saw how every sin has its fountain in your heart; if you saw what a mere reed you are, you would cry, “Lord, hold up my goings.” You may be at present strong, but stop till an inviting company occur; stop till a secret opportunity. O how many have fallen then! At present you feel strong, your feel like hind’s feet. So did Peter at the Lord’s table. But stop till this burst of feeling has passed away; stop till you are asked to join in some unholy game; stop till some secret opportunity of sinning all unseen, till some bitter provocation rouses your anger, and you will find that you are weak as water, and that there is no sin that you may not fall into.
3. Our Saviour-God is able. -Christ deals with us as you do with your children; they cannot go alone. You hold them, so does Christ by his Spirit. “I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms.” Hosea xi., 3. Breathe this prayer -”Lord, take me by the arms.” John Newton says, When a mother is teaching her child to walk on a soft carpet, she will sometimes let it go, and it will fall, to teach it its weakness; but not so on the brink of a precipice. So the Lord will sometimes let you fall, like Peter on the waters, though not to your injury. The shepherd layeth the sheep on his shoulder; it matters not how great the distance be, it matters not how high the mountains, how rough the path; our Saviour-God is an Almighty Shepherd. Some of you have mountains in your way to heaven, some of you have mountains of lusts in your hearts, and some of you have mountains of opposition; it matters not, only lie on the shoulder. He is able to keep you; even in the dark valley he will not stumble.
II. To present you faultless.
1. Faultless in Righteousness. -As long as you live in your mortal body, you will be faulty in yourself. It is a soul-ruining error to believe anything else. O if ye would be wise, be often looking beneath the robe of the Redeemer’s righteousness to see your own deformity. It will make you keep faster hold of his robe, and keep you washing in the fountain. Now, when Christ brings you before the throne of God, he will clothe you with his own fine linen, and present you faultless. O it is sweet to me to think how soon you shall be the righteousness of God in him. What a glorious righteousness that can stand the light of God’s face! Sometimes a garment appears white in dim light: when you bring it into the sunshine you see the spots. O prize, then this Divine righteousness, which is your covering.
2. Faultless in holiness -My heart sometimes sickens when I think upon the defects of believers; when I think of one Christian being fond of company, another vain, another given to evil speaking. O aim to be holy Christians, bright, shining Christians. The heaven is more adorned by the large bright constellations than by many insignificant stars; so God may be more glorified by one bright. Christian than by many indifferent ones. Aim at being that one.
Soon we shall be faultless. He that begun will perform it. We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. When you lay down this body, you may say, Farewell lust for ever, farewell my hateful pride, farewell hateful selfishness, farewell strife and envying, farewell being ashamed of Christ. O this makes death sweet indeed. O long to depart and to be with Christ
III. To him be glory.
1. O if anything has been done for your soul, give him the glory. Give no praise to others; give all praise to him. 2. And give him the dominion too. Yield yourselves unto him, soul and body.
Comments(0) FALL AND RECOVERY OF MAN.
“For if, through the offence of one, many be dead; much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many” -Rom. v. 15.
Man was created in the image of God. Knowledge and perfect holiness were impressed upon the very nature and faculties of his soul. He had constant access to his Maker, and enjoyed free communion with him, on the ground of his spotless moral rectitude. But alas! the glorious diadem is broken; the crown of righteousness is fallen. Man’s purity is gone, and his happiness is forfeited. “There is none righteous; no, not one.” “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” But the ruin is not hopeless. What was lost in Adam, is restored in Christ. His blood redeems us from bondage, and his gospel gives us back the forfeited inheritance. “For if, through the offence of one, many be dead; much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.” Let us consider; -First, The corruption and condemnation of man; and Secondly, His gracious restoration to the favor of his offended God.
I. To find the cause of man’s corruption and condemnation, we must go back to Eden. The eating of the “forbidden tree” was “the offence of one,” in consequence of which “many are dead.” This was the “sin,” the act of “disobedience,” which “brought death into the world, and all our wo.” It was the greatest ingratitude to the Divine bounty, and the boldest rebellion against the Divine sovereignty. The royalty of God was contemned; the riches of his goodness slighted; and his most desperate enemy preferred before him, as if he were a wiser counsellor than Infinite Wisdom. Thus man joined in league with hell, against Heaven; with demons of the bottomless pit, against the Almighty Maker and Benefactor; robbing God of the obedience due to his command, and the glory due to his name; worshipping the creature, instead of the Creator; and opening the door to pride, unbelief, enmity, and all wicked and abominable passions. How is the “noble vine,” which was planted “wholly a right seed,” “turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine!”
Who can look for pure water from such a fountain? “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” All the faculties of the soul are corrupted by sin; the understanding dark; the will perverse; the affections carnal; the conscience full of shame, remorse, confusion, and mortal fear. Man is a hard-hearted and stiff-necked sinner; loving darkness rather than light, because his deeds are evil; eating sin like bread, and drinking iniquity like water; holding fast deceit, and refusing to let it go. His heart is desperately wicked; full of pride, vanity, hypocrisy, covetousness, hatred of truth, and hostility to all that is good.
This depravity is universal. Among the natural children of Adam, there is no exemption from the original taint. “The whole world lieth in wickedness.” ” We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is as filthy rags.” The corruption may vary in the degrees of development, in different persons; but the elements are in all, and their nature is everywhere the same; the same in the blooming youth, and the withered sire; in the haughty prince, and the humble peasant; in the strongest giant, and the feeblest invalid. The enemy has “come in like a flood.” The deluge of sin has swept the world. From the highest to the lowest, there is no health or moral soundness. From the crown of the head to the soles of the feet, there is nothing but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores. The laws, and their violation, and the punishments everywhere invented for the suppression of vice, prove the universality of the evil. The bloody sacrifices, and vairious purifications, of the pagans, show the handwriting of remorse upon their consciences; proclaim their sense of guilt, and their dread of punishment. None of them is free from the fear which hath torment, whatever their efforts to overcome it, and however great their boldness in the service of sin and Satan, “Mene! Tekel!” is written on every human heart. “Wanting! wanting!” is inscribed on heathen fanes and altars; on the laws, customs, and institutions of every nation; and on the universal consciousness of mankind.
This inward corruption manifests itself in outward actions. “The tree is known by its fruit.” As the smoke and sparks of the chimney show that there is fire within; so all the “filthy conversation” of men, and all “the unfruitful works of darkness” in which they delight, evidently indicate the pollution of the source whence they proceed. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” The sinner’s speech betrayeth him. “Evil speaking” proceeds from malice and envy. “Foolish talking and jesting,” are evidence of impure and trifling thoughts. The mouth full of cursing and bitterness, the throat an open sepulchre, the poison of asps under the tongue, the feet swift to shed blood, destruction and misery in their paths, and the way of peace unknown to them, are the clearest and amplest demonstration that men “have gone out of the way,” “have together become unprofitable.” We see the bitter fruit of the same corruption in robbery, adultery, gluttony, drunkenness, extortion, intolerance, persecution, apostasy, and every evil work -in all false religions; the Jew, obstinately adhering to the carnal ceremonies of an abrogated law; the Mohammedan, honoring an impostor, and receiving a lie for a revelation from God; the Papist, worshipping images and relics, praying to departed saints, seeking absolution from sinful men, and trusting in the most absurd mummeries for salvation; the Pagan, attributing divinity to the works of his own hands, adoring idols of wood and stone, sacrificing to malignant demons, casting his children into the fire or the flood as an offering to imaginary deities, and changing the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the beast and the worm.
“For these things’ sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience.” They are under the sentence of the broken law; the malediction of Eternal Justice. “By the offence of one, judgment came upon all men unto condemnation.” “He that believeth not is condemned already.” “The wrath of God abideth on him.” “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law, to do them.” “Wo unto the wicked; it shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him.” “They that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, shall reap the same.” “Upon the wicked the Lord shall rain fire, and snares, and a horrible tempest; this shall be the portion of their cup.” “God is angry with the wicked every day; if he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.”
Who shall describe the misery of fallen men! His days, though few, are full of evil. Trouble and sorrow press him forward to the tomb. All the world, except Noah and his family, are drowning in the deluge. A storm of fire and brimstone is fallen from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah. The earth is opening her mouth to swallow up alive Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Wrath is coming upon “the Beloved City,” even “wrath unto the uttermost.” The tender and delicate mother is devouring her darling infant. The sword of man is executing the vengeance of God. The earth is emptying its inhabitants into the bottomless pit. On every hand are “confused noises, and garments rolled in blood.” Fire and sword fill the land with consternation and dismay. Amid the universal devastation, wild shrieks and despairing groans fill the air. God of mercy! is thy ear heavy, that thou canst not hear? or thy arm shortened, that thou canst not save? The heavens above are brass, and the earth beneath is iron; for Jehovah is pouring his indignation upon his adversaries, and he will not pity or spare.
Verily, “the misery of man is great upon him!” Behold the wretched fallen creature! The pestilence pursues him. The leprosy cleaves to him. Consumption is wasting him. Inflammation is devouring his vitals. Burning fever has seized upon the very springs of life. The destroying angel has overtaken the sinner in his sins. The hand of God is upon him. The fires of wrath are kindling about him, drying up every well of comfort, and scorching all his hopes to ashes. Conscience is chastising him with scorpions. See how he writhes! Hear how he shrieks for help! Mark what agony and terror are in his soul, and on his brow! Death stares him in the face, and shakes at him his iron spear. He trembles, he turns pale, as a culprit at the bar, as a convict on the scaffold. He is condemned already. Conscience has pronounced the sentence. Anguish has taken hold upon him. Terrors gather in battle-array about him. He looks back, and the storms of Sinai pursue him; forward, and hell is moved to meet him; above, and the heavens are on fire; beneath, and the world is burning. He listens, and the judgment trump is calling; again, and the brazen chariots of vengeance are thundering from afar; yet again, and the sentence penetrates his soul with anguish unspeakable -”Depart! ye accursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels!”
Thus, “by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” They are “dead in trespasses and sins;” spiritually dead, and legally dead; dead by the mortal power of sin, and dead by the condemnatory sentence of the law; and helpless as sheep to the slaughter, they are driven fiercely on by the ministers of wrath to the all-devouring grave, and the lake of fire!
But is there no mercy? Is there no means of salvation? Hark! amidst all this prelude of wrath and ruin, comes a still small voice, saying: “much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.”
II. This brings us to our second topic, man’s gracious recovery to the favor of his offended God.
I know not how to represent to you this glorious work, better than by the following figure. Suppose a vast graveyard, surrounded by a lofty wall, with only one entrance, which is by a massive iron gate, and that is fast bolted. Within are thousands and millions of human beings, of all ages and classes, by one epidemic disease bending to the grave. The graves yawn to swallow them, and they must all perish. There is no balm to relieve, no physician there. Such is the condition of man as a sinner. All have sinned; and it is written, “The soul that sinneth shall die.” But while the unhappy race lay in that dismal prison, Mercy came and stood at the gate, and wept over the melancholy scene, exclaiming -”that I might enter! I would bind up their wounds; I would relieve their sorrows; I would save their souls!” An embassy of angels, commissioned from the court of Heaven to some other world, paused at the sight, and Heaven forgave that pause. Seeing Mercy standing there, they cried: -”Mercy! canst thou not enter? Canst thou look upon that scene and not pity ? Canst thou pity, and not relieve?” Mercy replied: “I can see!” and in her tears she added, “I can pity, but I cannot relieve!” “Why canst thou not enter?” inquired the heavenly host. “Oh!” said Mercy, ” Justice has barred the gate against me, and I must not -cannot unbar it!” At this moment, Justice himself appeared, as if to watch the gate. The angels asked, “Why wilt thou not suffer Mercy to enter?” He sternly replied: “The law is broken, and it must be honored! Die they or Justice must!” Then appeared a form among the angelic band like unto the Son of God. Addressing himself to Justice, he said: “What are thy demands?” Justice replied: “My demands are rigid; I must have ignominy for their honor, sickness for their health, death for their life. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission!” “Justice,” said the Son of God, “I accept thy terms! On me be this wrong! Let Mercy enter, and stay the carnival of death ” “What pledge dost thou give for the performance of these conditions?” “My word; my oath!” “When wilt thou perform them?” “Four thousand years hence, on the hill of Calvary, without the walls of Jerusalem!” The bond was prepared, and signed and sealed in the presence of attendant angels. Justice was satisfied, the gate was opened, and Mercy entered, preaching salvation in the name of Jesus. The bond was committed to patriarchs and prophets. A long series of rites and ceremonies, sacrifices and oblations, was instituted to perpetuate the memory of that solemn deed. At the close of the four-thousandth year, when Daniel’s “seventy weeks” were accomplished. Justice and Mercy appeared on the hill of Calvary. “Where,” said Justice, “is the Son of God?” “Behold him,” answered Mercy, “at the foot of the hill!” And there he came, bearing his own cross, and followed by his weeping church. Mercy retired, and stood aloof from the scene. Jesus ascended the hill, like a lamb for the sacrifice. Justice presented the dreadful bond, saying, “This is the day on which this article must be cancelled.” The Redeemer took it. What did he do with it? Tear it in pieces, and scatter it to the winds? No! he nailed it to his cross, crying, “It is finished!” The Victim ascended the altar. Justice called on holy fire to come down and consume the sacrifice. Holy fire replied: “I come! I will consume the sacrifice, and then I will burn up the world!” It fell upon the Son of God, and rapidly consumed his humanity; but when it touched his Deity, it expired. Then was there darkness over the whole land, and an earthquake shook the mountain; but the heavenly host broke forth in rapturous song -”Glory to God in the highest! on earth peace! good will to man!”*
*The substance of this transcendent passage Christmas Evans often repeated in his preaching, and of course with considerable variation on different occasions. There are two other versions of it in English. One of them, translated many years ago, and published under the title of “A Specimen of Welsh Preaching,” has been everywhere justly admired, as one of the finest productions of sanctified genius. The other, which we give below, was taken from the lips of the preacher, and rendered into English, by one of his frequent hearers and intimate friends. “All the stores of his energy,” says the editor of the English memoir, “and the resources of his voice, which was one of great compass, depth, and sweetness, seemed reserved for the closing portions of the picture, when he delineated the routed and battered hosts of the pit, retreating from the cross, where they had anticipated a triumph, and met a signal and irretrievable overthrow.” -Editor.
“Methinks I find myself standing upon the summit of one of the highest of the everlasting hills, permitted thence to take a survey of our earth. It shows to me a wide and far-spread burial-ground, over which lie scattered in countless multitudes the wretched and perishing children of Adam. The ground is full of hollows, the yawning caverns of death, while over it broods a thick cloud of fearful darkness. No light from above shines upon it, nor is the ray of the sun or moon, or the beams of a candle seen through all its borders. It is walled around. Its gates, large and massive, ten thousand times stronger than all the gates of brass forged among men, are one and all safely locked. It IS the hand of Divine Justice that has locked them, and so firmly secured are the strong bolts which hold those doors, that all the created powers even of the heavenly world, were they to labor to all eternity, could not drive so much as one of them back. How hopeless the wretchedness to which the race are doomed, and into what irrecoverable depths of ruin has the disobedience of their first parent plunged them!
“But behold, in the cool of the day there is seen descending from the eternal hills in the distance, the radiant form of Mercy, seated in the chariot of the divine promise, and clothed with splendor, infinitely brighter than the golden rays of the morning when seen shooting over mountains of pearls. Seated beside Mercy in that chariot is seen another form like unto the Son of man. His mysterious name is the ‘Seed of the Woman,’ and girt around him shines the girdle of eternity, radiant with the lustre of the heaven of heavens. ‘He has descended into the lower parts of the earth.’ I see Mercy alight from that chariot, and she is knocking at the huge gate of this vast cemetery. She asks of Justice : ‘Is there no entrance into this field of death? May I not visit these caverns of the grave, and seek, if it may be, to raise some names at least of the children of destruction, and bring them again to the light of day? Open, Justice, open; drive back these iron bolts and let me in, that I may proclaim the jubilee of deliverance to the children of the dust.’ But I hear the item reply of Justice from within those walls; it is, -’Mercy, surely thou lovest Justice too well, to wish to burst these gates by force of arm, and thus obtain entrance by mere lawless violence. And I cannot open the door. I cherish no anger towards the unhappy wretches. I have no delight in their eternal death, or in hearing their cries as they lie upon the burning hearth of the great fire kindled by the wrath of God, in the land that is lower than the grave. But I am bound to vindicate the purity, holiness, and equity of God’s laws; for, ‘without shedding of blood there is no remission.’ ‘Be it so,’ said Mercy, ‘but wilt thou not accept of a surety who may make a sufficient atonement for the crime committed and the offence given?’ ‘That will I,’ said Justice, ‘only let him be duly allied to either party in this sad controversy, a kinsman, near alike to the injured Lawgiver, and to the guilty tenants of the burial-ground.’ ‘Wilt thou, then,’ said Mercy, accept of the puissant Michael, prince among the hosts of heaven, who fought bravely in the day when there was war in heaven, and also vanquished Apollyon upon the summit of the everlasting hills?’ ‘No,’ -said Justice, ‘I may not, for his goings forth are not from the beginning, even from everlasting.’ ‘Wilt thou not then accept of the valiant Gabriel, who compelled Beelzebub to turn and seek safety in flight from the walls of the heavenly city? ‘No,’ -cried Justice, ‘for Gabriel is already bound to render his appointed service to the King Almighty; and who may serve in his place while he should be attempting the salvation of Adam’s race? ‘There needs,’ continued Justice, ‘one who has, of right belonging to him, both omnipotence and eternity, to achieve the enterprise. Let him clothe himself with the nature of these wretches. Let him be born within these gloomy walls, and himself undergo death within this unapproachable place, if he would buy the favor of Heaven for these children of the captivity!’
“But while this dialogue was held, behold, a form fairer than the morning dawn, and full of the glory of heaven, is seen descending from that chariot. Casting, as he passes, a glance of infinite benignity upon the hapless tenants of that burial-ground, he approaches, and asks of Justice: ‘Wilt thou accept of me? ‘I will,’ said Justice, ‘for greater art thou than heaven and the whole universe.’
“‘Behold, then,’ said the stranger, ‘I come: in the volume of the book has it been written of me. I will go down, in the fulness of time, into the sides of the pit of corruption. I will lay hold of this nature, and take upon me the dust of Eden, and, allied to that dust, I will pour into thy balance. Justice, blood of such worth and virtue that the court of heaven shall pronounce its claims satisfied, and bid the children of the great captivity go free.’
“Centuries have rolled by, and the fulness of time is now accomplished; and see, an infant of days is born within the old burial ground of Eden. Behold a Son given to the dwellers of the tomb, and a spotless Lamb, the Lamb of God, is seen within that gloomy enclosure. When the hour came at which the ministers of the Divine Justice must seize upon the victim, I see them hurrying towards Gethsemane. There, in heaviness and sorrow of soul, praying more earnestly, the surely is seen bowed to the earth, and the heavy burden he had assumed is now weighing him down. Like a lamb, he is led towards Golgotha -the hill of skulls. There are mustered all the hosts of darkness, rejoicing in the hope of their speedy conquest over him. The monsters of the pit, huge, fierce, and relentless, are there. The lions,* as in a great army, were grinding fearfully their teeth, ready to tear him in pieces. The unicorns,* a countless host, were rushing onwards to thrust him through, and trample him beneath their feet. And there vere the bulls of Bashan,* roaring terribly; the dragons* of the pit are unfolding themselves, and shooting out their stings, and dogs* many are all around the mountain. ‘It is the hour and power of darkness.’ I see him passing along through this dense array of foes, an unresisting victim. He is nailed to the cross; and now Beelzebub and all the master-spirits in the hosts of hell have formed, though invisible to man, a ring around the cross. It was about the third hour of the day, or the hour of nine in the morning, that he was bound as a sacrifice, even to the horns of the altar. The fire of divine vengeance has fallen, and the flames of the curse have now caught upon him. The blood of the victim is fast dropping, and the hosts of hell are shouting impatiently: ‘The victory will soon be ours.’ And the fire went on burning until the ninth hour of the day, or the hour of three in the afternoon, when it touched his Deity, -and then it expired. For the ransom was now paid and the victory won. It was his. His hellish foes, crushed in his fall, the unicorns and the bulls of Bashan retreated from the encounter with shattered horns; the jaws of the lions had been broken and their claws torn off, and the old dragon, with bruised head, dragged himself slowly away from the scene, in deathlike feebleness. ‘He triumphed over them openly,’ and now is He for ever the Prince and Captain of our salvation, made perfect through sufferings. The graves of the old burial-ground have been thrown open; and from yonder hills gales of life have blown down upon this valley of dry bones, and an exceedingly great army have already been sealed to our God, as among the living in Zion.”
*Allusion to the language in which Psalm xxii. predicts the Saviour’s sufferings. The Psalm which our Saviour himself quoted upon the Cross, when he cried, “My God, why hast thou forsaken me.”
Thus grace has abounded, and the free gift has come upon all, and the gospel has gone forth proclaiming redemption to every creature. “By grace ye are saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, least any man should boast.” By grace ye are loved, redeemed and justified. By grace ye are called, converted, reconciled and sanctified. Salvation is wholly of grace. The plan, the process, the consummation, are all of grace.
“Where sin abounded, grace hath much more abounded.” “Through the offence of one, many were dead.” And as men multiplied, the offence abounded. The waters deluged the world, but could not wash away the dreadful stain. The fire fell from heaven, but could not burn out the accursed plague. The earth opened her mouth, but could not swallow up the monster sin. The law thundered forth its threat from the thick darkness on Sinai; but could not restrain, by all its terrors, the children of disobedience. Still the offence abounded, and multiplied as the sands on the sea-shore. It waxed bold, and pitched its tents on Calvary, and nailed the Lawgiver to a tree. But in that conflict sin received its mortal wound. The Victim was the Victor. He fell, but in his fall he crushed the foe. He died unto sin, but sin and death were crucified upon his cross. Where sin abounded to condemn, grace hath much more abounded to justify. Where sin abounded to corrupt, grace hath much more abounded to purify. Where sin abounded to harden, grace hath much more abounded to soften and subdue. Where sin abounded to imprison men, grace hath much more abounded to proclaim liberty to the captives. Where sin abounded to break the law and dishonor the Lawgiver, grace hath much more abounded to repair the breach and efface the stain. Where sin abounded to consume the soul as with unquenchable fire and a gnawing worm, grace hath much more abounded to extinguish the flame and heal the wound. Grace hath abounded! It hath established its throne on the merit of the Redeemer’s sufferings. It hath put on the crown, and laid hold of the golden scepter, and spoiled the dominion of the prince of darkness, and the gates of the great cemetery are thrown open, and there is the beating of a new life-pulse throughout its wretched population, and Immortality is walking among the tombs!
This abounding grace is manifested in the gift ot Jesus Christ, by whose mediation our reconciliation and salvation are effected. With him, believers are dead unto sin, and alive unto God. Our sins were slain at his cross, and buried in his tomb. His resurrection hath opened our graves, and given us an assurance of immortality. “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us; much more, then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him; for if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”
“The carnal mind is enmity against God; it is not subject law of God, neither indeed can be.” Glory to God, for the death of his Son, by which this enmity is slain, and reconciliation is effected between the rebel and the law! This was the unspeakable gift that saved us from ruin; that wrestled with the storm, and turned it away from the devoted head of the sinner. Had all the angels of God attempted to stand between these two conflicting seas, they would have been swept to the gulf of destruction. “The blood of bulls and goats, on Jewish altars slain,” could not take away sin, could not pacify the conscience. But Christ, the gift of Divine Grace, ” Pascal Lamb by God appointed,” “a sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood than they,” bore our sins, and carried our sorrows, and obtained for us the boon of eternal redemption. He met the fury of the tempest, and the floods went over his head; but his offering was an offering of peace, calming the storms and the waves, magnifying the law, glorifying its Author, and rescuing its violator from wrath and rain. Justice hath laid down his sword at the foot of the cross, and amity is restored between heaven and earth.
Hither, ye guilty! come and cast away your weapons of rebellion! Come with your bad prrinciples, and wicked actions; your unbelief, and enmity, and pride; and throw them off at the Redeemer’s feet! God is here, waiting to be gracious. He will receive you; he will cast all your sins behind his back, into the depths of the sea; and they shall be remembered against you no more for ever. By Heaven’s “Unspeakable Gift,” by Christ’s invaluable atonement, by the free and infinite grace of the Father and the Son, we persuade you, we beseech you, we entreat you, “be ye reconciled to God!”
It is by the work of the Holy Spirit within us, that we obtain a personal interest in the work wrought on Calvary for us. If our sins are cancelled, they are also crucified. If we are reconciled in Christ, we fight against our God no more. This is the fruit of faith “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” May the Lord inspire in every one of us that saving principle!
But those who have been restored to the Divine favor may sometimes be cast down and dejected. They have passed through the sea, and sung praises on the shore of deliverance; but there is yet between them and Canaan “a waste howling wilderness,” a long and weary pilgrimage, hostile nations, fiery serpents, scarcity of food, and the river Jordan. Fears within and fightings without, they may grow discouraged, and yield to temptation, and murmur against God, and desire to return to Egypt. But fear not, thou worm Jacob! Reconciled by the death of Christ; much more, being reconciled, thou shalt be saved by his life. His death was the price of our redemption; his life insures liberty to the believer. If by his death he brought you through the Red Sea in the night, by his life he can lead you through the river Jordan in the day. If by his death he delivered you from the iron furnace in Egypt, by his life he can save you from all the perils of the wilderness. If by his death he conquered Pharaoh, the chief foe, by his life he can subdue Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, the king of Bashan. “We shall be saved by his life.” “Because he liveth, we shall live also.” “Be of good cheer!” The work is finished; the ransom is effected; the kingdom of heaven is opened to all believers. “Lift up your heads and rejoice,” “ye prisoners of hope!” There is no debt unpaid, no devil unconquered, no enemy within your own hearts that has not received a mortal wound! “Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ!”