{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_11713/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_11713","id":"gutenberg_11713","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11713","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity","Sermons"],"text":"THE WORLD'S GREAT SERMONS\n\n\n_COMPILED BY_\n\nGRENVILLE KLEISER\n\nFormerly of Yale Divinity School Faculty; Author of \"How to Speak in\nPublic,\" Etc.\n\nWith Assistance from Many of the Foremost Living Preachers and Other\nTheologians\n\n\nINTRODUCTION BY LEWIS O. BRASTOW, D.D.\n\nProfessor Emeritus of Practical Theology in Yale University\n\n\nVOLUME III\n\nMASSILLON TO MASON\n\n1908\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nVOLUME III\n\n\nMASSILLON (1663-1742).\nThe Small Number of the Elect\n\nSAURIN (1677-1730).\nPaul Before Felix and Drusilla\n\nEDWARDS (1703-1758).\nSpiritual Light\n\nWESLEY (1703-1791).\nGod's Love to Fallen Man\n\nWHITEFIELD (1714-1770).\nThe Method of Grace\n\nBLAIR (1718-1800).\nThe Hour and the Event of all Time\n\nDWIGHT (1752-1817).\nThe Sovereignty of God\n\nROBERT HALL (1764-1831).\nMarks of Love to God\n\nEVANS (1766-1838).\nThe Fall and Recovery of Man\n\nSCHLEIERMACHER (1768-1834).\nChrist's Resurrection an Image of our New Life\n\nMASON (1770-1829).\nMessiah's Throne\n\n\n\n\nMASSILLON\n\nTHE SMALL NUMBER OF THE ELECT\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\n\nJean Baptiste Massillon was born in 1663, at Hy\u221a\u00aeres, in Provence,\nFrance. He first attracted notice as a pulpit orator by his funeral\nsermons as the Archbishop of Vienne, which led to his preferment from\nhis class of theology at Meaux to the presidency of the Seminary\nof Magloire at Paris. His conferences at Paris showed remarkable\nspiritual insight and knowledge of the human heart. He was a favorite\npreacher of Louis XIV and Louis XV, and after being appointed bishop\nof Clermont in 1719 he was also nominated to the French Academy. In\n1723 he took final leave of the capital and retired to his see, where\nhe lived beloved by all until his death in 1742.\n\n\n\n\nMASSILLON\n\n1662-1742\n\nTHE SMALL NUMBER OF THE ELECT\n\n_And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet;\nand none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian_.--Luke iv.,\n27.\n\n\nEvery day, my brethren, you continue to ask of us, whether the road to\nheaven is really so difficult, and the number of the saved really so\nsmall as we represent? To a question so often proposed, and still\noftener resolved, our Savior answers you here, that there were many\nwidows in Israel afflicted with famine; but the widow of Sarepta was\nalone found worthy the succor of the prophet Elias; that the number\nof lepers was great in Israel in the time of the prophet Eliseus; and\nthat Naaman was only cured by the man of God.\n\nWere I here, my brethren, for the purpose of alarming, rather than\ninstructing you, I had only to recapitulate what in the holy writings\nwe find dreadful with regard to this great truth; and, running over\nthe history of the just, from age to age, show you that, in all times,\nthe number of the saved has been very small. The family of Noah alone\nsaved from the general flood; Abraham chosen from among men to be the\nsole depositary of the covenant with God; Joshua and Caleb the only\ntwo of six hundred thousand Hebrews who saw the Land of Promise;\nJob the only upright man in the land of Uz; Lot, in Sodom. To\nrepresentations so alarming, would have succeeded the sayings of the\nprophets. In Isaiah you would see the elect as rare as the grapes\nwhich are found after the vintage, and have escaped the search of the\ngatherer; as rare as the blades which remain by chance in the field,\nand have escaped the scythe of the mower. The evangelist would still\nhave added new traits to the terrors of these images. I might have\nspoken to you of two roads--of which one is narrow, rugged, and the\npath of a very small number; the other broad, open, and strewed with\nflowers, and almost the general path of men: that everywhere, in the\nholy writings, the multitude is always spoken of as forming the party\nof the reprobate; while the saved, compared with the rest of mankind,\nform only a small flock, scarcely perceptible to the sight. I would\nhave left you in fears with regard to your salvation; always cruel to\nthose who have not renounced faith and every hope of being among the\nsaved. But what would it serve to limit the fruits of this instruction\nto the single point of setting forth how few persons will be saved?\nAlas! I would make the danger known, without instructing you how to\navoid it; I would allow you, with the prophet, the sword of the wrath\nof God suspended over your heads, without assisting you to escape the\nthreatened blow; I would alarm but not instruct the sinner.\n\nMy intention is, to-day, to search for the cause of this small number,\nin our morals and manner of life. As every one flatters himself he\nwill not be excluded, it is of importance to examine if his confidence\nbe well founded. I wish not, in marking to you the causes which render\nsalvation so rare, to make you generally conclude that few will be\nsaved, but to bring you to ask yourselves if, living as you live, you\ncan hope to be saved. Who am I? What am I doing for heaven? And what\ncan be my hopes in eternity? I propose no other order in a matter of\nsuch importance. What are the causes which render salvation so rare?\nI mean to point out three principal causes, which is the only\narrangement of this discourse. Art, and far-sought reasonings, would\nbe ill-timed. Oh, attend, therefore, be ye whom ye may. No subject can\nbe more worthy your attention, since it goes to inform you what may be\nthe hopes of your eternal destiny.\n\nFew are saved, because in that number we can only comprehend two\ndescriptions of persons: either those who have been so happy as to\npreserve their innocence pure and undefiled, or those who, after\nhaving lost, have regained it by penitence. This is the first cause.\nThere are only these two ways of salvation: heaven is only open to\nthe innocent or to the penitent. Now, of which party are you? Are you\ninnocent? Are you penitent?\n\nNothing unclean shall enter the kingdom of God. We must consequently\ncarry there either an innocence unsullied, or an innocence regained.\nNow to die innocent is a grace to which few souls can aspire; and to\nlive penitent is a mercy which the relaxed state of our morals renders\nequally rare. Who, indeed, will pretend to salvation by the chain of\ninnocence? Where are the pure souls in whom sin has never dwelt, and\nwho have preserved to the end the sacred treasure of grace confided to\nthem by baptism, and which our Savior will redemand at the awful day\nof punishment?\n\nIn those happy days when the whole Church was still but an assembly of\nsaints, it was very uncommon to find an instance of a believer who,\nafter having received the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and acknowledged\nJesus Christ in the sacrament which regenerates us, fell back to his\nformer irregularities of life. Ananias and Sapphira were the only\nprevaricators in the Church of Jerusalem; that of Corinth had only one\nincestuous sinner. Church penitence was then a remedy almost unknown;\nand scarcely was there found among these true Israelites one single\nleper whom they were obliged to drive from the holy altar, and\nseparate from communion with his brethren. But since that time the\nnumber of the upright diminishes in proportion, as that of believers\nincreases. It would appear that the world, pretending now to have\nbecome almost generally Christian, has; brought with it into the\nChurch its corruptions and its maxims.\n\nAlas! we all go astray, almost from the breast of our mothers! The\nfirst use which we make of our heart is a crime; our first desires.\nare passions; and our reason only expands and increases on the wrecks\nof our innocence. The earth, says a prophet, is infected by the\ncorruption of those who inhabit it: all have violated the laws,\nchanged the ordinances, and broken the alliance which should have\nendured forever: all commit sin, and scarcely is there one to be found\nwho does the work of the Lord. Injustice, calumny, lying, treachery,\nadultery, and the blackest crimes have deluged the earth. The brother\nlays snares for his brother; the father is divided from his children;\nthe husband from his wife: there is no tie which a vile interest does\nnot sever. Good faith and probity are no longer virtues except among\nthe simple people. Animosities are endless; reconciliations are\nfeints, and never is a former enemy regarded as a brother: they tear,\nthey devour each other. Assemblies are no longer but for the purpose\nof public and general censure. The purest virtue is no longer a\nprotection from the malignity of tongues. Gaming is become either\na trade, a fraud, or a fury. Repasts--those innocent ties of\nsociety--degenerate into excesses of which we dare not speak. Our age\nwitnesses horrors with which our forefathers were unacquainted.\n\nBehold, then, already one path of salvation shut to the generality of\nmen. All have erred. Be ye whom ye may, listen to me now, the time\nhas been when sin reigned over you. Age may perhaps have calmed your\npassions, but what was your youth? Long and habitual infirmities\nmay perhaps have disgusted you with the world; but what use did you\nformerly make of the vigor of health? A sudden inspiration of grace\nmay have turned your heart, but do you not most fervently entreat\nthat every moment prior to that inspiration may be effaced from the\nremembrance of the Lord?\n\nBut with what am I taking up time? We are all sinners, O my God! and\nThou knowest our hearts! What we know of our errors is, perhaps, in\nThy sight, the most pardonable; and we all allow that by innocence\nwe have no claim to salvation. There remains, therefore, only one\nresource, which is penitence. After our shipwreck, say the saints, it\nis the timely plank which alone can conduct us into port; there is no\nother means of salvation for us. Be ye whom ye may, prince or subject,\nhigh or low, penitence alone can save you. Now permit me to ask where\nare the penitent? You will find more, says a holy father, who have\nnever fallen, than who, after their fall, have raised themselves by\ntrue repentance. This is a terrible saying; but do not let us carry\nthings too far: the truth is sufficiently dreadful without adding new\nterrors to it by vain declamation.\n\nLet us alone examine as to whether the majority of us have a right,\nthrough penitence, to salvation. What is a penitent? According to\nTertullian, a penitent is a believer who feels every moment his former\nunhappiness in forsaking and losing his God; one who has his guilt\nincessantly before his eyes; who finds everywhere the traces and\nremembrance of it.\n\nA penitent is a man instrusted by God with judgment against himself;\none who refuses himself the most innocent pleasures because he had\nformerly indulged in those the most criminal; one who puts up with the\nmost necessary gratification with pain; one who regards his body as an\nenemy whom it is necessary to conquer--as an unclean vessel which must\nbe purified--as an unfaithful debtor of whom it is proper to exact to\nthe last farthing. A penitent regards himself as a criminal condemned\nto death, because he is no longer worthy of life. In the loss of\nriches or health he sees only a withdrawal of favors that he had\nformerly abused: in the humiliations which happen to him, only the\npains of his guilt: in the agonies with which he is racked, only the\ncommencement of those punishments he has justly merited. Such is a\npenitent.\n\nBut I again ask you--Where, among us, are penitents of this\ndescription? Now look around you. I do not tell you to judge your\nbrethren, but to examine what are the manners and morals of those who\nsurround you. Nor do I speak of those open and avowed sinners who have\nthrown off even the appearance of virtue. I speak only of those who,\nlike yourselves, live as most live, and whose actions present nothing\nto the public view particularly shameful or depraved. They are sinners\nand they admit it: you are not innocent, and you confess it. Now are\nthey penitent? or are you? Age, vocation, more serious employments,\nmay perhaps have checked the sallies of youth. Even the bitterness\nwhich the Almighty has made attendant on our passions, the deceits,\nthe treacheries of the world, an injured fortune, with ruined\nconstitution, may have cooled the ardor, and confined the irregular\ndesires of your hearts. Crimes may have disgusted you even with sin\nitself--for passions gradually extinguish themselves. Time, and\nthe natural inconstancy of the heart will bring these about; yet,\nnevertheless, tho detached from sin by incapability, you are no nearer\nyour God. According to the world you are become more prudent, more\nregular, to a greater extent what it calls men of probity, more exact\nin fulfilling your public or private duties. But you are not penitent.\nYou have ceased your disorders but you have not expiated them. You are\nnot converted: this great stroke, this grand operation on the heart,\nwhich regenerates man, has not yet been felt by you. Nevertheless,\nthis situation, so truly dangerous, does not alarm you. Sins which\nhave never been washed away by sincere repentance, and consequently\nnever obliterated from the book of life, appear in your eyes as no\nlonger existing; and you will tranquilly leave this world in a state\nof impenitence, so much the more dangerous as you will die without\nbeing sensible of your danger.\n\nWhat I say here is not merely a rash expression, or an emotion of\nzeal; nothing is more real, or more exactly true: it is the situation\nof almost all men, even the wisest and most esteemed of the world.\nThe morality of the younger stages of life is always lax, if not\nlicentious. Age, disgust, and establishment for life, fix the\nheart and withdraw it from debauchery: but where are those who are\nconverted? Where are those who expiate their crimes by tears of sorrow\nand true repentance? Where are those who, having begun as sinners, end\nas penitents? Show me, in your manner of living, the smallest trace of\npenitence! Are your graspings at wealth and power, your anxieties\nto attain the favor of the great--and by these means an increase of\nemployments and influence--are these proofs of it? Would you wish\nto reckon even your crimes as virtues?--that the sufferings of your\nambition, pride, and avarice, should discharge you from an obligation\nwhich they themselves have imposed? You are penitent to the world, but\nare you so to Jesus Christ? The infirmities with which God afflicts\nyou, the enemies He raised up against you, the disgraces and losses\nwith which He tries you--do you receive them all as you ought, with\nhumble submission to His will? Or, rather, far from finding in them\noccasions of penitence, do you not turn them into the objects of new\ncrimes? It is the duty of an innocent soul to receive with submission\nthe chastisements of the Almighty; to discharge with courage the\npainful duties of the station allotted to him, and to be faithful to\nthe laws of the gospel. But do sinners owe nothing beyond this? And\nyet they pretend to salvation! Upon what claim? To say that you are\ninnocent before God, your own consciences will witness against you. To\nendeavor to persuade yourselves that you are penitent, you dare not;\nand you would condemn yourselves by your own mouths. Upon what then\ndost thou depend, O man! who thus livest so tranquil?\n\nThese, my brethren, as I have already told you, are not merely advices\nand pious arts; they are the most essential of our obligations. But,\nalas! who fulfils them? Who even knows them? Ah! my brethren, did you\nknow how far the title you bear, of Christian, engages you; could you\ncomprehend the sanctity of your state, the hatred of the world, of\nyourself, and of everything which is not of God that it enjoys, that\ngospel life, that constant watching, that guard over the passions, in\na word, that conformity with Jesus Christ crucified, which it exacts\nof you--could you comprehend it, could you remember that you ought to\nlove God with all your heart, and all your strength, so that a single\ndesire that has not connection with Him defiles you--you would appear\na monster in your own sight. How! you would exclaim. Duties so holy,\nand morals so profane! A vigilance so continual, and a life so\ncareless and dissipated! A love of God so pure, so complete, so\nuniversal, and a heart the continual prey of a thousand impulses,\neither foreign or criminal! If thus it is, who, O my God! will be\nentitled to salvation? Few indeed, I fear, my dear hearers! At least\nit will not be you (unless a change takes place) nor those who\nresemble you; it will not be the multitude!\n\nWho shall be saved? Those who work out their salvation with fear and\ntrembling; who live in the world without indulging in its vices. Who\nshall be saved? That Christian woman who, shut up in the circle of her\ndomestic duties, rears up her children in faith and in piety; divides\nher heart only between her Savior and her husband; is adorned with\ndelicacy and modesty; sits not down in the assemblies of vanity; makes\nnot a law of the ridiculous customs of the world, but regulates those\ncustoms by the law of God; and makes virtue appear more amiable by her\nrank and her example. Who shall be saved? That believer who, in\nthe relaxation of modern times, imitates the manners of the first\nChristian--whose hands are clean and his heart pure--who is\nwatchful--who hath not lifted up his soul to vanity, but who, in the\nmidst of the dangers of the great world, continually applies himself\nto purify it; just--who swears not deceitfully against his neighbor,\nnor is indebted to fraudulent ways for the aggrandizement of his\nfortune; generous--who with benefits repays the enemy who sought his\nruin; sincere--who sacrifices not the truth to a vile interest, and\nknows not the part of rendering himself agreeable by betraying his\nconscience; charitable--who makes his house and interest the refuge of\nhis fellow creatures, and himself the consolation of the afflicted;\nregards his wealth as the property of the poor; humble in\naffliction--a Christian under injuries, and penitent even in\nprosperity. Who will merit salvation? You, my dear hearer, if you will\nfollow these examples; for such are the souls to be saved. Now these\nassuredly do not form the greatest number. While you continue,\ntherefore, to live like the multitude, it is a striking proof that you\ndisregard your salvation.\n\nThese, my brethren, are truths which should make us tremble! nor are\nthey those vague ones which are told to all men, and which none apply\nto themselves. Perhaps there is not in this assembly an individual who\nmay not say of himself, \"I live like the great number; like those of\nmy rank, age, and situation; I am lost, should I die in this path.\"\nNow, can anything be more capable of alarming a soul, in whom some\nremains of care for his salvation shall exist? It is the multitude,\nnevertheless, who tremble not. There is only a small number of the\njust who work out severally their salvation with fear and trembling.\nAll the rest are tranquil. After having lived with the multitude, they\nflatter themselves they shall be particularized at death. Every one\naugurs favorably for himself, and vainly imagines that he shall be an\nexception.\n\nOn this account it is, my brethren, that I confine myself to you who\nare now here assembled. I include not the rest of men; but consider\nyou as alone existing on the earth. The idea which fills and terrifies\nme is this--I figure to myself the present as your last hour, and the\nend of the world! the heavens opening above your heads--the Savior, in\nall His glory, about to appear in the midst of His temple--you only\nassembled here as trembling criminals, to wait His coming, and hear\nthe sentence, either of life eternal, or everlasting death! for it is\nvain to flatter yourselves that you shall die more innocent than you\nare at this hour. All those desires of change with which you are\namused, will continue to amuse you till death arrives. The experience\nof all ages proves it. The only difference you have to expect will\nmost likely be only a larger balance against you than what you would\nhave to answer for now; and from what would be your destiny, were you\nto be judged in this moment, you may almost decide upon what it will\nbe at death. Now, I ask you--and, connecting my own lot with yours, I\nask it with dread--were Jesus Christ to appear in this temple, in the\nmidst of this assembly, to judge us, to make the awful separation\nbetween the sheep and the goats, do you believe that the most of us\nwould be placed at His right hand? Do you believe that the number\nwould at least be equal? Do you believe that there would even be found\nten upright and faithful servants of the Lord, when formerly five\ncities could not furnish that number? I ask you! You know not! I know\nit not! Thou alone, O my God, knowest who belong to Thee.\n\nBut if we know not who belong to Him, at least we know that sinners\ndo not. Now, who are the just and faithful assembled here at present?\nTitles and dignities avail nothing; you are stript of all these in the\npresence of your Savior! Who are they? Many sinners who wish not to be\nconverted; many more who wish, but always put it off; many others who\nare only converted in appearance, and again fall back to their former\ncourse; in a word, a great number, who flatter themselves they have no\noccasion for conversion. This is the party of the reprobate! Ah! my\nbrethren, cut off from this assembly these four classes of sinners,\nfor they will be cut off at the great day! And now stand forth ye\nrighteous:--where are ye? O God, where are Thine elect! What remains\nas Thy portion!\n\nMy brethren, our ruin is almost certain! Yet we think not of it! If in\nthis terrible separation, which will one day take place; there should\nbe but one sinner in the assembly on the side of the reprobate, and a\nvoice from heaven should assure us of it, without particularizing him,\nwho of us would not tremble, lest he be the unfortunate and devoted\nwretch? Who of us would not immediately apply to his conscience, to\nexamine if its crimes merited not this punishment? Who of us, seized\nwith dread, would not demand of our Savior, as did the apostles,\ncrying out, \"Lord, is it I?\" And should a small respite be allowed\nto our prayers, who of us would not use every effort, by tears,\nsupplication, and sincere repentance, to avert the misfortune?\n\nAre we in our senses, my dear hearers? Perhaps among all who listen to\nme now, ten righteous ones would not be found. It may be fewer still.\nWhat do I perceive, O my God! I dare not, with a fixt eye, regard the\ndepths of Thy judgments and justice! Not more than one, perhaps,\nwould be found among us all! And this danger affects you not, my dear\nhearer! You persuade yourself that in this great number who shall\nperish, you will be the happy individual! You, you have less reason,\nperhaps, than any other to believe it! You, upon whom alone the\nsentence of death should fall, were only one of all who hear me to\nsuffer! Great God! how little are the terrors of Thy law known to the\nworld? In all ages the just have shuddered with dread in reflecting on\nthe severity and extent of Thy judgments, touching the destinies of\nmen! Alas! what are they laying up in store for the sons of men!\n\nBut what are we to conclude from these awful truths? That all must\ndespair of salvation? God forbid! The impious alone, to quiet his own\nfeelings in his debaucheries, endeavors to persuade himself that all\nmen shall perish as well as he. This idea ought not to be the fruit of\nthe present discourse. It is intended to undeceive you with regard to\nthe general error, that any one may do whatever is done by others. To\nconvince you that, in order to merit salvation, you must distinguish\nyourself from the rest; that in the midst of the world you are to live\nfor God's glory, and not follow after the multitude.\n\nWhen the Jews were led in captivity from Judea to Babylon, a little\nbefore they quitted their own country, the prophet Jeremiah, whom the\nLord had forbidden to leave Jerusalem, spoke thus to them: \"Children\nof Israel, when you shall arrive at Babylon, you will behold the\ninhabitants of that country, who carry upon their shoulders gods of\nsilver and gold. All the people will prostrate themselves and adore\nthem. But you, far from allowing yourselves, by these examples, to be\nled to impiety, say to yourselves in secret, It is Thou, O Lord! whom\nwe ought to adore.\"\n\nLet me now finish by addressing to you the same words.\n\nAt your departure from this temple, you go to enter into another\nBabylon. You go to see the idols of gold and silver, before which all\nmen prostrate themselves. You go to regain the vain objects of human\npassions, wealth, glory, and pleasure, which are the gods of this\nworld and which almost all men adore. You will see those abuses which\nall the world permits, those errors which custom authorizes, and those\ndebaucheries, which an infamous fashion has almost constituted as\nlaws. Then, my dear hearer, if you wish to be of the small number of\ntrue Israelites, say, in the secrecy of your heart, \"It is Thou alone,\nO my God! whom we ought to adore. I wish not to have connection with\na people which know Thee not; I will have no other law than Thy holy\nlaw; the gods which this foolish multitude adore are not gods; they\nare the work of the hands of men; they will perish with them; Thou\nalone, O my God! art immortal; and Thou alone deservest to be adored.\nThe customs of Babylon have no connection with the holy laws of\nJerusalem. I will continue to worship Thee, with that small number\nof the children of Abraham which still, in the midst of an infidel\nnation, composes Thy people; with them I will turn all my desires\ntoward the holy Zion. The singularity of my manners will be regarded\nas a weakness; but blest weakness, O my God! which will give me\nstrength to resist the torrent of customs, and the seduction of\nexample. Thou wilt be my God in the midst of Babylon, as Thou wilt one\nday be in Jerusalem above!\"\n\nAh! the time of the captivity will at last expire. Thou wilt call to\nThy remembrance Abraham and David. Thou wilt deliver Thy people. Thou\nwilt transport us to the holy city. Then wilt Thou alone reign over\nIsrael, and over the nations which at present know Thee not. All being\ndestroyed, all the empires of the earth, all the monuments of human\npride annihilated, and Thou alone remaining eternal, we then shall\nknow that Thou art the Lord of hosts, and the only God to be adored.\n\nBehold the fruit which you ought to reap from this discourse! Live\napart. Think, without ceasing, that the great number work their own\ndestruction. Regard as nothing all customs of the earth, unless\nauthorized by the law of God, and remember that holy men in all ages\nhave been looked upon as a peculiar people.\n\nIt is thus that, after distinguishing yourselves from the sinful on\nearth, you will be gloriously distinguished from them in eternity!\n\n\n\n\nSAURIN\n\nPAUL BEFORE FELIX AND DRUSILLA\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\n\nJacques Saurin, the famous French Protestant preacher of the\nseventeenth century, was born at Nismes in 1677. He studied at Geneva\nand was appointed to the Walloon Church in London in 1701. The scene\nof his great life work was, however, the Hague, where he settled in\n1705. He has been compared with Bossuet, tho he never attained the\ngraceful style and subtilty which characterize the \"Eagle of Meaux.\"\nThe story is told of the famous scholar Le Clerc that he long refused\nto hear Saurin preach, on the ground that he gave too much attention\nto mere art. One day he consented to hear him on the condition that he\nshould be permitted to sit behind the pulpit where he could not see\nhis oratorical action. At the close of the sermon he found himself in\nfront of the pulpit, with tears in his eyes. Saurin died in 1730.\n\n\n\n\nSAURIN\n\n1677--1730\n\nPAUL BEFORE FELIX AND DRUSILLA\n\n_And before certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla,\nwhich was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the\nfaith of Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and\njudgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this\ntime; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee_.--Acts\nxxiv., 24, 25.\n\n\nMy brethren, tho the kingdoms of the righteous be not of this world,\nthey present, however, amidst their meanness, marks of dignity and\npower. They resemble Jesus Christ. He humbled Himself so far as to\ntake the form of a servant, but frequently exercised the rights of a\nsovereign. From the abyss of humiliation to which He condescended,\nemanations of the Godhead were seen to proceed. Lord of nature, He\ncommanded the winds and seas. He bade the storm and tempest subside.\nHe restored health to the sick, and life to the dead. He imposed\nsilence on the rabbis; He embarrassed Pilate on the throne; and\ndisposed of Paradise at the moment He Himself was pierced with the\nnails, and fixt on the cross. Behold the portrait of believers! \"They\nare dead. Their life is hid with Christ in God.\" (Col. iii., 3.) \"If\nthey had hope only in this life, they were of all men most miserable.\"\n(I Cor. xv., 19.) Nevertheless, they show I know not what superiority\nof birth. Their glory is not so concealed but we sometimes perceive\nits luster! just as the children of a king, when unknown and in\na distant province, betray in their conversation and carriage\nindications of illustrious descent.\n\nWe might illustrate this truth by numerous instances. Let us attend to\nthat in our text. There we shall discover that association of humility\nand grandeur, of reproach and glory, which constitutes the condition\nof the faithful while on earth. Behold St. Paul, a Christian, an\napostle, a saint. See him hurried from tribunal to tribunal, from\nprovince to province; sometimes before the Romans, sometimes before\nthe Jews, sometimes before the high-priest of the synagog, and\nsometimes before the procurator of Caesar. See him conducted from\nJerusalem to Caesarea, and summoned to appear before Felix. In all\nthese traits, do you not recognize the Christian walking in the narrow\nway, the way of tribulation, marked by his Master's feet? But consider\nhim nearer still. Examine his discourse, look at his countenance;\nthere you will see a fortitude, a courage, and a dignity which\nconstrain you to acknowledge that there was something really grand in\nthe person of St. Paul. He preached Jesus Christ at the very moment\nhe was persecuted for having preached Him. He preached even when in\nchains. He did more; he attacked his judge on the throne. He reasoned,\nhe enforced, he thundered. He seemed already to exercise the function\nof judging the world, which God has reserved for His saints. He made\nFelix tremble. Felix felt himself borne away by a superior force.\nUnable to hear St. Paul any longer without appalling fears, he sent\nhim away. \"After certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla,\nhe sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ,\" etc.\n\nWe find here three considerations which claim our attention: An\nenlightened preacher, who discovers a very peculiar discernment in the\nselection of his subject; a conscience appalled and confounded on the\nrecollection of its crimes and of that awful judgment where they must\nbe weighed, a sinner alarmed, but not converted; a sinner who desires\nto be saved, but delays his conversion: a case, alas! of but too\ncommon occurrence.\n\nYou perceive already, my brethren, the subject of this discourse:\nfirst, that St. Paul reasoned before Felix and Drusilla of\nrighteousness, temperance, and judgment to come; second, that Felix\ntrembled; third, that he sent the apostle away; three considerations\nwhich shall divide this discourse. May it produce on your hearts, on\nthe hearts of Christians, the same effects St. Paul produced on the\nsoul of this heathen; but may it have a happier influence on your\nlives. Amen.\n\nPaul preached before Felix and Drusilla \"on righteousness, temperance,\nand judgment to come.\" This is the first subject of discussion.\nBefore, however, we proceed further with our remarks, we must first\nsketch the character of this Felix and this Drusilla, which will serve\nas a basis to the first proposition.\n\nAfter the scepter was departed from Judah, and the Jewish nation\nsubjugated by Pompey, the Roman emperors governed the country by\nprocurators. Claudius filled the imperial throne while St. Paul was\nat Caesarea. This emperor had received a servile education from his\ngrandmother Lucia, and from his mother Antonia; and having been\nbrought up in obsequious meanness, evinced, on his elevation to the\nempire, marks of the inadequate care which had been bestowed on his\ninfancy. He had neither courage nor dignity of mind. He who was raised\nto sway the Roman scepter, and consequently to govern the civilized\nworld, abandoned his judgment to his freedmen, and gave them a\ncomplete ascendency over his mind. Felix was one of those freedmen.\n\"He exercised in Judea the imperial functions with a mercenary soul.\"\nVoluptuousness and avarice were the predominant vices of his heart. We\nhave a proof of his avarice immediately after our text, where it is\nsaid he sent for Paul,--not to hear him concerning the truth of the\ngospel which this apostle had preached with so much power; not to\ninquire whether this religion, against which the Jews raised the\nstandard, was contrary to the interest of the State; but because he\nhoped to have received money for his liberation. Here is the effect of\navarice.\n\nJosephus recited an instance of his voluptuousness. It is his marriage\nwith Drusilla. She was a Jewess, as is remarked in our text. King\nAzizus, her former husband, was a heathen; and in order to gain her\naffections, he had conformed to the most rigorous ceremonies of\nJudaism. Felix saw her, and became enamored of her beauty. He\nconceived for her a violent passion; and in defiance of the sacred\nties which had united her to her husband, he resolved to become master\nof her person. His addresses were received. Drusilla violated her\nformer engagements, and chose rather to contract with Felix an\nillegitimate marriage than to adhere to the chaste ties which united\nher to Azizus. Felix the Roman, Felix the procurator of Judea and the\nfavorite of Caesar appeared to her a noble acquisition. It is indeed a\ntruth, we may here observe, that grandeur and fortune are charms which\nmortals find the greatest difficulty to resist, and against which the\npurest virtue has need to be armed with all its constancy. Recollect\nthese two characters of Felix and Drusilla. St. Paul, before those\ntwo personages, treated concerning \"The faith in Christ\"; that is,\nconcerning the Christian religion, of which Jesus Christ is the sum\nand substance, the author and the end: and from the numerous doctrines\nof Christianity, he selected \"righteousness, temperance, and judgment\nto come.\"\n\nHere is, my brethren, an admirable text; but a text selected with\ndiscretion. Fully to comprehend it, recollect the character we have\ngiven of Felix. He was covetous, luxurious, and governor of Judea. St.\nPaul selected three subjects, correspondent to the characteristics.\nAddressing an avaricious man, he treated of righteousness. Addressing\nthe governor of Judea, one of those persons who think themselves\nindependent and responsible to none but themselves for their conduct,\nhe treated of \"judgment to come.\"\n\nBut who can here supply the brevity of the historian, and report the\nwhole of what the apostle said to Felix on these important points? It\nseems to me that I hear him enforcing those important truths he has\nleft us in his works, and placing in the fullest luster those divine\nmaxims interspersed in our Scriptures. \"He reasoned of righteousness.\"\nThere he maintained the right of the widow and the orphan. There he\ndemonstrated that kings and magistrates are established to maintain\nthe rights of the people, and not to indulge their own caprice; that\nthe design of the supreme authority is to make the whole happy by the\nvigilance of one, and not to gratify one at the expense of all; that\nit is meanness of mind to oppress the wretched, who have no defense\nbut cries and tears; and that nothing is so unworthy of an enlightened\nman as that ferocity with which some are inspired by dignity, and\nwhich obstructs their respect for human nature, when undisguised by\nworldly pomp; that nothing is so noble as goodness and grandeur,\nassociated in the same character; that this is the highest felicity;\nthat in some sort it transforms the soul into the image of God; who,\nfrom the high abodes of majesty in which He dwells, surrounded with\nangels and cherubim, deigns to look down on this mean world which we\ninhabit, and \"Leaves not Himself without witness, doing good to all.\"\n\n\"He reasoned of temperance.\" There he would paint the licentious\neffects of voluptuousness. There he would demonstrate how opposite is\nthis propensity to the spirit of the gospel; which everywhere enjoins\nretirement, mortification, and self-denial. He would show how it\ndegrades the finest characters who have suffered it to predominate.\nIntemperance renders the mind incapable of reflection. It debases\nthe courage. It debilitates the mind. It softens the soul. He would\ndemonstrate the meanness of a man called to preside over a great\npeople, who exposes his foibles to public view; not having resolution\nto conceal, much less to vanquish them. With Drusilla, he would make\nhuman motives supply the defects of divine; with Felix, he would\nmake divine motives supply the defects of human. He would make this\nshameless woman feel that nothing on earth is more odious than a woman\ndestitute of honor, that modesty is an attribute of the sex; that an\nattachment, uncemented by virtue, can not long subsist; that those who\nreceive illicit favors are the first, according to the fine remark of\na sacred historian, to detest the indulgence: \"The hatred wherewith\n'Ammon, the son of David,' hated his sister, after the gratification\nof his brutal passion, was greater than the love wherewith he had\nloved her\" (II Sam. xiii., 15). He would make Felix perceive that,\nhowever the depravity of the age might seem to tolerate a criminal\nintercourse with persons of the other sex, with God, who has called us\nall to equal purity, the crime was not less heinous.\n\n\"He reasoned,\" in short, \"of judgment to come.\" And here he would\nmagnify his ministry. When our discourses are regarded as connected\nonly with the present period, their force, I grant, is of no avail.\nWe speak for a Master who has left us clothed with infirmities, which\ndiscover no illustrious marks of Him by whom we are sent. We have only\nour voice, only our exhortations, only our entreaties. Nature is not\naverted at our pleasure. The visitations of Heaven do not descend at\nour command to punish your indolence and revolts: that power was\nvery limited, even to the apostle. The idea of a future state, the\nsolemnities of a general judgment, supply our weakness, and St. Paul\nenforced this motive; he proved its reality, he delineated its luster,\nhe displayed its pomp. He resounded in the ears of Felix the noise,\nthe voices, the trumpets. He showed him the small and the great, the\nrich man and Lazarus, Felix the favorite of Caesar, and Paul the\ncaptive of Felix, awakened by that awful voice: \"Arise, ye dead, and\ncome to judgment.\"\n\nBut not to be precipitate in commending the apostle's preaching. Its\nencomiums will best appear by attending to its effects on the mind of\nFelix. St. Jerome wished, concerning a preacher of his time, that the\ntears of his audience might compose the eulogy of his sermons. We\nshall find in the tears of Felix occasion to applaud the eloquence\nof our apostle. We shall find that his discourses were thunder and\nlightning in the congregation, as the Greeks used to say concerning\none of their orators. While St. Paul preached, Felix felt I know not\nwhat agitations in his mind. The recollection of his past life; the\nsight of his present sins; Drusilla, the object of his passion and\nsubject of his crime; the courage of St. Paul--all terrified him.\nHis heart burned while that disciple of Jesus Christ expounded the\nScriptures. The word of God was quick and powerful. The apostle,\narmed with the two-edged sword, divided the soul, the joints, and the\nmarrow, carried conviction to the heart. Felix trembled, adds\nour historian, Felix trembled! The fears of Felix are our second\nreflection.\n\nWhat a surprizing scene, my brethren, is here presented to your view.\nThe governor trembled, and the captive spoke without dismay. The\ncaptive made the governor tremble. The governor shuddered in the\npresence of the captive. It would not be surprizing, brethren, if we\nshould make an impression on your hearts (and we shall do so, indeed,\nif our ministry is not, as usual, a sound of empty words); it would\nnot be surprizing if we should make some impression on the hearts of\nour hearers. This sanctuary, these solemnities, these groans, this\nsilence, these arguments, these efforts,--all aid our ministry, and\nunite to convince and persuade you. But here is an orator destitute of\nthese extraneous aids: behold him without any ornament but the truth\nhe preached. What do I say? that he was destitute of extraneous aids?\nSee him in a situation quite the reverse,--a captive, loaded with\nirons, standing before his judge. Yet he made Felix tremble. Felix\ntrembled! Whence proceeded this fear, and this confusion? Nothing is\nmore worthy of your inquiry. Here we must stop for a moment: follow\nus while we trace this fear to its source. We shall consider the\ncharacter of Felix under different views; as a heathen, imperfectly\nacquainted with a future judgment, and the life to come; as a prince,\nor governor, accustomed to see every one humble at his feet; as an\navaricious magistrate, loaded with extortions and crimes; in short, as\na voluptuous man, who has never restricted the gratification of his\nsenses. These are so many reasons of Felix's fears.\n\nFirst, we shall consider Felix as a heathen, imperfectly acquainted\nwith a future judgment and the life to come: I say, imperfectly\nacquainted, and not as wholly ignorant, the heathens having the \"work\nof the law written in their hearts\" (Rom. ii., 15). The force of habit\nhad corrupted nature, but had not effaced its laws. They acknowledged\na judgment to come, but their notions were confused concerning its\nnature.\n\nSuch were the principles of Felix, or rather such were the\nimperfections of his principles, when he heard this discourse of St.\nPaul. You may infer his fears from his character. Figure to\nyourselves a man hearing for the first time the maxims of equity and\nrighteousness inculcated in the gospel. Figure to yourselves a man who\nheard corrected the immorality of pagan theology; what was doubtful,\nillustrated; and what was right, enforced. See a man who knew of no\nother God but the incestuous Jupiter, the lascivious Venus, taught\nthat he must appear before Him, in whose presence the seraphim veil\ntheir faces, and the heavens are not clean. Behold a man, whose\nnotions were confused concerning the state of souls after death,\napprized that God shall judge the world in righteousness. See a man\nwho saw described the smoke, the fire, the chains of darkness, the\nouter darkness, the lake of fire and brimstone; and who saw them\ndelineated by one animated by the Spirit of God. What consternation\nmust have been excited by these terrific truths!\n\nThis we are incapable adequately of comprehending. We must surmount\nthe insensibility acquired by custom. It is but too true that our\nhearts--instead of being imprest by these truths, in proportion to\ntheir discussion--become more obdurate. We hear them without alarm,\nhaving so frequently heard them before. But if, like Felix, we had\nbeen brought up in the darkness of paganism, and if another Paul had\ncome and opened our eyes, and unveiled those sacred terrors, how\nexceedingly should we have feared! This was the case with Felix. He\nperceived the bandage which conceals the sight of futurity drop in a\nmoment. He heard St. Paul, that herald of grace and ambassador to the\nGentiles, he heard him reason on temperance and a judgment to come.\nHis soul was amazed; his heart trembled; his knees smote one against\nanother.\n\nAmazing effects, my brethren, of conscience! Evident argument of the\nvanity of those gods whom idolatry adorns after it has given them\nform! Jupiter and Mercury, it is true, had their altars in the temples\nof the heathens; but the God of heaven and earth has His tribunal in\nthe heart: and, while idolatry presents its incense to sacrilegious\nand incestuous deities, the God of heaven and earth reveals His\nterrors to the conscience, and there loudly condemns both incest and\nsacrilege.\n\nSecondly, consider Felix as a prince; and you will find in this second\noffice a second cause of his fear. When we perceive the great men of\nthe earth devoid of every principle of religion, and even ridiculing\nthose very truths which are the objects of our faith, we feel that\nfaith to waver. They excite a certain suspicion in the mind that our\nsentiments are only prejudices, which have become rooted in man,\nbrought up in the obscurity of humble life. Here is the apology of\nreligion. The Caligulas, the Neros, those potentates of the universe,\nhave trembled in their turn as well as the meanest of their subjects.\nThis independence of mind, so conspicuous among libertines, is\nconsequently an art,--not of disengaging themselves from prejudices,\nbut of shutting their eyes against the light, and of extinguishing the\npurest sentiments of the heart. Felix, educated in a court fraught\nwith the maxims of the great instantly ridicules the apostle's\npreaching. St. Paul, undismayed, attacks him, and finds a conscience\nconcealed in his bosom: the very dignity of Felix is constrained to\naid our apostle by adding weight to his ministry. He demolishes\nthe edifice of Felix's pride. He shows that if a great nation was\ndependent on his pleasure, he himself was dependent on a Sovereign in\nwhose presence the kings of the earth are as nothing. He proves that\ndignities are so very far from exempting men from the judgment of God\nthat, for this very reason, their account becomes the more weighty,\nriches being a trust which Heaven has committed to the great: and\n\"where much is given, much is required.\" He makes him feel this awful\ntruth, that princes are responsible, not only for their own souls,\nbut also for those of their subjects; their good or bad example\ninfluencing, for the most part, the people committed to their care.\n\nSee then Felix in one moment deprived of his tribunal. The judge\nbecame a party. He saw himself rich and in need of nothing; and yet he\nwas \"blind, and naked, and poor.\" He heard a voice from the God of the\nwhole earth, saying unto him, \"Thou profane and wicked prince, remove\nthe diadem and take off the crown. I will overturn, overturn, overturn\nit, and it shall be no more\" (Ezekiel xxi., 25-27). \"Tho thou exalt\nthyself as the eagle, and tho thou set thy nest among the stars,\nthence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord\" (Obadiah, 4). Neither\nthe dignity of governor, nor the favor of Caesar, nor all the glory of\nempire shall deliver thee out of My hand.\n\nThirdly, I restrict myself, my brethren, as much as possible in order\nto execute without exceeding my limits the plan I have conceived;\nand proceed to consider Felix as an avaricious man: to find in this\ndisposition a further cause of his fear. Felix was avaricious, and St.\nPaul instantly transported him into a world in which avarice shall\nreceive its appropriate and most severe punishment. For you know that\nthe grand test by which we shall be judged is charity. \"I was hungry,\nand ye gave me meat\"; and of all the constructions of charity\ncovetousness is the most obstinate and insurmountable.\n\nThis unhappy propensity renders us insensible of our neighbor's\nnecessities. It magnifies the estimate of our wants; it diminishes the\nwants of others. It persuades us that we have need of all, that others\nhave need of nothing. Felix began to perceive the iniquity of this\npassion, and to feel that he was guilty of double idolatry: idolatry,\nin morality, idolatry in religion; idolatry in having offered incense\nto gods, who were not the makers of heaven and earth; idolatry in\nhaving offered incense to Mammon. For the Scriptures teach, and\nexperience confirms, that \"covetousness is idolatry.\" The covetous man\nis not a worshiper of the true God. Gold and silver are the divinities\nhe adores. His heart is with his treasure. Here then is the portrait\nof Felix: a portrait drawn by St. Paul in the presence of Felix, and\nwhich reminded this prince of innumerable prohibitions, innumerable\nfrauds, innumerable extortions; of the widow and the orphan he\nopprest. Here is the cause of Felix's fears. According to an\nexpression of St. James, the \"rust of his gold and silver began to\nwitness against him, and to eat his flesh as with fire\" (James v., 3).\n\nFourthly, consider Felix as a voluptuous man. Here is the final cause\nof his fear. Without repeating all we have said on the depravity of\nthis passion, let one remark suffice, that, if the torments of hell\nare terrible at all, they must especially be so to the voluptuous. The\nvoluptuous man never restricts his sensual gratification; his soul\ndies on the slightest approach of pain. What a terrific impression\nmust not the thought of judgment make on such a character. Shall I,\naccustomed to indulgence and pleasure, become a prey to the worm that\ndieth not and fuel to the fire which is not quenched? Shall I, who\navoid pain with so much caution, be condemned to eternal torments?\nShall I have neither delicious meats nor voluptuous delights? This\nbody, my idol, which I habituate to so much delicacy, shall it be\n\"cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, whose smoke ascendeth up\nforever and ever?\" And this effeminate habit I have of refining on\npleasure, will it render me only the more sensible of my destruction\nand anguish?\n\nSuch are the traits of Felix's character; such are the causes of\nFelix's fear. Happy, if his fear had produced that \"godly sorrow, and\nthat repentance unto salvation not to be repented of.\" Happy if the\nfear of hell had induced him to avoid its torments. But, ah no! he\nfeared, and yet persisted in the causes of his fear. He trembled,\nyet said to St. Paul, \"Go thy way for this time.\" This is our last\nreflection.\n\nHow preposterous, my brethren, is the sinner! What absurdities does\nhe cherish in his heart! For, in short, had the doctrines St. Paul\npreached to Felix been the productions of his brain:--had the thought\nof a future judgment been a chimera, whence proceeded the fears of\nFelix? Why was he so weak as to admit this panic of terror? If, on the\ncontrary, Paul had truth and argument on his side, why did Felix send\nhim away? Such are the contradictions of the sinner. He wishes; he\nrevolts; he denies; he grants; he trembles; and says, \"Go thy way for\nthis time.\" Speak to him concerning the truths of religion, open hell\nto his view, and you will see him affected, devout, and appalled:\nfollow him in life, and you will find that these truths have no\ninfluence whatever on his conduct.\n\nBut are we not mistaken concerning Felix? Did not the speech of St.\nPaul make a deeper impression upon him than we seem to allow? He sent\nthe apostle away, it is true, but it was \"for this time\" only. And\nwho can censure this delay? The infirmities of human nature require\nrelaxation and repose. Felix could afterward recall him. \"Go thy way\nfor this time; when I have a convenient season, I will send for thee.\"\n\nIt pains me, I confess, my brethren, in entering on this head of my\ndiscourse, that I should exhibit to you in the person of Felix the\nportrait of whom? Of wicked men? Alas! of nearly the whole of this\nassembly; most of whom seem to us living in negligence and vice,\nrunning with the children of this world \"to the same excess of riot.\"\nOne would suppose that they had already made their choice, having\nembraced one or the other of these notions: either that religion is\na fantom, or that, all things considered, it is better to endure the\ntorments of hell than to be restricted to the practise of virtue. Oh\nno! that is not their notion. Ask the worse among them. Ask whether\nthey have renounced their salvation. You will not find an individual\nwho will say that he has renounced it. Ask them again whether they\nthink it attainable by following this way of life. They will answer,\nNo. Ask them afterward how they reconcile things so opposite as their\nlife and their hopes. They will answer that they are resolved to\nreform, and by and by they will enter on the work. They will say,\nas Felix said to St. Paul, \"Go thy way for this time; when I have a\nconvenient season, I will call for thee.\" Nothing is less wise than\nthis delay. At a future period I will reform. But who has assured me\nthat at a future period I shall have opportunities of conversion? Who\nhas assured me that God will continue to call me, and that another\nPaul shall thunder in my ears?\n\nI will reform at a future period. But who has told me that God at a\nfuture period will accompany His word with the powerful aids of grace?\nWhile Paul may plant and Apollos may water, is it not God who gives\nthe increase? How then can I flatter myself that the Holy Spirit\nwill continue to knock at the door of my heart after I shall have so\nfrequently obstructed His admission?\n\nI will reform in future. But who has told me that I shall ever desire\nto be converted? Do not habits become confirmed in proportion as they\nare indulged? And is not an inveterate evil very difficult to cure? If\nI can not bear the excision of a slight gangrene, how shall I sustain\nthe operation when the wound is deep?\n\nI will reform in future! But who has told me that I shall live to\na future period? Does not death advance every moment with gigantic\nstrides? Does he not assail the prince in his palace and the peasant\nin his cottage? Does he not send before him monitors and messengers:\nacute pains, which wholly absorb the soul; deliriums, which render\nreason of no avail; deadly stupors, which benumb the brightest and\nmost piercing geniuses? And what is still more awful, does He not\ndaily come without either warning or messenger? Does He not snatch\naway this man without allowing him time to be acquainted with the\nessentials of religion; and that man, without the restitution of\nriches ill acquired; and the other, before he is reconciled to his\nenemy?\n\nInstead of saying \"Go thy way for this time\" we should say, Stay for\nthis time. Stay, while the Holy Spirit is knocking at the door of my\nheart; stay, while my conscience is alarmed; stay, while I yet live;\n\"while it is called to-day.\" The arguments confounded my conscience:\nno matter. \"Thy hand is heavy upon me\": no matter still. Cut, strike,\nconsume; provided it procure my salvation.\n\nBut, however criminal this delay may be, we seem desirous to excuse\nit. \"Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will\ncall for thee.\" It was Felix's business then which induced him to\nput off the apostle. Unhappy business! Awful occupation! It seems\nan enviable situation, my brethren, to be placed at the head of a\nprovince; to speak in the language of majesty; to decide on the\nfortunes of a numerous people; and in all cases to be the ultimate\njudge. But those situations, so happy and so dazzling in appearance,\nare in the main dangerous to the conscience. Those innumerable\nconcerns, this noise and bustle, entirely dissipate the soul. While so\nmuch engaged on earth, we can not be mindful of heaven. When we have\nno leisure we say to St. Paul, \"Go thy way for this time; when I have\na convenient season, I will call for thee.\"\n\nHappy he who, amid the tumult of the most active life, has hours\nconsecrated to reflection, to the examination of his conscience, and\nto insure the \"one thing needful.\" Or, rather, happy he who, in the\nrepose of the middle classes of society,--places between indigence and\naffluence, far from the courts of the great, having neither poverty\nnor riches according to Agur's wish,--can in retirement and quietness\nsee life sweetly glide away, and make salvation, if not the sole, yet\nhis principal, concern.\n\nFelix not only preferred his business to his salvation, but he\nmentions it with evasive disdain. \"When I have a convenient season, I\nwill call for thee.\" \"When I have a convenient season!\" Might we not\nthence infer that the truths discust by St. Paul were not of serious\nimportance? Might we not infer that the soul of Felix was created\nfor the government of Judea; and that the grand doctrines of\nrighteousness, temperance, and a judgment to come ought to serve\nat most but to pass away the time, or merely to engross one's\nleisure--\"when I have a convenient season?\" ...\n\nYes, Christians, this is the only moment on which we can reckon. It\nis, perhaps, the only acceptable time. It is, perhaps, the last day of\nour visitation. Let us improve a period so precious. Let us no\nlonger say by and by--at another time; but let us say to-day--this\nmoment--even now. Let the pastor say: I have been insipid in my\nsermons, and remiss in my conduct; having been more solicitous, during\nthe exercise of my ministry, to advance my family than to build up the\nLord's house, I will preach hereafter with fervor and zeal. I will be\nvigilant, sober, rigorous, and disinterested. Let the miser say: I\nhave riches ill acquired. I will purge my house of illicit wealth. I\nwill overturn the altar of Mammon and erect another to the supreme\nJehovah. Let the prodigal say: I will extinguish the unhappy fires by\nwhich I am consumed and kindle in my bosom the flame of divine love.\nAh, unhappy passions, which war against my soul; sordid attachments;\nirregular propensities; emotions of concupiscence; law in the\nmembers,--I will know you no more. I will make with you an eternal\ndivorce, I will from this moment open my heart to the eternal Wisdom,\nwho condescends to ask it.\n\nIf we are in this happy disposition, if we thus become regenerate, we\nshall enjoy from this moment foretastes of the glory which God has\nprepared. From this moment the truths of religion, so far from casting\ndiscouragement and terror on the soul, shall heighten its consolation\nand joy; from this moment heaven shall open to this audience, paradise\nshall descend into your hearts, and the Holy Spirit shall come and\ndwell there. He will bring that peace, and those joys, which pass all\nunderstanding.\n\n\n\n\nEDWARDS\n\nSPIRITUAL LIGHT\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\n\nJonathan Edwards, the New England divine and metaphysician, was born\nat East Windsor, Connecticut, in 1703. He was graduated early from\nYale College, where he had given much attention to philosophy, became\ntutor of his college, and at nineteen began to preach. His voice and\nmanner did not lend themselves readily to pulpit oratory, but his\nclear, logical, and intense presentation of the truth produced a\nprofound and permanent effect upon his hearers. He wrote what were\nconsidered the most important philosophical treatises of his time. His\nplace among the thinkers of the world is high and indisputable. He had\nmany gifts of intellect and imagination, and a uniform gravity that\nleft no doubt as to his deeply earnest nature. He was one of the\ngreatest preachers of his age. His most widely quoted sermon, \"Sinners\nin the Eyes of an Angry God,\" while powerful and impressive, does not\ndo him justice. It is believed the sermon presented here discloses to\ngreater advantage the tender and saintly side of his character. He\ndied in 1758.\n\n\n\n\nEDWARDS\n\n1703-1758\n\nSPIRITUAL LIGHT\n\n_And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon\nBarjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my\nFather which is in heaven._--Matthew xvi., 17.\n\n\nChrist says these words to Peter upon occasion of his professing\nhis faith in Him as the Son of God. Our Lord was inquiring of His\ndisciples, who men said He was; not that He needed to be informed, but\nonly to introduce and give occasion to what follows. They answer,\nthat some said He was John the Baptist, and some Elias, and others\nJeremias, or one of the prophets. When they had thus given an account\nof who others said He was, Christ asks them, who they said He was?\nSimon Peter, whom we find always zealous and forward, was the first to\nanswer: he readily replied to the question, Thou art Christ, the Son\nof the living God.\n\nUpon this occasion Christ says as He does to him, and of him in the\ntext: in which we may observe,\n\n1. That Peter is pronounced blest on this account. \"Blessed art\nThou.\"--\"Thou art a happy man, that thou art not ignorant of this,\nthat I am Christ, the Son of the living God. Thou art distinguishingly\nhappy. Others are blinded, and have dark and deluded apprehensions, as\nyou have now given an account, some thinking that I am Elias, and some\nthat I am Jeremias, and some one thing and some another; but none of\nthem thinking right, all of them misled. Happy art thou, that art so\ndistinguished as to know the truth in this matter.\"\n\n2. The evidence of this his happiness declared; viz., that God, and He\nonly, had revealed it to him. This is an evidence of his being blest.\n\nFirst. As it shows how peculiarly favored he was of God above others:\n\"How highly favored art thou, that others that are wise and great men,\nthe scribes, Pharisees, and rulers, and the nation in general, are\nleft in darkness, to follow their own misguided apprehensions; and\nthat thou shouldst be singled out, as it were, by name, that my\nheavenly Father should thus set His love on thee, Simon Barjona. This\nargues thee blest, that thou shouldst thus be the object of God's\ndistinguishing love.\"\n\nSecondly. It evidences his blessedness also, as it intimates that this\nknowledge is above any that flesh and blood can reveal. \"This is such\nknowledge as my Father which is in heaven only can give: it is too\nhigh and excellent to be communicated by such means as other knowledge\nis. Thou art blest, that thou knowest that which God alone can teach\nthee.\"\n\nThe original of this knowledge is here declared, both negatively and\npositively. Positively, as God is here declared the author of it.\nNegatively, as it is declared, that flesh and blood had not revealed\nit. God is the author of all knowledge and understanding whatsoever.\nHe is the author of the knowledge that is obtained by human learning:\nHe is the author of all moral prudence, and of the knowledge and skill\nthat men have in their secular business. Thus it is said of all in\nIsrael that were wise-hearted, and skilful in embroidering, that God\nhad filled them with the spirit of wisdom. (Exod. xxviii., 3.)\n\nGod is the author of such knowledge; but yet not so but that flesh and\nblood reveals it. Mortal men are capable of imparting that knowledge\nof human arts and sciences, and skill in temporal affairs. God is the\nauthor of such knowledge by those means: flesh and blood is made use\nof by God as the mediate or second cause of it; he conveys it by the\npower and influence of natural means. But this spiritual knowledge,\nspoken of in the text, is that God is the author of, and none else:\nhe reveals it, and flesh and blood reveals it not. He imparts this\nknowledge immediately, not making use of any intermediate natural\ncauses, as he does in other knowledge. What has passed in the\npreceding discourse naturally occasioned Christ to observe this;\nbecause the disciples had been telling how others did not know Him,\nbut were generally mistaken about Him, and divided and confounded in\ntheir opinions of Him: but Peter had declared his assured faith, that\nHe was the Son of God. Now it was natural to observe, how it was not\nflesh and blood that had revealed it to him, but God: for if this\nknowledge were dependent on natural causes or means, how came it to\npass that they, a company of poor fishermen, illiterate men, and\npersons of low education, attained to the knowledge of the truth;\nwhile the scribes and Pharisees, men of vastly higher advantages\nand greater knowledge and sagacity in other matters, remained in\nignorance? This could be owing only to the gracious distinguishing\ninfluence and revelation of the Spirit of God. Hence, what I would\nmake the subject of my present discourse from these words, is this\ndoctrine. That there is such a thing as a spiritual and divine light,\nimmediately imparted to the soul by God, of a different nature from\nany that is obtained by natural means.\n\n1. Those convictions that natural men may have of their sin and misery\nis not this spiritual and divine light. Men in a natural condition may\nhave convictions of the guilt that lies upon them, and of the anger of\nGod, and their danger of divine vengeance. Such convictions are from\nlight or sensibleness of truth. That some sinners have a greater\nconviction of their guilt and misery than others, is because some have\nmore light, or more of an apprehension of truth than others. And\nthis light and conviction may be from the Spirit of God; the Spirit\nconvinces men of sin: but yet nature is much more concerned in it than\nin the communication of that spiritual and divine light that is spoken\nof in the doctrine; it is from the Spirit of God only as assisting\nnatural principles, and not as infusing any new principles. Common\ngrace differs from special, in that it influences only by assisting\nof nature; and not by imparting grace, or bestowing anything above\nnature. The light that is obtained is wholly natural, or of no\nsuperior kind to what mere nature attains to, tho more of that kind be\nobtained than would be obtained if men were left wholly to themselves:\nor, in other words, common grace only assists the faculties of the\nsoul to do that more fully which they do by nature, as natural\nconscience or reason will by mere nature, make a man sensible of\nguilt, and will accuse and condemn him when he has done amiss.\nConscience is a principle natural to men; and the work that it doth\nnaturally, or of itself, is to give an apprehension of right and\nwrong, and to suggest to the mind the relation that there is between\nright and wrong and a retribution. The Spirit of God, in those\nconvictions which unregenerate men sometimes have, assist conscience\nto do this work in a further degree than it would do if they were left\nto themselves: He helps it against those things that tend to stupify\nit, and obstruct its exercise. But in the renewing and sanctifying\nwork of the Holy Ghost, those things are wrought in the soul that are\nabove nature, and of which there is nothing of the like kind in the\nsoul by nature; and they are caused to exist in the soul habitually,\nand according to such a stated constitution or law that lays such\na foundation of exercises in a continued course, as is called a\nprincipal of nature. Not only are remaining principles assisted to do\ntheir work more freely and fully, but those principles are restored\nthat were utterly destroyed by the fall; and the mind thenceforward\nhabitually exerts those acts that the dominion of sin has made it as\nwholly destitute of, as a dead body is of vital acts.\n\nThe Spirit of God acts in a very different manner in the one case,\nfrom what He doth in the other. He may indeed act upon the mind of a\nnatural man, but He acts in the mind of a saint as an indwelling vital\nprinciple. He acts upon the mind of an unregenerate person as an\nextrinsic, occasional agent; for in acting upon them, He doth not\nunite Himself to them; for notwithstanding all His influences that\nthey may be the subjects of, they are still sensual, having not the\nSpirit (Jude 19). But He unites Himself with the mind of a saint,\ntakes him for his temple, actuates and influences him as a new\nsupernatural principle of life and action. There is this difference,\nthat the Spirit of God, in acting in the soul of a godly man, exerts\nand communicates Himself there in his own proper nature. Holiness is\nthe proper nature of the spirit of God. The Holy Spirit operates in\nthe minds of the godly, by uniting Himself to them, and living in\nthem, and exerting His own nature in the exercise of their faculties.\nThe Spirit of God may act upon a creature, and yet not in acting\ncommunicate Himself. The Spirit of God may act upon inanimate\ncreatures; as, the Spirit moved upon the face of the waters, in the\nbeginning of the creation; so the Spirit of God may act upon the minds\nof men many ways, and communicate Himself no more than when He acts\nupon an inanimate creature. For instance, He may excite thoughts in\nthem, may assist their natural reason and understanding, or may assist\nother natural principles, and this without any union with the soul,\nbut may act, as it were, as upon an external object. But as He acts\nin His holy influences and spiritual operations, He acts in a way\nof peculiar communication of Himself; so that the subject is thence\ndenominated spiritual.\n\nThis spiritual and divine light does not consist in any impression\nmade upon the imagination. It is no impression upon the mind, as tho\none saw anything with the bodily eyes: it is no imagination or idea of\nan outward light or glory or any beauty of form or countenance, or a\nvisible luster or brightness of any object. The imagination may be\nstrongly imprest with such things; but this is not spiritual light.\nIndeed, when the mind has a lively discovery of spiritual things, and\nis greatly affected by the power of divine light, it may, and probably\nvery commonly doth, much affect the imagination; so that impressions\nof an outward beauty or brightness may accompany those spiritual\ndiscoveries. But spiritual light is not that impression upon the\nimagination, but an exceeding different thing from it. Natural men\nmay have lively impressions on their imaginations; and we can not\ndetermine but the devil, who transforms himself into an angel of\nlight, may cause imaginations of an outward beauty, or visible glory,\nand of sounds and speeches, and other such things; but these are\nthings of a vastly inferior nature to spiritual light.\n\nThis spiritual light is not the suggesting of any new truths or\npropositions not contained in the Word of God. This suggesting of\nnew truths or doctrines to the mind, independent of any antecedent\nrevelation of those propositions, either in word or writing, is\ninspiration; such as the prophets and apostles had, and such as some\nenthusiasts pretend to. But this spiritual light that I am speaking\nof is quite a different thing from inspiration; it reveals no new\ndoctrine, it suggests no new proposition to the mind, it teaches no\nnew thing of God, or Christ, or another world, not taught in the\nBible, but only gives a due apprehension of those things that are\ntaught in the Word of God.\n\nIt is not every affecting view that men have of the things of religion\nthat is this spiritual and divine light. Men by mere principles of\nnature are capable of being affected with things that have a special\nrelation to religion as well as other things. A person by mere nature,\nfor instance, may be liable to be affected with the story of Jesus\nChrist, and the sufferings He underwent, as well as by any other\ntragical story; he may be the more affected with it from the interest\nhe conceives mankind to have in it; yea, he may be affected with it\nwithout believing it; as well as a man may be affected with what he\nreads in a romance, or sees acted in a stage play. He may be affected\nwith a lively and eloquent description of many pleasant things that\nattend the state of the blest in heaven, as well as his imagination\nbe entertained by a romantic description of the pleasantness of\nfairy-land, or the like. And that common-belief of the truth of the\nthings of religion, that persons may have from education or otherwise,\nmay help forward their affection. We read in Scripture of many that\nwere greatly affected with things of a religious nature, who yet are\nthere presented as wholly graceless, and many of them very ill men. A\nperson therefore may have affecting views of religion, and yet be very\ndestitute of spiritual light. Flesh and blood may be the author of\nthis; one man may give another an affecting view of divine things but\ncommon assistance: but God alone can give a spiritual discovery of\nthem.\n\nBut I proceed to show positively what this spiritual and divine light\nis.\n\nAnd it may be thus described: a true sense of the divine excellency of\nthe things revealed in the Word of God, and a conviction of the truth\nand reality of them thence arising.\n\nThis spiritual light primarily consists in the former of these--viz.,\na real sense and apprehension of the divine excellency of things\nrevealed in the Word of God. A spiritual and saving conviction of the\ntruth and reality of these things arises from such a sight of their\ndivine excellency and glory; so that this conviction of their truth is\nan effect and natural consequence of this sight of their divine glory.\nThere is therefore in this spiritual light,\n\n1. A true sense of the divine and superlative excellency of the things\nof religion; a real sense of the excellency of God and Jesus Christ,\nand of the work of redemption, and the ways and works of God revealed\nin the gospel. There is a divine and superlative glory in these\nthings; an excellency that is of a vastly higher kind, and more\nsublime nature than in other things; a glory greatly distinguishing\nthem from all that is earthly and temporal. He that is spiritually\nenlightened truly apprehends and sees it, or has a sense of it. He\ndoes not merely rationally believe that God is glorious, but he has\na sense of the gloriousness of God in his heart. There is not only a\nrational belief that is holy, and that holiness is a good thing, but\nthere is a sense of the loveliness of God's holiness. There is not\nonly a speculative judging that God is gracious, but a sense how\namiable God is upon that account, or a sense of the beauty of this\ndivine attribute.\n\nThere is a twofold understanding or knowledge of good that God has\nmade the mind of man capable of. The first, that which is merely\nspeculative and notional; as when a person only speculatively judges\nthat anything is, which, by the agreement of mankind, is called good\nor excellent, viz., that which is most to general advantage, and\nbetween which and a reward there is a suitableness, and the like. And\nthe other is, that which consists in the sense of the heart: as when\nthere is a sense of the beauty, amiableness, or sweetness of a thing;\nso that the heart is sensible of pleasure and delight in the presence\nof the idea of it. In the former is exercised merely the speculative\nfaculty, or the understanding, strictly so called, or as spoken of in\ndistinction from the will or disposition of the soul. In the latter,\nthe will, or inclination, or heart is mainly concerned.\n\nThus there is a difference between having an opinion that God is holy\nand gracious, and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that\nholiness and grace. There is a difference between having a rational\njudgment that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness. A\nman may have the former that knows not how honey tastes; but a man can\nnot have the latter unless he has an idea of the taste of honey in\nhis mind. So there is a difference between believing that a person is\nbeautiful and having a sense of his beauty. The former may be obtained\nby hearsay, but the latter only by seeing the countenance. There is a\nwide difference between mere speculative rational judging anything\nto be excellent, and having a sense of its sweetness and beauty. The\nformer rests only in the head, speculation only is concerned in it;\nbut the heart is concerned in the latter. When the heart is sensible\nof the beauty and amiableness of a thing, it necessarily feels\npleasure in the apprehension. It is implied in a person's being\nheartily sensible of the loveliness of a thing, that the idea of it is\nsweet and pleasant to his soul; which is a far different thing from\nhaving a rational opinion that it is excellent.\n\n2. There arises from this sense of divine excellency of things\ncontained in the word of God a conviction of the truth and reality of\nthem; and that either directly or indirectly.\n\nFirst, indirectly, and that two ways.\n\n(1) As the prejudices that are in the heart, against the truth of\ndivine things, are hereby removed; so that the mind becomes susceptive\nof the due force of rational arguments for their truth. The mind\nof man is naturally full of prejudices against the truth of divine\nthings: it is full of enmity against the doctrines of the gospel;\nwhich is a disadvantage to those arguments that prove their truth, and\ncauses them to lose their force upon the mind. But when a person has\ndiscovered to him the divine excellency of Christian doctrines, this\ndestroys the enmity, removes those prejudices, and sanctifies the\nreason, and causes it to lie open to the force of arguments for their\ntruth.\n\nHence was the different effect that Christ's miracles had to convince\nthe disciples from what they had to convince the scribes and\nPharisees. Not that they had a stronger reason, or had their reason\nmore improved; but their reason was sanctified, and those blinding\nprejudices, that the scribes and Pharisees were under, were removed by\nthe sense they had of the excellency of Christ and His doctrine.\n\n(2) It not only removes the hindrances of reason, but positively helps\nreason. It makes even the speculative notions the more lively. It\nengages the attention of the mind, with the more fixedness and\nintenseness to that kind of objects; which causes it to have a\nclearer view of them, and enables it more clearly to see their mutual\nrelations, and occasions it to take more notice of them. The ideas\nthemselves that otherwise are dim and obscure, are by this means\nimprest with the greater strength, and have a light cast upon them, so\nthat the mind can better judge of them; as he that beholds the objects\non the face of the earth, when the light of the sun is cast upon them,\nis under greater advantage to discern them in their true forms and\nmutual relations, than he that sees them in a dim starlight or\ntwilight.\n\nThe mind having a sensibleness of the excellency of divine objects,\ndwells upon them with delight; and the powers of the soul are more\nawakened and enlivened to employ themselves in the contemplation of\nthem, and exert themselves more fully and much more to the purpose.\nThe beauty and sweetness of the objects draw on the faculties, and\ndraw forth their exercises; so that reason itself is under far greater\nadvantages for its proper and free exercises, and to attain its proper\nend, free of darkness and delusion.\n\nSecondly. A true sense of the divine excellency of these things is so\nsuperlative as more directly and immediately to convince of the\ntruth of them; and that because the excellency of these things is so\nsuperlative. There is a beauty in them that is so divine and godlike,\nthat it greatly and evidently distinguishes them from things merely\nhuman, or that men are the inventors and authors of; a glory that is\nso high and great, that when clearly seen, it commands assent to their\ndivinity and reality. When there is an actual and lively discovery of\nthis beauty and excellency, it will not allow of any such thought\nas that it is a human work, or the fruit of men's invention. This\nevidence that they who are spiritually enlightened have of the truth\nof the things of religion, is a kind of intuitive and immediate\nevidence. They believe the doctrines of God's word to be divine,\nbecause they see divinity in them; _i.e._, they see a divine, and\ntranscendent, and most evidently distinguishing glory in them; such a\nglory as, if clearly seen, does not leave room to doubt of their being\nof God, and not of men.\n\nSuch a conviction of the truth of religion as this, arising, these\nways, from a sense of the divine excellency of them, is that true\nspiritual conviction that there is in saving faith. And this original\nof it, is that by which it is most essentially distinguished from that\ncommon assent, which unregenerated men are capable of.\n\nI proceed now to show how this light is immediately given by God, and\nnot obtained by natural means.\n\n1. It is not intended that the natural faculties are not made use of\nin it. The natural faculties are the subject of this light: and they\nare the subject in such a manner that they are not merely passive,\nbut active in it; the acts and exercises of men's understanding are\nconcerned and made use of in it. God, in letting in this light into\nthe soul, deals with man according to his nature, or as a rational\ncreature; and makes use of his human faculties. But yet this light is\nnot the less immediately from God for that; tho the faculties are made\nuse of, it is as the subject and not as the cause; and that acting of\nthe faculties in it is not the cause, but is either implied in the\nthing itself (in the light that is imparted) or is the consequence of\nit; as the use that we make of our eyes in beholding various objects,\nwhen the sun arises, is not the cause of the light that discovers\nthose objects to us.\n\n2. It is not intended that outward means have no concern in this\naffair. As I have observed already, it is not in this affair, as it is\nin inspiration, where new truths are suggested: for here is by this\nlight only given a due apprehension of the same truths that are\nrevealed in the word of God; and therefore it is not given without\nthe word. The gospel is made use of in this affair: this light is the\nlight of the glorious gospel of Christ. (II Cor. iv., 4.) The gospel\nis as a glass, by which this light is conveyed to us (I Cor. xiii.,\n12). Now we see through a glass.\n\n3. When it is said that this light is given immediately by God, and\nnot obtained by natural means, hereby is intended that it is given by\nGod without making use of any means that operate by their own power,\nor a natural force. God makes use of means; but it is not as mediate\ncauses to produce this effect. There are not truly any second causes\nof it; but it is produced by God immediately. The Word of God is no\nproper cause of this effect: it does not operate by any natural force\nin it. The Word of God is only made use of to convey to the mind the\nsubject matter of this saving instruction, and this indeed it doth\nconvey to us by natural force or influence. It conveys to our minds\nthese and those doctrines; it is the cause of the notion of them in\nour heads, but not of the sense of the divine excellency of them in\nour hearts. Indeed, a person can not have spiritual light without the\nWord. But that does not argue that the Word properly causes the light\nThe mind can not see the excellency of any doctrine unless that\ndoctrine be first in the mind; but the seeing of the excellency of the\ndoctrine may be immediately from the Spirit of God; tho the conveying\nof the doctrine or proposition itself may be by the Word. So that the\nnotions that are the subject-matter of this light are conveyed to the\nmind by the Word of God; but that due sense of the heart, wherein this\nlight formally consists, is immediately by the Spirit of God. As for\ninstance, that notion that there is a Christ, and that Christ is holy\nand gracious, is conveyed to the mind by the Word of God; but the\nsense of the excellency of Christ by reason of that holiness and\ngrace, is nevertheless immediately the work of the Holy Spirit.\n\nThis is the most excellent and divine wisdom that any creature is\ncapable of. It is more excellent than any human learning; it is far\nmore excellent than all the knowledge of the greatest philosophers or\nstatesmen. Yea, the least glimpse of the glory of God in the face of\nChrist doth more exalt and ennoble the soul than all the knowledge of\nthose that have the greatest speculative understanding in divinity\nwithout grace. This knowledge has the most noble object that is or\ncan be, viz., the divine glory or excellency of God and Christ. The\nknowledge of these objects is that wherein consists the most excellent\nknowledge of the angels, yea, of God himself.\n\nThis knowledge is that which is above all others sweet and joyful.\nMen have a great deal of pleasure in human knowledge, in studies of\nnatural things; but this is nothing to that joy which arises from this\ndivine light shining into the soul. This light gives a view of those\nthat are immensely the most exquisitely beautiful, and capable of\ndelighting the eye of the understanding. This spiritual light is\nthe dawning of the light of glory in the heart. There is nothing so\npowerful as this to support persons in affliction, and to give the\nmind peace and brightness in this stormy and dark world.\n\nThis light is such as effectually influences the inclination, and\nchanges the nature of the soul. It assimilates the human nature to the\ndivine nature, and changes the soul into an image of the same glory\nthat is beheld (II Cor. iii., 18), \"But we all with open face,\nbeholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the\nsame image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.\"\nThis knowledge will wean from the world, and raise the inclination\nto heavenly things. It will turn the heart to God as the fountain of\ngood, and to choose him for the only portion. This light, and this\nonly, will bring the soul to a saving close with Christ. It conforms\nthe heart to the gospel, mortifies its enmity and opposition against\nthe schemes of salvation therein revealed: it causes the heart to\nembrace the joyful tidings, and entirely to adhere to, and acquiesce\nin the revelation of Christ as our Savior: it causes the whole soul\nto accord and symphonize with it, admitting it with entire credit and\nrespect; cleaving to it with full inclination and affection; and it\neffectually disposes the soul to give up itself entirely to Christ.\n\nThis light, and this only, has its fruit in a universal holiness of\nlife. No merely notional or speculative understanding of the doctrines\nof religion will ever bring us to this. But this light, as it\nreaches the bottom of the heart, and changes the nature, so it\nwill effectually dispose to a universal obedience. It shows God's\nworthiness to be obeyed and served. It draws forth the heart in a\nsincere love to God, which is the only principle of a true, gracious,\nand universal obedience; and it convinces of the reality of those\nglorious rewards that God has promised to them that obey him.\n\n\n\n\nWESLEY\n\nGOD'S LOVE TO FALLEN MAN\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\n\nJohn Wesley was born at Epworth rectory in Lincolnshire, England,\nin 1703. He was educated at Charterhouse school and in 1720 entered\nChrist Church College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1724. He was\nnoted for his classical taste as well as for his religious fervor, and\non being ordained deacon by Bishop Potter, of Oxford, he became his\nfather's curate in 1727. Being recalled to Oxford to fulfil his duties\nas fellow of Lincoln he became the head of the Oxford \"Methodists,\" as\nthey were called. He had the characteristics of a great general, being\nsystematic in his work and a lover of discipline, and established\nMethodism in London by his sermons at the Foundery. His speaking style\nsuggested power in repose. His voice was clear and resonant, his\ncountenance kindly, and his tone extremely moderate. His sermons wore\ncarefully written, altho not read in the pulpit. They moved others\nbecause he was himself moved. At an advanced age he preached several\ntimes a day, and traveled many miles on horseback. At seventy years\nof age he had published thirty octavo volumes. He composed hymns on\nhorseback, and studied French and mathematics in spare hours, and was\nnever a moment idle until his death, in 1791.\n\n\n\n\nWESLEY\n\n1703--1791\n\nGOD'S LOVE TO FALLEN MAN\n\n_Not as the transgression, so is the free gift_.--Romans v., 15.\n\n\nHow exceedingly common, and how bitter is the outcry against our first\nparent, for the mischief which he not only brought upon himself, but\nentailed upon his latest posterity! It was by his wilful rebellion\nagainst God \"that sin entered into the world.\" \"By one man's\ndisobedience,\" as the apostle observes, the many, as many as were then\nin the loins of their forefathers, were made, or constituted sinners:\nnot only deprived of the favor of God, but also of His image; of all\nvirtue, righteousness, and true holiness, and sunk partly into the\nimage of the devil, in pride, malice, and all other diabolical\ntempers; partly into the image of the brute, being fallen under the\ndominion of brutal passions and groveling appetites. Hence also death\nentered into the world, with all his forerunners and attendants; pain,\nsickness, and a whole train of uneasy as well as unholy passions and\ntempers.\n\n\"For all this we may thank Adam,\" has been echoed down from generation\nto generation. The self-same charge has been repeated in every age and\nevery nation where the oracles of God are known, in which alone this\ngrand and important event has been discovered to the children of men.\nHas not your heart, and probably your lips too, joined in the general\ncharge? How few are there of those who believe the Scriptural relation\nof the Fall of Man, and have not entertained the same thought\nconcerning our first parent? severely condemning him, that, through\nwilful disobedience to the sole command of his Creator,\n\n  Brought death into the world and all our wo.\n\nNay, it were well if the charge rested here: but it is certain it does\nnot. It can not be denied that it frequently glances from Adam to his\nCreator. Have not thousands, even of those that are called Christians,\ntaken the liberty to call His mercy, if not His justice also, into\nquestion, on this very account? Some indeed have done this a little\nmore modestly, in an oblique and indirect manner: but others have\nthrown aside the mask, and asked, \"Did not God foresee that Adam would\nabuse his liberty? And did He not know the baneful consequences which\nthis must naturally have on all his posterity? And why then did He\npermit that disobedience? Was it not easy for the Almighty to have\nprevented it?\" He certainly did foresee the whole. This can not be\ndenied. \"For known unto God are all His works from the beginning of\nthe world.\" And it was undoubtedly in His Power to prevent it; for He\nhath all power both in heaven and earth. But it was known to Him at\nthe same time, that it was best upon the whole not to prevent it. He\nknew that, \"not as the transgression, so is the free gift\"; that the\nevil resulting from the former was not as the good resulting from the\nlatter, not worthy to be compared with it. He saw that to permit\nthe fall of the first man was far best for mankind in general; that\nabundantly more good than evil would accrue to the posterity of Adam\nby his fall; that if \"sin abounded\" thereby over all the earth, yet\ngrace \"would much more abound\"; yea, and that to every individual of\nthe human race, unless it was his own choice.\n\nIt is exceedingly strange that hardly anything has been written, or\nat least published, on this subject: nay, that it has been so little\nweighed or understood by the generality of Christians: especially\nconsidering that it is not a matter of mere curiosity, but a truth of\nthe deepest importance; it being impossible, on any other principle,\n\n  To assert a gracious Providence,\n  And justify the ways of God with men:\n\nand considering withal, how plain this important truth is, to all\nsensible and candid inquirers. May the Lover of men open the eyes\nof our understanding, to perceive clearly that by the fall of Adam\nmankind in general have gained a capacity,\n\nFirst, of being more holy and happy on earth, and,\n\nSecondly, of being more happy in heaven than otherwise they could have\nbeen.\n\nAnd, first, mankind in general have gained by the fall of Adam a\ncapacity of attaining more holiness and happiness on earth than it\nwould have been possible for them to attain if Adam had not fallen.\nFor if Adam had not fallen, Christ had not died. Nothing can be more\nclear than this: nothing more undeniable: the more thoroughly we\nconsider the point, the more deeply shall we be convinced of it.\nUnless all the partakers of human nature had received that deadly\nwound in Adam it would not have been needful for the Son of God to\ntake our nature upon Him. Do you not see that this was the very ground\nof His coming into the world? \"By one man sin entered into the world,\nand death by sin. And thus death passed upon all\" through him, \"in\nwhom all men sinned.\" (Rom. v., 12.) Was it not to remedy this very\nthing that \"the Word was made flesh\"? that \"as in Adam all died, so\nin Christ all might be made alive\"? Unless, then, many had been made\nsinners by the disobedience of one, by the obedience of one many would\nnot have been made righteous (ver. 18); so there would have been no\nroom for that amazing display of the Son of God's love to mankind.\nThere would have been no occasion for His \"being obedient unto death,\neven the death of the cross.\" It would not then have been said, to the\nastonishment of all the hosts of heaven, \"God so loved the world,\"\nyea, the ungodly world, which had no thought or desire of returning to\nHim, \"that he gave his Son\" out of His bosom, His only begotten Son,\nto the end that \"whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but\nhave everlasting life.\" Neither could we then have said, \"God was in\nChrist reconciling the world to himself\"; or that He \"made him to be\nsin,\" that is, a sin-offering \"for us, who know no sin, that we might\nbe made the righteousness of God through him.\" There would have been\nno such occasion for such \"an advocate with the Father\" as \"Jesus\nChrist the Righteous\"; neither for His appearing \"at the right hand of\nGod, to make intercession for us.\"\n\nWhat is the necessary consequence of this? It is this: there could\nthen have been no such thing as faith in God, thus loving the world,\ngiving His only Son for us men, and for our salvation. There could\nhave been no such thing as faith in the Son of God, as loving us and\ngiving Himself for us. There could have been no faith in the Spirit of\nGod, as renewing the image of God in our hearts, as raising us from\nthe death of sin unto the life of righteousness. Indeed, the whole\nprivilege of justification by faith could have no existence; there\ncould have been no redemption in the blood of Christ: neither could\nChrist have been \"made of God unto us,\" \"wisdom, righteousness,\nsanctification, or redemption.\"\n\nAnd the same grand blank which was in our faith, must likewise have\nbeen in our love. We might have loved the Author of our being, the\nFather of angels and men, as our Creator and Preserver: we might have\nsaid, \"O Lord our Governor, how excellent is Thy name in all the\nearth!\" But we could not have loved Him under the nearest and dearest\nrelation, as delivering up His Son for us all. We might have loved\nthe Son of God, as being the \"brightness of his Father's glory,\" the\nexpress image of His person (altho this ground seems to belong rather\nto the inhabitants of heaven than earth). But we could not have loved\nHim as \"bearing our sins in his own body on the tree,\" and \"by\nthat one oblation of himself once offered, making a full oblation,\nsacrifice, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.\" We would\nnot have been \"made conformable to his death,\" nor have known \"the\npower of his resurrection.\" We could not have loved the Holy Ghost as\nrevealing to us the Father and the Son, as opening the eyes of our\nunderstanding, bringing us out of darkness into His marvelous light,\nrenewing the image of God in our soul, and sealing us unto the day of\nredemption. So that, in truth, what is now \"in the sight of God, even\nthe Father,\" not of fallible men \"pure religion and undefiled,\" would\nthen, have had no being: inasmuch as it wholly depends on those grand\nprinciples, \"By grace ye are saved through faith\"; and \"Jesus Christ\nis of God made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification,\nand redemption.\"\n\nWe see then what unspeakable advantage we derive from the fall of our\nfirst parent, with regard to faith: faith both in God the Father,\nwho spared not His own Son, His only Son, but wounded Him for our\ntransgressions and bruised Him for our iniquities; and in God the Son,\nwho poured out His soul for us transgressors, and washed us in His own\nblood. We see what advantage we derive therefrom with regard to the\nlove of God, both of God the Father and God the Son. The chief ground\nof this love, as long as we remain in the body, is plainly declared\nby the apostle, \"We love him, because he first loved us.\" But the\ngreatest instance of His love had never been given if Adam had not\nfallen.\n\nAnd as our faith, both in God the Father and the Son, receives an\nunspeakable increase, if not its very being, from this grand event, as\ndoes also our love both of the Father and the Son: so does the love of\nour neighbor also, our benevolence to all mankind: which can not but\nincrease in the same proportion with our faith and love of God. For\nwho does not apprehend the force of that inference drawn by the loving\napostle, \"Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one\nanother.\" If God so loved us--observe, the stress of the argument lies\non this very point: so loved us! as to deliver up His only Son to die\na curst death for our salvation. \"Beloved, what manner of love is\nthis,\" wherewith God hath loved us? So as to give His only Son! In\nglory equal with the Father: in majesty coeternal! What manner of love\nis this wherewith the only begotten Son of God hath loved us, as to\nempty Himself, as far as possible, of His eternal Godhead; as to\ndivest Himself of that glory, which He had with the Father before the\nworld began; as to take upon Him \"the form of a servant, being found\nin fashion as a man\"! And then to humble Himself still further, \"being\nobedient unto death, even the death of the cross\"! If God so loved us,\nhow ought we to love one another? But this motive to brotherly love\nhad been totally wanting if Adam had not fallen. Consequently we could\nnot then have loved one another in so high a degree as we may now.\nNor could there have been that height and depth in the command of our\nblest Lord. \"As I have loved you, so love one another.\"\n\nSuch gainers may we be by Adam's fall, with regard both to the love of\nGod and of our neighbor. But there is another grand point, which, tho\nlittle adverted to, deserves our deepest consideration. By that one\nact of our first parent, not only \"sin entered into the world,\" but\npain also, and was alike entailed on his whole posterity. And herein\nappeared, not only the justice, but the unspeakable goodness of God.\nFor how much good does He continually bring out of this evil! How much\nholiness and happiness out of pain!\n\nHow innumerable are the benefits which God conveys to the children of\nmen through the channel of sufferings! so that it might well be said,\n\"What are termed afflictions in the language of men, are in the\nlanguage of God styled blessings.\" Indeed, had there been no suffering\nin the world, a considerable part of religion, yea, and in some\nrespects, the most excellent part, could have no place therein: since\nthe very existence of it depends on our suffering: so that had there\nbeen no pain it could have had no being. Upon this foundation, even\nour suffering, it is evident all our passive graces are built; yea,\nthe noblest of all Christian graces, love enduring all things. Here is\nthe ground for resignation to God, enabling us to say from the heart,\nand in every trying hour, \"It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him\ngood.\" \"Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we\nnot receive evil?\" And what a glorious spectacle is this? Did it not\nconstrain even a heathen to cry out, \"_Ecce spectaculum Deo dignum!_\nSee a sight worthy of God: a good man struggling with adversity, and\nsuperior to it.\" Here is the ground for confidence in God, both with\nregard to what we feel, and with regard to what we should fear, were\nit not that our soul is calmly stayed on him. What room could there\nbe for trust in God if there was no such thing as pain or danger? Who\nmight not say then, \"The cup which my Father hath given me, shall\nI not drink it?\" It is by sufferings that our faith is tried, and,\ntherefore, made more acceptable to God. It is in the day of trouble\nthat we have occasion to say, \"Tho he slay me, yet will I trust in\nhim.\" And this is well pleasing to God, that we should own Him in the\nface of danger; in defiance of sorrow, sickness, pain, or death.\n\nAgain: Had there been neither natural nor moral evil in the\nworld, what must have become of patience, meekness, gentleness,\nlong-suffering? It is manifest they could have had no being: seeing\nall these have evil for their object. If, therefore, evil had never\nentered into the world, neither could these have had any place in it.\nFor who could have returned good for evil, had there been no evil-doer\nin the universe? How had it been possible, on that supposition, to\novercome evil with good? Will you say, \"But all these graces might\nhave been divinely infused into the hearts of men?\" Undoubtedly they\nmight: but if they had, there would have been no use or exercise for\nthem. Whereas in the present state of things we can never long want\noccasion to exercise them. And the more they are exercised, the\nmore all our graces are strengthened and increased. And in the same\nproportion as our resignation, our confidence in God, our patience and\nfortitude, our meekness, gentleness, and long-suffering, together\nwith our faith and love of God and man increase, must our happiness\nincrease, even in the present world.\n\nYet again: As God's permission of Adam's fall gave all his posterity\na thousand opportunities of suffering, and thereby of exercising all\nthose passive graces which increase both their holiness and happiness,\nso it gives them opportunities of doing good in numberless instances,\nof exercising themselves in various good works, which otherwise could\nhave had no being. And what exertions of benevolence, of compassion,\nof godlike mercy, had then been totally prevented! Who could then have\nsaid to the lover of men,\n\n  Thy mind throughout my life be shown,\n    While listening to the wretches' cry,\n  The widow's or the orphan's groan;\n    On mercy's wings I swiftly fly\n  The poor and needy to relieve;\n    Myself, my all, for them to give?\n\nIt is the just observation of a benevolent man,\n\n  --All worldly joys are less,\n  Than that one joy of doing kindnesses.\n\nSurely in keeping this commandment, if no other, there is great\nreward. \"As we have time, let us do good unto all men;\" good of every\nkind and in every degree. Accordingly the more good we do (other\ncircumstances being equal), the happier we shall be. The more we deal\nour bread to the hungry, and cover the naked with garments; the more\nwe relieve the stranger, and visit them that are sick or in prison;\nthe more kind offices we do to those that groan under the various\nevils of human life; the more comfort we receive even in the present\nworld; the greater the recompense we have in our own bosom.\n\nTo sum up what has been said under this head: As the more holy we are\nupon earth, the more happy we must be (seeing there is an inseparable\nconnection between holiness and happiness); as the more good we do to\nothers, the more of present reward rebounds into our own bosom:\neven as our sufferings for God lead us to rejoice in Him \"with joy\nunspeakable and full of glory\"; therefore, the fall of Adam, first, by\ngiving us an opportunity of being far more holy; secondly, by giving\nus the occasions of doing innumerable good works, which otherwise\ncould not have been done; and, thirdly, by putting it into our power\nto suffer for God, whereby \"the spirit of glory and of God rests upon\nus\": may be of such advantage to the children of men, even in the\npresent life, as they will not thoroughly comprehend till they attain\nlife everlasting.\n\nIt is then we shall be enabled fully to comprehend not only the\nadvantages which accrue at the present time to the sons of men by the\nfall of their first parent, but the infinitely greater advantages\nwhich they may reap from it in eternity. In order to form some\nconception of this, we may remember the observation of the apostle,\n\"As one star differeth from another star in glory, so also is the\nresurrection of the dead.\" The most glorious stars will undoubtedly\nbe those who are the most holy; who bear most of that image of God\nwherein they were created. The next in glory to these will be those\nwho have been most abundant in good works: and next to them, those\nthat have suffered most, according to the will of God. But what\nadvantages in every one of these respects will the children of God\nreceive in heaven, by God's permitting the introduction of pain upon\nearth, in consequence of sin? By occasion of this they attained many\nholy tempers, which otherwise could have had no being: resignation\nto God, confidence in him in times of trouble and danger, patience,\nmeekness, gentleness, long-suffering, and the whole train of passive\nvirtues. And on account of this superior holiness they will then\nenjoy superior happiness. Again: every one will then \"receive his\nown reward, according to his own labor.\" Every individual will\nbe \"rewarded according to his work.\" But the Fall gave rise to\ninnumerable good works, which could otherwise never have existed, such\nas ministering to the necessities of the saints, yea, relieving the\ndistrest in every kind. And hereby innumerable stars will be added to\ntheir eternal crown. Yet again: there will be an abundant reward in\nheaven, for suffering as well as for doing, the will of God: \"these\nlight afflictions, which are but for a moment, work out for us a far\nmore exceeding and eternal weight of glory.\" Therefore that event,\nwhich occasioned the entrance of suffering into the world, has thereby\noccasioned to all the children of God, an increase of glory to all\neternity. For altho the sufferings themselves will be at an end: altho\n\n  The pain of life shall then be o'er,\n    The anguish and distracting care;\n  The sighing grief shall weep no more;\n    And sin shall never enter there:--\n\nyet the joys occasioned thereby shall never end, but flow at God's\nright hand for evermore.\n\nThere is one advantage more that we reap from Adam's fall, which is\nnot unworthy our attention. Unless in Adam all had died, being in the\nloins of their first parent, every descendant of Adam, every child of\nman, must have personally answered for himself to God: it seems to\nbe a necessary consequence of this, that if he had once fallen, once\nviolated any command of God, there would have been no possibility of\nhis rising again; there was no help, but he must have perished without\nremedy. For that covenant knew not to show mercy: the word was, \"The\nsoul that sinneth, it shall die.\" Now who would not rather be on the\nfooting he is now; under a covenant of mercy? Who would wish to hazard\na whole eternity upon one stake? Is it not infinitely more desirable,\nto be in a state wherein, tho encompassed with infirmities, yet we\ndo not run such a desperate risk, but if we fall, we may rise again?\nWherein we may say,\n\n  My trespass is grown up to heaven!\n    But, far above the skies,\n  In Christ abundantly forgiven,\n    I see Thy mercies rise!\n\nIn Christ! Let me entreat every serious person, once more to fix his\nattention here. All that has been said, all that can be said, on these\nsubjects, centers in this point. The fall of Adam produced the death\nof Christ! Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! Yea,\n\n  Let earth and heaven agree,\n    Angels and men be joined,\n  To celebrate with me\n    The Saviour of mankind;\n  To adore the all-atoning Lamb,\n  And bless the sound of Jesus' name!\n\nIf God had prevented the fall of man, the Word had never been made\nflesh: nor had we ever \"seen his glory, the glory as of the only\nbegotten of the Father.\" Those mysteries had never been displayed,\n\"which the very angels desire to look into.\" Methinks this\nconsideration swallows up all the rest, and should never be out of\nour thoughts. Unless \"by one man, judgment had come upon all men to\ncondemnation,\" neither angels nor men could ever have known \"the\nunsearchable riches of Christ.\"\n\nSee then, upon the whole, how little reason we have to repine at\nthe fall of our first parent, since herefrom we may derive such\nunspeakable advantages, both in time and eternity. See how small\npretense there is for questioning the mercy of God in permitting\nthat event to take place, since therein, mercy, by infinite degrees,\nrejoices over judgment! Where, then, is the man that presumes to blame\nGod for not preventing Adam's sin? Should we not rather bless Him from\nthe ground of the heart, for therein laying the grand scheme of man's\nredemption, and making way for that glorious manifestation of His\nwisdom, holiness, justice, and mercy? If indeed God had decreed before\nthe foundation of the world that millions of men should dwell in\neverlasting burnings, because Adam sinned, hundreds or thousands of\nyours before they had a being, I know not who could thank him for\nthis, unless the devil and his angels: seeing, on this supposition,\nall those millions of unhappy spirits would be plunged into hell by\nAdam's sin, without any possible advantage from it. But, blest be God,\nthis is not the case. Such a decree never existed. On the contrary,\nevery one born of a woman may be an unspeakable gainer thereby; and\nnone ever was or can be a loser, but by his own choice.\n\nWe see here a full answer to that plausible account \"of the origin of\nevil,\" published to the world some years since, and supposed to be\nunanswerable: that it \"necessarily resulted from the nature of\nmatter, which God was not able to alter.\" It is very kind in this\nsweet-tongued orator to make an excuse for God! But there is really no\noccasion for it: God hath answered for Himself. He made man in His own\nimage, a spirit endued with understanding and liberty. Man abusing\nthat liberty, produced evil, brought sin and pain into the world.\nThis God permitted, in order to a fuller manifestation of His wisdom,\njustice, and mercy, by bestowing on all who would receive it an\ninfinitely greater happiness than they could possibly have attained if\nAdam had not fallen.\n\n\"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!\"\nAltho a thousand particulars of His judgments, and of His ways are\nunsearchable to us, and past our finding out, yet we may discern the\ngeneral scheme running through time into eternity. \"According to the\ncouncil of his own will,\" the plan He had laid before the foundation\nof the world, He created the parent of all mankind in His own image.\nAnd He permitted all men to be made sinners by the disobedience of\nthis one man, that, by the obedience of One, all who receive the free\ngift may be infinitely holier and happier to all eternity!\n\n\n\nWHITEFIELD\n\nTHE METHOD OF GRACE\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\n\nGeorge Whitefield, evangelist and leader of Calvinistic Methodists,\nwho has been called the Demosthenes of the pulpit, was born at\nGloucester, England, in 1714. He was an impassioned pulpit orator of\nthe popular type, and his power over immense congregations was largely\ndue to his histrionic talent and his exquisitely modulated voice,\nwhich has been described as \"an organ, a flute, a harp, all in one,\"\nand which at times became stentorian. He had a most expressive face,\nand altho he squinted, in grace and significance of gesture he knew\nperfectly how to \"suit the action to the word.\" But he had not the\nstyle or scholarship of Wesley, and his printed sermons do not fully\nbear out his reputation. Whitefield died in 1770.\n\n\n\n\nWHITEFIELD\n\n1714--1770\n\nTHE METHOD OF GRACE\n\n_They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly,\nsaying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace_.--Jeremiah vi., 14.\n\n\nAs God can send a nation or people no greater blessing than to give\nthem faithful, sincere, and upright ministers, so the greatest curse\nthat God can possibly send upon a people in this world is to give them\nover to blind, unregenerate, carnal, lukewarm, and unskilful guides.\nAnd yet, in all ages, we find that there have been many wolves in\nsheep's clothing, many that daubed with untempered mortar, that\nprophesied smoother things than God did allow. As it was formerly,\nso it is now; there are many that corrupt the word of God and deal\ndeceitfully with it. It was so in a special manner in the prophet\nJeremiah's time; and he, faithful to his Lord, faithful to that God\nwho employed him, did not fail from time to time to open his mouth\nagainst them, and to bear a noble testimony to the honor of that\nGod in whose name he from time to time spake. If you will read his\nprophecy, you will find that none spake more against such ministers\nthan Jeremiah, and here especially in the chapter out of which the\ntext is taken he speaks very severely against them. He charges them\nwith several crimes; particularly he charges them with covetousness:\n\"For,\" says he, in the thirteenth verse, \"from the least of them even\nto the greatest of them, every one is given to covetousness; and from\nthe prophet even unto the priest, every one dealeth falsely.\"\n\nAnd then, in the words of the text, in a more special manner he\nexemplifies how they had dealt falsely, how they had behaved\ntreacherously to poor souls: says he, \"They have healed also the hurt\nof the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when\nthere is no peace.\" The prophet, in the name of God, had been\ndenouncing war against the people; he had been telling them that their\nhouse should be left desolate, and that the Lord would certainly visit\nthe land with war. \"Therefore,\" says he, in the eleventh verse, \"I am\nfull of the fury of the Lord; I am weary with holding in; I will pour\nit out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men\ntogether; for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged\nwith him that is full of days. And their houses shall be turned unto\nothers, with their fields and wives together; for I will stretch out\nmy hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord.\"\n\nThe prophet gives a thundering message, that they might be terrified\nand have some convictions and inclinations to repent; but it seems\nthat the false prophets, the false priests, went about stifling\npeople's convictions, and when they were hurt or a little terrified,\nthey were for daubing over the wound, telling them that Jeremiah was\nbut an enthusiastic preacher, that there could be no such thing as war\namong them, and saying to people, Peace, peace, be still, when the\nprophet told them there was no peace.\n\nThe words, then, refer primarily unto outward things, but I verily\nbelieve have also a further reference to the soul, and are to\nbe referred to those false teachers who, when people were under\nconviction of sin, when people were beginning to look toward heaven,\nwere for stifling their convictions and telling them they were good\nenough before. And, indeed, people generally love to have it so; our\nhearts are exceedingly deceitful and desperately wicked; none but the\neternal God knows how treacherous they are.\n\nHow many of us cry, Peace, peace, to our souls, when there is no\npeace! How many are there who are now settled upon their lees, that\nnow think they are Christians, that now flatter themselves that they\nhave an interest in Jesus Christ; whereas if we come to examine their\nexperiences we shall find that their peace is but a peace of the\ndevil's making--it is not a peace of God's giving--it is not a peace\nthat passeth human understanding.\n\nIt is a matter, therefore, of great importance, my dear hearers, to\nknow whether we may speak peace to our hearts. We are all desirous\nof peace; peace is an unspeakable blessing; how can we live without\npeace? And, therefore, people from time to time must be taught how far\nthey must go and what must be wrought in them before they can speak\npeace to their hearts. This is what I design at present, that I may\ndeliver my soul, that I may be free from the blood of all those to\nwhom I preach--that I may not fail to declare the whole counsel of\nGod. I shall, from the words of the text, endeavor to show you what\nyou must undergo and what must be wrought in you before you can speak\npeace to your hearts.\n\nBut before I come directly to this give me leave to premise a caution\nor two.\n\nAnd the first is, that I take it for granted you believe religion to\nbe an inward thing; you believe it to be a work of the heart, a work\nwrought in the soul by the power of the Spirit of God. If you do not\nbelieve this, you do not believe your Bibles. If you do not believe\nthis, tho you have got your Bibles in your hand, you hate the Lord\nJesus Christ in your heart; for religion is everywhere represented\nin Scripture as the work of God in the heart. \"The kingdom of God is\nwithin us,\" says our Lord; and, \"he is not a Christian who is one\noutwardly; but he is a Christian who is one inwardly.\" If any of you\nplace religion in outward things, I shall not perhaps please you this\nmorning; you will understand me no more when I speak of the work of\nGod upon a poor sinner's heart than if I were talking in an unknown\ntongue.\n\nI would further premise a caution, that I would by no means confine\nGod to one way of acting. I would by no means say that all persons,\nbefore they come to have a settled peace in their hearts, are obliged\nto undergo the same degrees of conviction. No; God has various ways of\nbringing His children home; His sacred Spirit bloweth when, and where,\nand how it listeth. But, however, I will venture to affirm this: that\nbefore ever you can speak peace to your heart, whether by shorter or\nlonger continuance of your convictions, whether in a more pungent or\nin a more; gentle way, you must undergo what I shall hereafter lay\ndown in the following discourse.\n\nFirst, then, before you can speak peace to your hearts, you must be\nmade to see, made to feel, made to weep over, made to bewail, your\nactual transgressions against the law of God. According to the\ncovenant of works, \"the soul that sinneth it shall die\"; curst is that\nman, be he what he may, be he who he may, that continueth not in all\nthings that are written in the book of the law to do them.\n\nWe are not only to do some things, but we are to do all things, and we\nare to continue to do so, so that the least deviation from the moral\nlaw, according to the covenant of works, whether in thought, word,\nor deed, deserves eternal death at the hand of God. And if one evil\nthought, if one evil word, if one evil action deserves eternal\ndamnation, how many hells, my friends, do every one of us deserve\nwhose whole lives have been one continued rebellion against God!\nBefore ever, therefore, you can speak peace to your hearts, you must\nbe brought to see, brought to believe, what a dreadful thing it is to\ndepart from the living God.\n\nAnd now, my dear friends, examine your hearts, for I hope you came\nhither with a design to have your souls made better. Give me leave to\nask you, in the presence of God, whether you know the time, and if you\ndo not know exactly the time, do you know there was a time when God\nwrote bitter things against you, when the arrows of the Almighty were\nwithin you? Was ever the remembrance of your sins grievous to you? Was\nthe burden of your sins intolerable to your thoughts? Did you ever see\nthat God's wrath might justly fall upon you, on account of your actual\ntransgressions against God? Were you ever in all your life sorry for\nyour sins? Could you ever say, My sins are gone over my head as a\nburden too heavy for me to bear? Did you ever experience any such\nthing as this? Did ever any such thing as this pass between God and\nyour soul? If not, for Jesus Christ's sake, do not call yourselves\nChristians; you may speak peace to your hearts, but there is no peace.\nMay the Lord awaken you, may the Lord convert you, may the Lord give\nyou peace, if it be His will, before you go home!\n\nBut, further, you may be convinced of your actual sins, so as to be\nmade to tremble, and yet you may be strangers to Jesus Christ, you may\nhave no true work of grace upon your hearts. Before ever, therefore,\nyou can speak peace to your hearts, conviction must go deeper; you\nmust not only be convinced of your actual transgressions against the\nlaw of God, but likewise of the foundation of all your transgressions.\nAnd what is that? I mean original sin, that original corruption each\nof us brings into the world with us, which renders us liable to God's\nwrath and damnation. There are many poor souls that think themselves\nfine reasoners, yet they pretend to say there is no such thing as\noriginal sin; they will charge God with injustice in imputing Adam's\nsin to us; altho we have got the mark of the beast and of the devil\nupon us, yet they tell us we are not born in sin. Let them look abroad\nand see the disorders in it, and think, if they can, if this is the\nparadise in which God did put man. No! everything in the world is out\nof order.\n\nI have often thought, when I was abroad, that if there were no other\narguments to prove original sin, the rising of wolves and tigers\nagainst man, nay, the barking of a dog against us, is a proof of\noriginal sin. Tigers and lions durst not rise against us unless it\nwere as much as to say, \"You have sinned against God, and we take up\nour master's quarrel.\" If we look inwardly, we shall see enough of\nlusts and man's temper contrary to the temper of God. There is pride,\nmalice, and revenge in all our hearts; and this temper can not come\nfrom God; it comes from our first parent, Adam, who, after he fell\nfrom God, fell out of God into the devil.\n\nHowever, therefore, some people may deny this, yet when conviction\ncomes, all carnal reasonings are battered down immediately, and the\npoor soul begins to feel and see the fountain from which all the\npolluted streams do flow. When the sinner is first awakened, he begins\nto wonder, How came I to be so wicked? The Spirit of God then strikes\nin, and shows that he has no good thing in him by nature; then he\nsees that he is altogether gone out of the way, that he is altogether\nbecome abominable, and the poor creature is made to lie down at the\nfoot of the throne of God and to acknowledge that God would be just to\ndamn him, just to cut him off, tho he never had committed one actual\nsin in his life.\n\nDid you ever feel and experience this, any of you--to justify God in\nyour damnation--to own that you are by nature children of wrath, and\nthat God may justly cut you off, tho you never actually had offended\nHim in all your life? If you were ever truly convicted, if your hearts\nwere ever truly cut, if self were truly taken out of you, you would be\nmade to see and feel this. And if you have never felt the weight of\noriginal sin, do not call yourselves Christians. I am verily persuaded\noriginal sin is the greatest burden of a true convert; this ever\ngrieves the regenerate soul, the sanctified soul. The indwelling of\nsin in the heart is the burden of a converted person; it is the burden\nof a true Christian. He continually cries out: \"Oh! who will deliver\nme from this body of death, this indwelling corruption in my heart?\"\nThis is that which disturbs a poor soul most. And, therefore, if you\nnever felt this inward corruption, if you never saw that God might\njustly curse you for it, indeed, my dear friends, you may speak peace\nto your hearts, but I fear, nay, I know, there is no true peace.\n\nFurther, before you can speak peace to your hearts you must not only\nbe troubled for the sins of your life, the sins of your nature, but\nlikewise for the sins of your best duties and performances.\n\nWhen a poor soul is somewhat awakened by the terrors of the Lord,\nthen the poor creature, being born under the covenant of works,\nflies directly to a covenant of works again. And as Adam and Eve hid\nthemselves among the trees of the garden and sewed fig-leaves together\nto cover their nakedness, so the poor sinner when awakened flies to\nhis duties and to his performances, to hide himself from God, and goes\nto patch up a righteousness of his own. Says he, I will be mighty good\nnow--I will reform--I will do all I can; and then certainly Jesus\nChrist will have mercy on me. But before you can speak peace to your\nheart you must be brought to see that God may damn you for the best\nprayer you ever put up; you must be brought to see that all your\nduties--all your righteousness--as the prophet elegantly expresses\nit--put them all together, are so far from recommending you to God,\nare so far from being any motive and inducement to God to have\nmercy on your poor soul, that He will see them to be filthy rags, a\nmenstruous cloth--that God hates them, and can not away with them, if\nyou bring them to Him in order to recommend you to His favor.\n\nMy dear friends, what is there in our performance to recommend us unto\nGod? Our persons are in an unjustified state by nature; we deserve to\nbe damned ten thousand times over; and what must our performance be?\nWe can do no good thing by nature: \"They that are in the flesh can not\nplease God.\"\n\nYou may do things materially good, but you can not do a thing formally\nand rightly good; because nature can not act above itself. It is\nimpossible that a man who is unconverted can act for the glory of God;\nhe can not do anything in faith, and \"whatsoever is not of faith is\nsin.\"\n\nAfter we are renewed, yet we are renewed but in part, indwelling sin\ncontinues in us, there is a mixture of corruption in every one of our\nduties, so that after we are converted, were Jesus Christ only to\naccept us according to our works, our works would damn us, for we can\nnot put up a prayer but it is far from that perfection which the moral\nlaw requireth. I do not know what you may think, but I can say that I\ncan not pray but I sin--I can not preach to you or any others but\nI sin--I can do nothing without sin; and, as one expresseth it, my\nrepentance wants to be repented of, and my tears to be washed in the\nprecious blood of my dear Redeemer.\n\nOur best duties are so many splendid sins. Before you can speak peace\nto your heart you must not only be sick of your original and actual\nsin, but you must be made sick of your righteousness, of all your\nduties and performances. There must be a deep conviction before you\ncan be brought out of your self-righteousness; it is the last idol\ntaken out of our heart. The pride of our heart will not let us submit\nto the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But if you never felt that you\nhad no righteousness of your own, if you never felt the deficiency of\nyour own righteousness, you can not come to Jesus Christ.\n\nThere are a great many now who may say, Well, we believe all this; but\nthere is a great difference betwixt talking and feeling. Did you ever\nfeel the want of a dear Redeemer? Did you ever feel the want of Jesus\nChrist, upon the account of the deficiency of your own righteousness?\nAnd can you now say from your heart Lord, thou mayest justly damn\nme for the best duties that ever I did perform? If you are not thus\nbrought out of self, you may speak peace to yourselves, but yet there\nis no peace.\n\nBut then, before you can speak peace to your souls, there is one\nparticular sin you must be greatly troubled for, and yet I fear there\nare few of you think what it is; it is the reigning, the damning sin\nof the Christian world, and yet the Christian world seldom or never\nthink of it. And pray what is that?\n\nIt is what most of you think you are not guilty of--and that is, the\nsin of unbelief. Before you can speak peace to your heart, you must be\ntroubled for the unbelief of your heart But can it be supposed that\nany of you are unbelievers here in this churchyard, that are born in\nScotland, in a reformed country, that go to church every Sabbath? Can\nany of you that receive the sacrament once a year--oh, that it were\nadministered oftener!--can it be supposed that you who had tokens for\nthe sacrament, that you who keep up family prayer, that any of you do\nnot believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?\n\nI appeal to your own hearts, if you would not think me uncharitable,\nif I doubted whether any of you believed in Christ: and yet, I fear\nupon examination, we should find that most of you have not so much\nfaith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the devil himself. I am persuaded\nthat the devil believes more of the Bible than most of us do. He\nbelieves the divinity of Jesus Christ; that is more than many who call\nthemselves Christians do; nay, he believes and trembles, and that is\nmore than thousands amongst us do.\n\nMy friends, we mistake a historical faith for a true faith, wrought\nin the heart by the Spirit of God. You fancy you believe because you\nbelieve there is such a book as we call the Bible--because you go to\nchurch; all this you may do and have no true faith in Christ. Merely\nto believe there was such a person as Christ, merely to believe there\nis a book called the Bible, will do you no good, more than to believe\nthere was such a man as Caesar or Alexander the Great. The Bible is a\nsacred depository. What thanks have we to give to God for these lively\noracles! But yet we may have these and not believe in the Lord Jesus\nChrist.\n\nMy dear friends, there must be a principle wrought in the heart by\nthe Spirit of the living God. Did I ask you how long it is since you\nbelieved in Jesus Christ, I suppose most of you would tell me you\nbelieved in Jesus Christ as long as ever you remember--you never did\nmisbelieve. Then, you could not give me a better proof that you never\nyet believed in Jesus Christ, unless you were sanctified early, as\nfrom the womb; for they that otherwise believe in Christ know there\nwas a time when they did not believe in Jesus Christ.\n\nYou say you love God with all your heart, soul, and strength. If I\nwere to ask you how long it is since you loved God, you would say, As\nlong as you can remember; you never hated God, you know no time when\nthere was enmity in your heart against God. Then, unless you were\nsanctified very early, you never loved God in your life.\n\nMy dear friends, I am more particular in this, because it is a most\ndeceitful delusion, whereby so many people are carried away, that they\nbelieve already. Therefore it is remarked of Mr. Marshall, giving\naccount of his experiences, that he had been working for life, and he\nhad ranged all his sins under the ten commandments, and then, coming\nto a minister, asked him the reason why he could not get peace. The\nminister looked to his catalog. \"Away,\" says he, \"I do not find one\nword of the sin of unbelief in all your catalog.\" It is the peculiar\nwork of the Spirit of God to convince us of our unbelief--that we have\ngot no faith. Says Jesus Christ, \"I will send the comforter; and when\nhe is come, he will reprove the world\" of the sin of unbelief; \"of\nsin,\" says Christ, \"because they believe not on me.\"\n\nNow, my dear friends, did God ever show you that you had no faith?\nWere you ever made to bewail a hard heart of unbelief? Was it ever the\nlanguage of your heart, Lord, give me faith; Lord, enable me to lay\nhold on Thee; Lord, enable me to call Thee my Lord and my God? Did\nJesus Christ ever convince you in this manner? Did he ever convince\nyou of your inability to close with Christ, and make you to cry out to\nGod to give you faith? If not, do not speak peace to your heart. May\nthe Lord awaken you and give you true, solid peace before you go hence\nand be no more!\n\nOnce more, then: before you can speak peace to your heart, you must\nnot only be convinced of your actual and original sin, the sins of\nyour own righteousness, the sin of unbelief, but you must be enabled\nto lay hold upon the perfect righteousness, the all-sufficient\nrighteousness, of the Lord Jesus Christ; you must lay hold by faith\non the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and then you shall have peace.\n\"Come,\" says Jesus, \"unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden,\nand I will give you rest.\"\n\nThis speaks encouragement to all that are weary and heavy laden;\nbut the promise of rest is made to them only upon their coming and\nbelieving, and taking Him to be their God and their all. Before we can\never have peace with God we must be justified by faith through our\nLord Jesus Christ, we must be enabled to apply Christ to our hearts,\nwe must have Christ brought home to our souls, so as His righteousness\nmay be made our righteousness, so as His merits may be imputed to our\nsouls. My dear friends, were you ever married to Jesus Christ? Did\nJesus Christ ever give Himself to you? Did you ever close with Christ\nby a lively faith, so as to feel Christ in your hearts, so as to hear\nHim speaking peace to your souls? Did peace ever flow in upon your\nhearts like a river? Did you ever feel that peace that Christ spoke to\nHis disciples? I pray God he may come and speak peace to you. These\nthings you must experience.\n\nI am now talking of the invisible realities of another world, of\ninward religion, of the work of God upon a poor sinner's heart. I am\nnow talking of a matter of great importance, my dear hearers; you are\nall concerned in it, your souls are concerned in it, your eternal\nsalvation is concerned in it. You may be all at peace, but perhaps the\ndevil has lulled you asleep into a carnal lethargy and security, and\nwill endeavor to keep you there till he gets you to hell, and there\nyou will be awakened; but it will be dreadful to be awakened and find\nyourselves so fearfully mistaken when the great gulf is fixt, when\nyou will be calling to all eternity for a drop of water to cool your\ntongue and shall not obtain it.\n\n\n\n\nBLAIR\n\nTHE HOUR AND THE EVENT OF ALL TIME\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\n\nHugh Blair, the preacher and divine, was born in Edinburgh, 1718. He\nentered the university of his native town and graduated in 1739. Two\nyears later he was licensed to preach; he was ordained minister of\nColossie, Fife, in 1742, but returned to Edinburgh and in 1762\nwas made regius professor of rhetoric and belles-lettres to the\nuniversity. He became a member of the great literary club, the Poker,\nwhere he associated with Hume, A. Carlyle, Adam Ferguson, Adam Smith\nand others, and enjoyed a high reputation as a preacher and critic.\nThe lectures he published on style are elegantly written, but weak in\nthought, and his sermons share the same fault. They are composed with\ngreat care, and sometimes a single discourse cost him a week's labor,\nbut they are formal and destitute of feeling and sometimes even\naffected in style. Blair was notable for fastidiousness in dress and\nmanners, and took very seriously the reputation he was given for\nrefinement and common-sense as one of the moderate divines. He died in\n1800.\n\n\n\n\nBLAIR\n\n1718--1800\n\nTHE HOUR AND THE EVENT OF ALL TIME\n\n_Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father! the hour is\ncome_.--John xvii., 1.\n\n\nThese were the words of our blest Lord on a memorable occasion. The\nfeast of the Passover drew nigh, at which He knew that He was to\nsuffer. The night was arrived wherein He was to be delivered into the\nhands of His enemies. He had spent the evening in conference with His\ndisciples, like a dying father in the midst of his family, mingling\nconsolations with His last instructions. When He had ended His\ndiscourse to them, \"he lifted up his eyes to heaven,\" and with the\nwords which I have now read, began that solemn prayer of intercession\nfor the Church, which closed His ministry. Immediately after, He went\nforth with His disciples into the garden of Gethsemane and surrendered\nHimself to those who came to apprehend Him.\n\nSuch was the situation of our Lord at the time of His pronouncing\nthese words. He saw His mission on the point of being accomplished.\nHe had the prospect full before Him of all that He was about to\nsuffer--\"Father! the hour is come.\" What hour? An hour the most\ncritical, the most pregnant with great events, since hours had begun\nto be numbered, since time had begun to run. It was the hour at which\nthe Son of God was to terminate the labors of His important life by a\ndeath still more important and illustrious; the hour of atoning, by\nHis sufferings, for the guilt of mankind; the hour of accomplishing\nprophecies, types, and symbols, which had been carried on through a\nseries of ages; the hour of concluding the old and of introducing into\nthe world the new dispensation of religion; the hour of His triumphing\nover the world, and death, and hell; the hour of His creating that\nspiritual kingdom which is to last forever. Such is the hour. Such are\nthe events which you are to commemorate in the sacrament of our Lord's\nSupper.\n\nI. This was the hour in which Christ was glorified by His sufferings.\nThe whole of His life had discovered much real greatness under a mean\nappearance. Through the cloud of His humiliation, His native luster\noften broke forth; but never did it shine so bright as in this last,\nthis trying hour. It was indeed the hour of distress and of blood. He\nknew it to be such; and when He uttered the words of the text, He had\nbefore His eyes the executioner and the cross, the scourge, the nails,\nand the spear. But by prospects of this nature His soul was not to be\novercome. It is distress which ennobles every great character; and\ndistress was to glorify the Son of God. He was now to teach all\nmankind by His example, how to suffer and to die. He was to stand\nforth before His enemies as the faithful witness of the truth,\njustifying by His behavior the character which He assumed, and sealing\nby His blood the doctrines which He taught.\n\nWhat magnanimity in all His words and actions on this great occasion!\nThe court of Herod, the judgment-hall of Pilate, the hill of Calvary,\nwere so many theaters prepared for His displaying all the virtues of a\nconstant and patient mind. When led forth to suffer, the first voice\nwhich we hear from Him is a generous lamentation over the fate of His\nunfortunate tho guilty country; and to the last moment of His life we\nbehold Him in possession of the same gentle and benevolent spirit. No\nupbraiding, no complaining expression escaped from His lips during the\nlong and painful approaches of a cruel death. He betrayed no symptom\nof a weak or a vulgar, of a discomposed or impatient mind. With the\nutmost attention of filial tenderness He committed His aged mother to\nthe care of His beloved disciple. With all the dignity of a sovereign\nHe conferred pardon on a fellow-sufferer. With a greatness of mind\nbeyond example, He spent His last moments in apologies and prayers for\nthose who were shedding His blood.\n\nBy wonders in heaven and wonders on earth, was this hour\ndistinguished. All nature seemed to feel it; and the dead and the\nliving bore witness of its importance. The veil of the temple was rent\nin twain. The earth shook. There was darkness over all the land. The\ngraves were opened, and \"many who slept arose, and went into the holy\ncity.\" Nor were these the only prodigies of this awful hour. The most\nhardened hearts were subdued and changed. The judge who, in order to\ngratify the multitude, passed sentence against Him, publicly attested\nHis innocence. The Roman centurion who presided at the execution,\n\"glorified God,\" and acknowledged the Sufferer to be more than man.\n\"After he saw the things which had passed, he said, Certainly this\nwas a righteous person: truly this was the Son of God.\" The Jewish\nmalefactor who was crucified with Him addrest Him as a king, and\nimplored His favor. Even the crowd of insensible spectators, who had\ncome forth as to a common spectacle, and who began with clamors and\ninsults, \"returned home smiting their breasts.\" Look back on the\nheroes, the philosophers, the legislators of old. View them, in their\nlast moments. Recall every circumstance which distinguished their\ndeparture from the world. Where can you find such an assemblage of\nhigh virtues, and of great events, as concurred at the death of\nChrist? Where so many testimonials given to the dignity of the dying\nperson by earth and by heaven?\n\nII. This was the hour in which Christ atoned for the sins of mankind,\nand accomplished our eternal redemption. It was the hour when that\ngreat sacrifice was offered up, the efficacy of which reaches back\nto the first transgression of man, and extends forward to the end of\ntime; the hour when, from the cross, as from a high altar, the blood\nwas flowing which washed away the guilt of the nations.\n\nThis awful dispensation of the Almighty contains mysteries which are\nbeyond the discovery of man. It is one of those things into which \"the\nangels desire to look.\" What has been revealed to us is, that the\ndeath of Christ was the interposition of heaven for preventing the\nruin of human kind. We know that under the government of God misery\nis the natural consequence of guilt. After rational creatures had, by\ntheir criminal conduct, introduced disorder into the divine kingdom,\nthere was no ground to believe that by their penitence and prayers\nalone they could prevent the destruction which threatened them. The\nprevalence of propitiatory sacrifices throughout the earth proclaims\nit to be the general sense of mankind that mere repentance was not of\nsufficient avail to expiate sin or to stop its penal effects. By the\nconstant allusions which are carried on in the New Testament to the\nsacrifices under the law, as pre-signifying a great atonement made by\nChrist, and by the strong expressions which are used in describing the\neffects of His death, the sacred writers show, as plainly as language\nallows, that there was an efficacy in His sufferings far beyond\nthat of mere example and instruction. The nature and extent of that\nefficacy we are unable as yet fully to trace. Part we are capable of\nbeholding; and the wisdom of what we behold we have reason to adore.\nWe discern, in this plan of redemption, the evil of sin strongly\nexhibited and the justice of the divine government awfully\nexemplified, in Christ suffering for sinners. But let us not imagine\nthat our present discoveries unfold the whole influence of the\ndeath of Christ. It is connected with causes into which we can not\npenetrate. It produces consequences too extensive for us to explore.\n\"God's thoughts are not as our thoughts.\" In all things we \"see only\nin part\"; and here, if anywhere, we see also \"as through a glass.\ndarkly.\"\n\nThis, however, is fully manifest, that redemption is one of the most\nglorious works of the Almighty. If the hour of the creation of the\nworld was great and illustrious, that hour when, from the dark and\nformless mass, this fair system of nature arose at the divine command,\nwhen \"the morning-stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted\nfor joy,\" no less illustrious is the hour of the restoration of the\nworld; the hour when, from condemnation and misery, it emerged into\nhappiness and peace. With less external majesty it was attended; but\nit is, on that account, the more wonderful that, under an appearance\nso simple, such great events were covered.\n\nIII. In this hour the long series of prophecies, visions, types, and\nfigures were accomplished. This was the center in which they all met:\nthis the point toward which they had tended and verged, throughout the\ncourse of so many generations. You behold the law and the prophets\nstanding, if we may speak so, at the foot of the cross, and doing\nhomage. You behold Moses and Aaron bearing the Ark of the Covenant;\nDavid and Elijah presenting the oracle of testimony. You behold all\nthe priests and sacrifices, all the rites and ordinances, all the\ntypes and symbols assembled together to receive their consummation.\nWithout the death of Christ, the worship and ceremonies of the law\nwould have remained a pompous, but unmeaning, institution. In the hour\nwhen He was crucified, \"the book with the seven seals\" was opened.\nEvery rite assumed its significancy; every prediction met its event;\nevery symbol displayed its correspondence.\n\nThe dark and seemingly ambiguous method of conveying important\ndiscoveries under figures and emblems was not peculiar to the sacred\nbooks. The spirit of God in presignifying the death of Christ, adopted\nthat plan, according to which the whole knowledge of those early\nages was propagated through the world. Under the veil of mysterious\nallusion, all wisdom was then concealed. From the sensible world\nimages were everywhere borrowed to describe things unseen. More was\nunderstood to be meant than was openly exprest. By enigmatical rites\nthe priests communicated his doctrines; by parables and allegories\nthe philosopher instructed his disciples; even the legislator, by\nfigurative sayings, commanded the reverence of the people. Agreeably\nto this prevailing mode of instruction, the whole dispensation of the\nOld Testament was so conducted as to be the shadow and figure of\na spiritual system. Every remarkable event, every distinguished\npersonage, under the law, is interpreted in the New Testament, as\nbearing reference to the hour of which we treat. If Isaac was laid\nupon the altar as an innocent victim; if David was driven from his\nthrone by the wicked, and restored by the hand of God; if the brazen\nserpent was lifted up to heal the people; if the rock was smitten by\nMoses, to furnish drink in the wilderness; all were types of Christ\nand alluded to His death.\n\nIn predicting the same event the language of ancient prophecy was\nmagnificent, but seemingly contradictory: for it foretold a Messiah,\nwho was to be at once a sufferer and a conquerer. The Star was to come\nout of Jacob, and the Branch to spring from the stem of Jesse. The\nAngel of the Covenant, the desire of all nations, was to come suddenly\nto His temple; and to Him was to be \"the gathering of the people.\"\nYet, at the same time, He was to be \"despised and rejected of men\"; He\nwas to be \"taken from prison and from judgment,\" and to be \"led as a\nlamb to the slaughter.\" Tho He was \"a man of sorrows, and acquainted\nwith grief,\" yet \"the Gentiles were to come to his light, and kings\nto the brightness of his rising.\" In the hour when Christ died, those\nprophetical riddles were solved: those seeming contradictions were\nreconciled. The obscurity of oracles, and the ambiguity of typos\nvanished. The \"sun of righteousness\" rose; and, together with the dawn\nof religion those shadows passed away.\n\nIV. This was the hour of the abolition of the law, and the\nintroduction of the gospel; the hour of terminating the old and of\nbeginning the new dispensation of religious knowledge and worship\nthroughout the earth. Viewed in this light, it forms the most august\nera which is to be found in the history of mankind. When Christ was\nsuffering on the cross, we are informed by one of the evangelists that\nHe said, \"I thirst\"; and that they filled a sponge with vinegar, and\nput it to His mouth. \"After he had tasted the vinegar, knowing that\nall things were now accomplished, and the Scriptures fulfilled, he\nsaid, It is finished\"; that is, this offered draft of vinegar was the\nlast circumstance predicted by an ancient prophet that remained to\nbe fulfilled. The vision and the prophecy are now sealed: the Mosaic\ndispensation is closed. \"And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.\"\n\n\"It is finished.\" When He uttered these words He changed the state of\nthe universe. At that moment the law ceased, and the gospel commenced.\nThis was the ever memorable point of time which separated the old and\nthe new worlds from each other. On one side of the point of separation\nyou behold the law, with its priests, its sacrifices, and its rites,\nretiring from sight. On the other side you behold the gospel, with\nits simple and venerable institutions, coming forward into view.\nSignificantly was the veil of the temple rent in this hour; for the\nglory then departed from between the cherubim. The legal high priest\ndelivered up his urim and thummim, his breast-plate, his robes, and\nhis incense: and Christ stood forth as the great high priest of all\nsucceeding generations. By that one sacrifice which He now offered, He\nabolished sacrifices forever. Altars on which the fire had blazed for\nages, were now to smoke no more. Victims were no more to bleed. \"Not\nwith the blood of bulls and goats, but with his own blood he now\nentered into the holy place, there to appear in the presence of God\nfor us.\"\n\nThis was the hour of association and union to all the worshipers of\nGod. When Christ said, \"It is finished,\" He threw down the wall of\npartition which had so long divided the Gentile from the Jew. He\ngathered into one all the faithful out of every kindred and people.\nHe proclaimed the hour to be come when the knowledge of the true God\nshould be no longer confined to one nation, nor His worship to one\ntemple; but over all the earth, the worshipers of the Father should\nserve Him \"in spirit and in truth.\" From that hour they who dwelt\nin the \"uttermost ends of the earth, strangers to the covenant of\npromise,\" began to be \"brought nigh.\" In that hour the light of the\ngospel dawned from afar on the British Islands.\n\nDuring a long course of ages, Providence seemed to be occupied in\npreparing the world for this revolution. The whole Jewish economy\nwas intended to usher it in. The knowledge of God was preserved\nunextinguished in one corner of the world, that thence, in due time,\nmight issue forth the light which was to overspread the earth.\nSuccessive revelations gradually enlarged the views of men beyond the\nnarrow bounds of Judea, to a more extensive kingdom of God. Signs and\nmiracles awakened their expectation and directed their eyes toward\nthis great event. Whether God descended on the flaming mountain, or\nspoke by the prophet's voice; whether He scattered His chosen people\ninto captivity, or reassembled them in their own land, He was still\ncarrying on a progressive plan, which was accomplished at the death of\nChrist.\n\nNot only in the territories of Israel, but over all the earth, the\ngreat dispensations of Providence respected the approach of this\nimportant hour. If empires rose or fell; if war divided, or peace\nunited, the nations; if learning civilized their manners, or\nphilosophy enlarged their views; all was, by the secret decree of\nHeaven, made to ripen the world for that \"fulness of time,\" when\nChrist was to publish the whole counsel of God. The Persian, the\nMacedonian, the Roman conqueror, entered upon the stage each at his\npredicted period. The revolutions of power, and the succession of\nmonarchies, were so arranged by Providence, as to facilitate the\nprogress of the gospel through the habitable world, after the day had\narrived, \"when the stone which was cut out of the mountain without\nhands, should become a great mountain and fill the earth.\" This was\nthe day which Abraham saw afar off, and was glad. This was the day\nwhich \"many prophets, and kings, and righteous men desired to see,\nbut could not\"; the day for which \"the earnest expectation of\nthe creature,\" long opprest with ignorance, and bewildered in\nsuperstition, might be justly said to wait.\n\nV. This was the hour of Christ's triumph over all the powers of\ndarkness; the hour in which He overthrew dominions and thrones, \"led\ncaptivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.\" The contest which the\nkingdom of darkness had long maintained against the kingdom of light\nwas now brought to its crisis. The period was come when \"the seed of\nthe woman shall bruise the head of the serpent\" For many ages the\nmost gross superstition had filled the earth. \"The glory of the\nincorruptible God\" was everywhere, except in the land of Judea,\n\"changed into images made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and\nbeasts, and creeping-things.\" The world, which the Almighty created\nfor Himself, seemed to have become a temple of idols. Even to vices\nand passions altars were raised; and what was entitled religion, was\nin effect a discipline of impurity. In the midst of this universal\ndarkness, Satan had erected his throne, and the learned and the\npolished, as well as the savage nations, bowed down before him. But at\nthe hour when Christ appeared on the cross, the signal of His defeat\nwas given. His kingdom suddenly departed from Him; the reign of\nidolatry passed away: He was beheld to fall \"like lightning from\nheaven.\" In that hour the foundation of every pagan temple shook. The\nstatue of every false god tottered on its base. The priest fled from\nhis falling shrine; and the heathen oracles became dumb forever.\n\nAs on the cross Christ triumphed over Satan, so He overcame His\nauxiliary, the world. Long had it assailed Him with its temptations\nand discouragements; in this hour of severe trial He surmounted them\nall. Formerly He had despised the pleasures of the world. He now\nbaffled its terrors. Hence He is justly said to have \"crucified the\nworld.\" By His sufferings He ennobled distress; and He darkened\nthe luster of the pomp and vanities of life. He discovered to His\nfollowers the path which leads, through affliction, to glory and to\nvictory; and He imparted to them the same spirit which enabled Him to\novercome. \"My kingdom is not of this world. In this world ye shall\nhave tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.\"\n\nDeath also, the last foe of man, was the victim of this hour. The\nformidable appearance of the specter remained; but his dart was taken\naway. For, in the hour when Christ expiated guilt, He disarmed death,\nby securing the resurrection of the just. When He said to His penitent\nfellow sufferer, \"To-day thou shalt be with me in paradise,\" He\nannounced to all His followers the certainty of heavenly bliss. He\ndeclared the cherubim to be dismissed and the flaming sword to be\nsheathed, which had been appointed at the fall, to keep from man \"the\nway of the tree of life.\" Faint, before this period, had been the\nhope, indistinct the prospect, which even good men enjoyed of the\nheavenly kingdom. Life and immortality were now brought to light. From\nthe hill of Calvary the first clear and certain view was given to the\nworld of the everlasting mansions. Since that hour they have been the\nperpetual consolation of believers in Christ. Under trouble, they\nsoothe their minds; amid temptation, they support their virtue; and in\ntheir dying moments enable them to say, \"O death! where is thy sting?\nO grave! where is thy victory\"?\n\nVI. This was the hour when our Lord erected that spiritual kingdom\nwhich is never to end. How vain are the counsels and designs of men!\nHow shallow is the policy of the wicked! How short their triumphing!\nThe enemies of Christ imagined that in this hour they had successfully\naccomplished their plan for His destruction. They believed that they\nhad entirely scattered the small party of His followers, and had\nextinguished His name and His honor forever. In derision they addrest\nHim as a king. They clothed Him with purple robes; they crowned Him\nwith a crown of thorns; they put a reed into His hand; and, with\ninsulting mockery, bowed the knee before Him. Blind and impious men!\nHow little did they know that the Almighty was at that moment setting\nHim as a king on the hill of Zion; giving Him \"the heathen for his\ninheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession\"!\nHow little did they know that their badges of mock royalty were at\nthat moment converted into the signals of absolute dominion, and the\ninstruments of irresistible power! The reed which they put into His\nhands became \"a rod of iron,\" with which He was to \"break in pieces\nhis enemies,\" a scepter with which He was to rule the universe in\nrighteousness. The cross which they thought was to stigmatize Him with\ninfamy, became the ensign of His renown. Instead of being the reproach\nof His followers, it was to be their boast and their glory. The cross\nwas to shine on palaces and churches throughout the earth. It was to\nbe assumed as the distinction of the most powerful monarchs, and to\nwave in the banner of victorious armies when the memory of Herod and\nPilate should be accurst, when Jerusalem should be reduced to ashes,\nand the Jews be vagabonds over all the world.\n\nThese were the triumphs which commenced at this hour. Our Lord saw\nthem already in their birth; He saw of the travail of His soul, and\nwas satisfied. He beheld the Word of God going forth, conquering, and\nto conquer; subduing, to the obedience of His laws, the subduers of\nthe world; carrying light into the regions of darkness, and mildness\ninto the habitations of cruelty. He beheld the Gentiles waiting below\nthe cross, to receive the gospel. He beheld Ethiopia and the Isles\nstretching out their hands to God; the desert beginning to rejoice\nand to blossom as the rose; and the knowledge of the Lord filling the\nearth, as the waters cover the sea. Well pleased, He said, \"It is\nfinished.\" As a conqueror He retired from the field, reviewing His\ntriumphs: \"He bowed his head and gave up the ghost.\" From that hour,\nChrist was no longer a mortal man, but \"Head over all things to the\nChurch,\" the glorious King of men and angels, of whose dominion there\nshall be no end. His triumphs shall perpetually increase. \"His name\nshall endure forever; it shall last as long as the sun; men shall be\nblest in him, and all nations shall call him blest\"\n\nSuch were the transactions, such the effects, of this ever-memorable\nhour. With all those great events was the mind of our Lord filled,\nwhen He lifted His eyes to heaven, and said, \"Father! the hour is\ncome.\"\n\nFrom this view which we have taken of this subject, permit me to\nsuggest what ground it affords to confide in the mercy of God for the\npardon of sin; to trust to His faithfulness for the accomplishment of\nall His promises; and to approach to Him, with gratitude and devotion,\nin acts of worship.\n\nIn the first place, the death of Christ affords us ground to confide\nin the divine mercy for the pardon of sin. All the steps of that high\ndispensation of Providence, which we have considered, lead directly to\nthis conclusion, \"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up\nfor us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?\"\nThis is the final result of the discoveries of the gospel. On this\nrests the great system of consolation which it hath reared up for men.\nWe are not left to dubious and intricate reasonings concerning the\nconduct which God may be expected to hold toward His offending\ncreatures: but we are led to the view of important and illustrious\nfacts which strike the mind with evidence irresistible. For it is\npossible to believe that such great operations, as I have endeavored\nto describe, were carried on by the Almighty in vain? Did He excite\nin the hearts of His creatures such encouraging hopes, without any\nintention to fulfil them? After so long a preparation of goodness,\ncould He mean to deny forgiveness to the penitent and the humble? When\novercome by the sense of guilt, man looks up with an astonished eye to\nthe justice of his Creator, let him recollect that hour of which the\ntext speaks, and be comforted. The signals of divine mercy, erected in\nhis view, are too conspicuous to be either distrusted or mistaken.\n\nIn the next place, the discoveries of this hour afford the highest\nreason to trust in the divine faithfulness for the accomplishment of\nevery promise which remains yet unfulfilled. For this was the hour of\nthe completion of God's ancient covenant.\n\nIt was the \"performance of the mercy promised to the fathers.\" We\nbehold the consummation of a great plan, which, throughout a course\nof ages, had been uniformly pursued; and which, against every human\nappearance, was, at the appointed moment, exactly fulfilled. No\nlength of time alters His purpose. No obstacles can retard it. Toward\nthe ends accomplished in this hour, the most repugnant instruments\nwere made to operate. We discern God bending to His purpose the\njarring passions, the opposite interests, and even the vices of men;\nuniting seeming contrarieties in His scheme; making \"the wrath of man\nto praise him\"; obliging the ambition of princes, the prejudices of\nJews, the malice of Satan, all to concur, either in bringing forward\nthis hour, or in completing its destined effects. With what entire\nconfidence ought we to wait for the fulfilment of all His other\npromises in their due time, even when events are most embroiled and\nthe prospect is most discouraging: \"Altho thou sayst thou canst not\nsee him, yet judgment is before him; therefore trust thou in him.\" Be\nattentive only to perform thy duty; leave the event to God, and be\nassured that, under the direction of His Providence, \"all things shall\nwork together\" for a happy issue.\n\nLastly, the consideration of this whole subject tends to excite\ngratitude and devotion, when we approach to God in acts of worship.\nThe hour of which I have discust, presents Him to us in the amiable\nlight of the deliverer of mankind, the restorer of our forfeited\nhopes. We behold the greatness of the Almighty, softened by the mild\nradiance of condescension and mercy. We behold Him diminishing the\nawful distance at which we stand from His presence, by appointing for\nus a mediator and intercessor, through whom the humble may, without\ndismay, approach to Him who made them. By such views of the divine\nnature, Christian faith lays the foundation for a worship which shall\nbe at once rational and affectionate; a worship in which the light of\nthe understanding shall concur with the devotion of the heart, and\nthe most profound reverence be united with the most cordial love.\nChristian faith is not a system of speculative truths. It is not a\nlesson of moral instruction only. By a train of high discoveries which\nit reveals, by a succession of interesting objects which it places\nin our view, it is calculated to elevate the mind, to purify the\naffections, and by the assistance of devotion, to confirm and\nencourage virtue. Such, in particular, is the scope of that divine\ninstitution, the sacrament of our Lord's Supper. To this happy purpose\nlet it conduce, by concentering in one striking point of light all\nthat the gospel has displayed of what is most important to man.\nTouched with such contrition for past offenses, and filled with a\ngrateful sense of divine goodness, let us come to the altar of God,\nand, with a humble faith in His infinite mercies, devote ourselves to\nHis service forever.\n\n\n\n\nDWIGHT\n\nTHE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\n\nTimothy Dwight was born at Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1752. He\ngraduated from Yale in 1769, served as chaplain in the army during the\nRevolutionary War and was chosen president of his university in 1795.\nHe died, after holding that office for twelve years, in 1817. Lyman\nBeecher, who attributed his conversion to him, says: \"He was of noble\nform, with a noble head and body, and had one of the sweetest smiles\nthat ever you saw. When I heard him preach on 'the harvest is passed,\nthe summer is ended, and we are not saved,' a whole avalanche rolled\ndown on my mind. I went home weeping every step.\"\n\n\n\nDWIGHT\n\n1752--1817\n\nTHE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD\n\n_O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in\nman that walketh to direct his steps_.--Jeremiah x., 23.\n\n\nFew of this audience will probably deny the truth of a direct\nScriptural declaration. With as little reason can it be denied that\nmost of them apparently live in the very manner in which they would\nlive if the doctrine were false: or that they rely, chiefly at least,\non their own sagacity, contrivance and efforts for success in this\nlife and that which is to come. As little can it be questioned that\nsuch self-confidence is a guide eminently dangerous and deceitful.\nSafe as we may feel under its direction, our safety is imaginary. The\nfolly of others in trusting to themselves we discern irresistibly. The\nsame folly they perceive, with equal evidence, in us. Our true\nwisdom lies in willingly feeling, and cheerfully acknowledging, our\ndependence on God; and in committing ourselves with humble reliance to\nHis care and direction.\n\nWith these observations I will now proceed to illustrate the truth of\nthe doctrine. The mode which I shall pursue will, probably, be thought\nsingular. I hope it will be useful. Metaphysical arguments, which are\ncustomarily employed for the purpose of establishing this and several\nother doctrines of theology, are, if I mistake not, less satisfactory\nto the minds of men at large than the authors of them appear to\nbelieve. Facts, wherever they can be fairly adduced for this end,\nare attended with a superior power of conviction; and commonly leave\nlittle doubt behind them. On these, therefore, I shall at the present\ntime rely for the accomplishment of my design. In the first place, the\ndoctrine of the text is evident from the great fact that the birth and\neducation of all men depend not on themselves.\n\nThe succeeding events of life are derived, in a great measure at\nleast, from our birth. By this event, it is in a prime degree\ndetermined whether men shall be princes or peasants, opulent or poor,\nlearned or ignorant, honorable or despised; whether they shall be\ncivilized or savage, freemen or slaves, Christians or heathens,\nMohammedans or Jews.\n\nA child is born of Indian parents in the western wilderness. By his\nbirth he is, of course, a savage. His friends, his mode of life, his\nhabits, his knowledge, his opinions, his conduct, all grow out of this\nsingle event. His first thoughts, his first instructions, and all the\nfirst objects with which he is conversant, the persons whom he loves,\nthe life to which he assumes are all savage. He is an Indian from the\ncradle; he is an Indian to the grave. To say that he could not be\notherwise, we are not warranted; but that he is not is certain.\n\nAnother child is born of a Bedouin Arab. From this moment he begins to\nbe an Arabian. His hand is against every man; and every man's hand\nis against him. Before he can walk, or speak, he is carried through\npathless wastes in search of food; and roams in the arms of his\nmother, and on the back of a camel, from spring to spring, and from\npasture to pasture. Even then he begins his conflict with hunger and\nthirst; is scorched by a vertical sun; shriveled by the burning sand\nbeneath; and poisoned by the breath of the simoom. Hardened thus\nthrough his infancy and childhood, both in body and mind, he becomes,\nunder the exhortations and example of his father, a robber from\nhis youth; attacks every stranger whom he is able to overcome; and\nplunders every valuable thing on which he can lay his hand.\n\nA third receives his birth in the palace of a British nobleman; and is\nwelcomed to the world as the heir apparent of an ancient, honorable\nand splendid family. As soon as he opens his eyes on the light, he is\nsurrounded by all the enjoyments which opulence can furnish, ingenuity\ncontrive, or fondness bestow. He is dandled on the knee of indulgence;\nencircled by attendants, who watch and prevent alike his necessities\nand wishes; cradled on down; and charmed to sleep by the voice of\ntenderness and care. From the dangers and evils of life he is guarded\nwith anxious solicitude. To its pleasures he is conducted by the\never-ready hand of maternal affection. His person is shaped and\nimproved by a succession of masters; his mind is opened, invigorated\nand refined by the assiduous superintendence of learning and wisdom.\nWhile a child he is served by a host of menials and flattered by\nsuccessive trains of visitors. When a youth he is regarded by a band\nof tenants with reverence and awe. His equals in age bow to his rank;\nand multitudes, of superior years acknowledge his distinction by\ncontinual testimonies of marked respect. When a man, he engages the\nregard of his sovereign; commands the esteem of the senate; and earns\nthe love and applause of his country.\n\nA fourth child, in the same kingdom, is begotten by a beggar, and\nborn under a hedge. From his birth he is trained to suffering and\nhardihood. He is nursed, if he can be said to be nursed at all, on a\ncoarse, scanty and precarious pittance; holds life only as a tenant\nat will; combats from the first dawnings of intellect with insolence,\ncold and nakedness; is originally taught to beg and to steal; is\ndriven from the doors of men by the porter or the house dog; and is\nregarded as an alien from the family of Adam. Like his kindred worms,\nhe creeps through life in the dust; dies under the hedge, where he is\nborn; and is then, perhaps, cast into a ditch, and covered with earth\nby some stranger, who remembers that, altho a beggar, he still was a\nman.\n\nA child enters the world in China; and unites, as a thing of course,\nwith his sottish countrymen in the stupid worship of the idol Fo.\nAnother prostrates himself before the Lama, in consequence of having\nreceived his being in Tibet, and of seeing the Lama worshiped by all\naround him.\n\nA third, who begins his existence in Turkey, is carried early to the\nmosque; taught to lisp with profound reverence the name of Mohammed;\nhabituated to repeat the prayers and sentences of the Koran as the\nmeans of eternal life; and induced, in a manner irresistible, to\ncomplete his title to Paradise by a pilgrimage to Mecca.\n\nThe Hindu infant grows into a religious veneration for the cow; and\nperhaps never doubts that, if he adds to this solemn devotion to\nJuggernaut, the Gooroos, and the Dewtahs, and performs carefully his\nablutions in the Ganges, he shall wash away all his sins, and obtain,\nby the favor of Brahma, a seat among the blest.\n\nIn our own favored country, one child is born of parents devoted\nsolely to this world. From his earliest moments of understanding, he\nhears and sees nothing commended but hunting, horse-racing, visiting,\ndancing, dressing, riding, parties, gaming, acquiring money with\neagerness and skill, and spending it in gaiety, pleasure and luxury.\nThese things, he is taught by conversation and example, constitute all\nthe good of man. His taste is formed, his habits are riveted, and the\nwhole character of his soul is turned to them before he is fairly\nsensible that there is any other good. The question whether virtue and\npiety are either duties or blessings he probably never asks. In the\ndawn of life he sees them neglected and despised by those whom he\nmost reverences; and learns only to neglect and despise them also. Of\nJehovah he thinks as little, and for the same reason as a Chinese or\na Hindu. They pay their devotions to Fo and to Juggernaut: he his to\nmoney and pleasure. Thus he lives, and dies, a mere animal; a stranger\nto intelligence and morality, to his duty and his God.\n\nAnother child comes into existence in the mansion of knowledge and\nvirtue. From his infancy, his mind is fashioned to wisdom and piety.\nIn his infancy he is taught and allured to remember his Creator;\nand to unite, first in form and then in affection, in the household\ndevotions of the morning and evening. God he knows almost as soon as\nhe can know anything. The presence of that glorious being he is taught\nto realize almost from the cradle; and from the dawn of intelligence\nto understand the perfections and government of his Creator. His own\naccountableness, as soon as he can comprehend it, he begins to feel\nhabitually, and always. The way of life through the Redeemer is early,\nand regularly explained to him by the voice of parental love; and\nenforced and endeared in the house of God. As soon as possible, he\nis enabled to read, and persuaded to \"search the Scriptures.\" Of the\napproach, the danger and the mischiefs of temptations, he is tenderly\nwarned. At the commencement of sin, he is kindly checked in his\ndangerous career. To God he was solemnly given in baptism. To God he\nwas daily commended in fervent prayer. Under this happy cultivation he\ngrows up \"like an olive-tree in the courts of the Lord\"; and, green,\nbeautiful and flourishing, he blossoms; bears fruit; and is prepared\nto be transplanted by the divine hand to a kinder soil in the regions\nabove.\n\nHow many, and how great, are the differences in these several\nchildren! How plainly do they all, in ordinary circumstances, arise\nout of their birth! From their birth is derived, of course, the\neducation which I have ascribed to them; and from this education\nspring in a great measure both character and their destiny. The place,\nthe persons, the circumstances, are here evidently the great things\nwhich, in the ordinary course of Providence, appear chiefly to\ndetermine what the respective men shall be; and what shall be those\nallotments which regularly follow their respective characters. As,\nthen, they are not at all concerned in contriving or accomplishing\neither their birth or their education; it is certain that, in these\nmost important particulars, the way of man is not in himself. God only\ncan determine what child shall spring from parents, wise or foolish,\nvirtuous or sinful, rich or poor, honorable or infamous, civilized or\nsavage, Christian or heathen.\n\nI wish it to be distinctly understood, and carefully remembered, that\n\"in the moral conduct of all these individuals no physical necessity\noperates.\" Every one of them is absolutely a free agent; as free as\nany created agent can be. Whatever he does is the result of choice,\nabsolutely unconstrained.\n\nLet me add, that not one of them is placed in a situation in which, if\nhe learns and performs his duty to the utmost of his power, he will\nfail of being finally accepted.\n\nSecondly. The doctrine is strikingly evident from this great fact,\nalso, that the course of life, which men usually pursue, is very\ndifferent from that which they have intended.\n\nHuman life is ordinarily little else than a collection of\ndisappointments. Rarely is the life of man such as he designs it shall\nbe. Often do we fail of pursuing, at all, the business originally\nin our view. The intentional farmer becomes a mechanic, a seaman,\na merchant, a lawyer, a physician, or a divine. The very place of\nsettlement, and of residence through life, is often different, and\ndistant, from that which was originally contemplated. Still more\ndifferent is the success which follows our efforts.\n\nAll men intend to be rich and honorable; to enjoy ease; and to pursue\npleasure. But how small is the number of those who compass these\nobjects! In this country, the great body of mankind are, indeed,\npossest of competence; a safer and happier lot than that to which they\naspire; yet few, very few are rich. Here, also, the great body of\nmankind possess a character, generally reputable; but very limited is\nthe number of those who arrive at the honor which they so ardently\ndesire, and of which they feel assured. Almost all stop at the\nmoderate level, where human efforts appear to have their boundary\nestablished in the determination of God. Nay, far below this level\ncreep multitudes of such as began life with full confidence in the\nattainment of distinction and splendor.\n\nThe lawyer, emulating the eloquence, business, and fame of Murray or\nDunning, and secretly resolved not to slacken his efforts, until all\nhis rivals in the race for glory are outstript is often astonished, as\nwell as broken-hearted, to find business and fame pass by his door,\nand stop at the more favored mansion of some competitor, in his view\nless able, and less discerning, than himself.\n\nThe physician, devoted to medical science, and possest of\ndistinguished powers of discerning and removing diseases, is obliged\nto walk; while a more fortunate empiric, ignorant and worthless, rolls\nthrough the streets in his coach.\n\nThe legislator beholds with anguish and amazement the suffrages of his\ncountrymen given eagerly to a rival candidate devoid of knowledge and\nintegrity; but skilled in flattering the base passions of men, and\ndeterred by no hesitations of conscience, and no fears of infamy, from\nsaying and doing anything which may secure his election.\n\nThe merchant often beholds with a despairing eye his own ships sunk in\nthe ocean; his debtors fail; his goods unsold, his business cramped;\nand himself, his family and his hopes ruined; while a less skilful but\nmore successful neighbor sees wealth blown to him by every wind, and\nfloated on every wave.\n\nThe crops of the farmer are stinted; his cattle die; his markets are\nbad; and the purchaser of his commodities proves to be a cheat, who\ndeceives his confidence and runs away with his property.\n\nThus the darling schemes and fondest hopes of man are daily frustrated\nby time. While sagacity contrives, patience matures, and labor\nindustriously executes, disappointment laughs at the curious fabric,\nformed by so many efforts and gay with so many brilliant colors,\nand while the artists imagine the work arrived at the moment of\ncompletion, brushes away the beautiful web, and leaves nothing behind.\n\nThe designs of men, however, are in many respects not infrequently\nsuccessful. The lawyer and physician acquire business and fame; the\nstatesman, votes; and the farmer, wealth. But their real success,\neven in this case, is often substantially the same with that already\nrecited. In all plans, and all labors, the supreme object is to become\nhappy. Yet, when men have actually acquired riches and honor, or\nsecured to themselves popular favor, they still find the happiness,\nwhich they expected, eluding their grasp. Neither wealth, fame,\noffice, nor sensual pleasure can yield such good as we need. As these\ncoveted objects are accumulated, the wishes of man always grow faster\nthan his gratifications. Hence, whatever he acquires, he is usually as\nlittle satisfied as before, and often less.\n\nA principal design of the mind in laboring for these things is to\nbecome superior to others. But almost all rich men are obliged to see,\nand usually with no small anguish, others richer than themselves;\nhonorable men, others more honorable; voluptuous men, others who enjoy\nmore pleasure. The great end of the strife is therefore unobtained;\nand the happiness expected never found. Even the successful competitor\nin the race utterly misses his aim. The real enjoyment existed, altho\nit was unperceived by him, in the mere strife for superiority. When\nhe has outstript all his rivals the contest is at an end: and his\nspirits, which were invigorated only by contending, languish for want\nof a competitor.\n\nBesides, the happiness in view was only the indulgence of pride,\nor mere animal pleasure. Neither of these can satisfy or endure. A\nrational mind may be, and often is, so narrow and groveling as not to\naim at any higher good, to understand its nature or to believe its\nexistence. Still, in its original constitution, it was formed with a\ncapacity for intellectual and moral good, and was destined to find in\nthis good its only satisfaction. Hence, no inferior good will fill\nits capacity or its desires. Nor can this bent of its nature ever be\naltered. Whatever other enjoyment, therefore, it may attain, it will,\nwithout this, still crave and still be unhappy.\n\nNo view of the ever-varying character and success of mankind in\ntheir expectations of happiness, and their efforts to obtain it, can\nillustrate this doctrine more satisfactorily than that of the progress\nand end of a class of students in this seminary. At their first\nappearance here they are all exactly on the same level. Their\ncharacter, their hopes and their destination are the same. They are\nenrolled on one list; and enter upon a collegiate life with the same\npromise of success. At this moment they are plants, appearing just\nabove the ground; all equally fair and flourishing. Within a short\ntime, however, some begin to rise above others; indicating by a more\nrapid growth a structure of superior vigor, and promising both more\nearly and more abundant fruit....\n\nWere I to ask the youths who are before me what are their designs\nand expectations concerning their future life, and write down their\nseveral answers, what a vast difference would ultimately be found\nbetween those answers and the events which would actually befall them!\nTo how great a part of that difference would facts, over which they\ncould have no control, give birth! How many of them will in all\nprobability be less prosperous, rich, and honorable than they now\nintend: how many devoted to employments of which at present they do\nnot even dream; in circumstances, of which they never entertained even\na thought, behind those whom they expected to outrun, poor, sick, in\nsorrow or in the grave.\n\nFirst. You see here, my young friends, the most solid reasons for\ngratitude to your Creator.\n\nGod, only, directed that you should be born in this land, and in the\nmidst of peace, plenty, civilization, freedom, learning and religion;\nand that your existence should not commence in a Tartarian forest\nor an African waste. God, alone, ordered that you should be born of\nparents who knew and worshiped Him, the glorious and eternal Jehovah;\nand not of parents who bowed before the Lama or the ox, an image of\nbrass or the stock of a tree. In the book of His counsels, your names,\nso far as we are able to judge, were written in the fair lines of\nmercy. It is of His overflowing goodness that you are now here;\nsurrounded with privileges, and beset with blessings, educated to\nknowledge, usefulness and piety, and prepared to begin an endless\ncourse of happiness and glory. All these delightful things have\nbeen poured into your lap, and have come, unbidden, to solicit your\nacceptance. If these blessings awaken not gratitude, it can not be\nawakened by the blessings in the present world. If they are not\nthankfully felt by you, it is because you know not how to be thankful.\nThink what you are, and where you are; and what and where you just as\neasily might have been. Remember that, instead of cherishing tender\naffections, imbibing refined sentiments, exploring the field of\nscience, and assuming the name and character of the sons of God, you\nmight as easily have been dozing in the smoke of a wigwam, brandishing\na tomahawk, or dancing round an emboweled captive; or that you might\nyourself have been emboweled by the hand of superstition, and burnt on\nthe altars of Moloch. If you remember these things, you can not but\ncall to mind, also, who made you to differ from the miserable beings\nwho have thus lived and died.\n\nSecondly. This doctrine forcibly demands of you to moderate desires\nand expectations.\n\nThere are two modes in which men seek happiness in the enjoyments of\nthe present world. \"Most persons freely indulge their wishes, and\nintend to find objects sufficient in number and value to satisfy\nthem.\" A few \"aim at satisfaction by proportioning their desires to\nthe number and measure of their probable gratifications.\" By the\ndoctrine of the text, the latter method is stamped with the name of\nwisdom, and on the former is inscribed the name of folly. Desires\nindulged grow faster and farther than gratifications extend.\nUngratified desire is misery. Expectations eagerly indulged and\nterminated by disappointment are often exquisite misery. But how\nfrequently are expectations raised only to be disappointed, and\ndesires let loose only to terminate in distress! The child pines for\na toy: the moment he possesses it, he throws it by and cries for\nanother. When they are piled up in heaps around him, he looks at them\nwithout pleasure, and leaves them without regret. He knew not that\nall the good which they could yield lay in expectation; nor that his\nwishes for more would increase faster than toys could be multiplied,\nand is unhappy at last for the same reason as at first: his wishes\nare ungratified. Still indulging them, and still believing that the\ngratification of them will furnish the enjoyment for which he pines,\nhe goes on, only to be unhappy.\n\nMen are merely taller children. Honor, wealth and splendor are the\ntoys for which grown children pine; but which, however accumulated,\nleave them still disappointed and unhappy. God never designed that\nintelligent beings should be satisfied with these enjoyments. By his\nwisdom and goodness they were formed to derive their happiness and\nvirtue.\n\nModerated desires constitute a character fitted to acquire all the\ngood which this world can yield. He who is prepared, in whatever\nsituation he is, therewith to be content, has learned effectually the\nscience of being happy, and possesses the alchemic stone which will\nchange every metal into gold. Such a man will smile upon a stool,\nwhile Alexander at his side sits weeping on the throne of the world.\n\nThe doctrine of the text teaches you irresistibly that, since you can\nnot command gratifications, you should command your desires; and that,\nas the events of life do not accord with your wishes, your wishes\nshould accord with them. Multiplied enjoyments fall to but few men,\nand are no more rationally expected than the highest prize in a\nlottery. But a well-regulated mind, a dignified independence of the\nworld, and a wise preparation to possess one's soul in patience,\nwhatever circumstances may exist, is in the power of every man, and is\ngreater wealth than that of both Indies, and greater honor than Caesar\never required.\n\nThirdly. As your course and your success through life are not under\nyour control, you are strongly urged to commit yourselves to God, who\ncan control both.\n\nThat you can not direct your course through the world, that your best\nconcerted plans will often fail, that your sanguine expectations will\nbe disappointed, and that your fondest worldly wishes will terminate\nin mortification can not admit of a momentary doubt. That God can\ndirect you, that He actually controls all your concerns, and that,\nif you commit yourselves to His care, He will direct you kindly and\nsafely, can be doubted only of choice. Why, then, do you hesitate to\nyield yourselves and your interests to the guidance of your Maker?\nThere are two reasons which appear especially to govern mankind in\nthis important concern; they do not and will not realize the agency of\nGod in their affairs; and they do not choose to have them directed\nas they imagine He will direct them. The former is the result of\nstupidity; the latter, of impiety. Both are foolish in the extreme,\nand not less sinful than foolish.\n\nThe infinitely wise, great and glorious benefactor of the universe\nhas offered to take men by the hand, lead them through the journey of\nlife, and conduct them to His own house in the heavens. The proof of\nHis sincerity in making this offer has been already produced. He has\ngiven His own Son to live, and die, and rise, and reign, and intercede\nfor our race. \"Herein is love,\" if there ever was love; \"not that we\nhave loved him, but that he has loved us.\" That He, who has done this,\nshould not be sincere is impossible. St. Paul, therefore, triumphantly\nasks what none can answer: \"He, that spared not his own Son, but\ndelivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely\ngive us all things?\" Trust, then, His word with undoubting confidence;\ntake His hand with humble gratitude, and with all thy heart obey His\nvoice, which you will everywhere hear, saying, \"this is the way, walk\nye therein.\" In sickness and in health, by night and by day, at home\nand in crowds, He will watch over you with tenderness inexpressible.\nHe will make you lie down in green pastures, lead you beside the still\nwaters and guide you in paths of righteousness, for His name's sake.\nHe will prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies,\nand cause your cup to run over with blessings. When you pass through\nthe waters of affliction He will be with you, and through the rivers\nthey shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall\nnot be burned; neither shall the flame kindle on you. From their\nnative heavens He will commission those charming twin sisters,\ngoodness and mercy, to descend and \"follow you all your days.\"\n\nBut if you wish God to be your guide and your friend, you must conform\nto his pleasure. Certainly you can not wonder that the infinitely Wise\nshould prefer His own wisdom to yours, and that he should choose for\nHis children their allotments, rather than leave them to choose for\nthemselves. That part of His pleasure, which you are to obey, is all\nsummed up in the single word duty, and it is perfectly disclosed in\nthe Scriptures. The whole scheme is so formed as to be plain, easy,\nprofitable, and delightful; profitable in hand, delightful in the\npossession. Every part and precept of the whole is calculated for this\nend, and will make you only wise, good, and happy.\n\nLife has been often styled an ocean, and our progress through it a\nvoyage. The ocean is tempestuous and billowy, overspread by a cloudy\nsky, and fraught beneath with shelves and quicksands. The voyage\nis eventful beyond comprehension, and at the same time full of\nuncertainty, and replete with danger. Every adventurer needs to be\nwell prepared for whatever may befall him, and well secured against\nthe manifold hazards of losing his course, sinking in the abyss, or of\nbeing wrecked against the shore.\n\nThese evils have all existed at all times. The present, and that\npart of the past which is known to you by experience, has seen them\nmultiplied beyond example. It has seen the ancient and acknowledged\nstandards of thinking violently thrown down. Religion, morals,\ngovernment, and the estimate formed by man of crimes and virtues, and\nof all the means of usefulness and enjoyment, have been questioned,\nattacked, and in various places, and with respect to millions of\nthe human race, finally overthrown. A licentiousness of opinion and\nconduct, daring, outrageous, and rending asunder every bond formed by\nGod or man, has taken place of former good sense and sound morals, and\nhas long threatened the destruction of human good. Industry, cunning,\nand fraud have toiled with unrivaled exertions to convert man into\na savage and the world into a desert. A wretched and hypocritical\nphilanthropy, also, not less mischievous, has stalked forth as the\ncompanion of these ravages: a philanthropy born in a dream, bred in a\nhovel, and living only in professions. This guardian genius of human\ninterests, this friend of human rights, this redresser of human\nwrongs, is yet without a heart to feel, and without a hand to bless.\nBut she is well furnished with lungs, with eyes, and a tongue. She can\ntalk, and sigh, and weep at pleasure, but can neither pity nor give.\nThe objects of her attachment are either knaves and villains at home,\nor unknown sufferers beyond her reach abroad. To the former, she\nministers the sword and the dagger, that they may fight their way into\nplace, and power, and profit. At the latter she only looks through a\ntelescope of fancy, as an astronomer searches for stars invisible\nto the eye. To every real object of charity within her reach she\ncomplacently says, \"Be thou warmed, and be thou filled; depart in\npeace.\"\n\nBy the daring spirit, the vigorous efforts, and the ingenious cunning\nso industriously exerted on the one hand, and the smooth and gentle\nbenevolence so softly profest on the other, multitudes have been,\nand you easily may be, destroyed. The mischief has indeed been met,\nresisted, and overcome; but it has the heads and the lives of the\nhydra, and its wounds, which at times have seemed deadly, are much\nmore readily healed than any good man could wish, than any sober man\ncould expect. Hope not to escape the assaults of this enemy: To feel\nthat you are in danger will ever be a preparation for your safety. But\nit will be only such a preparation; your deliverance must ultimately\nand only flow from your Maker. Resolve, then, to commit yourselves\nto Him with a cordial reliance on His wisdom, power, and protection.\nConsider how much you have at stake, that you are bound to eternity,\nthat your existence will be immortal, and that you will either rise to\nendless glory or be lost in absolute perdition. Heaven is your proper\nhome. The path, which I have recommended to you, will conduct you\nsafely and certainly to that happy world. Fill up life, therefore,\nwith obedience to God, with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and\nrepentance unto life, the obedience to the two great commands of the\ngospel, with supreme love to God and universal good-will to men, the\nobedience to the two great commands of the law. On all your sincere\nendeavors to honor Him, and befriend your fellow men, He will smile;\nevery virtuous attempt He will bless; every act of obedience He will\nreward. Life in this manner will be pleasant amid all its sorrows; and\nbeams of hope will continually shine through the gloom, by which it\nis so often overcast. Virtue, the seed that can not die, planted from\nheaven, and cultivated by the divine hand, will grow up in your hearts\nwith increasing vigor, and blossom in your lives with supernal beauty.\nYour path will be that of the just, and will gloriously resemble the\ndawning light, \"which shines brighter and brighter, to the perfect\nday.\" Peace will take you by the hand, and offer herself as the\nconstant and delightful companion of your progress. Hope will walk\nbefore you, and with an unerring finger point out your course; and\njoy, at the end of the journey, will open her arms to receive you. You\nwill wait on the Lord, and renew your strength; will mount up with\nwings as eagles; will run, and not be weary; will walk, and not faint.\n\n\n\n\nROBERT HALL\n\nMARKS OF LOVE TO GOD\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\n\nRobert Hall, Baptist divine, was born at Arnesby, near Leicester,\nEngland, in 1764. Destined for the ministry, he was educated at the\nBaptist Academy at Bristol, and preached for the first time in\n1779. In 1783 he began his ministry in Bristol and drew crowded\ncongregations of all classes. The tradition of Hall's pupit oratory\nhas secured his lasting fame. Many minds of a high order were\nfascinated by his eloquence, and his conversation was brilliant.\nHis treatment of religious topics had the rare merit of commending\nevangelical doctrine to people of taste. Dugald Stewart declares that\nhis writings and public utterances exhibited the English language in\nits perfection. He died in 1831.\n\n\n\n\nROBERT HALL\n\n1764--1831\n\nMARKS OF LOVE TO GOD\n\n_But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you._--John v.,\n42.\n\n\nThe persons whom our Lord addrest in these words made a high\nprofession of religion, valued themselves upon their peculiar\nopportunities of knowing the true God and His will, and proclaimed\nthemselves as the Israel and the temple of the Lord, while they\ndespised the surrounding pagans as those who were strangers to the\ndivine law. Yet the self-complacent Pharisees of our Savior's age were\nas far from the love of God, he assures them in the text, as any of\nthose who had never heard of His name. In this respect, many of \"the\nfirst were last, and the last first.\" The rejection of the gospel\nevinces a hardness of heart which is decisive against the character;\nand, in the case of the Pharisees, it gave ample evidence that they\npossest no love of God. Had they really known God, as our Lord argues,\nthey would have known Himself to be sent by God: whereas, in proving\nthe bitter enemies of Christ, they proved that they were in a state of\nenmity against God. By parity of reason, we, my brethren, who know God\nand His Word in the way of Christian profession, ought not to take it\nfor granted that we possess the love of God, and are in the way of\neternal life: the same self-delusion may overtake us also; and similar\nadmonitions may be no less necessary to many present, than to the\nPharisees of old. Suffer then, my brethren, the word of exhortation,\nwhile I invite each individual seriously to consider this subject,\nwith a view to the discovery of his real character.\n\nIn proceeding to lay down certain marks of grace, let it be premised,\nthat either these marks partake of the nature of true religion, or\nthey do not. If they do, they must be identified with it, and here the\nmark is the thing: if they do not partake of its nature, some of\nthem may exist as indications where genuine religion is not. It is\nnecessary, then, that we combine a variety of particular signs of\ngrace: any one taken by itself, may, or may not, exist, without true\nreligion; but where many are combined, no just doubt can remain.\n\nWhether you have the love of God in your soul presents a most\ncritical subject of inquiry; since the love of God will be\nacknowledged by all to be the great, the essential, principle of\ntrue religion. The simple question, then, to which I would call your\nattention, is this: \"Am I, or am I not, a sincere lover of the Author\nof my being?\"\n\nIn endeavoring to assist you in the decision of this momentous\nquestion, as it respects yourselves. I shall entreat your attention\nwhile I suggest a variety of marks which indicate love to God; and\nsupposing the conviction produced by the statement to be, that you\nhave not the love of God, I shall point out the proper improvement of\nsuch a conviction.\n\nIn suggesting various marks by which you may ascertain whether you\nlove God or not, I would mention the general bent and turn of your\nthoughts, when not under the immediate control of circumstances; for\nthese, you are aware, give a new and peculiar bias to our thoughts,\nand stamp them with an impress of their own. There is an infinite\nvariety of thoughts continually passing through the mind of every\nindividual: of these, some are thrown up by occasions; but others, and\noften the greater part, follow the habitual train of our associations.\nIt is not to thoughts of the former kind that I refer; it is to those\nof the latter class--those involuntary thoughts which spring up of\nthemselves in the mind of every person: it is these, not the former,\nthat afford clear indication of the general temper and disposition.\nThe question I would propose to you is, What is the bent of your\nthoughts when, disengaged from the influence of any particular\noccurrence, you are left to yourselves, in the intervals of retirement\nand tranquillity, in the silence of the midnight watches, and, in\nshort, whenever your mind is left free to its own spontaneous musings?\nAre the thoughts most familiar to your mind, at such times, thoughts\nof God and the things of God--or are they thoughts that turn upon the\npresent world and its transient concerns? Are they confined, for the\nmost part, within the narrow circle of time and sense; or do they make\nfrequent and large excursions into the spiritual and eternal world?\nThe answer to this question will go far to decide whether you have, or\nhave not, the love of God. It is impossible that such an object as the\ndivine Being should be absent long from your thoughts; impossible\nthat His remembrance should long remain merged in the stream of other\nimaginations; unless you are supposed chargeable with a decided\nindifference to divine things! Unless you are destitute of love to God\nyou can never be so utterly uncongenial in sentiment and feeling with\nthe psalmist, when he says, \"My mouth shall praise thee with joyful\nlips, while I meditate upon thee in the night watches.\" \"How precious\nare thy thoughts unto me, O God!\" When that man of God gazed upon the\nstarry heavens, his mind was not merely wrought into astonishment at\nthe physical energy there displayed; he was still more deeply lost in\ngrateful admiration of the mercy of Providence as manifested to man--a\nsinful child of dust, and yet visited by God in the midst of so\nmagnificent a universe! But when day passes after day, and night after\nnight, without any serious thoughts of God, it is plain that He is not\nthe home of your mind, not your portion, center, and resting-place:\nand if this is the case, it is equally plain that you are not in a\nstate of acceptance with Him; since nothing can be more certain than\nthat, as our thoughts are, such must be our character. I do not ask\nwhat are your thoughts at particular times, or under the influence\nof some particular event: there may be little difference, on some\noccasions, between those who remember, and those who neglect, God\nhabitually. The charge against the ungodly is, that \"God is not in all\ntheir thoughts.\" If there are any here who feel this charge as bearing\nagainst themselves, let them take that solemn warning given by God\nhimself at the close of the fiftieth psalm, \"Oh, consider this, ye\nthat forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to\ndeliver you!\"\n\nLet me request you to consider seriously how you stand disposed to the\nexercises of religion. If God is the object of your love, you will\ngladly avail yourselves of the most favorable opportunities of\ncultivating a closer friendship with the Father of your spirits: on\nthe contrary, he who feels no regard for these opportunities, proves\nthat he has no love to God, and will never be able to establish the\nconviction that God is his friend. Wherever there exists a sincere\nfriendship, opportunities of cultivating it are gladly embraced, and\nthe opposite privations are regretted. Where a habitual neglect of\nsacred exercises prevails it must be interpreted as if it said, like\nthose whom the prophet describes, \"Cause the Holy One of Israel to\ncease from amongst us. Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge\nof thy way!\" If your closets seldom witness your private devotions,\nif your moments in retirement are languid and uninteresting--your\nreligion can have no hold on your heart; and the reason why your\nreligion has no hold on your heart is because you have no love of God.\nThere are some whose religion sits easy and delightful upon them; its\nacts and functions are free and lively: there are others who seem to\nbear their religion as a burden, to drag their duties as a chain--as\nno vital part of themselves, but rather a cumbrous appendage: this is\na decisive and melancholy symptom of a heart alienated from God. There\nis no genuine religion, no real contact of the heart with the best of\nbeings, unless it makes us continually resort to Him as our chief joy.\nThe psalmist is always expressing his fervent desires after God: after\nthe light of the divine countenance, and the sense of the divine\nfavor: but do you suppose such desires peculiar to the state of\nbelievers under the Old Testament? No, my brethren; there exist more\nabundant reasons than ever, since the gospel of Christ has been\ndisplayed in all the glorious fulness of its blessings, why our souls\nshould be inflamed with such feelings as those which inspired\nthe psalmist, when he exclaimed, \"As the hart panteth for the\nwater-brooks, so longeth my soul after thee, O God!\"\n\nIf you would ascertain whether you love God, consider how you stand\naffected toward the Word of God. We can entertain no just thoughts of\nGod, but such as we derive from His own Word: we can acquire no true\nknowledge of God, nor cherish any suitable affections toward Him,\nunless they are such as His own revelation authorizes. Otherwise we\nmust suppose that revelation insufficient for its specific purposes,\nand set the means against the end. All, therefore, who sincerely love\nGod, are students of His Word; they here, also accord in soul with the\npsalmist, and like him, can say, \"O how I love thy word! in it is my\nmeditation all the day:\" they eat it as food for their souls, and find\nit sweeter than honey. They go to it as to an inexhaustible fountain,\nand drink from it streams of sacred light and joy. A neglected Bible\nis too unambiguous a sign of an unsanctified heart; since that blest\nbook can not fail to attract every one that loves its divine Author.\nHow is it possible to delight in God, and yet neglect that Word which\nalone reveals Him in His true and glorious character--alone discovers\nthe way by which He comes into unison with us, and condescends to\npardon us, to love us, and to guide us through all this mysterious\nstate of being? It is observable that the only persons who are\ninattentive to their own sacred books are to be found among\nChristians. Mohammedans commit large portions of the Koran to memory;\nthe Jews regard the Old Testament with reverence; the Hindu Brahmans\nare enthusiastically attached to their Shastra; while Christians alone\nneglect their Bible. And the reason is, that the Scriptures are so\nmuch more spiritual than the religious books received by others; they\nafford so little scope for mere amusement or self-complacency; they\nplace the reader alone with God; they withdraw him from the things\nthat are seen and temporal, and fix him among the things that are\nunseen and eternal; they disclose to his view at once the secret evils\nof his own condition, and the awful purity of that Being with whom he\nhas to do. No wonder the ungodly man hates their light, neither comes\nto their light, but retires from it farther and farther into the\nshades of guilty ignorance. How melancholy the infatuation of such a\ncharacter!\n\nEstimate your character in respect to your love of God, by reflecting,\nwith what sentiments you regard the people of God. God has a people\npeculiarly His own: they are not of that world to which they outwardly\nbelong--not conformed to it in the spirit of their mind; they stand\napart, many of them at least, in conspicuous conformity to Jesus\nChrist, and in earnest expectation of the glory which He had promised.\nHow, then, do you regard these decided followers of God? Do you shun\ntheir society with aversion and secret shame; or do you enjoy\ntheir communion as one of the most delightful among your Christian\nprivileges? Are you content merely to be the companion of those who\n\"have a name to live, but are dead\": or can you say with the psalmist,\n\"My delight is in the excellent of the earth\"? or, with the beloved\ndisciple, \"We know that we have passed from death unto life, because\nwe love the brethren\"? for, as he adds, \"He that loveth him that\nbegot, loveth him that is begotten\"; if you do not love the image\nwhich you have seen, how can you love the unseen original? If the\nfeatures of holiness and grace in the creature are not attractive to\nyour view, how can your affections rise to the perfect essence? How\ncan you ascend to the very sun itself, when you can not enjoy even the\nfaint reflection of its glory? He who knew the heart, could alone say\nto those around Him, \"I know you, that ye have not the love of God\nin you\": but tho none can address you now in the same tone of divine\nauthority, yet we may hear it uttered by a voice--the voice of your\nown conscience: you may know, without any perturbations of hope or\nfear, by the spiritual insensibility and inaction of your soul--by\nthis you may know, with equal certainty as by a voice from heaven,\nthat you have not the love of God in you.\n\nConsider the disposition you entertain toward the person and office of\nthe Son of God. \"If ye had loved the Father, ye would have loved me\nalso,\" was the constant argument of Jesus Christ to those Pharisees\nwhom He addresses in the text For Jesus Christ is the express image of\nGod: the effulgence of the divine character is attempered in Him, to\nsuit the views of sinful humanity. In the life of Jesus Christ we see\nhow the divine Being conducts Himself in human form and in our own\ncircumstances: we behold how He bears all the sorrows, and passes\nthrough all the temptations, of flesh and blood. Such, indeed, is the\nidentity, so perfect the oneness of character, between the man Christ\nJesus and the divine Being--that our Savior expressly assures us, \"He\nthat hath seen me, hath seen the Father; I and my Father are one.\" The\npurpose for which God was manifested in the flesh was not to reveal\nhigh speculations concerning the nature of the Deity: it was to bear\nour sorrows, and to die for our sins. But can you contemplate Him,\nthus stooping to your condition, thus mingling with every interest of\nyour own, and not be moved by such a spectacle?--not be attracted,\nfixt, filled with grateful astonishment and devotion--crucified, as\nit were, on the cross of Christ, to the flesh, and to the world? What\nmark, then, of our possessing no love of God can equal this, that we\nare without love to Jesus Christ?--that neither the visibility of His\ndivine excellence, nor His participation of all our human sufferings,\ncan reach our hearts and command our affections?\n\nIn examining whether you love God, examine how you are affected by His\nbenefits. These are so numerous and so distinguished that they\nought to excite our most ardent gratitude: night and day they are\nexperienced by us; they pervade every moment of our being. We know\nthat favors from an enemy derive a taint from the hands through which\nthey are received, and excite alienation rather than attachment: but\nthe kindness of a friend, by constantly reminding us of himself,\nendears that friend more and more to our hearts; and thus, he that has\nno love to God receives all His favors without the least attraction\ntoward their Author, whom he regards rather as an enemy than as a\nfriend. But the Christian feels his love of God excited by every fresh\ngoodness. The mercies of God have accompanied you through every\nstage of your journey; and they are exhibited to you in His word as\nstretching through a vast eternity. Are these the only benefits you\ncan receive without gratitude, and suffer to pass unregarded How,\nthen, can any love of God dwell in your bosom?\n\nConsider, in the next place, in what manner you are imprest by\nthe sense of your sins. The question is not whether you have any\nsins,--none can admit a doubt on this point; the only inquiry is, how\nyou are affected by those sins? Are they remembered by you with a\nsentiment of tender regret, of deep confusion and humiliation, that\nyou should ever have so requited such infinite goodness? And is this\nsentiment combined with a sacred resolution to go and sin no more,--to\ndevote yourself to the service of your divine Benefactor? If you\ncan live without an habitual sense of penitential tenderness and\nreverential fear, be assured you can not love God; you have no\nexperience of those Scripture declarations: \"They shall fear the Lord\nand his goodness in the latter days;\" \"There is forgiveness with thee,\nthat thou mayst be feared;\" you know not that \"the goodness of God\nleadeth to repentence.\" If the mind is softened by the love of God,\nall His favors serve to inflame its gratitude, and confirm its\ndevotion to His will: but he who has no love of God in his soul,\nthinks of nothing but how he may escape from God's hand, and selfishly\ndevours all His favors, without an emotion of gratitude to the Giver.\n\nFinally, let me remind you to consider how you are affected to the\npresent world. If you could only be exempt from its afflictions, would\nyou wish it to be your lasting home? If you could surround yourself\nwith all its advantages and enjoyments, would you be content to dwell\nin it forever? Yet you know that it is a place of separation and exile\nfrom the divine majesty; that it is a scene of darkness, in comparison\nwith heaven, very faintly illuminated with the beams of His distant\nglory; that its inhabitant is constrained to say, \"I have heard\nof thee by the hearing of the ear, but mine eye hath not yet seen\nthee\";--while heaven is the proper dwelling-place of God and His\npeople! Could you then consent to remain here always, without ever\nseeing as you are seen--seeing light in His light--without ever\nbeholding His glory; without ever drinking at the fountain,\nand basking in that presence which is fulness of joy, and\nlife forevermore? always to remain immersed in the shadows of\ntime--entombed in its corruptible possessions? never to ascend up on\nhigh to God and Christ and the glories of the eternal world? If such\nis the state of your spirit, you want the essential principle of a\nChristian--you want the love of God. The genuine Christian, the lover\nof God, is certain to feel himself a \"stranger on the earth.\" No\nsplendor, no emolument of this world,--not all the fascinations of\nsensual pleasure,--can detain his heart below the skies, or keep him\nfrom sympathizing with the sentiment of the psalmist: \"As for me, I\nshall behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I\nwake in thy likeness.\" I do not ask whether you have, at present, \"a\ndesire to depart\": perhaps you may not be as yet sufficiently prepared\nand established to entertain so exalted a desire; but still, if you\nhave received a new heart, you will deprecate nothing so much as\nhaving your portion in this life,--as having your eternal abode on\nearth. It is the character of faith to dwell much in eternity: the\napostle says, in the name of all real believers, \"We look not at the\nthings that are seen, but the things that are not seen; for the things\nthat are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are\neternal.\"\n\nAnd now, my brethren, supposing the preceding remarks to have produced\nin any of you the conviction that you have not the love of God in you,\npermit me very briefly to point out the proper improvement of such a\nconviction.\n\nFirst, it should be accompanied with deep humiliation. If you labored\nunder the privation of some bodily organ, requisite to the discharge\nof an animal function, you would feel it as in some degree a\nhumiliating circumstance; but what would be any defect of this kind,\nhowever serious, in comparison with that great want under which you\nlabor--the want of piety, the calamity of a soul estranged from the\nlove of God! What are the other subjects of humiliation compared with\nthis--a moral fall, a spiritual death in sin: and this, unless it be\nremoved, the sure precursor of the second death--eternal ruin! \"This\nis a lamentation indeed, and it shall be for a lamentation.\"\n\nSuppose the children of a family, reared and provided for by the most\naffectionate of parents, to rise up in rebellion against their father,\nand cast off all the feelings of filial tenderness and respect; would\nany qualities those children might possess, any appearance of\nvirtue they might exhibit in other respects, compensate for such\nan unnatural, such an awful deformity of character? Transfer this\nrepresentation to your conduct in relation to God: \"If I,\" says He,\n\"am a father, where is my fear? if I am a master, where is my honor?\"\n\"Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! I have nourished and brought\nup children, and they have rebelled against me: the ox knoweth his\nowner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my\npeople doth not consider.\"\n\nAnd let your humiliation be accompanied with concern and alarm. To be\nalienated from the great Origin of being; to be severed, or to sever\nyourself from the essential Author and element of all felicity, must\nbe a calmity which none can understand, an infinite wo which none can\nmeasure or conceive. If the stream is cut off from the fountain, it\nsoon ceases to flow, and its waters are dissipated in the air: and\nif the soul is cut off from God, it dies! Its vital contact with\nGod,--its spiritual union with the Father of spirits through the blest\nMediator, is the only life and beauty of the immortal soul. All,\nwithout this, are dead--\"dead in trespasses and sins\"! A living\ndeath--a state of restless wanderings, and unsatisfied desires! What\na condition theirs! And, oh! what a prospect for such, when they look\nbeyond this world! who will give them a welcome when they enter an\neternal state? What reception will they meet with, and where? What\nconsolation amid their losses and their sufferings, but that of the\nfellow-sufferers plunged in the same abyss of ruin? Impenitent sinners\nare allied to evil spirits, they have an affinity with the kingdom\nof darkness; and when they die, they are emphatically said to \"go to\ntheir own place\"!\n\nThis is an awful state for any to be in at present; but, blest be God,\nit is not yet a hopeless situation. Let no person say, \"I find by what\nI have heard, that I do not love God, and therefore I can entertain\nno hope.\" There is a way of return and recovery open to all. Jesus\nChrist, my dear brethren, proclaims to you all, \"I am the way. No man\ncan come to the Father but by me\":--but every one that will may come\nby this new and living way; and, if you lose life eternal, you lose\nit because--according to his words just before the text--because \"you\nwill not come to Christ that you may have life.\" If you feel the\nmisery, deformity, and danger of your state, then listen to His\ninvitation, and embrace His promise. See the whole weight of your\nguilt transferred to His cross! See how God can be at once the just\nand the justifier! Take of the blood of sprinkling, and be at peace!\nHis blood cleanseth from all sin: He will send that Spirit into your\nheart which will manifest Him to you; and where that Spirit is, there\nis liberty and holy love. He is the mystical ladder, let down from\nheaven to earth, on which angels are continually ascending and\ndescending, in token of an alliance established between God and man.\nUnited by faith to Jesus Christ, you shall become a habitation of God\nthrough the Spirit; the Father will make you a partaker of His love,\nthe Son of His grace, angels of their friendship; and you shall be\npreserved, and progressively sanctified, until, by the last change,\nall remains of the great epidemic source of evils shall be forever\nremoved from your soul; and the love of God shall constitute your\neternal felicity.\n\n\n\n\nEVANS\n\nTHE FALL AND RECOVERY OF MAN\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\n\nChristmas Evans, a Welsh Baptist preacher, was born at Isgaerwen,\nCardiganshire, South Wales, in 1766. Brought up as a Presbyterian,\nhe turned Baptist in 1788, and was ordained the following year and\nministered among the Baptists in Carmaerthenshire. In 1792 he became a\nsort of bishop to those of his denomination in Anglesey, where he took\nup his residence. After a somewhat stormy experience with those he\nundertook to rule, he removed to Carmaerthen in 1832. He distinguished\nhimself by his debt-raising tours, in which his eloquence brought\nhim much success. It is said that once when he was preaching on the\nsubject of the prodigal son, he pointed to a distant mountain as he\ndescribed the father seeing him while yet a great way off, whereupon\nthousands in his congregation turned their heads in evident\nexpectation of seeing the son actually coming down the hills. He died\nin 1838.\n\n\n\n\nEVANS\n\n1766--1838\n\nTHE FALL AND RECOVERY OF MAN\n\n_For if, through the offense of one, many be dead, much more the grace\nof God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath\nabounded unto many._--Romans v., 15.\n\n\nMan was created in the image of God. Knowledge and perfect holiness\nwere imprest upon the very nature and faculties of his soul. He had\nconstant access to his Maker, and enjoyed free communion with Him, on\nthe ground of his spotless moral rectitude. But, alas! the glorious\ndiadem is broken; the crown of righteousness is fallen. Man's purity\nis gone, and his happiness is forfeited. \"There is none righteous; no,\nnot one.\" \"All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.\" But\nthe ruin is not hopeless. What was lost in Adam is restored in Christ.\nHis blood redeems us from the bondage, and His gospel gives us back\nthe forfeited inheritance. \"For if, through the offense of one, many\nbe dead; much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is\nby one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.\" Let us consider,\nfirst, the corruption and condemnation of man; and secondly, his\ngracious restoration to the favor of his offended God.\n\nI. To find the cause of man's corruption and condemnation, we must go\nback to Eden. The eating of the \"forbidden tree\" was \"the offense of\none,\" in consequence of which \"many are dead.\" This was the \"sin,\" the\nact of \"disobedience,\" which \"brought death into the world, and all\nour wo.\" It was the greatest ingratitude to the divine bounty, and the\nboldest rebellion against the divine sovereignty. The royalty of God\nwas contemned; the riches of His goodness slighted; and His most\ndesperate enemy preferred before Him, as if he were a wiser counsellor\nthan infinite wisdom. Thus man joined in league with hell against\nheaven; with demons of the bottomless pit against the almighty maker\nand benefactor; robbing God of the obedience due to His command and\nthe glory due to His name; worshiping the creature instead of the\ncreator; and opening the door to pride, unbelief, enmity, and all the\nwicked and abominable passions. How is the \"noble vine,\" which was\nplanted \"wholly a right seed,\" \"turned into the degenerate plant of a\nstrange vine\"!\n\nWho can look for pure water from such a fountain? \"That which is born\nof the flesh is flesh.\" All the faculties of the soul are corrupted by\nsin; the understanding dark; the will perverse; the affections carnal;\nthe conscience full of shame, remorse, confusion, and mortal fear. Man\nis a hard-hearted and stiff-necked sinner; loving darkness rather than\nlight, because his deeds are evil; eating sin like bread, and drinking\niniquity like water; holding fast deceit, and refusing to let it go.\nHis heart is desperately wicked; full of pride, vanity, hypocrisy,\ncovetousness, hatred of truth, and hostility to all that is good.\n\nThis depravity is universal. Among the natural children of Adam, there\nis no exemption from the original taint. \"The whole world lieth\nin wickedness.\" \"We are all as an unclean thing, and all our\nrighteousness is as filthy rags.\" The corruption may vary in the\ndegrees of development, in different persons; but the elements are in\nall, and their nature is everywhere the same; the same in the blooming\nyouth, and the withered sire; in the haughty prince, and the humble\npeasant; in the strongest giant, and the feeblest invalid. The enemy\nhas \"come in like a flood.\" The deluge of sin has swept the world.\nFrom the highest to the lowest, there is no health or moral soundness.\nFrom the crown of the head to the soles of the feet, there is nothing\nbut wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores. The laws, and their\nviolation, and the punishments everywhere invented for the suppression\nof vice, prove the universality of the evil. The bloody sacrifices,\nand various purifications, of the pagans, show the handwriting of\nremorse upon their consciences; proclaim their sense of guilt, and\ntheir dread of punishment. None of them are free from the fear which\nhath torment, whatever their efforts to overcome it, and however great\ntheir boldness in the service of sin and Satan. \"Menel Tekel!\" is\nwritten on every human heart. \"Wanting! wanting!\" is inscribed on\nheathen fanes and altars; on the laws, customs, and institutions of\nevery nation; and on the universal consciousness of mankind.\n\nThis inward corruption manifests itself in outward actions. \"The tree\nis known by its fruit.\" As the smoke and sparks of the chimney show\nthat there is fire within; so all the \"filthy conversation\" of men,\nand all \"the unfruitful works of darkness\" in which they delight,\nevidently indicate the pollution of the source whence they proceed.\n\"Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.\" The sinner's\nspeech betrayeth him. \"Evil speaking\" proceeds from malice and envy.\n\"Foolish talking and jesting\" are evidence of impure and trifling\nthoughts. The mouth full of cursing and bitterness, the throat an open\nsepulcher, the poison of asps under the tongue, the feet swift to shed\nblood, destruction and misery in their paths, and the way of peace\nunknown to them, are the clearest and amplest demonstration that men\n\"have gone out of the way,\" \"have together become unprofitable.\" We\nsee the bitter fruit of the same corruption in robbery, adultery,\ngluttony, drunkenness, extortion, intolerance, persecution, apostasy,\nand every evil work--in all false religions; the Jew, obstinately\nadhering to the carnal ceremonies of an abrogated law; the Mohammedan,\nhonoring an impostor, and receiving a lie for a revelation from God;\nthe papist, worshiping images and relics, praying to departed saints,\nseeking absolution from sinful men, and trusting in the most absurd\nmummeries for salvation; the pagan, attributing divinity to the works\nof his own hands, adoring idols of wood and stone, sacrificing to\nmalignant demons, casting his children into the fire or the flood\nas an offering to imaginary deities, and changing the glory of the\nincorruptible God into the likeness of the beast and the worm.\n\n\"For these things' sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of\ndisobedience.\" They are under the sentence of the broken law; the\nmalediction of eternal justice. \"By the offense of one, judgment came\nupon all men unto condemnation.\" \"He that believeth not is condemned\nalready.\" \"The wrath of God abideth on him.\" \"Curst is every one that\ncontinueth not in all things written in the book of the law, to do\nthem.\" \"Wo unto the wicked; it shall be ill with him, for the reward\nof his hands shall be given him.\" \"They that plow iniquity, and sow\nwickedness, shall reap the same.\" \"Upon the wicked the Lord shall rain\nfire, and snares, and a horrible tempest; this shall be the portion of\ntheir cup.\" \"God is angry with the wicked every day; if he turn not he\nwill whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.\"\n\nWho shall describe the misery of fallen man! His days, tho few, are\nfull of evil. Trouble and sorrow press him forward to the tomb. All\nthe world, except Noah and his family, are drowning in the deluge.\nA storm of fire and brimstone is fallen from heaven upon Sodom and\nGomorrah. The earth is opening her mouth to swallow up alive Korah,\nDathan, and Abiram. Wrath is coming upon \"the beloved city,\" even\n\"wrath unto the uttermost.\" The tender and delicate mother is\ndevouring her darling infant. The sword of men is executing the\nvengeance of God. The earth is emptying its inhabitants into the\nbottomless pit. On every hand are \"confused noises, and garments\nrolled in blood.\" Fire and sword fill the land with consternation and\ndismay. Amid the universal devastation wild shrieks and despairing\ngroans fill the air. God of mercy! is Thy ear heavy, that Thou canst\nnot hear? or Thy arm shortened, that Thou canst not save? The heavens\nabove are brass, and the earth beneath is iron; for Jehovah is pouring\nHis indignation upon His adversaries, and He will not pity or spare.\n\nVerily, \"the misery of man is great upon him\"! Behold the wretched\nfallen creature! The pestilence pursues him. The leprosy cleaves to\nhim. Consumption is wasting him. Inflammation is devouring his vitals.\nBurning fever has seized upon the very springs of life. The destroying\nangel has overtaken the sinner in his sins. The hand of God is upon\nhim. The fires of wrath are kindling about him, drying up every well\nof comfort, and scorching all his hopes to ashes. Conscience is\nchastizing him with scorpions. See how he writhes! Hear how he shrieks\nfor help! Mark what agony and terror are in his soul, and on his brow!\nDeath stares him in the face, and shakes at him his iron spear. He\ntrembles, he turns pale, as a culprit at the bar, as a convict on\nthe scaffold. He is condemned already. Conscience has pronounced the\nsentence. Anguish has taken hold upon him. Terrors gather in battle\narray about him. He looks back, and the storms of Sinai pursue him;\nforward, and hell is moved to meet him; above, and the heavens are on\nfire; beneath, and the world is burning. He listens, and the judgment\ntrump is calling; again, and the brazen chariots of vengeance are\nthundering from afar; yet again, the sentence penetrates his soul\nwith anguish unspeakable--\"Depart! ye accurst! into everlasting fire,\nprepared for the devil and his angels!\"\n\nThus, \"by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and\nso death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.\" They are\n\"dead in trespasses and sins,\" spiritually dead, and legally dead;\ndead by the mortal power of sin, and dead by the condemnatory sentence\nof the law; and helpless as sheep to the slaughter, they are driven\nfiercely on by the ministers of wrath to the all-devouring grave and\nthe lake of fire!\n\nBut is there no mercy? Is there no means of salvation? Hark! amid all\nthis prelude of wrath and ruin, comes a still small voice, saying:\n\"Much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one\nman, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.\"\n\nII. This brings us to our second topic, man's gracious recovery to the\nfavor of his offended God.\n\nI know not how to present to you this glorious work, better than by\nthe following figure. Suppose a vast graveyard, surrounded by a lofty\nwall, with only one entrance, which is by a massive iron gate, and\nthat is fast bolted. Within are thousands and millions of human\nbeings, of all ages and classes, by one epidemic disease bending to\nthe grave. The graves yawn to swallow them, and they must all perish.\nThere is no balm to relieve, no physician there. Such is the condition\nof man as a sinner. All have sinned; and it is written, \"The soul that\nsinneth shall die.\" But while the unhappy race lay in that dismal\nprison, Mercy came and stood at the gate, and wept over the melancholy\nscene, exclaiming--\"Oh, that I might enter! I would bind up their\nwounds; I would relieve their sorrows; I would save their souls!\" An\nembassy of angels, commissioned from the court of heaven to some other\nworld, paused at the sight, and heaven forgave that pause. Seeing\nMercy standing there, they cried:--\"Mercy! canst thou not enter? Canst\nthou look upon that scene and not pity? Canst thou pity, and not\nrelieve?\" Mercy replied: \"I can see!\" and in her tears she added, \"I\ncan pity, but I can not relieve!\" \"Why canst thou not enter?\" inquired\nthe heavenly host. \"Oh!\" said Mercy, \"Justice has barred the gate\nagainst me, and I must not--can not unbar it!\" At this moment, Justice\nappeared, as if to watch the gate. The angels asked, \"Why wilt thou\nnot suffer Mercy to enter?\" He sternly replied: \"The law is broken,\nand it must be honored! Die they, or Justice must!\" Then appeared\na form among the angelic band like unto the Son of God. Addressing\nHimself to Justice, He said: \"What are thy demands?\" Justice replied:\n\"My demands are rigid; I must have ignominy for their honor, sickness\nfor their health, death for their life. Without the shedding of blood\nthere is no remission!\" \"Justice,\" said the Son of God, \"I accept thy\nterms! On me be this wrong! Let Mercy enter, and stay the carnival\nof death!\" \"What pledge dost thou give for the performance of these\nconditions?\" \"My word; my oath!\" \"When wilt thou perform them?\" \"Four\nthousand years hence, on the hill of Calvary, without the walls of\nJerusalem.\" The bond was prepared, and signed and sealed in the\npresence of attendant angels. Justice was satisfied, the gate was\nopened, and Mercy entered, preaching salvation in the name of Jesus.\nThe bond was committed to patriarchs and prophets. A long series of\nrites and ceremonies, sacrifices and obligations, was instituted to\nperpetuate the memory of that solemn deed. At the close of the four\nthousandth year, when Daniel's \"seventy weeks\" were accomplished,\nJustice and Mercy appeared on the hill of Calvary. \"Where,\" and\nJustice, \"is the Son of God?\" \"Behold him,\" answered Mercy, \"at the\nfoot of the hill!\" And there He came, bearing His own cross, and\nfollowed by His weeping church. Mercy retired, and stood aloof from\nthe scene. Jesus ascended the hill like a lamb for the sacrifice.\nJustice presented the dreadful bond, saying, \"This is the day on which\nthis article must be canceled.\" The Redeemer took it. What did He do\nwith it? Tear it to pieces, and scatter it to the winds? No! He nailed\nit to His cross, crying, \"It is finished!\" The victim ascended the\naltar. Justice called on Holy Fire to come down and consume the\nsacrifice. Holy Fire replied: \"I come! I will consume the sacrifice,\nand then I will burn up the world!\" It fell upon the Son of God, and\nrapidly consumed His humanity; but when it touched His deity,\nit expired. Then was there darkness over the whole land, and an\nearthquake shook the mountain; but the heavenly host broke forth in\nrapturous song--\"Glory to God in the highest! on earth peace! good\nwill to man!\"\n\nThus grace has abounded, and the free gift has come upon all, and the\ngospel has gone forth proclaiming redemption to every creature. \"By\ngrace ye are saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is\nthe gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.\" By grace ye\nare loved, redeemed, and justified. By grace ye are called, converted,\nreconciled and sanctified. Salvation is wholly of grace. The plan, the\nprocess, the consummation are all of grace.\n\n\"Where sin abounded, grace hath much more abounded.\" \"Through the\noffense of one, many were dead.\" And as men multiplied, the offense\nabounded. The waters deluged the world, but could not wash away the\ndreadful stain. The fire fell from heaven, but could not burn out the\naccurst plague. The earth opened her mouth, but could not swallow up\nthe monster sin. The law thundered forth its threat from the thick\ndarkness on Sinai, but could not restrain, by all its, terrors, the\nchildren of disobedience. Still the offense abounded, and multiplied\nas the sands on the seashore. It waxed bold, and pitched its tents on\nCalvary, and nailed the Lawgiver to a tree. But in that conflict sin\nreceived its mortal wound. The victim was the victor. He fell, but in\nHis fall He crusht the foe. He died unto sin, but sin and death were\ncrucified upon His cross. Where sin abounded to condemn, grace hath\nmuch more abounded to justify. Where sin abounded to corrupt, grace\nhath much more abounded to purify. Where sin abounded to harden, grace\nhath much more abounded to soften and subdue. Where sin abounded to\nimprison men, grace hath much more abounded to proclaim liberty to\nthe captives. Where sin abounded to break the law and dishonor the\nLawgiver, grace hath much more abounded to repair the breach and\nefface the stain. Where sin abounded to consume the soul as with\nunquenchable fire and a gnawing worm, grace hath much more abounded to\nextinguish the flame and heal the wound. Grace hath abounded! It hath\nestablished its throne on the merit of the Redeemer's sufferings.\nIt hath put on the crown, and laid hold of the golden scepter, and\nspoiled the dominion of the prince of darkness, and the gates of the\ngreat cemetery are thrown open, and there is the beating of a new\nlife-pulse throughout its wretched population and immortality is\nwalking among the tombs!\n\nThis abounding grace is manifested in the gift of Jesus Christ, by\nwhose mediation our reconciliation and salvation are effected. With\nHim, believers are dead unto sin, and alive unto God. Our sins were\nslain at His cross, and buried in His tomb. His resurrection hath\nopened our graves, and given us an assurance of immortality. \"God\ncommendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners,\nChrist died for us; much more, then, being now justified by his blood,\nwe shall be saved from the wrath through him; for if, when we were\nenemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more,\nbeing reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.\"\n\n\"The carnal mind is enmity against God; it is not subject to the law\nof God, neither indeed can be.\" Glory to God, for the death of His\nSon, by which this enmity is slain, and reconciliation is effected\nbetween the rebel and the law! This was the unspeakable gift that\nsaved us from ruin; that wrestled with the storm, and turned it\naway from the devoted head of the sinner. Had all the angels of God\nattempted to stand between these two conflicting seas, they would have\nbeen swept to the gulf of destruction. \"The blood of bulls and goats,\non Jewish altars slain,\" could not take away sin, could not pacify the\nconscience. But Christ, the gift of divine grace, \"Paschal Lamb by God\nappointed,\" a \"sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood than they,\"\nbore our sins and carried our sorrows, and obtained for us the boon\nof eternal redemption. He met the fury of the tempest, and the floods\nwent over His head; but His offering was an offering of peace, calming\nthe storms and the waves, magnifying the law, glorifying its Author,\nand rescuing its violator from the wrath and ruin. Justice hath laid\ndown his sword at the foot of the cross, and amity is restored between\nheaven and earth.\n\nHither, O ye guilty! come and cast away your weapons of rebellion!\nCome with your bad principles and wicked actions; your unbelief, and\nenmity, and pride; and throw them off at the Redeemer's feet! God is\nhere waiting to be gracious. He will receive you; He will east all\nyour sins behind His back, into the depths of the sea; and they shall\nbe remembered against you no more forever. By Heaven's \"unspeakable\ngift,\" by Christ's invaluable atonement, by the free, infinite grace\nof the Father and Son, we persuade you, we beseech you, we entreat\nyou, \"be ye reconciled to God\"!\n\nIt is by the work of the Holy Spirit with us that we obtain a personal\ninterest in the work wrought on Calvary for us. If our sins are\ncanceled, they are also crucified. If we are reconciled in Christ, we\nfight against our God no more. This is the fruit of faith. \"With the\nheart man believeth unto righteousness.\" May the Lord inspire in every\none of us that saving principle!\n\nBut those who have been restored to the divine favor may sometimes be\ncast down and dejected. They have passed through the sea, and sung\npraises on the shore of deliverance; but there is yet between them\nand Canaan \"a waste howling wilderness,\" a long and weary pilgrimage,\nhostile nations, fiery serpents, scarcity of food, and the river of\nJordan. Fears within and fightings without, they may grow discouraged,\nand yield to temptation and murmur against God, and desire to return\nto Egypt. But fear not, thou worm Jacob! Reconciled by the death of\nChrist; much more, being reconciled, thou shalt be saved by His life.\nHis death was the price of our redemption; His life insures liberty to\nthe believer. If by His death He brought you through the Red Sea in\nthe night, by His life He can lead you through the river Jordan in the\nday. If by His death He delivered you from the iron furnace in Egypt,\nby His life He can save you from all perils of the wilderness. If by\nHis death He conquered Pharaoh, the chief foe, by His life He can\nsubdue Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, the king of Bashan. \"We\nshall be saved by his life.\" Because He liveth, we shall live also.\n\"Be of good cheer!\" The work is finished; the ransom is effected; the\nkingdom of heaven is open to all believers. \"Lift up your heads and\nrejoice,\" \"ye prisoners of hope!\" There is no debt unpaid, no devil\nunconquered, no enemy within your hearts that has not received a\nmortal wound! \"Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory, through\nour Lord Jesus Christ!\"\n\n\n\n\nSCHLEIERMACHER\n\nCHRIST'S RESURRECTION AN IMAGE OF OUR NEW LIFE\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\n\nFriedrich Ernst Daniel Schleiermacher, German theologian and\nphilosopher, was born at Breslau in 1768. He was brought up in a\nreligious home and in 1787 went to the University of Halle, and in\n1789 became a Privat-Docent. In 1794 he was ordained and preached\nsuccessively at Landsberg and Berlin. The literary and philosophical\nside of his intellect developed itself in sympathy with the\nRomanticists, but he never lost his passion for religion, a subject on\nwhich he published five discurses in 1799. We find in them a trace\nof the pantheism of Spinoza. His translation of Plato, accomplished\nbetween 1804 and 1806, gave him high rank as a classical scholar.\nIn 1817 he joined the movement toward the union of the Lutheran and\nReformed churches. As a preacher he was unprepossessing in appearance,\nbeing sickly and hunchbacked, but his simplicity of manner, and his\nclear, earnest style endeared him to many thousands. He died in Berlin\nin 1834.\n\n\n\n\nSCHLEIERMACHER\n\n1768--1834\n\nCHRIST'S RESURRECTION AN IMAGE OF OUR NEW LIFE\n\n_As Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,\neven so we should walk in newness of life._--Romans vi., 4.\n\n\nIt is natural, my friends, that the glorious festival of our Savior's\nresurrection should attract the thoughts of believers to a far remote\ntime, and that it should make them rejoice to think of the time when\nthey shall be with Him who, after He had risen from the dead, returned\nto His and our Father. But the apostle, in the words of our text,\nrecalls us from what is far off to what is close to us--to the\nimmediate present of our life here. He takes hold of what is the most\nimmediate concern, of what we are at once to share in and which is to\nform us, even here, into the likeness of Christ's resurrection. We are\nburied with Him, He says, unto death, that as He was raised from the\ndead through the glory of the Father, we also might walk in newness of\nlife. And this new life is that which, as the Lord Himself says, all\nwho believe in Him possess even now as having passed through death to\nlife. The apostle compares this with those glorious days of our Lord's\nresurrection; and how could we more appropriately keep this feast--a\nfeast in which, above all others, many Christians draw renewed\nstrength for this new life from the most intimate union with our\nheavenly Head--how could we better celebrate it than by endeavoring to\nreceive this directly for ourselves from the words of the apostle?\nLet us then, according to the teaching of these words, consider the\nresurrection life of our Lord, as the apostle presents it to us, as a\nglorious, tho it may be unattainable, model of the new life in which\nwe are all to walk through Him.\n\n1. This new life is like that of our risen Savior, first, in the\nmanner of His resurrection. In order to appear to His disciples in\nthat glorified form, which already bore in it the indications of the\neternal and immortal glory, it was necessary that the Savior should\npass through the pains of death. It was not an easy transformation;\nit was necessary for Him, tho not to see corruption, yet to have the\nshadow of death pass over Him; and friends and enemies vied with each\nother in trying to retain Him in the power of the grave; the friends\nrolling a stone before it, to keep the beloved corpse in safety, the\nenemies setting a watch lest it should be taken away. But when the\nhour came which the Father had reserved in His own power, the angel\nof the Lord appeared and rolled away the stone from the tomb, and the\nwatch fled, and at the summons of omnipotence life came back into the\ndead form.\n\nThus, my friends, we know what is the new life that is to be like the\nresurrection life of the Lord. A previous life must die; the apostle\ncalls it the body of sin, the law of sin in our members, and this\nneeds no lengthened discussion. We all know and feel that this life,\nwhich Scripture calls a being dead in sins, pleasant and splendid as\nmay be the form it often assumes, is yet nothing but what the mortal\nbody of the Savior also was, an expression and evidence of the power\nof death, because even the fairest and strongest presentation of this\nkind lacks the element of being imperishable. Thus with the mortal\nbody of the Savior, and thus also with the natural life of man, which\nis as yet not a life from God.\n\nAnd this our old man must die a violent death in the name of the law,\nsuch as the Savior died, not without severe suffering and painful\nwounds. For if the body of sin dies out in a man of itself, through\nsatiety of earthly things, and because no excitement can any longer\naffect his exhausted powers, that is a death from which we see no new\nlife proceed. The power of sin must be slain in a man by violence; a\nman must go through the torture of self-knowledge, showing him the\ncontrast between his wretched condition and the higher life to which\nhe is called; he must hear the cry, and accept it as an irrevocable\nsentence; that an end is to be put to this life; he must groan and\nalmost sink under the preparations for the execution of that sentence;\nall his accustomed habits of life must cease; he must be conscious of\nthe wish that he were safely through it all, and it were at an end.\n\nAnd when he has yielded up the old life to a welcome death, and the\nold man is crucified with Christ, then the world, which knows nothing\nbetter than that previous life, if it only goes on well and easily,\nuses all kinds of efforts to hinder the rising up of the new life,\nsome of them well-meaning, others self-interested and therefore\nhostile. Some, with good intentions, like those friends of the Savior,\nconsult together, and try all in their power, keeping away all\nextraneous influences, to preserve at least the appearance of their\nfriend from being defaced, and tho no joyful movement can ever again\nbe awakened, to preserve the form of the old life. Others, seeking\ntheir own interest and pleasure in a way by which they almost\ncertainly accuse themselves, try to prevent an abuse being practised\nin this state of things, and also to guard against the gay, merry life\nwhich they lead, and into which they like so much to lead others,\nbeing brought into contempt by a question of a new life arising after\nthis dying off of the old man, when, as they think, there is really\nnothing else and nothing better here on earth and when it is a vain\npretense for some to assert that they know this new life, and a\nmischievous delusion for others to attempt attaining it. Therefore\nwherever they perceive such a state of things, they have their spies\nto watch against every deception that might be practised about such\na new life, or at least at once to discover and publish what kind of\ndelusions prevail in connection with it.\n\nBut when the hour has come which the Father has kept in His own power,\nthen in one form or another His life-bringing angel appears to such a\nsoul. Yet how little do we know about what part the angel had in the\nSavior's resurrection! We do not know if the Savior saw him or not; we\ncan not determine the moment at which he rolled away the stone from\nthe tomb and the reanimated Savior came forth; no one witnessed it,\nand the only persons of whom we are told that they might have been\nable to see it with their bodily eyes were smitten with blindness. And\nin like manner, neither do we know how the soul, lying, so to speak,\nin the tomb of self-destruction, is wrought upon by the angel of the\nLord in order to call forth the life of God in it. It arises unseen in\nthat grave-like silence, and can not be perceived until it is actually\npresent; what is properly the beginning of it is hidden, as every\nbeginning usually is, even from him to whom the life is imparted. But\nthis is certain, as the apostle says, that the Lord was raised from\nthe dead by the glory of the Father, and thus also, according to the\nwords of the Savior, no man comes to the Son except the Father draw\nhim; that same glory of the Father, which then called forth the Savior\nfrom the tomb, still awakens in the soul that has died to sin the new\nlife, like the resurrection life of the Lord. Indeed, among all the\nproofs of the Father's glory in heaven and earth, there is none\ngreater than this, that he has no pleasure in the death-like condition\nof the sinner, but that at some time or another the almighty,\nmysterious, life-giving call sounds in his ears--Arise and live.\n\n2. And, secondly, this new life resembles its type and ideal, the\nresurrection life of Christ, not only in being risen from death, but\nalso in its whole nature, way and manner. First, in this respect, that\ntho a new life, it is, nevertheless, the life of the same man, and in\nthe closest connection with his former life. Thus, with our Savior;\nHe was the same, and was recognized by His disciples as the same, to\ntheir great joy; His whole appearance was the very same; even in\nthe glory of His resurrection He bore the marks of His wounds as a\nremembrance of His sufferings and as the tokens of His death; and\nthe remembrance of His former state was most closely and constantly\npresent with Him. And just so it is with the new life of the Spirit.\nIf the old man has died in sin, and we now live in Christ, and with\nHim in God, yet we are the same persons that we were before. As the\nresurrection of the Lord was no new creation, but the same man, Jesus,\nwho had gone down into the grave, come forth again from it; so in the\nsoul before it died the death which leads to life in God, there must\nhave lain the capability of receiving that life when the body of sin\nshould die and perish; and that life is developed in the same human\nsoul amid the same outward circumstances as before, and with its other\npowers and faculties remaining unchanged. We are entirely the same\npersons, only that the fire of the higher life is kindled in us, and\nalso that we all bear the signs of death, and that the remembrance\nof our former state is present with us. Yes, in manifold ways we are\noften reminded of what we were and what we did before the call to new\nlife sounded in our hearts; and it is not so easy to efface the scars\nof the wounds, and the numberless traces of the pains under which the\nold man had to die that the new man might live. And as the glad faith\nof the disciples rested on the very fact that they recognized the Lord\nas being, in the glory of His resurrection, the same person that He\nwas before; so also in us, the confidence in this new life, as a\npermanent and now natural state with us, rests only on this--that we\nrecognize ourselves in it as the same persons that we were before;\nthat there are the same faculties, lower and higher, of the human\nsoul, which formerly served sin, but are now created anew as\ninstruments of righteousness. Indeed, all the traces of that death,\nas well as of the former life, make us more vividly conscious of the\ngreat change that the life-giving call of God has produced in us, and\ncall for the most heartfelt gratitude.\n\nAnd as the Savior was the same person in the days of His resurrection,\nso His life was also again of course a vigorous and active life;\nindeed, we might almost say it bore the traces of humanity, without\nwhich it could be no image of our new life, even in this, that it\ngradually grew stronger and acquired new powers. When the Savior first\nappeared to Mary, He said, as if His new life had been, as it were,\ntimid and sensitive, \"Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my\nGod and your God.\" But after a few days He showed Himself to Thomas,\nand bade him boldly touch Him, put his hand in the Master's side, and\nhis fingers into the marks left by the nails of the cross, so that He\ndid not shrink from being touched even on the most sensitive spots.\nAnd also even in the earliest days, and as if the new life were to be\nfully strengthened by doing so, we find Him walking from Jerusalem to\nEmmaus, and from Emmaus back to Jerusalem, as well as going before His\ndisciples into Galilee, and leading them back to Jerusalem, where He\nthen ascended to heaven in their sight. And as He thus walked among\nthem, living a life with them, human in every part, and exercising a\nhuman influence on them; so also His most important business was to\ntalk with them of the kingdom of God, to reprove and rouse them up\nfrom their slowness of heart, and to open the eyes of their minds. Now\nso it is, my friends, with our new life--that is like the resurrection\nlife of the Lord. Oh, how very gradually it gains its faculties in us,\ngrows and becomes strong, only bearing still more than the new life\nof the Lord the traces of earthly imperfection. I can appeal on this\npoint to the feeling of us all, for assuredly it is the same in all.\nHow intermittent at first are the manifestations of this new life,\nand how limited the sphere of its action! How long does it retain\nits sensitive spots, which can not be touched without pain, or even\nwithout injurious consequences, and those are always the places in\nwhich the old man has been most deeply wounded in his dying hours! But\nin proportion as it becomes stronger, this new life ought the less to\ngive the impression of being a mere fantom life,--the impression the\nLord's disciples had when in the first moments they thought in their\nfear that they saw a spirit, so that He was obliged to appeal to the\ntestimony of all their senses, that they might perceive He was no\nspirit, but had flesh and bones. And thus if our new life in God\nconsisted in mere states of feeling and emotions, which were not in\nthe least capable of passing into action, or perhaps did not even aim\nat doing so; which were too peculiar and special to ourselves to be\nactually communicated to others or to move them with good effect, but\nrather might touch them with a chill sense of awe; what would such\na life be but a ghost-like apparition that would no doubt excite\nattention, but would find no credence, and would make men uneasy in\ntheir accustomed course, but without producing any improvement in it?\nNo, it is a life of action, and ought to be ever becoming more so; not\nonly being nourished and growing stronger and stronger through the\nword of the Lord and through heart-communion with Him, to which He\ncalls us, giving Himself to us as the meat and drink of eternal life,\nbut every one striving to make his new life intelligible to others\nabout him, and to influence them by it. Oh, that we had our eyes more\nand more steadily fixt on the risen Savior! Oh, that we could ever be\nlearning more and more from Him to breathe out blessing, as He did\nwhen He imparted His Spirit to the disciples! Oh, that we were more\nand more learning like Him to encourage the foolish and slow of heart\nto joyful faith in the divine promises, to active obedience to the\ndivine will of their Lord and Master, to the glad enjoyment and use of\nall the heavenly treasures that He has thrown open to us! Oh, that we\nwere ever speaking more effectively to all connected with us, of the\nkingdom of God and of our inheritance in it, so that they might see\nwhy it was necessary for Christ to suffer, but also into what glory He\nhas gone! These are our desires, and they are not vain desires. The\nlife-giving Spirit, whom He has obtained for us, effects all this in\neach in the measure that pleases Him; and if once the life of God is\nkindled in the human soul if we have once, as the apostle says, become\nlike Him in His resurrection, then His powers are also more and more\nabundantly and gloriously manifested in us through the efficacy of His\nSpirit for the common good.\n\nBut along with all this activity and strength, the life of the risen\nSavior was yet, in another sense, a secluded and hidden life. It is\nprobable that when, in order to show Himself to His disciples, He went\nhere and there from one part of the land to another, he was seen by\nmany besides them, who had known Him in His previous life. How could\nit be otherwise? But the eyes of men were holden, that they did not\nrecognize Him; and He made Himself known only to those who belonged\nto Him in faithful love. At the same time, however, He said to them,\nBlest are they who do not see, yet believe! And what was the little\nnumber of those who were counted worthy of seeing Him, even if we add\nto them the five hundred whom Paul mentions, compared with the number\nof those who afterward believed in their testimony to the Lord's\nresurrection? And thus it is also, my friends, with the new life in\nwhich we walk, even if it is, as it ought to be, strong and vigorous,\nand ever at work for the kingdom of God; yet it is at the same time an\nunknown and hidden life, unrecognized by and hidden from the world,\nwhose eyes are holden; and he who should set himself to force\nthe knowledge of it upon them, who should hit upon extraordinary\nproceedings in order to attract their attention to the difference\nbetween the life of sin and the resurrection life, would not be\nwalking in the likeness of the Lord's resurrection. As the people\nin the time of Christ had opportunity enough to inquire about His\nresurrection, in seeing how His disciples continued to hold together,\nso our neighbors also see our close alliance, which has nothing to do\nwith the affairs of this world; and if they, because of this, inquire\nabout what unites us, the answer will not be lacking to them. But our\ninner history we will as little thrust upon them as the risen Christ\nthrust His presence on those who had slain Him, and who had therefore\nno desire to see Him. Instead of this, as He showed Himself only to\nHis own, we also will make known our inner life only to those who are\njust in the same way our own; who, glowing with the same love, and\ncheered by the same faith, can tell us in return how the Lord has\nrevealed Himself to them. Not by any means as if we followed some\nmysterious course, and that those only whose experiences had been\nentirely alike should separate themselves into little exclusive\ngroups; for even the days of the Lord's resurrection present examples\nof various kinds of experience, and of one common inner fellowship\nconnected with them all. And not only so, but even those who as yet\nhave experienced nothing at all are not sent empty away. Only they\nmust first become aware, by what they see without our thrusting\nit upon them, that here a spirit is breathing to which they are\nstrangers, that here is manifested a life as yet unknown to them. Then\nwill we, as was done then, lead them by the word of our testimony to\nthe foundation of this new life; and as, when the word of preaching\npierced men's hearts, when to some of them the old man began to appear\nas he really is, and they felt the first pangs that precede the death\nof the sinful man, there also sprang up faith in the resurrection of\nHim whom they had themselves crucified; so will it always be with the\nknowledge of the new life proceeding from Him who has risen. Therefore\nlet us have no anxiety; the circle of those who recognize this life\nwill always be widening, just because they are beginning to share in\nit. And as soon as even the slightest premonition of it arises in a\nman's soul, as soon as he has come only so far as to be no longer\npleased and satisfied with the perishing and evil things of the world,\nas soon as his soul absorbs even the first ray of heavenly light, then\nhis eyes are opened, so that he recognizes this life, and becomes\naware what a different life it is to serve righteousness, from living\nin the service of sin.\n\n3. And lastly, my friends, we can not feel all these comforting and\nglorious things in which our new life resembles the resurrection life\nof our Lord, without being at the same time, on another side, moved\nto sorrow by this resemblance. For if we put together all that the\nevangelists and apostles of the Lord have preserved for us about His\nresurrection life, we still can not out of it all form an entirely\nconsecutive history. There are separate moments and hours, separate\nconversations and actions, and then the Risen One vanishes again from\nthe eyes that look for Him; in vain we ask where He can have tarried,\nwe must wait till He appears again. Not that in Himself there was\nanything of this broken or uncertain life, but as to our view of it,\nit is and can not be but so; and we try in vain to penetrate into the\nintervals between those detached moments and hours. Well, and is\nit not, to our sorrow, with the new life that is like Christ's\nresurrection life? I do not mean that this life is limited to the few\nhours of social worship and prayer, glorious and profitable as they\nare; for in that case there would be cause to fear that it was a mere\npretense; nor to the services, always but small and desultory,\nthat each of us, actively working through the gifts of the Spirit,\naccomplishes, as it were, visibly and tangibly according to his\nmeasure, for the kingdom of God. In manifold ways besides these we\nbecome conscious of this new life; there are many quieter and secret\nmoments in which it is strongly felt, tho only deep in our inmost\nheart. But notwithstanding this, I think all, without exception, must\nconfess that we are by no means conscious of this new life as an\nentirely continuous state; on the contrary, each of us loses sight\nof it only too often, not only among friends, among disturbances and\ncares, but amid the commendable occupations of this world. But this\nexperience, my dear friends, humbling as it is, ought not to make us\nunbelieving, as if perhaps our consciousness of being a new creature\nin Christ were a delusion, and what we had regarded as indications\nof this life were only morbid and overstrained emotions. As the Lord\nconvinced His disciples that He had flesh and bones, so we may all\nconvince ourselves and each other that this is an actual life; but in\nthat case we must believe that, tho in a hidden way and not always\npresent to our consciousness, yet it is always in existence, just as\nthe Lord was still in existence even at the times when He did not\nappear to His disciples; and had neither returned to the grave, nor as\nyet ascended to heaven. Only let us not overlook this difference. In\nthe case of Christ we do not apprehend it as a natural and necessary\nthing that during those forty days He led a life apparently so\ninterrupted; but each of us must easily understand how, as the\ninfluence of this new life on our outward ways can only gradually\nbecome perceptible, it should often and for a long time be quite\nhidden from us, especially when we are very busy with outward work,\nand our attention is taken up with it. But this is an imperfection\nfrom which as time goes on we should be always becoming more free.\nTherefore always go back, my friends, to Him who is the only fountain\nof this spiritual life! If, ever and anon, we can not find it in\nourselves, we always find it in Him, and it is always pouring forth\nafresh from Him the Head to us His members. If every moment in which\nwe do not perceive it is a moment of longing, as soon as we become\nconscious of the void, then it is also a moment in which the Risen One\nappears to our spirit, and breathes on us anew with His life-giving\npower. And thus drawing only from Him, we shall attain to having\nHis heavenly gifts becoming in us more and more an inexhaustible,\ncontinually flowing fountain of spiritual and eternal life. For this\nHe rose from the dead by the glory of the Father, that we should be\nmade into the likeness of His resurrection. That was finished in His\nreturn to the Father; our new life is to become more and more His and\nthe Fathers return into the depths of our souls; there they desire to\nmake their abode; and the life of God is to be ever assuming a more\ncontinuous, active and powerful form in us, that our life in the\nservice of righteousness may become, and continue even here, according\nto the Lord's promise, an eternal life.\n\n\n\n\nMASON\n\nMESSIAH'S THRONE\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\n\n\nJohn Mitchell Mason, the eminent divine of the Reformed Presbyterian\nChurch, was born in New York City in 1770. He completed his studies\nand took his degree at Columbia College and thence proceeded to take a\ntheological course at Edinburgh. Ordained in 1793, he took charge of\nthe Cedar Street Church, New York City, of which his father had been\npastor. In 1807 he became editor of the _Christian Herald_, and in\n1821 was made president of Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.\nHe died in 1829.\n\n\n\n\nMASON\n\n1770--1829\n\nMESSIAH'S THRONE\n\n_Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever_.--Heb. i., 18.\n\n\nIn the all-important argument which occupies this epistle, Paul\nassumes, what the believing Hebrews had already profest, that Jesus of\nNazareth is the true Messiah. To prepare them for the consequences\nof their own principle--a principle involving nothing less than the\nabolition of their law, the subversion of their state, the ruin of\ntheir city, the final extinction of their carnal hopes--he leads them\nto the doctrine of their Redeemer's person, in order to explain the\nnature of his offices, to evince the value of his spiritual salvation,\nand to show, in both, the accomplishment of their economy which was\nnow \"ready to vanish away.\" Under no apprehension of betraying the\nunwary into idolatrous homage by giving to the Lord Jesus greater\nglory than is due unto His name, the apostle sets out with ascribing\nto Him excellence and attributes which belong to no creature.\nCreatures of most elevated rank are introduced; but it is to display,\nby contrast, the preeminence of Him who is \"the brightness of the\nFather's glory and the express image of his person.\" Angels are great\nin might and in dignity; but \"unto them hath he not put in subjection\nthe world to come. Unto which of them said he, at any time, Thou art\nmy son?\" To which of them, \"Sit thou at my right hand.\" He saith they\nare spirits, \"ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them\nwho shall be heirs of salvation. But unto the Son,\" in a style which\nannihilates competition and comparison--\"unto the Son, he saith, Thy\nthrone, O God, is for ever and ever.\"\n\nBrethren, if the majesty of Jesus is the subject which the Holy Ghost\nselected for the encouragement and consolation of His people, when He\nwas shaking the earth and the heavens, and diffusing His gospel among\nthe nations, can it be otherwise than suitable and precious to us on\nthis occasion? Shall it not expand our views, and warm our hearts, and\nnerve our arm in our efforts to exalt His fame? Let me implore, then,\nthe aid of your prayers, but far more importunately the aids of His\nown Spirit, while I speak of the things which concern the King: those\ngreat things contained in the text--His personal glory--His sovereign\nrule.\n\nHis personal glory shines forth in the name by which He is revealed; a\nname above every name: \"Thy throne, O God.\" ...\n\nMessiah's throne is not one of those airy fabrics which are reared by\nvanity and overthrown by time: it is fixt of old; it is staple, and\ncan not be shaken, for it is the throne of God. He who sitteth on it\nis the Omnipotent. Universal being is in His hand. Revolution, force,\nfear, as applied to His kingdom, are words without meaning. Rise up in\nrebellion, if thou hast courage. Associate with thee the whole mass of\ninfernal power. Begin with the ruin of whatever is fair and good in\nthis little globe. Pass hence to pluck the sun out of his place, and\nroll the volume of desolation through the starry world. What hast thou\ndone unto Him? It is the puny menace of a worm against Him whose frown\nis perdition. \"He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.\"\n\nWith the stability which Messiah's Godhead communicates to His\nthrone, let us connect the stability resulting from His Father's\ncovenant.\n\nHis throne is founded not merely in strength, but in right. God hath\nlaid the government upon the shoulder of His holy child Jesus, and set\nHim upon Mount Zion as His King forever. He has promised and sworn to\nbuild up His throne to all generations; to make it endure as the days\nof heaven; to beat down His foes before His face, and plague them that\nhate Him. \"But my faithfulness,\" adds He, \"and my mercy shall be with\nhim, and in my name shall his horn be exalted. Hath he said it, and\nwill he not do it? Hath he spoken it, and shall it not come to pass?\"\nWhatever disappointments rebuke the visionary projects of men, or the\nmore crafty schemes of Satan, \"the counsel of the Lord, that shall\nstand.\" The blood of sprinkling, which sealed all the promises made\nto Messiah, and binds down His Father's faithfulness to their\naccomplishment, witnesses continually in the heavenly sanctuary. \"He\nmust,\" therefore, \"reign till he have put all his enemies under his\nfeet.\" And altho the dispensation of His authority shall, upon this\nevent, be changed, and He shall deliver it up, in its present form, to\nthe Father, He shall still remain, in His substantial glory, a priest\nupon His throne, to be the eternal bond of our union, and the eternal\nmedium of our fellowship with the living God.\n\nSeeing that the throne of our King is as immovable as it is exalted,\nlet us with joy draw water out of that well of salvation which is\nopened to us in the administration of His kingdom. Here we must\nconsider its general characters, and the means by which it operates.\n\nThe general characters which I shall illustrate are the following:\n\n1. Mystery. He is the unsearchable God, and His government must be\nlike Himself. Facts concerning both He has graciously revealed. These\nwe must admit upon the credit of His own testimony; with these we must\nsatisfy our wishes and limit our inquiry. To intrude into those things\nwhich he hath not seen because God has not disclosed them, whether\nthey relate to His arrangements for this world or the next, is the\narrogance of one vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. There are\nsecrets in our Lord's procedure which He will not explain to us in\nthis life, and which may not perhaps be explained in the life to\ncome. We can not tell how He makes evil the minister of good; how He\ncombines physical and moral agencies of different kind and order, in\nthe production of blessings. We can not so much as conjecture what\nbearings the system of redemption, in every part of its process, may\nhave upon the relations of providence in the occurrences of this\nmoment, or of the last. Such knowledge is too wonderful for us: it is\nhigh, we can not attain it. Our Sovereign's way is in the sea, and\nHis path in the deep waters; and His footsteps are not known. When,\ntherefore, we are surrounded with difficulty, when we can not unriddle\nHis conduct in particular dispensations, we must remember that He is\nGod--that we are to \"walk by faith\"; and to trust Him as implicitly\nwhen we are in the valley of the shadow of death, as when His candle\nshines upon our heads. We must remember that it is not for us to\nbe admitted into the cabinet of the King of kings; that creatures\nconstituted as we are could not sustain the view of His unveiled\nagency; that it would confound, and scatter, and annihilate our little\nintellects. As often, then, as He retires from our observation,\nblending goodness with majesty, let us lay our hands upon our mouths\nand worship. This stateliness of our King can afford us no just ground\nof uneasiness. On the contrary, it contributes to our tranquillity.\n\n2. For we know that if His administration is mysterious, it is also\nwise. \"Great is our Lord, and of great power; his understanding is\ninfinite.\" That infinite understanding watches over, and arranges,\nand directs all the affairs of His Church and of the world. We are\nperplexed at every step, embarrassed by opposition, lost in confusion,\nfretted by disappointment, and ready to conclude, in our haste, that\nall things are against our own good and our Master's honor. But \"this\nis our infirmity\"; it is the dictate of impatience and indiscretion.\nWe forget the \"years of the right hand of the Most High.\" We are slow\nof heart in learning a lesson which shall soothe our spirits at the\nexpense of our pride. We turn away from the consolation to be derived\nfrom believing that tho we know not the connections and results of\nholy providence, our Lord Jesus knows them perfectly. With Him there\nis no irregularity, no chance, no conjecture. Disposed before His eye\nin the most luminous and exquisite order, the whole series of events\noccupy the very place and crisis where they are most effectually to\nsubserve the purposes of His love. Not a moment of time is wasted, nor\na fragment of action misapplied. What He does, we do not indeed know\nat present, but, as far as we shall be permitted to know hereafter, we\nshall see that his most inscrutable procedure was guided by consummate\nwisdom; that our choice was often as foolish as our petulance was\nprovoking; that the success of our own wishes would have been our\nmost painful chastisement, would have diminished our happiness, and\ndetracted from His praise. Let us study, therefore, brethren, to\nsubject our ignorance to His knowledge; instead of prescribing, to\nobey; instead of questioning, to believe: to perform our part without\nthat despondency which betrays a fear that our Lord may neglect His,\nand tacitly accuses Him of a less concern than we feel for the glory\nof His own name. Let us not shrink from this duty as imposing too\nrigorous a condition upon our obedience.\n\n3. A third character of Messiah's administration is righteousness.\n\"The scepter of his kingdom is a right scepter.\" If \"clouds and\ndarkness are around about him, righteousness and judgment are the\nhabitation of his throne.\" In the times of old, His redeemed \"wandered\nin the wilderness in a solitary way; but, nevertheless, he led them\nforth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.\"\nHe loves His Church and the members of it too tenderly to lay upon\nthem any burdens, or expose them to any trials, which are not\nindispensable to their good. It is right for them to go through\nfire and through water, that He may bring them out into a healthy\nplace--right to endure chastening, that they may be partakers of His\nholiness--right to have the sentence of death in themselves, that they\nmay trust in the living God, and that His strength may be perfect\nin their weakness. It is right that He should endure with much\nlong-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction; that He\nshould permit iniquity to abound, the love of many to wax cold, and\nthe dangers of His Church to accumulate, till the interposition of His\narm be necessary and decisive. In the day of final retribution, not\none mouth shall be opened to complain of injustice. It will be seen\nthat the Judge of all the earth has done right; that the works of His\nhands have been verity and judgment, and done, every one of them, in\ntruth and uprightness. Let us then think not only respectfully but\nreverently of His dispensations, repress the voice of murmur, and\nrebuke the spirit of discontent; wait, in faith and patience, till\nHe become His own interpreter, when \"the heavens shall declare his\nrighteousness, and all the people see his glory.\"\n\nYou will anticipate me in enumerating the means which Messiah employs\nin the administration of His kingdom:\n\n1. The gospel, of which Himself, as an all-sufficient and\ncondescending Savior, is the great and affecting theme. Derided by the\nworld, it is, nevertheless, effectual to the salvation of them who\nbelieve. \"We preach Christ crucified: to the Jews a stumbling-block,\nand to the Greeks foolishness; but to them who are called, both Jews\nand Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.\" The\ndoctrine of the cross connected with evangelical ordinances--the\nministry of reconciliation; the holy Sabbath; the sacraments of His\ncovenant: briefly, the whole system of instituted worship--is the rod\nof the Redeemer's strength, by which He subdues sinners to Himself,\nrules even in the midst of His enemies, exercises His glorious\nauthority in His Church, and exhibits a visible proof to men and\nangels that He is King in Zion.\n\n2. The efficient means to which the gospel owes its success, and the\nname of Jesus its praise, is the agency of the Holy Ghost.\n\nChristianity is the ministration of the spirit. All real and\nsanctifying knowledge of the truth and love of God is from His\ninspiration. It was the last and best promise which the Savior made\nto His afflicted disciples at the moment of parting, \"I will send the\nComforter, the Spirit of Truth; he shall glorify me, for he shall take\nof mine and shall show it unto you.\" It is He who convinces the world\nof sin, of righteousness, and of judgment: who infuses resistless\nvigor into means otherwise weak and useless. For the weapons of our\nwarfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, God the Spirit, to the\npulling down of strongholds. Without His benediction, the ministry of\nan archangel would never convert one sinner from the error of his way.\nBut when He descends with His life-giving influence from God out of\nheaven, then \"foolish things of the world confound the wise; and weak\nthings of the world confound the things which are mighty; and base\nthings of the world, and things which are despised, yea, and things\nwhich are not, bring to naught things which are.\" It is this\nministration of the Spirit which renders the preaching of the gospel\nto men dead in trespasses and sins a reasonable service. When I am set\ndown in the valley of vision, and view the bones, very many and very\ndry, and am desired to try the effects of my own ability in recalling\nthem to life, I will fold my hands and stand mute in astonishment and\ndespair. But when the Lord God commands me to speak in His name, my\nclosed lips shall be opened; when He calls upon the breath from the\nfour winds to breathe upon the slain that they may live, I will\nprophesy without fear, \"Oh, ye dry bones, hear the words of the Lord\";\nand, obedient to His voice, they shall come together, bone to His\nbone--shall be covered with sinews and flesh--shall receive new life,\nand stand up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. In this manner,\nfrom the graves of nature, and the dry bones of natural men, does the\nHoly Spirit recruit the \"armies of the living God,\" and make them,\ncollectively and individually, a name, and a praise, and a glory to\nthe Captain of their salvation.\n\n3. Among the instruments which the Lord Jesus employs in the\nadministration of His government, are the resources of the physical\nand moral world.\n\nSupreme in heaven and in earth, \"upholding all things by the word of\nhis power,\" the universe is His magazine of means. Nothing which acts\nor exists, is exempted from promoting in its own place the purposes of\nHis kingdom. Beings rational and irrational, animate and inanimate;\nthe heavens above, and the earth below; the obedience of sanctified,\nand the disobedience of unsanctified men; all holy spirits; all damned\nspirits; in one word, every agency, every element, every atom, are but\nthe ministers of His will, and concur in the execution of His designs.\nAnd this He will demonstrate to the confusion of His enemies, and the\njoy of His people, in that great and terrible day when He shall sit\nupon the throne of His glory, and dispense ultimate judgment to the\nquick and the dead.\n\nUpon these hills of holiness the stability of Messiah's throne, and\nthe perfect administration of His kingdom, let us take our station,\nand survey the prospects which rise up before the Church of God.\n\nWhen I look upon the magnificent scene, I can not repress the\nsalutation, \"Hail, thou that art highly favored!\" She has the prospect\nof preservation, of increase and of triumph.\n\nThe long existence of the Christian Church would be pronounced, upon\ncommon principles of reasoning, impossible. She finds in every man a\nnatural and inveterate enemy. To encounter and overcome the unanimous\nhostility of the world, she boasts no political stratagem, no\ndisciplined legions, no outward coercion of any kind. Yet her\nexpectation is, that she shall live forever. To mock this hope and\nblot out her memorial from under heaven, the most furious efforts of\nfanaticism, the most ingenious arts of statesmen, the concentrated\nstrength of empires, have been frequently and perseveringly applied.\nThe blood of her sons and her daughters has streamed like water; the\nsmoke of the scaffold and the stake, where they won the crown of\nmartyrdom in the cause of Jesus, has ascended in thick volumes to\nthe skies. The tribes of persecutors have sported over her woes and\nerected monuments, as they imagined, of her perpetual ruin. But where\nare her tyrants, and where their empires? The tyrants have long since\ngone to their own place; their names have descended upon the roll of\ninfamy; their empires have passed, like shadows over the rock--they\nhave successively disappeared, and left not a trace behind.\n\nBut what became of the Church? She rose from her ashes fresh in beauty\nand in might. Celestial glory beamed around her; she dashed down the\nmonumental marble of her foes, and they who hated her fled before her.\nShe has celebrated the funeral of kings and kingdoms that plotted\nher destruction; and, with the inscriptions of their pride, has\ntransmitted to posterity the record of their shame. How shall this\nphenomenon be explained? We are, at the present moment, witnesses of\nthe fact; but who can unfold the mystery? This blest book, the book of\ntruth and life, has made our wonder to cease. The Lord her God in the\nmidst of her is mighty. His presence is a fountain of health, and his\nprotection a wall of fire. He has betrothed her, in eternal covenant,\nto Himself. Her living head, in whom she lives, is above, and His\nquickening Spirit shall never depart from her. Armed with divine\nvirtue, His gospel, secret, silent, unobserved, enters the hearts of\nmen and sets up an everlasting kingdom. It eludes all the vigilance,\nand baffles all the power of the adversary. Bars and bolts, and\ndungeons are no obstacle to its approach. Bonds, and tortures, and\ndeath can not extinguish its influence. Let no man's heart tremble,\nthen, because of fear. Let no man despair, in these days of rebuke and\nblasphemy, of the Christian cause. The ark is launched, indeed, upon\nthe floods; the tempest sweeps along the deep; the billows break over\nher on every side. But Jehovah-Jesus has promised to conduct her in\nsafety to the haven of peace. She can not be lost unless the Pilot\nperish. Why, then, do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a\nvain thing? Hear, O Zion, the word of thy God, and rejoice for the\nconsolation. \"No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper,\nand every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt\ncondemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their\nrighteousness is of me, saith the Lord.\"\n\nMere preservation, however, tho a most comfortable, is not the only\nhope of the Church; she has the prospect of increase.\n\nIncrease--from an effectual blessing upon the means of grace in places\nwhere they are already enjoyed; the Lord saith, \"I will pour water\nupon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour\nmy Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offering; and they\nshall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the watercourses.\"\n\nIncrease--from the diffusion of evangelical truth through pagan lands.\n\"For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness\nthe people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be\nseen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to\nthe brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see:\nall they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall\ncome from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Then\nthou shalt see and flow together, and thy heart shall fear, and be\nenlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto\nthee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.\"\n\nIncrease--from the recovery of the rejected Jews to the faith and\nprivileges of God's dear children. Blindness in part has happened\nunto Israel; they have been cut off, for their unbelief, from the\nolive-tree. Age has followed age, and they remain to this hour spread\nover the face of the earth, a fearful and affecting testimony to the\ntruth of God's word. They are without their sanctuary, without their\nMessiah, without the hope of their believing ancestors. But it shall\nnot be always thus. They are still \"beloved for the father's sake.\"\nWhen the \"fulness of the Gentiles shall come in,\" they too shall be\ngathered. They shall discover, in our Jesus, the marks of the promised\nMessiah; and with from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto\nGod; it must make you meet for the inheritance of the saints, or it\nshall fearfully aggravate your condemnation at last. You pray, \"Thy\nkingdom come.\" But is the \"kingdom of God within you?\" Is the Lord\nJesus \"in you the hope of glory?\" Be not deceived. The name of\nChristian will not save you. Better had it been for you not to\nhave known the way of righteousness; better to have been the most\nidolatrous pagan; better, infinitely better, not to have been born,\nthan to die strangers to the pardon of the Redeemer's blood and\nthe sanctifying virtue of His Spirit. From His throne on high He\ncalls--calls to you, \"Look unto me, and be ye saved; for I am God, and\nthere is none else. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found; call ye\nupon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the\nunrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and\nhe will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly\npardon.\"\n\nOn the other hand, such as have fled for refuge to lay hold on the\nhope set before them, are commanded to be joyful in their King. He\nreigns, O believer, for thee. The stability of His throne is thy\nsafety. The administration of His government is for thy good; and the\nprecious pledge is, that He \"will perfect that which concerneth thee.\"\nIn all thy troubles, and in all thy joy, commit thy way unto Him. He\nwill guard the sacred deposit. Fear not that thou shalt lack any good\nthing. Fear not that thou shalt be forsaken. Fear not that thou shalt\nfall beneath the arm of the oppressor. \"He went through the fires of\nthe pit to save thee.\" Sing, then, thou beloved, \"Behold, God is my\nsalvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my\nstrength and my song; he also is become my salvation.\"\n\nAnd if we have \"tasted that he is gracious\"; if we look back with\nhorror and transport upon the wretchedness and the wrath which we\nhave escaped, with what anxiety shall we not hasten to the aid of our\nfellow men, who are sitting in \"the region and shadow of death.\" What\nzeal will be too ardent, what labor too persevering, what sacrifice\ntoo costly, if, by any means, we may tell them of Jesus, and\nthe resurrection, and the life eternal? Who shall be daunted by\ndifficulties, or deterred by discouragement? If but one pagan shall be\nbrought, savingly, by your instrumentality, to the knowledge of God\nand the kingdom of heaven, will you not have an ample recompense? Is\nthere here a man who would give up all for lost because some favorite\nhope has been disappointed, or who regrets the wordly substance which\nhe has expended on so divine an enterprise? Shame on thy coward\nspirit and thine avaricious heart! Do the holy Scriptures, does the\nexperience of ages, does the nature of things justify the expectation\nthat we shall carry war into the central regions of delusion and\ncrime, without opposition, without trial? Show me a plan which\nencounters not fierce resistance from the prince of darkness and his\nallies in the human heart, and I will show you a plan which never came\nfrom the inspiration of God. If missionary effort suffer occasional\nembarrassment; if impressions on the heathen be less speedy, and\npowerful, and extensive than fond wishes have anticipated; if\nparticular parts of the great system of operation be, at times,\ndisconcerted; if any of the ministers of grace fall a sacrifice to the\nviolence of those whom they go to bless in the name of the Lord--these\nare events which ought to exercise our faith and patience, to wean us\nfrom self-sufficiency, to teach where our strength lies, and where our\ndependence must be fixt; but not to enfeeble hope nor relax diligence.\nLet us not \"despise the day of small things.\" Let us not overlook,\nas an important matter, the very existence of that missionary spirit\nwhich has already awakened Christians in different countries from\ntheir long and dishonorable slumbers, and bids fair to produce, in due\nseason, a general movement of the Church upon earth. Let us not, for\none instant, harbor the ungracious thought that the prayers, and\ntears, and wrestlings of those who make mention of the Lord, form no\nlink in that vast chain of events by which He \"will establish, and\nwill make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.\" That dispensation which\nis most repulsive to flesh and blood, the violent death of faithful\nmissionaries, should animate Christians with new resolution. \"Precious\nin the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.\" The cry of\nmartyred blood ascends the heavens: it enters into the ears of\nthe Lord of Sabaoth. It will give Him no rest till He rain down\nrighteousness upon the land where it has been shed, and which it\nhas sealed as a future conquest for Him who \"in his majesty rides\nprosperously because of truth, and meekness and righteousness.\"\n\nFor the world, indeed, and perhaps for the Church, many calamities and\ntrials are in store, before the glory of the Lord shall be so revealed\nthat all flesh shall see it together. \"I will shake all nations,\" is\nthe divine declaration--\"I will shake all nations, and the desire of\nall nations shall come.\" The vials of wrath which are now running, and\nothers which remain to be poured out, must be exhausted. The \"supper\nof the great God\" must be prepared, and his \"strange work\" have its\ncourse. Yet the missionary cause must ultimately succeed. It is the\ncause of God and shall prevail. The days, O brethren, roll rapidly on,\nwhen the shout of the isles shall swell the thunder of the continent;\nwhen the Thames and the Danube, when the Tiber and the Rhine, shall\ncall upon Euphrates, the Ganges, and the Nile; and the loud concert\nshall be joined by the Hudson, the Mississippi, and the Amazon,\nsinging with one heart and one voice, \"Alleluia, salvation! The Lord\nGod omnipotent reigneth.\"\n\nComfort one another with this faith and with these words.\n\nNow, \"Blest be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doth wondrous\nthings. And blest be his glorious name forever: Let the whole earth be\nfilled with his glory. Amen and amen.\"\n\n\n\n\nEND OF VOL. III.","title":"The World's Great Sermons, Volume 03: Massillon to Mason","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":51575}