{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_41381/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_41381","id":"gutenberg_41381","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41381","summary":null,"tags":["Bible -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian life"],"text":"BIBLE EMBLEMS.\n\n\n  BY THE LATE REV. EDWARD E. SEELYE, D. D.\n  SCHENECTADY, N. Y.\n\n\n  PUBLISHED BY THE\n  AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY,\n  150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK.\n\n\n\n\nENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by the AMERICAN\nTRACT SOCIETY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern\nDistrict of the State of New York.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n     I. The higher Rock                              5\n\n    II. The sun in his might                        28\n\n   III. The voice of blood                          48\n\n    IV. Christians God's temples                    67\n\n     V. God's witnesses                             86\n\n    VI. Christians shining                         102\n\n   VII. The raven and the dove                     118\n\n  VIII. The rainbow                                137\n\n    IX. The smoking furnace and burning lamp       151\n\n     X. The altar of incense                       171\n\n    XI. Eating under the juniper-tree              188\n\n   XII. The other side                             206\n\n\n\n\nBIBLE EMBLEMS.\n\n\n\n\nI.\n\nThe higher Rock.\n\n    LEAD ME TO THE ROCK THAT IS HIGHER THAN I. PSALM 61:2.\n\n\nThis is a humble cry: the cry of a soul needing help--a soul looking\noutside of and beyond self for aid and succor.\n\nStrange and unusual as it is to hear it, it is the most rational cry that\nthe human soul ever uttered.\n\nIt cannot be disguised, that man is unsatisfied with his present\ncondition. He looks for something higher. He longs to become what he is\nnot now.\n\nEvery soul has within it the secret consciousness of imperfection, and a\nsecret aspiration for improvement. Evils and infirmities now encompass\nit, but it has an idea of a higher state of being, and a more perfect\ndevelopment of spiritual life.\n\nThe great question is, how man shall gain this spiritual life. Where is\nthe power which shall effect his elevation and improvement? Where is he to\nlook for that influence which will insure his progress, which will exalt\nand sanctify him, and fit him to fulfil the great end of his creation? Is\nit from earth, or heaven? Is it within him, or above him? Is it human, or\ndivine? Is it nature, or is it grace?\n\nThis is the vital question to be settled; the turning-point of all our\nviews of religion and humanity.\n\nWe are satisfied that the only basis of man's improvement lies in his\ndependence upon almighty power. The only rock on which he can ever be\nsatisfied to rest, is the Rock that is higher than he. If ever his\ncondition is bettered, it must be by some agency outside of himself. If\never he is to reach a heaven of perfection and of blessedness, he must be\ndrawn thither by a heavenly power.\n\nWe confess we expect very little from all the flattering theories of\nself-dependence and self-development. We are tired of the endless talk of\nman's noble and sublime endowments, and his vast capacities for reaching\nhis ultimate perfection. We turn away from much that is uttered under the\nguise of religion, which is little else than a ringing of perpetual\nchanges on the progressive energy of human nature, and which utterly\nignores the need of divine grace, while it teaches man to make himself a\nseraph. Very empty is it all to us--this godless humanitarianism,\ndiscoursing perpetually upon human progress, while it says not a word\nabout man's dependence upon any thing above himself.\n\nIt may please the multitude to tell them that they must look solely to\nthemselves for all the resources of a higher life. It tickles the vanity\nof men to preach to them of the virtues of self-reliance, and to exhort\nthem with high-sounding oratory to cultivate their manhood, and follow the\nhigher instincts of their nature; to bid them behave worthy of themselves,\nto find the true law of their being in their own self-hood, and to rely\nupon the strength of their own spiritual muscle to climb to the higher\nregions of spiritual perfection. Men love to hear it. They listen readily\nto the voice of such charmers. It flatters their pride. It deifies their\nmanhood. It gets rid of all those humbling notions of dependence upon\nGod's power. It does away with all such useless exercises as prayer and\nsupplication. It tells men to be true to themselves, to kindle the sparks\nof their own manhood, and walk in the light of them, while it says nothing\nof a \"Rock which is higher than they.\"\n\nGrand as such teachings may seem to many, they sound very sad to the\nChristian: sad, because they are not true; sad, because they are as\ndelusive as they are flattering.\n\nAccording to all these theories, man is directed to himself for his own\nsalvation and improvement. Nature, and not grace, must save him. He is his\nown rock on which he must build. He has no object above himself to look\nto. His god is his own developed humanity. What then is there for him to\nhold fellowship and communion with higher than himself? What is there to\ndraw him upward; what to excite him to action? How can he rise above his\nown level? On what ladder will he plant his feet, and what object will\nattract his gaze and nerve him to exertion?\n\nWith nothing outside of himself and above himself to look to, you shut him\nup to grovel in the dust. Without the law of a higher attraction\ninfluencing him, man, with all his ambitious pretensions, will stay where\nhe is. It is only when the sun is in the heavens, scattering its warm\nbeams over the world, that the ocean sends up from its bosom its tribute\nto the sky. Destroy this solar attraction, and no particle of moisture\nwould rise above the surface.\n\nSo the human soul aspires to something above itself, in obedience to the\nlaw of spiritual attraction which is beyond itself. Isolate it from God,\nwho is far above it, turn away its thoughts from any rock higher than it,\nbid it look perpetually inward and never outward and upward, and you have\ndoomed it to despair.\n\n\"Is it not strange,\" remarks the earnest and profound John Foster, \"to\nobserve how carefully some philosophers, who deplore the condition of the\nworld and profess to expect its melioration, keep their speculations clear\nof any idea of Divine interposition? No builders of houses or cities were\never more attentive to guard against the access of flood or fire. If He\nshould but touch their prospective theories of improvement, they would\nrenounce them as defiled, and fit only for vulgar fanaticism. No time is\ntoo long to wait, no cost too deep to incur, for the triumph of proving\nthat we have no need of a Divinity regarded as possessing that one\nattribute which makes it delightful to acknowledge such a Being--the\nbenevolence which would make us happy.\n\n\"But even if this noble self-sufficiency cannot be realized, the\nindependence of spirit which has labored for it must not sink at last into\npiety. This afflicted world, 'this poor terrestrial citadel of man,' is to\nlock its gates, and keep its miseries, rather than admit the degradation\nof receiving help from God.\"\n\nThat religion which is taught us in the Bible, is the opposite of all the\ncruel mockeries of a godless philosophy. It tells of human progress. It\nbids us hope for a higher life. It cheers us with promises of deliverance\nand salvation. But it bids us \"cease from man, whose breath is in his\nnostrils,\" and points us to a Cause above ourselves. It sounds no\npanegyrics upon our manhood. It talks not of nature's doings, but of\ngrace. It tells us not to trust ourselves, to rely upon our self-hood, but\nto consent to be helped by a divine power. It leads us not to ourselves,\nbut to \"the Rock that is higher\" than we.\n\nAnd in so doing we maintain that the religion of Jesus Christ alone meets\nthe deep-felt want of our souls.\n\nAfter all the cherished pride of independence, after all the praises sung\nto \"our godlike manhood,\" after all the strugglings for self-development,\nthe soul feels a consciousness of its weakness, and is burdened with a\nsense of its own impotency. There are occasions, not a few, when it gives\nthe lie to all the shallow pratings of philosophy, and looks around it for\nhelp. It feels its own infirmities. It wants to escape from its loneliness\nand isolation. It reaches after a power which it does not possess. It\ncries for a \"Rock which is higher\" than it.\n\nThe religion of Christ meets this condition of our nature. It tells me I\nmust look beyond myself. It shows me where to look. It reveals to me a\nRock, firm, enduring, safe, where I may rest--not in me, but above me,\n\"higher than I\"--to which, if I would reach it, I must consent to be led,\nand to receive aid.\n\nIn this school of religion are we taught the lessons of the deepest\nhumility, and the most absolute dependence--lessons such as were never\ntaught in the porch or the grove of refined philosophy. They are opposed\nto the strongest instincts of our carnal hearts. They extort from the soul\nthe confession of its own helplessness: \"Save, Lord, or I perish.\"\n\nYet conflicting as true religion is with the pride and self-confidence of\ncarnal man, its provisions and conditions meet precisely the wants of a\nhumble believer. This abnegation of self, and looking away from and above\nself, is the highest comfort of a Christian's life. This Rock, higher than\nhe, is what he wants to get hold of and lean upon. Lead me to it, is his\nprayer, uttered from every department of his soul.\n\n1. The _understanding_ utters it, when it seeks for knowledge. It asks for\na wisdom above its own, to instruct us in the great truths of our being,\nour relations to God, our duties, and our destiny. It feels that divine\nwisdom alone is competent to declare what the divine will is.\n\nMen may bid me hear it through the voice of reason; but that cannot\nsatisfy the soul. Like the spider which spins its web from its own bowels\nand hangs it in the air, have men been long busy in deducing from their\nown reason their profoundest systems of truth and virtue, and in laying\ndown the rule of duty which would guide them to life eternal. But the\nresult of all such labors has been poor indeed. All the systems which\nreason has ever framed could never rise above the finite; and multitudes\nof them have proved but metaphysical cobwebs, entangling the soul which\nseeks to walk upon them in their perplexing meshes, till, in its\nstrugglings, it breaks through them all, and drops down into the abyss of\nhopeless scepticism.\n\nI cannot trust my eternal welfare to such deceptive oracles. I want to\nhear a voice outside of myself to teach me life and duty. I want to hear\nwhat God speaks to me, and to believe it because He speaks it. And though\nin his divine revelation he says many things which are not articulate to\nmy reason, still reason forbids me not to trust in them. Faith lays hold\nof them, and climbs upward to rest upon \"the Rock.\" Here the Christian\nsoul takes refuge. To the infallible word of God it flies, from all the\nBabel utterances of rationalistic errors, as its only security, its\nfortress, and high tower.\n\n2. The human _will_ also needs to look above and beyond itself for the\nRock of its support.\n\n\"There is,\" says a profound writer, \"a sentiment to be found in divers\nforms among all men, the sentiment of the need of some external succor, of\na support to the human will, of a force which can lend its aid and\nstrength to our necessity.\"\n\nHow true this is every Christian knows by sad experience. \"To will is\npresent with me,\" says Paul, \"but how to perform that which is good, I\nfind not.\"\n\nHow changeable our volitions. How many purposes unexecuted lie like wrecks\nalong the shores of our past history. The best of resolutions glow for a\ntime in the soul, but the genial spark thus kindled is soon blown out in\nthe wild tempest of the passions. Our states of mind are variable as the\nsky. They carry the will along with them. There are tides of human\nfeeling, just as there are tides in the ocean, which ebb and flow in\nceaseless agitation. That old Saxon monarch who with his courtiers went\ndown to the shore and issued his command to the ocean surges to go back,\ntill the waves, in mockery of his authority, dashed over his feet, was as\nsuccessful as he will be, who thinks to subdue with the voice of his own\nauthority the active elements within him, and to subject to the mandates\nof the human will the troubled sea of thought and feeling in the soul.\n\nOh, when thus my will is powerless for good, when resolutions strongly\nframed and guarded go down one by one under the shock of temptation, when\nthus I climb and fall backwards, repent and sin, and repent again only to\nresolve anew, then it is I feel the need of something more potent to fix\nmy resolutions and give stability to my purposes. Then it is I wait to\nhear the voice of God's authority, and ask to be led to some \"Rock higher\nthan I.\"\n\n3. Again, to such a Rock as this the believer's _affections_ naturally\naspire. Unless some object more excellent and worthy than self be\ndiscovered, then is selfishness the highest virtue. Such an object cannot\nbe found in the creature things which surround us. Magnify them as we may,\nthe soul feels that they are inferior to itself; in all its attempts to\nlove them and go out after them, the soul has a secret consciousness of\ndegradation. It feels that it is stepping downwards and not upwards, when\nit turns its love upon the material vanities around it. There is, all the\nwhile, a suppressed sense of dissatisfaction, a wish and a longing for\nsomething better to love, something higher for the heart to reach after.\n\nThis feeling in the Christian makes him look upward. God as revealed in\nChrist is alone sufficient to fill his heart. He discovers the holiness\nand excellency of his nature. He sees him with all the attributes of\ndivinity and humanity harmoniously blended together, the chief among ten\nthousands; the one altogether lovely. He feels that he is worthy of his\nlove. He is drawn to him with the cords of love. He is looking higher than\nself. There is none upon earth he desires besides Him. Now he has found\nthe only object he can safely love. Other things have mocked him: earthly\nvanities have trifled with his affections; they have betrayed his trust;\nbut Christ fills his heart. He is a higher rock than himself, and he turns\nthither as his only rest. Lead me to this Rock; let my soul climb here\nabove the lower level of earth and sense; for here my hope shall not be\nput to shame.\n\n4. This higher Rock is the only refuge I can find when I feel the need of\n_pardon and sanctification_. The human conscience testifies of guilt.\nGod's law has been set at naught, and its penalty has been incurred.\nJustice demands a satisfaction for transgression, else the gate of\nreconciliation is closed for ever. How can this fearful difficulty be\novercome? How can God forgive the guilty? Shut me up to myself, and I am\nin despair. I could commit the sin myself, but I cannot give the\nsatisfaction. All my present attempts to obedience can have no effect upon\nwhat I have done before. My guilt is where I cannot reach it. My prayers\nand tears and vows cannot wash out the damning record which stands against\nme. Even could I reform my life and tread in the path of holiness from\nthis time forth, there is guilt already which I cannot cancel.\n\nOh, the utter helplessness of the soul is one of the most agonizing\nfeelings which attend conviction of sin. Guilt stares me in the face,\nafter all my strugglings. The dark waters go over my head, and I sink for\never, were it not for a rock I can seize hold of, which is Christ a\nSaviour. The gospel points me to an atonement made for me in the death of\nJesus Christ, and bids me look by faith to the sacrifice of the cross.\nThis is precisely what I want.\n\nOh let me reach this Rock, and I can count over my transgressions without\ndespair; for here the justice of God is satisfied. Here is a full\natonement for them all. Here God smiles upon me with a look of\nforgiveness, for the law is magnified, and grace abounds. Here is my\nrefuge against all the accusations of conscience and the terrors of guilt.\nHere on this Rock I rest in peace, a high Rock, above the clouds where the\nlightning flashes of wrath play and justice hurls the bolts.\n\nLastly, this divine Rock is the Christian's only support in _the trying\ncalamities of life_. Whatever be their nature, whether temptations, or\nafflictions, or spiritual distresses, he meets them by looking above and\nbeyond himself for aid.\n\nThere is a kind of heroism which the world applauds, exhibited sometimes\nby men in the trying straits of life, a gloomy heroism which inspires them\nto breast misfortune with an iron nerve, and \"take up arms against a sea\nof troubles,\" in firm reliance upon their own indomitable will. It never\nquails before the face of danger, but will perish in the fierce encounter\nrather than submit to fear. Often it assumes the form of a grim and\nsullen stoicism, which sheds no tear over the desolation of cherished\nhopes, and utters no plaintive cry over the wreck of lost affections. With\ndogged silence it buries the last of kindred, and at last lies down to die\nwith features cold and mute as marble, and with sealed passports departs\nto the eternal world.\n\nThis, which the world calls manly firmness, is a foul libel on humanity,\nbut a few degrees removed from the sublime stolidity of the brute.\n\nThe Christian lays claim to no such heroism, but looks for aid in trouble.\nHe is willing to be helped. From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee\nwhen my heart is overwhelmed, \"Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.\"\n\nThe idea suggested is that of a sufferer struggling in the angry billows;\nand while he feels his strength rapidly wearing out, he turns his eye in\nevery direction across the boundless waters to find some succor. No\nfriendly sail is seen. Not a spar or plank is left of his shattered\nvessel. Every thing has gone down beneath the remorseless tide. But\nyonder looms a solitary rock high in the air. Storms rage about it in\nvain. The surges dash and roar around its base. The maddened waters are\nlashed into foam and spray. But there it stands, firm, unmovable,\ninvincible. Heedless of tide and wave and storm, it looks tranquilly out\nupon the chafed and angry elements, as unconcerned as though naught but\nsunbeams played and zephyrs whispered.\n\nWhat that rock is to the wrecked and exhausted mariner who has at length\nreached its base, and lain down in its friendly clefts, such is Christ to\nthe tossed and troubled believer. In the upheavings of life, when all\nother trusts have failed, and the waters of affliction are breaking over\nhim, he betakes himself to God, and climbs upon the Rock of ages.\n\nHe has no idea of standing on his manhood when distress and death confront\nhim. He is willing to own his dependence, and humbly fly to God for aid.\nFaith in God is to him a mightier resource than the boasted iron nerve and\nproud unconquerable will of nature.\n\nThe religion of the Bible teaches us _humility_ and _dependence_. Human\nnature needs help. Human nature must give up its vaporing. Sinners cannot\nsave themselves. If we are ever saved, it must be by looking above, and\nnot within. There is no regenerating power left in the carnal heart. No\nmere development of the man will ever result in his salvation. There must\nbe an agency _ab extra_ to interpose, else we perish. God, not man, must\nhave the glory of our salvation. This is plainly the Bible method; and the\nsooner we learn to look away from self to something higher, the nearer are\nwe towards attaining it.\n\nAgain, the gospel system _meets our wants_, as well as tells us of them.\nIt reveals the Rock higher than we. It points us to a divine Saviour. The\nsame voice which tells us of our necessities, tells us also of the\nsupplies God has furnished to meet them all. Here divine knowledge is\ngiven to relieve our doubts, and enlighten our ignorance. Here is divine\npower tendered to help the feebleness of the will. Here is divine love\nexhibited to quicken our affections. Here is a divine atonement provided\nto expiate our guilt. Here is a divine Spirit revealed to sanctify our\nsouls and fit them for heaven and glory. Why all this outlay for those who\nhave ability to take care of themselves? Why such vast provisions for men,\nif there be yet aught belonging to them which, by mere self-development,\ncan make them holy and meet for heaven? Why such rich display of grace, if\nthere be any thing left to hope from in mere nature?\n\nIt follows that _faith_ is the great element of practical religion.\n\"_Believe_, and thou shalt be saved,\" is the great command and promise of\nthe gospel. Trust in Me for aid; look up to the Rock for a refuge.\n_Prayer_ therefore becomes the vital exercise of a Christian life. It is\nthe soul's outlooking beyond itself; its aspiration after God; the medium\nthrough which it receives blessings from its Saviour. For this faith in\nGod is not mere spiritual imbecility, nor torpid helplessness. It is the\nmovement of an earnest soul, awake to its deep necessities, and looking\nheavenward for help. Prayer is its earnest utterance, its living activity.\nLead me upward, is its cry; help me to climb the rock; bear me above\ntemptations which draw me earthward; support me in the conflict which I\nmust meet in my upward way to heaven.\n\nThe strength of a Christian's life, paradoxical as it may seem, lies in\nits dependence. Look up then to the Rock of your salvation. Wait at the\nthrone of grace for aid; wrestle earnestly in prayer, if you would rise\nabove your present level. You are not shut up to nature's resources. You\nhave a higher Rock, where you may build your house. And when the winds of\ntrouble blow, and the floods of death sweep by, your house will stand the\nshock, and shelter you from harm, for it is founded on a rock.\n\nMy dear, yet impenitent friend, our subject tells you what you must come\nto in order to be saved. You must quit your hold on self, and consent to\nlook without you for salvation. The sooner you look this fact plainly in\nthe face the better. All your reliance upon your own self-hood, all your\nboasted progress in virtue, all your godless cultivation of your so called\nmanhood, may be welcome incense offered on the altar of human pride, but\nthey keep you away from the true salvation.\n\nThe religion of the Bible is for sinners who need help. Its salvation is\nfor those who are in a lost condition. You must admit this fact, or go\nwithout it. If you cannot consent to be saved by interposing grace, you\nmust be left to nature, and the result will be at last, you will not be\nsaved at all. If you will not brook to be told that you are \"poor and\nmiserable and blind and naked,\" and that you must find in Christ Jesus a\nRock higher than you, and trust in his atonement to remove your guilt, and\npray for the Holy Spirit to wash and sanctify you, then you must do the\nbest you can without a Saviour. You may carry your head up a while, and\nscorn to be a suppliant; you may plume yourself upon your independence and\nself-reliance, and ask no favors of God or man; you may disdain to utter a\nprayer, or a confession; but your glory will be short. Death will soon\nstrip you of your pride, and rob you of your boasting. God will call you\nto the judgment-seat, and put your manhood to the test.\n\nMy dying friend, you cannot keep your present position; you must abandon\nit ere long. Why not do it now? Why wait till you are driven from it to\neternal disgrace, when you may now turn from it, and secure thereby\neternal life? You have got to bow; you have got to pray; you have got to\nawake to a conviction of your guilt, either now, or in eternity. Why not\nnow--now, when help is near you, and salvation is offered you--now, when\nthe Rock that is higher than you is accessible to you, and you are bidden\nto hide in its friendly clefts from the gathering storm of Jehovah's\nwrath?\n\nYou may refuse to look upon it now; but not so hereafter. From your deep\nabyss of gloom your eye will see it far away in the upper world of glory,\nwith the glad companies of the redeemed sitting upon its summit in eternal\nrest and peace, and singing with the angels. And the spontaneous prayer\nwhich would break from your lips, \"Lead me to yonder Rock that is higher\nthan I,\" will be choked and silenced by the awful conviction, that between\nyou and it there is a great gulf fixed, a chasm which no tears can\nbridge, no prayers can span. Now the Rock is near. The Saviour reaches out\nhis hand. Grasp it, sinner, by faith. Hold on to it and climb to the\nstrong-holds, or you must sink to hell.\n\n\n\n\nII.\n\nThe Sun in his Might.\n\n    LET THEM THAT LOVE HIM BE AS THE SUN WHEN HE GOETH FORTH IN HIS MIGHT.\n    JUDGES 5:31.\n\n\nThus closes the song of Deborah, the judge and heroine of Israel. Its\ntheme has been the thrilling events of the great battle with Sisera and\nthe Canaanites, the victory of Balak, and the overthrow of Jabin and his\nhosts. But at its close she rises from the particular event to a general\nprediction, in the form of a prayer for the destruction of all the enemies\nof God, and the safety and blessedness of his own people. \"So let all\nthine enemies perish, O Lord; but let them that love him be as the sun\nwhen he goeth forth in his might.\"\n\n\"_Them that love him_\" is a brief, but most fitting description of true\nbelievers, whether Jewish or Christian. Saints are distinguished from\nothers, not only in their relations to God, but in their affections\ntowards him. Reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, they love him with a\nreverential, obedient, and constant love. Such are, in the highly poetic\nlanguage of the prophetess, compared to the sun when he goeth forth in his\nmight.\n\nA bold and extravagant figure indeed it appears to us at first view. To\nliken Christians to the sun may seem presumptuous--the sun, that glorious\norb which marshals at his command the planets and satellites that revolve\naround him--that great central fountain of light and heat, scattering his\nrays over the vast fields of immensity, imparting light and warmth and\nvitality throughout his vast territories, and gladdening the numerous\ntribes of creatures which inhabit them.\n\nBut the comparison in the text is specific rather than general. It is to\n_the going forth_ of the sun in his might--to his apparent motion round\nthe earth, produced really by the revolution of the earth upon its axis.\nThe Scriptures employ the language of common life when they describe the\nphenomena of the natural world.\n\nThe going forth of the sun is seen when he rises in glory in the eastern\nsky, and climbs the heavens in majestic splendor, scattering the mists\nand gloom of night; when with untiring steps he mounts the zenith, and\nbends his course along the western slope, till at the close of day he\nflings aslant over mountaintop and embosomed lake his parting beams, and\ndips his golden rim behind the horizon, to shine on other lands and\ngladden their inhabitants.\n\nIt is this tireless movement of the sun, this daily progress of the king\nof day, patrolling as with a giant's tread the ramparts of the skies, that\nthe text employs to illustrate the course of God's people in the world.\n\nParallel to the text is the passage in Proverbs 4th: \"The path of the just\nis as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect\nday.\" Our subject is then to study the life and experience of the\nChristian as illustrated by the sun when he goeth forth in his might.\n\nWhat more sublime and glorious sight can be conceived of than this\nevery-day phenomenon, so common that it is unappreciated and almost\nunnoticed by the multitudes of busy men--the going forth of the sun in his\nmight? O ye effeminate children of sloth, it is worth snatching a lazy\nhour from your feverish beds, to rise before the dawn, and watch how the\nshadows of the night gradually soften and flee away at the approach of the\nsun-rising, and how the eastern sky lifts her curtains of crimson and gold\nto welcome his coming. The various tribes of animated creation rejoice on\nevery side. The lark warbles his glad notes, and soars high in the air to\ncatch his first beams.\n\nIt is the sun going forth in his might that quickens the life-pulse of\nnature, and scatters the gloom which enshrouded her. Fresh and joyous as a\nbridegroom coming out of his chamber, he lifts his head above the hills,\nand bathes the earth in the splendor of his rays. Shadows retreat through\nglen and valley to their caves. Breezes gently touch the forest-leaves,\nand chant their matinee. Placid lakes from their mirrored surface toss\nback the day-beams. Dew-drops pendent on the flower-petals glisten like\ndiamonds on a vestal's brow. Cascade and cataract with their silvery spray\nweave mimic rainbows in his beams. Distant mountains in solemn grandeur\nlift their tall peaks like golden turrets in the sky; while from jutting\npromontory and wave-washed beech old ocean peals out her deep, full\ndiapason, and hails the advent of the day. Ah, when I gaze upon a scene\nlike this, I cease to wonder that in other lands, unvisited by the gospel,\nthe Parsee bows and worships the rising sun, and lifts his hands and prays\nwith rapt devotion to the orb of day.\n\nFollow the sun's course from the horizon upward; how, never halting, never\nwearying, he drives his fire-chariot through the long circuit of the\nheavens. And when at close of day he bids us a short adieu, it is not with\nthe jaded look of an exhausted courier whose strength is gone, but with\nthe same effulgent countenance that he wore before. Still does he go forth\nin his _might_ when, at evening, from his broad disc he throws with lavish\nprofusion his effulgence over the floating clouds in the vault above, and\nover hill-top and plain stretched out below.\n\nWould you take the full meaning of the sun's going forth in his _might_,\nyou must bear in mind that this his glorious career is not the phenomenon\nof a day, but that precisely thus has he fulfilled his mission through\nweary centuries--that on the generations long forgotten he shone with the\nsame exhaustless splendor; and that since creation's birth, when he was\ncommissioned by the Almighty to rule the day, he has never failed to walk\nthe skies. Centuries have not wearied him; ages have marked no wrinkles on\nhis brow; but as when the world was new he circled it with light and\nbeauty, so now with the same might does he go forth weariless, changeless.\n\nWhat is there in this going forth of the sun in his might analogous to the\nlife of the people of God? Where is the point of comparison? How is the\nmoral experience of a Christian to be likened to this going forth of the\nsun? Unlike the sun, he is not the centre of a mighty system. Unlike the\nsun, he has no inherent light to scatter around him. Rather like the moon\nthan like the sun does he shine, borrowing all his light from Christ the\nSun of righteousness; just as the moon gathers what beams she has from the\nsun, and reflects them towards us with fainter and more subdued radiance.\nLike the moon, the Christian shines only when shone upon.\n\nIn speaking of Bible imagery, we must beware of straining the figures\nemployed, and forcing upon them an interpretation which is beyond their\nnatural meaning.\n\nThe text does not compare the light of the Christian with the light of the\nsun, but simply the Christian with _the going forth_ of the sun.\n\nThe analogy then leads us to speak, in the first place, of the\n_progressive_ nature of the Christian's life--his constant upward\nadvancement.\n\nThe sun is ever going forth. There is no pause nor cessation to his\nmovements. Tempests and storms sweep over us, and calms succeed; changes\nand revolutions mark every thing here on earth, but the sun stops not in\nhis career. His work is never done.\n\nEven so is the Christian life--an onward movement, an advancement step by\nstep in the work of grace.\n\nAs Christians, there is no such thing as our standing still, or resting\nsatisfied with our present attainments in knowledge and holiness. It is\nthis onward impulse, this disposition to push forward, this ardent longing\nfor increasing grace, which is one of the strongest evidences that we are\ntruly Christians. Hypocrites and self-deceived ones occasionally are\nsusceptible of religious emotion. Hypocrites may join the church, and stay\nthere till they die, and yet feel no need of progress. But where grace is\ntruly felt, it causes the believer to long for more. The least conformity\nto the divine image begets a desire for more holiness. It can be satisfied\nonly by awaking in his likeness. \"Not as though I had already attained,\"\n\"I count not myself to have apprehended,\" is the sentiment of every true\nChristian soul. \"I press towards the mark for the prize of the high\ncalling of God in Christ Jesus,\" is the fixed purpose of every believer.\n\nThe Christian's efforts in grace are not self-exhausting, but\nself-invigorating. The more he runs, the swifter of foot is he. The duties\nof yesterday never weary his strength for to-day.\n\nWould you test your piety? then look not back in the distance of years to\nfind the evidences of your salvation. But look at the passing weeks and\nmonths, to trace along their history the workings of divine grace. And Oh,\nlet me warn you that you are trusting in a false and empty hope, unless\nthere be found in your experience a growing conformity to Christ your\nSaviour, a series of conquests over temptations and besetting sins, a\nsteadier fidelity in Christian duty, a deeper spirituality, a giving way\nof carnal lusts, a stronger faith, a brighter hope, and a nearer\nanticipation of heaven and glory. For if you are indeed a Christian, there\nwill be found in you an onward progress in a holy life, a moving forward\ntowards perfection, which will justify us in comparing it to the going\nforth of the sun.\n\nAgain, a Christian life is like the going forth of the sun, inasmuch as it\nis a progress involving _a mighty power_. The text speaks of the sun going\nforth in his _might_. The psalmist also describes him, \"rejoicing as a\nstrong man to run a race.\" The apparent motion of the sun daily through\nthe heavens, suggests the idea of almighty power. As if conscious of his\nstrength, he strides like a giant across the sky.\n\nSo is the Christian's progress in a holy life one which involves an outlay\nof exhaustless energies.\n\nHe lives through the power of God. His going forth is in the might of the\nSpirit which upholds him.\n\nWhen the apostle speaks of \"the exceeding greatness of his power to\nus-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which\nhe wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead;\" when he talks of\n\"striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily;\" when\nhe, in Ephesians, attributes his call to the ministry to the effectual\nworking of the power of the grace of God; and when he ascribes glory in\nthe church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, \"unto him that is able to\ndo exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think, according to\nthe power _that worketh in us_;\" when too the apostle John tells believers\nthat \"greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world,\" do you\nnot perceive that the very sun going forth in his might through the\nmid-heavens is a spectacle of omnipotence no grander or more sublime than\na poor Christian going forth from earth to heaven?\n\nThe necessity of this mighty interposition of the divine Spirit arises\nfrom the helplessness to which sin has reduced us, and the obstacles to a\nholy life which beset the Christian.\n\nThis power of the Holy Ghost dwells in the believer; first renewing or\nregenerating him, and then sustaining him. It operates upon his own\nfaculties in such a way that they are called out in earnest effort.\nWithout this power given to us, who of us could stand? We \"wrestle not\nagainst flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,\nagainst spiritual wickedness in high places.\" There is no greater mistake\nyou can fall into than to conceive that a Christian life is a task of\nfeebleness and imbecility. If you would go forth at all, you must advance\nwith a perseverance which never despairs, a vigilance which never\nslumbers, and a courage which never quails. If you would call yourself a\nChristian, you must run like the athlete and struggle like the wrestler;\nfor the believer's course is a powerful movement, like the going forth of\nthe sun in his might.\n\nFaith, the great executive principle of the Christian, is a far different\nthing from a mere assent to creeds and formulas. It is a _power_, a\n_mighty power_, quickened in the Christian by the Holy Spirit--a power\nwhich moves the will, and controls the lusts, and overcomes the world. Ask\nyourself, Do you know aught of such a power? Have you felt its workings in\nyour soul? Has grace subdued your passions and fixed your purposes? Has it\nabased your pride and relaxed your covetousness? Has it worked in you\nmightily? If not, then has the kingdom of God come to you in word only,\nnot in power.\n\nAgain, the sun's going forth is a _joyous_ progress. Nothing is more\nsuggestive of joy than the sun shining. His very face is the synonym of\ngladness. Nature smiles beneath his rays. Lambs skip on the hill-sides,\nthe birds sing gayly, the forests clap their hands.\n\nFit emblem is the sun's going forth of the healthy development of a\nChristian life. Gloom and grace are not twin sisters. Joy is a prominent\nelement in genuine experimental religion. \"The fruits of the Spirit are\nlove, joy, peace.\" \"Let the righteous be glad,\" says David; \"let them\nrejoice before God. Yea, let them exceedingly rejoice.\" \"Rejoice in the\nLord always;\" \"rejoice evermore,\" is the sentiment of the apostle Paul.\n\nThe want of this holy joy in your experience is no evidence of your deep\npiety. Rather is it a proof of a low and imperfect life--a defective\nfaith. Surely it is the Christian, above all others, who should dwell in\npeace. It is he who can cherish in his bosom a felt sense of God's favor,\nwhich is life, and of his loving-kindness, which is better than life. It\nis he whose soul should walk all day in the light of God's countenance.\n\nBut let not this Christian joy be confounded with the boisterous merriment\nof the ungodly. It is far, very far removed from the mere pleasures of\nsense. It is not to be sought for in the butterflies of fashion flitting\nin saloons of gayety, nor in the hoarse laugh of the midnight bacchanalian\nrevel. It is not the silly trifling of brainless fools, who are lovers of\npleasure more than lovers of God. But it is the calm, the tranquil joy of\nthe soul at peace with God. Like the joyous sun should the Christian go\nforth, bright and peaceful, exhibiting in his life that steady hope and\ncheerful confidence and benignant peace which are as wide apart from the\nlevity and thoughtlessness of the world as they are from the austere gloom\nof the cloister and the repulsive asceticism of the convent.\n\nYours is the duty to exhibit to the world a joyous service to your Lord\nand Saviour. Yours is the privilege to show to your fellow-men that you\nhave found happiness elsewhere than in folly and dissipation, and that\nthere are other pleasures within your reach than the pleasures of sin,\nwhich are for a season.\n\nIt is important also to observe, that although the life of a real\nChristian is always progressive, still this progress may not always be\n_visible_ to himself, much less to others. There may be seasons when he\ncan discover no advancement, and when his course is obscured.\n\nIt is even so with the going forth of the sun in his might. Every day he\nmakes the circuit of the heavens. He is never stationary. But all days are\nnot the same: clouds sometimes gather; storms and tempests rage above us;\nthe angry elements muster their grim cohorts in the sky; the lightning\nflashes, the thunders roll; the earth lies shrouded in the drapery of\nnight. Where now is the sun, which a little while ago shone brightly upon\nus? Has he fled in terror? Has he retreated back, and hid behind the hills\nabove which he rose at morn? No, he has not faltered; far above those\nclouds, beyond the reach of storm and strife, he still moves on\nundisturbed. Watch; as the storm subsides, he shows the same bright,\njoyous face between the opening clouds, and fringes their edges with his\ngolden beams. Yonder he rides in the heavens, just as before. His going\nforth suffered no interruption when the winds swept and the thunder-clouds\nlowered. True, we could not see him; but when the dark mantle is drawn\naside, lo, there he is, undimmed, the same majestic sun, still going forth\nin his might; and yonder his rays are sporting with the raindrops, and\narching the horizon with the rainbow, in whose brilliant colors the\nAlmighty long ago wrote his covenant with the patriarch and with mankind.\n\nSo is it with the Christian's progress through the stormy trials and\ntemptations of human life. External circumstances seem sometimes to\nconspire against him: the tongue of slander may be turned against him; the\nenvenomed shaft of malice may wound his character; his integrity may be\nsuspected, and his good name be cast out as evil; darkness and unbelief\nmay settle upon his own soul; manifold temptations may suddenly surprise\nhim, and he be left to doubt and question whether he be not a castaway:\nbut we are not to conclude that such seasons are all against him. We\nbelieve that all the while there may be, there is, progress in such\nexperiences. They are trials which test his faith; they are fires which\nburn out the corruption which lurks within him.\n\nAlthough we cannot discern in every case the precise benefit which is to\nbe secured, although we cannot see why God allows some of his dear people\nto be buffetted continually, yet certain we are that all the temptations\nwhich overtake them and the afflictions which weigh upon them are\ndisciplinary in their nature, and are made subservient to their ultimate\nsanctification. Even in the temporary lapses of the Christian, which\nsurprise and overcome him, there may be the germ of future and higher\nadvancement. Through these he learns his weakness, and is taught the\nlesson of humility and dependence; and they are followed by a more\nresolute gathering up of his strength in God, and a more prayerful\nwatchfulness, which give promise of future progress. And accordingly we\nhave often seen the Christian come out of such experience like gold tried\nin the furnace, a brighter Christian, a better man, a more chastened,\nhumbled, sanctified believer, for whose good all things are made to work\ntogether, according to God's promise. Like the sun's going forth after\nstorms have we seen many a saint emerge from the clouds of adversity, and\nin later days exhibit a consistency which told that the trials he endured\nhad resulted in good.\n\nBe not discouraged then, Christian, because all days are not alike to you.\nThink not that there can be no progress when you are encompassed with\ncares and vexed with temptations. Yield not your confidence when your way\nseems troubled; for like the sun which goes forth in his might when the\nelements are astir, so must you keep moving heavenward through the gloom\nand discouragements of earth.\n\nSuch are the Scripture representations of the life of God's own people. It\nis a progressive life--a powerful and a joyous life--a life advancing and\nmaturing in the face of difficulties.\n\nCompare this, professing Christian, with your actual life. Perhaps you\nhave long professed to love God and to serve him; and what has been your\nprogress? Has the work of grace advanced so that now you can say that you\nare far beyond your former experience? Can you find in the mastery over\ntemptations, the crucifixion of your lusts, your habitual delight in the\nword of God and prayer and holy living, and in your indifference to the\nworld, its pleasures and its gains, that you have been moving onward and\nupward? Oh then, in your sun-like path, we bid you press eagerly forward\nunto the perfect day. It is not time yet to relax a single muscle. You\ncannot halt or loiter.\n\nBut are there some with whom it is far otherwise? After living in the\nchurch for years, are you just as cold and dormant, just as covetous and\nworldly as you were years ago? And dare you liken your dwarfed and sickly\nlife to the sun when he goeth forth in his might? Nay, rather must we\ndescribe you as a lost pleiad, or one of those \"wandering stars\" of which\nJude speaks, \"to which is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.\"\n\nAre you growing in grace? If not, you are graceless. If there is no\nmovement, there is no life. If you are a Christian, there is in you a\nspiritual power of locomotion which will not let you rest. A Christian\ngoes forth like the sun. Once indeed the sun paused at the command of\nIsrael's leader; but there is no Gideon in the world mighty enough to stop\nthe sunlike course of the Christian in the path of grace; nor is there a\nmount Gibeon to be found where you can bid him stand still.\n\n\n\n\nIII.\n\nThe Voice of Blood.\n\n    AND TO THE BLOOD OF SPRINKLING, THAT SPEAKETH BETTER THINGS THAN THAT\n    OF ABEL. HEB. 12:24.\n\n\nThis is the last entry made in the rich inventory of spiritual blessings\nwhich Christians enjoy under the gospel economy. The blood of Christ shed\nupon the cross is called \"the blood of sprinkling,\" in allusion to the\nblood of the paschal lamb; or more generally, to the blood of the\nburnt-offerings which was sprinkled upon and around the altar. The\nsprinkling of blood was, under the Levitical economy, the symbol of\npurification, as we are told by the apostle that \"almost all things are,\nby the law, purged with blood.\"\n\nThe text declares that the blood of Christ, shed for sinners, speaks\nbetter things than the blood of Abel, which was shed by the murderous hand\nof his brother, and called for vengeance.\n\nThere has always seemed to be a strange, mysterious influence in blood\nshed by violence. It has a voice mightier than all other voices, which\nthrills the human soul with awful terror. Once the Almighty spoke in\nthunder from the blackened brow of Sinai; but generations before and after\nthat, he spoke to men through the medium of blood. This was the language\nof all the divine sacrifices offered in the remotest times. The\ninstructions of the whole Levitical economy were written in blood--blood\nupon the altar, upon the four horns of the altar, upon its sides, around\nit--ever speaking in language of deep and awful meaning to the worshipper.\n\nMan's blood shed by violence cannot be silenced. It has a cry which rings\nin the ears, a voice at which all living men start back aghast. It wails\nlike an avenging fiend in the track of murder. It will not keep still. It\nsummons the world to find out the guilty.\n\nThe text introduces a contrast between the blood of Christ and that of\nAbel, or rather, between their utterances. Both spoke, and spoke with\nmighty power; but their language was far different. In the one it was\n_terror_, in the other _peace_.\n\nIt may be a subject of inquiry, why this distinct and exclusive reference\nto the blood of Abel, when so many since his time have died by the hands\nof violence? Every murder speaks, as well as Abel's. The bloody deed\ncommitted to-day will publish itself. It is the hardest thing in the world\nto conceal it. The providence of God often seems to turn the very arts and\nexpedients which were designed to hide it and hush its voice, into the\nmeans of its detection. The stone cries out of the wall, and the beam out\nof the timber answers it. Blood will speak through walls of masonry,\nthrough deepest midnight darkness, across seas and deserts uninhabited.\n\nBut passing over the many dark calendars of crime which generations had\nfilled up, the apostle singles out Abel alone, as he was the first one of\nour race who died, and that by the hand of violence. That murder woke the\nfirst cry of blood which the world ever heard. It was when the world was\nyoung. And as then there were no human courts established to sit in\njudgment upon crime and punish the guilty, the Almighty himself came forth\nfrom his solitude and made inquisition for blood, and pronounced sentence\nupon the fratricide. The testimony upon which God convicted Cain, was the\ntestimony of blood. It cried unto heaven from the ground; and by the\nprompt and terrible interposition of the Almighty at that epoch, God\nimpressed upon the race the sacredness of human life and the certain\nvengeance which would pursue the man who shed blood.\n\nThe blood of Abel, though it spoke a language like to that of ten thousand\nmurders since committed, still arrests attention; for it was the first cry\nof murder which had shocked the world. It stands at the head of the dark\nroll of guilt which is still filling up. It stained for the first time the\nbosom of our mother earth. It flung a ghastly mangled corpse into the\nfirst family of our race, and deepened the gloom which, at the fall,\nsettled upon the earliest history of humanity, into shadows black as\nTartarus.\n\nThese considerations would be enough to prompt the apostle to single out\nthe death of Abel from all that followed it.\n\nAnd in the text he contrasts its testimony with that of the blood of\nChrist.\n\nWhat was its utterance? What did the blood of Abel say? Come with me and\nstand over the revolting spectacle. Look on the clotted gore and ghastly\nfeatures of the murdered man, and hear the testimony:\n\n1. The blood of Abel testified to the actual infliction of _the penalty of\ndeath_ which had been passed upon the race. It is evident that Adam and\nEve could not have fully understood the full meaning of the curse which\nhad been pronounced upon them. Spiritual death, consisting in a loss of\nholiness and separation from God's favor, they had already suffered. And\nthey might have had some vague idea of that death which would close their\nearthly life, and dissolve the body back to dust; but they could know very\nlittle about it. They had never seen it. The death of animals offered in\nsacrifice would help their conceptions very little. Anxiously they\nquestioned what more there was in the sentence which God had pronounced\nupon them. Time wore along; their family increased: sons and daughters\ngrew up around them, and yet they had never witnessed an instance of\ndeath. Perhaps they began to doubt whether there was any thing more in the\ncurse than what they had already suffered. With ruddy cheeks and growing\nstrength, their posterity increased for more than a century after the\nfall. Their children's children smiled upon their knees. As yet they had\nnever seen a corpse; as yet the earth had not a single grave.\n\nBut from the blood of Abel there came a message of unutterable anguish,\nwhich dispelled the faintest hope of escape from the threatened penalty.\nAround his body, stretched on the bloody ground, gathered Adam and Eve and\ntheir descendants, and there in heartrending agony and distraction gazed\non the dead man's ghastly features, and read in them the first lesson of\ndeath. Yes, there was death!--death, which they had long talked about, and\nwondered what it was--death, which they had never seen before: it had come\nat last.\n\nThe awful revelation was before them. All doubt, all questioning about\ntheir fatal doom was gone. The king of terrors had entered upon his\ndominions, and set up his ghostly sceptre over every thing that breathed.\nThere was his first conquest.\n\nAnd from that blood there went forth a voice which published to all the\nliving the execution of the curse. Henceforth all hope of escape must be\ncut off. The work of death had now begun. Adam and all his race must\nprepare to die.\n\n2. The blood of Abel spoke of the deep and awful _depravity_ of human\nnature consequent upon the fall. It showed that man's fallen nature was\nearly ripe for the most atrocious wickedness. The seeds of corruption\nimplanted in that nature required no long period of ages to bring forth\ntheir fatal fruits. They developed themselves with most terrible rapidity.\nThe earliest crime on record in the history of the race, is of Titanic\nproportions. Old as the world has grown in guilt, it has yet found nothing\nto surpass it. Familiar as we are with its dark and dreary annals, its\noft-repeated chronicles of wickedness, there is not in them all a more\nthrilling testimony to the deep and universal depravity of fallen nature,\nthan is uttered in that first cry of blood which went up from the ground\ninto the ear of God. It would seem as though man's darkened spirit could\nnot wait for death to begin his fatal work upon the species by what we now\ncall the natural course of sickness and disease, but he must himself chide\ndeath with tardiness, and lift his own hand with murderous intent, and\nslay his fellow.\n\nThe blood of Abel speaks not of Abel calmly yielding up his breath, while\nhis head lies peacefully on his mother's lap. It calls us to no softened\ncouch over which fond parents bend in agony, and catch the placid smile\nwhich lingers on the countenance, and gather up the few rays of hope which\nbeam in the dying eye, and which seem to whisper that death may, after\nall, be not so formidable a thing.\n\nIn no such way does it speak to us. But it is Abel murdered, Abel\nstretched upon the cold ground, weltering in his blood, a mangled,\nghastly spectacle. And every clotted blade of grass, and every bloody\nstone has found a tongue, and cries, \"A brother's hand has done the\nhellish deed.\" We stand aghast, and ask for no more appalling testimony to\nthe total depravity of the species. Try as we may to soften down the\nhideousness of that depravity, after all our study to find something to\nrelieve the odiousness of that corruption which festers in the soul, there\nis a voice in the earliest history of the race, a voice of blood which\nmocks our arguments and banishes our cherished convictions.\n\n3. The blood of Abel cries for _vengeance_. It was the only testimony the\nAlmighty produced when he summoned Cain to trial. The deed was done in\nsecret. No one saw it. No one heard the dying man's last groan. His lips\nwere sealed, his tongue was stiff and cold, and the murderer thought that\nby a brazen and persistent denial of his crime, he could escape detection.\nBut though Abel could not testify, and no living man saw the uplifted hand\nwhich smote him, still there were witnesses enough. Dumb things grew\neloquent, and the voice of blood published the foul deed to God and man.\n\nFrom what we have read of the history of murderers, it would seem that\nthere was something more than a rhetorical figure in those words in\nGenesis, which give a voice to the blood shed by violence. Hundreds and\nthousands have heard such a voice. Often it amounts to nothing, that the\nassassin has concealed his crime from his fellow-men, and can walk abroad\nin the community with no suspicious eyes turned towards him. He is haunted\nby something which keeps publishing his guilt. The ghastly visage of his\nvictim rises before him, and follows him. It shakes its gory locks at him,\ncrossing his path everywhere like an avenger who will not be appeased. Its\navenging cry rings in his ears. He starts at the sound of his own\nfootsteps. Every thing seems to echo it. The rustling of a leaf alarms\nhim. The murmuring waterfall tells the bloody tale; the winds wail it\nthrough the air. It seems to him that all the world has found it out.\nInanimate things have grown articulate, and published it. He expects the\nnext man who meets him in the street will accuse him to his face. And not\nunfrequent is it, that by the very alarm and uneasiness, the strange\nanxiety and restlessness which he betrays, the eye of suspicion is turned\nupon him, and a clue is furnished, which leads to the disclosure of his\ncrime.\n\nThis avenging cry of blood is the hardest thing in the world to silence.\nIt will not be appeased without the life of him who shed it. It is the\nvoice of retributive justice, speaking from the throne of God, and echoed\nfrom the inner judgment-seat of the human conscience, demanding blood for\nblood. It is an awful voice, which, for the first time, the world heard\nwhen Abel's blood was shed.\n\nBut it is time we turned to listen to another voice to which the text\ninvites us. It is indeed the voice of blood; but it is a strange, a new\nvoice, which speaks a new language to the soul. It is the \"blood of\nsprinkling.\" The crucifixion of the Son of God was a most foul and\natrocious deed of blood: but in consequence of a special and extraordinary\narrangement by the Godhead, called the covenant of redemption, that blood\nspilled on Calvary received a new significancy, and spoke better things\nthan blood had ever spoken before.\n\n1. The blood of sprinkling speaks better things _to God_, than the blood\nof Abel did. That blood cried unto God from the ground for vengeance, but\nthe blood of Christ sends aloft to the Almighty's throne a far different\ntestimony. It speaks to God of a full satisfaction made to his law and\njustice for the sins of guilty men. It stands before the eternal Majesty,\nand challenges the divine attributes of truth and holiness and justice to\nsay aught they can against the sinner's acquittal and acceptance. It holds\nup before the glittering sword of justice the cleft side and dripping\nhands of Jesus, and boldly asks, Is not this enough? It declares to God\nthat now it is consistent with himself and his righteous government to\npardon the transgressor, and extend to him the open hand of\nreconciliation. It pleads for guilty sinners in the heavenly world, and\nbefore the throne of Jehovah; and louder than the roll of the eternal\nanthem, and the shoutings of the angelic choirs, its mighty and prevailing\nvoice is heard, \"Spare him; for I have found a ransom.\" It bids mercy\nreveal her lovely face, and sway her sceptre over a fallen, but now\nredeemed world. Yes, the blood of sprinkling is heard in the highest\nheaven. It speaks in the ear of God.\n\n2. It speaks _to men_. It proclaims to them a new and living way of\napproach to God. The apostle tells us, in the epistle to the Hebrews, that\nthis way is through the blood of Christ, and that Christ hath consecrated\nthis way to us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.\n\nBefore this new provision was made, the only way of acceptable approach to\nGod was through the covenant of works which required complete personal\nobedience to the divine law. That way was closed. Sin broke it up, and man\nhad no possible means of repairing it. Another way must be discovered,\nelse we must remain under condemnation. The blood of sprinkling opens up a\nnew and living way. It speaks to men of pardon, and assures them that the\nsacrifice of the cross was a full propitiation for their sins, which God\nhimself has approved. It declares to sinners, that now God can be just,\nand the justifier of the ungodly; that it has done all that was necessary\nto satisfy divine justice and avert the sentence of wrath which was over\nthem, and that the very God who before appeared to them as a consuming\nfire, is now plenteous in mercy, and ready to forgive.\n\n3. The blood of Christ speaks peace to the human _conscience_. Anxious as\nthe sinner may be to escape the penalty of his transgressions, his\nconscience holds him to the conviction that that penalty must be endured;\nfor God, whatever else he be, must be a God of justice, and must insist\nupon the sanctions of his law. Much as our selfish nature longs to escape\nsuffering for sin, the conscience sternly says it cannot be. That\nsuffering must be met. The penalty of transgression must be borne.\n\nAnd now comes in the voice of blood, and says it has been borne, for the\ndying Saviour was made a curse for us. His cruel sufferings were in the\nstead of ours, and \"on him was laid the iniquity of us all.\" Conscience\ncan now be at rest, for its claims are satisfied. There is peace through\nthe blood of the cross. The sinner may take refuge here from every\naccusing voice, and cherish the sweet consciousness of forgiveness.\n\nAgain, it speaks of _inward cleansing_ from pollution. Under the Levitical\nservice, the sprinkling of blood was the symbol of purification. It\ntypified the effects of the blood of Christ. The soul that comes to it\nexperiences an inward renewing, and becomes the seat of gracious\naffections, implanted by the Holy Spirit.\n\nAnd lastly, it speaks of final and complete _salvation_ in the heavenly\nworld. It is the purchase price of redemption which God the Father has\nalready accepted from Christ his Son. It is all a sinner needs to enter\nheaven. By it he is fully justified, and adopted into the family of God.\nIt fills the soul with joy and peace, and enables it to hope with\nconfidence for the future glory. It is the believer's title to eternal\nlife, which he can carry with him through the gates of death, and which\nsecures him a joyous welcome to the realms of purity and bliss, whither\nthe Forerunner has already gone to prepare mansions for his people.\n\nSuch is the language which the blood of sprinkling speaks. No other blood\never spoke like it. No other voice has borne such tidings of great joy to\nsinners. Turn your anxious ear to every quarter; go listen to the law; go\nthrough the universe and summon all the voices which testify of the\nAlmighty, which bespeak his might and majesty, his wisdom and goodness,\nand you listen in vain for any utterance of peace and hope and favor to a\nsinner, like that which is proclaimed in the blood of Calvary. That voice\nwhich breaks forth from the cross of Jesus is the apocalypse of the\nworld's redemption.\n\nIt is the voice of hope and salvation for a lost and guilty race. It\nreverberates along the arches of the heavenly world, and calls forth a\nsmile of reconciliation on the face of the Almighty. It rolls over against\nSinai, and lo, the dark clouds scatter, and the lightnings cease to flash,\nand the thunders grow still. It comes to the human soul burdened with\nguilt and shame, and assures it of pardon, peace, and eternal life.\n\nThousands upon thousands have heard it, and gone to glory listening to it.\nIt is still speaking. It will keep on speaking till all the dwellers on\nthis earth shall hear it, and an innumerable company out of every kindred\nand tribe and people shall be saved by it.\n\nI conclude with the solemn words of caution with which the apostle follows\nup the text: \"See that ye refuse not him that speaketh.\"\n\nThere are many calls in the world which we may well refuse to listen to.\nMany are crying, Lo here, and, Lo there, whom we may refuse to follow.\nThere are many teachings in the various departments of science and history\nwhich are interesting and profitable subjects of study; but we may remain\nin ignorance of them without materially affecting our well being for time\nor for eternity.\n\nIt is not so with this voice which speaks to us in the blood of a\ncrucified Saviour. Here are utterances which it well becomes every man to\nhear and study. It will not do, sinner, to turn away from it. It is a\nvoice of authority and power. It tells of the inexorable work of divine\njustice, of the stern exactions of God's violated law. It tells of an\nexpiation for your sins, of deliverance from the wrath to come. It\npublishes hope and salvation to the guilty and the lost, pardon and\nreconciliation with your offended God. It invites you to trust your guilty\nsoul upon the Saviour, to come with godly sorrow for all your\ntransgressions, and accept of God's free grace in a Redeemer. It assures\nyou that your God, against whom you have sinned, is now ready to forgive;\nthat his hand of mercy is reached out to you, and heaven and eternal life\nare open to you. Oh, hear it; it is the only hope left for you. In all the\nuniverse there is no voice like it, which can bring peace and comfort to\nyour soul. Oh, hear it. Though other voices call loudly to you, and\nimportune you; though the world besets you, and business, pleasure,\nwealth, and honor clamor in your ears; though pride and passion and sinful\nlusts cry out, and seek to drown its utterances, still turn your ear to\nthe cross, and seek salvation in the atonement which is published there.\n\nFor, ah, if you \"refuse Him that speaketh,\" you must perish. You have, in\nso doing, thrust away from you the only provision which has ever been made\nto save you from wrath to come. You close behind you the door of\nreconciliation which the Son of God has opened. You trample under foot the\nonly flag of truce which heaven has sent down to this revolted province.\nYou put an end to all further negotiations for peace, and you rush on the\nthick bosses of Jehovah's buckler. Oh, pause, we beseech you. Stop before\nyou reject the great salvation. Come and listen a while to what the blood\nof Jesus says. Ponder it well before you turn away. Take into account the\nconsequences of its rejection, and see if you can well afford to refuse\nits blessings.\n\n\n\n\nIV.\n\nChristians God's Temples.\n\n    KNOW YE NOT THAT YE ARE THE TEMPLE OF GOD, AND THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD\n    DWELLETH IN YOU? 1 COR. 3:16.\n\n\nThe frequency with which the apostles speak of Christians under the figure\nof a temple, is worthy of special notice. In the sixth chapter of this\nepistle, Paul calls our bodies the temple of the Holy Ghost. In the second\nepistle, he calls believers the temple of the living God, in whom God\ndwells. In Ephesians he describes them as a great building, upon Christ\nthe corner-stone, fitly framed together, growing unto a holy temple in the\nLord.\n\nThe apostle Peter, also addressing Christians, says, \"Ye also, as lively\nstones, are built up a spiritual house;\" and Jude in his epistle exhorts\nthem to build themselves up on their most holy faith, and keep themselves\nin the love of God.\n\nThe figure of a temple was a common and favorite one with the apostles.\nTwo reasons may be assigned for this.\n\nIt was easily understood by those whom they addressed. The Christian\nconverts, whether at Corinth, at Philippi, or at Rome, were familiar with\nthese structures. In almost every city of Asia Minor and the whole Roman\nempire, their massive columns and lofty domes adorned their streets, and\ninvited them to the worship of the gods. The sacred temple of the true God\nat Jerusalem also was not unknown to those who were scattered over Asia\nMinor. Many of the early converts in those parts were of Jewish\nextraction, and were well acquainted with the temple service at Jerusalem.\nThe figure of a temple was a familiar one, and universally understood by\nthe early Christians.\n\nA second reason for its frequent use in the New Testament is its\nappropriateness and significancy. The apostles employ it to present\nChristians in their peculiar position and obligations. It is a most\nsuggestive figure, sometimes applied to Christians individually, at other\ntimes to them as a body, the church fitly framed together, and growing\nunto a holy temple in the Lord.\n\n1. The temples of antiquity were most _costly_ structures. Seldom were\nthey erected out of the fortunes of any private individual; the resources\nof an empire were often spent upon them. The contributions of all the\ncities of Greece were expended on the famous temple at Delphi; its\ngorgeous shrines were thickly overlaid with gold, and within its walls\nwere gathered the choicest statuary, and all the combined wonders which\nart could furnish.\n\nAt Rome, the magnificent temple of Jupiter shone with the gilding of more\nthan 12,000 talents, while upon its foundation alone was expended thirty\nthousand pounds weight of silver.\n\nAncient Athens exhausted her wealth and the sublimest achievements of art\nupon those vast and imposing structures built in honor of the gods. The\nParthenon, rising in majestic splendor on the brow of the Acropolis,\ndazzled the eyes of the beholder. Every thoroughfare boasted of some\nsplendid pile. In the age of Pericles, the vast treasures of Greece, the\nfinest marbles from the Parian quarries, the chisel of Phidias and the\npencil of Zeuxis, the brass and ivory and gold and ebony and cypress from\nmany lands, were all employed upon those structures which rendered Athens\nthe wonder of the world.\n\nThe temple of God at Jerusalem also was built at vast expense. The nation\nbrought their gifts. No private individual was able to construct it.\n\nAnd are not Christians like the ancient edifices, in the cost which has\nbeen incurred in their behalf? Does not the apostle justify this point of\ncomparison when, after saying that our bodies are the temple of the Holy\nGhost, he immediately adds, \"for ye are bought with a price?\" In\nestimating what it cost to make a human soul, ruined and defiled, into a\nspiritual temple for God, we cannot enter into any arithmetical\ncalculations of dollars and cents; for says the apostle, \"Ye were not\nredeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold.\" But we must\nspeak of a great expenditure, a mighty outlay which has been incurred. To\nbuild the soul's ruins into a temple is a grander, costlier work, than to\nbuild the Parthenon. Man could build the latter, but God alone could build\nthe former. And even for him to do it, required a new and special\nadministration, and the sacrifice of his only Son.\n\nIn constructing these spiritual temples, the eternal Son left the realms\nof glory, and became \"a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.\" He was\nrich, but he became poor, that we, through his poverty, might be rich. To\ncompute the cost of this work, you must take the measure of that infinite\nsacrifice which the Lord Jesus has made for you: tell what it was to leave\nthe throne of heaven, and become a man on earth; to obey the broken law\nand bear its curse; to die in agony upon the cross. To compute the cost,\nyou must reckon up the value of that blood which was shed on Calvary, and\nof the mighty agency of the Holy Spirit which is actually employed in\nrestoring and refitting the human soul.\n\nThere is no earthly calculus which can furnish the true answer. There are\nno corruptible things, such as silver and gold, which can be weighed\nagainst the precious blood of the Son of God. Yet this was the price paid\nfor your redemption. This is what these Christian temples cost--temples\nwhich the world cares little for, but temples growing beautiful to the eye\nof God, around whose portals angels hover as ministering spirits, to bear\naloft to the throne the prayers which are breathed within them.\n\n2. A temple is remarkable for its _durability_. It is not like a tent, or\na tabernacle, pitched for a short season, and then taken down. The\nmaterials which are used, and the manner of their construction, show that\nit will endure. The temples of antiquity were built for ages. Plutarch,\nwhen speaking of those of Athens, says, \"Now they are old, they have the\nfreshness of a modern building. A bloom is diffused over them which\npreserves their aspect untarnished by time, as if they were animated with\na spirit of perpetual youth and unfading elegance.\"\n\nThose sacred structures, so familiar to the early Christians, stood\nunchanged while generations passed away. Time seemed to pass them by,\nwhile men and all their other works mouldered under his touch.\n\nHow aptly does this suggest to us the imperishable nature of that work\nwhich the Holy Spirit carries on in the temple of the human soul. It is no\nephemeral work. Every Christian coworking with God, is working for\neternity. That soul which has become a temple, will stand the changes of\ntime, and the floods of temptation. The world cannot demolish it. It is a\nwork of grace. And where God has begun it, he will carry it on to the day\nof redemption.\n\nThe durability of a temple also symbolizes the imperishable nature of the\nchurch, the great house which God is building in the world. It shall\nadvance till the world shall end. Other institutions wear out. Colossal\nedifices of state totter and fall, and the wrecks of mighty dynasties lie\nstrewn along the centuries. But while every thing else grows old, the\nchurch of God endures. The great house grows greater; spiritual builders\nare at work, in our own and in other lands, quarrying out new stones, and\npolishing them, and setting them in the walls. Many a time have its\nenemies battered it, and threatened to lay it in heaps; but the gates of\nhell have not prevailed against it; it endures; it still rises; column\nafter column is added to it; it will rise till frieze and cornice and arch\nand dome are finished, and the top-stone shall be set with shoutings of\nGrace, grace unto it. The church, the great temple of God, shall stand.\n\n3. The temples of antiquity were distinguished by their _beauty of\nproportion and perfection_. The Greeks and Romans employed the genius of\ntheir master artisans and their finest sculptors. All that the highest\nskill and taste and cultivation could do was profusely lavished on those\nimmortal works of art; and the results produced were those models of\narchitectural strength and symmetry which succeeding ages, with all their\nboasted progress, have not excelled. Unity of design, the adjustment of\nmany parts in one harmonious whole, each part fitted to its appropriate\nplace, with nothing left out and nothing superfluous, but all united to\nproduce an impression of beauty and harmony on the mind of the\nbeholder--these were the characteristic excellences of those grand old\ntemples to which the apostle compares Christians in our text.\n\nThey too are temples in the harmony and proportion of that character which\nthe Holy Ghost builds up within them. Christian character is symmetrical.\nLike a stately temple, it combines many parts. Faith, love, humility,\npatience, meekness, hope, endurance, forgiveness, courage, zeal--all these\nare the materials which constitute the spiritual edifice. But distinct as\nthey are, they together make one consistent character.\n\nThis harmony of the Christian graces is one of the best tests to\ndistinguish true piety from its counterfeits. The want of this is\nsingularly apparent in the bigot or the enthusiast. Such persons generally\nexhibit a disproportioned, unbalanced character. A few virtues stand out\nin unnatural prominence, while others seem wanting altogether. A few\nduties they will perform with the utmost punctiliousness, while others\nequally essential they never think of. Religion with them becomes\nidentified with some favorite dogma or ism, and tends in that direction to\na monstrous development. This distortion of character, this fungus growth\nin one direction and utter barrenness in others, evinces a want of grace\naltogether. Such persons are not temples framed by the Holy Ghost. Rather\nare they like rude, unsightly structures reared by some unskilful hands.\nRemember, if you are a Christian, you must exhibit the work of religion in\nyour _whole_ character. You cannot cultivate one grace at the expense of\nanother. You cannot be all faith and no love; all humility and no\nself-denial; all zeal and no charity. It is not in that way the Holy\nSpirit works. The different parts of the spiritual edifice, says Paul, are\n\"fitly framed together,\" and \"grow unto a holy temple in the Lord.\"\n\n4. Another peculiarity of the temples was, that they were _the property of\nthe deity_ to whom they were dedicated. No private individual owned them.\nNeither kings nor emperors nor the state were their proprietors; but they\nwere regarded as belonging solely to the gods in whose honor they were\nbuilt.\n\nAnd how true is this of Christians, those spiritual temples which God has\nin the world. The apostle, speaking of the whole church of God, says, He\nhas purchased it with his own blood. And to believers individually he\nsays, \"And ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price.\" \"None of\nus liveth to himself, and none of us dieth to himself; whether we live\ntherefore, or die, we are the Lord's.\" A better title in the universe\ncannot be found than that which Christ has to Christians. He has bought\nthem, ransomed them, redeemed them. They are his absolutely. He is the\nsole proprietor of these temples. No one else owns them. They do not own\nthemselves. This is your position, my Christian friend. What you are and\nwhat you have about you belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. You owned his\nright to it all when you professed to be his disciple. Whatever demand is\nmade upon you for your time, your labor, or your property, by him or his\ncause, you are in duty bound cheerfully to pay. Ye are God's building; ye\nare God's temple; ye are not your own.\n\n5. The significancy of the figure employed in the text will further appear\nwhen we consider the _use_ to which a temple is devoted.\n\nA temple was regarded as the dwelling-place of a divinity. The pagan\ntemples had their sacred shrines, attended by priests or vestals, who\nclaimed to repeat the oracle uttered by the gods. In the true temple at\nJerusalem, Jehovah manifested his special presence, and the holy of holies\nwas his dwelling-place. The Christian therefore may well be called a\ntemple; for says the apostle, \"The Spirit of God dwelleth in you.\"\n\nThe hearts of many impenitent men are sometimes visited by God's Spirit,\nas is indicated by the sudden awakenings of conscience; but never is the\nSpirit said to dwell with them.\n\nChristians are truly temples, as they enjoy the presence of God's Spirit.\nThat presence is manifested not by oracular voices or ecstatic visions.\nFanaticism may recite the vagaries of the imagination, and call them new\nrevelations of the Spirit; it may be ever on the look-out for signs and\nomens, and boast that it can \"dream dreams;\" but such manifestations are\nno proof of the indwelling of God's Spirit.\n\nIt is not in this way the Bible teaches us that the Spirit of God dwelleth\nin us; but it points us to the fruits of the Spirit, which are far\ndifferent. He shows his indwelling by enlightening the believer into the\ntruth. He reveals the things of God to us. He quickens faith in us, and\nprompts to duty. He fills the soul with peace and joy, by showing us the\npromises of God's word, and pointing to their certain fulfilment. He\nguards us against temptation, by quickening us to prayer. He guides us in\nduty, by pressing upon the conscience the precepts and commands of Christ.\nIn this way does the Holy Spirit give evidence of his presence. In this\nway he dwells in believers. There may be seasons when the Christian loses\nthe consciousness of His presence; but He has not departed: even in his\nbackslidings, the Spirit does not forsake him, for the temple where He has\ndwelt he leaves not to desolation.\n\nAgain, the Christian soul is a consecrated temple, a holy place.\n\nEven the pagan temples were consecrated places. They were employed for\nsuch rites and observances as were supposed to be acceptable to the deity\nwhich dwelt in them. Some of their festivals were scenes of revolting\nlicentiousness, it is true; but they were not displeasing to the divinity\nthey honored, for those divinities themselves were as polluted as their\nworshippers. Their temples and shrines were as pure as the gods whose name\nthey bore.\n\nThe temple of Jehovah, at Jerusalem, was most holy, for Jehovah is the God\nof holiness. Holiness was enstamped on every stone. \"Holiness unto the\nLord\" was written upon its every apartment. No unclean thing was allowed\nto cross its sacred threshold. No profane hand was allowed to touch its\nconsecrated vessels. That sacred temple, inhabited by the God of infinite\npurity, in whose sight the heavens are not clean--that sacred temple whose\ninner shrine none dare approach but the mitred priest in robes of sanctity\nand with sacrificial blood, and he but once a year--that temple is a\nsymbol of a true Christian soul--a consecrated, holy soul. This attribute,\nholiness, is the strong point of comparison. \"For the temple of God is\nholy,\" says the apostle, \"which temple ye are.\" Not that the believer\nattains to immaculate purity in this life, for the New Testament teaches\nno such doctrine of Christian perfection; but he is holy in that he is a\nconsecrated one, devoted to God's service. Indwelling sin may manifest\nitself, imperfections may trouble him, but his mind and will are against\nthem. He does not seek them. He does not go out to drag any polluted thing\nwithin the temple. No, he hates their presence; he longs and prays to be\nfree from sin. Whatever imperfections are within him are the remains of\nformer corruptions, and grace is overcoming them.\n\nWe must bear in mind that this spiritual temple is not new in its material\nparts. It is an old, ruined, dilapidated temple, rebuilt, repaired,\ncleansed, and reinhabited. The devil, who before held it, has been\nbanished. The Holy Ghost has taken possession, and set it apart for God.\nYet some vestiges of its old state linger here and there for a time; the\ndivine Architect has not yet finished it. When it is done, it will be pure\nas heaven, and shine in the beauty of holiness for ever and ever. The work\nis going on.\n\nThe Christian is no longer a sinner, courting sin; he is set apart for a\nsacred use; he is taken away from the service of sin; the world has no\nright to him; he has no right to go after it. Oh it is not every use you\ncan put a Christian to, for he is devoted to the service of God; he is\ncalled into holiness; he is washed and sanctified.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAnd now, in the review of our subject, let us walk about these living\ntemples and notice their most prominent peculiarities, that we may see\nwhat manner of persons we ought to be in all holy conversation and\ndoctrine.\n\nAs temples, they are costly edifices, bought with the blood of Jesus\nChrist. They are enduring, built to stand the temptations of time, to\nsurvive the wreck and conflagration of the last day. They are beautiful in\ntheir proportions, with no heavenly grace left out, and no foul\ndeformities suffered to remain. They belong to God. They are not their\nown. They are God's building. They are the dwelling-places of God's\nSpirit. They are holy: washed, sanctified, and consecrated to God's\nservice.\n\nSuch is the picture of God's people which the apostle holds up before us\nwhen he says, \"Ye are the temple of God.\" I confess it is a bold and\nhighly-drawn picture; but it was the pencil of inspiration, and not mine,\nwhich drew it. The soul of every true saint is that temple. It has a holy\nof holies where God's Spirit dwells. The world, the flesh, and the devil\nhave been cast out. It has an altar on which the sacrifice of thanksgiving\nis laid, a censer in which burns the incense of prayer, which rolls aloft\nto heaven, while the voice of praise and adoration echoes through its\narches and along its aisles.\n\nSublime and beautiful picture! Is it a fancy piece; or is it a reality? It\nis a reality. The apostle's soul was such a temple. There were such\ntemples in Corinth when he wrote this epistle--temples more grand and\nbeautiful than all the Corinthian columns and gilded domes which adorned\nthat city. Every true saint is such a temple. Every professor of religion\nclaims to be one.\n\nMy friend, take the picture home, and look at it. Study it well, and see\nif you can see yourself in it. Ah, you professing Christian, does your\nsoul look any thing like it? If indeed it be a temple, does it not become\nyou to watch its portals with untiring vigilance, lest pollution enter it?\nHave you kept the temple pure? Our text calls you to serious\nself-examination. Go inside the temple, and look about. See if its walls\nbe not hung round with pictures of earthly idolatry. See whether pride and\nvanity and fashion have not built their altars within. See whether greedy\navarice has not set up the tables of the money-changers there, and\nwell-nigh turned the temple of the soul, which is God's house, into a\nhouse of merchandise. Listen whether there is heard there the tumult of\nangry passions, and the clamors of selfish and forbidden lusts.\n\nOh search the temple well, for God will search it soon. \"The Lord shall\nsuddenly come to his temple; but who may abide the day of his coming, and\nwho shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire, and\nlike fuller's soap.\"\n\nNone but the pure in heart, the sanctified in Christ Jesus, will endure\nthe trial. These shall stand the fires of the judgment-day, and shine in\nbliss and glory for ever in the city of God.\n\nBut not a few professed temple-builders will be confounded, and their work\nconsumed; for the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is.\n\n\n\n\nV.\n\nGod's Witnesses.\n\n    YE ARE MY WITNESSES. ISA. 43:10.\n\n\nThere is a sense in which all the works of God declare his glory, and\nbespeak his eternal power and godhead. But in the work of redemption\nthrough Jesus Christ his Son, he places his people in a peculiar position,\nand employs them in a special mission. They are surrounded with a world of\nungodliness and impenitence, and he has commissioned them to bear an\nauthoritative testimony in behalf of Him.\n\nAs professed believers, they stand before the world as those who are the\nsubjects of his grace, who have embraced and tried that religion which is\noffered to them in Christ Jesus. They claim to have actually received\nChrist, and to have submitted to his authority. God calls them his people;\nthey call themselves so. In them grace exhibits what it can do by what it\nis already doing.\n\nThey hold a peculiar relation to a godless world around them. God\nacknowledges them to be standing for him: \"Ye are my witnesses.\" They are\nbearing testimony in his behalf before the jury, consisting of the\nmultitude of unbelievers. They are credible witnesses. The world is\nwilling to listen to their evidence, and judge of the religion of Christ\nby what they say and do.\n\nThey represent the Saviour whose name they bear. They are speaking to the\nworld in all they say and do, wherever they go. They are always on the\nstand giving in their testimony. The ungodly world is listening to them,\nand taking down the evidence, and judging of Christ and of his religion by\nthe declarations which they make; and they have a right to do so.\n\nGod says of these professing Christians, \"Ye are my witnesses.\" And other\nmen say, We will hear you and take your testimony, and cross-examine you,\nand give our verdict from what you declare to us. Every Christian, by his\nvery profession of religion, puts himself in this solemn position, and\ninvites the scrutiny of the world. He cannot escape from it. He must\ntestify for God, and woe be to him if in his life and conversation he\nbelies his profession, and dishonors his Saviour's cause.\n\nGod has a testimony of himself in his written word. But this documentary\nevidence will not satisfy an unbelieving generation. Men want parol\nevidence to confirm it. They call for the living witness, and insist upon\nexamining him and hearing him give in his testimony. Professing Christians\nare such witnesses. And what they say in their lives and professions is\noften of far greater weight with the ungodly, than what is said by\ninspired evangelists and apostles. This living testimony of God's people\nis a kind of evidence which carries conviction with it. The Bible itself\npoints men to it, and tells them to decide by it upon the value of its own\nutterances. \"Ye are my witnesses,\" saith God. \"Ye are our epistle,\" says\nthe inspired apostle. The world will take knowledge of them that they have\nbeen with Jesus.\n\nAll parties concerned seem to agree upon the important position the\npeople of God occupy in this world. God expressly declares that they are\nhis witnesses. They say the same when they openly profess his name. They\ntake the stand before the jury of the world, and raise their hand to\nheaven and swear that they will testify for Christ. The world looks on,\nand says, We will hear the testimony, and judge of what religion is, and\nwhat is the genius and spirit of the gospel system of salvation by what we\nfind in them.\n\nThe case then seems fairly opened, and all parties understand the issue.\nLet us look further at the nature of the evidence.\n\n1. Believers are Christ's witnesses as to _the real value and efficacy_ of\nthat salvation which the gospel offers. As it is presented in God's word,\nit claims to be effectual in taking away the curse of sin, and in bringing\nthe sinner back to peace and reconciliation with God. It claims to quiet\nthe fears of a guilty conscience, to awaken a sense of pardon and good\nhope of eternal life, and to furnish, in the atonement and death of Jesus\nChrist the Saviour, all that the guilty soul needs for its justification\nand peace with God.\n\nBut does it do this? Can it really accomplish in the soul of a sinner this\nwhich it claims to do? Does it ever actually produce such a change of\nfeeling, awaken such hopes, restore such peace, as it tells about? On this\nsubject, believers are important witnesses. They profess to have tried the\nefficacy of these representations in their own experience. They tell the\nungodly they have found this sense of pardon, have felt this peace, have\nrejoiced in those hopes which the gospel speaks of. They have come to\nChrist as the atoning sacrifice, and he has proved himself to be to them\nall he claimed to be.\n\nThe work of grace in the hearts of Christians is such, that they can tell\nsinners what it is. They declare it in their songs of praise, their\nthanksgivings and prayers, and earnest love to their Redeemer.\n\n2. Professing Christians are witnesses to the world as to what that\n_standard of morality_ is, which the precepts of the gospel require of its\nfollowers. They profess to live according to that standard. They have\ntaken the commands of Christ to be their rule of duty, and they virtually\ntell others to judge of what the religion of Jesus Christ requires, by the\nway they live and act. They have undertaken to give a practical exhibition\nof what is the meaning of those Bible directions which comprise the sum of\nreligious duty. The question with them is not what the world thinks to be\nright or wrong, not what public opinion approves or disapproves; but what\ndoes Christ command. This is their rule of duty; this is what they profess\nto live by. And the world understand it so. They therefore take what they\nfind in Christians' lives and conduct to be what religion consists in.\nThey care not to search for the letter of the precept in the Scriptures,\nso long as they have the living witness before them, who says he is\nshowing it to them every day.\n\nChristians are such witnesses. They may well tremble at their position.\nBut they have placed themselves in it. They have undertaken to be\nwitnesses for Christ. Oh, it becomes them to be careful what they are\nsaying. It becomes them to inquire what idea the world gets of Christ and\nhis religion, from the way they carry themselves among their neighbors.\n\nEvery one knows that example is more powerful than precept. Every\nprofessing Christian's example directly involves in it the honor of\nChrist, and the welfare of his cause. It is competent evidence, and the\nworld takes it. That professor who lives in violation of Christ's\ncommands, and by his example approves what the religion of the gospel\nforbids, is a perjured witness on the stand, and gives a false testimony.\n\nThat Christians are thus expounders of the gospel, witnesses as to what\nare the duties it enjoins, and what constitutes practical religion, none\ncan deny. The impenitent take them to be such. Whatever Christians do,\nthey say must be right. Whatever the church practices and countenances, is\na sufficient justification for them in doing the same. Whatever is done in\nthe green tree, can certainly be done in the dry.\n\nIf God's people can travel and visit on the Sabbath, or engage in\npromiscuous dancing and card-playing in the nightly assemblies of\namusement and frivolity, or resort to the gamester's arts to make money\nfor Christ, surely such practices cannot be wrong for others; for\nChristians would not do wrong, nor deny their principles. The world reason\nin this way, and they reason well. The logic is good, and cannot be\nrefuted. They have a right to take notice of Christians as God's\nwitnesses, and to infer that whatever they do is consistent with the\nmorality of the New Testament.\n\n3. Christians are witnesses to the world as to what are the _sacrifices\nand self-denials_ which the religion of Christ requires of its disciples.\nThat the gospel does make these a condition of discipleship is plain to\nevery mind. Whosoever doth not \"deny himself, and take up his cross,\"\ncannot be my disciple. Again and again are Christians said to sacrifice\nall for Christ, and to be crucified to the world. Now what these Scripture\nrepresentations mean may be learned by the practical lives of God's\npeople, for they profess to be living such lives of self-denial, to deny\nungodliness and worldly lust, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly\nin this present world. In them the impenitent find what religion\nprohibits; how it separates its follower from the world; how it lays its\ncross upon him, and calls upon him to bear reproach and shame and wrong\nand persecution for Christ's sake. Such a testimony Christians are bound\nto give; and blessed be God, they have been able to give it in all ages of\nthe world. For,\n\nThey are God's witnesses in their _endurance of suffering_ for Christ.\nEven when laid aside from the active, stirring duties of life, and passing\nthrough seasons of sore trial, they are still in the service of Christ,\nand giving to the world a most valuable testimony of the sustaining and\ncomforting power of his religion. Witness-bearers they are still, when\nthey endure with a cheerful patience the wearisome nights which are\nappointed to them, and in the midst of disease and the sinkings of nature\ncan tell to all around them of a peace which passeth all understanding, of\na joy and hope which are undimmed by all the distress of the present\nhour. Who can measure the influence which the religion of Christ has\ngained in the world through this kind of testimony?--a testimony which the\nwitnesses have given in when their eyes were suffused with tears, and\nearthly misfortunes pressed sore upon them--a testimony plaintively\nwhispered in the dark midnight of affliction, from the couches of\nlanguishing, the chambers of bereavement, and the graves of the lost and\nthe loved. It many a time seems that the Christian's usefulness is gone,\nwhen he is no longer able to sing in the sanctuary and engage in active\nlabors for Christ; but it is often far otherwise. Though life's scenes be\nchanged, he is bearing witness still; and through months of infirmity and\nsuffering is telling the world what Christ can do to cheer and comfort\nwhen all other comfort is gone. \"Ye are still my witnesses,\" says the\nRedeemer to his people, \"even when I chasten you sorely; and through your\ntestimony the world shall know of my power to save and comfort.\"\n\nBut though all the sufferings of God's people are made to testify of the\npower of His grace, special significance attaches to those which are\nendured directly for Christ, which arise from the hatred and persecution\nof the world. Of those who, in past ages, have sealed their testimony with\ntheir blood, who in the dungeon, at the stake, and on the scaffold have\nowned Christ and defied the rage of their tormentors--of such emphatically\nChrist says, \"Ye are my witnesses.\" The very word martyr signifies a\nwitness, in the Greek language.\n\nAnd the testimony of such as have suffered and died for Jesus has carried\nwith it a power which none can measure. It has forced conviction on the\nminds of the bitterest enemies of the cross, and taught the world how a\nbeliever can triumph over suffering, and conquer death. Though nowadays\nbut little of this kind of testimony is heard, except what is echoed down\nfrom past centuries of the church's conflicts, still believers are bound\nto testify many times against the scoffs and opposition of the ungodly.\nTheir lives and example must, even now, frequently speak out boldly\nagainst the prevailing iniquity, and testify in the face of scorn and\nloss and bitter opposition. But it is a good confession when you stand up\nfor Christ, and meet the buffetings of the world for it. For every stripe\nyou receive there seems to come an echo from the upper throne, most\ncheering, \"Ye are my witnesses.\"\n\nWe have thus endeavored to show the position which Christians occupy in\nthe world as witnesses for God. They testify to men what the religion of\nthe gospel actually means, what it is, and what it can do for sinners.\nThey tell to a doubting world that it is a reality. They have tested it in\ntheir experience; have tried its hopes and promises, and tasted its saving\npower. The ignorant and unbelieving world can go to them and ask\nquestions, examine them, and demand to know all about the cross, and the\nwhole system of salvation which centres there.\n\nThese witnesses are speaking all the time. Their lives are voiceful\neverywhere. In the family, and in the church; in the marts of business,\nand the intercourse of social life; in the days of sunshine and\nprosperity, and the nights of gloom and sorrow, the world is listening to\nwhat they say, and canvassing their evidence. Their testimony is long and\nfull. It is either for or against their Master.\n\nChrist Jesus is willing that his religion shall be tried by the lives of\nhis disciples. What other system will bear to be put to such a test? Did\nscepticism ever proclaim its triumphs thus? Did the philosophic infidelity\nof the last century dare to boast of France redeemed from superstition\nunder the reign of terror, and point to Danton, Mirabeau, Robespierre, and\nthe heroes of the guillotine, and say, These are my witnesses? Would Paine\nand Bolingbroke ever think of summoning from the foul attics and purlieus\nof vice and degradation their begrimed followers, educated in their\ntenets, and proclaim to the world, Behold, these are our witnesses? Does\nUniversalism ever muster its motley crew from the dram-shops, the gambling\nhells, and the brothels, and parade them before the public gaze to testify\nwhat it can do for man's moral welfare and restoration? No. Every system\nof falsehood and error shrinks from the ordeal, and would hide its\ndisciples from observation, rather than stand them up before the world,\nsaying, These are my witnesses.\n\nBut Christianity dares to do what no other system dares. God has written\nhis great scheme of salvation on the page of revelation. But while a\ndoubting, unbelieving world is slow to study and receive it, he sets his\npeople boldly up before them, and challenges them to read in their lives\nand doings what his religion can accomplish. Look here, he bids an ungodly\nworld, and judge what the cross can do. Trace the influence of the gospel\nupon these who have accepted it, and tried it, and hear what they are\nsaying of its power and grace; for they are my witnesses, saith the Lord.\n\nSuch is the Christian's attitude before the world: testifying every hour,\nspeaking through all his life for Christ. Oh what a blessed, an exalted\nprivilege! Oh what an awful responsibility! Every member of the church is\nin this position; every professing Christian is testifying. And,\nfellow-witnesses, what is the testimony we are giving? Are any disposed\nto shrink back from the position? Are any conscious that their lives do\nnot read well for Christ? There is no escaping from the responsibility. Ye\nwho have made a profession of Christ before the world are committed. Ye\nhave taken the witness-stand, and the world is hearing you. Professing\nChristians, the voice of God Almighty says, \"Ye are my witnesses,\" and\nthere is no escape for you. You have spoken; you have got to speak. You\nmay seal up your lips, but your very silence speaks. \"Ye are my\nwitnesses.\"\n\nHear it, ye professors, when ye go out into the world of ungodliness; when\nye stand in the market-place for gain, and deal with a world of\ncovetousness and greed; when ye seek for pleasure and preferment: \"Ye are\nmy witnesses.\" Hear it when tempted to step aside and hold your religion\nin abeyance for a season, that you may join hands with the careless and\nthe vain: \"Ye are my witnesses.\" Ye cannot drop your vocation; ye cannot\nstop the testimony. Go where you will, it follows you. Was your hoarse\nlaugh heard in the saloon, among the fast young men whose eyes were red\nover the wine-cup? Were ye seen in the companies of fashion and\ndissipation, whirling in the dance, rattling the dice, or bending over the\ncard-table? Have ye forsaken the services of devotion, the sanctuary, and\nthe prayer-meeting, for the society of open worldliness and ungodliness?\nYe have not done testifying yet. God Almighty's voice follows you, and\nrings in your ears, \"Ye are my witnesses.\" Your testimony may have been\ndishonoring to God; it may have been damaging to the cause of Christ; but\nGod claims you as his witnesses, and will settle with you when he comes to\nreview the testimony at the judgment-day. And your false, treacherous\nsouls, blackened with the damning guilt of a life-long perjury, will meet\na doom which will make the hell of lesser sinners, when compared with it,\nseem almost a heaven.\n\n\n\n\nVI.\n\nChristians Shining.\n\n    LET YOUR LIGHT SO SHINE BEFORE MEN, THAT THEY MAY SEE YOUR GOOD WORKS,\n    AND GLORIFY YOUR FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN. MATT. 5:16.\n\n\nThe people of God are the light of the world--luminous bodies, shining\namid the moral darkness around them.\n\nTwo kinds of bodies, in the physical world, are mediums of light. Those\nwhich are in their very substance luminous, as the sun, the fixed stars,\nor a burning lamp. These shine by virtue of their own properties. Their\nlight is inherent and underived. Another class of bodies shine only by\nreflected light. Opaque in their nature, they send back only those rays\nwhich are sent upon them. Such are the moon, the planets and their\nsatellites--luminous only upon the surface, but dark within.\n\nIn a certain degree, Christians resemble this latter class of bodies; but\nnot altogether. The light they possess is indeed a derived light, and not\nself-originated. They are by nature dark and rayless; but the light which\nhas shone upon them penetrates beyond the surface, and makes the very\ninner soul luminous with its radiance. It generates light: it transforms\nthem into living light-bearers. They not only reflect the beams which fall\nupon the surface, but send forth from within new rays of moral brightness.\n\"God,\" says the apostle, \"who commanded the light to shine out of\ndarkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of\nthe glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.\"\n\nChristians, then, are not mere reflectors, luminous only on the surface;\nbut they radiate light from their own inner being. This light is owing to\nthe illuminating power of the Holy Spirit, awakening, converting, and\nsanctifying them. By that power they are made in the image of Christ, and\nsaved. Such is the light they possess--a light enkindled within them, and\nreflected from them.\n\nOur Saviour teaches, in the text, that this light which they have _must\nshine through their practical lives and conduct_. \"Let your light so shine\nbefore men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father\nwhich is in heaven.\" It is the very nature of light to shine. Christians\nshine through their holy lives. Their good works are the rays which they\nemit. The world sees them, and judges of them. In all they say and do for\nGod, in the spirit which they manifest, and the example they exhibit, they\nscatter light around them. Other men see it.\n\nThe tendency of this is to prompt others to glorify God the Father--\"that\nthey, seeing your good works, may glorify your Father which is in heaven.\"\nThis too must be the motive to prompt Christians to diligence in good\nworks. It is not to exalt themselves, but to honor God. Not to establish a\nground of merit in the sight of God, not to build up a righteousness of\ntheir own, do they strive for a holy life, but to glorify God. Not to\nshine and bedazzle others by the splendor of their virtue; but to shed\naround them that light which they have received, to reflect the beams\nwhich have illuminated them, and thereby lead others to praise and glorify\nGod for his wondrous work of grace in them.\n\nHence we derive the proposition that God's people, redeemed by the blood\nof Christ, and regenerated by the Holy Spirit, _are shining ones_,\nexhibiting the glory of God, beyond any other of his creatures or works.\n\nIn illustrating this proposition I remark, that God is revealed to us only\nthrough his works. \"No man hath seen God at any time.\" Purely spiritual in\nhis nature, and infinite in his perfections, we cannot know him, except\nthrough his works. How he is known to angels and the pure spirits of\nheaven, we cannot tell; but to us, the Lord is known by the operation of\nhis hands. His character and glory are reflected to us by his doings. Yet\nthe different works of God manifest to us his glory in different degrees,\naccording to their nature.\n\n1. His material creation exhibits to us his omnipotence, his wisdom,\nskill, and greatness. When we cast our eyes upward and view the boundless\nfields of immensity studded with suns and satellites, sweeping the\ntrackless territories of space with no discord or confusion, and then turn\nour eye earthward and survey the infinite variety of material objects\naround us, with properties varying endlessly, and yet all combined in one\nbeautiful and harmonious whole, our minds cannot resist the impression of\nthe might, the grandeur, the magnificence of Deity. Here we behold his\nglory as the great Architect, the omnipotent Creator.\n\n2. But when we advance from mere lifeless matter to his doings with\nliving, sentient creatures, who are capable of enjoyment and of suffering,\nthese exhibit his glory in a higher perfection than any material\nhandiwork; for here appears the goodness and benevolence of God, seen in\nthe constitution of these creatures for happiness, and the abundant means\nwhich he has provided for their well-being. In moulding and shaping the\nmaterial universe into an infinite variety of forms, God publishes his\nglory as a skilful and mighty builder; but when he comes to people these\nmaterial worlds with sentient creatures, and displays an adaptation of all\nto promote their enjoyment, then does the Deity rise far above the place\nof a mere architectural designer, and proclaim his kindness and his love.\nThe irrational creation, from the summer insect which sports out its\nbrief existence in the sunbeams, to the flocks and herds which range the\nvalleys clothed with verdure, all unite their testimony that God is good,\nand his tender mercies are over all his works.\n\nAscend now a step higher. Follow up the scale of being from mere sentient,\nirrational creatures, to moral, responsible intelligences. Here is\nreflected a new class of the Creator's attributes. Here there shines a\nglory which the whole material universe never could reveal. In creating\nand dealing with moral agents, endowed with reason and moral sense, the\nAlmighty manifests the truth, the justice, and the holiness of his\ncharacter. These glorious perfections of God rise infinitely above his\nmere natural attributes; and they require creatures endowed with a moral\nnature, and under a moral government, in order to their manifestation. God\nmight build worlds upon worlds, and deck them with far more gorgeous\nsplendors than are flung over this one we live on; but were they unpeopled\nby any rational intelligences, they could publish nothing of God's glory,\nexcept that he was a builder of mighty power and skill. This is what\nNature, in her works, declares of God. But when God calls into being his\nmoral creation, he advances far beyond the position of a mere architect,\nan almighty builder, to that of a moral governor; and in the unfoldings of\nhis character we discover what we never could see elsewhere, the beauty of\nholiness, the majesty of justice, the excellency of truth.\n\nThese lofty perfections of the divine nature are reflected in His dealings\nwith moral beings, and nowhere else. In rewarding holiness, and punishing\ntransgression, Jehovah exhibits the transcendent purity of his own being.\nHoly angels in their raptures, and fallen angels in their woes, reflect\nthe moral glory of the Godhead. In dealing with them, God publishes to the\nuniverse his supreme regard for his holy law, and that \"righteousness and\njudgment are the habitation of his throne.\"\n\nIs there any higher glory than this possible? Are there any perfections of\nGod back of these which wait to be revealed; any grander purposes and\nmovements of the divine mind which can enhance the lustre of his\ncharacter, and add to the splendor of that \"light, inaccessible, and full\nof glory,\" which surrounds his dwelling-place? Yes, there are.\n\nIt is in his relations and dealings with _redeemed men_, in saving\nsinners, and restoring them from a fallen, ruined state, to holiness and\nbliss. Here is a new glory thrown around his character, a new theatre of\naction. Here the divine mind grapples with the great problem of moral\nevil, and proposes to save the sinner without compromising His truth and\nholiness. Here the perfections of love and mercy, compassion and\nforbearance, favor to the wretched, grace to the undeserving, all break\nforth.\n\nThese perfections of God's nature could never have been known to his\nintelligent universe without a plan of salvation for sinners. The angels\nin the realms of holiness never could have called them into exercise. Much\nas God might delight to reward and bless them, he could not show aught of\ncompassion or grace to them, for there could be no possible room for God\nto exercise any such dispositions towards such beings. Mercy can be\nexercised only towards the wretched, grace only to the unworthy,\nlong-suffering and forbearance only towards the guilty; but in the case of\nholy beings, God can find nothing to forgive, nothing to bear with,\nnothing to develop the riches of his grace.\n\nWe see then, how redeemed sinners exhibit the glory of God in a strange\nand peculiar light. When God moves to save them, he displays a new class\nof perfections, which never could be known except as they are here\nmanifested. Every Christian is a living epistle, publishing something of\nGod which the intelligent universe can read nowhere else. Every Christian\ndeclares that God is a God of infinite grace and mercy, long-suffering and\nforgiving; a God full of compassion and love. He is a living witness to\nthese perfections, for he is a guilty creature rescued from sin and hell.\nIn him God displays precisely those traits of his character which awaken\nthe profoundest admiration of his creatures, which attract them towards\nhim, which enkindle love. Indeed we may say that, were it not for the\nplan of salvation for sinners, there would exist in the divine nature a\nclass of perfections of which his creatures must be for ever ignorant.\n\nBut this plan lifts the veil, and bids us behold the infinite heart of\nGod. The Christian is the being in whom God displays these excellences; he\nis the trophy of grace; he reflects the glory of the Godhead beyond any\nthing seen in all other creatures. None but he can testify of Jehovah's\nboundless grace and compassion, of the triumph of infinite wisdom and love\nin baffling the arts of Satan, and rescuing a lost sinner from hell and\nfitting him for heaven. This work is the climax of Jehovah's undertakings,\nand the Bible plainly teaches that to angelic minds there are no\noperations of the Godhead, throughout his vast dominions, which can\ncompare with this in interest and in glory.\n\nAgain, as has been already remarked, Christians are not mere reflectors of\nGod's glory; but there is a light beaming from within them which _makes\nthem luminous_, for they are made to resemble Christ in their character;\nthey are created anew in the image of Christ; they are begotten of him,\nand are said to \"put on the Lord Jesus Christ.\" All true Christians do\nthus resemble, at least in some degree, the Saviour.\n\nBut Christ is the grandest manifestation of the Godhead ever made to\ncreatures. He was \"the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express\nimage of his person.\" No other display of the Godhead can be compared with\nthat of the Word made flesh. And surely it must follow that creatures who\nresemble him must reflect, in the highest degree, the glory of God. Angels\nmay be perfect in holiness, but their character does not present the same\nmoral aspect as that of Christians who have been saved and sanctified.\nBoth will be holy; but in the character of a perfectly sanctified\nChristian there will appear many things which an angel never can exhibit.\nIt will resemble that of Christ more than that of Gabriel, and in so doing\nwill manifest the glory of God as it shone in the face of Jesus Christ.\n\nTo what an honorable and exalted position does the Bible advance the\nChristian! Set in the firmament of intelligent beings, he shines with a\npeculiar light, like a star whose beams emit a peculiar halo, and whose\ntwinkling disc wears a brighter effulgence than its fellows. \"The heavens\ndeclare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork.\" Angels\nreflect that glory in a higher degree; but sinners raised from guilt and\nruin, and made sons of God, furnish the grandest exhibition of the divine\nperfections ever made. Such is the relation Christians sustain to God and\nto other intelligences--they are reflectors of God's glory.\n\nBut when I read my text I learn that they are not mere passive reflectors.\nThey are to give light not merely as polished mirrors hung in the\nsunbeams; they are to shine from within, as well as on the surface. There\nmust be a settled aim and purpose to scatter light about them. \"Let your\nlight so shine,\" says Christ. The word \"_so_\" here implies that you have a\ndeep responsibility as to the kind of light you give, and the effect\nproduced by it. It is a light which must be made to shine through your\ngood works, your holy lives. And those works must be prosecuted in such a\nway that men shall be led by them to \"glorify your Father which is in\nheaven.\" Here is the great law of Christian activity: that all you do\nshall be done in a way which shall tell for the glory of God. Christian\nfriend, here is the governing principle of your life. It requires you to\nact with reference to the good of others. It bids you keep ever in view\nthe influence of your conduct upon those around you. 'Tis a high, a noble\nprinciple--the glory of God. 'Tis an unselfish principle, which will\nenable you to display to the world all the graces of a holy life without\npride or ostentation, and so to walk that men will give God the glory of\nany good they find in you.\n\nAh, we fear it is a principle too often wanting, even with those who\nprofess to be God's people. Many have no objection to let their light\nshine while they can be appreciated; many are willing that others shall\nsee their good works, and glorify themselves for them; many will devote\ntheir time and labor to the cause of Christ so long as they can have the\npre\u0106\u00abminence, and impress others with the idea of their own importance.\nTheir light will shine, but shine only to let the world see their own\nperfections, and pay homage to their sanctity.\n\nBut far different from this is the spirit of a Christian's service. It is\nnot self, but God who must have all the glory. Let it _so_ shine, says\nChrist, that it shall lead all who see it to render God the glory. Let\nungodly men learn from your holy lives the reality and excellency of that\nsalvation which you have tasted. Let the light of your example shine so\nthat they too shall be led to seek the same divine illumination. Let all\nyour works point them to that Redeemer who has called you out of darkness,\nand prompt them to seek him as their own. Thus will they glorify your\nFather which is in heaven.\n\nSuch is the spirit of the Saviour's words before us, and the practical\ninquiry for us all is, How do our lives correspond with this spirit?\n\nFirst of all, have we really any light to shed around us? A mere\nprofession is worthless as an empty lamp. Have our hearts been illuminated\nby divine grace? Has the darkness of guilt and ignorance and error been\nscattered there; and have we tasted the sweets of pardon, peace, and\nsanctification?\n\nDepend upon it, we can give no light to others without first having our\nown hearts illuminated by the Holy Spirit. A mere profession of religion,\nunaccompanied by the active virtues of piety, will give no light. Let us\nthen look closely within, and ask, Have we any light of grace ourselves?\nAnd in connection with this, and following it, will come the inquiry, What\ngood are we doing to the world by it? Oh, my brethren, the Saviour bids us\nlook around us upon our fellow-men and ask, What has all our religion\namounted to? What have we accomplished for God's glory? How much light\nhave we scattered? Whom have we enlightened and saved through our\nChristian influence? What souls have we led to repentance and belief in\nJesus Christ? Has our light shone to any purpose? Have we been the\ninstruments of instructing and saving others? Inquiries like these must\ncome up, for God's people are the light of the world, and their mission is\nto reflect his glory as no seraph even can do it. It therefore follows\nthat the question of your influence upon the world around has vitally to\ndo with the question whether you are a child of God at all; for if there\nis no light radiating from your life, there is none in you. If your light\ndoes not shine, it is because you have none; wherever it exists in the\nsoul it must shine out.\n\nEvery Christian has a positive influence for good. All do not shine with\nequal power and brilliancy, but they shine. Some scatter their rays far\nand wide, and become the moral lights of their generation, and some only\nglimmer like a feeble taper; but even the taper gives light to some, and\nso every Christian must shed rays of light upon some soul.\n\nChristian friends, where are those rays falling from your lives and\nconversation? Whose way do they enlighten? Do your children see them? And\nhave you, by the lustre of your Christian example, led a single soul to\nChrist? Oh look well to the influence you are exerting. Beware lest your\nprofession be in vain; for \"if the light that is in you be darkness, how\ngreat is that darkness!\"\n\n\n\n\nVII.\n\nThe Raven and the Dove.\n\n    AND IT CAME TO PASS AT THE END OF FORTY DAYS, THAT NOAH OPENED THE\n    WINDOW OF THE ARK WHICH HE HAD MADE: AND HE SENT FORTH A RAVEN, WHICH\n    WENT FORTH TO AND FRO, UNTIL THE WATERS WERE DRIED UP FROM OFF THE\n    EARTH. ALSO HE SENT FORTH A DOVE FROM HIM, TO SEE IF THE WATERS WERE\n    ABATED FROM OFF THE FACE OF THE GROUND. BUT THE DOVE FOUND NO REST FOR\n    THE SOLE OF HER FOOT, AND SHE RETURNED UNTO HIM INTO THE ARK; FOR THE\n    WATERS WERE ON THE FACE OF THE WHOLE EARTH. GENESIS 8:6-9.\n\n\nThe narrative which contains these words introduces us to one of the\ndarkest and most desolate periods in the history of our world. Rapid and\nappalling had been the progress of human degeneracy. Religion and virtue\nhad well-nigh become extinct, and all flesh had corrupted its way on the\nearth. The good men of the antediluvian age were dead, while but one of\nthe hoary patriarchs was left to bear witness for Jehovah before a\nGod-despising generation, and to perpetuate the succession of the faithful\nin the world. It was time for God to work, for men had made void his law.\nThe vast population of this globe was swept away by a deluge of\nwaters--that most awful visitation of divine vengeance, the evidences of\nwhich are to this day found, and the traditions of which are preserved\namong the primitive nations of every continent.\n\nRighteous Noah and his household were alone preserved by special divine\ninterposition. Forewarned of God, he prepared an ark for the saving of\nhimself and his family, which in due time was freighted with the remnant\nof the human race and pairs of the various tribes of the irrational\ncreation, and floated upon the wide waste of waters, beneath which lay\nburied all the monuments of an apostate and heaven-daring generation.\n\nForty long days were numbered after the flood began to abate, and still\nthe huge ark floated on the boundless deep, and the patriarch's heart grew\nanxious about the future. With a trembling hand he opened the window of\nthe ark, and sent forth the raven to seek for some tidings of a buried\nworld; but the bird came not back. Though the waters were dark and the\ndesolation unbroken, still she returned not to the friendly shelter which\nhad so long protected her, but chose to allay the cravings of hunger, and\nlive amid the wrecks and ruins which drifted to and fro upon the broad\nabyss. Days again pass slowly away. Another messenger is dispatched to\nseek for tidings. The dove leaves the window of the ark, and spreads her\npinions and soars away over the wild expanse; but the unpropitious skies\nare overhead, the green fields and shady woodlands are gone; no\nnourishment is found amid the shattered fragments, and no objects of\ndelight are seen across the dreary wastes. The raven may perch upon the\ndrifting offal, and screech out its hoarse notes amid the awful solitudes;\nbut the timorous dove, finding no rest for the sole of her foot, hastens\nher flight back to the patriarch, and nestles securely in the friendly\nark.\n\nThere are materials for profitable reflection in this simple story. Let us\ncondescend to learn lessons of true wisdom from the raven and the dove.\n\n1. In the solitary ark floating securely on the flood you may discover no\nunfit emblem of that _only spiritual refuge_ which God has provided for\nour ruined race in the person and work of his Son Jesus Christ. The\nfearful apostasy of our first parent drove our race out upon an ocean of\ngloom and of peril. The special presence and favor of the Almighty was\nwithdrawn, though his providential care over us as his creatures remained.\nBut purposes of mercy were yet cherished in the divine mind, and the plan\nof salvation was revealed through Jesus Christ.\n\nHere alone, in Christ, God manifests to us his gracious presence. Nowhere\nelse in all the departments of his works does he admit us to his\nfellowship, or speak to us of his mercy. Take away from the world the\nspecial manifestation of God in Christ, and there is no way left for man\nto hold any communion with his Maker, no pledge of mercy or grace to him,\nno hope of security and happiness in the favor of his Sovereign. Man is\nleft to drift on the dark billows of sin without a ray of deliverance, and\nwithout a single speck floating upon the wide expanse to tell him that he\nis not utterly abandoned to destruction.\n\nBut never has our world presented such an aspect of hopeless desolation.\nEven in the awful catastrophe of the deluge, when continents and isles\nwith their teeming population were buried deep in the abyss of waters, and\nthe sunbeams glistened only upon the boundless sea--then, when this\nrolling orb, which on the day of its creation looked fair and beauteous\namong the morning stars, had been transformed into a wandering beacon of\nalmighty wrath--there was left one memento of lingering mercy, one\nsolitary testimonial that Jehovah's presence and favor were not clean gone\nfor ever; for the ark floated upon the face of the waters. Terrible as was\nthe spectacle which the deluged globe presented of God's vengeance, still\nthe storm-proof ark which sheltered the patriarch proclaimed the precious\ntruth that there was one spot left where God appeared in mercy, one place\nof refuge and security for those who would embrace it, one point where\nhope gleamed over the future, and where God delighted to be gracious.\n\nThe ark was the symbol of that more glorious Ark of safety provided for\nlost men in the salvation of Jesus Christ. Out of Christ the world is dark\nand stormy, and God is a consuming fire. On the tempestuous ocean of guilt\nwe are tossed to and fro, and no bright isles of innocence lift their\nheads along the horizon and invite us to their secure retreats. The\nsalvation scheme of Jesus Christ is the only refuge. Here alone God is\nseen hovering over the waters, and speaking of reconciliation and\nfellowship. Nowhere else has he offered to us a shelter; but to this\nGod-provided Ark we are bidden to flee for refuge, which is amply\nfurnished against every emergency, and which will safely bear us up\nthrough the floods of temptation and the billows of death, and finally\nbring us to the haven of rest beyond the grave.\n\nTo its sacred enclosure we are invited, as the last spot where the soul\ncan find its reconciled God. Outside the elements are raging, the night of\nguilt is brooding, the thunders of Sinai are muttering, and the\ndun-colored sky is lurid with the flashes of impending wrath; within is\nthe presence of God, the assurance of peace, and the hope of heaven. Over\nthe wastes of a fallen and sin-ruined world appears the salvation of Jesus\nChrist like the ark of the patriarch riding out the storms of the deluge.\nHere God is dwelling with men. Here is rest to the storm-driven soul. Here\nits guilt and alienation are put away from it, and it no longer lives\nwithout God and without hope. We have then discovered, in the ark which\nGod directed Noah to build for the saving of himself and his family, a\ntype of Christ and his salvation.\n\nLet me now ask you to advance a step, and contemplate in the raven and the\ndove a representation of _two opposite descriptions of human character_.\nThe one, that which finds no enjoyment in the presence and favor of\nChrist, and sees and feels no necessity for the provisions of salvation\nwhich are made in him; the other, that which is ever turning from the\nsupports of this world and its delusive promises to seek its refuge and\nits resting-place in the presence of Christ and the favor of God, which\nflies to the hope set before it in the gospel, and nestles securely in the\nbosom of the Saviour. These two characters are the ungodly and the\nChristian--the children of this world and the children of God--differing\nin their tastes and habits and conduct from each other as the raven\ndiffers from the dove.\n\nThe ark where God and the patriarch dwelt together was no welcome retreat\nfor the raven. Though it had saved the wild bird from inevitable\ndestruction, and for many a weary day had carried it safely above the\nangry flood, still in the society which it afforded or the associations\nwhich it furnished there was naught that was congenial to its untamed\nnature; but preferring to roam unprotected, even amid solitude and gloom,\nit instinctively seized upon the first opportunity to escape what was\nindeed its friendly asylum, but which appeared to it only a prison-house.\nOn the threshold of the open window the raven flapped its wings and soared\naway. Farewell to the ark, screamed the wild bird in the air, while the\ngood old patriarch stood for a moment to watch its flight.\n\nThough the scene without was one of unbounded desolation, where the storm\nclouds revelled and the fierce winds blew and dashed the dark-crested\nwaves madly against the sky; though the fields where it once fed, and the\ntall trees where it was wont to build its nest were buried many a fathom\ndeep beneath the floods, and all that was once fair and beautiful on earth\nwas gone, still the bird of storm turned not homeward to the quiet ark;\nstill in vain the patriarch opened again and again the window, and leaned\nupon the casement long and anxiously, to look out for the absent\nmessenger. The bird would not come back. The sun goes down in clouds, and\nnight settles slowly on the deep, but no return. The cravings of hunger\nare felt, but the carnivorous rover despises the well-stored granaries of\nthe ark, and makes its evening meal out of the carcasses that drift upon\nthe waters. Perched upon some floating ruin, it croaks out its hoarse\nrequiem over the sepulchres of the unnumbered dead, and sleeps without a\ndream of the far-off ark.\n\nLook yonder at that RAVEN, and behold an emblem of lost and straying man\nwithout God in the world. No truth is more universally certain, than that\nman's real happiness and welfare is to be sought only in the smile and\nfavor of his God. The more the human soul is brought into unison with its\nMaker--the nearer it advances to Deity--the more immediately it feels the\npresence of God and draws its supplies from him, the more sure is its\npresent peace and its future bliss. It was once happy in this condition.\nAdam and God were friends. The primary effect of sin has ever been to\nseparate man from God. The example of our first parents in hiding\nthemselves among the trees of the garden, from the voice of the Lord, is\nan example which has been imitated by all the generations of their\ndescendants. But the intervening distance between us and God has been\nsurmounted by the Mediator. The fearful chasm has been spanned, and God\nnow draws nigh unto us in the gospel of his Son, and invites us to draw\nnigh to him. Here, in the plan of salvation, he bids us accept of his\ngrace. Here is the ark of safety, where no thunderbolts of his wrath will\nstrike us, but where we may rest securely from the storms of the present\nlife, and the retributions of the coming one. Here we are told to flee\nfor refuge and hope. And once sheltered in this ark of salvation, we may\nhave God our friend, and Jesus our Saviour. An open door is set before us,\nand the invitation given, \"Come thou and all thy house into the ark.\"\n\nBut carnal man prefers to roam. Tossed upon the troubled waters of life,\nwhere all is danger and uncertainty, he still persists in neglecting the\ngreat salvation, and like the raven, flies to and fro in search of\nhappiness and safety. Life, to men without God, is but a chartless ocean,\nover which they course their way amid floating wrecks and ruins, vainly\nbent on satisfying the soul. High on the waters rides the ark of mercy,\nand the voice of God is heard inviting them to enter. But though the skies\nof life are so changing, and its waters so dark and troubled, that they\nofttimes feel the need of better resources, still they look not to the\ngospel, but toil and fly from one to another quarter, crying, Who will\nshow us any good? They want nothing to do with God. They care not for his\nfavor. They prefer to live as far away as possible, and seek all their\nsupport amid the resources of the world.\n\nLook at the sceptic, who, giving himself over to the dominion of\ninfidelity, would blot out eternity from the future, and would repudiate\nthe very being and the presence of the Almighty. As he travels through\nlife away from God, and with no hope for the future; as immortality is to\nhim a blank, and the world naught but chaos over which destiny and chance\npreside, and death is an eternal night, to what shall we liken him, but to\nthe raven, far off from home, flapping its wings in the empty air where\nevery thing that once breathed was dead, and where all was silence,\ndesolation, and gloom.\n\nWatch the men that toil for the riches of this world, who day by day ply\ntheir exhausting labors, and nightly dream of treasure heaps and gold,\nwhile God is put far from their every thought, and the gospel is\nneglected, and eternity thrust away from them, and the soul is left to\nglean its only comforts amid the perishable and fading possessions of\nearth, like the wandering bird scouring the unbroken main, and seeking\nits abiding place among the floating wrecks of ruined palaces of bygone\nsplendor.\n\nOr what shall we say of those who banish from their minds the thoughts of\nGod, and live only in the round of sensual indulgences, prostituting their\nevery faculty to the service of the basest appetites, and giving an\nunbridled rein to sensual propensities? Where shall we find their\nprototype, but in the bird of prey that loved to breathe the putrid air,\nand gorge its appetite upon the carcasses which the waves washed up.\n\nIn short, differ as men may in their individual tastes and habits, there\nis this one prominent characteristic belonging to them all--an utter\nestrangement from God and Christ: an estrangement so inveterate, that all\nthe trials and afflictions and disappointments of life are insufficient to\nbring them to seek security in him. Like the wandering raven, they fly\nfrom one to another refuge; \"but none saith, Where is God my Maker, that\ngiveth songs in the night?\"\n\nWe turn now to consider the opposite description of character which is\nsymbolized by the dove, which found no rest for the sole of her foot, and\nhastened back to the ark.\n\nIt is the Christian who has been brought near to God, and lives in the\nenjoyment of his presence. Once, like the raven, he loved to wander, and\nwith the ungodly around him, he careered his way without God, and chased\nto and fro the vanities of this world. But by the regenerating grace of\nGod, he is changed into a man of another spirit. The alienation and\ndistance between him and God have been overcome, and he now finds his\nhappiness in the felt presence and communion of that God from whom he has\nso long turned away.\n\n'Tis the peculiar characteristic of the Christian, that he seeks, in the\nfavor and presence of God, those delights which the ungodly strive for in\nvain among the objects of the world. He differs from them in his tastes\nand pursuits. He seeks in one direction, they in another. The current of\nhis desires is so changed, that he feels estranged where they are most at\nhome. What they most value he cares but little for. The company they\ndelight in, he has no real sympathy with. He sits not in the seat of the\nscorners, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth\nhe meditate day and night.\n\nHe may engage in the pursuits of secular life; he may be seen in the\nplaces of business and toil and enterprise, and bear a share in the rough\nstruggle of the outdoor world; yet his chief pleasure is not found amid\nthe cares of business and the schemes of profit, but in the fellowship of\nGod and in the duties of devotion. Here his soul abides in peace. The\nservice of Christ is congenial to his spiritual nature. His better\nthoughts ever dwell upon the unseen and eternal. Business and care may\ncrowd upon him through the day; but he turns his footsteps homeward when\nthe sun goes down, and like the dove returning to the ark, he seeks\ncommunion with God in the meditations of the closet. It is to him a\nwelcome exchange to leave the bustling companionship of the world for the\nsociety of the Saviour. While the ungodly revel amid their tumultuous\ngayeties, he finds in the retirement of his devotions those joys that a\nstranger intermeddleth not with, and feels that as the hart panteth after\nthe water brook, so panteth his soul after God. While temptations thicken\naround him, and strange voices are calling to him and bidding him wander\nfurther and further away, he still finds his only security in the presence\nof the Saviour, and flies to him like the dove to the arms of the\npatriarch.\n\nGod is his refuge too in the season of affliction and trial. Sometimes the\nworld grows doubly dark, and crosses and disappointments overwhelm his\nsoul; but the dove knows where to turn when the storm rages, and he flies\nfor support and consolation to the presence of the Redeemer. In the time\nof trouble God will hide him in his pavilion, in the secret of his\ntabernacle will he hide him, till these calamities be overpast. It is the\nprevailing desire of the Christian to seek after God. Afflictions,\ncrosses, and disappointments all drive him there. Like the dove wandering\nwith weary wing over the dark abyss, he finds no rest for the sole of his\nfoot till he betakes himself to the hiding-place of Jesus, and reflects\nhow, ere long, the rough billows of life will be passed, and he shall be\nsafely moored in the calm haven of eternity.\n\nPause here a moment, and reflect upon the radical difference between a\ntrue Christian and a worldling. The one is brought nigh unto God; the\nother is without God in the world. In the prevailing bent and purpose of\ntheir lives they are opposites. Their dispositions lead them in contrary\ndirections. The providential dealings of God with them produce widely\ndifferent results. The same storms of affliction which drive the\nChristian, like the dove, homeward to his refuge, ofttimes tempt the\nungodly to fly, like the raven, further and further from the Ark of\nsafety. \"The wicked will not seek after God.\"\n\nThese are the two great classes of human character which the Bible\neverywhere distinguishes. To one or the other class we all belong. We may\nmultiply our distinctions between men as we please, and assign to one and\nanother his relative position in the scale of human excellence; but at the\nlast there will remain but one broad line of separation between those who\nwalk with God, and those who know him not. Tried by this test, where shall\nwe be found? When the last storm of death shall gather, and the world be\nswept away from us, shall we be borne in the Ark of safety to the Ararat\nmountains of the heavenly land, and rest beneath the effulgent bow of the\nRedeemer's glory; or shall we be driven out upon the shoreless waters of\nan eternity where the storms never cease their fury, and where the\nblackness of darkness for ever broods?\n\nThis momentous question of our future state is being settled by our\npresent character. Are you living now in the fellowship and favor of God?\nWe are told of the patriarch who rode out the deluge, that through the\nlong previous years he \"walked with God.\" Is such the temper of your soul?\nAre you at home with Christ? Is God the portion of your spirit, and do you\nlove the consciousness of his presence, and do you fly to him for aid? Can\nyou live here within his covenant, and conform to his requirements, and\nlay hold upon his promises? Can you count all things but loss for him, and\ngive up the world with its pleasures and its charms for the society and\nthe service of the Lord Jesus? Or do you prefer to live a stranger to\nChrist, and a worldling in your desires and habits, without a shelter,\nthough eternity must be to you a state of exile from all the holy and\nhappy family of God?\n\n\n\n\nVIII.\n\nThe Rainbow.\n\n    I DO SET MY BOW IN THE CLOUD, AND IT SHALL BE FOR A TOKEN OF A\n    COVENANT BETWEEN ME AND THE EARTH. AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS, WHEN I\n    BRING A CLOUD OVER THE EARTH, THAT THE BOW SHALL BE SEEN IN THE CLOUD.\n    GEN. 9:13, 14.\n\n\nThe old world is gone. Its teeming population has been swept away by the\nbesom of Jehovah's wrath. The earth has been purified by the terrible\nbaptism of water, and refitted to be the dwelling-place of new\ngenerations. Noah and his family are its sole inheritors. The human race\nare starting anew as it were, in a new world.\n\nThe Almighty signalized this grand era in the world's history by a special\nmanifestation of himself to Noah, the chief representative of the future\ngenerations. He entered into covenant with him; he gave him a new grant of\neminent domain, formally installed him as the rightful possessor of the\nearth, and bade him repeople it and rule it.\n\nMost cheering must have been such tokens of favor and regard from the\nAlmighty to that lone, solitary family as they looked over an empty,\ndesolate world.\n\nAlthough they were saved, yet an air of deep sadness and melancholy must\nhave rested upon every thing around them. The recollection of those awful\nscenes through which they had passed must have haunted their thoughts, and\ntroubled their slumbers with frightful dreams. What if the sun shone again\nin beauty? What though their children should multiply, and they should\nagain build cities, and repeople its desolate territories? Would not the\nstorm clouds gather again, and the race be swept to destruction by similar\nsuccessive judgments? Ah, would they not look up with terror every time\nthe heavens grew dark, and fear lest the world should be drowned whenever\nthe rain descended?\n\nTo allay all such apprehensions, while he commissioned them to repossess\nthe earth, Jehovah assured the patriarch that the deluge would never be\nrepeated. He kindly condescended to enter into covenant with Noah, that\nhe and his posterity need have no fears of a second deluge; and promised\nthat he would never do what he had done, and drown the world. The text\ndeclares to us what was the outward sign or token of this covenant: \"I do\nset my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between\nme and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the\nearth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud.\"\n\nThe idea that the rainbow was something more than a mere natural\nphenomenon, that it was a pledge or token of something which God had\npromised to men, is preserved among the traditions of many heathen\nnations. Homer distinctly speaks of it in a remarkable passage in the\nIliad, where he describes the glittering armor of Agamemnon as reflecting\nvarious lights, like colored rainbows--\n\n                    \"Jove's wondrous bow,\n  Placed, as a sign to man, amid the skies.\"\n\nBefore considering the spiritual significance of this symbol, the inquiry\nnaturally arises, Was the rainbow a new phenomenon in the natural world,\nseen for the first time after the deluge; or had it been a familiar sight\nto the antediluvians ever since the creation, and only selected by God and\npointed out to Noah as a memorial of His promise made to him?\n\nThe man of science may presume to decide this question very easily by\nshowing that the rainbow is no supernatural phenomenon, but is explained\non the simplest principles of natural philosophy; that it is produced by\nthe refraction of the sun's rays through drops of water falling from the\nclouds, and is always seen when the sun and the clouds come into a certain\nrelative position to the beholder; and therefore, that through the\ncenturies previous to the deluge, mankind must many a time have witnessed\nthe same beautiful arch spanning the heavens, and wondered at its\nvariegated splendors.\n\nBut there are other considerations which have inclined learned and\nprofound scholars to the opinion that the rainbow, for the first time\nmentioned in the text, was indeed new to Noah and his family, and that the\ngenerations of men before the flood never gazed upon such a sight.\n\nWe confess a strong bias to this latter view. It lends peculiar interest\nand significancy to this token. It is the sign of the promise that God\nwill not again drown the world. Clouds may gather, storms rage, torrents\nroar, but their fury shall be stayed; and on the spent and receding clouds\nshall be hung the sun-lit bow, and from every tint and hue of its gorgeous\ndrapery shall come whisperings of assurance to mortals who gaze upon it,\nthat mercy triumphs over judgment.\n\n\"I will set my bow in the cloud,\" says Jehovah. There, in the midst of the\nvery elements which have caused alarm; there, where the lightnings flashed\nand the thunders pealed, and wrath and darkness gloamed overhead, there\nwill I write my covenant in lines of beauty, and you and your posterity\nshall read it and rejoice.\n\nBut we need not stop with interpreting this symbol as a pledge against a\nmere physical overthrow of the world by water.\n\nWe seek for a deeper spiritual significance in it. Although in its primary\napplication it was a sign of God's covenant with Noah, it leads our minds\nforward to a more perfect covenant, a covenant of grace, in which are\ncontained the promises of God which shield his people from all spiritual\nevils which threaten them.\n\nThe import of the rainbow in its spiritual signification is worthy of\nspecial notice. We do not explain it so generally as some who regard it as\na symbol of God's willingness to receive men into favor again, or that it\nonly indicates the Almighty's faithfulness in fulfilling his promises. We\ninterpret it more specially as a symbol of divine protection to God's\npeople from imminent and threatening dangers--that protection pledged in\nthe covenant of grace in Christ Jesus to those who have fled for refuge to\nhim. Such seems to be the idea conveyed by it in the vision of Ezekiel,\nwhere he speaks of what he saw over the throne above the heavens \"as the\nappearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain.\" A similar\nsight was enjoyed by John in Patmos, where in vision he beheld the throne\nin heaven: \"And there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like\nunto an emerald.\"\n\nThese references to the rainbow justify us in interpreting it as a symbol\nof grace returning after judgments; a pledge of God's promise to stay the\ncourse of vengeance, to limit threatening evils that they shall not\ndestroy, to arrest impending dangers, and succor his people when they are\nmost exposed to destruction.\n\nThe bow in the cloud then is not a mere sign of God's fidelity to his\npromises in general, but a particular token of his grace nigh at hand in\nemergencies, a sign for the hour of trouble and distress and alarm, a\ntoken of grace--not when the sky is clear, but when the heavens frown,\nwhen fear comes to the soul and it looks anxiously round for help. As a\nphysical phenomenon it had this significancy. God set it in the cloud. It\nwas brought forth only in the darkened heavens. It was nursed and cradled\nin the storm.\n\nWhen therefore, at summer's sunset, I gaze upon the beautiful iris arching\nthe eastern horizon and resting on its dark background of clouds, my\nthoughts go out beyond the covenant of Noah to a richer covenant of\ngrace, and I read in its gorgeous colorings a pledge of those provisions\nagainst spiritual dangers made in the mediatorial work of Jesus Christ.\nWhile the physical eye is delighted with the beauteous spectacle in the\nlower heavens, faith soars upward and sees around the throne of the\nAlmighty's glory a brighter bow set there through the mediation of the\nincarnate Son. It is the pledge and token of grace to sinners. It is the\nsign of the covenant of redemption.\n\nWhen, upon the apostasy of man, the heavens gathered blackness and the\nclouds of divine wrath swept overhead, portending a deluge of divine\njustice; when the guilt of our transgressions left us with no covering\nfrom the eternal storm, the eternal God placed himself between us and\nhell, and by his own sacrifice upon the cross drew upon himself those\nmagazines of vengeance. The divine law was satisfied in his atonement; the\nclouds broke and scattered around the Almighty's throne. Light streamed\nathwart the gloom, and the Sun of righteousness, with healing in his\nbeams, threw out its rays upon the retiring storm, and arched the clouds\nof justice with the brilliant bow of peace and reconciliation. Every\nrainbow painted in the natural heavens points us to what Christ has done\nin the spiritual world. The physical eyeball sees the one, faith gazes\nupon the other. Both are associated with the idea of danger, both bespeak\nsecurity and deliverance.\n\nYou perceive then the spiritual lesson conveyed to us by the rainbow in\nthe clouds. It tells of God's covenant of grace with his people, and the\npromises under that covenant of safety in the midst of fears.\n\nHow adapted is this lesson to the condition of believers in their present\nstate. Oh, what could faith do without the bow in this stormy, troubled\nworld? How many are the clouds which darken the believer's way! But God\nhas set his bow in every one of them--his pledge of deliverance and\nsupport.\n\nSometimes the dark cloud of his own transgressions settles terribly upon\nthe Christian's soul. The convictions of his heinous guilt almost drive\nhim to despair. He asks himself, How can mercy reach so vile a sinner?\nhow can such iniquity as mine be pardoned? Vainly does he look within\nhimself for any thing to hope for. Ashamed and speechless, he has no\nsatisfaction for the law's demands. That law condemns him, conscience\ncondemns him; but faith discovers deliverance in the atonement of the Lord\nJesus. The covenant breaks upon his soul--his Saviour has died for him.\nHis guilt is fully atoned for; and there is the bow of the covenant\npromises lighting up the cloud. \"I will set my bow in the cloud,\" says\nGod, and when Sinai thunders in the soul I will arch its summit with the\niris from the cross.\n\nAgain, how do the clouds of temptation sometimes thicken over the\nChristian's way--temptations from within and without. And what\ndiscouragements press upon him from the rising corruptions of his heart\nand the onsets of the world. How often does he groan under his own\nweakness, and ask, Can such a one ever get through to heaven? But lo, in\nthe covenant there are promises exactly meet for his condition, that he\nshall be held up to the end; and faith discovers bows in all these\nclouds, which whisper to him of final triumph.\n\nIn those clouds of temporal disappointment which frequently overshadow\nhim, marked by the failure of business enterprises, want of success in one\nand another undertaking, and which doom him to the lot of toil and\npoverty--in those clouds which stamp the seal of failure upon his mere\nearthly life, God sets his bow to comfort all his people. It is the\npromised inheritance of heaven; the recompense of the reward--the\ntreasures which wax not old. Here is the Christian's comfort under the\nreverses of earthly fortune, and the clouds soften and break while faith\ngazes upon the bow above them.\n\nWhen life's blackest clouds gather, in the forms of bereavement and death,\nthere are promises enough in the covenant to gild them all. \"It shall come\nto pass when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in\nthe cloud.\" This is God's covenant promise to his people. And would you\nknow how faithfully he keeps it, contemplate the experience of God's true\npeople in trials, when the world was dim with shadows. Call to mind your\nown experience, faithful one. Did you not find treasured in the promises\nof grace such comforts as you never knew before--a power in prayer, a\ndrawing near to Christ, a witness of the Spirit--all producing a peace and\nresignation which kept you from despair?\n\nIn all this discipline of trials, God reveals his resources to his people;\nand in the abundant consolations provided for them, and which Christian\nfaith appropriates, in the strength given in trials, in the clear shining\nof the promises athwart the clouds of adversity, they discover the\nbeautiful significancy and the actual fulfilment of Jehovah's pledge and\ntoken to the patriarch, that he would set his bow in the cloud, and when\nhe should bring a cloud over the earth, the bow should be seen in the\ncloud.\n\nHave you, my friend, a vital interest in that covenant of grace, which\narches life's stormiest days with the bow of peace, and contains the\npledge of salvation in the future life? These blessings are _covenant_\nblessings. They come not to us naturally, as a matter of course. They are\nsecured only by a special stipulation--an arrangement which God has made\nthrough Jesus Christ, as a Saviour and a Mediator. They belong to us only\nby faith in Him who purchased them. Have you accepted the conditions of\ngrace: repented, sought forgiveness, given your heart to God, solemnly\nembraced the covenant? Only by so doing can you enjoy the benefits. Only\nby resting under the everlasting covenant can you look up and see the bow.\n\nAh, you may stubbornly persist in impenitence, but you will find dark days\nere long. Ere life be through, the skies will grow dark and troubled.\nClouds of divine wrath will hang overhead. Clouds black as those which\ngloomed on Sinai's summit, will marshal their fearful elements, and fill\nyou with alarm. Persist in impenitence, and you will hear naught from them\nbut thunder-voices of a violated law, and see naught but vivid flashes of\nretributive justice. No promises of deliverance fringe their edges with a\nthread of silver light; no sunshine of hope breaks between them to\nscatter them; no bright bow of safety spans the firmament, and publishes\nJehovah's pledge of reconciliation. Outside the covenant they are clouds\nof wrath, portending an eternal deluge of fiery indignation which shall\ndevour the adversaries of God. Fly then for refuge; fly to the shelter of\nthe covenant. Come to Christ Jesus for salvation. Come before the storm\nbreaks in fury. Come where you can stand and see the bow when life's\ntempests sweep; when the heavens are dark; when the night of death\nsettles.\n\n\n\n\nIX.\n\nThe Smoking Furnace and Burning Lamp.\n\n    AND IT CAME TO PASS, THAT WHEN THE SUN WENT DOWN, AND IT WAS DARK,\n    BEHOLD A SMOKING FURNACE, AND A BURNING LAMP THAT PASSED BETWEEN THOSE\n    PIECES. GEN. 15:17.\n\n\nThe scene here described between Jehovah and the patriarch is one of awful\nand mysterious interest. Long ago, when he came out of Ur of the Chaldees,\nGod promised blessings to Abram and his posterity. But as yet there were\nno signs of the fulfilment. Many years had since rolled by, years of\nfluctuations and trials. The stirring events of the war of the four kings\nand the deliverance of Lot were brought to a close; and Abram had once\nmore retired to a quiet pastoral life, rich, honored, powerful among the\nsurrounding tribes.\n\nBut though he had grown great, there was one corroding care which preyed\nupon his heart. Ah, what condition of human life is there, which has not\nits secret sorrow? What house so bright as never to have a shadow across\nits hearth? Abram was treading along the vale of years, childless and a\nstranger. Eliezer of Damascus seemed likely to inherit his vast\npossessions.\n\nAt this period, when Abram's anxiety deepened, and hope began to grow\nimpatient, God appeared again to him in vision, and renewed his covenant\npromises. And in answer to the patriarch's request for some outward sign\nor ratification, the Most High directed him to slay a heifer, a she-goat,\nand a ram, and divide the parts, and set them the one over against the\nother, that one might pass between the parts.\n\nIn ancient times the ratification of covenants was attended by the most\nsolemn rites, in which the contracting parties participated. In the 34th\nchapter of Jeremiah there is an explicit reference to a ceremony like the\none here described: \"And I will give the men that have transgressed my\ncovenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they\nmade before me, when they cut the calf in twain and passed between the\nparts thereof--the princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the\neunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, which passed\nbetween the parts of the calf--I will even give them into the hand of\ntheir enemies.\" In these solemnities the contracting party or parties\npassed between the parts of the slain victim, in token of their full\nassent to the stipulations made, imprecating upon themselves a most bitter\ncurse if they should violate them. The ceremony was of the nature of a\nmost solemn oath.\n\nNor was it confined to the Israelitish nation alone, but similar rites\nwere observed among other people. In the third Book of the Iliad, Homer\ndescribes the solemn ratification of the covenant between the Greeks and\nthe Trojans, according to the terms of which Menelaus and Paris were to\ndetermine the great quarrel between them in single combat. Victims were\nslain, their heads distributed among the chiefs of the hostile parties,\ntheir palpitating limbs placed opposite to each other on the ground, while\nthe officiating priest uttered a prayer to Jupiter, accompanied by a most\nawful imprecation upon any one who should break the solemn oath. Livy\nalso, the Roman historian, records a like solemnity on the occasion when\nthe Roman and Alban nation agreed to settle their contest by the combat of\nthe three Horatii and the three Curiatii. Then too the Roman priest slew\nthe victim, and called Jupiter to witness their vows, and strike the\nviolator as he struck the victim.\n\nIn this fifteenth chapter of Genesis, the sacred writer describes a sacred\ninstitution, which Homer, a thousand years later, found among the Greeks;\nand the Roman historian, still later, records as in use among his\ncountrymen. The intent, or meaning of the solemnity, was evident. Abram\nwell understood it; for without any particular instruction recorded, he\nprepared the sacrifice.\n\nIt must have been a day of overwhelming interest to the patriarch. Early\nin the morning God directed him to make his preparations. He obeyed with\npromptness, and slew the animals, and arranged their parts upon the\nground. Having passed between them himself, thus acknowledging his\nobligations in the covenant, he sat down alone to wait for Jehovah to\nsignify his presence. What strange, unearthly thoughts revolved in his\nanxious mind! What a condition for a creature to be in--a lonely man\nwatching for God to come!\n\nThe day wore by; the sun was far down the west; the shadows were deepening\non the earth: the weary patriarch dropped his head upon his breast, and\nslept. A horror of great darkness fell upon him; and then came a vision\nand a voice, which revealed to him the future. When this had passed, night\nhad set in; and in the darkness the weary watcher waited, near the limbs\nof his slain victims, for Jehovah to reveal his presence and seal his\npromises, till at length, through the thickening gloom and spectral\nsilence, the Shechinah is discovered, moving in awful majesty near the\nsacrifice. A smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between those\npieces.\n\nAbram understood it all: God's visible presence was before him; Jehovah\nhad ratified his covenant; the deed was done. The patriarch was satisfied.\nHe had not been imposed upon by his fancy; he had not been deceived by\nsome _ignis fatuus_. It was Jehovah's presence he had looked upon; it was\nJehovah's own doings, making his covenant sure to him.\n\nYet all he saw was a smoking furnace and a burning lamp pass between the\npieces. He heard no voice; he saw no living personal form: but that\nappearance before him was Jehovah's sign. He doubted not a moment; he\nasked for nothing more. It is evident that the manner in which God\nsignified his presence on this occasion had a peculiar significance in it,\nthat there was a peculiar fitness in the form which he assumed--_a smoking\nfurnace and a burning lamp_--rather than some other visible form.\n\nWe believe that these signs indicated not only that Jehovah was there, but\nwho that Jehovah was. They exhibit God as _hiding, and yet revealing_\nhimself. The smoking furnace, dimly visible, and followed by the burning\nlamp, presents the side which the Almighty turns towards us, marked by\n_obscurity, and light_. The Most High is known, and yet unknown; revealed\nto us, and yet concealed.\n\nAnd we believe that a correct view of God, as exhibited to us in his word\nand providence, will correspond with the view which the patriarch had of\nhim in the loneliness and darkness of that night, when He sealed His\ncovenant with him.\n\nWe hold that in the goings forth of his providential government for\nthousands of years, and in the utterance of his word, there are the same\ntraces of light and obscurity, of concealment and illumination, which were\nsymbolized to Abram; and the same God who passed between the pieces of his\nsacrifice under the form of a smoking furnace and a burning lamp, is still\npassing before us all in a like manner.\n\nSuch is the Almighty whenever he turns himself towards us. And while I\ngaze with the patriarch upon the awful solemnities of that hour, that\nsmoking furnace and burning lamp seem to move, not only across that spot,\nbut over the ages and the world, and indicate the presence and the doings\nof God in all the conduct of his government.\n\nTurn first to the _written revelation_ which he has made to us through\nprophet and evangelist. In the very first promise made to man after the\nfall, so dim yet cheering, did he not pass before Adam much as he did\nbefore the patriarch? In that promise of the seed of the woman bruising\nthe serpent's head, so vague, so indefinite and obscure, there seems at\nfirst only the smoking furnace; but while we steadily look at it, it\nbrightens into a burning lamp, which beckons faith to look down the future\nand hope for deliverance from the curse.\n\nIn all that God has revealed of himself and his purposes in his word, he\npasses before us in mystery as well as light. He lifts the veil but a\nlittle way; he allows us to see but a part of his plans and doings.\n\nThe prophetic parts of the Old Testament Scriptures illustrate this\nblending of obscurity and light. The predictions of a coming Messiah were\nclear, and yet mysterious; so that the Jews failed utterly to interpret\nthem aright, or to recognize Him when He appeared as \"He of whom Moses and\nthe prophets did write.\" Those predictions now appear plain to us, for we\nstudy them in the clear light of their fulfilment.\n\nIn like manner, other prophecies of great events which have already been\naccomplished--as the Babylonish captivity, the overthrow of ancient cities\nand kingdoms, and the destruction of Jerusalem--now seem to us most\ngraphic and distinct, because history and facts have thrown their light\nupon them. But of those prophecies which yet await their fulfilment, how\ntrue is it that a veil of obscurity still rests upon them. How various and\nconflicting have been the theories of those who have anxiously studied\nthem. The restoration of the Jews, the destruction of antichrist, the\nsecond coming of Christ, the millennium reign--these and the like subjects\nhave taxed the ingenuity of the learned for ages. Yet all have failed to\nfind out the Almighty's specific programme, or to tell beforehand what\nshall be the exact fulfilment. The God of prophecy passes before us as a\nsmoking furnace, and a burning lamp.\n\nThe strictly doctrinal portions of God's word exhibit him to us in this\ntwofold attitude of obscurity and of light. Plainly enough has he revealed\nto us our duty. Clear and authoritative is his voice, speaking to us in\nthe Decalogue. The burning lamp shines clear and steady through all the\npreceptive deliverances of the Scriptures; but ah, the great questions and\nparadoxes which have perplexed the human soul in all ages, the unsolved\nproblems of natural religion over which thought has wearied and despaired,\nare left unanswered. How sin could be allowed to enter a moral system; the\nharmony of the divine foreknowledge with human freedom; the election of\ngrace; man's moral helplessness and responsibility--these and such like\nsubjects remain unexplained. Revelation does not attempt to lift the\nmysterious cloud which still hangs over them. Jehovah condescends to no\nexplanation of his doings; nor by a single word does he seek to vindicate\nthe infinite wisdom of his administration. Clouds and darkness are round\nabout him. With none of us does he take counsel. The great truths of\nrevelation reach beyond our grasp. We see but in part, and we know but in\npart. The gospel brings us near to God; but even there he covereth the\nface of his throne. The intermingling of obscurity and light which was\nsymbolized by the smoking furnace and the burning lamp, characterizes the\nentire field of the Almighty's revelations.\n\n2. God, as manifested in his _providential_ government, is properly\nexhibited to us in the imagery of the text. His ways are past finding out.\nWhen we contemplate the world at any particular period, we are lost in\nconfusion and perplexity. We feel assured that the Almighty governs; but\nhis purposes are hidden. Mankind seem scarcely to notice his presence.\nSeldom can we detect his controlling hand. It is only by extending our\nobservation over a wider field, and taking in the grand sweep of\nprovidence through successive generations, that we attain to the clear\nconceptions of his moral government. At first view, we see little of his\nmovements, and they are indefinite and obscured, like the dim smoking\nfurnace passing by us; but by a more patient and careful study we are\nenabled to discover that all the events which take place in the world are\nunder the Almighty's superintendence, and that, back of all the\nderangement and confusion of human affairs, there is an unseen but mighty\nhand bending the current of events, which by the interposition of checks\nand restraints and judgments makes the wrath of man to praise him.\n\nThus in the midst of all the darkness of providence, there is discoverable\na plan of infinite wisdom. And he who humbly and devoutly meditates upon\nthe progress of human events, detects the presence of the Almighty,\nofttimes indeed vaguely, like the feeble glimmerings of the smoking\nfurnace, but often distinctly and clearly, like the burning lamp. Thus\ndoes Jehovah, in his providence, move through the ages in much the same\nmanner as he appeared to the patriarch, when the furnace and the lamp\npassed between the pieces of his sacrifice.\n\nBut why need we range abroad? Why look far away? Who that devoutly studies\nthe ways of Providence towards himself, who that habitually contemplates\nwhat he has passed and is passing through, does not discover the Almighty\nwrapped in the same mysterious drapery which he wore when he appeared to\nAbram?\n\nYes; the smoking furnace and the burning lamp still pass before us, and\nshape our lives. How many times has God touched the hidden springs of\naction, and turned the current of our history! How often has he\nmysteriously hedged up our way, and disappointed us; made our surest\ncalculations fail, our favorite plans miscarry! How has he led us by a way\nwe knew not, and caused us to stand perplexed, bewildered, and alarmed at\nhis unlooked-for interpositions! What sudden calamities have befallen us;\nwhat sore chastisements have come upon us! How many times has God's face\nbeen hid in clouds! How often have we asked, What can his doings mean? Why\ndoes he scatter our possessions? Why is health prostrated, and we left to\nlanguish amid pains and sicknesses? Why did he let death make those little\ngraves in the churchyard, where our darlings are sleeping, who used to\nfill our homes with sunshine, and paint rainbows in the clouds of life's\npilgrimage? Oh how many times are we perplexed at the Almighty's doings!\nIn such seasons of disappointment and affliction, we think upon God and\nare troubled. He passes before us in the thick gloom and darkness of the\nnight of sorrow: about all we can see of him is a smoking furnace, with\nits smouldering embers, scarcely emitting from within a pale, faint,\nspectral gleam, while dim wreaths of clouds whirl and roll above it. God's\nways seem dark and impenetrable. Such are our first impressions.\n\nBut while we continue to gaze upon his doings, and follow out his\nprovidences to their conclusions; when, after Time with his soothing balm\nhas assuaged the first sharp pangs of our wounded hearts, we study\ncarefully the tendencies and results of God's dispensations with us, Oh\nhow often do the clouds break and scatter, and the deep mysteries of his\ndealings receive a new interpretation.\n\nHow many of our doubts and questions find an answer. How do future months\nand years vindicate the wisdom of those doings which we once thought could\nnot be vindicated. How do we afterwards see that when God took away some\nblessings which we dearly loved, it was to make room for greater ones to\ncome. When he stopped our way in some favorite pursuit of life, and\nbeckoned us against our will in another path, he saved us from ruin and\ndisasters which we were blind to. When he snatched our loved one away to\nheaven, he broke up the sinful idolatry which was ensnaring us, and called\nus heavenward too. When he dashed from our hand the cup of worldly\nprosperity we were pressing to our lips, it was because we were growing\ndelirious under its draughts.\n\nIt is thus, while we calmly trace through successive years God's doings,\nwe begin to see the furnace grow luminous, and close behind it the burning\nlamp lights up the Almighty's footsteps. We may not indeed comprehend the\nwhole. We cannot clear up all the mystery that surrounds him. But though\nthe furnace still continues to move and smoke before us, yet the lamp is\never going with it; and its cheering rays relieve the gloom, so that faith\nand hope can follow.\n\nSuch is the method of God's dealings with us all. He passes before us in\nmingled mystery and light. The longer we trace his doings, the clearer is\nthe light. A hasty, superficial study of his providence leaves us in\npainful gloom and doubt. But a patient and humble attention to his plans\nreveals much to relieve our fears and inspire in a Christian a steady,\ntrusting, joyous confidence.\n\nWe must never expect to arrive at a full and undimmed prospect here. We\nsee but in part. But ah, I think I can see something in the gradual\nunfoldings of God's providence, and in the steps the believer now passes\nthrough, which heralds a coming period when we shall see the whole. Even\nnow the shadows grow fainter the longer we gaze. A grey light streaks the\nfield of vision which was once in total darkness. Even now, when faith\nturns her eye out long and steady, night seems softening into morning. And\nfrom these phenomena I expect yet to see the whole. Even now, while I\nwatch year after year, the furnace smokes less and less, the lamp burns\nstronger, brighter. And a little way beyond me heaven waits to welcome\nme, where I shall see as I am seen, and know as I am known. Oh blessed\nhope!\n\nA little longer we follow where the furnace and the lamp lead the way; but\nwhen we arrive at yonder world the furnace will be left behind. No cloud\nand smoke there to obstruct our vision; but the lamp of fire alone\nremains. It is God's unvailed glory illuminating the realms of bliss. Oh,\nweary pilgrim, keep close to the furnace as it moves before you like the\npillar with which Jehovah led the twelve tribes in the desert, and it will\nguide you home. And then it will smoke no more; but the lamp of fire will\nnever go out, for in its exhaustless splendor you shall spend an eternity\nof joy.\n\nOur subject thus presented, furnishes materials for a few profitable\nreflections.\n\n1. In this blending of mystery and light which characterizes God's present\nmanifestations, he has in view the promotion of _his own glory_. For the\npure and unfallen inhabitants of heaven, it may be proper for him to\nunvail himself and his doings, and allow them to contemplate him in\ncloudless majesty; but when he turns himself to sinful creatures like us,\nit is becoming in him whom we have offended not to allow us to approach\ntoo near. A jealous reticence marks his revelations. His infinite glory\nand majesty impress our minds as deeply by what he hides from us, as by\nwhat he shows us. His silence is sometimes as awfully eloquent as his\nspeech. The dim, smoking furnace often conveys to us ideas of his\nincomprehensible might and majesty and greatness as deeply as does the\nburning lamp.\n\n2. The Most High has designed this obscure and mixed economy of his to be\na source of _moral discipline_ to us all.\n\nIt serves to check our arrogance and presumption, and promotes true\nhumility. It teaches us that he has ways that are past our finding out,\nand that all our boasted wisdom is folly when compared with his. It tells\nvain man that he cannot tread in the Almighty's footsteps, nor fathom his\ndeep designs.\n\nOur entire dependence too is thrust upon our convictions by this mode of\nthe Almighty's working. Often we are forced to feel that we cannot rely\nupon our own forecast and prudence. Our own will is not strong enough to\nshape events and make them subserve our wishes. God's unseen hand is ever\ninterfering, and reminding us that without his blessing we can do nothing.\n\nAnd how too is faith _tried and encouraged_ by this economy: _tried_ when\nall we can see of God, many times, is like a smoking furnace, dark and\nobscure, when reason asks and gets no answers; and anon encouraged, when\nthrough the mystery there shines the burning lamp.\n\nThis present life is the great school of Christian faith. Where reason's\neyesight fails, faith can see the way. It can see but in part, it is true,\nfor our earthly state answers well to the prophet Zechariah's description:\n\"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear\nnor dark. But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord: not\nday, nor night; but it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be\nlight.\"\n\nMoreover, how adapted is our subject to _cheer_ God's people and prompt\nthem to quiet, patient resignation under dark and afflictive providences.\nWhat if sometimes we can see nothing but the furnace smoking; we know that\nbehind it somewhere is the lamp of fire.\n\nHow too are we impressed with the truth that there is something left for\nus to learn _in heaven_, something yet unrevealed which we do not see, but\nwhich we hope for, which makes us reconciled to the thought of leaving\nthis dim, misty realm of time, and to wait in anxious expectation till the\nday break and the shadows flee away. Oh be content, Christian, a little\nlonger to walk by faith, for by and by the smoking furnace will have\npassed away for ever, and heaven will welcome you to its cloudless\nrevelations.\n\nLearn to walk humbly before that God who surrounds your path. See him in\nthe clearest form in which he has revealed himself, even in the incarnate\nSon our Saviour. Through him alone can we approach the Father. Through him\nalone can we hope to see his face, and obtain salvation and deliverance\nfrom his wrath.\n\n\n\n\nX.\n\nThe Altar of Incense.\n\n    AND THOU SHALT MAKE AN ALTAR TO BURN INCENSE UPON. AND THOU SHALT PUT\n    IT BEFORE THE VAIL THAT IS BY THE ARK OF THE TESTIMONY, BEFORE THE\n    MERCY-SEAT THAT IS OVER THE TESTIMONY, WHERE I WILL MEET WITH THEE.\n    EXOD. 30:1, 6.\n\n\nThe saying of Augustine, that in the Old Testament the New is hidden, and\nin the New Testament the Old is opened up, agrees with the teachings of\nPaul in the epistle to the Hebrews, which declare that the rites and\nceremonies of the Mosaic institute serve unto the example and shadows of\nheavenly things. This being so, the institutions of the ancient church of\nGod are not obsolete and meaningless to us. Although their literal\nobservance has ceased, still the profound and important truths of which\nthey were the symbols survive--truths which shine forth unveiled in the\nclearer revelation of the gospel. These ancient symbols claim our careful\nstudy still; for they are helps to faith now, and serve to illustrate and\nenforce those didactic truths of the New Testament which, through the\nfeebleness of our spiritual perceptions, often fail to impress us as they\nshould.\n\nOur attention is directed by the text to the altar of incense placed in\nthe tabernacle which Moses constructed under the immediate direction of\nGod.\n\nThe tabernacle was designed to be the local habitation of God, to bring\nhim near to his covenant people, and to keep up a direct intercourse\nbetween him and them.\n\nThrough it God condescended to help the natural weakness of the human\nmind. In dealing with divine and spiritual things, the soul universally\nfeels the need of help. It is lost in the infinity of God's nature. It\nlongs for some definite apprehension of him, some nearer fellowship than\nit can enjoy in the conception of the great unseen and distant Jehovah.\nThe pathetic desire of Job finds a deep response in every thoughtful soul:\n\"Oh that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his\nseat.\"\n\nThe gospel dispensation satisfies this craving for some visible link to\nconduct our thoughts to God, by exhibiting to us God manifest in the\nflesh--the divine Word dwelling among us. But before Christ came no such\naid appeared. God however gave to his ancient church the tabernacle, where\nhe would dwell; thus bringing distinctly to their minds his presence in\nthe midst of them. Here lies the spiritual significance of that sacred\nstructure. It was God's dwelling-place among the people. It brought God\nnear to them, holding converse with them, and approachable by them.\n\nThis sacred structure consisted of two distinct parts: the inner chamber,\ncalled the holy of holies, where Jehovah dwelt. There was the ark of the\ncovenant, upon which rested the mercy-seat, and over which hovered the two\ncherubim with extended wings. There the shechinah abode, the strange,\nunearthly sign of Jehovah's presence.\n\nThis hallowed apartment was hidden from the public gaze. No creature\nfootstep dared to cross its threshold, save the high-priest, and he but\nonce a year, on the great day of atonement. God indeed dwelt among his\npeople, but it was in awful, mysterious, solitary grandeur, which allowed\nno rude familiarity, no irreverent approach.\n\nThe second apartment of the tabernacle was called the holy place, where\nthe priests and Levites daily ministered; the furniture of which was the\naltar of incense, the table of show-bread, and the golden candlestick with\nits seven lamps. The vail separated this part from the holy of holies.\nHere the people appeared only by their representatives in the priestly\noffice.\n\nSurrounding the entire structure was the court, enclosed by curtains,\nwhere the Israelites assembled and brought their sacrificial offerings. In\nthis court stood the altar of burnt-offerings. Here was the spot where the\nblood of the bullocks and of rams was shed; where the altar fires blazed;\nwhere the robed and mitred priest gathered the blood with which he entered\nthe holy place. Here the penitents confessed their sins and sought for\npardon. Here the grand scene was enacted which proclaimed continually that\nwithout the shedding of blood there was no remission.\n\nBear in mind this description of the several parts of the tabernacle and\ntheir design, while we approach immediately to THE ALTAR OF INCENSE and\nstudy the deep spiritual significancy which surrounds it.\n\nObserve, that connected with this sacred structure there are but two\naltars.\n\nThe first one that confronts us when we would approach where God is, is\nthe \"altar of burnt-offerings,\" in the outer court. We gaze here upon the\nbloody sacrifices. Here are the touching scenes of suffering and death.\nHere are the types of the great atonement made in the passion and death of\nJesus Christ. Here we are taught that if we would attempt to reach God's\npresence, we must first of all come to the blood of Christ. We must stand\nby the altar of burnt-offering. We must find the Lamb slain from the\nfoundation of the world. There was no way into the holy of holies of the\ntabernacle but by that altar. There is now no way to God but through a\ndying Saviour.\n\nWithin and beyond this altar, in the holy place, stood the second altar,\nthe altar of incense. What was the spiritual significance of this altar?\nOn it no victims were slain, no blood was shed; but the priests daily\nburnt upon it incense, a preparation of pure frankincense and other sweet\nspices, which yielded a fragrant and refreshing odor.\n\nThe symbolical meaning of this incense-offering is plainly given us in the\nScriptures. It is not propitiation or atonement; that is made already in\nthe outer court; but it is the pure devotion of the saints--the prayers,\nintercessions, and worship of God's true people. Thus David says, in the\n141st Psalm, \"Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense, and the\nlifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.\" Here is a direct\nreference to the priests' burning incense on the altar every evening at\nthe time of sacrifice, when they entered the holy place to light the lamps\nof the golden candlestick.\n\nThe prophet Malachi also describes the pure worship of the universal\nchurch of God by the same symbol: \"For from the rising of the sun, even\nunto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the\nGentiles: and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a\npure offering; for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the\nLord of hosts.\" Again, in Luke 1:10, we read that when Zacharias the\npriest went into the temple to burn incense, the whole multitude of the\npeople were praying without at the time of incense; that is, while they\nstood in the outer court and worshipped, the incense was burning in the\nholy place before the vail. But more impressive still is the scene which\nJohn witnessed in his vision of the heavenly world: \"And another angel\ncame and stood at the altar, having a golden censer: and there was given\nunto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the\nsaints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of\nthe incense which came up with the prayers of the saints, ascended up\nbefore God out of the angel's hand.\" In chapter five he declares that the\ngolden vials full of odors are the prayers of saints.\n\nIn these Scripture passages we have a clear explanation of this altar of\nincense standing in the holy place. The offering made upon it is not of\nblood; it is the fragrant breath of flowers, the odor of beauteous plants,\nexhaling their sweet and ravishing perfume from their own inner life, and\nfilling the holy place with a refreshing vapor most delightful to the\nsense. This is God's chosen figure of the devotions and prayers of true\nbelieving hearts who approach near to him. These offerings of the heart\nare sweet to Jehovah as the balmy fragrance of choicest flowers. They are\nthe soul's exhalations, the breathings of its spiritual life, the fervent\naspirations of the renewed and sanctified spirit, as delightful to God as\nare the sweetest odors of the rarest plants and spices to the bodily\nsense.\n\nOh what a view do we get of God while we crowd around this incense altar.\nNow we can pray in earnest; now we can offer him our best and holiest\naffections; now we pour out our thanksgivings and confessions; for our\nworship rolls heavenward like the fragrant cloud of burning incense, and\nGod above is pleased to accept it and to bless it.\n\nBut let us be careful what we call worship. Let us not forget that the\nincense of our prayers and devotion derives its perfume directly from the\nintercession of Christ, who, as our high-priest, has gone into the holiest\nbefore us with his blood. Without a living faith in him, a vital union\nwith him, so that he intercedes not only _for_, but _in_ us by his Holy\nSpirit, we cannot stand before this altar.\n\nWe have no incense. If there be any excellency in our prayers, or purity\nin our devotions, to insure their acceptance, it is because of his Spirit\nmaking intercession for us. We burn our incense before the mercy-seat, and\nthe cloud rolls heavenward from the altar; but whatever fragrance it bears\nis derived from the cloud already there, the incense of the Saviour's\nintercession, with which it mingles and floats around the throne,\nbreathing sweet odors before Jehovah's face.\n\nWe are standing in the holy place. Let us examine well the incense we\npresume to offer, for says Jehovah, \"Ye shall offer no strange incense\nthereon, nor burnt-sacrifice, nor meat-offering: neither shall ye pour\ndrink-offering thereon.\" Special directions were given, and special care\nwas taken for the preparation of this incense of the tabernacle. It was\nassociated with the deepest sacredness. The people were forbidden to use\nit upon any common occasion; the priests alone could burn it upon the\naltar.\n\nIs it in the power of language to teach us more impressively than this\nincense-altar does, that we should come with the utmost care and\npreparation to present to God our prayers and worship? Think not that any\nthing and every thing you may bring as incense will be accepted. Vain will\nbe your lip-service; vain your cold, heartless offerings. Strange incense\nit is you profess to burn when the soul still harbors its evil passions,\nwhen pride and worldliness and sensuality are cherished there. There may\nbe the bowed head, and the bent knee, and the solemn utterance of\ndevotion; but God's immediate eye is on you, and will detect the emptiness\nof all your service. Such service is a profanation of the holy place. Such\nincense only provokes the Most High to anger. Beware lest the fire you\nkindle to burn it with break forth upon you and consume you, for says\nJehovah, \"Ye shall offer no strange incense\" upon my altar. What then must\nbe the state of our hearts in order that we may bring a pure offering of\nincense before God? What is necessary to acceptable prayer and worship?\n\nTo answer this, come once more by the altar and examine its position. It\nstands in the holy place of the tabernacle. To reach it the worshipper\nmust come through the outer court--must pass the altar of burnt-offering.\nThere he learns that there is no access to God except by blood. There he\nlearns of atonement through the sacrifice of Christ. There he stands as a\nsinner who needs an expiation. There he makes his confession, and lays his\nhand upon the head of the sacrificial victim. He can get to the\nincense-altar only after he has stood there and found a propitiation for\nhis sins.\n\nLearn then, that if you would assay to approach God, you must come first\nof all to the cross. You must find an atonement for your sins through the\nLamb of God. There is no other way of access to him but by faith in the\nblood of Jesus. Come first to Calvary, and gaze upon the great\npropitiation, the Victim dying amid the altar-fires of divine justice.\nCome as a sinner, for pardon and purification. Come with his blood\nsprinkled upon you, with faith in his merits only, or else you cannot gain\naccess to God.\n\n2. The altar of incense stood very near the holy of holies, the immediate\ndwelling-place of God. \"And thou shalt put it before the vail that is by\nthe ark of the testimony, before the mercy-seat that is over the\ntestimony, where I will meet with thee.\" To burn our incense upon this\naltar we must come very near to the mercy-seat, to the vail, to the holy\nof holies. Faith in the merits of a Redeemer emboldens us to take this\nplace. It is most holy ground we stand on when we offer our praises and\nprayers upon this altar. We are close to God. The incense-cloud ascends,\nand penetrates the inner sanctuary. We gain a fellowship and communion\nwith God. Faith brings us to cordial intimacy with God. Such is the\nnature of that acceptable worship which was so vividly symbolized by the\nburning incense in the holy place before the mercy-seat.\n\n3. But it is worthy of remark that near as was this altar to the Shechinah\nand the cherubim, the vail still hung between. Near as we draw to God in\nprayer and worship, he is still invisible to sense. Christ, our great\nIntercessor, has entered within the vail. Our vision cannot follow him,\nwhom not having seen we love. We cannot yet gaze upon the immediate glory;\nwe cannot yet approach the throne. The vail hangs before us, and \"we walk\nby faith, not by sight.\" We stand with holy reverence, and bring the\nincense of our hearts upon the altar; but we dare not attempt to look\nwithin. Faith stops there, waiting at times to catch the whisperings of\ngrace from off the mercy-seat, and to hear the rustling of the vail.\n\"There will I meet with thee,\" says God. There the true worshipper will\nhear the answers to his prayers; there will the soul find peace and\nblessedness.\n\nSuch are some of the great truths symbolically taught in this department\nof the Jewish tabernacle. Nor can it be said that the pious Israelites did\nnot understand them. They read the impressive lessons; they saw the\nmeaning of those rites; they looked beyond the outward and the sensible. I\nverily believe they had a quicker discernment of the deep spiritual\nmeaning of God's ancient ritual service than many so-called Christians who\nboast of gospel light and privileges. Yes; it might be well for many to go\nto school to Old Testament believers to revive their piety, to follow the\nancient priest through the solemnities of the tabernacle service, and\nlearn from the sweet singer of Israel the spirit of devotion.\n\nWhat a view does this subject give us of what true worship is. It is the\nincense of the soul rising up to heaven like a perfumed cloud. It is near\nfellowship of the heart with God. The prayers and confessions, the\nsupplications and thanksgivings of the saint bring him close to the\nmercy-seat. Nothing but the vail hangs between him and God. \"There will I\nmeet with thee,\" saith Jehovah. This is the Old Testament view of true\ndevotion. Oh how far beyond the cold and distant formalism, the hackneyed\nroutine of many Sabbath services of these New Testament times. Oh was not\nGod nearer in thought to many a pious Jew standing in the tabernacle\ncourt, than he is to multitudes in our gospel sanctuaries, who gather\nthere, not to meet with God and tremble and rejoice in his felt presence,\nbut only to listen to a creature worm, and find entertainment in the\neloquence of the preacher?\n\nAgain, how strait appears the way of access to God. How carefully must we\napproach him. Many seem to think that God is easily accessible, and that\nthey can come to him at any time and in any way they please; that little\nor no preparation is needed to gain his favor; that the sinner in the hour\nof sudden alarm can cry for mercy and be saved; that the dying reprobate\nmay mutter a prayer and go to heaven; that the heartless formalist may\nread his collects and please God; that no matter what may be the creed or\nlife, God may be found whenever the sinner wishes for him; that all may\nseek and find him in the way they please, and one way is as good as\nanother. Such are the loose notions many entertain of gaining heaven.\n\nBut our subject scatters them like the chaff of the threshing-floor. The\nholy of holies, where God waits to meet with us, is not reached in any way\nwe please. The heart's incense must be carried within the holy place\nbefore it can be offered. There stands the only altar on which it can be\nburned. But to get there we must first find an atonement at the altar of\nburnt-offering in the outer court. There is no getting near to God but\nthrough the blood of Christ. There is no salvation in any other name. Only\nas a sinner, contrite and believing in a dying Jesus, can you find God.\nGo, stand by the cross: there, with deep repentance and humble faith, seek\nfor an interest in the pardoning blood of the Son of God, and then may you\npass through to the holy place, and pray and praise and worship. But\nwithout first coming to the atonement of Jesus Christ, all your pretended\nregard for God is mockery; your religious service is but strange incense,\nwhich God abhors.\n\nBefore we close, let us lift our eyes upward from these patterns of\nheavenly things to the heavenly things themselves. For in heaven, John\ntells us, he saw the golden altar, and the angel with the incense-censer\nbefore the throne. This incense-offering is the prayers of saints. In that\nworld of blessedness the altar stands without the vail before the throne\nof God. There the redeemed worship face to face; there they gaze upon the\nGodhead, and cast their crowns at the feet of Jesus. Faith gives way to\nvision, and they behold the face of God in righteousness. Oh what a\nprospect lies before the saint. Are we preparing for such a service? Do we\nexpect to join in the worship before the throne? How diligent should we be\nto cultivate a spirit of devotion while in this tabernacle below. Though\nwe are now outside the vail, how should we strive by faith to meet with\nGod, and find answers to our prayers. What a solemn hour should this be to\nus in the sanctuary, when we appear before the mercy-seat and offer the\nincense of our prayers and thanksgivings.\n\n\n\n\nXI.\n\nEating under the Juniper-Tree.\n\n    ARISE AND EAT; BECAUSE THE JOURNEY IS TOO GREAT FOR THEE. 1 KINGS\n    19:7.\n\n\nThese words, though originally spoken to the prophet of God under peculiar\ncircumstances, may still have a meaning when applied to the believer.\nThough written aforetime, they were written for our instruction when we\nare brought into straits and trials.\n\nThey came to the prophet in one of the darkest hours of his ministry.\nThough he had gone through Samaria with signs and wonders, and though he\nhad signally triumphed over the prophets of Baal, and had witnessed their\ndestruction, still the reformation of the nation which he had looked for\nseemed further off than ever. All the miracles he had wrought, and all the\nteachings he had uttered, seemed to be worse than in vain; for now,\ninstead of submission, there is nothing but exasperation, and the\nabandoned Jezebel swears vengeance upon the prophet. He despairs of the\nredemption of Israel, and turns his back in flight from Samaria. Without\nany special divine direction, he wanders over into the territories of\nJudah as far as Beersheba. But there is no rest for his troubled and\ndejected mind; and he flies from the haunts of men and plunges onward and\nonward into the wilderness towards Horeb, as though, in the savage\nwildness and solitude of nature, he would find sympathy with the\ndesolation that reigned within him.\n\nBut night overtakes the wanderer, and he is forced to halt and lie down\nunder the protection of a juniper-tree. There his troubled thoughts dwell\nupon the past, and he revolves in his mind the complete failure of his\nmission to Samaria, the miracles which he had wrought, and the vengeance\nwhich was pursuing him. All was lost. 'Twas useless to undertake to preach\nmore or to labor more for that idolatrous people. Disappointment has\ncrowned his every exertion, and not a ray of hope shines from the future,\nto call back the request of the Tishbite that he may die. In his despair\nand anguish he mutters, \"It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life.\"\n\nHe sleeps. But one of the ministering spirits is at his side, in this hour\nof desperate extremity. The prophet, at his touch, starts up and eats. The\ngnawings of hunger being partially allayed, he again sinks down to sleep,\ntill again the angel touches him, and bids him eat the more; for he is not\nto die yet. He has not yet done his work; he must tread the wild crags of\nHoreb, and back to Ahab and Samaria, once more. \"Arise and eat; for the\njourney is too great for thee.\"\n\nWe must have a poor faculty of apprehending spiritual lessons, if we allow\nthis narrative to pass without some practical instruction.\n\nWe do not tax our imagination severely in order to see, in the person of\nElijah, a representation of the child of God in seasons of depression and\ndespair. Not unfrequently is he brought into the position of the prophet.\nNot at all times is he privileged to stand upon Zion, and to rejoice in\nhope. But a thousand circumstances in life conspire to disappoint his\nhopes and becloud his prospects, till he flees from his post, and is found\nfar away under the juniper-tree in the wilderness.\n\nWhen the sanguine expectations which he indulged at the beginning of his\ndiscipleship, become one by one disappointed; when he finds that Christian\nexperience is a far different affair from what he had conceived of; when\nstraits and trials spring up around him at every turn of life, such as he\nhad not counted on, and the work of grace in his heart seems, after all,\nto amount to nothing; when new and unlooked-for symptoms of corruption are\ndaily brought to light, and the ardor of his first love is dampened by the\nchecks and crosses that thicken around him--when thus his early dreams are\ndissipated, and his heart feels a sickness and a faintness come over it,\ndo you not see that he is in the wilderness? Oh who has not sickened at\nthe slow work of grace within him? Who has not marked the sad contrast\nbetween what he once said he would be, and what he is; and who has not\nfelt the harassments of doubt and the vanity of his own strugglings, till\nhe despaired of success, and fled like the prophet to the wilderness?\n\nAnd then ofttimes the little good which the Christian accomplishes in the\nworld is enough to drive him to dejection. The Tishbite fled because he\nsaw no good from all his labors. Doubtless he had expected that, with the\nsupport of miracles, he should soon have worked a reformation in Israel.\nBut though at his word the heavens had been shut up, and though at his\nprayer the fire of God had descended to attest his mission, still the\nwhole outlay of means seemed to end in nothing. His expectations had not\nbeen met; and under the burden of the keenest mortification, the most\nhopeless dejection, he lies down by the juniper-tree and prays for death.\nHave you never lain there with him, Christian?\n\nWhen cast down in spirit, in view of your personal infirmities, you have\nasked for the good you have done in the world around you; when your\nefforts for Christ seem all to prove abortive; when your kindly warnings\nare disregarded, and in spite of your prayers and solicitude, iniquity\nabounds, and none turn to the Lord; when the more you strive for the\nRedeemer, the more your good is evil spoken of; when the wicked around you\nseem growing worse and worse, and disappointment and unbelief becloud\nyour heart, and you see no hope, and the wilderness is around you--Oh,\nwhen thus the heart droops, do you not feel that you are in the\nwilderness? 'Tis indeed a dreary situation. But in life's pilgrimage, the\nChristian sometimes journeys that way. He has his hours of sadness, of\nheart-sickness, of deep despondency and dejection, of bitterness which a\nstranger intermeddleth not with. He is at times left to experience the\nburdens of life, the faintings of faith and hope--to feel that\nnotwithstanding his long trial of the Christian life, all is jeoparded,\nand that nothing remains for him but to cast himself down with the\nfugitive prophet under the juniper-tree, and say, \"It is enough; now, O\nLord, take away my life.\"\n\nBut what we would observe is this: that the Saviour has provisions for his\nchildren however desolate may be their condition. It was in this dreary\nextremity of the prophet, that God revealed unto him his presence. Worn\nout with hunger and fatigue, despairing of hope, and feeling even life\nitself to be a burden, the fugitive drops to sleep. And now God, by a\nmiracle, comes to his rescue. A cake baken on the coals is beside him, and\nthe cruse of water, to refresh him and keep him from destruction. Here God\ncame to his prophet and revived his confidence. Here he gives him a token\nthat he has not given him up, but sends his Angel to rouse him from his\ndejection and bid him eat.\n\nNot to the prophet alone has God manifested his presence and aid, but to\nall his dear children as they sit and sigh under the tree where the\nprophet slept. Not that, when we are cast down and desolate, we actually\nfeel a hand touching us, and see before us the cruse of water and the cake\nupon the coals; but we find the same deliverance, and the rustic table is\nvirtually set before us and served by a spirit hand. In the appointed\nmeans of grace we find the aliment that sustains our souls. The divine\nordinances seem to us more precious than ever while we sit under the\njuniper-tree. In the sweet promises of the word of God, in the dawn of\nSabbath hours, in the tender and timely lessons of the sanctuary, in the\nBethel seasons of prayer, in these means afforded to us, we find the\ncruse of water and the cake that will refresh us. We may lightly esteem\nthem in a time of ease and plenty; we may think little of a cruse of water\nand a cake when we repose in abundance; but in the wilderness, when hunger\nand faintness come over us, and the juniper boughs are our only covering,\nthen they are as sweet to us as to the weary Tishbite.\n\nWhen spiritual famine is gnawing at our hearts, and all is desolate and\nforsaken around us; when sickness has prostrated us, or death has cut down\nour companions around us, till the world seems empty, and a hue of decay\nand death tinges all the objects which we look at; when darkness and\ndisappointment and disaster all weigh upon our spirits, and God is all\nthat is left to us--how should we live were it not for the cake and the\nwater cruse? How do we grasp the very means which we before had too often\nslighted.\n\nWe call up the neglected promises, and there is life in them. Our troubled\nthoughts find vent in earnest prayer; and whether we lie stretched on the\nbed of languishing, or wrestle in the closet, or meditate in the\nsanctuary, we find the water cruse is beside us, and we are kept from\nfainting. Oh, it is when, under the load of crushing sorrow and dejection,\nthe wanderer sinks down by the shrub of the desert, it is then he prizes\nthe cruse and the cake. Many of you, I doubt not, were you to call to mind\nthe season when you valued most the presence of the Master, when you\nwrestled nearest the mercy-seat and experienced the most surprising\ndeliverances, would point to the days of sore trial and weariness, when\nyou gave up all hope, and when, turned out from the world, you sat alone\nand sighed under the juniper and waited for death. There you fed upon the\nbread of life. And though you felt that you were pilgrims in the desert,\nyou still felt that you were not forsaken.\n\nBut, brethren, we need not only the provisions made for us in the means of\ngrace, but we need also a friendly hand to help us to partake of them. We\nneed our attention called to them with a voice that can reach the inner\near; for too often, with all our distress and dejection, there comes also\na lethargy and insensibility which, if unbroken, must at last prove fatal.\nThe care-worn prophet, with all his wretchedness and despair, still\nreclined his head and slept. Hungry and weak and way-worn, a drowsiness\nnevertheless came over him, and he must needs be aroused if he was to be\nstrengthened. The cake is there, and the cruse of water is there, and the\ncoals are glowing, but the pilgrim heeds them not. What a figure is this\nof the complaining and dejected Christian who is starving for the\nspiritual food that is beside him, and at the same time sleeping in his\nsorrow. Despondency and unbelief have so paralyzed his heart that he takes\nno nourishment, even though the promises and the Sabbath and the sanctuary\nare before him; but they are dead to him, they are useless to us all, so\nlong as we sleep on.\n\nBut beside the man of God, as he lay and slept under the juniper-tree,\nthere was not only the cake and the water cruse, but the Angel too. And\nhere, in the touch and the call of the Angel, methinks I discover a most\nbeautiful emblem of the Holy Spirit standing by the means of grace, and\nbidding the believer \"_arise and eat_.\" The presence of that ministering\nspirit was necessary to the prophet's preservation. Without his friendly\ntouch, he would doubtless have slept on, and death closed the scene ere\nthe day dawned, and the cruse of water and the cake have been in vain.\n\nThus too we need a present Spirit to rouse us to partake of the blessings\nthat are brought to us; for though we may complain of want, we are too\nindifferent to the supplies afforded us. Though we feel that we are\npilgrims in the desert, though we sigh and faint by the juniper boughs, we\nsleep there too. Our eyes are heavy, and we do not see the water cruse,\nthough it is at our side. We do not appreciate our privileges, nor draw\nnourishment from them. They may all be at hand--the Sabbath with its\nsacredness, the Bible with its promises, the sanctuary with its lessons,\nthe mercy-seat with its covenant--but not till the Holy Ghost shall bid\nyou arise and eat, will these means avail you aught.\n\nThat Spirit is sent out to accompany the means of grace. He bids you arise\nand eat. He comes to rouse you from your slumbers. He comes to stop your\nmurmurs. He comes to point you to the provisions at your side, and bid you\nrise and eat. Eat of these means of grace; use them to revive your\nfainting spirit, to increase your strength. Though you may have used them\nmany a time before, still you are called upon to eat and eat again. The\nSpirit and the bride say, Come.\n\nWe would second the Spirit's voice, and call to you in the wilderness to\narise and eat. It becomes you to-day to heed the call. There is reason for\nthe Spirit's rousing you, for you are yet away from home, and the journey\nis too great for you. Perhaps you may feel no pressing need. Perhaps, like\nthe Tishbite, you have tasted a little, and you would lie down to sleep.\nBut the prophet knew not what was before him, as the Angel did; and hence\nhe is again aroused with the warning, \"The journey is too great for thee.\"\nChristian, you know not what awaits you. You need these ordinances. You\nneed this Lord's table spread before you. You need these means of grace,\nfor you are in the wilderness, and the desert must be crossed. Your\nstrength and patience will be sorely tried, and your provisions will be\nshort. Arise and eat, for you will have no other supply but this. You must\ntake up with a pilgrim's fare. The remainder of life's journey is before\nyou, and it will be too great for you unless you prepare in time.\n\nYou may stand aloof from this our table, and despise our humble\nministrations as though they were not good enough for you. We do not\npretend that our supper is equal to the one above. We can give you but\ntravellers' fare, but such as it is it will sustain you on your journey.\nOur entertainment to-day is as simple as the prophet's rude meal which he\nate beneath the juniper-tree; but remember, that but for that water cruse\nand baken cake he would have perished in the lonely solitudes. And we lay\nas high a claim for the gospel institutions to-day. Without them you must\nfaint and die. Underrate them as you will, God has appointed them to\nsustain his children in the desert. Your neglect of them will be followed\nby exhaustion, for \"the journey is too great for thee.\"\n\nWe cannot indeed anticipate the circumstantial history of any one of you.\nWe cannot trace out in the wild desert sands the pathway over which each\none of you must wander. No, we cannot discover where one of us will be\nto-morrow. Our experiences may be far different from each other. We shall\neach have our peculiar difficulties, and no two of us will travel with the\nsame footstep and the same burden.\n\nBut though we cannot tell the future to a single one of you, though we\ncannot calculate your reckoning at all, still we can assure you that \"the\njourney is too great for you.\" We shall all of us need the cruse of water\nand the cake ere we get through, for we have no abiding place here. There\nwill doubtless be many days when this world will look more desolate than\never, days of temptation and of conflict. The adversary will doubtless\nharass your wanderings, and hedge up your way; you must yet fight \"the\nworld, the flesh, and the devil.\"\n\nAgain and again will you be obliged to retrace your wayward steps, and\nwater your path with the tears of bitter repentance and regrets. Again and\nagain will the world so bedim your eyesight and bewilder your thoughts\nthat you shall have lost sight of heaven and plunged in its vanities. And\nthe heart-work too is not yet all done. You must yet keep up the warfare\nwith corruption. You must yet keep up the struggle of grace and fight the\nfight of faith.\n\n\"The journey is too great for you.\" There may be years of conflict yet\nbefore you. There may be fiery trials in reserve. Light as may seem the\nenterprise now, you will find it great enough before you get to heaven.\n'Twill seem great when sorrow and disappointment shall gather round us,\nand when the hours of fierce temptation give way only to the hours of\ndeepest darkness; 'twill seem long when the cross seems ever to stand by\nthe roadside, and when year after year we get no clearer views of heaven,\nour home.\n\nGreat is the journey; and we shall feel it so when onward and onward we\ntravel, and our companions one by one drop at our side, till we are left\nto tread our way alone. 'Twill be great when the dependencies of life\nfail, and the calamities of life shall thicken around us. When the hopes\nof earth shall wither, and the friendships of earth shall vanish; when the\npast shall appear as vanity, and the heart shall recoil from the future;\nwhen fathers and mothers, and brothers and sisters, and all the loved ones\nof our early days, shall have vanished from our sight, and no long\nfamiliar voice shall speak to us in the solitudes of earth's wilderness;\nthen, as we stagger on, with our staff trembling in our hand, shall we\nfeel that the journey is too great for us.\n\nYou may say that it will be short to some of us; that even now the sandals\nare loosening and the city is coming nearer. Yes, some of us will not\njourney long. But short as may be that journey, it is too great for you.\nFor remember how it winds up with the death-groan, the faintness, the\nweakness, the sinking, the dimness, the muffled farewell. Great journey\nthis through the dark valley and through the wild surges--_too great_ for\nus. We cannot explore the pathway; 'tis dark and dubious. We have seen\nmultitudes set foot upon it, and they all turned pale. The pilgrims have\nnot come back to us to tell us of it, but we know enough about it to know\nthat the journey is \"too great for us.\"\n\nYet, brethren, we are all hurrying thitherward. Are we strong enough? What\nshall sustain us in the desert? Behold, God has supplied us with his\ngifts. Behold, ye who are desponding, ye who are wayworn, ye who are\ndespairing beneath the juniper-tree, the cruse of water is beside you.\nRise and eat, for the journey is too great for you. Oh, who of us will not\ngladly come?\n\nWhat should we do without these blessed ordinances and precious\nprivileges? To-day the Master spreads our table in the wilderness. Once\nmore he would refresh our hearts and lend vigor to our graces. He meets us\nwith the tokens of his love. Come, beloved, and meet the Master. Come from\nyour murmurings at the waters of Meribah. Come from your drowsiness and\ndespondency beneath the juniper. Arise and eat, for the wilderness is yet\nbefore you. Take the cruse of water and the cake to-day, for it may be\nlong before you have another opportunity. Supplies in the desert are at\nbest precarious; and so uncertain is our pilgrimage, that we know not that\nwe shall meet again.\n\nHave we full strength for the onward advancement? Would not a look at the\nMaster profit us? Would not a friendly seat by the side of our\nfellow-pilgrims, and a kind look and a mutual, fervent prayer encourage\nus? Or are we equal to the journey without all this? Beware, my Christian\nfriend, how you neglect the gospel means which are given you. Beware how\nyou turn a cold shoulder to the simple cruse of water which God sends down\nto you, for he tells you that the journey is too great for you.\n\n\n\n\nXII.\n\nThe Other Side.\n\n    LET US PASS OVER UNTO THE OTHER SIDE. MARK 4:35.\n\n\nThe facts and incidents in the history of our blessed Lord which the Holy\nGhost has seen fit to preserve and hand down to us through the\nevangelists, furnish us materials for instruction and profitable\nmeditation. The gospel is not all didactic; nor need the religious\ndiscourse be wholly such. It is well at times to omit the carefully framed\npropositions of a systematic theology, and dwell upon the simple\nnarratives of the New Testament not merely as naked facts, but as pleasing\nallegories, or reflections of spiritual things. May we not read this\nnarrative with such a purpose? As we follow the disciples in their night\nexpedition across the sea of Galilee, may we not have suggested to our\nminds the Christian's course through the voyage of life towards the\ndistant, unseen shore of eternity? Let us carry this idea with us while we\nstudy the parts of this simple, but graphic narrative of the evangelist.\n\n1. It was _at the call and command of Christ_ the disciples embarked upon\ntheir expedition. \"Let us pass over unto the other side.\" There is no\nintimation that they had planned the journey, or had thought of leaving\nCapernaum before; but they took their departure solely in obedience to the\ndirection of their Master. They acknowledged his authority; they trusted\nin his wisdom. Their faith and confidence in him prompted them to do his\nbidding; and without questioning the reasons of his orders, they at once\nloosed from the harbor and set their sails, outward bound, for the other\nside.\n\nIt is even so with the believer when he forsakes the world of sin and\nvanity, and sets out on a Christian life. He hears a call from God, like\nthat which Abraham heard when he left his country and his kinsmen for\nanother land which God would show him. The invitations and commands of\nChrist prompt him to give up the world. Were it not for such a call he\nwould live and die in his natural state of sin. No inward promptings of\nhis own; no feelings of dissatisfaction with his present condition; no\nmere natural longings and aspirations, however deep felt, would move him\nto an earnest outlook beyond the present vanity, and to a heartfelt\nseparation from the seen and the temporal which is around him. But when\nthe external call of the gospel is attended by the internal call of the\nHoly Spirit, he feels a quickening power; he hears and obeys the divine\ncommand. Faith in the Redeemer leads him to obedience. He quits the world;\nhe tears himself away from its deceitful charms, and consents to follow\nChrist.\n\n2. I speak of their destination as expressed in the command of the Master.\nIt was, \"_The other side_.\" They set sail, not for a short excursion along\nthe coast, or an evening trip off from the mainland, and then to return;\nbut across the sea to another country and a different shore. The words of\nthe Master point onward, onward beyond the billows to the far-off land. To\n\"the other side\" is the sailing order by which the disciples set their\nhelm and trim their sail; to \"the other side\" they point while they loose\nfrom their moorings at Capernaum, and say good-by to the fishermen left\nbehind upon the beach.\n\nAnd is there not another side to our existence than the one we are now on?\nIs there not some shining shore beyond this one--beyond the billows,\nbeyond the cloud-banks; something, if not discernible by our sense vision,\nat least discoverable by faith?\n\n_This side_ is familiar enough to us. We have trodden it and explored it;\nwe know its features--a state of sin and disappointment, of temptations\nand illusions, a thousand vanities and shams; life ofttimes seeming a\nchaos of contradictions, pleasures glittering, syrens singing, sorrows\nbrooding, hopes decaying.\n\n\"_This side_\" where we are is a strange side, a dim, dubious shore, where\ntides ebb and flow we know not how; where the mirage plays upon our\nvision, and fills the atmosphere with phantoms which seem to us realities;\nwhere we seek for happiness in vain, till death removes us from the\nfitful, toilsome scene.\n\nBut is this all? Is there not another side, a different state, a better\nlife to look to? The Christian who has heard the call of Christ has\nlearned of another side than this one, another life besides the present.\nThe call of Christ to him is to _the other side_. It directs him not to\nthe things seen and temporal, but to the unseen and eternal. It points him\nfar over the sea of life to the distant shore, the other and the better\ncountry. This is the Christian's destination. For this he sails when he\ncuts loose from the world of sense and sin. Faith catches glimpses of its\nglories; for it is \"the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of\nthings not seen.\" For this he lives in expectation; for this he parts with\nsinful pleasures, and waits with patience till it comes. So long as he\nhears the Saviour's voice saying, \"_To yonder shore_,\" he can content\nhimself with being a stranger here. Oh it is this \"looking for a better\ncountry\" that sustains him in temptations now. How cheering is the\nprospect!\n\nWhen, Christian, you are troubled on every side here, how refreshing the\nMaster's words, To \"the other side.\" Yes; the pious heart often exclaims,\nBlessed be God, there is the other side, far different from this side; a\nfuture unlike the present; a heavenly land, whose scenery and surroundings\nare not those of earth. That other side is what you live for, Christian.\nOh forget it not when tempted here; remember it, my brother voyager, when\nyou hear the music along these shores of time, and would steer towards the\nhavens of carnal ease and lie becalmed among the spice islands of worldly\nindolence and pleasure; remember, when the Saviour called you to a\nChristian life, he pointed far away and said, To \"_the other side_.\"\n\n3. The time of their departure. \"When the even was come, Jesus said unto\nthem, Let us pass over unto the other side.\" The din and turmoil of the\nday were past; shadows thickened; the world was growing dark; the curtain\nof night was silently overspreading the land and the sea: it was time to\nembark for the other side. And is not this suggestive of the circumstances\nunder which the Christian enters upon a Christian life and sets out for\nheaven?\n\nOh if the present life had no shadows, we should never look beyond it; if\nthis side was always bright, we should care little for the other. But it\nis a part of our heavenly Father's discipline, to visit us with trials and\ndisappointments to wean us from this world. Ofttimes the sun of our\nprosperity goes suddenly down at noon; worldly plans miscarry; sickness\npreys upon us; friends die, and families are broken up; the world don't\nseem so bright as it used to be: this side gathers gloom and shadows. Then\nit is the soul is more open to the call of Christ; then it is, often, that\nthe sinner is brought to forsake the world, and obey the voice of the\nMaster saying, \"Pass over unto the other side.\" It is at evening, when\nthis world is growing dark, that the believer obeys the command of Christ,\ntears himself away from his sinful lusts with bitter, repenting tears, and\nexchanging sight for faith, embarks on his voyage to the distant heavenly\nshore.\n\nIt is evening; for although there be no temporal calamities sore pressing\nyou when you become a Christian, it is still a time when the world has\nlost its sunlight to your soul, and when eternal things have flung their\nshadows over the heart and made every thing on these shores of time look\ndim and fading. Then we are ready for Christ. Then, when conscience is\naroused, and the overhanging clouds of divine justice darken this side and\nalarm us, then we set out for heaven, and heed the invitation of the\nSaviour which beckons us to the other side. It is at such a time the\nbeliever enters on a Christian life.\n\n4. We follow him on his voyage to the other side, and notice the important\nfact that _Christ's presence_ is with his people through all their way.\nStanding on the seaside at Capernaum, he sent not the disciples away\nalone. His word to them was not, \"_Go yonder_;\" but stepping on board\ntheir vessel, he says, \"Let _us_ pass over unto the other side.\" He\nhimself will share their fortunes; he will go with them; though night be\nsetting in, and dangers hover on the deep, they shall not go alone. No\nmore shall the Christian. \"Lo, I am with you always,\" is the blessed\nassurance of his Saviour. The presence of Christ is the great source of a\nChristian life.\n\nThis is all the saint can depend upon; this is what the gospel promises to\nhim. Christ is said to dwell in his disciples--to abide with them. His\ndivine influences are their only guarantee of safety. As well might the\nmariner be far at sea in a night of tempests, without helm or chart or\ncompass, as the Christian attempt to navigate the troubled waters of life\nwithout the Saviour with him.\n\nBetter not _attempt_ the voyage than start out alone for the other side.\nIf you would leave these shores of sin and worldliness at all, see to it,\nfirst of all, that Jesus is with you in the ship, and that it is _his_\nvoice alone you hear, as you set sail, saying, \"Let us pass over unto the\nother side.\"\n\nOnce more, in the night voyage of the disciples over the sea of Galilee I\nsee shadowed forth the changing phases of a Christian life. As they cast\noff from Capernaum, the evening breezes gently pressed their sails; the\nsilvery ripples murmured on the shore; their little ship moved smoothly\nout at sea. The disciples sit in the cool evening air on deck, and watch\nthe stars which, one by one, light up the vault above them as the shadows\ndeepen and the shores grow dim. They have hardly missed their Master. They\nscarcely noticed that he had retired from their presence. But as the night\nwore on, alarmed at the dangers which surrounded them, the affrighted\ndisciples look around for their absent Lord; and finding him asleep, they\nwaken him with their cries for help. The Saviour, calmly rising from his\npillow, looks out upon the angry elements, and speaks the word of power:\n\"_Peace, be still_.\" And the mad winds cease their roar, and the wild\nwaves lie down to rest.\n\n  \"'Ye waves,' he whispered, 'peace, be still.'\n  They calmed like a pardoned breast.\"\n\nOnce more propitious breezes waft them onward, till the morning dawn\nslowly glimmers in the eastern sky, and reveals, in dim outline, the\nmountain summits of the other side.\n\nIn all this I think I see something which reflects the lights and shades\nof a true Christian life. How does the believer at his conversion set out\nfor heaven with the consciousness that Christ is with him. How, after the\nthroes of conviction are past, does he expatiate in the sweet peace of\nbelieving, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. How little dreams the\nconvert of coming danger. How propitious the opening of his voyage. Often\nis his course so quiet that he suspends his watch, and loses sight of the\nnear presence of Christ. Seasons come when he grows negligent, and perhaps\nfeels no more of Christ's near presence with him than the disciples on the\nsea thought of their sleeping Master. Christ is not gone from him; but his\nardent love towards Him has abated, and he no longer has that felt\nconsciousness of His value he once had, nor does he realize his dependence\nas he should.\n\nTrials come; temptations thicken; doubts and fears arise; Satan harasses\nhim, and inward corruptions start into life again. Then is the soul\ntossed, like the disciples on the sea; then does the struggling believer\nlook round for his Saviour, and cry, \"Save, Lord, or I perish.\" Such\ntrials of our faith come in the regular course of a Christian towards the\nother side, like the storm-belts near the tropics which lie in the\nsailor's route from one hemisphere to the other, and through which he must\nsteer his way.\n\nYou and I, Christian, have sailed in such latitudes, and heard the winds\nof temptation blow, and felt the waves of distress dash over our frail\nbark. Thus we learned our weakness; thus were we humbled; thus were we\ntaught to watch and pray; thus did we fly to Christ, and cry, \"Lord,\ncarest thou not that we perish?\"\n\nAnd it was his voice alone that stilled the tempest, and hushed the\nconflict of the soul. How sweet the peace of the believer after seasons of\nsore spiritual temptations! Great is the peace felt in the new-born soul\nwhen first it hears the voice of forgiveness; but there are other scenes,\nsubsequent experiences, when, after fierce contests with lusts and\npassions, the Saviour gives the victory. Then when it is over there is a\ndeeper tranquillity in the soul than was ever felt before. Then when we\nhave weathered out the rough gales, and the heart has become sanctified\nand humbled, and we have got as it were out of sight of land on this\nside, then do we reach a clearer atmosphere, and enjoy the refreshing\ngales of the Spirit, which, like the trade-winds, bear us steadily along\nto port.\n\nIt appears that the disciples' expedition over the sea of Galilee was\npropitious in its beginning and at its close: their troubles lay along the\nmiddle passage. We may remark how this is generally the case with the\nChristian's voyage to heaven. Generally his latter course is tranquil as\nhe draws near to the other side. Ofttimes indeed he catches glimpses of\nthe shining shore, and on the sunlit hills beyond descries something like\nthe domes and turrets of the celestial city. Ofttimes when well over\ntowards the other side faith brightens almost into vision; he seems to\nhear the distant music, and grows impatient to step ashore. We watch his\ndying pillow till his heaving breast lies still. He has reached his\neternal home; he has passed over unto the other side.\n\nI have thus endeavored to employ the narrative of the evangelist to\nillustrate some of the prominent features of a Christian's life. He\nleaves the world of sin and vanity in obedience to the effectual call of\nthe Holy Spirit. His destination is the better country on the other side.\nThe Master who called him goes with him all the way, delivers him from the\ntrials and dangers which beset him, and guides him over the sea of life to\nthe heavenly shore.\n\nHow does this description compare with your own experience? Have you truly\nobeyed the call of Christ, and embarked for the other side? While the\nsailing order of our text is before you, it is a good time to heave the\nlead, and take an observation. On what course are you sailing, and what\nprogress are you making in your voyage? Ah, may we not ask some who\nprofessed once to leave all for Christ, whether after all the stir and\npreparation of your setting sail you have not put back into the old port\nyou set out from? Are you not still living in your sins?\n\nOthers may not have travelled far, though it be months or years since you\nstarted. Alas, there are not a few professing Christians who seem never to\nlose sight of land this side. Years may have fled, but they have not got\nmany leagues at sea yet. Clinging to earthly things; in love with the\npleasures, fashions, and follies of this life; hankering for wealth or\nposition, they do little else than hug these shores of vanity, and coast\nalong among the green isles of temptation which are near them. Heave the\nlead, my brother, and see where you are. The Master's orders are, \"_To the\nother side_.\" And if you have been loitering in these waters of\nworldliness and carnality, it becomes you, by repentance, prayer, and\nself-denial, to change your course and steer straight for heaven.\n\nOthers in the heavenly voyage may have reached the storm-belts, where\ndangers threaten and skies grow dark. The waves of affliction dash over\nthe soul; doubts and misgivings trouble you; crosses and discouragements\nbeset your way, and often you tremble lest you be a castaway: but courage,\nmy brother; if _Christ_ be with you, you need not fear. Call to Jesus in\nthe storm, and you shall ride it out. Think not that you have lost your\ncourse. If Christ be in the ship, if the soul has found him near, then\nhead right to the wind and keep your course for heaven. \"These light\nafflictions, which are but for a moment, work out for us an exceeding and\neternal weight of glory.\"\n\nAnd, my aged friends, may I not describe you as well-nigh over the sea of\nlife, and nearing the other shore? Tell us, ye weather-beaten saints, have\nyou not got through the rough middle passage, and heard the voice of Jesus\nsay to the storms, \"Peace, be still?\" Scores of years have passed since\nyou embarked with Christ; the world has changed, you have changed, and you\nare evidently nearing port: tell us, do you not feel that the night is far\nspent, and the day is at hand? Is not Christ nearer and nearer to you by\nfaith, and do you not hope to be with him soon in glory?\n\nChristian, don't you sometimes see land on the other side? Are not the\nhills of Beulah in the distance, and the celestial gates? Oh tell us, as\nyou near the other side does not faith catch glimpses of the redeemed and\nthe Redeemer? Christian, you are almost home. Death will soon furl the\nsail, and moor you by the shore.\n\nMy impenitent friend, the call of the gospel comes to you substantially in\nour text to \"pass over unto the other side.\" Oh when will you give up this\nworld, and live for heaven? Though you may refuse to obey the call, you\ncannot stay here long. Life has another side, and you must, ere long,\ndepart. There is an eternity to which you are going--a dim, dark, dismal\nshore, on which you will be cast at death, far off from heaven.","title":"Bible Emblems","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":40534}