IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

1.0

1.1

L^I2.8

Iu6 "

12.0

|l-25 1.4 1.6

* 6"

►

Hiotographic

Sciences

Corporation

23 WEST MAIN STREET

WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580

(716) 872-4503

4pg

CIHM/ICMH

Microfiche

Series.

CIHM/ICMH
Collection de
microfiches.

Canadian Institute for IHistorical IVAicroreproductions / Institut Canadian de microraproductions historiques

Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques

The Institute has attempted to obtain the best
original copy available for filming. Features of this
copy which may be bi'**iographically unique,
which may alter any f >he images in the
reproduction, or whic. :iiay significantly change
the usual method of filr^iing, are checked below.

Coloured covers/
Couverture de couleur

I I Covers damaged/

Couverture endommag^e

Covers restored and/or laminated/
Couverture restaurie et/ou pellicui^e

r~\ Cover title missing/

Le titre de couverture manque

[~n Coloured maps/

Cartes giographiques en couleur

Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/
Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire)

I I Coloured plates and/or illustrations/

Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur

Bound with other material/
Reli6 avec d'autres documents

Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion
along interior margin/

La re iiure serrde peut causer de I'ombre ou de la
distortion le long de la marge intirieure

Blank leaves added during restoration may
appear within the text. Whenever possible, these
have been omitted from filming/
II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajout^es
lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte,
mais, lorsque cela itait possible, ces pages n'ont
pas it6 filmies.

Additional comments:/
Commentaires supplimentaires;

L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire
qu'il lui a iti possible de se procurer. Las details
de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-Atre uniques du
point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier
une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une
modification dans la mithode normaie de filmage
sont indiqu6s ci-dessous.

□ Coloured pages/
Pages de couleur

□ Pages damaged/
Pages endommag^es

n Pages restored and/or laminated/
Pages restaurdes et/ou pelliculdes

"yi Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/
^ < Pages ddcolor^es, tachetdes ou piquies

I I Pages detached/

Pages di^tachdes

Showthrough/
Transparence

Quality of prir

Quaiitd inigala de ('impression

Includes supplementary materii
Comprend du matdriel supplimentaire

Only edition available/
Seule Edition disponible

r~7| Showthrough/

r~T1 Quality of print varies/

I I Includes supplementary material/

r~n Only edition available/

Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata
slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to
ensure the best possible image/
Les pages totalement ou partiellement
obscurcios par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure,
etc., ont 6ti filmdes d nouveau de facon d
obtenir la meilleure image possible.

This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/

Ce document est f !lm6 au taux de reduction indiqui ci-dessous.

10X

14X

18X

22X

26X

30X

12X

16X

20X

24X

28X

32X

The copy filmed here hes been reproduced thenks
to the generosity of:

Harold Campbell Vaughan Memorial Library
Acadia University

L'exemplaire f llmA f ut reproduit grAce A la
04n4roalt4 de:

Harold Campbell Vaughan Memorial Library
Aoadia Univenity

The images appearing here are the best quality
possible considering the condition and legibility
of the original copy and in keeping with the
filming contract specifications.

Les images suivantes ont 4t« reproduites avec le
plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition at
de la nettet* de rexempla'lre film*, at en
conformity avec les conditions du contrat de
filmage.

Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed
beginning with the front cover and ending on
the last page with a printed or illustrated Impres-
sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All
other original copies are filmed beginning on the
first page with a printed or illustrated impres-
sion, and ending on the last page with a printed
or illustrated impression.

Les exemplaires origlnaux dont la couverture en
papier est Imprimie sont filmAs en commen^ant
par le premier plat at en terminant soit par la
darnidre page qui eomporte une empreinte
d'impjression ou d'lllustration, soit par le second
plat, salon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires
origlnaux sont fllmte en commenpant par la
premlire page qui compo te une empreinte
d'Impresslon ou d'lllustration et en terminant par
la dernlAre page qui eomporte une telle
empreinte.

The last recorded frame on each microfiche
shall contain the symbol —»•( meaning "CON-
TINUED "), or the symbol V (meaning "END"),
whichever applies.

Un des symboles sulvants apparaftra sur la
darnlire Image de cheque microfiche, selon le
cas: le symbole — »> signifle "A SUIVRE", le
symboie ▼ signifle "FIN".

Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at
different reduction ratios. Those too large to be
entirely included in one exposure are filmed
beginning ^n the upper left hand corner, left to
right and top to bottom, as many frames as
required. The following di&grams illustrate the
method:

Les cartes, pianches, tablaaux, etc., peuvent dtre
fllmis A des taux de reduction diff6rents.
L&rsque le aocument est trop grand pour Atre
reproduit en un seul clichA. il est film6 A partir
de Tangle supArleur gauche, de gauche d droite.
et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre
d'images nAcessaire. Les diagrammss suivants
illustrent la mAthode.

■<^

•^ ■ f

•^y/

THE SEEKING SAVIOUR.

THE SEEKING SAVIOUR,

^nh other ^ible Phones.

(CANADIAN EDITION.)

BV THE LATE

DR. W. P. MACKAY, M. A.,

0/ Hull.

AUTHOR OF "grace AND TRUTH," "ABUNDANT GRACE,"
ETC.; EDITOR OF "THE BRITISH EVANGELIST."

TORONTO, CANADA:

S. R. BRIGGS,
Toronto Willakd Tract Depository,

Cor. Yoage and Temperancs Streets.
[All rights reserved.]

[fsm

PKINTBD AT THE TIMBS OPPICB, 34 QUBEN STREET, PARKDALB.

PREFACE.

making the following collection of articles on
various Scripture subjects we are only carrying out
thd design of the author. He had commenced the
w;ork and spoken of it several times. Methinks, if he had
got a glimpse into the future at the dawn of this year, the
book would have been in the hands of friends and lovers
of the truth some months ago. We believe the great enemy
and deceiver tried in various ways to prevent the departed
one using his pen ; he knew well how his ranks had been
thinned through the pages of " Grace and Truth," and there-
fore his wisdom was to try by all means to prevent anything
of a similar aim being produced. The composition in many
parts is blunt and homely. One literary friend wrote
regarding it : " It is difficult to prune without hurting the
vigour ; " so as we prefer having it in its native vigour, we
rather give it to you unpruned.

The title we have chosen is one which perhaps the Son
of man, Who so often gave Himself this name, rejoices in
more than any other. God commenced the seeking ; as soon
as there was a wandering sinner to be sought, we hear,
" Adam, where art thou ? " and it has never ceased since then.
And now through these pages our desire and prayer is that
many lost ones may be found and safely sheltered in the
fold of the Good Shepherd.

The Great Shepherd of the twenty-third Psalm, we believe,
was more frequently preached upon than any other sub-
ject in England, Scotland, Ireland, and America; it was

i:i n ^\

_;^,

Preface.

always fresh and beautiful, suited to all classes and kinds
of people, the aged and the youDg.

" The Claims of the Man Jesus " was a subject that was
studied and preached upon ten years ago ; there was mani-
fest power and blessing on the evening on which it was
first delivered. As the congregation were asked, " Who
believes in this rejected Man ? " hundreds rose to their feet
in testimony of their faith in Him.

The study of " The Writing on the Cross " was done in
student days twenty years ago ; may the Holy Ghost blees
it to the strengthening of the faith of some in the precious
Word which is our unerring chart !

The thoughts given on " The Name of God " and " His
Name's Sake " comprise many years' study ; "His Name's
Sake" was written about two years ago. We remember
well the triumph with which the writer held it up in manu-
script, because he always felt he had gained a victory when
he got his fast-flowing thoughts vmtten on paper.

" The Glory of God " was the subject of his last sermon
on earth ; the one Lord's Day hie revelled in preaching on
"The Glory," and the next he had entered the pearly gates
and was beholding His glory. There was no theme that he
more rejoiced in than God's exaltation. Man was nothing
in his view, nowhere— a failure in every position ; but he
had L'inse apprehension and appreciation of God. A
friend said after enjoying his preaching for some months,
" I have learned one thing since I came here, — I have learned
to know God." As the voice is heard no more, may the
printed pages have a similar result, and to His Name will
be all the praise.

M. L. MACKAT.

10, MORNINGSIDE DRIVE,

Edinbubqb, Nov, 1885.

CONTENTS.

PREFACE ; y

THE SEEKING SAVIOUR 1

THE GREAT SHEPHERD 15

" UNTIL " 26

SERVING AND FOLLOWING 31

THE SACRIFICE, THE PRIEST, AND THE SAVIOUR . 42
THE POWER THAT THE WORLD KNOWS NOTHING

ABOUT .60

christ the power of god . . . .74
"say not in thine heart" . . . .86
righteousness, human and divine . . .95
job's question and Paul's answer . , . 104
the claims of the man jesus . . . .116
the writing on the cross 146

viil' Contents.

fAoa
THE NAME OF QOD 159

EMMANUEL-JESUS 180

HIS NAME 185

MT name's sake 194

THE OLOBT OF OOD 206

THE TWO ANTHEMS 235

"LORD JESUS, come'* •••••. 242
"FOR ever" . 244

■/

TBE SEEKING 8AVI0UB.

" For the Son of Man is come to seek and to, oave that
which was lost." — Luke xix. 10,

LL Christians rejoice in the reality of
the divinity of our Lord and Saviour
JesuB Christ; but is it not of great
importance to keep in our hearts the reahty of
His humanity, especially when Holy Scripture
tells us that "Every spirit that confesseth that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God " ?
Among all the accounts of our Lord's life on
earth, Luke presents Him most fully as a Man.
Matthew traces His genealogy only up to
Abraham, and presents Him as a real Jew;
Mark gives us no genealogy, but begins with
His Gospel-ministry, and John gives what
might be called His Divine genealogy — " The
Word was God ; " Luke t: js His genealogy
up to Adam, thus showing Him to be the Son
of Man.

Our theme is the Son of Man, and His work
as told to us in Luke xix. 10 : " For the Son
of Man is come to seek and to save that which
was lost.** There is a beautiful because
Divine fitness in Luke communicating to us

. 1

<■

■' .%

The Seeking Saviour.

this statement in its connection. Luke was
not au apostle. Very little is known of him
hesides his being ** the beloved physician,"
who certainly obeyed the second part of the
evan^cfelioal commission — " to heal the sick,"
although we do not hear much of his preach-
ing "the kingdom of God." It is a precious
thought that the Saviour Himself, in sending
out the twelve, thought of man both with
regard to his spiritual and bodily needs. A
Christian physician above all men is able to
look at men as men. Has he to cure disease ?
He sees man as^ made in the image of God,
and knows nothing of difference between the
best and the worst. He is as careful in setting
the fractured limb of the burglar as in minis-
toriug to the lameness of au empress. And
where he sees an opportunity he can mo :3b
deftly plase a woid that may be of spiritual
power to his patient. Thus Luke the recorder
has been chosen with Divine wisdom to give
us many characteristic accounts of God's love
to men. Only Luke tells us of the Good
Samaritan ; the Shepherd going after the lost
sheep ; the woman seeking for the coin that
was lost ; the Father receiving the prodigal ;
the Pharisee and the publican ; Christ's inter-
view with Zacchgeus ; the penitent thief, and
many other wonders of grace.

In the nineteenth chapter of Luke we find
that Zacohseus, the chief among the tax-
gatherers, was very anxious to see this wonder-

i.-^\

% \%

flttW

The Seeking Saviour.

ful Man of whom he had heard, namely Jesus.
There was a crnw.1, and he was little; but
neither his own inability nor the presence of
the crowd conquered him. He found a point
of vantage on a sycamore tree, and our Lord,
fully understanding the wish of Zacchseus and
the small grain of faith that was workiug in
him, told him He was to become his Guest.
All murmured, not knowing the grace of the
Saviour, and to the murmurings Zacchaeus
answered by a vindication of himself. Fifty
per cent, of wnat he had he gave to the poor,
not a mere legal ten per cent. ; and had he
taken anything wrongfully from any one, he
gave him four times its value — a most con-
scientious, upright man. This we hold to
have been the practice of his life before he
met Jesus, and his vindication of his moral
uprightness when they all murmured at Jesus
going to him.

Jesus, however, makes very short work of
all this self-vindication, as He did with Nico-
demus, thiit very good natural man who came
and paid Him the highest compliments, and
who received this answer : " Ye must be born
again."

The conduct of Zacchaeus was very proper
and commendable, but our Lord says, " This
day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch
as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son
of Man is come to seek and to save that
which was lost.'^ Let us now look at this

'■m

>^'

The Seeking Saviour.

Divine reason for salvation coming to a self-
righteous sinners house :

First, the Person—'' The Son of Man.'*

Second, His work — " is come to seek and to
save J"

Third, the objects of His work — " that
which was lost.''

I. The Person. — The Son of Man. This is
a wonderful name, and a name that cur Lord
seems always desirous of being used. Does it
not tell us of at least three things ? 1. Humi-
liation ; 2. Perfection ; 3. HeirsMp.

1. Humiliation. — He reached His crown by
the cross. Before His honour was humility.
He, ** being in the form of God, thought it
not robbery to be equal with God : but made
Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him
the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men : and being found in fashion
as a man. He humbled Himself, and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross." Ho passed by angels, for He never
became an angel ; passed by all the princi-
palities and powers in heavenly places, all the
peers of gloiy, and came in the strength of
His own strong love to be the Son of Man, to
be one of us, in order that He might be one
with us. He laid aside the crown and the
sceptre of the universe to enter into lae circum-
stances, sorrows, and responsibilities of man; to
handle the saw and the axe, and to be the work-
ing man in the midst of His own great work :

;:i(

The Seeking Saviour.

*" The foxes found rest-, and the birds had their neat
In the shade of the cedar tree,
But Thy couch was the sod, O Thou Son of God I
In the deserts of Galilee."

2. His Ferfection. — Can one man live to
the glory of God, and without sin ? Behold
the perfect, sinless Son of Man. ** holy, harm-
less, undefiled, separate from sinners." Adam
failed, by the temptation to become as a god.
The Son of Man prevailed, by taking the
subject part of a man. He answered the
devil's temptation by no appeal to His divinity,
but to the Scripture given for man's use. Tne
first man, through her who was to have been
a help-meet for him, fell by indulging in the
lust of the flesh ("the tree was good for
food *'), the lust of the eyes (" it was pleasant
to the eyes"), and the pride of life ("a tree
to be desired to make one wise ").

The Son of Man showed His perfection when
tempted by the devil, manifesting Himself as
THE promised Seed. The Son, in resisting by
the Word of God the temptations of the
devil, rested upon the written Word : " By
the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the
paths of the destroyer." When the lust of
the flesh was suggested. He answered : " It is
written, Man shall not live by bread alone."
When the lus,t of the eye was before Him \ "It
is written. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy
God, and Him only Shalt thou serve.'* And
when the pride of life was temptingly exposed:

The Seeking Saviozir.

"It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the
Lord thy God."

Have we seen His humiliation as Son of
/ Man ? We also soe His perfection in exalta-
ii'/ tion as claimed by Him in this title ; for He
claimed in it that which had been written
by the prophet Daniel : " I saw in the night
visions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man
came with the clouds of heaven, and came to
the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him
near before Him. And there was given Hirn
dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all
people, nations, and languages should serve
Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion
which shaU not pass away, and His kingdom
that which shall not be destroyed."

3. Heirship. — The Son of Man is Heir of
man. We have great exactness in 1 Cor. xv.
45-47, where Ch;'ist is spoken of as " the last
Adam," and ** the second man;" that is to
say, there are two men, the first one a total
failure, the second his Son and Heir, " the
Lord from heaven," in " Whom is all perfec-
tion." And there never will be another
representative head (Adam), for '* the last
Adam" has come, and has been known as
" a quickening Spirit." Cain is not spoken
of as the son of man, neither is Abel nor Seth ;
the Seed of the woman alone secures this title,
and with it serves Himself Heir to all man's
possessions. And what are these ? ** The
cattle upon a thousand hills " are the Lord's.

:^^..-,^--.-.,> V.V' ;-.>

The Seeking Saviour.

The gold in all the mines and the pearls in all
the oceans belong to their Maker. Wnat, then,
is man's possession, and what can he leave as
peculiarly his own to his son and heir? Only-
one thing, and that is his sin. Behold the
Son of Man in anguish under it ! Behold
Him bearing '' our sins in His own body on
the tree I " '' Behold the Lamb of God, Who
taketh away the sin of the world ! " If there
had been no sin to bear, there would have been
Son of Man ; if there had been no Son of

Man, there would have been no sin put

away.

II. His WoiiK. — When He has become Son
of Man, we find Him doing a work commen-
surate with this wonderful title.

1. He has come. 2. He has come to seek.
3. He has come to save.

1. He has come. — How precious is the word
*' come " as found in Scripture : " Come now
and let us reason together," says the con-
descending and loving Jehovah. " Come unto
Me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden,"
is the word of the Son of Man. '' Come, ye
blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you." will be the glad summons
of the Judge of all the earth. But however
precious "Come" may be, "«6* come " is
much more so, and can alone make the invita-
tion possible. Tliat is to say, the Son of Man
did not say to man, *' Come," till He Himself
had come.

(

TJie Seeking Saviour.

'■■>.

No sooner had the tempter ruined Creation
work, than the Redeemer-God began His
work, and came to seek the wandering Adam
in these words of pathetic tenderness: "Adam,
where art thou ? " And through type and
symbols God has been coming to man, and
at last " the Son of Man is come." Glorious
event in the annals of eternity I Glorious
cHmax of the history of time I Glorious mani-
festation of the God of heaven I Glorious
pi'ovision for the sons Of men! He has
spanned all the distance between heaven and
earth. He has bridged all the chasm between
an a^gry God and a guilty sinner. He has. in
His own person shown the true Jacob's ladder
stretching from the throne of God to the
rock-bound cover of the sinner's tomb. The
lifeboat's noble crew do not invite the ship-
wrecked sailors to come to the life-boat until
the life-boat has gone to them ; so Christ
does not say, "Come," until He Himself
" is come.*' He has annihilated the distance.
He can say, " I came down from heaven."
" The Son of Man came not to be ministered
imto, but to minister, and to give His life
a ransom for many." He came not "to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance.'*
" This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all
acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners." Christ Jesus came
from His Father and His eternal love, His
crown, His throne, " into the world," this

The Seeking Saviour.

distant, fallen, groaning, sin-doomed, God-
hating world.

2. He came to Beek. — " Seek ye the Lord,"
is a Divine injunction, and as a duty is bind-
ing on all creatures whom God has made.
The law given to Israel discovered how loth
man was to seek God, so that we find in
Eomans iii. 11, among the various accusations
brought against man, this one is prominert,
*' I'here is none that seeketh after God." But
now grace has revealed to us this wonderful
fact, that God in the person of the Son is
seeking the sinner. Adam ran from God
when he fell, but God went after him, seeking
him, as much as to say. If ye flee from Me,
and if ye prefer the devil's lie to My truth,
and prefer to do without Me, I come to seek
you. I wish you back. I do not wish to do
without you, — "Adam, where art thou? " He
sought out the fishermen and their friends at
Galilee's sea. He sought for little Zacchaeus
in the midst of a crowd as he was on the
sycamore-tree. Reader, He is seeking for you
now, as you may be seated in the tree of your
own self-righteousness or self-importance or
self-greatness. But it is only as one descend-
ing from all such morality trees or self-
sufficiency trees that you can be found by
the seeking Saviour.

3. He has come to save as well as to seek. —
"The grace of God that bringeth salvation
hath appeared to all men." His mission is

/'-:

The Seeking Saviour.

ii'

very specific ; Hia work is very exact : He
came not to instruct men in science or art^
to teach them how to use the geologist's
hammer, the astronomer's telescope, or the
student's microscope. All these could be dis-
covered and employed by the reason of man.
He came not to solve or settle the questions
arising between science a^^d religion. Ho
came not to teach politics, or to decide
whether unlimited monarchy or constitutional
government or democracy is the best method.
He came to save — to sxive us from the loenalty
of sin by His atonement. ** For by grace are
ye saved through faith ; and that not of your-
selves ; " "receiving the end of your faith,
even the salvation of your souls ; " to save
us from the poioer of sin by His Holy Spirit,
by Whom we work out our *' own salvation
with fear and trembling," knowing that *' it
is God Who worketh in us, both to will and
to do of His good pleasure ; " to save us from
the preseiice of sin by the completed top- stone
put upon Hie work. For '' to them that look
for Plim shall He appear the second time
without sin unto salvation."

Salvation-work has been His great work
since creation-work was marred. Salvation-
work is the work revealed from Genesis to
Eevelation. Salvation was the work of the
Father till the Son appeared (for " My Father
worketh hitherto "). In type and sacrifice,
in blood and fire, in history and prophecy,

I '

n-f-niiTni i iiiriniT jmrirrf nrif i n i i i

The Seekmg. Saviour.

salvation was the work. When the Son came
it was still to worl^ at salvation, by tnreoept
and example, by lessons and parables, by
suffering, and finally at the Cross to say,
<* It is finished." The Son of Man is come
to save ; and since His day the Third Person
of the blessed Trinity, the Holy Ghost, has
come to unfold .o us this salvation, to carry
on this Divine work among men, this heavenly
work on earth, this eternal work in time, and
by letter and instruction and unseen and un-
heard influence to convey to us conviction,
repentance, conversion, regeneration, salva-
tion ; and to the Father, Son, and Holy
G-host we bow as to the God of our salva-
tion.

Ill Those interested in this work, The
Lost.

Lost has bound up in its letters (1) the idea
guilty; (2) the idea corrupt; (3) the idea
valued.

1. The lost is guilty. — " All we like sheep
have gone astray," etc. We' have left the
fountrdn of living waters, and hewed out for
ourselves " broken cisterns, that can hold no
water." We have offended; and he who
offendeth '* in one point is guilty of all." The
holy law as an impartial jury has brought in
the verdict ** Guilty." And thus we are lost
to Him Who created us. We have brought
ourselves under the curse of His holy law.
Yea, we are guilty, as bound up in the same

The Seeking Saviour,

humanity of the apostoh'o accusation, "Ye
have killed the Prince of Life."

2. The lost is corrupt. — Intended for the
Creator's use, we are now by nature and
practice of no use to Him, utterly " unprofit-
able : " the fine gold has become dim. In-
tended to show His power and Godhead in
this world, we have sunk beneath the level
of beasts; so that humanity has even wor-
shipped '* birds, four-footed beasts, and creep-
ing things." We have not only been guilty
of specific breakings of God's holy law, by
which we are seen to be transgressors, but
our natures are fallen, we are depraved and
corrupt, the imagination of the thoughts of
the heart only evil continually. And the
work of a seeking Saviour is required not only
to pardon our transgressions, but to cover our-
sin. Self-will, self-seeking, and self-pleasing
have taken the place of God's will, God-seek-
ing, and God-pleasing ; and thus while self is
gratified we are lost to God.

3. The lost is valued. — While passing
through the street, if a straw dropped from my
hand I should think nothing and say nothing
about it. But should I lose a five-pound note,
I should at once think of and speak of my
loss. And why ? Because I knew its value,
and could do very badly with its loss. "I
have lost the sheep," says the shepherd, be-
cause to him it was valuable. "I have lost
my piece of silver," says the woman, because

The Seeking Saviour,

she could ill afford to lose it. '^ I have lost
my hoy," says the father, heoause he loved the
hoy. The lost is valued, the lost is loved.
Oh, what love is in that little word 01 one
syllable, " lost I " You even may not feel that
you have lost God ; hut the grace and value
and appreciation all begin on His side. You
have chosen the world, the devil, and the
flesh; but God says: I love you, I do not
wish to do without you. I feel I have lost
something. Suns and stars, planets and
com(3ts, day and night, summer and winter,
are all under My control. The reins of ten
thousand stars and systems are held in My un-
created hands. Angels that excel in strength
rejoice to do My will, and obey My command-
ments. The sea hears My voice and calms its
waves. " The floods clap their hands " to
My glory. The forests shake at My presence
Flowers bloom to reflect the beauty of the
Eternal. Yea, even " fire, hail, snow, and
vapours " fulfil My words ; '* fruitful trees, and
all cedars ; beasts and all cattle," join in alle-
giance. Oh, thou vicegerent of God, made in
His image, placed at the head of creation I I
have Lost thee. Still I love thee, have so
loved thee that I have said. Thou art lost to
Me ; so loved thee that I have sent My only-
begotten Son to seek thee. And only the lost
sinner lies in, the pathway of the seeking
Saviour.
What is the answer, my fellow lost one,

T/ie Seeking Saviour.

that you and I have to make ? Let us do it
together; for "there is no difference : for all
have sinned and come short of the glory of
• , God." Yes, Lord, we are guilty; we are
corrupt; we are lost. We would write ''Lost "
on the palms of our hands, on the soles of our
, feet ; in all we do and wherever we go we are
lost. "Lost" we engrave on our intellects,
our wills,, our affections ; at all times, under
all circumstances, and in all our faculties, we
but say " Lost." We wait not for the judg-
ment-bar to hear the doom. We accept Thy
judgment, "Lost." But we joyfully .h ^ar
through that word the echo from the eteiaal
realities, "Loved " We hear it from the in-
carnate Word, "It is finished." And as we
are and where we are we joyfully believe the
message that Thou, Father, hast sent by
the Spirit to us, that "the Son of Man is
come to seek and to save that which was lost."
And on our part we take the lost sinner's
place., and claim the lost sinner's Saviour.

■■■■Mlli

THE GREAT SHEPHERD,

Psalm xxiii.

HIS subject is au old theme, one which
most of us have boeu acquainted with
^^^ from the time we sat ou our mother's
knee. The twenty-third Psahn is one of the
most perfect lyrical gems that the world has
0ver seen. We have read it many a time,
but it is always fresh.

■ *' The Lord is my Shepherd I " It is a
wonderful thing that He should condescend
to make Himself our Shepherd. Three times
in the New Testament is the Lord spoken of
as a Shepherd : once in the Gospel of John,
once in the First Epistle of Peter, and
once in that wonderful letter to the Hebrews.
In John X. 11 you read, ** I am the Good
Shepherd ; " in Hebrews xiii. 20, " Now the
God of peace, that brought again from the
dead our Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of
the sheep, through the blood of the everlast-
ing covenant, make you perfect in every good
work to do His will; " and lastly, if you look
at the First Epistle of Peter v. 4, you will
find this written, " And when the Chief

;«v'

The Great Shepherd.

Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a
crown of glory that fadeth not away." Each
mention of the word has a distinct adjective,
one the " Good Shepherd," one the " Great
Shepherd," and the third the " Chief Shep-
herd."

Now we shall look first at the twenty-third
Psalm in its glorious setting. It is a perfect
gem. Most gems look well or not just as the
setting they are in sets them olf properly or
not. But this gem, which would he beautiful
in any setting, shines out all the more here
on account of the inimitable lustre of its
setting. With the twenty-second Psalm on
the one hand and the twenty-fom-th on the
other, it could not fail to be beautiful. The
twenty-second, you know, is the psalm of that
wonderful hour of Calvary. It was the psalm
used by our Lord during His crucifixion ; and
it is thus the expression of our Saviour's feel-
iugs at that d:eadful hour. Then we come
into the twenty-third Psalm, the psalm of
Christian experience, the psalm of the journey,
the psalm of the desert, the psalm of the
wildernesSc And then there is the glorious
tweuty-fourth Psalm. It is not the dying
psalm I nor the weariiiess and the weeping of
the desert ; but desert cares are over, and
weeping gone ; and we have the magnificent
psalm of the glory of the King.

V7e have the Good Shepherd in the twenty-
second Psalm, the Great Shepherd in the

'Ihe Great Shepherd.

twenty-third Psalm, and the Chief Shepherd
in the twenty-fourth Psalm. We have

CrosSy desert, and croion.

The cross, that is the twenty-second PsaJm;
the wilderness, that is the twenty-third; the
crown, that is the twenty-fourth. First, then,
we have the Good Shepherd laying down His
life with the cry, *' Why hast Thou forsaken
Me?" Then we have the Great Shepherd.
For He must needs be a Great Shepherd, with
such a great flock of sheep, and- very stupid ones,
too, sometimes, to look after. We are going
through this great wilderness, wandering about,
and the Lord is the Great Shepherd looking
after His flock. And then in the twenty-fourth
Psalm we h ^ve the Chief Shepherd, who
rewards all the under- shepherds. Looking
then at its setting, the Good Shepherd on the
one hand and the Chief Shepherd on the
other, we look at the guidance of the Great
Shepherd. And in passing let me say a word
on one point. We hear a great deal at the
present time of the goodness of God. They
have made out that God is so good that
He will never punish any one. Atid this
belief is gaining ground daily, even among
Christians, I am sorry to say; they try to
explain away Christ's doctrine of everlasting
punishment. Some go so far as to say that
r,o one will be eternally punished; that all
will be let off. But Christ says, **I am the
Good Shepherd, and I lay down My life for

m. i 8

;*.

The Great Shepherd.

the sheep." There is no letting off there.
There is the punishment of sin in the cruci-
fixion of the Son of God for His sheep.

Now in the psalm of the wilderness we have
a wonderful perfection. The first verse is the
theme of it all, and the challenge of faith.
The Psalmist puts the Lord between him and
circumstances, and boldly challenges any one
or anything to come between him and God.*
It is the challenge of faith. " Come what
may," the believer can say, "I shall not
want." I have not in the past wt^nted any-
thing, or do not at the present want anything,
but "I shall not want," because the Lord is
my Shepherd. Of course our human nature
will perhaps want many things ; it may want
the very necessaries of life ; but those are not
real wants. God says that they who trust in
Him shall never want any good thing.

The last verse is the summation of the
whole matter, as the first is the challenge.
The second verse makes provision for our

Weakness^ and speaks about the pastures
where the Great Shepherd leads His sheep.
The great thing in a shepherd is to know all
the best pastures, and where the greenest
grass grows, so that his sheep may get the
best possible food. Now Christ leads us into
the greenest pastures, and by the still waters.
The thoughtfulness of knowledge with the
preparedness of power makes the guidance
perfect. There is not a difficulty that has

The Great Shepherd.

arisen, is arising, or will arise, but the Lord
has anticipated it, and met it, and provided
for it. His wisdom anticipated it ; His power
provided for it. But the believer may say,
" I am weak, I am going through the desert,
and I can get nothing from the earth," for
there is nothing that springs from the earth
that will feed your faith. In other words,
'there are no waving cornfields in the desert.
What will He send you ? Manna down from
heaven. He will send you better than angels*
food. " He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures; He leadeth me beside the still
waters." The pillar-cloud of His own eye
leads me.

** He maketh me to lie down." This is the
quietness of perfect confidence. The hungry
sheep does not lie down in green pastures ;
only the satisfied one ' does so. This is
conscious communion with God, not the
activity of service. We cannot always fight ;
we must have communion. In warfare you
must not put on the sleeping dress, but the
fighting dress. Our loins girt about with
truth, having on the breastplate of righteous-
ness, and our feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace, and above all the
shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation,
and lastly the sword of the Spirit, — that is
the armour we are to wear when we go forth
to the battle. That is the activity of battle.
But if you are always battling, you will find

t4-h1

T/ie Great Shepherd.

that you cannot always stand. The more we
are in the quietness of perfect communion, the
more shall we be able to stand the hardships
of war.

You often hear of believers, especially young
disciples, who get up into the heights of bliss,
and want to stay there. They mount up with '
wings as eagles ; and you may let them stay
there, for they will be brought down to the
daily fight of fife soon enough. And after the
mounting what is there ? " They shall run
and not be weary." And then shall they
mount again? No, "they shall walk and not
faint." That is a patient continuance in well-
doing. And it is sometimes harder to do that
than to mount with eagles' wings ; to keep
amid the storms, and troubles, and sunshme of
life a steady Christian walk and conversation.
God's ways are various. It is not always
sowing and reaping. He sometimes, after a
time of refreshing and revival, sends a winnow-
ing time ; and noce but those who are firmly
resting on the Kock of Ages will stand through
it all.

But after this you would think that was
enough; but no, having done all, we are to
** stand" — stand ! Yes, it needs grace to stand.
Sometimes when the battle is pressing against
us hard, we cannot do more than keep our
ground, and it requires almighty grace to
enable us to do even that. And after the
mounting, and after the running, and after

■'■■"«'

The Great Shepherd,

the walking, and after the standing, you might
think that was surely enough. But there is
a lower step yet. "He maketh me to lie
down** in the quietness of confidence and
communion.

The third verse points us to the question of

Sin still present in the believer, and requir-
ing daily cleansing. Here it is no question
of quickening, but of cleansing. But this He,
the Great Shepherd, had also anticipated and
met, so "He restore th my soul. He leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness for His
name*s sake.** There is my weakness ; He
gives me food. He thought I would be sinful,
— "He restoreth my soul."

Then in the fourth verse, when the Psalmist
comes to speak about this awful'thing,

Deathf there is a transition in iihe form of
speech. At first, you notice he spoke about
God; now he changes and speaks to God.
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil ; for
Thou art with me ; Thy rod and Thy staff,
they comfort me.** Does he not say

"For
He will be with me'*? No. "For Thou
art with me." "He" sounds as though He
were high up in the heavens, — " Thou,**
that He is close beside me, down on our
earth. "Thou art with me,** A Friend,
more intimate than a.iy friend on earth — a
Friend, more dear tha- any friend on earth,
a Friend to dry every t3ar, a Friend who will

The Great Shepherd.

stand by the grave and will weep with you
and with me. He has a human heart, and
He will not only stand by you, but He will
weep with you, for He is a Man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief.

It is not " I am going to tread the valley
of death after awhile." I do not believe the
deathbed is the valley of the shadow of death.
I believe we enter it from our cradle. The
Hebrew word could be rendered quite as cor-
rectly, "I am now treading the valley of
death." John Bunyan, in the Pilgrim^ s Pro-
gress, makes Christian go through a river of
death, which he finds deep and rapid and
difficult to get through. Now according to
the illustration of Joshua's crossing of Jordan,
the Christian goes through dry-shod, and he
can triumphantly sing —

" Where are thy waves, O Jordan ?

Thy emptied bed lies dry,
And all thy power is broken,

Thy waters stand on high.
I fear not Jordan's river ;

Its flood is pass'd for me ,
And, hasting dry-shod over, .

I soon at rest shall be. ,

' *♦ I do not dread death's valley, ;

To me a pasture green ;
For there, beside still waters.

Is laid its peaceful scene.
I do not fear death's shadow,

A shadow ne'er can harm ;
I must rejoice in Jesus,

When resting on His ann.*

TJie Great Shepherd.

•'* I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me ;
Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me."
We need both the rod and the staff, the
rod to correct and the staff to support, and
they both comfort.

In the fifth verse we come to owr enemies —
principalities and powers in heavenly places.
These He has thought of and met as my
Great Shepherd. Both lion and bear are
known to Him and met by Him, and there
is nothing left for me but to sit at His table
under His banner of love. " Thou preparest
a table before me in the presence of mine
enemies." He gives me the place of a royal
priest beside Him. " Thou anointest my head
with oil." Surely we have now reached the
running over of our blessings, ** My cup runneth
over.*' The Lord hath filled it to overflowing.
There is water from the overflowing cup to
refresh the earth, and there is incense from
the adoring heart to ascend to God in worship.
And let me say, in passing, to all Christian
workers, Sunday-school teachers, and others,
you will do very little good except with the
overflow. We must ourselves be so filled
with Divine truth, that we cannot contain it
all, so that it will overflow, and the overflow
will bless others. Unless you are filled to
overflowing yourselves, never try to fill others,
because you will need all you have got, and
have none to spare.

This is the finishing of it all — myself not

The Great Shepherd.

wanting, but running over to bless others.
What more do we want? We have seen
everything met: weakness, sins, death, and
foes. What more can we want ? Yes, there
is still something more. We have to look at
our footprints left in the sands of the desert.
He thought of this ; therefore ** surely good-
ness and mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life ; and I will dwell in the house of
the Lord for ever." Before us we have Him-
self: " Thou leadest me." Then *' Thou art
with me," the Lord protecting either flank.
We are guarded, you see, in the Jjront, and
on either side, but there is stili the un-
protected rear. " Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of my life."
These great twin-brothers, goodness ari
mercy, follow us from behind. And it does
not say they have followed us merely in the
past, but they shall follow us all the days of
our life. The Psalm opened with the bold
challenge, " I shall not want." " Find out
anything, if you can, that I want." Now
it closes with another challenge, which no
one can gainsay, " Goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of my life.**
We are protected on every side; and then
there is nothing before us but the bright
city of God, " the house of the Lord for

ever.

" City of the pearl-bright portal,
City of the japper wall,

The Great Shepherd.

City of the golden pavement,

Seat of endless festival,
Citv of Jehovah, Salem,

City of eternity,
To thy bridal hall of gladness

From this prison would I flee ;
Heir of gloir,

That shall be for thee and me."

. e

* !|

><■

" until:'

1. liSBSlHE shepherd seeks the lost sheep
* * UNTIL he find it ' ' (Luke xv. 4). And
it is only the lost sheep that lies in
the pathway of the seeking shepherd. If I take
the place of a lost sinner, and nothing else, it
is not so much my part to seek Christ as His
to seek me. This is grace. He seeks until
He finds; He does not stop in His search
until He and we meet. Alas I our part is
only straying.

The word of law would he, ** They that
seek Me early shall find Me " (Prov. viii. 17).
And the consequence of man being put on
this ground is stated by God Himself: *' There
is none that seeJceth after God " (Rom. iii. 11).

The holy, just, and good law of God came
demanding of us love to God, and proved that
what God justly demands &om man He has
not got, and cannot get, so that, without
exception, it may be said of all men who
ought to have sought after God, " There is
none that seeJceth after Ood.**

Gbace comes in now, and says, " I will
seek you, and I will seek until I find." Thank
God, it is He who breaks in, upon us, and not

" Untiir

we upon Him. We would willingly remain
among those who ** forget " God. Our wills
are free only to wander, and get further from
Him. In fact, the first thing God does in
breaking in upon our enmity is "to make us
willing."

Our part is to take the place of a sinner
and nothing else. Most people believe they
are sinners, but comparatively few believe that
they are sinners and nothing else but sinners.

As truly as He hath shown us that we are
lost, and nothing but lost, so surely can we
gladly claim that seeking Shepherd, for He
seeks until He finds.

Nothing stops Him in His search; not all
the hatred of man or devils ; not all the
malice and spite and envy of the chief priests ;
not all the murmurings of the Pharisees and
scribes; not all the waywardness of the
wandering sheep ; nor the indifference and
degradation of those for whom He is search-
ing. He will have His joy, the joy that
rejoices not until it finds.

2. But there is another and an awfiil
" UNTIL " in Luke xvii. 27 : ** They did eat,
they drank, they married wives, they were
given in marriage, until the day that Noah
entered into the ark, and the flood came and
destroyed them all ; and as it was in the
days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the
Son of Man."

That little word " until " tells out the sad

■ml

- ii

"^-

" Untiir

story of what man is. Men will please them-
selves, let God's claims or God's grace be
where they may. And thus will they go on
"until!"

But every history has its until. The course
of the vilest infidel is brought to a close by an
UNTIL. The world's race to destruction will
be consummated in that until. Vain are the
thoughts of those who think of the gradual
conversion of the world. They go on as Jesus
Christ said they would — careless, and wholly
engrossed with their own afifairs, until the
Lord comes.

This is not each man knowing the Lord
from the least to the greatest. The world
goes on in rebellion and self-pleasing until the
Lord comes a,nd sweeps them away as with
the besom of destruction. May we be now
as men that believe this, and tell out the
virtues of a Christ for sinners until that
day !

Few of us, I fear, realise that there is a
way of keejping out of hell, but no way of
getting out of it.

That vain imagination, that the punish-
naent of the wicked will not be eternal,
is sapping the very foundations of Christian
action. What is the use of Christian effort ?
let us take things quietly if, after su£fering
for a while in a purgatorial hell, all are to be
restored !

May God have mercy on us for our lukewarm-

" Untiir

ness, and stir us all up to believe His simple
word, that until Jesus comes men will go on
in their mad career, but that this is the limit
to their proud waves ; for we again read, that

3. The heavens will receive Jesus Christ
** UNTIL the times of restitution of all things
which God hath spoken," etc. And this
untily while bringing glorious and final salva-
tion to the Christ-receiver, restoration to God's
ancient people, and emancipation to a groan-
ing creation, is the time of destruction of all
Christ's rejecters. For God says (Acts iii. 21,
23), that in the time of the restitution of all
things ** it shall come to pass that evenj soul
which will not hear that Prophet (Jesus) shall
be DESTROYED from among the people."

" Let God be true, and every man a liar."
Christ will remain away until this time of
mingled salvation and destruction : salvation
to all who were sought out and found by Him ;
destruction to all who rejected Him, it being
one of God's impossibilities to renew, such to
repentance. Solemn words I May we make
our calling and election sure !

'* He came not to call the righteous, but
sinner s.^^ Thus called and thus saved, we can
patiently wait, leaning on the precious word,
while even some that profess Christ's name
are leaning to their own understandings, and
taking their own ideas as their light, or, while
a godless, reckless world is posting on to de-
struction, taking no warning, dancing madly.

■:''?; ill

♦' Untiir

blindly on, until (and what an .until it will
be!) — until He shall gird His sword on His
thigh, to slay, and not to heal ; and, in the
midst of their calamity and dreadful fear. His
word is : — " I will laugh at your calamity ; I
will mock when your fear comety ^ (Fiov. i. 26).

Hfl

8EBVING AND FOLLOWING.

" If any man serve Me, let him follow Me." — John xii. 26.

E are quite prepared to hear this, " If
any man follow Me, he ought to serve
Me," but it is the converse of this we
have in this text. Is there not much Christ-
less energy, restlessness, and activity among
workers simply because there is so little follow-
ing of Christ ? Who are Christian workers ?
should every child of God not be a Christian
worker ? The mothers and daughters at home
work lor the Lord as well as the evangelist
and preacher.

Every member of the body should work,
and if from not working some joint has become
stiff, it has to be brought into working trim
by gradually giving it a little to do day by
day. Christ says to the sinner, Come to Me,
and I will give you rest ; He says to the
worker, Take My yoke and learn of Me, and
you v^ill find rest.

As the former part of this gracious passage
shows how the sinner is to get rest, so this
shows how the worker is to find his rest.
This, therefore, could never refer to an un-

. ; m

Serving and Following.

saved man, and should never be applied
to any except to those who are consciously
converted. A dead horse could never be
harnessed to draw the plough. You would
not put a yoke on a cold corpse : and an
unsaved man is dead (Eph. ii. 1) ; therefore
you cannot apply the yoke to him.

But to such as have life, these words must
be very potential, very solemn, very encourag-
ing, '* Take My yoke upon you.'^ What a
feUowship ! What grace to give us to be
sharers in His yoke ! And what was His
yoke? I think we obtain some indications
of its meaning if we do not dislocate the
passage from its preceding context, but view
it in the connection in which it stands. In
the former verses He was upbraiding the cities
wherein most of His mighty works had been
done ; where He had been working good
works, and had been called a devil; relieving
men, and blamed for so doing, as one who had
fellowship with Satan. Scornfully *' despised
and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief." This wa? His "yoke,"
rejection, when acting in p; < ;Tace ! And
this is the yoke we are to Ial. Do good to
men, and be blamed for it. Do many good
things, get many reproaches ; lavish your love
on this world, and be content to be misunder-
stood; lavish your goods as to God, and get
no return but side-looks from men. **Take
My yoke," says our Lord and Master. The

-7-.

Serving and Following.

road may be thorny, but it has been trodden
before by Him. Do you know "the fellowship
of His sufferings"? He says, "If any man
will come after Ale, let him deny himself, and
take up his cross, and follow Me." Are you
under His yoke, and no other yoke ? Not the
yoke of a Grod- dishonouring legalism ; not the
yoke of conformity to the world in its fashions,
its smiles, its sneers, its gentilities, its ways
of acting, its manner of judging, and its
opinions of this and that. " My yoke " is
all the Christian needs, and all the Christian
wants.

'•''liearn of Ife." Here again we have this
beautiful, comprehensive Me. Keader, do you
know its power ? It is Ms. Not My servants,
not My angels, not My prophets, but Me.
How many sit and learn of some great saint,
generally taking his distinctive fUults, like
cracks in reflecting mirrors, rather than his
graces. A dear brother said one day, he
believed the. memoir of a distinguished saint
"had done much harm." "How can that
be ? " I asked. " Because," said he, " men
wish to get into hie experience, and then
think they will get his feelings. If they
could only pray as often, read so much of
the Bible, get up at such an hour, conform
to all the rules he laid down for his conduct,
it would be all right with them, instead of
going directly to the Lord Himself." There
is real truth in this.

Serving and Following.

" Learn of Me," says Jesus. Do it by
praying, by communing, by singing, by read-
ing, by meditating, by watching His wondrous
hand, — it matters little in what way it is
done, but, at all costs, get to the only worthy
pattern "• Me," and " learn of Me."

" Fori am meek and lowly in heart.^' How
unlike the maxims and practice of men — every
man for himself ! Stand up for your rights !
Let no man trample upon you ! Do not be
reckoned a fool! Get a character for being
sharp, shrewd, and that no one is able to over-
reach you ! How different this from the
simplicity of the child vith the single eye,
learning of Jesus to be '' meek and lowly ; "
following Him who, " when He was reviled,
reviled not again," but was dumb before His
accusers.

The true Christian walk is to learn of Jesus
to be least of all and servant of all, without
being proud of the service. *' Bearing all
things, believing all thing, hoping all things,
enduring all things ; " content to be nothing,
or to do anything, for Christ ; to stand still,
to advance, or to go whither that lustrous
guiding Eye directs. Thus, and only thus,
"ye sh&ll find rest unto your souls."

How calmly and joyously did Jesus, who had
said, " Lo, I come to do Thy will," turn li'om
earth's rejections, earth's scorn and hardness,
after He had done many mighty works, to His
•Father, saying, " I thank Thee, Father ! "

Serving and Following.

In the parallel passage iu. Luke we are
informed that *' Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and
said, I thank Thee, Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, that Thou hast liid these .things
from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed
them unto habes. Even so. Father ; for so it
seemed good in Thy sight " (Matt. xi. 25 ;
Luke X. 21).

Cast out by men, He found His rest in God;
and this yoke of His He asks you to bear, and
this is the rest He asks you to find. Our rest
is not in service, not in much doing, not in
a restless unbelief, not in an uneasy annoyance
at not having a great crowd to speak to, ?nd
thus have an opportunity of doing a greater
amount of good, but in His Father.

How many of the true saints of God are
in bondage to their little bit of service, in
their own little corner of the mighty vine-
yard !

Our particular ways of doing things are
often a yoke. Alas ! is it not the common sin
of all the workers for God, that they get under
yokes to their work, and when the character
or sphere of their work changes, they are
fretted and disconcerted, instead of resting in
calm, childlike, simple faith on the unchanging
Father ?

Are we first following, then serving ? Are
we serving Him in the following ? We fear
that there are more who serve but do not
follow tiian those who follow and. do not

T , i r

' V>

i \

[:>.!

J ■■'

Serving and Following.

serve. Hew much Christless work there is I
How much this following Jesus, this learning
of Him, this bearing His yoke, strips us of all
that is of self 1 Live only for others — ^live as
Christ lived — walk behind Him, and be of no
reputation — cheerfully spend for Him — cheer-
fully want with Him — need nothing else but
Him.

My fellow Christian, only in thus following
Jesus can you find rest. You have tried many
other things. Long ago you found none in
the world ; since then you have been seek-
ing rest in this and that. Have you perfect
rest in the yoke-bearing of Jesus ? Only thus
will you find that His yoke is easy and His
bur'-^en liglit. Nothing else will suit that
Divme life which God has implanted but His
yoke. And this is a rest not to be got once
for all, but is a rest we are to be ever seeking,
and ever finding. ^

There is a rest that is obtained at first, and
it is for ever ; that is the rest in the atone-
ment and person of Jesus, — rest fc ^m the
consciousness of all guilt imputed and con-
demnation to be incurred. For there neither
is, nor can be, any condemnation to us, who
are **in Christ Jesus;" for He has eternally
settled that question for us eighteen hundred
years ago, and He ** dieth no more."

But there is this day-by-day 7?7id?m^ of rest
to our souls in bearing His yoke. The more
yoke-bearing the more rest-finding. In these

Serving and Following.

days of restless activity in every department
of 'the Church and world, activity in business,
politics, science, art, and religion, in the
desire for the novelty, and the consequent un-
rest, there is much need of standing still and
listning to the voice of God's aged prophet, as
with freshness he echoes the words of our
blessed Lord through these many centuries.
<* Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways,
and see, and ask for the old paths, where is
the good way, and ivalh therein, and ye shall
find rest for your souls *^ (Jer. vi. 16).

These paths Jesus trod — in these paths His
followers, those who have come and got rest as
guilty sinners, love to walk. In Philippians ii.
w( get Christ's humiliation, the worker's
example; in Philippians iii., Christ in exalta-
tion, the worker's aim. Philippians is the
letter of Christian experience, and twenty-
eight times **joy " or ** rejoice," or some such
word, is used; and Paul wrote it from a
Komish prison chained to a soldier. He had
already sung himself and Silas out of the prison
at Philippi, and no doubt the jailer would
appreciate this call to universal joy. How
could Paul thus joy in his chains? Simply
because he put God between him and all cir-
cumstances. Sense and unbelief put circum-
stances between us and God., Faith, that thus
brings real joy, puts God between me and
my riches, me and my poverty, me and my
adversity, me and my prosperity — perhaps a

<t •

1 m

III m

Serving and Following,

;'«'

i I

more difficult thing — and, whatever comes,
faith puts God first.

" Let nothing he done through strife or
vain-glory ; hut in lowliness of mind let each
esteem other better than themselves." Paul
understood the frailties and jealousies of Chris-
tian workers — amongst their equals, not among
either their superiors or inferiors. In the same
letter he says, "I beseech Euodias, cind beseech
Syntyohe, that they be of the same mind in
the Lord." Possibly both had been energetic
in sending contributions to Paul, but perhaps
had been at variance as to their districts, or
some other disputed point. In Luke ix. the
apostles, with all authority and power, could
not cast out a devil ; and the reason was, they
were contending who should be greatest. God
often cannot own, or show that He does own,
Christian workers, because it would minister
to their pride.

*' Let this mind be in you, which was also
in Christ Jesus." This is the true spirit of a
Christian worker following in service, imitat-
ing the perfect "Worker.

The Perfect Woekeb.

*' Who, being in the form of God, thought it
not robbery to be equal with God." Here we
have His highest glory. He is contrasted
with Adam, who desired to be on an equality
with God by an act of robbery; but Christ
Jesus had it by right, and not by grasping

Serving and Following.

robbery; and in the path of perfect service
the first thing He did was —

** He made Himself of no reputation ; " and
this is the very thing that most servants of
Christ aim at making — a reputation. This
is what the great mass of Christians encourage
the servants to make — a reputation ; and this
is where we find the root of the total failure
of Christian workers, the desire to make a
reputation. He has great reputation as a
teacher, evangelist, preacher, visitor, or any-
thing else. Then let him beware, and study
Philippians ii.

He is but a poor Sunday-school teacher !
then, praise God, he may be in the place to
be used without his ambition or self-conceit
being added to. A little taper may kindle a
big fire. He is but a poor preacher, weak
minister, or only an insignificant layman ;
then let him read for his joy Phil. ii. '' But
I have a reputation to make," says one ; *' I
have a name to get as a popular preacher, an
intellectual preacher, a logical preacher, an
oratorical preacher, a profound preacher, an
attractive preacher ; ' ' then look out, my friend,
and read Phil, ii., and let this mind be in
you which was in Christ Jesus, who *' made
Himself of no reputation." Until we find
that we have to please God alone^ independent
of self and self's ambition, we shall have
little of Christ's mind. He stepped from the
throne which He had by right to the servant's

i 'W

hi 11

'■'I

fell

Set'ving and Following.

place, which He entered by choice, to show
what obedience was, obedience in life,
obedience in death, and obedience even in
glory, when He takes the crown from the
Father. But when He "took upon Him
the form of a servant," He did not be-
come an angel, but came down to the lower
service.

'* Was made in the likeness of men," and
was there seen, not as man in his strength
and glory, but being found in fashion as a
man, " He humbled Himself, and became
obedient unto death ; ' ' and when death
came did not choose the death of peace
or honour, but the felon's death, the deaoh
of shame, ** even the death of the cross."
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted
Him.

Fellow- worker, this is the path to the Well
done ! This is the following Him in which
true serving is found. Let this mind be in
you.

May we day by day be seeking to trace every
footstep, bear His light and easy yoke along
the path of His perfect obedience — that only
good, comfortable, safe path for His disciples
— and sing each day with calm confidence
and joyful lips : —

((

I ^ove to kiss each print where Christ

Did set His pilgrim feet ;
Nor can I fear that blessed path

Whose traces are so sweet.

Serving and Following.

<» "^saA on, lead on triumphantly,
O blessed Lord ! lead on ;
Faith's pilgrims' sons behind Thee seek
The road that Thou hast gone.

•* He always wins who sides with God,
To him no chance is lost ;
God's will is sweetest to him when
It triumphs at his cost.

" 111 that God blesses is our good,
And unblest good is ill ;
And all is right that seems most wrong,
If it be His sweet will."

i'\

THE SACEIFICE, THE PBIEST, AND
THE SAVIOUB,

E see these three — Sacrifice, Priest, and
Saviour — connected in that wondrous
chain of doctrine in the end of Heb.
ix. 24-28, where we find the word appear three
times repeated —

1. He appeared to put away sin as the
Sacrifice.

2. He appears befor- xod for us as the
Priest.

3. He shall appear the second time for final
salvation.

Each of these has a difi'erent word in the
Greek, used, as we might expect, with a Divine
propriety, in each case serving only to eluci-
date the different aspects under which the
Lord Jesus is here seen.

1. He appeared, that is, became manifest as
the One who ever existed, but now came to be
visible.

2. He appears, that is, officially; for He
always appeared before God, but now it is
"/or us,^' Compare Exod. xxxiii. 13, where
this word is used in the Septuagint. . ♦

.•'*«

The Sacrifice, Priest, and Saviour. 43

3. He sihall appear, that is, shall be seen face
to face, as a man with his friend. This is the
word used in connection with Christ risen
(1 Cor. XV. 5), etc.

1. The Sactiifioe.

'* Now once, in the end of the world, hath
He appeared to put away sin hy the sacri-
fice of Himself." He who was the invisible
God took to Himself a true body, and became
manifest to this world, not merely a manifes-
tation of God, but God Himself manifest in the
flesh. Wondrous thought 1 God has appeared;
God has been manifested; God has been seen;
God has been treading this earth, and has
been seen by mortals' eyes. When was He
here? On w^at errand did He come? How
did He perform His work ?

1. The time tvhen He appeared — ** Now,
once, at the end of the world." What? Has
the world come to its end ? Yes, Christ
gathered up the lines of all the past ages.
He appeared at the end of the world, as under
the period of man's trial. Man was proved
utterly bad by Christ's coming, and His cross
is the end of man's probation.

'' In these last days God hath spoken to us
by His Son." He sent His Son '' last," He
is the ''last Adam." The last and worst
thing against man is now out. He would kill
God if he could. He killed God manifest in
the flesh. This has brought the world to its
end. The world is " condemned already."

m^i

n:;«

V -»1

44 The Sacrifice, Priest, and Saviour.

God is only delaying the execution of the
sentence to manifest His grace. After a man
is condemned, his history is done. What of
all the vaunted histories and progress of the
race ? God looks at the period since the Cross
as a blank — as a timeless gap, in ■which there
is no earth-history, but a wondrous unearthly,
heavenly calling going on, gathering people out
of the world to share the throne with His Son.

Now. Yes, during these eighteen centuries
the relative position of parties has remained
fixed, the world doomed, and God, saving,
out of it. ** Now is the day of salvation." It
has been one great long-suffering noio since
Calvary. If we belong to the world, we are
doomed — we are at our end already. If we
are only in the world, but not of it, our sin
is gone — we are safe.

2. The Vvork done. "He appeared, to put
away sin." What ? Was sin put away eighteen
hundred years ago? If it was not, Christ's
mission failed, for He came to put away sin.
He died in vain if sin be not put away. Friend,
do ' you not realise this fact, that sin was
put away by Christ before you were born?
Are not all your efforts to try to get sin away?
Is all your unrest not occasioned by the feel-
ing that sin is not put away ? If you are
trying to put away your sin, or to get your sin
put away, you know nothing about the gospel.
Let us look at a few things that this does not
mean.

■h

The Sacrifice, Priest, and Saviour. 45

(1) It does not oiean that, as to its
'presence in this tvorld, sin has been put away.
Alas! no one can look to our streets, our jails,
our asylums, our infirmaries, our newspapers,
and dream of such a thought. It has been
left to the too-wise Neologist to shut his eyes,
and call evil good. I have just been wonder-
ing why they don't deny the existence of death.
They deny the resurrection; they deny the
existence of sin, why not of death ? Is death
not a rpere idea? Is death a reality? No
philosopher ever felt death and told us what it
is. The fact that I see it could be as easily
got over as the fact of hundreds having seen
a man risen from the dead is got over. Eeason,
so called, gets over anything. When they
have got rid of the servant, sin, it should be
very easy to get rid of the wages, death. Is
it not wonderful that they still let God speak,
though they do try to tell us about the debt
of nature ? They still must know chat death
is the wages of sin, the Divine appointment.
"It is appointed to men once to die." Sin
exists all around as really as its wages, death ;
therefore that its existence is done awav with
m the world is not meant by the expression
here. And moreover, God has settled the
matter, for after Christ died and put away sin,
He says, "If we say we have not sinned, we
make Him a liar."

(2) It does not mean that, a^ to its presence
in the heart of any man, sin is put away. We

h l¥*r

I '

• •*

46 The Sacrifice, Priesi, and Saviour.

appeal to every man who knows what sin is,
and, though he is the oldest saint in the
world, he, if conscientious, must confess that
in him, that is, in his flesh, there dwells no
good thing. One of the greatest signs of
growth in grace is the judgment of sin within.

It is as walking in the light that we detect
our sin, and, above all, the God of truth has
said, *'If we say we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us " (1 John
i. 8). Therefore all your ideas of trying to
get rid of the feeling of sin are absurd, and all
your efforts in that direction are worse than
useless. If you did not feel any sin in you, it
would be the worst sign possible. Don't try
to get rid of the feeling of sin. Look to God's
Christ, who has put it away.'

What does this mean ? Mark, it is not that
He put away sms — "Behold the Lamb of God,
that taketh away" (not the sins, butj "the
sin of the world." Look at it from God's
point of view, and you will be able to get a
more scriptural grasp of the thought. Take
away your mind irom yourself, or any other
sinner — your ruin or your salvation. Look at
the existence of sin in the moral government
of God. God is not the Author of it. God's
name has been dishoiioured ; God's glory has
been assailed ; God's character has been com-
promised. The foul blot, sin, has been put on
the fair creation of God. Ciirist comes, say-
iug, I will put it away ; I will erase the dark

' f

The Sacrifice, Priest, and Saviour. 47

blot ; I will vindicate Thy name ; I will mani-
fest Thy character. And, in prospect of it
completed, He exclaimed, " I have glorified
Thee upon the earth." Mark, this is al- /
together mdependent of any single man's
salvation.

Had every soul from Adam down to the last
man rejected God's offered mercy, Christ
would, by His death, have glorified God by
the putting away of sin. Man is always taken
up with himself ; but the first note from the
choirs in harmony with the chorus of heaven
is, " Glory to God in the highest ; " then, bless
His name I "Peace on earth." ■

And is it not of far more consequence that
God should be glorified than that sinners
should be saved ? Thanks be to God, both
are accomplished by Chkist ; but the latter
has its value only as the former is its foun-
dation.

Since God has been glorified as to the
existence of sin, and in the person of His
Son it has been put away. He can send forth
His heralds, proclaiming a righteous way, by
which the vilest sinner, born in sin, steeped
in sin, may approach to Himself. He can
now tell the messengers to go into all the
world and tell the good news, that there is
a way in which God is just, and can not only
pardon, but justify sinners. He is now held
forth as the meeting-place between God and
any sinner in the wkole world.

: -vm

j 1 '

\ nil

' ! f

! i'lr

.■

48 The Sacrifice, Priest, and Saviour,

" How did you see the truth ? " I once
asked a man.

"From an expression you once used in
preaching."

" What was that ? "

"That God was dealing with us now in
the gospel, not on the sin-question, but the
Son-question."

Blessed he God, this is His good news.
Of course, if we refuse to accept of His Son,
we remain in our condemned state under all
our sins, with the superadded one of rejecting
God's offered salvation.

Suppose a harbour of refuge has been made,
everything is ready to let in the ships that
are riding out in the dtormy ocean, the
ponderous gates that are swung across its
entrances being opened. Any ship, now, in
all the ocean may get into the harbour through
these gates, but the actual state of each is
in no way changed if it remains outside — only
this, they know of safety, and won't take it.
Thus has our Lord Jesus Christ taken away
the barrier — the legal just barrier — sin be-
tween man and God, glorifying God. Any
poor, heavy-laden, tempest-tossed soul may
come to Him, and through Him to eternal
rest.

Nothing will all this avail for them but
only as they are in Him. He Himself is
offered for the acceptance of all, and how shall
we escape if we neglect so great salvation?

The Sacrifice, Priest , and Saviour, j\g

Without money and without price are His
conditions. He will in no wise cast out
whoever comes. Though sins he like scarlet,
He can make them white as snow; though
red like crimson, they shall he as wool. The
chief of sinners is in heaven ; therefore God
cannot he dealing with us individually on
the sin-question. The platform is entirely
changed. God's law has heen magnified ;
God Himself has been glorified. Sin has
been put away as the barrier between God
and the sinner. Sin has been put away as
the platform on which God now transacts
business with man.

His one question now is — What have you
to do with My Son ? Do you accept Him ?
Do you accept My way of putting away sin ?
Do you accept of His putting away of sin
as the putting away of your sins ? Then you
are justified, accepted, complete, in Him.
Do you neglect Him ? Then how great must
be your condemnation. " This is the condem-
nation that Hght is come into the world, and
man loved darkness rather than light." Better
would it have been for you never to have heard
of such a Saviour, than, having heard of Him,
to refuse to receive Him. '* He that believeth
on Him is not condemned ; but he that be-
heveth not is condemned already, because he
hath not believed in the name of the only-
begotten Son of God." How shall we escape
if we neglect so great salvation ?

'mu

II;

i m

■ li

|0 The Sacrifice, Priest , and Saviour,

3. The Person sacrificed, — " Himself."
Wonderful truth I Had millions of angels,
and tens of millions of the highest created
intelligences, been sacrificed, they never could
have put sin away. It required Himself, and
Himself did it. It did not require our agency,
for our agency was useless ; but Himself did
it. Poor ignorant man tries by his own
sacrifice to please God. Man's efforts are
always to try, like Adam, to make a covering
for himself; God's way is to cover us first,
and then ask us to work. Not all the
offerings of Old Testament days could put
away a single sin ; but no sooner did sin
and the great Sin-bearer meet, than He
burned it up by His own intrinsic essential
merit.

Man, when he touched a leper, was defiled ;
Christ, when He touched a leper, was not
only not defiled, but cured the leper. When
we touch sin, we are contaminated ; when
Christ touched sin, He consumed it. Himself
is the central word of all the revelation and
the counsels of God. Himself is the alone
sacrifice. Himself is the sum of every
believer's creed — the Alpha, the Omega, the
beginning, the ending, the first, and the last,
of all his theology. We think much of His
work, because it is that which is more close
to us. It is that on which we stand; but
what is the work without the Person? We
stand on the work, but the work stands on

The Sacrifice, Priest, and Saviour. 51

the Person. God has given us first Himself,
and in Himself the work.

The first note of all true scriptural preach-
ing is Himself, The power with the anxious
is giving them Himself, and in Himself , His
work. The power to raise the straggling
believer is knowing Jesus Himself, the One
who was dead and is now alive for evermore.
And the centre of all worship, the su'ojeot of
all praise, the object to fill every eye in the
coming glory, will be Himself seen as the
Man of Calvary, who now once in the end
of the world appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of Himself.

n. The Priest.

In these days of apostacy, it is well to
consider Jesus Christ as our great High
Priest, who hath entered for us within the
veil. Are there any priests, then, on earth ?
Yes. All true believers are priests ; and no
minister, no pastor, no teacher can be called a
priest in any other sense than that in which
all Christians are. All Christians are not
pastors, are not teachers, but all Christians
are priests (Rev. i. 6, and xx. 6) ; and any
Christian who assumes a special priesthood
over other Christians is denying the High-
priesthood of Christ, He hath made us unto
our God a kingdom of priests made nigh, with
the power and in the place where we can
worship and serve as the royal priesthood.
Wondrous truth 1

5a The Sacrifice^ Priest^ and. Saviour,

But we are to consider not the priesthood
of Christians, but the priesthood of Christ as
now exercised for us, and as keeping us right
all the way through our journey. And we
see this in the second use of the word
" ajppear " in Heb. ix.

"For Christ is not entered into the holy
places made with hands, the figures of the
true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in
the presence of God for us." And is not this
what we need when we come to understand
that sin has been put away, that our sins
have been borne by the great Sacrifice ? We
have been brought into the presence of God
by faith, but that very presence reveals to us
that we are ever prone to sin and get defiled.
God knows this, and God provided, and His
provision is, that Jesus as our Priest now
" appears " in the presence of God for us.

Sin has been put away by Him as the
Victim. Wrath has been poured out upon
Him. The wrath, the condemnation, the
judgment that were prepared against the sinner
who believes, are gone now in Christ. There
is no cup of wrath for the beHever now.
There is now no condemnation — he shall not
come into judgment ; for Christ has appeared
and put away sin. The Victim's blood has been
shed, and is accepted for us. We need Him
now as our Priest appearing in the true holy
place, and who offers there His own blood;
and peace, pardon, and reconciUation are the

The Sacrifice, Priest, and Saviour, 53

only notes that are heard from the throne
of God, coming to every believer over that
offered blood. Let us consider —

1st, Where He appears. He " appears in
the presence of God." He was always in the
bosom of His Father ; now He has taken our
place, and representatively, according, not to
the value of what He had as God, but of what
He has acquired as the God-man who put
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He is
in the presence of perfect holiness, perfect
light; and this is our place maintained, as
procured, by the value of the precious Blood.
Do we really believe that the sanctuary is our
place? In the resplendent light of this
Holiest of the holies, we learn the meaning of
two words. These words are sin and lioliness.

We begin to get into God's thoughts about
sin. We begin to realise that " whatsoever is
not of faith is sin." Solemn words ! It was
because Jesus prayed for Peter that he was
convinced of his sin. Christ's advocacy shows
me what I am, leads me to judge my ways,
my sins, myself, in the light of God. Every-
thing inconsistent with the Ught of the
*' Holiest" is set aside when we understand
what the *' Holiest" is, and realise that our
walk is there.

We begin to understand what holiness is —
that holiness without which no man shall see
the Lord. As to our standing, we know that
Christ is our sanotification, perfect and un-

ij-ii

54 The Sacrifice^ Priest, and Saviour,

changeable ; but in our walk with God in the
light, we cannot see God unless we are walk-
ing in practical holiness. Place the smallest
coin over the eye of the best-seeing man, and
in the midst of the all-pervading light around,
lie will be in darkness. Place the slightest
unconfessed sin on the spiritual eye of the
strongest believer as he walks in the light,
and we can realise that without holiness no
man shall see the Lord. Blessed be His name,
all is done that we may be partakers of His
holiness, and His advocacy will not cease in
the Holiest till that is accomplished.

2nd, When He appears. " Christ is entered
. . . into heaven itself now, to appear " — now
in the midst of all our wilderness experience ;
now, just when we require Him most ; now,
when we are sinners. It was when Satan
desired to sift Peter that Jesus prayed. In
the coming glory, when we shall be with, and
perfectly like our Lord, while we stand upon
His merit, we shall require no more His
advocacy, His precious blood to wash out
stains; but it is now that we require Him,
and it is now that He appears in the presence
of God for us. Not only did He once appear
on earth and put away sin, but He now appears,
at this present hour, before God on our behalf.

He has not to come out of heaven at each
suing of His believing one, and die over again;
but He has with Him where He is the merit
of His death, which has the continued efficacy

The Sacrifice, Priest, and Saviour. 55

before God. It is not that Christ has washed
my sins all away, and now tells me to make
my way to heaven, which I'll reach if I hold
on, but now He appears, now, after I have be-
lieved; now I see Him by faith ever presenting
to the eye of God His own precious blood,
which cleanseth me from all sin. 'Now in the
midst of the opposition of the world, the temp-
tation of Satan, and the un-subject evil nature
still within, Jesus is for us before God. iVow;
as we rise each morning, afresh to the battle
and the defeat, to the triumph and the conflict,
we can go forward with the certainty that
God is for us.

3rd, For ivliom He appears. "For us." He
never required to leave heaven to die, and to
return to His native home for Himself. It was
for us He came, for us He died, for us He has
again entered heaven. It is not for angels He
appears; they stand on their own creature
merit. He appears for us. We put in no
claim but as He presents it. He looks
after all our interests, for it is for us He
appears.

He . does not appear for the unsaved. He
died for the unsaved, but He has entered into
heaven for us, the saved. We claim Christ at
Calvary as unsaved. We claim Christ in the
Holiest as saved sinners. We must be justified
before we can claim the merits of what is now
being carried on before God. In other wordp,
we must first be sons before we can lay claim

IkW

56 The^ Sacrifice^ Priest, and Saviour.

to Christ's advocacy, which is God's provision
for the walk of His own children.

Neither is it " for us " as pure and spotless,
and perfectly holy. We shall not be like Him
till we see Him as He is. But it is for us as
journeying through the wilderness, in which
"we are apt to contract sin, and if any of us
(saved ones) sin, we have Him as our Advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

in. The Saviour.
• " As it is appointed unto men once to die :

" And after this the judgment :

** Sc Christ was once offered to hear the
sins of many :

*' And to them that look for Him shall He
appear the second time without sin unto
salvation."

This is the Divin^^^. Proportion, or Kule of
Three- the grtjat parallel God has drawn be-
t^c3u the TWO MEN, the only two men that
weri^ seen by Him, the first Adam and the
last Adam. The first two factors tell us what
we have in Adam, death and judgment : death
as the end of this state, judgment as the be-
ginning of another and an eternal state. The
second two factors tell us what we have in
Christ — our sins borne and salvation given;
our sins borne as the ^nd of our Adam state,
salvation, complete and final, as the beginning
of our glorified state, and v

As (in the case of meuy all sprung from
Adam)

The Sacrifice, Priest, and Saviour. 57

Death IB to judgment i

80 (in the case of saints, all sprung from
the Second Adam, all born of God)

Christ bearing sin is to

Christ appearing the second time for salva-
tion.

In the day thou eatest thou shalt die. Adam
ate ; therefore it is appointed unto men once
to die, and after death the judgment, which
must be eternal wrath. David trembled at
the thought, and said, " Enter not into judg-.
ment with Thy servant, for in Thy sight shall
no man living be justified" (Psalm cxliii. 2). If
God judges me I am condemned. Blessed be
God for ever ! this is not our place. We do
not stand in the first Adam. The first factors
of the proportion are not ours in Christ ;
death and judgment are past for us in Him ;
we are ''dead" (Col. iii. 3) ; " we shall nob come
into judgment " (John v. 24).

Instead of death, we have '* Christ was
once offered," and He not only put sin away,
but He bore our sins. All our sins, beheving
in Him, were on Him when He bore the wrath
due to sin. They are gone for ever ; there-
fore, since the sin is gone, the death is gone
for the believer. He may be put asleep by
Jesus, but we (Christians) shall not all sleep
(1 Cor. XV. 51). There is no necessity for any
Christian dying. There is a Divine appoint-
ment for men as men dying. We know that
some saved men have not died, and many saved

if J!
i

; I ;i

; M

\ M

-. -.■.■_'i,us.----.\;v.-.u, ...

■sC'

58 T/te Sacrifice y Priest^ and Saviour.

men will not die. But this fearful doom hangs
over all men out of Christ — death, and they
cannot get rid of it. Gnash at it, groan at it,
philosophise about it, as they may, there it
stands calmly as the appointment of God.

Instead of judgment we have " Christ ap-
pearing the second time without sin unto
salvation.'* As truly as the enemy Death,
which men know well abcut, stands across
the path, so surely will the yword of judgment
fall on every Christless soul; but in Christ
we look not for judgment, but far salvation.
There is no question of sin no^. He put ^
away. He bore our sins. Sin and sins have
been dismissed. He had to do with them
the first time He appeared, but the last time
He appears He will have no sin on Him.
He will enter into no question of sin, death,
or judgment with His own, but salvation^ final
and perfect, will bo His great work then. We
shall then be perfectly saved as to our bodies,
as we are now as to our souls.

As He appeared and put away sin, so
only as sinners "without strength," "un-
godly," " lost," " condemned," " dead," could
we claim Him. As He now appears for us
only as the ransomed of the Lord, the re-
deemed from men, the royal priesthood, so
He will appear the second time only to them
that look for Him.

Of that day or hour no man knows ; but
He that shall come will come and will not

TJie Sacrifice, Priest^ and Saviour. 59

tarry. His first appearing to put away sin
was death to all Laen, merely men, and to us
who are the sons of God, now helieving in His
Qame, it is the hearing of .our sins. His
appearng the second time is judgment to all
men, merely men, and is salvation to us who
look for Him. Knoiving that He is coming,
and looking for Him, are two things quite
different. The head may teU us the former ;
the heart must be exercised for the latter.
He shall come as the great Saviour, saving us
by power out of the enemy's hand. This
salvation is our hope ; this salvation is nearer
than when we belie^;ed. Insi^ead of judgment
we are to be saved out of the midst of the
whole doomed scene. Is this not a blessed
hope — His glorious appearing ? At death our
bodies are still left in the hands of the enemy,
but His appearing is our hope.

Friend, are you a man ? Then your end is
death. '* It is appointed unto men once to
die, and after death the judgment." Your only
chance is to accept Christ, and then you will
look for Him and His salvation which lie
shall bring, every trace of sin being gone.

Look back to Him as the Sacrifice, who
appeared once and put away your sin.

Look up to Him now as the Priest appearing
in the presence of God, keeping us ever clean
there.

Look forward for Him who will appear the
second time without sin unto salvation.

n 1 )

i ::

THE POWER THAT THE WORLD
KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT.

" For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ : for it
is the power of God unto salvation to every one that
believeth." — Eom. i. 16.

[HIS was the reason Paul gave for his
readiness to preach the gospel at Borne,
the centre of the world's wisdom, to
Greeks or to barbarians, to wise or unwise.
For, let man be cultivated or uncultivated,
"wise or ignorant, he is lost; let him be rich
or poor, he is lost, and needs nothing less
than salvation. But the gospel is sufficient,
however contemptible in the eyes of the great
men at Eome, however foolish to human
wisdom. It is the sufficient and sole power
God now uses. Let us look.

1st. The power God is using. His gospel.

2nd. The purpose God is working out.
Salvation.

3rd. The people God is blessing. ' Every
one that believes.

I. The Power God is using.

His gospel. This is the only moral engine
God is using to reclaim lost man. Man has

The Power the World knows r, Hhing about 6i

his hundreds of schemes, his philaathropio
societies, his improvement of man as he ia,
his reformation or alleviation of the first Adam,
his many levers or helps to the gospel. God
has but one powej-, which requires no help,
and that is "His gospel." The words, **of
Christ," are not in the best manuscripts,
though certainly it is the gospel of Christ
(2 Cor. X. 4), but the thought in Rom. i. is,
that it is God's own good news, ** the gospel
of God*' (i. 1). Good news to bad men is
the wonderful and solitaiy lever God is using.
The reception of a testimony outside of us
is the only way by which we can deal with
God. Therefore, since it is news to us, we
have nothing whatever in it but hearing it.
It is not that in itself the good news has any
intrinsic power, but the message that this
good news brings .is ** concerning Jesus Christ
our Lord" (v. 3). The good news tells of
God's justice perfectly satisfied, God's law
magnified, God*s demands all met, and God
glorified, while sin has been put away, for
G d's Son is risen. Had He but died, there
would- have been no good news: the good
news is ** Christ has died ; yea rather, is risen."
God is now proclaimed as just, while justifying
sinners. It is because the gospel tells of
God's demands being met that it is of use
to the sinner's conscience.

For God's demands are first. The need of
the sinner, the good of man, the elevation

: «« }';i

f <^^

f'ii-i

62 The Power the World knows nothing about.

of the race, the progress of mankind, are not
the first questions, but the glory of God, the
vindication of His name, the equipoise of all
His attributes preserved, an all-perfect, all-
equal, because all-infinite God.

The gospel proclaims His perfect love and
His perfect hate : His perfect love to the
sinner, His perfect hatred against sin. Man
could be satisfied with the exhibition of love,
but tries to get out of the reach of the
demands of justice against sin. In our day-
there is a great deal of talk about the love
of God, though what is meant is not love at
all, but the overlooking and winking at sin,
the toleration of evil.

This is the cause of the deep-seated hatred
to *' the blood theology." We hear a great
deal concerning following in the footsteps of
the great Example, Christ, following Him in
His devotion to God ; but where in all this is
there rest to the conscience of a man who
instinctively feels that God is just, and, come
what may, that that justice must be upheld,
though it should entail the eternal perdition
of every creatm^e ? God can by no means
clear the guilty. There is a great deal of
whining sentimentality about God being so
good, and so loving, and so merciful, forget-
ting that His justice is equal to His love, His
righteousness to His grace, because each is
infinite.

There is no such thing as God having a

The Power the World knows nothing about. 63

darling attribute. It is a human invention,
measuring God by man. He is certainly
showing His grace, a love all His own, in
seeking out the vilest, and putting them on
the throne of His Sou, and taking them to
His own heart ; but it is a grace that flows
through righteousness, through the settling of
His every righteous demand, and the gospel
comes revealing this. The law came demand-
ing man's perfect obedience to God ; the
gospel comes revealing God's perfect provision
for man.

All the grounds of the gospel have beer-,
laid; therefore it can be preached. Every-
thing on God's part has been done ; therefore
it has only to be proclaimed. Nothing can be
added to make the work more God-glorilying,
for God would not order His terms to be
preached till they were perfectly adjusted.
He is the offended party. He has made the
conditions ; He has satisfied the conditions ;
and now He proclaims that all has been
adjusted for our acceptance. Ours is the
place of simple acquiescence.

Hence the good news is God's power. If
it fail to reclaim the vilest, then nothing will
succeed. It has saved the vilest, and it is
waste of time in a Christian to be at anything
except this gospel.

Let the world reform itself : all very well ;
we are thankful for it. Let the dead bury
their dead, and if they do it decently we are

!» ■

C I

64 The Power the World knows nothing about.

very glad ; but the voice to us from Jesus is,
"Follow Me." How many dear Christians
waste their energies at all sorts of worldly
mixed plans, instead of using the pne lever —
God's own one power— His Gospel.

In reading this text, we seem to see the"
apostle, as it were, standing on the quarter-
deck of a small contemptible ship, built on a
new principle iirom all other ships of war,
with his flag, " the Gospel," nailed up, and
boldly saying, " Laugh on, ye wise, ye power-
ful ; this is in your eyes foolishness and
weakness ; but wait a little. I'm not ashamed
of it, and am prepared to bring it to Rome,
and lay it alongside all the heaviest gunboats
or men-of-war. For it is the power of God,
and will blow to pieces all that is of man."

Or, says Paul, '* I have got the true philo-
sopher's stone, that will not certainly change
everything it touches into gold, but will do
far more : it wiU change even the vilest sinner
whom it touches into an heir of God, will
raise him from the dunghill to the throne, will
make the beggar a prince." What a talisman
Paul and every believer carries with him, the
very power of God unto salvation I Fellow-
Christian, are we using this wondrous "power
of God," believing it is what it is ? Why is
there so little power? Because there is so
little gospel. In the gospel is the power of
God. Are we ashamed to stand up at all
times with it, and with it alone?

The Power the World knows nothing about. 65

And is it not hard, over and over again,
dear brother, to go out with this same jaessage
of glad tidings, and repeat the old story, and
believe that it is the power of God ? Human
wisdom would suggest something else, some-
thing additional, but **the gospel" is all.
We do not go out to make experiments to
see whether the gospel is the power of God —
that is unbelief, and will not be blessed ; but,
starting on the ground that we have in our
hand, the only power God will use, in the
simplicity of confidence we proclaim His good
news to all. We can't save a man; let us
tell the story that God can use. We can't
give the blow, but we can hold the instrument
straight, on which the hammer descends which
will rend the rock. How often is preached
what God could not bless, except by making
the hearers disbelieve it !

II. The Purpose God is working out.

It is the power of God unto salvation, God
is not come to help them who help themselves,
nor ^to give pity or good advice, reformation
or amelioration, but to give salvation. The
force of the original word is " extrication."

Many people seem to think that preaching
the gospel gives people a nice easy pillow to
lie down on and enjoy themselves — that it
gives chem an easy short cut to heaven, and
now thoy caii take their ease. In other words,
people look at salvation as equivalent to
toleration to continue in the world, and of

s i.

i !

66 The Power the World knows nothing about.

the world, with a good prospect for eternity,
rather than an extrication out of 'the world
and its ways. Unless we are extricated from
the world, our religion is useless. "If any
man love the world, the love of the Father
is not in him."

Salvation is a deep and wide word. It is
deep, and goes to the root of every principle
that is away from God. It lays the axe at
the root of every tree. It is wide and all-
emhracing. It is often confounded with
justification, but is much wider. Hence the
confusion in some minds. Salvation, which
from first to last is of God, begins with a man
as he is, and never leaves him till he is set on
the throne of Christ. There are three aspects
in salvation to every Christian. 1st. A past
salvation, 2nd. A present salvation, 3rd. A
future salvation.

1st. A past salvation. — Every Christian can
say, "By grace I am a saved person.'* "I
have received the end of my faith, even the
salvation of my soul." This salvation is equi-
valent to justification. It has extricated us
for ever out of the state of condemnation, and
saved our souls from the grasp of him in
whose arms lies the whole world. This can
never be added to, aufl, blessed be God, can
never be taken from. So the apostle could
say, " Unto us who are saved " (1 Cor. i. 18).
Thank God, it is not merely pardon of sin,
but a taking of our souls out of the prison of

lild

The Power t/te World knows nothing about. 67

condemnation, where we wer6 legally held,
and placing us in the place of sons, in His
own beloved Son Jesus Christ.

This is the foundation of salvation, our
perfect justification, unto which the gospel is
the power of God — a justification in a new
life out of death ; our souls made alive, quick-
ened together with Christ, for it is a resur-
rection salvation, from first to last; now of
our souls, by-and-hye of our bodies.

The moment a man believes, he is perfectly
saved as to his soul, as sate as tho^e in hea\en,
for Jesus has Himself taken upon Him the
responsibility of presenting us at His Father's
house.

2nd. There is a present salvation. — I mean
by that a salvation which is going on in the
believer from day to day. The former was an
act, this is a work; so that it can be said,
"Work out your own salvation.** Not cer-
tainly work /or ity but work out what God has
wrought in, and be sure it is "your own"
first. This is the gradual extrication of our-
selves from all that is around and within
opposed to our Father-God.

The first was the salvation of the soul of a
condemned sinner; this is the extrication of
an accepted son from aU that is against the
place into which he has been brought. Before
a man has received the first, the enmity is
between him and God ; afterwards, and during
this second process, the enmity is between

.*''

■^ '

' ' ■■■■'■ J

L it Jl

i' :i i

I ,

68 The Power the World knows nothing about.

him and himself. This is his progressive
sanctification or growth in grace, and the
good news from God is still God's power to
extricate him thus day by day in his walk.
It is a mere idle fable of sell-deceived ones
who dream or suppose that even any child of
God in this world can live without having sin
in him.

We have been asked if we did not believe
that a Christian could reach sinlessness (entire
sanctification, it is called, which, in this sense,
is unscriptural and very dangerous teaching),
tha't is to say, living perfectly in love, without
having any sin in him, and if it was to be
beli ed, because a man said so ; but no, all
such statements are to be judged by the Word,
and if the- greatest saint on earth came to us,
and said that he had reached a point of perfect
sanctification, that is, that he did not now sin,
we would simply and conclusively quote, '* If
we say we have no sin^ we deceive ourselves^
and the truth is not in us.^'

In the one aspect of sanctification — separa-
tion to God by blood — all believers are perfectly
sanctified the moment they believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ.

There is a sickly and unejcriptural notion of
perfect sanctification by attainment, spreading
among some who talk of reaching to and
{attaining this so-called sanctification; suffice
it to say that it is not in Scripture, and is
merely the competitive spirit of the flesh

The Power the World knows nothing about. 69

brought into the things of God, by which
we would wish to be before our fellow-Chrip-
tians, and profess to have attained an undefined
something, unlike the apostle, " not as though
I had already fittained."

Against such we must give no uncertain
sound. No Christian ever reaches perfect
sanctification. The perfect sanctification
which he has in Christ is common to all
believers, and is by faith the moment he is
converted. There is no other except his
gradual and progressive daily mortification of
his earthly members, his gradual extrication
out of all around that is inconsistent with the
Divine nature implauted at regeneration. And
in this aspect the righteous scarcely are saved
(1 Peter iv. 18), but our God of salvation is
able to save to the uttermost of 'time (Heb.
vii. 25), And at every stage, to every saint,
it will be always necessary to say, **Be ye holy,
as God is holy," which proves he is not yet
and v/ill not be in the body ; therefore *' work
out your own salvation with fear and trem-
bling, for it is God" (not Paul or yourself) ""-
'* that worketh in you, both to will and to do
of His good pleasure."

3rd. A future salvation. This is accom-
plished, not even at death; though then the
soul of the believer, being perfect in holiness,
is absent from the body and present with the
Loru, yet his body rests in the grave till the
resurrection — the final extrication at the last

'("fill,'!

70 The Power the World knows nothing about.

of the man from the last power that holds —
for the last enemy that will be put under is
death. This is our hope. We are eaved by
hope, not as to our souls, but as to our bodies,
our all. The salvation which is at the end
of our faith is that of our muh ; the salvation
which is at the end of our hope is that of
our bodies. This is the salvation unto which
we are ** kept by the power of \jrod ** (1 Peter
i. 6). And it is this salvation that is " nearer
than when we believed." Death is not our
hope. Death does not end our scene here.
There is the claiming, the redemption by
power of the purchased possession. This is
our hope, " When He shall appear, we shall
be like Him," and not till then. So "to
them that look for Him shall He appear the
second time without sin unto salvation.*'

There is no question of sin whatever, then,
but final perfect salvation of the whole body
of Christ by power, as well as by pui^rchase
and practice.

Thus we are saved, we are being saved,
and we are to be saved ; saved by faith, saved
by working, saved by hoping. May we rightly
divide the word of truth ! (2 Tim. ii. 15). We
can never be justified by hoping. That is by
faith ; we have for a helmet the hope of salva-
tion, and God*s great purpose with us is to extri-
cate, to dehver us from this present evil world,
and to deliver us from condemnation and
wrath, from the power and presence of our evil

. . i'i

The Power the World knows nothing about. 71

hearts, and the power and dominion of Satan —
from death and him that had the power of death.

Blessed, glorious Divine purpose I He will
have us before Him, but as holy and without
blame, in love, according to the necessities of
His own nature. He will have us to Himself
as dear children, according to the purpose of
His grace.

May He give us plainly to see our perfect
salvation in Christ, to diligently press forward,
working out our own salvation, and to patiently
wait for the salvation that will be revealed !

And His own good news is His own power
unto this. His own Divine salvation. Is
salvation not of God? Is our God not the
God of salvation ? And this leads us to our
third point. Who are the happy recipients of
this salvation?

Ill, The People God is blessing.

** To every one that beheveth." It has
no y^r'&y and yet it has a limit. It has no
\m}X) i>\ its ofier; it is to every one. It has
H. IIi)^it in its application ; it is to every one
that i ieveth. It is *' unto all " in its offer;
b'.*^ I'l is only "upon all that believe " in its
application. There is no question about
anterior fitness, or felt want or position in
respect to weaUh or righteousness.

The offer is to all, high or low, rich or
poor. It is on the principle of faith alone
this salvation is secured ; but all who do
believe have. This is what humbles man.

! !

> \

!;. V

fl3

! ' I S.

■'ii!

/:>.

72 The Power the World knows nothing about*

This is what makes it to be of graoe, for it
is of faith that it might be of grace.

" Are you saved ? "

"No."

" Then you never heard the gospel ? "

" Oh yes, I sit under an • evangelical
minister."

" I don't doubt it, neither do I doubt but
that he has preached the gospel, very likely,
every Lord's-day in your ears, but you never
heard it."

" How do you make that out ? "

" Because God says, -Hear, and your soul
shall hve."

*' What am I to hear ? "

" 'News ; that is, something you never
knew before — you could not have known
before or guessed at before. News from God
to you ; not news for sinners merely, but news
for you. Not only news, but good news.
Good news, not concerning you; for if you
or I were in it, there would be no news, far
less good news ; but ' good news concerning
his Son Jesus (-hrist our Lord ' (Kom. i. 3).
That Christ is for you, simply because you
are a sinner."

" What, Chfist for me individually, as if
there were not another sinner in the world? "

"Exactly, and when you receive and rest
on Him, by believing the good news for your-
self, you will say, Well, I never thought that
was all — it is so simple — I am content no

The Power the World knows nothing about. 73

longer to strive to acquire, but quietly to
acquiesce in the God-made plan. God laid
my sin on Christ. God did all the work.
God said, *It is finished.* God comes with
His own gospel, His own power, His own
salvation ; and better news you never heard,
and never will hear ; believe, then, where you
are, and as you are, as news, as good news.
Believe and live, for * the gospel is the power
of God unto salvation to every one that
believeth; to the Jew first and also to the
Greek. For therein is the righteousness of
God revealed from faith to faith.' "

1 1

■ 'i

,.].<■ t i-y .f^Vf

■X.

CHBI8T THE FOWEB OF GOB.

N considering this subject, the power
of God, one would at first think that
we should look to the manifestation
of His power as seen in the rolling river, the
majestic Niagara, roaring, rushing over with
its millions and millions of tons of water,
eclipsing all the steam-power that man could
put together; or we may take our stand by
the ocean and see it tossing the ships that
man has built, and dashing them to pieces as
children's toys, or the thunderstorm and the
lightning flash, and say, Look what a God
we have ! or we might take the telescope, and
direct your eye away from this little speck
called earth, to look at the stars at night, and
see there millions and millions beyond what
the naked eye can see revolving, the nebulas
that we observe in the galaxy of the heavens,
and to know that He upholds all these by the
Word 0^ His power, and that He keeps the
reins of the government of millions of stars,
of many times larger dimensions than this
little speck of creation, in His grasp.

When we think of all this, well may we

Christ the Power of God.

exclaim, " When I consider Thy heavens, the
work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars,
which Thou hast ordained, what is man ? "
We are lost in silent wonder. Let us also
take the microscope and rub off the dust from
the butterfly's wing, and we shall find that
each speck of dust is a gorgeously chiselled
feather, and the Hving God who has chiselled
these feathers in the most perfect and beauteous
form has counted the hairs of your head and
mine, and has named every sparrow. His
power is seen in what He can condescend to,
as well as in wha-t He upholds, in the majesty
of His might.

But we are not to contemplate the power of
the God of creation, to study His grandeur,
though it is profitable for us to do so. Man
has drifted from God, and so our little planet
is bounded by death. Death goes round about
it ; death envelops it physically. Seven miles
up there is death. No man can live there.
A band of death is round our globe ; but in a
more real sense our fallen creation is bounded
by the grave. Man's power can do much.
He can almost annihilate time and space.
He can tie the globe with a string, and take
the lightning and send it as his message. He
can bring creation under his feet, and do
mighty things, but he is limited by the grave ;
the tomb he has never been able to pass
through ; the grave he has never been able to
span ; but the peculiar manifestation of the

' t

■ \

iiil

'/(>

Christ the Power of God.

power of our King begins where man's power
ends.

I. The Power of the Cross. — In 1 Cor. i. 18:
** For the preaching of the cross is to them
that perish foohshness ; but unto us which
are saved it is the power of God." The cross
was not only death, but the most shameful
death — the death of the felon — and this death,
sufiered by Jesus, becomes the power of God ;
for the moment that creation work was marred,
the Lord God came in with the promise of
the bruising of the serpent's head, setting
forth that it was through death the new crea-
tion was to be begun — showing that it was by
death His new power was to be set forth, and
that as soon as creation work was marred
redemption work was begun.

When the Lord v^as here and was found
fault with, and challenged on the creation
Sabbath for w^orking, those men who found
fault with Him, as the destroyer of disease
and of death, did not see that while God
never can go against His commands. He can
rise up in His power above all ; and that He
who has seen His creation manned has begun
in another sphere, in another work, aiid in
another country, the country beyond the
grave, through death and resurrection. So
He tells us : '* My Father worketh hitherto,
and I work " — working in the activity of His
redeeming love ; and then He goes on to say,
because He is the Son of God, that now we

Christ the. Power of God.

may meet Him aB Quickener through the
grave, or we mutt; meet Him as the Judge,
the Son of Man, and then we shall have to
meet the doom that is ours. Thus we ap-
proach the cross as the power of God to
guilty men. '' For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God
it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. For the Jews
require a sign, and the Greeks seek after
wisdom; but we preach Ch'ist crucified, unto
the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the
Greeks foolishness ; but unto thom which are
called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power
of God." Christ the power of God has come
into the domain of death, and met the de-
mand of de th, and this is why Christ is the
power of God unto salvation. The blood has
paid the debt, the blood that runs in a
scarlet line from the gates of Eden to the
great white throne, and which then is the
theme of the redeemed to all eternity. "Thou
hast redeemed us with Thy blood " — the blood
which tells of a life taken for a life forfeited.
That is what satisfies God, although it is a
stumbling-block to the Jew and foolishness to
the Greek, both ancient and modern. To the
one who requires a sign in these days, the
blood will still be a scandal. To the man who
wants wisdom, the blood puts all his wisdom
in the dust. Why? Because it tells that
Christ has entered into the domain where

IbujiQMt

Christ the Power of God.

neither man's wisdom nor power is available.
In the grave man has no knowledge and no
power — the cross is the power of God. But —

II. The Tower of the Besurrection. — " And
declared to be the Son of God with power,
according to the Spirit of holiness, by the
resurrection from the dead " (Eom. i. 4).
This is abstract — not His own resurrection,
but by resurrection from the dead. He has
authority over the grave, the resurrection of
good and bad — the resurrection that He has
in His own right and in His own power, in
which God raised Him from the dead — the
resurrection that quickens us to go with Him,
and the resurrection that He has of the
ungodly to quicken them, and to bring them
to the bar of judgment, whether they wiU or
^ot, — all resurrection declares Him to be the
Son of God, and thus in the resurrection we
have the Lord Jesus Christ shown to be the
powerful One.

If He went into the grave, He has been
raised on the other side of the doom of sin ;
if He went into the domain of death. He is
declared now to be the Son of God in power
by resurrection. He went into the monster's
jaws and plucked out the sting. He was
there in the power of the eternal God, and
He is raised again from the dead, beyond all
the powers of Satan and the grave, and is
now raised to the throne of God, as we read
in Eph. i. 18 : *' That ye may know what is

Christ t/ie Power of God.

the hope of His calling, and what the riches
of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
and what is the exceeding greatness of His
power to us- ward who heiieve, according to
the working of His mighty power, which He
wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from
the dead." He was crucified in weakness,
but was raised by power. We have seen Him
thus in the power of the cross, also in the
power of the empty tomb, the power of the
resurrection, but we again see —

III. The Power of His Quickening. — ^For
we are quickened together with Him. He
is revealed not only as the risen One, but
as the quickening One. He that was dead
/or- sin, and we that are dead in sin, were
quickened together by the Spirit of power.
The power of God is thus given to men who
were dead. God would have been for ever
incommunicable to dead sinners unless Jesus
Christ, who was the life, had come into the
place of death, and had been raised by the
glory of the Father ; but now are we kings
together with Him. One other thought in
Heb. vii. the 14th to the 25th verse inclu-
sive.

IV. The Poy)er of His Intercession. — Christ
intercedes for His own, whom He has
justified and quickened. On high He is the
Great High-priest, entering in with His
own blood to appear in the presence of God
for us, now to keep us clean, and He is there

fet I, ; J,

fHl

Christ the Power of God,

making intercession, according to the un-
sullied holiness of the presence of God. There
He is, "ever living to make intercession."
It is He who has hegun it at the cross, with
whom we are quickened together from the
tomb. He goes on to the end of our experi-
ences, difficulties, and dangers. He is up
yonder on the Throne to . save to the utter-
most, that is to say, of time. He is our
Advocate with the Father. He :'i our High-
priest before God. ** It is Christ that died,
yea rather, that is risen again, who is ever
at the right hand of God, who also maketh
intercession for us. Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ ? "

V. ffis Indwelling Tower. — Romans viii.
26: "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our
infirmities : for we know not what we should
pray for as we ought : but the Spirit Himself
maketh intercession for us with groanings
which cannot be uttered." If we have an
Intercessor yonder, we have an Intercessor
here ; and as the Intercessor yonder is for
His people, the Intercessor here is in His
people. The Spirit does not dwell in an
unconverted man. He quickens the uncon-
verted. He seals, and dwells in, the beHever.
There is a Christ for every sinner, and a
Spirit ready to quicken him in connection
with that Christ, but the Spirit only makes
intercession within those who are the Lord's.
So WQ haVe Christ in His power dwelling

Christ the Power of God.

in us here by His Spirit, and we have Christ
in His power appealing for us yonder; and
in His power we go onward and pray that
we may know the power of His resurrection
and the fellowship of His suffering — to know
that we are thus identified with the risen One.
This. is our standing and state here on earth;
now on account of that power within us — the
holy God — we boldly affirm that sin shall not
have dominion over us. Keckon yourselves
dead indeed unto sin. Of course it does not
say sin shall not have its presence ; but it is
a question of its dominion. Why ? Because
the Spirit of God is within us. " Reckon '*
yourselves — it is not "feel" yourselves dead.
If I were really dead, and felt dead, it would
be absurd to tell me to reckon myself dead
to sin. Suppose I go to a registrar and
say —

** There is a man in this parish who wants
a vote."

" What is his name ? "

" James Blank."

**Why, he is dead more than a year ago,
and he can't have a vote."

That is what you and I have to say to our
old nature.

"You have no vote; you have nothing to
do with the government of me now. We are
dead to sin, and the obsolete man is off the
register" — ^the old man has gone, so far as
voting is concerned. It is only the new man

;ji(

• !

Christ the Power of God,

in Christ Jesus who has a right to my service.
Let me take a familiar illustration. When
the man with the palsy was healed, he did
not merely get healing hut power. **Rise,
take up thy bed, and walk," and so he carried
his bed. Before this the bed carried him.
He was dependent upon his bed, and upon
those who each took a corner; but now, as
soon as we have got into Christ, it is, Rise,
take up thy bed, and walk. Take the case of
the reformed drunkard. Why, when he used
to pass public-houses, the cursed desire for
drink was paramount over his conscience and
the interests of wife and family; but now,
being dead to sin, he says to this craving,
" You have no vote." He carries the obsolete
man to the prayer or conference meeting,
instead of the old man carrying him into the
public-house. • So it is with us, " Rise, take
up thy bed." We have power now, and sin
shall not have dominion over us.

VI. The Power of His Gospel— '''Fox I
am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ :
for it is the power of God unto ' salvation
to every one that believeth; to the Jew
first, and also tc the Greek." Christ speaks
through us, and now we can use the power
He has given us. In order to have this
power we let God speak as much as possible,
and ourselves to speak a3 little as possible.
In the days of His humiliation He gave
all power and authority fco His apostles —

Christ the Power of God.

power and authority to oast out devils, and
one came to Him and said, *' Your apostles
could not do it." Why? Because there
arose a reasoning among them as to which
should be greatest. I believe that we often
lose our power by thinking we are some-
thing. There are Peter and Andrew; the
man comes to be healed, but neither of them
can do it. Peter could not be trusted with
seeing that devil under him. Peter might
say, " I am sorry for my dear brother Andrew,
but if he had been like me he would have
been successful." Brethren, in the holy work
of God, the "holy self" often comes in.
Whatsoever there is of self, let us cast it from
us, and lean wholly and solely upon the Lord,
and trust in the power of His might. Self-
seeking is all the fouler when it enters
the domain of God. By nature we all wish
to be above and beyond our fellows ; may we
have the desire to lift high the banner of the
cross, and in its fold conceal the standard-
bearer. May the standard-bearers be all hid,
and Christ alone seen. Then, indeed, should
we feel that we had in our hands the Gospel
of God, which is the power of God unto
salvation. We pray much for the Holy Ghost
— the working power, and always ought to
do so, but I would say, *' Go to your knees and
ask God to show you what the Gospel is," for
God has said that the Gospel is the power.
None of us can save a soul, but we can hold

^^\

1. !

' ■ >k

IMAGS EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

1.0

I.I

l:i|2^ 12.5
»£ Uii 12.2

u Ui

■MUu

1.8

1.25 1 1.4

III '-^

6" -

►

■%'

Photographic

Sciences
Corporation

33 WEST MAIN STREET

WEBSTER, NY. MS80

(716) 872-4503

<i'

4?,

Christ the Power of God,

the instrament by which God can do it. We
need nothiiig to add to that old Gospel, and
nothing to be taken from it. When Paul was
about to bring it to the walls of Borne, he
said, '^ I am not ashamed to take it to Borne
also, for it is the power of God," and we have
it thus still.

VII. The Power of His Beturn, — Lastly,
the revelation which is to come is the mani-
fested power of our King. It is hidden
just now, and why? Christ has been re-
jected. "And I heard a loud voice saying
in heaven, Now is come salvation, and
strength, and the kingdom of our God, and
the power of His Christ: for the accusar of
our brethren is cast down, which accused them
before our God day and night " (Bev. xii. 10).
His power shall be from the river to the ends
of the earth, when all nations shall be blessed
in Him and call Him blessed, when He shall
have broken His enemies to pieces, when His
power shall be manifested in all its majesty.

And now tc are waiting for Him in the
midst of His foes — waiting for the power of
our King to be seen in all its glory, when
He shall reign, and we with Him, and when
He shall put down all rule, and all authority
and power; for He must reign till He hath
put all enemie,' under His feet, and delivered
up the kingdom to God, even the Father,
and then shall be seen to all His adoring
saints. His loyal subjects, the principaUties

Christ the Power of God,

and powers of heaven, the wonderful power of
oar King in its majestic reach from Gross to
Crown.

What a glorious hope is ours, reserved for an
everlasting inheritance! while we know that
this sin-stricken earth is reserved for fire. In
Jude we have the judgment at the beginning
of the day of the Lord, wbon the Lord oometn
with the myriads of His saints. We who have
been caught up previously, according to 1
Thess. iv., — our blessed hope — come with Him
to execute judgment on all. 2 Peter iii. 10
gives us the judgment at the end of the same
day. The day of grace has already lasted nearly
two millenniums. The day of the Lord's reign
is, according to Scripture, a thousaid years.
In the evening of this day **the heavens shall
pass away with a great noise, and the elements
shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also
and the works that are therein shall be burned
up. Seeing that all these things shall be dis-
solved, what manner of persons ought we to be
in all holy conversation and godliness, looking
for and hasting unto the coming of the dav of
God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall
be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat ? Nevertheless, we, according to
His promise, look for new heavens and a new
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.''

-V ••'

''8AY NOT IN THINE EEABT:*

Bonos X. 6.

fAN always begins to suggest the remedy
for himself; God has expected that
man wiU say something in his heart,
SO He advises him not to do it.

" Say not in thine heart," — for this is the
one thing man begins to do, to guess, to say
** peradventure," " perhaps," and " I hope so."
" Say not in thine heart." You and I have
to meet God whether we wish it or like it or
not, how long soever we may put it off (for
we have the fatal freedom to put it off), it is
coming, we must meet the God with whom
we have to do ; there is a hereafter, and you
and I have to be in it ; and our condition in
that hereafter is to be fixed now, and you and
I have something to do with tlie conditions
which fix that state; therefore "say not in
thine heart "

This is what the righteousness of faith
speaketh with authority. As an oracle from
God it comes, asking you and me to hear
because it speaks.

I. It speaks to us negatively; it tellB ns
what not to do.

V :■ ,

■J v

** Say not tn thine Heart"

II. It speaks to as positively ; it tells us
what to do.

The former verse tells us that "Moses de-
Boribeth the righteousness which is of the law,
That the man which doeth these things shall
live by them." No man ever did them, so no
man ever lived by them, and Moses does not
describe the maw, but the "righteousness of
the law which saith," an idea which has never
had a tangible reality; the word which the
Divine writer has chosen is ** describeth,"
painteth the righteousness of the law, but the
righteousness of faith comes speaking and
asking us to believe. No man ever kept the
law, so no man ever lived by it, but the
righteousness of faith comes speaking on this
wise, " Say not in thine beart." Most people
anxious about their salvation are communing
with their own hearts, and not listening to the
conditions which God lays down.

A young man during the last week entered
my room, and paused some time before he
spoke. At last he said he had applied to
several people, "but all had passed him on to
some one else, saying it was not their business.
He said, " I have read several religious books,
yours among the rest, and I want to know
how to get my soul saved."

I replied, ** I will not pass you on, for it is
my business to heal you if I can. What is
your disease? " He hesitated, so I said, "You
cannot feel as you would like to do ; is that

>*> -i

|ll

''Say not in thine Hearth

it ? *' " Yes, that is it ; I cannot feel right."
I said, " You have to do with the just and
holy God, who will never change His laws for
as, a God of iufinite majesty, and you begin
to talk of yovix feelings ; would it not be better
to find out the conditions He has laid down ?

" If you owed illOO, would it not be better
to try and work with your hands to pay it off
than to talk of how yon feel about your debt?
Or suppose I appoint you by letter to come to
my house at twelve to-morrow; you come,
and are told that I have been out half-an-hour
and shall not return for two hours. When I
see you, I say, * Oh, I felt you would not
come.* You show me my own letter, and
say, *You appointed me to come at twelve.'
We have nothing to do with feelings; we have
to do with the Book, and what God says in it.
It is not my feelings or yours. What is the
use of that when there are conditions laid
down ? "

Submission is the point, not the details so
much, not the clearness of reception, as the
submission to the dictates of another, so the
longing soul will be satisfied. I believe no
one went to hell who longed for Christ The
devil would say, " Go away ; we have no room
for Christ here." I said to the young man,
" Will you submit ? It is all laid down here ;
you have only to endorse the cheque ; we have
it here payable to sinner or bearer, a blank
cheque signed and sealed in blood, and any

*' Say not in thine Heart''

man oan lift it up out of this verse, *That
if tbou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath
raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved ; ' he oan endorse it on the back, and it is
payable on demand." He saw he had to look
away from himself to what had been done by
another, that God was pleased to say He was
satisfied with the work done on Calvary's
Cross, and if He is pleased I may be thankful
to accept it. I think the young man went
away rejoicing in Christ's finished work.

If I could have a trumpet tongue which
would sound from one end of Britain to the
other, there is one thing I should like to say
to one class of people : not to Christians, for
they have got to the root of the matter, and
they will, " some on boards and some on
broken pieces of the ship,'* all get safe to
land; not to the godless, for they do not
care, and I may not have the capacity to
reach them; but to a large class, a middle
class, not careless nor doubting, not running
to excess of rioting, but not F'^anding on the
rook; and the text I would preach from to
them would be, ** Say not in thine heart ; "
go not by what thy heart says. To turn men
in to what they feel, instead of out to what
God has done and said, is the crying heresy
of the present day, and this is our mission —
to come with the oracles of God as contrasted
with feelings. " Say not in thine heart," be-

mi'

jii

J ■ If

'* Say not tn thine Heart.''

cause all men are ready to go by what they
feel, and three-quarters of evangelic preaching
is founded upon this sensational religion,
"Do you feel God's Spirit working within
you ? Do you feel getting better ? — then go
on and get to heaven.'* Many good men have
said it, but it is not in my Bible from G-enesis
to Kevelation. I have searched from board to
board, and the wordfeeUng in. connection with
salvation is not to be found in it. I beUeve it
has been got from the devil. The adversary
of souls goes with the preacher, night after
night, and does all he can to thwart the
Word ; he comes as an angel of light, not
as the serpent, for then you would not listen
to him ; he comes neither outwardly immoral,
nor outwardly out-and-out for Christ. If he
came as a liar, you would say, ** Get thee
behind me, Satau ; " if he came and said the
Bible was not true, and there was no hell and
no heaven, you would say, '* Get thee behind
me, Satan; " all these are lies, and you would
find them out soon ; so he will not do this
with you who are better taught, but he will
come as an angel of light ; or if he sees you
inclined to one line of things, he will give
you what will please you, lest you should
hear and be saved.

Our whole powers are devoted week after
week to get people saved ; his whole work is
to bhnd people, for ^* if our gospel be hid, it
is hid to them that are lost, in whom the god

■>i ..

** Say not in thine Heart."

of this world hath blinded the minds of them
which believe not, lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God,
should shine unto them." What a diabolical
work, to keep people unsaved I Like those
wreckers that rear the beacon-light on the
iron-bound shore, that the sailor may be
dashed to pieces, even so he rears a beacon-
light, but it leads to death, ruin, and desola-
tion.

Satan has substituted two things for the
gospel which is the power of God. To
those who have a traditional Christianity he
finds he must do other things than contra-
dict the Bible; so he comes and substitutes
one truth for another, and there are two
great lines of truth which he has taken
and put in the place of one and the same
truth. The one is the life of Christ; this
was one great thing I was taught in early
life, and my idea was that in order to be
saved I must live a life like His ; children are
taught this still, for the devil has taken that
grand truth that we should imitate the life of
Christ, and he has put it in the place of
Calvary and Golgotha, and the dying Lamb
of God. We need not begin with Christ at
Bethlehem; He began with us there; we
begin with His death, and having secured
His death, we go back and retrace the steps
of His life ; I believe Satan has invented no
greater error than that of substituting the life

\ iii^

^* Say not in thine Hearth

of Christ for His death. The Apostle Paid
says, " God forbid that I should glory save in
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ/' not the
manger.

The next truth he has put in a false position
is the worli of the Holy Ghost in me, in place
of Christ's work for me. I believe that the
work of God the Spirit, in every regenerated
man, in bearing witness that he is a child of
God, is quite a step in advance of being saved.
Israel was saved, but the people were never
called the children of God; Abraham and Moses
never had the spirit of sonship whereby we cry,
" Abba, Father ; " but we must never put the
work of the Spirit of God in the place of the
work of the Son of God ; we must never think
that what the Spirit works in us is to be taken
as the ground of peace. I know the fearful
Slough of Despond, the fearful darkness and
despair a man gets into by looking into his
own heart: the more conscientious a man is
who looks into hii^self, the more despairing
he gets if he is taught to look into his own
heart, and into the work of God the Holy
Ghost there, as the foundation on which to
rest his hope of eternal life. The less the
conscience speaks, the more peace the man
gets ; the keener the conscience is, the more
despair the man is plunged into. I have seen
conscientious people almost driven to madness,
because they were neve^* satisfied with God's
work going on in their heart, and I have heard

"Say not in thine Heart'*

others glibly talk of being satisfied with them-
selves, and this because their consciences had
never placed before them an eternal hell;
" Say not in thine heart," for the righteous-
ness of faith speaks, and you are to listen
to it.

Po not try to rear a ladder from earth to
heaven because God has fixed a ladder from
heaven to earth. I am never, and should
never be, satisfied with the work of the Holy
Ghost in me, but I am, and should bC) satis-
fied with the work of Christ for me on the
cross. The work of Christ on the cross is the
ground of cur salvation, and we may be satis-
fied with that alone; the more the Holy Ghost
works in a man the more will he be dissatisfied ;
the more faith a man has the more loudly will
he cry, '* Increase my faith ; " it is too good
to get only a little of; the more hope, the
more love he has wrought in him by the Holy
Ghost, the more he is dissatisfied with them
and longs for their increase. Of faith, hope,
and love we may desire more, but we can
never say this of the work on Calvary's Cross —
the more we see of it the more we are satisfied
with it.

" The cross still stands unchanged,

Though heaven is now His home }
' The mighty stone is rolled away.
But yonder is His tomb.

And yonder is my peace,
The grave of all my woes I

Hi
•I 1 1

■ ■' .11
■ .',1

** Say noi in thine Heart."

I know the Son of Ood has come,
I know He died and rose.

I change, He changes not,
The Christ can never die,
His love, not mine, the resting-place^
His truth, not mine, the tie."

/ . .*

^■.v^rj^,.;^f.

BIGHTE0USNE8S, HUMAN AND

DIVINE.

The righteousaeaa which b of faith." — Eomans x. 26.

HIS is a remarkable expression ; the
righteousness which is of the law can
be well understood ; it is the right doing
between man and man, and between God and
man. If you buy a good article from a man
and pay him his just demands for it, you are
neither obliged to, nor obliging, him ; in other
words, you are equally righteous according to
the righteousness which is of the law — ^it is a
straightforward business transaction, you doing
your part rightly, and he doing Ms ; it is pay-
ing twenty shillings in the pouna.

But what is the righteousness wh~ h is of
faith? We shall see it —

1. As contrasted with the righteousness
which is of the law : " He that doeth these
things shall live by them." The righteousness
of faith is not on the same line of rails at all;
it is in contrast.

2. This righteousness which is of faifch, when
it speaks o this wis^, tells us what has to be
done that i may b.- exhibited, nothing less

■/f

f s"

i &!.

t * '

taam

/•'

96 Righteousness^ Human and Divine,

than the incarnation and resurrection of
Christ.

3. We see the utter uselessness and need-
lessness of all man's efforts to do this work
which the righteousness which is of faith
demands : " Say not in thine heart, Who shall
ascend mto heaven ? (that is, to hring Christ
down) ; or, Who shall descend into the deep ?
(that is, to hring up Christ again from tne
dead)."

4. We shall find the part which man plays
in securing the righteousness which is of faith.
** If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the
Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved."

5. We shall see not only the part which
man plays, but the medium wrdch unites him
to this righteousness of faith : ** The word is
nigh thee, even in thy mouth and thy heart,"
that is, the word of faith.

6. We shall see why this righteousness of
faith thus benefits men : " For with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness, and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

7. We shall see, lastly, the ground of it all :
" For there is no difference between the Jew
and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon Him."

(1) The righteousness which is of faith is
contrasted with the righteousness which is of
the law. It is utterly useless for any one of

!■;*'

Righteousness, Human and Divine. 97

ns to attempt to roc are righteouRness on the
ground of law-keeping, for if from this moment
until we were a hundred years old we never
committed one sin, it would he all up with
us; we have sinned in the past, the line of
continuity is hroken, and we must get upon
another line altogether; the righteousness
which is of faith comes in when the righteous-
ness which is of the law is hroken. The doing
and the living go together, for the law does not
say. Do, and he saved, it Joes not imply that
the man is lost, but " he that doeth those
things shall live by them," and the moment
the doing is not perfected according to the law
the man is lost.

Men study the laws of G?d in nature, and
think how exact He is, and yet they think His
moral laws can be broken with impunity. He
never puts summer in the place of winter ; the
sun always rises and sets to a minute, so that
men can predict its course for a thousand years
at any part of the earth's surface, for it has
never been known to be a second before or
behind time. The stars come to their meridian
to the one-thousandth part of a second, and
their exactitude is so great that the difference
of a hair's breadth in their place in the heavens
would be far too large a divergence, — so exact
is God. Are His moral laws likely to be less
exact ?

(2) Now we want to look into the work that
has to be done, — Christ has to come out of

I 7

1:*?

iii

I- '1-.

(;;

><^

98 Righteousness, Hunan and Divine.

heaven to go to the grave , to come out of the
grave and to go into heaven before this
righteousness which is of Mth can be ac-
complished. Hence, in the

3rd place, we see the uselessness and need-
lessness of men trying to accomplish it. Can
you go up to heaven to bring Christ down?
can you descend into the deep to bring up
Christ again from the dead ? It is needless,
inasmuch as the work is done ; it is hopeless,
inasmuch as man has no power to do it.
Therefore we see, in the

4th place, that the part which man plays
in securiDg this righteousness is v^ry simpk.
" If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the
Lord Jesus," made Lord by incarnation and
resurrection," and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou
shait be saved." We see the medium,

6th. 'J'he word, the simple act of faith
which links him to Jesus Christ, because

6th, "With the heart man believeth unto
righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation," and the ground

7th, Is, that there is no difference. This
truth is at the root of all revelation from God
to sinful men. There is no difference. St. Paul
uses this expression twice : the first time in
the third chapter of Komans, " There is no
difference, for all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God." Man does not like this
truth when it is preached; it is often de-

i I

',"•■ r:-.-«^,

Righteousness, Human and Divine, 99

DOUDced as absurd and heretical, but it has
stood since Paul's day. Cultivated men do
not like to be brought down to the level of the
murderer and drunkard; and without doubt
there is a difference in the degree^ but not in
the guilt of moral delinquency. There is a
difference as to the depth in which men are
down in the mud, but all are together in the
horrible pit and miry clay.

People waste their time in mud-measuring.
One says, " My foot is only covered with the
mud, but look at that fellow, he is ankle-deep
in it ; " the one who is ankle-deep in mud
says, **Look at that man, he is up to the
knees in mud ; " while he, in his turn, says,
" I am not* so bad as that man, he is up to the
neck in mud." It is of no use to talk like
that : here is a rope-ladder to help you all up
from the pit. **0h," says one, **I am as
good as my neighbour, and better than many."
Very true, perhaps, but that is only the differ-
ence between being up to the knees in mud or
up to the neck ; if you are in the pit, you need
a rope-ladder that you may get out and place
your feet on a rock, for there is nb difference.
One man with decent boots on, and only one
foot a little muddy, says, " I do not believe
there is no difference. Do you mean to say
I am no better than that fellow there up to
his neck in mud ? " No, my friend ; and very
likely the man up to his neck will get hold of
the ladder first, for he is so shocked at the

'-: I

1 \

'!i

■If

!..i''

loo Righteousness^ Human and Divine,

mud that lie is glad to get out of it ; while
the respectahle man spends his time in argu-
ing about the depth of mud he is in. It is not
mud-measuring, but salvation, we have to do
with, for " there is no difference, for all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God."

Here in the 10th chapter we have the other
'* no difference," and it is about God's grace.
There is no difference this time, for the same
free God has the same free grace for every
sinner out of hell : this is the foundation
for the righteousness of faith being given to
us. !

The work that has to be done is no other
and no less than the incarnation and resur-
rection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Incarna-
tion alone is useless, death alone is useless ;
resurrection is what makes the righteousness
of faith applicable to us. It is significant
that while man has invented, and annually
celebrates, what he calls the day of Christ's
nativity or Christmas, and another day
which he calls Good Friday, or the day of
Christ's death, God has appointed no such
days, but one day to be celebrated, not yearly,
but weekly, to keep in memory, not the birth
of Christ, which would condemn us, nor the
death of Christ, which would bring us in
guilty of murder, but the resurrection of
Christ, which shows what God is for the sinner
— the Lord's day, which tells us of resurreo-

Righteousness^ Human and Divine. loi

tion, and assures us that we have not to asoend
irto heaven to bring down Christ, nor descend
into the deep, to bring Him up from the dead,
but that the Lord became incarnate in order
that He might rise. It does not say any-
thing of death, because it is implied in re-
surrection.

If you and I accept the righteousness which
is of faith, we gain it by the incarnation and
lesurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many
people think they will reach heaven by a sort
of guess-road ; you ask a man, '* If you were
to drop down dead in an hour's time, where
would your soul be ? "

"What is tiie use of frightening me like
that? what do you mean by it?"

**If God were to withdraw His hand for one
moment, and your heart were to stop beating,
you would be a corpse ; then where should you
be?*'

" Oh, I hope " he would most likely say,

but " I Iwpe " is nothing ; it is a miser a,ble
wriggle out of the difficulty. " Have you gone
up to heaven or down to the deep? for the
righteousness which is of faith says that work
has to be done."

"I trust God will be merciful.'*

You never read of mercy at the day of
judgment. " Inasmuch as ye did it ... in-
asmuch as ye did it not." ..." Come, ye
blessed, . . . depart, ye cursed;" not one word
of mercy, for there is no mercy at the judg-

■t: I

\% \*A

j^'^\

102 RtghteousnesSy Human and Divine,

ment-seat of God. We know the whole of
the elements which enter into the judgment.
We do not know who are saved or who are
lost : all we can say of the best man on earth
is that he professes to be converted, and we
do not see anything in his conduct which is
contrary to that profession. Human beings
have to judge others by their actions, not by
their faith. God only sees the heart ; and
we are not to get a verdict from human judges,
or from our own feelings, but to await the
sentence of the unerring Judge.

How may I get a favourable one ? God has
instituted the Lord's day to this end, that
those who are saved may come and wo/ship,
and that those who are not saved may hear
what they are to do. Just as the business of
the week-days must be done, so the business
of this day must be done. This business is
not to hear a sermon and criticise it. If I
were a salesman, 1 should not hke a person to
come into my shop, and spend an hour and a
half in looking over all my good^, and then
go away without buying anything — that is not
business. I want to do business for eternity.
I want not to write nor preach what people
like, but to get hold of a man's conscience,
and to ask him. Have you the righteousness
which is of faith ? Are you resting on the
incarnation and resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ ?

Think of the day and the ordeal of judg-

RighteoustvesSy Human and Divine. 103

ment. Will you plead guilty or not guilty ?
Guilty, not of living a wretchedly bad life as
a thief or a murderer, but of breaking God's
law in one point ? You say, *' I must acknow-
ledge breaking it at one point." Then you
are guilty. Have you any excuse to make ?
" Yes, much." Have you prayed ? " Yes,
all my life." Then pray on. Have you been
charitable: "Oh yes, I give to the Hull
Infirmary and to the Indian Famine Fund."
Then sell all you have and give to the poor.
You say, " That is very hard." Yes, but 1 can-
not help it : such is the way you have chosen
with your excuses, prayers, and good works.
Another man pleads '* guilty" at once. Have
you any excuses, any prayers, any good deeds,
any endeavours to do right to plead in your
behalf? "No." Have you nothing good to
say for yourself? Are you only fit to be
cast away from God ? "I have not a single
excuse or palliation to present." Then God
says, " I have nothing but a Saviour for one
so bad as you are." If you come as a sinner
alone, not sinner and company, God will give
you Christ, for it is grace now, as it will be
judgment then. The righteousness which is
of faith is for any man who will take the place
where righteousness can flow — the place of
the lost sinner now ; for " Behold, now is the
accepted time; behold, now is the day of
salvation."

t •;■ I'!.

JOB'S QUESTION AND PAUL'S
AN8WEB.

[OB, in his distress, raised this question,
" How should man be just with God ? "
(ix. 2). The divinely-appointed sacri-
fices in Israel, the ancient idolatries and
sacrifices of Greece and Kome, the modem
abominations to false gods in heathenism, all
tell out that conscience as well as law ever
keeps before fallen man this fundamental
question. Man has never, even to his own
sadsfaction, answered this question ; so that,
where he is conscientious, his whole life is
taken up in seeking for an answer in his own
efforts, and fiDding none.

Paul has answered it, or rather God the
Holy Ghost, by the pen of Paul, in the letter
to the Komans (iii. 26), where he tells us that
Christ came, and shows how God Himself can
be "just, and the Justifier of him who believe th
in Jesus." Under several aspects do we find
justification in the Scripture : —

1st, Justification by God.

2nd, Justification by grace.

3rd, Justification by blood.

4th, Justification by resurrection.

I J. -J {-.

Job's Question and Paul's Answer. 105

6th, Justification of life.

6th, Justification by faith.

7th, Justification by works. '

Ist^ Justification by God. — What a wondrous
truth I God steps in Himself and justifies the
sinner. The process by which this is accom-
plished, and the vindicatic n and manifestation
of all His attributes in this justification, we
shall shortly consider ; hnt the fact is the first
thing to take hold of, that God has come in
for our justification. '• Even as David also
describeth the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth righteousness without
works" (Eom. iv. 6). So also Isaiah (liii. 6),
" The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of
us all." God is " the Justifier of him who
believe th in Jesus" (Kom. iii. 26). "Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God*s
elect? Shall God that justifieth?" (Rom.
viii. 83). And He only has the right to lay
to our charge — but He justifies us. He is
spoken of as ^^ Him that justifieth the un-
godly" (Rom. iv. 5). Man is going about
trying to secure his justification ; he will not
stand still and let God justify him. Jesus
told the religious people of His day (Luke xvi.
15), *' Ye are they which justify yourselves; **
and as long as we are attempting to justify
ourselves, we cannot submit to let God justify
us. We excuse, palliate, cover over our sin,
until we understand this fact, that it is God
that justifies.

io6 Job's Question and Paul's Answer.

2ndf Justification by grace. — God could
point to mf alien angels, and say against all
accusers, ** These staiid in creature righteous-
ness," but He could not justify them by grace,
for they never required it. In order to see
the meaning of this expression, we must
understand what and where man is when God
steps in to justify him. In the Epistle to the
Eomans, it is not until all men in the toorld —
good, bad, and indifferent—have been brought
in guilty before God, that God opens up His
secret. It is not until man at his extremity
cries. How then shall men be just with God ?
in the sight of His inflexible justice and
stern, unbending judgment, that God steps
in and answers his question by opening up
the treasures of His grace. The criminal has
been found guilty at the bar, the judge has
pronounced the sentence, the convict now
awaits execution; his prayers, his tears cannot
save him; he is condemned. It is in vain
that he loudly calls for mercy, and promises
amendment for the future ; the sentence has
been passed ; the law is inflexible, and his
blood is demanded : now is the time for grace.
That Judge who has condemned has planned
the way by which the condemned criminal
may become a loyal subject. He wishes to
show the exceeding riches of His grace in
His kindness to that condemned man. The
thought arises in the Judge's heart ; for it is
for His own name's sake that He does it ; and

it/'.-

V >

JoUs Question and Paul's Answer, 107

thus we are "justified freely by His grace**
(Eom. iii. 24 ; Titus iii. 7). But what of the
justice of the Judge ? Is it to be sacrificed ?
What of the inflexible character of His law ?
Is it to be tampered with ? Nay, verily.
This leads us to consider —

Srd, Justification by blood. — He spared not
His Son, but gave Him up to the death 'for
us (blood being the emblem for " life taken ").
So we are sipoken of as " being now justified
by His blood'' (Rom. v. 9). Death has been
demanded. Clirist has died ; the penalty has
been paid. So if we are justified freely by
His grace, it is " through the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath sot forth
a propitiation through faith in His blood^*
(Rom. iii. 24, 25). Man could tolerate a
certain kind of grace, or an interest in Christ's
holy life, but he cannot bear the " blood "
theology. But the key-note of God's justifica-
tion is blood. Blood is the procuring cause,
as this passage proves to a demonstration.
The Judge was gracious; therefore He gave
His Son for the criminal. The Judge "VTas
just ; therefore He could not spare the life of
His Son. God's justice is now displayed to
the universe in the blood of His Son, as no-
where, else it could be seen. It is according
to the positive value of this precious blood
that we are now justified. God's justice de-
manded death; God's grace provided blood.
So the obedient One, under all the load, says^

■I'.:

i I

:-'ii

I 'i
!

!
I

1 08 Job's Question and Paul's Answer,

" But Thou art holy, Thou that inhabitest
the praises of Israel I '* (Psalm xxii.). He
vindicates God while He feels the judgment-
stroke pouring out His precious blood, and thus
puts away the sin that He bore ; and thus His
precious ** hlood cleanseth us from all sin,"
sins of omission as well as sins of commission.
Some seem to think that something less or
something else than His blood can cleanse
from the sin of failing to come up to obey
His precepts, while the blood is required only
for the sin of actual commission ; but sins of
omission are as really sin as sins of commis-
sion; and blessed be God, "His blood cleanseth
us from ALL sin." And we are justified by His
blood as the alone procuring, efficacious,
meritorious cause. To nothing else in Scrip-
ture is justification attributed as a meritorious
cause. " By Him all who believe are justified
from all things " (Acts xiii. 39).

Athf Justification by resurrection. — " Jesus
our Lord was delivered for our offences, was
raised again for our justification*' (Rom. iv.
25). Christ was made sin for us, went into
our very place of condemnation under the
wrath of God ; but God in justice to Him has
raised Him out of that place, thus justifying
Him, and thus openly preaching to every clime,
where the fact of His resurrection is known,
that the legal barrier between Him and any
sinner accepting Christ has been removed.
It is not that there is merit or value in the

Job's Queslton and Paul's Answer, 109

putting away of sin in Christ's resurrection —
the precious blood alone does that — but there
is the exhibition of the satisfaction of God's
justice in the finished work of Christ. Christ,
on Calvary, reckoned up the penalty demanded,
gave Himself as an equivalent, paid thus in
equivalent the amount demanded; but God,
in raising Christ from the dead, has as it were
with His own hand receipted the account, so
that not only have we it paid by our Surety,
but settled by Him Who made tiio just demand.
It was for our offences that He was delivered.
It was for our justification Ho was raised . How
vague and imperfect are the ideas of justification
entertained by many Christians, may be seen in
the infrequent use of the resurrection of Christ,
which is here so intimately linked with justi-
fication. *' If Christ be not raised, ye are yet
in your sins " (1 Cor. xv. 17) ; and conversely,
" If Christ is raised, ye are not in your sins."
His resurrection tells us that God is for us,
and that God is for us in consistency, yea, in
exhibition of His own majestic justice ; so in
Eom. X. 9 the righteousness of faith speaks
thus, ** Say not in thine heart, Who shall
ascend into heaven ? (that is, to bring Christ
down from above) ; or, Who shall descend into
the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again
from the dead)," for the Word tells us, that **if
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that
God hath raised Him froin the deadj thou

i - t

'■\-;,' ■

1 10 JoUs Qtiestion and Paul's Answer,

shalt be saved.*' " Who is he that con-
demneth ? " (Christ most certainly should).
*' Shall Christ that died, yea, rather y that is
risen again ? '* (Kom. viii. 34). " If when we
were enemies we were reconciled to G-od by the
death of His Son, much morey being reconciled^
we shall be saved by His life" {H.is-resurreC'
Hon life) (Eom. v. 10). Thus there is the most
intimate and necessary connection between
justification and resurrection. The Judge's
Son, Who, according to the Judge's grace,
took the place of the condemned criminal,
has shed His blood, but has been raised from
the dead, and now stands beyond the forfeit of
His life, and the living One is the assurance
to the condemned one that there is no con-
demnation. "He was raised /or" (not on
account of, but for) " our justification."

&thy Justification of life (Itom. v. 18).— (Lit.)
"As by one offence judgment came upon all
men to condemnation, even so by one right-
eousness the free gift came upon " (rather to
or towards) "all men, unto justification of
life.'' This carries us a step further in the
perfect exhibition of the justification of the
believer. Not only did Christ come to save,
not only did He shed Hip piecious blood, not
only did He stand my Surety, not only was He
raised from the dead as my Head and Kepresen-
tative, but I am quickened together with Him
in this risen life. We are reckoned as having
died, and now been raised together with Christ

;;

Job's Question and Paul's Answer, ni

(Eph. ii.)« Says the Psalmist, " Enter not into
judgment with Thy servant": for in Thy sight
shall no man living be justified " (Psalm cxliii.
2). I am justified, not as living in the first
Adam life, but as having iied out of the Adam
state, and now being raised and quickened with
Christ. Eomans vi. is the full exhibition of this.
We do not get justification and acceptance
now before God by a simple restoration to us of
that which was lost in Adam. After the penalty
has been paid by our Surety, and He has been
raised, we are, as in Christ, taken out of the
old condemnation-place, and set down in a
a resurrection (therefore justified) life,

new

and in the very place that Christ occupies, in
virtue of what He has done. In other words,
the old things are blotted out as by the cold
hand of the grave. We make an entirely new
start, as men that have been dead and are now
ahve again, living the life of Christ. This is
"justification of life.*' This is the " newness
of life " — not freshness, or a merely sanctified
walk, but life in entirely new circumstances,
Christ's resurrection-life, in which we are now
to walk, as those who have died to sin. So
we are caUed on to "reckon ourselves dead
indeed to sin, but alive unto God, through
Jesus Christ our Lord'* (Rom. vi. 11); and
(ver. 7) "he that is dead is justified from
sin." It is only as those who have died (in
Christ), and who are alive in a Life that knows
no condemnation (Christ's risen life), that we

-;• M

h
1 1

ji;

; i

Kill

112 Job's Question and Paul's Answer,

can say we are justified from sin. Such is the
bearing of* Christ's death and resurrection on
our justification of life.

Eph. i. 6 tells us that we are " accepted in
the Beloved, in whom we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins."
Here we have three things — forgiveness,
redemption, acceptance. We are not yet
redeemed by power; but, so far. as our sins
and their forgiveness are concerned, we do
have redemption. And is there One in whom
God dehghts, whom God loves, in all His
universe ? We are accepted in that beloved '
One — not in the Adamic state perfected,
not in the angelic state communicated; but
accepted in Him Who is the beloved Son, in
His resurrection state — quickened with Him
after all the responsibilities of the Adamic
state had been justly met — children in Jesus
Christ to God Himself. And as Christ is (not
was), so are we in this world. If we continue
our illustration, it will be only to show how far
surpassing man's power is God's justification.
Not only has the Judge in His grace given His
Son, Whose blood was shed, and Who was raised
from the dead, but through that risen Son He
communicates life to the condemned criminal,
who therefore takes his place as a son — not by
some gratuitous assumption or temporary adop-
tion, but by an innate right, having now a
son's life, and hence a son's position. This
is "justification of life."

Job's Question and Paul's Answer, 113

6^^, Justification hy faith. — "Being justified
by faith, we have peace with God "'(Kom. v. 1).
Faith is the acceptance of God's method of
justification; faith appropriates what graoe
provides; faith apprehends what graoe pre-
sents. It is not faith that justifies ; but by
grace are ye saved through faith. All has
been finished centuries ago. Faith now gives
credence and credit to the record, and accepts
the scheme for the individual sinner — accepts
God's condition of death and resurrection in
the Surety, and is thus counted for righteous-
ness, as apprehending all that God's justice
has demanded and grace has provided. The
moment we accept Christ we are justified from
all things ; we can never be more justified (we
then only begin to grow in grace), but it must
be hy faith ^ not by feeling. Many anxious
ones are looking for the feeling of peace
within, supposing that to be faith : the ex-
perience of what goes on within me is sense,
it is not faith. Faith believes not what
we feel, but what God says — **He that
believeth not God hath made Him a liar;
because he believeth not the record that God
gave of His Son. And this is the record, that
God hath given to us eternal life, and this life
is in His Son " (1 John v. 11). It is of faith
that it might be of grace. To make it abso-
lutely free and open to any kind of sinner,
no condition was imposed. God comes with a
free gift, and only asks us to accept it. The

I, h J

■~" ' ! ' '

V f' 1

f' ■■ ^

4^ fi

*"t"'■i^■«.w^■'^■ yf'r?

'^■"■" .??':■

1 14 Job's Question and Paul's Answer,

moment we do, we have peace (not with our-
selves) with God, for Christ is our peace.

Ith^ Justified by works (James ii. 24).—
Certainly these are not deeds of the law —
" By the deeds of the law there shall no fiesh
be justified in His sight " (Rom. iii. 20). They
are works of faith, (Look at the instances
in James' Epistle, — Abraham's seemed to be
against the law of the sixth commandment.)
The works of faith show to men that there is
faith, just as the figs on a tree show that the
root is a fig root. If a man say he has faith —
I say to him. Show me your works. (It is not,
Show God. He can see faith — I can't.) My
works justify my faith before men, as my faith
justifies myself before God. A Christian is in
a low state when he is searching for this faith
among his works. He is in a doubtful state
when he has to persuade other men that he
has faith, who fail to see it m his works. My
faith rests on Jesus Christ alone for salvation,
and the words concerning Him for the know-
ledge of salvation. My exhibition to men of
faith stands on my works of faith alone. The
condemned criminal has accepted the terms,
the provision of the Judge, — that is, justifica-
tion by faith. He now lives as the Judge's
son, honours the Judge's will, obeys the Judge's
commandments, walks, acts, speaks, as be-
comes the son's place, so that men at once
see that he is living in the Judge's home as
the Judge's son.

cv:

Job!s Question and Paul's Answer. 115

God justifies us as the Author and Executor.

Grace justifies us as the reason in God.

Blood justifies us as the meritorious cause.

Eesurrection justifies us as God's own assur-
ance.

Life (in resurrection) justifies us as our
position before God.

Faith justifies us as the instrument.

Works justify us as the evidence to others.

h [i
r h;

•'i • i<

\ !.»• f

:-t it

TEE CLAIMS OF THE MAN JE8U8,

** The Jews answered Him, saying, For a good work we
stone Thee not, but for blasphemy ; and because that Thou,
being a man, makeet Thyself God." — John 1 33.

JHIS is a very solemn statement — "Thou,
being a man, makest Thyself God."
That was the opinion, at any rate, that
the Jews had of Christ's own claims when
He came into the world.

They had no difficulty in knowing what He
professed to be ; but they had great difficulty
in believing that it was true. They had no
difficulty in knowing what His claims were,
but they had great difficulty in granting them.
They were not like modern Unitarians, who
would make out that God had not said in His
Bible that the Messiah would come as " God
manifest in the flesh ; " they allowed that, but
said that it was blasphemy in Him to say that
of Himself. That was what Judaism said, and
what it says still. They should have been
aware that there was a text in Zechariah
which says, " Awake, sword, against my
Shepherd, and against the man that is my
Fellovj, saith the Lord of Hosts" — that there
Jehovah's fellow was a man. Over and over

The Ccaims of the Man Jesus. 117

again did the Jews attempt to kill Him be-
cause He called Himself God, or the Son of God
in a way in which no human created being
is so — the Uncreated, Eternal Son — ^the Son
of God. This is what these rulers impeached
Him for saying of Himself. Here it is strongly
put, "Because that Thou, b^ing a man, makest
Thyself God." In the 6th of John we read
at the 18th verse, "Therefore the Jews sought
the more to kill Him, because He not only had
broken the Sabbath, but said also that God
was His Father, making Himself equal with
God." The claim was fellowship with God.
" He made Himself equal with God."

Then, if we pass on to His crucifixion, we
shall find that this was the head and front
of His accusation. John xix. 7, " The Jews
answered Him, We have a law, and by our
law He ought to die, because He made Him-
self the Son of God." This was His death-
warrant — what they put upon His indictment
as the greatest of all His crimes. In the
Gospel by Matthew, xxvi. 63-66, He is indicted
and condemned for the same thing, — "But
Jesus held His peace. And the high-priest
answered and said unto Him, I adjure Thee,
by the living God, that Thou tell us whether
Thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus
saith unto him, Thou hast said : nevertheless
I say unto you. Hereafter shall ye see the Son
of man sitting on the right hand of power, and
coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the

'^ S.

i.i

\A.

V m

}^ •

ii8 TAe Claims of the Man Jesus.

high-priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath
spoken hlasphemy; what further need have
we of witnesses ? behold, now ye have heard
His blasphemy. What think ye? They
answered and said. He is guilty of death.'*
In the high-priest's estimation it seemed a
greater sin than claiming to be the Son of
God, that He pictured Himself coming in the
clouds of heaven, and sitting on the right hand
of power as Son of man ; that He, as the Son
of man, would be raised up to be Head over
every created thing ; and that He would sit,
and reign, and govern with God as man.
This was great blasphemy to their minds.

Then we come to the title and accusation
put upon the cross. " The superscription of
His accusation was written over, The King of
the Jews" Mark does not give us any other
part — not even '' Jesus of Nazareth." The
chief part of the accusation was that He was
the Kirg of the Jews — the Messiah promised
to the fathers, to fulfil all the promises made
to Abraham and David. As such He was to
sit on the throne of Israel — King of the Jews
— God's own chosen people.

Thus we find a three-fold claim made by
Christ ; and all the three claims were dis-
allowed by the Jews : —

First, '' that He, being a man, made Him-
self God," as John tells us, the Son of God,
equal with God, very God Himself.

Second, that He was the Son of man. Who

The Claims of the Man Jesus. 119

would yet put everything on earth that opposed
Him under His feet, and govern the whole
creation.

Third, that He was the King of the Jews,
Who should establish the throne of Israel, and
at last sit thereon.

These are the three great naroes which are
the centres of all His powers and greatest
claims on this earth: —

The Son of God, by which He has wrought
out redemption for His people.

The King of the Jews, to establish them in
their own land in the latter day. He will
restore Israel, and reign over His own people
m His title of King of the Jews.

The Son of man, under which title He is to
be Lord of all- creation. All shall then know
Him, even from the least to the greatest, and
give Him obedience.

We read in the^ 8th Psalm, " Thou hast
put all things under His feet ; all sheep and
oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl
of the air, and the fish of the sea." These
are representative of the different classes of
creatures — the oxen and sheep, or domesti-
cated animals ; the beasts of the field, or wild
animals ; the feathered tribe ; and the fish of
the sea ; and all are to be under Him. Though-
we see not yet all things put under Him, stiU
m counsel they are put under Him. This was
so far seen while He was on earth. When He
was tempted of the devil it was among the

\;-. -

^ i

r :

r ef

. 14:

t M,

1 20 TAe Claims of the Man Jesus.

wild beasts of the desert, but they did not
touch Him. When baptised, a dove was used
by the Holy Ghost. When asked to pay the
unjust tax, He said. Go and open that fish's
mouth, and there was the money. When
He required a quadruped to ride into Jeru-
salem, there was the colt of an ass just at
hand. And when He wanted to rebuke Peter
in the midst of his blasphemy, the cock was
ready to crow. Whether birds of the air,
fish of the sea, or animals, wild or tame, all
were subject to Him as the Son of man.

The Son of God.

Such claims as He advanced have never
been advanced by any man before nor since.
We are so accustomed by traditional upbringing
to a sort of hereditary belief of truth that we
are apt to take it second-hand, and lose its
power. We are in danger of having this
blessed book more in our heads than in our
hearts, from being brought up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord. It is good to
be so brought up, but what we have by custom
we generally have not so firm a grasp of. So
that when infidelity assails us we have to fall
back again on the pure Eevelation of God —
what saith the Lord? We have a sort of
traditional belief that the Bible is all right,
■ and that Christ is the only Saviour, and that
the way by which evangelical preachers tell
us to go to heaven is the correct one. In-

Tfie Claims of the Man Jesus. 121

deed, we take for granted that to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ is the way to be saved.
But to believe {^11 that about Christ is not
the same as believing in Him. To believe
in Him is the saving thing. No matter
what I have been : if I believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ* I shall be saved; and if I
don't, and do everything else, I shall be
damned. If you do everthing else, you are
damned if you don't do that. He has made
this the crucial, testing point, " Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be
saved." If that had been all, it would not
have been so testing, but the opposite is
equally true, for it is written, " He that be-
Ueveth not shall be damned." The stately
king that believes not shall be damned. The
poor peasant that believes not shall be damned.
The rich man and the poor alike that believe
not shall be damned. The learned and un-
learned shall be equally damned that do not
believe in Christ. Be he the least sinner
that ever lived, or the greatest sinner that
ever lived; I cannot help it; he shall be
damned if he believe not on the Lord
Jesus Christ. If I had been judge, I would
have said the good moral man will get to
heaven and the gross offender only go to
hell; but I am here not to make the rule
of life, but to declare it. He that believeth
not shall be damned, and I canuot alter it.
It will not make it true if I preach something

■i. ;

f I

.r'

:]:'

I'SI

122 The Claims of the Man Jesus.

I si' •:

5!i !lj

else. So upon faith in Christ turns the
whole question between God and man ? The
blackest sinner that believes on Christ and
claims Him as his own Saviour is saved
for ever, and the best man on earth that
comes to God without Christ must be damned.
Thus you see Christ is made the turning point.
The question to us, therefore, is. Do you
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ ? We have
no new gospel to bring before you, though
we trust we shall be enabled to give you
some fresh aspect of it.

I have been revolving this text very much
in my mind — ** Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and ti\ou shalt be saved."

I don't know another in all creation that I
believe in. We cannot believe in our dearest
friends. I will tell you why, — it is because
we do not believe in ourselves. After that it
is not likely we will believe in them. But I
do believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I can
believe in you so far, and you can believe in
me so far. If I say, I will come and preach to
you, I will come as far as lies in my power.
Nothing short of some catastrophe will prevent
me coming ; and you believe me thas far.
But to believe wholly in any man or woman
out of heaven we cannot, we dare not, because
we do not believe in ourselves. Let me bring
an instance before you. You remember the
claimant that was so notoriously before the

public not long

ago.

He advanced great

'I he Claims of i/ie Man Jesus. 123

claims, and put people to a great deal of
trouble, and perplexed the minds of many
people as to whether or not he was what he
professed to be. I thought he was the
genuine article for a time. During the first
trial, and up to a certain stage in it, I believed
in him. I thought he was the real Sir Eoger
Tichborne. The trial went on, and fair play
fifty times told vvas given him, but it would
not do ; his roguery came out bit by bit, till it
became more and more evident that he was
an impostor. All that could be got in his
favour was hunted up and brought forward.
Every witness that could be trusted was heard
on his side. Still his case would not hold
water. It was patent that he was not the
true heir of the estates. Moreover, those who
had most to do with it, and heard and knew
all the outs and ins of the case, formed in-
dependent judgments solemnly, unanimously,
and heartily against him. The impartiality of
the judge and jury was patent to all ; and
they, as well as the great voice of the English
people, pronounced that no such blackguard
has appeared for many years. Who believes
in him now that he is proved guilty ? In
fact, nobody, unless very peculiarly con-
stituted can any longer have faith in him.
I do not believe in him. He came forward
claiming these estates, and has put their
rightful possessors to extraordinary trouble
and expense, as well as the country at large ;

....

■^

I :>■:

1 24 The Claims of the Man Jesus,

but it has now been proved that he is no
more Sir Roger Tichborne than I am.

The Greatness of His Claims.

■ But the One whom I ask you to believe in
makes far greater claims than those of that
impostor. His claims were nothing to the
claims of the Lord Jesus Christ. The throne
of the Jewish nation is His Who was born
King of the Jews. And more than that, the
throne of the whole earth is His as the Son of
man. And not only that, but the throne of
the universe is His as the Son of God. Did
you ever hear of such claims? He claimed
by birth the throne of His father David, King
of the Jews, and was crucified as such. He
claimed also that, as Son of man, He would
sit on the right hand of the power of God, and
put all His enemies under His feet ; that as
the Second Man — the last Adam — He would
restore all that the first Adam lost ; that all
on earth, both small and great, should yet bow
down to Him as rightful King of nations.
And not only that, but that He was the Son
of God — equal with the Father — God Himself,
the Creator of all things ; that He is Lord
of all that ever was or will be encircled round
the throne of God, and Possessor of everything
in the universe as Heir of God. Did you ever
hear of such claims as thes^ ? The question
is, Who believes in Him as such ? The Jews
did not.

The Claims of the Man Jesus, 125

He oame to His own nation that He professed
to be King of, and they would not have Him.
They cried, " Away with Him ; onicify Him,
crucify Him." They preferred Barahbas to
Him. What is Barabbas ? He was a robber.
Did you ever look at the history of the
Jewish nation from that day to this ? If you
do, and look also at their Bible history as
a nation, you will find it to be one of robbery
from beginning to end. I can never read
accounts of them anywhere, and especially in
their own serials, without repeating the word
"robbery." Their robber king, ever since
they chose him, has ruled them with a dreadful
consistency — robbery, robbery, robbery, has
been the one history of the nation. Thus the
Jews, His owTt nation and people to whom He
came, would not have Him. They clung to a
Gentile monarch, crying, ** We have no king
but Caesar."

Then, again, the world was made by Him
as the Son of man, and the world did not
know Him, and hence did not believe in Him.
The Jews would not have the Son of David,
nor would the Gentiles have the Son of man ;
for once, both Jew and Gentile were united
to cast Him out. All refused to hav^ Him.
This introduces the weak side of our Client's
case. A good counsel always labours to get
evidence to support the weak side of his
client's case. Now I am pleading the cause
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I shall bring strong

5 ■ '

; m.

W^^i'Y

126 T/ze Claims of the Man Jesus,

evidence to prove what is supposed to be the
weak side of His olaijis ; and I am to put the
case before you as jurymen, and ask you to
give a candid decision as before the living
God. I care not if the enemy, Satan, himself
be called ; I am quite prepared to meet him
with unchallengeable evidence. Though the
devil comes with all these six thousand years*
experiences against us, I shall put the case
as fairly as I can, and I fear not the issue.

When He came to this earth He was bom
in the worst of all circumstances. Although
really the King of the Jews, the Son of man,
and the Son of God, He was born among the
beasts in a despised part of the land called
Bethlehem. He spent the greater part of His
life on earth in great seclusion. He was a
carpenter working at the planes and saws ;
and for thirty years He did not pubHcly
advance His claims. Then when He entered
on His ministry, and came forward as the
King of the Jews, they would not recognise
Him. I cannot put it very much stronge
against Him than that. He came to JBj ■
own estates, and His own servants would not
receive Him. He came to His own house
and p(j^sessions, and His people kept Him out
of both. So much for His claim as King of
the Jews.

The Jews to a man rejected Him, except
a few broken- down fishermen and others.
Just a few of these ignorant, p<Jor people

The Claims of the Man J^sus, 127

stood up for Him. Just a few of those senti-
mental, weeping people, who had not much
head, such alone dared to cry Hosanna in His
presence. He never drew any great people
round ahout Him. He went about despised
and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief. He was in the world,
and the world was made by Him, and yet
it knew nothing about Him. And when He
came to His departure out of this world the
Jews forsook Him, and the Gentiles, too,
mocked and scourged Him. His friends even,
who, we would have thought, would have
stood up for Him, — even His friends left Him.
His disciples forsook Him and fled. One
betrayed Him ; another swore that he never
blew Him ; not one of them stood by Him.
And every man on earth left Him. We can
see nothing around Him but a mob of infuri-
ated Jews, and Gentile soldiers with their
spears at His breast.

AU on earth left Him, and all hell was let
loose upon Him. He has come *20w to the
crisis. Now is the crucial point, for He is to
be given into the hands of God to be tested.
Now we shall see if He is an impostor. He
has been given into the hands of men, and
they nailed Him to a tree ; now He is in the
hands of God ; and hearken to His cry, ** My
God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me ? "
He is not only forsaken by all on earth, and
all in hell, by Jews and Gentiles, by foes and

i'i.i

f ;■! W

^)'^i.'^'';'\r\V'f:W'''.p"}y^^

' : 1,1

•I. u

128 TAe Claims of the Man Jesus,

friends, but He is -forsaken by God Himself.
Does this not prove against Him? I am
pleading the opposite side just now, because
I am determined to give you all that can be
said against Him first. Now it is perfectly

^ sure that His claim has been disallowed.

■ Therefore " we did esteem Him stricTceUj
smitten of God, and afflicted," That is what
the Jews said. You see, say they, that He is
an impostor, for God has smitten Him for His
imposition, and for saying that He was the
Christ, the Son of God. His history now
seems to prove Him an impostor. Jews and
Gentiles all say He is an impostor. In fact,
heaven, earth, and hell seem now against His
claims.

His Claims Disallowed.

Have you anything else to say against
Him? Not one of His claims has been
allowed. All has been against Him as the
one who claims to be the King of the Jews,
the Son of man and equal with God. What
have we now to say on His behalf? Well,
we have just one short question to ask, and
upon it we hang all our case. As to what
you have said ^.gainst Him, we admit it all ;
it is all true. We shall see what you, the
jury, say when we bring forward our evidence.
Eemember, my readers, you will all give a
verdict as you read. It must be one way or
other before God. We are now to put our

Tfie Clavns of the Man Jesus, 129

case before you, and speak for our Client.
We have not a long speech to make. Nor
are we to try to convince you by any outburst
of eloquence. Oratorical machinery never
yet convinced a sinner of his sins, any more
than it convinced a conscientious jury that a
man was guilty against clear evidence to the
contrary. If I were a juryman I should want
nothing but the facts of the case. Well, I
have only one short question to ask my
opponents, and one question is all we need to
ask. On that we hang all our case, and
demand a verdict in favour of our Client.
What is this question ? We quite allow all
that has been said — that He was rejected,
crucified, slain, and buried ; but we now ask,
Where is He ? Where is He now ? In vain
do you go to the sepulchre, and search the
tomb for Him.* Where is He?

"Well,*' says my opponent, "I thought you
would ask that ; but my answer is, The dis-
ciples carried away His body during the night."

" Would you kindly give evidence for that,
because I have some rebutting evidence ? *'

**Well, I have a strong military leader,
with his band of soldiers, who were set as a
watch over His sealed grave."

" Eoman soldiers, I know you are true men ;
what do you know of this matter ? Is it true
that you were set there as a watch ? "

/* Yes, we were, and that on pain of death
to every one of us should He be removed."

nfc

1: -

•m

1 30 TJie Claims of the Man Jesus.

" And is it true that there was a stone rolled
to the mouth of His grave ? "

" Yes, a huge stone, in order that no ordi-
nary force should break into it."

"And more than that, this stone was sealed
with the governor's seal, that none should
dare to touch it. Well, you did everything
that you possibly could to make it secure ?'*

" Yes, we did."

By the way, my friends, you see how the
wriggling of the serpent always discovers itself.
A straightforward, conscientious man can
never be deceived by the devil, because he
goes in a straight line. The line of downright,
genuine honetty and the line of Satan's pro-
cedure can never go together — they are the
opposite of parallel. The reason is, because
Satan always uses crooked, round-about
arguments; and if you meet him with clear
and correct statements of truth, he will flee
from you. So if the world had not taken such
precautions against all possibility of Christ's
body being stolen — setting a great stone, the
governor's seal, and a strong guard to watch it
— it would not have been so easy now to prove
that He was raised from the dead.

" Well, then, soldier No. 1, do you mean to
say, after [all that, that the disciples stole the
body of Christ out of the tomb ? "

"Yes, they took it away when we were
sleeping."

" Indeed ! And in what way did they do it ?"

The Claims of the Man Jesus. 131

Well, we cannot exactly say."
Worse and worse ! And how do you know
that they did it at all ? " No answer.
You see, when a man is guilty, he makes him-
self ridiculous all round. I ask you, jurymen,
what is the strength of such evidence as that ?
" You step down, sir ; your evidence is worse
than useless.

" Soldier No. 2, come up 1 How do you
account for the removal of Jesus of Nazareth
out of the tomb ? Is He risen ? "

" Oh, no ; He is not risen."

"Where is He, then?"

" Well, V d happened to fall asleep a bit,
and His disciples came and stole the body
away."

** Did you see them through your sleep ? "

'* No, but we are all agreed that it was
they who took it away."

I need not waste your time, jurymen, be-
cause if we bring them all forward, they
have all the same story to tell. Having heard
one, you have heard them all. It is evident
there has been some bribery behind the scene.
Their theory is that His disciples took it
away, and buried it somewhere else. If you
ask each of them, he is sure of it ; and he is
sme of it because he was sound asleep when
it was done. Satan, have you any other
theory for the defence of your position?
Have you any other way of accounting for
this body being removed, in spite of this

■■.\

I ui

132 The Claims of the Man Jesus.

stone, and the royal seal, and the guard of
Boman soldiers ? No, he has not. His case
rests on the evidence of a few sleeping soldiers I
Do you maintain, on such evidence as that,
that His disciples took His body out of that
sepulchre, and embalmed it, and stowed it
away in some secluded place out of every-
body's reach and ken 2 In vain shall ye search
for it there. Jews and Gentiles, men and
devils, in vain shall ye search for it ; for He
is not there at all. He is risen ; and I shall
now prove it by unimpeachable evidence.

Proof that He is risen from the Dead.

Bring in Mary to the witness-box.

" Now, Mary, what have you to say ? Who
was it that you saw on that first day of the
week, who said, * Touch me not, but go and
tell my brethren ' ? "

**That was my Lord and Master. I saw
Him with my own eyes risen from the dead,
and no man will convince me that it was not
so. And He also showed Himself to Peter
and John, and the rest of the disciples, as
was said."

" That will do, Mary, from you. That is
very good evidence, but we want better still."
Some may say that she was a poor sentimental
woman, and her evidence cannot be trusted.

Bring forward the Old Testament witnesses
next. I do not found so much on it, though
it is strong, circumstantial, corroborative

'! ,».

The Claims of the Man Jesus, 133

evidence. You will observe all my witnesses
say He rose on the third day. Well, all the
Old Testament witnesses say He would do so.
Whence this corroboration? How does it
happen that all Christendom from that day to
this sets aside the first day of the week to
worship God instead of the Sabbath or seventh
day? There is a strong coincidence, unac-
countable on any ground but that Christ rose
on that day.

Here come now His disciples and apostles.

" What have you to say on this question ? "

" Well, we were all assembled together on
the first day of the week, and our Lord ap-
peared right in the midst of us, and said,
* Peace be unto you.' He showed Himself
unto us, risen from the dead on that Lord's
day. We are all eye-witnesses of that fact.
There is, and can be, no doubt about it what-
ever."

" Well, that will do for you ; that is good
sound evidence." We are simply letting
you hear the evidence, without comment,
because we have many more good witnesses.

Here is another one ; let us question him.

" What is your name, sir ? *'

" My name is Thomas."

" What are you ? "

** I was born a sceptic. I am the greatest
doubter of all the apostles. They used to call
me sceptical Thomas." (You see, God made
use of the scepticism of Thomas to p?:ove

■<»,

1!:

1^1

1 34 The Claims of the Man Jesus,

His resurreotion. The testimony of a sceptic
is the very best evidence.)

" Well then, Thomas, are you convinced
that this Jesus of Nazareth is alive from the
dead ? "

" Well, I was a great doubter as to that.
I did not believe every story about it that I
heard; nor would I take it from the testimony
of two, three, or four witnesses; but my doubts
are all- clean gone now, because I know for
certain that He is risen from the dead."

" How do you know that so well now ? '* \

" Because I saw Him with mine own eyes,
and thrust my own fingers into the prints of
the nails in His body."

" So you are perfectly sure it was the
Lord ? "

" Yes, perfectly sure ; and there is no man
will ever convince me that it was not. As
long as life lasts my scepticism as to that is
gone."

WeU then, readers, we hope you will give
that testimony its due weight in forming your
verdict. We have now a large multitude of
five hundred brethren that saw Him at once.
You can question any of them for their
evidence. So we may dismiss these five hun-
dred brethren without further examination.

Paul's Evedenoe.

Here is a noble-looking man, with a deter-
mined look, closed lips, and silvered hair.

'■• (.

The Claims of the Man Jesus, 135

" Who art thou ? "

**I am Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles.
I was once Saul the persecutor, a blasphemous
and injurious person. I haled to judgment
and death all who believed in this crucified
Man, and was exceeding mad against them."

** Why, I thought you would have been
called as a witness for the opposition, since
you did everything within your reach to
destroy the hated and despised sect who
believed in this Man. How is it that you
have come over to be a witness on His side ? "

"Well, as I was going on in my career
of persecuting His followers, a light brighter
than a midday sun struck me to the ground,
and there I saw this Man of Calvary in
the brightest effulgence of the glory of God.
He is on the throne of God. Ah I ye poor
soldiers of Eome, how did He get up
there ? Did His disciples make a ladder up
to that throne, in order to place Him there ?
There He is now. How got He there, if He
be an impostor ? "

"Tell us, Paul the aged, did He say any-
thing to you?"

*' He said, ' I am Jesus, whom thou perse-
cutest.' And from that day to this He has
made me another and a new man ; and I am
now going onward to that crown."

Is he not a noble witness — Paul ? I think
he is the first man in heaven I should like to
see after our blessed Lord. What a clean out

\ '

rin

'it

136 The Claims of the Man Jesus

he made with the devil, and what a bold stand
for Christ 1 He oounted all his gain, position,
and prospects but dung, and went abroad
everywhere preaching the faith he once de-
stroyed; working even with his own hands
to make the gospel preaching free of charge.
One time he had preached some eighteen
months and had got nothing, and they took
him outside the city to give him his wages,
and gave him thirty-nine lashes with a whip.
" Forty stripes save one " he gloried in when
standing up for this rejected Man. And when
he got them, he sang hallelujah. ' Our light
affliction, which is but for a mono worketh
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory.*' There is a witness who believes
in our Client ! having suffered the loss of all,
and the torture of thirty-nine lashes with the
whip thrice told, and then sung hallelujah
over it all.

" You may now go, Paul ; your evidence
will carry its own weight with it.'*

Stephen's Evidence.

Here is another true witness. He is a great
preacher. But he is not an apostle, nor is
he an elder, but just a deacon, and withal a
sensible, peaceful-looking man.

" What is your name ? "

He looks down very humbly and replies,
"I am deacon Stephen.**

" What were you ? **

The Claims of the Man Jesus. 137

'*I happen to be the first martyr of this
dispensation among those who believe and
preach that this Jesus of Nazareth is the
Christ, the Son of God. And for this they
dragged me out and stoned me."

" Were you not very much afraid when you
saw the great crowds gathered, and the huge
stones coming upon you ? " ,

" Not I. I never saw one of them.'*

" What so filled your gaze that you did not
see them ? "

" I saw heaven opened."

**That is something wonderful! And it
was that, that did not let you see the stones
when they were flying on you, breaking your
bones and taking your life ? You had heard
the angel choirs singing, and saw the blood-
washed throng, with palms in their hands and
crowns of gold ? It is a grand place, heaven,
with its gates of pearls and streets of gold.
Were you not very much impressed with the
sight ? "

** I did not see one of them. I saw the
Son of man standing on the right hand of
God."

" Well, I am just taking evidence for that
very purpose now; are you sure you saw
Him?" ,

"Yes; I saw neither angel nor saint, but
I did see the Son of man — the crucified Man
of Calvary — with the prints of the nails in
His hands, standing on the right hand of God.

I i

■!! ij

'J 1^

1 iV ■

•;:v,^'. *." j<':v»;-.:v';-;;;-«'L';t f ■«,

|l i

I I

138 T/^ Claims of the Man Jesus.

I saw nothing of the sorrows of earth, nor
of the glory of heaven, hut the Man of Calvary
standing on God's right hand."

Jurymen, are you now ready to give your
verdict ? You have heard numerous com-
petent witnesses declare that they have seen
Him alive from the dead ; and some that they
have seen Him in heaven itself, standing at
God's right hand. Shall I now ask your
verdict ? Are you satisfied with the evidence?
No, I shall not ask it yet, because I have my
best Witness to call still. I shall bring my
best Witness last.

I have brought a woman, a sceptic, five
hundred brethren, a converted persecutor,
and a martyred deacon, but I ca-nnot bring
a single unconverted man who saw Christ
after His resurrection. Paul saw Him when
unconverted, but the sight converted him.
Not one of my witnesses is from that regiment
which is going on the broad way to destruction.
Satan dare not put some of his witnesses into
the box. They have such bad characters , but
you can examine the characters of all mine,
and you will find them true to the core — they
are kings and priests unto God.

The Witness op tee Spieit.

Well, I have my best Witness last, and that
is not Peter, nor John, nor Paul, but tlio Third
Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. He
came down when Christ was glorified. Now

The Claims of the Man Jesus. 139

with deepest reverence and worshipping awe
we ask Him who He ia? and He replies, —

•*I am the Spirit of Truth, come to take
of the things of Christ, and publish them.**

** Why art Thou hsre on earth ? "

♦* I have come out from the throne of God,
because the Man, Christ Jesus, was glorified
there."

'' Is He glorified ? '*

** I could not have come down here unless
He, as glorified Man, had taken His place
on the throne of God ; but now He has sent
Me to gather together in one what He has
purchased mth His own blood, and to form
a habitation of God on the earth."

"So it is settled, then, that the Man of
Calvary is on the throne of His Father, God,
in heaven? *'

" Yes. ' Being found in fashion as a man.
He humbled Himself, and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him,
and ^iven Him a name which is above every
name ; that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of thinsfs in heaven, and things
in earth, and things under the earth ; and that
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.' "

" Thou hast come down to tell this,
then ? "

" Yes. * This is He that came by water and
blood, even Jesus Christ ; not by water only,

: -(..

r I'i

\ I

■S-

I ;

i .M V
II i

140 The Claims of the Man Jesus.

but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit
that beareth witness * " (1 John v. 6).

What can we have after such evidence?
This is the true witness of the Third Person
of the Trinity— concerning an exalted Christ.
" He shall not speak of Himself." That is
plain. And why was that? In order that
we should not build upon His work in our
hearts, but upon Christ's work, of which He
testifies. I used to make a gross mistake in
thinking that the witness of the Spirit was
what I felt within me. What is the witness
of the Spirit ? Is it what you feel your heart
saying ? No, that is the evidence of a liar.
My friend, I cannot tell you all that His
witness takes in, but I can tell you that what
your heart says is not the witness of the
Spirit. And in case there should be any
mistake about His witness, it is v;ritten — ^it is
all printed. I have not time to read over all
that He has said of this risen Christ, but you
can read it for yourselves. You will see it
from the 2nd chapter of the Acts of the
Apostles to the 22nd chapter of the Kevelation.
There is His evidence. That is the witness
of the Spirit, which He indited after His
descent at Pentecost.

Christ ascended, and the Spirit has come
to bear witness to the fact, and all that He
says is laid before you to be received as
evidence. Now, are you to believe the evi-
dence of your own erring heart? or the evidence

TAe Claims of the Man Jesus, 141

■I ^^— — — ^— ^^— «

of this Spirit ? I don't believe my own heart
as to any Divine truth . Whenever mjr heart
contradicts the testimony of the Spirit I say
to it, You are a liar, and there the controversy
ends.

Who believes in Him now?

Well, friends, who believes in this rejected
Man now? Who believes in the Lord Jesus
Christ ? Does every one of my readers believe
in Him? I ask you at least to believe in
Him notOj if you never did before, and in
your inmost soul say so to the living God.
In spite of all the infidels on earth and devils
in hell, I believe in Him that He is the Christ,
the Son of God. If never before, I say, Christ
for me. Friend, do you say that ? We may
indeed be reckoned as fools for believing in
Him — greater fools than those who still
believe in a false claimant. After our Hero's
own people would have nothing to do with
Him, after He has been forsaken by man
and God, condemned and persecuted, no
wonder if we are counted fools for believing
in Him. Think how few do believe iii
Him. Surely we are credvilous. The whole
world is against Him, and lieth in the wicked
one. Well, now, do you believe in my Client ?
1 have said what I can for Him, and am
determined to hve, and if need be die be-
lieving in Him. Christ for me !

My friends, tl^e devil has great skill and

.■■i.i

1 !.■
I ■■

i I Hi'

■ *-;t

■Hi
«

142 TAe Claims of the Man Jesus*

mighty power in deceiving souls, but we do
not fear him more than our own hearts. If
you meet him always with God's firm testi-
mony, that will silence him.

If we are identified with this rejected Man,
we must be rejected by the world, the devil,
and the flesh ; and we have no sword where-
with to fight them but the sword of the
Spirit, which is the Word of God. Though
you should be the most ignorant man living —
not able to put .two lines together, or spell your
own name — if you use that Word of God yqu
will gain the battle.

Look at the poor Jewish nation. ** We
did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and
afiiicted." They went wrong by not receiving
and using both sides of the truth. They took
the black side, and left the bright. " We did
esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and
afflicted, hutr I Hke the little '' buts " of the
Bible. A " but " shunts the train off one line
of rails on to the other — off from the line of
danger to the line of safety. The *' buts " of
ibe Bible are the shunting-points of the Bible.
*'But" — another line of rails altogether—.
" He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities, the chas-
tisement of our peace was upon Him, and
with His stripes we are healed." "For He
was delivered for our offences, and raised again
for our justification." Ah, there is the gospel.
It is not as if we had nothing to believe in.

The Claims of the Man Jesus. 143

How many of us are prepared to stand up and
say, I believe in this murdered Man — Jesus
of Nazareth ? Everything is against us. If
the world were consistent it would stand and ..
laugh at us. That is the offence of the cross.
And if you are not getting insults thrown at -
you, and getting reviled and laughed at, you
are not accepting the Christ of Calvary ; for
the world is not one whit changed from what
it was when it cried out, " Away with Him,
away with Him ; crucify Him, crucify Him."
It is the same at heart.

Jurymen, will you give your verdict now ?
Do you believe in Christ ? Will you give
your vote for Him? He that beheveth is
saved. Believe now ! Give your verdict for
Him, and you are saved for ever. Now, are
you to answer this appeal with, Christ for me ?
or are you to believe the devil's lie ? He is
the father of Hes, and aU the evidences for his
case are a few sleeping soldiers. Think of all
the evidences the Spirit has advanced to prove
that He is risen from the dead. And re-
member all rests on the question of His
resurrection. If Christ be not raised, we are
stiU in our sins, and our faith is vain. But
if Christ be raised from the dead, we are not in
our sins. Are you, my friend, identifying
yourself With this outcast Man of Calvary;
then, since He is raised from under your sins,
your standing is not in your sins, but in Him.

Well, I think you surely can have no

i^«

• 1 ?!

144 The Claims of the Man Jesus,

hesitation in giving your verdict in His favour
now. Do you believe in Christ or no ? Every
man on earth believes in somebody — either
in Christ, or in some other person, or in
himself.

Look at the Papist ; he believes in the
Pope. He believes everything the Pope says.
Not what the Bible says, but what Mother
Church says, and that interpreted by the
Pope, whom, of course, he believes to be in-
fallible I

Then look at the Kationalist ; you cann9t
^Ti him down to believe in anything, or aiiy
one but himself. The Secularist, Unitarian,
and so-called Eationalist, beUeve in none
but themselves. They croak and cry oat
about the self-evident absurdities of the
Gospel ; yet scarcely two of them believe
the same thing, and nothing is sure but
that they beheve in themselves.

WeU, now, you may not believe in tlij Pope,
but take care lest you beheve in your own
heart. Beware of Eomanism on the one
hand, trusting in another besides Christ, and
scepticism on the other, which is trusting
in yourself; but ''beheve on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Yes, believe
in Him against your own heart. Men of the
world, will you have Him ? It is not that
you are a great sinner or a little one. We
don't ask anything about what you are. It
is not, Do you beheve in this or that church,

The Claims of the Man Jesus, 145

or creed, or religion ? No ; and that is why
Christ is made the test for every man. You
see, it is belief in a Person ; just giving your
verdict for Christ. " Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.**
Friend, do you say, Christ for me? Yes, I
do, with all my heart ; Christ for me. Well,
thank God, you are saved for ever; for God
says, "He that heareth My word, and believeth
on Him Who sent Me, hath everlasting life,
and shall not come into condemnation; but
is passed from death unto life."

And if your own heart, after that, says to
you, or any man or devil or angel says to you,
You may not be saved after all, just reply,
" The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of
us all ; " and He who bore my sins on the
cross is now on the throne of God. Christ is
risen; therefore I am not in my sins.

- -*i

< \M

THE WRITING ON THE CB088.

I EAT God has given us by inspired men
a perfect revelation of His mind, to be
communicated to us by the Holy Ghost,
is not believed by many who profess the name
of Christ.

A very good Christian brother rather startled
me (he is now with his Lord) some years ago
by pointing out the discrepancies of the four
Evangelists with regard to the writing on the
cross, and after careful study I wrote the
following to a perplexed enquirer.

" I have been thinking over the conversa-
tion that we had about the word of God, and
am more and more convinced that our only
sure standing ground is on the fact that we
have a Divine and certain communication of
God's mind, expressed in words that we can
understand. You may remember that we
were not meeting the arguments of those who
deny the truths of the Scripture altogether —
the avowed and open infidel — but considering
the position of those who believe in some way
or other that we have God's ideas, but with no
Divine certainty as to language in which it is
told to us.

The Writing on the Cross,

<'To the former class, the out-and-oat
unbeliever, the only thing we can say is what
a brother wrote to one of them, * Do you know
that your only chance of escaping heU. is, that
the Bible is a parcel of lies ? ' Many of this
class are ignorant because they wish so to be,
or at least have not taken the trouble to
investigate the facts, and for this neglect they
will be judged. If a man is not responsible
for his beliefs^ he is responsible for the atten*
Hon he has given to investigate the whole
question. But the will is concerned. They
hear or read what have been the stock objec-
tions of infidels in every age, and bring these
forward with great pretensions to originality,
as if they had got something new and fresh.
They have all been answered centuries ago,
but it would not suit their one-sided enlighten-
ment to take the trouble to investigate the
pro and the con. The light having been thus
rejected, darkness, as just judgment, must'
follow. The after-sincerity of the man may
be the surest sign and seal of his darkness.
God pronounces a solemn word over such as
are thus willingly ignorant, a word to which
aU of us ought to take heed, because true
for every rejected light (1 Cor. xiv. 36, 87).
In speaking of the reception of Paul's writ-
ings as from God, the Holy Ghost thus
flmshes, ^ If any man be ignorant, let him
be ignorant.*
" But very many Christians, while shudder-

148

Tke Writing on the Cross

ing at such audacity, and believing that with-
out a Divine communication there can be no
faith, have still very unfixed notions, very
vague ideas concerning the fact that we have
the very Wobd of God now in our hands.
They believe God has in some sort of way
communicated His mind to man; that we
have the substance, the ideas from God.
Well, if even this be allowed, if these ideas
are searched, we shall find in Scripture its
idea of its own inspiration as to its nature and
extent. Scripture is its own interpreter, its owji
proof. I shall tell you what made me receive
the Bible as the Word of God. In the first
place, it alone gave me a photograph of myself
as I knew myself. It told me that every
imagination of my heart was only evil con-
tinually, and no system of philosophy ever
did so. It then showed me the only remedy
consistent with God's love, justice, and holi-
ness — substitution and the implantation of a
new life ; all this was Divine. The Bible alone
met my case ; I received it. It has evidences,
external and internal, I believe, that cannot
be answered. I have investigated them for
myself. I have found them more than satis-
factory, but the great evidence is that which
comes to my conscience. The sun needs no
rushlight to show that it shines. You can
never define red to a blind man.

" Scripture is God's Word to man ; in it,
therefore, we see a perfect union of the Divine

The Writing on the Cross.

149

and human, as in the incarnate Logos ^ very
God, very man. Every word is Divine ; every
word is human. It is not man's word, and it
is no mechanical inspiration. It is God using
man's faculties to write His Word. What a
rest for our weary souls, as they have fluttered
for years, like the dove above the waste of
waters, with the mournful cry. What is truth ?
to be able to settle on the ark, with conscience
at rest, the reason satisfied, and the heart
filled, on such a ground. * All Scripture is
given by the inspiration of God [theopneust],
and is profitable for doctrine,' etc.

** Could the idea of the certain revelation of
God be put in a form of words more absolute
than this, spoken by the apostle Paul, * Which
things also we speak, not in the words which
man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy
Ghost teacheth ' ?

"A great German scholar was discussing
some point with an EngUsh divine. The
Englishman, to support his point, appealed to
something Paul had written. The German,
in deep thought, said : * Paul — Paul ! oh, yes,
I have read some of his letters, but I do not
agree with him.'

**The poor wise man, I suppose, had not
heard of a Holy Ghost who spoke the words,
not Paul. And this is the school of advanced
thought, this is the school from which we are
to get our theology !

" * Prophecy came not in old time by tho

:• I

:-i

■ m

150 The Writing on the Cross,

will of man; but holy men of God spake,
moved by the Holy Ghost ' (2 Peter i. 21).

" * Paul also, according to the wisdom given
unto him, hath written unto you, . . . which
they that are unlearned and unstable wrest,
as they do also the other scriptures ' — which
are God-breathed — which are a unity — scrip-
tures which * cannot be broken.'

" * God . . . spaTce in time past unto the
fathers by the prophets* (Heb. i. 1).

" Jesus said to His disciples, * It is not ye
that speak, but the Spirit of your Father
which speaketh in you' (Matt. x. 20). And
Paul coidd appeal to the same truth : * Since
ye seek a proof oi Christ speaking in me ' (2
Cor. xiii. 3).

** John say^ * He that knoweth God heareth
us ; he tita-t is not of God heareth not us '
(1 John IT- 6). Ir was not Peter, it was not
Paul, it was not John, it was God through
and by each of these.

" * He that despiseth, despiseth not man, but
God, who hath also given unto us His Holy
Spirit ' (1 Thess. iv. 8).

" * For this cause also thank we God
without ceasing, becaiise v/hen ye received
the Word cf God which y(^ hoarr? of us, ye
received it not as the woid of men, but as it
is in truth, the "VYord of God.'

" We have got the Scriptures, the words of
God. May God teach us to search them more,
and know His mind I There are difficulties—

,'/

The Writing on the Cross.

151

difficulties on every hand. How could it be
otherwise ? Can the finite so easily deal with
the Infinite, and comprehend His thoughts ?
But let us, as beings in the infancy of oui
existence, conscious of ignorance, patiently
sit at the feet of the great Teacher, and many,
if not all, will disappear. But let us cling to
this great broad principle — that God has
spoken, that He has spoken in human lan-
guage, distinctly, definitely, certainly, unmis-
takably ; that the Scriptures are the words of
God. This is the great sheet-anchor to our
souls. We may be tossed up and down on
the billows, but the anchor holds, and it alone
will keep us from drifting without compass,
without chart, without pilot, among the rocks,
shoals, and quicksands of this dark tempestuous
night of doubt, lawlessness, and infidelity.
These days of trial need tried material.
' Nothing will stand the fire but asbestos.'
That asbestos is the Word of God ; for empires
will totter, kingdoms crumble, heaven be rolled
back as an old garment, earth melt with fire,
but the only asbestos, the Word of God, will
endure for ever. We are therefore jealous
over every sentence, every word, for not an
iota of it shall perish. Therefore it is that I
said to you, that I had been so happy to see
the beautiful harmony, of the writing on the
cross, which has been a pet theme in the hands
of loose interpreters, to show the fallacy of
the position we have indicated above.

■;■'

I J

ill

152

The Writing on the Cross.

" One night, while looking at the passage
with some brethren in the Lord, one theory
after another was advanced, which did not
satisfy some of us. One writer on the Gospel
wfctc brought forward, who said, that by this
one simple illustration he could show the
absurdity of holding that 'every word and
phrase of the Scripture is absolutoly true.*
Others, while going in for the doctrine of * the
Words of God,' say, with a strange inconsis-
tency, ' Well, the difference is so sHght ; but
the sense is here.' I cannot understand the
logic of such a statement, which sayp, 'The
substance (!) of the story ^*s told in four
distinct sets of terms, though not giving the
words' — I think this gives up tho whole point.
Ail allow the substance is there ; but we
hold there is more. It is not a story ; it is an
exact writing. I need hardly notice another
theory which twists out the four from the three
different languages in which the words were
written. Let us now look at the Word itself.
You are aware that the harmony of the
Gospels is a moral harmony, showing the
character of our Lord Jesus Christ under
four aspects, not merely supplementary, but
divinely, giving the story of the Son of David
— the King (Matthew) ; the Son of God, the
servant of man (Mark) ; the Son of man for
this world (Luke) ; and God manifest in the
flesh, very God of very God (John).

** It was asked, while we were looking at

■■'■'ta

The Writing on the Cross

153

the words over the cross, 'If the four daily
papers of a city had given as different an
account of a certain writing, we should have
said, " The substance is in all, but the exact
words are not given." ' Now this looks
specious; but let us look at it. The four
Evangelists are nut as four daily papers, to
give curious particulars to mankind; nor is
there one mind breathing through these four
papers, making their diversity a unity, as in
the Evangelists. But you coald suppose four
writers giving a correct history of the Ufe of
a man ; one describing him as a poet, another
as a military tactician, another as a kind
benefactor, another his connection with a
noble genealogy.
"Now suppose there was written on his

tomb this epitaph — * Here lies A B ,

son of C^ D , and father of E

F . He was a pure and simple poet, a

wise and skilful officer, a kind and thoughtful
benefactor.' The first historian describing
him as a poet, might write, * On his tombstone
were written these words, "He was a pure
and simple poet ; " ' the second describing
the military man, * On his tombstone were
these words — " He was a wise and skilful
officer ; " ' the third telling his story to the
poor he had benefited — * He was a kind and
thoughtful benefactor ; ' and the fourth proving
his position from the genealogical tree, would
say, * On his tombstone is written — " He was

■•: '

•Wii^

iiJ

154

The Writing on the Cross,

C-

>> »

D-

and father of E-

Would any of these be wrong ?
would they not all give the words ? There is
not this discrepancy among the four accounts
we have before us. Of course we must keep in
mind that the differences between the four
Evangelists on this matter are of the minutest
character. If each of them had said that
they gave the whole writing on the cross,
there would then have been some diflSculty ;
but if you will notice the formulas with which
each introduces the writing, you will find that
they are all different; not one says exactly
that he gives just what the other gives. It
will not do to turn and say, ' But these mean
all the same thing — they are just the same.'

*'If I were adjusting a microscope, and on
looking through it you saw nothing but a con-
fused haze, and if I then gave the slightest
turn to the adjusting-screw, and you were to
say, * You have scarcely touched it,' — look at
the object now, and it is in perfect focus. If
the difference is very small, the disturbing
cause must be very small also. AU confess
the smallness of the difference between the
Evangelists' accoimt ; all that we show is that
they do not say exactly in words that they
give just the same thing. The weight and
import of the particular formula remain with
the philologist and exegete to discuss ; we
merely point out the fact. We get the true
WORDS, and nothing but the true words, from

I :.,.

The Writing on the Cross,

155

each ; we get all the wobds (at least as many
as God wishes us to get) from their united
testiTPony.

"Matthew says it was *His accusation
written —

This is Jesus, .... the King of the Jews.'

** Mark says, ' The superscription of His
accusation was written over,

THE King op thjb Jews.

(the impo}:tant part of the accusation).

" Luke says, ' A superscription also was
written,

This is the King op the Jews.*

*' John says, * Pilate wrote a title ' (he tlone
puts in Nazareth),

•. . Jesus op Nazaeeth, the King op the Jewb.*

" Thus the accusation, the superscription,
the title, is, * This is Jesus of Nazareth, the
King of the Jews.' There is the most per-
fect harmon) in seeming diversity. The spirit
alone can show us the beauty. These thmgs
are spiritually discerned. We have got greater
confidence in the words of our blessed Father-
God since we saw the perfect unity of mind in
all the book."

Matthew, who tells us that the Old Testa-
ment Emmanuel (God with us) is now trans-
lated into the name Jesus (Jehovah our
Saviour) — for none but God could save, and

IfU

■ i »i

\ I

■f

i i -

'><^'

156

The Writing on the Cross.

if God condescends to be with us it must be
as a Saviour — ^informs us that the Crucified
One is Jesus, and that this accusation written
was set up over His head, *' This is Jesus the
King of the Jews." Note carefully that each
reports Him as " The King of the Jews."

Mark, who relates to us the servant work of
our Lord, says nothing about " Jesus " as the
Messiah promised to the fathers, but gives us
the " head and front of His offending " to the
Jews, not His accusation, but the superscrip-
tion of His accusation, " The King of the
Jews."

Let us now notice what Luke writes. As
Matthew wrote specially for Jews, so Luke
wrote for Gentiles. He does not write of the
accusation, nor the superscription of His accu-
sation. Gentiles had nothing to do with that,
but he tells us that "a superscription was
written over Him in letters of Greek, and
Latin, and Hebrew, This is the King of the
Jews."

John, whose writing was about God manifest
in the flesh coming to His own kingdom, and
His o^Ti Jews receiving Him not, and being
in the world of which He was Creator, and
the men of the world not knowing Him, tells
us of the title that Pilate wrote.

In no other Evangelist do we read of the
despised name, the Nazarene. *' Can any good
thing come out of Nazareth? " Very God of
very God. John's great message was to be

The Writing on the Cross,

157

■

branded on His cross of shame with the despised
of all despised titles, not as the grand titles of
earth which men covet. Thus we have it in
fuU, with the exception of " This is," but in
perfect accord with the scope of the Gospel,
*' Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews."
The chief priests of the Jews are reported in
this Gospel to have objected to this ; but what
Pilate wrote, God kept for all time. I would
not have dwelt on this matter so fully, had it
not been that so honest and faithful a com-
mentator as Dean Alford, has given the power
and influence of his great and good name to
those who deny plenary inspiration, and takes
this theme as a test point. I quote from the
sixth edition of his full Commentary (1868),
page 20, " The title over the cross was written
in Greek. According, then, to the verbal in-
spiration theory, each Evangelist has recorded
the exact words of the inscription, not the
general sense, but the inscription itself — not a
letter less or more." It is very strange that
a teacher of such ability should have lost sight
of the fact that not one Evangelist says he
gave the inscription itself in the general
sense.

Surely, apart from inspiration, we must give
a man credit for saying what he means, and
meaning what he says. If I say to a friend,
I went to the top of Ben Nevis, and he was
interested only in the locality, I would be
perfectly correct. If I said to a meteorological

II'

\ :

,! it

' .-i

•■\

1 58

The Writing on the Cross.

friend, I went ta the top of Ben Nevis and
examined the instruments, I am still verbally
and absolutely correct. If I said to another
doctor friend, I went to the top of Ben Nevis
to examine one of the observers who was not
in health, I would be still correct. K I told a
preacher friend that I went to the top of Ben
Nevis to give away some copies of the British
Evangelist f would not this be correct ? and all
contained in the one visit. And thus our
faith is all the more strengthened when we
find false witness against the Scriptures. Not
one of the Evangelists says that he gives the
whole inscription. What they do profess to
give, they give in Divine peifectness.

His Accusation.

The SuPERSwiiiPTioN op His Accusation.

A Superscription.

A Title.

We are not affirming that we understand
all that is meant in these distinctions. We
merely state them for study.

THE NAME OF GOD.

** The name of the Lord is a strong tower : the righteoas
runneth into it, and are safe." — Fboyebbs xviii. 10.

I HAT name which was written, that He
could by no means clear the guilty, is
the strong tower to us, into which we
run and are safe.

A rock commands the city of Edinburgh,
and on the top is a castle, and if you look
at that castle from the streets around, — ^you
will see the frowning guns pointing down
and .commanding every street. If an enemy
entered that city, and attempted to attack
the garrison, those inside could sweep every
street, and woe to the men outside. But
walk up the esplanade, cross the draw-
bridge, climb the steps up to the castle, and
then you will find yourself standing by the
side of the flag-staff, inside the auns; that
ip where the righteous are in Christ. By
nature we see Gtd against us ; we see Mount
Sinai and hear the Lord's imperative words,
*'Thou Shalt," and "Thou shalt not," arid "He
that offends in one point is guilty of all," and
" He can by no means clear the guilty."
Where can the poor sinner stand ? But look

r^.

it'

i6o

The Name of God^

to Him who came from the Father — the Way,
the Truth, and the Life came from the centre
of God down to the sinner's place, and in Him
we go hack to the very centre of God, and
find ourselves inside the guns. For the very
attributes of God that were against us — His
righteousness, holiness, justice, truth — are
now the very things that are for us, and we
are ma'^.e the very righteousness of God in
Christ. God is just ; that is the pillow on
which the believer lies every night. Not that
God is merely loving and merciful; but thalb
God is so righteous, so just, so truthful, so
holy, that He will not visit us with the doom
He visited on His Son.

" Payment God will not twice demand-
First from my bleeding Surety's hand,
And then again from me."

You may be aware that through Scripture
.there are different names given to the great
God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, and
our Saviour. His name is that by which God
reveals His personal presence in certain rela-
tions to man, His self-manifestations in certain
characters, that side of His nature which He
is pleased to turn to man.

God.

The first, and most comprehensive, is the
name God. You generally find out a man's
theology by the name he uses for God. The

The Name of God,

i6i

name that the mere philosopher uses is Nattvre;
he speaks of the laws of nature. We know
only of the laws of our God, ?>nd ** nature **
is an idea that these philosophers have intro-
duced to get rid of the great Creator and God.
And then you will find others, who do not look
so much at nature, who have another name
for God: they call Him Providence. Gk) to
the unconverted farmer, and ask him why in
the spring-time he throws away his grain?
It is because he believes in Providence, a
providential God, who will look after food for
man and beast. It is the name for God he
believes in, and he trusts it accordingly.
" They that know Thy name will put their
trust in Thee ; " and it is according as we
know the name of God we trust in Him. The
philosopher knows that the tides ebb and flow,
the sur and moon rise and set; he knows
the name Nature, and he trusts accordingly.
The man that knows Providence^ and knows
no other, trusts accordingly.

But the name we first get revealed to us in
Scripture, and the most comprehensive of all
names, is the name God. If you look into
the first chapter of Genesis, you will find this
first name, and you find no other name in
that chapter. We there see God, the great
originating cause of all things — God, the great
and glorious One, fashioning and furnishing
all things, perfecting all things by the word
of His power. You find Him making light

i 1

:; 'H:

'• V

1^2

The Name of God.

spring out of darkness, form out of chaos, and
repletion out of the void. Adam was put
under responsibility to walk manifesting that
power, made in the image of God, with
dominion over the creatures ; at the fall he
lost the liheness of God, but the image of God
he stUl has. An image has not necessarily
likeness ; and man stands at the head of all
creation, and separated from all creation.
Let the philosophers try to bring this to
the smallest limit they can, man is still
the image God, with dominion over the
crcatior.

Almighty.

Secondly, we come to another name,
which you will find in the 17th chapter of
Genesis. " The Lord appeared to Abraham
and said unto him, I am the Almighty God."
This is the second circle within the first,
telling out a little more of what God is. He
is almighty. Abraham was to come out
before that God, and to walk before Him
perfect. He says, ** Walk before me, and be
thou perfect." As Adam walked in the image
of God manifesting God's name, we find that
Abraham was to walk manifesting in perfec-
tion the attributes in which h^ was related
to God, and especially glorifying the almighti-
ness of God ; against hope he believed in
hope. One might have said to Abraham,
"You play a fooUsh part." ''Nay," he

The Name of God,

163

might have replied ; '* I am manifesting what
the Almi^xity God is." That name was the
tower into which Abraham went. In all the
difficulties of his path afterwards, we see
the almightiness of God manifested through
him, the human instrument that God had
chosen.

Jehovah.

Thirdly, we come to another name brought
out more fully, which we find in the 6th
chapter of Exodus. ** Then the Lord said
unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will
do to Pharaoh : for with a strong hand shall
he let them go, and with a strong hand shall
he drive them out of his land. And God
spake unto Moses, and said, I am Jehovah :
and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac,
and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty,
but by my name Jehovah was I not known to
them." This is a new name. He is dealing
on the ground of redemption. The word that
composed the name Jehovah was known
before, but God adopted it as His new
relationship name with the children of Israel,
whom He was to redeem. He did not assume
it until the era of redemption came. We
find two explariations of this name in the
book of Exodus: this name that is a strong
tower, into which the righteous run and are
safe. You will find the first explanation of

■f

i \i

i !'H

ill

r64

TAe Name of God,

this name that Israel knew in Exod. vi. 6,
with these seven " I wills " : —

" Wherefore say unto the children of Israel,
I am Jehovah,

** And I will hring you out from under the
burdens of the Egyptians,

" And I will rid you out of their bondage,

"And I will redeem you with a stretched-
out arm, and with great judgments,

"And I will take you to me for a people,

" And I will he to you a God" [not merely a
redemption /rowi something, but to an obje(^t
— ^to God HimseK] . ' * And ye shall know that I
am the Lord your God, which bringeth you
from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

"And I will hring you in unto the land,
concerning the which I did swear to give it to
Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob ;

" And 1 will give it you for a heritage. I
am Jehovah."

This is the strong name of Jehovah, and it
was into this name Moses ran and was safe.
By it he brought a,ll the judgments upon
Pharaoh; he opened the sea, and he went
through all the desert under the shadow of
this name Jehovah. So, now, we find that
Israel was to walk in the perfect manifestation
of that Jehovah-name, for we read in Deu-
teronomy xviii. 13, " Thou shalt he perfect with
Jehovah thy God." They were not only to
know Jehovah, but they were to manifest His
name before the nations and amongst the

I, I

The Name of God,

165

nations : " Thou shalt be perfect with Jehovah
thy God.'* Thus it was they fought against
Amalek, and thus it was they not only prayed
for the destruction of the nations, but with
the sword accomplished it ; and it would have
been their sin to have spared one of them,
because they were manifesting His name
Jehovah.

Let us look at the other aspect of this name,
the other half of that name Jehovah. In the
sixth chapter of Exodus, we have the part
that tells us of His redeeming power ; but in
the thirty-third chapter we read, " And he
(Moses) said, I beseech Thee, show me Thy
glory. And He said, I will make all my
goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim
the name of Jehovah before thee ; and will be
gracious to horn I will be gracious, and
will show mercy o^. whom I will show mercy "
— not merely 01 i'ci'eeming power, but good-
ness or pa den.rtg love. We find it re-
vealed ^n ib^i LfV- verse of the thirty-fourth
chapter. * A ^ - .novah descended in a cloud,
and stood with mm there, and proclaimed the
name of Jehovah. And Jehovah passed by
bifore him " — we shall use that word Jehovah,
because there is another word in the Hebrew
which means Lord, and which might confuse
some — " and proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah-
God, merciful and gracious, long-sufifering
and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and

.+1

;*3

1 66

The Name of God,

transgression, and sin, and that will by no
means clear the guilty ; visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children, and upon
the children's children, unto the third and to
the fourth generation." You see, the gracious
character of Jehovah here manifested is not
that of one looking over sin. God can look
over nothing ; blessed be His name. He can
forgive anything. All must be brought to the
light on the ground of that precious blood
of the Crucified but now Eisen One, that blood
which cleanseth us from all sin. Jehovah is
the name all through the wanderings of the
children of Israel, and if we search in the Old
Testament history, we find that this is the
name used all along until Christ came. We
find He is

Jehovah Jireh — Jehovah will provide (Gen.
xxii. 14) ;

Jehovah Rophecha — Jehovah that healeth
thee (Exod. xv. 26) ;

Jehovah Nissi — Jehovah my banner, when
Israel was fighting with Amalek, for the flesh
lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh (Exod. xvii. 1-5) ;

Jehovah Shalom — Jehovah send peace
(Judges vi. 24) ;

Jehovah Shammah — Jehovah is there.
When Ezekiel was looking at the departing
glory, and onward to the coming glory, he
saw the city having Jehovah as its light
(Ezek. xiviii. 35).

.W::|,'y'l

it;

TJie Name cf God.

167

Jehovah Tsidhenu — Jehovah our righteous-
ness (Jer. xxiii. 6).

Thus we see God hringing out of the secrets
of His own heart further and further manifes-
tations of what He is Himself. Is He not a
strong tower into which the righteous run and
are safe — safe for ever !

The Names Elohim and Jehovah, God
AND Lord.

Many critics, not seeing the wonderfully
Divine purpose in the use of " God " and
"Lord" in the hook of Genesis, \i2^nq fancied
and ^wesse^Z that there were two documents, and
that '' the way in which the two names are used
can OTiZ^/be due to difference of authorship I "
The man who believes he has God's words and
Christ's Bible cares little whether there were
two documents or two hundred, for to him
they are words " which the Holy Ghost,
teacheth ; " but to say that the use of two

names " can only be due to difference ot
authorship " is the presumption of ignorance.
If we have the Word of God, who can say
positively to what it can be due unless God
the Author informs us ? Let us suppose the
following as an illustration. A gentleman
enters his office and says to a clerk, " Sit down.
I wish a history of this business to be written
out, and write as follows : — ' The master y
finding his business rapidly increasing,
gathered his men, and said, We must have a

1 jl

!>' 1

«4?

'Us

ii:X

-''i

;,";'■ >.

• Si

•ill

. ii§

•\ (

I i

1 68;

The Name of God.

new warehouse, and the master drew plans,
and the master superintended the erection, and
when the building was finished the master
gave a great supper to the men (among whom
was his son). And he said to his son, I
intend to depart for a foreign land, and you,
having had practical experience, are to be
manager till I come back; and the /a^^er
gave instructions to the son, and the father
in the presence of the men gave all authority
to the son, and the father departed, and the
son took his place, and every month the
father wrote to the son, and the son to the
fatJiery and the men were very much interested
in the travels of their master," and so on with
the history.

We have two names used here, ** master "
and *' father." How much would we think of
the common sense of the man who said,
"The way in which the two names are used can
only be due to two clerks having been used " ?

In Genesis i. we have the name " God,"
because it is the Creator in the widest display
of His wisdom and power. In Genesis ii. we
have "Lord God," due to the fact that here
we have God in moral relation to His creature
and creation. Juit as in the above illustra-
tion we had " master " with the men and
" father " with the son, so we have hsre
"Creator" (God) with the creation, and
" Creator Master " (Lord God) with His
created servant.

The Name of God,

169

Turn up a few passages where the natues
are together. Genesio vii. 16, " They that
went in, went in male and female of all flesh,
as Grodi had commanded him : and tlie Lord
shut him in." What can be more mechanical
and contemptible than the double document
idea here ? What can be more appropriate
and instructive than to see Divine design in
the ohan ge ? The God of creation commanded
lion and lamb to come to the ark when Noah's
voice would have been powerless, but the
Lord, to whom Noah wur responsible, for
whom Noah wrought, and to whom Noah was
especially related as contrasted with crea-
tion, this Lord looked after him and shut
him in.

1 Sam. xvii. 47 : David was to slay Goliath
that all the earth may know that there is a

God in Israel " (the Creator of all the earth
alone could be known by the heathen in His
power, but Israel had to learn more), " and all
this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth
not with sword and spear."

2 Chron. xviu. 31 : '* Jehoshaphat cried out,
and the Lord helped 7wm, and Qod moved
them to depart." The Creator was only God
to the heathen. He was in addition to this
Lord in Israel (we retain the English names,
as we write for those who have no pretensions
to Hebrew), so the Lord helped Jehoshaphat
and God moved the enemy. The boy spoke
to his fri.ther, and his father, the master, gave

((

H' ■V,

170

TAe Name of God.

commandment to the servants. Can we use
such language, and may God not be allowed
to do it without the necessity of employing
two documents ?

We quite grant that there maij have been
any number of traditions, documents, and
direct statements from God. The first chapter
necessarily is a pure and simple revelation
from God without any man's aid, documentary
or traditional. But to say there must have
been two documents we consider to manifest
a mere superficial acquaintance with the words
of the book, and a lamentable exhibition of
ignorance as to what is in it.

Psalm vi. 9 says, " They that know Thy
name will put their trust in Thee," and a
scriptural apprehension of what is in the name
will give the only key to the propriety and
purpose of its use.

"■ He that dwelleth in the secret place of the
Most High shall abide under the shadow of
the Almighty. I will say of Jehovah^ He is
my refuge and my fortress : my Godj in Him
will I trust."

But as we have been coming into circle
after circle of this great name, God, ihe
Creator — God, the Almighty — Jehovah, the I
Am, we have still another name ; but it was
not revealed by Adam, it was not revealed by
Abraham, nor by Moses. He kept it for Him-
self to reveal ; so He sayr -i^ rhe 22nd Psalm,
*' I will declare Thy nai,'/. unto iiv brethren."

The Name of God.

171

He is promising us something more than
Gl-od. He is promising us something more
than Almighty. He is promising us some-
thing more thd^n Jehovah. " I have another
name to reveal, and I will do it myself."
This is the promise ; and the fulfilment of
it yoti find in John xx. 17 : " Jesus saith unto
her, Touch me not ; for I am not yet ascended
to my

Fatheb.

But go to my brethren, and say unto them,
I ascend unto my Father, and yowr Father ;
and to my God, and your God." " I ascend
unto my Father," that s the eternal relation-
ship; but think of this, "and your Father."
That is a name v/e have no right to claim by
nature. We can all call Him Ood^ and ought
to, as His creatures, but Father is only known
in resurrection. The great opposition to the
glorious truth of God now is, that men are
taught that they have a universal Father,
ready to forgive and pardon all their sin, and
so merciful and loving, that He can never
think of damning any one. Look at Calvary's
cross, see Him who hangs there, hear His
cry, " My God, my God, why hast Thcu
forsaken me ? " It is at Calvary we get
the truth of that great name, at Calvary
we know what it cost God. It is there that
we get the awful truth of condemnation.
The God-man had to cry, ** If it be possible

172

The Name of God,

let this cup pass from me." Can God spare
any when He was not spared? K it were
possible, would not God have let Him go free
who had no sin of His own ? " How shall we
escape if we neglect so great salvation?*'
Calvary settles all arguments. Let us keep
close to Calvary.

After Calvary He says, " My Father *' — the
eternal relationship — and *'your Father."
And He gives us the secret of how we get into
this relationship. Until He had come to the
furthest limit of creation, yea, until He was
made sin for us, and was on the cross, for-
saken by God, cast out from heaven and earth,
He never had called His Father, God; but
now in that hour of darkness, in agony He
cries, " My God, my God, why hast Thou
forsaken me ? " " My God " was the word
He took in that suffering, and substitution,
and atonement. " My Go^," we should have
cried for ever in an eternal hell. He took our
creature relation, and said, " My God," that
we might be able to say, ** Our Father'' ** I
ascend unto my Father, and your Father ;
and to my God, and your God." Has He not
revealed the name ? Yes. He it was who
was with the Father from all eternity. In
this circle of names we have got to the inner
circle now, not the most comprehensive but
the most intensive; the most comprehensive
is God, the most intensive is Father. Circle
after circle He passes in His outward journey

TAe Name of God.

173

ix> seek ns'the lost ones, for He came from
the Father, but not only from the Father,
but the innermost oircle of that circle, for He
came from '^ the bosom of the Father ; " and
He has come down with all His love to the
sinner's place, that He r^ight call this Father
God, that He might never rest until He had
set us down in His retracing journey, with a
thief as His first trophy, into the very bosom
of the Father.

*' The love wherewith He loves the Son,
Such is His love to me."

That is our place for ever. We can go no
more out ; we are in the bosom of the Father
for ever.

Is it not remarkable that two of the greatest
revelations that ever came from heaven to
earth were entrusted not to great scholars, or
even great theologians, but to two humble
women ? At Sychar's well — ** I that speak
unto thee am He " — was told to a poor
weeping penitent the great fact of the advent
of the Messias, and with it, to her ear
alone, that remarkable revelation of the
sweeping away of Judaism, that " God is
a Spirit, and they that worship Him must
worship Him in spirit and in truth." The
other was in resurrection to Mary. Even
Peter and John had rushed off, and were thus
deprived of being the bearers of the tidings
of an opened heaven, and * 1 ascend to My

?^f

I % I

^ ■ \i

ill

J 74

The Name of God.

Father and your Father, to My God and your
God," was again given to a weeping woman.
The moral condition of these helpless vessels
which He chose shows the line that we must
go on if we are to get into the mind of God
concerning His truth. Leave God out, and
then we have nothing but a human compila-
tion; bring Him in, and we have a Divine
book, perfect in every part, to be interpreter',
on Divine principles, as containing Divine
facts, and manifesting Divine purposes.

As the God of Adam, He is the God ,cf
Creation ; as the God of Abraham, He is the
Almighty ; as the God of Israel, He is Jeho-
vah ; but as the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, He is our God and Father in
Him.

To each of those names there is a perfection
corresponding. Matt. v. 43 is left for us who
were to be His believing ones, when He went
away : "Ye have heard that it hath been said, '
Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine
enemy. But I saj^ unto you, Love your
enemies, bless them that curse you, do good
to them that hate you, and pray for them that .
despitefuUy use you and persecute you : that
ye TYiay he the children of your Father which
is in heaven ; for He maketh His sun to rise
on the evil and on the good, and sendeth ruin
on the just and on the unjiiHfc. Be ye there-
fore ^er/ec^, even as your Father which is iu
heaven is perfect." This is not acquirement;

The Name of God.

175

it is manifestation. You never could reach
up to be sons; but now that you are sons,
you are called to manifest whkt the Son was
manifesting when He was here in a world that
rejected Him. And we are to manifest Him,
and so ** ye shall be the children of your
Father which is in heaven." For "if ye love
them which love you, what reward have ye ?
do not even the publicans the same ? And if
ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more
than others ? do not even the pubhcans so ?
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father
which, is in heaven is perfect."

Look at that beautiful word, *' perfect."
Some people dream of reaching a state of
sinless perfection here — speak of reaching
it by prayer, or faith, or some other road.
This undefined it is nowhere in Scripture.
Such only show their ignorance of how 'perfect
is used in Scripture. God has definitely fixed
His word against such a dangerous doctrine
in these words : *' If we (who are walking in
the Ught, and, in the former verse, have been
cleansed from all sin) say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves" (1 John i. 9),
thus most conclusively proving that being
cleansed from sin is not cleansed from the
existence of sin within, as many would
attempt to teach. Perfection is manifesting
on earth what God has revealed to us from
heaven, according to the relationship into
which God has called us, and which He

Pn,

'fl

1*1

I'V'

:l^;

•

1« ';

I ;

. s

176

The Name of God,

■A

wiBnes men to know through us. Thus we
see each is called to manifest according to
what is revealed.

Adam perfect hefore God (Gen. ii. 19).

Abraham perfect before the Almighty (Gen.
xvii. 1).

Israel perfect before Jehovah (Deut. xviii.
13).

Saints now perfect before the Father (Matt.
V. 48).

Job is called perfect by God ; and what do
we find? The man that God calls perfect
abhors himself. What a glorious lesson for
us, that as Christ is, so are we ! yet we abhor
ourselves. We know little of perfection in
Christ if we are not more and more, day by
day, abhorring ourselves. "Be ye therefore
perfect," not as the Almighty, not as Jehovah,
but, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your
Father which is in heaven is perfect." We
are to be manifesting perfect grace coming out
of the Father's heart to a world of sinners,
telling out the love He has to a poor lost
world — doing good to them that hate us,
walking in His steps, and not bearing the
character of loving our friends and hating our
enemies ; but " love your enemies, bless them
that curse you, do good to them that hate
you, and pray for them which despitefully use
you and persecute you."

Thus we find that the character even of the
little babes in Christ is, "they have known

The Name of God.

177

the Father," and are mauifesting the perfect
grace of the Father down here. But we find
in 2 Corinthians, chap, vi., that we have lost
nothing in comprehensiveness while gaining in
intensity; we have reached the very bosom
of the Father; and all that is His is ours.
"What agreement hath the temple of God
with idols ? for ye are the temple of the
living God; as God hath said, I will dwell
in them, and walk in them ; and I will be
their God, and they shall be ray people.
Wherefore, come out from among them, and
be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not
the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall
be my sons and daughters, saith Jehovah the
Almighty.'' We have God, Jehovah, and the
Almighty, and here is our Father ; for Ho is
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
" They that know Thy name will put their
trust in Thee." It is as the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ we now trust Him,
and He is our God and Father in Him ; and
le.t us never dissociate these two names, God
and Father, which He bears to us.

Because He is the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, we stand as it were at the top of the
highest height of all His glory, far above all
principalities and powers. We look down and
say. What has God wrought ! He has brought
poor sinners from the dunghill to the throne.
Some seem inclined to quarrel with God

■f

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-S)

1.0

I.I

1.25

|M 125
<ii Hi 12.2

■

2.0

1.8

1.4

6" —

°7

Photographic

Sciences

Corporation

23 WiST MAIN STREET

WEBSTER, N.Y. 14380

(716) 872I-4S03

".U

- ^

178

The Name of God.

because they are bom sinners. Friend, it is
no misfortune to be bom a sinner., for if we
had not been bom sinners we could never
have had the hope of being seated on the
throne, even as He is on His Father^s throne.
The misfortune is, that ^^ light is come into
the world, and men loved darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil."
There is a Saviour for every sinner, but He
had to say, when amongst sinners, " Ye will
not come to Me that ye might have life." We
who have come to Him are beyond angels an^
beyond all creation, because we are identified
with the lost sinner^s Saviour, and in Him
stand at the very height of the glory of
God.

Because He is the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, we look upward into an infinity and
eternity of love — a love thafc is all for us — a
love that is fed by itself — a love that ever
in its activities is being exercised for our
needs, pouring out its rivers on the most
arid hearts, taking the greatest pains and
carewith the unworthy — a love all Divine, all
unearthly — a love that is before and above all
the glory — a love that planned the glory for
us, and prepared us for the glory — a love that
was manifested by the glory ; as Jesus says —
" The glory thou gavest me I have given
them" — for what purpose ? — *^that the world
may beUeve that Thou hast loved them, as
Thou hast loved Me " — a love that has saved

The Name of God.

179

us, borne with us, cleanses us, and will present
us spotless in that glory — a love that will be
our study for ever — a love that passeth know-
ledge, an ocean without a bottom and without
a shore.

• ■ / ,

I I

EMMANUEL-JESUS.

I HE angel of the Lord appeared unto
him in a dream, saying, Joseph . . .
thou shalt call His name Jesus, for
He shall save His people from their sins. Now
all this was done that it might he fulfilled which
was spoken of the Lord hy the prophet, saying,
. . . They shall call His name Emmanuel,
which being interpreted is, God with us ' '
(Matt. i. 20-23).

If we look at this prophecy and thi. fulfil-
ment, we find two most important truths.

1st. If we are to have a Saviour, that
Saviour must be God.

2nd. If God is to be with us, it must be as
our Saviour.

1st. If we are to have a Saviour, He must
be God. Jesus came to His own — He came
to save His own. This refers primarily to the
Jews, who are said to be Jehovah's own, and
to belong to none others ; this shows that
Jesus is Jehovah. But further, ohis calling of
the Son of Mary Jesus, Saviour, is the fulfil-
ling of that text, *' God with us." If heaven
had been searched from end to end, no angel

Emmanuel-Jesus,

x8i

could have saved a lost sinner. If heaven
had been omptied, and every intelligent being
that God had created had been offered up as
a sacrifice to God, no sinner could have been
saved.

If, added to this, all the human race and all
the lost angels, every creature existing, as
created by God in heaven, earth, and hell,
had been offered up on one tremendous sacri-
ficial altar, no sin would have been blotted
out. The most holy and perfect creature, or
the greatest number of creatures, could never
satisfy Divine justice as to the atonement of
one sin, simply because v:hen in the service of
God any creature is called upon by God to
give up his life, he merely does his duty,
merely gives God bacK what he received.
He has nothing over to atone for sin.

None but " God with us " could become
" Jesus our Saviour." The uncreated all-
creating One, in whom is life, could become
sin, could lay down His life, could give
Himself for our sins, could be the Saviour of
sinners.

2nd. If God is to be with us. He must be with
us as a Saviour. He is with angels, as they
do His will in angelic purity, as their Creator
and Master. He walked with Adam in inno-
cence in the intimacy of the garden, but all
this is lost. He cannot come now to train
and teach us. Cain made this fatal mistake.
He thought he was on the Eden ^-erms with

ill

if L%

■J

: A

>^;-

i32

Emmanuel-Jesus.

God. Nicodemus made this mistake, leaving
out of count the Son of man lifted up; he
would have God with him as a Teacher. Not
so. He must be a Saviour, or He cannot be
"with men.*'

As that word "God with us" comes out
from the throne of God, and penetrates
through the thick vapour of sin that surrounds
this earth, it becomes changed into Jesus.
As the prophecy rolls onward to its accom-
plishment, the angel of Jehovah gives the
necessary translation of " God with us." Its
translation, not into Hebrew, or Greek, or
Latin, or English, or any other Babel tongue,
but into the language of the sinner's need,
let that sinner be barbarian, Scythian, bond
or free, black or white, " God with us," when
translated into this language of need, becomes
" Jesus— Saviour from sins."

And how truly we find Him coming to the
sinner's place, in order that He might be the
sinner's Saviour! Infidelity may stumble at
the genealogy of Matthew i. The needy
sinner reads it with joyful heart, as there
he reads that God became one of U3 that
He might become one with us, and so might
become Jesus our Saviour. When man writes
his genealogy, he tries to bring in the great
namefc' and leave out the unworthy. If he
could only get some of the blood-royal, or the
blood of the nobles, to appear in his genea-
logical tree, he would be exceedingly pleased.

Emmahuel-Jesus.

The needy sinner watches with wondrous
interest what God has left out and what God
has added to that list of names.

God has intentionally left out the names of
three kings — Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah
— from the list. He has added three that did
not require to appear — Tamar, Kahab, and
the wife of Urias. Kead their histories in the
Old Testament, and then adore His sovereign
grace. To say no more about them, though
much might be said, they were all Canaanites,
belonging to the cursed son of Ham, who
were commanded to be extirpated root and
branch. Kuth is another who is added. She
was a Moabitess, and the Ammonite and
Moabite were not to come into the congrega-
tion of God for ever.

" Sovereign grace o'er sin abounding,
Who its length or depth can tell ?
'Tis a deep that knows no sounding."

Thus our Saviour is God, and God is with
us as Saviour — really a Man, really the seed
of the woman — really one w th the sinner —
He who knew no sin made sin for us. Because
He is one with us He can come under sin, can
be made sin, can bear the penalty of sin, can
die for sin ; because He is God He can bear
our sins. He can put away sin. He can bear
its doom, He can destroy him that had the
power of death. He has risen; and this is
Emmanuel-Jesus, God with us — our Saviour.

.J' "

i84

EmmanUel'Jesus,

Keador, none can save you but God. God
can treat with you on no ground until you
have accepted Him as your Saviour. Modern
rationalism easily gets away from this by
passing over the terrible factor **sin."
Modern ritualism brings religion to God,
while God is waiting to be " with us " as
Jesus the Saviour.

I f '

EI8 NAME.

[O continue the subject of the different
names of our Lord, we here give a
careful investigation of Scripture in
as few words of ours as possible. It is of great
importance to study all Scripture in such a
way as to derive our doctrines from Scripture,
and not make Scripture fit into our doctrines.

In our following study we have examined
fifteen names, titles, and combinations used
concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. There
are many others, such as Son of Man, Son of
God, King of kings, etc., which open up quite
a different line of things.

On pages 186 and 187 we give a table which,
in itself, is very instructive. We give the num-
ber of occurrences of each name before and after
Pentecost, as found in the New Testament.

What strikes us at the first glance is the
frequency of the simple name *• Jesus " before
Pentecost, and its rare occurrence after Pen-
tecost, and that " The Lord Jesus Christ^' is
never mentioned before Pentecost, and in one
form or another is usad 99 times after Pente-
cost. Take in connection with this one of the
first Pentecostal utterances (Acts ii. 36),

fffi

MENTIONS OF "HIS NMIE"

. Boob.

JllCt.

Cbkiit.

LOKD.

Juci

Ohkiit.

CURIIT
JUt'ft.

Matthew ....

169

• ••

Mark .

t •

• • •

Luke .

•

...

• • •

John .

•

252

...

(After PentGcost)

1 t

The Acts .

1 •

Romans

•

1 Corinthians

•

2 Corinthians

•

• • •

Galatians .

1 ■

Ephesians .

1 •

PiULIPPIANS

■ •

Colossi ANS .

•

• • ••

1 Thessalonians

•

• • •

2 Thessalonians

•

• • •

1 Timothy

• • •

2 Timothy

•

> . .

14.

Titus .

•

...

Philemon

.. .

Hebrews

•

James .

•

...

1 Peter .

•

...

2 Peter .

•

.. .

*..

1 John .

•

...

2 John .

■

.. .

• • •

...

3 John .

•

. . •

...

• • •

• ••

JUDE .

•

...

• • .

Revelation
After Pentecost

•
■

• • .

260

326

102

Before „

I f

Gli

196

In All .

k <

•

676

311

622

107

NMIE"

Juv»

BHIIT.

CuRin
Jui-s.

• tt

• • •

...

• ••

9
2
8
1

• • •

2
6

102
5

107

IN THE NEW

TESTAMENT.

' ' -.

Lord

JllDI

Lord
Cbriit.

Juvi

ODR

Lord.

Cbriit
na

LORB.

Lord
Jhdi

Cbriit.

Chbiit
Jr.tvt

OCR

Lord.

Juci
CBRiar

ODR

Lord.

Cbriit
Juvi

TBI

LokD.

Cbriit
Jnvt

mt
Lord.

Lord

AMD

Satiovr

Jnoi

Cbriit.

.••

...

.«.

...

§••

...

• ••

...

• ••

• • ■

• ••

...

• • •

...

• ■ •

• ■ .

• ••

...

• •f

• • •

...

.••

• • *

...

• ••

...

' * *

• •■

• ■ •

4
2
1

\ ■'■

...

• • •

• • .

• ••

...

• • •

...

• •<

1
82

...

•

!:r'

i88

His Name,

** God hath made that same Jesus whom ye
have crucified both Lord and Christ."

It will be beyond our power to go over
every passage. We shall therefore confine
ourselves to the exceptional cases.

1. Jesus occurs 614 times as the name of
the Babe from Bethlehem, the Man fi:om Naza-
reth, the Sufferer of Golgotha. The 62 times
after Pentecost — the proclamation of his Lord-
ship — are thus derived : —

In the Acts of the Apostles it is used 30
times after Pentecost, which we might have
expected, thus 'nearly taking up half the num-
ber, as showing to the Jew that Jesus was
the Messias promised to the fathers.

"Jesus of Nazareth ... ye have taken,
and by wicked hands have crucified and slain "
(Acts ii. 22).

" This Jesus hath God raised up " (ii. 32).

" God hath made that same Jesus whom ye
have crucified both Lord and Christ " (ii. 36).

" The God of Abraham hath glorified His
Son Jesus " (iii. 13).

" God having raised up His Son Jesus, sent
Him to bless you " (iii. 26).

" The Sadducees being grieved that they
taught the people, and preached through
Jesus the resurrection from the dead *' (iv. 2).

" They took knowledge of them that they
had been with Jesus " (iv. 13).

" Commanded them not to speak at all, nor
teach in the name of Jesus " (iv. 18).

His Name.

189

" Against Thy holy Child Jesus, whom Thou
hast anointed " (iv. 27).

** The God of our fathers raised up Jesus,
whom ye slew and hanged on a tree " (v. 30).

'* They commanded that they should not
speak in the name of Jesus " (v. 40).

** We have heard him say that this Jesus of
Nazareth shall destroy this place " (vi. 14).

" Stephen saw the glory of G-od, and
Jesus standing on the right hand of God"
(vii. 55).

''Philip preached unto him (the eunuch)
Jesus*' (viii. 35).

'' The Lord said (to Saul), I am Jesus,.whom
thou persecutest " (iz. 5).

*' He (Paul) had preached boldly at Damas-
cus in the name of Jesus " (ix. 27).

" Peter said, God anointed Jesus of Naza-
reth with the Holy Ghost " (x. 38).

" Paul said. Of this man's (David) seed
hath God, according to promise, i\ ised unto
Israel a Saviour, Jesus " (xiii. 23).

" He hath raised up Jesus again " (xl' )3).

" This Jesus, whom I (Paul) preach unto
you, is Christ " (xvii. 3).

" There is another King, one Jesus " (xvii.

7).

" He preached unto them Jesus and the
resurrection" (xvii. 18).

" bilas and T'imotheus testified to the Jews
that Jesus was Jhrist " 'jcviii. 5).

" Cert lin of Jie vagabond Jews, exorcis^-\

■t-H

190

His Name.

\ i if

took upon them to call over them which had
evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying,
We adjure you hy Jesus, whom Paul preach-
eth " (xix. 13).

'* Tne evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I
know, and Paul I know, but who are ye?"
(xix. 15).

" He said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth,
whom thou persecutest " (xxii. 18).

**One Jesus, who war dead, whom Paul
affirmed to be alive " (xxv. 19).

" Contrary to the name of Jesus of Naza-
reth" (xxvi. 9).

" He said, I am Jesus, whom thou perse-
cutest " (xxvi. 15).

" Persuading them concerning Jesus"
(xxviii. 23).

In Komang it is used twice —

*' That He might be just, and the Justifier of
him who believe th in Jesus " (iii. 26).

" The Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus
from the dead " (viii. 11).

In 1 Corinthians twice in the verse xii. 3—

" No man speaking by the Spirit of God
calleth Jesus accursed, and that no man can
say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost."

In 2 Corinthians five times : —

" Ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake"
(iv. 6).

" That the life also of Jesus might be made
manifest in our body. For we which live
are always delivered unto death for Jesus'

!HJ!^fVf<W^f^*"'^-*!i3^fy»T-?7?HW '

His Name,

191

sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made
manifest in our mortal body" (iv. 10, 11).

" He who raised up the Lord Jesus shall
raise up us also by Jesus " (iv. 14).

In Ephesians once, " As the truth is in
Jesus'* (iv. 21).

In Philippians once, " At the name of Jesus*
every knee should bow " (ii. 10).

In 1 Thessalonians it appears three times —

" Jesus, who deUvered us from the wrath to
come " (i. 10).

**If we believe that Jesus died and rose
again, even so them also who sleep in Jesus
will God bring with Him " (iv. 14).

In Hebrews it appears eight times —

" We see not yet all things put under him,
but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower
than the angels ' ' (ii. 9).

"Seeing then that we have a great High-
priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus
the Son of God, let us hold fast our profes-
sion" (iv. 14).

" Whither the Forerunner is for us entered,
even Jesus" (vi. 20).

" By so much was Jesus made a Surety of
a better testament " (vii. 22).

" Having boldness to enter into the holiest,
by the blood of Jesus " (x. 19).

" Looking unto Jesus, the Author and
Finisher of faith " (xii. 2).

" Ye are come . c . to Jesus, the Mediator
of the new covenant " (xii. 24).

\ ^

192

Ifts Name.

" Jesus, that He might sanctify the people
with His own blood, suffered without the
gate " (xiii. 12).

In 1 John we find four mentions of
"Jesus"—

**Who is a har — biit he that denieth that
•Jesus is the Christ ? " (ii. 22).

*' Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the
Son of God, God dwelleth in Him" (iv. 15).

" Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the
Christ is born of God " (v. 1).

" Who is he that overcometh the world
but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son
of God ? " (v. 5).

In Eevelation it is used six times —

"Here are they that keep the command-
ments of God and the faith of Jesus*' (xiv.
12).

* ' The blood of the martyrs of Jesus ' ' (xvii. 6).

" I am thy fellow servant and of thy bre-
thren that have the testimony of Jesus :
worship God : for the testimony of Jesus is
the spirit of prophecy " (xix. 10).

** The souls of them that were beheaded for
the witness of Jesus " (xx. 4).

" I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify
unto you these things in the churches*' (xx:.
16).

In Galatians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians,
1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon,
James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John,
Jude, the name " Jesus " never appears alone.

His Name

193

From the consideration of these names, and
the timfe at which they were used, we may
gather that the names most in accordance
with Scripture, most commonly used after
Pentecost, and therefore most suitable for us
who live in these days, are either — " Christ,"
"the Lord," ** Jesus Christ," or "the Lord
Jesus Christ.*'

V ■ 5

''MY NAME'S sake:*

MMEDIATELY after our Lord, in
teaching His disciples how to pray,
revealed to them their position as
children, though still, far from home, and thus
warranted to address His Father as their
Father, and say, " Our Father who art in
heaven," He instructed them to add, "Hal-
lowed be Thy name." We thus join in
worship with all the loyal universe of God,
animate and inanimate.

" Praise ye Him, all His a'^gels. Praise ye
Him, all His hosts. Praise yo Him, sun and
moon : praise Him, all ye stars of light.

" Praise ye Him, ye heaven of heavens,
end ye waters that be above the heavens.
Let them praise the name of the Lord.

** Praise the Lord from the earth, ye
dragons, and all deeps : fire and hail, snow
and vapours; stormy winds, fulfilling Hip
word ; mountains and all hills ; fruitful trees
and all cedars ; beasts and all cattle ; creeping
things and flying fowl : kings of the earth, and
all people; princes, and all judges of the
earth : both young men and maidens ; old
men and children : let them praise the name

''My Name's Sake,

195

of the Lord ; for His name alone is excellent ;
His glory is above the earth and heaven. . . .
Let everything that hath breath praise the
Lord. Praise ye the Lord."

While we are loving sons, we are devout
worshippers, and take our stand beside the
adoring living ones, who rest not day
and night, saying, "Holy, holjr, holy, Lord
God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to
come ; " and falling down before Him that
sits on the throne, we worship Him that liveth
for ever and ever, and cast our crowns before
the throne, saying, "Thou art worthy,
Lord, to receivf glory, and honour, and
power ; for Thou hast created all things, and
for Thy pleasure they are and were created."
And deeper still does our worship reach as we
enter into the hall of redemption, for we can
sing a new song, saying, " Thou art worthy to
take the book, and to open the seals thereof ;
for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to
God by Thy blood, out of every kindred, and
tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made
us unto our God kings and priests ; and we
shall reign on the earth." And every creature
which is in heaven, and on the earth, and
under the earth, and such as are in the sea, in
millennial glory will sing, "Blessing, and
honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him
that sitteth upon the throne for ever and
ever.

))

ff,

" Hallowed be Thy name I ^' The name of

M'-<

196

''My Name's Sake!'

the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous
run into it, and are safe. "VV^hat is in a name ?
The revelation of the unrevealed to dark-
ened man; the photograph of the Eternal
sent into time ; earth's miniature of heaven's
glory. While the Uncreated One has revealed
Himself under many names, He has " in these
last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom
He hath appointed Heir of all things; by
whom also He made the worlds, being the
brightness of His glory, and the express image
of His person.' Only in Christ can we read
the true name of God. We purpose to draw
the attention of our readers to a few leading
lines of study connected with **His name,"
and its bearing on us.

1. Forgiveness. — 1 John ii. 12, **I write
unto you, little children, because your sins are
forgiven you for ffis name^s sake^ The door
of admission now for every child of Adam into
the place of childhood with the Father is the
door of forgiveness. Education, moral culture,
reformation, sanctification are ail taught in-
side, but the only door is forgiveness. That
door has not been opened by our prayers, our
tears, our groans, our works, or our feelings,
but by His own hand, and for His name's sake.
We did not draw to Him till He came to us.
The debt was paid on Calvary's Cross; the
Eesurrection is the divinely-signed receipt for
the abolished debt. '* His name's sake '* is
the blank cheque handed down from and

*'My Name's Sake."

197

signed by God Himself to every sin-burdened
soul, in which he can insert his own iniquity,
transgression, and sin. What is the value of
a cheque on a bank ? In itself only the value
of the paper and the penny stamp upon it.
But let a name be attached to it, and it then
has all the value of the full resources of the
one who has signed it. All heaven's resources
are opened to the sinner accepting this Divine
cheque.

Are the sins like scarlet? Is heaven not
now the resting-place of Him whose blood can
make the foulest clean, and for whose name's
sake they shall be white as snow ? Are they
red like crimson, the damning coloui- of the
hands of the murderer, red with the blood of
a spotless victim ? They shall be as wool, for
forgiveness was preached first to Jerusalem
mm'derers of the Prince of Life. Doet, the
black indictment of Isaiah xliii. 23, 24, cul-
minate in " Thou hast made me to serve with
thy sins ; thou hast wearied me with thine
iniquities " ? Are the resources of heaven
available for this ? Listen to the words of
the God of truth as He proclaims free pardon
to the most ungrateful of sinners : " I, even
I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions,
for Mine own sahe, and will not remember thy
sins."

Mark, it is not merely out of pity for us, far
less on account of any external activity, self-
righteous agility, or internal emotion on our

K M

:4i ■

iqS

''My Name's Sake.''

m<-'\

E' ilsV ill

part, bnt for His own sake. GlorioTis founda-
tion; adamantine, everlasting, immovable
rook on which we build. In Him " we have
redemption through His blood, the forgive-
ness of sins, according to the riches of His
grace."

2. Guidance. — Psalm xxiii. .3, " Herestoreth
my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for His name's sake.'* The
justified man needs daily forgiveness. The
quickened soul needs to be restored. The re-
stored soul needs to be led. All this has been
anticipated, and all has been met, because all
is linked with His name, and '^His name shall
endure for ever : Hie name shall be continued
as long as the sun." All within and around
us is in constant change. Frames, feelings,
fancies, tears, prayers, resolution, faith, hope,
love, all have their ebbs and flows, but His
name is the same yesterday, to-day, and for
ever.

Has His blood been once presented at the
throne for us, and accepted by us for justifica-
tion before that throne ? It is of continued
and unceasing efficacy, and thus the blood of
Jesus Christ is cleansing us (at every breath
we breathe) from all sin. Am I prone to
wander, prone to make mistakes, prone to
follow the fleshly desires, prone to trip and
fall into the mire ? He restoreth my soul.
Would it be a disgrace for me to dishonour
my Saviour Kedeemier, and cast a blot on that

• i

''My Name's Sake.''

199

name I bear? He leadeth me in the paths
of righteousness for His name's sake. His
honour is compromised, and He is my
Guardian Bedeemer. He upholdeth my steps,
because His name is in them. On my eagle's
wings He has committed .0 me His name.
In my unwearied running He has given me
His name to carry. In mine unfainting walk
His name supports me. In the day of oppo-
sition, in my single-handed combat, when,
having done all, I am now to stand, His name
is shield, sword, and helmet unto me ; and in
lying down in His green pastures, it is His
name which is my food. No turn of the way
but is known to Him. Let him that nameth
the name of Christ depart from all iniquity.
He leadeth me for His name's sake.

3. Communion. — Matt, xviii. 20, " Where
two or three are gathered together in My
name, there am I in the midst of them."
The forgiven and restored sinner is not con-
demned to tread a solitary path, even though
it lies through the wilderness. The Heaven-
blessed soul is not called to partake of his
joys alone. He has even in the desert a
fellowship of God with fellow-sinners, saved
by the same sovereign grace. He is to get
sympathy firom, and to have sympathy with,
others. Their numbers may be very small —
only two or three — but the communion is
very real. He requires no elaborate system
of regulations or code of rules to claim this

.i. J

i * \

1 ,^

ifit

200

''My Names Sake:*

Divine communion on earth. "His name"
is enough. The most elaborate and costly
building that an ordinary man may have built
is only the grand mansion or castle of Mr.
Greatpurse ; but a lowly cottage in which
Her Majesty resides becomes a palace. The
most gorgeously architectured building with-
out God is a mere mass of building material.
But His name with His first disciples at
Jerusalem turned an upper ordinary family
room into a heavenly temple, a Divine palace.
The most eloquent preaching is but pleasing
talk springing from human brains rf "His
name " is not its burden. The poorest olo-
cutioniot brimful of His name brings all heaven
before the eyes of those who have the spiritual
faculty of seeing. The most elaborate prayers
may be but words of fancy, feeling, or edu-
cation; but- " His name," breathed with
stammering tongue and from groaning heart,
will open the windows of heaven, sending
down blessings, that we have not room enough
to receive. Magnificent music, splendid in-
struments, thoroughly trained singers, without
" His name " as the centre of all their praise,
may command the applause of the ear and
reach the rafters of the building, but they
have nothing pleasing to the ear of God ; but
in His name we offer the sacrifice of praise
continually, that is, the fruit of our lips,
giving thanks to His name. Let us exalt
His name together.

''My Names Saker

201

4. Activity, — 3 John 7, **For His name's
sake they went forth, taking nothing of the
Gentiles." Accepted according to the Victim's
blood inside the veil, we are rejected with the
Victim's flesh outside the camp. Our happy
communion leads us to our living activity,
dependent entirely on His name, independent
of all the nations on the earth, their favours
or frowns, their support or spite, their patron-
age or persecution. There is a fellowship
through His name in this Divine activity on
the earth. There is a giving and receiving.
There is the Joshua wielding the sword, and
the Moses on the hill-top with arms uplifted
and arms upheld by Aaron and Hur.

" Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever
thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers,
who have borne witness of thy love before the
Church; whom, if thou bring forward on their
journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well ;
because that for His name's sake thev went
forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles. We,
therefore, ought to receive such, that we
might be fellow-helpers to the truth." This
was written by an Apostle who knew much
of His name, who in his younger days had
lain on His bosom, and knew what it was to
be independent of men, nature, or the world,
and now in his old age puts himself alongside
of the younger Gains the well-beloved, en-
couraging him that " we might be fellow
helpers to the truth." The older and more

■V

i'!

. 1"

; i

I H

I '('

[1 i , '

202

'*My Names Sake.''

experienced saint wrote this cheering word to
the younger.

Flattery is abominable, but cheering words
to solitary labourers in the activity of their
mission for Sis name are as water on the dry
desert. In works of faith, labours of love,
and patience of hope, we are all prone to get
disheartened. *'His name" of good cheer
warms us up again. So many mistakes, diffi-
culties, worries, and disappointments lie in
the path of the man who is endeavouring to
live for His name alone, that there is not a
Christian but occasionally needs a word of
God-cheer to support him and throw him on
His name. Suspicions, insinuations, cold-
shouldering, want of sympathy, malicious
words, silent ignoring, are common enough.
Let us imitate the more excellent way of
John the aged, drawing close to his hundredth
year, that we may be fellow-helpers to the truth.

6. Testimony. — Acts ii. 21, " Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall he
saved." '/The Lord said unto him (Ananias),
Go thy way, for he (Paul) is a chosen vessel
unto Me to bear My name before the Gentiles,
and kings, and the children of Israel " (Acts
-ix. 16).

Peter was the Apostle to the circumcision,
and he had to begin his testimony at Jeru-
salem, to be extended to Judssa, Samaria, and
thence unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Paul, on the other hand, was the Apostle to

m\ p

** My Names Sake,^*

203

the Gentiles, and he was to testify inwards
towards the children of Israel. But the
subject of each was the same. They were
not left to choose their text. ** The name of
the Lord '* was the salvation preached by
Peter, the keynote of his testimony. ** My
name" was what Paul was to bear before
Gentiles, kings, and Israel's children. Arts
and sciences, politics and philosophy, earth's
ena' tments or human cultus, were all second-
ary " His name " was emblazoned on their
banner, and under that flag they had the royal
authority of Heaven to bear the testimony to
every creature.

We can sue for sufferance when we wish
men to listen to our opinions, ideas, or
thoughts, but with all the calm majesty and
full Divine authority of our message, we can
carry the standard that He gives us from
palace to hovel, from frozen iceberg to coral
strand, to barbarian, Scythian, black or white,
bond or free, Jew or Gentile, and looking
every responsible fellow-being steadfastly in
the face, can say on Heaven's authority, '* If
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus, and shalt believe in tliine heart that
God hath raised Him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved*"

6. Shame. — Acts v. 41, '* And they departed
from th>3 presence of the council, rejoicing
that they were coimted worthy to suffer shame
for His name's sake.'' This is the only crown

) 1

rv:

204

''My Name's Sake."

lis

that an unsympathetic world can give to
those who bear His name in testimony. It
is the crown of thorns in miniature — His
suffering for righteousness at the hands of
men. We can never touch His suffering at
the hands of God for sin. And this shame
carries with it a special blessing, because it is
for His name it is obtained. Peter, who was
foremost in bearing this shame for His name,
writes more fully of it in his first letter, in
the first chapter of which he tells us of the
Old Testament Scriptures foretelling "the
sufferings of Christ and the glory that should
follow." In the second chapter, " This is
thankworthy (or the character of grace), if a
man for conscience toward God endure grief,
suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it if,
when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall
take it patiently ? But if when ye do well
and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is
acceptable with God," suffering as Christ
suffered. When He suffered He threatened
not, but committed Himself to Him that
judgeth righteously. In the third chapter,
*'If ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy
are ye; and be not afraid of their terror,
neither be troubled." In the fourth chapter,
" Kejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of
Christ's sufferings. If ye be reproached for
the name of Christ, happy are ye. If any man
suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed,
but let him glorify God on this behalf."

''My Names Sake.''

205

7. Glory, — Eev. xxii. 4, "They shall see His
face, and ffis name shall be in their fore-
heads." Soon the cross will give place to
the crown, the curse from the earth will be
removed, the glory wiU take the place of the
shame, the forgiving and forgiveness having
done their work for ever, the leading through
the desert finished, the isolated gatherings
now consolidated into one grand multitude —
all nations now blessed in Him, and calling
Him blessed, but still His name shall endure
for ever. The outstanding feature of saint-
ship will carry the imprer*^ of His name for
ever. Angels may excel m strength and in
wisdom, and may love to do His will ; but the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
revealed to us in Him who is the Lamb of
God, taking away the world's sin, wiU be the
name by which saints are known through the
millennial age, and to the ages of ages, in
that hght which eclipses all human lights of
candle or all natural light of the sun, for' we
shine in the light of God, and His name shall
stamp each brow.

" They that know Thy Name will put their
trust in Thee."

"Hallowei: be Thy Name."

\ \

■>.

THE GLOBY OF GOD,

** Glory to God in the highest." — Ltjkb ii. 14.

"But God, who commanded the light to shine out of dark-
ness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light o£ the
knowledge of the glory of God in the faco of Jesus Christ.''
— 2 Cob. iv. 16.

jHE glory of God ! " is an expression
which is much used, but we have
little apprehension of the full length
and depth comprised in it, as manifesting the
excellency and perfection of God as revealed
at various stages to man. The best idea of it
will be got from tracing its history in the
Word.

When man had been placed before God ia
Eden, and he had failed, we find that God
came down, and in righteous execution of His
sentence. He drove him out of Paradise, and
placed the cherubim, and the sword, and the •
flame, and the gate to keep him out; and
no man dare now come to God but with
the recognition that He is a ''consuming
fire." He dare not come but recognizing the
claims of God on him as a sinner ; for the
Shekinah flame was between God and the
sinner.

The Glory of God.

207

mer ; for the

The olobt with Israel.
. We now see a glorious change in the rela-
tive position of the sinner, his God, and the
glory. Typical redemption put man typically
with God at the right side of the glory. This
we see in Israel redeemed from the earth.

1. In the wilderness. — The first time we
read of the sinner's position with regard
to this glory being changed is in Exod. xiii.
17, " And it came to pass, when Pharaoh
had let the people go, that God led them
not through the way of the land of the
Philistines, although that was near" (God
often does not take the nearest way. It would
have been a great pity if Christ had said to
Peter, "I have prayed the Father that you
should not be tempted.** Peter would have
lost a great deal) ; "for God said, Lest perad-
venture the people repent when they see war,
and they return to Egypt.*' We are not con-
verted to peace with ourselves^ but to peace
with Grod ; we are not converted to sleejpy but
to wear the helmet, and not to lie down, but
to go through the desert ; but if we have to go
through a desert, we have a constant untiring
leader. And this is the attitude in which we
now meet the pillar-cloud of the glory of
Jehovah.

A constant leader. — " And they took their
journey from Succoth, and encamped in
Etham, in the edge of the wilderness. And
Jehovah went before them by day in a 'pillar

208

The Glory of God,

of a cloudy to lead them the way; and by
night in a pillar of fire ^ to give them light ; to
go by day and night. He took not away the
pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire
by night, from before the people."

Protecting. — " And the angel of God, which
went before the camp of Israel, removed, and
went behind them ; and the pillar of the cloud
went from before their face, and stood behind
them. And it came between the camp of the
Egyptians and the camp of Israel ; and it
was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave
light by night to these ; so that the one came
not near the other all night " (Exod. xiv. 19,
20). The redeemed people, those that had
been redeemed by the blood sprinkled, are
thus put at the Godward side of the flame, and
it is now placed between them and their foes ;
the flame that manifested the might of God has
now been transferred to the rear of the camp
of Israel, and God is visibly /or His people,
on the ground of redemption seen in the shed
blood. This refers to an earthly redeemed
people, yet it gives a glorious illustration
of where the heavenly people redeemed by the
precious blood of Jesus stand. God had put
up the flame now, and His people are seen at
the Godward side of the flame, and the enemy
at the far side. It guides the children of God
day and night, for by night and day, storm
and calm, He is always the same, independent
of circumstances. Peter saw the wavesy and

The Glory of God,

209

began to sink. And really the waves had
nothing to do with it, for it is as easy to walk
on the top of the waves as on a sea of glass,
each impossible by nature. By day and by
night the pillar of the glory of Jehovah led
the Israelites, but it was darkness to the
Egyptians. Yes, many an unconverted man
would try to do what the Christian, the saved
one, does. It is a solemn text, *' Which the
Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.^'
What is light to a Christian, to the uncon-
verted one is darkness ; what is the pathway
to faith is destruction to unbelief. " If our
'gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost "

Avenging. — ** And it came to pass, that in
the morning- watch, Jehovah*' (this is His re-
lation-name to Israel — this is preferable to -'the
Lord *') " looked unto the host of the Egyptians
through the 'pillar of fire and of the cloudy and
troubled the host of the Egyptians." Not only
darkness, but trouble to that Egyptian host.

Providing food. — ** And it came to pass, as
Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of
the children of Israel, that they looked toward
the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of
Jehovah appeared in the cloud. And the
Lord spake unto Moses saying, I have heard
the murmurings of the children of Israel ;
speak unto them, saying. At evtn ye shall eat
flesh, and in the morning ye c'lall be filled
with bread " (Exod. xvi. 10-12). Manna and
quails were given from Jehovah, their God.

. ,: !■

■I ■

210

The Glory of God.

\\m

In laiOj a devouring flame. — Look at chap,
xxiv. vers. 15, 16, *' And Moses went up into
the mount, and a cloud covered the mount.
And the fflory of Jehovah abode upon Mount
Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days : and
the seventh day He called unto Moses out of
the cloud. And the sight of the glory of
Jehovah was like devouring fire on the top
of the mount in the eyes of the children
of Israel."

His name — in pardoning mercy. — Again we
read, in chap, xxxiii. ver. 18, " And he (Moses)
SMid, I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory.''
Then in chap, xxxiv. vers. 4-7, "And Jehovah
descended in the cloudy and stood with him
there, and proclaimed the name of Jehovah,"
etc. This cloud went with Israel all the way
through; it was their token from Jehovah,
telling them when they were to move and
when to stop. They had no power over that
cloud ; it had the power over them ; and we
find that at the giving of the name of Jehovah,
Jehovah Himself descended to the place where
He was manifested — where His name was
known.

Filling the finished tabernacle. — Turn to
chap. xi. ver. 33, *' So Moses finished the work.
Then a clond covered the tent of the congre-
gation, and the glory of Jehovah filled the
tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter
into the tent of the congregation, because the
cloud abode thereon, and the glory of Jehovah

The Glory of God.

211

filled the tabernacle." It was the cloud that,
abode thereon. The cloud was above the taber-
nacle and as the cloud moved on, the glory
moved on, keeping its place ; for when the cloud
was taken up, the children of Israel went on ;
but if the cloud were not taken up, then they
went not on, " for the cloud of Jehovah was
upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it
by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel,
throughout all their journey." Thus we see
the book of Exodus has ended in a contrast
with what the book of Genesis begins. In
Genesis, God was making a home for man;
in Exodus, man was making a home for God :
God in Genesis preparing a beautiful dwelling
on earth for man to manifest Him, but sin had
come in, and the consequence of sin has been
seen ; but now a most glorious thing has been
brought in, for God has come to dwell with
man, and the glory of God fills the place that
man had made, on the ground of redemption
— ^redemption by blood — ^redemption by the
power of God, through the Red Sea, bringing
them on through all their journeys, and the
glory of Jehovah is now under the roof that
man has made.

Gon8ecration.-—^\xroL now to Lev. ix. 22 :
"And Aaron lifted up his hand toward the
people, and blessed them, and came down
from offering of the sin-offering, and the burnt-
offering, and the peace-offerings. And Moses
and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the

i- ill

' ir

212

The Glory of God,

congregation, and came ont) and blessed the
people ; and the glory of Jehovah appeared
unto all the people. And there came a fire
. out from before Jehovah, and consumed upon
' the altar the burnt-offering and the fat ; which
when all the people saw, they shouted, and
fell on their faces.*' Our God is always a
consuming fire. We see here a manifested
acceptance, showing that the offering was
well-pleasing to Jehovah.

Over the mercy -seat, — " And Jehovah said
unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother,
that he come not at all times into the holy
place within the veil before the mercy-seat,
which is upon the ark, that he die not ; for I
will appear in the cloud upon the mercy-seat "
(Lev. xvi. 2). God appears now in His great
apostolic capacity, in the very holiest of all,
whither the blood was carried. Turn to
Numbers, where we get the arranging of the
host of Johovah.

The responsible adviser, — " And when the
cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many
days, then the children of Israel kept the
. charge of Jehovah, and journeyed not ' ' (Numb,
ix. 19). Look at the repetition of that word,
the cloudy the cloudy the cloud, the cloud; it
is, the glory of God, the glory of God, the
glory of God, the glory of God, ringing
through our ears at every stage and step of
our pilgrimage.
In needed discipline. — ^Alas that this mani-

The Glory of God.

213

festation of the glory should be required I It
comes in very solemnly here; we have dis-
cipline to exercise ; it is the same appearance,
the same glory of Jehovah. " And the Lord
came down in the 'pillar of the cloudy and
stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called
Aaron and Miriam : and they both came
forth;" and what waa it for now? "Our
Ood is a consuming fire." And He said, "Hear
now my words : If there be a prophet among
you, I, Jehovah, will make myseK known unto
him in a vision, and will speak unto him in
a dream " (Numb. xii. 5, 6). And Miriam was
smitten with leprosy.

In just vindication. — The majority went
against the faithful two. Majorities are not
always right. Joshua and Caleb were the
only two of the faithful minority , cast out by
the great majority, who met to stone them.
The congregation turned on them, and bade
them stone them with stones. What happened?
" And the glory of Jehovah appeared in the
tabernacle of the congregation before all the
children of Israel" (Numb. xiv. 10), and vindi-
cated these two. And still another more
solemn appearance.

In righteous judgment. — " And Korah
gathered all the congregation against them
unto the door of the tabernacle of the congre-
gation ; and the glory of Jehovah appeared
unto all the congregation " (Numb. xvi. 19).
"And there came out a fire from Jehovah, and

I: '

.1 n

214

The Glory of God,

consumed the two hundred and fifty men that
offered incense*' (ver. 35). And so now, as
we see, the judgment was manifested upon
them by the glory of Jehovah. The glory of
Jehovah is very silent. I have often been
asked, ** Is there any work of God going on at
such and such a place ? " My answer is, " I
never yet found God ceasing to work.'* I have
seen God working in power, when He was com-
ing with His breath, and sweeping hundreds
down, and converting people by scores at a
time. I have seen Him come with the wind,
winnowing the wheat from the chaff, sifting,
and seeing who will stand. That is the work
of God ; it is as really the work of God to find
out who are on the Lord's side, as to justify
the sinner believing in Jesus. Thank God for
sifting times, for winnowing work. Then God
may be working in His strange, but necessary,
work of discipline, vindication, or judgment.
But still He is the same God of all grace.

Providing water, — " And Moses and Aaron
went from the presence of the assembly unto
the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,
and tiiey fell upon their faces ; and the glory
of Jehovah appeared unto them. And the
Lord spake unto Moses, saying. Take the rod,
and gather thou the assembly together, thou,
and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the
rook before their eyes ; and it shall give forth
his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them
water out of the rock ; so thou shalt give the

The Glory of God.

215

congregation and their beasts drink" (Numb.
XX. 6-8).

Unwearied to the end. — Leaders and human
guides may die, pass aivay, or change, but the
leading glory of Jehovah coutinues ever the
same to the journey's end — He saves to the
uttermost of time. Read Deut. xxxi. 14, 15,
'' And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thy
days approach that thou must die : call Joshua,
and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the
congregation, that I may give him a charge.
And Moses and Joshua went and presented
themselves in the tabernacle of the congrega-
tion, and the Lord appeared in the tabernacle
in a pillar of a cloud, and the pillar of the
cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle."
Thus ends the wilderness march of the re-
deemed host, in which we have seen the pillar
of cloud, the glory of Jehovah, appearing at
all times for doctrine, for reproof, for correc-
tion, for instruction in righteousness ; whether
as looking to the enemy, as for God's claims, or
the congregation's need, all was under and
connected with that glory — their leader, their
responsible leader, their continuous leader,
their avenging leader, their leader to the end,
their provider of bread and water, their centre
of worship and acceptance, their meeting-
place with Jehovah, in holiness and grace,
smiting Miriam with leprosy, devouring the
apostates, or forgiving iniquity, transgression,
and sin. As we have thus traced the path of

ill

1 '.' !

:if

2l6

The Oiory of God,

the glory through the wilderness, let us look
at it still as connected with Israel.

2. In the land,. — The tabernacle of the
wilderness changes, but the glory changes not,
for the glory of the tabernacle is the glory of
the temple, the glory of the wilderness is the
glory of the land, and the glory of the desert is
the glory of the kingdom. The moving glory
has become the permanent glory, but that
which led Israel through the pathless waste
was the same glory as in the days of David
and Solomon. " It came even to pass, as the
trumpeters and singers were as one, to make
one sound to be heard in praising and thank-
ing Jehovah ; and when they lifted up their
voice with the trumpets, and cymbals, and
instruments of music, and praised Jehovah,
saying, For He is good; for His mercy en-
dureth for ever : that then the house was filled
with a cloudy even the house of Jehovah : so
that the priests could not stand to minister
by reason of the cloud; for the glory of Jehovah
had filled tlie house of God " (2 Chron. v. 13).
I think we have often too little worship, adora-
tion, praise; we are very earnest in 'prayer —
and I don't think we can be too earnest in
prayer — but let us not forget or neglect praise
to God. Let us know the meaning, of worship.
What is worship? Worship is noc telling
God what we are, or asking God to give us
anything, nor teaching saints, nor telling out
God*s love to sinners ; it is giving God back

The Glory of God.

217

His own, — giving God back I Yes ; and is it
not wonderful ? What was their worship ?
Praising and thanking Jehovah; ''And when
they lifted up their voices, . . . and praised
Jehovah, saying, For He is good, and His
mercy endure th for ever." This is the refrain,
the chorus through all their goings, ** He is
good, for His mercy endureth for ever." It
was thus giving Hiaa back His own, telling
Him concerning His all-forbearing mercy, in
spite of all their sin and failure.

And what have we to give Him back ? I
have often thought it was as when Jehovah
revealed His name. If you had heard those
dead rocks when each part was proclaimed,
the rocks echoed it back — "Jehovah,
Jehovah,'* the rocks echo; "Jehovah,"
"merciful and gracious,*' "merciful and
gracious,*' "long-suffering," "long-suffering."
The echo of these cold stones was worship
to God. Look at sleeping Saint Dorcas ; she
is lying dead ; here stand some of the bene-
fited ones. Here is a mother with her little
daughter. "Ah I that saint was my best
friend." Oh! is it not pure religion "to
vint the fatherless and the widows in their
afiBliction " ? Jesus never sent a servant with
His gifts ; He came Himself, " and grace and
truth came by Jesus Christ." Do not hand
down your gifts, or send them by a servant —
visit. The weeping ones may have been
coming one by one to the house of Dorcas;

2l8

The Glory of God.

and a mother takes up a little dress : ** Look,
she made this, and that, and this other for
my dear little daughter." This was woiohip,
telling out what she made, what she did, what
she was ; and we come to our Father God,
and say. This is what He is, what He was,
what He did, for " He is good, and His mercy
endureth for ever." That is worship, — that
is the overflow of the full heart.

As the priests of old were' telling out what
He was and did, praising and thanking the
Lord when the singers were as one, " then the
house was filled with a cloud, even the house
of Jehovah. So that the priests could not
stand to minister by reason of the cloud ; for
the glory of Jehovah had filled the house of
God." There is nothing like the glory of
Jehovah for putting all the priests of God
on their faces. We must get the glory of
Jehovah not in the cloud of the Popish or
Kitualistic incense : if we attemnt it we are
crucifying Christ again, for if we use the type
we mean the Antitype has not come, but has
yet to come and be crTicified again ; but as
with on3 heart we know something about
** the glory," and take our place imder *'the
glory,*' there is then no room lor the flesh; the
glory of Jehovah fills the house. But I must
take you to solemn but very real scenes at
which we must look. We have been tracing
the glory of Jehovah as telling out what
Jehovah "V7as to Israel in the desert and in the

The Glory of God.

219

: "Look,
other for
3 worohip,
did, what
ther God,
He was,
Flis mercy
bip, — that

out what
,nking the
" then the
the house
could not
cloud ; for
3 house of
B glory of
ts of God
le glory of
Popish or

it we are
e the type
le, but has
in ; but as
ring about
mder *'the
3 flesh; the
But I must
L scenes at
3en tracing

out what
, and in the

land ; buu Israel is drifting into apostasy, and
carried into captivity and righteous judgment.
Israel is to be cut off as the vessel to contain
"the glory" on the earth, and so the glory-
must depart ; so we look now at this sad scene.
3. The glory departing, — Eead at B2:Ak. i.
4, *' And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind
came out of the north, a great cloudy and a
fire unfolding itself^ and a brightness was
about it, and out of the midst thereof as the
colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire."
" And above the firmament that was over their
heads was the Kkeness of a throne, as the
appearance of a sapphire-stone ; and upon the
Hkaness of the throne was the likeness as the
appearance of a man above upon it. And I
saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance
of fire round about within it ; from the appear-
ance of his loins even upward, and from the
appearance of his loins even downward, I saw
as it were the appearance of fire, and it had
brightness round about. As the appearance
of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of
rain, so was the appearance of the brightness
round about. This was the appearance of the
likeness of the glory of Jehovah" (vers.
26-28).

"Then I arose, and went forth into the
plain : and, behold, the glory of Jehovah stood
there, as the glory which I saw by the river
of Chebar ; and I fell on my face " (iii. 23).
" And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel

220

The Glory of God.

was there, according to the yision that I sa^
in the plain *' (viii. 4).

" And the glory of the God of Israel was
gone up from the cherub, whereupon He was,
to the threshold of the house " (Ezek. ix. 3).
Such is the departing glory; and we find
Ezekiel seeing it symbolised under revolving
wheels and fluttering wings, going away from
the house it had fiUed with so much beauty
and glory. All has failed in man's hands.
Whatever event of God rests to any extent
upon man is a failure ; what is of God solely
stands. Thus Israel under law was man under
trial— not to find out if he was a sinner, but
to see if he was a reclaimable sinner. Where,
then, was the law? It was added for the
sake of transgressions, until "the seed"
came to whom the promise was made, ordained
through angels in the hand of a Mediator;
but the Mediator implies two parties, for the
Mediator is not of one. If I have a bridge
remarkable for strength, however strong Cf
pier of the bridge may be, if the other pici
be weak, the whole bridge gives way. But
" God is owe," and there is one Mediator be-
tween God and man, the Man Christ Jesus.
God is one. It is not one pier sound, and the
other feeble. God is one, and we are in God,
for the God-man, Christ Jesus, spans the
distance.

But I will take you to another scene of this
glory, no longer in the midst of the beloved

The Glory of God,

221

nation Israel, nor in faint shadow-symbol, but
in real manifestation.

The Globt n^ the Mak Chbist Jesus.

Turn to Luke ii. ver. 9, ** And, lo ! the angel
of Jehovah came upon them, and the glory of
Jehovah shone round about them." (They
were shepherds, not princes.) Ah! we have
not lost sight of it yet; the glory is back
again. "The glory of Jehovah shone round
about them, and they were sore afraid." The
blessed One is come. God is manifest in the
flesh. This is the true likeness of God, the
express image of His person. Well may the
anthems rise louder than at the temple's
dedication : " Glory to God in the highest,
on the eaith (not merely Israel) peace," etc.

But in another passago (Luke ix. vers. 28-32)
we get a little heaven, a glimpse, a specimen
of the glory, as the high-priest* s breastplate
was the glory in miniature. " And it came
to pass about an eight days after theco say-
ings, He took Peter, and James, and John,
and went up into a mountain to pray. And
as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance
was altered, and His raiment was white and
glistering. And, behold, there talked with
Him two men, which were Moses and Ellas,
who appeared in glort/y and spake of His
decease which He should accomplish at Jeru-
salem. But Peter and they that were with
him were heavy with sleep ; and when they

lil'

222

The Glory of God.

were awaks they saw ffis glory .''^ They had
then the specimen of the coming glory. He
had told them that there were some standing
there who would not taste of death till they
saw the kingdom of God. He now fulfils His
promise in the case of Peter, James, and
John, and gives them here the representation
of it. They saw Him in His glory.

Kead another text — John i. 14 (which of
course is the key to all the rest) : " And the
Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.
And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the
only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth." This is the glory we now see, not
the glory of Jehovah merely — He was this—
but '* the glory of the Father, full of grace
and truth." " The law was given by Moses;
but grace and truth were given by Jesus
Christ '* ? no ; but " came by Jesus Christ,"
for He was not the manifestation of God, as
the Eationalist would have us to believe, just
as good men are manifestations of God: no,
no ; He was God manifest in the flesh. " He
was the glory as of the only-begotten of the
Father, full jf grace and truth." God has.
come in the glory of His grace. And what
has man done with Him ? The only One on
whom God could look with unmixed com-
placency — the only One on whom God could
open heaven, man casts out, disowns, rejects,
cries concerning Him, **Away with Him I " we
will have nothing to do with Him ; we cannot

The Glory of God,

223

rhey had
lory. He
) standing
tiU they
fulfils His
,mes, and
Bsentation

(which of
" And the
among ns.
y as of the
grace and
y see, not
was this—
11 of grace
by Moses ;

by Jesus
as Christ,"
of God, as
)eheve, just
f God: no,
kesh. " He
tten of the
God has .

And what
>nly One on
mixed com-

God could
?ms, rejects,
iHimr'we

; we cannot

have on eai-th the glory of heaven. When
He came up from Jordan, heaven opened upon
Him ; it had never opened on anyone else.
He is the glory of heaven ; He is as the glory
for earth.

** The Lamb is all the glory of Emmanuel's
land."

He is the centre of heaven and earth.

When on the earth, as He stood there in the

place of confessed sin, God was looking, and

all were asked to look at Him; heaven opened

upon Him, and man would have nothing to

do with such glory, for it burns up man. And .

in man's deepest hate. He would say, **I have

glorified Thee upon the earth ; glorify Thou

Me with Thine own self, with the glory I had

with Thee before the world was." But if man

cast Him out, God said, " Sit Thou at my

right hand until I make Thine enemies Thy

footstool." The glory of Jehovah, the glory

of the Father, the fulness of grace and truth,

has been rejected by men, and is now in

he aven. If we are to see the glory of God

to hve under the glory of God, to work for

the glory of God, it must be as seeing the

unseen, living by faith, entering through the

veil into an opened heaven.

The Globt of God for us now as seen in

THE FACE OF JeSUS ChRIST.

In Acts vii., Stephen begins to speak about
the God of glory ; and they could not hear of

'.■(

..^f-r.--i^'

224

T^ Glory of God,

that. He begins with the God of glory ^ and
ends with the glory of God. " When they
heard these things, they were cut to the
heart, and they gnashed on him with their
teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost,
looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw
the glory of Gody and Jesus standing on the
right hand of God " (vers. 54, 55). If you and
I are to see the glory of God, it must be
through an open heaven. You wiU search in
vain for it on the earth^no glory of God
there. The conditions to see the glory of
God now are ai. open heaven, men full of tho
Holy Ghost, prepared for the martyr's doom.
Eemember there is no other place where you
can see Him. He is dead, and He is buried,
and He is alive again. Oh ! what a glorious
gospel we have to the glory of God! "The
Lord laid upon Him " my iniquity ; lor if I
had had to lay my sins, I might have left some
of them out ; but the Lord knew me better
than I knew myself — the Lord laid them on
Him. I remember the case of a young friend
to whom I was talking. I could not get him
to see the doctrine of the substitution of the
just for the unjust ; at last I quoted that text
to him. He saw it all.

*'0h!" said he, ''I like that text the
best."

" Why ? "

" Because there is nothing about believing
in it."

The Glory of God,

225

If you and I have to get up faith, it is the
worst work we have to do. Some may say,
"I wish I had the right kind of faith.'*
Suppose you had, you would then come to
God and say, "Oh, lodi what nice faith I
have got ! " Faith is the fee they wish to
give God for saving them. "It is by grace
ye are saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves ; it is the gift of God."

Wondrous truth ! if any one has to be
condemned for my sin, it is the Lord Jesus
Christ; but blessed be God, He has been
condemned. He las been laid low, J3e was
wounded for my transgressions, He was
bruised for my iniquities, and the chastise-
ment of my peace was upon Kim, Where is
He now ? Heaven is opened, and He is the
Man yonder on the throne of God ; and I lose
sight of the glory of God, because I see the
glorious Man, I see Jesus.

" I will not- gaze on glory,

But on my Saviour's face ;
Not on the crown He giveth,

But on His pierced hand ;
The Lamb is aU the glory

Of Emmanuel's land."

" And he said, Behold, I see the heavens
opened, and the Son of Man standing on the
right hand of God " (vers. 55, 56). Was He
waiting for His own Jews yet to come back
before He finally sat down, until His enemies
were made His footstool ?

226

The Glory of God.

Now we get that wonderful word with
which we started. When we see the glory
it is in the face of Jems Christy and it is the
manifestation of a MaUy the whole fulness of
grace and truth; gazing on a seated Christ,
with judgment gone and sin gone, and heaven
opened to the needy sinner down here ; it is
glory for ever, glory now in the face of Jesus
Christ. We are the temple of God on the
earth now (Eph. ii. 21). From us alone do the
rays of glory shine to a dead world ; hence we
read, **But we all with open face, beholding as
in a glass the glory of the Lordy are changed
into the same image from glory to glory"
(2 Cor. iii. 18). We gaze through an opened
heaven on Him ; the glory of His face is re-
flected from our faces to this poor world.
We were, in chap. iii. 2, " a letter ; " now we
are ** a mirror," and thus manifest glory
after glory of Him to the world. Just as
we remain by faith unveiled before Him, we
represent Him here. Alas ! how poorly we
have served this needy world 1 how little we
remain before Him! and how Httle do w<^
therefore reflect Him ! Some think that, i^i
order to gain the world, we must assimilate
to their darkness. This would be like a mirror
being placed out of the light into the mi(Jst
of a dark room. The more we oppose the
world, the more we work for its good. The
more we sit before the glory, the more per-
fectly we shall shine it out on others. The

The Glory of God.

227

Lord give us to go on from glory to glory,
and to do all as under that glory I And better
days are coming : it is not to be always re-
jection ; it is not to be always the stones and
the martyrdom ; we can wait for our posses-
sions ; our time is coming.

The Glory that is yet to come.

You will find, as early as in Numbers xiv.
21, this word of promise, " As truly as I live,
all the earth shall be filled with the glory of
Jehovah ; " not merely shall we see it outside
the earth, through an open heaven, on the
throne of God, but the earth itself filled with
the glory of God. We know it has not as yet
been fiUed. It has been going on from bad
to worse ; but all the earth is to be filled with
this same glory. We work for that glory;
and if we work in any other way, or for any
other motive, we are not in the mind of God.
And now we are looking for the time when
the whole earth shall be filled with ihe glory
of Jehovah, But that time cannot come till
the glory comes back ; and there is no glory
but in the face of Jesus Christ ; and until
the face of Jesus Christ is seen, the glory
of Jehovah cannot fill this earth.

You find in Isaiah iv. 5 and 6, " And
Jehovah will create upon every dwelling-place
of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a
cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of

"«i

^^ £-1

228

The Glory of God.

K flaming fire by night ; for upon all the glory
shall be a defence."

As we saw it departing in Ezekiel, so we
see it returning in EzeLiel xliii. 1 : " After-
wards he brought me to the gate, even the
gate that looketh toward the east; and, behold,
the glory of the God of Israel came from the
way of the east; and His voice was like a
noise of many waters ; and the earth shined
with His glory."

And still another in the prophet Haggai ii.
7-9, "And I will shake all nations, and the
desire of all nations shall come : and I will
fill this house with glory^ saith the Lord of
hosts. . . . The glory of this latter house
shall be greater than of the former, saith the
Lord of hosts."

And then, lastly, in the book of Bevelation
xxi. 10, " And he carried me away in the
spirit to a great and high mountain, and
showed me that great city, the holy Jeru-
salem, descending out of heaven from God,
having the glory of God; and her light was
like unto a stone, most precious, even like
a jasper stone." " And I saw no temple
therein ; for the Lord God Almighty and the
Lamb are the (Glory that is. Yet to Come) —
temple of it." The Lord God Almighty and
the Lamb, We are back to where we started.
The lamb in Egypt and the Lamb in glory ;
the lamb at the beginning and the Lamb in
the end. The Lamb brings in the thought of

The Glory of God.

229

blood, — life forfeited, life taken, redemption
aocomplished, and that is the ground of all
the glory. Do you know what the enemy is
at now? They are taunting us about our.
blood-theology. That is the point we shall
have to stand up for in this day.

I remember when at school we used to have
to work out long problems ; and I have often
worked out some problem in algebra, and at
the end come to a most absurd result. What
was the reason? Merely one line left out.
Our great Rationalistic thinkers have brought
out a wondrously stupid result with all their
thinking, a very unscriptural result ; and why?
They forget one factor, and that factor is sin.
The Bible is the history of sm, and the
doctrine of that Bible is the doctrine of nin
put away, from Genesis to Revelation. "With-
out shedding of blood " (bloody blood and sin
go together) "there is no remission of sin."
Thy tell us that we preach the theology of the
shambles. Let us stand by the blood-theology,
sound it in every ear. God first shed blood in
providing a covering for the sinner Adam ;
God last shed blood in sheathing His sword
in the Man His fellow. He is the Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and ending, the First
and the Last, the Author and Finisher, of the
"blood- theology." It is blood from Eden
down to the great white throne, and beyond
it. In that coming glory, it is Jehovah, God,
and the Lamb. *f The Lamb Himself is the

"
[

230

TJie Glory of God,

glory thereof, and the city hath no need of the
sun, neither of the moon, for the glory of God**
(have we not seen it?) " doth light it, and the
Lamh is the light thereof."

Let us apply this wonderful line of truth.
In the light of such glory we may well ask,
Who shall he able to stand ? (Rev. vi. 17).

Who shall be able to Stand?

Unconverted man ! have you come up to
the standard of the glory of God? "I am
better than my neighbour." Measure yourself
by the glory of God. If you are ' ual to
Christ, you are fit for heaven ; and ii i are
one inch short of it, you are unfit for heaven.
Good, moral people think there is some differ-
ence between what we call great sinners and
little sinners. God says there is no difference
in His sight. If a man comes and says, ^' I
cannot feel all this, that there is no difference
(who could?), but I believe it, for God has
said it," that man believes God and not his
own feehngs.

I was speaking to a lady some time ago.
She said, ** There must be a difference." I
said, *' God says there is none, as in Bomans
we have, ' For all have sinned, and come short
of tlie glory of Gody " and I tried to illustrate
it thus: —

Suppose there are some men wishing to get
into the Queen's body-guard, and the qualifi-
cation is that each must be six feet high.

The Glory of God.

231

They are measuring themselves by themselves,
and comparing themselves with themselves,
which is not wise. One man says, '^ I am the
tallest man in the village ; 1 shall be admitted. "
Here is a man five feet six, eight, ten, eleven,
— they forgot one thing, they forgot to put
themselves along a six-foot rail and measure
themselves with it. So here is a sinner ; he
measures himself with his neighbours. Have
you measured yourselves with the glory of
God and said, "I am as He is " ? The day
of trial comes. The man of five feet six is
measured and rejected, likewise the next, till
the measurer comes to the five feet eleven man;
he takes him and puts him beside the six-foot
measure. He is short, and he is rejected too,
just as really as the five feet six man. What
Scripture tells us is this, there is no diflference,
"for all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God." And if you have come short
one inch, it is the same as if you came short
six feet.

And I ask you also this question, dear
brother in Christ— In the light of that glory,
who shall he able to stand ?

All the greatest of earth's history have
been prostrated before it. If we look at chap,
xx'. ver. 18 of Exodus, the redeemed people
were unable to stand; and in Hebrews xii.
21, when Moses speaks of this, he says, "I
exceedingly fear and quake." Then, again, in
Exod. xxxiii. 23, "And I will take away mine

232

The Glory of God.

hand, and thou shalt see my back parts, but
my face shall not be seen."

So that Moses was unable to stand.

Then, if we go on, as we read, in 1 Chron.
xxi. 16 we find another passage, " And David
lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the
Lord stand between the earth and the heaven,
having a dravm sword in his hand stretched
out over Jerusalem. Then David and the
elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth,
fell upon their faces.*'

So that David was unable to stand.

And again, we find in 2 Chron. v. 14, " So
that the priests could not stand to minister
by reason of the cloud ; for the glory of tho
Lord had filled the house of God."

So that the 'priests were unable to stand.

When Job saw the glorious One, he had to
exclaim (xlii. 6), " Wherefore I abhor myself,
and repent in dust and ashes."

So Joh was unable to stand.

And, if we go on to Isaiah vi. 5, we find,
** Then said I, Woe is me I for I am undone ;
because I am a man of unclean hps, and I
d\vell in the midst of a people of unclean Hps ;
for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord
of hosts."

Isaiah was unable to stand.

And in Ezekiel i. 28, we fiad, " And when
I saw it, I fell upon my face."

Ei'eJciel was unable to Soand.

And if we come to Daniel, that precious

Tke Glory of God.

233

man who loved " the book," we find (chap. x.
8), " Therefore I was left ^.lone, and saw this
great vision, and there remained no strength
in me."

Daniel was unable to stand.

Then we find, in Matt. xvii. 6, " When the
disciples heard it, they fell on their faces, and
were sore afraid."

The disciples were unable to stand.

And then, in Acts ix. 3, when the Apostle
Paul saw the glory, suddenly there shined
round about him a light from heaven; and
he fell to the earth.

Thus Paul was unable to stand.

And, last of all, in Kev. i. 17, " And when I
saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead."

Johrij who lay in His boaom, was unable to
stand seeing Him in glory. And then He
came with the touch of His almighty resur-
rection, glorious power, and put it on him,
and identified Himself with that power ; and
now not only was John able to stand, but to
see Him and all the judgments and torments,
and give the hallelujah to His God, as thus
being able to stand by His resurrection touch
in the glory of God ; and that is the place in
which we stand. John was then as much at
home in the midst of thundering and wrath
as on the tender breast of his loving Lord,
because he had been made able to stand. Do
you know the meaning, the power of the glory
of God? Have you beheld that glory by

;<;v-(£\.w;;. r.v."-. ■; r^:t <-^^y ^ffr'H

234

TAe Glory of God,

faith in the face of Jesus Christ? Are you
reflectmg that glory ? Are you working under
the power of that glory, and that glory alone ?
Then, when that glory unclouded dawns, you
shall he ahle to stand.

THE TWO ANTHEMS.

Luke ii. 13, 14.
"Glory to God in the
highest,

And on earth peace,
Goodwill toward men
(good pleasure in men).

LiTKE zix. 38, 39.
"Blessed be the King that

Cometh in the name of the

Lord.
Peace in heaven,
And glory in the highest."

IHE Lord Jesus had now finished His
public ministry, and was about entering
on the most momentous work the world
ever heard of ; the question of sin was to be
settled. His disciples, energised by the Spirit
of God, give the Omega Song, as angels had
sung the Alpha Song — the angels sang the
Song of Annunciation ; men, the Song of De-
parture, and fitly so. In the former we see
Christ a Divine Stranger coming upon a
mission to earth. In the latter we find the
Eejected One accomplishing His Father's will,
yet sent to a death of doom by wicked hands.
Let us put the two alongside and see —

I. The different choristers employed.

II. The change in the order of the words
in the two anthems.

III. The change in their substance.

236

The Two Anthems.

i <\

IV. What is common to botL

I. The choir that sang the first anthem
were angels. These heralded the coming of
Christ as a body-guard — the advent of Him
who had not where to lay His head. These
told out God's purposes of glory in the highest ;
peace, best of blessings, on earth ; God's good
pleasure in man — first in His Son, then in the
myriads saved by Him, who shall do His will
in heaven, when God shall see His good
pleasure fulfilled in men. In the Anthem of
Departure, the singers are men, those who
had clung to their Master through good and
evil report ; who had acknowledged His King-
ship, and received Him as sent from God.
Here we find redeemed hearts singing Him
back to heaven, as angels had sung Him down
from heaven.

II. We find a reversal in the order of the
words. The Anthem of Departure ends with
"glory in the highest." The Anthem of the
Annunciation commences with it. There is a
Divine propriety in this. Angels from heaven
begin with that which lies nearest them
— ^God's eternal purpose. Man begins with
that which is nearest to him — "Blessed be
the King." It is like the rainbow, but inverted.
One limb of the bow begins at the throne ; the
apex is on earth. Angels descend down one
limb ; redeemed sinners ascend by the other.
Peace, the apex, is on earth. We, inverting
the bow, commence with what is on earth,

The Two Anthems,

237

and end with that which is in heaven, and so
We get the rainbow from heaven to earth.

III. We find a change in the substance of
the two anthems : peace in heaven in Luke
xix., peace on earth in Luke ii. Glory in the
highest in the former, glory to God omitted.
In the Anthem of Departure, God's good
pleasure in man omitted, and its place taken
by " Blessed be the King." This looks at the
representative character of the King who
comes to reign and accomplish God's good
pleasure in men. One clause of each anthem
is nearly alike ; another clause of each has a
different application ; while the third we find
opposed in each.

Men have not listened to the words of the
Departure Anthem, and so have got wrong
thoughts concerning peace. There never has
been peace on earth since Christ left, nor will
be till He returns. We cannot get peace
while the Prince of Peace is rejected, since
the world has said, " We will not have this
Man to reign over us." The peace of the
Christian now is in heaven. This is our
centre. Peace now is only to be got by faith
in a rejected Christ — He is our peace. The
saints of God have got their headquarters in
heaven, heavenly men sent back to earth,
takei) out of the world by faith in Christ's
death, sent back to it with a new life by faith
in His resurrection. We get from above —
(a) Our birth.

238

TAe Two Anthems,

(h) Our calling.

\d) Our blessings.

\e) Our worship.

If) Our hope.

Ig) Our home.
All these are heavenly witnesses for God
down here. We are to get our information
from the heavenly book, and so to bear testi-
mony for God among rebels who reject Him.

The Crimean War, the Franco-Germanic
War, the Turko-Russian War, are all fresh
in the memories of this generation. Has there
ever been universal peace in this world since
the days of Christ? The anthem of the
angelic host is perfect.

Nothing could be more perfect, comprehen-
sive, and intensive, than that beautiful Gloria
in Excelsis.

(1) "Glory to God in the highest." The
whole universe must re-echo this note. Not
a sun, nor planet, nor comet, nor system, but
sounds back this strain. Mountain, rock,
river, and ocean, peal forth its music. Forest
and field, and everything that hath breath,
add Amen. An(3l first, above, and beyond all
things for which Christ came, was the showing
glory to God in the highest, infinitely beyond
man*s interests or thoughts, hopes or fears.
But we descend fi:om the generic song of all
the universe to the specific note for earth.

(2) "On earth peace." We know the

The Two Anthems.

239

desolation of war, the absurdity of war, the
unreasonableness of war, the inhumanity of
war. We have yet to learn the supreme,
God-like blessings of peace on earth. The
path of the Prince of Peace was correctly
notified by the angelic anthem. But men by
wicked hands took Him, imprisoned Him, and
murdered Him, finding no fault in Him. A
sense of the most common justice would tell
us that ** Peace on earth " must be postponed
till this murder of the Just One be investigated
and avenged, and He shall return in His glory
to establish His kingdom in peace. So He
taught us, " When ye shall hear of wars and
commotions, be not terrified, for these things
must-first come to pass. . . . And when these
things begin to come to pass, then look up
and lift up your head, for your redemption
draweth nigh." '* Our God shall come and
shall not keep silence." Men have to beat
their " ploughshares into swords" (Joel iii. 10)
before they beat their " swords into plough-
shares ** (Isa. ii. 4). Science can tell us much
of human steps rising up to heaven ; it can
tell us nothing of that ladder led down from
heaven to earth on which angels ascend and
descend. Nothing but " a sword " can be for
the earth till the Prince of Peace is accepted
as Lord,

" When the crowns that are now
Bound the false one's brow
Shall be worn by earth's rightful Lord.*

:^'V^ ■■-'■

240

The Two Anthems^

Not only have we the widest circle, " the
highest," giving glory to God by the mission
of Christ, and the more limited one, " earth,"
gaining peace, but we have the condition of
the individuals on earth detailed.

(3) " Good pleasure in men.*' For this, we
believe, is by far the most correct and satis-
factory explanation of the original. ** Good-
will to men " is in every way imsatisfactory,
weat, and untenable. We believe " God's
good pleasure in men" solves all the diffi-
oalties. The universe, the earth, and men,
are thus thought of in the three parts of this
^^ Gloria.'^ It is the same thought as ** This
is My beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased " (see eudoTcia, in Matt. xi. 26 ; Luke
X. 21 ; Eom. x. 1 ; Eph. i. 5-9 ; Phil. i. 15, ii.
13 ; 2 Thess. i. 11, besides the very frequent
use of the verb). God was now for the first
time well pleased with a Man ; saw His good
pleasure in a Man, and the divinely-given
guarantee that not only in this Man, but on
the many men to be saved by, identified with,
and sanctified through, this Man, His good
pleasure should rest with complacency. His
delight shall be in the sons of men, in indivi-
duals now, but in the whole earth as such by-
and-bye, when men shall be blessed in Him,
and call Him blessed ; when none shall say to
his neighbour. Know the Lord, because all
shall know Him, and universal peace shall be
on the earth, and this little planet shall choir

The Two Anthems,

241

forth without discord among the other orbs of
God, its true note of praise blending with all
others in glory to God in the highest.

Our hope is Christ. The Jew rightly looked
for an earthly hope. Christ's feet shall again
stand on the Mount of Olives (Zeoh. xiv. 4).
We look for Him in the air (1 Thess. iv. 17).
Then we shall come with Him to share His
glory (Zech. xiv. 5). Then will peace be
brought to this poor earth. Then shall all
nations be blessed in Him. The Gospel is to
be preached as a witness to all nations, to
gather out a people for the Lord (Acts xv. 14).
Popular remedies are tried to effect that which
will only be effected when God brings in His-
Only-begotten into the world again, and sets
up a kingdom, the Bride, the Church, reigning
with her Lord (Eev. xx. 6). Peace has been
transferred to heaven, and will be there so
long as its Eepresentative is there. Then,
when He returns, shall be the consummation
of that of which the Annunciation Anthem
was the announcement ; then from every part
of God's creation — save from the banished lost
ones — shall the cry echo, " Glory to God in
the highest ! " Then shall the earthly and
heavenly choirs join in the universal song of
praise —

" Thou art coming ! we are waiting
With a hope that cannot fail,
Asking not the day nor hour ;
Besting on Thy word of power,

^,- ... .

242

'' Lord Jesus, Come!

Anchored safe within the veil
Time appointed may be long,
But the vision must be sure ;
Certainty shall make us strong,
Joyful patience can endure ! "

"LORD JE3T7S, COME."

"Surely I come quickly.
Bey. zzii. 20.

Amen." Even so, come, Lord Jesus." —

LoED Jesus, come!
Thy Spirit taught Thy bride
To long to be beside (Eoin. viii. 2, 3.)

Her Lord, who bought her with His blood,
Who in her place of doom once stood:

Lord Jesus, come!

Lord Jesus, come!
From idols turned, in grace,
We seek our Father's face ; (1 Thess. i. 9.)

We serve Him by His Spirit given;
We wait for Thee, our Lord from heaven:

Lord Jesus, come!

Lord Jesus, come !
Our hope, our joy, our crown,
Our glory and renown ; (1 Thess. iii. 13.)

Our hearts unblamable, do Thou
In holiness establish now :

Lord Jesus, come!

Lord Jesus, cdme !
The comfort of Thine own,

To claim Thy rightful throne, (1 Thess. iv. 16.)
Thy sleeping saints to raise; then we,
Who live, from earth caught up shall be:

Lord Jesus, come!

** Lord Jesus, Come'^

243

Lord Jesus, come !
Thy scattered nation lies

An outcast in our eyes, (Luke xxi. 24.)

But shall be gathered — this Thy word —
By Thee, as David's Son and Lord:

Lord Jesus, come!

Lord Jesus, come !
The whole creation's groan
Shall cease by Thee alone
Appearing un this earth again,
As Son of Man o'er earth to reign :

Lord Jesus, come!

(Luke viii. 35.)

Lord Jesus, come !
Though many scoff and say,
Where is His coming day ?
And even virgins wise now sleep,
And for their Lord no vigil keep :

Lord Jesus, come I

(2 Peter iii. 4.)

Lord Jesus, come !
May none of us e'er say.
That Thou dost long delay.
And live as those afar that roam ;
Thy Spirit and Thy bride say. Come:

Lord Jesus, come !

(Luke xii. 45.)

•f

''FOB ever:'

JHO in every-day life, in the things of
men, falls into any mistake about the
words 'for ever,* or supposes that

* for ever ' always means the same duration ?
No, the context always decides the sense.

" A father gave to a child a plaything.
The child (but of five years old) asked, * How
long is this to be mine ? ' The father replied,

* For ev^r.' And the child aaid, * Then it is
Lay own, my \ c ry own , and I may burn it if
I like, o*" give it to my sister.' ... If I say,
God is 'tor ever, hovr long does this *for ever'
last ?

" ♦ 'Tis an endless for ever, the life of God.*

And if, when the earth and time are past,
God, in God's endless for ever^ declares some-
thing is to be * for ever,' 'tis an endless for
ever which God so pronounces, and will make
good too. The bhss and blessed j.o^^s if those
who love the Lord JesuR Christ is as endlesS
as is He wVo has loved them, and whom they
love ; and the woe of those brought up for
judgment after man's for overs have ceased,
and sent into torment, is to an endless for

" For Ever.

245

ever, where their worm dieth not, and where
their fire is not quenched (Mark ix. 44). God's
Word does use the words ' for ever ' in the
same way ps do men for durations which have
an end ; but there it is said of something in
maris day, and not when man's day, with all
its subdivisions of time, is past {e.g.^ the
passover — a feast for an ordinance for ever
(Exod. xii. 14-17) — done away in Christ). The
* for ever ' of the Mosaic economy, with its
mediatorships, priesthood, sanctuary, nation,
etc., seeing that it all pointed on to Another,
the Lord Jesus Christ, was necessarily hmited
to the duration of that economy. Just as the
*for ever' of a man's service to another was
limited to his life {e.g,^ 2 Kings v. 27, 'Leprosy
cleave to thee and to thy seed for ever').
How difi'erent is the * for ever ' in the above
cases from its sense where it is used either of

" (1) God Himselfi

'' (2) Of the truth of His Word,

** (3) Of the blessedness which awaits His
own people. That of which, when time is
done, and it is in God's eternity, the weal or
the woe is ' for ever,' is surely an endless
position, whether of the good bound up in
one bundle of life with the Christ of God, or

*' (4) Of those wicked, raised up in the day
of God, still haters of Him and of His Son.

" My statement is plain, and, I trust,
distinct. The words * for ever,' * ever,' etc.,
if they are applied to any thing or person, in

;..(-.» *}'.;rp".

246

''For Ever!'

man's day, may be a duration limited by the
context, short or long.

** But, if presented to us as being said of
God. oi of anything found in His presence
when man's day is past, then they are as
much for perpetuity as is the God who
announces them ; then for ever is as lon^r as
He endures."

Bom. i. "ilh.

For ever^ the lifetime of God,
The Maker and Monarch of all,

An endless for ever with Him,
We Him as the blessed shall call.

EoM. ix. 5.

For ever, our Lord Jesus Christ

Over all God blessed shall be :
The Man who was slain, now as crown'd

With glory and honour, we see.

Heb. xiii. 8.

For ever, Chrisi; Jesus the same

To-day as He was yesterday,
On the cross or the great white throne,

Or now in our wilderness way.

1 Petbb i. 23-25.

For ever, the word of our God
Doth live holy, perfect, and sure;

What Jehovah in judgment or grace
Has spoken shall ever endure.

Gal. i. 5; Kev. iv. 9. »

For ever and ever to God

The glory and honour shall be.
To Him who is set on the throne.

The Lamb who was slain on the tree.

r-'"w\

''For Every

247

Eev. xx. 10.

For ever and ever shall all.

Who neglected or scom'd at the light,
Be under the wrath of their God,

Tormented by day and by night.

1 Thess. iv. 17; Eev. xxii. 6.

For ever and ever shall all,

Who accepted the Christ that was slain,
Be like Him in whitest array,

And with Him eternally reign.

■■'■;,"'■ \

..VJ

Ovep 2 JOO Copies Sold in Three Months.

AiUNDANT GR/IGE.

Dr.

the

; ■■■ >i*— BY THE LATE— ••;■:■" '•'•

fK P. MacKajfy Author of Grac( &» Truth.

—Crown 8vo., 250 Pages. Cloth $1.00. —

work contains (i) Portrait specially enj|raved A'om a
photog-aph (furnished by his brother Rev. A. B. MacKay, of
MontK.'xO; (z) a Brief Biographical Sketch of the late Dr.
MacKay ; (3) Memorabilia of the author, by Miss Annie Mac>

Jherson, of London, England; (4) A Prefatory Note, by Rev.
. H. Brookes, D.D., of St. Louis, Mo. ; (5) Twentsj selected
addresses; {(t^ A series of brief anicles on Gospel Subjects.

S- COMMENDATIONS. V ;

*' Intensely practical, they are no lew inspiriotr and edt^ing, i-Fsxs-
BYTiRiAN Record.

"No one can read it wlthoiit l)^g religiously quickened and bene-
flted."— METHODIST Magazine.

"Marked by much originality in thought and style. "--CBURCR
Guardian.

"This book is pure metal, and haa the right goipel ring in it."— Can-

ADIAN BAPTiaT.

"The author of Grace and Truth is known the world over. The book
is rich in exposition, sweet with the savor of evangelical doctrine, and
abounding iu ptugent and pithy sayings."— Rev. A. J. GORDON, D.D.

"We heartily commend this book. The addresses are iresh and stimu-
lating."— Rev. G, F. Pentecost, D D.

"A collection of his choicest gems."— GLAD TiDINOa.

" Calculated to be eminently useful and gleaming richly with precious
dectrine. "—Halifax Witnebb.

"We conuuend it to every young man."— The Watchman.

"A fltting c<nRpattion to ' Grace and I'tuth.' Covers the wide range of
Christian decision and Christian living ; they are colloquial, earnest,
practical."— 8. 9; Times.

"There is much zeal, much fire, force, and concentration, intellectu-
ally and spiritually. "—NEW York Independent.

''Similar in aim and testimony to 'Grace and Truth'— it was a happy
thought of the Toronto publisher to gather up these scattered fiagments
and preserve them a» a memorial of the CiithlUl witness who now sleeps
with Jesus."- REV. DR. Brookes, of St. Louis.

"Tlie volume has been neatly produced by its Canadian publisher."—
London - Bo^ksklleb."

"A rich collection of soul-saving and sanctifying truth."— FOOT8TIF8

OF TRUTH.

"A number of characteristic addresses by a man mighty in the Scrip
ture, this being the secret of T)r. MacKay's power."— Christian Leadkr

SECOND EDITION. (Unabridged.)

Issued to meet the many Inquiries for the book in a cheap

form for General Dtstrlbutlon.

Price : Cloth, plain, 75 cents ; Paper, 35 cents.

Toronto : S. R. BRIGGS, toronto Willard Tract Depository.

■ • yj ■:■■ !.•■ ■■

■..%..^:j'\f.^

-<^'J»4j-

Jr- " ■ "

,•-:«*!?: i^

*•■ ■

■-.^■■U^Sr

■ .--V 1

mmmmmm

of
►r.
ic
;v.
ed

It,

tu-

XtB

IPS

rip
BR