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ETC. // ^ TORONTO WILLIAM BRIGGS, 78 & 80 KING ST. EAST a W. COATES, MoNTEBAlH Qua & F. HUESTIS. Rauwax, h& 18S5 •t Otuwa. CONTENTS. « » THE WORD . • • " In the beginning was the Word, and the "Word was with God, and the Word was God." — John L z. rAGB I thouBtnd vlgW rof Acrloultura n. THE TRUE LIGHT . 2] (( That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that Cometh into the world." — John i. 9. ni. THE INCARNATION . . . , "The Word was made flesh." — John L 14. 36 IV. THE CHARACTER OP JESUS 56 'And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among tis (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth. " — John i. 14. V. THE REVEALER OP GOD 83 •' No man hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, Ue hath declared Him."— John i. 18. VI CONTENTS. VI. THB LAMB OF GOD PAoa lOX ** Thn next dfty John neeth Jesus coining unto him, and naith, Behold the Lamb of Ood, which taketh away the sin of the world."— John i. 39. vn. CHRISTIAN SERVICB 120 ' One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Androw, Simon Peter'n brother. He first findeth hifl own brother Simon, and Raith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpretetl, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. And wlien Jesus beheld bim, he said, Tiiou art Simon the son of Jona: thou ■halt be called Cephas, which ia by interpretation a ■tone."— John 1. 40-42. VIIL T9E FIRST MIRACLE 139 •'This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory unto them." — John ii. ix. IX 158 CHRIST PURIFYING THB TEMPLE . • • ** And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the teniple those that sold oxen and slieep and doves, and the clmngei-s of money sitting : and when He had made a scourge of small cords. He drove them all out of the tenii)le, and the sheep and the oxen ; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables ; and said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence ; make not My Father's house an house of merchandise. And His disciples remembered that it was written. The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up."— John ii. 13-17. THE NEW BIRTH 181 *• That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is bom of the Spirit is spirit. j\Iarvel not that I said unto thee. Ye must be boni again." — John iii. 6, 7. CONTENTS. VI 1 XI. PAoa lOI THE BRAZEN SEItPENT . PAOK 206 ••And as MoRos lifted up the serpent in the wiMerness, even BO muBt tlie Son of Mhh be lifted ui> ; tliar whoHoover believftli in Him should nut purish, but have eternal life."— John iii. 14, 15. 120 < e d u a XIL THE DIVINE LOVE 226 "For fiod 80 loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, th:it whosoever believetli in Him should not perish, but have evurlastiug lite." — John iii. 16. XIII. THE WOMAN OP SAMARIA 245 139 e, I. ** And lie must neeiis go throu'^h Sanmria. Then cometh He to a cicy of fSain;iria which is called Svclmr, m^iir to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his hdh Joseph. Now .Tiicob's well was there. Jesus tlierofore, being wearit'd with His journey, sat thus on thv.- well : and it was about the sixth hour. There conu-iii a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her. Give Me to drink."— John iv. 4-7. 158 XIV. to m : .6 d d d •a es se THE LIVING WATER 264 "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."— JoUN iv. 14. XV. THE GOOD SHEPHERD . "I am the Good Shepherd." — John z. ix. 282 XVL THE SPIRIT OP TRUTH . 300 (« And when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will gaide you into all truth.'*— John xvi. 13. {Ci)e Moxti. ** In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." — John i. i. The fathers of the Christian Church saw in the vision described in Eevelation iv. 7, a faithful representa- tion of the four Evangelists. " In the midst of tlie throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle." They differ somewhat in their application of the figures here employed ; but the majority, I believe, take the "lion" to represent Matthew, the "calf" or ox to represent Mark, the "man" to represent Luke, and the " eagle " to represent John. But whatever dif- ferences prevail in respect of the first three figures, all are agreed that the eagle is a symbol of the fourth Evangelist. " There be a thing too wonderful for me, the way of an eagle in the air." Whereas the other Evangelists begin their Gos- pels in time with the human generation of Jesus Christ, St. John begins his in eternity with the Divine generation of the Word. " In the beginning A THE WORD. (! was the "Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God." Observe the calm, serene majesty which characterises these and the succeeding verses. Tlie writer neither reasons nor demonstrates ; he simply makes his affirmations, letting them recommend themselves, in virtue, not of any light shed on them, but of the light lodged in them. Such truths as these bear witness to themselves; prove them we cannot, we can only expound them. Other things do not illumine them, ratlier they illumine all other things. Augustine writes that a friend of his heard a Platonic philosopher say that these verses deserve to be written in letti^rs of* <.old. Francis Junius attributed his conversion to the accidental perusal of them. The pure sublimity of the style, the simple majesty of the thoughts, overwhelmed him with amaze- ment, and threw his mind into adoring wonder. Let us now approach them with humble and docile spirits. Dogmatism, whether Unitarian or Trinitarian, is always unbecoming and irreverent Here, if anywhere, we nmst " believe that we may understand." " In the beginning was the Word, and thfe "Word was with God, and the Word was God." . ,■ I I. The Eternity of the Word. " In the begin- ning was the Word." II. The Personality of the Word. "And the Word was with God." III. The Divinity of the Word. " And the Word was God.** THE WORD. I. The Eternity of the Word. " In the beginning' was the Word." I . liy the phrase "In the heginning" the majority of commentators understanil eternity. God of neces- sity took His stand in eternity wlien He created the worlds at first. Time itself is a creature which lias received its existence from God ; and to create time, and the universe, of which time is a portion, He must have stood outside time, in His own eternity. Similarly St. John sets forth the Word as existing not only from eternity but in eternity. We can conceive matter without beginnini^, existing from eternity ; but, not being endowed with mind, it cannot exist in eternity. Only mind can exist in it as well as from it. The Word, however, existed in eternity. Not from the beginning nor before the beginning, but " in the beginning was the Word." Maybe after all that the Evangelist has chosen a more appropriate sentence than any substitute pro- posed by his critics and emendators. Did he say, " Before the beginning was the Word," his meaning would be supposed to be plain, above ambiguity; that really is the way in which the commentaries para- phrase him. But, had he written so, he would have presented eternity under the laws of time, a mistake as grave as to describe the Infinite under the con- ditions of the finite. But, mounting up higher than time, he contemplates eternity as an idea pure and simple. Not from or before, but " in the beginning was the Word," a sentence which leads us at one bound to the serene calm where God dwalleth, above time and above space. THE WORD. I' I I ; 1 lill h'i jl'i il:! I i-ir 2. Four times he repeats the. word " was." " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God." The verb " ^vas " joined to the beginning makes the idea of eternity dawn upon the mind in all its awful grandeur. " In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth : " there the verb, being conterminous with the beginning, points to the initial moment of time when the creation, visible and invisible, began to be. " In the begin- ning was the Word : " here the verb underlies the beginning, and stretches back and away into the immeasurable. St. John evidently intends a contrast between the first verse and the third. " By Him all things were made, and without Him was not anything made that was made." The sun, moon, and stars in the beginning " were made ; " the Word in the beginning " was ; " consequently His existence and theirs differ radically. What " was made " might have been left unmade — the creation was not a Divine necessity any more than redemption. But what in the beginning existed had a necessary ex- istence — the Son is as essential to the Father as the Father to the Son. The world "was made," it originated in the Divine Will ; the" Word was not made. He simply " was " — His existence has its root in the Divine Nature. A further contrast is possibly intended, a contrast between the first verse and the fourteenth. " In the beginning was the Word;" in the fulness of time "the Word was made flesh." He who existed in THE WORD. i and from eternity, who with His chisel fashioned the worlds, now turns back the chisel upon Himself, and " makes " Himself into something He was not before. In Genesis He made His mark on the creation, in the Gospels the creation makes its mark on Him. " In the fulness of time God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law." He who lived in eternity, existing in the infinite pleni- tude of His own Nature, enters the world, becomes subject to the laws of time and of space, binding Himself with them as with cords, who never bound Himself before ! 3. Observe further that He always existed as the Word. It was not in the course of history that He became the Word — He was God's Word in eternity, before ever the earth was. He is the essential Word of God, the Word in the utterance of which God acquires self-consciousness. It is in words the thinker himself knows his own thoughts ; and the more precise and accurate the words, the clearer will be the thoughts, not only to the reader, but to the author himself. All minds are of a kindred nature ; the same principle seems to obtain in the Divine Mind — God comes to the knowledge of His own thoughts only in His own Word. And in order to infinite self-knowledge, an infinite Word must ever be sounding in the Divine ear ; in His Word God seems to come to self-consciousness. Pantheism teaches that in creation He acquires this self- consciousness, Christianity that in His Word. The Word is the utterance of the Divine Thinker, in which He cognises His own thought, and comes to a ~t t 6 THE WORD. knowledge of His owti mind. In His pre-existence Jesus Christ is God speaking to Himself, in his post- existence God speaking to us. The same word He speaks to Himself and to us ; therefore it has the same meaning on the Divine as on the human side. The same hieroglyphics are found on both sides of the shield. But what is gained by defending the eternal pre- existence of Jesus Christ ? Much every way. The Eevealer of God being eternal, He is competent to give the world an eternal revelation — a revelation of eternal truth, a revelation of the eternal God. Moses and others might serve as organs of the Old Testament revelation, for the religion they estab- lished was temporal, designed to last only " till the time of reformation." In the nature of things a temporal revealer can only found a temporal religion; you must have an Everlasting Eevealer to make known the everlasting Gospel. Transcendentalism is a much- abused and much- suspected word in philosophy ; one is thcFefore rather shy of intro- ducing it into theology. But after all what does it mean ? The truths which transcend experience, but which at the same time underlie and condition all experience. Take the idea of God : it is an idea we did not derive from experience, an idea tran- scending experience, an idea nevertheless pervading and colouring all experience. Thus transcendental Christianity moulds, shapes, environs practical Christianity. Jesus Christ, transcending time, de- scending from eternity into time : this it is which makes the Gospel an everlasting Gospel, the com- t&E WORt). plete and final revelation, perfectly safe and reliable throughout all the coming ages. When St John declares " In the beginning was the Word," he does nob indulge in a metaphysical speculation or a poetical flight ; he is laying the basis of the Gospel, the foundation of its claim to be the final revelation. If tlie Word is not eternal, His revelation is only a passing transient phase of the religious life ; Eation- alistic writers are justified in looking forward for other teachers more advanced and illustrious. The Eternal only can give the Eternal. !^^'''!l II. The Personality of the Word. "And the Word was with God." Here again it behoves us to take off our shoes, for the ground we stand upon is holy. But whilst cultivating reverence on the one hand, let us on the other make " bold," that we also, like Moses, may see the invisible. Cowardice is not reverence — cowards never see God. " There is nothing we are more sure of," says pious Matthew Henry, " than that we think, yet nothing we are more in the dark ab«ut than how we think ; who can declare the generation of thought in the soul ? Surely then the births and generations of the Eternal Mind may well be allowed to be great mysteries of godliness, the bottom of which we cannot fathom, while yet we adore tho depth." But, notwithstanding our inability to see through this doctrine, we may with sincere humility see a little way into it. I. The Word was with God in respect oi personality. Onmipotence is eternally in God ; Jesus Christ is 8 THE WOIit). ^Iii ill I eternally with God — a mode of speech signifying distinct personal subsistence, distinct but not separate. God did not spend the everlasting ages in sublime, solitary, masterly inactivity. He had a Word with Him, equal to Himself, the reflex image of His own person. That God from everlasting loved is an idea with which we are all familiar enough ; it is the prominent idea in the correlates Father and Son. But in the text Jesus Christ is presented not as the Son but as the Word ; accordingly the main idea is not God as Love, but God as Mind. Not only God loved from eternity, but He thought from eternity — He thouj^Ut as intensely as He loved. Hence the Word infinite as Himself. .God spent eternity in self-communion, holding high and sacred fellowship with His own thoughts ; but He so far transcends us in the power of thinking that His ideas lose their thin spectral whiteness and become realities. His one thought becomes a Word consubstantial with Hinjself. He thinks His ideas into actual being; He thought Himself into His Word. Modern expositors of Plato hardly do him justice in their interpretation of his doctrine of Ideas ; to him ideas in the Divine Mind were entities, mental creations as real as material creations. Why not ? The more powerful the mind, the greater the potency that lodges in its ideas, the stronger the tendency to personification. Poets, because of their superior energy of thought, personify ; who knows but that in the Divine Mind, the poet or maker par excellence, to think and to be, idea and entity, are one and the same ? At all events, in this passage 1 (( so tai m< (THE WORD. we contemplate God thinking with such infinite energy that He reproduces Himself in His other Self. " The Word was with God" — the concentrated per- sonal embodiment of all the Divine thoughts. Our treatment, however, would be very inade- quate did we not view Him also as a Son, the more popular view in the orthodox Church. The Uni- tarian conception of the Divine Unity being arith- metical, not dynamical, its advocates d^ny plurality of persons or hypostases in the Godhead. And yet they loudly proclaim the truth that God is love, a truth which most strongly urges on our acceptance the doctrine of - plurality. Love always demands two at least, a subject and an object, one to love and another to be loved. If God is love, as we most emphatically believe, then He must have had some one from eternity to love. Who then is that one ? Himself ? But self-love is no love, it is the denial of love. Who then ? The Church answers — His Son, the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person. Plurality of persons must not, however, be confounded with plurality of Gods. When men are invited to Christ they are not enticed away from God, for Christ is with God ; when they are called to worship Christ, they are not bidden to serve an idol, for Christ is God. 2. He was with God in respect of complacency. God took unspeakable delight in His Word, for in Him He beheld His own portraiture, without defect, fault, or flaw. We know the pleasure we experi- ence when we perceive ourselves reflected in others — we admire the man who faithfully mirrors our si '' 11 !i to 'rilK WORD. H I I < own ideas. The Greek legend of Narcissus falling in love with his own face in the limpid stream is based on nature — we love ourselves in others. This constitutes the chief pleasure of the highest style of poetry, that in it we see our own hearts graphically portrayed, our own human nature faithfully, ideally mirrored. And God felt infinite delight in beholding His own mind fully reproduced in His Word, His other Self. God experienced in eternity the ecstatic thrill of pleasure which comes from high thinking ; He thought every subject through and through, from front to back, from top to bottom. Ever since He only thinks the old thoughts over and over again, but, in a way myste- rious to us. He throws such intensity of heat into them that they are ever fresh and new and glowing, ever verdant and blooming, because of the infinite plenitude of Divine sap vitalising their roots. If again we contemplate God as love, the same idea returns upon us with redoubled force. God as Father infinitely, eternally, loves His Son. " Thou hast loved Me before the foundation of the world." The infinite Love lavished itself upon and twined itself around the infinite Son, for the infinite Subject requires an infinite Object in order to its full com- plete predication. The finite creation could not be an adequate object to infinite Love : hence the necessity of putting creatures in Christ, the finite in the Infinite, to be worthy objects of the " Everlasting Love." " Glo- rify Thou Me with Thine own Self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." "With Thine own Self," "with Thee;" phrases which THE WORt). tl always in St. John's writings signify metaphysical and local, never ethical relations. " Enoch walked vdth God : " there the idea is ethical. But in the verse already cited, in the phrases " with Thee," " with Thine own Self," the idea is metaphysical and local. A little further on in the same prayer Christ speaks of the glory " given " Him, the gloiy of His media- torial mission ; but this glory was not " given," it was a glory He " had " with God before the world was, in virtue of His eternal generation. "The Word was with God" — in spiritual, metaphysical, necessary relations. The intense love the Father bears towards the Son, the Son likewise cherishes towards the Father. " The Word was towards God " — not simply with, but towards. He had His face, so to speak, turned fully towards God, returning all the wealth of thought and affection poured upon Him by the Father. Among men as a rule the father loves the son more than the son loves the father ; so much so that it is considered a law of nature, and necessary to the multiplication of the species. The more, however, a son fulfils the idea of a son, the more ardently will burn the reciprocated love. In the perfect Son, His love to the Father equals the Father's love to Him. Again, in human intercourse the word used does but scant justice to the thought, it seldom contains it in all its fulness and com- pleteness. But with the perfect Thinker the per- fect Word reflects back the perfect Thought — the Word ever gazes in rapt amazement at the Mind which uttered it. The Son ever loves the Father, ' " 'I f :.»i ji; '\ i ] ill 1 ti t«E Word. l! I 1 1 ! ■I ,' t; Itli I 'I returns in full His untold wealth of affection. " The Word was towards God." A further idea still lurks here, which we would do well to elicit. " The Word was at home with God : " so some of the best scholars paraphrase it. Jesus Christ in His pre-existent state never felt restrained or ill at ease in the presence of the Al- mighty as an inferior in the presence of a superior. He felt quite at home with God, as a loving child in the presence of an indulgent father. Does not this rendering tally beautifully with the description Wisdom gives of herself in Prov. viii. 2 2-3 1 ? " The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way ; " possessed, as the original signifies, by paternity. " When there were no depths I was brought forth," namely, by birth or generation. " Then I was by Him as one brought up with Him," " as one nursed by His side." " I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him." The idea of fatherhood and childhood pervades the whole section. Thus Jesus Christ was in all respects at home with God, not as a subject in the presence of his monarch, or a creature in the presence of his Creator, but as an equal in the presence of a friend, or a child in the society of its parent. No restraint, no reserve, no shyness, but open, free, confidential fellowship for ever. 3. He was moreover with God in respect of counsel or purpose. He was with Him in respect of His creative counsel. " The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His ways, before His works of old," — possessed THE WORD. 13 Me as the foundation, centre, and agent of all He purposed accomplishing. All things were gathered togetlier in the pre-existent Christ, nothing was excluded or left out. The election of Christ to this honourable office was the first voluntary act of God in eternity. Henfee, in the original, the preposition " in " is omitted. " The Lord possessed Me, the beginning of His ways, before His works of old." Accordingly in Rev. iii. 4, He is called " The Be- ginning of the creation of God ; " not the first part of the creation, but the foundation, sustaining all the vast superstructure ; and the foundation of the created must of necessity be in the uncreated. " He is the image of God, the first-born of every creature, for by Him weye all things created " («Jol. i. 15, 16). The first-born of every creature ; not as classed with all things created in antithesis to God, but with God in antithesis to all things created. In His relation to God He is the " only-begotten ; " in His relation to the creation He is the " first- begotten " — the beginning of the " way " of God out of Himself into others. " I was set up — anointed — from the beginning or ever the earth was;" set apart by God to execute His purposes, appointed solemnly to be His agent in all creative works. " By Him were all things made, and without Him was not anything made that was made." He was also the centre of God's* redemptive pur- poses, thfe centre around which all the Divine thoughts revolved. In the centre of the earth all the mountains meet, in the centre all terrestrial objects stand together. Similarly Christ is the centre •i'l < , ■f I' 14 THE WORD. i;:lM'i of the plan of our salvation. " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Chriet, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Hini before the foundation of the world." Two things are here alleged : first, that God has put all spiritual blessings in Christ ; second, that He hath put all spiritual persons in Christ ; and both before the foundation of the world. Some things come to us through Christ, temporal blessings for instance; but however precious the gifts which come through Him, still more valuable are the gifts which are lodged in Him. All spiritual blessings and all spiritual persons God put in His Son in the " counsel of peace" that was between them both. "The Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things that Himself doeth ; " the word " loveth " here indi- cating the love which arises from the Divine Nature and not from the Divine Will, the affection which has it^ origin in personal relation. This pure, warm, personal love prompts the Father to " show " all His thoughts and designs to the Son, and the Son " seeth " them, " seeth " them all, and " seeth " them all perfectly. Why do we thus dwell on the personal fellow- ship of the Son with God in eternity, from days of old ? That we may be filled with gratitude as we behold Him proceeding from the Father and coming into the world. He that dwells with God in the first verse dwells with man in the fourteenth. " The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only- be{ "1 bej chj I .'' ,.i THE WORD. 15 be the God , who hath n heavenly hosen us in Tld." Two has put all It He hath both before igs come to r instance; me through which are gs and all le " counsel th. « The all things here indi- ine Nature ion which ure, warm, «v " all His the Son eth " them al fellow- n days of ide as we id coming od in the h. « The us (and he only- begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth." "The only-begotten of the Father" — "the only- begotten from close beside the Father." Oh, the change in the company ! Oh, the matchless love which brought Him so low ! From " close beside the Father " to the Cross of ignonjiny and shame ! III. The proper Divinity of the Word. " And the Word was God." We are here investigating the profoundest myste- ries of the Christian religion ; but we must beware of the Unitarian conclusion that because they are mysteries they are therelbre absurdities. They may be above reason, our reason ; but they are not thefe- fore necessarily contrary to reason. Indeed, in an infinite Being there must be mysteries to every finite intelligence ; not only things we do not, but things we cannot, understand. This distinguishes Christianity from heathenism, which also has its mysteries ; but mysteries which could be explained, and which were explained to candidates for the priesthood. The mysteries of Christianity, however, cannot be made plain ; we may apprehend them inasmuch as God has been pleased to reveal them, but we cannot fully comprehend them. Nevertheless it is our stringent duty to labour more and more after their comprehension. I. This clause then clearly implies the co-equality of the Word with God, of the Son with the Father. Two persons may be conceived to be in amicable confidential fellowship with each other, whilst in nature and standing one might be inferior to the t M If '111 kl\ ^ I :i I 'l-H-VrM 1 I 1 I'' 16 THE WORD. other. But St. John gives us to understand that these two persons in the sacred Godliead are on terms of strict equality. "The Word was God." As Mediator, in His state of humiliation, He was the Father's subordinate, the Father's servant " Behold My servant, whom I uphold." " He took upon Him tlie form of a servant." Wherefore He says, " My Father is greater than I." But as He is the second person in the Trinity, St. John teaches His equality with the Father. " The Word was God." "Thou, being man, makest Thyself equal with God," exclaimed the Jews one day in a sudden fit of anger. " Strange," exclaims Augustine, the master mind of Western Christianity, "that the Jews should understand what the Arians cannot." In colloquial language the idea of sonship implies inferiority — the son is subordinate to the .father, the function of one being to command, of the other to obey. But the idea of subordination is not necessarily implied in that of sonship; it arises rather from the imperfection of the latter as found among men. A perfect son is in all respects equal to his father, save that the one begets and the other is begotten. " Though a Son, yet learned He obedi- ence." Not because a Son, but thmtgh a Son, show- ing that the idea of sonship does not necessarily carry with it the idea of obedience. On the contrary, the idea of perfect sonship excludes that of subor- dination; a perfect Son is equal to the perfect Father. Among men the sonship continues through life, but not necessarily the obedience. The latter is proper and becoming only during the initial im- h 1 ] THE WORD. »; lerstand that head are on 1 was God." ;ion, He was r's servant " He took hjerefore He 3ut as He is ^ohn teaches Word was lyself equal in a sudden Ljustine, the , "that the ms cannot." hip implies the .father, f the other ion is not it arises ir as found 3ects equal d the other He obedi- Son, show- .arily carry contrary, of subor- he perfect es through The latter uitial im- perfect stages of the former ; it is done away rrith. in the full mature development. Tho man of forty is as much a son as the child of four, the fact of sonship remains in undiminished force ; but the duty of obedience is past and gone, — proving that subor- dination arises not from the perfection of aonship, but from its imperfection. But Jesus Christ is from the first a perfect Son, and therefore on a foot- ing of equality with the perfect Father. " He was with God" as His equal and yoke-fellow, for "He was God." The Son being thus equal with the Father, God will have no occasion to repeat His Word. The one God reveals Himself to Himself and to others in one Word. We use many words to declare our minds, thereby showing the incoherency of our thoughts and the faultiness of the vehicle in which we convey them. The more powerful the mind, the fewer and clearer the words it uses to disclose itself ; and the higher and more inspirational the mood, the more condensed and significant the language. Every extraordinary genius reveals itself, not by the multiplici*^^y of its sentences, but by one or two words struck off the anvil at the moment of white heat Every illustrious man is characterised by one or two sentences. " Know thyself ; " therein you see the whole mind and philosophy of Socrates. Any one can multiply examples at leisure. That human analogies are inadequate to set forth the inner operations of the Divine Nature we know; but as we cannot transcend our own minds, we are obliged to resort to them. God revealed Himself B hMi ^■t I ' I ( ^ ,1'! t . ,1 I I i ill I, I' I I 1 I M ^ i8 THE WORD. in articulated language ; but the perfect revelation is summed up in one word — Jesus Christ. Revealers preceded, but none succeeded Him. Where one suffices there is no need for a second. . " God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by the Son." Here is an organ of revelation as great as the Being to be revealed. 2. St. John further teaches the conmhstantiality . of the Word with God, their identity in respect of their Divine Substance. " The Word was God." " The Word was with God : " there it is God with the article, denoting the person of the Father. " And the Word was God : " here it is God without the article, indicating the substance, essence, or being of God. Did the Evangelist declare that the Word was God with the article, he would be guilty of self-contradiction — th( Son can never be the Father. " I am in the Father," not, I am the Father. What He avers is that He is partaker of the same Divine Essence with the Father. Thus He steers clear of all inconsistency, though not of all mystery. If you ask, How can these things be ? we can only answer, " Without controversy, great is the mystery of god- liness." With Holy Writ in our hands we feel certain that these things are, very uncertain how they are. " The Word was God." The Son is Himself God, but not God Himself ; He is so only in vital organic union with the Father and the Spirit. He is nor, of a like nature with the Father, but of the same nature. Hence the Apostle Paul calls Him the "i THE WORD. 19 revelation Revealers Vhere one God, who pake unto I last days organ of ealed. ^stantiality respect of ;vas God." God with le Father. )d without e, or being the Word guilty of he Father, jr. What ne Divine •s clear of If you y answer, y of god- j1 certain they are. self God, al organic [e is nor. the same Him the " image of God," never His " likeness ; " for " image " suggests consubstantiality, " likeness " only resem- blance. Just here was waged the fierce controversy between Athanasius and Arius: it is the most cele- brated battlefield of Christian theology. Was the Son of a like or of the same nature with the Father ? Of a like nature, answered the acute Arius ; of the same nature, answered the profound Athanasius. After a prolonged warfare the Church settled down to the Athanasian Creed ; to identity of essence, not resemblance ; to sameness of being, not likeness ; to homoousiay not homoiousia. Superficial observers sneer at the controversy, declaring it was a quibble of logomachy, a war about words, yea, about one letter of the alphabet. But such critics, in their professed contempt of a letter, judge according to the letter, and not the spirit. On that one letter liinged the welfare of Christianity, and by its adoption into the Creed the Church emphasised its belief in the proper and essential Divinity of the blessed Eedeemer. Those who let go the letter seldom ever catch the spirit ; hence the Gospel is daily growing thinner, leaner, and more weird-like in the hands of the so-called " Liberals " of theology. Those who let go the letter are quite as reprehensible as those who stop in it ; the Sadducees' error was quite as grave as that of the Pharisees. Let us reverence the letter even though it be but a single " iota," for within the letter, not without it, we find the spirit. In this world, the moment spirits are dissevered from bodies, they vanish. 3. Let us therefore hold fast the doctrine once Ill 20 THE WORD. i'l delivered unto the saints, and adore the "grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich." The quibbles of sophistry and the more serious objections of philosophy not- withstanding, " we believe and know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." Beware of running away with the notion that all the intellects of modem civilisation are opposed to orthodoxy — facts are against you. The acute intellects may be, but the profound intellects are not, the intellects which see far and see deep. 'if ( it ) ■^■^1 ■ *1 -, 11 i- n 11. " That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that Cometh into the world."— 'John i. 9. In the preceding verses John the Evangelist points out the true character and mission of John the Baptist. " There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe." Men believed through John, but they believe in Jesus. The Church has believed through Moses and the prophets ; but it believes in the Saviour, for there is in Him such an infinite volume of being that it can never go through Him It may go deeper and deeper into Him for ever, but it will never be able to go through Him. Men believe through the servants ; but they believe in the Master. " That all men through Him might believe." " He was not that Light " — John was but a mass of darkness, like any other man. No light originated in him ; at best he was but receiving light and re- flecting it on others. " He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that m % \\ ) {iii». I! 22 THE TRUE LIGHT. !|l li! i M Cometh into the world." Christ it was that was enlightening, John was only enlightened, and in that respect he belongs to the same class as the weakest of the saints. But John was a prophet, you say. Yes, and there are the raw materials of prophets in you also. By teing made a prophet, John was not made supra-human but more human ; the prophet is not less, but more of a man, than his fellows. Prophecy is only the normal unfolding of human nature, the white flower on the tree of humanity, and if the Divine sap only flow into our roots, we also shall grow into prophets. Prophecy is supernatural, but not supra-human, the one great object of the Gospel being to make prophets of us all. Not only will it make us kings and priests unto God, but prophets likewise. "That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." This verse, as many of you know, is translated in two ways. The first is that of the Authorised Version — " That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." The other is that of the Eevised Version — " There was the true Light, even the Light which lighteth every man, coming into the world." An alternative reading is offered on the margin — " The true Light^ which lighteth every man, was coming into the world." Happily we need not go to the trouble of judging between these on grammatical grounds, for the one rendering is admitted to be as correct as the other; but if there be a preponderance of grammatical reasons, it will, I believe, be conceded that they tHE TRUE LIGHT. 23 favour the older translation. At all events, I shall take it as the basis of the few remarks which I shall address to you to-day. "That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." I. Jesus Christ enlightening every man from within, ' — in the intuitive conceptions of the mind. II. Jesus Christ enlightening every man from without, — in the revealed doctrines of Christianity. I. Jesus Christ enlightening every man from WITHIN, that is to say, in the intuitive conceptions of the mind. " That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." I. This light is internal, shining in the mental constitution of every man. " Through Him all things were made, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." What was life in the Word pre- incarnate became light or reason in men. " There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding." The human understand- ing is only a development of animal life, say many modern scientists. No, says the Bible, it is of a kindred nature with the Divine Life and the outcome thereof. Man has not ascended from the animal, say rather that he has descended from God. The line of his pedigree points, not downward to the dust, but upward to the skies. " The son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God." " For we also are His offspring ; " not the offspring of the chimpanzee, but the offspring of God. Compare a man's head — any f >1 i V mm 24 THE TRtJE LiGrlT. M IK i i' ^i\ man's head, the head of the most uncivilised man on the face of tlie earth to-day, or of the savagest man science has yet discovered in the caves of the pre- historic ages — with the head of the best-trained monkey in tlie Zoological Gardens, and the difference is immense. What is the capacity of the monkey brain ? Thirty -two cubic inches. What is the capa- city of the human brain ? Ninety cubic inches. You therefore see tliat the brain of the most unde- veloped man, who is not positively an idiot, is nearly three times the capacity of the brain of the most civi- lised monkey in this or any other country. How to account for the difference ? There is a great deal of talking and writing in the present day about the " missing link " — the missing link between the ape and the man. Missing link indeed ! It is not a link that is missing, but a whole chain. Human reason is not a development of the monkey brain ; rather is it the immediate outcome of the Divine Life. 2. This light is moreover innate in every man. " That was the true Light, which li^hteth every man as he Cometh into the world:" so many scholars choose to translate the words, and it is one of the alterna- tive readings in the revised translation. God takes care to write His name on the soul of every man in his first creation ; human nature bears the sign- manual of its Maker in its deepest constitution. We are all familiar enough w^ith the teaching that the idea of God is innate in the soul. That evan- gelistic philosophers differ considerably in their way of representing this truth is well known ; but they all agree that our idea of God is not derived from 1 THE TRUE LtGItT?. 25 m reason .* the external world. The external world may awaken it, but it does not produce it ; it may show the im- print, but it does not make it. Who then makes it ? God Himself according to the Scriptures. " For that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them." "Manifest in them" — in the inborn intuitions of the reason. God prints His own name, He stamps some great universal truths on the mind of every man as he cometh into the world. Men are like so many volumes, con- tinually issuing from the Divine press; and if nothing else be written on them, the name of the Author and Printer is indisputably engraved on the title-page. I do not say that the name is very legible at first especially since the soul has been soiled by sin, but that it is there is to me a demonstrated truth. Take a sheet of white paper : write on it your own thoughts — your good thoughts or your bad thoughts, just as you please — and underneath your own sig- nature and address. Is that all that is to be read off the paper ? Nay ; hold it up to the light, and you will behold the name of the manufacturer in watermarks. You may write on it what you like and as you like; but you will never rub off the name of the maker. Your name is on it, but his name is in it. Thus God has written His name in watermarks on the raw material of the soul. You may write on it, the world may write on it, the devil may write on it ; but God has written in it — He has deeply stamped His name into the soul in its first make. The idea of God is a lighted lamp hung up in the dome of every man's soul as he cometh ■4 ; « I V\ V' H f HI I? , ) 1 1 26 THE TRtJE LIGHT. !i! I Pii 11 i ! ill I'jii:. into the world, a lighted lamp flashing forth its pene- trating and comforting beams in all directions. 3. Observe further that this light is Divine, the same in its nature as that which illuminates God Himself. " This is the true — primary, underived — Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." The light proceeding from yonder re- splendent sun is the same in its nature as that which resides in the sun. And the light emanating from the Eternal Word is the same in kind as that which is lodged for ever in Him. Here precisely consists the A^ast, because the radical, difference between man and every other earthly creature. According to Genesis, God created everything " after its kind." " And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every- thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind." What next ? " And God said, Let us make man." How ? after his kind ? No ; " in our image, after our likeness." So the irrational animals were created after their kind — their type was in themselves ; but man was created not after his kind, but after another kind — the type of humanity was not in humanity itself but in God. A very noble type surely ! " And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." No truth is lodged in the mind at its first start, asserts one school of philo- sophy. No, answers the Bible, except the truth that is lodged in the " likeness " or the plan ; and that is a very great truth, the greatest truth con- ceivable. God created all thiugs, as we have already seen, according to plan ; the beasts, the fishes, and 11 tHE f RUfe LIGHT*. ^1 h its pene- bions. Divine, the inates God iderived — )meth into yonder re- 'e as that emanating nd as that 3 precisely difference creature, after mg the earth md every- his kind" ike man." lage, after re created Ives; but 3r another humanity jly! ir image, the birds according to plan ; the sun, the moon, and the stars according to plan. And if He created all other things according to plan, do you think He created the soul without a plan ? No, answers Moses, He created the soul also according to plan. What then is the soul's plan ? His own image and likeness ; the soul is put together on the same plan, according to the same principles, as the Divine Essence. " Let us make man in our image, after our plan." Nothing is to be found in the soul but it has first been in the senses, avers one class of thinkers. No, answers the Bible, save the soul and its plan, the soul and the principles upon which it is made. The house newly built may be said to be an empty building with nothing in it. True ; there is nothing in it save itself and the architect's plan ; but the plan is in the new house as well as in the old, in the empty house as well as in the house com- pletely furnished. Thus the soul in its first creation is empty of all truths save the truths involved in its plan , and the truths of the plan are the great truths, the truths which constitute its likeness to the Divine Original. Plato somewhere discusses the question — What is essential to a ship ? His answer at last is — Everything save the materials, everything save the iron and the timber. The timber is not essential, for you can have a ship without timber ; the iron is not essential, for you can have a ship without iron. The only thing essential to a ship is its shape — the mathematical truths or principles which meet in the plan. The most important thing of the soul likewise ■. f n J, I i M ■':i?J ; )fl ■ ■ i i' 2d THE TRUE LIGHT. 1 1 I 1 1 i i I . Ill' I ! J is its plan — the truths or principles which meet in its construction. What are these truths or prin- ciples ? The very truths or principles which dwell in and pervade the Divine Nature itself. You therefore see that the necessary truths of the Divine Nature underlie the construction of human nature. These necessary truths are burning shining lights, swinging ever in the spiritual firmament of our nature. These truths, necessary and eternal, have left deep traces of themselves in every language. Take, for instance, the English word " ought" the word which sets forth the sense of duty. It differs from all the other words of the language save those of cog- nate meaning, a word without moods and without tenses, a word without a conjugation, a word above time, space, and circumstance, a word like eternity, perfect and complete in itself. Ought ! Whence came it ? Not from time, for it is not subject to the laws of time as other words ; it is a stray word from eternity. In virtue of this word, the central word of conscience, man is in eternity and eternity is in man. This word " ought," or, if you like, the truth which this word symbolises, the momentous truth of duty and obligation, is a " great light " hung up in the sky of the soul for ever; and however bright | the lustre of the sun in the material firmament of the senses, it pales by the side of the exceeding bright- ness of the " great light which rules the day " in the inner heavens of the spirit. 4. Eemark also that this light is 'persistent — it continues to shine in every man's reason notwith- standing the Fall and its deplorable couseq^uences. THE TRUE LIGHT. 29 Lch meet in 19 or prin- ich dwell in )u therefore '^ine Nature ire. These is, swinging tare. ve left deep Take, for word which rs from all LOse of cog- iid without Nord above ce eternity, f Whence bject to the word from ntral word jrnity is in 3, the truth | (US truth of lung up in Bver bright nament of ling bright- e day" in | mstent — it notwith- 1 sequences. That was the true Light which lighteth " — present [tense — "every man that cometli into the world." [The necessary eternal truths, of which we have been speaking, continue to be the birthright of every man, our guilt and turpitude notwithstanding. Without controversy a very precious heritage! "The Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness overcame it not." That, you are aware, is one reading of the words — "the darkness overcame it not." Sin did I not succeed in extinguishing the inner Light. " The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord," writes the Wise Man ; a candle lit by God with His own breath. When man fell, did the candle blow out ? No ; it was sadly bruised, but it did not blow out. " The darkness overcame it not" — the great fundamental truths God planted in man continue to shine despite sin and its grievous consequences. Accordingly the darkness of the Fall was not complete — complete, I mean, in the sense that it could not be blacker — a little light was still continuing to glimmer ; candle- light if you like, but light all the same. Much, talk is indulged in concerning original sin, though hot quite as much as in former years ; but we ought also to speak of original light, a light deeper and more primitive even than our sin. Do I not believe in the total depravity of the race ? Yes, in the sense that every power is more or less tangled, that every faculty is more or less corrupt. No, in the sense that the derangement could not be greater, that the putridity could not be more advanced. The confusion and depravity here are great, but in hell they are ^jonsiderably greater* So far a little ^1 . I i'irfi 30 THE TRUE Lir.lIT. 1 I: 1 ' i M light doubtless glimmers in the soul of every man on his coming into this world, the golden beams of the Sun of Kighteousness are to be seen playing in the mental faculties of childhood. " The Light shineth in darkness " — the darkness of our fall ; " and the darkness overcame it not " — the liglit still burns. But if the darkness did not overcome the light, on the other hand the light did not overcome the dark- ness. In the old world, the world prior to the In- carnation, the light and the darkness confronted each other, witliout making much impression the one on the other. The darkness did not conquer the light, neither did the light conquer the darkness ; and if the light is to win the victory, it must receive an ample increase, and this increase we find in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. II. Jesus Christ enlightening every man from WITHOUT, — in the revealed doctrines of Christianity. " This is the true Light, which lighteth every man that Cometh into the wr^-ld." I . Let us not forget the supernatural character of this light. By supernatural here, however, we are not to understand unnatural or contra-natural, for the most perfect correspondence obtains between the natural and the supernatural. Eailway companies, you are aware, often possess running powers on each other's property ; and, if I mistake not, the natural and supernatural possess the same powers — they often run their trains on each other's lines. The supernatural is only an extension of the natural. Indeed, it is in the supernatural that the natural J THE TRUE LIGHT. St Bry man on lams of the nw^ in the ,'ht shineth ; "and the 11 burns. he light, on i the dark- to the In- confronted 'ession the 5t conquer darkness ; r, it must £e we find man from iristianity. very man shows its contents, it is in the Gospel that the creation reveals its meaning. The more studious portion of the congre,L,'ation have probiildy rend that able and celebrated book, " The An.dogy of Keligion," by Bishop Butler — one ,of the few books that is worthy of all the praise it receives. Scill it is but a nej,'ative work — an analogy between what is not revealed in the Scriptures, and what is not revealed in Nature, an analogy between what Christianity does not say and what the creation does not say. I should be much delighted were some other learned priilate to compose a new " Analogy " — not an ana- logy between what is not revealed in the Bible and what is not revealed in Nature, but an analogy be- tween what is revealed in the one and what is revealed in the other ; not an analogy between the silence of Christianity and the silence of creation, but an analogy between the speech of the one and the speech of the other. It would, I believe, be found out that only in the supernatural the natural shows it contents, that only in the Gospel the world declares its meaning. Take, for instance, the word "God." All the Indo-European equivalents for God, it is well known, are the same in their ulti- mate root as the word " day," and signify the bright- ness of the sky. The Latin Beics, the Greek Theos, the Sanskrit Dyaus, the Welsh Duw, and even the English God — they all come from the same root, signifying the brightness of the sky. This thought has been fixed in the term Jupiter, one of the oldest appellations by which God is known in Europe. Jupiter — what is it ? Xhe first syllable Ju is the »! ' •" ^ ^i^ yrjr >'i;i,: 32 THK TRUE LIOHT. I I III'. \\ ■ fill "'lil I i I II '. m .: I '-'! '/■W H-;ii; IP' - It II!; I I , I , [\ J same as the Welsh J)uw, and means the bright sky. The remaining two syllables,^i^er,arethe same as the better known word pater, meaning father. Jupiter, then, is the Latin synonym for the Saxon Sky-Father. As one of our Aryan ancestprs stood on the open plain ijazing upward, and meditating on the Being behind all phenomena, the Eeality at the back of all appear- ances, he gave expression to the deepest instinct of his nature when he pronounced in articulate language the solemn word " Sky-Father." And when we read in the sixth chapter of Matthew the memorable words of the great Teacher, " And when ye pray, say after this manner, Our Father which art in heaven," what do we find ? A new truth ? Nay ; but a new explanation of an old truth, which in the roll of the ages had grown well-nigh obsolete, the oldest truth of human nature and the deepest truth of the Divine Nature, the central truth in which the two natures meet. 2. It is further a perfect, complete light. " This is the true light : " this word " true " signifying, in St. John's writings, not the true as opposed to the false, but the perfect as opposed to the imperfect, the full as opposed to the partial. Jesus Christ is the full perfect light, not a single ray wanting. You may see God throuyh the creation, but you may see Him in Jesus Christ. " For the invisible things of Him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead." More literally, "being seen through the things that are made." But in Jesus Christ " dwelleth all the ful img. THE TIIUE Lir.IIT. 33 iright sky. ime as the Jupiter, cy-Father. 3peu plain Qg behind lU appear- instinct of 3 language jn we read nemorable . ye pray, ch art in h ? Nay ; lich in the solete, the pest truth in which It. "This ifying, in sed to the |imperfect, Christ is |ng. You you may Ible things re clearly lare made, " " More that are il the ful ^nfaj ness of the Godhead bodily." It is no}; the same word that is used in these two verses for "God- head." The word in Eomans i. 1 8 is not Godhead but divinity, " eternal power and divinity : " the stamp of Godhead, the impress of His hand and of His foot, an attribute belonging to God. In Jesus Christ, however, you behold not divinity, but God- head ; not an attribute, but the Being in whom all the attributes inhere. " In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Divinity in the creation, Godhead in Christ. "For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell." " In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and know- ledge." Some treasures ? No, all, without one miss- ing. Treasures many are contained in the Bible, but not all. There are more treasures in Christ than even in the Bible. He could not transfer all the treasures of His person into a book, " for if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written." Blessed be God for the treasures con- tained in this precious volume before me, but the day will arrive when they shall be ail exhausted. Uut after exhausting the treasures of the Book, fehe reasures of the Person will still remain. Blessed His name for the treasures which have come through Christ, thrice blessed for the treasures that ire in Christ. Dwelling in Him are treasures enough |;o make a dozen new Bibles, the Bibles of eternity. 3. It follows as a necessary consequence that this (i'^ht is universal. " This is the true Light, which ;hteth every man that cometh into the world.' C m I'm i *l , hir 11 • \ ; ;■ 'r. , 34 THE TRUE LIGHT. .11' i.iii'''!; liwJill: II. :; ,1 riii if The perfect is always universal ; it is the imperfect that is partial, the incomplete that is national. Given the perfect, and ycu always have the universaL Jesus Christ as revealed in the Gospel is destined for all men. " Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." " Salvation is of the Jews ; " but though of them, it is to all. " To the Jew first, and also to the Greek." In my earlier days I often used to hear the old preachers of Wales thank God very fervently for this little word " also," — the salvation of the inhabitants of Great Britain, they said, was included in it. "And also to the Greek." The Sun of Christianity is universal as the sun of nature. " His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it : and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof." Already the shining of the Sun has raised the tem- perature of the world several degrees. " This is the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." I will tell you another thing — " this is the true Light, which lighteth every man " that goeth out of the world. Many of you, I know, are glad to hear this. Many long years lie between you and the time you came into the world, but only a handbreadth separates you from the time you must go out of it. And you are glad to hear that " this Light " can penetrate with His beams the blackest recesses of the " dark mountains," along the slopes of which you are rapidly descending, that it can dissipate the mist of the " swelling flood," and illumine your way right into the other world. And I will tell you another" THE TRUE LIGHT. 35 aperfect lational* aiversaL destined i preach is of the « To the iT earlier 3f Wales d " also," Britain, to the versal as from the e ends of , thereof." the tem- lis is the cometh the true til out of to hear and the idbreadth thing—" this is the true Light, which lighteth " the world into which you are going. " And the Lamb is the light thereof." Have you heard of the poor Chinaman in London the other day ? Walking along the streets of the metropolis in the fog and the drizzling rain, he was well-nigh breaking his heart with longing for his native land. One day, however, the sun rose brighter than usual, drove the clouds before him, and lifted the fog. Thereupon the little Chinaman cheered up amazingly. " Why, what is the matter with you to-day ? what is the cause of your rejoicing ? " asked an acquaintance. " What is the cause indeed," replied the poor foreigner in broken English, pointing with his finger to the sky, " don't you see there ? that is China's sun ? " and with the word he was dancing on the pavement like a delighted schoolboy. Every- thing else was strange to him — the streets, the inhabitants, the sceneries, and even the stars. The only thing he beheld in England that he had seen at home was the sun ; and he felt comforted under the face of the same sun. Thus when we go to eternity things will appear very strange — the city with its golden otreets, the inhabitants with palms in their hands, the sceneries " ever decked in living green." But the same Sun shines there as hei;e, and under its shining we shall feel all fear and tremor depart. The Sun of earth is the Sun of heaven, the Sun of Cardiff is the Sun of tlit New Jerusalem, 1 i. 15-1 ( 36 ) Ml';' I I'Ai h.'i 'li'f iiijiiiii!: III. Efje Incarnation. "The Word was made flesh." — John i. 14. Often the question has been asked, Whence did John derive his doctrine concerning the Word ? Some think he derived it from the Alexandrian philosophy. Philo Judseus united, or endeavoured to unite in one system, the theology of the Hebrews and the philo- sophy of the Greeks, the Wisdom of Solomon and the Logos of Plato. And to the subtle influence exerted by the writings of this able and learned Jew many critics attribute the form, if not the substance, of the Johannine doctrine of the Logos. Others, again, see in it only the full mature de- velopment of a truth already contained in the Old Testament, which continually reminds its readers of some mysterious Word, by which God created the world, and by which tk^ world is still upheld. We further read that the " Word of the Lord " came to Abraham and other patriarchs ; but as yet an air of mystery surrounds it. What is it — a part of speech, a thing, or a person ? We cannot telj. But as we proceed to the later writings of the Theocracy, the I TttE INCAHKATIOIJ. 37 did John . ? Some tiilosophy. suspicion is aroused that the Word or Wisdom is more than a part of speech, that it is a Thing ; that it is more than a Thing, that it is a Person. • It comes, it speaks, it retires. It is a Person. From this elevated standpoint St. John is supposed to begin his Gospel. " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." I see no valid reason to give a flat denial to either of these guesses. Each of them probably contains some truth, and neither of them the whole truth. But it is objected that, if we admit the assertions of Eationalism respecting the Logos of the Greek and Alexandrian philosophies, we detract from the Gospel of St. John. Perhaps we do. But if we detract from the Gospel of St. John, we do not detract from the Christ of St. John, and that is the main point after all. It is a sad mistake, and necessarily disas- trous to the philosophy of history, to attempt to isolate the Gospel truths in order to prove their divinity. Eather ought we to rejoice at every dis- covery which destroys their isolation and traces their orfjanic connection with universal history. That John's idea of the Logos is quite original and unique, with nothing in the wide world to which it might for a moment be compared, would not prove to me its supernatural origin. Eather show me that there were dim prefigurations of it in other ages and other countries, that there were countless lines of thought converging toward one centre, then it will be easier for me to believe in the Divinity of the Centre itself. The philosophical speculations concerning ^s! 1 u l:.i m 1-] i (i 38 taS tNCARNATlOi^. the Logos, so far from explaining away or obscuring the brightness of the theological Logos, appear to me to add considerably to His splendour. If the teaching of St. John be true that the Logos in His pre-exis- tent state was the Life and the Light of men, that He was then and is now the " Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world," then other men must have felt it and obscurely guessed it. The light which was in them, but not of them, must have pointed towards its Divine Source. The fact was already existent in the consciousness of men; is it to be wondered at that they should attempt a philosophy of the fact ? The Word was already shining in their consciences; is it surprising that we should discover Him shining in their writings ? " The Light shone in darkness," the darkness of their nature and of their literature — we perceive gleams of it ; yet in neither case did the darkness compre- hend it. John was the first to comprehend it ; and in the first fourteen verses of this chapter we have his comprehension of it. Having premised so much, I now solicit your attention to the Incarnation of the Word — the In- carnation, not so much in its inner reality as in the manifold advantages or benefits to be derived from a belief in it. We shall contemplate it in its two- fold relation : first, to man ; second, to God. I. The Incarnation in its relation to Man. This relation is generally decribed as being a great ex- altation to man. I. The Incarnation shows the dignity of the IV.ii l!. hmil THE INCARNATIOK. 39 human hody. " The Word" was made flesh." The material part of our nature ha^ been much maligned in every age. Take the Greek philosophy for example. According to it matter was essentially evil ; our spirits became polluted and miserable only in consequence of their habitation in flesh. The fall of man was only the inevitable result of the union of the spirit with body. Matter, not mind, was the indigenous seat of evil, the prolific source of all corruption. The body was the sure badge of the spirit's dishonour. This teaching tainted the specu- lations of the early Gnostics, and through them the speculations of the entire Church. Against this spurious philosophy St. John vehemently protests — " the Word was made flesh." - He selects the grossest part of our nature, that farthest removed from God, and uses the most forcible, may I say the most vulgar ? word at his command, and thereby vindicates the honour of the body. We cannot lay too much stress on the fact that God dwells in a human body, and that by dwelling in it He has redeemed it from all imputation of dishonour. Ever since the In- carnation men respect the body more and more. " Whoso layeth his hand on a human body toucheth heaven," said Novalis first and Carlyle afterwards — a sentiment which has passed into the current newspaper literature of the day. Plato would have said. Whoso layeth his hand on a human body toucheth necessary evil ; Carlyle says. Whoso layeth his hand on a human body toucheth heaven. How came the noblest sage of Greece and the greatest sage of England to form such diametrically opposite esti- .;,.'i::.; ^■r, ii if .ih 40 THE INCARNATION. m''^^ i 1 jjiiii ii mates of the body ? How ? The Incarnation took place between. The Incarnation gave a new direc- tion to the current of human thought on the sub- ject ; the current culminated in the philosopher of Chelsea — " Whoso layeth his hand on a human body toucheth heaven." Neither did Judaism lay much stress on our material frame. Turn to your Concordance on the word " body," and you will see at a glance how little emphasis was laid upon it in the Old Testament, how seldom it is mentioned in its pages. But the New Testament teems with references to it ; one is positively amazed at the great importance it has suddenly acquired. How to account for the change? How ? The Incarnation came between. How far the Old Testament Church believed in the resurrec- tion of the body is somewhat problematical ; evidently the doctrine was but faintly revealed to it. . But in the New Testament it stands out clear and definite, as the necessary and legitimate sequence of the Incarnation. The material part of man is capable ©f much dignity, it has been consecrated by the personal habitation of the Godhead. What more reasonable, I had almost said what more natural, than that a creature capable of such glory should be delivered from the power of the grave ? Let no one say the soul would fare better without the body than with it, either here or yonder. The Infinite Soul has taken to Himself a body, and we have not the slightest hint that it clogs His movements or shackles His powers ; and shall the finite soul com- plain ? The immortality of the body is a distinctive I! ':! THE INCARNATION. 41 doctrine of the New Testament. Not the immor- tality of the soul : that was common between Christianity and Greek philosophy and Jewish theology; but the immortality of the body is a^ distinctive doctrine, because the Incarnation is its exclusive property. Plotinus, a disciple of Plato, refused to permit his picture to be taken, because it would unduly perpetuate the image of a body he abominated ; he avoided all mention of the date or locality of his birth, because it belonged to too dark and miserable an epoch to be remembered. But Paul exclaims, " death, where is thy sting ? grave, where is thy victory ? Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory." How came two geniuses, almost contemporaries, to make such different esti- mates of the dignity of the body ? One believed in the Incarnation, the other did not. " The Word was made flesh " — then the flesh is something honourable in the universe of God. 2. The Incarnation, moreover, shows the dignity of the human soul in the human body ; in a word, of human nature in its totality. We must beware of viewing the Incarnation as a mere makeshift on the part of God to keep together the system of nature, or simply to ensure the salvation of mankind. I do not say that it would have taken place apart from our sin and salvation, merely to complete and glorify tlie old creation ; but I do say tjiat it was not a mere scheming on the part of God, a poor endeavour to make the best of the worst. Human nature possessed an intrinsic fitness to become the abode of the mighty God. Man was made in the .m pi im 6? ! * ' I j ■ ii 4^ tHE INCARNATION. l-li:'' image of God and after His likeness, originally and organically constituted an apt medium to reveal Him. God and man are correlative terms. A rddical correspondence exists between them. This corre- spondence the Incarnation brought out into clear light, and the consequent innate fitness of humanity to be the permanent habitation of Deity, and the meet organ of His full revelation. Human nature was competent for the purpose. Nowhere does God complain that it failed to reveal Him, or falsified in the least degree His attributes. Just think what the Incarnation involves. " The fulness of the Godhead dwelleth in Him bodily." All the infinite plenitude of the Divine Nature dwelling bodily in human nature ! Then human nature must be capacious enough to contain it ; and what but a nature of infinite capacity can take into itself infinite fulness ? The one infinite demands the other. "VVe speak much of the littleness of man, and there is a sense in which he is little enough. But there is another sense in which he is very great, great enough to receive into his own nature the personal fulness of the Godhead. We are limited enough in our ability to give out, but we are un- limited in our capacity to take in. Yes; our nature is a very great nature — it took in a God in Bethlehem. This makes me think more highly of my nature wherever I see it. My nature, your nature, the nature of the pauper in the street, and of the criminal in the gaol, has in it possibilities of inconceivable grandeur. We also are capable of receiving and entertaining God. This it was which I ttifi Incarnation. 43 kindled in the breast of Christ the " enthusiasm of humanity," and impelled Him to die in order to its redemption. It is often thrown in the face of believers in the Incarnation that we paint human nature in colours too black, that we recklessly and unduly disparage this creature of God. But surely they who fling this taunt in our face know not whereof they speak. True, we do cherish very humble views of it ; but humble views are not low views. How can we, who believe the Godhead has found room enough in it to dwell in all His inex- haustible fulness, think low of it ? The Incarnation shows us its grand potentialities, and throws upon it a thousandfold stronger light than Unitarianism possibly can. Believers in the Incarnation, there- fore, burn with a quenchless desire to go and rescue poor, downtrodden, despised human nature in lands afar off. Only faith in the Incarnation can create missionaries. You demand a proof: I appeal to the story of missionary enterprise. Where is the roll of the missionaries of Unitarianism ? " By their fruit ye shall know them " — systems as well as men, faiths as well as trees. 3. The Incarnation, linking man to God, removed the antithesis between them. Something more was requisite to remove the antagonism, even the Atone- ment ; I speak now only of the antithesis. " The Word was made flesh," literally, He "became" it. Not He assumed it, not He was linked to it, not He occupied it, however convenient such language may be to us, but. He became it. " The Word was," says the first verse ; " the Word became," says the four- '} I- I III 44 THE INCAUNATIOK. teenth. He became something He was not pre- viously. As One who was, He is an hypostasis of the essential nature of God ; as He became flesh, He is a part of the creati9n, its head, crown, and flower. Prior to the Incarnation a wide deep gap divided the Creator from His creation ; but the Incarnation filled up the gap and made them of " one piece." It has done away with the antithesis ; the Creator has entered the creation and become an integral part of it. " For He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one ; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren." That is, by the Incarnation the Creator and His creatures, God and men, have become brethren ; the relation is one of assimilation and not of differen- tiation. The antithesis, however, was not the result of sin, but inevitably arose out of the necessary relation of the Infinite and finite, without any reference to evil. Hence many profound devout thinkers believe that the Incarnation would take place even if sin had never entered the world, in order to remove the antithesis between God and His work, and by its removal to perfect the creation. "The Word was made flesh." There is now no gap between the Infinite and finite ; in the language of the Epistle, " they are of one." The finite can look up to the Infinite, and not feel a sense of separation ; the Infinite can look down upon the finite, and not feel a sense of distance. " They are of one." There is not a single break in the chain of existence, not a single gap through the entire length and breadth of THE INCAUNATION. 45 being. From the veriest atom trembling on the verge of nonentity to the awful heights of Absolute Being there is a continuous unbroken ascent — not one crevice to leap over. The Infinite has not only created the finite, but in the Incarnation lias united Himself to it, and thus secured the undis- turbed continuity of the diameter of being. Before Uie Incarnation God and the universe were two factors, not only distinct but separate — God there, the universe here, and a wide awful chasm between. But in the Incarnation God slid into the universe, became an integral part of it, and thus united the remotest extremities of existence — the Creator and the creature, the infinitely great and the intinitely little. " The Word w;us made flesh." But the Incarnation is not true, say the Uni- tarians. Is it not ? Then it is a great pity ; certainly it deserves to be true. Deny it, and the universe loses its unity and integrity ; it is despoiled of much of its grandeur and poetry. According to the orthodox view a continuous path stretches from the smallest particle of matter at the very bottom of creation right up and away to the sublimest heights of the Absolute and Unconditioned ; the two re- motest boundaries of existence are joined together in irrefragable relationship ; the tiniest mote dancing on the brink of nothingness is in indissoluble con- nection with Eternal Being — all things gathered together in one in Christ. What a grand unity ! The two hemispheres of being, the Infinite and finite, wedded in one glorious orb, which is now the " Light of the World ! " In this sublime unity eflected ip 'iiiiiji \ ?8 '^PfJ ) ^1 46 THE INCARNATION. the Incarnation is contained the fundamental truth of pantheism without the grave and multiform errors thereof. Here the advocates of pantheism will find all they want, the two factors, Infinite and finite, reduced into one. Instead of a God evolving the creation out of Himself, here is a God involving Himself in the creation. Instead of the doctr'ne of evolution, the one developing into the many, here is the doctrine of involution, the many gathered to- gether in the one. "He hath purposed in Himself that in the dispensation of the fulness of time. He would gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him." Compared with this the Rationalistic view of the universe is meagre, prosaic, unscientific. According to it the two hemispheres are for ever separate, the antithesis is always remaining, the centre is ever wanting. Unitarians have no Son of Man who is also Son oi God uniting earth and sky, upon whom the angels ascend and descend. Is it not grander, more poetic, and more philosopic, to behold this gulf bridf,ed in Jesus Christ, to see the upward path reaching up to the loftiest altitudes of the Eternal I Am ? The sublimity of a doctrine is not a logical demontitration of its truth I admit, but it certainly tells powerfully in its favour. The doctrine of the Incarnation, so far from contradicting veason, com- plements it, presenting to its adoring meditation the highest unity conceivable of the universe in the sacred person of Jesus Christ. The Unitarian doctrine, on the other hand, because ever confronted >x mm THE INCARNATION. 47 with a duality of being, belittles the creation, de- spoils it of its grandeur and divineness ; and its meagreness and poverty are a testimony against its truth. What advantage then hath the orthodox faith ? or what profit is there of the Incarnation ? Much every way. It dignifies the human body, demonstrates the potentiality of human nature, and reduces the duality of being, finite and infinite, into an adora>"le unity in the indivisible person of the biassed Saviour. II. The Inearnation in its relation to God. This relation is generally described as a revelation of God. I. It reveals the plurality of persons in the Divine Essence. This truth is the exclusive property of the Church of the New Testament, for the obvious reason that the Incarnation is its exclusive property. Doubtless, dim prefigurations of this doctrine are noticeable in the Old Testament.. We, examining it under the strong light reflected upon it by the Kew, discover evidences of it ; but it is very doubtful whether an ancient Jew could perceive the faintest glimmerings of it. I think not. But passing over to the New, the doctrine of the Incarnation throws light upon the inner nature of the Divine Being. " In the beginning was the ^^'ord, ar^*^ the Word was with God, and the Word was God." That high, sacred, mysterious announcement is logically the consequent, not the antecedent, of the Incarnation. The Holy Trinity, of course, existed previously ; but the doctrine concerning it would be incredible, its apprehension by the human mind impossible, but ii^ ■;S*, r qui :[ m , *i iW u i: ' i .1 1 JWrfW H 48 THE INCARNATION. T" the light of the historic reality — " the Word made flesli." First the fact, afterwards the doctrine. In the Old Testament the Name of God it is that stands out bold and conspicuous, Not the Word but the Name. In the New I'estament, however, the Word of God comes to the forefront; and the doctrine of the Word is an advance on the doctrine of the Name. The Name points us to God, the Word leads us into God. In language, in philosophy, m theology, the same rule holds good : first the noun, afterwards the verb ; first the subject, after- wards the predicate ; first the Name of God, after- wards the Word of God predicating something of the name. The ccitroversy raging in Old Testament times turned around the Divine Name. The mo- mentous question was — Who was God ? It was a battle between the true God and false gods, between monotheiisiii and polytheism. Hence the chief function of Judaism was to uphold the Divine Name, to testify that Jehovah alone was God. But the great question of New Testament times is not Who is God ? but What is God ? Not the nomen but the Verbum, not the subject but the pradicate. The spiritual warfare of modern times is, therefore, different from that of old ; it is directed not against false worships but false philosophies, not against false gods but false Christs. Who is God ? The Old Testament answers in the doctrine of the Name. What is God ? The New Testament answers in the doctrine of the Incarnate Word. The door is ajar, and we see faintly into the Divine Nature and discejn there a Word with God, a Word who was God. mn:^. THE INCARNATION. 49 2. The incarnation further reveals the Father- hood of God. "The Word was made flesh, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only- begotten of the Father." Here we find Sonship and Fatherhood. Deny the Incarnation and you deny the deepest Fatherhood of God, the protests of Uni- tarianism notwithstanding. Modern theology recog- nises two Fatherhoods in God — the extrinsic and the intrinsic ; the first arising from His relation to the external world, the second from the depths of His eternal nature. Now the first or extrinsic Fatlierhood did not require the Incarnation to dis- close it. It depended on the doctrine of the creation, not on that of the Incarnation. " Let us make man in our image and after our likeness." Consequently repeated references are made to it in the Jewish Scriptures. It does not indeed receive much pro- minence, for there were other numerous truths of greater consequence to the nation in its then state of tutelage. And not only do we discover it in the sacred writings of the Jews, but we come across it in the literature and mythology of the Gentiles. As the extrinsic Fatherhood was involved in the creation of man in God's image, it was reasonably to be expected that a close, severe, exhaustive analysis of our nature would ultimately discern the likeness, and that an inference should be made therefrom of our sonship and His Fatherhood. " As indeed one of the Greek poets said. We also are His olTspring." Not that this truth received the atten- tion it deserved, nor exerted the ennobling influence '"t should. Nevertheless the utterance of it by the '^u\ iil ■ if ;ni l! n i ' 50 THE INCARNATION. poet shows that it is a truth of nature, deeply im- bedded ill our very make, rather than a doctrine of revelation, demanding the Incarnation to declare it. This is the Fatherhood much paraded in Unitarian theology, held by it in common with the Jewish law and the Greek literature. Grossing over from the Old Testament to the New, our thoughts are directed to a better and a deeper Fatherhood — the intrinsic and eternal. 'Not till men saw the Son coming out from the Father did they understand that He was always with the Father. In the " coming out " they perceived what was always in, and a new truth thus dawned upon the world, to eclipse all others with its grandeur and brightness. A Son has come out from the Father! Then it was understood that Sonship and Fatherhood must have existed from eternity within the inner circle of the incomprehensible Godhead. God is Father in the profoundest abysses of His essential nature. There is no room for this intrinsic Father- hood in Unitarian theology, because there is no place in it for the Incarnation. The God of Uni- tarianism, therefore, is not a Father in the profound- est sense ; He is not a Father in the deepest essence of His being ; He is simply a Father in relation to the world. We are not begotten by Him, of the same substance with Him ; He is therefore a Father to us by creation, not by generation. But a Father by creation is only a figurative Father ; the Father by generation only is genuine, real Father. According to Unitarianism, before creation God was not a Father ; destroy creation and He will again cease to be a THE INCARNATION. 51 Father. His Fatherliood, therefore, is a variable, accidental, extrinsic quality. He can take it up and lay it down when He pleases. With it He is God ; without it He is God just the same. But believe in the Incarnation of the Son, and you believe in the truest, deepest Fatherhood of God. Here you have clear, positive, I may say, infinite gain. If the high- est, noblest aspect in which we can contemplate God is that of a Father, a real, true Father, then the God of Trinitarianism is immeasurably superior to that of Unitarianism. One is a Father really, truly, intrin- sically, for ever and ever ; He cannot help being a Father : the other is a Father simply in relation to His creatures; let the universe collapse, and His Fatherhood vanishes the same moment. The Incarnation reveals to us the intrinsic Father- hood. It shows us a Son, not by creation in time, but by generation in eternity; and consequently shows us a Father, not in virtue of His creative, but of His generative energies. " The only-begotten of the Father." God is a Father truly, essentially, in the profoundest abysses of His being. He is a Father before creation ; perish the worlds, and He will be a Father still. Instead, therefore, of a Fatherhood which may be put on and off according to outward circumstances, here is a Fatherhood intrinsic, inde- pendent of all surroundings, rooted in the very centre of the Divine Being, colouring all His thoughts, in- fluencing all His movements, and that from ever- lasting to everlasting. By the side of this all other fatherhoods are mere types and figures. " The Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ : " that ii 52 THE INCAKNATION. is the New Testament ntame of God, because it sets forth tlic only Fatlierliood which He lays stress upon, tlie intrinsic Fatlierliood revealed in the Incarnation. Hitherto I have contrasted the Fatherhoods, whereas, in faitli fulness to the Scriptures, I ought to add the one to the other. The Unitarian is com- pelled by his very position to make a choice, and he chooses the shallower Fatherhood. But the orthodox says, with the Bible in his hand, " I believe in both." We believe iii the extrinsic Fatherhood as firmly as do the Unitarians ; but, in addition to the extrinsic, we believe in the intrinsic. Thus orthodoxy is more comprehensive than Unitarianism ; and the Evan- gelical Church is the broadest of all the broad churches. " Thy commandment is exceeding broad ; " and Thy Gospel too, broader than any theologies or philosophies of man's invention, yea, broader than they all put together. We do not believe less, we believe more, than the self-styled liberals of theology ; for their one truth we almost invariably hold two. What advantage is there of the Incarnation ? Much every way ; but chiefly that it has revealed to us the innermost Fatherhood of God, thereby infinitely enriching the thoughts and feelings of the race. It greatly comforts poor, sinfui, distressed humanity to know assuredly that above and before all things God is a Father. We cannot fare badly at the hands of I i iff One who in the core of His being is from everlasting to everlasting a Father. 3. The Incarnation further reveals to us the re- deeming character of God. "In this was the love of God manifested, that He sent His Son into the %i tnfi INCARNATION. S3 world." Deny the Incarnation and you have no positive proof of the Divine- love ; believe it, and you can never desire a higher proof. The Incarna- tion is a proof because it is a revelation of love. He gave His only-begotten Son ; what more could He do ? The Incarnation shows what He was at that time; and what He was then, that He had always been and will for ever be. This one act in time is a revelation of the whole eternity, past and future, of God. Man is a creature of impulses ; one act of his does not reveal his past and future. In a moment of exceptional enthusiasm or momentary weakness he will make a sacrifice or commit a deed contrary to the uniform tenor of his life. Man is a changeable being ; but with God is no variableness, neither shadow of turning ; one act of His reveals His heart in the two eternities. If it be true that this love was in God always, as intense in the days of Abraham as on the morning the only-begotten Son was born into the world, why was the Incarnation delayed so long ? It must be confessed that we often speak as if God did unneces- sarily delay, as if He were in no manner of has'^e to send His Son into the world that the world through Him might be saved. But the Bible nowhere teaches that. On the other hand, it distinctly states that " God is not slack concerning His promise, as men count slackness." He never procrastinates. Inas- nmch as God is unchangeable, and the love exhibited in Bethlehem was in Him from days of old, I make bold to affirm that He embraced the first opportunity to work out the redemption of the race. Yes ; He i mm 54 TilE Incarnation. sent His Son into the world as early as He could, the first opportunity He had. But why not send Him earlier ? I answer, What would be the use of send- ing Him earlier when the world was not prepared to receive Him ? Jesus Christ is the joint product of heaven and earth ; He is God and Man ; hence the necessity for both to be ready. Do not misunder- stand me : God was ready, the Son was ready. Why then was He not sent ? I'he earth was not ready. He hod to wait till humanity should be ready. The mind of man had to be prepared. Were it a mere question of love or power, He could have been sent earlier ; but as it was also a question of wisdom, He must not be sent at a period likely to defeat the end in view. God could not travel faster than the con- ditions of humanity admitted. He must suit His pace to tha tottering steps of man. It took God longer time, perhaps greater pains, to beget Christ in the human mind than to beget Him in the Virgin's womb. Four thousand vears were needed to accom- plish the former ; but the instant it was brought to pass, " God sent forth His Son into the world, made of a woman, made under the law." In P>( thleliem and on Calvary God is doing His best to save the world. It follows that if He was doing His best then, He was doing His best {•lway«. There is no change in God : what He is at one time He is at all times. The Incarnation reveals Him behind and before. 'Jo live and die on this earth were not the capricious result of a momentary im- pulse ; thoy are manifestations of His eternal nature. God was doing His best in every age to save the J V' THE INCARNATION. 5$ world and to destroy sin. He was not more earnest in one af,'e and less earnest in another ; His appeal to Ephraim is the appeal He makes to all the a,acs — " What more could I do than I have done ? " From Adam to Moses, and from Moses to Christ, God was doing His very best to save. Why do I affirm that ? Because He did His very best in Bethlehem and on Calvary. In the birth, life, and death of Jesus Christ we behold the Divine love at white heat. Was it hotter than usual ? No I it was equally hot in every age and equally active. Behold here the grea'tness of salvation and the difficulty of bringing it to pass. It took God, not thirty-three, but thousands of years to accom- plish it. Everything He could do He did. And not only He was doing His utmost in Pales- tine and under the Old Testament, but He is doing His utmost to-day. He allows not a single oppor- tunity to escape. He is doing His utmost to save the world now. Why then is the world not saved ? We stand here on the brink of an awful mystery ; but whatever be the solution of it, I make bold to affirm that it is not because of indifference on the part of God. Salvation is a question of wisdom as well as of love ; and doubtless the slow unfoldings of Providence, and the" consequently slow march of the Gospel, will in the end be amply vindicated. Meanwhile believe that God loves the world now just as much as He did when " He sent His Son into the world, that the world through Him might be saved." ,Mim ■mm : 1 fijii i .: ■■iUiifl..HI ( 56 ) IV. ?rfie character of 3tm&. **And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld Hia glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth." — St. John i. 14. The word here rendered " dwelt " means literally "tabernacled." St. John uses it four times in the course of his writings, and in each case it has, con- trary to expectation, attaclied to it the idea of per- manence. In this the Incarnation of Christianity differs widely from the incarnations of lieathen religions ; for it is known to you that these latter abound in startling legends about the gods appear- ing in material bodies, freely mingling in human society, boldly waging earth's conflicts, and bravely enduring life's hardships. Their union, however, with the body was only transient. Having suc- cessfully accomplished their mission, they invariably dropped their material clothing and ascended again into their native element. But the Christian In- carnation is distinguished for its permanence, and must therefore differ in its radical idea from the mythological incarnations of other religions. The " tabernacle of the Lord " was fixed of old in the centre of the Hebrew camp ; around it in all directions, as far as eye could see, were built THE CHAUACTfiR OF JESUS. 57 the tabernacles of the encamping hosts. In like manner Jesus Christ pitched His tent in the midst of men, and His tent diflered from the myriad tents around it in nothing save in the whiteness of Ihe canvas. His was pure, clean, unsullied as the virgin snow, " without spot or wrinkle or any such thing." " He tabernacled among us, full of grace and truth." Of the Word prior to the Incarnation it is said in the fourth verse, " In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." He was life and Ho was light in His pre-existent state ; in the Incarna- tion the life is reproduced in grace and the light in truth. The same qualities which inhered in Him as the Eternal, characterise Him also as the Incarnate, Word. Grace and truth indicate the opposite and balancing poles of character; and every perfect man must touch the two extremes and fill the gap between. Jesus Christ " dwelt among us full pf grace" on the one hand, and "full of truth" on the other. In these two words, grace and truth, is presented to us a summary of His life. To define them with precision is difficult ; but our purpose will be answered if we take grace as a designation of the gentler virtues, and truth of the manlier qualities of life. I. No one can thoughtfully read the life of Jesus without being forcibly struck with the ineffable GRACE combined with the resolute firmness which never deserts Him. There are men, "few and far between," who I '\- ■ *'' 58 THE CHARACTER OF JESU3. possess a secret indescribable charm which carries your mind captive. You cannot give a rational, intelligible account of it to yourselves or others; yet their mere presence has a mystic air, a hazy halo, which keeps you delighted and spell-bound. And as we read the Gospels we seem to see playing on their pages a thin film of glory ; the letters look illuminated. "A glory gilds the sacred page, Majestic like the sun." The Saviour's character is such as to forbid undue familiarity ; we feel constrained to shade our eyes as we look. Avowed infidels as well as Christians feel shy, almost reverent, in its hallowed presence. The disciples, no doubt, were keenly sensitive to this bright mystery without a name. Upon one occasion Peter — the rash, impetuous Peter — felt too timid to address to the Saviour a simple question, and was constrained to beckon to John to break the solemn silence. On another occasion the Sanhedrim despatched a file of officers to take Him in custody. There is not much diffi- culty in conceiving the character of these men. We all know the stuff constables and policemen are made of — recklessness, hardness, daring. But when they confronted the Saviour and heard Him speak, they were utterly paralysed; they retreated crestfallen, saying, " Never man spake like this man." His words, His looks. His manner quite unnerved the stern officers of the law in the discharge of their duty. Another time, in the synagogue in His ThB character of Jesus. 59 own home at Nazareth, " He stood up for to read, and the eyes of all them that were in the synagoj^ue Yt^ere fastened on Him, and they were astonished at His doctrine." He read not as other men. We read as if the words })roceeded from the parchment to us ; He read as if the words flashed from Him to the parchment, and thence to the congregation. Out of the deep fountain of His personality there flowed forth an irresistible stream of influence that always carried the heart cai)tive. " Full of grace." But He was, moreover, as remarkable for His firmness as for His suavity. He possessed an un- conquerable strength of will. Firnmess or strength is necessary to greatness of every kind ; it is the firpt essential of success. No one has ever achieved distinction without a solid rock at the centre of his personality, a firm basis to sustain the greatness. All the illustrious characters of history were men of undaunted will — a will that could not be swayed by favourable, nor crushed by untoward circumstances. Men of feeble will never leave their mark on their generation. " Reuben, unstable as water, thou shalt not excel." Jesus Christ, however, possessed this tenacity of purpose in an extraordinary degree. " Eepentance was hid from His sight ; " He never for a moment wavered. " He shall not fail nor be discouraged," said the prophet ; which means that His spirit should not faint because of the magnitude of the task He had undertaken, nor be broken because of the dread opposition He should encounter. The stronger the wind the higher soars the eagle, and the greater the danger the more determined was !J 'mm m:^ 6o TtlE CHARACtER OF jEStJS. He to go up to Jerusalem. Not only He successfully Poood the test of adversity, but He triumphantly stood the more searching test of prosperity. How few the men who can pursue their purpose without swerving in the genial breeze of popularity ! Here Mahomet utterly collapses. When he returns from Medina, sweeping at last all enemies out of his path, as the prophet of a new faith and the leader of an awakened and repentant people, his biographer pauses to notice the lowering of the standard both in his life and teaching. Power, he pleads, brings with it new temptations and new failures. " The more thoroughly a man is carried away by his inspiration and convinced of the truth and goodness of his cause and his message, the more likely is he to forget tht means in the end, and to allow the end to justify whatever means seem to lead to its triumph. He must maintain as he can, and by any means, his power over the motley mass of followers that his mission has gathered round him, and will be apt to aim rather at what will hold them than at what will satisfy the highest promptings of his own conscience, " We may allow the plea in such cases, though with sorrow and humiliation. But the more minutely we examine the life of Christ, the more we shall feel that here again there is no place for it. We shall be impressed with the entire absence of any such bending to expediency, or forgetting the means in the end. He never for one moment accommodates His life or teaching to any standard but the highest ; never lowers or relaxe.'? that standard by a shade or THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. 6i a hair's-breadth to make the road easy to rich or powerful questioners, or to uphold the spirit of His poorer followers when they are startled and uneasy, as they begin half-blindly to recognise what spirit they are of." " Full of truth." II. He brings together in sweetest harmony the FEMININE and MASCULINE virtues. In the expressive language of St. Paul, He was " made of a woman," — language which carries in it an unsearchable wealth of meaning. He was in an emphatic sense "the seed of the woman." This explains partly the feminine traits everywhere dis- coverable in His character. Every great man, it has been often remarked, especially every poetic genius, is strongly marked by womanly softness and delicacy, the countenance, the passions, and the life having in them a strong feminine element. This must be so; for every man is great in proportion as he takes up in his own personality and reflects in his own life, not one, but all phases of human nature. By universal consent Jesus Christ reproduces in Himself all the finer qualities of the female sex. It is not without profound significance, therefore, that St. John ascribes to him the " breasts " of a woman, to show the depth, the sensitiveness, and the constancy of His love and devotion. " And in the midst of the candlesticks I saw one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle." " Paps " — fiaarohy the very word used to denote the breasts of a woman, as distinguished from M u'lljl f . i tiHHIi ■ 1 iipi' b^i' 1 km 62 THE CHARACTER OF JKSUS. those of a man. Oh, the inefifable tenderness of the Saviour's heart ! It has been often urged, to the disparagement of Christianity, that modern civilisation lacks a certain severity of tone and simplicity of manners very observable in classic antiquity ; and the charge is not without a plausible foundation. But to argue that the lack is a los^ or a step backward is quite another thing. In ancient times woman occupied a very inferior position ; her influence upon society Was hardly perceptible; consequently she scarcely entered as a moulding power into education and civilisation. There was a certain severe hardness, or hardiness, if you like, characterising men of classical lands. But Jesus Christ came into the world " made of a woman," reproducing in His person and life the finer features of a woman. By His means female influence became a factor in the history of the world,' and entered as a softening, transforming element into education and civilisa- tion ; and as an inevitable result the severe manly hardness of olden times has been nmch tempered. The equipoise has not hitherto been definitely fixed, for the world is only in its transition state ; but the recognised ideal of Christianity is indisputable — it is the happy union of masculine simplicity and firmness with feminine delicacy and grace. In classical time? the prevailing form of art was sculpture. The hard stone was fetched from the rock, and carefully chiselled and elaborately polished to represent the "human form divine." Their sculpture exhibited a simplicity, a severity, a chaste THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. 63 grandeur which far outstrips all efforts of modern af^es. Indeed, a vast change has imperceptibly stolen over the minds of men, which is seen in the fact that whereas sculpture was the prevailing form of art among the Greeks, painting is the prevailing form among Christians. "We have not been able to cope with the ancients in marble, but it is generally admitted, I believe, that we have greatly surpassed them on canvas. But why has painting superseded sculpture ? Because painting is more feminine, and therefore more capable of expressing the softer, gentler virtues. It is the female face of art. One may say with tolerable accuracy that fine art is the creation of Christianity. Art there unmistakably was in the world before — splendid, severe, pure, strong ; but we can hardly pronounce it fim. Christianity has softened men, it has softened manners, it has softened art.*^^ The heathen ideal was truth ; the Christian ideal is grace and truth. III. In Jesus Christ we see brought into per- fect accord feeling and knowledge, heart and intellect. No one can read the Gospels without being deeply impressed by the exquisite sensibility of the Saviour. There is more heart in the Gospels than in all other uooks put together. Out of the fountain of feeling contained in them has flowed what grace there is in other books and other men. Men and books must join in the apostolic exclamation, — " Out of His fulness have we all received, and grace for grace." * See my " Studies in St. Matthew." .■'■:^i.- '■' 13 > t% . \ 'A \ ( \\\ 64 THE CHARA.CTER OF JESUS. The fact is, the heart was systematically crushed under ancient forms of civilisation. Sensibility was deemed a sign of weakness. Hence men were carefully trained to steel themselves against pain and misfortune, to repress, and, if possible, to eradi- cate all feeling. Tears for one's Self or others were judged symptoms of unmanliness, if not of cowardice. By degrees this prevalent tone of mind framed itself into a philosophy, the noblest outcome of ancient civilisation. Stoicism inculcated hardness. Man should suffice for himself and rise superior both to joy and sorrow. He was to wage fierce war with his emotional nature and smite all feeling with the edge of the sword. Stoicism considered it unmanly to weep, to groan in the spirit, to be touched with feeling for the sins and suff'erings of men. Wherefore the ideal Greek face has in it not a vestige of feeling. " The Greeks seek after wisdom.." The Greek face is noted for high breed and intelligence, but is never suff'used with the glow of feeling ; it never, or seldom, blushes ; not a muscle moves. If you hap- pen to have in your possession a copy of the Greek Apollo, turn to it on your return home, and you cannot but observe how motionless the face is, how haughty, how utterly devoid of lOve and sympathy. The Athenian was all intellect, but had no heart. How different is Jesus Christ ! In Him we witness a dignity of bearing, a loftiness of purpose, and a nobleness of life which never show to better advantage than when compared with the highest ideals of Greek culture. But at the same time He eyinces a depth of eii^otion, a delicacy of feeling, my But give THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. 65 quite foreign to them. The Greek impresses ua with subtlety of intellect, the Christ with subtlety of heart. As we contemplate the Greek, we are constrained to exclaim, How clever ! As we con- template the Christ, we are obliged to cry, How good ! There is in Him an unfathomable depth of feeling. Some time ago I vent to see " The Shadow of Death," by Holman Hunt. From some depre- ciatory criticisms I had read, I was prepared to have my attention distracted by multiplicity of details. But no. The moment I ert'ired the apartment the Christ arrested my attention and steadily kept it for about half an hour; and my admiration con- tinued to increase to the end. But that which is deeper than admiration, the sentiment akin to reverence and worship, was but faintly stirred. Why ? Because there was not a sufficient depth of feeling in the figure and the face. There was pain, but of too shallow a nature to become the Saviour. It did not melt into sorrow. We demand a richer background of feeling in the Christ of the painter. But why do we demand it ? Because we find it in the Christ of the Gospels, and it is this Christ which has created the demand in our hearts. In every representation of Christ we require an infinite ocean of pathos; we want, not a photograph, but a picture. There is in the picture as it is more feeling than the ancients wanted or cared for; less emotion would have abundantly satisfied their highest ideals. Indeed a Stoic, whereas he would give to the execution — the handiwork — his greatest admiration, would contemplate the figure of the lit 'I m. ,i ' 4 66 THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. Christ with derision ; to him the expression of pain in the face, with nothing apparently to cause it save > a hard day's work, v/oiild be deemed unmistakable evidence of weakness and effeminacy. In this respect, however, the Christ of the 6o.:pels has revolutionised society — He has created a new type of civilisation. " Behold, all things are made new." Greek civilisation started from the mind and aimed at mind-culture ; Christian civilisa- tion starts from the heart and aims at heart-culture. The Greek strove after wisdom, believing that the light was the life of men ; the Christian seeks after goodness, which is spiritual life, believing that "the life is the. light of men." One believed that light is life, the other believes that life is light. Plato wrote over the portico of his academy, " No admittance except for mathematicians" — knowledge was the con- dition of entrance into his kingdom. Jesus Christ said, " Except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." Life was the condition of entrance into His kingdom. Heathen civilisation was based upon mental culture. Christian civilisa- tion is founded upon moral culture. Hence feeling, sympathy, tenderness, enter more largely, since the Incarnation, into the annals of mankind. No system of education can be pronounced complete, which aims more at the development of the mind than at that of the heart. Art is Christian in propor- tion as it makes the heart supreme, and knowledge subservient to feeling. Poetry too has undergone? a corresponding change. Whilst Christian poets can never hope to excel classic bards in finish and polish, yet they have '''il; THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. 67 excelled them and will excel them in delicacy and pathos. The ancient writers are by no means devoid of affections, for they were men; "but," as one has rightly remarked, "affections with them were looked on with mistrust and misgiving ; it was the proper thing to repress, to disown them ; they forced their way, like some irresistible cur- rent, through a hard stern crust, too often in the shape of passion, and were not welcomed and honoured when they came." The Greek sought mind in all things ; the Christian seeks a heart. Hence it is that Goethe, who fashioned his life on the Greek principle and wrote his poetry on the Greek model, is not able to awake any po\verful response in the Christian world. He was very polished, very penetrating, but very cold withal. The radical principle of his life was heathen — he was a modern Stoic, a man naturally endowed with ex- quisite feeling, but who systematically and selfishly crushed it till he became polished as an Apollo Belvedere, and as an Apollo Belvedere without a heart. " He took the suffering human race, He read each wound,, each weakness c»ear ; He struck Ids finger on the place, And said, * Thou ailest here and here.' He looked on Europe's dying hour Of fitful dreams and feverish power, And said, ' Tlie end is everywhere, Art still has truth, take refuge there.' And he was happy, if to know Causes of things, and far below His feet, to see the lurid flow Of trouble and insane distress And headlong fate, be happiness." Hi!i "i n > 6S THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. Like an ancient philosopher he cared for nothing but mental culture ; he had no heart to feel for poor humanity in its deadly struggles ; he kept aloof in proud, selfish, unchristian isolation, the greatest of the Stoics and the last of the Greeks. IV. In "Tim ^^' • see brought together in beautiful pro^.ltion ilte A. TIVE AND THE PAtiSIVE VIRTUES. The e£v th v;it; full of violence, and consequently of suffering, from th^ beginning of time, but man- kind had never learnt to suffer worthily. And of all tasks this, perhaps, is about the hardest, — to suffer in the right spirit. Yet Jesus taught it and prac- tised it. A great principle underlying His life and ministry is non-resistance ; not non-resistance to evil, but non-resistance to wrong. No one was ever more active and energetic than He in His stern, unrelenting, uncompromising opposition to wicked- ness in high and low places alike ; but what strikes us more forcibly still is His unprecedented meek- ness under wrong. "Asa sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth." Listen to the fundamental principle of His moral philosophy : " Ye have heard that it hath been said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." That was the taproot of Jewish and heathen civil life — evil was to be requited with evil. "But I say unto you. That ye resist not evil ; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain." Again : " Ye have heard that it hath been said. Thou shalt love thy neighbour and THE CHARACTER OP JESUS. 69 I -4,- hate thine enemy." That was the maxim upon which the worthiest of ancient saints and sages framed th^ir conduct. " T3ut I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefuUy use ycu and persecute you." These are ab olr jly new principles of life and action, which have called into existence a new class of virtues, virtues which you seek for in vain in ancient history, whether Jewish or heatlien. But did the Saviour do more than teach tl. m ? Did He practise them? The Apostle Peter iha'i answer — " When He was reviled, He revi^bJ noo again ; when He suffered. He threatened xioi ' but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously." He suffered patiently. Indeed, He nevei :-( wered so sublimely as in His sufferings. He was heroic in the exercise of strength, more heroic in the exercise of patience. He was great — doing ; He was greater — suffering. He was Divine — living ; He was more Divine — dying. The greatness of Jesus culmi- nates in His passion and death. Here, without a doubt. He leaves all the heroes and sages and saints of antiquity immeasurably behind. Some bring forward Socrates as a wortliy rival for the honours which come from the majesty of suffering. But what says Eousseau, a writer by no means friendly to the Christian religion ? "I will confess to you, that the majesty of the Scriptures strikes me with admiration, as the purity of the Gospel has its in- fluence on my heart. Peruse the works of our philosophers, with all their pomp of diction, how '■ ■ il II Ji" 10 THE CIIAUACTKft OK JKSU3. mean, bow contomptiblo arc tlu;y, conipari'd with the Scrii)turos ! Is it possible that a book, at once so simple ami so sublime, slioultl be merely the work of man ? Is it ])ossibl(; that the sacred Personage whose history it contains should be Himself a mere man ? Do we find that ]fe assumed the tone of an enthusiast or andntious sectary ? What sweetness, what i^urity in His manner! What an afVccting gracefulness in His instructions! Wh^jt sublimity in His maxims ! What profound wisdom in His discourses! What i)resence of ndud, what subtlety, wliat fitness in His replies! How great the com- mand over His passions! Where is the man, where the philosopher, who could so live and so die, with- out weakness, and without ostentation ? When Plato describes his imaginary righteous man, loaded with all the punishments of guilt, yet meriting the highest re\vards of virtue, he describes exactly the character of Jesus Christ: the resemblance is so striking that all the Church Fathers perceived it. What prepossession, what blindness must it be to compare the son of Sophroniscus to the son of Mary! What an infinite disproportion there is between them I Socrates, dying without pain or ignominy, easily supported his character to the last; and if this easy death had not crowned his life, it might have been doubted whether Socrates, with all his wisdom, was anything more than a mere sophist. He invented, it is said, the theory of ethics. Others, however, had before put them into practice : he had only to say, therefore, what they had done., and to reduce their examples to precepts. Aristides had sngi tHE CIIAKACTEU OP JESU^. 7t been just before Socrates defined justice. Lcoiiidas had ^iven up his life for his country before Socrates dechired patriotism to be a (iuty. The Spartans were h sober people before Socrates recommended sobriety. IJefore lie liad even defined virtue, Greece abounded in virtuous men. But where could Jesus learn, among His contemporaries, that pure and sublime morfility of which He only has given us both precei)t and example ? Tlie greatest wisdom was made known imong the most bigoted fanaticism; and the simplicity of the most heroic virtues did honour to the; vilest people on earth. The death of Socrates, peacefully ])hilosophising among friends, api)ears i-he most agreeable that one could wish : that of Jesus, expiring in agonies, abused, insulted, and accursed by a whole nation, is the most horrible that one could fear. Socrates, indeed, in receiving the cup of poison, blessed the weeping executioner who administered it; but Jesus, amidst excruciating tortures, prayed for His merciless tormentors. Yes, if the life and death of Socrates were those of a soge, the life and death of Jesus are 'those of a God." Verily His death, contrary to all expectation, forces upon us the idea of a God in a manner more remarkable than His life. There is in it something so supremely grand, so utterly foreign to our nature and experience, so decisively superhuman, that we are obliged to exclaim with the centurion, " Truly this was the Son of God." A bleeding, dying God was totally alien to the ideas of this Eoman official and contrary to his prevailing habits of thought ; yet he found it easier to believe it was a God that iff 't. i 1 »• ?2 tllE CIIAKACTEU OF JESUS. was nailed to the shameful tree than that mere man should suffer so gloriously and superbly. As already intimL^ted, by His incomparable teaching and noble example, He has originated in the human race a new type of goodness, tliat based on non-resistance of wrong. "For this is thank- worthy, 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 take it patiently ? but if, when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called ; because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow His steps." Thus the blessed Saviour has consecrated suffering. He has shown that there is a higher heroism than that whicli is manifested in the exercise of power, even that which is manifested in the exercise of patience. He has taught the world that to endure with meekness entitles us to the rank of greatness as well as to act with vigour. The angels, announcing to the shepherds of Bethlehem the birth of Christ the Lord, said — " This shall be a sign unto you : ye shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." Poverty is made a sign of divinity, an idea novel and startling. The Palestinian public gave utterance to the world's idea of divinity, when they desired Him that He would show them a sign from heaven. They wanted Him to do something, they craved for a glaring display of miracles. " But Jesus answered and said unto THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. fi them, A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign ; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas; for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." This reference to Jonah's adventure in the fish's belly, and our Lord's three days' burial in the earth, is looked upon by a few able critics as an unwarrant- able interpolation, giving a false turn to the con- versation. But they seem to me to miss the main point of the argument. The Jews said, "What sign showest thou unto us ? What doest thou ? " In accordance with the broad current of the world's thought at the time they wanted him to do some- thing. " You shall have a sign," answered Christ ; " it will not, however, consist in doing but in suffering. You require me to work like a God : I mean to give you something better, — I mean to suffer like a God. Others have performed miracles before me, and others will perform them after me ; but I shall give you a sign which none other gave, • a sign peculiar to myself, a sign prefigured in the history of the prophet Jonah — / shall die. My death shall prove My Divinity. It is on My sufferings that I shall base My claims to Divine honours." And, singular to say, the great indubit- able proof of the Saviour's Divinity is not His miracles, for oiliers have performed miracles, but the sign of the prophet Jonah — His death, burial, and resurrection. The memorable words of thj French freethinker come back upon us with ten- H THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. fold power, — " If the life and death of Socrates were those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus are those of a God." To die as Christ died is more divine than to open the eyes of the blind. Self-sacrilice, such as Christ made on Calvary, is more godlike than the creation of the worlds. Do you want to grow like God ? Then grow like Jesus Christ. Cultivate the passive- virtues ; practise self-denial Did godlikeness consist in superior power or knowledge, then verily the out- look of many of us were dreary enough. But it consists in nothing of the kind, it consist emphati- cally in self-sacrifice. And we can all grow god- like in that, we can all develop into the dimensions of heioism in the passive virtues. Our advantages in th-at respect are all on a par. We must beware of supposing that, when Jesus Christ lived in poverty, and died on a cross, He was belying the character of God. He was not belying it but revealing it. Poverty is divine, not wealth. Self- sacrifice is the eternal law of the Divine nature, not self- aggrandisement. The Lord Jesus revealed the passive virtues of the Supreme Being, and thereby constituted them the deepest and most essential pro- perties of Christian civilisation. " He hath left us an example that we should follow His steps." " Full of grace and truth." V. In Jesus Christ we behold the Eeal kissing the Ideal. He realised in daily life the highest ideal human- ity has ever been able to couv'-eive. The most The character of Jesus. fi ethereal aspirations find in Him ample fulfilment. Man's ideas were always far in advance of his noblest achievements. Therefore the Miise was believed to have wings, for she flew high over the tops of the tallest realities. All efforts to raise the actual into the ideal, to elevate everyday life into chaste and holy poetry, had been signal failures. But in the Gospels we have depicted to us a life full at the same time of the divinest poetry and the sheerest reality. It is one consistent, magni- ficent poem, out of which have been evolved the fairest, noblest conceptions of modern art ; but it is also truest prose, for all the ideas are rooted and grounded in corresponding facts. It is the most remarkable, one might almost say, the most sen^ sational novel ever, penned, and yet the truest, soberest history ever recorded. Its perfection as poetry is our surest guarantee of its veracity as history. For, to quote Rousseau once more, " shall we suppose the evangelical history a mere fiction ? Indeed, it bears no marks of fiction. On the con- trary, the h' story of Socrates, which no one pre- sumes to doubt, is not so well attested as that of Jesus Christ. Such a supposition, in fact, only shifts the difficulty without obviating it: it is more inconceivable that a number of persons should agree to write such a history, than that one should furnish the subject of it. The Jewish authors were incap- able of the diction, and strangers to the morality contained in the Gospel. The marks of its truth are so striking aUv^ inimitable, that the inventor would he a 'more astonishing character than the hero." I 1 a ■ H- ?6 THE CHAtlACTEll OP JESUS. In other quarters we discover a little grace and a little truth ; in Jesus Christ alone we find them in immeasurable, inexhaustible plenitude. As we examine the Old Testament Scriptures, we come across streams of grace and truth; but they are streams in the desert, which soon dry up, and we are left longing for the sea« Imagination always exceeds the fact, the poetry is grander than the reality. But when we come to the New Testament and contemplate the life of Jesus, history outstrips imagination, truth appears more wonderful than fiction. We can imagine a larger fulness of grace than anything we perceive in the Old Testament ; but we can imagine no richer grace than is ex- hibited in the life and death of the Saviour ; indeed, we could imagine nothing so divinely grand and impressive, Eeality transcends imagination, facts for once fly higher than fancy. " Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." A greater love than this — love dying for friends — imagination had not, could not picture, without suspecting that it was belying itself. Read classic poetry which recounts the deeds of valour and love and patriotism, and in no instance does the genius of the poet dare go beyond the sacrifice of life for country and friends. " For scarcely for a righteous man wouid one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die." The imagination would not adventure beyond the limits laid down here — death for good- ness — without the painful misgiving that it was indulging in wild, unlawful fancies ; fancies not only THE CHARACTEB OF JESUS. 77 ili m above nature, but against nature. But the Gospel fearlessly exceeds these limits — it posits as its central fact, not death on behalf of the good, but death on behalf of the bad. " God commendeth His love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." " Imagination's utmost stretch In wonder dies away." VI. In Him we see the Human gently melting into the Divine. "We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father." The word here rendered " beheld " means literally to " look at intently, to contemplate." Accordingly, in order to see the Divine glory of Christ, it is necessary to gaze lovingly and steadily at Him. He moves before our vision in the form of a man ; we must continue to look inquiringly and affectionately before we can penetrate through the outward guise and perceive the inner splendour. The noblest objects never disclose their best meaning at first sight. Sir Joshua Reynolds says that, when he first visited Italy to make the acquaintance of the celebrated masterpieces of art, he was much cast down. The renowned masters maintained towards him a quiet and dignified silence, they refused to confide to him their thoughts. He gazed steadfastly at the wondrous pictures whose fame had filled the world, and could not behold their glory. Persevering, however, in his studies, the pictures gradually began, one after another, to raise their veils, and permit him to have an occa- ■j'lii'i m 78 THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. sional peep at their rare beauty ; they softly whis- pered to him a few of their secrets; and as he continued unwavering in his devotion, they at last flung away their reserve, showed themselves with an open face, and revealed to him the wealth of beautiful ideas that was lodged in them. As with pictures, so with characters. The diviner the life, the closer the inspection requisite to understand it. If we begin in the remote past, with Samson and Hercules, we shall not experience any very formidable difficulties in grasping the principle which fashioned their characters. The story of their lives is comparatively simple, having strength for a foundation. But as we wend our way down to later times, we come across more Gpmplex characters ; new factors come into operation; and the process of analysis is harder of a successful accomplishment. But of all characters, ancient or modern, none demand so much intent gazing as that of Jesus Christ. Potences perfectly novel ii\ the history of the world exert their subtle influence; the Human and the Divine, the Grace and the Truth, are so closely associated, that not at once do we grasp the radical idea, and perceive its subdued, tempered beauty. The depth and manifoldness of Christ's character fo^m the reason for the well-nigh two hundred Lives and Harmonies which have been launched upon the world. A ditticult character to understand fully, for its beauty only grows upon us by degrees. Every age discovers a new trait ; ever)' fresh generation perceives a fresh excellence; and tlms from ar:e co age He increases in loveliness in THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. 79 the estimation of men. He continues to reveal to the loving earnest gaze His glory, " the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father." Doubtless the words contain a reference to the "lory orShekinah of the old dispensation., which dwelt in tlie tabernacle in the wilderness, and afterwards in the temple at Jerusalem. The superior tabernacle of the new economy, the tabernacle of His flesh, can boast of a Shekinah too, not a physical effulgence striking the eye of sense, but a holy brightness showing itself to the reverent and affectionate look of the soul. " We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father." "As of" — befitting, becoming, beseeming. There are various kinds of glory, such as that of the philosopher, of the statesman, and of the warrior. But the glory of the Saviour's character was of that specific kind and degree, which the instincts of humanity have always pronounced to be "befitting" a Divine . Person. This singular " fitness " is one of the most coj^ent proofs we have in support of the proper Divinity of tlie Person of Christ. His affirmations conce ing Himself would not alone suffice to engender lief in His personal Godhead : the miracles H , per- formed, in their bare capacity of mighty w :ders, would not of themselves suffice. What thei. pro- duced the belief ? The marked fitness ^A ich His character always and everywhere bore to God. His hfe was such as befitted God. What is becoming and unbecoming in the Supreme we cannot definitely declare beforehand; yet in the light of the moral ■ w^\ ^ fifiiii' 1 lifll^ 1 \f:'' ^ 1 k iiw m 1 IP 8o THE CHARA.CTER OF JESUS. principles He has implanted in our nature, we can judge of what is not becoming. That the character of our best earthly friend would not be becoming in God we know assuredly ; there is a manifest un- fitness in it to the Divine Being. But the most exacting and sensitive of critics must confess tliat the character of Jesus is quite becoming in the Highest. The saintliest men and women • in the world picture God of just such a character as the Saviour's without doing any outrage to their best trained and most enlightened moral feelings. Jesus Christ presents us not only with our most exquisite ideal of human character, but with our loftiest and most perfect ideal of the Divine character. No inci- dent in His variegated history, no leature in His trying life, can be pointed out, which would in the slightest degree tarnish the brightness of the Eternal Essence. The fact that His character is always and everywhere worthy of a God is to me an in- vincible proof that He is Himself Divine. He greatly altered the world's views of God, but in no case did He lower them. He altered them, but the alteration was always from a lower plane to a higher. We instinctively feel that where His views came into collision with those already in vogue. His were the more worthy. Prior to His time, men's conception of God was being continually refined, enlarged, improved ; but after His time the greatest geniuses of the world have never been able to improve on the Gospel conception that is embodied in His life and teaching. Eationalists never weary of tellijig us, " He was THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. 8i only a man, a great man, if you like, but nothing more." We answer, He was a man, no doubt ; but did you ever see a man more like a God? Can you conceive of the character of God as differing in any material point from the character of Jesus ? I confess I cannot. I look over the register of the noble men of the past, and I see no one whose character can be transferred in its entirety to God without violently shocking my sense of propriety. But I feel I can transfer the character of Christ in its integrity to the Lord of Hosts, without degrading in the least degree my loftiest idea of Him. How to account for it ? He was a perfect man, you say. True ; but how is it that He, of all the millions of earth, should be perfect ? How is it that His charac- ter alone becomes the Almighty ? Th<^. Tvangelist solves the problem by concluding that IJ*. was God, and I confess that that is the only adequate solution that offers itself to my reason and heart. He is so like God that I am constrained to believe that He is God. More : I am obliged to believe that He is the God of the Unitarians — the noblest of them, I mean. He embodies their highest conception, not only of human, but also of the Pivine perfection. They conceive of God and Jesus as distinct personalities, and rightly so ; but when they come to think of the character of God, they at once pass over to that of Jesus. The metaphysical God they, conceive as different from Jesus, the ethical God as one and the same. With their intellects they deny Him, with their hearts many of them worship Him. And F jlffH! IP 82 THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. after all, it is the heart-worship that is of supreme importance. Some of their representative writers hel^ me to worship the Lord Jesus, — they seem to me to worship Him devoutly themselves, not with all the mind perhaps, but with all the heart. From this standpoint it is that I would address the honest Unitarian and endeavour to win him over to the faith of the Church. According to his belief and ours, Jesus Christ is the highest revelation of God ; and the question is — Could any one l)e so like God without being God ? The perfection of His humanity is to me a proof of His Divinity. " The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only-begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth." ( 83 ) V. Cfie 2£le&ealer of CKoti. " No man hath seen God at any time ; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." — John i. i8. In verse 14th the Evangelist says that he and his fellow-disciples had "beheld the glory of Christ, glory as of the only-begotten of the Father." But was that all? No; not only they had beheld His glory, but had received of His fulness, and grace for grace. It was a great privilege to behold His glory, a greater privilege to receive of His fulness. " FoT the law was given by Moses ; but grace and truth cf^me by Jesus Christ." The law was not identical with Moses ; it existed apart from him and was quite independent of him. " The law was given through Moses " as a matter of fact ; but it might have been given through another organ, through Joshua or David or Isaiah. There was no intrinsic necessity that it should be given through Moses any more than through some other servant of God. Grace and truth, however, cannot be thus separated from Jesus Christ ; they are indissolubly aud essentially connected with His person. Grace a«id truth could not come by any other being ; Jesus CJirist was the only one who could effect theiy ^^^Pf! I- i t II mm' ' 84 THE KEVEALER OF GOD. realisation. " Grace and truth came — became — by- Jesus Christ." The law came by Moses to the world, but not to bein^jj ; but grace and truth not only came to the world by Jesus Christ, but they came to being by Him. They "bccajnc" by Jesus Christ, the very same word that is used for making the worlds in the opening verses. No other person, how exalted soever, could make this revelation, for the simple reason that no other had seen God at any time ; " the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." The subject is — Jesus Christ, the Bcvcaler of God. I. He declared the Unity of God. II. He declared the Spirituality of God. III. He declared the Goodness of God. I. Jesus Christ declared the Unity of God. By this we do not understand that this truth was absolutely unknown before His. advent, but that it received new importance and fresh vitality in the religion He established. I. There is but one God — a very vital truth. Whence came it ? From Nature ? Let us ask the pupils of Nature, the numerous nations of antiquity. How many Gods are there ? What has Nature taught them ? We inquire not what Nature has tar.ght us, who have sat at the Master's feet, but what she taught men of olden times. Or, perhaps, it were more accurate to ask, not what Nature taught, but what men learnt ? We shall ask one of the first and most elementary questions of our tl THE UEVEALEli OF GOD. 85 religion — H .\^ many Oods ar(3 there ? They answer loudly and un^uiimously, " There are f^ods many and lords many." All men, left to the unaided guidance of Nature, would vote for plurality of gods. I allirni not that Nature teaches polytheism, but I do affirm that the nations, without exception, learnt polytheism in her school. In the light of modern science we can trace a principle of unity extending through all the dominions of God and welding them together into a universe ; the same laws govern the dewdrops that govern the planets ; we distinctly perceive the unity of plan. But the ancient populations of the earth possessed not our mdans of judging of the unity of creation ; to their minds everything was discord and confusion. From the advantageousness of our position we are able to attempt a philosophy of history ; we do not see very far nor very clearly as yet, but we see quite enough to convince us that in history as in Nature the law of progress prevails. But the men of olden times could not, in the nature of things, have discovered this principle of unity in Providence ; they had not advanced far enough in the path of life to be able to examine and form a judgment of the way along which they had travelled. To their minds history was made up of conflicts and antagonisms. The mildest departure from the monotheistic faith was that of Persia and the adjoining countries. Their populations looked around, and beheld, as we behold, the presence of light and darkness, of good and evil. These two powers were in perpetual, antagonism, dinning the ears of men with their :ii' W \*^ ^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 1.25 ■so "^* ^ us. 12.0 I II U 116 V PhotDgraphic Sdences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716)«72-4S03 ^4^ ^6 THE RfiVEALER Of OOt). discord. How to account for them ? You, per- haps, have ingenious theories founded on the concise but startling statements of Moses in the opening chapters of Genesis. But they had no Moses, no Book of Genesis. They had to sttre the bare facts in the face, solve them as they might. Good and evil are in the world ; their enmity is impla- cable ; their warfare incessant. Whence came they ? From the same fountain? Nay; for a "fountain doth not send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter." Do good and evil, light and darkness, emanate from the same Being ? Impossible, they answered ; impossible, we answer. So far, so good. How then to account for the difficulty ? They accounted for it by creating a greater ; they adopted a creed in which there were two gods, Ormuzd and Ahriman, a god of good and a god of eviL Two "gods — what a contradiction in terms ! It is evident there cannot be two infinite gods ; two infinities is a matter of impossibility. Two Beings alike absolute and unconditioned, are un- thinkable. Their gods were, therefore, necessarily finite ; and once you divest God of His infinitude, you can go on multiplying gods as often as you please. If you deny infinite Being, your nature demands infinite number. The human spirit de- mands infinitude; and if it be denied it in great- ness, it will have it in numbers. Men forsook the infinite God ; hence they invented an infinite num- ber of small gods. The. world, left to itself, would go on multiplying gods for ever. " It was easier to find a god in Athens than a man : " and it is con- tHE HEVEAT.ER of god. 8;^ fidently averred that there are more gods to-day than there are men on the face of the entire globe, that the objects of worship far outnumber the offerers of worship. The human soul cannot rest but in the infinite ; it must have it, if not in fulness of existence, then in fulness of figures. The earth was literally full of gods. Nature never led her zealous devotees to a faith in one God. 2. Turn from Nature to philosophy. Philosophy and idolatry, it is known, were attached twins. . The city of Athens was the privileged centre of learning, " for all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing." Know- ledge was a mania in the city. Did that complete their history ? No ; " for while Paul waited at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry." The capital of philosophy is also the centre of idolatry. But there were a few who were conscious of the gross, immoral idolatry prevalent in the city ; they dared ridicule the graven images; they ventured to throw out suspicious insinuations. But what had they to offer instead ? Nothing at all. They seemed to seriously doubt the truth of polytheism; some, perhaps, might have thought in the inner recesses of their hearts that it was altogether a colossal system of falsehood on the part of the priests, and of delusion on the part of the people. But what truth had they to offer as a substitute ? Nothing. The alternative lay between polytheism and athe- ism. None of them mounted up to the calm serene J. li ■i * ' f V ; < I i< k-it 8g THE REVEALER OP GOt). regions of pure monotheism. One here and there, it is true, a Socrates and a Plato, gave utterance to glorious, lofty truths ; they appear to have had dim conceptions of one Supreme Being. But theirs were transient visions rather than settled, vivifying convictions — lightnings rather than light. To their thinking the existence of inferior deities was not inconsistent with that of the Lord of all; accord- ingly they did not denounce idolatry as such, nor cease to practise it. Socrates, no doubt, was a martyr to goodness, but not to the unity of God, for on his deathbed he ordered a fowl to be sacri- ficed on his behalf to the god ^Esculapius. i Besides, the idea of one God, supreme among the many, was counteracted in its influence by the absurd notion — absurd to us, but not to them — that in proportion to His greatness was He removed from the ordinary affairs of mankind. The greater He was, the less important to men. He had retired to a lovely spot, far beyond the farthest rim of the horizon, where He enjoyed Himself in tranquillity and serene repose, and gave Himself no concern about the struggling, seething, suffering mass of humanity. The government of this lower world He had entrusted to feudal gods. These small gods it was who concerned themselves about us ; these small gods it was that we were to implore, to mollify, and to adore. The golden ages of philosophy were the very ages wherein idolatry was most rife. 3. This truth, conspicuous chiefly for its absence in Greek and Eoman literature, occupies a very prominent place in the literature of the Hebrews. ir TiiE reVealer 0^ dot. 89 In the Old Testament the unity of God is the prominent idea; it is impressively and repeatedly inculcated in its pages. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." " Is there a God besides me ? Yea, there is no God ; I know not any." " I am God, and there is none else." That was the language of the Jew's creed, but not of the Jew's heart. The creed was not of his own composition ; the creed was Divine, not human. Were the Jew allowed to compose a creed, he would go in for gods many and lords many. This monotheistic creed was forced, so to speak, upon the Jewish nation. There is not a single human creed extant that teaches the unity of God. The Jewish creed teaches it, but its author is God. The Christian creed teaches it, but its author is the only-begotten Son. The Mahometan creed teaches it, but Ma< hornet incontostably borrowed it from the two former. These religions alone amid all the religions of th0 world teach it in our time, and the Jewish nation alone among all the nations of antiquity ; or rathe: not the Jewish nation, but the Jewish creed, for ofttimes the nation came into fearful collision with the creed. Every man on the face of the world, left to the workings of his own heart, is a polytheist. 4. The idea of one God, which Jesus Christ found inculcated so vehemently, but with such scant success, on the pages of the Old Testament, He appropriated and made the cardinal truth of the new religion. He amplified it, and imparted to it a vitality which it never possessed before. " There is none good but one, that is, God." " That they Hi! •■) " i- t 1 f ' '( i , I I ' , 1 » m 9t> T&B BETEALER Ot QOt. m' might know Thee, the only true God." " There is one God, and none other but He." "The King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God." But are there no minor deities, no inferior gods, watching over the affairs of this life ? No ; the great God performs all, does everything Himself. He makes the grass grow, clothes the lily, feeds the birds, mingles with men in their holy assemblies, watches over them in the forum and the market The wind shall not blow away a hair of your head " without your Father's " knowledge. The novelty of the doctrine of the Diving unity on the lips of Christ consists in this — He brings God very near man, representing Him as actively interesting Him- self in all our concerns. He is not a God dwelling in state and pomp far above the stars, and looking down from His exalted pedestal unfeelingly and unsympathetically on thegoys and agonies of earth; He is a living Eeality, an ever-near Presence, interesting Himself intensely in our welfare. That is the God which Christ revealed, the God of earth as well as of heaven, the God of the market as well as of the temple, the God of week- days as well as of Sundays. He brought God very near us. Judaism showed men a great God, but He was distant. Paganism showed them a near God, but He was small The great God of the Jew was ver^ far, the near God of the Greek was very small. In Christianity, however, we see the great God of the Jew without being far, and the near God of the Greek without being small. Here we behold the great God of Judaism united to the I li THE REVEALER OF OOD. ^t near God of Paganism, thus satisfying the reason- able requirements of both religions. The Israelite finds here^ the central truth of his religion — the great God ever distinct from the world. Here also the Greek finds the fundamental truth of his reli- gion — the near God interesting Himself in terres- trial affairs and ever exerting Himself on behalf of goodness. The great God is near ; the near God is great. No wonder, therefore, that the doctrine of the Divine unity as thus presented goes out con- quering and to conquer. Before the Incarnation this truth could hardly hold its own in the world, as is evidenced by the fact that only one small people believed it But since the Incarnation it has gone out propagating itself on the right and on the left Prior to the coming of Christ, gods were continually multiplying on the earth. But since His coming, their number has rapidly diminished. Europe at one time abounded with idols, but it has long been completely cleared of them ; and it is not a small thing to rid one continent throughout all its length and breadth of their baneful presence, and win it over to an unfaltering faith in the unity of God. The other continents are fast following. IL Jesus Christ declared the Spirituality of God. By this, again, we do not understand that the great truth that God is a Spirit was totally un- known to the ancient leaders of thought, but that it received from Christ a new impuise, a new power, and a new application. I. That God is a Spirit is a thought than which ' <•:• 'Vi U-IP I « il t i< ;|i n! U 'i nm i ^ ip ' mmni i> 1 94 THE REVEALER OF GOl). there is none more familiar to the modem mind "Whence came it ? From Nature ? Decidedly not. Every effect, it is true, necessarily demands a cause ; but a material effect can never hint, much less prove, a spiritual cause. Matter does not give the idea of spirit ; it cannot give F.n idea which is not in it We may bring the idea of spirit to material Nature, indeed, we do bring it daily ; but we do not derive it from Nature. Matter cannot give out that which is not in. 2. "Whence then came it? "We are conscious of something within us called mind. "We are told it is a substance essentially different from matter ; but this is the language of modem philosophy, which has borrowed more than it is willing to acknowledge from Christianity. And it is not the unanimous language of modern philosophy even. The most influential school at the present day emphatically denies that mind is in essence different from matter, what we call mind being only the natural result of the happy organisation of matter. What is this thinking, meditating element within me ? Ancient philosophy is lost in a hopeless labyrinth. A philo- sopher here and there seemed to cherish high, noble views of the soul, its nature and destiny ; but they did not represent the masses. Neither did they reflect the prevalent tone of mind among the edu- cated classes. Take by far the best of the ancient schools of philosophy — the Stoics. These men had culled all the choicest truths from all preceding systems and religions, and incorporated them into a new system. THE R4VEALER OF GOD. 93 Their teaching was p nummary of all that was good and fair and true in the heathen world. What was their idea of the Supreme Being ? Was He infinite ? No ;. they could not attach the idea of the infinite to anything save to the vacuum which encompasses \he univei-se. Was He incorporeal ? No ; they could *not attribute incorporeity to anything save to space. Tfiey conceived infinite Nothing, but not infinite Being. Between God and matter they recognised no radical, essential distinction. Ask them, What is God ? and they answer, " The ether which spreads itself over the exterior surface of the heavens." God was an ethereal, not a spiritual, sub- stance. He was refiined matter, not a Spirit, not a Person. 3. Let us now turn from heathen philosophy to the Hebrew Scriptures. Doubtless we find in the Old Testament very spiritual views of God, as much higher than the vague conjectures of heathenism as the heavens are above the tallest mountains of earth. But there is a vast difference between what is in a book and what is in the mind. The ideas in the Book of the Jew were pure and spiritual ; the ideas in the mind of the Jew were low and carnal. In proof of this I need only adduce the continual proneness of the Jewish nation to idolatry, which is materialism of the grossest kind. The Babylonish captivity, however, appears to have been an effectual antidote against the worship of graven images. The hand of a Jew never hewed an image since. Well then, did thev rise to nobler, worthier views li [.. te , 94 THE REVEALER OF GOD. i|i« J 1 of God ? Let us see. In the former y)art of their history, they continually ignored the law; in the latter, they worshipped it. Tliey worsliipped the law, not God. In the first period, from their deliverance out of E;,'ypt down to the Babylonish captivity, they made gods of wood and stone ; in the second, from the Babylonish captivity down to the advent of Christ, they made gods of letters. Instead of bowing to idols, they bowed to the alphabet, thus exchanging the worship of idols for the worship of words. The name Jehovah super- seded the Being Jehovah, — they bowed at the name, they sneered at the Being. The letters which spelt the name were more sacred in their eyes and received from them devouter homage than the Being whom the name denoted. And the worship of letters is always material ; and this is the worship England and the countries of modern civilisation generally threaten to fall into. There is no immi- nent danger that Englishmen will carve idols and bow the knee in adoration before blocks of wood and stone. But there is a strong probability that they will fall down and worship " letters ; " and it should never be forgotten that letter-worship is as idolatrous in its nature and as pernicious to true religion as image-worship. Practically it signifies but little which a nation worships, Milcom, the god of the children of Ammon, or the letter Aleph. Religiously it makes but little odds which a community adores, Ashtaroth, the goddess of the Sidonians, or the letter Beth. The Jews at the commencement of their career worshipped wood and stone ; at th^ close they THE REVE/'.ER OF OOD. 95 worshipped the alphabet In either case thoy fell infiDitely short of spiritual worship. Low, gross, degrading, carnal views of God were everywhere prevalent. Every spirit had vanished beyond the ken of mortal men. In heathendom, as we have seen, the grossest idolatry was rampant. In Judsea, among the Pharisees, formalism was dominant ; among the Sadducees, the aristocratic classes of society,, the rankest infidelity was rife. Everywhere the spirituality of God was forgotten or denied. . 4. At this crisis Jesus Christ makes His appear- ance on the arena of history, and proclaims, with an emphasis and a fulness of meaning before unknown, the sublime truth — " God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth." lliis declaration overwhelms us with its simplicity, purity, and grandeur. "Where," says Dr. Adam Clarke, and surely he knew something about this subject, " except here, is this saying, or one sub- stantially the same, God is a Spirit ? It is not in the law, it is not in the prophets, it is not in the Jewish commentators, and it has no parallel among the wise men of Greece and Rome. It is a declaration of God that was never made before, and contains an application or practical use of that declaration which till now was not fully under- stood, either by Jew or Gentile." " Not fully understood," said the learned doctor, the extent of whose erudition astonishes all his readers, and that is what I have been trying to inculcate in this 4iscourse. Doubtless others groped after this truth, I ' ' ! 96 TBS BBT1SALBR OF GOD. *m dimly expressed it, for how could they be men with imtnortal spirits in their breasts, and not do so ? But they never grasped it, never gave it full and adequate utterance. ' They had occasional glimpses of it, but they never caught it, never mastered it, and consequently never harnessed it to any system of worship. Jesus Christ was the first to focus the ancient thinkings — for thoughts there were none — of men on the subject. " God is a Spirit" — the greatest spirit, the most spiritual spirit. As there are degrees in the density of matter, so probably there are degrees in the rarity of spirits. ".No man hath seen God at any time ;" literally, "no one," nor man nor angel. Angels doubtless see each other, else fellowship between them were impossible ; but they cannot see God, His essence being too delicate. " The King eternal, immortal, invisible," where the Apostle makes in- visibility as much an incommunicable attribute of God as His eternity and immortality. "God is a Spirit : " on our peril therefore we teach that He is confined to any material temple. "God is a Spirit : " on our peril therefore we say that He is represented to either the eye of the body or the eye of the mind in a baked wafer. More : as the Israelites were prohibited to make a graven image of Him, so are we forbidden to form even a men- tal image of Him. God is not to be worshipped through any images, whether material or mental, but in the unpictured spirituality of His uncreated essence. THE REVEALER OF GOD. 97 III. Jesus Christ declared the Goodness of God. I. The prominent feature in the God of Nature is power, not goodness, not love. The creation discourses to me in language elcquont and grand of the power of the Highest; but the idea of bare power, without some further knowledge of its character, would create dismay rather than trust. Suppose a man-of-war were to visit a barbarous isle ; the inliabitants see the stately ship moving onwards in superb majesty, and sending forth dense columns of smoke and steam. They are at once vividly impressed with its enormous power; but the idea of its power, without some further know- ledge of the character and intentions of the hands on board, strikes wild terror into their hearts. What if the strangers come to kidnap our children, to plunder our homes, to burn our villages ! The idea of power, without some further knowledge of its character, is very discomforting. In like manner the power of God is seen in the moaning surge of the ocean, in the sturdy pride of the oak, in the enduring firmness of the mountain. " The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead." In Nature His power is more readily seen than any- thing else. But the conception of an Eternal Power, without some further knowledge of His character, produces alarming apprehensions rather than de- lightful anticipations. True, God is mighty; but I have insulted His might, offered indignity to His name, and " defied the Omnipotent to arms." What ( ♦' • IS-l? MM if c ■ ) f ill i '^m\ I '. I !! 98 THE REVEALER OF GOD. iff ;f,f -/''■•• "t ^* t , A ,: if this irresistible Power be wielded to crush me, sinful, rebellious creature ! Who will tell me how this Power feels towards me ? Does His heart throb with anger or with pity ? Who can tell me ? Nature ? No ; Nature cannot. Every chapter and verse in the volume of Nature were written before I sinned. The beauty of landscapes, the perfume of flowers, the breath of winds, the melodies of birds may convey to me a message of " sweetness and light " from the great God ; but I cannot be sure, for the order of Nature had been established before I sinned. Has not sin converted His good- ness to wrath. His smiles to vengeance ? Nature is mute. 2. The main excellence of the God of Nature, as we have seen, is power ; but the main excellence of the God of philosophy is wisdom. Philosophy is a loving search after wisdom. " The Jew requires a sign ; the Greek seeks after wisdom." The manifest tendency of philosophy is to exalt mind, and to make all the Divine attributes subservient to mind. If it contemplate man, it at once takes the measure of his mind, and estimates him accordingly ; or with Paley it seeks in his frame for evidences of design, and thence arrives at an all-wise Designer. If it turn its eye upon the material creation, it diligently and patiently looks for indications of wisdom in the skilful adaptation of means to ends, and thence arrives at " God, the only wise." No doubt, philo- sophy does good service, and cannot be ignored without injury to all ; but it is universally felt that the argument from design is very inadequate, it is THE REVEALER OF GOD. 99 80 cold, minute, and ingenious. It makes no appeal to the great heart of humanity, tells nothing of God's relation to me as a transgressor of His law. Nature preaches a God of infinite power ; philosophy teaches a God of infinite wisdom ; neither of them can declare to the world His character. Is there no one who can enlighten us respecting His heart ? The text answers, " The only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." 3. What then has He declared ? " God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Here is pre- sented to our view a new aspect to the Being of God. Man never fabricated a God of love. The gods of man's devising were vengeful, cruel, capricious. But the God declared by Jesus Christ is a God of love. In the light of this revelation the Apostle John ventures the assertion that God and Love are identical. " God is love." Not only He loves, but He is love. By saying that He loves, we only say what may be also affirmed of the creature — man loves, the angel loves. But when we say, " He is love," we ascribe to Him a perfection to which no creature can lay claim. Satan once loved with all the ardour of a seraph ; but he ceased to love; yet in ceasing to love, he did not cease to be. But it were as easy for God to cease to be as to cease to love. " He is love." The archangel before the throne loves ; but the archangel of to-day might be the archdevil of to- morrow ; yet in ceasing to love, he would not cease I 3 f- i, •fit :iri:pii|ji| 100 THE REVEALER OF GOD. to be. In God, however, His love and His essence are so interwoven that the cessation of the one were the destruction of the other. Take love out of man, and a sinner remains ; extract love out of «tn angel, and a devil is left ; cancel love out of God and — nothing remains. "No man hath seen God at any time j the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." Being always in His bosom, the Lord Jesus knows perfectly the contents of God's Heart ; and in His life, death, and ministry that Heart is unfolded to the world. sacred Heart ! loving Heart 1 We fall down and worship thee ! ( tbi ) VI. Cf)e fLamif of (Eoti* "The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world."— St. John L 29. The Jewish Sanhedrim sent a special deputation to John the Baptist to ask him, "Who art thou?" " And he confessed and denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ." The peculiar form of the words denotes eagerness on his part to undeceive them, if they thought for a moment that he was the Messiah. Many probably would secretly rejoice to be mistaken for the Christ, for someone greater than themselves, and return evasive answers, letting the deputation draw what conclusion they might. John, however, nervously shrank from the possibility of a mistake. He was categorically questioned, and he categorically answered ; he was neither the Christ nor Ellas nor "the Prophet," whoever this last might signify. Thereupon the deputation re- turned to Jerusalem, duly reported their mission, and then the subject was quietly dropped. The " next day " — the next day after the inter- view between him and the Jewish embassy — " John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith. Behold the liamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the •' ' ■■iilil ' i Jf t02 ttiE LAM& OF GOD. ;fl world." This word "seeth" is a strong word, meaning to look intently, to gaze earnestly, to pierce. Seeing Jesus approaching him, John fixed a long penetrating gaze upon Him — sought, as it were, to read His inn'sr life and soul ; and as the result of this prolonged, thoughtful, meditative look, he said with decision and emphasis, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." The speech is the combined result of in- spiration and of deep, searching thought. In this pregnant saying of the Baptist we find the sum and substance of the Old Testament Prophecy — what was it ? The eye of sanctified humanity all aflame, looking into the future and seeing the Lamb coming. The complicated system of sacrifice — what was it ? The outstretched finger of holy humanity pointing to the future and indi- cating the Lamb which was coming. In a word, the ministry of the Old Testament was but the means God ordained to fix the gaze of the world on the Lamb which was coming to take away the sin of the world. And the ministry of the New Testa- ment is only the same means, appointed by the same God, to turn back the eyes of the world and fix them on the same Lamb. Our duty, as ministers of the New Testament, is to say with John the Baptist, " Behold the Lamb of God." Some, it is to be feared, say — " Behold us, observe our learning and eloquence ; " but otk duty is to say, not " Behold us," but " Behold the Lamb." " We preach not our- selves, but Christ Jesus tlie Lord." As an old Welsh preacher used to say — " Hebrew, Greek, and TttE tXUH 0^ 00b. toi Latin are all very useful in their place; but their place is not where Pilate put them — over the Saviour's head, but rather at His feet" Having premised so much, allow me now to direct your attention, if you please, to the main theme of the present discourse, namely, T?ie excellency of the Christian atone7ient. Not its nature or neces- sity, but its super-excellency. The text shows that it excels in three things. It excels in many other things according to other texts, but it excels in three things according to this text : — I. It excels in the nature of the victim. Whereas the sacrifices of Judaism were irrational lambs, the sacrifice of Christianity is the Lamb of God. II. It excels in the efficacy of the work. Whereas the sacrifices of Judaism only brought sin to remembrance every year, the sacrifice of Chris- tianity took sin away. " He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." III. It excels in the SCOPE of its operation. Whereas the Jewish sacrifices were intended for the benefit of one nation only, the sacrifice of Chris- tianity is intended tor all nations ; " it takes away the sin of the world." L It excels in the nature of the victim. Whereas the sacrifices of Judaism were irrational lamhs, the sacrifice of Christianity is the Lamb of God. " Behold the Lamb of God." I. The words indicate the faultlessness or sin- lessness of the Saviour. " Who made no sin, neither !' ',: «• II Ht B> n D I^Wj i itlil ij||r;ff II !.,!.- J I- I; J, 104 THE LAMB OF GOt). 1! was guile found in His mouth.'' According to Judaism the lamb of sacrifice must be a year old and without blemish, every joint in its place and every limb perfect. A lamb might be without blemish the first month after its birth, but its health might be impaired or its leg broken before the end of the twelve months. According to Judaism the lamb must go without injury through the four seasons, spring and summer, autumn and winter, and thus prove to all that it was healthy and sound. A year old and without blemish : that was the law. Thus Jesus Christ offered Himself not in infancy or boyhood, but in the prime of His strength and the flower of His days. He went through the four seasons — the spring and summer, the autumn and winter, of existence, without receiving and without inflicting injury. He died at the age of thirty-three, the average age of a generation ; a very significant fact in His history. He offered Himself as "a Lamb without blemish and without spot." Without blemish in the inward life, without spot in the outward character ; perfect within and without. " Without blemish," a/Ao/xo9, from Momus, the god of criticism. Criticise the Saviour, scrutinise His every thought, word, and deed, test Him in every imaginable way, subject Him to the severest ex- amination and the most rigorous cross-examination — what then ? " Without spot or wrinkle or any such thing." "He offered Himself without spot unto God." Many are without spot unto men, in the estimation of their fellows ; but they are pro- foundly conscious that they are full of spots unto THE Lamb o^ GOt). to5 God, in the sight of omniscience. Jesus Christ, however, ofifered himself without spot unto God. He ran through the thirty-three years' course al- lotted Him in the world, and presented Himself hefore God at its close without a speck on His robes. In His intercessory prayer, as recorded in John xvii., just when and where the holiest saints most loudly hewail their sins, He stands in His stainless integrity, has not a single imperfection to confess and lament "The prince of this world Cometh, but he hath nothing in me." The devil has something in the best of us ; he has all in some of us ; but he had nothing in Christ. No wonder, therefore, that " the heavens were opened unto Him, and a voice from heaven came, saying. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." The heavens opened before and after, but each time they opened for the inhabitants of earth to look up. " The heavens were opened," says Ezekiel, " and I saw visions of God." " Behold, I see the heavens opened," cried Stephen under the shower of stones, " and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God." But on the banks of the Jordan we see an exception — the heavens opened there, not from the earth upward, but from the sky downward ; not for the inhabitants of the earth to look up, but for the inhabitants of heaven to look down and see a wonder — a perfect man for the first time in the history of the race. "The heavens were opened unto Him," that is to say, towards Him, in His direction, "and a voice said. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." «■««« ''K « An » h-l:i'^- n . :5i ll lo6 Tnt LAMB 07 GOD. . • 2. The words further denote His Divine appoint' ment " The Lamb of God/' the Lamb appointed, set apart by God for sacrificial purposes. Accord- ing to Judaism, the lamb of sacrifice was separated from the flock days before it was slain. And Jesus Christ was set apart by God, marked out for sacred services, centuries before He was crucified. " The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world " — a very wonderful verse, teaching us that a Lamb slain is the central idea of the creation, that in the light of this idea the universe was planned at the beginning. According to it, the principle of sacri- fice underlies and upholds the whole system of things, the Cross is the key to the enigma of the worlds. A deistical writer of the eighteenth cen- tury published a book under the title of " Christi- anity as old as Creation." Quite true, but in a sense he never imagined. The Gospel is at bottom in strictest unison with Nature; nay, it alone fur- nishes the deepest and truest interpretation of Natura A Lamb slain lies at the heart of the universe, the Cross forms the axle of the planets. The idea of sacrifice, as revealed in the Scriptures, is the ** scarlet thread " that stretches from eternity to eternity ; the cable which lies at the bottom of the sea of being, along which the Divine thoughts run and flash; the principle which connects all the ages of the world, and binds them together in one. God sprinkled the door-posts of the crea- tion and the lintels thereof with blood when He framed them at the beginning. " In Him all things consist," stand together ; not in Him simply THE LAMB OF OOt). 107 H as a Divine Person, but as an incarnate dying Saviour. Not only the " Lamb slain " is the centre of created nature, but He is also the centre of the Divine nature. Sacrifice seems to be the first, deepest principle of God Himself. " A Lamb with- out blemish and without spot, who verily was fore- ordained before the foundation ^f the world " — a more wonderful verse still. The other was from the foundation, this is before the foundation. What ordination is among men you know, what it is among the particular section of the Christian Church to which we belong, you know. Well, intimates the apostle, God held an ordination service in eternity when only Three were present — the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; the Father anointed the Son with the consecrating oil of the Holy Ghost to be a priest and a sacrifice. The Lamb slain is the central fact, the principle of sacrifice is the fun- damental principle, of the Divine nature. When mankind beheld the Lamb of Sacrifice , coming out of the Godhead in the fulness of time, then man- kind understood that the Lamb of Sacrifice was in the Godhead from everlasting, before ever the earth was, for nothing could come out which was not before in. The Gospel, therefore, does not create this principle, it only reveals . it. " The church of God, which He (God) purchased with His own blood." Not His blood, but His own blood — the same phraseology precisely that describes the relation of the Son to the Father in the Eternal Essence. "His own Son" — the necessary Son of li T rthy a m me; [ pluck nd me s. Do «?" with ler to in its jrceive con- «We were lity he [philip have kd the \son of Joseph" Philip does not seem to be well posted in his theology ; his mistake would be considered ex- ceedingly grave in a clerical exan^ination. But, thank God, imperfect teaching is often blessed. The very fragments of divine truth quiver with the power of endless life. Speak the whole truth, if you can ; if you cannot, speak the half. The planters of potatoes are never afraid of splitting them, if they can only secure an eye in each half. And in teaching or preaching, we need not fear to plant fragments of truth in the mind, provided each fragment has an eye in it, a Saviour to vitalise it. Single verses, single sentences, have carried con- viction i " many a heart. Speak what you know, and God will bless your imperfect efforts. The drawing-room mirror, if you stand before it, will correctly reflect your whole body; shiver it into ten thousand pieces, and each piece will give you back your face. And the Gospel is often compared to a mirror ; if you cannot carry it in its complete- ness as set forth in our theological systems, if you cannot present it to your Sabbath-school class in its entirety, hold up the fragments to them. Wait not till you acquire proficiency in Biblical criticism, till you have purchased and perused learned com- mentaries. No ; but begin at once, and your know- ledge will surely expand. If you cannot carry in your mind the whole granary of divine truth, carry a few grains — sow them in the virgin soil of the youthful heart. Say with gladness of soul — "We have found the Messias." 5. You will also observe that his talk is charac- i ■ji 1 I 130 CHRISTIAN SERVXOB. 11 i I •■ If! I ill i: terised by much assv/rafice. "We have found the Messias ; " not, I think or hope we have. He felt quite convinced — doubts cast not their baneful shadows across the joyous serenity of his mind. Religious dogmatism is much deprecated in the present day in certain quarters. You may dog- matise as much as you like against theology, but you are warned under heavy penalties not to dog- matise in its favour. The most inveterate dogma- tists of this last quarter of the nineteenth century are not the theologians, but the scientists — ** Dull bigots, narrowed to a hopeless creed. And priests in all but name." So sings one of the best poets of the age. But notwithstanding the supercilious sneers of science and of the self-styled " liberals of theology," let us have the moral courage to hold fast to the " faith once delivered to the saints." Who are the most successful preachers and evangelists just 'now in England and America ? Why, the men who refuse to give up evangelical dogmatism, the men who of all their contemporaries accentuate most strongly the characteristic doctrines of Puritan divinity. Whereas other preachers of great genius and learn- ing amuse or amaze, edify or entertain, their con- gregations, the great dogmatists Lave their hearers — the men who speak because they believe, and not because they doubt ; the men who are luUy assured that the Gospel is God's unadulterated truth. " We have found the Messias." :! ! the , felt leful nind. L the dog- ^, but dog- ogma- CHRTSTIAN SERVICE. 131 III. Andrew bringing Simon to Christ. " And he brought him to Jesus." I. This suggests to us that our chief aim ought to be to lead men to Christ, not to any particular sect or denomination. Proselytisation is not con- version. The Pharisees " compassed sea and land to make one proselyte, and made him twofold more the child of hell than themselves," for proselytes are always more demonstrative in the vindication of their adopted views than those brought up in them from their infancy. It is the fashion in the present day in the annual meetings of the great conferences, unions, and assemblies of the various sects, to laud and justify sectarian zeal ; but I see nothing therein to boast. The divisions, suspicions, and sectarian- jealousies have always distressed me. No ; I per- ceive nothing in sectarianism as such to be proud of, but a great deal to deplore and regret. True, God overrules sectarianism to men's good and His own glory, just as out of sin He evokes good ; but as the latter is no justification of evil, so the former is no vindication of denominationalism. Let Christ's name be magnified, whatever befalls our names. The views to which that good and holy man, that able and earnest preacher, however mistaken he may be in his monastic views, Father Ignatius, gave vehement utterance in the last Church Congress at Sheffield, commend themselves heartily to my judgment and conscience — " Let that Church go up which holds Christ aloft before the eyes of the people. If the Church of Eome lifts up Christ, then up with the Church of Eome. If the Salvation Army holds up I * ) ^ii I*!' m "•f i 1 « ^liili 132 CHRISTIAN SERVIC5E. \\V' Christ, then up with the Salvation Army.** My friends, let the blood-stained banner of the Cross wave high above the little flag of the denomination. May it be our chief aim to lead people, not to the sect, but to the Saviour. 2. As churches and sects should be subordinated to Christ, so should creeds and theologies. We ought to labour to bring men to believe in our Saviour rather than in our system of divinity. Be it far from me to unnecessarily disparage systems and creeds ; over and over again I have deemed it my duty to defend them against the superficial attacks of platform orators and newspaper writers ; they embody and convey to us in the best language the best thoughts of the best thinkers of the bygone generations. But once we deem them infallible, once we look upon- them as marking the finality of Christian thought, we convert them to ignoble, pernicious purposes. Creeds should be helps, not hindrances, to anxious inquirers after salvation. If creeds go between sinners and Christ, then away with the creeds. How stands it in many churches ? In one church, if a man adopt not the Arminian interpretation of the Gospel, he is rejected, however serious his demeanour and pure his life. In another, if he repudiate the Calvinistic interpretation of the Gospel, he is cast away, however bright his character and indefatigable his efforts to elevate his fellow- men. Special interpretations of the Gospel, instead of the Gospel itself, are made a test of a man's faith. What is all that but puttinsf human opinion between man and God's truth ? What but placing creeds Christian service. " IP bring men to Chr t Jet tl """"'' Wm-Iet „s the vast universa ty Hr, '°°"=™P'«te Him in 'ove is broken J £^^"2 "" ""' " *"' systems. A man may CT cLT'T''''''''^ Arminian; he mav be Ich- !• ^''?'««'' 'hougl, an Tlierefore let o„T ohnr.h "!?' "'°"S'' « Calvinist. that poor sinnermay hat ^"" "•^'■' *-'"=- seuce of their SaviW r T "°"'' *° '^e pre- of sinners after/no befor.r^^' "' ^"'^ '^' benefit edification. notCe'S t ,1° ''' '''^'•'"^' f- not unbelievers. ' ""^ "'« "^ believers, ad/ thtX?S riT "^^ -P^-^^-t to ^& itself. I put the Rit,'^ "f'* ^^^-^ «bove the systems, „„t I p'ut'Jhlf atvf th: bL^^ ^"'' aved, we must penetrate th ou^h 1 L ' . ^° ^' he hving Christ behind and above rf-'^"''' *° for men to read the Bibl^ ^iu ^ ■'' '^ Possible over its truths and if 5'""^' *° P°'«^« deeply -aking their wa^ to ^ttt? "'* ''• ^^^^ot template the Inner Ea^- nee Th- "°"^ *" "- mistake of the Scribes and Ph • ' ""^ ">« ^tal 'ogo to the Bible but Ijfr''''' "<" ^el««tance it to the living i;! behlT rf''' '" 8° "'^""gh 'he Bible assMno^ J thtv k'^ '''"^ '""^ ^'-^i^d and reckoned eve^'^Uter t""^'" '''''y ^°'^ P-mptly and accuratdr C!^ ""f' 'l"'"^ " SS^S^.fth:;i£t^^t ^e Scriptures are^n^riSd^t; 2-^; '11 |#^i n : ( r:-m tS4 CHRISTIAN SfiRVIOfi. themselves, but to introduce us to Jesus. As you read them, therefore, constantly seek communion with the wonderful Personage behind them, en- deavour hard to catct a glimpse of His glory, and prostrate yourself humbly before His adorable majesty. Sunday-school teachers, you read the Bible weekly with your classes ; but do you show them Jesus be- hind the verses ? Do you lead the children through the Bible to the Saviour ? Men and women, speak to your neighbours about Christ. Sunday-school teachers, speak to the classes about Christ. And to myself I would say, Speak to the people about Christ. There is not a town or hamlet or house in all Great Britain, but there is a way from it to London ; not a village in any county but a road leads from it to the metropolis. Similarly not a village is mentioned in the Old Testament but there is a way from it to Bethlehem and Calvary, not a subject named but it is directly or indirectly con- nected with Jesus. "Of Me Moses wrote." " We have found Him, of whom Moses in the law and the pro- phets did speak." And if Moses and the prophets made Christ the theme of their meditations and writings, how much more ought we who enjoy all the privileges of the New Dispensation ? Christ should be first and last in all our private devotions and public utterances. Down with everything which hides Him or draws the attention from Him. You have probably heard the oft-repeated story, but de- serving of one more repetition — the story of the Spanish artist, who threw all the enthusiasm and inspiration of which he was capable into a picture CftRlSTlAli SERVICE. ^35 of the Last Supper. He drew the face of the Christ with as much dignity and purity as his art could command ; and on a table in the foreground he put the sacramental cups, the tracings upon which were exceedingly beautiful. His friends, coming one day to view the picture, instinctively exclaimed, " What beautiful cups ! " " Ah," sighed he sadly, " I see I have made a grievous mistake, — the cups divert attention from my Lord ; " and thereupon he took up his brush and swept them all oif the canvas. Well done, holy, pure-minded painter ! " Thou shalt not lose thy reward." What a much-needed lesson it conveys to all professional teachers of Christianity. Down with ideas if they becloud the Saviour. Down with rhetorical embellishments if they draw attention from Him. Down with all flowers of speech if they hide Him. Hi\ IV. Our treatment of this text, however, would be manifestly incomplete did we not dwell in con- clusion on the RECEPTION the Saviour accorded Simon on his first introduction to Him. "And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jona, thou shalt be called Cephas." I. Jesus beheld him, looked intently at him, took stock of his endowments mental and spiritual, formed a correct estimate of his character and disposition. This word is the one generally joined to the Saviour, a word signifying to look with the eyes of the mind quite as much as with the eyes of the body. Jesus looked at the new convert, saw into him and through him, read his inner character with the same un- .ign, we shall proceed to consider it, first, as a sign in relation to Nature ; second, as a sign in relation to Society ; third, as a sign in relation to Christ. I. This miracle is a sign in respect of Nature. I. Please to observe that it is a miracle in it- self^ independently of all surrounding circumstances. One can easily conceive that what is an everyday occurrence in one climate may be a rare wonder in another. An inhabitant of the Torrid Zone has never seen ice; to him therefore the freezing of water would be tantamount to a miracle. Or sup- pose a modern chemist were to live in the first century of the Christian era ; by his superior know- ledge he would bring about results that would fairly astonish the age. But in all such cases the miracle would depend for its miraculous character on ad- ventitious circumstances. The freezing of water would be a miracle in the Torrid Zone, but an every day occurrence in the Frigid. The feats of the chemib!; would pass for supernatural in the first century, but would be put down as strictly natural in the nineteenth. But Christ's miracles are mir- acles all the world over, and all the ages through. To turn water into wine, to open the eyes of the THE FIRST MIRA.CLE. 141 blind> to unstop the ears of the deaf, to raise the dead are miracles everywhere ; they are miracles in Lapland and miracles in Italy, miracles in Siberia and miracles in India. They are miracles in every age ; they are miracles in the first century and mir- acles in the tenth, miracles in the fifteenth and miracles in the nineteenth, and I will venture to add that they will be considered miracles to the end of the world. Increase of knowledge will not divest them of their supernatural character ; they are mir- acles, not to ignorance, but to omniscience itself. It is a noteworthy fact that the miracles attributed to magicians were miracles only to ignorance — modern science can explain, or, if need be, repeat them. But the miracles of the Bible lie outside the province of science ; it can neither explain nor re- peat them ; nothing, therefore, remains for it to do but either to deny them or confess them. The mir- acle in Cana was a miracle per se. 2. You will further notice that the miracle was not performed till nature was quite exhausted. " Mine hour is not yet come," said He to Mary, for the wine was only gradually failing. When did His hour come graciously to interfere ? Not till the wine had actually failed. This always charac- terises His interpositions. When did He come to the assistance of His tempest-tossed disciples ? Not before the fourth watch, when a further delay would have engulfed them all. As long as nature or art could render any assistance. He did not interfere with their free action. He healed many sick, but none whom doctors could Jn any way assist. All } ' ) m\ ^ i II •i \ H : ,1 III iiih 142 THE FIRST MIRACLE. He cured were incurable — incurable to nature and incurable to art. The blind, the deaf, and the dumb — what could medical men do to fchem? Lepers and those stricken with palsy — what could physicians do to them ? The possessed of devils, the dying, and the dead — what could even modem science do to them ? They were all extreme cases, beyond the power of Nature to heal, beyond the skill of Art to bless. This, says St. John, is a sign: a sign of what ? That you also may calculate upon His pre- sence in extremity. He may conceal Himself as long as your earthly wine lasts, but let the moment arrive when Nature cau do no more, and He is sure to arrive with it. He does not arrive before His time, for such a premature interference would be an encumbrance rather than a blessing. But He is never a moment behind time, for at the critical tick of the clock, when a further delay would ensure confusion, the reserves come up " in time of need." " Mine hour is not yet come." The two disciples on their way to Emmaus talked sorrowfully and looked sad ; they detailed to the supposed stranger the grievous events of the Crucifixion, " and besides all this, this is the third day since these things were done." The third day was a great day in His mipistry ; He promised to rise the third day ; but the third day is come and He is not come, the third day has arrived and the promise remains un- fulfilled. See their unbelief: the third day was come, but it was not gone; they ought to have hoped till it was gone at any rate ; and even whilst they were rehearsing dolefully the sad events, the promise had already been gloriously fulfilled. Thus THE FIRST MIRACLE. 143 • it is with many of us. " The third day is come, hut He is not come; the day of trial has arrived, but He has not arrived ; we will worry and vex." No, the day is come, but it is not gone ; rest assured that in the fourth watch He will appear for your rescue ; when your earthly wine is all gone, He will come to vonr relief. Continue to trust in His succour. 3. It is a miracle which in its results is repeated &oery year. As already hinted, miracles are not violations of Nature ; they are rather a kind of explanatory notes revealing to us the secret processes of material phenomena. They are signs, says St. John, showing us the Power that is everywhere and always at work. He cahned the ►.wrm once, He calms the storm still. He healed the sick once. He heals the sick still. He turned water into wine once, He turns watei into wine still. The water comes down from the cloudvS, is imbibed by the rootfj 01 the vine, is sent up into the branches in sap, and in the clusters is converted into wine. To do it in an instant of time, as was the case in Cana, may appear more wonderful to us, but it adds nothing to the real wonder. The wonder is, not that water should turn into wine in a twelvemonth, but that it should turn into wine at all. The technical miracle consisted in the manner of doing, and not in the thing done. But any manner that can bring about such a marvellous change, must be wonderful indeea — Nature itself is a standing miracle. Many cry out in every age, " What signs showest thou unto us that we may believe in thee ? " Their whole nature runs out after miracles. For my part, I want no miracles — I see miracles enough every i '-A '■ 'm 1 VI lis mi j:i i^H ( 144 THE FIRST MIRACLE. day. I read in the Bible that Aaron's rod "was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms," and I am astonished. But last spring I saw a cause of greater astonishment; I saw thousands of bare rods budding buds and blooming blossoms in the hedges in my neighbourhood ; I saw no one do it, and the police saw no one do it, and yet the trees were being daily clothed with thicker foliage. Was not that wonderful ? I read in the Bible that the manna, the bread of the children of Israel, was coming down daily from heaven to the wilderness, and I am amazed. But I see a cause of greater amazement every year : I see your bread coming, not down from heaven, but up from the earth, a much more unlikely place, every day in the spring. Is not that wonderful ? I read in the Scriptures that Elijah, hiding by the brook Cherith, was daily fed with abundance of bread and meat by two carnivorous ravens, and I am filled with wonder. But there is a cause of much greater wonderment in the fact that the millions of London, and the millions of Britain, and the millions of the earth, are daily fed with abundance of bread and meat, without a single raven under God's sun to cater for them. I read in the New Testament that Jesus Christ multiplied the loaves and fishes, and fed the great multitude, and that the fragments that remained filled twelve baskets full — there was more at the end of the meal than at the beginning. But this year I witnessed a greater miracle : I saw the barley and the wheat increasing, " some on its thirty, and some on its sixty, and some on its hundred fold ; " THE FIRST MIRACLE. 145 and the loaves and the fishes, notwithstanding the enormous consumption, are more numerous to-day than they have ever been before : is not that wonderful ? Nature is a standing miracle. You have heard of Luther's two miracles. "I have recently witnessed two miracles," wrote he to Chancellor Bench, at a critical moment in the history of the Eeformation. " This is the first : as I was standing at my window I saw the stars and the sky, and that vast and glorious firmament iu which the Lord has placed them. I could nowhere discover the columns on which the Master has sup- ported His immense vault, and yet the heavens did not fall. And here is the second : I beheld thick clouds hanging above us like a vast sea. .1 could neither perceive the ground on which they reposed, nor the cords by which they were sus- pended ; and yet they did not fall upon us, but saluted us rapidly and fled away." The Lord Jesus turned water into wine in Cana, to teach us that processes equally marvellous go on around us every year, that Nature itself is a standing miracle. h >:« ! '(■ m w\ if i 'w -J IL This miracle is a sign in respect of Society. I. It was performed in a marriage. The ques- tion, no doubt, presented itself to the disciples, What attitude will our new Master assume towards society ? John the Baptist was an ascetic; will Christ be one? Another supposition was very reasonable. The Messiah had been portrayed by the prophets as a king and a conqueror ; the Jewish nation associated thoughts of royalty with His coming; will He, ,.^ ,UUl(} II III 1 il ,'i r 146 THE FIRST MIRACLE. then, claim the throne, wear the crown, sway the sceptre, and restore agam the kingdom to Israel ? This latter supposition was the dominant one in the minds of His followers. On the third day came a sign which showed how far either of these expectations corresponded to the truth. He was not an ascetic, for He went into a wedding. He was not a difrnitary, for it was the wedding of ordinary people in very straitened circumstances. Instead of asserting the dignity of His descent and keeping aloof from the people. He claimed to belong to them, and entered sympathetically into their fellowship. About eight weeks ago the heavens opened over Him, the Holy Ghost de- scended upon Him like a dove, and a mysterious voice from the deep of the blue declared Him to be the well-beloved Son of God. For the six weeks following He was in the wilderness doing battle with devils and wrestling with God in prayer ; the very week after he attends a rustic wedding near His home, where there is feasting and merriment, but no pomp. Is there any incongruity in the story ? Nay ; but the greatast unity. The re- splendent sun shining in the sky and the grain of sand dancing in its beam are rounded by the same law and polished by the same Hand. And the Divine Spirit that threw a halo on the baptism, that led Christ to the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, did not disdain to accompany Him to the marriage of His friends. Life has immense powers of adaptation; it is death that is formal, frigid, ^nbending. Artificial flowers are always the same, THE FIRST MIRACLE. 147 the same summer and winter, day and night ; but living flowers vary in size and hue ; they expand and contract, they open and shut, they adapt them- selves to the climate and soil in which they are placed. So does every life ; so did the Eternal Life incarnate. On the banks of the Jordan He is the Sou of God ; in the wilderness the conqueror of devils ; in Cana of Galilee a genial guest in a homely wedding. But you nowhere read of His being at a funeral. Why ? Because marriage belongs to^ the primeval order of creation, but funerals do not. Marriage is a part of the original programme of the universe, but death is an intrusion. He, therefore, went to a marriage to vindicate the Divine order ; He did not attend funerals because they are in- cursions upon that order. He was the Everlasting Life, and consequently could not join in the proces- sion of death. Indeed, each time He met death in His sojourn through the world, He could not but grapple with him and compel him to give up bis prey. 2. The miracle proper, moreover, was performed in the feast which followed. It was not during the religious or civil ceremony, but, as the Prayer-book has it, in the marriage feast. Strange that the Saviour's first miracle should be performed in a company which had met for the special purpose of rejoicing ! And yet, it was not strange. It was consonant with His deepest character. He is always and everywhere the antagonist of suffering. One aim of the Gospel is to dispel grief and encourage joy. The Saviour is the source of joy ; the BiblQ Jl ^ m^- 1 i li I: ! .■ i il 148 THE FIRST MIRAGLE. is the book of joy; heaven is the home of joy. " Kejoice evermore." But men continually run to extremes; they swing to asceticism on the one hand or indulgence on the other; Christ walked between. The Puritans were strong, valiant, robust Christians, but very joyless withal ; they had taken heartily to the holiness of the Bible, but had left the beauty of holiness bshind. We run to the other extreme; we are a gay, profligate, piping genera- tion, taking cordially enough to the beauty of religion, but leaving its holiness behind. Let us look at this miracle as a sign, and learn the thing signified. There are seasons when it beseems us to weep, and there are times when it becomes us to rejoice. Jesus wept with the bereaved sisters in Bethany, bat He also honoured a marriage feast with his presence and ministered materially to its joy. His approving smile sends a thrill of happi- ness through the universe. 3. It was furthermore performed in a marriage feast for the purpose of heneficence. I say " of benefi- cence," to point out a difference between the miracles of the Old Testament and those of the New. Moses' first miracle was to turn water into blood ; there was a severe, destructive element in it. But Christ'" first miracle was to turn water into wine ; there was a soothing, solacing element "in it. There is more or less severity in the Old Testament, nothing but compassion in the New. What about cursing the fig-tree ? you ask. I see quite as much compassion in that as in any other of His merciful acts. You remqmbey the circumstances, " He went out of the ffft! WRSr MlKACtlS. 149 City" says Matthew, "i^^T^iZr there. Now in the mornW T, w°^' """^ ^'^S^ the city He hungered "T»° I ^ '"'"^"^^ into signifies to pas°s the nj T'r'"*^ "l^-^Sed " court. He had spent tt / T"' ""'°°fe'l gently prosecuting the work wV !° J«''»««'effl, dili- Him to do. He^retireHor tt •^.l' ^"^^^ S''^^ but too iate, it appear toh '"®''' '° ^«''«"'y. house of Mary aRa L l'';°r'"°'''''^'^ '" *e they still Hved%heirH Ld i'T^' ^PPo^-S the night in an open „n Jf ^ ^'^'^"^' '" ^pend have holes, the birr;f 7/':^ T'' " ^'>« '°^^^ Son of Man hath not tl ^^^' ''^^' »'»' the ^arlyin the mZ^TXTt^f '? r.""'' "-^•" ast,r, as He was retu?;inal .^ "habitants were »n the way. He w^ "L^ f « ''"'^ He hungered ■ without breaking His fast T "'"""* ^is work that He walked, np Jiadlv to f" ^^ ^^ ^^^8'^ «de, hoping to find on it * ^"'''' *"* *">« «'«" *e road had moreover run wiL^T' f'°^ P'°I'«%; it therefore the pubJilwavf^ ''""'' "" ^^«'' ""I And, above all, Xn C^^"''''. ""^^''^'^ "<> loss. 'he c„.e Which t^^^X1ll'°*""''''^«--W improve their opport n^ • "'^ '"«° '^ho do not of the hundredf alr^irrc h°' "'"'^"« °- •^Msed it But no ernpU^^;. ^'"'^^ * *»"«e and *ho fells a tree would br^-.'^ '^' '"''^ "«» And that fig.tre?inii!f'^°^*'^^''^'°« <='»«%. *orid more good th^ !S ,t"T°«^« ^^^s done the S a than all the fig-trees of Palestine I'* . f 1 I t56 THE FIRST MIRACLl with the luscious fruit hanging gracefully from their boughs. Every morning since have disciples passed that way and wondered at the blighting effect of their Master's word, saying, " How soon the fig-tree is withered away ! " and have laid the lesson to heart, and have endeavoured to bring forth more fruit in consequence. 4. But the miracle, besides being one of benefi- cence, appears to be likewise one of luxury. Wine was not needful to maintain life ; iti was not needful at all in the material sense of the word. To mul- tiply the loaves and fishes was to meet a necessity ; to turn water into wine was simply to gratify the love of luxury. And in this it was a sign. For one thing, it was a sign that man does not live upon bread alone, but that he is permitted, nay, enjoined to go out after the beautiful in every form and manifestation. Our age increases in wealth; men command more money than is absolutely required to obtain the bare necessaries of life. What then ? Is it sinful to provide for ourselves and families a few luxuries ? By no means — witness this miracle. But men will make bad use of the license you give them, you say. And I answer, Many make bad use of sunlight, and yet God does not strike them with blindness. Misers make bad use of the multiplication table, and yet you do not propose to strike it out of the curriculum of the schools. Is it sinful to have pictures on the wall whilst the heathen lie unreclaimed ? For my part, I see no reason why Englishmen and Welshmen should be only half civilised because the Caffrarians IlillH! It; Irttfi fiRST Miracle. i5t are altogether barbarous. But what good does that painting on the wall do ? Not the same kind of good as the table in the kitchen, but you must not therefore infer that it answers no good purpose at all. The potato in cross-examination would make out a better case than the rose ; it has more solid claims to cultivation ; yet I prefer seeing the rose-bush growing before my window. Engineering, navigation, agriculture, trade, can make a long catalogue of the purposes they subserve ; but there is a region above them, more enduring by far, — the poetic, the artistic, the refined. The mechanics of the Greeks have been obsolete for twenty centuries ; but the poetry of Homer has still the dew of its youth upon it. The chemistry of the Elizabethan age is of no account and no value in our day ; but the dramas of Shakespeare, the visions of Milton, and the dreams of Bunyan promise to instruct, interest, and astonish the world as long as a human heart beats in a human breast. The wine of genius will keep long, and the longer it is kept the better it is ; whilst the coarser productions of man decay and pass away to everlasting oblivion. And as the feast of genius goes on, better wine will be served from age to age. Good wine has been already quaffed, and we hear from different quarters that it is failing fast We hear in some religious circles that the wine administered to the congregations by modern preachers is not so good, so exhilarating, as it was wont to be. Many writers praise the good wines of the past and lament the sourness and unpa- latableness of the wines of the present, and the ' ' i 152 THE FIRST MIRACLE. shameful adulteration that is going on on every hand. They cry out, " They have no wine, and yet they insist upon colouring the water; the vines refuse to give their fruit, but men insist upon manufacturing wines in their strong-smelling breweries, and then delude themselves and others into the belief that it has grown upon God's vine- trees." They are better judges of wine than I am, and therefore I shall not dispute tlieir verdict. But this I say — if all hope in the vines die out, yet I will venture to hope in the Vine-dresser; if the trees in God's vineyard are not so fruitful as they used to be, yet I will venture to hope in the Husbandman. He can do wonders; He can fill even water-pots with the choicest wine, and He will fill them, and the world shall yet have to confess, " Thou hast kept the good wine until now." But this miracle is a sign in another sense : it points out the Gospel method of destroying sin. By a marvellous display of His miraculous power He here produces 120 gallons of wine. It is idle to say it was not intoxicating — we have no means of settling the question. The supposition may be right and it may be wrong, and one supposition always suffices to confute another. Anyhow this miracle serves to show that temperance has its seat in the man himself ; that moderation consists, not in the scarcity of the gifts or parsimony in the Giver, but in the self-control of the recipient ; and that the Gospel method of destroying sin is not so much by denying us the opportunity as by killmg within us the inclination to indulge in it. The THE FIRST MIRACLE. 153 very and the nsist jlling thers vine- I am, But yet I if the 3 they in the an fill le will jonfess, Gospel aims at destroying sin in the heart rather tlian in the life. How can the field be cleared of tlie weeds and thistles which overrun it ? By one of two ways ; by reaping or else by uprooting them. But the first process, that of reaping, requires to be repeated every year. The only effectual way is to wither their roots. These are the only possible ways in which sin may be destroyed. Law, whether enacted by the throne or particular societies, cuts the branches, withers the leaves ; but the Gospel pulls sins up by the roots. Is the Gospel, then, opposed to total abstinence ? By no means ; not more opposed to it than pruning is to manuring. The Gospel proposes to heal the roots, and teetotal- ism to lop off the branches till the roots be healed ; and whilst preferring the first, I wish God-speed to the second. The Gospel is opposed to slavery, it looks upon it as a disease ; but its way of destroy- ing it is to heal the constitution, to infuse new life into the body politic; and the disease will be effectually, though slowly, removed. But is it on that account hostile to philanthropic societies which have for their special object the liberty of the slave ? Certainly not; apply specific remedies to specific diseases till the Gospel has time to heal the con- stitution. And so in respect of all evils ; Chris- tianity seeks to destroy their roots. It does not lay down specific rules. It does not say, You must not habitually visit public-houses. What then ? It withers the desire to visit thefn. It does not say. You must not visit playhouses and singing saloons. What then ? It slays the liking for such I Ml • ! ■J4 tBE FtKST MIRACLi. iil 1 ill 1 1 things. It eradicates sin, and sin will never grow when its roots are destroyed. The Gospel conseiq^uently does not inculcate hard and fast lines. Its nature is freedom. Wherefore the New Testament word for liberty means that one may go whithersoever he likes. The Christian is free indeed — he may go whithersoever he likes. May he go to obscene places ? Let me ask, Does he like to go there ? May he visit places of re- creation on the Sabbath day ? Let me ask, Does he like to visit them ? He may go whithersoever he likes ; but the Gospel, in giving him that license, takes care to slay within him the inclination to go to forbidden places or to do impure deeds. Akin with this is the Old Testament word for liberty. It is the same that is elsewhere translated a swal< low. A awallow in the Hebrew is called liberty. " The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me ; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the brokea-hearted, to proclaim liherty to the captives." Liberty — that is the word. The captives of sin shall be as free as swallows on the wing. Look at them: they are the embodiment of the idea of liberty ; see how they dart hither and thither ; mark how they shoot to the right and to the left with such elegance and fleetness. What graceful curves they cut in the air ! Well, the Gospel will make sinners as free as swallows on the wing ; they shall soar freely in the heaven of holiness for ever; they shall make dignified swoops round the Throne of the Eternal. You are not full-fledged yet; your f&a FIRST MiRACL& Hi ■A grow pinions are now feeble ; your flights hitherto have been short and tremulous, from bough to bough, from duty to duty, from service to service. But ere long you shall renew your strength, you shall mount up with wings as eagles, and, with your eyes fixed on the Central Sun of all existence, you shall ily swiftly through the blue of heaven, commanding all the ease and freedom of winged seraphs. The Gospel takes away the roots of sin from the believer's heart, and then it can well afford to give him the freedom of the universe. III. It is a sign in respect of Jesus Christ's own Person. "He manifested forth His glory unto them." I. He had not like others to acquire glory, to win it ; He had only to manifest it. The glory was dready resident in Him ; He had only to withdraw the veil and let it shine forth. He manifested it on the present occasion by His supremacy over Nature. The realm of matter acknowledges His sovereignty ; its laws bow to His will. " Who is this that the sea and the wind obey Him ? " Who is this that can subjugate Nature and put her under the yoke, not of law, but of grace ? Ulysses, on his return from the Trojan war, was not recognised by his friends, relatives, and acquaintances. A long exposure to the hardships of a protracted war had 80 altered his appearance that his own family re- fused to acknowledge him. What did he do in this unpleasant predicament to prove his identity ? He called for a bow, which he had left at home when ' -p i i;. !l .56 tHE FtRST MiRACtft. he bade adieu to the vine-clad hills of Ithaca and emtarked for the seat of battle, a bow which no other arm in the country save his own was strong enough to wield. He seized the bow, pulled the string, and it gracefully yielded to the grasp of that stout and brawny arm. His friends required no other sign, his family demanded no other evidence, for he who bent the bow could be none other than the hero of Troy. And when Jesus Christ came to the world, His countrymen denied His claim to the Messiahship. " He came to His own, and His own received Him not." He came not as they had pictured Him. He had no royal pomp or court splendour to show. " He has no beauty or comeliness that we should desire Him; His countenance is marred above the children of men." What did He do to prove the dignity of His descent ? He laid hold upon the bow of Nature, the bow that refused to yield to the stoutest arm or bow to the mightiest intelligence ; and He could bend it at His will, He could twist its laws around His fingers. At His approach death fled, at His coming devils trembled, and under His gaze the water blushed into wina " He manifested forth His glory." 2. As a consequence " His disciples believed in Him." They had believed in Him before; but witnessing this unexpected miracle their faith was confirmed, it grew in intensity. Miracles cannot convince unbelievers, but they can confirm those who already believe. His disciples, not the guests, believed in Him. To believe is the work of a life- time ; faith needs to . be repeated every day. We ^i il i and \i no trong d the f that ed no .dence, r than ame to lim to ad His ley had X court nelinesa lance is did He He laid refused jghtieat |will, He At His ■emhled, ^to wine. li&ved in )Te; hut lith was cannot those guests, )f a life- We THE FIRST MIRACLE. 157 have believed in Him a hundred times before, but we must believe in Him to-day again, and continue to believe to the very last. " The just shall live by faith." The Saviour began to manifest His glory, as we have seen, in a marriage feast ; He will consummate it in a marriage feast too. Yes ; there will be an- other marriage feast by-and-by; and the mother of Jedus and His brethren and His disciples will be there, when He will be the Bridegroom and the Church the Bride. The marriage is being celebrated now, but the feast has not yet commenced. But the feast will come ; we shall sit down round the table, we shall drink of the wine that has been standing on its lees from eternity, from days of old ; the best wine will be given last; and the anxious Mary will have no cause to say, " They have no wine." " We shall drink of the fruit of this vine with Him in the kingdom of His Father," the blood of the grapes which hang in beautiful clusters on the Tree of Life ; and then will be fulfilled that which is written, " Death is swallowed up in victory," and the victory will be none other than marriage joys for ever and ever. m m !'''''J ■V . ( IS8 ) y 3> I IX. "And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting : and when He had made a scourge of small cords, He drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep and the oxen ; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables ; and said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence ; make not My Father's House an house of merchandise. And His disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up." — St. John ii.13-17. This is the Saviour's second visit to the Temple. His first was when He was twelve years of age. On that occasion He assumed no authority, for His age and instinctive sense of propriety forbad it. He sat at the doctors' feet, "both hearing them and asking them questions ; " by which we are not to understand that He gave Himself superior airs, and lectured the aged men occupying the seats of learning, but that He availed Himself of the ad- vantage, possessed by every Hebrew child, of attend- ing the public classes in connection with the Temple, to be instructed in the Scriptures by the appointed professors, called in the Gospels doctors pr rabbis. Jesus attended th^se classes on His im CHRIST PURIFYING THE TEMPLE. 159 first visit to Jerusalem, and was so filled with enthusiasm as to forget all about the caravan and its speedy return to Galilee. He attended as an eager modest learner, not as a haughty fault-finding inspector. But on this, His second visit, having been duly inaugurated to His official work. He at once begins to discharge the duties of His office. " The Lord whom ye seek shall come to Tlis temple. He shall purify the sons of Levi." In the verses following the text, the Jews demanded of Him a miracle of power. " What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things ? " But Jesus Christ declines to appeal to power in support of morality — morality must stand on its own basis. His greatest miracle is His character, His sinless life. His unimpeachable holiness. Whether the Saviour resorted to physical force or not, is to my present purpose of no consequence ; the greatest significance of the incident lies in the moral impression it produced. " Then the disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." The subject is — Chris- tian zeal. I. Zeal for the structure of the House. II. Zeal for the ordinances of the House. III. Zeal for the discipline of the House. IV. Zeal for the doctrines of the House. I. Zeal for the building. "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." I . ■>iv "\'m -m Jl PI y-.i ; i ^ i6o CHRIST PURIFYING THE TEMPLE. 1. It is the confessed duty of the Churrh to provide convenient places for the public worship of God. Private worship and family worship are inculcated in Holy Writ, but special importance is Attached to public worship. Man is essentially a social being; this feature the Gospel seizes upon, and turns into account. Over-building is, no doubt, a lamentable waste of strength ; but under-building is a sin. Christ commissions us to go to the high- ways and hedges and compel erring wandering sinners to come in ; but this presupposes that we have decent edifices for them to come into. The Church that neglects to provide proper accommoda- tion for the fast-growing population of the country is guilty of a serious breach of Christian trust. 2. And here you will allow me to impress upon you the importance of the house of God being in consonance with the most chastened taste, " Beauty becometh thy courts, Lord." Beauty, says Euskin, is as cheap as ugliness ; why then exclude it from the sanctuary of the Highest ? Christianity has, in the past ages of the world, displayed a won- derful genius for architecture. It has revolutionised the conceptions of men, thereby stamping its own image on public buildings. The flat roof, I am told, WP-3 very prevalent in antiquity, for the mind of man always moved horizontally, on a low level; but Christianity has elevated the human mind, has given it a wider scope heavenward, and consequently has changed the very roofs of places of public worship — instead of the flat roof, we have now the dome and the spire, mirroring the heavenward i'lt ; m ^^^I^^'FVING Tm TEMPLE. I6i longings of human nature 7^^^ God's house the most imnnv t .""' ''^« ^ ^ bourhood,-„.e„ uZ'Tj^t' " "'^ °^'="'- kept houses, and their r J i^'„ """"''"'' well- Bhed. neglected anS f^tt '^D S'^" '» « P^^''^^ smote hi,n because he dwe tin .Zf' ,''°"='''«"'=e l"s God. "Now it came L '""" •"""« 'han hi. house, that David s^W to Tl"^ ""^''^ ^«' i» ^0. 1 dwell in an house o celf h*' V'^ T^"^^'' covenant of the Lord remr;n»?i: . " '"''' °^ *e And he resolved to buiM T^ / '""''°^-" his own; wherefore God seful'. '"'"■ ^"''"^ *«» You can always tell the 1" ,'™ °" ^'' *^°n«- in a neighbourhood by tL noLv- 'P'"'""' "^^"8'°" «■■ chapel, let no Le thTnk 'T °' *^ <"'"''"' Botice-God always expects K t ""^"'^''J' "^ of the temporal pLpeHty' f hL cT ^ ^^^^''^ H's people were few and thJ ^"'"'^- '"'hen ened, an altar of earth ht^L^r'"''"""^^ «'"»"■ »Pade was acceptable in ffis^r^ "^ ^'"^ « multiplied in number 'd , ^^ ^^'''«'- they «ltar of earth warobli'd to"'''''" '" """*' '^^ of stones~a little 7rit ^'"^ ^^^ '" «« altar service. But when the rh "TT^ '° "'^ divine "ationandcoullboastofm ^^'^'^*'°P'='^ '°to a another step forward-lrat "''f ' """"^ -^-^"'^"ded ^•■Perseded 'by an alL ^Id 1^". T' ^« a mercy-seat of pure .old n-u . '''^'' '""'^e cherubim of gold Tho, «^ u , *''" "'""^^ two ■ «f shittim wood and thon , '^° "^^'^^ « t«We i-e gold, and make h'ett ""^'^^ '' ^"^ wundabout. Of pure nouZ, H "''"''° °^ ^^^-J Barns were pleasing to God tl T "'''' *«■»•" "g to uod in the days of our per- l62 CHRIST PURIFYING THE TEMPLE. secuted forefathers, but they will not be acceptable in the days of their luxurious and well-to-do children. 3. But after the zeal to build, we ought to have zeal enough to pay. Our own denomination at the present time is like Issachar — "a strong ass couob, ing dow bet^ i'n wo burdens " — the heavy burden oi aebt Jisvl inl/^^est on the one hand, and the heavy burden of cuTtsiiw f^xpenses on the other. Observe, however, that I laiu the emphasis, not on the word "ass," but on the word "strong" — that much in parenthesis, because of some men's tendency to misconstrue. Like Issachar, " we bow the shoulder to bear, and become servants unto tribute ; " but if we only believed in our strength, we could easily rise and shake off the burden which apparently crushes our efforts in other directiona And believe me, no one has ever suffered in his temporal affairs because of too freehanded liberality towards God's Temple. Many, I know, have been obliged to go through the bankruptcy and other courts, because of two much liberality in the service of the devil, none ever because of too much liberality in the service of God. What church has suffered in its worldly circumstances because the Sabbath collec- tions were too high ? I am tempted to say with the American coloured preacher — " Show me such a church, a church that has died because of its too great charity in the cause of God and man, and I shall proclaim in its funeral, ' Blessed are the dead, which die in the Lord.' " i IL Zeal for the ordinances. house hath eaten me up." *' The zeal of thine \m :!i.r CHRIST PURIFYING THE TEMPLE. 163 I. By the ordinances of tlie house we are here to understand the 7 :a7is of grace — the ordinary services of the Church on Sundays, week days, and holy days. Eigiitly are they called means of grace, for ±c^ are the means God has appointed by which He will communicate grace to the soul ; and if we neglect the means, rest assured we shall not obtain the grace. To neglect the means of grace i' ^^i old habit; an old habit, however, which has loc ed apostolic censure. " Not neglecting the as^it' "^Tibiing of yourselves together, as the manner ol 3'^t>,3 is." God has promised, it is true, to be a " small '■(anctuary " to his people; but where and when ? ';ien His people dwelt in Babylon, when they could not fre- quent the public sanctuary in Jerusalem. And if you chance to know any of the saints who are to-day obliged to dwell in Babylon, who are in sore captivity through bodily illness or distressing circumstances beyond their control, the promise remains in force — God will be to them a " small sanctuary." But if you are in the enjoyment of health and strength, and in the possession of the requisite leisure, God expects you to come to the public assembly with thanksgiving, and to His presence with praise. As already hinted, man is a social being, and Christianity is a social religion. Jesus Christ went about "preaching the Gospel." Is that all? No; He went about " preaching the Gospel of the kingdom." We have been saved into a kingdom — a social organisation, and the duties of a kingdom rest upon us. I do not believe in personal apart from social godhness. A man whose attendance on the public : r ill 164 CHRIST PURIFYING THE TEMPLE. services of the sanctuary is broken, is a man whose private religion is broken, bruised to the very core. The zeal of the house is well-nigh extinct in his breast. 2. However, two institutions in particular go under the name of ordinances — Baptism and the Lord's Supper. These two ordinances were established in the Church by the Lord Jesus Himself ; and about these a bitterer and more prolonged controversy has been waged by His followers than about all the doctrines of Christianity put together. Had He appointed three ordinances, the disputation would have inevitably reached such a pitch that it is doubtful whether the saints would have had time for anything else. But be that as it may, there are two extremes which should, in my opinion, be care- fully guarded against. The first is the sacerdotal extreme, the extreme to which the Episcopal Church manifests a decided bias. According to this extreme, baptism is regeneration, and the bread and wine are the very body and the very blood of the Lord Jesus. The sacraments are miracles — a very perilous extreme and fraught with the direst consequences. The other extreme tends directly to make everything " common " — an extreme towards which English Nonconformity shows a decided leaning. Many representative writers of Nonconformity in England apparently view the sacraments as idle empty cere- monies — a view very pernicious to a vigorous spiritual life. The Saviour would have never sanctioned, much less founded, empty unmeaning forms in His Church. Baptism is not an idle rite which the Church would be quite as well without chRisr PcmFviNo rnfe teMplr i6s Ml of grace, when the Churlh /'^■'"^'=*'"=« «»<« feith, hope, aud charity MtST.'''*" '' "' baptism its due place in JJ""' ^'^-'d deacons, give J^either is the^^d" Su ' '' °^ "'« C'^-'^"'- ceremony, a ceremony which tL P. '"P'^^^ga'^'y as well without as with Ohl "'^,°''«''=h could do - a holy ordinanc! iherei an .^ '"^'^'^ «"??« of the Gospel meet. Svf • ' '""' '''«='""«« to the great doctrines of ou;'?°"''""« ^«'°"S3 separately, «« the importance of !/fr i'""'^ ""'l lodged here-the love of the% .C *' "^""^'^^^^ « of the Son, and the pi'tee r ?k '^' '"°"«'»«»' I-rd-s Supper is a mefnT 7;^/, L?''"'" ^"^ »ense; I, for one, believe firmfyTtr. f^ 'P'^'"' ^■ot «>e real presence materially but h/ ,^''''""^' spiritually. Have we nor^fr ^ ""^^^ P'^^^^nce b^e^kiug of the brlad ? m '''° ^'"^ '» "'« »-ed the humiliation of Jl °" ^'^""^es be Sacraments as worthless „n^ "^°" '^« divine 3. But zeal for the IrWi '°"'° """' ' -e must also hav", a i^teT,' '"'' ^'^^ «"fflce, ■« always attractive enth't °''^T'"^'- ^""th The Nonconformist denomhS T"'' ^"^'^S^-^- remarkable for their ftrvo ^ w ''"' ''""''' ^"^^^ lished Church has been hlV "■'*' '^'^ ^stab- and light "_, boast thlTil"'"^ "^"^^'-- d«pute-the Nonconformist ll T '''"' '"'' '° r«^^^ to their manly vS and w ' .°^* '''«» the secret of their life-thl f ™'^- ^his is "h^ic ailments of the s u, TT''\ """^ "' '^^ -^^ '^en it smned, it tr^dltlmpr'ti:: '•f. '."fl I t66 CHRIST PURIFYING THft TtiiPLX 8un, and took its journey into a far frigid country; and one of the objeciis of the Gospel is to cure it of its cold, to thaw its ice, to pervade it once more with the genial glow of the sun. Our success con- tinues to depend upon our warmth — only the force that gave us being can sustain us in being. We hold our usual prayer-meetings; but where is the old fervour? We hold our usual preaching ser- vices ; but where is the old hwyl ? You say that the ministers of the last generation were warmer- hearted than their successors. Granted; but re- member also that the hearers of the last generation were warmer-hearted than those of our day. Give us as much fire in the pews, and I will guarantee you as much fire in the pulpit. God forbad the Israelites to offer asses in sacrifice — dull, heavy, torpid creatures. But alas ! alas ! we in Wales have been offering asses in sacrifice for many a long year — worship insipid, flat, dead. "But a lively demonstration of feeling is not permissible in our day, it is not respectable." Is it not ? Well, then, God preserve us from respectability. As I look around me, I see enthusiasm enough in Parliament, in political and social gatherings, — enthusiasm amounting to positive boisterousne^^s ; and is it only in connection with the eternal interests of humanity that it is to be pronounced vulgar and reprehen- sible ? Look at the Salvation Army. Does not their success depend upon their zeal, their heat, their energy ? They are deficient in light, it is true ; but let them alone — one of the most recent discoveries of science is that heat turns into hght Christ purifying the temple. 16; That is true in the natural world ; it 18 equally true in the spiritual world. Oh for more zeal in the divine service ! oh for more joy, greater gladness of heart 1 " That your joy might be full." Who have a right to rejoice, if we have not ? There was not much joy in the old world, the world before the Incarnation. There was much counterfeit, but very httle of the genuine article. Consequently the old world never invented rhyme. It created rhythm, but no rhyme ; blank verse, but no tuneful corres- pondence of sounds. Rhyme is the creation of Christianity. Eead the classic poetry of Greece and Rome, and it is all blank verse — rhythm but no rhyme. Read the sublime poetry of the Hebrew prophets, and it is all blank verse — rhythm but no rhyme. The human heart did not experience joy sufficiently intense and exhilarating to make language jingle like bells upon the horses' bridles ; only the religion of Jesus possessed inspiration enough to enable it to do this. Why then should we bow our heads like rushes ? s* n 51 . III. Zeal for the discipline of the house. " The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." In the preceding verses we see Jesus Christ driving out the sellers ij.nd buyers and exchangers of money — an act symbolicul of Church discipline. I. Wickedness should be rebuked. Whatever will come of us as a religious body, let us see that we uncompromisingly maintain its purity. Ever;, if we lose in the number of our adherents, let us beware that we suffer not in the dignity of our II .:|i lilt 16^ CHRIST PURIFYING THE TEMPLE. character. "We had better lose everything, even our very existence, than our character. Wise discipline, judicious pruning, is essential to solid prosperity. The apostle Paul threatened to visit the Corinthian Church, the morals of which were of those free and easy kind so much vaunted in our day as signs of culture and breadth, with a " rod." Yes ; there is place, as there is need, for rods in Christian Churches as in Christian families. Men cannot, remarks Renan, be properly governed till science has dis- covered the secret to immediately burst the planet, to shiver it in a moment into ten million atoms. Nought save fear of the explosion will keep the nations in their proper places, and make them observe their respective obligations. The promoters of the French Eevolution were animated by a senti- ment not very dissimilar, when they invented for their motto — " Terror and all the virtues" Fear they believed to be the chief source whence good- ness flowed. A very pernicious error decidedly, but an error containing in it the usual modicum of truth: in the present state of society fear, if it do not prompt to goodness, deters from evil The moment discipline disappears from a Church, its moral calibre begins a process of deterioration — a principle amply illustrated in die history of primitive Christianity. When Eaphael painted the figures of St. Peter and St. Paul on the dome of St. Peter's at Eome, some of the papal officials objected that the colour in their countenances was too hidi and florid. " Oh," replied the artist, " I did not paint them as they were here upon earth, but as they are now CHRtST t>URIFYING THE TEMPLfi; i60 !ii our ipline, perity. iithian 36 and [gns of [lere is lurches emarks las dis- planet, atoms, eep tlie :e tliem romoters a senti- Qted for Tear e iiood- cidedly, icum of ,r, if it lil The irch, its .tion — a (liniitive ficTures of Jeter's at (that the id florid. lit them are uuw » in heaven, — looking down upon the Church they established, and blushing crimson because of its corruptions." Do not the founders of our Connexion feel a glow of holy shame mantling their cheeks as they look down from heaven upon the present history of many of our churches ? Where is St. Paul's " rod ? " A fragment of his cloak is reported to be still found at Rome, but where is his " rod ? " Do not the churches, yea, the pulpits of our land, require to undergo a process of purification ? Do we not now stand in need of a " scourge of small cords " to drive out of the temple the wicked men who, by their negligence and sometimes open immorality, disgrace the altars of our God ? The Connexion to which we belong has in years past been an alabaster box of precious ointment, the perfume of which has spread over every hill and filled every dale in this highly favoured principality, sweetening the very atmosphere we breathe. But in some neighbour- hoods dead flies have entered, causing the ointment of the Divine Apothecary to stink. Professors of religion are not afraid of frequenting public houses ; do not the churches wink at the evil ? Preachers of the Gospel are not afraid to get drunk ; will there not be over-zealous friends in the Presbytery to take their part ? Be it far from me to hint that these evils are frequent; thank God, they are not; but they ought not to be at all. Let the churches insist that the connexiona. pulpits shall be kept pure and unspotted. 2. Another object wise discipline has in view is the fortification of virtue — instruction in righteous- j iji *;,' ; ," 1! ^ •f m i w^ ^«i! ■ ' I ] 1 I i i i-1 111 li n ■ 1 170 CHRIST t>UKiFYmG THE TEMPLE. ness. In the family and the Church disciplinary regimen should aim at the development of goodness, even more than at the repression of vice. Our great aim as Christian communities should he to instigate one another to reach higher altitudes in holiness and usefulness. True, we cannot achieve here a state of perfect sinlessness, for " if we say we sin not, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." But if we cannot be sinless, we can be, and ought to be, blameless. " Be blameless and harm- less, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world." "Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." " Harm- less " here means literally " hornless " — " hornless as doves." Some creatures have horns, with which they accomplish much mischief. But as for doves, they have no horrs ; much injury they cannot in- flict, for they are deficient in the instruments where- with to inflict it. Similarly some men habitually wear horns, bringing vividly to our minds him who was pictured in our early school-books with horns and cloven feet, as though they and he belonged to the same dark family ; in presbytery and synod they rush like wild buffaloes upon their brethren who dwell in innocency, they are never happy except when they make others unhappy, never satisfied save when they are vigorously using their horns against people unable or unwilling to defend them- selves. Be not you like unto them, says the Saviour, not only refrain from doing mischief, but throw aside the instruments of mischief — be wise as sc pents ohuist Pup.lrytNG the templb. m and hornless as doves. Shall we as ministers and deacons oiTiee to fling away our horns and live to- (Tether in sweet amity ? " How good and how plea- sant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity ! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon tlie beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments ; as the dew of Hermou, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion ; for there the Lord commanded His blessing, even life for evermore." So living, we shall " adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things." Adorn the doctrine — a very beautiful expression. That, I apprehend, is the special work of the Christian Church in this nine- teenth century — adorning the doctrine. The special work of the Church in the first century was to reveal the doctrine ; the special work of the Church in the fifteenth and subsequent centuries was to expound the doctrine ; the special work of the latter half of the last, and the beginning of this century was to apply the doctrine. But the special work of the Church in this age of artistic revival is to adorn the doctrine. Paul and John — they were remarkable for their power to reveal truth ; Luther and Calvin — they were remarkable for their power to expound truth; Whitfield and Wesley in England, Eowlands and Harris in Wales — they were remarkable for their power to apply truth. What is our special vocation? It is to adorn the truth. Our age is pre-eminently an age of beauty, every department of life, private and public, secular and holy, is being taken possession of in the name of Art. Let us not 4,1 1/2 CttRISt PURIFYING THE TEMt>Lfi. be behindhand in discerning the signs of the times, let the principles of the everlasting beauty find ex- quisite illustrations of themselves in our life and conversation in the world. 3. Our interest in the holiness of the Church should not be half-hearted and languid, but earnect, ardent, all aflame with divine zeal. In proportion as we are zealous for God and loyal to Him will He bless our efforts at evangelisation. Some of the older States in the great Eepublic across the Atlantic complain sadly of excessive drought. In bygone years the rain was wont to descend in copious fertilising showers ; but now the clouds hover high in the air and float away to other regions. And why ? Because the old-established States have been completely shorn of their ancient forests, and as a penalty they now fail to attract the clouds; or, if they attract them, they fail to draw from them the " water of life." What then do the inhabitants do under these blighting circumstances ? They plant cannons in the high places of the land, and when they see a cloud sailing high in mid-air they fire their artillery ; the air shakes, and in the shock the cloud rends and pours its precious contents on the thirsty soil— -rain often descends the day after battle. That is the modern way of obtaining rain ; but the grey -haired settlers declare the old way was better, and they are now busily planting trees in nie denuded regions — trees will draw water from the clouds easier than artillery. In like manner the Israel <; f God is lamenting the excessive drought iu the present day — some of you are longing for a CHRIST PURIFYING THE TEMPLE. 173 times, id ex- ie and ;)hurch larnect, portion im will ome of OSS the ht. In send in } clouds regions, tes have ests, and clouds ; iin them Labitants I? They [and, and •air they le shock stents on [ay after ing rain ; way was trees in .ter from manner drought icT for a "season of refreshing from the presence of the Lord," you are fervently praying for the '* day of visitation." We see the clouds of the divine pro- mises heavy-laden with water; but they sail high in the empyrean — no showers descend. What do the Churches do ? They fetch the American revi- valists, they send here and there for the big guns of the Christian ministry. The guns shoot, the air trembles, the clouds burst, the torrent falls. But ic is a torrent, and like all torrents it drenches the surface and soon passes, and the earth is as parched as ever. I say nothing against your resorting to extraordinary means to force on a revival — forcing is now a complicated art, not only in horticulture, but in all departments of activity, temporal and spiritual But I show you a more excellent way — cultivate more assiduously the " trees of riL'hteous- ness," grow more vigorously in grace and knowledge, fulfil more faithfully your duties to men, and dis- charge more promptly your obligations to G( ^ and your Eedeemer, and the clouds of the Divii pro- mises, big with mercy, shall break in shov rs on your heads. Get you up, gird your loins, live lives of holiness and consecration, and soon you ^ d hear the " sound of abundance of rain." IV. Zeal for the doctrines of the House. " The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." It is the Church's vocation, not that of the ministry as an official order, to defend the faith. " The Cliurch of the living God — the pillar and ground of the truth." It is the duty of the churches, as churches, to lool^ "f i t I i ! 1" 1 :li: 174 CHRIST PURIFYING THE TEMPLE. after the soundness and the unity of the faith. And perhaps it is not quite unworthy of notice that all the notorious heretics, with one or two exceptions, were professional preachers. It rejoices my heart to believe that England's churches are sounder in the faith than England's ministers. Beading the religious press of the metropolis, one is tempted to think that one respectable denomina- tion is fast drifting from sound doctrine. But I will venture to say — No ; the denomination is not Many of its preachers seem to have entered into competition with one another which will err fastest and farthest ; but the churches as a whole " hold fast the faith once delivered to the saints." I. Zeal for the doctrine implies mental hostility to error. Jesus Christ expresses His approval of some of the churches of Asia, because they set their faces against false doctrines. The manifest tendency of the present day is to extend toleration not only to heretics, which is right, but also to heresies, which is wrong. What a vast difference is observ- able in the indulgent tone of a section of the Eng- lish religious press and the strong condemnatory language of the New Testament Epistles in writing of doctrinal errors. I have great respect for the modern newspaper writers, and they will doubtless extend to me also the indulgence they are always so ready to extend to heretics, if I say I have greater respect for the New Testament writers. But I forget — orthodoxy and believers in orthodoxy are proscribed from the list of things to be tolerated ; they have right neither to life nor true CHRIST PURIFYING THE TEMPLE. ^7S representation. But all the same I believe and tell you that it is your duty not to let go hastily, not to let <^o at all, the vital doctrines of Christianity, which have been transmitted to us by the great thinkers of the Christian Churcli for nineteen cen- turies, men as illustrious iolc their unfeigned piety as for their profound scholarship. I do not judge it expedient to give prominence to, and enter into controversy with, "every imp that speaks the lan- guage of hell with a new accent ; " but whenever a momentous error appears, it is our duty to say with unmistakable decision, " Get thee behind me, Satan." One important error, leavening the theology of this last decade, is the dogmatic denial oi everlasting punishment. If God will be pleu :ed to throw open the gates of the eternal prison, and let the devils and the damned go free, there is no one here who will raise an objection ; on the other hand, we would rejoice with trembling, knowing that all His ways are in righteousness and truth. But what amazes me is that men from premisses so narrow and precarious should draw a conclusion so broad and sweeping, and, I will add, so fraught with ever- lasting injury, should it chance to turn out a mis- take. At all events, caution here is safe. Witho".t a clearer revelation on the subject than we now possess, or without a much more convincing exegesis of the passages under discussion than we have yet been favoured with, I, for one, dare not proclaim in the hearing of obstinate rebels a general amnesty in the divine Empire at a period not so very remote, for if the date of the amnesty be thrown very far ill « 1/6 CHRIST PURIFYING THE TEMPLE. forward, the difficulty, which seems to scandalize the advocates of this new view, is not removed — it is only infiuitesimally palliated. With the revela- tion and exigesis we have, I can easily understand men thinking and speculating about it; but to preach it as a Gospel fact, to proclaim it from house- tops as demonstrated truth, to publish it in popular papers and magazines as veritable history, to make of it the corner-stone of the new theology and the Gospel of the future — all this is to me past compre- hension. Another error to which I deem it expe- dient to call your attention as representatives of the churches is the bold denial of the sacredness of the Sabbath-day. Public men, eminent preachers, well- known writers, do their best to break down the hedge round about this day ; they endeavour to persuade the legislature to throw open the doors of places of public amusement and secular instruction. As a rule they belong to the class known as ad- vanced liberals, and make their boast of liberty. But it is a fact which they apparently overlook- that the history of the Sabbath and that of liberty run on parallel lines. Show me a country that observes the Sabbath, and I will show you a country that enjoys liberty, religious and civil. On the other hand, show me a nation that desecrates the Sabljath, converting it into a day of pleasure or of business, and I will show you a country where despotism in one form or another always flourishes. The Sabbatarian nations are the free nations of the earth. "Eemember the Sabbath day, to keep it lioly." CHRIST PURIFYING THE TEMPLE. 177 idalize ved — revela- jrstaud but to , house- popular [,0 make and the compre- it expe- es of the 3S of the ers, well- lown the javour to doors of Lstruction. 'n as ad- jf liberty, [verlook— lof liberty [ntry that a country On the [crates the ^ure or of ■ry where flourishes. ,ns of the keep it 2. Whilst opposing heresy, our chief concern should be the vindication and exposition of truth; zeal, not for sect or party, but for truth. " For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth." Zeal for the great doctrines that make for the salva- tion of the world. Every Biblical truth is inspired ; but every inspired truth is not of equal importance. Let us be zealous for the great truths. Our theology, in common with that of the Presbyterian bodies of the world, is Calvinistic ; it is therefore natural, nay, reasonable, that we should not entirely overlook the " five points." Yet we must remember that it is not the " five points " that save, but the great eternal truths which underlie and support these and all other "points." The salvation of the world is of too great importance to rest upon "points," it rests on facts as on immovable rocks. Let our churches see that the Cross occupies the central place in the preaching of the day, that the doctrine of the Atonement continues the centre of our theology. The longer I preach, the more emphasis I lay on the Atonement, the nearer I press to the Cross. The Eoman Catholics wear it on their hearts, but I wear it in mine. No sermon is worth delivering if it be not sprinkled with blood, all the better if it be immersed in it. We beUeve in baptism by sprinkling in respect of water, but in baptism by immersion in respect of blood. Here lies the secret of our strength. " And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men to me." Notliing else " draws " for any length of time. Take Uni- tarianism, for instance, Christianity with the Cross M i I I7S CHRIST PURIFYING THE TEMPLE. left out, the Gospel with the Atonement struck off. What is the result ? It does not " draw." One of the leaders of English Unitarianism declared publicly in Birmingham the other day that Uni- tarianism failed to " draw." The English public will not attend their chapels. That is just what Christ foresaw. He knew that nought save His Cross would serve to draw men. "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw." It is not His character, though spotlessly white, not His teaching, though sublimely pure, not His person, though mysteriously Divine, but His Cross that is the centre of the world's attraction. The popularity as well as the efficacy of Christianity is mainly dependent on the Cross. As a Christian communion professing allegiance to tlie Gospel in all its entirety, let us insist with no faltering accent upon the Cross being held aloft in our theology, private and public ; lor when our pulpits will lose the Cross, the chapels will loss their congregations. 3. But whilst urging the churches as represented by you to be valiant in their defence of the central, fundamental truths, I must also claim on my own behalf and that of my brethren, the younger ones more especially, a kind of unorganised liberty on the confines of the faith. " Unorganised liberty," I say, in contradistinction to the organised freedom, the landmarks of which are indicated in the standards and the creeds in respect of the funda- mental doctrines. As officers in the Church of Christ, as recognised ministers and deacons, we cannot allow ourselves to be always laying the a CHRIST PURIFYING THE TEMPLE. 1 79 foundations — that shouM be done once for all. We cannot permit ourselves in our collective capacity to be always calling in question the vital truths of the Gospel, — the Incarnation, the Atonement, justifi- cation by faith. If we doubt these, the Christian pulpit is not our place, but the pew. We are sup- posed to be settled in our convictions upon subjects such as these before aspiring to the Christian ministry. If we are not, then we should wait till we shall have arrived at a state of comparative certainty or else seek some other outlet for our energy. The pulpit is not the place to preach the Gospel of Doubt, but the Gospel of Faith. By this I do not for a moment mean that we are pre- cluded from examination and re-examination of the vital articles ; we often profoundly and prayerfully examine them, not however because we doubt them, but because we believe them. Faith, not doubt, will be found the true principle of investigation, whether in philosophy or theology. Organised liberty, in the view of many, is bond- age. But in civil life it is not so ; liberty brought under law is the highest kind of liberty, secured against the caprice of despotism on the one hand, and against the freaks of individualism on the other. Why should it be supposed to be otherwise in intellectual life*? But whilst insisting on firmness in respect of the central doctrines, we should permit a great deal of latitude in respect of the minor questions which constitute the fringe of the Christian faith. See that our young men, and especially our young ministers, have their anchor sure and stedfast^ o IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT~3) CV 4^. J ^ o 1.0 I.I 111 Ui 2.2 1^ lU Itf 124 ^ I. ■yut. :.8 ■•25 |||||i.4 111.6 o^ V] /A '^ ^;^- Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716)873-4503 i ! ; 1 80 CHRIST PUAIFYmG THE TEMPLE. in the Bock of Ages, then yoa can afford to give plenty of length to the chain. See that they. hold fast to the great truths, then if you see them occasionally moving a little unsteadily on the boundaries of the faith like a ship dancing on the ridge of the wave, raise no alarm — the young man is safe, once he is anchored to Christ. Firmness in the centre, elasticity in the circumference : that lias been the guiding principle of Welsh Presbyterianism in the past ; let it be our motto in the future C t8i ; (Tfie i^et0 ]3trt{|. "That which is bora of the flesh is flesh ; and that which b bora of the Spirit is spirit Marvel net that I said unto thee, Yo must be born again." — St. John iil 6, 7. NicoDEMUS came to Jesus Christ, sincerely desiring, no doubt, to be enlightened concerning the new teaching. " The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God." " From God " is emphatic. Other teachers received their commission from men, but here at last is a teacher who has received his commission from God. Nicodemus beheld in Him a prophet — a teacher from heaven in contradistinc- tion to a preacher from the schools. " Jesus answered and said unto him ; " but no question has yet been asked. We must, however, remember that the coming of Nicodemus was in itself an anxious inquiry, the attitude of his mind was that of a note of interrogation. Jesus did not answer his question, for he asked none ; but what was better — He answered him. " Jesus answered and said unto him. Except a man be bom again, he cannot see t!he kingdom of God." The phrase " to be bom again " was not new to Nicodemus, he was ;.( in' ;.■■ 1 \l \^ i ^ 11 ■ ' I" I : i ■!li 'I I il / ) * Ij ! ti 1 1^2 THE NEW BIRTH. perfectly acquainted with it. What was new was its application to Jews, to men, not in their national capacity, but in their bare character of human beings. If Jesus had said, " Except the Gentiles be born again," Nicodemus would have understood Him, or at least have supposed he understood Him. By baptism the Gentile proselytes were believed to be dissevered from their original stock, and grafted into the holy stock of Abraham. They were re- born, began a new life within the Jewish theocracy. So complete was the transference, or rather trans- formation, that the proselytes were allowed to inter- marry with the daughters of Israel. Jesus Christ in this chapter borrows the current phraseology, and as usual with Him infuses into it an analogous but deeper signification. " Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." This un- qualified statement, applied to Jews as well as Gentiles, staggers Nicodemus, who confusedly asks — " How can a man be born again when he is old ? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be bom ? " Ironical men see irony in the interrogation; but I perceive in it only per- plexity arising from profound earnestness. Nico- demus understood in a general way how a Gentile could be born again, — by the proselyte's baptism; but he could not divine Jiow one who was born a Jew could be born again. The subject had never been debated in the colleges, it had never been decided by the rabbis ; and the -only way that now suggests itself to his mind is a repetition of the first birth. Whereupon the Saviour proceeds THE NEW BIRTH. i^3 to explain — " Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." A repetition of the natural birth would avail nothing ; a dozen natural births would effect no improvement on the first : in each case the result would be pre- cisely the same. " That which is bom of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." The ye is emphatic. Ye, Jews as well as Gentiles, "Ye must be born again." " That which is born of the flesh is flesh : '' that describes man in a state of nature, man before regeneration. " That which is born of the Spirit is spirit:" that describes man in a state of grace, man after regeneration. " Marvel not that I said unto thee. Ye must be born again : " that describes the way whereby a man is removed from a state of nature into a state of grace — man in the process of regeneration. Those shall be my divisions, simply making the second and third change places. vM m I. Man in a state of nature, or man before regeneration. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." It is rather singular that Jesus Christ, the second Adam, nowhere makes mention of the first Adam, nor makes any direct reference to him. It is equally singular that He nowhere inculcates a dcctrine of vast importance in Christian theology — the doctrine of the Fall. Nevertheless He every- where assumes the doctrine; at all events He always takes for granted the depravity of our nature, whichever way the depravity came about. r ij! 'liliL. 1^4 THE NEW BIRTH. The doctrine of regeneration presupposes the doc- trine of the Fall, and the consequent turpitude of our nature. " That which is born of the flesh is flesh." I . This depravity is therefore innate. " That which is horn of the flesh is flesh." Pelagius, better known among us by his Welsh name Morgan, imagined that every child is bom into the world white and unsullied as a sheet of paper, without trace or mark upon the soul, and that what defile- ment subsequently attaches to it, is contracted from its environments. But Christian theology as well as all profound philosophy repudiates the hypothesis. " Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." The Psalmist does not in these words reflect upon the character of his mother, as some sinister writers slyly insinuate — his mother was a woman of well-known piety. He never mentions the piety of his father, but he makes frequent references to the piety of his mother. " I am thy servant, the son of thine handmaid." No; he does not, in the words al- ready cited, reflect upon the character of his mother, but rather upon his own. " Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." The defilement was not on the surface only, superinduced from without, like the outward defilement of the colliers in the hill districts, but was mixed with his very make, per- vading flesh, bone, and marrow, arising from within, like the coloured complexion of the negro. No wonder therefore that he should pray in the same Psalm, "Wash me throughly from mine THE NEW BIRTH. 185 iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin." Two words are used in the original for " to wash." The first signifies the washing of the surface or outside, just as a man washes his hands or his face — only on the skin the uncleanness lies, and to wash the skin suffices to remove it. The other signifies that kind of washing that penetrates below the surface, that wholly pervades the material, that cleanses not the outside only but the inside likewise, and all the substance between the two sides, just as a woman washes clothes. It is not the outside only that she cleanses but the inside likewise, and all the fabric between the outside and the inside. This is precisely the word used by the Psalmist : "Wash me throughly from mine iniquity;" not the surface only, but my whole nature — wash me through and through ; let the washing go wherever the corruption is gone ; not my feet only, but also my hands and my head ; not the outer man only, but the inner man of the heart. The identical words of the Psalmist are still stronger : " Multiply to wash me throughly from mine iniquity." That is to say, " Wash me throughly, not once or twice, but as many times as Thou seest I need it ; repeat the process again and again, so that by any means I may be made clean." As a woman washes clothes deeply stained over and over again till the slightest vestige of the uncleanness is wiped off, so he asks God not to spare him, but to wash him repeatedly through and through, and to continue the proceijs of purification till the last relic of the birth- stain be completely and for ever removed. t J r 1 ! ! 1 86 THE NEW BIRTH. i ! ■ I i I. II ! 2. The text implies also that the turpitude is hereditaiy. " That which is bom of the flesh is flesh." This is a verity of science as well as of theology. Once degeneration enters a species, the process gdes on inevitably from bad to worse unless a remedial check be applied. This, we know, is the case in the vegetable and animal worlds; upon what grounds do we exempt human nature from the dominion of the same law ? " In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him." What besides ? " And Adam lived an hun- dred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image." Like begets like. The verses just cited in juxtaposition teach us that man under sin is a degenerate being: the divine image continues, but broken ; the divine likeness remains, but sadly blurred. The divine aspirations are not entirely stifled, but corrupt imaginations flourish wondrously and choke the good seed. A singular paradox occurs in the history of the Deluge. Why did God destroy the old world with the waters of the flood ? Because " He saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and tha,t every iinagincUion of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." " And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart, and the Lord said, I will destroy man." And destroy him He did, except eight souls (Gen. v.) Listen to Him again after the Deluge had subsided. God said, " I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, for the imagination of marts heart is evil from his youth'* (Gen. viiL 2i). The THE NEW BIRTH. 187 words unmistakably teach that man always inclines to evil, because of the liereditary bias of his nature. My personal sin grows out of an undercurrent of evil in the race ; far beneath my individual con- sciousness flows the dark turbid river of the sin of the race, floating me down its swollen torrents towards the Dead Sea. Not only is the stream tur- bid, but the very spring emits foulness. But what is remarkable is that God in Genesis viil brings forward the very same reason for sparing man that in Genesis v. he adduces for drowning him, namely, that the imagination of his heart is evil from his youth. As though God said, — " True, I have drowned man once, but I will not drown him again ; he is evil from his youth, wicked from his birth; and though I destroy him a hundred times, the old sin will again grow and break out the first favourable moment — sin is ingrained in his nature, water cannot wash it, fire cannot burn it ; therefore, after showing my abhorrence of sin in one deluge, I will not send another, for it will do no good — sin is in- grained in the nature." Marvellous that God should plead original sin as an extenuation of our doom, and urge our hereditary corruption as a reason why we should not be summarily damned. Only grace could perceive in our inborn turpitude an argument for our salvation. 3. This depravity is furthermore wmt?«rsa/. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh," and there is no exception. " As it is written. There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God." " The Lord as 1.1 i4 I • I "til 3S III f| 188 TIIK NEW BIUTH. n ! i looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy ; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." More literally — " they are all gone sour, they are all together become stinking," — • so the word filthy is rendered on the margin. You have seen milk or some other fluid gone sour, it is good for nothing but to be cast out into the cesspool Thus God at first created man fresh and sweet, but men became sour, and consequently emitted a loathsome smell in the nostrils of the Almighty. No wonder, therefore, that we read in connection with one of the first sacrifices ever offered that " God smelled a sweet savour." The world had become rancid, it poisoned the very air, but in sacrifice God found a way to sweeten the world again. " He smelled a sweet savour." " By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death pas:ed upon all men,"— "death passed through all men." It passed upon them, passed through them; and the reason is obvious — sin had passed through them first. The cholera enters a community, strikes down one-half of the inhabitants, but leaves the other half untouched. Is that the way sin behaved, poisoning one half of the race, but letting the rest escape scot-free ? No, it poisoned all, smote all, went through all — through every member of the race, and through every faculty and power in every member. 4. This depravity is total. " Whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh," and nothing but flesh. Here 1^ THE NEW ninTii. 189 we have stumbled upon the total depravity of man a doctrine much spoken against by certain dilet- tanti writers in the present day, who, however, have not had the patience to understand it, nor the can- dour to properly represent it. By this doctrine it is not meant that every man is as bad as he can be, as polluted on the day of his birth as he can possibly be on the day of his death. What then ? That man is bom aside from the perpendicular, that he is bom with the inclination of his nature towards evil. The inclination may be greater at the end of life than at the beginning ; indeed, it is sure to be so unless he is seized upon and straightened by divine grace ; but there can be no question, in my opinion, that every faculty is more or less tainted with evil, that the bias of the soul, the whole trend of our being, is in the direction of eviL Walking along the high road one day, I observed a winding track as of a reptile, clearly traceable in the dust For a moment or two I could not conjecture its cause. But suddenly the truth flashed across my mind — it was the winding track of a snake, dragging its slimy length along. And as I investigate the human mind, turning my gaze inward into my own constitution, I clearly perceive, methinks, the slimy traces of the snake — " the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan " — gliding across all my faculties. She has left her mark upon the understanding, the afiTections, and even the conscience itself. Every man, and every power in every man, is depraved. "God is not in all his thoughts." Analyse the mnefs thoughts: you will find therein a little ¥ M t! I r •■I m ii\i i: ^'1 II ' I ( I i 190 THE NEW BIRTH. truth, a little beauty, a great deal of the world, and a still greater deal of the devil ; but of God not a particle, not the smallest atom. The seeds of all evil are sown in the soil of our heart ; they have not all grown as yet, probably they never will all grow; but they are there all the same, for one of the characteristics of seeds is that a great many will go into a very small place. The seeds of all sin are in thy heart, my brother, the roots of all wickedness. Wherefore the apostle exhorts the Hebrews " to look diligently lest any root of bitter- ness spring up, causing trouble, and thereby many be defiled." The old roots are there, in thy heart; see that they grow not ; better still is it to pull them up and put them to dry in the sun. Of Haman we learn that " he was full of indignation against Mordecai. Nevertheless Haman refrained himself " (Est. V. 9, I o). Deadly malice burned in his heart. Well, did he purge himself of his malice ? No, he only curbed it. Did he eradicate his passion ? No, he only checked its sudden manifestation. And that is about all education, civilisation, culture, can accomplish — they teach men to bridle themselves. Lactautius remarks, with his usual insight, of the wisdom of the Gentiles, that it c^/nsisted in biding vice, not in uprooting it ; in checking lust, not in slaying it. But what says the Bible ? " Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones." It is not enough to teach Babylon's brats, the sinful propensities and lusts, how to behave ; they must be dashed against the ^ocks, the^ must be slain, annihilated, ever^ one. ■1 1 i '. i ! 1 THE NEW BIRTH. 191 Let no one imagine that I am haranguing against external morality. Certainly not ; I am only speak- ing a little in favour of internal morality. " What is holiness ? " a gentleman once asked a class of Suiuhiy School children. "To be clean outside," answered a little child. I know only of one better (^„gwer — to be clean inside as well as outside. Education can only clean the outside. You may send the tiesh to costly schools, to Oxford or Cambridge, to learn the manners of good society ; but it con- tinues flesh notwithstanding — learned flesh, if you like, polished flesh, civilized flesh, but flesh all the same. The Gospel of Culture can only garnish the outside, whitewash the graves, "which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are witliin full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." But the Gospel of Christ can clean the inside, adorn the hidden man of the heart, quicken those who are dead in trespasses and sins. Whereas Culture only whitewashes the sepulchres, Jesus Christ opens them, and bids the dead live. II. Man changed from a state of Nature into a state of Grace, or man being regenerated. " Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." I. Here we are taught that godliness begins in life — God re-planting a principle of life deep down at the very springs of our personality. " Ye must be lorn again." Godliness is not a thing of pro- fession or acquisition, but of birth. True religion is not a trade, it is nature. In regeneration God inserts a new germ of life in the very centre, the i \ 1 1 r I i ' ' ) 192 THE NEW BIRTH. inneimost core, of our being. As already shown, all human methods to improve humanity proceed from without to within, whereas the divine plan proceeds from within to without. God and Man, Nature and Art, do not work in the same way even when they work towards the same end. Take, for example, an apple. Man's way of making an apple is to hew it inward, God's way is to grow it outwards. So in all instances. Man proposes schemes of education, of social and political reform, proceeding from without to within ; God introduces a power of inward re- novation, inserts the seed of new life in the centre, thus moving from within to without. True religion is not an art which you may acquire, but life born into your soul, forming the basis of your own nature. Have you heard the story of the idiot boy ? Seeing a corpse for the first time in his life, he endeavoured hard to make it stand on its feet ; but was at last compelled to give up the attempt in utter despair, saying to himself, " Something is wanting within." Similarly philosophers of various schools have struggled valiantly to make poor human nature stand erect, they have surrounded it with strong educational supports. But no use — it always dis- appointed their hopes, it always fell; something was wanting within. But what philosophy could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God in the Gospel of His Son performs ; He supplies the internal defect, imparts new life and new strength to our inner man. 2. Observe also that this life is new — absolutely new. ** Ye must be bom anew," so the majority of THE NEW BIRTH. 195 commentators choose to read. The regenerate life is not the continuation or development or refine- ment of the old natural life, but absohitely a new creation. Some of the Broad Church divines view the regenerate life as only a refined unfolding of a life already hid deep down in the ooul, which only requires a fresh stimulus, through the application of sound mental manure and the continuous shining of the divine love as set forth in the Gospel, to burst through the hard increment of sin and evil habits, and to bring forth all the beautiful blossoms of holiness. Philosophy, pure and simple, maintains that human nature, like the damsel of old, " is not dead, but sleepeth," and that all that is requisite to her salvation is to excite her faculties, to strengthen her powers, to awake her out of her long sleep. No, answers the Bible, the soul is dead, without a spark of life ; it is not sufficient to rouse men out of their sleep, they must be waked out of their graves. "And you hath He quickened when ye were dead in trespasses and sins." No, no ; the regenerate life is not the continuation of the old hfe, refined and developed, but the new beginning of a new life, which ushers us into a new creation. " Except a man be horn anew, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." Human nature is too bad to be improved, too dilapidated to be repaired. Yonder is a cracked belL How again to restore it? By one of two methods. The first is to repair the bell, to en- compass it with hoops, to surround it with bands. Nevertheless you can easily discern the crack of % ■r'^^.% ;|l M ; t i-: ! it 194 THE NEW BIRTH. fl UH ; J ! I I ' the bell in the crack of the sound. The only effectual way is to remelt tlie bell, recast it, and make it all new; then it will ring clear, round, sonorous as ever. And human nature is a boll suspended high up in the steeple of the creation to ring forth the praises of the Almighty Creator. But in the Fall in Eden the bell cracked. How again to restore it ? By one of two ways. One is to surround it with outward laws and regulations as with steel hoops. This is the method adopted by philosophy as embodied in practical statesman- ship; and without doubt there is a marked im- provement in the sound. Nevertheless the crack in the metal shows itself in the crack in the tone. The best way is to remelt it, recast it, remould it; and this is God's method in the Gospel. He re* melts our being, refashions us, creates us afresh from root to branch, makes us new creatures in Christ Jesus, zealous unto good works ; and by and by we will sound forth His praises in a nobler, sweeter strain than ever we did before. Heaven's high arches will be made to echo our anthems of praise. 3. Observe further that this life is not only new, but heavenly — heavenly in its origin and nature. "Ye must be born from above" — so runs the marginal rendering. It might be a new life on the same level as the old, but the text shows that it is a new life on a higher platform. The believer's life is a heavenly life — life from above. It is heavenly in opposition to the life of the i :!= THE NEW BIRTH. 195 caraal man, a truth too obvious to require elabora- tion at my hands. But more especially is this life heavenly in con- tradistinction from that which God bestowed upon man in his first creation. Man was created a holy, but at tho same time, an earthly creature. " So also is it written, The first man was of the earth, earthy ; the second man is the Lord from heaven." Adam at his best was but an earthly man; the earth was the sphere of his thoughts, the object of his affections. The Lord had to descend to the earth to hold converse with him. Adam would have been content to live on the earth for ever — a holy, but, at the same time, an earthly man. But the life God implants in the hearts of believers is heavenly both in its origin and nature. Of the patriarchs we read that they " desired a better country, that is, an heavenly." Paul and his fellow- saints had a " desire to depart and be with Christ." What may be the matter with them ? ire they the brain-sick victims of dreams and delusions ? Oh no ; they are characterised by wonderful calm- ness and self-possession. How then to account for their strange longings and desires ? Only on this wise — they are the recipients of celestial life, which in its turn engenders within them celestial, heaven- ward longings. The hecivenly life yearns to return home to its native soil. Do you see the migratory birds leaving the countries of Southern Europe in the spring and winging their flight back to England? Why do they leave the warm, sunny climate of the South for our murky atmosphere and changeable 1 ' ii ! 1 196 THE NEW BIRTH. : rli| m w f, ( ' H weather ? Is it because their means of subsistence are exhausted ? Decidedly not, for fruits and berries are never so abundant in the South as in the months of May, June, and July. Why then do they mi- grate ? The why is in their own nature ; a migratory instinct is born with them and in them ; and tho instinct must have its way. Similarly with the saints — they desire a better countiy, that is, an heavenly ; they have a recurrent desire to depart, which nothing can totally quench ; they now and again cast longing, wistful glances to the sky — they have an urgent wish to migrate. Why ? Is it because their food here is exhausted ? Certainly not, for the richer the fare here, the greater their desire to go ; the greater the hwyl in the Sabbath services the more rapidly they flutter their wings, as if on the point of soaring above the stars. Wliat then is the explanation ? They have a heavenly instinct within them, which instinct points clearly to its native climate, and impels them thitherward. The saints belong by birth to another world, and the life of that world is the ruling dominant force in their emotions, imaginations, and actions. 4. The enumeration of the prominent character- istics of the regenerate life is not yet complete — we must ascend another step and affirm that the regen- erate life of the Christian is specifically a divine life. " Except a man be born of the Spirit, he can- not enter the kingdom of God." It might be a heavenly, without being a divine, life. The life with which the angels are endowed is heavenly, but it is not divine. Thus you perceive that the life of M' THE NEW BIBtH. t97 the regenerate man is not only superior to that of Adam in his pristine innocence, but superior to that of angels and archangels before the Throne; for theirs is a created and finite life, and the created and finite is always undivine. But the regenerate life is the uncreated, infinite life of God Himself, which in Holy Writ goes by the appellation " ever- lasting life." Tlie believer is " born of the Spirit," " born of God ; " and what can such language mean but that the very identical life of God passes into the soul of man ? Here we find, not likeness, but sameness ; not similarity, but identity. The life of God becomes the life of man, the supernatural pene- trates and transforms the natural When man was first created, "God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," but it were too much to say that he was " born of God." In the first creation we have likeness, not sameness ; similarity, not identity. But when man is created anew in Christ Jesus, the creation is so intimate that it is a birth out of God — the divine life flows into the human, and thereby glorifies it. You therefore see that regeneration is a super- natural process. It were not correct to declare it miraculous, for the miraculous involves interposition with the fixed and permanent laws of Nature ; but it is supernatural all the same. Christianity ceased to be miraculous in the first century, but it con- tinues to be supernatural. The miraculous is only accidental to it, but the supernatural belongs to its essence — it is as supernatural to-day as ever it was. To regenerate a man is supernatural work — it is to ■> ' 1.1 m. II (■;■ : f. !■ ■.■hi II ' i tg^ THE KfiW BIRTH. introduce and lodge the supernatural life in the human soul, to make man a partaker of the divine nature, that is to say, the divine life. " Ye are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." " Incorruptible seed " — seed that will not corrupt itself, nor be corrupted by others. The seed deposited in the angel in his creation was corruptible, and the proof is that it corrupted itself. The seed lodged in man in his first make was corruptible, and the proof is that it was corrupted by others. But the seed planted in the believer in his regeneration is incorruptible as the seed of God — it neither corrupts itself nor suffers itself to be corrupted by others, it neither breeds evil nor catches evil. " Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin ; for His seed remaineth in him : and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." God's seed is in man, the same seed in both, and therefore incorruptible in man as in God. " He cannot sin, for he is born of God." What is of the flesh in him sins; but what is of God in him is above sin. The divine is always, everywhere, and under all circumstances, above sin — it can neither corrupt nor be corrupted. "Incorruptible seed." The new man is born of God — the life of God flows into him, the divine sap circulates in his veins. Some of you probably already know that the word, translated in the Old Testament sometimes a " fool " and sometimes a "sinner," the celebrated word "nahal" means literally drought, saplessness, as when we speak of a witiiered tree, or a dry, crumpled, THE NEW BIRTH. 199 slirivelled leaf. That is one of the Bible names on a sinner — a man that is withered, dried up to the very roots. He will burn fiercely and frightfully once he gets within reach of the fire, for he has not a drop of sap in his nature. He is a dry tree, withered through and through from branch to root. But the believer is compared in the same Bible to a tree planted by the rivers of water, whose leaf shall not wither; the Christian is planted beside the wells of the Divine Nature, drawing his sap from the Eternal Essence itself. A grand ennobling thought this — the Divine Sap circulating in my constitution, making me too verdant ever to catch fire. Oh no; the saints will never burn — there is too much juice in them for the flames ever to make an impression even upon their bark. III. Man in a state of grace, or man after Re- generation. " That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Of this man Jesus Christ in the context affirms several things. I. Once a man is born again he is capable of understanding the Gospel in its spiritual significance and relations. " Except a man be born again, he cannot see — understand — the kingdom of God ; " but being born again, he possesses a new insight into the true nature of things. " The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Not only the carnal man, the man who lives in his flesh, but the natural man, the man who lives in his \ \ 1 m \^\ nil m t I ' i: i ; iOD tttE NEW BIRTH. intellect, cannot understand them. The natural man may receive the thoughts of the Spirit of God, but not the things under the thoughts, the realities represented by the ideas. The ideas are beautiful as the prismatic bubbles which children blow on a summer eve, but, like the bubbles in another quality, they are empty within. The idea of God — there for you a beautiful bubble ; but there is no God within. The idea of atonement — there for you another beautiful bubble ; but there is no blood within. The natural, psychical man, the man who lives in his intellect, receives the ideas, but not the things represented by the ideas ; but the regenerate man receives into his heart with cordial welcome the very things themselves, the spiritual living realities which piove behind the curtain of thought. Not only the idea of God, but God Himself. Not only the idea of atonement, but the Atonement itself. " By whom we have now received the Atone- ment." The natural man receives the ideas, but the spiritual man the things represented by the ideas. Hence the New Testament word for " truth " signifies not truth as a thought, but truth as a thing ; not truth as an idea, but truth as a reahty. Permit me, my friends, to ask you, — Do you receive the things of the Gospel ? You receive the ideas, I know, — the glistening of your eyes, the ripples of light on your countenances, testify to. that; but remember — it is not the ideas that save but the things. Many have received the ideas and perished notwithstanding — salvation is not in thoughts but in things. THE NEW BIRTH. 201 2. The words further teach that the regenerate man enters the kingdom, becomes a denizen of it — a decided advance upon seeing or apprehending it " Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." But being so bom, he becomes a naturalised subject of the kingdom, enjoying all its privileges and sharing all its responsibilities. " Our citizenship is in heaven." Our names are inscribed in the roll of the book. " And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man were born in her. The Lord shall count, when He writeth up the people, that this man was bom there." Yes, our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. There is another book up there, a book of works, a chronicle of the deeds of the children of men ; in the face of that no man shall live. But the Book of Life is not a book of works, but of names ; not a catalogue of perfor- mances, good or bad, but of addresses. " The Lord shall count, when He writeth up the people, that this man was born there" — He Himself registers the birth of all His people, enters their names in His Book of Life. " Our citizenship is in heaven." Or take the older reading — " our conversation is in heaven." If we are citizens of the heavenly kingdom, then our life must be worthy of our high calling. " Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." We are nonconformists ; but nonconformists from what ? From the Established Church, you answer. True, but that is not much honour* or dishonour to Ml* '.- I m -A] i! ill Mil (' tl ■ n I > . i "C 111 '.:^ iri »|::f I m I I ii ! ' 4 jl 1 , i i ■ (-1 i t I. ■ 1 r ;; i 202 tHE NEW BIRTH. anyone ; to be nonconformists from the world is the only consideration of supreme importance to you and nte. To take the lead in the organisation of worldly pleasures does not, any more than to take the lead in the perpetration of worldly sins, reflect much credit upon professors of Christianity. One day a man was bathinj^ in the Thames when another was walking leisurely along its banks. " Ah," cried out the man on dry ground, " behold a Quaker in the river ! " " How dor you know I am a Quaker, when I am without my distinctive dress ? " asked the bather in return. "Easy enough," was the prompt reply, " you swim against the stream — that is how Quakers always do." And I sincerely hope that it may be said of us — Yonder are men born of God. Why ? Because they swim against the current — the swift deep current of woiidly habits and frivolities. " He cannot sin, because he is born of God." "We are His workmanship, created unto good works ; " or, as the words might be translated — "We are His poetry, created, tuned, to good works " — the English word " poem " being a direct derivative from the original for " workmanship." " We are His poetry." In the first creation God works prose ; in the second poetry. " We are His poetry." Degrees of excellence, it is true, obtain in poetry: the metre is often lame, the quantity often faulty, the rhyme often harsh ; but never mind — let God give us the finishing-touch, and we shall be all perfect, polished after the simili- tude of a palace ; some on the short, some on the long, and some on the common, metre, but every tHE NEW BiRttt. 26J one in his own class without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. 3. Having once effected our entrance into the kingdom, its duties and privileges afford keen enjoy- vient to the new man. That is the signification many commentators attribute to the word " see " in tlie context Once a man is born again he " sees," keenly relishes, the kingdom of God. It is mar- vellous the sweetness believers extract from Gospel truths. They " taste the heavenly gifts." " If so lie ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." Tast- ing God and finding Him sweet to the palate ! " What is sweeter than honey ? " The Psalmist finds no difficulty in answering — " Thy judgments are sweeter than honey and the honey-comb." "How sweet are thy words unto my taste I yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth ! " " Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." Not only after it and for it, but also in it. Many a day our duty lies on our path like the carcase of a lion — we fear to approach it. But let not your hearts be troubled, neither be afraid — march up valiantly, for " behold, there is a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion," honey sucked from the sweet flowers of Paradise, of which you may " take in your hands and go on your journey eating " — jou will gather strength on the way. It is within the hardest duties — the carcases of the shaf?j;iest lions — that the celestial bees always put their honey to keep. The active diligent Christian invariably 'i I \ ■\^' ^ I V 1 ' ' '1 1 Hi: I Hi* AW hi . 1 1 i ) 1 f 1 i 1 t. ■ h 1 !i! 204 tltE NEW BIRTH. finds blessedness in his deeds. "Thou hast put gladness in my lieart, more than in the tin:e that their corn and their wine increased." And tliat is one of the main objects of the Gos- pel, to make religion a source of exalted and refined pleasure to man. The great object of Judaism was to teach mankind that religion is a duty, to bring men to do good because to do it is a duty, to induce men to worship because to worship is a duty. That is the first grade in true religion — to lead a godly life because it is our duty. But the great object of Christianity is to lift religion from the platform of duty to that of enjoyment, enlisting not only the conscience but the affections in the divine service, teaching us to live " soberly, righteously, and godly in the world that now is," because of the exquisite pleasure we therein experience. To the conscious- ness of duty it adds the sensation of pleasure. Have you heard of that pious monk in the middle ages ? He intensely desired to have one look at the Saviour's bodily form, one gaze on His blessed and holy countenance. And one day as he was praying and meditating in his cell, " suddenly there shined round about him a liglit from heaven," and raising his eyes he beheld in the cloud of light one like unto .the Son of God. But just as he was going to fix his eyes on the celestial vision, the monastery bell rang calling him to his duty. What did he do under the circumstance? Did he postpone his duties and stop to feast his soul on the sacred sight ? No ; the little monk immediately started to his feet, went out of his cell, took his turn at the outer gate, I , THE NEW BIRTH. 205 distributed charity to the necessitou" that flocked to the monastery for much-needed help. Having com- pleted his task, he returned to his apartment, sorry to think he had missed the vision for which ho had been prayin^,' all his monastic life through. liut to liis astonishment, there shone the Shekinah brighter than ever, and in the glowing radiance he beheld One, no longer like unto the Son of God, but " like unto the Son of Miin, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle," and out of the ineffable Brightness came a voice, saying, " Hadst thou remained here to the neglect of duty I should have departed ; but seeing thou prel'errest duty to ease, come and see ; " and thereupon He showed to the poor monk His hands and His feet. The conscientious Christian was filled with unspeakable delight, not unmixed with holy awe. You see the lesson : to taste the joy of reli- gion you must perform its duties ; to enter the inner court of sweet communion with God, you must penetrate through the outer court of outward service. Through Judaism the world attained Christianity ; and through duty shall we arrive at solid pleasure. ■i :" . ' i I i m .iiM ( 206 ) XL ?C{je JSrajen Serpent* ** And M Moses lifted up the serpent in the wildemeeg, even so mast the Son of Man be lifted up ; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." — St. John iil 14. 15- The question has often been asked, ** What is the difference between the Gospels and the Epistles, between the truth as taught by Jesus Christ and the same truth as taught by the Apostles ? " The only difference, it appears to me, is that which obtains between the seed and the flower. Here is a seed in one hand, and a rose in the other — what is the difference between them ? Simply a differ- ence of growth or development. The seed is the rose enveloped, the rose is the seed developed — it is the same flower in different stages of its history. You can with perfect propriety put the algebraic sign of equation between the bare tiny seed that you must adjust your glasses properly to see, and the full-bloun rose, rich alike in colour and aroma. God gives His gifts to man in seed or germ, in the smallest compass possible ; then leaves it to man to cultivate and unfold the same. He gives men seeds of roses, then leaves it to men to grow the roses. He gives men acorns, the seeds of oaks, I: il! I THE BRAZEN SERPENT. 207 then leaves it to men to develop the oaks. And when God incarnate trod the earth in the person of Jesus Christ, He gave men in the Gospel the seeds of truth ; then left men under divine guidance and inspiration to develop the seeds into doctrines in the Epistles. Doctrines in the seeds in the Gospels, doctrines in fruit and flower in the Epistles. Take, for instance, the doctrine of the Atonement. Some lay to the charge of the Apostle Paul the invention of this doctrine — a great honour, by the way, to the Apostle Paul. They confess that they see it in the Epistles, but deny that they see it in the Gospels. Alas ! our modern Homers often nod. True, it is not to be found in the Gospels in its developed, but it does not require much ingenuity to see it in its enveloped form ; and a letter is the same whether folded in an envelope or unfolded in the hand. This doctrine in its first initial germ is clearly discernible in the text, and it will be my endeavour this morning to open its meaning and present it to your earnest and devout meditation. The usual way to treat the text is to dwell on the points of likeness or difference, varying from three to thirteen, between the serpent lifted up in the wilderness and the Son of Man lifted up on the cross. I shall, however, confine myself to three analogies, which will enable me, I hope, to lay before you with as much clearness and succinctness as prac- ticable the way of salvation in its completeness. We are so nmch in the habit of cutting up the way, and examining it in sections, that we are in danger of forgetting its unity, integrity, and correspondences "l' ;■ i 1,1 lit i ; I'll i i i ! :!■ ^:'ii rv\ r r 208 THE BRAZEN SERPENT. I. The analogy in the diseasl : the poison of the fiery serpents fermenting in the Israelites, the poison of sin fermenting in us. II. The analogy in the remedy: the brazen serpent lifted up on a pole a remedy for the Israel- ites, the Son of Man lifted up on the cross a remedy for us. III. The analogy in the application of the remedy to the disease. Looking at the uplifted serpent brought health to the Israelites, believing in the crucified Saviour brings salvation to us. I. The analogy in the disease. The poison of the fiery serpents was fermenting in the Israelites, the poison of sin is fermenting in us. 1. I begin then by observing that men are sinners. Hov^ever trite this truth appears to us, St. Paul thought it incumbent upon him to devote the first three chapters in the Epistle to the Romans to prove it. " We have proved both Jews and Gen- tiles that they are all under sin" — the very religious and the very profane, the very good and the very hnA " All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags ; " not only our unrighteousnesses, but our very righteousnesses ; not only our worst works, but our very best works — they are all as filthy rags. You may endeavour by repeated efforts at moral im- provements to wash your rags, but they are rags still, and you can no more wash them clean than an Ethiop can make his left hand white by rubbmg it with his right. 2. We are all sinners. "There is no difierence, THE DKAZEN SERPENT. 209 oison of Lites, the 5 brazen le Israel- cross a tr of the 3 uplifted believing ,0 us. poison of } Israelites, are sinn&n, s, St. Paul te the first Bomans to s and Gen- — the very y good and axe as filthy >ut our very irks, hut our rags. You moral im* Ley are rags clean than by rubbing 10 difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." " There is no difference." These words are joined in our Bible to the verse which goes before ; but in the majority of Bibles to the verse which follows. " There is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of tlie glory of God." Better still •'' fallen short." The irrational animals come short of the glory of God, but no blame attaches to them for it ; only men fall short of it ; the idea of a fall or descent underlies all human history. Men fall short, consequently their shortcomings are culpable. Some have fallen more deeply than others ; but there is no difference in the fact that all have fallen, and the least fall is death as well as the greatest. 3. You therefore see that we all are under sentence of death. "Every mouth is stopped, and all the world is become guilty before God." On the margin, "all the world is brought under the judgment of God." Being guilty, we are all subject to the divine displeasure, liable at any and every moment to pay penalty unto God. The words do not mean that God actually demands the penalty, but they do mean that He has the full right to demand it whenever He thinks fit. What then is the penalty ? Death. " The wages of sin is death," the wages never fall below that. The smallest sin deserves death as well as the greatest. You may think that it ought not: but it signifies nothing what you think, all depends upon what God thinks. And what does God think? What He says. And what does He say? "The soul that sin- neth, it shall die." Not the soul that sinneth ■iiii li'l §1t i 1 I iim !i , II i > I ! 4 ' [ 1 i ■ 210 THE BRAZEN SERPENT. much, but the soul that sinneth, be it much or little, it shall die. Death is the penalty for one sin as well as for ten, for a small sin as well as for a heinous one. We are all under the condemnation of death, the religious Pharisee as well as the out- cast publican, the respectable tradesman as well as the convicted swindler. " There is no difference." You say there is a difference ; the Bible says there is no difference. Which will you accept, your own estimate of your sin and its deserts, or God's estimate of the same ? For my part, I shall accept God's estimate, even against my own reason. There is a difference of course in the degree of guilt, but the smallest degree will damn. It is the fact of guilt that will send us to hell-fire, the degree of guilt that will fix our place in the fire. " He that knew the will of hie Lord, and did it not, will be beaten with many stripes; but he that knew it not with a few stripes ; " but the first stripe will kill. God cannot fix on a smaller punishment, for in the deepest nature of things sin is death. 4. But not only are we guilty, and therefore justly liable to the punishment of death, but we are polluted, morally sick. The same sin that brought death upon us, wrought death in us. The venom of the fiery serpents curdled the blood and inflamed the flesh of the bitten Israelites, and would inevitably terminate in death, for aught they could do for themselves or their comrades for them. And the " poison of asps is under our lips " — it has vitiated our blood ; sin has depraved our nature and for ever ruined our health. Many competent critics THE BRAZEN SERPENT. 211 suppose that the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil contained natural poison, and that that was one reason why God sternly prohibited Adam to partake of it, " for in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." Eat, however, he did ; and as a consequence the body became mortal and the soul depraved. The divines teach that we all sinned in Adam. Likely enough: but one thing is incontrovertible — Adam continues to sin in us. The corruption of humanity runs in the blood. Sickness is contagious, health never- — you catch fever, you never catch strength. The Jev. transmitted his depravity to his children, but not his circumcision — each had to be circumcised afresh; and you impart your sin to your posterity, but not your holiness — each has to be regenerated anew. Thus we have inherited the disease of sin from our ances- tors. We are both guilty and diseased. As guilty, death lies on us ; as diseased, death works in us. ji ;I1 II. The analogy in the remedy. The brazen Ecrpent lifted up on a pole was a remedy for the IsraeUtes, the Son of Man lifted up on the cross is a remedy for us. " As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lilted up." I. This teaches us that our salvation comes through man. " So must the Son of Man be lifted up." By serpents were the lives of the Israelites endangered, and by a serpent God appointed that their lives should be preserved. And by man came sin into the world ; by man also God has ordaiued Ml ! ' .^m ( ! ■ 1 14 : I iff nm ■1 :M i.ii':. 212 THE BRAZEN SERPENT. that salvation should come. "As by man came sin, so by man came the resurrection of the dead." Sovereignty has a large place, arbitrariness no place, in the way of our salvation — subtle analogies and deep correspondences pervade the whole scheme. Sin came into the world by man, fairly and fully by man. " Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression" (i Tim. ii. 1 4). Some of our theological standards declare that Adam was deceived; but "Adam was not deceived," says the Apostle. He sinned freely, coolly, deliberately, with the full concurrence of his entire nature. Sin came into the world through the will, the intelligence, and the affections — it came fairly and fully by man in the plenary and leisurely exercise of all his faculties. And as by man came sin, so also by man came salvation. It is not of man, but all the same it is by man. 2. Observe further that our salvation came, not by any man, but by the Son of Man — one who iu the core of His being is closely united to every other man. The Son of Man, and therefore a brother to every other man, a brother that is more nearly related to us than any other human being, — nearer than father and mother, nearer than brother and sister. Accord- ing to the ancient law of Israel and, I believe, of other ancient nations, the Goel, or nearest relative, alone had the right to redeem a man. This is what Job meant when he said, " I know that my Eedeemer liveth," my Goel or nearest relative, the one who has the right to purchase me. Thus Jesus Christ is the nearest relative q,ny mai; has ov ca^ hav^, for I HI |i:;li: iilli:! liU^ BRAZEN SBRPEITT. ^*3 He alone is the Son of Man. Abraham was a man, but not a brother of yours. Paul was a man, but not a brother of yours. The Emperor of China is a man, but no relation of yours. But Jesus Christ was man in a sense deeper and truer than any of them — He became man in such a way as to be a true brother to every other man. "He is the root of David," the root of the new humanity; and a fibre of the root is in every branch and twig, constituting the vitality and forming the unity of the tree. And Jesus Christ plunged deep down into the central essence of humanity, became incorporated with the core of our nature, and thus throws off His fibres to every member of the human race. All mankind have profited by the Incarnation. In the angels we see individuals but no species ; in the animals we see species but no individuals ; in mankind, however, we see both species and indi- viduals, and this it is which made the Incarnation practicable and our salvation possible. 3. Our salvation, however, came not by the Son of Man as such, but by the Son of Man as lifted up, crucified on Calvary. The tendency of modern theology is to linger fondly around the Cradle of the Saviour, to make the Incarnation the central doctrine of Christianity. I need not tell you who listen to me every Sunday that in loving admiration for the Eedeemer's Cradle I knowingly come behind no man, in devout reverence for the Incarnation I willingly fall behind no preacher. I may not be able to peer so deeply into the mysteries of this grand and wondrous doctrine as some of my brethren j < 5(11 *■; ' is- • t 'if I i. \ ( ! 1 i i ^iiiii (hi! I ; i III! ( 1 * 1 t i t' ihl.n! |i ^ 214 THE BRAZEN SERPENT. but I think I bow the knee as readily and supply as any of them at the mention of it. Blessed be God that His Son was cradled on our planet, that He was ULited with our essential humanity. But I must not stop there, for the Bible does not stop there — tlie central object of the Bible is not the Cradle but the Cross, not the Incarnation but the Atonement. For every reference to His birth, there are twenty to His death. " God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Jesus Christ." " I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." " So must the Son of Man be lifted up." A glorious display of the condescending grace of God was doubtless made in Bethlehem ; but we must not forget that on Calvary God and man were recon- ciled. "The chastisement of our peace was laid upon Him " — which, construed into the language of modern theologians, means that the punishment of our sin was inflicted upon Him. Do not let this startle you — it is consonant with the deepest philosophy as well as with the deepest and oldest theology. All that the advocates of the "moral theory " of the Atonement affirm, we also affirm ; we differ from them not because we affirm less, but because we affirm more ; not because we are narrower, but because we are broader. Christ suffered with humanity and for humanity, say Maurice, Bushnell, Young, and the school which they have popularised in the country. "Yes," we answer; "blessed be His name, He suffered vdth humanity and for humanity ; but He did more — He suffered instead of humanity." With, for, instead : those are the three THE BRAZEK 8ERP15NT. 215 sta^^es of love, and perfect infinite love will run tHrough the whole scale. Tlie advocf>.tos of the " moral theory " aver that He suffered with man, and there they stop. As a representative of orthodox theology, I say," You do not go too far ; the only fault we find with you is that you do not go far enough. The Divine Love Incarnate suffered with man and /or man ; but the philosophy of love as well as its theology demands that you should go a step farther — it suffered instead of man. If it did not do that it stopped short of the goal, the Divine Love Incarnate did not go as far as it might." Thus you see that God's love is more strikingly exhibited in orthodoxy tlian in the so-called broad theology — we wish it were a little broader. Christ suffered with man, and for man, and instead of man : with man in virtue of His keen sympathies ; for man in that He con- fronted the malice and dire hatred of His persecutors, and thus suffered martyrdom rather than forsake the path of duty ; instead of man in that He underwent the infliction of what the Bible calls " the wrath of God." The martyrs only suffered from sin; but Christ suffered from sin, and for sin — He died in the stead of sinners. " Christ once suffered, the just for the unjust." 4. You will further remark the necessity that existed for an Atonement. " So must the Son of Man be lifted up." Not shall, but must. In this chapter we read of two " musts." The first is in verse tenth. " Marvel not that I say unto you, Ye must be born again." That indicates the absolute necessity for a radical change in human nature in order to be saved ; without it our salvation is im- :^' Jl f!iih! ii6 Tilt: nUAZKN SKUPENT. Itilj 1 i ■V ■ • t \ iM possible. The otlier "must" is in tlie text, "So must the Son of Man be lifted up." This indicates an imperative necessity for an atonement on the part of God. This " must " strikes its roots down deeper than into either type or prophecy, into tlie nature of God Himself. If sinners were to be saved, tliere existed a divine necessity that sin sbould be expiated. Sinners and suffering may be separated, sin and sufTerinj^ never. Sin must be punished ; tlio Son of Man mvst be lifted up. This necessity is not merely governmental, it arises out of the divine nature. Justice is the same in God as in man; but it bears a different relation to Him from what it does to us. Justice in man is only an element of character — I do not cease to be when I cease to be just. But justice in God is an essential attribute of nature — it would be as easy for God to cease to be as to cease to be just. His existence and His justice being for ever and ever inextricably inter- twined. On the one hand, God is infinitely just ; He is infinitely merciful on the other. And in any complete system of theology these two statements must be co-ordinated. The justice must not trench on the love, the love must not absorb the justice. God has both the one and tlie otlier. This is beauti- fully set forth in allegory : " Melchisedeck, king of Salem, first being by interpretation king of Eighteous- ness, and after that also king of Salem, which is, king of Peace." And God is first king of Eighteous- ness — rock must form the deepest foundation of all existence, finite and infinite : after that also king of Peace — love is beauty and softness rounding off I \ I :. i !!ii THE nUAZKN SfiUl'KNT. 217 the niggedness of the rock. God's righteousness must be upheld, all its demands fully met; then He will be at liberty to reign in love over a re- conciled world. " Grace must reign through right- eousness " — not behind it or despite it, but through it. " Whom God hath set forth a propitiation, to sliow forth His righteousness." This word "pro- ]>itiation" is first used in Genesis vi. 14, and is there translated " pitch." " And Noah pitched the ark within and without with pitch." The carpentry of the antediluvians was not extra perfect; holes, crevices, chinks, unevennesses disfigured the sides of the ark, and endangered the safety of the ship. Modern shipwrights caulk the ship, Noah and his carpenters pitched it within and without with pitch, filled the holes and crevices and smoothed down all unevennesses, thereby fitting the ark effectually to shut out the water of the Deluge. And when God turned the world out of His hand at first, to swim through the immensities, he pronounced it "very good," the workmanship was without a flaw. But sin dented it, riddled it, cut it up in manifold ways — "the earth was full of violence." But Jesus Christ through His Atonement " pitched it within and without with pitch," speaking metaphorically of course ; He filled up the cavities and the crevices — His Atonement keeps out the flood — the flood of the divine wrath. He rehabilitated the globe in the sight of its Maker. 5. The text further implies that Jesus Christ, having been uplifted on the cross, is now both physician and remedy to His people. The uplifted il Si: f'ff f 1 i 1 'S'i lii I. ! ill ill i \ !! II ' il 1 i i-r [, i 1 .'1 ,1 1 i ■ .1 : il 1,, L 2l8 THE BRAZRN ftKRPENT. brazen serpent could only heal one disease, the violent inflammation cons(M[uent on the serpent's bite, to that it was an infallible antidote ; but the uplifted Saviour heals all manner of sicknesses and diseases omong the people, moral and physical, but especially moral. " I will forgive thine iniquities, and heal all thy diseases." " He saves to the utter- most all those who come to God through Him." This word "uttermost" has two meanings. It first means the " uttermost " degree of perfection. He saves His people to the uttermost, raises their spiritual health to the highest pitch of possibility, without ache or pain, flaw or drawback, health in boundless abundance. You shall be perfectly well by-and-by, believers, free alike from sin and sorrow, from moral suffering and physical pain. But it also means the " uttermt)st " degree of continuation. We have known men in excellent health one day, but ere many weeks passed^ their health gradually and imperceptibl"" impaired, and to-day they are sleeping their long sleep under the weeping yew. But believers in Jesus are saved to the uttermost, their health is carried up to the highest point of possibility, and its continuation for ever is abso- lutely guaranteed. The cross of Christ is now the tree of life for the nations. As the tree of know- ledge is supposed to have grown poison, so the tree of life is believed by many to have grown the antidote thereto. Hence the words, " lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever ; therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden." If he ate of THE BRAZEN SERPENT. 219 the tree of life, he would have secured a physical immortality in sin, the most awful destiny imagin- able. Therefore God in mercy drove him from the tree, and put cherubim with flaming swords turning every way as sentinels to guard the approach thereto. Thysical immortality in sin would be terrible for man and the universe at large. But Jesus Christ crucified is the substance ol the tree of life : He does not give us immortality in sin ; He does better, He gives us immortality free alike from its guilt and depravity. " The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations." ni. As God ordained that the Israelites should receive life by looking at the brazen serpent, so He has ordained that sinners should obtain salvation by believing in the crucified Saviour. "That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The revised version reads a little differently, " That whosoever believeth should have in Him everlasting life." The difference is merely verbal, the meaning remains practically the same ; whosoever looked at the brazen serpent lived. Refusing to look, they died; consenting to look, they lived. So if you only believe in Jesus Christ, you shall live. " There is life in a look at the Crucified One." The Israelites were not bidden to mend themselves, to apply poultices and unguents to their putrefying sores. No ; they had only to look ; and new life immediately throbbed in their swollen veins. Keither are you enjoined to improve your life, to wipe away yoiir old sins. No ; look 'lii I i * il ijiii 1 ' ii» \m ! I,! !ll'!':|! i n\' 1 1 :8 5^6 THE BRAZEN SEkPENt. as you are, look : believing that God would not hang up His Son on the cross to befool you, look and your soul shall liva I. It means that through faith in Christ the sinner receives permission to live. This is what is meant by remission of sins, that God will not enforce the penalty against us. Two words are used in the English language in this connection — forgive and remit ; forgive — give for ; remit — set free, discharge. And two corresponding words are used in the original of the New Testament. The first is ^api^ofjiai, to show grace, virtually of the same meaning as forgive — give for. The other word is d(f>i7]fii, to set free, virtually of the same meaning as remit — discharge, set loose. From confounding these two words, writers of much power, mental and spiritual, have fallen into an error of considerable gravity. Thomas Erskine of Linlathen, and after him the saintly Maurice, taught that God has actually forgiven all men in and since the death of Christ, that all now live under non-imputation of sin, and that individual salvation depends upon the cordial acceptation of this fact, and individual damnation upon its rejection. This argument, like most others, contains an elemeut of truth. Everybody has been forgiven in the sense of charizomai ; God has shown His pardoning grace to all men in the death of Christ ; everybody has been forgiven in the literal sense of the word, namely, that God has given for them all that Almighty Love could offer. But all have not been forgiven in the sense of aphiemi; their sins have not been remitted; this is done only on their THB BRAZEN SERPENT. 221 acceptance of God's pardoning grace. TLeir persons have not been removed from under the condemna- tion; this is done only on their faith in Christ, their personal concurrence in the divine plan of salvation. God has shown His pardoning grace in the sacrifice of His Son ; He performs the pardoning act only when you believe in that sacrifice, thereby entering cordially and joyfully into the divine purposes. The cross is an ever-present and all- powerful testimony that God delights in mercy. But that mercy is not yours till you receive it, the pardon is not bestowed till you show your willing- ness to accept it. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." 2. The words further imply that by faith in Christ crucified we acquire a right to live. This is what is meant by justification. In forgiveness we receive permission to live ; in justification we receive the right to live. Thus you see that forgiveness and justification may be distinguished, though in the Gospel they are never separated. Amongst men, however, they are often separated as well as dis- tinguished. Suppose that a criminal has been justly sentenc3d to seven years* penal servitude for burglary ; but the royal prerogative to exercise clemency is extended to him, and in a month after his committal he is released. The man returns to his old haunts a pardoned, hut not a justified, man. He goes back to society with an indelible stigma on his character, he is instinctively shunned by all honest and respectable people. Pardoned but not justified, eit'her before Go^ or society or l^ia owa ^rl ih ! J ! I I 11 ;..!;;: Ill .11 lull! I ri i» » ffill ' * i i i ill I 222 THE BRAZEN SERPENT. conscience. But the believer in Christ is not only pardoned but justified, he acquires a right to live. The old verdict of death is cancelled; and more- he is reckoned righteous in the righteousness of his Eedeemer. He is justified before God, the holy angels, and his own conscience. Believe and you will be at once arrayed in this divine righteousness. "The righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe." It is unto all here to-day, unto all with- out distinction, but upon all them that believe. Will you accept it? Will you believe in Jesus Christ ? In whom will you believe, if not in Him ? This righteousness is offered unto you now ; accept it ; let God array you in it. " He was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." God's righteousness on the sinners back ! O wondrous grace ! I know not how white Gabriel's robes are to-night; but I know this — the robes of Gabriel's Master are whiter. 1 know not how bright are the raiments of archangels; but I know this — the raiments of the archangels' Lord are brighter. But when the guilty sinner believes, the sinner who has deserved to die a thousand times, he is arrayed, not in the same robes as the archangels, but in, the same robes as the Lord of all the archangels of heaven. 3. But the text further teaches that by faith you will acquire the power to live ; this is what is meant by regeneration. You get permission to live in forgiveness, you get the right to hve in justification, you get the power to liv^ in regeuera- Si It !; THE BRAZEN SERPENT. 223 tion. Believe in Jesus Christ, and a new, divine, infinite life will gradually ooze into the dry cistern of your being, and fill you up to overflowing. Whether the cure of the Israelites who looked at the brazen serpent was instantaneous or gradual I cannot positively tell ; perhaps they felt a little sore and stiff for a week or a fortnight ; but their ultimate cure was a divine certainty. Our cure, however, is gradual; but it is divinely, gloriously certain. "Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." "He that be- lieveth hath eternal life." Eternal life, like every- thing eternal, is always in the present tense. The eternal life enters the soul in regeneration, in crystal, perhaps in small, drops at first ; but it continues to percolate and make more room for itself till at last it gloriously floods the soul. " Whosoever believeth hath eternal life." This appears to me to be the strongest proof of our immortality. In the days of Christ faith in the everlasting life was practically extinct. Come with me to Palestine. Notice in the Sanhedrim in Jerusalem the representatives of the Jewish nation. Their Sanhedrim, like our Parliament, is divided into well-defined factions. Who is the President ? Caiaphas, a Sadducee. Who are the party in power ? The obsequious followers of the President, Sadducees to a man. And what do the Sadducees teach ? Nobody can tell, but we know that they had expunged from their creed the doctrine of eternal life or the immortality of the soul. The Old Testament Scriptures contain most explicit m m r M i .41 * 4 1 : ^ '! ■ ■ IM |! ' j iir ! ! ' ( III I i 'i'l I r II I J.' I Ml ll 'if I ' 224 THE BRAZEN SERPENT. r3velations of the doctrine; but notwithstanding their explicitness, the faith in them of the most learned and influential party in the land had died out into utter darkness. Come with me again to Eome ; we will enter the Eoman Senate ; there we see the representatives of the intelligence and virtue of the country ; .there we behold men of worldwide renown and of unsurpassed ability. There in the front sits Julius Caesar, and there Cato, and there Cicero — men accounted autho- rities in literary taste to this day. The English Parliament of the present year, however rich in talent, cannot rival the Eoman Senate fifty years before the birth of Christ. An important debate is going on — What punishment to dole out to the fellow-conspirators of Catiline against the State? Julius Caesar stands up, as the High Priest of the national religion, and opens the debate in a speech which has been reported and transmitted to us. "Wliat does he say ? He protests against putting the con» spirators to death, as that was not to punish them but to let them escape punishment, for death, said he, was annihilation; beyond death — nothing. And that in the face of the highest intelligence and noblest virtue in Eome ! Cato stands up and answers him — does he refute his arguments as to the immortality of the soul ? Nay ; he has much to say upon all other arguments, only a sentence or two upon this. Cicero follows and sweeps on with irresistible eloquence; does he answer Julius Caesar on the supreme topic, the immortality of the soul ? Nay, he makes just a y^ference^ and then passes on. f^ith had practically ■I 1 i THE BRAZEN SERPENT, 225 died out of the world. No new reasons have heen added in natural theology since Socrates spoke and Plato wrote; Christ added the authority of His teaching ; the apostles appealed to the fact of their Master's resurrection. But no amount of mere ex- ternal testimony could again quicken the faith. "What then did it ? That the external teaching was corroborated in the consciousness of eternal life in them that believed. The old world had lost faith in " natural theology " reasons and Old Testament revelations, because their consciousness did not re- spond ; they felt their fund of life exhausting within them; and when they felt mortality within, how could they believe in immortality without ? But Christianity, besides giving a clear testimony con- cerning our immortality, has added the consciousness of immortality. " Whosoever believeth hath ever- lasting life ; " and having the consciousness of the everlasting life within, it is easy to believe in the doctrine concerning an everlasting life without. m U I" il m 11 ?« n i ii (•' .11 \r -i : ill' I ) I ( 226 ) ' !,ili I: 'V J !t:J:i :mi XIL " For God BO loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." — St. John iii. 16. In this chapter a detailed account is given us of the conversion of Nicodemus, *' one of the rulers of the Jews." " The same came to Jesus by night "— natural night and spiritual night. None ever come to Jesus but by night, when it has grown dark upon them in every otlier quarter. When you first came to Christ, you came by night — your soul was sunk in deep gloom. Nicodemus, however, was not long in the society of Jesus before it began to dawn upon him. The Lord Jesus delivered in his hearing the fullest and most elaborate explanation of the Way of Salvation anywhere to be found in the Gospels. This exposi- tion divides itself into two parts : the first treating of earthly, the second of heavenly, truths. " If I have spoken unto you earthly things, and ye have not believed ; how shall ye believe if I speak unto you heavenly things ? " Earthly things and heavenly things : a very im- portant distinction in theological science. Earthly THE DIVINE LOVE. 227 truths and heavenly truths : these find their synonyms in the terminology of the present day in the words subjective and objective. Earthly or sub- jective truths : repentance — that is one ; regenera- tion, the subject of the present conversation up to verse 12th — that is another; sanctification — that is a third. These are truths which we may ex- perience in our own hearts, and therefore verify for ourselves. Then from verse 12th on, the Saviour dwells on the heavenly or objective truths. The first He mentions is the Incarnation. " No man hath ascended to heaven but He that descended from heaven, even the Son of Man, who is in heaven." The Saviour does not say the word Incarnation — He never did say it ; but though He articulates not the word, He clearly attests the fact. Now, the Incarnation is a heaveidy or objective truth, that is, a truth which you cannot experience in your own soul, but must accept on bare, naked testimony. It belongs not to the domain of experience, but to the region of pure faith. The second heavenly or objective truth He names is the Atonement. "For as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up." He does not say the word Atonement — He never did say it ; but though He did not pronounce the word. He incontestably taught the fact. Now the Atonement is a heavenly truth, tliat is, a truth which yon cannot verify in your own inward experience, but must accept on bare nal.ed testimony. Do not misunderstand me : the effects It \ \i m i 11 ; i V j! 1' fr, -. nil I'M lii M ! ■ i : I , i ^ i ,1 il i il U h 'i : Ij H : 1 1 ■ , 228 THE DIVINE LOVE. of the Atonement you may experience, but the Atonement itself is an objective fact, accomplished once on Calvary, and never again to be repeated. It belongs not to the domain of experience, but to the region of pure faith. The next heavenly or objective truth He specifies is the Divine Love. " For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have ever- lasting life." ' How the divine Heart felt towards the world, only the divine Being could know; it was an inaccessible secret of the divine Nature, and must be accepted on the bare, naked testimony of the only- begotten Son, who from everlasting was in the bosom of the Father. It is a heavenly objective truth, an experience of the Divine Nature, and not that of human nature. This then is the subject to which I now wish to solicit your atten- tion — The Divine Love. Luther rightly alleged of the text that it is the Bible in miniature. No wonder, therefore, that John Williams, the martyr of Erromanga, always selected it as the text of the first sermon he preached in every barbarous island of the South Sea which he happened to touch in his little missionary ship. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." A very appropriate text for the savage inhabitants of the South Sea Islands, equally appropriate for the more civilised populations of our own country. ■■') ■ THE DininB LOVlt 22^ m I. The Divine Love in its SOURCE. « For God bo loved the world." II. The Divine Love in its manifestation. " That He gave His only-begotten Son." III. The Divine Love in its design. " That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." L The Divine Love in its source. " For God so loved the world." I. God so loved the world — the world in its guUt; therefore His love was a love of benevolence. He could not take delight in it, but He could and did wish it well. Two words are used in the New Testament to designate love. One is agwpao, a word signifying love of intense good- will ; the other is^Meo, a word signifying love of positive delight. The first is that used in the text. " God so loved the world." He bore towards it infinite good-will. He could have no complacency in it, for it was steeped in guilt; but He could and did wish it well, He cherished towards it unbounded benevo- lence. The same word is used in the verse, " Love your enemies." The Lord Jesus does not enjoin us to delight in our enemies, and have pleasure in their society. He understood human nature too well to enjoin anything of the kind : but He does command us to deliberately wish them prosperity, to embrace every opportunity to promote their well-being. We ought to love men we do not like. The Almighty could not love the world in its sinful guilty estate with a love of complacency without -111 '■H r.i'i * ti w \ \. '■' ^r 230 THE DIVINE LOVE. m ) ) it II fit f r km '.' ,! ■i:'- ' I doing outrage to the deepest instincts of His nature ; He could only love it with a love of sincere, infinite benevolence. But once the world believes in Christ, and is thereby reconciled, God loves it with a love of positive delight. "The Fatlier Himself loveth you, because ye have loved Me, and have believed that I have come out from God." It is not the same word that is used here for love as in the text ; the word here is that which signi- fies love of delight. He loves the ungodly world with a love of infinite benevolence ; He loves the believing Church with a love of infinite com- placency. He shakes hands with the world; He embraces, kisses the Church : that is the idea. 2. " God so loved the world " — the world in its depravity ; therefore His love is self-moved. By the world here we are not to understand the world as made by God, but the world as ruined by the devil ; not the world under the dominion of good, but the world under the tyranny of evil. Conse- quently there was nothing in it to attract the Divine Love ; nothing to attract it, but an infinite deal to repel it. If God loved the world, obviously He must have moved Himself to do so. The ocean is always moving, but it is not self-moving. The cause of its movements is outside itself, in the moon, and in the wind. Did the wind and the moon let it alone, the Atlantic would for ever be a pacific ocean, quiet, restful, pellucid as an inland lake ; it has no power to heave itself. But as for the shoreless sea of the Divine Love, it has the power to move itself; and it did move itself. It ii ttiE DtVlNE LOVE. ^3t rolled in a grand irresistible current towards the shores of our world. Like the Divine Essence, the Divine Love possesses the power of self-determi- nation. Turn to your bodies of divinity — the bodies of divinity, I mean, when you and I were children, for recent books on divinity are singularly devoid of body, being rather the volatile spirits of divinity, — and you will, perchance, find enumerated among God's attributes both love and anger. But it is hardly justifiable, I think, to assign anger a place among the divine attributes. At any rate it is not an essential attribute, for we know of a time when there was no anger in the Supreme Being. Some- thing in us called this property into existence in Him. As a rule, what is in the Creator gives existence to what is in the creature. But here is an exception — what is in the creature calls into existence what is in the Creator. Sin in us awakened wrath in Him. But for the sharp and sudden collision between God and man in Paradise, a spark of fire would have never been struck out of the Divine Nature. But let us not forget that since sin has entered, there is wrath in Him; but the cause of the wrath is outside Himself, in the creation. There is love in Him also, but the cause of the love is not in the creation, but deep down in the Creator. His love, like His being, is cause and effect in one ; in other words, it is self-caused. 3. "God so loved the world" — the world, and not hell; fallen men, and not fallen angels; con- sequently His love is sovnrcif/n. By sovereign I do I . ^'!l 1 1 I i I:- 1 ' I I iltiM, 'li' ' IP 1!'" n ( 1 ill Si2 TllK MViNK LOVE. ^iil not mean arbitraiy — God has reasons for all He dops ; but free as opposed to necessary. Recent theological thought is somewhat confused on this subject ; it first disturbs the water, and then mis- takes foul water for deep water — a not uncommon mistake in these days. It reasons thus : — Inasmuch as God is essential love, He was under the highest necessity, the necessity of His own nature, first to create the world, and afterwards to redeem it, for the fundamental law of love is self-communication — love must manifest itself. Whereas the Rational- ists bind God to the laws of created nature, the Transcendental ists bind Him to the laws of His own uncreated nature ; both classes, however, agree- ing in depriving Him of freedom of will. No, answers the Bible, God was under no necessity to create or redeem ; He was at liberty to do as He liked. Men mistake certainty for necessity. This same distinction should be observed in the discus- sion of other doctrines, such, for instance, as the doctrine of election — the distinction, I mean, be- tween certainty and necessity, between will and shall. Election does not destroy freedom of will; it makes faith on the part of man not a matter of necessity, but a matter of certainty. Iron fate has no room in the realm of free grace. Similarly in respect of the subject under consideration. See- ing that God is essential love, there was eternal certainty that He would both create and save, but no necessity. He was under no manner of obliga- tion to Himself or others to love sinners — it is the spontaneous result of sovereign grace. He loved us iirii tHK DIVINE LOVK. m according to the pleasure, not the necessity, of His will. Not only He could refrain from loving us, if He thought fit ; but He could have loved fallen angels instead, if such were His pleasure. But " He took not hold of angels, but in the seed of Abraham took He hold." Why in us and not in them ? " Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight." The angels fell, and are falling to this day ; the world fell likewise ; but though it fell outside the sphere of God's holiness, it did not fall outside the circle of His love. The angels fell, and no hand was extended to rescue them ; men fell also, but were seized upon by the Hand of Mercy, thereby breaking the force of our descent Oh, wondrous love! Did God leave us to our wicked doom, there were nothing to excite our astonishment; did He damn us, eveiy soul, there were nothing to wonder at. The marvel is, not His wrath because of sin, but His love despite of it. A young man once came to the late venerable minister, Mr. Lewis Powell, of Cardiff, to tell him that his faith had recently been much shaken in the grace of the Gospel. " What shook it ? " inquired the good man. " That verse in the ninth of the Romans,'* answered the young tyro in theology ; " * Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.' I cannot understand why He should hate Esau." " Oh, indeed," answered the silver-haired saint in his quaint way, " it is a difi&- cult verse, I confess, difficult to me as well as to you. But your difficulty is at the end, and mine is at the beginning. I can well understand why I I I'i I I m 1 i I I ; ?i ^;;4. ^liii M, H 2^4 tkE blVINE LOVE. He hated Esau, desperate character that He was; but I cannot for the life of me understand why He loved Jacob. I can well understand why He should hate the whole human race, but it beats me quite to understand why He should love you and me." Many cannot understand the mystery of the Divine Wrath, and accordingly deny everlasting punishment ; but I understand, I think, the mystery of the Wrath tolerably well, but I cannot for the life of me understand the mystery of the Love. "For God so loved the world." IT. The Divine Love in its manifestation. " That He gave His only-begotten Son." He sent Moses, but gave His Son ; He sent John the Baptist, but gave Jesus Christ. He sent scores since the begin- ning of time, but He never gave one save the Only- begotten. I. The Divine Love was manifested in the birth or incarnation of Jesus Christ. " In this was mani- fested the love of God towards us, because that God sent His only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him" (i John iv. 9). This did not engender or excite the love, it only mani- fested it. The law of gravitation existed from the foundation of the world, it daily exerted its influ- ence, keeping the stars in their orbits and swinging them around their respective centres. The mysteri- ous force, however, was unknown until discovered by Sir Isaac Newton, and published in his writings. It existed from the first ; only a century or two ago was it made manifest. In like manner the love of THE DIVINE LOVE. 235 Mm God existed from eternity, from days of old. It burnt as hot in the days of Noah and of Abraham, as on the Incarnation morn or the Atonement eve. All through the ages it governed the world with a view to its filial redemption. But in the Tncarna- tion and Propitiation was it revealed, only then did it force itself upon the obtuse vision of the world. " Ye have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from — out of — the Father, and am come into the world." Not only He came/ro??i God, but He came out of God. John the Baptist came from God. " There was a man sent from God, whose name was John." But Jesus Christ came, not from God, but out of God — He emerged from His central essence. " And He came into the world," — not to it, but into it. Out of God into the world, out of the loftiest heart of divinity into the deepest heart of human- ity. " He descended into the lowest parts of the earth." And when the doors of the Eternal Bosom were opened for the Eternal Son to come forth, the waves of the Divine Love flowed forth a mighty flood upon the earth. 2. The Divine Love further manifested itself in the death or Atonement of the blessed Saviour. " Herein is love, not ihut we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (i John iv. 10). The Incarnation in the ninth verse, the Atonement in the tenth. " God so loved the world, that He gave His only- begotten Son " to be a " propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world." You therefore perceive that the Divine r.^v, !f M 11 ■ I iIlL li! 1 M liii!!|i SIM H| \i\i > ■ ! . 1 1 i . 1 : , ' 236 THE DtVINt: LOVfi. Love is not the effect of the Atonement, but the cause. The death -^t' Christ, the doctrine of the Atonement, has often been preached in a manner to bedim the Divine Love, instead of to manifest it Therefore I will venture to repeat in order to im- print it indelibly on your memory — love is not the effect of the Atonement, but the cause. "God so Joved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son." " And Abraham said. My son, God will pro- vide Himself a lamb for a burnt-offering : so they went both of them together," — language full of sig- nificance, and replete with the tenderest pathos. " God will provide Himself a lamb," — His love will furnish the sacrifice His justice demands. What God like unto our God, Himself providing at His own expense the offering He requires ? " He gave His only-begotten Son." The gods of heathen- ism received sacrifices, but they never gave them. The God of the Gospel, however, gives the sacrifice He demands. Transport yourselves in imagination to Athens or Eome ; observe closely the images of the gods, in motley crowds on either hand of you ; see the rivers of red blood flowino^ towards them. No marvel that " Paul's spirit was stirred within him as he saw the city wholly given to idolatry." Come with me again to Jerusalem. Behold the image of the invisible God lifted up on Calvary. Does blood flow towards it? No; blood flci/s from it. Here then we have hit upon the radical difference between paganism and Christianity. Blood to the image : that is the essence of paganism. Blood from the image : that is the essence of THE DIVINE LOVE. 237 Christianity. The heathen gods demand a sacrifice, but never provide it ; the Gospel God both demands it and provides it. " He gave His only-begotten Son." " God will provide Himself a lamb for a buint- offering." ' Here I rai-her like the Welsh version — " God will look into Himself for the lamb of the burnt-offering." Looking outside Himself He saw nowhere a lamb fit to bear the burden of the world. But turning His eyes back upon Himself, He saw in His own bosom the needed ransom. (( He looked into Himself,"' and in Himself found the lamb " for a burnt-offering," " and so they went both of them together " — God and the Lamb, the Father and the Son. " Tli^y rose up early in the morning " of time, started on their sacrificial errand, travelled together the paths of the centuries, and at last reached the top of the Hill. And once there, God said, " Awake, sword, against My shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow." " He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us alL" Oh, wondrous grace ! Sparing His enemies, but not sparing His Son ! 3. It will further heighten cur conception of the Divine Love if we allow our minds to dwell a little longer upon the Person whom God thus gave — " His only-begotten Son," " His own Son," the Son of His love. Unitarians believe ardently in the Divine Love; indeed, that is the sum and substance, the centre and circumference, of their theology. But they are unable, they say, on philccophical and other grounds, to believe in the Divine Son. But to me the Divine Love is the most cogent reason for i;i !'!;;' I • \i\l !i! i 1 iW '■i 'ii . f M 5 :.:!' 111. 1] i I li" !-'M "I I i^i \''\ il Ih' 238 THE DIVINE LOVE. believing in the Divine Son. Love must have an object as well as a subject ; one to be loved as well as one to love. Love is always a predicate; there must be one at each end. Accordingly Jesus Christ is uniformly regarded in the New Testament as the Son of God, the infinite object of the infinite love. In the text He is denominated the "only- begotten Son " — the only Son God has. The love to the world which prompted the Father to immo- late His only Son, must be great beyond finite comprehension. The Gospel has introduced a new rule into arithmetic, to estimate love, not by what it gives, but by what it has left after giving. The widow in the story cast into the treasury two mites, only two; yet the Master affirmed that she gave more than all the rich men of Palestine. How did He arrive at that conclusion ? By calculating what she gave ? "No ; but by calculating what she had left after giving ; she had nothing. Judge of God's love by the same standard ; by what He gave ? Yes, if you like, and by what He had left after giving. " He gave His only-begotten Son " — after giving Him He had no Son left. When Abraham gave Isaac, to which reference is probably made in the text, he had Ishmael still with him. But when God gave His Son, He had no Son left in the family. Love could not make a greater gift ; it virtually exhausted itself. He could give countless worlds as a ransom for our souls, and be none the poorer, for He would be giving only of His abund- ance. With a word of His mouth, or a wave of His hand, He could create others larger and THE DIVINE LOVE. ~'3:> ve an s well there Christ as the love. " only- lc love immo- , finite a new y what ;. The mites, le gave low did no what she had of God's 5 gave? sft after ' — after Abraham nade in Q. But ft in the gift ; it lountless lone the s abund- wave of ger and i> brighter. But when He gave His Son, He gave of His need. Infinite love made a gift iufinite as itself. No wonder, therefore, that "God commendeth His love towards us, because that, whilst we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." He commendeth His love, thrusts it on our attention, holds it up to our adoring gaze. Much power is displayed in the creation, but God does not think it worth His while to draw special attention to it. To Him to create was a very small matter. He taketh up the isles as the small dust of the balance. Much wisdom is exhibited in the complex laws and melodious har- monies of the spheres ; but God nowhere commends it. He once said, "Very good," and never re- peated the verdict. But "He commendeth His love," directs our thoughts in a special manner to it. " Greater Icvo hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." But God hath greater love even than that ; He sent His Son to lay down His life for His enemies. No wonder that He commends it, and nothing pleases Him more than to hear us commend it as best we can. " Do your gods love ? " asked the missionary of his pagan hearers. "The gods never think of loving," was the prompt but cheerless reply. But blessed be His name, our God thought of loving. " For God so loved the world that he gave His only-begotten Son." " Is that true ? " asked the heathen inhabitants of the Tahiti Islands of Nott, the missionary, as they listened with glistening eyes to him reading the text. " Quite true," replied i^i 1 1 m 'i !! M W '[: mHi I ill. iii r ' il III.: .i:;i 'I 240 THE DIVINE LOVE. the missionary. " Then how can you say it with- out weeping ? " remarked they in utter astonish- ment, as the big tears flowed copiously, sparkling like crystals on their dusky cheeks. III. The Divine Love in its design. "That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." I. It has in view the salvation of every indi- viditaL " Whosoever," " every one," that believeth shall be saved. " For God so loved the world " — there you have love of the universal, mankind as a whole. "That whosoever believeth shall not perish" — there you have love of the individual, mankind as units. And the pre-eminence of the Gospel in this respect is that it unites love of the universal with love of the individual Positivism talks a great deal of the love of the race, and so far it deserves commendation; its teaching chimes in beautifully with that of the Gospel. But here, as in almost every other instance, its truth is only half truth, and taken for the whole is dangerous error. It incul .;ates love of the race, but is com- paratively careless of the individuals composing the race. It sacrifices the Individual to the species. Annihilation of the individual, immortality only of the species : that, I believe, is its creed — a cheerless creed enough to me and to you. It encourages the immolation of the one to the many, of the individual man to the race of which he is the unit: a half truth, which, by denying personal immortality and consequently excluding the great law of compensa- H THE DIVINE LOVE. 241 i with- bonish- arkling "That ish but y indi- elieveth jrld "— kind as tall not Uvidual, B of the e of the )sitivism id so far limes in here, as is only ingeious is com- tsing the species, only of jheerless iges the idividual a half ility and )mpensa- tion, is tantamount to downright error. The cen- tral doctrine of Positivism is that of evolution ; the central principle of evolution is — the survival of the fittest by the destruction of the weakest. It slays the weak for the welfare of the strong. But Christianity, so far from sacrificing the weak for the benefit of the strong, directly takes their part and champions their cause, saying, " Ye that are strong ought to bear the burdens of the weak." The Gospel brings' salvation to the race, because it offers salva- tion to every individual man. The welfare of the all by the destruction of the one: that is Positive Philosophy. The welfare of the all by the sal- vation of the one : that is Christianity. Which, young men, think you, is the better, and worthier of your adherence ? The Gospel seizes the lost units of the race; seeks for the one sheep that is lost; sweeps the house, lights the candle, and takes an immensity of trouble to recover the one piece of silver that dropped into the mire. "That whosoever — everyone — that believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." "I thank God for this word * whosoever/ " remarked Eichard Baxter; "did it read, there is mercy for Eichard Baxter, I am so vile, so sinful, that I would have thought it must have meant some other Eichard Baxter ; but this word ' whosoever ' includes the worst of all the Baxters that ever lived." 2. The Gospel offers to every individual the supremestf most p'ecious Uessing God Himself can bestow — " everlasting life." " For God so loved the woyld, tjiat He gave His only-begotten Son, that 9 '^:| ^ ' 'f!| 1 1 ! • * ; ' '(' ■' 1 I I : tf;!, \'.J n 242 THE DIVINE LOVE. whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Why — my text is brimful of the " everlasting : " the Everlasting Love in the beginning, the Everlasting Son in the middle, and the Everlasting Life at the end. " And the end everlasting life." What then does this mean? First, it means endless life. That is the popular idea generally attached to it, and is by no means an undeserving one. But more especially in the. Scriptures it means supernatural or divine life. The popular idea is based upon that of arithmetical progression, an unlimited series of years. But that does not exhaust the Scriptural idea. What then is the Scriptural idea ? The divine or supernatural life bursting in upon the human and filling it to overflowing, the life of God pervading, ennobling, inspiring, absorbing the life of the soul, a total submersion of the human by the divine. Everlast- ing Life is none other, can be none other, than the life of the Everlasting Being. " How many gods are there ? " w^as a question once addressed to a number of children. " One " was the unanimous answer. " How do you know ? " further inquired the gentleman. " Because the Bible tells us," again answered the little ones. ' How Jo you know the Bible speaks the truth ? " again pressed their interrogator. After a moment's pause, one little man ventured the answer — " If one God fills every- where, there is no room for another." Well done and well said, little ♦philosopher ! His philosophy was as sound as his theology. Two Infinite Beings ctannot co-exist, neither can there be two Everlasting 1^' n THE DIVINE liOVE. 243 3h but irimful in the le, and he end mean? popular means in the. ne' life. imetical iut that , then is rnatural ng it to mobling, a total ;verlast- ;han the ,iiy gods ,ed to a lanimous I inquired iells us," ^ou know sed their Le little [is every- ^ell done lilosophy te Beings ^erlasting Lives: the conception is impossible. The Everlasting Life — what is it ? None other than the life of the Everlasting Being. The eternal life man acquires by faith is none other than the life of the eternal God ; they are not similar but identical, numerically one and the same. Believers are " partakers of the divine Nature," sharers of the divine Life. 3. Let me remark, in conclusion, tliat the Gospel offers to every man the supremest blessing on the easiest, cheapest terms — faith. " That whosoevf be- lieveth in Him should not perish but have everlast- ing life." " Only believe, and thou shalt he saved." You have nothing to do but to believe. God the Father had a great deal to do, and God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost: but man has nothing to do but to believe. Life, heaven, God — all are yours on the simple condition that you receive them. The terms could not be easier and niore advantageous. Be united to Jesus Christ by faith, and you at once become an inheritor of eternal life. Do you be- lieve ? This is the question which must settle your eternity. Not, do you sin, but do you believe ? Are you united to Jesus Christ ? Of the precise origin of the late civil war in America I am not quite sure ; but I am told it was a perverse mis- understanding on the subject of slavery. The North was against the slave-trade, the South for it ; and so both parties appealed to weapons of war. But be that as it may, one thing is clear ; not many months passed before the question of slavery was swallowed up in the more important question of the Union — the Union of the States, Who is for or 1 il!l '^ PI ! :, I b' :|(: 244 THE DIVINE LOVE. jigainst the slave ? There the conflict began. Who is for or against the 'Union ? There it finished Neither am I quite certain of the first cause of the prolonged controversy between earth and heaven, man and God. A rumour was afloat in my native neighbourhood that it all began in a slight mis- understanding touching a certain apple-tree in the garden of Eden. But be that as it may, the question of the apple-tree has been long ago swallowed up in the more important question of the union — the union with the Son. Salvation hinges not on such questions as what was the first sin, or who is the greatest sinner ? but upon the simple straightforward question — Who is for or against the union with Jesus Christ ? Do you believe in the only-begotten Son ? If you do, you have passed from death unto life. If not, "there remaineth for you no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain looking-for of judg- ment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." m ( 245 ) Who ished. )f the eaven, native t mis- in the aestion ved up a — the in such is the forward in with )egotten ,th unto more f judg- our the XIIL Ef)e SBoman of .Samaria. "And He must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh He to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gaVe to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the well : and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water : Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink." — St. John iv. 4-7. I. You will please ohserve that the person to whom we are here introduced was a Samaritan, a member of a race specially hateful to the Jews. " The Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans," being of different national stocks. "When Sanballat, king of Assyria, carried away into captivity the Israelitish inhabitants of Samaria, " he sent men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel, and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof." These foreigners were the ancestors of the Samaritans of whom we read in this chapter. They carried with them to Samaria their Assyrian idols, each tribe or clan its own idol. Circum- ?f WKm. ilh i f^H^ i ii 1 » I I III < II l«i< i ll 11 ■!)|i ■m If I m i\ 'ii' 1^! 246 THE WOMAN OF SAMARtA. stances, however, compelled them to abandon their heathen cultus and to adopt the worship of Jeho- vah, " the god of the land." The pure-blooded Jews accordingly looked upon these Samaritans as Gentile intruders, all the more odious because occupying a portion of the land given to the seed of Abraham for an inheritance, and flagrantly polluting the worship of Jehovah. They hated them with a hatred doubly dyed in the gall of bitterness. They went the length of deny- ing them a part in the resurrection. Once a year they publicly and formally anathematised them in all their synagogues. Whereas they compassed sea and land to make one proselyte from among other nations, a convert from among the Samaritans would have been contemptuously rejected. A rab- binical maxim further taught, " Whosoever eateth a Samaritan's bread is as one that eateth swine's flesh." To avoid, therefore, all defiling contact with a people so accur.sud, the severely orthodox Jews made a circuitous route through Perea to reach their fellow-countrymen in Galilee. What will unenlightened zeal for orthodoxy not do 1 The Saviour, however, whilst not abating one jot of the rightful claims of the Jews, — " Salvation is of the Jews," — viewed this excessive scrupulousness as transgressing the bounds of neighbourly decorum. He sent JHu disciples to their city to buy bread, despite the i'abbinical teaching, and here He enters into a free and earnest conversation with a Samaritan concerning the nature of God and true worship. THK WOMAN OF SAMARIA. 24? 2. This Samaritan is furtlicr shown to be a woman. In olden time woman's position was specially humiliating. " Never speak to a woman in the street, even if she be tliy wife." " Burn the words of the law rather than teach them to a woman." Those were maxims just tiien current in Jewish society. If proof were needed of a str.inge abnormal disturbance in the history of the human race, it would be found in the unworthy treatment woman has received at the hands of society. Throughout the animal creation, the female sex, it has been pointed out, is treated with respect, tender- ness, and consideration. Among birds and brutes the female is never systematically maltreated. This occurs only among men — a proof scientific of some terrible wrenching in the past history of the race. The Saviour, however, in the unsullied purity of His manhood, brushed aside as cobwebs all social regulations which tended to perpetuate this stat ^ of feminine servitude. But He could not do it with- out exciting the mute wonderment even of those who knew Him best. "They marvelled that He talked with the woman." 3. It is further intimated that this woman was a "sinner* — a sinner in the Jewish sense of the term. Not only was she poor and belonging to a heathen nation, but she lived in habitual sin. "Go, call thy husband." And she said, " I have no husband." Jesus said unto her, " Thou hast well said, I have no husband ; for thou hast had five husbands ; and he whom thou now hast, is not thy husband ; in that saidst thou truly." It appears that sh5 had ; M I ' f ^\ : i jStii I y ": i I: 1 54^ THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. been divorced five times ; " and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband." This .little word thy seems to be emphatic. " He is not thy hus- band," but the husband of another. Thus she was living in habitual adultery. But notwithstanding her life of illicit indulgence, the Saviour enters into earnest holy conversation with her. We have an account also of Socrates once holding a parley with the "strange woman." What is the purpose of his conversation ? Does he endeavoi^r co reclaim her ? Nay ; he only teaches her how to ply her infamous trade with greater success, furnishing her, out of his deep knowledge of human nature, with new foibles wAerewith to entrap the unwary. In extenua- tion of his offence it has been alleged that he was only making an experiment with his much-vaunted " method." Mayl^e : but it conclusively proves that he had no adequate conception of the gross turpi- tude of moral evil, and that he was animated by no strong desire to win back to virtue those who had fallen from feminine integrity. What infinite distance separates the conversation of Socrates with the courtesan from the conversation of Christ with the Samaritan woman ! The Saviour conversed with her, not only despite her exceeding sinfulness, but because of it. " He came to seek and to save the lost." And He could not let this opportunity pass of endeavouring to effect the salvation of this unhappy woman. When the salvation of souls was in the question, His great heart burst through all rabbinical re- tHE WOMAN 0^ SAMARtA. 249 1 thou B word hy hus- jhe was jilgence, ersation Socrates jvroraan." \ Does tie only ,de with lis deep ' foibles extenua- t he was -vaunted ves that s turpi- ated by ose who infinite Socrates .f Christ despite "He .nd He ivouring woman, question, deal re- strictions. "What do you consider the most important thing?" Dr. Lyman Beecher was asked on his death-bed. " It is not controversy ; it is not theology ; it is saving souls," replied the dying saint. And Jesus never let opportunities of doing good escape Him. " The wise man makes oppor- tunities," remarks Bacon. But so far from making them, we let them slip. Let us imitate the Master ; let us break through conventionalities and social etiquette, if thereby we can pluck 8 brand from the burning. I. Jesus Christ enlightening the woman. II. Jesus Christ reclaiming the woman. III. Jesus Christ inspiring the woman, or im-> parting to her His own enthusiasm. L Jesus Christ enlightening the woman. He leads her from natural to spiritual subjects. I . Observe the sweet courtesy which characterises His interview with her. He opens the conversa- tion, not with a contemptuous sneer or opprobrious epithet, according to the manner of the Jews, but with a modest, simple request, " Give mo to drink." And notwithstanding her ungracious rebuff, a mix- ture of banter and vulgarity, not one word of petu- lance, or even of rebuke, escapes His lips. A most gentlemanly stranger ! The fact is, true religion teaches us to be courteous and respectful towards men, as well as reverent and worshipful towards God. A man is a gentleman in the same proportion that he is a Christian. The Saviour's unexampled '• I I'' hi i .' i[ III!] ill ■ ' m m II ,,,! I P1 250 THE WOMAN OF SAMAllIA. livbanity doubtless greatly impressed the woman of Samaria. Such a perfect gentleman she had never met before. At the commencement 01 the conversa- tion she calls Him a Jew. A little further on she ptyles Him Sir or Eabbi. A little further on yet, she styles Him both Sir and Prophet. " Sir, I per- ceive that Thou art a Prophet." A few verses further on sdll she timidly pronounces Him to be " the Christ," the Messias that was to come. He, whom she considered at the beginning of the intercourse to be a vagabond Jew, has advanced wonderfully in her estimation ; His head towers high above the stars. Undeniably His personal demeanour was a powerful factor in the genesis of this conviction. To speak the truth is not enough — it must be spoken in love ; and the love will impress quite as much as the truth. A hawthorn, near Glastonbury Church, one of the oldest churches within these realms, was reported to bud and blossom in mid- winter ; whereas the bushes and trees round about looked bare and naked, this particular one appeared clad in beautv. What was the cause of its flowering in mid-winter ? Tradition answered that Joseph of Arimathsea, the supposed first missionary of Christi- anity to Britain, and the accredited founder of the Glastonbury Church, touched it one day in passing with the fringe of his garment, whereupon extraor- dinary virtue flowed into the bush, and it forthwith blossomed. What is not true naturally may be true spiritually. Let men of prickly characters, the can- tankerous thorns of humanity, be gently brushed by the hand of love, and forthwith they will flower in THfi WOMAN OF SAMAWA. 2^1 all the beauty of holiness. Jew, Sir, Prophet, Christ ; such is the respect engendered by courtesy. 2. Notice also that the woman's lack of culture did not hinder the Saviour making to her some of the grandest disclosures anywhere to be found in Holy Writ. Pythagoras taught the maxim to his disciples and scrupulously observed it himself, "Never wear the types of the gods upon your rings." That is to say, do not publish your highest and most sacred truths to the ignorant and uninitiated. Jesus Christ acts here, however, on a totally different prin- ciple ; in the fulness of His heart He makes to this poor sinful woman some of His sublimest revelations. A radical mistake preachers, missionaries, and tract- distributors often make, is to attempt to simplify the Gospel, as if we could render it more intelligible than Christ made it. Away with our Gospels made easy ! It cannot be made easier for comprehension or practice than Christ and His Apostles left it. In communion with unlearned but unsophisticated people, Christ made all His grandest disclosures of divine truth. The sublime will always awake the corresponding consciousness. Personally I love occasionally to contemplate truth in its infinite dimensions. I delight to view it rising mountain above mountain, like the Alps or Himalayas, and stretching up and away into the infinitude of God. This is one reason why the words of Christ have more power and per- manence in them than the systems of men. A Greek temple was symmetrical, beautiful, always embodying the Greek idea of the finite ; consequently, however ■ i,. I;! i i \H m ! ii i I ; i ; i. :i ii! ^H! , t SI i$2 THE WOMAN OF SAMAHIA. pleasing, it never subdued the spirit into a posture of worship. But a Gothic temple, lacking perhaps in precision and proportion, bears on it the impress of the infinite, and floats the mind away from itself towards the eternal, the spire leading the imagina- tion upward to the sky, suggesting incomparably more than it expresses. And systems of divinity — what are they ? Only Greek structures, measurable in every part, and however edifying to the intellect, they do not overwhelm the sj- •*■•'•. into an adoring mood. But turn to the conversations and discourses of Christ, and you are moving in Gothic temples, every nave bearing on it the impress of infinitude, every transept in its mingled light and shade fling- ing across the mind the shadows of eternity. Let us studiously avoid puerilities, crudities, and silly anecdotes in dealing with the uneducated, and declare to them the whole truth in its bare simplicity and quiet grandeur, and, with the blessing of God, they will fall down and worship. 3. It is further worthy of observation that the Lord Jesus made a discovery to this woman which He never made to the Pharisees, nor directly to His own disciples — the discovery of His Messidhship. "I am He." Why to her, and not to them? Because, answer the commentators, it would not be safe to make the confession openly and publicly in Judaea or Galilee. That may be true; but the main reason, doubtless, lay in the different disposi- tions of those whom He addressed. The eagle has to strive hard and swoop round a great deal before he soars above the clouds, the weight of his body THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. 253 posture perhaps impress m itself Lmagina- aparably vinity — jasurable intellect, , adoring liscourses temples, nfinitude, ade fling- ity. Let and silly .ted, and simplicity g of God, that the lan which fly to His ^ssiahship. [0 them? lid not be jublicly in but the It disposi- 1 eagle has leal before his body being a disadvantage to him to ascend. The lark, however, though smaller of stature and feebler of wing, soars up with rapidity and ease, the slightness of her body greatly facilitating her ascent. Thus minds of powerful calibre, heavily equipped with native and educational endowments, find it difficult to make their way up to the calm presence of God, their very ability being an impediment to them. Seeing every difficulty and feeling the force of every objection, they have to turn round and round and as- cend laboriously in spiral columns. But many souls, small as larks, shoot up easily and gracefully, almost in a straight line, carolling all the way .^s they go, to the pure serene blue of the divine Presence. To the Samaritan woman, and not to the learned Pharisees, did Christ openly avow his Messiahship, and present Himself in the majestic nakedness of His divine mission. II. Jesus Christ reclaiming the woman. The ob- ject of His enlightening her was to effect her salvation. I. Jesus Christ always aimed at doing good. " He went about doing good." " He must therefore needs go through Samaria." You will find in ancient history examples of men doing good spasmodi- cally — doing good from sudden impulses, doing good when the suffering presented itself to the eye, and the opportunity offered itself to the hand. In ancient history, however, the relief was the result of natural impulse ; but in Christianity tha impulse has been dignified into a principle, nature has been elevated into religion. Under the Christian Dispensation 1 I W I f!' t ' w i\ \m 2S4 THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. we are to do good, not from impulse, but from principle. " Love your enemies," the word for love here signifying not so much love as a feeling as love as a principle ; for love as a feeling has its seat in the heart, ])ut love as a principle has its seat in the will. Christ enjoins love of the moral will. Love as a feeling ebbs and flows according to our surroundings, and therefore works fitfully — active in the presence of misery, dormant in its absence. But love as principle of the will cannot rest ; prin- ciple is ever the same, consequently uniform in its action — it goes about doing good, seeking out hidden suffering. Thus the love exhibited by Christ is widely different from that inculcated by heathen philosophers. Plato and Aristotle teach you to love mankind, but always for your oum sakes. They teach you to assuage suffering, not as a matter of duty but of expediency ; not for the sake of the men who suffer, but for your own sakes — that the natural sensitiveness of your heart be not often and unnecessarily pained. Selfishness is the taproot of heathen virtue, the reason even for the cultivation oi love, benevolence, and philanthropy. Jesus Christ also teaches you to love mankind, not however for your own sakes, but for their sakes, or rather for His sake. He urges you to alleviate the distress of your neighbours, not that you may be free from deleterious influences and exempt from the necessity of beholding disagreeable sights, but that they may be made healthier, holier, and happier. The love of the Gospel has not self-interest, but self-sacrifice, as its essence. " He must needs go through Samaria ; " THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. 255 it from ord for I feeling has its i its seat )ral will. cT to our o — active absence, st; prin- :m in its ut hi^lden Christ is f heathen ti you to kes. They matter of ^ke of the ■that the often and taproot of [tivation oi !sus Christ ►wever for rather for le distress free from necessity they may 'he love of lacrifice, as ISamaria j " He felt a divine imperative, a supreme obligation, to embrace every opportunity of benefiting others. "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work." He came to do, not His own will, but that of Another. Herein He differed widely, fundamentally, from all ancient heroes and sages. Alexander, Csesar, Napoleon, evinced great courage. But theirs was the cournge of self- assertion, whilst His was the courage of self-abne- gation ; theirs the heroism which aftirmed their own will, His the heroism which gave up His own will ; theirs the unbending determination which led to the sacrifice of others to aggrandise themselves. His the unbending determination which prompted the sacri- fice of Himself to benefit others. The courage of self-assertion is the courage of the devil ; that of self-sacrifice is the courage of God. 2. He sought to do the highest good by labouring for the reclamation of the worst characters. He keenly and tenderly sympathised with the erring. He looked with an eye of infinite pity on the notorious sinners of the age, the men and women who un- happily laboured under the excommunicating ban of respectable society. In Him mercy to sinners, as well as tenderness to sufferers, first came to bloom. The history of the world relative to this subject is divisible into three stages. The first is a state of well-nigh complete insensibility. Sin was not known to be sin ; it was passed by unheeded ; right and wrong escaped unnoticed. This stage in the development of society is graphically described in , ii H m HIi i' ) 2S6 THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. the Iliad, in which are powerfully set forth heroes and cowards, strong men and weak men, but not good men and bad men. The distinction between virtue and villany does not seem to have pre- sented itself to the poet ; in his age the moral sense, though exir.te.H, was practically torpid. "i ' f iir^ itage is mar :ed by the awakening of tho cvKJseicnne, the idea of right and wrong rising grandly a,nd ' ^fully upon the nations. The dif- ference is recognised between virtue and vice ; virtue is applauded, vice censured. Woe to the evil- doer in this stage of civilisation, especially among the Hebrew people. Death is the penalty not only for murder, but for adultery, for blasphemy, and even for the desecration of the Sabbath-day. The idea of justice taught men to sympathise with the man sinned against, but not with the man sinning ; it offered protection to the man receiving injury, but it had only severity to show to the man inflicting it. The third stage is characterised by the exhibition of mercy, complete, full-orbed mercy, in the life and teaching of the Lord Jesus. Moses taught society to sympathise with one party to a crime — the party receiving injury. But Jesus Christ teaches us to view compassionately the two parties — the party receiving the injury and the party inflicting it. Ancient legislators teach us to put ourselves in the place of the man sinned against ; Jesus teaches us to put ourselves in the place of the man sinning as well. Whereas men before the Incarnation had only pity enough to succour scantily one of the parties, Christ had pity enough to succour both. heroes ut not etween e pre- l sense, ning of y rising :he dif- ; virtue jvil-doer ong the only for ,nd even Che idea the man ininfT o > it jury, but Ucting it. xhibition life and t society ihe party tBS us to the party jicting it. es in the caches us inning as ,tion had e of the both. THE WOMAN OF SAMAUIA. 257 Accordingly Ho changed the attitude of the world in respect to its notorious sinners. A man of delicate health av ids the haunts of disease — thc^rein lies his safety ; a man of robust health visits them, for he carries his armour within him in the vigorous vitality of his constitution. In like manner the Pha- risees avoided the slightest contact with publicans and sinners, for they wisely ieared the contagion ; their spiritual life was not strong enou .^ to resist the insidiousness of the disease, l^ut Jcsi Clirist associated daily with them, eating Uiii drinking in their company, — perfect health .e^r^ not the infection. Finite goodness repelled pur)licans and sinners, infinite goodness attracted J^em: herein you will find the grand secret of the Gospel. " The publicans and sinners drew " — were drawing — "nigh unto Him." It was not an exceptional incident; but a quiet pervasive influence was emanating un- ceasingly from His person, irresistibly attracting to Him all those who had gone out of the way. His attraction was such as not only to keep the good in their place, but also to draw the bad to their place. In this He is an example to modern churches ; we are still to succour the suffering, to relieve the destitute, to reclaim the wicked. And it must be confessed that the spirit of Christ leaven^ to a large extent modern society. Suffering is being largely diminished, destitution largely relieved, and we hail with unfeigned delight the strenuous efforts, crude and rude maybe, but honest and enthusiastic nevertheless, made in various quarters and in & |:J-' !1' ii'tii" m m 1 ! u If 't: \ I! •■, f ■! Ill !:^ 258 THE WOMAN OF SAMAKIA. divers ways at the present day, to recover the lapsed masses. 3. To successfully accomplish these ends, He threw into His philanthropic movements unprece- dented zeal and energy. " My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work." He had infinite faith in human nature. He saw its hidden potentialities in a clearer light than they had ever been discerned before. A lady, examin- ing one of Turner's pictures, remarked to him, " But, Mr. Turner, I do not see these things in Nature." "Madam," replied the artist with pardonable naivete, " don't you wish you did ? " Neither did the Saviour's contemporaries behold in human nature the same vast possibilities of good as He saw ; but it is devoutly to be wished that they did. In that age He was about the only one that was really sanguine relative to the future of mankind, A lowering gloomy despair had settled like a heavy, ponderous, deadly incubus upon the heart of the world. The great majority of men were judged incorrigible, irremediable, unimprovable, and ac- cordingly handed over to blank despair. The philosophers cherished but a faint flickering hope that a few choice souls might be made meet to hold fellowship with the gods. Talk of the doctrine of Election as taught by Calvin ! Why, in the worst caricatures of it ever made by men who designedly misrepresent it, it is an immeasurable advance upon the doctrine of Election, as taught by Plato and the other Greek philosophers — in the number, I mean, of the redeemed. Jesus Christ entertained large, THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. 259 tolerant, glowing, far-reaching views of the capabili- ties of human nature ; not of a few richly-endowed and finely-organised souls, but of all men. He was emphatically an optimist, the only optimist of His century. It demands no great sagacity to perceive that the philosophy of His age was that known as pessimism, the very philosophy which has of late years distressed the heart of Germany and flung its baneful shadow on the more sober thought of this country. In happy contrast to all philosophies having des- pair as their upshot, the Gospel teaches us to look to the future undismayed, for the Saviour has an unwavering faith in the possible reclamation of the worst characters — the thief, the robber, the adulterer, the murderer. You have not; but hero precisely the Saviour shows Himself wiser and more charitable tlian you — He had infinite hope of human nature. According to the strength of His hope, was the fervour of His zeal in the w^ork of reclamation. "He came to seek and to save the lost." He laboured in season and out of season to win back the outcasts of society. According to a long adopted interpretation, St. Mark describes the Saviour as the Servant of the Lord, treading the path of obedience. Accordingly He introduces almost every event in His career with the word " straightway " or " immediately." He uses it not less than twelve times in tlie first chapter alone. The Saviour never procrastinated, never delayed, never wasted a moment. Having accomplished one purpose, He " straightway " set forth to accomplish *!• m hi ! 11:1. IM- M m t 260 THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. another. This continued for three years without break or pause. Ministers' vacations had not then been invented. Ho was consumed by His fiery zeal to save the lost. In fact, He had more hope of the abandoned prufli^'ate classes than of the sanctimonious profess(jrs of religion. The worst sinners ^^enerally make the best saints. A certain painter was once employed to adorn a window in one of our national catliedrals, a work which he did with credit and skill. The artist, liowever, had an ingenious inventive apprentice, who picked up and preserved all the bits of glass that were nipped off and thrown away as useless. But out of these rejected pieces — so runs the story — he constructed a window of sucli- exquisite beauty as to command greater attention and win heartier applause than that designed by the master artist. Thus the Scribes and Pharisees of Judaism, the poets and philosophers of Gentilism, the renowned builders of the social fabric, had been constructing their impos- ing temples out of the best men and chastest women of their respective ages and countries ; the slaves, the harlots, the publicans, had been con- temptuously rejected, and trampled upon as worth- less refuse. At last Jesus Christ appeared; He fixed His kind, compassionate eye on the huge heap of human rubbish; He associated with the oft- scouring of society ; and lo !" He built a grander temple and made more beautiful windows than the world had ever beheld before, out of the soiled characters rejected by the architects and builders of states and churches as vile, noxious offal. The THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. 26 i nthout t then s fiery e hope of the I worst certaiu dow iu I he did had ail \ip and pped off of these jstriicted ;oiniiiaud ase than lius the oets and Mers of r impos- chastest i(3s; the leeii coii- s worth- red; He uge heap the off- grander than the le soiled builders al. The woman of Samaria, the " woman who was a sinner," - Mary Magdalene, — how attractively the light of Divine Grace streams down upon our world through their variegated liistories I III. He INSPIRED the woman, imparted to her His own enthusiasm. " The woman left her water- pot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men. Come, see a man wliich told me all things that ever I did ; is not this the Christ ? " I. Slie at once set about converting her neiyhhours. ** Is not this the Christ ? " Her evident excitement and eag(3rnes3 produced a profound sensation in the town. " And many Samaritans of that city believed on Him for the saying of the woman." She did not lecture them, she only related her experience ; and many believed for her " saying." We can also say ; we cannot all preach and deliver elaborate dis- courses ; but we can all speak a word for Christ to the listless and the forlorn. "Despise not the day of small things." Her ** saying " led to the evangelisation of a whole city. How often will a small cause set in motion a train of events that will issue in universal good. May I be allowed to recapitulate what, I have no doubt, some of you have either heard or read before ? About two hundred years ago a travelling pedlar with hip bundle on his back entered a Shropshirft village. He called at a farm-house and offeree.} Tor sale a copy of the "Bruised Reed" by Picliard Sibbes. Tlie farmer bought the book, awl the farmer's son read it, and through it found salvation I -0^ i| iilij: ; = !!!l t I r « I 262 tHE WOMAN OF SAMAHtA. in Christ. That farmer's son was none other than Richard Baxter. Baxter wrote a book called tho "Everlasting Rest of the Saints," which was read by a young man, who was led by it to consecrate himself to the service of God. That young man was Dr. Doddridge. Doddridge in his turn wrote a book called " The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul." That book was diligently perused by another young man, who wa&, led by it to a life of holiness and widespread influence. That young man was William Wilberforce, the liberator cf the slave. In his turn hm 1 M 4 If; I ' f'^ I \ '!! Ml 288 THE GOOD SHEPHERD. •It by your Christian names; not by some fanciful names, but by the very names given you at the baptismal font. When men are comparative strangers, they surname and master one another; but the Saviour surnames and masters no one. Like the mother, the sister, or the wife, full of tenderness and affection. He calls you by your Christian names. " John, John ; " " Philip, Philip." " He calleth His own sheep by name." 3. He furthermore is perfectly acquainted with your circunistances. He sends a letter from heaven to the angel of the church at Pergamos. What does He say ? "I know thy works and where thou dwellest." Were the question asked of many of our town pastors where the sheep of their care live, they would frequently be much embarrassed to return an answer. But the Good Shepherd knows where you live — the town, the street, the house. On one occasion, you remember. He appeared in a dream to Cornelius and bade him send for one of the apostles to enlighten him in the principles of the new reli- gion. But where does the apostle live ? Oh, He takes care to give the name and address in full. " Send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter: he lodgeth with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside." There is the name and address in full — Simon Peter, at the house of Simon the tanner, the Seaside, Joppa. On another occasion He appears in a vision to Ananias, and commands him to go and seek out one Saul. But where does Saul live ? Oh, He takes care to ^iwQ the na,nie a,nd address in full. " Arise, go into THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 289 the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus ; for behold, he prayeth." Were Saul living in Joppa now, and were I to write him a letter to-day, it would safely reach his hands in about a fortnight — Saul of Tarsus, the house of Judas, Straight Street, Damascus. The names of the members are care- fully enrolled in our church books ; mistakes, how- ever, often creep in, notwithstanding the most careful oversight. They keep a church-book up yonder also ; they call it the Lamb's book of life ; your names are all correctly entered and your chronicles accurately kept. 4. This word "know" means something deeper yet; it means thorough, complete apprehension of your deepest character. The word " know " in the fourth and fifth verses signifies outside acquaintance, that man and Christ have come within the same circle. But the word " know " in the fourteenth verse means a clear discerning insight into the springs of life and the motives of action. " I know my sheep;" He discerns the hidden texture of the inner life. When Andrew introduced his brother Simon to the Saviour, He " beheld " him, a word signifying that He fixed on him a searching steadfast gaze, that He recognised the underlying strata of his inner soul. Accordingly He predicted a change in his name. " Thou art Simon ; thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, a stona" "He knew all men." This knowledge was not the result of omniscience, but of an innate human gift of pene- trating into men, of penetrating through men, and T lit li i H :W f !' I i (li If li ( IIS 290 THE GOOD SHEPHERD. thereby of discerning their spirits. He fixes the holy gaze of His liquid eye upon you ; He knows you better than you know yourselves, yet loves you notwithstanding all III. He is a good shepherd, because He feeds His sheep. " They shall go in and out and find pasture.'* I . " They go in " first to the fold. This supposes that they shall rest awhile after their weary wander- ings in the desert. The Psalmist gives utterance to the same truth — " He leadeth me beside the still waters." Not beside stagnant waters, for they cause sickness and disease ; nor beside rough waters, for they affright the timid sheep ; but beside still waters, where the flock may rest in perfect safety. Very soothing to my disturbed feelings it is to turn in to the House of God on a Sabbath morning and have a quiet service. I like to read quietly, to pray quietly, to preach quietly ; it creates stillness within my tempestuous breast, and I return home serener, calmer, and more placid. You have doubtless observed the sweet quieting influence the perusal of the Bible exerts over your exhausted nature ; a chapter of the Bible is always a surer remedy for nervous excitement than a bottle of physic. People often go to their doctors when they ought to go to their ministers. The Bible is a very " still " book. Piead other authors, and you discover in them all more or less tumult. Read Byron, for instance, and the wild hurricane blows on every page, you almost expect to see the leaves rustle. Read Scott, and he ' THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 291 is full of movement and dash ; there is some strange " go *' in all his poetry. His works have scarcely any rest or pause, they hardly allow of punctuation. Turn from them to the philosophers : in their pages likewise you witness strenuous endeavour, unflag- ging energy, incessant striving. Compared with them Holy Writ is exceedingly composed and sub- dued ; it runs deep but it runs still ; it acts like magic upon the turbulence of the heart "And there was a great calm." 2. The words speak not only of " going in " to rest, but of " going out " to graze. Here is safety and satisfaction. "He shall go in and out and find pasture." Whether he will graze or not is another question ; but one thing is certain — he will find grass. What is the Bible ? The pasture-land of the Good Shepherd's sheep. " He niaketh me to lie down in green pastures," on the margin, "in pastures of tender grass." Sheep are very fond of young tender grass ; they frequently risk their lives to get at the sweet green blade. Turn an ass into the most fertile field, and you will see him forsak- ing the grass to leisurely nibble the thistles. But turn in a sheep, and you will see her leaving the hijih dry grass to seek the young tender blade. Well, the Bible pasture is green pasture. Every- thing is as new, every truth as fresh, as if it were spoken only yesterday. Other books contain but little green pasture. Some one has compared them to mown hay ; the food they supply is very dry. But as for the truths of the Bible, they are not hay cut and dried, but green growing grass — they contain i ii '[11 i n m III HI Wi !t * . ) J i 292 THE GOOD SHEPHERD. as much sap as if they were revealed from heaven only this week. The preachers of the Word go to the field and cut a little, and bring you occasional armfuls ; hut better for tlie sheep did they go to the field themselves and crop the grass as it grows. Not only the grass is green, and therefore to be coveted ; but there is plenty of it. " He shall go in and out and find pasture " — green pasture and plenty of it. "The thief cometh not but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy : I am come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly." The flock of Jesus Christ live not sparingly, but luxuriously, abundantly. To be allowed to live in a humble cottage on the mountain-side upon dry bread would be an inestimable favour to men who have a thousand times deserved to be damned ; but in the Gospel we are heavily loaded with Divine mercies, we live like princes of the blood. Super- abundance of life ! We have not only the neces- saries but the luxuries of eternal life. "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies ; thou anointest my head with oil ; " on the margin, "thou makest me fat with oil." The Psalmist had grown stout upon the truths of Eevelation. We all live amid grander truths than were known to the Psalmist, we enjoy richer food. But many of us, I fear, still belong to Pharaoh's " lean and ill- favoured kine." I know many a sheep in Wales livins,^ in the midst of plenty, and yet meagre and thin in appearance. Why ? Lies the fault with the pasture ? No ; the pasture is rich and succulent ; TttE GOOD SHEPHEttl) 29^ but the sheep are sick and lack appetite. The Shepherd's duty is to provide pasture, but it is the sheep's duty to eat it. But alas ! many sheep are sick, and, having lost their appetite, they complain of the quality of their food. But the truth is — no food can please the sick. A young person, subject to the slow but sure ravages of consuniptionj sails to the Madeiras to escape the severity of the English winter. Hs is delighted with his new surroundings. He writes home to say that the climate is delicious, the scenery beautiful, the food choice and abundant. All he complains of is lack of appetite; and he dies there — all for lack of appetite. This is too true a picture of hundreds in our congregations — they pine away, not for lack of food, but for lack of appetite. But I am glad to say that the Good Shepherd looks after the appetite — He re-establishes the health of the poor sheep. " Behold I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out." The word " search " signifies to go after the sheep which have strayed and to restore them to the fold — the shepherd seeking the lost sheep. The words "seek out" mean to examine, to institute inquiries into the state of the health, and to adopt means to strengthen it. If a sheep strays, he fetches her back ; if another is sick, he heals her. " He will restore my soul." To restore here carries in it a double meaning. The first is to return to the fold, to recover the soul that has erred. The other is to re-establish the health, to restore the soul that is sick. The Good Shepherd performs the double duty — He goes after the sheep I 111 1 1 ft il I I II 294 tHK GOOD SlIEPIIKUD. that are lost; He re-establishes the health of the sheep that are sick. IV. He is a good shepherd, because He leads the sheop. " He calleth His own sheep by name and leadeth them out. And wlien He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before theni, and the sheep follow Him." " He puttetli forth His own sheep ; " literally, He thrusts them out. He usfs holy violence. To separate the saints from the unbijlievers, to call them to the church from the world, requires the gentle pressure of His hand ; conversion is some- thing more than moral sunsion. But once men are converted, He then constitutes Himself their leader. I. He leads the sheep. It is well known that <^heep require to be continually led. In this they differ much from other creatures. The migrating birds neve : wander from their path; the swallow xiever misses her point. In the autumn she starts vW warmer climes without map or compass to show her the way ; but she flies straight to her destina- tion as an arrow to the target. She has within her an infallible instinct which always guides her in the right track. Behold again the lion in the forest : in the evening he creeps out of his lair, travels far and near to discover his prey ; and at the earliest streaks of dawn he retraces his steps through the dense jungle without ever missing his track. He has within him a cunning instinct which always leads him in the way he should go. The sheep, however, is constituted vastly different. If she strays only a mile from home, she loses every con- .- .^vsatT vjj^uJ-j,ffWS5"^'3. •the good sHEPBinax 295 ception of north, south, east, and west : she has no more idea of tlie four cardinal points of geography tlian she has of the five cardinal points of Calvinism. Exceedingly simple and helpless is a sheep gone astray. And wlien the Bible speaks of sinners, to wliat does it [compare us ? To swallows upon the wing ? Certainly not. To lions in the forest ? Certainly not. To what then ? To erring sheep. " All we like sheep have gone astray ; we have turned every one to his own way." We have lost well nigh every conception of the cardinal points of virtue ; or if we remember the names, we have lost the qualities. If we are to regain our know- ledge of (xod and of goodness, we must put ourselves implicitly under th? guidance of Jesus Christ 2. He leads them gently. " He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him." He is not behind them, scaring them with the lashes of the law, but in front of them, drawing them with the cords of His love. He walks not according to His own but their skill and strength. He sweetly adapts His steps to theirs. A very beautiful word is spoken on this subject in the Apocalypse : " And a lamb leadeth them." Not a dog or a wolf, nor a ram hardened by the inclemency of the weather, but a lamb. He will not march you too fast, for He is only a lamb Himself. " And a lamb leadeth them." He can sympathise sweetly with the weaklings of the flock. "He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." In another passage we read of Him going after the sheep which was i I liii ! i i t I If i96 ?tlE 0001) RIIEHlfiHt). lost; "and when IIo found it, Ho laid it on His shoulders rejoicin;,'." You have seen a shepherd carrying a sheep ; he slings her across his shoulders, whilst her head dangles carelessly in the air. A safe place enough, but very uncomfortable neverthe- less, for the adult sheep must be made to feel the folly of wandering. A faithful portraiture of the Good Sheplier\)\\ 302 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. literally, " into the whole truth " — the whole truth of tiie Christian religion, the whole truth which revolves around the person and work of the Ee- deemer. Tiie subject, therefore, which invites our attention is — The relation which the Holy Spirit sustains to Gospel truth. I. The Spirit guiding into all truth in respect of Revelation. II. The Spirit guiding into all truth in respect of Exposition. III. The Spirit guiding into all truth in respect of Application. I. The Spirit guiding into all truth in respect of Eevelation. In other words, the Spirit guiding the apostles to reveal the truth. " He will guide you into all truth." 1. This means that the Spirit will speak the truth, and nothing but the truth, " for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever H^ shall hear, that shall He speak." This is the Saviour's in- fallible proof of the trustworthiness of His own teaching, that He did not speak of Hirnnelf; and the same principle He urges in support of the in- fallibility of the Spirit's illumination. "He shall not speak of" — from — -"Himself." If you hear any one speaking from himself, boasting much in his originality, claiming that he has woven his discovery out of himself, as the spider weaves his web, you may rest assured that his discovery will turn out to be exceedingly shallow and worthless. THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 303 "^or truth is not a thing that comes /rom man, but a thing that comes to mau. He never strikes it — it always strikes him. Consequently no profound thinker ever " speaks from himself ; but whatsoever he heareth, that speaketh he." Not whatsoever he heareth from otlier men, but whatsoever he heareth by listening attentively at the door of irrational nature around him, or of human nature within him, or of the Divine Nature above him. Accordingly, the great discoverers of the world never claim much credit to themselves, for they are vividly conscious that they do not speak from themselves, but are rather spoken to by a Power or a Mind external to themselves. " I am but a child," remarked Sir Isaac Newton, "gathering pebbles on the shore of the great sea of truth " — words full of humility, for he distinctly felt that all the credit due to him was the credit of seeing the pebbles, — the credit of making them belonged to another; and the credit of seeing pebbles is not much of a credit after all, it is the credit of making them that is credit indeed. Thus truth comes not from man, say rather that it comes to man. You cannot originate it — only dis- cover it; you cannot make it — only see it. If you make it, it is no longer truth, but a lie. Wherefore it is averred of the Evil Spirit that he " speaketh of his own," speaketh from himself, originates what he says, and therefore of necessity " speaketh a lie." But of the Holy Spirit the Saviour says that " He speaketh not from Himself, but whatsoever He heareth " in the exalted fellowship of the Trinity in Unity, " that speaketh He." It is impossible to be V'M If ml 11 ! 1' 1. 'j i i i i t 1 i 1 , 1 1 Hi :■ : 1 , , i' { I I. 304 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. original in speaking the truth — originality is the exclusive property of falsehood. But this appellation, " the Spirit of Truth/* doubt- less implies more : it teaches that He is the soul of truth, the life inside the truth, the sap within the Gospel doctrines, keeping them fresh and green. But for the Spirit as a circulating, vitalising sap within them, they would all shrivel up, the Tree of Life would wither and die, and its leaves would all drop to the ground. Examine tlie truths con- tained in other religions — how withered and dry they look. Examine the same truths in the religion of Christ — they throb with life and are clothed with verdure. Why ? What is the cause of this differ- ence ? The Spirit as a never-dying soul within the Gospel truths, a circulating sap vitalising them both root and branch. 2. But the words further teach that the Holy Spirit will inspire the truth, the truth already ex- tant in the world, and only waiting the breath of inspiration to quicken it. " The holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Is that all ? No ; " every Scripture is given by inspi- ration of God ; " literally, " is God-inspired, God- breathed." Not only the writers, but their writings, are all alive with the breath of God. Heading the Bible, we feel the winds of Divinity blowing upon us and through us, the Breath of God warm on our face. " God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the Bible became a living book." In- spiration is not a fact past and gone in the history of the world — it is ever present and ever powerful. d THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 305 The inspired men are dead, a matter of little moment; but the inspired truths are still living. The Bible has perpetuated inspiration, and has made it a fact ever present in every century, forming a strictly supernatural element in the history of the world to- day, as supernatural quite as in the first century of our era. No ; the inspiration has not run out of the truths of Holy Writ; they are inspired now, they are warm now with the breath of the Eternal. One of the rare excellences of the Bible is its warmth : it is confessedly a very hot book. Its temperature is many degrees higher than that of any other book I know of. Whereas the same truths in other reli- gions and philosophies sink down to freezing point, in Christianity they invariably rise to blood-heat, sometimes to boiling point. This is an essential element in inspiration — heat, but an element too often forgotten in formal treatises on the subject, and totally overlooked by the rationalising authors of the age. By inspiration they generally under- stand a power to reveal new truths. No doubt it im}>lies that ; but it further implies power to impart new warmth to old truths, fresh vitality to truths already familiar to the human mind ; and the power to warm old truths, to quicken familiar but barren principles, is rarer, because higher, than the power to effect new discoveries. Many of the truths of the Bible, besides the commandment of which St. John speaks, are both old and new — old as to form, new as to power ; old as to utterance, new as to temperature. There is a vast difference betweeu u So6 THE SriUIT OF TUUTFI. j .*, f i ■ 1 ; ■ i \ 1 j ■\: i i i 1 '■ ! i , ■ i 1 ^. ; . • 1 i i :, 1 i 1 i .1 ■ 'III' ■ Ll. \ trutli inspired and the same truth uninspired. Take an illustration. Here are two bars of steel. They are precisely of the same make, the same shape, the same weiglit, the same length, the same breadth. The most practised eye cannot detect the slightest difference between them. Nevertheless there is a difference, none the less for being subtle. Put the two bars on the ground near a heap of rubbish, and the difference will immediately be made manifest. Whilst one lies inert on the floor, the other exerts a potent influence on the whole mass, disturbing the needles and nails and iron filings, which start, like the animals that entered Noah's ark, on a journey the reason and destination of which nobody knows. What is tlie matter ? are not the two bars alike ? Yes, alike and yet different, for one has been mag- netised ; it is surcharged with an occult power of drawing to itself wliatever has in it the nature of iron. And here are two truths, one in heathen philosophy, the other in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Examine them narrowly — they are as similar as two truths can be ; of the same length, the same breadth, the same depth ; expressed almost in identical terms. Well, is there any difference between them ? No, answer the critics : Yes, answer the divines. The truth as contained in Greek or Chinese philosophy lies barren and inoperative, it exerts no perceptible influence on the huge mass of corrupt society around it. But the same truth as uttered by Jesus Christ enters as a living quickening force into human life, re-creating society from top to bottom, furnishing luen with a new ideal in life, inflaming them with THE SPIRIT OF TUUTH. 307 a holy ardour to realise it in everyday conduct. It revolutionises thought, casts the spell of its influ- ence upon the centuries. Why ? "What is the matter ? Is it not the same truth that we formerly met with in the pages of I'lato and of Confucius ? Yes, the same, and not the same. In Cliristi- anity it has been magnetised, inspired ; and, as already stated, there is a vast difTerence between truth inspired and the same truth unquickened by the breath of God. The truths of the Gospel are, many of tliem, the truths of heathen philosophies and religions plus the Divine magnetism ; and this plus constitutes a difference " wide as the poles asunder." 3. But not only the Holy Spirit spoke the truth, and inspired truths already known, but He further revealed new truths, truths otherwise inaccessible to created intelligences. " As it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things wliich God hath pre- pared for them that love Him." The primary reference of these words is, as is generally observed, not to the things of heaven, but the things of the Gospel. Neither the senses of the body nor the faculties of the mind could discover them. Well, that being the case, nobody knows them, you say. Oh yes ; for " God has revealed them to us by His Spirit, for the Spirit search eth all thing's, yea, the deep things of God." The truths of Nature are only His surface thoughts, and therefore within tho range of created intellects. But the truths of the Gospel are His " deep things," too deep for human 3o8 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. i! ',\' I, ! t i reason ever to fathom, but which nevertheless " God has shown to us by His Spirit." In the context the " things of God " are called the things of Jesus Christ " He shall glorify Me ; for He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are Mine : therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you." As Columbus took pos- session of the continent of America in the name of Christ, so Christ took possession of the continent of Truth in His own name — He has stamped on every truth His own private mark. "He shall glorify Me, for He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you." This is the final test whether any doctrine be of the inspiration of the Spirit. Does it glorify Christ? Many spirits went out in the apostolic age, many teachers claiming to be divinely commissioned ; but this was the test whereby the spirits were tried — did they glorify Christ ? Many strange and novel doctrines are promulgated in the present day, labelled with the names of able and scholarly men, — are they true ? Let me ask, " Do they glorify Christ ? " If not, beware of them ; and again I say unto you. Beware. " What do you think of ' Ecce Homo ? ' " asked a lady once of Professor Duncan, the Professor of Hebrew in one of the Scotch Colleges, soon after the appearance of that popular and charmingly written book. *•' What does * Ecce Homo ' think of Christ ? " asked the old Rabbi back. " I cannot tell ; that it is which puzzles me," answered the lady. " Well," deliberately answered the sick professor, " if any book, after ^ m\ tllK SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 309 careful perusal of it, leaves you in doubt what it thinks and what you ought to think about Christ, there is something radically wrong in it.** Wise and seasonable words. A book may be very in- genious, very learned, very able, and all that ; but if it knows not what to think or say of Christ, if it fails to glorify Christ, it is not a good book. Every sound book — it glorifies Christ ; every sound doctrine — it glorifies Christ ; every sound sermon — it glori- fies Christ. " He shall glorify Me." II. The Spirit guiding into all truth in respect of Exposition. In other words, the Spirit guiding the readers of the Bible to understand it. " He will guide you into all truth." I. This sets forth the nature of the Spirit's influence. " He will guide you into all truth," this word " guide " meaning to show the road, and not only to show it, but to travel along it. To direct strangers in a strange country in words is much ; to direct them by accompanying them till they reach their destination is more. Thus the Holy Spirit not only shows the way to the City of Truth, but leads the mind along it ; He takes it by the hand, as it were, and leads it to a reasonable appre- hension of the great doctrines of salvation. This partly indicates the difference between the influence of the Spirit under the Old Testament, and His influence under the New. The word "moved" is that used to describe His operation under the Old. " Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." This word " moved " is a very I :r> \i 3t6 *ITE srTRtT OF TRUTlt. Ii 3l>! I) <' i i! ■ I :i ! fl* H strong word, signifying that the prophets were carried away and home along hefore the breath of the Spirit, like ships before the broath of the wind, a force outside them and behind them driving them irresistibly along. That was the character of the Spirit's work under the Old Testament, exceedingly stormy, full of sudden violent impulses. The Spirit sometimes fell suddenly upon the prophets, and sometimes left them quite as suddenly; but in either case the prophets were thrown half dead on the ground. But "guide" is the word used to describe His corresponding operations under the New Testament, a word denoting steady, constant, uniform influence. "He will guide you into all truth." Not He will move you, stir you, carry you away like ships in a gale ; but He will guide you, lead you sweetly by the hand, He will be a power within you and befc e you, gently but effectually helping you in all your researches. Under the Old Testament His operations were like winter storms, under the New they are like summer breezes. " He will guide you into all truth " — not to it, but into it. And you know right well that truth viewed from within is very different from truth viewed only from without. Indeed, you cannot properly judge truth except from within. Go and examine a coloured window in one of the venerable churches of our land. From without it looks a mixed, unmeaning, vulgar blotch of paint, possess- ing neither beauty nor comeliness that we should desire it. But enter the cathedral, examine the window from within, look apon it between you and THE SPIRIT OF TliUTH. 3it the light, and it is gloriously transfijiurod, it is gorgeously adorned with angels, and archangels, and saints already made perfect, and in the midst is "Jesus Christ, and He crucified." From without the window looks unattractive enough; but from within it looks clad in chaste beauty. Similarly with the great fundamental truths of the Gospel, such as the doctrine of the Atonement, and that of justification by faith. From without they present neither beauty nor comeliness, marked as they are all over with spots of blood — "unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness." But go inside the doctrines, study them from within, look at them between you and the light of God and the Eternal Judgment, and they are in- stantly transfigured, they become "the power of God and the wisdom of God." 2. Observe also the subjects of His guidance. " He will guide you" — not the Apostles only, but you also. The Spirit influences the mental move- ments of the weakest saint "The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him and make his under- standing quick in the fear of the Lord." On the margin, " understanding " is rendered " scent." " He will make him quick of scent in the fear of the Lord " According to this translation, which is quite as legitimate as the authorised one, the Holy Spirit plants in the believer's soul a kind of spiritual instinct which enables him to oiscern between the true and the false. He can tell by the organ of spiritual scent whether a doctrine be wholesome or tending to corruption. It is never expedient to go 3t2 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 11 < .: t I ; out hunting heresy as a hound hunts a fox ; never- theless, if the fox he in the covert, it is well to scent him. " Catch us the little foxes," wliich in the clothing of .sheep do such havoc amoni; the tender grapes, the youthful minds of our churches. A gentleman ascends tlie ])ulpit, delivers an elo- (pient, erudite discourse : the young people are all tlirown into delightful raptures of admiration. In the congregation, however, sits an old lady, very illiterate in the estimation of the world ; she knows nothing of systematic or any other theology ; the only books she has read are the Bible and her Hymn-book. What does she think of the showy, learned discourse ? Not much. Why not ? Did she understand it ? No ; but she scented it. She can tell by the smell of her nostrils whether a doctrine be healthy and sweet or sickly and un- savoury. " The Spirit of the Lord rests upon her, and makes her scent quick in the fear of the Lord." Or take the authorised rendering — " He will make his understanding quick in the fear of th(. Lord." The Spirit mysteriously invigorates the mind. You have heard it stated that the indwelling of the Holy Ghost makes no material difference in the natural powers of the mind — a statement, how- ever, to be taken with the usual grain of salt. I believe it does make often a great deal of difference — the Holy Spirit irrigates the mind, vivifies the faculties, and makes* the whole mental machinery move with greater ease and rapidity. The " unction from the Holy One " oils the wheels marvellously. Look at Saul, the son of Kish. In the morning he thk spirit of truth. 3t3 is full of anxiety and questionings about his father s asses ; but, ere the day is out, the Spirit falls upon him, and in the evening he is among the trained prophets, propliesying as eloquently as the best. A great and unexpected change from the company of asses to the society of prophets ! Think again of Teter. A couple of days before the Pentecost he delivers an address to the assembled disciples on the subject of election — of election to office, a very dismal subject in the history of the Church from that day to this. What was the result ? Casting lots. They might as well have cast planets, in so far that not much good came from the casting. Note him after the Pentecost — how then ? Had he to resort to lot-casting ? Oh no ; but he intuitively read the deepest thoughts of men, and clearly and firmly apprehended the vital truths of Christianity. "The Spirit of the Lord rested upon him, and made his understanding quick in the fear of the Lord." This, however, does not mean the total ex- tinction of all differences between believers in their scholastic attainments and critical accomplishments ; but it does mean the abolition of all difference in their spiritual apprehension of the saving truths of the Gospel. It is a fact, known probably to you all, that long sight has no advantage over short sight in examining the heavens. Here is a long-sighted, and here is a short-sighted, man. Ask them, Bo you see the spreading oak in yonder park ? Yes, answers one : No, answers the other. Ask them, Do you see the whitewashed farmstead on the brow of 1 1 1 !l ;} I 314 TIIK srilitT OF TRUtrt. I ti ! ii= I yonder hill ? Yes, answers one : No, answers the other. Well, you say, one sees much farther than the other. Wait a while ; tell them to lift up their eyes to heaven. Ask them. Do you see the sun? Yes, answers one : Yes, answers the other. Ask them, Do you see behind and Itoyond? From both comes the unanimous answer, Xo. Unequal in their vision of bodies terrestrial, tiiey are strictly equal in their vision of bodies celestial. Both can see the 3un, neither can see behind and beyond. Thus Chrit^tians may much excel one another in knowledge of philology, of grammatical construction, and of the critical apparatus generally. But let them turn their vision Godward, let them fix their eyes on the spiritual truths and not on the syntax, and it is marvellous how all the differences seem at once to vani.sh. The dullest, obtusest believer sees as far as the Sun of Kighteousness, and your most learned occupants of professorial chairs cannot see an inch behind and beyond. " And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying. Know the Lord ; for all shall know Me, from the loatit to the greatest." 3. The words, however, further indicate the scope of the Spirit's influence. " He will guide you into all truth " — not into some, but into all. Not at once, it is true, for guidance is a gradual process ; to undor^^tand the doctrines of the Gospel, even under the tuition of the Spirit, demands the labour of years. The text does not say the Spirit will guide us in a month or in a year ; but given the time demanded by the intrinsic conditions of the t&E SPIRIT OF TRUTtt. i'i human mind, and the " Spirit will guide us into all truth." The history of doctrine is none other than the history of the Divine j,'uidance of tlie Church into the truths of llevelation. He guided the Church fathers into tlie truth concerning the Person of Jesus Christ. He guided the Protestant Re- formers into the truth of Justification by faith without the works of the law. He guided the Puritans and the Methodist Revivalists in England and Wales into the important doctrine of Regenera- tion. Well, has the Bible been exhausted? Oh no ; other truths remain to be discovered, other doctrines lie concealed as yet, doctrines to reward the patient and prayerful study of generations to come. The Spirit guides as fast as the body of the Church can follow, and will not desist till every chapter of the Bible has been thoroughly explored, and emptied of all its contents. "God has much light to break out of the Bible yet," exclaimed Pastor Robinson ; He has new doctrines yet to be evolved. Take, for instance, the doctrine of Sancti- fication. I doubt much if the Church has yet discovered the true secret of this doctrine ; hew else to account for the worldliness and carnality of the average believers of the day ? It understands the doctrine of Justification — ^justification is by faith without the works of the law; but in practice, possibly in theory, Sanctification is the combined result of a confused medley of faith and works. I should not be at all surprised to find that Sanctification is also by faith without the works of the law — not, indeed, without good worki as a ■'r ' if U %. " I I I ^id TIIK SPtRtT 0^ TRUTtt. I'l ' : M'l ki ;M !.{ 1 i 'W ■ f I consequence, >)ut without them as helps But be that as it may, you will pardon me for saying that I believe that treasures many lie hid in the direction of tho *' Higher Life." There are more acorns in Basnan than oaks, and there are more seeds of truth, in the words of Christ than have yet developed into doctrines. Our bodies of divinity shall have to be enlarged by-and-by, room shall have to be made for doctrines which hitherto have had no iifiine in the theology of the Church. If that be tae case, you ask, What shall we do with the Creeos, the Confessions, and Standards of Faith ? Wo shaU continue to respect the old, and, if the need arise, we shall endeavour to make new ones. Creeds are not intended to shut out new truths, but to shut in old truths. Creeds set limits to faith, said the chairman of a respected Union in the metropolis the other day. No, we reply; they do not set limits to faith, they only set limits to unbelief. You shall believe as much more as you like; but we are not very willing you should believe much less. Creeds are hindrances to pro- grerfs, affirmed the same reverend divine. No, we answer; they are only hindrances to retrogression. They are not intended to prevent the Church moving on, they are only intended to prevent it moving back, and so lose the ground it has gained through much agony of thought and prayer. They tie down the mind, he further avers, and impede ib^ flight upwards. Nothing of the kind, we answer ; rathv^r they tie up the mind, and stop its flight downward. What minds have soared higher than those who THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 317 think it no degradation and no bondage to subscribe to the hoary creeds of Christendom ? Creeds are constructed and cherished, not with the view of excluding new truths, but with the express purpose of preserving old truths, lest they be lost in the shaking and upturning of the centuries. Creeds are the garners where the Church lays by its ripe truths for the support and comfort of its children in years to come. But because we store the ripe fruit, does that make us negligent of the orchard ? Let the history of tlie Church answer. You are a hundred times welcome to go out on voyages of discovery, to find out new islands or new continents of u/uth. Only remember the con- dition, — under the guidance of the Holy Ghost "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of tiie Scrip-* ture is of any private interpretation ; " and a good reason why, — " Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man." The Spirit, who inspired the Bible, He only, can adequately interpret it. But what about the right of private judgment, one of the cardinal articles in the programme of the Reformation ? This article, like others, is liable to abuse as well as to use, and no article has been more grossly perverted than this to unworthy ignoble purposes. I have profound respect for private judgment when it is a holy judgment at the same time, judgment under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. But I have not an atom of confi- dence in private judgment when it is 11 depraved judgment, judgment under the dominion of the Evil Spirit. The Spirit, who gave the Bible, He i! I ' ! J 11 3i8 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. I ! Il!l |i 1 1- I I! i' t i I'll only can adequately interpret it. The other evening I visited the Houses of Pariiament, and observed that a soft pure light was shed down on the floor from above the ceiling. I could see the light, but not the flame. Methought the Scriptures were illuminated in the same manner, from above the ceiling ; the source of the light is in God, not in man. And, indeed, now and again, in moments of rapture, we seem to behold a pure halo as of the Divine Shekinah playing upon the page, the very letters become livingly transfused with a rich radiance as of yester-eve's golden sunset — " A glory gilds the sacred page, Majestic like the sun ; It gives a light to every age, It gives, but borrows none.** Let us then seek the illumination of the Spirit We study human commentaries, and we do well; let us not forget the commentary of the Holy Ghost. No "pocket commentary" this, such as you saw advertised the other day in the newspapers, but heart commentary. "He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." When the Council of Trent sat, if an embarrassing question would arise, the ecclesiastics present would despatch a statement to Eome, submitting the points in dispute to the final arbitrament of the Pope and the College of Cardinals. In due time the answer would be returned, prefaced with the usual formula, "It seemeth good to the Holy Ghost and to us," and then would follow the deliverance of the Sovereign Pontiff and his advisers. THE SPIRIT OF TliUTII. 319 an end of all controversy. This continued so long and happened so frequently, says Dr. Owen in his commentary on the Hebrews, that it passed into a proverb among the nations of the Continent that the Holy Ghost was being sent periodically from Eome to Trent in the Pope's portmanteau. But we need not send to Eome to learn the mind of the Spirit, " for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." This is the Protestant counterpart to the Eomish doctrine of the infallibility of the Pope — the doctrine of the infallibility of the Spirit. "He will guide you into all truth " — He will guide you infallibly ; but it is another question, and more problematical, if you will follow infallibly. But wait awhile, believers, and you will all attain a state of infalli- bility — the other side of the river we shall be all advanced above the possibility of a mistake. The Gospel opens up for us in the future a vista of indescribable grandeur and divineness ; the way of salvation is perfect and complete from beginning to end. The Bible is an infallible book ; the Spirit is an infallible inte^-preter ; and between them both men will grow infallible by-and-by. The Bible is a supernatural book ; the Spirit is a supernatural expositor ; and ere long we shall become supernatural under the combined influence of the two 1 I' 1 I li' I ] r III III. The Spirit guiding into all truth in respect of Application. In other words, the Spirit guiding the ministers of the Gospel to apply and enforce the ^ruth. " He will guide you into all truth." II 320 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. ;■ ! J i I. This suggests that the Spirit whets the truth, that He puts edge on the ministry of the Word. " My speech and my preaching was not with entio- ing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit, and with power." According to the Welsh version — " in the exposition of the Spirit and with power," — the Spirit illuminating the light, accompanying the exposition of the preacher with a secret exposition of His own. Sometimes He flashes wondrously in the service ; after half an hour of heavy speaking, there suddenly comes a lightning- flash, and another, and another. We feel thankful for the lightnings of the Spirit ; but we prefer His constant shining as that of the sun in his meridian splendour. The original, however, comprises both the Welsh and English renderings — the Spirit ex- pounds with such power that the exposition becomes demonstration ; the truths of the Gospel are driven home to the mind with the same conclusive force as the truths of geometry — no possibility remains of resisting or invalidating them. " And when He is comn, He will reprove — convince, convict — the world of sin." Or, as the words might be paraphrased — " He will plead the world out" We plead much with the world, endeavouring to persuade it to for- sake its evil ways ; but the world pleads back ; we can never get the last word with it, we cannot con- vince it. But when the Spirit is come, " He will plead the world out," He will convince it. He will conquer it, the world will not open its mouth for very shame. He will plead it out — out of its argu- ments, out of its sophistries, out of its subterfuges, THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. 321 the truth, the Word nrith entiO' stration of ng to the Spirit and the light, ber with a He flashes n hour of lightning- il thankful prefer His s meridian >rises both Spirit ex- n becomes are driven sive force y remains vhen He is -the world phrased — lead much it to for- back ; we mnot con- "He will t, He will mouth for f its argu- ibterfuges, I out of its sins. Oh that He would come oftener to our assemblies in His convincing power ! " Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts, and said, Men and brethren, what shall we do ? " They were tickled ? No. Amused ? No. Entertained ? No ; '' they were pricked," pricked to the quick, pierced through, as the word signifies. I know the sermons you like ; sermons smooth, refined, polished ; sermons besprinkled with daisies, primroses, violets; sermons full of flowers. But read Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost; what sort of a sermon was it ? A sermon heavily perfumed with flowers ? By no means ; it contains not one daisy, not one primrose, not one violet; but it bristles from beginning to end with sharp pricks like a hawthorn bush. " They were pricked in their hearts, and said. Men and brethren, what shall we do ? " Modern ministers have taken to flower-gardening; and when we cannot grow our own flowers, we go gathering them through the vast fields of Nature ; but men rush to perdition all the same, many with the perfume of our flojyers of rhetoric upon their robes. The great need of the modern pulpit is sermons with fewer flowers and sharper pricks. 2. In conclusion, the Spirit imparts warmth to the ministry. " He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." I have already stated that warmth is an essential element in the inspiration of the Scriptures ; I now wish to add that warmth is an essential element in the inspiration of the ministry. The chief difference between genius and X 322 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. talent seems to me to consist, not in the amount of light, but in the amount of heat; not in the knowledge, but in the fire. The erudition of Ben Jonson was profounder than that of Shakespeare; the knowledge of Whewell was more extensive than that of Carlyle ; the information of many a Scot was more capacious than that of Eobert Burns. "Where then was the genius ? Not in the knowledge, but in the fire ; not in the light, but in the heat. This also seems to be the main characteristic of the Christian Dispensation — its heat. " He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." " Did not our hearts burn within us as He opened to us the Scriptures ? " Not, He opened to them the Scrip- tures and enlightened them, though that was true ; but. He opened to them the Scriptures and burned them. He struck fire from the verses of Isaiah and the other prophets, and with the sparks He set the spirits of his disciples ablaze. The function of the ministry still continues the same — we should ex- tract heat as well as light out of texts of Scrip- ture. As in the promise, so in history, fire is indis- solubly connected with the Spirit, and invariably follows in His wake. ;he amount tiot in the ion of Ben lakespeare ; snsive than ny a Scot ert Burns, knowledge, L the heat, istic of the irill baptize " Did not to us the the Scrip- was true ; nd burned Isaiah and He set the bion of the ihould ex- of Scrip- e is indis- invariably f I .1 ' If!' rr! . . , ? 'M;ii VALUABLE WORKS, BY Rev. J. CYNDDYLAN JONES, And other eminent authors. Croum 8vo, cloth boards, Second Edition, price $1,60. STUDIES IN THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. By the Rev. J. Cynudylan Jones. The Bishop of Livkrpool says : — " It is a book of great freshness, vigour, and originality, as well as thoroughly sound in doctrine, and I wish it a wide circulation." The Dean of Peterborough : — " It is full of interest, and very fresh and suggestive. You have conferred a real benefit upon the Ciiurch, and I hope you will be encouraged to give us some more commentaries in the same strain. They will be valuable." Opinions of the Press. " Full of fresh thoughts, strikingly put. . . . Models of what sermons should be. . . . Intellectual stimulus to the most cultured reader. . . . All will repay reading, not only once, but a second, and ,even a third time." — TAe Christian World. "A very suggestive volume. ... A fresh and vigorous treatment. . . . Singular ability. . . . The idea an excellent one, and could not have been better carried out." — The Literary World. "This is in every way a noteworthy and most striking book. . . . We have seldom read sermons out of which so many capital, terse, aphoristic sentences could be picked. . . . Freshness and force. . . . Good, nervous, homely, expressive English, and without a needless word. . . . Readers of this book will find a great many things which have perhaps never struck them before, but which are very natural, simple, and beautiful. . . . No one who reads this book with attention, and with an honest and earnest heart, can fail to benefit by it. It will convey numberless valuable hints to students and young preachers, and is a model of the simple, manly, earnest style most needed in the pulpit." — The Watchman and Wesleyan Advertiser. " Mr. Jones has a well-trained faculty of looking all round his sub- ject, and of looking straight into it. He is often very suggestive, .and always very methodical. Of fruitful mind and careful habit of thought, he treats no subject without putting some greater or smaller truth into a new light." — Nonconformist. i i Ti ) " The sermons possess great force and freshness. As far as we can Bee, thePK is no monotony in them — a very rart* thinp in sermon litera- ture. Their spirit is as fresh and bracing as a May morninj^ on the mountain top. Everywhere we discern a iniiiiy robustness, a boldness of conception, and a vij^orous coinmon sense. Old truths are often so quaintly and forcefully put, that they sparkle with new liyht, and remind us of diamonds reset." — The IHbk Christian Mat^atine. " It is pleasing to meet with such freshness and originality. . . . The fruit of extensive reading and careful thought. , . . lie treats his sub- jects in a simple but masterly style, and he invests his tliemes with interest and attraction. . . . We heartily commend them to young ministers as models of simplicity, eloquence, and clearness of sty e. . . . One of the most eloquent preaciiers of Wales." — South WaUi Daily News. " The ripe fruit of a man of genius." — {Adilfed fj^rwyth tncddwl athry- lithgar wedi cyrhaedd ei lawn dwf.) — Y Goleuad. "Admirable sermons. The style of treatment is popular and vigor- ous, many old points being brought out with considerable force, and many new ones revealed in a pleasing manner, by the ingenious and discerning author. ... A store of sound thought and striking lan- guage." — The Christian. " Freshness and vigour. . . . The execution is really good." — The Freeman. " Signal ability. The author thinks for himself ; strikes out into his own pathj, and walks alone with an independent step ; he does not lean on the arin of any one. We rejoice to know, from this volume, that Cambria has still preachers of original thought, fervid enthusiasm, and stirring eloquence." — 'J'he Homilist. Crown 8vo, doth boards, price $1.26, STUDIES IN THE GOSPEL BY ST. MATTHEW. By the Rev. J. Cynddylan Jones. Opinions of the Press. " This is a remarkable volume of sermons in a singularly unpretend- ing form. We never remeinber to have met with so much culture, fresliness, power, pathos, and fire in so small a space. It is a book to be read and re-read, with new instruction and stimulus on each perusal. It is no exaggeration to say that Mr. Jones is fully equal to Robertson at his best, and not seldom superior to him in intellectual grasp, depth of thouglit, clearness of exposition, pointedness of appeal, and fidelity to evangelical truth. The style, which is severely logical, reminds us in its beauty and simplicity of Ruskin. These are models of wl;at pulpit dis- courses ought to be. We shall look for more from the saine able pen." — Methodiit Recorder. " Since reading Robertson's sermons in 1857 .... we have not derived so much pleasure and instruction as from this volume. We have read the book over and over again, and every time with additional pleasure by finding something new that had not presented itself to us before. Every sermon is full of thoughts pregnant with others. The s ncddwl athry- ^TTHEW. riy unpretend- wholc bi.finon grows naturally out of the text, toucli after touch, into a perfect whole — a fhinjj of beauty suggestive of profoundcr meaning in Scripturt* and new lines of treatment. 1 he author is |)erft!ctly natural, often humorous, never dull. . . . We never more he.irtily, nor with greater confidence, recommended a volume of sermons to the notice of our readers. Preachers who wi.sh to learn how great thoughts can be wedrled to language clear and easy, or how a sermon may be made to grow out of Scripture and not forced upon it, will do well to study Mr. Jones' style." — Western Mail. " These volumes (' Studies in St. Matthew and ' Studies in the Acts') are the works of an artist who wields a literary pencil that might bo envied by the best writers of modern times; and some of the passages remind us of Ruskin at his very best. ' Beauty adorning Truth ' is the motto we would select to describe these works. Ripe culture, keen insight, and intense enthusiasm are their prominent characteristics. We have never met with so much thought, originality, and suggestiveness, allied with such exquisite taste, in so small a compass." — The Essex Telegraph. '• Seventeen of the leading topics of the first Gospel are, in this volume, made the basis of thoughtful, suggestive, well-arranged, and clearly-expressed sermons. Mr. Jones lias the faculty for the effective treatment of large breadths of Scripture, seizing their salient ideas, treat- ing them in a broad and fundamental manm-r, and so carrying his readers to the heart of Christianity and of Ir , in a way that secures attractive freshness and mind-compelling foice. We welcome these 'Studies,' and shall be glad to introduce to our readers other works from the same able and glowing pen." — General Baptist Magazine. " We have read these sermons with unusual gratification. They are perfectly evangelical, vigorous, and often original in thought, robust in sentimiMit, vivid in illustration, with frequent quaintness of expression which give piquancy to their teaching, and keep the interest of the reader wide awake." — Baptist Magazine. "These sermons are really 'Studies.' They handle vital subjects with great clearness, breadth, and power. Mr. Jones is a teacher who has a right to be heard beyond the limited sphere of the pulpit. Every page of his work manifests careful thinking, clean-cut exegesis, and fine flashes of spiritual perception. While fresh in thought and happy in expression, the discourses are eminently evangelical. Christian minis- ters will find much to stimulate thought and quicken enthusiasm in these pages ; they will also see how to redeem the pulpit from trite thinking and slipshod expression." — Irish Congregational Magazine. 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