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Tous les autrei^ exemplaires originaux sent fiimAb en commenpant par la premlAre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernlAre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaftra sur la dernlAre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbols -** signifie "A SUIVRE". le symbols V signifie "FIN". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmto A des taux de reduction diffArents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seui cllchA, 11 est filmA A partir de i'angie supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images nAcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 1 Jesus my Saviour BEING BROUGHT NIGH BY HIS BLOOD BY REV. JOHN THOMPSON, D. D. Author of "Lambs in the Fold," "Christ the Teacher," "The Preaching of the Cross," Etc, '* Mighty to Save*' FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY, New York. Chicago. Toronto. Publishers of Evangelical Literature. ^. T59 Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1895, by Fleming H. Revell Company, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. •s, in PREFACE. We have emphasized in the following pages, the objective atonement of Christ in his work of saving sinners, which He made for our transgressions when He offered Himself up once for all. i nere has been of late years, a tendency to minimize this aspect of our Sav- iour's mission and to dwell on the beauty of His life; the perfection of the example He set us; the reality of His brotherhood; how He enters into sympathy with us in all our trials and sorrows; and how, by moral influence. He in this way, affects the minds and hearts of men. Now, all this is most precious truth, and we fondly cherish the title which He gave Himself — The Son of Man, as identifying Him with the children of men. If the Gospel makes anything plain, it is the fact that He is our brother, bone of our bone and heart of our heart, so that in all our afflictions He is af- flicted, for we have not a High Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our in- firmities. We glory in the belief, as much as \\\nyi 4 PREFACE any Unitarian possibly can, that in his human nature, Christ is far more to us than the dear- est, tenderest and most sympathizing earthly friend could ever be. The devout soul daily thinks of Christ as his elder brother who has far more interest in him and pity for his fail- ures than any one here below could possibly have. But this is not the whole truth, nor yet is it the main truth in His work as Saviour. It would tear the [ cart out of the gospel, and turn God's revelation of grace upside down were we to omit in our teaching the central truth of Christ putting away sin by the sacri- fice of Himself. It would prove an evil day for the church, and paralyze all her spiritual forces were she ever to cease to proclaim, as the very essence of her message to men, thai: our ransom price was Himself, that it is through Hid btood we have redemption and are brought near. And that it is the blood of Jesus, God's Son that cleanseth from all sin. We would not lessen by one word all that has been said on the moral influence theory, but we lay along side of this, or rather we put within it, as its very soul, this other and PREFACE ft greater truth that He who knew no sin was made sin for us. This has been the inspira- tion and spiritual strength of the Church in the wilderness, and will be the burden of her song in the glory land, as the redeemed unite in endless praise to Him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and made us kings and priests unto God. Sarnia, May 27, iSg^. CONTENTS. I. Introduction II. The Ciikist: Thk Saviour III. Sin Renders Salvation Necessary IV. The Dominion OR Power OF Sin V. Sin Is to in: put Away .... VI. Si\ Required AN Atonement . VII. This Atonement Was long Foreshad- owed VIII. Sins Are Pardoned through Vicarious Blood IX. Christ— THE Sinner's Substitute X. SrnsTiTUTioN, the only Explanation of Christ's Sufferings .... XI. Imputation, or Exchange of Grace . XII. The (;reat Miracle of Grace . XIII. Our Trust Is in Christ's Work alone XIV. What is Meant isy Trusting Christ . XV. Deliverance from the Power and Pres- ence OF Sin XVI. The Adaptation of these Truths to THE Wants of the Soul XVII. Its full Fruition Is Future XVIII. Christ's Love the Sourcic of all . 7 9 15 17 19 25 32 37 40 44 51 54 58 62 67 74 84 90 97 I02 loy I CONTENTS XIX. Christ Is a Present Saviour XX. God Is Our Father in Christ XXI. The Holy Simkit must Reveal the Saviour and Assure us of his Presence log XXII. Christ Is OUR King TO Rule us . . 112 XXIII. Our Consecration TO Him . . .117 INTRODUCTION. " The testimony of Christ is the spirit of prophecy. " He is the point of sight on which all its lines of light converge and meet. Moses and the prophets all wrote of Him, and as we advance along their line of testimony the more are we assured that he is about to come to his place. Gradually, as the morning breaks, so did the Lighl of the I For M dawn, more and more unto the perfect da^ . In scripture Christ is held forth in his humiliation, sufferini^s, death, resurrection, triumph, and rlory at God's right hand, and all has been i 'Ifilled. What was once indicated has become an ir-- complished fact in the history and experience of the world. Christ hr s been wouiided for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, and now we preach redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. Why did Christ come into the world ? Two apostles answer this question. One says, " He came into the world to save sinners," and the other that " He was manifested to take away 9 10 INTRODUCTION our sins." Probably the fullest and simplest expression of this divine purpose is found in his own words — " The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." In the early Christian church the form of expres- sion — " Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," was probably used by its mem- bers as a brief confession of faith, and this ex- pressive formula was at length incorporated into the scriptures by Paul — " It is a faithful sa3'ing and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." What the world wants is to have the fact of sin dealt with, its bitter roots dug up, its sad sources dried up, and its power destroyed. And when Jesus came to solve this great prob- lem of sin, it was by fairly meeting it and giving his life as an offering and sacrifice. And thus while justifying the ungodly and saving the sinner he did not lower the standard of holiness, but provided the means by which the Holy One could pardon the guilty who believe on Jesus. Though the most effective of all reformers by way of iniiuence, and sympathy, and work, INTRODUCTION 11 he is far more than a reformer. Jesus Christ is also something other than an example, a per- fect pattern, a lovely exhibition of human con- duct. He is not merely a religious genius, fruitful in moral ideas, and whose enthusiasm can carry others along with him. Nor have we exhausted his mission whon we regard Him as a teacher sent from God, the wisest and most efficient who ever communicated knowl- edge, and who came to teach man of the resur- rection, a turure life, and the Fatherhood of God, [or the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not the record of what he SiJd merely, but also of what He did; not merely that he lived among men as a brother among brethren, but above all that He is man's Saviour who died to bring man near by his blood. True He wps our Saviour in his teaching, example, friendship, and in the revelations He gave us of his Father, but these do not exhaust his work as the Saviour of sinners. The deatJi of Christ — its peculiar nature and efficacy — is that which separates Him from every other teacher, example, or friend, and makes Him a Saviour through the atonement he offered, granting redemption through his blood to all 12 INTRODUCTION who accept Him as their righteousness. Death, which ends the work of ordinary men was the special work Christ came to do; He came to die; to give Himself an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor,, and wash away our sins in his own blood. This was the work His father gave Him to do, and which he finished when he poured out his soul unto death. Men are apt to forsake the fountain of living water and to hew out cisterns that can hold no water, but all the wealth of Babylon could not save her people, nor could the wisdom of Greece redeem her own philosophers, nor yet all the power of Rome her own statesmen. Man is not saved by wealth, by wisdom or by power; nor is he saved by his religion; if he is saved at all it must be by One who is able, and who came on express purpose. But is there such a Deliverer for man } Is there any one who can remove the evil in us that is so real, and make those hearts pure that are now so full of sin .-* Salvation from sin is man's great need; has such a need been provided for by God } The very name the Angel gave the child before he was born is an answer to this INTRODUCTION 18 question — "Thou shalt call his name Jesus," said the heavenly messenger, " for he shall save his people from their sins." The name he was to bear among men was one selected by God Himself and designed to mark his peculiar and distinctive work as the Mediator and Saviour of his people. All the lines of light blend into one focus — the taking away of sin by the sacrifice of Himself. This was Christ's purpose held in view from the first. Jesus, in his brief life on earth accomplished what Greece with all her wisdom, Rome with all her imperial sway, or Babylon with all her wealth never could accomplish. He regener- ated and saved mankind. It is his work as our substitute that saves the sinner and is the ground of our trust. Redemption by blood, is tiie good news, " The old, old stoiy," that we must tell. The just dying for the unjust, is the center jewel of his work of which all else is the setting. THE CHRIST: THE SAVIOUR. He Came into the World to Save Sinners. The chief end of revelation was not to un- ravel abstruse problems in philosophy, or to furnish us with wonderful specimens of litera- ture, or give us lessons on political science and economics. The Bible relates chiefly to a pur- pose of grace that comes out more clearly in each succeeding generation till at last it tells men plainly that God is in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Hence its great watch- word is " Salvation from our God,'' which is announced in its final and full utterance as " being brought nigh by the blood of Christ.'* Jesus is the teacher sent from God who came to communicate to us great and import- ant lessons of grace. He is our example in whose steps we must follow; He is our friend who shows his affection, and sympathy, and tenderness more than any brother; and He is the Revealer of the Father in all he says and does, even when fondling the little ch'ldren on his bosom. But it is as our Saviour that He »5 16 CHRIST THE SA VI OUR \ I It performs even these offices, and the great cen- tral truth of revelation is, Christ Jesus saving sinners by bearing their sins in his own body on the tree. The religion of the Bible is the religion that has its root in the cross, and its assuring testimony is " The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth from all sin." Its great aim is to tell the world of God and his salvation — " How God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that who- soever believeth in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life." 11 ill S/N RENDERS SALVATION NECES- SARY. Sin is the Transgression of the Law. Our Saviour said in justification of His own conduct: " The whole need not a physician, but they who are sick." Sin is the fact that renders Salvation necessary, and Christ carne, not to call the righteous but sinners to repent- ance. As the hungry need to be fed, the blind to have their eyes opened, so the guilty alone need to be pardoned, and, therefore, the Good Shepherd seeks his lost sheep in this great wilderness of sin. A state of grace is expressed by our " Walking with God," as in the case of Enoch of whom it is said that he walked with God. And as Abimelech said to Abraham " God is with thee in all that thou doest." The very assurance that God Him- self gave to Jacob: " Behold I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of." Gen. xlviii: 15. »7 I:; 'i I 1 8 S/N RENDERS SAL VA TION AECESSAR Y Now, sin tends to break this connection of the soul with God; sin is estrangement from God, perpetual inward disorder, and when it is finished it bringeth forth death, which is the loss of all that man was created for, the quenching of all hope and joy, the loss of God and Heaven and endless blessedness. We must have a true sense of the nature of sin, its awful mastery over the heart, how deep its roots strike and how firmly they hold; the power of darkness raging within us; the deadening influence of evil upon the heart cutting at the root of every noble purpose; and taking the life out of the soul and the manhood out of our character; searing the conscience and paralyzing all the moral move- ments of the man; and deadening his very sense of right and wrong. And further, when we think of the craving of depraved appetites, and the eternity of despair that closes all, how precious is the assurance that there is One who will put away transgression and make an end of sin. .M THE DOMINION OR POWER OF SIN. Sin Hath Reigned Unto Death. Our familiarity with sin has deadened our sense of its greatness, for it has been our environment all our life, and we have had experience of no other condition; but the fact that we have been made callous, and that some may be buried under mountains of indifference and neglect, does not do away with the fact that " God has shut all up under sin." The dominion of sin is as wide as the race of man, for the whole world is guilty, and every man is conscious of this bondage. All men in every age have yielded themselves servants of unrighteousness, as the servants of the devil they are sold under sin, and led captive by him. These are truths, not merely declared in Scripture and believed on its tes- timony, but confirmed by the experience of man in every age. The poivcr of sin is the hold which it has over the heart and life. Under its fatal sway a man is as a child in the grasp of a giant, 19 !! 'I 20 POWER OF SIN bound with cords which he has neither the in- chnation nor the power to break. There are more than the stains of sin or even its gniit. True, sin holds us to punishment as trans- gressors, and leaves its stain deep and dark upon the soul, but in addition to this there is the (ioniinion of sin and its terrible mastery over the man himself. Sin tends to spread and grow, to strengthen and intrench itself. What was once a little thread becomes a cable which nothing can break, and this moral help- lessness is the saddest of all experiences. We are not now speaking of the power of Juxbit, such as holds the drunkard, the miser, the profligate or the lovers of pleasure. There is no difference of opinion in regard to the fact that they are all under the power of sin. We distinguish between vices and sin itself, for while every vice is a sin, yet a man may be free from all open vice, outwardly decent and respectable, the most scrupulous may not be able to bring the least reproach against him, and yet he may be in open rebellion against God and his heart still dead in trespasses and sins. A man may be very respectable out- wardly, and still have no love to Christ, and POWER OPSIN SA no sympathy with the Gospel of his grace. He Is still carnal, and that is death, for the carnal mind is enmity against God. He minds only the things of the flesh, and the flesh lusteth against the Spirit. Let such a man, under any impulse that may occur to move him, try to change the currents of his thoughts, and direct them to the worship of God, let him attempt to throw of¥ his carnality and leave his baser self behind him and become spiritually minded, and he will feel his strongest resolutions crumble away and leave him a helpless slave under the bondage of sin. The prince of this world worketh in the children of disobedience, and how his reign strengthens and perpetuates itself and pours its sad results over into the next world. When the devil sows his seeds in the heart they find a ready and receptive soil, and as being native to the heart they grow into the harvest of all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. What a terrible reign of evil in the heart, and the longer that sin has sway the more difficult it is to eject it, and the less likely that it will ever be overcome, for sin in the heart, like nothing else, cuts at the root of our wills, it eats away 22 POWER OF SIN all our resolutions of aincndinent, it tears asunder the very nerves of moral action, and causes a stupor to pass over the soul. Who knows to what sad results an evil habit may lead to. Behold what a f,Teat matter a little fire kindleth. The first open act of sin against the conscience may be as the applying of a spark to combustibles, it may kindle a fire which no hand can quench until the whole moral life is consumed. How helpless a man is under his master passion, cursing his chains while hugging them closer around him. And if under the arrow of conviction he attempts to break through, he feels as powerless as a crushed reptile. " Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots ,'* " "Oh, wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death .'' " But sin takes hold of the future as well as blights the present. Its curse lies heaviest there. "The soul that sinneth shall die." This does not mean the quenching of the ani- mal life and the dissolution of the body. This death of the body is not all that the Bible means; it is not all that God meant when he said to Adam; " In the day that thou eatest POU'En OF Sm 23 tlicrcof thou shalt surely die." Our Lord has said " Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." He meant that beyond the death of the body there is the death of the soul, and to lose the soul is to lose oursclf, it is for the man to be lest in eternity, it is to die in our sins. Antl therr are no words of Christ's more terrible than His warnin^^ " Ye shall die in your sins." The meaninj^ of this who can grasp .'* It conveys the impression of some- thing which not even He undertakes to de- scribe. There comes to us as we are borne across the scene of probation an intimation of another scene when the fashion of this world has passed away. " It is appointed unto men once to die, but after death the judgment." Heb. i.\: 27. " He that is unjust; let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous let him be righteous still; and he that is holy let him be holy still." Rev. xxii: 1 1. It is this " fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation" as well as the paralysis of our moral nature, the sleep and stupor of 1 ■ "A POWER OF SIN the soul's spiritual functions that is most to be feared. It is this sealing over of the fountain of life and utter prostration of the soul that makes the power of sin so alarming, and its blight so dangerous and deadly. And most of all it produces that enmity in our hearts against Him who is the source of all blessed- ness and love. I SIN IS TO BE PUT AWAY. Sin Shall Not Have Dominion Over You. Such being the nature of the disease and doom of sin, what a Gospel it is, that assures us that " sin shall not have dominion over us," that its power is to be broken and its reign to end. O think of God's wonderful provision in grace, the provision his love secured for our deliverance. Let your mind and heart rest upon his unsearchable riches and Divine help, " O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation." The deep- est condemnation must be to turn our back on this open door of grace and die in our sins. A soul struggling for spiritual liberty is a grand spectacle, and many a one has had a hard fight for it. Many, like the woman who had been afflicted so long, have spent all they had, and were nothing bettered but rather grew worse, till they learned to come and tell Jesus ; they found how easy it was to speak to Him, and how near Divine help had been to them 25 26 S/N IS TO BE PUT A WA Y 111 all the time, and when at last they sought his aid how quickly he made them whole, and gave them the victory. It is when the burden and power of sin are felt, that the presence of the Saviour is so precious, and his promises of rest and peace are so encouraging. He who came for the express purpose, will vanquish the power of sin in the soul as surely as he takes away its guilt and removes its defilement. He will bruise Satan and destroy his reign in the heart. How easily a cold heart is warmed when he touches it with his holy fire — the live coal from off the altar. How easily its rebel- lion is subdued when he lays his strong hand upon it ! How quickly a shut heart is opened and made the home of the Saviour's presence when the Holy Spirit breathes upon it. And what an abundant harvest grows when he sows the seeds of everlasting life in souls made glad through his grace ! O how easily the winter of our icy indifference is turned into living fresh- ness and all the growth and blooming beauty of summer, when he pours out the showeis of his blessing and breathes the fragrance of his love around us. When a soul is engaged in the good fight of ^p SIN IS TO BE PUT A IVA Y 27 faith how sweet and assuring are his words " I will take away the hard and stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. I will open the prison door; I will break the chains; I will give deliverance to the cap- tive." And what is a hard heart when the power of the Spirit is given to melt and mould it? What are all our spiritual foes in the hands of Him who came to destroy the works of the devil ^ And what are all a sinner's wants when brought into relation to the unsearchable riches of Christ } When the Saviour comes to bind Satan and cast him out it is no new, strange work to Him, and He has nothing to do in your case that He has not often done before, and is doing all the time for those in whose hearts Christ is formed the hope of glory. What God's grace did for Paul it can do for you; what it accomplished on the day of Pen- tecost for the thousands that were added to the Church, it can do still. The great work which the Spirit wrought in the hearts of a Lydia, a Zaccheus, the thief on the cross. He can work with equal efficiency in your heart and mine. He who destroyed the power of sin in ;U^ i S/N /S TO BE PUT AWAY I ; |l \ »> the heart of a John Bunyon, a Colonel Gard- ner, a John Newton, a Wilberforce, will also destroy the power of sin in your heart and teach you to sing the nczv song. He who washed that great multitude who have already passed into life eternal, can also wash you and make you whiter than snow; for that blood has lost none of its efficacy. Christ was mani- fested to take away our sins, and his atone- ment and intercessions have all the solemn significancy and preciousness to a sinner's faith that they ever had and he comes to reason with us about the matter — " Lo, I am with you always ; I am on thy side ; come to me ; I am greater than all that can come against thee ; lean your weakness on my everlasting strength ; be not dismayed at past defeats for you shall conquer still ; though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as snow, though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool." As a mother stoops to her child so does Jesus condescend .•^o our weakncb^ and asks us to bring our weak, faltering, unstable resolutions which we have scarcely courage any more to make — feeling sure we will break them again — to him, form these resolutions in dependence on his grace and S/N IS TO BE PUT AWAY 29 they shall be weak and faltering no more. Commit your ways unto the Lord and He will make his strength perfect in your weakness, for He came to save His people from the dominion and power of sin, no less than from its guilt and stains. And there is a dominion of sin from which nothing can save us but the grace of God; there are sins whose stains nothing can wash out but the blood of Jesus ; there are evils rooted in the heart which can be removed only by the Spirit's gracious power. The fear of detection, a sense of honor, some selfish or worldly motive may keep a man from trans- gressing any of the well ordered rules of social life, but neither refinement, education, social arrangements, political or economic in- stitutions will avail to root out sin from the heart any more than pouring a little water on Vesuvius to put out its fire. The blood of Jesus Christ alone cleanseth. The great Physieian alone ean heal all manner of siekness and all manner of disease among the people. We need not trouble ourselves as to how the power of sin is to be destroyed, what special Providences he will send to cause us to turn :|...| ^ 80 S/N IS TO BE PUT AWAY i> away from self and teach us to trust the Saviour whom we once despised. We simply rest on the promise that his spirit will enable us to die unto sin and live unto righteousness. When the warm winds of spring come, the fields and forests cannot help blooming. When the sun pours his balmy light and heat upon the flowers, they must open to be painted and filled with his glory. We don't expect these to bloom in the winter, but in early summer as little do we expect the deadness of January. So is it with our souls when times of refreshing coiiie from the presence of the Lord, and his warm, loving presence melts away the winter of sin from the heart. When God's spirit is working within us both to will and to do of His good pleasure, it is then easy for us both to will and to do and to decide for truth and righteousness. When the Holy Spirit is wash- ing our souls from sin it is both natural and easy to die unto sin and live unto righteous- ness. When under grace, it is the daily and ordinary tendency of our life to grow in grace and in the knowledge of God. When the love of sin is taken away, the heart finds it easy to turn from sin unto God. Thus Jesus breaks ^ SIN IS TO BE PUT AWAY 81 the cord that binds the sinner to the kingdom of darkness, and unites him to His own home in glory by bonds which can not be broken. But at a great jltice obtained we this free- dom ! We have been redeemed not with such corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without a blemish and without spot. We have redemption through His blood. S/N REQUIRED AN ATONEMENT, Without the Shedding of Blood there is No Remission. God in his word tells us that sin is to be put away, and He tells us also that Christ came to put it away by the Sacrifice of Himself , and that those who are afar off are to be brought nigh by the blood of Christ. The nature of the dis- ease must determine the nature of the remedy fitted to cure or remove it; and men's views of sin — its guilt, pollution, power and doom — have always determined their views of salva- tion and of the Saviour. The salvation which is offered to us by Jesus Christ has its signifi- cance from a true understanding of that from which we are to be saved. The black back- ground of eternal condemnation intensifies the light of the Gospel promises that shine so brightly before it; and how it thrills the soul to know that it must be the tender, loving hand of the Saviour that is laid upon us to lift us out of the fearful pit. It is a foretaste of heaven to have imparted to us through the sa .SVA^ REilUIRED AN A TONEMENT 33 Spirit that new heart with all the elements of heavenly blessedness as a fountain of purity and strcngtn springing up in the soul, but in order to secure this our sins are required to be atoned for by one who could bear them away. Sin renders an atonement necessary, guilt can be removed only by the shedding of blood, and without this there can be no remission. Had sin been only an insult to the Divine Maj- esty of God, or a debt contracted on the part of the sinner, God could have ppssed it by through an act of royal clemency. But in ad- dition to these aspects of it sin is essentially a violation of God's eternal law of righteousness, and God as the law-giver must see his law vindicated and its holy sanctions enforced. " Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law." God could not tarnish his own glory by trampling on eternal justice, or enter into any combination to protect sin from merited pun- ishment and therefore an atonement for sin must be made. God could not consent to the sacrifice of his own character, for if he ceased to be anything less than holy he would become if i 84 s/\ A' hoc//:/:/) AX a toa' /•:.)/ /cnt as that from wliich man needed deliverance. Nor would it be salvation to be received into the favor of a Ciod, who, in the very act of re- ceiving' iis, would cease to be worthy of our reverence or our trust. The returning prod- igal would not desire to change his father to his own baseness. And therefore Christ must suffer in order that transgressors be pardoned, lie is the land) slain in sacrifice on God's al- tar, a holy oblation, well pleasing to God, for it was a lamb of his own providing, and this blood of the everlasting covenant was to Him a sweet smelling savor. Sin is a rebellious act, it is a condition of guilt, it is a disease of man's spiritual nature, it is a sad inheritance, and a fearful doom. But Christ came to make peace through the blood of his cross, and. he has laid the ground for our pardon, healing, and safety by the giving of himself as the Sac- rifice. We are reconciled to God by the death of His Son. He reconciles us to Himself by Jesus Christ, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to de- clare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God. The atoning work of Christ — his sufferings i I I S/N RE(2 UIRED AN A TONEMENT U5 and death on the cross — was necessary to l)rin^^ us back to God. Christ is the way, the one Mediator between God and man is the Mian Christ Jesus, and no man cometh to the I'ather but by Him. " God could not take us back, could not let us come home, could not restore us to the position and condition of chil- dren, happy in his favor, without that atone- ment." Hence the two great themes of the Bible are sin and grace — ruin and redemption. Sin reign- ing unto death, and grace reigning through righteousness unto eternal life. It discloses the wound and the balni\ the sinner and the Saviour. Its grand announcement — the old, old story — to which everything else is made subordinate and subservient is, Christ gather- ing his elect people out of all nations and ages; the seed of the ivonian in conflict with the ser- pent's seed. In one view we behold the world lost and ruined, and lying in the arms of the wicked one, and in another view, as standing over against this, we have Christ loving the church and giving Himself for it that he might present it to Himself a glorious church. The chief . t 88 .S7A' A" F.i} ( 7A' /:/) A N A TONEMENT aim of revelation is to exalt Christ as a Prince and a Saviour. The Bible explained in the ii{;ht of Calvary, and the one offering of Him- self unto God; is the j^lorious unfolding of a single plan that runs throughout, viz: that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Him- self. When, with a fond heart, we ponder these inspired pages we are at once made aware of an increasing purpose, a progressive development of a scheme of grace that cul- minated in the coming of the Saviour to take away our sins, and make an end of transgres- sion. THIS ATONEMENT WAS LONG FORE- SHADOWED. A Lamb for a House — A Shadoiv of Good Things to Come. The lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. As shadows lying along the green sward indicates a substance that throws them, so all the shadows, types and sacrifices of the olden time, had their meeting place and fulfill- ment in the sacrifice of the Son of God, who appeared in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. The former dispensation was characterized by shadows, but they were all shadows of good things to come, and intended to carry the mind and heart forward to God's slain lamb. There is no people without some form of religion; and sacrifices have been offered up in every age, but these offerings and victims laid on pagan altars are a confession of sin, and a solemn appeal for some atonement. Differ as these religious offerings may it is the same cry of burdened humanity; the voice of a guilty con- 37 38 yi TONE ME NT FORES HA DO 11 ED I w I science, the ceaseless prayer of a weary world seeking deliverance; but what others blindly groped after was the distinctive feature of the Jevv'ish faith, whose ritual was a great object lesson, and whose sacrifices were types fore- shadowing the slaying of God's own lamb. Been in the very nature of Jewish worship, which some might think cumbersome and mean- ingless, there were to be seen the prophetic fin- gers constantly pointing the people forward to the real atonement yet to be made. Ev3ry time the people saw the lamb taken and its blood poured out upon the altar, they were led to think of that other lamb led to the slaughter, and whose blood also was to be poured out that he might obtain eternal redemption for us. And in those twilight days it was a mes- sage suited to the spiritual insight of the peo- ple, and brought a kind of assurance to every true worshipper, and they said to themselves, " If these sanctify to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the Eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to save the Living God. Heb. ix: 14. ;♦ A TONEMENT FORESHADO WED 39 And as a consequence of this symbolic teach- ing the people expected One to come and die for their nation, and though their ideas of this atoning lamb and his work were very crude, they held their place and served their purpose in the hearts of the people, and bye and bye, when they are able to bear it, a fuller exposition will be given them. So when the fullness of the time had come, and Jesus made his public appearance, John the Baptist pointed Him out in language which purposely connected Him with that long line of sacrifice which r^n through the very center of the spiritual life of Israel — " Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." Not the sins as it is commonly quoted, but the sin, as if the whole mass of human transgres- sion was bound together in one black load and laid upon Him who bore it away. He was GoiVs Lamb of which the other lambs were the tvpes and shadows. He was to enter into the true holy place with His own blood and pour it out on the altar a ransom for his people. His grace is to be applied by way of atonement and not as mere social reform by personal in- fluence, " The life is in the blood." \i 1'^ ll'i I' hi SINS ARE PARDONED THROUGH VI- CARIOUS BLOOD. When I Sec the Blood I Will Pass By. In the beginnin<:,' of Revelation we have an account given of the sacrificial lamb which had been ordained. Gen. iv: 4. And from that time sacrifices continued to be offered aij a part of religious worship. Two thousand years later, Abraham said to his son Isaac, as they journeyed together to the place of sacrifice— " My Son, God will provide Himself a A?w/;." Gen. xxii: 28. And at the critical moment the lamb was provided by God and Abraham substi- tuted a lamb for the lamb of his own bosom. Four hundred years later, God said to the peo- ple through Moses—" Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel saying, in the tenth inonth they shall take to them every man a lamb according to the house of their fathers, every man a lamb for a house. Ex. xii: 3. The people also were taught to confess their sins with the hands of the priest lying on the head of the lamb. Lev. xvi: 7, to, 2 1. Seven hundred 40 I PARDON THROUGH VICARIOUS BLOOD 41 years still later in the Church's history, Isaiah, from the sublime heights of prophecy, saw the lamb led to the slaughter, and slain for us. Seven hundred years yet later Jesus is seen approaching John the Baptist, who points Him out to two of his disciples in terms that purposely connected him with the whole line of sacrifice. " Behold the Lamb of God." The Lamb slain is the only ground of a sin- ner's trust. This is the central truth of reve- lation from Adam to John. The center thought in God's scheme of grace is sin being pardoned through vicarious blood, i. c, blood shed in the room of the sinner, the life of the sacrifice substituted in the place of the offerer's own. This was the theology of Abel who offered a lamb as an expression of personal guilt and as an atonement for his sins. It was also the theology of Abraham who offered a lamb instead of his own son. And sin par- doned through vicarious blood was the theol- ogy of Moses who commanded the Israelites to kill a lamb and sprinkle its blood upon the doorposts and the Angel of death would spare that home. God said to Israel " When I see the blood I will pass by and save your house . t- i' r 1 .H -■ It' 42 PARDON THROUGH VICARIOUS BLOOD from destruction." Ex. xvii: 13. The same grand idea comes out in the prophets seven hundred years later when Isaiah saw the lamb slain and bearing our iniquities. The Baptist affirms that it is the lamb that taketh away the sin of the world. It is moreover the teaching of Paul who, in his historic narrative declares that " Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. * * * "We have redemp- tion through his blood. * * * Neither was the first testament dedicated without blood." Ep. i: 7; v: 2; Heb. ix: 18-22. While John the last writer in the canon assures us that " The blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanseth from all sin." This is a truth that is to be kept prominent in heaven, for when the eye of faith turns away from the past to the future and obtains a glimpse of the City of God and of the saved who walk in the light of it, we discover that the grand center of all at- traction is still the; LAMB who was once slain but now on His throne, on whom the re- deemed shc,ll look through all the ages to come. It is the blood of Christ, as of a lamb, that saves us, for we are not redeemed with such corruptible things as silver and gold, but 1 PARDON THROUGH VICARIOUS BLOOD 43 with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. " I Pet. i: 18-19. The angels sing "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain " but the redeemed, in accents more personal sing " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain for us," ■ • i III CHRIST THE SA VIOUR IS THE SIN- NER'S SUBSTITUTE. He Bore Our Sins in His Own Body on the Tree. You are redeemed from sin and brought home to glory why or in what way ? Because Jesus — God's Lamb — took your place, paid your debt, died for your sins, and bore the curse of a broken law in your stead and as your substitute, A man is in danger of being crushed to death by a falling wall, a neighbor jumps forward and drags him away and his life is saved. But is Christ nothing more to me than this ? Did He merely risk His life to save mine, and in risking it He lost it ? Is this a true description of the decease which he accomplished at Jerusalem ? A man has fal- len into the water and is drowning, I throw him a rope, he catches it and is saved. Is this all my Saviour did for me ? Or did Jesus come down to this world to give us an example of self sacrifice and devotion to duty, that He might make a favorable impression on our 44 f T ? CHRIST THE SINNER'S SUBSTITUTE 45 mind and heart and gain us to His side ? Is Christ merely a teacher of great truths, an ex- pounder of wisdom, a wonderful exhibition of virtue, a gracious benefactor, or only a re- vealer of God's love to man ? Of course He is all this, but is this all that can be said of Him ? Have you fathomed the depths of His riches when you have gone so far ? It is not by His incarnation and example He saves us, but by His blood shedding; we are saved by the precious blood of Christ. Christ Jesus became our substitute in law, and by a voluntary act of grace he became re- sponsible for our guilt, and as our sin-bearer was made, sin for us. He came into the world not merely to risk his life but to give it a ran- som for many, and when we accept Him as our strong consolation, we know that we have already answered for all our sins through our substitute — the Lord our righteousness — and when clothed in His royal robes we need not fear to appear even in the Divine presence. Substitution — the just for the unjust — is af- firmed in the most explicit terms, and repeated again and again as being a chief truth. He stood in the room of the sinner. He who 46 CHRIST THE SINNER'S SUBSTITUTE ':5' if knew no sin was made sin for us, and He gave Himself for us not in the sense of being for our bcnetit, for our good, that we might re- ceive aid or encouragement; this, of course, is true, but it is not the whole, nor yet the chief truth. He gave Himself for us as one occu- pying our place, assuming our liabilities, pay- ing our debts, and atoning for our sins. He took our place under the law which we had broken, and as our substitute He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. The teaching of Scripture on this subject is full and explicit. " He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities; Christ died for our sins; He gave himself for us; Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; He was de- livered for our offenses; Christ died for the ungodly; He hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself; Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust; His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree." He is the Lamb which God provided for Himself and who suffered in our room that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. There was a custom among the Jews which CHRIST THE SINNER'S SUBSTITUTE 47 will explain this idea of substitution. A Lamb was taken and the priest put his hands on its head and confessed the sins of the people, and there was the symbolic transfer of guilt from them to it; and then this lamb was taken and slain as bearing the guilt of the people, and atonement was, in this way, made for their sins. And this symbolic lesson was designed to point them to God's Lamb who, in the end of the world, was to put away sin by the sacri- fice of Himself. " My faith would lay her hand On that dear head of thine. While like a penitent I stand And there confess my sin. I lay my sins on Jesus The spotless Lamb of God, He bears them all and frees us From the accursed load." And when we are called on to believe this it is not to implement Christ's work. Our faith is not the supplement to what He has done, the completion of the payment to be made, but it is a simple recognition in our heart that full payment has been made, and we are called on to accept a free salvation wrought out for us by the Son of God. God does not forgive me I'll lu 48 ClfRISr T/f/': S/X\ER\S SUnSTITUTE because I deserve it. He justifies the ungodly who behevc in Jesus. He makes those just who are unjust. He forj^nves those who de- serve to be punished. His salvation is not for the good, but for those who deserve no favor at his hands for Jesus came to save sin- ners, and, therefore, we can claim to have a part in His mission. The physician heals the sick, and, therefore. He can heal us. How absurd to speak of pardoning those who have never offended, or forgiving those who never needed it. Those alone need to be justified who have no righteousness of their own. It is by grace we are saved and not because of any good He either sees or foresees in us. But how can a just God justify the ungodly } Let Paul answer. " But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifest, being wit- nessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation CHRIST riri': sixM'.r's sunsriruTE 40 throuf^h faith in his blood, to dechirc his ri^^ht- eoiisness for the remission of sins tliat are past, throuf;h the forbearance of God." Koni. iii: 21-25. O, the depth of the riches t What an out- flow of Christ's infhiite compassion toward f^uiity men ! He bears our sins in his own body on the tree, and receives in his own per- son the wrath of God due to us for sin. His pure heart had no love for suffering, but his love for suffering men was infinite, and it sus- tained Him while drinking the cup and redeem- ing his people. It was His love and not the nails driven into his hands and feet by the cruel executioner that bound the Saviour to the trr " Jesus has borne the death penalty on behalf. Behold the wonder ! There he hangs upon the cross ! This is the greatest sight you will ever see. Son of God and Son of Man, there he hangs, bearing r^^i'-s unutterable, the just for the urjust thai he might bring us to God. Oh, t'le glorv of that sight. The inno- cent pv lit f^. .1 u. The Holy One condemned. The ever-blessed made a curse. The infinitely glorious put to a shameful death. The more I look at the sufferings of the Son of God, the 1 ^ A 5 V 50 a/R/ST THE SLWER'S SUIiSTlTUrE more sure I am that they must meet my case. Why did he suffer, if not to turn aside the penalty from us. If then, he turned it aside by his death, it is turned aside and those who believe in him need not fear it. * * * Let us join hands and stand together at the foot of the cross, and trust our souls once for all to him who shed his blood for the guilty." — Spurgcon. I 1 1 |i i i i 5 h SUBSTITUTION, THE ONLY EXPLA- NA TION OF CIIR IS T S S UF- FERINGS. He Who Knciv no Sin Was Made Sin For Us. Christ was holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners. He was that holy child Jesus who did no violence, neither was there any deceit in his mouth. He was God's only begotten and well-beloved Son. How was it, then, that this Holy One was made to suffer more than any of Adam's guilty race } How was this innocent Lamb made to endure this unspeakable anguish of soul } He was no sin- ner and yet all must admit that he was treated as an outcast. That night scene in Gethscmane, when he sweat as it were great drops of blood is a proof that he was the man of sorrows. Or that still more amazing spectacle ; the Lamb of God nailed to a tree, and lifted up to die amid the jeers of his enemies; as they spit upon him and pierced his side till his agony of heart ends with his life. And all so voluntarily en- dured, for when Peter would defend his Mas- 51 I'" ! r II ^ 52 SUBSTITUTION % V * jj ,) 1 ' i' 1! ' i ' i : 1 ter, Jesus commanded him to put up his sword saying he could pray to his Father and he would send him more than ten thousand legions of angels. It may be fairly asked, how can this seeming contradiction be explained, and the anomaly be accounted for, of one so holy and beloved jf God compelled to endure not merely the wrath of his enemies, but more par- ticularly the hiding of Jehovah's face, and even to have the vials of Divine wrath poured out on his head ? Was love and loyalty ever so re- quited before ? How could such seeming in- justice ever be perpetrated under the govern- ment of a righteous Ruler ? One key opens all the chambers of this mys- tery ; one truth stands as the center piller sup- porting the whole temple. One view of Christ's mcdiatorship, as the substitute of his people, sheds a light and a lustre on all his other rela- tions. It gives a value and a meaning to every other incident, and throws a grandeur around the transactions of that day when Jehovah smote the man that was His fellow. God dealt with him as a sinner because he stood in the sinner's place, and had the sins of his peo- ple imputed to him. When we are told that SUBSTITUTION 53 the Lord laid on him tlie iniquity of us all, and that he was made sin for us, we need no other explanation for the peculiar nature of his suf- ferings and death. It was the sin of the world, which, as an unspeakable weight, caused even the Son of God to bow his head. As their sub- stitute He became answerable for his people, and he was wounded for their transgressions. And this sacrifice was voluntarily offered up by Him who had power over His own life. When He was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, yet unlike the re- luctant victims driven ' Jewish altars. He made a willing offering, i ' d exercised his power in both laying down his life and in taking it again. This sacrifice must have been a sweet smelling savor when it was freely rendered by the Eternal Son of God's eternal love. And this Lamb of God voluntarily stood as the great legal substitute of his people. He who knew no sin was made sin for them. mmmmmmmm 1 ;:! IMPUTATION— THE EXCHANGE OF GRACE. With His Strij^cs We Are Healed. Christ and the sinner make an exchange. We give him our sins to bear away, and he gives us his righteousness b}'^ which we are pardoned — accepted in the beloved. We know that God pardons sin, for he justifies the un- godly. He receives the prodigal home again. He will lift us from the dunghill and set us among princes. But on wJiat ground will God do all this? What does God look to, when with respect to any sinner He cancels his sins and accepts hin as a child } When God par- dons, on what ground does he do it. These questions point directly to Christ as the only and all-sufficient ground — The Lord, our right- eousness — the rock on which the sinner builds his hopes. Why did Christ die; and why am I justified } My sins were imputed to Christ, laid to his account, charged upon him, and he assumed them, and as my substitute he atoned for them. But Christ's life was also one of 54 .f ! \\\- IMPUTATION 65 obedience, he met every demand of the law, he magnified it and made it honorable. All this constitutes his one righteousness which is imputed to the sinner. And on the ground of this imputed righteousness God resolves to deal with him, and treat him as if he had suffered what Christ suffered, and had done what Christ did, and now deserves what Christ deserves. Dear reader, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. Christ's obedience and merit become yours through your union to him by faith." Faith accepts him as your substitute, your perfect plea, your surety at law, and your all-prevail- ing argument before God. And God pardons you not because you have a broken heart, a penitent i art, a praying heart, a believing heart, or a pure heart. This would be to cover Christ's robes with your own filthy rags. No righteousness of your own is needed to supple- ment his, or add to his all glorious completed work. God justifies the ungodly for there are none else to be justified, and he does it because of what the blessed Saviour has done for us. We satisfy the claims of the law through our representative, i. c. , our sins were imputed if! I! ! ■I Iv 56 IMPUTATION to Christ and became the ground of his suffer- ings and death, and his righteousness is im- puted to us and becomes the ground of our pardon and acceptance. This is the glorious exchange of the Gospel; the bargain that grace makes. Christ made sin for me, and I made the righteousness of God in him. He bearing my sins in his own body on the tree, and I re- ceiving the full reward of his merit. This truth is emphasized as a chief truth on the Gospel — The just suffered for the unjust; He who knew no sin was made sin for us. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree. He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. He is the propitiation for our sins. Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. Jesus, that he might sanctify the people, suffered without the gate. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification. God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us that whether we wake or sleep we shall live together with him; in due time Christ died for the ungodly. We IMPUTATION m are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. Thus exphcit is the word of God in regard to the work of Christ, and its place in our salvation. THE GREA T MIRACLE OF GRACE. The Lord Laid on Him the Iniquity of Us All. This is a wonderful truth that the Lamb should be slain for us, and that we should be healed by stripes laid on one who is Jehovah's fellow. Deity Himself unrobing that he might dwell among men and become their burden- bearer. The Second person in the Adorable Trinity coming to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Considered as a fact in the moral government of God it must ever stand alone in all the glories of a Divine mystery. How wonderful as a mere subject of contemplation, that Jehovah should lay on his fellow the iniquity of us all, and that he should be wounded for our transgressions. That men should suffer is not a wonderful thing, for they are sinners living in a world of sin, but that the Eternal Son of God should suffer, is one of those profound doctrines of revelation which gives an insight into the Divine ways and pur- poses which otherwise could never have been known. It reveals God's heart as in touch . 58 THE MIRACLE OF GRACE 60 with human need, and in sympathy with sinful man. It represents God as feehng man's loss and yearning for his recovery, and regarding this recovery as so momentous to Him that He does not think it too great a sacrifice that his only begotten and well-beloved Son should stoop from His throne of infinite power, to be- come the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and even to be wounded for our trans- gressions, and his soul made an offering for our sins. Yea, we are told that the Son of Man was made perfect through suffering, nor was it his mere bodily sufferings that are referred to, though these are often dwelt upon and described as if they formed the essence of what He endured. The bodily sufferings of our Saviour were not greater than what many a martyr has endured for Christ's sake without a murmur. Even delicate women have rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer torture of body as great as His when it was suffered for his sake. But it was His soul that was made an offering for sin. He gave Himself 2iS the atonement. He came to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. It was not his body only, but Christ Himself, that was made sin I'lrf rf GO THE MIRACLE OF GRACE for us, and bore the wrath of God in our stead. It war the pouring out of His soul that crushed Him, and his outward sufferings were merely a drop in the bucket, though it was all that human eye witnessed. Our Lord's agonized cry, repeated again and again, shows us that there was another scene behind the visible, where God was laying on Him the iniquities of us all. The strange dark- ness that overshadowed the land seemed emblematic of that mysterious agony which Christ felt, when the withdrawal of His father's face broke his heart, and forced Him to cry out: " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me." This was not the mere shrink- ing of a sentient being from the pain of crucifixion, it was this and far more, it was the shrinking of a holy person from the horrid load of sin, and from odious contact with it. It was the horror of great darkness that came over his soul when human guilt was laid on Him and he was made sin for us. And this offering up of the Son of Man was not a thing to be done in a corner for its range is to be as wide as the universe of Jehovah. The conflict on the cross decided a question of THE MIRACLE OF GRACE •1 universal importance to the moral government of God, and one that related to more than mere human affairs; while its results stretch far beyond the ephemeral transactions of time, and we do not doubt but that all the ages to come will be laden with the spoils of that great day. When the Lamb, long held forth to the faith of the church, was at length sacrificed on the great day of atonement, that one offering not only redeemed His people but it also had a bearing and significance as wide as the em- pire of the Almighty. Satan had succeeded greatly with the human race, and his sway was fatal. But now, his kingdom is to be over- thrown, for Christ came to destroy the works of the devil to cast out Satan and bind him in chains. The principles of universal govern- ment are involved in the solemn transactions of that day. No wonder then that this offer- ing should have such prominence given to it, for redemption by the blood of Christ is the Gospel, and it is no wonder either that it should be the subject of one of the great commemorative ordinances in the Christian church. OUR "H i TRUST IS IN CHRIST'S WORK ALONE. The Righteousness of God Without the Law. We are complete in Him, and not in Him and in uui.-.elves combined, but in Him alone. Our ground of trust must be in the Saviour Him- self. Christ is the end of the law as a ground of justification, though not as a rule of life. By his own death and satisfaction He hath filled it up from one end to the other, and he allows us to begin with a righteousness as if we had ourselves met all its demands. Some people want to rest on their feelings, their experi- ences, and no wonder that they are often with- out peace, for these are so fluctuating. The devil, who rules the world by lies, sees you in earnest, and his plan is to get you to trust in your convictions, your tears, your prayers, re- pentance, vows or duties; but your obedience is not the ground of your pardon ; it springs from it as from a living root. Our works arc not the cause, but the fruits of a saving inter- est in Christ. We do not begin to fulfill the 6a OUR TRUST IN CHRIST'S WORK 63 law for ourselves, but we are privileged to be- gin at the end of the law already fulfilled and magnified. And instead of being burdened with fear lest we fail in our endeavors to obey, we get Christ in a moment as our righteous- ness. Instead of striving to establish our own righteousness, we get the righteousness which God provides, and we are permitted to stand on the Rock of Ages, which no storm can shuke. God does not accept you, dear reader, on the ground of anything he sees in you, but accepts you in the beloved and makes you complete in Him, for there is no condemna- tion to them who are in Christ Jesus. Through the free grace of God we claim Christ as our Saviour, and from Him we ob- tain all that pertains to life and godliness. We are not under the law but under grace, and as the heirs of His grace we are not re- quired to give anything to God as barter — so much for so much. We are receivers and God is the giver, and He who spared not His own Son but gave Him up unto the death for us all, will also with Him, freely give us all things. You often hear it urged upon the anxious — " You must give your heart to God; give your f ^ 64 oi/A' TRi'sr /y c/fRisrs work 'hi 'lliii heart to Gt)(l." And \vc do not say the heart should not be }^Mven to God, indeed He puts forth the claiiu for our luarts. l>ut tlie way in which this is often urt^ed, converts the Gos- pel into law, and not eve.i our hearts are to be given as barter for salvation. The Gospel urges you to accept a full salva- tion from sin and condemnation as God's gift to you, purchased with the blood of His dear Son, and when you do this your heart will be His in a moment, and then you will begin to be influenced by love. A sinner does not even bring a bel'eving heart to Christ, for faith itself is his gift, and we get it and all other bless- ings alter we have come. "We a.<' coming to a Kinj;, Large pctitionir w ith thee bring." In a letter to a friend Dr. ChaLiiers wrote as follows : " I must say that I never had so close and satisfactory a view of the Gospel sal- vation as when I have been led to contemplate it in the light of a simple offer, on the one side, and a simple acceptance on the other It is just saying to one and to all of us ' There is forgiveness through the blood of my Son; OUR TRUST IN CHRIST S WORK 05 take it'; and whosoever believes the reaUty of the offer takes it. It is not in any shape the reward of our own services — it is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is not given because you are worthy to receive it, but because it is a gift worthy of our kind and reconciled Father to bestow." How prone to self righteousness we are: When driven out of one corner it lurks in an- other, and sometimes it assumes the very lan- guage of grace. You say, " In order to be saved I must first be this or that; must do this or that." But he who trusts the Saviour will both be all and do all, as the result of salvation — its blessed fruits — and not a price paid to buy God's gifts. If it is the ungodly who are justified, salvation must come to us before we can enjoy any of its results. Jesus takes us without anything to recommend us, and let us come when we may, we bring nothing with us but our sins. •'Nothing in my hands I bring; Simply to thy cross I cHng; Naked, come to thee for dress; Helpless, look to thee for grace; Foul, I to the fountain fly; Wash me, Saviour, or I die," w 66 OUR TRUST IN CHRIST'S WORK il ''*;*i Our Lord is a Saviour, and He shed his blood to wash away real, deep, crimson stains which nothing else could wash. Sinners, and not the righteous need a Saviour; those who are bound need the prison doors to be flung open; the sick need the physician and not those who are whole. So our sins are the reason for the Gospel's peculiar and gracious provision — "I believe in the forgiveness of sins. ' Not the forgiveness of David's sins, or Peter's sins, but in the forgiveness of my own sins through the blood of Jesus. Even Maj*y ^aid hold of this thought and rejoiced in it rather than in the fact that she was his human mother. She gloried more in the connection which she had with Him in common with the multitude of the redeemed, than in that maternal rela- tionship in which it was her privilege and honor to stand. " My spirit rejoiceth in God my Sav iour. " Not so much that Jesus was her Son as that he was her Saviour, inspired her heart with lofty praise, and faith does for us what it did for her. WHAT IS MEANT BY TRUSTING CHRIST My Lord, and My God. What is faith ? What is it to beheve on Him to the salvation of the soul ? In order to trust Christ we must know something of Him. Religion is impossible without some knowledge of its object, but then religion is more than knowledge as man is more than a cultivated in- tellect. Religion is essentially a relation to a living person; it is trust in the Saviour. " They that know thy name will put their confidence in thee." He that cometh to God must be- lieve that He is, and that he is the rewarder of all who dilige Uly seek Him. And the spirit of truth alone Ccin give us the spirit of knowl- edge and of the fear of the Lord. To trust Christ we must know Christ as one who was made sin for us. " Drink deep," says Spur- geon, " into the doctrine of the substitutionary work of Christ; for therein lies the sweetest possible comfort to the guilty sons of men, since the Lord • made him to be sin for us,' '',■ I 68 TRUSTING CHRIST I < II that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.' Faith begins with knowledge." To have such appropriating knowledge as to feel tnat my beloved is mine and I am his, to know Him as my Saviour whose blood cleanseth from all sin, bring in the element of trust, and we learn to commit our souls to Him as to a faithful Creator. As a child trusts its mother and lies in her arms, so we trust Him and lie in the everlasting arms of the Beloved. It was more the custom in the past gener- ation to demand belief coticerning Christ, now, with a truer appreciation of fundamental dis- tinctions we demand a belief in Christ, i. e.y we are to believe in Christ and not merely abo24t Him. Religion formerly was made more impersonal than it is now, and men were more apt to believe doctrines than to believe in the Son of Man. The teaching of the Gospel re- quires us not merely to believe in the divinity of Christ, but also that we believe a divine Christ. "Jesus, my Lord, I know his name, His name is all my boast, Nor will he put my soul to shame Nor let my hope be lost." TRUSTING CHRIST 69 But while we hear a p^ood deal just now of a distinction which some are anxious to draw between faith in Christ, and belief in a doc- trine; and while we admit that there is such a distinction, yet the one must never be set over against the other as if these two things were opposed. For when faith in Christ is de- manded, the question is at once asked. Who is He ? and the answer to this is a doctrine. Nay, What is faith > this answer again is a doctrine, so that doctrine and vital Christianity are parts of each other. Doctrines are not to be re- garded as abstract propositions, or dead dog- mas, but vitalized principles as they lead up to, circle around, and inhere in the Person of Christ who is the object of our faith. We rest not in our knowledge, our experiences, or our feelings, but in Himself—"' Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him." Faith is the bond 1 '^tween the soul and the Saviour, and through this channel His grace flows into our hearts. We are led to feel that Christ is all that He is declared to be, can do all He has promised to do, and we believe His word, because we believe Himself and expect all this at His hands. He has promised to 7 r 10 TRUSTING CHRIST 1' 1 !' 1 1 ^ t. 1 \ ■ \ h • 1 give rest to all that come unto Him; He has said " The water that I will give thee will be in thee a well of water springing up into ever- lasting life," and we feel that this is all true, that if we get this living water from Christ it will be ours forever and will well up in us in streams of holy life. Spurgeon, in his admirable little book — " All of Grace'' illustrates the nature of faith in the following manner. He says faith is an eye which looks. By the eye we bring into the mind that which is far away. So by trust we bring the Lord Jesus near to us, and though He be far away in heaven, He enters into our heart. "There is life for a look at the Crucified One, There is Hfe at this moment tor thee." Faith is the hand which grasps. When our hand takes hold of anything for itself, it does precisely what faith does when it appropriates Christ and the blessings of His redemption. Faith says, "Jesus is mine." Faith hears of the pardoning blood, and cries, " I accept it to pardon me.'' Faith calls the legacies of the dying Jesus her own; and they are her own, for faith is Christ's heir; He has given Himself TRUSTING CHRIST 71 and all that He has to faith. Take, O, friend that which grace has provided for thee. You will not be a thief, for you have a divine per- mit. "Whoesoever will, let him take the water of life freely." He who may have a treasure simply by his grasping it will be foolish indeed if her remains poor. Faith is a mouth that feeds upon Christ. Before food can nourish us, it must be received into us. So Paul says, " The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth." Now then, all that is to be done is to swallow it, to suffer it to go down into the soul. Oh that man had an ap- petite ! for he who is hungry and sees meat before him does not need to be taught how to eat. Sometimes faith is little more than clinging to Christ, a sense of dependence and a willing- ness so to depend. Thousands of God's peo- ple have no more faith than this; they know enough to cling to Jesus with all their heart and soul, and this suffices for present peace and eternal safety. Jesus Christ is to them a Saviour strong and mighty, a rock immovable and immutable, they cleave to Him for dear life, and this clinging saves them. " 72 TRUSTING CHRIST I'll I J lillii: 1!^ Many treat their faith as if it were a sub- stitute for Christ; but faith is merely the chan- nel through which floods of mercy flow to the soul from grace, the living fountain head. Faith is our coming to Christ as the result of the divine drawing. A great message may be sent over a thin wire that can scarcely bear its own weight. A trembling hand may receive a precious gift. So the salvation of our God may come to us though our faith touch only the hem of His garment. A weak faith often binds many a trembling soul to the Saviour, and our trust is not in our faith or feelings, but in Him who redeems us to God by His own blood, and to whom faith unites us. It is not by works of righteousness that we have done, but by His mercy He saves us. Or as Paul put it in an- other place, " To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifies, his faith is counted for righteousness," You purchase your ticket that carries you from Montreal to New York. When the proper car is pointed out and you have seated yourself you have no doubt about your desti- nation, and barring accidents you will arrive TRUSTING CHRIST 73 there in good time; you are not afraid of be- ing landed elsewhere. The conductor comes along, you are on the right line, in the proper car, your ticket is properly stamped and noth- ing troubles you more. But here is another road called the highway of holiness that leads from guilt to glory, along which the unclean do not pass, for it is for the ransomed of the Lord to pass over on their way home. The Lord Himself has opened up the way; He has provided the conveyance; He has even paid the fare; and now He comes to you today, a weary wanderer on life's sinful way, pacing the sad round with a heavy burden upon you, and he says, " Come, get in and I will carry you to glory land, come, join the ransomed of the Lord and I will brjug you home." So we simply accept the privelege and step into the chariot of His grace to be taken home. ^! nm < I I ii OUR DELIVERANCE FROM THE PRES- ENCE AND POWER OF S/N. Wash liiti ;', and I Shall Be Will not this doctrine of free pardon by faith, without the works of the law, be preju- dicial to morality ? Will it not overturn our obligations to obey th'^ law of God and to dis- charge the common moralities of life ? This is precisely the objection that was made to this doctrine in Paul's day which the Apostle an- swered, " Do we make void the law through faith ? God forbid ! Yea, we establish the law. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! How shall we who are dead to sin live any longer therein ? " This of itself is a proof that the doctrine we are in- culcating in these pages is the same which the Apostle taught. We insist on the necessity of a consistent Christian life, the cultivation of all the graces and the need of good works in all justified per- sons. The orb of Christianity divides itself into two hemispheres, doctrines to be believed, Ik I r>ELrVERANCE FROM SIN 75 and a life to be lived, so that men are bound not only to believe the truths of the Gospel, but also to obey the precepts of the Gospel.' While faith alone justifies, it is not a faith that stands alone, but one that works by love, it is not a dead faith, but a living root in the Saviour, from which grow all the goodness— the charities and amenities of life. In order to escape the wrath of God due to us for sin, God requireth of us repentance unto life as well as faith in Jesus Christ. The anxious sinner feels that pardon alone will not meet his case. He says, " If pardoned this moment I am sure to sin again. No surer does a stone return to the ground that the hand has thrown up into the air, than that I will return to my sins again as a sow that is washed to her wallowing in the mire. The old nature within me is so strong that if all my past guilt were taken away I would be sure to incur fresh condemnation, for there are such fearful tendencies to evil within me, that I might as well attempt to calm the storm and hold the north wind in check as quell the tem- pest that may, at any time arise in my heart. " But pardon, or deliverance from thd guilt of w % DELIVERANCE FROM SIM ill ' I i ' 1 I i * sin is only one aspect of salvation, Christ has also made provision for changing our moral nature, making us holy and restoring us to the moral likeness of God. Our spiritual re- newal, like our pardon, are both traceable to that faith which unites us to Christ, and He will save us, alike from the power and presence of sin, its disease and doom as well as from its condemnation. More is needed than a title to heaven, we require a moral fitness as well, and we have both in Him who is our sanctification as well as our righteousness. He has in His gracj made as ample provisi< ,i for the one as for the other, and his salvation meets both the curse and the stains of sin. " Holiness in its widest sense is presented to us in scripture (i) as a gift bestowed on men by God, and (2), as a duty or matter of obliga- tion which God requires of them. When it is viewed as a grace or gift bestowed upon, and wrought in us, then we have just to consider what provision God has made for imparting it. " From men's natural state and condition, it is indispensably necessary, in order to their final happiness, that a change be effected both upon their state and condition judicially in relation ai. DELIVERANCE FROM SIN rr to God and His law, and upon their moral nature, principles and tendencies; that God has provided fc - affectin-^^ both these changes, by giving His Son to be the surety and substitute of His people; and that He communicates to men individually both these gifts by uniting them to Christ through th(^ agency or in- strumentality of faith on their part which He works in them. It was necessary that both these changes should be effected, that both these gifts should be bestov.ed. God has made effectual provision for imparting and securing both. They are both found in Christ when men are united to Him. They are both affected or conferred, as to their immediate or proximate cause, through that faith by which this union to Christ is brought about. The two things can not be separated, because God has made equally certain provision for affecting and bestowing both, and has clearly revealed it to us in His word as a fundamental principle of his unchangeable arrangements that wherever He confers the one he always confers the other." — Cunningham. Sin has changed our relations and debased our character, and thus we need both pardon 78 DELIVERANCE FROM SIN \ '1 I and justification. We need to have our sins forgiven and our hearts changed, and this was the double purpose for which Christ died. His atonement is the procuring cause of both, and this two-fold effect was represented by the water and the blood which flowed from His side. "Let the water and the blood, From thy riven side that flowed, Be of sin the double cure. Cleanse nie from its guilt and power." When God pardons. His spirit begins to wash out the stains, and these two graces are always in conjunction, for the faith that looks to Christ and appropriates His righteousness and through which alone we are forgiven, has its very origin in the change by which we are sanctified. The" fountain opened, is opened for sins — uncleanness as well as for guilt. " There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Immanucl's veins, And sinners plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains." His salvation would have been incomplete if it had not dealt with this part of our moral nature for we need the renewing of the Holy Spirit to cause us to die unto sin and live unto DELIVERANCE FROM SIN 79 righteousness. Pardon without purity is not the salvation of Christ for He not only calls the leper clean but cleanses him; not only par- dons the rebel but makes him loyal in heart to the King; not only saves us from the conse- quences, but removes the cause; He will cleanse the fountain of defilement as well as stop the streams, for Jesus came to save His people from the presence and power of sin, no less than to remove its penalty. Not only must there be a sentence of pardon passed without us, but also a work of grace wrought within us and this is what God has promised to do, " A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." /md our Saviour-God will keep this, as He does all His other prom- ises, and will work in n-'r fu art the work of faith with power. " :'he.^ w^'l I sprinkle clean water upon yor and y-z slial )e clean, from all your filthiness ri.«/ ("o:- ph your idols will I cleanse you." And we need only consider the provision He has made in His grace to secure all the blessings of the covenant, for they are all included in Christ's unsearchable 80 DELIVERANCE FROM SIN is i ill \is \\ ( ; i!-;! ■ m 1 •) ".. t 1 1. J 1 il 1 ; 1 , ; i riches and bestowed upon us by Him. He sends His spirit to quicken us, to work faith in our heai ts^ to sow the seeds of grace within us, and He will gradually remove our old man and strengthen the new. If I by my spirit can in- fluence a brother then surely Christ by His spirit can influence me and enable me to grow in His likeness. " He comes to us, and speaks to us, not merely as a messenger sent from the court of heaven offering us pardon and am- nesty for offences, and putting into our hands documents, sealed with blood, which we may b''-and-by present at the judgment seat, to secure from sentence being pronounced against us there; but also as a skillful physician, gently and faithfully inquiring into the condi- tion of our enfeebled, distorted, diseased sonJs, and offering us help, and relief, and healing. He asks us to believe in Him, in this character as well as the other. He asks us to trust for healing as much as for forgiveness. He asks us not only to take the sealed documents of pardon from His hand with no misgiving doubt of their validity, but also to let Him lay His hands on us, that divine virtue may come forth from Him, to make us whole of whatever dis- DELIVERANCE FR OM SIN 81 ease we have; whatever form or type of the disease of sin— whether its bhndness, its be- numbing paralysis; or its polluting and con- suming leprosy." What 1,' the salvation of Christ in its es- sence ? and vhat was His purpose in coming ? It is not deliverance from suffering, and safety from punishment; it was not to keep us out of hell. He came to make us like Himself, and we rejoice that He who forgives our iniquities also heals our diseases. He who removes the stains of our past guilt will also hft us out of the foul ways of the present, and keep us from falling in the future, h nd all the graces of our renewed life are the companions of our pardon and not the cause of it, and faith is as much God's gift as the Saviour is, and our sanctifi- cation is as much the work of His grace as the atonement by which all sin is blotted out. We were chosen in Christ before the founda- tion of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, and He gives us His spirit to change us into the same image from glory to glory. Christ as our Saviour is not divided in His offices, so that He is not made a priest to any to whom He is r It-! : 82 DELIVERANCE FROM STN not also made a king to rule their hearts in love. We are brought into union with the Saviour, grafted into Him as the branch in the vine to pprtake of His life and beauty, and when His spirit comes to take of the things that are Christ's and show them to us; to shed abroad the love of God in our heart; to create within us the summer and sunshine of faith and hope; we then feel that the darkness is passing away and the true light is beginning to shine that vvill usher in the perfect day, Christ was crucified and our old man was crucified with Him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin. And when we are brought into fellowship with jesus, always walkng with Him, ab.vays look- ing to Him, always thinking upon Him, and doing everything under His cbnscious presence and to please Him; when we study His words, His acts, His life; and breathe the holy atmosphere which His spirit creates around us, we get His mind and are changed into His image. In short, when we have His love poured into our hearts we will then learn to run in the way of His commandments. ■s DELIVERANCE FROM SIN fig Have you made that great exchange of grace and are you believing in your heart that Christ is yours ? Then what you have received is a complete salvation, and Christ is made unto you wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. F I! 11^ THE ADAPTATION OF THIS TRUTH TO THE WANTS OF THE SOUL. Ye Are Complete in Him. His stripes heal us ! This is the essence of the Gospel and as such it will never lose its spiritual significance, and commanding power over the heaits of men; nor will the quickened life ever grow weary of it. We never grow weary of the spring time; the opening flowers are as pure and sweet, and charming as if they were blooming for the first time; the warm summer winds, and soft gentle rain, are as wel- come now as when they first refreshed the earth. Nor do we ever grow weary of the sun though he has shone over the generations of men since the beginning of days. He came forth this morning with all the inspiration he ever had, while to the last day, men will turn with yearning hearts to the brightness of his rising, and will welcome his coming as the old patriarch did, who felt that it was such a pleas- ant thing to behold the sun. And so is it with those great and gracious 84 ADAPTA TUN OF TR UTH 85 ■ truths which we have been considering—the Messiah cut off but not for himself— the Mes- siah wounded for our transgressions. It is all of grace, and as much fitted for one as an- other, for one class as another, and for one condition of life as for another. And when the love of God has been shed abroad in the heart and Christ formed within us the hope of glory he becomes from that day a source of lasting joy. There is no truth more needful of enforcement, or better fitted to correct the practical errors of our times, for it comes with such divine adaptation to the hunger and thirst of the heart. This is the true bread, and as sensible men and women in earnest about sal- vation, we must seek no other portion than what we find in the humble acceptance of Christ and Him crucified. There are so many poor dependent people, what can we say to them that will help them to bear their burdens.? We point them to Him who though rich for their sakes became poor, and that they can be made rich in a moment by the acceptance of an unfading acceptance. While to the wealthy what better message can we bring than this .? What will keep men from the sins which W' 86 ADAPTATION OF TRUTH I ■■ " ii! il. I ■ '. m. wealth brings, and comfort them when called on to give up all that this world holds most dear ? It is to have a living interest in Him who was bruised for their iniquities ? And what can keep the young men and women in safety even when surrounded by so many temp- tations ? There is nothing like an earnest al- legiance to Christ your Saviour. Not educa- tion nor culture, not self-respect nor family con- nection, not even the consequences of sin will keep you, but loyal heartedness to Ihe Lv^id's will; a believing look on the slain Lamb will keep your feet from falling. When He be- comes the loadstone of your heart, the strong- est motives for self-control, for purity, and righteous conduct, will emanate from Him. Nor must we forget tlie many sorrowing, cruL lied souls that are all around us to-day, what can we do to satisfy and comfort those bereaved and bleeding hearts } • " Bring 3'our griefs to Jesus, Your burdens and your cares, He from them all releases. He all your sorrows shares." What an education it is to be taught of the Holy Spirit, and to apprehend in all their ADAPTATION OF TRUTH 87 intensity, and significance the vvants and woes of perishing men; to see and un(!tr=;tand the vast problem of sin and danger, and the doom that awaits the finally impenitent; and then to know as related to this, that nothing but Christ can meet and save from this result. Mere human sympathy, without Christ, leaves us helpless in every emergency. With that alone we can lay only a feeble hand on the wound; our own philosophy can not minister to the wants and sorrows of men. Go to a despairing heart, enter a stricken home, talk to that bereaved mother whose darling is lying in yon newly-made grave; speak to those crushed by many a burden; stand by the bed and talk to that djing man. And how unht for that holy work when no God is standing behind you; when you are the source of all you say, and have no message to bring from Christ. But the Gospel shows how thoroughly Christ and the soul belong to each other, and that we are never to suppose that He is too far off for the need, or that our need is too in- significant for His loving care. Many fail in their mission because they attempt to minister to man and soothe his sorrows with other con- :|;i« 88 ADAPTATION OF TRUTH It ' I ' ill ■t * siderations than these. But let no one be afraid to bring the subhmest mysteries of our faith — Christ's Hfe, and death, and resurrec- tion — as the foundation on which the soul may securely rest. We must never hesitate to pre- sent the richest promises of the Gospel — the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit — to the help and comfort of man, even in his common troubles. And we must never fail to combine the sublimest motive to the smallest duty, and the whole comfort of Christ to the most in- significant trouble. As God stamps His in- finite wisdom and power on each little flower He paints, so does Christ impart His richest graces when He comes to heal all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease among His people. He comes Himself to dvell in our heart by faith. It is taking that one, great, universal mes- sage of Christ, in all the manifoldness of its power and blessing, and bringing this near to men in all the fullness of its divine bounty. And as the sunlight and summer shower, suit alike the mighty cedars of Lebanon, and also the little moss that grows half-hidden in the rock; as all forms of life in their endless pro- i '. 1 ADAPTATION OF TRUTH 80 fusion, all tints and shades of coloring, all trees and plants, all shrubs and flowers, draw what they need from the one fountain of supply. And as the same sun builds up the oak, and pours his glory into the little flowers, giving all that is distinctive through the endless variety of the vegetable creation. So will this one message— the old, old story— from the pierced heart of Jehovah Jesus, suit all men in their manifold circumstances. To men who sit in darkness might not such a message be brought to them as the breaking of the morning after a long night of trouble > Might it not be as the coming in of spring when the icy indifference melts away amid sunshine and song of birds and May blossoms ? Might not the Gospel be received as spiritual ozone a breath of mountain air, pure and inspiring to the many who are stifling in the hot-beds of sin ? O, to make those who now sit in dark- ness, to feel that the morning has come, full of ridiance, and that all the shadows have fled away, is the one great aim of all Christian effort. f w ITS FULL FRUITION IS FUTURE. .1 * I ■ M '11 \'-'- b // Doth Not Yet Appear W/iat Wc Shall Be. Salvation, though begun here — for now we are the Sons of God — yet in its full fruition has reference to the future. The resemblance between us and our Saviour begun in our regen- eration, will increase more and more as we die unto sin and live unto righteousness. Here the spirit draws the first rough drafts of Christ's image in our heart, but the picture will not be perfected till we awake with His likeness to share His glory. The aspirations and capacities of man are so vast that they do not find a fitting field for their display on earth; some other and larger sphere is held in reserve for him. We take an egg that is nearly hatched and chip it, and we find within, a bird fully formed, with eyes to see, feet to run, and wings to fly; and we have no doubt that this bird is fitted for another and wider sphere than this one within the shell. Its present is not its ultimate life, else all these faculties would be useless to it. And so we 90 ITS FULL FRUITION IS FUTURE 91 reason with man, his hopes, fears, joy, experi- ences and powers — his intellectual, moral and spiritual nature — are not always to be cooped up within the narrow range of the life that now is, for he has capacities for something wider and grander. The hope set before us in the Gospel is, that we shall be made partakers of the divine nature, holy as Christ is holy, and perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect, and at last filled with all the fullness of God. We are now planted together with Christ and there is no limit placed upon this growth; it is from our present, imperfect experiences up to the full stature of men in Christ Jesus. Being predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, we must be changed into the same image from glory to glory; and, therefore, it doth not yet appear what we shall be, much remains to be revealed at the last time. We are saved already, for we are the sons of God now. Our sins are all forgiven, we have already received the adoption; the Spirit has already set His seal on our heart. These are all matters of experience and not of expec- tation. We often overlook the fact that we have the earnest of the inheritance already '^-"^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) '"/. / O {/ ^< 1.0 ^K&isa 1^ mk |||22 1.1 \^ i^ = III 1 fi Mil ■"" "~ 1.25 ||.4 1.6 Lll _ V 4V^ HiotDgraphic Sciences .poration Co 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716)872-4S03 ^% \ ;\ 4 \ o^ tf ^^ :6» ¥ 1 i' H n\ 1 1 62 /r^ /'i/zz FRmnoN is future and we are now within the strong munitions of Christ, and nothing can pluck us out of His hands. Our salvation is not a mere peradvent- ure, lying on the balances of uncertainty not knowing whether it will turn out life or death. We are not solving a problem not knowing whether we shall succeed or not. This could never have inspired the holy boldness of the Apostle as he puts one challenge after another — " Who is he that condemneth } Who shall separate from the love of Christ ! Who shall say anything to these things .? " Our salvation is not problematic; if I hold on my way God will save me; if I do not fall from grace I may peradventure reach the gate of the city; if I fulfill certain conditions I will be the victor ; not so ; we are saved al- ready; we are the sons of God noiv. O, to feel the reality and honor of it, and daily to breathe this atmosphere of security brings heaven near to you. Let the calm, holy light of this assurance shine over your path of daily duty and it will be an inspiration to strengthen and comfort you. While v/a!king on earth to know that we have been exalted to the heavenly places, and have the tokens of our our ITS FULL FRUITION IS FUTURE 93 acceptance already given, makes the connec- tion between our present, and future standing in Christ, close and intimate. But while all this is true our fullness of joy is at God's right hand, and, therefore, we have a grand outlook as the sons of God. And man alone, of all creatures on earth has a future. Our destiny is not confined to the narrow span between childhood and the grave, there is a hope set before us in the Gospel, which, as the anchor of the soul holds us to the golden dock of eternity. This outlook is grand when we view it in the light of the Gospel promises. We shall not all die but death will be swal- lowed up in Hfe, and we shall live together with Him. Some who are clamoring to gain the popular ear are making grave assaults on man's divine origin and immortality. Man's origin and des- tiny are both canvassed. They find a universe, but can not tell how it came or by whom it is governed; they discover laws but no law-giver; they find matter but no spirit; a world of won- der, but no wise God. And many would fain take away man's hope of a hereafter and re- duce him to the level of the brute with no I 1 ', ,1 If if! lU- i i i ; • i !l' 94 ITS FULL FRUITION IS FUTURE higher destiny. No bright home where parted friends meet again; no victory over death; no emerging from the loneHness of the grave; all earnest longing torn up by the roots, and man left to die as the beast dies ! Surely there is enough already of the base and the beastly without seeking to quench any little spark he may have of a better life, and of impulses and resolutions that seek to govern and control his lower nature. How different all this is from the outlook of the Gospel — sons of now, with a grander future still to come. There is much regarding that future life that has not been revealed and which we shall not know till the day shall declare it. We have partial attempts on the part of Apostolic men to unveil the joys that are unspeakable and full of glory but inspired lips can not tell the whole story, and with reverent feet they pause on the threshold as they attempt to look into that which c^e hath not seen or ear heard; it is to be with Christ; it is to be like Christ; it is to enter into the joy of our Lord; it is to be welcomed and crowned amid the rejoicing throng of the heavenly land. It was never in- tended that we should know the future as we ITS FULL FRUIT/ON IS FUTURE 95 may know the; past lest our faith be trans- formed to sense. So here we see through a glass darkly, and know only in part. The Bible takes us only so far and then we are left with the curtain drawn over many a mys- tery, and this veil must remain untaken away till the full glory bursts on our astonished vision as we enter in through the gate into the city. Men's conceptions of heaven have varied with the individual mind the pictures drawn of it have been of the most diverse kind, and a heaven has been painted corresponding to the wish or conceptions of men. And different descriptions of heaven are actually given in Scripture, meeting the varied and felt condi- tions of man's need. The intellectual has his heaven in endless progress in knowledge, con- tinued advancement in intellectual pursuits. The aesthetic has a heaven of varied and untold grandeur and endless harmony. A heart which sorrows for its dead, has a heaven without graves or burials, tears or sorrows. Suffering has a heaven without pain or anything that can hurt or disturb. The weary and discouraged have a heaven of rest and peace. While the guilty and sin-stricken have a hoi) heaven m ITS FULL FRUITION IS FUTURE • t ' • 1 n If i u In \ 1 .1 i!i where nothing that defileth can enter. Thus our Father's house has attractions for many sides of our nature. What a sad history, the reign of sin unto death ; but parallel with it is the reign of grace through righteousness unto eternal life. And when the shadows have all fled away, what a light gathers at the close of the ages, " And the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it; and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor unto it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day; for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth; neither whatsoever worketh abomina- tion or maketh a lie ; but they who are written ii! the Lamb's book of Life." Rev. xxi; 23- 27. Thus many CHRISrSLOVE; THE SOURCE OF ALL. Who Shall Separate us From the Love of Christ. He loved us and gave Himself for us; He loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood; " He loved the church and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the v/ashing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." Ep. v: 25-27. Christ's love is the old, old story that fills the Bible, and everything else is merely the setting of this one jewel. When we read our Bibles with a fond heart, we feel that Christ's love is the great burden of all its announcements and makes the strongest impression upon us; the love of Christ constrains us; the love of Christ passeth knowledge; who shall separate us from the love of Christ } In that compassion which moved the Saviour to unrobe Himself of His heavenly glory, and 97 h 1 98 CHRIST'S LOVE If t'! 1,1 1!' ■ 88 Ill let Himself down to the sinner, we see a length, a breadth, a depth and a height that passeth knowledge; which even angels can not fathom though they look into it with absorbing inter- est. In that humiliation which led the Lord Jesus Christ — which constrained Him who was Jehovah's fellow — to take our nature, and lay His redeeming hand on the lowest transgressor, we see a depth of love ^hat neither human nor angelic plummet shall ever fathom, and which all eternity will not exhaust, for it bears the glorious infinitude of His own divinity; and this was thrown as a mantle of mercy over an erring world to recall an exiled family. O how strong, and overmastering must the Sav- iour's love to lost sinners have been, when it constrained Him to place the load of their guilt on His holy heart that he might give Himself to atone. Surely the riches of Christ are un- searchable, and there is a manifold wisdom in all His redeeming acts. But can we know a thing that is nifinite, or measure an attribute whose length, breadth, depth and height passeth knowledge } This is the very point of Paul's prayer, that through the grace of God we may solve this seeming CHRIST'S LOVE §9 paradox, and know from the experience of our hearts that which far transcends our finite powers. We know the ocean, we can see it, bathe in it, sail over it, enjoy it, but we do not know all its secrets, nor has any plummet sounded all its depths. A little child can know its father, can love him, and be loved by him, and yet that child does not know all the plans and purposes of that father. John Milton's little daughter knew and loved her father, but she did not know all that was passing through his great mind. So we know the Saviour, though we can not measure all the depths of a love that has touched, and mel- lowed, and filled our hearts. We begin to know Him when we begin to love him, for it is knowledge through love which alone gives us an insight into the mysteries of Divine grace. It is a holy instinct imparted to our hearts that responds to his love, and this in- stinct solves all riddles, explains all difficulties, and deciphers what are only unmeaning sym- bols to the ignorant and disloyal. The cross is the clearest and fullest proof of a Saviour's love. It is the exposition of His heart's desire, and the constant witness to l:,( ; ;i t i \u 100 CHRIST'S LOVE men of that love that is the wonder of angels. If before the cross we get the most profound conceptions of sin as that abominable thing that God hates, so there also, before that same cross, we get the grandest exposition of the divine character; the fullest display of the mingled majesty and mercy of God. There is no letting down of His claims, and no letting go of His lost sheep; God is just while the justifier of the ungodly. And the divine honor is sustained, and the law magnified, by the very means through which the sinner is found and brought back. The teacher in this school is the Holy Spirit, and when He comes with His live coal to touch and warm our hearts and wake up within us a sympathetic interest in the Saviour we make rapid advancement in those lessons which He applies with grace to the heart. When He breathes the fragrance of heaven over the soul we gather up the golden shekels from the treasury of the Lord, and lay up vast stores of heart-wealth. The experimental side of relig- ion is the mc t satisfying, and when the spirit is dealing directly with the heart, and pours the floods of grace through the currents of our CHRIST'S LOVE loi spiritual life, the Gospel becomes a feast of fat things, and Jesus Christ Himself, the chief among ten thousand. I I HE IS A PRESENT SA VIOUR. 1 ! IM!; I ; / Will Not Leave You Orphans. A day came when He was parted from them and carried away. The disciples watched Jesus as He went up and passed from sight behind the cloud, and many have thought of Him ev(T since as One who has left the world behind Him and is now far away. He is yonder amid infinite blessedness, and I am here amid daily care and sorrow, and how to bring His help to my present needs is the problem at which faith often stumbles. But did He not say " Lo, I am with you always.?" And are we afraid He will not keep His promise } Are we thinking of Him as we do of other men who have lived, finished their work and gone away } Is Jesus only one of those historical persofis who has long since disappeared from the scene, and all that is left of him now, only a fond, fading memory to cherish, or an example to follow } If so, then our life must be shorn of its sweetest joys, for His assured presence is the Holy of Holies of 109 HE IS A PRESENT SA VIOUR 103 Christian experience and His throne of grace is where faith seeks to meet Him as the ever- living and everpresent Saviour who retains all the tenderness of a heart that constrained Him when here among His people to shed tears when He saw their sins and sorrows. He is the same dear, tender, loving friend to us all this day amid the trials and bereavements that afflict men now, that He was to Mary and Martha and many another troubled heart. His going away has not changed His nature, and His heart is as full of pity and tenderness this very day as it was when He took the little children in His arms and fondled them out His knee. As human and brotherly in His sympathies as when John leaned on His bosom. His friendship means as much -o His people now as it ever did to Peter and James and John. His heart has lost none of its fondness for His dear people. He is still the good shepherd going before His sheep and calling them all by name, and His compassion is as deep as it was on the day He was parted from His disciples. And when amid our troubles we come and tell Jcsiis, r one need doubt but that he is ll 104 HE IS A PRESENT SA VI OUR lli \ V. •V r; i! \\ li both familiar with them and knows all about the things that try us. And that he will also bring His own life into perfect sympathy with ours and prove Himself to be a present help in the day of our troubles. How like His brethren He was, r^nd is now, and as the man of sorrows He has passed through their ex- periences. He Himself has stood where many, of His afflicted people stand today and has felt what they are now feeling, and His eyes look down upon the hidden depths of their sorrows. His training brought Him into sympathetic relations with the people, and from personal experience He could appreciate the needs, the tastes, and tendencies and trials of the multitude. He is such that we may well throw ourselves on His brotherhood and tell Him of what lies heaviest on our hearts. And when we steal away from this world of noise and confusion, into the quiet of that holy of holies with Christ alone, to confess, to plead, and to obtain from Him grace and mercy, vi^e know that we are known of him just as we are. We do not come to tell him anything He does not know, but only to receive what his love sees best to give. HE IS A PRESENT SA VIOUR 105 But while Christ is with His own it does not follow that the way home will always be sun- shine, the voyage will not always be free from storms, and there will often be much harm to the lading and ship, but every one on board will get safe to land. His love was net meant to exempt us from the common ills of life. But when he comes and defeats our plans or takes away an idol, no one need imagine that He has forsaken them, or that His promises have failed. For it is at such times that Jesus Him- self draws near to walk with you, and make the path on which you walk bright with His presence. And the life beyond will seem all the brighter because of the shadows that have rested upon us here. See yon light summer clouds that float so gracefully across the azure sky; how beautiful and pure they appear in their rich fleecy full- ness, yet these same clouds have had their origin in the filthy marsh, and even the cess- pools of the great city have gone to form them. Pure as they appear in the summer sky their origin is far otherwise. Lo, the redeemed in heaven, so joyous and bright, c.'othed in white garments, whence come they > These are they i, i 4\ ■5- ;■!< y^'^ ]U^ J'' IOC //£ IS A PRESENT SA VI OUR \, who have come out of great tribulation and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. And just because they have come out of great tribulation, heaven will appear all the more like heaven to them ; the contrast will brighten all the colors. The slave rejoices in his liberty; the weztry welcome rest; the winter intensifies the freshness of spring; and as the darkness is the fitting b'ack-ground on which the glories of the day are laid; so our light afflictions which are for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. And the presence of Jesus Himself in that home above will be all the sweeter to the fond heart, because we once lived in an evil world and have reached that land of promise by the way of the wilderness, and then, through all the ages to come He will show His kindness to us, and Christ shall be all in all. .]'! ! ■ GOD IS OUR FATHER IN CHRIST, He That Hath Seen Me Hath Seen the Father. He is our Father on earth now; for we are His children by adoption. The great Master taught us to say " Our Father who art in heaven," so that we might breathe a warmer atmosphere and live daily under the care of the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. We may learn much from Jacob's prayer. When the old patriarch bowed his heart before the Almighty, he did not begin his prayer— " O thou God of nature; and " thou God of providence. " That would have been like twin cliffs whose summits were lost in the mists, or far up in the cold frosty air, while the burdened heart lay in darkness and weariness far below. But when Jacob prayed he said, " O God of my father Abraham; God of my father Isaac." And this brought God near tc him, not as an abstraction, but as the God who had fed and kept him all his life long. We often pray " O God of Israel; O God of Zion." The God of long past days. We think 107 m |» !' t '!' i-r 11;' '"I V- 108 (;0Z) 75 067? FATHER IN CHRIST of Him as belonging to patriarchs and proph- ets, but not to ourselves. Why not say — " O God of Canada ? The God of my own coun- try and of my own people; the God of my father and my mother; the God of my own home, and of my own needs." Not a God afar off, but in the midst of all my cares, and fears and sins that I might lay my hand in His. There is surely such a way of making Him known in the Lord Jesus Christ ar shall be to us as an inspiration and gracious assurance. And that men under burdens, men in sorrow whose hopes have all been blighted, lonely men who are without sympathy in life; men troubled and weary and bankrupt in heart might look up to Him as the God of all com- fort, and rejoice in His presence as men do at the coming in of the morning, calm, sweet, radiant. w J , I THE HOLY SPIRIT MUST REVEAL THIS SAVIOUR AND ASSURE US OF HIS PRESENCE. He Will Teach Yon all Things. Not till our eyes are opened shall we see that all the hills around are occupied by the chariots of the Lord. But how the truth grows, and how rich the promises of grace be- come, and how near and precious Christ seems when His Spirit fills our heart. In the soft light of early summer, when the wo Id has grown rich and full, we see all nature quick- ened and beautified. Some mysterious and pervasive influence has breathed upon her; the icy fetters are broken, and the fountains of the crystal brooks are opened; the forests are clothed in their leafy mantle; the fiowers are strewn all the hill-side over, and all the valleys through, for the time of the singing of the birds has come. So it is when times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord, and Jesus shows Himself to His people; their hearts are then made glad with a great joy, summer and 109 no THE HOLY SPIRIT %'- sunshine fill the soul with all their attendant pomp and glories. When the Holy Spirit is poured out the story of the Cross has such Divine power to inspire, to enoble, to purify and save men. It brings Heaven so near to the earth and Jesus so near to the heart, and over- hangs this present life with the sure mercies of David. When Jesus opens my eyes, cleanses my spiritual leprosy, speaks to my conscience, His comforting assurances fit into every corner of my moral life as the key fits the lock, bread to the hungry, water for the thirsty, a balm for the wounded, comfort for the sad, light to dis- pel our darkness, a guide to lead us through all life's perplexities. Why, grace touches man's needs as the sunlight that bends down to bathe the world and to touch everything that lives — the morning radiance that comes to kiss every leaf and blossom and bud and flower. Just like this does our Saviour lay His love at the roots of our moral life, and our manifold wants are encircled by the multitude of His tender mercies as the great, wide dome of Heaven that overhangs us wherever we may look up. What wonderful adaptation the spirit gives to the unsearchable riches of Christ THE HOL Y SPIRIT 111 as he applies them to the needs of the soul. Not more fitted is the light to the eye, the air to the lungs; not more adapted are the sun- shine and the shower to the parched ground than are the truths of Divine grace and the tender mercies of our God to the heart that longs for his salvation. As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is the assured presence of Christ to the weary, timid, doubting heart that learns to come to him for rest. CHRIST IS OUR KING TO RULE US, If M 4 1 V i:;' T/tj> Kingdom Come. He is a Prince as well as a Saviour, and He will subdue all His and our enemies under Him. He comes to rule us now in His love. But this Kingdom comcth not with observa- tion, and to enter it we must be born from above, for it is the Kingdom of God within us. There are some who are anxious to crown Christ a King in Jerusalem, and over the Jewish people gathered together once more as a nation. There are many who hesitate to accept Christ as their King, who have no objections to his reigning in Jerusalem, for that is a considerable distance from them, but they do not want him to rule in their hearty or s/iop, or office. They are ready to hand over the Jews to him, but they hesitate when asked to hand over their business concerns, their buying and selling, and all the routine of their daily life. We have fine spun theories about the restoration of God's ancient people, but we are less concerned about our own restoration from 112 ra. CHRIST IS OUR KING 113 vanity, worldliness, greed, evil speaking, deceit, uncleanness and uncouthness, into all the nobility of a pure, rich, Christian life, owning allegiance to Christ as at once our Lawgiver and our King. We call Him " King of the Jews," why not call Him our King and crown Him Lord of our hearts and homes? We are ready to give Him Jerusalem, why not give Him our own country, or city or town? We will confine His sceptre to Palestine, but why not welcome it in Canada? We pray "Thy Kingdom come," but all the time we mean a kingdom at a great distance from ourselves, and a per- sonal reign that will not interfere with our liberty. By Christ's Kingdom we do not mean His ruling our hearts in love, a king control- ling the most secret and private affairs of our life, some of us do not want a kingdom that will cause righteousness to run down our streets, that will sanctify our Sabbaths, and make Jesus Lord of ourselves and of our all. There are those who afifirm that His king- dom has not yet been set up, and will not be till He come back again in the flesh. But Jesus said to His disciples, " It is expedient 114 CHRIST IS OUR KING i[i 1 ■A !".• !■: 1^ w ■ -\ for you that I go away, for if I go not away the Comforter will not come to you, but if I go I will send Him to you." Our Lord knew what was best for His disciples and for the church, and that it was the Comforter and not His own human presence that would make this a dispensation of the Spirit. His human presence could be confined only to the one place at a time, and only those could see Him who were in a position to look upon Him. And would His human presence in Jerusalem or anywhere else assure us more than we are now of His gracious reign .-* If so then is our belief sensuous and materialistic, and does not stand in the power of God. All these condi- tions were once realized on the earth and our Lord went from place to place. When He was in Galilee He could not be in Judea, when working His miracles in Capernaum, no man saw Him in Jerusalem, when talking with the women at the well none else enjoyed His min- istry at the same time; when He was beyond the Jordan the sisters missed Him in Bethany, and sent a swift messenger to bring him back. And Jesus Himself recognized this condition of things, and spake of His absence from them, CHRIST IS OUR KING us for He said to His disciples " I am glad I was not there." But none of His disciples think of the Saviour in that way today, as having to leave one place, or home, or sad heart, to be with another to comfort them. When the Spirit was given, His human be- came a Divine presence; His local has become a universal presence; and His temporary has become a permanent presence; and surely none of us would wish to have all this changed back again, and the old days and life of Judea reproduced. This would put the dial of Christian experience back many degrees, and give the lie to Him who said, " It is expedient that I go away." As long as His disciples saw their Lord in bodily form before their eyes, they must think of Him as confined to places. Hence the need for His withdrawal that He might send the Comforter to witness for Christ and fill all things with His presence. Nor must Christ's reign be restricted to a cor- ner of the earth, as if He had come to save a few souls here and there. He came to save men, to save the world, to save all depart- ments of labor, to purify our trade, our com- I i no CHRIST IS OUR KING merce, our politics, our educational institu- tions; to save and purify our science, our lit- erature, our arts, and all departments of in- dustry, so that holiness to the Lord may be written on the very bells of the horses. It is to be the Kingdom of heaven on the earth, and its coming is to make all life, with its manifold activities, purer, richer, and happier. ^ How often Christ had to remind the disciples that His kingdom was not of this world, and that His servants must not fight with carnal weapons; also that it did not come with observ- ation, but as the wind that blows over all the earth, to sway the hearts of men with the sum- mer of God's love, and cause them to bud forth, to blossom and bear the fruits of right- eousness. i:;i OUR CONSECRA TION TO HIM. Whose I Am, and Whom I Serve. The Apostle always brings His doctrines to bear on life and conduct, and closes His letters to the churches by making a personal appeal —seeing these things are so what manner of men ought we to be in all holy conversation and Godliness ? Is Christ your Saviour ? Can you say, " My beloved is mine and I am His ?" The doctrines of grace which we have been dwelling on are manifest; are you adorning these doctrines and walking before God unto all pleasing ? This brings up the question of our consecration to His service, and our sur- render to His gracious claim. There is an expression which Paul uses that puts this matter of personal consecration in its true light— "The Lord, whose I am, and whom I serve." Could we keep this ever in our hearts it would make us true and strong in all lines of daily duty. Because He owns us, we are His in all things. Christ is our Master in everything; in our words, our deeds and 1x7 T hi' !I|| ;- i .' 118 OW? CONSECRATION TO HIM daily business. He is the Lord of our week- days as well as of our Sabbaths; the Lord of our shop and office, as well as of our closet and pew. His disciples must find their church where their duty lies, and many a mother, full of her household cares, may be as much in the service of God as those who sing psalms in the House of God. And as no word our Saviour spake, or deed He ever did was secular, His servants must seek His spirit and learn to glorify God whether they eat or drink or what- soever they do. Some people cultivate an ascetic spirit and seek to withdraw from the world into some quiet retreat, to rciire into the cloister, the convent, that, undisturbed by the noise, the confusion, the strife and worry of the world, they might be able to give themselves exclu- sively to meditation and prayer. This life has attractions for a certain class of minds. It seems to them to be the very ideal of a Chris- tian life — quiet, meditative, prayerful. In the judgment of some ^his secluded life is regarded as more sacred, and nearer heaven and the Master than any other. But this is God's world where we live, and how much better to I OUR CONSECRATION TO HIM 119 live for the purpose which He intended, and strive to have God's will done in all depart- ments of the world's work. When the disciples came to Jesus and asked Him — " Who is great- est in the kingdom of heaven ?" Christ's reply was — " He is the greatest who does the most good," doing good to all men as we have op- portunity. And there is no work like that which we spend amid the fears, the conflicts, the joys and sorrows of our fellow-men; work- ing, not on dead matter, but on the living, palpitating heart of humanity. Every one who loves his Saviour should have his own chosen, well-selected field of labor, and seek to culti- vate it as the garden of the Lord, for the plants and flowers that bloom there are the sweetest and most fragrant of all. Nor are we left to be guided by abstract principles, for we have placed before us a per- fect example, and an embodiment of every Christian grace in the character and life of our I />rd. " In our blessed Lord and Master, we have one who Himself trod before us every step that He would have us tread, bore every burden He would have us bear, met every temptation He would have us meet, shared every grief He 120 OUR CONSECRATION TO HIM "a t ■ ■h 'il: ;;ri would havens share, and did every duty He would have us do. Study it aright and it will surprise you to discover over what a wide and varied field of human experience the example of our Saviour stretches, and how difficult it is to find a position or experience of our common life to which you may not find something an- swering in the life of Jesus of Nazareth." — Manna's life of Christ. But more is needed than example, for many saw and knew His life well and yet turned away and walked no more with Him. His crucifiers were not ignorant of what manner of man He was. Even the betrayer had been v/ith Him through all His ministry, had heard His words, witnessed His miracles, knew His life, enjoyed His example, and yet at the end of it all he betrayed his Master, and then went and hanged himself. Jesus is not our Saviour in virtue of exhibiting all the graces that adorned His life. He does not save us by the force of example, though it is an important factor in our sanctification. While we have in Him the image or copy after which we are to be formed, we have to be changed into that image by the spirit of our God. ■-' ; OUR CONSECRATION TO HIM 121 The grand purpose and ultimate issue of Christ's redeeming work is, that His people are to be like Him, but they reach that like- ness by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, and not till He has washed us in His fountain of cleansin,^ shall we bear once more the image of the heavenly. And what a transformation! To be changed into the same image! The mind of Christ, our mind; the ways of Christ, our ways; the works of Christ, our work; the home and Father of Christ, our home and Father: and even the glory of Christ, our glory; and we shall reign with Him for ever and for ever. '4 »l: iii i| 1 1 : hi ! ! Rev. Frederick B. Meyer, B. A. *' Few books of recent years are better adapted to inttruct and help Christians than those of this author. He is a man ' migMy in the Scriptures.* "—D. L. Moody. Old Testament Heroes, \2wo, cloth, each $1.00 Joshua and the Land of Promise. Moseg, the Servant of God. Joseph: Beloved- Hated— Exalted. Israel: A Prince with God. Abraham; or, The Obedience of Faith. Eillah and t!ie Secret of His Power. " Such studies as these may serve as models to those who are grappling with the problem of a Sunday-night preaching ser- vice. These sermons are of exceptional excellence."— 71** Golden Rule. The Christian Life Series, i8mo, cloth, each 50c.; white cloth, each 60 Key Words otthe laaer Life. The Future Teases of the Blessed Lite. The Present Teases ot the Blessed Ll/e. The Shepherd Psalm. Christian Living. " The Christian Life series of booics by F. B. Meyer are well adapted to inspire the purpose of holy living."— 7Vl* Central Presbyterian. The Expository Series, ismo, cloth, each i.oo The Way Into the Holiest. An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The Lite and Light ot Mea. Expositions in John's Gospel. Tried by Fire. Expositions of First Epistle of Peter. " These expositions have the character of all Mr. Meyer's writings. They combi.ie devout insic^ht into the rich resources of the Word 01 God, with skill in adapting it to the scriptural needs of hisreaders."— yAf 6". .S. Times. Envelope Series of Booklets. Packets Nos. i and 2, each containing 12 Tracts, assorted net, .20 Choice Extracts from the Writings of Rev. F. B. Meyer. Compiled by Rev. B. Fay Mills. 24mo, paper, each 5c.; per dozen net, .35 Larger edition, z6mo, paper 15 rf Ki •< In » ! 1^' i i Charles H, Spurgeon. UCfUiSSSi The heat of the literary remaina of England'a great prtaehtt. My Sermon Notes. A Selection from Outlines of Dis- courses delivered at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. 4 vols. i2mo, cloth, each $1.00; the set, boxed $4.00 Vol. I. Oenesh to Proverba. Vol. 2. Bccleslastes to Alalacbh Vol. 3. Matthew to Acta. Vol. 4. Romana to Revelatloa, feathers tor Arrows; or, Illustrations for Preachen and Teachers, lamo, cloth i.oo " The work covers a wide range of subjects. The metaphors are always striking and frequently brilliant, while the truths that they illustrate are such as have always formed the staple of Mr. Spurgeon's discourses. A choicer collection of illustrations we do not know."— TA* Freeman. ^purgeon*s Qems. Being Brilliant Passages from His Discourses. i2mo, cloth i.oo A series of earnest thoughts and graphic pictures, all of them revealing the true greatness of the preacher's conceptions, his individuality and strength. Gems of great brilliancy, which will make a permanent impression upon the mind of the reader The Qolden Alphabet, Being a Devotional Commentary on CXIX. Psalm. lamo, cloth 1 .00 Gleanings Among the Sheaves, i8mo, cloth, gilt top 60 All of Qrace, For those seeking salvation. i6mo, cloth 50 According to Promise; or, The Lord's Method of Deal- ing with His Chosen People. i6mo, cloth. . . ; 50 Twelve Christmas Sermons. 8vo, cloth 50 Twelve New Year Sermons. 8vo, cloth 50 Twelve Sermons on the Resurrection, 8vo, cloth 50 Twelve Striking Sermons. 8vo, cloth 50 twelve Soul Winning Sermons. 8vo, cloth... .30 Charles H. Spurgeon. Second Edition. By Rev. J. ). Ellis, a graduate of the Pastor's College. i2mo, cloth, i.oo Charles H. Spurgeon. His Life and Ministry. By Jesse Page. Illustrated. . 2mo, cloth 75 Dwigtit L. Moody. cazSssQ •« Tkes« are popular works by our great Ehiangelist ; and tkftf deterve a large sale. There- can be no need for ua to command the living, blazing speech of our brother Moody. Who can equal him 'n natural aimplicity all ag'.ow with holy passion f " — C. II. SpuRGsoN, IN This Sword and the Trowei., Sovereign Grace, 'ts Source, its Nature, and its Effects. Bible Characters. Embracing the Lives of Daniel, Lot, John the Baptist, Jc^eph of Aramathea, and others. Prevailing Prayer— What Hinders It? ^jth thousand. To the Work I To the Work I Exhortations to Chris- tians. 4_^th thousand. The Way to Ood and How to Find It. A Book for the Inquirer. /j'j'/'A thousand. Heaven: Where It Is, Its Inhabitants, and How to Get There. 140th thousand. Secret Power; or, The Secret of Success in Christian Life and Christian Work, goth thoutand. Twelve Select Sermons, /goth thousand. *#* Each 1 2mo, paper, 30c. ; c.lcth 60 The D. L. 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D. **/» the front rank of agitators for Foreigr% Mittiont." —The Christian Advocatb (N. Y.) " One of the foremoMt living homUiata."—THK Ooloem Rulb. V I '{ Many Infallible Proofs: The Evidences of Christianity. Revised Edition, i2mo, paper, net, 35c.; cloth. . .$1.00 '* Only a man of wide and of broad sympathies, and one who had himself come up out of a conflict with doubts, could have so completely covered the whole battle-field of unbelief, meeting the doubter at every point with a candor that captivates, and a logic that conquers. '—TA* Morning Star. LIfe'Power; or, Character Culture and Conduct. Words of counsel for young men. (In press.) A Modern Miracle; or. Seven Years in Sierra Leone. The Life of William A. B. Johnson. {In press.) la Full Armor; or, the Disciple Equipped for Conflict with the Devil. lamo, paper 25 The Bible in Private and Public. i2mo, paper 25 Tbe Crisis of Missions; or, the Voice out of the Cloud. i6mo, paper, 35c. ; cloth, gilt top 1.25 Tbe Greatest Work In tbe World: The Evangeliza- tion of all Peoples in the Present Century. 12 mo, leatherette, gilt top, 35c. ; paper 15 " No one can read this production without being thrilled through his whole being. We doubt not but that it will prove a mighty inspiration to many a Christian worker, and give a new impetus to missionary work."— TAe Christian at Work. tbe Dove In tbe Heart; or, the Perfect Peace of God. i2mo, embossed paper 20 Tbe Hand on tbe Plow; or. Some Secrets of Service. I amo, embossed paper 20 Hop%,: The Last Thing in the World. i6mo. Popular Vellum Series 20 Qieaper Edition, loc. ; per dozen net, 1 .00 if. ^'.- ;* !> */, James Stalker, D. D. >- 1 ^" ?'*^' *• "''o«<' <» '^'ry eM$ential. No inferior work can «{o{nwy*i» of the Divine rS^n D? Stalk•r^I^^ """^ ^ST, »*"« study of TAe Z,//e 0/ 5/. PaaL lamo, cloth 60 canL^bl^-KS^T^^'^,-^^^^^^^ It ""f^p '"!'. .^°!*'* :*^^'***«- •^'"o, cloth, gilt Spint; TeWuUoAr?h%^kM?f?o^5?^^^^^^ of sennoniring.-'-rAr ehrf^i^^MU^^,^!^'^''-^^^ '°~'*"' ^ Y^if ??? ^^?' \" ^^^""^^s delivered to the Students at ?Sl,^"'^A'-'*^- '^"•°- P°P"'" Vellum Series. . 20 Cheaper edition, loc. ; per dozen net i 00 4. The Man Whom God sS ^' ***" ^"^ ''^ "'""'^ and than Cheaper edition, (oc; per dozen .'.'■.■.■.■.■.■■.""nrt i'^ ~.'".llo°n?r."ag?rtI?L'!rTiJS«'«»" "f«l> Ctaia » o^J- M I; .(I , 'U lii ;i ' i'( 1 1 ! 'I ' (iev, James H. Brookes, D. D» " Dr. Brocket ia well known to the ChrUtiar. public €U a dit- Hnguiihed preacher, and also aa a writer wlioae publieation$ on religious evbjecta have had a large circulation." —Tub Cbntbal Prbsbytbrian. The Christ lamo, cloth $1.25 " Dr. Brookes is preeminent In his knowledife and use of the English Bible. . . . 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