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 I THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY,!, 
 1 Princeton, N. J. f 
 
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THE ISRAEL OF GOD. 
 
Eig^ hy AH. HitAU. -V } 
 
 .i^c^ 
 
THE 
 
 ISKAEL OF GOD. 
 
 STEPHEN H. TYNG, D.D. 
 
 RECTOR OF ST. GEORGf;'s CHURCH, NEW YORK. 
 
 FOURTH THOUSAND. 
 ENLARGED. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, 
 
 No. 285 BROADWAY. 
 
 1849. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, by 
 
 STEPHEN H. TYNG, 
 
 In the Clerk's OiBee of the District Court of the United States for the 
 Southern District of New York. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It is nearly ten years since the present volume was first 
 published in the city of Philadelphia. The simple purpose 
 of its publication then, was to gratify the wish of a large 
 circle of personal friends, who had often expressed the de- 
 sire to have in print, some of the discourses which they had 
 been accustomed to hear from the author in the pulpit. 
 Since the first publication of this volume, more than three 
 thousand copies of it have been sold. And in bringing out 
 another edition, to which he has added some further selec- 
 tions from his sermons, the author would record his grati- 
 tude to God who has thus given his humble labors so much 
 acceptance among his people, — and his affectionate expres- 
 sions of thankfulness to the many Christian friends who 
 have so liberally encouraged and sustained his ministry of 
 the Sacred Word. Great indeed is the privilege of pro- 
 claiming that glorious and finished salvation, which the 
 Gospel offers to perishing men, as laid up in Christ alone ; 
 purchased by the merit of his righteousness, and bestowed 
 by the exercise of his power. Never was there a time, when 
 it was more necessary to preach and teach this great salva- 
 tion, in the simplicity of its divine revelation, in the words 
 which the Holy Ghost teacheth. The author trusts that 
 this volume will be found to do this clearly and faithfully, 
 
vi INTRODUCTION, 
 
 The years and experience of his past ministry, and the whole 
 course of his study and observation have served to deepen 
 his convictions of the value and importance of the truths 
 which are here, as in his other works, proclaimed. He can 
 have no change to make in doctrine, or in methods of teach- 
 ing, in the years of his ministry to men. Whether they 
 be few or many, he earnestly desires that they may be, by 
 the help of God, all devoted to the one great purpose of 
 preaching the Gospel of the Son of God, — and spreading, to 
 the extent of his ability, what appear to him the only just 
 views of this precious revelation of grace to man. In the 
 preaching of this great salvation, he trusts that a gracious 
 God will mercifully continue to bless his labors, and give 
 him many seals to his ministry, in the new and important 
 field of effort which is now opened before him, and among 
 the interesting and valued flock now gathering under his 
 care. At the feet of the Glorious Saviour, the author hum- 
 bly desires to lay down all his labors, and to ascribe all the 
 glory forever, to his wonderful and glorious name. 
 
 S. H. T. 
 
 St. George's Church, 
 January 2, 1849. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. 
 
 God's Message to Israel, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 9 
 
 n. 
 
 DO. DO., 
 
 25 
 
 III. 
 
 DO. DO., 
 
 . 39 
 
 IV. 
 
 DO. DO., 
 
 56 
 
 V. 
 
 The New Creature, 
 
 . 71 
 
 VI. 
 
 DO. DO., .... 
 
 85 
 
 VII. 
 
 The Lord's Side, .... 
 
 . 100 
 
 VIII. 
 
 The Protected People, 
 
 114 
 
 IX. 
 
 The Rescued Brand, 
 
 . 131 
 
 - X. 
 
 The Sinner's Choice, 
 
 146 
 
 XI. 
 
 The Christian's Rock, 
 
 . 162 
 
 XII. 
 
 A Spiritual Famine, 
 
 179 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Little Sins, 
 
 . 198 
 
 ■ XIV. 
 
 The Valley of Decision, 
 
 212 
 
 XV. 
 
 The Christian's Hindrances, . 
 
 . 225 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Old Age without Religion, 
 
 240 
 
 XVII. 
 
 DO. do., 
 
 . 254 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 DO. DO., 
 
 268 
 
 XIX. 
 
 DO. DO., 
 
 . 283 
 
 XX. 
 
 The Latter End, .... 
 
 297 
 
 XXI. 
 
 The True Circumcision, 
 
 . 308 
 
 XXII. 
 
 DO. DO., 
 
 321 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 DO. DO., .... 
 
 . 333 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 The Gospel the only Rock, 
 
 345 
 
 XXV. 
 
 DO. DO. DO., 
 
 . 359 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 do. do. do., . 
 
 373 
 
PKIITGSTOIT^:. 
 I. \^HSOLOGIG^L/ 
 
 nnr# 
 
 GOD S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 
 
 Amos iv. 12. — Prepare to meet thy God, Israel. 
 
 We commence this day, the course of another 
 ecclesiastical year, with the season of Advent. Our 
 attention is particularly, and properly called, to the 
 consideration of the coming of our great God and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, as God manifest in the flesh. 
 The special services of the Liturgy for this season, 
 have reference to this great fact ; and it becomes the 
 preacher's duty to lead to it also. This view of pro- 
 priety, leads me now to call your minds to the solemn 
 message of our present text. 
 
 " Prepare to meet thy God, Israel." 
 In the language of the Scripture, the design of 
 Almighty God in any way to bless or to punish man- 
 kind, is often represented by the declaration of his 
 coming among them for that purpose. The peculiar 
 connexion which existed between the Israelites as a 
 people, and God as their particular Ruler and King, 
 may be referred to, as rendering this form of expres- 
 sion entirely intelligible, and manifestly appropriate. 
 
 2 9 
 
10 GOD'S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 
 
 As earthly rulers move from place to place in their 
 dominions, to administer justice, and to fulfil the pur- 
 poses of government, so the Almighty Ruler, as the 
 special King of Israel, vv^as exhibited to their view, in 
 the various dispensations of his providence, and in 
 the employment of his chosen instruments of blessing 
 or chastisement, as coming personally among them. 
 
 In his own existence, God necessarily fills all space, 
 and is at all times, equally present, in every portion 
 of the universe which he hath formed. Yet he fre- 
 quently speaks of himself, sometimes as dwelling 
 among his people, and then as departing from them ; 
 sometimes as being near to them, and a God at hand, 
 and at others as being far from them, and a God 
 afar off ; sometimes as visiting the earth, to bless it 
 with plenteousness, or to punish it for transgres- 
 sion, and at others, as looking down upon its inhabit- 
 ants, in observation, either of their uprightness and 
 integrity, or of their depravity and alienation from 
 himself All these forms of expression arise, from 
 the peculiar government which he exercised over the 
 Israelites, often called a theocracy, under whicli, he 
 condescended to fill the office of their ruler, allowing 
 them to choose him as such, as he says to them, *'the 
 Lord your God was your King," and they as a chosen 
 and peculiar people, were considered as the special 
 subjects of his authority. 
 
 Because every instrument, either of good or evil, 
 was powerful and effectual only as employed by him, 
 God is also often said to have personally done, that 
 which was done by his permission. And because the 
 accomplishment of the good or evil referred to, was 
 an especial manifestation of his power and provi- 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 11 
 
 dence, and he seemed to be particularly present, 
 where the effects of his influence were thus exhibited, 
 under such circumstances, he is spoken of as being 
 nearer to the subjects of his authority, than upon 
 ordinary occasions. When by the famine, the pesti- 
 lence, or the sword, he was to punish the transgres- 
 sions of the ungodly, and the loftiness of man was to 
 be bowed down, and the haughtiness of man was to 
 be made low, he speaks to them in the language of 
 solemn personal denunciation, that he will arise, and 
 shake terribly the earth, that he will come near unto 
 them, as a swift witness against their guilt. And 
 when he would deliver his people, by conquest over 
 their enemies, or establish them in prosperity, in the 
 land which he had given them, he proclaims in the 
 sublime expression of his triumphant purpose, that 
 he would ride upon the heavens for their help, and in 
 his excellency upon tlie sky ; that he would move in 
 the whirlwind, and in the storm, and the clouds should 
 be the dust of his feet. While he thus warns his 
 people of his approach, either for purposes of mercy 
 or judgment, he commands them also, to prepare for 
 his reception; to be ready to meet him, with that 
 reverence, and gratitude, and submission, which com- 
 ported with his high authority, and with their depend- 
 ance upon his power. 
 
 In the particular message of our text, there is a 
 reference to the severe and painful chastisements, 
 which the Israelites had already received from him. 
 These afflictions had not been allowed by them to 
 produce their proper effect, in bringing to repentance, 
 those who had before transgressed the divine com- 
 mands. God threatens them therefore, with the 
 
12 god's message to ISRAEL. 
 
 further execution of his determinations for punish- 
 ment, and solemnly admonishes them, to be prepared 
 to meet him at his coming among them, for this 
 purpose. 
 
 At the time in which this message was delivered 
 by the prophet, the people of Israel, to whom it was 
 addressed, may be regarded as exhibiting the two 
 distinct characters, of the Spiritual Israel, and the 
 Idolatrous Israel. A very large majority of them 
 had gone astray from God, under the idolatry which 
 had been established in their land. But, as God 
 had informed Elijah in a previous time, there was 
 still a remnant who had not bowed the knee to Baal. 
 There was a nominal Israel known to man, and there 
 was a spiritual Israel also among them, secretly dis- 
 cerned by God. In my present application of the 
 message before us, I wish to consider it under these 
 two aspects; and first, as addressed to the latter 
 class ; as the divine message to the Spiritual Israel, 
 the chosen, peculiar people of God. 
 
 The selection of the Israelites from the other 
 nations of men, to be the depositary of God's revela- 
 tions to the world, is frequently used in the Scrip- 
 tures, in illustration of the election of a people under 
 the Gospel dispensation, from all classes of men, to 
 become the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ; who, 
 as believers in his Gospel, are accepted in him, as the 
 peculiar people of God; and by the power of his 
 Spirit, are created anew in holiness after his image, 
 and made zealous and persevering in their obedience 
 to his laws. This people are called in the Scripture, 
 " the Israel of God," in distinction from " Israel after 
 the flesh." The contrast between them is recognized 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 13 
 
 in that one declaration of St. Paul, "all are not Israel 
 that are of Israel." To this people, in all lands, con- 
 verted and sanctified by the Spirit of God, and justi- 
 fied in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, are the 
 promises of the Gospel made. And the divine method 
 of government over the nation of Israel, illustrates 
 the Lord's system of spiritual discipline over those 
 who are thus called according to his promise. 
 
 To this people before me, I now address the mes- 
 sage of the text. As the spiritual Israel, I refer to 
 those among my hearers, who have come unto Christ, 
 as a people that shall serve him ; who have accepted 
 him as all their salvation, and all their desire; in 
 whose eternal security he sees of the travail of his 
 soul, and is satisfied; and over whose redemption 
 through his blood, he will rejoice forever. To these 
 I speak. To the Christians of this congregation, as 
 the children of God, the believing, obedient subjects 
 of our divine Emmanuel, whose hearts the Lord the 
 Spirit hath directed into the love of God, and the 
 patient waiting for Christ, I address myself as to 
 God's spiritual Israel : — " Prepare to meet thy God, 
 Israel." 
 
 I. We will remark upon the events which may be 
 referred to as the coming of God. 
 
 Beside the minor and local dispensations of the 
 divine providence which are spoken of under this 
 character, there are two grand events in the history 
 of the world, which are referred to in the Scripture 
 under this peculiar designation. They are, the per- 
 sonal advent of God in his incarnation, for the re- 
 demption of his people, when the fulness of the God- 
 head dwelt bodily among men ; and the second per- 
 B 
 
14 god's message to ISRAEL. 
 
 sonal advent of God the Saviour, to judge the world 
 in righteousness, when every one of us must give an 
 account of himself to God. To these two great 
 events our reference will be made, and the people of 
 God are exhorted to prepare to meet them. 
 
 1 . The first advent of God to put away sin by the 
 sacrifice of himself, in some of its aspects, may be 
 considered as a past event. But in regard to its final 
 object, the accomplishment of man's salvation, it 
 must be considered as enduring until every ransomed 
 soul has been brought home, converted from the 
 world, and fully devoted unto God. Through a long 
 succession of ages, believers in the divine promise, 
 had looked forward to this coming of God, as the 
 great object of their desire. They were waiting in 
 expectation of the full consolation of the people of 
 God. They expected a Redeemer, who should speak 
 in righteousness, and be mighty to save ; who should 
 be able to say, " Look unto me, and be ye saved, all 
 the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is 
 none else ;" and of whom they could reply in thank- 
 ful welcome, " Lo, this is our God, we have waited 
 for him, and he will save us." The purpose of his 
 first advent, was not to condemn, but to save. It was 
 to collect into one fold, his sheep who were scattered 
 in the midst of this sinful world, that they might be 
 saved through him forever. 
 
 This great purpose of his coming, he is effecting 
 every day. In each instance in which he converts a 
 sinner unto himself, and takes possession of a mind 
 thus renewed, he may be considered as having come 
 anew with the Holy Ghost and with power, to seek 
 and to save that which was lost. He has yet abroad 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 15 
 
 in the world "much people," as he said to Paul of 
 guilty, unbelieving Corinth, who know him not, who 
 have never been taught to call upon his name, and who, 
 perhaps, are now like that same chosen vessel, per- 
 secuting him ignorantly in unbelief. Millions of souls 
 yet unborn, undoubtedly will be born again for the 
 inheritance which he has provided for his children. 
 Among those who hear me, there are doubtless many, 
 to whom the glad tidings of his salvation will yet be 
 made known, and into whose hearts the word shall 
 yet come with power, and with much assurance, 
 though they are now wandering in all the follies and 
 guiltiness of the world. Under this view, the exhor- 
 tation of the text may still be addressed to the Israel 
 of God, in reference to the first coming of their King. 
 To the heart yet unchanged, the real advent of Christ 
 for man's salvation, is as much a future event, as it 
 was to Abraham. And when the glad hour of its 
 conversion shall come, God will, for the first time, 
 be effectually manifested to that heart, as a Saviour. 
 He Avill then become its salvation. To very many 
 souls his way is not yet prepared. He has not come 
 to them because they are not ready to receive him. 
 He stands at the door, and knocks; and whenever 
 there is in them a willingness to admit him, and they 
 are ready to open the door, he will delay no longer, 
 but will come in to them, and will sup with them, and 
 they with him. Then the converted soul shall be 
 able to say, " Behold, God is become my salvation, I 
 will trust, and not be afraid ;" "my flesh shall rest in 
 hope," " for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." 
 
 2. The second advent of God the Saviour, which 
 is for all who listen to me, still a future event, will be 
 
16 god's message to ISRAEL. 
 
 for the full salvation of his people, for the universal 
 judgment of the w^orld, and for the final settlement 
 of his glorious and everlasting kingdom. Then, he 
 who w^as once offered to bear the sins of many, 
 shall appear w^ithout sin unto salvation, for all who 
 have believed on his name. All that the Father hath 
 given him, shall come to him ; and of those who thus 
 come to him, he will lose none, but will raise them 
 up at the last day. This glorious advent of the Re- 
 deemer as the universal Judge, is exhibited in the 
 Scriptures in the most sublime and glowing language. 
 He is to come in the clouds, attended by innumerable 
 hosts of angels, with the instant manifestation of the 
 lightning. He is to be seated on a throne of glory, 
 and all nations are to be gathered before him. One 
 grand division shall separate forever the immortal 
 spirits for whom that day has been prepared ; and to 
 its own abode, its final dwelling place, shall every soul 
 depart. 
 
 This solemn day is a future one ; but how far re- 
 moved, neither men nor angels know. It cannot 
 come until God's purposes of grace in reference to 
 this fallen world have been all fulfilled; until all 
 Christ's sheep have heard his voice, and followed 
 him; until those who are unholy, are so perversely 
 and voluntarily unholy, that they must remain unholy 
 still. But though the actual day of universal judg- 
 ment may be far remote, the coming of Christ to call 
 us personally to account, cannot be. This is near at 
 hand. For this most important change, his people are 
 to be well prepared. " Behold, I come quickly," he 
 says to every one who has entered into covenant with 
 him, "hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 17 
 
 thy crown." Few will be the years before every 
 child of God in this assembly shall have been called 
 to meet the God of his salvation ; to stand before the 
 throne of him whom his soul loveth, and to rejoice in 
 the eternal possession of the riches of his grace, and 
 of an unfading crown of glory. The day of reunion 
 with the body spiritualized and rendered holy, as an 
 eternal companion for the ransomed spirit, may be far 
 postponed ; and long may our mortal part sleep under 
 the care of Jesus, before the arrival of the liour in 
 which the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of 
 man, and return to life. But not so far postponed, 
 the hour of bliss for us. To-morrow we may be 
 with Christ. This night may finish our wanderings 
 in a land of strangers, and call us to our final home 
 with him. How solemn, how tranquil, how secure, 
 the joy with which the believer may look forward to 
 this hour of permanent reunion with his Lord ! 
 
 Yet a few years, or days, perhaps, 
 Or moments pass in silent lapse. 
 
 And time with me shall be no more — 
 No more, the sun these eyes shall view, 
 Earth o'er these limbs, her dust shall strew, 
 
 And life's delusive dream be o'er. 
 
 To this second coming of Emmanuel, our glorious 
 King, the exhortation of the text directs the watch- 
 fulness of the people of God. Much is to be done 
 for every one of us, before we can feel altogether 
 willing to say in reference to it, " even so, come Lord 
 Jesus, come quickly." And 0, let us make it the 
 subject of earnest effort and prayer, that by the in- 
 dwelling of the Snirit, we may be prepared to appear 
 b2 3 
 
18 god's message to ISRAEL. 
 
 unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing 
 of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! 
 
 These two great events in the history of the world, 
 and in the history of each redeemed soul, which is 
 but the world in miniature, are known in the Scrip- 
 tures, and are to be considered by us, as the coming 
 of our great God and Saviour. He first comes, as a 
 crucified, atoning Saviour, to the hearts of his people ; 
 to give them pardon and peace ; to take from them, 
 all hardness of heart, and contempt of his word ; to 
 bestow upon them the grace, which is able to keep 
 them from falling; and to present them before the 
 throne of his glory, with exceeding joy. He comes 
 to raise them from the ruins of the fall, and to make 
 them an holy temple, an habitation of God through 
 the Spirit. And happy is he who has part in this first 
 resurrection; over him, the second death shall have 
 no power. Having thus perfected the purpose of his 
 first advent, in the soul of every child of God ; having 
 brought the wanderer home to his fold, and taught 
 him to go in and out, and find pasture, he comes yet 
 again, to carry this child of grace, to a better country, 
 that is, an heavenly. He comes to make an eternal 
 end of sin and trial for his soul, and to crown him 
 with unspeakable bliss, in the presence of his God. 
 He comes to carry him in his arms, to living pastures, 
 and to fountains of the water of life; to that river 
 of love, whose streams make glad the city of our God, 
 the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. 
 To these two important days, the day of our new 
 birth of grace, and the day of our new birth to glory ; 
 the day in which Christ comes to our hearts, to make 
 us his servants, and the day in which he comes for 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 19 
 
 our souls to make us his saints ; — I would direct the 
 attention of the Israel of God, as the events pointed 
 out, in our present exhortation, *' Prepare to meet 
 thy God, O Israel." 
 
 II. This leads me to describe the state of mind, 
 which is implied in this call for preparation. I must 
 ask your distinct attention to the required prepara- 
 tion for each of the two advents of Christ, which we 
 have now separately considered. His people are to 
 be prepared for his coming to bless them with for- 
 giveness of sin, and with a spiritual renewal of their 
 mind ; and for his coming to take them to himself in 
 everlasting blessedness. 
 
 1 . In regard to his first advent, a divine messenger 
 was sent to make ready his way ; and in the wilder- 
 ness of a guilty world, a voice from God was heard, 
 crying, "prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make 
 straight in the desert, a highway for our God." Such 
 is the message to be still delivered, and such is the 
 work to be still perfected, in the case of all who are 
 led to receive Jesus as their Saviour, and to become 
 in him, by a spiritual regeneration, the children of 
 God. To every unconverted soul, he is waiting to 
 be gracious. His arm is not shortened, that it cannot 
 save, nor his ear heavy, that he cannot hear ; but the 
 sins of men separate them from him ; and they have 
 no part in his salvation, because they are not ready 
 to receive him, as their Lord and their God. When 
 you are humbled under a deep conviction of sin; 
 when you are made to feel the dangers which your 
 transgressions have brought upon yourselves; when 
 you see that you have provoked against you, the wrath 
 of an holy God ; when your souls can thus be made 
 
20 god's message to iskael. 
 
 athirst for God, and long for the free and full salva- 
 tion which Christ bestows ; he is ready to enter into 
 your hearts, as his permanent abode, and to bless you 
 with the possession of a hope of glory. But this 
 work of preparation must be finished, before your 
 hearts can find peace with him. The world and self 
 are to be forsaken and denied. Your own rigliteous- 
 ness as a ground of hope, is to be relinquished. A 
 deep sense of the holiness of the law and government 
 of God, is to be impressed upon your minds. And 
 you are to be made to feel, that it is a fearful thing 
 to fall into the hands of the living God, without that 
 hope in Christ, which maketh not ashamed. 
 
 In a multitude of cases, in which this work will be 
 accomplished, it has not yet been done. There are 
 many wanderers from the fold, still lost in the moun- 
 tains, thinking not of the kindness of the shepherd, 
 and conscious of no wish to return to him. There 
 are many too, who though they are partially awak- 
 ened, are not yet willing to yield themselves to the 
 will of God, or prepared to choose him as their final 
 portion. How appropriate to all such, in reference 
 to the first advent of Christ, is the exhortation of our 
 text! — "Prepare to meet thy God." Be ready to 
 receive him, as your shield, and your exceeding great 
 reward. Allow yourselves to be convinced of the 
 vanity of the world, of the insufficiency of all self- 
 dependence, of the necessity of a living, lasting union 
 by faith, with Jesus Christ. He is ready to bless 
 you with a full redemption through his blood. But 
 he cannot pardon, while you will not confess your 
 guilt. He cannot raise you up, while proud and 
 I oastful in your self-reflections, you will not believe 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 21 
 
 that you have fallen. He cannot bind a heart that 
 is not broken, nor heal a spirit which has not been 
 bruised. They who are whole need not a physician, 
 but they who are sick. Long since might you have 
 been rejoicing in the salvation of the Gospel, but for 
 the obstacles, which you have voluntarily thrown in a 
 Saviour's way. And before the morrow, you may 
 be happy in the enjoyment of a Saviour's love, if you 
 can now be persuaded, to prepare the way for his 
 coming to your heart, and to yield that heart to his 
 control. But if you voluntarily remain alienated 
 from him, and put far from you the grace which he 
 so freely offers, year by year will still pass by, and 
 find you yet, a poor captive of Satan, bound in chains 
 of darkness, and still less and less inclined, to come 
 to Jesus for the life you need. I beseech you, my 
 friends, to lay aside this spirit of enmity, and to 
 become prepared for this first advent of the Lord the 
 Saviour. Seek the Lord while he may be found; 
 call upon him, while he is near ; let the wicked for- 
 sake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, 
 and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have 
 mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abun- 
 dantly pardon. 
 
 2. Li regard to the second coming of Christ, when 
 every eye shall see him shining in glory, and among 
 all the kindreds of the earth, they who have pierced 
 him by their ingratitude and sin, shall wail because 
 of him, the exhortation of our text becomes still more 
 solemn and important. What progress in holiness 
 shall be too large a preparation for that momentous 
 hour of the soul's existence ? What life of faith can 
 be too elevated ? What heavenliness of character can 
 
22 god's message to Israel. 
 
 be too exalted ? What spirituality of affection can be 
 too intense, as an education for that day of God ? To 
 all the spiritual Israel must this address be solemnly 
 applied. There must be with you, my brethren, a 
 consistent, growing life of faith and piety ; affections 
 set upon things above ; and a disposition to find all 
 your treasures hid in Jesus Christ. 
 
 Your own souls are to be purified in holiness ; to 
 be exercised in communion with God ; and to acquire 
 the taste, the habits, and tlie dialect of heaven. The 
 peculiar employments and joys of an holier world are 
 to be made the subjects of your study, and the objects 
 of your desire. It must have become the portion of 
 your choice, to depart hence, and be with Christ, 
 before you will be prepared to meet your God, or be 
 able to assure your hearts before him. 
 
 The souls of others are to be saved. The holy 
 kingdom of the Lord Jesus is to be established in 
 the world; and the various means which he has 
 placed in your hands, to build up this kingdom, are 
 to be employed by you, with ardour, and thankful- 
 ness, and success. But alas, how little of your 
 portion of this work has been accomplished ! What 
 darkness and misery prevail over large regions of 
 the earth, while perhaps, to very few, have you ever 
 given the cup of living water, for Christ's sake ! 
 What precious souls have you assisted to save ? Are 
 there any in heaven, are there any on the earth, who 
 can praise God, that they have lived in the same age, 
 or in the same world, with you? O, you have yet 
 much, very much to do. And every grain which you 
 can take from the vast heap of human wretchedness, 
 IS so much done towards breaking down the power 
 
GOD S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 23 
 
 of Satan, and establishing the dominion of the Lord 
 Jcsus among men. 
 
 Personal holiness and active beneficence constitute 
 the whole amount of pure and undefiled religion, as 
 exemplified in the character which is required of the 
 people of God. And though no worth can appertain 
 to either, as proceeding from an imperfect and sinful 
 being, yet undoubtedly, the higher are our attainments 
 in both, the more full of peace and comfort will our 
 souls be, at the coming of our God. Our triumph in 
 that hour, will not rest indeed upon personal excel- 
 lence, but upon the unsearchable riclies of Christ. 
 We shall look far higher, than to ourselves; and 
 much farther back, than to our own lives, for our 
 objects of praise. We shall ascribe all the glory, to 
 that God who hath from the beginning, chosen us 
 unto salvation, through the sanctification of the Spirit, 
 and a belief of the truth. But we shall remember 
 our work of faith, and labour of love, and patience 
 of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of 
 God and our Father, as testifying to our hearts, our 
 election of God. 
 
 In all the duties of an holy, active life, the spiritual 
 Israel are to be prepared to meet their God. Beloved 
 brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abound- 
 ing in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know, 
 that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. You have 
 a great work to do, and but little time in which to do it. 
 Many souls around you, are yet unconverted. Many 
 are growing cold and careless. Many are but slowly 
 progressing in grace. And for all, much sin is to be 
 subdued, and much likeness to God attained, before 
 they shall become meet to be partakers of the inherit- 
 
24 god's message to Israel. 
 
 ance of the saints in light. All this is to be done 
 quickly. God's appointed hours are rapidly approach- 
 ing, and his plans of providence are fast developing. 
 The Judge standeth at the door. O, when he comes, 
 shall he find faith on the earth ? Shall he find you 
 waiting for his approach ? Shall you be clothed in 
 his righteousness, and presented without spot before 
 him ? Be ye sure of this. See to it, that your souls 
 are safe in Jesus Christ. Be anxious and watchful 
 for this great concern. And when the door is shut, 
 irrevocably shut, be certain, that it shall be closed 
 for your security, in an abode of eternal peace and 
 triumph. 
 
II. 
 
 god's message to ISRAEL. 
 
 Amos iv. 12. — Prepare to meet thy God, Israel. 
 
 In presenting this message from Almighty God to 
 his people, as a subject for your consideration, I pro- 
 posed to speak of it, first, as a message to God's 
 spiritual Israel, and secondly, as addressed to the 
 idolatrous Israel. In one discourse upon this first 
 division, I have spoken of the events which are to be 
 referred to, as the coming of our God ; and of the 
 state of mind, which is required, as a preparation for 
 these events. 
 
 III. The third topic for remark in this view of the 
 text, will be the character under which God will come 
 to his spiritual Israel. He is theirs, and he is their 
 God. " Prepare to meet thy God, Israel." 
 Whether our reference be made to the first, or to the 
 second advent of our God, the message of the text 
 may be welcomed with joy by all his people. If he 
 comes to them in their unconverted state, to deliver 
 them from the bondage of their sins, to ransom them 
 from the power of eternal death, and to make them 
 C 4 25 
 
26 god's message to Israel. 
 
 free with the liberty of the sons of God ; or, if he 
 comes to them, when their earthly probation has 
 been finished, to bring them unto Zion, with songs 
 and everlasting joy upon their heads ; he comes to 
 them in each cas.:j, as their God ; as a Saviour who 
 is welcome to their hearts, and whose love to them, 
 is an everlasting love. To this attractive and pre- 
 cious character of an approaching Redeemer, I desire 
 now to direct your notice, while I ask you to consider 
 the relation whicli he sustains to his people, and the 
 mutual property which they have in each other. 
 
 He comes to them, not as an enemy whom they 
 fear, but as a friend in whom they delight ; not as a 
 Ruler, whose power only makes him the more ter- 
 rible, but as a protector, in whose ability to save unto 
 the uttermost, they can altogether confide. There is 
 a charm given by the personal possession of a trea- 
 sure, which can never belong to that which is not our 
 own. However valuable an object may be in itself, 
 it cannot fail to become in our estimation, far more 
 so, if we are permitted to appropriate it to ourselves. 
 Now the glorious Emmanuel, is in himself, an inex- 
 haustible treasure. All riches of wisdom, and power, 
 and love are laid up in him. But he becomes to our 
 view, still more precious, as his Spirit enables us to 
 make him our own. When we have been taught to 
 say in the assurance of a vital lasting union with 
 him, " my beloved is mine, and I am his," we have 
 learned a full answer to the inquiries of the world, 
 " what is thy beloved, more than another beloved ?" 
 To those who believe, he is precious; and though 
 now they see him not, yet believing in him, they re- 
 joice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory. They 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 21 
 
 experience from day to day, his reviving, transform- 
 ing power. And in the enjoyment of peace with him, 
 and with all the charms of property and personal in- 
 terest, they can say of him, " this God is our God 
 for ever and ever ; he will be our guide even unto 
 death." 
 
 1. Beloved Christian friends, God the Saviour is 
 ours, by his own election of us to be his people. Be- 
 fore we were brought into being, we were his. When 
 we were dead in trespasses and sins, he loved us, ac- 
 cording to the riches of his mercy. When we knew 
 him not, perhaps had never thought of him, he called 
 us to receive the fulness of his grace. This is the 
 great reason for our gratitude and praise to him, that 
 he waited for no merit in us ; but from the overflow- 
 ing of his own compassion towards us, he had mercy 
 because he would have mercy. How often does the 
 Apostle Paul make this the subject of thanksgiving 
 unto God, in behalf of the believers in the Lord Jesus, 
 to whom he wrote ! To the Ephesians he says, 
 " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings 
 in heavenly places in Christ ; according as he hath 
 chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, 
 that we should be holy and without blame before him 
 in love." To the Thessalonians he says, " We give 
 thanks to God always for you all, making mention of 
 you in our prayers ; remembering without ceasing, 
 your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience 
 of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God, 
 and our Father; knowing, brethren beloved, your 
 election of God." This is the fundamental ground 
 of the property which God has in his people, and 
 
28 god's message to Israel. 
 
 which they have in him. By his own imhounded 
 love, he has thus become our God ; and we feel con- 
 strained to give hvJA all the glory, for that grace which 
 has saved us from everlasting ruin, and given unto 
 us, exceeding great and precious promises in Jesus 
 Christ, without any reference to merit, or worthiness 
 in ourselves. 
 
 2. God the Saviour is ours, by a voluntary dona- 
 tion of himself for us. When we were without 
 strength, or hope, in due time, Christ died for the 
 ungodly. Sin against God had placed the whole 
 race of man under a curse. The wrath of God was 
 revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness 
 of men. Without the shedding of blood there was 
 no remission. Either the sinner or a substitute must 
 die, to preserve the majesty of God unstained, and 
 to reconcile the justice of God to the pardon of the 
 guilty. To make the necessary atonement for sin, 
 and to accomplish the perfect righteousness which 
 man required, God became man, and opened in him- 
 self, a fountain for sin and for uncleanness. Burnt 
 offerings and sacrifice for sins, could offer no hope to 
 a fallen soul. Then, said God the Son, " Lo, I come, 
 to do thy will, O God." From this voluntary, cheer- 
 ful submission of himself to be the sinner's propitia- 
 tion, as early as the existence of human want, he is 
 called, " the Lamb slain from the foundation of tl^ 
 world." By this donation of himself, he purchased 
 for himself a peculiar people, who shall glorify him 
 on the earth, and become partakers of his glory in 
 heaven. They were the subjects of the promise to 
 him, in the great covenant of redemption, which is 
 the whole foundation of human hope. In them he 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 29 
 
 was to see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied. 
 By their knowledge of himself, he was to justify them, 
 when he should bear their iniquities, and make his 
 life an offering for sin. He has thus purchased them, 
 with an inestimable price, and they are his people, and 
 he is their God. 
 
 3. God the Saviour becomes ours, by our volun- 
 tary acceptance of his mercy. The rich and glorious 
 privileges of his Gospel are freely offered to the 
 enjoyment of all who hear the message which pre- 
 sents them. The terms of the divine invitations are 
 unlimited, and whosoever will, is invited by the Sa- 
 viour, to be partaker of his grace. But vast numbers 
 despise the riches of his long suffering, trample under 
 their feet God's dear Son, and count the blood of his 
 covenant an unholy and worthless thing. There are 
 thousands who speak evil of the way of truth ; who 
 hate the pure and perfect commands of God ; and who 
 live without a desire for conversion, under the domi- 
 nion of tliat carnal mind, which is enmity against God, 
 and is not, and will not be, subject to his will. But 
 while this is the character of many, there are cer- 
 tainly many also, who have received Jesus in their 
 hearts, as their hope of glory ; and have rejoiced in 
 the acceptance of the loving kindness which he has 
 offered them. They have felt their deep necessity 
 for such a Saviour. They have been convinced of 
 the wretchedness of their natural condition without 
 him. They have found themselves to be without 
 hope, because they were without God in the world. 
 They have been wearied with the hard service in 
 which they have been held ; and have sought for re- 
 demption and peace in the blood of Jesus, even the 
 c 2 
 
so god's message to ISRAEL 
 
 forgiveness of sins. They have thus gratefully re- 
 ceived the offer of salvation, which God has been 
 pleased to make to them, and to cast themselves 
 humbly, and wdiolly, upon him. By this acceptance 
 of the riches of his mercy vs^hich are in Christ Jesus, 
 God becomes their Saviour and their covenant God. 
 
 4. God the Saviour becomes ours, by the personal 
 consecration of ourselves to his service. If we are 
 his people, we have come out from this evil world, 
 and separated ourselves from its vanities and sins. 
 We have named ourselves by the name of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and have bound ourselves in a covenant 
 with him, to be his forever, and to depart from all 
 iniquity. We are not our own, and we have not 
 the right to live unto ourselves. He has sealed us 
 with his Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption ; and 
 we have promised to live in the remembrance, that 
 our time, and talents, and opportunities and power to 
 do good, are all the Lord's. We are to feel it as our 
 highest privilege, that he is willing to accept our im- 
 perfect services, and to look down with compassion 
 upon such sinful and unworthy creatures. There has 
 been a solemn agreement registered in heaven, be- 
 tween every Christian before me, and the Master 
 whom they are all bound to serve; an agreement 
 voluntarily entered into by themselves ; that they will 
 have no other God but him, that every idol which their 
 vain hearts may have set up for their homage, shall 
 be relinquished and cast away, and that their whole 
 affections shall be consecrated unto him, and to his 
 glory, forever. This devotion of ourselves to God, 
 is recognised in all our approaches to his throne of 
 grace, whether in public or in private. We come 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 31 
 
 unto him as our covenant God, to whom wc have 
 made the voluntary donation of ourselves, to be a living 
 sacrifice unto hin), and whose promises mercifully 
 established in the Lord Jesus Christ, v^^e have the 
 right therefore to plead before him. We have thus 
 avouched the Lord to be our God; and we become 
 witnesses against ourselves, if we forsake his service, 
 and yield our affections to the enemies of his will. 
 
 This is the fourfold ground of that reciprocal pro- 
 perty which subsists between God and his people. 
 He is theirs by the free donation of himself to be a 
 Saviour and a sacrifice for their souls. They are his 
 by his own merciful election of them before the foun- 
 dation of the world ; by their thankful acceptance of 
 his mercy when it was offered them in the Gospel; 
 and by their solemn devotion of themselves to his 
 holy service. By his Holy Spirit, they are united in 
 faith unto Christ. And being thus made the mem- 
 bers of his body, where he is, there must they be also. 
 This is the divine promise to them, " they shall call 
 upon my name, and I will hear them ; I will say, it is 
 my people, and they shall say, the Lord is my God." 
 How glorious is the privilege of this union ! The 
 high and lofty One, even the God who ruleth in the 
 heavens, is ours. We may faint and be weary ; we 
 may be cast down and despondent. But God still 
 says to us in our lowest depressions, " fear not, thou 
 worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel ; I will help thee, 
 saith the Lord thy R.edeemer, the holy One of Israel. 
 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should 
 not have compassion upon the son of her womb? 
 Yea, they may forget, yet Vv^ill not I forget thee." 
 
 Under this character, does God come to his spiritual 
 
$2 god's message to ISRAEL. 
 
 Israel, whether for th&ir conversion, or for their final 
 triumph. He is theirs, and they are his. What force 
 does this consideration add to the address of our text, 
 "Prepare to meet thy God, Israel." "What an 
 assemblage of motives to holiness, does the Gospel 
 present!" said the spiritually-minded Payson, "I am 
 a Christian. What then? I am a redeemed sinner, a 
 pardoned rebel ; all through grace, and by the most 
 wonderful means which infinite wisdom could devise. 
 I am a Christian. What then ? Why I am a temple 
 of God, and surely I ought to be pure and holy. I 
 am a Christian. What then ? Why I am a child of 
 God, and I ought to be filled with filial reverence, 
 love, joy, and gratitude. I am a Christian. What 
 then ? Why I am a disciple of Christ, and must imi- 
 tate him who was meek and lowly in heart, and 
 pleased not himself. I am a Christian. What then ? 
 Why I am an heir of heaven, and hastening on to the 
 abodes of the blessed, to join the full choir of the 
 glorified ones, in singing the song of Moses and the 
 Lamb; and surely I ought to learn that song on 
 earth." 
 
 But while we are remarking upon the character 
 under which God will come to his spiritual people, 
 we must consider him, not only as theirs, but as their 
 GoD. "Prepare to meet thy God, Israel." In 
 the governments of this world, the more elevated is 
 the station of a ruler, the more grand and extensive 
 will be the preparations to receive him among his 
 subjects. In the intimacies of domestic life, the 
 dearer is the character of a friend, the greater joy 
 will the anticipation of his arrival produce. The 
 message of the text may well lead the children of Sion 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 33 
 
 to be joyful in their King, both from the glorious 
 character of the Being whose coming it proclaims, 
 and from the intimate relation wliich he sustains to 
 his people. " Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye 
 out to meet him." " This is our God, and he will 
 save us." He is the strength of our heart, and our 
 portion forever. It was he who formed us for him- 
 self, and called us into being, that we might glorify his 
 name ; who made us in his own image, that we might 
 show forth his praise, and be able to enjoy him for- 
 ever. It was he who sustained and protected us in 
 the early dangers of infancy and youth ; who has 
 watched over us in every period of our lives; and 
 whose goodness and mercy have followed us all our 
 days. It is he who hath redeemed us, and purchased 
 us by his own blood ; who hath been made sin for us, 
 when he knew no sin, that we might be made the 
 righteousness of God in him ; who hath called us to 
 a knowledge and enjoyment of his grace, and by his 
 Spirit hath rendered us meet to be partakers of the 
 inheritance of the saints in light. He is our sacrifice, 
 who hath borne for us the curse of the law ; our High 
 Priest, who hath entered into the heavens for us ; our 
 Advocate, who ever liveth to make intercession for 
 us ; the Captain of our salvation, who was made per- 
 fect through sufferings for our sake; the glorious 
 King of saints, under whom are placed in subjection, 
 tlie powers of the world to come, for our everlasting 
 benefit. 
 
 This is the God for whom the Israel of promise are 
 to be prepared ; the Maker, Redeemer, Husband, un- 
 changeable friend,!^ and everlasting portion of his 
 people. He is our God, and we are bound to receive 
 
 5 
 
34 god's message to Israel. 
 
 and reverence him; our God, and we may surely 
 confide in him; our God, and he cannot be over- 
 powered ; our God, and he will not forsake us. Tell 
 ye the daughter of Sion, thy King cometh unto thee, 
 having salvation. Proclaim unto all his waiting 
 people, that he is at hand, with an everlasting recom- 
 pense ; and let them all be ready to receive him, as 
 the messenger of salvation, and the Prince of Peace. 
 
 IV. Having viewed the relation which God sus- 
 tains to his people, and the character, under which he 
 comes to them, let us now consider what will be the 
 results of his coming to them. 
 
 1. His first advent is to their hearts, with the de- 
 monstration of the Spirit, and with divine power, and 
 its result is, that they are born again, and made new 
 creatures in Christ Jesus. The natural condition of 
 all men, in regard to God, is the same. "Without any 
 difference, all have sinned, and come short of the 
 glory of God. Every mouth is stopped before him, 
 which attempts to plead an excuse for guilt. By 
 nature, the children of God were the children of 
 wrath, even as others. There is not a saint in 
 heaven, nor a new born soul upon the earth, but was 
 born, and while in an unconverted state remained, a 
 vessel of wrath, fitted to destruction. But to as 
 many as received him, to them gave he power, to be- 
 come the sons of God, even to as many as believe on 
 his name. The hour in which they received Jesus 
 Christ as their Lord, was the hour of their new 
 birth ; and in that hour did salvation come to their 
 souls. The deep convictions of sin which they had 
 before felt ; the earnest desired which had been 
 awakened in their hearts, that some one would lead 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 31^ 
 
 them into a way of peace ; the solemn determinations 
 which they made that they would cast away the sin^ 
 which did so easily beset them, and count every thing 
 but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus 
 Christ the Lord, were the preparations by which the 
 Holy Spirit was leading them, to accept the rich 
 mercies of Jesus, and to yield themselves as a willing 
 offering unto him. And when the moment came, that 
 they were ready to do this, to become the temples of the 
 living God, and to choose Jesus as their Saviour, and 
 their eternal portion, then he entered into their hearts, 
 to dwell there by faith ; and they were converted by 
 his grace, reconciled unto God, and made the children 
 of God, by faith in Jesus Christ. Then they expe- 
 rienced the power of the Gospel. They tasted that 
 the Lord was gracious. They enjoyed the testimo- 
 nies of his love. They found peace in believing. 
 They received the spirit of adoption in their hearts, 
 teaching them to cry unto God, Abba, Father. This 
 was the day on which they began to live, so far as 
 concerned the great purpose for which they were 
 formed. And God rejoiced over the workmanship 
 of his own hands ; souls which he had created anew, 
 after his own image, unto good works, to the honour 
 of his name. 
 
 This acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the 
 great offices which he exercises for men, is the cha- 
 racteristic distinction of the people of God; the grand 
 discriminating mark of converted souls. They have 
 now put on the Lord Jesus Christ, as the wisdom, 
 righteousness, sanctification, and redemption which 
 they need ; while all others arc just where they were 
 by nature, without Christ, far off from God, and 
 
S6 god's message to ISRAEL. 
 
 strangers to the constraining power of his grace and 
 love. But why are there so many, to whose hearts 
 the Saviour is yet a stranger ? Why do men drive 
 him from their bosoms, and reject all his designs of 
 mercy ? What is there repugnant or terrible in the 
 spiritual advent of a Saviour like this? He desires 
 to come to the heart of every one before me, that 
 there may be no longer a stranger or foreigner 
 among you, but that ye all may be fellow-citizens 
 with the saints, and of the household of God. He 
 would come to you as the minister of everlasting sal- 
 vation ; to make you, to heaven, and earth, and hell, 
 the glorious monuments, of what such a Saviour can 
 do for sinners. He commands you to do no great 
 thing. He calls for no treasures of gold or frankin- 
 cense, or myrrh. He asks only for yourselves to be 
 laid at his feet, with all your unworthiness and sins, 
 and he will speak the words, by which you shall be 
 saved. 0, how affecting is the consideration, that it 
 is the sinner's will alone, which separates him from 
 a pardoning Saviour ! How solemn is the thought, 
 that while there are here present, perhaps, those who 
 will lie down in hell forever ; there is not one, but 
 might find eternal peace in God's dear Son, if he 
 would but submit to his holy and merciful dominion. 
 This day, nay, this hour, may every sinner before me 
 find salvation, if he will but resist the power of Satan, 
 and yield himself as a willing servant unto Christ. 
 0, my friends, throw away your self-dependence, and 
 prepare to meet your God. That will be for you a 
 day of joy, on which you find spiritual peace in Jesus 
 Christ. It will be a day of security, a day of triumph. 
 You will find yourselves in the hands of a Saviour, 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. S^ 
 
 whose love cannot fail, and under ^vhosc feet every 
 enemy must be placed in entire and final subjection. 
 In sickness and suffering ; in the hour of death, and 
 in the day of judgment, you will look back upon this 
 birthday of your souls, as the great point of remem- 
 brance in your lives. You will sing the praises of 
 Almighty God forever, that you were led thus to re- 
 ceive the mark of the Lamb, and to follow him with 
 tliankful confidence, whithersoever he should lead you. 
 2. If this radical conversion of heart be the result 
 of the first coming of God our Saviour, we are then 
 redeemed from captivity, and there will be nothing 
 disheartening or terrible in his second coming to 
 finish his purposes of love for us. When a recon- 
 ciled Father calls us home ; and a beloved Saviour 
 says to us, " make haste, and come, for this day I 
 must abide at thy house ;" there should be no feeling 
 within us, but unmingled joy. The thankfulness with 
 which prophets and righteous men looked forward to 
 the first coming of the Lord Jesus upon the earth, 
 his people may now feel, in expecting him, the second 
 time without sin unto salvation. The valley of the 
 shadow of death may be dark without the presence 
 of a Saviour; but for those who follow him, the Lord 
 is an everlasting light, and their God their glory. 
 Let every true Christian remember that the same 
 Lord, who loved them, and gave himself for them, 
 will uphold and bless them there. The gates of hell 
 shall not prevail against them. God shall make them 
 conquerors, and more than conquerors, through him 
 that loved them. They may think of him, and trust 
 in him, as one for whom they have waited, and be- 
 lieving in whom, they have eternal life. For them he 
 D 
 
38 god's message to Israel. 
 
 comes, that he may make up his jewels ; that he may- 
 write up the number of his people, and give them the 
 rest they need, and the inheritance which he has 
 provided for them. It will be a day of glory, and 
 triumph, and songs of praise, when Jesus, and the 
 whole church of the first born whose names are 
 written in heaven, shall meet to be separated no more 
 forever. Every redeemed soul shall be there. Not 
 one poor, trembling saint shall be lost. Of all whom 
 the Father hath given him, Jesus shall lose none. 
 Saints of all ages, believers of every land, shall be 
 seen collected. And while all ascribe the praise and 
 honour of their salvation to the Lamb, he shall be 
 glorified in his saints, and admired in them that be- 
 lieve. When a Christian dies, he is born anew to 
 glory. And far rather should we praise God, that he 
 is safe, and a conqueror, than lament over his re- 
 mains, or speak mournfully of his departure. Better 
 is this day of his deatli than the day of his birth. Now, 
 he is crowned, exalted, and happy, beyond the reach 
 of suffering or fear. And we are to give glory to 
 God, that he has taken one more wanderer unto him- 
 self, and secured him eternally in his fold. Soon this 
 hour will come for us, and if we are now in Christ, 
 we shall then be with him. 0, happy will be that 
 moment of return to God, when we shall be acknow- 
 ledged as the friends of Jesus, and stand forth with 
 him before the universe, crowned with his free salva- 
 tion ! And welcome may be disease, and languishing, 
 and death, which shall bring oiir Emmanuel a second 
 time for our deliverance, and transfer us under his 
 guidance to an eternal home with him. 
 
III. 
 
 GOD S MESSAGE TO ISRAEL. 
 
 Amos it. 12. — Prepare to meet thy God, Israel. 
 
 1 HAVE twice spoken upon this text, as God's mes- 
 sage to the spiritual Israel. I come now to apply it 
 with seriousness and affection to another class of my 
 hearers, of whom I shall speak under the title of the 
 IDOLATROUS Israel. After what you have heard 
 from me upon this subject, it cannot be necessary for 
 me now to say, that under these two appellations, I 
 have designed to represent, the converted and the un- 
 converted portions of my hearers ; the religious and 
 the irreligious classes of men, who are now be- 
 fore me. 
 
 To the one class, the message of the text, as al- 
 ready considered, is a joyful annunciation ; a call for 
 thankful preparation for the coming of a triumphant 
 Saviour. In view of his approach, they are to lift 
 up their heads, to rejoice and be exceeding glad, for 
 their redemption draweth nigh. 
 
 To the other class, it is the solemn warning of an 
 approaching judgment ; the annunciation of a day of 
 
 39 
 
4,0 god's message to ISRAEL. 
 
 God's own appointment, when the measure of human 
 trial sliall be finished, and every immortal soul shall 
 receive a just recompense of reward ; when he that 
 is righteous, shall remain righteous still, and he that is 
 unholy shall be unholy still. 
 
 Into these two classes of persons, every congrega- 
 tion is divided. But the division is generally a very 
 unequal one. There are probably, but a small por- 
 tion of the members of any of our public assemblies, 
 who can be reasonably addressed, as converted, or 
 pious persons. For this reason it is, that the faithful 
 exhortations of the pulpit must be generally addressed 
 to those, whose attention has yet to be awakened to 
 the claims of religion, and whose affections are to be 
 drawn to the high and important objects which the 
 Gospel presents. True believers in the Lord Jesus, 
 the Israel of God, are to be comforted, encouraged, 
 and built up in their most holy faith. The exceeding 
 great and precious promises of the Gospel belong to 
 them ; and they are to be applied to them without 
 fear. But we cannot cry peace to the ungodly, when 
 there is no peace. And there is no peace to the 
 wicked, saith our God. The same fidelity which will 
 lead us, on the one side, to speak comfortably to the 
 people of God, will compel us on the other, to cry 
 aloud, and spare not, to lift up our voice like a trum- 
 pet, in proclaiming to unbelieving men, their dangers 
 and their sins. 
 
 "We are not the enemies of men, because we tell 
 them the truth. Did we hate them indeed, we should 
 leave them to become the victims of their own in- 
 fatuation ; we should combine with Satan, in persuad- 
 ing them to hold on upon the belief, that they are 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 41 
 
 safe, and may be happy as they are ; we should soothe 
 them in their fears ; we should lull them into still 
 deeper slumbers. We know that this would infallibly 
 accomplish their eternal ruin. We cannot conceal 
 from ourselves the painful fact, that the far greater 
 portion of those who listen to us, from week to week, 
 are in a state of alienation from God, and under the 
 curse of his broken law ; that they are without his 
 love in their hearts, and enemies to his holy will. 
 They are not our personal foes. In some cases, they 
 are our dearest friends, bone of our bone, and flesh 
 of our flesh ; and God is our record, how greatly we 
 long after them all, in the bowels of Jesus Christ. 
 We love them as our own souls. And loving them 
 thus, we would arouse them from their sleep ; we 
 would convince them of their dangers ; we would draw 
 them, the Lord being merciful unto them, to a city of 
 refuge, a place of eternal safety. To accomplish this 
 most important of all objects, we warn them with all 
 long-suffering, we preach to them with all boldness, 
 we keep back nothing that is profitable unto them, 
 hoping through the boundless mercy of Almighty God, 
 that we may be made the instruments of saving some. 
 
 To this class of my hearers, I come this day, with 
 another serious warning. I have no message of con- 
 solation for unconverted sinners, no words of peace, 
 unless the invitations of the Gospel prove effectual, 
 and their hearts are brought home in a spiritual con- 
 version unto Jesus Christ the Lord. The address of 
 the text, is to them, a solemn admonition. — " Prepare 
 to meet thy God, O Israel." 
 
 The prophet Amos ministered to the ten tribes of 
 Israel, during the reign of the second Jeroboam; of 
 
42 god's message to Israel. 
 
 whom it is said, that " he did that which was evil in 
 the siglit of the Lord, and departed not from all the 
 sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel 
 to sin." Under his idolatrous government, this 
 prophet was sent with a heavy burden from the Lord, 
 of warning and condemnation. The exhortation of 
 the text urges them to take heed of the Lord's de- 
 signed dealings among them. In our present appli- 
 cation of it, the circumstances of the history which 
 are connected with it may be employed, as illustrating 
 the characters of the individuals, to whom the address 
 is to be made. These circumstances will present 
 three different aspects of the persons to whom I 
 now refer. 
 
 I. It was addressed to those whose service and 
 affections had been voluntarily withdrawn from the 
 living God, and devoted to objects prohibited by 
 him. The Israelites had openly established idola- 
 trous worship in their land ; and had secretly with- 
 drawn their hearts from God, even while professing 
 outwardly to serve him. When the first Jeroboam 
 was made king of Israel, lest the hearts of his sub- 
 jects should be drawn back to the successors of 
 David, by assembling for divine worship at Jerusalem 
 according to the Lord's command, he set up two 
 golden calves, the one at Dan, and the other at Bethel, 
 the northern and southern extremities of his newly 
 acquired kingdom, and commanded all his subjects to 
 worship before them. The idolatry which he thus 
 established, was continued under all his successors, 
 of each of whom it is said, " he departed not from 
 the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made 
 Israel to sin." Besides this open idolatry, their 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 43 
 
 affections had been devoted to idols, even when they 
 had professed to offer sacrifices unto the Lord ; for 
 he denies that even those sacrifices had been offered 
 at all unto him. He declares, that he hated, he de- 
 spised their feast days, and though they offered burnt- 
 offerings, and meat-offerings, he would not accept 
 them. To this nation thus marked by their idolatry, 
 the prophet Amos was sent. His message to them 
 was solemn and faithful. " Seek ye the Lord, and 
 ye shall live. Hate the evil, love the good, and esta- 
 blish judgment in the gate; and it may be, the Lord 
 God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of 
 Jacob. Prepare to meet thy God ; for lo, he that 
 formed the mountains and declareth unto man what is 
 his thought, and treadeth upon the high places of the 
 earth, the Lord, the God of hosts is his name." 
 
 In applying from this illustration, the term idola- 
 trous to a portion of my hearers, I shall undoubtedly 
 be considered by some as harsh and unreasonable. 
 But every heart before me has its peculiar object of 
 affection and worship. All whose hearts have not 
 been surrendered in a new creation, to the will and 
 service of God, are devoted to some opposing service, 
 and are fixing their affections upon fading and un- 
 worthy objects. Every unconverted man is an idola- 
 ter. The covetousness of the world is idolatry 
 " Many walk," says St. Paul, " of whom I have told 
 you often, and now tell you, even weeping, that they 
 are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose god is 
 their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who 
 mind earthly things." The proud, and vain, and en- 
 vious, are all idolaters. All who are not with Christ 
 
44 god's message to Israel. 
 
 are against him. The Scripture places before us but 
 one possible alternative, in the consecration of our 
 hearts and affections ; the service of God, and the 
 service of Mammon ; the love of the Father, and the 
 love of the world. This alternative divides the 
 world. All who have not been taught to serve Al- 
 mighty God, in the spiritual obedience of the Gospel, 
 and are not known to him as the subjects of a new 
 creation, are walking in the ways of their own hearts, 
 and are idolaters. 
 
 Such as these, I address in the solemn message of 
 the text, who like the Israelites have voluntarily with- 
 drawn their affections from the Creator, and have 
 bestowed them upon the creature. The occupations, 
 the cares, the connexions, the pleasures of this world, 
 are ruling in the hearts of many who have been re- 
 peatedly called to the privileges of the Gospel, and 
 have voluntarily refused to come. Their consciences 
 bear witness, that the service of sin is not an involun- 
 tary service ; that this they have chosen, rather than 
 a hearty subjection to an holy God. The man who 
 is destitute of spiritual religion, is remaining so by 
 his own choice. There is no necessity imposed upon 
 him to forsake God, and to refuse him the devotion 
 of the powers which he hath formed. The affec- 
 tionate and open invitations of the Gospel, place all 
 beyond excuse, who continue in sin, while grace 
 abounds. My friends, it is this voluntary idolatry of 
 your hearts, which forms the guiltiness of your un- 
 converted state. Christ and Satan, this world and 
 the world to come, are placed before you, as the ob- 
 jects of your own selection. You are personally 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 45 
 
 called upon to make your determination in this serious 
 alternative; and this determination you do indivi- 
 dually and finally make for yourselves. 
 
 Here is one who has made his deliberate choice. 
 He has cast from him the cords of divine authority. 
 He has recorded his resolution not to submit to the 
 King of saints. He has yielded his understanding 
 to the temptations of infidelity. He is desirous to 
 think, and ready to say, " there is no God. Who is 
 the Almighty that I should serve him ? and what 
 profit shall I have if I pray unto him?" The Scrip- 
 tures seem to him to have no marks of authority or 
 truth. The character of the Saviour appears clothed 
 in his view, with no reverence or majesty. He fancies 
 that there is an absurdity in the habitual declarations 
 of the preacher of Christ. He thinks himself safe 
 and wise, in having thrown away what he considers 
 the bonds of early superstition, and in refusing to 
 yield to the professed revelation of the Most High. 
 
 Here is another, who has clothed himself in the 
 dignity of total indifference upon this important sub- 
 ject. He has found such differences of opinion among 
 professing Christians, upon the various topics of reli- 
 gious faith, that he will not suffer himself to interfere 
 at all in the matter. When all men who profess to 
 have found the truth, are perfectly united in their 
 views of truth, he will stop to consider its claims. 
 But until that time shall come, he claims the liberty 
 of despising altogether, a religion which is the subject 
 of so much contention. The religion of nature, and 
 the morality of his own attainment, are enough for 
 him. He has no fear, that God will cast him off, al- 
 though God is not in all his thoughts. He has never 
 
46 god's message to Israel. 
 
 doubted his personal security, although he has never 
 bestowed a single serious thought upon the subject. 
 
 Here is a third, wlio is really so busy that he has 
 no time to think of God, or of his own soul. He 
 imagines that he would gladly do it, if he had the 
 opportunity. But w^hen he rises up early in the 
 morning, some engagement presses upon his time. 
 Hour after hour, some one is waiting for him, who 
 cannot be put off. Thus days pass away with him ; 
 and God is obliged still to wait upon him without 
 effect. His unconverted soul is still without Christ. 
 He has no peace with God. He has no comfort of 
 future hope. All because he has no time to think of 
 any thing, but the business which presses him around. 
 He will not allow that he despises the solemn claims 
 of the religion of the Son of God. But it is quite 
 evident, that he deems them of less importance, than 
 the claims of worldly business and gain, because they 
 are always required to give way to these. He has not 
 seriously determined, that he will never yield to the 
 Saviour's demands. Perhaps, he really intends the 
 exact opposite of this. But he has now lived so long 
 without finding time for that attention to religion, 
 which is required of him, that the probability is now 
 very small, that the hour of conversion will ever come 
 to him. 
 
 Here is a female hearer who trifles too much to 
 think of her soul. She might as well have been made 
 without an immortal nature, for she has never re- 
 garded its interests, or its value. She is dead while 
 she lives. She is without seriousness, without fear, 
 without any concern for the realities of an eternal 
 world. She forgets how soon she will lie down in 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 47 
 
 the grave, where the worms shall* be spread under her, 
 and the worms shall cover her ; how soon she must 
 stand before a judgment seat, to give account for her- 
 self, of an abused and wasted life ; and how little she 
 has in her own character and recollection, to comfort 
 her in either of these prospects. 
 
 Here are four classes of persons, and they might 
 be enlarged in their enumeration to many more, who 
 have voluntarily withdrawn their affections from the 
 God who made them, and have fixed them upon ob- 
 jects opposed to him, and prohibited by him. The 
 fundamental principle of all these characters is the 
 same. It is the carelessness of a carnal mind, and 
 the Ijardness of an unconverted heart. If they were 
 but made to feel the power and danger of their sins; the 
 infidelity, and indifierence, and occupation, and levity, 
 which severally characterize them, would all give place 
 to that one, anxious, important question, " what shall 
 I do to be saved?" Outward differences in their cha- 
 racters are but of small consequence. The one great 
 question to be settled for them all, is v/hether their 
 hearts shall be submitted to the spiritual dominion of 
 the Redeemer. They do not like to retain God in 
 their knowledge. They cannot walk together with 
 him, for they are not agreed. The principle of indwell- 
 ing, dominant sin, manifests itself in their different 
 characters, under different aspects, precisely as the 
 waters of one grand ocean receive their different 
 names as they wash upon the shores of different 
 lands. But it is the same principle of sin in all. It 
 is the carnal mind, which is enmity against God, and 
 which results in death. 
 
 These persons are called idolatrous, for they have 
 
48 god's message to Israel. 
 
 set up their idols in every place. They have forsaken 
 God, the fountain of living waters, and have hewod 
 them out cisterns, broken cisterns, which can hold no 
 water. I call them voluntarily idolatrous, for thsy 
 have made their present course the object of their 
 own choice ; and there is no other reason than their 
 own choice, which can account for their remaining in 
 an unconverted state. They miglit come to Jesus, 
 and find everlasting acceptance and peace with him, 
 if they could be persuaded to prefer the reproach of 
 Christ to the pleasures of sin, which are but for a 
 season. To such as these, the solemn message of the 
 text comes with power. Prepare to meet a God in 
 vengeance, whom you have rejected in mercy. .Pre- 
 pare to meet a God on the throne of judgment, whom 
 you have neglected in his atonement upon the cross. 
 Prepare to meet a God exalted with unlimited power, 
 whom you have forsaken when he was humbled in 
 love. This personal, chosen, determined rejection of 
 the mercies of the Gospel, this voluntary alienation 
 from God, this continuance in an unconverted state 
 without necessity, marks the first distinction of those 
 to whom the message of the text is now addressed. 
 
 II. The exhortation of this text was addressed to 
 those who had experienced many chastising visita- 
 tions from Almighty God, without effect. Under the 
 peculiar government by which God controlled the 
 Israelites, he visited their transgressions with imme- 
 diate temporal punishments. Thus had he done in 
 the time of Amos. But it had been without any good 
 efiect. Punishment had not led them from their 
 idolatry, nor brought them to repentance. " I gave 
 you," says the Lord, " cleanness of teeth in all your 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 49 
 
 cities, and want of bread in all your places ; yet ye 
 have not returned unto me, saith the Lord. And 
 also I have withholden the rain from you, w^hen there 
 were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused 
 it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain 
 upon another city ; one piece was rained upon, and 
 the piece whereupon it rained not, withered. So two 
 or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water, 
 but they were not satisfied ; yet ye have not returned 
 unto me, saith the Lord. I have smitten you with 
 blasting and mildew; when your gardens, and your 
 vineyards, and your fig trees, and your olive trees, 
 increased, the palmer worm devoured them ; yet ye 
 have not returned unto me, saith the Lord. I have 
 sent unto you the pestilence after the manner of 
 Egypt ; your young men have I slain with the sword, 
 and I have taken away your horses ; and I have made 
 the stink of your camps to come up into your nostrils; 
 yet ye have not returned unto me, saith the Lord." 
 This is the catalogue of judgments, which God had 
 unavailingly sent upon them. They might have 
 seemed to be sufficient to have humbled and cor- 
 rected them. Yet as they are here recited by the 
 Lord who had sent them, the same mournful conclu- 
 sion follows upon the recollection of each ; " yet ye 
 have not returned unto me, saith the Lord." 
 
 How plainly descriptive is this statement, of some to 
 whom I am now addressing the same solemn message ! 
 Precisely such has been the growth of carelessness 
 and ingratitude with them, under the corrective visi- 
 tations of divine Providence. He has stricken them, 
 but they have not been made to feel their spiritual 
 sickness. He has beaten them, and they heeded it 
 E 7 
 
50 god's message to Israel. 
 
 not. They have revolted more and more. The 
 whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. 
 How various are the charges of this description, 
 which he must make individually against you I I laid 
 you upon a bed of sickness, says God to one of you, 
 yet you have not returned unto me. You promised 
 to serve me upon tlie- return of health. Your health 
 has been restored, and you have not served me. I 
 sent the angel of death into your family, he says to 
 another, and the affliction has produced no submis- 
 sion. While the wound was fresh and open, your 
 spirit seemed for a little while humbled. But it has 
 been closed and forgotten, and you have not returned 
 unto me. I have reduced you to poverty, he says to 
 a third, and still your spirit is rebellious and proud. 
 I have brought many of you to the edge of another 
 world ; I have awakened you with tlie fearful pros- 
 pect of eternal judgment ; 1 have showed to you that 
 it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living 
 God ; and yet you have not returned unto me. You 
 still remain stout-hearted, and heedless, and bold, in 
 the enmity of your heart against me. 
 
 Such instances are before me in great numbers; 
 souls that have been hardened in the fires of Provi- 
 dence ; that have grown callous and impenetrable in 
 a state of sin, under all the instruments which have 
 been employed to arouse them to think of the things 
 which belong to their peace; that have showed to 
 what an extent, the creatures of God, poor and insig- 
 nificant as they are, may resist his will, strive against 
 his power, and defeat the operation of his offers of 
 m^rcy. 0, how dreadful is the thought, that this re 
 sistance against God may be carried on until, as its 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 51 
 
 necessary result, God shall say of them as he did of 
 Pharaoh, " for this cause have I raised thee up, to 
 make in thee, my power known," to show that none 
 can harden himself against God and prosper ! It is 
 a mournful view which these facts present of the cha- 
 racter of irreligious men ; that the very dispensations 
 which are made the instruments of saving multitudes, 
 only serve to ripen them in their sins, and to fill up 
 the measure of their condemnation. 
 
 The children of God may praise him for his chastise- 
 ments. They may look back upon sickness, and sor- 
 row, and want, as the blessed instruments of arousing 
 them from their carelessness in sin, of making them 
 feel for the necessities of their souls, and of bringing 
 them to ask at the feet of Jesus, for a hope of peace. 
 Every painful providence dispensed to man, is either 
 a blessing or a curse. If it be made the instrument 
 of calling home the heart to God, however severe it 
 may be, it is an evidence of God's kindness and com- 
 passion, and a reason for new gratitude to him. If 
 it merely hardens us in a state of sin, it is a punish- 
 ment, a portion of that wrath which must be poured 
 out upon sinners, throughout eternity. And in pro- 
 portion as such dispensations are multiplied in the 
 history of irreligious persons, the guiltiness of their 
 character is aggravated, and the terror of their pros- 
 pects is enlarged. When God has been thus unavail- 
 ingly dealing with you, by many different instruments 
 of good, the prospect of meeting him in a personal 
 account, becomes still the more serious and repulsive. 
 And this is the point to which I would now call your 
 special attention. 
 
 You have resisted his government, and have made 
 
52 god's message to Israel. 
 
 all that he has done for you, of none effect. Your 
 own recollections furnish you with many instances, in 
 which, under the weight of his hand, you have deter- 
 mined to submit to him, and yet you have not done it. 
 Had he left you entirely to yourselves, unnoticed, un- 
 warned, unawakened, there might have been urged 
 something for your excuse. But there is not a habi- 
 tation among you, in which God has not made bare 
 his arm, for sickness, or sorrow, or cause of lamen- 
 tation of some description, showing you, that you 
 were objects of his regard, and that he wished you to 
 become partakers of his holiness. And yet, how 
 many unrenewed, and perhaps, careless souls, does 
 every habitation contain ; testifying still, that however 
 abundant have been the kind warnings of the provi- 
 dence of God, ungrateful men are still able to receive 
 them all without effect. To such, as the last remain- 
 ing communication from God, the message of the text 
 is addressed, " Thus will I do unto thee, therefore 
 prepare to meet thy God, Israel," even God who 
 Cometh with a recompense ! 
 
 III. The warning of our text was addressed to 
 those who had been the peculiar objects of divine for- 
 bearance, without repentance. Thus God says to 
 ihem, " I have overthrown some of you, as God over- 
 threw Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a fire- 
 brand plucked out of the burning ; yet have ye not 
 returned unto me, saith the Lord. Therefore, thus 
 will I do unto thee, Israel, and because I Avill do 
 this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel." 
 The destruction which had been brought upon others, 
 was immediate, and without a remedy. It was like 
 that awful destruction which God had brought upon 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 53 
 
 the guilty cities which are here referred to, as an 
 "ensample unto those who should after live un- 
 godly." Amidst this dreadful judgment upon others 
 of the people, the Israelites to whom the prophet 
 speaks, were mercifully protected and preserved, " as 
 a firebrand plucked out of the burning." But the 
 divine forbearance was without effect. They still re- 
 mained in a careless state of disobedience to God, 
 and had not returned unto him. And now divine 
 forbearance was exhausted, and God commanded 
 them to be ready to give an account of all that was 
 past. 
 
 Thus, my brethren, do many despise the riches of 
 his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, not 
 willing that the goodness of God should lead tliem to 
 repentance. The Lord is long-suffering unto all. 
 He desires not that any should perish, but that all 
 should come to repentance. This long-suffering of 
 our God is salvation, if it be not rejected and despised. 
 In sparing men from year to year, amidst all the pri- 
 vileges of revelation, God proves to them, that he 
 wishes them to be saved, and to come to the know- 
 ledge of the truth. But in how many instances, is 
 all this forbearance insufficient to lead men to seek 
 after, and to embrace the riches of his love ! Not- 
 withstanding all the mercy with which he has endured 
 towards them, they remain still idolatrous and uncon- 
 verted. It is of his mercies, that they are not con- 
 sumed. But these mercies excite no gratitude with 
 them. Though he is pleased to postpone the hour 
 for the execution of his judgment against them, if 
 peradventure, they will be persuaded to return to him, 
 they yet stand in his vineyard, as cumberers of the 
 E 2 
 
54 god's message to Israel. 
 
 ground. The companions of their youth have, per- 
 haps, long since passed into a world of recompense. 
 The partakers of many of their scenes of folly and 
 guilt, have gone to answer for their transgressions. 
 The members of their family and household have 
 been suddenly cut off, and that without remedy. And 
 in many instances they are left, standing almost alone 
 in a world of strangers. And yet, wonderful to tell ! 
 these children of many providences, these objects of 
 much long-suffering, are still unclianged in heart, and 
 living without God in the world ! The extent to 
 which they have made the forbearance of God with- 
 out effect, is indeed distressing. But the amount of 
 danger and suffering, which this neglect of God 
 gathers for such sinful souls, around the personal ap- 
 pearance of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, 
 to judge the world in righteousness, and to reward 
 men according to their works, is far more distressing. 
 0, it will be a mournful account which they must 
 render unto God, who have turned the grace of God 
 into licentiousness, and sinned when grace abounds ; 
 who have pressed God under the weight of their 
 iniquities, and made him to serve with their sins ! 
 But it is the account which is certainly before them, 
 and for which sinners must prepare themselves. 
 Though they do evil many years, and sentence against 
 their evil works be not executed speedily, yet in the 
 end, which will soon arrive for them, their iniquity 
 shall not go unpunished. 
 
 Under these three aspects, as illustrated by the his- 
 tory connected with the text, may their characters be 
 considered, to whom we address this message, as to 
 the idolatrous Israel. Their guilt is in their volun- 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 55 
 
 tary choice of the paths of sin, amidst all the chas- 
 tisements and judgments which they endure, and all 
 the forbearance which is exercised towards them. 
 Charged with this guilt, they are to be brought into 
 account before God, in the day of his appearing. For 
 this account they are warned to be prepared. Who 
 can abide the day of his coming ? and who can stand 
 when he appeareth ? When he riseth up, what will 
 they say ? When he visiteth, what will they answer 
 him? 
 
IV. 
 
 god's message to ISRAEL. 
 
 Amos iv. 12. — Prepare to meet thy God, Israel, 
 
 I AM engaged in applying this solemn message to 
 the unconverted portion of my audience. The 
 various aspects of their character, to which the his- 
 tory connected with the text directs us, have already 
 been made the subjects of consideration. I would 
 now direct your notice to the great day itself, of the 
 approach of which, the text admonishes them. 
 
 The purposes of Almighty God are ripening fast. 
 He that shall come, will come, and will not tarry. It 
 is to a settled, determined, inevitable approach of 
 God, that the attention of men must be directed. 
 His coming as a final Judge cannot be postponed. It 
 is not left to us to say when it shall be, or whether it 
 shall be at all. But it is left with us to determine 
 whether we shall be prepared for its arrival. That 
 solemn day may find us altogether wanting in a readi- 
 ness for its events. It may find us busied in our 
 numerous engagements here, without one thought of 
 their result hereafter. It may find us glorying in 
 
 56 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 57 
 
 earthly and perishable treasures, without any weight 
 of incorruptible glory laid up in another world. Or 
 it may find us living by faith, watching unto prayer, 
 and zealous of good works. Much in reference to 
 this all-important alternative rests upon ourselves. 
 And while God has given us abundant grace, it is 
 that we may improve for our own salvation, the pri- 
 vileges we enjoy, and be left entirely without excuse, 
 if we are negligent of his love. 
 
 The peculiar characteristics of men as connected 
 with this accountability to God, we have considered. 
 The only guilt which we charge upon them, and the 
 only guilt for which they must answer, is a voluntary 
 guilt. It is the consciousness of this voluntary guilt 
 which clothes the establishment of a judgment seat 
 with such terror, and which will stop the mouths of 
 ungodly men, in the great day of the Lord. Then 
 the revelation of the wrath of God shall have come, 
 and no sinner shall be able to stand. 
 
 In making my present final application of the mes- 
 sage of this text to the idolatrous Israel, the subject 
 will bring before us some considerations which will 
 render that day intolerable to those who liave impe- 
 nitently done evil, and who must be judged for the 
 evil they have done. The accusations whicli men 
 will then make, will rest entirely upon themselves. 
 They v/ill see, that God could have done nothing in 
 tlieir behalf, which he has not done ; that the clearest 
 discoveries of divine love have been neglected ; that 
 the most expensive and glorious system of redemption 
 has been slighted ; that the highest possible messenger 
 of mercy has been despised ; and that the most won- 
 derful patience and long-suffering has been exhausted. 
 
 8 
 
58 god's message to Israel 
 
 Convinced of all this, their mouths will be stopped 
 in the presence of a heart-searching God. No vain 
 plea vv^ill answ^er their purpose, and no just plea will 
 they be able to urge. The serious alarm with which 
 they will be seized, the revelations of the Scriptures 
 have already set before us ; and no rational man, ] 
 think, can avoid the deep impression of reverence and 
 fear, as he reads the descriptions which they have re- 
 corded. " The heavens departed, as a scroll when it 
 is rolled together ; and every mountain and island 
 were moved out of their places. And the kings of 
 the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and 
 the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every 
 bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the 
 dens, and in the rocks of the mountains; and they 
 said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide 
 us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, 
 and from the wrath of the Lamb ; for the great day 
 of his wrath has come, and who shall be able to 
 stand ?" To those who have lived and died in care- 
 lessness about their souls, that day will be a day of 
 sorrow and mourning ; a day in which all their faces 
 shall gather blackness ; a day in which tribulation 
 and anguish will be the portion of every soul of man 
 that has impenitently done evil. 
 
 1. In that day of God's coming, such among you 
 will think of the clear and inestimable manifestations 
 of divine love which they have neglected. No human 
 beings have had the opportunity of being acquainted 
 with the character, requisitions, and purposes of God, 
 which have been granted unto those who have lived 
 under the light of the Gospel revelation. Heathens, 
 Mahometans, and Jews; men of all ages, and all 
 
god's message ro Israel. 59 
 
 nations, shall rise up in the judgment with the men 
 of this generation, and shall condemn them. My 
 friends, you stand before God, under a weight of re- 
 sponsibility which no human beings have ever borne 
 before. There is not a conceivable privilege con- 
 nected with salvation, which your souls do not enjoy. 
 All other discoveries of the love of God are far in- 
 ferior to that light of the knowledge of his glory 
 which is displayed to you in the face of Jesus Christ. 
 And of necessity, the guilt of rejecting this wonder- 
 ful display of love, is just so much tlie more increased. 
 If he that despised Moses' law, died without mercy, 
 under two or three witnesses, of how much sorer 
 punishment shall he be thought worthy, who hath 
 trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted the 
 blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, 
 an unholy thing, and h:.th done despite to the Spirit 
 of grace ? 
 
 All other ages of the Gospel dispensation have 
 afforded far inferior opportunities of acquaintance 
 with its plans of grace, and of embracing its glorious 
 invitations of mercy, to those which you enjoy. Many 
 a broken and humbled spirit in the darkness of hea- 
 thenism, is feeling after God, if haply he may find 
 him, and vainly trying to satisfy his mind, that the 
 Godhead is like unto gold and silver, graven with art, 
 and man's device. Many a despondent Jew is anxi- 
 ously waiting for that salvation of God, that coming 
 of his Messiah, which he imagines to be still a future 
 event. And many a worshipper in a decayed and 
 corrupted Christian church, is truly longing for the': 
 acceptance before God, which he falsely supposes 
 saints and angels can procure for him ; while the ful- 
 
60 god's message To Israel. 
 
 ness of a salvation already accomplished in the infinite 
 sufficiency of one glorious Mediator, shines around 
 you, as the brightness of the divine glory, inviting 
 you to become partakers of the heavenly benefit, and 
 to taste of the good word of God, and of the powers 
 of the world to come. The pagan, the Jew, and the 
 darkened member of the professed Christian church, 
 will appear against you, before the throne of God. 
 Many of you think little of these discoveries of 
 divine love and compassion now. But in the day of 
 God's coming they will arise before you, as fearful 
 aggravations of your guilt. Every faithful exhibition 
 of the Gospel which has been made to your souls; 
 every affectionate persuasion which you have heard 
 to lead you to Christ; the tender and earnest in- 
 treaties which almost persuaded you to become the 
 disciples of the Lord Jesus; the moving appeals which 
 have so often melted you into unavailing tears ; the 
 startling admonitions which have compelled you to 
 stop and question with yourselves, all these will 
 crowd before your recollection in that day, as so 
 many reasons for inevitable and just condemnation. 
 While you allow all these privileges to pass by you 
 now without profit, you are laying up sorrow against 
 the last days. The negligence of them is exceeding 
 guilt. The recollection of them then, will show you 
 that you have been treasuring up wratli against the 
 day of wrath, and of the revelation of the righteous 
 anger of God. 
 
 2. You will think in that day of the laborious and 
 expensive system which was devised and executed for 
 your redemption. Angels will seem to have no theme 
 of praise compared with the ransomed members of 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 61 
 
 the human family ; and fallen spirits from among their 
 number, no beinousness of guilt, when viewed in con- 
 trast Avitb the sinfulness of self-destroyed man. The 
 Lord Jesus will then be manifested in unlimited glory 
 and exaltation. All the woes which he sustained in 
 his humiliation for man, and the condescension and 
 pity which he exhibited in the days of his flesh, will 
 be remembered, as enhancing the dignity of that eleva- 
 tion which he will then display. Tlie love which he 
 felt for men before the foundation of the world, the 
 kindness with which he watched over their interests 
 from the hour of their creation, the cheerfulness with 
 which he gave up the glory which he had before the 
 world was, that he might be made in all respects a 
 proper substitute for them, will then appear as aggra- 
 vations of their ingratitude and guilt, who have cru- 
 cified him afresh, and put him to an open shame. 
 Love and suffering beyond the power of man to un- 
 derstand, have united to effect the redemption of sin- 
 ners. And yet in a vast multitude of instances, the 
 labour and the sorrow have been wholly in vain, in 
 their efforts to lead guilty men to safety. But this 
 cruel ingratitude of men cannot go unpunished. It 
 will add fierceness to the just anger of God, and ex- 
 ceeding pain to the unavoidable consciousness of the 
 sinner's soul. The neglect of less mercy would have 
 called for the infliction of a less condemnation. But 
 there is not here one heedless sinner, who has not 
 with perverse determination rejected the unspeakable 
 compassion of a crucified Redeemer, and rendered 
 unavailing a system of deliverance, upon which the 
 hosts of heaven look down with unceasing astonish- 
 ment. 0, unconverted hearers of the Gospel, your 
 F 
 
62 god's message to Israel 
 
 sins are crimsoned with the despised blood of Jesus ; 
 and that blood testifies against you before the judg- 
 ment seat of Almighty God. It has a voice to pierce 
 the skies ; and it calls for a retribution still the more 
 fearful and heavy, upon those who have declared in 
 their rejection of its saving power, tliat they counted 
 it an unholy and worthless thing. The immoralities 
 of men will be forgotten. The violated law will 
 cease to accuse. Every other charge and witness 
 will be silenced, in view of that fearful guilt, which 
 is involved in your rejection of the Son of God, and 
 your compelling of him to die in vain. 
 
 3. The recompense of that dreadful day of God's 
 coming will be farther aggravated, by a clear view of 
 the dignity of that holy and merciful Being, who has 
 been thus despised. Patriarchs and prophets, apos- 
 tles and martyrs, are but of small account, when the 
 character of that messenger who was sent last of all 
 to men, is made the subject of consideration. Angels 
 bow around his throne of inaccessible light, and ac- 
 knowledge him, the blessed and only Potentate, the 
 Lord of lords, and King of kings. Redeemed saints 
 cast their crowns before his feet, in the united decla- 
 ration, that he is worthy to receive all riches, and 
 honour, and glory, and blessing. But by men on 
 earth, by many of you, my friends, he is treated with 
 contumely and neglect. When his ministers are de- 
 spised, or his word is rejected, it is his own dignit}' 
 v^hich is the real object of man's contempt. These 
 instruments of his, are in themselves, of but very 
 small account. The real question before your hearts, 
 involves his personal authority, and an acceptance of 
 his personal offers of grace. Amidst all your hesita- 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 63 
 
 tion to yield to him, and to believe in him, he forbears 
 with you now. He conceals amidst clouds and dark- 
 ness, the justice and judgment which form the habi- 
 tation of his throne. But in that great day of his 
 coming, he will say, " those mine enemies, which 
 would not that I sliould reign over them, bring 
 them hither, and slay them before me." This is an 
 inevitable result. The dignity of his own person 
 affixes the measure of guilt to the conduct of those 
 who have thus despised him. The contempt of an 
 inferior being would be of less consequence. But 
 while he is revealed as the Infinite and Almighty Sa- 
 viour of men, transgressions against him rise up to a 
 measure of guilt, which demands a punishment totally 
 inconceivable to us in its degree. 
 
 4. Beyond all these, you will reflect in that great 
 day of God's coming, upon his long-continued for- 
 bearance, which has been abused and exhausted, by 
 your perverseness in sin. How clearly will all the 
 merciful dispensations of his providence be set before 
 you ! Every favour which you have received, every 
 joy which has crowned your days, will press upon 
 your recollection. " Many years did God surround 
 me with his goodness;" will your hearts exclaim, "his 
 candle shined upon my habitation ; I had daily new 
 proofs of his merciful kindness towards me ; often, 
 when my sins had provoked his anger to arise, and 
 he was justly excited to cut me off from the earth, he 
 has still endured with me, and has spared me still, as 
 a witness of his love ; and notwithstanding all liis 
 long-suffering, I lived and died in rebellion against 
 him." You will reflect upon the fearful fact, that all 
 this goodness towards you, has been in vain ; that it 
 
64 god's message to Israel. 
 
 lias been to no purpose, that he has prospered and 
 blessed you. He wooed you to embrace his love 
 without effect. He intreated you to become partakers 
 of his holiness in vain. Even unto grey hairs, he has 
 waited upon some of you, to see whether amidst all 
 his long-continued goodness, you would turn unto him 
 and live. But all his kindness has been without ad- 
 vantage to you. In his great day, all these abused 
 mercies will be charged upon you, with undeniable 
 truth. Your consciences will own the justice of 
 every charge. And O, how mournful will it be, to be 
 banished from the holy presence of God, to be made 
 the eternal companion of lost and despairing spirits, 
 to lie down amidst unchanging sorroAvs, to feel that 
 you are lost without recovery, and without hope, 
 simply because you have rejected the blessings which 
 were freely offered you, and have despised a Re- 
 deemer, who was able and willing to have saved you 
 to the uttermost ! Nothing will tend to make your 
 condemnation so intolerable, as this indelible convic- 
 tion, that it was unnecessary, and might have been 
 avoided. You will see, that instead of lamenting 
 your miserable portion forever, you might have been 
 praising God in the habitation of his holiness; instead 
 of being bruised forever under the feet of Satan, you 
 might have been sitting eternally at the feet of Jesus, 
 and following him gladly whithersoever he went. 
 This conviction will make a worm that never dies , 
 a sorrow which is perpetual; a wound for which there 
 is no remedy. "Depart from me, ye cursed," will 
 Jesus say, " into everlasting fire, prepared for the 
 devil and his angels. I know you not. I was a 
 stranger, ye took me not in. This is your condem 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 65 
 
 nation, that light, even the hght of the glorious Gos- 
 pel of Christ, has come into the world, and ye have 
 loved darkness rather than light, because your deeds 
 were evil." God will appear to you still infinitely glo- 
 rious, though he condemns you. No censure will 
 affix itself to him. No charge can be made of want 
 of mercy. You will see, that all which could be 
 done, has been done ; and that the only reason which 
 can account for your destruction, amidst such forbear- 
 ance, is the perverseness of your own will. 
 
 These are some of the considerations which are 
 calculated to make the judgment of the day of God's 
 coming, entirely intolerable to those who have refused 
 to love and obey God, or to embrace the call of mercy 
 which has been given them in the Gospel, according 
 to his promise. 
 
 And now, in the view of this solemn and alarming 
 day of the coming of our God, I intreat you, my 
 friends, to look at the character of your own lives, 
 and see if you are prepared to meet your God. I 
 have before me many upright, and kind, and excellent 
 persons in the intercourse of this world, whose cha- 
 racters are in many respects, just objects of esteem 
 and love. But they are living without any principle 
 of deep, spiritual piety ; without the reconciliation of 
 their hearts to God ; and without any hope depending 
 upon his favour. I would not class such valuable 
 members of human society, altogether with the out- 
 cast profligates who roam the streets. They have 
 their reward in the uniform respect of mankind. 
 But can I comfort them with any prospect of blessed- 
 ness hereafter ? Can I tell them they are safe, when 
 I am perfectly convinced that they are not safe? 
 r2 9 
 
66 god's message to Israel. 
 
 They will acknowledge themselves to be without a 
 renewed heart. They will confess that they have 
 never been brought to make the surrender of their 
 affections, and their lives, to Christ. And yet it is 
 upon this single point, that all the promises of a 
 future life are rested. " Except ye be converted, ye 
 cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." "Except 
 a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of 
 God." There is no hope of future blessedness 
 offered to man, but in connexion with this plain and 
 indispensable point. To such of my hearers would I 
 address the question, with the faithful spirit of kind- 
 ness, " are you prepared to meet your God?" Could 
 you stand this day before the Judge of all the earth, 
 and appeal in the assurance of faith to himself, and 
 say, " thou wast made sin for me, when thou knewest 
 no sin, that I might be made the righteousness of God 
 in thee ; thou wast offered to me in the gracious pro- 
 visions of the Gospel, and I gladly received thee to 
 my heart, and put thee on as wisdom, righteousness, 
 sanctification, and redemption for my soul." Could 
 you thus, with humble confidence claim the fulfilment 
 of his promise unto you ? Could you look upon the 
 face of Jesus, as a friend, for whom you have counted 
 every thing else but loss, and say, " Lord, thou 
 knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee; 
 Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief?" If you 
 have no such connexion with the Redeemer of sin- 
 ners, then how are you prepared to meet your God? 
 You would be rejected by him. You would be cast 
 away from his presence. The kindness for which 
 men love you ; the integrity and honourable character 
 for which they respect you, have not been acquired or 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 67 
 
 cultivated, in reference to him, and can challenge no 
 acceptance at his hand. This is the outward appear- 
 ance upon which men look. God asks for the devo- 
 tion of the heart. You need an inward, abiding prin- 
 ciple, of love to God, of delight in his character, of 
 subniissiou to his will, of joy in his perfections, shed 
 abroad in your hearts by the Holy Ghost. It is this 
 alone, which will enable you to assure your hearts 
 before him, and give you boldness in his presence. 
 Without this spiritual devotion of the heart, all other 
 attainments will be of no avail. Your souls, still un- 
 converted and guilty, will be lost forever. 
 
 You think it hard, that there should be no perma- 
 nent discrimination made between your characters, 
 and the abandoned portion of mankind. You deem 
 it harsh and cruel, that the flames of hell should be 
 threatened, to those so educated, and so restrained, 
 and so respected as you have been. But when your 
 consciences acknowledge that you are not prepared 
 for the presence of God, and cannot, therefore, expect 
 to partake of the rest prepared for his people, what 
 is the alternative ? Is there neutral ground between 
 heaven and hell ? " Know ye not that the unright- 
 eous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?" that 
 the servant who did not his lord's will, had his por- 
 tion appointed him with unbelievers? What then 
 shall I say to you in this dilemma ? Shall I tell you 
 that you are righteous, acceptable to God, and there- 
 fore will be saved as you are? Your own hearts 
 would contradict me in every assertion, for you are 
 convinced that you are ncitlier. Shall I tell you that 
 you are unrighteous, without holiness, and therefore, 
 cannot see the Lord, or inherit his kingdom ? Here 
 
68 god's message to Israel. 
 
 your feelings revolt, and you think that some better 
 place than hell, might have been provided for persons 
 of your description. My friends, God has provided 
 some better place, vv^hich he oifers freely to your pos- 
 session and enjoyment, if you will have . it. But he 
 offers it, as he must offer it, in his own way, and upon 
 his own terms. And if you would attain his promises, 
 you must enter in by the door which he has opened. 
 
 Now it is not your outward morality, or immorality, 
 which affects this question. It is your simple rejec- 
 tion of salvation when it is freely offered to you, 
 which rejection leaves you in your own condition, to 
 perish. God proposes to save you, and you refuse. 
 He intreats you to be wise ; and you refuse still. 
 What then is to be done ? The alternative is, that 
 you are lost. You cannot escape, if you neglect so 
 great salvation. You take a mendicant from the 
 street, and bring him to your house, and make him 
 your son ; he is ungrateful and disobedient ; you still 
 forbear with him ; he leaves you with contempt ; you 
 go for him, and bring him back ; he pursues again the 
 same course ; this round of kindness and ingratitude 
 is gone through again and again. At last, wearied 
 with his perverseness, you leave him to his own 
 course, and try to forget him. Would others be most 
 likely to speak of you, and would you be most likely 
 to think of yourself, as unjust in leaving one who had 
 rejected all your kindness, or as forbearing and liberal 
 in doing so much for one, for Avhom you were under 
 no obligation to do any thing ? And would it be your 
 cruelty, or his perverseness, which must be alleged 
 as the proper ground of responsibility, for his fmal 
 poverty and sufferings ? Transfer this illustration to 
 
god's message to ISRAEL. 69 
 
 yourselves, and you are condemned out of your own 
 mouth. God requires from you a certain Avell-defined 
 submission, as a preparation for the day of his coming. 
 He gives you the abihty to be prepared, according to 
 his will. But rejecting his grace, as offered in Jesus 
 Christ, he can offer you no other way of deliverance. 
 In the strong expression of the poet, 
 
 " You read your sentence at the flames of hell ;" 
 
 or in the stronger language of the Scripture, "he 
 that believeth not shall be damned." "The wicked 
 shall be turned into hell, and all the people that forget 
 God." 
 
 Let me then, earnestly press upon your notice, this 
 message upon which we have dv/elt so long. — " Pre- 
 pare to meet thy God, O Israel." Whatever be the 
 outward habits of your lives, whatever be the opinions 
 which men entertain of your characters, without the 
 power of godliness in your souls renewed by the Holy 
 Ghost, you are weighed in the balance, and are found 
 wanting. Acquire then, this spirit of true religion. 
 Awake to the importance of your future prospects. 
 Consider the value of your eternal interests. Esteem 
 it no weakness to acknowledge that you have precious 
 souls which must be saved, and that every thing else 
 is for you of small importance, when compared with 
 them. If ardent, spiritual religion be enthusiasm, 
 fanaticism, may God be pleased to send such fanati- 
 cism abundantly into his church ! If it be rude and 
 vulgar, to call upon men as helpless, miserable, ruined 
 sinners, to flee from the wrath to come, to turn unto 
 God and live, may God grant such a vulgar spirit to 
 all who profess to be his ministers. We are not of 
 
70 god's message to Israel. 
 
 those who deem it shocking to mention hell to ears 
 polite. Beloved, the solemn question is before you, 
 and must be answered by you, " who shall dwell with 
 the devouring fire ? Who shall dwell with the ever- 
 lasting burnings ?" Every soul here present that is 
 not bound to Jesus Christ by a living, lasting faith, is 
 without hope, under the wrath of God, condemned 
 already, and cannot escape the damnation of hell. 
 Turn unto him, and be ye saved. Acquaint your- 
 selves with him, and be at peace. You cannot stand 
 before God, unwashed in the blood of the Lamb, un- 
 renewed by the power of the Spirit. Your weight 
 of guilt will sink you into eternal condemnation. 0, 
 then, I beseech you, prepare, by embracing the hope 
 which Jesus offers you, to meet your God, and to re- 
 ceive that recompense of reward which he brings to 
 those who wait for him. 
 
V. 
 
 THE NEW CREATURE. 
 
 2 Corinthians v. 17. — Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he ts a 
 new creature; old things are passed away ; behold, all things are 
 become new. 
 
 The Apostle lays this down, not as a transitory 
 precept, but as a rule of universal application, and 
 which is to be made the standard of genuine Chris- 
 tianity, to the end of the world. 
 
 To be in Christ, is to be united unto him by the 
 power of his Holy Spirit, in a living, active faith. It 
 is to be connected with him as the branch is con- 
 nected with the vine, or as the members of a living 
 body are joined to their head. It is to be made, in 
 this uninterrupted communication, a partaker of his 
 fulness, and to receive from him grace for grace. To 
 be in Christ, is to be a Christian, not in name only, 
 but in deed and in truth. It is to have Jesus Christ 
 dwelling in our hearts by faith, as our hope of glory ; 
 and to abide with love and confidence in him, as the 
 only source of happiness or peace. To be in Christ, 
 is to be delivered from all condemnation and fear. 
 " There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ 
 
 71 
 
7S THE NEW CREATURE. 
 
 Jesus." It is to be secure under his protection, safe 
 in his righteousness, and able to answer and con- 
 found every tongue that riseth in judgment against 
 the soul. " This is the heritage of the servants of 
 the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the 
 Lord of hosts." To be in Christ, is to be in the en- 
 joyment of every blessing, and in the possession of 
 every privilege and joy. '' All things are yours, and 
 ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." Li this rela- 
 tive gradation, the omnipotence of Jehovah is secured 
 to the weakest believer in the Lord Jesus, because he 
 is Christ's. All things w^ork together for his good. 
 There cannot be a conceivable comfort which will 
 not arise to the man who is in Christ, from this con- 
 nexion, while all power in heaven and on earth, is 
 given unto him, and he gives his heavenly blessings 
 to whomsoever he will. To be in Christ, implies 
 that w^e have come unto him, from our native rebel- 
 lion ; that we have yielded to his authority, chosen 
 his salvation, are confiding in his atonement and 
 righteousness, and submitting ourselves completely 
 and forever to his will. The man who is in Christ, 
 has been led to his feet, in the voluntary and thankful 
 conversion of his heart, with a contrite and believing 
 spirit, and has found in the acceptance of his redemp- 
 tion, peace and blessedness. He has been brought 
 from darkness into light, and from the power of Satan 
 unto God, and is walking in the fear of God, and in 
 the comfort of the Holy Ghost, in a new, and holy, 
 and obedient life. 
 
 Such are the privileges of being in Christ. If any 
 man then, our text declares, would be united to Christ 
 in a living faith ; would be a Christian, not in name 
 
THE NEW CREATURE. 73 
 
 merely, but in the real experience of his heart ; would 
 be delivered from all condemnation, and be in the 
 possession of every blessing, he must be a new crea- 
 ture, old things must pass away, and all things must 
 become new. If any man has already attained these 
 privileges, and is living now in their assured and con- 
 scious possession, he is a new creature, old things have 
 passed away, and all things have become new. The 
 assertion of the text thus considered, presents itself, 
 
 I. As A REQUISITION UPON THE SINNER; and 
 
 II. As A PRIVILEGE TO THE CHRISTIAN. 
 
 We will consider these two, in their order. Our 
 text is to be viewed, 
 
 I. As A REQUISITION UPON THE SINNER. " If any 
 
 man be in Christ, he is a new creature." That is, 
 nothing short of a new creation can constitute any 
 man a Christian. The extent of this requisition is 
 described, both in its application to individuals, and 
 to personal character in each individual. Under the 
 former application, it refers to all men, without the 
 exception of any. Under the latter, it requires in 
 every one, the same work, v/hich is a new creation. 
 
 1. If we consider the extent of the requisition, as 
 applied to individuals, the emphasis rests upon the 
 word " any." " If any man be in Christ, he is a new 
 creature." It matters not who he may be, or what 
 the relative and changing circumstances of his life. 
 The assertion supposes only that he is a man, one of 
 the human family. Whatever may be his character, 
 or reputation, or privileges, no stress is laid upon, no 
 reference is to be had, to either. If he would be in 
 Christ, if he would be a Christian, he must be a new 
 creature. 
 
 G 10 
 
74 THE NEW CREATURE. 
 
 The Apostle previously allows of himself, that there 
 was a time wlieii he "knew both Christ and men after 
 the flcsii;" that is, he judged them altogether upon a 
 worldly and personal calculation. He thought of 
 Christ with opposition and contempt; and he thought 
 of men, with respect for the pretensions which they 
 set up. So the llesh had taught him. He imagined 
 that there were great ditfcrences of character anions: 
 men ; he thought mucli better of some than of 
 others ; he respected the claims for merit which they 
 asserted. But the true knowledge of Clirist, and the 
 experience of his new creating power, had overthrown 
 this false system of determination. Henceforth, he 
 could know no man, and estimate no character, ac- 
 cording to this standard. The Spirit of God had 
 taught him better. A new view had been given to 
 him of his own real character, and of the universal 
 character of unrenewed men. The conclusion which 
 he had derived from the information which he had 
 thus received, this light which had been bestowed 
 upon him from heaven, he gives us in our present text. 
 Here, he overturns all those folse assumptions in 
 which proud and ignorant men indulge, and proclaims 
 that doctrine, which to those who receive not, and love 
 not the truth, is so deeply repulsive and hateful. It 
 is the doctrine which declares, that in the natural re- 
 lation in which sinful men stand to God, against whom 
 they have rebelled, there is no dilference among them; 
 for " all have sinned, and come short of the glory of 
 God," " every mouth is stopped, and the whole 
 world is counted guilty before God ;" that there is 
 but one " name under heaven given among men, 
 whereby they can be saved;" and that no man can 
 
THE NEW CREATUHE. 75 
 
 become interested in this name, or be found in Christ 
 Jesus, unless he be a new creature. 
 
 The Gospel of the Lord Jesus, in making the 
 claim upon the heart of man, which accompanies its 
 offer of mercy, refers to the universal fact of the 
 enmity of this heart to God, and it refers to this fact 
 alone. It stops not to ask whether the man be a Jew 
 or a Greek, moral or profligate, wise or ignorant, 
 bond or free. It has but one requisition to make, 
 which must be equally insisted upon every where. He 
 must be born again. Old things must pass away. 
 They cannot be repaired or improved, so that God 
 will accept them. All things must become new. 
 
 No natural difference in the human character has 
 the least connexion with that grace by which we are 
 saved ; or any influence upon the relation in which 
 man, as a sinner, stands to God. Temper, amiable, 
 or unamiable, forms no more ground for difference of 
 claim for merit in the sight of God, than a counte- 
 nance beautiful or repulsive, or an intellect cultivated 
 or darkened. Without respect to any attainments of 
 men in their natural character, and while unreconciled 
 to God, we have but one grand message to deliver to 
 all without exception. It is, that they " repent and 
 be converted, that their sins may be blotted out, when 
 the day of refreshing shall come from the presence of 
 the Lord." 
 
 Every unconverted man, whether baptized or un- 
 baptized, whether a nominal Christian, or a professed 
 Mohammedan or Pagan, is proclaimed in the divine 
 word, to be by wicked works, an enemy to God, 
 alienated from his favour and presence, and a rebel 
 
76 THE NEW CREATURE. , 
 
 against all his purposes and commands. A desire to 
 glorify God, does not influence one of his actions. 
 His motives arise from himself; and his whole object 
 in life, is either immediately or remotely, to promote 
 his own advantage. Whether he pursue his favoured, 
 chosen object, in a course of integrity and upright 
 dealing; or whether he attempt to secure it in a 
 shorter method, by violence or fraud ; it is the single 
 principle of selfish interest, and the single desire for 
 personal gain, which excites him to diligence. If one 
 course were as honourable in society as the other, 
 and it would be so, but for the blessed influence of 
 that very Gospel, which sinful man despises, the only 
 determining motive for the conduct of unconverted 
 men, would be the likelihood of gain. And God may 
 say to the most high-minded and unblemished man, 
 whose heart is still unreconciled to him, of his highest, 
 and purest, and best actions, " hast thou done these 
 things at all unto me?" 
 
 The grand characteristic of unconverted men, is 
 that " God is not in all their thoughts." He makes 
 no part of their plan or object. " According to the 
 flesh," in the expression of St. Paul, that is, judged 
 by a merely human standard, there may be vast dif- 
 ferences of character among them. But according to 
 the standard of the Bible, where men are known only 
 in their relation to God, there are none. Examined 
 by the commands of the divine law, the whole world 
 will come under the condemnation of God. Judged 
 according to the offers of the Gospel, all who accept 
 them not, are equally condemned. The wrath of 
 God abideth on every one that believeth not in the 
 
THE NEW CREATURE. 77 
 
 name of his only begotten Son. None do or can be- 
 lieve in him, who are not born again, not of the will 
 of the flesh, but of God. 
 
 This is the extent of the requisition of our text, 
 as it is applied to individuals. It belongs to all men 
 witliout exception. " If any man be in Christ, he is 
 a new creature." No man can become a Christian 
 in any other method. " Except a man be born again, 
 he cannot see the kingdom of God." 
 
 2. The requisition of the text may be considered 
 in its application to character in each individual. 
 Here the emphasis is on the words new creature. 
 The text declares, that while for all men some change 
 of character is necessary, that change can be no less 
 in any case, than a new creation. 
 
 The question which is agitated among men upon 
 this subject, is not so much about the necessity of 
 some renovation in the human character, as a prepa- 
 ration for the eternal blessedness promised in the 
 Gospel, as about the extent of this demand. It is 
 not, whether any change at all be necessary, but what 
 that change shall be. There is not a man living, who 
 feels himself absolutely fit and competent to appear 
 .n judgment before a heart-searching God. All see 
 much deficiency in themselves which must be sup- 
 plied, and much error which must be amended ; and 
 therefore, all acknowledge, that there must be some 
 renewal in the character of all, before they can see 
 the face of God, and live. 
 
 But then the question is immediately proposed, 
 
 ' what must be done ?' We answer in conformity to 
 
 the word of God, that there must be in every man 
 
 living, a new birth, a spiritual conversion, a renewal 
 
 g2 
 
78 THE NEW CREATURE. 
 
 of the mind and heart, before he can enjoy the hope 
 which the Gospel gives. In Christ Jesus, in whom 
 alone man is safe, nothing availeth, but a new 
 creation. 
 
 The object to be obtained, the end professedly in 
 view, marks this necessity for a new creation. This 
 object is not, to be in the church. That may easily 
 be secured by a conformity to appointed outward or- 
 dinances. It is not be upright and reformed in ex- 
 ternal conduct merely. This may be accomplished 
 by man's own determination and exertions. It is not 
 to obtain a good reputation among men. That may 
 be acquired by due attention to the outward relative 
 character, of which alone man can judge. But it is 
 to be in Christ; to have a spiritual and unchangeable 
 union with him ; and to be made with him, a joint 
 heir of everlasting glory. This object no partial 
 change of character can secure. The natural man 
 cannot enjoy, any more than he can understand, the 
 things of the Spirit of God. The blessings which 
 are promised in Christ Jesus, are altogether spiritual 
 blessings ; and the preparation of character, which 
 shall enable us to possess and enjoy them, must be 
 spiritual also. To attain this important end, nothing 
 which is merely outward is of any avail ; nay, every 
 thing outward is worse than unavailing, if it be put 
 in the place of this grand point of Gospel requisi- 
 tion, the renewal of the soul by the Holy Spirit, after 
 the image of God. God alone reveals the things 
 which he has provided for them that love him ; and 
 he alone can make the way plain and open, in which 
 they are to be obtained. If these unspeakable bless- 
 ings are our object; if it is our wish to be in Christ, 
 
THE NEW CREATURE. 79 
 
 when God maketli inquisition for sin ; the holy Scrip- 
 ture gives us both its commands and promises, lead- 
 ing us to seek for a new heart, and to desire to have 
 a right spirit formed within us. " They that are in 
 the flesh cannot please God." 
 
 This new creation of the heart, we are commanded 
 everywhere to require. In our demands upon men 
 as the ministers of Christ, we dwell upon this alone. 
 The propriety of our unceasing urging of this, as uni- 
 versally necessary, is farther manifest from the fact, 
 that generally speaking, we have but comparatively few 
 charges to make against the outward conduct of men. 
 Such is the extended influence of the religion of 
 Jesus, and such is the power which its reflected light 
 exercises, to purify and restrain the character of hu- 
 man society, even among those who deny its actual 
 claims upon the heart, that the greater portion of 
 those to whom the Gospel is here offered, are exter- 
 nally respectable and correct. It is not, therefore, 
 to the outward deficiencies or transgressions of men, 
 that our attention is particularly called. Tliere are 
 many of you, my friends, without love to God, and 
 by your own acknowledgment, without the spiritual 
 submission of your hearts to Christ, who are still in 
 external deportment correct, perhaps exemplary. And 
 there would be no essential change in your discharge 
 of relative and domestic duties, or in the falfilment 
 of the business of your various stations, except that 
 the sweet influence of true piety would be tlirown 
 over the whole, and you would do all for Christ, if 
 you should become in the Gospel method, the true 
 followers of the Lord Jesus. 
 
 This is not only true in moral deportment. In the ser- 
 
80 THE NEW CREATURE. 
 
 vices of religious worship also, many unconverted men 
 are found exceedingly precise, and strict, and regular. 
 None were more so than the Pharisees of old, who 
 attempted thus to work out a righteousness for them- 
 selves, while they were hateful and abhorrent to God 
 for their sins, and assumed upon themselves, the curse 
 of a rejected Saviour. Like them, there are many in 
 our day, who have no knowledge of vital religion, the 
 religion of the heart, nay, who even deride and op 
 pose it, who are still, quite marked in their attention 
 to the outward services of religion, and in their con- 
 formity to modes of worship. 
 
 Now, in all these cases, the difficulty which sepa- 
 rates such persons from God, and from all hope in 
 him, is not an external one. It is a radical perver- 
 sion of motive and principle. They are doing nothing 
 for the Lord. The change which is required for them 
 is not a mere change of outward character. It is a 
 change of the heart, a new creation of the soul in its 
 principles and objects of pursuit. They are without 
 Christ ; and they are perishing in their sins, although 
 they are moral in deportment, and strict in ceremony. 
 No mere external demand or precept will reach their 
 case. They have but one simple want. But that 
 want is a total one. They must be new men. They 
 need to be in Christ ; and to be in him, thc}^ must be 
 begotten again, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to 
 the enjoyment of the lively and glorious hope whicli 
 he bestows. To do them good, this necessity must 
 be exhibited. They must see how entirely defective 
 are their best services. The solemn and unrelaxing 
 demands of Almighty God, for inward purity, for 
 spiritual cleanness, must be pressed upon their con- 
 
THE NEW CREATURE. 81 
 
 sciences with power from on high. For them every 
 thing is unavaihng, but that whick can be made the 
 instrument of converting their souls to God, and 
 making them hke httle children before him. This 
 they must be made to feel, or they perish without 
 hope. 
 
 Again, we are at all times to insist upon this new 
 creation of the soul, because all demands for mere 
 outward changes of conduct are so limited and par- 
 tial in their appHcation. There is no one external 
 reproof or requirement, which can be enforced with 
 an universal apphcation. This constitutes the utter 
 inefficacy of all that may be termed mere moral 
 preaching. Let our attention be directed to whatever 
 partial change of character it may, we cannot call 
 upon all men with it. Some on the one side, and 
 some on the other, are found beyond its reach. No 
 external characteristic of immorality, is to be found 
 in all men. All are not Sabbath breakers, or drunk- 
 ards, or thieves. If we admonish for a particular 
 transgression, there are some whose consciences do 
 not acknowledge the reproof. If we exhort to a par- 
 ticular duty, there are others who are ready to thank 
 God, that they have never failed in its performance. 
 These varieties in the outward characters of men, are 
 quite innumerable. But in the dispositions and pur- 
 poses of the natural heart towards God, there is no 
 difference. All men in their own nature are without 
 love to God, without a desire for a Saviour, without 
 a purpose or wish to glorify him. Here is a cha- 
 racteristic which is absolutely universal. The Gospel 
 therefore, settles its grand requisition, upon that which 
 is the universal deficiency. Man looketh upon the 
 
 II 
 
8© THE NEW CREATURE. 
 
 outward appearance, and supposes that a partial re- 
 formation will supply every want, and answer the 
 whole necessity. God looketh upon the heart, and 
 proclaims that to be full of evil. He calls, therefore, 
 for the cleansing, and the submission of that; and 
 directs the exertions of all to make the tree good, 
 that its fruit may be good also. The Gospel in its 
 solemn requisition upon the unrenewed sinner, stops 
 not to enjoin one particular duty or another. It 
 fastens its hold simply and wholly upon his alienated 
 heart, and demands the entire and cheerful submission 
 of that to God. The simple fact of danger and guilt 
 which it announces to him, is " thou hast neither part 
 nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the 
 sight of G od ; thou art in the gall of bitterness, and 
 in the bond of iniquity." Revealing to him this one 
 fact beyond dispute, it insists upon his gaining a new 
 heart, and having a right spirit renewed within him, 
 and putting on the new man, that he may be found in 
 Christ Jesus, and be justified freely through him. 
 
 This is the extent of the requisition of the text, as 
 it is applied to personal character in each individual. 
 There must be in every sinner, a total change of 
 motive and principle, before he can find acceptance 
 with the Lord. His spirit of rebellion and personal" 
 independence must pass away; and the spirit of 
 entire submission to God, and of full delight in his 
 perfections, and his glory, must assume the place of it. 
 The transforming influence of true religion must 
 govern every principle of the character, and every 
 motive of the conduct. The sinner is pursuing a 
 road entirely WTong, and utterly ruinous. He is 
 without the least conformity of his character, to the 
 
THE NEW CREATURE. 83 
 
 will of a holy God. The revolution in his character 
 must therefore, bo an entire one, before he can be 
 safe in the prospect of eternity. Inferior purposes 
 may be obtained by partial alterations. But if you 
 would be found in Christ, clothed with his righteous- 
 ness, and purified in his blood ; if you would be made 
 partakers of his unfading and eternal inheritance ; this 
 is to be accomplished solely in the immediate and 
 entire conversion of your souls to him, " If any man 
 be in Christ he is a new creature." 
 
 3. Asa proper improvement of this subject, I pray 
 you, my brethren, to bring your attention simply and 
 fairly to the point which has been placed before you. 
 You cannot set it aside. You cannot get by it. The 
 solemn requisition of the text stands directly across 
 your path. It is there immoveably fixed before you, 
 and by it alone will your characters be tried, and your 
 eternity be determined, at the last. All the glories 
 of the Gospel are offered for your attainment. But 
 it is only in the acceptance of this, its first privilege, 
 that the succeeding ones can be enjoyed. The city 
 of the living God offers you an abundant and ever- 
 lasting shelter. But upon its very gate is written, 
 " Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into 
 the kingdom of God." It is vain and useless to plead 
 the possession of any other qualification, while this 
 is wanting. All allegations of amiableness of temper, 
 of a restrained and well-regulated course of life, of 
 habits of integrity, of civil, harmless, or affectionate 
 deportment, of benevolent exertions for the good of 
 mankind, are answered immediately, by a repetition 
 of the same testimony, " except a man be born again, 
 he cannot see the kingdom of God." 
 
84 THE NEW CREATURE. 
 
 My friends, you may excuse yourselves as you will 
 upon the ground of education or personal conduct, 
 but you will be brought to this standard for trial, as 
 your final test. You may foolishly postpone from 
 year to year, all concern about it, and refuse to sub- 
 mit to the requisition which it lays upon you, but all 
 your efforts will only serve to increase your difficul- 
 ties and your condemnation. You will find it made 
 at last, the alternative to eternal ruin. You must 
 become converted unto God, renewed in the spirit of 
 your mind, made new creatures in Christ Jesus, or 
 your souls are lost. 
 
 If this be truth, why should you not yield at once 
 to the new creating power of God's waiting Spirit? 
 What can you gain by refusing to submit to the Re- 
 deemer of men? His terms will not be relaxed. 
 What he now offers to you freely, you may hereafter 
 ask for in vain. You may now yield yourselves to 
 him, and find peace in believing in him. You may 
 become vessels of his mercy, and experience the com- 
 forts and benefits which will flow from this delightful 
 privilege. But carelessness of future responsibility, 
 or a procrastinating spirit, or a love of the pleasures 
 of sin for a season, leading you to a rejection of the 
 Saviour and his Spirit, will certainly shut out your 
 souls forever from the hope and the opportunity of 
 eternal life ; and you will find youxselves in the end, 
 rejected and renounced by the Saviour, by whose 
 name you are called, as those whom he never knew, 
 and who are cursed forever under the burden of un- 
 pardoned sin. 
 
VI. 
 
 THE NEW CREATURE. 
 
 2 Corinthians v. 17. — Therefore, if any man he in Christ, he is a 
 new creature ; old things are passed away ; behold, all things are 
 become new. 
 
 This assertion may be considered, either as pro- 
 spective, declaring what is necessary for him who 
 would obtain the character and privileges of a Chris- 
 tian ; or as retrospective, announcing what has been 
 already accomplished in those who have experienced 
 the change of character and condition which it de- 
 scribes. Under the first of these forms, as a solemn 
 requisition upon the unconverted sinner, I have 
 already spoken of it. My present object is to speak 
 of it under the second, as a delightful privilege to the 
 tenewed Christian. Considered under this aspect, 
 the text declares a fact of immense moment to those 
 of whom the declaration may be truly made, and con- 
 taining advantages which are unspeakably important 
 and precious. This fact is the thorough and perma- 
 nent renovation of character in all those who are in 
 Christ ; in all the people of God. 
 
 "If any man be in Christ," if any man under the 
 H 85 
 
86 THE NEW CREATURE. 
 
 blessed influence of the Gospel, has accepted the offer 
 of divine acceptance, and become really a Christian, 
 "he is a new creature." He is so now; this is his 
 present condition, his blessed and unchangeable pri- 
 vilege. " Old tilings are passed away, behold all 
 things are become new." The point which is to be 
 settled is, is any man in Christ ? To decide this, the 
 text announces that, which if he be so, is at once his 
 evidence and his privilege. He is a new creature. 
 There has been accomplished in him, by divine power, 
 a new creation. He is a new man. And as such, he 
 may be easily examined, and must be readily known. 
 In the character which he now bears, and in which 
 he appears both to the divine and human inspection, 
 there is decision and permanency. Mere changes in 
 the outward conduct of man, like the change of his 
 garments, may in some degree alter his appearance to 
 others ; but they leave the man himself, in reality, just 
 what he was before. He has partially assumed a new 
 aspect and attitude, to those who can see only the ex- 
 terior, but his heart and principles are left altogether 
 unchanged and unaffected. The bringing of the same 
 man to Christ, and uniting him to Christ, by the 
 power of the divine Spirit, effects within him a total 
 change and revolution of motive and principle. This 
 makes him another man. It puts another heart within 
 him. It sets him out in a progress of character, di- 
 rectly opposite to that which he has pursued before ; 
 a progress in which there shall be no return ; but in 
 which he shall be kept by the power of God, through 
 faith unto salvation. This is the view which is given 
 us in our present text. The man who is now in 
 Christ, has passed through this important requisition ; 
 
THE NEW CREATURE. 87 
 
 has undergone the change which is declared to be 
 thus indispensable ; and is enjoying the peculiar com- 
 forts which this new creation is designed to commu- 
 nicate. Under this application I would now present 
 the text for your consideration. It exhibits the pri- 
 vilege of the Christian; the actual and assured con- 
 dition of the true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 For him '' old things arc passed away, behold au 
 things are become new." 
 
 The application of this text is confined, by some, 
 whose views of religion are far too low, and too loose, 
 for us to copy, to those Gentiles who were brought into 
 the Christian church, immediately from heathen idola- 
 try. It was certainly true in reference to such ; but upon 
 no ground which was peculiar to themselves. When 
 the blinded mind of man is enlightened by the Spirit 
 of God, and the heart which has loved the creature 
 more than the Creator, is changed and renewed by 
 his powder, the very same work is accomplished, and 
 by the same power, and to the production of the same 
 effects, in every age, and in every portion of the 
 world. All the descriptions of man's natural cha- 
 racter in the word of God, precisely meet the expe- 
 rience of man, in the most refined state of human 
 society ; and all the exhibitions of his renewed state, 
 are entirely accordant with what every Christian 
 throughout the world, finds to be the operation of 
 divine grace upon himself The text will be found, 
 therefore, to be universally applicable. And as it 
 proclaims without exception, when it comes as a re- 
 quisition, if any man would be in Chris i,, he must be 
 a new creature ; so it announces in an expression 
 equally unlimited, when it comes as a privilege, if any 
 
88 THE NEW CREATURE. 
 
 man be in C ist, he is a new creature, old things are 
 passed away, behold all things are become new. 
 
 II. This PRIVILEGE TO THE CHRISTIAN, we pro- 
 ceed to consider under the various aspects which its 
 different circumstances and parts present. 
 
 1. In the personal relations which the Christiar 
 sustains, " he is a new creature ; old things are 
 passed away, behold, all things are become new." 
 
 This is the fact, in his relations to God his Creator 
 and Judge. The violated law which heaped its 
 curses on his head, while he was an impenitent trans- 
 gressor, a rebel unreconciled to God, and in its con- 
 demnation, delivered him over to the vengeance of 
 eternal fire, has given place to that new covenant of 
 promise and mercy, which offers peace and salvation in 
 the obedience of the Lord Jesus, and secures to him 
 the everlasting favour of God, being in all things well 
 ordered and sure. He stands in the divine presence 
 no longer under condemnation. No charges of guilt 
 are made against him now. The penalty for his sin 
 has been endured. The offering for his justification 
 has been made. God is no longer angry with him 
 every day ; but as a reconciled Father, shines unceas- 
 ingly upon his soul, in the fulness and tenderness of 
 grace. He enjoys the comfort of this new relation. 
 His conscience is peaceful through the blood of sprink- 
 ling, and perfect love has cast out fear. He trembles 
 no more in the presence of a Judge rising up for ven- 
 geance upon the ungodly ; but rejoices in the guar- 
 dianship of a divine protector, and an unchangeable 
 friend, who is faithful in all his promises, and abound- 
 ing in grace in all his provisions for his people. 
 
 Such is also the fact in his relation to Jesus the Sa- 
 
THE NEW CREATURE. 89 
 
 viour. Once, like others, he despised and rejected 
 him. He turned away from all his offers of pardon 
 and love. He walked in regard to him, in the blind- 
 ness of his mind, having his understanding darkened, 
 and his heart hardened, through the power of sin. 
 Now he acknowledges and feels the inestimable im- 
 portance of such a Saviour ; and has embraced him 
 in the warm affections of his heart, as his comfort, 
 and hope, and portion forever. Jesus is not only a 
 Saviour, but is now his Saviour. There has been 
 between them a reciprocal imputation. His guilt has 
 been laid upon the Lord, who has endured its curse, 
 and carried it away forever ; and the perfect obedi- 
 ence of the Lord has been put upon him as his glo- 
 rious and everlasting covering, and he enjoys the re- 
 ward of it for eternity. The Son of God is no longer 
 driven from his affections, to make way for inferior 
 objects, but is the one grand object of all his desire, 
 and of his supreme love. Mutual tenderness and 
 mutual delight, make the friendship which has been 
 thus formed, animating and precious. The influences 
 of the Saviour's Spirit are welcomed, and encouraged, 
 and prized, and no longer resisted or quenched. The 
 presence and favour of the glorious Emmanuel, revealed 
 by the agency of this blessed Spirit, are constantly 
 desired and sought after; and Jesus as a personal 
 Saviour, appears in the highest degree estimable and 
 precious. 
 
 This is also the fact in his relations to men around 
 him. Here all things are become new. To the chil- 
 dren of God, the converted and believing, wherever 
 they are, he is a brother and a friend. While he 
 H 2 12 
 
90 THE NEW CREATURE. 
 
 loves God supremely, he loves every one who bears 
 the unage of God. He is a member of that holy 
 body of which Christ is the head, and he feels him- 
 self to be thus united unto all who partake of the 
 same fulness, with an abiding spirit of love. The 
 spontaneous expression of his heart, is " Grace be 
 unto all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sin- 
 cerity." He rejoices to do them good. He loves to 
 labour with them for Christ. He finds his chief de- 
 light in this communion of saints. 
 
 To the unconverted, he feels a bond of pity which he 
 never knew before. He now knows the galling chain 
 which they ignorantly wear. Earthly friends who 
 are without Christ, have now a tenfold interest in his 
 heart, beyond what he felt before. He labours with 
 earnest desire, and prays with deep anxiety in their 
 behalf, that they may have the eyes of their under- 
 standing enlightened, and discern the things which are 
 freely given them from God. He longs to sec them 
 also, become new creatures in Jesus Christ. He feels 
 the same pity for ail the impenitent among men. 
 Wherever they are, he desires their full conversion 
 into God, their everlasting salvation in Jesus Christ. 
 And to gain this end, he willingly spends, and is 
 spent, in the service, and for the glory of the Re- 
 deemer. 
 
 In all these relations, the Christian is a new crea- 
 ture. And in his state of mind and spiritual condi- 
 tion, under this aspect, '•' old things are passed away, 
 and all things are become new." 
 
 2. In his personal character, the Christian is a 
 new creature. He has been renewed in the spirit of 
 
THE NEW CREATURE. 91 
 
 his mind, after the image of liim who has created him. 
 He has thus put on the new man, which is renewed 
 in liohness, by the Spirit of God. 
 
 He is released from the dominion of sin. Having 
 been received under the covenanted power of divine 
 grace, sin shall no more have dominion over him. It 
 may dwell within him, but it dwells there as a cap- 
 tive, not as a ruler. Its influence may be often felt. 
 It may sometimes obtain a short ascendancy. When 
 he would do good, he may often find evil present with 
 him. He may often groan in anguish, over the body of 
 death which he finds himself compelled to carry about 
 with him. But all this evidence of his infirmity is suf- 
 fered for his good, to settle him the more completely, in 
 humility, and in dependence upon God. He is sinful 
 in himself; but he is not regarded, or dealt with as a 
 sinner in the sight of God. He is imperfect and in- 
 firm in his character and purposes ; but he is not, 
 and he shall not be, governed by the principles, or 
 the power of sin. God is daily giving him the vic- 
 tory ; and he will finally accomplish it for him, 
 through Jesus Christ. The hour is at hand, and will 
 soon arrive, when the Spirit of holiness which has 
 been implanted in his heart, shall become a tri- 
 umphant and overruling spirit for eternity ; and when 
 the sin, which in its power is already conquered and 
 crushed, shall in its very existence, be destroyed 
 forever. 
 
 He is released from the darkness and confusion of 
 mind, which sin has produced. He has been brought 
 back by the Holy Spirit, to that order of character, 
 in which man was formed at first. The nnage of God 
 which was lost in man's apostacy, has been restored 
 
92 THE NEW CREATURE. 
 
 to him, in his conversion. His understanding is en- 
 lightened from above, and controls his will, drawing 
 it back into a cheerful submission to God. His will 
 thus regulated and conformed to God, governs his 
 affections, and leads them to the things which are 
 above. His heart is fixed, trusting in God. Thus 
 in the true order of his powers, his whole soul is de- 
 voted to the service of God. He is enlightened to 
 discern the things which are excellent. He is able to 
 choose them according to their worth. He loves those 
 most, and with the most elevated feeling, which are 
 most desirable. He follows after them, as they are 
 held up before him; and reaching forward to the 
 things which are above, he presses to the mark of the 
 prize of his high calling in Christ Jesus. Thus his 
 heart has become right in the sight of God. 
 
 He has received a principle of divine grace within 
 him, which shall flourish and increase forever. The 
 work which is progressing in his heart, is the work 
 of God. It may now be small and weak, like the 
 mustard seed. But it shall grow and spread itself 
 abroad eternally. The promises and illustrations of 
 the Scripture point to this continual growth of the 
 kingdom of God in the Christian's heart, and en 
 courage him with the assurance, that the Lord will 
 perfect that which he has begun for him, and carry 
 on the good work unto the day of the Lord Jesus. 
 Thus in his personal character, old things are passed 
 away, and all things are become new. All former re- 
 formations were limited and temporary. This reno- 
 vation of his soul, is entire and perpetual. He re 
 mains fixed in his determination of obedience to God, 
 and no fears need rest upon his mind, nor any doubts 
 
THE NEW CREATURE. 93 
 
 to agitate or distress him. His rock is sure. His 
 hope shall not be overthrown. Lust, and passion, 
 and pride, and devotion to the world and self, are 
 conquered by divine power ; and he shall be kept by 
 that power, through faith, unto everlasting life. His 
 religious interests and hopes are safe, because they 
 are not entrusted to his own care, but preserved for 
 him, by divine power and faithfulness. His bow abideth 
 in strength, and the arms of his hands are made strong 
 by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. 
 
 3. In liis associates, the Christian is a new crea- 
 ture. Old things are passed away. His delight is 
 in the saints that are in the earth, and in such as 
 excel in virtue. There was a time when he avoided 
 the society of the pious : when he felt opposed to the 
 assemblies for worship and religious instruction; 
 when he turned away from those who set God always 
 before them. There was a time when he loved the 
 associations of the worldly, the haunts of giddiness 
 and mirth, the marts of wealth and emolument. The 
 profanity of the ungodly gave him no pain. Their 
 devotion to this life did not seem to be unreasonable. 
 Their forgetfulness of God excited no astonishment. 
 The gilded attractions of the present world led him 
 astray with others, in a voluntary delusion. 
 
 Now there has been a total revolution in all his 
 intercourse with men. He has turned away from all 
 the vain things which charmed him most. He finds 
 no pleasure in the follies of the world. Its scenes 
 of recreation do not attract him. Its temptations 
 cannot deceive him He has forsaken the society of 
 those who fear not God ; and he selects for his com- 
 panions and friends, those in whom he can find the 
 
94 THE NEW CREATURE. 
 
 dhine image, and tlie mind of Christ. One hour 
 passed with them in the worship of the Redeemer 
 whom he loves, gives him more real pleasure than he 
 ever found, in all the trifles by which liis unrenewed 
 heart was drawn and governed. He looks back with 
 wonder and shame, to the time when he roamed in 
 utter thoughtlessness about his high vocation, and was 
 wholly occupied with the most vain and worthless 
 objects. He now regards men according to their 
 character in the sight of God. He respects them, as 
 they love and adhere to the truth of the Gospel. He 
 seeks their society, as he finds Jesus with them, 
 and finds them to be helpful to him in the things 
 which belong to his peace ; or as he may be able to do 
 them good, for the sake of Jesus Christ. If his ne- 
 cessary business drive him into the world, he regards 
 it only as his place of duty and labour, not as the 
 source of his pleasure and enjoyment. He thank 
 fully returns to the society of those whose character 
 can give him pleasure, and who are pursuing, with 
 him, the path of spiritual holiness and life. He 
 would rather be a door-keeper in the house of the 
 Lord, than dwell in the tents of ungodliness, as their 
 possessor and lord. In this entire change of his taste 
 and dispositions, in reference to present associates, 
 he finds one valuable evidence, that he is indeed in 
 Christ, and a new creature; that for him, old things are 
 passed away and all tilings are become new. God 
 has bestowed upon him this love for holy society; and 
 it is the comfortable foundation for hope, that it shall 
 be forever gratified also by him, in the eternal fellow- 
 ship of saints and angels, around the Redeemer's 
 throne in heaven. 
 
THE NEW CREATURE. 95 
 
 4. The Christian is a new creature in his occupa- 
 tions and enjoyments. Here, all things arc become 
 new. The meat which perisheth, is not that which 
 he now supremely desires ; but he seeks for that 
 which endurcth unto everlasting life. His motives 
 for present exertion arise from a far higher source 
 than any earthly things. His wish and purpose are, 
 to glorify God in his body and his spirit, which are 
 his. He feels that God has given him a work to 
 finish, and that an account of his stewardship must 
 be rendered up to him. His desire is, in the fulfil- 
 ment of every required duty, to honour the great and 
 perfect name of his covenant God, whom he delights 
 to serve. His occupations are still in the world, but 
 he is not of the world. Religion sanctifies his daily 
 engagements. True piety reigns over all the works 
 of his hands. And through the divine blessing all 
 things are made to work together for his good. His 
 grand concern is to glorif)^ God in his ow^n salvation, 
 and in promoting the salvation of others. All his 
 plans and occupations in life, are in some way de- 
 signed to unite in promoting this great end. This 
 occupation and purpose is to him altogether new. 
 He was not before accustomed to care for the souls 
 of any. The religion and hope of the Gospel did 
 not before appear to him the one thing needful. But 
 now, however he may be occupied in life, he can say 
 with St. Paul, " This one thing I do, forgetting the 
 things which are behind, and reaching forward unto 
 those things Avhich are before, I press to the mark of 
 the prize of my high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 
 Every thing in life is with him in some degree con- 
 nected with the cause of religion. He surveys the 
 
96 THE NEW CREATURE. 
 
 map of the world, as a religious man. He views the 
 concerns of human society, and marks and estimates 
 the occupations of men, as they stand related to this 
 great subject. And he makes it his own plan, to 
 begin, continue, and end all his engagements, in the 
 service and to the glory of God. 
 
 While his occupations are thus new, his enjoy- 
 ments and pleasures are so also. His comforts and 
 joys come to him from above. In the multitude of 
 his thoughts within him, divine comforts delight his 
 soul. He looks beyond the bounds of sense, to find 
 his joy and his crown of rejoicing in eternity. The 
 delidit which he once received, and which he still 
 sees others to take in the vanities of the world, is 
 now a subject of astonishment with him. The re- 
 pulsive aspect which the services of religious worship 
 used to wear to his mind, is equally so. Prayer is 
 no longer a task, but a pleasure. The Bible comes 
 to him, not so much to remind him of a duty, as to 
 call him to a privilege. It is a high enjoyment to 
 worship God in spirit and in truth ; and a delightful 
 tiling to be tha.nkful to him for his gifts of love. Un- 
 bounded mercies continually surrounding him, call for 
 new praise from his heart, from day to day. Every 
 gift, Avhether of Providence or of grace, exhibits to 
 his mind a new aspect of his Father's goodness, in 
 the contemplation of which he takes great delight. 
 This is all new. The love of the world used to reign 
 where the love of the Father now controls. The 
 lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of 
 life, used to govern where the glory of the cross is 
 now the only boasting. The affections of his heart 
 are now set upon things which are above, which be- 
 
THE NEW CREATURE. 97 
 
 fore had no higher object than the perishing vanities 
 of the world. Thus for him all things are become 
 new, because he is in Christ. Life is happy, not in 
 proportion to the abundance of things which he pos- 
 sesseth, but in the dominion over his heart in all its 
 concerns, of tliat peace of God which passeth under- 
 standing. 
 
 5. He is a new creature in his prospects. Here old 
 things are passed away. He is released from the 
 bondage of the fear of death, from the condemnation 
 for sin, which made the wrath of God to abide upon 
 him. He has in the blessed promises of the Gospel, 
 the assurance of that perfect love in God for him, 
 which casteth out all fear. He has an abiding testi- 
 mony, that he has been bought with a price, and an 
 abiding hope of a far more exceeding and eternal 
 weight of glory, which has been also, by the same 
 price, bought for him. His actual expectations are 
 thus changed, because the facts before him are im- 
 measurably changed. He looks forward to no sor- 
 row, or pain, or death, in eternity. No flames of 
 anguish rise up in his path. No undying worm is 
 preparing for ravages upon his soul. God the Saviour 
 has opened the way to bliss and glory ; and there is 
 prepared by him, for the new creature whom he hath 
 formed, a crown which is incorruptible, and unfading 
 for eternity. All that God can bestow to fill up the 
 measure of his perfection and bliss, is secured to him 
 by a covenant, which cannot be removed, and which 
 equally keeps, and keeps with equal certainty, him for 
 glory, and glory for him. 
 
 This is a brief view of the text, considered as a 
 privilege for the Christian. " If any man be in Christ, 
 I 13 
 
98 THE NEW CREATURE. 
 
 he is a new creature, old things are passed away, be- 
 hold all things are become new." This is the present 
 actual privilege of the renewed man. It is now his 
 property, and he now enjoys it, far more certainly 
 than the house in which he dwells, or the food by 
 which his body is sustained. 
 
 6. My brethren, you see here the worth of real 
 piety, the true value of the religion of the Gospel. 
 It can be regarded only as a source of lasting enjoy- 
 ment and peace, to the heart which is governed by it. 
 He who considers the service of God but as a duty 
 which must be accomplished, sees none of its real 
 worth. He who looks upon it as the perfect freedom 
 which man desires, the highest honour, and the only 
 happiness of an immortal being, sees it, as it is re- 
 vealed, and finds it even more to his soul than he 
 could have anticipated. 0, my friends, thus seek, 
 and thus embrace the Gospel ! It is all you want ; 
 and your regenerated souls will rejoice forever in the 
 unsearchable riches of its grace. 
 
 You see here the actual encouragement for tl:e 
 Christian's hope and the Christian's effort. There is 
 no uncertainty in his attainment of the end he seeks. 
 He is pressing forward in a path of life. He is a 
 new creature ; formed by God, with whom there is 
 no change or shadow of turning, for high, and noble, 
 and heavenly ends. No created mind is competent 
 to describe the issue which awaits him, and for which 
 he is set apart by the grace of God. Between him 
 and that glorious issue, though there are many diffi- 
 culties, there is no uncertainty. He may soar up- 
 ward through the shining path to glory, perfectly con- 
 fident, that what God has undertaken, he will certainly 
 
THE NEW CREATURE. 99 
 
 accomplish, to the eternal honour of his own most 
 holy name. He has in this certainty of the result 
 before him, the greatest possible encouragement to 
 steadfastness and eflfort. 
 
 Here we also see the real test of human character. 
 Is man a new creature ? Has he passed from death 
 unto life ? Has he been begotten again by the power 
 of the Highest, to the enjoyment of a Gospel hope? 
 Is he a converted man ? The answer to this single 
 question involves all that man can look for for eter- 
 nity. Heaven and hell are suspended upon the deci- 
 sion of it. This question must be answered here or 
 hereafter. Its affirmative answer will be here, the 
 only fountain of peace ; hereafter, the only possible 
 charter of hope, and preparation for glory. The un- 
 righteous cannot inherit the kingdom of God. May 
 God give you grace to seek this glorious character, 
 and glorious hope ! May he lead you thus, at once, 
 to enter upon that progress of conformity to nim, 
 which shall result in the bliss of his own presence 
 forever ! 
 
VIl. 
 
 THE LORDS SIDE. 
 
 Exodus sxxii. 26. — Who is on the Lord's side? 
 
 In man's apostacy from God, the native disposi- 
 tions of the human heart have become universally 
 opposed to the divine will. The carnal, or natural 
 mind has become enmity against God, and refuses to 
 be made subject to his commands. Its affections are 
 enchained by concerns of transitory interest, and fol 
 low without control the attractions of sensible ob 
 jects. Its will is determined in the way of selfisl 
 gratifications, and has no ability to withdraw itself 
 from them, to seek after the things which are above 
 Man has become the slave of appetite, the victim of 
 corruption, and by wicked works the enemy of God. 
 This aversion to the divine government, exists in 
 every unconverted heart ; and it is the difference of 
 circumstances alone, which causes a difference in its 
 development in the outward character and conduct. 
 The exercise of amiable and affectionate dispositions 
 towards man, may gild and conceal its purposes. 
 Education and the restraints of surrounding society 
 
 100 
 
THE lord's side. 101 
 
 may prevent the full exhibition of its odious charac 
 teristics. The very principle of its own selfishness, 
 may often cloak its plans of sin. But the native 
 enmity of the heart to God still remains. Often it 
 betrays his aversion to the purity of the divine com- 
 mands, to the view of his fellow-men. Often it rises 
 up to his own awakened conscience, under a terrific 
 and remorseful aspect. By the searching eye of Al- 
 mighty God, it is unceasingly marked with abhorrence 
 for its guiltiness, and with sorrow for its effects. 
 
 This fact of the natural and universal enmity of 
 the human heart to God, is made the foundation of 
 all tiie plans of divine grace. While we were ene- 
 mies to him, and because we were enemies to him, 
 God hath given his only begotten Son to die for 
 us, that whosoever believeth in him, might not perish, 
 but have everlasting life. In the midst of this 
 world of enemies, God hath accomplished this myste- 
 rious and glorious scheme of redemption for man. 
 By a method which angels desire to understand, but 
 which is elevated, in its operation and influence, above 
 the reach of all created comprehension, he has recon- 
 ciled rebels unto himself; and has gathered from 
 among them a peculiar people, who, by his own Spirit, 
 have been made submissive to his holy will. He has 
 established a spiritual and unchangeable dominion 
 in the very midst of the powers of darkness, against 
 which the gates of hell shall not be permitted to pre- 
 vail. Thus the world has been divided. Its uncon- 
 verted portion of men still remain the children of 
 disobedience, the subjects of the prince of darkness, 
 vessels of wrath, fitted to destruction. But God has 
 drawn out also,' from among them, another portion by 
 I 2 
 
102 THE lord's side. 
 
 his Holy Spirit, a ransomed flock, who are called by 
 the name of his own Son, marshalled under the ban- 
 ners of this glorious Redeemer, to be made victorious 
 in him over all their enemies, and to be kept by his 
 power through faith unto salvation. These followers 
 of the Son of God are in the world. They are 
 connected with the children of the world, by a thou- 
 sand ties of nature. But they are not of the world, 
 even as he was not of the world. They have a 
 spiritual birth, a spiritual character, a spiritual home. 
 They have come out and separated themselves from 
 the principles of the world, and are bound together 
 by a new tie, under a new ruler, Jesus Christ the 
 righteous. They constitute "the Lord's side," in 
 the present world, as I may, without injustice, apply 
 the expression of my text. And in reference to such 
 a division among men, I propose to you the question 
 of the text : " Who is on the Lord's side ?" Where 
 are the lines of demarcation among you, my brethren, 
 between the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom ot 
 Satan? Who among you are the unpardoned and 
 unrenewed children of this world? And who are 
 the purchased and purified children of God ? 
 
 There is a sense in which all who hear me, may 
 assume to be upon the Lord's side. They have 
 voluntarily assembled in the house which he has sanc- 
 tified, avowedly to worship him, to make an offering 
 of praise and prayer to him, and to listen to the mes- 
 sages of his word. Should our examination proceed 
 no farther than the mere language of personal asser- 
 tion, this claim might be allowed. But, alas, the Lord 
 sees in his holy temple, many things which must be 
 taken hence. The sinful hearts of men still bring all 
 
THE lord's side. 103 
 
 liie business and the follies of the world into the 
 sanctuary of God ; and the inspection of them by a 
 . divine eye, shows the abomination which maketh de- 
 solate, standing in the holy place. This is an unde- 
 niable fact ; and while it is so, we are bound to carry 
 our investigation much farther than this apparent pur- 
 pose of men, in asking and determining who are on 
 the Lord's side. 
 
 I. In outward profession they are on the Lord's 
 side, who have become partakers of the peculiar or- 
 dinances which the Saviour has established for his 
 church. These ordinances he has made imperative. 
 The authority which has appointed them is supreme, 
 and no subordinate power can in any wise reverse 
 them, or set them aside. Until men have become 
 members of that body which is " sanctified by the 
 washing of water, through the word," in outward 
 baptism ; until they have established the covenant 
 into which they have thus entered, by " the laying on 
 of hands," which two appointments constitute " the 
 first principles of the doctrine of Christ," in regard 
 to outward ordinances ; until they are led to continue 
 in this fellowship, in the breaking of bread, in memory 
 of Christ; they cannot be said to be on the Lord's 
 side in the world, whatever be the state and prepara- 
 tion of the heart. Both the body and spirit of man 
 are required to glorify him who hath bought them 
 both with a price. The faith of the one, if it has 
 been wrought there by him, will not be separated 
 from the open, appointed profession of him with the 
 other. While the heart believeth unto righteousness, 
 the mouth must make confession unto salvation. 
 These two God hath joined together ; and the nature 
 
104 THE lord's side. 
 
 and constitution of man, as well as the authority of 
 God, make it impossible that they should be safely 
 put asunder. By the outward fruits of simple obe- 
 dience to the commands of Christ, are we to show the 
 faith which dwells in our hearts; and a professed 
 faith which does not result in such works of obe- 
 dience, is declared to be dead. But then the utmost 
 conformity to ordinances, without the attending, ade- 
 quate renewing of the Spirit, is useless also. The 
 most solemn outward profession may cover an unsub- 
 dued, nay, a cherished enmity to God. All are not 
 Israel in heart, who are of Israel in name. Tares 
 are growing with the wheat. Children of darkness, 
 fitting for their own place, assemble with the sons of 
 God, in all these privileges of the outward sanctuary. 
 This leads us to the necessity of a more intimate ex- 
 amination. The Saviour has said, " except a man be 
 born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into 
 the kingdom of God." This must be received as the 
 law of his kingdom. Man has no authority to say 
 that either may be dispensed with. On the one side, we 
 may not say, that he may certainly enter into the 
 kingdom of God, who believes himself to have expe- 
 rienced a spiritual birth, but discards the appointed 
 outward profession of the fact ; nor on the other side, 
 that he is secure who is a participant of ordinances 
 with the utmost accuracy, but wants the spiritual new 
 creation within. The two united, constitute the new 
 birth, without which no man can enter into the king- 
 dom of God. But neither by itself, comes up to the 
 Saviour's demand for a regeneration in man. And we 
 are not authorised by the Scripture to allow either, in 
 separation, to be a sufficient preparation for eternal 
 
THE lord's side. 105 
 
 life. While, therefore, this outward profession in the 
 Lord's ordinances, is the personal, public assertion, 
 that we are upon the Lord's side, it opens the way for 
 a further examination of the real spirit and character 
 of men. There is another standard which looks far 
 beyond all outward professions, in a determination of 
 this question. There are sure and incontestible evi- 
 dences that our profession is a just and sincere one. 
 There is a character which the power of man cannot 
 feign, and which accurately marks those who have 
 enlisted themselves under the banner of the King of 
 saints. These evidences are to be presented, not as 
 the marks by which we may form an opinion of others, 
 but as the testimony by which we may examine our- 
 selves. 
 
 IL To these characteristics of those who are on 
 the Lord's side, I would now direct your attention. 
 
 1. They who are on the Lord's side, have been 
 converted by the power of the Holy Ghost, from their 
 natural state of blindness and enmity to God. They 
 have been formed anew, after the pure and perfect 
 image of the Lord Jesus Christ. They have passed, 
 in their experience, from death unto life. This 
 spiritual conversion is the sole commencement of a 
 spiritual life. Man at enmity with God, is by divine 
 grace subdued and reconciled. Blind and careless, 
 he is by the same power awakened and illuminated. 
 In bondage to fleshly appetites and lusts, he is made 
 free wath the liberty of the sons of God. His affec- 
 tions fixed upon the world and self, are drawn oif to 
 God and heavenly things. All this is done for him, 
 w4ien the Spirit of God forms him anew for the love 
 and service of God. This must be done, equally done 
 
 14 
 
106 THE lord's side. 
 
 for all. It is not only necessary for those whose ex- 
 ternal conduct has been grossly corrupted and de- 
 praved, but for the most restrained and estimable 
 among men, who have lived unto themselves, and not 
 unto Jesus Christ the Lord. No advantages of edu- 
 cation, or example, or outward influence, can do away 
 in any case, the indispensable requisition of a new 
 creation of the soul. God may sanctify and bless a 
 thousand different instruments for the accomplishment 
 of this important end. He may effect it for different 
 individuals in every different period of life between 
 infancy and death. But he will not suffer its neces- 
 sity to be set aside for any. Man must be brought 
 out of darkness into the marvellous light of the Gos- 
 pel by this manifest conversion of his heart, or he 
 will be an inheritor of the blackness of darkness for- 
 ever. When this spiritual birth takes place, in addi- 
 tion to the required outward profession, you come 
 upon the Lord's side, and all your relations to God 
 are changed forever. From the children of wrath, 
 you are made the children of God ; and heaven, in all 
 the brightness of its glory, opens upon you, as an 
 everlasting home, in the stead of that unutterable 
 wretchedness and despair, which was, in a state of sin, 
 your only prospect beyond the grave. 
 
 Let your character and condition be tried by this 
 standard. Who among you have been thus brought 
 to a knowledge and love of truth ? You were born 
 without distinction, under the curse of a violated law, 
 dead in trespasses and sins. Have you been raised 
 to a new and spiritual life ? Have you been made to 
 experience and to rejoice in the pardoning love of 
 God our Saviour? I have no doubt that some of 
 
THE lord's side. 107 
 
 you can point to a period in their lives, before wliich 
 they felt no care for their souls, no interest in the 
 great concerns of the Gospel, no anxiety for the 
 things which belong to their peace ; but since which, 
 they have been seeking for heavenly treasures, and 
 the great object of their life has been, to glorify God, 
 and to find a gracious acceptance at his hands. 
 Others may be ready to say that they know no pre- 
 cise period of any change in their hearts, but they do 
 know that it is now their supreme wish, and their 
 highest effort, to be delivered from the bondage of 
 sin, and to be made conformable to the holy will of 
 God. I rest no authority upon the hour, or the in- 
 strument of this conversion. Whether God have 
 gently inclined the tender shoot, or, with resistless 
 power, have uprooted the tree at its maturity, is not 
 the important question. But the result must be mani- 
 fest; your change of feeling, and purpose, and de- 
 sires, must be clear and evident; your love for Christ, 
 and your hatred of sin, conscious and distinct ; your 
 possession of a spiritual mind, known and experienced; 
 and then whatever be the instrument, the work is the 
 same, and you are put by it, on the Lord's side for- 
 ever. 
 
 2. They who are on the Lord's side in this division 
 of the world, make it their object to live by faith in 
 his promises and power, and as pilgrims on the earth, 
 to become prepared for a better country, that is, an 
 heavenly. Nothing more clearly distinguishes a re- 
 newed and spiritual mind, than the habitual operation 
 of this principle of faith. In the various changes of the 
 present world, this spiritual mind exercises a filial 
 confidence in God, that all things shall work together 
 
108 THE lord's side. 
 
 for its good. In the darkest hours of earthly dis- 
 couragement, it can repose itself upon the assurance 
 of divine protection, and derive from that assurance, 
 thankfulness and peace. It looks not at the temporal 
 things, which are seen, but at the eternal things, which 
 are unseen. Its prevailing tendency is to reach far 
 beyond all mortal changes, to a city eternal in the 
 heavens, and to rejoice in the hope of the rest which 
 remaineth for the people of God. My brethren, how is 
 it with you, in regard to this ? Are you, in the exercise 
 and enjoyment of this spiritual faith, upon the Lord's 
 side ? Are you thus resting upon the Lord Jesus for 
 pardon and acceptance ? Are you confiding in his grace 
 and presence, to make you conquerors ? Are you en- 
 during as seeing him who is invisible ? Are you for- 
 getting the things which are behind, the world, with all 
 its gains, honours, and pleasures ; and, reaching for- 
 ward to the things which are before, the full sanctifi- 
 cation of the Holy Ghost, the final enjoyment of the 
 glory of God, the blissful presence of the Redeemer ? 
 Are you pressing on to the mark of the prize of your 
 high calling of God in Christ Jesus ? Are you labour- 
 ing to live above this world, and to pass through life 
 with your hearts and your hopes in heaven ? Is it a 
 subject of experience with you, that there is nothing 
 on earth which you desire in comparison with the love 
 of God your Saviour ? 
 
 3. They who are on the Lord's side experience a 
 daily conflict with the principles of sin. While men 
 are unconverted, this contest is unknown. They have 
 often a struggle between appetite and character, be- 
 tween immediate and remote interest, between con- 
 science and temptation. But in all these cases, the 
 
THE lord's side. 109 
 
 man himself is on the side of the transgression ; and 
 the opposer whicli is found in character, or con- 
 science, or supposed ultimate interest, is an opposer 
 to himself Every thing like contest, then, is between 
 himself and some better principle, that would lead 
 him in some respects to a better course. He has no 
 desire to do the will, or to promote the glory of God, 
 and he resists every effort of the Spirit that would 
 lead him to it. The converted man has changed 
 sides in this contest. Instead of warring against con- 
 science, and the Spirit of God, he is now, with them, 
 conflicting with the principles and power of sin. He 
 sees his unworthiness. He abhors his transgressions. 
 With the power of the Holy Spirit on his side, he 
 contends against them, and the temptations which 
 lead to them. Thus an unceasing warfare is carried 
 on within him. He mourns over the discovered in- 
 roads of sin, and is determined to resist them, and 
 drive them back. He is resolved, that however sin 
 may press upon him, it shall not have dominion over 
 him. The subject of his prayers, his tears, his 
 earnest exertions is, that he may be kept back from 
 presumptuous sins, and cleansed from his secret 
 faults. If he wander from God, it is not wilfully. 
 If he forget him, it is not with an ungrateful design. 
 He frequently finds himself tempted to do what he 
 would not. But his determined will and purpose are 
 on the side of duty, and the temptation is no longer 
 he, but sin that dwelleth in him. The prayer and un- 
 ceasing desire of his heart is, that God, by his own 
 Spirit, would deliver him wholly from this death. His 
 only confidence and hope is, that he who has begun a 
 good w^ork in him, will carry it on wdth increasing 
 K 
 
no THE lord's side. 
 
 power, even unto the day of the Lord Jesus. Try 
 yourselves by this. Are you thus upon the Lord's 
 side ? Is sin a burden to your souls ? Is holiness 
 of character the object of your desires and labours ? 
 Are you contending against the predominance of 
 unholy appetites, passions, and pursuits? Are you 
 resisting the prevalence of a carnal, vs^orldly mind? 
 Do you feel it to be the greatest of all evils to be 
 alienated from God ? Is it your daily prayer, that he 
 would deliver you from the bondage and danger of 
 such a spirit? Does the consciousness of sin, how- 
 ever involuntary, fill you with grief? If you have 
 no experience of this inward conflict, and are not 
 daily, by the Spirit of God dwelling in you, resisting 
 the power of sin and death, you cannot be on the 
 Lord's side. 
 
 4. They who are on the Lord's side, are going on 
 from grace to grace. They are daily gaining victory 
 over sin, and drawing more near to the true and holy 
 God. The mind of Christ is forming within them. 
 The Spirit of Christ is shedding his lovely and holy 
 influence over their hearts. The fruits of grace are 
 exhibiting themselves with increasing brightness in 
 all their conduct. Holiness and pureness of living, 
 meekness of spirit, a contented and thankful temper, 
 a readiness to do good, and to endure evil, form 
 the characteristics of their lives. As years pass by 
 with them, they are continually rising above the 
 vanities of the world ; acting upon the belief, that 
 they have here no continuing city ; labouring not for 
 the meat which perisheth, but for that which endur'^th 
 unto everlasting life ; rejoicing more and more in the 
 favour of God reconciled to them through Jesus 
 
THE lord's side. Ill 
 
 Christ. Life is with them, not only a conflict, but also 
 a progress to victory. The grace which as an incor- 
 ruptible seed was implanted in their hearts, in the 
 hour of their conversion, expands, and grows, and 
 matures, till, as the full corn in the ear, it brings forth 
 the fruits of holiness, unto everlasting life. From 
 the hour in which they were brought over as captives 
 upon the Lord's side, and their affections and wills 
 were enlisted in his cause, they are promoted in his 
 service, and advance every day the more nearly unto 
 him. From babes in Christ, they pass through every 
 intervening period of a spiritual life, till more than 
 perfect men in Christ Jesus, they shine forever, as the 
 angels in the presence of God. 
 
 My beloved brethren, are you upon the Lord's 
 side? 0, decide for yourselves this all-important 
 question ! Have you ever given up your habits and 
 determinations of rebellion against him, and humbling 
 yourselves before him, besought him to lead you into 
 captivity by his grace? 0, deceive not yourselves in 
 a matter of such unspeakable consequence. Take 
 the description which has now been given to you of 
 the Lord's people, and by it, faithfully try your lives 
 and hearts. Rest not in a heedless uncertainty re- 
 garding the state of your souls. In God's contro- 
 versy with sin, there is no neutral ground. " He that 
 is not with me, is against me." Every individual 
 before me is either the child or the enemy of God ; 
 is either ripening for unfading bliss, or withering for 
 a changeless sorrow. 
 
 Can it be, that you feel no concern in the decision 
 of such a case as this ? Can you suffer the conviction 
 that God is angry with you every day, and yet feel no 
 
112 THE lord's side. 
 
 anxiety, and make no exertions to obtain your peace 
 with him ? Are you in a state of warfare with the 
 great King of heaven, and yet refuse while he entreats 
 you to return unto him, to give up your opposition to 
 his will ? Have you reflected how short is the period 
 in which this reconciliation with an offended God must 
 take place ? A few more days, and he that shall come, 
 will come, and will not tarry. Will you choose the 
 despondency and fear of a death without hope ? Will 
 you choose to meet a Saviour then, who has been 
 driven from you before, by an inexcusable ingratitude? 
 Will you rush unpardoned and accursed, into that pre- 
 sence, where the holiest of the holy veil themselves 
 with reverence ? Will you reject the comfort of a Re- 
 deemer's grace, despise the riches of his forbearance, 
 and cast from you the assistance of the one, who 
 alone has power to defend you in the hour of trial ? 
 Will you give up here, the pleasantness and peace 
 which Jesus offers, and the glorious inheritance which 
 he has provided, and make your souls, with their 
 immortal welfare, a sacrifice to your determined 
 rebellion against God? Alas, if this be your de- 
 cision, if you are resolved not to be on the Lord's 
 side, man can do nothing for you. Your hours of 
 regret are coming, when tears of blood will not repair 
 your loss, nor anguish unutterable purchase peace. 
 
 But if you will return, come. Lay aside your 
 repugnance to the will of God, your contests with 
 his authority, your resistance of his Spirit. Let 
 nothing detain or discourage you. Offer yourselves 
 to God, and in that divine Saviour in whom he has 
 laid up the treasures of his grace for you, seek pardon 
 and life, and you shall in no wise be cast out 
 
THE lord's side. 113 
 
 To those of you who are on the Lord's side, let 
 me say, come daily anew to him, with humble, believing 
 hearts, and he will strengthen and bless you. Live 
 more entirely by faith in him. Suffer him not to be 
 wounded by your negligence or worldliness. Crucify 
 him not afresh, by going back to the elements of the 
 world, and drinking again out of broken cisterns. 
 Never forget that there is no concord between Christ 
 and Belial, no halfway ground in religious character 
 or profession. There can be no giving up one hour 
 of conflict for the sake of worldly peace. You must 
 bear about with you the marks of the Lord Jesus, 
 and never leave it as a doubtful matter to whom you 
 belong. 0, that you may have grace to live ever 
 mindful of your eternal obligations, and always as 
 becometh tliose who are on the Lord's side. 
 
 Bd 15 
 
VIII. 
 
 THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 
 
 EzEKiEL ix. 3 — 6. — And he called to the man clothed with linen, which 
 had the writer's inkhurn by his side ; And the Lord said unto him. Go 
 through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a 
 mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh, and that cry, for all the 
 abominations that be done in the midst thereof And to the others he said 
 in my hearing. Go ye after him through the city, and smite ,• let not 
 your eye spare, neither have ye pity .• Slay utterly, old and young, both 
 maids, and little children, and women ,■ but come not near any man upon 
 whom is the mark ; and begin at my sanctuary. 
 
 To understand adequately, both the circumstances 
 which are related in this passage, and the application 
 which I design to make of them, it will be necessary 
 to refer shortly, to the history which the prophet him- 
 self gives. 
 
 He was sitting in his house, and the elders of Judah 
 were sitting before him, when the hand of the Lord 
 God fell upon him. He beheld, and lo, a likeness as 
 the appearance of fire. He saw a hand which was 
 put forth, and took him by a lock of his head. And 
 the Spirit lifted him up between the earth and the 
 heaven, and brought hiii. in the visions of God to 
 Jerusalem, to the inner door of the temple. And 
 
 114 
 
THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 115 
 
 the glory of the God of Israel was there, according 
 to the vision which he liad previously seen in the plain. 
 There, God displayed to him successive scenes of the 
 iniquity of the people ; and carried him forward 
 through different parts of the temple, and of the city, 
 to witness the increasing abominations which were 
 committed by various classes of the inhabitants of Je- 
 rusalem. The whole city seemed to him to be filled 
 with crime. Even the sanctuary of the holy God, 
 was desecrated by the polluting devices of wicked men. 
 He beheld seventy of the ancients of the house of 
 Israel, each provided with a censer, offering a thick 
 cloud of incense to every form of creeping things, 
 and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house 
 of Israel, which were portrayed upon the wall round 
 about, saying to each other, " the Lord seeth us not, 
 and the Lord hath forsaken the earth." He saw the 
 women engaged in all the superstitions of their idol 
 worship ; and the men even between the porch and 
 the altar of the temple, with their backs to the temple 
 of the Lord, and their faces toward the east, worship- 
 ping the sun. 
 
 When all these varied scenes of guilt had been ex- 
 hibited to him, the Lord said unto him, " Hast thou 
 seen tliis, son of man ? Is it a light thing to the 
 house of Judah, that they commit the abominations 
 which they commit here ? For they have filled the 
 land with violence, and have returned to provoke me 
 to anger ; and lo, they put the branch to their nose. 
 Therefore will I also deal in fury ; mine eye shall not 
 spare, neither will I have pity ; and though they cry 
 in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear 
 them." 
 
116 THE PROTECTED PEOrLE. 
 
 The Liord then proceeded to show him the fulfil- 
 ment of this solemn denunciation. " He cried in 
 mine ears," says the prophet, "with a loud voice, 
 * cause them that have charge over the city, to draw 
 near, even every man with his destroying weapon in 
 his hand.' And behold, six men came from the way 
 of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and 
 every man with a slaughter weapon in his hand ; and 
 one man among them was clothed with linen with a 
 writer's inkhorn by his side ; and they went in and 
 stood beside the brazen altar. And the glory of the 
 God of Israel was gone up from the cherub where- 
 upon it was, to the threshold of the house." The 
 Lord forsook a sanctuary which had been so polluted 
 by man's transgression, and stood at the door of the 
 temple, to direct the work of separation and punish- 
 ment among the people, which he had determined 
 now to accomplish. He had come forth in his anger, 
 to take vengeance on the iniquities of men, and to 
 deal with them in his fury, for all the abominations 
 which they had committed, and for the hardness and 
 impenitent heart with which they defended themselves 
 in them. 
 
 But the inhabitants of Jerusalem had not all thus 
 forsaken or provoked him. The Lord had reserved 
 to himself, as in the time of Elijah, a remnant who 
 had not bowed the knee to the pernicious influence 
 of a majority; who had dared to be "faithful found 
 among the faithless." Before the work of determined 
 destruction could commence, he must take forth the 
 precious from among the vile. They had manifested 
 their zeal for his honour, and their love for his ser 
 vice, to the utmost of their power. And though they 
 
THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 117 
 
 had not been able to rule the characters, or to limit 
 the wickedness of the residue of men, they should 
 certainly be protected amidst their dangers, and 
 rescued from tiicir destruction. The prophet says 
 " he called to the man clothed with linen, which had 
 the writer's inkhorn by his side ; and the Lord said 
 unto him, ' go through the midst of the city, through 
 the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the fore- 
 heads of the men that sigh, and that cry, for all the 
 abominations that be done in the midst thereof.' " 
 Thus were the servants of God to be distinguished. 
 They had done all that they could do, to maintain 
 the authority of God among the people. And when 
 all their efforts were vain, they still sighed and cried 
 over abominations which they could not prevent. In 
 the spirit of David, rivers of water ran down their 
 eyes, because men kept not the divine law. Like Je- 
 remiah, when men would not hear, their souls wept in 
 secret places, for their pride. But even this the Lord 
 hearkened and heard ; and a book of remembrance 
 was written before him, for them that feared the Lord, 
 and that thought upon his name. And now, when 
 sudden destruction was coming upon ungodly men, 
 which they could not escape, these faithful servants 
 of God, should be infallibly preserved. As the Israel- 
 ites were distinguished in Egypt by the blood of the 
 lamb, and the destroying angels were to pass over 
 every house on which there was seen the lamb's 
 blood, so these were now to be marked by divine ap- 
 pointment, that they might be secure from evil. 
 
 When this command was obeyed, the Lord said to 
 the others, the six men who had the slaughter weapons 
 in their hands, "Go ye after him through the city, 
 
118 THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 
 
 and smite ; let not your eye spare, neither have ye 
 pity; slay utterly, old and young, both maids, and 
 little children, and women; but come not near any 
 man upon whom is the mark : and begin at mj^ sanc- 
 tuary." This dreadful order was immediately exe- 
 cuted. The destroying angels began at the brazen 
 altar where they stood, with the ancient men, who 
 were before the house. No place or circumstances 
 were to be a protection for impenitent guilt. God 
 said unto the executors of his wrath, " defile the 
 house, and fill the courts with the slain ;" and then, 
 " go ye forth." " And they went forth, and slew in 
 the city." 
 
 " And it came to pass," says the prophet, " while 
 they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell 
 upon my face, and said, Ah, Lord God ! wilt thou 
 destroy all the residue of Israel, in thy pouring out of 
 thy fury upon Jerusalem? Then said he unto me, 
 The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is ex- 
 ceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the 
 city full of perverseness ; for they say, ' the Lord 
 hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not. 
 And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neithei 
 will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon 
 their head. And behold the man clothed with linen, 
 which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the mat- 
 ter, saying, ' I have done as thou hast commanded 
 me.' " 
 
 My brethren, " whatsoever things were written 
 aforetime, were written for our admonition." And 
 the propriety of the extension of this instructive pas- 
 sage of Scripture, in an application to our own time 
 and circumstances, is so manifest, that there is hardly 
 
THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 119 
 
 required of me any thing more than a conclusion of 
 solemn ind awakening exhortation, to the various 
 classes of those who hear me, and who may be in- 
 cluded in it. As it is a history of facts which are 
 past, it refers to those whom it describes by name. 
 But as it is an exemplary instance of the dealings of 
 Almighty God with sinful men, it is an illustration of 
 facts which are to come, in reference to ourselves. 
 May the Lord, the Spirit, be mercifully pleased to 
 make us wise in its consideration, and faithful in its 
 improvement, for ourselves. 
 
 The simple general subject which the text offers to 
 our notice, is an exhibition of the people of god, 
 
 PROTECTED IN THE DESTRUCTION OF A WORLD OF 
 
 THE UNGODLY. Upou this important subject, I re- 
 mark first, 
 
 I. That God has a people of his own in a world 
 of sinners, who feel for his honour, and desire to sus- 
 tain his authority. This is at all times a most im- 
 portant and precious fact. It never was more im- 
 portant than it is in our day. God has such a people. 
 Whatever may be the amount of human iniquity, 
 however overspreading and fearful, the surrounding 
 abominations of mankind, there is still a remnant, 
 upon whom the Lord looks with favour. They are 
 men who tremble at his word, and who, as they are 
 mutually acquainted, speak often one to another. 
 These are the salt of the earth; the preservation of 
 men. Set apart by the Lord, for himself; made by 
 the Holy Spirit, new creatures in Christ Jesus ; stand- 
 ing with his robe of righteousness, complete in him ; 
 instant in prayer ; fruitful in holiness ; and preferring 
 the reproach of Christ, to the treasures of the world; 
 
120 THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 
 
 they are at once, the ornament and the defence of 
 mankind. And it imports an amazing amount of cor- 
 ruption and guilt in a land, when it is proclaimed, that 
 such men can but deliver their own souls, and shall 
 be no longer the instruments to convey divine bless- 
 ings to others. 
 
 That God has such a people in our day, a seed of 
 grace still remaining among us, is an assurance of un- 
 speakable comfort. The death of the last servant of 
 God among a people, fills up their history ; completes 
 the purpose of God, and their trial ; and they who 
 have rejected his grace, to remain finally in sin, are 
 rejected by him, as unjust, to remain unjust still. 
 While we look abroad upon the abominations which 
 encompass us in this day of evil, this is our comfort 
 in the house of our affliction. There is still salt in the 
 earth. The Lord has notlefthimself without witnesses. 
 There are yet in the land many precious, praying sons 
 of Sion, comparable unto fine gold, each one of whom, 
 in the Lord's esteem, is as the apple of an eye. 
 
 We behold the misrule of intemperate lusts driving 
 in scathing fire, over every thing which is honourable 
 to the character of man, and indispensable to the 
 good order of society; literally, death on the pale 
 horse, and hell following; we behold drunkenness 
 and licentiousness writhing like insatiable serpents 
 through the land, and feeding daily upon more vic- 
 tims, than the crudest superstition on the earth has 
 ever demanded ; we see impiety with an unblushing 
 front, setting her polluting foot upon all that is sacred 
 in the institutions of the Gospel, trampling down the 
 Bible and the Sabbath, sounding abroad with a 
 trumpet her blasphemies against God, while infidelity 
 
THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 121 
 
 stands by, and claps her hands in triumph, and shouts 
 encouragement as if it were the path of glory ; and 
 the order, and the interests, and the happiness of man, 
 fair flowers that bloom only beneath the favour of the 
 Most High, all crashed into the dust behind, like the 
 hard-trodden surface of a battle field. These are 
 the abominations of men around us ; so overspread- 
 ing, that even the wise men of this world, who have 
 connived at the whole, and grown rich with its gains, 
 begin to tremble amidst the results of their own allow- 
 ances, for the security of their own property and life. 
 
 And where, amidst all this anarchy and noise, are 
 the people of the living God ? Has the whole family 
 of man gone after the idols of sin ? Is there nothing 
 left to show what man under a better dominion might 
 become ? Is there no green spot in the desert, as a 
 sample of what blooms and flourishes in other climes? 
 O, yes, my brethren, thanks be to God, he has left us 
 a remnant, and he knoweth them that are his. They 
 are described in our text. They sigh and cry for the 
 abominations that are done. In the secrecy of the 
 closet, amidst the little social circle for prayer, in 
 the house of God, the eye of the Lord still sees 
 them ; perhaps unknown and unnoticed by the world; 
 and he says of each of them, as if turning off his at- 
 tention from apparently greater objects, to mark them 
 the more intently, " upon this man will I look, even 
 the man who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and 
 trembleth at my word." 
 
 These people of God have not sighed in listless 
 
 idleness, or wept tears of fearful indolence, without 
 
 an effort to stop the progress of man's iniquity. No. 
 
 They are those who have first done all in active effort 
 
 L 16 
 
[22 THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 
 
 which they could do, to restrain the wickedness of 
 others ; and who now, while they are mourning for 
 their sins, are bearing their testimony with fidelity 
 against them. They are not partakers of other men's 
 sins. They do not join with them in unnecessary 
 disturbances of the holy rest of the Sabbath, nor 
 legalize by even partial indulgence in intoxicating 
 drinks, that drunkenness wherein is excess. They 
 withhold their hands from the taking of bribes. They 
 will not gain their emolument from that which is made 
 the instrument of dishonour to God and ruin to man. 
 To them the wealth which is the price of blood, the 
 gain in any degree of breaking God's law, is an ac- 
 cursed thing. They will not touch it. They do not 
 shrink from sight behind a multitude, nor attempt to 
 cover their responsibility with the plea, that they are 
 single amidst the many, and that their influence is 
 therefore, nothing. They stand out openly for God, 
 and for the truth of God, though unsupported by hu- 
 man power, and discouraged by all the influence of 
 man. And if they can do nothing by active effort, 
 they still mourn over evils which they cannot cure. 
 They cannot feel or profess indiflference to the con- 
 duct and condition of mankind. Jealous for the 
 honour of God, happy in the acceptance of a Saviour, 
 knowing the comforts of the Holy Ghost, believing 
 the revealed responsibility and destiny of sinful men, 
 they long to the end of life, for the salvation of the 
 ungodly ; and sigh and cry unto God, while they live, 
 over a destruction in which they have no participa- 
 tion, and which men bring wholly upon themselves. 
 Siich a people God has in the midst of a v/orld of 
 sinners. I remark secondly. 
 
THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 123 
 
 II. This people are entirely protected in the de- 
 struction which God brings upon the ungodly. 
 
 " Go," says the Lord in our text, " set a mark 
 upon the foreheads of the men that sigh, and that cry, 
 for nil the abominations that are done in the midst 
 thereof;" a mark which shall be easily discerned ; a 
 mark by which they shall be known without hesita- 
 tion or doubt. What this mark was in this particular 
 case, it matters not for us. The fact is all that we need. 
 These servants of- God were thus marked. Then 
 says God to the destroyers, " Go through and smite ; 
 but come not near any man upon wh nu is the mark." 
 
 Thus the people of God are marked and sealed 
 amidst the world in which they dwell; and God 
 spares them in the hour of punishment, as a man 
 spareth his own son that serveth him. It is not ex- 
 hibited as a mark for man's discernment, though open 
 as it was upon the forehead, it need not be concealed 
 from man. But it was to guide the instruments of 
 death; to preserve the people of God from the de- 
 stroying weapons ; and to constitute the evidence of 
 his acceptance of them, and of their title to his eternal 
 favour. Amidst surrounding ungodliness, the secret 
 of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will 
 hide them in his tabernacle, until the danger be over- 
 past. They are marked by his infallible determina- 
 tion, and are sealed by his Spirit unto the day of re- 
 demption. 
 
 They are marked in their conversion unto himself, 
 having been begotten again of an incorruptible seed, 
 of the word of God, by the Holy Ghost; and they 
 are living and walking in the Spirit. They are 
 marked by their increasing separation through the 
 
1S4 THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 
 
 Spirit, from the defilements of sin, and their with- 
 drawal from the secret and the assembly of the un- 
 godly. They are marked by the manifest fruits of 
 the Spirit, the holy graces which spring from his 
 operations within the heart, exhibiting them as living 
 to God, and for God, among men, and seeking in the 
 meekness of wisdom, to bring all men back to him. 
 They are marked by the prayers which ascend night 
 and day from their hearts to heaven, cries which come 
 into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, bringing down 
 his blessings upon sinful men, and turning away his 
 anger from them. They are marked in all the ap- 
 pointed ordinances of his house, and seek in all 
 things, to know what he would have them to do. 
 They will be found abiding in the communion of his 
 church ; walking in the light of his word ; and 
 honouring him in their glad conformity to all his in- 
 stitutions among men ; rejoicing there to dwell where 
 the Lord hath established his blessing, even life for- 
 evermore. Thus God knows, and makes known his 
 people ; not by their assertion of privileges, and pro- 
 fessed subjection to his will alone ; but by the mani- 
 fest and undisputed exhibition of that holiness of 
 character which is the earnest of the purchased in- 
 heritance, and without which no man shall see the 
 Lord. 
 
 Thus marked, they are entirely protected in the 
 hour of danger. When the Lord cometh out of his 
 place, to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their 
 iniquity, he turneth his hand upon these little ones, 
 and shelters them in the cleft of the rock, from the 
 sorrows which compass the sinner forever. It is not 
 from earthly troubles that they are protected. These 
 
THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 125 
 
 form no discrimination of character ; nor are they the 
 designed punishments for human sin. The genera- 
 tion of God's children have often, in this respect, a 
 measure of a full cup poured out for them. But 
 their sufferings are precious and indispensable bless- 
 ings; and they are the happier and the hoher in heaven, 
 for all which they have been required to endure upon 
 the earth. 
 
 But wlicn God, in his justice, punishes the ungodly, 
 and makes his inquisition for guilt, the destroying 
 angel conies not near a man upon whom is the 
 blood of the Lamb. In the temporal visitations which 
 he makes for sin, when kingdoms and communities 
 are desolated and overthrown for their iniquity, God 
 selects his people, and shields them completely from 
 that result of mortal death which sin produces ; and 
 makes the pestilence, or the earthquake, or the confla- 
 gration, the chariot which is to bear them up to glory. 
 [t becomes a blessing to them, and a welcome mes- 
 senger from God to their souls. Their minds are 
 kept in perfect peace, because they are stayed upon 
 him. And in the scenes of a world to come, when 
 the wickedness of the ungodly has come to a per- 
 petual end, he will establish the just. No despairing 
 anguish shall arrest them upon the bed of death. No 
 biting remorse shall attend them to the presence of 
 an heart-searching God. No pang of unpardoned 
 guilt shall fester in their bosom. No banishment 
 from the Most High shall clothe their souls with 
 darkness. No angry spirits shall vex them on to 
 madness. No scorching flames shall feed upon a 
 soul that cannot die. God says to all the messengers 
 and instruments of wrath, " Come not near any man 
 l2 
 
126 THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 
 
 upon whom is the mark;" and the law stands off, and 
 conscience is silenced, and guilt hides its head, and 
 Satan shrinks away. Known by the mark of grace — 
 grace which loved them, bought them, found them, 
 brought them back, kept them, and crowned them — 
 they stand before God, sanctified and secured. Happy 
 in their eternal enjoyments. Happy in all their earthly 
 sorrows. Happy, peculiarly in this, that they sighed 
 and cried for the abominations of men, in their zeal 
 for the honour of the Lord of hosts. 
 
 The text leads me to remark thirdly, 
 
 HI. While the people of God are thus distin- 
 guished and protected, the destruction of the ungodly 
 will be entire. Their abominations long forborne 
 with, are at last brought into judgment ; and tribula- 
 tion and anguish cometh upon every soul of man that 
 doeth evil. Amidst the overspreading of sin around 
 us, we might almost be tempted unbelievingly to say, 
 "the Lord seeth not." The wicked are often they 
 who seem the most to prosper in the earth. But faith 
 assures us that the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth; 
 and though sentence against an evil work be not exe- 
 cuted speedily, nothing is forgotten before him, and 
 he will bring every secret thing into judgment, and 
 fully repay them that hate him. The punishment 
 which is described with so much minuteness in our 
 text, is a full illustration of his final dealings with the 
 ungodly. 
 
 Their destruction will be unsparing and without 
 mercy. " Go ye after him, and smite ; let not your 
 eye spare, neither have ye pity." The hour for mer- 
 ciful intercession will have passed by. Long has 
 God endeavoured to lead them to repentance ; long has 
 
THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 127 
 
 the Saviour stood waiting to receive them ; long has 
 the divine Spirit exerted himself to bring tliem back 
 to Christ. And while all this was passing, they might 
 have found a refuge in the Gospel, and have gained 
 eternal life. But now the dispensation of mercy has 
 been closed, and they are left, as they have chosen to 
 be left, to the unbending operation of law. They are 
 to stand upon their own ground. Their iniquities 
 start up, a resuscitated multitude, to testify against 
 them. Guilt, like a millstone around their necks, 
 hangs upon their souls. And unmitigated wrath, fol- 
 lowing in the train of unerring justice, seizes upon 
 them, as its portion forever. No circumstance alle- 
 viates or lessens the ruin which sin has brought upon 
 them. No eye pities, and no arm interposes for their 
 good. They die without mercy. They perish with- 
 out redemption. They are destroyed forever. 
 
 Their destruction will be an universal one. None 
 who bear the burden of unpardoned sin can in any 
 wise escape. " Slay utterly, old and young, both 
 maids, and little children, and women." All who 
 have partaken in the abominations of sin, must share 
 also in the misery which impenitent sin entails. No 
 age, or character, or circumstances, among sinners, 
 who are alike unconverted, can be urged in arrest of 
 judgment, or be allowed to turn aside the punishment 
 of transgression. The daring violator of holy things, 
 the man who has sinned with determination and 
 power in the world, shall find no defence against the 
 destroying weapon of the Most High. The secret, 
 gilded transgressor, who was known in his iniquities 
 to none but himself and God, shall be dragged from 
 his hiding-place, and be made to feel the holy, search- 
 
128 THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 
 
 ing power of the wrath of God. No veneration shall 
 be paid to aged guilt, nor any tenderness be indulged 
 to more youthful transgression. Families who are 
 now entailing the example and the influence of irre- 
 ligion and vice upon their posterity, shall find l»hat 
 they have sent down with it a scorching stream of 
 vengeance and suffering. God will not be mocked. 
 And vn hiitever softening appellations men may give to 
 their iniquities, when God lays judgment to the line, 
 and rigliteousness to the plummet, all will vanish and 
 be forgotten. Sin will stand out in its own naked- 
 ness, and will eat into the souls of ungodly men, as it 
 were fire. 
 
 This destruction will begin with those who are 
 most highly favoured with religious privileges. "Begin 
 at my sanctuary," says the Lord to the angels of de- 
 struction. No circumstance can extenuate impeni- 
 tent guilt. But there are many to aggravate the 
 enormities of transgression. They who have sinned 
 under the law, shall be judged by the law, is the prin- 
 ciple of the Scriptures. They who know the Lord's 
 will, and do commit things worthy of stripes, shall be 
 beaten with many stripes. "Judgment must begin 
 at the house of God," says the apostle Peter, as if in 
 reference to this very passage of our text. Neither 
 the pulpit nor the sanctuary ; neither profession nor 
 self-complacency shall afford protection to the sin- 
 ner's soul. O, how alarming to the man who covers 
 actual iniquity with the garment of piety in profes- 
 sion ; to the man who has enriched himself by minis- 
 tering ruin to others ; to the man who may number 
 his gains and honours by the wretched souls he has 
 led forward to eternal despair; and yet professes 
 
THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 129 
 
 himself to have done no harm ; is the command of Al- 
 mighty God, "Begin at my sanctuary!" There is 
 no respect of persons before the tribunal of the living 
 God. The hypocrite shall be unveiled; the false 
 professor shall be exhibited as he is ; the self-right- 
 eous man shall be held up to view in his own deformi- 
 ties ; and unrepented sin shall every where see the 
 destroying weapon, with an irreversible energy, coming 
 upon itself. 
 
 This destruction shall spare only those who have 
 been marked. " Come not near any man upon whom 
 is the mark." An unconverted soul is guilty in the 
 mere fact, that it is an unconverted soul. " All who 
 are not written in the Lamb's book of life, shall be 
 cast into the lake of fire." Amidst the privileges 
 which men have enjoyed, they are without excuse in 
 their sins. And when God has numbered up all his 
 people ; and received and blessed all who would re- 
 turn to him, the residue are left to perish in tlieir 
 guilt. 0, my brethren, it has been long your duty to 
 return unitedly to God, and to gain his indelible mark 
 of grace, in the full restoration of your souls to him, 
 by humbly coming to the Lord Jesus for pardon and 
 righteousness. That any of you are without the 
 Lamb's mark, is wholly upon your own responsibility. 
 None other can bear the blame. But being so, you 
 must look forward with certainty to the fact, that 
 destruction awaits the unrenewed soul. The man 
 who is not, by his own choice and act, spiritually and 
 wholly, on the side of Jesus, is certainly opposed to 
 him ; and must reap the harvest which he has sown 
 for himself. 
 
 17 
 
130 THE PROTECTED PEOPLE. 
 
 In the midst of this unsparing, universal destruc- 
 tion of all who have not the Saviour's mark, where 
 will my present hearers stand ? My brethren, what 
 side have you taken in God's great controversy with 
 sin, and sinful men? Where among you, are the 
 men who sigh and cry for the abominations which 
 they see? who are zealous for the glory of the Lord 
 of hosts ? O, allow not judgment to come upon you 
 without mercy; nor the blessings of the glorious 
 Gospel to testify against your souls ! See to it, that 
 you are bearing about with you, the marks of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ; that you have a conscious, as- 
 sured interest in his perfect righteousness ; that you 
 may stand with him in white among his people, when 
 he cometh to judge the earth ; rescued from his dis- 
 pleasure, and partakers of his glory. Make clear 
 and evident your title in him, to the kingdom which 
 he has prepared ; and be sure, that you fall not into 
 the hands of the living God, with the fearful, eternal 
 burden of unpardoned guilt upon your souls. 
 
IX. 
 
 THE RESCUED BRAND. 
 
 ZfiCHARiAH iii. 2. — Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? 
 
 This is the divine description of a justified and 
 converted man. It is contained in a few words, but 
 they are words of an exceedingly comprehensive im- 
 port. They present at once to our view, the sinner's 
 worthless character by nature, his dangerous and 
 dreadful condition while in this natural state, and the 
 fulness of unmerited grace and love of which he has 
 been made the subject. It is under this view of its 
 meaning, that I present the text to your consideration. 
 
 The Lord had sent his angel to instruct the prophet 
 in his captivity, by many figurative representations in 
 regard to his dispensations with his people. The en- 
 couragements and consolations which were given to 
 him for them, are not to be limited in their applica- 
 tion to the Jewish nation, then on the eve of their 
 return from Babylon, but belong also to the people 
 of God in every age, and in every land. In the vision 
 from which the words of our text are selected, the 
 prophet says, " he showed me Joshua, the high priest, 
 
 131 
 
132 THE RESCUED BRAND. 
 
 standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan 
 standing at his right hand to resist him. And the 
 Lord said unto Satan, the Lord rebuke thee, O Sa- 
 tan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem, re- 
 buke thee ; is not this a brand plucked out of the 
 fire ? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, 
 and stood before the angel. And he answered, and 
 spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take 
 away the filthy garments from him. And unto him 
 he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass 
 from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of rai- 
 ment. And I said. Let them set a fair mitre on his 
 head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and 
 clothed him with garments. And the angel of the 
 Lord protested unto Joshua, saying. Thus saith the 
 Lord of hosts, If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if 
 thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge 
 my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will 
 give thee places to walk among these that stand by. 
 Hear now, Joshua, the high priest, thou and thy 
 fellows that sit before thee ; for they are men won- 
 dered at." Joshua was here the representative of 
 all the true people of God. Like him, they are all 
 "brands plucked out of the fire." Against them all, 
 the same power of Satan is employed to resist them. 
 In behalf of them all, the same boundless grace is 
 exercised on the part of the Lord God. 
 
 The angel of the Lord, or Jehovah-Angel, before 
 whom Joshua stood, is the great Mediator between 
 God and man, who is frequently presented to us under 
 this title, in the Old Testament, and who is called in 
 this passage, according to the uniform habit of the 
 Scriptures, both Jehovah-Angel, and Jehovah simply. 
 
THE RESCUED BRAND. 133 
 
 This glorious Mediator, the Jehovah who has been 
 sent as a messenger to man, is our righteous Advo- 
 cate with God. He opposes and destroys, by his in- 
 tercession, the resistance of Satan to our acceptance 
 with him. He plucks us by his Spirit, as brands out 
 of the fire of merited condemnation and punishment. 
 He takes away the filthy garments of sin in its guilt, 
 by his atonement; and in its corruption, by his sancti- 
 fying Spirit. He causes the iniquity of his people to 
 pass from them, having himself borne its penalty for 
 tliem. He clothes them in his own righteousness im- 
 puted unto them, with a change of pure, heavenly, 
 and imperishable raiment. He urges in his opposi- 
 tion to the great adversary of man, the accuser of his 
 saints, the arguments which arise from the fulness of 
 divine grace and power. The free mercy of God, as 
 exhibited in plucking the brand out of the fire, and in 
 choosing his people for his own habitation, furnishes 
 his rebuke of the malicious enemy; "the Lord rebuke 
 thee, O Satan ; even the Lord that hath chosen Je- 
 rusalem, rebuke thee ; is not this a brand plucked out 
 of the fire?" 
 
 Thus the Mediator silenced the accusations of the 
 enemy, and condemned the tongue which rose in 
 judgment against his servant ; and then he manifested 
 the power of his grace, in converting, sanctifying, and 
 saving his accused disciple. " He answered, and 
 spake to those who stood before him," the angels 
 who are sent out as ministering spirits to the heirs of 
 salvation, " take away the filthy garments from him." 
 And then to the penitent and thankful believer before 
 him, he said, in terms of most encouraging compas- 
 sion, " behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass 
 M 
 
134 THE RESCUED BRAND. 
 
 from thee, and I will clothe thee with a change of rai- 
 ment ; and if thou wilt walk in my ways, and keep 
 my charge, I will give thee a place to walk among 
 these that stand by." 
 
 How striking and admirable is the illustration 
 which is here presented of the grace of God in the 
 salvation of sinful men ! How significant is the de- 
 scription which is given of the character and condi- 
 tion of those who have obtained his mercy, and are 
 set forth as patterns of divine long-suffering! "Is 
 not this a brand plucked out of the fire ?" This 
 RESCUED BRAND fumishes our subject for discourse. 
 
 I. How unprofitable and worthless in itself! A 
 brand ! useless for any purposes of man; having no 
 value annexed to it in his estimation. Is not every 
 unrenewed sinner precisely this in the sight of God ? 
 If he be rescued from the punishment which his sins 
 deserve, it is not for any worth which is seen in him, 
 or for any benefit which can subsequently arise 
 from him. As a fallen creature, man cannot be pro- 
 fitable unto God. In the pure and discriminating eye 
 of his Almighty Maker, he is a broken vessel, wherein 
 is no pleasure. He is clothed in the hateful garments 
 of repeated and long continued guilt. From the head 
 to the foot, he is a poor, diseased, and ruined being, 
 without any claim upon the mercy of his God. 
 
 It is true that no creature can ever render any 
 thing to the Creator, which shall merit a continuance 
 of blessings bestowed by him. The highest heavenly 
 being has received from God's free gift, the power to 
 obey him; and is as much bound to exercise that 
 power to the uttermost in his service, as the meanest 
 creature upon the earth. He lives upon the kindness 
 
THE RESCUED BRAND. 135 
 
 of the Almighty, and by that he is upheld continually. 
 The Creator may delight in his own image impressed 
 upon the work of his hands ; but that creature, though 
 perfect and without transgression, can render back 
 nothing which shall be a claim upon God. But how 
 completely unprofitable and worthless is sinful and 
 polluted man 1 Depraved in voluntary rebellion, 
 ruined by continued guilt, what ground has he for 
 claim, even upon the compassion of his Maker ? His 
 very birth constituted him a child of wrath. Sin has 
 perverted and corrupted him from the beginning of 
 his life. He has followed the inherent propensities 
 of his polluted nature, through every period of his 
 life. He has thus accumulated upon his soul, a bur- 
 den of wrath which he cannot bear. 
 
 God, indeed, beholds him with pity, cast out as he 
 is, and perishing in his blood. He has compassion 
 upon him, though so ruined and unprofitable. From 
 the fulness of his grace, which has respect to his 
 own glory alone, and regards not the worthiness of 
 the object upon which it is exercised, which is as 
 much beyond the comprehension of man, as it is be- 
 yond his desert, he plucks the brand from the burn- 
 ing, and transforms the child of wrath into a child of 
 God. 
 
 This affecting illustration of man's unworthiness, 
 is of universal application. We are all_, by nature, 
 these worthless brands. In how many instances we 
 have been personally rescued from merited destruc- 
 tion, God only knows. O, that you might all be 
 made to feel the truth of this representation of your 
 sinful character; and to look back upon the guilty 
 lives which you have passed without God in the 
 
136 THE RESCUED BRAND. 
 
 world, with deep humiliation and sorrow! You can 
 have no hope until you do feel this ; until you have 
 cast out of your minds, every vain idea of human 
 merit or excellence ; until you have been humbled 
 under the conviction of the weight of your actual 
 sins ; until you are thus willing to lay yourselves in 
 the dust, at the feet of Jesus, the great Mediator for 
 man, to supplicate the bestowal of his unmerited 
 mercy and kindness, relinquishing all selfish hope and 
 confidence, and thankfully receiving the salvation of 
 your souls, as the free gift of God through the right- 
 eousness of his Son, to the lost and perishing. 
 
 11. Consider this brand again. How dangerous 
 was the condition in which it was found ! The fire 
 from which it was plucked, has not reference, in its 
 application to the sinner's condition, to the many pre- 
 sent trials and sorrows which come to him as the re- 
 sult of his transgression, so much as to those ever- 
 lasting burnings which are his heritage in a world of 
 recompense. All earthly woes are temporary. These 
 sorrows are unchangeable and eternal. Time may 
 often repair the injuries which earthly sufferings pro- 
 duce. Eternity will not renew the soul which has 
 been destroyed under the condemnation of sin. No 
 fears of man, however awakened his conscience may 
 become, can magnify the dangers and miseries which 
 attend this everlasting banishment from God. 
 
 Under this tremendous load, the unconverted sin- 
 ner lies, condemned and perishing, as a brand burn- 
 ing in the fire. The wrath of God abideth on him. 
 In every passing moment of his life, there is but a 
 step between him and that death which will bring 
 down this wrath upon him to the uttermost. He has 
 
THE RESCUED BRAND. 137 
 
 made himself an enemy to God by wicked works. 
 He has heaped curses, like coals of fire, upon his own 
 head, l)y continued transgression. He has wrapped 
 the poisoned garment of condemnation around his 
 own soul, by his choice of a state of separation 
 from God. And yet amidst all these fearful dangers 
 which surround him, he Hatters himself with the 
 hope, that though he never turn to God, he shall have 
 peace in his latter end. 
 
 O, my brethren, could the unconverted portion of 
 my present hearers but have a view of their sinful 
 character and ruined state, as they are beheld by the 
 eye of the Almighty; could they behold the wages 
 which the guilt of their own transgressions is preparing 
 for them ; how soon would it stain the pride of their 
 glory, sour all the pleasures which disobedience can 
 give, and kindle up the fires of deep remorse and 
 bitter anxiety in their breasts ! But, alas, ungodly 
 men see nothing of their true characters, or of their 
 real condition; and apprehend nothing of the dangers 
 which actually surround them. They are pressing 
 forward, heedless amidst a thousand warnings, plant- 
 ing every footstep upon some concealed entrance to a 
 world of woe, and yet as unconcerned in regard to 
 the alarming fact, that they are condemned already, 
 as full of confidence in the safe result of their mad 
 experiment, as if the shining light of heaven were 
 certainly and openly leading them on to glory. They 
 walk in the blindness of their inexperienced and 
 unbelieving hearts, alienated from the life of God, 
 through the ignorance that is in them. 
 
 None can truly appreciate the dangers of an un- 
 converted soul, but they who have been plucked from 
 m2 18 
 
138 THE RESCUED BRAND. 
 
 the fires in which it is still consuming. If you have 
 been with Jonah in the midst of the seas ; if you 
 have felt the burden of a guilty conscience, charged 
 with treading under your feet God's dear Son ; if 
 you have found yourselves struggling in the very 
 mouth of the pit, without the power or the hope of 
 restoration ; if you have felt a deep conviction of 
 God's just anger against your sins ; you know some- 
 thing of the condition of the man who is ruined by 
 transgression, a brand still burning in the fire. No 
 representations of the danger of this condition are 
 then beyond your own conviction of the fact; no 
 warnings appear to you too solemn, no exhortations 
 seem to be too earnest, no expressions too strong, 
 which are addressed to sinners, to persuade them to 
 flee from the wrath to come. How wonderful is that 
 grace and power, which can rescue such brands from 
 such burnings ! which can bring men from these fear- 
 ful consequences of their own guilt, to the glorious 
 liberty and blessedness of the family of God ! 
 
 III. Consider this brand again. How glorious and 
 worthy of praise, is that divine power which can 
 pluck it from the fire, and transform it into an eternal 
 monument of love, and a vessel of everlasting holi- 
 ness ! In the midst of the ruin of the world, and the 
 guilt of man, God proposes to the ungodly a reconci- 
 liation to himself. He was in Christ reconciling the 
 world unto himself. But after he makes his gracious 
 proposition, men still draw back, and refuse the mercy 
 which is so abundantly provided. The only begotten 
 Son of God is set up as the great Mediator for their 
 souls, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom 
 and love. But sinners will not come unto him, that 
 
THE RESCUED BRAND. 139 
 
 they may have life. Here then, is displayed the 
 power and plans of Almighty grace. The Holy Spirit 
 comes with his divine energy ; reveals to the sinner 
 his awful guilt ; gives him a godly sorrow for his sin ; 
 takes away his rebellious dispositions; and inclines 
 his will, long perverted by transgression, to embrace 
 and obey the glorified Saviour. He takes away from 
 him the polluted garments in which he has been 
 clothed ; destroys his spirit of hostility to God ; 
 covers him witli the garments of salvation, and the 
 robe of righteousness ; and restores him, finally, to 
 the Lord who has bought him with a price. God 
 thus passes by the sinner's guilt, and freely bestows 
 upon him, the ability to obey, and to glorify him. He 
 does not look to the worthiness of the sinner, nor to 
 his capacity to serve him, for he does not need him. 
 But, moved by his own purposes of love, according 
 to the riches of his mercy, he visits him when he is 
 dead in sin, rescues him from destruction and despair, 
 and owns him as one of his jewels — his eternal pos- 
 session. 
 
 If our attention should be turned only to the un- 
 worthiness of sinful man, or to the danger in which 
 his guilt has placed him, we might well ask, who 
 can cause this wilderness to blossom as the rose, 
 or make the tongue of the dumb to sing? Certainly 
 no created power can do it ; no freedom of the human 
 will; no remnant of strength in the depraved heart 
 of man. But God can say to the mountain of human 
 guilt, that before his transforming, conquering Spirit, 
 it shall become a plain. He can change the brand 
 into a living stone, and build it up in that everlasting 
 temple, which is enlightened by the presence and 
 
140 THE RESCUED BRAND. 
 
 glory of the liamb. He would have us despair under 
 no accumulation of guilt. He would have us never 
 doubt, that the dead may hear the voice of the Son 
 of God, and live. He has laid help on one mighty to 
 save. Whatever danger there is in the sin of man, 
 there is a corresponding sufficient antidote in the 
 obedience and power of Christ. His unsearchable 
 riches of grace supply our deep poverty. His infi- 
 nite power is made perfect in our weakness. Though 
 the sinner's condition be one of entire ruin, the pro- 
 visions of Gospel grace are more than adequate 
 for all his wants. Wherein his adversaries arc lofty, 
 God is higher than they. Until the inestimable blood 
 of the Lamb sliall become without value, and the 
 perfect r.gl.teousness of the great High Priest be 
 found defective, and the accuser transcend the Advo- 
 cate in power, and grace which is unsearchable be- 
 come exhausted, no unworthiness, no dangers of sin- 
 M men, shall interpose an insuperable obstacle to the 
 provisions of divine redemption, or the power of 
 God's new creating Spirit. 
 
 IV. Consider this rescued brand again. How in- 
 finite is the extent of that love, of which it is the ob- 
 ject ! While we admire the grace which can give a 
 brightness above the sun to a thing so unprofitable, 
 we may equally adore the compassion which is will- 
 ing to exert itself upon an object so degraded and 
 low. The foundation of all our hope is, that God's 
 love is infinite and free. We do hot, we cannot first 
 give to him, that he may render to us again. We 
 turn to him, we are converted and healed, not because 
 he sees any thing in us which is desirable or useful in 
 his estimation ; but as the mere effect of his absolute 
 
THE RESCUED BRAND. 141 
 
 and unsearchable mercy. We learn to love him be- 
 cause he first loved us. Should God ever measure 
 his love to man, by man's fruitfulness to him, how 
 vrretchcd vv^ould be our prospect ! how entire our 
 want of a foundation for hope ! We might reasonably 
 stumble at the very threshold of his requisitions, and 
 sit down, at once, the victims of final despair. The 
 glorious prospect which is held out in his word, we 
 could see indeed. The city, the temple, the paradise 
 of God might cxiiibit to us all their attractions and all 
 their worth ; but there would be the sad conviction 
 left upon our minds, that they were beyond our reach. 
 The invitations and promises of God would but mock 
 our weakness and our wants, for this gulf of human 
 unworthiness and impotency would remain impassable 
 forever. 
 
 How full of encourag:ement and comfort is the re- 
 flection, that God is willing to exercise his almighty 
 power in oar behalf! His love can pardon the greatest 
 and the most multiplied transgressions. He who 
 spared not his own Son, but freely delivered him up 
 for us all, will with him also, freely give us all things. 
 What then though man be ruined and an outcast? 
 What though he be forfeited to God's avenging jus- 
 tice ? What though Satan accuse him of uncounted 
 transgressions, and everlasting death assert its claim 
 to the victim of disobedience ? If he can be made to 
 feel his want, and to look up in prayer to God, as to a 
 Being of unbounded love, there is hope even for a 
 brand. There is a healing power in the Sun of Right- 
 eousness, which can restore his soul, and enable him 
 to rejoice in the everlasting riches of divine mercy. 
 Thus God displays the boundless extent and opera- 
 
142 THE RESCUED BRAND. 
 
 tion of his love to man, contriving first, the way in 
 whicli the sinner may be saved ; bestowing then, the 
 gift which rendered this salvation possible ; applying 
 the blood of sprinkling, the garment of righteousness, 
 and the renewing Spirit, to render this salvation se- 
 cure forever. The dangers of man arise from him- 
 self. His safety and deliverance come wholly from 
 the power which can, and the love which will, pluck 
 the brand from the fire, to manifest the unspeakable 
 goodness and glory of God. And to God alone, 
 belongs the confidence which we repose in the fulfil- 
 ment of the undertaking, and the praise which we 
 render, when the work is done. 
 
 V. Consider this brand once more. How precious 
 is the Christian's ground of hope, the glorious union 
 of divine power and divine love, in the work of his 
 salvation ! From the beginning unto the end of this 
 gracious work, he rests undividedly upon him, whose 
 mercy rescued him from ruin, and who is able to keep 
 him from falling, and to present him before the throne 
 of his glory with exceeding joy. If we were to be 
 saved by our own righteousness, or in any degree in 
 proportion to our ov/n righteousness, a total want of 
 merit would condemn us altogether. But where 
 every thing is of grace, a free gift, in a simple, cordial 
 reliance upon what God the Saviour has done for us, 
 there salvation is made sure. Past mercies accepted 
 and improved, are pledges of far greater ones to come. 
 If we grieve not the Holy Spirit by a voluntary rejec- 
 tion of his power ; if we labour to improve his visita- 
 tions, and to glorify him in the duties of holy obe- 
 ence, he will carry on unto perfection the work which 
 he commences, and for which he is sent upon us. 
 
THL" RESCUED BRAND. 143 
 
 The same hand which phicked us from the fire will 
 carry us to the temple. He who laid the foundation, 
 in his love from everlasting, will also bring forth the 
 headstone, with everlasting shoutings to his grace. 
 Having changed the sinner's garments, and given him 
 new and lieavenly raiment, in the place of the filthy 
 garments, in which his sins had clothed him, the Lord 
 says unto him, " If thou wilt now walk in my ways, 
 and keep my charge, I will give thee a place to walk 
 among these that stand by." He shall be equal 
 unto the angels, and shall, with them, surround the 
 throne, and enjoy the presence of his God. Here is 
 a plan which renders the Christian's hope perfectly 
 secure. God comforts him under all afflictions ; arms 
 him in every conflict ; silences every adversary; and 
 makes him victorious over all things that war against 
 the soul. The man who has found peace with God, 
 has no enemy in the universe to fear. He who has 
 delivered his soul from death, will keep his feet from 
 falling, and his eyes from tears, and enable him to 
 walk before God in the land of the living. He will 
 carry him in safety through the changes of a mortal 
 life. He will protect him in perfect peace, through 
 the dark hours of dissolution. He will welcome him 
 in heaven with immortal bliss. 
 
 VI. How inestimable is this privilege of being the 
 objects of God's unchangeable love ! of having our 
 names written in his book of life, and of receiving in 
 the daily supplies of his Spirit, an earnest that we 
 shall never perish, and that no one shall pluck us out 
 of his hand ! These are the privileges of the justified 
 and converted man. This is the portion of his cup, 
 and this is his inheritance forever. 
 
144 THE RESCUED BRAND. 
 
 These are privileges, my brethren, which you all 
 need ; for which you will all at some time seek ; for 
 which, while they are now rejected, many of you in 
 future years may sigh in vain. Why then should any of 
 you cast away the pearl of great price ? Why should 
 you reject that friend, Y\'ho is the chief among ten 
 thousand, and altogether desirable and lovely ? You 
 will feel the want of his presence in your hours of 
 trial. You will see your need of his power to advo- 
 cate and save, when you stand before the throne of 
 God; when a thousand witnesses of your guilt are 
 at your right hand to accuse and to resist you, while 
 there is no shelter for you from the punishment of 
 sin. You will realize the misery of being brands 
 left in the fire, when the purposes of divine grace 
 have been all completed, and heaven has received its 
 innumerable company of ransomed souls, all of whom 
 have been plucked from the ruin which sin brought 
 upon them as upon you, while you yourselves are cast 
 out. Why then will you not now be persuaded to 
 feel and own your unworthiness and guilt, to suppli- 
 cate the mercy of God, to seek for the salvation which 
 is so freely offered to your acceptance? Behold, how 
 many around you have been plucked out of the fire, 
 rescued from the punishment of sin, redeemed from 
 the everlasting condemnation which awaited all ! 0, 
 do not suffer yourselves to be left to perish ! The 
 divine power and love is abundant for the conversion 
 of every soul. God is willing that you should all be 
 saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. Do 
 not then persevere in the rejection of his goodness, 
 provoking the exercise of his wrath. You know not 
 how near to you, may be the hour of recompense, the 
 
THE RESCUED BRAND. 145 
 
 last point of divine forbearance. See how many 
 around you have been sealed for final condemnation. 
 They are given up to the hardness of an impenitent 
 heart, and are ready to be delivered over to the ven- 
 geance of eternal fire. O, prize your opportunities 
 while they remain ; improve your privileges while 
 they are bestowed ; make full proof the blessings 
 which God now confers upon you ; and be sure that 
 you are sealed by his Spirit unto the day of redemp- 
 tion. 
 
 N 19 
 
X. 
 
 THE SINNERS CHOICE. 
 
 St. John xviii. 40. — Then cried they all again^ saying. Not this 7nan, 
 but Barabbas, Now Barabbas was a robber. 
 
 I DO not select these words to speak particularly 
 of the conduct of the Jews. It is of little avail to 
 our benefit, to reproach them, or to hold up their 
 conduct to reprehension. I suppose them to be no 
 exceptions to mankind ; but a fair and distinct exhibi- 
 tion of the human character, and an accurate develop- 
 ment of the human heart. Their opposition to Jesus 
 was but the natural opposition, which conscious 
 iniquity generates, to the light and power of excel- 
 lence. They hated him not for himself, but for his 
 character. Their aversion to this, was the simple re- 
 sult of man's native dislike to purity and holiness. 
 Their obliquity of purpose, and cruelty of spirit, did 
 not arise from their being Jews, but from their being 
 men. 
 
 The reception which they thus gave to human per- 
 fection personified in the character and life of Jesus 
 Christ, was no peculiarity in their circumstances. 
 
 146 
 
THE sinner's choice. 147 
 
 Had he chosen Rome or Athens for the scene of his 
 manifestation and his mighty works, the result would 
 have been undoubtedly the same ; nor is there the 
 slightest reason to imagine the contrary. This rejec- 
 tion of Christ was no mere incident of that particular 
 age. In the attainments and cultivation of the human 
 intellect, it was far from a barbarous age. In the in- 
 ventions of a luxurious taste for man's indulgences, it 
 was greatly the reverse. The same claims and cha- 
 racter would have experienced the same repulse, in 
 every age, and in all the circumstances of human his- 
 tory. The very general rejection of the Saviour's 
 authority and invitations, under all the influence of a 
 Christian education, and a prejudice (if I may so call it) 
 in their favour, in our time ; the infidelity and contempt 
 of the Gospel, which stalks with such demoniac con- 
 fidence throughout our land ; in my judgment, compel 
 the conclusion, that had the Son of God delayed his 
 incarnation to our day, and selected this continent 
 and city, for the revelation of himself, in his doctrines 
 and miracles, to mankind; the same experience would 
 have awaited him here ; and as many voices as shouted 
 in that hour of darkness around Jerusalem, would 
 raise the awful cry upon our soil also, " not this man, 
 but Barabbas." 
 
 1 did not select these words, therefore, to speak 
 particularly of the conduct of the Jews. They are 
 to be viewed as the expression of the choice of a 
 CARNAL ]\iiND. They will be found to be the actual 
 expression of multitudes around us every day. And 
 the worst result of their first utterance by the Jews, 
 becomes their e^ erlasting result, in the case and expe- 
 rience of thousands, of the state and choice of whoge 
 
148 THE sinner's choice. 
 
 minds, they are now the declaration. It is under this 
 view that I propose to consider our text ; a view 
 which leaves its circumstances behind, to present its 
 principle ; a view which brings out our own concern 
 with the transaction which it records, as well as that 
 of the first actors in the scene. In pursuing this view, 
 I remark, 
 
 I. The great and peculiar sin of man under the 
 Christian dispensation, is the rejection of the authority 
 and offers of a Saviour, for the sake of some opposing 
 interest, or proposition. Wherever the Gospel is 
 proclaimed, men are not only called upon to clioose 
 whom they will serve, and with whom they will be 
 identified ; but in the actual necessity of circum- 
 stances also, they do make this choice. Jesus insists 
 upon an absolute union and copartnership with him, 
 to be regulated according to his single will, as the 
 proper, and the only allowable course, for all who 
 listen to his word. He declares, that whosoever is 
 not with him, is against him ; and whosoever gathereth 
 not with him, sciUtereth abroad. He allows no pre- 
 tended, passive neutrality, no alleged quietness, and 
 abstinence from interfering, in the cause which he 
 sustains among men. All such negative assumptions, 
 he deems a positive and designed opposition. Men 
 are required to make a selection between two interests 
 and schemes, which are in irreconcilable hostility to 
 each other ; of which, whichever becomes triumph- 
 ant, the other must be destroyed. This choice be- 
 tween two plans which can never even approach to 
 conciliation, is demanded, and is made, wherever the 
 Gosf)cl is proclaimed and heard. When the call for 
 repentance for sin, the offer of free forgiveness 
 
THE sinner's choice. 149 
 
 through the Saviour's blood, the demand for simple 
 submission to the Lord's authority, are heard, though 
 but for a single time, this choice between two oppos- 
 ing schemes, is proposed on the Lord's behalf, and 
 made on the part of man. 
 
 It cannot be doubted, that he who immediately em- 
 braces the proposal which is thus made to him from 
 heaven, who submits himself to the divine govern- 
 ance, who, as a redeemed sinner, casts in his lot with 
 the Redeemer who hath ransomed him with his blood, 
 and enters into the required partnership with him, has 
 made a distinct choice. He is henceforth identified, 
 in all his interests, efforts, and hopes, with the gra- 
 cious friend who hath bought him with a price. He 
 will abide with him. If he conquers, he will partake 
 of the glory of his triumph. But it can no more 
 justly be doubted, that he who does not thus embrace 
 the principles and offers of the Saviour in his Gospel, 
 though he make no positive resolution to the contrary, 
 nor is conscious of any thing in his state of mind, but 
 a simple unwillingness to become yet a disciple of 
 Jesus, under the influence of which, he goes from the 
 Gospel message still unsubdued and unconverted, has 
 as actually made his choice of that stand and service 
 which Jesus opposes. Whether this shall be a per- 
 manent choice, does not depend entirely upon himself. 
 God may give him no opportunity to reverse it. And 
 for the time being, and to the utmost extent of his own 
 power of determination, it is a positive and unqualified 
 refusal of the Saviour's invitation, and an equally un- 
 qualified rejection of his authority. It is a distinct 
 and positive choice by the sinner's mind and heart, of 
 which the direct expression is, " not this man, but Bar- 
 n2 
 
150 THE sinner's choice. 
 
 abbas ;" not Christ and his salvation, or not now at 
 least, but something which opposes them. It matters 
 not what that something may be. It is Barabbas still. 
 It is the direct and designed opponent of the Saviour. 
 There may be a thousand extenuations suggested. 
 Barabbas may be refined, and clothed, and made re- 
 spectable. But it is Barabbas still. It is an object 
 which is in appointed and selected opposition to 
 Christ, which has been chosen in preference to Christ, 
 and for the sake of which, Christ has been refused. 
 Here immovably remains, the point of the character, 
 of the responsibility, and of the condemnation. The 
 act of man has been a voluntary choice. The posi- 
 tion of the man is, that he has made this choice. The 
 guilt and the punishment of the man, rest also upon 
 this simple fact. He has chosen death rather than 
 life. He has preferred Barabbas to Christ. 
 
 II. I would illustrate this choice in some instances 
 which display it. There are many such. The rival 
 claims to the affections of man, for which the service 
 of the Saviour is refused, are exceedingly various. 
 They are as various also in their character of guilt, 
 as they appear to the eye and the estimation of man. 
 But they all come to the same result. They are con- 
 stituted into representatives of the same spirit of 
 hostility to Christ. They become, in this relation of 
 hostility to him, in his view, the equally guilty per- 
 sonifications of that carnal mind, which is enmit}'" 
 against God, and will not be subject to his will. 
 Coming under this uniform character of guilt, in the 
 rejection of Christ which they produce, there is no 
 regard to be had, in our estimation of their character, 
 either as it regards their danger or their responsi- 
 
THE sinner's choice. 151 
 
 bility, to their minor differences of circumstances. 
 Rejecters of the Lord are heirs of an indiscriminate* 
 condemnation. " The wrath of God is revealed 
 against every soul of man that doeth evil." " Those 
 mine enemies, which would not that I should reign 
 over them, bring them hither, and slay them before 
 me." 
 
 But what is the Barabbas for which the human 
 heart rejects a Saviour ? 
 
 I see the young man following the pleasures of 
 sense, and for these, despising and driving from him 
 the claims of piety. He walks in the delusive paths 
 of sinful indulgence. He follows the heated guidance 
 of unlawful appetite. He drinks continually of that 
 vainly sweetened cup, which, in his bitter remorse, he 
 as continually nauseates. He runs to riot with the 
 noisy and sensual. He chooses these baser gratifica- 
 tions for his present portion ; and lays down his head, 
 to slumber for destruction, in the lap of gross enjoy- 
 ment. For these, he rejects the Saviour's invitations. 
 He counts all religion as a series of contemptible aus- 
 terities. He hardly persuades himself to be respect- 
 ful to its ministrations. If in public, or in solitude, 
 his conscience ever becomes awakened; if God speaks 
 to him in anger, in the deep recesses of his own soul, 
 he turns from the alarm with undisguised aversion, 
 and rushes again into the madness of his indulgences, 
 to bury himself up from a meddling Deity. What is 
 his whole conduct, but the unceasing brazen boast, 
 "Who is the Almighty, that I should serve him?" 
 What is the expression of every act of his life, but 
 the declared, yes, the vehemently declared choice, 
 " not this man, but Barabbas ?" 
 
152 THE sinner's choice. 
 
 I see the giddy daughter of vanity and fashion. 
 • Her whole thoughts are occupied with the changing 
 scenes of a world, the fashion of which passeth away. 
 She lives for a vain exhibition of herself The low 
 vanity of outward decoration, the poor ambition of 
 arranging her tinsel with taste, the round of giddy 
 society, the feverish excitement of the dance, and the 
 gay assembly, shall I say the theatre? — no, this is 
 almost too disreputable for my present supposition — 
 all these occupy and rule her affections and her mind. 
 For these, the offers of the Gospel are despised. For 
 these, the glories of eternity are vilely cast away. 
 The world can have the thoughts, but Christ cannot. 
 The mirror and the novel can command tlie time, but 
 the Bible cannot. And the intellect, and the affec- 
 tions, and the life of the soul, are all frittered away, 
 in this ceaseless sifting of earthly giddiness. What 
 though there is nothing there which the world calls 
 vice? What though refinement and elegance have 
 adorned and dignified the whole scene ; and this 
 daughter of folly is to be led on to her immolation, 
 ornamented with garlands, and surrounded by joyous 
 strains? Is it not hostility to Christ? Is it not 
 direct aversion to his service, that constitutes the 
 principle here ? For these vanities, she has cast 
 away the favour of her God. For these, she exchanges 
 the blessed hope and portion, which the Saviour gives. 
 These are but the representatives of her refusal of 
 his love ; and in her devotion to these, she is daily 
 shouting in her insensate giddiness, " not this man, 
 but Barabbas." 
 
 I see the man of business, in his neglect of godli- 
 ness, for the following of gain ; devoting all the ener- 
 
THE sinner's choice. 153 
 
 gies of his mind to the amassing of wealth ; with his 
 head bowed down to the earth ; his eyes fixed upon 
 earthly goods, and his mind digging into possible 
 mines of treasure for himself. But with him, all is 
 ^as if there were no God, and no future eternity, for 
 he acknowledges no authority, but present interest, 
 and asks for no portion, but the present world, lis 
 •soul is mammonized completely. The desire of his 
 heart is simply for present gain. Now, why do you 
 tell me, that he is respectable, and moral, and upright, 
 and domestic, and affectionate ? What is all this ? It 
 would be as much to the purpose, to tell me that he 
 clothed himself from the winter's cold, and guarded 
 his appetite from the approach of want. I tell you, 
 his unconverted heart rejects a Saviour. His proud 
 will refuses submission to God. His carnal mind is 
 upon earthly things. All his boasted excellencies are 
 but the glitterings of his selfishness. They have their 
 own reward, but they can expect none from a God 
 who has been entirely forgotten. For this busy, ac- 
 cumulating life, he rejects all the admonitions and 
 offers of the Gospel. He drives away from him the 
 demands of the Redeemer, and of his own soul. He 
 passes his time amidst all the privileges of the Gospel, 
 keeping and cherishing an unconverted heart. The 
 whole language of his life, and if you press upon him 
 the obligations of piety, the language of his lips, is, 
 "not this man, but Barabbas." 
 
 I see the toiling aspirant for human honour, climb- 
 ing the slippery steep where so many fall, and the 
 summit of which so few have gained. Reputation, and 
 tlie influence of reputation, are the all with him. For 
 this he studies, and plans, and labours. So much of 
 
 20 
 
154 THE sinner's choice. 
 
 the form of religion as is respectable, he will have. 
 Where popularity with men plants the stake of limit, 
 there he stops. His Barabbas is the praise of men. 
 For this, he rejects the honour that cometh from God 
 only. Polite, decorous, and respectable toward reli- 
 gion, for he loves the praise of good men too, he will 
 give his countenance and example to apparent reli- 
 gious worship. But his heart deliberately stands in- 
 the determination, not to lose the influence of popu- 
 larity in his profession, for the favour of God. And 
 with all his outward smoothness, his speaking fairly 
 of religious things, there is a deep and determined 
 hostility, in his heart, to the claims and the power of 
 the Gospel. He remains, by his own distinct choice, 
 an unconverted man. He drives from him the charges 
 of the Bible, with affected disdain. He will not seek 
 his life from Christ. And the language of his un- 
 changing course, as it speaks in every act, and in 
 every determination of his life, is, " not this man, but 
 Barabbas." 
 
 I see the self-righteous man in his false estimation 
 of his own character, weighing and measuring future 
 expectations, by present imaginary deeds ; congratu- 
 lating himself upon his spiritual security ; and putting 
 far from him the imagination of an evil day. His 
 pride of character will not stoop under the acknow- 
 ledgment of sin. His confidence in his own worth, 
 forbids his seeking a shelter in the righteousness of 
 another. I press upon him the charge of guilt in the 
 sight of God. I warn him of an abiding insufficiency 
 in himself I announce to him a condemnation, from 
 which, superabounding grace to sinners, furnishes the 
 only way of escape. But he knits his brow with dis- 
 
THE sinner's choice. 155 
 
 pleasure; and presses his lips with determination; 
 and his whole countenance speaks the choice which 
 his whole heart makes and cultivates, " not this man, 
 but Barabbas." 
 
 I see the healthful, procrastinating all regard to 
 God, to the hours of sickness ; looking upon the Gos- 
 pel only as a remedy, and refusing to receive it until 
 they shall feel sure that they must perish without it. 
 And for this they now choose the portion which is 
 opposed to Christ, meaning and hoping, to use it only 
 for a time, and to renounce it altogether when sick- 
 ness and death shall come. I see the prosperous and 
 gay, waiting until the season of distress sliall compel 
 them to seek their shelter at the cross ; refusing to 
 follow Jesus, until they must follow him in garments 
 of mourning, but not of mourning for sin ; thinking 
 of the Gospel only as a consolation for weeping, a 
 residuum for days of grief; and thrusting it from 
 them till these days shall come. I see the young, re- 
 fusing to offer unto God the morning sacrifice, and 
 looking forward to the time when the shadows of the 
 evening are stretched out, and the remnant of life 
 flickers in the weakness of old age, as the season 
 when the wants of the soul shall be considered, and 
 a provision for the peace of eternity shall be made. 
 And as I see these things, I cannot but mourn, that 
 even God's blessings to man, health, and prosperity, 
 and youth, should be converted into a Barabbas of op- 
 position to him ; that even his unspeakable mercies 
 should be transformed, by man's depravity, into the 
 instruments and occasions of more determined re- 
 bellion against himself. 
 
 I need not multiply these illustrations more exten- 
 
156 THE sinner's choice. 
 
 sively. They all result in the very same point, a re- 
 fusal of the favour and the promises of the Redeemer, 
 for something which is preferred in opposition to him. 
 Their guilt is not in the wickedness of the ohject wliich 
 is selected ; but in the rejection of the Saviour, whose 
 service and authority are renounced, for tlie sake of 
 it. They are in all cases, instances of the same 
 choice of a carnal mind. They bring upon each in- 
 dividual who makes this choice, the same solemn con- 
 demnation of those who reject the light, and prefer 
 the darkness to it, because their deeds are evil. The 
 responsibility and the guilt of all, is fastened upon 
 the very same point, the voluntary refusal and 
 neglect of that great salvation, which God has offered 
 to man in his dear Son. From this responsibility and 
 guilt they cannot escape. 
 
 III. Consider how fearful is the guilt, how alarm- 
 ing is the danger of this choice ! " Barabbas was a 
 robber." And is not Barabbas a robber still ? In 
 each of these instances, of the forsaking of Christ 
 for the love of this present world, there is an actual 
 robbery of the deluded soul tliat is guilty of the 
 choice. Whether the selected alternate be giddiness, 
 profligacy, or self-righteous morality, Barabbas is a 
 robber. And all that is precious and important for 
 the soul, is stolen from it. The loss which the sinner 
 bears cannot be estimated in this world, nor can it be 
 calculated by worldly measures. It is eternity, which 
 is at stake. It is the happiness of eternity, of which 
 he is robbed. It is the wretched despair of eternity, 
 which is his selected alternative. O, foolish nation 
 and unwise, who thus despise the rock of your salva- 
 tion ; and renounce a Saviour to embrace a robber ! 
 
THE SINNEll's CHOICE. 157 
 
 You are robbed of the favour of God forever, of 
 all peace with him, and all hope before him. You 
 cannot stand before him, in any righteousness of your 
 own. You must be interested in the atonement, and 
 clothed with the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 or you liave no hope at tlic judgment seat of God. In 
 Jesus only, is he to be found, as the reconciled Father 
 and the friend of sinners. While you are rejecting 
 this Saviour from tlie dominion of your hearts, you 
 are throwing from you tlic possibility of reconcilia- 
 tion unto God. You stand in judgment with him in 
 your iniquities. And the life which, for its guiltiness, 
 your own conscience cannot justify, a holy and heart- 
 searching God will drive from him, wdth utter abhor- 
 rence. He wdll arise against you in his anger, and 
 will deliver you over to the vengeance which sin de- 
 serves. You will find him a consuming fire; and 
 realize in the bitter experience of etemiity, that it is 
 a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 
 You bear all this, because for the love of this present 
 world, in some one or many of its Protean shapes, 
 you have rejected the love of Jesus Christ, and re- 
 fused the blessed salvation which he has offered you 
 in his Gospel. Yes — a world which scorns you, and 
 deceives you, but cannot help you, has robbed you of 
 your God. 
 
 You are robbed of the compassionate intercession 
 of a Saviour. There was a time, when through many 
 days and years, Jesus pitied you, sought for you, and 
 would have clothed you with himself. But when he 
 called, you refused ; when he stretched out his hand, 
 you did not regard it. You would none of his coun- 
 sel; you despised all his reproof. He pleaded for 
 
 
158 THE sinner's choice. 
 
 you, and pleaded with you, with great long-suffering 
 and forbearance, that you might be rescued and saved. 
 But you rejected all his efforts ; you disregarded his 
 warnings ; you despised his mercy. When he stood 
 before you in all the attractions of overflowing kind- 
 ness, in all the exciting power of his disinterested 
 grief and suffering, you turned away from him, to a 
 waiting robber that was thrust before you, and madly 
 said, " not this man, but Barabbas." And now you 
 stand in judgment, in the length, and depth, and all 
 the aggravation of your guilt, and there is no Advo- 
 cate to plead for you, no Redeemer to interpose in 
 your behalf, no all-prevailing High Priest, who can 
 say, " spare him, for I have found a ransom," The 
 Lord Jesus stands aloof from your calamity ; and 
 you struggle in the darkness of death, and tremble 
 in the terrors of judgment, and contend with the 
 strangling serptnts of eternal remorse ; and there is 
 no hand of grace to grasp you now, and no voice of 
 friendship, to assure you of your safety, or to hush 
 your fears to rest. The enemy that derides you, and 
 tramples upon you, has robbed you of your Saviour. 
 You are robbed of the immortal interests and wel- 
 fare of your soul. What will all the perishing things 
 which you have chosen, avail you in your future hoiir 
 of need ? What will you carry away with you, from 
 this vain world, for the love of which you have re- 
 jected the Lord Jesus Christ? 0, consider that 
 change, that solemn change, in which mortality is 
 swallowed up by enduring life ! When your body 
 returns naked to the earth, to say to corruption, 
 "thou art my sister," what does it carry away with 
 it ? Its appetites have been fed ; its lusts have been 
 
TiiE sinner's choice. 159 
 
 indulged ; its appearance has been adorned. But 
 now all these things have passed. They perished in 
 the using, and are forgotten. The cultivated and 
 ornamented form lies cold and mouldering, in its bed 
 of darkness. But where is the soul ? What does it 
 carry away ? Alas ! no peace or hope. It is laden 
 with the dreadful responsibility and consciousness of 
 all this catering for earthly lusts; the guilt of thus 
 making the body which has perished, the object of its 
 idolatry. Beyond this, dreadful as it is, it bears the 
 load of its own iniquities, in which the flesh did not 
 participate. But it takes from this life, no ray of 
 comfort, no ground for peace, no repository in itself, 
 for future satisfaction. All its recollections are only 
 painful and distressing. All its prospects are even 
 worse. The only peace of the soul has been per- 
 versely thrown away. The only hope of the soul has 
 been heedlessly rejected, in the rejection of the Sa- 
 viour who died for it Wretched and outcast, driven 
 from a world in which it cannot remain, this is all 
 that it has for its folly, that it lies down in sorrow. 
 It has fallen among thieves indeed, and it is left 
 stripped and perishing forever. The Barabbas whom 
 it preferred to Christ, has robbed it of every comfort. 
 Its welfare is forever gone. The everlasting result 
 of its folly, is everlasting burnings. The only price 
 for its contempt of the Lord of all, is the devouring 
 fire. It is rejected, and driven from his presence, 
 forevermore undone, 
 
 IV. This is the necessary, universal result of your 
 choice, when Christ in the blessings of. his salvation 
 is rejected, for the love of vain and perishing things. 
 0, 1 would solemnly and affectionately warn you against 
 
160 THE sinner's choice. 
 
 the indulgence of this carnal mind. It is death ; it 
 will be death forever. 
 
 I would stand by your own eternal interests, and 
 beg you, do not barter them for that which will ruin 
 you, but cannot profit. Behold, the peace which 
 passeth understanding, the hope which maketh not 
 ashamed, the glory which excelleth, the habitation 
 not made with hands which faileth not. Behold, the 
 favour and approbation of God, the friendship and 
 love of the Saviour, the joy which the Holy Ghost 
 bestows. Behold, the innumerable company of 
 angels ; the church of the first-born which are 
 written in heaven ; the spirits of the just made per- 
 fect; all these are yours, if ye are Christ's. These 
 are the privileges of a converted and justified soul. 
 They may all be yours when your souls become the 
 habitation of God through the Spirit. O, do not part 
 with them, nor be deluded into an exchange of these 
 eternal blessings, for any of the pleasures of sin for 
 a season. 
 
 I would stand by the bleeding side of Jesus, and 
 beg you, do not ungratefully refuse him, to choose a 
 robber. O, consider all his sufferings in your behalf; 
 his humiliation under your burden of guilt ; his 
 agonies in bearing the chastisement of your peace. 
 Behold him under the curse, that you might not be 
 cursed ; dying, that you might live ; rising, that you 
 might reign forever. Behold him, pleading the worth 
 of his sacrifice for you, in heaven ; crying amidst all 
 your guilt, spare them this year, and this year also ; 
 pressing the aj-gumejits of his love in your ov/n con- 
 science ; urging you to receive his kindness, and live 
 to God with him. O, do not turn a deaf ear and a 
 
THE sinner's choice. 161 
 
 hardened heart to all the solicitations of his mercy, 
 and wound and crucify him again, and put him to an 
 open shame, by joining with those who oppose and 
 despise him. 
 
 I would stand by the sovereign authority of the 
 living God, and entreat you, do not treat it with con- 
 tempt, for an adversary to him and to yourselves. He 
 demands your submission. He can compel it. He 
 has declared he will. Your knees must bow to him, 
 though in the anguish of a destruction which you 
 cannot resist. Do not provoke him to swear in his 
 wrath, that you shall not enter into his rest. O seek 
 him, as a God of mercy and consolation, as he is 
 offered in the Gospel, and seek him now while you 
 may, that you perish not. 
 
 I would stand by the momentous issues of eternity, 
 and beg you, do not lose your crown in them, for any 
 thing which perisheth here below. There is set be- 
 fore you an open door, and you are invited to enter 
 in and be safe. Behold the heavenly rest which is 
 set before you ; the everlasting recompense of re- 
 ward, which is freely offered as the purchase of a Sa- 
 viour's blood; and do not cast them from you for the 
 temptations of sin. God waiteth to be gracious, 
 when you shall be found believing in his Son. 0, 
 come then unto him, and take his yoke upon you, and 
 you shall find rest unto your souls. 
 
 o2 21 
 
XI. 
 
 THE CHRISTIANS ROCK. 
 
 Deuteronomy xxxii. 3 1 . — For their rock is not as our rock, even our 
 enemies themselves being judges. 
 
 This assertion is a part of the song which Moses 
 taught to the IsraeUtes, on the borders of the land of 
 Canaan. He was at the close of a long life of trial 
 and labour. He had finished the work which had 
 been given him to do ; and being prohibited from en- 
 tering the land of promise, he records, by divine 
 direction, for his people, in this song, a testimonial of 
 the goodness of God, and their own ingratitude, that 
 it might remain with them in all their future genera- 
 tions. 
 
 After having spoken much of the power and kind- 
 ness of the God of Israel, as they had been displayed 
 in his past dispensations with his people, he compares 
 him in our text, as the rock of Israel, with all the 
 gods of the surrounding heathen nations, whom he 
 styles their rock ; and asserts in this comparison, his 
 entire superiority over them. To sustain this com- 
 parison, he appeals, not to the experience of the 
 
 162 
 
THE christian's ROCK. 163 
 
 Israelites, but to that of their enemies. He demands 
 the judgment of those who have opposed the Lord of 
 hosts. He calls for their acknowledgment of his 
 power. He summons them, to bear their present tes- 
 timony. Where are the Egyptians who perished in 
 the sea ; or the Amorites who fell in the wilderness ? 
 Where is Pharaoh, who refused his submission to 
 God; or Sihon and Og, who came out to destroy his 
 people? What is their judgment? What is the 
 estimate of the power of the God of Israel, which 
 their knowledge and experience has led them to form? 
 He thus appeals to an evidence which was incon- 
 testable; to a history of facts which had been so 
 plainly exhibited, that there was no room for hesita- 
 tion or doubt. And while he makes this appeal, he 
 proclaims that there is none like unto the Lord, 
 glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing 
 wonders. 
 
 In selecting this assertion as a subject for discourse, 
 I have before my mind, a similar comparison to that 
 which Moses makes, and evidence of a similar cha- 
 racter to sustain and enforce it. I wish to transfer 
 the assertion of the text to our own circumstances. 
 And as the God whom we worship, is the God who 
 revealed himself to Israel, by Moses, the present ap- 
 plication of the text, is in no degree, a perversion of 
 it, from its proper meaning. In the Gospel of Jesus, 
 we make the Lord of hosts our rock. In choosing 
 him, and resting upon him thus, we are encompassed 
 by enemies, both to him and to ourselves. And in 
 the view of all these enemies, we make our choice. 
 We adopt, therefore, as entirely appropriate to our 
 own condition, the strong testimony before us. 
 
164 THE christian's rock. 
 
 " Their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies 
 themselves being the judges." 
 
 The subject upon which I design to speak, as sug- 
 gested by this text, is the concessions which the 
 
 WORLD MAKES TO THE WORTH OF THE RELIGION OF 
 
 THE Gospel. In considering our text under this 
 view, we have, 
 
 I. The comparison which is to be made, and 
 
 II. The testimony which is to be adduced 
 to support it. 
 
 I. We will consider the comparison which is to be 
 made. " Their rock is not as our rock." What is 
 "their rock?" and what is " our rock?" 
 
 1 . What is the rock of the world ? It is the spe- 
 cial foundation which it lays for present peace and 
 future hope. When the Christian's rock is rejected, 
 and the foundation which is laid in the Gospel is 
 refused, the wisdom of man must find some other 
 foundation for confidence. There are but three pos- 
 sible systems, upon which dependence may be placed, 
 by men who have not embraced the hope of the Gos- 
 pel. Upon one of these every unconverted man, 
 every lover of this present world more than God, is 
 fixing all his expectations of comfort and rest. 
 
 He may make a bold system of Atheism his rock. 
 He must say in his judgment, and in his profession, 
 as he actually does in his heart, " There is no God ;" 
 and, of course, no future responsibility for his soul. 
 In theory, there are few, perhaps, who suppose them- 
 selves to be Atheists ; who can look abroad upon all 
 the wonderful works of God, behold their contrivance 
 and variety, and deliberately deny that there is a 
 Being who made them all. But in a practical de- 
 
THE christian's ROCK. 165 
 
 velopraent of principles, there are vast multitudes 
 who are without God in the world ; whose whole life 
 and character is precisely as if there were no God. 
 And it would be but an honest avowal of the actual 
 dependence, if they should openly .announce the 
 theory by which they are manifestly guided, to be the 
 theory which they intentionally and systematically 
 adopt. 
 
 If however, the worldly man shudder at this as- 
 sumption, and is not willing to avow absolute Atheism 
 to be his rock; he must, with the acknowledgment 
 of the existence of a God who judgeth in the earth, 
 rest his confidence of acceptance with him, upon his 
 own integrity and obedience, and make his own right- 
 eousness his rock. This dependence is far more 
 common than its evident worthlessness might lead us 
 to suppose. While men are ignorant of the deep 
 corruption and guiltiness of their souls, they form a 
 false estimate of their own character. They vainly 
 imagine that what meets their own partial and blinded 
 approbation, will also meet the approbation of God. 
 They thus pretend to claim as a right, as the reward 
 of their own works, the future blessedness which God 
 has promised to his people. They imagine it would 
 be unjust in God, to condemn and destroy them, and 
 suppose therefore, that he will not do it. 
 
 If a partial knowledge of his own sinfulness de- 
 stroy the confidence, which a worldly man would be 
 disposed to feel in himself, the only remaining ground 
 of hope for him, is, that though there is a God, and 
 though he, as a sinner, can claim nothing from such a 
 being, yet the mercy of God will not suffer any man 
 to be destroyed. This is the only remainmg rock. 
 
166 THE christian's rock. 
 
 It is the hope, that God will still receive and save 
 men, though they are sinners, and none shall be cast 
 into the sorrows of hell forever. 
 
 Here is a choice among three distinct systems of 
 confidence. One of these is always the rock of the 
 world. Upon one of these, as a selected foundation, 
 every unconverted man rests his confidence, and in 
 its possession, comforts himself in a present course 
 of sin. To give them their technical names, they are 
 Atheism, and Deism, and Universalism. No other 
 position can be imagined as held by the man who re- 
 jects the Gospel of Christ, and the foundation which 
 the Lord Jesus has laid for human hope. One of 
 these three must be the rock of the world. And the 
 examination of his own state of mind, will show to 
 every unconverted man who hears me, that he has 
 adopted, and is carrying out, one of these three sys- 
 tems, as the balm of comfort to his soul. 
 
 2. Now what is "our rock?" tlie rock of the 
 Christian ? Certainly, neither of these three. We 
 know that there is a God. We know that in our own 
 righteousness, we cannot stand before him. If he 
 shall enter into judgment with us, our iniquity will 
 certainly be found out. We know that though he is 
 plenteous in mercy, he will by no means clear the 
 guilty. *' The wicked shall be turned into hell, and 
 all the people that forget God." All these vain 
 grounds of hope, we utterly renounce. Our rock is 
 Christ. God reconciled unto us, through the one 
 offering of Jesus once for all, is our whole depend- 
 ence, our only ground of hope. On this rock, we 
 feel secure. It allows us no room for fear from past 
 transgressions, because it exhibits a full and all-suffi- 
 
THE christian's ROCK. 167 
 
 cient satisfaction for them all, in the blood of Jesus. 
 It sutfers us in no apprehensions from present defi- 
 ciencies, because it reveals the perfect obedience of 
 Christ as counted unto us, for our complete accept- 
 ance. It permits no fear from future weakness, be- 
 cause it shows this Almighty Saviour to be all-sufficient 
 in strength, and able to finish the work which he has 
 undertaken for us, and by his equal Spirit to accom- 
 plish all liis good pleasure within us also. It leaves 
 no room for distress from surrounding dangers, be- 
 cause it conveys the assurance, that all things shall 
 work together for good to them that love God, who 
 are called according to his purpose. This is " our 
 rock" — the rock that is higher than we, to which 
 we cry to be led, when our heart is overwhelmed 
 within us. It is ours, because God, according to the 
 greatness of his mercy, has given it unto us. It is 
 his provision in our behalf. It is ours, because he 
 has enabled us to accept it with our hearts, as our 
 whole dependence and defence. It bears us up above 
 our sins, and our condemnation. It bears for us our 
 hope of glory. And this is the rock which we com- 
 pare with the rock of the world. " Their rock is 
 not as our rock." We place them side by side, in fair 
 examination, and intend to show the truth of the as- 
 sertion which we make, of the entire superiority of 
 our dependence. 
 
 II. I proceed to consider the testimony which is to 
 be adduced to support the comparison thus made — 
 " even our enemies themselves being the judges." 
 
 Observe, my brethren, I do not now rest upon the 
 experience of Christians, the people of the living God, 
 who have built upon this rock, and tested its worth 
 
168 THE christian's rock. 
 
 and strength. This would certainly be an abundant, 
 and a most legitimate and proper source of testimony. 
 But I waive it for the present. We will not go up to 
 heaven, amidst the uncounted millions that encompass 
 the throne of God in triumph, and fill the atmosphere 
 of glory with their shouts of praise ; though should 
 
 We ask them whence their victory came ? 
 
 They, with united breath, 
 Ascribe their conquest to the Lamb, 
 
 Their triumph to his death. 
 
 They would furnish a glorious testimony to the 
 worth of the Gospel, and the power of Christ, as they 
 answered us, " we are they which came out of great 
 tribulation, and have washed our robes, and made them 
 white in the blood of the Lamb ; therefore, are we 
 before the throne of God, and serve him day and 
 night in his temple; and he that sitteth upon the 
 throne shall dwell among us ; we shall hunger no 
 more, neither thirst any more ; neither shall the sun 
 light on us, nor any heat ; for the Lamb which is in 
 the midst of the throne shall feed us, and shall lead 
 us unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe 
 away all tears from our eyes." But we will not 
 dwell upon this. 
 
 We will not go abroad upon the earth, to gain the 
 testimony and experience of the millions of the friends 
 and followers of the Lord Jesus here, though they 
 would all proclaim with united heart and voice, that 
 they " have none in heaven but him, and there is none 
 upon the earth they desire in comparison with him." 
 He is " all their salvation and all their desire ;" " the 
 strength of their heart, and their portion forever." 
 We waive the right, however, to all this cloud of wit- 
 
THE christian's ROCK. 169 
 
 nesses to the exceeding value of " our rock." Just, 
 and convincing, and abundant, as their testimony 
 would be, to the power, and sufficiency, and glory of 
 Christ, we will not appeal to, or rest upon this. We 
 commit our whole cause to the judgment and deci- 
 sion of the world itself We place the enemies of 
 Christ, upon the bench of determination, and stand 
 before them, to plead the claims of our Saviour and 
 God. And we leave to the decision of their own 
 consciences, the question, whether upon the simple 
 and manifest concessions of the world, to the worth 
 of the Gospel, the assertion of our text is not abun- 
 dantly supported. 
 
 The spirit and principles of this world, are un- 
 doubtedly opposed to the religion of the Gospel. The 
 carnal mind, under all its possible outward refine- 
 ments, is still enmity against God. The Saviour 
 comes daily unto the world, and the world receives 
 him not, and knows him not. Whatever concessions, 
 therefore, are made by this ungodly world, to the 
 worth of his Gospel, are of the greater value, from 
 the fact, that they are entirely undesigned, and invo- 
 luntary. The inconsistency with which unconverted 
 men applaud and uphold the Gospel of Christ, while 
 they reject its whole operation for good upon their 
 own souls, condemns them out of their own mouth. 
 And the result of our present examination will be to 
 show, that the assertion of our present text must be 
 acknowledged to be truth ; or carnally minded men, to 
 sustain their own principles, must pursue a course of 
 conduct totally different from their present one. What 
 then are the concessions, which the world makes to 
 the worth of the religion of the Gospel ? 
 
 P 22 
 
170 THE christian's ROCK. 
 
 1. The first is, in the general respect which men 
 render to the rehgion of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 though they feel not its renewing power, and reject 
 all its spiritual operations upon their own souls. Two 
 things are exceedingly manifest in the character and 
 appearance of the world around us; that the majority 
 of men yield no subjection of their hearts to Christ, 
 but are living in all respects without him, and regard- 
 less of him, as a Saviour for them ; and yet, that the 
 external services of his religion are treated by them 
 with peculiar respect, and supported at a great ex- 
 pense. From these two facts, what conclusion must 
 we draw? When a man has selected the present 
 world as his portion, in a rejection of the claims of 
 the Gospel upon his heart, by the Saviour's testi- 
 mony, he is acting really against Christ, and the love 
 of the Father is not in him. His real spirit is hos- 
 tility to the Gospel ; and every tribute of regard or 
 reverence which he pays to the commands of Christ, 
 from whatever motive, is just so far a concession on 
 his part, to the worth and importance of the religion 
 which Jesus Christ has established among men. What 
 argument must we derive, then, from their attendance 
 nn the worship enjoined by the Gospel, who reject the 
 power of the Gospel over themselves? What from 
 their regard to the institution of the Sabbath ? What 
 from their costly preparation for the religious services 
 of this holy day? Why do not unbeheving men 
 occupy all this time, and devote this cost simply to 
 the engagements and pleasures of the present world ? 
 Why do they erect a temple for the worship of the 
 Son of God, which is to stand as a monument against 
 themselves, if they submit not to the government 
 
THE christian's ROCK. 171 
 
 which he claims and exercises among men ? Why do 
 they sustain a ministry, which is to be for their own 
 condemnation, and to stand up as a witness against 
 them, in the great day of Ahuighty God ? Why do 
 they unite to support a system, which openly declares, 
 that " the wrath of God abideth on them," notwith- 
 standing all their reverence and their expense ? What 
 means it all, but that it is a marked concession on the 
 part of worldly men, that " their rock is not as our 
 rock ?" However inconsistent on the part of worldly 
 and unconverted men, such conduct is, with the prin- 
 ciples of opposition to Jesus, by which they are really 
 governed, it is a direct and unceasing acknowledgment 
 of the superior worth and claims of the Gospel. 
 Every dollar which a man, in whose heart the Lord 
 Jesus Christ does not reign, gives to the support of 
 the Gospel, and every occasion on which he unites in 
 the worship of the Christian sanctuary, is a simple 
 and repeated confession of the importance and value 
 of that rock whicli he still rejects. He stands con- 
 demned out of his own mouth. 
 
 2. A second concession which the world makes to 
 the religion of the Gospel, is the high standard which 
 its judgment establishes for Christian conduct, and 
 its immediate and uniform detection and exposure of 
 the Christian's personal deficiencies and inconsist- 
 encies, as compared with this standard. This must 
 be a subject of universal observation. A course of 
 life which is considered in no degree derogatory to 
 the character of a professedly worldly man, becomes, 
 in the opinion of the world, absolutely ruinous to the 
 professed Christian. How common is the remark, 
 when some minor fraud is discovered in the business 
 
172 THE christian's rock. 
 
 of a Christian professor, some apparent unfaithfulness 
 in the settlement of his monied transactions; or when 
 some man calling himself a Christian, is found in the 
 haunts of giddiness or sensuality ; or when he is sub- 
 dued even temporarily by the indulgence of appetite ; 
 or found to grasp with a greedy spirit, the emoluments 
 of the world; "if he did not profess to be a Chris- 
 tian it would be of no consequence !" How^ is this? 
 What does it mean ? Will the world allow its vota- 
 ries a standard of character, which the Gospel will 
 not allow to its disciples ? Can a worldly man be 
 still honoured, though charged with conduct which in 
 his own opinion, would disgrace him if he professed 
 to be a Christian ? Yet this is the fact. There are 
 hundreds and thousands of the men of this world, 
 who feel that the indulgence of their own lusts, an 
 indulgence which is in no degree disreputable to them 
 in their present circumstances, and shuts them out of 
 no society, even genteel female society — so called, — 
 (I mourn to say it,) is the great obstacle to their be- 
 coming disciples of a religion, whose very purity com- 
 pels them to respect it, while they hate the authority 
 which it exercises. They can be respectable in the 
 world, though they are steeped in iniquity. They 
 cannot be respectable as members of the Christian 
 church, if even suspected of crimes in secret, which 
 they now unblushingly commit. When a professed 
 Christian is found in conduct inconsistent with this 
 high standard which the world has fixed for him, 
 though still on a far higher ground in moral character 
 than is perfectly respectable in the world, and than 
 worldly men around are perfectly content to occupy, 
 the world says, he has fallen. Fallen' Why? 
 
THE christian's rock. 173 
 
 Does the world acknowledge itself in excellence be- 
 neath the Gospel? If a man, once a worldly man, 
 having professed himself a Christian, h^s fallen, when 
 he returns to his former position, and becomes a mere 
 worldly man again, must he not have been exalted ac- 
 cording to the same standard, when from his original 
 character and profession, he became a Christian? 
 Now we do not complain of this. We are not sorry 
 that the world establishes so high and perfect a 
 standard for us, as the servants of Jesus Christ. 
 No. God forbid that it should be lowered. But 
 how very important and remarkable is the con- 
 cession which this standard makes to the worth and 
 the dignity of the Gospel ! The world allows that I 
 may do on its rock with honour and without fear, that 
 which I cannot do upon our rock without disgrace. 
 This is its universal acknowledgment. What is it, 
 but a distinct concession, that " their rock is not as 
 our rock, even our enemies themselves being the 
 judges." 
 
 3. A third concession is in the frequent conversions 
 which are made from the world to the religion of the 
 Gospel, whi'le there are no corresponding conversions, 
 back from this religion to the world. On the one 
 side, there are uncounted millions. The history of 
 mankind, ever since the actual coming of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, presents an incessant train of such con- 
 versions. Three thousand on the day of Pentecost ; 
 five thousand immediately afterwards ; in the age of 
 the apostles, a great multitude, more than man could 
 number ! Down to our day, the work is still pro- 
 gressing. There have been literally countless num- 
 bers on the one side of this comparison. They have 
 p2 
 
174 THE christian's rock. 
 
 all been deliberate conversions from the world ; each 
 of them has been the personal, voluntary, determined 
 forsaking of the rock of the world, for the Christian's 
 rock, by one who was before on the side of the world, 
 and merely loved his own. But where are the cor- 
 responding conversions to be produced on the other 
 side? There are none. It is vain for the world to 
 boast as instances in contradiction to this assertion, 
 the victims of appetite, and self-indulgence, and folly ; 
 persons, of whom itself says, they have fallen. The 
 conversions of which we speak, are no yielding to the 
 lures of sense, or the temptations of outward interest. 
 They have been in the very face of all that the world 
 could offer, as attraction or gain. The subjects of 
 them have had much, often very much, to count as 
 loss for Christ. They have been required to suffer 
 much in coming to Christ. The very invitation which 
 was given them to follow him, specified the taking up 
 a cross for his sake. Their expectation was the en- 
 durance of persecutions with his people. And in the 
 face of all this, these children of the world, who loved 
 the world, and whom the world loved, have cliosen 
 rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than 
 to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season ; esteeming 
 the reproach of Christ greater riches than the trea- 
 sures of the world. Now we ask for such instances 
 as corresponding on the side of the world ; instances 
 of those who from conviction and judgment, have for- 
 saken the service of Jesus Christ, and gone back again 
 to the world. We ask for those who have done it, 
 not to gratify sensual appetite, but against their pre- 
 sent worldly interest. We ask not for those who 
 have fallen from a high profession, and have become 
 
THE christian's ROCK. 175 
 
 despised by the very world, to which they have re- 
 turned, but for those wlio have been purified, elevated, 
 ennobled in their character, by the change ; or, at least, 
 have not been lowered in their standard of character. 
 But all the world produces not a single one. Mil- 
 lions of its votaries have forsaken it for Christ, and 
 they have shined in the world with a new and glorious 
 light, and been crowned with a real and undeniable 
 excellence of character, as the result of their conver- 
 sion. In each of these cases, the world has given up 
 a separate child to the Saviour's service, and made a 
 new concession to his worth. Not one of the real 
 disciples of Christ has ever forsaken him for the love 
 of the present world ; nor one professed disciple, who 
 has not, in the acknowledgment of the world to which 
 he has returned, fallen, when he made the change of 
 which it boasts. How remarkable is the concession 
 which the world thus makes, that " their rock is not 
 as our rock." 
 
 4. A fourth concession, is in the remarkable, and 
 almost universal fact, that worldly men desire to turn 
 to the religion of the Gospel, in all their hours of dis- 
 tress. They reject it in their prosperity, and say 
 they will not hear. But when sorrow visits their 
 habitation, or sickness lays hold of their body, or 
 death standeth at the door, they call for the very 
 ministrations which they have so long despised. But 
 if the Gospel be really valueless, why do they ask for 
 its offices now ? Why cannot worldly pleasure re- 
 lieve their sorrow, or worldly gain console their dis- 
 quietude ? They have been, thus far, building upon 
 their own rock ; why do they now forsake it, and cry 
 out for some other ground of hope ? Is not this a 
 
176 THE christian's rock. 
 
 distinct acknowledgment, that " their rock is not as 
 our rock?" But while this is the general course of 
 worldly men in hours of distress in life, still more 
 universally do they ask for the ministrations of the 
 Gospel, in the hour of death. Here, they all want, 
 and almost all ask for, the comforts and promises 
 which Jesus gives. But upon their own principles, 
 how mean, how consciously weak, is this concession ? 
 Why do they not brave out the difficulty ? Why do 
 they not strew the dying bed with flowers, and wake 
 the songs of mirth, and the music of the dance, around 
 the chamber of death? Why do they not call for 
 their companions in pleasure or gain, and make the 
 transition from life, as easy and as delightsome as has 
 been the passage through it? O, it is a mocking at 
 distress; they cannot do it. There is a majesty in an 
 approaching Deity which they cannot resist. There 
 is a poverty in a world which has been tried, which 
 they cannot deny. Their very souls sicken at the re- 
 collections of it. 
 
 0, pleasures past, what are ye now, 
 But thorns about my bleeding brow ? 
 Spectres that hover round my brain, 
 And mock and aggravate my pain. 
 
 The rock upon which they have attempted to main- 
 tain themselves, sinks beneath them. They are left 
 to float in the ocean, distressed, despairing, struggling 
 for life, and crying out with heart-rending exclama- 
 tions, " O, lead me to the rock that is higher than I." 
 But what means all this change of purpose, and de- 
 sire, and judgment, so common in the men of this 
 world, under the circumstances which I have de- 
 scribed ? Is it not on the part of the world, one of 
 
THE christian's ROCK. 177 
 
 the most marked and decided of all possible conces- 
 sions to the truth of our present text? No dying 
 Christian was ever deserted by his beloved Lord. No 
 departing believer ever called for the vs^orld to come 
 in, to supply his w^ants, because the Saviour in whom 
 he trusted, had neglected and forsaken him. Millions 
 of dying sinners have besought, often with deep an- 
 guish have besought the Saviour, for a comfort which 
 the world has proved totally unable to supply. How 
 important and distinct is this acknowledgment ! How 
 manifest in it is the concession, which the world makes 
 to the worth of the religion of the Gospel, in the 
 most momentous circumstances in which the issue be- 
 tween them can be tried ! 
 
 These are some of the concessions which the world 
 makes, that their rock is not as our rock. This is 
 the testimony which we adduce, as sufficient to sus- 
 tain the comparison we have made. Our enemies are 
 the judges. We argue the case before the consciences 
 and perceptions of unconverted men. We hesitate 
 not to leave the decision with their conscience, relying 
 upon the manifestation of the truth in the sight of God. 
 
 in. Let us sum up the conclusion of this case, in 
 a more direct application of it to our personal cha- 
 racter and choice. 
 
 Let its consideration lead all of you who have 
 built upon the Christian's rock, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 to be steadfast, and fear not. O, place your entire 
 confidence here ! When sickness visits you in your 
 lonely chamber, think of your rock, and commune 
 with him in your own heart in renewed faith, and be 
 still. When distress comes upon you, think of your 
 rock, and fly for shelter there. God will hide you in 
 
 23 
 
178 THE christian's rock. 
 
 its cleft, until every danger be overpassed. "When 
 the shadows of death gather around you, forget not 
 your rock ; it will be all you want, all you can want 
 forever. Be still, and wait in the calmness of an 
 humble clinging to Christ, to see the salvation which 
 God will bring to you, in that day. Whatever out- 
 ward storms may threaten or harass you, there will 
 always be repose and comfort here. You cannot 
 rely upon Jesus too entirely, or too confidently be- 
 lieve that he will bless you forever. Honour your 
 Lord, by unshaken trust in his power to save. Cast 
 yourselves wholly, humbly, and cheerfully upon him, 
 and make him your rock indeed ; your fortress, your 
 high tower, into which you may run and be safe. 
 
 Let this subject persuade all before me, to build 
 upon this glorious rock in time. Full salvation is 
 offered to the world,, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Who- 
 soever cometh unto him, shall in no wise be cast out. 
 In him, and with all who are in him, the Father is 
 well pleased. The worth of his promises you see 
 continually acknowledged. The very world which, 
 with its indulgences, tempts you for your ruin, in its 
 concessions and failures, warns you to flee for your 
 life. If you are convinced of your necessity, you 
 are condemned out of your own mouth, for your re- 
 fusal of salvation. If you attend upon the services 
 of religion, and still reject the Saviour who is offered 
 there, you are still condemned. In every such feeling 
 and act, you acknowledge the worth of a Gospel 
 which you still refuse. O, build upon this rock in 
 time. You will not always have the time. Escape 
 from the opposing one while there is hope. There 
 will not always be hope. Make full proof of your 
 privileges, and your salvation sure. 
 
XII. 
 
 A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 
 
 Amos viii. 11, 12. — Behold the days come, saith the Lord God, that luaill 
 send c famine in ihe land; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water; 
 but of hearing the word of the Lord. Jlnd they shall wander from sea 
 to sea, and from the north even to the east ,■ they shall run to and fro, to 
 seek the word of the Ijord, and shall not find it. 
 
 It is a characteristic principle of divine warnings, 
 that the woes which they denounce upon guilty men, 
 generally consist in the mere withdrawal of abused 
 privileges, and the desertion of men to gain their own 
 ends, in their own ways. So very distinct and de- 
 termined is the tendency of the human heart to an 
 entire and eternal alienation from God ; so incurable by 
 any self-possessed power, is the spirit of its rebellion 
 and hostility against God ; so certain is the progress of 
 the unconverted soul, from iniquity unto iniquity, down 
 to that death which is the wages of sin, that if man be 
 only left to himself, unrestrained from on high, and un- 
 assisted by divine power, he becomes inevitably de- 
 stroyed. There needs nothing for his everlasting ruin, 
 but that God should let him alone. If he deprive him 
 of the life-giving power of his Spirit, and of the blessed 
 
 179 
 
180 A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 
 
 instruments of his appointment through which this 
 Spirit acts for his salvation ; and exercise no positive 
 energy of his grace to rescue him from destruction, all 
 is done that need be done to make tliis destruction 
 sure, and without a remedy. As directly as the stone 
 seeks the centre of the earth, under the power of gra- 
 vitation, does the unconverted soul sink into the dark- 
 ness of everlasting despair and condemnation, under 
 the unrestrained influence of its own purposes and de- 
 sires. Accordingly, Almighty God threatens nothing, 
 and does nothing, more directly and dreadfully calcu- 
 lated to consign the ungodly to eternal misery, than 
 to forsake them with his grace, and to suffer them to 
 fill themselves with their own ways. It need never 
 be said, that he casts the sinner into hell. Let him 
 only depart from him, and exert no special power to 
 arrest and save him, and he sinks there of himself. 
 He remains, and must remain forever, a sinner against 
 God ; and as such, he must be forever the victim of 
 unalleviated, unchangeable despair. 
 
 As a practical illustration of this principle, you find 
 the Scriptures warning men of their dangers in an 
 unconverted state, under the simple idea and shape 
 of destitution and want. God departs from them, 
 leaves them, forsakes them, hides his face from 
 them, lets them alone; and they thus gain the 
 punishment which their guilt deserves, as the har- 
 vest of their own sowing, and the fruit of their own 
 planting. This principle forms the point upon which 
 the warning of our present text is rested. Famine, 
 with all its attendant, multiform evils, is the simple 
 result of continued want and deprivation. And if 
 God withholds his rain and his snow from heaven, all 
 
A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 181 
 
 its horrors come upon man without any direct effort 
 or act on his part to confirm or increase it. Apply 
 ing this shape of illustration in our text, the Lord 
 God proclaims to sinful men, the result of their negli- 
 gence of his grace, and contempt of the spiritual mer- 
 cies, which have been long continued to them in vain. 
 He announces no direct infliction of positive punish- 
 ment from his hand, like the fire which should con- 
 sume them, or the pestilence which should cut them 
 down. He simply declares, that he '' will send a 
 famine among them, a famine of hearing the words of 
 the Lord ;" that he will withdraw all direct spiritual 
 interposition, and leave them to the barrenness of 
 their own nature ; that they shall no more hear the 
 word of the Lord, which they have despised; and 
 shall find themselves to pine, and waste, and perish, 
 under its loss ; that they shall wander unsatisfied, in 
 search of nourishment and food for their souls, under 
 the simple withholding, on |^is part, of privileges 
 which they have so much neglected and abused. This 
 address, though made to the Israelites, is as applicable 
 to all who have received the privileges of a revelation 
 from God. With them, it has been fearfully accom- 
 plished. Its fulfilment with ourselves, must depend 
 upon our improvement or abuse of the privileges we 
 enjoy. 
 
 This SPIRITUAL FAMINE, I design to make the sub- 
 ject for your present consideration. I would speak, 
 
 I. Of the EVILS OF IT. 
 
 II. Of THE FACTS WHICH CONSTITUTE IT. 
 
 III. Of the circumstances which lead to it. 
 
 IV. Of the way in which it is to be avoided. 
 I. In speaking of the evils of a spiritual famine, com- 
 
 Q 
 
182 A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 
 
 paratively little need be said. The Lord denounces it 
 in our text, as a curse, and a punishment. He speaks 
 of it as far more dreadful than a famine of bread, 
 and a thirst for water ; that is, as more to be feared 
 and avoided, than the worst sufferings of the body, 
 and the earthly estate of man. This is simply upon 
 the Saviour's principle, that the one kills the body, 
 and after that hath no more that it can do, while the 
 other casts both soul and body into hell. Man lives 
 not by bread only, but by the words which proceed 
 out of the mouth of the Lord. His present life of 
 years or days, is sustained by bodily food. But this 
 is not worthy to be called life, so soon passeth it 
 away, and he is gone. His real life, the life of his 
 spirit, the existence of his immortal part, is to be 
 supported only by the words of the Lord. It is fed 
 by communications of divine grace. It is sustained, 
 invigorated, and made happy, by those precious reve- 
 lations of truth, which the word of the Lord con- 
 tains. The soul of man lives upon an appropriated 
 Saviour, with whom its life is hid in security with 
 God, and from whose fulness it receives grace upon 
 grace. Give to the soul of man, as its own posses- 
 sion, all that the word of the Lord reveals, the new 
 created image of the holy God which it offers, the 
 completeness that is found in Christ which it pro- 
 claims, the exceeding great and precious promises 
 which it unfolds ; and you shelter that soul in ever- 
 lasting security, and feed it upon the living and life- 
 giving bread, in the strength of which it may rejoice 
 throughout eternity. Take from the soul of man, 
 this heavenly nourishment which giveth life unto the 
 world, and you leave it a prey to the gnawing of 
 
A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 183 
 
 eternal want, and the mere vessel of eternal wrath 
 and anguish. Nothing can supply to it the place of the 
 incorruptible word of God. 
 
 The full evils of this spiritual famine, the result of 
 an entire loss of the word of the Lord, this world 
 cannot display; nor can man, in his present state, 
 apprehend them. You have no power adequately to 
 conceive them, nor I to describe them. You must 
 pass from the confines of the present life, to gain this 
 awful view. Follow the unconverted, lost soul, to its 
 chamber of final despair. See it there, dark, and 
 lonely, and unpitied ; sitting in solitude, among mil- 
 lions like itself; renewing daily its embittered regrets 
 over the folly of a life of wasted privileges which has 
 passed ; in the gloomy pinings of introverted obser- 
 vation, feeding only upon its own recollections of un- 
 necessary guilt ; groaning in anguish, over the remem- 
 brance of days of mercy unimproved ; yet groaning 
 in more bitter anguish, that they cannot be forgotten ; 
 crying in sorrow, where there is no sympathy ; utter- 
 ing its piercing complaints to ears, too filled with the 
 sounds of personal distress, to hear the lamentations 
 which others make ; lingering on in this perpetual 
 starvation ; shrinking, pining, under the wrath of a 
 neglected God ; dying an eternal death ; seeking for 
 an end that never comes ; longing, struggling, for an 
 annihilation which is impossible ; and all this, spread 
 out through eternity, as the necessary condition of a 
 sinner who has compelled God to leave him alone ; 
 there, O there, you find a spiritual famine, exhibiting 
 its real evils, and shewing its actual, mature character. 
 And is it for this, my brethren, that foolish men reject 
 the claims of religion and a Saviour, because they are 
 
l&i< A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 
 
 supposed to be hard and burdensome ? Is it to take 
 up such an eternity in weeping, and waihng, and 
 gnashing of teeth, that the unrenewed man casts from 
 him the invitations of the Gospel, continues to live 
 without God in the world, and turns away his ear 
 and his heart from the law of truth ? 0, how won- 
 derful is such a choice ! How wonderful would it be, 
 if the alternative were really unrelieved distress for 
 the whole period of the present life ! How much 
 better will it be for you to endure with Christ and for 
 Christ's sake, the utmost extreme of present suffering 
 and persecution, than to inherit the least part of these 
 woes of a sinner who dies without a Saviour ; these 
 final evils of a spiritual famine ! Yet Jesus calls you 
 to no such suffering. He gives in this life, peace 
 which passeth understanding; while he promises in 
 the life to come, the fulness of joy, and pleasures for- 
 evermore. , The soul which in its real conversion unto 
 God, receives him, feeds upon heavenly food for time 
 and for eternity; and in both, nourished and supported 
 by divine power, enjoys the entire and happy contrast, 
 to the evils of a spiritual famine. 
 
 II. I would speak of the facts which constitute a 
 spiritual famine. The evils which attend it, are de- 
 veloped only in the fearful consummations of another 
 world. The facts which make it up, are facts of 
 man's experience here. To these I now refer. It is 
 described in our text as "a famine of hearing the 
 words of the Lord;" and it is exhibited as so entire 
 and overspreading, that the men who suffer it, wander 
 through the whole length and breadth of the land, in 
 search of the spiritual food which they need, without 
 success. 
 
A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 185 
 
 To constitute such a famine, both in appearance 
 and in fact, there will be found, sometimes, an entire 
 removal from a people, of all the ordinances and pri- 
 vileges of the Gospel, that only life-giving vv^ord of 
 God. The history of the Christian world abounds 
 with instances of this, when, as a direct punishment 
 for the abuse of the privileges of the Gospel, by those 
 who have enjoyed its light without improving it, God 
 has removed the candlestick out of its place, and the 
 immoralities of absolute imposture and falsehood, or 
 the superstition and darkness of a total corruption 
 of Christianity, have been allowed to occupy the 
 entire place which the bright kingdom of the Saviour's 
 truth had filled before. The face of the nominal Chris- 
 tian world in its eighteen centuries of exhibition, has 
 presented numerous illustrations of this remark. And 
 young as this land is in its Christian history, there are 
 already facts in its record, exhibiting a removal of the 
 ordinances and provisions of the Gospel, from por- 
 tions of its community, almost as entire. Such a re- 
 moval of the appointed instruments of salvation, con- 
 stitutes a spiritual famine. Men cannot believe in 
 him, of whom they do not hear, nor hear without a 
 preacher. 
 
 Next to this, there is found often, a withdrawal 
 from a community who still retain the name, if not 
 the external form of Christianity, the preaching of the 
 Gospel in its peculiar truths. An entire defection from 
 the vital doctrines and principles of Christianity, is 
 suffered to take place among large bodies of professed 
 Christians, as the simple result of a failure in the im- 
 provement of the blessings which were thus bestowed. 
 What numbers in our day have sunk down into the 
 Q 2 24 
 
186 A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 
 
 frozen depths of Socinianism in actual profession; 
 nay, verging apparently upon the very border of 
 Atheism ; who once possessed and neglected the 
 blessed offering of a pure Gospel ! What numbers 
 in the retaining of a theoretical orthodoxy, have filled 
 the pulpit with the morals of Seneca, to the exclusion 
 of the crucified Christ, whom Paul preached ! So 
 that within the limits of our knowledge of men around 
 us, there are thousands who never hear of the revealed 
 way of divine salvation ; and who, in regard to all pe- 
 culiarities in the doctrine of the Gospel, are as much 
 in a famine of the word of the Lord, as if absolute 
 heathenism had reared its temple, and they had gather- 
 ed for the worship of its gods. Multitudes around 
 us, hear no more of man's conversion by the Spirit 
 of God, or of his justification in the perfect righteous- 
 ness of Christ, than if there was not a preacher of the 
 truth of God standing upon our soil. Now, what- 
 ever privileges may elsewhere be found among us, 
 this is, for them, a spiritual famine, almost as entire 
 as is to be found in lands without even the form of 
 the Gospel. And while faith cometh by hearing, and 
 hearing by the word of God, it is as certain a prepa- 
 ration for all the evils of a spiritual famine, as if the 
 bread of God could nowhere be found. 
 
 Next to this, in fact, if not in appearance, is there 
 a spiritual famine, when, though the truth of God be 
 still proclaimed, there is no power communicated from 
 above, to carry it with life-giving efficacy to the souls 
 of men. Sinful men are to be sanctified and made 
 holy through the truth ; but it is God who sanctifies 
 them. And if they waste the opportunities which he 
 affords them to gain this spiritual increase, or if he 
 
A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 187 
 
 withhold the power of his grace, Paul plants, and 
 Apollos waters, in vain. How often, how persever- 
 ingly sometimes, is Christ preached among men, as 
 the wisdom of God, and the power of God, when no 
 heart yields to the sacred message, and no soul is 
 born for God, under the operation of the truth ! Men 
 have wearied God with their sins, and made him to 
 serve with their iniquities, until he has arisen and de- 
 parted from them. They have turned the grace of 
 God into licentiousness, and have corrupted the prac- 
 tice of religion with a conformity to the course of 
 this world, until, it would seem, that if Noah, Daniel, 
 and Job were among them, these should but deliver 
 their own souls by their righteousness ; men around 
 should not be benefited or blessed by them. Now, 
 whatever appearance there may be of church order, 
 or spiritual authority connected with it, this is a real 
 famine of the word of the Lord. All that was nour- 
 ishing and saving in the dispensation of the Gospel, 
 has been separated from it, and the preaching of it 
 now, is without effect. There is no going forth of 
 religion in its progress to spiritual conquests. No 
 gathering souls are enquiring with eagerness, the way 
 to glory and to God. Coldness, and lethargy, and 
 spiritual apathy and slumber creep over the minds, 
 and bind up the affections of men. They hear with- 
 out feeling, almost without consciousness. They are 
 exhorted without effect. The good seed is choked 
 and destroyed, before it can spring up to bring forth 
 its fruit ; and no converted souls rise up to give the 
 glory of the work of grace to God. Under such cir- 
 cumstances, as far as it regards the real, spiritual con- 
 dition of men, whatever soundness, or spirituality, or 
 
188 A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 
 
 ardour may characterize the preacher, there is a spi- 
 ritual famine among the people ; and the evils of it, 
 in their dreadful aggregate, will come upon perishing 
 souls. This is sent by the Lord of hosts as a punish- 
 ment for man's iniquity, a recompense for the neglect 
 and abuse of a life-giving Gospel. The word no 
 longer profits, because it is not mixed with faith in 
 them that hear. And men pine and perish in this 
 spiritual atrophy, though the food which ought to give 
 them life, and which would have done it before they 
 were so hopelessly diseased, is still abundant. O, 
 what numbers among us are thus suffering all the in- 
 cipient evils of spiritual famine ! Their cold, and 
 careless, and dead souls, are sinking down to eternal 
 sorrow. Bread from heaven lies all around their 
 tents, and they tread it under their feet, but will not 
 gather and eat it. God is sending them a strong de- 
 lusion, that they should believe a lie, because they 
 take pleasure in unrighteousness. The days of final 
 and entire desertion are rapidly coming on for them ; 
 days when they shall wander to and fro for spiritual 
 bread, and shall not find it ; when they shall desire to 
 see the days of the Son of Man, in vain ; when they shall 
 utter the exceeding strong and bitter cry of rejected 
 Esau, " wilt thou not bless me, even me also," and 
 find no merciful response ; when no place shall be 
 found for repentance in the Judge by whom they are 
 condemned, though they " seek it carefully with 
 tears." In the dark hours which lead down to death, 
 and the far darker hours which lead on after it, they 
 are preparing to find, in the entire deprivation of 
 spiritual comfort and safety, the real character, and 
 the real result, of a famine of the word of the Lord. 
 
A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 189 
 
 III. I would speak of the circumstances which 
 lead to this spiritual famine. Some of these are cer- 
 tainly on the side of the preacher of the word. And 
 if I were addressing the company of preachers, it 
 would be my duty to enlarge upon them. When 
 there is in the pulpit, a hiding of the light of the 
 Gospel; when, 
 
 Though Paul may serve him with a text, 
 Yet Epictetus, Plato, Tully, preach ; 
 
 when, in the exalting of inferior things, and in negli- 
 gence of greater, Christ is thrust from his own sanc- 
 tuary, and some other name predominates, and some 
 other master is served ; ,the preacher leads on to a 
 famine of the word of the Lord. Wo unto them bv 
 whom such oifences come ! But to this large class 
 of circumstances, I cannot now particularly refer. 
 My duty at this time, is to warn and admonish those 
 who now listen to me ; and to point out the facts 
 among us, and perceived by us, which are likely to 
 lead to a famine of the saving truth of the Gospel — 
 facts which, to a great extent, are found among all 
 bodies of professing Christians, and which especially 
 concern us, in the communion to which we belong. 
 
 Among these, I name first, the spirit of sectarian 
 division and controversy ; the fondness for partisan 
 warfare among the various denominations of the 
 church of Christ, which is so exceedingly manifest. 
 If there is an aspect of religious things in the present 
 day, over which the soul of a true Christian must 
 sicken, it is this fruitless disposition to magnify out- 
 ward distinctions above spiritual realities. Whether 
 a man be found on one side or the other, of some un- 
 certain, arbitrary line of difference, seems in some 
 
190 A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 
 
 minds, to be of more consequence, and to be more 
 considered, than whether he be as a converted, or an 
 unconverted man, a child of God, or a child of the evil 
 one. This dividing spirit appears to be a charac- 
 teristic of a portion of all Christian denominations in 
 the present day. And vs^hen all the people of God 
 should be thoroughly united in the great controversy 
 of the Lord vv^ith sin, the strength of numbers is di- 
 verted in the attempt to depreciate, if not to destroy, 
 others, because they follow not with them. The in- 
 dulgence of this dividing spirit, leads directly to a 
 spiritual famine. I believe Satan could in no way be 
 better served or pleased, than to have every pulpit in 
 the land occupied thus. While all time, and tongues, 
 and talents, are given to this work of self-exaltation, 
 and mutual depreciation, Christ is put out of view, 
 and the result of persisting in it, will be the extin- 
 guishing of the light of Gospel truth in the land. As 
 far as my voice may have influence, I would urge you 
 to watch against this sectarian spirit, as leading di- 
 rectly to a banishment of the Gospel. Rejoice when 
 Christ is preached. Rejoice when the numbers mul- 
 tiply who preach him. Rejoice if God confirms his 
 word with the power of his grace. Allow not your- 
 selves to be pleased with expressions of hostile or 
 contemptuous feelings in reference to other classes of 
 the followers of Christ. Contend only for the pre- 
 cious faith of the Gospel, and for that only with the 
 spirit and the mind of Christ. 
 
 Another circumstance leading to a spiritual famine, 
 is a conformity among professing Christians, to the 
 course of this world. I do not mean to touch that 
 deluding question, " to what extent may we go in the 
 
A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 191 
 
 giddiness of this world?" a question, which in the 
 hands of a skilful enemy, leads off the point of divi- 
 sion, till man has passed far beyond it. The point of 
 sinful conformity to the world, however diflicult to 
 mark out in a circumstantial, calculating theory, is 
 quick and open to the perception of conscience, and 
 to the decisions of the common sense of men. And 
 it is a manifest violation of both, to say that a spiritual 
 mind may be carried, or found, in the gay and bril- 
 liant assemblies of the thoughtless children of the 
 world, where the mention even of the name of Deity, 
 save in the idle exclamation of the unsanctified mind, 
 would be counted an intrusion, and rejected as in- 
 tolerable. Such scenes in human society, though 
 elevated, and attractive, and refined, according to the 
 standard of the wovld, are the abode and nursery of 
 undisguised hostility to Christ. And it exhibits a 
 state of coldness in religion, and inditference to the 
 respectability of religion, little less than shocking, 
 when the professed participant in the body and blood 
 of the Lord avows himself to find nothing in them, 
 incompatible with the life and power of his devotion. 
 This practical betrayal and wounding of the Saviour 
 in the house of his friends, leads directly to a spiritual 
 famine. In the individual, it is found to be, not the 
 attendant, but the alternative of religion. If it pro- 
 gresses as the spirit of the professed religious com- 
 munity, it results in a simple and confirmed sacrifice 
 of the life-giving power of the Gosp'el, for the mere 
 friendship of the world, which is enmity witli God. 
 The spirit of prayer faints and dies. The meetings 
 of Christians for prayer, flag and fail. The cold and 
 haughty temper of the world stands with its proud 
 
192 A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 
 
 feet to rule the sanctuary. And however faithful, 
 and bold, and persevering, may be the watchman upon 
 the walls, the people take no warning, and he but de- 
 livers his own soul. Principles and habits of this de- 
 structive character, like poison in a fountain, are sent 
 down in every family stream. And God withdraws 
 every gift of his Spirit from a people, who thus 
 strengthen each other in their sins, and say in the 
 pride of their boasting, " we are delivered to do all 
 these abominations." 
 
 An unbelieving rejection of the spiritual claims of 
 tlie Gospel, and a misimprovement of the mercies which 
 a Saviour bestows, lead a people with certainty to this 
 famine of the word of the Lord. The habit of un- 
 moved and heartless hearing of the Gospel, prepares 
 the way for the certain loss of all the blessings which 
 th^ Gospel gives. It is a most fearful circumstance 
 in the life and destiny of a man, if he has been long 
 sitting under the preaching of the truth, and remains 
 still an unchanged man. He has then, so often re- 
 jected the message from God, which said to him, 
 " to-day, hear my voice, and harden not your heart," 
 that it has lost its power upon his conscience. He 
 has resisted so many arguments of the holy Scripture, 
 that he is now fenced in, and protected by his own 
 embankments. And however light and giddy may be 
 his worldly heart, while the present world remains 
 unscathed for him, he is rapidly approaching to a wil- 
 derness where there is no water, and where the whole 
 staff of bread is broken. A sad and lonely place, 
 indeed, he will find it. He is there without God, for 
 he has driven him from his heart and thoughts. He 
 is without other comfort, for it has failed and perished 
 
A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 193 
 
 from him, in its own decay. And he lies down to 
 perish in wretched despair, simply because he rejected 
 the bread of life, when it was bountifully provided, 
 and it is now offered to him no more. There is found 
 much in a spiritual and animated body of Christians, 
 to influence the feelings and determinations of sin- 
 ners around, and to call them into the fold of Christ, 
 by God's employment of the power of sympathy. 
 And there is much also, in a cold, and formal, and 
 worldly-minded congregation, to repel the progress 
 of each other towards God, and by the same power 
 of sympathy to drive others back to the service of the 
 world and sin. Thus as a spirit of indifference to 
 the truth, of procrastination of the service of God, 
 and of careless hearing of the divine message to man, 
 spreads among a people, it becomes itself established 
 there, and leads directly to a famine of the word of 
 the Lord, for the souls over whom it reigns. 
 
 Connected with this spirit of unbelieving indiffe- 
 rence, a neglect of the appointed ordinances and in- 
 stitutions of the Gospel leads to the same result. 
 When the Sabbath is but little regarded ; when the 
 sanctuary of God is neglected ; when the Lord's table 
 is surrounded but by a few of the many to whom its 
 privileges are offered ; when the assembling together 
 of the people of God, either on occasions of public 
 worship, or on the more private occasions of the 
 evening lecture, and the meeting for prayer, is but the 
 bringing of two or three in his name ; there is a rapid 
 progress among a people to a total famine of the 
 word of the Lord. True religion will not, cannot 
 flourish among us, nor a revival of effectual, active 
 piety take place, but in proportion to our eager atten- 
 R 25 
 
194 A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 
 
 tion to these occasions of united worship. I would 
 that all the Lord's people were prophets ; and that 
 we had in every congregation, active, zealous, and 
 pious laymen, to help the pastor in his work, and to 
 maintain the habitual, weekly meeting, for social 
 prayer. It is this which draws down a blessing upon 
 a people, and makes the Sabbath's preaching of the 
 Gospel, effective and powerful. It is here, that the 
 heavy laden find comfort, the weary refreshment, and 
 all the people of God life and peace. And when 
 these meetings are neglected, or opposed, among any 
 people, soon all other shapes of religious service be- 
 come formal and useless. Gould I make the voice of my 
 own experience sound throughout the whole borders 
 of our church, it would be to urge all who seek the 
 divine blessing, and the prosperity of our communion, 
 to establish and maintain, and prize, as a chief means 
 of benefit, and a chief promoter of a revival of religion, 
 the habitual, social meeting of Christians, for exhort- 
 ation and prayer. How many souls have found the 
 blessing of the living God recorded here, for them ! 
 Who hath ever opposed them, and found spiritual 
 prosperity bestowed from God upon himself? 
 
 But upon these circumstances which lead to a 
 famine of the word of the Lord, I can enlarge no 
 more. Consider whether they are to be found among 
 yourselves. See whether the worm of sectarianism 
 is eating at the heart of your religious character ; or 
 the blight of worldly conformity is withering it from 
 the exterior ; or the chill of indifference is binding it 
 with its frost ; or the rude hand of neglect of spiritual 
 duties and privileges, is plucking it roughly away. In 
 all these circumstances, you will find a separate, but 
 
A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 195 
 
 certain introduction to that spiritual famine in which 
 you will be stricken through, in want of the blessed 
 fruits which have thus been despised and destroyed. 
 
 IV. I would speak of the way in which these evils 
 may be averted. Much that might well be said on 
 this point, has been already anticipated. My time 
 will allow me but little in addition. That little, how- 
 ever, I would earnestly press upon your attention. I 
 feel the danger of which I have spoken, to be an 
 actual and an immediate one among us. 1 feel bound 
 to do my poor utmost to avert it. 
 
 I would urge you to prize highly the faithful dis- 
 pensation of the word of God. If an unveiled Gos- 
 pel is presented to your minds, and the Almighty 
 Spirit of God is ready to apply it to your hearts, 
 learn to estimate it, as the happiest, and the most im- 
 portant distinction of your lives ; never undervalue 
 tlie precious blessing of having the truth of God 
 spoken to you, as in the sight of God who searcheth 
 the hearts, however humbling or alarming may be 
 many of its declarations. If the ministers of Christ 
 ask their counsel of him, and not of the lusts of men ; 
 if they draw their arguments and motives from 
 eternity, without any truckling to the course of this 
 world, they may often appear to ungodly men, as 
 Elijah did to Ahab, as men that trouble Israel. The 
 proud hearts and wills of unsubdued sinners always 
 kick against the truth, and always resist the Holy 
 Ghost. Faithful ministers are not alarriied, or sur- 
 prised at this. My brethren, be not you amo-^ this 
 number of opposers. If the men of God dare to 
 save you, in defiance of your own esteem of them, 
 prizo and honour such ministrations, as God's chief 
 
196 A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 
 
 blessing to you. Encourage them, hold up their 
 hands, defend their efforts in doing good, and bless 
 God, that your eyes are permitted to look upon, and 
 your ears to listen to teachers, whom he has made 
 faithful in all his house. 
 
 I would entreat you to pray for the success of the 
 word of God. Its great object is, the conversion of 
 the ungodly, and the restoration of this fallen world 
 to God. Let this object in all its magnitude and im- 
 portance, be kept before you. In private and in 
 public prayer, seek from God the power of his grace, 
 to attend and bless the preaching of his truth. The 
 great instrument for the use of which he has commis- 
 sioned his ministry, and by which he will save the 
 world, is what men may call the foolishness of preach- 
 ing. The more spiritual, constant, and bold are the 
 preachers of the Gospel, the more abundantly will 
 the world be blessed. But all the power to bless 
 must come from God. To him, therefore, learn to 
 look habitually, and earnestly, for his blessing upon 
 the labours of his ministers. Let all the hearts 
 among us that have found access unto God in an ac- 
 cepted Saviour, cry unto him, for the demonstration 
 of his Spirit, and divine power, to carry home the 
 truth to those who hear it, that multitudes may be 
 brought in to be with us, on the side of the Son of 
 David, in this ungodly world. And whether within 
 the limits of your own special congregation, or amidst 
 the necessities of the world abroad, your hearts and 
 thoughts be at any time fixed, O pray for the success 
 of the word of God, in the Gospel of his Son, in the 
 conversion of the lost, from the power of Satan unto 
 him. 
 
A SPIRITUAL FAMINE. 197 
 
 I would press upon you, to profit yourselves by the 
 publication of the Gospel. Seek the conversion, the 
 sanctification, the edifying of your own souls under 
 its influence. Your days of grace are precious. Pre- 
 cious to you, is every offer of a Saviour's love, every 
 awakening admonition of the Spirit of grace, every 
 dispensation of the truth which makes men free, 
 every Sabbath's privilege, every hour of prayer. O, 
 suffer not your opportunities to pass, and your hearts 
 to remain unaffected, and cold, and alienated from 
 God, amidst such dispensations of divine mercy. It 
 is high time you had all awaked out of sleep, and 
 were found in a new birth of the Spirit, accepted be- 
 fore God, and sheltered in the provisions of his love. 
 Trifle no longer with the proffers of divine grace. O 
 cast in your lot even now, with a waiting Saviour. 
 Return with him to that Father's house, where there 
 is bread enough and to spare, and where you shall 
 find eternal life for your souls. And in the certain 
 hope, which is the privilege of his people, the assured 
 salvation which is covenanted to them in the sufferings 
 and obedience of their great Redeemer, bread shall be 
 given you, and living water shall be sure forever. 
 
 &2 
 
XIII. 
 
 LITTLE SINS. 
 
 Genesis xix. 20. — Is it not a little one ? and my soul shall live. 
 
 Our blessed Lord lays it down as a principle of 
 human conduct, and of human responsibility, " he 
 that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in 
 much ; and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also 
 in much." Though a man start back, and shrink 
 from great transgressions, if he allow himself in 
 known offences against God, which appear to him of 
 a smaller character, he manifests that the spirit and 
 disposition of his heart are still guilty, and opposed 
 to God. The claims of true piety and obedience not 
 only require that we should be kept back from pre- 
 sumptuous sins, but that we should be cleansed also 
 from secret faults. 
 
 The incident connected with our text, may be 
 viewed as an illustration of this. Lot hesitated in 
 an entire and thorough obedience of the divine com- 
 mands, and would have compromised with their claims 
 upon him, by the offer of an inferior submission. He 
 had come out of Sodom, as God had directed him. 
 
 198 
 
LITTLE SINS. 199 
 
 But when the heavenly messengers had brought him 
 forth abroad, and said, " escape for thy hfe, look not 
 behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain ; escape 
 to the mountain, lest thou be consumed;" he hesitated 
 in following out their earnest address. He had shewed 
 himself willing to obey to a certain extent. But he 
 was not willing to obey to the utmost extent of the 
 requisition. He answered to the angel, " O, not so, 
 my Lord ! behold now this city is near to flee unto; 
 and it is a little one. Let me escape thither. Is it 
 not a little one ? and my soul shall live." God would 
 teach him by his own experience, and for a little while 
 endured with his folly, that he might learn how pooi 
 a refuge his sinful heart had selected for himself The 
 result was as the Lord designed it. He was soon 
 glad to escape from the little city which he had se- 
 lected, and which had been spared for a time, for his 
 sake, to the mountain which the Lord had pointed 
 out. 
 
 Lot stands before us as an example and testimony; 
 and it is the principle whicli is displayed in this illus- 
 tration, of which I wish to speak. I see in the inci- 
 dent, a principle whicli is exhibited in the conduct 
 and character of multitudes, who profess to be the ser- 
 vants of God, and who attempt to cover up transgres- 
 sions because they are esteemed little, and pass over 
 faults which they deem of little consequence, in the 
 hope that their souls shall live. But it is a principle 
 which will be found in all cases as great a mistake in 
 calculation, as it was in the case connected with our 
 text. An inattention to those which are considered 
 small things in religion ; a disregard to the guilt of 
 those which are supposed to be little sins ; and an 
 
200 LITTLE SINS. 
 
 allowed commission of these sins, on the ground that 
 they are of inferior consequence ; are the source of 
 vast evil, and of vast danger to the souls of men. 
 However long endured, they are uniformly found at 
 last, a Zoar, in which the soul of man cannot live. 
 The evil and danger of this inattention to little things 
 in the cultivation of religious character, is a subject 
 which I propose now to consider. 
 
 The men of this world understand the necessity of 
 a vigilant attention to the smaller outlets of waste, in 
 order to the attainment of success and prosperity, in 
 earthly pursuits. It is deemed a wise proverb in their 
 affairs, " take care of your pence, and your pounds 
 will take care of themselves." They will ask for no 
 surer indication of a spendthrift, than the habitual 
 contempt of little things, in the system upon which 
 the business of life is conducted. Negligence in this 
 respect, will go far towards clothing a man with rags. 
 Diligence, assiduity, and persevering economy in 
 small expenses, not disjoined from a spirit of libe- 
 rality and kindness to the needy, have raised multi- 
 tudes, who had no remarkable share of natural talents, 
 and no peculiar experience of what the world calls 
 good fortune, to the highest posts of earthly influence 
 and honour. 
 
 This is equally the principle of certain success in 
 the concerns of the soul. There must be in that 
 merchandise which is better than silver, to which the 
 heart and thoughts of the real Christian are directed, 
 and to an interest in which the hearts of all are in- 
 vited in the Gospel, the very same attention to mat- 
 ters which are too often considered trifling and in- 
 different. The most lamentable consequences in a 
 
LITTLE SINS. 201 
 
 Christian's life often date their origin from some small 
 act which is suffered to grow into a principle ; from 
 some incidental occurrence which ministered tempta- 
 tions that were heedlessly encouraged ; or from a 
 failure in habitual watchfulness in something which 
 was considered unimportant in its influence. The 
 conflagration which fills the proudest city with deso- 
 lation and ruin, was in its first appearance, a little 
 spark, which a single drop of water would have easily 
 extinguished. The storm which covers the face of the 
 heavens with its blackness, and pours its torrents of 
 devastation upon the earth, was seen in its incipient 
 state, to arise a little cloud out of the sea, like a 
 man's hand. Thus will it be found also, in the most 
 destructive concessions in a Christian's life. The 
 unheeded lusts of the eye, the disregarded risings of 
 mental passion, the momentary excitement and in- 
 dulgence of sensual appetite, only Serve to lay open 
 a way which will continually widen, to habitual trans- 
 gression, irreparable loss, and even the final destruc- 
 tion of the soul. You may as easily set bounds to 
 the flowdng of the sea, and in the tempest's raging, 
 command the swelling wave to stop its course, as 
 arrest the triumphant progress which you have given 
 by indulgence, to a headstrong lust, and say, "hitherto 
 shalt thou come, but no farther." The man who will 
 walk with God in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, 
 must fix his unremitted and suspicious inspection upon 
 the smallest incidents of his life ; and test the power 
 of his principles, by the minuteness of application, 
 to which they can be carried. If a man finds that 
 he is not always a religious man ; if he perceives that 
 the great principles by which he professes to be 
 
 26 
 
202 LITTLE SINS. 
 
 governed, are iiot habitually carried out, he will un- 
 doubtedly find the reason, and the commencement of 
 the deficiency which he laments, in the point of warn- 
 ing and experience of which we are now speaking. 
 It will be instructive and useful to us to look into this 
 subject more minutely. 
 
 1. This inattention to little things will be discovered 
 in the frequent excitements of a naturally irritoble 
 temper. That ardour of temperament which gives 
 the ability for great achievements, opens also the 
 source of great sorrows. It is a strong man armed, 
 which no power but the Spirit of God can spoil and 
 bind ; and which often breaks loose, even from the 
 constraint of his hand. It requires a much larger 
 measure of divine influence to produce in a heart of 
 this strongly marked character, any desired etfect of 
 submission to the will of God. And there must be 
 allowed to such an one, the enjoyment of comfort in 
 reflection upon the work of the Spirit, from a much 
 smaller amount of positive evidence than can be as- 
 sumed as sufficient, where there were fewer ob- 
 stacles to overcome. This excitable temper, in the 
 full sanctification of the soul by the divine Spirit, is 
 to be transformed into the mind of a little child. The 
 Christian, to whose lot a contest with such a spirit 
 has been assigned, must not be satisfied until the lion 
 has been not only chained within his den, but actually 
 transformed in his natufe, to a lamb. Inattention to 
 this development of individual character, opens a 
 breach for probable final destruction and loss. Our 
 trials of temper are usually found in small incidents ; 
 chiefly in the little and private concerns of domestic 
 life. How many do we see, who can sustain with an 
 
LITTLE SINS. 203 
 
 unmurmuring fortitude, the severest pressure of afflic- 
 tion and pain ; who can glorify God in fires which 
 burn with a fearful strength ; who can lie long on the 
 bed of suffering, and have many of the dearest objects 
 of human affection, taken successively from them, 
 without complaint; who yet will allow themselves 
 through mere inadvertence, to be extravagantly ex- 
 cited, by the impertinence of an inferior, or by the 
 worrying of a fly ; like the elephant, whose skin can 
 resist the force of the musket ball, but is said to be 
 goaded to madness by the sting of the musquito. 
 What is the reason of this singular difference in their 
 endurance of trials, except the single fact, that they 
 gathered up all their strength in watchfulness against 
 the greater difficulty, but were heedless and unguarded 
 on the arrival of the less? Such inattention, my 
 brethren, is the parent of much sin, and of much sor- 
 row. It uniformly opens the way to backsliding from 
 God. It wounds the conscience, until it becomes 
 seared and hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 
 It destroys the conscious influence of the character 
 for good to others, until sometimes, under the morti- 
 fication of this loss, even the profession of piety is 
 laid aside. It degenerates into a proud and peevish 
 state of mind and feeling, far too turbulent for a 
 dwelling place for the calm Spirit of eternal peace. 
 If in this point, I am speaking to the conscience of 
 any of my hearers, I would speak the language of 
 anxious warning and affectionate admonition; lan- 
 guage, the necessity of which, deep experience has 
 taught. Esteem nothing of this kind a little thing. 
 There is no "little one" opened as a refuge here. Do 
 not flatter yourselves that the life of the soul can be 
 
204 LITTLE SINS. 
 
 maintained, while this point is compromised and 
 covered, or while your increasing watchfulness is not 
 solemnly directed against it. 
 
 2. This disregard of little things will be exhibited 
 in the many small and unnecessary indulgences, 
 which Christians too often allow themselves for 
 appetite or ease. How often are such indulgences 
 made the substance of a permanent and unchangeable 
 habit ! We see many who are never positively in- 
 temperate, nor extravagant perhaps, in their gratifica- 
 tions, who yet perceive no evil, in providing for every 
 desire however foolish, and perhaps hurtful, its de- 
 manded object. They have no practical knowledge 
 of any system of self-denial, in following the steps of 
 Jesus, their professed Lord. They cannot specify 
 any cross which they have taken up to honour him. 
 The marks of unqualified worldliness, of undisguised 
 intemperance, may be supposed to be far off", and the 
 habits of life may yet be so allied to them, in prin- 
 ciple, and in spirit, and in tendency, that the distance 
 may be much greater in appearance than in reality. 
 The man who sets out with the principle of allowing 
 himself every indulgence which is not known to be 
 unlawful, will inevitably find himself, before he has 
 gone far upon his way, in the depths of positive sin 
 My brethren, if your plan is thus to live upon the 
 borders of religious character, you will be open to 
 the aggressions of foes, whose assaults cannot, upon 
 your own principles, be resisted. While you are thus 
 frequently standing upon, or crossing over the line 
 which separates you from known transgression, you 
 will be taken captive, and led off in the chains of 
 bondage, when you least suspect it. See, I beseech 
 
LITTLE SINS. 205 
 
 you, whether you will not find many Zoars of this 
 kind in your experience. See, if there be not, in 
 your personal habits, or your family habits, such a 
 planning for indulgences ; such a disposition to make 
 important points, of preparation for food or raiment ; 
 such a calculation to eat, and drink, and live ; as if 
 the glory of God were in no way concerned in what 
 you do. 0, will you not find much here that will 
 appear the openings of serious evil ? Much that may 
 account for the dominion of a worldly spirit and cal- 
 culation ? We may err when we fasten too much 
 importance upon little matters, in forming our opinions 
 of others ; but we are not likely to be too sensitive, 
 or too minute, in judging of ourselves. Be content, 
 my friends, to follow Jesus in his own way, mortify- 
 ing the whole body of sin, and making no provision 
 for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. For all these 
 things, God will bring us into judgment. And it is 
 well for us, in every view of character and responsi- 
 bility, to use the world as not abusing it ; to refuse 
 the temptations, and to avoid the chains of a worldly, 
 self-indulgent temper. Let us esteem no questionable 
 pampering of ourselves, as " a little one," in which 
 our " souls may live." 
 
 3. This inattention to smaller things will be de- 
 tected in the light and unimproving recreations and 
 amusements, which are often allowed. I do not speak 
 here of the bold licentiousness of theatrical exhibi- 
 tions; I cannot descend so low. The professing 
 Christian who gives a personal countenance to this 
 system of contempt for God, and of destruction for 
 man, has already sunk too far, to be reached by the 
 language of my present admonition. The assump- 
 S 
 
206 LITTLE SINS. 
 
 tion of the name of Christ in such a connexion, is 
 only a remarkable instance, of the power which the 
 human heart has to delude itself, or of the audacity 
 with which man attempts to, impose upon others. 
 Passing over all these glaring and public scenes of 
 dishonour to God, I refer now, to amusements which 
 come in a more questionable shape, in the recreations 
 of private society. There is a giddiness and levity in 
 conversation ; a trifling, gossiping, thoughtless spirit; 
 an utter rejection of all seriousness in habit and cha- 
 racter; which, without the card-table, or the mazy 
 dance, or the race-course, or the demoralizing public 
 spectacle, may degenerate into a confirmed and un- 
 conquerable habit of worldliness, while the victim of 
 the process, hardly recalls a single instance in which 
 the actual limits of propriety in his own view, were 
 overstepped. The parent legalizes all this system of 
 actual unhinging of mind and principle, this railroad 
 plan of destruction for the soul, not, it will be alleged, 
 for the gratification of personal desire, but to intro- 
 duce a child to scenes, which on the parent's part, it 
 is avowed, have been long outgrown and renounced. 
 That provision for levity of character, and levity of 
 feeling, is esteemed proper, perhaps necessary, for 
 the young, which, it is still hoped, they will live 
 long enough to be sorry for, and to forsake. O, 
 how shocking to every fine and holy feeling in the 
 Christian heart, is a plan like this ! Let me say to 
 young professors of the Gospel, that these innocent 
 scenes, as the apologists for this world style them, 
 are the very fields in which the fowler spreads his 
 snares with the most success. Of many a one, who 
 by a life of habitual, guarded separation from this 
 
LITTLE SINS. 207 
 
 light and scattering society, would have been secure, 
 may the Lord now say, " Demas hatli forsaken me, 
 having loved tliis present world;" and that too, even 
 before that fallen professor imagines, that there is a 
 danger of such defection from Christ. Is this a pic- 
 ture of any who hear me ? Then mark the com- 
 mencement and the process of your ruin. Do not 
 say, " is thy servant a dog, that he should do such 
 things ?'' Your condition is most alarming. May 
 God give you grace to perceive it in time. Vain will 
 be your escape from Sodom, if you cling to the fancied 
 protection of Zoar. While the world says to you, 
 in so many preparations for giddy enjoyment, " come 
 and see ;" I beseech you stop, and reflect most deli- 
 berately, what sacrifice may be required of you for 
 one trifling, thoughtless, self-indulgent hour, speni 
 among the enemies of God, in a conspired forgetful- 
 ness of him ! 
 
 4. You may discover this inattention to smallei 
 matters in religion, in an increasing spirit of idleness 
 and sloth. God has formed no human being; to be 
 useless, or idle. He has assigned to man, his proper 
 duty in every station, that he may go forth unto his 
 work, and to his labour, until the evening. And 
 though there are many who have been raised by his 
 divine providence, above the necessity of labouring 
 for actual subsistence ; there is not one, who will not 
 be called upon for an account to God, for the employ 
 ment of every hour of his life. If the precious and 
 important time of the soul's probation, be consumed 
 in unreasonable sleep and sloth, and the claims of 
 duty to others and of improvement for ourselves, be 
 disregarded in the listless indolence of a self-indulgeni 
 
208 LITTLE SINS. 
 
 spirit, shall not he find it out ? And did he form this 
 curious tabernacle for the soul, so marvellously ar- 
 ranged with all its powers of action, merely to be fed 
 a while, and then to die ? Did he constitute the mind, 
 with its mysterious and multiplied faculties, to be 
 vacant and neglected, and then to pass into another, 
 and an unchanging world, for its reward ? The hu- 
 man character is far too active, and far too propense 
 to sin, to be trusted uncontrolled, and unwatched, to 
 the tendency and result of its own operations. The 
 necessity for continual active employment, in the 
 station of man, is a blessing, not an evil. And it is 
 undoubtedly, not one of the least reasons of the re- 
 markable preponderance of religious character, as it 
 is beheld among men, always noticed among that class 
 of persons whose circumstances compel them to be 
 industrious, that they have not the time or means to 
 waste themselves with indulgence, or to melt away in 
 sloth. This indolent spirit is always ready to open 
 the door of the heart to every intruder, from its empty 
 desire for company. The instances have not been 
 few, in which the man was an useful and active ser- 
 vant of the Lord, while narrow circumstances obliged 
 him to labour, and became bent to backsliding from 
 God, and useless in the cause of Christ to men, when 
 in the change of his outward condition, by the accu- 
 mulation of wealth, the necessity for personal exer- 
 tion and actual labour had passed away. My brethren, 
 how is this case wdth you ? Does time ever appear 
 long and heavy? Is there any hour which has no 
 employment? Is it becoming difficult to you to be 
 actively engaged? Is it an effort to keep yourself 
 employed ? 0, then, do not persuade yourself to call 
 
LITTLE SINS. 209 
 
 this thing " a little one !" It will lead to great and 
 dangerous results. It will stifle and destroy all your 
 efforts to do the will of God. The life of religion 
 will become by its indulgence, dormant in your heart. 
 The duties of religion will be a yoke which you can- 
 not bear. The victory of sin over your soul will be 
 the more permanent for having been thus slowly ob- 
 tained. The Zoar of indolence will be no refuge. 
 It may be made the prison of bondage. It can never 
 be the abode of peace. 
 
 These are some very manifest instances, which 
 show that inattention to the guilt and danger of little 
 things in the formation of religious character, in 
 which so many vainly try to shelter themselves, and 
 in which so many are destroyed. Their result will 
 be uniformly the same. It will always be an entire 
 and open desertion of the ways of religion and peace, 
 unless some merciful hand shall pluck the lingering " 
 sinner from this destructive refuge, and place him 
 upon some safer ground. It is always in the abuse 
 of the things which are really lawful, that we begin to 
 perish. The man who pleads for a doubtful or sus- 
 pected indulgence, and says upon the approach of the 
 temptation, " Is it not a httle one ? and my soul shall 
 live," is in this concession, already beginning to yield 
 himself in captivity to the enemy of his soul. In the 
 things which are considered trifling matters, is our 
 chief reason for fear. Great transgressions come to 
 the heart unaccustomed to them, with no attraction. 
 Man's first downward step towards them, is far off 
 from them. But in religious character there is nothing 
 unimportant. The smallest inlets for sin must be 
 closed. He who hopes to be kept back from the do- 
 s 2 27 
 
2t^ LITTLE SINS. 
 
 minion of presumptuous sins, must seek and resolve 
 to be cleansed from his secret faults. We are required 
 to abstain from all appearance of evil ; and to give 
 all diligence to our growth in grace, that our calling 
 and election may be made sure. Let him that thinketh 
 he standeth, take heed lest he fall. 
 
 If you find in yourselves this heedless and secure 
 habit which casts out fear; if you find that your 
 watchfulness is directed to things which are seen and 
 known by others, and that it is relaxed in those things 
 which are considered of less moment and influence ; 
 you may be assured that your condition is one of ex- 
 ceeding danger, and that the natural result of such a 
 state of mind, is a permanent and final backsliding 
 from God. The spirit of rebellion against him, is 
 easily excited. Temptations to it enter at the smallest 
 breach ; and if they enter with your consent, you will 
 be exceedingly in danger of finding at the last, that 
 this spirit has dominion over you. Inconstancy and 
 instability will mark all your conduct, and become 
 settled principles in your character, even if you retain 
 your profession of being the servants of the Lord. 
 And you will find yourselves deserted by him ; his 
 Spirit departing from you ; and yourselves left finally 
 to perish, as the result of your own folly and sin. 
 
 What then, my brethren, ought to be the conclu- 
 sion of such a subject, but an earnest exhortation 
 to you to live near to God, in the light and power 
 of his Holy Spirit • and to strive to walk circum- 
 spectly and faithfully in the path of his command- 
 ments? O, make it your object to be as nearly as 
 possible, holy as God is holy. Seek the deeper work 
 of his Spirit in your hearts, that you may become 
 
LITTLE SINS. 211 
 
 under his dominion, in all things conformed to the 
 perfect image of Jesus Christ. How much easier it 
 is to please but a single master ; to follow out a single 
 line of personal duty; to sit down in the calmness of 
 an uniform affection, at the feet of Jesus ; than it is to 
 work out that difficult, dangerous problem, how near 
 you may live to the world, and how much you may 
 have of the spirit of the world, and yet not become 
 final castaways from God ! If you really desire and 
 determine to be perfect in all the will of God, the 
 Spirit of God will hold you up in your determination, 
 and enable you to accomplish it. If you seek to 
 grow up in the perfect likeness of Christ, you will 
 find yourselves upheld and guided by a secret power, 
 which shall give you the image you desire. O, make 
 this then, your purpose. See, how circumspect, how 
 holy, how pure, how thoroughly conformed to the 
 character of Jesus, you can become, by prayer for 
 his Spirit, by recollection of his commands, by medi- 
 tation upon his example, by study of his word, by 
 communion with his people. Avoid all these " little 
 ones," that stand between Sodom and safety; and fly 
 to the mountain, that glorious mountain of salvation 
 in Christ, which is exalted above all the mountains. 
 Walk thus in him, with him, under him, by his power; 
 that when he shall come to ask an account of your 
 stewardship, you may give it with joy; and be made 
 partakers with him of that inheritance which he hath 
 purchased, and for which you will have thus become 
 prepared. 
 
XIV, 
 
 THE VA.LLEY OF DECISION. 
 
 Joel iii. 14. — Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision ; for the 
 day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. 
 
 A SENSE of ultimate personal responsibility is in- 
 separable from the mind of man. There is a conscious- 
 ness within him, which announces the existence of a 
 God who judgeth in the earth, and warns him that 
 the great object of his life must be, to prepare to meet 
 him in a final account. The holy Scriptures unite in 
 the same solemn testimony, enlarge and confirm it 
 with most av/akcning and important descriptions, and 
 call upon men to be ready for the day of God's coming 
 to judge the earth. 
 
 In the passage which I have selected for my pre- 
 sent text, there is a striking exhibition of this final 
 judgment of man, the great day of his account with 
 God. The Lord calls upon the heathen to assemble 
 tliemselves together before him, and for his mighty 
 ones to come down in attendance upon him. " Let 
 the heathen be wakened and come up to the valley of 
 Jchoshaphat, for there will I sit to judge all the 
 
 212 
 
THE VALLEY OF DECISION. 213 
 
 heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the 
 harvest is ripe ; come, get you down ; for the press is 
 full, the fats overflow ; for their wickedness is great. 
 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision." 
 The harvest for man is the close of his probation for 
 eternity. And when this harvest is ripe, either for 
 glory, or for ruin, God puts in his sickle, and by his 
 angels, reaps both wheat and tares, for their final des- 
 tination. " The valley of Jehoshaphat," in which 
 this vast congregation of accountable beings is sup- 
 posed to be collected, means, " the valley of the judg- 
 ment of the Lord." Here in the valley of his judg- 
 ment, in the time and manner of his own appoint- 
 ment, will the Lord collect the beings whom he hath 
 formed, and proclaim to all, the final condition and 
 character of each. All nations shall be gathered be- 
 fore him. The heavens and the earth shall be moved 
 at his presence. But the Lord will be the hope and 
 strength of his people. 
 
 In its practical application to man, however, the 
 day of final judgment makes no change in his real 
 character. It simply proclaims that which was be- 
 fore the fact. It announces the issue of human con- 
 duct. It declares the sentence which has been long 
 determined. It delivers over every accountable being 
 finally to his own place. Man's real time of proba- 
 tion is in the present life. Here, is the valley of de- 
 cision, and the only valley of decision for eternity. 
 As the tree falleth, so must it lie. No man's ever- 
 lasting condition will be rendered more sure in the 
 day of judgment than it is in the hour of death. 
 Whether he leaves the present world as a child, or 
 as an enemy to God, as such he remains forever. He 
 
214 THE VALLEY OF DECISION. 
 
 that is then holy, is holy still, and he that is then un- 
 just, is eternally unjust still. 
 
 I would call your attention to a view of this valley 
 OF decision, in the humble hope, that God may be 
 pleased to make our consideration of this subject, a 
 means of profit to us all, and of preparation for its 
 issue. In remarking upon the subject, I would first 
 consider, 
 
 I. What may be understood as the valley of deci- 
 sion for man. The question is answered generally, 
 that the whole life of man upon the earth is given to 
 him as his time of education for an eternal state of 
 being ; and every question which is connected with 
 his eternity, is to be decided by him here upon the 
 earth. While this day of privileges lasts, man must 
 accomplish the whole work of safety for his soul, 
 when tlie night cometh at its close, no man can work. 
 Within its limits every thing must be done, which is 
 necessary to be done, that he may appear before God 
 in peace. 
 
 But while we speak of questions to be decided 
 here, there is actually but a single question proposed 
 from God to man. As a wandering, rebellious crea- 
 ture, he is invited and commanded, to come back in 
 the spirit and act of reconciliation unto God. He is 
 called upon to submit himself to the will of his 
 Creator, and to find all his comfort and enjoyment in 
 his favour. In the full provisions of the Gospel, the 
 means of entire and eternal union with God, are of- 
 fered to his acceptance and the only question for him 
 to decide, is, whether he will accept them. Will he 
 lay hold of the hope which is set before him, and with 
 a new heart, and a right spirit, glorify him who hath 
 
THE VALLEY OF DECISION. 215 
 
 bought him with a price ? This is the question pro- 
 posed to man, in all the messages of the Gospel, and 
 urged upon his consideration, by all the acts of divine 
 Providence in his behalf, and all the operations of the 
 Spirit of God upon his mind and heart. This prac- 
 tical question he cannot leave undecided. It meets 
 him face to face, day by day ; and it must be met by 
 him, and settled by him for himself, and that for 
 eternity. 
 
 This is the great question of human life, and it is 
 generally determined by man, long before the last 
 hours of his life have come. Many who are yet 
 living on the earth, have settled this question finally 
 for themselves, and have, therefore, actually passed 
 out of the valley of decision, though they have not 
 passed out of the present state of being. Some have 
 come upon the Lord's side ; have thankfully accepted 
 the privileges of the Gospel ; have become converted 
 in their hearts unto God ; and they are the Lord's 
 forever. They are no longer hesitating whom they 
 shall serve. Their hearts have been fixed, in the de- 
 termination to serve the Lord. They have chosen 
 that good part which shall never be taken away from 
 them. For them every thing is decided for eternity. 
 He who hath plucked their feet out of the net, will 
 keep their feet from falling, and their eyes from tears, 
 and they shall walk before him in the land of the 
 living. He will guide them by his counsel and re- 
 ceive them to his glory. The final day of the Lord 
 for them, will not alter, but announce their character. 
 It will give them the crown of righteousness which 
 fadeth not away, which the Lord, the righteous Judge 
 hath reserved for all who love his appearing. And 
 
216 THE VALLEY OF DECISION. 
 
 happy in that day will be found the people whose God 
 is the Lord. 
 
 Others yet upon the earth have also decided this 
 great question, but in another way. They have 
 chosen death rather than life. They have finally re 
 fused the invitations of the Lord. They have turned 
 their hearts away from him ; rejected all his mercies ; 
 and driven from them the renewing influences of his 
 Holy Spirit. From them too, the Saviour has de- 
 parted, and withdrawn from them the quickening 
 power of his grace. They are left alone. The pro- 
 vidences of God do not affect them. The ministers 
 and messages of God do not influence them. They 
 are barren and unfruitful in every thing which God 
 can look upon with favour and acceptance. Jesus 
 has called, and they have refused ; he has stretched 
 out his hands, and they have not regarded it. They 
 have distinctly declared that they will not come unto 
 him for life. Some have decided this great question 
 proposed to their souls, in entire infidelity. They 
 have denied even the authority by which tliey are 
 called back to exercise repentance towards God. 
 Some have sunk down into confirmed worldliness of 
 character, and have thrown away all sensibility to 
 unseen and eternal things. Some have immersed 
 themselves in unfeeling vice, and have broken and 
 cast away all the cords of grace and purity. Some 
 in mere thoughtless giddiness, mock at all the solemn 
 messages of the Most High. Now all these have, in 
 reality, passed out of the valley of decision. There 
 is no question before them to be settled. Their 
 eternity has been fixed, and fixed by their own choice 
 and determination. Death will make no change with 
 
THE VALLEY OF DECISION. 217 
 
 them for the better. The day of the Lord will only 
 declare that which they have previously determined 
 for themselves. Their harvest then will be from their 
 own seed. They have sown to the flesh, and from 
 the flesh they shall reap corruption. 
 
 We cannot, therefore, justly say, that all men now 
 alive, are in the valley of decision. We must narrow 
 down our view of it, to that condition in the history 
 of man, in which the great question for heaven or 
 hell remains yet to be decided ; in which men have 
 not finally come upon the Lord's side, nor yet finally 
 rejected him. The mind is then called to the con- 
 sideration of the great demand, shall I prefer the re- 
 proach and promises of Christ, or the treasures of the 
 world, and the pleasures of sin ? Each time a mes- 
 sage of the Gospel is heard, this question is distinctly 
 proposed again, and again answered by man. We 
 may not say of individual cases, that men are not still 
 within reach of a Saviour's mercy. It is always true 
 that wliosoever cometh to him shall in no wise be cast 
 out. But we know that they are within the limits of 
 his offers, by whom this great subject is still consider- 
 ed, who are reflecting upon the wants and the pros- 
 pects of their souls, halting upon the edge of a jour- 
 ney which they are required to undertake, and still 
 undetermined between the diverting motives which 
 are presented to them, in what direction they shall 
 finally go. For them, conscience is awakened, fear 
 is excited, consideration is exercised. But no action 
 has yet taken place. They are still waiting upon the 
 edge of the pool, but still only upon its edge. The 
 question before them in the circumstances which at- 
 tend it, is momentous. All others are nothing in 
 T 28 
 
218 THE VALLEY OF DECISION. 
 
 comparison with it. Every thing really important 
 for time and for eternity is involved in the decision 
 of it. Tliis time and state of character are peculiar. 
 And these may be considered by us, as the real valley 
 of decision for man. 
 
 II. I would remark, secondly, that the greater por- 
 tion of those to whom the offers of eternal life are 
 here made, are in this condition : " Multitudes, multi- 
 tude in the valley of decision." The grand question 
 whicu man must decide, is proposed to all to whom 
 the 1, ■''itations of the Gospel come. The way of re- 
 turn lt< God is opened to all, and all are urged to 
 press into 't, and gain the blessing. 
 
 But, ver} few comparatively, have determined the 
 question foi their souls upon the Lord's side. The 
 proportion of truly spiritual, separated, holy Chris- 
 tians in any community, is small indeed. Here and 
 there, like a berry upon the topmost bough, we find a 
 single soul, who has, and who gives, evidence of that 
 radical, entire change of heart which constitutes a true 
 follower of the Lord Jesus, among many who have 
 no such precious faith. But few, we would hope, 
 have finally determined this great question against 
 themselves, and said to Satan and the world, " with 
 you will we go." Whether any such now listen to 
 me, I know not. I would fain hope that none of you, 
 my friends, have said to the Redeemer of fallen man, 
 " depart from us, for we desire not a knowledge of thy 
 ways." 
 
 The residue, probably the great majority of those 
 who listen to the Gospel, are still in this valley of de- 
 cision. A blessing and a curse are yet before them. 
 Opposing offers and invitations are still presented to 
 
THE VALLEY OF DECISION. 219 
 
 them. None arc without some convictions of their 
 wants. There are few who do not make resolutions 
 of personal amendment ; few who do not often desire 
 a better portion tlian this world can give them. My 
 friends, the great concerns of a world to come, are 
 spread before you, and it is for you now to determine, 
 whether you shall be saved or lost forever. Now is 
 your accepted time, your appointed opportunity for 
 this determination. You would be unwilling, pro- 
 bably, to enter into a covenant with your real adver- 
 sary, that you will never lay yourselves down as a 
 sacrifice to him who has loved you, and purchased 
 you with his death. And yet you are unwilling, also, 
 to take upon you the yoke of Christ, to follow him. 
 You are thus still halting, unstable, between two 
 opinions. The Saviour waits to be gracious unto 
 you ; and Satan waits to destroy. But this condition 
 cannot be permanent ; this state of mind cannot 
 abide. You must come to a final choice in this great 
 controversy around you. And however long you 
 may try to put the decision from you, and however 
 earnestly you may shrink from, and endeavour to 
 escape this final decision, it cannot be long postponed. 
 Some of my undecided hearer^ are, undoubtedly, 
 much nearer this determination than others. Some 
 are inquiring the way of life, and asking for the gift 
 of the Holy Ghost, while many have not so much as 
 thought whether there be any Holy Ghost. Peculiar 
 circumstances will often bring larger numbers together 
 than usual, into this condition. Their minds are 
 aroused and made to think, and their consciences are 
 compelled to feel, and to acknowledge their feeling, 
 upon this all-important subject. They become con- 
 
220 THE VALLEY OF DECISION. 
 
 vinced of their wants, and almost persuaded to accept 
 the proffered remedy. Their position is then, in the 
 highest degree affecting, solemn, and critical. Jesus 
 pleads with them, his wounds and death. He offers 
 them full, instant, everlasting salvation. The Holy 
 Spirit urges them to accept it, and strives with 
 them to lead them to a decision for Clirist. Their 
 means and opportunities of mercy are numerous. But 
 they are transitory. All heaven seems to be waiting 
 the event. All hell seems to be looking on too, for 
 the issue. Shall they cast away the works of dark- 
 ness, and in the real conversion of their hearts to 
 God, go with Jesus, and become his forever ? or shall 
 they refuse his voice, and join themselves finally with 
 those who hate him ? Their minds dwell upon this 
 question, and consider it again and again. It must be 
 decided ; and it must be decided by themselves. God 
 has not decided it for them in any manner by which the 
 choice is not left to them, though he knoweth the way 
 that they take. The mercies and privileges of the 
 Gospel are freely offered to them, and if they will, 
 they may embrace them, and rejoice in them forever. 
 If they do not enjoy them, it is because they reject 
 them ; and where then is the just condemnation, but 
 on their own chosen guilt? What ruin awaits them, 
 but that which they voluntarily pluck down upon 
 themselves ? 
 
 The Holy Spirit is thus rapidly leading you on to a 
 point where this issue must come. He will not always 
 strive with you. He will then either have scaled you 
 unto the day of redemption, or have withdrawn his 
 power from you forever. What condition can be 
 more important than that in which you stand who are 
 
THE VALLEY OF DECISION. 221 
 
 now pressing forward to an eternal world, and are 
 still undecided amidst all your privileges, wliat you 
 shall select as your portion and your inheritance 
 there? Yet such is the prohable condition of the 
 most who listen to me. O, that you may know, at 
 least, in this your day, the things which belong unto 
 your peace, for soon they will be hidden from your eyes. 
 
 III. The text admonishes you, that this decision 
 must be speedily made. " The day of the Lord is 
 near in the valley of decision." 
 
 "The day of the Lord" is the hour of final deter- 
 mination of the destiny of the children of men. It 
 is the day when his purposes are completed ; when 
 the actual trial for man is closed ; and when the cha- 
 racter and condition of each one are finally settled as 
 they are to remain forever. According to the charac- 
 ter of man, it is an hour of joy, or of deep and dread- 
 ful mourning It is the day on which he makes a final 
 separation between him that serveth God, and him that 
 serveth him not ; the day in which he makes up his 
 jewels, gathers his wheat into his garner, separates 
 the precious from the vile, binds the tares in bundles 
 for the fire, and delivers over the ungodly unto eternal 
 j)erdition. 
 
 Soon for every man, this day must certainly come 
 at the period of death. The hours of considera- 
 tion will tlius be finished, and the actual enjoyment 
 of the glories of heaven, or the actual endurance of 
 the pains of hell, will close all opportunities to make 
 that great selection, for which life was prolonged 
 amidst the privileges of the Gospel. But when men 
 are awakened to consider their spiritual interests, to 
 see and feel the necessity of some salvation, their day 
 
222 THE VALLEY OF DECISION. 
 
 of decision is probably, much nearer, than the day of 
 their death. An anxious and inquiring mind cannot 
 long remain undecided, in regard to the course to be 
 pursued. While men are unmoved and careless, they 
 may suppose themselves to be postponing the deter- 
 mination which they are required to make. But vv^hen 
 their attention is arrested, and their thouglitfulness is 
 excited, by the infinitely important concerns of the 
 soul, the mind of man is brought to a point, and can- 
 not remain hesitating long. While the v\^ax is melted 
 the impression must be made. And in the case of 
 the awakened sinner, whatever the choice may be, it 
 is generally a final one. He is made now to see the 
 facts in his case as they are, and while he thus sees 
 them, it is impossible to postpone his decision con- 
 cerning tliem. It is his privilege and his duty, imme- 
 diately to embrace a Saviour, and to rejoice in him. 
 The Lord Jesus is willing, and waiting to receive him; 
 and he is invited to come unto him, ignorant and 
 perishing as he is, to obtain the mercy and the help 
 he needs. His first, instant duty is, to accept the 
 promises of the Gospel. And whenever he shall 
 yield his will to Christ, and submit himself wholly to 
 the Saviour's will and power, he is safe. But this 
 state of mere conviction, while he refuses to seek for 
 pardon in a Saviour's merits, is a state of continually 
 increasing guilt. If he continue to refuse an accept- 
 ance of the Gospel, and a submission of himself to 
 God, he remains more certainly a rebel than he was 
 before. He now goes on in his guilt, with his eyes 
 fully opened to his danger. And every hour in- 
 creases the hopelessness of his condition, and his 
 despair of ever attaining the life he needs. 
 
THE VALLEY OF DECISION. 223 
 
 My friends, you cannot remain long in a state like 
 this. You must decide, and you will decide, in some 
 way, for the character and prospects of your souls. 
 The day of the Lord is near. It cannot be postponed. 
 This is, in a peculiar sense, your accepted time, and 
 this is your day of salvation. The night is before you, 
 when nothing can be done, and notliing can be gained for 
 your souls. Some of you will resist the Holy Ghost, 
 until he will depart from you. You will be left in a 
 hardened, careless state of mind. Your consciences 
 will relapse into unconcern ; you will sink into forget- 
 fulness and aversion from God ; and go down from 
 depth to depth, to final loss and ruin. It will have 
 been better for you, if you had never been awakened, 
 if you had never thought of your souls, if you had 
 continued from the beginning, and perished in an 
 originally careless, hardened state. Now you have 
 chosen, in the face of every motive, and duty, and pri- 
 vilege, tlie inheritance of sorrow which is laid up for 
 unbelieving men. 0, how painful is the thought, that 
 this will soon, perhaps, be the case of some who now 
 hear me ! They will go on rejecting the goodness of 
 God against themselves, until no place will be found 
 for repentance, and no room will be left for hope. It 
 is rare indeed, after a man has been once solemnly 
 aroused to think of the things which belong to his 
 peace, if he reject the offers of the Gospel, that he 
 feels any willingness to have his attention again called 
 to them. He passes out of the valley of decision, and 
 the Lord departs from him. God waits among you 
 to be gracious, but he will not be mocked. How im- 
 portant then becomes your present condition ! While 
 you are candidates for eternity, encompassed with pri- 
 
224 THE VALLEY OF DECISION. 
 
 vileges, how serious and influential, may be the next 
 step you will take in the great concerns of your souls! 
 Who shall estimate its consequences for you ? Who 
 shall retrieve its possible errors ? 
 
 For others, the day of the Lord is near, as the 
 commencement of everlasting liberty and hope. They 
 will be led to build themselves on the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. They will lay themselves down on his merits, 
 as their chosen foundation. They will be safe in him 
 forever. They will pass from a conviction that they 
 are lost and need a restoration, to a godly sorrow for 
 sin, to a full submission to God, to an entire renova- 
 tion of heart; and in this change of heart and cha- 
 racter, they will have that repentance unto salvation, 
 ■which is not to be repented of They will be wel- 
 comed to the favour of God, and into his abode of 
 everlasting peace, and made the objects of his peculiar 
 and unchanging love. How happy will be their con- 
 dition ! How precious their privilege ! How joyful 
 for them, is the fact, that the day of the Lord is near' 
 
 My friends, many of you are this day in this nar- 
 row valley of decision. It will soon be passed by 
 you. But whither will you pass from it? Will you 
 return to impenitent sin, and unchangeable ruin ? Or 
 will you ascend from it with Christ, to glory and to 
 God ? This is the question, for which I press your 
 determination. In the presence of an heart-search- 
 ing God, it must be decided by yourselves. Wliat 
 multiplied and powerful motives combine to urge you 
 to make your calling and election sure ! To-day, 
 while it is called to-day, harden not your hearts, as 
 in past days of provocation ; but hear the voice, cm- 
 brace the promises, and obey the commands of God 
 your Saviour. 
 
XV. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN S HINDRANCES. 
 
 Genesis xxiv. 56. — And he said unto them. Hinder me not, seeing the 
 Lord hath prospered my way. 
 
 The energy and self-devotion with which men 
 pursue the business of the present world, furnish us 
 with many illustrations of that total surrender of our- 
 selves to the service of Almighty God, which he re- 
 quires of us all. We daily behold instances of men, 
 who in their ardent desire for some distinct, and in 
 their estimation, valuable object of pursuit, are will- 
 ing to banish all other purposes from their minds, and 
 appear to consider the whole value of life, as consist- 
 ing in the opportunity, which it presents for this single 
 selected pursuit. The man of industry, the child of 
 pleasure, the victim of sensuality, the aspirant for the 
 honours of the world, are accustomed to set up their 
 individual plans as the sun in their firmament, and to 
 consider the time occupied in them, as the main en- 
 gagement of their life. They have made an un- 
 equivocal surrender of themselves to a peculiar end. 
 And whatever attempts to interfere with their attain- 
 
 29 225 
 
226 THE CHRISTIAN S HINDRANCES. 
 
 ment of this end, they arrest and repel with the ex- 
 clamation of the servant of Abraham, "hinder me 
 
 not." 
 
 From an observation of this singleness of purpose 
 among men, directed to the acquisition of supposed 
 advantages in the present world, our Lord derives 
 one of the serious admonitions which he gives to his 
 disciples ; " the children of this world are wiser in 
 their generation than the children of light." If there 
 were no room for this comparative reproof, who can 
 calculate the beneficial results which would flow for 
 the church of Christ? If the same monopolizing 
 spirit which is seen to mark the atfairs and course of 
 those who have laid up their treasure on the earth, 
 should constrain and govern all the members of Christ, 
 elevated above all worldly engagements, and directed 
 to the salvation of souls, and to the imperishable glo- 
 ries of an eternal state of being ; how soon would the 
 church of the Lord Jesus arise and shine, and the 
 glory of the Lord be seen rising upon her. 
 
 Let us announce some brilliant scheme of gain, let 
 us scatter the invitations of ga3^ety and mirth, let us ex- 
 hibit the little elevations which are bestowed by popular 
 breath, and hovN^ eager and pressing are the hearts of 
 men for their attainment ! Nothing else appears in 
 their view to be of comparative importance. " Give 
 me this, or I die," they are ready to exclaim. But 
 when we would lead the affections of men to glory 
 and to God, then a lion is in the way ; something else 
 must be first attended to ; a more convenient season 
 will certainly arrive ; at any rate, they desire to be 
 excused. In this course of effort, a thousand hind- 
 rances interfere, and very few are found willing to con- 
 
THE christian's HINDRANCES. 227 
 
 tend with them all, and to hate and renounce all other 
 tilings for the sake of Christ. This cross to be im- 
 mediately borne, is frequently an insuperable obstacle ; 
 and the prospect of self-denial is almost as repulsive 
 as the fear of death. Many who hear, and apparently 
 desire to embrace, the invitations of the Gospel, thus 
 go away from Christ, and walk no more with him. 
 They cannot endure the difficulties which they meet, 
 and the words which they hear. Instead of girding 
 themselves for a race, with a fixed determination so 
 to run that they may obtain, they give up their first 
 desires for salvation, and lie down in despondency, if 
 not with contentment, amidst the snares and dangers 
 of a state of unpardoned sin. 
 
 There are, doubtless, many hindrances, and great 
 hindrances, arising from a variety of sources, both 
 from our own hearts, and from the course of the world 
 around us, in every stage of our Christian course. 
 Some of these I purpose to consider. Whatever they 
 may be, the reason which the servant of Abraham 
 gives in our text, for his haste in the performance of 
 duty, and which I design to accommodate to our pre- 
 sent purpose, may be used as an answer to all at- 
 tempts to lead us away from God. " Hinder me not, 
 seeing the Lord hath prospered my way." The Lord 
 hath prospered our way. He has provided means for 
 our return to him. He has awakened us from entire 
 carelessness. He has bestowed upon us thus far, all 
 the comfort and peace which we have received, and 
 anabled us to do all that we have done for him. These 
 past manifestations of his goodness to our souls, en- 
 courage us to strive for greater attainments, and excite 
 us to press forward to a full experience of his renew- 
 
228 THE christian's hindrances. 
 
 ing and saving power. Our past prosperity is an un- 
 ceasing encouragement to future effort, and may be 
 employed as an answer to every hindrance. Under 
 this view would I adopt the expression of our text. 
 
 I. It is the entreaty of an awakened sinner return- 
 ing to the Lord. " Hinder me not, seeing the Lord 
 hath prospered my way." An open door is set before 
 him. A new and living way of salvation invites him. 
 But there are many adversaries. Just awakened to 
 know and feel his own unworthiness and danger, his 
 heart is tender and fearful. He would gladly in- 
 dulge the hope of safety, but a thousand apprehen- 
 sions break in upon his peace, and fill him with mourn- 
 ing and bitterness. When he looks upon the misery 
 to which he has been reduced by sin, he gladly re- 
 solves, " I will arise and go to my Father, and will 
 say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven 
 and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called 
 thy son." But when he remembers the rebellious 
 discontent which first led him from his Father's house, 
 the ungrateful and proud spirit with which he has 
 wandered through the world, and the hateful appear- 
 ance of his whole character in his Father's eye, he is 
 almost ready to despair of acceptance with him, and 
 to resolve never to attempt a return which seems so 
 little likely to be successful. 
 
 In this state of hesitation and difficulty for the con- 
 victed sinner, a thousand hindrances arc suggested to 
 his mind. His sins are too many and too great to be 
 forgiven. His name is not in the book of life. God 
 will not accept his return. He has no true penitence 
 for sin. He but deceives himself in the idea, that he 
 is sorry for his transgressions. His tears are selfish 
 
THE christian's HINDRANCES. 229 
 
 and vain. His awakened feelings are but a delusion. 
 He can never hope to be better. He can never over- 
 come the evil habits of his life, or the sinful disposi- 
 tions of his heart. He will be, and must be ruined, 
 and it is wiser for him to sit down, and try to make 
 himself contented with the prospect. So much dis- 
 quietude and concern are altogether unnecessary. 
 His life has never been especially immoral. There 
 are many others far more depraved than he. There 
 is, therefore, no peculiar reason in his case, for so 
 great excitement upon the subject. These, and many 
 like them, are in different cases, specimens of the 
 method in which the tempter argues. The answer 
 of the awakened soul may be the same to all, 
 " hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered 
 my way." "Salvation is freely offered, and I will em- 
 brace it. There is a wrath to come, and I will hasten 
 my escape from the windy storm and tempest. Jesus 
 the Saviour, declares himself ready to receive me, and 
 nothing shall separate me from his love. My mind 
 has been graciously awakened by him, to seek for the 
 things which belong unto my peace, and I will not 
 suffer it to sink again into lethargy and spiritual death. 
 I have had a full experience of the condition of an 
 unpardoned sinner. I will not again willingly yield 
 myself to its bondage. 0, that I had the wings of a 
 dove, then w^ould I flee away and be at rest." 
 
 The worldly and careless around him scoff at his 
 fears, and deride his apprehensions. They feel not 
 the burden of guilt. They know not the terrors of 
 an awakened conscience, and they can mock when 
 fear cometh. They say he is insane, or foolislily and 
 unnecessarily excited. There is no reason in his 
 U 
 
230 THE christian's hindrances. 
 
 views of his own condition. It is enthusiasm and 
 cowardice. They would lead him back again to the 
 exhilarating amusements of life. They would persuade 
 him to brush off in the recreations of society, the 
 gloom which hangs upon his spirits. They would 
 urge him to be himself again, and not to yield to 
 these unmanly terrors and apprehensions. "Hinder 
 me not," the persecuted penitent replies. "I have seen 
 enough of worldly cheerfulness and mirth. I have 
 seen that the end of that laughter is bitterness. The 
 sorrows of a sinner's death-bed I will not try. The 
 portion of the worldly shall not be mine. The just 
 indignation of a holy God I will not provoke. He 
 offers me forgiveness, and I will embrace it. He 
 promises life, and I will not refuse it. He has pros- 
 pered my way and drawn my heart to him, and I will 
 run after him. I will seek a treasure in heaven, and 
 where my treasure is, there shall my heart be also." 
 
 Many such hindrances the awakened sinner meets, 
 before he can shake off the arts of Satan, or the 
 scoffs of the worldly. The accumulation of his diffi- 
 culties will sometimes almost drive him to despair. 
 But it is a race in which he cannot rest. He has set 
 up his standard towards Sion, and he must press on 
 in the warfare, till he gain the victory. He knows 
 that there is a fountain opened for sin and for unclean- 
 ness, and he will not rest until he has there washed 
 his sins away. This is the seed-time for his soul; 
 and a season so valuable, so full of hope and advan- 
 tage, shall not be allowed to pass without an adequate 
 improvement. His mind was never before so excited 
 by the revelations of an eternal world. The hopes 
 of the Gospel never before seemed to be the things 
 
THE christian's HINDRANCES. 231 
 
 which belonged to his peace. A Saviour's invitations 
 never exhibited the worth which they now display. 
 He cannot doubt that these new feelings are evidences 
 that the Lord hath prospered, and will prosper his 
 way. If he now seek him with sincerity, he shall 
 find him. Should he now forsake him, he may well 
 fear that he will cast him off forever. 
 
 If any of my hearers are thus described, I pray 
 them to make a personal application of this important 
 subject. Let nothing hinder you from finally obey- 
 ing the truth. Cherish, cultivate, pray over the feel- 
 ings of contrition which God has excited in your 
 hearts. Vain and foolish men may scoff at your 
 plans. But a future day will proclaim the wisdom of 
 your choice, and the ruinous folly of theirs. The 
 Lord has set before you a blessing which it is beyond 
 the power of man to remove. If you deliberately 
 and solemnly resolve upon your faithful return to him, 
 he will hold you, and sustain you, and make you a 
 conqueror, through him that hath loved you, and given 
 himself for you. Press forward then, in a simple 
 desire and determination to gain a final and everlast- 
 ing interest in the Lord Jesus, and you shall not be 
 disappointed in your hope, nor come short of the end 
 you seek. 
 
 II. The words of our text may be the prayer of 
 the new convert to Christ — the Christian who has 
 just experienced the new creating grace of God; 
 " hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered my 
 way." Interesting beyond the power of description, 
 is the state of that person who is called in the Scrip- 
 tures, " a babe in Christ;" who has just been brought 
 from darkness into light, and for the first time in his 
 
232 THE christian's hindrances. 
 
 life, has tasted the powers of the world to come. If 
 we can imagine the emotions which swelled the heart 
 of the first man, when in the full power of intelli- 
 gence, and with quick and strong perceptions, he 
 opened his eyes upon the fair scene in which he had 
 been placed, and saw every object around him, ripe 
 with beauty, and glowing with a thousand attractions; 
 we may have an interesting illustration of the new 
 scenes, and unknown aspects of spiritual gifts and 
 treasures, which press before the mind of one who 
 has just tasted that the Lord is gracious. The Scrip- 
 tures are found to have contents which he never saw 
 before. The character of God appears to him full of 
 glory, and shining in love. The great salvation which 
 he has offered, seems worthy of all acceptation. Jesus 
 appears infinitely precious and desirable. And he 
 wonders that all these glories were never seen before. 
 His whole heart is arrested and occupied with the 
 objects and excitements of this first love. 
 
 But there are many hindrances surrounding this in- 
 fantile state of grace. Though at first, the young be- 
 liever fondly imagines that he has escaped beyond the 
 reach of his enemies, that they have sunk as lead into 
 the waters, to rise no more ; he soon hears behind him, 
 that cry of hell, "persecute him, and take him, for there 
 is none to deliver him." The enemy presses him with 
 innumerable difficulties, because he fears that his hour 
 is short. He collects all the varied instruments of 
 temptation which are furnished by a world lying in 
 wickedness, to cast down one whom the Lord hath 
 chosen. Every child of disobedience, every uncon- 
 verted, careless man, is ready to cast a snare in his 
 way. On one side, the syrens of worldly pleasure 
 
THE christian's HINDRANCES. 233 
 
 arc chanting their death-songs in the abodes of the 
 thoughtless and giddy. On the other, all the opposi- 
 tion of malice, the open derisions even of worldly 
 relatives and friends, like the bowlings of evening 
 wolves, unite to drive him back from his hope of 
 peace. At one time he meets a sneer from some 
 former companion in folly, at another, a false and un- 
 kind construction of the motives, by which he is 
 governed in his new determinations. Tlie merely 
 nominal Christian, the cold and carnally minded 
 professor, hates him, as one who assumes a higher 
 standard of religious character than he is pleased 
 with. And all unite in the gratification which is felt 
 and manifested, if in any thing he seem to come short, 
 or if any accidental failure in duty shows him to be 
 but partially subdued by grace. These various out- 
 ward trials are severe. He looks round upon them 
 all with sorrow ; but he has no desire to yield to their 
 proposal of desertion from the cause in which he has 
 engaged. " Hinder me not," he cries to all. "Enjoy 
 your follies if you can, but do not hate or persecute 
 me, because I will rather love him who has redeemed 
 me from them. I will not turn back. My heart and 
 my hopes are fixed upon things which are above. I 
 was a poor lost creature once, and Jesus loved me 
 and called me by his grace. He has made me his 
 servant, and I will not forsake him." 
 
 His own heart too, begins to show him more of his 
 native character, and a greater portion of its extent 
 of guilt. A fear of difficulties, an unholy desire for 
 personal ease and indulgence, rise up within him, and 
 give him frequent pain. Then he imagines that he 
 could bear any outward trials ; but these wicked 
 
 u 2 30 
 
234 THE christian's hindrances. 
 
 tempers and appetites, these unreasonable doubts and 
 fears, ascending like the smoke from the bottomless 
 pit, and clouding the comforts, and obscuring the 
 peace of his mind, and shutting out his enjoyment of 
 the reconciled countenance of God, form a new trial 
 for him, which seems far more difficult to bear, than 
 any thing which is outward. How often as he kneels 
 before the throne of God in prayer, will his burdened 
 spirit cry out in agony, " hinder me not, ensnare 
 me not for my ruin ; give me liberty of access to the 
 throne of my Redeemer. O, thou Captain of my 
 salvation, suffer not mine enemies to triumph over 
 me." Then, how encouraging is the recollection, 
 that the Lord hath prospered his way; that Jesus 
 sought him in mercy when he was dead in sins, re- 
 vealed to him the glorious sufficiency of his cross, 
 and came to dwell in his heart by faith, as his hope 
 of glory! The remembrance of what the Lord hath 
 already done for him, raises up his heart again with 
 confidence and rejoicing. The blessings which have 
 already attended him, inspire him with new ardour, and 
 render yet more eager and determined his desires and 
 exertions for victory and rest. He is strengthened 
 even by the conflict, and grows in an humble and 
 active dependence upon the Lord his Righteousness, 
 as his selfish trust is overthrown, and his own weak- 
 ness is displayed to his view. 
 
 HL But hindrances do not disappear, even when 
 men become old in grace. Our text may, therefore, 
 be the petition of the Christian who is established in 
 the faith, " hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath pros- 
 pered my way." Through the whole period of a 
 mortal life, he not only dwells in the land of enemies. 
 
THE christian's HINDRANCES. 235 
 
 but drags about with himself, a weight which is pain- 
 fully retarding. The negligence, and sometimes the 
 contempt, which he must consent to endure from the 
 careless and ungodly, the opposition to which he must 
 be frequently exposed, even from those of his own 
 household, the evident contradiction to all his prin- 
 ciples of conduct, by which the characters of others 
 around him are marked, and the difficulties with which 
 he contends, in his efforts to establish the Redeemer's 
 truth, are often painful and oppressive hindrances. 
 He may have passed beyond the attractions of sinful 
 indulgences, and have risen altogether above the fear 
 of man. But in his intercourse with other men, he 
 experiences new difficulties which are by no means 
 of less importance. He has deeper views of the 
 fallen character and miserable condition of unre- 
 generate men. He has more ardent desires for their 
 salvation. He mourns with deeper feeling for the 
 wickedness which overspreads the earth. As he 
 looks around among men, truth seems to have perish- 
 ed, and righteousness to be clean gone forever. His 
 heart sinks within him, at a view of the dangers and 
 destruction which ungodly men bring upon them- 
 selves. So limited are the effects which the Gospel 
 appears to have produced, so many and great are the 
 inconsistencies with its holy principles, which he sees 
 in many of its professors, such is the hardness of 
 heart with which its sacred truths are repelled by the 
 majority of men, even among some who are most dear 
 to himself, that he finds in all these things a severe 
 trial and temptation to his mind. Often, as he seeks 
 to do good to men, these difficulties crowd together 
 before him Often, as he seeks an access to the 
 
S36 THE christian's hindrances. 
 
 throne of God, they overwhehii all his efforts to pray. 
 Excrthig himself to rise above them, he cries, "hinder 
 me not;" "draw me not back from him whom my soul 
 loveth ; destroy not my efforts to labour for him ; for, 
 though all others forsake him, yet will not I." 
 
 Besides these outward hindrances, he has also pe- 
 culiar temptations within his own heart. There 
 arises often around him, a cloud of darkness, which 
 hides all his evidences of grace, and conceals the 
 blessed witness which God has given him within 
 himself. Momentary feelings of unbelief intrude 
 themselves into his breast. Occasional coldness and 
 torpidity spreads itself through the members of his 
 spiritual man, threatening permanent paralysis and 
 death. He obtains larger conceptions of the depra- 
 vity of his own heart ; and his soul often sickens over 
 the views whicli arc presented to him, as the Spirit 
 of God carries him still farther into its recesses, and 
 exposes to his observation greater abominations than 
 he has seen before. Humbled and cast down with a 
 consciousness of his own unworthiness to appear be- 
 fore God, he can hardly look up to the pure and holy 
 character of him who inhabiteth eternity, without a 
 feeling of despair. So ungrateful, so wandering, so 
 unnecessarily sinful, has been the whole conduct of 
 his life, that he deeply realizes the shame and confu- 
 sion of face which belong to him, and his unworthi- 
 ness to be called a child of God. Defects of cha- 
 racter which used to be overlooked, and to give him 
 no pain, now fill his mind with distress. He looks 
 upon himself with more and more aversion, and with 
 a deeper consciousness of his guilt. He feels more 
 conscious also, that God must abhor him, and cannot 
 
THE christian's HINDRANCES. 237 
 
 behold him but with displeasure ; except as he is seen 
 in the righteousness of God liis Saviour. Such feel- 
 ings press upon him as a heavy burden ; often crush 
 all his attempts to pray ; and compel him to cry out 
 in the agony of a broken spirit, " wretched man that 
 I am, who shall deliver mc from the body of this 
 death?" Then does he exclaim in the language of 
 our text, " hinder me not, for the Lord hath prospered 
 my way." " Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy, 
 though I fall, yet shall I rise again ; and though I sit 
 in darkness, tlie Lord shall be a light unto me. Sin 
 has been pardoned ; God has received, and is able to 
 keep me. I have entered into a covenant with him, 
 from wliich I will never shrink, to walk before him, 
 and to be his forever. And though I be not so with 
 God, as I much desire to be, yet hath he made with 
 me an everlasting covenant, in all things well ordered 
 and sure, which is all my salvation, and all my desire." 
 IV. Lastly, I may consider this as the demand of 
 the faithful minister of the Gospel. "Hinder me not, 
 seeing the Lord hath prospered my way." The evi- 
 dence that God has prospered his way, that through 
 his labours, the Lord has added many souls unto his 
 church of such as shall be saved, furnishes a comfort 
 beyond expression, to the ftiithful minister, the man 
 who watches for souls, as one that must give an ac- 
 count. This joy would be vastly increased, were 
 there none disposed to hinder his way, and to retard 
 the progress of the word of God. But the opposing 
 passions and habits of sinful men, the long-indulged 
 unbelief which has taken possession of their minds, 
 the cold and lifeless system of religion which has 
 been adopted by many professors of the Gospel, the 
 
238 THE christian's hindrances. 
 
 indolence of multitudes who are not willing to count 
 all but loss for Christ's sake, are important hindrances 
 in the way of his success. If the shepherd be smit- 
 ten, the sheep will be easily scattered abroad. What- 
 ever, therefore, the adversary can do to hinder his 
 usefulness, and to counteract his exertions, will un- 
 doubtedly be called into requisition. A thousand 
 worldly inducements are presented to draw him back. 
 A thousand discouragements in the character and ex- 
 amples of professed fellow-labourers are thrown in 
 his way. If a deep solicitude for the souls of men 
 lead him to exhort, admonish, and entreat, with all 
 long-suffering and doctrine, a strong repugnance is 
 often excited against his preaching of the truth. If 
 any are awakened under the word from his mouth, by 
 the Spirit of God, an opposing influence is imme- 
 diately brought into operation. Some enemy will 
 scoff, or some false friend will lead away those whom 
 God liath thus far blessed, from an influence so ex- 
 citing. Trials from the world abroad, and trials from 
 the professing church around him, continually beset 
 his path. And what can sustain the minister of Christ 
 m such a contest, save the prospering power of God, 
 and the affectionate co-operation and prayers of those 
 surrounding friends in Christ, whose hearts the Lord 
 hath opened to receive the truth? His solemn de- 
 mand upon every opposer of the Gospel, is, " hinder 
 me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered my way." 
 " I have a momentous undertaking committed to me 
 The souls of men are perishing around me. Sinners 
 must be rescued from eternal ruin. Multitudes are 
 desiring salvation, and must be guided to the holy and 
 immaculate Lamb of God. Wolves are ready to 
 
THE christian's HINDRANCES. 239 
 
 break in upon the fold, and the flock of the Lord 
 must be protected and sustained. God has set me 
 forth for the defence of his truth, and wo is unto me, 
 if I preach not the Gospel." 
 
 This is my present petition to every sinful heart 
 before me. Hinder not the operation of the truth of 
 God. Let the Holy -Spirit produce his perfect work 
 of mercy in your hearts, showing your unworthiness, 
 and displaying to you the new and glorious way of 
 life eternal, which is laid open to you in the Gospel. 
 Make no etforts to countenance your native alienation 
 from God. Nothing can effectually hinder your con- 
 version unto God, but the obstacles which yourselves 
 interpose. If you are ready to yield to his will, he 
 will overturn within you every sinful feeling, and 
 bring your whole soul into captivity to the obedience 
 of Christ. Upon yourselves God has made it to de- 
 pend, whether our way shall be prospered among you. 
 O, may he mercifully lead you to give his word free 
 course, that it may be glorified here, in persuading 
 you all to seek the salvation of God. 
 
XVI. 
 
 DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. 
 
 Jeremiah vi. 4. — TVo unto us ! for the day gneth away, for the shadows 
 
 of the evening are stretched out. 
 
 The subject which from this text I design to com- 
 mend to your notice, is an old age without piety. It 
 is truly a painful subject. But it is one to which 
 faithfulness in duty requires us to call the serious 
 attention of procrastinating man. In the remarks 
 which I shall have occasion to make upon this subject, 
 so far as they are addressed to those who have not 
 yet attained this late period of life, it will be my duty 
 to employ the most solemn admonition and warning. 
 In regard to those among my hearers, who are already 
 aged, or who are verging upon it in the declining years 
 of manhood, it becomes me to use the utmost tender- 
 ness of manner, without yielding at all the solemnity 
 of warning, or the ardour of persuasion. 
 
 The command of St. Paul to Timothy was, " re- 
 buke not an elder, but entreat him as a father, and the 
 elder women as mothers." The same spirit of com- 
 passionate respect, the law of God has also enjoined, 
 
 240 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. 241 
 
 in directing our deportment towards the aged. " The 
 nakedness of thy father, and the nakedness of thy 
 mother, thou shalt not uncover." "Thou shalt rise up 
 before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old 
 man, and fear thy God; I am the Lord." In the spirit 
 of these precepts, would I govern my present remarks. 
 It is my desire, in the meekness of wisdom which the 
 Gospel requires, to show the inevitable danger and 
 sorrow which they must entail upon themselves, who 
 come to the winter days of man, unpardoned, un- 
 clothed, and without hope ; and in opposition to this, 
 the comfort and peace which he will enjoy, whose 
 hoary head is found in the way of righteousness. 
 
 It may be that some who hear me, will feel con- 
 strained to adopt the mournful exclamation of the text 
 in regard to themselves. Their time for labour is 
 drawing to its close, and in the deepening shadows of 
 the evening, no light is seen to guide and cheer them 
 through the approaching darkness. If I address any 
 who have lived for many years in the midst of divine 
 mercies, and of the abundant privileges of divine 
 grace, and are conscious that they are yet unreconciled 
 to God, I would not utter to them a single word of 
 reproach-. I would entreat them as fathers and 
 mothers, to give glory to the Lord their God, before 
 he cause darkness, and their feet stumble upon the 
 dark mountains, and while they look for light, he turn 
 it into the shadow of death, and make it gross dark- 
 ness. If they begin to see and to feel, the desolate 
 condition of an old age without the presence of a 
 reconciled God ; if they find themselves fast hasten- 
 ing to an eternal world, without the certain hope and 
 
 comfort which the Gospel gives; I would beseech 
 X 31 
 
24)2 DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. 
 
 them to devote with just so much the greater earnest- 
 ness, their few remaining days to the vast concerns 
 of their approaching judgment, and their endless 
 being. 
 
 None of you can think the present subject an inap- 
 propriate one, who have observed how many of the 
 most respected portion of our community, in an ad 
 vanced period of life, have yet made no open profes 
 sion of their attachment to the Saviour, but still 
 habitually turn away from the table of the Lord, as 
 if they had no need of the provisions of divine grace. 
 To such would I seriously and affectionately address 
 the considerations arising from our present text. I 
 desire them to receive the word of exhortation to 
 which they listen, while we speak of the difficulties 
 and sorrows of old age without piety, the trials and 
 cares of the aged sinner, who has found no personal 
 interest for himself in the merits of a Saviour, and 
 in the abiding comforts of his love. 
 
 The DIFFICULTIES OF THE AGED SINNER, is the 
 
 subject of our present discourse. " Wo unto us ! 
 for the day goeth away, and the shadows of the even- 
 ing are stretched out." 
 
 I. " The day goeth away ;" this presents the first 
 difficulty to be noticed. That period of life during 
 which the Saviour grants to men the privileges of his 
 Gospel, is known in the Scriptures under this desig- 
 nation. It is a day — -the day of salvation. It is a 
 day in which he waits for the sinner's repentance, and 
 is especially ready to aid and to bless his effiDrts to 
 return to him; a day in which the Holy Spirit attends 
 the preaching of the word, and makes it effectual in 
 the hearts of those who believe. The great object 
 
• DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. 243 
 
 to be attained by man during the continuance of this 
 day, is a reconciliation to God, and the consequent 
 enjoyment of his favour and love. They who seek 
 him early in this day, have a promise that they shall 
 find him. Then, the way of return to him is open 
 and easily found, and is filled with assurance and en- 
 couragement to those who enter upon it. 
 
 But in advanced age, this reconciliation to God 
 is rendered embarrassing and painful by this first 
 difficulty, " the day goeth away." The appointed 
 period of grace is coming rapidly to its conclusion. 
 The aged sinner looks back upon a long duration of 
 mercy which has passed by him unimproved. Every 
 privilege of the Gospel has brought with it an indivi- 
 dual responsibility. None of its advantages can have 
 been enjoyed without the attendant obligation to 
 render an account. And O, how solemn, how accu- 
 mulated, is the record which must stand against that 
 man who has for twenty, perhaps, for thirty years or 
 more, received from God the ample provisions of the 
 Gospel, and yet derived no benefit from them for his 
 own soul ! The heathen, who in his old age, for the 
 first time listens to the invitations and promises of the 
 Gospel, has in them but the commencement of this 
 day of grace, and is regarded under the same aspect 
 as a child in a Christian land, with similar opportuni- 
 ties of attaining religious knowledge. But the aged 
 man in a land of Christian light, has had from the be- 
 ginning of his life, the privileges which are first offered 
 to the idolator in his latter days. And how respon- 
 sible and hazardous is such a condition ! Two thou- 
 sand solemn public calls of the Gospel are to be ac- 
 counted for by some of my hearers, besides the vast 
 
244 DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. • 
 
 multitude of private opportunities of knowledge, 
 which have produced no beneficial influence upon 
 their character or their prospects. How alarming is 
 the danger of being thrust down to hell under this 
 load of wasted privileges and blessings from heaven ! 
 How serious is the difficulty which this neglected 
 period of mercy interposes to a spiritual return to 
 God! 
 
 " The day goeth away." It has been enjoyed in 
 the fulness of its privileges. It has been for some, 
 far protracted. But while it has been thus unim- 
 proved, it has tended only to increase the guilt and 
 danger of the soul. For fifty years the Redeemer 
 has called upon some now aged sinner to turn to him 
 and live. For fifty years, angels have watched for 
 the hour of his conversion. For fifty years, divine 
 Providence has crowned his ways with loving-kind- 
 ness and tender mercy. For fifty years, there has 
 been consternation in hell, lest he should be per- 
 suaded to accept the Saviour's invitations, and flee 
 from the captivity of Satan. But, up to this hour, 
 amidst the whole of this surrounding interest in his 
 determination, his mind still remains alienated from 
 God. To drive away the convictions of his youth, 
 the Saviour was answered by a promise for the years 
 of maturity. In maturity, he was put off to a yet 
 more advanced age, by the cares and labours of life 
 which had then so multiplied around the man, that no 
 time could be given to the soul. And now the de 
 dining years of life have come, and what is to be the 
 final result? Satan is now tempting him to sit down 
 in sullen despair, under the feeling that when so much 
 time has gone by, there can be no remaining room for 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. 245 
 
 hope ; that he is too old to change a course of habits 
 which have been for so many years contracted and 
 indulged ; and that it is better for him now to submit 
 with fortitude to that which has become a kind of ne- 
 cessity for his soul. When we offer to him now, the 
 kind and precious invitations of the Gospel, he can 
 answer, " I would gladly accept them, but alas, I have 
 wasted so much time ; I have lived so long in a care- 
 less state of mind upon this great subject ; I have had 
 so many mercies which have not been improved ; that 
 I have now no hope of being able to return. The 
 day goeth away ; and I fear I must submit to a night 
 of darkness, without comfort and without hope." O, 
 how distressing is this condition of an aged sinner ! 
 How difficult is it to arouse him to a consciousness, 
 or belief, of the privileges which are yet remaining, 
 and of the duty which yet rests upon him ! He 
 thinks he would rejoice to return to an offended God, 
 but the recollection of wasted opportunities drives 
 him to despair, and he fears that there remains no 
 hope for his soul, if he should attempt it. 
 
 II. A second difficulty which the text suggests as 
 attending upon the aged sinner, is the short period 
 of grace which is now remaining for him. " The 
 shadows of the evening are stretched out." Many 
 years have paesed by him without improvement. But 
 few, very few, at the best, are now left for the attain- 
 ment of his soul's salvation. As life passes by, the 
 work to be done increases, in the same proportion 
 that the time in which it is to be done is diminished. 
 That reconciliation to God, which in youth was com- 
 paratively easy, becomes in this advanced period of 
 life so difficult, that it seems well nigh impossible. 
 x2 
 
246 DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. 
 
 The man who has postponed the care of his soul to 
 the last hours of life, finds when these hours arrive, 
 that he has so much work to do in other relations in 
 which he finds himself placed, that his soul's salvation 
 becomes almost hopeless. Standing upon the verge 
 of eternity, and looking into the darkness which there 
 spreads before him, the aged sinner feels, that the 
 danger which was before little heeded, and considered 
 quite remote, is now near and dreadful. Beholding 
 the unchanging holiness of God contrasted with his 
 own continued alienation from him, he sees that the 
 distance between himself and his Creator, has been 
 immeasurably increased by this voluntary estrange- 
 ment. In his youth he had wandered widely from 
 his God. But now he finds himself to have gone so 
 much farther astray, that the period of youth seems 
 to be comparatively, a period of innocence. 
 
 And now, how shall he travel back over this whole 
 distance by which he is separated from an holy God ? 
 It has taken him, perhaps, fifty years, to accomplish 
 his outward bound journey. Can he hope for fifty 
 years more, as a period for his return? He set out 
 early in the morning to go astray from God. Through 
 the whole day, he has been pressing forward in his 
 course, with unabating rapidity. And now, when the 
 day has gone, and the shadow^s of the evening are 
 stretched out, and exhausted nature is asking for re- 
 pose ; alas, is this an hour in which to commence the 
 journey of a day? Is this a time in which to begin 
 a work, which as soon as it is commenced, midnight 
 darkness may at once arrest forever? Death now 
 stands at the door. The line which separates him 
 from eternity, has dwindled to a hair. And he is 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. 247 
 
 tempted to yield to total despair of escaping at all 
 from the ruin which is so close upon him. The diffi- 
 culty which his own heart presents as thus arising 
 from his shortened remaining period of probation, 
 Satan employs as a temptation to him, to be quiet and 
 careless under his conscious load of sin. He ac- 
 knowledges that he ought to have made up his mind 
 before this time, as to a course of duty, for his life 
 But he answers all the admonitions which are given 
 him to excite him now to action, that if he has been 
 all this time wrong, it will be a hopeless undertaking, 
 at. this late period, to enter upon a better course and 
 system. The pride and the stability of age inter- 
 fere. He cannot yield to those strong cryings and 
 tears, which might make up in some degree for the 
 loss of tifhe, and do in a little while the work of 
 many years. He cannot make any sudden changes 
 now. He cannot, and he does not wish, to obtain or 
 exercise a spirit of deep and agonizing earnestness 
 for his soul. There is no opportunity for the perfect- 
 ing of any slower or more gradual work. There is 
 no time left him to finish such ^n undertaking. Thus 
 he argues against himself, and against those who love 
 his precious but ruined soul. If he had to begin his 
 life anew, he freely confesses that he would not pass it 
 as he has done. He cheerfully advises those who are 
 young, by no means to follow his example of procras- 
 tination, but in the commencement of their life, to make 
 provision for their eternity. But while he gives this 
 advice to others, he feels himself compelled to pursue 
 the course in which he has been so long engaged. 
 Thus it is, that aged parents can behold their chil- 
 dren experiencing the power of religion, rejoicing in 
 
248 DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. 
 
 the life and happiness of the Gospel, and uniting 
 themselves to the people of God ; and can even feel a 
 degree of pleasure at the sight, because they know it 
 is the only path of safety or peace ; while they them- 
 selves remain far from the ways of God, and are 
 living, and are willing to live, without any interest in 
 the covenant of redeeming mercy ; so many difficul- 
 ties surround the possibility of their return to God, 
 that the remaining time is not sufficient to remove 
 them. 
 
 III. A third difficulty in the way of the aged sinner, 
 arises from the increased hardness of his own heart. 
 He cannot now attain the liveliness of feeling which 
 marked the period of his youth. When he was young, 
 conviction of sin impressed his mind. The solemn 
 proclamations of religious truth awakened his atten- 
 tion. His eyes could weep under the preaching of 
 the Gospel. His affections could be attracted by the 
 inviting hopes and promises which it offered. He 
 then often felt strongly excited towards a life of holi- 
 ness and piety. But now he has no such feelings. 
 He sits unmoved beneath the preaching of the divine 
 word. The rain which descends to refresh others, 
 seems rather to hasten his decay. In the pathetic 
 description of Barzillai, " he can no more hear the 
 voice of singing men, or of singing women." His ears 
 have grown dull with age, and the most awakening 
 calls of truth can produce no influence upon his mind. 
 He often wishes that he were as in months past, when 
 the candle of the Lord shined upon his habitation ; 
 that he could renew again the awakened feelings and 
 anxious desires of an earlier period. He sometimes 
 looks with a kind of envy upon younger persons who 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. 249 
 
 are brought under the renewing influence of the Gos- 
 pel ; and he h)ngs, as he thinks, to bend in humble- 
 ness of mind, at the Saviour's feet. But he can find 
 no place for repentance. He cannot exercise a godly 
 sorrow. The summer and the harvest have passed 
 without advantage, and every succeeding day of 
 autumn, seems only to dry, and harden, and seal up 
 the earth, against the arrival of a frost-bound and 
 cheerless winter. 
 
 This hardness of heart, the necessary effect of a 
 long continuance in an unconverted state of character, 
 forms a most serious difficulty in the way of an aged 
 sinner's return to God. I do not here speak of any 
 judicial hardening of the heart by the power of God. 
 Under such a sentence, it is vain to talk of difficulties. 
 But I refer to the universal and natural effisct of a 
 continued rejection of the Gospel, to show how en- 
 tirely unfit, a late period of life is, for the attainment 
 of the deep and pervading emotions of a renewed and 
 spiritual mind. The rapid passage of the day renders 
 every hour which is left, of tenfold importance. The 
 stretching out of the sliadows of the evening, admonish 
 the aged man, "what thou doest, do quickly." But 
 this encasing of the affections, this hard and callous 
 state of the heart, blocks up the way, and prevents the 
 accomplishment of the work which remains still to 
 be done. A tyrant necessity drives man on to run 
 with untried rapidity, and he has so bound fetters 
 around his own feet, that he has not power to move. 
 Many a long-lived sinner attempts in the last hours 
 of life, like aged Joab, to cling to the horns of the 
 altar for protection, and finds that even there, his 
 hoary hairs, the monuments only of long-continMcd 
 
 32 
 
250 DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. 
 
 rebellion and sin, cannot come down to the grave in 
 peace. 
 
 IV. The fourth difficulty in the way of the conver- 
 sion of the aged sinner to which I would refer, is the 
 pride of character which is always an attendant upon 
 advanced periods of life. There is but one way ot 
 salvation opened for man whether young or old. He 
 must come down at the Saviour's feet as an humble, 
 heart-broken sinner, to obtain pardon and peace in 
 his atonement, and acceptance with God freely through 
 him. This implies an acknowledgment, that through 
 the whole preceding life, *he has been in a state of 
 rebellion against God, that he has gone astray from 
 his birth, that he is now anxious to come entirely back 
 to the point from whence heat first set out, and to seek 
 the free and undeserved mercy of a Saviour, whom he 
 has hitherto rejected. This to the proud nature of 
 man, is a most humiliating course. The pride of age 
 rebels at once against it. The wandering child can 
 go home to a pious parent, with a broken spirit, and 
 a weeping eye, and confess the shame and sorrow, 
 which the remembrance of a life of sin produces. But 
 a parent who has grown old without an experience of 
 religion, cannot come down, to ask the counsel and 
 prayers, of a child who has found the Saviour and is 
 rejoicing in liis love. The pride of age prohibits such 
 a course. The heart may be often moved, the con- 
 science awakened, and the emotions aroused, in the 
 bosom of an aged transgressor, and a strong desire be 
 felt, to lay down his burden, and find peace in believ- 
 ing in Jesus. But an assumed dignity and coolness 
 of manner are drawn over a broken, bleeding spirit, 
 because an acknowledgment of these awakened feel- 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. 251 
 
 ings, will be so humiliating to the age and station of 
 the individual concerned. But there remains no other 
 course of safety. To this humbling ground, sinful 
 man must be brought, or he will assuredly perish. 
 Age furnishes no exemption. Nay, so far from doing 
 this, it requires still deeper abasement, from the longer 
 continuance in guilt. 
 
 This difficulty is now preventing, and has long been 
 preventing the return of many aged hearers of the 
 Gospel, to God. They are convinced, as they listen 
 to its calls, of the necessity and advantage of the 
 course pointed out. They almost resolve to pursue 
 it. But when they return from the sanctuary of God 
 to their own homes, the confession to children, and 
 servants, and friends, that they have been all this time 
 in the wrong, is so painful and repulsive to their minds, 
 that they cannot yield. Perhaps the deteriSiination is 
 made to commence a course of family worship, to 
 enter upon a succession, of Christian duties and re- 
 quirements, long neglected ; perhaps the hand is actu- 
 ally laid upon the Bible, to commence the work ; when 
 the heart flutters with indecision, and the pride of age 
 rises up, and chokes the utterance, and takes away the 
 strength. If there Avere some more secret, and less 
 humiliating way opened, they would embrace it ; but 
 probably this increasing pride will always forbid their 
 coming down to the humbled spirit of a child, to seek 
 the salvation which is freely offered to their acceptance. 
 With such a difficulty thus submitted to in their way, 
 they may well adopt the exclamation of our text. " Wo 
 unto us ! for the day goeth away, and the shadows 
 of the evening are stretched out." " The harvest is 
 past, and the summe* is ended, and we are not saved." 
 
252 DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. 
 
 Their whole work of salvation is to be accomplished, 
 and their hearts are now found so hardened and proud, 
 that they are unable to set out upon the great work, 
 which the whole of life is little enough to finish. 
 
 In concluding this discourse, I would earnestly im- 
 press upon your minds, .^le thoughts which have been 
 presented. Many of you, my friends, have lived past 
 the middle point of life, and yet are without God in the 
 world. How improvident would you consider your- 
 selves to be, if you had waited until this time, without 
 selecting for yourselves, a business for the present life, 
 or without beginning to lay up any thing in this world, 
 for yourselves, or your families ! What would you 
 think of the man or woman, forty years of age, who 
 was just agitating the question, what course of life 
 shall I pursue to obtain my bread ? If this subject 
 had never-gained attention until then, you would deem 
 it almost an hopeless attempt, to consider it at all. 
 But liow many have passed this age, and have never 
 entered upon the work of their soul's salvation ! Per- 
 haps some of them have hardly thought of the question 
 whether they have souls to save. How sad is this 
 condition ! How many difficulties surround their 
 way ! The path of religion seems so much blocked 
 up, that salvation appears almost beyond their reach. 
 
 You Yvill say, that this view is most discouraging. 
 Notliing, my brethren, is so discouraging, as this care- 
 lessness of habit, from which I desire to arouse you. 
 You had far better feel despair, than feel nothing. 
 When you do despond, we may hope, that you will 
 embrace the arm extended for your rescue. The 
 thoughts which have been now pressed upon your 
 attention ought to excite you, (ko an earnest, ^eter- 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF OLD AGE. 253 
 
 mined exertion for your eternal safety. Your time is 
 short. Your difficulties are many. Your work is 
 arduous. Still eternal safety is within your reach, 
 and your escape is not impossible. If you would set 
 yourselves immediately and earnestly about it, God 
 would remove the difficulties, and give you success. 
 Nothing is wanting in God. You are not straitened 
 in him. If you will be reconciled to him, in his ap- 
 pointed Saviour, you will find peace. If you will still 
 reject him, your difficulties will still increase. And as 
 the day sinks in darkness, and the shadows of the 
 evening are stretched out, to be soon lost in unchang- 
 ing night, a deeper, and a deeper wo, will be sounded 
 from your souls, and echoed back upon you, from the 
 regions of despair. fly from impending ruin to the 
 arms of Jesus. However painful and humbling the 
 outset may be, the humbling step is but one. Be will- 
 ing to be abased before God, that he may exalt you 
 in due time. Accept the righteousness of Jesus, and 
 be found in him, converted and sanctified, and you 
 shall be happy and secure. But if you still delay, 
 every day will make the matter worse ; and what the 
 end shall be, your own consciences are fully able to 
 declare. 
 
XVII. 
 
 THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 EccLESiASTES vi. 3. — If a man live many years, so that the days of his 
 years are many, and his soul be not filled with good, I say that an 
 untimely birth is better than he. 
 
 Long life has ever been esteemed by man as a great 
 and desirable blessing. In the early periods of the 
 world, the number of years which were comprised in 
 such a life, was so great, that in our present expe- 
 rience, we can hardly imagine the appearance or the 
 feelings of a man, whose locks were the growth of cen- 
 turies, and who had lived, to behold the descent of 
 many hundreds of immortal beings from himself. 
 When the fallen nature of man had transformed this 
 lengthened period of trial, into a more extended pro- 
 gress of iniquity, a more unfathomable depth of sin, the 
 divine Creator cut down in successive generations, man's 
 opportunity of rebellion against himself, to less than one- 
 tenth the period first granted to the human race. No 
 longer like the oak witnessing the passage of centuries, 
 now, we all do fade as a leaf At the utmost ordinary 
 limit, the days of mjin are but threescore years and 
 ten. The wish for long life can hardly extend itself, 
 beyond this narrow compass of man's numbered days. 
 
 254 
 
THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. 255 
 
 Few in fact attain this utmost limit. And men are 
 accustomed to arrange their plans for business and 
 exertion, within a far narrower compass, than the 
 hope of this would allow them. In our worldly occu- 
 pations, we are governed by the principle, that what 
 is to be done, must be done quickly. No man in the 
 possession of his reason, thinks of laying out a plan 
 for the acquisition of wealth, or for the attainment of 
 any object of mere worldly desire, which is to be com- 
 menced, when he has attained the age of threescore 
 years and ten. To say, that he would then set out, 
 upon a business which his whole life should have been 
 employed in finishing, and the care for which should 
 at that time be dismissed, from a mind which needs to be 
 at rest from labour, would justly stamp a man with the 
 reputation of insanity. He who should announce his 
 intention to bind himself when he had attained the age 
 of seventy, as an apprentice to a trade, or to enter as 
 a pupil in a school, or even to plant an orchard in his 
 ground, with the hope of eating of the fruit which it 
 should bear him, would be an object of pity or ridi- 
 cule. And yet how many are hoping to prepare for 
 an eternal occupation, and to attain an inexhaustible 
 knowledge, in this last flickering of human existence ! 
 In the business of this world, men are wise. It is 
 only when we bring them to the concerns of a world 
 to come, that they seem to have laid the dominion 
 of reason aside. 
 
 But what is the real object, for which the present 
 life of man has been bestowed, and is prolonged ? Is 
 it to acquire a trade ? to obtain an education in science? 
 or to lay up treasures which may be moth-eaten and 
 destroyed ? If we should derive our answer from the 
 
256 THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 habits of mankind, it would seem to be this. But if 
 we go to the wisdom of God, for our reply, there is 
 presented before us a far different end. In our text, 
 the wise preacher supposes a man to have seen the 
 utmost possible limit of human existence. And then 
 he estimates the w^orth of the whole of this proud and 
 protracted life, if it has passed without the acquisition 
 of that object which the word of God proposes for 
 the attainment of man. " If a man live many years, so 
 that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not 
 filled with good, I say that an untimely birth is better 
 than he ; for he cometh in with vanity, and departeth 
 in darkness, and his name shall be covered with dark- 
 ness." One far wiser than Solomon, has given us the 
 same estimate, in that striking demand which he has 
 built upon man's universal love for gain, " what shall it 
 profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his 
 own soul ?" When he has examined his account in 
 the light of eternity, how much will it appear that he 
 has gained in exchange for his soul? Perhaps the 
 experience of some who hear me, may soon furnish 
 them, the exact, and the only adequate reply to these 
 demands, and constrain them to adopt our Lord's as- 
 sertion in reference to Judas, in its application to them- 
 selves, " it had been good for us if we had not been 
 born." " For who can dwell with the devouring fire? 
 who can dwell with everlasting burnins;s?" 
 
 In speaking upon this all-important subject, we will 
 consider first, 
 
 I. What is the great object of human life. 
 And, 
 
 II. The sorrows of the man who has lived 
 
 LONG without ATTAINING IT. 
 
THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. 251 
 
 I. The great object for which the present life of 
 man was given, is that " the soul may be filled with 
 good." It was to gain this, that each one has been 
 placed in his period of earthly education. It is for 
 this alone, that divine forbearance lengthens out to 
 grey hairs, the life of man who has not yet secured it, 
 to give to men, the full opportunity to be wise, and to 
 think of the things which belong to their peace. The 
 possession of an immortal soul, a soul which must be 
 rejoicing in unspeakable good, or lamenting in unut- 
 terable evils, ages after the body in which it has dwelt, 
 has returned to dust as it was, forms man's chief 
 distinction from the brutes which perish. 
 
 How then shall this soul be filled with good ? Is 
 there any thing within the limits of the gifts of this 
 world, which can thus fill it? Is there any creature 
 on earth, which can form a recompense for its loss ? 
 Can any proud neglecter of God carry the wealth of 
 the present world, to bribe the flames, or to corrupt 
 the tormentors, of a world to come ? Can he buy out 
 his pardon with money? When he can sow grace in 
 the furrows of his field, or fill his barns with glory, 
 when he can plough up heaven from the earth, and 
 extract God from perishing creatures, the world may 
 fill his soul with good and furnish an adequate ex- 
 change for its loss. 
 
 But who does not see, the utter disproportion be- 
 tween the desires of the soul, and all the fruits which 
 earth produces ? The sinner is descending, where his 
 earthly glory cannot descend after him, and where, for 
 a soul unredeemed, all redemption ceaseth forever. 
 Naked he came into the world, and naked must he 
 leave it again. He has to stand, where his soul will 
 y2 33 
 
258 THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 constitute his all ; where the crowns of kings, and the 
 shackles of prisoners, the robes of princes, and the 
 rags of beggars will form no distinctions : where all 
 classes of men must answer upon an equal footing and 
 plea, for eternity; and where, an experience of the 
 power of godliness in a life of probation, will form the 
 only ground for hope. What then is the good, with 
 which the soul must be filled ? 
 
 That man who has found a reconciled God, has 
 filled his soul with good. There is none good but one, 
 that is God. He who has received Emmanuel into his 
 heart by faith, so that God dwells in him, and he in 
 God, has found the one great abiding good for man. 
 
 The privileges of the Gospel are bestowed, and the 
 Saviour's voice is calling, upon man, through his whole 
 period of probation, his day of grace, that he may be 
 led to seek salvation in that infinite atonement which 
 is offered as his only good. In himself, there dwelleth 
 no good thing. None of the attainments which are 
 within the reach of man's own powers can procure for 
 him, the least permanent good. In the unconverted 
 soul, there dwelleth nothing, but defilement and guilt 
 and ruin. And man has no experience of good, until he 
 has been brought, Avith a broken and contrite spirit, to 
 lay down his hopes and desires at the feet of Jesus, and 
 to seek for peace and salvation, through his death for 
 sin. The converted and justified soul is filled with 
 good, because it is made the habitation of God through 
 the Spirit. The unconverted soul has not seen God, 
 neither known him, and has therefore no good. 
 
 How important then, becomes the doctrine of our 
 text ! " If a man live many years, so that the days 
 of his years are many, and his soul be not filled with 
 
THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. 259 
 
 good;" if he be still in an unconverted state; if he 
 has never submitted his heart to the dominion of the 
 Saviour, and has, therefore, no hope or treasure laid 
 up for himself in another world ; "I say that an un- 
 timely birth is better than he." Any state vvrithin 
 the conception of man, short of the final and inter- 
 minable agonies and despair of a world of recom- 
 pense, is preferable to the state of an old man, who 
 still refuses the hopes and offers of the Gospel. 
 
 II. I am thus led to my second and main topic of 
 remark, the sorrows of the man who has lived long, 
 without attaining this great object of life, whose soul 
 is not " filled with good." If there be such an one 
 before me, I pray him to consider the evils w4iich he 
 is bringing upon himself, the sorrows which are multi- 
 plying arovmd him, while he is thus without God in 
 the world. 
 
 1 . The first of these which we may notice, is that 
 he has passed through a life, a reflection upon which 
 gives him no comfort. So has the divine Creator 
 constituted the human mind, that man is frequently 
 impelled to look back upon his own conduct and cha- 
 racter. Even when he desires to forget himself, he 
 finds that he cannot do it. Past days and years rush 
 spontaneously upon his recollection, and bring with 
 them their several loads of joy or sorrow, to lay 
 them down before him, for his deliberate and in- 
 evitable inspection. Man is thus constantly laying 
 up something for his latter days. And according as 
 he has sown, so must he then reap. 
 
 To the true Christian, this review of life, humbling 
 as a knowledge of sin makes it, is in many respects 
 highly comforting. It gives him new cause of thank- 
 
260 THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 fulness, when he can look back from the vale of age, 
 or the bed of death, and see that his life has been 
 cheerfully consecrated unto God, who made and who 
 has upheld it; and that Ebenezers, as monuments of 
 gratitude for divine goodness, have been set up in 
 every path through which he has passed. In the 
 midst of all the trials of Job, this retrospect upon the 
 divine goodness to him, gave him unspeakable com- 
 fort. '' When the ear heard me, then it blessed me ; 
 and when the eye saw me, it gave witness unto me, 
 because I delivered the poor that cried, and the father- 
 less, and him that had none to help him ; the blessing 
 of him that was ready to perish came upon me, and I 
 caused the widovv^'s heart to sing for joy." Such re- 
 flections gave him no pain, and he gladly ascribed all 
 the glory to the Almighty who was with him, and 
 whose candle shined upon his habitation. David 
 could say, " I have been young, and now am old, and 
 yet saw I never the righteous forsaken." Paul could 
 look back upon a long ministry for him who loved 
 him when he was in the ignorance of unbelief, and 
 say, <' I am now ready to be offered, and the time of 
 my departure is at hand ; I have fought a good fight, 
 I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; 
 henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of right- 
 eousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall 
 give me in that day." In a similar spirit, and with 
 like comfort, every aged disciple may look back upon 
 his life, and the reflection will be made to impart to 
 him, real and important consolation. 
 
 But what sorrow and self-crimination arises from 
 the recollection of a wasted life ! No beam of light 
 is cast upon the mind from any act or feeling which 
 
THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. 261 
 
 memory brings to view. Every hour rises up as the 
 accuser of a guilty conscience. The remembrance of 
 youth, is a remembrance of convictions smothered, the 
 Holy Spirit resisted, and a Saviour's love despised. 
 The thoughts upon manhood present the awful picture, 
 of the self-immolation of the sinner's soul to the enemy 
 of God and man, upon the altar of worldly gain. The 
 latter years as they have collected upon each other, 
 and are thrusting him down so rapidly from the earth, 
 seem ready to fall upon him with their neglected privi- 
 leges, and to grind him to powder. All the resolu- 
 tions and plans which were made for life, have gone by 
 unfulfilled. Every opportunity has been lost. Every 
 mercy has been abused. The various scenes of past 
 years, which in their approach, seemed to be a pillar 
 of light and hope, now they are looked back upon, 
 show no aspect but a thick cloud of darkness and 
 despondency. O, what sorrow for the aged sinner, 
 does such a Hfe produce! How often does it lead 
 him to exclaim, " O that I had been cut off from the 
 womb, that I had perished from my birth!" And 
 yet, how many of you, my friends, are thus laying up 
 sorrows, which shall consume your flesh, as it were 
 fire ! Nothing but sorrow will arise to you, from a 
 life which has thus been spent without Christ. Old 
 age may be crowned with human glory, loaded with 
 earthly wealth, and having every comfort which the 
 power of man can give ; but this reflection upon a 
 soul destroyed, a Saviour crucified afresh, will tear 
 the glory from the royal diadem, and turn the sweetest 
 joys of earth into anguish and poison. 
 
 2. A second sorrow of old age without piety, is 
 that man is pressing onward to a near eternity, for 
 
262 THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 which he has no preparation. The only preparation 
 which any sinner can have for a happy eternity, con 
 sists in his being found in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 clothed with his righteousness, and freely ransomed 
 through his blood. Eternity itself cannot be avoided. 
 There is no discharge in that war. Man is pressed 
 forward to the valley of the shadow of death with a 
 resistless force. Whether he be prepared or unpre- 
 pared, he must appear before the judgment seat of 
 Christ. This course is altogether inevitable. In 
 youth, the thought of it seems to be easily removed, 
 because the day of parting appears to be so far off. 
 The youth may live to be an old man, and he imagines 
 that he will then find time and opportunity enough, to 
 take care of his soul. But when old age has actually 
 arrived, the hour of death cannot be far removed. 
 Soon then, the body must dissolve, and the immortal 
 spirit must go to bear witness for itself before the 
 throne of the heart-searching God. The prospect 
 which was before a distant one, now comes to the 
 very door. The man stands upon the margin of the 
 ocean. It spreads itself before him, with an incon- 
 ceivable magnitude. But what is the peculiar view 
 upon which his eye must rest? Does this ocean 
 shine beneath the glories of the sun ? Does every 
 image of beauty seem to be reflected from its waters, 
 and sweet and enduring peace to abide upon its glassy 
 surface? Does its attractive stillness tempt him to 
 launch upon its bosom with confidence and hope ? or, 
 does he see it agitated with tempests, lashed into fury 
 with a mighty wind, rising up in anger to the very 
 heavens, exposing in its heavings the deep abyss of 
 hell, tossing upon its waters the sad mementos of a 
 
THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. 263 
 
 thousand shipwrecks, and proclaiming in every roar- 
 ing which strikes upon his ear, that there, there is no 
 safety for his soul ? Does he feel himself drawn for- 
 ward by the joyous notes and cheerful music of those 
 who are floating in everlasting security upon its bosom? 
 or is he driven back upon himself, by the wailings of 
 anguish which burst from its depths, and finally, in 
 defiance of his last convulsive grasp upon some poor 
 shrub of earthly confidence, is he plunged forever into 
 the terrors which an avenging Judge has prepared for 
 his guilty soul ? 
 
 O, how much is involved for man in such a contrast! 
 It all rests upon the single point, the one grand fact, 
 has he made provision for judgment, has he sought 
 and obtained a refuge in the abundant redemption of 
 a Saviour's obedience unto death? How truly is that 
 old age which has no such provision for eternity, and 
 to which " hope comes not, that comes to all" besides, 
 an evil day, in which man finds no pleasure ! I 
 wonder not that the aged sinner clings with such 
 tenacity to life. I wonder not that he dreads to leave 
 a world, beyond which there is no hope for his soul. 
 I wonder not that he fears an endless condition of 
 sorrow and anguish under the wrath of an offended 
 God. But 0, how unwise is he, to expose himself to 
 this! Whatever he may have gotten of earthly 
 goods, how is he profited ? Every day is now 
 counted, like the days of a criminal condemned to 
 die. To-morrow, and to-morrow, he may be here 
 But the last day is near at hand. The fearful hour 
 cannot be far removed, when he must depart without 
 hope or 'comfort, to the presence of an offended God. 
 And while an eternity for which he is so little pre- 
 
264 THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 pared, presses so near upon him, he cannot but feel 
 that "an untimely birth is better than he;" that it 
 would be better for him, if he had never been born. 
 
 3. Another sorrow in old age without piety, is, that 
 man has experienced the vanity of the worlds and has 
 nothing which can supply its place. The false paint- 
 ings of the world may delude the young, and palm 
 themselves upon them for realities. They love to be 
 thus deceived. They make no opposition to the de- 
 lusions which are thus practised upon them by these 
 enticing instruments of Satan. Wealth, and plea- 
 sure, and reputation, seem to them to be reasonable 
 and proper objects of pursuit ; and in them, the young 
 vainly imagine that they can find the satisfaction they 
 desire. But the aged have outlived these deceptions. 
 They have experienced too much, to be able now to 
 believe that the present world can furnish them any 
 abiding rest. I am addressing some who can tell me 
 they have tasted of every fountain the world can offer, 
 and know that but miserable comfort is to be derived 
 from them all. Mere sensual indulgence, whether it 
 be of a light and giddy character, or of a deeper stain 
 of pollution, can offer them nothing. They have no 
 desires for which such provisions are suitable. Money 
 can do them no good. A grave and a cofiin will soon 
 be all that they can want, which it can furnish. 
 Their own characters present them no consolation, 
 though a thousand sycophants should praise their 
 course of life, for they see that man judgeth only ac- 
 cording to the outward appearance, while God looketh 
 upon the heart. When they were young, they could 
 be active and occupied, and could thus divert their 
 thoughts from the deep consciousness of deficiency 
 
THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. 265 
 
 which was even then felt. But now, other hands 
 have taken their employments. They have been re- 
 leased from busy engagements. Many hours in the 
 day must be passed in thought, and they cannot help 
 thinking of themselves. They are obliged often to 
 sit down in a contemplation of their own past and 
 future existence ; and so far as any source of comfort 
 is concerned, their minds present a perfect blank. 
 The world recedes and disappears. Its cisterns are 
 all broken ; its springs have become dry ; its flowers 
 have withered ; its joys are tasteless. And in the 
 midst of this wilderness of the soul, they can find no 
 fresh springs of hope or peace. Their days are con- 
 sumed from the earth, they flee away, and yet they 
 see no good. There is nothing now which they think 
 they would not give, for a well-grounded hope of ever- 
 lasting rest. No joy seems to them so important as 
 that which would have arisen from an early and cor- 
 dial acceptance of the offered lOving-kindness of a 
 Saviour. But alas, vain as the world is, it is all the}'- 
 have. They have laid up their treasures here. They 
 have here sought their joys and comforts ; and tliey 
 have no other more continuing city. They ask for 
 religious hope ; but it seems to flee from them. They 
 call for a Saviour ; but he appears to turn a deaf car 
 to their cries. They try to persuade themselves that 
 they are safe ; but conscience will not be charmed 
 into silence. Neither alleged belief nor attempted 
 infidelity, can furnish them the mental defence which 
 they need. They would be glad to believe that there 
 is no future suffering for sin. They sometimes sa)'' 
 they do believe so. But their hearts cannot rest 
 upon this hope. They are troubled and terrified 
 Z 34 
 
266 THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. 
 
 still, even with what they affect to call phantoms of 
 the imagination. They are thus left without a single 
 source of comfort; and while they are struggling 
 thus with unconquerable despair, they feel that the 
 man who has not an interest in the Saviour, and a sure 
 acceptance in his redemption, has no hope, though he 
 has gained, when God takes away his soul. 
 
 These three sources of painful reflection are surely 
 sufficient to awaken attention to this important sub- 
 ject. " If a man live many years, so that the days 
 of his years are many, and his soul be not filled with 
 good, I say that an untimely birth is better than he." 
 Why is it so ? Because he has passed a long life, 
 and has no comfort in reflecting upon it; for it is 
 only by filling the soul with good, that the remem- 
 brance of many days can give us peace. Because he 
 is pressed to the very margin of a boundless eternity, 
 for which he has made no preparation ; for it is only 
 a soul filled with good, that can be a preparation for 
 eternity. Because he has proved that the world can 
 do him no good, and he has nothing to supply its 
 place. 0, how distressing and dark is an old age like 
 this ! How much reason has every unrenewed hearer 
 to shake himself from the dust, and to consecrate 
 every hour of his remaining life, to this great purpose 
 of his soul's salvation ! There are many in youth, 
 and in the maturity of life, who are postponing to old 
 age, that work which ought now to be undertaken, in 
 preparation for the judgment-seat of Christ. I w^ould 
 convince them of the folly of this self-destruction. 
 Why, my friends, why will you persist in seeking the 
 living among the dead ? What single rational excuse 
 can you present to your minds, for the course which 
 
THE SORROWS OF OLD AGE. 267 
 
 you thus pursue ? You are but laying up a store of 
 sorrow for yourselves ; provoking a God justly and 
 exceeding offended, to withdraw himself from you. 
 You are not postponing merely, the hour of your re- 
 turn to God ; you arc thrusting it from you forever. 
 Do not deceive yourselves with any vain calculations 
 upon a future repentance. You will never repent 
 with any repentance which shall be unto salvation, 
 and not to be repented of Satan rejoices over 
 every procrastinating soul, under the assurance, that 
 he has accomplished his full design. Let him persuade 
 you to abide in the plan of becoming the servants of 
 God when old age shall admonish you that death is 
 near, and your souls are lost forever. The door of 
 hope will be closed. The Gospel, long neglected, 
 will be neglected forever. You will go out in dark- 
 ness. Evil days in which you find no pleasure, will 
 be your eternal portion. Your name will be covered 
 with darkness, as one of those whom God has re- 
 jected and dismissed into everlasting banishment, 
 from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of 
 his power. May he give you now the wisdom to lay 
 these things truly and profitably to heart. 
 
XVIII. 
 
 DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. 
 
 Genesis xi. 32. — The days of Terah were two hundred and Jive years, 
 and Terah died in Haran. 
 
 Some may be ready to ask, of what practical use, is 
 this fact to us ? An attention to the circumstances of 
 history which are connected with it, will show the 
 purpose of illustration for which I design to employ 
 it, and the interest which my hearers have in the ad- 
 monition which it gives. 
 
 Terah was the father of Abraham. He dwelt in 
 Ur of the Chaldees, east of the river Euphrates. 
 There, he was with his whole family in a state of idol- 
 atry, "serving other gods," and ignorant and careless 
 of the great Being whom they were bound to worship. 
 While in this condition of spiritual darkness, " on the 
 other side of the flood," as the great river Euphrates 
 was called, God commanded him to arise, and to go with 
 his family to the land of Canaan, which from that time, 
 became the land of promise, the appointed possession 
 of the children of Abraham. " God said unto Abram, 
 get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and 
 
 268 
 
DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. 269 
 
 from thy father's house, to a land that I will shew 
 thee." ** And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot, 
 the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai his daugh- 
 ter-in-law, his son Abram' s wife ; and they went forth 
 with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land 
 of Canaan ; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt 
 there." Haran was on the midway of their commanded 
 journey. How long Terah lived here, we cannot tell. 
 But either he could not, or he would not, go farther 
 on towards the land which God had promised to his 
 posterity. Abram, after waiting for his father, it would 
 appear for some years, took Sarai and Lot, and went 
 on to the land of his promised inheritance in obedience 
 to the divine command, and left Terah the old man his 
 father, in Haran, and there he died. Terah did not 
 however, die immediately. He lived at least sixt}' 
 years after he had seen his son thus go forward in 
 obedience to God, being but one hundred and forty- 
 five years old, when Abram left him. He had there- 
 fore abundant time to follow his son in the path of ap- 
 pointed duty. Yet after all, " Terah died in Ha- 
 ran." 
 
 At the late period of life in which he was induced to 
 obey the divine command, and to leave his native land, 
 to go in search of the land which the Lord had pro- 
 mised to him and to his children, he found himself 
 unable to finish the journey which he had undertaken. 
 He stopped in the middle of his appointed course. 
 And here, though the command to arise and go, was 
 again repeated to him from God, here, he remained 
 for the residue of his days. While still in the land of 
 idolators and darkness, he gave up his spirit, to be 
 judged for his disobedient procrastination; and left 
 z2 
 
270 DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. 
 
 his children to take possession without him, of the good 
 land which God had promised them. 
 
 The simple fact, " Terah died in Haran," when 
 viewed in this connexion, stands in the Scriptures as a 
 monument, like the pillar of salt which uttered its 
 warning to every passer by, " remember Lot's wife." 
 It exhibits an old man, after his many years spent in 
 idolatry and ignorance, attempting in a late obedience 
 to divine commands, to remove from his native condi- 
 tion and home, to the land of promise ; but wasting in 
 procrastination, the time for his journey, and indolently 
 staying, upon the road, over which he was required to 
 pass, to gain the end placed before his view ; and find- 
 ing all his efforts and plans to accomplish his purpose, 
 to prove unavailing for his good. He never attained 
 the inheritance for which he set out so late, and which 
 he pursued so carelessly. He saw his child and his 
 grandchild, both go on before him, to the place of their 
 desire and hope; while he was left, and alas, found 
 himself willing to be left, to die alone, upon the road to 
 that home, which they were to enjoy without him. And 
 it remains on record, as a fact to warn procrastinating 
 men in every age, of the disappointments which they 
 are preparing for themselves, that Terah, amidst all 
 the invitations and privileges which he received, died 
 at last an idolator in Haran. 
 
 Has this fact then no practical connexion with our- 
 selves? Does it not exhibit a striking illustration, of 
 the folly and danger, of postponing until old age, our 
 own commanded journey to the land of promise? 
 May I not with much propriety, use it for an occasion, 
 and as an instrument, of admonition, warning, and 
 solemn appeal, to all who hear me, that they be wise in 
 
DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. 271 
 
 time, and harden not their hearts against the voice of 
 the living God? This is my present design. May- 
 God, in great mercy, by his own Spirit, make it effect- 
 ual and useful ! 
 
 I. Let us consider the work which God requires 
 sinful man to undertake. The call of Abraham from 
 his country and home, is frequently employed, to illus- 
 trate the great duty which is required of every sinful 
 man. Like him, every one is commanded in the Gos- 
 pel, to attain and exercise a simple controlling faith in 
 the divine promises ; to follow in this spirit of faith, 
 the peculiar commands of God the Saviour ; to go out 
 in its reliance upon him, from a state of selfishness and 
 idolatry, man's natural condition, to seek the better 
 and heavenly country which is revealed in the Gospel, 
 and offered in Christ Jesus, to every believing soul. 
 The obedience of Abraham, in going out, not knowing 
 whither he went, simply counting him faithful who had 
 promised, and counting every thing else, as loss for his 
 sake, exhibits just the duty, which the Saviour requires 
 of all, to whom he gives the invitations of his word ; 
 and just the duty which multitudes like Terah, post- 
 pone, until it is too late to finish the work which is 
 involved in it. Abraham's journey and the whole of 
 his history, display the spiritual journey of the believ- 
 ing man, through the difficulties and obstacles of life, 
 to a kingdom and home of everlasting glory. They 
 show faith, triumphing in contests, hoping against hope, 
 not staggering in weakness, but strong in giving glory 
 to God, ultimately crowned with the full attainment 
 of all that it had looked for, and finding its possession 
 an unspeakable reward. 
 
 Such an exercise of faith developing itself in full and 
 
212 DISAPPOINTED PHOCRASTINATION. 
 
 permanent obedience to the divine commands, is the 
 work which God requires of all who hear the Gospel. 
 The sinner in the idolatry and unbelief of his natural 
 condition, is called upon by the word and Spirit of 
 God, to arise, and get him out of this state, this land 
 of enemies, to a better one, which God will show him. 
 But when is this great work to be undertaken ? When 
 shall man begin to subdue his rebellious heart into re- 
 conciliation to the will of God ? May he select his 
 own time for the work ? May he make every thing, 
 or any tiling else, of prior importance ? May he de- 
 fine for himself, what will be the most convenient 
 season, the most acceptable time for this purpose ? 
 
 Surely not. The Scriptures never intimate a mo- 
 ment beyond the time in v/hich the command is ac- 
 tually given, as the time for man's obedience. The 
 morrow is not given to man. " Now," " to-day," are 
 the divine designations of the proper time for man's 
 submission. Whenever God speaks, it is that his will 
 may be done at once. In the earliest youth of man, 
 the divine appeals sound upon his conscience and 
 heart ; impress solemn convictions of duty to God, and 
 responsibility before him, upon the mind ; and compel 
 the sinner in the very morning of his rebellion, to re- 
 flect upon the wages which must be paid to his trans- 
 gression, when the day has closed. If these appeals 
 are then heard, and immediately obeyed ; if the youth 
 determine at once, to arise from his idolatry, to flee 
 from his sins, and to return to the service and favour 
 of God, for his shelter and delight, he is made secure 
 forever. The journey upon which he enters, God will 
 prosper. The Holy Spirit will lead him on, to a full 
 enjoyment of the favour, and obedience of the com- 
 
DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. 273 
 
 mands of God. He will find the ways of religion, to 
 be ways of pleasantness. Its paths will minister peace 
 to his soul. The promised land in all its glory shall 
 be his. And he will never look upon the land from 
 which he was taken, but with unfeigned gratitude, that 
 God was pleased in such mercy, to rescue him from 
 its darkness, danger, and condemnation. They that thus 
 seek God early, shall find him, and shall find with 
 him, assurance and peace forever. 
 
 This return of the soul from sin to God, for which 
 a new and living way has been opened in the death 
 and power of the Lord Jesus, is the great work for 
 which life is prolonged, and which man is required to 
 complete in life, and is made able to complete, if he 
 truly and early undertake it. But if (he convictions 
 of danger and duty, which are in youth impressed 
 upon the mind, are made ineffectual, and man is not 
 persuaded then to enter upon this work, most gene- 
 rally he finds no period arrive in mature or aged life, 
 when the conscience and the heart are willing to yield 
 to God, or when the mind has time to think with 
 sufficient care and interest, of the peace and pros- 
 perity of the soul. He who rejects and disobeys the 
 commands of God in his youth, is exceedingly un- 
 likely to find the opportunity, or the disposition to 
 obey in his subsequent years. 
 
 II. Let us consider the course which men generally 
 pursue in reference to this important matter. Do 
 they, or do they not, generally obey at once? Do 
 they, with Abraham, arise and go ? or do they more 
 commonly with Terah, procrastinate the enterprise 
 until it is too late to accomplish it at all ? The Scrip- 
 tures teach nothing more plainly than God's gracious 
 
 35 
 
274 DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. 
 
 desire, that all men should be saved, and come to the 
 knowledge of the truth. They assure us, of the efforts 
 of the divine Spirit w^ithin the heart of man, from the 
 earliest period of his youth, to bring him into a cordial 
 submission of himself to God. I presume to say, 
 that the instance cannot be found, of one to whom the 
 Holy Spirit has never showed the guiltiness of his 
 character ; who has never had his conscience awaken- 
 ed to feel and to acknowledge to himself at least, the 
 solemn truth, that he was a sinner against God ; and 
 who has, therefore, never been convinced of the ne- 
 cessity of going out from his own condition of selfish- 
 ness and sin, to gain a refuge from condemnation, in 
 the land and city of God. 
 
 Before we arrive at mature life, there have been 
 very distinct views of duty impressed upon our minds 
 under the religious instructions of the pulpit or the 
 fireside, under the occasional reading of the Scrip- 
 tures for ourselves, or under the varied dispensations 
 of divine Providence, which place us entirely beyond 
 excuse, in the sight of God, and in our own con- 
 science, in going forward in the ways of sin, or re- 
 maining in our natural condition of alienation from 
 God. Amidst all these varied privileges and mercies, 
 the great questions, who shall reign over us ? whom 
 shall we serve ? are to be determined. And they are 
 habitually determined in the morning of life. Men 
 are reaping subsequently, as they have sown then. 
 Some few accept with gratitude the blessed invita- 
 tions of the Saviour, and unite themselves unto him, 
 in a perpetual covenant, never to be forgotten. But 
 what is the course pursued by the great majority of 
 mankind? Do they not altogether drive away the 
 
DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. 275 
 
 convictions of this early period? They refuse to 
 yield their hearts and characters, to be thus subjected 
 by the Holy Spirit to the service of God. They 
 bargain with their consciences, in order to silence 
 their awakened demands, that at some future period, 
 they will attend to the duty required of them. They 
 overwhelm and destroy the calls of God in their 
 hearts, by rushing into worldly follies, vain society, 
 and giddy, frivolous recreation. They not only turn 
 a deaf ear to his voice, but they immerse themselves 
 in distracting noise around, raising up a multitude of 
 voices, that they may not be compelled to hear him. 
 They often try to argue themselves into comfort and 
 security, by building up a system of self-righteousness 
 which shall be sufficient for their wants. Amidst the 
 heedlessness of youth, and the occupations of matu- 
 rity, they can manage very much to forget the pre- 
 cious interests of their souls. And thus they allow 
 their time and opportunities to pass silently away, all 
 vacant and empty, in reference to any thing done for 
 their soul's good. This is the course of multitudes, 
 who find at last with astonishment, that age, and 
 disease, and death, have come upon them, while no 
 step has been taken towards the heavenly land to 
 which God has so long invited them, and which he 
 has been so willing to bestow upon them. 
 
 In these cases, there is not, perhaps, a positive de- 
 nial of the authority which calls them, or an actual 
 refusal to acknowledge and submit to it. The plea 
 of some better time to come, is the prevailing and 
 sufficient one. None seriously design to throw away 
 all regard to their eternal interests forever. On the 
 contrary, they hope, and they believe, that the time 
 
216 DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. 
 
 will certainly come, when they shall find themselves 
 to be so strongly drawn to an obedience to God, that 
 they shall have no disposition to resist the divine 
 control. They are far from wishing, or expecting to 
 end their days in any other condition, than in the 
 favour of God, and in the assurance of a participa- 
 tion of the inheritance of the saints in light. They 
 always trust, however indefinitely and without reason, 
 that it will in some way be well for them in the end. 
 But the one single demand for an actual, manifest, 
 positive, immediate return to God ; the act of per- 
 sonal, voluntary reconciliation to him; the certain 
 setting out upon a new and living way, so that they 
 can say, *' whereas I was blind, now I see ;" this, 
 though the work of a moment, a point of time in 
 their lives, they are constantly postponing to some 
 future period. Thus most frequently, they live and 
 die in their chosen idolatry and guilt ; always hearing 
 the command, " arise and go," and always determin- 
 mg that they will obey it ; but never putting their re- 
 solution into effect. Like Terah, they die in Haran ; 
 they perish amidst unfulfilled vows and attempts of 
 obedience to God, and under the guilt and burden of 
 actual rebellion against him. 
 
 III. Let us trace the usual result of this course 
 of procrastination. It will be but tracing the history 
 and experience of the great proportion of mankind. 
 Twenty years of the sinner's life go by. They are 
 the most important, and in most cases, the deciding 
 period of his existence, in reference to his eternal 
 welfare. But their close finds him still unrenewed in 
 his character, and hardening his mind and conscience 
 against the power of the truth. He is just so much 
 
DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. 277 
 
 farther from God, and from hope, by all the years 
 which have passed thus unimproved. He is still in 
 the region of darkness, and of the shadow of death. 
 During this period, he has had the question of per- 
 sonal piety repeatedly before him, and the influences 
 of the Holy Spirit repeatedly contending with him. 
 But he has thus far, succeeded in keeping the strong 
 man of selfishness and unbelief armed, and in posses- 
 sion of his house. He is at twenty years of age, still 
 in his sins, and still an unconverted man. In the 
 wonderful forbearance of God, twenty years more are 
 added to these, all of them crowned with privileges, 
 and with invitations to a better land. But the linger- 
 ing sinner still refuses to arise and go. By this time, 
 he has seen and felt much of the folly of things tem- 
 poral, and of the emptiness of the heart which de- 
 pends upon them. But he is hardened through the 
 deceitfulness of sin ; and he is unwilling to make the 
 decided and violent rupture which seems necessary if 
 he would now effect his escape from an impending 
 ruin. With more light in his conscience, he has more 
 dulness and obduracy in his affections ; and the work 
 of true piety grows more and more difficult. If 
 twenty years more bring him to the verge of feeble- 
 ness and death, he is still found more deeply anxious 
 to obtain the hope which he does not possess, and 
 which he finds it more and more impossible to get. 
 By this time, he is mourning over nearly all his joys 
 as departed forever. Almost every monument of his 
 life seems to be a tomb. " Here lie the remains," is 
 the inscription which he reads upon pleasures, and 
 possessions, and hopes which are gone. 
 
 This whole period of life has been a succession of 
 2 A 
 
218 DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. 
 
 disappointments of all his calculations, in reference to 
 his own state of mind and character. Maturity when 
 it arrived, was very different from the pictures of it, 
 which were seen in youth. It did not bring that 
 coolness of judgment, that weariness of earthly plea- 
 sures, and that disposition for serious pursuits, which 
 were so confidently expected to be found as its cha- 
 racteristics. If it had not the obstacles of youth, it 
 was found to have greater ones of its own. The Re- 
 deemer, whose invitations were answered by procras- 
 tination before, was found to be with still more ease, 
 and apparently with more reason, put off with pro- 
 mises for the future, then. And now, old age is looked 
 for to effect that, which youth and maturity have failed 
 to accomplish. But here another disappointment 
 comes. Old age also is very different in its character, 
 from its anticipated appearance. Man then awakes 
 to the sorrowful conviction, that he has been deluded 
 through the whole of his course in life. He sees 
 nothing of that spontaneous preparation for eternity, 
 which he hoped to find in the later years of life. It 
 is now harder, vastly harder, than it has ever been 
 before, to lay hold of any adequate and abiding hope 
 for a world to come. Lingering Terah sits down to 
 measure up, in the sad calculation of his own expe- 
 rience, the folly by which he has been so long de- 
 ceived. The love of the world and the pride of self 
 have grown upon his heart. Their roots have woven 
 a complete, and an inextricable web, around his affec- 
 tions and purposes. The Saviour who seemed to be 
 so near to him in his youth, that he might be embraced 
 in any moment, now stands in the distance, almost 
 unperceived, apparently entirely beyond his reach. 
 
DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. 279 
 
 The line which then separated him from the salvation 
 of the Gospel, has now widened to a gulph which 
 cannot be passed. And hope seems to have gone 
 finally down, behind the mountains of darkness which 
 rise before him. 
 
 IV. What now becomes the result of this procrasti- 
 nation ? Generally one of two things. Either total, 
 hardened, self-defending negligence ; or a partial, con- 
 strained, and unsatisfying attention to the duties of 
 religion. That is, Terali either positively refuses to 
 obey the divine command, and remains to die as he has 
 lived, in Ghaldea ; or else, he unwillingly sets out un- 
 der the lashes of an awakened conscience, and goes as 
 far as Haran, and dies there, in a new condition in- 
 deed, but with the same character. 
 
 Some, as the result of this procrastination, finding 
 every thing in their own state of mind, and in their 
 facilities for reconciliation to God, so very different 
 from their expectations, give up all hope of change, and 
 resolve to die as they have lived. They try to work 
 up a confidence which they do not feel, and to per- 
 suade themselves of a security, for which they have 
 really no hope. They affect an indifference which 
 they are far enough from possessing, and attempt to 
 acquire an insensibility which is still very remote from 
 them. They will not bear the kindest language of 
 admonition, or exhortation, or warning. They are 
 determined not to be disturbed. They do not feel 
 themselves in the right. They know just the difficulty 
 which is before them. Their consciences are as 
 thoroughly convinced of the character, and of the jus- 
 tice, of the claims of piety, as they ever were. But 
 they have resolved not to attempt a work which has 
 
280 DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. 
 
 now been so long postponed. And the result of their 
 long-conthiued procrastination is, that they go down 
 into the grave, self-condemned, and without hope, and 
 vainly trying to conceal the consciousness of the fact, 
 from the view of others around them. They have seen 
 thousands go on to the land of promise, a blessed 
 home, to which they have been invited from their very 
 childliood, and they remain still to die in the darkness 
 of Chaldea at the last. 
 
 Others cannot bear the irritations of an awakened 
 conscience, or the sense of want and danger which 
 presses upon them, and they therefore urge themselves 
 to do something to fill up deficiences which are so 
 plainly and painfully perceived; and to satisfy an 
 eagerness, whose corrodings cannot be repressed. They 
 put upon themselves, some kind of religious profes- 
 sion. They give their time and countenance to some 
 degree of religious duty. They devote a portion of 
 their property to some benevolent or religious object. 
 All this is easily done. It is" done without any change 
 in the heart and principles of the man. And many 
 who have passed their life in a protracted neglect of 
 true religion, are found at the last, attempting in this 
 way, to do some good thing to obtain eternal life 
 Unwilling to remain absolutely disobedient to God's 
 command in Chaldea, they go forward on the road to 
 safety, as far as Haran ; they settle down in a form 
 of godliness, without the power thereof; or in the ap- 
 probation of religion, without experiencing it; and 
 thus sink into the grave, with as little hope or comfort, 
 as if they had not moved a step, from the condition in 
 which they were found at first. They worship God 
 because they are afraid to refuse it. They offer him 
 
DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. 281 
 
 an unwilling, heartless service. They are drawn to- 
 wards him by no desire but to escape his wrath. They 
 are driven forward in all they undertake, by the resist- 
 less impression, that they shall perish if they do not do 
 some thing, and by the selfish wish to do no more, thsm 
 shall be absolutely necessary for their escape from 
 woe. Though they go on to Haran, they remain the 
 same disobedient servants towards God ; and they are 
 as certainly rejected by him, who has announced to 
 them in a great variety of forms, his solemn determi- 
 nation, to have all, or to take nothing. 
 
 In one of these shapes, you will find the result of 
 procrastination in religion. It leads men certainly for- 
 ward, to a miserable grave, a departure from the world, 
 without pardon, or holiness, or hope. Has this sub- 
 ject no connexion with ourselves ? Is it of no interest 
 to those Avho hear me ? It warns you, my beloved 
 friends, that God tlie Saviour, must have your all, and 
 be your all. You are not only to arise and go ; but 
 you must go to the land which he will show you. 
 Your hearts, the fountains of life, must be his. Your 
 choice must be upon him, as the Being whom you will 
 serve. Nothing short of a full conversion, an entire 
 new birth, by the Holy Spirit, will answer your wants 
 at any time. Christ dwells in no heart but where all 
 things are made new. And without him, ye are no- 
 thing. It warns you also, to gain this blessing now. 
 Go with youthful Abram, or yet more youthful Lot, 
 directly from Chaldea to Canaan. Stop not upon the 
 road for any temptation. Stay for no future period 
 of life. In the Spirit and power of God, which wait 
 for you, arise and embark with Jesus. Enlist under 
 his banner ; follow in his steps ; and remember always, 
 2 A 2 36 
 
2S2 DISAPPOINTED PROCRASTINATION. 
 
 that safety is in being safe, and not in expecting to be 
 safe ; in actually yielding the heart to the Saviour's 
 will, and not in hoping to do it, or in determining to 
 do it, in some future hour which may never arrive, and 
 which if it does arrive ; will bring with it, its own por- 
 tion of sorrows, and cares. Awake thou that sleepest, 
 and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee 
 light. Now is your accepted time; to-day is your 
 day of salvation 
 
XIX. 
 
 INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. 
 
 1 Kings ii. 28. — And Joab jle.d unto the taher7iacle of (he Lord, and 
 caught hold on the horns of the altar. 
 
 The holy Scriptures teach truth to man, not only 
 by abstract precepts and instructions, but by living 
 and impressive examples. They are for man a guide- 
 book, as well as a history. They proclaim the prin- 
 ciples by which he ought to be governed, and accord- 
 ing to which he is to meet his final responsibility to 
 God ; and they exhibit in every variety of shape, the 
 actual use or neglect of these principles, in the con- 
 duct of different individuals. In these important illus- 
 trations, they hold up virtue and excellence triumph- 
 ing in multiplied conflicts ; and iniquity however pros- 
 pered and specious for a time, ultimately meeting its 
 just and full reward. There is hardly an application 
 of abstract principles of duty to the conduct and cir- 
 cumstances of man possible, of which there is not 
 some full and remarkable illustration in the sacred 
 Scriptures, in the character and history of some indi- 
 vidual man. And a consideration of the principle as 
 
 283 
 
284 INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. 
 
 it is developed and operating in the history, becomes 
 far more impressive and effectual, than a contempla- 
 tion of itself abstractedly could ever be. 
 
 Under this view it is wise in the preacher to select 
 as a frequent subject for discourse, the actual examples 
 which the Scriptures give, of the operation of the in- 
 structions which he wishes to enforce. With this in- 
 tent, I would present to you, the history of Joab, as 
 an illustration of the invalidity of a voluntarily late 
 repentance ; of the presumption of looking forward 
 to the hour of death, as a time in which to call foi 
 protection and hope from him, to whom we have 
 refused to yield obedience in life. Many of you are 
 familiar with the incidents of Joab's history He 
 was in many respects a great and remarkable man. 
 He was one of the most valiant and powerful men of 
 his time. He performed important services for the 
 king, to whom he was nearly related in blood, and 
 he was faithful to his interests. He was made the 
 general of David's armies upon the occasion of his 
 conquest of the city of Jerusalem, when he displayed 
 peculiar bravery, and he continued in this important 
 post for more than thirty years. He was, therefore, 
 an elevated, honoured, and prosperous man ; one even 
 too important for the just authority of the king. He 
 had gained in earthly station, and in the wealth of this 
 world, all that the ambition of a subject could ask; 
 second to none but his monarch, and even rivalling 
 him in influence and power. All he could imagine of 
 human greatness, was in his possession. 
 
 He liad also passed his life amidst all the privileges 
 of religion. Although he was a man of war, he had all 
 the advantages and opportunities which David himself 
 
INEFFECTIVE llEPENTANCE. 285 
 
 had, to gain and to cultivate the principles of truth and 
 holiness. The worship of the sanctuary of Jehovah 
 with all the blessings which it conferred, were freely 
 his ; and he might, and he ought to have laid hold on 
 the hope of Israel, and to have had his hoary head 
 found in the way of righteousness ; and thus to have 
 been in his old age, as much honoured for his piety as 
 he was for his station. 
 
 But Joab passed a proud and prosperous life, with- 
 out submitting himself to the authority, or seeking the 
 favour of God. He was a cruel, revengeful, and im- 
 perious man. He suffered his own vindictive spirit to 
 imbrue his hands in causeless blood. The will of his 
 Creator kept him not back, even from revenge and 
 murder; and he was too elevated in life to be re- 
 strained by inferior circumstances. He could carry 
 out the purposes of his wicked heart, without fear of 
 consequences from man ; and no sense of responsi- 
 bility to God was present in his mind, to keep him 
 back, from the extreme of evil. In his long and pros- 
 pered life, he might have been the instrument of vast 
 blessings to others. But the man who lives without 
 God cannot live as a blessing to his fellow-men. The 
 blessing of God is not with any thing that he does. 
 
 But now Joab comes to old age, and his character 
 remains entirely unchanged. He engages with Ado- 
 nijah in his unnatural rebellion against the aged king, 
 to whose cause he had been so faithful while the 
 power was witli him, and thus prepares himself for 
 the punishment which must in justice overtake him. 
 David delivers him over to Solomon his son, with the 
 injunction, "thou knowest what Joab did to me, how 
 he shed the blood of war in peace ; do thou, there- 
 
^86 INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. 
 
 fore, according to thy wisdom, and let not his hoar 
 head go down to the grave in peace." And when the 
 intelhgence came to Joab, that Adonijah was put to 
 death, and Abiathar the priest was banished, his guilty 
 conscience warned him of his exposure to similar con- 
 demnation. He fled to Gibeon, and concealed him- 
 self for protection in the tabernacle of the Lord, and 
 caught hold on the horns of the altar. Foolish man ! 
 If he had accustomed himself to seek for counsel at 
 this tabernacle in previous life, he would not now have 
 needed to fly to it for such protection. But the worst 
 of men are glad to make use of God's ordinances for 
 their own selfish advantage. Necessity will drive the 
 most profane in a hypocritical profession to God. 
 
 But there was no protection for impenitent guilt 
 at the altar. The divine law was, in regard to 
 the murderer, " thou shalt take him even from 
 mine altar, that he may die." And Joab, the aged 
 rebel, perishes in guilt, even while he clings to the 
 altar for protection. His flying there, driven by fear, 
 when all other refuge had failed, and destruction was 
 rapidly coming upon iniquity as its recompense, fur- 
 nished him no deliverance. No desire for God led 
 him to the tabernacle. A fear of punishment drove 
 him thither. He had no longing to be a doorkeeper 
 in the house of the Lord. He would far rather 
 dwell in the tents of ungodliness. And this fear- 
 extorted cry for mercy, in the hour of his sorrow, 
 upon him whom he had despised, and whose law he 
 had trodden under his feet, could furnish no expiation 
 for his guilt, and no hope for his soul. Joab was not 
 a penitent, though he clung to the altar. His soul 
 could not go out in peace, though he expired in the 
 
INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. 281 
 
 tabernacle of God. He died amidst cries for mercy, 
 and yet he died without mercy, and without hope. 
 
 How very important is the admonition which is 
 here furnished ! What multitudes, like Joab, attempt 
 to compensate for a life of sin, by an ineffectual at- 
 tempt to return to God in the hour of death, and en- 
 courage themselves to hope, that their wicked and 
 persevering neglect of him will be wholly forgotten, 
 if they ask his forgiveness, when they can rebel no 
 longer ! This is the whole consolation and hope of 
 an immense portion of mankind. The only answer 
 which they make to the invitations of the Gospel, is, 
 that though they acknowledge their importance, they 
 are not yet prepared to attend to them ; but they 
 promise adequate consideration of them, when the 
 more pressing business of their lives shall pass by. 
 Their hearts are in the world, and they will live to 
 that. But their future, everlasting safety, can only 
 be with God, and they will still endeavour to die in 
 peace with him. According to this vain and wicked 
 plan, they refuse subjection to the Lord of all, during 
 the period in which they can in any manner honour 
 him, and prom.ise to bring the lame, and the blind, and 
 the torn, and the sick, as an offering upon his alti.r at 
 the last. How solemnly God says to such, "cursed be 
 the deceiver, that hath in his flock a male, and voweth 
 and sacrificeth unto the Lord, a corrupt thing; for I 
 am a great king, saith the Lord of hosts, and my 
 name is dreadful among the heathen !" The Scrip- 
 tures warn men very distinctly of their total want of 
 hope and comfort in prospect, while they live in the 
 midst of the privileges of the Gospel, in neglect of 
 God, and design to embrace at last, the blessings 
 
288 INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. 
 
 which they have so long voluntarily rejected. What 
 the history of Joab illustrates, the parable of the ten 
 virgins is designed expressly to teach and enforce ; and 
 many warnings of Almighty God, repeat the same tes- 
 timony. The sinful man who is now living to himself, 
 without God in the world, and hoping ultimately to 
 find peace with God, in the return of his soul to him, 
 in sickness, or age, or death, is certainly deceiving 
 himself, with a promise which will be his ruin. Though 
 fear may drive him at last to the horns of the altar, no 
 protection will be there afforded to him, from the result 
 of his own folly and guilt. 
 
 This LATE AND INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE, I propOSe 
 
 to consider, as a subject of important instruction. 
 
 I. I remark upon it, that such a running at the last 
 to the tabernacle, will be wholly unavailing for any 
 good, because it is entirely deficient in the proper 
 motive of obedience. The distinguishing motive of an 
 acceptable return to God, is a love for his character, 
 and a desire for his service. This must always be the 
 principle which guides a sinner in a true return of his 
 soul to God. A godly sorrow for sin respects the 
 honour of God which is involved in transgression. It 
 is moved, not by a conviction of danger, and a fear of 
 evil, but by a view of the dishonour which iniquity 
 brings to God, and the ungrateful neglect which it 
 displays of his kindness and mercy. It sees the love 
 of Jesus, and the hatefulness of the sin which has re- 
 paid it ; and turns back with mourning, for that which 
 has crucified the Lord of glory. Affliction and distress 
 as they reveal the emptiness of the world, may indeed 
 be the occasion Avhich arrests the attention of man, 
 and in consequence of which he is led by the Holy 
 
INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. 289 
 
 Spirit, to proper views of himself, and of God, and to 
 a cordial desire to be made holy as God is holy. But 
 when the worldly minded sinner calculates upon this 
 in his dying hours, he is hoping for that, for which he 
 will then have neither opportunity nor time. If he is 
 awakened at all then, it will be by fear. A solemn 
 conviction of the just wrath of God may press upon 
 his mind ; and he may be compelled, under its burden, 
 to ask forgiveness. But he has then no love for God, 
 no wish to be like him, no real sorrow for having of- 
 fended him. It would be a welcome relief to his mind, 
 if he could be convinced, that there is no God, or that 
 if he exists, he will not enter into judgment with un- 
 godly men. These conclusions are both impossible. 
 And as a cry for a Saviour's mercy seems to be the 
 only method left, by which he may escape the perdi- 
 tion of his soul, he recurs to that. Let him live again, 
 and he has no love for goodness. Even now he is 
 more averse to the real character of God, than he has 
 ever been. Heaven and holiness have no charms. 
 But hell has unutterable terrors. He flies therefore 
 to the tabernacle for refuge. But let the wrath to 
 come be removed ; let the sword of justice be with- 
 drawn; and he would leave the tabernacle just as 
 quickly. Such a professed return to God as this is 
 wholly useless. The door is shut ; and loud as may 
 be the cry for admission, it is uttered in vain. God is 
 a God of love ; and he governs his creatures by love, 
 and not by terror. When they return to him, because 
 they love him, and wish to serve him, he welcomes and 
 receives them. But when they are driven back to 
 him, because they are afraid of him, although they 
 hate him, he allows no such motive to operate in his 
 2 B 37 
 
290 INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. 
 
 dominion. He will receive no subject whose conduct 
 says, " I serve thee because I am afraid to rebel longer 
 against thee." Yet this is the language of the sinner's 
 late repentance, his final apparent return to God. 
 Without penitence, without love, without desire for 
 God, he wishes for just so much interest in the religion 
 of the Gospel, as will save him from approaching ruin, 
 and no more. And he clings to the horns of the altar, 
 because he hopes, that he may there escape destruc- 
 tion. But while this motive is wholly unacceptable, 
 the act to which it leads is ecj[ually vain. Even the 
 altar affords him no protection then. 
 
 II. I remark that such an apparent return to God 
 in our last hours, is ineffective, because it allows no 
 time to accomplish the important work. I do not 
 speak now of the man who has never heard the blessed 
 tidings of a Saviour, until this late hour ; but of the 
 man whose life has been passed amidst the full privi- 
 leges of the Gospel, and who has no new message to 
 be delivered to him in the hour of his death. Such an 
 one has professed that he had no time to perfect this 
 return to God in his life and health, though he ac- 
 knowledged it to be necessary ; and he will in fact, 
 have no time to do it in the hours of sickness, and 
 age, and death. It is vain to say, that God may then 
 pluck him in a moment as a brand from the burning. 
 So he might have done at any previous time of his life. 
 But he did not do it then; and there is not the 
 slightest ground for hope, that he will do it now. 
 
 What is an acceptable return to God for sinful 
 man ? The point of turning is a moment unquestion- 
 ably. Conversion is in this view an indivisible act. 
 But how much there is of knowledge, and conviction. 
 
INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. 291 
 
 and feeling, to precede it ! And how numerous and 
 important, are the duties which result from it ! Now 
 the dying man has no time for these. A real return 
 to God is exhibited in the obedience which flows from 
 conversion. And it is worse than vain, to found a 
 hope upon any conversion which does not result in such 
 obedience. It may be said, there is a promise, that he 
 that believeth shall be saved. I answer it does not 
 meet the case which I suppose. What remains to be 
 told to any unrenewed sinner under the blessings of 
 the Gospel, in the hour of his death, which he did not 
 believe and know before ? Will the simple cry for a 
 Saviour's mercy which results in no obedience, is the 
 parent of no new life, avail him now ? And why will 
 it be more availing then ? You answer that there is no 
 time then for any thing else. This is just my assertion. 
 There is no time for anything then, which can be effec- 
 tive. There is no time for a real return to God. And 
 whose fault is it, that there is no time ? Is it God's, who 
 has lengthened out the sinner's days, vrith wonderful 
 forbearance ? or is it the sinner's, who has refused to 
 do the work for which life was given, until there re- 
 mains no time to do it at all ? If you determine thus 
 to rob God of that which he claims, it will be useless 
 for you at the last, to bring the poor remnant which is 
 left. Like Ananias, you keep back a part of that 
 which is demanded, and bring a portion, under the 
 false assertion that it is all you have. You may as 
 well determine to keep the whole. You may as safely 
 resolve to abide in your own house unto the end, as to 
 plan a running to the tabernacle when all your many 
 days have thus been numbered in guilt. It will then 
 be impossible to accomplish what you propose to un- 
 
292 INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. 
 
 dertake, and mercy so long despised, will have gone 
 from you forever. 
 
 III. I remark upon this projected repentance, that 
 it is ineffective for good, because it is itself an act of 
 rebellion against God. He has in abundant mercy, 
 opened a way for sinful men to return to him in peace. 
 He gives them, all the opportunities, all the means, and 
 all the assistance, which they need in order to perfect 
 this return to his favour, and then solemnly warns 
 them, that it must be done in a limited and appointed 
 time. He urges them to strive to enter into the nar- 
 row gate which he has opened, under the assurance, 
 that many will ultimately try to enter in, wdio shall 
 not be able. He directs their notice to an hour, when 
 the master of the house will have risen up and shut to 
 the door ; and he declares, that then all cries without 
 for entrance, will be in vain. He teaches us that sin- 
 ful man has no right to mercy, no claim upon God ; 
 and that all which is offered him, is upon God's own 
 terms, and in God's own way ; and that unless he take 
 advantage of these offers in an appointed time, he will 
 lose all hope arising from them forever. But what 
 does the man do, who still looks for a more convenient 
 season for his reconciliation unto God, but directly 
 contradict and falsify, these positive assertions of the 
 God of truth ? And of what more positive act of re- 
 bellion against God can man be guilty, than is involved 
 in this determination which says, " in defiance of all 
 thy warnings, I will not return imto thee, till the 
 hour of death, and then I know, that notwithstanding 
 all thy threatenings so often repeated, thou canst not, 
 and wilt not cast me out?" Here is a direct contest 
 between man and his Creator. All heavenly beings 
 
INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. 293 
 
 are looking upon the issue. And what would be the 
 effect of God's acceptance of this wilfully postponed 
 submission to himself, but giving countenance to re- 
 hellion against himself, and showing a fickleness of 
 government, the supposition of which is impossible? 
 How strange does it seem, that the very calculation 
 which man thus makes, upon the actions of God, would, 
 if they should be sustained by facts, so destroy the 
 excellence of his character, and the stability of his 
 government, as to annul all his claims upon the ho- 
 mage of his creatures, and make man's return to him 
 at all, rather a disgrace, than a duty ! And where is 
 the difference in principle, between making a god of 
 wood or stone, and worshipping that, and thus making 
 a god in the imagination, supple to the purposes, and 
 complying with the corruptions of sinful men, and 
 promising to yield a final submission and homage to 
 him? Either God is a faithful and true God, a great 
 and everlasting King who changes not, or he is desti- 
 tute of the attributes, which can claim or deserve the 
 reverence of his creatures. Under the first view of 
 his character, the hope of propitiating him in a volun- 
 tarily late repentance, by the determination to cling to 
 the horns of the altar, after a life of impenitent sin, is a 
 manifest rebellion against him, and contempt of his 
 authority and truth. It can only become availing, 
 upon the supposition that he is so changeable, that he 
 cannot claim the return of man, nor be depended upon 
 to reward it, if it be offered. How wrong, how ruin- 
 ous is it, thus to indulge, and to act upon a hope, 
 which involves in its very essence, rebellion against 
 God, and conceptions most derogatory to his character 
 and government ! 
 2 B 2 
 
INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. 
 
 IV. I remark upon such a proposed return as in- 
 effective, because its allowed success would overturn 
 all the purposes of God in regard to men, for which 
 the Gospel has provided. Its acceptance by him 
 would altogether annihilate the design and operation 
 of the Gospel. The great purpose of God in the gift 
 of his Son, is the restoration of man from sin to 
 obedience ; the cleansing of him from guilt and con- 
 demnation, that he may serve God in holiness and 
 righteousness before him all the days of his life. The 
 proper and designed operation of the Gospel, is to 
 annihilate the actual rebellion of the world ; to re- 
 duce its living inhabitants into subjection to their 
 Creator, and thus to restore his dominion here, in 
 perfect and eternal peace. Man can be a co-worker 
 together with God in accomplishing this end, only by 
 submitting his heart at once and entirely, to the holy 
 and sanctifying power of the grace of God, by accept- 
 ing forgiveness when it is first olfcrcd, and by gladly 
 returning to the appointed Mediator for his soul, that 
 he may be the Lord's forever. The Gospel offers 
 him the unspeakable privilege of coming back into 
 communion and peace with God. And unless he see 
 it as a privilege, and gladly embrace it as such, it 
 offers him no hope in its provisions. Should the 
 Gospel accomplish this full purpose of God in the 
 world, entire holiness would follow immediately upon 
 its proclamation througliout the earth, and all men 
 who heard it, would become under its influence, the 
 people of God. But wliat would be the effect, should 
 all men follow the example of him who looks for his 
 comfort and security in a late repentance? God 
 would have no servants upon the earth. None would 
 
INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. 295 
 
 remain to proclaim the glad tidings of redemption to 
 others. The very sound of the Gospel must cease 
 among men, unless angels were sent from above to 
 offer its mercies to their acceptance. The whole 
 world would remain in a state of undistinguished re- 
 bellion against God, and not a witness for him would 
 be left upon the globe. The very hope which men 
 thus indulge, of turning at last to God, thus condemns 
 and destroys itself It is necessary in its calculation, 
 that there should be others who are not guided by its 
 delusion ; others, who in greater fidelity, have before 
 yielded to the divine will, and embraced the privileges 
 which the Lord offers ; and are, therefore, competent 
 to act as the messengers of his mercy, to those who 
 have thus postponed their return to him. And in 
 making this calculation, the success of their own ex- 
 pectations can only be assured, in the acknowledgment 
 of the wickedness and falsehood of the principles by 
 which they are governed. How foolish and false is 
 that hope which can only stand upon the annihilation 
 of the very purposes and power upon which itself de- 
 pends ! Nay, which can be indulged in fact and 
 form only, because some others at least, are supposed 
 to be guided by better principles to a safer course ! 
 The very expectation, therefore, which plans such a 
 return to God, shuts up against itself the avenue of 
 mercy, destroys the design and usefulness of the Gos- 
 pel, and like the scorpion in his circle of fire, puts an 
 end to itself 
 
 Is not tliis a calculation upon an ineffective repent- 
 ance ? Without an acceptable motive, without time 
 to grow into life, involving in itself actual rebellion 
 against God, and existing only upon the overturning 
 
296 INEFFECTIVE REPENTANCE. 
 
 of his purposes, and the annihilation of his plans of 
 grace to man, such a late repentance is wholly invalid 
 and useless. Its root is rottenness ; its blossom goes 
 up as dust. The sinner who is thus looking forward 
 to a future late return to God, is destroying himself. 
 The man who comes to the last hour of his life with- 
 out hope, will die without hope. We have an altar 
 which furnishes abundant refuge to those who would 
 escape from guilt; but no cover, or protection, or 
 concealment, to those who would live in guilt, and 
 still be rescued from its punishment and condemna- 
 tion. If, like Joab, men will live to the world, and 
 without God, like him they will indubitably find them- 
 selves left to perish without hope. They will die 
 even at the foot of the altar, in agony and despair. 
 They will sink in eternal condemnation, though they 
 then call upon Christ with whatever earnestness, 
 Lord, Lord. 
 
 What meanest thou, then, O sleeper ? Arise, and 
 call upon God, if so be, thou perish not ! Awake 
 to-day, and embrace the blessed hand of love and 
 kindness, that would lead you back in reconciliation 
 unto God. Let him have that which he claims, the 
 service of your lives, all that you can do to establish 
 his authority, and to promote his glory. And do not, 
 O do not, I beseech you, in the very face of inevitable 
 certainty of ruin, still walk on amidst the foolish in- 
 dulgences of sin, in the delusive, destructive hope, 
 that you may come to God when you can sin no 
 more. 
 
XX. 
 
 THE LATTER END. 
 
 Deuteronomy xxxii.*29. — that they were imse, that they understood 
 this, that they tuould consider their latter end. 
 
 We have considered the difficulties and sorrows 
 which a{tend the aged man who is without an interest 
 in the privileges and hopes of the Gospel. We have 
 traced the usual course of man's procrastination in 
 the great business of securing his eternal salvation, 
 and seen the loss and disappointment to which it leads 
 him. We have examined the foundation of that hope 
 in which so many indulge, that after a life of voluntary 
 sin and selfishness, they may still in the end repent, 
 and turn to God, and find acceptance and safety with 
 him, and seen how delusive and unsatisfactory it is, 
 how useless it will prove to those who trust it. And 
 now, the present text gives me the opportunity to 
 conclude this important series of remark, by pressing 
 upon the attention of my hearers, a timely and prac- 
 tical improvement of the truths which they have heard, 
 and a due consideration of the results which must 
 follow from them. 
 
 38 297 
 
298 THE LATTER END. 
 
 The instances among men, of the sinner's ruinous 
 neglect of his soul and God, are numerous and dread- 
 ful ; but they form no part of God's plan for them, 
 nor do they meet or promote his pleasure. With an 
 overflowing benevolence, he desires all men to become 
 wise unto salvation. With unspeakable grace and 
 goodness, he has made provision for them, that they 
 may gain this blessed wisdom. And with a forbear- 
 ance, whose persevering watchfulness never yields, 
 until they have finally cast away his cords from them, 
 he continues to entreat them to tak^ advantage of his 
 mercies, and to gain the wisdom which he desires to 
 impart. If they go on through life in the ways of 
 sin, it is in direct defiance of his desires and efforts 
 in their behalf If they mourn at last over the evils 
 which they find in their chosen path, they are com- 
 pelled to acquit him of all blame in their sufferings, 
 and to acknowledge that their disappointments and 
 woes are but a literal fulfilment of his gracious warn- 
 ings which they rejected. God renders himself in 
 all things connected with them, perfectly clear ; and 
 neither his justice, his wisdom, or his goodness will 
 be stained in the final punishment of the voluntarily 
 ungodly. 
 
 In our teirt, he exhibits his ardent desire for the 
 ultimate safety and happiness of his creatures. With 
 an eye which looks accurately into the future, and 
 brings remote and apparently doubtful objects near, 
 and makes them certain, he warns men of the conse- 
 quences of a present course of rebellion and sin. He 
 sees rocks which are concealed from their view, and 
 dangers which they cannot know, but by his warning, 
 until they try them ; and with the utmost faithfulness 
 
THE LATTER END. 299 
 
 and tenderness, he warns them of the approachmg 
 evil. And when he finds his wnrnings to be all in 
 vain, and that men are determined to be taught, only 
 by their own experience of evil ; he utters over them, 
 the language of affectionate lamentation : " that 
 they were wise, that they understood this, that they 
 would consider their latter end." 
 
 This consideration of the latter end for our- 
 selves, will claim your present attention. 
 
 I. Reflect upon this consideration, as a course of 
 wisdom. Man's comparative wisdom in the affairs 
 of this life is wholly estimated, by his disposition to 
 anticipate the results of his own actions, and his ability 
 to calculate upon those results with success. He pnly 
 is considered a wise man, who in every important en- 
 gagement and undertaking, deliberately and seriously 
 considers its latter end. If one should throw his 
 capital into a scheme of merchandize, or embark Avith 
 it in an inviting speculation, without a full con- 
 sideration of the results to which he was likely to be 
 brought, and a cautious inquiry into the steps by 
 which his desired ends were to be gained, who would 
 deem him a man of safe and practical wisdom? or 
 who would pity him, but for his folly, if he was ruined 
 in the adventure? If the mariner should loose his 
 bark upon the ocean, without a plan for gaining any 
 port or country beyond it, without a chart or compass 
 to guide him on his way, nay, without having consi- 
 dered in what direction he should steer, who would 
 connect the attribute of wisdom with his name ? or 
 who would wonder if he bilged upon the rocks, or 
 was swallowed up in the fathomless abyss ? The fact 
 is, that in all the engagements of his present life, man 
 
300 THE LATTER END. 
 
 from the necessity of the case, considers their latter 
 end, and with all the wisdom which he can command, 
 provides for what he presumes their several conclu- 
 sions may be reasonably expected to require. 
 
 The whole object of the Gospel is to bring to the 
 service of God, and to the attainment of eternal 
 gains, the same powers which man thus gives to him- 
 self and the world. The whole of human life may 
 be viewed as an adventure or a voyage, the character 
 of which must be displayed in future unchangeable 
 results. And man's true wisdom consists in shaping 
 it for that prosperous and desirable issue, for which 
 the mediation and offering of a Saviour has opened 
 the .way, and made the full provision. He is required 
 to take a full view of his permanent condition, and 
 his ultimate responsibilities ; and to act for the whole, 
 upon the very principle of preparation for the future, 
 which in the smaller parts, he finds to be the elements 
 of success. And if the man is not wise who invests 
 the whole of his earthly wealth in an unexamined 
 scheme, and lightly says, " the end will take care of 
 itself, or I will provide for it when it comes;" how 
 can that same man be wise when he carelessly throws 
 his soul's eternity into an adventure, and dashes head- 
 long with it into a life of total disobedience to God, 
 in the uncertain hope of amending deficiencies at the 
 close of his experiment? Nothing but the fearful 
 dominion of sin over the heart, alienating that heart 
 entirely from God, can account for the strange incon- 
 sistencies which man thus exhibits. This latter end, 
 this issue of man's probation is of infinite importance, 
 and leads to unalterable consequences. It cannot be 
 provided for when it arrives, but may be abundantly 
 
THE LATTER END. 301 
 
 SO, if undertaken in season. Surely then, he that is 
 wise will consider it, and provide for it, while the op- 
 portunity is granted to him. We cannot speak of 
 any man who neglects its timely consideration, what- 
 ever pretensions he may make, but as of one who 
 loves simplicity and hates knowledge. We may pity 
 him, but we must mourn over him also, in the ex- 
 clamation of our text, " O that he were wise, that 
 he understood this, that he would consider his latter 
 end !" 
 
 II. Reflect upon the circumstances connected with 
 this latter end, which are especially to be considered. 
 
 Consider the trials which will be involved in it. 
 No one can doubt, that the close of human life must 
 be to a rational man, a period of great anxiety. 
 When every temporal hope, and interest, and comfort, 
 is passing away ; when all the sweet and endearing 
 connexions of the human station are to be broken up; 
 when countenances that have been seen, and places 
 which have been known, for so long a time, are to be 
 seen and known no more ; when unsustained by outward 
 aid, and deprived of the possibility of resting longer 
 upon the wisdom, or the affection of earthly friends, 
 for encouragement or guidance, we are to be thrown 
 as far as man is concerned, wholly upon our own re- 
 sources, and must stand or fall alone ; when we are 
 to try an experiment, of which, though millions have 
 tried it before us, no one can tell us the result ; what 
 man can doubt, that such circumstances must involve 
 for us great and peculiar trials, or that the flesh and 
 heart of man must fail beneath them ? Our condition 
 is new. It is deeply mysterious. It is a change, not 
 from one visible scene to another, but fi'om all things 
 2 C 
 
302 THE LATTER END. 
 
 which are visible, to something which is not and can- 
 not be contemplated by the eye of man. In that 
 hour, lethargy may seal up the sensibilities; rage and 
 despair may overwhelm concern; perhaps acquired 
 stoicism may deride the danger. But to a man under 
 the clear and calm influence of enlightened reason, it 
 must be a period of oppressive anxiety. Nothing 
 known to man, but the ascending hope of the Gospel, and 
 the assurance of faith in a Saviour's power and pro- 
 mise, that it will be fulfilled for us to the uttermost, 
 can form amidst these trials an adequate support. 
 
 Consider the peculiar wants which it will manifest. 
 There may be no deficiency around of earthly com- 
 forts. All that man or money can do, may be sup- 
 posed collected, to mitigate the sorrows, to conceal the 
 weakness, to alleviate the pain, and to dignify the condi- 
 tion of the dying man. A grateful family may minister 
 with affectionate tenderness. Sweet sympathy may fan 
 the fainting spirit. And attendants well provided may 
 anticipate every bodily want. But after all these, 
 there are necessities developed, w^hich these cannot 
 supply. Divine revelation does not create or call forth 
 these necessities. The ignorance of revelation cannot 
 banish them. What are they ? The wants of a dying 
 man ! He is entering upon a world inconceivably 
 vast, and entirely unknown. Many loved ones have 
 accompanied hiai to the edge of the wilderness, and 
 encouraged him not to fear, as he enters into it, but he 
 is to part from them all, and to go out alone, into this 
 pathless desert ; shrinking, trembling, anxious, doubt- 
 ful, afraid, yet compelled to travel onward ; not know- 
 ing what shall befall him there, but unable to forget 
 that most solemn, perhaps tremendous, results are to 
 
THE LATTER END. 
 
 303 
 
 issue from every step. He wants a guide who shall 
 be infallible, to take the hand while it is warm from 
 the last earthly pressure, and to lead him forward, 
 with a certain and inspiring confidence. He wants to 
 hear a voice that can utter to him, there, where the 
 accents of human affection have died upon his ear, 
 the language of undoubted, inspiring, and tender en- 
 couragement. He wants some garments of glory and 
 beauty which may be clothed, upon a soul that is now 
 unclothed from its mortal covering, and conceal the 
 deformities which its nakedness displays. He wants 
 an arm upon whose unbending steadfastness, he may 
 rest the firmest pressure, when the last earthly em- 
 brace has been unlocked ; and whose power can pro- 
 tect and shield him amidst whatever may betide. He 
 wants, and he has no comfort unless he gains, the cer- 
 tain assurance of glory and immortality, which the 
 accepted promises of the Gospel can alone impart. 
 God the Saviour must be with him, in the fulness of 
 his revealed sufficiency, or he cannot approach his latter 
 end but with doubt and terror. 
 
 Consider the results which must flow from it. The 
 changes in our present life, are not only alleviated, but 
 often annihilated in their painful influence, by the pro- 
 bable revolutions which may soon altogether alter their 
 distressing appearance and operation. But the results 
 of man's latter end are unchangeable. There cannot 
 be a more ruinous delusion, than that which exhibits to 
 him, a possible future probation, after these issues of his 
 present life have come to him in the hour of his death. 
 The dying man is entering upon scenes whose char- 
 acter he has already fixed beyond the power of change. 
 He is to reap a harvest which he has sowed for him- 
 
304 THE LATTER END. 
 
 self. And how momentous is its character ! Shall 
 he rise from the bed of death, like the phoenix from his 
 ashes, in unalterable youth, and mount up the shining 
 path to glory, amidst songs of surrounding praise, with 
 a heart instinctively attuned to join this new song 
 when it strikes his ear ? Shall he find himself trans- 
 ported to unutterable elevation and bliss, standing 
 before the Son of God, to partake of his glory and to 
 triumph in his dominion ? Or shall he sink into eter- 
 nity, under a load which no created power can sustain, 
 convulsing amidst despair and anguish, goaded by the 
 consciousness of guilt, separated from all communion 
 with the God of peace, crowded amidst beings who 
 are only hateful and hating one another ? This is the 
 alternative, the choice of results before him. One of 
 these is to be the subject of his unavoidable expe- 
 rience. And whichever it may be, its character and 
 operation is unalterable forever. 0, with what im- 
 portance, does this succeeding eternity encompass the 
 latter end of man ! And how certain must it be, that 
 he alone is wise, who timely and adequately considers 
 it! 
 
 Consider the provisions which it will require. They 
 must be something upon which the soul may feed, and 
 m which it may stand secure. They must be fur- 
 nished by some being who has power over the world 
 to come. Plainly, man must have a perfect righteous- 
 ness which he can present to God, in which all sin 
 may be forgotten, and an undisputed title be found to 
 eternal glory. Peradventures of safety will answer 
 him no purpose. He must have a hope within him, 
 and be able to give a reason of the hope which is in 
 him; a hope which shall be firm as an anchor for his 
 
THE LATTER END. 305 
 
 soul. No inducement will lead him forward with de- 
 sire, or willingness, towards God, which does not mani- 
 festly and entirely remove, the barrier between them 
 which guilt has made, and assure the soul, that there 
 is perfect peace for it with God. But nothing pre- 
 tends to do this, save the sure mercies which are re- 
 vealed in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. And no one, 
 but he who has by a living faith appropriated these 
 mercies unto himself, can ever say, that all doubt has 
 fled, and calm full sunshine rests upon the bosom of 
 eternity. All other hopes tremble and crack, and 
 crush, beneath the weight which is imposed upon them, 
 and leave the deluded man who has entrusted himself 
 to them, to perish unprovided and alone. Man's 
 latter end requires all the provisions of grace which 
 the Gospel offers, and it will be satisfied and peaceful 
 with nothing less. 
 
 Consider the serious question, whether you have 
 gained these provisions, and are therefore ready now, 
 to test in your own experience, all that this latter end 
 shall be able to bring to view. You are now compe- 
 tent to understand this, in its importance, and its char- 
 acter ; and to view it as it is presented to you, in all 
 its magnitude and results. What you are thus com- 
 petent to do, becomes a matter of absolute obligation 
 upon you. And when you consider that it is impos- 
 sible for a better or more advantageous time to arrive, 
 for the arrangement of all your interests and hopes for 
 eternity, and that it is extremely improbable, that any 
 other opportunity will be granted to you equally desi- 
 rable with the present, you cannot wonder, if your 
 character as men of wisdom is wholly decided, by the 
 course which you now pursue, in reference to this 
 
 2 c 2 3« 
 
306 THE LATTER END. 
 
 important subject. If you are wise, you will under- 
 stand this, and consider your latter end. 
 
 III. Upon the authority of the truths which have 
 been thus presented to you, I trust I may now urge 
 you, to a practicable fulfilment of this duty. The 
 disadvantages of neglecting it, I have attempted at some 
 extent to display ; and it would certainly seem, that 
 no rational man could assume these fearful evils upon 
 himself. The immense importance of attending to it, 
 and attending to it in the proper season, stands before 
 you as an entire parallel. When you consider the 
 latter end of others, and contrast together the various 
 issues of their lives ; when you behold the piety of 
 youth and active life, rising into the joy and peace of a 
 Christian's departure, and mark the final triumph of a 
 soul, which has wisely considered and provided for its 
 whole responsibility, you cannot fail to see, how much 
 has been gained, by adopting the Gospel as the pow- 
 erful and practical principle of conduct, in the morn- 
 ing of man's day of grace. When you contrast with 
 this, the barrenness and doubt, the agitation and regret, 
 the anguish and despair, which distinguish the latter 
 end of a sinful, worldly-minded man ; your whole soul 
 rises up in the exclamation, **let me not come into 
 their secret, nor be joined to their assembly !" Yet 
 strange as it may seem, while all within, and all with- 
 out, is thus urging you forward to a course of safety 
 and interest, the trifling temptations which you per- 
 fectly understand, and altogether despise, though you 
 submit to them, are sufficient to lead you away into 
 tlie permanent and ruinous captivity of sin. And 
 things of eternal moment, messengers of the most 
 High God, must stand and wait in the vestibule of your 
 
THE LATTER END. 307 
 
 minds, while crackling mirth, and scornful gain, and 
 scoffing unbelief, are rioting with the madness of suc- 
 cessful usurpers, in the halls within. 0, strange per- 
 version of an immortal spirit ! How unworthy does 
 such a man become, of the dignity of his elevation, 
 and the abundance of his privileges ! 
 
 I would urge you with deep earnestness and affec- 
 tion, to an immediate attention to the things which 
 belong to your eternal peace. Bring home those 
 alienated hearts, whose affections are scattered 
 throughout the earth, and let them take advantage of 
 the noble offers which are made to them of peace 
 with God, and glory in the highest. Without holi- 
 ness, the product of God's operations in a renewed 
 heart, no man shall see the Lord. Your latter end 
 will find no quietness or peace, unless it has been 
 thus provided for, in a new birth of your souls unto 
 righteousness, through the power of the Holy Ghost 
 Let faith triumph over the temptations of sense ; and 
 prayer, in dependence upon God, assume the place of 
 confidence in your own wisdom; and an humble seek- 
 ing after God the Saviour, make the single principle 
 and business of your life. Then shall your light 
 break forth as brightness ; and God, even your own 
 God, shall shine upon your souls in the fulness of his 
 approbation and favour. Make the Redeemer of sin- 
 ners, in the power of his Deity, and the offering of 
 his humanity, in the worth of his righteousness, and 
 the atonement of his death, the portion of your heart, 
 and the comfort of your spirits ; and your fruit shall 
 be unto holiness, and your end everlasting life. 
 
XXI. 
 
 THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 Phii-lippians iii. 3. — We are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, 
 and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in Ihejksh. 
 
 In the midst of this guilty world, God has a holy, 
 peculiar people. They are the special objects of 
 his love, his tenderness, and his protection. To 
 them pertain, the adoption into his family as chil- 
 dren, the inheriting of his kingdom as chosen 
 heirs, the present blessings of his pardoning and 
 sanctifying grace, and the future and eternal re- 
 sults of his glory. They are endowed with many 
 great and precious comforts by his gift, and are 
 under very pressing and peculiar obligations, by 
 his appointment. In the appropriate language of 
 our 17th Article, " They which be endued with 
 so excellent a benefit of God, be called according 
 to God's purpose, by his Spirit working in due 
 season ; they through grace, obey the calling : 
 they be justified freely ; they be made the sons of 
 God by adoption ; they be made like the image of 
 his only begotten Son Jesus Christ ; they walk re- 
 
THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 309 
 
 ligiously in good works; and at length, by God's 
 mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity." These 
 are called the people, the Israel of God, the true 
 circumcision ; and some very important character- 
 istics of them, are described in our present text. 
 They worship God in the Spirit ; they rejoice in 
 Christ Jesus ; they have no confidence in the flesh. 
 To consider their marks and character, becomes a 
 subject of deep interest, both to those who trust 
 that they already belong to this "blessed company 
 of God's faithful people," and to those whose de- 
 sires are awakened and excited, towards the pri- 
 vileges which God has laid up for them. 
 
 In our present text, the Apostle styles them 
 " the circumcision." In the earlier dispensation 
 of grace to man, this was the external mark of 
 the profession of the true faith ; — the sign upon 
 those who had avowedly entered into covenant 
 with God. The rite was confined to the descend- 
 ants of a single man. All the rest of mankind 
 were what the Apostle here calls " the concision," 
 the cut off, from God's chosen and covenant peo- 
 ple. But this rite was merely typical, even while 
 it was established and observed. It referred to a 
 circumcision of the heart, by the power of the 
 Spirit of God, without which all men were really 
 cut off, whether they were outwardly circumcised 
 or not. The external circumcision or concision 
 of the flesh, marked a division of men in profes- 
 sion and appearance. The spiritual circumcision 
 or concision of the heart, were the evidence of 
 the actual division of men in the presence and 
 sight of God. 
 
310 THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 When the Apostle WTote, the outward facts in 
 this case were changed, only so far, as that the 
 outward sign which was referred to, had been 
 abolished. The type was gone ; and the reality 
 of spiritual character which it had been used to 
 represent, was alone to be considered. The 
 things which concision and circumcision were de- 
 signed to represent, still remained in two per- 
 fectly distinct classes of men, though the particu- 
 lar rite which had marked the difference, was no 
 longer to be regarded. The spiritual reality was 
 now to be considered and required. The figure 
 and the shadow had been removed from view. 
 Under the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ spirit- 
 ual truth and character were the things of mo- 
 ment. Material indicative forms were compara- 
 tively of inferior consequence. The time had 
 come, when the uncircumcision, if it kept the 
 righteousness of the law, should be counted for 
 circumcision ; when circumcision was that of the 
 heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose 
 praise is not of men, but of God. Now, the true 
 circumcision were those who worship God in the 
 Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no 
 confidence in the flesh. The Apostle gives us in 
 our text, three marks of this peculiar people, the 
 true Israel of God, spiritual worship, single joy in 
 Christ, and entire renuyidation of self. They must 
 be considered, as points for examination into our 
 own character, and as objects of cultivation and 
 pursuit, of the utmost consequence in the work 
 of religion upon our own souls. 
 
 The true circumcision are distinguished by a 
 
THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 311 
 
 spiritual worship of God. Baptism, as the outward 
 rite of admission to the visible church, must be 
 considered, in all important respects, analogous to 
 circumcision, to which it has succeeded, and the 
 place of which it has been appointed to take. 
 We must therefore say also of it, that it presents 
 the same important distinction between the mere 
 outward rite, and the inward spiritual character 
 which it is designed to illustrate and display, and 
 the necessity of which it proclaims. Circumcision 
 has been abolished. And baptism has been ap- 
 pointed, the typical sign of the regeneration of the 
 spirit, and the sacramental pledge of the spiritual 
 covenant which it indicates. But in reference to 
 baptism also, we must say, " we are the baptism, 
 who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ 
 Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." The 
 simple distinction between the two assertions is, 
 that the one rite is completely renounced, because 
 divinely abolished ; the other, though divinely ap- 
 pointed and therefore necessarily still retained as 
 obligatory in the church, is in itself made wholly 
 subordinate to the spiritual character which it is 
 designed to represent ; and is no mark of the real 
 people of God without that as connected with it. 
 We are not permitted to stop in the outward rite, 
 though ordained of God, but must go on to require 
 the abiding spiritual characteristics, which it is 
 intended to enforce and teach. 
 
 The true circumcision " worship God in the 
 Spirit." The people of God are persons who wor- 
 ship. Nothing marks them more universally than 
 the fact that they pray. This was the first indica- 
 
312 THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 tion of the work of grace in the heart of convicted 
 Saul, — " behold he prayeth." There can be no pro- 
 fessed religion without worship: and no real spirit- 
 ual piety without an experience and habit of spirit- 
 ual worship. Prayer is the very first instinctive 
 acting of grace. Prayer remains the index of the 
 actual state of grace in the heart. The awakened 
 and convicted soul cries out for mercy. The pen- 
 itent and sorrowing soul sues for peace and par- 
 don. The believing soul seeks for increase and 
 continuance of blessings which can only come 
 from God. The heart is by the Holy Ghost 
 touched, broken, melted, renewed in life. And 
 the language of every stage of the work is prayer. 
 Abounding blessings have been bestowed, in the 
 forbearing with guilt, the arousing of the careless, 
 the comforting of the penitent, — and the new- 
 born soul has an instant, and a repeated offering 
 of praise to bring, with its offerings of prayer. 
 So that its new distinction is worship, — habitual 
 worship, — continued, frequent, affectionate, neces- 
 sary worship. The closet tells of it. The family 
 announces it. The sanctuary records it. The 
 wayside sets up monuments of it. The day bears 
 witness to it. The night is broken by it. It em- 
 ploys the heart. It engages the mind. It occu- 
 pies the tongue. And the instant, uniform, neces- 
 sary distinction of the people of God is, they wor- 
 ship. "We are the circumcision who worship." 
 
 But worship is distinguished by its object. The 
 pagan worships; and morning, noon, and night, 
 cries out to a deity, inhabiting, as he imagines, his 
 idol gods, like the ancient prophets, " O Baal, hear 
 
THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 313 
 
 US." The papist worships; and counts his rosa- 
 ries in prayer to the virgin and the saints; and 
 throws himself in voluntary but rejected humility, 
 before his wafer idol; the deity which dwells as 
 he imagines, in the vessel which the priest holds 
 up to view. But all creature-worship is under 
 condemnation before God, who will not give His 
 glory to another, and hath said, " Cursed is the 
 man that maketh any graven or molten image, an 
 abomination unto the Lord, the work of the hands 
 of the craftsman, and putteth it in a secret place." 
 Whatever may be the concealment, or the pallia- 
 tion for idolatry, God places it everywhere under 
 a curse. They who are truly His people, are dis- 
 tinguished by the total casting out of all inferior 
 objects, and setting up the Lord Jehovah alone, 
 as the single proper object of prayer and praise. 
 The wants which they feel, God alone can supply. 
 The blessings for which they are thankful, have 
 been the gifts of His hand alone. They are taught 
 by His Spirit, utterly to renounce all hope in any 
 created arm ; and to come directly and unceas- 
 ingly, with all their homage and worship, to the 
 One Living and True God. They glory in Him; 
 they praise Him ; they trust themselves to Him, 
 and to Him alone. It is therefore not only their 
 distinction, that they worship; — they have but 
 one object of worship. The Lord their God is one 
 Lord. And they are the true circumcision who 
 worship God. 
 
 But the Deist and the Socinian professedly wor- 
 ship God. The Apostle brings forth another in- 
 separable distinction of the true people of God, 
 
314 THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 in this one characteristic of their worship, — they 
 worship God in the Spirit. The Deist who wholly 
 rejects the guidance of the written revelation, and 
 the Socinian who casts away the grand fact and 
 subject of that revelation, in denying the Deity, 
 Atonement and Mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 may profess to worship the One God. But such 
 worship, like the proud offering of Cain, presenting 
 a professed obedience, feeling no burden of guilt, 
 acknowledging no need of a divine sacrifice and 
 righteousness to be provided in man's behalf, is 
 assuredly rejected. In reference to all such wor- 
 ship, however single may be its object, God will 
 take the same attitude which He assumed towards 
 the first offerer of such homage. " The Lord had 
 respect unto Abel and his offering ; but unto Cain 
 and his offering. He had not respect." The differ- 
 ence between them is declared to have been, that 
 by faith in the divine revelations and promises, 
 Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain ; 
 by which he obtained witness that he was right- 
 eous, God testifying of his gifts. Abel becomes 
 therefore the great leader of acceptable worship- 
 pers,— of w^hom it still remains the divine testi- 
 mony, that they not only worship God, but also 
 worship Him in the Spirit. 
 
 The Spirit, is here beyond all dispute, the Holy 
 Spirit, the Spirit of God. And spiritual worship is 
 worship under the guidance of this Divine Spirit, 
 in contrast to the mere offerings of blind and sin- 
 ful human nature, acting according to its own will. 
 The Spirit reveals to the people of God, God in 
 His threefold distinction of persons, — the Father, 
 
THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 315 
 
 the Son, and the Holy Ghost, — as the great and 
 glorious object of worship. The Spirit teaches, 
 that there is access for sinful man to the Father, 
 only through the atoning obedience and death of 
 the Son — manifest in the flesh. He brings man to 
 the mercy-seat, as guilty and deserving condemna- 
 tion, to ask for forgiveness and acceptance, in sin- 
 gle reliance upon this one sacrifice, by which God 
 hath perfected forever, them that are sanctified. 
 He opens in the word, to the view of man, this 
 Glorious Covenant God, an Incarnate God, as the 
 One who inhabiteth, fiUeth up, all the praises and 
 worship of His people. He utters forth in every 
 variety of expression, the great and all important 
 fact, that He is tbe only life, and way to life ; the 
 only salvation, and means of salvation, to fallen 
 man. He shuts up every other access to God, de- 
 claring that no man cometh unto the Father, but 
 by the Son ; and unhesitatingly proclaiming to all 
 others who would climb up some other way, " Ye 
 know not what ye worship." They are the true 
 circumcision, who, seeking and following the guid- 
 ance of the Spirit, in the instructions of the Holy 
 Scriptures, believe that this God is, and is the 
 rewarder of all who diligently seek Him. They 
 worship God in the Spirit, because they worship 
 God as the Spirit has revealed Him. 
 
 But the work of the Holy Spirit in the worship 
 of the people of God, goes beyond the mere pro- 
 vision of written instruction upon this subject. 
 The Apostle teaches us, that there is an actual, 
 personal aid of the Holy Spirit in the believer's 
 prayer ; an imparting of divine power, an inward 
 
316 THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 support of experienced infirmities, a communica- 
 tion of knowledge and wisdom, most important to 
 the ignorance which he feels, and to the blindness 
 of which he is conscious. The Spirit creates the 
 state of mind which calls for prayer; the appe- 
 tite, consciousness, feeling which must pray. He 
 makes our burdens heavy, so that we cannot bear 
 them; our dangers and difficulties great, so that 
 we cannot force our way through them ; our sor- 
 rows many, so that we are oppressed by them. 
 Then, because we feel wretched, guilty, lost, help- 
 less and undone, we pray, we must pray. He 
 shows us how fully God has provided for our 
 wants; the perfect and adapted sufficiency of His 
 redemption to meet our case. He makes us feel, 
 that we must have just what Christ possesses ; 
 and to see, that Christ possesses, just what we 
 need. He convinces us of sin in ourselves, and 
 of righteousness in Him. He brings us to His fin- 
 ished perfect work of merit, to cast the incense of 
 our worship upon the glowing fire of His righteous- 
 ness, that the Father may receive the sweet savour 
 of that offering, and look upon the face of His 
 Anointed, and extend through Him, the riches of 
 His grace to us. Then we worship in the Spirit. 
 He dictates the prayer we utter. He moves and 
 melts the heart which utters it. He writes upon 
 our souls, the record of judgment and mercy, 
 which we need and feel. And our prayer be- 
 comes the effectual inwrought prayer of the justi- 
 fied man, which availeth much. We are then the 
 true circumcision who worship God in the Spirit. 
 Spiritual worship has reference farther, to the 
 
THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 317 
 
 inward seat of worship, in opposition to the mere 
 worship in outward form. It is worship with the 
 heart, and not with the lips and words only. The 
 same Spirit who has revealed the object, and aided 
 the infirmities of our worship, prepares the heart, 
 and makes it active and earnest, in the sacred 
 engagement to which it has thus been brought. 
 Vain and worthless are all the costly oblations of 
 outward prayer and praise, when offered by them- 
 selves. The publican's secret cry, " God be mer- 
 ciful to me a sinner," gushing forth from the full 
 fountain of a broken heart ; — the faint and half- 
 formed whisper of the soul that first sees, in Jesus, 
 a remedy for its conscious guilt, " Lord, remember 
 me in thy kingdom ;" — the lowly anxious call of the 
 sinner who feels himself sinking in the waves of 
 condemnation, "Lord, save me, or I perish;" — far 
 outweigh them all. O there is a piercing power 
 in prayer like this ! Every throb of such a heart 
 is felt in heaven. Every groan from such a spirit 
 ascends like celestial music to the throne of God. 
 This broken, unearthly dialect is there thoroughly 
 understood. The Spirit recognizes the formation 
 of his power. The Son acknowledges this travail- 
 ing soul as the happy and desired reward of the 
 sorrow^s of his own soul in the flesh. The Father 
 welcomes this object of earth's neglect, as a shin- 
 ing jewel in the crown of his beloved Son, in 
 whom he is well pleased. And there is joy in 
 the presence of the angels of God, when it can be 
 said thus of the returning sinner, the heart-broken 
 penitent, the humble, self-renouncing believer, 
 " Behold he prayeth." They who stay not in the 
 
318 THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 outward form of words, but thus speak from the 
 real experience of the heart to God, are the true 
 circumcision who thus worship God in the Spirit. 
 
 But we must take a further step, while we say, 
 that to worship God in the Spirit, intimates the 
 actual state and action of this heart in prayer ; in 
 opposition to all coldness, indifference, or listless 
 unconcern, in our approach to God. Spiritual 
 prayer is fervent, animated, engrossing prayer. 
 When the burden presses heavily, and the case 
 seems instant and all-important, and the way is 
 open, and the Saviour is near, and the blessing 
 seems just ready to be given, then the soul is en- 
 gaged in its work. It is deaf to outward sounds, 
 and blind to sights abroad. It is dead to earth, 
 and alive to God. It is doing a great work, and 
 cannot come down to the trifles which are perish- 
 ing while they are used. It is with Abraham in 
 the mount, and with Moses in the cloud, and per- 
 sons and things below are forgotten and left be- 
 hind. Oh, how precious and important, are even 
 moments like these, while the King is seen in His 
 beauty, and liberty of access is found unto God in 
 Christ. This is the state of a renewed heart in 
 the lively actings of its grace. And though the 
 people of God have not this blessed state of mind 
 as a permanent state, yet are they favored often 
 with these precious visitations of the Holy Spirit, 
 — and learn for their enjoyment to prize them 
 most highly, and to wish that it were always thus 
 with them. They are thus excited and encour- 
 aged to desire the constant dominion of the Holy 
 Ghost within them ; so that they may, not only in 
 
THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 319 
 
 the object whom the Spirit reveals, and the prayer 
 which the Spirit imparts, and the renewed heart, 
 in which he writes for them, and reads to them, 
 this prayer of faith ; but also in the constant fer- 
 vency and love of this praying heart, in its most 
 animated and holy state, worship God who is a 
 Spirit, in spirit and in truth. 
 
 This is a short and partial exhibition of spiritual 
 worship ; one of the marks and characteristics of 
 the true circumcision, — the real people of God. 
 O my friends, what do you know of this ? Have 
 you thus been led up into the mount, where God 
 meets his people ? Try your secret prayers by this 
 standard. Try your united public prayers by this. 
 There may be many together ; but God is looking 
 upon, and regarding the heart of each, as if he were 
 entirely alone. Spiritual worship is not a partner- 
 ship in a common offering, of which even the gen- 
 eral character may be, that it is sincere and spir- 
 itual, that will render your worship acceptable, as 
 if the fervency of some would make up for the 
 dullness of others. It is your own personal, indi- 
 vidual condition and offering which is alone to be 
 regarded. If Jesus be in the assembly for you, he 
 is dwelling personally within you. If the work of 
 the Spirit be in the outward congregation, it must 
 be experienced in your own heart to be of any 
 avail to yourself. The Pharisee and the Publican 
 prayed together in the same temple, at the same 
 hour and offering of worship. The one went down 
 to his house justified; the other did not. O test 
 and see the character of your prayers. If you are 
 the true circumcision, you are taught to worship 
 
320 THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 God in the Spirit ; and do habitually thus draw 
 nigh to him. Still again, my friends, what do you 
 desire to know of this ? Here is laid before you 
 one of the marks of God's family. Would you 
 have your inheritance with them ? Come, then, 
 Christ is the way. The Spirit gives the desire, 
 and will give you the ability to walk in it. Go to 
 the exalted Saviour ; tell him your wants. If your 
 heart really feels, you will find words for prayer. 
 Your words may be few and broken; but they are 
 as intelligible as the cry of the young ravens, and 
 God heareth them. He understands the language 
 of the heart, and never rejects it, when it speaks 
 in desires toward himself This is the real char- 
 acter of man. As a man thinketh in his heart, so 
 is he. Go with your heart to God the Saviour. 
 You cannot go except the Spirit lead you. When 
 you do go, it is the blessed, living proof, that God 
 is teaching and guiding you for himself, with a di- 
 vine power which can never fail. Then you are 
 no longer the " concision," rejected with evil 
 workers, and with dogs who are without, but are 
 the true circumcision, worshipping God in the 
 Spirit, rejoicing in Christ Jesus, and having no 
 confidence in the flesh. 
 
XXII. 
 
 THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 Phillippians iii. 3. — We are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, 
 and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. 
 
 Three marks are here given of the church of the 
 living God ; spiritual worship, single joy in Christ, 
 and total renunciation of self. They are the desig- 
 nations of that true people, who are the habitation 
 of God through the Spirit. There is an outward 
 transitory church united together in the bonds of 
 external profession and ordinances. And there is 
 a spiritual, living, everlasting church bound to- 
 gether in that heavenly fellowship in Christ, which 
 outward ordinances are designed to illustrate. 
 A sacrament is defined by our church to be " an 
 outward visible sign of an inward spiritual grace 
 given to us." The union in the outward visible 
 sign indicates the visible professing church of 
 Christ. The possession of " the inward spiritual 
 grace" distinguishes the spiritual body, which is 
 the true and abiding church. If these two went 
 certainly and uniformly together, the outward and 
 
322 THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 the spiritual church, the earthly and the heavenly 
 church, would be always precisely the same. But 
 our church teaches us from the Scriptures, that 
 there is no indissoluble union between these two ; 
 declaring, in the 25th article, that " in such only 
 as worthily receive the sacraments, have they a 
 wholesome effect and operation;" and announcing 
 in the 29th article, that " such as be void of a lively 
 faith, although they do press with their teeth, the 
 sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, yet in 
 no wise are they partakers in Christ ;" and in our 
 communion office teaching us to pray that we who 
 shall be partakers of the outward rite, " may also 
 worthily receive the most precious body and blood 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ, be filled with His grace 
 and heavenly benediction, and made one body 
 with Him, so that He may dwell in us, and we in 
 Him;" and then to give thanks, that the due re- 
 ceiving these holy mysteries is the assurance that 
 we are really members of the mystical body of our 
 Lord, which is the blessed company of all faithful 
 people. There is, then, a spiritual church which is 
 not identical with the outward visible church, the 
 graces of which, outward ordinances are intended 
 to signify, and to a participation of which outward 
 ordinances are designed to lead. Just the relation 
 which the scaffolding sustains to the building, or 
 the portico to the dwelling, does the earthly visi- 
 ble church sustain to this spiritual, abiding church. 
 Of this spiritual church, the true circumcision, the 
 characteristics are given in our text. 
 
 Having considered the first of these marks, I 
 purpose now to pass to a consideration of the sec- 
 
THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 323 
 
 ond, — Joy in Christ Jesus. The true people of God 
 are a joyful people. Whatever other characteris- 
 tics may mark their condition, their joy is a pecu- 
 liar and habitual one. "We are the circumcision 
 who rejoice." The Epistle from which these 
 words are taken, is full of the expressions of joy, 
 as the mind of the apostle himself, and as his view 
 of the becoming spirit for those to whom he wrote. 
 In the 1st chapter, 4th verse, he tells them that 
 in every prayer of his for them, he made request 
 with joy. In the 18th verse he declares that his 
 present state was rejoicing, and he determined 
 that this should be his continuing mind, — " I do 
 rejoice, yea, and I will rejoice." In the 2nd chap- 
 ter, 2nd verse, he intreats them to give him new 
 reason for joy, and to unite with him in the same 
 spirit : " Fulfil ye my joy ; be like-minded, having 
 the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." 
 In the 3rd chapter, 1st verse, his repeated pre- 
 cept is, " Finally, brethren, rejoice in the Lord." 
 In the 4th chapter, 4th verse, he yet again en- 
 forces the same precept : " Rejoice in the Lord 
 always : and again I say Rejoice." In the 10th 
 verse he announces of himself, " I rejoiced in the 
 Lord greatly." In the ISth verse he says again, 
 " I have all and abound ; I am full ; my God shall 
 supply all your need, according to his riches in 
 glory, by Christ Jesus." What an elevated, pecu- 
 liar mind is this ! And who is it among the sons 
 of Adam who thus writes ? Why, mark again, 
 1st chapter, 13th verse, he is a prisoner in chains; 
 a prisoner for the very cause in which he thus re- 
 joices. His devotion to this cause has already cost 
 
324 THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 him the loss of all earthly things. " My bonds in 
 Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all 
 other places." He is a literary, intelligent, highly- 
 educated, refined and sensitive man, perfectly in- 
 nocent of crime, reduced to the condition of a con- 
 vict in public degradation. Whether the issue of 
 this confinement shall be liberty or public execu- 
 tion, he declares himself wholly unable to say. 
 And yet, under the burden of this suspense, with 
 the most fearful shapes of death before him, he 
 says, " If I be offered a sacrifice, upon the service 
 or offering of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you 
 all." What strange notes of music are these to 
 come forth from a dungeon's walls ! W^hat a strange 
 condition to select, as an illustration of the power 
 of a Christian's joy ! How justly may the man who 
 possesses this blessed spirit, — who, though he is 
 left without earthly sympathy, and must say of his 
 companions, " I have no man like-minded, for all 
 seek their own, not the things which are Jesus 
 Christ's," yet can also say, " Not that I speak in 
 respect of want, for I have learned in whatso- 
 ever state I am, therewith to be content. I can 
 do all things through Christ that strengtheneth 
 me." How justly may he say, "We are the cir- 
 cumcision who rejoice in Christ Jesus !" But this 
 joyful spirit was not peculiar to this apostle. It is 
 the spirit of the people of Christ ; the mind which 
 he imparts to them, and the duty which he re- 
 quires from them, in the exercise of this imparted 
 mind. They are often under a peculiar pressure 
 of trials. Deprivations have successively swept 
 away precious portions of their earthly inheritance. 
 
THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 325 
 
 Sorrows have heaped their mountains upon their 
 heads. Clouds and darkness have shrouded their 
 earthly prospects; and often deep midnight in 
 their condition makes surrounding landscapes un- 
 distinguishable and unnoticed. And yet they re- 
 joice in the lot of their inheritance. Far heavier 
 burdens have been removed, and far deeper sor- 
 rows have been relieved, and strange as may seem 
 their path and choice to those who have never 
 entered into their secret life, the reproach of Christ 
 is for them a happier portion than the treasures of 
 the world ; and the afflictions of the people of God 
 have attractions far transcending the temporary 
 pleasures of sin. They groan under the burden of 
 inward guilt. They are wearied with carrying 
 within them a body of death. They sigh for the 
 final conquest over enemies. They long intensely 
 for an abode of peace ; and yet, the heart that is thus 
 sorrowful, is at the same time, and notwithstanding 
 this, always rejoicing. This is at once a privilege 
 bestowed, and a duty required. It brings before us, 
 therefore, a note of actual character, and a stand- 
 ard for trial. Look into the state of your own 
 minds. Search what manner of spirits ye are of. 
 Do you find an inward abiding joy as your portion ? 
 Have you an actual inheritance, hedged as it may 
 be with thorns, which you would not exchange 
 for all the mirth of earth's prosperity, and all the 
 grandeur of its gain ? Do you realize the duty of 
 being happy ; the obligation, as well as the privi- 
 lege of serving the Lord without fear, and walking 
 before him with a free, thankful, and happy spirit ? 
 This is a line of requirement as well as privilege. 
 
326 THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 You cannot be too happy in the service of the Re- 
 deemer ^vhom you love, and in whom you believe. 
 It must remain ever the mark of his people, " We 
 are the circumcision who rejoice in Christ Jesus." 
 It is joy in the possession of a peculiar object, a 
 treasure of incalculable and inexhaustible worth. 
 We rejoice in Christ Jesus. The peculiarity here, 
 is in the object selected. All joy is the result of 
 the possession of a desired object. It is necessa- 
 rily proportioned to the estimation which is formed 
 and cherished of the object desired. The be- 
 stowal of no gift would promote the joy of him 
 who had no value affixed to the thing received, 
 and no adaptation of mind and feeling to its pos- 
 session. The bird who scratched the rejected 
 diamond from the earth, would have rejoiced in 
 the finding of a single grain of corn. The people 
 of God rejoice in Christ Jesus. They have formed 
 the highest conception of the Saviour's worth. 
 They see in the revelation of Him, the attributes 
 and powers which are most of all desirable and 
 important to them. When therefore He is actually 
 bestowed upon them as their own, they find a joy 
 in the actual possession of Him, in exact proportion 
 to their previous estimation of His excellence and 
 value. This is the uniform measure of the Christian's 
 joy, and its absence accounts most justly for the 
 fact, that so many professing Christians rejoice so 
 little. The single question, " What is thy Beloved 
 more than another's beloved ?" goes to the root of 
 this matter. And the answer of the mind to the 
 demand, will measure the joy of the heart in giv- 
 ing it. A mere teacher of duty, a revealer of 
 
THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 327 
 
 truth, a high and holy pattern of human excel- 
 lence, will command the homage of my reason, and 
 compel my reverence and respect. But to touch my 
 heart, to strike the deep fountains of joy which lie 
 buried in my sluggish spirit, requires something far 
 beyond this. And because so many see nothing 
 beyond this in the Lord Jesus, — realize no per- 
 sonal connection between Him and them, — under- 
 stand no special needs which He alone can heal, 
 and no special gifts which have been received 
 from Him alone, — His name kindles no fire in their 
 hearts, and the glorious excellence of Himself, as 
 a possession, excites not the spirit which can 
 say " Herein I do rejoice, yea, and I will re- 
 joice." 
 
 But O, how different is the estimation of the 
 true people of God ! In their view, the Saviour is 
 chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely : 
 and when the divine gift makes this Saviour their 
 own portion forever, their joy in the possession is 
 in proportion to their measurement of His worth. 
 They rejoice in what he is in Himself, and in what 
 He has become to them. A load of just condemnation 
 rested upon them, and He assumed the burden upon 
 Himself, and said " Spare them, for I have found a 
 ransom." Everlasting death was the wages of 
 their sin ; and He, by His own death, abolished 
 death, and him that had the power of death, and 
 delivered them who, through fear of death, were 
 held in bondage. Total destitution of merit and 
 obedience shut them out from the presence of a 
 Holy God, and He was made under the law for 
 them, fulfilled its righteousness in their behalf, and 
 
328 THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 proclaimed peace from God to them who were afar 
 off. Continued weakness exposes them to the 
 power of every enemy. But He is head over all 
 things for them, and will suffer no one to pluck 
 them out of His hand. Their Redeemer is mighty, 
 and ever liveth, al3le to save unto the uttermost, 
 those who come unto God through Him. But who 
 is this? And what is their Beloved more than an- 
 other's beloved ? He is God manifest in the flesh. 
 He is the High and Lofty One who inhabiteth 
 eternity, dwelling in a lowly and contrite man. 
 He is the Great Jehovah, who filleth all things, in 
 the likeness of a suffering, dying man. He is Je- 
 sus, because he is a Saviour. He is Christ, because 
 he has been anointed for this mighty work, and 
 accepted and crowned for its triumphant comple- 
 tion. 
 
 O, there is a power here to arouse the deepest 
 and the most abiding joy. And when the sinner 
 sees the sacrifice upon the cross ; and the guilty 
 reads the pardon written there in atoning blood ; 
 and the creature is brought, in all his weakness, to 
 the very throne of the Creator; and the dying 
 rebel is made to see that he is a living son ; and 
 the dungeon is closed, and the home of peace in- 
 vites him to an immortal dwelling-place with God 
 as his Father; then the soul becomes fledged with 
 wings of rapture ; and an angel's tongue seems 
 feeble, to tell the unutterable blessings which it 
 has received, in this amazing God-man, who has 
 brought it into communion with Himself, and made 
 it one with Him, in destiny and hope forever. It 
 is joy in Christ Jesus; — ^joy that there is such a 
 
THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 329 
 
 being ; — ^joy that God and man are thus united for 
 the salvation of a perishing race ; — ^joy that He has 
 finished the work which was given Him to do ; — 
 joy that He remains the same, yesterday, to-day, 
 and forever. Every testimony of the Holy Spirit 
 in the word, to His excellence in majesty and 
 power; every revelation of the riches of divine 
 grace and glory in Him; every verse of Sacred 
 Scripture which assures of His ability to save, 
 His love for sinners, and His everlasting life for 
 the benefit of His people ; awakens and increases 
 this joy. And when the Bible speaks of Him in se- 
 cret, and when the living ambassador proclaims the 
 unsearchable riches of His grace, — ^joy, new joy, 
 — real, increasing, flowing joy, comes in upon the 
 soul of the child of God ; and he realizes the truth 
 of the testimony, " We are the circumcision, which 
 rejoice in Christ Jesus." No other intelligence 
 sweeps the cords of his heart with such a master 
 hand. No other name sends a thrill like this 
 throughout his reviving soul. The annunciation 
 of no other being so awakens his affections, to go 
 forth in bands, to meet the approaching guest, and 
 make him welcome. 
 
 But we take a step beyond this, when we say it 
 is not only joy in what Christ is, but also joy in 
 what He is to us. " We are the circumcision, who 
 rejoice i7i Christ Jesus." That is, not only in Him 
 as an object, but iti Him, as our own condition, in 
 our relation to Him, our interest in Him, our por- 
 tion with Him. This seems at once and evidently, 
 necessary to make the former point complete. 
 How can I rejoice in an object which is in no de- 
 
330 THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 gree my own ? an object in which I have no par- 
 ticipation ? While I am perishing in poverty, can 
 I rejoice in the wealth which is pouring into the 
 rich man's doors, who dwells by my side ? When 
 my strength is famished, and my marrow dried up 
 with hunger, can I rejoice in the fulness of bread 
 which I see loading the table of another, of which 
 no crumb is imparted to me 1 As well, then, might 
 there be joy in hell, when sinners are saved, as 
 in heaven, of which they are to partake. The 
 people of God rejoice in Christ Jesus, because He 
 is their own. The Holy Spirit in his gracious 
 ministrations, has taken of His gifts, and shown 
 them unto them, and made them to discern them, 
 as the things which are freely given them of God. 
 They realize their right to love Him, and to enjoy 
 His love, as the gift of God to lost sinners, to be 
 as complete as their right to the rain and the sun- 
 shine of the heavens. They hesitate not con- 
 stantly to improve and enjoy this right, to which 
 they are so freely and urgently invited by Him- 
 self. The blessed Spirit in the written word, 
 calls and promises, and offers gifts which are with- 
 out repentance to all who will receive them. 
 And as they read and meditate upon these free 
 and gracious provisions of love for man, there is a 
 secret witness in their heart, which testifies all 
 these are theirs ; and they are conscious of that 
 feeling towards them, and of that real interest in 
 them, which is only to be awakened by the pos- 
 session of things which are our own. This is the 
 work of the Spirit writing the testimony of Christ 
 upon the heart. They look back to the time, 
 
THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 331 
 
 when, from their condition of vohmtary unbelief 
 and selfish love of the world, they were brought 
 as sinners, condemned and helpless, to the Sa- 
 viour's feet. They realize, that, however infirm 
 and sinful they still are, a mighty change has been 
 wrought within them, which is not of the flesh, 
 nor of the will of man, but of God. They have 
 hopes, and sensibilities, and fears, and desires, 
 and purposes, to which their nature was an entire 
 stranger. They have had conquests wrought in 
 them, and over them, which they have never 
 achieved for themselves. They have a hatred of 
 transgression, and a love and desire for conformity 
 to God, which no enemy to God could ever have 
 bestowed upon them. They are really leaning 
 upon Christ, and hoping in Him alone. They 
 pray, and read, and hear, as they once could not. 
 The great treasure for which they continually 
 long, is that glorious Saviour Himself, v.'hose beauty 
 they have, in some degree, seen in the sanctuary. 
 O could they live wholly by faith, dead to eartli, 
 and the world dead to them, it would be all their 
 desire, and the very joy of their hearts ! Blessed 
 testimony, the witness of the Spirit with their 
 spirits, that they are the children of God ! But 
 who hath wrought all this? Who visited them 
 when they were afar off, and sought them when 
 they were lost, and has taught them all their 
 need, and made them to desire the full riches of 
 his power and glory ? It is Christ, and Christ 
 alone, that their souls hang themselves upon. They 
 put every crown upon Him, and ascribe to Him all 
 the glory ; and while they hope in His everlasting 
 
332 THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 righteousness and power, and look for the time 
 when they shall see Him as He is, their joy is in 
 Him alone, thus made unto them of God wisdom, 
 and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemp- 
 tion. They are able to say with entire sincerity, 
 My Beloved is mine, and I am His. Realizing the 
 spiritual origin of this single joy in Christ Jesus, as 
 the gift of His grace, and the work of His Spirit, 
 they can humbly, but justly, unite with the testi- 
 mony of the apostle, "We are^the circumcision, 
 which rejoice in Christ Jesus." 
 
 This is a note of spiritual character, and a stand- 
 ard for personal trial. Are we thus living upon 
 Christ ? Is He our bread, our meat, our living foun- 
 tain ? When we are happy, are we happy in Him ? 
 Can anything make us happy when He is absent ? 
 How wretched and transitory will be all other joy 
 but this ! Our brightest pleasures, our richest gains, 
 will be but the winding sheet of bitter, piercing 
 recollections around our lonely, guilty spirits, 
 when God calls us to His throne, if we have not 
 this joy in Christ. They will not have perished, 
 but they will have become the embers of an eter- 
 nal fire, which the judgment of the Most High 
 shall fan into an instant and unending flame. O 
 how great is tlie folly of the joys of earth as they 
 are seen and examined, in the long-told expe- 
 rience of eternity ! What is the hope of the sinner, 
 though he hath gained, when God taketh away 
 his soul ? Consider this, ye that forget God, lest 
 He take you away in his vengeance, when none 
 can deliver you. What will you do — what can 
 you do, without a sure possession in Christ Jesus, 
 when God maketh inquisition for your sins ? 
 
XXIII. 
 
 THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 Philippians iii. 3. — We are tfw circumcision, %ohich worship God in the Spirit, 
 and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the fi^sh. 
 
 The third mark of the spiritual church of God 
 is the point which is oifered to our present con- 
 sideration. It is a total renunciation of self, — " We 
 have no confidence in the flesh." It is hardly ne- 
 cessary to dwell much upon the fact that the term 
 jiesli here, can have no limited reference to the 
 material body of man. It describes his whole 
 natural condition as a sinful fallen being-. It in- 
 cludes all possible advantages and benefits which 
 may arise from this state, through the exercise of 
 its own powers merely, or by any attainment of its 
 own wisdom and strength. Whatever appertains 
 peculiarly to man's mortal condition, or is a part 
 of man's present state of being, either as an inher- 
 ited, or as an acquired advantage, must be consid- 
 ered as constituting a part of that concrete charac- 
 ter which St. Paul here calls the flesh, and all 
 confidence in which he entirely renounces, in the 
 
334 THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 name of the true circumcision, the real people of 
 God. He explains his meaning of the term very 
 much at large, in the several succeeding verses, — 
 " Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. 
 If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof 
 he might trust in the flesh, I more : circumcised 
 the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe 
 of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as 
 touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, 
 persecuting the church ; touching the righteousness 
 which is in the law, blameless. But what things 
 were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ." 
 In his view, whatever might be considered gain to 
 man, in his natural condition, as a sinful being, 
 alienated from God, and without hope in Him, was 
 a part of the flesh which was to be renounced, by 
 the heart which would truly worship God in the 
 Spirit, or really rejoice in Christ Jesus. It is not, 
 then, man's dying body in opposition to his undy- 
 ing soul, which is to be given up ; but man's own 
 attainments, character and possessions, in opposi- 
 tion to the gifts of the grace of God. " What things 
 were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ." 
 It is man's own self in opposition to an offered and 
 provided Saviour ; and this total renunciation of 
 self, as a foundation for confidence in his religious 
 hopes and prospects, becomes with spiritual wor- 
 ship and single joy in Christ, the peculiar mark 
 and characteristic of the people of God. They 
 have no confidence in the flesh. 
 
 To consider this subject adequately, we may 
 regard it in a retrospective and a prospective view. 
 In looking back upon life that is past, the true 
 
THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 335 
 
 circumcision liave no confidence in the flesh. They 
 wholly renounce all that is their own, as a founda- 
 tion for hope of acceptance before God. In look- 
 ing forward to the life which is to come, and the 
 duties which are yet to be performed, as the ser- 
 vants and subjects of the Lord of Hosts, they have 
 no confidence in the flesh. They wholly renounce 
 all strength and power of their own as the means 
 by which they may obey the will of God. There 
 is much in these two views to attract the confi- 
 dence of man toward works of his own ; and the 
 unrenewed in heart, ignorant of the perfect holi- 
 ness of God, and of the deceitfulness and plague 
 of their own nature, are deluded to place all their 
 confidence in the works and power of self, — in the 
 flesh. They accordingly walk and live wholly by 
 sight and sense, and not by faith. 
 
 Confidence in the flesh is confidence in the works 
 of unregenerate man as in some degree valuable 
 and acceptable in his relation to God. This sys- 
 tem of judgment looks upon two men who are 
 equally, by their own confession, still unconverted 
 by the Holy Spirit, but whose life and character 
 have been marked by very different measures of 
 outward transgression, and are, therefore, desig- 
 nated by very different epithets among men, as 
 standing also in very different corresponding rela- 
 tions to God. It supposes, if they should both be- 
 come renewed by the Spirit of God, the one would 
 have far more that was excellent to bring to God, 
 and far less to renounce before God, than the other : 
 the one would possess works upon which he might 
 look back with some degree of satisfaction as 
 
336 THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 something of his own of value in the Divine eye, 
 of which the other was wholly destitute. And 
 though it might hesitate, perhaps, to call this, actual 
 merit in the sight of God, it would not hesitate to 
 feel that it was a measure of excellence which was 
 to be regarded, and which God certainly would 
 not despise. It would view this supposed personal 
 excellence as a lessening, in some degree, the ac- 
 tual dependence upon grace, and an attainment of 
 something that went greatly toward the salvation 
 of the soul ; so that such a man might feel justly 
 thankful that he needed less to be forgiven, and 
 was therefore under less obligation to Divine 
 mercy than another who was more manifestly 
 guilty in human eyes, and whose character was 
 registered in far deeper lines of apparent depravity 
 among men. From such a view of the character 
 of man, the true circumcision separate themselves 
 entirely. All the merit and excellence of the 
 works of nature they utterly renounce. What- 
 ever has been the restraint or the regularity of 
 their unconverted life, however removed from the 
 stains of disgraceful guilt, or the pollutions of open 
 profligacy, they feel themselves to be wholly des- 
 titute of any works which God can accept or re- 
 gard in his judgment of them. They see in them- 
 selves secret sins enough to overbalance this sup- 
 posed freedom from outward transgressions. They 
 are consciously shut out from all thoughts of a 
 boastful character as they compare themselves 
 with other men. They are brought to the seat of 
 Divine mercy, the throne of grace, in the mere at- 
 titude of needy suppliants, imploring the exercise 
 
THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 337 
 
 of love which they could never have deserved, and 
 mercy of which they feel themselves to be alto- 
 gether unworthy. At this point of their history, 
 in an utter death to sin and self, they cast them- 
 selves upon the boundless compassion of God to 
 the guilty, seeing in themselves nothing but guilt; 
 and every thought and feeling of their souls unites 
 in the solemn confession before God, — We have no 
 confidence in the flesh. 
 
 Confidence in the flesh again assumes a more 
 refined position than this. If there be nothing in 
 unregenerate man, actually acceptable to God, so 
 that he is wholly a sinner in the Divine eye, there 
 is surely a character in returning, penitent man, 
 which is to be regarded and valued. When he 
 acknowledges his transgressions, and with a heavy 
 and mourning spirit, comes to ask forgiveness of 
 his sins, there must be a worth in his repentance, 
 in which he may, in some degree, be allowed to 
 rest. The more he grieves and suffers in sorrow 
 for sin, certainly the more acceptable he must be 
 in the sight of God. The tears he sheds, and the 
 sighs and groans he utters, must have a value be- 
 fore God, which is not to be rejected, or put out of 
 view. Thus this self-confiding spirit argues. And, 
 accordingly, it measures the right to hope for par- 
 don by the extent of conscious suffering for sin, 
 and, on the other hand, drives to a despair of for- 
 giveness those whose hearts are less moved, and 
 the fountains of whose sorrows seem less deeply 
 opened. It is willing to renounce all excellence 
 of previous character ; but it makes a righteous- 
 ness out of sorrow for sin, which it was unable to 
 
 15 
 
338 THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 form out of apparent separation from sin. Instead 
 of bringing the soul directly to the completely fin- 
 ished work of the divine Lord, to find all its hope, 
 and all its reasons for hope, in that which he has 
 done, it teaches man that the reason for his par- 
 don is in his own repentance. It turns him away 
 from Jesus to look upon himself It makes all his 
 inward, religious character, to consist, not in the 
 resting of his soul upon the glorious sufficiency of 
 a Saviour, but in the changing states and feelings 
 of his own experience, the ebbing and flowing of 
 the tides of his own emotions. All this is as cer- 
 tainly confidence in the flesh, as the resting of the 
 soul for hope upon previous works of righteousness 
 which we have done, in our natural state, and by 
 our natural strength. The true circumcision en- 
 tirely renounce it. However deeply and really 
 they mourn under the burden of their guilt, they 
 feel themselves in no degree the better because 
 they are sorrowful, or having the more right to 
 hope because their spirits are broken and contrite. 
 They fly from their repentance as cordially as they 
 fly from their sins. They still desire and seek to 
 think only of a Saviour's finished righteousness and 
 power, as the reason for God's mercy to them. 
 The burden of their prayer is not. Look upon our 
 sorrow, for it is great, but, Look upon the face of 
 thine anointed, O Lord, and have mercy upon us, 
 for we have no confidence in the flesh. 
 
 But confidence in the flesh travels far beyond 
 this. Is man never improving in the sight of God ? 
 it asks. Allow his unregenerate life to be nothing, 
 and his sorrow for its guilt, and his amendment of 
 
THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. * 339 
 
 personal character to be of no worth ? Surely, 
 when he has pressed forward in the path of life, 
 and has received the gifts, and brought forth the 
 fruits of the Spirit — when his life is adorned with 
 all the graces of a divine character, and is closely 
 conformed to Him who was holy, harmless, unde- 
 filed, and separate from sinners, — when the irrita- 
 ble passions of his corrupt nature have been sub- 
 dued, and his soul becomes matured for glory, and 
 meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, — 
 then there must be something in him which is 
 praiseworthy and excellent. You will not say of 
 such an one, whose mind is so irradiated with 
 truth, and whose affections are so engaged in the 
 single worship and love of God, that he is nothing 
 still ? Beloved, what shall we reply to a demand 
 like this ? Surely, only that which St. Paul avows, 
 " I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth 
 no good thing :" — " Not as though I had already at- 
 tained, either were already made perfect, but this 
 one thing I do, forgetting those things which are 
 behind, and reaching forth unto those things which 
 are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize 
 of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." The 
 true circumcision are perfectly settled in mind 
 upon this great subject. Though in the view of 
 others they may be rich in good works, in their 
 own view they are destitute, unholy, and unclean. 
 They turn from everything that is their own in 
 their last hour, just as anxiously as they did in 
 their first. Their consciousness of sin deepens and 
 extends, in the degree in which they grow up in 
 the likeness of God. They undoubtedly discern 
 
340 ' THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 a gracious improvement in their own character, 
 but they also discern deeper and more hidden 
 evils lying uncorrected still. Their need for 
 mercy to unrighteousness, and of grace for guilt, 
 is still entire. The works of the Divine Spirit in 
 them, so far as they proceed from Him, are perfect. 
 But even all these are corrupted and perverted by 
 their owai selfishness and sin ; and, so far as they 
 become their own works, are feeble and worthless. 
 Looking at the whole history of life, from its be- 
 ginning to its close, they feel this humbling view 
 of their own character to be the state of mind 
 which is divinely wrought in them. They strive 
 for a spirit of total renunciation of self. They are 
 constrained to say, and they feel able to say. We 
 are the circumcision, which have no confidence in 
 the flesh. Their own works furnish neither foun- 
 dation for hope, nor reason for hope ; but simply 
 evidences to others that they are really possessors 
 of a lively and glorious hope, a hope which is given 
 to them freely, in the death and resurrection of 
 their glorious Lord. The testimony of this hope 
 to themselves is in the witness of His Spirit, bear- 
 ing witness with their spirit, and leading them to 
 the very state of mind which is described by the 
 apostle in these words, " Worshipping God in the 
 Spirit, rejoicing in Christ Jesus, and having no con- 
 fidence in the flesh." 
 
 Confidence in the flesh takes a prospective view 
 of duty to be performed, as well as a retrospective 
 view of duty already fulfilled. In looking forward 
 to future duty, it magnifies the sufficiency of hu- 
 man strength, exalts the power of man's own re- 
 
THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 341 
 
 sistance of evil, and leads to promises and resolu- 
 tions of duty rather than to simple believing, self- 
 renouncing prayer for strength, and renewal from 
 God alone. Ignorant of the entire weakness of 
 man, and of the strength of the evils which beset 
 him, it forms future plans of conduct and life with- 
 out reference to the fact that all our sufficiency for 
 good is from God ; that He must work all our works 
 within us, if they are to be honorable or accepta- 
 ble to Him. Its uniform result is, therefore, w-oful 
 disappointment, discouragement, and despondency. 
 The mountain which stood so strong on one day, 
 on the next is completely and easily overthrown. 
 The enemy has come on so fast, and so powerfully, 
 that all resistance has proved in vain. The man 
 whose resolutions were formed with sincere deter- 
 mination, finds himself shattered and despairing, 
 under the discovered and fearful power of the evil 
 within. How much disappointment and distress 
 arises from this vain confidence in the power of the 
 flesh, many of you may bitterly feel. We have not 
 room here particularly to describe it. This wdiole 
 spirit and mind, the true circumcision entirely re- 
 nounce. They are taught, by the Holy Ghost, to 
 realize that their strength is all in God. Their life 
 and powder are hidden with Him. They conquer by 
 faith and prayer. They cast themselves, in con- 
 scious w^eakness, upon Him wdio is mighty to save. 
 They feel His strength made perfect in their weak- 
 ness. In humble confidence, they repose upon His 
 sufficiency, and rely upon his leading and guidance. 
 While they do this they walk forward in peaceful- 
 ness and security. The everlasting arms are un- 
 
342 THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 der them; and the power of God is abundantly 
 competent to overrule and protect them. Their 
 hope of perseverance is founded upon the certainty 
 of the Divine promise. God hath made an ever- 
 lasting covenant with them, in all things well- 
 ordered and sure. He must be true. He cannot, 
 therefore, fail them or forsake them. He that hath 
 begun a good work in them, will carry it on, unto 
 the day of the Lord Jesus. In looking forward to 
 eternity, they hope, in the enjoyment often of a 
 bright and glorious hope. But it is wholly resting 
 upon what God is able to do for them, who hath 
 himself become their salvation, and bids them to 
 look unto Him, and trust, and not be afraid. As 
 each day of their pilgrimage successively passes 
 away, they feel themselves secretly and blessedly 
 upheld, by a Divine power which is all-sufficient 
 for their need, ever flowing in for their comfort, 
 and constantly sustaining and encouraging them in 
 the race in which they are engaged. As they look 
 forward to future duties, and future trials, they are 
 still confident, quietly hoping and waiting for the 
 salvation of God ; sure that every day will as cer- 
 tainly bring its grace as its cares, and its gifts as 
 its demands. There is a living power in this trust- 
 ing, self-renouncing spirit, which is perfectly elas- 
 tic under all the burdens of life ; lifting up the 
 heart in joy and peace amidst all its trials; and 
 causing the weary and heavy laden to sing for joy, 
 in the assurance that He who hath loved them and 
 given Himself for them, will give them the victory. 
 This total renunciation of self, and of human power, 
 brings them directly to the throne of God ; gives 
 
THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 343 
 
 them spiritual fellowship with Him, and marks 
 them, in their own experience, as the true circum- 
 cision which worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in 
 Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. 
 You must receive this last characteristic, my 
 friends, not only as a standard for examination, but 
 also as a guide in the path of truth and duty. If 
 you are the people of God, the living members of 
 His dear Son, this will be the state of your mind and 
 feeling. As the work of grace is carried on within 
 you, this state of mind and feeling will become still 
 more deeply fixed and settled, as the controlling 
 influence upon your heart. You will discern the 
 emptiness and worthlessness of all your own works 
 and powers. You will cease from man, and learn 
 to live alone upon the grace, and goodness, and 
 faithfulness of God. If you desire to be registered 
 among the people of God, thus only will you find 
 the way of peace. You have no offerings to bring; 
 no righteousness of your own ; nothing but guilt 
 to be pardoned, weakness to be upheld, and igno- 
 rance to be enlightened. In this emptiness of 
 spirit you may come, and rest yourselves fully and 
 confidently upon that which has been done for you. 
 Come freely ; come confidently ; come cheerfully ; 
 come at once. The Lord waiteth that he may be 
 gracious unto you, and have compassion upon you. 
 There is no obstacle in your path, and no reason why 
 you should delay in thus coming to an anointed Sav- 
 iour, but your own aversion to God. Cast that away 
 and come. Whatever may be your reflections 
 upon the guilt of your past character, or your con- 
 sciousness of the weakness of your present state. 
 
344 THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 let nothing be perverted into an argument for de- 
 lay. The invitations and offers of the gospel are 
 so perfectly free, so unclogged with any condi- 
 tions, that you have but to feel and confess your 
 deep and heartfelt need, and take the cup of sal- 
 vation, and call upon the name of the Lord. O 
 let the arguments of divine truth, and the power 
 of divine grace, prevail with you. Let your 
 weary and burdened spirits rejoice to repose them- 
 selves, as the true circumcision of God, upon One 
 so mighty and all-sufficient to save. 
 
XXIV. 
 
 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK, 
 
 St. Matthew, vii., 24, 25. — Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine 
 and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon 
 a rock ; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and 
 beat upon tliat house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. 
 
 " I WILL liken him unto a wise man.^^ And who 
 among men is not anxious to appropriate this title ? 
 To confide in his own Avisdom, to exalt the claims 
 of his own intellectual powers, to magnify the suf- 
 ficiency of his own reason, to deny the authority 
 of others, in questions presented to his own judg- 
 ment and decision — are habits and traits of char- 
 acter perfectly natural to man. God has bestowed 
 the powers of understanding and judgment upon 
 men, as the distinction of their race, and He deals 
 with them, and addresses them upon the ground 
 of this distinction. He makes them accountable for 
 their own conduct. He demands of them, as ra- 
 tional and responsible beings, why of their own 
 selves they do not judge what is right. 
 
 But every day's experience shows a moral per- 
 
 15* 
 
346 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 
 
 version in man, which overrules his convictions of 
 right, and brings him a willing captive under the 
 power of conscious sin ; which leads him to estab- 
 lish a standard of wisdom, far different from the 
 judgment of God, and deludes him into the sacri- 
 fice of unseen and eternal things, of inestimable 
 value, for acknowledged trifles, which are seen and 
 temporal. God's decision of real, practical wisdom 
 is most distinct and intelligible : '' The fear of the 
 Lord, that is wisdom, and the knowledge of the 
 Holy One, that is understanding." True piety, 
 formed in a cordial acceptance of the offers of the 
 divine revelation, and growing up in an affectionate 
 obedience of God's perfect will, is wisdom, real 
 wisdom in the estimation of heaven. The conver- 
 sion of the heart by the Divine Spirit is its com- 
 mencement — the life of faith, in submission to God, 
 its consequence — the crown of glory, in the presence 
 of a Saviour, its unchanging result. This is the 
 divine judgment. But how different is the judg- 
 ment of earth ! How generally, by man, is simple 
 religious faith in the word and powder of a Redeem- 
 ing God counted as weakness and folly ; and that 
 man considered wise who professes to have arisen 
 superior to the influence of its fears, untrammelled 
 by the bondage of its doctrines, and regardless of 
 the peculiar motiv^es of conduct which it presents. 
 There is a fancied independence in unbelief, an 
 imaginary freedom in professed scepticism, which, 
 though it really casts off the only freedom for the 
 soul, and brings man into a bondage which is act- 
 ual and eternal, still deludes and ensnares a multi- 
 tude of the unwary and self-willed. There are 
 
THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 347 
 
 wise, and scribes, and disputers of this world, to 
 whom tlie wisdom of God appears as foolishness, 
 and who imagine themselves elevated above the 
 necessity or the propriety of recourse to the gra- 
 cious provisions of a Saviour's Gospel. Whether 
 this be really wisdom in man, our examination 
 must show. That it is not wisdom according to 
 the standard of God, is manifest" and undeniable. 
 
 True wisdom our Lord illustrates in the text. 
 The passage concludes his sermon on the mount. 
 In that discourse he lays open the great leading 
 principles of the Gospel, and carries those who 
 adopt and those who reject these principles of con- 
 duct, to the opposite results which they severally 
 attain ; and having exhibited these different de- 
 scriptions of character, and these contrasts of pri- 
 vate experience connected with them, he declares 
 the fact, that under the preaching of his Gospel, 
 true wisdom will be displayed when men embrace 
 and love it, and real folly exhibited in their refusal 
 and rejection of it. " Therefore," he says — that is, 
 not only because of the truth and excellency of 
 these principles in themselves, but also because of 
 their certain final result and the consequences of 
 their rejection, " then will I profess unto them I 
 never knew you, depart from me, ye that work in- 
 iquity," — " Therefore, whosoever heareth these 
 sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him 
 unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock ; 
 and the rain descended, and the floods came, and 
 the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it 
 fell not ; for it was founded upon a rock." 
 
 This illustration of the wisdom of universal sub- 
 
348 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 
 
 jection to the commands of Jesus is, like all the 
 comparisons of our Lord, perfectly familiar and in- 
 telligible. None could hesitate in the determina- 
 tion which were the wiser of two men, whom he 
 saw engaged in building for themselves a habita- 
 tion, when the one dug deep for his foundation, 
 and erected his building upon the solid rock, and 
 the other went by the seaside, to lay his timbers 
 upon the sand, exposed to the power of every rising 
 storm and of every returning tide. Yet thus the 
 Lord illustrates the conduct of men in reference to 
 the important communications which he has made 
 to them in the Gospel. The same wisdom which 
 would lead a man to make his earthly dwelling as 
 secure as possible from harm, will lead him also to 
 secure his eternal welfare, in a thankful conformity 
 to the Saviour's will ; and the folly which would 
 be manifest in a recklessness of the lower inter- 
 est, is far more seriously exhibited, in indifference 
 to the higher concerns of the soul, which a neglect 
 of the Gospel displays. No farther illustration 
 could render this figure more intelligible. Let it 
 be our object seriously and fairly to consider it. 
 
 Every man living is building for futurity. To- 
 morrow and to-morrow, in a long succession of 
 coming days, occupy his attention and his plans. 
 But beyond the plans and purposes of the most, 
 every living man is actually building for eternity. 
 
 " Eternity, that awful word, 
 To souls unpardoned and abhorred." 
 
 He is to meet the results of his labor in an un- 
 changing state. He is to receive the recompense 
 
THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 349 
 
 of his reward, in the judgment of an unchanging 
 God. He is to abide by the full consequences of 
 his present choice, in an unchanging life or death, 
 as flowing from that judgment. And according to 
 his building now, is to be the security or the over- 
 throw of his habitation then. An acceptance of 
 the redeeming offers of the Gospel, a submission 
 to its authority, an embracing of its hopes, in a life 
 of simple following of Christ, is one system of build- 
 ing for man. A rejection of the Gospel from its 
 rightful claims upon the heart, an attempt to live 
 and act independently of its communications and 
 demands, a refusal to yield to the supreme author- 
 ity and will of the Great Redeemer whom it re- 
 veals — is another system of building for man. The 
 results of each, eternity will display. The sim- 
 ple question we now consider, is, which of these 
 schemes of human conduct and character is build- 
 ing upon a rock. The Saviour solemnly affirms, 
 in our text, the man who builds upon the rock is 
 the one who hears and obeys the commands of 
 His revelation, and the principle is therefore af- 
 firmed, that an acceptance and obedience of the 
 Gospel is the mark of true wisdom on the part of 
 man. The converted, believing, religious man is 
 the only wise man. 
 
 The " sayings" of the Lord Jesus reveal a meth- 
 od of access and reconciliation for rebellious man 
 to God, in the obedience and death of a Saviour 
 who hath died a sacrifice for sin. They proclaim 
 the utterly lost state of man without this provision. 
 They declare that there is no other way of life, 
 than that which he has opened ; and solemnly an- 
 
350 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 
 
 nounce that the everlasting condition of man will 
 be happy or miserable according to his acceptance 
 or rejection of this divine Redeemer. They may 
 all be comprised in the simple testimony intended 
 to convey them, " Neither is there salvation in any 
 other; for there is no other name under heaven, 
 given among men, whereby we may be saved, but 
 the name of Jesus Christ." By these all-import- 
 ant, all-absorbing "sayings," the professed believer 
 in the Gospel declares himself governed. From 
 these momentous sayings the sincere believer de- 
 rives the practical consequence, that for him every- 
 thing is here involved ; it is his grand interest and 
 concern, to embrace the promises which are here 
 made, to yield himself completely to the commands 
 which are here proclaimed, to follow in the course 
 which is here laid open, that he may attain the 
 eternal life which is here proposed. He counts all 
 but loss for Christ, and renders himself up gladly, 
 as a living sacrifice to Christ, to be His servant and 
 friend, and property forever. The Saviour declares 
 he builds his house upon a rock, a house that shall 
 never be overthrown. He has chosen the good 
 part which shall never be . taken away from him : 
 he is the wise man. The wisdom which he dis- 
 plays we will consider. 
 
 I. First, let us assume the point, that these " say- 
 ings" of the Lord Jesus are infallibly true ; that God 
 has really thus spoken unto man in the person of His 
 Son, who is the true God and eternal life. It will 
 not be my duty, nor a part of my argument, in such 
 an assumption of the fact, to prove this point. No ! 
 in such a view, we lay our hands upon the Bible 
 
THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 351 
 
 now, as an infallible communication from God, 
 connected with which there is no shadow of doubt. 
 It was given by His inspiration. It is a complete 
 revelation of His mind and will. It utters, upon 
 all the subjects of which it speaks, permanent, in- 
 telligible, and eternal truth. Surely upon such a 
 supposition as this there will be no hesitation in 
 pronouncing upon the wisdom of man in connex- 
 ion with it. The sincere Christian, in the unhes- 
 itating belief of this supreme authority and truth 
 of the word of God, thankfully embraces the invi- 
 tations which it presents, accepts the glorious Sa- 
 viour whom it offers, casts himself with all his 
 hopes for eternity upon His perfect sufficiency to 
 save, looks for the promised help of His Spirit, and 
 strives to live in conformity to His commands. He 
 passes his life under a consciousness of the inspec- 
 tion of his Judge. He remembers the solemn ac- 
 count he must render for every act to Him. He 
 lives in the world as one bought with a price, the 
 property of God. He lives for a glorious eternity 
 to come. He desires to glorify God in his body 
 and his spirit, which are His. He feels his danger, 
 from the weakness of his own nature, the corrup- 
 tion of his own heart, and the encompassing tempt- 
 ations of sin, and he walks through life with solici- 
 tude and caution. But if the Bible be true, he is 
 secure forever. He has sought for pardoning mercy 
 and eternal redemption through the cleansing blood 
 of the Lord Jesus, in the way which this heavenly 
 guide proposes. He has trusted himself to that 
 perfect obedience of the righteous One, for the 
 many sinners, which this revelation from God pro- 
 
352 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 
 
 claims. He rests upon the guiding power of a 
 covenanted Spirit, to enable him to do the will of 
 God, and to form him after the image of Christ. 
 He is sure, therefore, to be made victorious and 
 happy. Undoubtedly, if the sayings of the Lord 
 Jesus are infallibly true, he, and he only, is the 
 man who is building upon the rock. 
 
 But then, wdiat shall we say of the man who is 
 convinced of the undoubted certainty of the reve- 
 lations of the Bible, and yet lives and acts as if 
 they were a known and undoubted falsehood ? 
 who acknowledges a final punishment for sin, in 
 the hands of a resistless God, whose solemn threat- 
 enings hang unceasingly over his head, and yet 
 pursues the broad and beaten path of voluntary 
 sin, scorns the justice of heaven, and defies the 
 utmost vengeance of the Almighty ? who acknowl- 
 edges tiiat there is salvation only in the name of 
 Christ, and in His power to save, and yet treads 
 His blood beneath his feet, lives contentedly an 
 alien from His favor, and is unconcerned whether 
 His blessing or His curse shall rest upon him for 
 eternity ? who sees that the pit of destruction is 
 bottomless and open, that the smoke of its torment 
 ascends forever and ever, that all hope of return 
 from it is desperate and impossible, and yet, while 
 eternal ruin stares him in the face, and the sword 
 of vengeance points directly at his heart, and he is 
 upon the brink of everlasting woe, presses on to 
 the soul-destroying embraces of sin, as the ox to 
 the slaughter, or the bird to the snare of the fowler? 
 What shall we say of such a man, who acknowl- 
 edges that the damnation of the unconverted and 
 
THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 353 
 
 unbelieving is sure and just, and yet refuses to 
 yield his heart to any entreaties to him to escape — 
 but that sin infatuates before it destroys, and rea- 
 son is dethroned while iniquity triumphs ? Let the 
 bold and careless rejecter of Gospel grace, the un- 
 converted and worldly hearer of the truth, in this 
 assembly, arrest his confidence ; let him stop for 
 awhile in his purpose of self-destruction, and con- 
 sider the simple question : " Do you believe it 
 really true that God hath offered eternal life in His 
 Son Jesus Christ, and that His w rath abideth upon 
 those who reject Him ?" If you honestly believe 
 this, upon what possible ground can you feel se- 
 cure with a heart still unchanged, and a soul still 
 unreconciled to God ? Do you imagine that in 
 your single case, a pursuit of the means of eternal 
 death will not bring you to that fatal end 1 Do 
 you think that you can grapple with the vengeance 
 of Jehovah ? that you can endure the everlasting 
 burnings that you can arm yourself against the 
 worm that never dies ? Do you believe that, though 
 there is an eternal hell for rebels against God, yet 
 you can be a rebel, and escape or brave the fearful 
 doom 1 No ! surely ! Deceived as you may be, 
 and as you certainly are, this cannot be your fool- 
 ish confidence. I can conceive but of /ti'o grounds 
 upon which a man who professes to believe the 
 Bible to be true, can feel himself secure in a course 
 of unrepented sin. 
 
 You may flatter yourself that, though the " say- 
 ings" of the Lord Jesus are infallibly true, yet God 
 is of boundless mercy, and will not execute His 
 awful threatenings. You may imagine that His 
 
354 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 
 
 solemn denunciations of punishment to the ungodly 
 were designed rather as serious motives of conduct, 
 excitements to human duty, than to be actually 
 executed upon man. For this the Scripture gives 
 you no authority, and the mere possibility, which 
 your desires, not your judgments, suggest, is a thread 
 far too slender, too manifestly insecure, to be en- 
 trusted with the interests of your immortal soul. 
 Divine mercy is indeed surpassing all human pow- 
 er to recount. It is the exhaustless fountain of all 
 the hope and comfort of man. But it has its ap- 
 pointed time and place for exercise, and when 
 your present life is closed, in which wonderful 
 mercy has been displayed to your guilty soul, all 
 opportunity for its exercise has passed away ; then 
 comes the dispensation of simple, unbending jus- 
 tice, and to hope for the indulgencesof mercy then, 
 is to ask for seed-time in the day of harvest. In 
 the inviolable order of God's appointment, there is 
 a time to pardon and a time to punish, and the one 
 will never be allowed to take the place of the other. 
 When once the corn has fallen before the sickle, it 
 gains no farther reviving from the sunshine. This 
 confidence in the future interposition of mercy to 
 remove the final effects of necessary justice, is an 
 overturning of the whole fidelity of the word of 
 God. Who can trust a single declaration which 
 He makes, if there be still a secret reservation, an 
 unrevealed purpose of indulgence, by which His 
 open assertions are to be finally set aside ? We 
 were as w^ell without a revelation from God, as 
 with one that is thus unintelligible, unsafe, and 
 useless. No ! " God hath spoken, and shall it not 
 
THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 355 
 
 come to pass ? He hath said, and shall He not do 
 it ? God is not a man that He should lie, nor the 
 son of man, that He should repent." 
 
 But it may be that your conscience is too faith- 
 ful and apprehensive, while you thus reject all the 
 offers and authority of the sayings of the Lord Je- 
 sus, still professing to believe them infallibly true, 
 to permit you to rest upon this unauthorized foun- 
 dation. You may attempt, then, to escape with 
 the promise and hope of a future conversion. In 
 this hope you are as irrational and deluded as in 
 the other. I do not deny that God may bring you 
 back from your folly in a future day, and by some 
 future instrument. But how can you promise your- 
 self the repeated offer of this rejected gift, the 
 time in which it may be received, the means by 
 which it may be obtained ? Your flickering, wast- 
 ed life, is in the hands of an offended God, of 
 whose mercies it is that you are not now consumed. 
 You cannot secure to yourself the reversion of an 
 hour. How many around you have fallen into the 
 darkness of death, with all the guilt of a life impen- 
 itent, and of the promises of repentance unfulfilled ! 
 and what was all their hope, when God hath taken 
 away their souls ? O how vain are expectations 
 and plans like these ! The times and seasons the 
 Father keeps in His own power. Sinner ! the de- 
 cree may have already passed concerning you, and 
 your hour of probation be to-night completed, and 
 long before your own appointed time of conversion 
 comes, you may be cut down, as a guilty rebel, 
 ripe for everlasting ruin. God will not always 
 strive with you, nor suffer himself to be mocked 
 
356 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 
 
 by you; He will arise and depart, and will swear 
 in His wrath that you shall not enter into His rest. 
 These infallible sayings of Jesus give no encour- 
 agement whatever to the guilty man who is looking 
 for a future convenient season for a penitent, obe- 
 dient return to God. Their great principle for hu- 
 man conduct in this respect is, " To-day if ye will 
 hear his voice, harden not your hearts :" " Now is 
 the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." 
 
 Upon the supposition that the revelations of the 
 Gospel are undoubtedly true, the man who rejects 
 them from his heart, and continues in his rebellious 
 disregard of their demands, can have no rational 
 hope, either in the future mercy of God, or in his 
 own plan of a future conversion. And while he 
 encourages himself in such a hope, he is manifestly 
 building upon the sand. He is preparing himself 
 for everlasting destruction from the presence of 
 God, and from the glory of His power. But if God 
 be true, and the word of Christ be truth — if these 
 things are indeed so, as He hath said — surely he is 
 a wise man, and building upon a rock, who cheer- 
 fully accepts the promises and grace which the 
 Gospel offers ; who heareth and doeth with a glad 
 heart, sayings which he believes to be infallibly 
 certain and true ; and who makes it his great en- 
 deavour to adorn the doctrine, and to honour the 
 name of God his Saviour in a life of affectionate, ho- 
 ly conformity to His will. All that the Bible prom- 
 ises he secures, all that God can give, is his forever. 
 His hope shall never make him ashamed. In this 
 world he is guided by unerring wisdom, sup- 
 ported by unfailing mercy, and protected by im- 
 
THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 357 
 
 movable truth. The rains may descend from 
 above in heavy afflictions and sorrow from the hand 
 of God. The winds may blow from the earth, in 
 the unceasing derision and infidelity of men. The 
 floods may swell and gather around him in accu- 
 mulated temptation and hostility from the ungodly. 
 But he stands unmoved, his house is founded upon 
 a rock. 
 
 Beset with threatening dangers round, 
 
 Unmoved shall he maintain his ground ; 
 
 On safety's rock he sits and sees / 
 
 The shipwreck of his enemies. 
 
 The imagination of man can suggest nothing really 
 desirable, which the word of God, who cannot lie, 
 has not promised to him. It is beyond the power 
 of his mind to comprehend the joys which actually 
 await him, and which are all his own. And if all 
 the precious sayings of the Lord Jesus be infallibly 
 true, if they come with the authority of the mighty 
 God, competent to fulfill them for fallen man, the 
 real believer in these sayings can have no wish un- 
 gratified, no hope unfulfilled. In life, in death, 
 for eternity, he is perfectly secure and completely 
 happy. He has sacrificed nothing to his faith, but 
 that which was really his dishonour, and a source 
 of trouble. He has lost nothing by his faith, that 
 is important to his real interest. He has gained 
 everything which can be conceived as valuable, 
 and has filled his coming existence with unspeak- 
 able and never-ending joy. His is free forgive- 
 ness ; his is perfect acceptance with God ; his is 
 peaceful communion and partnership with Christ; 
 
358 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 
 
 his is a hope of glory which fadeth not away ; his 
 is the assurance of a rest with God ; his, the crown 
 of life, which the Lord, the righteous Judge shall 
 give ; his, a peaceful departure from the earth ; 
 his, a confiding appearance at the judgment-seat ; 
 his, a kingdom which cannot be removed. Happy 
 is he, however tried ; well shall it be with him, 
 however persecuted and opposed. God, a redeem- 
 ing, saving God, is his friend, and no one is able to 
 pluck him from His mighty and faithful hands. 
 
 The hour is near when you will all desire his 
 condition. You may now count his choice to be 
 foolishness ; you may choose to sneer at his want 
 of sincerity ; you may look forward to his end, as 
 dishonour and disappointment. But the hour is 
 before you, when this whole judgment shall be re- 
 versed ; when the saints, in their turn, shall judge 
 the earth ; and when, rejecting the infallible hope 
 which has comforted, supported, and rewarded 
 them, you will find yourselves still unconverted 
 and unpardoned, struggling with storms and winds, 
 against which the pride of your heart will offer you 
 no protection, and bearing forever that intolerable 
 load of sorrow and condemnation which you have 
 laid up for yourselves. May I beg you, in the 
 name of this true but rejected Saviour, to consider 
 this matter 1 " Whoso is wise, will understand 
 these things, and to them shall be showed the lov- 
 ing-kindness of the Lord." 
 
XXV. 
 
 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK, 
 
 St. Matthew, vii., 24, 25. — Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine 
 and doeth them, I will liken him, unto a wise man, which built his house upon 
 a rock ; and the rain descended, and thejloods came, and the winds blew, and 
 beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. 
 
 With what perfect confidence in the truth and 
 certainty of His own revelations the Saviour speaks! 
 There is no hesitation or doubt in His publication 
 of His own sayings. They are truth, they are life, 
 they are salvation for man. The man who is gov- 
 erned by them is a wise man, and has built his 
 house upon a rock. The man who refuses to adopt 
 them is a foolish man, who has built his house upon 
 the sand. Upon the supposition that these sayings 
 are certainly and undeniably true, there can be no 
 question in this conclusion. He only is wise, or 
 can be secure, who has accepted them as the prin- 
 ciple of a new and spiritual life, and has founded 
 upon them his hopes of future blessedness and 
 glory, whose heart is governed by their commands, 
 and whose desires are regulated by their promises. 
 
360 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 
 
 But we will consider this standard of wisdom 
 upon the supposition that these sayings of the Lord 
 Jesus are not completely established in the view 
 of man, as an undoubted and infallible communi- 
 cation from God. It is only in a high degree proh- 
 ahle that this is the fact. What, then, is the course 
 of wisdom for man ? 
 
 This probability, of which I now speak, does not 
 affect the actual truth or falsehood of these pro- 
 fessed revelations from God, in themselves consid- 
 ered. These sayings of Jesus must be absolutely 
 either true or false ; there is no middle ground 
 between these two points. It affects merely the 
 aspect under which they are presented to the mind 
 of man. That is considered by us as probable, as 
 likely to be true, which has more and better ar- 
 guments in its favour than can be urged against it. 
 Few will deny that the sayings of the Lord Jesus 
 stand at least upon this ground. If any man be 
 disposed to deny it, I shall be ready to meet him 
 upon the only remaining ground, that there is cer- 
 tainly no truth in them. But for the present we 
 assume the ground that their truth is extremely 
 probable. 
 
 The actual testimonies, of prophecies fulfilled, 
 and miracles performed, in favour of the revelations 
 of the Gospel, the internal evidence of their own 
 character and operations, the extent of influence 
 which they have attained upon the earth, unaided 
 by the means which uniformly govern among men, 
 the power which they daily exercise over the 
 hearts of those who believe, the perseverance with 
 which they are maintained and defended by them 
 
THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 361 
 
 under all the changes of life, the fact that no ex- 
 ertions of men have been sufficient to overthrow 
 them, while other systems of acknowledged human 
 invention have crumbled into dust — afford ample 
 ground of probability at the least, for the truth of 
 the claims which they make, and render it un- 
 doubtedly sure that they are more likely to be 
 true than they are to be false. 
 
 Now it is not necessary to demonstrate the rev- 
 elations of the Gospel to be indubitably true, to 
 make it wise in man to receive and adopt them. 
 It is enough to render unbelief, or a practical re- 
 jection of the Gospel, utterly inexcusable, if the 
 statements which this Gospel makes, carry with 
 them a greater degree of probability than can pos- 
 sibly be urged against them. The habitual judg- 
 ment of man gives its assent to this position, in all 
 the business and conduct of human life. The 
 universal concurrence of opinion and determination 
 among men proclaims, that no man is wise, or can 
 be secure, who refuses to act upon this principle, 
 or to govern his habits and expectations by it. 
 
 In the aifairs of this present life, no man requires 
 an unerring assurance of the good which he designs 
 to gain, or of the evil which he desires to avoid, 
 from arguments demonstrably certain, before he 
 enters upon the course to which, in either case, 
 his interest leads. A persuasion of the probable 
 results of his efforts is authority and motive suf- 
 ficient to call forth all his exertions, and to bend 
 his whole energies to the work he has proposed. 
 What merchant defers his traffic with a foreign 
 country, until he has opportunity to be convinced, 
 
362 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 
 
 by his own actual examination, that there is such 
 a land, and that it furnishes the goods he wants. 
 He hazards the whole amount of his property and 
 expectations, upon the report which he has re- 
 ceived from others; that is, upon a probability 
 against which there is no just exception. And he 
 is acknowledged to be wise in such a course. The 
 man who has probable reason for believing that he 
 shall meet with suffering and loss, either in a jour- 
 ney which he has undertaken, or in a business 
 upon which he has entered, feels himself to have 
 sufficient reason to change his course and plans, 
 though he is certain to sustain some inconvenience 
 in such a change. There can be no certainty in 
 the prospect of human temporal concerns yet fu- 
 ture, and men consequently govern themselves al- 
 together by probable grounds of expectation, and 
 they are wise, and they are generally secure, in 
 such a course. But if this be wisdom in temporal 
 concerns, surely, when the interest involved in our 
 decision is an eternal interest, and the consequences 
 of that decision are everlasting and unchangeable, 
 a far lower degree of probability should awaken 
 our anxiety and engage our caution against the 
 loss of which we are warned, than might be al- 
 lowed to disturb us in any mere temporal concern. 
 When the loss would be merely temporary, and 
 may be repaired if it should occur, or, if it w ere not 
 repaired, would not affect our highest interests, 
 then a small amount of probability need not awa- 
 ken an intense anxiety to prevent its occurrence. 
 But when every loss is a remediless one, when 
 every interest involved affects our eternal welfare. 
 
THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCKL 363 
 
 when tliere are no means of reparation or recovery 
 should the loss occur, when the alternatives are an 
 everlasting heaven and an eternal hell, when the 
 Saviour who is offered is the only possible Saviour, 
 and the life which he presents the only possible 
 hope of life for man, when everything dear to the 
 soul for time and for eternity is involved — then he 
 only is a wise man who is cautious at the least 
 probable ground for fear, and solicitous to prevent 
 the least possibility of disaster. 
 
 Again, the reason and judgment of man lead 
 him cheerfully to endure a small evil or inconve- 
 nience in his present affairs, if there be a probabil- 
 ity that the refusal to do this will lead to the en- 
 durance of a much greater evil, to which no remedy 
 can be applied. Let it be supposed that the future 
 salvation which the Gospel offers is only probably 
 true, and that in the adoption of it as his hope and 
 object, man must endure a positive present evil, in 
 abridging his indulgences and appetites, and cut- 
 ting off his opportunities for emolument and gain. 
 But where the choice is thus between the probabil- 
 ity of an eternal state of misery and sorrow, an un- 
 changing condition of fearful despair, and the suf- 
 fering of a present, partial inconvenience, can a 
 man be wise, or pretend to build his house upon a 
 rock, who hesitates in the course he should pursue ? 
 Will he reject this probability of a tremendous, 
 incalculable result, for the trifling self-denial which 
 is involved with it ? Does he cheerfully submit to 
 a painful surgical operation, which inflicts extreme 
 actual distress, upon the probable expectation of 
 prolonging for a little while his earthly being; 
 
364 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 
 
 and is he wise in refusing, if it be manifestly ne- 
 cessary in his spiritual interests, to part with a right 
 hand or a right eye, in securing, upon the same 
 ground of hope, an imperishable existence here- 
 after ? 
 
 Let us for a moment consider the two sides of 
 this probability, to which I now direct your notice. 
 
 " It is possible,^' the unbelieving heart suggests — 
 " it is possible there may be no such thing as a fu- 
 ture state, either of happiness or misery, or at least 
 in any connexion with a regard or disregard for 
 the professed revelations of the Gospel : it is pos- 
 sible that the book which claims to be the written 
 revelation of the will of an unseen God, may be 
 wholly an imposture and a falsehood, that no such 
 Redeemer as it presents has ever been commis- 
 sioned for man, that man has no real need of any 
 such interposition in his behalf" Suppose even 
 this, and what evil does /^e sustain, who has honest- 
 ly acted upon the opposite belief, and taken up his 
 cross, and denied himself, and followed Jesus 
 Christ ? What sacrifice has he been required and 
 compelled to make, but of the unbridled indulgence 
 of mere earthly and sensual desires, the amount 
 of which evil we shall have occasion hereafter to 
 consider. But'then, if this be possible, on the oth- 
 er side it is quite probable that there will be just 
 such a state of future recompense as the scriptures 
 proclaim, just such a result of human rebellion, just 
 such a condemnation for those who obey not the 
 Gospel of God ; and then what is the loss of the 
 unbeliever ? How inconceivably miserable becomes 
 his condition ! For him there is no retreat, no 
 
THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 365 
 
 mending of his choice, no hope of restoration for 
 his soul. His all is lost, and lost beyond recovery. 
 Worlds -svant wealth to purchase back the privi- 
 leges which he has vilely cast away. Surely the 
 man who encounters a hazard like this, upon a 
 mere barren possibility of the falsehood of his fears, 
 cannot call himself wise. 
 
 The merchant with his richly-laden vessel is 
 overtaken by a fearful tempest. The angry billows 
 dash around him, and threaten the entire loss of 
 his ship. He may save her, perhaps, and the lives 
 of all on board, by throwing into the ocean his val- 
 uable goods, but apparently in no other way. It 
 is possible the wind may lull, the storm may cease, 
 and he and his goods may be both preserved : but 
 the probability is wholly against him. Would he 
 be w ise to choose this meagre chance, and face the 
 hazard, with danger so manifest and real ? " Skin 
 for skin, all that a man hath w^ill he give for his 
 life." None could pity him, but for his insane infat- 
 uation, should he cling to his possessions, and per- 
 ish in a crisis like this. You awake at midnight 
 in your bed. The suffocating smoke fills your cham- 
 ber, and convinces you that the gathering element 
 of destruction must be somewhere near. Your 
 children are scattered around your habitation in 
 the tranquillity of slumber. Your whole property 
 is treasured in your house. Would you quiet your 
 justly-awakened apprehensions of the probability 
 of danger w ith the mere possibility that the fire 
 might be in some neighboring house, or if in yours, 
 yet it might expire of itself, or some other one 
 might arise to extinguish it, and compose yourself 
 
366 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 
 
 to sleep again, to wait until the flames actually- 
 seized your bed, and enveloped you with inextri- 
 cable death ? It would be a madman's course. 
 No parent's heart could be still beneath the bur- 
 den of this probability ; no rational man could thus 
 trifle with his property and life. Yet these cases 
 fairly illustrate the point to which they are brought. 
 Just the fatal course which they exhibit as one 
 branch of the alternative involved in them, is the 
 course which is actually pursued by every man 
 who rejects the invitations and despises the com- 
 mands of the Gospel. In every doubtful case, 
 surely enlightened reason will determine for the 
 safer side. And, beyond all question, will this de- 
 termination be made, if the case be not only doubt- 
 ful, but involving the venture of an imperishable 
 soul, an eternity of peace. Even though a man's 
 condition should be actually safe, yet a probable 
 apprehension that it is not safe, is enough to make 
 a wise and cautious judgment thoroughly examine 
 it. Let the question of probability which we now 
 consider, be settled on the side adverse to Chris- 
 tian truth ; — let the unbeliever demonstrate that 
 there is no God that judgeth in the earth, no im- 
 mortality for man, no abode of sorrow for the des- 
 piser of his word ; — let him prove Jesus to be an 
 impostor, and His revelations of truth a fable with- 
 out foundation — and he may certainly pursue his 
 path of contempt for God and devotion to his own 
 heart's lusts, with more reason, if he find pleasure 
 in it. But until this be done, mere denial and re- 
 jection of the truth cannot be received for argu- 
 ment ; and it remains still, on the one side, a case 
 
THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 367 
 
 of accumulated probability, and on the other a case 
 exceedingly doubtful. 
 
 In considering this supposition, that the sayings 
 of the Lord Jesus are probably true, let it never 
 be forgotten that the whole choice for man, on this 
 momentous subject, is between an acceptance of 
 the Saviour's Gospel, and entire atheism. If this 
 divine revelation cannot bring adequate evidence 
 that it comes from God, if this produce not author- 
 ity sufficient to control the will and heart of man, 
 it will not be pretended that any other system has 
 that which is wanting here. No mere negative 
 position can be maintained upon this subject, until 
 you have reached the most extreme one. You 
 cannot stand upon a simple denial of the Gospel 
 for want of evidence. You are driven back, by the 
 force of your own principles, through every pro- 
 fessed religious truth, until you deny the very ex- 
 istence of a creating and controlling God, and end 
 in the cheerless and unfathomable abyss of univer- 
 sal scepticism. To this fearful, hideous issue is 
 every man necessarily driven, who rejects from its 
 rightful control over his heart, the record which 
 God hath given concerning His Son. By this issue 
 must every unconverted man maintain himself, who 
 would not be condemned out of his own mouth, 
 in the practical rejection of principles of truth 
 whose real authority he is compelled to acknowl- 
 edge. At this issue the question is to be settled, 
 which is the more probable, that there is no God, 
 and no eternity for man, and no spiritual existence 
 in man, or that all grace and truth has been re- 
 vealed to man, as laid up in the Lord Jesus Christ ? 
 
363 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 
 
 Let it be remembered further, in settling this 
 question, that unbelieving man must sustain him- 
 self in rejecting the Gospel from his heart, by an 
 equal amount of evidence opposing it. Infidelity 
 must exhibit apostle for apostle, and martyr for mar- 
 tyr, and witness for witness. It must show the 
 same amount of benefit to have been produced for 
 man by its instrumentality, and the same power to 
 have been exercised by it over the welfare of men. 
 The enemies of the precious Gospel of Christ must 
 stand confronted with its friends, and speak for 
 themselves. Whose life have they made more 
 happy ? Whom have they consoled in sorrow ? 
 Whom have they cheered in adversity ? Whom 
 have they enlivened and blessed in death ? What 
 have they offered, what can they offer, for the soul 
 in eternity ? I do not here speak of the actually 
 cheerless and miserable character, and the yet 
 more degraded and ruinous effects of worldly in- 
 fidelity and contempt of God, as the world has 
 seen them. I simply ask that the scheme which 
 you are to adopt, as a system of professed religion, 
 shall come upon grounds of benefit and authority 
 w hich may compare with the Gospel, that you may 
 justify yourselves in some degree, for the rejection 
 of this for the sake of that. And until all, and more 
 than I have specified, shall be done by some antag- 
 onist system, no comparison of probabilities can be 
 made, and it remains probable, extremely probable, 
 that the revelations which God professes to have 
 made, dreadful as they are, are really revelations 
 of facts from God, which will be immutable and 
 eternal ; and he only can be wise, or a secure man, 
 
THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 369 
 
 who resolves to yield his heart to their constraint, 
 to make their promises the great object of his life, 
 and to be found, in his daily, abiding character and 
 course, the servant and follower of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 But the unconverted man does not act as if this 
 were a doubtful matter. If it were established be- 
 yond dispute that there is no God, no future judg- 
 ment, no heaven or hell, unconverted men could 
 not live more completely devoted to themselves, 
 and without God in the world. God is not in all 
 their thoughts. How^ can they forget Him more 
 entirely ? They do not make a single reference to 
 the Gospel, the sayings of the Lord Jesus, in all 
 the conduct of their lives. How can they treat 
 them with more contempt and unconcern ? Prayer- 
 less, scriptureless, thoughtless soul, whither fur- 
 ther will you run ? Is it not extremely probable 
 that this rejected Gospel comes from God ? that 
 this despised Saviour is God manifest in the flesh, 
 the last messenger of mercy to man ? that the state 
 of being before you is an eternity, to be settled 
 wholly by His word and the operation of His truth ? 
 Witli this probability, where else is there a rock 
 upon which you may wisely build ? What other 
 foundation is offered for human hope ? In your 
 unconverted state, what hope can you possess ? 
 The Gospel gives no hope to the unchanged, un- 
 pardoned soul. If it be not received into your 
 hearts as the new-creating spring of spiritual life, 
 as a treasure valued by you above all others, it is 
 a curse, a condemnation, and it were better for you 
 had it never been heard. To believe it in its theory 
 
370 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 
 
 and reject it in its practical, controlling principle, 
 is trifling with its majestic character, and despising 
 its supreme authority. To those who by its ope- 
 ration are renewed and sanctified, it gives the ut- 
 most assurance of eternal peace, as the glorious 
 issue of present trials and cares. But it proclaims, 
 more fearfully than the violated law had proclaimed 
 before, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of 
 man that persists in doing evil, indignation and 
 wrath upon all those who reject the mercies which 
 it freely and abundantly proposes and provides. 
 It is the jealous system of a jealous God. It will 
 not accept the homage of the knee and the tongue, 
 when these are separated from the heart. It will 
 not receive half the affections of man, while the 
 residue are elsewhere bestowed. It demands the 
 complete subjection of your whole life to its au- 
 thority, and your whole soul to its power. It comes 
 before you as the practical standard to which you 
 are to become conformed, and the living, vital 
 principle by which you are to be governed. It 
 claims to be received and tried as such, and it 
 is only in this actual experience that its character 
 and power are to be known. Supposing these say- 
 ings of the Lord Jesus to be probably true, all 
 other claims are, with equal probability, false ; and 
 while no other system offers anything, or threatens 
 anything, this divine revelation of the will of God, 
 with the highest probability of truth, offering life 
 eternal to every faithful follower of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and threatening everlasting ruin to the un- 
 believing rejecter of its mercies, presents to every 
 man who would be wise for himself, the only pos- 
 
THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 371 
 
 sible position of probable security. He, then, who 
 embraces and holds fast the sayings of the Lord 
 Jesus, even upon this supposition, must be likened 
 unto a wise man, who builds his house upon a rock : 
 and though the rains descend and the floods come, 
 and the winds blow, and beat upon that house, it 
 falls not ; for it is founded upon a rock. 
 
 What, then, does this Gospel offer, and what 
 does it demand ? It offers to every consciously- 
 guilty man a divine Redeemer, and life and every 
 blessing laid up in Him. It presents an immediate, 
 entire forgiveness, through the value of His offer- 
 ing of Himself in death, and a perfect title to life 
 everlasting, in His voluntary obedience for man. 
 It presents the enjoyment of every mental comfort 
 for man, amidst the anxieties and cares of the pres- 
 ent life. It furnishes a precious and consoling 
 hope of a future glory, to brighten every hour of 
 darkness, to uphold in every sorrow, and to carry 
 sinking man in triumph through the valley of the 
 shadow of death. All this it offers freely, uncon- 
 ditionally, immediately, to every one who hungers 
 and thirsts for the blessing, and is willing to receive 
 it. It holds it all out to him as his own possession 
 now, at once, forever ; and it promises to make 
 him secure in the possession of it all, by divine 
 power, for eternity. 
 
 It demands a simple, but instant acceptance in 
 the heart of this intelligence and offer, as a person- 
 al proposal to the individual concerned ; an instant 
 choice of it, in opposition to every other claim, as 
 a portion for the soul ; an immediate adoption of 
 the cause and side of the Saviour whom it presents, 
 
372 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 
 
 in the division which His service makes in the 
 world ; a cordial and determined abiding with 
 Him, in a partnership of interest, endurance, and 
 hopes, in the work which He has undertaken in 
 this present world. It demands of every individ- 
 ual in this assembly an affectionate choice of the 
 crucified Christ whom it proclaims, as his ruler and 
 his treasure, making him willing to deem every- 
 thing else of no value in comparison. And it pro- 
 poses thus the question : Will you have this Saviour 
 to be your Saviour ? this Lord to be your Lord ? 
 now, in an instant determination of your own choice 
 and will, and go from this place, having made a 
 new determination for the whole future current of 
 your life ? This it declares the only course of wis- 
 dom, the only possible path of security for man. 
 
XXVI. 
 
 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK, 
 
 St. Matthew, vii., 24, 25. — Therefore wlwsoever heareth these sayings of mine 
 and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon 
 a rock ; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and 
 beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. 
 
 Upon the supposition that the sayings of the 
 Lord Jesus are infallibly true, it is easy to shew 
 the wisdom of receiving and adopting them. Upon 
 the supposition that they are only probably true, 
 the task does not appear to be much more difficult. 
 If it be only likely that there is such a Being as the 
 Scriptures reveal, and that He actually sustains 
 the relations to man which they proclaim, it be- 
 comes manifestly the highest interest and duty of 
 man to avoid the least hazard of offending Him, and 
 to secure the utmost certainty of His kindness and 
 love. 
 
 But if we take another step in our concessions 
 to the unbelief of men, and confess that all claims 
 to divine authority in the sayings of the Lord Jesus 
 are unfounded ; if we allow for a moment the sup- 
 
374 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 
 
 position that, as a divine revelation, the Gospel is 
 utterly a false pretence — can we then shew that 
 it is still wise in man to receive and adopt it, and 
 equally foolish in him to despise and reject it ? 
 This is my present purpose. It is to manifest the 
 wisdom of those who embrace the Gospel, and Jove 
 it, and cling to it, though it be considered merely 
 a system of man's device. Even then, should this 
 supposition prove at last to be true, we feel satis- 
 fied that we have chosen the only good part, and 
 we alone are building upon a rock. 
 
 No unbeliever can desire from us a larger allow- 
 ance than this : that all pretensions in the Gospel 
 to be a revelation from God are a falsehood. And 
 if, even upon this apparently untenable ground, we 
 can shew that the scheme of character and con- 
 duct which the sayings of the Lord Jesus mark out 
 for man is the path of wisdom, and the only safe 
 path, there can remain no more opportunity to 
 bring an argument against the cordial and com- 
 plete acceptance of them, as the guide and ruler 
 of men ; and men are shut up to obey these sayings, 
 whether true, or probable, or false in their claims 
 to a divine original, or they are condemned out of 
 their own mouths. 
 
 Now then, we discharge the Bible as a messen- 
 ger from God ; and what is the substitute proposed ? 
 Is there now anything else before us, professing to 
 be a divine revelation ? Whatever comes to us 
 under this character must bring with it the evi- 
 dence of attending testimony, and testimony suffi- 
 cient fairly to convince the judgment and to compel 
 the assent of those to whom it is offered. But if 
 
THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 375 
 
 we acknowledge that the religion which the say- 
 ings of Jesus Christ have taught us, so manifestly 
 intrinsically worthy as it is of God, has no such 
 testimony, we arc left to stand alone. It will not 
 be pretended that any other scheme has that which 
 the Gospel wants. Mahomedanism, fired with lust 
 and steeped in blood, avowedly seeking the dis- 
 honour of humanity, the oppression and sacrifice of 
 the weak to gratify the lust of the strong, slirinks 
 in the degradation of conscious un worthiness from 
 such a comparison. Paganism, with its multiplied 
 gods, and changing shapes of pollution and dark- 
 ness, is cast immediately aside, as claiming no at- 
 tention. Deism is nothing, a mere denial, making 
 no pretensions to divine authority, laughing at the 
 idea of a revelation, having no creed but that the 
 Bible is false and the Gospel is a fable, and no 
 system but unvarying hatred and opposition to 
 these. There is then, nothing before the mind of 
 man, claiming to be a divine revelation, after these 
 sacred Scriptures have been set aside ; and we 
 now stand, of necessity, where there is either this 
 revelation or none. We can find no substitute, 
 and having renounced this, we are left with none. 
 But having discarded the Bible, and with no sub- 
 stitute as a revelation from God, what system are 
 we to adopt ? what is our alternative ? Am I left 
 entirely at sea, with no protector or guide ? Am I 
 the mere subject of brute force, to dwell among 
 beings who are only to be restrained by actual fear 
 of vengeance from me, from any excesses of unbri- 
 dled lust or selfish appetite, upon my person or 
 my property ? Is there any God ? No argument 
 
376 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 
 
 can prove the existence of such a being when the 
 whole light and machinery of the Scriptures have 
 been torn away. Separated from that, all that I 
 see and all that I feel would lead inevitably to the 
 conclusion which has been actually adopted by 
 every nation that has been without this written 
 revelation : that there are two gjeat, invisible 
 agents, one the origin of good and the other the 
 origin of evil, and that these two beings are in per- 
 petual conflict with each other. Is there any fu- 
 ture state of being for man ? Reason tells of none 
 that is lighted with hope ; conscience tells of none 
 that is not filled with despair ; and the only alter- 
 native to the Bible is atheism in reference to God, 
 and final annihilation in death as the only prospect 
 for man. It is vain to urge that every man has a 
 resistless impression upon his mind that there is a 
 God, and a future existence for himself We ac- 
 knowledge it, certainly. But this is not the result 
 of the unbeliever's argument or testimony, it is it- 
 self a part of the rejected revelation. It exists 
 long before the ability to argue and to consider 
 testimony can be attained. Revelation from God 
 we have laid aside, and we maintain, that without 
 it, it is impossible to prove the being of one God, 
 or the future responsibility of man to Him. We 
 are brought, therefore, for our contemplation of the 
 subject, just where the apostle declares that men 
 unreconciled to God actually stand, " without 
 God,"atheoi, atheists " in the world." On this po- 
 sition must the man who rejects the spiritual, sav- 
 ing power of the Bible maintain his ground, or be 
 condemned out of his own mouth. The Bible 
 
THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK, 377 
 
 must be everything in reference to a future world, 
 or it is nothing. If it be nothing, no other testi- 
 mony for futurity is anything ; and the man who 
 rejects the sayings of this sacred book from his 
 heart, as containing nothing for him, must make 
 good and certain his chosen ground — that God is 
 not, and eternity is not, and judgment is not, and 
 damnation is not — or he is destroyed forever. 
 
 Here, then, is our present position. The sayings 
 of Jesus, so far as they concern invisible things, are 
 false ; the promises of the Gospel for a future life 
 are all delusive ; all other hopes or fears of a fu- 
 ture state of responsibility to God are equally so. 
 Well, be it so. Of course, then, all the results of 
 personal character in man, whether good or evil, 
 are confined to the present life. He can look for 
 no higher enjoyments than he can find here. He 
 need fear no more serious difficulties than he here 
 experiences. The only question, then, for him to 
 consider is, what offered scheme opens to him the 
 fairest provision for enjoyment in his present life, 
 and makes him the happiest in his changing con- 
 dition here ? And here we feel satisfied to show, 
 that the man who embraces the sayings of the Lord 
 Jesus in his heart, believes their promises, and sub- 
 mits to their control, though he be deluded at the 
 last, in all the hopes which they have encouraged 
 him to cherish, is the man, and the only man, who 
 really builds his house upon a rock. 
 
 We will adopt these divine sayings, then, as a 
 rule for this life, not as a revelation of a life to 
 come ; and try the case, simply upon an examina- 
 tion of their tendency and operation, even within 
 
378 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 
 
 these limits. And we ask, are they not calculated 
 to give to those who receive them higher advan- 
 tages for gaining all that man desires in life, besides 
 many precious blessings entirely peculiar to them- 
 selves ? 
 
 If man seeks the possession of wealth, who is 
 more likely to secure it than he who has made the 
 Bible the lamp to his feet ? Can there be any 
 rules for human prosperity, except those which are 
 the invention of violence and fraud, that are not 
 perfectly laid down there ? Do not these sayings of 
 God render man prudent and cautious in the man- 
 agement of his concerns, and save him from all 
 those difficulties which an ungoverned impetuosity 
 of temper, or a mind bewildered and brutalized by 
 vice, inevitably oppose to profligate and sensual 
 men ? Do they not excite him to diligence and 
 assiduity in the fulfilment of all that his hand finds 
 to do ? Do they not impress upon him that idle- 
 ness is sin, and that for all his opportunities and 
 time he must give an account to God ? By cut- 
 ting off the thousand nameless indulgences of sin, 
 do they not rescue him from that bondage to unholy 
 appetite, which enslaves the time and thoughts 
 of the ungodly ? Do they not inculcate the spirit 
 and habit of frugality in the use of that which 
 is gotten ? They retrench the unceasing calls for 
 extravagant expense, which free indulgence of 
 sensual appetites and corrupted passions demand. 
 By their rules modesty clothes without immodera- 
 tion, temperance feeds without licentiousness, con- 
 tentment dwells without ambition, and that whole 
 outlay of vicious indulgence which, like a quick- 
 
THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 379 
 
 sand, so completely swallows up the character and 
 the wealth of man, is immediately stayed. Do not 
 these sayings require kindness and courtesy to- 
 wards all, securing thus the assistance and the fa- 
 vourable regard of those wiio may be helpful in the 
 acquisition of wealth ? Open ungodliness may 
 serve an occasional turn, guilt may sometimes be- 
 come successful, violence and wrong may wear a 
 transitory crown — but surely the whole history of 
 man will shew, that no man is so certain, even 
 upon the ground of mutual interest, to obtain friends 
 in life, as the man who may be always depended 
 upon by others with entire confidence, for probity, 
 kindness, and truth. And if the increase of riches 
 be established as the great object of life, man can 
 devise no better system by which it may be at- 
 tained, than the sayings of this divine word have 
 freely laid down before him ; and, in similar cir- 
 cumstances of life, the believer of the Bible and the 
 subject of its commands is always more likely to 
 be prosperous and rich than the man who rejects 
 them. 
 
 If man seeks the influence and authority of hon- 
 our and reputation among his fellow-men, w^ho has 
 a better system for the attainment of this end, than 
 he whose director is the word of God 1 Such a 
 man possesses in himself a worth and excellence 
 which is the foundation of just esteem. He is to 
 others useful, benevolent, and profitable, in a way 
 that necessarily produces confidence and respect. 
 Certainly, no man is ever the more honoured mere- 
 ly for the sinfulness of his conduct, or for his pro- 
 fligate contempt of God and man. Nay, no man is 
 
380 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. , 
 
 ever permanently esteemed, but for his supposed 
 excellence of personal character, whether it be 
 pretended or real. The old age of vice is always 
 loathsome and hateful, while the hoary head in the 
 way of righteousness is ever a crown of glory. 
 The course of outward conduct which the Gospel 
 requires, includes whatsoever is pure, lovely, and 
 of good report, and consists in the conscientious 
 and unremitted discharge of every duty, and in 
 the cultivation and exercise of every temper, cal- 
 culated to promote the present happiness of man- 
 kind. The most depraved of men would gladly 
 have the reputation for that virtue, the practice of 
 which their base appetites forbid. There is no 
 opposing habit of vice which is not found to be 
 degrading and destructive to the reputation of man. 
 Indiscretion and infirmity may often stain the name, 
 and bring dishonour upon the reputation of a re- 
 ligious man. But the blot is simply for his want 
 of entire conformity to the actual standard of his 
 profession, and in the proportion of this very want 
 of conformity is the stain upon his character. The 
 whole experience of man will shew, that when all 
 the glories of another world are set aside, nothing 
 shines so brightly here, or is so really esteemed 
 among men, as the sincere cultivation of a truly 
 virtuous and religious character. It is said of Da- 
 vid, who, save in one sad transgression, laboured 
 to live as a man after God's own heart — that is, in 
 entire obedience to his commands — that he " died, 
 full of days, riches, and honour ;" and it required 
 no heaven to make him in all respects a more hon- 
 ourable and a happier man than Saul. No man 
 
THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 381 
 
 before me can doubt between the characters of 
 Judas and St. Paul, of Paine and Howard, of Vol- 
 taire and Fcnelon, of Washington and Aaron Burr, 
 whose character is the most honourable, and w hose 
 reputation is the most to be desired — and who, 
 therefore, if this be the great object for man, has 
 been the wiser man — even though they have all 
 died as the brutes which perish, with the certainty 
 that there is no other life beyond the present. 
 And if personal honour among men be the chosen 
 object of human life, the sayings of the Sacred 
 Scriptures are found, not only by a reasonable ex- 
 pectation from their character, but by an actual 
 experience of their operation and influence, to open 
 the surest path to this desired result. 
 
 If man desires his present enjoyment and grati- 
 fication, and makes the pursuit of temporary, pass- 
 ing pleasure the main end of his life, even upon 
 this road, where will he find a better guide than 
 the Bible offers ? It ministers most important ad- 
 vantages to the enjoyment of present health, the 
 very foundation of all temporal enjoyment for man. 
 By requiring the habitual cultivation of temperance, 
 soberness, and chastity, by prohibiting all excess 
 in the indulgence of appetite, and all slothfulness 
 in the fulfilment of labour, it brings man through 
 the vigour of healthful youth and manhood, to a 
 calm, and happy, and satisfying age. The serenity 
 of spirit which it bestows, the moderation of desire 
 which it produces, tend, as much as any bodily re- 
 gimen, to preserve that perfect character of health, 
 a sound mind in a sound body. It increases the 
 enjoyment which man derives from his present 
 
382 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 
 
 sources of delight, and adds a charm to every in- 
 strument and means of human happiness. To no 
 one is food so palatable, or recreation so refreshing, 
 or sleep so sweet, or society so agreeable, as to him 
 who follows out the regular and determined mod- 
 eration which the Scriptures enjoin. He has a 
 cheerfulness of spirit which sets off every gratifi- 
 cation, and enhances every proper indulgence. 
 There is no cure for the melancholy of the heart, 
 no remedy for the gloominess of the mind, like the 
 faith which he has embraced, and under the influ- 
 ence of which he lives. And his w hole experience 
 brings out the truth of that testimony of Solomon 
 to the cheerfulness which true piety produces — 
 " Wisdom maketh a man's face to shine." Then, 
 further, these sayings of the Scripture remove all 
 those innumerable disquietudes which occur to 
 embitter the pleasures of human life. They allow 
 not the fear of losing present enjoyments, or the 
 desire to obtain greater ones, to occupy and 
 harass the mind. They inculcate and impart that 
 conformity of man's will to the will of God, that 
 submission of his plans to Him, that satisfaction 
 with His appointments, which remove the spirit of 
 envy and disappointment from his breast, and de- 
 prive every real trial of much of its power to dis- 
 tress or injure. Though friends forsake, though 
 sickness or pain may visit, though poverty may 
 grasp, the man w^hose heart has yielded to the 
 principles which the Scriptures propose, these 
 principles enable him, not only in theory, but in 
 fact, to rise above the reach of those anxieties 
 which destroy the peace of wicked and unbeliev- 
 
THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 3g3 
 
 ing men. It is not that he does not feel as other 
 men feel, that he is destitute of sensibility to grief — 
 nay, the moral system by which he is governed 
 increases the sensitiveness of his spirit in a very 
 high degree, and makes him, not only more deli- 
 cately cautious of offending others, but more del- 
 icately sensible of neglect or reproach himself, — 
 but he has an impression and a conviction in his 
 mind, of a superior protection, a divine watchful- 
 ness, which, like the imaginarypower of the alche- 
 mist, turns everything to gold. But more than this, 
 than all this, the sayings of Jesus have rescued him 
 from that most dreadful of all distress, the pangs 
 of a guilty and unappeased conscience. This is 
 the great monster of destruction to the pleasures 
 of man. No prosperity in the sinner's affairs, no 
 pomp in his station, no costliness or variety in his 
 pleasures, can shelter him from the power of this 
 awakened, avenging agent. How sad a heart is 
 often covered by a fair and smiling exterior ! What 
 sleepless vigils does conscious guilt often compel a 
 man to keep, when no human eye has seen the ful- 
 ness of his transgression ! In distresses like these, 
 the Scriptures interpose a balm of peace and com- 
 fort, and calm this troubled sea, and lay a sure 
 foundation for confidence and joy. And in this 
 mere negative view, by removing disquietudes and 
 sorrows that nothing else can remove, they vastly 
 promote the comfort and happiness of mankind. 
 
 But how very limited and partialis this view of 
 personal enjoyment for man ! The sayings of God 
 not only remove harassing fears from the common 
 pleasures of life, they add, also, peculiar delights 
 
384 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK 
 
 of their own ; pleasures which none but they who 
 embrace and follow^ them can enjoy. The Christ- 
 ian, believing their record, delusive as we now 
 consider it, becomes daily more acquainted with 
 the character of God, and reposes more entirely 
 upon Him. He feels the divine nature daily more 
 formed and displayed in his own soul, in all the 
 peaceful fruits of watchful and happy obedience to 
 God. He enjoys not the pleasures of a man only, 
 but the pleasures of an angel, w hile his spirit re- 
 joices in the views w hich he receives of the good- 
 ness of his God. He finds, as the result of his own 
 experiment, far more delight in one hour's enjoy- 
 ment of peace with God, than all the sins of pre- 
 vious life have been able to afford him. One day 
 spent in the courts of the Lord is better than a 
 thousand passed- in the tents of ungodliness. The 
 Bible gives him a hope which lights up unceasing 
 joy in his soul. The consciousness that from an 
 enemy he has become a friend of God ; that he is 
 pardoned, accepted, and beloved for Christ's sake ; 
 that poor and guilty as he was, angels have rejoiced 
 over him, and the glorious God delights in him; 
 the assured hope that he shall be received by Him, 
 to be a partaker of His glory, to be acquainted with 
 His counsels, to be known by and to know, in the 
 light of His presence, angels and just men made 
 perfect ; that he shall spend a glorious eternity in 
 praising Him for His goodness, in singing the tri- 
 umphs of the death of Jesus in his behalf; commu- 
 nicates now, delusive as w^e suppose it, a delight 
 which nothing on the earth can equal. All this 
 may be delusion, but it is an actual experience and 
 
THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 385 
 
 enjoyment in fact. It is an enjoyment which no 
 created power can prohibit, and from which no 
 earthly means can separate him, and which no tem- 
 poral difficulties can diminish or obstruct. And 
 should the Bible prove to be a total falsehood, and 
 all his confidence be found to be vanity, should he 
 close his eyes in death, in a final annihilation, he 
 cannot be deprived of the actual pleasure of this 
 hope. He has lost nothing which others have 
 gained ; he has found, in accepting and following 
 the sayings of Jesus, a joy which none have ever 
 found in despising them. He dies with a sweet 
 delusion, a joyful, rapturous expectation, which 
 gives him present, real, unspeakable delight, and 
 the falsehood of which, if it be a falsehood, he will 
 have no opportunity to discover. If the sayings 
 of Jesus shall prove true, all that he can want he 
 has. If these sayings shall prove false entirely, he 
 sinks, like the infidel, into a hopeless annihilation. 
 But he has passed a hopeful, happy day, and he 
 sinks through a calm and sweet repose, like the 
 setting of the summer's sun ; delivered from the 
 despair of conscious guilt, and the overwhelming 
 conviction of any possible result of evil to ensue. 
 If, then, all the claims of the Bible to divine au- 
 thority are absolutely false, still he only is the wise 
 man, and he only is building his house upon the 
 rock, who embraces it, and yields to it as his com- 
 fort and guide. Taking the sayings of the Lord 
 Jesus merely as a rule, not as a revelation, the be- 
 liever in their perfect and entire truth as a revela- 
 tion may look back with thankfulness to the error 
 which led him to receive them, and to trust to them 
 
386 THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK. 
 
 as such, as having bestowed upon him a pleasure, 
 and furnished him with advantages, in believing 
 and practising them, which were in no other quar- 
 ter proffered for his enjoyment; and if they be 
 false in all their claims, and false in all their prom- 
 ises, he still is the only wise, secure, or happy man. 
 
 But NO ! thou precious, though despised, insulted, 
 and rejected book, thou art not false ! Thou more 
 despised and insulted God, thou art not a liar ! Thou 
 injured and rejected Jesus, thou art no impostor ! 
 Thou grieved and forbearing Spirit, thy work is 
 no delusion ! We take back our Bible, as the 
 grand message from God to man. It is our rock, 
 we build our all upon it. It is our sun, we live in 
 its light and follow in its guidance. It is our spring 
 of life eternal, we drink from its waters and are 
 refreshed forever. It speaks to the believer the 
 language of comfort, but it speaks no language but 
 truth. It has guided countless millions to a glo- 
 rious eternity ; it has fed them on their journey 
 with heavenly manna ; it has opened to them, at 
 the close of their pilgrimage", everlasting enjoy- 
 ments ; it has been the seed of undying life, in 
 many souls who are now before me ; it has put 
 into their mouth new songs of praise, for love which 
 passeth knowledge ; it will keep them in the pos- 
 session of that love by the power of God forever. 
 
 It offers all its bounties, it addresses all its prom- 
 ises, it utters all its admonitions, to every soul that 
 listens to its words. Come, taste of its joys, em- 
 brace its promises, lay hold of its hopes, yield to 
 its commands. Rise, my friends, rise from the 
 bondage of voluntary sin to the liberty of bound- 
 
THE GOSPEL THE ONLY ROCK, 387 
 
 less, eternal grace ; from the humiliation of spirit- 
 ual death, the slavery of earth, to a new and spir- 
 itual life, the honour and the happiness of heaven. 
 O lift up your eyes, sinful hearers of the word. 
 See what a bountiful God, — a dying, ascended God, 
 has provided for your souls. Lay hold of the hope 
 which is offered; accept the treasure which is pro- 
 posed. Make this blessed book your guide to 
 Christ, and your director in the path of eternal 
 peace, and though storms may rise, and winds may 
 blow, your house is founded upon a rock. Shel- 
 tered for eternity from every ill and every sorrow, 
 you will adore that redeeming God who gave you 
 the Bible, and whom the Bible so clearly makes 
 known. 
 
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