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^SEMINARY LIBRARY.
Boo*..., L3....
Main Topic also Treats of
n
THE
SERMONS
OP THE
REV. ROBERT MURRAY M C CHEYNE
MINISTER OP ST. PETER'S CHURCH, DUNDEE. *
COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME.
NEW YORK:
ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS,
No. 530 BROADWAY.
1861.
P R E F -A C E ,
THE very favorable reception which the Christian public has given to the " Me-
moir and Remains " of the author, by the Rev. Andrew A. Bonar, has induced
the Editor of this Volume, with the sanction and approbation of a clerical friend
ot great eminence and piety, intimately acquainted with the author and his writ-
ings, and by whom the greater part of the work has been revised, to publish
these Additional Remains, consisting of a selection from the Sermons delivered
by Mr. M'Cheyne in the course of his ministry. Like those annexed to Mr.
Sonar's Memoir, they are printed from the author's MS. notes, written as prepa-
rations for the pulpit, but not intended for publication, or revised bj him with
that view.
This volume contains specimens of Discourses delivered in all the years of
the author's ministry ; and the places and dates of delivery are given at the close
of each Discourse, wherever they have been marked. The demand for their
publication by members of his flock and other friends, many of whom own him
as their spiritual father, has been loud and urgent. To all such the book will be
acceptable, as helping " to stir up their pure minds by way of remembrance ;"
and, notwithstanding many imperfections, which, in the circumstances of its
publication, have been unavoidable, the Editor hopes that, by the blessing of God,
it may be useful to others also into whose hands it may fall.
EDINBURGH, Jfovembcr, 1846.
CONTENTS
SERMONS.
I. I am the way, the truth, and the life. Join **.t 6 . 9
II. Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our Profession
Heb. iii., 1 ........ .14
III. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.
Song of Solomon, ii., 2, 3 ....... 20
IV. It is unreasonable in unconverted persons to make mirth.
Ezek. xxi., 9, 10 ......... 26
V. Christ offers himself a Saviour to all the human race Prov.
viii., 4 ..... ..... 33
VI. The subject of John's preaching. 1 John i., 1-4 ... 38
VII. The believer is Christ's garden. Song iv., 12 .. .44
VIII. The Redeemer's goodness to a believing soul. Song viii., 5-7 46
IX. John's vision. Rev. vii., 9 to end ... 51
X. Christ a merciful High Priest. Heb. ii., 16-18 ... 55
XI. (Ordination Sermon.) Position and duties of Ministers. 2 Tim.
~iv., 1, 2 ....... . 60
XII. Perfect love casteth out fear 1 John iv., 18-21 ... 71
XIII. Glorying in the Cross. Gal. vi., 14 ..... 78
XIV. The good way of coming before the Lord. Micah vi., 6-8 . 81
XV. A believer delights in the law of God. Rom. vii., 22-25 . 86
XVI The broken heart. Psalm Ii., 17 ...... 92
XVII. The fearful condition of natural men. Psalm Iviii., 3-5 . . 95
XVIII. The impressions of natural men are fading. Hosea vi., 4 . 99
XIX. Do what you can. Mark xiv., 8 ..... 105
XX. Motives for laying hold of Jesus.. Song iii., 4 . . 109
XXI. Christ in you the hope of glory. Col. i., 27 . . . . Ill
XXII. A Castaway. 1 Cor. ix., 26, 27 ....... 115
XXIII. (Communion Sermon.) Christ's Prayer to the Father. John
"xvii., 24 .......... 120
XXIV. The voice of my beloved. Song of Solomon ii., 8-17 . 131
,
* CONTENTS.
"
FAOI
XXV Our duty to Israel. Rom. i., 16
XXVI Blessed are the dead. Rev. xiv., 13
. Address on the close of a Communion Sabbath ... 151
, after the Communion . . .
XXVII. Turn ye at my reproof. Prov. i., 20-23
iXVIII. A son honoreth his father. Mai. i., 6 166
XXIX. The difficulty and desirableness of conversion. Ps. xl., 1-3 . 172
\\X. The love of Christ constraineth. 2 Cor. v., 14 ... 179
XXXI. Arise, shine. Isa. lx., 1-3 . 188
XXXII. Melting the betrayer. John xiii., 21 193
XX XIII. I the Lord have called thee in righteousness. Isa. xiii., 5-8 . 201
XXXIV. Return unto me. Isa. xliv., 21, 22 206
XXXV. I will pour water. Isa. xliv., 3, 4 ... 211
XXXVI. God let none of his words fall to the ground. 1 Sam. iii., IS . 217
XXXVII. The work of the Spirit. Gen. i., 2 224
XXXVIII. Moses and Hobab. Numb, x., 29 . . . 229
. XXXIX. Comfort ye. Isa. xl., 1,2 234
XL. Can a woman forget ? Isa. xlix., 14, 15 ... 239
XLI. Thanksgiving obtains the Spirit. 2 Chron. v., 13, 14 . 244
XLII. An exceeding good land. Numb, xiv., 7, 8 . . . . 249
XLIII. Family government. Gen. xviii., 19 '..... 254
XLIV. And in this mountain. Isa. xxv., 6, 8 .... 257
XLV. The heart deceitful. Jer. vii., 9, 10 . 262
XLVI. Trust in the Lord. Prov. iii., 5 ..... 267
XLVII. Not a Jew which is one outwardly. Rom. ii., 28, 29 . 273
XLVIII. Jesus's compassion on the multitudes. Matt, ix., 35-38 . . 279
XLIX. Christ's love to the Church. Eph. v., 25-27 .... 285
L. Christ became poor for sinners. 2 Cor. viii., 9 . . . 289
LI. Enemies reconciled through death. Col. i., 22-23 ... 295
LII. My God, my God. Matt, xxvii., 46 301
LIU. Death of Stephen. Acts vii., 59 306
LIV. Time is short. 1 Cor. vii., 29-31 311
LV. Sir, we would see Jesus. John xii., 20-26 .... 318
LVI. Thou that dwellest in the gardens. Cant, viii., 13, 14 . . 323
LVII. Draw water with joy. Isa. xii., 1-3 329
LVIII. Look to a pierced Christ. Zech. xii , 10, xiii., 1 . . . 334
LIX. I sleep, but my heart waketh. Cant, v., 2, to the end . . 340
LX. A thorn in the flesh. 2 Cor. xii., 7-10 346
LXI. The second advent. Mark xiii., 34-37 350
LXII. Lot's wife. Gen. xix., 26 355
LXIII. Happy art thou, Israel ! Deut. xxxiii., 29 .... 362
LXIV. Entreat me not to leave thee. Ruth i., 16 . 370
LXV. The vision of dry bones. Ezek. xxxvii., 1-14 . . . 374
LXVI. Christ the only refuge. Isa. xxxvi, 20 ... 381
LXVII. Will ye also go away ? John vi., 66-68 . . . 389
LXVIII Ye will not come to me. John v., 40 - 394
-
CONTENTS. VU
*AO
LXIX. If any man thirst. John vii., 37 400
LXX. Conviction of sin. John xvi., 8 406
LXXI. Conviction of righteousness. John xvi., 8 .... 414
LXXII. My Lord, and my God ! John xx., 26-28 .... 424
LXXIII. Have I been so long time with you ? John xiv., 9 . . . 429
"LXXIV. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ. Rom. viii.,
35-37 ... 435
LXXV. Man that is born of a woman. Job xiv ,1,2. . . . 441
LXXVI. Christ a law-magnifying Saviour. Isa. xlii., 18-21 . 444
> LXXVII. The obedience and disobedience of one. Rom. v., 19 . . 450
LXXVIII. The Lord knoweth how to deliver. 2 Pet. ii., 9 ... 456
LXXIX. Diligence necessary. 2 Pet. iii., 14 459
LXXX. Follow the Lord fully. Numb, xiv., 24 463
LXXXI. The unworthy communicant warned. 1 Cor. xi., 29, 30 . 470
LXXXII. More blessed to give than to receive. Acts xx., 35 . . 476
LXXXIII. Christ's silence under suffering. Isa. liii., 7 . . . 482
LXXXI V. As the hart panteth after the water brooks. Ps. xiii., 1 . 488
LXXXV. The fight of faith. 2 Tim. iv., 7, 8 . . . . 494
LXXXVI. Into thine hand I commit my spirit. Ps. xxxi.,5 . . . 497
LXXXVII. Grey hairs are upon him. Hos. vii., 9 500
LXXXVIII Grieve not the Holy Spirit. Eph. iv., 30 ... 505
LXXXIX. Ye will not come to me. John v., 40 ... . 509
XC. Not ashamed of the Gospel. Rom. i., 15-18 513
-
SERMONS, &c
SERMON I.
" Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life ; no man cometh to
the Father but by me." John xiv., 6.
IT is the saying of an old divine, that God often orders it, that
when he is in hand with the greatest mercies for us, then we are
most of all sinning against him ; which he doth to magnify his
love the more.
In the words I have read, we find an example of this. At no
time did the heart of Jesus overflow with a tenderer and a more
sovereign love to his disciples, than when he said, ' Let not your
heart be troubled." They were troubled by many things. He
hid told them that he was going to leave them ; he had told them
taat one should betray him ; that another should deny him ; that
*hey should all be offended because of him that very night ; and
perhaps they thought he was going from them in anger. But,
whatever the cause of their trouble was, Jesus.' s bosom was like a
vessel full to overflowing, and these words were the overlipping
drops of love " Let not your heart be troubled : ye believe in
God, believe also in me." Surely such words of confiding tender-
ness were never whispered in this cold world before ; and O
then, think how cold, how dark, how dull is the question with
which Thomas breaks in upon the heavenly discourse ; " Thomas
saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how
can we know the way ?" And yet how condescendingly does
Jesus bear with their cold-hearted dulness ! How lovingly does
he begin the very alphabet of salvation with them, and not only
answers, but over-answers Thomas gives him more than he
could ask or think. He asked about the way and the place, but
Christ answers, " I am the way, the truth, and the life ; no man
cometh unto the Father but by me." Regarding this, then, as a
complete description of the gospel salvation, let us go over the
different parts of it.
I. Christ is the Way. " I am the way ; no man cometh," &c.
The whole Bible bears witness that by nature we have no way to
10 SERMON I.
the Father. We are by nature full of sin, and God is by nature
infinitely holy ; that is, he shrinks away from sin. Just as the
sensitive plant, by its very nature, shrinks away from the touch
of a human hand, so God, by his very nature, shrinks away from
the touch of sin. He is everlastingly separate from sinners ; he
is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.
1. This was impressively taught to Adam and the patriarchs.
As long as Adam walked holily, God dwelt in him, and walked in
him, and communed with him ; but when Adam fell, " God drove
the man out of paradise ; and he placed at the east of the garden
of Eden, cherubim and a flaming sword, which turned every way
to keep the way of the tree of life." This flaming sword between
the cherubim was a magnificent emblem of God the just and sin-
hating God. In the bush, he appeared to Moses as a consuming
fire in the temple, he appeared between the cherubim in the
milder glory of the Shecinah ; but here he appeared between the
cherubim as a sword a just and sin-hating God. And I beseech
you to remark, that this flaming sword turned every way, to keep
the way of the tree of life. If it had not turned every way, if it
had left some foot-path unglared across, then Adam might have
stolen in by that foot-path, and made his own way to the tree of
life. But no : whatever avenue he tried however secret, how
ever narrow, however steep and difficult however silently he
crept along, still this flaming meteor met him, and it seemed to
say, " How can man be just with God ? by the deeds of the law
there shall no flesh living be justified." Well might Adam sit
down, wearied with the vain search for a pathway into life ; for
man by nature has no way to the Father.
But Christ says, "lam the way." As he says in the 16th
Psalm, " Thou wilt show me the path of life." No man could find
out this path of life ; but Jesus says, " Thou wilt show it me ; in
thy presence is fulness of joy ; at thy right hand are pleasures foi
evermore." Jesus pitied the poor SOLS of Adam vainly struggling
to find out a way into the paradise of God, and he left the bosom
of the Father, just that he might open up a way for us into the
bosom of the Father. And how did he do it? Was it by
escaping the vigilance of the flaming sword ? No ; for it turned
every way. Was it by exerting his divine authority, and com-
manding the glittering blade to withdraw ? No ; for that would
have been to dishonor his Father's law, instead of magnifying it.
He therefore became a man in our stead, yea, became sin. God
caused to meet on him the iniquities of us all. He advanced in
our stead to meet that fiery meteor ; he fell beneath its piercing
blade ; for he remembered the word of the Prophet, which is
written, " Awake, O sword ! against my shepherd, ard against
the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts."
And now, since the glittering blade is bathed in the side of the
Redeemer, th^ gniltjpet. of sinners, whoever you be, whatever you
SERMON I. It
be, may enter in over his bleeding body, may find access o the
paradise of God, to eat of the tree of life, and live for ever. Come
quickly doubt not; lor he says, I am the way.
2. The same fact that man has by nature no way to the
Father was impressively taught to Moses and the people of
Israel.
When God condescended to dwell among the children of Israel,
he dwelt peculiarly in the holiest of all the innermost apartment
of the Jewish temple. There the visible token of his presence
rested between the cherubim at one time described to us as a
light inaccessible and full of glory at another time as a cloud
that filled the temple. But this innermost apartment, or holiest of
all (or secret place, as it is called in the Psalms), was separated
from the holy place by a curtain or veil, and through that veil no
man was allowed to pass, lest he should die, except the High
Priest, who entered in, once in the year, not without blood.
Now, no picture could express more plainly that the way into the
holiest was not made manifest that no sinful man has anyway oi
coming into the presence of God.
But Jesus says, " I am the way." Jesus was grieved that we
were shut out from the holiest of all, from the presence of God;
for he knew by experience that in that presence there is fulness oi
joy. But how did he upen the way ? Did he pull aside the veil,
that we might steal in secretly and easily into the presence of the
Father ? No : but he offered himself, an offering to satisfy Divine
justice, and reconcile us to God. " He said, It is finished, and
bowed his head and gave up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of
the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom." It is
finished ; the punishment of the law is borne, the demands of the
law are answered, the way is finished, the veil is rent, from the
top to the bottom ! Not a shred of the dreadful curtain now re-
mains to intercept us. The guiltiest, the vilest sinner of you all,
has now liberty to enter in through the rent veil, under the light
of Jehovah's countenance, to dwell in the secret of his tabernacle,
to behold his beauty, and to inquire in his temple.
And now, my friends, is this your way of coming to the Father ?
Christ says, " 1 am the way ; no man cometh unto the Father but
by me." If, then, you will still keep to your own way, whatever
it may be, whether it be the way of tears, or penances, or vows
of amendment, or hopes that God will not deal strictly if you
will not be warned, you will find in the judgment-day that the
cherubic sword turned every way, and that you are left a prey to
the consuming fire.
But oh ! if there be one soul that can find no peace in any self-
righteous way, if there be one of you who finds that you are lost
in yourself, behold Christ says to you, " I am the way," as he
Bays in another place, " I am the door." It is a full, free, and open
way, and it is a way for sinners. Why wait a moment longer?
12 SERMON I
There wns once a partition wall between you and God ; but
Christ hath cast it down. God was once angry ; but his anger is
turned away from the blessed path. In Christ he is ever well
pleased.
II. Christ is the Truth. The whole Bible, and the whole of
experience, bear witness that by nature we are ignorant of the
truth. No doubt there are many truths which an unconverted
man docs know. He may know the truths of mathematics and
arithmetic, he may know many of the common every-day truths ;
but still it cannot be said that an unconverted man knows the
truth, for Christ is the truth. Christ may be called the key-stone
of the arch of truth. Take away the key-stone of an arch, and the
whole becomes a heap of rubbish. The very same stones may be
there, but they are all fallen, smothered, and confused, without
order, without end. Just so; take Christ away, and the whole
arch of truth becomes a heap of rubbish. The very same truths
may be there ; but they are all fallen, without coherence, without
order, without end. Christ may be called the sun of the system
of truth. Take away the sun out of our system, and every planet
would rush into confusion. The very same planets would be
there ; but their conflicting forces would draw them hither and
thither, orb dashing against orb in endless perplexity. Just so ;
take Christ away, and the whole system of truth rushes into con-
fusion. The same truths may be in the mind, but all conflicting
and jarring in inextricable mazes ; for " the path of the wicked is
as darkness ; they know not at what they stumble." But let
Christ be revealed to an unconverted soul, let it not be merely a
man speaking about Christ unto him, but let the spirit of God reveal
him, and there is revealed, not a truth, but the truth. You put
the key-stone into the arch of truth ; you restore the sun to he
centre of the system. All truth becomes orderly and serviceable
in that mind.
Now he knows the truth with regard to himself. Did the Son
of God really leave the bosom of the Father to bear wrath in our
stead ? then I must be under wrath. Did the Lord Jesus become
a servant, that he might obey the will of God instead of sinners ?
then 1 must be without any righteousness a child of disobedi-
ence.
Again, knowing Christ, he knows the truth with regard to God.
Did God freely give up his Son to the death for us all ? then, if I
believe in Jesus, there is no condemnation to me. God is my Fa-
ther, and God is love.
My friends, have you seen Christ, who is the truth ? Has he
been revealed to you, not my flesh and blood, but by the Spirit of
our God ? Then you know how true it is that in him " are hid all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" that he is the " Alpha
and Omega," the beginning and the ending of all knowledge. But
SERMON I. 13
if you have not seen Christ, then you know nothing yet as you
ought to know ; all your knowledge is like a bridge without a key-
stone, like a system without a sun. What good will it do you in
hell, that you knew all the sciences in the world, all the events of
history, and all the busy politics of your little day ? Do you not
know that your very knowledge will be turned into an instrument
of torture in hell ? Oh, how will you wish in that day that you
had read your newspaper less and your Bible more ; that with all
your getting you had got understanding ; that with all your know-
ledge you had known the Saviour, whom to know is life everlast-
ing.
III. Christ is the Life. The whole Bible bears witness that by
nature we are dead in trespasses and sins that we are as unable
to walk holily in the world as a dead man is unable to rise and
walk.
Both Scripture and experience alike testify that we are by na-
ture dead in trespasses and sins ; and yet it is not a death in which
we are wholly inactive, for in it we are said to walk according to
the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of
the air.
This truth is taught us impressively in that vision of the prophet
Ezekiel, where he was carried out by the Spirit, and set down in
the midst of an open valley, full of dry bones ; and as he passed by
them round about, behold there were very many in the open val-
ley, and lo ! they were very dry.
Just such is the view which every child of God gets of the
world. The dry bones are very many, and they are very dry ;
and he asks the same question which God asked of Ezekiel " Can
these bones live?" Oh yes, my friends ; and does not experience
teach you the same thing. True, the dead cannot know that they
are dead ; and yet, if the Lord touch your heart, you will find it
out: we prophesy to dry bones ; for this is the Lord's way; while
we prophesy the breath enters in. Look back over your life then.
See how you have walked according to the course of this world.
You have always been like a man swimming with the stream,
never like a man swimming against the current. Look into your
heart, and see how it has turned against all the commandments ;
you feel the Sabbath to be a weariness instead of calling it a de-
light and honorable. If ever you tried to keep the commandments
of God ; if ever you tried to keep your eyes from unlawful desires,
your tongue from words of anger, or gossiping, or bitterness, your
heart from malice, and envy, and covetousness ; if ever you have
tried this, and I fancy most unconverted men have tried it : if ever
you have tried this, did you rvot find it impossible ? It was like
raising the dead. Did you not find a struggle against ycurself?
O how plain that you are dead not born again. Marvel not that
we say unto you, ye must be born again. You must be joined to
14 1 *ERMON II.
Christ, for Christ is the life. Suppose it were possible for a dead
limb to be joined into a living body, so completely that all the veins
should receive the pjjjale tide of living blood ; suppose bone to
join on to bone, and sinew to sinew, and nerve to nerve, do you
not see that that limb, however dead before, would become a living
limb. Before, it was cold, and stiff, and motionless, and full of
corruption; now, it is warm and pliable, and full of life and mo-
tion. It is a living limb, because joined on to that which is life.
Or, suppose it possible for a withered branch to be grafted into a
living vine, so completely that all the channels should receive the
flow of the generous sap, do you not see that that branch, how-
ever dead before, becomes a living branch ? Before, it was dry,
and fruitless, and withered ; now, it is full of sap, of life, and viiror.
It is a living branch, for it is joined to the vine, which is its life.
Well, then, just in the same way, Christ is the life of every soul
that cleaves to him. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.
Is your soul like a dead limb cold, stiff, motionless, and full of
corruption ? Cleave you to Christ ; be joined to him by faith, nnd
you shall be one spirit ; you shall be made warm, and vigorous,
and full of activity, in God's service.
Is your soul like a withered branch, dry, fruitless, and withered,
wanting both leaves and fruit ? Cleave you to Christ ; be joined
to him, and you shall be one spirit. You will find it true that
Christ is the life ; your life will be hid with Christ in God. You
will say, I live ; "yet not I, but Christ liveth in me : and the life
which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave himself for me."
Remember, then, my unbelieving friends, the only way for you
to become holy is to become united to Christ. And remembei
you, my believing friends, that if ever you are relaxing in holiness.
the reason is, you are relaxing your hold on Christ. Abide in rue,
and I in you, so shall ye bear much fruit. Severed from me, ye
can do nothing.
Dundee, 1836.
SERMON II.
" Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.'' Heb. lii. 1.
WHEN a traveller passes very rapidly through a country, the eye
has no time to rest upon the different objects in it, so that, when
he comes to the end of his journey, no distinct impressions have
been made upon his mind ; he has only a confused notion of the
country through which he has travelled.
This explains how it is that death, judgment, eternity, make so
SERMON II. 15
ittle impression upon most men's minds. Most people never stop
to think, but hurry on through life, and find themselves in eternitv
before they have once put the question, " What must I do to be
saved ?" More souls are lost through want of consideration than
in any other way.
The reason why men are not awakened and made anxious for
their souls is, that the devil never gives them time to consider.
Therefore God cries, Stop, poor sinner, stop and think. Consider
your ways. " O that you were wise, that you understood this,
that you considered your latter end." And, again, he cries, " Israel
doth not know, my people doth not consider."
In the same way does the devil try to make the children of God
doubt if there be a Providence. He hurries them away to the
shop and market. Lose no time, he says, but make money.
Therefore God cries, Stop, poor sinner, stop and think ; and Jesus
says, " Consider the lilies of the field how they grow ; consider
the ravens, which have neither storehouse nor barn."
In the same way does the Devil try to make the children of
God live uncomfortable and unholy lives. He beguiles them away
from simply looking to Jesus : he hurries them away to look at a
thousand other things, as he led Peter, walking on the sea, to look
round at the waves. But God says, Look here, consider the Apos-
tle and High Priest of your profession : look unto me, and be ye
saved ; run your race, looking unto Jesus ; consider Christ, the
same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.
I. Believers should live in daily consideration of the greatness
and glory of Christ.
(1.) There was once a time when time was not ; when there
was no earth, neither sun. nor moon, nor star ; a time when you
might have wandered through all space, and never found a rest-
ing place to the sole of your foot ; when you would have found
no creatures anywhere, but God everywhere ; when there were
no angels with golden harps hymning celestial praises; bat God
alone was all in all.
Question. Where was Jesus then ? Ans. He was with God.
" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God"
He was near to God, and in perfect happiness there. " The Lord
possessed me in the beginning of his way ; before his works of
old. Then I was by him as one brought up with him ; and I was
daily his delight, rejoicing always before him." He was in the
bosom of God ; " The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of
the Father." He was in perfect glory there : " O Father, glorify
thou me with thyself, with the glory which I had with thee before
the world was."
Ques. What was Jesus then? Ans. He was God. The Word
was with God, and " was God." He was equal with the Father.
" He thought it no robbery to be equal with God." He was rich.
Itf SERMON II.
" He was the brightness of his Father's glory and the express
image of his person."
Now, brethren, could I lift you away to that time when God
was alone from all eternity. Could I have shown you the glory
of Jesus then, how he dwelt in the bosom of the Father, and was
daily his delight ; and could I have told you " That is the glorious
being who is to undertake the cause of poor lost sinners ; that is
he who is going to put himself in their room and stead, to suffer
all they should suffer, and obey all they should obey ; consider
Jesus ; look long and earnestly ; weigh every consideration in the
balance of the soundest judgment ; consider his rank, his near-
ness, his dearness to God the Father ; consider his power, his glory,
his equality to the Father in everything ; consider, and say, do
you think you would intrust your case to him ? Do you think
he would be a sufficient Saviour ?" O brethren, would not every
soul cry out, He is enough, I want no other Saviour ?
(2.) Again, there was a time when this world sprang into
being ; when the sun began to shine, and earth and seas began to
smile. There was a time when myriads of happy angels spring-
ing into being, first spread their wings, doing his commandments ,
when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God
shouted for joy.
Ques. What was Jesus doing then ? Ans. " Without him was
not anything made that was made." " By him were all things
created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invi-
sible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or
powers : all things were created by him and for him." O bre-
thren, could I lift you away back to that wonderful day, and show
you Jesus calling all the angels into being, hanging the earth
upon nothing ; could you have heard the voice of Jesus saying,
Let there be light, and there was light ; and could I have told
you, " That is he who is yet to undertake for sinners ; consider
him, and see if you think he will be a sufficient Saviour ; look long
and earnestly ;" good news, good news for sinners, if this mighty
being undertake for us ! I can as little doubt the sureness and
completeness of my salvation as 1 can doubt the sureness of the
solid earth beneath my feet.
(3.) But the work of creation is long since passed. Jesus has
been upon our earth. And now he is not here ; he is risen.
Eighteen hundred years and more have passed since Christ was
upon the earth.
Ques. Where is Jesus now ? Ans. " He is set down at the
right hand of the Majesty on high." He is upon the throne with
God in his glorified body, and his throne is for ever. A sceptre
is put into his hand, a sceptre of righteousness, and the oil of glad-
ness is poured over him. All power is given to him in heaven
and on earth.
O brethren, could you and I pass this day through these hea-
SERMON II. 17
vens, and see what is now going on in the sanctuary above, could
you see what the child of God now sees who died last night ;
could you see the Lamb with the scars of his five deep wounds in
the very midst of the throne, surrounded by all the redeemed,
every one having harps and golden vials full of odors ; could
you see the many angels round about the throne, whose number
is ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,
all singing, Worthy is the " Lamb that was slain ;" and were one
of these angels to tell you, " This is he that undertook the cause of
lost sinners ; he undertook to bear their curse and to do their
obedience ; he undertook to be the second Adam, the man in their
stead, and lo ! there he is upon the throne of heaven ; consider
him ; look long and earnestly upon his wounds, upon his glory,
and tell me do you think it would be safe to trust him ? Do you
think his sufferings and obedience will have been enough ?" Yes,
yes, every soul exclaims, Lord, it is enough ! Lord, stay thy
hand ! Show me no more, for I can bear no more. Or rather
let me ever stand and gaze upon the Almighty, all-worthy, all-
divine Saviour, till my soul drink in complete assurance that his
work undertaken for sinners is a finished work. Yes, though the
sins of all the world were on my one wicked head, still I could
not doubt that his work is complete, and that 1 am quite safe
whrn I believe in him.
/ would now plead with believers. Some of you have really
been brought by God to believe in Jesus. Yet you have no
abiding peace, and very little growing in holiness. Why is this ?
It is because your eye is fixed anywhere but on Christ. You are
so busy looking at books, or looking at men, or looking at the
world, that you have no time, no heart, for looking at Christ.
No wonder you have little peace and joy in believing. No
wonder you live so inconsistent and unholy a life. Change your
plan. Consider the greatness and glory of Christ, who has under-
taken all in the stead of sinners, and you would find it quite impos-
sible to walk in darkness, or to walk in sin. O what mean, despi-
cable thoughts you have of the glorious Immanu;-! ! Lift your
eyes from your own bosom, downcast believer ; look upon Jesus.
It is good to consider your ways, but it is far better to consider
Christ.
/ would now invite anxious souls. Anxious soul ! have you
understood all the glory of Christ ? Have you understood that
he undertook for guilty sinners ? And do you doubt if he be a
sufficient Saviour ? Oh, what mean views you have of Christ if
you dare not risk your soul upon him ?
Objection. I do not doubt that Christ has suffered and done
quite enough, but I fear it was for others, and not for me. If 1
were sure it was for me, I would be quite happy. Ans. It is no-
where said in the Bible, that Christ died for this sinner or that sin-
ner. If you are waiting till you find your own name in the Bible,
9.
iO SERMON II.
you will wait for ever. But it is said a. few verses before that
" He tasted death for every man ;" and again, " He is the propi-
tiation for the sins of the whole, world." Not that all men are
saved by him. Ah, no ; the most never come to Jesus, and are
lost ; but this shows that any sinner may come, even the chief of
sinners, and take Christ as his own Saviour. Come you, then,
anxi3us soul; say you, He is my refuge and my fortress! and
then, be anxious if you can.
II. Consider Christ as the Apostle, or Messenger of God.
The word Apostle means messenger; one ordained and sent or
a particular embassy. Now Christ is an Apostle, for God ordain-
ed and sent him into the world.
In the Old Testament, the name by which he is oftenest called
is the Angel of the Lord, or the Messenger of the Covenant. He
is called God's Elect, chosen for the work ; he is called God's ser-
vant ; he is called the Messiah, or the Christ, or the Anointed,
because God anointed him and sent him to the work. In the New
Testament, over and over again Christ calls himself, the sent of
God. " As thou hast sent me into the world, so have I sent them
into the world, that the world may know that thou hast sent me."
"And these have known that thou hast sent me." All this shows
plainly that it is not the Son alone who is interested in the saving
of poor sinners, but the Father also. " The Father sent his Son to
be the Saviour of the world."
Objection. True, Christ is a great and glorious Saviour, and
able to accomplish anything to save poor sinners ; but perhaps
God the Father may not agree to pour out his wrath upon his
Sou, or to accept of his Son as a surety in our stead. Ans. Look
here, Christ is the Apostle of God. It is as much God the Fa.
ther's work, as it is Christ's work. It occupied as much of the heart
of God as ever it did of the heart of Christ. God loved the world,
as much and truly as ever Christ loved the world. God gave his
Son, as much as Christ gave himself for us. So, God the Holy
Spirit is as much interested in it as the Father and Son. God
gave his Son ; the Spirit anointed him and dwelt in him without
measure. At his baptism God acknowledged him for his beloved
Son ; the Holy Spirit came on him like a dove.
O brethren, could I lift you away to the eternity that is past
could I bring you into the council of the eternal Three, and as il
was once said, " Let us make man ;" could 1 let you hear the word,
" Let us save man ;" could I show you how God from all eternity
designed his Son to undertake for poor sinners ; how it was the
very plan and the bottommost desire of the heart of the Fathei
that Jesus should come into the world and do and die in the stead
of sinners ; how the Holy Spirit breathed sweetest incense, and
dropped like holiest oil upon the head of the descending Saviour ;
could I show you the intense interest with which the eye of God
SERMON II. 19
followed Jesus through his whole course of sorrow, and suffering
and death ; could 1 show you the anxious haste with which God
rolled away the stone from the sepulchre while it was yet dark,
for he would not leave his soul in hell, neither suffer his Holy One
to see corruption ; could I show you the ecstasies of love and joy
that beat in the bosom of the infinite God when Jesus ascended to
his Father and our Fataer; how he welcomed him with a fulness
of kindness and grace which God alone could give, and God alone
could receive, saying, " Thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee ; thou art indeed worthy to be called my Son ; never till this
day wast thou so worthy to be called mine; thy throne, OGod,
is for ever and ever ; sit thou on my right hand until I make thine
enemies thy footstool." O sinner, will you ever doubt any more
whether God the Father be seeking thy salvation, whether the
heart of Christ and of his Father be the same in this one grand
controversy? O believer, consider this Apostle of God ; meditate
on these things; look and look again, until your peace be like a
river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea, till the
breathing of your soul be, Abba, Father !
III. Consider Christ as the High Priest of our profession.
The duty of the High Priest was twofold 1st, to make Atone
ment ; 2d, to make Intercession.
When the High Priest slew the goat at the altar of burnt-offer-
ings, he did it in presence of all the people, to make atonement for
them. They all stood around gazing and considering their High
Priest : and when he gathered the blood into the golden basin, and
put on the white garments, and passed away from their sight within
the veil, their eye followed him, till the mysterious curtain hid him
from their sight. But even then the heart of the believing Jew
followed him still. Now he is drawing near to God for us, now
he is sprinkling the blood seven times before the mercy-seat, say-
ing, Let this blood be instead of our blood ; now he is praying
for us.
Brethren, let us also consider our great High Priest.
(1.) Consider him making Atonement. You cannot look at him
on the cross as the disciples did you cannot see the blood stream-
ing from his five deep wounds you cannot see him shedding his
blood that the blood of sinners might not be shed Yet still, if
God spare us, you may see bread broken and wine poured out, a
living picture of the dying Saviour. Now, brethren, the atone-
ment has been made, Christ has died, his sufferings are all past.
And how is it that you do not enjoy peace ? It is because you do
not consider. " Israel doth not know, my people doth not con-
sider." Consider: has Jesus died in the stead of guilty sinners,
and do you heartily consent to take Jesus to be the man in your
stead ? then, you do not need to die. O happy believer, rejoice
evermore. Live within sight of Calvary, and you will live within
20 SERMON III.
sight of glory ; and, O rejoice in the happy ordinance that sets a
broken Saviour so plainly before you.
(>.) Consider Christ as making Intercession. When Christ
n-51-ended from the Mount of Olives, and passed through these
heavens, carrying his bloody wounds into the presence of God .
and when his disciples had gazed after him, till a cloud received
him out of their sight, we are told that they returned to Jerusalem
with great joy. What ! are they joyful at parting with theii
blessed Master ? When he told them he was to leave them, sor
row filled their hearts, and he had to argue with them and comfort
tht m. saying, Let not your heart be troubled ; it is expedient tor
you that I go away. How, then, are they changed ! Jesus has
left them, and they are filled with joy. Oh ! here is the secret,
they knew that Christ was now going into the presence of God
for them, that their great High Priest was now entering within the
veil to make intercession for them.
Now, believer, would you share in the great joy of the disci-
ples? Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession,
Christ Jesus. He is above yon clouds, and above yon sky. O
that you would stand gazing ug into heaven, not with the bodily
eye, but with the eye of faith. Oh ! what a wonderful thing the
eye of faith is: it sees beyond the stars, it pierces to the throne of
God, and there it looks on the face of Jesus making intercession
for us, whom having not seen we love, in whom, though now \ve
see him not, yet believing we rejoice with joy unspeakable and
full of glory.
Oh ! if you would live thus, what sweet peace would fill your
bosom ! And how many droppings of the Spirit would come
down on you in answer to the Saviour's prayer. Oh ! how your
face would shine like Stephen ; and the poor blind world would
Bee that there is a joy which the world cannot give, and the world
cannot take away, a heaven upon earth.
Dundee, 1836.
SERMON III.
" As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. As the apple-tree
among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down un-
der his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet unto my taste."
Song of Solomon ii., 2, 3.
IF an unconverted man were taken away into heaven, where
Christ sits in glory, and if he overheard Christ's words of admir-
ing love towards the believer, he could not understand them, he
could not comprehend how Christ should see a loveliness in poor
religious people whom he in the bottom of his heart despised. Or
again, if an unconverted man were to overhear a Christian at his
SERMON III. 21
devotions when he is really within the yeil, and were to listen to
his words of admiring, adoring love towards Christ, he could no!
possibly understand them, he could not comprehend how the be-
liever should have such a burning affection towards one unseen, in
whom he himself saw no form nor comeliness. So true it is that
the natural man knoweth not the things of the Spirit of God, for
they are foolishness unto him. There may be some now hearing me
who have a rooted dislike to religious people, they are so stiff, so
precise, so gloomy, you cannot endure their company. Well then,
see here what Christ thinks of them, " As the lily among thorns, so
is my love among the daughters." How different you are from
Christ ! There may be some hearing me who have no desires after
Jesus Christ, who never think of him with pleasure ; you see no form
nor comeliness in him, no beauty that you should desire him ; you
do not love the melody of his name ; you do not pray to him con-
tinually. Well then, see here what the believer thinks of him,
how different from you " As the apple-tree among the trees of
the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. 1 sat down under
his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste."
O that you would be awakened by this very thing, that you are so
different from Christ, and so different from the believer, to think
that you must be in a natural condition, you must be under wrath
Doctrine. The believer is unspeakably precious in the eyes of
Christ, and Christ is unspeakably precious in the eyes of the be-
liever.
I. Inquire what Christ thinks of the believer " As the lily
among the thorns, so is my love among the daughters."
Christ sees nothing so fair in all this world as the believer. All
the rest of the world is like thorns, but the believer is like a beau-
tiful lily in his eyes. When you are walking in a wilderness all
overgrown w^th briers and thorns, if your eye falls upoji some
lonely flower, tall and white, and pure and graceful, growing in
the midst of the thorns, it looks peculiarly beautiful. If it were
in the midst of some rich garden among many other flowers, then
it would not be so remarkable ; but when it is encompassed with
thorns on every side, then it engages the eye. Such is the believer
in the eyes of Christ. " As the lily among thorns, so is my love
among the daughters."
(1.) See what Christ thinks of the unconverted world. It is
like a field full of briers and thorns in his eyes. 1. Because fruit-
less. " Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" So
Christ gets no fruit from the unconverted world. It is all one wide,
thorny waste. 2. Because, when the word is preached among
them, it is like sowing among thorns. " Break up your fallow-
ground and sow not among thorns." When the sower sowed,
some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked
them ; so is preaching to the unconverted. 3. Because their end
22 SERMON III
will be like that of thorns ; -they are dry and fit only for the burning
"As thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire." " For the
earth, which is often rained upon and only bears thorns and briers,
is rejected, and nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned."
My friends, if you are in a Christian state, see what you are in
the eyes of Christ thorns. You think that you have many ad
mirable qualities, that you are valuable members of society, and
you have a hope that it shall be well with you in eternity. See
what Christ says you are thorns and briers, useless in this world,
and fit only for the burning.
(2.) See what Christ thinks of the believer. " As the lily among
thorns so is my love among the daughters." The believer is like
a lovely flower in the eyes of Christ. 1. Because, justified in the
eyes of Christ, washed in his blood, he is pure and white as a lily.
Christ can see no spot in his own righteousness, and therefore he
sees no spot on the believer. Thou art all fair, my love, as a lily
among thorns so is my love. 2. A believer's nature is changed.
Once he was like the barrpn, prickly thorn, fit only for burning;
now Christ has put a new spirit in him ; the dew has been given
to him, and he grows up like the lily. Christ loves the new crea-
ture. " All my delight is in them." " As the lily among thorns so
is my love among the daughters." Are you a Christian? then
never mind though the world despise you, though they call you
names ; remember Christ loves you, he calls you " my love."
Abide in him, and you shall abide in his love. If ye continu- in
my word, then are ye rny disciples indeed. 3. Because so lonely
in the world. Observe, there is but one lily, but many thorns.
There is a great wilderness all full of thorns, and only one lonely
flower. So there is a world lying in wickedness, and a little rlock
that believe in Jesus. Some believers are cast down because they
feel solitary and alone. If I be in the right way. surely I would
not be so lonely. Surely the wise, and the amiable* and the kind
people I see round about me, surely, if there were any truth in re-
ligion, they would know it. Be not cast down. It is one of the
marks of Christ's people that they are alone in the world, and yet
they are not alone. It is one of the very beauties which Christ
sees in his people, that they are solitary among a world of thorns.
" As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters."
Do not be discouraged. This world is the world of loneliness.
When you are transplanted to y>n garden of God, then you shall
be no more lonely, then you shall be away from all the thorns.
As flowers in a rich garden blend together their thousand odors
to enrich the passing breeze, so, in the paradise above, you shall
join the thousands of the redeemed blending with theirs the odor
of your praise. You shall join with the redeemed as living flow-
ers to form a garland for the Redeemer's brow.
II. Inquire what the believer thinks of Christ. "As the apple-
SERMON III. 03
tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the
sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his
fruit was sweet to my taste.*'
1. Christ is more precious than all other saviours in the eye ot
the believer. As a traveller prefers an apple-tree to every other
tree of the wood, because he finds both shelter and nourishing
food under it, so the believer prefers Christ to all other saviours.
When a man is travelling in eastern countries, he is often like to
drop down under the burning rays of the sun. It is a great relief
when he comes to a wood. When Israel were travelling in the
wilderness, they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water,
and seventy palm-trees, and they encamped there by the water.
They were glad of the shelter of the trees. So Micah says that
God's people " dwell solitarily in the wood ;" and Ezekiel promises
"they shall sleep in the woods."
But if the traveller be hungry and faint for lack of food, then
he will not be content with any tree of the wood, but he will
choose out a fruit tree, under which he may sit down and find
nourishment as well as shade. He sees a fair apple-tree he
chooses it out of all the trees of the wood, because he can both sit
under its shadow and eat its pleasant fruits. S j is it with the soul
awakened by God. He feels under the heat of God's anger ; he
is in a weary land ; he is brought into the wilderness ; he is like
to perish ; he comes to a wood ; many trees offer their shade ;
where shall he sit down ? Under the fir-tree ? alas ! what fruit
has it to give ? he may die there. Under the cedar tree, with its
mighty branches ? alas ! he may perish there ; for it has no fruit
to give. The soul that is taught of God seeks for a complete
Saviour. The apple-tree is revealed to the soul. The hungry
soul chooses that evermore. He needs to be saved from hell and
nourished for heaven. " As the apple-tree among the trees of the
wood, so is my beloved among the sons."
Awakened souls, remember you must not sit down under every
tree that offers itself. " Take heed that no one deceive you ; for
many shall come in Christ's name, saying, I am Christ, and deceive
many." There are many ways of saying peace, peace, when
there is no peace. You will be tempted to find peace in the world,
in self-repentance, in self-reformation. Remember, choose you a
tree that will yield fruit as well as shade. " As the apple-tree
among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons."
Pray for a choosing faith. Pray for an eye to discern the apple-
tree. Oh ! there is no rest for the soul except under that Branch
which God has made strong. My heart's desire and prayer for
you is, that you may all find rest there.
2. Why has the believer so high an esteem of Chnst ?
Ans. (1.) Because he has made trial of Christ. " I sat down
under his shadow with great delight." All true believers have
sat down under the shadow of Christ. Some people think thai
24 SERMON III.
Ihey shall be saved because they have got a head-knowledge of
Christ. They read of Christ in the Bible, they hear of Christ in
the house of God, and they think that is to be a Christian. Alas ,
my friends, what good would you get from an apple-tree, if I were
only to describe it to you ; tell you how beautiful it was, how
heavily laden with deficious apples ? Or, if I were only to show
you a picture of the tree, or if I were to show you the tree itself
at a distance, what the better would you be ? You would not
get the good of its shade or its pleasant fruit. Just so, dear
Brethren, what good will you get from Christ, if you only hear
of him in books and sermons, or if you see him pictured forth in
the sacrament, or if you were to see him with your bodily eye ?
What good would all this do, if you do not sit down under his
shadow ? O my friends, there must be a personal sitting down
under the shadow of Christ, if you would be saved. Christ is the
bush that has been burned yet not consumed. Oh ! it is a safe
place for a hell-deserving sinner to rest.
Some may be hearing me who can say, " I sat down under his
shadow." And yet you have forsaken him. Ah ! have you gone
alter your lovers, and away from Christ ? Well, then, may God
hedge up your way with thorns. Return, return, O Shulamite !
There is no other refuge for your soul. Come and sit down again
under the shadow of the Saviour.
Ans. (2.) Because he sat down with great delight.
1st. Some people think there is no joy in religion, it is a
gloomy thing. When a young person becomes a Christian, they
would say, Alas ! he must bid farewell to pleasure, farewell to
the joys of youth, farewell to a merry heart. He must exchange
these pleasures for reading of the Bible and dry sermon-books,
for a life of gravity and preciseness. This is what the world
says. What does the Bible say 1 "I sat down under his shadow
with great delight." Ah ! let God be true, and every man a liar.
Yet no one can believe this except those who have tried it. Ah !
be not deceived, my young friends ; the world has many sensual
and nany sinful delights; the delights of eating and drinking, and
wearing gay clothes ; the delights of revelry and the dance. No
man of wisdom will deny that these things are delightful to the
natural heart ; but oh ! they perish in the using, and they end in
an eternal hell. But to sit down under the shadow of Christ,
wearied with God's burning anger, wearied with seeking after
va.n saviours, at last to find rest under the shadow of Christ, ah !
this is great delight. Lord, evermore may I sit under this shadow !
Lord, evermore may I be filled with this joy !
2d. Some people are afraid of anything like joy in religion.
They have none themselves, and they do not love to see it in
others. Their religion is something like the stars, very high, and
very clear, but very cold. When they see tears of anxiety, or
tears of joy., they cry out, Enthusiasm, enthusiasm ! Well, then.
SERMON HI. 25
to the Law and to the Testimony. " I sat down under his shadow
with great delight" Is this enthusiasm ? O Lord, evermore give
us this enthusiasm ! May the God of hope fill you with all joy
and peace in believing ! If it be really in sitting under the shadow
of Christ, let there be no bounds to your joy. O if God would
but open your eyes, and give you simple, child-like faith, to look
to Jesus, to sit under his shadow, then would songs of joy rise
from all our dwellings. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again,
I say, rejoice !
3d. Because the fruit of Christ is sweet to the taste. All true
believers not only sit under the shadow, but partake of his
pleasant fruits ; just as when you sit under an apple-tree, the fruit
hangs above you and around you, and invites you to" put out the
hand and taste ; so, when you come to submit to the righteousness
of God, bow your head, and sit down under Christ's shadow, all
other things are added unto you. First, Temporal mercies are
sweet to the taste. None but those of you who are Christians
know this, when you sit under the shadow of Christ's temporal
mercies, because covenant mercies. " Bread shall be given you ;
your water shall be sure." These are sweet apples from the tree
Christ. O Christian, tell me, is not bread sweeter when eaten
thus ? Is not water richer than wine ? and Daniel's pulse better
than the dainties of the King's table 1 Second, Afflictions are
sweet to the taste. Every good apple has some sourness in it.
So it is with the apples of the tree Christ. He gives afflictions as
well as mercies. He sets the teeth on edge ; but even these are
blessings in disguise they are covenant gifts. Oh ! affliction is a
dismal thing when you are not under his shadow. But are you
Ch. 'stums? look on your sorrows as apples from that blessed tree.
If you knew how wholesome they are, you would not wish to
want them. Several of you know it is no contradiction to say,
these apples, though sour, are sweet to my taste. Third,* The
gifts of the Spirit are sweet to the taste. Ah ! here is the best
fruit that grows on the tree : here are the ripest apples from the
topmost branch. You who are Christians know how often your
soul is fainting. Well, here is nourishment to your fainting soul.
Everything you need is in Christ. " My grace is sufficient for
thee." Dear Christian, sit much under that tree feed much upon
that fruit. " Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I
am sick of love." Fourth, Promises of glory. Some of the
apples have a taste of heaven in them. Feed upon these, dear
Christians. Some of Christ's apples give you a relish for the fruit
of Canaan for the clusters of Eshcol. Lord, evermore gi^e me
these apples ; for oh ! they are sweet to mv taste
St. Peter's, 1837
26 SERMON IV.
SERMON IV.
A sword, a sword is sharpened, and a^so furbished : it is sharpened to make
sore slaughter ; it is furbished that it may glitter ; should we then make mirtrt f
it contemneth the rod of my son, as every tree." Ezek. xxi., 9, 10.
FROM the second verse of this chapter, we learn that this prophecy
was directed against Jerusalem ; Son of man, set thy face
toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places,
and prophesy against the land of Israel."
We have already told you that Ezekiel, while yet a youth, was
carried captive by Nebuchadnezzar, and placed, with a number of
his countrymen, by the river of Chcbar. It was there that he de-
livered his prophecies during a space of twenty-two years. The
prophecy I have read was delivered in the seventh year of his
captivity, and just three years before Jerusalem was destroyed,
and the temple burnt. From verse 2, we learn that these words
were directed against Jerusalem, for though God had taken
Ezekiel away to minister to the captives by the river of Chebar,
yet he made him send many a message of warning and of mercy
to his beloved Jerusalem. " Son of man, set thy face toward
Jerusalem, and drop thy word towards the holy places, and pro-
phesy against the land of Israel."
God had already fulfilled many of the words of his prophets
against Jerusalem. He had fulfilled the word of Jeremiah against
one of their kings (Jehoiakim). " He shall be buried with the
burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the walls of Jerusa-
lem." He had fulfilled the word of the same prophet in carrying
another king (Jehoiakin) to Babylon with all the goodly vessels of
the house of the Lord. But still, neither prophecies nor judgments
would awaken Jerusalem ; so that we are told (2 Chron. xxxvi.,
12) that Zedekiah the next king, "did that which was evil in the
sight of the Lord his God, and humbled not himself before Jere-
miah the prophet, speaking from the mouth of the Lord." V. 14.
M Moreover, all the chief of the priests and the people transgressed
very much, after all the abominations of the heathen ; and polluted
the house of the Lord, which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. And
the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers,
rising up betimes, and sending ; because he had compassion on
his people, and on his dwelling-place: But they mocked the mes-
sengers of God. and despised his words, and misused his prophets,
until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was
no remedy."
It was in a time of great hardness and impenitence in Jerusa-
lem that the prophecy before me was delivered, and just three
years before the wrath of God was poured on them to the utter-
most. (1). All was mirth and sensuality in Jerusalem. (2). The
SERMON IV. 27
false prophets prophesied peace, and the people loved to have it
so. (3.) There was no noise but that of revelry within the devoted
city. But in the midst of that din and revelry, the lone prophet
by the river of Chebar heard the muttering of the distant thunder.
The faithful servant of God saw God arming himself as a mighty
man for the war, and the glittering sword of vengeance in his
hand, and he calls aloud to his countrymen, all at ease, with
awakening thunders, " A sword, a sword is sharpened and also
furbished ; it is sharpened to make a sore slaughter ; it is furbish-
ed that it may glitter ; should we then make mirth ?"
My friends, those of you who are unconverted are in the very
same situation as Jerusalem was. In the years that are now fled,
like the mists of the morning, how many messages have you had
from God ? How many times has he sent his messengers to you,
rising up early and sending them ? His Bible has been in your
houses, a silent, but more mighty pleader for God ; his providence
has been in your families, in sickness and death, in plenty or
poverty, all, all beseeching you to flee from the wrath to come ;
all, all beseeching you to cleave to the Lord Jesus, the only, the
all-sufficient Saviour. All these messages have come to you, and
you are yet unconverted, still dead, dry bones, without Christ and
without God in the world ; and you are saying, Soul, take thine
ease, eat and drink, and be merry. But do, my friends, hearken
once more, for God does not wish any to perish. I have a word
from God unto thee, " A sword, a sword is sharpened and also fur-
bished ; it is sharpened to make a sore slaughter ; it is furbished
that it may glitter ; should we then make mirth ?"
Doctrine. It is very unreasonable in unconverted persons to
make mirth.
1. It is unreasonable, because they are under condemnation.
The sword is sharpened and also furbished. It is sharpened to
make a sore slaughter ; it is furbished that it may glitter. Should
we then make mirth ? There is a common idea thai' men are
under probation, as Adam was, and that Christless persons will not
be condemned till the judgment ; but this is not the case. The
Bible s:iys, " He that believeth not is condemned already." " He
that hath not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God
abideth on him." " Cursed is every one (not shall be) who con-
tinurth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them."
Christless souls are at present in the horrible pit, every mouth is
stopped, and they are guilty before God. They are in prison,
ready to be brought out to execution. Therefore, when God
Bends us to preach to Christless persons he calls it " preaching to
the spirits in prison,"* that is, who are under condemnation. The
I believe he afterwards understood 1 Peter Hi., 19, to mean " the spirits who
are now in prison "
28 SERMON IV.
sword is not only unsheathed, it is sharpened and furbished. It is
held over their heads.
Should they then make mirth ? It is unreasonable in a con-
demned malefactor to make mirth. Would it not greatly shock
every feeling mind to see a company of men condemned to die,
meeting and making merry, talking lightly and jestingly, as if the
sword was not over them ? Yet this is the case of those of you
who are unconverted and yet live lives of mirth. You have been
tried in the balance arid found wanting. You have been con-
demned by the righteous judge. Your sentence is past. You
are now in prison, neither can you break out of this prison ; the
sword is whetted and drawn over you. And oh ! is it not most
unreasonable to make mirth ? Is it not most unreasonable to
be happy and contented with yourself and merry with your friends ?
Is it not madness to sing the song of the drunkard ? " Eat, drink,
and be merry, for to-morrow we die."
2. Because God's instruments of destruction are all ready.
Not only are Christless persons condemned already, but the instru-
ments of their destruction are prepared and quite ready. The
sword of vengeance is sharpened and also furbished. When
swords are kept in the armory, they are kept blunt, that the rust
may not hurt their edge; but when work is to be done, and they
are taken out for the slaughter, then they are furbished and sharp-
ened made sharp and glittering. So it is with the sword of the
executioner ; when not in use, it is kept blunt ; but when work is
to be done, it is sharpened and made ready. It is sharpened and
furbished just before the blow is struck, that it may cut clean. So
is it with God's sword of vengeance. It is not sheathed and blunt,
it is sharpened and furbished, it is quite ready to do its work, it is
quite ready for a sore slaughter. The disease by which every
unconverted man is to die is quite ready, it is perhaps in his veins
at this very moment. The accident by which he is to drop into
eternity is quite ready, all the parts and means of it are arranged.
The arrow that is to strike him is on the string, perhaps it has left
the string, and is even now flying towards him.
The place in hell is quite ready for every unconverted soul.
When Judas died, the Scriptures say, " he went to his own
place." It was his own place before he went there, being quite
prepared and ready for him. As when a man retires at night to
his sleeping room, it is said he is gone to his own room, so a place
in hell is quite ready for every Christless person. It is his own
place. When the rich man died and was buried, he was imme-
diately in his own place. He found everything ready. He lifted
up his eyes in hell, being in torments. So hell is quite ready for
every Christless person. It was prepared, long ago. for the devil
and his angels. The fires are all quite ready, and fully lighted
and burning.
Ah ! should Christless souls then make mirth ? A malefactor
SERMON IV. 29
might, perhaps, say that he would be merry as long as the scaffold
was not erected on which he was to die. But if he were told that
the scaffold was quite ready, that the sword was sharpened, and
the executioner standing ready, oh ! would it not be madness to
make mirth ? Alas ! this is your madness, poor Christless soul.
You are not only condemned, but the sword is sharpened and
ready that is to smite your soul ; and yet you can be happy, and
dream away your days and nights in pleasures that perish in the
using. The disease is ready, the accident is ready, the arrow is
on the string, the gravels ready, yea, hell itself is ready, your own
place is made ready ; and yet you can make mirth ! You can
play games and enjoy company. How truly is your laughter like
the crackling of thorns under a pot : a flashy blaze, and then the
blackness of darkness for ever !
3. The sword may come down at any one moment. Not only
are Christless persons condemned already, and not only is the
sword of vengeance quite ready, but the sword may come down
at any one moment. It is not so with malefactors ; their day is
fixed and told them, so that they can count their time. If they
have many days they make merry to-day at least, and begin to
be serious to-morrow. But not so Christless persons ; their day
is fixed, but it is not told them. It may be this very moment.
Ah ! should they then make mirth ?
Some malefactors have been found very stout-hearted to the
very last. Many have received their sentence quite unmoved,
and with a determined countenance. Some have even gone to
the scaffold quite unmoved ; some even with a light, careless
spirit. But when the head is laid down upon the block, when the
eyes are covered, and the neck laid bare when the glittering
sword is lifted high in the air, and may come down any one
moment that is a dreadful time of suspense. It would be very
horrible to see a man in a light, careless spirit, at that time. Oh !
it would be madness to be merry then ? Alas ! this is your mad-
ness, poor Christless soul. You are not only condemned, and not
only is the sword ready, but it may fall on you at any one
moment. Your head is, as it were, on the block. Your neck is
bared before God, and the whetted sword is held over you ; and
yet can you make mirth ? Can you take up your mind with
business and worldly things, and getting rich, building and plant-
ing, and this night your soul may be required of you? Can you
fill up your time with games and amusements, and foolish books
and entertaining companions ? Can you fill up your hours after
work with loose talk and wanton behavior, adding sin to sin,
treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath, when you knew not
what hour the wrath of God may come upon you to the utter-
most ? Can you go prayerless to your bed at night, your mind
filled with dark and horrid imaginations not fit to be named, and
30 SERMON IV.
yet you may be in hell before the morning ? A sword, a sword
it is furbished !
4. Because God has made no promise to Christless souls to stay
Ids hand one moment. All the promises of God are yea and
amen ; that is, they are true. He always fulfils his promises.
But the same Scripture says they are " yea and amen in Christ
Jesus" All God's promises are made to Christ, and to sinners that
cleave to Christ. I believo that it is impossible, in the nature of
things, that God would make a promise to an unconverted man.
Accordingly, all God's promises are made to Christ, and to every
sinner that cleaves on to Christ. But unconverted persons are those
who have never come to Christ ; therefore, there are no promises
made to them. God nowhere promises to make them anxious.
He nowhere promises to bring them to Christ. He nowhere
promises to keep them one moment out of hell. " Should they
then make mirth ?"
Let me speak to Christless persons who are at ease. Many of
you hearing me know that you are in a Christless state ; and yet
you know that you are at ease and happy. Why is this ? It is
because you hope to be brought to Christ before you die. You
say, another day will do as well, and I will hear thee again of
this matter : and therefore you take your ease now. But this is
very unreasonable. It is not worthy of a rational being to act in
this way. God has nowhere promised to bring you to Christ
before you die. God has laid himself under no manner of obliga-
tion to you. He has nowhere promised tha) you shall see to-mor-
row, or that you shall hear another sermon. There is a day near
at hand when you shall not see a to-morrow. If this be not the
last, there is a sermon yet to be preached which will be the last
you will ever hear.
Let me speak to Christless persons who are anxious about their
souls. Some hearing me know that they are in a Christless con-
dition, and this made them anxious, and yet it is to be feared some
are losing that anxiety, and now going back to the mirth of
the world. Why is this ? This is most unreasonable. If you
are still out of Christ, however anxious you have been, remember
God has made no promises to save you. The sword is still over
you, furbished and sharpened. Ah ! do not then make mirth.
Strive to enter in at the strait gate. Take the kingdom of heaven
by violence. Press into it. Never rest till you are in the bonds
of the covenant. Then be as happy as the day is long.
5. It is a sore slaughter, " A sword ! a sword !"
1st, Sore, because it will be on all who are Christless. The
dreadfulness of the slaughter in Jerusalem was that all were
slain, both old and young. The command which the prophet
heard was (ix., 5), "Go ye 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 neat
SERMON IV. 31
any man upon whom is the mark." Such is the sere slaughtel
waiting on unconverted souls. All Christless persons will perish,
young and old. God will not spare, neither will his eye pity.
Think of this, old grey-headed persons, that have lived in sin, and
never come to Christ ; if you die thus, you will certainly perish in
the sore slaughter. Think of this, middle-aged persons, hard-
working merchants and laborers, who make money, but do not
sell all for the pearl of price. Think of this, ye Marthas, who
are careful and troubled about many things, but who forget the
one thing that is needful, you also will full in the sore slaughter.
Think of this, young persons, who live without prayer, yet in
mirth and jollity ; you that meet to jest and be happy on Sabbath
evenings, you that walk in the sight of your own eyes, you too
will full in that sore slaughter. Think of this, little children, you
that are the pride of your mother's heart, but who have gone
astray from ihe womb, speaking lies. Little children, who are
fond of your plays, but are not fond of coming to Jesus Christ,
who is the Saviour of little children, the sword will come on you
also. Oh ! it is a sore slaughter, that will not spare the young, nor
the lovely, nor the kind ; the gentle mother, and affectionate
child ; the widow and her only son. Should you then make
mirth ? Unconverted families, when you meet in the evening to
jest and sport with one another, ask this one question, should we
make mirth ? Is your mirth reasonable ? Is it worthy of rational
beings? Unconverted companions, who meet so often for mirth
and amusement, should you make mirth together when you are in
such a case ? Ah ! how dismal will the contrast be when God
says, *' Bind them in bundles to burn them !"
"2d. Sore slaughter, because the sword is the sword of God. If
it were only the sword of man that is furbished and sharpened for
the slaughter, it would not be very terrible. But it is the sword
of Almighty God, and therefore it is very terrible. " Fear not them
that kill the body, but after that have no more that they can do ;
but I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear. Fear him who, after
he hath killed the body, is able to cast body and soul into hell.
Yea, I say unto you, fear him." If it were the sword of man, it
could reach only to the body ; but, ah ! it is the sword of God,
and the iron will enter into the soul. It is the same sword that
appeared in the garden of Eden. " A flaming sword, that turned
every way to keep the way of the tree of life." It is the same
sword which pierced the side of Jesus Christ in his agony.
" Awake, O sword ! against my shepherd, and against the man
that is my fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts. I will smite the shep-
herd, and the sheep shall be scattered.'' It is that sword of which
Christ speaks when he says, " It shall cut him asunder and ap-
point him his portion with hypocrites ; there shall be wailing and
gnashing of teeth."
Dear brethren, it is not a few flesh wounds that that sword
32 SERMON IT.
will make. It will cut asunder, it will be a death-blow ; eternal
death. It is a death which body and soul will be always dying,
yet never dead.
1 . Let me speak to the Old. There may be some hearing me in
whom these three things meet, namely, that they are old, and
Christless, and full of mirth. Oh ! if there be such hearing me,
consider your ways consider if your mirth be worthy of a ra-
tional being. I have shown you plainly out of the Scriptures
what your case is : (1.) That you are condemned already. (2.)
That God's sword is ready. (3.) That it may come down any
moment. (4.) That God has made you no promise to stay his
hand. And (5.) That it will be a sore slaughter. Consider, then,
if it be reasonable to believe a lie, to deceive your own soul, and
say, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. In the ordinary course
of things, you must soon go the way of all living you must be
gathered to your fathers ; and then all that I have said will be
fulfilled. Should you then make mirth ? Are you tottering on
the brink of hell, and yet living prayerless and Christless, and play-
ing yourself with straws, telling over the oft-repeated tale of youth,
and laughing over the oft-repeated jest? Alas ! what a depth of
meaning was there in the word of feolomon ! " I said of laughter,
it is mad, and of mirth, what doth it ? Even in laughter the
heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness."
2. Let me speak to the Young. There may be many hearing me
in whom these three things meet ; They are young in years, far
from Christ, and yet full of mirth. Now, my dear friends, I entreat
you consider whether your mirth is reasonable. The sword is
sharpened for a sore slaughter. Should you then make mirth ?
Obj. 1. Youth is the time for mirth. Ans. I know well youth
is the time for mirth. The young lamb is a happy creature as it
springs about on the green pasture. The young kid leaps from
rock to rock with liveliest glee. Tne young horse casts its heels
high in the air, full of life and p.f flvity. But then they have no
sin, and you have ; they have *,o hell, and you have. If you will
come to Jesus Christ now, a: d be freed from wrath, ah ! then you
will find that youth is the time for mirth ; youth is the time for
enjoying sweet peace in the bosom, and liveliest intercourse with
God, and brightest hopes of glory.
Obj. 2. You would have us be gloomy and sad. Ans. God
forbid. All that I maintain is, that until you are come to Christ,
your mirth is mad and unreasonable. If you will come to Christ,
then, be as happy as you will ; there are no bounds to your joy
there, for you will joy in God. And when you die, you will come
to fulness of joy in his presence, and pleasures at his right hand
for evermore.
Obj. 3. If I be Christless, it will not bring me into Christ to be
i*ad, and, therefore, I may as well be merry. Ans. True, to be
sad will not bring you into Christ ; and yet, if you were really
SERMON V. 33
awakened to cry to God, peradventure, ne would hear your cry.
If you were striving to enter in, you might find entrance. If you
were pressing into the kingdom, you might take it by violence.
Seek meekness, seek righteousness. It may be ye shall be hid in
the day of the Lord's anger. If you stay where you are, you are
sure to be lost. If you live on in carnal security, in mirth and
jollity, while you are out of Christ, you are sure to perish.
" Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer
thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine
heart and in the sight of thine eyes ; but know thou that for all
these things God will bring thee into judgment."
Dundee, 1837
SERMON V.
Unto you, men, I call , and my voice is to the sons of man." PHOV viii., 4
1. These are the words of wisdom; and wisdom in the book of
Proverbs is no other than our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
This is evident from chap, i., 23, where he says, ' Behold, I will
pour out my spirit unto you ;" but it is Christ alone who has the
gift of the Holy Spirit. And again, from viii., 22, where he says,
" The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way ;" and verse
30, " Then I was by him as one brought up with him ; and I was
daily h : s delight, rejoicing always before him." These words are
true of none but of Jesus Christ, the Word that was with God,
and was God, by whom all things were made.
2. The places he goes to with the invitation. 1. He goes to the
country . He climbs every eminence, and cries there ; then he
descends to the highway where many roads meet. 2. He goes
to the city. He begins at the gates where the people are assem-
bled to make bargains and hear causes ; then he proceeds along
the principal avenue into the city, and cries in at every door as he
passes. He first goes out into the highways and hedges, then
goes into the streets and lanes of the city, carrying the blessed
message.
3. Observe the manner in which he invites. He cries aloud ,
he puts forth the voice ; he stands and cries ; he calls and lifts up
his voice ; he seems like some merchant offering his wares, first
in the market and then from door to door. Never did busy crier
offer to sell his goods with such anxiety as Jesus offers his salva-
tion : verse 10, "Receive my instruction, and not silver; and
knowiedge rather than choice gold."
4. Observe to whom the invitation is addressed. Verse 4. " Un-
to you, O men, I call ; and my voice is to the sons of man." Mer-
34 SERMON V.
chants only offer their goods to certain classes of the people tha
will buy ; 'but Jesus offers his to all men. Wherever there is a
son of Adam, wherever there is one born of woman, the word is
addressed to him ; he that hath ears to hear let him hear.
Doctrine. Christ offers himself as a Saviour to all of the
human race.
I. The most awakening truth in all the Bible. It is commonly
thought that preaching the holy law is the most awakening -truth
in the Bible; that by it the mouth is stopped, and all the world
becomes guilty before God ; and, indeed, I believe this is the mcst
ordinary mean which God makes use of. And yet to me there is
something far more awakening in the sight of a Divine Saviour
freely offering himself to every one of the human race. There is
something that might pierce the heart that is like a stone in that
cry, " Unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of man."
1. Had you lived in the days when Noah built the Ark, had
you seen that mighty vessel standing open and ready, inviting all
the world to come into its roomy cavities, would it not have been
the most awakening of all sights ? Could you have looked upon
it without thinking of the coming flood, that was to sweep the
ungodly world away ?
2. Had you lived in the times when Jesus was on the earth,
had you seen him riding down the Mount Olivet, and stopping
when he came in sight of Jerusalem, lying peaceful and slumber-
ing at his feet, had you seen the son of God weep over the city,
and say, " If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day,
the things which belong to thy peace ! but now they are hid from
thine eyes," would you not have felt that some awful destruction
was awaiting the slumbering city ? Would he shed these tears
for nothing? Surely he sees some day of woe coming which
none knows but himself.
3. Just so, dear friends, when you see Jesus here running from
place to place ; from the high places to the highways, from the
highways to the city gates, from the gates to the doors ; when
you hear his anxious cry, " Unto you, O men, I call," does it not
show that all men are lost, that a dreadful hell is before them ?
Would the Saviour call so loud and so long if there was no hell ?
Apply this to slumbering souls.
1st, Mark who it is that calls you ; it is Wisdom ! Jesus Christ,
in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
" Unto you, O men, I call." Often, when ministers prick youi
hearts in their sermons, you go home and say, " Oh ! it was only
the word of a minister; shall I tremble at the words of a man?"
But here is the word of no minister, but of Christ. Here is the
word of one who knows your true condition, who knows your
heart and your history ; who knows your sins done in the light,
and done in the dark, and done in the recesses of your heart ;
SERMON V. 35
who knows the wrath that is over you, and the hell that is before
yon. " Unto you, O men, I call."
2rf, Mark in how many places he calls you. In the high places
and the highways, in the gates, in the entries, at the coming in of
the doors. Has it not been so with you ? Have you not been
called in the Bible, in the family, in the house of prayer ? You
have gone from place to place, but the Saviour has gone after you.
You have gone to places of diversion, you have gone to places of
sin, but Christ has followed you. You have lain down on a bed
of sickness, and Christ has followed you. Must not the sheep be
in great danger, when the shepherd follows so far in search of it?
3d, How loud he cries. He calls and lifts up the voice. Has
it not been so with you ? Has he not knocked loudly at your
door, in warnings, in providences, in deaths ? Has he not cried
loudly in the preached word ? Sometimes when reading the Bible
alone, has not the voice of Christ been louder than thunder?
4th, He cries to all. Had he cried to the old, then the young
would have said, " We are safe ; we do not need a Saviour."
Had he cried to the young, the old men among you would have
said, " He is not for us." Had he called to the good or to the bad,
still some would have felt themselves excused. But he cries to
you all. There is not one person hearing but Jesus cries to you.
Then all are lost old and young, rich and poor. Whatever you
think of yourselves, Jesus knows you to be in a lost condition ;
therefore this piercing cry, " Unto you, O men, I call."
II The most comforting truth in the Bible. When awakened
persons are first told of Jesus Christ, it generally adds to their
grief. They see plainly that he is a very great and glorious Sa-
viour; but then they feel that they have rejected him, and they
fear that he never can become their Saviour. Very often awak-
ened persons sit and listen to a lively description of Christ, of
his work of substitution in the stead of sinners ; but their ques-
tion still is, " Is Christ a Saviour to me ?'' Now, to this question
I answer, Christ is freely offered to all the human race. " Unto
you, O men, I call." If there were no other text in the whole
Bible to encourage sinners to come freely to Christ, this one alone
might persuade them. There is no subject more misunderstood
by unconverted souls than the unconditional freeness of Christ.
So little idea have we naturally of free grace, that we cannot be-
lieve tha* God can offer a Saviour to us, while we are in a wicked
hell-deserving condition. O it is sad to think how men argue against
their own happiness, and will not believe the very Word of God !
All the types showed the Saviour to be free to all.
(1.) The brazen serpent was lifted up in sight of all Israel, that
any one might look and be healed ; and Christ himself explains
this. " So must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever be-
lieveth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
36 SERMON V.
(2.) The Refuge City set on a hill, with its gates open night
and day, showed this. Whosoever will m.'iy flee for refuge to the
hope set before us.
(3.) The angels over Bethlehem repeated the same thing ? " Be-
hold I bring you glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all
people." And the last invitation of the Bible is the freest of all :
"Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Mark,
also, in the text before us, " Unto you, O men, I call." This shows
that he is not free to devils ; but to all men, to every one that has
human form and human name, the Saviour is now free. It is not
for any goodness in men, not for any change in them that Christ
offers himself; but just in their lost condition as men. He freely
puts himself within their reach. There are many stratagems by
which the devil contrives to keep men away from Christ.
1. Some say there is no hope for me. "There is no hope,
no ; for I have loved strangers, and after them I will go. I have
committed such great sins, I have sunk so deep in the mire of sin,
I have served my lusts so long, that there is no use of me thinking
of turning. There is no hope, no." To you I answer, there is
hope ; your sins may be forgiven for Christ's sake ; there is for-
giveness with God. Ah! why should Satan so beguile you?
True, you have waded deep into the mire of sin ; you have destroyed
yourself, and yet in Christ there is help. He came for such as you.
Christ speaks in these words to you you are of the human race,
and Christ speaks to all of the human race " Unto you, O men,
I call."
2. " I have not the least care about my soul. Up to this mo-
ment I never listened to a sermon, nor attended to a word in the
Bible. I have no wish to hear of Christ, or God, or eternal things."
To you I answer: Still Christ is quite free to you. Though you
have no care for your soul, yet Christ has, and wishes to save it.
Though you do not care for Christ, yet he cares for you, and
stretches out his hands to you. Christ did not come to the earth
because people were caring about their souls, but because we
were lost. You are only the more lost. Christ is all the more
seeking you. This day you may find a Saviour. " Unto you, O
Men, I call."
3. " If I knew I were one of the elect I would come, but I fear
I am not," To you I answer : Nobody ever came to L irist be-
cause they knew themselves to be of the elect. It is quite true
that God has of his mere good pleasure elected some to everlast-
ing Lfe, but they never knew it till they came to Christ. Christ
nowhere invites the elect to come to him. The question for you
is not, Am I one of the elect ? but, Am I of the human race ?
4. Some of you may be saying, " If I could see my name in the
Bible then I would believe that Christ wants me to be saved
When Christ called Zaccheus, he said, ' Zaccheus, come down.'
He called him by ijame, and he came down immediately. Now
SEIIMON V. 37
if Christ would call me by name, I would run to him immedi-
ately." Now, to you I say, Christ does call you by your name,
for he says, " To you, O men, I call." Suppose that Christ had
written down the names of all the men and women in the world,
your name would have been there. Now, instead of writing
down every name, he puts them all together in one word, which
includes every man, and woman, and child " Unto you, O men, I
call ; and my words are to the sons of man /" So your name is
in the Bible. " Go and preach the Gospel to every creature."
4. " If I could repent and believe, then Christ would be free to
me, but I cannot repent and believe." To you I say, are you
not a man before you repent and believe ? then Christ is offered
to you before you repent. And, believer, Christ is not offered to
you because you repent, but because you are a vile, lost sinner.
" Unto you, O men, I call."
6. " I fear the market is over. Had I come in the morning of
life, I believe Christ was offered me then in youth, at my first
sacrament ; but now, I fear, the market-day is done." Are you
not still a man, one of the human race ? True, you have refused
the Saviour for years, yet still he offers himself to you. It was
not for any goodness that he offered himself to you at first, but
because you were vile and lost. You are vile and lost yet, so he
offers himself to you still. " Unto you. O men, I call."
I would here then take occasion to make offer of Christ with
all his benefits to every soul in this assembly. To every man,
and woman, and child, I do now, in the name of my Master, make
fuL, free offer of a crucified Saviour to be your surety and right-
eousness, your refuge and strength. I would let down the Gospel
cord so low, that sinners, who are low of stature like Zaccheus,
may lay hold of it. Oh ! is there none will lay hold on Christ, the
only Saviour ?
III. The most condemning truth in the Bibit
If Christ be freely offered to all men, then it is plain that all
who live and die without accepting Christ shall meet with the
doom of those who refuse the Son of God. " He that sinneth
against me wrongeth his own soul ; all they that hate me love
death." Ah ! it is a sad thing that the very truth, which is life to
every believing soul, is death to all others. " This is the con-
demnation." We are a sweet savor of Christ unto God. When
the ignorant heathens stand at the bar of God Hindoos, and
Africans, and Chinese who have never had the offer of Christ
made to them, they will not be condemned as those will that have
lived and died unsaved under a preached Gospel. Tyre and
Sidon will not meet the same doom as Chorazin and Bethsaida,
%nd unbelieving Capernaum.
Oh ! brethren, you are without excuse in the sight of G< tf
you go home unsaved this day. The Gospel cord has beep '*
38 SERMON VI.
down as low as to every one of you this day. If you go away
without laying hold, your condemnation will be heavier at the last
day. If Christ had not come to you, you had not had sin, but
now you have no cloak for your sin.
Obj. But my heart is so hard that I cannot believe, my heart is
so set upon worldly things that I cannot turn to Christ. I was
born this way. Ans. This does but aggravate your guilt. It is
true you were born thus, and that your heart is like the nether
millstone. But that is the very reason God will most justly con-
demn you ; because from your infancy you have been hard-
hearted and unbelieving. If a thief, when tried before the judge
on earth, were to plead guilty, but to say that he had always been
a thief, that even in infancy his heart loved stealing, would not
this just aggravate his guilt, that he was by habit and repute a
thief? So you.
O brethren, if you could die and say that Christ had never been
offered to you, you would have an easier hell than you are like to
have. You must go away either rejoicing in or rejecting Christ
this day ; either won, or more lost than ever. There is not one of
you but will yet feel the guilt of this Sabbath-day. This sermon
will meet you yet. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh,
" How shall we escape if we neglect so gieat salvation ?"
St. Peter's, 1838
SERMON VI.
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen
with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the
Word of life (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness,
and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was mani-
fested unto us) ; that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that
ye also may have fellowship with us ; and truly our fellowship is with the Father,
and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you that your
joy may be full." 1 John i., 1-4.
I. The subject of John's preaching.
It was Jesus Christ, and him crucified. " That which we have
seen and heard, declare we unto you." This was the preaching
of John the Baptist " Behold the Lamb of God, which takcth
away the sins of the world." He pointed to Jesus. This was the
preaching of Philip. Acts viii., 5, " Philip went down to Samaria,
and preached Christ unto them." And when he came to the
Ethiopian Eunuch, " he preached unto him Jesus." This was the
preaching of Paul. " I determined to know nothing among you,
but Jesus Christ and him crucified." This was the beginning, and
middie, and end of the preaching of Paul. This was the preach-
ing of John. To declare all that he had seen with his eyes, heard
SERMON VI.
39
with his ears, handled with his hands, of Immanuel ; this was th*
object of his life, this was the Alpha and Omega of his preaching.
He knew that Jesus was like the alabaster box, full of spikenard,
very costly ; and his whole labor was to break the box, and pour
forth the good ointment before the eyes of fainting sinners, that
they might be attracted by the sweet savor. He knew that
Jesus was a bundle of myrrh, and his whole life was spent in
opening it out to sinners, that they might be overcome by the re-
freshing odors. He carried about the savor of Christ with him
wherever he went. He knew that Jesus was the Balm of Gilead,
and his labor was to open out this bruised balm before the eyes of
sick souls, that they might be healed.
1. His Eternity. " That which was from the beginning."
John had often heard Jesus speak of his eternity. " In the be-
ginning was the Word." " Before Abraham was I am." He
remembered how Jesus said in prayer in the garden, " Glorify me
with the glory which I had with thee before the world was."
" Thou lovedst me before the ibundation of the world." John
thus knew that he was the Eternal One that he was before all
visible things, for he made them all. By him God made the world.
Even at the time John was leaning on his bosom, he felt that it
was the bosom of the Uncreated One. John always declared
this ; he loved to make him known. O beloved, if you have come
to lean on the bosom of Jesus, you have conae to the Uncreated
One the Eternal One.
2. Was with the Father. John knew, from Pro>v. viii., 30, that
Jesus had been with the Father " Then I was by him, aone
brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always
before him." He had heard Jesus tell many of the secrets of his
Father's bosom, from which he knew that he had been with the
Father. " All things that I have heard of my Father, I have
made known unto you." He had heard Jesus plainly say, " I came
forth from the Father, and am come into the world." " A.gain I
leave the world and go to the Father." John felt even when Jesus
was washing his feet that this was the man that was God's fellow.
Even when he saw Jesus on the Cross, with his pale lips and
bleeding hands and feet, like a tortured worm, and " no man,"
he knew that this was the man that was God's fellow. He lived
to declare this. Do you thus look to Jesus ? Have you beheld
the glory, as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth ? O tempest-tossed soul, this is he that comes to save thee.
3. Eternal Life. John knew that Jesus was the author of aW
natural life ; that not a man breathes, no beast of the forest roars,
no bird stoops on the wing, but they all receive the stream ol life
from the hand of Immanuel. He had seen Jesus raise the Ruler's
daughter from the dead, and call Lazarus from the tomb. He
knew that Jesus was the author of all life in the soul. He hau
heard Jesus say " As the father raiaeth up the deao\ and qillckeD
40 SERMON VI.
etli whom he will, even so the Son quickeneth whom he wi.l.''
" My sheep know my voice, and I give unto them eternal life."
He had heard him say, " I am the way, the truth, and the life."
Above all, he had felt in his own soul that Christ was the Eterna!
Life. In that morning, when he sat with his father, Zebedee, in
the boat, mending their nets, Jesus said, " Follow me !" and the
life entered into his soul, and he found it a never failing spring of
life. Christ was his life ; therefore did he make him known as
the eternal life. Even when he saw him give up the ghost, when
he saw his pale, lifeless body, the stiff hands and feet, the glazed
eye, the body cold as the rocky tomb where they laid him, still
he felt that this was the Eternal Life. O beloved, do you believe
that he is the life of the world ? Some of you feel your souls to
be dead, lifeless in prayer, lifeless in praise. Oh ! look on him
whom John declares to you. All is death without him. Bring
your dead soul into union with him, and he will give you eternal
life.
4. Manifested. O beloved, if Jesus had not been manifested,
you had never been saved. It would have been quite righteous
in God to have kept his Son in his own bosom to have kept that
jewel in his own place upon the throne of heaven. God would
have been the same lovely God ; but we would have lain down
in burning hell. If that Eternal Life which was with the Father
if he had remained in his glory as the living one then you
and I would have borne our own curse. But he was manifested
" God was manifest in the flesh justified in the spirit seen
of angels believed on in the world received up into glory."
J-^hn saw him he saw his lovely countenance he beheld his
giory, as the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of
grace and truth. He saw that better Sun veiled with flesh that
could not keep the beams of his Godhead from shining through.
He saw him on the Mount, when his face shone like the sun. He
saw in the Garden, where he lay upon the ground. He saw him
on the Cross, when he hung between earth and heaven. He
looked upon him many a time he looked up on his heavenly coun-
tenance his eye met his eye. He heard him heard the voice
that said, " Let there be light !" He heard the voice like the sound
of many waters. He heard all his gracious words his words
concerning God and the way of peace. He heard him say to a
sinner, " Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee." He
handled him he put his hands in his hands, his arms around his
arms, and his head upon his b6som. Perhaps he handled his body
when it was taken from the cross touched the cold clay of
Immanuel. O beloved, it is a manifested Christ we declare unto
you. It is not the Son in the bosom of the Father that would
never have saved you. It is Jesus manifested in flesh. The Son
of God living and dying as man instead of sinners ; him we
declare unto you.
SERMON VI. 4t
Learn the true way of coming to peace. It is by looking to a
manifested Jesus. Some of you think you will come to peace by
looking in to your own heart. Your eye is riveted there. You
watch every change there. If you could only see the glimpse of
light there, O what joy it would give you ! If you could only see
a melting of your stony heart if you could only see your heart
turning to God if you could only see a glimpse of the image of
Jesus in your heart you would be at peace ; but you cannot
all is dark within. O dear souls, it is not there you will find
peace. You must avert the eye from your bosom altogether.
You must look to a declared Christ. Spread out the record of
God concerning his Son. The Gospels are the narrative of the
heart of Jesus, of the work of Jesus, of the grace of Jesus.
Spread them out before the eye of your mind, till they fill your
eye. Cry for the Spirit to breathe over the page to make a
manifested Christ stand out plainly before you ; and the moment
that you are willing to believe all that is there spoken concerning
Jesus, that moment you will wipe away your tears, and ch;mge
your sighs for a new song of praise.
II. The object John had in view by preaching Christ.
1. That ye may have fellowship with us. To have fellowship
with another is to have things in common with him. Thus in
Acts iv., 32, the first Christians were " of one heart and of one
soul ; neither said any that aught of the things which he possessed
was his own, but they had all things in common."" They had al
their goods in common, they shared what they had with one ano
ther. This is what John desired in spiritual things, that we
should share with him in his spiritual things, share and share alike
1st, Forgiveness. Some people think it impossible to have the
same forgiveness that the Apostles had that it would be verj
bold to think of tasting the same. But is it not far boldei
to say that John is a liar, and that the Holy Spirit is a liar \
for he here says plainly, that all his preaching, and all his
desire was, that you should have fellowship with him. Yes,
sinner, forgiveness is as open to you as it was to John. Tht-
blood that washed him is ready to wash you as white as snow.
John had the same need of Christ that the vilest of you have
Only look to a declared Itnmanuel ; clear your eye from unbelief
and look at a freely revealed Jesus, ;md you will find the samf-
forgiveness is as free to you as t was to John.
2d, The same love of Jesus. John was the disciple whom Jesun
loved. Just as Daniel was th" prophet whom he greatly loved
" a man, greatly beloved." So John was the disciple whom Jesua
loved. At the last supper which Jesus had in this world, John
leaned upon his bosom. He had the nearest place to the heart of
Christ of any in all the world. Perhaps you think it is impossible
vou can ever come to that. Some of you are trembling afar off|
42 SERMON VI.
but you, too, if you will only look where John points you, if you
will only believe the full record of God about Jesus, will share the
love of Jesus with John, you will be one of his peculiarly beloved
ones. Those that believe most, must get love, they come near-
est to Jesus, they do, as it were, lay their heads on his breast ;
arid no doubt you will one day really share that bosom with John.
If you believe little, you will keep far off from Jesus.
3d, The same fatherly dealings as John. John experienced
many wonderful dealings of God. He experienced many of the
primings of the Father. He was a fruitful branch, and the Father
pruned him that he might bring forth more fruit. When he was
very old, he was banished to Patmos, an island in the ^Egean Sea,
and, it is supposed, made a slave in the mines there. He was a
companion in tribulation ; but he had many sweet shinings of the
Father's love to his soul. He had sweet revelations of Christ in
the time of his affliction ; and he was joyfully delivered out of all
his troubles. He experienced peculiarly the fatherly dealings of
God. And so may you do, believer. Look where John looked,
believe as John believed, and, like him, you will find that you have
a father in heaven, who will care for you, who will correct you
in measure, who will stay his rough wind in the day of his east
wind, who will preserve you unto his heavenly kingdom.
2. Fellowship with the Father. O beloved, this is so wonderful,
that I could not have believed it, if I had not seen it. Shall a hell-
deserving worm come to share with the holy God ? O the depth
and the length of the love of God, it passeth knowledge !
1st, In his holiness. A natural man has not a spark of God's
holiness in him. There is a kind of goodness about you.
You may be kind, pleasant, agreeable, good-natured, amiable
people, there may be a kind of integrity about you, so that you
are above stealing or lying ; but as long as you are in a natural
state, there is not a grain of God's holiness in you. You have
not a grain of that absolute hatred against all sin which God has ;
you have none of that flaming love for what is lovely, pure,
holy, which dwells in the heart of God. But the moment you
believe on a manifested Christ, that moment you receive the
Spirit, the same spirit which dwells in the infinite bosom of the
Father d welleth in you, so you become partakers of God's holiness,
you become partakers of the Divine nature. You will not be as holy
as God ; but the same stream which flows through the heart of
God will be given you. Ah ! does not your heart break to be
holier ! Look then to Jesus, and abide in him, and you will share
the same spirit with God himself.
2d, In his joy. No joy is like the Divine joy. It is infinite,
/ull, eternal, pure, unmingled joy. It is light, without any cloud
to darken it ; it is calm, without any breath to ruffle it. Clouds
and darkness are round about him, storms and fire go before him
but within, all is peace ineffable, unchangeable. Believers in some
SERMON VI. 43
measure share in this joy. We might mention some of the elements
of God's joy. First, All things happen according to the good plea
sure of his will. He has fore-ordained whatsoever comes to pass
Nothing comes unprepared upon God. Many things are hateful in
his sight, yet, looking on the whole, he can delight in all. If you have
come to Christ, you will have some drops of his joy. You can
look upon all events with a calm, holy joy, knowing that your
Father's will and purposes alone shall stand. Second, The Con-
version of Souls. There is joy in the presence of the angels of
God over one sinner repenting, more than over ninety-nine who
need no repentance. 1 have no doubt that this is one of the great
elements of his joy, seeing souls brought into his favor. God loves
to save ; he delighteth in mercy ; he delights when he can be a
just God and a Saviour. If you are come to Christ, you will have
the same joy.
3. Fellowship with the Son.
1st. We share with . the Son in his justification. Once Jesus
was unjustified, once there were sins laid to his charge, the sins of
many. It was this that occasioned his agony in the garden, on
the cross. His only comfort was, " He is near that justifieth me."
He knew the time would be short. But now the wrath of God
has all fallen upon him. The thunder-clouds of God's anger have
spent all their lightnings on his head. The vials of God's wrath
have poured out their last drops upon him. He is now justified
from all the sins that were la'i upon him. He has lei* them with
the grave-clothes. His fellow-men and devils laid all sins to his
charge ; he was silent. Do you believe this record concerning
the Son ? Do you cleave to Jesus as yours ? Then you have
fellowship with hirr in his justification. You are as much justified
as Christ is. There is as little guilt lying upon you as there is
upon Christ. The vials of wrath have not another drop for Christ,
nor another drop for you. You are justified from all things.
2d, His a \:-;tion. When Jesus went up to heaven, he said,
" I ;^o to my Father." When he entered heaven, the word of
God was, " Thou art my Son : sit thou on my right hand until I
make thine enemies thy footstool." Oh ! it was a blessed ex-
change, when he left the frowns and curses of this world for the
embrace of iiis Father's arms, when he left the thorny crown for
a crown of orlory, when he came from under the wrath of God
in:<> the fatherly love of God. Such is your change you that
believe in Jesus. You have fellowship with the Son you share
in his adoption. He says, ' I ascend to my Father and your
Father." God is as much your Father as he is Christ's Father
yr>ur God as Christ's God. O what a change ! lor an heir of hell
to become an heir of God, and joint heir with Christ, to inherit
God, to have a son's interest in God ! Eternity alone wi'l teach
you what is in that word, " heir of God."
4. Joy full. Other joys r.re n Jt filling. C/eature joys oJ. fill
44 SERMON VII.
a small part of the soul. Money, houses, lands, music, entertain-
ments, friends these are not filling joys; they are just drops of
joys. But Christ revealed makes the cup run over. " Thou
anointest my head with oil : my cup runneth over. Believing in
a manifested Christ, fills the heart full of joy. " In thy presence
is fullness of joy." Christ brings the soul into God's presence.
One smile of God fills the heart more than ten thousand smiles of
the world.
You that have nothing but creature joy, hunting after butterflies,
feeding upon carrion : why do you spend money for that which
is not bread ? You that are afflicted, tempest-tossed, and not
comforted, look to a manifested Jesus. According to your faith,
so be it unto you. Believe none, and you will have no joy. Be-
lieve little, and you will have little joy. Believe much, and you
will have much joy. Believe all, and you will have all joy, and
your joy will be full. It will be like a bowl lipping over good
measure, pressed down, and running over. Amen.
St.. Peter's, 1839.
SERMON VII.
' A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse ; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed."
Song iv., 12.
Doctrine. The Believer is Christ's Garden.
I. The name here given to Believers. " My sicttr, my spouse,'
or rather, " my sister spouse." There are many sweet names
from the lips of Christ addressed to believers : " O thou fairest
among women," i., 8 ; " My love," ii., 2 ; " My love, my fair
one," ii., 10 ; " O my dove," ii., 14 ; " My sister, my 1. ve, my dove,
my undefiled," v., 2 ; " O prince's daughter," vii., 1. But here is
one more tender than all, " My sister, my spouse" iv., 9 ; and
again, verse 10 ; and here, verse 12. To be spoken well of by
the world, is little to be desired ; but to hear Christ speak such
words to us, is enough to fill our hearts with heavenly joy. The
meaning you will see by what Paul says, 1 Cor. ix., 5, ' Have we
not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other Apostles ?"
He means power to marry one who is like-minded, a sister in the
Lord, one who will be both a wife and a sister in Christ Jesus :
a wife by covenant, a sister by being born of the same Father in
heaven. So Christ here says of believers, *' My sister, my spouse ;"
that they are not only united to him by choice and covenant, but
are like-minded also.
.. These two things are inseparable. Some would like to be tke
SERMON VII. 45
spouse of the Saviour, without being the sister. Some would like
to be saved by Christ, but not to be made like Christ. When
Christ chooses a sinner, and sets his love on the soul, and when
he woos the soul and draws it into covenant with himself, it is
only that he may make the soul a sister ; that he may impart his
features, his same heart, his all to the soul. Now many rest in
the mere forgiveness of sins. Many have felt Christ wooing their
soul, and offering himself freely to them, and they have accepted
him. They have consented to the match. Sinful and worthless,
and hell-deserving, they find that Christ desires it that he will
not be dishonored by it that he will find glory in it ; and their
heart is filled with joy in being taken into covenant with so glo-
rious a bridegroom. But why has he done it ? To make you
partaker of his holiness, to change your nature, to make you
sister to himself, of his own mind and spirit. He has sprinkled
you with clean water, only that he may give you a new heart
also. He brings you to himself and gives you rest, only that he
may make you learn of him, his meekness and lowliness in heart.
1. Inseparable. You cannot be the spouse of Christ without
becoming sister also. Christ offers to be the bridegroom of sin-
covered souls. He came from heaven for this : took flesh and blood
for this. He tries to woo sinners, standing and stretching out his
hands. He tells them of all his power, and glory, and riches, and
that all shall be theirs. He is a blood-sprinkled bridegroom ; but
that is his chief loveliness. The soul believes his word, melts
under his love, consents to be his. " My beloved is mine, and I
am his." Then he washes the soul in his own blood, clothes it in
his own righteousness, takes it in with him to the presence of his
Father. From that day the soul begins to reflect his image.
Christ begins to live in the soul. The same heart, the same spirit,
are in both. The soul becomes sister as well as spouse ; Christ's
not only by choice and covenant, but by likeness also. Some of
you Christ has chosen : you have become his justified ones. Do
you rest there ? No : remember you must be made like him
reflect his image : you cannot separate the two.
2. The order of the two. You must be first the spouse before
you can be the sister of Christ ; his by covenant before his by like-
ness. Some think to be like Christ first, that they will copy his
features till they recommend themselves to Christ. No : this will
not do. He chooses only those that have no comeliness, polluted
in their own blood, that he may have the honor of washing them.
" When thou wast in thy blood ;" Ezek. xvi., 6. Are there any
trying to recommend themselves to Christ by their change of life ?
O how little you know him ! He comes to seek those who are
black in themselves. Are there some of you poor, defiled, un-
clean? You are just the soul Christ woos. Proud, scornful?
Christ woos you. He offers you his all, and then he will change
you.
46 SERMON VII
III. To what Christ compares Believers : " A garden enclosed*
The gardens in the East are always enclosed: sometimes by a
fence of reeds, such are the gardens of cucumbers in the wilder-
ness ; sometimes by a stone wall, as the garden of Gethsemane ;
sometimes by a hedge of prickly pear. But what is still more
interesting is, they are often enclosed out of a wilderness. All
around is often barren sand ; and this one enclosed spot is like the
garden of the Lord. Such is the believer.
1. Enclosed by election. In the eye of God, the world was one
great wilderness, all barren, all dead, all fruitless. No part was
fit to bear anything but briers. It was nigh unto cursing. One
part was no better than another in his sight. The hearts of men
were all hard as a rock, dry and barren as the sand. Out of the
mere good pleasure of his will, he marked out a garden of delights
where he might show his power and grace, that it might be to his
praise. Some of you know your election of God by the fruit 01
it, by your faith, love, and holiness, Be humbled by the thought
that it was solely because he chose you. Why me, Lord ?
why me ?
2. Enclosed by the Spirit's work. Election is the planning, ol
the garden. The Spirit's work is the carrying it into effect.
Isaian v., 2, " He fenced it/' When the Spirit begins his work, it
is separating work. When a man is convinced of sin, he is no
more one with the careless, godless world. He avoids his com-
panions, goes alone. When a soul comes to Christ, it is still more
separated. It then comes into a new world. He is no more under
the curse, no more under wrath. He is in the smile and favor of
God. Like Gideon's fleece, he now receives the dew when all
around is dry.
3. Enclosed by the arms of God. God is a wall of fire. Angels
are around the soul. Elisha's hill was full of horses of fire. God is
i ound about the soul, as the mountains stand round about Jerusalem.
The soul is hid in the secret of God's presence. No robber can
ever come over the fence. " A vineyard of red wine, I the Lord
do keep it ; I will water it every moment ; lest any hurt it, I will
keep it night and day." (Isaiah xxvii., 2, 3). This is sung over
thee.
IV. Well-watered garden. Watered in three ways. 1. By a
hidden well. It is the custom in the East to roll a stone over the
mouth of a well, to preserve the water from sand. 2. By a foun-
tain of living water, a well always bubbling up. 3. By streams
from Lebanon.
1. " A spring shut up. This describes the Spirit in the heart,
in his most secret manner of working. In some gardens there is
only this secret well. A stone is over the mouth. If you wish to
water the garden, you must roll away the stone, and let down the
bucket. Such is the life of God in many souls. Some of you
SERMON VII. 47
feel that there s a stone over the mouth of the well in you. Your
own reeky heart is the stone. Stir up the gift of God which is in
thee.
2. A well of living water. This is the same as John iv. a well
that is ever full and running over. Grace new every moment ;
fresh upspringings from God. Thus only will you advance.
3. Streams from Lebanon. These are very plentiful. On af
sides they fall in pleasant cascades, in the bottom unite into broad,
full streams, and on their way water the richest gardens. The
garden of Ibrahim Pacha, near Acre, is watered with streams
from Lebanon. So believers are sometimes favored with
streams from the Lebanon that is above. We receive out of
Christ's fulness ; drink of the wine of his pleasures. O for more
of these streams of Lebanon ! Even in the dry season they are
full. The hotter the summer, the streams from Lebanon become
the fuller ; because the heat only melts the mountain snows.
V. The Fruit. The very use of a garden is to bear fruit and
flowers. For this purpose it is enclosed, hedged, planted, water-
ed. If it bear no fruit nor flowers, all the labor is lost labor.
The ground is nigh to cursing. So is it with the Christian.
Three remarkable things are here.
1. No weeds are mentioned. Pleasant fruit-trees, and all the
chief spices ; but no weeds. Had it been a man that was describ-
ing his garden, he would have begun with the weeds ; the unbe-
lief, corruption, evil tempers, &c. Not so Christ. He covers all
the sins. The weeds are lost sight of. He sees no perversity.
As in John xvii , " They have kept thy word ; they are not of the
world." As in Rev. ii., 2, " I know thy works."
2. Fruits. The pomegranate, the very best ; all pleasant fruits.
And all his own. " From me is thy fruit found ;" " His pleasant
fruits ;" verse 16. The graces that Christ puts into the heart and
brings out of the life are the very best, the richest, most pleasant,
most excellent that a creature can produce. Love to Christ, love
to the brethren, love to the Sabbath, forgiveness of enemies, all
the best fruits that can grow in the human heart. Unreasonable
world ! to condemn true conversion, when it produces the very
fruits of paradise, acceptable to God, if not to you. Should not
this make you stand and consider?
3. Spices. These spices do not naturally grow in gardens.
Even in the East, there never was such a display as this. So the
fragrant graces of the Spirit are not natural to the heart. They
are brought from a far country. They must be carefully watch-
ed. They need the stream, and the gentle zephyr. Oh ! I fear
most of you should hang your heads when Christ begins to speak
of fragrant spices in your heart. Where are they ? Are there
not talkative, forward Christians? Are there not self-seeking,
praise-seeking, man-pleasing Christians? Are there not proud-
48 SERMON VIil-
praying Christians ? Are there not ill-tempered Christians ? Are
there not rash, inconsiderate ones ? Are there not idle, lazy, bad-
working Christians ? Lord, where are the spices ? Verily, Christ
is a bundle of myrrh. O to be like him ! O that every flower
and fruit would grow ! They must come from above. Man
there are of whom one is forced to say, " Well, they may be Chric
tians ; but I would not like to be next them in heaven !" Cry fo.
the wind ; " Awake, O north wind, and come, thou south ; blo7
upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out."
SERMON VIIL*
" (Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness leaning upon her beloved ?)
I raised thee up under the apple-tree ; there thy mother brought thee forth ;
There she brought thee forth that bare thee. Set me as a seal upon thine heart,
as a seal upon thine arm ; for love is strong as death ; jealousy is cruel as the
grave ; the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it; if a man would
give'all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned."
SONG viii., 5, 6, 7.
WE are introduced to the great Redeemer and a believing soul,
and are made to hear their converse.
I. The posture of the Church.
1. From the Wilderness. To a child of God this world is a
wilderness. First, Because everything is fading here. Here is
nothing abiding ; money takes wings and flees away ; friends die.
All are like grass, and if some are more beautiful, or more engag-
ing than others, still they are only like the flower of the grass : a
little more ornamented, but withering often sooner. Sometimes
a worldly comfort is like Jonah's gourd ; it came up over his head
to be a shadow to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was ex-
ceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm, when
the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it
withered. So our worldly comfort sometimes grows up over our
head like a shadow, and we are exceeding glad of our gourd ; but
God prepares a worm, we faint, and are ready to die. Here we
have no continuing city ; but we seek one to come. This is a
wilderness : " Arise, depart, this is not thy rest, for it is polluted."
An experienced Christian looks upon everything here as not abid-
ing ; for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that
are not seen are eternal. Second, Because everything is stainsd
with sin here. Even the natural scenery of this world is stained
* This is all that eiists of this Sermon, which wts memorable to many. It i'
1/ttle more than a s l; -.etcn.
SERMON VIII. 49
with sin. The thorns and thistles tell of a cursed earth. Above
all, when you look at the floods of ungodly men, " We are of God,
and the whole world lieth in wickedness." The world does not
know a Christian, and does not love him. Though you love
them, and would lay down your body that they might pass over
to glory, yet they will not hear. Above all, the sin in our own
heart makes us bend down under our burden, and feel this to be u
valley of weeping. Ah, wretched man ! if we had no body of
sin, what a sweet glory would appear in everything ; we would
sing like the birds in spring.
2. Coming out of it. Unconverted souls are going down into
the wilderness to perish there. All Christians are coming up out
of it. Sabbath-days are like milestones marking our way; or
rather they are like the wells we used to come to at evening.
Every real Christian is making progress. If the sheep are on the
shoulder of the shepherd, it is .always getting nearer the fold.
With some the shepherd takes long steps. Dear Christians, you
should be advancing, getting higher, nearer to Canaan, riper for
glory. In the south of Russia, the country is of vast plains, rising
by steps. Dear friends, you should get on to a higher place, up
another step every Sabbath-day. In travelling, you never think
of making a house in the wilderness. So, dear friends, do not
take up your rest here, we are journeying. Let all your endea-
vors be to get on in your journey.
3. Leaning upon her Beloved. It is very observable that there
is none here but the bride and her beloved, in a vast wilderness.
She is not leaning upon him with one arm, and upon somebody
else with the other ; but she is leaning upon him alone. So it is
with the soul taught of God ; it feels alone with Christ in this
world ; it leans as entirely upon Christ as if there were no other
being in the universe. She leans all her weight upon her husband.
When a person has been saved from drowning, they lean all their
weight upon their deliverer. When the lost sheep was found, he
took it upon his shoulder. You must be content then to lean all
your weight upon Christ. Cast the burden of temporal things
upon him. Cast the care of your soul upon him. If God be lor
us, who can be against us ? They that wait upon the Lord shall
renew their strength. The eagle soars so directly upward that
poets have fancied it was aiming at the sun. So does the soul that
waits on Christ.
II. Christ's Word to the leaning soul.
1. " / raised thee up? &c. He reminds the believer of his
natural state. Every soul now in Christ was once like anexrosed
infant (Ezek. xvi.), cast out into the open field. " Behold I was
shapen in iniquity." Do not forget what you were. If ever you
come to forget what you were, then you may be sure you are not
right with God. Observe when the contrition comes. When
4
50 SERMON IX.
you arc loaning on Christ, then he tells you of your sin and
misery. Ezek. xxxvi., 31.
2. He reminds you of his love, " I raised thee up." He himself
is the apple-tree, open on all sides round, affording shadow and
fruit. / raised thee. Christ not only shelters, but draws into the
shelter. " To him be glory." Are there not some who feel like
an infant cast out ? Turn your eye to Christ, he only can raise
up your soul under the apple-tree.
III. TJie leaning soul cries for continued grace.
Set me as a seal. It is a sure mark of grace to desire more
The High Priest had a beautiful breast-plate over his breast,
adorned with jewels make me one of these. He had also a jewei
on each shoulder make me one of these. These were bouna
with chains of gold ; but the believer with chains of love. This
is a true mark of grace. If you be contented to remain where
you are, without any more nearness to God. or any more holiness,
this is a clear mark you have got none. Hide me deeper, bind
me closer, and carry me more completely.
1. The love of Christ is strong as death. Death is awfully
strong. When he comes upon a stout young man, he brings him
down. So is the love of Christ.
2. Cruel, or stubborn, as the grave. The grave will not give up
its dead, nor will Christ give up his own. O pray that this love
may embrace you. Vehement as hell unquenchable fire. You
have your choice, dear friends, of two eternal fires " Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ," &c. Rom. viii. Floods
cannot drown it afflictions cannot.
3. It cannot be bought. " If a man would give all the sub-
stance," &c. You must accept it free or not at all.
Dundee, 1840.
SERMON IX.
' After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number of all
nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and be-
fore the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands : and cried
with a loud v.oice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne,
and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about
the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and wor-
shipped God, Saying, Amen : Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving,
and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God, for ever and ever. Amen.
And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are ar-
rayed in vrhite robes ? and whence came they ? And I said unto him, Sir, thou
knowest. And he said unto me, These are they which came out of great tribu-
lation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the
Lamh. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night
in his temole : and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They
SERMON IX. 51
hall hunger no n ore, neither thirst any more : neither shall the sun light on
.them, nor any heat. For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall
feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall
wipe away all tears from their eyes." Rev. vii., 9 to the end.
IT is one thing to read these words with a poet's eye, and another
thing to read them with the eye of a Christian. O pray, dear
friends, that the Spirit may tear away the veil from our hearts,
and show us the grand realities that are here. It is sweet and
profitable.
1. For the awakening of the ungodly, that you may see what
are the exercises of the heavenly world, and how unfit you would
be for them. I suppose many of you feel that you have not
washed your robes, and that you could not sing their song. Then
you must be on the road to hell.
2. For the instruction of believers. It shows you what are the
chief employments of that happy world, where we shall so soon
be ; it gives vou the key-note of the heavenly song ; it teaches
you to spena much of your time in the same exercises in which
you shall spend eternity.
3. For comfort to afflicted believers. It shows you how short
your trials will be. These light afflictions are but for a moment ;
you need not murmur nor grieve ; a little while and we shall be
with Christ, and God shall wipe away all your tears. For this
end it was given to John.
I. What John saw and heard.
1. A great multitude of all nations. When John was on earth
he saw but few believers ; " we are of God, and the whole world
lieth in wickedness." The Church was like a lily in a field of
thorns, lambs in the midst of wolves ; but now quite different ;
thorns are plucked away ; the lilies innumerable. " Out of all
nations" Perhaps he could discern his fellow-apostles, his own
brother James, and holy Paul, and angel-faced Stephen, the dark
Egyptian, the swarthy Ethiopian, the wool-headed negro, the far
distant Chinese, the Burman, the Hindoo, the blue-eyed German,
the dark-eyed Italian, and multitudes perhaps from a distant island
of the zsea. Every country had its representatives there, some
saved out of every land. All were like Christ, and yet all retained
their different peculiarities. Learn that Christ will have a glorious
crown. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied.
Often, when I look at a large town like Dundee, and see so few
converted to Christ, my heart sickens with me ; I often feel as if
we were laboring for naught and in vain. Although there has
been so much blessing, yet such masses of ungodly families ! But
O cheer up, Christ shall have his full crown. Though there
should not be another saved out of this place, Christ will have his
full reward. We shall be quite satisfied when we soe the whole.
He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy. Learn the power
52 SERMON IX.
of his blood. Jt blots out the sins of all that multitude, sins oi
every name and dye. Why not yours ? Oh ! when such a glo
rious company are saved, why should you be lost? When so
mony are going out of this place, why should you keep back?
2. Their position. They stood before the throne, yea, nearer
than the angels, for they stood round about. The redeemed stood
next the throne, the angels round them. This marks their com-
plete righteousness. But the ungodly cannot stand in the judg-
ment. If God were only to bring an ungodly man into his pre-
sence, he would die. You greatly mistake if you think God nee<ls
to put out great strength to destroy you. As a cloud is dried up
by being in the light of the sun, so you would perish at the pre-
sence of God as a moth in a candle. But this great company
stand next the throne, God's eye full upon them. In Christ they
stand, not in themselves. Nearer than angels ; the angels have
only creature-righteousness, these have on Creator-righteousness.
The righteousness of Christ is a million times more lovely than
that of the highest angel, therefore they stand nearer. The
righteousness of God is upon them all, who shall condemn ? If
you are ever to be near God, you may come freely to him now.
Why keep so far away ?
3. Their dress; white robes and palms. They have all the
same dress, there is no difference. It is the garment of Christ.
One was a far greater believer than another, made far greater ad-
vances in holiness, yet the same dress. Whiter than the angels, v.
13. The angels also are represented as dressed in white; yet it
would appear that their robes were far outshone by the bright
shining raiment of the redeemed. The angels have on creature
righteousness, the redeemed the righteousness of God. This is
what is now offered to you, sinners. Awakened persons are some-
times led to cry, " O that I had never sinned ;" but here is some-
thing better than if you had never sinned. Palms are signs of
victory. The Jews used to take branches of palms at the feast
of tabernacles, or ingathering, which was a type of heaven. The
angels have no palms ; for they have fought no light, they have
gained no victory. Every one that has a white robe has a palm.
Every one that is in Christ shall overcome. Be not afraid of your
enemies.
4. Their song. The substance of it Salvation. They give God
all the glory. On earth, there are many that cannot befieve in an
electing God, that God chose them for no good in them ; but in
heaven they all feel it, and give him all the praise. On earth,
many speak of making themselves willing ; but in heaven they sing
"Salvation to God." On earth, many go about to establish their
own righteousness ; in heaven, "glory to the Lamb." On earth,
many take Christ as part of their righteousness, and their duties
as part ; in heaven all give glory to the Lamb. What say you to
this song ? Does it find an echo in your heart ? Remember you
SERMON IX. 53
must begin it now, if you are to sing it afterwards. The effect of it
it stirs up the hearts of the angels, verses 11, 12. Often on earth,
when one believer begins to praise God for what he has done for
hi.s soul, it stirs up the hearts of others. So in heaven, when the
angels hear the voice of redeemed sinners, brands plucked out
of the fire, standing in near the throne, they will obtain a ravish-
ing view of the glory of God, his mercy and grace ; they will fall
down and worship God. They will not envy the redeemed their
place ; but on the contrary, be filled with intense praise by hear-
ing of what God has done for their souls. How do you feel when
you hear, of others being saved and brought nearer to God than
you ? L)o you envy and hate them, or do you fall down and
praise God for it ?
II. Their past history, verses 13, 14.
Two particulars are given. Each had a different history ; still
in these two they were alike.
1. They had washed their robes. This leads us back to their
conversion. Once every one of that company had filthy garments.
They were like Joshua, their garments were spotted by the flesh.
It was like a garment with the leprosy in it. Some stained with
blood, spots of blood upon their garments ; some with adultery ;
some with disobedience to parents ; some with pride, falsehood,
evil speaking ; all, all were stained. Every one was convinced
that he could not make himself clean; he could not wash his
garments nor throw them off, he was brought to see himself lost
and helpless. Jesus was revealed to him, and his precious blood
shed for sinners, even the chief, saying to the heavy laden, " Come
to me." Of all that company there is not one stands there in any
otner way. All are washed in blood. It is their only way of
standing, have you been washed in blood ? You will find not
one in heaven who went there in any other way. You think to
go to heaven by your own decency, innocency, attention to duties.
Well, you would be the only such one there ; all are washed in
blood. Come and let us reason together.
2. They came out of great tribulation. Every one that gets to
the throne must put their foot upon the thorn. The way to the
crown is by the cross. We must taste the gall if we are to taste
the glorv. When justified by faith, God led them into tribulations
also. When God brought Israel through the Red Sea, he led them
into the wilderness ; so when God saves a soul he tries it. He
never gives faith without trying it. The way to Zion is through
the valley of Baca. You must go through the wilderness of Jor-
dan if you are to come to the Land of Promise. Some believers
are much surprised when they are called to suffer. They .thought
they would do some great thing for God ; but all that God permits
them to do is to suffer. Go round every one in glory, every one
has a different story, yet every one has a tale of suffering. Ono
SERMON IX.
Was persecuted in his family, by his friends and companions
another was visited by sore pains and humbling disease, neglect-
ed by the world; another was bereaved of children; another had
all these afflictions meeting in one; deep called unto deep. Mark,
all are brought out of them. It was a dark cloud, but it passed
away ; the water was deep, but they have reached the other side.
Not one of them blames God for the road he led them ; " salvation"
is their only cry. Is there any of you, dear children, murmuring
at your lot ? Do not sin against God. This is the way God leads
all his redeemed ones. You must have a palm as well as a white
robe. No pain, no palm ; no cross, no crown ; no thorn, no
throne; no gall, no glory. Learn to glory in tribulations also.
"I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy
to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us."
III. Future history.
1. Immediate service of God. Here, we are allowed to spend
much of our time in our worldly callings. It is lawful for a man
to win his bread, to plough, sow, reap, to spin and weave. Then,
all our strength will be put forth in the immediate service of God.
We shall stand before him and he shall dwell among us. It \\ill
be a perpetual Sabbath. We shall spend eternity in loving God,
in adoring, admiring, and praising God. We should spend much
of our present time in this. Some people imagine that they are
not serving God unless they are visiting the sick, or engaged in
some outward service ; whereas the highest of all service is the
love of adoration in the soul. Perhaps God gets more glory by a
single adoring look of some poor believer on a sick bed, than from
the outward labors of a whole day.
2. Not in the wilderness any more. At present we are like a
flock in the wilderness, our soul often hungry, and thirsty, and
sorely tried. Often we feel as if we could go no further,but must
lie down and die. Often we feel temptations too much for us, or
persecutions too strong for us to bear. When we are with
Christ we shall hunger no more, all our pains shall be ended.
Learn to glorify him in the fires, to sing in the wilderness. This
is the only world where you can give God the glory.
3. Father, Son, and Spirit will bless us. The Lamb shall feed
us he that died for us. We shall always see our security before
us in our Surety ; no trembling shall ever come over our soul.
He shall be one like us a lamb like the least of us : we shall
learn of God from him. The Spirit will be like "living fountains
of water." Here, we never have enough ; there, without mea-
sure. The Father will be a father to us. He will wipe away
tears ; the tears we shed in dying ; wilderness tears ; the tears
over lost friends, and a perishing world. " What manner of
persons ought we to be 1"
Dundee, 1840.
SERMON X. 55
SERMON X.
* For verily he took not on him the nature of angels : but he took on him the seea
of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his
brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertain-
ing to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he
himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succor them that are
tempted." Heb. ii., 16-18.
Doctrine. Christ a merciful High Priest.
I. The sovereign mercy of Christ in becoming man. ;< For
verily he took not on him the nature of angels ; but he took on
him the seed of Abraham." We read of two great rebellions in
the history of the universe the rebellion of the angels, and the
rebellion of man. For infinitely wise and gracious purposes God
planned and permitted both of these, that out of evil he might
bring forth good. The first took place in heaven itself. Pride
was the sin by which the angels fell, and, therefore, it is called
" the condemnation of the devil." " They kept not their first
estate, but left their own habitation." " God spared them not, but
cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of dark-
ness, to be reserved unto judgment." The next fall took place on
earth. Satan tempted, and man fell ; believed the devil rather
than God, and so came under the curse. " Thou shall surely
die." Both of these families came under the same frown, under
the same condemnation, both were condemned to the same
" everlasting fire." But the glorious Son of God resolved, from
all eternity, to die for sinners. Now, for which of the two shall
he die ? Perhaps the angels in heaven would long that he should
die for their once brother angels. The angelic nature was
higher than that of man. Men had fallen deeper into sin than the
rebel angels. Will he not die for angels ? Now, here is the
answer " Verily he took not on him the nature of angels ; but he
took on him the seed of Abraham." Here is sovereign mercy
passing by one family and coming to another. Let us wonder and
adore the sovereign mercy of Jesus.
1. Do not be surprised if Jesus passes many by. The Lord
Jesus has been riding through our country in a remarkable m;m-
ner, seated on his white horse, and wearing many crowns. He
has sent out many arrows and pierced many hearts in this place
and brought many to his feet ; but has he not passed many by
Are there not many given up to their own hearts' lust, and walk
ing in their own counsel ? Be not surprised. This is the verf
way he did when he came to this earth ; he passed the gate o;
hell. Although his bosom was full of love and grace, although
" God is love," he felt it not inconsistent to pass fallen angels by
and to come and die for men. And so, though Jesus is love still
56 SERMON X.
yet he can save some, and leave others to be hardened. " Many
widows were in Israel in the time of Elijah the prophet ; but unto
none of them was Elijah sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Zidon,
.unto a woman that was a widow." And many lepers were in
Israel at the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was
cleansed, saving Naarnan, the Syrian.
2. If Christ has visited your soul, give him all the glory. " Not
unto us, Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory." The
only reason why you are saved is the sovereign compassion of
Jesus. It is not that you are better than others, that you were
less wicked, of better dispositions, more attentive to your Bible.
Many who have been left have been much more blameless in their
life. It is not that you have sat under a peculiar ministry. God
has made the same ministry a means of hardening multitudes. It
is the free grace of God. Love God for ever and ever, because
he chose you of his own free will. Adore Jesus, that he passed
by millions, and died for you. Adore the holy Ghost, that he came
out of free sovereign mercy and awakened you. It will be matter
of praise through eternity.
3. If Christ is now visiting your soul, do not trifle with him.
Some persons, when Christ begins to knock at the door of their
heart, put him oft' from time to time. They trifle with their con-
victions. They say, I am too young yet, let me taste a little more
pleasure of the world ; youth is the time for mirth ; another time
I will open the door. Some say, I am too busy ; I have to pro-
vido for my family ; when I have a more convenient season I will
call for thee. Some say, I am strong and healthy ; I hope I have
many years to live ; when sickness comes, then I will open the
door. Consider that Christ may not come again. He is knock-
ing i:ow ; let him in. Another day he may pass by your door.
You cannot command convictions of sin to come when you like.
Christ is entirely sovereign in saving souls. No doubt, many of
you have had your last knock from Christ. Many of you that
were once concerned, are not so now ; and you cannot bring it
back again. There is no doubt a time in every man's liie when,
if he opens the door, he will be saved ; if he does not he will
perish. Probably this may be that time to many of you. Christ
may be giving last knocks to some to-day.
II. Christ made like us in all things. Christ not only became
man, but it behooved him to be made like us in all things. He
suffered, being tempted.
In my last lecture, I showed you the only two points in which
he was different from us. 1. In being God as well as man. In
the manger at Bethlehem, there lay a perfect infant, but there also
was Jehovah. That mysterious being who rode on an ass's colt,
and wept over Jerusalem, was as much a man as you are, and as
much God as the Father is. The tears he shed were human tears,
SERMON X. 57
yet the love of Jehovah swelled below his mantle. That pale
being that hung quivering on the cross was indeed man, it wag
hun an blood that flowed from his wounds, but he was as truly
God. 2. In being without sin. He was the only one in human
form of whom it can be said, He was holy, harmless, undented
and separate from sinners ; the only one on whom God could look
down from heaven and say. This is my beloved Son in whom I
am well pleased. Every member of our body and faculty of our
mind we have used as the servants of sin. Every member of his
body and faculty of his mind were used only as servants to holi-
ness. His mouth was the only human mouth from which none
but gracious words ever proceeded. His eye was the only hu-
man eye that never shot forth flames of pride, or envy, or lust.
His hand was the only human hand that never was stretched forth
but in doing good. His heart was the only human heart that was
not deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. When
Satan came to him, he found nothing in him. Now, in these two
things it behooved him to be unlike his brethren, or he could not
have been a Saviour at all. In all other things it behooved him to
be made like us. There was no part of our condition that he did
not humble himself unto.
1. He passed through all the terms of our life from childhood
to manhood. 1st, He was an infant of days, exposed to all the
pains and dangers of infancy. " Ye shall find the babe, wrapped
in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." 2d, He bore the trials
and pains of boyhood. Many a one, no doubt, would wonder at
the holy boy in the carpenter's shop at Nazareth. He grew in
wisdom, and in stature, and in favor with God and man. 3d, He
bore the afflictions and anxieties of manhood, when he began to
be about thirty years of age.
2. He tasted the difficulties of many situations in life. The first
thirty years, it is probable, he shared the humble occupation of
Joseph the carpenter ; he tasted the trials of working for his daily
bread. Then he subsisted on the kindness of others. Certain
women, which followed him, ministered unto him of their sub-
stance. He had not where to lay his head. Many a night he
spent on the Mount of Olives, or on the hills of Galilee. Then,
he bore the trials of a gospel minister. He preached from morn-
ing till night, and yet with how small success ; s% that he could
say, "I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught
and in vain." How often he was grieved by their unbelief ; he
marvelled at their unbelief ! " O faithless generation ! how long
shall I be with you, how long shall I suffer you ?" How often he
offended many by his preaching ! " Many said, this is an hnrd
saying ; who can bear it?" " From that time many of his disciples
went back, and walked no more with Jesus;" John vi., 66. How
often they hated him for his love ! " For my love they are my
adversaries : but I gave myself unto prayer ;" Ps. cix., 4. How
58 SERMON X.
his own disciples grieved him by their want of, faith ! " ye of
little faith, have I been so long time with you !" The unbeliei
of Thomas their sleeping in the garden forsaking him and
fleeing Peter denying Judas betraying him !
3. What trials he had from his own family ! Even his own
brothers did not believe on him, but mocked. The people of his
town tried to throw him over the rocks. What pain he suffered
from his mother, when he saw the sword piercing her fond heart !
Now he said to John, " Behold thy mother !" and to his mother,
* Behold thy son !" even in the midst of his dying agonies.
4. What trials from Satan ! Believers complain of Satan, but
they never felt his power as Christ did. What an awful conflict
was that during forty days in the wilderness ! How fearfully did
Satan urge on Pharisees, and Herod, and Judas, to torment him !
What an awful hour was that, when he said, " This is your hour,
and the power of darkness !" What an awful cry was that, " Save
me from the lion's mouth !" (Psalm xxii., 22) when he felt his soul
in the very jaws of Satan !
5. What trials from God ! Believers often groan under the
hidings of God's countenance, but ah ! they seldom taste even a
drop of what Christ drank. What dreadful agony was that in
Gethsemane, when the blood gushed through the pores ! How
dreadful was that frown of God on the cross, when he cried,
" My God, my God !" In all these things, and a thousand more,
he was made like unto his brethren. He came into our place.
Through eternity we shall study these sufferings.
1st, Learn the amazing love of Christ, that he should leave glory
for such a condition.
2d, Learn to bear sufferings cheerfully. You have not yet suf-
fered as he did.
III. The end That he might be a merciful and faithful High
Priest. The work of Christ as an high priest is here laid down
as two-fold. 1. To make an atonement for our sins ; 2. To suc-
cor his people under temptations.
1. To make atonement. This is the great work of Christ as
our high priest. For this it was needful that he should become
man, and die. Had he remained God alone in the bosom of his
Father, he might have pitied us, but he could not have died for
us, nor taken our sins away. We must have perished. Every
priest in the Old Testament was a type of Jesus in this : every
lamo that was slain typified Jesus offering up his own body a
sacrifice for our sins.
Let your eye rest there if you would be happy. Those few
dark hours on Calvary, when the great high priest was offering
up the amazing sacrifice, give light for eternity to the believing
soul. This only will cheer you in dying. Not your graces, nor
your love to Christ ; not anything in you, but only this ChrisJ
SERMON X. 59
Hath died. He loved me, and gave himself for me. Christ hath
appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
2. To succor the tempted. All believers are a tempted people.
Every day they have their trials ; every time is to them a time
of need. The unconverted are little tempted ; they are not in
trouble as others, neither are they plagued like other men. They
do not feel temptations rising in their heart ; nor do they know
the power of Satan. Before conversion, a man believes as little
in the devil as he believes in Christ. But when a man comes to
Christ, then he becomes a tempted soul. " poor and needy, seeking
water, and there is none."
He is tempted by God. God did tempt Abraham ; not to sin,
for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any
man. Still, God always tries his children. He never gives faith,
but he brings his child into a situation where it will be tried.
Sometimes he exalts him, to try if he will turn proud and forget
God ; sometimes he brings him low, to see if he will murmur
against God. Blessed is the man that endureth temptations.
Sometimes he brings them into a strait, where the trial is, whether
they will believe in him alone, or trust to flesh and blood.
The world tempts a child of God. They watch for their halting
They love nothing better than to see a child of God fall into sin ;
it soothes their conscience to think that all are equally bad.
They frown, they smile.
Tkeir own heart is a fountain of temptation. Sometimes it
says, What harm is there in that? it is a little sin ; or, I will just
sin this once, and never again; or, I will repent after and be
saved.
Satan hurls his fiery darts. He terrifies them away from
Christ, disturbs them at prayer, fills their mind with blasphemies,
hounds on the world against them.
Ah ! believers, you are a tempted people. You are always
poor and needy. And God intends it should be so, to give you
constant errands to go to Jesus. Some may say, it is not good to *
be a believer ; but ah ! see to whom we can go.
We have a merciful and faithful High Priest. He suffered be-
ing tempted, just that he might succor them that are tempted.
The high priest of old not only offered sacrifice at the altar, his
work was not dune when the lamb was consumed. He was to be
a faiher to Israel. He carried all their names, graven over hia
heart ; he went in and prayed for them within the veil. He came
out and blessed the people, saying, " The Lord bless thee, and keep
thee. The Lord make his face shine," &c. ; Numbers vi., 24-26.
So it is with the Lord Jesus. His work was not all done on
Calvary. He that died for our sins lives to pray for us, to help
in every time of need. He is still man on the right hand of God.
He is still God, and therefore, by reason of nis divinity, is present
here this day as much as any of us. He knows your every sor
60 SERMON XI.
row, trial, difficulty ; every half breathed sigh he hears, and bringi
in notice thereof to his human heart at the right hand of God. Hia
human heart is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever ; it pleads
for you, thinks on you, plans deliverance for you.
Dear tempted brethren ! Go boldly to the throne of grace, to
obtain mercy and find grace to help in your time of need.
Are you bereaved of one you loved ? Go and tell Jesus ;
spread out your sorrows at his feet. He knows them all ; feels
for you in them all. He is a merciful high priest. He is faithful,
too, never awanting in the hour of need. He is able to succor
you by his word, by his spirit, by his providence. He gave you
all the* comfort you had by your friends. He can give it you
without them. He has taken away the stream that you may go
to the fountain.
Are you suffering in body ? Go to this high priest. He is in-
timately acquainted with all your diseases ; he has felt that very
pain. Remember how, when they brought to him one that was
deaf and had an impediment in his speech, he looked up to heaven
and sighed, and said. Ephphatha ! He sighed over his misery.
So he sighs over you. He is able to give you deliverance, or
patience to bear it, or improvement by it.
Are you sore tempted in soul ; put into trying circumstances, so
that you know not what to do ? Look up ; he is able to succor
you. If he had been on the earth would you not have gone tc
him? would you not have kneeled and said, Lord help meT Does
it make any difference that he is at the right hand of God ? He
is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.
SERMON XL
ORDINATION SERMON.
Jit the Ordination of the Rev. P. L. Miller, Wallacetown, Dundee, 1840.
I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the
quick and the dead at his appearing, and his kingdom ; preach the word ; be in-
stant in season, out of season ; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering
and doctrine." 2 Tim. iv., 1, 2.
I. Where faithful ministers stand " Before God and the Lora
Tesus Christ" There is not a more awfully affecting situation in
ihe whole world than that in which a faithful minister stands.
1. Before God. This is true in two ways:
1st, As a sinner saved by grace. He was once far off, but rs
now brought nigh by the blood of Jesus. Having " boldness to
SERMON XI.
enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living
way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to
say his flesh," he draws near. He stands within the veil, in the
holiest of all, in the love of God. He is justified before God. A
faithful minister is an example to his flock of a sinner saved. God
says to him as he did to Abraham, " Walk before me and be thou
perfect." He can say with Paul, " I was a blasphemer, and a
persecutor, and injurious, but I obtained mercy." A faithful
minister is like Aaron's rod that was laid up beside the ark of God,
and budded there.
2d, As a servant. In the East, servants always stand in the
presence of their master, watching his hand. The Queen of
Sheba said to Solomon, " Happy are these thy servants which
stand continually before thee and hear thy wisdom." So it is
said of the angels that " they do always behold the face of my
Father which is in heaven." Even when most engaged in the
service of the saints, they feel under his all-seeing, holy, living
eye. So ovglit faithful ministers to feel. They should feel con-
stantly in his presence, under his soul-piercing, gentle-guiding,
holy, living eye. " I will guide thee with mine eye." " The
eyes of the Lord are over the righteous." Ah ! how often we feel
we are before man. Then all power withers, and we become
weak as other men ; but oh ! how sweet to feel in the presence
of God, as if there were no eye on us but God's. In prayer, how
sweet to feel before Him : to kneel at his footstool, and to put our
hand upon the mercy-seat no curtain, no veil, no cloud between
the snul and God. In preaching, how sweet to say, like Elijah,
when he stood before Ahab, " I stand before the Lord God of
Israel." To stand at his feet, in his family, in his pavilion, O
believers, it is then we get above the billows. The applause of
men, the rage and contempt of men, then pass by us like the idle
wind which we regard not. Thus is a rninisterjike a rock in the
ocean ; the mountain-billows dash upon its brow7 and yet it stands
unshaken.
2. Before Jesus Christ. This is also true in two ways :
1st, The faithfal minister has a present sight of Christ as his
Righteousness. He is like John the Baptist, " Seeing Jesus com-
ing unto him he saith, Behold the Lamb of God !" Or like Isaiah,
"He saw his gl'ry and spake of him." His own soul is ever
watching at Gethsemane and Golgotha. O brethren, it is thus
only we can ever speak with leil.ng, or with power, or with
truth, of the unsearchable riches of Christ. We must have the
taste of the manna in our mouth, *' Milk and honey under our
tongue," else we cannot tell of its sweetness. We must be drink-
ing the living water from the smitten rock, or we cannot speak
of its refreshing power. We must be hiding our guilty souls in
the wounds of Jesus, or we cannot with joy speak of the peace
and rest to be found there. This is the reason why unfaithful
62 SERMON XI.
ministers are cold and barren in their labor. They speak, like
Balaam, of a Saviour whose grace they do not feel. They speak
like Caiaphas, of the blood of Christ, without having felt its
power to speak peace to the troubled heart. This is the reason
why many good men have a barren ministry. They speak from
clear head-knowledge, or from past experience, but not from a
present grasp of the truth, not from a present sight of the Lamb
of God. Hence their words fall like a shower of snow, fair and
beautiful, but cold and freezing. The Lord give us to stand in
the presence of the Lord Jesus.
2d. The faithful minister should feel the presence of a living
Saviour. A minister should be like the bride in the song, " Lean-
ing upon her beloved." This was Jeremiah's strength (i., 8),
" Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee
saith the Lord." So it was with Paul (Acts xviii., 10), " Be not
afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace : for I am with thee, and
no man shall set on thee to hurt thee ; for I have much people in
this city." So Jesus told all the disciples, " Yet a little while
and the world seeth me not, but ye see me. Because I live
ye shall live also." And again he says expressly, " Lo, I am with
you alway, even to the end of the world." Yes, brethren, Christ
is as truly walking in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks,
as truly in this place to-day, as if you saw him with your bodily
eyes. His humanity is at the right hand of God, appearing in the
presence of God for us. His Godhead fills all in all. Thus he is
with us, standing at our right hand, so that he cannot be moved.
It is sweet to know and feel this. Thus only can we be sustained
amid all the trials of the ministry. Are we weary ? we can
lean, like John, upon his bosom. Are we burdened with a sense
of sin ? we can hide in the clefts of that rock of ages. Are we
empty? we can look up to him for immediate supply. Are we
hated of all men ? we can hide under his wings. Stand before ths
Lord Jesus Christ, and then you may smile at Satan's rage, and
face a frowning world. Learn here also the guilt of refusing a
gospel ministry. " He that refuseth you refuseth me ; and he that
refuseth me refuseth Him that sent me."
3. Within sight of judgment, " Who shall judge the quick and
dead." Ministers and their flocks shall meet together before the
throne of the Lord Jesus. That will be a solemn day. They
have many solemn meetings on earth. An Ordination day is a
solemn day. Their meetings from Sabbath to Sabbath are solemn
meetings ; and Sacrament days are very solemn days. But their
meeting at the judgment seat will be by far the most solemn of
all. Then,
1st, The minister will give in his account either with joy or with
grief. He will no more meet to plead with the people, or to pray
with them, but to bear witness how they received the word. O"
come he will give account with a joyful countenance, that they
SERMON XI. 63
received the word with all readiness of mind, that they were con-
verted and became like little children ; these will be his joy and
crown. Of most with grief, that he carried the message to them,
but they would not come, they made light of it ; or perhaps they
listened for awhile, but drew back into perdition. He will be a
swift witness against them in that day. " Depart, ye cursed."
2d, Then the people will give in their account of the minister.
If he was faithful ; if he made it his meat and drink to do the will
of God ; if he preached the whole truth with seriousness, urgency,
iove ; if he was holy in his life ; if he preached publicly, and from
house to house : then that minister shall shine like the stars. If
he was unfaithful ; if he fed himself but not the flock ; if he did
not seek the conversion of souls ; did not travail in birth ; if he
sought his own eas?, his own wealth, his own praise, and not their
souls : then shall the loud curses of ruined souls fall on that wretched
man, and God shall say, Take the unfaithful servant, and bind him
hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness. O believers, it
is the duty of ministers to preach with this solemn day in their
eye. We should stand, like Abraham, looking down on the smoke
of Sodom ; like John, listening to the new song and golden harps
of the New Jerusalem. Would not this take away the fear of
man? Would not this make us urgent in our preaching? You
must either get these souls into Christ, or you will yet see them
lying down in everlasting burnings. O brethren, did I not say
truly that the place where a minister stands is the most solemn
spot in all this world ?
II. The grand business of the faithful minister Described in
two ways: 1. Generally Preach the Word. 2. More in de-
tail Reprove, rebuke, exhort.
1. Preach the Word. The grand work of the minister, in which
he is to lay out his strength of body and mind, is preaching. Weak
and foolish as it may appear, this is the grand instrument which
God has put into our hands, by which sinners are to be saved, and
saints fitted for glory. It pleased God, by the foolishness of preach-
ing, to save them that believe. It was to this our blessed Lord
devoted the years of his own ministry. Oh ! what an honor has
he put upon this work, by preaching in the synagogues, in the
temple, and by the blue waves of Galilee, under the canopy of
heaven. Has he not consecrated this world as preaching ground ?
This was the grand work of Paul and all the apostles ; for this
was our Lord's command, "Go ye into all the world and preach
the Gospel." O brethren, this is our great work. It is well to
vis^t the sick, and well to educate children, and clothe the naked.
It is well to attend Presbyteries. It is well to write books or read
them ; but here is the main thing Preach the Word. The pulpit
is, as George Herbert says, " our joy and throne." This is our
watch-tower. Here we must warn the people. The silver
64 SERMON XI.
trumpet is put into our hand. Woe be unto us if we preach not
the Gospel.
The Matter the Word. It is in vain we preach, if we preach
not the word the truth as it is in Jesus.
1st, Not other matters. " Ye are my witnesses." " The same
came to bear witness of that light." We are to speak of nothing
but what we have seen and heard from God. It is not the work
of the minister to open up schemes of human wisdom or learn-
ing, nor to bring his own fancies, but to tell the acts and glories of
the Gospel. We must speak of what is within the Word of God.
2d, Preach the Word ; the most essential parts especially. If
you were with a dying man, and knew he had but half an hour
to live, what would you tell him ? Would you open up some of
the curiosities of the Word, or enforce some of the moral com-
mands of the Word ? Would you not tell him his undone condi-
tion by nature and by wicked works ? Would you not tell him
of the love and dying of the Lord Jesus ? Would you not tell
him of the power of the Holy Spirit ? These are the essential
things which a man must receive or perish. These are the great
subject-matters of preaching. Should we not preach as Jesus did
when he went to Emmaus, when he began at Moses and all the
prophets, and expounded to them the things concerning himself?
Let there be much of Christ in your ministry, says the excellent
Eliot. Rowland Hill used to say, See there be no sermon with-
out three R's in it : Ruin by the fall, Righteousness by Christ, and
Regeneration by the Spirit. Preach Christ for awakening, Christ
for comforting, Christ for sanctifying. " God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.''
3d, Preach as the Word. I would humbly suggest for the con-
sideration of all ministers, whether we should not preach more in
the manner of God's Word. Is not the Word the sword of the
Spirit ? Should not our great work be to take it from its scab-
bard, to cleanse it from all rust, and then apply its sharp edge to
the consciences of man ? It is certain the fathers used to preach
in this manner. Brown, of Haddington, used to preach as if he
had read no other book than the Bible. It is the truth of God in
its naked simplicity that the Spirit will most honor and bless.
" Sanctify them through thy truth : thy Word is truth."
2. Reprove, rebuke, exhort. The first work of the Spirit on the
natural heart is to reprove the world of sin. Although he is the
Spirit of love, although a dove is his emblem, although he be
compared to the soft wind and gentle dew, still his first work is
to convince of sin. If ministers are filled with the same Spirit,
they will begin in the same way. It is God's usual method to
awaken them, and bring them to despair of salvation by their own
righteousness, before he reveals Christ to them. So it was with
the jailor. So it was with Paul ; he was blind three days. A
faithful minister must lay himself out for this. Plough up the fal-
SERMON XI. 65
low-grouna, and sow not among thorns. Men must be brought
down by law work to see their guilt and misery, or all our preach-
ing is beating the air. O brethren, is this our ministry ? Let us
do this plainly. The most, I fear, in all our congregations, are
sailing easily down the stream into an undone eternity, unconvert-
ed and unawakened. Brethren, they will not thank us in eterni.y
for speaking smooth things for sewing pillows to their arm-holes,
and crying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. No ; they
may praise us now, but they will curse our flattery in eternity.
O for the bowels of Jesus Christ in every minister, that we might
long after them all ! Exhort. The original word means to com-
fort, to speak as the Comforter does. This is the second part of
the Spirit's work, to lead to Christ, to speak good news to the
soul. This is the most difficult part of the Christian ministry.
Thus did John, " Behold the Lamb of God." Thus did Isaiah,
" Comfort ye, comfort ye." Thus did our Lord command, "Go,
preach the gospel to every creature." It is true this makes the
feet of the gospel messenger beautiful on the mountains. He has
to tell of a full, free, Divine Saviour.
And here I would observe, what appears to me a fault in the,
preaching of our beloved Scotland. Most ministers are accustomed
to set Christ before the people. They lay down the gospel clearly
and beautifully, but they do not urge men to enter in. Now, God
says, exhort, beseech men, persuade men ; not only point to the
open door, but compel them to come in. O to be more merciful
to souls, that we would lay hands on men, and draw them into the
Lord Jesus !
III. The manner.
1. With long-suffering. There is no grace more needed in the
Christian ministry than th s. This is the heart of God the Father
towards sinners ; " he is long-sufForing to usward, not willing that
any should perish." This is the heart of the Lord Jesus. How
tenderly does he cry, " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would
I," &c. This is the mind of the Holy Spirit in striving with men.
He will not always strive, but, oh ! how long he does strive with
men ! Dear believers, had he not striven long with us, we would
this day have been like Lot's wife, monuments of grace resisted.
Now, such ought ministers to be. Above all men we need "love
that suffers long and is kind." Sometimes, when sinners are ob-
itinate and hard-hearted, we are tempted to give up in despair,
or to lose temper and scold them like the disciples calling down
fire from heaven. But, brethren, we must be of another spirit.
The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Only
be filled with the spirit of Christ, and it will make us patient
toward all. It will make us cry, " How often would I," &c.
2. With doctrine. Some good men cry, Flee, flee, without
bowing the sinner what he is to flee from ; and again, they cry,
5
66 SERMON XI.
Come, come, without showing plainly the way of pardon and
peace. These men act as one would do who should run through
the streets crying. Fire, lire, without telling where. In the preach-
ing of the Apostles, you will observe the clear and simple state-
ment of the truth preceding the warm and pathetic exhortation.
This has always been followed by the most judicious and success-
ful divines.
It behooves ministers to unite the cherub and the seraph in their
ministry the angel of knowledge and the angel of burning zeal.
If we would win souls, we must point clearly the way to heaven,
while we cry, Flee from the wrath to come. I believe we cannot
lay down the guilt of man, his total depravity, and the glorious
gospel of Christ, too clearly ; that we cannot urge men to embrace
and flee too warmly. O for a pastor who unites the deep know-
ledge of Edwards, the vast statements of Owen, and the vehement
appeals of Richard Baxter !
3. With urgency. If a neighbor's house were on fire, would we
not cry aloud and use every exertion ? If a friend were drown-
ing, would we be ashamed to strain every nerve to save him ?
But alas ! the souls of our neighbors are even now on their way to
everlasting burnings they are ready to be drowned in the depths
of perdition. Oh ! shall we be less earnest to save their never-
dying souls, than we would be to save their bodies ? How anxious
was the Lord Jesus in this when he came near and beheld the
city, he wept over it ! How earnest was Paul, " Remember that
by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night
and day with tears." Such was George Whitfield ; that great
man scarcely ever preached without being melted into tearw.
Brethren, there is need of the same urgency now. Hell is as
deep and as burning as ever. Unconverted souls are as surely
rushing to it. Christ is as free pardon as sweet as ever ! Ah !
how we shall be amazed at our coldness when we do get to heaven !
4. At all times. Our Lord went about continually doing good ;
ne made it his meat and drink. " Daily in the temple." So should
we. Satan is busy at all times ; he does not stand upon ceremony,
he does not keep himself to Sabbath-days, or canonical hours.
Death is busy. Men are dying while we are sleeping. About
fifty die every minute ; nearly one every second entering into an
unchangeable world ! The Spirit of God is busy. Blessed be
God, he hath cast our lot in times when there is the moving of the
great Spirit among the dry bones. Shall ministers then be idle,
or stand upon ceremony ? O that God would baptize us with
the Holy Ghost and with fire, that we might be all changed as into
a flame of fire, preaching and building up Christ's Church till our
latest, our dying hour.
CHARGE TO THE MINISTER.
MY DEAR BROTHER It is not many years ago since you and J
SERMON XI. 67
played together as children, and now, by the wonderful providence
of God. I have been appointed to preside at your ordination to the
office of the holy ministry. Truly His way is in the sea, and His
path in the deep waters. Do not think, then, that I mean to as-
sume an authority which I have not. I cannot speak to you as a
father, but, as a brother beloved in the Lord, let me address a few
words of counsel to you.
1. Thank God for putting you into the ministry. " I thank
Christ Jesus my Lord for that he counted me faithful, putting me
into the ministry." " To me who am less than the least of all saints,"
&c. O brother, thank God for saving your soul for sending His
spirit into your heart, and drawing you to Christ. But this day you
have a new cause of thankfulness in being put into the ministry. It is
the greatest honor in this world. " Had I a thousand lives, I would
willingly spend them in it ; and had I a thousand sons, I would gladly
devote them to it." True, it is an awfully responsible office : the
eternity of thousands depends on your faithfulness ; but ah ! the
grace is so full, and the reward so glorious. If, said the dying
Payson, " If ministers only snvv the prcciousness of Christ, they
would not be able to refrain from clapping their hands with joy,
and exclaiming, I am a minister of Christ ! I am a minister of
Christ ! " Do not forget, then, dear brother, amid the broken ac-
cents of confession from a broken heart, to pour out a song of
thankfulness. Thanks be to God, for my own part, during the few
years I have been a minister, I can truly say, that I desire no other
honor upon earth than to be allowed to preach the everlasting
gospel. Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift.
2. Seek the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The more anointing
of the Holy Spirit you have, the more will you be a happy, holy,
and successful minister. You remember the two olive trees that
stood close by the golden candlestick, and emptied the golden oil
out of themselves. These represent successful ministers, anointed
ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth. The Lord make
you like one of them. Remember John the Baptist " He shall
be filled with the Holy Ghost, and many of the children of Israel
shall he turn to the Lord their God." The Lord fill you in like
manner, and then you will be a converting minister. Remember
the Apostles ; before the day of Pentecost they were dry, sapless
trees they had little fruit ; but when the Spirit came on them
like a mighty rushing wind, then three thousand were pricked to
the heart.
Oh ! brother, plead with God to fill you with the Spirit, that you
may stand in his counsel, and cause the people to hear His words,
and turn many from the evil of their ways. You know that a
heated iron, though blunt, can pierce its way even where a much
sharper instrument, if cold, could not enter. Pray that you may
be filled with the fire of the Spirit, that you may pierce into the
hard hearts of unconverted sinners.
68 SERMON XI.
3. Do not rest without success in your ministry. Success is the
rule under a living ministry ; want of success is the exception.
" The want of ministerial uccess," says Robinson, " is a tremendous
circiunstance, never to be contemplated without horror." Your
people will be of two kinds:
(1st,) The Lord's people. Those who are already in Christ,
seek for success among them. He gave some pastors and teach-
ers for the perfecting of the saints. Never forget Christ's words,
"Feed my sheep, feed my lambs." Be like Barnabas, a son of
consolation. Exhort them to cleave to the Lord. Do not say,
M They are sate and I will let them alone." This is a great mis-
take. See how Paul laid out his strength in confirming the dis-
ciples. Be a helper of their joy. Do not rest till you get them to
live under the pure, holy rules of the Gospel.
(2d.) The great mass you will find to be unconverted. Go,
brother, leaving the ninety-nine, go after the one sheep that was
lost. Leave your home, your comforts, your bed, your ease, your
all, to feed lost souls. The Lord of Glory left heaven for this : it
is enough for the disciple to be as his Master. It is said of Alleine,
that "he w is infinitely and insatiably greedy of the conversion of
souls." Rutheriurd wrote to his dear people, "My witness is
above, that your heaven would be two heavens to me, and the sal-
vatiun of you all as two salvations to me." The Lord give you
this heavenly compassion for this people. Do not be satisfied with-
out conversion. You will often find that there is a shaking among
the dry bones, a coming together bone to his bone ; skin and flesh
come upon them, but no breath in them. Oh ! brother, cry for the
breath of heaven. Remember a moral sinner will lie down in the
same hell w,th the v.lest.
4. Lead a holy life. I believe, brother, that you are born from
above, and, therefore, I have confidence in God touching you, that
you will be kept from the evil. But, oh ! study universal holiness
of life. Your whole usefulness depends on this. Your sermon
on Sabbath lasts but an hour or two; your life preaches all the
week. Remember,. ministers are standard-bearers. Satan aims
his fiery darts at them. If he can only make you a covetous min-
ister, or a lover of pleasure, or a lover of praise, or a lover of good
eating, then he has ruined your ministry for ever. Ah ! let him
preach on fifty years, he will never do me any harm. Dear brother,
cast yourself at the feet of Christ, implore his Spirit to make you
a holy man. Take heed to thyself and to thy doctrine.
5. Last of all, be a man of prayer. Give yourself to prayer
and to the ministry of the Word. If yor do not pray, God will
probably lay you aside from your ministry, as he did me, to teach
you to pray. Remember Luther's maxim, " Bene orasse est bene
ttuduisse." Get your texts from God, your thoughts, your words,
from God. Carry the names of the little flock upon your breast
like the High Priest, wrestle for the unconve '*d. lather spent
SERMON XI. 69
his three best hours in prayer. John Welch prayed seven or eight
hours a day. He used to keep a plaid on his bed that he might
wrap himself in it when he rose during night. Sometimes his wife
found him on the ground lying weeping. When she complained, he
would say, " O, woman ! I have the souls of three thousand to
answer for, and I know not how it is with many of them." Oh !
that God would pour down this spirit of prayer on you and me,
and all the ministers of our beloved Church, and then we shall sre
better days in Scotland. I commend you to God, &c.
CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE.
DEAR BRETHREN I trust that this is to be the beginning of
many happy days to you in this place. Gifts in answer to prayer are
always the sweetest. I believe your dear pastor has been given
you in answer to prayer, for I do not think your wonderful unani-
mity can be accounted for in any other way.
1. Love your pastor. So far as I know him he is worthy of
your love. I believe he is one to whom the Lord has been very
merciful, that God has already owned his labors, and I trust, will
a thousand times more. Esteem him very highly in love for his
work's sake. You little know the anxieties, temptations, pains,
and wrestlings, he will be called to bear for you. Few people
know the deep wells of anxiety in the bosom of a faithful pastor.
Love and reverence him much. Do not make an idol of him ;
that will destroy his usefulness. It was. said of the Erskines that
men could not see Christ over their heads. Remember, look be-
yond him and above him. Those that would have worshipped
Paul were the people who stoned him. Do not stumble at his in-
firmities. There are spots upon the sun, and infirmities in the best
of men. Cover them, do not stumble at them. Would you re-
fuse gold because it was brought you in a ragged purse ? Would
you refuse pure water because it came in a chipped bowl ? The
treasure is in an earthen vessel.
2. Make use of your pastor. He has come with good news
from a far country. Come and hear.
(1st,) Wait patiently on his ministry. He does not come in his
own name. The Lord is with him. If you refuse him, you will
refuse Christ ; for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts.
(2rf,) Welcome him into your houses. He is coining, like his
Master, to seek that which was lost, and to bind up lhat which is
broken ; to strengthen that which was sick, and to bring again
that which was driven away. You have all need of him, whether
converted or not. Remember there is an awful curse against
those who receive not gospel messages. He will shake the dust
off his feet against you, and that dust will rise against you in judg-
ment.
(3d,) Do not trouble him about worldly matters. His grand
70 SERMON XI.
concern is to get your soul saved. He is not a man of business,
but a man of prayer. He has given himself to prayer, and to the
ministry of the Word.
(4M,) Go freely to him about your souls. " The minister's house
was more thronged than ever the tavern had wont to be.'' These
were happy days. There is no trade I would like to see broken
in this place but that of the taverners. It is a soul-destroying
trade. I would like to see the taverns emptied, and the minister's
house thronged. Do not hesitate to go to him. It is your duty
and your privilege. It is your duty it will encourage him, and
show him how to preach to your souls. It is your privilege 1
have known many get more light from a short conversation than
from many sermons.
(5th,) Be brief. Tell your case. Hear his word and be gone.
Remember his body is weak, and his time precious. You are
stealing his time from others or from God. I cannot tell you what
a blessing it will be if you will be very short in your calls. The
talk of the lips tendeth to penury.
3. God's children pray for him. Pray for his body, that he
may be kept strong, and spared for many years. Pray for his
soul, that he may be kept humble and holy, a burning and a shining
light, that he may grow. Pray for his ministry, that it may be
abundantly blessed, that he may be anointed to preach good tidings.
Let there be no secret prayer without naming him before your
God, no family prayer without carrying your pastor in your hearts
to God. Hold up his hands, so Israel will prevail against Amalrk.
4. Unconverted souls, prize this opportunity. I look on this or-
dination as a smile of heaven upon you. God might hare taken
away ministers from this town instead of giving us more. I be-
lieve the Lord Jesus is saying, " I have much people in this city."
The door is begun to be opened this day. The Spirit is beginning
to shine. O that you would know the day of your visitation !
This is the market-day of grace beginning in this end of the town,
and you should all come to buy. O that you knew the day of your
visitation ! Some, I fear, will be the worse of this ministry, and not
the better. The election will be saved, and the rest be blinded.
Some will yet wish they had died before this ch'urch was opened. Be
sure, dear souls, that you will either be saved, or more lost, by this
ministry. Your pastor comes with the silver trumpet of mercy.
Why will ye turn it into the trumpet of judgment ? He comes
with glad tidings of great joy. Why should you turn them into
sad tidings of endless woe ? He comes to preach the acceptable
day of the Lord. Why will ye turn it into the day of vengeance
f our God ?
\Qth Dee., 1S40.
SERMON XII. 71
SERMON XII
* There is no fear in love ; but perfect love casteth out fear ; because fear hath tor-
merit. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he
first loved us. If a man say, Move God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar ; for
he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God
whom he hath not seen ? And this commandment have we from him, That h
who loveth God loves his brother also." 1 John iv., 18-21.
Doctrine. Perfect love casteth out fear.
I. The state of an awakened soul. " Fear hath torment"
There are two kinds of fear mentioned in the Bible very oppo-
site from one another. The one is the very atmosphere of heaven,
the other is the very atmosphere of hell.
1. There is the fear of love. This is the very temper of a little
child : the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This was
the mind of Job. " He feared God and hated evil." Nay, it is the
very spirit of the Lord Jesus. On him rested " the spirit of the
fear of the Lord, and made him of quick understanding in the fear
of the Lord."
2. There is the fear of terror. This is the very temper of
devils ; " the devils believe and tremble." This is what was in
Adam and Eve after the fall ; they fled from the voice of God, and
tried to hide themselves in one of the trees of the garden. This
was the state of the Jailor when he trembled, and sprang in and
brought them out, and fell at their feet, saying, " Sirs, what must
I do to be saved ?" This is the fear here spoken of; tormenting
fear. " Fear hath torment." Some of you have felt this fear that
hath torment. Many more might feel it this day ; you arc within
reach of it. Let me explain its rise in the soul.
1st, A natural man casteth off fear, and restrains prayer before
God. " They have been at ease from their youth, and settled
down upon their lees, they have not been emptied from vessel to
vessel ; therefore, their taste remains in them, and their scent is
not changed." They are like fallow-ground, that has never been
broken up by the plough, but is overrun with briers and thorns.
Are there not some among you that never trembled for your
soul? You think you are as good as your neighbors. Ah! well,
your dream will be broken up one day soon.
2rf, When the Spirit of God opens the eyes, he makes the
stoutest sinner tremble. He shows him the number of his sins, or
rather that they cannot be numbered. Before, he had a memory
that easily forgot his sins ; o;i.ths slipped over his tongue and he
knew it not; every day added new sins to his page on God's
book, yet he remembered not. But now, the Spirit of God sets
all his sins straight before him. All unpardoned, long-forgotten
enormities, rise up behind him. Then he begins to tremble.
" Innumerable evils have compassed me about."
72 SERMON XII.
3d, The Spirit makes him feel the greatness of sin, the exceed-
ing sinfulness of it. Before, it seemed nothing ; but now, it rises
like a flood over the soul. The wrath of God he feels abiding on
htm ; a terrible sound is in his ears. He knows not what to do ;
his fear hath torment. Sin is seen now as done against a holy
God, done against a God of love, done against Jesus Christ and
his love.
4th, A third thing which awfully torments the soul is, corrup-
tion working in the heart. Often persons under conviction are
made to feel the awful workings of corruption in their heart.
Often temptation and conviction of sin meet together, and awfully
torment the soul, rending it in pieces. Conviction of sin is piercing
his heart, driving him to flee from the wrath to come, and yet at
the same moment some raging lust, or envy, or horrid malice, is
boiling in his heart, driving him towards hell. Then a man feels
a hell within him. In hell there will be this awful mixture ; there
will be an overwhelming dread of the wrath of God, and yet cor-
ruption boiling up within, will drive the soul more and more into
the flames. This is often felt on earth. Some of you may be
feeling it. This is the fear that hath torment.
5th, Another thing the Spirit convinces the soul of is, his in-
ability to help himself. When a man i-s first awakened, he says, I
shall soon get myself out of this sad condition. He falls upon
many contrivances to justify himself. He changes his life ; he
tries to repent, to pray. He is soon taught that " his righteous-
nesses are filthy rags ;" that he is trying to cover rags with filthy
rags ; he is brought to feel that all he can do signifies just nothing,
and that he never can bring a clean thing out of an unclean. This
sinks the soul in gloom. This fear hath torment.
6th, He fears he shall never be in Christ. Some of you perhaps
know that this fear hath torment. The free offer of Christ is the
very thing that pierces you to the heart. You hear that he is
altogether lovely, that he invites sinners to come to him, that he
never casts out those that do come. But you fear you will never
be one of these. You fear you have sinned too long or too much,
you have sinned away your day of grace. Ah ! this fear hath
torment.
Some will say, " It is not good to be awakened then."
Ans. 1. It is the way to peace that passeth understanding. It
is God's chosen method, to bring you to feel your need of Christ
before you come to Christ. A' present your peace is like a
dreai : when you awake you will find it so. Ask awakened
souls if they would go back again to their slumber. Ah ! no ; if
I die, let me die at the foot of the cross ; let me not perish un-
awakened.
Ans. 2. You must be awakened one day. If not now, you will
afterwards, in hell. After death, fear will come on your secure
souls. There is not one unawakened soul in hell ; all are trem-
SERMON XII. 73
bling there. The devils tremble ; the damned spirits tremble.
Would it not be better to tiemble now, and flee to Jesus Christ
for refuge ? Now, he is waiting to be gracious to you. Then, he
will moc-.k when your fear cometh. You will know to all eternity
that " fear hath torment."
II. The change on believing. " There is no fear in love."
" Perfect love casteth out fear."
1. The love here spoken of is not our love to God, but his love
to us ; for it is called perfect love. All that is ours is imperfect.
When we have done all, we must say, " We are unprofitable ser-
vants." Sin mingles with all we think and do. It were no comfoit
to tell us that, if we would love God perfectly, it would cast oui
fear ; for how can we work that love into our souls ? It is the
Father's love to us that casteth out fear. He is the Perfect One.
All his works are perfect. He can do nothing but what is perfect.
His knowledge is perfect knowledge : his wrath is perfect wrath ;
his love is perfect love. It is this perfect love which casteth out
fear. Just as the sunbeams cast out darkness wherever they fall,
so does this love cast out fear.
2. But where does this love fall ? On Jesus Christ. Twice
God spake from heaven, and said, " This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased." God perfectly loves his own Son. He
sees infinite beauty in his person. God sees himself manifested.
He is infinitely pleased with his finished work. The infinite heart
of the infinite God flows out in love towards our Lord Jesus
Christ. And there is no fear in the bosom of Christ. All his fears
are past. Once he said, " While I suffer thy terrors I am dis-
tressed ;" but now he is in perfect love, and perfect love casteth
out fear. Hearken, trembling souls ! Here you may find rest to
your souls. You do not need to live another hour under your tor-
menting fears. Jesus Christ has borne the wrath of which you
are afraid. He now stands a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in
the time of trouble. Look to Christ, and your fear will be cast
out. Come to the feet of Christ, and you will find rest. Call
upon the name of the Lord, and you will be delivered. You say,
you cannot look, nor come, nor cry, for you are helpless. Hear,
then, and your soul shall live. Jesus is a Saviour to the helpless.
Christ is not only a Saviour to those who are naked, and empty
and have no goodness to recommend themselves, but he is a Sa-
viour to those who are unable to give themselves to him. You
cannot be in too desperate a condition for Christ. As long as you
remain unbelieving, you are under his perfect wrath ; wrath
without any mixture. The wrath of God will be as amazing as
his love. It corncs out of the same bosom. But the moment you
look to Christ, you will come under his perfect love love with-
out any coldness, light without any shade, love without any cloud
or mountain between. God's love will cast out all your fears.
74 SERMON XII
HI. His love gives boldness in the Day of Judgment, verse
17. There is a great day coming, often spoken of in the Bible
the Day of Judgment the day when God shall judge the secrets
of men's hearts hy Christ Jesus. The Christless will not be able
to stand in that day. The ungodly shall not stand in the judg-
ment. At present, sinners have much boldness ; their neck is an
iron sinew, and their brow brass. Many of them cannot blush
when they are caught in sin. Amongst ourselves, is it not amaz-
ing how bold sinners are in forsaking ordinances ? With what a
brazen face will some men swear ! How bold some ungodly men
are in coming to the Lord's Table ! But it will not be so in a little
while. When Christ shall appear the holy Jesus, in all his glory,
then brazen-faced sinners will begin to blush. Those that never
prayed will begin to wail. Sinners, whose limbs carried them
stoutly to sin and to the Lord's Table last Sabbath, will find their
knees knocking against one another. Who shall abide the day of
his coming, and who shall stand when he appears ? When the
books are opened the one the book of God's remembrance, the
other the Bible then the dead will be judged out of those things
written in the books. Then the heart of the ungodly will die
within them ; then will begin " their shame and everlasting con-
tempt." Many wicked persons comfort themselves with this, that
their sin is not known, that no eye sees them ; but in that day the
most secret sins will be all brought out to the light. " Every idle
word that men shall speak they shall give an account thereof in
the Day of Judgment." How would you tremble and blush, O
wicked man, if I were now to go over before this congregation
the secret sins you have committed during the past week ; all
your secret fraud and cheating ; your secret uncleanness ; your
secret malice and envy ; how you would blush and be confounded !
How much more in that day, when the secrets of your whole life
shall be made manifest before an assembled world ! What eternal
confusion will sink down your soul in that day ! You will be
quite chop-fallen ; all your pride and blustering will be gone.
All in Christ will have boldness.
1. Because Christ shall be Judge. What abundant peace will
it give you in that day, believer, when you see Christ is judge !
He that shed his blood for you. He that is your surety, your
shepherd, your all. It will take away all fear. You will be able
to say, who shall condemn, for Christ hath died. In the very hand
that opens the books, you will see ihe marks of the wounds made
by your sins. Christ will be the same to you in the judgment that
he is now.
2. Because the Father himself loveth you. Christ and the Fa-
ther are one. The Father sees no sin in you ; because as Christ
is, so are you in this world. You are judged by God according
to what the surety is ; so that God's love will be with you in that
SERMON XII. 75
day. You will feel the smile of the Father, and you will hear the
voice of Jesus saying, " Come, ye blessed of my Father."
Learn to fear nothing between this and judgment. Fear not,
wait on the Lord and be of good courage.
IV. The consequences of being in the love of God.
1. " We love him because he first loved us ;" v. 19. When a
poor sinner cleaves to Jesus, and finds the forgiving love of God,
he cannot but love God back again. When the prodigal returned
home and felt his Father's arms around his neck, then did he feel
the gushings of affection toward his father. When the summer
sun shines full .down upon the sea, it draws the vapors upward to
the sky. So when the sunbeams of the Son of Righteousness fall
upon the soul, they draw forth the constant risings of love to him
in return.
Some of you are longing to be able to love God. Come into
his love then. Consent to be loved by him, though worthless in
yourself. It is better to be loved by him than to love, and it is
the only way to learn to love him. When the light of the sun
falls upon the moon, it finds the moon dark and unlovely, but the
moon reflects the light, and casts it back again. So let the love
of God shine into your breast, and you will cast it back again.
The love of Christ constraineth us. " We love him because ho
first loved us." The only cure for a cold heart is to look at the
heart of Jesus.
Some of you have no love to God because you love an idol.
You may be sure you have never come into his love : that curse
rests upon you, " If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let
him be Anathema maranatha."
2. We love our brother also. If you love an absent person you
will love their picture. What is that the sailor's wife keeps so
closely wrapped in a napkin, laid up in her best drawer among
sweet smelling flowers ? She takes it out morning and evening,
and gazes at it through her tears. It is the picture of her absent
husband. She loves it because it is like him. It has many imper-
fections, but still it is like. Believers are the pictures of God in
this world. The spirit of Christ dwells in them. They walk as
he walked. True, they are full of imperfections ; still they are
true copies. If you love him, you will love them. You will
make them your bosom friends.
Are there none of you that dislike real Christians ? You do not
like their look, their ways, their speech, their prayers. You call
them hypocrites, and keep away from them. Do you know the
reason ? You hate the copy, because you hate the original ; vou
hate Christ, and are none of his.
St. Peter's, 1840.
76 SERMON XIII.
SERMON XIII.
ACTION SERMON. October 25, 1840.
" But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Chrift, bj
whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Gal. vi., 14.
Doctrine Glorying in the Cross.
I. The subject here spoken of by Paul. The Cross of Christ.
This word is used in three different senses in the Bible. It is
important to distinguish them.
1. It is used to signify the wooden cross ; the tree upon which
the Lord Jesus was cruciried. The punishment of the cross was
a Roman invention. It was made use of only in the case of
slaves, or very notorious malefactors. The cross was made of
two beams of wood crossing each other. It was laid on the
ground and the criminal stretched upon it. A nail was driven
through each hand, and one nail through both the feet. It was
then lifted upright, and let fall into a hole, where it was wedged
in. The crucified man was then left to die, hanging by his hands
and feet. This was the death to which Jesus stooped. " He
endured the cross, despising the shame." " He became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross." Matt, xxvii., 40, 42 ;
Mark xv., 30, 32; Luke xxiii., 26; John xix., 17, 19, 25, 31;
Eph. ii., 16.
2. It is used to signify the way of salvation by Jesus Christ
crucified. So 1 Cor. i., 18, " The preaching of the Cross is to
them that perish foolishness, but unto us who are saved it is the
power of God ;" compared with verse 23, " We preach Christ
crucified," &c. Here it is plain the preaching of the Cross and
the preaching of Christ crucified are the same thing. This is the
meaning in the* passage before us, " God forbid that I should
glory, &c." It is the name given to the whole plan of salvation
by a crucified Redeemer. That little word implies the whole
glorious work of Christ for us. It implies the love of God in giv-
ing his Son (John iii., 16) ; the love of Christ in giving himself
(Eph. v., 2) ; the incarnation of the Son of God ; his substitution,
one for many ; his atoning sufferings and death. The whole work
of Christ is included in that little word, the Cross of Christ. And
the reason is plain ; his dying on the cross was the lowest point
of his humiliation. It was there he cried, It is finished ; the work
of my obedience is finished ! my sufferings are finished ; the work
of redemption is complete ; the wrath of my people is finished ;
and he bowed the head and gave up the ghost. Hence his whole
finished work is called the Cross of Christ.
3. It is used to signify the sufferings borne in following Christ.
SERMON XIII. 77
" If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take
up his cross and follow me," Matt, xvi., 24. When a man deter-
mines to follow Christ, he must give up his sinful pleasures, his
sinful companions ; he meets with scorn, ridicule, contempt,
hatred ; the persecution of early friends ; his name is cast out as
evil. " He that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer perse-
cution." Now, to meet all these is " to take up the cross." " He
that taketh not up his cross and followeth after me, is not worthy
of me."
In the passage before us the words are used in the second
meaning ; the plan of salvation by a crucified Saviour.
Dear friends, it is this that is set before you in the broken
bread and poured out wine ; the whole work of Christ for the sal-
vation of sinners. The love and grace of the Lord Jesus are all
gathered into a focus there. The love of the Father ; the cove-
nant with the Son ; the love of Jesus ; his incarnation, obedience,
death ; all are set before you in that broken bread and wine. It
is a sweet, silent sermon. Many a sermon contains not Christ
from beginning to end. Many show him doubtfully and imper-
fectly. But here is nothing else but Christ and him crucified.
Most rich and speaking ordinance ! Pray that the very sight of
that broken bread may break your hearts, and make them flow to
the Lamb of God. Pray for conversions from the sight of the
broken bread and poured out wine. Look attentively, dear souls
and little children, when the bread is broken and the wine poured
out. It is a heart-affecting sight. May the Holy Spirit bless it.
Dear believers, look you attentively, to get deeper, fuller views of
the way of pardon and holiness. A look from the eye of Christ to
Peter broke and melted his proud heart ; he went out and wept
bitterly. Pray that a single look of that broken bread may do the
same for you. When the Roman centurion, that watched beside
the cross of Jesus, saw him die, arid the rocks rend, he cried out,
Truly this was the Son of God ! Look at this broken bread, and
you will see the same thing, and may your heart *>e made to cry
after the Lord Jesus. When the dying thief IOOKC I on the pale
face of Irnmanuel, and saw the holy majesty that beamed from his
dying eye, he cried, Lord, remember me ! This broken bread
reveals the same thing. May the same grace be given you, and
may you breathe the cry, Lord remember me !
O get ripening views of Christ, dear believers. The corn in
harvest sometimes ripens more in one day than in weeks before.
So some Christians gain more grace in one day than for months
before. Pray that this may be a ripening harvest day in your
souls.
II. Pants feelings towards the Cross of Christ : " God forbid"
$c.
1. It is implied that he had utterly forsaken the way of right-
78 SERMON XIII.
cousness by deeds of the law. Every natural man seeks salvation
by making himself better in the sight of God. He tries to mend
his life ; he puts a bridle on his tongue ; he tries to command his
feelings and thoughts, all to make himself better in the sight of
God. Or he goes further ; tries to cover h's past sins by religious
observances ; he becomes a religious man ; prays, weeps, reads,
attends sacraments, is deeply occupied in religion, and tries to get
it into his heart, all to make himself appear good in the eye of
God, that he may lay God under debt to pardon and love him.
Paul tried this plan for long. He was a Pharisee, touching the
righteousness in the law blameless ; he lived an outwardly blame-
less life, and was highly thought of as a most religious man.
" But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss Tor Christ."
When it pleased God to open his eyes, he gave up this way of
self- righteousness for ever and ever; he had no more any peace
from looking in : " we have no confidence in the flesh ;" he bade
farewell for ever to that way of seeking peace. Nay, he trampled
it under his feet. " I do count them but dung that I may win
Christ. Oh ! it is a glorious thing when a man is brought to tram-
ple under feet his own righteousness ; it is the hardest thing in
the world.
2. He betook himself to the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul got
such a view of the glory, brightness, and excellency of the way
of salvation by Jesus, that it filled his whole heart. All other
things sunk into littleness. Every mountain and hill was brought
low, the crooked was made straight, the rough places smooth, and
the glory of the Lord was revealed. As the rising sun makes all
the stars disappear, so the rising of Christ upon his soul made
everything else disappear. Jesus suffering for us filled his eye ;
filled his heart. He saw, believed, and was happy. Christ for us,
answered all his need. From the Cross of Christ a ray of heavenly
light flamed to his soul, filling him with light and joy unspeakable.
He felt that God was glorified, and he was saved ; he cleaved to
the Lord with full purpose of heart. Like Edwards, " I was un-
speakably pleased."
3. He gloried in the Cross. He confessed Christ before men ;
he was not ashamed of Christ before that adulterous generation ;
he gloried that this was his way of pardon, peace, and holiness
Ah ! what a change ! once he blasphemed the name of Jesus, and
persecuted to the death those that called on his name ; now it is
all his boast, " Straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues,
that h^ is the Son of God." Once he gloried in his blameless
life when he was among Pharisees ; now he glories in this, that
he is the chief of sinners, but that Christ died for such as he. Once
he gloried in his learning, when he sat at the feet of Gamaliel;
DOW he glories in being reckoned a fool for Christ's sake, in being
a little child led by the hand of Jesus. At the Lord's table, among
his friends, in heathen cities, at Athens, at Rome, among the wise
SERMON XIII. 79
or unwise, before kings and princes, he glories in it as the only
thing worthy of being known ; the way of salvation by Jesua
Christ and him crucified.
Dear friends, have you been brought to glory only in the Cross
of Christ?
1. Have you given over the old way of salvation by the deeds
of the law ? Your natural heart is set upon that way. You are
always for making yourself better and better till you can lay God
under obligation to pardon you. You are always for looking in
for righteousness. You are looking in at your convictions, and
sorrow for past sins, your tears and anxious prayers ; or you are
looking in at your amendment, forsaking of wicked courses, and
struggles after a new life ; or you are looking at your own religious
exercises, your fervency, and enlarged heart in prayer or in the
house of God ; or you are looking at the work of the Holy Spirit
in you, the graces of the spirit. Alas ! alas ! The bed is shorter than
that you can stretch yourself on it, the covering is narrower than
that you can wrap yourself in it. Despair of pardon in that way.
Give it up for ever. Your heart is desperately wicked. Every
righteousness in which your heart has anything to do is vile and
polluted, and cannot appear in his sight. Count it all loss, filthy
r;igs, dung, that you may win Christ.
2. Betake yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe the love
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He delighteth in mercy ; he is ready
to forgive ; in him compassions flow ; he justifies the ungodly.
Have you seen the glory of the cross of Jesus? Has it attracted
your heart ? Do you feel unspeakably pleased with that way of
salvation ? Do you see that God is glorified when you are saved ?
that God is a God of majesty, truth, unsullied holiness, and inflexi-
ble justice, and yet you are justified ? Does the cross of Christ fill
your heart ? Does it make a great calm in your soul, a heavenly
rest ? Do you love that word, " the righteousness of God;" ' the
righteousness which is by faith," the righteousness without works ?
Do you sit within sight of the cross ? Does your soul rest there ?
3. Glory only in the Cross of Christ. Observe, there cannot be
a secret Christian. Grace is like ointment hid in the hand, it be-
wrayeth itself. A lively Christian cannot keep silence. It you
truly feel the sweetness of the Cross of Christ, you will be con-
strained to confess Christ before men. " It is like the boet wine,
that goeth down sweetly, causing lips to speak." Do you confess
him in your family ? Do you make it known there that you are
Christ's ? Remember, you must be decided in your own house.
It is the mark of a hypocrite to be a Christian everywhere except
at home. Among your companions, do you own him a friend
whom you have found ? In the shop and in the market, arc you
willing to be known as a man washed in the blood of the lamb ?
Do you long that all your dealings be under the sweet rules of the
gospel ? Come then to the Lord's Table and confess him that hat
80 SERMON XIII.
saved your soul. Oh ! grant that it may be a true, free, and full
confession. This is my sweet food, my lamb, my righteousness,
my Lord and my God, my all in all. " God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross." Once you gloried in riches, friends,
lame, sin ; now in a crucified Jesus.
III. The effects. " The world is crucified to me, and I unto the
world." " If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature," &c.
When the blind beggar of Jericho got his eyes opened by the
Lord, this world was all changed to him, and he to the world. So
it was with Paul ; no sooner did he rise from his knees, with the
peace of Jesus in his heart, than the world got its death-blow in
his eyes. As he hurried over the smooth stones of the streets of
Damascus, or looked down from the flat roof of his house upon the
lovely gardens on the banks of the Abana, the world and all its
dazzling show seemed to his eye a poor, shrivelled, crucified thing.
Once it was his all. Once its soft and slippery flatteries were
pleasant as music to his ear. Riches, beauty, pleasure, all that
the natural eye admires, his heart was once set upon ; but the
moment he believed on Jesus all these began to die. True, they
were not dead, but they were nailed to a cross. They no more
had that living attraction for them they once had ; and now every
day they began to lose their power. As a dying man on the cross
grows weaker every moment, while his heart's blood trickles from
the deep gashes in his hands and feet, so the world, that was once
his all, began to lose every moment its attractive power. He
tasted so much sweetness in Christ, in pardon, access to God, the
smile of God, the indwelling spirit, that the world became every
day a more tasteless world to him.
Another effect was, " / to the world." As Paul laid his hand
upon his own bosom he felt that it also was changed. Once it
was as a mettled race-horse that paces the ground and cannot be
bridled in ; once it was like the fox-hounds on the scent impatient
of the leash ; his heart thus rushed after fame, honor, worldly
praise ; but now it was nailed to the cross, a broken, contrite
heart. True, it was not dead. Many a fitful start his old nature
gave that drove him to his knees and made him cry for grace to
help ; bijt still, the more he looked to the cross of Jesus, the more
his old heart began to die. Every, day he felt less desire for sin ;
more desire for Christ, and God, and perfect holiness.
Some may discover that they have never come to Christ. Has
the world been crucified to you ? Once it was your all; its praise, its
riches, its songs, and merry-makings ? Has it been nailed to the
cross in your sight ? Oh ! put your hand on your heart. Has it lost
its burning desire after earthly things ? They that are Christ's have
crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts. Do you feel that
Jesus has put the nails through your lusts ? Do you wish they
were dead ? What answer can you make, sons and daughters of
SERMON XIV. 8]
pleasure, to whom the dance, and song, and the glass, and witty
repartee, are the sum of happiness ? Ye are none of Christ's.
What answer can you make, lovers of money, sordid money-
makers, who had rather have a few more sovereigns than the
grace of God in your heart ? What answer can you make, flesh-
pleasers, night-walkers, lovers of darkness ? Ye are not Christ's.
Ye have not come to Christ. The world is all alive to you, and
you are living to the world. You cannot glory in the cross, and
love the world. Ah ! poor deluded souls, you have never seen
the glory of the way of pardon by Jesus. Go on ; love the world ;
grasp every pleasure ; gather heaps of money ; feed and farten on
your lusts ; take your fill. What will it profit you when you lose
your own soul ?
Some are saying, O that the world was crucified to me and I
to the world ! O that my heart were as dead as a stone to the world,
and alive 1o Jesus ! Do you truly wish it? Look, then, to the
cross. Behold the amazing gift of love. Salvation is promised to
a look. Sit down like Mary, and 'gaze upon a crucified Jesus.
So will the world become a dim and dying thing. When you
gaze upon the sun, it makes everything else dark ; when you
taste honey, it makes everything else tasteless ; so when your
soul feeds on Jesus, it takes away the sweetness of all earthly
things ; praise, pleasure, fleshly lusts, all lose their sweetness.
Keep a continued gaze. Run, looking unto Jesus. Look, till the
way of salvation by Jesus fills up the whole horizon, so glorious and
peace-speaking. So will the world be crucified to you, and you
unto the world.
SERMON XIV.
" Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God ?
shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old ? Will
the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of
oil ? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for
the sin of my soul ? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good ; and what doth
the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly
with thy God .'" Micah vi , 6 8
Doctrine. The good way of coming before the Lord.
The question of an awakened soul. " Wherewith shall I come
before the Lord ?" An unawakened man never puts that question.
A natural man has no desire to come before God, or to bow him-
self before the high God. He does not like to think of God. He
would rather think of any other subject. He easily forgets what
he is told about God. A natural man has no memqry for divine
6
82 SERMON XIV.
things, because he has no heart for them. He has no desire to
come before God in prayer. There is nothing a natural man
hates more than prayer. He would far rather spend half an hour
cvciy morning in bodily exercise or in hard labor, than in the
presence of God. He has no desire to come before God when he
dies. lie knows that he must appear before God, but it gives him
no joy. He had rather sink into nothing ; he had rather never see
the face of God. Ah! my friends, is this your condition? How
surely you may know that you have " the carnal mind which is
enmity against God." You are l.ke Pharaoh ; " Who is the Lord
that 1 should obey him ?" You say to God, " Depart from me, for
I desire not the knowledge of thy ways." What an awful state it
is to be in to have no desire after him who is the fountain of living
waters !
I. Here is the piercing question of every awakened soul.
1. An awakened soul feels that his chief happiness is in coming
before God. This was unfaUen Adam's happiness. He felt like
a child under a loving father's eye. It was his chief joy to come
before God, to be loved by him, to be like a mote in the sunbeam,
to be continually basked in the sunshine of his love, no cloud "or
veil coming between. This is the joy of holy angels, to come
before the Lord, and bow before the high God. In his presence
is fulness of joy. "The angels do always behold the face of my
Father." On whatever errand of love they fly, they still feel that
his eye of love is on them ; this is their daily, hourly joy. This is
the true happiness of a believer. Hear David (Psalm xlii.), "As
the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after
thee, O God : my soul thirsteth for God, for the living God : when
shall I come and appear before God ?" He panted not after the
gifts of God, not his favors or comforts, but after himself. A
believer longs after God, to come into his presence, to feel his
love, to feel near to him in secret, to feel in the crowd that
he is nearer than all the creatures. Ah ! dear brethren, have
you ever tasted this blessedness ? There is greater rest and
solace to be found in the presence of God for one hour than
in an eternity of the presence of man. To be in his presence,
under his love, under his eye, is heaven wherever it be. God
can make you happy in any circumstances. Without him no-
thing can.
2. An awakened soul feels difficulties in the way. " Where-
with," &c. There are two great difficulties.
1st, The nature of the sinner. " Wherewith shall I," &c.
When God really awakens a soul, he shows the vileness and
hatefulness of himself. He directs the eye within. He shows
him that every imagination of his heart has been only evil con-
tinually : that every member of his body he has used in the
ervice of sin ; that he has treated Christ in a shameful man-
SERMON XIV. 83
ner ; that he has sinned both against law and love ; thht he
has kept the door of his heart harred against the Lord Jesus, till
his head was filled with dew, and his locks with the drops of
the night. O brethren, if God has ever discovered yourself to you,
you would wonder that such a lump of hell and sin should have
been permitted to breathe so long ; that God should have had
patience with you till this day. Your cry will be, " Wherewith
shall I come before the Lord ?" Though all the world should
come before him, how can I ?
2d, The nature of God." The high God." When God really
awakens a soul, he generally reveals to him something of his own
holiness and majesty. Thus he dealt with Isaiah (vi.), " I saw
the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and his train
filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim ; one cried to
another, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is
filled with his glory. Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone."
When Isaiah saw that God was so great a God, and so holy,
he felt himself undone. He felt that he could not stand in the pre-
sence of so great a God. O brethren ! have you ever had a disco-
very of the highness and holiness of God, so as to lay you low at
his feet ? O pray for such a discovery of God as Job had, " I
have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine
eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust
and ashes." Alas ! I fear that most of you will never know
that God with whom you have to do, till you stand guilty and
speechless before his great white throne. O that you would
pray for a discovery of him now, that you may cry, " Where-
with shall 1 come before the Lord, and bow myself before the
high God !"
3d, The anxiety of the awakened soul leads to the question,
" Wherewith ?" Ah ! it is a piercing question. It is the ques-
tion of one who has been made to feel that " one thing is
needful." Anything he has he would give up to get peace with
Goa. If he had a thousand rams, or ten thousand rivers of
oil, he would gladly give them. If the life of his children, the
dearest objects on this earth, would attain it, he would give
them up. If he had a thousand worlds, he would give all
for an interest in Christ. Woe to you that are at ease in
Zion. Woe to those of you that never asked this question,
Wherewith shall I come before the Lord ? Ah ! foolish triflers
with eternal things ! Poor butterflies, that flutter on from flower
to flower, and consider not the dark eternity that is before you !
Prepare to meet thy God. O Israel ! Ye are hastening on to
death and judgment, yet never ask. What garment shall cover
me when I stand before the great white throne? If you were
going to appear before an earthly monarch, you would ask before-
hand, Wherewith shall I be attired ? If you were to be tried at
an earthly bar, you would make sure of an advocate. How is it
84 SERMON XIV.
you press on so swiftly to the bar of God, and never ask the
question, Wherewith shall I appear? " If the righteous scarcely
are saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ?"
II. The answer of peace to the awakened soul. " He hath
showed thce, O man, what is good." Nothing that man can bring
with him will justify him before God. The natural heart is
a-lways striving to bring something to be a robe of righteous-
ness before God. There is nothing a man would not do, no-
thing he would not suffer, if he might only cover himself before
God. Tears, prayers, duties, reformations, devotions the heart
will do anything to be righteous before God. But all this right-
eousness is filthy rags. For,
1. The heart remains an awful depth of corruption. Every-
thing in which that heart has any share is polluted and vile.
These very tears and prayers would need to be washed.
2. Supposing this righteousness perfect, it cannot cover the
past. It answers only for the time in which it was done. Old
sins, and the sins of youth, still remain uncovered.
Oh ! dear brethren, if Jesus is to justify you, he must do as he
did to Joshua (Zech. t iii., 4), " Take away the filthy garments
from him ;" and, " I will clothe thee with change of raiment.'*
The hand of Jesus alone can take off your filthy garments.
The hand of Jesus alone can clothe you with change of raiment.
Christ is the good way. " He hath showed thee," &c. " Stand
ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths where is the
good way, and walk therein, and ye shalf find rest for your souls."
Christ is the good way to the Father. 1. Because he is so suit-
able. He just answers the case of the sinner ; for every sin of
the sinner he has a wound, for every nakedness he has a cover-
ing, for every emptiness he has a supply. There is no fear but
he will receive the sinner, for he came into the world on purpose
to save sinners. There is no far but the Father will be well
pleased with us in him, for the Father sent him, laid our iniquity
upon him, raised him from the dead, and points you to him. " He
hath showed thee, O man, what is good." 2. He is so free.
" As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." As far as
the curse by Adam extends, so far does the offer of pardon by
Jesus extend. Here is good news to the vilest of men. You may be
covered just as completely and as freely as those that have never
sinned as you have done. " He hath snowed thee, O man, what
is good." 3. He is so God-glorifying. All other ways of salva-
tion are man-glorifying, but this way is God-glorifying ; therefore,
it is good. That way is good and best which gives the glory to
the Lamb. The way of righteousness by Jesus is good, on this
account, that Jesus gets all the praise. To him be glory. It is
of faith that it might be by grace. If a man could justify him-
SERMON XIV. 85
self, or if he could believe of himself and draw the righteousness
of Christ over his soul, that man would glory. But when a man
lies dead at the foot of Jesus, and Jesus spreads his white robe
orer him, out of free sovereign mercy, then Jesus gets all the
praise.
Have you chosen the good way of being justified ? This is
the way which God has been showing from the foundation of the
world. He showed it in Abel's lamb, and in all the sacrifices, and
by all the prophets. He shows it by his spirit to the heart. Has
this good way been revealed to you? If it has, you will count
all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of it.
Oh, sweet, divine way of justifying a sinner ! Oh, that all the
world but knew it ! Oh, that we saw more of it ! Oh, that you
could make use of it ! " Walk therein and ye shall find rest unto
your souls."
III. God's requirement of the justified. When Jesus healed the
impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, he said to him, " Behold
thou art made whole, sin no more, lest a worse thing happen
unto thee." And again, when he covered the sin of the adul-
teress, John viii., he said, " Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin
no more." So here, when he shows the good way of righteous-
ness, he adds, " And what doth the Lord require of thee ?"
1. God requires his redeemed ones to be holy. If you are his
brethren, he will have you righteous, holy men.
1st, He requires that you do justly, to be just in your dealings
between man and man. This is one of his own glorious features.
He is a just God. " Shall not the judge of all the earth do right ?"
" He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him." Are
you come to him by Jesus? he requires you to reflect his image.
Are you his child ? you must be like him. O brethren, be exact
in your dealings. Be like your God. Take care of dishonesty ;
take care of trickery in business. Take care of crying up your
goods when selling them, and crying them down when buying them.
" It is naught, it is naught, sayeth the buyer, but when he is gone
his way he boasteth." It shall not be so among you. God re-
quires you to do justly.
2</, He requires you to love mercy. This is the brightest fea-
ture in the character of Christ. If you are in Christ, drink deep
of his spirit ; God requires you to be merciful. The world is seli-
ish, unmerciful. An unconverted mother has no mercy on the
soul of her own child. She can see it dropping into hell without
mercy. O the hellish cruelty of unconverted men. It shall not
be so with you. Be merciful, as your father in heaven is merciful.
3d, He requires you to walk humbly with thy God. Christ
gays, " Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart." If God
has covered all your black sins, rebellions, backslidings, out-
breakings, then never open your mouth except in humble praise.
86 SERMON XV.
God requires this at your hand. Walk with God, and walk burn,
bly.
2. Remember tins is God's end in justifying you. He loved tho
Church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse
it. This was his great end, to raise up a peculiar people to serve
him, and bear his likeness, in this world and in eternity. For this
he left heaven ; for this he groaned, bled, died, to make you holy.
If you are not made holy, Christ died in vain for you.
3. Whatever he requires, he gives grace to perform. Christ is
not only good as our way to the Father, but he is our fountain of
living waters. Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
There is enough in Christ to supply the need of all his people.
An old minister says, a child can carry little water from the sea
in its two hands, and so it is little we get out of Christ. There
are unsearchable riches in him.
Be strong m the grace that is in him. Live out of yourself,
and live upon him. Go and tell him, that since he requires all
this of thee, he must give thee grace according to your need.
My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory
by Christ Jesus. He hath showed you one that is good, even the
fair Immanuel ; now lean upon him, get life from him that shall
never die, get living water from him that shall never dry up. Let
his hand hold you up amid the billows of this tempestuous sea;
let his shoulder carry you over the thorns of this wilderness. Look
as much to him for sanctification as for justification.
So will your walk be close with God,
Calm and serene your frame ;
So purer light shall mark the road
That leads you to the Lamb.
SERMON XV.
" For I delight in the law of God after the inward man ;'but I see another law in
my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am ! who
shall deliver me from the body of this death ? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the
fiesh the law of sin." Rom. vii., 22-25.
A BELIEVER is to be known, not only by his peace and joy, but
by his warfare and distress. His peace is peculiar : it flows
from Christ ; it is heavenly, it is holy peace. His warfare is as
peculiar ; it is deep-seated, agonizing, and ceases not till det^h.
If the Lord will, many of us have the prospect of sitting down
next Sabbath at the Lord's Table. The great question to be an-
swered before sitting down there is, Have I "fled to Christ or no ?
SERMON XV. 1
'Tis a point I long to know,
Oft it causes anxious thought,
Do I love the Lord or no ?
Am I his, or am I not ?
To help you to settle this question, I have chosen the subject of
the Christian's warfare, that you may know thereby whether you
are a soldier of Christ whether you are really fighting the good
Eght of faith.
I. A believer delights in the law of God. Verse 22, "I delight
in the law of God after the inward man." '
1. Before a man comes to Christ, he hates the law of God, his
whole soul rises up against it ; viii. 7, " The carnal mind is enmi-
ty," &c. (1.) Unconverted men hate the law of God on account
of its purity : " Thy word is very pure, therefore thy servant
loveth it." For the same reason worldly men hate it. The law is
the breathing of God's pure and holy mind. It is infinitely op-
posed to all impurity and sin. Every line of the law is against
sin. But natural men love sin, and therefore they hate the law,
because it opposes them in all they love. As bats hate the light,
and fly against it, so unconverted men hate the pure light of God's
law, and fly against it. (2.) They hate it for its breadth. " Thy
commandment is exceeding broad." It extends to all their out-
ward actions, seen and unseen ; it extends to every idle word that
men shall speak ; it extends to the looks of their eye ; it dives
into the deepest caves of their heart ; it condemns the most secret
springs of sin and lust that nestle there. Unconverted men quar-
rel with the law of God because of its strictness. If it extended
only to my outward actions, then I could bear with it ; but it con-
demns my most secret thoughts and desires, which I cannot pre-
vent. Therefore ungodly men rise against the law. (3.) They
hate it for its unchangeableness. Heaven and earth shall pass
away, but one jot or one tittle of the law shall in nowise pass
away. If the law would change, or let down its requirements, or
die, then ungodly men would be well pleased. But it is unchange-
able as God : it is written on the heart of God, with whom is no
variableness nor shadow of turning. It cannot change unless God
change ; it cannot die unless God die. Even in an eternal hell its
demands and its curses will be the same. It is an unchangeable
law, for He is an unchangeable God. Therefore ungodly men
have unchangeable hatred to that holy law.
2. When a man comes to Christ, this is all changed. He can
say, " 1 delight in the law of God after the inward man." Ho
can say with David, "O how I love thy law : it is my meditation
all the day." He can say with Jesus, in the 40th. Psalrn, " I
delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within mv
heart."
There are two reasons for this :
88 SERMON XV
1st, The law is no longer an enemy. If any of you who are
trembling under a sense of your infinite sins, and the curses of the
law which you have broken, flee to Christ, you will find rest. You
will find that he lias fully answered the demands of the law as a
surety for sinners that he has fully borne all its curses. Yon
will be able to say, " Christ hath redeemed me from the curse of
the law, being made a curse for me, as it is written, * Cursed,' " &c.
You have no more to fear, then, from that awfully holy law : you
are not under the law, but under grace. You have no more to
fear from the law than you will have after the Judgment Day.
Imagine a saved soul after the Judgment Day. When that awful
scene is past ; when the dead, small and great, have stood before
that great white throne ; when the sentence of eternal woe has
fallen upon all the unconverted, and they have sunk into the lake
whose fires can never be quenched ; would not that redeemed
soul say, I have nothing to fear from that holy law ; I have seen
its vials poured out, but not a drop has fallen on me? So may
you say now, O believer in Jesus. When you look upon the soul
of Christ, scarred with God's thunderbolts ; when you look upon
his body, pierced for sin, you can say, He was made a curse for
me ; why should I fear that holy law ?
2d, The Spirit of God writes the law on the heart. This is the
promise ( Jef. xxxi., 33), " After those days, saith the Lord, I will
put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and
will be their God, and they shall be my people." Coming to Christ
takes away your fear of the law, but it is the Holy Spirit coming
into your heart that makes you love the law. The Holy Spirit is
no more frightened away from that heart ; he comes and softens
it ; he takes out the stony heart and puts in a heart of flesh ; and
there he writes the holy, holy, holy law of God. Then the law
of God is sweet to that soul ; he has an inward delight in it. " The
law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good."
Now he unfeignedly desires every thought, word and action, to be
according to that law. "Othat my ways were directed to keep
thy statutes : great peace have they that love thy law, and nothing
shall ofiend them." The 119th Psalm becomes the breathing of
that new heart. Now also he would fain see all the world sub-
mitting to that pure and holy law. " Rivers of waters run down
mine eyes because they keep not thy law." O that all the world
but knew that holiness and happiness are one ! O that all the
world were one holy family, joyfully coming under the pure rules
of the Gospel! Try yourselves by this. Can you say, "I de-
light," &c. ? Do you remember when you hated the law of God ?
Do you love it now? Do you long for the time when you shall
live fully under it holy as God is holy, pure as Christ is pure?
O corne, sinners, and give up your hearts to Christ, that he may
write on it his holy law ! You have long enough had the devil's
law graven on your hearts : come you to Jesus, and he will both
SERMON XV. 9
shelter you from the curses of the law, and he will give you the
Spirit to write all that law in your heart ; he will make you love
it with your inmost soul. Plead the promise with him. * Surely
you have tried the pleasures of sin long enough. Come now, and
try the pleasures of holiness out of a new heart.
If you die with your heart as it is, it will be stamped a wicked
heart to all eternity. " He that is unjust, let him be unjust still ;
and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still," Rev. xxii., 11. O come
and get the new heart before you die ; for except you be born
again you cannot see the kingdom of God !
II. A true believer feels an opposing law in his members.
Verse 23, " I see another law," &c. When a sinner comes first
to Christ, he often thinks he will now bid an eternal farewell to
sin : now I shall never sin any more. He feels already at the gate
of heaven. A little breath of temptation soon discovers his heart,
and he cries out, " / see another law."
1. Observe what he calls it, " another law ;" quite a different
law from the law of God, a law clean contrary to it. Verse 25,
he calls it a " law of sin" a law that commands him to commit sin
that urges him on by rewards and threatenings : viii., 2, " A law
of sin and death" a law which not only leads to sin, but leads to
death, eternal death : "the wages of sin is death." It is the same
law which in Galatians is called " thejlesh" Gal. v., 17, " The
flesh lusteth against the spirit," &c. It is the same which, in
Eph. iv., 22, is called " the old man" which is wrought according
to the deceitful lusts. The same law which, in Col. iii., is called
" your members" " mortify, therefore, your members, which are,"
&c. The same which is called (v. 24) " a body of death." The
truth then is, that in the heart of the believer there remains the
whole members and body of an old man, or old nature : there
remains the fountain of every sin that has ever polluted the
world.
2. Observe again what his law is doing " warring." This
law in the members is not resting quiet, but warring always
fighting. There never can be peace in the bosom of a believer.
There is peace with God, but constant war with sin. This law
in the members has got an army of lusts under him, and he wages
constant war against the law of God. Sometimes, indeed, an
arrny are lying in ambush, and they lie quiet till a favorable mo-
ment comes. So in the heart the lusts often lie quiet till the hour
of temptation, and they war against the soul. The heart is like
a volcano ; sometimes it slumbers, and sends up nothing but a
little smoke ; but the fire is slumbering all the while below, and
will soon break out again. There are two great combatants in the
believer's soul. There is Satan on the one side, with the flesh and
all its lusts at his command ; then, on the other side, there is the
Holy Spirit, with the new creature all at his command. And so
90 SERMON XV.
" the flesh lustcth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh ;
and these two are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot
do the things that ye would."
Is Satan ever successful ? In the deep wisdom of God the law
in the members does sometimes bring the soul into captivity.
Noah was a perfect man, and Noah walked with God, and yet he
was led captive. " Noah drank of the wine, and was drunken."
Abraham was " the friend of God," and yet he told a lie, saying
of Sarah his wife, " She is my sister." Job was a perfect man,
one that feared God and hated evil, and yet he was provoked to
curse the day wherein he was born. And so with Moses, and
David, and Solomon, and Hezekiah, and Peter and the Apostles.
1. Have you experienced this warfare ? It is a clear mark of
God's children. Most of you, I fear, have never felt it. Do not
mistake me. All of you have felt a warfare at times between
your natural conscience and the law of God. But that is not the
contest in the believer's bosom. It is a warfare between the Spirit
of God in the heart, and the old man with his deeds.
2. If any of you are groaning under this warfare, learn to be
humbled by it, but not discouraged.
1st, Be humbled under it. It is intended to make you lie in the
dust, and feel that you are but a worm. Oh ! what a vile wretch
you must be, that even after you are forgiven, and have received
the Holy Spirit, your heart should still be a fountain of every
wickedness ! How vile, that in your most solemn approaches to
God in the house of God in awfully affecting situations, such as
kneeling beside the death bed, you should still have in your
bosom all the members of your old nature. Let this make you
lie low.
2d, Let this teach you your need of Jesus. You need the blood
of Jesus as much as at the first. You never can stand before God
in yourself. You must go again and again to be washed ; even
on your dying bed you must hide under Jehovah, our righteous-
ness. You must also lean upon Jesus. He alone can overcome
in you. Keep nearer and nearer every day.
3d, Be not discouraged. Jesus is willing to be a Saviour to
such as you He is able to save you to the uttermost. Do you
think your case is too bad for Christ to save ? Every one whom
Christ saves had just such a heart as you. Fight the good fight
of faith ; lay hold on eternal life. Take up the resolution of
Edwards, " Never to give over, nor in the least to slacken, my
fight with my corruptions, however unsuccessful I may be"
" Him that overcometh will I make a pillar," &c.
III. The feelings of a believer during this warfare.
1. He feels wretched. Verse 24th, "O wretched man that I
am '" There is nobody in this world so happy as a believer. He
has come to Jesus, and found rest. He has the pardon of all his
SERMON XT. 91
sins in Christ. He has near approach to God as a child. He hag
the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. He has the hope of glory. In
the most awful times he can be calm, for he feels that God is with
him. Still there are times when he cries, O wretched man !
When he feels the plague of his own heart, when he feels the
thorn in the flesh, when his wicked heart is discovered in all its
fearful malignity, A h, then he lies down, crying, O wretched man
that I am ! One reason of this wretchedness is, that sin discover-
ed in the heart takes away the sense of forgiveness. Guilt comes
upon the conscience, and a dark cloud covers the soul. How can
I ever go back to Christ ? he cries. Alas ! I have sinned away
my Saviour. Another reason is, the loathsomeness of sin. It is
felt like a viper in the heart. A natural man is often miserable
from his sin, but he never feels its loathsomeness ; but to the new
creature it is vile indeed. Ah ! brethren, do you know anything
of a believer's wretchedness ? If you do not, you will never
know his joy. If you know not a believers tears and groans, you
will never know his song of victory.
2. He seeks deliverance. " Who shall deliver me ?" In ancient
times, some of the tyrants used to chain their prisoners to a dead
body ; so that, wherever the prisoner wandered, he had to drag a
putrid carcass after him. It is believed that Paul here alludes to
this inhuman practice. His old man he felt a noisome, putrid
carcass, which he was continually dragging about with him. His
piercing desire is to be freed from it. Who shall deliver us ?
You remember once, when God allowed a thorn in the flesh to
torment his servant a messenger of Satan to buffet him Paul
was driven to his knees. " I besought the Lord thrice; that it
might depart from me." O this is the true mark of God's children !
Th<i world have an old nature ; they are all old men together.
But it does not drive them to their knees. How is it with you,
dear souls ? Does corruption felt within drive you to the throne
of grace ? Does it make you call on the name of the Lord ?
Does it make you like the importunate widow, " Avenge me of
mine adversary 1 Does it make you like the man coming at mid-
night for three loaves ? Does it make you like the Canaanitish
woman, crying after Jesus ? Ah, remember, if lust can work in
your heart, and you lie down contented with it, you are none of
Chnst's !
3. He gives thanks for victory. Truly we are more than con-
querors through him that loved us ; for we can give thanks before
the fight is done. Yes, even in the thickest of the battle we can
look up to Jesus, and cry, Thanks to God. The moment a soul,
groaning under corruption, rest* the eye on Jesus, that moment
his groans are changed into songs of praise. In Jesus you dis-
cover a fountain to wash away the guilt of all your sin. In Jesus
you discover grace sufficient for you, grace to hold you up to the
end, and a sure promise that sin shall soon be rooted out alto-
92 SERMON XVI.
gether. " Fear not, I have redeemed thee. I have called thta
by my name ; thou art mine." Ah, this turns our groans into
songs of praise ! How often a psalm begins with groans, and ends
with praises ! This is the daily experience of all the Lord's
people. Is it yours ? Try yourselves by this. O if you know
not the believer's songs of praise, you will never cast your crowns
with them at the feet of Jesus ! Dear believers, be content to
glory in your infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon
you. Glory, glory, glory to the Lamb !
SERMON XVI.
THE BROKEN HEART.
" The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit : a broken and a contrite heart, God,
thou wilt not despise." Psalm li., 17.
No psalm expresses more fully the experience of a penitent believ-
ing soul : 1st, His humbling confession of sin, verses 3, 4, 5 ; 2d,
His intense desire for pardon through the blood of Christ, v. 7 ;
3d, His longing after a clean heart, v. 10 ; 4th, His desire to
render something to God for all his benefits. 1. He says, I will
teach transgressors thy ways ; 2. My lips shall show forth thy
praise ; 3. He will give a broken heart, verses 16, 17. Just as,
long ago, they used to offer slain lambs in token of thanksgiving,
so he says he will offer up to God a slain and broken heart.
Every one of you, who has found the same forgiveness, should
come to the same resolution offer up to God this day a broken
heart.
I. The natural heart is sound and unbroken.
The law, the gospel, mercies, afflictions, death, do not break the
natural heart. It is harder than stone ; there is nothing in the
universe so hard. Isaiah xlvi., 12, " Ye stout-hearted, that are
far from righteousness." Zech. i., 11, " We have walked to and
fro through the earth, and behold all the earth sitteth still, and is at
rest." Zeph. i., 12, " I will search Jerusalem with candles, and
punish the men that are settled on their lees." Jer. v., 3, " They
nave made their faces harder than a rock." Isaiah xxxii., 10,
" Careless women ;" verse 11, " women that are at ease."
Why? 1st, The veil is upon their hearts. They do not
believe the Bible, the strictness of the law, the wrath to come the
face of a covering is over their eyes. 2d, Satan has possession.
Satan carries the seed away. 3d, Dead in trespasses and sins.
The dead hear not, feel not ; they are past feeling. 4th, They
SERMON XVI. J3
build a wall of untempered mortar. They hope for safety in some
refuge of lies that they pray, or give alms.
Pray God to keep away from you the curse of a dead, unbrokec
heart. 1st, Because it will not last long you are standing on
slippery places the waves are below your feet. 2d, Because
Christ will laugh at your calamity. If you were now concerned
there is hope. Ministers and Christians are ready, Christ is ready
but afterwards he will laugh.
II. The awakened heart is wounded, not broken.
1. The law makes the first wound. When God is going to save
a soul, he brings the soul to reflect on his sins. " Cursed is every
one," &c. " Whatsoever things the law saith," &c. " I was
alive without the law once," &c. Life and heart appear in awful
colors.
2. The majesty of God makes the next wound. The sinner is
made sensible of the great and holy being against whom he has
sinned. " Against thee" Psa. li., 4.
3. The third wound is from his own helplessness to make himself
better. Still the heart is not broken ; the heart rises against God.
1st, Because of the strictness of the law ; 2d, Because faith is
the only way of salvation, and is the gift of God ; 3d, Because
God is Sovereign, and may save or not, as he will. This shows
the unbroken heart. There is no more miserable state than this.
Learn. It is one thing to be awakened, and another thing to be
saved. Do not rest in convictions.
III. The believing heart is a broken heart two ways.
1 . It is broken from its own righteousness. When the Holy
Spirit leads a man to the Cross, his heart there breaks from seek-
ing salvation by his own righteousness. All his burden of per-
formances and contrivances drops. 1st, The work of Christ
appears so perfect the wisdom of God and the power of God
divine righteousness. " I wonder that I should ever think of any
other way of salvation. If I could have been saved by my own
duties, my whole soul would now have refused it. I wonder that
aJl the world did not see and comply with this way of salvation by
the righteousness of Christ." (Brainard, p. 319.) 2d, The grace
of Christ appears so wonderful. That all this righteousness
should be free to such a sinner ! That I so long neglected,
despised, hated it, put mountains between, and yet that he has
come over the mountains ! Ezek. xvi., 63, " That thou mayest
remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any
more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for
all that thou hast done." Have you this broken heart broken
within sight of the Cross ? It is not a look into your own heart,
or the heart of hell, but into the heart of Christ that breaks the
heart. Oh, pray fo/ this broken heart! Boasting is excluded
94 SERMON XVI.
To him be glory ! Worthy is the Lamb ! All the struggles of a
self-righteous soul are to put the crown on your own head instead
of at the feet of Jesus.
2. Broken from love of sin. When a man believes on
Christ, he then sees sin to be hateful. 1st, It separated between
him and God, made the great gulf, and kindled the fires of hell.
2d. It crucified the Lord of Glory ; weighed down his soul ; made
him sweat, and bleed, and die. 3d, It is the plague of his heart
now. All my unhappiness is from my being a sinner. Now he
mourns sore like a dove, that he should sin against so much love.
" Then shall ye remember your ways, and nil your doings where-
in ye have been defiled, and shall ioathe yourselves in your own
sight."
IV. Advantages of a broken heart.
1. It keeps you from being offended at the preaching of the Cross
A natural heart is offended every day at the preaching of the
Cross. Many of you, I have no dout>t, hate it. The preaching
of another's righteousness that you must have it or perish
many, I have no doubt, are often enraged at this in their hearts.
Many, I doubt not, have left this church on account of it, anJ
many more, I doubt not, will follow. All the offence of the Cross
is not ceased. But a broken heart cannot be offended. Ministers
cannot speak too plainly for a broken heart. A broken heart
would sit for ever to hear of the righteousness without works.
Many of you are offended when we preach plainly against sin.
Many were offended last Sabbath. But a broken heart cannot be
offended, for it hates sin worse than ministers can make it. Many
are like the worshippers of Baal " Bring forth thy son that he
may die," Judges vi., 30. But a broken heart loves to see the
idol stamped upon and beaten small.
2. A broken heart is at rest. The unconverted heart is like the
troubled sea " Who wili show us any good ?" It is going from
creature to creature. The awakened soul is not at rest ; sorrows
of death, pains of hell, attend those who are forgetting their rest-
ing-place. But the broken heart says, " Return unto thy rest, O
my soul." The righteousness of Christ takes away every fear
" casts out fear." Even the plague of the heart cannot truly dis-
turb, for he casts his burden on Jesus.
3. Nothing can happen wrong to it. To the unconverted, how
dreadful is a sick bed, poverty, death tossed like a wild beast in
a net ! But a broken heart is satisfied with Christ. This is
enough he has no ambition for more. Take away all, this re-
mains. He is a weaned child.
SERMON XVII.
SERMON XVII.
" The wicked aie estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they b
born : speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent ; they are
like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear, which will not hearken to the voice of
charmers, charming never so wisely." Psalm Iviii., 3-5.
IT has been supposed by some interpreters that this psalm was
written as a prophetic description of the unjust judges who con-
demned our Lord Jesus Christ. 1. It begins by reproving them
for their unjust judgment. Verse 1, " Do ye indeed," &c. 2. It
opens up the dark recesses of their heart and history ; verse 3,
" The wicked are estranged from the womb ;" &c. And 3. It
shows their coming destruction ; verse 10, " The righteous shall
rejoice when he seeth the vengeance ; he shall wash his feet in the
blood of the wicked." However this may be, they were of the same
nature with us. The Scribes and Pharisees who condemned our
Lord had hearts of the same kind as ours, so that we may learn
this day the awful depravity of the heart of man.
I. Original depravity. Verse 3, " The wicked are estranged
from the womb." The expression, " from the womb," occurs fre-
quently in Scripture, and means from the very first period of our
existence. The angel of the Lord said to the wife of Manoah,
Judges xiii., 5, " The child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the
wornb;" that is, from the very first point of existence. God says
to Jeremiah (i. 5), " Before I formed thee in the belly I knew
thee ; and before thou comest forth out of the womb I sanctified
thee ; and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." Jeremiah
was set apart as a prophet before he was born. Paul says,
Gal. i., 15. " But when it pleased God, who separated me from
my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son
in me.' Paul was set apart by God for the work of the ministry
from the very first. So, in the words before us, it is declared that
from the very first we are estranged from God. Now, this
estrangement is twofold.
1. Of the head. The whole mind is estranged from God. u At
that time ye were without God." The natural man is ignorant of
God from the very womb. God is a stranger to him, so that he
docs not know him. He has no true discovery of God's infinite
purity, of his immutable justice, and of the strictness of the law.
lie does not know the love of God, nor haw freely he has provided
a Saviour. He is mainly ignorant of God. Psalm x. 4, ' God is
not in all his thoughts." Either he does not turn his mind upon
God at all, or else he thinks him altogether such an one as himself.
" There is none that understandeth." Psalm xiv., 2.
2. Of the heart. A new born child will naturally feel after it*
mother's breast : it naturally seeks the breast. But it does not in
96 SERMON XVli
the same manner seek after God. " There is none that seeketh
after God." From the very first we dislike God. A child soon
comes to relish the presence of its earthly parents, and of other
children. It does not relish the presence of God. The natural
tendency of the heart is to go away from God, and to remain out
of his sight. A natural man does not like the presence of a very
en>inent saint. If he has full liberty, he will leave the room, and
seek other company more suited to his taste. This is the very
way he treats God. God is too holy for him ; he is too pure, and,
therefore, he does all he can to leave his company. This is the
reason you cannot get unconverted men to pray in secret. They
would rather spend half an hour in the tread- mill every morning
than go to meet God. This is the true condition of every one oi
you who is now unconverted ; indeed it was the condition of us
all, but some of you have been brought out of it. From the time
you were in the womb, till now, your whole head and heart have
been turned away from God. Gen. viii., 21, "The imagination
of man's heart is evil from his youth," &c. Job xiv., 4, " Who
can bring a clean thing out of an unclean, not one ?" Your whole
nature is totally depraved. You are accustomed to think that
you have some parts good ; that though some part was depraved,
yet some part sick, the whole heart is faint. Your whole history
remained sound ; but learn that the whole head is covered with
sin. You are accustomed to think that great part of your life has
been innocent. You admit that some pages of your life are stain-
ed with crimson and scarlet sins ; some pages you blush to look
back upon ; but surely you have some fair leaves also. Learn
that you are " estranged from the womb." Every moment you
have spent without God, and turning away from God ; every page
has got this written at the top of it, This day God was not in all
his thoughts, he did not like to retain God in his knowledge.
Genesis vi., 5, "Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually."
II. Actual sin ; " They go astray" fyc. There are two paths
from which every natural man goes astray as soon as born.
1. The way of God's commandments. This is the pure way of
light in which holy angels walk. They do his commandments,
hearkening to the voice of his word, Ps. ciii. It is a pure way,
having ten paths in which the feet of the upright love to go.
" Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of
the Lord." " Make me to go in the path of thy commandments ;
for therein do I delight." From this we go astray as soon as
born, speaking lies. One of these paths says, "'Thou shalt not
bear false witness against thy neighbor ;" but this is one of the very
first that is forsaken ; speaking lies ; Isaiah liii., 6, " We all like
sheep have gone astray, turning every one to his own way."
2. The way of pardon. Jesus saith unto him, " I am the way "
SERMON XVII. 97
and again, " Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth
unto life." The same, Isaiah xxxv., 9, " The redeemed shall walk
there." From this way also " they go astray as soon as born,
speaking lies." Life is given to sinners just that they may enter
upon this way, but they spend it in going further and further
away. The parable of the lost sheep shows the true state of
every unconverted soul wandering away from the good shepherd.
He is seeking to save the lost; you are wandering further nnd
further away. Romans iii., 12, " They are all gone out of the
way." " Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way
of peace have they not known." And oh ! what fearful meaning
does this give to the declaration " speaking lies !" for it is written,
1 John ii., 22, " Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the
Christ?" And again, "He that believeth not God, hath made
God a liar." No man can go away from Christ without speaking
lies.
Learn, the fearful condition of those of you who are natural men.
1st, From the day you were born you have gone astray from
the path of God's commandments. Every year, month, week,
day, hour, minute, has been filled up with sin. Every day has
seen you go further from holiness^ further from God. nearer to
hell. You are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath.
Oh ! what a treasure ; keeping up fuel to burn you through eter-
nity. If any of you live in drinking or swearing, or any one sin,
you are heaping up fuel for your eternal hell. You are getting
further on in your sin. You are wreathing your chains more and
more round you. By a law of human nature, every time you sin,
the habit becomes stronger, so that you are every day becoming
more completely like the devil. It is every day more hard to
turn. Experience shows that most people are converted when
young. Dear young people, every day you live in sin it will be
more impossible to turn. " They that seek me early shall find
me."
2</, From the day you were born you have gone astray from
Christ. The good shepherd has been seeking you. Every day
you remain unsaved, you are wandering -iway from him. Every
day you are getting nearer to hell and further from Christ. Un-
belief gets stronger every day.
III. The deadly enmity of natural men to God " Their poison."
&c. For two reasons :
1. Because they are the children of the old serpent, the devil.
All natural men arc the seed of the serpent. See Gen. iii , 15.
All who oppose and dislike the children of God, do so because
they are the seed of the serpent, and the poison of the old serpent
remains in them. John the Baptist calls the Pharisees a genera-
tion of vipers, Matt, iii., 7, " O generation of vipers." In a still
more dreadful manner did our blessed Lord, Matt, xxiii., 33, " Ye
7
98 SERMON XVII.
serpents, ye generation of vipers." The Pharisees and Sad
ducees were not of a diflbrent nature from us ; they had the same
flesh and blood, and the same wicked heart ; they were children
of their father, the devil, and the lusts of their father they would
do: "Their poison was like the poison of a serpent."
2. Because they have a mortal enmity to God. The poison of
the serpent is deadly poison. When it darts its envenomed sting
into a man it seeks to kill him. Such is the cruel venom of the
natural heart against God. He is a mortal enemy to God's holy
government. It has been said, " If the throne of God were within
your reach, and you knew, it would not be safe one hour." He
is a mortal enemy to the very being of God. Psalm xiv., 1, " The
fool has said in his heart there is no God." It is in his heart he
says this ; this is the -secret desire of every unconverted bosom.
If the breast of God were within the reach of men, it would be
stabbed a million of times in one moment. When God was mani-
fest in the flesh, he was altogether lovely ; he did no sin ; he went
about continually doing good : and yet they took him and hung
him on a tree ; they mocked him and spit upon him. And this is
the way men would do with God again.
Learn 1st, The fearful depravity of your heart. I venture to
say there is not an unconverted man present who has the most
distant idea of the monstrous wickedness that is now within his
breast. Stop till you are in hell, and it will break out unrestrained.
But still let me tell you what it is ; you have a heart that would
kill God if you could. If the bosom of God were now within your
reach, and one blow would rid the universe of God, you have a
heart fit to do the deed. 2d, The amazing love of Christ ; " While
we were enemies, Christ died for us."
IV. Deaf -to the voice of the Gospel. It is a well known fact
that many kinds of serpents can be tamed by the power of music.
This is referred to in Ecclesiastes x., 11, and Jeremiah viii., 17.
Many travellers in Egypt and India have seen tnis. But there is
said to be one kind of serpent which is either deaf, so that it can-
not hear the music, or it has the power of making itself deaf for
the time, so that it is not charmed. So it is w ; th unconverted
men.
Christ is the great charmer. His voice is like the sound of
many waters. Never man spake like this man. When Andrew
and Peter heard it, they left all and followed him ; so did James,
and John, and Matthew. When the bride hears him, she cries,
The voice of my beloved ! When the sheep hear his voice, they
follow him ; when the dead hear his voice, they live ; when the
heavy laden hear it, they find rest.
But unconverted men will not hear. They are like Manasseh
they will not hearken ; they are like the Jews when Stephen
preached, they stopped their ears and ran.
SERMON XVIII. 99
Ah, how many of you are doing this very thing, stopping your
ears ? How many of you stop your ears with the noise of the
world, its business and care; some with a favorite lust? The
voice of the great charmer has been often heard in this place, and
some have heard it and followed him ; and why are you left behind ?
Learn 1st, The folly of this. He is charming you to bless
you, to bring you to peace, pardon, holiness. " There is no other
name given among men whereby you can be saved." 2d, The
guilt of this. It is the highest sin of all, to refuse him that speak-
eth from heaven. Heb. xii., 25. It is put last here. It is un-
pardonable. All manner of sin and blasphemy may be forgiven
to you, but if you will not hear the voice of Christ you must
perish. Christ is knocking at your door and saying, " If any man
hear my voice I will come in." Oh, think of the guilt of letting
the Son of God stand at your door? Some would fain lay the
blame orT ihemselves, but God washes himself clear of the unbe-
liever's guilt. It is you that stop your ear; -ye do always resist
the Holv *host. You will one day find that he that believeth not
s\cJ' be !* uned.
SERMON XVIII.
" On ' iraim, what shall I do unto thee ? Judah, what shall I do unto thee ?
for yW goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away."
Hiaea vi., 4.
Doctrine. The impressions of natural men are fading
In these words, God complains that he did not know what to
do with Israel, their impressions were so fading. He says,
verse 5. that he had hewed them by the prophets, and slain them
by the words of his mouth : and their judgments were as the
light that goeth forth. At one time he sent them severe awakening
messages of coming wrath ; then messages of love and grace, as
bright and as many as the beams of the sun. They were a little
impressed by them ; the cloud of distress began to gather on
their brow, the dew of grief seemed to start to their cheek, but it
soon dried up. It was like the morning cloud and early dew that
goeth away. So it is with all the unconverted persons in this
congregation, who will finally perish. God has sent them awak-
ening messages, hewed them by the prophets, and slain them by
the words ot his mouth. He has sent them also sweet encourag-
ing messages ; his judgments have been like the light that goeth
forth. They think, and are impressed for a little, but it soon dies
away. " O Ephraim, what shall I do," &c.
100 SERMON XVIII.
I. The fact that the impressions of natural men fade away.
1. Prove the fact from Scripture. The Scriptures abound will.
examples of it." 1st, Lot's wife. She was a good deal awakened
The anxious faces of the two angelic men, their awful words,
and merciful hands, made a deep impression on her. The anxiety
of her husband, too, and his words to his sons-on-law, sunk into
her heart. She fled with anxious steps ; Lut as the morning
brightened, her anxious thoughts began to wear away. She
looked back, and became a pillar of salt. 2d, Isratl at the Red
Sea. When Israel had been led through the deep \i iter in
safety, and when they saw their enemies drowned, theu they sang
God's praise. Their hearts were much affected by this deliver-
ance. They sang, " The Lord is my strength and song, ho is also.
become my salvation." They sang his praise, but soon forgot his
works. In three days they were murmuring against God because
of the bitter waters. 3d, Once a young man came running to
Jesus, and he kneeled down, saying, " Good Master, what good
thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life ?" A flash cf con-
viction had passed over his conscience ; he was now kneeling at
the feet of Christ, but he never kneeled there any more ; he wen!,
away sorrowful. His goodness was like a morning cloud. 4th,
Once Paul preached before Felix, the Roman Governor ; and as
he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come,
Felix trembled. The preaching of the gospel made the proud
Roman tremble on nis throne, but did it save his soul ? Ah, no !
" Go thy way for this time, when I have a more convenient sea-
son I will send for thee." His goodness was like the morning
cloud. 5/A, Again, Paul preached before King Agrippa gnu his
beautiful Bernice, with all the captains and chief men of the City.
The word troubled Agrippa's heart, the tear started into hisr^yil
eye, for a moment he thought of leaving all for Christ. "Almost
thou persuadest me to be a Christian." But ah ! his goodness
was like a morning cloud arid early dew. In ail these the cloud
gathered over them, for a moment the dew glistened in their
eye, but soon it passed away, and left the hard rock) 7 heart
behind.
2. Prove the fact from experience. Most men under a preached
gospel have their times of awakening. If the impressions of
natural men were permanent, then most would be save'*., but we
know that this is not the case. Few there be that find it. Per-
haps 1 would not go far wrong if I were to say, that there may
not be ten grown up men in this congregation who have never
experienced any concern for their soul, and yet I fear there may
be hundreds who will finally perish.
\yt, How many have had a time of awakening in childhood,
when they were prayed over by a believing mother, or \\a. ^ed
by a believing father, or taught by a faithful Sab x iath-sd'r ~1
eacher ? How many have had deep impressions made at. the
SERMON XVIII. 10J
Sabbath-school ? But they have passed away like the morning
cloud and early dew.
2d, At their first communion, when they first spoke to a minis-
ter about their soul, and heard his piercing questions and faithful
warnings, when they got their token from his hand, when they first
received the bread and wine, and sat at the table of the Lord,
they trembled, the tear dimmed their eye, they went home to
pray. But soon it wore away. The world, pleasure, cares,
involved the mind, and all was gone like the cloud and the dew.
3d, A first sickness. How many, laid down on a bed of sick-
ness, are made to look over the verge of the grave ? They
tremble as they think how unprepared they are to die ; and now
they begin to vow and resolve, if the Lord spare me, I will avoid
evil companions, I will pray and read my Bible, &c. ; but no
sooner are they better than the resolutions are forgotten, like the
cloud and dew.
4th. First death in a family. What a deep impression this
makes on a feeling heart. That lovely circle is broken round the
fire, and never will be whole again. Now they begin to pray, to
turn to him that smites. Perhaps kneeling beside the cold body,
they vow no longer to go back to sin and lolly. Or, following the
body to the grave, while the big tear stands in the eye, they pro-
mise to bury all their sins and follies in the grave of their beloved
one. But soon a change comes over them, the tears dry up, and
the prayer is forgotten. The world takes its place again and
reigns. Their goodness is as the morning cloud.
5th, In a time of awakening, many receive deep impressions.
Some are alarmed to see others alarmed that are no worse than
they. Many have their feelings stirred, their affections moved.
Many are brought to desire conversion, to weep and to pray. Mr.
Edwards mentions that there was scarcely an individual in the
whole town unconcerned ; there were tokens of God's promise in
every house. So here ; and yet, when the time is past, how soon
they sink back into former indifference. Their goodness is as the
morning cloud.
Dear friends, ye are my witnesses. I do not know, bat I believe
I am not wrong in stating, that by far the greater number of you
have been under remorse at some time or another, and yet God
and your own consciences know how fading these impressions
have been. Just as the morning cloud passes off the moun-
tain's brow, and the dew is dried up from the rock, and leaves
it a rock still, so your impressions have passed away, and left
you a rocky heart still. So it is in those that perish. The way
to hell is paved with good intentions, and hell is peopled with
those who once wept and prayed for their souls. " O Ephraim,
what shall I do unto thee ?"
3. Let us show the steps of impressions fading away. When a
102 SERMON XVIII
natural man is under concern, he begins to make a very diligen*
asc of the means of grace.
1st, Prayer. When a man is under the fear of hell, he begins
to pray, and often he has very melting and sweet affections in
pravcr. As long as his impressions last, he may be very con-
stant in his duty. But will he always call upon God ? When his
concern ceascsj his praying in secret gradually ceases also. Not
all at once, but by degrees he gives up secret prayer. Once he
has been out in company, another time kept long at business, ano-
ther time he is sleeping, and so by degrees he gives it up altoge-
ther. " O Ephraim," tec.
2d, 'Hearing the word. When a man is first awakened, he
comes well out to the preaching of the word. He knows that
Ci.id blesses especially the preaching of the word that it pleases
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that beli-evc.
He is an arrested hearer ; he drinks in the words of the minis-
ter ; he is lively in his attendance on the word ; if there be
preaching in the week evening, he puts by his work in order to be
there. But, when his concern wears away, he begins to weary
first of the week-day service, then of the Sabbath, then perhaps
he seeks a more careless ministry, where he may slumber on
till death and judgment. Ah, this has been the course of thou-
sands in this place. ' O Ephraim," &c.
3d, Asking counsel of ministers. When souls are under
remorse, they often ask counsel of the under shepherds of Christ.
" Going and weeping, they come to seek the Lord their God ; they
ask the way to Zion." They go to the watchman, saying. Saw
ye him whom my soul loveth '{ This is one of the duties of the
faithful pastor, for " the priest's lips should keep knowledge ; and
they should seek the law at his mouth ; for he is the messen-
ger of the Lord of Hosts." But when concern dies away, this
dies away. Many come once that never come again. " O
Ephraim," &c.
4th, Avoiding sin. When a man is under convictions, he always
avoids open sin, flees from it with all his might. He reforms his
life ; his soul is swept and garnished. But when his concern dies
away, his lusts revive, and he goes back like a dog to his vomit,
and like the sow that was washed to its wallowing in the mire.
If there was anything saving in the impressions of natural men,
they would turn holier : but, on the contrary, they turn worse
and worse. Seven devils enter into that man, and the lattei
er*l is worse than the beginning. " O Ephraim," &c.
II. Peasons why the impressions of natural men die away.
1. They never are brought to feel truly lost. The wounds of
natural men are generally skin deep. Sometimes it is just a flash
of terror that has alarmed them. Often ;t is the sense of some
one great sin they have committed. Sometimes it is only sympa
SERMON XVIII.
thy with others fleeing because others flee. They are often
brought to say, I am a great sinner ; I fear 'there is no mercy for
me. Still they are not brought to feel undone, their mouth is not
stopped, they do not cover the lip like the leper. They think a
little prayer, sorrow, repentance, amendment, will do. If they
:/uuld only change their way. They are not brought to see that
all they do just signifies nothing toward justifying them. If they
were brought to feel their utterly lost state, and their need of
another's righteousness, they never could rest in the world again.
2. They never saw the beauty of Christ. A flash of terror may
bring a man to his knees, but will not bring him to Christ. Ah"!
no ; love must draw. A natural man. under concern, sees no
beauty nor desirableness in Christ. He is not brought to look to
him whom he pierced, and to mourn. When once a man gets a
sight of the supreme excellence and sweetness of Christ ; when
he sees his fulness for pardon, peace, holiness, he will never draw
back. He may be in distress and in darkness, but he will rise and
go about the city to seek him whom his soul loveth. The heart
that has once seen Christ is smit with the love of him, and never
can rest nor take up with others short of him.
3. He never had heart-haired of sin. The impressions of na-
tural men are generally of terror. They feel the danger of sin,
not the filthiness of it. They feel that God is just and true, that
the law must be avenged, that the wrath of God will come. They
ee that there is hell in their sins ; but they do not feel their sins
to be a hell. They love sin ; they have no change of nature.
The Spirit of God does not dwell in them ; and therefore the im-
pression wears easily away, like as on sand. Those that are
brought to Christ are brought to see the turpitude of sin. Tb,ey
cry not, Behold I am undone, but, behold I am vile. As long as
sin is in their breast, they are kept fleeing to the cross of Christ.
t. They have no promises to keep their impressions. Those
who are in Christ have sweet promises. " I will put my fear ir
their hearts." Jer. xxxii., 40. "Eeing confident that he whicft
hath begun a good work in you will perform it." Phil, i., 6. But
natural men have no interest in these promises ; and so, in the time
of temptation, their anxieties easily wear away.
III. Sadness of their case.
1. God mourns over their case. "OEphraim." It must be a
truly sad case that God mourns over. When Christ wept over
Jerusalem, it showed it was in a desperate case, because that eye
that wept saw plainly what was coming ; and accordingly, in a
few years, that lovely city was a ruined heap, and multitudes of
those then living were in hell, and their children vagabonds.
When Christ looked round on the Pharisees with anger, being
grieved at the hardness of their hearts, it showed a desperate
2ase ; he would not grieve for nothing. So here you may be sure
104 SERMON XVIII.
the case of natural men who lose their impressions is very despo-
tic, from these words of God, "O Ephraim."
j. (/,)(/ ha* no /aw method of awakening. God speaks as even
ai :i loss what to do, to show "you that there remaineth no more
sacrifice for sins. You have heard all the awakening truths in
tho Bible, and all the winning, comforting truths. You have been
at Sinai, and at Gethsemane, and at Calvary: what more can I
do unto thee ? These have been pressed home upon you by Di-
vine providences, in affliction, by the bed of death, and in a time of
\\ idt> awakening. You have passed through a season when it was
ti ! f. Id more likely that you would be truly converted than at any
other time. You are sunk back. Ah ! the harvest is past, the
summer is ended, and you are not saved. God has no more
arrows in his quiver, no new arguments, no other hell, no other
Christ.
3. No good by your past impressions. When the cloud is dried
up oft' the mountain's brow, and the dew offthe rock, the mountain
is as great as before, and the rock as hard ; but when convictions
fade away from the heart of a natural man, they leave the mountain
of his sins much greater, and his rocky heart much harder. It is
less likely that that man will ever be saved. Just as iron is hard-
ened by being melted and cooled again ; just as a person recover-
ing from fever relapses, and is worse than before.
1st, You are now older, and every day less likely to be saved ;
your heart gets used to its old ways of thinking and feeling ; the
old knee cannot easily learn to bend.
2d, You have offended the Spirit ; you have missed your op-
pcrtunity; you have vexed the Holy Spirit; convictions are not
in your own power ; the Spirit hath mercy on whom he will have
mercy.
3<f, You have got into the way of putting aside convictions.
The eyelid naturally closes when any object is coming against it,
so does the heart of a practised worldling close and shut out con-
victions.
4/A, When you come to hell, you will wish you never had had
convictions, they will make your punishment so much the greater.
I would now entreat all who have any impressions, not to let
them slip. It is a great mercy to live under a gospel ministry ;
still greater to live in a time of revival ; still greater to have God
pouring the Spirit into your heart, awakening your soul. Do not
Mfgl'-ct it, do not turn back, remember Lot's wife. Escape for
thy life ; look not behind thee ; tarry not in all the plain. Escape
to th> mountain lest thou be consumed.
SERMON XIX. 104
SERMON XIX.
1 Sne hath dorw what she could ; she is come aforehand to anoint my body to tlie
ourying." Mark xiv., 8.
Doctrine. Do what you can.
From the gospel of John (xi., 2) we learn that this woman was
Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha. We have already learned
that she was an eminent believer": "She sat at the feet of Christ
and heard his word." Jesus himself said of her, " Mary hath
chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her."
Now, it is interesting to see this same Mary eminent in another
way, not only as a contemplative believer but as an active believer.
Many seem to think, that to be a believer is to have certain feel-
ings and experiences ; forgetting all the time that these are but
the flowers, and that the fruit must follow. The engrafting of the
branch is good, the inflowing of the sap good, but the fruit is the
end in view. So faith is good, and peace and joy are good, but
holy fruit is the end for which we are saved.
I trust many of you, last Sabbath, were like Mary, sitting at
the Redeemer's feet, and hearing his word. Now I would per-
suade you to be like Mary, in doing what you can for Christ. If
you have been bought with a price, then glorify God in your
body and spirit, which are his. I beseech you by the mercies of
God
I. These are things which we can do.
1. We could love Christ, pray and praise more. What this
woman did, she did to Christ. Jesus had saved, her soul, had
saved her brother and sister, and she felt that she could not do
too much for him. She brought an alabaster b- x of ointment
very costly, and brake the box and poured it on his head. No
doubt she loved his disciples, holy John and frank Peter, yet
still she loved Christ more. No doubt she loved Christ's poor,
and was often kind to them, yet she loved Jesus more. On his
blessed head, that was so soon to be crowned with thorns ; on
his blessed feet, that were so soon to be pierced with nails, she
poured the precious ointment. This is what we should do. If
we have been saved by Christ, we should pour out our best affec-
tions on him. It is well to love his disciples, well to love his
ministers, well to love his poor, but it is best to love himself. We
cannot now reach his blessed head, nor anoint his holy feet, but
we can f ;il down at his footstool and pour out our affections towards
him. It was not the ointment Jesus cared for: what does the
King of Glory care for a little ointment? but it is the loving heart
poured out upon his feet ; it is the adoration, praise, love, and
106 SERMON XIX
prayers of a believer's broken heart, that Christ cares for. The
new lu-art is the alabaster box that Jesus loves.
Oh, brethren, could you not do more in this way ? could you
not give more time to pouring out your heart to Jesus breaking
die box and filling the room with the odor of your praise ? Could
vou not pray more than you do to be filled with the Spirit, that
the Spirit may be poured down on ministers, and God's people,
and on an unconverted world ? Jesus loves tears and groans
from a broken heart.
J. We could live holier lives. The Church is thus described in
the song of Solomon, " Who is this that cometh out of the wilder-
ness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
with all powers of the merchant ?" The holiness of the believer
is like the most precious perfume. When a holy believer goes
through the world, filled with the Spirit, made more than con-
queror, the fragrance fills the room, i; 'tis as if an angel shook his
wings." If the world were full of believers it would be like a bed
of spices ; but, oh ! how few believers carry much of the odor of
heaven along with them. How many you might be the means of
saving, if you lived a holy, consistent life if you were evidently
a sacnfice bound upon God's altar. Wives might thus, without
the word, win their husbands, when they see your chaste conver-
sation coupled with fear ; parents might in this way save their
children, when they saw you holy and happy ; children have often
thus saved their parents. Servants, adorn the doctrine of God
your Saviour in all things ; let your light shine before men. The
poorest can do this as well as the richest, the youngest as well as
the oldest. Oh, there is no argument like a holy life.
3. You could seek the salvation of others. If you have really
been brought to Christ and saved, then you know there is a hell,
you know that all the unconverted around you are hastening to it ;
you know there is a Saviour, and that he is stretching out his
hands nil the iay long to sinners. Could you do no more to save
sinners than you do ? Do you do all you can ? You say you
pray for them; but is it not hypocrisy to pray and do nothing?
W ill God hear these prayers ? Have you no fears that prayers
without labors are only provoking God ? You say you cannot
speak, you are not learned. Will that excuse stand in the judg-
ment? Docs it require much learning to tell fellow-sinners that
they are perishing '>. If their house was on fire, would it require
much learning to wake ..he sleepers ?
Begin at home. Could you not do more for ihe salvation of
those at home ? If there are children or servants, have you done
all you can for them ? Have you done all you can ic bring the
truth before them, to bring them under a living ministry, to get
thsm to pray and give up sin ?
Do you do what you can for your neighbors ? Can you pass
your neighbors for years together, and see them on the broad
SERMON XIX. 107
way, without warning them ? Do you make a full use of tracts,
giving suitable ones to those that need them ? Do you persuade
Sabbath-breakers to go to the house of God ? Do you do any-
thing in Sabbath Schools ? Couid you not tell little children the
way to be saved ? Do you do what you can for the world? The
field is the world.
4. Feed Christ s poor. I am far from thinking that the wicked
poor should be passed over, but Christ's poor are our brothers and
sisters. Do you do what you can for them ? In the great day,
Christ will say to those on his right hand, "Come, ye blessed, for
I was an hungered and ye gave me meat." They stand in the
place of Christ. Christ does not any more stand in need of Mary's
ointment, or Martha's hospitality,or the Samaritan's drink of water.
Ke is beyond the reach of these things, and will never need them
more ; but he has left many of his brothers and sisters behind in
this world, some diseased, some lame, some like Lazarus, all
covered with sores ; and he says, What ye do to them ye do to
me. Do you live plainly, in order to have more to give away ?
Do you put away vain and gaudy clothes, that you may be able
to clothe the naked ? Are you thrifty in managing what you have,
letting nothing be lost ?
II. Reasons why we should do what we can.
1. Christ has done what he could for us. Isaiah v., 4, " What
could have been done more to my vineyard, that 1 have not done
in it ?" He thought nothing too much to do and to suffer for us.
While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Greater love than
this hath no man. All his life, between the manger at Bethlehem
and the cross of Calvary, was spent in labors and infinite suffer-
ings for us. All that we needed to suffer, he suffered ; all that we
needed to obey, he obeyed. All his life in glory he spends for us.
He ever liveth to make intercession for us. He is head over all
things for us makes everything in all worlds work together for
our good. It is all but incredible that each person of the Godhead
has made himself over to us to be ours. The Father says, " I am
thy God ;" the Son, " Fear not, for I have redeemed thee ;" the
H"|y Ghost makes us a temple, " 1 will dwell in them and walk
in them." Is it much that we should do all we can for him that
we should g've ourselves up to iiim who gave himself for us?
2. Satan does all he can. Sometimes he comes as a lion. Your
adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom
he may devour ; sometimes as a serpent, " as the serpent beguiled
Eve ;" sometimes as an angel of light. He docs all he can to
tempt and beguile the saints, leading them away by false teachers,
injecting blasphemies and polluted thoughts into thj.i minds, cast-
ing liery darts at their souls, stirring up the world to hate and per-
secutf* them, stirring up father and mother against the children,
and brother against brother He does all he can to lead captive
108 SERMON XI*.
wicked men, blinding their minds, not allowing them to listen to the
gospel, steeping them in swinish lusts, leading them into despair.
When he knows his time is short, he rages all the more. O should
not we do all we can, if Satan does all he can ?
3. We haw done all we could the other way. This was one of
Paul's great motives for doing all he could " I thank Christ Jesus
our Lord for putting me into the ministry, for 1 was a blasphemer,
and persecutor, and injurious." He never could forget how he
had persecuted the Church of God, and wasted it ; and this made
him as diligent in building it up, and hailing men and women to
Christ He preached the faith which once he destroyed. So with
Peter, " Let us live the rest of our time in the flesh, not to the lusts
of men, but to the will of God ; for the time past of our lives may
suffice to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked
in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and
abominable idolatries." So with John Newton, " How can the old
African blasphemer be silent ?" So with many of you ; you ran
greedily after sin ; you were at great pains and cost, and did not
spare health, or money, or time, to obtain some sinful gratification-
How can you now grudge anything for Christ ? Only serve
Christ as zealously as you once served the devil.
4. Christ will own and reward what we do. The labor that
Chriet blesseth is believing labor. It is not words of human wis-
dom, but words of faith, that God makes arrows. The word of a
little rnaid was blessed in the house of Naaman the Syrian. " Fol-
low me," was made the arrow to pierce the heart of Matthew. It
is all one to God to save, whether with many, or with them that
have no might. If you would do all you can, the town would be
filled with the fragrance. Christ will reward it. He defended
Mary's work of love, and said it should be spoken of, over all the
world, and it will yet be told in the judgment. A cup of cold
water he will not pass over. " Well done, good and faithful ser-
vant."
5. 'If you do not do all you can, how can you prove yourself a
Christian ? " Pure religion, and undefiled before God the Father,
is this. To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and
to keep himself unspotted from the world." You are greatly mis-
taken if you think that to be a Christian is merely to have certain
views, and convictions, and spiritual delights. This is all well ;
but if it leads not to a devoted life, I fear it is all a delusion. If
any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
III. Let us answer objections.
1. The world will mode at us. Ans. This is true. They mocked
at Mary, they called it waste and extravagance ; and yet, Christ
said it was well done. So if you do what you can the "world will
laugh at you. but you will have the smile of Christ. They mocked
at Christ when he was full of zeal ; they said he was mad, and
SERMON XX. 109
hr.d a devil. They mocked at Paul, and said he was mad ; and
so with all Christ's living members. " Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are
partakers of the sufferings of Christ." " If ye suffer with him ye
shall also reign with him."
2. What can I do, I am a woman. Mary was a woman, yet
she did what she could. Mary Magdalene was a woman, and yet
she was first at the sepulchre. Phebe was a woman/ yet a suc-
corer of many, and of Paul also. Dorcas was a woman, yet she
made coats and garments for the poor at Joppa. I am a child
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings God perfects praise.
God has often used children in the conversion of their parents.
3. / have too little grace to be good. " He that watereth others,
shall be watered himself." " The liberal soul shall be made
fat." " It pleased the Father that in Christ should all fulness dwell."
There is a full supply of the Spirit to teach you to pray, a full
supply of grace to slay your sins and quicken your graces. If
you use opportunities of speaking to others, God will give you
plenty. If you give much to God's poor, you shall never want a
rich supply. " God is able to make all grace abound toward you ;
that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to
every good work." " Bring all the tithes unto my storehouse,
and prove r-^ now herewith." "Honor the Lord with thy sub-
stance, ar d v. til the first fruits of all thine increase ; so shall thy
barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with
new wine."
April ^6, 1842.
SERMON XX.
It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul lo.ve'h ;
I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my motLcr's
house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me." Song iii., 4.
HAVE you found him whom your soul loveth ? Have you this day
seen his beauty, heard his voice, believed the record concerning
him. sat under his shadow, found fellowship with him ? then hold
him, and do not let him go.
I. Motives.
1 . Because peace is to be found in him. Justified by faith we
have peace with God, not peace with ourselves, not peace with
th<; world, with sin, with Satan, but peace with God. True Divine
peace is to be found only in believing, only in keeping fast hold of
Christ. If you let him go, you let go your righteousness ; for this
is his name. You are then without righteousness, without a cover-
HO SERMON XX.
ing from the wrath of God, without a way to the Father. The
law will again condemn you; God's frown will again overshadow
you; you will again have terrors of conscience. Hold him then,
:m.l \\Q not let him go. Whatever you let go, let not Christ go -
for he is our peace, not in knowledge, not in feeling, but trust :n
Jliiii alone.
J. Holintss /lows from Him. No true holiness m this world,
but it pprir.^s from him. A living Christ is the spring of holiness
to all his members. As long as we hold him, and do not let him
go, cur holiness is secure. Ho is engaged to keep us from falling.
He loves us too we'l to let us fall under the reigning power of sin.
His word is engaged,"! will put my spirit within you." His
honor would be tarnished if any that cleave to him were suffered
to live in sin. If you let him go, you will fall into sin. You have
no strength, no store of grace, no power to resist a thousand ene-
mies no promises. If Christ be for you, who can be against
you ; but if you let go his arms, where are you ?
3. Hope of glcry is in Him, We rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. If you have found Jesus this day, you have found a way
into glory. A few steps more, you can say, and I shall be for
ever with the Lord. I shall be free from pain and sorrow ; free
from sin and weakness ; free from enemies. As long as you
hold Christ, you can see your way to the judgment seat. " Thou
wilt guide me with thy counsel, and receive me to* thy glory."
This gives such joy, such transporting desires after the heavenly
world. But let Christ go, and this will be gone. Let Christ go,
and how can you die? The grave is covered with clouds of
threatening. Let Him go, and how can you go to the judgment
where can you* appear ?
IT. Meant.
1. Christ promises to keep you holding Him. If you are really
holding Christ this day. you are in a most blessed condition, for
Christ engages to keap you cleaving to him. " My soul followeth
hard after thee, and thy right hand upholdeth me." He that is the
Creator of thi world is the upholder of it, so he that new creates
the scu'. heeps it in being. This is never to be forgotten. Not
only d.:es the Church lean on her beloved, but he puts his left
hand under her head, and his right hand doth embrace her. " I
taught Ephraim how to go, taking them by their arms." It is
good for a child to hold last by its mother's neck, but ah ! that
would be a feeble support, if the maternal arm did not enfold the
child, and clasp it to her bosom. Faith is good, but ah ! it is no-
thing without the grace that gave it. " I will put my fear in your
heart"
2. Faith in Christ. The only way to hold fast is to believe
more and more. Get a larger acquaintance with Christ : witn his
person, work, and character. Every page of the Gospel unfolds
SERMON XXI.
a iv w feature in his character ; every line of the Epistles discloses
new depths of his work. Get more faith, and you will get a firmer
hold. A plant tbat has got a single root may be easily torn up by the
hand, or crushed by the foot of the wild beast, or blown down by
the wind; but a plant that has a thousand roots struck down into
the ground can stand. Faith is like the root ; many believe a little
concerning Christ ; one fact. Every new truth concerning Jesus
is a new root struck downwards. Believe more intensely. A
root may be in a right direction, but, not striking deep, it is easily
torn up. Pray for deep-rooted faith. Pray to be stablished,
strengthened, settled. Take a long intense look at Jesus ; often,
often. If you wanted to know a man again, and he was going away,
you would take an intense look at his face. Look then at Jesus ;
deeply, intensely, till every feature is graven on your heart.
Thomas Scott overcame the fear of death by looking intensely at
his dead child, who had died in the Lord.
3. Prayer. Jacob at Bethel. Isaiah xxvii., 5, " Take hold of
my strength." You must begin to pray after another fashion than
you have done. Let it be real intercourse with God, like Heze-
kiah, Jacob, Moses, &c.
4. By no 4 , offending Him. 1st, By sloth. When the soul turns
sleepy or careless, Christ goes away. Nothing is more offensive
to Christ than sloth. Love is an ever-active thing, and when it is
in the heart it will keep us waking. Many a night his love to us
kept him waking. Now, can you not watch with him one hour?
Song v., 2. 2d, By idols. You cannot hold two objects. If you
are holding Christ to-day, and lay hold of another object to-morrow
he cannot stay. He is a jealous God. You cannot keep worldly
companions and Christ too. " A companion of fools shall be de-
stroyed." When the ark came into the house of Dagon, it made
the idol fall flat. 3d, By being unwilling to be sanctified. When
Christ chooses us, and draws us to himself, it is that he may sanc-
tify us. Christ is often grieved away, by our desiring to reserve
one sin. 4th, By an unholy house. " I brought him into my
mother's house." Remember to take Christ home with you, and
let him rule in your house. If you walk with Christ abroad but
never take him home, you will soon part company for ever.
SERMON XXL
" To whom God would make known what t the riches of the glory of this mystery
among the Gentiles ; which is Christ in you the hope of glory." Colossians i., 27.
THE gospel is here described as " Christ in you the hope of glory."
There are two distinct senses in which these words may be taken,
112 SERMON XXI.
and I cannot positively determine which is the true one. It M
possible that both may be intended. I shall open up both.
I. Christ in you, means Christ embraced by faith as our right-
eousness ami strength ; and this is the sure ground upon which we
hope for ^lory. In this sense it appears to be used, Ephes. Hi., 17,
" That Christ' may dwell in your hearts by faith." When a sin-
nrr's hnari is opened by the Holy Spirit, when the beauty arid
excellence of the Saviour is shown to him, the heart inwardly
embraces and cleaves to Christ. Every new discovery of Chris't
to the soul renews this act of inward cleaving to the Lord Jesus.
Every reu/oach, every temptation, every fall into sin, every be
reavemeat, ni'ikes the soul more really, firmly, and fully embrace
.he Lord Jesu? : -and so, by continual faith, Christ may be said to
dwcil in the heart ; as in Ephes. iii., 17, " That Christ may d y;ell in
your heart by faith." Chiist thus embraced is the hope of giory.
It is this constant abiding faith ; this close embracing of Christ as
all our righteousness ; it is this which gives a calm, sweet, full,
peaceful hope of glory. The soul that can say, Christ is mine,
can also sav, i^iory is mine; for we need nothing but Chnst to
shelter us in the judgment-day. Can you say that Christ is thus
in you the hope of glory 1 If you have not got Christ, you have
no good hope ff glory.
II. Christ formed in the soul by the Spirit. See Gal. iv., 19.
Christ formed in the soul is also the hope of glory ; and this I
take to be the full u.eauing of this verse. So, John xv., 4. " Abide
in me and I in you ;" John xvii., 23, " I in them and thou in me ;"
v., 26, " And I in them."
1. The mind of Cnrist is formed in the soul; 1 Cor. ii., 16,
" We have the mind of Christ." By the mind I understand the
thinking powers of man. Now, every believer has the mind of
Christ formed in him. He thinks as Christ does, " This is the
spirit of a sound mind," 2 Tim. i., 7. This is being of the same
mind in the Lord. I do not mean that a believer has the same
all-seeing mind, the same infallible judgment concerning every-
thing as Christ has ; but up to his light he sees things as Christ
does.
He sees sin as Christ does. Christ sees sin to be evil and bitter.
He sees it to be filthy and abominable ; its pleasures all a delusion.
He sees it to be awfully dangerous. He sees the inseparable con-
nexion between sin and suffering. So does a believer.
He sees the Gospel as Christ does. Christ sees amazing glory
in the Gospel. The way of salvation which he himself has wrought
out. It appears a most complete salvation to him, rfost free, most
glorifying to God and happy for man. So does the L.-i'ever.
He sees the world as Christ does. Christ knows what is h
man. He looked on this world as vanity, compared with the
SERMON XXI. 113
imi/e of his Father. Its riches, its honors, its pleasures, appeared
not worth a sigh. He saw it passing away. So does the believer.
He S30i: Lime as Christ did. " I must work the work of him that
sent me while it is day ; the night cometh," " I come quickly." So
does a believer look at time.
He sees eternity as Christ docs. Christ looked at everything in
the light of eternity. " In my Father's house are many manrioi.s."
Everything is valuable in Christ's eyes, only as it bears on eternity.
So with believers.
2. The heart of Christ. By the heart I mean the affections, that
part of us that loves or hates, hopes and fears. We have Christ's
heart formed in us, " I will put my spirit within you," " I in you,"
" My words abide in you."
1st. The same love to God. -What intense delight Jesu* had in
his father ' "Righteous Father, the world hath not known thec,
but I have known thee," " 1 am not alone, for the Father is with
me,"." I thank thce, O Father," " Abba Father." " Father, into thy
hand I commend my spirit." So with every believer.
2d, The same aversion to God's frown. Psalm x~ii., !, " Why
hast thou forsaken me?'' verse 15. "Thou hast brought me into
the dust of death ;'' Psalm Ixxxviii., 7, " Thy wrath lieth hard upon
me ;" Psalm cii., 10, ' Thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down."
So with the children of Go I. Psahn xlii. 9, "I will say irtoGod
my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me ?"
3d. The same love to saints. Psalm xvi., 3, " To the saints
that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my
Jolight ;" John xiii., 1, " Having loved his own which were in the
world, he loved them to the end;" John xv., 13, " Greater love
hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends ;"
John xiv., 3, " I will come again, and receive you to myseif ;"
Acts ix., 4, " Saul, Saul, why persecutes! thou me ?" So it L*
with all true believers. Every one that loveth is born of God.
4th, Compassion to sinners. This was the main feature of
Christ's character. This brought him from heaven to 'lie. This
made him weep over Jerusalem, long to gather her children. This
makes him delay his coming, not willing that any should pevish.
2 Peter iii., 9. All Christ's own are like him in this. The ijime
heart throbs within them.
5th, Tenderness to the awakened. "He will not break the
bruised reed." O the tenderness of the lips that said. " Come
unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden." Such are all
Christians.
3. The life of Chnst They live the same life in the main that
Christ did in the world. Though they have many falls, wax cold,
&c , still the main current of their life is Christ living in them
Gal. ii., 20, " Christ liveth in me ;" 2 Cor. vi., 16, " I will dwell in
them, and walk in them."
Bearing reproaches. 1 Peter ii., 23, " When he was reviled,
8
(14 SKRMON XXI.
he reviled not again ; when he suffered, he threatened not.
Christ irlt reproach keenly, " Reproach hath broken mine heart.
Still he reviled no man, but prayed for them. So believers.
In doing good. "He went about doing good." He made th.s
his meat and drink. So will nil who have Chris! formed ia
them. They do good, and to communicate forget not. The)
a p.- the almoners of the world. " They parted to all men,'
Acts ii., 45.
In being separate from sinners. Christ walked through the
midst of sinners undcfilcd. Like a beam of light piercing into a
foul dungeon, >r like a river purifying and fertilizing, itself untaint-
ed, so did Chnst pass through this world ; and so do all his ovvnr
Ps. ci., 4, "1 will nrt know a wicked person."
J>ut how is it thai Christ forme, in us is the hope of glory ?
1st, Not legally. Christ in the seal is not our title to glory. We
must have a complete righteousness to be our title ; but Christ in
the soul is not complete. Most are sar.ly der-.eient in many ^f the
main features of Christ. It is Christ for u.*. .'^id hold on by faith,
that is our title to glory. Christ our wedding garment the Lord
our righteousness ; this, and this alone, can give us boldness in the
day of judgment. 2d, Still really it is so. (1.) It is evidence
that we have believed on Christ. A man may know that he has
believed on Christ without any evidences. " He that believes has
the witness in himself." But if a man has believed, the effects will
soon be seen. Christ will be formed in him, and then he will have
double evidence that Christ is his. " He thai lacketh these things
is blind," 2 Pet. i., 9. (2.) It is meetness for glory. A holy be-
liever feels heaven begun. " The kingdom of God is within you."
He can say, Now 1 know I shall soon be in heaven, for it is
already begun in me. Christ lives in me. I shall soon be for ever
with the Lord.
IMPROVEMENT. 1. Have you got the legal title to glory ?
Christ dwelling in you by faith. You have heard how those who
are enlightened by God embrace Christ, and put him on abidingly
fc r righteousness. Have you done so ? Have you put on Christ ?
This is the only legal title to glory. If you have not this, your
hope is a dream.
2. Havs ynu got the meetness for glory ?- -Christ formed in you.
Does Chr.st live in you, and wal'. in you I " Without holiness no
man shd! see the Lord."
Dundte, 1843.
He writes at the close % Us n tes a;t;>r senr.on--" Very sweet and s ileran night *
SERMON XXII.
SERMON XXII.
A CASTAWAY.
I therefore so run, not as uncertainly ; so fight I, not as one that beateth the lir
Hut I keep un>\er my body, and bring it into subjection ; lest that by any iiieans
when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." 1 Cor. In
26, 27.
OBSERVE, 1. How earnestly Paul sought the kingdom of heaven.
Verse 26, " I therefore so run, not as uncertainly ; so fight I,
not as one that beateth the air." It was long after his conversion
that Paul writes in this manner. He could say, " To me to iive
is Christ, and to die is gain." He felt it better to depart and be
with Christ. He knew there was a crown laid up for him ; and
yet see how earnest he was to advance in the divine life. He
was like one at the Grecian games running for a prize. This is
tl:e way all converted persons should seek salvation. " So run
that ye may obtain." It is common for many to sit down aitei
conversion, and say, I am safe, I do not need to strive any more.
But Paul pressed toward the mark.
2. One particular in which he was very earnest. " I keep under
my body, and bring it into subjection." He had observed in the
Grecian games, that those who were to run.and fight, were very
attentive to this, verse 25, " And every man that striveth for the
mastery is temperate in all things." This was one thing that
Paul strove for, to be temperate in all things, especially in eating
and drinking, " I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection."
S. His reason for all this earnestness. " Lest when I have
preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." Not that
Paal had not an assurance of his salvation ; but he felt deeply that
his high office in the Church would not save him, although he was
one of the Apostles the Apostle of the Gentiles one that had
labored more than all the rest ; though many had been converted
under his ministry, he knew that still that would not keep him from
being a castaway. Judas had preached toothers and yet was cast
away. Paul felt also that if he lived a wicked life he would surely
be cast away. He knew there was an indissoluble connexion
between living in sin and being cast away : and. therefore, it was
a constant motive to him to holy diligence. What he feared was
being " a castaway." The word is frequently translated " re-
probate." It is taken from the trying of metals ; the dross, or part
that is thrown away, is said to be reprobate or cast away.
What is it to be cast away ?
I. Wicked men shall be cast away from God. Mat. xxv., 41,
" Depart from me, ye cursed ;" 2 Thess. i., 9, ' Who shall be
punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the
I. <'<!, and from the glory of iiis power."
lift SERMON XXII.
1. Away from Christ. At present ungodly men are often near
to Christ. Christ stands at their door and knocks. He stretches
out his hands to them all the day long. He speaks to them in the
Bible and the preached gospel. He says, Come unto me, and 1
will give you rest. Him that cometh unto me I will in nowise
cast out. But when Christ pronounces that sentence, "Depart
from me, ye cursed," there will nut be one knock more, not one
invitation more, not one sweet offer more. Christ is the only way
to the Father ; but -it shall then be closed for ever. Christ is the
only door ; but it shall then be shut for ever more. It is the
blessedness of the redeemed that they shall be with Christ. " To-
day shall thou be with me." Having a desire to be absent froni
the bodv and present with the Lord. So shall they be ever with
the Lord. His servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face.
Jt is this that maintains the eternal calm in the bosom of the re-
deemed. But the ungodly shall be cast away from all this
"Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into utter darkness."
2. Away from God. True, the wicked can never be cast away
from the presence of God. Ps. cxxxix., 8, " If I make my beci
in hell, behold thou art there." Job says, " Hell is naked before
him, and destruction hath no covering." (xxvi., 6.) His almighty
power creates it; His breath kindles it. Isaiah xxx., 33, " The
breath o'f the Lord, Jike a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it/'
But they shall be banished.
1st, From the fruition of God. God said to Abraham, " I am
thy shield and thine exceeding great reward." God makes him-
self over to the believing soul, saying, I will be thy God. David
says, God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever
Who can tell the joy of those who enjoy God, who have God
the infinite God, as their portion 1 From this the Christless shall
be cast away. You will have no portion in God. God will not
be your God. His attributes will be all against you.
2d, From the favor of God. "In thy favor is life." The favor
of God is what believers feel on earth. A beam of God's coun-
tenance is enough to fill the heart of a believer to overflowing.
It is enough to light up the pale cheek of a dying saint with
seraphic brightness, and make the heart of the lune widow sing
for joy. From all this the Christless shall be casl away for ever;
and instead of it Jehovah's frown shall light on them for ever
" It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
3d, Cast away from the blessing of God. God is the fountain
of all blessing. No creature is good or pleasant any more than
God makes it to be so. The sun warms us, our food nourishes
us, our friends are pleasant to us ; because God makes them so.
All the joys in the world are but beams from that uncreated light ;
but separate a man frcm God, and all becomes dark. God is the
fountain of all joy ; separate a mar. from God finally, and no
creature can give him joy. Thic is to be cast away, cut off, from
SERMON XXII. H "J
God for ever. Though there were no lake of fire, this of itself
would be hell.
II. Wicked men shall be cast away by the Holy Spirit. It is not
often thought of, but it is true, that the Holy Spirit is now dealing
and striving with natural men. All the decency and morality of
unconverted men is to be attributed to ihe restraining gr^c? of the
Holy Spirit.
1. The Holy Spirit works on natural men through tkt ordinan-
ces. The ordinance of family worship is often greatly blessei to
restrain wicked children, so that they are kept from vicious
courses and outbreaking sins. The ordinance of the read and
preached Word is also greatly blessed in this way to restrain
wicked men. The awful threatenings of the Word, the sweet
invitations and promises of the gospel, have this effect on uncon-
verted men, that they are greatly restrained from going to extreme
lengths in wickedness.
2. The Holy Spirit also works through providences in restrain-
ing wicked men. He places them in such circumstances that they
cannot sin as they would otherwise do. He often reduces them to
poverty, so that they cannot run into the vices they were inclined
unto ; or he lays sickness on their body, so that their keen relish
for sin is greatly blunted ; or he terrifies them by bereavements,
so that they are kept in the bondage of fear, and dare not sin with
so high a hand as they would otherwise do.
3. The Holy Spirit also restrains through convictions of sin.
Many men have deep wounds of conviction who are never saved.
Many are pierced with arrows of the Word from time to time,
and thus are driven away from their wicked companions and
scared from open sin. Restraining grace is an amazing work of
God. It is more wonderful than his setting a bound to the sea
that it cannot pass over. Think what a hell every unconverted
bosom would become, if the Spirit were to withdraw and give
men over to their own hearts' lusts. Think what a hell an uncon-
verted family would become, if the Spiri* v/;re to withdraw his
bands. What hatreds, strifes, murders, parricides would take
place ! Think what a hell this town would become, if every
Christless man were given over to the lusts of his own heart.
Now this is to be a castaway. Gen. vi., 3, " My Spirit shall
not always strive with man." The IIo!y Spirt, I believe, strives
with all men ; Acts vii., 51, " Ye do always resist 'he Holy Ghost ;"
but he will not always strive. W u en the day of giace is done,
when the sinner sinks into hell, the Spirit will strive no more.
1st, The Spirit will strive n<" :.: ore through ordinances. There
will be no family worsb.v in hell, no Bible read, no Psalms sun^r.
There will be no Sabbath in hell, no preached gospel, no watch-
men to warn you of your sin and danger. The voice of the
118 SERMON XXIJ.
watchman \vill he silent, the danger has come, your doom will be
past, and no room for repentance.
2rf, The Spirit will no more strive through providences. There
will be no more poverty or riches, no more sickness or bereave-
ments, no kindly providences restraining the soul from sin,
nothing but anguish and despair unutterable.
3d, There will be no more convictions by the Spirit. Con-
science will condemn, but it will not restrain. Your hearts will
then break out. All your hatred to God, the fountains of con-
tempt and blasphemy in your heart will be all broken up. You
will blaspheme the God of Heaven. All your lusts and impurities
that have been pent up and restrained by restraining grace arid
the fear of man, will burst forth with amazing impetuosity. You
will be as wicked and blasphemous as the devils around you.
O the misery ot this! it is an evil thing and bitter. The way
of transgressors is hard. Ah ! sinners, you will yet find sin the
hardest of all masters ; you will yet find your grovelling lusts to
be worse than the worm that never dies. ' He that is unjust, let
him be unjust still ;" Rev. xxii., 11.
III. Wicked men shall be cast away by all the creatures. The
state of^ unconverted men at present, although a very dreadful
one, is yet not hopeless. The angels watch the unconverted, to
see if there is any sign of repentance. It is believed that the
holy angels are present in the assembly of God's worshippers.
1 Tim. v., 21. And if so, no doubt they watch your laces, to see
if a tear starts into your eye, or a prayer trembles on your lip.
There would be joy this day among the angels, if one sinner was
to repent.
The redeemed on earth are peculiarly interested in unconverted
souls. They pray for them night and day, many of them with
tears ; many a child of God wets his pillow with tears in behalf
of perishing souls. Jeremiah wept in secret places for their pride.
David says, Rivers of waters run down mine eyes. They seek
your conversion more than any personal benefit. Ministers are
set apart to seek after lost and perishing souls. " Go rather to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel." If ministers are like their
Master, this will be their great errand, that by all means we may
save some. But when the day of grace is past, all holy creatures
will cast you away. Reprobate silver shall men call them, for
the Lord hath reacted them.
The angel; will no longer take any interest in you. They will
know that u is not fit they should pity you any more. You will
be tormented in the presence ot !iie holy angels, and in the pre-
sence of the Lamb.
The redeemed will no longer pray for you, nor shed another
tear for you. They will see you condemned in the judgment
tnd not put in one word for you. They will see you depart into
SERMON XXII. 1 {g
everlasting fire, and yet not pray for you. They will see the
smoke of your torments going up for ever and ever, and yet cry.
Alleluiah !
Ministers will no more desire your salvation. It will no more
be their work. The number of the saved will be complete with-
out you ; the table will be full. Ministers will bear witness
again'.t you in that day.
Even devils will cast you off. As long as you remain on earth,
the devil keeps you in his train ; he flatters you, and gives you
many tokens of his friendship and esteem ; but soon he wul cast
you off. You will be no longer pleasant to him ; you wil. be a
part of his torment ; and he will hate you and torment you,
because you deceived him, and he deceived you.
IV. Wicked men shall be cast away by themselves. It is said,
they shall wish to die, and shall not be able. They shall seek
death, and death shall flee from them. I believe that some sui 'ides
experience the beginnings of hell. I believe Judas did; he co'ild
not bear himself, and he tried to east himself away. This wil! be
the feeling of lost souls. They will not be able to bear the sight
of themselves ; they will be weary of being; they will wish they
had never been. At present, unconverted men are often very
self-complacent. They love to employ their faculties ; the wheels?
of their life go smoothly ; their affections are pleasant. Memory
has many pleasant green spots to look back upon. How different
when the day of grace is done ! 1. The understanding will be
clear and full to apprehend the real nature of your misery. Your
mind will then see the holiness of God, his alrnightiness, his ma-
jesty. You Will see your own condemned condition, and the
depth of your hdl. 2. T/ie will in you will be all contrary to
God's will, even though you see it add to your hell ; yet you will
nate all that God loves, and love all that God hates. 3. Youi
conscience is God's vicegerent in the soul. It will accuse you of
all your sins. It will set them in order and condemn you. 4.
Your affections will still love your kindred, "I have five bre-
thren," you will say. Earthly lathers who are evil know how to
give good u'ilts to their children. Even in hell you will love your
own kindred ; but ah ! what misery it will cost you, when you
hear them sentenced along with you. 5. Your memory will be
very clear. You will remember all your misspent Sabbaths,
your sermons heard, as if you did not hear ; your place in tho
house of God, your minister's face and voice, the bell ; through
millions of ages alter this, you will remember these, as if yester-
day. (>. Your anticipations. Everlasting despair. O how yop
will wish you had never been ! How you will wish to tear out
your memory, these tender affections, this accusing conscience !
You will seek death, and it will flee from you. This, this is to be
oat ! This is everlasting destruction ! This is to be a castawav.
120 SERMON XXIII.
LI-.SSONS.I. Let believers learn Paul's earnest diligence. A
wicked life will end in being a castaway. These two are linked
tt'iM'ther, and no man can sunder them.
j. Hell will be intolerable. I have not spoken of the lake of
fire, of the utter darkness, and the worm that never dies. I have
spoken only of the mental facts of hell ; and yet these by them-
selves are intolerable. who can tell what it will be \vh..;:a both
meet, and meet eternally ? " Who knows the power of thine
anger ?" do not keep away from Christ now. Now he says,
Come ; soon, soon he will say, Depart. O do not resist the Holy
Spirit now. Now he strives, but he will not always strive with
you. Soon, soon he will leave you. O do not despise the word"
of ministers and godly friends. Now they plead with you, weep
for you, pray for you. Soon, soon they will be silent as the grave,
or sing halleluiah to see you lost. O do not be proud and self-admir-
ing. Soon you will loathe the very sight of yourself, and wish
you had never been.
3. The amazing love of Christ in bearing all this for sinners.
Christ is a wrath-bearing surety. All that is included in being
a castaway he bore. Amen.
January, 1843.
SERMON XXIII.
A COMMUNION SABBATH IN ST. PETER'S.
I. SERMON.
" Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am .
that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me : for thou lovedst me
before the foundation of the world. John xvii., 24.
I. The manner of this prayer. " Father, I will." This is the
most wonderful prayer that ever rose from this earth to the throne
of God, and this petition is the most wonderful in the prayer. No
human lips ever prayed thus before " Father, I will." Abraham
was the friend of God, and got very near to God in prayer, but he
prayed as dust and ashes. " I have taken upon me to speak unto
God that am but dust and ashes." Jacob had power with God, and
prevailed, yet his boldest word was, " I will not let thee go except
thou bless me." Daniel was a man greatly beloved, and got im-
mediate answers to prayer, and yet he cried to God as a sinner
" O Lord, hear ! O Lord, forgive ! O Lord, hearken and do !"
Paul was a man who got very near to God, and yet he says. " I
bow my knees to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."
But wh_n Christ prayed, he cried, " Father, I will." Why did he
SERMON XX III. [21
pray thus ? He was God's fellow. " Awake, O sword, againsi. my
s! ^pherd, against the man that is my fellow." He thought it no
robbery to be equal with God." It was he that said, " Let there
be light, and there was light." So now he says, " Father, I will."
He spoke as the Intercessor with the Father. He ielt as if his
work were already done " I have finished the work which thou
gavest me to do." He felt as if he had already suffered the cross,
and now claims the crown. " Father, I will." This is the inter-
cession now heard in heaven.
He liad one will with the Father. " I and my Father are one."
One God one in heart and will. True, he had a holy human
soul, and, therefore, a human will ; but his human will was one
with his divine will. The human string in his heart was tuned to
the same string with his divine will.
Learn how surely this prayer will be answered, dear children
of God. It is impossible this prayer should be unanswered. It is
the will of the Father and of the Son. It'Christ will? ; t, and if the
Father wills it, you may be sure nothing can hinder it. If the
sheep be in Christ's hand, and in the Father'-s hand, they shall
never perish.
II. For whom he prays. " They also whom thou hast given
me." Six times in this chnpter does Christ call his people by this
name " They whom thou hast given me." It seems to have been
a favorite word of Christ, especially when carrying them on his
heart before the Father. The reason seems to be that he would
remind the Father that they are as much the Father's as they are
his own ; that the Father has the same interest in them that he
has ; having given them to him before the world was. And so
he repeats it in verse 10, " All mine are thine, and thine are
mine." Before the world was, the Father chose a people out of
this world ; he gave them into the hand of Christ, charging him
not to lose one, to bear their sins on his own body on the tree, to
raise him up at the last day. And, accordingly, he says, ' Of all
whom thou hast given me have I lost none." Is there any mark
on those who are given to Christ 1 They are no better than
others. Sometimes he chooses the worst. A. Yes. " All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me." One of the sure marks
of all that were given to Christ is that they come to Jesus " They
all come to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the
blood of sprinkling." Are you come to Christ? Has your heart
been opened to receive Christ ? Has Christ been made precious
to you ? then you may be quite sure you wen; given to Christ
before the world was. Your name is in the Lamb's Book of Life,
and your name is on the breastplate of Christ. It is for you he
prays, " Father, I will that that foul be with me." Christ will
never lose you. The Father which gave you to him is greater
than all, and none is able to pluck you out of the Father's hand.
122 SERMON XXIII.
Ill The Argument " For thou lovest me" He reminds ihe
Father of his love to him before the world was. When there was
no earth, no sun, no man, no angel when he was by him then
thou lovest me. Who can understand this love, the love of the
uncreated God to his uncreated Son ? The love of Jonathan to
Ihivid was very great, surpassing the love of women. The love
of a believer to Christ is very great, for they see him to be alto-
gether lovely. The love of a holy angel to God is very ardent,
for they are like a flame of fire. But these are all creature loves ;
these are but streams ; but the love of God to his Son is an ocean
of love. There is everything in Christ to draw the love of his
Father. Now discern his argument If thou love me do this for
my people.
Just as he said Jo Paul, " Why persecutes! thou me?" he felt
himself one with l;;s afflicted members on earth, Just as he will
say at the last day, " Inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of
these, m} brethren, ye did it unto me." He reckons believers a
part v-l himself what is done to them is done to him. So here,
when he carries them to his Father, this is all his argument,
" Thou lovedst me." If thou love me, love them, for they are part
of me.
See how surely Christ's prayer will be answered for you, be-
loved. He does not plead that you are good and holy ; he does
not plead that you are worthy ; he only pleads his own loveliness
in the eyes of the Father. Look not on them, he says, but look on
me. Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
Lcam to use the same argument with God, dear believers.
This is asking in Christ's name for the Lord's sake this is the
prayer that is never refused. See that you do not come in your
own name, else you will be cast out.
Come thus to his table. Say to the Father, accept me, for thou
lovedst him from the foundation of the world.
IV. The prayer itself. Two parts.
1. " That they may be with me" (1.) IVTiathe does not mean.
He does not mean that \ve should be presently taken out of this
world. Some of you that have come to Christ may this day be
f ivored with so much of his presence, and of the love of the Father
so much of the joy of heaven, and such a dread of going back
to betray Christ in the world that you may be wishing that this
house were indeed the gate of heaven you may desire that you
might be translated fror:; the table below at once to the table
above. " I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart
and be with Christ." Still Christ does not wish that. " I pray
not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but thou shouldst
keep them from the evil." " Whither I go thou canst not follow me
nn\v." (Like that woman in Brainerd's journal " O blessed
Lord, do come ! O do take me away ; do let me die and go te
SF.;MON X..III. 123
Jesus Christ. I am afraid if I iuv I Jiall sin again.") 2. What
fie Joes mean. He me:t-.js iluit when our journey is done we
should co*ne to be with hiui. E\ - ery one that comes to Christ has
a journey to perform in this world. Some have a long and some
a short one. It is through a wilderness. Still Christ prays that
at the end you may be with him. Every one that comes to Christ
hath his twelve hours to fill up for Christ. I must work the works
of him that sent me while it is day. But when that is done, Christ
prays that you may be with him. He means that you shall come
to his Father's house with him. " In my Father's house are many
mansions." You shall dwell in the same house with Christ. You
are never very intimate with a person till you see them in their
own house till you know them at home. This is what Christ
wants with us that we shall come to be with him at his own
home. He wants us to come to the same Father's bosom with
him. " I ascend to my Father and your Father." He wants us
to be in the same smile with him, to sit on the same throne with
him, to swim in tne same ocean of love 'with him.
Learn how certain it is that you shall one day soon be with
Christ. It is the will of the Father; it is the will of the Son. It
is the prayer of Christ. If you have really been brought to
Christ, you shall never perish. You may have many enemies
opposing you in your way to glory. Satan desires to have you,
that he may sift you like wheat. Your worldly friends will do all
thi-y can to hinder you. Still you shall be with Christ. We shall
see your face at the table of glory. You have a hard heart, an
unbelieving heart, a heart deceitful above all things, and despe-
rately wicked. You often think your heart will lead you to betray
Christ. Still you shall be with Christ. If you are in Christ to-
day, you shall be ever with the Lord". You have lived a wicked
life. You Hve dreadful sins to look back upon. Still if you are
come to Jesus, this is his word to thee, " Thou shall be with me
in paradise." In truth, Christ cannot want you. You are his
jewels, his crown. Heaven would be no heaven to him, if you
were not there. This may give you courage in conrna in thu
Lord's table. Some of you lear to come to this tablu oecausi ,
though you cleave to Christ to-day, you fear you may betray KIT.
to-morrow. But you need not fear. " He that hath begun a good
work in you, will perform it till the day of Jesus Christ." Vou
shall sit at the table above, where Christ himself shall be at the
head. You need not fear to come to this table.
2. To behold my glory which thou hast given me. There are
three stages in the glory of Christ. It will be the employment of
heaven to behold them all.
1st. The origin n I glory of Christ This is his uuderivcd, un-
cr<-aled glory, as tae equal of the Father. It is spoken of in Prov.
vhi., 39, " Then I was by him as one brought up with him ; I was
dailv his delight, rejoicing always before him." And, again, in
i J4 SEK:*ON AMU.
this prayer, verse 5,. <; Th .A iry which I had with thcc lefc. .,
the world was." Of thi& tfv-r/ xio n.jn can speak no angel no
arrhangel. One thii.g '-lone we know, that wo are to honor thi
Son even as we honor the Father. He shared with the Father i:i
being the all-perfect one, when there was none to admire, none to
adore, no angels with golden harps, no seraphs to hymn his praise,
no cherubim to cry, Holy, holy, holy. Before <til creatures were,
he was. One with the "infinitely perfect, good and glorious God.
He was then all that he afterwards showed himself to be. Crea-
tion and redemption did not change him. They only revealed
what he was before. They only provided objects for those beams
of glory to rest upon, that were shining as fully before, from all
eternity. Eternity will be much taken up with praising God that
ever he revealed himself at all ; that ever he came out from the
retirement of his lovely and blissful eternity.
2d, When he became flesh. " The Word was made flesh.''
Christ did not get more glory by becoming man ; but he mani-
fested his glory in a new way. He did not gain one perfec-
tion more by becoming man ; he had all the perfections of God
before. But now these perfections were poured through a human
heart. The almightiness of God now moved in a human arm.
The infinite love of God now beat in a human heart. The com-
passion of God to sinners now glistened in a human eye. God
was love before, but Christ was love covered over with flesh
Just as you have seen the sun shining through a colored win
dow. It is the same sunlight still, and yet it shines with t
mellowed lustre. So in Christ dwelt all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily. The perfection of the Godhead shone through
every pore, through every action, word and look the same per-
fections ; they were only shining with a mellowed brightness.
The veil of the temple was a type of his flesh ; because it cover-
ed the bright light of the holiest of all. But just as the bright
light of the shechinah often shone through the veil, so did the
Godhead of Christ force itself through the heart of the man
Christ J'-sus. There were many openings of the veil when the
bright glory shone through.
(1.) When he turned the water into wine. He manifested forth
tis slory, and his disciples believed on him Almighty power
spoke in a human voice and the love of God, too, shone in it ; for
he showed that he came to turn all our water into wine.
(2.) When he wept over Jerusalem. That was a great outlet
of his glory. There was much that was human in it. The
feet were human that stood upon Mount Olivet. The eyes
were human eyes that looked down upon the dazzling city. The
tears were human tears that fell upon the grourj. But oh, there
was the tenderness of God beating beneath that mantle. Look
and live, sinners. Look and live. Behold your G d. He that
hath seen a weeping Christ hath seen the Fathe*- This is Jod
SERMON XATIi 125
manifest in the flesh. Some of you tea; that the Father does
n^t wish you to come to Christ and be saved. But see here, G-nu
is manifest in the flesh. He that licnh rreen Christ hath seen the
Father. See here the heart of the Father and the heart of the
Son laid bare. O wh&rcfore should you doubt. Every one of
these tears trickles from the heart 01 God.
(3.) On the cross. The wounds of Christ "vere the greatest
outlets of his glory that ever were. The Divine glory shone
more out of his wounds than out of all his life before. The veil
was then rent in twain, and the full heart of God allowed to stream
through. It was a human body that writhed* pale and racked,
upon the accursed tree ; they were hurnW hands that were
pierced so rudely by the nails ; it was human flesh that bore that
deadly gash upon the side ; it was human blood that streamed
from hands, and feet, and side ; the eye that meekly turned to his
Father was a human eye ; the soul that yearned over his mother
was a human soul. But O, there was Divine glory streaming
through all ; every wound was a mouth to speak of the grace and
love of God. Divine holiness shone through. What infinite
hatred of sin was there when he thus offered himself a sacrifice
without spot unto God 1 Divine wisdom shone through ! all
created inte'Ugencee could not have devised a plan whereby
God wouid have been just, and yet the justifier. Divine love :
every drop of blood that fell came as a messenger of love from
his heart to tell the love of the fountain. This was the love of
God. He that hath seen a crucified Christ hath seen the Father.
O, look on the broken bread, and you will see this glory still
streaming through. Here is the heart of God laid bare, God is
manifest in flesh. Some of you are poring over your own heart,
examining your feelings, watching your disease. Avert the eye
from all within. Behold me, behold me ! Christ cries. Look to
me, and be ye saved. Behold the glory of Christ. There is
much difficulty about your own heart, but no darkness about
the heart of Christ. Look in through his wounds ; believe what
you see in him.
3d, Christ's glory above. I cannot speak of this. I trust I
shall soon one day see it. He has not laid aside the glory which he
had on earth. He is still the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. But he has got more glory now. His humanity is no
more a veil to hide any of the beams of his Godhead. God shines
all the more plainly through him. He has got many crowns now,
the oil of gladness now, the sceptre of righteousness now.
Heaven will be spent in beholding his glory. We shall see the
Father eternally in him. We shall look in his face, and in his
human eye shall read the tender love of God to us for ever.
Wo shall hear from his holy human lips plainly of the Father.
u In that day I shall no more speak to you in parables, but show
you plainly of the Father." We shall look on his scars, healed,
126 SF?.MON XXIII.
yet plain and open on his hands, and feet, and side, and heaven
Origfat brow, and shall read eternally there the hatred of >:-d
against sin, and his love to us that made him die for us. And
sometimes, perhaps, we may lean our head where John leaned
his, upon h'.s holy bosorn. 'Oh ! if heaven is to be spent thus,
\\ hat will you do who have never seen his glory ?
O beloved, if your eternity is to be spent thus, spend much f
your time thus" If yqu are to be thus engaged at the table
above, be thus engaged now at the table below.
Communion Sabbath, Jan. 19, 1S40
II. FENCING THE TABLES.
" But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a poss<>ssion, ar !
kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brougi.i a certai j
part, and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan
filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back^arf of the price of
the land ? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own ? and after it wis sold was
it not in thine own power ? why hast thou conceived thi thing in ti.ine heart ?
thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias, hearht?. these words,
fell down, and gave up the ghost ; and great fear came on all fh-iu that heard
these things. And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out,
and buried Aim. And it was about the space of three hours alter, when his
wife, not knowing' what was done, came in. And Peter answered unto liei,
Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much ? And she said, Yea, for so
much. Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to
tempt the Spirit of the Lord ? Behold, the feet of them which have
buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell slie
down straightway at his feet and yielded up the ghost; and the young men came
in, and found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And
great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things
And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among
the people (and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch. And of
the rest durst no man join himself to them ; but the people magnified them
And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both, of men and
women)." Acts v., 1-4.
THERE have been hypocrites in the Church of Christ from the
beginning. There was one, Judas, even among the twelve Apos-
tles : anil in the Apostolic Church there was an Ananias and a
Sapphira. Attend, 1. To their sin a lie. When so much of
the spirit was given, all were of one heart and one soul. Those
that had estates sold them, and brought the price and laid it at
the Apostles" feet. It was a lovely sight to see. Among the
rest came one Ananias ; he was rich. From some worldly mo-
tive, he had joined himself to the Christians, husband and wife,
both Christless, graceless souls. He sold his possessions to be
like the rest, and brought a part and said it was his all ! He pre-
tended to be a Christian, he pretended that grace was in his
heart. It was not a lie to man only, but to the Holy Ghost ;
for he was declaring that God had wrought a change" upon his
soul, when there was none, he was still old Ananias. 2. Their
punishment. They fell down and gave up the ghost. Oh ! it is
an awful thing when sinners die in the act of sin, with the lie ic
SERMON XXIII. 127
their mouth, with the oath on their tongue. So it was with poor
Ananias and his wife. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,
they were in the place where all liars go. 3. The effect great
fear came upon them all. None dare to join themselves to the
Apostles' company.
Dear friends, these things are written for our learning. Are
there none come up here to-day with Ananias' lie in their heart. ?
The broken bread and poured out wine represent the broken
body and shed blood of Christ. Oh ! it is enough to men the
heart of the stoutest to look at them. To take that breua and
that wine is declaring that you do close with Christ, that yuu take
him to be your Saviour, that God has opened your heart to be-
lieve. In marriage, the acceptance of the right hand is a solemn
declaration, by sign, that you accept the bride or bridegroom :
and so in the Lord's supper. If it is not so with you, then it
is a lie ; and it is a lie to the Holy Ghost. Ananias came de-
claring that he had got the 3pirit's work upon his heart. It was
a time when much of God's spirit had been given, verses 31,
32. It is likely he and his wife had some convictions. But
since it was false, since he was not really what he pretended to
be, it was said, " he lied 10 the Holy Ghost.'' So, dear friends,
the Holy Ghost is peculiarly present in this ordinance. He glo-
rifies Christ. He has converted many in this place. To sin
to-day is to lie against the Holy Ghost. By coming to the table,
you profess that you are under the Spirit's teaching. If you are
not, you lie unto the Holy Ghost !
Now, do you know that you have not come to Christ ? Do you
know that you are unconverted? And will you sit down there
and take the bread and wine ? Take heed, Ananias ! Thou art
not lying to a man but unto God.
Perhaps there is one among you who is secretly addicted to
drinking, to swearing, to uncleacness. Will you come and take
the bread and wine ? Take heed, Ananias !
Perhaps there are two of you, husband and wife, who know
that neither of you were ever converted. You never pray toge-
ther, and yet you agree toge.hor to come here. Take heed, Ana-
nias and Sapphira !
Is there none of you a persecutor ? Suppose a father, whose
children have come to Christ, but in your heart you hate their
change ; you oppose it with bitter words ; and yet, with a smooth
countenance, you come to sit beside them at the sarr2 table ! O,
hypocrite, take heed lest you drop down dead ! Draw back that
hand lest it wither ! If we should see the cup drop from your
hand, and the eye glaze, and ine feet become cold. Oh ! where
would your soul be f
Dear children of God, (lo not be discouraged from coming to
this holy table. Il is spread for sinners that have come to
Jesus " O, come *nu dine." Some of you say, " I do not
SERMON XXI II.
know the way to this table." Jesus says, " I am the way."
Some of you say, " I am blind, I cannot see my sins, nor my
Saviour."' Go wash in the pool of Siloam. Some of you say,
M I am naked." Jesus says, " I counsel thee to buy of me white
raiment that thou maycst be clothed." You are polluted in
your own blood ; but has Jesus thrown his skirt over you ?
Then, do not fear; come with his robe on you. Come thus,
and you come welcome.
3. TABLE SERVICE.
(The only specimen of his Table Services, found in his own handwriting, but
without date.)
" My beloved is mine, and I am his" 1. " In the arms of my
faith he is mine." I was once of the world, cold and careless
about my soul. God awakened me, and made me feel I was lost.
I tried to make myself good, to menc mr life; but I found it in
vain. I sat down more lost than bcio-e, I was '.hep told to be-
lieve on the Lord Jesus So I tried to :i;a 1 :* rr.y:.plf believe. I
read books on faith, and tried to bend my sou) to b^.eve, that so
I might get to heaven ; but still in vain. I found it \vrinen, " Faith
is the gift of God." " No man can call Jesus Lord, but by the
Holy Ghost." So I sat down more lost than ever. Whilst I was
thus helpless, Jesus drew near, his garments Jippedin blood. He
had waited long at my door, though I knew it not. " His head
was filled with dew, and his locks with the drops of the night."
He had five deep wonnds ; and he said, " I died in the stead o*
sinners ; and any sinnzr may have me for a Saviour. You are a
helpless sinner, will you have' me ?" How can I resist him ! he is
all I need ! " I held him, and would not let him go." " My be-
loved is mine"
2. In the arms of my love, he is mine. Once I did not know
what people meant by loving Jesus. I always wished to ask how
they could love one whom they had never seen, but was an-
swered, "whom not having seen, we lov?." But now that I have
hidden in him, now that I am cleaving to him, now I feel that I
cannot but love him ; and I long to see him that I may love him
more. Many a time I fall into sin, and that takes away my feel-
ing of safety in Christ. Darkness comes, all is cloudea, Christ is
away. Still even then I am sick of love. Christ is not light and
peace to me ; but I fo'.icw hard siLer him amid the darkness he is
precious to rr.e ; and even though I be in darkness, he is my be-
loved still. " This is rt:/ ;,3k 7ij, and this is my friend."
.3. fls is mine in the Sacrament. Many a time have I said to
him in prayer, Thou art mine. Many a time when the doors were
shut, and Jesus came in showing his wounds, saying, " Peace be
unto you," my soul clave to him, and said, " My Lor.d and my
God !" My beloved thou art mine ! Many a time have I try sled
with him in lonely places, where there was no eye of man. JNIanv
SERMON XXII . 129
a time have I called to the rocks and trees to witness that I took
him to be my Saviour. He said to me, " I will betrothe thee unto
me for ever ;" and I said to him, " My beloved is mine." Many
a time have I gone with some Christian friend, and we poured out
our trembling hearts together, consulting one with another as to
whether we had liberty to close with Christ or no, and both toge-
ther we came to this conclusion, that if we were but helpless sin-
ners we had a right to close with the Saviour of sinners. We
clave to him. and called him ours. And now have we come to
take him publicly, to call an ungodly world to witness, to call
heaven and earth for a record to our soul, that we do close with
Christ. See he giveth himself to us in the bread ; lo ! We accept
of him in accepting this bread. Bear witness, men and angels,
bear witness, all the u averse " My beloved is mine."
(The communicants then partook of the broken bread and the cup of blessing.)
(It was his custom, after they had communicated, to speak briefly
on a few suitable texts, before dismissing them from the tables.
On Sabbath. January 19, the texts were "Love one another;"
" Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it ;"
" In the world ye shall have tribulation, but in me ye shall have
peace.")
4. ADDRESS AT THE CLOSE OF THE DAY.
" Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless
bcfure thv. presence of his glory with exceeding joy." Jude 24.
There is no end to a pastor's anxieties. Our first care is to get
you into Christ ; and next, to keep you from falling. I have a
good hope, dearly beloved, that a goodly number of you have this
day joined yourselves to the Lord. But now a new anxiety be-
gins, to get you to walk in Christ, to walk after the Spirit. Here
we are to tell you of what God our Saviour is able to do for you:
1st, To keep you from falling all the way; 2d, To present you
faultless at the end.
I. To keep you from falling.
1. We are not able to* keep you from falling. Those that lean
on ministers lean on a reed shaken with the wind. When a soul
has received saving good through a minister, he often thinks that
he will be kept from falling by the same means. He thinks, " O
if I had this'friend always beside me to warn me, to advise me."
\o ; ministers are not always by, nor godly friends. Your fathers,
where are they ? and the prophets, do they live for ever ? We
may soon be taken from you, and there may come a famine of the
bread. And, besides, our words will not always tell. Wi *.T
tomptation and passions are stron-g, you would not givR heed
to us.
9
130 SERMON XXIII.
2. You are not able to keep yourselves from falling. At present
y.'u know littl.' <>i the weakness or wickedness of your own heart
There is nothing more deceitful than your estimate of your own
strength. O if you saw your soul in all its infirmity ; if you saw
how every sin has its fountain in your heart; if you saw what a
mere reed you ;ire, you would cry, " Lord, hold up my goings."
You may be at present strong, but stop till an inviting company
occur; stop till a secret opportunity. O how many have fallen
then ! At. present you feel strong, your feet like hind's feet. So
did Peter at the Lord's table. But stop till this burst of feeling
has passed away ; stop till you are asked to join in some unholy
game; stop till some secret opportunity of sinning all unseen, til).
some bitter provocation rouses your anger, and you will find that
vou are weak as water, and that there is no sin that you may not
fall into.
3. Our Saviour-God is able. Christ deals with us as you do
with your children ; they cannot go alone. You hold them, so
does Christ by his Spirit. " I taught Ephraim also to go, taking
them by their arms." Hosea xi., 3. Breathe this prayer " Lord,
take me by the arms." John Newton says, When a mother is
teaching her child to walk on a soft carpet, she will sometimes let
it go, and it will fall, to teach it its weakness ; but not so on the
brink of a precipice. So the Lord will sometimes let you fall,
like Peter on the waters, though not to your injury. The shep-
herd layeth the sheep on his shoulder ; it matters not how great
the distance be, it matters not how high the mountains, how rough
the path ; our Saviour-God is an Almighty Shepherd. Some of
you have mountains in your way to heaven, some of you have
mountains of lusts in your hearts, and some of you have moun-
tains of opposition ; it matters not, only lie on the shoulder. Hn is
able to keep you ; even in the dark valley he will not stumble.
II. To present you faultless.
1. Faultless in Righteousness. As long as you live in your
mortal body, you will be faulty in yourself. It is a soul-ruining
error to believe anything else. O if ye would be wise, be often
looking beneath the robe of the Redeemer's righteousness to see
your own deformity. It will make you keep faster hold of his
robe, and keep you washing in the fountain. Now, when Christ
brings you before the throne of God, he will clothe you with his
own fine linen, and present you faultless. O it is sweet to me to
thLk how soon you shall be the righteousness of God in him.
What a glorious righteousness that can stand the light of God's
face ! Sometimes a garment appears white in dim light : when
you .^ring it into the sunshine you see the spots. O prize, then
th.o Divine righteousness, which is your covering.
2. Faultless in holiness My heart sometimes sickens when
i think upon the defects of believers ; when I think of one Chris
SERMON XXIV.
tian being fond of company, another vain, another given to evi!
speaking. O aim to be holy Christians, bright, shining Christians.
The heaven is more adorned by the large bright conrtellations
than by many insignificant stars ; so God may be more glorified by
one bright. Chrictian than by many indifferent ones. Aim at being
tb'it one.
on we shall be faultless. He that begun will perform it. We
shall be like him, fcr we shall see him as he is. When you lay
down this body, you may say, Farewell lust for ever, farewell my
hateful pride, farewell hateful selfishness, farewell strife and envy-
ing, farewell being ashamed of Christ. O this makes death sweet
indeed. O long to depart and to be with Christ
III. To him be glory.
1. O if anything has been dene for your soul, give him the glory.
Give no praise to others ; give all praise to him. 2. And give him
the dominion to<j. YieM yourselves unto him, soul and body.
(SERMON XXIV.
TL'.a VOICE OP MY BELOVED.*
* The voice of my beloved ! behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skip-
ping upon the hills. My beloved is like a roe, or a young hart : behold he
standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, showing himself
through th". l''tice. My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my
lair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone";
the flowers appear on the earth ; the time of the singing of birds is come, and
the voice of the turtle is heard in our land ; the fig-tree putteth forth her green
figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, i/iy love, my
fair one, and come away. my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the
secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice ;
for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. Take us the foxes, the
little foxes, that spoil the vines; for our vines have tender grapes. My beloved
i mine, and I am his ; he feedeth among the lilies. Until the day break, and
the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe, or a young hart,
upon the mountains of Bether." Song of Solomon ii., 8-17.
THERE is no boo)- of the Bible which affords a better test of the
depth of i man s Christianity than the Song of Solomon. (1.) If
a man's religion be all in his head a well set form of doctrines,
built like mason work, stone above "stone but exercising no in-
fluence upon his heart, this book cannot but offend him ; for there
are no stiff statements of doctrine here upon which his heartless
religion may be built. (2.) Or, if a man's religion be all in kit
fancy if, like Pliable in the Pilgrim's Progress, he be taken with
* Auruat 14, 1836, when he preached as candidate the first day he preach*
in St. liter's
X x.xiv.
the outward beauty of Christianity if, like the seed sown upon
;he n (!<-. ground, his religion is fixed only in the surface faculties
of the mind, while the heart remains rocky and unmoved though
In- will relish this 1-ook much more than the first man, still th, re
is a mysterious breathing of intimate affection in it, which cannot
but stumble and offend him. (3.) But if a man's religion be heart.
religion if he hath not only doctrines in his hsad. but love to
Jesus in his heart if he hath not only heard and read of the Lord
Jesus, but hath felt his need of him, and been brought to cleave
unto him, as the chiefest among ten thousandj and the altogether
lovely, then this book will be inestimably precious to his soul ;
for it contains the tenderest breathings of the believer's heart"
toward the Saviour, and the tenderest breathings of the Saviour's
heart again towards the believer.
It is agreed among the best interpreters of this book (1.) Tha*
it consists not of one song, but of many songs; (2.) That theso
songs are in a dramatic form ; and (3.) That, like the parables oi
Chr.st, they contain a spiritual meaning, under the dress and orna-
ments of some poetical incident.
The passage \\ hich I have read forms one of these dramatical
songs, and the subject of it is, a sudden visit which an Eastern
bride receives from her absent lord. The bride is represented to
us as sitting lonely and desolate in a kio'i, or Eastern arbor, a
place of safety and of retirement in the gardens of the East,
described by modern travellers as " an arbor surrounded by a
green wall, covered with vines and jessamines, with windows of
lattice work."
The mountains of Belher (or, as it is on the margin, the mount ;
of division), the mountains that separate her from her beloved,
r.Mpenr almost impassable. They look so steep and craggy that
hr fears he will never be able to come over them to visit her any
more. Her garden possesses no loveliness to entice her to walk
forth. All nature seems to partake in her sadness ; winter reigns
without and within; no flowers appear on the earth; all the
singing birds appear to be sad and silent upon the trees ; and the
turtle's voice of love is not heard in the land.
It is whilst she is sitting thus lonely and desolate that the voice
of her beloved strikes upon her ear. Love is quick in hearing the
vo;ce that is loved; and, therefore, she hears sooner than all her
jr.aidens. and the song opens with her bursting exclamation,
" The voice of my beloved !" When she sat in her solitude the
mountains between her and her lord seemed nearly impassable,
they were so lofty and so steep ; but now she sees with what
swiftness and ease he can come over these mountains, so that she
.an compare him to nothing else but the gazelle, or the young
hart, the loveliest and swiftest creatures of the mountains. " My
beioved is like a roe, or a young hart." Yea, while she is speak
ing, already he his arrived at the garden wall, and now, behold
SERMON XXIV. 133
" he looketh in at the window, showing himself through the lattice/
The bride next relates to us the gentle invitation, which seems to
have been the song of her beloved as he came so swiftly over the
mountains. While she sat alone all nature ssemed dead winter
reigned ; but now he tells her that he has brought the spring-time
along with him. " Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
For To, the winter is past, the rain is over and jjone ; the flowers
appear on the earth ; the time of the singing birds is come, and
the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. The fig tree putteth
forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a
good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away."
Moved by this pressing invitation, she comes forth from her place
of retirement into the presence of her lord, and clings to him like
the tinTTOus dove to the clefts of the rock; and then he addresses
ner in these words of tenderest and most delicate aflection, " O my
dove, that art in the cklts of the rock, in the secret places of the
precipice, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice ;
for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely." Joyfully
agreeing to go forth with her lord, she yet remembers that this is
the season of greatest danger to her vines, from the foxes which
gnaw the bark of the vines ; and, therefore, she will not go forth
without leaving this command of caution to her maidens, " Take
us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines, for our vines have
tender grapes." She then renews the covenant of her espousals
with her beloved, in these words of appropriating affection: "My
beloved is mine, and I am his ; let him feed among the lilies."
And last of all, because she knows that this season of intimate
communion will not last, since her beloved must hurry away again
over the mountains, she will not suffer him to depart without be-
seeching him that he will often renew these visits of love, till that
happy day dawn when they shall not need to be separated any
more " Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn,
my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart, upon the
mountains of Either."
We might well challenge the whole world of genius to produce
in any language a poem such as this, so short, so comprehensive, so
delicately beautiful. But, what is far more to our present purpose,
there is no part of the Bible which opens up more beautifully
some of the innermost experience of the believer's heart.
Let us now, then, look at the parable as a description of one of
those visits which the Saviour often pays to believing souls, when
he manifests himself unto them in that other way than he doeih
unto the world.
1 . When Christ is away from the soul of the believer, he sits
alone. We saw in the parable, that, when her Lord was away,
the bride sat lonely and desolate. She did not call for the young
and the gay to cheer her solitary hours. She did not call for the
har,j of the minstrel to soothe her in her solitude. There was no
IJ4 SERMON XXIV.
pip , p'-r tabret, r.-r vine at her feasts. No, she sat alone. The
ii">i mains seemed nil but impassable. All nature partook of her
sadness. Ii she r ould not be glad in the light of the Lord's coun-
tenance, she wi.3 resolved to be glad in nothing else. She sat
lonely and desol'te. Just so it is with the true believer in Jesus.
"Whatever be the mountains of Bether that have come between
his soul and Chriil ; whether he hath been seduced into his old
sins, so that '* his iniquities have separated again between him and
his God, and his sins have hid his face from him, that he will nc.it
hear;" or whether the Saviour hath withdrawn for a season the
comfortable light of his presence for the mere trial of his servant'^
faith, to see if, when he ' walketh in darkness and hath no light,
he will still trust in the name of the Lord, and stay hin.self upon
his God ;" whatever the mountains of separation be, it is the sure
mark of the believer that he sits desolate and alone. He cannot
laugh away his heavy care, as worldly men can do. lie cannot
drown it in the bowl of intemperance, as poor blinded men can do.
Even the innocent intercourse of human friendship brings no balm
to his wound, nay. even fellowship with the children of God is now
distasteful to his soul. He cannot enjoy what he enjoyed before,
when they that feared the Lord spake often one to another. The
mountains between him and the Saviour seem so vast and impas-
sable that he fears he will never visit him more. All nature par-
takes of his sadness winter reigns without and within. He sits
alone, and is desolate. Being afflicted, he prays ; and the burden
of his prayer is the same with that of an ancient believer " Lord,
if I may not be made glad with the light of thy countenance, grant
that I may be made glad with nothing else ; for joy without thee
is death."
Ah ! my friends, do you know anything of this sorrow ? Do
you know what it is thus to sit alone and be desolate, because
Jesus is out of view ? If you do, then rejoice, if it be possible,
even in the midst of your sadness ; for this very sadness is one
of the marks that you are a believer; that you find all your peace
and all your joy in union with the Saviour.
But ah! how contrary is the way with most of you? You
know nothing of this sadness. Yes. perhaps you make a mock
at it. You can be happy and contented with the world, though
you have never got a sight of Jesus. You can be merry with
your companions, though the blood of Jesus has never whispered
i-ea^e to your soul. Ah ! how plain that you are hastening on to
the place where ') there is no peace, saith my God to the wicked !"
II. Chrisfs coming to the desolate believer is often sudden and
iin-nderful. We saw in the parable, that it was when the bride
was sitting lonely and desolate that she heard suddenly the voice
of her lord. Love is quick in hearing ; and she cries out, " the
voice of my beloved !" Before, she thought the mountains all but
SERMON XXIV. 13~
impassable ; but now she can compare his swiftness to nothing
but that of the gazelle or the young hart. Yea, whilst she speaks,
he is at the wall, at the window, showing himself through the
lattice. Just so is it oftentimes with the believer. Whilst he sits
alone and desolate, the mountains of separation appear a vast
and impassab'e barrier to the Saviour, and he lears he may never
come again. The mountains of a believer's provocations are
often very great. " That I should have sinned again, who have
been washed in the blood of Jesus. It is little that other men
should sin against him ; they never knew him, never loved him
as I have done. Surely 1 am the chief of sinners, and have
sinned away my Saviour. The mountain of rny provocations
hath grown up to heaven, and he never can come over it any
more." Thus it is that the believer writes bitter things against
himself; and then it is that oftentimes he hears the voice of his
beloved. Some text of the Word, or some word from a Christian
friend, or some part of a sermon, again reveals Jesus in all his
fulness, the Saviour of sinners, even the chief. Or it may be that
he makes himself known to the disconsolate soul in the breaking
of bread, and when he speaks the gentle words " This is my
body broken for you ; this cup is the ISew Testament in my biood
shed for the remission of the sins of many ; drink ye all of it :"
then he cannot but cry out, " The voice of my beloved ; behori
he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills."
A\ my friends, do you know anything of this joyful surprise?
If you d ,\ why should you ever sit down despairingly, as if the
Lord's hand -were shortened at all that he cannot save, or as if
his ear were grown heavy that he cannot hear ? In the darkest
hour say, " Why art thou cast down, O my soul ? and why art
thou disquieted within me ? Still trust in God, fur I shall yet praise
him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." Come
expectingly to the word. Do not come with that listless indillur-
ence as if nothing that a fellow-worm can say were worth your
hearing. It is not the word of man, but the word of the living
God. Come with large expectations, and then you will find the
promise true, that he rilleth the hungry with good things, though
he sends the rich empty away.
III. Christ's coming changes all things ttt the believer, and his
love is more tender than ever. We saw in the parable that when
the bride sat desolate and alone, all nature was steeped in sadness.
Her garden possessed no charms to Jraw her forth, for winter
reigned without and within. But when her Lord came so swiftly
over the mountains, he brought the spring along with him. All
nature is changed as he advances, anil his invitation is, " For the
winter is past, the rain is over and gone ; arise, my love, my fair
one, and come away." Just so it is with the believer when
Christ is away ; all is winter to the soul. But when he comes
again over the mountairs of provocation, he brings a gladsome
13f SERMON XXIV.
yjn-iric:-.-!.!!:? :.ior.g wi.V him. When that Sun of Righteousness
crises n'resh upon the soul, not only do his gladdening rays fall
upon the believer's soul, hut all nature rejoices in his joy. The
n-oii!. tains and hills bur.: forth before him into singing, and all the
trr.-s of the field clip their hands. It is like a change of season
i" the soul. It is like tint sudden change from the pouring rains
of n. dreary winter to the full blushing spring, which is so peculiar
to the climes of the Sun.
The world of nature is all changed. Instead of the thorn comes
up l he fir tree, and instead of the brier comes up the myrtle tree.
Every tree and field possesses a new beauty to the happy soul.
The world of grace is all changed. The Bible wr.s ail dry and
meaningless before ; now what a flood of light is poured over its
pages ! how full how fresh, how rich in meaning, how its simplest
phrases touch the heart ! TJie house of prayer was all sad and dreary
before, its services W3i*e dry and unsatisfactory ; but now when
the believer sees the Saviour, as he hath seen him heretofore
within his holy place, his cry is ' How amiable are thy taberna-
cles. Lord of Hosts ; a day in thy courts is better than a thou-
sand." The garden of the Lord was all sad and cheerless before ;
now tenderness towards the unconverted springs up afresh, and
love to the people of God burns in the bosom ; then they that fear
the Lord speak often one to another. The time of singing the
praises of Jesus is come, and the turtle voice of love to Jesus is
once more heard in the land ; the lord's vine flourishes, and the
pomegranate buds, and Christ's voice to the soul is, " Arise, my
L> - e, rny fair one, and come away."
As the timorous dove pursued by the vulture, and well nigh made
a prey, with fluttering anxious wing, hides itself deeper than ever
in the clefts of the rock, and in the secret place of the precipice,
so the backslidden believer whom Satan has desired to have that
he might sift him as wheat, when he is restored once more to the
all-gracious presence of his Lord, clings to him with fluttering,
anxious faith, and hides himself deeper than ever in the wounds
of his Saviour. Thus it was that the fallen Peter, when he had
so grievously denied his Lord, yet when brought again within
sight of the Saviour standing upon the shore, was the only one of
the disciples who girt his fisher's coat unto him and cast himself
into the sea to swina to Jesus ; and just as that backslidden
ap.-stle, when again he had hidden himself in the clefts of the
Rc.Cn. of Ages, found that the love of Jesus was more tender
tc words him than ever, when he began that conversation which,
more than all others in the Bible, combines the kindest of reproofs
with the kindest of encouragements, " Simon, son of Jonas, lovest
thou rne more than these ?" just so does every backslidden believer
find, that when again he is hidden in the freshly opened wounds
of his Lord, the fountain of his love begins to flow afresh, und
the stream of kindness and affection ': fuller and more overflow-
ing than ever, fox his word i?. Ol , ay dove, that art in the
SERMON XXIV. 13*,
clefts of the rock, in tnc secret places of the precipice, let me so?
thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for swe< : is thy voice
and thy countenance is comely."
Ah, my friends, do you know anything of this ? Have you ever
experienced such a coming of Jesus over the mountain of your
provocations as made a change of season to your soul ? and have
you, backslidden believer, found, when you hid yourself again
deeper than ever in the clefts of the rock, like Petei girding his
fisher's coat unto him and casting himself into the sea, have you
found his love tenderer than ever to your soul ? Then should not
this teach you quick repentance when you have fallen? Why
keep one moment away from the Saviour? Are you waiting
till you wipe away the stain from your garments? Alas! what
will wipe it off, but the blood you are despising? Are you wait-
ing till you make yourself worthier of the Saviour's favor ? Alas !
though you wait till all eternity, you can never make yourself
worthier. Your sin and misery are your only plea. Come, and
you will find with what tenderness he will heal your backslidlngs,
and love you freely ; and say, " Oh, my dove," &c.
IV. I observe the threefold disposition of fear, love, and hope,
which this visit of the Saviour stirs up in the believer's besom.
These three form, as it were, a cord in the restored believer's
bosom, and a threefold cord is not easily broken.
1. First of all, there is fear. As the bride in the parable would
not go forth to enjoy the society of her lord, without leaving the
command behind to her maidens to take the foxes, the little foxes,
that spoil the vines, so does every believer know and feel that the
time of closest communion is also the time of greatest danger.
It was when the Saviour had been baptized, and the Holy Ghost,
like a dove, had descended upon him, and a voice saying, " This
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," it was then
that he was driven into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil ;
and just so it is when the soul is receiving its highest privileges
and comforts, that Satnn and his ministers are nearest, the foxes, the
little foxes, that spoil th.3 vines. J. Spiritual pride is near. When
the soul is hiding in the wounds of the Saviour, and receiving great
tokens of his love, then the heart begins to say, Surely I am some-
body, how far I am above the everyday run of believers. This is one
of the little foxes that eats out the life of vital godliness. 2. There
is making a Christ of your comforts, looking to them, and not to
Christ, leaning upon them, and not upon your beloved. This is
another of the little foxes. 3. There is the false notion that now
you must surely be above sinning, and above the power of tempta-
tion, now you can resist all enemies. This is the pride that goes
before a fail ; another of the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the
vines. Never forget, I beseech you, that fear is a sure mark of a
believer Even when you feel that it is God that worketh in you,
139 SERMON XXIV.
3ti!l the word saith, work out your salvation with fear and trem-
b! $; even when your joy is overflowing, still remember it is
w; u:cn, " rej-~ i o with trembling ;" and again, " be not high-minded,
bul fear." II member the caution of the bride, and say, " Take
us tiie foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines, for our vines
have tender grapes."
2. But if cautious fear be a mark of a believer in such a season,
still more is ppropriating love. When Christ comes anew over
mountains c. provocation, and reveals himself to the soul free and
full as ever, in another way than he doth unto the world, then the
soul can say. " My beloved is mine, and I am his." I do not say
that the believer can use these words at all seasons. In times of*
darkness and in times of sinfulness the reality of a believer's faith
is to be measured rather by his sadness than by his confidence.
But I do say, that, in seasons when Christ reveals himself afresh
to th^ scul, shining out like the sun, from behind a cloud, with the
beams of sovereign, unmerited love ; then no other words will
satisfy the true believer but these, " My beloved is mine, and lam
his." The soul sees Jesus to be so free a Saviour; so anxious
that all should come to him and have life ; stretching out his
hands all the day ; having no pleasure in the death of the wicked ;
pleading with men, " Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die ?" The
soul sees Jesus to be so fitting a Saviour ; the very covering
which the soul requires. When first he hid himself in Jesus, he
Tound him suitable to all his need ; the shadow of a great rock in
a weary land. But now he finds out a new fitness in the Saviour,
as Peter did when he girt his fisher's coat unto him, and cast him-
self into the sea. He finds that he is a fitting Saviour for the back-
slidden believer ; that his blood can blot out even the stains of him
who, having eaten bread with him, has yet lifted up the heel
against him. The soul sees Jesus to be so full a Saviour ; giving
to the sinner not only pardons, but overflowing, immeasurable
pardons ; giving not only righteousness, but a righteousness that
is more than mortal, for it is all divine; giving not only the Spirit,
but pouring water on him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry
ground. The soul sees all this in Jesus, and cannot but choose
him and delight in him with a new and appropriating love, saying,
*' My beloved is mine'' And if any man ask, How darest thou,
sinful worm, to call that divine Saviour thine ? the answer is here.
For lam his: He chose me from all eternity, else I never would have
chosen him. He shed his blood for me, else I never would have
shed a tear for him. He cried after me, else I never would have
breathed after him. He sought after me, else I never would have
sought after him. He hath loved me, therefore I love him. He
hath c hosen me, therefore I evermore choose him. " My beloved is
aiine. and I am his "
3. But, lastly, if love be a mark of the true believer at such a
eason, so also is jwayerful hope. It was the saying of a true
SERMON XXV. 13$
believer in an hour of high and wonderful communion with Jesus,
" Lord, it is good for us to be here." JMy friend, you are no be-
liever if Jesus hath never manifested himself to your soul in your
secret devotions, in the house of prayer, or in the breaking >i
bread, in so sweet and overpowering a manner, that you hav-j
cried out, " Lord, it is good for me to be here.*' But though it be
good and very pleasant, like sunlight to the eyes, yet the Lord
sees that it is not wisest and best always to be there. Peter must
come down again from the mount of glory, and fight the good
fight of faith amid the shame and contumely of a cold and scorn-
ful world. And so must every child of God. We are not yet in
heaven, the place of open vision and unbroken enjoyment. This
is earth, the place of faith, and patience, and heavenward-pointing
hope. One great reason why close and intimate enjoyment of the
Saviour may not be constantly realized in the believer's breast is,
to give room for hope, the third string that forms the threefold
cord. Even the most enlightened believers are walking here in a
darksome night, or twilight at rncst; and the visits of Jesus to
the soul do but serve to make the surrounding darkness more
visible. But the night is far spent, the day is at hand. The dc.y
of eternity is breaking in the east. The Sun of Righteousness is
hasting to rise upon our world, and the shadows are preparing
to flee away. Till then, the heart of every true believer, that
knows the preciousness of close communion with the Saviour,
breathes the earnest prayer, that Jesus would often come again,
thus sweetly and suddenly, to lighten him in his darksome pilgrim-
age. Ah, yes, my friends, let every one, who loves the Lord
Jesus in sincerity, join now in the blessed prayer of the bride
" Until the day break and the shadows flee away, turn, my be-
loved, and be thou like a roe or a voung hart upon the mountains
of Bether."
SERMON XXV.
OUE DUTY TO ISRAEL. 1
" To the Jew first." Rom. i., 16
MUST people are ashamed of the Gospel of '>hrist. The wise are
ashamed of it, because it calls men to believe and not to argue ;
the great are ashamed of it, because it brings ail into one body ;
the rich are ashamed of it, because it is to be luU without money
and without price ; the gay are ashamed of it, because they fear
Preat ;ed Nov. 17,1839, after returning from the Mission to the Jew?
1 (0 SERMON XXV.
it will destroy all their mirth ; and so the good news of the glori
ous Son of God having conic into the world a surety for lost sin
i:cij>, is despised, uncared for men are ashamed of it. Who arc
; ot ashamed of it ? A little company, those whose hearts the
;-it of God has touched. They were once like the world and
. 1' it, but He awakened them to see their sin and misery, and that
Christ alone was a refuge, and now they cry, None but Christ,
none but Christ ! God forbid that I should glory save in the cross
of Christ. He is precious to their heart ; he lives there ; he is
often on their lips, he is praised in their family; they would fain pr-
cluim him to all the world. They have felt in their own experience >
that the gospel is the power of Cod unto salvation, to the Jew
fir.it, and also to the Greek. Dear friends, is this your experience ?
Have you received the Gospel not in word only but in pc v er?
Has the power of God been put forth upon your soul along with
the word? Then this word is yours ; I am not ashamed of the
Gospel of Christ.
One peculiarity in this staiement I wish you to notice. He
r!ories in the Gospel as the power of God unto salvation to the
Jew first, from which I draw this DOCTRINI,, That the Gospel
should be preached first to the Jews.
1. B*i<:use judgment will begin with them. Rom. ii., 6-10.
"' Indignation and wrath, to the Jew first." It is an awful thought
that the Jew will be the first to stand forward at the bar of God
to be judged. When the great white throne is set, and He sits
down upon it from v/hose face the heavens and earth flee away ;
\\hen the dead, small and great, stand before God and the books
are opened, . - .nd the dead '.re judged out of those things that are
written in th, ; books, is it not a striking thought that Israel, poor
blinded Israel, will be the first to stand in judgment before God ?
When the Son of Mat: shall come in his glory, and all the holy
angels with him, when he shall sit upon the throne of his glory,
and before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate
them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the
goats ; when the awful sentence comes forth from his holy
lips, depart ye cursed ; and when the guilty many shall move
away from before him into everlasting punishment ; is it not
enough to make the most careless among you pause and consider,
that the indignation and wrath shall first come upon the Jew ; that
their faces will gather a deeper paleness, their knees knock more
against each other, and their hearts die within them more than
others ?
Why is this? Because they have had more light than any
other people. God chose them out of the world to be his witness-
es. Every prophet was sent first to them ; every evangelist and
apostle had a message for them. Messiah came to them. He
said, " I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
The word of God is still addressed to them. They still have it
SERMON XXV. 141
pure and unadulterated in their hand ; yet they have sinned against
all this light, against all this love. " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou
that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto
thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even
as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not !"
Their cup of wrath is fuller than that of other men, their sea of
wrath is deeper. On their very faces you may read in every
clime that the curse of God is over them.
Is not this a reason, then, why the gospel should first be preach-
ed to the Jew? They are ready to perish, to perish more dread-
fully than other men. The cloud of indignation and wrath that
is even now gathering above the lost, will break first upon the
head of the guilty, unhappy, unbelieving Israel. And have you
none of the bowels of Christ in you, that you will not run first to
them that are in so sad a case ? In a hospital, the kind physician
runs first to that bed where the sick man lies who is nearest to
die. When a ship is sinking, and the gallant sailors have left the
shore to save the sinking crew, do they not stretch out the arm
of help first to those that are readiest to perish beneath the waves ?
And shall we not do the same for Israel ? The billows of God's
anger are ready to dash first over them ; shall we not seek to bring
them first to the rock that is higher than they? Their case is
more desperate than that of other men ; shall we not bring the
good physician to them, who alone can bring health and cure ? foi
the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek.
I cannot leave this head without speaking a word to those of
you who are in a situation very similar to that of Israel ; to you
who have the word of God in your hands, and yet are unbelieving
and unsaved. In many respects, Scotland may be called God's
second Israel. No other land has its Sabbath as Scotland has
no other land has the Bible as Scotland has ; no other land has
the gospel preached free as the air we breathe, fresh as the stream
from the everlasting hills. O then, think for a moment, you who
sit under the shade of faithful ministers, and yet remain uncon-
cerned and unconverted, and are not brought to sit under the
shade of Christ, think how like your wrath will be to that of the
unbelieving Jew. And think, again, of the marvellous grace of
Christ, that the gospel is first to you. The more that your sins are
UK scarlet and like crimson, the more is the blood free to you that
washes white as snow ; for this is still his word to all his ministers,
Begin at Jerusalem.
8. It is like God to care first for the Jews. It is the chief ,i, r l<>ry
and joy of a soul to be like God. You remember this was the
glory of that condition in which Adam was created. " Let us
make man in our image, after our likeness." His understanding
was without a cloud. Ke saw. in some measure, as GoJ sceth.
His will flow&i in the same channel with God's will. His affec-
14'J SERMON XXV.
lions fastened on the same objects which God also loved. When
man fell, we lost all this, and became children of the devil, and
not children of God. But when a lost soul is brought to Christ,
and receives the Holy Ghost, he puts off the old man, and puts on
the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true
holiness. It is ow true joy in this world to be like God. Too
many rest in the joy of being forgiven, but our truest joy is to
be like him. O rest not, beloved, till you are renewed after His
image, till you partake of the Divine nature. Long for the day
when Christ shall appear, and we shall be fully like him, for we
shall see him as he is.
Now, what I wish to insist upon at present is, that we should
be like God, even in those things which are peculiar. We should
be like hm in understanding, in will, in holiness, and also in his
peculiai affections. " Love is of God, and every one that loveth
is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth
not God, for God is love." But the whole Bible shows that God
has a peculiar affection for Israel. You remember when the Jews
were in Egypt, sorely oppressed by their taskmasters, God heard
their cr , and appeared to Moses " I have seen, I have seen, the
affliction of my people, and I have heard their cry, for I know
their sorrows."
And, again, when God brought them through the wilderness,
Moses tells them why he did it; Deut. vii., 7. "The Lord did
not set his love upon you, nor choose you because ye were more
in number than any people, for ye were the fewest of all people,
but because the Lord loved you." Strange, sovereign, most pe-
culiar love. He loved them because he loved them. Should we
not be like God in this peculiar attachment?
But you say God has sent them into captivity. Now, it is true
God hath scattered them into every land. " The precious sons of
Zi<n, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen
pitchers !" Lam. iv., 2. But what says God of this ? "I have
left mine house, I have forsaken mine heritage, I have given ike
dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies." Jer. xii.,
7. It is true that Israel is given, for a little moment, into the hand
of her enemies, but it is as true that they are still the dearly beloved
of his soul. Should we not give them the same place in our heart
which God gives them in his heart? Shall we be ashamed to
cherish the same affection which our heavenly Father cherishes ?
Shall we be ashamed to be unlike the world, and like God in this
peculiar love for captive Israel ?
But you say God has cast them off. Hath God cast away his
people which *he foreknew ? God forbid ! The whole Bible 'con-
tra iicts such an idea. Jer. xxxi., 20, " Is Ephraim my dear son ?
is he a pleasant child ? for since 1 spake against him, I do earnestly
remember him still. Therefore my bowels are troubled fur him
I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord." " I will plan!
SERMON XXV 143
them again in their own land assuredly, with my whole heart and
with my whole soul." ' Zion saith, the Lord hath forsaken me,
and my Ltfrd hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her suck-
ing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her
womb ? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee." Isaiah
xlix., 14. ' And so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written, There
shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodli-
ness from Jacob." Now the simple question for each of you is,
and for our beloved Church, Should we not share with God in his
peculiar affection for Israel ? If we are filled with the Spirit ot
God, should we not love as he loves ? Should we not grave Is-
rael upon the palms of our hands, and resolve that through our
mercy they also may obtain mercy.
3. Because there is peculiar access to the Jews. In almost all
the countries we have visited this fact is quite remarkable ; in-
deed it seems in many places as if the only door left open to the
Christian missionary is the door of preaching to the Jews.
We spent some time in Tuscany, the freest state in the whole
of Italy. There you dare not preach the Gospel to the Roman
Catholic population. The moment you give a tract or a Bible, it
is carried to the priest, and by the priest to the Government, and
immediate banishment is the certain result. But the door is open
to the Jews. No man cares for their souls; and therefore you
may carry the Gospel to them freely.
The same is the case in Egypt and Palestine. You dare not
preach the Gospel to the deluded followers of Mahomet; but you
may stand in the open market place and preach the Gospel to the
Jews, no man forbidding you. We visited every town in the
Holy Land where Jews are found. In Jerusalem and in Hebron
we spoke to them all the words of this life. In Sychar we rea-
soned with them in the synagogue, and in the open bazaar. In
Chaifa, at the foot of Carmel, we met with them in the synagogue.
In Sidon also we discoursed freely to them of Jesus. In Tyre
we first visited them in the synagogue and at the house of the
Rabbi, and then they returned our visit ; for when we had lain
down in the khan for the heat of mid-day, they came to us in
crowds. The Hebrew Bible was produced, and passage after
passage explained, none making us afraid. In Saphet, and Tibe-
r ias, and Acre, we had the like freedom. There is indeed perfect
liberty in the Holy Land to carry the Gospel to the Jew.
In Constantinople, if you were to preach to the Turks, as some
have tried, banishment is the consequence; but to the Jew you may
carry the message. In WaWtchia and Moldavia the smallest at-
u.-mpt to convert a Greek would drawdown the instant vengeance
of the holy Synod and of the Government. But in every to\vn
wo went freely to the Jews in Bucarest, in Foxany, in Jassy
and in many a remote Wallachian hamlet, we spoke without hin
drance the message to Israel. The door is wide open.
144 SERMON xxv.
Iii Austria, \\here no missionary of any kind is allowed, stil.
we found the Jews willing to hear. In their synagogues we
always found a sanctuary open to us, and often when* they knew
tlu-y could have exposed us, they concealed that we had been
there.
In Prussian Poland, the door is wide open to nearly 100 000
Jews. You dare not preach to the poor Rationalist Protestants.
Even in Protestant Prussia this would not be allowed ; but you
may preach the Gospel to the Jews. By the law of the land
every church is open to an ordained minister ; and one of the
missionaries assured me that he often preached to 400 or 500
Jews and Jewesses at a time. Schools for Jewish children are'
also allowed. We visited three of them, and heard the children
taught the way of salvation by a Redeemer. Twelve years ago
the Jews would not have come near a church.
If these things be true, and I appeal to all of you who know
these countries if it is not ; if the door in one direction is shut,
and the door to Israel is so widely open ; O do you not think that
God is saying by his Providence as well as by his Word, Go
rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel ? Do you think
that our Church, knowing these things, will be guiltless if we do
not obey the call? for the Gospel is the power of God unto salva-
tion, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
4. Because they will give life to the dead world. I have often
thought that a reflective traveller, passing through the countries
of this world, and observing the race of Israel in every land,
might be led to guess, merely from the light of his natural reason,
that that singular people are preserved for some great purpose in
the world. There is a singular fitness in the Jew to be the mis-
sionary of the world. They have not that peculiar attachment
to home and country which we have. They feei that they are
outcasts in every land. They are also inured to every clime ;
they are to be found amid the snows of Russia and beneath the
burning sun of Hindostun. They are also in some measure ac
quainted with all the languages of the world, and yet have one
common language the holy trngue in which to communicate
with one another. All these things must, I should think, suggest
themselves to every intelligent traveller as he passes through
other lands. But what says the Word of God?
Zechariah viii., 13. " It shall come to pass, that as ye were a
curse among the heathen, O h^tise of Judah and house of Israel ;
so will I save you, and he shall be a blessing." To this day they
are a curse among the nations, by their unoelief ; by their covet-
ousness ; but the time is coming when they shall be as great a
blessing as they have been a curse.
Micah v., 7. " And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst
of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the
grass, tha' tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.'
SERMON XXV. 145
Just as we have found, among the parched hills of Jadah, that the
evening dew, coming silently down, gave life to every plant,
making the grass to spring, and the flowers to put forth their
sweetest fragrance, so shall converted Israel be when they come
as dew upon a dead dry world. *
Zech. viii., 23. " In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men
shall take hold, out of all languages of the nations, even shall take
hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you;
for we have heard that God is with you." This never has been
fulfilled ; but as the Word of God is true, this is true. Perhaps
some one may say. If the Jews are to be the great missionaries of
the world, let us s> % nd missions to them only. We have got a new
light let us call back our missionaries from India. They are
wasting their precious lives there in doing what the Jews are to
accomplish. I grieve to think that any lover of Israel should so
far pervert the truth, as to argue in this way. The Bible does not
say that we are to preach only to the Jew, but to the Jew j?rsf.
" Go and preach the gospel to all nations," said the Saviour. Let
us obey his Word like little children. The Lord speed our beloved
missionaries in that burning clime. The Lord give them good
success, and never let one withering doubt cross their pure minds
as to their glorious field of labor. All that we plead for is, that, in
sending our missionaries to the heathen, we may not forget to
begin at Jerusalem. If Paul be sent to the Gentiles, let Peter be
sent to the twelve tribes that are scattered abroad ; and let not a
by-corner in your hearts be given to this cause let it not be an
appendix to the other doings of our Church, but rather let there be
written on the very front of your hearts, and on the banner of
our beloved Church, " To the Jew first," and " Beginning at
Jerusalem."
Lastly, Because there is a great reward. Blessed is he that
blesseth thee ; cursed is he that curseth thee. Pray for the peace
of Jerusalem ; they shall prosper that love her. We have felt
this in our own souls. In going from country to country, we felt
that there was one before us preparing our way. Though we
have had perils in the waters and perils in the wilderness, perils
from sickness, and perils from the heathen, still from all the Lord
has delivered us ; and if it shall please God to restore our revered
companions in this mission, in peace and safety to their anxious
families,* we shall then have good reason to say, that in keeping
his commandment there is great reward.
But your souls shall be enriched also, and our Church, too, if
this cause find its right place in your affections. It was well said
by one who has a deep place in your affections, and who is now
on his way to India, that our Church must not only be evangelical,
but evangelistic also, if she would expect the blessing of God. She
Drs. Black and Keith were at this time still detained by sickness abroad
10
146 SERMON XXVI.
must not only have the light, but dispense it also, if she is to be
continued as a steward of God. May I not take the liberty of add-
ing to this striking declaration, that we must not only be evange
listic, but evangelistic as God would have us to be-~nol only dis-
pense the light on every hand, but dispense it first to the Jew.
Then shall God revive his work in the midst of the years.
Our whole land shall be refreshed as Kilsyth has been. The
cobwebs of controversy shall be swept out of our sanctuaries, the
jarrings and jealousies of our Church be turned into the harmony
of praise, and our own souls become like a well-watered garden
SERMON XXVI.
" BLESSED ARE THE DEAD."*
1 Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth Yea, saith the
Spirit, that they may rest from their labors : and their works do follow them."
Rev. xiv, 13
THERE are two remarkable things in the manner in which these
words are given to us.
I. They are the words of the Father echoed back by the Spirit.
" I heard a voice from heaven." " Yea, saith the Spirit." John's
eye had been riveted upon the wondrous sight mentioned in
verse 1. A Lamb stood on Mount Zion, and one hundred and
forty-four thousand redeemed ones following him whithersoever
he goeth, when suddenly a still small voice broke upon his ear,
saying, " Write, blessed are the dead ;" and then the Holy Spirit
breathed Amen, " Yea, saith the Spirit."
It is written in the law that the testimony of two witnesses is
true. Now here are two witnesses the Father of all and the
Holy Spirit the Comforter, both testifying, that it is a happy thing
to die in the Lord. Is there any of you, God's children, who
tremble at the thought of dying? Does death appear a monster
with a dreadful dart, ready to destroy you? Here are two sweet
and blessed witnesses who declare that death has lost its sting
that the grave has lost its victory. Listen, and the frown will
disappear from the brow of death : the valley will be filled with
light ; the Father and the Holy Spirit both unite in saying,
" Blessed are the dead."
II. " Write" Whatever is written down is more durable, and
lesf liable to be corrupted, than that which is only spcken from
Preached in the summer of 1840
SERMON XXVI. 14
mouth to mouth. For this reason God gave the Israelites the Ten
Commandments, written with his own finger on two tables of
stone. For the same reason he commanded them, on the day they
passed over Jordan, to set up great stones, and plaster them with
plaster, and write upon them all the words of that law. For the
same reason, God commanded his servants, the prophets, to write
their prophecies, and the apostles to write their gospels and
epistles, so that we have a permanent Bible instead of floating
tradition. For this reason, did Job wish his words to be written.
" O that my words were written ! O that they were printed in a
book ! That they were graven with an iron pen, and with lead in
the rock for ever ! I know that my Redeemer liveth." Job. xix..
25. It was one of his precious, ever memorable sayings, a saying
to comfort the heart of a drooping believer in the darkest hour
" I know that my Redeemer liveth" For the same reason did the
voice from heaven say, " write" do not hear it only but write it
print it in a book, grave it with an iron pen, with lead in the
rock for ever.
" Blessed are the dead." Learn the value of this saying. It is
a golden saying, there is gold in every syllable of it. it is sweeter
than honey and the honeycomb ; more precious than gold, yea,
much fine gold. It is precious in the eyes of God. Write it deep
in your hearts ; it will solemnize your life, and will keep you from
being led away by its vain show. It will make the syren songs
of this world inconvenient, and out of tune ; it will sweetly soothe
you in the hour of adversity ; it will rob deatfi of its sting, and the
grave of its victory. Write, write deep on your heart, " Blessed
are the dead which die in the Lord."
Now, consider the words themselves.
1. Blessed are the dead" The world say, " Blessed are the
living ;" but God says, " Blessed are the dead." The world judge
of things by sense, as they outwardly appear to men ; God judges
of things by what they really are in themselves ; he looks at things
in their real color and magnitude. The world say, " Better is a
living dog than a c:ead lion." The world look upon some of their
families, coming out like a fresh blooming flower in the morning,
their cheeks covered with the bloom of health, their step bounding
with the elasticity of youth, riches and luxuries at their command,
long, bright summer days before them. The world say, " There
is a happy soul." God takes us into the darkened room where
some child of God lately dwelt. He points to the pale face where
death sits enthroned, the cheek wasted by long disease, the eye
glazed in death, the stiff hands clasped over the bosom, the friends
standing weeping around, and he whispers in our ears, " Blessed
are the dead." Ah, dear friends, think a moment ! whether does
God or you know best ? Who will be found to be in the right at
last? Alas, what a vain show you are walking in ! Disquieted
in vain. " Man that is in honor and understandeth not, is like the
148 SERMON XXVI.
beasts that perish." Even God's children sometimes sav
" Blessed are the living." It is a happy thing to live in the favoi
of God, to have peace with God, to frequent the throne of grace,
to burn the perpetual incense of praise, to meditate on his word,
to hear the preached gospel, to serve God ; even to wrestle, and
.run. and fiirht in his service is sweet. Still God says, " Blessed
are the dead." If it be happy to have his smile here, how much
happier to have it without a cloud yonder ! If it be sweet to be
tlu- growing corn of the Lord here, how much better to be gathered
into his barn ! If it be sweet to have an anchor within the veil,
how much better ourselves to be there, where no gloom can come !
" In thy presence is fulness of joy ; at thy right hand are pleasures
for evermore." Even Jesus felt this God attests it. " Blessed
are the dead"
1. Not all the dead, but those that "die in the Lord. 9 ' It is
truly amazing the multitudes that die. " Thou earnest them away
as with a flood." Seventy thousand die every day, about fifty
ev( j ry minute, nearly one every second, passing over the verge.
Life is like a stream made up of human beings, pouring on, and
rushing over the brink into eternity. Are all these blessed ? Ah,
no. " Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." Of all that vast
multitude continually pouring into the eternal world, a little com-
pany alone have savingly believed on Jesus. " Strait is the gate
and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be
that find it." It is not all the dead who are blessed. There is no
blessing on the Christless dead ; they rush into an undone eternity,
tmpardoned, unholy. You may put their body in a splendid
coffin; you may print their name in silver on the lid ; you may
bring th<? well-attired company of mourners to the funeral in suits
of solemn black ; you may lay the coffin slowly in the grave ; you
may spread the greenest sod above it ; you may train the sweet-
est flowers to grow over it ; you may cut a white stone, and grave
a gentle epitaph to their memory; still it is but the funeral of a
damned soul. You cannot write blessed where God hath written
" cursed" " He that believeth shall be saved ; he that believeth not
shall be damned."
Consider what is 'mplied in the words, " in the Lord."
J. That they were joined to the Lord. Union to the Lord has
a beginning. Every one that is blessed in dying has been con-
verted. You may dislike the Word, but that is the truth. They
were awakened ; began to weep, pray, weep as they went to seek
the Lord their God. They saw themselves lost, undone, helpless ;
that they could not be just with a holy God. They became
babes. The Lord Jesus drew near, and revealed himself. " I
am the bread of Life." " Him that cometh unto me I will in no-
wise cast out." They believed and were happy ; rejoiced in the
Lord Jesus ; counted everything but loss for Christ. They gave
SERMON XXVI.
themselves to the Lord. This was the beginning of their being
MI Christ.
Dear friends, have you had this beginning ? Have you under-
gone conversion, the new birth, grafting into Christ ? Call it by
any name you will, have you the thing? Has this union to Christ
taken place in your history ? Some say, I do not know. If at
any time of your life you had been saved from drowning, if you
were actually drowned and brought to life again, you would
remember it to your dying hour. Much more if you had been
brought to Christ. If you had been born blind, and by some
remarkable operation your eyes were opened when you were full
grown, would you ever forget it ? So if you have been truly
brought into Christ, you may easily remember it. If not, you
will die in your sins. Whither Christ has gone, thither you cannot
come. " Except ye repent and be converted, ye shall all likewise
perish."
2. Perseverance is implied. Not all that seem to be branches
are branches of the true vine. Many branches fall off the trees
when the high winds begin to blow ; all that are rotten branches.
So in times of temptation, or trial, or persecution, many false
professors drop away. Many that seemed to be believers went
back, and walked no more with Jesus. They followed Jesus ; they
prayed with him; they praised him, but they went back, and
walked no more with him. So is it still. Many among us doubt-
less seem to be converted, they begin well and promise fair, who
will fall off when winter comes. Some have fallen off, I fear,
already ; some more may be expected to follow. These will not
be blessed in dying. O of all death beds, may I be kept from
beholding the death-bed of the false professor ! I have seen it
before now, and I trust I may never see it again. They are not
blessed after death. The rotten branches will burn more fiercely
; n the flames. O think what torment it will be to think that you
spent your life in pretending to be a Christian, and lost your
opportunity of becoming one indeed ! Your hell will be all the
deeper, blacker, hotter, that you knew so much of Christ, and
were so near him, and found him not. Happy are they who
endure to the end, who are not moved away from their hope of
the gospel, who, when others go away, say, Lord, to whom can
we go ? In prosperity, they follow the Lord fully ; in adversity,
they cleave to him closer still, as trees strike their roots deeper in
storms. Is this your case? endure it to the end. Be not moved
away from the hope of the gospel ; Coloss. i., 23. We arc made
partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence
steadfast unto the end ; Heb. iii., 15. Even in the dark valley you
will cling to him still. Come to him as ye came at first, a guilty
creature, clinging to the Lord our Righteousness. Thou wast
made my sin. This is to die in the Lord, and this is to be blessed.
150 SERMON XXVi.
I1J Reasons why they are bl:ssed.
1. Because of the time, "From henceforth." The time of the
persecutions of Popery \v;is coming on. He was to wear out the
saints of the Most High ; he was to overcome and slay the follow
ers of the Lamb. Happy are they that are taken from the evil t.c
come. The righteous perish and no man layeth it to heart.
Merciful men are taken away, none considering that he is taken
away from the evil to come. This is one reason why it is better
to be with Christ. Persecutions and troubles are not easy to flesh
and blood. If in our day we be called to them, we must beai
them boldly, knowing that a good reward is provided for those
that overcome ; see Rev. ii., 3. " And hast borne, and hast
patience, and for my name's sake hast labored and hast not faint-
ed." But if it be the will of God to call us away before the day
of trial come, we must say, "Blessed are the dead who die in the
Lord from henceforth." There will be no persecutions there
All are friends to Jesus there, every one contending who shall
cast their crowns lowest at his feet, who shall exalt him highest in
their praise. No discord there. None to rebuke our song there.
2. They rest from their labors. That which makes everything
laborious here is sin; the opposition of Satan and the world, and
the drag of our old nature. Some believers have a constant
struggle with Satan. He is standing at their r.ght hand to resist
them; he is constantly distracting them in prayer, hurling fiery
darts at their soul, tempting to the most horrid S'n. Their whole
life is labor. But when we die in the Lord, we shall rest tivrn
this labor. Satan's work will be clean done. The accuser of the
brethren will no more annoy. No lion shall be there, ne.thei
shall any ravenous beast go up thereon, but the redeemed shall
walk thewe. But above all, the wicked heart, the old man. the
body of sin, makes this life a dreadful labor. When we wake in
the morning, it lies like a weight upon us. When we would run
in the way of God's commandments, it drags us back. When we
would fly, it weighs us down. When we would pray, it fills our
mouth with other things. "O wretched man that I am." But to
depart and be with Christ, is to be free from this. We shall drop
this body of sin altogether. No more any flesh, all spirit, all new
man ; no more any weight or drag ; we shall rest from our labors.
Oh, it is this makes death in the Lord blessed. We shall not rest
from all work ; we shall be as the angels of God ; we shall serve
him day and night in his temple. We shall not rest from our
work, but from our labors. There will be no toil, no pain, in our
work. We shall rest in our work. Oh, let this make you willing
to depart, and make death look pleasant, and heaven a home.
" We shall rest from our labors." It is the world of holy love,
where we shall give free, full, unfettered, unwearied expression to
our love for ever*."
3. Works Jillow. Our good works done in the name of Jesus
ADDRESS 151
shall then be rewarded. 1st, Observe, they shall not go before
the soul. It is not on account of them we shall be accepted. We
must be accepted first altogether on account of him in whom we
stand. 2d, Our evil works shall be forgotten, buried in the depths
of the sea, forgotten, not more mentioned. 3d, All that we have
done out of love to Jesus shall then be rewarded. We may forget
them, and say to Jesus, " When saw we thee sick or in prison, and
came unto thee ?" But he will not forget them : " Inasmuch as
ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have
done it unto me." A cup of cold water shall not go unrewarded.
Look to the recompense of reward, dear friends, and it will take
the sting from death.
IV. What followed. The Lord Jesus "put in his sickle and
reaped." See verses 14, 15.
1. Learn that the Lord Jesus gathers his sheaves before a
storm, just as farmers do ; so when you see him gathering ripe
saints, be sure that a storm is near.
2. Learn that Jesus gathers his saints in love. When Jesus
gathers his own, he does it in love. Do not mourn for them as
those who have no hope. Jesus has gathered them into his
bosom. They shall shine as the sun.
ADDRESS
ON THE CLOSE OF A COMMUNION SABBATH.
" What have I to do any more with idols ?" Hosea xiv., 8.
EVERY one who has been truly united to Christ, and has this day
confessed him before men, should now take up these words, and
solemnly, in the presence of God, declare, ' What have I to do
any more with idols?" Two reasons are given.
I. Verse 4. God loves you freely. If you are this day come
to Jesus, God loves you freely. If you believe on him that justi-
fieth the ungodly, your faith is counted for righteousness. As
long as you came to God in yourself, you were infinitely vile,
loathsome, condemned ; mountains of iniquity covered your soul ;
but blessed, blessed, blessed be the Holy Spirit who has led you
to Jesus. You have come to God's righteous servant, who by his
knowledge justifies many, because he bears their iniquities. Your
sins are covered, God sees no iniquity in you ; God loves you
freely, his anger is turned away from you. What have you to do
then anv more with idols? Is not the love of God enomrh for
152 ADDRESS.
thee ? The loving and much loved wife is satisfied with the lov
of her husband ; his smile is her joy, she cares little for any other.
So, if you have come to Christ, thy Maker is thine husband ; his
free love to you is all you need, and all you can care for ; there is
no cloud between you and God ; there is no veil between you and
the Father ; you have access to him who is the fountain of hap-
piness, of peace, of holiness ; what have you to do any more with
idols ? Oh ! if your heart swims in the rays of God's love, like a
little mote swimming in the sunbeam, you will have no room in
your heart for idols.
II. The Spirit, like dew, descends on your souls. Verse 5, " I
will be like the dew." If you are this day united to Jesus, the
Spirit will come like dew upon your soul. The Spirit is given to
them that obey Jesus, " I will pray the Father." When all nature
is at rest, not a leaf moving, then at evening the clew comes
down, no eye to see the pearly drops descending, no ear to hear
them falling on the verdant grass, so does the Spirit come to you
who believe. When the heart is at rest in Jesus, unseen, unheard
by the world, the Spirit comes, and softly fills the believing soul,
quickening all, renewing all within. ' If I go away I will send
him unto you." Dear little ones, whom God hath chosen out of
this world, you are like Gideon's fleece, the Lord will fill you
with dew when all around is dry. You are his vineyard of red
wine ; he says, I will water it every moment, silently, unfelt, un-
seen, but surely. But, ah ! that Spirit is a holy Spirit. " I the
Lord thy God am a jealous God." He cannot bear an idol in his
temple. When the ark of God was carried into the temple of
Dagon, the idol fell flat before it ; much more when the Holy
Spirit comes into the heart will he cast out the idols.
" When Christ came into the temple, he found those that sold
oxen, and 'sheep, and doves, and the changers of money, sitting ;
and when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all
out of the temple." John ii., 15. So when the Holy Spirit comes
into any heart, he drives out the buyers and sellers. If you have
received the Spirit, you will be crying now in your heart, Lord,
take these things hence ; drive them out of my h^art. What
have I to do any more with idols ? Some of the idds to be cast
away are.
1. Self -righteousness. This is the largest idol of the human
heart, the idol which man loves most and God hates most. Dear-
ly beloved, you will always be going back to this idol. You are
always trying to be something in yourself, to gain God's favor by
thinking little of your sin, or by looking to your repentance, tears,
prayers ; or by looking to your religious exercises, your frames,
&c. ; or by looking to your graces, the Spirit's work in your heart.
Beware of false Christs. Study sanctification to the utmost, but
make not a Christ of it. God h'ates this idol more than all others
ADDRESS 153
becauoe it comc-s in the place of Christ ; it sits on Christ's throne.
Jusl '*s the woiship of the Virgin Mary is the worst of ail kinds
of idolatry, because it puts her in the place of Christ, so self-right-
eousness is the idol God hates most, for it sits on the throne of
Christ. Dash it down, dear friends; let it never appear airain.
It <s like Manasseh's carved image in the holiest of all. When
Manasseh came home an altered man to Jerusalem, would not hia
first visit be to the holiest of all? With eager hand he would
draw the veil aside ; and when he found the carved image, he
would dash it down from the throne of God. Go and do likewise.
If you feel God's love freely by the righteousness without works,
then why would you go back to this grim idol ? What have I to
do any more with idols ?
2. fjyrling Sins. Every man has his darling sins. Long they
kept yr.u from the Lord Jesus. You have this day declared that
you were willing to leave them all for Christ. Go home, then,
-%nd perform your vows. After Hezekiah's passover, when they
ngd enjoyed much of the love and spirit of God, " All Israel that
nere present went home, and broke the images in pieces, and cut
*own the groves, until they had utterly destroyed them all."
Vou might have seen them entering the shady groves and dash-
ng down the carved images. Go you and do likewise. Dash
lown family idols, unholy practices that have spread through your
family. Dash down secret idols in your own heart. Leave not
one. Remember, one Achan in the camp troubled Israel, and
they were smitten before their enemies. So, one idol left in your
heart may trouble you. Let Achan be slain if you would go on
your way rejoicing. What have I to do any more with idols ?
" If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off."
3. Unlawful attachments. There is not a more fruitful source
of sin and misery than unlawful attachments. How much of the
poetry and music of our country are given over to the 'worship of
the idols of a foolish heart ! How many are given over to wor-
ship a piece of clay that will soon be eaten of worms ! O my
friends, have you felt the love of God ? Do you feel the sweet,
full beams of his grace shining down upon your soul ? Have you
received the dew of his Spirit? How can you, then, any more
love a creature that is void of the grace of God? What hive
you to do any more with idols ? Dear young persons, abhor the
idea of marriage with the unconverted. Be not unequally yoked
together with unbelievers. Marry only in the Lord. Remember,
if it be otherwise, it is a forbidden marriage. There may be none
on earth so kind or faithful as to forbid the banns. Earthly friends
may be kind and smiling; the marriage circle may be gay and
lovely : but God forbids the banns. But may there not be a law-
ful attachment ? I believe there may ; but take heed it be not an
idol. I believe they are happiest who are living only for eternity,
who have no object in this world to divert their hearts from Christ.
154 ADDRESS.
" The time is short ; it remaineth that they who have wives be as
though they had none." " What have I to do any more with
idols ?"
4. Ministers. You have good reason to love ministers, and to
esteem them highly for their works' sake. They love you ; they
watch for your souls as they that must give an account ; they bear
you on their hearts ; they travail in birth till Christ be formed in
you ; they spend and are spent for you ; they often endure amaz
ing temptations, agonies, wrestlings, for your sake.
Some have been your spiritual fathers. This is a holy tie that
will never be broken. You have good reason to love your spiri-,
tuaJ father. You may have ten thousand instructors in Christ,
&c. ; but ah ! make not an idol of them. The people that would
have worshipped Paul, were the very people that stoned him, and
left him for dead. O I wish that this day may bring you so near
to Christ, and so much under the love of God and the dew of Israel,
that you shall no more glory in man ! What have I to do any
more with idols ?
5. Earthly pleasures. This is a smiling, dazzling idol, that has
ten thousand worshippers, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of
God. What have you to do any more with this idol ? Some-
times it is a gross idol. The theatre is one of its temples, there it
sits enthroned. The tavern is another, where its reeling, stagger-
ing votaries sing its praise. What have you to do with these ?
Have you the love of God in your soul, the Spirit of God in you?
How dare you cross the threshold of a theatre or a tavern any
more ? What ! the Spirit of God amid the wanton songs of a
theatre, or the boisterous merriment of a tavern ! Shame on such
practical blasphemy ! No ; leave them, dear friends, to be cages
of devils and of every unclean and hateful bird. You must never
cross their threshold any more. What shall I say of games, cards,
dice, dancing? I will only say this, that if you love them you
have never tasted the joys of the new creature. If you feel the
love of God and the Spirit, you will not lightly sin these joys
away amid the vain anxieties of cards, or the rattling of senseless
dice. What shall I say of simpering tea-parties, the pleasures of
religious gossipping, and useless calls, without meaning, sincerity,
or end ? I will only say, they are the happiest of God's children
who have neither time nor heart for these things. I believe there
cannot be much of the Spirit where there is much of these. What
sh:ill I say of dress? A young believer, full of faith and joy, was
offered a present of flowers for her hair. She would not take
them. She was pressed to accept them ; still she refused. Why
will you not ? Ah, she said, how can I wear roses on my brow,
when Christ wore thorns on his ? The joy of being in Christ is
p sweet, that it makes all other joys insipid, dull, lifeless. In his
right hand are riches and honors ; in his left are length of days.
ADDRESS. I5a
His ways are ways of pleasantness. What, then, have I to do any
more with idols?
6. Money. Dear souls, if you have felt the love of God, the
dew, you must dash down this idol. You must not love money.
You must be more open-hearted, more open-handed. To the poor
" He that gives to the poor lends to the Lord." " Inasmuch as
ye did it to the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me."
You must build more churches. God be praised for what has been
done ; but you must do far more. I have as many in this parish
who go nowhere as would' fill another church. You must give
more to missions, to send the knowledge of Jesus to the Jews, and
to the Gentile world. O how can you grasp your money in hand
so greedily, while there are hundreds of millions perishing? You
that give tens must give your hundreds. You that are poor must
do what you can. Remember Mary, and the widow's mite. Let
us resolve to give the tenth of all we have to God. God is able
to make all grace abound toward you, that ye always having all-
sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.
7. Fear of man. Grim idol, bloody mouthed ; many souls he
has devoured and trampled down into hell ! His eyes are full of
hatred to Christ's disciples. Scoffs and jeers lurk in his eye. The
laugh of the scorner growls in his throat. Cast down this idol
This keeps some of you from secret prayer, from worshipping
God in your family, from going to lay your case before ministers,
from openly confessing Christ. You that have felt God's love and
Spirit, dash this idol to pieces. Who art thou, that thou shouldst
be afraid of a man that shall die? Fear not, thou worm Jacob.
What have I to do any more with idols ?
Dearly-beloved and longed-for, my heart's desire for you is, to
sec you a holy people. How much longer my ministry may be
continued among you God only knows ; but if God give me health
and grace among you, I here willingly devote my all to him. No
moment, no pleasure, no ease, no wealth, do I wish for myself. I
feel that he has bought me, and I am his property. O come, give
yourselves to the Lord with me. Bind yourselves to the horns ot
God's altar. Time past is enough to have been the devil's, the
world's, our own. Now, let us be Christ's alone. Are you wil-
ling ? Lord, bear witness ; seal it in heaven ; write it in thy
book. Bear witness, angels, devils, scowling world, bear witness,
sun and moon, bear witness, stones and timber, bear witness, Jesus,
Lamb of God ! We are thine now, and thine for ever. What
have we to do any more with idols ?
'25th Oct., 1840.
156 ADDRESS.
ADDRESS.
AFTER THE COMMUNION.
" But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in th
Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life " Jude 20-21.
I. Those that have been built on Christ have need to build them-
selves still more on Christ. If you come rightly to this table, you
have been hewn out of the rock, and carried, and laid on the sure
foundation. Others set at naught that stone, but to you it is the
only name under heaven. You have been built on Christ alone
for righteousness. Think not all is done, forget what is behind.
You have begun salvation, work out your salvation.
1. Build yourselves more simply on Christ, on Christ alone, his
blood and righteousness. Some are like a stone resting half on
the foundation and half on the sand. Some take half their peace
from Christ's finished work, and half from the Spirit's work within
them. Now the whole of our justification must be from Christ
alone. Other foundation can no man lay.
2. Build yourselves more surely on Christ. Some stones do not
lie smoothly on the foundation, they are apt to totter. Seek, bre-
thren, to get a sure founding on the Lord Jesus Christ. " If ye
continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away
from the hope of the gospel." It is easy to sail with a gentle sea
and the wind in the west, but the gale tries whether the ship be
rightly balanced. It is easy to believe in a sunny day like this,
when broken bread and poured out wine have been in your hands;
but slop till you are in the wilderness, or afar at sea alone, stop
till fresh guilt lies on the conscience, stop till a strong temptation
blows ; O then to rely on Christ alone for righteousness ! Under
a sight of sin, Satan grappling with the soul ; O then to look up
into the face of Christ and say, Thou art my robe, my righteous-
ness, my shield, thy blood, thy obedience is enough for me ! this
is to believe.
II. Pray in the Holy Ghost. When a believer prays he is not
alone, there are three with him, the Father seeing in secret, his ear
open ; the Son blotting out sin, and offering up the prayer ; the
Holy Ghost quickening and giving desires. There ca"n be no true
prayer without these three. Some people pray like a parrot, re-
peating words when the heart is far from God. Some pray with-
out the Father. They do not feel. They are speaking to the back
of their chair, or to the world, or to the empty air. Some pray
without the Son. They come in their own name ; in their own
righteousness That is the sacrifice of fools. Some pray with-
out the Holy Ghost. These are not filled with divine breath-
ings. Dear friends, if you would live, you must pray ; and if you
ADDRESS. 157
would pray with acceptance, you must pray to the Father in the
name of Jesus, and by his Spirit quickening.
1. Get the Holy Ghost. Many seem not to know if there be a
Holy Spirit. Jesus being raised by the Father, has obtained the
Spirit. Ask him.
2. Let him breathe within you. Do not vex him.
3. Pray without ceasing. Whatever you need, ask him imme-
diately. Have set times of approaching God solemnly Let
nothing interfere with these times. Take your best time.
III. Keep yourselves in tlie love of God. It is when you are
built on Christ, and praying in the Holy Ghost, that you keep
yourselves in the love of God. There is one glorious Being whom
God loves infinitely. " I am not alone, for the Father is with me."
He loved him from eternity, for the pure, spotless image of him-
self. He loved him for laying down his life. He is well pleased
for his righteousness' sake. The eye of the all-perfect One rests
with perfect complacency on him. Have you this day come into
Christ this day come under his shield are this day found in
him ? If you are in the love of God, keep yourselves there.
1. Care not for the love of the world. If you were of the world,
the world would love its own. Its best smiles are little worth.'
The world is a dying thing a crucified man to them that are in
Christ.
2. Prize the love of God. Oh it is sweet to be in the garden
of spices to have God for your refuge God rejoicing over you.
1st, This takes all the sting away from affliction. God is love to
me. The hand that wounds is the gentlest and most loving.
2d, This takes their sting from the world's reproaches. 3d, This
makfs death sweet. It is a leap into the arms of infinite love,
though to some a leap into a dark eternity. O keep yourselves in
the love of God.
IV. Looking for mercy. You will be incomplete Christians if
you do not look for the coming again of the Lord Jesus. If the
Table has been sweet to-day, what will it be when Jesus comes
again to receive us to himself ? If his love-letters and love-tokens,
sent from a far country, be so sweet, what will the Bridegroom
himself be when he comes and takes us by the hand to present us
to himself, and acknowledge us before an assembled world ?
1. You will gel an open acquittal on that day. Now he gives
us sweet acquittal at the bar of conscience : he says, " Peace be
unto you." But when it is open, we shall wear the blood-washed
robe. It will need to Be mercy even at that day.
2. Perfect deliverance from sin. Now he gives us the victory
by faith. He gives us to feel the thorn, and to look up for grace
sufficient. Then he will take the thorn away. We shall be like
Jesus in soul and body. O be casting sweet looks of love towardi
158 SERMON XXVII.
that day. When a child is expecting an elder brother's return
when he is to bring some gift, how often he runs to the windovf
and watches for his coming. Your elder brother is coming with
a sweet gift. O cast your eye often towards the clouds, to see if
they will break and let his beautiful feet through ! Shorten }he
time by anticipation.
3. Jesus no more dishonored. Honor to the Lamb is a sweet
mercy to a believing soul. A high day like this, when Jesus gets
many a crown cast at his feet, is sweet to a believing soul. How
much more the day when we shall wear his full crown, and when
the slain lamb shall be fully praised ; and when he shall come to
be glorified, who once came to be spit upon. That truly shall be
mercy to our poor soul. Our cup shall run over.
3d January, 1841.
SERMON XXVII.
TURN YOU AT MY REPROOF.
M Wisdom crieth without ; she uttereth her voice in the streets : she crieth in the
chief places of concourse, in the openings of the gates : in the city she uttereth
her words, saying, How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity ? and the
ecorners, delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge ? Turn you at my
reproof: behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my
words unto you." Prov. i., 20-23.
THAT none other than our Lord Jesus Christ is intended to be
minted to us under the majestic figure of Wisdom in the Book of
Proverbs, is evident from the passage before us. Of whom but
the Saviour could it be said so truly that he stood with outstretch-
ed hands in the streets, in the markets, and in the openings of the
gates, crying after the simple ones the publicans and sinners ;
and the scorners the Scribes and Pharisees ; and those haters of
knowledge the Jewish priesthood ? And again, of whom but
the Saviour could it be said, with any truth at all, that he offered
to " pour out his Spirit upon the returning sinner, and to make
known his words unto him ?" Christ alone " hath ascended up on
high, leading captivity captive ; and hath received gifts for men,
yea, even for the rebellious, that the Lord God might dwell among
them."
Before pressing home upon you, brethren, this earnest and soul-
piercing call of the Saviour, there are two explanations which I
anxiously desire you to bear in mind First, That the call of the
Saviour, in the words before us, and the promise with which it is
accompanied, are addressed to sinners, and not to saints. Nay
more, they are not addressed to all sinners promiscuously ; they
sriuioN xxvn 159
are not addressed to those who have been awakened to know their
sin and danger, and are crying out, " Men and brethren, what
ghall we do?" but they are addressed to the simple ones, who are
loving their simplicity to the scorners, who delight in their scorn-
ing to the fools, that hate knowledge. The Bible is full of most
precious promises to Christ's " hidden ones," his peculiar people,
his body, his bride ; and there are many pressing calls and most
winning encouragements to those in whom God hath begun the
good work by convincing them of sin. But the words before us
belong to neither of these ; they are addressed to those who are
lead in trespasses and sins ; to those who are so much lost that
they do not know that they are lost ; to those who are happy and
comfortable in their sins ; to those who have not a doubt as to the
sufficiency of their worldly decency and respectability as a
righteousness before God, and who do not so much as move the
question whether they are saved or unsaved ; the simple ones loving
their simplicity, the scorners who delight in scorning, the fools who
hate knowledge.
Is there none of you who has a secret suspicion that he may be
iust one of these characters which we have described ? I would
beseech that man to feel that HE, then, is this day addressed by the
Saviour, not in the accents of wrath, but of tenderest kindness.
It is to you that Jesus stretches out these beseeching hands. It is
to you that Jesus speaks these gentle wowds. Oh ! how blinded
you are to the bowels and compassions of the Saviour. Oh ! how
you dishonor him every day by your hard and blasphemous
thoughts of him. You think that because you delight in going
away from him, therefore he hath nothing but messages of anger
and of coming judgment for you. But, oh ! how much wiser to
gather his thoughts toward you from his own words : " Turn you
at my reproof. Behold I will pour out, not judgment, but my Spirit
unto you, I will make known my words unto you."
My second explanation is, That the call of Christ is to an im-
mediate conversion. He doth not say : WHY will ye love your
simplicity ? but, " How long will ye love your simplicity ?" And
again, he doth not say, Turn at any time, and I will pour out my
Spirit unto you ; but, " Turn at my reproof ;" that is, Turn this
day while I am reproving you. Immediate turning unto God
immediate application to the blood of Christ immediate accept-
ance of the righteousness of God a movement this day conver-
sion this day this, and nothing but this, is the doctrine of the text.
Let none of you say, I will take the gracious offer into considera-
tion I will take up the question some day soon with all due de-
liberation I will set apart some future day for the very purpose
of settling it. That man of you is as effectually casting a mockery
on the words of the Saviour, as if he were to say, I will have
neither part nor lot in this matter. It is not resolutions for the
future that Christ asks of you, and to which he attaches the pro.
160 SERMON xxvn.
misc of the Spirit : it is a turning this ilay conversion this day,
whilst he is reproving you.
Having premised these things, it is now my desire to press
home upon you the call of the Saviour by means of three argu-
ments.
I. The call of the Saviour ought to be obeyed by you, because of
the rich promise with which it is seconded. " Turn you at my re-
proof: behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make
known my words unto you."
Often in the Bible are sinners entreated to turn and believe on
Jesus, for the sake of the peace and the pardon to be found in be-
lieving ; but the argument here is a more rare, and perhaps a still
more moving one. Here you are besought to turn and believe,
that you may be made new creatures : " Turn you at my reproof:
behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you."
1. Think how essential such a change is to your well-being:
" Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
' Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." To dwell in the
new heavens and the new earth, we must be made new creatures.
There will be exquisite scenery in heaven, when the pearly gates
of the New Jerusalem appear ; but a blind man could not enjoy
it. There will be exquisite melody in heaven, from the golden
harps of angels and the redeemed ; but a man without an ear for
music could not enjoy it. And just so there will be spotless holi-
ness in heaven it will be the very atmosphere of heaven how,
then, could an unholy soul enjoy it? " Marvel not that I said unto
you, Ye must be born again." But if this be an essential change
2. Think how impossible it is with man. Search every sect
and system of philosophy, search every plan of education, search
from one end of the earth to the other, where will you find a power
to make you holy ?
" The depth saith, It is not in me :
And the sea saith, It is not with me.
It cannot be gotten for gold,
Neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.
No mention shall be made of coral, or of pears :
For the price of Wisdom is above rubies."
A man may be able to change his sins, but, ah ! what man can
change his heart? The reason why this is utterly impossible with
man, is, that he is not only fond of the objects of sin, but he is fond
of his sinful heart ; he is not only simple, but he loves his sim-
plicity ; not only scornful, but delights in scorning ; not only a
fool, but he hates the very knowledge that would make him wise
unto salvation. Which of you, then, does not feel the power of
the Saviour's tenderness in ti e offer which he makes this day to
the most careless and unawakened of you all : " Turn you at my
reproof: behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you." If you will
SERMON XXVII. 101
only turn and accept of Christ this day, he offers to give you that
Spirit which alone can make you a new creature which alone
can give you a heart that will do for heaven.
You utterly mistake the matter, if you think that Christ here
offers to put you under a system of strictness and restraint. Yon
utterly mistake the matter, if you think the gift of the Spirit is to
make you walk in ways of preciseness and of pain ; for the whole
Bible testifies that' the ways 'in which the Spirit leads us are ways
of pleasantness and peace. Suppose a man happened to be so
foolish and inconsiderate as to have an invincible relish for some
poisonous drug, because of the sweetness and agreeableness of
the taste ; and had formed the habit of making such constant use
of it that death would, through time, be the inevitable consequence.
I can imagine two ways in which the friends of that inconsiderate
man, anxious for his life, might cure him of his strange and most
destructive appetite. \st, They might forcibly restrain and keep
him away from the use of the poison, forbidding it even to be
brought within his sight. This would be the system of restric-
tion ; the appetite would remain, but it would be crossed and de-
nied. Or, %dly, Instead of forcibly taking away the poison, they
might bring new and wholesome objects before him, the taste of
which was far more agreeable and excellent ; so that, when
once he had tasted these, there would be no fear of his so much as
desiring the poison any more. A new taste has been introduced,
so that the drug which seemed sweet and agreeable before, seems
now no longer palatable. Now, though this parable be a very
imperfect one, yet it shows distinctly the one feature in sanctifica-
tion which I wish to bring into view, namely, its pleasantness.
The Spirit which Christ oners sanctifies us never in the first way,
but always in the second way ; not by restraining us, but by
making us new. By nature we love sin, the world and the things
of the world, though we know that the wages of sin is death.
Now to cure this I can imagine a man setting himself down
deliberately to cross all his corrupted passions, to restrain all his
appetites, to reject and trample on all the objects that the natural
heart is set upon. This is the very system recommended by Sa-
tan, by anti- Christ, and the world. But there is a far more excel-
lent way, which the Holy Ghost makes use of in sanctifying us ;
not the way of changing the objects, but the way of changing the
affections ; not by an external restraint, but by an internal renew-
ing. As it is said in Ezekiel : " A new heart also will I give you,
and a new spirit will I put within you ; and I will take away the
stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you an heart of nesh ;
and I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my
statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them." AM
then, brethren, if there be one poor sinner here who has been de-
ceived by the detestable heresy of the world as if the keeping
of the commandments by the saints were a grievous and unwilling
11
162 SEBMON XXVII.
service let that man. this day, open his eyes to the true nature
of Gospel holiness t'nat God does not offer to work in you to do
without first working in you to will He does not offer to pluck
from you your favorite oVjects ; but he offers to give you a new
taste for higher objects ; and just as the boy finds it no hardship to
cast away the toys and trifles that were his bosom friends in child-
hood, so the saint feels no hardship in casting away the wretched
playthings that so long amused and cheated the soul ; for behold a
new world hath been opened up by the Spirit of God, to the ad-
miring, enamored gaze of the believer in Jesus.
Behold, then, ye simple ones, that are loving your simplicity,
what an argument is here to move you to immediate conversion ;
to immediate acceptance of Jesus ! If you will only put on Christ,
behold he offers this day to begin the work of creating you anew ;
not of crossing and restraining you, and tying you down to services
which you loathe, but of giving you a taste and a delight in ob-
jects which angels, which every holy and happy being delights in.
" Turn you at my reproof."
II. The call of the Saviour to TURN NOW ought to be obeyed by
us, because conversion becomes every day harder. There is no law
of our nature that works with a surer und more silent power than
the law of habit. That which at nrst we find the utmost difficulty
in accomplishing, becomes easier upon every trial, till habit be-
comes as it were, a second nature. Thus, in learning to read
how slow and how gradual is the progress made ! until, trained
by oft-repeated trial, the stammering tongue becomes the tongue
of grace and fluency. Nay, so easy does the art become, that we
at length forget to notice the very letters which compose the
words we read. Just similar is the growth of habit in sinning.
Depraved as is the natural heart, yet the ingenuous mind of youth
finds something painful and revolting in acquiring the first oath
which fashion or companionship obliges him to learn. The loose
jest and the irreligious sneer, will generally summon up the blush
of indignation in the cheek of the simple-hearted boy, newly usher-
ed into the busy world. But who does not know the power of
habit in rubbing off the fine varnish of the delicate mind ? who
has not within a few months, heard the oath drop as if with native
vivacity from the tongue ? who has not seen vice and profanity
pass unreproved, even by the silent blush of shame ? As it is
with these sins, so it is with the greatest sin of which humanity is
guilty ; the sin of rejecting the Saviour. There is a time in youth
when the mind seems peculiarly open to the reception of a Saviour.
There is a time when the understanding and the affections sud-
denly burst forth into maturity, like the rose-bud bursting into the
full-blown rose ; a time when all the passions of our nature spurn
contrr.'. and break forth with a reckless impetuosity; and all . x-
perience testifies that that is the time when conviction of sin may
SERMON XXVII. 163
most easily be wrought in the soul ; the time when the work ano
sufferings of the Saviour may with greatest hope of success be
presented to the mind. It is then that the whole scene of Gospel
truth flashes upon the mind with a freshness and a power which,
in all human probability, it never will do again. The tenderness
of a Saviour's love, if resisted then, will everyday lose more of its
novelty and of its power to touch the heart ; the habit of resist-
ance to the word and testimony of a beseeching God will every
day become more predominant ; the stony heart will every day
become more a heart of adamant; the triple brass of unbelief will
every day become more impenetrable. Oh ! my friends, it is fear-
ful to think how many among us are every hour subjecting our
hearts to this sure and silent process of hardening. Look back,
brethren, as many of you may do, to the time when Christ and his
sufferings had first an awakening interest to your soul. Look
back to the first death in your family, or the first time you pre-
pared to sit down at the holy sacrament. Were there not arous-
ing, quickening feelings stirred in your breast, which now you
have not ? Had you not some struggle of conscience ; something
like a felt kicking against the pricks, in rejecting Christ, in putting
away the tenderness of the tenderest of beings ? But you were
successful in the struggle, you smothered every disquieting whis-
per, you lulled every pang of uneasiness. The Spirit was striv-
ing with you ; but you quenched his awakening influences. And
now, do you not feel that these days of feeling are well-nigh past ;
that spirit-stirring seasons are becoming every year rarer and
rarer to you ? Deaths are more frequent around you ; but they
speak with less power to your conscience. Every sacrament
seems to lose something of its affecting energy ; every Sabbath
becomes more dull and monotonous. It is true you may NOT feel
all this. There is a state of the conscience in which it is said to
be past feeling. But if there be any truth in the Bible, and any
identity in human nature, this process of hardening is going on day
after day in every unconverted mind. Oh ! it is the saddest of all
sights that a godly minister can behold, to see his flock, Sabbath
alter Sabbath, waiting most faithfully on the stirring ministrations
of the Word, and yet going away unawakened and unimpressed ;
for well he knows that the heart that is not turned, is all the more
hainened.
How simple and how mighty an argument is here to persuade
you to turn to God this day. This day we hold out to you all the
benefits to be found in Christ ; forgiveness through his blood, ac-
ceptance through his righteousness, sane tificat ion by his Spirit.
Rejoct them, and you add not only another act of sin to the burden
of your guilt, but you add another hardening crust to your im-
penetrable heart. Phis day refuse Christ, and, by all human calcu-
lation, you will more surely refuse him the next day ; so that,
A/..uKii at all meaning to question the sovereignty of the Spirit of
164 SERMON XXVII.
God, who workcth whensoever and on whomsoever it pleaseth him,
the only conclusion that any reasonable man has a right to come to,
is, that this day, of all days between this and judgment, is the best
and likeliest for your conversion ; and your dying day that sad
season of tossings and heavings, before the spirit is torn from its
earthly tenement is, in all human calculation, the worst day of
your life for turning unto God. When the minister of Christ pulls
aside the curtains of your bed, to speak the word of Jesus Christ,
the ear that for a whole lifetime has heard the glad message of
salvation all unmoved, will, in that hour, hear as if it did not hear.
The heart that has so long turned aside the edge of the Word of
Life, will then be like the nether millstone. " To-day, then, if ye
will hear His voice, harden not your hearts."
III. The call of the Saviour to turn now ought to be obeyed by
us, because the Saviour will not always call. " My Spirit will not
always strive with man," was the warning of God given to the
antediluvian world. " Now they are hid from thine eyes" was a
similar warning given by the Saviour to Jerusalem. And the pas-
sage immediately following the text, expresses the same sentiment
in still more fearful language. And who does not see the solem-
nity and power which it gives to the call of the Saviour, that the
time is at hand when he will not call any more ?
Behold yon majestic figure bearing on his body the marks of
the Man of Sorrows ; but bearing in his eye and words the aspect
of Him " who liveth, and was dead, and behold he is alive for ever-
more." Behold, how he stands in an attitude of unmingled tender-
ness to sinners, even the chief! Behold, how the beseeching
hands are stretched out ! Hearken to the soft accents of mercy,
of invitation, of promise : " / will pour out my spirit unto you."
But remember that attitude of mercy is but for a time: these be-
seeching hands are stretched out only for a time; these accents of
gentleness are but for a time. The day is at hand when he shall
come " with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also
which pierced him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because
of him." This is Christ's attitude of judgment. No more are the
inviting hands stretched out beseechingly ; for the rod of iron is
in his right hand, and his enemies are before him as a potter's
vessel. His right hand teacheth him terrible things ; his arrows
are sharp in the hearts of the King's enemies, whereby the people
fall under him. And oh ! how fearfully shall his accents of ten-
derness be changed !
" I also will laugh at your calamity ;
I will mock when your fear cometh ;
When your fear cometh as desolation ;
And your destruction cometh as a whirlwind ;
\V hen uidireas a, d anguish cometh upon you."
Oh ! what a day will it be, when the tender-hearted iy>
SERMON XXVII. 165
that wept at the grave of Lazarus, shall laugh at your cala-
mity, and mock at your terrors ! The contrast between these
two representations is so striking, that it cannot escape the
notice of any one. But what I wish you to observe is, that it is
not only a very striking change, but a very sudden one. The
transition from kindness to indignation is here not gradual, like
the change from day into night. There is no twilight, as it were ;
the transition is sudden as it is terrible. May not this be intended
to teach us that God frequently ceases to strive with men, not
gradually, but suddenly? not only that death is frequently sudden,
and that the coming of the Son of Man shall surely be sudden, as
a thief in the night, but that the withdrawing of the beseeching
Saviour from living men who long resist his call, is often sudden
and irremediable ? Awake, then, brethren, those of you who
think it is all one when you repent and embrace the Saviour,
provided it be done before you die. Awake, those of you who
say : " A little more sleep, and a little more slumber ; a little
more folding of the hands to sleep." The sun of grace may set
not like the sun of nature ; there may be no calm and tranquil
twilight, when thou mightest bethink thee of the coming darkness,
and flee to Him who is the light of the world. However this may
be, there is enough surely in the fact, that the Spirit withdraws
from those who resist him, whether suddenly or gradually, to
move every one of you this day to immediate conversion. It
must be now, or it may be never.
On a winter evening, when the frost is setting in with growing
intensity, and when the sun is now far past the meridian, and
gradually sinking in the western sky, there is a double reason why
the ground grows every moment harder and more impenetrable
to the plough. On the one hand, the frost of evening, with
ever-increasing intensity, is indurating the stiffened clods. On
the other hand, the genia! rays, which alone can soften them, are
every moment withdrawing and losing their enlivening power.
Oh ! brethren, take heed that it be not so with you. As long as
you are unconverted, you are under a double process of harden-
ing. The frosts of an eternal night are settling down upon your
souls; and the ,Sun of Righteousness, with westering wheel, is
hastening to set upon you for evermore. If, then, the plough of
grace cannot force its way into your ice-bound heart to-day, what
likelihood is there that it will enter in to morrow ? Amen.
Larbert, JVov. 15, 1835.
166 SERMON XXVIII.
SERMON XXVIII.
A SON HONORETH HIS FATHER.
" A *on honoreth hi3 father, and a servant his master : if then I be a father, w h*.re
is mine honor ? and if I be a master, where is my fear ? saith the Lord of
hosts unto you." Mai. i., 6.
THE first conviction that is essential to the conversion of the soul,
is conviction of sin ; not the general conviction that all men are.
sinful, but the personal conviction that I am an undone sinner:
not the general conviction that' other men must be forgiven or
perish, but the personal conviction that I must be forgiven or
perish. Now, there is no greater barrier in the way of this truth
being impressed on the soul, than the felt consciousness of pos-
sessing many virtues. We cannot be persuaded that the image
of God has so completely been effaced from our souls as the Bible
tells us, when we feel within ourselves, and see exhibited in others,
what may almost be termed godlike virtues. The heroes of
whom we have read in history, with their love of country, and
contempt of death, their constancy in friendship, and fidelity in
affection, seem to rise up before us to plead the cause of injured
humanity. And what is far more baffling, our every-day expe-
rience of the kindness of hospitality, the flowings of unbounded
generosity, the compassion that weeps because another weeps ;
and all this among men that care not for Christ and his salvation,
seems to raise a barrier impregnable against the truth, that man
is conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity. When we enter one
cottage door, and see a whole company of brothers and sisters
melted into tears at the sight of a dying sister's agonies ; or when
we enter another door, and see the tenderness of a mother's
affection toward the sick infant in her bosom ; or when we see, in
a third family, the cheerful obedience which the children pay to
an aged father ; or, in a fourth family, the scrupulous integrity
with which the servant manages the affairs of an earthly master,
we are ready to ask, Is this indeed a world of sin 1 is it possible
that the wrath of God can be in store for such a world ? It will
be very generally granted, that there are some men so utterly
worthless and incorrigible, so far gone in the ways of desperate
wickedness, that nothing else is to be expected for them, but "an
eternity of hopeless misery. There is a crew of abandoned
profligates, who scoff at the very name of God and religion.
There are Atheists, who openly deny his very being ; Infidels,
who openly deny that Christ came in the flesh. There are cold-
blooded murderers, and worse than murderers, who are confessed
by all to be a disgrace to the name of man. For these, few
would dare to plead exemption from the awful vengeance that
SERMON XXVIII. 167
awaits the ungodly. So that there is a felt reasonableness in the
dreadful words : "The abominable, and murderers, and whoremon-
gers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their
part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone." But
that the obedient child, and the faithful servant, the tenderly
affectionate mother, the hospitab'e and generous neighbor, the
man of intelligence and good feeh ig, that all these should ever
be bound up in the same bundle of uestruction, and consigned to
the same eternal flames, merely because they do not believe in
Jesus : this is the rock of offence on which thousands stumble
and fall, to their inevitable loss.
There is. perhaps, no way more commonly used by man, to
repel all the personal convictions of sin which the Word of
God would cast on us. For do I not feel within me all the
tender affections of humanity, all the honesties and integrities of
our nature ? Do I not feel pleasure in being honest and fair deal-
ing, in being compassionate, and generous, and hospitable ? How
plainly, then, may I say to my soul : " Soul, take thine ease ?"
These virtues of thine are a sure token that thou art born for a
blessed eternity. Ah ! my friends, is it not a most blessed thing
that, in the passnge now before us, God wrests from our hand the
very weapon wherewith we would defend ourselves, and turns
it with a shaft to pierce our worldly consciences? And, oh!
if we had minds as intelligent as when Adam walked with God
in Paradise, nothing more would be necessary to carry to our
hearts the overwhelming conviction of sin than the repetition of
the words : " A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master ;
if then I be a father, where is mine honor ? and if I be a master,
where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto you." There is
a power and a pathos in this argument, which might well break
down the hardest and most unfeeling mind ; it is as if God had
said, as he elsewhere doth : " Come and let us reason together."
You say that you have many excellent virtues, that you have
tender and beautiful affections; you say that filial and parental
love occupy a master-place in your bosom, that integrity and un-
sullied honesty beat high in your breast. And do I deny all th's ?
Shall I detract from the glory of my own handiwork, so beautiful,
even in ruins ? No, it is all true ; the son does honor his lather,
the servant is faithful to his master ; all is beautiful, when I
look only to the earthly relationships. But that is the very thing
which shows the utter derangement of all the heavenly relation-
ships; for, "if I then be a father, where is mine honor? if 1 be
a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto you."
I see that you honor your earthly fathers, and serve faithfully
your earthly masters ; but that is the very thing which shows
me that I am the exception. I see that there is not a father in the
whole universe that is deprived of the loveof his children, but me
there is not a master under heaven that is robbeti of the honor
168 SERMON XXVIII.
and service of his domestics, as I am. If, brethren, you and 1
wore sunk into ;irtu;il brutality, if we had no love for parents, nc
honesty to masters, then God might have had cause to say of us,
that nothing better could be expected from such wretches, than
that we should forget our heavenly Father and Master. But, oh !
when there are such tender and beautiful affections in our bosoms
towards our earthly relations, is not our sin written as with an
iron pen, and with lead in the rock for ever, that we make God
the exception, that we are godless in the world ?
I would now, with ail affection and tenderness, beseech every
one of you to search his own heart, and see if these things be not
so ; see if that which you generally take for the excuse of your
sins, be not the very essence of your sin. What would you not
do, what would you riot suffer, for the sake of an earthly parent?
and yet you will not expend so much as a thought, or the
breathing of a desire, for your heavenly Parent. God is not in
all your thoughts. You will toil night and day in behalf of an
earthly master; yet you will not do a hand's turn for your hea-
venly Master. God is the only parent whom you dishonor ; God
is the only master whom you wrong. " If you were blind, you
should have no sin ; but now it is plain you see, therefore, your
sin remaineth." If you were incapable of affection or fidelity,
then you should have no sin ; but now it is plain you are capable
of both, therefore, your sin rcmaineth. Imagine a family of
brothers and sisters all bound together by the ties of the closest
amity and affection. Oh ! it is a good and pleasant sight to see
brethren dwell together in unity. " It is like precious oint-
ment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's
beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments. It is as the
dew of Hermon, that descended upon the mountains of Zion."
What will they not do for each other? what will they not suffer
for each other? But, imagine again that all this unity, which
is so much like the temper of heaven, was maintained among
them, whilst all the while they were united in despising the tender
mother that bore them, in turning away from, and forsaking the
grey-haired father that had brought up every one of them.
Would not this one feature in the picture change all its beauty
and all its interest? Would it not make their unity more like that
of devils, than that of angels ? Would you not say, that their
affection for one another was the very thing which made their
disaffection to their parents hateful and most unnatural? Oh-!
brethren, the picture is a picture of us: "A son honoreth his
father, and a servant his master : if then I be a father, where is
mine honor ? and if I be a master, where is my tear ? saith the
Lord of hosts unto you."
Oh ! it is a fearlul thing, when our very virtues, to which we
flee for refuge against the wrath of God, turn round most fiercely
to ondemn us. What avail your honesties, what avail your
SERMON XXVIII. 169
filial attachments, what avail your domestic virtues, which tht
world so much admire, and praise you for, if, in the sight of God,
these are all the while enhancing your ungodliness ? Let no man
misunderstand me, as if 1 had said that it was a bad thing to be
honest, to be faithful, and just, and affectionate to parents. Every
sensible man knows the value of these earthly virtues, and how
much they are invigorated and enlarged, and begin a new life, as it
were, when the worldly man becomes a believer. But this I do
say, that if thou hast nothing more than these earthly virtues,
they will every one of them rise in the judgment only to condemn
thee. I say only what the mighty Luther hath said before me,
that these virtues of thine, whereby thou thinkcst to build thy
Babel tower to heaven, are but the splendid sins of humanity ;
and that they will only serve to cast thee down into tenfold
deeper condemnation. God doth not charge you, brethren, with
dishonesty, with disobedience to pn rents. The only charge which
he brings against you here is, the one long sin of the natural
man's life, ungodliness. God is not in all your thoughts. He
admits that you have earthly virtues ; but these just make blacker
and more indelible your sins against heaven.
I. I infer from this passage, that our worldly virtues will not
atone for sin, or make us acceptable in the sight of God.
Humanity is a ruin ; but it is beautiful even in ruins. And
just as you may wander through some magnificent pfie. over
which the winter storms of whole centuries have passed, and
stand with admiring gaze beside every fluted column, now broken
and prostrate, and luxuriate with antiquarian fimcy amid the
half-defaced carving of Gothic ages, as you may do all this with-
out so much as a thought of the loss of its chief architectural
glory, the grand proportions of the whole towering majestically
heavenward, with bastion and minaret, all now lying buried in
their own rubbish, so may you look upon man; you may wan-
der from one earthly affection and faculty to another, filled with
admiration of the curious handiwork of Him who is indeed the
most cunning of artists ; you may luxuriate amidst the exquisite
adaptations of man to man, so nice as to keep all the wheels of
society running smoothly and easily forward ; you may do all
this, as thousands have done before you, without so much as a
thought of the loss of man's chiefest glory, the relation of man
to his God, that while many amid the rubbish of this world are
honest, and fair-dealing, and affectionate to parents, theie is not
one that seekelh after God.
Let us imagine for an instant that these worldly virtues could
take away sin; and just loqk to the consequences. Where would
you find the man altogether destitute of them? where is salvation
to stop? If honesty and generosity are to blot out one sin, why
not all sin ? In this way you can fix no limit between the saved
170 SERMON XXVIII.
and the unsaved ; and, therefore, all men may live as they please,
for you never can prove that one man is beyond the pale of sal-
vation. Again : if worldly virtues could blot out sin, Christ is
uYud in vain. He came to save his people from their sins. An-
gels ushered him into the world as the Saviour of sinners. John
bade men behold in him the Lamb of God that taketh away the
sins of the world; and the whole Bible testifies, that " through
this man is preached unto you the remission of sins." But if the
every-day honesties, and kindnesses, and generosities of life, could
avail to take away sin, what needed Christ to have suffered ? If
anything so cheap and common as earthly virtues are, could avail
to the blotting out of sin, why needed so inestimably precious a
provision to be made as the blood of the Son of God? If, with all
our honesties, and all our decencies and respectabilities in the world,
we do not stand in need of everything, why doth Christ counsel
us to buy of him gold tried in the fire, that we may be rich?
Nothing that is imperfect can make us perfect in the sight of God.
Hence the admirable direction of an old divine ; " Labor after
sanctification to the utmost ; but do not make a Christ of it ; if so
it must come down, one way or other. Christ's obedience and
sufferings, not thy sanctification, must be thy justification." The
matter seems a plain one. God is yet to judge the world in right-
eousness ; that is, by the strictest rule of his holy law. If we
are to be justified in his sight on that day, we must be perfect in
his sight. But that we cannot be. by means of our own sancti-
fication, which is imperfect. It must be through the imputing of
a perfect righteousness, then, even the perfect obedience of Christ,
that we are to be justified in that day. We are complete only in
Christ ; we are perfect only in Christ Jesus. But ah ! brethren,
if our sanctification will not do for a righteousness in that day,
much less will our worldly virtues do. If your honesties and
worldly decencies are to be enough to cover your nakedness,
and make you comely in the sight of God, why needed Christ to
have fulfilled all righteousness, as a surety in the" stead of sinners?
Why does he offer to make poor sinners the righteousness of God
in him? Why does he say of his saved ones: "Thou wast per-
fect in beauty, through my comeliness which I put upon thee?"
II. I infer from this passage that earthly virtues may accom-
pany a man to kell. I desire to speak with all reverence, nnd with
all tenderness upon so dreadful a subject. The man who speaks
of hell should do it with tears in his eyes. But, oh ! brethren, is it
not plain, that if the love of earthly parents, and honesty to earthly
masters, be consistent with utter ungodliness upon earth, they may
also be consistent with the ungodliness of hell ? Which of you
does not remember the story of the rich man and Lazarus ?
When the rich man lifted up his eyes in hell, being in torments,
and when he prayed Abraham to send Lazarus to dip his finger
SERMON XXVIII. 171
in water, and cool his tongue, what was the one other desire
which in that fearful hour racked the bosom and prompted the
prayer of the wretched man? was it not love for his brethren?
" I pray thee, therefore, father, that thou wouldst send him to my
father's house ; for I have five brethren ; that he may testify unto
them, lest they also come into this place of torment." Luke xvi.,
27. Ah ! my brethren, does not this one passage remove a dread-
ful curtain from the unseen world of woe ? does it not reveal to
you some eternal pains which you never dreamed of. There will
be brotherly affection in hell. These parching flames cannot burn
out that element of our being. But, oh ! it will give no ease, but
rather pain. The love of children will be there ; but, oh ! what
agonies shall it not cause, when the tender mother meets the chil-
dren on whose souls she had no pity, the children whom she nevei
brought to the Saviour, the children unprayed for, untaught to
pray for themselves! Who shall describe the meeting of the
loving wife and the affectionate husband in an eternal hell ? those
that never prayed with one another, and for one another; those
that mutually stifled each other's convictions ; those that fostered
and encouraged one another in their sins? Ah! my friends, if
these, the tenderest and kindest affections of our nature, shall be
such fierce instruments of torture, what shall our evil affections be?
1 would now speak a word to those of you who are counting
upon being saved, because you are honest and affectionate to pa-
rents. Oh ! that you would be convinced this day by Scripture
and common sense, that these, if you be out of Christ, and there-
'fore not at peace with God, do but aggravate your ungodliness,
and will add torment inexpressible to your hell. If, then, our
very virtues condemn us, what shall our sins do ? If the ungodly
shall meet with so fearful a doom, where shall the open sinner
appear? But there is a fountain opened up in Zion, to which both
the ungodly and the sinner may go; and if only you will be per-
suaded to believe that you are neither more nor less than one of
these lost and undone creatures, I know well how swiftly you
will run to plunge yourself into these atoning waters. But if you
will still keep harping upon the theme of your many excellent
qualities, your honesty, your uprightness, your filial and parental
affection, your exactness in equity, your kindness in charity, and
\vill not be convinced by the very words of God, that though the
son honor his father, and the servant his master, these do but add
a deeper and more diabolical dye to your forgetfulness and con-
tempt of God. If you still do this, then we can only turn away
from you with sadness, and say: "The publicans and harlots
enter into heaven before you."
Lurbert, .Yov. 22, 1835.
(72 SERMON XXIX.
SERMON XXIX.
THE DIFFICULTY AND DESIRABLENESS OF CONVERSION.
* I waited patiently for the Lord ; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry
He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set mj
feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my
mouth, even praise unto our God : many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust ir
the Lord." Ps. xl., 1-3.
THERE can be little doubt that the true and primary application
of this psalm is to our Lord Jesus Christ ; for though the verses
we have read might very well be applicable to David, or any other
converted man, looking back on what God had done for his soul,
yet the latter part of the psa!m cannot, with propriety, be the
language of any but the Saviour ; and, accordingly, the 6th, 7th,
and 8th verses are directly applied to Christ by the apostle in the
10th chapter of Hebrews: "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest
not ; but a body hast thou prepared me : in burnt-offerings and
sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I
come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy will,
O God." The whole psalm, therefore, is to be regarded as a
prayerful meditation of Messiah when under the hiding of his
Father's countenance ; for, how truly might he who knew no sin,
but was made sin for us, he on whom it pleased the Father to lay
the iniquities of us all, how truly might he say, in the language of
verse 12, ''Innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine
iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that 1 am not able to look
up ; they are more than the hairs of mine head ; therefore my
heart faileth me."
According to this view, verses 1-3 are to be regarded as a re-
calling a former deliverance from some similar visitation of dark-
ness, in order to comfort himself under present discouragement.
And who can doubt that he who was a man of sorrows, and ac-
quainted with grief, experienced many more seasons of darkness
and of heaven-sent relief than that which is recorded in the gar-
den of Gethsemane ? His so frequently retiring to pray alone,
seems to prove this. But as it is quite manifest that his description
of his iniquities laying hold upon him, is expressed in words most
suitable to any burdened but awakened sinner, so the verses of
my text are every way suitable to any converted soul looking
back on the deliverance which God hath wrought out for him.
" Waiting, I waited for Jehovah" (as verse 1 may be most literal-
ly rendered), expresses all the intense anxiety of a mind aroused
to know the danger he is in, and the quarter whence his aid must
come. " And he inclined unto me," expresses the oodily motion
of one who is desirous to hear, bending forward attentively. " And
he heard my cry."
SERMON XXIX. 173
" He brought me up also out of an horrible pit,
Out of the miry clay,
And 8et my feet upon a rock ;
He established my goings.
And he hath put a new song in my mouth,
Even praise unto our God :
Many shall see it, and fear,
And shall trust in the Lord."
He expresses the state of an unconverted man under the striking
imagery of one who is in an horrible pit, and sinking in miry
clay ; while the change at conversion is compared to setting his
feet upon a rock, and establishing his goings, and putting a new
song in his mouth. Regarding, then, my text as a true and faith-
ful picture of that most blessed change in state and character
which, in Bible language, is called conversion, I proceed to
draw from these words two simple but most important conclu
sions :
I. The difficulty of conversion. So difficult and superhuman is
the work of turning a soul from sin and Satan unto God, that God
only can do it ; and, accordingly, in our text, every part of the
process is attributed solely to him. " He brought me up out of
an horrible pit, he took me from the miry clay, he set my feet
upon a rock, he established my goings, and he put a new song in
my mouth." God, and GJod_alone, then, is the author of conver-
sion. He who created man at first, alone can create him anew in
Christ Jesus unto good works. And the reason of this we shall
see clearly by going over the parts of the work here described.
The first deliverance is imaged forth to us in the words : " He
brought me up out of an horrible pit ;" and the counterpart or cor-
responding blessing to that is, "He set my feet upon a rock"
There can hardly be imagined a more hopeless situation than that
of being placed, like Joseph, in a pit, and especially an horrible
pit, or a pit of destruction, as the Psalmist calls it. Hemmed in
on every side by damp and gloomy walls, with scarce an outlet
into the open air, in vain you struggle to clamber up to the light
and fresh atmosphere of the open day ; you are a prisoner in the
bowels of the earth, the tenant 6f a pit of horrors. Such is your
state, if you be unconverted ; you are lying in a pit of destruc-
tion ; you are dead while you live buried alive, as it were ;
dead in trespasses and sins, while yet you walk in them. You
cannot possibly ascen^J to the light of day, and the fresh atmo-
sphere above you ; for the pit in which you are, is indeed your
prison-house; and except you be drawn up from it by the cords
of grace, it will usher you into that yawning pit which the Bible
says is bottomless. Such is your state, if you be unconverted.
You are under the curse ; for " cursed is every one that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them ;" and
you have never continued in any of these things, doing them from
174 SERMON XXIX.
the heart, as unto the Lord, which only can be called doing them.
You have never savingly believed on the Son of God ; and there-
fore you are " condemned already" you have never been lifted
out of the pit of condemnation. " He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life ; but he that believeth not the Son shall not see
lite, but the wrath of God abideth on him ;" that is, it is never
lilted oil* him. The pit of wrath and destruction, in which you are
by nature, is never exchanged by you until you leave it for the
pit of wrath eternal. Since this horrible pit, then, represents the
state of wrath and condemnation in which we are by nature, how
impossible is it that we can extricate ourselves from it ! To
escape from the prison-house of earthly kings is a hard and daring
enterprise ; but who shall break loose from the prison-house of the
eternal God ? Who shall clamber up from the pit of condemna-
tion in which he confines the soul ? or who can work out a pardon
for past offences ? Who can blot out the sin of his past life?
Look back upon your lives, brethren, spent in forgetlulncss of God,
in desires and deeds contrary to God ; and then remember he is
infinitely just, he cannot lie, he cannot repent, and say if you
think it an easy thing, or a possible thing, to save yourselves from
the feariul pit in which you are now reserved for his wrath ?
Bo* il you cannot save yourself from the pit, and set your feet
upon ? rock, much less can you extricate yourself from the miry
clay ir.d establish your own goings. The pit of destruction re-
pres' nts the wrath you are in by nature ; the miry clay represents
the corruption you are in by nature. To be standing in a dry pit,
as Joseph was, is bad enough ; but, ah ! how hopeless and wretch-
ed, when you are standing in miry clay ! To be under condem-
nation for past sins, one would think to be misery sufficient ; but
your case is far more desperate, for you are also sinking daily
under the power of present corruptions. Every struggle which
you make to get up from your wretched condition, only makes
you sink deeper in the miry clay ; and every hour you remain
where you are, you are sinking the deeper ; your ever getting out
becomes more hopeless. How truly does the growth of sinful
habits in you resemble the sinking of your feet in miry clay !
Which of your habks does not grow inveterate by exercise ?
How does the habit of swearing grow upon a man until he is
absolutely its slave ? and so with those more refined sins whose
seat is in the heart. Every day gives them new power over the
soul every new indulgence binds your feet more indissolubly
than ever in the evil way ; and though ^rou may, nay, in the
course of nature you must, change your lusts, your passions and
desires, yet every change is but like extricating one foot from the
miry clay, only to set it down again, in another spot to sink again.
Ah ! the undoneness of an unconverted heart ; what imagination is
bold enough to paint all its horrors ? Look in upon your own
hearts, ye who are unchanged in heart and life ; and. oh ' if the
SERMON XXIX.
Spirit of grace may but use the passage we are speaking of to
convince you this day of your sin, you shall see how truly there
is within you a dark chamber of imagery, a depth of spiritual
wretchedness, and inability, either to forgive your own self, or
to make your heart new either to set your feet upon a rock,
or to establish your goings ; which can be described only by
such ideas as those of an horrible pit, and sinking in miry clay.
A third step in conversion you cannot take lor yourself; and
that is, the putting a new song in your mouth. A song is the
sign of gladness and light-heartedness, and hence James saith :
" Is any merry ? let him sing psalms." And the spoilers of Jeru-
salem, when they would put mockery on the sorrows of the
exiled Israelites, required of them mirth, saying : " Sing us one
of the Songs of Zion." But to sing a new song, even praise to
our God, is a privilege of the believer alone. To be merry and
glad in heart, whilst a holy God is before the thoughts, that is a
privilege only of him whose feet are settled on the Rock, Christ.
It is true the unconverted world have a mirth of their own ; and
they, too, can sing the song of gladness. But here lies the differ-
ence : They can be glad and merry only when God is not in all
their thoughts, only when a veil of oblivion is cast over the
realities of death and judgment. Keep away all serious thought
of these things, and then they can revel, like Belshazzar and his
thousand lords, when they drank wine, and praised the gods of
gold and of silver. But unveil to their eyes the grand realities of
a holy and omnipresent God, of death at the door, and after death
the judgment, and then is their countenance changed (as was
Belshazzar's at the appearance of the mysterious hand) ; their
thoughts trouble them, so that the joints of their loins are loosed,
and their knees smite one against another.
But to the believer a holy God is the very subject of his
song, praise to our God ; and the view of death and judgment do
not break in upon this divine melody. On his dying bed he may
begin the song which shall be finished only when he wakes up
in glory. Now, what unconverted man has the power to put
this supernatural song in his mouth, this strange joy in his heart?
Gladness cannot be forced, and least of .all this, the Christian's
gladness. If thou be unforgiven, unjustified, still at enmity with
God, how canst thou raise one note of praise to him ? In the
14th chapter of Revelation, where the redeemed sing, as it were,
a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts and the
elders, it is added : " ATid no man could learn that song, but the
hundred and forty and four thousand which were redeemed from
the earth." None but new creatures can learn this new song.
Angels cannot join in it; for it is the hymn of the redeemed, of
those who were sinners, and have been made new. And, oh ! if
angels cannot, how much can unconverted, unredeemed sinners
join in that eternal harmony. In every way, then, how unspeak
176 SERMON XXIX.
ably hard a work is conversion ! How impossible with man
But with God all things arc possible. He hath provided the
Rock, Christ ; and his ear is not heavy that it should not hear, if
we but cry ; his arm is not shortened that it cannot save, if only
we will inquire of him for this. But,
II. From this picture of a true conversion I deduce, not only
the difficulty, but also the desirableness of conversion.
If you can imagine the delight of being lifted out of the horrible
pit, where wrath only awaited us, and having our feet set upon
the Rock, where our foundation is firm and solid as the everlast-
ing hills, and we are raised high above the reach of enemies, for '
our defence is the munition of rocks, then, my friends, you have
some notion of what it is to be taken out of wrath into peace,
to be translated from being under the curse to the privilege of
standing on the righteousness of Christ, standing on which you
are justified, so that neither man, nor angel, nor devil, can bring
accusation against you.
And, again, if you can imagine the delight of being carried out
of the miry clay, where your feet were continually sinking deeper
and deeper every hour, and of having your goings established,
a straight path set before you, and solid ground beneath you, then
you have some notion of what it is to be taken out of your worldly
lusts, and desires, and cares, and thoughts, and anxieties, and habits
of sin, in which every new day found you sinking deeper and deeper,
and always with less hope of recovery ; and to be enabled to love
God and the things of God, " to set your affection on things above,"
" to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ."
And still further, if you can imagine the delight of exchanging
the groan of the prisoner bound in affliction and iron, for the song
of the captive who has been set free, the emancipated slave, then
you have some notion of what it is to exchange the sullenness and
cheerlessness of an unrenewed spirit for the joy and light-hearted-
ness, and the new song of praise sung only by the redeemed.
But when you have imagined all these things, you will have a
notion merely, and nothing more, of the desirableness of conver-
sion. The riches of Christ are unsearchable. I might ransack
all nature for images. I might bring all conditions of misery and
sudden peace and happiness into contrast ; yet would I fail to give
you a just idea of the blessings received in conversion ; for, indeed,
"eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the
heart to conceive, the things which God hath prepared (in this
world, aye, in the hour of believing) for all them that love him."
But leaving images borrowed from nature, which may only con-
fuse, let me simply lay before you the realities which these images
ignify. The first thing to be had in conversion is peace with
God: " Justified by faith we have peace with God." This is the
immediate effect of standing on the Rock, Christ. Sin-laden man
SERMON XXIX. 177
dost thou see no desirableness in peace with an offended, forgotten,
despised God ? Art thou so enamored of the horrible pit of en-
mity and condemnation, that thou hast no desire to be out of it ?
Then, indeed, it is in vain to tell you of a Saviour ; you see no
beauty in Christ. The second thing to be had in conversion is a
holy life : " To as many as receive Christ, he giveth power to
become sons of God." Depraved man, whose heart is wrinkled
with habitual sins, dost thou see no desirableness in a holy life ?
I do not ask thee if it would be pleasant to thee this moment to
restrain and cross all thine appetites, and desires, and indomitable
lusts ; I know it would appear to thee intolerable ; but I do ask
thee if thou seest no desirableness in having these very appetites
and desires changed or taken away in their power, so that strict-
ness and holiness of life would no longer appear irksome, but
pleasantness and peace. Art thou so delighted, not with the ob-
jects which gratify thy passions, but with these very passions
themselves, that thou hast no wish to be made new ? Then,
indeed, it is needless to tell thee of the Sanctifier.
The third good thing to be had in conversion is a joyful and
thankful heart : " We joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.'*
This is the song of the redeemed. The mirth of heaven is thank
fulness and praise. The mirth of heaven upon earth that is, of
the converted mind is the same, even praise to our God. If,
then, cheerfulness and thankfulness of m nd, which will endure
even amid all the gloominess of the death-bed, and the dark val-
ley, and the awful insignia of judgment ; if these be desirable
gifts of mind, these form parts of the desirableness of conver-
sion.
But to many of you I know it is in vain that I talk of the desira-
bleness of conversion ; for you do not yet feel the misery of being
unconverted the wretchedness of being a child of wrath, and a
slave of corruptions. When we tell you that the unjustified are
in an horrible pit, that the unsanctified are sinking in miry clay,
you tell us that you never felt any horror about your situation.
Nay, you have many pleasures, and you are comfortable and at
ease. Ah! most wretched of all unconverted men, you are in
the horrible pit ; yet you are insensible to its horrors. You are
in the miry clay, sinking every step you take ; yet you feel no
alarm. You know that you never savingly believed in Christ ;
yet you have no horror when the Bible tells you you are " con-
demned already" You know that your heart has never been
made new born again ; and yet you do not tremble when the
Bible tells you that " without holiness no man shall see the Lord."
You remind me of nothing so much as of a man travelling in a
snow storm, wandering far from home or shelter, and every step
he takes his feet sink the deeper in the drifted snow ; but a strange
insensibility creeps over his mind. Death itself has lost its hor-
rors. As his danger increases, his fears diminish. A deep slum-
12
178 SERMON XXIX.
her is quickly descending on every faculty, till he sinks down
quietly to sleep, but never to rise again.
In like manner, your insensibility, instead of being a sign that
there is no danger, increases the danger and horror of your situa-
tion a thousand fold. As the Bible is true, the state of every un-
converted man is so awful, that could you see it as God sees it, the
words, "an horrible pit and miry clay? would seem too feeble to
express it. " The sorrows of death and the pains of heW might,
perhaps, come nearer your view of it. Ah ! then, strive hard to
know the misery of being unconverted. Be determined to know
the worst of yourself; for thus only will you see the desirableness
of conversion, the excellency of Christ.
And now, then, laying together the two conclusions which I
have drawn from our text the difficulty of conversion, so great
that God himself must be the author; and the desirableness of
conversion, so great that peace, and holiness, and joy. all depend
upon it suffer the word of exhortation, to seek it in the only way
in which the Psalmist found it: " Waiting, I waited for Jehovah"
that is, / waited anxiously, " and he inclined unto me, and heard
my cry" He is more ready to hear, than thou to ask. The Rock
is already laid. Christ hath died, and thou art this day besought
to stand upon his righteousness ; and being in Christ, you shall
every day become more a new creature ; and being a new
creature, you shall sing a new song of praise to Him who hath
loved us.
One word to those of you who can look back upon an experi-
ence like that described in my text ; who can say that God hath
brought you out of an horrible pit and the miry clay, and set your
feet upon a rock, and established your goings, and put a new song
in your mouth. Take you heed that the following words be also
realized : " Many shall see it and fear, and shall trust in the Lord"
How many on every hand of you are yet unconverted, both in
the pit and in the clay ! Let them see, then, how great things God
hath done for your soul, that they may fear lest they db uncon-
verted ; lest this glorious change never come to them ; lest they
die old creatures, tenants of the horrible pit, to remove only to
the pit eternal ; lest they be altogether swallowed up in the miry
clay ; and thus, moved by fear, they may be persuaded to trust
in God, as you have done to rest on the Rock, Christ, for 'right-
eousness.
" Let your light so shine before men, that they, seeing your
good works, may glorify your father which is in heaven." Amen.
Dunifacc, Jiug. 2, 1635.
SERMON XXX 179
SERMON XXX.
THE LOVE OF CHRIST.
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus Judge, that if one (lied
for ail, thep were all dead." 2 Cor. v., 14.
OF all the features of St. Paul's character, untiring activity was
the most striking. From his early history, which tells us of his
personal exertions in wasting the infant Church, when he was a
blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious, it is quite obvious
that this was the prominent characteristic of his natural mind.
But when it pleased the Lord Jesus Christ to show forth in him
all long-suffering, and to make him a pattern to them which should
afterwards believe on Him, it is beautiful and most instructive to
see how the natural features of this daringly bad man became not
only sanctified, but invigorated and enlarged ; so true it is that
they that are in Christ are a new creation : " Old things pass away,
and all things become new." " Troubled on every side, yet not
distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not for-
saken ; cast down, but not destroyed ;" this was a faithful picture
of the life of the converted Paul. Knowing the terrors of the
Lord, and the fearful situation of all who were yet in their sins,
he made it the business of his life to persuade men ; striving if, by
any means, he might commend the truth to their consciences.
" For (saith he) whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God ; or
whether we be sober, it is for your cause." Verse 13. Whether
the world think us wise or mad, the cause of God and of human
souls is the cause in which we have embarked all the energies of
our being. Who, then, is not ready to inquire into the secret
spring of all these supernatural labors ? Who would not desire
to have heard from the lips of Paul the mighty principle that im-
pelled him through so many toils and dangers ? What magic spell
has taken possession of this mighty mind, or what unseen planet-
ary influence, with unceasing power, draws him on through all dis-
couragements, indifferent alike to the world's dread laugh, and the
feai of man, which bringeth a snare ; careless alike of the sneer
of the sceptical Athenian, of the frown of the luxurious Corinthian,
and ihe rage of the narrow-minded Jew ? What saith the apostle
himself? for we have his own explanation of the mystery in the
words before us : " The love of Christ constraineth us."
That Christ's love to man is here intended, and not our love to
the Saviour, is quite obvious, from the explanation which follows,
where his dying for all Is pointed to as the instance of his love.
It was the view of that strange compassion of the Saviour, mov-
ing him to die for his enemies, to bear double for all our sins, to
taste death for every man ; it was this view which gave him the
SERMON XXX.
impulse in every labor, which made all suffering light to him. and
every commandment not grievous. He ran with patience the
race that was set before him? Why? Because, looking unto
Jesus, In- lived a man crucified unto the world, and the world cru-
cified unto him. By what means? By looking to the cross of
Christ. As the natural sun in the heavens exercises a mighty and
unceasing attractive energy on the planets which circle round him,
so did the Sun of Righteousness, which had indeed arisen on Paul
with a brightness above that of noon-day, exercise on his mind a
continual and an almighty energy, constraining him to live hence-
forth no more unto himself, but to him that died for him and rose
again. And observe, that it was no temporary, fitful energy, which
it exerted over his heart and life, but an abiding and a continued
attraction ; for he doth not say that the love of Christ did once con-
strain him ; or that it shall yet constrain him ; or that in times of
excitement, in seasons of prayer, or peculiar devotion, the love of
Christ was wont to constrain him ; but he said simply, that the love
of Christ constraineth him. It is the ever-present, ever-abiding,
ever-moving power, which forms the main-spring of all his work-
ing ; so that take that away, and his energies are gone, and Paul
is become weak as other men.
Is there no one before me whose heart is longing to possess just
such a master-principle? Is there no one of you, brethren, who
has arrived at that most interesting of all the stages of conversion
in which you are panting after a power to make you new? You
have entered in at the straight gate ot believing. You have seen
that there is no peace to the unjustified ; and therefore you have
put on Christ for your righteousness ; and already do you feel
something of the joy and peace of believing. You can look back
on your past life, spent without God in the world, and without
Chr.st in the world, and without the Spirit in the world ; you can
see yourself a condemned outcast, and you say : " Though 1 should
wash my hands in snow water, yet mine own clothes would abhor
me." You can do all this, with shame and self-reproach, it is true,
but yet without dismay, and without despair ; for your eye has
been lifted believingly on him who was made sin for us, and you
are persuaded that, as it pleased God to count all your iniquities
to the Saviour, so he is willing, and hath always been willing, to
count all the Saviour's righteousness to you. Without despair, did
I say? nay, with joy and singing; for if, indeed, thou bclievest
with all thine heart, then thou art coine to the blessedness of -the
man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works;
which David describes, saying : "Blessed are they whose iniqui-
ties are forgiven, and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man
*o whom the Lord imputeth not sin." This is the peace of the
justified man. But is this peace a state of perfect blessedness ?
Is there nothing left to be desired? I appeal to those of you, who
know what it is to be just by believing. What is it that still
SERMON XXX. 181
clouds the Drow, tnat represses the exulting of tne spirit ? Why
might we not always join in the song of thanksgiving ; " Bless
the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits : who forgiveth
all thine iniquities !" If we have received double for all our sins,
why should it ever be needful for us to argue as doth the Psalmist :
" Why art thou cast down, O my soul : and why art thou disquiet-
ed within me?" Ah ! my friends there is not a man among you, who
has really believed, who has not felt the disquieting thought of
which I am now speaking. There may be some of you who have
felt it so painfully, that it has obscured, as with a heavy cloud, the
sweet light of the Gospel peace, shining in of the reconciled
countenance upon the soul. The thought is this : " I am a justified
man ; bat, alas ! I am not a sanctified man. I can look at my
past life without despair ; but how can I look forward to what is
to come ?"
There is not a more picturesque moral landscape in the universe
than such a soul presents. Forgiven all trespasses that are past,
the eye looks inwards with a clearness and an impartiality un-
known before, and there it gazes upon its long fostered affections
for sin, which, like ancient rivers, have worn a deep channel into
the heart, its periodic returns of passion, hitherto irresistible and
overwhelming, like the tides of the ocean ; its perversities of temper
and of habit, crooked and unyielding, like the gnarled branches
of a stunted oak. Ah ! what a scene is here, what anticipations
of the future ! what forebodings of a vain struggle against the
tyranny of lust ! against the old trains of acting, and of speaking,
and of thinking ! Were it not that the hope of the glory of God
is one of the chartered rights of the justified man, who would be
surprised if this view of terror were to drive a man back, like the
dog to his vomit, or the sow that was 'washed to wallow again in
the mire ? Now it is to the man precisely in this situation, crying
out at morning and at evening, How shall I be made new ? what
good shall the forgiveness of my past sins do me, if I be not deliver-
ed from the love of sin 1 it is to that man that we would now, with
all earnestness and affection, point out the example of Paul, and the
secret power which wrought in him. " The love of Christ" (says
Paul) " constraineth us." We, too, are men of like passions with
yourselves ; that same sight which you view with dismay within
you, was in like manner revealed to us in all its discouraging
power. Nay,ever and anon the same hideous viewof ourownhearts
is opened up to us. But we have an encouragement which never
fails. The love of the bleeding Saviour constraineth us. The
Spirit is given to them that believe ; and that almighty agent
hath one argument that moves us continually THE LOVE OF
CHRIST.
My present object, brethren, is to show how this argument, in
the hand of the Spirit, does move the believer to live unto God ;
how so simple a truth as the love of Christ to man, continually
SERMON XXX.
presented to the mind by t.ie Holy Ghost, should enable any man
to live a life of Gospel holiness ; and if there be one man among
you whose great inquiry is : How shall I be saved from sin, how
shall I walk as a child of God ? that is the man of all others,
whose ear and heart I am anxious to engage.
1 The love of Christ to man constraineth the believer to live a
holy life, because that truth fakes away all his dread and hatred
O f Q d, When Adam was unfallen, God was everything to- his
soul ; and everything was good and desirable to him, only in so
far as it had to do with God. Every vein of his body, so fearfully
and wonderfully made, every leaf that rustled in the bowers of
Paradise, every new sun that rose, rejoicing like a strong man to
run his race, brought him in every day new subjects of godly
thought and of admiring praise ; and it was only for that reason
that he could delight to look on them. The flowers that appeared
on the earth, the singing of birds, and the voice of the turtle heard
throughout the happy land, the fig tree putting forth her green figs,
and the vines with the tender grapes giving a good smell, all these
combined to bring in to him at every pore a rich and varied tribute
of pleasantness. And why? Just because they brought into the
soul rich and varied communications of the manifold grace of
Jehovah. For just as you may have seen a child on earth devoted to
its earthly parent ; pleased with everything when he is present,
and valuing every gift just as it shows more of the tenderness of
that parent's heart, so was it with the genuine child of God. In
God he lived, and moved, and had his being ; and not more surely
would the blotting out the sun in the heavens have taken away
that light which is so pleasant to the eyes, than would the hiding
the face of God from him have taken away the liyht of his soul,
and left nature a dark and desolate wilderness. But when Adam
fell, the fine gold became dim, the system of his thoughts and lik-
ings was just reversed. Instead of enjoying God in everything
and everything in God, everything now seemed hatel'ul and dis-
agreeable to him, just in as far as it had to do with God.
When man sinned, then he feared, and hated Him whom he
feared ; and fled to all sin just to flee from Him whom he hated.
So that, just as you may have seen a child who has grievously
transgressed against a loving parent, doing all it can to hide that
parent from its view; hurrying from his presence, and plunging
into other thoughts and occupations, just to rid itself of the thought
of his justly offended father in the very same way when fallen
Adam heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in
the cool of the day, that voice which, before he sinned, was hea-
venly music in his ears then did Adam and his wife hide themselves
from the presence of the Lord, among the trees of the garden.
And in the same way does every natural mnn run from the voice
and presence of the Lord, not to hide under the thick embower-
ing leaves of Paradise, but to bury himself in cares, and business
SERMON XXX. 133
ana pleasures and revellings. Any retreat is agreeable, where
God is not ; any occupation is tolerable, if God be not in the
thoughts. Now I am quite sure that many of you may hear this
charge against the natural man with incredulous indifference, if
not with indignation. You do not feel that you hate God, or
dread his presence ; and, therefore, you say it cannot be true
But, brethren, when God says of your heart, that it is " desperate-
ly wicked," yea, unsearchably wicked, who can know it? when
God claims for himself the privilege of knowing and trying the
heart ; is it not presumptuous in such ignorant beings as we are,
to say that that is not true, with respect to our hearts, which God
affirms to be true, merely because we are not conscious of it? God
saith that " the carnal mind is enmity against God" that the very
grain and substance of an unconverted mind is hatred against God,
absolute, implacable hatred against him in whom we live, and
move, and have our being. It is quite true thai we do not feel
this hatred within us ; but that is only an aggravation of our sin
and of our danger. We have so choked up the avenues of sell-
examination, there are so many turnings and windings, before we
can arrive at the true motives of our actions ; that our dread and
hatred of God, which first moved man to sin, and which are still
the grand impelling forces whereby Satan goads on the children of
disobedience ; these are wholly concealed from our view, and you
cannot persuade a natural man that they are really there. But
the Bible testifies, that out of these two deadly roots dread of
God and hatred of God grows up the thick forest of sins with
which the earth is blackened and overspread. And if there be
one among you, brethren, who has been awakened by God to know
what is in his heart, I take that man this day to witness, that his
bitter cry, in the view of all his sins, has ever been : " Against thee,
thee only have I sinned."
If, then, dread of God, and hatred of God, be the cause of all our
sins, how shall we be cured of the love of sin, but by taking away
the cause ? How do you most effectually kill the noxious weed ?
Is it not by striking at the root ? In the love of Christ to man,
then in that strange, unspeakable gift of God, when he laid down
his life for his enemies, when he died the just for the unjust, that
he might bring us to God ; do not you see an object which, if
really believed by the sinner, takes away all his dread and all his
hatred of God ? The root of sin is severed from the stock. In
His bearing double for all our sins, we r,- < j the curse carried away,
we see God reconciled. Why should we fear any more ? Not
fearing, why should we hate God any more ? Not hating God,
what desirableness can we see in sin any more ? Putting on the
righteousness of Christ, we are again placed as Adam was, with
God as our fri 3nd. We have no object in sinning ; and, therefore,
we do not care to sin. In the sixth chapter of Romans, Paul
; leeus to speak of the believer sinning, as if the very proposition
18* SERMON XXX.
were absurd. " How shall we, that are dead to sin;' that is
who in Christ have already borne the penalty, "how shall we
live any longer therein .'" And again he saith very boldly : " Sin
shall ?iot have dominion over you" it is impossible in the nature
of things " for ye are not under the law, but under grace ;" ye
are no longer under the curse of a broken law, dreading and
haling God; ye are under grace; under a system of peace and
friendship with God.
But is there any one ready to object to me, that if these things
be so, if nothing more than that a man be brought into peace with
God is needful to a holy life and conversation, how comes it .that
believers do still sin? I answer, it is indeed too true that believ--
ers do sin ; but it is just as true that unbelief is the cause of their
sinning. If, brethren, you and I were to live with our eye so
closely on Christ bearing double for all our sins, freely offering to
all a double righteousness for all our sins ; and if* this constant
view of the love of Christ maintained within us, as assuredly it
would, if we looked with a straightforward eye ; the peace of God
which passeth all understanding ; the peace that rests on nothing
in us, but upon the completeness that is in Christ, then, brethren, I
do say, that, frail and helpless as we are, we should never sin ; we
should not have the slightest object in sinning. But, ah ! my
friends, this is not the way with us. How often in the day is the
love of Christ quite out of view ! How often is it obscured to us !
sometimes hid from us by God himself, to teach us what we are.
How often are we left without the realizing sense of the complete-
ness of his offering, the perfectness of his righteousness, and with-
out the will or the confidence to claim an interest in him ! Who
can wonder, then, that, where there is so much unbelief, dread
and hatred of God should again and again creep in, and sin should
often display its poisonous head ? The matter is very plain,
brethren, if only we had spiritual eyes to see it. If we live a life
of faith on the Son of God, then we shall assuredly live a life of
holiness. I do not say we ought to do so ; but I say, we shall, as
a matter of necessary consequence. But in as far as we do not
live a life of faith, in so far we shall live a life of unholiness. It is
through faith that God purifies the heart ; and there is no other
way.
Is there one of you, then, brethren, desirous of being made
new, of being delivered from the slavery of sinful habits and affeo
tions ? We can point you to no other remedy but the love of
Christ. Behold how he loved you ! See what he bore for you ;
put your finger, as it were, into the prints of the nails, and thrust
your hand into his side ; and be no more faithless, but believing.
Under a sense of your sin, flee to the Saviour of sinners. As the
timorous dove flies to hide itself in. the crevices of the rock, so do
you flee to hiile yourself in the wounds of your Saviour ; and
when you have found him, like the shadow of a great rock in a
SERMON XXX. 185
weary land ; when you sit under his shadow, with great delight ;
you will find that he hath slain all the enmity ; that he hath
accomplished all your warfare. God is now for you. Planted
together with Christ in the likeness of his death, you shall be also
in the likeness of his resurrection.- Dead unto sin, you shall be
alive unto God.
2. The love of Christ to man constraineth the believer to live a
holt/ life ; because that truth not only takes away our fear and
hatred, but stirs up our love. When we are brought to see the
reconciled face of God in peace, that is a great privilege. But
how can we look upon that face, reconciling and reconciled, and
not love him who hath so loved us ! Love begets love. We can
hardly keep from esteeming those on earth who really love us,
however worthless they may be. But, ah ! my friends, when we
are convinced that God loves us, and convinced in such a way as
by the giving up of his Son for us all, how can we but love him,
in whom are all excellences everything to call forth love? I
have already shown you that the Gospel is a restorative scheme;
it brings us back to the same state of friendship with God which
Adam enjoyed, and thus takes away the desire of sin. But now
I wish to show you, that the Gospel does far more than restore us
to the state from which we fell. If rightly and consistently em-
braced by us, it brings us into a state far better than Adam's. It
constrains us by a far more powerful motive. Ad;im had not this
strong love of God to man shed abroad in his heart; and, there-
fore, he had not this constraining power to make him live to God.
But our eyes have seen this great sight. Before us Christ hath
been evidently set forth crucified. If really we believe, his love
hath brought us into peace, through pardon ; and because we are
pardoned and at peace with God. the Holy Ghost is given us.
What to do? Why, just to shed abroad this truth over our
hearts, to show us more and more of this love of God to us, that
we may be drawn to love him who hath so loved us, to live to him
who died for -us and rose again.
It is truly admirable to see how the B ble way of making us
holy is suited to our nature. Had God proposed to frighten us
into a holy life, how vain would have been the attempt ! Men
have always an idea, that if one came from the dead to tell us oi
the reality of the doleful regions where dwell, in endless misery,
the spirits of the damned, that that would constrain us to live a
holy life ; but, alas ! brethren, what ignorance does this not show
of our mysterious nature ! Suppose that God should this hour un-
veil before our eyes the secrets of those dreadful abodes where
nope never comes ; nay, suppose, if it were possible, that you
were actually made to feel for a season the real pains of the l;ike
of living agony, and the worm that never dies ; and then that you
were brought back again to the earth, and placed in your old
ituation, among your old friends and companions ; do you really
186 SERMON XXX.
think that there would be any chance of your walking with God
as a child ? I doubt not you would be frightened out of your
positive sins ; the cup of godless pleasure would drop from your
hand ; you would shudder at an oath, you would tremble at a
falsehood, because you had seen and felt something of the torment
which awaits the drunkard, and the swearer, and the liar, in the
world beyond the grave ; but do you really think that you would
live to God, any more than you did ; that you would serve him
better than before? It is quite true you might be driven to give
larger charity ; yea, all your goods to feed the poor, and your
body to be burned; you might live strictly and soberly, mos\
fearful of breaking one of the commandments, all the rest of your
days : but this would not be living to God ; you would not love
him one whit more. Ah ! brethren, you are sadly blinded to your
curiously formed hearts, if you do not know that love cannot be
forced ; no man was ever frightened into love, and, therefore, no
man was ever frightened into holiness.
But thrice blessed be God, he hath invented a way more power-
ful than hell and all its terrors ; an argument mightier far than
even a sight of those torments ; he hath invented a way of draw-
ing us to holiness. By showing us the love of his Son, he calleth
forth our love. He knew our frame, he remembered that we were
dust, he knew all the peculiarities of our treacherous hearts ; and,
therefore, he suited his way of sanctifying to the creature to be
sanctified. And thus, the Spirit doth not make use of terror to
sanctify us, but of lore : " The love of Christ constraineth us."
He draws us by " the cords of lov<>,, by the bands of a man" What
parent does not know that the true way to gain the obedience of a
child, is to gain the affections of the child ? And think you, God,
who gave us this wisdom, doth not himself know ? Think you he
would set about obtaining the obedience of his children, without
first of all gaining their affections ? To gain our affections, bre-
thren, which by nature rove over the face of the world, God hath
sent his son into the world to bear the curse of our sins.
** Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we,
through his poverty, might be made rich."
And oh ! if there is but one of you who will consent this day,
under a sense of undoneness, to flee for refuge to the Saviour,
to find in him the forgiveness of all sins that are past, I know
well, that from this day forth you will be like that poor woman
which was a sinner, which stood at Christ's feet behind him,
weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wip
them with the hairs of her head ; and kissed his feet, and
anointed them with the ointment. Forgiven much, you \\ill
love much ; loving much, you will live to the service of
Him whom you love. This" is the grand master-principle of
which we spoke ; this is the secret spring of all the holiness of
the saints. The life of holiness is not what the world falsely
SERMON XXX. 187
represents it, a life of preciseness and painfulness, in wk.ch a
man crosses every affection of his nature. There is no such
thing as self-denial in the Popish sense of that word in the reli-
gion of the Bible. The system of restrictions and self-crossings
is the very system which Satan hath set up as a counterfeit of
God's way of sanctifying. It is thus that Satan frightens away
thousands from Gospel peace and Gospel holiness ; as if to be
a sanctified man were to be a man who crossed every desire of
his being, who did everything that was disagreeable and uncom-
fortable to him. My friends, our text distinctly shows you that it
is not so. We are constrained to holiness by the love of Christ ;
the love of him who loved us, is the only cord by which we are
bound to the service of God. The scourge of our affections
is the only scourge that drives us to duty. Sweet bands and
gentle scourges ! Who would not be under their power ?
And, finally, brethren, if Christ's love to us be the object which
the Holy Ghost makes use of, at the very first, to draw us to the
service of Christ, it is by means of the same object that he draws
us to persevere even unto the end. So that if you are visited
with seasons of coldness and indifference, if you begin to be
weary, or lag behind in the service of God, behold ! here is the
remedy : Look again to the bleeding Saviour. That Sun of
Righteousness is the grand attractive 'centre, round which all his
sai:its move swiftly, and in smooth harmonious concert, " not with-
out song" As long as the believing eye is fixed upon his love,
th path of the believer is easy and unimpeded ; for that love
always constraineth. But lift off the believing eye, and the path
becomes impracticable, the life of holiness a weariness. Whoso-
ever, then, would live a lit'.' of persevering holiness, let him keep
his eye fixed on the Saviour. As long as Peter looked only to
the Saviour, he walked upon the sea in safety, to go to Jesus ;
but when he looked around, and saw the wind boisterous, he
was afraid, and beginning to sink, cried, " Lord, save me !"
Just so will it be with you. As long as you look believingly to
the Saviour, who loved you. and gave himself for you, so long
you may tread the waters of life's troubled sea, and the soles
of your feet shall not be wet ; but venture to look around upon
the winds and waves that threaten you on every hand, and,
like Peter, you begin to sink, and cry, " Lord, save me !" How
just y, then, may we address to you the Saviour's rebuke to Peter :
" O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt ?" Look
ag iin to the love of the Saviour, and behold that love which
constraineth thee to live no more to thyself, but to him that died
for thee and rose again.
Cullegf Church, August 30, 1335
|88 SERMON XXXI.
SERMON XXXI.
ARISE, SHINE.
Arise, shine ; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people;
but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And
the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising."
-Isa. lx., 1-3
THESE words are yet to be fulfilled in Jerusalem. It has been
long trodden down by the Gentiles, its walls are desolate, its tem-
ple burnt, and the Mosque of Omar raised over it in cruel mock-
ery. The ways of Zion do mourn ; because none come to the
solemn feasts. No sunbeam pours upon the dark brow of JudaK ;
no star of Bethlehem sparkles in their sky. But another day is
at hand. The time is coming when a voice shall be heard jay-
ing to Jerusalem ; " Arise, shine ; for thy light is come, and the
glory of the Lord is risen upon thee."
Observe, 1. It shall be a time when the world is in darkness ;
" For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross dark-
ness the people." The whole Bible bears witness that the time
when the Jew is to be enlightened is to be a time when the world
is dark and unenlightened. Paul says plainly that the world will
be dead, one great dead mass, when God gives life to the Jews :
" If the casting away of them has been the reconciling of the
world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead ?"
2. In that time of darkness, the Lord Jesus shah 1 reveal him-
self to the Jews, the veil shall be taken away, and that glori-
ous Bridegroom shall come for h to them : " The Lord shall
arise upon thee, and his glory sh- 1 be seen upon thee." Like the
rising sun appearing above theh ,1s, tinging all Mount Olivet with
living gold, then pouring down upon the prostrate ruins of Jeru-
salem, till the holy hills smile again in his cheering ray ; so shall it
be with desolated Judah. Christ shall arise upon their souls,
the day shall dawn, and the day-star arise on their hearts.
Christ shall appear beautiful and glorious, and they shall submit
with joy to put on his imputed righteousness. His glory, his
beauty, his comeliness shall be seen upon them.
3. Observe the command of God to the enlightened Jews : '
" Arise, shine." Hitherto they have been sitting on the ground,
desolate, in darkness ; but when Christ is revealed to them, they
shall give life to the dead world, they shall be the lights of a dark
world. The word is, " Arise, shine." As Christ rises upon them.
so they must rise on the dark world ; as Christ shines upon them,
so they must reflect his beauty and his brightness all P round.
Even as the moon, in itself dark and desolate, does not r ink in
SERMON XXXI. 189
the rays of the sun, but arises and shines, reflecting his beams on
the dark earth ; so shall it be with the enlightened Jews.
4. The effect : " The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings
to the brightness of thy rising." When the songs of the ransomed
Israelites are heard in their native mountains, their mouth filled
with laughter and their tongue with singing, then shall the nations
say : " The Lord hath done great things for them." Ten men
cut of all languages of the nations shall take hold of the skirt
of him that is a Jew, saying : " We will go with you ; for we have
heard that God is with" you." When the psalms of Israel itse
from under their vine and their fig-tree, even kings shall lay by
their crowns, and come to learn of them the way to peace.
Dear brethren, pray for the Jews, pray for the peace of Jeru-
salem. Oh ! hasten the happy day. The Lord will hasten it
in his time.
Doctrine. Chrfst arises and shines upon souls, in order that
they may arise and shine.
I. By nature men are in a state of darkness. Verse 2 : " Dark-
ness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people." When
Christ arises upon a soul, he finds it in utter darkness.
1. He does not know himself. A man in the dark cannot see
himself, he cannot see his own hand before him, he cannot tell
whether his hands are filthy or clean ; so is it with all of you who
are in an unconverted state. You do not know yourselves.
Yo'ir fingers are defiled, your garments are stained ; but you
know it not. Impure desires are written in your heart ; but
you cannot read what is there. You say : " Peace, peace,
when there is no peace."
2. A natural man shrinks from the light. A person who has
been long in a dark dungeon, cannot bear the glaring light ; it
hurts the eyes ; he starts back into his darkness ; so is it with
all unconverted souls. You love the darkness rather than the
light ; because your deeds are evil. When the light of God's holy
law is brought upon you, you shrink back from it. When Jesus,
who is the light of the world, is preached unto you, you shut your
eyes closer than before. Is there none of you who has felt that
when Christ is fully preached to you, when you have been com-
pelled for a little to bear the light of his lovely countenance shin-
ing through the Word, when you have gone home, did you not
creep back with delight to other thoughts of sin and worldlines.s ?
The more that sun shone, the more you have closed your ey^s.
Oh ! how plainly you are in darkness, and a lover of it.
3. A natural man gropes after salvation. A man in the d;irk
gropes like the blind. If he wants to find the door, he is obliged
to feel for it ; he gropes about, not knowing where to place his
hand ; often he goes in the very opposite direction : so is it with
natural men seeking salvation, they grope for it in the dark. " Wo
(90 SERMON XXXI.
irrope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no
eves : we stumble at noonday as in the night ; we are in desolate
places as dead men." Isa. lix., 10. Do you not remember a time
whrn you were alarmed about your soul ? a sudden threatening of
doath, or the near approach of a sacrament, awakened you to
tremble for your soul. And where did you go for peace ? You
did not know where to go ; you groped for it ; you did not know
where to turn yourself. You were directed to Jesus ; but you
could comprehend him : " The darkness comprehended it not."
How plain that you are in gross darkness !
4. They know not at what they shall stumble. A man in the
dark does not know what he may come against. His next step
may be over a precipice, or upon dark mountains ; so is it with
Christless souls : " The path of the wicked is as darkness ; they
know not at what they shall stumble." Oh ! poor blinded souls,
that walk so boldly in sin; ye know not whafye do. You that
know you have never come to Christ, and yet walk with a light,
confident step, as if you were to walk on a smooth carpet for ever,
awake, dear souls. Do not rush on in the dark ; for fear, arid the
pit, and the snare are in the way, and many bold sinners have gone
down quick into hell. Give glory to the Lord before your feet
stumble on the dark mountains, and while ye look for light, he turn
it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.
II. Learn how a soul is brought into light and peace ; " The
Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee."
1. It is hy Christ rising upon the soul. The image here is taken
from the rising of the sun. When the sun rises, then all is light ;
so when Christ rises upon the soul, all is light. When God first
awakens a soul, he finds himself sitting in gross darkness and the
shadow of death ; he fears he shall soon be cast into outei
darkness. He says, I must make my way to light ; so he strug-
gles to justify himself, he tries to blot out his past sins by repent-
ance, he tries to mend his life ; but he is met by the word : " Be-
hold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with
sparks, walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that ye
have kindled ; this shall ye have of mine hand, ye shall lie down
in sorrow." So he sits down in agony, in more midnight dark-
ness than before ; but man's extremity is God's opportunity. The
soul is sitting, as it were, in a dungeon ; he sees no way of peace.
The Spirit opens the Word, and Christ shines through, Christ the
Son of God, the Lord our Righteousness. The heart of Christ
is revealed, his love to the lost, his undertaking for them, his surety-
ship obedience, his suretyship sufferings. Glorious Christ ! pre-
cious Christ ! He shines like a new sun, the soul gazes and says :
" Truly light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to be-
hold the sun." Has Christ risen upon you ? Has he been re-
vealed to you, that better Sun ? Oh ! if not, you are of all men
SERMON XXXI. 191
most miserable ; you are sitting "n darkness and the shadow of
death. Oh ! what are all the sparks of worldly pleasure, what
are all the fires and torches of the world's kindling? They are
like the glowworm's deceitful blaze, they are leading you to ruin ;
they will soon go out, and leave you to the blackness of darkness
for ever.
Anxious souls, learn to look out for peace, Oh ! how anxiously
you search that bosom, to see if there is any change there which
may give you peace. Now, change your plan. No more gaze
into that foul dungeon ; but look out upon the glorious Sun, look
upon Christ : one look to him gives peace.
Learn to wait for light. Be like those that wait for the morn-
ing. You can no more bring yourself into peace than you can
change the course of the sun. Feel your vileness, feel your help-
lessness, and wait on his hand to take the veil away. " I wait for
the Lord ; my sonl doth wait, and in his word do I hope ; my
soul \vaiteta lor the Lord more than they that watch for the morn-
ing."
2. C*iri~t's gjory is put upon the soul: "His glory shall be
soer upon th: e.' 1 It has long been discovered that color is nothing
in the object, but is all thrown upon i> 77 the suli, and reflected
back again. Th' Leaatiful colors with whi^h this lovely world
is adorned, all proceed fron< t'le s'.a. His glory is seen upon the
earth. It is all the gilt of tne sm that the grass is of that refresh-
ing green, and the rivers arc hnes of waving blue ; it is all the
gift of the sun that the flowers are tinged with their thousand
glories ; that the petal of the rose has its delicate blush, and the
lily, that neither toils nor spins, a brightness that is greater than
Solomon's. Now, my dear souls, this is the way in which you
may be justified. You are dark, and vile, and worthless in your-
selves ; but Christ's glory shall be seen on you.
Observe it is His glory. If you only consent to take Christ for
your surety, his divine righteousness is all imputed to you ; his
sufferings, his obedience are both yours Tell me, anxious soul,
what are you seeking? "lam seeking to make myself appear
better in the sight of God." Well, then, do you think you will
ever make yourself appear as lovely and glorious as Jesus Christ
in the eyes of God ? " No, I have no hope of that." Ah ! then,
look here. Christ himself is offered you for a covering ; put on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. Oh !
that God would open some heart to believe the word concerning
Jesus. Oh ! to see dust and ashes clothed in the brightness and
beauty of Christ ! Oh ! to see a weary sinner perfect in beauty,
through Christ's comeliness ! This is the loveliest sight in all the
world. " His glory shall be seen upon thv."
III. The command to all in Christ "Arise, shine" There never
yet was a man saved for himself. God never yet made a Chria-
1 92 SERMON XXXI.
tian to be a selfish being. " Ye are the salt of the earth." But
salt is not for itself, but to be used. A city set on a hill cannot
be hid ; so a Christian is set upon God's holy hill not to be hid.
No man lighteth a candle and putteth it under a bushel or a bed.
but on a candlestick, and then it gives light to all that are in the
house. But here is a more wonderful comparison still : " Arise,
shine." Christians are to become like Christ little suns, to rise
and shine upon the dark world. He rises and shines upon us,
and then says to us, " Arise, shine." This is Christ's command to
all on whom he has arisen : " Arise, shine." Dear Christians, ye
are the lights of the world. Poor, and feeble, and dark, and sin-
ful, though you be, Christ has risen upon you for this very end, '
that you might " Arise and shine."
1. Be like the sun, which shineth every day, and in every place.
Wherever he goes he carries light ; so do you. Some shine like
the sun in public before men, but are dark as night in their own
family. Dear Christians, look more to Christ, and you will shine
more constantly.
2. Shine with Christ's light. The moon rises and shines, but
not with her own light, she gathers all from the sun ; so do you.
Shine in such a' way that Christ shall have all the glory. They
shine brightest who feel most their own darkness, and are most
clothed in Christ's brightness. Oh ! wherever you go, make it
manifest that your light and peace all come from him ; that it is
by looking unto Jesus that you shine ; that your holiness all comes
from union to him. " Let your light so shine before men."
3. Make it the business of your life to shine. If the sun were
to grow weary of running his daily journey, and were to give
over shining, would you not say it should be taken down ? for did
not God hang it in the sky to give light upon the earth ? Just so,
dear Christians, if you grow weary in well-doing, in shining with
Christ's beauty, in walking by Christ's Spirit, you, too, should be
taken down and cast away ; for did not Christ arise upon you for
this very end, that you might be a light in the world ? Ah ! think
of this, dark, useless Christians, who are putting your candle under
a bushel. I tremble for some who will not lay themselves out for
Christ. Ah ! you are wronging yourselves and dishonoring
Christ. Your truest happiness is in shining; the' more you shine*
for Christ, the happier you will be. "To me to live is Christ;
and to die, gain."
4. Shine far and near. You are this day besought to help your
brethren in the colonies ; to send them the Gospel, that the Sun of
Righteousness may rise upon them. Obj. Better help the heathen
at home. Ans. It is quite right to help the heathen at home ; bt
it is just as right to help the heathen abroad. Oh! that God
would free you from a narrow mind, and give you his own divine
Spirit. Learn a lesson from the sun. It shines both far and near ;
*t does not pour its beams all into one sunny valley, or on one
SERMON XXXII. 193
bright land. No ; it jpurneys on from shore to shore ; pours its
rich beams upon the wide ocean ; on the torrid sands of Africa
and the icy coasts of Greenland. Go you and do likewise.
Shine as lights in the world.
Shine in your closet in secret prayer. Ah ! let your face shine
in secret communion with God. Shine in your family ; that with-
out the word you may gain their souls. Shine in your town ;
that, when you mingle with the crowd, it may be as if an angel
shook his wings. Shine in the world ; embrace every shore with
the beams of living love. Oh ! let your heart's desire and prayer
be, that every soul may be saved. Be like Christ himself, who is
not willing that any should perish. And whenever a soul sinks
into the dark lake of eternal agony, may you be able to lift up
your tearful eyes and say: Father. I have prayed to the last, and
spoken to the last. "Even so. Father; for so it seemed good in
thy sight."
SERMON XXXII.
MELTING THE BETRAYER.
" When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and saia, Ve-
rily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me." John xiii., 2) .
THERE are many excellent and most Christian men who think
that the feast of the Lord's Supper should never be sullied or
interrupted by allusions to those who may be eating and drinking
unworthily. They think that when men have, by their own
solemn act and deed, deliberately seated themselves at the table
of the Lord, that table to which none but believers in Jesus are
invited, they think that, for the time being, at least, it is the part
of that charity which hopeth all things, to address them as if all
were the genuine disciples of Jesus, and children of God. These
good men know well that there are always many intruders into
that holy ordinance ; they know that many come from mere
custom, and a sense of decency, and from a dislike to be marked
out as openly irreligious and profane ; and though they feel, in
addressing the whole mass as Christians, many a rise of conscience
within, many a sad foreboding that the true guests may be the little
flock, while the intruders may be the vast majority ; yet they do
not feel themselves called upon to disturb the enjoyment of the
believing flock, however few they may be, by insinuating any
such dark suspicion as that there may be some there who have
already sold their Lord for their sins ; some who, though they
may eat bread with him, yet lift up the heel against him.
13
194 SERMON XXXII.
Now, a most complete answer to the scruples of these good
men is to be found in the example of our blessed Lord. In that
niirht, so much to be remembered, in which he instituted the
Lord's Supper, a night in which nothing but kindness and ten-
derness flowed from his blessed lips, we find that no fewer than
five times over did he begin to speak about his betrayer. In
many respects thnt was the most wonderful evening that ever was
in the world, and that upper room in Jerusalem the most wonder-
ful room that ever was in the world. Never did the shades of
evening gather round a more wonderful company, never did the
walls of an upper chamber look upon so wonderful a scene. Three
strange events were crowded into thai little space. 1st, There
was the washing the disciples' feet; the Lord of glory stooping as
a servant to wash the feet of poor worms ! 2d, There was the last
passover, eating of the lamb and the bitter herbs, which had been
the memorial of the dying Saviour to all believing Jews, but which
wa now to come to an end. '3d, There was the first Lord's
Supper, the breaking of bread und pouring out of wine, and the
giving and receiving of it, which was to be the memorial of his
dying love even to the end of the world. Oh ! what an as-
semblage of love was here ! what a meeting together of incidents,
each one more than another picturing forth the inexpressible love
of Jesus ! Oh ! what an awfully tender hour was this ! Oh !
what an awfully tender joy was now thrilling through the bosoms
of his believing disciples ! Oh ! brethren, what an exulting glad-
ness would now fill the- bosom of the courageous Peter ! what an
adoring love the breast of the Israelite indeed, the simple-hearted
Nathaniel ! and what a breathing of unspeakable affection in the
heart of the beloved John, as he leaned on the dear Saviour's
bosom ! Oh ! who would break in on such an hour of holy joy with
harsh and cruel words about the betrayer? who would dare to
ruffle the -lalm tranquillity of such a moment by one word of dark
suspicion? Hush ! brethren, it is the Saviour that speaks: " Ve-
rily, verily, I say unto you that one of you shall betray me"
I trust, then, my friends, you see plainly, from the example of our
blessed Lord, that the awfully solemn warning of the text, instead of
being a rash and unwarrantable intrusion upon the joyous feelings
with which every true disciple should encompass the table of the
Lord, is, of all other Scriptures, the most appropriate, and the
most like what Jesus would have us to say upon this solemn
occasion. It is not, then, with the harshness of unfeeling man,
but it is with the tenderness of the compassionate Jesus, that we
repeat these words in your hearing : " Verily, verily, I say unto
you, that one of you shall betray me."
There is a cruel kindness, almost too cruel, one would think,
for this cruel world, which is sometimes practised by the friends
of a dying man, when from day to day they mark the approaches
of death upon his pallid cheek, and yet they will not breathe a
SERMON XXXII. 195
whisper of his danger to him. They flatter him with murderous
lies, that he is getting better, and will yet see many days, when
his days are numbered. But ten thousand times more cruel, more
base and unfeeling, would that minister be, who, set over you by
God to care for your never-dying souls, should yet look upon
those of you who surround so willingly the table of the Lord, but
whose whole life, and walk, and conversation, proclaim you to
be the betrayers of that Lord, and not once lift up the warning
crv : " Ye are not all clean. Verily, verily, I say unto you, that
one of you shall betray me."
Ques. What could be Christ's reason for so often and so
solemnly speaking of his betrayer ?
Ans. I can see no other reason for it but that he might make
one last effort to melt the heart of his betrayer.
Doctrine. Christ is earnestly seeking the salvation of those
unconverted persons who sit down at his table.
There are two arguments running through the whole of this
scene by means of which Jesus tried to melt the betrayer. 1st,
His perfect knowledge of him. As if he had said : I know thee,
Judas ; I know thy whole life and history ; I know that thou hast
always been a thief and a traitor ; I know that thou hast sold me
for thirty pieces of silver ; I know all thy plans and all thy crimes.
Jri this way he tried to awaken the traitor, to make him feel
himself a lost sinner. 2d, His anxious love for him. As if he
had gaid, I love thee, Judas ; I have left the bosom of the r'ather
just for lost sinners like thee ; I pitied thee before the world was;
I am quite willing still to be a Saviour to thee. In this way he
tried to win the traitor, to draw him to himself.
I. All the Saviour's dealings with Judas were intended to con-
vince him that he knew his whole heart : " I know thee, Judas,
and all thy crimes."
1. This was plainly his intention when washing the disciples'
feet, and telling them, that if they be bathed in his blood, they
need nothing more than to have their feet washed, their daily
sins wiped off daily: " Ye are clean every whit." He then adds,
but " Ye are not all clean" This was evidently intended as a hint
to Judas, to awaken his guilty conscience.
2. And then, when he had sat down again to partake of the
passover with them, and had sent round the cup of the passover,
saying, as we are told in Luke, *' Take this, and divide it among
yourselves," he would not let Judas slumber, as if he were un-
known to him ; but declares more plainly than before, "I know
whom I have chosen ; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He
that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. 1 *
This was evidently intended as a plainer intimation to Judas, that,
ho'wever concealed he might be to others, he was naked and laid
open to the eyes of the Saviour, with whom he had to do.
196 SERMON XXXII.
3. And, thirdly, when he was about to put the bread and wine
into tlu-ir hands, 'to institute the holy ordinance of the supper, he
would not do it without a still more convincing proof to the con-
science of Judas that he knew him perfectly, " As they did eat,
he said, Verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me :
and they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of
tlu'in to say unto him, Lord, is it I ? And he answered, lie it
is thatdippeth his hand with me in the dish ; he it is that betrayeth
me. And Judas answered and said, Lord, is it I ? He said unto
him, Thou hast said." Here we find the Saviour no longer deals
in hints and intimations, but tells him plainly he is the man.
Oh ! my friends, if we did not know the deceitfulncss of the
natural heart, how it evades the most pointed declarations of the
Word, we would be amazed that the heart of Judas was not
overwhelmed with the conviction, " Thou, Lord, seest me." But
no ; the arrows of the Saviour, so faithfully directed, yet strike
off from his heart as from a flinty rock, and Judas still sits at the
table of the Lord, still secure, to receive with his bloody hands
(those hands which had so lately received the thirty pieces of silver,
the price of blood) the symbols of the Saviour's broken body, which
he himself was to betray. Ah ! my friends, are there no hearts
here like Judas', from which the plainest arrows of conviction,
having written on them, " Thou art the man," glance off", without
even wounding ? Are there none of you who sit, Judas-like, with
unclean hands to receive the memorials of the Saviour whom you
are betraying ?
4. And, last of all, when the feast of love was over, when Ju-
das, with unaffected conscience, had swallowed down the bread
and wine, whose sacred meaning he did not, and could not, know;
Jesus, deeply affected, " being troubled in spirit," made one last
effort, more pointed than all that went before, to thrust the arrow
of conviction into the heart of Judas. When the beloved John,
lying on Jesus' breast, saith unto him : " Lord, who is it? Jesus
answered, He it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped
it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it" (unseen, it
would appear, by all the rest) " to Judas Iscnriot, the son of Simon.
And Jesus said unto him, That thou doest, do quickly." That this
pointed word of the Lord was intended to awaken Judas, and for
no other reason, is plain from the fact that " no man at the table
knew for what intent he spake this unto him. For some of them
thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him,
Buy those things that we have need of against the feast; or, that
he should give something to the poor." So secretly, but so power-
fully, did the Saviour seek to awaken the slumbering conscience
of the traitor. How was it possible he could miss the conviction
that Christ knew all the thoughts and ir'ents of his heart ? how
did he not fall down and confess that God was in him of a truth ;
or, like the Samaritan woman : " Come, see a man that told me
SERMON XXXII. 197
all things t'-at ever I did. Is not this the Christ?" But Satan had
his dark, mysterious hold upon him; and not more dark was the
gloomy night which met his eyes as he issued forth upon his mur-
derous errand, than was the dark night within his traitorous breast.
Now, brethren, the same Saviour is this day in the midst of us.
He walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, his eyes
are like a flame of fire, and he searcheth the reins and the hearts.
Think of this, you that are open sinners, and yet dare to sit down
at the table of Christ swearers, drunkards, Sabbath-breakers, un-
clean. Ministers and elders may not know your sins : they are
weak and short-sighted men. Your very neighbors may not
know your sins ; you may hide them from your own family. It is
easy to deceive man ; but to deceive Christ is impossible. He
knows your whole history ; he is present at every act of dishonesty,
of filthiness, of folly. The darkness and the light are both alike
to him. Think of this, you that live in heart sins, rolling sin be-
neath your tongue as a sweet morsel ; you that put on the outward
cloak of seriousness and sobriety, that you may jostle and sit
down among the children of God ; you that have the speech of
Canaan in your lips, but hatred and malice, and the very breath of
hell in your hearts; you that have the clothing of sheep, but in-
wardly are ravening wolves : you that are whited sepulchres,
beautiful without, but within full of dead men's bones and all un-
cleanness. Think of this, you that know yourselves unconverted,
and yet have dared to sit down at the table of Christ. Christ
knows you, Christ could point to you, Christ could name you,
Christ could give the sop to you. You may be hidden to all the
world, but you are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom
you have to do. Oh ! that you would fall down beneath his pierc-
ing glance, and say : " God be merciful to me, a sinner !" Oh !
that every one of you would say : " Lord, is it I ?"
II. The second argument which Christ made use of to melt and
win the heart of Judas was his love : I have loved thee, Judas,
and came to save thee.
1. This was plainly his intention when washing the disciples'
feet. He did not shrink from the traitor's feet ; yes, he not only
stooped to wash the feet of those who were to forsake him and
flee ; he noc only washed the feet of Peter, who was, before cock-
crow, to deny him with oaths and curses ; but he washed also the
feet of Judas, the very feet which had gone, two days before, to
the meeting of priests in Caiaphas' palace, where he sold the Sa-
viour for thirty pieces of silver, the value of a slave ; and .t wag
in his hearing he spoke the gentle words : " If I wash thee not,
thou hast no part with me." If, then, the Saviour's washing the
feet of the eleven was so blessed a proof of his tenderness to his
own disciples, how much more is his washing the feet of him who
The knew) had betrayed him a proof of his love to sinners, even
198 SERMON XXXII.
the chief! lie willed not the death of Judas, he wills not the death
of any one of you. You think that, because you have betrayed
the Saviour, and come to the feast without any warrant or title,
an unbidden intruder, therefore Jesus cannot love you. Alas !
this shows your own heart, but not Christ's heart. Behold Jesus
washing the feet of Judas, and wiping them with the towel where-
with he was girded ; behold his anxiety to awaken and to win the
heart of the traitor Judas ; and then think how, the more you are
a traitor and a betrayer, the more doth Jesus pity you, and wait
upon you, willing still to wash and to save you, saying : " Turn
ye, turn ye, why will ye die ?"
2. The second instance of Jesus' love to the traitor is, when he
had sat down again, and was eating the passover along with the
twelve, he did not shrink from eating meat with the traitor.
Yes; he not only sat down to eat with the eleven who
were to forsake him and flee, he not only allowed John to
recline on his bosom, and Peter to sit at the table, but he suffered
Judas to dip his hand in the very same dish with him, even when
he knew that he was fulfilling that prophecy which is written :
" He that eateth bread with me, hath lifted up his heel against
me." It was a blessed proof of the Saviour's love to his believ-
ing disciples, as is recorded by Luke, when he said : " With
desire have I desired to eat this passover with you before I suf-
fer." One would have thought that'to the eye of the Saviour this
passover must have appeared covered with threatening clouds,
involved in the deep gloom of the garden of Gethsemane, and
the bloody cross from which the sun himself hid his beams. You
always find, that when you are in immediate expectation of some
calamity, it renders gloomy and uninviting every event that
bespeaks its near approach. You would have thought, then, that
the human soul of Jesus must have shrunk back Irom this pass-
over with horror. But no ; he felt the shrinking of humanity
which more plainly showed itself in the garden, but his love for
his own disciples was stronger than all beside, and made him look
forward to this passover, when he was to picture out to them his
dying love more clearly than ever, with intense desire : " With
desire have I desired to eat this passover with you before I suf-
fer.'' But how much more wonderful is the proof of the Saviour's
love to the unbelieving, to those who care not for him, but are his
betrayers and murderers when, with such divine complacency,
he dips his hand in the same dish with Judas, and tells him, at the
same time, that he does it not through ignorance, but that the
prophecy might be fulfilled : " He that eateth bread with me,
hath lifted up the heel against me."
Ah ! my unbelieving friends, I know well the dark suspicions
that lurk in your bosoms. Because you have done everything
against Christ, you think that he cannot have any love for you ;
*ut behold, dark and proud sinners, how lovingly, how tenderly
SERMON XXXH. 199
he tries, if it may be, to awaken and to win over the heart of
Judas ! and then think how anxious he is this day to win and
awaken you, though you are of sinners the chief, to bow that
brazen neck, to break that heart of adamant, to wring a tear from
those eyes that never wept for sin.
3. The third instance of Jesus' love to the traitor is, his faith-
ful declaration of his danger to him : " The Son of Man goeth.
as it is written of him ; but woe unto that man by whom the
Son of Man is betrayed ! It had been good fur that man if
he had never been born." In the two former instances Jesus
had shown his love, by showing how willing he was to save him
to* the very uttermost, that be would bear all things to save
him ; but now he uses another way, .he shows him the terror of
the Lord, that if he will persist, " it had been good fur him that
he had not been born." As a mother, when she wishes her child
to take some wholesome medicine, first wins upon its love, and
then, if that will not do, tries to win upon its fears ; with the
same more than mother's tenderness did Jesus first try to win
upon the affections, and now upon the fears of Judas. And he is
the same Saviour this day in the upper chambers of the universe
that he was that night in the upper chamber at Jerusalem ; and he
sends his messengers to you to carry the same messages of kind-
ness and of love. It is only in love that he threatens you. And,
oh ! that in love we might speak the threatening to you, that if
you have no part in Jesus, and yet, by sitting down at his table
are becoming guilty of the body and blood of our Lord, it were
better for you that you had not been born. It is a happy thing to
live ; there is a blessedness which cannot be expressed in having
life. The fly that lives but fur a day, the veriest worm or insect
that crawls upon the ground, has an amount of blessedness in
the very fact that it lives, which it is far beyond the skill of
man to calculate. To breathe, to move, to feel the morning
sun and the evening breeze, to look out upon the green world
and the blue sky ; all this is happiness immense, immeasurable.
It never can be said of a fly or worm, that it had better never
been born ; but. alas ! it may be said of some of you : If you
are living, but not living united to Christ, if you are sitting at
the table of Christ and yet unconverted, it had been good for
you that you had not been born. Ah ! my friends, there was
once a heathen man who always wept, and got the name of
the Weeping Philosopher. One would almost think that he had
known this truth which we preach unto you, that if that union
which you make with the bread and wine at the holy table be
not a picture and a seal of the union between your soul and the
Saviour of sinners, you had far better never have bee'n born.
Better not to be, than to be only in hell. " They shall wish to
die, and shall not be able ; they shall seek to die, and death shall
flee from them."
200 SERMON XXXII.
4. The fourth and last instance of Jesus' love to the traitor ia
ihr must touching of all. After the supper was over, Jesus was
li't.uMt'd in spirit, and testified and said: "Verily, verily, I sa^
unto you, that one of you shall betray me." It was but a few
days before that he came riding down the declivity of Mount
Olivet upon an ass's colt ; and his disciples, behind and before,
\\ i TO all rejoicing and praising God, crying " Hosanna !" and Jesus
what was he doing? He was weeping: " When he came near.
he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known,
even thou, at least in this thy day, the things that belong unto thy
peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes." He wept over,
the very city which he doomed to destruction. And just so here ;
when his disciples on every hand were filled with a holy joy, and
John most of all rejoicing, for he lay in the bosom of Immanuel,
what was Christ doing the author of all their joy? He was
heavy and troubled in spirit. He was always the man of sorrows,
and acquainted with grief, but now a ruffle of deeper sorrow
came over the placid calm of his holy features : he was troubled
in spirit, and said : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, One of you
shall betray me." He had tried all arguments to move his
betrayer ; he had unbosomed the tenderness of his love ; he had
shown the dreadfulness of his anger ; but when he saw that all
would not do to move his hard heart, when he saw the heartless
unconcern with which Judas could swallow down the bread, and
share in the blessed cup, the spirit of the Saviour sank within him;
and the last effort of his love to awaken the impenitent murderer
; vas, to unbosom the depth of his sorrows, and to breathe out,
with many sighs, the words : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, that
one of you shall betray me."
My friends, there may be some within these walls with a heart
as hard as that of Judas. Like Judas, you are about to partake
of the most moving ordinance the world ever saw; like Judas,
you may eat of the bread and drink of the wine ; and like Judas,
your heart may grow harder, and your life more sinful than ever.
And you tltink, then, that Jesus is your enemy? But what does
the Bible say ? Look here ; he is troubled in spirit ; he weeps, as
he did over Jerusalem. Yes ; he that once shed his blood for
yeu, now sheds his tears for you. Immanuel grieves that you
will not be saved. He grieved over Judas, and he grieves over
you. He wept over Jerusalem, and he weeps over you. He has
uo pleasure that you should perish ; he had far rather that you
would turn and have life. There is not within these walls one of
you so hard, so cruel, so base, so unmoved, so far from grace and
godlines^, so Judas-like, that Jesus does not grieve over your
hardness; that you will still resist all his love; that you will stil
fove death, and wrong your own souls. Oh! that the tears which
the Saviour shed over your lost and perishing souls might fall
upon your hearts like drops of liquid fire ; that you might no more
SERMON XXXIII. 201
sit unmelted under that wondrous love which burns with so
vehement a flame, which many waters cannot quench, which all
your sins cannot smother, the love which passeth knowledge.
Amen.
t, Aug., 1836.
SERMON XXXIII.
I THE LOED HAVE CALLED THEE IN RIGHTEOUSNESS.
' Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out ;
he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it ; he that giveth
breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein : I the
Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep
thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles ; to
open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that
ait in darkness out of the prison-house. I am the Lord ; that is my name : ami
my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images."
Isa. xlii., 5-8.
IN this passage we have some of the most wonderful words that
ever were uttered in the world. It is not a man speaking to a
man, it is not even God speaking to a man, it is God speaking to
his own Son. Oh ! who would not listen ? It is as if we were
secretly admitted into the counsel of God as if we stood behind
the curtains of his dwelling-place, or were hidden in the clefts of
the rock, and overheard the words of the Eternal Father to the
Eternal Son. Now, sometimes when you overhear a conversa-
tion on earth, between two poor, perishing worms, you think it is
worth treasuring up you remember what they said you repeat
it over and over again. Oh ! then, when you overhear a conver-
sation in heaven when God the Father speaks, and God the Son
stands to receive his words, will you not listen ? will you not lay
up these sayings in your heart ?
God tells the Son : 1. That he had called him to his service
had passed over all his angels, and chosen him for this difficult
work. 2. He tells him that he is not to shrink from the difficulties
of it. There is an ocean of wrath to wade through, but fear not ;
I will hold thee by the hand I will keep thee. 3. He tells him
that he must be given as a covenant Saviour. However dear to
his heart, still, says God, " I will give thee." 4. He encourages
him by the great benefit to be gained that he would be a light to
whole nations of poor, blind, captive sinners. 5. That in all this
he would have his glory : " My glory will I not give to another,
nor rny praise to graven images."
Doctrine. God has provided the Saviour, and alone can reveal
him ; and he will keep this glory to himself.
202 SERMON XXXIII.
T. God provided the Saviour. He snys here : " I have called
tluv in ri^htoousiicsss." The meaning is : I have called thee to
do this work of righteousness to work out this salvation, which
shall show me to be a righteous God. God did, as it were, look
round all the creatures, to see whom he would call to this great
work, of being a Saviour of lost sinners. He looked upon the
earth, through all its families ; but there was none that understood,
there was none that did seek God. Every man had his own curse
to bear ; no rnan could give a ransom for the soul of his brother,
for the ransom of the soul was precious. He looked round all the
blooming angels, as if to say. Who will go for me ? Seraphim
and Cherubim all stood, veiling their faces with their wings ; but
he saw that none of them could bear infinite wrath. They are
only creatures ; they would be crushed eternally under the weight
of my wrath. These will not do. He looked into his oicnbosom.
There was his eternal Son his dear Son his well-beloved Son.
Oh ! this will do. I have found a ransom ; I have laid help on one
who is mighty. My Son, I have called thee in righteousness.
Learn how complete a Saviour Christ is. God did not choose
a man to this great work he did not choose an angel ; he passed
by them all, and chose his Son. Why ? Because he saw none
other would be a sufficient Saviour. If Christ had not been
enough, God never would have called him to it. God knew well
the weight of his own wrath ; and, therefore, he provided an
almighty back to bear it. Trembling sinner, do not doubt the
completeness of Christ. God knew all your sins and your wrath
ivhen he chose Christ that they were both infinite ; and therefore
he chose an almighty, an infinite Saviour. Oh ! hide in him, and
you are complete in him.
II. God upheld the Saviour : " I will hold thine hand, and will
keep thee." The figure here seems taken from a father and his
little child. When a little child has to go over some very rough
road, or to travel in the darkness, or to wade through some deep
waters, he says to his father : I fear I shall be lost ; I shall not be
able to go through. Nay, do not fear, the father answers : " I
will hold thine hand ; I will keep thee." Such are the words o'
the Father to his dear Son. I would not have dared to have
imagined them, if I had not found them in the Bible. When God
called his Son to the work, it could not but be a fearful work in
his eyes. Christ knew well the infinite number of men's sins ; for
he is the searcher of hearts and trier of reins. He knew also the
infinite weight of God's anger against these sins ; he saw the dark
clouds of infinite vengeance that were ready to burst over the
head of sinners ; he saw the infinite deluge of eternal wrath that
was to drown for ever the guilty world ; and, oh ! how dreadful
his Father's anger was in his eyes ; for he had known nothing but
his infinite love from all eternity. Oh ! how could he bear to lie
SERMON XXXIII. 203
down under that wrath ? How could he bear to excnange the
smile of his Father's love for the dark power of his Father's
anger ? How could he bear, for the sake of vile sinners, to ex
change the caresses of that God who is love, for the piercings and
bruisings of his almighty hand ? Surely the very thought would
be agony. God here comforts his Son under the view : Yon sea
of wrath is deep its waves are dreadful ; but " I will hold thine
hand ; 1 will keep thee."
1. Learn from this how dreadful the sufferings of Christ were.
He needed God to hold his hand ; he was God himself; thought
it no robbery to be equal with God ; he had the Spirit given to
him without measure: " I have put my Spirit upon him ;" but all
that would not do : God the Father must hold his hand too. Oh !
think what a weight must have been crushing and bruising the
Lamb of God, when Father, Son, and Holy Ghost combined their
force to hold him up. Oh ! think what a depth of agony must
have been upon him, when he cried : " What shall I say ? Father,
save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.
My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Take away
this cup from me" and when the Father answered him: "I will
hold thine hand I will keep thee." Oh ! my friends, this is a
great deep. Cry, " O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom
and knowledge of God ! How unsearchable are his judgments,
and his ways past finding out !"
2. Learn the greatness of your sins. Remember Christ had no
sins of his own ; no wrath was due to himself; all that wrath he
bore was ours. You that are believers, you have but a small
sense of the greatness of your sins. Oh ! look here ; see God
holding the hand of his Son, while he wades through that sea of
wrath ! Oh ! surely a look at a suffering Christ should keep you
in the dust for ever. You must never open your mouth any
more. And, oh ! will you not love him who so loved you
who lay down under these surges and billows of God's wrath for
you ?
You that are unconverted, see here the dreadful wrath that is
over your souls. You think your sins are very few, and God
will not be very angry. This is natural ; all natural men think
this ; and yet see here how dreadful the wrath is that is over you.
Even Christ trembled and started back when he came to bear it;
and how will you do ? You are not the Son of God ; you have
no divinity within you, as Christ had; how will you be able to
bear the bruisings ami lashings of God's infinite angor? You
h iv not the Spirit of God given to you, as Christ had, without
m a<ure ; how will you be able to stand under the outpourings of
his eternal indignation? You have not God to take you by the
hand. God is not your God, not your friend; he has nowhere
said that he will hold you by the hand ; ah 1 how will you wade
through an eternal and bottomless sea of wrath? How will you
304 SERMON XXXIII.
contend and fight against the fiery billows, where there is no crea-
ture, in heaven or in earth, to hold you by the hand ? Oh ! my
friends, it is because you are blind, that you have no fears. Christ
saw all that is before you, and it made him tremble ; you do not
see it, and therefore you do not tremble. You can be happy, and
smile, and sleep, and enjoy yourselves ; but your day of trembling
is at hand. Ah ! woe is me ! how will you stand upon the shore
of that fiery sea ? how you will hang back, and wish that you had
some one to hold you by the hand ; but it will be all in vain. Oh !
that you were wise, that you would remember your latter end ;
that you would consider this.
3. Learn God's great hand in Christ's work. When a fathei
guides his child through some dark part of the road, or through
some rapid stream, holding him by the hand, this shows that the
father is interested in the journey of the child ; so, when God
says, " I will hold thee by the hand," this shows that God has a
great hand in Christ's work. In writing, if you hold the child's
hand, and guide the pen, then you have a great hand in the writing.
Just so did God hold the hand of the Saviour. The work is God';;
as much as Christ's. Oh ! that we might give him all the glory '.
Remember, he will not give his glory to another.
III. God gave Christ for a covenant : " I will give thee for a
covenant of the people." " God so loved the world, that he gave
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not
perish." " Herein is love ; not that we loved God.'' God i.ot
only provided the Saviour, and upheld him, but he gave him, gave
him away, to be a covenant Saviour of the people, and a light to
lighten the Gentiles. When Abraham bound his son Isaac upon
the altar, and lifted up the knife to strike, this was giving away
his son at the command of God. This is just what God did. He
took his son out of his bosom, and gave him away to be bound, to
be a covenant Saviour of the people. There are not more won-
derful words in the whole Bible than these ; " / will give thee"
' God spared not his own Son, but freely delivered him up to the
death for us all." The Son was infinitely dear to the Father. God
cannot but love that which is perfectly holy and beautiful. Now,
such was Christ. From all eternity there had been the outgoings
of love and infinite admiration from the bosom of the Father to-
wards his well-beloved Son. Canst thou part with me ? Canst
thou give me up to the garden and the cross ? " / will give
thee." Sinners were infinitely vile in the sight of the Father.
God cannot but hate that which is enmity and rebellion to himself.
" He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity." How loathsome
and hateful this world must have been in his eyes, where every
heart was enmity against him ! Canst thou give me up for such
sinners, for the sake of such vile worms ! " Yes, / will give thee'
1. Learn the intense love of God for sinners. He spared not
SERMON XXXIII. 205
.us own Son. Herein is love. He loved the nappiness of his
Son; but he loved the salvation of sinners more. He loved to
have his Son in his bosom ; but he loved more to have sinners
brought into his bosom. He cast out his Son, in order to *ake us
m. Oh ! sinner, how will you escape, if you neglect so great a
salvation ?
2. Learn that God must have the glory of this. He will not
give his glory to another. Some awakened persons look to God
as an angry, inexorable judge ; but to Christ as a smiling Sa.
viour, that comes between us and an angry Father. Now, re
member, you will never come to peace as long as you think this.
This is robbing God of his glory. You must believe in Christ and
believe in God. God wishes you to honor the Son even as you
honor the Father ; but not more than you honor the Father. You
will never come to peace till you look to Christ as the gift of God,
till you see that the heart of God and Christ are one in this matter,
till God open a window in his breast, and show you the love
which provided, upheld, and gave up the Son.
IV. God gave Christ for a light : " I will give thee for alight."
It is God that causes the sun to rise every morning, so that the
dark shades of evening are scattered before him ; so it is God that
makes Christ rise upon the soul of a sinner.
1. By nature, men have blind eyes. They do not know the
beauty of Christ. They read of him in the Word, hear him
preached ; talked of; they see no form nor comeliness in him ; no
beauty that they should desire him. They have eyes, but they
see not. 2. By nature, men are bound in prison. They serve
divers lusts and pleasures ; they are bound to selfishness and pride,
and luxury, and lust ; these things compass them about as with a
chain. 3. By nature, men sit in a dark prison-house. They are
bound, but do not see that they are bound ; they do not see their
misery ; they sit they do not strive to get free, but sit contented
and hnppy in their darksome dungeon. Oh ! unconverted souls,
what a picture this is of your condition ! Blind in prison con
tented in the dark dungeon. You will say, I feel it not ; I an
contented and happy. Ah ! does not this just show that this word
is true : You are blind, you do not see your misery ? When a
blind man is in darkness, he feels no pain from it. You are
chained ; you do not struggle ; you sit still in the prison-house. I
have often thought that your very ease and contentment might
awaken you to think that all is not right.
Now, learn, how a change comes : " I will give thee for a light
of the Gentiles." It is all the gift of God. Oh ! I fear, we little
understand this. There is much robbing God of his glory, even
among Christians. When God causes the sun to ris<;, then nothing
can make darkness. The mists and fogs cannot keep back the
beams of the sun ; so, when God causes Christ to rise on the sool
206 SERMON XXXIV.
then there is light. Revealing Christ docs the whole work for tha
soul. It awakens, it wins, it draws, it makes free, it makes holy.
Qnes. Has Christ been made to rise upon your soul ? If not,
then you are still blind, still in chains, and in the dark dungeon;
you have neither peace nor holiness. Oh! seek it from God cry
to him, that Christ may give you light.
But, if Christ has been made to rise on your soul, happy are
you. You were sometime darkness, but now you are light in the
Lord. Walk as children of the light. Now, see who did it, and
give him the praise. It is the Lord. God gave Christ to be a
light to thy soul. Give him, and him alone, the glory. "My
glory I will not give to another." 1. Do not give the praise to
yourself; do not say, My own wisdom or my own prayers have
gotten me this. It was all undeserved mercy to the chief of sin-
ners. " My glory I will not give to another. 2. Do not give the
glory to ministers. They are often the instruments of bringing
souls to Christ, but they cannot make Christ arise on the soul,
any more than they can make the sun to rise on the earth.
We can point to the sun, though we cannot make it rise ; so,
we can point you to Christ, but cannot make him rise on your soul.
The work is God's, and he will have the glory. I believe the
work is greatly hindered amongst us from the cause mentioned.
Last. Plead with God to fulfil his word, that Christ may be a
light to the nations. It is as easy with God to make Christ rise on
many souls as upon one. Show him that it is for his glory that a
nation be born in a day. Give him no rest till he pour down the
Spirit on all our families, till there be a great looking unto Jesus, and
rejoicing in him. Take thine own glory, O Lord, give it to no
other ; neither thy praise to graven images.
Sf. Peter's, Jan. 7, 1838.
SERMON XXXIV.
RETURN UNTO ME.
' Remember these, Jacob and Israel ; for thou art my servant : I have form? i
thee; thou art my servant: Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me. I
have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins :
return unto me ; for I have redeemed thee." Isa. xliv., 21, 22.
IN these words God contrasts the happy condition of his chosen
people with that of the poor blind idolaters whom he had been
describing in the verses before. Ah ! my friends, to the eye of
man, there may be little difference between the children of the
wicked one and the children of God ; but, to the eye of God, they
are as different as the chaff from the wheat, as the lily from the
SERMON XXXIV. 207
thorn. Of you that arc Christless, God says, " He feedeth on
ashes" (verse 20) ; but Jo you that are his children, " Remember
these, O Jacob." May God open our eyes to see wonders out of
this Scripture !
I. All that have come to Christ are forgiven : " I have blotted
out.'' Verse 22.
1. Observe the completeness of their forgiveness : " I have blotted
out as a thick cloud." This complete forgiveness is many ways
showed forth in the Bible. 1st, It is compared to the change
produced on clothes by washing or dyeing them : " Though thy
sins be as scarlet, yet shall they be white as snow" (Isa. i., 18) ;
and again, " Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our
sins in his blood." 2d, Again, to something covered over:
" Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin
is covered." And Jesus says, " Buy of me white raiment, that
thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do
not appear." 3d, Again, it is compared to something lost. He-
zekiah says, " Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back ;" Micah,
" Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." But
still they may be near at hand ? No : " As far as east is distant
from the west." Ps. ciii., 12. But if God were to seek for them ?
"In those days, and in that time, shall the iniquity of Israel be
sought for, and there shall be none ; and the sins of Judah, and
they shall not be found." Jer. 1., 20. 4th, To something for-
gotten : " Thy sins and thine iniquities will I remember no more."
" All his transgressions that he hath done, they shall not be men-
tioned unto him." 5th, To something blotted out. Although
they be washed, covered, lost, forgotten, yet they will still remain
in God's record, yes, they will ; but how ? Blotted out.
Any of you that believe in Jesus, do you take the Son of God
as your Surety ? Take this word to yourself. See what the page
will be like on which thy sins are written. It will be one great
blot ; one thick cloud. When you look on the clouds, can you
read anything written there ? no more can God read any of thy
sins, O believer in Jesus.
2. Observe, it is present forgiveness. It is not, I will blot out ;
but, " I have blotted out." Some say, I hope God will forgive me.
Ah ! my friends, you greatly mistake the Bible : a present forgive-
ness is offered to you. The moment a soul closes with Christ,
that moment is this word true of him : " I have blotted out."
" There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ
Jesus."
Ques. Has God blotted out your sins ? 1st, Most say I don't
know ; I never inquired. Oh ! sinner, if you never inquired, then
I will answer for you ; There is not one of them blotted out
Every evil thought, and word, and deed you have done, is written
gainst you ; you will meet them all another day. A deceived
208 SERMON XXXIV.
heart hath turned thee aside, and thou dost not know that there is
a lie in thy right hand. 2d, Some say, It is impossible to tell ; I
never saw the book of God's remembrance; how can I tell?
True, you never saw the book of God's remembrance, and yet
there is another book, and if you would search it much, and be-
lieve the word concerning Jesus, you would come to know that
you are forgiven. Oh, yes ! it is quite possible. David tasted it,
and thousands since David have blessed God for forgiving all their
iniquities. The woman that touched the hem of Christ's garment
felt in herself that she was made whole. She was no physician,
and yet she knew that she was well. When a man has a burden
on his back, if you lift it off, he knows it at once ; so does the heavy '
laden soul that comes to Jesus, he finds rest.
3. Observe who blots: "I, even 'I, am he that blotteth out thy
transgressions." Isa. xliii., 25. 1st, Some try to blot out their own
sins ; I will be grieved, and sorry for my sins, says one. I will
blot them out with tears. I will pray to God, and cover my past
sins with my earnest prayers, says another. I. will mend my life
and cover my naked soul with good deeds, says another. But no ;
this is all vain ; God alone can blot out. Either he will do it, or
it will not be done : " I, even I, am he." 2d, Some hope that
Christ will blot out their sins, unknown to the Father. They think
that Christ is very willing to be a Saviour, but not so the Father.
But no ; Christ and the Father are one. If you come to Christ,
God himself will do it, and will tell you, " I have done it."
Speak to unforgiven souls : Unhappy man ! You have many
pleasures and many friends ; but one thing you want the forgive-
ness of sins. Do you think you would not be happier, lighter in
heart, if you were forgiven ? Oh ! how miserable are all your
daily employments and pleasures, when you know that hell is open-
ing its mouth for you. God has never blotted out your sins ; yet
you might be forgiven : " Unto you, O men, I call ; and my words
are to the sons of men." Come to Christ, and God will abun-
dantly pardon.
II. All that have come to Christ are God's servants. " Thou art
my servant, thou art my servant." Two reasons are given : 1. " I
have redeemed thee ;" 2. " I have formed thee." 1st, Because
redeemed. When a man consents that Christ shall be his Surety,
he feels that he is not his own, but bought with a price. So David
felt : " Truly I am thy servant ; I am thy servant, and the son of
thine handmaid : thou hast loosed my bonds." So Paul felt, when
he lay gasping on the ground : " Lord, what wilt thou have me to
do ?" Before conversion, the unconverted thinks that he is his
own : May I not do what I will with mine own ? He was the
willing slave of the devil. But when he sees the price laid down
for him, he feels that the Lord has redeemed him out of the house
of bondage. Now he says, I am the Lord's. Now he is more
SERMON XXXIV. 209
the servant of the Lc.a than ever he was of the devil. Oh ! dear
Christians, would that I could see more of this among you, a de-
voting of yourselves unto the Lord ; " for thou art my servant ,
thou art my servant." 2d, Because formed by God : " I made
thee, and formed thee from the womb." Isa. xliv., 2. The whole
work of grace is the Lord's doing, and wondrous in our eyes.
Paul says : " It pleased the Lord, who separated me from my
mother's womb, to reveal his Son in me ;" and God to Jeremiah:
" Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee ; and before thou
earnest out of the womb, I sanctified thee." God marks his own
from their mother's womb. When infants, God treasures up every
prayer for them. Every mother's tears he puts into his bottle, her
sighs into his book. In boyhood, he preserves their souls from
death, gives them times of awakening, fixes words in their me-
mory : " I girded thee, though thou hast not known me." When
his time comes, he guides them to some fitting ministry ; or, by
some sore trial, awakens, leads to Christ, draws, wins, comforts,
builds the soul. He is a faithful Creator. " Sing, O heavens !
for the Lord hath done it." That soul becomes a servant in-
deed.
Some of you know that God has formed you. You can trace
liis hand, guiding you ever since you were born, girding you when
you did not know him, in the mother that wrestled for you, in dear
ones that prayed for you, now in their lonely grave, in the minis-
ters that you have been brought to, in the texts they have been
guided to. O be the Lord's servant ! let him bore thine ear. Bear
in your body the marks of the Lord Jesus.
III. Souls in Christ shall not be forgotten of God : " Thou shalt
not be forgotten of me." The children of God. often think their
God has forgotten them. Often, when they fall into sin and dark-
ness, they feel cut off from God, as if his mercies were clean gone
for ever. But learn here that God never forgets the soul that is
in Christ Jesus.
1. So it was with Moses in the land of Midian. For forty
years he thought God had forgotten his people. He wandered
about as a shepherd in the wilderness for forty years, sad and de-
solate. But h;id God really forgotten his people ? No ; he ap-
peared in a flaming fire in a bush, and said : " 1 have seen, I have
seen the affliction of my people, and I have heard heir groaning,
and am come down to deliver them ; for / know iheir sorrows."
God knows thy sorrows, O soul in Christ. 2. So it was with Du-
vid, in Ps. Ixxvii., xiii., and xxxi. 3. So it was with Hezekiah,
when God told him he must die. Hezekiah wept sore : " Like a
crane or a swallow so did I chatter ; I did mourn is a dove : mine
eyes fail with looking upward : O Lord, I am oppressed ; under-
take for me." Isa. xxxviii., 14. Did God forget him ? No ; God
aid this word to him : " I have heard thy praver, I have seen thy
14
210 SERMON XXXIV.
ti ars; I will add unto thy days fifteen years." God never forgets
the soui in Christ. 4. So shall it be with God's ancient people:
" Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath for-
gotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she
should not have compassion on the son of her womb ? yea, they
may forget, yet will I not forget thee." Isa. xlix. 14, 15. 5. So
it is in the words of the text : " Thou shall not be forgotten of
me." The world may forget thee, thy friends, thy father, thy
mother, may forsake thee ; yet " thou shalt not be forgotten of
me."
A word to souls in Christ. The Lord cannot forget you. If
you stood before God in your own righteousness, then I see how"
you might be separated from his love and care ; for your frames
vary, your goodness is like the morning cloud and early dew.
But you stand before him in Christ : and Christ is the same yes-
terday, to-day, and for ever. You shall be held in everlasting
remembrance. The world may forget you, your friends may for-
get you, for this is a forgetting world, you may not have a tomb-
stone over your grave ; but God will not forget you, Christ will
put your name beside that of his faithful martyr, Antipas. In life,
in death, in eternity, thou " shall not be forgotten of me."
IV. A redeemed soul should return unto God : " Return unto me."
The sin and misery of every natural soul is in going away from
God. Adam hid himself from the presence of God. So Isaiah
complains ; " They have provoked the Holy One of Israel to an-
ger : they are gone away backward." And God says : " What
iniquity have ycur fathers found in me, that they are gone far from
me ?" " Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire ?
yet my people have forgotten me days without number." But
when a soul has come to Christ, there is no more reason why he
should return unto God. " Return unto me, for I have redeemed
thee." " Through Jesus, we both have access by one Spirit unto
the Father." " I am the way ; no man cometh unto the Father,
but by me."
Dear brethren in Christ, let me entreat you to return unto the
Father.
1. Come into the arms of his love. When God has redeemed
a soul, he wants to have him in his arms, he wants to fall upon his
neck and kiss him. See how he tries to win the soul ! tells all
that he has done for him, all that he will do ; and adds : " Return
unto me ; for I have redeemed thee." Oh ! why are ye fearful,
ye of little faith ? Why do you hang back, and will not venture
near to God ? Why do you not run to him ? Some say : I am
afraid of past sins. Oh ! but hear his word : " I have blotted out.
Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee." Some say : I am
afraid he cannot wish such a sinful, weak thing as I beside him.
Oh 1 foolish, and slow of heart to believe his own word. Does he
SERMON XXXV. 211
not speak plain enough and kind enough? " Return unto me, for
I have redeemed thee."
2. Come into communion with him; daily walk with him
Enoch walked with God. Once Adam walked with God in pa-
radise, as easily, Herbert says, "as you may walk from one room
to another." He talked with him concerning his judgments. Oh !
come unto thy God, redeemed, forgiven soul. Acquaint thyself
with God, and be at peace. Come to him ; do not rest short of
him. You think it a great thing to know a lively Christian ; oh .
how infinitely better to know God. It is your infinite blessedness.
You will get more knowledge in one hour with God, than in all
your life spent with man. You will get more holiness from im-
mediate conversing with God, than from all other means of grace
put " together. Indeed, the means are empty vanity, unless you
come to God in them. " Return unto me ; for I have redeemed
thee."
3. To the backslider. Guilty soul, you have been within the
veil ; you know the peace that Jesus gives ; you know the joy of
the smile of God. But you have left all this, and gone away
backward. Guilty soul, you have done worse than the world.
Worldly men never served Christ as you have done. They have
spit on him, and buffeted him, and crucified him ; but you have
wounded him in the house of his friends: "It was not an enemy
that reproached mo; then I could have borne it; but thou, my
friend and mine acquaintance." Guilty soul, what says God unto
thee ? " Depart thou cursed ?" No : " Return unto me : for I
have redeemed thee." "Return, O backsliding daughter; for I
am married unto you." Return, sinner, thy God calleth thee ; the
God that chose thee, the Saviour that died for thee, the Comforter
that renewed thee. " Return unto me ; for I have redeemed thee."
St. Peter's, July 8, 1838.
SERMON XXXV.
I WILL POUR WATER.
" For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground : I
will pour my Spirit upon thy Seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring: and
they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses." Isa.
Xliv., 3, 4.
THESE words describe a time of refreshing. There are no words
in the whole Bible that have been oftener in my heart, and oftener
on my tongue than these, since I began my ministry among you.
And yet, although God has never, from the very first day left us
212 SERMON XXXV.
without some tokens of his presence, yet he has never fulfilled thi>
promise ; and I have taken it up to-day, in order that we ma)
consider it more fully, and plead it more anxiously with God.
For, as Rutherford said, "My record is on high, that your heaven
would be like two heavens to me ; and the salvation of you all.
like two salvations to me."
1. Who is the author in a work of grace ? It is God : " I will
pour."
1. It is God who begins a work of anxiety in dead souls. So
it is in Zech. xii. : " I will pour out the Spirit of grace and sup-
plications, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced
and mourn." And so the promise is in John xvi. : " When he is
come, he will convince the world of sin ; because they believe not
on me." And so is the passage of Ezek. xxxvii. : " Come from the
four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may
live." If any of you have been awakened, and made to beat upon
the breast, it is God, and God alone that hath done it. If ever we
are to see a time of wide-spread concern among your families,
children asking their parents, parents asking their children, people
asking their ministers, " What must I do to be saved ?" if ever we
are to see such a time as Mr. Edwards speaks of, when there was
scarcely a single person in the whole town left unconcerned about
the great things of the eternal world, God must pour out the Spi-
rit : " I will pour."
2. It is God who carries on the work, leading awakened
persons to Christ. "I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,'
"and whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
delivered." Joel ii., 28, 32. And again, in John: "He shall
convince the world of righteousness." Jf ever we are to see souls
flying like a cloud, and like doves, to Jesus Christ, if ever we are
to see multitudes of you fleeing to that city of refuge, if ever we
are to see parents rejoicing over their children as new-born,
husbands rejoicing over their wives, and wives over their husbands,
God must pour out the Spirit. He is the author and finisher of a
work of grace : " I will pour."
3. It is God who enlarges his people. You remember, in
Zech. iv., how the olive trees supplied the golden candlesticks
with oil they emptied the golden oil out of themselves. If there
is little oil,* the lamps burn dim ; if much oil, the lamps begin
to blaze. Ah ! if ever we are to see you who are children -of
God greatly enlarged, your hearts filled with joy, your lips filled
with praises ; if ever we are to see you growing like willows
beside the water-courses, filled with all the fullness of God God
must pour down his Spirit. He must fulfil his word ; for he is
the Alpha and Omega the author and finisher of a work of grace *
" I will pour."
First Lesson. Learn to look beyond ministers for a work of
SERMON XXXV. 21?
grace. God has given much honor to his ministers ; but not
the pouring out of the Spirit. He keeps that in his own hand
" I will pour." " It is not by might, nor by power, but by my
Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." Alas ! we would have little
hope, if it depended upon ministers ; for where are our men of
might now 1 God is as able to do it for to-day as he was at
the day of Pentecost ; but men are taken up with ministers, and
not with God. As long as you look to ministers, God cannot
pour ; for you would s<iy it came from man. Ah ! cease from
man, whose breath is in his nostrils. One would think we would
be humbled in the dust by this time. In how many parishes of
Scotland has God raised up faithful men, who cease not day
and night to warn every one with tears ! and yet still the heavens
are like brass, and the earth like iron. Why 1 Just because
your eye is on man, and not on God. Oh ! look off man to him,
and he will pour ; and his shall be all the glory.
Second Lesson. Learn good hope of revival in our day.
Third Lessor. Learn that we should pray for it. We are
often for preaching to awaken others ; but we should be more
upon praying for it. Prayer is more powerful than preaching.
It is prayer that gives preaching all its power. I observe that
some Christians are very ready to censure ministers, and to
complain of their preaching of their coldness their unfaithful-
ness. God forbid that I should ever defend unfaithful preaching,
or coldness, or deadness, in the ambassador of Christ ! May my
right hand sooner forget its cunning ! But I do say, where lies
/he blame of unfaithfulness ? where, but in the want of faith-
ful praying ? Why, the very hands of Moses would have fallen
down, had they not been held up by his faithful people. Come,
then, ye wrestlers with God ye that climb Jacobs ladder
ye that wrestle Jacob's wrestling strive you with God, that he
may fulfil his word : " I will pour."
II. God begins with thirsty souls : " I will pour water upon him
that is thirsty."
1. Awakened persons. There are often souls that have been^a
long time un ler the awakening hand of God. God has led them
into trouble, but not. into peace. He has taken them down into
the wilderness, and there they wander about in search of re-
freshing waters ; but they find none. They wander from moun-
tain to hill seeking rest, and finding none ; they go from well to
well, seeking a drop of water to cool their tongue ; they go from
minister to minister, from sacrament to sacrament, opening their
mouth, and panting earnestly ; yet they find no peace. These are
thirsty souls. Now, it is a sweet thought that God begins with
such : " I will pour water upon him that is thirsty." The whole
Bil>le shows that God has a peculiar tenderness for such as are
thirsty. Christ, who is the express image of God, had a peculiar
214 SERMON XXXV.
tenderness lor them : " The Lord God hath given me the tongue
of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season
to him that is weary." " Come unto me, all ye that are weary
and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." " If any man thirst,
let him come unto me and drink." Many of his cures were in-
tended to win the hearts of these burdened souls. The woman
that had spent all upon other physicians, and was nothing better
but rather worse, no sooner touched the hem of his garment,
than she was made whole. Another cried after him, " Lord, help
me," yet he answered not a word ; but at last said : "O woman,
great is thy faith ; be it unto thee even as thou wilt." Another
was bowed down eighteen years ; but Jesus laid his hands on her,
and immediately she was made straight.
Weary sinner, (1.) This is Jesus ; this is what he wants to do
for you : " I will pour water upon him that is thirsty." Only be-
lieve that he is willing and able, and it shall be done. (2.) Learn
that it must come from his hand. In vain you go to other physi-
cians ; you will be nothing better, but rather worse. Wait on
him ; kneel and worship him. saying : " Lord, help me." (3.) Oh !
long for a time of refreshing, that weary souls may be brought
into peace. If we go on in this every-day way, these burdened
souls may perish may sink uncomforted into the grave. Arise,
and plead with God, that he may arise and fulfil his word : "I will
pour water upon him that is thirsty."
2. Thirsty believers. All believers should be thirsty; aias!
few are. Signs: 1. Much thirst after the Word. When two
travellers are going through the wilderness, you may know which
of them is thirsty, by his always looking out for wells. How
gladly Israel came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water,
and seventy palm trees ! So it is with thirsty believers ; they
Dve the Word, read and preached, they thirst for it more ant
more. Is it so with you, dear believing brethren ? In Scotland
long ago, it used to be so. Often, alter the blessing was pro
nounced, the people would not go away till they heard more
Ah ! children of God, it is a fearful sign to see little thirst in you
I ,do not wonder much when the world stay away from GUI
meetings for the Word and prayer ; but, ah ! when you do, 1
am dumb, my soul will weep in secret places for your pride.
I say, God grant that we may not have a famine of ihe Word ere
long. (2.) Much prayer. When a little child is thirsty for its
mother's breast, it will not keep silence ; no more will a child of
God who is thirsty. Thirst will lead you to the secret well,
where you may draw unseen the living water. It will lead you
to united prayer. If the town were in want of water, and thirst
staring every man in the face, would you not meet one with another,
and consult, and help to dig new wells ? Now, the town is in
want of grace, souls are perishing for lack of it, and you your-
selves are languishing. Oh! meet to pray. "If two of you
SERMON XXXV. 215
ghall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask,
it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven."
(3.) Desire to grow in grace. Some persons are contented
when they come to Christ. They sink back, as it were, into ac
easy chair, they ask no more, they wish no more. This must not
be. If you are thirsty believers, you will seek salvation as much
after conversion as before it. " Forgetting those things which
are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are
before, press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus."
To thirsty souls. Dear children, I look for the first drops of
grace among you, in answer to your prayers, to fill your panting
mouths. Oh, yes, he. will pour. " A vineyard of red wine, I the
Lord do keep it ; I will water it every moment : lest any hurt it,
I will keep it night and day." Isa. xxvii., 2, 3. " With joy shall
ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." Isa. xii., 3.
III. God pours floods on the dry ground. The dry ground
represents those who are dead in trespasses and sins. Just as
you have seen the ground, in a dry summer, all parched and dry,
cracking and open, yet it speaks not, it asks riot the clouds to fall ;
so is it with most in our parishes. They are all dead and dry,
parched and withered, without a prayer for grace, without even
a desire for it. Yet what says God ? ' I will pour floods upon
them," Marks :
1. They do not pray. I believe there are many in our parishes
who do not make a habit of secret prayer, who, neither in
their closet nor in the embowering shade, ever pour out their
heart to God. I believe there are many who are dropping into
hell who never so much as said : " God be merciful to me, a sin-
ner." Ah ! these are the dry ground. Oh ! it is sad to think that
the souls that are nearest to hell are the souls that pray least
to be delivered from it.
2. They do not wish a work of grace in their souls. I believe
many of you came to the house of God to-day who would rather
lose house, and home, and friends, than have a work of grace
done in your heart. Nothing would terrify you so much as the
idea that God might make you a praying Christian. Ah ! you
are the dry gtound ; you love death.
3. Those who do not attend to the preached Word. I have
heard anxious persons declare that they never heard a sermon
in all their life till they were awakened, that they regularly
thought about something else all the time. I believe this is
the way with many of you. You are the dry ground. What
will God pour out on you ? Floods, floods of wrath ? No ;
floods of grace, floods of the Spirit, floods of blessing. Oh ! the
mercy of God, it passes all understanding. You deserve the
flood* that came on the world of the ungodly: but he offers
216 SERMON XXXV.
floods of blessing. You deserve the rain of Sodom ; but, behold
he offers floods of his Spirit.
First Lesson. Learn how much you are interested that there
should be a work of grace in our day. You are the very persona
who do not care about lively preaching ; who ridicule prayer-
meetings, and put a mock on secret prayer ; and yet you are the
very persons that are most concerned. Ah ! poor dry ground
eouls, you should be the first to cry out for lively ministers ; you
should go round the Christians, and, on your bended knees, entreat
them to come out to our prayer-meeting. You, more than all the
rest, should wait for the fulfilment of this word ; for if it come
not, oh ! what will come of you ? Poor dead, dead souls, you '
cannot pray for yourselves ! One by one, you will drop into a
sad eternity.
Second Lesson. Learn, Christians, to pray for floods. It is
God's word, he puts it into your mouth. Oh ! do not ask for drops,
when God offers floods. " Open thy mouth and I will fill it."
IV. Effects.
1. Saved souls will be like grass. They shall spring up as
grass. So, in Ps. Ixxii.: " They of the city shall be like grass of
the earth." Many will be awakened, many saved. At present,
Christ's people are like a single lily amongst many thorns ; but in
a time of grace they shall be like grass. Count the blades of
grass that spring in the clear shining after a rain ; so many shall
Christ's people be. Count the drops of dew that come from the
womb of the morning, shining like diamonds in the morning sun ;
so shall Chri-sit's people be in a day of his power. Count the stars
that sparkle in night's black mantle ; so shall Abraham's seed be.
Count the duet of the earth ; so shall Israel be in the day of an
outpoured Spirit. Oh ! pray for an outpoured Spirit, ye men of
prayer, that there may be many raised up in our day to call him
biessed.
2. Believers shall grow like willows. There is nothing more
distressing in our day than the want of growth among the chil-
dren of God. They do not seem to press forward, they do not
seem to be running a race. When I compare this year with last
year, alas ! where is the difference ? the same weaknesses, the
same coldness ; nay, I fear, greater languor in divine things.
How different when the Spirit is poured out ! They shall be like
willows. You have seen the willow, how it grows, ceases not
day or night, ever growing, ever shooting out new branches.
Cut k down, it springs again. Ah ! so would you be, dear Chris-
tians, if there were a flood-time of the Spirit, a day of Pentecost.
(1.) Then there would be less care about your business and your
workshop, more love of prayer and sweet praises. (2.) There
would be more change in your heart, victory over the world, the
devil, and the flesh. You would come out, and be separate. (3.)
SERMON XXXVI. 217
In affliction, you would grow in sweet submission, humility
meekness. There was a time in Scotland when Sabbath-days were
growing days. Hungry souls came to the Word, and went away
filled with good things. They came like Martha, and went away
like Mary. They came like Samson, when his locks were shorn,
and went away like Samson when his locks were grown.
3. Self-dedrcation. " One shall say, I am the Lord's.'' Oh !
there is no greater joy than for a believing soul to give himself all
to God. This has always been the way in times of refreshing.
It was so at Pentecost. First they gave their ownselves unto the
Lord. It was so with Boston, and Dodd ridge, and Edwards, and
all the holy men of old. " I have this day been before God," says
Edwards, "and have given myseif all that I am and have to
God ; so that I am in no respect my own. I can challenge no
right in myself, in this understanding, this will, these affections.
Neither have I right to this body, or any of its members ; no
right to this tongue, these hands, these feet, these eyes, these ears.
I have given myself clean away." Oh ! would that you knew the
joy of giving yourself away. You cannot keep yourself. Oh !
this day try and give all to Him. Lie in his hand. Little children,
O that you would become like him who said : " I am God's boy
altogether, mother !" Write on your hand ; " I am the Lord's."
St. Peter's, July 1,1838.
SERMON XXXVI.
>v
GOD LET NONE OF HIS WORDS FALL TO THE GROUND.
Samuel grew and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the
ground!" 1 Sam. iii., 19
IT has long been a matter of sad and solemn inquiry to me, what
is the cause of the little success that attends the preaching of the
Gospel in our day, and, in particular, in my own parish. Many
reasons have risen up before me.
1. There are reasons in ministers. (1.) The flocks are too
large to be cared for by the shepherd. My own flock is just four
times the size a flock used to be in the days of our fathers ; so that
I am called upon to do the work of four ministers, and am left, like
Issacliar, couching down between two burdens. ' (2.) Again, there
is little union in prayer among the ministers. Heartburnings and
jealousies, and cold suspicions, seem to put a sad bar in the way to
this so necessary union. (3.) Again, comparing ministers now with
ministers long ago, it is to be feared there is not that longing
for the conversion of their people which there used to be ; little
218 SERMON XXXVI.
weeping between the porch and the altar ; little wrestling with
God in secret for a blessing on the Word ; little travailing in birth
till Christ be formed in their people the hope of glory. It is said
of the excellent Alleine, that he was " infinitely, insatiably greedy
of the conversion of souls." It is to be feared there is little of this
greediness now. Matthew Henry used to say : " I would think it
a greater happiness to gain one soul to Christ, than mountains of
silver and gold to myself." We have few Matthew Henrys now
Samuel Rutherford used to say to his flock : " My witness is above,
that your heaven would be two heavens to me ; and the salvation
of you all as two salvations to me."* Oh that God would give us
something of this Spirit now !
2. There are reasons in Christians. (1.) There seems little
appetite for the word among Christians. I do not mean that there
is little hearing oh, no this is an age for hearing sermons ; but
there is little hearing the Word for all that. " One says : I am of
Paul ; and another, I of Apollos ; and I of Cephas ; and I of
Christ." You come to hear the word of man, but not the word
of God. You go away judging and criticising, instead of laying
it to heart. Oh, for the time when Christians, like new born
babes, would desire the sine 3re milk of the Word, that they might
grow thereby ! (2.) Little prayer. Two farmers possessed two
fields that lay next to each other. The one had rich crops, the other
very scanty ones. " How comes it," said the one to the other, " that
your fields bear so well, and mine so poorly, when my land is as
good as yours T " Why. neighbor," said the other, " the reason is
this, you only sow your field, but I both sow mine and harrow in the
seed." Just so, my dear friends, there is little fruit among Chris-
tians, because there is little harrowing in by prayer. I think I
could name many Christians among you who do not know one
another and never pray with one another. What wonder that
ther 3 is little fruit !
3. Reasons in unconverted. (1.) There is much keeping away
from the house of God. I suppose there are at least a thousand
persons in my parish who never enter the house of God. Ah !
how shall we catch these souls, when they keep so far from the
net ? (2.) Again, many come only in the afternoons. The very
souls that have the most need to hear are those which come but
once. How do you expect a work of God, when you cast such
open contempt upon his ordinance ? (3.) Again, how many keep
out of the way when we visit in your houses, lest some word
should strike upon your conscience, and you should convert and
be healed ! How often, when I preach in your houses, do I find
ten women for every man ! Have the men no souls that they keep
away from God's holy ordinance ? (4.) Again, there is an awful
profaning of the two sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper.
Robert Bruce John Welsh. Revivalist, No. 74.
SERMON XXXVI. 21 &
The whole Bible declares that they are intended only for those
who have been born ngain ; yet how many rush forward to them
with mad and daring hand, drawing down the curse of a seared
conscience and a stony heart !
These are painful truths enough to break the heart of any
Christian man that labors among you. Ah ! where is the wonder
that God should be a stranger in the land, and like a wayfaring
man, that turns aside to tarry for a night ? And yet this word
comes like a beam of sunshine in a storm ; God be praised for it !
" Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did~let none of
his words lall to the ground." Samuel was young in years, and
it pleased God to cast him in days just as wicked as ours ; and
how did God encourage him ? In two ways. 1st, God was with
him. God stood at his right hand, so that he could not be moved.
2d, God did let none of his words fall to the ground. May the
Lord give us both these encouragements this day !
Doctrine. God will not let one word of his ministers fall to the
ground.
I. The Word often works visibly.
In most cases a work of grace is very visible. 1. When the
Spirit awakens the soul to know its lost condition, there are very
generally evident marks of awakening. The jailor trembled, and
sprung in, and fell down, and said : " What must I do to be saved ?*'
So it is commonly. This is not to be wondered at. If a man be
m danger of losing all his money, or his wife, or child, he wi'.l
often weep, and tremble, and wring the hands, and cry, Woe ie
me, I am undone. And is there less cause for weeping and
vrernbling, if a man be in danger of losing his own soul ? 2. When
the soul is brought to peace, there is in general an evident change.
" The woman stood behind Christ's feet weeping. She washed
them with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head,
and kissed them." So it is commonly. The bosom is brought to
rest ; the eyes are filled with tears of joy ; there is a lively at-
tendance on the Word of God ; an exultation in singing his praises ;
the Sabbath is now plainly honored and kept holy ; sinful com-
panions are forsaken. Ah ! my dear friends, it is my heart's de-
sire and prayer, that these outward marks of a work of grace were
more common in the midst of you. I fear there can be no exten
give work of grace, where these are wanting.
II. The Word may be working unseen.
In some cases the work of grace is quite invisible. I believe
that God, for wise reasons, sometimes carries on a work of grace
in the heart, secretly and unknown to all the world but to himseJf.
There are three things make me think so:
1. Christ compared the kingdom of heaven in the heart to leaven
and to seed : " The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which
20 SERMON XXXVI.
a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole
was leavened." Now, you know that the process of leavening
goes on a long time in the heart of the meal quite unseen ; so may
the work of grace. Again : " So is the kingdom of God as if a
man should cast seed into the ground, and should sleep, and rise
night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knowefh
not how." Mark iv., 6. Now you know the growing of the
seed beneath the cloud is all unseen ; so is it often with the work
of grace.
2. Who is the workman in conversion ? It is the Spirit of God.
Now he works unseen, like the wind : " The wind bloweth where
it listcth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell
whence it cometh, or whither it goeth ; so is every one that is
born of the Spirit." He works like the dew : " I will be as the
dew unto Israel." Now, no man ever yet heard the dew falling.
He works like the well. " The water that I shall give him shall
be in him a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life."
If the Spirit work so secretly, no wonder if his work is sometimes
unseen.
3. So it has been in fact: Elijah cried, "I, even I, am left
alone." How surprised was he to find seven thousand who had
never bowed the knee to Baal ! So shall it be in the latter day :
" Then shall thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these,
seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and
removing to and fro ? and who hath brought up these ? Behold
I was left alone; these, where had they been ?" Isa. xlix., 21.
Encouragement to godly parents, and teachers, and ministers.
I know some of you have long been watching for a work of grace
in your children's hearts. Learn this day that God will not let
one word fall to the ground. His word shall not return to him
void. But you say, Alas ! I see no marks of grace. Go to the
dough when the leaven has been thrust in, and it is covered up.
Do you see any marks of leavening? No, not one. Still the
work is going on beneath. So it may be in your child. Go to
the field when the seed has been covered in. Do you see any
marks of growing ? No, not a green speck. Still the work is
g)ing on. Turn up the clod, and you will see the seed sprouting.
ave patience ; weary not in well-doing. Be instant in prayer.
God will be faithful to his promise. He will not let one word fall
to the ground.
III. The Word may take effect another day.
1. It is a curious fact in natural history, that seeds may be
preserved for almost any length of time. Seeds that have been
kept in a drawer for many years, yet, when sown in their proper
season, have been known to spring up, as if they had been but
a year old. So it may sometimes be with the seeds of grace.
They may be kept long in the soul without in the least affecting
SERMON XXXVI. 22V
it, and yet may be watered by the Spirit, and grow up many days
after.
2. In general it is not so. It is the testimony of an old divine,
who was indeed a master in Israel : " That the main benefit
obtained by preaching is, by impression made upon the mind at
the time, and not by remembering what was delivered."* And
what says the Scripture : " Is not my Word like as a fire, and
like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces ?" Now you
know that if the fire burns not when it is applied, it will not burn
afterwards. If the rock does not break when the hammer strikes,
it is not likely to break afterwards. Oh ! my dear friends, to-day,
while it is called to-day, harden not your hearts. If your hearts
do not break under the hammer to-day, I fear they will never
break. If they melt not now, under the fire of his love, I fear
they will never melt.
3. In some cases, the Word takes effect another day. One
faithful man of God labored in his parish for many a Jong
year; and though greatly blessed elsewhere, yet died without, I
believe, knowing one of his people brought to the knowledge of
the Saviour. Another servant now stands in his room ; and
souls have been gathered in in crowds, every one declaring that
it is the word of their departed minister that comes up into their
heart, and makes them flee. Ah ! God is a faithful God. He
will not let any of his words fall to the ground.
The excellent John Flavel was minister of Dartmouth, in Eng-
land. One day he preached from these words : " If any man love
not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha." The
discourse was unusually solemn, particularly the explanation of
the curse. At the conclusion, when Mr. Flavel rose to pronounce
the blessing, he paused, and said, <; How shall I bless this whole
assembly, when every person in it who loves not the Lord Jesus
is ;mathema maranatha?" The solemnity of this address deeply
affected the audience. In the congregation was a lad named
Luke Short, about fifteen years old, a native of Dartmouth.
Shortly after he went to sea, and sailed to America, where he
passed the rest of his life. His life was lengthened far beyond
the usual term. When a hundred years old, he was able to
work on his farm, and his mind was not at all impaired. He had
lived all this time in carelessness and sin ; he was a sinner a
hundred years old, and ready to die accursed. One day, as he
sat in his field, he busied himself in reflecting on his past life.
He thought of the days of his youth. His memory fixed on Mr.
Flavel's sermon, a considerable part of which he remembered.
The earnestness of the minister, the truths spoken, the effect on
the people, all came fresh to his mind. He felt that he had
not loved the Lord Jesus ; he feared the dreadful anathema ; he
Edwards, 394.
SERMON XXXVI
\vas deeply convinced of sin, was brought to the blood of sprink-
ling. He lived to his one hundred and sixteenth year, giving
every evidence of being born again. Ah ! how faithful God is
to his word. He did let none of his words fall to the ground.
Be of good cheer. Christian mothers, who weep over your un-
awakened children. They may be going far from you, perhaps
across the seas, and you tremble for their souls. Remember God
can reach them everywhere. A believing mother never prayed ii.
vain. Be instant in prayer. God will not forget his word. He
will let none of his words fall to the ground.
IV. The Word may harden. In some cases, I believe, the Word
of God is sent to harden souls ; and so it will not return void, but
prosper in the thing whereto he sent it. That was an awful mes-
sage God sent by his prophet : " Hear ye indeed, but understand
not ; and see ye indeed, but perceive not." Isai. vi., 9. I fear
there are many such messages in our day.
Ques. Does God not wish men to be saved? Ans. O yes ; God
willeth all men to be saved. I believe there is not one soul that
the Saviour does not yearn over as he did over Jerusalem ; and
the Father says, " O that they had hearkened unto me, and Israel
had walked in my ways !" But still, when Jerusalem resisted the
word of Christ, Christ said, "Now they are hid from thine eyes."
And if you refuse the Word of Christ, and neglect this great
salvation, I firmly believe that he shall soon come to you with
Isaiah's dreadful message, " Hear ye indeed, but understand not."
Oh ! how dreadful a thought it is, that though we be the savor
of life unto life to some, We are the savor of death unto death to
most How dreadful, that the very words of love and mercy
which we bring, should be making some souls only more fit for
the burning ! And yet it must be so. How often have I heard
men of God complain that their greatest fruit was when they
entered first upon their ministry ! I do begin to fear that it is
going to be so with us, that God hath chosen out his first-fruits,
and the rest are to be hardened. Why was this ? Because the
people are hardened by the constant preaching of the truth.
My dear friends, remember this word : " God did let none ot
his words fall to the ground." I have gone among you for more
than a year, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom. Remember,
the word was not mine, but His that sent me. I would have been
ashamed to stand up and speak my own words. If the hammer
does not break, it makes the iron into steel. Every blow makes
it harder. If the fire does not melt, it hardens the clay into brick,
as hard as stone. If the medicine does not heal, it poisons. If the
word concerning Christ does not break your heart, it will make it
like the nether millstone.
V. For a witness. That is an awful word in Matt, xxiv., 14
SERMON XXXVI. 223
" And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the
world, for a witness unto all nations." Ah ! my dear friends,
God's word cannot return unto him void. Every drop of rain
has its errand Irom God. These driving showers of snow are all
fulfilling his word. And do you really think that the word con-
cerning his Son shall be spoken without any end ? Ah, no ! even
though not one soul should be saved by it. It shall be for a wit-
ness. When Moses lifted up the brazen serpent in the wilderness,
if the Israelites had been unwilling to look, I can easily imagine
the haste with which he would go round the camp, crying to every
dying man : Look here, look there. Two things would be in his
mind ; 1st, To get his people healed ; 2d, To give glory to his
God, by beaming witness to them of the love of God ; as if he hud
said : Now, if you perish, it is your own blame ; God is clear of
your blood. So is it with the Christian minister. You remember
Paul, how he was " instant, in season and out of season," " teach-
ing publicly, and from house to house, warning every one day
and night with tears ;" " in labors more abundant ; in stripes
above measure ; in prisons more frequent ; in deaths oft." W hy
all this? Ans. For two reasons: 1st, He wanted souls to be
saved. " He was infinitely and insatiably greedy of the conver-
sion of souls." 2d, He sought the honor of God. He wanted to
preach th^ Gospel for a witness ; to leave every man without ex-
cuse for remaining in his sins ; as if he had said : Now if you
perish, it >s your own blame ; God is clear of your blood.
Ah ! my dear friends, such is our ministry to many of you. It
is for a witness. God, who knows my heart, knows that I seek
your salvation night and day. " My record is above, that your
heaven would be two heavens to me ; and your salvation as two
salvations to me." Yet if you will not learn, I will be a witness
against you in that day. The words that we have spoken in
weakness, and much trembling, will rise to condemn you in that
day. How fain would 1 see you gathered with the ransomed
flock, on the right hand of the throne ! How fain, in that day,
would I see you smiled on by the lovely Saviour, whose smile is
more bright than the summer sun ! But, if it may not be, I will
say with the angels, " Hallelujah !" " Even so, Father ; for so it
B^emed good in thy sight." Amen.
/. Peter's, Feb 25, 1838.
24 SERMON XXXVIJ.
SERMON XXXVII.
THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT.
" And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Gen. i., 2.
THERE is, perhaps, no subject upon which there is greater igno-
rance than that of" the Spirit of God. Most people, in our day, if
they answered truly, would say as those twelve men of Ephesus:
" We have not so much as heard if there be any Holy Ghost."
Acts xix. And yet, if ever you are to be saved, you must know
him ; for it is all his work to bring a poor sinner to Christ. A
little boy, when dying, said : " Three persons in the Godhead.
God the Father made and preserved me ; God the Son came into
the world and died for me ; God the Holy Ghost came into my
heart, and made me love God and hate sin." My dear friends, if
you would die happy, you must be able to bear the same dying
testimony. You know it is said in John, that " God is love." This
is true of God the Father in his giving up his Son for sinners ; this
is true of God the Son, in his becoming man and dying for sin-
ners ; this is true of God the Holy Ghost, in his whole work in the
heart of sinners. At present I wish to show you the love of the
Spirit, by observing all that he has ever done for men in the
world. To-day I will show you his work at creation ; at the
flood ; in the wilderness.
I. At creation : " The Spirit of God moved upon the face of
the waters." Gen. i., 2. The expression is taken from a dove
brooding over its nest. " Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are
created ; and thou renewest the face of the earth." Ps. civ.
Here the Spirit is said to have renewed the face of the earth.
He made every blade of grass to spring, every flower to open,
every tree to put forth blossoms. " By his Spirit he hath gar-
nished the heavens." Job. xxvi., 13. Here God does, as it were,
lead us forth to look upon the midnight sky ; and when we gaze
upon its spangled maze, studded with brilliant stars, he tells us
lhat it was the loving Spirit that gave them all their brightness
and their beauty. Observe, then, that whatever beauty there is
in the glassy sea, in the green earth, or in the spangled sky, it
is all the work of the Holy Spirit. God the Father willed all,
God the Son created all, God the Holy Ghost garnished, and gave
life and loveliness to all. Oh ! what a lovely world that unfallen
world must have been, when God the Son walked with Adam in
Paradise, when God the Holy Ghost watered and renewed the
whole every moment, when God the Father looked down well
pleased on all, and said that all was very good.
Learn, 1. The love of the Spirit. He did not think it beneath
SERMON XXXVII. 225
his care to beautify the dwelling-place of man. He wanted our
joy to be full. He did not think it enough that we had a world
to live in, but he made the waters full of life and beauty. He
made every green thing to spring for man, and made a shining
canopy above, all for the joy of man. Whatever beauty still
remains on earth, or sea, or sky, it is the trace of his Almighty
finger. You should never look on the beauties of the world with-
out thinking of the Holy Spirit that moved upon the face of the
waters, that renewed the face of the earth, that garnished the hea-
vens with stars.
2. The holiness of the Spirit. From the very beginning he
was the Holy pirit, of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. It
was a sinless world. The sea had never been defiled by bearing
wicked men upon its bosom. The green earth had never been
trodden by the foot of a sinner. The spangled sky had never
been looked upon by the eye of one whose eye is full of adultery,
and cannot cease from sin. It was a holy, holy, holy world, a
temple of the living God, the lofty mountains were the pillars of it ;
the glittering heavens its canopy. The far-resounding ocean
sang his praise. The hills brake forth into singing, and all the
trees of the field clapped their hands. As the cloud which so
filled Solomon's temple that the priests could not stand to
minister by reason of the cloud ; so the Holy Spirit filled this
world, a holy, sinless temple to the Father's praise. When man
fell into sin, and the very ground was cursed for his sake, then
the Holy Spirit in great measure left his temple ; he could not
dwell with sin. And never do you find him coming back, as
before, till he lighted on the head of a sinless Saviour ; for the
Holy Ghost descended upon him like a dove, and abode upon him.
Just so is it with the soul. As long as your soul is guilty,
polluted, vile, in the sight of the Spirit, he cannot make his abode
in your heart. He is a loving Spirit, full of a tender desire to
make you holy. But as long as you are guilty in his sight, it is
contrary to his nature that he should dwell in you. But come to
the blood of Jesus, sinner ; come to the blood that makes you
white as snow, then will the Spirit see no iniquity in you, and he
will come and dwell in your heart, as he dwelt at first in the sin-
less world. As he moved on the face of the waters, like a dove
over its nest, so he will make his nest in your heart, and brood
there. As he renewed the face of the ground, so will he renew
your heart. As he garnished the heavens, so will he beautify
your soul, till he make you shine as the stars for ever and ever.
II. At the flood. " My Spirit shall not always strive with man.
for that he also is flesh (fading) : yet his days shall be an hundred
and twenty years." Gen. vi., 3. What a different scene we have
here ! Yet here also we shall learn that the Holy Spirit is a lov-
ing Spirit. At the creation we found him beautifying the world
15
226 SERMON XXXVII.
dwelling in it as in a temple ; the earth, the sea, the sky, all pro-
claiming that it was a sinless world. But now fifteen hundred
years had passed away, and the whole earth was covered with a
race of godless men, giants in body and giants in wickedness.
* God looked upon the earth, and it was con~u.pt." It was all
one putrid mass. " From the sole of the foot to the crown of the
head there was no soundness in it ;" for all flesh had corrupted his
way. Just as a putrid body is loathsome in the sight of man, so
the earth was loathsome in the sight of God. Nay, more ; the
earth was filled with violence. The few children of God that re-
mained were hated and persecuted, hunted like the partridge on
the mountains. It repented the Lord that he had made man, and
it grieved him at his heart. How is the Holy Spirit engaged ?
Ans. 1. He does not dwell with sinful men. He cannot dwell
with unpardoned sinners ; for he is the Holy Spirit. 2. But still
he strives with men, and strives to the very end. The men were
giants in sin. Every imagination of their heart was only evil con-
tinually. But this is the very reason he strives. He sees the flood
that is coming, he sees the hell that is beneath them ; therefore
does he strive. In the preaching of Noah he pleaded with them;
he pricked their hearts, made them think of their danger, their sin,
their misery. In the preparing the ark he pleaded with them,
showed them the way of safety, and said : " Yet there is room."
He made every stroke of the hammer go to their hearts. *' The
Spirit and the Bride said, Come."
Learn, 1. That he is a striving Spirit. O ! let those of you that
are living in sin, learn what a loving Spirit is now striving with
you. Some of you, who are living in sin, think that God is nothing
but an angry God ; therefore you do not turn to him. True, " he
is angry with the wicked every day ;" still he is striving with the
wicked every day. He sends the Holy Spirit to strive with
you. Oh ! what a loving Spirit he is, that does not at once
turn you into hell, but pleads and strives, saying : " Turn ye, turn
ye ; why will ye die ?"
Some may say : I am a giant in wickedness, I am corrupt, I am
violent against God's children. True ; yet still see here how he
strove with giants in wickedness. The whole earth was corrupt,
and filled with violence ; yet he strove. So he strives with you
in whatever state you are. He is a loving Spirit. He strives by
ministers, Bibles, providences. Sometimes, when you are all alone,
that Spirit wrestles with you, brings your sin to remembrance, and
makes you tremble ; or, like the angels at Sodom, strives to make
you flee from destruction. Oh ! what love is here, to strive with
hell-deserving worms. " Oh ! ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in
heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost : as your
fathers did, so do ye."
2. A long-suffering Spirit. One hundred and twenty years he
trove with the men before the flood. He never ceased till the
SERMON XXXVII. 227
flood came. Some of you remember a time when God's Spirit
was striving with you at the Sabbath school, or your first sacra-
ment. You wept for your soul, and prayed ; but the world has
come on you since then, and now you fear he strives no more.
Learn, he is a long-suffering Spirit, he strives with you yet. " He
that hath ears, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches.
3. He will not always strive. Observe, the Spirit strove till the
flood came, but no longer ; for the flood came, and carried them
all away. So it is with you, my dear friends. As long as our
ministry lasts, he strives with you ; but when death comes, or
when the Saviour comes, he will strive no more. Ah ! yo'.i will
have no awakening, inviting, striving sermons in hell, not one in-
vitation more. Oh ! how sad it is to think that so many, who have
the Spirit of God striving with them, should perish after all.
III. In the wilderness. Nearly one thousand years after the
flood, we find God choosing a peculiar people to himself, and keep-
ing them separate from all people, in the wilderness. Here the
Spirit shows himself still more as the loving Spirit.
1. Tfie glorifier of Christ. Bezaleel and Aholiab, by his guid-
ance, make the tabernacle, the mercy seat, the altar, the high
priest's garments. Exod. xxxi., 1-11. All these typify Christ.
The Spirit here enables these men to show forth the Saviour to
the many thousands of Israel. Although they often vexed the
Holy Spirit, and grieved him in the desert, yet, see here how lov-
ingly he sets forth Christ in the midst of them, that he may lead
them to peace and holiness ! This is exactly what Christ said of
him afterwards: " He shall glorify me ; for he shall receive of
mine, and shall show it unto you."
Dear friends, has the Spirit glorified Christ to you? He is still
the great revealer of Christ. He shines into our heart, to give us
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of
Christ. Has he led you to the altar, to the Lamb of God, that
taketh away the sin of the world ? Has he clothed you in the
high priest's garments ? Has he brought you within the veil, to
the mercy seat? This is his delightful work. Oh ! it is a sweet
work to be the minister on earth that leads souls to Christ, that
points, like John, and says : " Behold the Lamb of God." But O
how infinitely more loving in th;it Holy Spirit of God to lead
trembling souls to Jesus ! Oh ! praise him that has done this for
you. Oh ! love the Spirit of GoH. " Thy Spirit is good : lead me
to the land of uprightness."
2. He purifies all that believe : " Thou shall set the laver
between trie tent of the congregation and the altar." Exod. xl.,
6v 7. This brazen laver, containing water, was set up in the
wilderness to typify the Holy Spirit ; and observe the place where
it was put, between the altar nrnl the tabernacle of God. The
first thing that the sinner came up to w;is the ;i!tar with the
22S SERMON XXXVII.
bleeding lamb. He laid his hands upon the head of the lamb
and confessed his sins ; so that they were carried all away in the
blood of the lamb. Forgiven and justified, he advanced a few
paces further to the brazen laver ; there he washed his feet and
hands. This represented the Holy Spirit washing and -enewing
his heart, and then he entered into the holy place of God.
Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for
our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scrip-
ture, might have hope." Dear friends, has the Holy Spirit purified
you? If you have laid your sins upon the Lamb of God, have
you come to this laver of living water ? are you really washing
there, and preparing to enter into the holy place, made without
hands, eternal in the heavens ? " Without holiness no man can
see the Lord ;" and without the Spirit you will have no holiness.
Oh ! is he not a loving spirit who thus delights to prepare the be-
liever for glory, who comes into our vile heart, and " creates a
clean heart, and renews a right spirit within us?" Oh ! love him
who thus loves you ; and ask for him, you that are his children.
The Father delights to give him. " If ye, being evil, know how
to give good gifts to your children, much more will your heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him ?"
3. He upholds the life of believers : " They all drank of that
Rock which followed them ; and that Rock was Christ." 1 Cor.
x.. 4. This was a third way in which the Spirit showed himself
in the wilderness. (1.) A river. This was to show Israel how
refreshing and supporting he is to the weary soul, and that there
is abundance in him. Drink, and drink again ; you will not drink
a river dry ; so there is infinite fulness of the Spirit. (2.) Flowing
from a smitten rock. This shows that he is given by a wounded
Saviour ; that it is only when we hide in that Rock that we can
receive the Holy Ghost. "I will send him unto you." (3.) It
followed them. This was to show that, wherever a believer goes,
the Holy Spirit goes with him. "I will pray the Father, and he
will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for
ever;" a well within, springing up into everlasting life.
My dear friends, have you received the Holy Ghost, since you
believed? It appears to me that few Christians realize this river
flowing after them. Oh ! what inexpressible love and grace there
is in this work of the Spirit. Is there any of you weak and faint,
and ready to perish under a wicked heart, and raging lusts ? or,
have you got a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet
you ? and are you driven to pray that it may be taken from you ?
See here the answer to your prayer. A river of living water
flows from Christ. There is enough here for all your wants.
" My grace is sufficient for thee ; for my strength is made perfect
in weakness." Some of you are afraid of the future ; you fear
some approaching temptation ; you fear some coming contest.
See here the river flows after you ; the Spirit will abide with you
SERMON XXXVIII. 229
for ever. Oh ! what love is here ! Notwithstanding all your sin-
fulness, and weakness, and unbelief, still he abides with you, and
will for e'ver. He is " a well of water springing up into everlas-
ting life." John iv., 14.
Oh ! love the Spirit, then, who so loves you. Grieve net the
Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of
redemption.
St. Peter's, Dec. 16, 1838.
SERMON XXXVIII.
MOSES AND HOBAB.
" And Moses said unto Hobab the Son of Raguel, the Midianite, Moses' father-in-
law, We are journeying unto the place of which the Lord said, I will give it
you : come thou with us, and we will do thee good : for the Lord hath spoken
good concerning Israel." Numb, x.,29.
THE children of Israel had been nearly a year encamped in the
wilderness that surrounds the rocky peaks of Mount Sinai. But
now the cloud rose from off the tabernacle the signal that God
wished them to depart and so Israel prepared for the march in
regular order. Upon a rocky eminence, that overlooked the mar-
shalled thousands of Israel, stood Moses and his brother-in-law,
Hobab. The heart of Moses grew full at the sight, when he
looked upon their banners floating in the wind, when he looked
at the pillar-cloud towering over them like some tall angel beck-
oning them away, when he thought of God's good words concern-
ing Israel, and the good land to which they were hastening. He
felt that his loins were girt with truth, and on his head the helmet
of salvation, and in his hand the sword of the Spirit. He could
not bear that any he loved should leave them now ; and, therefore,
while Hobab stood lingering, uncertain which way to go, Moses
spake thus : " We are journeying toward the place of which the
Lord hath said, I will give it you : come thou with us, and we will
do thee good."
Such are the feelings of God. Whenever a soul is brought to
Jesus Christ, to wash in his blood and to stand in his righteousness,
he is brought to feel two things : first, That now he is journeying
to a good land, his sins are blotted out, the Spirit is within him,
God is his guide, heaven is before him ; second, He wishes all he
loves to come along with him.
Doctrine. The children of God are on a journey, and \v^h all
they love to come along with them.
I. This world is not the home of a Christian.
230 SERMON XXXVIII.
When Israel was travelling through the wilderness, they did
not count it their home. Sometimes they came to bitter places,
like Marah, where the waters were bitter ; they would' not rest
there. Sometimes they came to sweet, refreshing places, like
Eiim, with its seventy palm trees and twelve wells of water; and
yet they would not sit down and say : " This is my rest." It was
sweet when the manna fell round the camp every morning, ;md
when the water followed them ; yet it was a wilderness, and a
land of drought, and the shadow of death. " We are journeying,"
said Moses. So is this world to a true Christian, it is not a home.
Sometimes he meets with bitter things disappointments, losses,
bereavements and he calls the waters Marah ; for they are bit-
ter. Sometimes, too, he comes to refreshing spots, like Elim ;
yet he does not rest in them.
1. There are the sweet joys of home and of kindred, when the
family ring is still unbroken, when not a chair is empty by the
hearth, when not a link is wanting in the chain, when not even a
lamb is carried off from the flock. These are verv pleasant and
lovely to the child of God ; yet he does not. he cannot, rest in
them. He hears a voice saying: "Arise, depart, this is thy rest;
for it is polluted."
2. Christian friends are sweet to the Christian. Those that
are sharers of our spiritual secrets, those who mingle prayer with
us before the throne, those who never forget us when within the
veil r-oh, there is something cheering in the very light of their
kindly eye ! It is an intercourse of which the world knows no-
thing. We have them in our heart, inasmuch as they are partak-
ers of one grace, washed in one fountain, filled with the same
Spirit, having one heart, members one of another; yet our rest is
not among these. This is a taste of heaven, but not heaven.
They often disappoint us, go back and become colder, or they are
taken from us before, and leave us to journey on alone. " We
are journeying."
3. Ordinances are sweet to the Christian. They are the manna
and the waters in the wilderness, the rain that tills the pools in
the Valley of Baca. How sweet is the Sabbath morning ! The
sun shines more brightly than on any other day. How amiable
are thy tabernacles, O Lord ! the singing of psalms, how plea-
sant ! the prayers, how solemn, when we stand within the veil !
the doctrine, how it distils like the dew ! the blessing, how full of
peace ! the sacraments especially, how sweet to the Christian
wells of salvation, Bethels, trysting-places with Christ ! what
sweet days of pleasure, love, and covenanting with Jesus. Still
not our home, not our rest. (1.) They are defective ; always
son et,.'n ? human about them to mar the sweetest ordinances
There is a bunch of grapes, but oh ! it is not e ough to satisfy
(2.) Thoy are polluted ; always some fly to xil the fragrant
SERMON XXXVIII. 23j
ointment; always so much sin in the minister and in the hearer.
" We are journeying unto the place."
Learn, 1. To look with a traveller's eye upon the world. When
a traveller is journeying, he sees many fine estates, and beautiful
houses, and lawns and gardens ; but he does not set his heart on
them. He admires, and passes on. So must you do, dear Chris-
tians. Ye are a little flock, travelling through the wilderness.
Twine not your affections round any one thing here. Do not set
your affections on home, or on kindred, or houses, or lands. Be
[ike Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, who lived in tents, declaring
plainly that they sought a better country. " If ye be risen
with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sit-
teth." " Set your affections on things above, not on the things ot
the earth."
Learn, 2. Not to mourn over the loss of Christian friends, as
those who have no hope. Some of you have lost little children,
who died in the Lord. Some of you have lost rear friends, who
fell asleep in Jesus. Some of you have lost aged parents, who
have committed their spirit into the hand of Jesus. Now, you
cannot but weep ; and yet, if they were in Christ, you need not.
They have gut to their journey's end, and we are on the way.
A voice seems to rise from their grave, saying : " Weep not for
me, but weep for yourselves and your children." They are at
rest, and " we are journeying."
II. The Christian's home is nearer every step. When Israel
was travelling the wilderness, they came nearer to the good land
every step they took. They had a long wilderness to pass through,
still every day's journey brought them nearer to the end. So it
is with all that are in Christ Jesus. Every step is bringing them
nearer to heaven. Every day they are coming nearer and nearer
to glory. " Now it is high time to awake out of sleep ; for now
is our salvation nearer than when we believed." " The night is
far spent, the day is at hand." Every sheep that is really found,
and on the shoulder of the shepherd, is coming nearer to the hea-
venly fold every day. Every soul that is carried on the wings ot
the eagle is flying towards the rest that remaineth. The hours
fly fast ; but as fast flies that divine eagle. In running a race,
every step brings you nearer to the end of it, nearer to the prize
and the crown.
Question. Are you fitter for heaven every day ? Ah ! my
dear Christians, I tremble for some of you who are on your way
to gl<ry, and yet are not turning fitter for glory. Oh! that you
would forget the things that are behind, and reaching forth to those
that are before, press towards the mark for the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus. Some of you are just beginning
the journey to heaven. Dear little children, wax stronger and
stronger ; pray more, read more, hear more, love more, do more
232 SERMON XXXVIII.
every day. Let your sense of sin grow, like the loots of trees,
downwards, deeper and deeper. Let your faith grow, like the
branch of the vine, stronger and stronger every year. Let your
peace grow, like a river, broader and broader. " We are jour-
neying."
1. Some are wellnigh through the wilderness. Some of you aro
on the top of Pisgah. The time draws nigh when you must die.
Dear aged Christians, how soon your eyes will see Him whom,
having not seen, you love ! How soon your heart will love Him
as you wish to do ! . How soon you will grieve him no more for
ever ! Do not be afraid, but meekly rejoice. Live more above
the world ; care less for its pleasures. Speak plainer to your
friends, saying, " Come ye with us." Be oftener within the veil.
Soon you shall be a pillar, and go no more out.
2. Unconverted. You are nearer hell every day. You, too,
are journeying to the place of which God hath said : " I will give
it you." " For the fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable,
and murderers, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and idolaters,
and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with
fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
Oh ! stop, poor sinner, stop and think. Wherever you are, and
whatever you are engaged in, you are travelling thither. The
most go in at the wide gate. When you are sleeping, you are
posting thither. When you take a journey of pleasure, you are
still advancing on that other journey. When you are laughing
and talking, or in the full enjoyment of your sin, you are still hur-
rying on. You have never stopped since you began to live. You
never stand a moment to take breath. You are nearer hell this
afternoon than in the forenoon. O stop and think ! " Come thou
with us, and we will do thee good."
III. This journey is the great concern of a Christian. Their
journey was the great concern of Israel. They did not care
much for doing anything else. They did not take to another oc-
cupation. When they came to a green spot, they did not take to
the plough, to try and cultivate it. Their journey was their
great concern. So it should be with those of you who are children
of God. Your journey to heaven should be your great concern.
Dear friends, judge of everything in this way, whether it will
help you on your journey or no. In choosing a profession, or
trade, choose it with regard to this. Will it advance or hinder
your heavenward journey? Will it lead you into sore tempta-
tions, or into wicked company ? Oh ! take heed. What is the
use of living, but only to get on in our journey to heaven ?
Choose your abode with regard to this. Christian servants,
choose your place with regard to this. Remember Lot. He
chose the plain of Jordan, because it was well watered ; but
his soul was all but withered there. In choosing connexions or
SERMON XXXVIII. 233
friends, O choose with regard to this will they help or hinder
your prayers ? will they go with you, and help you on your
journey ? or will they be a drag upon your wheels ? In going
into companies, in reading books, choose with regard to this
Will they fill your sails lor heaven ? If not, go not near them.
In yielding to your affections, especially if you find them hin-
dering your journey, drop them instantly. Never mind the con-
sequences. " If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast
it from thee. It is better to enter into life maimed, than having
two hands to be cast into hell fire." " Wherefore, let us lay
aside eve-y weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us,
and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking
unto Jesus."
IV. All true Christians wish others to journey along with them :
" Come thou with us, and we will do thee good." So it was with
Moses. Hobab had been his friend for forty years, in the land of
Midian, where Moses married his sister, and lived in his father
RaguePs house. In that time, I doubt not, Moses had told him
much of Israel's God and Israel's coming glory. Many a time,
while they fed their flocks in this very wilderness, Moses had
reasoned with him of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to
come, till Hobab trembled. Still it would seem Hobab was not
quite convinced. He doubted he lingered, He had been awed
by the terrors of Sinai, but not won by the love of Calvary. He
did not know whether to go or stay. But the hour of decision
came. He must decide now. Now was the heart of Moses
stirred in him : " Come thou with us. and we will do thee good ;
for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel." So it was with
Paul, when he himself had tasted the joy and peace of believing;
then says he: " My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is,
that they might be saved." So it was with Andrew: " Andrew
first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have
found the Christ." So it was with the poor maniac whom Jesus
healed : " Go h )me, tell thy friends how great things the Lord
hath done for thee, and how he hath had compassion on thee."
So it was with the poor slave in Antigua, who used to pray that
there might be a full heaven and an empty hell.
Question. Is it so with you ? Have you asked your friends to
come with you ? Have you a father whom you love a mother
that carried you at her breast? Have you a brother or a sister ?
Are they lingering like Hobab ? Oh ! will you not put in a word
for Christ, and say : " Come thou with us, and we will do thee
good." Have you a friend whom you love much who knows
nothing of Christ and of God who is willing to die in the wilder-
ness ? Oh ! will you not win him to go with you to Israel's God
and Israel's glory ?
Word to lingering souls. Some of you, like Hobab, are haK
234 SERMON XXXIX
persuaded to go with Israel. " Almost thou persuadest me to be
a Christian." Some of you see your children converted, and you
not ; and yet you are not determined to go with them. Oh ! why
halt ye between two opinions? Go with them now.
Observe, 1. This may be the deciding day. It was so with
Hobab. God is pleading hard with you to-day. He has spoken
to you by most solemn providences by the Bible, by his minis-
ters, and by the tender persuading voice of those you love.
*' Come thou with us." " Choose you this day, then, whom you
will serve." Remember this may be the deciding day : to-morrow
it may be too late.
2. You will share in their joys : " We will do thee good."
What makes them so anxious for you to go with them, if rt be not
for your good ? You know they love you tenderly ; they would
not have a hair of your head hurt. You will taste their forgive-
ness their peace with God their joy in the Word and prayer ;
you will know their God ; you will know their heaven. Oh ! that
God would put it into your heart to cleave to them like Ruth to
Naomi, saying : " Whither thou goest I will go ; and where thou
lodgest I will lodge ; thy people shall be my people, and thy God
my God."
St. Peter's, July 22, 1838.
SERMON XXXIX.
COMFORT YE.
Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to
Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned : for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins."
Isa. xl., 1, 2.
THESE words are a blast of the silver trumpet of the Gospel.
Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound. They are like
the words of the angel at Bethlehem ; " I bring you good tidings
of great joy, which shall be to all people." This is the voice of
the shepherd, which all his flock know and love.
I Believers have received double punishment for all their sins :
"She hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins."
Vt rse 2. There are two ways in which sinners may bear the
punishment of their sins.
1. In themselves On their own body and soul for ever. This
is the way in which nil unconverted men. who finally perish, will
bear their sins. " These shall go away into everlasting punish-
ment." " Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." Not
SERMON XXXIX. 235
that they will be able to bear their punishment : " My punish-
ment is greater than I can bear." " The great day of his wrath
is come, and who shall be able to stand T' They shall say tc
one another, " Who among us can dwell with the devouring
flame ? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings ?"
And God will say : " Can thine heart endure, or thine hands be
strong, in the day that I shall deal with thee?" This is not
the way spoken of in the text ; for, (1.) It would be a message
of woe, and not of comfort Woe, woe, woe, and not Comfort
ye, comfort ye. When God really takes in hand to punish sin-
ners, there will be no comfort in that day. The heart of sinners
will sink under insupportable gloom. (2.) Sinners never can bear
double in themselves. When a poor sinner dies Christless and
goes to bear the punishment of his sins, he never can bear
enough. He has sinned against an infinite God ; and his punish-
ment, if it be just, must be infinite his stripes must be eternal
the gnawing worm must never die the burning flame must
never be quenched. In this way, poor Christless souls can never
satisfy the justice of God. God will never say it is enough. He
Will never pour water on the flames of hell, nor send a drop'
to the parched tongues that are tormented there. Instead of
suffering double, they will never receive enough at the Lord's
hand lor all their sins. Oh ! dear friends, it is easy talking of this
now ; but many of you will probably feel it soon.
"2. In Christ the surety. It is according to justice, that sinners
may bear their sins in Christ the Surety. (1.) This was the very
errand that Christ came upon. He thought upon this from all
eternity. For this end he came into the world for this end he
became man. " He himself bare our sins in his own body on the
tree." If it were not a just and righteous thing, that sinners
should bear their sins in another, and not in themselves, Christ
never would have undertaken it. This is the very way here
spoken of. (2.) All the sufferings of Christ were at the hand of
his Father : " It pleased the Lord to bruise him : he hath put him
to grief. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all."
We generally look at the wicked hands that crucified and slew
Christ ; but we must not forget that it was by the determinate
counsel arid foreknowledge of God, and that they would have had
n<> )>owcr at all against him, except it had been given them from
above. Through all the crowd of scoffing priests and bloody
oldiers, you must see the Lord's hand making his soul an offering
for sin. This shows that Christ is a Saviour appointed of the
Father. Awakened souls are afraid of the avenging hand of God ;
but in Christ there is a refuge. And you need not fear but Christ
will shelter you ; lor there was an agreement between them, that
Christ should suffer these things for sinners, and enter into his
glory. Christ finished the work which the Father gave him to do.
(3.) When sinners take refuge in Christ, the law takes its course
236 SERMON XXXIX.
against their sins not upon their soul, but upon Christ. All their
sins, whether they be many or few, are reckoned his, and he is
made answerable ; and he has already borne double for them all
How was it just that Christ should bear double? Ans. He could
not suffer at all, without bearing double for all our sins, by reason
of his excellency and glory. The sufferings of Christ for a time,
were, in God's eye, double the eternal sufferings of sinners, by
reason of the infinite dignity of his person. God is well pleased
for his righteousness' sake ; for he magnified the law, and made
it honorable. In the death of Christ, the angels saw God to be
holy, infinitely better than if all mankind had perished for ever.
Come freely, then, to Jesus Christ, O awakened sinner. There
you will find a shelter from the wrath due to your sins. Your
sins are, indeed, infinite, and the wrath of God intolerable ; but in
Jesus you may find safety. He came upon this very errand.
You need not fear but he will receive you ; his heart and his arms
are open for you. His Father is willing you should come. Be
your sins many or few, it is all one ; in Christ you will find thai
they are all borne, suffered for, in a way glorifying to God and
safe to you.
II. All believers are therefore in a truly blessed condition.
1. Their iniquity is pardoned. <- A soul in Christ is a pardoned
soul. It matters not how many his sins have been. The iniquity
of Jerusalem was very great. The people of Jerusalem had sin-
ned against light and against love. All the prophets had beer,
sent them ; yet they were stoned or killed. The Son of God
came there ; they cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.
Their sins had grown up to heaven ; yet, no sooner do they be-
take themselves to Christ than God says : " Her iniquity is par-
doned." And, observe, 1st, It is a present pardon. He does not
say, Her iniquity shall be pardoned, but, " Her iniquity is pardon-
ed." No sooner does a guilty, heavy laden soul betake himself to
Christ, than this sweet word is heard in heaven : " His iniquity is
pardoned." " There is now no condemnation to them that are in
Christ Jesus." Oh ! it is no future or uncertain pardon that is
offered in the gospel ; but a sure and present pardon ; pardon now,
this instant, to all who believe in Jesus. You are as completely
pardoned in the moment of believing as ever you will be. Oh !
haste ye, and receive pardon from Christ. Oh ! that ye knew the
day of your visitation. Observe, 2d, It is a holy pardon. Your
iniquity is pardoned ; for another has died for your sins. Oh ! it
is an awful way of pardon. " There is forgiveness with God, that
he may be feared." It is a pardon to make you tremble, and hate
gin with a perfect hatred. Oh ! can you ever love that which
nailed him to the tree, which bowed down his blessed head ? Will
you take up sin again, and thus put the spear afresh into the side
of Jesus ? Some say : I am too vile. Ah ! are you viler than
SERMON XXXIX. 237
Jerusalem ? When you take a pebble, and cast it into the deep
sea, it sinks, and is entirely covered ; so are the sins of those who
take refuge in Christ : " Thou wilt cast all our sins into the depths
of the sea."
2. Their warfare is accomplished. (1.) With the law. An
awakened soul has a dreadful warfare with the law of God. Tho
law of God is revealed to his conscience, armed with a flaming,
glittering sword. It demands the obedience of his heart and life.
The sinner tries to obey it, he tries to bring his life up to its re-
quirements ; but in vain. The law lifts up its sword to slay him ;
it hurls its curses at him. This is a dreadful warfare in every
awakened conscience ; but when the sinner runs into Jesus Christ,
his warfare is accomplished. " The name of the Lord is a strong
tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe." In Christ Jesus,
the demands of the law are satisfied ; for he was made under the
law. Its curses are borne ; for he was made a curse for us. The
glittering sword pierced the side of Jesus. Oh ! do you know
what it is to have this warfare accomplished ? (2.) With the
devil. We wrestle not with flesh and blood. An awakened soul
has often an awful warfare with Satan. Satan fights against him
in two ways : 1st. By stirring up his corruptions, and making his
lusts to flame and burn within him in a fearful manner. 2d, By
accusing him. Satan is the accuser of the brethren. He accuses
him in his conscience, in order to drive him away from Christ, to
drive him to despair, and to give up all hope of salvation. He
says to him : " Thou art. a vile wretch, not fit for a holy Saviour :
see what raging lusts are in thy heart, thou wilt never be saved."
Ah ! when the poor sinner runs into Christ, he finds rest there ; his
warfare is then accomplished. He sees all the accusations of Satan
answered in the blood of the Lamb. (3.) With sin. The
awakened soul has a dreadful warfare with his corruptions. His
heart appears just full of raging lusts, all tearing him to pieces.
He is driven hither and thither; but when he comes to Christ this
warfare is accomplished. Indeed, in one sense the battle is not over,
but just begun ; but now victory is sure. God is now for him.
Greater is He that is for him than all that can be against him. "If
God be for us, who can be against us ?" The Spirit of God is
now within him ; he will abide with him for ever. The Spirit
now reigns in him. Christ now fights for him, covers his head
in the day of battle, carries him on his shoulder. He is as sure
to overcome as if he were already in glory. He says to him:
' Fear not, thou worm Jacob : fear not, for I have redeemed
thee ; I have called thee by thy name ; thou art mine. I will
never leave thee, nor forsake thee." That word, never leave thee.
reaches through the darkest hours of temptation, the deepest waters
of affliction, the hottest fires of persecution ; it reaches unto death,
through death and the grave, into eternity.
38 SERMON XXXIX.
III. Believers should take the comfort of their condition.
1. God commands it. Some say, It is a dangerous thing to be
happy. They are afraid of too much joy. They say, It is betler
to be in deep exercises, better to have deep wadings ; it is not
good to be of too joyful a spirit. What says the Word of God ?
" Comfort ye, comfort ye." If your joy flow from the cross of
Christ, you cannot have too much joy. " Rejoice in the Lord
alway; and again I say, Rejoice." When Christ truly rises on
the soul, he should be like a morning without clouds. If it be true
that Christ came into the world to seek and save that which was
lost ; if you see his freeness and preciousness, I ask, how can you
do otherwise than rejoice and be comforted ? " Whom, having
not seen, we love ; in whom, though now we see him not, yet be-
lieving, we rejoice w r ith joy unspeakable and full of glory." May
the God of Hope fill you brimfull with joy and peace in believing !
2. Examine from whence your comfort flows. All true Gospel
comfort flows from the cross of Christ, from the Man of Sorrows.
The comfort of hypocrites flows from themselves. They look to
themselves for comfort ; they look to the change on their life, they
see some improvements there, and take rest from that; or, they
look deeper to their concern, their mourning over sin, their con-
victions, their endeavors after Christ ; or, they look to their de-
votions, their delight in prayer, their flowing of affection ami
words ; or to texts of the Bible coming into their minds ; or, they
look to what their friends or ministers think of them, and they take
comfort from these. All these are refuges of lies, false Christs,
that must be cast away, or they will ruin your soul. Christ's blood
and righteousness, and not any work in your own heart, must be
your justification before a holy God. True Gospel comfort comes
from a sight of Christ's bearing double for all our sins. " Behold
the Lamb of God !" Gospel comfort is a stream that flows direct
from Calvary.
3. See how false the comfort of Christ-neglecting souls. This
sweet word of comfort is only to those who are under the wings
of Christ. That little flock alone have got rest for their souls.
But most neglect this great salvation. You do not feel your need
of an atoning Saviour, you think you can justify yourself before
God ; you do not feel your need of an almighty Sanctifier. Christ
is a tender plant in your eyes, you have not betaken yourself to
Christ. Ah ! my friend, woe to you. Your warfare is not ac-
complished. The law, with its curses and its flaming sword,
stands in your way. Satan also accuses you, and you have
nothing to answer him. Sin rages in you, and you have no power
against it. v Your iniquity is not pardoned, not one sin is blotted
out. All is naked and laid open to the eyes of Him with whom
you have to do. Your comfort is all a lie, your peace is Satan's
peace, it is the slumber that ends in perdition. You will yet bear
Vour own sins. When the great day of his wrath is come, you
SERMON XL. 241
sometimes feel that he fulfils that word ; " I will not leave you
orphans ; I will come to you." The Father is the refuge of his
own. They feel his everlasting arms underneath them, they feel
his eye watching over them, they feel his love pouring down upon
(hem like a stream of light from heaven. The Holy Spirit is
within them. They sometimes feel his breathing, they sometimes
feel that they have the Spirit within them, crying, " Abba,
Father." Oh ! this heaven upon earth, full, satisfying joy. Some-
times it pleases God to withdraw from the soul, chiefly, I believe,
1st, To humble us in the dust ; 2d, To discover some corruption
anmortified ; 3d, To lead us to hunger more after him. Such was
/he state of David when he wrote the 42d psalm : "I will say
dnto God, my Rock, Why hast thou forgotten me ? As with a
word L" 1 my bones, mine enemies reproach me, while they say
laily unto me, Where is thy God ?" " As the hart panteth after
the water- brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." Ah 1
far more than the natural thirst of the wounded deer for the
clear-flowing brook, is the spiritual thirst of the deserted soul
after God. Such was the feeling of Job when he cried ; " The
arrows of the Almighty are within me ;" and again : "O that 1
knew where I might find him ; O that it were with me as in
months past !" He has a bitter remembrance of his past enjoy-
ment, a bitter sense that means cannot bring his soul back again
to rest. Such was the feeling of the bride : " By night on my bed
I sought him whom my soul loveth : I sought him, bvjt I found
him not.'' Song i., 1. Ah ! brethren, if ever you have known
anything of this you will know the wretched feeling of distance
from God, of having mountains between the soul and him, implied
in these words : " The Lord hath forsaken me, and my God hath
forgotten me."
II. God cannot forget a soul in Cf>* ' "Can a woman for-
get her sucking child, that she shouK v^e compassion on the
son of her womb ? yea, they may -et will I not forget
thee."
1. It is like a mother's love. ^'s world like
a mother's love. It is a free, i However
much pain she has suffere'' ^ver
many troubles she has to ' V 4t
hangs upon her brea. c
is a something in he 1
even to her idiot b<~
than this love,
a fafcher pitk
him." '
242 SERMON XL.
not account for it. You cannot change it. You must break to
pieces the mothers heart before you can change her love to her
child. And yet there are some poor souls so disfigured by Satan,
their hearts *so brutalized, that they c.an forget their children.
The Indian mother can dance over her infant's grave, and the
murderess can lift her hand against the life of her little one :
"They may forget; yet will 1 not forget thee."
The love of God to a soul in Christ is a natural love. It is a
love engrained in his nature. The Father loveth the Son ; and it
is the same love with which he loves the soul that is in Christ.
He cannot forget him. He loves him because he is altogether
lovely, he loves him because he is worthy to be loved, he loves
him because he laid down his life for the sheep. All that is in
God binds him to love his Son, his holiness, his justice, his truth ;
and so all that is in God binds him to love the soul that is in
Christ.
Be not cast down, brethren, in affliction. Deserted souls, God's
love cannot change unless his nature change. Not till God cease
to be holy, just and true, will he cease to love the soul that hides
under the wings of Jesus.
2. The Father's love is full love. A mother's love is the fullest
love which we have on earth. She loves with all her heart. But
there is no love full but that of God toward his Son ; God loves
Jesus fully ; the whole heart of the Father is, as it were, conti-
nually poured down in love upon the Lord Jesus. There is
nothing in Christ except what draws the infinite love of God. In
him God sees his own image perfect, his own law acted out, his
own will done. The Father loves the Son fully ; but when a soul
comes into Christ, the same love rests on that soul : " That the
love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them." John xvii.,
26. True, a creature cannot receive the love of, God as Jesus
can; but it is the sai ^^e that shines on us and him ; full, sa-
tisfying, unbounded i T Vhen the sun pours down its beams
on the wide ocean a v *le flower at the same time, it is the
same sunshine tl : nto both, though the ocean has
vastly large'* its glorious beams ; so, when the
Son of ^ his Father, and a poor guilty
wor r love that comes both on the
" able to contain more.
s? If God fully loves
forget thee. A crea-
",lay vessel, a breath
1 again. But the
bject infinitely
SERMON XL. 243
Back, he finds his aged mother changed, her head is grey, her
venerable brow is furrowed with age ; still he feels, while she
clasps him to her bosom, that her heart is the same. But, ah ! far
more unchanging is the love of God to Christ, and to a soul in
Christ : " I am the Lord ; I change not." The Father that loves
has no variableness. Jesus, who is loved, is the same, yesterday,
to-day, and for ever. How can that love change ? It flowed
before the world was ; it will flow when the world has passed
away.
If you are in Christ, that love shines on you : " I have loved thee
with an everlasting love." " I am persuaded that neither deatfi,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things pre-
sent, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other
creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
(1.) Comfort downcast believers. Many of you may be cast
down, and your souls disquieted. You think God has dealt
bitterly with you; he has written you childless ; he has met you
as a lion and as a bear bereaved of her whelps ; or he has blasted
your gourd ; or he has deserted you, so that- you seek him, and
find him not. Look'still to Jesus ; the love of God shines on him ;
nothing can separate Jesus from that love ; nothing can separate
you. At the very time when Zion was saying," "My God hath
forgotten me ;" at that moment God was saying: " I will not forget
thee."
Your afflictions and desertions only prove that you are under
the Father's hand. There is no time when the patient is an object
of such tender interest to the surgeon, as when he is under his
knife ; so, you may be sure, if you are suffering from the hand of
God, his eye is all the more bent on you. " The eternal God is
thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.''
(2.) Invite poor sinners to come and taste of this love. It is a
sweet thing to be loved. I suppose the most of you have tasted
a mother's love. You know what it is to be rocked in her arms,
to be watched by her gentle eye, to be cheered by her smile ; but,
oh ! brethren, this is nothing to the love of your God. That dear
mother's eye will lose in death ; that cjear mother's arm will
moulder in the dust. Oh ! come and share the love of Him who
cannot die. There is one spot alone on -tfhich the love of God
continually falls unclouded ; it is the head #f Jens : The Father
loveth the Son." He loves him from his t ery nature ; so that the
perfections of God must change before thj love can change. He
loves him fully. The whole treasures of love that are in the
infinite bosom of Jehovah are pouring (VHitinually into the bosom
of the Son He loves unchangingly J /io cloud can ever come
between; no veil, no distance. But v^it is this to me? Every-
thing to you, sinner. Jesus stands 'o lefuge for sinners, ready to
receive even thee. Flee into him,"iinner; abide in him, and that
244 SERMON XLI
love shall abide on you. You are a worm ; but you may cntei
into the joy of your Lord. You may share the love of God with
Jesus in a way that holy angels cannot do. Oh ! sinner, had you
rather remain under the wrath of God ? "He that believeth not
the Son shall not see life ; but the wrath of God abideth on him."
" God is angry with the wicked every day ;" but, ah ! " This is a
faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus
came into 'the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief."
Oh ! it is sweet to pass from wrath to love, from death to life.
That poor murderess would leap in her cell, when the news came
that she was not to die the murderer's death ;* but, ah ! ten thou-
sand times sweeter would it be to you, if God were, this day, to
nersuade you to embrace Christ freely offered in the Gospel.
SERMON XLI.
THANKSGIVING OBTAINS THE SPIRIT.
' It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one
sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord ; and when they lifted up
their voice with the trumpets, and cymbals, and instruments of music, and
praised the Lord, saying, For he is good ; for his mercy endureth for ever : that
then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord ; so that the
priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud : for the glory of the
Lord had filled the house of God." 2 Chron. v., 13, 14.
THE day here spoken of appears to have been a day of days. It
seems to have been the day of Pentecost in Old Testament
times, a type of all the glorious days of an outpoured Spirit that
ever have been in the world, a foretaste of that glorious day when
God will fulfil that amazing, soul-satisfying promise, " I will pour
out my Spirit upon all flesh."
My dearly beloved flock, it is my heart's desire and prayer that
this very day might be such a day among us, that God would
indeed open the windows of heaven, as he has done in times past,
and pour down a blessing, till there be no room to receive it.
Let us observe, then, how thanksgiving brings down the Spirit
of God.
I. How the people, were engaged: " In praising and thanking
the Lord." Yea, you have their very words: " For he is good ;
for his mercy endureth frr ever." It was thus the people were
engaged when the cloud \me down and filled the house. They
had been engaged in m_.jy other most affecting duties. The
* Alluding to a recent occurrence.
SERMON XLI. 245
Levites had been carrying the ark from Mount Zion and placing
it under the wings of the cherubim ; Solomon and all his people
had been offering sacrifices, sheep and oxen, which could not be
told for multitude, still no answer came from heaven. But when
the trumpeters and singers were as one in praising and thanking
the Lord, when they lifted up their voices, saying, " For he is
good ; for his mercy endureth for ever ;" then the windows of
heaven were opened, then the cloud came down and filled the
whole temple.
My dear flock, I am deeply persuaded that there will be no full,
soul-filling, heart-ravishing, heart-satisfying, out-pouring of the
Spirit of God, till there be more praise and thanking the Lord. Let
me stir up your hearts to praise.
1. He is good. Believers should praise God for what he is in
himself. Those that have never seen the Lord cannot praise him.
Those that have not come to Christ, have never seen the King in
his beauty. An unconverted man sees no loveliness in God. He
sees a beauty in the blue sky, in the glorious sun, in the green
earth, in the spangling stars, in the lily of the field ; but he sees
no beauty in God. He hath not seen him, neither known him ;
therefore there is no melody of praise in that heart. When a
sinner is brought to Christ, he is brought to the Father. Jesus
gave himself for us, " that he might bring us to God." Oh ! what
a sight breaks in upon the soul, the infinite, eternal, unchangeable
God ! I know that some of you have been brought to see this
sight. Oh ! praise him, then, for what he is. Praise him for his
pure, lovely holiness, that cannot bear any sin in his sight. Cry,
like the angels, " Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty." Praise
him for his infinite wisdom, that he knows the end from the begin-
ning. In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Praise him for his power, that all matter, all mind, is in his hand.
The heart of the king, the heart of saint and sinner, are all in
his hand. Hallelujah ! for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.
Praise him for his love ; for God is love. Some of you have been
at sea. When far out of sight of land, you have stood high on
the vessel's prow, and looked round and round, one vast circle of
ocean without any bound. Oh ! so it is to stand in Christ justified,
and to behold the love of God, a vast ocean all around you, with-
out a bottom and without a shore. Oh ! praise him for what he
is. Heaven will be all praise. Jf you cannot praise God, you
never will be there.
2. For his mercy, for what he has done for us. The Lord has
done much for me since we parted. We were once in perils of
water ; but the Lord saved the ship. Again and again we were
in danger of plague; we nightly heard the cry of the mourner;
yet no plague came near our dwelling. Again and again we were
in pr-rils of robbers ; the gun of the murderous Arab has been
levelled at us ; but the Lord stayed his hand. I have been at the
gates of death since we parted. No man that saw me would
216 SERMON XLI.
have believed that I could be here this day ; yet he nath healed oui
diseases, and brought me back to open once more to you the un-
searchable riches of Christ. I, then, have reason to praise him ;
for his mercy endureth for ever. The Lord has done much tor
you since we parted. My eyes filled with tears when I left you ;
for I thought he had done it in anger. I thought it was anger to
me, and I thought it was anger to you ; but now I see it was all
love it was all mercy to unworthy you and to unworthy me.
The Lord gave you my dear brother to care for your souls ; and
far better than that, for to give you a man only would have been
a poor gilt, but he has given you his Holy Spirit. " Bless the
Lord, O my soul !" Praise him, O my people ! for he is good ;
for his mercy endureth for ever. Are there not some of you brands
plucked out of the burning ? You were in the burning ; the pains
of hell were actually getting hold on you. You had a hell in your
own hearts ; you had a hell yawning to receive you ; but the Lord
snatched you from the burning. Will you not praise him? Are
there not some of you whom I left blind, and deaf, and dumb, and
dead ? You saw no beauty in Him who is fairer than the children
of men; you saw no glory in Immanuel God manifest in the
flesh. But the Lord has said : " Go, wash in the pool of Siloam ;"
and whereas you were blind, now you see. Oh ! praise him that
hath done it. In heaven, they praise God must of all for this :
" Worthy is tha Lamb that was slain." Oh! have you no praise
for Jesus for all his love for the Father for the Spirit? Some
of you cannot sing ; " No man could learn that song but those that
were redeemed from the earth." Some of you are worse than
when I left you. You have resisted me ; you have resisted my
brother ; and, oh ! worse than all, you have resisted the Holy
Ghost. You are prayerless yet, Christless yet. Ah ! unhappy
souls, unredeemed, unrenewed, remember it will be too late to learn
to praise when you die. You must begin now. I will tell you
what a dear friend of my own once said before dying. She de-
sired all the servants to be brought in, and she said very solemnly :
"There's nothing but Christ between me and weeping, and wail-
ing, and gnashing of teeth. Oh ! Forrest, if you have not Christ,
then there is nothing between you and weeping, and wailing, and
gnashing of teeth." You that will not praise Christ now, shall
wail because of him soon.
II. The manner of their praise.
As one. Their hearts were all as one heart in this exercise.
There were a thousand tongues, but only one heart. Not only
were their harps, and cymbals, and dulcimers, all in tune, giving
out a harmonious melody, but their hearts were all in tune. God
had given them one heart, and then the blessing came down. The
same was the case on the day of Pentecost; they were all with
one accord in one place ; they were looking to the same Lamb of
God The same thing will be the case in that day prophesied of
SERMON XLI. 2-47
in the 133d psalm : "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for
brethren to dwell together in unity !" " There God commands the
blessing, even life for evermore." This is the very thing which
Jesus prayed for in that prayer which none but. God could have
asked, and none but God could answer: "Neither pray I for these
alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their
word ; that they all may be one ; as thou, Father, art in me, and
I in thee, that they also may be one in us : that the world may
believe that thou hast sent me;" and then follows the blessing:
** And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them ; that
they may be one, even as we are one : I in them, arid thou in me,
that they may be made perfect in one ; .and that the world may
know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast
loved me."
Dear children cf God, unite your praises. Let your hearts no
more be divided. You are divided from the world by a great
gulf. Soon it will be an infinite gulf; but you are united to one
another by the same spirit ; you have been chosen by the same
free, sovereign love ; you have been washed in the same precious
blood ; you have been filled by the same blessed Spirit. Little
children, love one another. He that loveth is born of God. Be
one in your praises. Join in one cry : " Worthy is the Lamb that
was slain ; thou art worthy to open the book ; thou art worthy to
reign in our hearts." And, oh ! be fervent in praise. Lift up
youi voices in it ; lift up your hearts in it. In heaven they wax
louder and louder. John heard the sound of a great multitude ;
and then it was like many waters, and then it was like mighty
thunderings, crying : " Hallelujah ! hallelujah !" 1 remember
Edvvards's remark, that it was in the singing of praises that his
people felt themselves most enlarged, and then that God was wor-
shipped somewhat in the beauty of holiness. Let it be so among
yourselves. Learn, dearly beloved, to praise God heartily ; to
sing with all your heart and soul in the family, and in the congre-
gation. But, oh ! remember that even your praises must be
sprinkled with blood, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
III. Effects.
1. The cloud filled the house. This cloud is the very same which
led them through the Red Sea, and went before them forty years
in the wilderness. It was a pillar of cloud by day, to shade them
from the heat ; it was a pillar of fire by night, to guide Israel on
their way to the promised rest; and now it came and filled the
holiest of all and the holy place. Such was the wonderful effect
which followed their united fervent praises. God himself came
down, and filled every chamber of the house with his presence.
" This is my rest for ever ; here will I dwell ; for I have desired
it." Now, my dear friends, we are not now to expect that God
will answer our pi ayers, or follow our praises with a pillar of
248 SERMON XL1.
cloud or a pillar of fire. These were but the shadows ; now we
receive the realitv, the substance. If ye will but unite in unani-
mous and heartfelt praises, then am I persuaded that God will give
his Holy Spirit to fill thjs House, to fill every heart in the spiritual
temple. How glorious this will be !
(1.) For the children of God. Are there not some of you who
have come to Christ, and nothing more ? Guilty, weary, heavy
laden, you have found rest ; redemption through his blood, even
the forgiveness of sins. Oh! do not stop there. Do not rest in
mere forgiveness ; cry for the indwellings of the Holy Ghost, the
Comforter. Forgiveness is but a means to an end. You are justi-
fied in order that you may be sanctified. Remember, without
holiness, you will never see the Lord ; and without this indwelling
Spirit, you never will be holy.
Are there not some of you groaning under a body of sin and
death, and crying, with the apostle : " Oh ! wretched man, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Do you not feel
the plague of your own heart ? Do you not feel the power of your
old nature ? How many in this state lean upon themselves, trust
in their resolutions, attempt, as it were, by force, to put down their
sins : but here is the remedy. Oh ! cry for the flood-tide of God's
Spirit, that he may fill every chamber of your heart ; that he may
renew you in the spirit of your mind.
Are there not many who are cold, worldly Christians, those who
were long ago converted, but have fallen sadly back, under the
power of the world, either its gaiety or its business, its mirth or its
money, and they have got into worldly habits, deep ruts of sin ?
Ah ! see what you need. He that created man in his own image
at first, must create you over again. You need an almighty in-
dwelling Comforter. Oh ! it is he only who can melt your icy
heart, and make it flow out in love to God, who can fill you with
all t'he fulness of God.
Are there not some who read the Bible, but get little from it?
You feel that it does not sink into your heart, it does not remain
with you through the week. It is like the seed cast in the way-
side, easily plucked away. Oh ! it is just such an outpoured Spirit
you require to hide the Word in your heart. When you write
with a dry pen, without any ink in it, no impression is made upon
the paper. Now, ministers are the pens, and the Spirit of God is
the ink. Pray that the pen may be filled with that living ink, that
the Word may remain in your hearts, known and read of all men
that you may be sanctified through the truth.
(2.) For the unconverted. So it was in the day of Pentecost-
the Spirit came first on the small company of disciples, and then
on the ihree thousand. You have seen the hills attracting the
cjouds, and so drawing down the shower into the valleys ; so do
God's children, having their heads within the veil, obtain the Spirit
of God in fulness, and dispense it to all around. You have seen
SERMON XLII. 249
some tall tree or spire catching the lightning, and conveying it
down into the ground, so does the fire of God's Spirit come first
upon the trees of righteousness, and from them descends to the
dead souls around them.
A word to dead souls. Keep near to God's children at such a
time as this. Do not separate from them do not mock at them ;
you may yet receive the grace of God through them. Dear be-
lievers, for the sake of the dead souls around you, for the sake of
this great town, full of wickedness, for the sake of our land, filled
with formality and hypocrisy, oh ! unite in prayer, and unite in
praise, and prove the Lord, if he will not pour out a blessing. Not
for your own sakes only, but for the sake of those perishing around
you, let us wrestle and pray for a fuller time of the Spirit's work-
ing than has ever been seen in Scotland yet.
2. The priests could not stand to minister. Before the cloud
came down, no doubt the priests were all busily engaged burning
incense, and offering sacrifices ; but when the cloud came down,
they could only wonder and adore. So it ever will be when the
Lord gives much of his Spirit; he will make it evident that it is
not the work of man. If he were to give only a little, then mi-
nisters would begin to think they had some hand in it ; but when
he fills the house, then he makes it plain that man has nothing to
do with it. David Brainard said, that when God awakened his
whole congregation of Indians, he stood by amazed, and felt that
he was as nothing that God alone was working. Oh ! it is this,
dear friends, that we desire and pray for, that the Lord, the Spirit,
would himself descend, and with his almighty power tear away
the veil from your hearts, convince you of sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment, that Jesus himself would take his sceptre, and
break your hard hearts, and take all the glory that we mav cry
out : " i\ot unto us, Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name gtve
glory."
St. Peter's, JVov. 24, 1339 (after returning from Palestine).
SERMON XLII.
AN EXCEEDING GOOD LAND.
M And they spake rnto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The lanf 1
which we passed through to search it is an exceeding good land. If the Lord
delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us, a land that
floweth with milk and honey." Numb, xiv., 7, 8.
WHEN the children of Israel arrived at the border of the promised
land, Moses, at the command of God, sent twelve men to spy out
the good land. They searched it for forty days from the one end
250 - SERMON XLII.
to the other, and then returned, bringing a bunch of grapes, borna
between two, on a staff, from the fruitful Valley of Eschol. But
ten of the spies brought an evil report of the land. The land,
they said, was good ; but the inhabitants were giants, and the
cities walled up to heaven ; and the conclusion they came to was:
" We are not able to go up against the people, for they are strongei
than we." Verse 31.
Joshua and Caleb alone tried to still the people. They did not
deny that the men were tall, and that the cities were walled ; but
they pointed to the pillar-cloud to answer all objections : " The
Lord is with us," and we shall subdue the people as easily as we
eat bread. " The land which we passed through to search it is an
exceeding good land."
Doctrine. If God delight in a soul, he will bring it into the
good land.
I. Show who they are that God delights in.
1. God has no delight in a natural soul. " If thou shouldest
mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand ?" " Thou art not a God
that delighteth in wickedness ; neither shall evil dwell with thee.'
" Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look
on iniquity." " Surely thou wilt slay the wicked. O God." Eli's
sons hearkened not unto the voice of their father ; for the Lord
would slay them. It is God's very nature to loathe and turn
away from that which is sinful. A person with a fine ear for
music cannot delight in a jarring discord. It is impossible in his
very nature. So it is impossible in God to delight in a naked sin-
ner. A person covered with sin is quite contrary to God's nature;
and therefore, when naked sinners and God meet in the judgment,
God will have no mercy, neither will his eye spare. He will say :
" Bind them hand and foot, and cast them into outer darkness."
Oh ! you that are covered over with sin, think of this. You
that are uncovered in the sight of God, prepare to meet your God.
How will you come into the presence of one who abhors sin,
when he puts your 'most secret sins in the light of his countenance,
when he brings to light all the hidden works of darkness, when
you shall give account of every idle word ? Ah ! where wUI you
appear ?
2. He delights in one sprinkled with the blood of Christ. When
a hell-deserving sinner is enlightened in the knowledge of Christ,
wheii he believes the record that God hath given concerning his
Son, and joyfully consents that the Lord Jesus be his surety, then
the blood of Christ is, as it were, sprinkled over that soul. When
Aaron and his sons were set apart for the priesthood, the blood of
the ram was put upon the tip of their right ear. and the thumb of
their right hand, and the great toe of their right foot, to signify
that they were dipped in blood from head to foot ; so when God
ooks upon a soul in Christ, he sees it dipped in the blood of the
SERMON XLII. 251
Saviour. He looks upon that soul as having suffered all that
Christ suffered ; therefore he delights in that soul. His sense of
justice is pleased. God has an infinite sense of justice. His eyes
behold the things that are equal ; now when he sees the blood of
his Son sprinkled upon any soul, he sees that justice has had its
full satisfaction in that soul, that that man's sins have been more
fully punished than if he had borne them himself eternally.
His sense of mercy is pleased. He delighteth in mercy. Even
when justice was crying out, " Thou shall surely slay the wicked,"
his mercy was yearning over sinners, and he provided a ransom.
And now when the sinner has laid hold on the ransom, mercy is
poured down in forgiveness. God delighteth in mercy ; he de-
lights to forgive the soul. It is sweet to notice how Jesus loves to
forgive sins. In the woman that washed his feet, how he seems
to dwell on it ! " Her sins, which are many, are forgiven." And
again he said unto her : " Thy sins are forgiven thee ;" and again,
a third time : " Go in peace." And so God loves to forgive :
" There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth."
Invite trembling sinners to come to Jesus. Some of you are
trembling under a sense of being exposed to God's wrath. Which
of his commandments have you not broken ? Your case is, in-
deed, a dismal one, your fears are most just and reasonable ; and
if you saw your condition fully, they would be ten thousand times
greater. Yet here is a fountain opened for sin and for unclean-
ness. If only you are willing to come to the Lord Jesus, you do
not need to remain another moment but of God's favor. You see
how completely safe you would be, if you would take this blood.
A just and merciful God would rejoice over you to forgive you.
It is all in vain that you try your own righteousness ; it will never
make God delight in you, for it is filthy rngs in his sight. But
the blood of atonement, the blood of the Lamb, speaketh peace.
3. God delights in the sanctified. You remember, in the Book
of Revelation, how often Jesus says, "I know thy works." He
says it with delight in the case of Smyrna : " I know thy works,
and tribulation, and poverty ; but thou art rich." When God
brings a soul into Christ, he makes him a new creature ; then God
loves the new creature. Just as when God made the world, he
saw all that he had made, and smiled, for all was very good : so,
when God makes a new creation in the heart, God delights in it.
He says it is all very good.
()!>j. iVIy graces are all imperfect. They do not please rue,
how c;m they please God ? 1 cannot do the things that I would.
Ans. All true ; yet God loves his own workmanship in the soul.
His Sp.rit prays in you, lives in you, walks i'n you. God loves
the work of his own Spirit. Just as you love flowers of your own
planting, as you love a spot that you have laid out much on : so
God loves his children, not for anything of their own, but for what
he has done foi them, and in them. They are dear-bought, he has
252 SERMON XLII.
bought them with his own blood. He waters them every moment,
lest any hurt them ; he keeps them by night and by day, and how
can he but love them ? He loves the place where his Spirit dwells.
Just as God loved the temple: "This is my rest: here will 1
dwell, for I have desired it," not for any good in it, but because it
was the place of his feet ; because he had done so much for it ; so
God loves his Christians, just because he dwells in them, and has
done so much for them. Just as it was with Aaron's rod : it was
a dry stick, like any other rod ; but God made it bud forth, ana
bloom blossoms, and bear ripe almonds ; and therefore he caused
it to be laid up in the holiest of all. So is a Christian a dry tree ;
but God makes him bear fruit, and loves the work of his own
hands. Dear Christians, walk after the Spirit, and please God
more and more. He saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. His
countenance doth behold the upright : " I love them that love me."
II. God will bring all his people to glory. There are many
difficulties in the way. 1. So it was with Israel. The cities were
walled and very great ; the inhabitants were gigantic and strong ;
they fell before them like grasshoppers. 2. So it is with God's
children : they have many and great enemies the devil, and his
angels, once the brightest and highest of created intelligences, now
the great enemy of souls. He is against the Christian. The world
is full of giants, all opposing God's children. The persecutions of
the ungodly, the allurements of pleasure, these are great enemies
in the way. There are giant lusts in the heart: the lust of praise,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life. Before
these the soul feels like a grasshopper, without strength : " We
ace not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger
than we."
Arg. If he delight in us, he will bring us into this land.
He is able; "If God be for us, who can be against us?" 1.
God is stronger than Satan. Satan is nothing in his hand. It is
easier for God to crush Satan under our feet, than for you to
crush a fly. God is infinitely stronger than Satan. Satan can no
more hinder God from carrying us to glory than a little fly can,
which you crush with your foot. " He shall bruise Satan under
your feet shortly." Submit yourselves to God, resist the devil,
and he will flee from you. 2. Stronger than the world. The
world often comes against us like armed men ; but if God be for
us, who can be against us ? " The people shall be like bread." It
is as easy to overcome all opposition when God is with us, as for
a hu.igry man to eat bread. It was God that girded Cyrus, though
he did not know him. So he does still : worldly men are a rod
in God's hand. God puts it this way or that way, to fulfil all his
pleasure ; and when he has. done with it he will break it in pieces,
and cast it into the fire. ' So fear not them that kill the body,
and after that have no more that they can do." Oh ! Christian, if
SERMON XLII. 253
you would live by faith, you might live a happy life ! 3. Strongei
than our own heart. There is many a Jericho in our own heart
walled up to heaven, many a fortress of sin, many giant lusts
which threaten our souls. " O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death?" "If the Lord
delight in us, he will bring us into the good land." By faith the
wails of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven
days. God made the walls of Jericho fall flat, by a mere breath
of wind a noise ; so he is able still. Settle it in your hearts ;
there is no Jericho in your hearts which God is not able to make
fall in a moment. You have seen a shepherd carrying a sheep on
his shoulder ; he meets with many a stone on the way, many a
thorn, many a stream ; yet the sheep feels no difficulty ; it is
carried above all. So it is with every soul that yields itself to
God ; the only difficulty is to lie on his shoulder.
Apply to young Christians. Learn where your sanctification
lies in God : " With thee is the fountain of life." " Your life is
hid with Christ in God." Your holiness does not depend on you,
but on him* It is a hard lesson to learn, that you cannot sanctify
yourself, that you cannot overcome these giants, and scale these
walls. You have learned one humbling lesson, that you have no
righteousness ; that nothing you have done or can do will justify
you. Now, learn another humbling lesson, that even when par-
doned you have no strength. It is the most humbling of all things
to lie like a sheep on his shoulders ; but, oh ! it is sweet. Be lik-
Aaron's rod, a dry stick in yourself, till he shall make you bud
and blossom, and bear fruit. Say like Ephraim : " I am a green
fir tree ;" and hear God say : " From me is thy fruit found."
To fallen Christians. Some of you may have fallen into sin.
The reason was just this : you forgot where your strength Jay.
It was not the force of passion nor the power of Satan, nor the
allurement of the world that made you tall, it was unbelief; you
did not lie in his hand.
To aged Christians. You have come to the border of the
promised land, and still your enemies seem giants, and the cities
walled up to heaven, and you feel like a grasshopper. Still, if
the Lord delight in you, he will keep you in the love of God. He
that saved you out of the mouth of the lion, and out of the paw
of the bear, will save you out of the hand of this Philistine. Trust
God to the end.
Even in the valley of the shadow of death, look back over all
your deliverances ; look over all the Ebenezers you have raised,
and say :
After so much mercy past,
Canst thou let me sink at last ?
SERMON XLIII.
SERMON XLIII.
FAMILY GOVERNMENT.
"For I know him, that he will command his children and his household alter him
and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment ; that the
Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." Gen
xviii., 19
THERE are three things very remarkable in these words. 1.
That Abraham used parental authority in governing his family :
" I know him, that he will command his children and servants
after him." He did not think it enough to pray for them, or to
teach them, but he used the authority which God had given him,
he commanded them. 2. That he cared for his servants as well
as his children. In chap, xiv., verse 14, we learn that Abraham
had three hundred and eighteen servants born in his house. He
lived after the manner of patriarchal times ; as the Arabs of the
wilderness do to this day. His family was very large, and yet
he did not say, " They are none of mine." He commanded his
children and his household. 3. His success : " They shall keep
the way of the Lord." It is often said that the children of good
men turn out ill. Well, here is a good man, and a good man
doing his duty by his children, and here is the result. His son
Isaac was probably a child of God from his earliest years. There
is every mark of it in his life. And what a delightful specimen of
a believing, prayerful servant was Eliezer. Gen. xxiv.
It is the duty of all believers to rule their houses well.
I. The springs of this duty.
1. Love to souls. As long as a man does not care for his own
soul, he does not care for the souls of others. He can see his
wife and children living in sin, going down to hell, he does not
care. He does not care for missions, gives nothing to support
missionaries. But the moment a man's eyes are opened to the
value of his own soul, that moment does he begin to care for the
souls of othir?. F/om that moment does he love the missionary
cause. He wiIJRy spares a little to send the Gospel to the Jew
and the perish:/) ,> Hindus. Again, he begins to care for the
Church at home, 'or his neighbors, all living in sin. Like the
maniac at Dec^.poli?, he publishes the name of Jesus wherever
he goes. And now he begins to care for his own house. He
commands his chiMren and his household after him. How is it
with you? Do you rule well your own house? Do you worship
God, morning and evening, in your family? Do you deal with
your children and servants touching their conversion? If not,
you do not love th-.-ir souls. And the reason is, you do not lovo
SERMON XLIII. 255
your own. You may make what outward profession you please ;
you may sit down at sacraments, and talk about your feelings,
&c., but if you do not labor for the conversion of your children,
it is all a lie. If you but felt the preciousness of Christ, you
could not look upon their faces without a heart-breaking desire
that they might be saved. Thus Rahab, Josh, ii., 13.
2. Desire to use all talents for Chj-ist. When a man comes to
Christ, he feels he is not his own. 1 Cor. vi., 19. He hears
Christ say, "Occupy till I come." If he be a rich man, he
uses all for Christ, like Gaius. If a learned man, spends all
for Christ, like Paul. Now, parental authority is one talent, the
authority of a father and master is a talent, for the use of which
men will be judged. He uses this also for Christ. He commands
his children and his household after him. How is it with you?
Do you use this talent for Christ? If not, you have never given
yourself away to him, you are not his.
II. Scripture examples of it.
1. Abraham. The most eminent example of it, the father of all
believers. Are you a child of Abraham? Then walk in his
steps in this. Wherever Abraham went, he built an altar to the
Lord.
2. Job. Upon every one of his sons' birth-days Job offered sa-
crifice, according to the number of them all. Chap, i., 5.
3. Joshua : " As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
Chap, xxiv., 15.
4. Eunice. From a child, little Timothy knew the Scriptures ;
and the reason of this you understand, when you read of the faith
of his mother Eunice. 2 Tim. iii., 15, with i., 5. Such was the
manner in Scotland in the days of our fathers ; and if ever we
are to see Scotland again a garden of the Lord, it must be by the
reviving of family government.
III. The manner of it.
1. Worship God in your family. If you do not worship
God in your family, you are living in positive sin ; you may
be quite sure you do not care for the souls of your family. If you
neglected to spread a meal for your children to eat, would it not
be said that you did not care for their bodies ? And if you do not
lend your children and servants to the green pastures of God's
Word, and to seek the living water, how plain is it that you do
not care for their souls ! Do it regularly, morning and evening.
It is more needful than your daily food, more needful than your
work. How vain and silly all your excuses will appear, when
you look back from hell ! Do it fully. Some clip on the psalm,
and some the readin-g of the Word ; and so the worship of God is
reduced to a mockery. Do it in a spiritual, lively manner. Go
to it as to a well of salvation. There is, perhaps no mean of
256 SERMON XL1II.
grace more blessed. Let all your family be present without fail,
let none be awanting.
2. Command, use parental authority. How awfully did God
avenge it upon Eli, 4< because his sons made themselves vile, and
he restrained them not !" Eli was a good man, and a holy man ;
and often he spoke to his two wicked sons, but they heeded not
But herein he tailed, he did not use his parental authority, he did
not restrain them. Remember Eli. It is not enough to pray for
your children, and to pray with them, and to warn them ; but you
must restrain them. Restrain them with the cords of love. From
wicked books, from wicked companions, from wicked amusements,
from untimely hours, restrain them.
3. Command servants as well as children. So did Abraham.
Remember you are in the place of a father to your servants.
They are come under your roof; and they have a claim on your
instructions. If they minister to you in carnal things, it is but fair
that you minister to them in spiritual things. You have drawn
them away from under the parental roof, and it is your part to see
that they do not lose by it. Oh ! what a mass of sin would he
prevented, if masters would care for their servants' souls !
4. Deal with each as to the conversion of his soul. I have
known many dear Christian parents who have been singularly
neglectful in this particular. They worship God in the family,
and pray earnestly in secret for their children and servants, and
yet never deal with them as to their conversion. Satan spreads
a kind of false modesty among parents, that they will not inquire
of their little ones, Have you found the Lord, or no ? Ah ! how
sinful and foolish this will appear in eternity. If you should see
some of your children or servants in hell, all because you did not
speak to them in private, how would you look ? Begin to-night.
Take them aside and ask, What has G*od done for your soul ?
5. Lead a holy life before them. If all your religion is on your
tongue, your children and servants will soon find out your hy-
pocrisy.
IV. The blessing.
1. You will avoid the curse. You will avoid Eli's curse. Eli
was a child of God, and yet he suffered much on account of his
unfaithfulness. He lost his two sons in one day. If you would
avoid Eli's curse, avoid Eli's sin. " Pour out thy fury on the fami-
lies that have not called on thy name" Jer. x., 25. If you do not
worship God in your house, a curse is written over your door. If
I could mark the dwellings in this town where there is no family
prayer, these are the spots where the curse of God is ready to fall.
These houses are over hell.
2. Your children will be saved So it was with Abraham. His
dear son Isaac was saved. What became of Ishmael I do not
know. Only I remember his fervent cry : " O that Ishmael might
SERMON XLIV. 257
ive before thee !" Such is the promise : " Train up a child in the
way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."
Such is the promise in baptism. Ah ! who can tell the blessed-
ness of being the saved father of a saved family ? Dear believ-
ers, be wise. Surely if anything could mar the joy of heaven, it
would be to see your children lost through your neglect. Dear
unconverted souls, if one pang can be more bitter than another in
hell, it will be to hear your children say : " Father, mother, you
brought me here."
SERMON XLIV.
AND IN THIS MOUNTAIN.
" And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat
things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on thi
lees well refined. And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering
cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow
up death in victory ; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces;
and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth ; for the
Lord hath spoken it." Isa. xxv., 6-8.
THESE words are yet to be fulfilled at the second coming of the
Saviour. It is true that the Lord of hosts has long ago prepared
this feast, and sent out his servants, saying : " Come, for all things
are ready." But it is just as true, that the veil that is spread over
all nations is not yet taken away ; and Paul tells us plainly, in 1
Cor. xv., 54, that it is in the resurrection morning that these
words shall be quite fulfilled : " He hath swallowed up death in
victory."
Still these words have been in some measure fulfilled wherever
there has been a peculiar outpouring of the Spirit upon any place.
Often at sacrament seasons in our own land, these words have
been fulfilled. God has made Christ a feast of fat things to hun-
gry souls. The veil of unbelief has been torn from many hearts,
and the tears wiped away from many eyes. It is my humble but
earnest desire that next Sabbath day may be such a day in this
place.* I want to engage all of you who are the children of
God to secret and united prayer that it may be so; and I have
therefore, chosen these words by which to stir you up to pray.
I. Consider the Feast. II. The tearing away of the veil. III.
The effects of it.
]. The Feast.
* The Communion Sabbath.
17
258 SERMON XLIV.
1. Where is it? Any. " In this mountain." (1.) Moriah? Ah!
it was here that Abraham offered up Isaac. It was here that the
passovcr lamb used to be slain. It was here that Jesus stood and
cried, " If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink." (2.)
Mount Olivet? It was here that Jesus said, ' I am the true vine. '
It was here that Jesus had the cup of wrath set down before him,
ic that night in which he was betrayed. (3.) Mount Calvary?
It was ht re that they crucified Jesus and two thieves, one on
each hand. It was here that the passers-by wagged their heads,
the chief priests mocked, and the thieves cast the same in his teeth.
It was here that there was three hours' darkness. It was here
they pierced his hands and feet. It was here that God forsook
his own Son. It was here that .infinite wrath was laid upon an
infinite Saviour: "In this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make
unto all people a feast of fat things."
To anxious souls. The world tries to cheer you ; they bid you
go into company, see more of the world, enjoy pleasure, and drive
away these dull thoughts. They spread a feast for you in some
lighted hall, with brilliant lamps ; and the pipe and the tabor, and
wine are in their feasts. Oh ! anxious soul, flee these things :
remember Lot's wife. If you are anxious about your soul, flee
from the feasts of the world. Stop your ears, and run. Look
here how God tries to cheer you: he, too, prepares a feast; but
where ? On Calvary. There is no light ; it is all darkness round
the cross ; no music, but the groan of a dying Saviour : ' Eli !
Eli ! my God ! my God !" Oh ! anxious soul, it is there you will
find peace and rest. " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest." The darkest hour that
ever was in this world gives light to the weary soul. The sight
of the cross brings within sight of the crown. That dying sigh,
which made the rocks to rend, alone can rend the veil, and give
you peace. The Place of a Skull is the place of joy.
2. Wliat is it ? A feast of fat things, of wines on the lees. .
(1.) A feast. It is not a meal, but a feast. At a meal, it is well
if there be enough for all who sit round the table : but at a feast,
there should be more than enough ; there is a liberal abundance.
The Gospel is compared to a feast : " Come, eat of my bread, and
drink of the wine that I have mingled." Prov. ix.
Again, in the Song of Songs : " He brought me to the banquet-
ing house, and his banner over me was love." " Stay me with
flagons, comfort me with apples; for I am sick of love." Again,
in Matt. xxii. : " Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have pre-
pared my dinner ; my oxen and my fallings are killed, and -all
things are ready : come unto the marriage."
So it is in Jesus ; there is bread enough and to spare. He
came that we might have life, and might have it more abundantly.
There is a feast in a crucified Jesus. His dying in the stead of
sinners is enough, and more than enough, to answer for our sins.
SERMON XLIV. 259
It is not only equal to my dying, but it is far more glorifying to
God and his holy law, than if I had suffered a hundred deaths.
" Comfort ye, comfort ye ; ye have received at the Lord's hand
double for all your sins." His obeying in the stead of sinners is
enough, and more than enough, to cover our nakedness. It is not
only equal to my obeying, but it is far more glorifying to God than
if I had never sinned. His garment not only clothes the naked
soul, but clothes from head to foot ; so that no shame appears ;
only Christ appears, the soul is hid. His Spirit is not only
enough, but more than enough, to make us holy. There is a well
in Christ which we never can exhaust still rivers of grace which
we never can drink dry.
Christians, learn to feed more on Christ : " Eat, O friends !
drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved !" When you are asked
to a feast, there is no greater affront you can put upon the enter-
tainer than by being content with a crumb below the table. Yet
this is the way the Christians of our day affront the Lord of glory.
Oh how few seem to feed much on Christ ! how few seem to put
on his white flowing raiment ! how few seem to drink deep into
his Spirit ! Most are content with now and then a glimpse of
pardon, a crumb from the table, and a drop of his Spirit. Awake,
dear friends ! " These things have I spoken unto you that your joy
may be full."
(2.) A feast of fat things, of wines on the lees.
The fat things full of marrow are intended to represent the rich-
est and most nourishing delicacies ; and the wines on the lees
well refined, to represent the oldest and richest wines ; so that, not
only is there abundance in this feast, but abundance of the best.
Ah ! so it is in Christ. First, There is forgiveness of all past sins.
Ah ! this is the richest of all delicacies to a heavy laden soul. As
cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.
A good conscience is a. perpetual feast. Oh ! weary sinner, taste
and see. " I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and
his fruit was sweet to my taste." These are the apples that a
weary soul cries out for: "Comfort -me with apples; for I am
sick of love." Second, There are the smiles of the Father. The
Father himself loveth you. Oh, to pass from the frown of an angry
God into the smile of a loving Father ! this is a feast to the soul ;
this is to pass from death unto life. Third, The droppings of the
Spirit into the soul ah ! it is this which comforts the soul. This
is the oil of gladness that makes the face to shine. This makes
the cup run over. This is the full well rising within the soul, at
once comforting and purifying. Dear friends, be not filled with
wine, wherein is excess ; but be filled with the Spirit. These are
the flagons that stay the soul. May you be in the Spirit on the
Lord's-day !
3. For whom is it ? Unto all people. " The Gospel is the
power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth ; to the
260 SERMON XLIV.
Jew first, and also to the Greek." " Go ye into all the world, ana
preach the Gospel to every creature." Ah ! there is not a crea-
ture under heaven for whom the feast is not prepared. There is
not a creature from whorn" we can keep back the message :
" All things are reudy ; come to the marriage."
Dear anxious souls, why do you keep away from Christ? you
say Christ is far from you ; alas ! he has been at your door all
day. Christ is as free to you as to any that ever came to him.
Come hungry, come empty, come sinful, come as you are to feed
on glorious Jesus. He is a feast to the hungry soul.
Dear dead souls, that never felt one throb of anxiety, that never
uttered one heartfelt cry to God, th s message is for you. The
feast is for all people. Christ is as free to you as to any other :
" How long, ye simple ones, will ye love your simplicity ?" " The
Spirit and the bride say, Come."
II. The tearing away of the veil.
1. Observe there is a veil over every natural heart, a thick im-
penetrable veil. (1.) There was a veil in the temple over the
entrance to the holiest of all, so that no eye could see the beauty
of the Lord within. (2.) There was a veil over the face of Moses
when he came down from the mount, for something of the bright-
ness of Christ shone in his countenance. When the veil was down
they could not see his glory. (3.) So there is a veil upon the
hearts of the Jews to this day, when Moses and the prophets are
read to them. (4.) So is there a veil over your hearts, so many
of you as are in your natural state ; a thick, impenetrable veil ;
its name is unbelief. The same veil that hid the beauty of the
promised land from Israel in Kadesh-barnea " for they could
not enter in, because of unbelief" that veil is over your hearts
this day.
Learn the great reason of your indifference to Christ. The veil
is upon your heart. God may lay down all the riches of his
bosom on the table the unsearchable riches of Christ ; yet so
long as that veil is over you, you will not move. You see no form
nor comeliness in Christ : " And when we shall see him. there is no
beauty that we should desire him." Isa. liii., 2. " The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : for they are
foolishness unto him : neither can he know them, because they are
spiritually discerned." 1 Cor. ii., 14.
2. Who takes the veil away ? Ans. The Lord of hosts : he
that makes the feast is he that tears the veil away. Ah ! it is a
work of God to take away that covering. We may argue wrth
you till midnight, telling you of your sin and misery we may
brin<r all the sweetest words in the Bible to show you that Christ
is fairer than the children of men ; still you will go home and say,
We see no beauty in him. But God can take away the veil ;
sometimes he does it in a moment sometimes slowly ; then Christ
SERMON XLIV. 26l
is revealed, and Christ is precious. There is not one of you so
sunk in sin and worldliness so dull and heartless in the things of
God but your heart would be overcome by the sight of an un-
veiled Saviour. Oh ! let us plead this promise with God
" He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering casi
over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations/
Come and do it, Lord. " I will pour out my Spirit unto you."
Pour quickly, Lord.
3. Where ? " In this mountain" in the same place where he
makes the feast ; he takes the soul to Calvary. Ah, yes ; it is
within sight of the crucified Saviour that God takes every veil
away.
Anxious souls, wait near the cross. Meditate upon Christ* and
him crucified. It is there that God tears the veil away. Be often
at Gethsemane be often at Golgotha. Oh ! that next Sabbath he
may reveal himself to all in the breaking of bread. As easy to
a thousand as to one soul !
III. Effects.
1. Triumph over death. (1.) Even here this is fulfilled. Often
the fear of death is taken away in those who trembled before.
The soul that has really had the veil taken away can go through
the valley, if not singing, at least humbly trusting, and can say at
the end, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" Ah! nothing but a
real sight of Christ can cheer in death. Worldly people can die
stupidly and insensibly ; but the unveiled Christian alone can feel
in death that the sting is taken away. (2.) In resurrection. When
we stand like Christ in body and soul " When the sea has given
up the dead that are in it, and death and hell the dead that are in
them" " When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption
then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is
swallowed up in victory."
Dear friends, what solemn scenes are before us ! Ah ! nothing
but a sight of Christ as our own Surety and Redeemer can uphold
us, in sight of opening graves and reeling worlds. We shall re-
member his own words, and be still : " I will ransom them from
the power of the grave : I will redeem them from death. O death,
I will be thy plagues ; O grave, I will be thy destruction." "Father,
I will that they also whom thou hast given me may be with me,
where I am, that they may behold my glory."
2. Triumph over sorrow. (1.) Even here, God wipes away the
tears of conviction, the tears of sin and shame, by revealing Christ.
A work of grace always begins in tears ; but when God takes the
soul to Calvary look here : Tuere are thy sins laid upon Irn-
inanuel ; there the Lamb of God is bearing them ; there is all the
hell that thou shalt suffer. Oh, how sweetly does God wipe away
the tears ! Anxious souls, may God do this for you next Sabbath-
day ! (2.) Complete fulfilment after. There will always be lean
SERMON XLV.
nere, because of sin, temptation, sorrow ; but there " they shaft
hunger no more, neither thirst any more ; neither shall the sun
light on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb which is in the midst
of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto livin^
fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes."
a. Triumph over reproaches. Even here God lifts his people
above reproaches ; he enables them to bless, and curse not : ' Love
your enemies ; bless them that curse you, do good to them that
hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and per-
secute you." But there shall be full triumph yonder. He will
clear up our character. Here we may endure reproaches all the
way! Christians are slighted, despised, trampled on, here ; but
God will acknowledge them as his jewels at last. The world will
stand aghast.
SERMON XLV.
THE HEART DECEITFUL.
" The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked : who can know
it ? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man accord-
ing to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." Jer. xvii., 9, 10.
I. The state of the natural heart. Verse 9. This is a faithful
description of the natural heart of man: The heart of unlallen
Adam was very different. " God made man upright." His mind
was clear and heavenly. It was riveted upon divine things. He
saw their glory without any cloud or dimness. His heart was
right with God. His affections flowed sweetly and fully towards
God. He loved as God loved, hated as God hated. There was
no deceit about his heart then. It was transparent as crystal.
He had nothing to conceal. There was no wickedness in his
heart; no spring of hatred, or lust, or pride.. He knew his own
heart. He could see clearly into its deepest recesses ; for it was
just a reflection of the heart of God. When Adam sinned, his
heart was changed. When he lost the favor of God he lost the
image of God. Just as Nebuchadnezzar suddenly got a beast's
heart, so Adam suddenly got a heart in the image of the devil.
And this is the description ever since. "The heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked." Verse 9.
1. It is " deceitful above all things" Deceit is one of the prime
elements of the natural heart. It is more full of deceit than any
other object. We sometimes call the sea deceitful. At evening
the sea appears perfectly calm, or there is a gentle ripple on the
SERMON tLV.
waters, and the wind blows favorably ; during the night a storm
may come on, and the treacherous waves are now like mountain
billows covering the ship. But the hoart is deceitful above all
things : more treacherous than the treacherous sea. The clouds
are often very deceitful. Sometimes, in a time of drought, they
promise rain ; but they turn out to be clouds without rain, and the
farmer is disappointed. Sometimes the clouds appear calm and
settled ; but, before the morning, torrents of rain are falling. But
the heart is deceitful above all things. Many animals are de-
ceitful. The serpent is more subtle than any beast of the field :
sometimes it will appear quite harmle>s, but suddenly it will put
out its deadly sting and give a mortal wound. But the natural
heart is more deceitful than a serpent ; aboce all things. It is
deceitful in two ways ; in deceiving others and itself
(1.) In. deceiving others. Every natural man is a hypocrite.
He is different in reality from what he appears to be. I undertake
to say, that there is not a natural man present here to-day in his true
colors. If every natural man here were to throw off his disguise,
and appear as he really is, this church would look more like the
gate of hell than the gate of heaven. If every unclean man were
to lay bare his heart, and show his abominable, filthy desires and
thoughts ; if every dishonest man were now to open his heart, and
let us see all his frauds, all his covetous, base desires ; if every
proud, self-conceited one were now to show us what is going on
below his coat, or below that silk gown ; to let us see the paltry
schemes of vanity and desire of praise ; if every unbeliever among
you were openly to reveal his hatred of Christ and of the blessed
Gospel, O what a hell would this place appear ! Why is it not so ?
Because natural men are deceitful ; because you draw a cloak over
your heart, and put on a smooth face, and make the outside of a
siint cover the heart of a fiend. Oh ! your heart is deceitful above
all things. Every natural man is a flatterer. He does not tell
other men what he thinks of them. There is no plain, honest
dealing between natural men in this world. Those of you who
know anything of this world, know how hollow the most of its
friendships are. Just imagine for a moment that every natural man
were to speak the truth, when he meets his friends; suppose he
were to tell them all the bitter slanders which he tells of them
a hundred times behind their back ; suppose he were to unbosom
himself, and tell all his low, mean ideas of them ; how worldly and
selfish they are in his eyes ; alas ! what a world of quarrels this
would be. Ah, no! natural man, you dare not be honest; you
dare not speak the truth one to another; your heart is so vile that
you must draw a cloak over it ; and your thoughts of others so
abominable that you dare not speaK \hern out: " The heart is de-
ceitful above all things."
(2.} It shows itself in another way. in sell-deceit. Ever since
my Doming among you I have labored with all my might to sepa
264 SERMON X^V.
rate between the precious and the vile. I have given you many
marks, by which you might know whether or not you have un-
dergone a true conversion, or whether it has only been a deceit
of Satan whether your peace was the peace of God or the peace
of the devil whether you were on the narrow way that leads to
life, or on the broad way that leads to destruction. I have done
my best to give you the plainest Scripture marks by which you
might know your real case ; and yet I would not be in the least
surprised, if the most of you were found at the last to have de-
ceived yourselves. Often a man is deeply concerned about his
soul ; he weeps and prays, and joins himself to others who are
inquiring. He now changes his way of life, and changes his no-
tions ; he talks of his experience, and enlargement in prayer ;
perhaps he condemns others very bitterly ; and yet has no true
change of life, walks after the flesh still, not after the Spirit. Now,
others think this man a true Christian, and he believes it himself;
yea, he thinks he is a very eminent Christian ; when, all the time,
he has not the Spirit of Christ, and is none of his. Ah ! " the
heart is deceitful above all things."
2. " Desperately wicked" This word is borrowed from the
book of the physician. When the physician is called to see a pa-
tient past recovery, he shakes his head and says : This is a despe-
rate case. This is the very word used here. " The heart is des-
perately wicked," past cure by human medicine. Learn that you
need conversion, or a new heart. When we speak of the necessity
of a change to some people, they begin to be affected by it, and so
they put away some evil habits, as drinking, or swearing, or lying;
they put these away, and promise never to go back to them ; and
now they think the work is done, and they are in a fair way for
heaven. Alas, foolish man ! it is not your drinking, or your
swearing, or your lying, that acre desperately wicked, but your
heart. You have only been cutting off the streams, the heart
remains as wicked as ever. It is the heart that is incurable. It
is a new heart you need. Nothing less will answer your need.
Learn that you must go to Christ for this. When the woman had
speet her all upon physicians, and was nothing better, but rather
worse, she heard of Jesus. Ah ! said she. if I may but " touch
the hem of his garment I shall be made whole." Jesus said to
her : " Daughter, be of good comfort, thy faith hath made thee
whole." Come, then, incurable, to Christ. The leprosy was al-
ways regarded as incurable. Accordingly, the leper came to
Jesus, and worshipping, said: "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean. Jesus said, I will, be thou clean ; and immedi-
ately his leprosy was cleansed." Some of you feel that your
heart is desperately wicked ; well, kneel to the Lord Jesus, and
say : " Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." You are
a leper incurable ; Jesus is able he is also willing to make yru
clean.
SERMON XLV. 265
3. Unsearchably wicked: "Who can know it?" No man ever
yet knew the badness of his own heart. We are sailing over i
sea the depths of which we have never fathomed. (1.) Unawak*
enedpersons have no idea of what is in their heart. When Elijah
told Hazael what a horrible murderer he would be, Hazael said .
"Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing?" The seeds of
it were all in his heart at that moment; but he did not. know his own
heart. If I had tpld some of you, when you were little children
playing beside your mother's knee, the sins that you were afterwards
to commit, you would have said : " Am I a dog, that I should do this
thing?" andyet you see you have done them. If I could show each
of you the sins that you are yet to commit, you would be shocked
and horrified. This shows how ignorant you are of your own heart.
I suppose that the most of you think it quite impossible you should
ever be guilty of murder, or adultery, or apostasy, or the sin
against the Holy Ghost ; this arises from ignorance of your own
black heart : " Who can know it?" (2.) Some awakened persons
have an awful sight given them of the wickedness of their own
hearts. They see all the sins of their pnst life, as it were, con-
centrated there. They see that their past sins all come out of
their heart and that the same may come out again. And yet
the most awakened sinner does not see the ten thousandth part
of the wickedness of his heart. You are like a person looking
down into a dark pit ; you can only see a few yards down the
side of the pit ; so you can only see a little way down into your
heart. It is a pit of corruption which is bottomless : " Who can
know it?" (3.) Some children of God have amazing discoveries
given them of the wickedness of their own hearts. Sometimes
it is given them to see that the germs of every sin are lodging
there. Sometimes they see that there never was a sin commuted,
in heaven, in earth, or in hell, but it has something corresponding
to it in their own heart. Sometimes they see, that if there were
not another fountain of sin, from which 'the fair face of creation
might be defaced, their own heart is a fountain inexhaustible,
enough to corrupt every creature, and to defile every fair spot in
the universe. And yet even they do not know their own hearts.
You are like a traveller looking down into the crater of a volcano;
but the smoke will not suffer you to look far. You see only a few
yards into the smoking volcano of your own heart.
Learn to be humbled far more than you have ever been. None
of you have ever been sufficiently humbled under a sense of sin;
for this reason, that none of you have ever seen fully the plague
of your own heart. There are chambers in your heart you have
never yet seen into. There are caves in that ocean you have
never fathomed. There are fountains of bitterness you have
never tasted. When you have felt the wickedness of youi
heart to the uttermost, then lie down under this awful truth, that
you have only seen a few yards into a pit that is bottomless, thai
266 SERMON XLV.
you carry about with you a slumbering volcano ; a heart whosi
wickedness you do not and cannot know.
II. The witness of the heart.
1. " /, the Lord. We have seen that we do not know one ano-
ther's hearts ; for "the heart is deceitful." Man looketh on tho
outward appearance. We have seen that no man knows his own
heart, that the most know nothing of what is there ; and those who
know most, see but a short way down. But here is an unerring
witness. He that made man knows what is in man.
2. Observe what a strict witness he is : " I, the Lord, search the
heart, I try the reins." It is not said, I know the heart but, I
search it. The heart of man is not one of the many objects upon
which God turns his all-seeing eye, but it is one which he singles
out for investigation : " I search the heart." As the astronomer
directs his telescope upon the very star which he wishes to ex-
amine, and arranges all his lenses, that he may most perfectly look
at it, so doth God's calm eye pore upon the naked breast of every
man. As the refiner of silver keeps his eye upon the fining-pot,
watching every change in the boiling metal ; so doth God's eye
watch every change in the bosom of man. Oh ! natural man,
can you bear this? How vain are all your pretences and coverings ;
God sees you as you are. You may deceive your neighbor, 01
your minister, or yourself, but you cannot deceive God.
3. Observe he is a constant witness. He does not say I have
searched, or I will do it but, I search I do it now, and always.
Not a moment of our life but his pure, calm, searching eye ha_
been gazing on the inmost recesses of our hearts. From childhood
to old age his eye rests on us. The darkness hideth not from him.
The darkness and the light are both alike to him.
4. Observe his end in searching : " Even to give every man
according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings."
Verse 10. In order to know the true value of an action, you must
search the heart. Many an action that is applauded by men,
is abominable in the sight of God, who searches the heart. To
give an alms to a poor man, may either be an action worthy of
an eternal reward, or worthy of an eternal punishment. If it be
done out of love to Christ, because the poor man is a disciple of
Christ, it will in no wise lose its reward ; Christ will say ; " Inas-
much as ye did it to the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto
me." If it be done out of pride-or self-righteousness, Christ will cast
it from him: he will say, "Depart ye cursed ye did it not unto me."
The reason, then, why Christ searches the heart is, that he may
judge uprightly in the judgment. Oh, sirs ! how can you bear this,
you that are Christless ? How can you bear that eye on your
heart all your days, and to be judged according to what his pure
eye sees in you ? Oh ! do you not see it is a gone case with you ?
' Enter not into judgment with thy servant ; for in thy sight shall
SERMON XLVI. 26?
no flesh living be justified." Oh ! if your heart be desperately
wicked, and his pure eye ever poring on it, what can you expect,
but that he should cast you into hell ? Oh ! flee to the Lord Jesus
Christ for shelter, for blood to blot out past sins, and righteousness
to cover you. " See, God, our shield."
Learn the amazing love of Christ. He was the only one that
knew the wickedness of the beings for whom he died. He that
searches the hearts of sinners died for them. His eye alone had
searched their hearts ; aye, was searching at the time he came.
He knew what was in man ; yet he did not abhor them on that
account he died for them. It was not for any goodness in man
that he died for man. He saw none. It was not that he saw
little sin in the heart of man, that he pitied him and died for him.
He is the only being in the universe that saw all the sin that is in
the unfathomable heart of man. He saw to the bottom of the
volcano, and yet he came and died for man. Herein is love !
When publicans and sinners came to him on earth, he knew what
was in their hearts. His eye had rested on their bosoms all their life,
he had seen all the lusts and passions that had ever rankled there ;
yet in no wise did he cast them out. So with you. His eye hath
seen all your sins ; the vilest, darkest, blackest hours you have
lived, his pure eye was resting on you ; yet he died for such,
and invites you to come to him ; and will in no wise cast you
out. Amen.
SERMON XLVI.
TRUST IN THE LORD.
" Trust in the Lord with all thine heart ; and lean not unto thine own understand-
ing." Prov iii., 5.
WHEN an awakened soul is brought to God to believe on Jesus,
he enjoys for the first time that calm and blessed state of mind
which the Bible calls peace in believing. The sorrows of death
were compassing him, and the pains of hell getting hold on him ;
but now he can say : " Return unto thy rest, O rny soul." It is
not to be wondered at, that when this heaven upon earth is first
realized in the once anxious bosom, the young believer should often
imagine that heaven is already gained, and that he has bid fare-
well to sin and sorrow for evermore. But, alas ! it may need but
the passing away of one little day to convince him that heaven is
not yet gained, that though the Red Sea may be passed, yet there
is a wide howling wilderness to pass through, and many au euemy
268 SERMON XLVI.
to be overcome, before the soul can enter into the land of which
it is said, that " the people are all righteous."
The first breath of temptation from without, or the first rise of
corruption from within, awakens new and strange anxieties within
the believing bosom. He had just put on the breastplate of the
Redeemer's righteousness, but these noxious vapors tarnish and
bedim its burnished steel. Alas ! he cries, what good will it do
me to be rid of all accusations from past sins, if I am not secure
from raising up new accusers in the days to come ? What good
will the forgiveness of past sins do me, if, every step of my life, I
am to fall into new sin f
The young believer in this state of mind is just like a traveller
in the midst of a dangerous wood. He has been brought into a
place of perfect security for the present. He can hear the cry
of the wolves behind him without the least alarm, for he is brought
into a fortress, a strong tower, where he is safe ; but when he
thinks of his further journey, when he remembers that he is still
in the midst of the wood, and still far from home, alas ! he knows
not how to move ; he knows not which path will lead him right,
and which will lead him wrong. When the lost sheep was found
by the good shepherd, it was safe in that moment, as safe as if it
were already in the fold ; and yet it was doubtless in great per-
plexity how to get back again, it had wandered so far over the
mountains, and down into the valleys, and across the brooks, and
through the thorny brakes, that it was impossible the bewildered
sheep could find its way back ; and therefore it is said that the
good shepherd laid it on his shoulder rejoicing.
And just so it is with the soul that is found by Christ. Washed
in his blood, he may feel as secure and as much at peace as if he
were already in heaven ; but when he looks to the thousand en-
tanglements in the midst of which he has wandered, the evil
habits, the evil companions that lay snares for him on every hand,
alas ! he is forced to cry : How shall I walk in such a world as
this ? I thought I was saved ; but, alas ! I am only saved to be
lost again. So real and so painful is this state of mind, that some
young believers have actually wished to die that they might be rid
of these tormenting anxieties. But there is a far more excellent
way pointed out in the words before us :
" Trust in the Lord with all thine heart:
And lean not to thine own understanding
In all thy ways acknowledge him,
And he shall direct thy paths."
This is a word in season to the bewildered believer ; and " a word
poken in due season, how good is it !"
First of all, Consider what this grace is that is here recom-
mended : " Trust in the Lord with all thine heart."
SERMON XLVI. 269
When the Philippian jailer cried out : " What must I do to be
saved ?" the simple answer was : " Believe on the Lord Jesua
Christ, and thou shall be saved." His great anxiety was to escape
from under the wrath of the God of the earthquake ; and, there-
fore, they simply pointed to the bleeding Lamb of God. He looks
to Jesus doing all that we should have done, and suffering all that
we should have suffered ; and while he looks, his anxiety is healed;
and a sweet heavenly peace springs up within, the peace of be-
lieving. But the inquirer who is spoken to in the text is one who
already enjoys the peace of a justified man, but wants to know
how he may enjoy the peace of a sanctified man. A new anxiety
hath sprung up within his bosom, as to how he shall order his steps
in the world ; and unless this anxiety also can be healed, it is to
be feared his joy in believing will be sadly interrupted. How
seasonable then, is the word which points at once to the re-
medy ! and how amazing is the simplicity of the Gospel method
of salvation, when the sou! is directed just to look again to Jesus:
" Trust in the Lord with all thine heart." When you came to us
weary and heavy laden with guilt, we pointed you to Jesus ; for
he is the Lord our righteousness. When you come to us again,
groaning under the power of indwelling sin, we point you again
to Jesus ; for he is the Lord our strength. It is the true mark of
a false and ignorant physician of bodies, when to every sufferer,
whatever be the disease, he applies the same remedy. But it is
the true mark of a good and faithful physician Oi souls, when, to
every sick and perishing soul, in every stage of t..e disease, he
brings the one, the only remedy, the only balm in Gilead.
Christ was anointed not only to bind up the broken-hearted, but
also to proclaim liberty to the captives ; so that, if it be good and
wise to direct the poor broken-hearted sinner, who has no way of
justifying himself, to Jesus, as his righteousness, it must be just as
good and wise to direct the poor believer, groaning under the
bondage of corruption, having no way to sanctify himself, to look
to Jesus as his wisdom, his sanctification, his redemption. Thou
hast once looked unto Jesus as thy covenant head, bearing all
wrath, fulfilling all righteousness in thy stead, and that gave thee
peace ; well, look again to the same Jesus as thy covenant head,
obtaining by his merits gifts for men, even the promise of the
Father, to shed down on all his members ; and let that also give thee
peace. " Trust in the Lord with all thine heart." Thou hast
looked to Jesus on the cross, and that gave ihee peace of con-
science ; look to him now upon the throne, and that will give thee
purity of heart. I know of but one way in which a branch can
be made a leafy, healthy, fruit-bearing branch ; and that is by be-
ing grafted into the vine, and abiding there. And just so I know
of but one way in which a believer can be made a holy, happy,
fruitful child oi' God ; and that is by believing in Jesus, abiding iu
him, walking in him, being rooted and built up in him.
70 SERMON XLVI.
And observe it is said ; " Trust in the Lord with all thine heart*
When you believe in Jesus for righteousness, you must castaway
all your own claims for pardon ; your own righteousness must be
liltliy rags in your eyes ; you must come empty, that you may go
a\\ay full of Jesus. And just so, when you trust in Jesus for
strength, you must cast away all your natural notions of your
own strength ; you must feel lhat your own resolutions, and vows,
and promises, are as useless to stem the current of your passions,
as so many straws would be in stemming the mightiest waterfall.
You must feel that your own firmness and manliness of disposi-
tion, which has so long been the praise of your friends and the
boast of your own mind, are as powerless, before the breath of
temptation, as a broken reed before the hurricane. You must feel
that you wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with spirits of
gigantic power, in whose mighty grasp you are feeble as a child ;
then, and then only, will you come with all your heart to trust in
the Lord your strength. When the believer is weakest, then is
he strongest. The child that knows most its utter feebleness,
intrusts itself most completely into the mother's arms. The young
eagle that knows, by many a fall, its own inability to fly, yields
itself to be carried on the mother's mighty wing. When it is
weak, then it is strong ; and just so the believer, when he has found
out, by repeated falls, his own utter feebleness, clings with sim-
plest faith, to the arm of the Saviour leans on his Beloved, com-
ing up out of the wilderness, and hears with joy the word : " My
grace is sufficient for thee ; my strength is made perfect in weak-
ness."
But secondly, Consider how this grace of trusting hinders the
believer from leaning to his own understanding.
" Trust in the Lord with all thine heart;
And lean not to thine own understanding."
Well may every soul that is untaught by the Spirit of God ex-
claim: "This is a hard saying, who can hear it ?" and, indeed,
there is perhaps no truth lhat calls forth more of the indignant op-
position of the world than this blessed one that they who trust
in the Lord with all their heart, do not lean to their own under-
standing. The understanding, here, plainly includes all the ob-
serving, knowing, and judging faculties of the mind, by which
men ordinarily guide themselves in the world ; and, accordingly,
it is with no slight appearance of reasonableness that the w r orld
should brand with the name of fanatics a peculiar set of men, who
dare to say that they are not to lean upon these faculties, to guide
them in their every-day walk and conversation.
But surely it might do something to moderate, at least, the op-
position of the world (if they would but listen to us), to tell them
that we never refuse to be guided by the understanding, although
SERMON XLVI. 271
we altogether refuse to lean upon it. Every enlightened believer
however implicitly he depends upon the breathing of the Holy
Ghost, without whose almighty breathing he knows that his under-
standing would be but a vain and useless machine, leading him
into darkness, and not into light, yet follows the guidance of the
understanding as scrupulously and as religiously as any uncon-
verted man is able to do ; and, therefore, it ought never to be said
by any man who has a regard for truth, that the believer in Jesus
casts aside the use of his understanding, and looks for miraculous
guidance from on high. The truth is this, that he trusts in a di-
vine power, enlightening the understanding, and he therefore fol-
lows the dictates of the understanding more religiously than any
other man.
When a man comes to be in Christ Jesus, he becomes a new
creature, not only in heart, but in understanding also. The his-
tory of the world, the history of missions, and individual experi-
ence, fully prove this ; and it may not be difficult to point out
what may be called natural reasons for the change.
1. When a man becomes a believer, a new and untried field is
opened up for the understanding to penetrate into. It is true that
unconverted men have made dives into the character of God, his
government, his redemption. But the unconverted man never
can gaze on these things with the love of one interested in them ;
and, therefore, he cannot know them at all ; for God must be loved
in order to be known. But reconcile a man to God, and the intel-
ligence springs forward with a power unfelt before, and feels that
this is life eternal, to know God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath
sent. And,
2. When a man becomes a believer, he enters into every pur-
suit impelled by heavenly affections. Before, he had none but
earthly motives to impel him to gather knowledge ; but now a
holy inquisitiveness is instilled into his mind, and a retentiveness
which he never had before. He looks with new eyes upon the
fields, the woods, the hills, the broad resplendent rivers, and says :
" My Father made them all"
But if these are natural reasons for the change, there is one
supernatural reason which is greater than all. The believer's un-
derstanding is new ; for the Spirit of God is now a dweller in his
bosom. He leans upon this almighty guest trusts in the Lord
the Spirit with all his heart, and leans not to his own under-
standing. In the Prophet Hosea, the gift of the Spirit is compared
to dew: " I will be as the dew unto Israel." Now, it is peculiarly
true of the dew that it moistens everything where it falls ; it leaves
not one leaf unvisited ; there is not a tiny blade of grass on wi.,ch
its diamond drops do not descend ; every leaf and stem of the
bush is burdened with the precious load ; just so it is peculiarly
true of the Spirit, that there is not a faculty, there is not an affec-
tion, a power, or passion of the soul, on which the Spirit does not
272 SERMON XLVI.
descend working through all, refreshing, reviving, renewing
recreating all. And if we are really in Christ Jesus, abiding in
him by faith, we are bound to expect this supernatural power to
work through our understanding ; for if we be not led by the
Spirit, we are none of his. But the more implicitly we lean on
this loving Spirit, is it not plain as day that we all the more im-
plicitly follow the guidance of our understanding ? We do not
lean upon our own understanding; for we lean upon the Spirit of
grace and of wisdom, who is promised to guide us into all truth,
and guide our footsteps in the way of peace. But we do not
throw away our own understanding ; because it is through that
understanding alone that we look for the guidance of the Spirit.
In a mill where the machinery is all driven by water, the work-
ing of the whole machinery depends upon the supply of water.
Cut off that supply, and the machinery becomes useless. Set on
the water, and lite and activity is given to all. The whole de-
pendence is placed upon the outward supply of water ; still, it is
obvious that we do not throw away the machinery through which
the power of the water is brought to bear upon the work. Just
so in the believer, the whole man is carried on* by the Spirit of
Christ, else he is none of his. The working of every day depends
upon the daily supply of the living stream from on high. Cut off
that supply, and the understanding becomes a dark and useless
lump of machinery ; for the Bible says that unconverted men
have the understanding darkened. Restore the divine Spfri 4 ., and
life and animation is given to all the understanding is made a
new creature. Now, though the whole leaning or dependence
here is upon the supply of the Spirit, still it is obvious that we do
not cast away the machinery of the human mind, but rather honor
it far more than the world.
Now, however difficult it may be to explain all this to the
world, it is most beautiful to see how truly it is acted on by the
simplest child of God.
If you could overhear some simple cottage believer at his
morning devotions how simply he brings himself in lost and
condemned, and therefore cleaves to Jesus, the divine Saviour !
how simply he brings himself in dark, ignorant, unable to know
his way unable to guide his feet, his hands, his tongue, through-
out the coming day ; and, therefore, pleading for the promised
Spirit to dwell in him to walk in him to be as the dew upon
his soul ; and all this with the earnestness of a man who will not
go away without the blessing you would see what a holy con-
tempt a child of God can put upon his own understanding, as a
refuge to lean upon. But, again, if you could watch him in his
daily walk in the field and in the market-place among the
wicked world, and see how completely he follows the guidance of
a shrewd and intelligent mind, you would see with what a holy
confidence a child of God can make use of the faculties which
SERMON XLVII. 273
God hath given him ; you would see the happy union of the
deepest piety and the hardest painstaking ; you would know the
meaning of these words : " Trust in the Lord with all thine heart:
and lean not unto thine own understanding."
Dundee Presbytery, 1836
SERMON XLVII.
NOT A JEW WHICH IS ONE OUTWARDLY.
?e is rot a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is
outward in the flesh : but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly : and circumcision
a that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter ; whose praise is not of
nen, but of God." Rom. ii., 28, 29.
I 1 JRMALITY is, perhaps, the most besetting sin of the human mind.
It is found in every bosom and in every clime ; it reigns trium-
phant in every natural mind ; and it constantly tries to re-usurp
the throne in the heart of every child of God. If we were to seek
for proof that fallen man is " without understanding," that he hath
altogether fallen from his primitive clearness and dignity of intel-
ligence ; that he hath utterly lost the image of God, in knowledge,
after which he was created ; we would point to this one strange,
irrational conceit by which more than one-half the world is
befooled to their eternal undoing ; that God may be pleased with
mere bodily prostrations and services ; that it is possible to wor-
ship God with the lips, when the heart is far from him. It is
against this error, the besetting error of humanity, and pre-emi-
nently the besetting error of the Jewish mind, that Paul directs
the words before us ; and it is very noticeable, that he does not
condescend to argue the matter. He speaks with all the decisive-
ness and with all the-authority of one who was not a whit behind
the very chiefest of the apostles, and he lays it down as a kind of
first principle to which every man of ordinary intelligence, provid-
ed only he will soberly consider the" matter, must yicJd his imme-
diate assent, that " he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly ;
neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh ; but he
is a Jew, which is one inwardly ; and circumcision is that of the
heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of
men, but of God."
In the following discourse I shall show very briefly, 1st, That
pxternal observances are of no avail to justify tho sinner; and, 2d,
That external observances can never stand in '.he stead of gano
tification to the believer.
18
274 SERMON XLVII.
T. External observances are of no avail to justify the sinner.
In a former discourse I attempted to show several of the refuges
of lies to which the awakened soul will run, before he can be
persuaded to betake himself to the righteousness of God ; and in
every one of them we saw that he that compassed himself about
with' sparks of his own kindling, received only this of God's hand,
to lie down in sorrow. First of all, the soul generally contents
himself with slight views of the divine law, and says : " All these
have I kept from my youth up ;*' but when the spirituality of the
law is revealed, then he tries to escape by undermining the whole
fabric of the law ; but, when that will not do, he flies to his past
virtues to balance accounts with his sins ; and then, when that
will not do, he begins a work of self-reformation, in order to buy
off the follies of youth by the sobrieties of age. Alas ! how vain
ire all such contrivances, invented by a blinded heart, urged on
by the malignant enemy of souls.
But there is another refuge of lies which I have not yet de-
scribed, and to which the aw r akened mind often betakes itself with
avidity, to find peace from the whips of conscience and the scor-
pions of God's law ; and that is, a form of godliness. He will
become a religious man, and surely that will save him. His
whole course of life is now changed. Before, it may be, he ne-
glected the outward ordinances ot religion. He used not to kneel
by his bedside ; he never used to gather his children and servants
around him to pray ; he never used to read the Word in secret,
or in the family ; he seldom went to the house of God in company
with the multitude that kept holy day ; he did not eat of that bread
which, to the believer, is meat indeed, nor drink of that cup which
is drink indeed.
But now his whole usages are reversed, his whole course is
changed. He kneels to pray even when alone ; he reads the
Word with periodical regularity ; he even raises an altar for mor-
ning and evening sacrifice in his family ; his sobered countenance
is never awanting in his wonted position in the house of prayer.
He looks back, now, to his baptism with a soothing complacency,
and sits down to eat the children's bread at the table of the Lord.
His friends and neighbors all observe the change. Some make a
jest of it, and some make it a subject of rejoicing ; but one thing
is obvious, 4hat he is an altered man ; and yet it is far from ob-
vious that he is a new man, or a justified man. All this routine
of bodily exercise, if it be entered on before the man has put on
the divine righteousness, is just another way of going about to
establish his own righteousness, that he may not be constrained
to submit to put on the righteousness of God. Nay, so utterly
perverted is the understanding of the unconverted, that many men
are found to persevere in such a course of bodily worship of God,
while, at the same time, they persevere as diligently in some
course of open or secret iniquity. Such men seem to regard
SERMON XLVII. 275
external observance not only as an atonement for sins that are
past, but as a price paid to purchase a license to sin in time to
come. Such appears to have been the refuge of lies which the
poor woman of Samaria would fain have sat down in, when the
blessed Traveller, sitting by the well, awakened all the anxieties
of her heart, by the searching words : " Go call thy husband, and
come hither." Her anxious mind sought hither and thither for a
refuge, and found it. Where? In her religious observances:
" Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jeru-
salem is the place where men ought to worship ?" She thrusts
away the pointed conviction of sin by a question as to her outward
observances ; she changes her anxiety about the soul into nnxiety
about the place where men ought to worship ; whether it should
be Mount Zion or Mount Gerizim. Oh ! if he would only settle
that question ; if he would only tell her on which of these moun-
tains God ought to be worshipped, she was read}' to worship all
her lifetime in that favored place. If Zion be the place, she would
leave her native mountain and go and worship there, that that
might save her. Oh ! how fain she would have found here a re-
fuge for her anxious soul. With what divine kindness, then, did
the Saviour sweep away this refuge of lies, by the answer;
" Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, and now is, when ye shall
neither in this mountain, nor yet in Jerusalem, worship the Father.
God is a Spirit, and they that worship him, must worship him in
spirit and in truth."
Now it is with the very same object, and with the very same
kindness, that Paul here sweeps away the same refuge of lies
from every anxious soul, in these decisive words : " He is not a
Jew, which is one outwardly ; neither is that circumcision, which
is outward in the flesh : but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly;
and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the
letter ; whose praise is not of men, but of God."
Is there any of you whom God hath awakened out of the deadly
slumber of the natural mind? has he drawn aside the curtains,
and made the light of truth to fall upon your heart, revealing the
true condition of your soul ? has he made you start to your feet
alarmed, that you might go and weep as you go to seek the Lord
your God ? has he made you exchange the careless smile of
gaiety for the tears of anxiety the loud laugh of folly, for the
cry of bitter distress about your soul ? are you asking the way
to Zion with your face directed thitherward ? then take heed, I
beseech you, of sitting down contented in this refuge of lies.
Remember he is not a Jew which is one outwardly ; remember
no outward observances, no prayers, or church-going, or Bible-
reading, can ever justify you in the sight of God.
I am quite aware that when anxiety for the soul enters in, then
anxiety to attend ordinances will also enter in. Like as the
stricken deer goes apart from the herd to bleed and weep alone,
276 SERMON XLVII.
BO the sin-stricken soul goes aside from his merry companions, to
weep, and read, and pray, alone. He will desire the preached
Word, and press after it more and more : but remember, ne finds
no peace in this change that is wrought in himself. When a map
goes thirsty to the well, his thirst is not allayed merely by going
there. On the contrary, it is increased every step he goes. It is
by what he draws out of the well that his thirst is satisfied. And
^ust so it is not by the mere bodily exercise of waiting on ordi-
nances that you will ever come to peace ; but by tasting of Jesus
in the ordinances whose flesh is meat indeed, and his blood drink
indeed.
If ever, then, you are tempted to think that you are surely safe
for eternity, because you have been brought to change your treat-
ment of the outward ordinances of religion, remember, I beseech
you, the parable of the marriage feast, where man} were called ;
many were invited to come in, but few, few were found having on
the wedding garment. Many are brought within the pale of ordi-
nances, and read and hear, it may be, with considerable interest
and anxiety about all the things that are ready the things of the
kingdom of God ; but of these many, few are persuaded to abhor
their own filthy rags, and to put on the wedding garment of the
Redeemer's righteousness. And these few alone shall sit still to
partake of the feast the joy of their Lord ; the rest shall stand
speechless, and be cast out into outer darkness, where shall be
weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. You may read
your Bible, and pray over it till you die ; you may wait on the
preached Word every Sabbath-day, and sit down at every sacra-
ment till you die ; yet, if you do not find Christ in the ordinances ,
if he do not reveal himself to your soul in the preached Word, in
the broken bread and poured-out wine ; if you are not brought to
cleave to him, to look to him, to believe in him, to cry out with
inward adoration : "My Lord, and my God" " how great is his
goodness ! how great is his beauty !" then the outward obser-
vance of the ordinances is all in vain to you. You have come to
the well of salvation, but have gone away with the pitcher empty ;
and however proud and boastful you may now be of your bodily
exercise, you will find in that day that it profits little, and that you
will stand speechless before the King.
II. External observances can never stand in the stead of sancti-
ficution to the believer.
It' it be a common thing for awakened minds to seek for peace
in their external observances, to make a Christ of them, and rest
in them as their means of acceptance with God, it is also -a
common thing for those who have been brought into Christ,
and enjoy the peace of believing, to place mere external observ-
ances in the stead of growth in holiness. Every believer among
you knows how fain the old heart within you would substitute
the hearing of sermons, and the repeating of prayers, in place of
SERMON XLVII. 277
that faith which worketh by love, and which overcometh the
world. Now, the great reason why the believer is often tempted
to do this is, that he loves the ordinances. Unconverted souls
seldom take delight in the ordinances of Christ. They see no
beauty in Jesus, they see no form nor comeliness in him, they
hide their faces from him. Why should you wonder, then, that
they take no delight in praying to him continually, in praising him
daily, in calling him blessed ? Why should you wonder that the
preaching of the cross is foolishness to them, that his tabernacles
are not amiable in their eyes, that they forsake the assembling of
themselves together? They never knew the Saviour, they never
loved him ; how, then, should they love the memorials which he
has left behind him ?
When you are weeping by the chiselled monument of a de-
parted friend, you do not wonder that the careless crowd pass
by without a tear. They did not know the virtues of your
departed friend, they do not know the fragrance of his memory.
Just so the world care not for the house of prayer, the sprinkled
water, the broken bread, the poured-out wine ; for they never
knew the excellency of Jesus. But with believers it is far other-
wise. You have been divinely taught your need of Jesus ; and
therefore you delight to hear Christ preached. You have seen
the beauty of Christ crucified ; and therefore you love the
place where he is evidently set forth. You love the very name
of Jesus, it is as ointment poured forth ; therefore you could
join for ever in the melody of his praises. The Sabbath-day, of
which you once said, " What a weariness is it !" and, " When
will it be over, that we may set forth corn ?" is now a " delight,"
and " honorable," the sweetest day of all the seven. The ordi-
nances, which were once a dull and sickening routine, are now
green pastures and waters of stillness to your soul; and surely
this is a blessed change. But still you are in the body, heaven
is not yet gained, Satan is hovering near ; and since he cannot
destroy the work of God in your soul, therefore he tries all the
more to spoil it. He cannot stem the current ; therefore he tries
to turn it aside. He cannot drive back God's arrow; and there-
fore he tries to make it turn awry, and spend its strength in vain.
When he finds that you love the ordinances, and it is in vain to
tempt you to forsake them, he lets you love them : aye, he helps
you to love them more and more. He becomes an angel of light,
he helps in the decoration of the house of God, he throws around
its services a fascinating beauty, hurries you on from one house
of God to another, from prayer-meetings to sermon-hearing, from
sermons to sacraments. And why does he do all this ? He does
all this just that he may make this the whole of your sancti-
fication, that outward ordinances may be the all in all of your
religion, that in your anxiety to preserve the shell, you may let
fall the kernel.
SERMON XLVIJ.
If there be one of you, then, in whose heart God hath wrought
the amazing change of turning you from loathing to loving his
ordinances, let me beseech you to be jealous over your heart with
godly jealousy. Pause this hour, and see if, in your haste and
anxious pursuit of the ordinances, you have not left the pursuit of
that holiness without which the ordinances are sounding brass and
a tinkling cymbal. I have a message from God unto thee. It is
written, " He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly ; neither is
that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh : but he is a Jew,
which is one inwardly ; and circumcision is that of the heart, in
the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of man, but
of God." He is not a Christian which is one outwardly, neither
is that baptism which is merely the outward washing of the body ;
but he is a Christian which is one inwardly, and true baptism
is that of the heart, when the heart is washed from all filthiness
of the flesh and of the spirit ; whose praise is not of men. but of
God.
Remember, I beseech you, that the ordinances are means to an
end; they -are stepping stones, by which you may arrive at a
landing-place. Is your soul sitting down in the ordinances, and
saying, It is enough? Are you so satisfied that you can enjoy the
ordinances of Christ, that you desire no higher attainments ? Re-
member the word that is written : " This is not your rest."
Would you not say he was a foolish traveller, who should take
every inn became to for his home who should take up his settled
rest, and instead of preparing himselt for hard journeying on the
morrow, should begin to take the ease and enjoyment of the house
as his all? Take heed that you be not this foolish traveller. The
ordinances are intended by God to be but the inns and refectories
where the traveller Zion-ward, weary in well-doing, and faint in
faith, may betake him to tarry for a night, that, being refreshed
with bread and wine, he may, with new alacrity, press forward
on his journey home as upon eagles' wings.
Take, then, this one rule of life along with you, founded on these
blessed words: " He is not a Jew which is one outwardly" that
if your outward religion is helping on ycur inward religion, if
your hearing of Christ on the Sabbath-day makes you grow more
like Christ through all the week, if the words of grace and joy
which you drink in at the house of God lead your heart to love
more, and your hand to do more, then, and then only, are -you
using the ordinances of God aright.
There is not a more miserably deceived soul in the world than
that soul among you who, like Herod, hears the preached Gospel
gladly, and yet, like Herod, lives in sin. You love the Sabbath-
day, you love the house of God, you love to hear Christ preached
in all his freeness and in all his fulness ; yes, you think you could
listen for ever if only Christ be the theme ; you love to sit down
at sacraments, and to commemorate the death of your Lord
SERMON XLVIII. 279
And is this all ; is this all your holiness ? Does your religion end
here ? Is this all that believing in Jesus has done for you ? Re-
member, I beseech you, that the ordinances of Christ are not means
of enjoyment, but means of grace ; and though it is said that the
travellers in the Valley of Baca dig up wells, which are filled with
the rain from on high, yet it is also said : " They go from strength
to strength." Awake, then, my friends, and let it no more be said
of us, that our religion is confined to the house of God and to the
Sabbath-day. Let us draw water with joy from these wells, just
in order that we may travel the wilderness with joy and strength,
and love and hope blessed in ourselves, and a blessing to all
about us. And if we speak thus to those of you whose religion
seems to go no further than the ordinanc.es, what shall we say to
those of you who contradict the very use and end of the ordi-
nances in your lives ? Is it possible you can delight in worldliness,
and vanity, and covetousness, and pride, and luxury ? Is it pos-
sible that the very lips which are so ready to sing praises, or to
join in prayers, are also ready to speak the words of guile, of
malice, of envy, of bitterness ? Awake, we beseech you ; we are
not ignorant of Satan's devices. To you he hath made himself an
angel of light. Remember, it is written : " If any among you
seemeth to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth
his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion, and un-
defiled before God and the Father, is this, To visit the fatherless
and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from
the world." " For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly ;
neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh : but he
is a Jew, which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the
heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter ; whose praise is not of
men, but of God !" Amen.
Preached before the Presbytery of Dundee, JVov. 2, 1836.
SERMON XLVIII.
CHRIST'S COMPASSION ON THE MULTITUDES.
* And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogue*,
and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every
disease among the people But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with
compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad,, as sheep
having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plen-
teous, but the laborers are few ; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that
he will send forth laborers into his harvest " Matt, ix., 35-38.
I. " When Jesus saw, he was moved with compassion." 1 From
Matt, iv., 23, we learn that when Jesus first entered on the minis-
280 SERMON XLVIII.
try, Galilee was the scene of his labors: "He went about al.
Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel
of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner
of disease among the people." And we learn also (verse 25), that
great multitudes followed him. Chapters v., vi., and vii., contain
a specimen of what he taught and preached ; chapters viii. and ix.,
of the manner in which he healed : and now, at verse 35, we are
told that he had gone over all the cities and villages of Galilee
he had finished his survey ; and "when he saw the multitudes, he
was moved with compassion." Galilee was at that time a thickly
peopled country ; its towns and villages swarmed with inhabit-
ants ; so that it got the name of " Galilee of the nations," or popu-
lous Galilee. What I wish you to observe, then, is, that it was an
actual survey of the crowded cities, of the over-peopled villages,
of the crowds that followed him ; it was an actual sight and sur-
vey of these things, that moved the Saviour's compassion. His
eye affected his heart: "When he saw, he was moved with
compassion."
1. This shows that Christ was truly man. The whole Bible
shows that Christ was truly God, " that he was with God and was
God," that he was " God over all, blessed for ever." But this
event shows that he was as truly man. It is the part of a man to
be overcome by what he sees. When you sit by the fire of a
winter evening, when you hear the pelting of the pitiless storm,
the rain and the sleet driving against the window, when you think
of some houseless, homeless wanderer ; your heart is a little
moved, you heave a passing sigh, and utter a passing expression
of sympathy. But if the wanderer comes to your door if you
open the door, and see him, all wet and shivering, the sight affects
the heart your heart flows out in a thousandfold greater com pas*-
sion, and you invite him in to sit before the fire.
When the full bloom of health is upon your cheek, if you hear
of some sick person, you are a little affected ; but if you go and
see, if you lift up the latchet of the door, and enter in with quiet
step, and see the pale face, the languid eye, the heaving breast ;
then does the eye affect the heart, and your compassion flows like
a mighty river. This is humanity, this is the way with man, this
was the way with Christ : " When he saw, he was moved with
compassion." Once they brought him to the grave of a dearly
loved friend. They said : " Come and see ;" and it is written :
" Jesus wept." Another time he was riding on an ass's colt across
Mount Olivet the hill that overhangs Jerusalem ; and when he
carne to the turn of the road, where the city burst upon the view,
" when he came near, and beheld the city ; he wept over it."
And just so here. He had gone round the cities and villages of
Galilee ; he had looked upon the poor scattered multitudes, hast-
ening on to an undone eternity : " And when he s/iw the multitudes,
he was moved with compassion."
SERMON XLVIII. 281
Let me speak to believers. Jesus is your elder brother. He
says to you as Joseph said to his brethren : " I am Joseph, your
brother." In all your afflictions, he is afflicted. For he is not an
high priest which cannot be touched with a feeling of your infir-
mities ; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Some of you have little children pained, and tossing in fever. Jesus
pities them ; for he was once a little child. Little children, if you
would take Jesus for a Saviour, then you might carry all your griefs
to him ; for Jesus knows what it is to be a little child. Grown be-
lievers, you know the pains of weariness, and hunger, and thirst ;
and nakedness. Tell these things to Jesus ; for he knew them
too. You know the pains of inward heaviness, of a drooping
heart, exceeding sorrowful, even unto death of the hidden face
of God; Jesus knew them too. Go to Jesus, then, and he will
heal them all.
2. This shows that Christians should go and see. Many Chris-
tians are content to be Christians for themselves ; to hug the
Gospel to themselves ; to sit in their own room, and feast upon it
alone. This did not Christ. It is true he loved much to be alone.
He once said to his disciples : " Come into a desert place, and rest
awhile." He often spent the whole night in prayer on the lone
mountain side ; but it is as true that he went about continually.
He went and saw, and then he had compassion. He did not hide
himself from his own flesh. You should be Christ-like. Your
word should be : " Go and see." You should go and see the poor ;
and then you will feel for them. Remember what Jesus says to
all his people : " I was sick, and in prison, and ye visited me."
Be not deceived, my dear friends ; it is easy to give a cold pittance
of charity at the church door, and to think that that is the religion
of Jesus. But, "Pure religion and undefiled, before God and the
Father, is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction,
and to keep yourself unspotted from the world."
II. What it was that Jesus saw.
1. He saw the multitudes. He had gone through the crowded
cities and villnges of populous Galilee ; and O how many laces he
had looked upon ! This made him sad. There is something very
saddening to a Christian to look upon a multitude. To stand in
the crowded streets of a. Inrge metropolis, and to see the current
of human beings flowing onward to eternity, brings an awful sad-
ness over the spirit. Even to stand in the house of God, and look
upon the dense mass of assembled worshippers, fills the bosom of
every true Christian with a pitiful sadness.
Why is this ? Because the most are perishing souls. Ah ! it
was this that filled the bosom of the Redeemer with compassion.
Of all the bustling crowds that hurry through the streets of your
town of all the teeming multitudes that issue forth from your
crowded factories ah ! how few will stand on the right hand of
282 SERMON XLVIII.
Jesus. Nay, to come nearer still, of the hundreds now before us
in this house of God souls committed to my care and keeping
willing and anxious as you are to hear, yet how few believe our
report, how few will be to me a crown of joy and rejoicing in the
day of the Lord Jesus !
Just think how dreadful, my friends, if there be one soul he-re
that is to perish one body and soul with us, in health and strength
to-day, that is to be with devils in a short while, feeling the worm
and the flames, and the gnashing of teeth. If there were but one
in the whole town, I do think it would be enough to sadden the
soul. But, ah ! does not the Bible say : " Many are called, but
few are chosen ?" Ah ! then, you will know why Jesus was
moved with compassion ; and surely you will never look upon a
crowd, but the same feeling will rise in your breast.
2. He saw the multitudes fainting. Perhaps for hunger poor,
weak, frail men ! There is something most moving in the sight
of weak men, when they are in an unconverted condition. What
would a spider be, if it were thrown into one of your great blast-
furnaces ? It would be as it were nothing ; so weak, so miserable,
so unable to resist the scorching flame. Just such was the sight
Jesus saw, poor, frail men, fainting for lack of food, and yet
perishing for lack of knowledge; and he thought, Alas ! if they
be unable to bear a little bodily want, how will they bear my
Father's anger, when I shall tread them in mine anger, and tram-
ple them in my fury ? Oh ! no wonder Jesus was sad. Think of
this, you who are very feeble and frail, unable to bear hunger or
a little sickness. Think what a poor thing you are in a fever,
when you need some one to turn you in your bed ; how will you
bear to die Christless, and to fall into the hands of the living God ?
If you cannot contend with God now, how do you think you will
contend with him after you die ?
3. He saw them scattered abroad. When the sheep have been
driven away from the fold, they do not all go in a flock ; but they
are scattered over the mountains ; they run every one to his own
way. This is what Jesus saw in the multitudes ; they were all
scattered, turning every one to his own way. In the cities and
villages he saw men going every one after different things. One
set of men were going after money, making it their chief good,
toiling night and day over their work ; yet not enjoying the money
they made. Another set went after pleasure the dance, the song,
the pipe, and the tabor. Another set went after the joys of the
deep carousal their bellies were their god, and they gloried in
their shame. Like the leech, they said : " Give, give." Another
set went after still darker and more abominable things, of which
it is a shame even so much as to speak. Jesus saw all the hearts
of all and had compassion ; because they were all thus scattered,
none seeking after God. Observe, Jesus was not angry ; Jesus
did not threaten ; Jesus was moved with compassion.
SERMON XLVIII. 283
Let me speak to the unconverted. You are thus scattered,
every one to his own way. Each of you have got your favorite
walk in life, your favorite footpath. You all go different ways ;
and yet all away from God. I do not know what it is that your
heart loves most ; but this I know, that you love to go away from
Christ and from God. Christ's eye is upon you all, your histories,
your heai'ts. He knows every step you have taken, every sin you
have committed, every lust that reigns in your heart. His eye is
now on this assembly. I will ask you a question. What does Jesus
feel when he looks upon you? Some will say, Anger, some will
say, Revenge. What does the Bible say ? Compassion. Christ
pities you, he does not wish you to perish. Oh ! the tender pity
of Jesus. He would often have gathered you, as a hen gathers
its chickens ; but you would not.
4. As sheep having no shepherd. This was the saddest thing
of all. If the sheep be driven away from the fold, fainting and
scattered upon the mountains, and if there be a number of shep-
herds to seek the lost, and bring them back to the fold, the sight
is by no means so painful ; but when they are sheep that have
no shepherd, then the case is desperate. So it was with the
people of Galilee in Christ's day. If they had had pastors after
God's own heart, then their case would not have been so bad ;
but they were like sheep that had no shepherd. This made Jesus
sad.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Just
as he went through the towns and villages of Galilee, beholding
the multitudes, so does he now go through the towns and vil-
lages of our beloved land ; and, oh ! if his heart was moved
with compassion over the thousands of Galilee, surely it must be
breaking with intensest pity over the tens of thousands of
Scotland. There may be some of you who can look coldly and
carelessly on the fifty thousand of Edinburgh that never cross
the threshold of the house of God. There may be some of you
who can hear unmoved of the eighty thousand of Glasgow who
know neither the melody of psalms nor the voice of prayer.
There may be some of you who can look upon the haggard and
vice-stricken countenances of the mill-population of your own
town, thousands of whom show, by their dress, and air, and open
profligacy, that they are utter strangers to the message of a
preached Saviour. Some of you may look on them, and never
shed one tear of pity, never feel one prayer rising to your
lips ; but there is One above these heavens, whose heart beats
in his bosom at the sight of them ; and if there could be tears in
heaven, that tender Saviour would weep; for he sees the multi-
tudes fainting and scattered, and, oh ! worst of all, as sheep that
have no shepherd.
Some of you have no compassion on the multitudes. Some
of ycu think we have enough of ministers. See here, how
284 SERMON XLVIII.
unlike you are to Christ. You have not the Spirit of Christ in
you, yo'u are none of his. Some of you know the Lord Jesus,
and tremble at his Word. Learn this day to be like-minded to
Jesus : " Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ
Jesus." Christ had compassion on the multitudes ; and, oh ! will
you have none ? Christ gave himself for them ; what will you
give? Surely the stones of this house will rise against you in
judgment, and condemn you, if you be not like Christ in this :
" Freely ye have received, freely give."
III. The remedy.
1. More laborers. " The harvest truly is plenteous, but the
laborers are few." Christ looked upon the towns of Galilee as
upon a mighty harvest, field after field ready for the sickle. He
and his apostles seemed like a small band of reapers. But what
are they to such a harvest? The ripe corn will be shaken, and
shed its fruit upon the ground, before it can be cut down and
gathered in. The word of Christ, then, is, " Pray ye, therefore,
the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into
his harvest."
There is a striking resemblance between this day and Christ's
day.' (1.) Our cities and villages are crowded like those of
Galilee, and the little band of faithful ministers are indeed nothing
to such a harvest. (2.) The people are willing to hear. Wherever
men of God have been sent, they have gathered around them
multitudes, eager to hear the words of eternal life. The harvest
is ripe, ready to be gathered in. Oh ! then, do not say it is a
scheme of man's devising, do not say we are seeking to enrich
ministers, do not say we are seeking our own things. We are
doing what Christ bids us do : " Pray ye the Lord of the
harvest."
2. Laborers sent of God. (1.) This shows we should seek
ordained ministers, men sent out or thrust out by God. Some
well-meaning people are satisfied if we can get private Christians,
or unordained men, to do the work of the ministry. This is a deep
snare into which Satan leads good men. Does not the whole
Bible bear witness that no man taketh this honor to himself, but
he that is called of God, as was Aaron? and even Christ glorified
not himself to be made an high priest. Woe be to them that run
unsent ! It was a good wish in Uzzah to hold up the ark ; yet
Uzzah died for it.
2. Converted ministers. If men may not run without an out-
ward call, far less without an inward call. There were crowds
of ministers in Christ's day. At every corner of the street you
might have met them. But they were blind leaders of the blind.
So we may have plenty of ministers raised amongst us, and yet be
as sheep that have no shepherd.
Ah ! you that know Christ, and love him ; ye Jacobs who
SERMON XLIX. 285
wrestle with God till morning light, wrestle ye with God for this.
Give him no rest until he grant it. I have a sweet persuasion in
my own breast, that if we go on in faith and prayer, building up
God's altars that are desolate, God will hear the cry of his people,
and give them teachers according to his own heart, and that we
shall yet see days such as have never before shone upon the
Church of Scotland when our teachers shall not be removed into
corners any more ; when the great Shepherd shall himself bless the
bread, and give it to the under shepherds, and they shall give to
the multitudes, and all shall eat, and be filled.
St. Peter's, JYov 12, 1337.
SERMON XLIX.
CHRIST LOVED THE CHURCH.
" Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave him-
self for it ; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by
the Word, that he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having
spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should be holy, and without
blemish." Eph. v., 25-27.
IN this passage the apostle, under the guidance of the Spirit, is
teaching wives and husbands their duties to one another. To the
wives, he enjoins submission a loving yielding to their husbands
in all lawful things ; to the husbands, love ; and he puts before
them the highest of all patterns Christ and his Church.
I. Christ's love to his Church.
1. The object of his love.. The Church all who are chosen,
awakened, believing, justified, sanctified, glorified all who are
finally saved all who shall stand with the Lamb, the hundred and
forty and four thousand redeemed ones, all looked on as the brigh.
company; the Church all who are awakened and brought to
Christ, all who shall sit down at the marriage supper. I believe
Jesus had compassion for the whole world. He is not willing
that any should perish. He willeth all men to be saved. He
shed tears over those who will finally perish. Still, the peculiar
object of his love was the Church. He loved the Church. On
them his .eye rested with peculiar tenderness before the world
was. He would often say : These shall yet sit with me on my
throne ; or, as he read over their names in his book of life, he
would say : These shall yet walk with me in white. When they
lived in sin, his eye was upon them. He would not let them die,
and drop into hell J " I have much people in this city." I have no
doubt, brethren, Christ is marking some of you, that are now
286 SERMON XLIX.
Christlcss, for his own. When they came to Christ, he let out l; : a
love towards them on the land where they dwelt; a delightsome
land. His eye rests on the houses of this town, where his jewels
live. Christ loves some streets far better than others some spots
of earth are far dearer to him than others.
Christ loved his Church. Just as a husband at sea loves ihe
spot where his dear wife dwells, so does the Lord Jesus : " I hrjre
gmven thee upon the palms of my hands." Isa. xliii., 4. He
loves some in one house lar more than others. There are some
apartments dear to Christ, where he is often present, where his
hands are often on the door : " Open to me, my love."
2. The state of the Church when first loved. (1.) They were
all under the curse of God, under condemnation, exposed to the
just wrath of God, deserving nothing but wrath ; for " he gave
himself for it." The Church had no dowry to attract the love of
Jesus, except her wrath and curse. (2.) Impure. For he had to
'sanctify and cleanse it;" unholy within, opposed to God, no
beauty in the eye of Jesus : I am black, spotted, and wrinkled.
(3.) Nothing to draw the love of Christ. Nothing that he coulo 1
admire in them. He admires whatever is like his Father. He
had eternally gazed upon his Father, and was ravished with that
beauty ; but he saw none of this, not a feature, no beauty at all.
Men love where they see something to draw esteem, Christ saw
none. (4.) Everything to repel his love : " Polluted in thine own
blood," cast out, loathsome (Ezek. xvi.) ; yet that was the time
of his love. Black, uncomely : " Thou hast loved me out of the
pit of corruption." (5.) Not from ignorance. Men often love,
where they do not know the true character, and repent after. But
not so Christ. He knew the weight of their sins, the depths of
their wicked heart.
Nothing is more wonderful than the love of Christ. Learn the
freeness of the love of Christ. It is unbought love. " If a man
would give all the substance of his house lor love, it would be
"tterly contemned." Song viii., 7. He drew all his reasons from
nimself : " 1 knew that thou wast obstinate." You have no cause
to boast. He loved you, because he loved you, for nothing in
you. O what a black soul wast thou, when Christ set his love
upon thee !
3. The greatness of that love : " He gave himself." This is un-
paralleled love. Love is known by the sacrifice it will make. In
a fit of love, Herod would have given away the half of his king-
dom. If you will sacrifice nothing, you love not. Hereby we
know that men love not Christ, they will sacrifice nothin'g for him.
They will not leave a lust, a game, a companion, for Christ
' Greater love than this hath no man." But Christ gave himselC
Consider what a self. If he had created ten thousand millions of
worlds, and given them away, it had been great love, had he given
a million of angels ; but he gave the Lord of angels, the Creatoi
SERMON XLIX. 287
of worlds. "Lo, I come." He gave the pearl of heaven. O
what a self! Jesus ! all-loveliness '
4. What he gave himself to. He gave himself to be put in their
place, to bear their wrath and curse, and to obey for them. We
shall never know the greatness of this gift. He gave himself to
bear the guilt of the Church. There cannot be a more fearful
burden than guilt, even if there be no wrath. To the holy soul
of Jesus, this was an awful burden. He was made sin : " Mine
iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look
up." Ps. xl. " Mine iniquities are gone over mine head ; as a
heavy burden, they are tpo heavy for me." Ps. xxxviii. He en-
dured the cross, despising the shame. He laid his soul under their
guilt, shame and spitting ; silent like a lamb.
To bear their wrath. A happy soul shrinks from suffering.
Ask one that has always been in the love of God, what would he
give to cast himself out of that love, to bear as much wrath as he
is bearing love, to receive the lightning instead of the sunshine ?
Not for ten millions of worlds. Yet this did Jesus. He became
a curse for us : Pour it out on me. See how he shrunk back from
it in the garden. Yet he drank it.
" God commendeth his love to us, in that, while we were yet
enemies, Christ died for us." Pray to know the love of Christ.
It is a great ocean, without bottom or shore.* In the broken
bread you will see it set forth, so that a child may understand :
" This is my body, broken for you ;" " This is my blood, shed for
many."
II. His purpose in time. Verse 26. Christ's work is not done
with a soul when he has brought it to pardon, when he has washed
it in his own blood. Oh, no ! the better half of salvation remains,
his great work of sanctification remains.
1. Who is the author? He that gave himself for the Church,
the Lamb that was slain. God having raised his Son Jesus, sent
him to bless you, in turning every one of you away from your
iniquities. He is exalted by the right hand of God, and, having
obtained the promise of the Father, sheds him down. There is
no hand can new create the soul, but the hand that was pierced.
Many look to a wrong quarter for sanctification. They take par-
don from Christ, then lean on themselves, their promises, &c., for
holiness. Ah, no ! you must take hold of the hand that was
pierced, lean on the arm that was racked, lean on the Beloved
coming up from the wilderness. You might as well hold up the
sun on its journey, as sanctify yourself. It needs divine power.
There are three concerned in it. The Father, for this is his will ;
the Son, he is the Shepherd of all he saves ; the Holy Ghost.
* " It is as if a child could take the globe of earth and sea in his two short arnn.' 1
Samuel Rutherford
288 SERMON XL1X.
2. The means : " The Word." I believe he could sanctify
without the Word, as he created angels and Adam holy, and as
he sanctifies infants whose ear was never opened ; but I believe
in grown men he never will, but through the Word. When Jesus
makes holy, it is by writing the Word in the heart: "Sanct'fy
them through thy truth." When a mother nurses her child, she
not only bears it in her arms, but holds it to her breast, and feeds
it with the milk of her own breast ; so does the Lord. He not
only holds the soul, but feeds it with the milk of the Word. The
words of the Bible are just the breathings of God's heart. He
fills the heart with these, to make us like God. When you go
much with a companion, and hear his words, you are gradually
changed by them into his likeness ; so when you go with Christ,
and hear his words, you are sanctified. Oh, there are some whom
I could tell to be Christ's, by their breathing the same sweet
breath ! Those of you that do not read your Bible, cannot turn
like God you cannot be saved. You are unsavable ; you may
turn like the devil, but you never will turn like God. Oh, believ-
ers, prize the Word !
3. The certainty of it. Some are afraid they will never be holy :
"I shall fall under my sin." You shall be made holy. It was for
this Christ died. This was the grand object he had in view.
This was what was in his eye ; to build a holy Church out of a
world of lost sinners ; to pluck brands out of the fire, and make
them trees of righteousness ; to choose poor, black souls, and
make them fair brothers and sisters round his throne. Christ will
not lose this object.
Look up, then be not afraid. He redeemed you to make you
holy. Though you had a million of worlds opposing you, he will
do it : " He is faithful, who also will do it."
III. His purpose in eternity twofold.
1. Its perfection : " A glorious Church." At present believers
are sadly imperfect. They have on the perfect righteousness that
will be no brighter above ; but they are not perfectly holy ; they
mourn over a body of sin, spots and wrinkles. Neither are they
perfectly happy. Often crushed ; waves go over them ; like the
moon wading. But they shall be perfectly glorious. Perfect in
righteousness White robes, washed in the blood of the Lamb.
Perfect in holiness Filled with the Holy Spirit. Perfect in hap-
piness This shall be. It is all in the covenant.
2. He will present it to himself He will be both Father and
Bridegroom. He has bought the redeemed, he will give them
away to himself. The believer will have great nearness, he shall
see the king in his beauty. Great intimacy, walk with him, speak
with him. He shall have oneness with him, " All that I have is
thine."
St. Peter's, Jan , 1841. (Action Sermon.)
SERMON L. 289
SERMON L.
CHRIST BECAME POOR FOR SINNERS.
" For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet
' for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich "
2 Cor. viii., 9.
IN these words, there is brought before you the amazing grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ. In the broken bread and poured out wine
you will this day see the same thing brought before your eyes.
Before your eyes Jesus Christ is this day to be evidently set forth
crucified. It is the most awakening sight in all this world. Oh !
pray that many secure sinners may this, day be brought to look
on Him whom they have pierced, and to mourn. It is the most
peace-giving sight in this world. Oh ! pray that the Holy Spirit
may be poured upon awakened souls, that they may look to a cru-
cified Jesus and be saved. It is the most sanctifying sight in this
world. Oh ! pray that all God's children may look upon this gra-
cious Saviour, till they are changed into his image.
I. The Lord Jesus was rich.
The riches here spoken of are not the riches which he now
possesses as Mediator, but the riches which he had with the Father
before the world was. He was full of all riches
1. He was rich in the love and admiration of all the c, ic.tures.
All holy creatures loved and adored him. This is shown in Isa.
vi. : " I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted
up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim:
each one had six wings ; with twain he covered his face, and with
twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one
cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts ;
the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door
moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke." John (xii., 41) tells us ; "These things said Esaias when
he saw his glory, and spake of him."
It was from all eternity the will of God that every creature
should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. The bright-
est seraphs bowed down before him. The highest angels found
their chief joy in always beholding his face. He was their Cre-
ator: "By him were all things created, that are in heaven, and
that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or
dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created
by him, and for him." Col. i., 16. And, therefore, it was little
wonder that they poured out their perpetual adorations before
him. Now there is great joy in being loved by one holy creature ;
it fills the heart with true joy ; but every holy creature loved Je-
19
290 SERMON L.
sus with their whole heart and strength. This, then, was part of
his riches part of his infinite joy.
2. He was rich in the love of the Father. This is shown in
Prov. viii., 22, 30 : " The Lord possessed me in the beginning of
his way, before his works of old. Then I was by him, as one
brought up with him : and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always
before him." To be icvcd by God is the truest of all richu s.
The love of the creatures is but poor love, may soon die ; but the
.'eve of God is undying, unchanging love. The creatures may
ove us, and yet not be able to help us ; but God's love is a satisfy-
ing portion.
But none ever enjoyed the love of God as Jesus did. True,
God's love to the holy angels is infinite ; and \ e says, in John xvii.,
26, that he loves believers with the same love with which he loves
Christ : " That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in
them ;" still there is this infinite difference between believers and
Christ, that they can contain but a few drops of the love of God ;
they are but vessels, they cannot open their mouth wide enough.
But Jesus could contain all the infinite ocean of the love of God.
In the Son there was an object worthy of the infinite love of the
Father; and if the Fathers love was infinite, so the bosom of the
Son was infinite also. From all eternity there was the flowing of
infinite love from the bosom of the Father into the bosom of the
Son: " The Father loveth the Son" "Rejoicing always before
him." This wr.s the greatest riches of the Lord Jesus. This
w-as the infinite treasure of his soul. If a man has the love ol
God, he can well want all other things. If a man want food and
raiment ; if he be like Lazarus at the rich man's gate, full of sores ;
still, if he be lying in the love of God, he is truly rich. Much
more the well-beloved Son of God, the only begotten of the Fa-
ther, was rich in the full outpouring of the Father's love from all
eternity.
3. ffe was rich in power and glory. He was the Creator ot
all worlds : " Without him was not anything made that was made."
He was the Preserver of all worlds : " By him all things consist,"
and hang together. All worlds, therefore, were his domain ; he
was Lord of all. lie c:uli say : ' Every beast of the forest is
mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls
of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If
I were hungry, I would not tell thee : for the world is mine, and
the fulness thereof." Ps. L, 10-12. All lands sang aloud to him :
the sea roared his praise- -the cedars bowed before him in lowly
adoration. Nay, he could say : " All things that the Father hath
are mine" (John xvi., 15) ; and he could speak to his Father of the
glory which he had with him before the world was. Whatever
of power, glory, riches, blessedness, the Father had, dwelt with
equal fulness in the Son ; for he was in the form of God, and though:
SERMON L. 291
it no robbery to be equal with God. This was the riches of the
Lord Jesus.
Oh, brethren ! can you trust your salvation to such an one ?
You hear it was he that undertook to be the surety of sinners,
and died for them. Can you trust your soul in the hands of such
an one ? Ah ! surely if so rich and glorious a being undertake for
us, he will not fail nor be discourager, "till he have set judgment
in the earth ; and the isles shall wait for his law."
II. Christ became poor.
He was in the form of God, and thought it no robbery to be
equal with God ; but he made himself of no reputation ( *&>* ),
and took upon him th" form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men : and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. He became poor in all those things wherein he had been
rich.
1. At his birth. (1.) He laid aside the adoration of the creatures.
He left the hallelujahs of the heavenly world for the manger at
Bethlehem. No angel bowed before the infant Saviour ; no seraph
veiled his face and feet before him. The world knew him not.
A few shepherds from the fields of Bethlehem came and kneeled
to him, and the wise men saw and adored the infant King ; but the
most despised saw him. His mother wrapped him in swaddling
clothes and laid him in a manger, for there was no room for them
in the inn : " He became poor." (2.) He left the love of God.
The moment that babe was born, he became the surety of a guilty
world. He was born of a woman, made under the law. The law
took hold of him, even in infancy, as our surety. From the cradle
to the cross he was bearing the sins of many ; and therefore he
says : *' I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up ; while
I s'uffer thy terrors, I am distracted." Ps. Ixxxv., 15. Ah! what
a change was here, from the infinite joy of his Father's love to the
misery and terror of his Father's frown : " He became poor."
(3.) He left the power and glory that he had. Instead of want-
ing nothing, he became a helpless baby in want of everything.
Instead of saying: " If I were hungry, I would not tell thee," he
needed now the milk of his mother's breast. Instead of holding
up worlds with his arm, he needed now to be supported to be
wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger, watched by
a mother's tender eye : " He was rich, and became poor."
2. In his life. He that was adored by the myriads of heaven
was lightly esteemed. Few believed on him ; they called him
glutton, wine-bibber, deceiver. Once they sought to cast him
over the rocks, often they plotted to kill him. He that before re-
ceived the full love of God, now received his full frown. The
cloud became every day darker over his soul. Many of the hills
nd valleys of this world re-echoed with his cries and bitter agony.
292 SERMON L.
Gethsemane was watered with his blood. He that had all things
as his domain, now wanted everything. Certain women minister-
ed to him of their substance. Luke viii., 3. He had no money
to pay the tribute, and a fish of the sea had to bring it to him.
Matt! xvii.. t>7. The creatures of his hand had a wanner bed
than he: " The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have
nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head." Matt,
viii. Every man went to his own home Jesus went to the Mount
of Olives. And again, we are told, as they sailed, Jesus was
asleep on a pillow. Another time he sat wearied at the well, and
said : " Give me to drink." He that was God over all, blessed
for ever, could say, " 1 am a worm, and no man :" " He became
poor."
3. In his death most of all he became poor.
(1.) Once his ear was filled with the holy songs of angels,
hymning their pure praises:-" Holy, holy, hofy ;" now his ears
are filled with the cry of his creatures : " Not this man, but Barab-
bas," "Crucify him, crucify him." Once every face was veiled
before him ; now rulers deride him, soldiers mock him. thieves rail
on him. They shoot out the lip, they wag the head, they give him
vinegar to drink. "He became poor" indeed. (2.) Once God
loved him without a cloud between ; now not a ray of divine love
fell upon his soul : but instead of it a stream of infinite wrath.
He that once said : " The Lord possessed me : I was daily his
delight," now cried : " Eloi. Eloi, lama sabacthani" Ah ! this was
poverty indeed. (3.) Once he gave being to unnumbered worlds,
gave life to all he was the Prince of life ; but now he bowed his
head, and gave up the ghost. He lay down in the grave among
worms. He became a worm, and no man.
Ah ! this is what is set before you in bread and wine to-day : The
Ron of God became poor. He lakes simple bread, to show you
it is a poor man that is set before you broken bread, to show
that he is a crucified Saviour. Ah ! sinners, whilst you gaze on
these simple elements, remember the sufferings of him who was
Lord of glory, and who died for sinners. " This do in remem-
brance cf me."
III. For what end ? " For your sakes, that ye through his
poverty might be rich."
The persons for whom : " For your sakes." Corinth was one
of the most wicked cities that ever was on the face of the world.
It lay between two seas ; so that luxury came flowing in from the
east and from the west. These Corinthians had been saved from
the deepest abominations, as you learn from 1 Cor. vi., 11 :" Such
were some of you ;'' and yet it was for the sake of such that the
Lord of glory became poor " for your sakes." In like manner,
Paul, writing to the Romans, says (v. 6) : " When we were with-
out strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." Ah ! see
SERMON L. 293
\vhat names are here given to those for whom Christ died :
" Without strength" unable to believe, or to think a right thought ;
" ungodly" living as if there were no God ; " sinners" breaking
God's holy law ; " enemies" hating and opposing a holy God of
love.
Oh, brethren ! this is good news for the most wicked of men.
Are there some of you who feel that you are like a beast before
God, or all over sin, like a devil ? Some of you have lived in the
abominations of Corinth. Some of you are like the Romans
without strength, ungodly, sinners, enemies ; yet for your sakes
Christ became poor. He left glory for souls as vile as you. He
left the songs of angels, the love of his Father, and the glories
of heaven, for just such wretches as you and me. He died
for the ungodly. Do not be afraid, sinners, to lay hold upon him.
It was for your sakes he came. He will not, he cannot cast you
out.
Oh, sinners ! you are poor indeed ; but he will make you rich.
All the riches he left he is ready to raise you to. He will make
you rich in the love of God rich in the peace that passeth all
understanding, if you truly lay hold on him. The wrath of God
will pass away from you, and he will love you freely. The love
wherewith God loves Christ shall be on you. He will make
you rich in holiness. He will fill you with all the fulness of
God. He will make you rich in eternity. You will behold his
glory ; you will enter into his joy ; you will sit with him on his
throne.
IV The grace in all this : " Ye know the grace."
There is much to be seen in this amazing work. There is deep
wisdom " the wisdom of God the hidden wisdom, which God
ordained before the world unto our glory ;" there is power, the
power of God unto salvation ; but most of all, grace is to be seen
in it from beginning to end. " Ye know the grace of the Lord
Jesus."
When Jesus washed the disciples' feet, when he came to Peter,
Peter said : " Lord, dost thou wash my feet ?" Three things
amazed him : 1. The glorious being that knelt down before him :
" Thou." 2. The lowly action he was going to perform : " Dost
thou wash ?" 3. The vile wretch whose feet were to be washed :
" My feet." He was amazed at the grace of the Lord Jesus. So
in this amazing work you may see a threefold grace: 1. The
glorious being that undertook for sinners : " He who was rich."
2. The depth to which he stooped : " He became poor." 3. The
wretches whose souls were to be washed : " For your sakes."
Ah ! well may you be amazed this day, and cry out : " Dost thou
wash my soul ?"
Lastly, The sin and danger of not knowing.
294 SERMON L.
1. I would speak to those who do not know the grace of the Lord
Jesus. I fear the most of you are still ignorant of Christ : " The
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ; for
they are foolishness unto him." Ah, brethren ! think this day who
it is you arc lightly esteeming. Did you ever see the son of a
king lay hy his robes, and his glory, and become a poor man, and
die in misery ; and all this for nothing? Do you think the Lord
Jesus left his Father's love, and the adoration of angels, and be-
came a worm, and died under wrath, and all for no purpose ? Js
there no wrath lying upon you ? Have you no need of Christ ?
Ah ! why, then, do you not flee unto him ?
" Ungrateful sinners ! whence this scorn
Of God's long-sufFring grace ?
And whence this madness, that insults
Th' Almighty to his face ?"
Ah ! remember, as long as you come not to Christ, you are
despising the grace of the Lord Jesus, and sinning against the love
of God. What though you make a show of coming to Christ ?
What though you pretend it by coming to his table, and doing
honor to the poor bread and wine I The poor Papist adores the
bread, while he denies the Saviour ; and so you may waste your
honor on the bread and wine, while you are all the time rejecting
and despising the grace of the Lord Jesus.
2. / would welcome poor sinners to Jesus Christ. He became
poor for such as you. He did not come for those " who are rich
and increased in goods, and stand in need of nothing." Do not
say you are too vile for such a Saviour. If you have all the pol-
lutions of a Corinthian, all the wicked heart of a Roman, he came
on purpose for such as you. You are the very souls he came to
seek and save. His salvation is all of grace. Free favor to those
that deserve hell ! Do not deny the grace of the Lord Jesus. It
is false humility that keeps any back from Christ ; for, " there is
no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord
over all is rich unto all that call upon him." " Ho, every one that
thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money come ;
let him buy wine and milk without money and without price."
3. To you that know Jesus, and his grace. Oh ! study him
more. You will spend eternity in beholding his glory ; spend
time in beholding his grace. That you may know your own vile-
ness, that you may abhor yourself, that you may see what a poor
hell-deserving creature you are, oh ! study the grace of the Lord
Jesus. That your peace may be like a river, full, deep, and last-
ing, learn more of the grace of the Lord Jesus. Come and
declare with joy at the Lord's table all that he has done for your
soul. Oh ! learn more. Few know much of Christ. You have
infinitely more to learn than you have ever known.
St. Peter's, April 18, 1841. (Action Sermon.)
SERMON LI. 293
SERMON LI.
ENEMIES RECONCILED THROUGH DEATH.
' And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wickec
works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to pre-
sent you holy, and unblamable, and unreprovable in his sight : if ye continue in
the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gos-
pel." Col. i., 21-23.
I. Tlie past condition of all who are now believers : " You that
were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works." When two families have quarrelled with one another,
they become alienated from one another : they do not visit one
another any more ; their children are not allowed to speak together
as formerly ; if they meet in the street, they look another way.
So it is with unconverted sinners and God ; they are alienated
from God ; they do not visit God ; they do not seek his presence ;
they do not love to meet his children ; they do not like their words
nor their ways. When God meets them in a pointed sermon or
providence, they try to look another way, that they may not meet
God's eye.
1. Alienated. This word is used three times : " Ye were aliens
from the commonwealth of Israel." Eph. ii., 12. "Alienated
from the life of God." Eph. iv., 18. And again here. In all, it
paints to the life the true character of every unconverted man.
It is vain to conceal it, dear unconverted brethren. You may
pretend the greatest love to ministers, to sacraments, to meetings
of Christians ; still the true state of your heart is estrangement
from God. Ah ! I fear there are many of you come to the church,
and even to the sacrament, with the name of Christ on your lips,
and a cold, estranged heart in your breast: " Thoy did flatter him
with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues ; for
their heart was not right with God." Psalm Ixxviii., 36.
2. Enemies in your minds. This is more than estrangement.
You may be strange to a man, and yet not hate him ; but uncon-
verted souls hate God. The whole Bible bears witness that all
unconverted men hate God. In Rom. i., 29, it is said : " They did
not like to retain God in their knowledge ;" so that God gave them
up to a reprobate mind, so that they became ' HATERS OF GOD."
In Exod. xx., 5, God says : " I the Lord thy God am a jealous
God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the
third and fourth generation of them that hate me." And again :
" Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity against
God ? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world, must
be the enemy of God." James iv., 4.
Would God say this if it were not the case ? God knows besl
SERMON LI.
\vluit is really in the heart of man. It is true you may not shovf
this hatred in your words, or in your manner ; you may not curse
God, not even in a whisper ; but God says it is in your mind. It
is at the bottom of that muddy pool. In hell, where all restraints
a iv lifted away, you will curse God through all eternity.
The most amazing trial of this that could be, was when God
came into this world. God was manifest in the flesh. In him
u\\ t It all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. All the perfections
of God flowed through his bosom. There was not a feature of
God but it was shining through his glorious countenance, yet soft-
ened to human eyes by all the perfections of his manhood. Did
men love him when they saw him ? Let Isaiah (liii.) answer :
" He is despised and rejected of men." Or, hear his own words :
" The world cannot hate you ; but me it hateth, because I testify
of it that the works thereof are evil." John vii., 7. And, again :
" He that hateth me, hateth my Father also. If I had not done
among them the works which none other man did, they had not
had sin ; but now have they both seen and hated both me and my
Father." John xv., 23, 24. How did they deal with him ? They
slew him, and hanged him on a tree, they buffeted him and spat
on him, they scourged and crucified him, they nailed and pierced
him. They were no worse than other men ; men of like passions
as \\e are : and yet the opportunity showed what is in man.
It is vain for you to conceal it, dear unconverted brethren, that
your heart is full of enmity to God ; that you are haters of God
Although it is fearful to think of, yet it is true, that all of you who
are friends of the world are enemies of God ; and though I believe
in my heart there is not one of you here present that would wan-
tonly. till a fly or a worm, yet I fear there are many who, if you
could, would kill God.
What is the reason of this enmity 1 Ans. " By wicked works."
It is the love of their sins that makes men hate God. Jesus himseli
tells you this : " Me it hateth, because I testify of it that the works
thereof are evil." You could hardly imagine it possible that any
one could .bate the Lord Jesus. " He is altogether lovely." There
is no perfection in God but it dwelt in him ; there is no loveliness
in man but it shone in him. And then his errand was one of
purest love. He came to seek and to save that which was lost.
He healed all that came ; spoke lovingly to all. Even his threat-
enings were mingled with tears of compassion. How could they
hate him ? He told them of their sins ; that these sins were sink-
ing them to hell. He said : " Ye shall die in your sins, and whither
1 go ye cannot come." He offl-red to save them from their sins' ;
to give them rest ; rest from the weary load of guilt ; rest from
the tossing of a wicked heart. It was this which enraged them.
Thsy loved their wieked works ; they did not want to be saved
out of them ; therefore, they hated Jesus.
So is it still. Many of you, when you first heard the Gospel
SERMON LI. 297
said ; " This is very fine ; we will hear thee again of this matter.*
The offer of pardon and heaven, a crown and a harp, and freedom
from hell all this sounded well ; but when you found out thai you
must " break off your sins by righteousness," that Christ " will
save his people from their sins," then you began to linger, to
ponder, to hesitate, to turn back and hate God. When you saw
that Christ would part you from your glass, from your oaths, from
your cards and dice, from your lusts then you hated him. Alas !
what a sad choice you have made ! loved your sin, and hated
the Saviour ! " They that hate me love death."
Children of God, this was your state. Eat bitter herbs with
your passovor this day. Oh ! do not forget your sin. You were
sometime alienated and enemies of God by wicked works. Can
you look back without being confounded ?
II. The reconciliation : " Yet now hath he reconciled in the
body of his flesh through death." Verse 21. This is the amazing
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is the blessed state into
which he brings every saved soul.
1. He took on him a body of flesh. Out of pure love to hell-de-
serving worms, " he that was in the form of God, and thought it
DO robbery to be equal with God, emptied himself, and took upon
him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men."
In order to be the Saviour of sinners, he must obey ths law, which
we had never obeyed he must live a lifetime of sinless obe-
dience ; but how shall the great God who made the law do this ?
He was made of a woman, made under the law, that he might re-
deem them that were under the law. Again: if he will save sin-
ners, he must drink their cup of suffering, he must bear their
stripes, their sins on his owi>body. But how shall the infinitely
h\)!y, happy, and unchangeable God, suffer this ? Because the
children were of flesh, he himself likewise took part of the same.
He became united to a weak, frail, human soul and body ; so that
he could suffer, weep, groan, bleed, die. " Great is the mystery
of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh." Again : if he will
be the Saviour and elder brother of sinners ; if he will know their
sorrows, and be their tender shepherd ; he must have a human
heart ; a breast filled with all the milk of a mother's tenderness.
But how can this be, when he is infinitely holy, wise, just, and
true ? Ah ! he became bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh
" When all the tribes of Israel came to David to Hebron, they
said, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh" (2 Sam. v., 1) ; and
so can we in going to Christ : " He is one that can be touched
with a feeling of our infirmity." Ah ! to all eternity the incarna-
tion of Jesus will be the theme of our wonder and praise. Bre-
thren, you will all see that face. Some of you will wail when
vou see it. When that lovely countenance gleams through the
i*y8 SERMON LI.
clouds, you will call on rocks and mountains to cover you. It is
the Saviour you have rejected and despised.
2. He died : " Through death" The death of Christ is the
most ama/.ing event that ever took place in the universe ; and
therefore the^Lord's supper is the most amazing of all ordinances.
The angels desire to look into it. I doubt not that angels hover
round the communion table, and sing their sweetest praises to the
Lamb, when they see that bread broken, and that wine poured out.
If the incarnation of Jesus was wonderful, far more wonderful
was his dying. This was the highest summit of his obedience :
" Obedient unto death." It was the lowest depth of his humilia-
tion. He stood silent under our accusations ; he lay down under
our curse ; he bore our hell, and died our death. He was the great
Lawgiver the Judge of all before whom every creature must
stand and be judged ; and yet he consented to come and stand at
the bar of his wieked creatures, and to be condemned by them !
He was adored by every holy creature ; their sweetest praises
were poured out at his feet ; and yet he came to be spit upon and
reviled to be mocked, and nailed, and crucified, by the vilest of
men ! "In him was life." He was the Prince of life the author
of all natural and spiritual life ; he gave to all life and breath,
and all things ; and yet they killed him. He gave up the ghost
lie lay in the cold grave. The Father loved him infinitely, eter-
nally without beginning, or intermission, or end ; and yet he was
made a curse for us bore the same wrath that is poured upon
damned spirits.
Ah ! brethren, herein was infinite love. Infidels scoff at it
fools despise it ; but it is the wonder of all heaven. The Lamb
that was slain will be the wonder of eternity. To-day Christ is
evidently set forth crucified among you. Angels, I doubt not,
will look down in amazing wonder at that table. Will you look
on with cold, unmoved hearts ? It is a sight of the Lamb slain
that moves the hosts of heaven to praise. Rev. v., 8. When
that Lamb, as it had been slain, appears, they fall down before
him, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of
odors. Will you not praise him ?
3. He hath reconciled us : " Yet now hath he reconciled.' 1
Sinners, we are not reconciled in the day of our election, nor at
the death of Christ, but in the hour of conversion. Oh ! that is
a precious now : " Now hath he reconciled." It is a happy mo-
rm nt, when the Lord Jesus draws near to the sinful soul, and
washes him clean in his precious blood, and clothes him in his
white raiment, and so reconciles him to God. There is a double
reconciliation takes place in the hour of believing. (1.) God be-
comes reconciled to the soul. When the soul is found in Christ, the
Father says : "I will heal his backsliding, I will love him freely,
for mine anger is turned away from him." Hos. xiv., 4. The soul
replies *o God : " I will praise thee : though thou wast angry with
SERMON LI. 299
me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me." Goc
does not impute to that soul his trespasses ; he reckons to him the
obedience of the Lord Jesus. God justifies him : " He will save
he will rejoice over thee with joy ; he will rest in his love ; he will
joy over thee with singing." Zeph. iii., 17. (2.) The soul is re-
conciled to God. The Holy Spirit, who bends the soul to submit
to Jesus, changes the heart to love him. When the beasts came
into the ark, their natures were changed ; they did not tear one
another to pieces, but lovingly entered two and two into the ark ;
the lion did not devour the gentle deer, nor did the eagle pursue
the dove. So, when sinners come to Christ, their heart is changed
from enmity to love.
Dear brethren, has he reconciled you to God ? You were some-
time afar off; have you been brought nigh ? You were sometime
darkness ; have you been made light in the Lord ? You were
sometime alienated and enemies in your mind ; has he reconciled
you ? has he brought you into the light of God's reconciled coun-
tenance ? Is God's anger turned away from you ? Can you sing ;
" O Lord, I will praise thee : though thou wast angry with me,
thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me" (Isa. xii.) ;
or, ' Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me bless
his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his
benefits : who forgiveth all thine iniquities ; who healeth all thy
diseases ; who redeemeth thy life from destruction ?" Ps. ciii.
Have you been changed to love God ? Do you love his Word,
his people, his way of leading you ?
III. The future object in view : " That he might present you
holy, and unblamable, and unreprovable in his sight."
Sacrament days are solemn days : but there is a more solemn
day at hand, even at the door. Here we meet to teach you and feed
you, and get you to meet with Christ, and to live upon him ; there
we shall meet to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. In that
day Christ will take those of you whom he has redeemed and
reconciled, and present you to himself a glorious Church. He
will confess your name before his Father, and present you fault-
less before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. There
is a double perfection the saints will have in that day.
1. You. will be perfectly righteous. You will be " unreprova-
ble.'* Satan will accuse you, and the world, and conscience ; but
Christ will say : " The chastisement of their peace was upon
me." Christ will show his scars, and say: "I died for that soul."
2. You will be perfectly holy : " Holy and unblamable." The
body of sin you will leave behind you. The Spirit who dwells
in you now will complete his work. You will be like Jesus ; for
you will see him as he is. You will be holy as God is holy, pure
as Christ is pure.
Every one whom Christ reconciles he makes holy, and con
300 SERMON LI.
fcsses before his Father : " Whom he justified, them he glorified."
If Christ has truly begun a good work in you, he will perforrr it
to the day of Christ Jesus. Christ says : " I am Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the ending." Whenever he begins, he will make
an end. Whenever he builds a stone as the foundation, he will
preserve it unshaken to the end. Only make sure that you are
upon the foundation, that you are reconciled, that you have true
peace with God, and then you may look across the mountains and
rivers that are between you and that day, and say : " He is able
to keep me from falling." You have but two shallow brooks to
pass through sickness and death ; and he has promised to meet
you, to go with you, foot for foot. A few more tears, a few more
temptations, a few more agonizing prayers, a few more sacra-
ments, and you will stand with the Lamb upon Mount Zion !
IV. Perseverance is needful to salvation : " If ye continue in
the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the
hope of the Gospel." Verse 23. All whom Christ reconciles
will be saved ; but only in the way of persevering in the faith.
He grounds and settles them in the cleft rock, and keeps them from
being moved.
Dear believers, see that you continue in the faith. Remember
you will be tried.
1. You may be tried by false doctrine. Satan may change him-
self into an angel of light, and try to beguile you by another Gos-
pel. " Hold fast the form of sound words."
2. You will be tried by persecution. The world will hate you
for your love to Christ. They will speak all manner of evil
against you falsely.
3. You will be tried by Jlattery. The world will smile on you.
Satan will spread his paths with flowers ; he will perfume his bed
with myrrh, and aloes, and cinnamon.
Will you continue in the faith ? Will you not be moved away ?
Can you withstand all these enemies ? Remember, perseverance
is needful to salvation ; as needful as faith, or as the new birth.
True, every one that believes in Christ will be saved ; but they
will be saved through perseverance : " If a man abide not in me,
he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered ; and men gather
them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." Behold,
in Jesus there is strength for perseverance. This bread and wine
to-day are a pledge of that. Seek persevering grace to-day. Ask
this when you take that bread and wine.
Hypocrites ! you will one day be known by this. Many of you
seem to be united, who truly are not. All who have had convic-
tions of sin which have passed away, all who have the out-
ward appearance of Christians, but within an unconverted heart,
all who attend ordinances, but live in some way of sin, you will
oon be discovered. You put on an appearance, you pretend that
SERMON LII. 301
you do cleave to Christ, and get grace from Christ, oh ! how soon
you will be shown in your true colors. Oh ! that the thought
may pierce your heart, that even now, though you came with a
lying profession in your right hand, you may be persuaded to
cleave to Jesus in truth. Amen.
St Peter's, Aug. 1, 1S41. (Action Sermon.)
SERMON LII.
*MY GOD, MY GOD.
" My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?" Matt, xxvii., 46.
THESE are the words of the great Surety of sinners, as he hung
upon the accursed tree. The more I meditate upon them, the
more impossible do I find it to unfold all that is contained in them.
You must often have observed how a very small thing may be an
index of something great going on within. The pennant at the
mast-head is a small thing; yet it shows plainly-which way the
wind blows. A cloud no bigger than a man's hand is a small
thing; yet it may show the approach of a mighty storm. The
swallow is a little bird ; and yet it shows that summer is come.
So is it with man. A look, a sigh, a half-uttered word, a broken
sentence, may show more of what is passing within than a long
speech. So it was with the dying Saviour. These few troubled
words tell more than volumes of divinity.
May the Lord enable us to find something here that will feed
your souls !
I. The completeness of Christ's obedience.
1. Words of obedience: "My God, my God." He was obedi-
ent unto death. I have often explained to you how the Lord Jesus
came to be a doing as well as a dying Saviour, not only to suffer
all that we should huve suffered, but to obey all that we should
have obeyed ; not only to suffer the curse of the law, but to obey
the commands of the law. When the thing was proposed to him
in heaven, he said : " Lo, I come to do thy will, O my God !"
" Yea, thy law is within my heart." Now, then, look at him as a
man obeying his God. See how perfectly he did it, even to the
last ! God says : Be about my business, he obeys : " Wist ye not
that I must be about my Father's business ?"
God says : Speak to sinners for me, he obeys : " I have meat to
cat that ye know not of; my meat is to do the will of him that
sent me, and to finish his work." God says: Die in the room of
winners, wade through a sea of my wrath for the sake of enemies,
302 v SERMON LIl.
hang on a cross, and bleed and die for them, he obeys : " No man
takcth my life from me." The night before he said : " The cup
which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" But per-
haps he will shrink back when he comes to the cross? No ; fo t
three hours the darkness had been over him, yet still he says:
" My Go I, my God." Sinner, do you take Christ as your surety ?
See how fully he obeyed for thee ! The great command laid
upon him was to die for sinners. Behold how fully he obeys !
J. Words of faith: " My God, my God." These words show
the greatest faith that ever was in this world. Faith is believing
the word of God, not because we see it to be true, or feel it to be
true, but because God has said it. Now Christ was forsaken.
He did not see that God was his God, he. did not feel that God
was his God ; and yet he believed God's word, and* cried : " My
God, my God." (1.) David shows great faith in Ps. xlii., 7,8:
"Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water spouts: all thy
waves and thy billows are gone over me. Yet the Lord will
command his loving kindness \n the daytime, and in the night his
song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life."
He felt like one covered with a sea of troubles. He can see no
light, no way of escape ; yet he believes the word of God, and
says : " Yet the Lord will." This is faith, believing when we do
not see. (2.) Jonah showed great faith: "All thy billows and
thy waves passed over me : then I said, I am cast out of thy sight ;
yet I will look again towards thy holy temple." Jonah ii., 3, 4.
He was literally at the bottom of the sea. He knew no way of
escape, he saw no light, he felt no safety ; yet he believed the
word of God. This was great faith. (3.) But, ah ! a greater
than Jonah is here. Here is greater faith than David's, greater
faith than Jonah's, greater faith than ever was in the world, before
or after. Christ was now beneath a deeper sea than Jonah's.
The tossing billows of God's anger raged over him. He was for-
saken by God he is in outer darkness, he is in hell ; and yet he
believes the word of God : " Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell."
He does not feel it, he does not see it, but he believes it, and cries :
" My God." Nay, more, to show his confidence, he says it twice :
" My God. my God." " Though he slay me, yet will 1 trust in
him." Dear believer, this is your surety. You are often unbe-
lieving, distrustful of God ; behold your surety, cling to him, you
are complete in him.
3. Words of love. "My God, my God." (1.) Those were
words of sweet submission and love which Job spake, when God
took away from him property and children : " Naked came I out
of my mother's w r omb." Sweet, that he could bless God even in
taking away from him. (2.) Words of sweet submissive love
which old Eli spake, when God told him that his sons should die ;
"It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good." (3.) The
same sweet temper in the bosom of the Shunamite who lost her
SERMON LII. 303
child, when the prophet asked : " Is it well with thee ? is it well
with thy husband ? is it well with the child ? And she answered,
It is well." (4.) But, ah ! here is greater love, greater, sweeter
submission, than that of Job, or E|i, or the Shunamite, greatei
than ever was breathed in this cold world before. Here is a be-
ing hanging between earth and heaven, forsaken by his God,
without a smile, without a drop of comfort, the agonies of hell
going over him ; and yet he loves the God that has forsaken him.
He does not cry out, Cruel, cruel, : Father ! no, but with all the
vehemence of affection, cries out, "My God, my God."
Dear, dear souls, is this your surety? Do you take him as obey-
ing for you ? Ah ! then, you are complete in him. You have very
little love for God. How often you have murmured, and thought
God cruel in taking things away from you ; but, behold your sure-
ty, and rejoice in him with exceeding joy. All the merit of his
holy obedience is imputed to you.
II. The infinity of Christ's sufferings. He was forsaken by
God ; " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?" The
Greek Liturgy says : " We beseech thee by all the sufferings of
Christ, known and unknown." All the more we know of Christ's
sufferings, the more we see they cannot be known. Ah ! who can
tell the full meaning of the broken bread and poured-out wine?
1. He suffered much from his enemies. (1.) He suffered in all
parts of his body. In his head ; that was crowned with thorns,
and smitten with the reed. In his cheeks ; for they smote him on
the face, and he gave his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair:
" I hid not my face from shame and spitting." In his shoulders,
that carried the heavy cross. In his back ; " I gave my back to
the smiters." In his hands and feet : " They pierced rny hands
and my feet." In his side ; a soldier thrust a spear into his side.
Ah ! how well he might say, " This is my body, broken for you."
(2.) He suffered in all his offices. As a prophet : " They smote
him on the face, and said, Prophesy who smote thee?" Asa
priest, they mocked him when offering up that one offering for
sins. As a king, when they bowed the knee, and said, " Hail !
king of the Jews." (3.) He suffered from all sorts of men, from
priests and elders, from passers by and soldiers, from kings and
thieves : " Many bulls have compassed me ; strong bulls of Ba-
shan have beset me round" "Dogs have compassed me"
" They have compassed me about like bees." (4.) He suffered
much from the devil : " Save me from the lion's mouth." His
whole suffering was one continued wrestling with Satan ; for he
"spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them
openly, triumphing over them in his cross."
2. From those he afterwards saved. How bitter would be the
scoffing of the thief who that day was to be forgiven and accept-
304 SERMON LI I.
ed ! How bitter the cries of the three thousand who were so
soon brought to know him whom they crucified !
3. From his own disciples. They all forsook him and fled.
John, the beloved, stood afar off, and Peter denied him. It is said
of the chamomile flower, that the more you squeeze and tread upon
it, the sweeter is the odor it spreads around. Ah ! so it was in our
sweet Rose of Sharon. It was the bruising of the Saviour that
spread sweet fragrance around. It is the bruising that makes his
name as ointment poured forth.
4. From his Father. A1J other sufferings were nothing in com-
parison of this : " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?"
Other sufferings were finite this alone was infinite suffering. It
was little to be bruised by the heel of man or devils ; but, ah ! to
be trodden by the heel of God : " It pleased the Father to bruise
him."
Three things show the infinity of his sufferings.
1. Who it was that forsook him. Not his people Israel, not
Judas the betrayer, not Peter his denier, not John that lay in his
bosom, he could have borne all this ; but, ah ! it was his Father
and his God. Other things little affected him compared with that.
The passers by wagged their heads ; he spoke not. The chief
priests mocked him ; he murmured not. The thieves cast it in
his teeth ; he was as a deaf man who heareth not. God brought
a three hours' darkness over him the outward darkness being an
image of the darkness over his soul ah ! this was infinite agony:
" My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?"
2. Who it' was that was forsaken : "Me." (1.) One infinitely
dear to God. Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world,
yet thou hast forsaken me. I was always by thee ; rejoicing al-
ways before thee. I have basked in the beams of thy love. Ah !
why this terrible darkness to me ? " My God, my God." (2.)
One who had an infinite hatred of sin. How dreadful to an inno-
cent man to be thrust into the cell of a condemned criminal ! but,
ah ! how much more dreadful to Christ, who had an infinite hatred
of sin, to be regarded by God as a sinner. (3.) One who had an
infinite relish of God's favor. When two friends of exalted minds
meet together, they have an intense relish of one another's love.
How painful to meet the cold averted looks of one in whose favor
you find this sweet joy ! But, ah ! this is nothing to Christ's pain.
3. What God did to him -forsook him. Dear friends, let us
look into this ocean through which Christ waded. (1.) He was
without any comforts of God no feeling that God loved him ; no
feeling that God pitied him ; no feeling that God supported him.
God was his sun before ; now that sun became all darkness. Not
a smile from his Father, not a kind look, not a kind word. (2.)
He was without God ; he was as if he had no God. All that God
had been to him before was taken from him now. He was God-
less ; deprived of his God. (3 ) He had the feeling of the con-
SERMON LII. 305
demned, when the Judge says : " Depart from me, ye cursed,"
" who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the pre-
sence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." He felt that
God said the same to him. Ah ! this is the hell which Christ suf-
fered. Dear friends, I feel like a little child casting a stone into
some deep ravine in the mountain side, and listening to hear it fall
but listening all in vain ; or like the sailor casting the lead at
sea, but it is too deep the longest line cannot fathom it. The
ocean of Christ's sufferings is unfathomable.
III. Answer the Saviour's why ?
Because he was the surety of sinners, and stood in their room.
1. He had agreed with his Father, before all worlds, to stand
and suffer in the place of sinners: Every curse that should fall on
them, let it fall on me. Why should he be suprised that God
poured out all his fury ? " Why hast thou forsaken me ?" Be-
cause thou didst covenant to stand in the room of sinners.
2. He set his face to it: " He set his face like a flint." " He set
his face steadfastly." God set down the cup before him in the
garden, saying : Art thou willing to drink it, or no ? He said :
" The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it ?"
" Therefore it pleased the Lord to bruise him." Why ? Be-
cause thou hast chosen to be the surety ; thou wouldst not draw
back '.
3. He knew that either he or the whole world must suffer. It was hii*
pity for the world made him undertake to be a Saviour : " He saw
that there was no man, and wondered that there was no interces-
sor. Therefore his arm brought salvation unto him, and his
righteousness it sustained him." Why ? Either thou or they ;
hell for thee or hell for them.
1. Lesson to Christless persons. Learn your danger. Wher-
ever God sees sin he will punish it ; angels, Adam, old world,
Sodom. He saw sins laid on Christ, and forsook his own Son.
You think nothing of sin. See what God thinks of it. If so much
as one sin upon you unconverted you cannot be saved. Though
thou wert the signet on my right hand ; though thou wert the son
of my bosom ; yet would I pluck thee thence. Oh, let me per-
suade you this day to an immediate closing with Jesus Christ !
2. Lesson. Admire the love of Christ. Oh, what a sea of
wrath did he lie under for you ! Oh, what hidings did he bear
for you, vile, ungrateful soul ! The broken bread and poured-out
wine are a picture of his love. Oh, when you look on them, may
your heart break for longing towards such a Saviour !
3. Lesson. Say to all who close with Jesus Christ, he was for-
saken in the room of sinners. If you close with him as your
surety, you will never be forsaken. From the broken bread
and poured-out wine seems to rise the cry : " My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken rne ?"
20
306 SERMON LIII.
For me for me. May God bless his own Word !
(Action Sermon )
SERMON LIII.
DEATH OF STEPHEN
"And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and sa /ing, Lord Jesus, receive mj
spirit." Acts vii., 59.
STEPHEIV was the first to die as a martyr in the cause of Christ ;
and he seems to have resembled the Saviour more than any that
followed after. His very face appeared like the face of an angel.
His irresistible wisdom in arguing with the Jews was very like
Christ's ; his praying for his enemies with his dying breath nearly
in the same words as the Saviour, and his recommending his
soul into the hands of the Lord Jesus, were in the same spirit
of confidence as that in which Christ said, ' Father, into thy
hands I commend my spirit." There cannot be a doubt that it
was by looking unto Jesus that he became thus Christ-like ; and
the last view which he got of Christ seems especially to have
given him that heavenly composure in dying, which is so much
above nature.
Two things are to be noticed: 1. That it was a sight of
Christ at the right hand of God. 2. That it was a sight of
Christ standing there. Christ being at the right hand of God
is mentioned sixteen times in the Bible ; thirteen times he is
described as seated there ; twice as being there ; but here only is
he spoken of as standing. This appears to have made a deep and
lively impression on the mind of Stephen, for he cries out, " Be-
hold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on
the right hand of God ;" and then, with a sweet assurance that
Christ's hands were stretched out to receive him, he cried, " Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit."
Doctrine. Since Christ is at the right hand of God, and since
he rises up to receive the dying believer, believers should com-
mend their spirit to the Lord Jesus.
I. If Christ beat the right hand of God, the believers sins must
be pardoned, so that he can peacefully say, " Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit." If the grave had closed over the head of Christ for ever,
if the stone had remained at the mouth of the sepulchieto this
day, then we might well be in doubt whether he had suffered
enough in the stead of sinners. " If Christ be not risen, your
faith is vain, you are yet in your sins." But is it true that Christ
SERMON LIII. 307
is at the right hand of God ? then the stone has been rolleq
away from the sepulchre. God has let him go free from the
curse that was laid on him. The justice of God is quite satis-
fied. If you saw a criminal put into prison, and the prison doors
closed behind him, and if you never saw him come out again,
then you might well believe that he was still lying in prison,
and still enduring the just sentence of the law ; but if you saw
the prison doors fly open, and the prisoner going free, if you saw
him walking at large in the streets, then you would know at once
that he had satisfied the justice of his country, that he had suffered
all that it was needful to suffer, that he had paid the uttermost
farthing. So with the Lord Jesus ; he was counted a criminal,
the crimes of guilty sinners against God were all laid at his door,
and he was condemned on account of them. He was hurried
away to the death of the cross, and the gloomy prison-house of
his rocky sepulchre, the stone was rolled to the mouth of the
grave. If you never saw him come out, then you might well
believe that he was. still enduring the just sentence of the law
But, lo ! " he is risen, he is not here," " Christ is risen indeed.
God, who was his judge, hath raised him from the dead, and set
him at his own right hand in the heavenly places : so that you
may be quite sure he has satisfied the justice of God. He has
suffered everything that it was needful for him to suffer, he
has paid the uttermost farthing. Now is there any of you hear-
ing me, who cleaves to the Lord Jesus ? is this the Saviour whom
you take to be your surety ? " Be of good cheer, thy sins are
forgiven thee." For if your surety is free, then you are free. It
was this which gave such a tranquil peace to the dying Stephen.
He had the same vile nature which you have, he had committed
the same sins as you have, he had the same condemnation
over him which you have ; but when he saw Jesus Christ, whom
he had taken as his surety, standing free at the right hand of
God, then he felt that the condemnation had been already borne,
that God's anger was quite turned away from his soul ; and thus
being inwardly persuaded of pardon, he committed his spirit into
the hand of Christ : " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
Oh ! brethren, cleave to the same Lord Jesus ; he is still as free as
he was when Stephen died. He always will be free ; death hath
no more power over him ; for he hath suffered all. Take him as
your surety ;. cleave to him as your Saviour, and you may this
day have the same peace that Stephen had, and may die with the
same peaceful breast, saying : " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
II. If Christ be at the right hand of God, then the believer if
accepted with God, and may peacefully say with Stephen : "Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit"
The Son of God came to be a surety for men in two respects :
1, In suffering the wrath which they deserved to suffer; and, 2.
SERMON LIII.
In rendering the obedience which men had neglected to render.
If he stood as surety in suffering, then every dying sinner that
cleaved to him was to be freed from the curse of God. If he
stood as surety in obeying, then he and every sinner that cleaved
to him was to be rewarded with a place in glory. Now if Christ
had not risen from the dead, then it would have been manifest that
God had not accepted his obedience as worthy of eternal life.
But if Christ is risen, and not only so, but if he be at the right
hand of God, the place of highest glory in heaven, where are
pleasures for evermore, then I am quite sure that God is satisfied
will) Christ as a surety for man. If you saw some peer of the
realm sent away by the king upon a distant and hazardous under-
taking, with the promise that, if he succeeded, he should be ad-
vanced to the seat nearest the throne if you never saw that peer
return to claim his reward, then you would say at once that he
had failed in his undertaking. But if you saw him return, amid
the applause of assembled multitudes, and if you saw him received
into the palace of the king, and seated on the right hand of ma-
jesty, then you would say at once that he had succeeded in that
which he undertook, and that the king upon the throne was well
pleased with it.
Just so, dear brethren, if you had been in heavrn on that most
wonderful day that ever was, of which the Christian Sabbath is
an ever-enduring monument, when Christ ascended to his Father
and our Father, had you seen the smile of ineffable complacency
wherewith God received back into glory the surety of men, say-
ing : ' Thou art my Son, this day have 1 begotten thce ;" as if he
said, "Never till this day did I see thee so worthy to be called
my Son ;" and again, " Sit thou at my right hand, till I make thy
enemies thy footstool," had you seen all this, then you would have
kri"\vn how excellent the obedience of Christ is in the eyes of the
Father. But all this obedience was endured, not for himself, but
as a surety for men. He was accepted himself before he left
heaven He \vr.s infinitely near and dear to the Father, and did
not rued to become man, to obey for himself. Everything that
Jesus Christ did or suffered w r as as a surety in the stead of sin-
ners. Do you take him for your surety ? Do you cleave to the
Lord Jesus, because you have nothing of your own to recommend
you to God ? Then look up with the eye of faith, and see him at
the right hand of God. If you cleave to him, you are as much
accepted with God as Christ is, you are as near to God as your
surety is. Ah ! it was this that gave the dying Stephen such
calm tranquillity. He had the same vile nature that you have,
he had as little obedience to God as you have, he was a naked
sinner as }ou are; but. he took the Lord Jesus to be his surety,
the man in his stead ; so that, when he saw him at the right hand
of God, he felt that Christ was accepted, and that he, also, was
accepted in the Beloved. And thus being inwardly persuaded
SERMON LIII. 309
that in Christ he had a safe way to the Father, he cried, with dy-
ing breath, " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
Oh ! trembling, naked sinner, cleave to the Lord Jesus. He is
as much offered to you as he was to Stephen. Take him as your
surety cleave to him as your Saviour, and you may this day
have the same sense of acceptance which Stephen had, and you
may die with the same sweetly confiding cry : " Lord Jesus, re-
ceive my spirit."
III. If Christ stands up to receive the dying believer, this gives
the believer great confidence, so that he may peacefully say : " Lord
Jesus, receive my Spirit."
When believing souls seek for peace and joy in believing, they
do very generally confine their "iow to Christ upon the earth.
They remember him as the good Shepherd seeking the lost sheep ;
they look to him sitting by the well of S-amaria ; they remember
him saying to the sick of the palsy : " Be of good cheer, thy sins
are forgiven thee ;" but they too seldom think of looking where
Stephen looked to where Jesus is now at the right hand of God.
Now, my friends, remember if you would be whole Christians,
you must look to a whole Christ ; you must lift your eye from the
cross to the throne, and you will find him the same Saviour in
all " the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." I have
already observed, that wherever Christ is mentioned as being at
the right hand of God, he is spoken of as seated there upon his
throne ; here, and here only, are we told that he is standing. In
other places he is described as enjoying his glory, and entered
into his rest ; but here he is described as risen from his throne,
and standing at the right hand of God.
1. He rises to intercede : "He is able to save to the uttermost
all that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make in-
tercession for them." How often would a believer be a cast-
away, if it were not for the great intercessor ! How often faith
fails ! " flesh and heart faint and fail ;" but see here, Christ never
fails. On the death-bed, often the mind is taken off the Saviour,
by pains of body, and distress of mind ; but, oh ! happy soul that
has truly accepted Christ. See here, he rises from his throne to
pray for you, when you cannot pray for yourself. Look up
to him with the eye of faith, and cry : "Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit."
2. He rises to defend. (1.) The world is a sore enemy to the
believer by temptation on the one hand, and persecution on the
other. Oh ! how hard it strives to cast him down. Happy be-
liever, you are safe in a dying hour ! 1st. Because the world
cannot reach beyond death. The sneering tongue cannot spit its
venom beyond the grave. The stone of violence may kill tho
body, but it hath no more that it can do. 2d. Even if it were pos-
sible that some arrow of the world might reach beyond the grave
310 SERMON UII.
Jesus hath risen up to defend. His everlasting arms are under-
neath the departing soul. (2.) The devil is a worse enemy in
that hour. He stands close by the dying bed. He often molests,
but he cannot destroy, if you be cleaving to Jesus. Christ has all
power in heaven and in earth, and he rises up to defend your soul.
" Be not afraid," he says, " it is I." Ah ! dear brethren, cleave to
the Lord Jesus now, if you would have him to stand up for you
in a dying hour if you would cry with confidence : " Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit."
3. He rises to receive the departing soul. This is the sweetest
of all comforts to the godly. It is a sweet thought, that the holy
angels are wailing to receive the believing soul. When Lazarus
died, the good angels carried him into Abraham's 1>osom. But,
oh! it is sweeter far, to think that Jesus looks down upon the
dying bed, 'and stands up to receive the soul that loves him.
Oh ! dear brethren, he is the same kind Saviour in death that he
is through life. (1.) Once you lived without prayer without God
without Christ, in the world ; did Christ not stretch out the
hands all the day, even then? (2) Once you were lying under
convictions of sin ; you felt yourself worthy of hell, and that God
would be just if he never had mercy on your soul ; did not Christ
draw near to your soul, saying: " Peace be unto you ?* (3.) Again,
you were groaning under the power of temptation, crying against
indwelling sin : " O wretched man ! who shall deliver me from the
body of this death ?" did not Christ draw near and say : " My
grace is sufficient for thee ; my strength is made perfect in weak-
ness ?" (4.) Once more : you may yet groan under the we ght
of dying agonies. The last enemy is death it may be a hard
struggle it may be a dark valley; yet lo^k where Stephen
looked; and, lo ! Jesus is standing at the right hand of God, wait-
ing to receive you to himself. Ofi ! sweet death, when God is with
you, the Spirit within you. and Christ waiting to receive you.
Behold ! he stretches out his hands to receive your departing
spirit. Breathe it into his hand, saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit."
1. Learn that death is no death to the Christian: "He that
liveth and believeth on me, shall never die." It is only giving the
soul into the hand of Christ. He knows its value ; for he died for it.
2. Learn that to die is, to the believer, better than to live. If
Christ rises up to receive the soul, then the soul goes to be with
Jesus. But to be with Christ, is to be in glory ; therefore it is far
better. Oh! be willing, Christians, to be absent from the body,
and present with the Lord. There you shall be free from pain
of persecuting stones; no more sneering, cruel friends, no more
doubts about your soul, no more sin within your heart. ' Oh. that
I had the wings of a dove, that I might Jlee away and be at real '"
8. Learn the dreadlulncss of having no interest in Jesus Christ.
You must die ; and yet, how w r ill you die, poor Christless soul 1
SERMON LIV. 311
To whom will you commend your dying spirit? (1.) There will
be no good angels waiting round your bed ; no gentle hands of
ministering spirits stretched out to receive your trembling soul.
(2.) You will have no Christ rising up to receive you. You never
washed in his blood ; you would not come to him to have life ; he
often stretched out the hands, but you pushed them away ; ami
now he will have no pity for you. (3.) You will have no God ;
God will not be your God ; he will not be your friend ; you have
always been his enemy. Your pr.oud heart will not be reconciled
to him ; and now you will find him an enemy indeed.
Where will you go ? Die you must. Your breath must cease.
These eyes that look on me this day, mus.t close in death ; that
heart you feel beating in your bosom, must cease to beat. And
what will you do with your soul ? to whom will you commend it,
a naked, guilty, shivering thing, with the wrath ot God abiding on
it? None of the angels will dare to shelter it. No rocks, or
caves, or mountains, can hide it. Hell itself will not be a hiding-
place from the just wrath of God. Oh ! be wise now : Turn ye,
turn ye, why will ye die ?"
4. *Learn, if you have lost any friends in Christ, to be comforted
over them. It is true they are gone from you ; but remember
they have gone into far tenderer hands. You stood up to bend
over their dying body ; but the Lord Jesus stood up to receive
their undying soul. Your feeble, but affectionate hands, were
stretched out to smoothe their dying pillow ; but the Almighty
hands of the Saviour formed a sweeter, softer bed for their depart-
ing soul. Follow their faith ; look to the same Saviour ; and
when you come to die, you will use the same sweet words : " Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit."
St. Peter's, Dundee, Aug. 13, 1837.
SERMON LIV.
TIME IS SHORT.
" But this I say, brethren, the time is short : it remaineth, that both they that have
wires b as though they had none ; and they that weep, as though they wepfc not,
and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not ; and they that buy, as though
they possessed not ; and they that use this world, as not abusing it : for the fash-
ion of this world passeth away." 1 Cor. vii., 29-31.
T iv this chapter the apostle is discoursing concerning marriage.
The mind of God upon this subject seems to be, 1. That in ordi-
nary times marriage is honorable in all, provided it be in the Lord,
There are some who seem to imagine that there is peculiar
312 SERMON LIV.
holiness about an unmarried life ; but this seems quite contraiy to
the Word of God. In the sinless world, before man fell, God
said : " It is not good for man to be alone ;" and the closest walke?
with God in Old Testament times was a married man Enoch
walked with God three hundred years, and begat sons and daugh-
ters. 2. That in a time of distress and trouble to the Church it is
better not to marry : " I suppose therefore that this is good, for the
present distress." Verse 26. When the ark of God is in danger,
as at present in our Church, it seems the mind of the Spirit, that
all who can, should keep themselves as much as possible disen-
tangled from earthly engagements. When the wife of Phinehas
heard that the ark of God was taken, she travailed in birth, and
died, calling her child Ichabod, The glory is departed. So, bre-
thren, it does not become those who love Zion to be marrying and
giving in marriage when the ark of God is in danger. 3. That
even in such times it is lawful to marry : " But and if thou marry,
thou hast not sinned." Verse 28. I doubt not, brethren, the days
are near when they shall say : " Blessed are the barren, and the
wombs that never bare, and the paps that never gave suck." Still,
if any will venture to meet these times, and if you think the faith
of two may bear you up better than the faith of one, "/ spare
you" I would lay no snare upon you. You have not sinned.
Having opened up this subject, the apostle proceeds with this
affecting statement, suitable to all, married or unmarried : " But
this 1 say, brethren, the time is short; it reinaineth, that both they
that have wives be as though they had none ; and they that weep,
as though they wept not ; and they that rejoice, as though they
rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not;
and they that use this world, as not abusing it ; for the fashion of
this world passeth away." In these words there is 1. A state-
ment made : " The time is short ;" and, again : " The fashion of
this world passeth away." The time to be spent in this world is
very short ; it is but an inch of time a short half-hour. In a very
little, it will be all over ; and all that is here is changing the very
hills are crumbling down ; the loveliest face is withering away ;
the finest garments rot and decay : " The fashion of this world
passeth away." 2. A lesson drawn from this. Believers should
sit loose to everything here. Believers should look on everything
in the light of eternity value nothing any more than you will do
then. Sit loose to the objects, griefs, joys, occupations of this
world ; for you must soon change them tor eternal realities.
Doctrine. The shortness of time should make believers sit
loose to all things under the sun.
I. Show the shortness of time. True in two respects.
1. The time a believer has to live in this world is very short. (1J>
The whole lifetime is very short. From the cradle to the grave is
but a short journey : " The days of our years are threescore
SERMON LIV. 313
years And ten ; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore
years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow ; for it is soon cut
off, and we fly away." The half of men die before the age of
twenty. Even when men lived for many hundred years, it was
but a short life a mogient, compared to eternity. Methuselah
lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died. Men are
short-lived, like the grass. " All flesh is as grass ;" and the rich
and beautiful are like the flower of the field a little fairer and
more delicate. " The grass withereth, the flower fadeth ; because
the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it.'' Isa. xl., 7. "For what
is your life ? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time,,
and then vanisheth away." James iv., 14. You know how
swiftly a weaver's shuttle flies ; but your life flies more swiftly :
" My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle." Job vii., 6.
" My days are swifter than a post ; they are passed away as the
swift ships ; as the eagle that hasteth to the prey." Job ix., 25, 26.
(2.) How much is already passed away. Most believers spend
their first days in sin. Many hearing me gave their best days to
sin and the world. Many among you have only the lame, and
the torn, and the sick, to give to God. All of you can look on the
past as a sleep, or as a tale that is told. The time since I came
among you appears to me just like a dream. (3.) What remains
is all numbered. All of you hearing me have your Sabbaths num-
bered the number of sermons you are to hear. The last one is
already fixed upon. Your years are numbered. To many this i?
the last year they shall ever see in this world. Many will cele
brate their next new year in glory. The disease is now in the
body of many of you that is to lay you in the dust ; and your
grave is already marked out. In a little while you will be lying
quietly there. Yes. dear brethren, " the time is short."
2. The time of this world 1 s continuance is short: " The end of
all things is at hand." " The fashion of this world passeth
away*." A believer stands on a watch-tower things present are
below his feet things eternal are before his eyes. A little while,
brethren, and the day of grace will be over; preaching, praying
will be done. Soon we shall give over wrestling with an unbe-
lieving world soon the number of believers shall be complete,
.ind the sky shall open over our heads, and Christ shall come.
His parting cry was : " Surely, I come quickly." Then we shall
see him " whom, having not seen, we loved." A little while, and
we shall stand before the great white throne a little while, and
the wicked shall not be ; we shall see them going away into ever-
lasting punishment a little while, and the work of eternity shall
be begun. We shall be like turn, we shall sec him day and night
in his temple, we shall sing the new son.tf, without sin and without
weariness, for ever and ever. In a little moment, brethren, all
this shall be: " For a small moment have I hid rny face from
thee ; but with everlasting mercies will I gather thee."
314 SERMON LIV.
II. The believer should learn from this to sit loose to all thingi
under the sun.
1. To the dearest olyects of this world: "It remaineth. there-
fore, that they who have wives be as though they had none."
Marriage is honorable in all. Husbands should love their wives,
even as Christ loved the Church : " So ought men to love their
wives as their own bodies." Still it must not be idolatry. A
married believer should be, in some respects, as if he were
unmarried, as it he had no wife. " Honor thy father and thy
mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord
thy God giveth thee." You cannot be too kind, too gentle, too
loving, to the parents whom God has given you ; yet be as though
you had none. Parents, love your children, and bring them up in
the nurture and admonition of the Lord ; yet feel that the time is
short. They are only a loan from the Lord. Be not surprised
if he take his own. Esteem your ministers highly in love, for
their work's sake ; yet be as if you had none. Lean as entirely
on Christ as if you had never seen nor heard a minister. Brainerd
mentions an instance of one woman, who, after her conversion,
was resigned to the divine will in the most tender points : " What
if God should take away your husband from you, how do you
think you would bear that?" She replied, "He belongs to God,
and not to me ; he may do with him just what he pleases."
When she longed to die to be free from sin, she was asked what
would become of her infant ; she answered, " God will take care
of it ; it belongs to him, he will take care of it." Rutherford says,
" Build your nest upon no tree here ; for you see God hath sold
the forest to Death, and every tree whereon we would rest is
ready to be cut down, to the end we may flee and mount up, and
build upon the rock, and dwell in the holes of the rock." Set not
your heart on the flowers of this world ; for they have all a
canker in them. Prize the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the
Valley more than all ; for he changeth not. Live nearer to
Christ than to the saints, so that when they are taken from you,
you may have him to lean on still.
2. Sit loose to the griefs of this world. They that weep should
be as though they wept not. This world is the vale of tears.
There are always some mourning. No sooner is the tear dried
up on one cheek than it trickles down another. No sooner
does one widow lay aside her weeds, than another takes them up.
Those that are in Christ should weep as though they wept not ;
' tf lbr the time is short." Do you weep over those that died in the
Lord? It is right to weep; "Jesus wept." Yet "weep as
though you wept not ;" for " the time is short." They are not lost,
but gone before. The sun, when it sets, is not lost ; it is gone to
shine in another hemisphere ; and so have they gone to shine in a
brighter world. It is self-love that makes you mourn for them ;
for they are happy. You would not mourn if they were with a
SERMON LIV. 313
distant friend on earth, why do you mourn that they are with the
sinner's friend ? " They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any
more, neither shall the sun light upon them, nor any heat ; for the
Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and
shall lead them unto fountains of living waters ; and God shall
wipe away all tears from their eyes." Rev. vii., 16, 17. "The
time is short ;" and you will follow after. A few days, and you
may be leaning together on the bosom of Jesus ; you are nearer
them to-day than you were yesterday. " The time is short ;" and
you will meet with all the redeemed at the right hand of Christ,
we "shall mingle our voices in the new song, and wave together
the eternal palm ! " Weep as though you wept not."
Do you weep over those that died out of the Lord ? Ah !
there is deeper cause for weeping here ; and yet the time is short,
when all this will be explained to you, and you will not be able to
shed a tear over the lost. A little while, and you will see Jesus
fully glorified, and you will not be able to wish anything different
from what has happened. When Aaron lost his two sons, he held
his peace.
Do you mourn over bodily pain, and poverty, and sickness, and
the troubles of the world? Do not murmur: "The time is
short.'' If you have believed in Christ, these are all the hell you
will ever bear. Think you the dying thief would complain of his
pains when he was within a step of paradise ? So it is with you.
Your hell is dried up, and you have only these two shallow
brooks to pass through, sickness and death ; and you have a
promise that Christ shall do more than meet you, go with you,
foot for foot, and bear you in his arms. When we get to the
presence of Jesus, all our griefs shall look like children's griefs, a
day in his presence will make you remember your miseries no
more. Wherefore take courage, and run with patience.
3. To the enjoyments of this world.
It is quite right for a believer to use the things of this world,
and to rejoic- in them. None has such a right as the believer has
to rejoice and be happy. He has a right to use the bodily com-
forts of this world ; to eat his meat " with gladness and singleness
of heart, praising God." He has a right to all the joys of home,
and kindred, and friendship. It is highly proper that he should
enjoy these things. He has a right to all the pure pleasures of
mind, of intellect, and imagination ; for God has given him all
things richly to enjoy. Still, he should " rejoice us though he re-
j >ic-'d not, and use this world as not abusing it;" for " the time
is short." In a little while, you will be at your Father's table
above, drinking the wine new with Christ. You will meet with
all your brothers and sisters in Christ ; you will have pure joy in
God through ceaseless ages. Do not be much taken with the joys
that are here. I have noticed children when they were going out
to a feast, they would eat but sparingly, that they might have a
.6 SERMON LIV.
keener appetite for the coming dainties ; so, dear friends, you are
going to a feast above, do not dull your appetite with earthly joys,
sit loosely to them all, look upon them all as fading. As you walk
through a flower garden, you never think of lying down, to make
your home among its roses ; so, pass through the garden of this
World's best joys. Smell the flowers in passing ; but do not tarry.
Jesus calls you to his banqueting house ; there you will feed
among the lilies on the mountains of spices. Oh ! it ill becomes a
child of God to be fond of an earthly banquet, when you are look-
ing to sitting down so soon with Jesus ; it ill becomes you to be
much taken up with dress and show, when you are so soon to ee
the face that was crowned with thorns. Brethren, if you are ever
so much taken up with any enjoyment that it takes away your
love for prayer or for your Bible, or that it would frighten you to
hear the cry : " The Bridegroom cometh ;" and you would say :
Is he come already ? then you are abusing this world. Oh ! sit
loose to this world's joy : " The time is short."
4. To the occupations of the world. It is right for Christians to
be diligent in business. I often wonder how unconverted souls
can be so busy ; how, when you are bustling along, filling up all
your time with worldly things, it never occurs to you that there
will be none of this in eternity. How can I be so busy for my
oody, \vhen my poor soul is unprovided for ? But those in Christ
may well be diligent. (1.) They have good conscience ; that oils
the wheels. " A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." A
light heart makes easy work. (2.) They love to honor their
Lord. They would not have it said that a believer in Jesus was
an idler or a sluggard ; the love of Jesus constrains them to all
that is lovely. And yet a believer should buy as though he pos-
sessed not ;" for " the time is short." Oh ! believers, ye cannot be
misers ; for you are but stewards. All that you possess here is
your Lord's ; and the day is at hand when he will transfer you to
take care of another property in a brighter land. You are but
servants. It would not do if you were to set your hearts on the
things of this lower room ; for in a few days the Master is to call
you to serve in his own dear presence. Dear believers, be ready
to leave your loom for the golden harp, at a minute's warning ; be
ready to leave your desk for the throne of Jesus ; your pen fur
the palm of victory ; be ready to leave the market below, for the
street of the new Jerusalem, where the redeemed shall walk. If
you were in a sinking ship, you would not cling hard to bags of
money ; you would sit loose to all, and be ready to swim. This
world is like a sinking ship, and those who grasp at its possessions
will sink with it. Oh ! " buy as though you possessed not ;'* lor
" the time is short."
III. What the unconverted should learn from the. shortness of
rime
SERMON LIV.
1. Your folly in losing the past. Although life be very short,
ji is all saving time. This is the reason for which God has given
it to us. The long-suffering of God is intended for our salvation.
God gives men time to hear the Gospel, to pray, to get saving
conversion. But unconverted souls have wasted all the past.
Think how much time you have lost in idleness. How many
golden opportunities for prayer, and hearing the Word, and medi-
tation, have you lost ! how much time have you spent uselessly in
your bed, or idle talk, or in loitering about your doors ! If you
saw how short your time is, and how death and hell are pursuing
you, you would have fled to Cnrist ; but you have not. Think
how much you have spent in sin, at the tavern, or in vain com-
pany, or in dances, or in night walking, or in sins of which it is a
shame even to speak. God gave you time for saving your soui.
and you have spent it in ruining your soul. God gave you time
to flee tu Christ, and you have spent it in fleeing towards hen
Think how much time you have spent in business without ouo
thought for eternity. Th nk how you have lost your best time.
Youth is your best time for beinjj saved. Many of you have lost
it. Time of awakening, Sabbaths, holy time, years of Saooaths
have now gone over many of you, "The harvest is past, the
summer is ended ; and we are not saved."
2. Consider what value they put on time who are now in keti.
Once, brethren, they cared as little for it as you ; once, they
could see their years pass away without caring; and they
cou'd let their Sabbaths slip away ; but now they see their folly.
What would they now give, brethren, for such an opportunity as
you have this day ? What would they give for another year of
grace, for another week, for another day ? It is provable that
some of your friends or companions now in hell, are wishing they
could come back to tell you how precious is an inch of saving
time !
Oh ! brethren, be wise. " Why stand ye all the day idle ?" It
has come to the eleventh hour with some, your unconverted head
is grey, your feet are tottering. If you saw a man condemned to
die, lying in chains, who had but three hours to live ; if you saw
that man playing at dice, or singing wanton songs, would you not
be shocked ? \ ou would say he was a hardened wretch. Ah !
are there none among you thr: same ? You are condemned
already, your days are numbered.' you are hanging by a thread
over the mouth of hell ; and yet you are cutting and slashing at
the hand that holds you. In a little moment, brethren, it will be
all over. Throughout the never ending nges of eternity you will
remember the few days we spent together. Ah ! the remem-
brance will add fuel to the flame, and be a never-dying worm in
your poor soul. Amen.
fi\8 SERMON LV.
SERMON LV.
SIR, WE WOULD SEE JESUS.
* And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to w orship at the feast
the same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and de-
sired him, saying, Sir, We would see Jesus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew :
and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying,
The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say
unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, itabideth alone":
but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it ;
and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any
man serve me, let him follow me ; and where I am, there shall also my servant
he : if any man serve me, him will my Father honor." John xii., 20-26.
I. The manner in which these Greeks sought the Lord Jesus.
1. They came not direct to Christ, but in a round-about manner :
" The same came to Philip." Verse 21. Had they felt the into-
lerable burden of sin that lay upon them, or had they seen the
grace and suitableness of the Lord Jesus, they would have run to
his feet ; but their concern was very slight indeed. When the
publicans and sinners were Awakened about their souls, it is said
they drew near to Jesus. They did not go to Philip, or to Andrew,
or to any man, but they pressed near to Christ. They saw that
he was the fountain for their guilty souls, and all the world could
not keep them back from him. When the woman which was a
sinner knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, she
came to his feet. She did not ask leave, she could not stay, but
cast her guilty soul at his feet, washed them with her tears, and
wiped them with the hairs of her head. So it is still. If you felt
the burden of sin as you ought to feel it, if you felt the free grace
of Christ as you ought, you would press through the crowd to
come to Jesus. You would say : Make a lane, that I may come
to him. He calls me, he calls the chief of sinners. Here, Lord,
am I ; wash me in thy blood, or else I die. If you feel the crim-
son color of your soul, and believe the freeness and fulness of the
fountain, you will ask no man's leave, but go direct to Jesus.
2. They asked only to see Jesus : " Sir, we would see Jesus."
This shows how little they were in earnest to be saved by Christ.
For the same cause Zaccheus climbed up into the sycamore tree,
to see Jesus, who he was. For the same cause Herod wished
long to see Jesus ; for he hoped to see some miracle done by him ;
just as you would like to see some juggler or fortune-teller, out of
an earthly, worldly curiosity. Some are spoken of: "Ye seek
me, because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled." John vi.,
26. Ah ! how different when men are truly awakened by the
Spirit. When Job was under soul concern, his cry was : " Oh '
that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to
his seat." How different the cry of the Bride : " I held him, and
SERMON LV. 319
would not let him go. My Beloved is mine, and I am his !" How
different the cry of Paul : " I count all things but dung, that I may
win Christ, and be found in him." Oh ! brethren, if you are under
the teaching of the Spirit, no mere outward sight of Christ will
satisfy your soul. You must have a heart sight and heart relish
of him. You must taste and see that the Lord is gracious. Many
of you like to hear about Jesus, you like to be entertained by fine
descriptions of Jesus ; but if you are under the teaching of the
Spirit, nothing will satisfy you but to sit down under his shadow,
to be found in him, to be the dove hidden by his own hand " in the
clefts of the rock and in the secret places of the stair," to be
washed in his blood, and new created by his Spirit.
3. One reason of their little concern was fear of man. The
rage of Christ's enemies was waxing hotter and hotter, a few
days before they had come to the solemn resolution of putting him
to "death. Nay, we are told they consulted how they might put
Lazarus also to death, so bloodthirsty were they grown. Verse
10. We are told that many of the chief rulers also believed on
him ; but because of the Pharisees they durst not confess him
(verse 42) ; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise
of God. There can be no doubt, then, that the heat and anger
of Christ's enemies greatly damped the concern of these Greeks-
It was probably this that made them apply first to Philip. It made
them cautious in their words: "Sir, we would see Jesus." How
truly is it said, " The fear of man bringeth a snare !" The roar-
ing of the lion has driven many a soul away from Christ. Is this
not the case among you? What will my family say; what will
my companions say ; what will the world say, if I should go to
Christ, and give up all for him ? These three roars of the lion
have ruined many souls. How many of you have felt a real de-
sire sometimes to be saved ? Perhaps you fell on your knees and
prayed sincerely to be delivered. But some companion came in,
some merry-making was proposed, and you had not courage
to say, No. You wished to say, I have begun to seek the Lord,
I have been on my knees, I have been praying that I may be
saved; but you could not say it, your tongue stuck to your jaws ;
and so you went back to your vomit, and to wallow in the mire.
Alas ! you loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
" How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and
seek not the honor that cometh from God only ?" What a foolish
thing it is to fear the frown of a worm of the dust more than the
frown of the infinite God ! to fear the laugh of the scorner more
than the sentence of Christ, " Depart, ye cursed !" " Fear not them
who can kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather
fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."
II. Christ's answer.
1. He shows them that he must die before men will seek htm in
320 SERMON LV.
earnest: " The hour is come that the Son of man should be glo
rifled." Verse 23. There is something very deep and solemn in
this answer of Christ. He saw that these Greeks had no piercing
sense of their need of him ; and he explains to the disciples that
it is only a discovery of him as a crucified Christ that will draw
men to him. As if he should say, I am like a corn of wheat, if
it be not put into the earth and die, it will abide alone; but if it
be sown, and die, it bears much fruit. So if I die not, no men
will be drawn to me ; but if I die for sinners, and lie down in the
grave for them, then they will be drawn to me.
(1.) The dying of the Lord Jesus is the most awakening sight
in the world. Why did that lovely One that was from the begin-
ning the brightness of his Father's glory, and express image of
his person, degrade himself so mucl'i as to become like a small
corn of wheat, which is hidden under the earth and dies? why
did he lie down in the cold rocky sepulchre ? Was it not that
there was wrath infinite and unutterable lying upon men? Would
Christ have wept over Jerusalem if there had been no hell beneath
it? Would he have died under his Father's wrath if there were
no wrath to come ? Oh ! secure sinners, triflers with the Gospel,
polite hearers who say often, "Sir, we would see Jesus," but who
never find him, go to Gethsemane, see his unspeakable agonies ;
go to Golgotha, see the vial of wrath poured upon his breaking
heart ; go to the sepulchre, see the corn of wheat laid dead in the
ground. Why all this suffering in the spotless One if there be no
wrath coming on the unsheltered, unbelieving head ? Oh ! the
corn of wheat in the ground is the most awakening sight in the
universe.
(2.) It is the most drawing sight : " I, if I be lifted up from the
earth, will draw all men unto me." These poor Greeks did not
feel much their need of Christ, but still less did they see his suit-
ableness to their need. Had they but seen what shelter there
was to be in his wounds for sinners had they seen how much
room there would be for the chief of sinners they would have
burst through every difficulty to come to Jesus. Nothing in the
world would have kept them back from Christ. The fear of man
would have been like a straw ; they would have cried, not, " Sir,
we would see Jesus," but, " Draw me, and I will run after thee"
" Hide me in the clefts of the rock" " Cause me to sit under
the shade of the apple tree." It was this sight that drew three
thousand to Jesus on the day of Pentecost. The corn of wheat
dying for us, is the true loadstone to draw iron hearts after him.
In the natural loadstone the iron may be drawn away again, but
the soul once drawn to Christ can never be drawn away any
more.
Oh ! pray for a drawing discovery of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Some of you are in this condition. The Lord Jesus is on one side
of you, and Satan on the other, and you in the midst, and bot* f~
SERMON LV. 321
drawing at your soul. Oh ! pray that the Lord Jesus may
overcome. His open arms on the cross are drawing you his
wound in the side is inviting you. " In me ye shall have peace."
2. That men must cleave to him at whatever cost. Verse 25.
These poor Greeks were under the fear of man. They were
afraid they would be put out of the synagogue, or perhaps they
would be called Galileans or Nazarenes, or perhaps they would
be laughed at, and lose the praise of men ; and this made them
very cautious in their approach to the Saviour. Now, the Lord
Jesus shows them this is not the way that awakened souls must
seek him. As if he should say, Go and tell them that in coming
to me they are coming for eternal life, and therefore every other
consideration must be laid aside. I am the one thing needful
I am the pearl of great price. They that seek me must push aside
everything that stands in the way. Even if they lose their life in
coming to me, they would find life eternal. " He that loseth his
life for my sake shall find it." Those that know the real worth of
Christ will make everything subordinate to their finding him.
Those who will not, never will find him.
(1.) Consider how precious Christ is : " In him is life eternal."
In him there is pardon for the vilest of sinners. In hjm there is
sweet peace of conscience peace with God. In him there is rest
for the weary soul the way to the Father an open door into the
fold of God. In him there is a fountain of living waters un-
searchable riches full supplies of grace and truth for weak and
weary souls. In him there is acquittal at the judgment-day, and
a glorious crown. Oh ! should you not leave all for this? Shall
a lust, or a pleasure, or a game, or the smile of a friend, keep you
from all this ? " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it
entered into the heart of man to conceive, the things which God
hath prepared for them that love him."
(2.) Consider how tad your case without him. The number
of your sins is infinite : " Innumerable evjls have compassed me
about." Your heart is as full as ever ready to gush out with
sin to all eternity. God is angry with you every day. There is
no refuge but Christ. If you do not get into him, you will never
be saved. You will be outside the ark when the flood comes.
You will knock, and cry, Lord ! Lord ! but it will betoo late.
God will be your enemy. The great day of his wrath will be come,
and who will be able to stand ? Some of you have felt a little
touch of concern ; you have never felt the millionth part of what
is the truth. Oh ! then, will you let some poor lust, or pride, or
love of dress, some Herodias, keep you out from Christ?
Be entreated to cleave to him at whatever cost If any business
comes between, takes up too much time, disturbs your Sabbaths,
hinders you from coming to Christ let it go. If any pleasure
comes between, lulls your convictions, deadens you at prayer and
Bible, quickens your desire for the world and sin let it go. If
21
322 SERMON LV.
any friend comes between you and. Christ, if their company in-
disposes you for seeking Christ, takes off your mind, if their ridi-
cule or vain talk brings you back to the world let them go.
Never mind though they laugh and sneer, think you odd, ridicu-
lous, call you methodist ; it matters not ; one thing is needful,
Christ is precious eternity is near. If you do not, you will lose
your soul. Like Paul, I count all things but loss.
3. If we would be Christ's, we must give up ourselves to his
service for ever. The poor Greeks said : " Sir, we would see
Jesus." Jesus here tells them that a mere sig-ht of him will not
do: "If any man serve me, let him follow me." Many people
are willing to be saved from hell ; but they are not willing to give
themselves up to Christ to be his servants and followers ; but
every one who is under the teaching of the Spirit, gives himself
up to be the Lord's. So Matthew. The Lord said: "Follow me;
and he arose and left all, and followed Jesus." One who is truly
taught of God feels indwelling sin a greater burden than the fear
of hell : " In me, that is in my flesh, there is no good thing." " O
wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this
death ?" Therefore, that soul is willing to be Christ's servant for
ever willing to have his ear bored to the door of Christ's house
This will discover hypocrites. Are you willing to be Christ's
servant, to follow him in .hard duties, to be brought under the
rules of the Gospel ? If- not, you are a hypocrite. Count the
cost of coming to Christ.
III. The reward.
1. You will be with Christ. You may be cast out by men
father and mother offscouring of all things : " To-day shalt thou
be with me in paradise" be with the Lamb on Mount Zion. Sit
with me on my throne : " Father, I will that they also whom thou
hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my
glory."
2. The Father will honor. You will lose the praise of men,
perhaps of some you esteem ; but you will gain the honor of
God.
(1.) In this world. Ye shall be a peculiar treasure. He will
guide you with his eye, hear your prayer, be with you in
trouble, fill you with his Spirit, give his angels charge over you,
be with you in death.
(2.) In eternity. He will receive you, show you his salvation,
wipe off tears from your eyes, be your God and portion. Jesus
will confess you before his Father : This soul followed me.
SERMON LVI. 323
SERMON LVI.
THOU THAT DWELLEST IN THE GARDENS.
u Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice : cauM
me to hear it. Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young
hart upon the mountains of spices." Song viii., 13, 14.
I. The description of the Church, or of the believing soul : " Thou
that dwellest in the gardens." This is true of the believer in two
ways.
1 . He is enclosed and separated from the world : " A garden
enclosed is my sister, my spouse." Song iv., 12. All believers
dwell within an enclosure. Just as the gardens in the East are
enclosed with a fence of reeds, or of prickly pear, or by a stone
wall, so all that are Christ's are enclosed out of the world. Jesus
says : " If ye were of the world, the world would love its own :
but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out
of the world, therefore the world hateth you." Paul says, he was
" separated unto the Gospel of God." And again, John says :
" The world knoweth us not, even as it knew him not." Great
mistakes are made here. There are many hedges that are none
of Christ's planting. Many are separated, but not unto the Gos-
pel of God. (1.) Some are separated by education. They are
brougnt up far away from the noise and bustle of the world.
They see little of its vices, and hear little of its profanity. They
are never allowed to come within its magic ring. They are a kind
of separated people. But, ah ! they have a world in their own
heart. (2.) Some, again, are separated from the world by worldly
griefs and distresses, or by sickness of body. Their proud spirit
is broken. Their heart used madly to follow the world ; but now
it sickens and dies within them ; desire fails. They have no more
heart for their idols. These are a kind of separated people. But,
ah! they dwell not in the gardens; that is the separation of na-
ture, not of grace. (3.) Some have a haughty separation from
the world, like those that said : " Stand back, for I am holier than
thou : like the Pharisees, who would not speak to a publican.
These are known by their little compassion for the world. Ah !
these do not dwell in Christ's garden. (4.) There is a nominal
separation from the world. These people have a name to live,
and are dead. They belong, it may be, to a peculiar congrega-
tion, and to a peculiar prayer-meeting; they have a Christian
name and a Christian appearance ; they often speak as Christians,
and are spoken of as Christians ; the world are afraid of them,
and treat them as if they were believers ; but all the time beneath
that mantle there beats an unchanged, unbelieving, ungodly heart.
Ah ! brethren, this is a separation of Satan's making.
824 SERMON LVI.
But all that are truly Christ's are dwellers in the gardens.
They are separated from the world by an infinite, impassable
chasm.
1st, By blood. Just as the houses of Israel were separated from
the houses of the Egyptians by having the doors sprinkled with
blood : so there are a set of men in this world, the doors of whose
hearts have been sprinkled with blood. The blood of Christ upon
their conscience marks them out as pardoned men. They had
the same nature as other men ; the same enmity to God, and des-
perate departure from him ; they had the same love of idols as
other men ; they spent their youth in the same sins as other men ;
many of them went into the lowest depths of sin ; but the Lord
Jesus loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own
blood. " Justified by faith they have peace with God." These
are they who dwell in the gardens. Ah ! brethren, have you
been separated by blood ? have you got the red blood of Jesus,
making your soul different from the rest of men ?
2d, By his Spirit. All that are truly Christ's are separated
from the world by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. " If any
man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature." He has got new
desires given him. Once he desired what other men do ; praise
of men, a name, power, money, pleasure. These were the chief
objects set before him. Now these have lost their power over
him. The world is become crucified. Now he desires more
nearness to God ; more complete change of heart ; he desires to
spread the knowledge of Jesus over the world. He is separated
unto the Gospel of God. He has got new sorrows. Once all his
sorrows were worldly sorrows ; he wept at the loss of friends or
this world's possessions ; but now these sorrows are light afflic-
tions. His heaviest grief now is, when he is deserted of God ;
when he wants the presence of God and the smile of God ; or per-
haps the absence ot the Spirit and the burning of corruption with-
in, or sin abounding around him, makes him sigh and cry ; or the
ark of God makes his heart tremble. That man is separated he
dwells in the gardens.
Dear souls, have you been thus separated from the world ?
" We are bound always to thank God for you, beloved : because
he hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sancti-
fication ot the Spirit and belief of the truth." Ah! brethren, does
the blood of Christ separate you from the unpardoned world ?
Does the Spirit of Christ separate you from the unregenerate
world ? Is there a real, eternal separation made between you and
the world? If not, you will perish with the world.
2. Dwelling in the gardens seems also to mean dwelling in de-
light. When God made man at the first, he planted a garden
eastward in Eden ; and out of the ground made the Lord God to
grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food
the tree of life also in the midst of the garden. And the Lord God
SERMON LVI.
took the man and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress and
to keep it. That garden was a sweet type of the delight of
Adam's soul ; and there, day by day, he heard the voice of God
walking in the garden, in the cool of the day. When Adam fell,
God drove him out of the garden into this bleak world, covered
with thorns and thistles, to earn his bread by the sweat of his
brow. Man no more walked with God in a garden of delights.
But when a sinner is brought to Christ, he is brought into Christ's
garden : " We, who believe, do enter into rest." He says : " I
sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was
sweet to my taste." He becomes one that dwells in the gardens.
True, he is one coming up from the wilderness. This world is a
wilderness to the believer full of pain, sickness, sighing, death
a world that crucified his Lord, and persecutes him ; a cold, un-
believing, ungodly world. Still, the soul dwells in the gardens:
" His soul shall dwell at ease." True, a believer has his times
of desertion, and clouds, and doubts, and deep waters. At such
times, his cry is ; " O wretched man !" Still, when his eye rests
on Jesus, his soul dwells in a garden of delights.
Oh ! brethren, have you been brought into Christ's garden ;
have you found great delight in him ; a better Eden a right to
the tree of life that is in the midst of the paradise of God? Many
of you think it a dull thing to become a Christian. You look upon
their outside, their quiet, humble walk, through the world. You
think them dull, morose, severe. But, O man ! you are only
looking at the shell : could you see what is felt within could you
see the sunshine of heaven that rests upon that soul, could you
tai.e for a moment the pleasure of being at peace with God, you
would feel that all your pleasures are but the husks which the
swine are eating.
" Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,
And the man that getteth understanding.
She is more precious than rubies ;
And all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.
Length of days is in her right hand ;
In her left hand riches and honor.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
And all her paths are peace.
She's a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her :
And happy is every one that retaineth her."
Ah ! brethren, go and learn the hymn that begins
" Shall men pretend to pleasure
That never knew the Lord ?
Can all the worldling's treasure
True peace of mind afford ?"
II. The complaint of Christ : " The companions hear thy
voice."
1. The soul in Christ has many sweet companions, brothers and
326 SERMON LVI.
sisters in Christ Jesus. The soul that is united to the vine tree ia
united to all the branches : " We know that we are passed from
death unto Hie, because we love the brethren" " I am a com-
panion of all them that fear thee."
Believers have many things to say to one another ; as John
says to Gaius : " I had many things to write unto thee, but I
will not with ink and pen write unto thee: but I trust I shall
shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face/' So did believ-
ers in the days of Malachi : " Then they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another : and the Lord hearkened and heard."
And so do believers still. They may tell of their past expe-
riences modestly, humbly, with self-loathing, and for the glory of
Christ ; as Jesus told the maniac : " Return to thine own house,
and show how great things God hath done unto thee" (Luke
viii., 39) ; and as David speaks : " Come and hear, all ye that
fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul."
Ts. Ixvi., 16.
They speak to one another in their distresses, as it is written,
" Wherefore comfort one another with these words." Not com-
fort yourselves, but comfort one another. It is God's ordinance
that comfort should be ministered by believer to believer ; that
the gentle hand of love should bring the cup of consolation. They
speak to one another of Jesus : " Saw ye him whom my soul
loveth ?" " Whither is thy Beloved gone, O thou fairest among
women ? whither is thy Beloved turned aside, that we may seek
him with thee?" They exhort one another daily, while it is
called to-day.
Ah ! this is a true mark of all true believers. " The companions
hearken to thy voice." How many of you may know that you
are not in Christ by this, that you have never learned the pure
language of Canaan. True, there are many have the outward
phrase of Christians, and have much talk, who will turn out to
be clouds without rain, foolish virgins, having a lamp, and wick,
and flame no drop of oil within ; still, if you have not the speech
of Canaan, if you have not a word for those that are journeying
towards glory, I fear you belong not to that company.
2. Hear the complaint of Christ. " Cause me to hear it."
Christ complains that we speak more to one another than to him.
This is too often the case, especially with young believers.
.When the bosom is filled with joy. the believer pours it out
before his companions, rather than before the Lord. In sorrow,
when clouds have covered the soul, Christ is forgotten, and
some companion sought out to hear your complaints. In difficulty,
how often the believer runs first to some companion on earth for
counsel ! Now the word of Christ is, " Cause me to hear it" Run
l.rst to me.
(1.) Because Christ is a jealous Saviour: "I, the Lord thy
God, am a jealous God." When Christ took us to himself he
SERMON LVI. 327
said, " Thou shall call me Ishi, and shall call me no more Baali ;
for I will lake away ihe names of Baalim oul of her moulh."
Remember how he said, " Lovesl ihou me more lhan ihese ?'
And we said lo him, " Whal have I lo do any more wilh idols ?''
Now, ihe Lord Jesus cannol bear lhal we should have a nearer
friend lhan himself. He musl be our nexl of kin. We musl lean
on ihe Beloved. " Cause me lo.hear it."
(2.) Because in him is the full supply of all our need. True,
the companions are lovely and pleasanl in iheir lives; bul where
did ihey gel all the grace thai made ihem so? Was il nol from
Chrisl ? Perhaps we love their gentleness and meekness ; their
holy wisdom, to advise us in difficult circumslances ; bul ah!
where did they get all thai? from Jesus. They are bul cisterns;
Christ is the fountain. They are bul crealures ; Chrisl is ihe
Crealor. We musl leave them, and belake ourselves to him.
" Cause me to hear it."
(3.) Communion with Christ is always sanctifying. Comrpu-
nion with men, even .with good men, often hardens and hurts the
soul. Are you telling experiences? you are apt to be man-pleas-
ing, to seek to appear somelhing wonderful, very humble, or very
believing ; you are apl lo seek ihe praise of men more than the
praise of God. Are you seeking comfort ? you are apt to lean on
the creature, and to forget the only Comforter ; but communion
with Christ is always sanctifying. Oh ! it is good for the soul to
meet with Jesus. Oh ! if you would go to Jesus and tell him all ;
if you would cause him to hear it, how much happier lives you
would lead ! Let there be the utmosl frankness between your soul
and Chrisl. Cover no sin before him ; pour oul every joy, unbo-
som every grief, seek counsel in every perplexity. See here, he
bids you come and lell him all : "Cause me to hear it."
III. The believer's prayer.
1. He prays for a swift return of Christ to his own soul. It is
the presence of Christ wilh ihe soul lhal gives Irue peace and Irue
holiness. It is not circumstances, nor ministers, nor place, nor
time, but Jesus present. To sil under his shadow, gives great
delight. To lean upon the Beloved alone supports his faltering
steps. A true believer cannot be satisfied while Chrisl is away ;
" Make haste, my beloved." One thai is not a wife may be con-
tent with other lovers ; but the faithful wife longs for the return
of her Lord. The ordinances are all cold and barren til! he
return. Ministers speak, bul nol lo the heart. The companions
cannol give rest nor ease. Oh, brethren ! do you'know what it is
to long for himself; to cry, " make haste, my Beloved ?"
2. He prays for a swift return of Christ lo the Church. It is
the presence of Christ thai makes a sweet time of refreshing in a
Church. When he comes leaping on ihe mounlains, skipping
upon ihe hills, ihe flowers immediately appear on Ihe earth. The
32J3 SERMON LVI.
Lord's people are quickened in all their graces ; the}' begin to sing
songs of deliverance ; anxious souls spring up like the grass ; and
the whole garden of the Lord sends out spices. Ah ! if the Lord
Jesus were to come in here with power, I would preach and you
would hear in another way than we do. I could not be so hard-
hearted, and you would be melted under his Word. Oh ! will
you not pray, " Make haste, my Beloved, and be thou like to a roe,
or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices/' Is not such a
time desirable ?
3. He prays for the second glorious coming of Christ. It is the
real visible coming and presence of Jesus, the king, in his beauty,
that will perfect the joy of his believing people. (1.) The love
of the soul will then be satisfied. At present we are tossed with
many doubts. Am I really converted ? Am I in Christ ? Will
I persevere to the end ? The soul has oftentimes a hungering
after Christ, and cannot get its fill. But when we shall see him
as he is, the shadows will all flee away. We shall never have
another doubt for ever; we shall be ever with the Lord. (2.)
Jesus shall then be fully glorified. At present he is scorned and
spit upon. His enemies have the upper hand. Kings despise
him, and most men lightly esteem him. But then he shall come
to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe.
All his saints shall then bless him. " Men shall be blessed in him.
All nations shall call him blessed."
Ah ! my friends, can you honestly say you long for that day
Is it a blessed hope to you ? Those only who can say, " My
Beloved," can desire his coming. " Woe unto you that desire the
day of the Lord ! To what end is it for you? The day of the
Lord is darkness, and not light." Ah ! brethren, when Jesus
comes in the clouds of heaven, every eye shall see him ; and most
of you, I fear, will wail because of him. Ah, there he is ! the Sa-
viour we rejected, neglected all our life, despised ; there he comes
to take vengeance on us that know not God, and obey not the
Gospel. Those of you that can say, " My Beloved " are not in
darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Your
prayer is : " Make haste, my Beloved, and be thou like to a roe
or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices."
SERMON LVII. 329
SERMON LVII.
DRAW WATER WITH JOY.
" And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee : though thou wast
angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. Behold,
God is my salvation ; I will trust, and not be afraid : for the ^ord Jehovah is my
strength and my song ; he also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall
ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." Isa. xii., 13.
THESE words do first apply to God's ancient people, the Jews ; but
they are no less applicable to ourselves.
1. Observe the time spoken of: " In that day," the day spoken of
in the chapter before : " It shall come to pass in that day, that the
Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the rem-
nant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from
Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Gush, and from Elam, and from
Shinar, and from Hamat-h, and from the islands of the sea. And
he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the
outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from
the four corners of the earth." Verses 11, 12. It is in the day
when God restores the Jews to their own land, and converts their
souls.
2. Observe what they will do: " I will praise thee." They will
then be a praising people. At present they are a melancholy
people. There is no joy in their service, they are like a company
of dry bones ; but in that day their voices will be loud in God's
praise.
3. Observe the ground of it : " Though thou wast angry with
me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. Be-
hold, God is my salvation ; I will trust, and not be afraid : for the
Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song ; he also is become my
salvation." The ground of their joy is, that God's anger is turned
away from them, they have found a divine Saviour : " Behold,
God is my salvation." They have found a divine Sanctifier : "The
Lord Jehovah is my strength and song." Ah ! this is the truest
ground of joy and praise in the whole world.
4. Observe the consequences: " Therefore with joy shall ye draw
water out of the wells of salvation." Verse 3. The wells of sal-
vation appear to be the divine ordinances, God's Word and sacra-
ments. The saved Jews will now find all their springs in Zion,
they will be joyful hearers of God's Word, they will be joyful par-
takers in the Lord's supper. With joy shall they draw water out
of the wells of salvation.
Doctrine. Saved souls draw water with joy out of the wells
of salvation.
Many among ourselves find no joy in ordinances. Some despise
330 SERMON LVII.
them altogether. They come not at all. They spend the Sab-
bath morning in their bed, the Sabbath evening in the pleasures of
idleness. The most in this parish have no joy in drawing water.
Some come to the house of God ; but, oh ! it is a weariness, when
will it be over? If it were a game of cards, or a merry com-
pany, you would not weary ; but you know not what it is to have
joy in drawing water. Multitudes come to the Lord's table for a
name, for custom, for decency, or to obtain baptism to their chil-
dren. Alas ! alas ! they are strangers to drawing water with joy.
Some weary souls, anxious about their eternity, go from sermon to
sermon, from sacrament to sacrament, seeking rest, but finding
none. They go to one well, but they find it bitter, to another, but
it is dry, to another, but it is deep, and they cannot draw. These
are always learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of
the truth. They never draw water with joy out of the wells of
salvation. Here is the error : in one and all of these, they do not
come as saved souls, they do not come to Christ to get God's anger
away. Saved souls alone draw water with joy.
I. State of the unconverted: " Thou wast angry with me."
Every redeemed soul can look back to a time when they were
under the anger of God. God is at present angry with every un-
converted soul. Observe,
1. Whose anger it is : " Thou." It is the anger of God. If all
the men in the world were angry with a soul, it would be in a sad
condition. If every man you met were full of rage and anger
against you, the rich and the poor, kings and captains, you would
think yourself in a bad case. If all the wild beasts of the forest,
the lions, and wolves, and tigers, were to be enraged against you,
and you were in their power, you would be in a desperate case.
But these are but creatures. Every unconverted soul among you
is under the wrath of the Creator. He that made you is angry
with you.
2. He is always angry : " God is angry with the wicked every
day," Whatever day of the week it be, week-day or Sabbath-
day, God is angry with unconverted souls. Their sins are con-
tinually before him, and, therefore, he is continually provoked by
them. The smoke of their sins is continually rising into his nos-
trils. He that believeth not the Son, the wrath of God abideth
on him. Not only is God angry every day, but every moment
of the day. There is not a moment of an unconverted man's life,
but God's wrath abideth on him. When he is at his work or at
his play, sleeping or waking, in church or at market, the sword of
God's wrath is over his head. Unconverted souls walk and sleep
over hell.
3. It is increasing anger. Unconverted men are treasuring up
wrath against the day of wrath. Some unconverted persons
think they wipe off many sins by coming to the Lord's table,
SERMON LVII. 33J
whereas, if they knew the truth, they would see that they are
heaping up wrath. God's anger is like a river dammed up. It
is getting higher and higher, fuller and deeper, every day against
every soul that is out of Christ. Every Sabbath your cup is get-
ting fuller ; it will soon be full.
4. It is insufferable. Unconverted men sometimes say that if
they must go to hell, they will just bear it ; but it cannot be borne.
If you saw a spider about to be crushed under a great rock, and
it should swell out its body in order to bear the shock, it would
be miserable folly. Such is the folly of unconverted men saying
they will bear the anger of God. How can you bear the anger
of your Maker ? How can you bear the heel of Omnipotence ?
" Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the day
that I shall deal with thee ?"
Learn from this to flee from the wrath to come. Oh ! sirs, if
ye but knew your condition, you would rise and flee. I declare to
you that I sometimes think myself an Infidel, from the cold man-
ner in which 1 speak to unconverted souls. This is the state of
every one of you who is unborn again. However amiable, and
gentle, and irreproachable in the sight of man ; whatever experi-
ences you have gone through ; though you may have attended
ordinances and kept up prayer; yet, if you are unconverted, God
is angry with you every day.
Learn that anxious, souls should be ten thousand times more
anxious than they are. This is the day of grace, this is sav-
ing time. God has infinite pity for you. His anger is infinite
against you, and yet his compassion is also infinite. The more
he is angry with you the more he has pity for you. Although
his justice cries out for vengeance, sword and bow on your soul ;
although his holiness demands that you should be cast out of his
sight into the blackness of darkness ; yet his compassion cries,
Let him alone this year also. There is still room for you under
the wings of Christ: "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye
perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Bless-
ed are all they that put their trust in him."
II. The way of salvation : " Thine anger is turned away."
1. Pardon. (1.) There is abundant provision for the pardon
and peace of the sinner ; for God's anger is turned away on the
head of Christ. The thing which troubles the conscience of awak-
ened souls is the anger of God. It is this which makes them trem-
ble, by night arid by day, in public and in secret. An awakened
soul feels that he has broken God's law, and is exposed every mo-
ment to his wrath. He can find no rest in his bed, no peace at
his meals, no j<>y in his friends; the heavens are black above his
head, the earth is ready to open and devour him. If God be a
just and holy God, he will pour out his anger. If he be a true
God, ho will fulfil all his threatenings. If such u soul would take
SERMON LVII.
Christ as his surety, he would find abundant peace. Thi, anger
of God has already been turned away on the head of Christ. All
the clouds of wrath have been directed, like a water-spout, upon
that one head. If you are willing that Christ be your surety, you
do not need to fear. The law has had its course, and God docs
not demand a second punishment. There is no reason for youi
standing trembling, when there is such a glorious way of pardon.
Christ offers himself as a surety to every one of you; and if you
accept of him, your wrath is past, it will never fall on you to all
eternity. (2.) This will be still more evident, if you consider
that Christ is a divine person: "Behold, God is my salvation." If
trembling sinners only knew the person who has undertaken to be
a Saviour, it would dispel all their fears. He is the brightness of
God's glory, and the express image of his person. He is the
peerless, matchless Son of God that has undertaken to stand for
us. He is the maker of the world, he that sees the end from the
beginning. " By him were all things made." He made the sun,
moon, and stars ; he made the solid earth ; he upholds all things
by the word of his power. Do you think he would fail in any
undertaking ? Do you think, if he engages to be a shield for sin-
ners, that he will not be enough to cover them? Oh ! be asham-
ed of your unbelief, and come under this infinite Shield. "Behold,
God is my salvation," "I will trust and not be afraid." Come,
trembling soul, under this divine Shield, and you will find divine
peace. Come under this Rock, and you will find rest for your
weary souis. It matters not what sins you have ; if you come
under Christ, you shall have peace.
2. Holiness. " Thou comfortedst me." " The Lord Jehovah
is my strength and my song." When a soul comes first to Christ,
he does not know that he needs any more comfort ; he feels such
joy, he thinks he shall never be sad again. Soon he is made to
feel his wants. He feels innumerable enemies within and without.
His heart he feels to be a very hell within him ; corruptions
whoe black faces he never saw before, now raise their heads ;
his breast appears full of hissing serpents. The man shudders at
himself; he feels on the brink of a precipice ; the smallest breath
of temptation he feels will throw him down. In despair of help, he
looks above ; to Jesus at the right hand of God, able to save to the
uttermost. In Jesus it hath pleased the Father that all fulness
should dwell. He sends the Comforter ; the Holy Spirit comes
into the heart of the trembling, tempted one. " I will trust and
not be afraid : for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my
song."
Ah ! do you know anything of this Comforter, of this strength,
of this song? Tell me what do you rest on for holiness. Do you
rest on your good thoughts of yourself? Ah ! this is like Hazael :
" Is thy servant a 'dog, that he should do this thing?" and yet he
was the ver, dog he so much disclaimed. " A haughty spirit
SERMON LV1I. 333
goeth before a fall." Do you rest on your promises to man, or
your vows to God ? Ah ! this is like Peter : " Though all men
forsake thee, yet will not I ;" and yet his promise was like a breatb
of wind. No. nothing short of Jehovah can be the strength of
thy soul nothing short of the Lord Jehovah. Creatures cannot
hold up creatures. The hand that guides the stars alone can hold
thy feet from falling. Is he your strength ? Then he is able to
keep you from falling. Though the world had ten thousand times
more temptation than it has ; though your heart wero ten thou-
sand times more full of lusts ; though Satan and his angels had ten
million times their power ; they cannot cast down the soul that
leans upon Jehovah. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and
he shall strengthen thine heart. The same hand that holds the
sun in his journey holds up the soul of his people. Sing, then,
weak, trembling, tempted disciple sing aloud : " I will trust, and
not be afraid."
III. Joy in ordinances : " Therefore with joy shall ye draw
water out of the wells of salvation." Verse 3 How changed
are all the wells of salvation to a poor sinner come to Christ !
1. The Bible, Once it was a dull, wearisome book ; you
looked to the end of the chapter when you began it, to see when
it would be done. But have you come to Christ ? now the well
is a well of salvation a well of living water.
2. Prayer. Once it was wholly neglected by you, or a cold
form, which you hurried over ; now it is a sweet well of delight.
Ah ! there is no better test of the soul than delight in secret prayer,
unobserved and unknown by man.
3. The house of prayer. Once you despised it, or came for
show to show your best clothes, or to see your companions ;
now you can say : " I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go
into the house of the Lord."
4. The Lords Supper. Once you sat there, another Judas, with
stony heart and dry eyes ; now you find it a well of salvation in-
deed. It is a pledge that Christ is yours. When you see the
elements, your heart begins to burn : when you touch them, your
bands are loosed ; when you taste them, your eyes are enlightened ;
when you eat them, your whole soul is strengthened. As surely
as that bread arid wine are yours, you feel that Christ is yours.
Oh ! come, then, with simple faith, sinners that have come to
Christ, and then you will draw water with joy out of this well of
salvation. But, ah ! have you no saving change in your heart ;
no faith in Christ ; no union to him ; no Comforter ? Ah ! then it
will be a sad day to you. You will sit down at the table with the
wrath of God abiding on you ; the well of salvation will be a poi-
soned well to you ; the bread of life be the bread of death to you ;
the cup of blessing be the cup of cursing.
334 SERMON LVIII.
SERMON LVIII.
LOOK TO A PIERCED CHRIST.
" And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
the spirit of grace and of supplications ; and they shall look upon me whom they
have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son,
and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born.
In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and
to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness." Zech. xii., 10
xiii., 1.
IN these words you have a description of the conversion of the
Jews, which is yet to come ; an event that will give life to this
dead world. But God's method is the same in the conversion of
any soul. Conversion is the most glorious work of God. The crea-
tion of the sun is a very glorious work ; when God first rolled him
flaming along the sky,scatteringout golden blessings on every shore.
The change in spring is very wonderful ; when God makes the
faded grass revive, the dead trees put out green leaves, and the
flowers appear on the earth. But far more glorious and wonder-
ful is the conversion of a soul ! It is the creation of a sun that is
to shine for eternity ; it is the spring of the soul that shall know
no winter ; the planting of a tree that shall bloom with eternal
beauty in the paradise of God.
I. The source of conversion. The hand of Christ : " I will pour
upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem
the spirit of grace and of supplications ; and they shall look upon
me whom they have pierced." The Holy Spirit comes from the
very hand that was pierced by the nail to the accursed tree. In-
deed, the innermost source of the Spirit seems to be the heart
of the Father. Jesus calls him " the Spirit of Truth which
proceedeth from the Father;" and in 1 Cor. ii., 11, he is said
to bo in the heart of God, as the spirit of a man is in the heart
of man. He is the friend that dwelt from eternity in the bosom
of the Father and of the Son. But still it is as true that the Father
has given the Spirit to Christ : " It hath pleased the Father that
in him should all fulness dwell." Jesus has obtained the gift of
the Holy Spirit as a reward of his work. It is fitting that he that
died for sinners should have the Spirit to dispense to whom he
will ; and so one of his last words to his disciples was : " I will
send him unto you ; and when he is come he will convince the
world of sin."
1. This teaches awakened souls where their convictions come
from. Do any of you feel that you have been awakened to con-
cern about your souls ? you have been pierced through with an
SERMON LVIII. 335
nrrovv of conviction. Look at the arrow ; it came out of the
bow of Christ. It was Christ that took it out of his quiver
Christ aimed it at your heart ; Christ made it pierce your heart.
The feather is marked with the blood of the pierced hand. That
arrow came from the hand of love ; from the hand that was nailed
to the cross. Ah ! then, take it as a proof that Chiist wants to
save you. He is beginning to deal with you. Ah ! do not turn
away : do not tear out the arrow ; do not heal the wound
slightly. Go to himself, and the same hand that pierced you
will heal. Lord, if I may not have peace from thee, grant I may
get it from nothing else.
2 When you see others sorely wounded, you should acknowledge
the hand of Christ. I find that some acknowledge the hand of the
minister, but not the hand of Christ. This is a sore dishonor to
our glorious Immanuel ! It was said of the Erskines, the fathers
of the Secession, that God took away great part of the blessing
from their labors, because the people could not see Christ over
their heads. I find much of this amongst yourselves. The Lord
teach you to look above the heads of ministers, to our glorious
Redeemer, riding on his white horse ; sending out his arrows of
conviction !
3. Pray to Christ to do this. If he pours out the Spirit, then
who can hinder? I have no doubt many of you have come up to
day, who would have stayed away if you thought Christ would
this day convert your soul. I fear there are some among you who
have shut your eyes, and stopped your ears, and made your heart
?-oss, lest ye should be converted, and Christ should heal you.
ou would not like to be made a weeping, praying, lowly believer
in Jesus. But, oh ! if Christ pours out* the Spirit to-day, then
even you will be melted ; even you will be made to weep and to
cry : " What must I do to be saved ?"
In a time when Christ is not pouring the Spirit down, ministers
speak and strive, but in vain ; it is like speaking to the winds, or
the wild waves of the sea. But when Christ rises from his throne
and pours the Spirit down, then the weakest means are infinitely
mighty. The Word does not come in word only. The jaw-bone
of an ass was a very weak sword to kill men with ; and yet in
the hand of Sair.son it was mighty. He slew a thousand men
with it. A sling and a stone was a very weak weapon to oppose
an armed giant ; and yet when David slung the stone, it sank into
the forehead of the giant, and he fell upon his face to the earth.
Oh ! pray, dear believers, that the sling and the stone may this day
be in the hand of our glorious David ; that the Word may sink
into the hard hearts of this people ; that even giants in sin may be
brought down to the very dust. Ah ! I fear that many of you are
armed to the teeth against the Word of God ; you are armed
cap-a-pie armed to all points. You are mocking, perhaps, in
your security ; yet, look up, dear friends, to the arm of Immanuel ;
330 SERMON LVIII.
he can bring down the proudest. Pray that he would pour down
the Spirit. I believe that the lowly prayers of a single believer
may obtain a deep and pure work of God in a town. If there
were men among us like Noah, Job, and Daniel, we might expect
showers of blessings.
II. The Spirit who converts.
1. The Spirit of Grace He is so called, because his coming
to any soul, and all that he does in the soul, is of free grace.
When the Spirit of God first visits a soul, he finds nothing to in-
vite him to come or to stay ; he finds the soul like the dry bones
in the open valley without any form or comeliness without any
desire for life. Every natural man has no more comeliness than
a dry skeleton no more desire for grace than a dead carcass.
Nay, more, there is everything to drive the Spirit away. He is a
holy Spirit; but he finds the heart a sink of corruptions, full of
the most loathsome lusts and passions. He is a loving Spirit ; but
he finds the man's heart full of rebellion and horrid enmity against
God. He is a jealous Spirit; but he finds the man's heart a
chamber of imagery, full of abominable idols. Oh ! I can imagine
the Holy Spirit looking into some of your hearts, and saying :
" Why should I come to such a soul ? He does not want me to
convert him. He wants to be let alone. He had rather serve his
lusts : why should I disturb him ? I will let him alone." Stay,
stay, blessed Spirit of grace ! Come, out of free grace. Come,
not because he wants thee, but because thou art gracious. Come,
and make even these dry oones to rise a.nd call upon the name oi
Jesus.
Some of you know it was thus he came to you. He found you
a rebel, and he has made you an obedient child. Oh, will you
ever despair of any, since he turned your heart ! There are some
among you, dear friends, of whom man would despair men and
women who have lived long in sin old formalists, to whom be-
traying the Lord at his table is an old trade. Oh, let us not des-
pair of such ! The Spirit is the Spirit of free grace. Invite him
to come, poor dead soiil.
2. Of supplications. Because he teaches to pray. A natural
man can hardly be said to pray. True, he has often a form
often a cry in the time of distress ; but " will he always call upon
God ?" An anxious soul cannot pray with a form ; for he says.
None was ever like me. But a man prays in reality when the
Spirit comes to his soul. He drove an ungodly Manassah To his
knees. Manasseh had often bowed the knee in youth at his godly
father's knee ; he had often prayed to his bloody idols ; he had
often prayed to the devil ; but now, when the Spirit came, he
began to pray indeed. He drove a blaspheming Paul to his
knees. Often Paul had prayed at the feet of Gamaliel. In the
synagogue, and at the corners of streets, he had made long pray
SERMOM LVIII. 337
ers, for pretence ; but now. awakened by the Spirit of God,
' behold, he prayeth"
Have you been taught to pray by the Spirit of God ? You
once had a form, or you prayed for a pretence, or you prayed
to idols ; but have you been driven to pray by the Holy Spirit ?
Then, you may be sure he has begun a work in your heart. If
any of you have not been driven to pray in secret, you may be
quite sure that you are in the "gall of bitterness and the bond of
iniquity." A prayerless soul is an unawakened soul very near
to the burning. Some pieces of wood will burn much more easily
than others ; some pieces are green, and do not readily catch the
blaze, but a dry piece of wood is easily kindled. Prayerless
souls are dry pieces of wood they are ready for the burning.
111. Where the soul looks in conversion: " They shall look
upon me whom they have pierced." When the Spirit of God is
really working in the heart, he makes the man look to a pierced
Christ. Wherever he goes, this is the prominent object in his
eye Christ whom he has pierced. Satan would make a man look
anywhere rather than to Christ. There is such a thing as false
conversion. Satan sometimes stirs people up to care about their
souls. He makes them look to ministers, or books, or meetings,
or duties to feelings, enlargement in prayer, &c. ; he will let
them look to anything in the universe except to one object " the
cross of Christ." The only thing he hides is the Gospel the
glorious Gospel of Christ. When it is the Spirit of God, he will
not let the soul look to anything else but to Christ a pierced
Christ.
What does an awakened soul see there ?
1. That he has pierced the Son of God by his sins. This gives
him an awful sense of ihe infinite greatness of sin. A natural
man thinks nothing of sin. An oath or a lie is as light as a feather
on many of your consciences. You feel it no burden, even if
there were a million of them lying upon your soul. You can
sleep easily under all your sins. But if your eyes were opened to
look at a pierced Christ, you would see that the load is infinite.
Ah ! see there God did not spare Christ. Though he had no
sin of his own nothing but imputed sin yet see what infinite
wrath was poured upon him ! see what arrows pierced his holy
soul ! The nails pierced his spotless hands and feet ; but all the
urows of God were drinking up his spirit. Will God spare you,
*hcn, if you die under your own sins, when these sins are your
own act and deed ?
Think again : Christ was God. That pale sufferer is the " mighty
God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace ;'* yet sec how
he sinks under the load ; see, in Gethsemane, how he lies trembling,
sweating great drops of blood ; see him on Calvary, how his bonei
are out of joint how his head is bowed in dying agony. You
22
838 SERMON LVIII.
arc but a worm. Can you bear that wrath ? " Can thine heart
endure, or can tjiine hands be strong in the day that I shall deal
with thec ?" Oh ! look to Christ, sinners look to a pierced Christ,
and mourn. Nothing will break your heart but a sight of Christ
pierced by your sins.
2. That he has pierced the Son of God by unbelief. When the
Spirit reveals Christ to the soul, this is generally the bitterest pang.
An una\vakened man thinks nothing of unbelief he does not care
that he has rejected Christ times without number. Ministers have
preached till their breath is spent, beseeching him to turn and
live ; Christ hath stood all the day long with his hands stretched
out ; God hath wailed upon that man, has delayed casting him
into hell ; still he is an unmelted rebel. Ah ! when the Spirit
awakes that man, what a sight he sees in a pierced Christ ! Some
of you are saying this day : I have despised that glorious One.
He would often have gathered me, and I would not. God has
been waiting on me for years. Jesus hath been knocking at my
door, and I would never let him in : and now I fear he is gone for
ever. Yea, some of you may feel that your heart is unwilling to
take him, it is so hard and dead. All the more lovely he appears,
the more your heart is pierced, because you have rejected him.
Ah, there is no grief like that of looking to a pierced Christ !
(1.) It is a bitter grief. Did you ever see parents mourning
the loss of their only son, or of their first-born ? It is an un
speakable sorrow. Such is the anguish of those who look to a
pierced Christ. Indeed, some have deeper agony than others ;
but all who truly look to Christ are in bitterness.
(2.) It is a lonely grief. Indeed it will not be restrained any-
where ; and they are wrong who condemn rashly intense anxiety
breaking forth even in public ; but this grief seeks the shade
the stricken soul seeks to be alone with God, or with a few like-
minded. David Brainerd mentions, that on one occasion, when
he was preaching a pierced Christ to his Indians, the power of
God came down among them like a mighty rushing wind : " Their
concern was so great, each for himself, that none seemed to take
any notice of those about him. They were, to their own appre-
hension, as much retired as if they had been alone in the thickest
desert. Every one was praying apart, and yet altogether."
Oh ! dear friends, if you would really look to a pierced Christ,
you would be in anguish of soul to obtain an interest in him.
Oh ! see how you have slighted him in the days gone by. In
youth at the Sabbath school, as little children, how you have re-
fused him ! When you first came to the Lord's table, he stood a
pierced Saviour before your eyes ; yet you neglected him, and
trampled him below your feet. And are you coming this day to
pierce him over again to drive the nails again into his hands
the spear into his side the thorns into his brow ? Oh, stop, sin-
ner ! you are piercing one who loves you, killing the Prince of
SERMON LVIII 339
Life, neglecting the only Saviour. If you reject him to-day, you
may never see him again till you see him in the clouds of heaven,
and wail because of him.
Dear believers, remember how you pierced him ; let bitter herbs
sweeten your passover let a bitter remembrance of past sin make
Christ the more precious.
IV. A fountain is seen in a pierced Christ.
The first look to Christ makes the sinner mourn ; the second
look to Christ makes the sinner rejoice. When the soul looks first
to Christ, he sees half of the truth, he sees the wrath of God
against sin, that God is holy, and must avenge sin, that he can by
no means clear the guilty, he sees that God's wrath is infinite.
When he looks to Christ again, he sees the other half of the
truth, the love of God to the lost, that God has provided a surety
free to all. It is this that fills the soul with joy. Oh, it is strange,
that the same object should break the heart and heal it ! A look
to Christ wounds, a look to Christ heals. Many, I fear, have only
a half look at Christ, and this causes only grief. Many are slow
of heart to believe all that is spoken concerning Jesus. They
believe all except that he is free to them. They do not see this
glorious truth, " That a crucified Jesus is free to every sinner in
the world" that Christ's all is free to all.
When the Spirit is teaching, he gives a full look at Christ, a
look to him alone for righteousness. What does the sinner see?
The wounds of Christ, a fountain for sin and for uncleanness.
Oh, trembling sinners, come and get this look at Christ ! come
and see a fountain for sin and for uncleanness, opened on Calvary
eighteen hundred years ago. " I cannot, for my sins are very
great." Are you all sin and uncleanness, nothing but sin, a lump
of sin ? in your life, in your heart, are you one bundle of lusts ?
Here is a fountain opened for you ; look to a pierced Christ, and
weep ; look to a pierced Christ, and be glad. " I cannot wash."
To look is to wash. No sooner is the eye turned than the filthy
garments fall.
The fountain is opened up in this house of God to-day. At the
very entrance to the tables, Jesus stands and says, " Whosoever
will, let him take the water of life freely." Are you willing? do
you look to him alone for righteousness ? Then, come thus
washed to the Lord's table, in the very garment you shall wear in
glory. Sit with your eye upon the fountain. Oh, prize it highly !
What do you not owe to him who saves you from being cast
away !
Some would go past the fountain to the table. Take heed,
ungodly man ! Will you dare to sit there with unpardoned sin
upon you ? will you venture to touch the bread, and your soul
unwashed ? Ah, you will bitterly rue it one day ! Some, I trust
340 SERMON LIX.
will remember this day in glory ; some, I fear, will remember this
day in hell.
& Peter's. April 19, 1840. (Action Sermon.)
SERMON LIX.
I SLEEP, BUT MY HEART WAKETH.
* I sleep, but my heart waketh : it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, say-
ing, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled : for my head is
filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night," &c. Song v., 2, to
the end.
THE passage I have read forms one of the dramatical songs of
which this wonderful book is composed. The subject of it is a
conversation between a forsaken and desolate wife and the
daughters of Jerusalem. First of all, she relates to them how,
through slothfulness, she had turned away her lord from the door.
He had been absent on a journey from home, and did not return
till night. Instead of anxiously sitting up for her husband, she
had barred the door, and slothfully retired to rest : " I slept, but
my heart was waking." In this half-sleeping, half-waking frame,
she heard the voice of her beloved husband : ' l Open to me. my
sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled ; for my head is filled with
dew, and my locks with the drops of the night." But sloth pre-
vailed with her, and she would not open, but answered him with
foolish excuses : " I have put off my coat ; how shall I put it on ?
I have washed my feet ; how shall I defile them ?"
2. She next tells them her grief and anxiety to find her lord.
He tried the bolt of the door, but it was fastened. This wakened
her thoroughly. She ran to the door and opened, but her beloved
had withdrawn himself, and was gone. She listened, she sought
about the door ; she called, but he gave no answer. She followed
him through the streets ; but the watchmen found her, and smote
her, and took away her veil ; and now with the morning light she
appears to the daughters of Jerusalem, and anxiously beseeches
them to help her: "I charge you, if ye find him whom my soul
loveth, that ye tell him that I am sick of love."
3. The daughters of Jerusalem, astonished at her extreme
anxiety, ask : " What is thy beloved more than another beloved ?"
This gives opportunity to the desolate bride to enlarge on the
perfections of her lord, which she does in a strain of the richest
descriptiveness, the heart filling fuller a"nd fuller as she proceeds,
till she says : " This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O ye
daughters of Jerusalem !" They seem to be entranced by the
description, and are now as anxious as herself to join in the search
SERMON LIX. 341
alter this altogether lovely one. " Whither is thy beloved gone,
O thou fairest among women ? whither is thy beloved turned aside,
f hat we may seek him with thee ?"
Such is the simple narrative before us. But you will see at
once that there is a deeper meaning beneath ; that the narrative is
only a beautiful transparent veil, through which every intelligent
child of God may trace some of the most common experiences in
the life of the believer. (1.) The desolate bride is the believing
?oul. (2.) The daughters of Jerusalem are fellow-believers. (3.)
The watchmen are ministers. (4.) And the altogether lovely one
is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
I. Believers often miss opportunities of communion with Christ
through slothfulness.
1. Observe, Christ is seeking believers. It is true that Christ is
seeking unconverted souls. He stretches out his hands all the
day to a gainsaying and disobedient people ; he is the Shepherd
that seeks the lost sheep ; but it is as true that he is seeking his
own people also, that he may make his abode with them, that their
joy may be full. Christ is not done with a soul when he has
brought it to the forgiveness of sins. It is only then that he be-
gins his regular visits to the soul. In the daily reading of the
Word, Christ pays daily visits to scnctify the believing soul. In
daily prayer, Christ reveals himself to his own in that other way
than he doth to the world. In the house of God Christ comes in
to his own, and says : " Peace be unto you !" And in the sacra-
ment he makes himself known to them in the breaking of bread,
and they cry out : " It is the Lord !" These are all trysting times,
when the Saviour comes to visit his own.
2. Observe, Christ also knocks at the door of believers. Even
believers have got doors upon their hearts. You would think,
perhaps, that when once Christ had found an entrance into a poor
sinner's heart, he never would find difficulty in getting in any
more. You would think that as Samson carried off the gates of
Gaza, bar and all, so Christ would carry away all the gates and
bars from believing hearts ; but no, there is still a door on the
heart, and Christ stands and knocks. He would fain be in. It is
not his pleasure that we should sit lonely and desolate. He would
fain come in to us, and sup with us, and we with him.
3. Observe, Christ speaks: "Open to me, my sister, my love,
my dove, my undefined." O what a meeting of tender words is
here ! all applied to a poor sinner who has believed in.Christ. (1.)
" My sister ;" for you remember how Jesus stretched his hand
towards his disciples, and said : " Behold my mother and my bre-
thren ;" for whosoever shall do the will of my Father, the same is
my brother, and my sister, and my mother." (2.) " My love." for
you know how he loved sinners, left heaven out of lovn, )< r ed,
died, rose again, out of love, for poor sinners ; and ^ her im
342 SERMON LIX.
believes on him, he calls him "my love. (3.) "My dove;" foi
you know that when a sinner believes in Jesus, the holy dove-like
Spirit is given him ; so Jesus calls that soul " My dove." (4.)
" My undefiled ;" strangest name of all to give to a poor defiled
sinner. But you remember how Jesus was holy, harmless, and
undefiled. He was that in our stead ; when a poor.sinner believes
in him, he is looked on as undefiled. Christ says : " My undefiled."
Such are the winning words with which Christ desires to gain an
entrance into the believer's heart. Oh, how strange that any
heart could stand out against all this love !
4. Observe, Christ waits : " My head is filled with dew, and my
locks with the drops of the night." Christ's patience with uncon-
verted souls is very wonderful. Day after day he pleads with
them : " Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die ?" Never did beggar
stand longer at a rich man's gate, than Jesus, the almighty Sa-
viour, stands at the gate of sinful worms. But his patience with
his own is still more wonderful ; they know his preciousness, and
yet will not let him in ; their sin is all the greater, and yet he
waits to be gracious.
5. Believers are often slothful at these trysting times, and put
the Saviour away with many vain excuses. (1.) The hour of daily
devotion is a trysting hour with Christ, in which he seeks, and
knocks, and speaks, and waits ; and yet, dear believers, how often
you are slothful and make vain excuses ! You have something
else to attend to, or you are set upon some worldly comfort, and
you do not let the Saviour in. (2.) The Lord's table is the most
famous trysting-place with Christ. It is then that believers hear
him knocking, saying : " Open to me." How often is this oppor-
tunity lost through slothfulness, through want of stirring up the
gift that is in us ; through want of attention ; through thoughts
about worldly things; through unwillingness to take trouble
about it !
" I have put off my coat ; how shall I put it on ?
I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them ?"
Doubtless, there are some children of God here, who did not
find Christ last Sabbath-day at this table; who went away unre-
freshed and uncomforted. See here the cause : it was your own
slothfulness. Christ was knocking ; but you would not let him in.
Do not go about to blame God for it. Search your own heart,
and you will find the true cause. Perhaps you came without de-
liberation, without self-examination and prayer, without duly stir-
ring up faith.' Perhaps you were thinking about your worldly
gains and losses, and you missed the Saviour. Remember, then,
the fault is yours, not Christ's. He was knocking ; you would not
let him in.
II. Believers in darkness cannot rest without Christ.
SERMON LIX. 343
In the parable we find that, when the bride found her husband
was gone, she did not return to her rest. Oh, no ! her soul failed
for his word. She listens, she seeks, she calls. She receives no
answer. She asks the watchmen, but they wound her, and take
away her veil ; still she is not broken off from seeking. She sets
the daughters of Jerusalem to seek along with her.
So is it with the believer. When the slothful believer is really
awakened tc feel that Christ has withdrawn himself, and is gone,
he is slotnful no longer. Believers remain at ease only so long
as they flatter themselves that all is well; but if they are made
sensible, by a fall into sin, or by a fresh discovery, of the wicked-
edness of their heart, that Christ is away from them, they cannot
rest. The world can rest quite well, even while they know that
they are not in Christ. Satan lulls them into fatal repose. Not
so the believer ; he cannot rest. 1. He does all he can do him-
self. He listens, he seeks, he calls. The Bible is searched with
fresh anxiety. The soul seeks and calls by prayer ; yet often all
in vain. He gets no answer, no sense of Christ's presence. 2.
He comes to ministers God's watchmen on the walls of Zion.
They deal plainly and faithfully with the backslidden soul take
away the veil, and show him his sin. The soul is thus smitten
and wounded, and without a covering ; and yet it does not give
over its search for Christ. A mere natural heart would fall away
under this ; not so the believer in darkness. 3. He applies to
Christian friends and companions; bids them help him, and pray
for him ; " I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find
him whom my soul loveth, tell him that I am sick of love."
Is there any of you, then, a believer in darkness, thus anxiously
seeking Christ? You thought that you had really been a believer
in Jesus ; but you have fallen into sin and darkness, and all your
evidences are overclouded. You are now anxiously seeking
Christ. Your soul fails for his Word. You seek, you call, even
though you get no answer. You do search the Bible, even though
it is without comfort to you. You do pray, though you have no
comfort in prayer, no confidence that you are heard. You ask
counsel of his ministers, and when they deal plainly with you, you
are not offended. They wound you, and take away the veil from
you. They tell you not to rely on any past experiences, that they
may have been delusive, they only increase your anxiety ; still
you follow hard after Christ. You seek the daughters of Jerusa-
lem, them that are the people of Christ, and you tell them to pray
for you.
Is this your case ? As face answers to face, so do yofe see your
own image here ? Do you feel that you cannot rest out of Christ ?
then do not be too much cast down. This is no mark that you
are not a believer, but the very reverse. Say :
" Why art thou cast down, my soul .'
Why art tbou disquieted in me?
344 SERMON L1X.
Still trust in God : for I shall yet praise him,
Who is the health of my countenance, an i my God."
Is tnere any of you awakened since last Sabbath-day, by some
fall into sin, to feel that Christ is away from you? Doubtless,
there must be some who, within this little week, have found out
that, though they ate bread with Christ, they have lifted up the
heel against him. And are you sitting down contented without
anxiety? Have you fallen, and do you not get up and run,
that if possible, you may find Christ again ? Ah, then ! I stand
in doubt of you ; or rather, there is no need of doubt ; you never
have known the Saviour you are none of his.
III. Believers in darkness are sick of love, and full of the com-
mendation of Christ more than ever.
In the parable, the bride told the daughters of Jerusalem that
she was sick of love. This was the message she bade them carry ;
and when they asked her about her beloved, she gave them a rich
and glowing description of his perfect beauty, ending by saying :
" He is altogether lovely."
So is it with the believer in time of darkness : " He is sick of
love." When Christ is present to the soul, there is no feeling of
sickness. Christ is the health of the countenance. When I have
him full in my faith as a complete surety, a calm tranquillity is
spread over the whole inner man ; the pulse of the soul has a
calm and easy flow ; the heart rests in a present Saviour with a
healthy, placid affection. The soul is contented with him ; at rest
in him : " Return unto thy rest, O my soul." There is no feeling
of sickness. It is health to the bones ; it is the very health of the
soul to look upon him, nnd to love him. But when the object of
affection is away, the heart turns sick. When the heart searches
here and there, and cannot find the beloved object, it turns faint
with longing : " Hope deferred maketh the heart sick." When
the ring-dove has lost its mate, it sits lone and cheerless, and will
not be comforted. When the bird that hath been robbed of its
young, comes back again and again, and hovers with reluctant
wing over the spot where her nest was built, she fills the grove
with her plaintive melodies she is " sick of love." These are the
'earnings of nature. Such also are the yearnings of grace.
When Jesus is away from the believing soul it will not be com-
forted. When the soul reads, and prays, and seeks, yet Jesus is
not found, the heart yearns and sickens he is " sick of love. 5 *
" Hope deferred maketh the heart sick."
Did yon ever feel this sickness ? Did you ever feel that Christ
was precious, but not present ; that you could not lay hold on
Christ as you used to do, and yet your soul yearned after nim, and
would not be comforted without him ? If you have 1. Remem-
ber it is a happy sickness ; it is a sickness not of nature at all. but
of grace. All the struggles of nature would never make you " .f'ck
SERMON LIX. 345
of love." Never may you be cured of it, except it be in the re-
vealing of Jesus ! 2. Remember it is not best to be " sick of
love ;" it is better to be in health, to have Christ revealed to the
soul, and to love him with a free, healthy love. In heaven, the
inhabitants never say they are sick. Do not rest in this sickness ;
press near to Jesus to be healed. 3. Most, I fear, never felt this
sickness ; know nothing of what it means. Oh ! dear souls, re-
member this one thing: If you never felt the sickness of grace,
it is too likely you never felt the life of grace. If you were told
of a man, that he never felt any pain or uneasiness of any kind all
his days, you would conclude that he must have been dead that
he never had any life ; so you, if you know nothing of the sick
yearnings of the believer's heart, it is too plain that you are dead ;
that you never have had any life.
Last of all, the believer in darkness commends the Saviour.
There is no more distinguishing mark of a true believer than this.
To the unawakened there is no form nor comeliness in Christ ; no
beauty that they should desire him. Even awakened souls have
no true sense of Christ's perfect comeliness. If they saw how
Christ answers their need, they could not be anxious. But to be
lievers in darkness there is all comeliness in Christ ; he is fairer
than ever he was before. And when the sneering world, or cold-
hearted brethren, ask : " What is thy beloved more than another
beloved?" he delights to enumerate his perfections, his person,
his offices, his everything ; he delights to tell that " he is the chief-
est among ten thousand" "his mouth is most sweet" yea, "he
is altogether lovely."
A word to believers in darkness. There may be some who are
walking in darkness, not having any light. Be persuaded to do as
the bride did ; not only to seek your beloved, but to commend
him, by going over his perfections.
1. Because this is the best of all ways to find him. One of the
chief reasons of your darkness is your want of considering Christ.
Satan urges you to think of a hundred things before he will let
you think about Christ. If the eye of your faith be fully turned
upon a full Christ, your darkness will be gone in the instant.
" Look unto me, and be ye saved." Now, nothing so much en-
gages your eye to look at Christ as going over his perfections to
others.
2. Because you will lead others to seek him with you. Oh !
dear brethren, the great reason of our having so many dark Chris-
tians nowadays, is, that we have so many selfish Christians. Men
live for themselves. If you would live for others, then your dark-
ness would soon flee away. Commend Christ to others, and they
will go with you. Parents, commend him to your children ; chil-
dren, commend him to your parents, and who knows but God may
346 SERMON LX.
bless the word, even of a believer walking in darkness, that they
shall cry out :
" Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women ?
Whither is thy beloved turned aside, that we may seek him with thee ?"
St. Peters, 1837.
SERMON LX.
A THORN IN THE FLESH.
" And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the reve-
lations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to
buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the
Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is
sufficient for thee : for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly
therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest.
upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities,
in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake : for when I am weak, then am I
strong." 2 Cor. xii., 7-10.
WHAT is contained in this passage ? I. PauTs wonderful privi-
lege ; caught up into the third heaven, and into paradise ; got a
day's foretaste of glory ; saw and heard wonderful things. II.
Paul's humbling visitation ; a thorn in the flesh. He had been in
the world of spirits, where is no sin ; now he was made to feel
that he had a body of sin to cry, " O wretched man that I am !
who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?" He had been
among the inhabitants of heaven ; now one from hell is allowed
to buffet him. III. His conduct under it ; fervent repeated prayer.
*' I besought (marking his earnestness) thrice ;" no answer ; still
he prayed. Before, he was more engaged in praise, or thinking
of telling others ; now he is brought to cry for his own soul, lest
he should be a castaway. The answer : " My grace is sufficient
for thee." God does not pluck the thorn away ; does not drive the
devil back to hell ; does not take him out of the body. No ; but he
opens his own breast, and says, Look here ; here is grace enough for
thee ; here is strength that will hold up the weakest. IV. PauFs
resolution ; to go on his way glorifying in his infirmities. He is
contented to have infirmities, to have a body of sin, in order that
Christ may be glorified in holding up such a weak vessel : That
the power of Christ may rest continually on my soul ; that his
mighty hand may have one to hold up to his own praise. 1 take
pleasure in all humbling dispensations ; for they teach me that I
have no strength, and then I am strongest.
I. PauTs wonderful privilege.
SERMON LX. 347
He had gained a glorious foretaste of heaven given to him. It
was a wonderful season to his soul. He was caught up to the
third heaven, or to paradise. He was taken up to the Father's
house with many mansions. He was taken up to be with Jesus and
the saved thief in paradise. Much he could not tell. How it was,
whether he was in the body or out of the body, he could not tell.
The words he heard, the words of the Father, the words of Je-
sus, the songs of the redeemed, and of the holy angels, they were
unspeakable. Still, he could never forget that day. Fourteen
years had gone over his head, and yet it was fresh in his remem-
brance. The sights he saw, the words he heard, he never could
forget. It was just a day of glory, a foretaste of heaven.
Dear believers, you also have wonderful privileges. You also
have your foretastes of heaven. You may not have the miracu-
lous visions of paradise which Paul here speaks of; yet you have
tasted the very joy that is in heaven ; drunk of the very river of
God's pleasures. If you have known the Lord Jesus, you know him
who is the pearl of heaven, the sun and centre of it. If you have
the Father's smile, you have the very joy of heaven. Above all,
if you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, you have the earnest
of the inheritance. On such days as last communion Sabbath,
are not the joys of a Christian unspeakable and full of glory?
" Whom having not seen we love." Are not such days to be
looked back upon ? Even fourteen years after, when many will be
gone to the table above, some will look back to last Sabbath as a day
spent in his courts, better than a thousand. To those of you who
get no joy on such occasions, what can we say, but that you would
get no joy in heaven f If you are not made glad at the table be-
low, you will never, I fear, be made glad at the table above.
II. Paufs humbling visitation. Verse 7.
1. What was given him.
The thorn in the flesh here spoken of is variously understood
by interpreters. (1.) Some understand it to have been a bodily
disease ; some sharp-shooting pains which were given him. Pain
and disease are very humbling. They are often used by God to
bring down the lofty spirit of nan. (2 ) Some understand by it
some remarkable temptation to sin immediately from the hand of
the devil. A messenger from Satan which was like a thorn in his
soul. (3.) Some understand it to have been some besetting sin,
some part of his body of sin of which he complains so sore
(Rom. vii.) some lust of his old man stirred up to activity by a
messenger of Satan. It seems most probable that this was the
thorn that made him groan.
Whatever it was, one thing is plain, it was a truly humbling
visit. It brought Paul to the dust. A little before, he had beer
m the sinless world, he felt no body of sin, saw the pure spirits
before the throne, and the spirits of just men made perfect ; now,
348 SERMON LX.
he is brought down to feel that he has a body of sin and death,
he has a thorn in the flesh. A little before, he was among holy
angels, trampling hell and the grave below his feet ; now, a mes-
senger from hell is sent to buffet him. " O wretched man !"
Ques. Wliy was this given him ? Ans. Lest he should be ex-
alted above measure. This is twice stated. What a singular
thing is pride ! Who would have thought that taking Paul into
paradise for a day would have made him proud ? and yet God,
who knew his heart, knew it would be so, and therefore brought
him down to the dust. The pride of nature is wonderful. A
natural man is proud of anything. Proud of his person, although
he did not make it, yet he prides himself upon his looks. Proud
of his dress, although a block of wood might have the same cause
for pride, if you would put the clothes on it. Proud of riches,
as if there were some merit in having more gold than others.
Proud of rank, as if there were some merit in having noble blood.
Alas ! pride flows in the veins ; yet, there is a pride more wonder-
ful than that of nature pride of grace. You would think a man
never could be proud who had once seen himself lost ; yet, alas !
Scripture and experience show that a man may be proud of his
measure of grace ; proud of forgiveness : proud of humility ;
proud of knowing more of God than others It was this that was
springing up in Paul's heart when God sent him the thorn in the
flesh.
Dear friends, some of you last Lord's day were brought very
near to God, and filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Some, I am persuaded, have since then had Paul's humbling expe-
rience. You thought that you were for eve'r away from sin, but
a thorn in the flesh has brought you low. You have fallen into
sin during the week ; or something has brought you low indeed.
"O wretched man !" Why do you thus fall after a communion sea-
son 1 1. To make you humble ; to teach you what a vile worm you
are, when you can go to the Lord's table, and yet fall so low ; this
may well teach you that you are vile. You thought, perhaps, that
sin was clean away, but here you see it is again. What constant
need you have of Jesus' blood ! 2. To make you long for heaven.
There we shall sin no more for ever. Nothing but holiness there.
No unclean thing can enter. Oh, press forward to it! Do not
sit down by the way. Look forward to glory.
III. PauFs remedy prayer*
Here is the difference between a natural man and a child of
God. Both have the thorn in the flesh ; but a natural man is con-
tented with it. His lusts do not vex and trouble him. A child of
God cannot rest under the power of temptation. He flies lo his
knees. The moment Paul felt the bufferings of Satan's messenger,
he fell upon his knees, praying his Father to take it away from him.
No answer came. Again he goes to the throne of grace. Again
SERMON LX. 349
no answer. A third time he falls on his knees, and will not let
God go without the blessing. The answer comes : " My grace is
sufficient for thee." Not the thing he asked. He asked : Take
this thorn away. God does not pluck it out of his flesh, does not
drive Satan's messenger back to hell. He could have done this,
but he does not. He opens his own bosom, and says : Look here.
It hath pleased the Father that in me should all fulness dwell ;
" My grace is sufficient for thee." Here is the Holy Spirit for
every need of thy soul. Oh, what a supply did Paul then see in
Christ ! What unsearchable riches ! He had seen much in the
third heaven, but here was something more, an almighty Spirit
waiting for the need of poor weak sinners.
Dear friends, have you found out this remedy of the tempted
soul ? 1. Have you been driven to your knees by temptation ?
I said, the week before the communion should be a week of prayer ;
but if you have had Paul's experience, the week after has been
one of prayer also. 2. Oh, tempted soul ! be importunate, take
no denial. Men ought always to pray, and not to faint. Be like
the importunate widow, the Canaanitish woman. If you lie down
contented under sin, you may well tear that there is no grace in
you. 3. Take Paul's answer. God may not pluck out the thorn.
This is the world of thorns. But look into his breast. There is
enough in Jesus to keep thy soul. The ocean is full of drops, but
Christ's bosom is more full of grace. Oh ! pray either that your
lusts may be taken away, or that you may believe the grace that
is in Christ Jesus.
IV. PauVs determination. Verses 9, 10.
" Most gladly." When Paul was caught up into paradise lie
thought he would never again feel his body of sin ; but when he
was humbled and made to know himself better, and to know the
grace that is in Christ, then his glory ever after was, that he had
a weak body of sin and death, and that there was power enough
in Christ to keep him from falling. From that day he gloried not
that he had no sin in him, but that he had an almighty Saviour
dwelling in him and upholding him. He took pleasure now in
everything that made him feel his weakness ; for this drove him
to 'Jesus lor strength.
Learn, dear brethren, the true glory of a Christian in this world.
The world knows nothing of it. A true Christian has a body of
sin. He has every lust and corruption that is in the heart of man
or devil. He wants no tendency to sin. If the Lord has givon
you light, you know and feel this. What is the difference, then,
between you and the world? Infinite! You are in the hand of
Christ. His Spirit is within you. He is able to keep you from
Calling. " Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous ; and shout for joy all
yc that are upright in heart."
St Peter't, April 26, 1840
350 SERMON LXI.
SERMON LXI.
SECOND ADVENT.
For the Son >f Man is a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gavt
authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the portei
to watch. Wateh ye therefore : for ye know not when the master of the house
cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning : lest
coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all,
Watch." Mark xiii., 34-37.
The Church on earth is Christ's house : " Who left his house."
Verse 34. This parable represents the Church on earth as
Christ's house or dwelling.
1. Because he is the foundation stone of it Just as every stone
of a building rests on the foundation, so does every believer rest
on Christ. He is the foundation rock upon which they rest. If
it were not for the foundation, the whole house would fall into
ruins the floods and winds would sweep it away. If it were not
for Christ, all believers would be swept away by God's anger ;
but they are rooted and built up in him, and so they form his
house.
2. Because he is the builder. (1.) Every stone of the building
has been placed there by the hands of Christ ; Christ has taken
every stone from the quarry. Look unto the rock whence ye
were hewn, and the hole of the pit whence ye were digged. A
natural person is embedded in the world just as firmly as rock in
the quarry, the hands of the almighty Saviour alone can dig out
the soul, and loosen it from its natural state. (2.) Christ has car-
ried it, and laid it on the foundation. Even when a stone has been
quarried, it cannot lift itself; it needs to be carried, and built upon
the foundation. So when a natural soul has been wakened, he
cannot build himself on Christ ; he must be carried on the shoul-
der of the great master builder. Every stone of the building has
been thus carried by Christ. What a wonderful building ! Well
may it be called Christ's house, whea he builds every stone of it.
See that ye be quarried out by Christ ; see to it, that ye be car-
ried by him, built on him ; then you will be an habitation of God
through the Spirit.
3. Because his friends are here. Wherever a man's friends are,
that is his home ; wherever a man's mother and sisters and
brothers dwell, that is his home ; this, then, must be Christ's home,
for he stretched forth his hand towards his disciples, and said :
" Behold my mother and my brethren ; for whosoever shall do the
will of my father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and
sister, and mother." As long as this world has a believer in it,
Christ will look upon it as his house. He cannot forget, even in
glory, the well of Samaria the garden of Gethsemane the hill
SERMON LXI. 351
of Calvary. Happy for you who know Christ, and who do the
will of his Father; wherever you dwell, Christ calls it his house.
You may dwell in a poor place, and still be happy ; for Christ
dwells with you, and calls it his dwelling, he calls you " My brother,
sister, mother."
II. Christ is like a man who has gone afar journey, Verse 34.
Although the Church on earth be his house, and although he
has such affection for it, yet Christ is not. here, he is risen Christ
is risen indeed.
1. He has gone to take possession of heaven in our name. When
an elder brother of a family purchases a property for himself and
his brothers, he goes a far journey, in order to take possession.
So Christ is an elder brother. He lived and died in order to
purchase forgiveness and acceptance for sinners. He has gone
into heaven to take possession for us. Do you take Christ for
your surety? Then you are already possessed of heaven.
Ques. How am I possessed of heaven when I have never been
there ?
Ans. Christ your surety has taken possession in your name. If
you will realize this, it will give you fulness of joy. A person may
possess a property which he has never seen.
Look at your surety in the land that is very far off, calling it
all his own, for the sake of his younger brethren : " These things
have I spoken unto you, that your joy may be full."
2. He has gone to intercede for us. (1.) .He has gone to inter-
cede for unawakened, barren sinners : " Lord, let it alone this
year also." Oh, sinner ! why is it that you have not died a sudden
death ? Why have you not gone quite down into the pit ? How
often the Saviour has prayed for some of you ! Shall it be all in
vain ? (2.) To intercede for his believing people, to procure all
blessings for them. Often an elder brother of a family goes into
a far country, and sends back rich presents to his younger bre-
thren at home. This is what Christ has done ; He has gone far
above all heavens, there to appear in the presence of God for us,
and to ask the very things we need, and to send us down all the
treasures of heaven. Of his fulness have we all received, even
grace for grace. " I will pray the Father, and he shall give you
another comforter." Oh, Christians ! believe in a praying Christ,
if you would receive heavenly blessings. Believe just as if you
saw him, and open the mouth wide to receive the blessings for
which he is praying.
3. He has gone to prepare a place for us. When a family are
going to emigrate to a foreign shore, often the elder brother goes
before to prepare a place for his younger brethren. This is what
Christ has done. He does not intend that we should live here
always ; he has gone a far journey in order to prepare a place for
us: " I go to prepare a place for you ; and if I go and prepare a
352 SERMON LXI.
place foi you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that
where I am, there ye may be also." Oh, Christians ! believe in
Christ preparing a place for you. It will greatly take away
the fear of dying. It is an awful thing to die, even ibr a forgiven
and sanctified soul ; to enter on a world unknown, unseen, untried.
One thing takes away fear ; Christ is preparing a place quite
suitable for my soul ; he knows all the wants and weaknesses of
my frame : I know he will make it a pleasant home to me.
III. All Christ's people are servants, and have their work as-
signed them. Verse 34.
1. Ministers are servants, and have their work assigned them.
T\\o kinds are here mentioned. (1.) Stewards. These seem to
be the servants to whom he gave authority. All ministers should
be stewards; rightly dividing the Word of life: giving to every
one of the family his portion of meat in due season. Oh! it is a
blessed work, to feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased
with his own blood ; to give milk to babes, and strong meat to
grown men ; to give convenient food to every one. Pray for
your ministers that they may be made stewards. There are few
such. (2.) Porters. He commanded the porter to watch. It is
the office of some ministers to stand at the door and invite every
sinner, saying ; " Enter ye in at the strait gate." Some ministers
have not the gift of feeding the Church of God and watering it
Paul planted A polios watered. Some are only door-keepers ir
the house of my God. Learn not to despise any of the true ser
vants of God. Are all apostles ? Are all prophets ? He has ap
pointed some to stand at the door, and some to break the chh
dren's bread despise neither.
2. All Christians are servants, and have their work assign**-
them. Some people think that ministers only have to work k^
Christ: but see here: ** He gave to every man his work." la *t
great house, the steward and the porter are not the only servar./j ;
there are many more, and all have their work to do. Juyr so
among the people of Christ. Ministers are not the only sex v.ints
of Christ : all that believe on him are his servants.
(1.) Learn to be working Christians. " Be ye doers if the
Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own souls." It is
very striking to see the uselessness of many Christian- Are
there none of you who know what it is to be selfish ir. your
Christianity ? You have seen a selfish child go into a secret
place to enjoy some delicious morsels undisturoed by his
companions ? So is it with some Christians. Thf.v feed upon
Christ and forgiveness : but it is alone, and all for themselves.
Are there not some of you who can enjoy being a Christian, while
your dearest friend is not ; and yet you will not speak to him ?
See, here you have got your work to do. When Christ found
you, he said : " Go, work in my vineyard." What were you hired
SERMON LXI. 353
for. if it was not to work ? What were you saved for, if it was not
to spread salvation ? What blessed for ? Oh, my Christian friends !
how little you live as if you were servants of Christ ! how much
idle time and idle talk you have ! This is not like a good servant.
How many things you have to do for yourself! how few for
Christ and his people ! This is not like a servant.
(2.) Learn to keep to your own work. In a great house every
servant has his own peculiar work. One man is the porter to
open the door ; another is the steward to provide food for the
family ; a third has to clean the rooms ; a fourth has to dress the
food ; a fifth has to wait upon the guests. Every one has his
proper place, and no servant interferes with another. If all were
to become porters, and open the door, then what would become
of the stewardship? or, if all were to be stewards, who would
clean the house ? Just so is it with Christians. Every one has
his peculiar work assigned him, and should not leave it. " Let
every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called."
Obndiah had his work appointed him in the court of the wicked
Ahab. God placed him as his servant there, saying : " Work
here for me." Does any of you belong to a wicked family ?
Seek not to be removed Christ has placed you there to be his
servant work for him. The Shunamite had her work. When
the prophet asked: " Wilt thou be spoken for to the king?" she
said : " I dwell among mine own people." Once a poor demoniac
whom Jesus healed, besought Jesus that he might follow after
him ; howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him : " Go
home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath
done for thee, and how he hath had compassion on thee." Learn,
my dear friends, to keep to your own work. When the Lord has
hung up a lamp in one coruer, is there no presumption in remov-
ing it to another? Is not the Lord wiser than man ? Every one
of you has your work to do for Christ where you are. Are you
on a sick bed ? Still you have your work to do for Christ there
as much as the highest servant of Christ in the world. The
smallest twinkling star is as much a servant of God as the mid-day
sun. Only live for Christ where you are.
IV. Christ is coming back again, and we know not when .
" Watch ye therefore : for ye know not when the master of the
house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or
in the morning : lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping."
Verses 35, 36. Two things are here declared.
1. That Christ is coming back again. The whole Bible
bears witness to this. The master of the house has been a
long time away on his journey ; but he will come back
again. When Christ ascended from his disciples, and a cloud
received him out of their sight, and they were looking steadfastly
into heaven, the angels said, * Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye
23
354 SERMON LXI.
gazing up into heaven ? This same Jesus which is taken up from
you into heaven, sh;ill so come in like manner as ye have seen
him go into heaven." He went up in a cloud, he shall come in
the clouds.
2. That Christ will come back suddenly. The whole Bible
be.irs witness to this. (1.) In one place it is compared to a snare
which suddenly entraps the unwary wild beast: "As a snare
shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole
earth." (2.) Again, to a thief: " The day of the Lord so cometh
as a thief in the night." (3.) Again, to a bridegroom coming
suddenly : " At midnight there was a cry made, Behold the bride-
groom cometh." (4.) Again, to the waters of the flood. (5.)
Again, to the fiery rain that fell on Sodom and Gomorrah. (6.)
And here, to the sudden coming home of the master of the house:
" Ye know not when the master of the house cometh." Now, my
dear friends, I am far from discouraging those who, with humble
prayerfulness. search into the records of prophecy to find out what
God has said as to the second coming of the Son of Man. We
arc not like the first disciples of Jesus, if we do not often put the
question : " What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end
of the world ?" But the truth which I wish to be written on your
hearts is this, That* the coming shall be sudden, sudden to the
world, sudden to the children of God : " In such an hour as ye
think not, the Son of Man cometh." " Ye know not when the
master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at cock-
crowing, or in the morning." Oh, my friends ! your faith is
incomplete, if you do not Jive in the daily faith of a coming
Saviour.
V. Watch : " And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch."
Verse 37.
1. Ministers should watch. This word is especially addressed
to the porter : ""Watch ye, therefore." Ah ! how watchful we
should be. Many things make us sleep, (l.) Want of faith.
When a minister loses sight of Christ crucified, risen, coming
again, then he cannot watch lor souls. Pray that your ministers
may have a watching eye always on Christ. (2.) Seeing so
many careless souls. Ah ! you little know how this staggers the
ministers of Christ. A young believer comes with a glowing
heart to tell of Christ, and pardon, and the new heart. He knows
it is the truth of God, he states it simply, freely, with all his heart,
he presses it on men, he hopes to see them melt like icicles before
the sun ; alas ! they are as cold and dead as ever. They live on
in their sins, they die in their sins. Ah ! you little know how
this makes him dull, and heavy, and heart-broken. My friends,
pray that we may not sleep. Pray that your carelessness may
only make us watch the more.
2. Christians should watch. Ah! if Christ is at hand, (1.)
SERMON LXII. 355
Take heed lest you be found unforgiven. Mnny Christians seem
to live without a realizing view of Christ. The eye should be
fixed on Christ. Your eye is shut. Oh ! if you would abide in
Christ, then let him come to-night, at even, or at midnight, or at
cockcrow, or in the morning, he is welcome, thrice welcome !
Even so, come Lord Jesus. (2.) Take heed lest you be found in
any course of sin. Many Christians seem to walk, if I mistake
not, in courses of sin. It is hard to account for it ; but so it
seems to be. Some Christians seem to be sleeping, in luxury, in
covetousness, in evil company. Ah ! think how would you like
to be overtaken thus by the coming Saviour ? Try your daily
occupations, your daily state of feeling, your daily enjoyments,
try them by this test : Am I doing as I would wish to do on the
day of his coming ?
3. Christless souls, how dreadful is your case ? Death may be
sudden oh ! how awfully sudden it sometimes is. You may
have no time for repentance no breath to pray ! The coming of
the Saviour shall be more sudden still. Ye know neither the day
nor the hour. You know not God ; you have not obeyed the
Gospel. Oh ! what will ye do in the day of the Lord's anger 7
SERMON LXII.
LOT'S WIFE.
" But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt."
Gen. xix., 26.
THERE is not in the whole Bible a more instructive history than
that of Lot and his family. His own history shows well how the
righteous scarcely are saved. * His sons-in-law show well the way
that the Gospel is received by the easy, careless world. His wife
is a type of those who are convinced, yet never converted who
flee from the wrath to come, yet perish after all ; whilst the
angels' laying hold on the lingering family, is a type of the gra-
cious violence and sovereign mercy which God uses in delivering
souls.
At present I mean to direct your thoughts to the case of Lot's
wife, and to show the following
Doctrine. Many souls who have been awakened to flee from
wrath, look behind, and are lost.
I. Many flee, under terrors of natural conscience ; but when
these subside, they look back, and are lost.
So it was with Lot's wife. She was not like the men of Sodom,
856 SERMON LXII.
intent upon the world and sin, quite unconcerned aboul their
souls. She was not like her sons-in-law ; she did not think her
husband mocking ; she was really alarmed, and really fled ; and
yet her terrors were like the morning cloud and the early dew,
which quickly pass away. When the angels had brought them
out of the gates of Sodom, they said : " Escape for thy life, look
not behind thee ; neither stay thou in all the plain ; escape to the
mountain, K st thou be consumed." And as long as these dreadful
words were ringing in her ears, doubtless she fled with anxious
footstep. The dreadful scene of the past night ; the darkness ;
the anxiety of her husband ; the pressing urgency of the 'noble
angels ; all conspired to awaken her natural conscience, and to
make her flee. But now the hellish roar of the wicked Sodomites
had ceased ; the sun was already gilding the horizon, promising a
glorious dawn ; the plain of Jordan began to smile, well watered
everywhere as the garden of the Lord. Her sons-in-law, her
friends, her house, her goods, her treasure, were still in Sodom ;
so her heart was there also. Her anxieties began to vanish with
the darkness ; she determined to take one look to see if it were
really destroyed; she " looked back from behind him, and became
a pillar of s;ilt."
So is it with many among us. Many flee under terrors of
natural conscience, but when these subside, they look back, and
are lost.
Some people pass through the world without any terrors of con-
science, without any awakening or anxiety about their souls.
(1.) Some are like the men of Sodom, intent upon buying and
selling, building and planting, marrying and giving in marriage.
Or they are greedy upon their lusts, and they have no ears to
hear the sounds of coming wrath. As a man working hard at the
anvil hears no noise from without, because of the noise of his own
hammer, so these^nen hear nothing of coming vengeance, they
are so busy with the work of their hands. (2.) Some are like
the sons-in-law of Lot. Yon shreVd, intelligent man of business
thinks that ministers do but jest. We seem to them as one that
mocks. They are so accustomed to see behind the scenes in other
professions, that they think there must be deceit with us too. And
\v,hen they can point to an insincere, ungodly minister, then their
triumph is complete. These shrewd men think that ministers put
serious words into their mouths, as other men put on suits of
solemn black at funerals, just to look well, and to agree with the
occasion. They think that ministers put frightful things into ser-
mons just to frighten weak people, and to make the crowd wonder
Now these shrewd men are seldom, if ever, visited with terrors
of conscience. They slip easily through the world into an un-
done eternity. (3.) Some, again, slumber all their days under a
worldly ministry. When God, in judgment, takes away the pure
preaching of the Word, and sends a famine of the bread and
SERMON LXII. 357
water of life, their souls grow up quite hard and unawakened.
They grow proud, and cannot bear to hear the preaching of
Christ ; they stop their ears and run ; they hate, they detest it.
These souls often pass through life without the least awakening
and never know, till they are in hell, that they are lost souls. (4.)
But many worldly people have a season of anxiety about their soul.
A dangerous illness, or some awful bereavement, or some threat-
ening cloud of Providence, stirs them up to flee from the wrath
to come. They are quite in earnest : they lay by their sins, and
avoid their sinful companions, and apply diligently to the Bible,
and attempt to pray, and seem to be really fleeing out of Sodom;
but they dure only for a while ; their concern is like the morning
cloud and the early dew it quickly passes away. The sun of
prosperity begins to rise ; their fears begin to vanish ; they look
behind, and are lost.
Are there none here who can look back on such a course as
this? You remember when some providence awakened you to
deepest seriousness ; some sickness, or the approach of the pesti-
lence, or some fearful dealing of God with your family, or the
approach of a sacrament, made you anxiously flee out of Sodom.
O how different you were from the gay, laughing, unconcerned
world ! You did not think ministers were mocking then. You
read your Bible, and went down on your knees to pray very ear-
nestly. But the storm blew over ; the sun began to rise, and every-
thing around you began to smile. You began to think it hard to
leave all your friends, your sins, your worldly enjoyments, and
that perhaps the wrath of God would not come down. You
looked back, and this day you are as hard and immovable as a
pillar of salt. " Remember Lot's wife."
Learn two things :
1. That an awakening by mere natural conscience is very
different from an awakening by the Spirit of Ggd. No man ever
fled to Christ from mere natural terror. " No man can come to
rne," saith Christ, " except the Father which hath sent me draw
him." Seek a divine work upon your heart.
2. Learn how far you are from the kingdom of God. You are
quite lost. You are unmoved and unaffected by all we can say.
You do not weep, you do not beat upon the breast, you do not
flee, though we can prove to you that you are lying under the
wrath of the great God that made you. Yet you do not stir one
step to flee. Oh! how like you are to the pillar of salt; how
likely it is that you will never be saved.
II. Many flee when their friends are fleeing ; but they look back
and are lost.
So it was with Lot's wife. Of all the things which helped to
awaken that unfortunate woman, I doubt not the most powerful
was the anxiety of her husband. If she had not bocn anxious. I
358 SERMON LXII.
doubt not she would have been as stupid and unconcerned as hei
neighbors around her. But when she looked upon the anxious coun-
tenance of her beloved lord ; when she saw how serious and earnest
he was in pleading with their sons-in-law, then she could net but
share in his anxiety. She had partaken of all his trials, of all his
prosperities and of all his troubles, and she would not leave him
now. She clave unto him, she laid hold on the skirt of his garment,
determined to be saved, or to perish with her husband. So much
for the amiable and interesting affections of nature ; but nature is
not grace ; natural affection carried her out of Sodom, but it did
not carry her into Zoar ; for she looked behind him, and became
a pillar of salt.
Now, there is reason to think that this is true of some in this
congregation ; that they flee when their friends are fleeing, but
look back, and are lost.
Nothing is more powerful in awakening souls than the example
of others awakened to flee. (1.) It was so in the case of Ruth,
when she clave to Naomi, saying : " Where thou guest I will go."
(2.) It was so in the case of the daughters of Jerusalem, when
they saw the bride in anxious search of her beloved : " Whither
is thy beloved gone, that we may seek him with thee?" (3.) It
is foretold that it shall be so in the latter day, when " ten men
shall hold on the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying ; We will go
with you ; for we have heard that God is with you." (4.) It was
so in the time of John the Baptist, when many of the Pharisees
and Sadducees came to be baptized, and John said : " O generation
of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come ?"
There is something very moving in the sight of some beloved
one going to join the peculiar people of God. When he begins
to flee from his old haunts of pleasure, no longer to laugh at
wicked jests, no longer to delight in sinful company, when he be-
comes a reader ofthe Bible, and prays with earnestness, and waits
with anxiety on the preached Word, it is a very moving sight to
all his friends. No doubt, some are made bitter against him ; lor
Christ came to set the daughter against her mother, and the
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law ; but some are awakened
to flee along with him.
Are there none here who were moved to flee because some dear
friend was fleeing? (1.) Is there no wife that was awakened to
flee with her husband, but grew weary and looked back, and is
now become like Lot's wife ? (2.) Is there none here that was
made truly anxious by seeing some companions anxious about
their soul? They wept, and you could not but weep; they felt
themselves lost ; and you, for the time, felt along with them. They
were very eager in their inquiries after a Saviour, and you joined
ihem in their eagerness. And where is all your anxiety now ?
It is gone, like the morning cloud and the early dew. You looked
oehind, and are now unmoved as a pillar of salt.
SERMON LXII. 359
It was quite right to flee with them, it was right to cleave to
them ; for if not, you would certainly be hardened ; if you stand
out such mjving invitations, nothing else will persuade you. If it
was right to flee, it is right to flee still. Why should you look
back ? They are going to be blessed, and will you not go with
them ? They are fleeing from wrath, and will you not flee with
them ? " Remember Lot's wife." Have you made up your mind
to separate eternally ? If not, why then have you let them go ?
Why ha\e you given up the first good movement in your breast?
Flee still, cleave to them, and say : " We will go with you."
III. Some are laid hold of by God, and made to flee, who yet look
back, and are lost.
So it was with Lot's wife. Not only were natural, means
made use of to make her flee, but supernatural means also. Not
only was she moved by sudden terror, and by the example of her
husband, but she was drawn out by the angels : " And while he
lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of
his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters ; the Lord being
merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him with-
out the city." Verse 16. She shared in the same divine help as
her husband, God was merciful to her as he was to her husband.
The same mighty hand was put forth to save her, and actually
plucked her as a brand out of the burning ; hut, observe, the same
hand did not pull her into Zoar, nor lift her away to the cave of
the mountain. Grace did something for her, but did not do every-
thing. She looked back, and became a pillar of salt.
So is it, we fear, with some among us. Some seem to be laid
hold of by God, and made to flee, who yet look back, and are lost.
Now, there are a great many among us of whom we have no right
to say or to think that they have ever been laid hold of by God.
1. There are many among us who seem to Jive in utter igno-
rance of their lost condition, who plead the innocence of their lives
even when Death is laying his cold hand upon them. There are
some poor souls who seem to die willing to be judged by the law.
I have lived a decent life, they will say ; I have been a harmless,
quiet-living man ; and I can see no reason why the wrath of the
great God should ever come upon me. Oh ! brethren, if this is
your case, it is very plain that you have never had a divine
awakening. The power of God alone could awaken you to flee.
2. There are many among us who live in the daily practice of
sins, some who carry on small dishonesties, or occasionally use
small minced oaths, who walk in the counsel of the ungodly. O
brethren ! if this be jtour case, it is quite plain that you have never
had a divine awakening. When a man is made anxious about his
soul, he always puts away his open sins.
3. There are many among us who live much in the neglect of
ihe means of grace ; some who very seldom read the Bible when
3GO SERMON LXH.
alone, or never but on Sabbath-days; some who do not piay
regularly, nor with any earnestness ; some who are very careless
about the house of God, contented if they attend it only once on
the Sabbath-day ; who make no conscience of being up betimes,
and ready for the house of God in the morning ; who allow the
silliest excuses to keep them away ; who loiter about on the Sab-
bath-day ; who devote it to most unhallowed visiting, or walking
in the fields ; making it the most unholy day in the week. Oh !
dear souls, if this be your case, then it is quite plain you have
never been laid hold on by God. You are as dead and unawak-
ened as the stones you walk upon. You are living in the very
heart of Sodom, and the wrath of God abideth on you.
But there are some among us of whom we think that they have
been laid hold on by God, and made to flee. There are some who
show evident marks that God has been making them flee out of
Sodom. The marks are these :
1. They have a deep sense of their lost condition ; they have
an abiding conviction that the time past of their lives has been
spent under the wrath of the great God that made them ; their
'oncern goes with them wherever they go ; and anxiety is painted
on their very countenance. Is this your condition ? Then you
have indeed been awakened by God.
2. They dare not go back to their open sins ; they break off
quite suddenly from their little dishonesties, their swearing, or evil-
speaking ; they separate from their wicked companions and filthy
conversation ; they feel that death is in the cup, and they dare not
drink it any longer. Is this your case ? Then there is reason to
think you have been awakened by God.
3. They are anxious users of the means of grace. They search
the Scriptures night and day; they pray with earnestness; they
are unwearied in waiting on ordinances ; suffer no trifle to keep
them away from the house of God ; they seek for the Saviour as
for hid treasure ; listen for his name, as the criminal for the sound
of pardon. Is this your case ? Then it seems likely that God has
been merciful to your soul ; that God has been making you flee
out of Sodom, and escape for your life.
But the text shows me that many who have been thus awakened
look back, and are lost. " Remember Lot's wife." She was
brought quite out of Sodom, and yet she looked back, and became
a pillar of salt. She was awakened, yet never saved. Now,
there is reason to fear this may be the case with some amongst
us. (1.) Some awakened souls begin to despair of ever finding
Christ. They begin to blame God for not having brought them
into peace before now ; and so they give UD striving to enter in
at the strait gate they look behind, and are lost. (2.) Some
awakened souls begin to think themselves saved already. They
have put away many outward sins, and prayed with much ear
neatness. Their friends observe the change, and they think they
SERMON LXII. 361
are surely safe now, that there is no need of fleeing any further
so they look behind, and become a pillar of salt. (3.) Some
awakened souls begin to tire of the pains of seeking Christ. They
remember their former ease and pleasures, their companions, their
walks, their merry-makings ; so they look behind and perish.
Speak a word to awakened souls. Some now hearing me may
be at present under the awakening hand of God. You have deep
convictions of your lost condition, you have put away outward
sins, and wait earnestly on every means of grace ; there is every
reason to think that God has been merciful to you, and has laid
hold upon you. " Remember Lot's wife."
Learn from her, (1.) That you are not saved yet. Lot's wife
fled out of Sodom, led by the angels' hand, and yet she was lost.
An awakened soul is not a saved soul. You are not saved till
God shut you into Christ. It is not enough that you flee you
must flee into Christ. Oh ! do not lie down and slumber. Oh !
do not look behind you. " Remember Lot's wife." ("2.) That
God is no ways obliged to bring you into Christ. God has made
but one covenant ; that is, with Christ and all in him ; but he has
nowhere bound himself to men that are out of Christ. He may
never bring you to Christ, and yet be a just and righteous God.
Do not demand it of God, then, as if he were obliged to save you,
but lie helpless at his feet as a sovereign God.
Speak a word to those who are beginning to look back. There
is reason to think that some who were once awakened by God
.have begun to look back. (1.) Some of you have begun to lose a
sense of your wretched and lost condition. Some of you have
quite another view of your state from what you had. (2.) Some
of you have gone back to old sins, to old habits, especially of
keeping company with the ungodly ; and some, there is reason to
think, are trying to laugh at their former fears. (3.) Some of
you have turned more careless of the Bible, and of prayer, and of
the ordinances. At last sacrament there were many very eager
to hear of Christ; and where are they now? There is reason to
fear that much of that concern is gone, that many have lost their
anxiety, that some are looking back.
Now, "remember Lot's wife." (I.) It will not save you, that
you were once anxious ; nay, that you were made anxious by
God. So was Lot's wife, and yet she was lost. (2.) If you really
look back, it is probable you never will be awakened again. Con-
sider that monument of vengeance on the Plain of Jordan ; speak
to her, she does not hear; cry, she does not regard you ; urge her
to flee again from wrath, she does not move ; she is dead. So
will it be with you. If you really turn back now, we may speak,
but you will not hear; 1 we may cry, but you will not regard ; we
may urge you again to flee, but you will not move. " Ifany man
draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him." " No man,
362 SERMON LXIII.
having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the
kingdom of God.
fit Peter's, 1837.
SERMON LXIII.
HAPPY ART THOU, O ISRAEL !
" Happy art thou, Israel : who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the
shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency ? and thine enemies
shall be found liars unto thee ; and thou shalt tread upon their high places."
Deut. xxxiii., 29.
THESE are the last words of Moses, the man of God. He was
now an hundred and twenty years old ; his eye was not dim, nor
his natural force abated. For forty years he had led the people
through the wilderness ; he had cared for them, and prayed for
them, and led them as a shepherd leads his flock ; and now, when
God had told him that he must part from them, he determined to
part from them blessing them. And in this respect, as in many
others, did he foreshadow the Saviour, of whom it is written, that
" he led his disciples out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his
hands and blessed them ; and it came to pass, while he blessed them,
he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven."
First of all, we may understand these words literally as the bless-
ing of Moses upon the people of Israel. He looked back over
the wilderness through which he had led them, and it was all
brilliantly studded with the wondrous things which God had
wrought for them. He remembered the high hand and out-
stretched arm with which he had brought them out oi Egypt ; he
remembered how he clave a path for them through the Red Sea,
when their enemies sank like lead in the mighty waters ; lie re-
membered how he went before them in a pillar of cloud by day,
and a pillar of fire by night ; he remembered how he had sweet-
ened the waters of Marah, for they were bitier ; he remembered
how he had fed them with manna from on high: man did eat an-
gels' food. He remembered how he had smitten the 'rock at Re-
phidim, and waters gushed forth ; how he had held up his hands
to "the going down of the sun, and Israel prevailed over Amalek ;
how he had received the law from the very hand of God for them.
He remembered how he had again brought water from the flinty
rock at Meribah ; how he had lifted up the brazen serpent in the
wilderness ; and, looking back over all this track of forty years'
wonders, during which their garments had not waxed old, neither
bad the sole of their foot swelled, how could he but put a bles*
SERMON LXIII. 36*
jig upon them ? He felt as Balaam did : " Blessed is he that bless-
eth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee." And accordingly,
when he had gone over each of the tribes separately, leaving each
his prophetic blessing, he sums up the whole in these glorious
words : '* Who is like unto the God of Jeshurun ?"
But, secondly, these words may be understood typically as the
blessing of Moses upon God's people to the end of time. No man
can read the Old Testament intelligently without seeing that the
people of Israel were a typical people ; that the choosing of them
out of Egypt, the bringing them through the Red Sea, and through
the wilderness and into the land of promise, were all typical of
the way in which God brings his chosen ones out of their sins,
through this world of sin and misery, into the heavenly Canaan
the rest that remaineth for the people of God. If, then, the bond-
age, the deliverance, the unbelief, the enemies, the journeyings, the
guidance, and the rest of the Israelites, were all typical of God's
dealings with his own people to the end of time, we are quite jus-
tified in understanding these words as the blessing of Moses, the
man of God, upon all the true children of God.
" Happy art thou, O Israel : who is like unto thee, O people
saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword
of thy excellency ! and thine enemies shall be found fiars unto
thee ; and thou shall tread upon their high places." From these
words I draw the following
Doctrine. That the people of God are a happy people, because
they are saved by the Lord.
I. Israel is a happy people, because chosen by the Lord.
1. This was true of ancient Israel. Moses tells them plainly:
" The Lord did not set his love upon you, because ye were more
in number than any people ; for ye were the fewest of all people:
but because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the
oath which he had sworn unto your fathers." Deut. vii., 7. Here
is a strange thing which the world cannot understand. He loved
them because he loved them, not because they were better, or
greater, or worthier than any other nation, but because he loved
them. Strange, sovereign, unaccountable love ! He gives no ac-
count of his matters ; so, then, " it is not of him that willeth, nor
of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy."
2. This is true of all God's people to this day. David says,
" Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach
unto thee." Christ says, " Ye have not chosen me, but I have
chosen you." And Paul says, " Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath hjessed 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." Ah! yes,
my friends, our God is a sovereign God : " Therefore hath he
364 SERMON LXIII.
mercy on whom he will have mercy ; and whom he will he hard-
qneth." Every believer is a witness of this. Is there any believer
here ? Well, I take you to bear witness. You were once dead
and careless about your soul, you could be happy with the world
though unforgiven and unsanctified. How was it that you were
brought to flee from the wrath to come ? Do you waken yourself
out of sleep? Ah ! no ; you know well that if God had let you lie
you would willingly have slept on. Like the sluggard, you would
have said, "A little more sleep, a little more slumber, a little more
folding of the hands to sleep ;" but he awoke you by his Word, by
his ministers, or by his providence ; and he would not let you go
till you cried, " What must I do to be saved ?" Again : you were
brought from conviction of sin to conviction of righteousness ; from
a troubled conscience to a heart at peace in believing. How was
this? Did you come yourself to Jesus, or were you drawn of the
Father? Ah! you know well you received it not of man, neither
by man that God brought you within sight of Jesus. He that at
first brought light out of darkness shined into your hearts, and
stirred you up to act faith on Jesus ; and thus you were saved ; for
"no man can come to Jesus except the Father draw him." From
beginning to end, then, the work is God's. By grace ye are saved ;
and blesse'd, indeed, is " the man whom thou choosest, and causest
to approach unto thee."
Objection. But some one may object that this doctrine minis-
ters to pride ; that to make a man believe himself the chosen fa-
vorite of God, puffs up that man with pride. To this I answer,
that this is the very truth which cuts up pride by the roots. As
it is written, " Who maketh thee to differ from another ? and
what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now, if thou didst
receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it ?"
1 Cor. iv., 7. If there be one believer among you (1.) I bid
him look round upon those of his own family still without Christ
and without God in the world. Perhaps you are the only one in
your house that knows and loves the Saviour. Now, I ask you,
Who made you to differ ? Are you by nature any better than
your kindred, that you are chosen and they left? How, then, can
you be proud ? (2.) Or, look round on your neighborhood, you
will see drunkenness and pollution, you will hear oaths and pro-
faneness. Now, I ask, Who made you to differ ? or, what better
were you than they ? Can you, then be proud ? (3.) Or, look
round on the Popish and Heathen world sunk in darkest ignorance
without any to tell them the plain way of salvation by Jesus.
Look upon nine-tenths of the world that want the pure light of the
Gospel, and tell me. Who made you to differ? and how can you
be proud ? (4.) Or, look beyond this world's horizon, look down
to the realms of darkness and of death eternal, and see the angels
that fell
SERMON LXIII. 365
" Far other once beheld in bliss-
Millions of spirits for one fault amerced
Of heaven, and from eternal splendors flung
For their revolt."
Look upon these majestic intelligences, " reserved in everlasting
chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day," and
tell me, Who made you to differ ? what better are you by nature
than devils? Unconverted men are children of the devil. There
is no lust in the heart of the devil that is not in every natural
heart : and yet God hath passed them by, and come to save you.
God came and wakened you when you were in a natural condi-
tion, and no better than devils ; yea, he hath passed by the Hea-
then he hath left your neighbors in their sins your own children
unawakened ; but he hath awakened you.
Oh ! most mysterious electing love ! Well may you cry out
with Paul : " O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and
knowledge of God ! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his
ways past finding out !" And does this make you proud ? does
it not rather make you bury your head in the dust, and never lift
up your eyes any more ? And does it not make you happy ?
" O happy Israel : who is like unto thee, O people saved by the
Lord !"
Does it give you no joy to feel that God thought upon you in
love before the toundation of the world ? that when he was alone
from all eternity he gave you to the Son to be redeemed ?
" Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee ; and before thou
earnest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee." Does it give you
no joy to think that the Son of God thought on you with love before
the world was : " My delights were with the children of men,"
that he came into the world bearing your name upon his heart
that he prayed for you on the night of his agony : " Neither pray
I for these alone, but for all those that shall believe on me through
their word ?" Does it give you no joy that he thought upon you
in his bloody sweat ; that he thought of you upon the cross, and
intended these sufferings to be in your stead ? Oh, little children,
how it would lift your hearts in holy rapture above the world ;
above its vexing en res ; its petty quarrels ; its polluting pleasures;
if you would keep this holy joy within ; taking up the very word
of your Lord : " Father, thou lovedst me before the foundation of
the world "
O unbelieving world ! ye know nothing of this joy. It is all
frantic presumption in your eyes : and this is just what the Bible
says : A stranger intermeddles not with the believer's joy. This
is just what Christ said : " Ye believe not, because ye are not of
my sheep." Carry this one thing away with you: " We were
once just what you now are (every believer will tell you) we
were just as senseless and unbelieving as you are. We once
despised and laughed at the very persons with whom we are now
366 SERMON LXIII.
one in the Lord ; but we were awakened by God, and fled to
Christ, and are redeemed and happy" " knowing our election
of God." Oh ! may this be your history, and then you will know
the meaning of these words : " O, happy Israel !"
II. Israel is a happy people, because they are justified by the
Lord: " The eternal God is thy refuge." Verse 27. " He is
the shield of thy help." Verse 29.
First of all, this is true because Christ is our refuge and shield,
and Christ is God. (1.) It is said of him : " In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God." John i., 1. (2.) Again, it is said of him : " Thy throne,
O God, is for ever and ever : a sceptre of righteousness is the
sceptre of thy kingdom." Heb. i., 8. (3.) Again, it is said of
him : " By him were all things created, that are in heaven, and
that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones,
or dominions, or principalities, or powers ; all things were created
by him, and for him : and he is before all things, and by him all
things consist." Col. i., 16, 17. (4.) Again, it is said of him, that
" he is over all, God blessed for ever." Rom. ix., 5. (5.) Again,
Thomas saith unto him: "My Lord, and my God." (6.) And he
is called " God manifest in the flesh." 1 Tim. iii., 16. So, then,
he is indeed " Immanuel, God with us." He is the maker of the
world ; the God of providence ; the God of angels. And this is
the being who came to be the Saviour of sinners, even the chief !
Now, brethren, I wish you to see the use of the Saviour being
God, and how the whole comfort and joy of the believer is found-
ed on it. Everything that God does is infinitely perfect : he never
fails in anything he undertakes. Everything, therefore, which the
Saviour did was infinitely perfect. He did not, and could not,
fail in anything which he undertook. (1.) He undertook to bear
the wrath of God in the stead of sinners. His heart was set upon
it from all eternity ; for, before the world was made, he tells us :
" My delights were with the sons of men." For this end he took
on him our nature ; became a man of sorrows, and acquainted
with grief. From his cradle in the manger to the cross, the dark
cloud of God's anger was over him ; and especially towards the
close of his life, the cloud came to be at the darkest yet he
cheerfully suffered all. " How am I straitened till it be accom
plished !" The cup of God's anger was given him without mix-
ture : yet he said : " The cup which my Father hath given me,
shall I not drink it?" Now, we may be quite sure, that since he
was the Son of God, he hath suffered all that sinners should have
suffered. If he had been an angel, he might have left some part
unfinished ; but since he was God, his work must be perfect. He
himself said: " It is finished;" and since he was the God that can-
not lie, we are quite sure that all suffering is finished that
neither he nor his body can suffer any more to all eternity. (2.)
SERMON LXHI. 367
But, again, lie undertook to obey the law in the stead of sinners.
Man had not only broken the law of God, but he had failed to
obey it. Now, as the Lord Jesus came to be a complete Saviour,
he not only suffered the curse of the broken law, but he obeyed
the law in the stead of sinners. Through his whole life, he mado
it his meat and drink to do the will of God. Now, we may be
quite sure that since he was the Son of God, he hath done all that
sinners ought to have done. His righteousness is the righteous-
ness of God ; so that we may be quite sure, that every sinner who
puts on that righteousness is more righteous than if man had never
fallen ; more righteous than angels ; as righteous as God. " Who
shall condemn whom God hath justified ?"
O careless sinners ! this is the Saviour whom we have always
been preaching to you ; this is the divine Redeemer whom you
have always trodden under foot. You would think it a great
thing if the king left his throne, and knocked at your door, and
besought you to accept a little gold ; but, oh ! how much greater
a thing is here. The King of kings has left his throne, and died
the just for the unjust, and now knocks at your door. Careless
sinner, can you still resist ?
Awakened, anxious souls ! this is the Saviour we have always
offered you; this is the refuge, the rock which has followed you.
You are anxious for your soul ; and why, then, will you not hide
here? Do you think that you honor Christ by doubting if his
blood and righteousness be enough to cover you? Do you think
you honor God by making him a liar, and refusing to believe the
record which he hath given of his Son ? Oh ! doubt him no
longer. Another day, and it may be too late. Flee like men
who have an eternal hell behind them, and an eternal refuge
before them. Take heaven by violence. " Strive to enter in at
the strait gate ; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in,
and shall not be able."
And you who have fled for refuge to the Saviour : " O happy
Israel : who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord 1" The
eternal God is thy refuge ; and of whom can you be afraid ? Re-
member, abide in him. In the dark hours of sin and temptation,
Satan always tries to drive you from this refuge. He will try to
make you doubt if Christ be God ; if his work be a finished work ;
if sinners may hide in him ; if a backslider may hide in him ; but
cast not away your confidence. Cleave fast to Christ ; and then
the eternal God is thy refuge. In the hour of death, you may
have a dark valley to pass through ; you may lose sight of all
your evidences ; you may feel all your graces departed, and cry :
"All these things are against me." Still, as a helpless sinner, flee
to the Saviour God. Throw away the question whether you ever
believed or no ; and say, I will believe now ; and thus at evening
time it shall be light, and you will die with the eternal God &
368 SERMON LXIII.
your refuge. Your eyes will close on this world only to open on
the world where there is no doubt, and no fear, and no death.
III. Israel is a happy people, because sanctified by the Lord:
" Underneath are the everlasting arms ;" and, " Who is the sword
of thy excellency."
In the chapter before (xxxii., 11), God compares his carrying
of Israel to an eagle and her young: "As an eagle stirreth up her
nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings,
taketh them, beareth them on her wings : so the Lord alone did
lead him, and there was no strange god with him." Again, in
Isaiah, it is said : " In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the
angel of his presence saved them : in his love and in his pity he
redeemed them ; and he bare them and carried them all the days
of old." Again, in the story of the lost sheep, we find that the
Saviour not only finds the lost sheep, but " when he hath found it,
he lays it upon his shoulders rejoicing." This is the very same
meaning as the text : " Underneath are the everlasting arms ;" and
again : " He is the sword of thine excellency."
When a young believer has come to peace in Jesus, he then
comes to anxiety about walking holily. No sooner has he found
the sweet calm of a forgiven soul, than he begins to know the
bitter anxiety of a soul that fears to sin. True, I have come to
Christ, and should have peace ; but now I begin to fear I shall not
be able to confess Christ before men. Now I begin to see that
the whole world are against me ; that all things are tempting me
to sin ; and I fear I shall go back to the world. I fear I shall be
ensnared again. My companions, how can I resist them ? and
Satan, how can I fight against him ?
This is the time when the young believer begins to make a great
many resolutions in his own strength. If he could only keep out
of the way of temptation, and separate from the world, he thinks
he could keep himself holy ; but God soon teaches him the insuf-
ficiency of his own strength. His resolutions are all broken
through ; his habits of walking strictly vanish like smoke before
the breath of temptation ; and the young child of God sits down
to weep over the plague of his own heart, and to cry : " O
wretched man, who shall deliver me from the body of this
death ?"
If there are be any such hearing me, suffer me, I beseech you,
to recommend a new plan a far more excellent way. Give
yourself into the everlasting arms. When sin arises ; when the
world sets in like a flood ; when temptation comes suddenly upon
you ; lean back upon the almighty Spirit, and you are safe. How
does the little child do that has been set down upon the ground to
walk, when it finds that its little limbs bend under it that the first
breath of wind will overthrow it ? Does it not yield itself up
into the mother's arms ? When it cannot go, it consents to be
SERMON LXIII. 3C9
carried ; and so do you, feeble child of God. God hath given you
cleaving faith, to cleave to Christ alone for righteousness ; and
that gave you the peace of the justified. Pray now that God
would give you resigning faith, that you may trust him alone for
strength that you may yield yourself into the everlasting arms.
Go you and learn what this meaneth : Jehovah our Righteousness
is the same as Jehovah my Banner. Then, but not till then, will
you fully know the meaning of the blessing : " O happy Israel :
who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord !"
Objection. I do not see the Spirit, nor hear the Spirit, nor fee
the Spirit ; and how can I yield myself into his arms ? Ans.
This is the very Bible description of the Spirit's work: "The
wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou nearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, or whither it goeth : so is
every one that is born of the Spirit." You do not see the wind,
nor do you understand the machinery by which it blows, and yet
you spread the sail to catch the breeze ; and thus the tall vessel is
borne o^er many a rough sea to the haven of rest. Just so lean
upon the Spirit, though you understand not his working. Though
now you see him not, yet believe in him. and you shall rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory ; you shall be borne over
the rough waves of this world to the haven of rest. Again: you
do not know how the well springs up; you do not understand ihe
machinery by which the water springs unfailingly ; and yet you
carry the pitcher to the well, and never come back with it empty.
So depend on the unseen supply of the Spirit ; get a daily supply
for daily wants ; go confidently to the wells of salvation, and ye
shall draw water with joy. " If any man thirst, let him come
unto me and drink." "O happy Israel: who is like unto thee !**
Be of good cheer. We are confident that He which hath begun
a good work in you will carry it on to the day of Christ Jesus.
But, ah ! poor Christless souls, there is no promise of the Spirit
to you. All the promises are yea and amen in Christ. Out of
Christ there is no promise ; nothing but wrath. You have no
everlasting arms underneath you. You are sensual, not having
the Spirit. There is no sin into which you may not fall. The
sins that make men shudder and turn pale, you may commit. God
has nowhere promised to keep you from them. You have not the
Spirit ; you cannot love God, or do any good work ; you can
only sin. O poor souls ! that are growing still on the stock of old
Adam, you cannot but bear evil fruit ; and the end will be death.
Oh ! that you would go away and weep over your miserable
estate, and cry to God to bring you among his happy Israel, who
are chosen, justified, sanctified, saved by the Lord !
St Peter'i, Jan. 29, 1837.
24
370 SERMON LXir.
SERMON LXIV.
ENTREAT ME NOT TO LEAVE THEE.
" And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following afte*
thee : for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodsj*.
thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." Ruth i., 16.
IN these two women of Moab you see the difference between
nature and grace.
1. Orpah appears to have been of a most gentle, affectionate
disposition. She had been a kind and loving wife for ten years
to her now buried husband. She had been a kind daughter-in-
law to Naomi : " The Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have
dealt with the dead, and with me." Verse 8. She could not
bear to part with Naomi. She first determined to go with her.
Verse 6. When Naomi bade them go back, she said : ' Surely we
will go with thee." When Naomi again bade them return, she lifted
up her voice and wept. And she kissed her mother-in-law most
affectionately, and went back to her people and her gods. O
how much of loveliness there is in the gentle affections of nature !
Who would believe that they cover a heart as black as hell?
2. Ruth also appears to have been of a kindly, gentle disposi-
tion ; but her heart was touched by the Spirit of God also. Naomi
had not only been her mother-in-law, but the mother of her soul.
She had taught her the way of salvation by the blood of the Lamb ;
and therefore, when the day of trial came, that she must part from
her people and her gods, or part from her spiritual instructor,
Ruth clave to Naomi : '* And Naomi said, Behold thy sister-in-
law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods : return thou
after thy sister-in-law. And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave
thee, or to return from following after thee : for whither thou goest,
I will go ; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge : thy people shall
be my people, and thy God my God." Verses 15, 16.
From these words I draw the following lessons : That we
should cleave to our converted friends.
When God sent me away from you, about eighteen months
ago, I think I could then number, in rny own mind, more than
sixty souls who, I trust, had visibly passed from death unto life
during the time I had been among you. Now, I do think I could
number many more, aye, twice as many more, of you who have
come, by the wonderful grace of God, to choose Israel for your
people, and Israel's God for your God. I trust that there is
hardly a family in this church who have not some friend or rela-
tive really born again. Oh, that God would this day put Ruth's
resolution into your heart, to cleave to your converted friends, and
to say, " Where thou goest, I will go " " Thy people shall be my
people, and thy God my God !"
SERMON LXIV. 371
I. Tfieit God is a precious God.
1. A sin pardoning God : " Who is a God like unto thee, who
pardoneth iniquity ?" Unconverted souls have no God : " With-
out God, and without hope in the world ;" or, like Orpah, they
have false gods. Whatever they like best is their god. Their
belly is their god, money is their god, or the god of this world is
theii god. But, ah ! he is not sin-pardoning. Your converted
friends have found a sin-pardoning God one that washes out
their sins in blood, though red as scarlet the God and Father of
Jesus one that forgets sins : " I, even I, am he that blotteth out
thy transgressions, for mine own sake, and will not remember thy
sins " " Thou hast put all my sins behind thy back "one that
is the prodigal's Father : " When he was yet a great way off, his
Father saw him." Should you not cleave to them ? They had
the same sins as you perhaps they have sinned along with you.
Why should you despair, if they have found mercy ? Cleave to
the skirt of their garment ; for God is with them.
2. Their God is a faithful God faithful to them in enabling
them to persevere : " I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee "
" He who hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ " " Even to old age 1 am he." Isa. xlvi.,
4. When once he takes a brand out of the fire, he never lets it
fall in again. He will let heaven and earth fall sooner than one
of his own. He keeps them night and day. The souls whom
God chose four years ago in this place, he has kept to this day.
Often they have been ready to die : " Then the Lord sent from
above ; he took me, he drew me out of many waters " " When
the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue
faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them : I the God of Israel
will not forsake them."
Faithful in temptations : " God is faithful, who will not suffer
you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the
temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to
bear it." Look back, believers, on your temptations. They
have been very dreadful. You have been on the brink of ruin.
The Lord has delivered you.
Faithful in afflictions : " When thou passest through the waters,
I will be with thee ; and through the rivers, they shall not over-
flow thee." Do you not see they have a refuge in the storm?
Believers in this place have passed through many sore trials
within these four years ; yet God has been their refuge. He is a
strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress. Do
you not see in the hour of trial what a rest they found in God, in
the Saviour ? how they poured out their sorrows into the ear of
their High Priest ? Cleave you to them.
II. Their people are a happy people.
Naomi was one of the peculiar people of Israel. It was this
372 SERMON LXIV,
people that Ruth was going to join. But converted persons
amongst us have joined the true Israel, a still more peculiar people.
They have been added to the Church, such as have been saved.
1. They are a pardoned people: "Blessed is the man whose
transgression is forgiven." They have all this blessedness. Sin
is the greatest curse and burden in this world. Sin make", the
world groan, makes damned souls shrink, and makes hell blaze.
But this people have no unpardoned sin lying upon them. They
are washed whiter than snow. They are all fair, without so
much as a spot on them. They are as clean in God's pure eye as
Christ is. Christ carried all their sins, they carry all his right-
eou>ness. Christ has suffered all their hell. They are in the love
of God. God delights in them. Are they not a happy people?
Are they not happier than you, who have as much sin as would
sink a world ?
2. A holy people, all born again, all have received the Holy
Spirit. He dwells in them, and will never leave them. They
have an old heart ; still the Spirit reigns in them. They walk
after the Spirit, they love in the Spirit, they pray in the Holy
Ghost. Of themselves they cannot pray ; but the Spirit teaches
them. Heaven is begun in their hearts. They have a little
of heaven now. Do you not see that they have left, off your
carnal pleasures ? "I had rather be a door-keeper in the house
of my God, than dwell in the tents of wickedness." Do you see
no difference in their tempers, habits, lives ? Are they not
calmer, happier, heavenlier, than they were before? Seek what
they have found.
3. All things work together for their good. Perhaps you will
say they are an afflicted people. Some in poverty, some bereaved,
some groaning on sick-beds. True, God dealeth with them as
with sons. Often they cry, These things are against me. All for
them. If we could see the end as God does, we would see that
every event is for the believer. When we get to the haven, we
will see that every wind was wafting us to glory.
4. In death. Even wicked Balaam said : " Let me die the
death of the righteous." " Mark the perfect, and behold the
upright ; for the end of that man is peace." God calls upon you
to mark the death-bed of his children. Sometimes it is triumph-
ant, like Stephen : " Behold I see the heavens opened, and the Son
of Man standing at the light hand of God. Lord Jesus, receive
my Spirit." Almost always peaceful. Or, if it be that the sun
goes down in a cloud, O how sweet the surprise, when the
believer finds himself on the other side of Jordan! at the pearly
gate of the New Jerusalem ! in the arms of the angels ! in the
i-mile of Jesus! "There is a rest remaining for the people of
God." Will you not cleave to your godly child, parent, brother,
fcister, friend? You have sported together, you have sinned
SERMON LXIV. 373
together, will you not be blessed together ? " Thy people sha :
be my people, and thy God my God."
III. They want you to go with them.
It is plain that Naomi wanted Ruth to go with her ; only she
wanted her to go not out of mere natural affection, but out of love
to Israel's God. Moses wanted Hobab, his brother-in-law, to go
with him. Moses knew the value of the soul: "We are journey-
ing unto the place of which the Lord said, I will give it you.
Come thou with us, and we will do thee good." Jeremiah wanted
the Jews of his day to go with him : " Give glory to the Lord
your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble
upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it
into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness. But if ye
will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your
pride." Jer. xiii., 16, 17. Your converted friends want you to
go with them. They may not have boldness to tell you so. It
is easier to speak to a stranger than to a friend. Do you not see
their anxiety in their eyes ? Do you not see how anxious they
are that you would come to the house of prayer ? They pray
for you in secret. Often when you are sleeping they are praying
for you. They weep for you " in secret places, for your pride."
Well, if you will not go, you will be left behind. Still weep and
pray, dear friends. This earth would be too like heaven if all we
love were saved. Oh, what a sad company will be left !
IV. Eternal separation.
When Orpah turned back from Naomi and Ruth, she little
knew she was parting for ever. They had lived together perhaps
from infancy. They had played around the same palm tree ; sat
before the same cottage door ; wandered over the same hills of
Moab ; now, they parted for eternity. So it is amongst us. There
are, no doubt, many of us about to be separated for eternity.
How strange, that two trees should grow so near one to flower
in paradise, the other to be a firebrand in hell !
Dear friends, do you not see some whom you love much, really
converted and saved ? Do you not see they have a peace that
passeth 'understanding, while you are still loaded with guilt ?
They are growing holier, more fond of prayer, walking more
humbly, riper for glory ; you riper for hell, your sins getting
faster hold. Oh, this separation will be for eternity ! You may
love them much, but you will ga back to your gods. 1. You will
be separated at death ; they will pass into glory, into perfect day :
you will lift up your eyes in hell. Besides all this, 2. You will be
separated at judgment. When the Son of Man shall come in his
Calory, he shall separate the sheep from the goats ; those on the
right hand shall be solemnly acquitted, rewarded for all the good
works you see them daily performing. All their prayers and
374
SERMON LXV.
tears for you will then be recompensed. You, on the left hand,
shall go away into everlasting punishment. You shall look on
that Saviour, whom you now despise, and " wail because of him."
When your eye catches your godly friends, how you will weep
and wail ! You will then remember all their love, and all your
madness. Parents, do you love your converted children ? Can
you bear to be parted eternally ? Will you cleave to Naomi, or
go back to your people and your gods ? How will you bear to
see the fruit of your body on the throne with Christ, and yourself
a brand in an eternal hell ?
St. Peter's, 1640.
SERMON LXV.
THE VISION OF DRY BONES.
The hand of the Lord was upon me," &c. Ezek. xxxrii., 1-14.
IN early life the Prophet Ezekiel had been witness of sieges and
battle-fields ; he had himself experienced many of the horrors and
calamities of war ; and this seems to have tinged his natural
character in such a way that his prophecies, more than any other,
are full of terrific images and visions of dreadful things. In these
words we have the description of a vision which, for grandeur
and terrible sublimity, is perhaps unequalled in any other part of
the Bible.
He describes himself as set down by God in the midst of a
valley that was full of bones. It seemed as if he were set down
in the midst of some spacious battle-field, where thousands and
tens of thousands had been slain, and none left behind to bury
them. The eagles had many a time gathered over the carcasses,
and none frayed them away : and the wolves of the mountains
had eaten the flesh of these mighty men, and drunk the blood of
princes. The rains of heaven had bleached them, and the winds
that sighed over the open valley had made them bare ; afld many
a summer .sun had whitened and dried the bones. And as the
prophet went round and round to view the dismal scene, these
two thoughts arose in his mind : " Behold, they be very many ;
and, lo, they are very dry."
If the place had not been an open valley, it might have seemed
lo his wondering gaze some vast charnel-house, as if the tombs of
all the Pharaohs had been laid bare by some shock of nature to
the wild winds of heaven ; as if the wanton hand of violence had
rifled the vast cemeteries of Egypt, and cast forth the mummied
bones of other ages to bleach and whiten in the light of heaven
SERMON LXV. 373
How expressive are the brief words of the seer : " Behold, they
are very many ; and, lo, they are very dry !"
No doubt there was an awful silence spread over this scene of
desolateness and death ; but the voice of his heavenly guide breaks
in upon his ear : " Son of man, can these bones live ?"
How strange a question was this to put concerning dry, whitened
bones ! When Jesus said of the damsel : " She is not dead, but
sleepeth," they laughed him to scorn; but here were not bodies newly
dead, but bones, bare, whitened bones ; nay, they were not even
skeletons, for bone was separated from its bone ; and yet God
asks: "Can these bones live?" Had he asked this question of
the world, they would have laughed a louder laugh of scorn ; but
he asked it of one who. though once dead, had been made alive
by God ; and he answered : " O Lord God, thou knowest." They
cannot live of themselves, for they are dead and dry ; but if thou
wilt put thy living Spirit into them, they shall live. So, then, thou
only knowest.
Receiving this answer of faith from the prophet, God bids him
prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them : " O ye dry bones,
near the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these
bones, Behold I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye
shall live ; and I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh
upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye
shall live ; and ye shall know that I am the Lord." Had the pro-
phet walked by sight, and not by faith, he would have staggered
at the promise, through unbelief. Had he been a worshipper of
reason, he would have argued : These bones have no ears to hear,
why should I preach to them, " Hear the word of the Lord ?"
But no, he believed God rather than himself. He had been taught
" the exceeding greatness of his mighty power;" and therefore he
obeyed : " So I prophesied as I was commanded"
If the scene which Ezekiel first beheld was dismal and desolate,
the scene which now opened on his eyes was more dismal, more
awfully revolting still : " And as I prophesied, there was a noise,
and behold a shaking; and the bones came together, bone to his
bone ; and when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up
upon them, and the skin covered them above ; but there was no
breath in them." If it were a hideous sight before, to see the val-
ley full of bones, all cleansed by the rains and winds, and whitened
in the summer suns, how much more hideous now, 4 Jo see these
slain, bone joined to his bone, sinews, and flesh, and skin upon
them ; but no breath in them ! Here was a battle-field indeed,
with its thousands of unburied dead, masses of unbreathing flesh,
cold and immovable, ready only to- putrify, every hand stifl' and
motionless, every bosom without a heave, every eye glazed and
lifeless, every tongue cold and sik-nt as the grave.
But the voice of God again breaks the silence : " Prophesy unto
the wind (or Spirit), prophesy, son of man, and say to the Spirit,
376 SERMON LXV.
Thus saitli the Lord God, Come from the four winds, Spirit, and
bivathe upon these slain that they may live."
Before, Ezekiel had bent over the dead, dry bones, and preached
unto them, a vast but lifeless congregation, but now he lifts his head
and raises his eye : for his word is to the living Spirit of God.
Unbelief might have whispered to him, To whom are you going
to prophesy now ? Reason might have argued, What sense is
there in speaking to the viewless wind, to one whom you see not ;
for it is written : " The world cannot receive the Spirit of God,
because it seeth him not?" .But he staggered not at the word
through unbelief: " So -I prophesied as he commanded me, and the
breath came into them, and they lived and stood up upon their feet,
an exceeding great army."
The first application made of this vision is to the restoration of
the Jews. 1. It teaches that at present they are like dry bones
in the open valley, scattered over all lands, very many, and very
dry, without any life to God. 2. It teaches that the prear.hing of
Jesus, though foolishness to the world, is to be the means of their
awakening, arid that prayer to the all-quickening Spirit is to be
the means of their new life. 3. It teaches that when these means
are used with them, God's ancient people shall yet stand up, and
be an exceeding great army, shall be as they use'd to be When they
marched through the wilderness, when God went before them in
the pillar of cloud ; that they shall then be led back to their own
land, and planted in their own land, and not plucked up any more.
But another, and to us a more important, application of this vision,
is to the unconverted souls in the midst of us. Let us go over it
with this view.
I. Unconverted souls are tike dry bones very many, and vtry
dry.
1. They are very many. When a soul is first brought to Christ,
he enjoys a peace in believing which he never knew before ; and
not only so, but he is quickened from the death of trespasses
and sins into a life which he never knew before ; he knows the
blessedness of living to God. But even with all this joy, there
is an awful feeling of loneliness ; for when he looks round upon
the world, he feels just like Ezekiel, set down in the midst of a
valley full of dry bones. He is alive himself, but this world,
once all 'his joy, looks now like some ancient battle-field, where
tie remains of the dead are all lying exposed on the open field ;
and he feels a solitary thing in a world of dead. This world
appears now like one vast charnel-house, where whole generations-
of dead meet, and are jumbled together all alike fit only for the
burning ; and he feels himself a solitary living thing, moving over
heaps of slain. He feels like Elijah on the mount of God, when
he complained : ' Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged
down thine altars, and I, even I, am left alone." He feels like
SERMON LXV. 377
our blessed Lord, who was a light shining in darkness, and the
darkness comprehended it not. He feels as if he were a feeble
' light in the world, holding forth the word of life" a lamp sus-
pended in the densest darkness, whose oil is all supplied by grace
from on high, and whose rays seem only to make the darkness
more visible. He feels like Paul at Athens ; for his spirit is moved
in him, to see the whole world given over to idolatry. He feels
like Paul at Rome, when he complained : " I have no man like-
minded, who will naturally care for your state ; for all seek their
own, not the things that are Jesus Christ's." He feels like John,
when he said so sweetly, yet so sadly : " We know that we are
of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness." To the eye
of Sense, O what a happy living world this is, with its shops and
markets ; its compliments and companies ; its visits of ceremony
and visits of kindness ; its mirth and its melody ! how living and
life-iike is the whole world, from morning's dawn till midnight.
But to the eye of Faith, what a lonely wilderness is this world !
for " the whole world lieth in wickedness." Is it not so, believing
brethren ? Is it not like Egypt in that dreadful night when there
was a cry heard from every dwelling ; for there was not a house
where there was not one dead ? Oh ! it is more dismal far ; for
in every house there are many dead souls, and yet there is no cry.
Look into your own family ; look among the families of your
neighbors ; look into your native town ; are not the many all
dead, dead souls ? The most are dead, dry bones. Nay, look
into the Christian Church ; look among our Sabbath keepers, and
those who sit down at sacraments ; O, brethren ! is it not true
that, like Sardis, most have a name to live, and are dead ? Do
not the most of you live lives of pleasure ? and is it not written :
" She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth ?" Do not
most of you show no love for the brethren ? and is it not written :
" He that loveth not his brother, abideth in death ?" O yes, the
most are dry bones ! Truly, then, " they are very many."
2. They are very dry. Dry bones are the furthest of all from
the possibility of living. (1.) They are without any flesh or
comeliness. (2.) They are without any marrow or spirit. (3.)
They are without any activity or power of moving. And, oh ! is
not this the very picture of poor, unconverted souls " They are
very dry ?"
(1.) They are without any comeliness. They see no beauty in
Christ, and Christ sees no beauty in them ; their souls are lean
and ill-favored. Man was made perfect in beauty at the first ; for
he was made in the image of Him who is perfect loveliness ; but
a fallen, unconverted soul has no beauty ; it is like a beautiful
building scattered in ruins ; it is like a beautiful statue all deJaced,
rtot one feature remaining ; it is like a beautiful body smit'en by
death, corrupting in the grave
(2.) They are without any marrow or spirit. M?r *ri* in-***" *<
378 SERMON J.XV
be a habitation of God through the Spirit ; and it is only when
we are led by the Spirit that we are alive unto God. But tLe
unconverted soul is " sensual, not having the Spirit." The Bible
says : " The world cannot receive the Spirit, because it seeth him
not, neither knoweth him." They have no work of the Spirit in
their hearts ; no awakening work ; no convincing of righteous-
ness ; no sanctifying work ; no sealing of the soul ; no walking
in the Spirit ; no love in the Spirit ; no praying in the Holy
Ghost.
(3.) They have no activity or motion God-ward. If we preach
the Word of the Lord unto them, they have no heart to attend to
the things which are spoken ; dry bones have no ears. If we teh
them of the wrath of God that is coming upon them, they are not
moved to flee ; dry bones cannot run. If we tell them of the
loveliness of the Lord Jesus, how he offers himself to be the com-
plete Saviour, still they are not moved to embrace him ; for dry
bones cannot stretch out their arms. Ah ! these dry bones are
very dry.
Brethren, is it not possible to make you anxious about your
souls ? Can you sit still and hear how dead and dry they are, and
yet go away and forget it all ? Can you bear to carry about with
you a dead stone in your bosom instead of a heart ? Can you bear
to have such a cold, icy, wicked heart, as sees no desirableness in
the lovely Saviour ; no beauty in him who is stretching out his
hands to you all the day " the chief among ten thousand," the
" altogether lovely ?" Oh, brethren ! if you will go away unmov-
ed ; and, doubtless, hundreds of you may ; what need have we of
witnesses ? Ye yourselves are the only evidence we need that
unconverted souls are " very many, and, lo, they are very dry."
II. The second lesson we learn from this vision is, that preaching
is God's instrument for awakening the unconverted.
Every intelligent man among you has been puzzled at one time
or another by a seeming contradiction which runs through the
whole of the Bible. It is written in one place : " No man can
come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him ;"
and yet the whole Bible through bids, every one of you come to
Jesus. Again it is written : " The natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither
can he know them ;" and yet what are we continually urging upon
you, but to receive the things of the Spirit of God ? Again, God
opened the heart of Lydia to attend to the things which were
spoken of Paul which makes it plain that no natural heart can
attend ; and yet we do nothing but press these things on your at-
tention. By nature your hearts are as hard as adamant, and even
demonstration will not make you flee from hell ; yet, " knowing
the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men." By nature you cannot
BO much as comprehend the beauty and loveliness of the Lord
SERMON LXV. 379
Jesus; and yet we are determined to know nothing among you
but " Christ and him crucified." Oh ! what a mass of contradic-
tion there is here ; and yet how easily it is solved ! These bones
were dead, dry, spiritless, lifeless, without flesh, without ears to
hear ; and yet God says : " Prophesy upon these bones, and say
unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord" And while
he prophesied there was a noise, and " behold a shaking ; and the
bones came together, bone to his bone ; and when I beheld, lo, the
sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered
them above." Just so, my unconverted friends, your souls are
like these dry bones dead, dry, spiritless, lifeless, without ears to
hear, without hearts to attend to the things which are spoken.
You have such blunted consciences, that no words of mine can
move you to flee from the wrath to come ; you have such hard,
wicked hearts, that no words of mine can persuade you to embrace
the beseeching Saviour ; and yet it is by the foolishness of preach-
ing that it pleases God to save them that believe ; and though
our words have no power, yet God can work almightily through
them ; and this is his message unto you : " O ye dry bones, hear
the word of the Lord."
I earnestly beseech those of you who care little for the preach-
ing of the Word to attend to this. You may say, and say truly,
that preaching seems a weak and foolish instrument for such a work
God himself has called it "the foolishness of preaching." You
may say, and say truly, that ministers are but earthen vessels
that they are men of like passions with yourselves God himself
lias called them so before you. But you cannot say that it is not
God's way of converting souls ; and it is at the peril of your own
souls if ye despise it. Keep away from the house of God and lock
up your Bible, and you put away from you the only instruments
by which God can reach your dying soul's.
III. The third and last lesson we learn from this vision is, that
prayer must be added to preaching, else preaching is in vain.
The effects produced by the prophesying of Ezekiel to the dry
bones were very remarkable. The bones came together, bone to
his bone ; the flesh, the sinews, the skin came up upon them, ana
covered them ; but stiil there was no breath in them they were
as dead as ever. And, oh ! how like this is to the effects which
often follow on the preaching of the Word. How often is a peo-
ple outwardly reformed ! Instead of Sabbath breaking there is
Sabbath observance; instead of drunkenness, sobriety; the form of
godliness, but none of the power ; the bones, and sinews, and flesh,
and skin of godliness, but none of the living breath of godliness.
Ah ! my friends, is not this just the way with our congregations at
this day ; abundance of head knowledge, but, ah ! where is the
'owly heart that loves the Saviour? Abundance of orthodoxy
and argument, but, ah ! where is the simple faith in the Lord Jesus,
380 SERMON LXV.
and love to all the saints ? Does not the Saviour say when he
ooks down on our Churches ; " There is no breath in them ?"
Oh ! then, brethren, let us one and all give heed to the second
command to the prophet: "Prophesy unto the Spirit, son of
man ; say, Come from the four winds, O Spirit, and breathe upon
these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he command-
ed, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up
upon their feet, an exceeding great army."
Learn two lessons from this.
1st, Unconverted friends, what dead hearts you must have ; all
the preaching in the world cannot put life into them. What hard
hearts yours must be ; the heaviest hammer we can lift cannot
break them. We speak the weightiest arguments into your ear,
yet all will not move you. We must lift up our voice, and pro-
phesy to the Spirit ; we must bring down the Almighty Spirit be-
fore we can touch your heart. We try to convince you of sin ;
we show you how you have broken the law, and that "cursed is
every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of
the law to do them ;" that you must be under that curse, that you
will not be able to bear that curse, that it crushed a Saviour to the
earth, and will crush you to the lowest hell. You are somewhat
impressed, and we hope that your heart is touched ; but your im-
pressions are like impressions on the sand when the tide is out, and
the very next tide of the world effaces all. We try to convince
you of righteousness. We tell you of the love of the Saviour,
how it passeth knowledge ; how there was an ocean of love in
that bosom, which no line could fathom love to lost sinners like
you; how he served in the stead of sinners, obeying the law for
us ; how he suffered in the stead of sinners, bearing the curse for
us. We tell you to believe in him, and be saved; you are melted,
and the tear stands on your cheek ; but, ah ! it is like " the morn-
ing cloud and early dew it quickly passes away."
Ah ! brethren, what hard, iron hearts you must have, when all
that man can do will not melt them. Your hearts are too hard
for us ; and we have to go back weeping to our Lord, saying :
" Who hath believed our report ?" In all other things we could
persuade you by arguments. If your bodies were sick, we could
persuade you to send for the physician ; if your estate were en-
tangled, we could persuade you to be diligent for your family
oh ! how readily you would obey us ; but when we demonstrate
that you are the heirs, soul and body, of an eternal hell, you will
not awake for it all. Even if we could show you the Lord Jesus
Christ himself the bleeding, beseeching Saviour your wicked
hearts would not cleave to him. You need Him that made \our
hearts, to break and bend your hearts. Will you not, each of you.
go away, then, beating on the breast, and saying: "God. be n ^r-
ciful to me, a sinner ? "
Learn, 2dly, Believing brethren, what need you have to p v
SERMON LXVI. 381
When God, in the chapter before (xxxvi.), promises to give a new
heart and a new spirit to Israel, " to take away the stony heart out
of their flesh, and to give them a heart of flesh," he adds, at verse
37 : "I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel tc
do it for them." And when God promises to give to Christ the
heathen for his heritage, be only promises it in answer to prayer :
" Ask of me, and I will give thee." And just so here ; when he
wishes to give life to these dead carcasses that are lying in
the open valley, his word is : " Prophesy, O son of man, unto the
Spirit."
O believing brethren ! what an instrument is this which God
hath put into your hands ! Prayer moves Him that moves the
universe. O men of faith and prayer ! Israels, who wrestle with
God, and prevail ! righteous, justified men, whose prayers avail
much ! you may be a little flock, but be you entreated to give
the Lord no rest. O pray for the Spirit to " breathe upon these
slain, that they may live !" And you, selfish Christians, if such a
contradiction can exist ; you, who approach the throne of God
only for yourselves ; you, whose petitions begin and end only for
yourselves ; who ask no gifts but only for your own peace and
joy. go you and learn what this meaneth : " It is more blessed to
give than to receive" " Let this mind be in you which was also
in Christ Jesus."
Dundee, Dec. 25, 1836.
SERMON LXVI.
CHRIST THE ONLY REFUGE.
" Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee
hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast."
Isa. xxvi., 20.
THIS passage is a word in season to God's people in every time
of impending calamity. The form of expression is evidently taken
from that dreadful night when God passed through the land of
Efjypt to smite all the first-born of Egypt, from the first-born of
Pharaoh that sat upon the throne to the first-born of the captive
that sat in the dungeon. And Pharaoh arose in the night, he, and
all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great
cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one
dead. But God had commanded his own Israel to kill the pas-
chal lamb, the type of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God,
and to take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood, and to
trike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood: "And none
382 SERMON LXVt.
of you (said he) shall go out at the door of his house until the
morning." As if he had said. " Come, my people, enter into thy
chambers, and shut thy blood-sprinkled doors about thee ; hide
thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be
overpast."
It may be difficult to determine what time of indignation the
prophet here refers to. The prophecy was given in the beginning
of Hezekiah's reign, when many a destruction was yet to come
upon the land of Israel. The invasion by Sennacherib the Assy-
rian was just at hand, and may be primarily referred to. The
invasion by Nebuchadnezzar, and seventy years' captivity, was
also coming; and this also may be referred to. And the invasion
by the Romans, in which Jerusalem was destroyed, and the Jews
finally dispersed over the world, may also be referred to. And
in all these coming indignations, God's word to his people was, to
hide in their chambers, in the refuge which he had appointed them,
till the indignation should be overpast. But most of all does this
prophecy refer to the great storm of indignation which God is
yet going to bring upon the world, before the end come ; when
the Lord Jesus shall come a second time, without sin unto salva-
tion; when he shall come again, no more a poor man, clothed in
a seamless garment, but glorious in his apparel, travelling in the
greatness of his strength ; " when he shall be revealed from hea-
ven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on
them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and
admired in all them that believe." In that day of awful tribula-
tion which, except it were shortened, no flesh should be saved
God will gather his own as it were into chambers, and keep them
hid till the storm passes over. As in the flood he brought his
little flock into the ark, and it is written, " God shut them in ;" he
shut the doors about them, till the deluge of his wrath wus past;
as in the destruction of Jericho, the family of Rahab were gather-
ed all within doors, and saved from the wrath that came on all
besides ; as in the destruction of the first-born in Egypt, God kept
his own Israel safely hid in their dwellings ; so, in the last storm
that shall fall on this poor perishing world, God will gather his
elect safe under the hollow of his hand, saying, " Come, my peo-
ple, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee;
hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation
be overpast."
The doctrine to be learned from this passage is a very plain
one, namely, that in every time of calamity God bids us and our
families find refuge in Christ. There is no safety anywhere else.
Christ is a complete refuge in every storm.
In other parts of the Bible Christ is compared to " a hiding
place from the wind, a covert from the storm, and the shadow of a
great rock in a weary land ;" he is compared to " a fortress, or
SERMON LXVI.
nigh tower, into which we may flee and be safe ;" he is compared
to " an apple tree amid the trees of the wood, under whose sha
dow we may sit down, and his fruit be sweet to our taste ;" bul
the comparison here is quite different; he is hera compared to our
own chamber with the door shut : " Come, my people, enter thou
into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee."
Now Christ is like our own chamber with the door shut, in
many respects: 1. Because there is safety in him. There is no
place in all the world to which we look oftener in an hour of
danger, as a refuge and place of safety, than our own home, the
inner chamber, with the door made fast. Brethren, just such is
Christ. There is safety in him : " There is no condemnation to
them that are in Christ Jesus." 2. Because there is quietness and
rest in him. In the world we look for the bustle and harassment
of business ; but when we enter into our chamber and shut the
door behind us, we shut out the bustling, noisy world ; all is tran-
quillity and peace. Brethren, just such is Christ. In him the
" weary are at rest." We are " without carefulness " we have
" quietness and assurance for ever." 3. Because our home is a
ready-made retreat, near and easy of access. When we seek our
home, we have not to soar with the eagle to the top of the rugged
rocks : nor like the dove that makes its nest in the hole's mouth ;
neither have we to dig into the earth, that we may hide our head
there. Our home is near unto us. Brethren, just such is Christ.
He is a ready-made Saviour, at hand, and not afar off. We have
not to ascend, to bring Christ down from above ; neither have we
to descend into the deep, to bring Christ again from the dead.
But the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart.
Oh ! he is a near Saviour ; he is not far from any one of us.
Now, this is the refuge which God bids his people flee into in
every storm : " Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers,
and shut thy doors about thee ; hide thee as it were for a little
moment, until the indignation be overpast." And oh ! it is an all-
sutHcient refuge in every storm.
1. Christ is a complete refuge in a storm of conscience. The
great mass of unconverted men are living quite securely in their
sins ; going about from day to day without the least anxiety,
though they are abiding under wrath. The reason is, that the
vials of wrath are held over their heads, but not yet poured out ;
the flames of hell are burning up to their very feet, but they are
not yet suffered to touch them. God is long-suffering, not willing
that any should perish. But when God awakens a soul to know
his true condition, then there arises a storm of conscience within.
O brethren ! there is no more security to that soul. He does not
feel the loathsomeness of sin as a child of God does ; but he feels
the ternbleness of wrath. The Spirit has convinced him of sin.
F/very sin of his past life rises up behind him, and seems to cry
v br in; 'ant vengeance ; all the sins of his hands his taking things
384 SERMON LXVI.
that were not his own, his handling unlawful things, and \vriting
abominable and foolish things ; the sins of his feet swift to shed
blood, swift to carry him to the haunts of sin ; the sins of his eyes
full of adultery, and that could not cease from sin ; the sins of hia
tongue loving and making a lie, putting forth words of clamor
and evil-speaking, backbiting and bitterness, speaking shameful
words in the dark, things of which it is a shame so much as to
speak ; the sins of his heart that it should always have been
like a fountain, pouring out abominable desires and loathsome
affections toward the creature, whilst the Creator was unloved,
though the loveliest of all. Oh, brethren ! when a man really feels
that the wrath of God is lying on him for a whole lifetime of sin,
who can bear that storm ? and, worst of all, when the Spirit con-
vinces of sin, " because he believes not in Jesus ?" When the
sinner feels that Jesus hath been stretching out his hands all the
day, and he hath not regarded ; that the gentle Saviour has called,
and he has refused ; that he has trodden the offers of mercy under
his feet, and done despite to the Spirit of grace ; oh ! then does
the storm of conscience rise into a whirlwind. The fears of wrath
lie hard upon that soul ; they are like waves and billows going
over him. His wife and children cannot cheer him now. His
sinful comrades cannot laugh him from his fears now. O brethren '
if ever you have seen the sad, dejected countenance of a sinner
convinced by God, you will not soon forget it. He is not sure
but his next step may be into hell. When he falls asleep, he doe?
not know but he may wake up in hell.
Oh ! if there be one soul here thus awakened, afflicted, tempest
tost, and not comforted, hear this word : "Come, my -people, entei
thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee ; hide thy
self as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be over-
past." True, this is a word chiefly to God's people, who have
already hidden in Christ ; but Christ is as free to you as to them.
In him there is perfect safety. In him is quietness and rest. He
is a near Saviour. His arms are as open to receive you as is
your own home. Come, poor sinners, enter into this chamber.
Every one that is now in Christ was once as much tempest-tost as
you are. When a man is overtaken by nightfall on a bleak moor,
when the frosty wind blows bitterly upon him, and the wreathing
snow retards his every footstep, where is it that he longs to be ?
what spot in all the world comes oftenest across his wishful fancy?
It is his home his inner chamber, with the door made fast. Oh !
if he were only there, he would be safe. Oh ! poor soul, just such
are you, and just such a home is Christ not afar off, but near.
Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved. Hide in him,
for he is a hiding-place from the wind.
2. Christ is a complete refuge in a storm of providence.
When providences are all favorable, it is amazing to a*. hoTW
careless unconverted men grow of God and the things oi eteraity.
SERMON LXVI. 385
When the glow of health has been long upon their cheek, they
begin to live as if they were to live for ever, as if there were no
death and no hell. When their business goes on prosperously
from week to week, they begin to feel like lords of the universe ;
as if this world were their own ; as if their houses and lands, and
money, were all their own, and they could never part company.
And oh ! it is still more amazing to see how careless even the
children of God will grow in such times of long continued pros-
perity ; how death and eternity, and to be with Christ, and to be
like Christ, become less desirable things than once they were ;
how like they become to the world, in supposing that gain is god-
liness ; how the poor, pitiful possessions of this world seem lor a
time to come between and intercept the view of the inheritance
that is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away ; how the
glare and the glitter of this 'present evil world dazzle their eyes,
and dim their sight for beholding the King in his beauty, and the
land that is very far off.
Now, it is deeply interesting and deeply instructive to mark the
panic which comes upon the face of society, when God makes a
sudden change of providences ; when all of a sudden the sky is
overcast, the distnnt thunder begins to roll, and the storm of provi-
dence comes on. When those sudden crashes take place in the
commercial world, when, like the avalanche of the snowy moun-
tains, that comes down upon some hapless village, smothering
whole families in the midst of their unthinking gaiety ; when those
overwhelming catastrophes come down, involving whole families
in ruin and penury : oh ! it is strange to see how the world stand
amazed ; their wisdom is all dashed and' confounded. Or, when
God sends a time of wide-spread sickness and death ; when he
seems to poison the very atmosphere ; when we are visited by the
pestilence that walketh in darkness, and the destruction that wast-
eth at noonday ; when a thousand fall at our side, and ten thousand
at our right hand, oh ! it is strange to see what a panic comes
upon men, and paleness upon all faces. It is like when a set of
fishing boats have set out upon an excursion when the wind was
fair, and the sun shone happily, and the blue waves curled gently
on every side, and all is joy and carelessness in every boat ; when
suddenly the sky is overcast, the whistling wind rises, a dreadfu 1
squall is at hand, and death stares every man in the face. Ah !
then what panic seizes upon every boat's crew ? what reefing of
the sails ! what grasping at the helm ! how one seeks to run into
the shore, another into the deep ! Such is the panic that comes
over unconverted men in a time of wide-spread calamity. And
oh ! how religious they now become ! how they look grave, nnd
forsake their jests and loose talking, and think that is religion !
They are just like Israel of old : " When he slew them, then they
sought him, and they returned and inquired early after God. And
they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their
25
38G SERMON LXVI.
redeemer. Nevertheless they did flatter him witli their mouth,
and they lied unto him with their tongues. For their heart was
not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant."
Now, brethren, in such a storm of providence Christ is a com-
plete refuge ; and though the children of God, in such times, even
they, seem to be in doubt and jeopardy, they know not what to
think, they know not where to flee, yet they may hear the word
of God above the storm : "Come, my people, enter thou into thy
chambers, and shut thy doors about thee ; hide thyself as it were
for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast/' Just as
our own chamber, with the doors shut about us, is the place
where we have quietness and rest ; and the storm may rage with-
out, but we shall not feel it ; and the world may be crying aloud,
yet we shall not hear it ; so the Lord Jesus is a perfect refuge to
the believer from all the storms of providence.
Men are apt to think that the only good of hiding in Christ is
to save our souls; that when an awakened sinner hides in the
Lord Jesus, he finds pardon of all sin, and peace with God, but
nothing more. But the whole Bible shows that there is much
more in Christ ; that when we hide in him, we are saved from all
our distresses; from our troubles about health, about money,
about the world. In the 34th Psalm, it is mentioned four times
over, that when we come to Christ, we are saved, not out of one
trouble, but out of all our troubles : "I sought the Lord ; he heard,
and delivered me from all my fears." Verse 4. This poor man
cried, and the Lord heard, and saved him out of all his troubles."
Verse 6. " The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and deli-
vereth them out of all their troubles." Verse 17. "Many are
the afflictions of the righteous, yet the Lord delivereth them out
of them all." Verse 19. And the reason is plain; when we hide
in Jesus, the God of providence becomes our God and Father, and
we know he will make all things work together for our good.
The Lord is our shepherd, we shall not want. Whatever tempo-
ral good may be taken away, we know that our eternal good is
secure : " I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that
he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against
that day." 2 Tim. i., 12.
Oh ! my believing friends, why should you be discouraged in
this time of wide-spread sickness and calamity? why should you
be cast down, as if God were covering you with a cloud in his
anger ? These clouds may be a few drops of God's coming wrath
upon the world, they may be like the first of the thunder-shower;
but to you they speak in the language of love. God wishes you
deeper hid in Christ, he wishes you more separate from the world :
" Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy
doors about thee."
We never would know the blessing of a home, if there were no
winter snows and winter winds to make us crowd round the happy
SERMON LXVI. 387
hearth. Just so, believer, you would not know the blessing of
such a chamber as Christ is, if there were no sicknesses, and dark
impending providences to make you live more in him. Come
then, believer, let every drop of wrath that falls around you speak
with new power to your soul, give new light to that faith by which
you cleave to Jesus. Let every sigh you hear, be as it were a
voice from God, saying : " Come, my people, enter thou into thy
chambers."
And you, poor Christless souls, ah ! where shall you run, poor
sheep that have no shepherd, defenceless and lost in this world's
wilderness ? You have no home. Enter into your securest room,
and shut your door ; still vengeance can reach you there. God
is against you, his wrath is abiding on you. Oh ! the day of the
Lord is darkness, and not light to you. Wherever you go, you
are a lost soul : " As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met
him ; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and
a serpent bit him." Oh, brethren ! ye are men, ye have reason,
will ye not flee from the wrath to come ? Will these wasting
sicknesses not convince you that God is stronger than you, that
you will be nothing in the hands of an angry God ? Even to you,
then, Christ, the door of salvation, is still open, wide open. Come,
poor sinners, enter into this chamber, and shut thy doors about
thee. " Hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the in-
dignation be overpast/'
There are just two remarks I would make in conclusion:
1. That this passage bids us hide in Christ, not singly, but in
families. In that deliverance which God wrought for Israel in
Egypt he taught this very remarkably ; for he did not gather
Israel into some great tower where they might be safe, but bade
each family remain within their own house, only sprinkling the
doors with blood ; and so, in saving Noah, God saved not single
souls, but a whole family ; and so in saving Lot, God saved Lot,
and all that were his ; and so, in saving Rahab, she and all her
household were gathered in and saved. My friends, God is still
the God of families, and still does he wish whole families of you
to be saved ; and he says as much in the words before me :
" Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers." Alas ! my
friends, we live in days when family religion is fallen to the ground.
Men are too proud now to be like Abraham, and to command their
children and their servants after them. Men nowadays take up
the words of Cain, and say : " Am I my brother's keeper ?" Ah !
where are our Andrews now ? " Andrew first findeth his own
brother, Peter, and saith unto him, We have found the Christ; and
he brought him to Jesus."
What ! is there one of you who thinks himself a child of God,
who is yet ashamed to kneel down in the midst of his family, and
pray ? Alas ! my friend, you may dream that you are a child of
Abraham, but remember you do not the works of Abraham. Ah 1
388 SERMON LXVI.
brethren, whole families must be saved ; for whole families are in
danger of hell.
On ! then, you that know the Lord, do not your bowels yearn
over your perishing kindred ? Can you not fall on some contriv
ance, think you, to win them to Christ? Will you not strengthen
our hands, at least, by your words and prayers, and by opening
the way for the minister of Christ into the bosom of your uncon-
verted families ? Ah ! in this time of trouble, will you not lay
bands on them, as the angels did on Lot ? Hark ! the Lord in-
vitrs you : " Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and
shut thy doors about thee ; hide thyself as it were for a little mo-
ment, until the indignation be overpast."
2. I observe that the dangers to which the belierer is exposed
are but for a time. God says : "Hide thyself as it were for a
little moment, until the indignation be overpast." It was so in
that night when God smote the first-born in Egypt. It was but
a n:ght that they were to hide in their houses : " None of you
shall go out of his house until the morning." It was so in the de-
struction of Jericho- Rahaband her kindred hid themselves seven
days, till the danger was overpast. And just so the troubles of
believers now are for a very short time : " These light afflictions
are but for a moment." And also the indignation which is
coming on the world will be but for a little moment it will soon
be overpast.
(l.) Temporal troubles are but for a moment ; these sad sick-
nesses and wasting calamities will not last for ever a short while,
and this body will be past the power of pain to grieve it. I know
that if any of you have tasted the sweetness of being in Christ,
you could be content to hide in him for an eternity. Welcome an
eternity of outward troubles, if I have such a hiding-place. But
you are not asked to do this : " Hide thyself as it were for a little
moment." Live but a few years more in faith, and thou shall live
the rest in glory : " If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with
him/'
(2.) The indignation of the latter day will be but for a moment.
Days of wrath are coming, my friends ; it is vain to conceal it
such as the world has never known before. And if these days
were not shortened, no flesh could be saved ; but for the elect's
sake they shall be shortened they shall be made as a little
moment. Whether these days of trouble shall be in our day, I
do not know ; for we know neither the day nor the hour when
the Son of Man cometh. But this I do know, that there is no
safety, no, not for another night, for any soul that is not hiding in
the Saviour. I repeat it, my friends, if you lie down in your bed
this night out of Christ, the Son of Man may be come before the
morning, and you be cut in sunder, and have your portion with
the hypocrites, where is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
But, O believer ! hidden in the c'eft Rock, abide in him. As
SERMON LXVII.
the sky darkens around you, hide deeper in him. It is only for a
short time one dark, dark cloud, and eternal sunshine beyond
one wild wave of vengeance, and an unbounded ocean of glory.
Little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear ye may
have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming :
" Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy
doors about thee ; hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until
the indignation be overpast."
Dundee, Jan. 15, 1837.
SERMON LXVII.
WILL YE ALSO GO AWAY ?
" From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away ? Then Simon Peter an-
swered him, Lord, to whom shall we go ? thou hast the words of eternal life."
John vi., 66-68.
I. Lesson. Many who seem to be disciples of Christ, go back, and
walk no more with Jesus.
This is a very solemn truth, and may probably answer the
case of some who are this day hearing me. Observe, it is said
twice over that there were many who went back. If there were
many then, it is likely there will be many now.
1. Many follow Christ for a time, but are stumbled when they
hear they must come to personal union with Christ.
(1.) So it was here. A great many were now following Christ
in addition to the twelve apostles. They were evidently much
taken with Christ ; they called him a prophet ; they wanted to
make him a king ; they followed him across the sea ; and yet,
when he told them that he was the bread of heaven, they mur-
mured ; when he told them that they must eat his flesh and drink
his blood to have eternal life, they said : " This is an hard say-
ing ;" and it was for this reason they turned back, and walked no
more with Jesus.
(2.) So it is now. A great many persons are much taken with
Christ ; they have some anxiety about their souls ; they follow
anxiously after the preaching of the Word ; but when we show
them that Christ is the bread of heaven that they must have a
personal closing with Christ, as much as if they were to cat his
flesh and drink his blood these souls say : " It is a hard saying,
who can bear it?" By and by, they are offended; they believe
not; they go back, and walk no more with Jesus. .Is any hearing
me in thi condition ? Oh ! think again, I beseech you, before you
390 SERMON LXVII.
go back Oh ! seek the teaching of God, and he will show you
that none of Christ's saying;? are hard sayings, but that they are
all sweet and easy. When the heart of a poor Indian was brought
under the teaching of God. he said : " Some people complain th;it
the Bible is a hard book ; but I have not read so tar as to find it a
hard book. To me it is all sweet and easy."
2. Many follow Christ for a time, but when they are told thai
Christ must dwell in them, they go back, and walk no more with
Jesus.
(1.) So here the multitude that followed Christ were pleased
with a great many things in him. When he fed them with the
five barley loaves and the two fishes, they said : " Lord, it is good
for us to be here" " This is in truth that prophet that should come
into the world." And, again, when Jesus told them of bread from
heaven that would give life, they said most devoutly : " Lord,
evermore give us this bread." But when Christ said : " He that
eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dw( lleth in me, and I in
him," by and by they were offended. When he told them that he
would be their life, and would dwell in them, they said : " It is a
hard saying, who can bear it?" They believed not; they went
back, and walked no more with Jesus.
(2.) So in some instances with Nicodemus. When he regarded
Christ as a worker of miracles, this drew the heart of the Jewish
ruler, and he said to him : " Rabbi, we know thou art a teacher
come from God." But when Jesus told that he must be born
again ; must be dwelt in by the unseen Spirit of God ; Nicodemus
found it a hard saying : " How can a man be born when he is
old ?" And, again: " How can these things be ?"
(3.) So now. many persons are much taken with Christ. They
are anxious about their souls for a time ; and they see some
glimpses of Christ as a Saviour. They love to hear the Word ;
'* it is like a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice,
and can play well on an instrument;" but when Christ says:
" Ye must be bora again" " He that eateth me, even he shall
live by me" they say : " This is a hard saying, who can bear
it ?" 1st, They never saw the Spirit, and they say : " How can
these things be?" This is one of your mysteries. Therefore, they
go back, and walk no more with Jesus. Is any hearing me in
this condition ? Oh ! think a moment before you go back : " Oh !
fools, and slow of heart, to believe all that is written concern ng
Jesus." Why should ye stumble at the blessed word : " He that
eateth me shall live by me ?" True, you never saw the Spirit ;
yet trust the word of Him that cannot lie. You never saw the
wind, and yet you spread the sail ; so trust to that Spirit, though
you never saw him. 2d, Some of you may fear that if it be true,
then you would be deprived of some of your darling pleasures
your heart would be changed, and you would no more have a
relish for your present enjoyments : therefore you go back, and
SERMON LXVII. 391
walk no more with Jesus. Oh! how the devil blinds your under-
standing. Do you not see, that if you lose your relish for your
present joys, it will be because you have got a taste for higher and
sweeter? You might as wisely refuse to drink better wine, be-
cause you would thereby lose your relish for the worse. Oh ! the
joys of the Holy Ghost are sweeter than all the pleasures of sin.
It is wine on the lees, well refined. " Woe unto thee, O
Jerusalem ! wilt thou not be made clean ? When shall it once
be?"
3. Many are awakened to follow Christ, but when they find that
they must be drawn to Christ that all is of free grace by and by
they are offended.
(1.) So here, the persons that had followed Christ had been
laborious and painstaking in following him ; they had crossed the
sea, and listened to his words for many days together ; and
doubtless they began to think they had done well, and that they
were worthy to be saved for the pains they had taken. But when
Jesus told them that salvation was of mere grace ; that they were
helpless sinners, and needed still to be drawn to Christ by the
mere good pleasure of the Father, this offended them to the quick ;
they turned back, and walked no more with Jesus.
(2.) So, now, many persons set out in religion, thinking that
they shall soon bring themselves into a converted state. They
take great pains in religion ; they confess the sins of their past
life, and stir up grief in their hearts because of them ; they wait
patiently on ordinances, and take much pains to work the works
of God*: but when they find out that they are not a whit ne;uer
being saved than when they began ; when they are told they must
be drawn to Christ ; that God is not obliged to save them ; that
they deserve nothing at his hand but a place in hell ; that if ever
they are saved, it is of mere free grace ; then they are offended.
They cannot bear this kind of preaching ; they go back, and walk
no more with Jesus. Is any hearing me, in this condition ? Alas !
proud sinner, stop one moment before you leave the divine Sa-
viour. Is it a hard saying, that an infinitely hateful rebel andi
worm should be unable to buy Christ with so many tears and
prayers ?
1st Warning. Many go so far with Christ, who do not go the
whole way. Many hear Christ's words for a time with joy andi
eagerness, who yet are offended by them at last. This is a so-
lemn warning. Do not think you are a Christian because you
git and listen to the words of Christ. Do not think you are a
Christian because you have some pleasure in the words of Christ.
Many are called ; few are chosen. Many went back, and only
twelve remained. So doubtless it will be found among yousi
Those only are Christians who feed upon Christ, and live by him.
2d Warning. Those that go back, generally walk no more
with Jesus. Perhaps they did not intend to. bid an eternal faro-
392 SERMON LXVI1.
well to ;he Saviour. Perhaps they said, as thiy retired, I wil
go home and think about it; I will hear him again concerning
this matter. At a more convenient season I will follow him.
But, alas ! that season never came ; they walked no more with
Jesus. Take warning, dear friends, you that are anxious about
your souls. Oh ! do not be easily offended. Do not lose a sense
of your lost condition. Oh ! do not grow careless of your Bible
and the means of grace.^ Oh ! do not go back to the company of
sinners. These are all marks of one who is going back from Je-
sus. Wait patiently for the Lord, until he incline his ear and hear
your cry. Siill press to hear the words of Jesus. Still cry for
the teaching Spirit. " If any man draw back, my soul shall have
no pleasure in him ;" " No man having put his hand to the plough,
and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."
II. Lesson. The careful anxiety of Christ lest his own true dis-
ciples should go away : " Then said Jesus to the twelve, Will ye
also go away?" Verse 67.
I have no doubt the heart of Jesus was grieved when the mul-
titude went away, and walked no more with him. That good
Shepherd never yet saw a lost sheep running on to destruction,
but his heart bled for it: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how olten
would I have gathered thy children together !" He could see all
the future history of these men ; how they would lose all their
impressions ; how they would harden in their sins ; how, like a
rolling snowball, they would gather more and more wrath around
them, and, I doubt not, he wept in secret over them, and said : " If
ye had known, even you ; but now they are hid from your eyes."
He traced their history up to that hour when he would say :
' Depart from me." But however much Christ grieved over their
departure, this only fanned the flame of his love to his own, so
that he turned round and said : " Will ye also go away ?"
1. Observe how much love there is in these words. When the
crowd went away, he did not cry after him ; his soul was grieved
but he spoke not a word ; but when his own believing disciples
were in danger of being led away, he speaks to them : " Will ye
also go away ?" ye whom I have chosen ; ye whom I have washed ;
ye whom I have sanctified and filled with hopes of glory ; " Will
ye also go away ?" Oh ! see, Christians, how anxiously Christ
watches over you. He is walking in the midst of the seven
golden candlesticks, and his word is : "I know thy works." He
watches the first decaying of the first love. He speaks aloud :
" Will ye also go away ?"
2. Observe, Christ keeps his disciples from backsliding by put-
ting the question to them : " Will ye also go away ?" It is pro-
bable that some of the twelve were inclining to go away with the
rest. We are often deceived by example carried away from
Christ before we think of it : but Christ wakens us by the ques
SERMON LXVII. 393
tion ; " Will ye also go away ?" Think of this question, you that
have known Christ, and yet are going back to sin and the world.
May God write it on your hearts : " Will ye also go away ?"
Christians, if you would keep this word in your heart, it would
keep you from the thought of going away.
III. Lesson. A true believer has none to go to but Christ.
Both the Bible and experience testify, that believers do often-
times go away from Christ. The same lips that said : " My Lord,
and my God," are often found saying : " I will go after my lovers."
But this passage plainly shows that it needs but the word of the
tender Saviour to reach the heart of the backslider, and he says :
" Lord to whom shall we go ? thou hast the words of eternal
life."
Two reasons are here given why the believer cleaves to
Christ.
1. " Thou hast the words of eternal life." To unconverted
minds the words of Christ are hard sayings; to his own, they are
tried words words of eternal life. The very thing that drives
the world away from Christ, draws his own disciples closer and
closer to him. The world are offended when Christ says we must
eat his flesh ; it is a word of eternal life to the Christian. The
world go away when they hear of Christ dwelling in the soul ;
the Christian draws nearer, and says : Lord, evermore dwell in
me. The world walk no more with Jesus when they hear, It is
all of grace ; the Christian bows in the dust, and blesses God,
who alone has made him to differ : " Lord, to whom shall we go ?
thou hast the words of eternal life." Dear friends, try yourselves
by this. Are the words of Christ to you hard sayings, or are they
the words of eternal life ? Oh ! may God enable you to judge
fairly of your case.
2. " We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son
of the living God." Ah ! it is this that rivets the believing soul to
Christ the certain conviction that Christ is a divine Saviour. If
Christ were only a man like ourselves, then how could he be a
surety for us? He might suffer in the stead of one man, but how
could he suffer in the stead of thousands ? Ah ! but we believe
and are sure that he is the Son of the living God, and therefore I
know he is a sufficient surety for me. To whom else can I go
for pardon ? If Christ were only a man like ourselves, then how
could he dwell in us, or give the Spirit to abide with us for ever?
But we believe and are sure that he is that Christ, the Son of the
living God, and therefore I know he is able to dwell in me, and
put the Spirit in me for ever. To whom, then, can I go for a new
heart but unto Christ ? O dear brethren ! have you been thu
taught ? then blessed are ye ; *' for flesh and blood hath not re-
vealed it unto you, but my Father which is in heaven." Hold
394 SERMON LXVIII.
fast by this sure faith you cannot be too sure, and then you will
never, never go away from Christ.
Some of you are very wavering in your life, like a wave of the
sea, driven with the wind and tossed ; at one time cast upon the
shore, at another time running back into the sea. There is no
decision about your Christianity or about your holiness. Why is
this ? Ans. Unbelief. Oh ! if you would believe and be sure,
then you would never depart from him. You would say : " To
whom shall we go ? thou hast the words of eternal life."
Dundee, 1837.
SERMON LXVIII.
YE WILL NOT COME TO ME.
" And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." John v., 40.
THERE is nothing more sad, and nothing more strange than that
when there is a Saviour that is enough for all the world, so few
should come to him to be saved. If a life-boat were sent out to a
wreck, sufficient to save all the crew, and if it came back with
less than half of them, you would inquire, with anxiety, why the
rest had noi been saved by it. Just so, when Christ has come to
seek and save that which was lost, and yet the vast majority are
unsaved, it behooves us to inquire why so many are not saved by
Christ. We have the answer in these words : " Ye will not come
to me, that ye might have life."
Doctrine. Sinners are lost, not by reason of anything in Christ,
but by reason of something in themselves. They will not come
to Christ, that they might have life.
I. Show that it is not by reason of anything in Christ that sin-
ners are lost.
1. It is not because Christ is not sufficient to save all. The
whole Bible shows that Christ is quite sufficient to save all the
world ; that all the world would be saved, if all the world were
to come to Christ : " Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sins of the world." The meaning of that is, not that the sins
of the whole world are now taken away. It is quite plain that
the whole world is not forgiven at present. (1.) Because the
whole world is not saved. (2.) Because God everywhere calls
sinners to repentance, and the first work of the Spirit is to con-
vince o r sin of the heavy burden that is now lying on Christless
sojls (3.) Because forgiveness in the Bible is everywhere at-
tacheu ;o believing. When they brought to Jesus a man sick of
the palsy, Jesus seeing his faith, said unto him: " Son, be of good
SERMON LXVIII. 39ft
cheer ; thy sins are forgiven thee." Believe on the Lord Jesuf ,
and thou shall be saved. The simple truth of the Bible is, that
Christ hath suffered and died in the stead of sinners as a lom-
mon person in their stead ; and every man that is a sinner hath a
right to come.
Christ is quite sufficient for all. and I would prove it by this
argument : If he was sufficient for one sinner, then he must be
sufficient for all. The great difficulty with God (I speak as a
man) was, not how to admit many sinners into his favor, but how
to admit one sinner into his favor. If that difficulty has been got
over in Jesus Christ, then the whole difficulty has been got over.
If one sinner may come unto God clothed in Christ, then all sin-
ners may. If one sinner may have peace with God, and God be
yet just and glorious, then every sinner may have peace with him.
If Christ was enough for Abel, then he is enough for all that come
after. If one dying thief may look to him and be saved, so may
every dying thief. If one trembling jailor may believe on Jesus,
and rejoice believing, so may every other trembling sinner. O
brethren ! you may doubt and wrangle about whether Christ be
enough for your soul, but if you die Christless, you will see that
there was room enough under his wings, but you would not.
2. Sinners are lost, not because Christ is unwilling to save all.
The whole Bible shows that Christ is quite willing and anxious
that all sinners should come to him. The city of refuge in the
Old Testament was a type of Christ; and you remember that its
gates were open by night and by day. The arms of Christ were
nailed wide open, when he hung upon the cross; and this was a
figure of his wide willingness to save all, as he said : " I, if I be
lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." But though
his arms were firmly nailed, they are more firmly nailed wide
open now, by his love and compassion for perishing sinners, than
ever they were nailed to the tree.
There is no unwillingness in the heart of Jesus Christ. Whei
people are willing and anxious about something, they do every-
thing that lies in their power to bring it to pass. So did Jesiv;
Christ : "What could have been done more for my vineyard, thiil
I hive not done in it?" But if they are very anxious, they vtill
attempt it again and again. So did Jesus Christ: "O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered your children us a
hen guthenlh her chickens under her wings, and ye would not !"
But if they are still more anxious, they will be grieved if they are
disappointed. So was Jesus Christ : " When he came neai, ite be-
held the city, and wept over it." But if they are very anxious,
they will suffer pain rather than lose their object. So aid Jesus
Christ : The good Shepherd gave his life for the sheep. Ah ! dear
brethren, if you perish, it is not because Jesus wishes you to
perish.
A ward to anxious souls. How strange it is that anxious souls
396 SERMON LXVJII.
do most of all doubt the willingness of Christ to be their Saviour
yet these should least of all doubt him. If he is a willing Saviour
to any, O surely he is a willing Saviour to a weary soul ! Re
member the blind beggar of Jericho. He was in your case, blind
and helpless, and he cried : " Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy
upon me." And when the crowd bade him hold his peace, he
cried so much the more. Was Jesus unwilling to be that beg-
gar's Saviour ? He stood still, and commanded him to be brought,
and said : " Thy faith hath made thee whole." He is the same
willing Saviour still. Cry after him; and, though the world may
bid you hold your peace, cry after him just so much the more.
A word to careless souls. You say Christ may be a willing
Saviour to others, but surely not to you. O yes ! he is quite wil-
ling for you too. See him sitting by the well of Samaria, con-
vincing one poor sinful woman of her sins, and leading her to
himself. He is the same Saviour towards, you this day. If you
do perish, it is not because Christ is willing. He wills all men to
oe saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. He pleads
with you, and says : " Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die ?"
II. True reasons why men do not come to Jesus Christ. It ia
ecause they will not come. The reason is not in Christ, but in
themselves.
1. Ignorance of Jesus Christ is one reason why sinners do not
come to him. So it was with the Jews. They, being ignorant of
God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own
righteousness, would not submit themselves to the righteous-
ness of God. And so it is with many sinners amongst u's.
They will not come to Jesus Christ, because they do not know
him. It is quite amazing the great ignorance which exists in the
midst of us. Some who have lived under the preached Word for
years, yet do not know who Jesus Christ is. He is an utter
stranger to them. Some do not know from whence he came, or
whither he has gone, or who sent him into the world, or why he
came, and why he suffered and obeyed. Many more have no per-
sonal knowledge of Jesus Christ. They have had no revelation of
Chirst made to them. They are ignorant of his beauty and fitness
to their own case as a Saviour ; and therefore they will not come
to Christ to have life. In a shower of rain, you would not turn aside
into a shelter unless you knew that there was a shelter there.
Though you had lived at the time of the flood, if you lived in com-
plete ignorance of the ark, it is plain you would not have fled to
it ; or even if you had known it, and seen it, and heard of it, yet
if you did not know the use of it, you would never have fled to it.
So is it with sinners now. Many do not know about Jesus Christ,
though he is the only ark ; and therefore they will not come to
him. Many know something about Jesus Christ, but they do not
know the use of him to their perishing souls ; and so they also
will not come to Christ to have life.
SERMON LXVIII. 397
Do not live in ignorance of him, dear souls, I beseech you.
Seek for him as for silver, yea, search for him as for hid treasures.
Do not say you are too old to learn. If the Spirit be your teacher,
he can make it quite easy. He can take of the things of Christ,
and show them unto you. Do not say you are too young to learn
Happiest they who know him soonest ! Happy lambs, that are
soon gathered into the Saviour's bosom !
2. Another reason why sinners do not come to Christ is, thai
they have no sense that they need him. If you had slain a man, but
had no sense that the blood-avenger was pursuing you, you would
not flee to the city of refuge. If your vessel was sinking, but you
did not perceive it, you would not get into the life-boat. If
you were sick and dying, but had no sense of it, you would not
send for the physician. Just so, if you have no sense of being
under the wrath of God, and exposed to hell, you will not come
to Christ, that you may have life. If you look around, you will see
that the most of men have no feeling of anxiety about their souls.
You will find men anxious about their families ; about their money
or their goods ; about their character in the world ; but, ah !
where do you find men anxious about their souls? If you ask me
why so few come to Jesus Christ, I answer, Because so few are
anxious about their souls. Now, if a man be never awakened to
tice from wrath, it is plain and certain that he will never come to
Jesus Christ. The three thousand were pricked in their hearts,
and then inquired after Christ. The jailor trembled for his soul,
and then was brought to rejoice in Christ Jesus. But no one was
ever brought to Christ without being convinced of sin.
Careless persons, you should seek these convictions ; you should
cry to God for them ; you should try to get your heart made alive
to the sadness of your natural condition ; for if you are never
awakened, you will never come to Jesus Christ ; you will never
be saved.
Anxious persons, you should seek to keep up these convictions.
They are easily lost. You should cry to God to make them
deeper on your heart. If you lose them, they may never come
back. You may become another Lot's wife a pillar of salt. If
you lose them, you will never come to Christ, and never be
saved.
3. A third reason why sinners do not come to Christ is, that the
heart rises against him. Many are brought, in some measure, to
a sense of their sin and lost condition, who yet cannot be persuaded
to ccme to Jesus Christ. It is not anything in Christ that pre-
vrnts them it is something that rises up in their own heart.
Christ is quite open he is a door which no man can shut ; and
they would fain be at rest in him, and yet their proud heart rises
up against him.
There may be two reasons for this: (1.) Perhaps your anxiety
has set you upon establishing your own righteousness ; and, there-
398 SERMON LXVIII.
fore, you arc too proud to come to Jesus Christ. This was tho
\vay with the Jews. They were not only ignorant of God's right-
eousness, but they were about to establish their own righteousness ;
and, therefore, they would not submit to the righteousness of God.
Prrhaps you thought, when you were first awakened, that you
would soon find your way to peace. You thought, by tears, and
prayers, and amendment of your life, to blot out past sin. You
nave been making a false Christ to yourself, and that is the reason
you do not like the true Christ ; and Christ says of you : " Ye
will not come to me that ye might have life." To come to Christ,
you would need to forsake your own righteousness to confess
that your wisdom is folly to lie down empty, and vile, and with-
out praise, and to consent that Jesus Christ shall have all the
praise ; but your proud, self-flattering heart rises against this ; and
this is the reason you perish : " You will not come to me, that you
might have life." (2.) Another way in which anxious souls keep
away from Christ is this : You have been shaken off from all de-
pendence on your own repentance, or prayers, or amendment, to
make you righteous in the sight of God. You have laid you down
in the dust, and confessed that, if ever you are to be justified, it
must be through the obedience and sufferings of the Son of God.
Now, you have lain so long thus emptied, that you think Jesus
Christ should have been revealed to you by this time. In a word,
you have been humbling yourself to make yourself worthy of
Jesus Christ. Alas ! this is a still prouder thought than the one
before. You are not seeking to buy forgiveness from God by
your humblings and by your tears, but you are seeking to buy
Christ from God by these humblings. You think that your hum-
blings and tears deserve Christ ; so that you have been attempting
to buy that which buys forgiveness. This is a deep snare of the
devil, which hinders many anxious souls from coming to Jesus
Christ without money and without price.
There is reason to think that many souls perish in this way.
They fulfil this sad word of Christ : " Ye will not come to me,
that ye might have life." I would leave two directions with anx-
ious souls. (1.) You must be made willing to come to Jesus
Christ, if you would be saved. You cannot be saved against
your will. Some people have hopes that they will be lifted into
Christ against their will. This is impossible. Noah was not lifted
into the ark, but God said : " Come in." So Christ's people are a
willing people. They come willingly, with all their heart and
soul. Not only do they flee willingly from wrath, but they flee
willingly to Jesus Christ; they choose to be saved by him rather
than any other way. If there were ten thousand other saviours,
they would still choose Christ ; for he is the chiefest among ten
thousand, and they feel it sweetest and best to be nothing and
have nothing, that Christ may be all in all. (2.) God only can
bend vour will to come to Jesus Christ : " No nnan can call
SERMON LXVIII. 399
Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." " No man can come to me,
except the Father which hath sent me draw him." It is God that
must beat down all your proud imaginations. It is he that must
reveal your guilt and nakedness. He must make you feel the
emptiness and sin of all your self-righteousness. He must reveal
the beauty of Christ unto you, his comeliness, his desirableness.
He must convince you that it is sweetest to have no praise, and to
let Jesus have the whole. Oh ! seek the teaching of God. The
teaching of man is a mere dream, if you have not the teaching of
God. Cry night and day for the inward teaching of the Spirit.
" Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the
Father, cometh unto me ;" and, " Him that cometh unto me I will
in no wise cast out."
III. The sinfulness of not coming to Jesus Christ.
The words of Jesus are full of pathos enough to break the
proudest heart : " Ye will not come to me, that ye might have
life."
1. The greatness of the Saviour shows the sinfulness of not
coming to him. He is the eternal Son of God whom sinners are
despising. John bore witness of him ; his miracles bore witness
to him ; his Father bore witness of him ; the Scriptures, on every
page, testify of him ; yet ye will not come to him that ye might
have life. It is the Son of God that hath undertaken the doing
and dying of all in the stead of sinners ; and yet you, a trembling
sinner, will not honor him so much as to trust your soul upon his
finished work. Ah ! how shall we escape, if we neglect so great
a salvation?
2. The loveliness of the Saviour shows the sin of not corning
to him. Methinks there is a touch of heaven's melody in these
words : ' Ye will not come to me." I know not whether they
more express the high indignation of an insulted Saviour, or the
tender compassion of him that wept upon the Mount of Olives,
over Jerusalem. It is as if he said ; I have left the bosom of the
Father, to suffer, and bleed, and die, for sinners, even the chief;
yet, O sinner ! ye will not come unto me. I have sought the lost
sheep over mountain and hill; I have stretched out my hands all
the day to the gainsaying and disobedient ; I have cried after sin-
ners, and wept over sinners ; and yet ye will not come to me, that
ye might have life. Ah ! dear brethren, if sin against love be the
blackest sin under the blue vault of heaven, this is your sin, be-
cause ye trample under foot the blood of the Son of God, and do
despite unto the gentle Spirit of grace.
3. The very anxiety of some sinners increases their sin. Some
sinners are very anxious about their souls, yet will not come to
Jesus Christ. They are in search of a saviour, but they wi'l not
have Jesus Christ. Are there not some of you who would do
anything else to be saved : " Will the Lord be pleased with
400 SERMON LXIX.
thousands of rams, or with tens of thousands of rivers of oil ?
Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my
body for the sin of my soul ?" If we would bid you pray and
weep, you would do that ; if we would bid you fast and use the
shirt of hair, you would do that ; if we would bid you afflict your
soul and body, and make pilgrimage to the Holy Land, you would
do that ; if we would bid you live as monks and nuns, you would
do that, as thousands are doing this day ; but when we say, Come
to Christ, ah ! you will not do that. Ah ! proud, sinful, self-ruin-
ing heart, you would choose any balm but the Balm of Gilead,
any Saviour but the Son of God.
dh ! that these words of the sweet Saviour, whom you thus
despise, would pierce to the very bottom of your soul ; " Ye will
not come to me, that ye might have life.'*
St. Peter's, July 30, 1837.
SERMON LXIX.
IF ANY MAN THIRST.
' In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any
man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." John vii., 37.
I. LESSON. Chrisfs gracious importunity : " In the last day
that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried."
The feast here spoken of was the great feast of taberna-
cles, being one of the three yearly festivals, when all the males
came up from the country to Jerusalem. They used to build
tents, or tabernacles, of the branches of palm trees, olive, myrtle,
and willows, on the flat roofs of their houses, in their courts, or in
the open streets and gardens. In these they lived for seven days.
The priests and Levites used to teach and preach to the people,
and it was a time of great joy before the Lord. The eighth, or
last day, was a holy convocation, when all the people met in
the house of God before going away to their homes. On that
day it was that Jesus stood and cried.
1. Observe, it was when the whole people of the land were
met together that Jesus stood and cried : " If any man thirst, let
him come unto me, and drink." Jesus never thought his words
thrown away, even if there were but a single soul to hear. Never
did he use words of more divine power than when he spoke with
Nicodemus alone by night, and with the woman of Samaria by
the well ; but still, when thousands came together, Jesus would
not miss the happy opportunity : " Jesus stood and cried." O my
SERMON LXIX. 401
friends ! Jesus still stands in the crowded assembly. May you
hear his voice this day !
2. Observe, the people were going home. This was the last
day of the feast. To-day the courts of the temple are thronged
with Jews from all parts of the country ; to-morrow they will be
on their way home. No time must be lost ; speak now or never;
" Jesus stood and cried." I doubt not there was many a Jew
there that day who never heard the voice of the Saviour again ;
and therefore I can see what was in the mind of Christ when he
lifted up his voice so loud : " Jesus stood and cried." There may
be some here to-day who never will hear the word of Christ
again. This may be the last day of the feast to some of you.
Oh ! then, that we might stand and cry, lift up the voice like a
trumpet, and say, " If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and
drink ;" and O that you would hear as for eternity !
3. Observe, Christ had often preached to them before, yet he
* stood and crisd." From verse 14 we learn that it was about
the middle of the feast (the middle of the week) that Jesus began
to teach in the temple ; and no doubt he continued preaching and
teaching till the last day of the feast. Some marvelled, some
murmured, some sought to lay hands on him. And was his
patience not wearied out ? Ah ! no ; who knows the long-suffer-
ing of the Son of God ? How justly he might have gone away
for ever, and said, " If ye will not have me for a Saviour, then I
will not be a Saviour unto you, I will go my way to Him that sent
me." But no : the more careless the Jews became, the more
anxious he became. On the last day he stood and cried, " If any
man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink."
Jesus is the same still. Many of you have heard his words
for a thousand Sabbath-days. He has stretched out his hands all
the day ; he has sent all his messengers, rising up early and send-
ing them. You have been always unmoved living in sin worse
than you were. Does Jesus give you up? No ; he stands and
cries on the last day ; he follows you to your dying day.
Some of you are afraid that Jesus will not receive you now,
for you have so long resisted his words. Ah ! it would be quite
just if he were to say : " 1 will not hear ; I will laugh at your ca-
lamity ; I will mock when your fear cometh." But no ; be not
afraid. On the last day of the feast he stands and cries. He
speaks more loudly, more clearly, more freely than ever. Oh !
listen to his words : " If any man thirst, let him come unto me,
and drink."
II. Lesson. Christ is the smitten rock.
The feast of tabernacles was intended to be a picture of the
time when the fathers of the Jewish nation lived in tents in the
wilderness. It was intended to remind them that they too were
trangers and pilgrims in the wilderness, and that they were jour-
26
402 SERMON LXIX.
neying to a better land. But there was one thing in the wilderness
which they had no resemblance of in the feast of tabernacles the
smitten rock which gave out rivers of water. In order to make
up for this deficiency, it is said that on the last day of the feast the
Jews used to draw water in a golden pitcher from the Fountain of
Siloam, and pour it out upon the morning sacrifice, as it lay upon
the altar. They did this with great rejoicing, having palm
branches in their hand, and singing the 12th chapter of Isaiah.
Now it was on this very day perhaps at this very time that
Jesus stood up in the midst of them, and as if he wished to show
them that he was the true smitten rock cried : " If any man
thirst, let him come unto me, and drink."
Now, Christ is the smitten rock, because his blood has been
poured out for sin. (1.) The rock was smitten before it gave out
the stream. So is it with Christ. He was smitten of God and
afflicted. He bore the wrath of God ; and therefore his bio 3d
gushed forth, and cleanses from all sin. Oh ! you that fear to be
smitten of God, w r ash in this blood ; it flowed from a smitten rock.
(2.) The water gushed forth abundantly when Moses smote the
rock. It was no scanty stream ; it was enough for all the thou-
sands of Israel, and for their cattle ; and so is it with the blood
of the Saviour. It is no scanty stream. There are no sins it
cannot wash out ; there is no sinner beyond its reach ; there is
enough -here for all the thousands of Israel. (3.) It was a con-
slant supply: "They drank of the spiritual rock which followed
them, and that rock was Christ." We are not expressly told in
the Old Testament that the waters of the smitten rock did actually
follow the camp of Israel, but some learned divines are of opinion
that it was so that the water continued to flow wherever Israel
went ; so that it might be said the smitten rock followed them. So
is it with Christ. He is a rock that follows us. He is like rivers
of water in a dry place. You may wash, and wash again.
III. Lesson. All are invited to come to Christ and drink : " If
any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink."
1. Careless sinners are here invited to come to Christ and
drink. Men in their natural condition are quite careless about
their souls and about Jesus Christ. They thirst after plea-
sure, they thirst after money, and they thirst after the world ;
but they do not thirst after Christ r>r heavenly things. Yet
Christ wishes us to cry aloud in the hearing of such : " If any
man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." Let me speak to
such. You have no anxiety of soul, no desires after Jesus
Christ, no wish to receive his Holy Spirit. You are not thirsty
for anything beyond the waters of this world ; you are quite
happy where you are, and as you are ; yet the day may come
when you shall be a weary, thirsty soul. O that it may come
soon ! Now Jesus says : " If ever you feel thirsty, remember,
SERMON LXIX.
come unto me, and drink." " How long, ye simple ones, will ye
love simplicity ? and ye scorners delight in scorning, and fools
hate knowledge ? Turn yc at my reproof: behold, I will pour
out my Spirit unto you ; I will make known my words unto you."
2. Anxious, thirsty souls, are especially invited to come unto
Jesus : " If any man thirst, let him come unto me. and drink."
Souls awakened by God are thirsty in two ways. (1.) They
thirst after the forgiveness of sins ; they have been awakened
to know their lost condition ; the weight of God's anger has been
revealed to them. They go from mountain to hill seeking a rest-
ing-place, and finding none. At last they sit down, weary and
thirsty. They feel that all they do just signifies nothing that
they cannot bring themselves nearer to peace. They feel as it'
already in that place where they shall ask in vain for a drop of
water to cool the tongue. Do any of you know what this condi-
tion is ? Then you are here spoken to by Christ. (2.) They
thirst after deliverance from sin. Awakened persons generally
put away all outward sin. When a drunkard or swearer is awak-
ened, he puts away his outwnrd sin ; but he is far from being
able to change his heart. On the contrary, most wicked and
hateful thoughts sometimes rise into the soul. The heart is filled
with such vile desires that the soul is almost driven to distraction.
He goes from mountain to hill seeking a new heart, but finding
none. He sits down, at last, weary and thirsty. Do any of you
feel this? It is to you Christ speaks : " If any man thirst, let him
come unto me, and drink."
O thirsty souls ! afflicted, tempest-tost, and not comforted
why will ye not come unto Jesus, the smitten rock, to drink?
One says, I have sinned too much I dare not come as I am.
Ans. But are you not thirsty ? Christ says : " If any man thirst,
let him come unto me, and drink." Another says, I have sinned
against Christ I have turned a deaf ear to his warning voice
1 have mocked at his messengers I have profaned his sacra-
ments eaten bread and wine when I was living in sin ; and
surely I dare not come. But are you not thirsty ? Hear what
Christ says : " If any man thirst." Another says : But I am un-
willing to come to Christ I have a proud, unbelieving heart my
heart rises against coming to Jesus Christ ; surely I dare not look
to Jesus. But are you not thirsty ? Christ does not ask the wil-
ling or the believing, but the thirsty. He asks no more : " If any
man thirst, let him come unto me. and drink."
3. Thirsty belieuci s are here bid to come to Jesus. Among the
crowd on thai greai day of the feast, we are told that there were
many who believed on Jesus (verse 31) ; and it was for their
sakes also that ho spake these blessed words : " If any man thirst."
All true believers are a thirsty people. They are travelling in a
wilderness, and therefore they need the rock to follow them. Oh !
It is a bad sign of a soul when there is no thirst. True Christians
404 SERMON LXIX.
are like new-born babes ; they desire the sincere milk of the Wor J
they need nourishment, and need it often ; they cannot live with
out it. Oh, then, hear the word of Jesus : " Come unto me, and
drink.' 5
(1.) Remember you must come to Christ before you can drink.
It is only when you have a believing view of the Saviour that you
can receive the Spirit. It is only when your eye is fixed on the
smitten rock that you can drink of the living water. Are there
not some Christians hearing me who seem to receive very little
of the Spirit of God ? Are there not some Christians among you
who often exhibit a mean, worldly spirit? some who are easily
betrayed into a fiery, passionate spirit? Why is this? Ans.
You do not come to Jesus to drink ; you do not keep the eye of
faith on Jesus Christ ; you do not live by faith on the Son of God.
You are thinking to walk holily without coming unto Jesus day
by day, and hour by hour. You do not look on the Lord our
strength at God's right hand ; therefore you receive little of the
Holy Ghost.
(2.) Remember when you come to Jesus you must drink. O
how many seem to come to Jesus Christ, and yet do not drink !
How few Christians are like a tree planted by the rivers of water !
What would you have thought of the Jews, if, when Moses smote
the rock, they had refused to drink ? or what would you have
thought if they had only put the water to their lips ? Yet such is
the way with most Christians. It pleased the Father that in him
should all fullness dwell. The Spirit was given to him without
measure. The command is given to us to draw out of his fulness ;
yet who obeys ? Not one in a thousand. A Christian in our day
is like a man who has got a great reservoir brimful of water. He
is at liberty to drink as much as he pleases, for he never can drink
it dry : but instead of drinking the full stream that flows from it,
he dams it up, and is content to drink the few drops that trickle
through. O that ye would draw out of his fulness, ye that have
come to Christ ! Do not be misers of grace. There is far more
than you will use in eternity. The same waters are now in
Christ that refreshed Paul that gave Peter his boldness that
gave John his affectionate tenderness. Why is your soul less
richly supplied than theirs ? Because you will not drink : " If
any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink."
IV. Lesson. The change on all who drink they become foun-
tains like Christ : " He that believeth on me, as the Scripture
hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."
John vii., 38.
The Holy Spirit is an imperishable stream. It is not like those
rivers of which you have heard which flow through barren
sands till they sink into the earth and disappear. Not so the
stream of grace. When it flows from Jesus Christ, it flows into
SERMON LXIX. *\. 5
many a barren heart ; but it is never lost there. It appears again
it flows forth from that heart in rivers of living water. When a
soul is brought to believe on Jesus, and to drink in the Spirit, it
often appears as if the Spirit were lost in that soul. The stream
flows into such a barren heart, that it is long before it makes its
appearance; but it is never lost. The Scripture must be fulfilled:
" He that believeth on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of
living water."
1. A new motive for coming to Jesus. If you will come to
Jesus and drink, you shall become a fountain, you shall be changed
into the image of Christ. Are there none of you living in a god-
less family? O come to Jesus and drink! You will become a
fountain of grace to your family. Through your heart, through
your words, through your prayers, the stream of grace will flow
into other hearts. Those you love best in all the world may in
this way receive grace. O come unto Jesus and drink ! Many
of you live in a godless neighborhood, come to Jesus and drink,
and you will become a fountain of grace to your neighborhood.
From you shall flow rivers of living water. O if all of you that
know the Lord Jesus would only drink out of his fulness, even
this neglected place might become as the garden of the Lord,
well watered everywhere !
2. New test if you have come, to Jesus. If you have believed on
Jesus, then you have received the Spirit, and from you there must
be flowing rivers of living water. Is this the case ? Alas ! how
many of you must answer, No ; we know not what you mean.
(1.) Are there not some hearing me whose heart is more like
a sink of iniquity than a fountain of living water? Are there not
some who send forth from their heart rivers that pollute and poi-
son every place where they go? Are there not some who send
forth streams of horrid imaginations and impure desires? Are
there not some who send forth polluting conversation, foolish, lasci-
vious talking and jesting, which are not convenient? Ah! how
plain you have never been brought f o Jesus ! The river of grace
has never been turned into that foul bosom.
(2.) Are there not some who are like a fountain sealed ? They
seem to come to Jesus, but they do not give out any living stream.
I stand in doubt of you.
Every one that believes on the Lord Jerus must receive the
Spirit. Every one that receives the Spirit will make it manifest
by sending forth rivers of living water. Be not deceived, my
dear friends. He that doeth righteousness is righteous. If you
are living a dead, useless life, you are no Christian. " Examine
yourselves whether ye be in the faith. Prove your ownse'ves.
Know ye not your ownselves how that Jesus Chris* i? un v*n,
except ye be reprobate?**
St. Peter's, October 22, 1837.
406 SERMON LXX.
SERMON LXX.
CONVICTION OF SIN.
14 And when be [the Comforter] is come, he will convince the world of sin, anJ uf
righteousness, and of judgment." John xvi., 8.
WHEN friends are about to part from one another, they are fai
kinder than ever they have been before. It was so with Jesus.
He was going to part from his disciples, and never till now did
his heart flow out towards them in so many streams of heavenly
tenderness. Sorrow had filled their heart, and therefore divinest
compassion filled his heart. " I tell you the truth, it is expedient
for you that I go away."
Surely it was expedient for himself that he should go away.
He had lived a life of weariness and painfulness, not having where
to lay his head, and surely it was pleasant in his eyes that he was
about to enter into his rest. He had lived in obscurity and po-
verty, he gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that
plucked oii r the hair; and now, surely, he might well look forward
with joy to his return to that glory which he had with the Fathei
before ever the world was, when all the angels of God worship
ped him ; and yet he does not say, It is expedient for me that 1
go away. Surely that would have been comfort enough to his
disciples. But no ; he says, " It is expedient for you." He ior-
gets himself altogether, and thinks only of his little flock which
he was leaving behind him: ' It is expedient for you that I go
away." O most generous of Saviours ! He looked not on his
own things, but on the things of others also. He knew that it is
far moie blessed to give than it is to receive.
The gift of the Spirit is the great argument by which he here
persuades them that his going away would be expedient for them.
Now, it is c'irious to remark that he had promised them the
Spirit before in the beginning of his discourse. In chap, xiv , 16
18, he says: "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you
another Comfor^r, that he may abide with you for ever ; even the
Spirit of truth; vhom the world cannot receive, because it seeth
him not, neither knoweth him ; but ye know him ; for he dwelleth
with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless:
I will come to you again." And again : " But the Comforter,
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name,
he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remem-
brance, whatsoever I have said unto you.'' Verse 26. In that
passage he promises the Spirit for their own peculiar comfort and
joy. He. promises him as a treasure which they, and they only,
could receive : " For the world cannot receive him, because it
SERMON LXX.
neither sees nor knows him ;" and yet, saith he, ' he dwelleth witF
you, and shall be in you." But in the passage before us the pro-
mise is quite different. He promises the Spirit here, not for them-
selves, 'but for the world ; not as a peculiar treasure, to be locked
up in their own bosoms, which they might brood over with a
selfish joy, but as a blessed power to work, through their preaching,
on the wicked world around them ; not as a well springing up
within thoir own bosoms unto everlasting life, but as rivers of
living water flowing through them to water this dry and perishing
world ; for he does not say, When he is come he will fill your
hearts with peace and joy to overflowing ; but, " When he is come,
he will convince the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of
judgment." But a little before he had told them that the world
would hate and persecute them ; " If ye were of the world, the
world would love his own ; but because ye are not of the world,
but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hatcth
you." John xv., 19. This was but poor comfort, when that very
world was to be the field of their labors ; but now he shows them,
what a blessed gift the Spirit would be ; for he would work,
through their preaching, upon the very hearts that hated and
persecuted them. " He shall convince the world of sin." This
has always been the case. In Acts ii. we are told that when the
Spirit came on the apostles the crowd mocked them, saying :
" These men are full of new wine ;" and yet, when Peter preached,
the Spirit wrought through his preaching on the hearts of these very
scoffers. They were pricked in their hearts, and cried : " Men
and brethren, what must we do ?" and the same day three thou-
sand souls were converted. Again, the jailer at Philippi was
evidently a hard, cruel man towards the apostles; for he thrust
them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks ;
and yet the Spirit opens his hard heart, and he is brought to Christ
by the very apostles whom he hated. Just so is it, brethren, to
th:s day. The World do not love the true ministers of Christ a
whit better than they did. The world is the same world it was
in Christ's day. That word has never yet been scored out of the
Bible : " Whosoever will live godly in the world, must suffer per-
secution." We expect, as Paul did, to be hated by the most who
listen to us. We are quite sure, as Paul was, that the. more
abundantly we love you, most of you will love us the less ; and
yet, brethren, none of these things move us. Though cast down,
we are not in despair; for we know that the Spirit is sent to con-
vince the world ; and we do not fear but some of you who are
counting us an enemy, because we tell you the truth, may even
this day, in the midst of all your hatred and cold indifference, be
convinced of sin by the Spirit, and made to cry out: "Sirs, what
must I do to be saved ?"
L The first work of the Spirit is to convince of sin.
406 SERMON LXX.
1. Who it is that convinces of sin: "He shall convince the
world of sin, because they believe not in me." It is curious to
remark, that wherever the Holy Ghost is spoken of in the Bible,
he is spoken of in terms of gentleness and love. We often read
of the wrath of God the Father, as in Rom. i. ; " The wrath of
God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unright-
eousness of rnen." And we often read of the wrath of God the
Son : " Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the
way ;" or, " Revealed from heaven taking vengeance ;" but we
nowhere read of the wrath of God the Holy Ghost. (1.) He is
compared to a dove, the gentlest of all creatures. (2.) He is
warm and gentle as the breath : " Jesus breathed on them, and
said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." (3.) He is gentle as the falling
dew : " I will be as the dew unto Israel." (4.) He is soft and
gentle as oil ; for he is called " The oil of gladness." The fine oil
wherewith the high priest was anointed was a type of the Spirit.
(5.) He is gentle and refreshing as the springing well : " The
water that 1 shall give him shall be in him a well of water spring-
ing up unto everlasting life. (6.) He is called " The Spirit of
grace and of supplications." He is nowhere called the Spirit of
wrath. (7.) He is called the " Holy Ghost, which is the Com-
forter." Nowhere is he called the Avenger. (8.) We are told
that he groans within the heart of a believer, " helping his infirm-
ities ;" so that he greatly helps the believer in prayer. We are told
also of the love of the Spirit, nowhere of the wrath of the Spirit.
Wo are told of his being grieved : " Grieve not the Holy Spirit ;"'
of his being resisted : " Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost ;" of
his being quenched : "Quench not the Spirit." But these are all
marks of gentleness and love. Nowhere will you find one mark
of anger or of vengeance attributed to him ; and yet, brethren,
when this blessed Spirit begins his work of love, mark how he
begins ; he convinces of sin. Even he, all- wise, almighty, all-
gentle and loving though he be. cannot persuade a poor sinful
heart to embrace the Saviour, without first opening up his wounds,
and convincing him that he is lost.
Now, brethren, I ask of you, Should not the faithful minister of
Christ just do the very same ? Ah ! brethren, if the Spirit, whose
very breath is gentleness and love ; whom Jesus hath sent into the
world to bring men to eternal life ; if he begins his work in every
soul that is to be saved, by convincing of sin, why should you
blame the minister of Christ if he begins in the very same way ?
Why should you say that we are harsh, and cruel, and severe,
when we begin to deal with your souls by convincing you of sin ?
'' Am I ber.ome your enemy, because I ell you the truth ?" When
the surgeon comes to cure a corrupted wound ; when he tears off
the vile bandages which unskilful hands had wrapped around it ;
when he lays open the deepest recesses of your wound, and shows
you ail its venom and its virulence; do you call him cruel? May
SERMON LXX. 409
not his hands be all the time the hands of gentleness and love?
Or, when a house is all on fire ; when the flames are bursting out
from every window ; when some courageous man ventures to
alarm the sleeping inmates, bursts through the barred door, tears
aside the close-drawn curtains, and with eager hand shakes the
sleeper, bids him awake and flee, a moment longer and you may
be lost, do you call him cruel ? or do you say this messenger of
mercy spoke too loud too plain ? Ah, no. " Skin for skin ; all
that a man hath will he give for his life." Why, then, brethren,
will you blame the minister of Christ when he begins by con-
vincing you of sin ? Think you that the wound of sin is less veno-
mous or deadly than a wound in the flesh ? Think you the flames
of hell are less hard to bear than the flames of earth ? The very
Spirit of love begins by convincing you of sin ; and are we
less the messengers of love because we too begin by convincing
you of sin ? Oh, then, do not say that we have become your ene-
my because we tell you the truth.
II. What is this conviction of sin ? I would begin to show this
by showing you what it is not.
1 . It is not the mere smiting of the natural conscience. Although
man be utterly fallen, yet God has left natural conscience behind
in every heart, to speak for him. Some men, by continual sinning,
sear even the conscience as with a hot iron, so that it becomes
dead and past feeling; but most men have so much natural con-
science remaining that they cannot commit open sin without their
conscience smiting them. When a man commits murder or theft,
no eye may have seen him, and yet conscience makes a coward
of him. He trembles, and is afraid ; he feels that he has sinned,
and he fears that God will take vengeance. Now, brethren, that
is not the conviction of sin here spoken of; that is a natural work
which takes place in every heart ; but conviction of sin is a super-
natural work of the Spirit of God. If you have had nothing more
than the ordinary smiting of conscience, then you have not been
convinced of *sin.
2. It is not any impression upon the imagination. Sometimes,
when men have committed great sin, they have awful impressions
of God's vengeance made upon their imaginations. In the night-
time they almost fancy they see the flames of hell burning beneath
them ; or they seem to hear doleful cries in their ears telling of
coming woe; or they fancy they see the face of Jesus all clouded
with anger; or they have terrible dreams, when they sleep, of
coming vengeance. Now, this is not the conviction of sin which
the Spirit gives. This is altogether a natural work upon the natu-
ral faculties, and not at all a supernatural work of the Spirit. If
you have had nothing more than these imaginary terrors, you have
had no work of the Spirit.
3. // is not a mere head knowledge of what the Bible says against
410 SERMON LXX.
sin. Many unconverted men read their Bibles, and have a clear
knowledge that their case is laid down there. They are sensible
men. They know very well that they are in sin, and they know
just as well that the wages of sin is death. (1.) One man lives a
swearer, and he reads the words, and understands them perfectly :
" Swear not at all." ' The Lord will hold him guiltless that
taketh his name in vain." (2.) Another man lives in the lusts of
the flesh, and he reads the Bible, and understands these words
perfectly : " No unclean person hath any inheritance in the king-
dom of Christ and of God." (3.) Another man Jives in habitual
forgetfulness of God ; never thinks of God from sunrise to sunset,
and yet he reads : " The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all
the people that forget God." Now, in this way, most unconverted
men have a head knowledge of their sin, and of the wages of sin ;
yet, brethren, this is far from conviction of sin. This is a mere
natural work in their head. Conviction of sin is a work of God
upon the heart. If you have had nothing more than this head
knowledge that you are sinners, then you have never been con-
vinced of sin.
4. Conviction of sin is not to feel the loathsomeness of sin. This
is what a child of God feels. A child of God has seen the beauty
and excellency of God, and, therefore, sin is loathsome in his
eyes. But no unconverted person has seen the beauty and excel-
lency of God : therefore, even the Spirit cannot make him feel
the loathsomeness of sin. Just as when you leave a room that is
brilliantly lighted, and go out into the darkness of the open air,
the night looks very dark ; so when a child of God has been with-
in the veil, in the presence of his reconciled God, in full view of
the Father of lights, dwelling in light inaccessible and full of
glory then, when he turns his eye inwards upon his own sinful
bosom, sin appears very dark, very vile, and very loathsome.
But an unconverted soul never has been in the presence of the
reconciled God ; and therefore sin cannot appear dark and loath-
some in his eyes. Just as when you have tasted something very
sweet and pleasant, when you come to taste other things, they ap-
pear very insipid and disagreeable ; s -. n a child of God has
tasted and seen that God is gracious, L.o taste of sin in his own
heart becomes very nauseous and loathsome to him. But an un-
converted soul never tasted the sweetness of God's love ; he can-
not, therefore, feel the vileness and loathsomeness of sin. This,
then, is not the conviction of sin here spoken of.
What, then, is this conviction of sin 1 Ans. It is a just sense of
th dread fulness of sin. It is not a mere knowledge that we have
nviny s ; ns, and that God's anger is revealed against them all ; but
it is a heart-feeling that we are under sin. Again : it is not a feel-
ing of the loathsomeness of sin that is felt only by the children
of God : but it is a feeling of the dreadfulness of sin, of the dis-
honor it does k> God, and of the wrath to which it exposes the
SERMON LXX. 411
soul. Oh, brethren ! conviction of sin is no slight natural work
upon the heart. There is a great difference between knowing a
thing and having a just sense of it. There is a great difference
between knowing that vinegar is sour, and actually tasting and
feeling that it is sour. There is a great difference between know-
ing that fire will burn us, and actually feeling the pain of being
burned. Just in the same way, there is all the difference in the
world between knowing the dreadfulness of your sins and feeling
the dreadfulness of your sins. It is all in vain that you read your
Bibles and hear us preach, unless the Spirit use the words to give
sense and feeling to your dead hearts. The plainest words will
not awaken you as long as you -are in a natural condition. If we
could prove to you, with the plainness of arithmetic, that the
wrath of God is abiding on you and your children, still you would
sit unmoved you would go away and forget it before you reach-
ed your own door. Ah, brethren, he that made your heart, can
alone impress your heart. It^ is the Spirit that convinceth you
of sin.
1. Learn the true power of the read and preached Word. It is
but an instrument in the hand of God. It has no power of itself,
except to produce natural impressions. It is a hammer, but God
must break your hearts with it. It is a fire, but God must kindle
up your bosoms with it. Without knowing him we may give you
a knowledge of the dreadfulness of your condition, but he only
can give you a just sense and feeling of the dreadfulness of your
condition. The most powerful sermon in the world can make
nothing more than a natural impression ; but when God works
through it, the feeblest word makes a supernatural impression.
Many a N poor sermon has been the means by which God hath con-
verted a soul. Children of God, O that you would pray night and
day for the lilting up of the arm of God !
2. Learn that conversion is not in your own power. It is the
Spirit alone who convinces of sin, nnd he is a free agent. He is
a sovereign Spirit, and has nowhere promised to work at the bid-
ding of unconverted men. He hath many on whom he will have
mercy ; and whom he will he hardeneth. Perhaps you think you
may take your fill of sin just now, and then come and repent, and
be saved ; but remember the Spirit is not at your bidding. He is
not your servant. Many hope to be converted on their death-bed;
and they come to their death-bed, and yet are not converted. If
the Spirit be working with you now, do not grieve him, do not
resist him, do not quench him ; for he may never come back to
you again.
III. / come to the argument which the Spirit uses. There are
two arguments by which the Spirit usually gives men a sense of
the dreadfulness of sin.
1. The Law: "The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to
412 SERMON LXX.
Christ." " Now we know that what things soever the law saith,
it saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be
stopped, and all the world become guilty before God." The sin-
ner reads the law of the great God who made heaven and earth.
The Spirit of God arouses his conscience to see that the law con-
demns every part of his life. The law bids him love God. His
heart tells him he never loved God, never had a thought of regard
towards God. The Spirit convinces him that God is a jealous God,
that his honor is concerned to uphold the law, and destroy the sin-
ner. The Spirit convinces him that God is a just God, that he
can by no means clear the guilty. The Spirit convinces him that
he is a true God, that he must fulfil all his threatenings : " Have I
said it, and shall I not do it?" The sinner's mouth is stopped, arid
he stands guilty before God.
2. The second argument is the Gospel : "Because they believe
not on Jesus." This is the strongest of all arguments, and there-
fore is chosen by Christ here. The sinner reads in the Word
that " he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life ;" and now
the Spirit convinces him that he never believed on the Son of God,
indeed he does not know what it means. For the first time the
conviction comes upon his heart : " He that believeth not the Son,
shall not see life ; but the wrath of God abideth on him." The
more glorious and divine that Saviour is, the more is the Christ-
less soul convinced that he is lost ; for he feels that he is out of
that Saviour. He sees plainly that Christ is an almighty ark riding
over the deluge of God's wrath ; he sees how safe and happy the
little company are that are gathered within ; but this just makes
him gnash his teeth in agony, for he is not within the ark, and the
waves and billows are coming over him. He hears that Christ
hath been stretching out the hands all the day to the chief of sin-
ners, not willing that any should perish ; but then he never cast
himself into these arms, and now he feels that Christ may be
laughing at his calamity, and mocking when his fear cometh. O
yes, my friends ! how often on the death-bed, when the natural
fears of conscience are aided by the Spirit of God, how often,
when we speak of Christ, his love, his atoning blood, the refuge
to be found in him, how safe and happy all are that are in him,
how often does the dying sinner turn it all away with the awful
question : But am I in Christ ? The more we tell of the Saviour,
the more is their agony increased ; for they feel that that is the
Saviour they have refused. Ah ! what a meaning does that give
to these words : " The Spirit convinceth of sin, because they be-
lieve not on me."
1. Now, my friends, there are many of you who know that you
never believed on Jesus, and yet you are quite unmoved. You
sit without emotion, you eat your meals with appetite, and doubt-
less sleep sound at night. Do you wish to know the reason ? You
have never been convinced of sin. The Spirit hath never begun
SERMON LXX. 413
his work in your heart. Oh ! if the Spirit of Jesus would come
on your hearts like a mighty rushing wind, what a dreadful thought
it would be to you this night that you are lying out of Christ !
You would lose your appetite for this world's food, you would not
be able to rest in your bed, you would not dare to live on in your
sins. All your past sins would rise behind you like apparitions of
evil. Wherever you went you would meet the word ; " Without
Christ, without hope, and without God in the world ;" and if your
worldly friends should try to hush your fears, and tell you of your
decencies, and that you were not so bad as your neighbors, and
many might fear if you feared, ah ! how you would thrust them
away, and stop your ears, and cry : There is a city of refuge, to
which I have never fled ; therefore there must be a blood-avenger.
There is an ark ; therefore there must be a coming deluge. There
is a Christ ; therefore there must be a hell for the Christless.
2. Some of you may be under conviction of sin ; you feel the
dreadfulness of being out of Christ, and you are very miserable.
Now, (1.) Be thankful for this work of the Spirit : " Flesh and
blood hath not revealed it unto thee. but my Father." God hath
brought you into the wilderness just that he might allure you, and
speak to your heart about Christ. This is the way he begins the
work in every soul he saves. Nobody ever came to Christ but
they were first convinced of sin. All that are now in heaven
began this way. Be thankful you are not dead like those around
you. (2.) Do not lose these convictions. Remember they are
easily lost. Involve yourself over head and ears in business, and
work even on the Sabbath-day, and you will soon drive all away.
Indulge a little in sensual pleasure, take a little diversion with
companions, and you will soon be as happy and careless as they.
If you love your soul, flee these things do not stay flee away
from them. Read the books that keep up your anxiety wait on
the ministers that keep up that anxiety. Above all, cry to the
Spirit, who alone was the author of it, that he would keep it up.
Cry night and day that he may never let you rest out of Christ.
Oh ! would you sleep over hell ? (3.) Do not rest in these con-
victions. You are not saved yet. Many have come thus far, and
perished after all ; many have been convinced, not converted ;
many lose their convictions, and wallow in sin again. " Remem-
ber Lot's wife." You are never safe till you are within the fold,
Christ is the door. "Strive to enter in at the strait gate; fo*
many shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able."
Dundee, Feb. 4, 1S37
414 SERMON LXX1.
SERMON LXXI.
CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
" And when he [the Comforter] is come, he will convince the world of sin, and of
righteousness, and of judgment." John xvi., 8
SECOND DISCOURSE.
IN my last discourse from this passage we saw that the first work
of the Spirit on the heart of a sinner is to convince of sin ; to give
him a sense of the dreadfulness of his sins, and to make him feel
how surely he is a lost sinner. And from that I drew an argu-
ment, that it is the duty of all faithful ministers to do the same ;
that if the Spirit of gentleness and love begins his work on the
soul by awakening in it a deep sense of sin and coming wrath, we
are not to be called cruel, or harsh, or too plain and outspoken, if
we begin in the very same way by convincing you of sin, and
showing every unconverted soul among you how utterly undone
you are.
But I now come to the second work of the Spirit, from which
he is properly called the Comforter : " He will convince the world
of righteousness." When he has first broken the bones under a
sense of sin, then he reveals the good Physician, and makes the
very bones which he hath broken to rejoice. When he had
first revealed the coming storm of wrath, so that the sinner knew
not where to flee, then he opens the secret chamber, and whis-
pers, Come in hither ; it may be thou shall be hid in the day of
the Lord's anger. When he has cast light into the sinner's bosom,
and let him see how every action of his life condemns him, and
how vain it is to seek for any righteousness there, he then casts
light upon the risen Saviour, and says : Look there. He shows
the Saviour's finished sufferings and finished obedience, and says:
All this is thine, if thou wilt believe in Jesus. Thus does the
Spirit lead the soul to accept and close with Christ, freely offered
in the Gospel. The first was the awakening work of the Spirit
this is the comforting work of the Spirit. And this shows you
plainly that the second work of the faithful minister is to do the
very same to lead weary souls to Christ to stand pointing not
only to the coming deluge, but to the freely offered ark pointing
not only to the threatening storm, but to the strong tower of safety
directing the sinner's eye not only inwards to his sin and misery,
but outwards also, to the bleeding, dying, rising, reigning Saviour.
Brethren, he is no minister of Christ who only terrifies and
awakens you, who only aims at the first work of the Spirit, to
convince you of sin, and aims not at the second work of the
Spirit, to convince you of righteousness. He would be like a
SERMON LXXI. 41
surgeon who should tear off the bandages of your wounds, and lay
open their deepest recesses, and then leave you like Israel with
your sores not closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with
ointment. He would be like a man who should awake you when
your house was all on fire, and yet leave you without showing
you any way of escape.
Brethren, let us rather be taught to follow in the footsteps of
the blessed Spirit, the Comforter. He first convinces of sin, and
then convinces of righteousuess. And so, brethren, bear with us,
when we first awaken you to a sense of the dreadfulness of your
sins, nnd then open the refuge and say, Come in hither, " hide thee
as it were for a little moment, till the indignation be overpast."
I know there may be many of you quite offended because we
preach Christ to the vilest of sinners. It was so with the Pha-
risees ; and doubtless there are many Pharisees among us. When
we enter into the haunts of wickedness and profligacy, and, in
accents of tenderness proclaim the simple message of redeem-
ing love, that the wrath of God is abiding on sinners, but that
Christ is a Saviour freely offered to them, just as they are ; or
when a child of sin and misery comes before us, and the minister
of Christ first plainly tells of God's wrath against his sin, and
then as plainly, and with all affection, of Christ's compassion, and
freely offered righteousness ; oh ! how often the decent, moral
men of the world are affronted. The very imagination that the
same Saviour is offered as freely to the veriest offscourings of
vice as to themselves, this is more than they can bear. What !
they cry ; do you offer these wretches a Saviour before they have
reformed their lives, before they have changed their character?
I answer, Yes. The whole need not a physician, but they that
are sick ; and I beseech you to mark that this is the very way
of the Spirit of God.
He is the Holy Spirit, of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.
He is the Sanctifier of' all that are in Jesus; and yet, when
he has convinced a sinner of sin, his next work is to speak
peace, to convince that sinner of righteousness. If you ask me,
then, why I do not say to the child of sin and shame, Go and
reform yourself become honest and pure, and then I will invite
you to the Saviour : I answer, Because even the Spirit, the Holy
Spirit, the Sanctifier, docs not do this. He first leads the soul
into the wilderness, and then he allures it to come to Christ. He
first shuts up the soul in prison under a sense of guilt, and then-
opens a door, reveals Christ an open refuge for the chief of si
ners.
Brethren ! do not forget it, he is the Comforter before he is t
Sanctifier. Ah, then ! do not blame us, if, as messengers
Christ, we tread in the very footsteps of that blessed Spirit.
even he, the Holy Sanctifying Spirit, whose very breath is
purity, if even he invite the vilest sinner to put on these beuuti*
416 SERMON LXXl.
garments, the divine righteousness of Jesus, do not say that we
are favoring sin, that \ve are the enemies of morality, if we carry
this message to the vilest of sinners : " Believe on the Lord Jesus,
and thou shall be saved."
I. What is this righteousness ?
I answer, It is the righteousness of Christ, wrought out in
behalf of sinners. Now righteousness means righteousness with
respect to the law. When a person has not only never broken
the law, but has rendered complete obedience to it, that person is
righteous. It consists of two parts, iheu first, freedom from
guilt ; and second, worthiness in the sight of God.
1. In the case of an unf alien angel, for example, he may be
called righteous in two ways. (1.) He is negatively righteous,
because he has never broken the law of God, he has never loved
anything which God would not have him love ; never done any-
thing which God would not have him do ; he has acquired no
stain of guilt upon his snow-white garments. But (2), He is
positively righteous, because he has fulfilled the law of God. He
has obeyed in all things his all-holy will. He has spread his
ready wings on every errand which the Father commanded,
ministering night and day to the heirs of salvation. In all things
he has made it his meat and drink to do the wil) of his heavenly
Father. So, then, he has not only kept his snowy garments clean,
but he has gained the laurel wreath of obedience, he is worthy in
the sight of God, God smiles on him as he approaches. Now,
brethren, both of these put together make up a righteousness in
the sight of God.
2. In the case of unf alien Adam. (1.) He was negatively
righteous. He was made free from all guilt. Innocent and pure
he came from the hands of his Maker. Not more truly did the
calm rivers of Paradise reflect the blue heaven from their un-
troubled bosom, than did the tranquil bosom of unfallen Adam
reflect the blessed image of God. His soul was spotless as the
white robes of angels. His thoughts were all directed heaven-
ward. He had not once broken the law of God, in thought, word,
or deed. His will was even with God's will. He had no con-
science of sin. But (2) Adam did not acquire a positive
righteousness ; that is, the righteousness of one who has obeyed
the law who has done the will of God. He was put into Para-
dise in order to acquire that righteousness. He was put there in
pure and holy garments, to acquire the laurel wreath of obedience,
like the holy angels. But man fell without acquiring this merito-
rious righteousness in the sight of God. Now, brethren, both
these put together, both freedom from guilt and perfect obedience,
make up a perfect righteousness in the sight of God.
3. I come, then, to show that the righteousness of Christ, freely
offered to sinners, includes both of these. There is freedom Jtom
SERMON LXXI. 417
guilt in Christ, because he is gone to the Father. When he came
to this world, he was not free from guilt. He had no sin of hia
own. Even in his mother's womb he was called " that holy thing ;"
but yet he did not breathe one moment in this world, but under
the load of guilt. When he was an infant in a manger, -he wai
under guilt; when he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief, he was under guilt ; when he sat down wearied at the well, he
was under guilt ; when he was in that dreadful agony in the garden,
when his sweat was as it were great drops of blood, he was under
guilt ; when he was in Jiis last agony on the cross, he was under guilt.
He had no sin of his own, and yet these are his words : " Innu-
merable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have
taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up ; they are
more than the hairs of mine head ; therefore my heart faileth
me."
Inquiry. How do you know that Christ was under guilt ?
Answer. (1.) Because he was under pain. He suffered the
pains of infancy in the manger ; he suffered weariness, and hunger,
and thirst, and great agonies in the garden and on the cross. But
God has eternally connected guilt and pain. If there were no
guilt there could be no pain. (2.) Because God hid his face from
him : "My God. my God." Now, God hides his face from nothing
but guilt; therefore Christ was bearing the sins of many. He was
all over with guilt. He was as guilty in the sight of God as if
he had committed all the sins of his people. What wonder, then,
that God hid his face even from his own Son ?
But Christ is now free from guilt. He is risen and gone to the
Father. When a man is lying under a debt, if he pays it, then
he is free from the debt. So Christ was lying under our sins, but
he suffered all the punishment, and now is free ; he rose, and we
see him no more. When a man is banished for so many years,
it is unlawful for him to return to his country till the time has ex-
pired, and the punishment is borne ; but when the time is expired,
then he is free from guilt in the eye of the law. He may come
back to his home and his country once more. So Christ was
banished from the bosom of the Father for a time. God hid his
face from him ; but when he had borne all that God saw fit to lay
on him, then he was free from guilt, he was free to return ; and
so he did ; he rose, and went back to the bosom of the Father
from which he came. Do you not see, then, trembling sinner,
that there is freedom from all guilt in Christ? He is quite free :
he never shall suffer any more. He is now without sin, and when
he comss again, he is coming without sin. If you will become
one with him, you, too, are free from guilt ; you are as free as
Christ is ; you are as safe from being punished as if you were in
heaven with Christ. If you believe on Christ, you are one with
him- a member of his body ; and as sure as Christ your Head is
now passed from the darkness of God's anger into the light of h
27
418 SERMON LXXI
countenance, so surely are you, O believer, passed 1'rom darkneis
into God's marvellous iight. O what a blessed word was that of
Christ, just before he ascended : " I go to my Father and your
Father, to my God and your God !" God is now as much ours as
he is Christ's.
Inquiry. What good is it to me that Christ is free from guilt ?
Answer. Christ is offered to you as your Saviour. There is
perfect obedience in Christ, because he hath gone to the Father,
and we see him no more. When he came to this world, he came
not only to suffer, but to do riot only to be a dying Saviour, but
also a doing Saviour not only to suffer the curse which the first
Adam had brought upon the world, but to render the obedience
which the first Adam had left undone. From the cradle to the
cross he obeyed the will of God from the heart. When he came
into the world, his word was : " Lo ! I come ; in the volume of
the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O God ; yea,
thy law is within my heart." When he was in the midst oi his
obedience, still he did not change his mind. He says : " I have
meat to eat that ye know not of: my meat is to do the will of him
that sent me, and to finish his work." And when he was going
out of the world, still his word was : " I have finished the work
which thou gavest me to do." So that it is true what an apostle
says ; that he was " obedient even unto death." The whole law
is summed up in these two commands that we love God and our
neighbor. Christ did both. (1.) He loved God perfectly, as God
says in the 91st Psalm : " Because he hath set his love upon me,
therefore will I deliver him ; I will set him on high." (2.) He loved
his neighbor as himself. It was out of love to men that he came
into the world at all ; and everything he did and everything he
suffered in the world, was out of love to his neighbor. It was out
of love to men that he performed the greatest part of his obedi-
ence, namely, the laying down his life. This was the principal
errand upon which he came into the world. This was the most
dreadful and difficult command which God laid upon him, and yet
he obeyed. But a short while before he was betrayed, God gave
him an awful view of his coming wrnth, in the garden of Gethse-
mane. He set down the cup before him, and showed that it was
a cup without any mixture of mercy in it ; and yet Christ obeyed :
hi human nature shrank back from it, and he prayed : " If it be
possible let this cup pass from me ;" but he did not waver one
moment from complete obedience for he adds : " Nevertheless, not
as I will, but as thou wilt."
Now this is the obedience of Christ, and we know that it is
perfect. (1.) Because he was the Son of God, and all that he
did must be perfect. (2.) Because he is gone to the Father. He
is ascended into the presence of God. And how did the Father
receive him ? We are told in the 110th Psalm. A door is opened
in heaven, and we are suffered to hear the very words with which
SERMON LXXI. 419
God receives his Son : "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thoq
on my right hand, till I make thine enemies my footstool."
So, then, God did not send him back, as one who had not obey-
ed perfectly enough. God did not forbid him his presence, as one
unworthy to be accepted ; but God highly exalted him looked
upon him as worthy of much honor worthy of a seat on the
throne at his right hand. Oh ! how plain that Christ is accepted
with the Father ! how plain that his righteousness is most lovely
and all divine in the sight of God the Father.
Hearken, then, trembling sinner ! this righteousness is offered to
you. It was wrought just for sinners like you, and for none else ;
it is for no other use but just to cover naked sinners. This is the
clothing of wrought gold and the raiment of needlework. This ia
the wedding-garment the fine linen, white and clean. Oh ! put
ye on the Lord Jesus. Why should you refuse your own mer-
cies ? Become one with Christ, by believing, and you are not
only pardoned, as I showed before, but you are righteous in the
sight of God ; not only shall you never be cast into hell, but you
shall surely be carried into heaven as surely as Christ is now
there. Become one with Christ, and even this moment you are
lovely in the sight of God comely, through his comeliness put
upon you. You are as much accepted in the sight of God as
is the Son of Man, the Beloved, that sits on his right hand. The
Spirit shall be given you, as surely as he is given to Christ. He
is given to Christ as the oil of gladness, wherewith he is anointed
above his fellows. You are as sure to wear a crown of glory, as
that Christ is now wearing his. You are as sure to sit upon Christ's
throne, as that Christ is now sitting on his Father's throne. O
weep for joy, happy believer ! O sing for gladness of heart :
" For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord."
II. What is conviction of righteousness ?
Show what it is not.
1. It is not any impression on the imagination. Just as men
have often imaginary terrors, so men have also imaginary views
of Christ, and of the glory of being in Christ. Sometimes they
think they see Christ with the bodily eye ; or sometimes they
think they hear words borne in upon their mind, telling of the
beauty of Christ. Now this is not conviction of righteousness.
Indeed, such things may accompany true conversion. There ia
no impossibility in it. Stephen and Paul both saw Christ, and
most of you remember a very singular exarriple of sorm-thing
similar in more modern times. But, however this may be, one thing
is certain, that conviction of righteousness is very different from
420 SERMON LXXJ
this. It is a far higher and nobler thing given only by the Spirit
of God. Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.
2. // 25 not a revelation of any new truths not contained in the
Bible. When the Spirit revealed Christ to the apostles and pro-
phets of old, he revealed new truths concerning Christ. But
when he convinces a sinner of the righteousness of Christ, he does
it by opening up the truths contained in the Bible. If he revealed
new truths, then we might put away the Bible, and sit alone, wait-
ing for the Spirit to come down on us. But this is contrary to
the B.ble arid experience. David prays : " Open thou mine eyes,
that I may see wonders." Where ? Not in heaven above nor
earth beneath, but " out of thy law." It is through the truth that
the Spirit always works in our hearts : " Sanctify them, through
thy truth ; thy Word is truth." Therefore, when you look for
conviction of righteousness, you are not to look for new truths not
in the Bible, but for divine light cast upon old truths already in
the Bible.
3. It is not mere head knowledge of what the Bible soys of
Christ and his righteousness. Most unconverted men read their
Bibles, and many of them understand very wonderfully the doc-
trine of imputed righteousness ; yet these have no conviction of
righteousness. All awakened souls read their Bibles very
anxiously, with much prayer -and weeping ; and many of them
seem to understand very clearly the truth that Christ is an all-suf-
ficient righteousness ; yet they tell us they cannot close with
Christ they cannot apply him to their own case. Again : the
devils believe and tremble. The devil has plainly much know-
ledge of the Bible ; and from the quotations he made to Christ, it
is plain that he understood much of the work of redemption ; and
yet he is none the better for it ; he only trembles and gnashes his
teeth the more. Ah, my friends ! if you have no more than head
knowledge of Christ and his righteousness, you have no more than
devils have ; you have never been convinced of righteousness.
What is it ?*
Answer. It is a sense of the fitness and preciousness of Christ,
as he is revealed in the Gospel.
1. I have said it is a sense of the preciousness of Christ, that
you may see plainly that it is no imaginary feeling of Christ's
beauty ; that it is no seeing of Christ with the bodily eyes ; that
it is no mere knowledge of Christ and of his righteousness in the
head, but a feeling of his preciousness in the heart. I before
showed you that there is all the difference in the world between
knowing a thing and feeling a thing between having a knowledge
of a thing, and having a sense of it. There is all the difference
in the world between knowing that honey is sweet, and tasting
that it is sweet, so as to have a sense of its sweetness. There is
a great difference between knowing that a person is beautiful, and
actually seeing, so as to have a present sense of the beauty of the
SERMON LXXI. 42i
person. There is a great difference between knowing that a
glove will fit the hand, and putting it on, so as to have a sense of
its fitness. Just so, brethren, there is all the difference between
having a head knowledge of Christ and of his righteousness, and
having a heart feeling of his fitness and preciousness. The first
may be acquired from flesh and blood, or from books ; the second
must come from the Spirit of God.
2. Again, I have said, it is a sense of the fitness of Christ. It
is conceivable that a person may have a sense of Christ's pre-
ciousness, without having a sense of his fitness. Some awakened
souls appear to feel that Christ is very precious ; and yet they
dare not put on Christ : they seem to want a sense of his fitness
to their case. They cry out : " O how precious a Saviour he is
to all his people !" " O that I were one of his people ! O that I
were hidden in his bleeding side !" And yet they have no sense
of his fitness to be their Saviour ; they do not cry out : " He
just fits my case ! he is the very Saviour for me !" For, if
they felt this, they would be at peace ; their lips would overflow
with joy. But no; they dare not appropriate Christ. Now, then,
conviction of righteousness is to have such a sense of Christ as
leads us, without hesitation, to put on Christ ; and that I have
called a sense of his fitness.
It gives no comfort to know that Christ is a precious Saviour to
others, unless I know that he is a precious Saviour to me. If the
deluge is coming on the windows of heaven opening, and the
fountains of the great deep broken up it gives me no peace to
know that there is an ark for others, unless you tell me that there
is an ark for me. You may tell me of Christ's righteousness for
ever, and of. the safety of all that are in him ; but you must con-
vince me that that righteousness answers me, and is offered to
me, else I have no comfort. Now, this is what the Spirit does
when he convinces of righteousness. This, and this only, is con-
viction of righteousness.
O brethren ! it is no slight work of nature to persuade a soul,
even an anxious soul, to put on Christ. If it were a natural work,
then natural means might do it ; but it is a supernatural work, and
the hand of the Spirit must do it. Flesh and blood cannot reveal
Christ unto you, but my Father which is in heaven. No man can
call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
1. Let all unawakened persons see how far off they are from
salvation. Many of you may be saying just now in your heart :
It is quite true I am not at present a saved person ; but I am not
very far from the kingdom of God. I have just to repent and
believe on Jesus, and then I am saved. Now, since this is so short
and simple a matter, I may do it any time. I may enjoy the world
and its pleasures a little longer ; and then, when death or disease
threatens me, it may be good time to become anxious. Now, all
this argument proceeds upon a falsehood. You think you are not
422 SERMON LXX1.
far off from salvation ; but ah ! my friend, you are as far from sal-
vation as any one can be that is in the land of the living. There is
only one case in which you could be further from salvation, and
that is in hell. You are as far from salvation as any one that is
out of hell. (1.) In my last discourse, I showed you that there
must be a divine work upon your heart before you can repent.
You may have much head knowledge of sin without the Spirit,
but he only can convince you of sin. That Spirit is a sovereign
Spirit. He is given to the children of God as often as they ask him ;
but he is not at the bidding of unconverted men. You cannot
bid him come when you fall sick, or when you are going to die ;
or if you should bid him. he has nowhere promised to obey. (2.)
And now, I wish you to see that there is a second divine work
needful on your heart before you can believe. The Spirit must
convince you of Christ's righteousness. Flesh and blood cannot
reveal Christ unto you, but my Father which is in heaven. That
God is a sovereign God. He hath mercy upon whom he will have
mercy. He is not at the bidding of unconverted men. He has
nowhere promised to bring to Christ all whom he awakens. Oh !
how plain that you are as far from salvation as any soul can be
th;:t is out of hell. And can you be easy when you are at such a
distance from salvation ? Can you go and sit down to a game of
chance, to while away the time between this and judgment? Car
you go and laugh and be merry in your sins ? How truly, then,
did Solomon say : " The laughter of fools is like the crackling of
thorns under a pot" a loud noise for a moment, then everlasting
silence a short blaze, and a dark eternity.
2. Some of you may be awakened by God.
(1.) Remember, unless you attain to conviction of righteous
ness, your conviction of sin will be all in vain. Remember, anxi-
ety for the soul does not save the soul. Sailors in a shipwreck
are very anxious. They cry much to God in prayers and tears ;
and yet, though they are anxious men, they are not saved men
the vessel goes to pieces, and all are drowned. Travellers in a
wilderness may be very anxious ; their hearts may die within
them ; yet that does not show that they are safe ; they may perish
in the burning sands. So you are much afraid of the wrath of
God, and it may be God has, in mercy, stirred up these anxieties in
your bosom ; but you are not yet saved ; unless you come to Christ
all will be in vain Many are convinced who are never con-
verted. Many are now in hell who were once as anxious to escape
as you.
(2.) Remember, God only can give you this. The Spirit con-
vinces of righteousness. It is not flesh and blood that can give
you a sense of the preciousncss of Christ. It is true, the Bible
and preaching are the means through which God works this con-
viction. He always works through the truth never without the
truth. If you be truly awakened I know how anxiously you will
SERMON LXXI. 423
wait on these means ; how you will search the Scriptures with
tears, and lose no opportunity of hearing the preached Word.
But still, the Bible and preaching are only means of themselves ;
they can only make natural impressions on your mind. God only
can make supernatural impressions. Cry to God, then.
(3.) But remember, God is a sovereign God. Do not cry to
him to convert you, as if it were a debt he owed you. There is
only one thing you can claim from God as a right, and that is a
place in hell. If you think you have any claim on God, you are
deceiving yourself. You are not yet convinced of sin. Lie at
the feet of God as a sovereign God a God who owes you nothing
but punishment. Lie at his feet as the God who alone can reveal
Christ unto you. Cry night and day that he would reveal Christ
unto you that he would shine into your darkness, and give you
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of
Christ. One glimpse of that face will give you peace. It may
be you shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger.
3. Some of y^u have come to Christ. Oh, what miracles of
grace you are ! Twice over you are saved by grace. When
you were loathsome in your sins, and yet asleep, the Spirit
awakened you. Thousands were sleeping beside you. He left
thousands to perish, but awakened you.
Again, Though awakened, you were as loathsome as ever :
you were as vile in the sight of God as ever, only you dreaded
hell. In some respects you were more wicked than the unawaken-
ed world around you. . They would not come to Christ, because
they felt no need. But you felt your need, yet would not come.
You made God a liar more than they, yet God had mercy on you.
He led you to Christ convinced you of righteousness. So you
are twice over saved by grace. " O to grace how great a debtor !"
" What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits ?" Will you
not love him with all your heart ? Will you not serve him with
all you have ? And when he says : Feed this poor orphan for
my sake, will you not say : Lord, when I give for thee, it is more
blessed to give than to receive ?
Dundee, February 11, 1837
424 SERMON TYTU
SERMON LXXII.
MY LORD, AND MY GOD.
%
" And alter eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them
then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace b
unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my
hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side : and be not faith-
less, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord, and my
God." John xx., 26-28.
I. LESSON. When believers meet together, Jesus stands in the midst,
and says : " Peace be unto you." " His disciples were within," &c.
Verse 26.
It was on the evening of the day in which Jesus rose from the
dead that the disciples were assembled together. He had appear-
ed unto Mary Magdalene, and unto Peter, and unto two of the
disciples, on the way to Emmaus ; and now they were met to-
f ether to meditate, to wonder, to pray over these things, when
esus stood in the midst, and said : " Peace be unto you." " Then
were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord."
Again : it was upon the same evening, a week after, that the
disciples met again ; and Jesus again revealed himself to them,
saying : " Peace be unto you." This was a fulfilment of the pro-
mise which he made long before: "Where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
And again he said : " Lo, 1 am with you alway, even unto the end
of the world." This promise has always been, and always will
be fulfilled. Jesus still loves the assembly of his saints. If you
could look into the private history of Christians, you would find
that most of them have been awakened in the house of God; that
they were first brought to a soul-refreshing view of Christ there ;
that they have been comforted there, and have received most of
their heavenly joys there. Ah ! it is where disciples meet that
Jesus comes in and says : " Peace be unto you." David says :
" My feet were almost gone ; my steps had wellnigh slipped ; for
I was envious at the. foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the
wicked, until I went into the sanctuary, then understood I their
end." All his difficulties were solved, and he was enabled to say :
" God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever." So
Thomas had spent a most uncomfortable week. These words,
' I will not believe," always bring pain and sorrow after them..
His mind was full of misgivings and racking doubts ; but he came
to the meeting of the disciples, and there Jesus revealed himself
to him, and he was filled with amazement and joy.
I trust this may be the experience of some this Sabbath-day.
Perhaps some have spent a week of trouble instead of peace a
SERMON LXXII. 425
week of doubting when others are rejoicing. Some of you, when
sthers were glad, said : " I will not believe." Learn from
Thomas not to forsake the assembling of yourselves together.
Doubting, drooping, trembling, may Christ reveal himself to you,
saying : " Peace be unto you."
When the doors were shut, Jesus stood in the midst, and said :
" Peace be unto you."
1. When doors are shut through fear of persecution, Jesus re-
veals himself to the soul. So it was with the disciples. They
had shut the doors of their upper chamber for fear of the Jews.
They were reproached and vilified as those who had been with
Christ ; nay, there was some fear that they would be made to
share the same death ; so they shut the doors of the place where
:hey met. But that was the very time Jesus chose to come in.
When the world was threatening them, saying, Torments and
Jeath be unto them, Jesus said : " Peace be unto you." So is
rt now. The world is just as bitter against Christians now as
ever it was. Some of you who joined yourselves to the Lord
last Sabbath-day may have found out by this time that the world
hates you. The servant is not greater than his Lord. Some of
you may have become partakers of the afflictions of the Gospel,
and are feeling this day that the offence of the cross has not
ceased. Worldly friends may upbraid may persecute may
reproach you ; but never mind. When the doors are shut for
fear, Jesus comes in, and says : " Peace be unto you." Remem-
ber, when you are bolting persecution out, you are not bolting
Jesus out. He can come through all these bars. When the
world says, Plagues be upon you, Christ says : " Peace be unto
you." And herein is a wonder, that Christ's voice, though it be
a still small voice, is yet far louder than the world. It calmed
the waves of the Sea of Galilee, and, oh ! it will speak peace to
your soul. When the waves of persecution roar against you, he
says : " Fear not ; it is 1. Peace be unto you."
2. When a man is quite shut up, Jesus comes in, and says:
" Peace be unto you." The reason why some awakened persons
are long of coming to peace, and some never come to peace at
all, is, that they think to find an open door for themselves. They
fed shut up, by the fears of wrath hemming them in on every side,
but still they hope to find some way of their own by which to
escape. They are not altogether shut up. They have not been
brought to despair of ever saving themselves. They have not
been brought to feel and say, I never can do anything to save
myself. It is impossible such persons can 'be brought to peace as
every door is not shut. If God were to give them peace, they
would praise themselves, and say : We did it.
Are there any such hearing me ? Look here. It was when
the doors were shut that Jesus carne in ; and so it is with the soul.
It is when the mouth ' stopped, and you stand lost and guilty
426 SERMON LXXII.
before God when you have no door of your own Jesus come*
in, and says : " I am the door ; peace be unto you."
3. When doors of worldly comforts are shut, Christ comes in
and says : " Peace be unto you" So it was with the disciples.
They were like a family of orphans deprived of their head. They
were like a nest of unfledged birds, from whom the murderous
hand had carried off their dam, beneath whose sheltering wing
they used to find repose. They had left all to follow Christ, they
had' come to trust under his almighty wing ; and now he had left
them all but desolate. They shut their doors upon the cold bleak
world, to show that no comfort was to be expected from the world
That was the very time when Jesus came in with sweetest power
to fulfil his word, " I will not leave you orphans ; I will come to
you," saying : " Peace be unto you."
So is it now. When worldly comforts abound, then the conso-
lations of Christ do little abound. It is not when the world is full
of smiles and kindness that a true believer has the sweetest visits
of the Saviour. It is rather when the believer is left like an or-
phan, when comforts are withdrawn, when friends die, or prove
untrue, when the bleak world looks chillingly, and he shuts the
door, saying, " Miserable comforters are ye all " it is then that
Jesus comes in, and says, " Peace be unto you." The brightest
gleams of sunshine are those that come through the darkest clouds ;
so the sweetest visits of the Saviour are when the doors of
worldly comfort are shut. Are you a believer? You will have
troubles ; but, oh ! you will have Christ with them all.
II. Lesson. How kind Christ is to wayward believers !
Thomas was a most unbelieving believer, and yet Christ follow-
ed him with kindness. If the other disciples were foolish, and
slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken, much
more was Thomas. 1. He should have believed the prophets.
It was written in the 16th Psalm: "Thou wilt not leave my soul
in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption."
He knew this to be the word of God. Thomas should have be-
lieved the witness of God. 2. Thomas should have believed the
simple word of Christ. Three times Christ had solemnly taken
his disciples into a lonely place, and told them that he must be
crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day. Thomas
should have believed the witness of Christ. 3. Thomas should
have believed the words of Mary and Peter, and of the two dis-
ciples that went to Emmaus, and of all the other disciples, who
told him, " we have seen the Lord." But, oh ! he was foolish, and
slow of heart to believe all that was spoken concerning Jesus, for
he said, " Except I shall see in his hands the print ol the nails,
and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand
into his side, I will not believe." He doubts the word of God, he
doubts the word of Christ, he doubts the word of his brethren
SERMON LXXII. 427
Nothing but seeing, and feeling, will satisfy him. Surely Christ
will cast off this proud, wayward, unbelieving soul. He does not
deserve any more testimony. Ah ! what foolish words do I
speak ; he never deserved any testimony at all. But O whai
grace there is in Christ ! how he comes over mountains of provo-
cation towards wayward believers ! He actually comes in, and
offers Thomas the very evidence he asked: "Reach hither thy
finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust
it into my side : and be not faithless, but believing." Such is the
love of Christ to wayward believers. Christ may have dealt in
the very same way with some of you.
Speak to awakened souls who yet say "I will not believe" Some
of you have been awakened by God, and made anxious about
your souls. You feel the guilt of a broken law, you feel the
curse of a rejected Gospel hanging over you. We point you to
Christ, and say, " Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the
sins of the world." But you say you cannot you dare not you
will not believe. You cannot believe that God had such divine
compassion in his bosom to provide a ransom for one so vile as
you ! You cannot believe that Christ has got so strange a love
that he should be willing to be the surety of such an enemy as
you ! Your word is just this : " Except I see, I will not believe."
Ah ! you are just Thomas over again. You are foolish, and slow
of heart to believe all that has been spoken concerning Jesus.
1. You have rejected the testimony of God. You search the
Scriptures, and these are they which testify of me ; yet ye will
not come unto me, that ye might have life. All the prophets have
borne witness to you concerning Jesus, setting him forth before
you as :. silent, suffering Lamb ; as one making atonement for
sins. In the Psalms you have been led to cry, " See, God, our
shield ; look upon the face of thine Anointed." But O, you have
refused all this ! You have still said, Christ is not for me; I will
not believe.
2. You, have rejected the witness of Christ. Christ himself has
borne witness to you. He Has told you that if you are weary
and heavy laden, you should come to him, and find rest ; that if
you are thirsty, you should come to him and drink. He is the
faithful and true witness, and he says, " If it were not so, I would
have told you ;" and yet you have refused all this. You have
still said, Christ is not for me ; " except I see. I will not believe."
3. You, have rejected the testimony of believers. Christian friends
have borne witness to you. They have said, " We have seen the
Lord." Christians have told you th'it they were in the same case
with you had the same sins and the same heart. They had the
same fears, and the same darkness ; but Christ came in when the
doors were shut, and said, " Peace be unto you." We have no
better right to Christ than you. We take him because we are
.ost sinners, and he is the Saviour of the lost. He is as free to
428 SERMON LXXII.
you as to us. But, ah ! you have despised all this evidence you
still say, Christ is not for me ; " except I see, I will not believe."
Now, it would be quite just in Christ to say: I will seek you no
more. It would be quite just in Christ to leave you in your dark-
ness in your unbelief. But as he dealt with Thomas, so hath he
dealt with you. He has tried one way more with you. Last
Sabbath-day he broke bread, and poured out wine, and made a
picture of his silent wounds ; of his dying love ; and he said :
" Reach hither thy finger : be not faithless, but believing !" O the
compassion of Christ it passeth all knowledge !
1. To believers. Did you come to the table of Christ full of
unbelief; unable to realize Christ ; unable to lay hold on him ?
and did he reveal himself to you in the broken bread and poured-
out wine ? Ah ! this is the same mercy he gave to Thomas.
You, of all persons in the world, should feel that Christ is a long-
suffering Saviour.
2. To awakened persons. Did you keep back from the table of
Christ because you dared not say that Christ was yours ? But did
you look on and see Christ evidently set forth crucified ? Did
you see how the bread' was broken ; a picture of his body that
was broken ? Did you see the wine poured out ; a picture of his
blood that was shed ? Ah ! did your heart not burn within you
when you looked around saw, as it were, the silent, suffering
Lamb of God ? This is the word of Christ unto you : " Be not
faithless, but believing." The very fact that your eyes have been
permitted to see another sacrament, shows plainly that Christ is
seeking you; stretching out the hands to you; offering himself to
you. " Be not faithless, but believing."
III. Lesson. Thomas's appropriating faith : " Thomas saith
unto him, My Lord, and my God."
When Thomas came to the meeting of disciples that evening, I
doubt not his heart was very desolate. Unbelief and unhappiness
always go together. An unbelieving believer is of all men most
miserable. His brethren around him were full of joy, for they
had seen the Lord. Mary still remembered the blessed tone of
his voice when .he said : " Mary! and she answered, Rabboni V
Peter was wondering over his amazing love when he said : " Go
tell the disciples, and Peter." And the bosbm of John was filled
with a silent feeling of unutterable love. All were glad but one.
That one was Thomas. But now, when Christ came in ; when
he revealed himself a crucified but risen Redeemer : when he
showed his special kindness to Thomas, the heart of Thomas
could stand out no longer, and he cried out, in words of appro-
priating faith, before all : " My Lord, and my God."
Learn two things :
1. To appropriate Christ to call him your own. It will not
gave you to know that Christ is a Saviour. The devils know that,
SERMON LXXIII. 429
and tremble. It would not have saved you from the flood to know
that there was an ark. You must be in it, if you would be saved.
So it will not save you that you know there is a great and
glorious Saviour, if you do not call him your own : " My Lord,
and my God."
Obj. It would be too bold in me to call him mine.
Ans. He offers himself to you. He stretched out his hands to
you when you were gainsaying and disobedient. He has awaken-
ed you followed you till now. Ah ! it is daring presumption
to refuse him. Take with you words, and say : " My Lord
and my God." Is there any presumption in taking Christ at his
word ?
2. Confess him before all. Thomas had denied Christ before all,
saying : " I will not believe ;" and therefore it was right he should
confess Christ before all, saying : " My Lord, and my God." Ah !
are there none of you who have denied Christ before all ? Some
of you have said : I will not believe ; have kept away from the
table of Christ because you dare not call Christ your own. Some
of you have denied him in your life, proclaiming to all who know
you that you despise the Son of God. Remember, then, I beseech
you, the sight of last Sabbath-day. Remember Christ has again
offered himself to you, and is this day seeking you. Come, then,
and let your acceptance of Christ be as open as your denial of
him. Go home, tell your friends, tell your companions, he is " my
Lord, and my God."
Dundee, Nov. 4, 1837.
SERMON LXXIII.
HAVE I BEEN SO LONG TIME WITH YOU ?
" Have I been so long time with you, and yet thou hast not knovrn me, Philip ?"
John xiv., 9.
CHRIST had been wkh his disciples night and day during the three
years of his ministry. They had seen him in all situations, walk-
ing on the sea, feeding the multitudes, raising the dead. They
had heard all his words in the synagogues, in the temple, in the
fields. He had fed them with rnilk, and not with strong meat,
giving them instruction just as they were able to bear it ; and yet
it is amazing how blind they were to his glory and greatness.
They were foolish, and slow of heart to believe all that the
prophets had spoken concerning him, and all that he had spoken
concerning himself.
This was the last night that Jesus was to be with his disciples,
and his heart was full of a tenderness which is not of the world at
430 SERMON LXXIII.
all. But the more full and tender his ho y heart became, the more
dull and stupid did his disciples become. " Philip saith unto him,
Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto
him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not
known me, Philip ?"
Two things give this reply a peculiar tenderness: 1. He re-
minds Philip that he had been with him. He was equal with the
Father, was in the bosom of God, and yet had come and dwelt
with them. He had left the company of the worshipping angels
to company with them ; the King of glory dwelt with worms !
Had he smiled on them from heaven, that would have been won-
derful ; but he says," I have been with you, with you by the way-
side and by the well, with you on the sea and in the wilderness,
I have been your elder brother, and yet have you not known
me ?" 2. That he had been long with them : " So long time."
Had it been for a moment that the Son of God had visited the
earth, O it would have been wonderful ! but it was for years.
Three years he had gone in and out with them. He had taught
them, opened the Scriptures, taught them to pray, led them like
an elder brother all that time, willing to explain everything to
them. O, then, what tenderness there is in this word : " Have I
been so long ?"
Doctrine. When Christ has been long with any- soul, he
expects that soul to know him.
I. To Christians.
1. Christ has been with believers. He says to every child of
God: "I have been with you." (1.) In conversion. It is the
revealing of Christ to the soul which brings it to peace. When
Christ revealed himself to Saul, then he fell to the ground, and
cried, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?" So it is still.
Christ is with the soul in conversion. Are you converted ?
Then you have been with Jesus, and Jesus has been with you.
(2.) In the wilderness Christ is with the soul. The soul leans on
the Beloved coming up out of the wilderness. If you be believers
at all, you know what it is to have the sweet strengthening pre-
sence of the Beloved. (3.) In affliction. Christ is peculiarly
near in the fire and in the water : " When thou passest through
the waters I will be with thee." And -again, " 1 will not leave
you orphans ; I will come to you." It' you be Christians, you have
felt that Christ is with you in the day of adversity. When doors
are shut, Jesus stands in the midst, and says, " Peace." (4.) In
prayer : " Where two or three are gathered together in my
name, there am I in the midst of them." He is near at our
breathing, at our cry, to offer up our prayer with much incense.
He never misses the simplest cry of the simplest believer.
Christians, you know that Christ is with you in prayer. It is this
which gives you boldness at the throne of grace.
SERM .N LXXI1I. 431
2. Christ has been long time with believers : " Have I been so
long time with you V he says. Christ had been only three years
with the disciples when he said this. He has been a much
longer time with some of you. Look back, dear Christians, on
the way by which he has led you. This day is an eminence,
stnnd upon it, and look back. How long time has Christ been
with you? Some of you who are up in years were' converted in
youth, you had a lifetime with Christ. He has been with you as
your surety, as your strength, as your elder brother, as your
advocate with the Father. He has been with you thus for many,
many years. If some great nobleman were to come and pay
you a visit, and be an intimate friend with you, you would think
it a great thing. But O how much greater is this ! Christ has
been with you, Christ knows your name, Christ has often said of
you, as of Zaccheus, " To-day I must abide at thy house."
Some of you may have been but lately brought to the knowledge
of Christ. You have but lately opened the door and let him in.
Still he hath been long with you. To have Christ with you for
a single day is to have him long with you, it is so great an honor,
it is so great a blessing. O there is a day at hand when you will
reckon a moment spent with Christ as more than all your life be-
sides ! " A day spent in thy courts is better than a thousand."
3. Christ reproves believers for knowing so little of him : " Hast
thou not known me, Philip?" The apostles knew much of Christ,
and yet they were slow of heart to believe all. So is it with
Christians now. They know much of Christ, yet they are slow
of heart to believe all. There are many signs that Christians do
not know Christ.
1. Little happiness among Christians. There is very little sense
of being pardoned. Some of you, who appear to be Christians,
would almost start were I to ask you if you feel the forgiveness
of sins. You seem to fear it, as an unlawful question, as if it were
a secret not for you to know. Is this the case with you ? Ah !
how truly Christ may say : " Have 1 been so long time with you,
yet hast thou not known me ?" Has not Christ been revealed to
you a crucified Saviour, the wrath of God all poured out on him ?
" O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have
spoken !"
2. Little communion with God. When you stand in the sun-
shine, you feel the warm beams of the sun ; so, when you stand
in Christ, you should feel the warm beams of his love. There is
little of this. Believers are said to be " a people near to God."
Entering through the rent veil, they draw near to the Father, they
dwell '.n his secret place, and abide under his shadow. There is
little, very little of this. How truly may Christ say : "Have 1
been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me,
Philip?"
3. Little holiness among Christians. If Christians had an eye
432 SERMON LXXIII.
on a reigning, praying, coming Saviour, O how different persons
they would be ! What manner of persons ought ye to be in all
holy conversation and godliness, seeing ye look for such things ?
(1 ) How much covetousness there is among some of you that
seem to be Christians, how much calling your money your own.
hugging it all to yourself, to please yourself, to be enjoyed by your-
self; and all this when the cause of Christ calls loud for sacrifices !
(2.) How much bitterness there is among some of you that seem
to be Christians, how much of a proud, unforgiving spirit, keeping
up the remembrance of injuries, nursing your wrath ! (3.) How
much likeness to the world in your feasts and luxuries, in your
trilling, yea, sinful amusements ; and. above all, in your conversa-
tion ! Who that hears you speak, would know that ever you had
been with Jesus, or he with you? Why is all this? Ans. Be-
cause ye know so little of Christ. For all that Christ has been so
long with you, yet you know almost nothing of him. Ah ! do not
let this year go without resolving to know more of Christ. He is
with you still. A little while, and ye shall not see him. A few
days, and you may see no more of him. Your days of grace may
be nearly ended. Many of you will not see the close of another
year. Walk in the light, while ye have the light. Know Christ,
and then ye shall be like him.
II. Awakened.
1. Christ is with awakened souls. (1.) He awakened them.
No man is naturally anxious about his soul. It is a work of
Christ on the soul. When the lightning has passed through a wood,
as you look upon one tree and another that has been split by its
mighty flash, you say : Ah ! the lightning has been here ; so,
when you see a heart split and broken under a sense of its lost
condition, you may say : Ah ! Christ has been here. Are any
of you awakened ? Christ has been with you. He saw you in
your sin and folly. He pitied you, he drew near, he touched your
heart, and made you feel yourself lost, in order that you might
seek him as a Saviour. Do not doubt Christ has been with you.
(2.) He is seeking awakened souls, and therefore is with them.
When a shepherd goes into the mountains in search of lost sheep,
he seeks peculiarly those which are bleeding and torn, making the
valleys resound with their sad bleatings ; he bends over the
wounded sheep. When a good physician enters the hospital, he
hurries to the beds of the most diseased, of those who are pite-
ously groaning under their pains ; he bends over such. So does
Christ seek bleeding, groaning souls, with a peculiar care. His
word is : " He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted ; he
hath given me the tongue of the learned to speak a word in sea-
son to them that are weary." Are you an awakened soul ? Then
you may be quite sure Christ is with you, bending over you.
2. Long time. Some persons co'ntinue under convictions of sin
SERMON LXXIII. 433
for a long time ; some for months and years. This year, I doubt
not, has seen many souls awakened. Now Christ waits long upon
these souls. He stands at the door all the day : " I have stretched
out my hands all the day to a gainsaying and disobedient people ;"
and then, when night comes, as he still stands and waits : " My
head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.'*
Are there any awakened souls hearing me ? Christ has been long
with you. The Bible has been his witness ; it has been with you
night and day. His ministers have told you of Jesus ; they have
waited and been long-suffering with you. Christ himself has
bended over you. Never did a beggar stand at the door of a rich
man so long as Christ has stood at your door.
3. Yet hast thou not known me. Although Christ be so long
with awakened souls, yet many will not know him. It is life
eternal to know him. It would heal all their pains if they would
only look upon him ; but they will not look. Some of you are in
this state. It is your sin, and it is your misery. (1.) Christ has
long stood at your door and knocked. If you had opened, you
would have seen a bleeding Saviour, a surety, a righteousness.
You would ha^e looked to him, and been lightened ; but you
would not open. (2.) Christ has stood and cried : " If any man
thirst, let him come to me, and drink." You feel very thirsty,
yet you do not come to Christ to drink. (3.) Christ has cried :
"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest." You are bent down with your burden, yet you
will not come to Christ in order to have life. (4.) Christ has
cried, " Follow me : he that followeth me shall not walk in dark-
ness." You vibrate between him and the world. You cling to
the world, even though you are miserable. How long shall it be
thus ? Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not
known me, poor anxious soul ? Remember, some have lived
anxious, and died anxious. Remember, it will only increase your
hell, that Christ was so long with you, and you would not know
him. Turn to Christ now. Let not another year begin without
knowing Jesus.
III. Unawak^ned.
1. Christ is with them. In one sense, he is not with them.
They are without Christ, and without God in the world. In
another sense, he is with them : " I know thy works." (1.) He is
with them in the house of God. It is wonderful to me how Christ
persuades so many Christless people to come to the house of God ;
I never could explain it. Crowds followed Jesus ; crowds follow
him still. Ques What brings you to the house of God? It is
the constraining grace of Christ. Here Christ is with you. Christ
unlocks his treasure, and says : " Come, buy, without money and
without price." (2.) Christ is with them in providences. it is
wonderful to se the providences of una wakened souls ! Evary
28
134 SERMON LXXII1
one of them is from the hand of Christ: "I stand at the door, and
knock." In the year now past, Christ has striven with you in his
providence. To some of you he hath come once and again.
Christ is with you. (3.) With them in their sins, Christ is
present at all their unholy feasts, unholy jests, desires, engage-
ments : " I know thy works." Do you ever think, when you are
engaged in some silly game, that Christ is by your side ? He sees
the smile of satisfaction on your cheek, but he sees also the deluge
of wrath that is over your soul. He sees you sporting yourself
with your own deceivings ; sitting on the brink of hell, yet pleased
with a rattle, tickled with a straw. Ques. What does he say ?
He says : " How long, ye simple ones, will ye love your simpli-
city ?" and again : " Lord, let it alone this year also."
2. So long time. There is reason to think that Jesus strive:/
with the soul from its earliest years ; that he strives on to the last
Some good men have thought that Christ doth sometimes gin
over striving, and leaves the soul to be joined to its idols ; bu
perhaps it is more accordant with Scripture to say, that Jesui
waits all the day. How long a time Christ has pleaded with som<
of you ! This day another year of striving with you is finished
Think of this. O the long-suffering of Christ !
3. Not known me. Ah ! there is reason to think that many ot
you are as ignorant of Christ as the day I began my ministry
among you ; yea, as ignorant as the day you were born. If yoo
knew Christ, it would break your heart with a sense of sin ; but
your heart is whole within you. If you knew Christ, it would
drive you to seek an interest in him, but you seek him not. Hark
how tenderly the Saviour pleads with you t^iz day: "Have i
been so long time with you ?" O it will b.3 one of the greate&i
miseries of hell, to remember how often dlinst was with you ib
this house of prayer, in your providences aye, in your sins ; ano
you would not look at him ! to remerrbor how otten he was sei
forth a broken Saviour in the sacrament ; preached bv his servant*
a free Saviour ; how often he bended over you, and wept ovw
you, and ye would have none of jira !
O, sirs, I fear this year will v/i f ness against you in the judgment
day ! I fear there are man}' ot you who will accuse me in tha
day, and say : Why did yo'v not speak plainer, louder, oftener >
Why did you not knock rftiner at our doors, to tell us and on
children of Christ, the v/py of glory ? ah ! was it not worth mor j
effort to save us from *r. eternal hell ? Ah ! dear friends, be visk:
Many of you will no'. &eo another year come to a close. If tbeie
be fifty O how c'r.^ful ! you may be among that fifty ; nay, ii
there be forty, tLi: ty, twenty, ten, still you may be among the ten.
If there be but oive, you may be that one. O it will be an awful
word in that Jay : " I was a long time with you, but you would
not know n><. *' A.men.
Dundee, If.. ./J.I 837.
SERMON LXXIV. 435
SERMON LXXIV.
WHO SHALL SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF CHRIST ?
" Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword ? As it is written,
For thy sake we are killed all the day long ; we are accounted as sheep for the
slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him
that loved us." Rom. viii., 35-37.
IN this passage there are three very remarkable questions: 1.
" Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ?" Paul
stands forth like a herald, and he looks up to the holy angels, and
down to the accusing devils, and round about' on a scowling world,
and into conscience, and he asks, Who can accuse one whom God
has chosen, and Christ has washed ? It is God who justifieth.
The holy God has declared believers clean every whit. 2. " Who
shalf condemn ?" Paul looks round all the judges of the world
all who are skilled in law and equity ; he looks up to the holy
angels, whose superhuman sight pierces deep and far into the
righteous government of God , he looks up to God, the judge of all,
who must do right whose ways are equal and perfect righteous-
ness and he asks, Who shall condemn ? It is Christ that died.
Christ has paid the uttermost farthing : so that every judge must
cry out, There is now no condemnation. 3. " Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ ?" Again, he looks round all created
worlds he looks at the might of the mightiest archangels the
satanic power of legions of devils the rage of a God-defying
world the united forces of all created things ; and when he sees
sinners folded in the arms of Jesus, he cries, Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ ? Not all the forces of ten thousand
worlds combined, for Jesus is greater than all. " We are more
than conquerors through him that loved us."
The love of Christ ! Paul says : " The love of Christ passeth
knowledge." It is like the blue sky into which you may see clearly,
but the real vastness of which you cannot measure. It is like the
deep, deep sea, into whose bosom you can look a little way, but
its depths are unfathomable. It has a breadth without a bound,
length without end, height without top, and depth without bottom.
If holy Paul said this, who was so deeply taught in divine things
who had been in the third heaven, and seen the glorified face of
Jesus how much more may we, pour and weak believers, look
into that love and say : It passeth knowledge !
There are three things in these words : 1. Explain the love of
Christ. 2. Who would separate us from it? 3. They shall not
be able.
I. 7 would speak of the love of Christ.
436 SERMON LXXIV.
1. When it began in the past eternity : " Then I was by him
as one brought up with him : and I was daily his delight, rejoicing
always before him ; rejoicing in the habitable part of the earth ;
and my delights were with the sons of men." Prov. viii., 30, 31.
This river of love began to flow before the world was from ever-
lasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. . Christ's love
to us is as old as the Father's love to the Son. This river of light
began to stream from Jesus towards us before the beams poured
from the sun ; before the rivers flowed to the ocean ; before angel
loved angel, or man loved man ; before creatures were, Christ
loved us. This is a great deep, who can fathom it? This love
passeth knowledge.
2. And who was it that loved? It was Jesus, the Son of God,
the second person ol the blessed Godhead. His name is " Won-
derful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace," " King of kings and Lord of lords," Immanuel,
and Jesus the Saviour, the only begotten of his Father. His
beauty is perfect : he is the brightness of his Father's glory> and
the express image of his person. All the purity, majesty, and love
of Jehovah, dwell fully in him. He is the bright and morning Star:
he is the Sun of righteousness and the Light of the world ; he is
the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the valleys fairer than the
children of men. His riches are infinite ; he could say, ''All that
the Father hath is mine." He is Lord of all. All the crowns in
heaven were cast at his feet ; all angels and seraphs were his ser-
vants ; all worlds his domain. His doings were infinitely glori-
ous. By him were all things created that are in heaven and that
are in earth, visible and invisible. He called the things that are
not as though they were ; worlds started into being at his word-
Yet he loved us. It is much to be loved by one greater in rank
than ourselves to be "loved by an angel ; but O, to be loved by
the Son of God ! this is wonderful ; it passeth knowledge.
3. Whom did he love ? He loved us ! He came into the
world " to save sinners, of whom I am the chief." Had he loved
one as glorious as himself, we would not have wondered. Had
he loved the holy angels, that reflected his pure, bright image, we
would not have wondered. Had he loved the lovely among the
sons of men the amiable, the gentle, the kind, the rich, the great,
the noble it would not have been so great a wonder. But, ah !
he loved sinners, the vilest sinners, the poorest, meanest, guiltiest
wretches that crawl upon the ground. Manasseh, who murdered
his own children, was one whom he loved ; Zaccheus, the grey-
haired swindler, was another ; blaspheming Paul was a third ; the
wanton of Samaria was another; the dying thief was another;
and the lascivious Corinthians were more. " And such were
some of you." We were black as hell when he looked on us ; we
were hell-worthy, under his Father's wrath and curse ; and ye
SERMON LXXIV. 43?
he loved us, and said : I will die for them. " Thou hast loved me
out of the pit of corruption," each saved one can say. Oh, bre-
thren ! this is strange love : he that was so great, and lovely, and
pure, chose us, who were mean and filthy with sin, that he might
wash and purify, and present us to himself. This love passeth
knowledge !
4. What this love cost him. When Jacob loved Rachel, he
served seven years for her ; he bore the summer's heat and win-
ter's cold. But Jesus bore the hot wrath of God, and the winter
blast of his Father's anger, for those he loved. Jonathan loved
David with more than the love of women, and for his sake he
bore the cruel anger of his father, Saul. But Jesus, out of love
to us, bore the wrath of his Father poured out without mixture.
It was the love of Christ that made him leave the love of his
Father, the adoration of angels, and the throne of glory ; it was
love that made him not despise the Virgin's womb ; it was love
that brought him to the manger at Bethlehem ; it was love that
drove him into the wilderness ; love made him a man of sorrows ;
love made him hungry, and thirsty, and weary ; love made him
hasten to Jerusalem ; love led him to gloomy, dark Gethsemane ;
love bound and dragged him to the judgment hall ; love nailed
him to the cross ; love bowed his head beneath the amazing load
of his Father's anger. " Greater love hath no man than this." " I
am the good Shepherd ; the good Shepherd giveth his life for the
sheep."
Sinners were sinking beneath the red-hot flames of hell ; he
plunged in and swam through the awful surge, and gathered his
own into his bosom. The sword of justice was bare and glitter-
ing, ready to destroy us ; He, the man that was God's fellow,
opened his bosom and let the stroke fall on him. We were set up
as a mark for God's arrows of vengeance ; Jesus came between,
and they pierced him through and through ; every arrow that
should have pierced our souls, stuck fast in him. He, his own
self, bare our sins in his own body on the tree. As far as east is
from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from
us. This is the love of Christ that passeth knowledge. This is
what is set before you to-day in the broken bread and poured-out
wine. This is what we shall see on the throne a Lamb as it had
been slain. This will be the matter of our song through eternity:
" Worthy is the Lamb !"
1. O the joy of being in the love of Christ ! Are you in this
amazing love ? Has he loved you out of the pit of corruption ?
Then, he will wash you, and make you a king and a priest unto
God. He will wash you in his own blood whiter than the snow ;
he will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your
idols. A new heart also will he give you. He will keep your
conscience clean, and your heart right with God. He will put
his Holy Spirit within you, and make you pray with groanings
438 SERMON LXXIV.
that cannot be uttered. He will justify you, he will pray foi
you, he will glorify you. All the world may oppose you dear
friends may die and forsake you ; you may be left alone in the
wilderness ; still you will not be alone ; Christ will love }ou still.
2. O the misery of being out of the love of Christ ! If Christ loves
you not, how vain all other loves ! Your friends may love you,
your neighbors may be kind to you ; the world may praise you
ministers may love your souls ; but, if Christ love you not, all
creature-love will be vain. You will be unwashed, nnpardoned,
unholy ; you will sink into hell, and all the creatures will stand
around and be unable to reach out a hand to help you.
3. How shall I know that 7 am in the love of Christ ? By your
being drawn to Christ : " I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee." Have
you seen something attractive in Jesus ? The world are attracted
by beauty, or dress, or glittering jewels ; have you been attracted
to Christ by his good ointments '( This is the mark of all who are
graven on Christ's heart they come to him ; they see Jesus to
be precious. The easy world see no preciousness in Christ ; they
prize a lust higher, the smile of the world higher, money higher,
pleasure higher ; but those whom Christ loves he draws after him
by the sight of his preciousness. Have you thus followed him,
prized him as a drowning sinner cleaved to him ? then he will
in no wise cast you out in no wise, not for all you have done
against him. " But I spent my best days in sin " Still I will in
no wise cast you out. " I lived in open sin" I will in no wise
cast you out. " But I have sinned against light and conviction"
Still I will in no wise cast you out. " But I am a backslider"
-^still the arms of his love are open to enfold your poor guilty soul,
and he will not cast you out.
II. Many would separate us.
From the beginning of the world it has been the great aim of
Satan to separate believers from the love of Christ ; and though
he never has succeeded in the case of a single soul, yet still he
tries it as eagerly as he did at first. The moment he sees the
Saviour lift a lost sheep upon his shoulder, from that hour he
plies all his efforts to pluck down the poor saved sheep from its
place of rest. The moment the pierced hand of Jesus is laid on
a poor, trembling, guilty sinner, from that hour does Satan try to
pluck him out of Jesus's hand.
1. He did this in old times: "As it is written, For thy sake.
we are killed all the day long ; we are accounted as sheep for the
slaughter." Verse 36. This is a cry taken from the book of
Psalms. God's people in all ages have been hated and persecuted
by Satan and the world. Observe the reason : " For thy sake "
because they were like Jesus, and belonged to Jesus. The
time : " All day long " from morning till night. The world have
SERMON LXXJV 435
a perpetual hatred against true believers, so that we have to say
at evening : " Would God it were morning ; and at morning,
Would God it were evening." They have no other perpetual
hatred. The manner : " We are accounted as sheep for the
slaughter." The world care no more for ill-treating a Christian
. than the butcher does when he lays hold of d sheep for the slaugh-
ter. The drunkards make a song of us. Such wa^ the cry of
believers of old. The same cry has been heard amiu the snowy
heights of Piedmont: and, in later days, amid the green hills and
valleys of Scotland. And we are miserably deceived if we flatter
ourselves that the same cry will not be heard again. Is the devil
changed ? Does he love Christ and his dear people any better ?
Is the worldly heart changed ? Does it hate God and God's peo-
ple any less than it did ? Ah ! no. I have a deep conviction that,
if God only withdraw his restraining grace, the flood-gates of per-
secution will soon break loose again ; and many of you, left un-
converted under our ministry, will turn out bloody persecutors
you will yet avenge yourselves for the sermons that have pricked
your hearts.
2. The apostle names seven forms in which trouble comes. Two
of them relate to the troubles that are common to iuan, and five to
those that are more peculiar to the children of God.
(1.) Tribulation and distress : ' Man that is born of a woman
is of a few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth as a flower,
and is cut down ; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not."
God's children are not freed from distresses : sickness, poverty,
loss of friends. Jesus said to them: "In the world ye shall have
tribulation." " Whom I love I rebuke and chasten." Now, Satan
tries to take advantage of these times of tribulation, to separate
the soul from the love of Christ; he tempts the believer to despise
the chastening of the Lord ; to plunge into business, or among
worldly friends, or to follow worldly means of soothing sorrow.
Again : he tries to make the soul faint under them ; repine and
murmur, and charge God foolishly; not believe his love and wis-
dom in the furnace. In these ways Satan tries to separate fron*
the love of Christ. A time of tribulation is a time of danger.
* (2.) Persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword all these are
the weapons Satan stirs up against God's children. The history
of the Church in all ages has been a history of persecution. No
sooner does a soul begin to show concern for religion ; no sooner
does that soul cleave to Jesus, than the world talk, to the grief of
those whom God hath wounded. What bitter words are hurled
against that soul ! In all ages this has been true : " They wan-
dered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted,
tormented ; of whom the world was not worthy." Those thai
eat the bread of God have often been driven from their quiet meal ;
thise who are clothed with Christ have often had to part with
Worldly clothing, and have been exposed to famine* nakedness
440 SERMON LXXIV.
peril, and sword the last extremity. Cain murdered Abel. They
killed the Prince of Life ; and so all his creatures ever since have
been exposed to the same. Do not say, The times are changed,
and these are not the days of toleration. Christ is not changed,
Satan is not changed, and, when it suits his turn, he will use the
same weapons.
III. All these cannot separate us.
" In all these things we are more than conquerors, through him
that loved us."
How are we more than conquerors ?
1. We conquer even before the battle is done. In all other bat-
tles we do not know how the victory is to turn until the battle is
won. In the battle of Waterloo, it was long thought that the
French had gained ; and Napoleon sent several despatches to
Paris, declaring that he had won. But in the fight with the world,
Satan, and the flesh, we know how the victory is to turn already.
Christ has engaged to carry us through. He will guard us
against the darts of the law, by hiding us in his blood. He
defends us from the power of sin by his Holy Spirit, put within
us. He will keep us, in the secret of his presence, from the strife
of tongues. The thicker the battle, the closer will he keep to us ;
so that we can sing already : " I thank God, through Jesus Christ
our Lord." We know that we shall overcome. Though the
world were a million times more enraged ; though the fires of
persecution were again to be kindled ; though my heart were a
million times more wicked ; though all the temptations of hell
were let loose upon me ; I know I shall overcome through him
that loved me. When Paul and Silas sang in the low dungeon,
they were more than conquerors. When Paul sang, spite of his
thorn, " I will glory in my infirmities," he was more than a con-
queror.
2. We gain by our conjlict. Often a victory is a loss. So it
was in that battle in Israel, after the dark night in Gibeah. All
Israel mourned, for a tribe was nearly cut off out of Israel ; and
so, in most victories, the song of triumph is mingled with the sob-
bings of the widow and orphan. Not so in the good fight of faith.'
We are more than conquerors. We gain by our enemies. (1.)
We cling closer to Christ. Every wave of trouble for Christ's
sake lifts the soul higher upon the Rock. Every arrow of bitter-
ness shot after the believer makes him hide more in the clefts
of Jesus. Be content, dear friend, to bear these troubles,
which make you cling closer to your Beloved. (2.) They shake
ns loose from sin. If ye were of the world, the world would love
its own. If the world smiled and fawned upon you, you would
lie on its lap. But when it frowns, then Jesus is our all. (3.)
Great is your reward in heaven. We gain a brighter crown. Be
not afraid ; nothing shall ever separate you from the love of Christ
SERMON LXXV. 44 i
O that I could know that you were all in Christ's love that the
arms of Jesus were infolding you ; then I would know that all
the hatred of men, and all the policy of hell, would never prevail
against you ! " If God be for you, who can be against you ?'
If God has chosen you, called you, washed you, justified you, then
he will glorify you. O yield to his loving hands, you that are not
far from the kingdom of God ! Let him wash you, for then he will
carry you to glory. Amen.
Dundee, Or.t. 30, 1841. (Action Sermon.)
SERMON LXXV.
MAN THAT IS BORN OF A WOMAN.
" Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth
like a flower, and is cut down : he fleeth also as, a shadow, and continueth not."
Job xiv., 1, 2.
THREE things are taught us in these words.
1. The beauty of man: " He cometh forth like a flower."
Verse 2. There is something beautiful about man. He was
made at first in the image of God ; and though sin has blighted
and defaced that image, yet there are the traces of God's work-
manship to be seen in man still. His body is fearfully and won-
derfully made ; and the soul, though wholly averse from God by
nature, is yet a lost piece of silver. 2. He is short-lived: " Of few
days he cometh forth like a flower." When Pharaoh asked
Jacob how old he was, although he was one hundred and thirty
years old, he said : " Few and evil have the days of the years of
my life been," few, compared with the life of other men. Some
of the patriarchs lived nine hundred years ; Methuselah nine hun-
dred and sixty- nine. How few are our days compared with
this ! few, compared to eternity few, when we think of the work
to be done. 3. Full of trouble. If his few days were all full of
joy, it would not be so sad a case, but they are full of trouble ;
and those that are most anxious for worldly pleasure generally
have deepest troubles. Troubles of the body, and of the mind,
and of the estate, come upon the back of one another like wave
upon wave.
We have had solemn experience of these truths within these few
days. There have been five solemn deaths, all connected with
our parish, and. taken together, they form a practical commentary
on these words. 1. Two children died, both lovely and pleasant
in their lives, and in their death not far divided. They were full
of promise, and their fond relatives looked forward to their being
442 SERMON LXXV.
a joy and comfort to them. They came forth like a flower, and
were cut down. 2. A young man in his prime. He had reached
the vigor of manhood, and thought to see many good days in the
land of the living ; but God changed his countenance, and he has
passed away. 3. Another was the blooming mother, of eight
blooming children, beloved and admired by all around her, with
all this world could give to make her happy ; but the cry came at
midnight. She came forth like a flower, and was cut down. 4.
The last was ?n aged man, called upon, after long forbearance, to
give in his account. How solemn the lesson ! The child the
young man the mother the hoary head are all laid low this
day ! " Man that is born of a woman is of few days."
1. Learn the need of immediate conversion. Some of you are
angry that I speak so much of conversion ; but, ah ! when I stand
beside these open graves, I am ashamed of myself for speaking so
little. " Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." " Repent,
and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out."
Children, seek conversion now, for little children die. These
new-made graves are less than yours would be. Young men,
seek conversion now, for young men die they are cut down in
their prime. Mothers, do not say you will seek conversion after-
wards, when your family are grown, and you have more leisure ;
seek it now, for mothers die. Old men, do not say this is nothing
to you. Others may die, but you must die ; and therefore the
lesson comes doubly home to you : Seek conversion now.
2. Learn the folly of living in pleasure. There is no net by
which the devil catches more souls than the silken one of worldly
pleasure. It is common for worldly people to take it for granted
that there is no harm in these things. Children are fond of
games ; young people delight in dances, and songs, and laughter ;
coarser spirits love the glass, and the glee, and the coarse debauch;
more polished circles love the ball, and the concert, and the play;
and old withered dames, and swearing captains, tottering on the
brink of eternity, could hardly sleep at night without their hand at
whist. Where is the harm ? Sit down upon yon grave, and ask
the dead. Are you not Christless ; unpardoned ; unholy ; on the
road to hell. Are your days not numbered ? May you not be
cut down this night? Where would you be if you were hurried
away from the dance, or the play, or the card-table, to the pre-
sence of your Judge ? " Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth ;
and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in
the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes : but know
thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment."
" Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years ; take thine
ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee : then whose shall
those things be which ' thou hast provided ?" " She that liveth ir
SERMON LXXV. 443
pleasure is dead while she liveth." This is the time for seekin^
conversion.
Are we to have no pleasure, then ? Yes, in Christ holy
pleasures, such as are at God's right hand for evermore. Ah ! I
have tasted all the pleasures of time, and they are not worth one
drop of Christ's sweet love.
3. Learn to seek one another's souls. Ah ! there is no place for
teaching ministers how to speak like the death-bed. I often feel
that I have never preached at all, when I look upon the faces of
the dying ! O pray for me, that I may go out and in among you
more faithfully ; that I may speak more boldly, and not fear your
anger or reproaches ! You will not be angry with me when you
are dead. You will not say T preached too plainly then.
Brethren in the eldership ! Come and help me in this. You
see our people are dying ; hundreds are now in eternity who were
once under your care and mine.
Dear teachers ! Teach the children plainly, for children die.
Do not mind their impatience and waywardness. Remember they
are dying children Death's mark is on them. The forester puts
a mark round the trees that -are to be cut down. Every child has
got Death's mark.
Parents ! Seek your children's souls from infancy. Pray for
them before they are born. Travail in birth with them till Christ
be formed in them. Do not say they are too young, and cannot
understand. God can teach babes.
if you neglect this, will you not regret it when the green sod
lies on their breast ?
4. Learn how unable you are to bear the wrath of God. In the
time of Health and strength, it is common for men to boast against
God. They are not in trouble as other men, neither are they
plairucd like other men : therefore pride compasseth them about
as a chain. They can sin with a high hand. But when they are
brought to the brink of the grave by fever or wasting consump-
tion ; when they need some one to turn them on their bed, or to
hold up their fainting head, or to feed them with a spoon like a
child ; then we see that a sinner is nothing in the hands of an angry
God. And O what will it be in eternity, whence falls into the
hands of the living God ! Perhaps he doubted whether there was
a God ; but all of a sudden he sees there is a God. He thought
then; was no Christ in a moment he meets his holy eye. He
thought there was no hell, and laughed at those who believed it
in a moment he is tossing among its fiery waves ; and now he
feels it must be eternal. After a thousand years it is but begin
ning, and no nearer an end. The soul will sink into insupportable
gloom ; it will wish to die, and not be able. " What if God,
willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured
with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath, fitted to destruc-
tion ?" O brethren, flee from the wrath to come ! You cannot
444 SERMON LXXVI.
bear it Can you bear a fever, or the stroke of palsy, or a stroke
of lightning, or wasting consumption ? and these are but the little
finger of God's anger.
5. Learn the preciousness of Jesus. " Man is of few days," but
" Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." How
amazing the love of Christ, that he died for us such poor, weak
flowers, and worms of a day ! How safe we are in Jesus '
Although we are nothing fleeing like a shadow yet in him we
abide for ever. Our very dust is precious dust to him. Body and
soul he will bring with him, and we shall reign for ever and ever.
O you that are in Christ, prize him ! You that are in doubt, solve
it now by running to him. You that are out of him, choose him
now.
Dundee, February 20, 1842.
SERMON LXXVI.
CHRIST, A LAW-MAGNIFYING SAVIOUR.
"Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see. Who is blind, but my ser-
vant ? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent ? who is blind as he that is perfect,
and blind as the Lord's servant ? Seeing many things, but thou observest not ;
opening the ears, but he heareth not. The Lord is well-pleased for his righteous-
ness' sake ; he will magnify the law, and make it honorable." Isa. xlii., 18-21.
I. The name here given to sinners : " Hear, ye deaf; and look,
ye blind, that ye may see." Verse 18. These words are applied
here, first to idolaters, but they are equally applicable to all uncon-
verted men. All of you who are unconverted are naturally deaf.
You do not hear the voice of Providence. Mercies and afflictions
come knocking at your door, but you hear them not. You do
not hear the voice of Christ. It is like the sound of many waters,
yet you are deaf, you hear not its warnings and invitations. You
do not hear the voice of pastors. They are watchmen to blow
the trumpet, and warn the people, they have the tongue of the
learned ; but you are " like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear ;
which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never
so wisely." Ps. Iviii.
Blind. This word is constantly used in the Bible to describe
the stupidity of unconverted souls. Unconverted ministers are
called "Blind leaders of the blind." Matt, xv., 14. Jesus once
said to a Pharisee, " Thou blind Pharisee." Matt, xxii., 26.
And again, "Ye fools and blind." Matt, xxiii., 17. " Thou know
est not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind."
Rev. iii., 17.
This is the true state of everv unconverted soul. You do no*
SERMON LXXVI. 445
ee your own soul ; its depravity, its guilt, ha lost and ruined con-
dition. You do not see the Sun, the glorious Sun of Righteous-
ness, his beauty, his glory, his excellency : " No beauty that we
should desire him." You d-o not see your way. You know not
at what you stumble. Your path leads into hell, but you do not
see it, nor believe it.
Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind. Those of you who are deaf
and blind are generally the least attentive in the congregation.
You say, The minister has nothing for me ; and so you think of
something else to amuse your mind. But observe, God does here
speak to you: "Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind." Those of
you who are careless, stupid, blind, carnal ones, are the ones that
should attend, for God caHs upon you. When will you listen, if
not when God is calling upon you ?
But you say, This is a contradiction ; " If I am deaf, how can I
hear? If I am blind, how can I look?" Ans. Leave God to settle
that difficulty. Only listen and look up. There is truly no diffi-
culty about it. He told Ezekiel to preach to dry bones : " O ye
dry bones ! hear the word of the Lord ;" and John to preach to
men like the stones of Jordan. It is while we are speaking, and
through the very words we speak, that God gives life, and hearing,
and eye-sight. Only turn your deaf ears towards God, and your
blind eye-balls towards Jesus. Who can tell but some deaf and
blind soul may now, for the first time, be looking up to Jesus ?
II. The object pointed to : " Who is blind, but my servant ? or
deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is per-
fect, and blind as the Lord's servant? Seeing many things, but
thou observest not: opening the ears, but he heareth not"
Verses 19, 20. Every expression here evidently points to Christ.
1. My servant. This name is constantly given to Christ: "Be-
hold my servant" Verse 1. "Behold, my servant shall deal pru-
dently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high." Isa.
lii., 13. "By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify
many." Isa. liii., 11. "I am among you as he that serveth."
Luke xxii., 27. He took a towel and girded himself. " He took
upon him the form of a servant." Phil. ii.. 7. The reason why,
is, that he came not to do his own will, but the will of him that
sent him.
2. My messenger. This name is also applied to Christ : " If
there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thou-
sand." Job xxxiii., 23. And again : " The Lord whom ye seek
sh;ill suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the
covenant, whom ye delight in." Mai. iii., 1. He is so called
because God sent him. He came from God, with a message of
eternal life to sinners.
3. He that is perfect. ' He is the Rock ; his way is perfect."
As for God, his way is perfect. It is only of Christ that these
446 SERMON LXXVI.
words are fully true. He did no sin, neither was guile found in
his mouth. He knew no sin. He was the holy child Jesus, the
perfect one, perfect in the eye of the law, perfect in the eyes of
his Father, perfect in the eyes of his Church. "Such an high
priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undetiled, separate from
sinners."
4. Blind and deaf : "Who is blind as my servant, and deaf as
my messenger ?" Also verse 20 : " Seeing many things, but thou
observes! not ; opening the ears, but he heareth not." This de-
scribes the way in which he went through his work in this world.
Same as verse 2 : " He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his
voice to be heard in the streets." Same as Ps. xxxviii., 13, 14 : ">But
I as a deaf man heard not, and I was as a dumb man that openeth
not his mouth. Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in
whose mouth are no reproofs." Also Isa. liii., 7 : " He was op-
pressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth : he is
brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her
shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." He was blind to
the vileness of sinners. He saw, and yet he did not see. Surely,
if he had looked at the black hearts of those for whom he died, he
could not have died for them. Surely if he had looked only at
one sin, he could not have but ca-st us away, or gone back to his
Father's bosom. "But who is blind as my servant?"
He was blind to his own sufferings. He hasted to Jerusalem,
as if he did not see the cross before him. He saw it, but observed
not. He lay in the garden of Gethsemane, as if he did not see the
Innterns and torches of those that were coming to take him.
"Who is blind as my servant ?"
He was deaf. He seemed not to hear their plotting against him,
nor their accusations, for he answered not a word. " Pilate said
to him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against
thee ? and he answered him to never a word, insomuch that the
governor marvelled greatly." Matt, xxvii., 13, 14. It is to the
Lord Jesus patiently enduring all for us that you are bid to listen
and to look. Consider him, study him. We have learned but
little of Christ yet, brethren ; and you who are Christless know
him not at all.
III. The work of Christ : " He will magnify the law, and make
it honorable." Verse 21. This is in some respects the most
wonderful description of the work of Christ given in the whole
Bible. He is often said to have fulfilled the law. Thus, Matt,
iii., 15: "Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." And
airain, Matt, v., 17 : " Think not that I come to destroy the law
or the prophets ; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." But
here it is said, he will " magnify the law, and make it honorable."
He came to irive new lustre and glory to the holy law of God,
that all worlds might see and understand that the law is holy, and
SERMON LXXVI. 447
just and good. When God wrote the law upon the heart of
Adam in his creation, that was magnifying the law. He showed
it to be a great and holy and happy law, when he wrote it in the
bosom of so holy and happy a creature as man then was. When
God spoke the law from Mount Sinai, that magnified the law, ana
made it glorious. When he spoke it with his own voice in so
dreadful a manner, when he wrote it twice with his own finger,
this was magnifying it enough, one would think, to make our
modern Sabbath-breakers tremble to erase it. But most of all
when Christ died, did he give lustre, and greatness, and glory, and
majesty, to the law of God in the sight of all worlds.
1. By his sufferings. He magnified the holiness and justice of
the law by bearing its curse. When Adam sinned, he denied that
the law was holy and just. The devil said to him : " Ye shall not
surely die." He believed the devil. He thought God would not
make him die he thought God would fall back from his strict and
holy law. He will not do it. Will he destroy the creatures he
has made merely for taking an apple ? When any man sins, he
denies the holiness of God's law. When a man swears, or breaks
the Sabbath, or dishonors, his parents, or lies, or steals, he says in
his heart: God will not see, God will not take notice, God will not
cast me into hell for this. He does not believe the threatenings
of God. He does not believe that the law is holy and just. If
those of you who live in sin .really believed that every sin you
committed was to bring down another stripe for eternity, another
wave of fire to roll over your bodies and souls in hell for ever,
you could not sin as you do ; and therefore you dishonor the law
you make it small and contemptible you persuade yourselves
that God's law will never be put in force. Thus every sin is done
against God " against thee, thee only." Now God sent his Son
into the world to magnify the law, by dying under its curse. He
took upon him the curse due to sinners, and bore it in his body on
the tree, and thereby proved that God's law cannot be mocked.
When God cast the devil and his angels into hell, this showed
in a very dreadful manner the truth of his threatenings, the awful
strictness of his law. If God had cast all men into hell, it would
have shown the same thing. But much more when Christ bowed
his head under the stroke of the law's curse. He was a person
of infinite dignity and glory : " God over all, blessed for ever."
He thought it no robbery to be equal with God. He was far
exalted above all blessing and praise. God-man ; the only being
who ever stood on this earth who was God and man. He was
one who had no personal sin. He was perfect ; knew no sin, did
no sin, was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.
He was infinitely dear to God. His own Son ; his only begotten
Son ; one who was in the beginning with God, and was God
into whose bosom the love of the uncreated God had flowed from
all eternity. It was he who came and bowed his neck to the
448 SERMON LXXVI.
stroke of the law. He was seen of angels. Angels desired to
look into the awful scene. The eyes of millions of worlds were
turned towards Calvary. When Jesus died, he redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us ; and now ah
worlds saw that God could not be mocked. He added lustre to
the holy law. Angels and archangels saw, and trembled as they
saw. He that did not spare his Son will spare no other.
Learn the certainty of hell for the Christless. Which of you
that are Christless can hope to escape the curse of the law, since
God did not spare his Son ? If you have made up your mind to
refuse Christ, then you must bear hell. You say you are a person
of great mind, of great power, of great wealth ; but ah.! you are
not equal to the Son of God, and even he was not spared. You
say your sins are not many, not gross, not so bad as those of other
men ; ah ! but Christ knew no sin ; he had no personal sin ; all was
imputed sin. How surely will you suffer ! You say God has
been kind to you, has given you many mercies ; ah ! remember,
Christ was the Son of his love, and yet the law demanded it, God
spared not his own Son. Though you were the signet on his
right hand, yet would he pluck you thence ; though you were a
right eye, yet would he pluck you out.
Learn to flee from sin. Every sin will have its eternal punish-
ment. The sin you are committing has either been suffered for
in Christ, or will be suffered for by you in hell. Why will you
fill up your cup of torment to the brim? If you will not come to
Christ, at least you might spare yourself from greater damnation.
2. By his obedience. He added lustre to the goodness of the
law by obeying it. When Adam preferred the service of the
devil to the service of God, he said that the law of God was not
good. The fruit appeared good for food, and a tree to be desired
to make one wise, and so he ate. And so with every sinner now.
When you prefer sin to holiness ; when you prefer to swear, or to
break the Sabbath, or to go with the wicked, to serving God with
all humility of mind, then you say, God's law is bondage. It is
not good to be under it. It would not make me happy to keep it.
I am happier in breaking it than I would be in keeping it. It is
not good to love God with all my heart, and my neighbor as my-
self. Now, when Christ came and obeyed the law from the
cradle to the grave, when the Son of God came and delighted to
do the will of God, and had the law always in his heart, loving
God with all his heart, and his neighbor as himself, this gave new
lustre to the law. It showed to all worlds that it is the happiness
and chief good of the creature to keep God's holy law,
Christ was the freest being in the universe, most absolutely free,
doing all things according to the pleasure of his own will. He
was also most wise, only wise. He knew the nature of things ;
knew their beginning and end. He had also tasted the joys of
heaven. He had drunk from all eternity the river of God's plea-
ERMON LXXVI. 449
sures ; had enjoyed all that the Father enjoyed, the fulness of joy
that is in God's presence, and the pleasures that are at his right
hand for evermore ; and yet, when he stood in our nature, he
delighted in the law of God after the inward man; yea, God's law
was within his heart. The whole Book of Psalms bears witness
to the inward holiness of his heart. He loved God with all his
heart, and soul, and mind, and strength ; he loved his neighbor as
himself, yea, more than himself; for he gave up his own life for
ours. He was subject to parents and governors. He loved the
holy Sabbath. He magnified the law, and made it honorable.
He gave it a new lustre in the sight of all worlds. He showed
with a new clearness and brightness before unknown, that it is the
chiqf happiness of the creature to keep the whole law.
Learn the true wisdom of those of you who are new creatures,
and who love God's holy law. All of you who are really brought
to Christ are changed into his image, so that you love God's holy
law. " I delight in the law of God after the inward man ;" " The
statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart." Ps. xix. The
world say, What a slave you are ! you cannot take a little amuse-
ment on the Sabbath, a Sabbath walk or tea-party ; you cannot
go to a dance or theatre ; you cannot enjoy the pleasures of sen-
sual indulgence ; you are a slave. I answer, Christ had none of
these pleasures. He did not want them ; nor do we. He knew
what was truly wise, and good, and happy, and he chose God's
holy law. He was the freest of all beings, and yet he knew no
sin. Only make me free as Christ is free ; this is all I ask. " Great
peace have they who love thy law, and nothing shall offend them."
IV. The effect : " God is well pleased." .
1. With Christ. God is well pleased with Christ for many rea-
sons. (1.) Because he is his image : " The brightness of his glory,
and the express image of his person." (2.) Because he is lovely.
(3.) For his dying : " Therefore doth my Father love me." John
x., 17. He loves him with a full love ; he pours out the love of
his whole heart ; an unclouded love ; sunshine without a cloud ;
an everlasting love.
2. With all that are in Christ. Whoever of you is willing to
forsake your own righteousness, and to take Christ as your
surety, God not only pardons, but is well pleased with you for
his righteousness' sake. The same love wherewith he loves
Christ, he will pour out on you ; and, O ! who can wonder, when
you really think of the law-magnifying righteousness of the Lord
Jesus ? It is an ocean of divine righteousness, and those who are
plunged in it are, as it were, lost in divine righteousness. It is
an atmosphere of light, ready to envelope the soul, so that the sin-
ner may be covered entirely, and thus become divinely fair, and
infinitely well pleasing to God.
Invitation. He that wrought out this righteousness invites you
29
4"0 SERMON LXXVII.
al' to got the benefit of it. To you who have no concern : " Hear
O ye deaf; and look, ye blind." " Unto you, O men, I call, and
my voice is to the sons of man." You that are weary, he invites
still more tenderly : " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are
heavy laden." " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the
wntrrs." If you come this day to Christ, you do not need to feai
that God's infinite majesty will be against you ; for the Lord is
well pleased for his righteousness' sake, for he magnified the law,
and made it honorable. Amen.
Dundee, March 6, 1M'2.
SERMON LXXVII.
THE OBEDIENCE AND DISOBEDIENCE OF ONE.
" For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous." Rom. v., 19.
1. THERE is an exact parallel between the way in which we are
made sinners, and the way in which we are made righteous.
This is obvious at the first reading of the text ; and the more our
eyes are opened to see the wondrous truths that are hidden here,
the more we shall discover this, that all who are justified, are jus-
tified in the very same way as they were made sinners.
2. Unconverted men know neither of these truths. " The na-
tural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither
can he know them." I am persuaded that if those of you who
are carnal men, get a glimpse of the meaning of this verse to-day,
you will think it consummate folly, although it be the whole coun-
sel of God for the salvation of a sinner. If the Gospel pleased
carnal men, it would not be the Gospel ; it would prove itself to
be false.
3. It is deeply important that you know both of these. They
are life to the soul. You must know the first, how you were
made sinners, in order that you may lie down as a dead, con-
demned soul at the feet of Christ. You must know the second,
how a sinner is made righteous, in order that you may have all
joy and peace in believing. O that God the Holy Spirit may open
all your eyes to-day, and mine !
I. The way in which we were made sinners : " By the disobedi-
ence of one."
1 . The one man. Our first father, Adam the root and spring of
the human race, and also the head and representative of us all ;
perfect in body, perfect in soul, full of grace and truth, image of
God, very good. It pleased God to deal with mankind from the
SERMON LXXVII. 451
first in this way. As you heard lately, he did not deal with
men as a field of corn, where every stalk stands upon its own
root ; but he dealt with man as with a tree, all the branches ol
which have but one root and stem. He seems to have dealt with
the angels in the other way, each angel standing on its own root ;
but he dealt with mankind like a tree and its branches. So that
if Adam stood, all stood ; if he fell, all fell. Some may say : It
is not just to deal this way with man : we were not consulted in
this matter whether we would have Adam for our head or no. I
answer : " Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against
God ? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why
hast thou made me thus ?" God has made us thus the holy,
wise, good, and gracious God. Whether you believe it or not,
whether you like it or not, God has made rnan thus, and you can-
not change it.
2. Disobedience : The eating the forbidden fruit. Only one
sin. Some of you see little evil in one sin, or in a hundred
sins; but here you see one sin cast Adam and all liis children
out of paradise. God did not wait till it was repeated. It
appeared a small sin. The outward action was small, only
stretching out the hand and taking an inviting Iruit. Some of
you think little of sins that make no great noise ; such as breaking
the Sabbath, drinking too much, speaking what is false, sitting
down Christless at the Lord's table ; but see here, one small sin
brought a world under the curse of God. God would rather a
world should perish than one small sin go unpunished.
3. The consequence : " Many were made sinners." I have
said that it pleased God to deal with mankind as a tree. If you
strike with the axe at the root of a tree, the whole tree falls, not
only the stem, but the branches, and even the twigs upon the
branches ; and all the branches die and wither, and become fit
f'-r the burning. So it was when Adam fell. Satan laid the axe
:;t the root of the tree ; and when Adam fell, many fell along with
him. All his branches fell that same day. One stroke brought all
down. Even the branches most distant from Adam, even the
tenderest twigs springing from these branches, fell, and withered,
and died that day. (l.) Death passed upon all men. From that
hour man became a dying thing, the seeds of dissolution were
sown ; the fair, blooming creature began to wither and dissolve ;
and every branch came dying into the world. (2.) Spiritual
death. Just as in a tree when it is felled, the nourishment is
immediately cut off from both the stem and branches ; so it
was with fallen man. In the day he ate he surely died ; not a
spark of spiritual life remained in him, or any of his. This
explains how your children come into the world utterly dead to
God and divine things. They are lively in other things. The
new-born babe clings to its mother's breast, but not to Jesus. (3.)
The curse of God This is the propel meaning of" were mad
452 SERMON LXXVII.
sinners." It is a judicial term, "were held in God's sight aa
guilty, lost, undone sinners." In that day the frown of God came
upon all men. The holy nature of God abhorred the apostate
race. The curse of the broken law passed upon all men.
Ah, brethren ! here is matter for humiliation that few of you
think about. Not only are you covered over with an infinite 'oad
of actual sins; not only have you got a heart like the inside of a
grave, full of dead men's bones and rotten flesh, and all unclean-
ness ; or. like the cave of hell, " a hold for every foul spirit, and
the cage of every unclean and hateful bird," but you belong to a
cursed race ; you are the wicked branch of a wicked tree, you
are entirely and originally a sinner, spiritually dead, disinclined
from all that is good. O pray to discover your connexion with
the first Adam, to make you cleave to the second Adam ! The
world scoff and deride this truth, but that proves it to be divine ;
for if the Gospel appeared wise to the world, it would disprove
itself.
II. The way in which we are made righteous : " By the obedi-
ence of ONE shall many be made righteous."
1. One. This second O\E is the Lord Jesus Christ, the second
Adam, and the Son of God. (1.) The first Adam was fair,
exquisitely fair, as he came from the hand of God ; but the second
is altogether lovely, fairer than the children of men. (2.) The
fiist Adam was made in the likeness of God; but the second is
God himself, the Lord from heaven, the brightness of the Father's
glory, and the express image of his person. (3.) The first Adam
was full of heavenly wisdom, so that he named all the creatures
as they came ; but in the second are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge. He is the wisdom of God. He spake
as never man spake. He calls all the stars by their names.
(4.) The first was the head of the whole human race, the federal
head ; so that in him they stood, and in him they fell. Christ
is offered as a head to every creature, and is actually the
head of all the redeemed, and of myriads of holy angels, all
gathered together in him, even in him.
O glorious ONE ! Divine and human perfections meet in him !
O that you were filled with sweet, admiring, adoring thoughts of
him this day ! O that he would rise upon you like the sun ! He
is the Light of the world, the Sun of righteousness, the bright
and morning Star. It is that ONE who justifies the ungodly, who
has power to forgive sins. He is precious to all that believe.
2. His obedience : Twofold.
(1.) He obeyed the holy law of God. Satan thought he had got
God's law for ever dishonored, when he got the whole human race
to abhor it, to disown it, and not to obey it ; but he was foiled in
this very thing. The Son of God came and obeyed it. The obe-
dience of that ONE was more glorifying to God, more amazing to
SERMON LXXVII. 45J?
angels, than the obedience of a world would have been. He mag.
nified the law, and made it honorable, made it shine brighter far
than ever, as a holy, just, and good law.
Look through the life of Jesus, as related in the Gospel, and you
will see what it is to obey the law of God. He had no other gods
before his Father. He bowed to no idols. He took not his holy
name in vain. He remembered the Sabbath-day to keep it holy.
He came down to Nazareth, and was subject to Joseph and Mary.
" Woman, behold thy son." He did not kill, he did not commit
adultery, he did not steal, there was no guile found in his mouth,
he coveted not. Or, if you sum the ten commandments, and make
them into two, He loved God with all his heart, ,and mind, and
strength ; and he loved his neighbor as himself. An unquenchable
love to God burned in his bosom. He regarded God in all that he
did. Even when God bruised him and put him to grief, when
God cried, " Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against
the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts : smite the
shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered : and I will turn mine
hand upon the little ones ;" even then he cried, " My God, my God !"
He kissed the hand that smote him. He loved his neighbor more
than himself : "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man
lay down his life for his friends," " For my love they are my ad-
versaries," " While we were yet sinners Christ died for us." Even
when they were nailing him to the cross, wagging their heads at
him, raiding on him, offering him vinegar, he cried, " Father, for-
give them ; for they know not what they do." Love is the fulfil-
ling of the law ! Now God is love, and Christ is God. This is
part of the obedience of One, by which he makes many sinners
righteous.
(2.) He laid down his life. In this ho obeyed a special com-
mandment of his Father. Adam was not only under the ten com-
mandments, but he had a special commandment given him, to try
his obedience to God's will, namely, that he should not eat the for-
bidden fruit. In like manner Christ was not only under the ten
commandments, but under a special commandment, the most diffi-
cult that ever was given to any being, that he should die for sin-
ners : " Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down
my life. This commandment have 1 received of my Father."
John x., 17. And a little after: " The cup which my Father hath
given me, shall I not drink it?" John xviii., 11.
Therefore does he say: "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not
desire ; mine ears hast thou opened : burnt-offering and sin-oflrr-
ing hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come : in the vo-
lume of the book it is written of mc i , I delight to do thy will, O my
God ; yea, thy law is within my heart." Psal. xl. And, " Being
found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedi-
ent unto death, even the death of the cross." Phil, ii., 8. This
was the most amazing trial of obedience that ever was. It was
454 SERMON LXXVII.
a long trial : " I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up
while 1 suffer my terrors I am distracted." He was "a man of
sorrows" from his youth. Often, often, he sank under the dark
cloud of his Fathers anger, till he groaned his last on Calvary.
There was nothing in the nature of things to oblige him to do it.
There was nothing good or amiable in those for whom he died;
they were vile sinners, not asking him to die for them, blind to his
excellency and divine glory. Yet he was obedient unto death.
This is the obedience by which he covers and justifies all those,
however sinful, that come to God by him.
3. The consequence : " Many are made righteous." We have
seen that in the fall and ruin of man, it pleased God to deal with
man, not as a field of corn, each standing on his own root, but as
a tree, in which all the branches stand or fall together. We were
not made sinners, each by his individual sin, but all by the sin of
one. In like manner it has pleased God to justify sinners, not each
by his own obedience, by his own goodness and holiness, but" bv
the obedience of ONE." Just as Adam by his one sin brought
death, the curse of God, and total spiritual death, not only upon
himself, but upon all branches, even the most distant, even the
minutest, even though unborn ; so the second Adam, by his own
obedience, brought pardon, righteousness, spiritual life, and eternal
glory to all his branches, even the most distant, the smallest, even
those unborn.
(1.) They are made righteous. Those who betake themselves
to Christ are made righteous. t It matters not what they have been
before, they are righteous now. They belong to a righteous
family, to a righteous tree : the root is righteous, and so are all
the branches. They are not forgiven only not only have their
infinite sins been blotted out. but they are made righteous. They
are not only made innocent, as if they had done no sin, but right-
eous, as if they had fulfilled all righteousness. All that Christ did
and suffered is counted theirs. Neither are they made righteous
as if they had obeyed, but as if they had obeyed divinely. They
are made righteous all at once. We were made sinners all at
once by one blow by one man's sin ; so those of you who
cleave to Christ are made righteous all at once. You have not to
wai-t many years before you find acceptance. You find it the
moment you cleave to Christ : " He that believeth on me hath
everlasting life" " In the Lord have I righteousness and strength"
" In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall
glory."
(2.) Many, not few. The first Adam was the root of a nu-
merous family, to whom, by his disobedience, he transmitted death
and sin. The second Adam is the root of a numerous family, to
whom he gives pardon and holiness. They are scattered over
every country and every age, so that often they seem few, but
are many when gathered together. " So shall thy seed be. M
SERMON LXXVII. 455
'' I saw a gpeat company which no man could number," every
one made righteous in this way. " In my Father's house are
many mansions," and none of them will be empty, yet every one
will be righteous in the disobedience of one. O will ye not be
among the many !
(3.) Mt*ny, not all. The second Adam offers himself to all.
He is willing to be co-extensive with the first Adam. Ruin, by
the fall of the first Adam, extended to every creature ; and so the
gift of the second Adam is to every creature ; " Go, and preach
the Gospel to every creature." The Gospel is preached to every
creature under heaven. Christ stands willing to be a root of par-
don, and righteousness, and eternal life, to every creature. Yet
all do not, and will not, come. The most stay away, and die in
their sins. I fear the most of you are now staying away from
Christ. O that you were all made righteous in God's way !
III. Lessons.
1. Most, are on the wrong way. Many people are in earnest in
a wrong direction. When a ship is wrecked, and the sailors take
to the long-boat, they toil hard to get to land, but often they row
in wrong directions So with sinners. Many of you arc in
earnest, but not in the right direction. Most are trying to be
righteous in the obedience of many each in his own. You want
to stand on your own root. You will not take guilt from the first
Adam, neither righteousness from the second. Are you wiser
than God ? If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead
in vain. You are trying to make Christ useless. Is it not better
to submit to God's way to fall in with the divine scheme to
submit to the righteousness of God ?
2. AH believers are equally righteous before God. I have seen
a family of children all dressed alike, that none might boast over
the others, all being equally fair. So it is with God's family ;
th''V are all righteous in the obecfcence of One. One garment
covers them all the robe of their elder Brother. Believers differ
in attainments, in gifts and graces, but all are equally justified be-
fore Gnd. It is not work of their own that justifies them, it is the
work of Christ alone. Ah, brethren ! there is no boasting in
Christ's family. " Where is boasting then ? It is excluded." This
is what keeps most away. They cannot bear to be on the same
level with a drunkard or a publican. They cannot bear to come
before God along with Mary Magdalene and the dying thief.
3. You may come always to God this way. It is not once only
that you need this divine obedience to cover you, but all your life
long. The moment you forsake Christ, you lose your righteous-
ness before God. But you may return now. This obedience is
always the same always full always divine. You say you are
changed : Christ is not changed. You say you have got new
guilt: Christ is still the same. You may still be made righteous
456 SERMON LXXVIII.
once more in the obedience of one. Why stay away from Christ /
Can you make yourself righteous away from him ? Can you be
righteous any other way than by submitting to him ?
Dundee, Jlpril 17, 1S42. (Action Sermon.)
SERMON LXXVIII.
THE LORD KNOWETH HOW TO DELIVER.
" The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve
the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." 2 Peter ii., 9.
THERE are only two great classes of people in the world the
godly and the unjust ; and the way "in which God deals with these
two classes makes up the history of the universe. To one of these
classes every one of you belongs. 1. The godly are those who
have been born again made partakers of the divine nature,
and live unto God. 2. The unjust are those who are ungod y
who have never been born again who live to themselves and to
the world. God deals very differently with these two classes.
I. His treatment of the godly.
1. He allows them to fall into temptations. The whole Bible
shows that it is common for believers to be carried through many
and great temptations. Temptations may be understood in two
ways. (1.) Solicitations to sin. All believers are allowed to fall
into these. The old nature remains ; though crucified, and morti-
fied, and hated, yet it remains. Satan shoots his fiery darts
lays snares for the soul. The world watches for our halting. No
doubt Noah felt these in the old world, and Lot as he walked
through the streets of Sodom. (2.) Trials. All kinds of trial
which try the soul whether it will abide in Christ or no re-
proaches and persecutions. Often the trial is fiery. The whole
Bible testifies that it is common for believers to fall into these.
The ordinary course of a believer passes through these : " There
hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man ; but
God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that
ye are able." '1 Cor. x., 13. Think it not strange. James says:
* Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations." And
Paul says, " that he served the Lord with all humility of mind,
with many tears and temptations." Acts xx., 19. You may
think it strange that God should take us by such a way to glory
by tears and temptations. Why did he let Noah live so long in a
world of trials 1 Why did he let Lot remain in the midst of
Sodom ?
l&t. To manifest the reality of grace. It is said: " There musl
BRMON LXXVIII. 457
be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be
made manifest among you." 1 Cor. xi., 19. For the same reason
there must be temptations, that those of you who are really God's
children may be made manifest. In a time when there is no trial
or temptation, it is easy to receive the Word with joy, and many
among you appear to be Christians ; but when temptation comes,
many go down many that seemed to get good at one time, to be
moved, and to wait diligently on the Word. Perhaps if you had
been allowed to go smoothly through life without temptations,
you would have remained with a name to live all your days ; but
temptation came, and you sank, just to show that you were none
of his. But Noah is kept in the midst of the old world, not con-
forming to the world, to show that there is a divine power work-
ing in him to show that there is an electing, forgiving, upholding
God. Lot is kept in Sodom to show the same thing. And you
that are believers are kept by the power of God, through manifold
temptations.
2d. To condemn the world. Noah was moved with fear, by
which he condemned the world. When a poor fellow-worm and
fellow- sinner was enabled to live above the world, to commune
with God, and to go in and out among them, living for eternity, it
proved to them that there was a Saviour that there was a God
of grace. * A believer is a living demonstration of the way of sal-
vation. Lot condemned the men of Sodom, when he vexed his
soul from day to day, when he lived among them a pardoned sin-
ner, upheld by the Holy Spirit. And so the few believers in this
place are condemning it. O, if you had never seen what conver-
sion is if you had no examples of a holy, renewed believer in
your neighborhood, you would stand with a bolder face in the
"judgment ! But, ah ! every believer in this place condemns you.
Why not wash where we have been washed ?
'3d, That we may bs conformed to Christ. Think it not strange
concerning the fiery trial that is to try you, as though some strange
thing happened unto you ; but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are par-
takers of the sufferings of Christ. Christ was tempted by the
devil, and hated by the world ; and we must be glad to share in
his sufferings. God desires us to be like our Head in all things.
2. The Lord knows how to deliver them.
(1.) They know not how to deliver themselves. I have no doubt
Noah often said : I fear I too shall be carried away with the flood;
I fear my faith will fail me ; I know not what to do. And
Lot often trembled in Sodom ; and David, when Saul pursued
him. Many of you do not know how to deliver yourselves. You
are compassed about as with a flood, by old companions, old lusts,
a hating world, a roaring lion. (2.) Man knows not how to de-
liver you. It is common for souls under temptation to ask coun-
sel of ministers, but they cannot deliver you. Nothing is more
vain than the help of man in an hour of temptation. (3.) The
458 SERMON LXXVIII.
Lord knows. More is meant than the mere words imply. The
Lord not only knows how to do it, but will certainly deliver the
godly out of temptation. He loves them. Every godly one is a
jewel in his sight ; he died for them, and he will not lose one.
When he puts them into the furnace, he sits as a refiner. He has
promised they shall never perish : " I will never leave thee, nor
forsake thee." He will with the temptation make a way of
escape : " I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not."
It matters not what the temptation be. It matters not how great
the temptation be, and how weak the believing soul. Some chil-
dren of God say sometimes: If it were a lesser trial, I could bear
it; if the furnace were not so hot, if the temptation were not so
great, I could get through ; or, if I had more strength, it' I were
an older and more experienced believer. Look at the words :
" The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation."
Is anything too hard for the Lord ?
It matters not how few the believers be. There was but one Lot
and one Noah. Perhaps they said : " The Lord hath forgotten
me, and my God hath forsaken me." God is as able to deliver
one as a thousand. One soul is precious in his sight : " I will take
you one of a city, and two of a family, and bring you to Zion "
" I will sift the house of Israel like as corn is sifted in a sieve ; yet
shall not the least grain fall upon the earth" " Those whom thou
hast given me have I kept, and none of them is lost, but the son
of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled."
II. God's treatment of the unjust : " God knoweth how to
reserve the unjust to the day of judgment to be punished."
1. The end of all the ungodly is to be punished. Whatever be
God's present dealings with the ungodly, their end is to be
punished. Whatever shall be found laden with sin, his end is to be
punished. The angels sinned. They were of a noble nature
originally in the image of God ; yet God did not spare them, but
cast them down to hell. The old world sinned a great multi
tude a worldfull ; God brought in the flood upon them. An
individual town sinned ; God turned it into ashes, and made it
an example to all that should afterwards live ungodly. This will
be the end of all in this congregation who live on in sin. Ah ! it
will be more tolerable for Sodorn than for you. Your end is to
be burned.
2. Not now : 4i God knoweth how to reserve." Judgment against
an evil work is not executed speedily. During the French Revo-
lution, a young man stepped forward, and dared God Almighty to
strike him dead. No evil followed. Many of you have gone on
in sin thus. The first time you sinned, you trembled lest you
should be quickly summoned to judgment; but no evil followed,
and now your heart is fully set in you to do evil. Ah ! you little
understand. " The Lord knoweth how to reserve." God's ways
SERMON LXXIX.
are not like our ways. When a man steals, the cry immediately
follows : " Stop, thief !" else ho will be out of reach. When a
murder is committed, a reward is offered for the apprehension of
the murderer, lest he should escape from the hands of justice.
Not so with God. He is not in haste to punish. You cannot flee
out of his dominions. Your feet shall slide in due time. God is
reserving you to the day of judgment to be punished. He endures
with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.
(1.) It is not that you have sinned little. Many of you have
sinned more than others that have been taken away. I have no
doubt there are many in hell who had far less sin than some of
you.
(~2.) It is not that God loves your sin. God hates it infinitely.
Every new sin you commit provokes him in a fearful manner.
Every new Sabbath you break every new lust you pour forth
God is more and more angry with you.
(3.) It is not that you are in health that there are no means of
your destruction at hand. God could smite in one hour. Here is
the explanation : " God knoweth how to reserve the unjust." O
employ this day of long-suffering, while Jesus waits to save you,
and God refrains from destroying you ' Lord, help a worm !
SERMON LXXIX.
DILIGENCE NECESSARY
" Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that y i>*i
be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless." 1 Pet. iii., 14. .
1. The description of believers here given : " Seeing ye look for
guch things." So Paul : " We look not at the things which are
sccM), but at the things which are not seen." 2 Cor. iv., 18. The
unconverted among you look at things seen. All your thoughts,
talk, h >p>'s, and fears, are takm up about the things of time and
sense. But those of you who have anointed eyes, and hearts illu-
mined by the Holy Ghost, look beyond the bounds of time. But
th<- lo >k here spoken of is more than mere knowledge: it is the
look of desire, of earnest long.ng. It is called " looking and hast-
ing unto." It is like the look of a child for an absent parent, when
ae looks and runs to meet him. It is like the look of a bride for
the coining of the bridegroom. What are the things ?
1. The second coming of the Lord. The scoffers say, " Where
.s the promise of his coming?" Verse 4. "But the day of the
Lord will come." Verse 10. " Looking for and hasting unto
460 SERMON LXXIX.
the coming of the day of God." Verse 12. The great
event of that day is the coming of Jesus in the clouds of heaven.
The world are not looking for this, but you that are Christ's are
looking for such things. The world think Christ well away, and
hope he may never come hack again. They believe, in some son,
that the Son of God was once born of a woman, and lay in the
manger at Bethlehem ; that he walked on the hills of Galilee, and
did many wonders, that he died, and went to his Father. And
they hope to see no more of him. They think the world is we 1
quit of him. Certain I am, that if he were returning to this place,
the most of the inhabitants would wail because of him.
But he will come, and like a thief in the night. He is not slack
concerning his promise, as some men count slackness : " That same
Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into
heaven." Acts i., 11. "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from
heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not
God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall
be punished with everlasting destruction." 2 Thess. i., 7. " Be-
hold he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they
also which pierced him ; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail
because of him." Rev. i., 7. Even so. Amen. "Ye look for
such things." If you are Christ's at all, you are desiring that
blessed hope. Many faithful and godly men believe that the
day is near; and who will venture to say they may not be right?
The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. Does a
bride long for the coming of the bridal-day ? So will you that are
Christ's love his appearing.
2. The trial by fire: "The heavens shall pass away with a
great noise: and the elements shall melt with fervent heat: the
earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up"
"All these things shall be dissolved."
The scoffing world do not look for such things. They do not
desire them, neither do they expect them. They read of them in
the Bible as they would read a terrific tale, or a tragedy ; they do
not read of them as coming realities. Yonder blue heaven, they
think, shall always span the earth with its calm cerulean arch ;
the elements shall continue their sportive warfare, the wind blow-
ing east, and then west ; the summer zephyr changing with the
winter blast. The green earth, they think, shall still roll on with its
seed-time and harvest, summer and winter. Their houses and tow-
ers,they hope, shall last for ages ; they call their lands after theirown
names. Ah, brethren ! can you say you are looking for anything
else than just that to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more
abundant ? But those of you that are taught of'God look for such
things. You expect and desire that awful day. You are ever
and anon looking up to see when the heavens shall catch fire, and
pass away ; when the hand that stretched them out like a tent to
dwell in, shall roll them up like a scroll. You are waiting for the
SERMON LXXIX. 46J
day when the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the
elements shall melt with fervent heat. You look upon the earth
as one does upon a crazy house, from which he is about to remove.
You look on its mountains, trees, and fields, as soon to be burned
up, and all its works, its houses, and palaces, and towers, as soon
to be a smoking funeral pile. No wonder Jesus said : " They are
not of the world." The wonder is, brethren, that we are so much
of the world.
3. The new heavens and earth : " Nevertheless we, according
to his promise, look for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein
dwelleth righteousness." Verse 13. The promise of the new
heavens and earth is contained in Isa. Ixv., 17 ; again in Isa. Ixvi.,
22 ; and again, Rev. xxi v 1 : ** I saw a new heaven and a new
earth." What that glorious world shall be I cannot tell. No
thunder-clouds shall ever darken the sky ; no lightning flash ;
no blighting east wind blow ; no pestilential fogs ; no raging
whirlwind. There shall be no more curse ; thorns and thistles
shall nowhere be found ; paradise will be restored. All this may
be I cannot tell ; but one thing is certain : " Therein dweileth
righteousness." " There shall in no wise enter into it anything
that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh
a lie ; but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life."
The wicked shall be plucked away. The world do not look for
such things. You do not believe that you shall ever be bound up
in bundles, and cast away. You do not believe that there is a
world where you will be separated from your believing friends
and neighbors. But we look for such things. We look for a time
when you will no more scorn us, and cast out our name as evil ;
when you will no more hate and revile us ; a world where you
will never be, " wherein dwelleth righteousness."
II. The duty here commanded : " Be diligent, that ye may be
found of him in peace."
The duty here commanded is diligence ; diligence in so living
as that, when Christ shall appear, he may find you in peace,
without spot and blameless. Two things are implied in this com-
mand.
1. Be diligent to get into Christ. In order to be found in peace,
without spot and blameless, a man must be found in Christ. If
any man be out of Christ, he is not at peace with God, neither is
he without spot and blameless. There is but one way of being
unspotted and unblamable before God, and that is by being in
Christ. By nature, " there is none righteous, no, not one ; there
is none that understandeth ; there is none that seeketh after God ;
there is none that d<>eth good, no, not one." You are all spotted
by your constantly wicked heart ; and your wicked life is a con-
tinual blot before God. Be diligent to be found in peace.
(1.) Seek it as the one thing needful: "One thing have I de-
462 SERMON LXXIX.
sired of the Lord." Most in this congregation have some desiw
to be saved. You would like not to be cast into hell ; you
would like to be received into glory ; but not many will be dili-
gent, or press into the kingdom of God. Get your heart so en-
grossed with this, that it shall be your main concern, sleeping and
waking. Ah ! if you knew the worth of Christ, you would be
diligent to be found of him in peace.
(vJ.) Leave no means untried. When a man is diligent in seek-
ing some earthly thing, he leaves no means untried to get at his
end. When a merchant is seeking goodly pearls, he goes from
market to market. When a beggar is seeking his meat, he goes
from door to door ; a hundred refusals do not daunt him ; he still
knocks on at the next gate. And so. if you are really in earnest,
you will leave no means untried Bible, prayer, united prayer,
faithful ministers, and godly friends.
(3.) Give up all that hinders. When a man is diligent in
worldly things, he gives up all that would mar his success. If a
man is thoroughly set upon going a journey, he leaves his bed
early in the morning. If a man is running for his life, he soon
throws away every weight. So, if you are diligent in seeking
Christ. If your way of business prevents you ; if it brings so
much care as to hinder you, so that you see it will be your ruin,
you will give it up. If any company is ruinous to you, destroys
your seriousness, hinders your prayers, and wastes your precious
hours, you will break it off. If any idol hinders your cleaving to
Christ, cast it away. Be diligent, that ye may be found of him in
peace. Herod would not give up his Herodias.
2. Be diligent to abide in Christ : " Beware lest ye fall from
your own steadfastness." Verse 17. Abide in him, little chil-
dren, that when he shall appear ye may have confidence, and not
be ashamed before him at his coming. (1.) Leave no guilt upon
the conscience. Guilt mars our communion \\ith Christ, hides the
reconciled face, brings clouds, hidings, frowns. Give daily dili-
gence to come as you came at the first. He that endureth to the
end, the same shall be saved. (2.) Be diligent to grow in grace.
A growing tree is a living tree. When a tree ceases to grow, it
is in danger of being blown down. So with a believer. Get
more knowledge, faith, love. (3.) Seek daily likeness to Jesus.
We are not justified by our sanctification ; and yet without sanc-
tification we cannot have abiding peace or communion. We are
justified entirely by the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus ; and
yet, when justified, he will change us into his image ; so that the
longer we are justified we should be the more sanctified. Study
holiness, if you would have peace now, and be found of Christ in
peace. The holiest believers are ever-more the happiest.
III. Motives to diligence.
1. The most are very careless. The most around you are living
SERMON LXXX.
as if there were no coming Saviour, no heavens ct, fire, re earth
to be burned up. The people of this town are lute the pecpje of
Sodom, they are at ease in sin. Though they have not fulness of
bread, they have abundance of idleness. The most of believers
are very careless, not looking for the Bridegroom ; therefore be
you diligent. Let your carelessness make you the more diligent.
Tremble lest you be infected with the general carelessness and
slumber. It is an infectious disease.
2. There is need of all you?- diligence. The righteous scarcely
are saved. You live in a world of enemies, your own heart, the
temptations of the world, the snares of the devil. Few get to
heaven without desperate falls. If you were travelling in Alpine
countries, among rocks and precipices, you would see your need
of diligence, lest you fall and break your bones. Such is your
journey now.
3. The time is short: "What! could ye not watch with me
one hour ?" If you have yet to get into Christ, the time is short.
You are like a traveller who has a long journey before him, and
has slept till the day is far spent. He must double his pace, and
so must you. If you are in Christ, the time is but short. You
are like a sentry on guard. Your hour is a short one ; do not
grow sleepy, but keep awake. Watch, for ye know neither the
day nor the hour.
4. Your diligence will be too late, if Christ find you Christless.
When the bridegroom came, the foolish virgins went to buy ;
but they were too late. So many of you will begin to seek when
too late. When you lift up your eyes in hell, or when Jesus
comes, you will cry, " Lord, Lord ;" but all diligence will be then
too late. When the boat has left the shore, it is in vain for you
to run. Now your diligence may be to good purpose. Yet there
is room, the door is now open. " Be diligent, that ye may be
found of him in peace."
Dundee, May 14, 1842.
SERMON LXXX.
*
FOLLOW THE LORD FULLY.
But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed
me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went ; and his seed shall
possess it." Numb, xiv., 24.
THE children of Israel lay encamped below Mount Sinai for about
a year, during which time God gave them the law and the taberna-
cle. Moving across the desert with the pillar-cloud before them,
464 SERMON LXXX.
they soon came to Kadesh-barnca, in the edge of the desert, and on
the border of the promised land. Here, by God's direction, they
sent twelve spies to search the land, and to bring back word
" \\hether the people were strong or weak, few or many ; and
what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad ;
and what cities they dwell in, whether in tents or in strongholds."-
Numb, xiii., 18, 19. Accordingly the spies searched the land from
one end to another, going up by the rocky dells of Hebron, and
returning by the pleasant Vale of Eschol. After forty days they
returned, bearing a cluster of grapes between two upon a stafT;
also some pomegranates and some figs. And as they stood in the
midst of assembled Israel, all eyes rested on them all ears were
open to hear their report. The land was good, they said, flowing
with milk and honey ; but the people were strong, and their cities
walled, and very great. Two men alone of the twelve stood
boldly forward, Caleb and Joshua; and Caleb said, " Let us go
up at once, for we are well able to overcome it." But the peo-
ple wept that night, and bade stone Caleb with stones. Numb,
xiv., 10. And God was angry, and said the congregation should
die in the wilderness. " But my servant Caleb, because he had
another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I
bring into the land whereinto he went ; and his seed shall possess
it"
Doctrine. It is a blessed thing to follow the Lord fully.
I. What it is to follow the Lord fully.
1. To follow Christ all our days. This was the way with Caleb ;
he followed the Lord all his days he followed him fully. We
find it recorded of him, forty years after, when he was an old
man of eighty-five, that " he wholly followed the Lord God of
Israel." He did not follow God for a time, or by fits and starts,
but all his days he followed him fully.
(1.) There are many like Lot's wife, who flee out of Sodom for
a while. She was greatly alarmed the angels laid hands upon
her she heard the words of warning, and fled for a time ; but
she soon gave up she looked back, and became a pillar of salt.
So, many are awakened and flee for their life ; they weep ; pray ;
seek salvation ; but they do not hold out they are allured by an
old companion or a favorite lust, and so they draw back. (2.)
Many are like those in John v"i. : They follow Jesus for fc a time,
and are called his disciples ; they hear the gracious words that
proceed out of his mouth ; but by and by some discovery of doc-
trine or duty is made which offends them : " From that time many
of his disciples went back, and walked no more with Jesus.'' It
is those who never go back that follow him fully. (3.) Many are
like the Galatians. When Paul first preached to them, they re-
ceived him " as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus/' They
spoke of the blessedness of being in Christ, and the great salvation.
SERMON LXXX. 465
They loved Paul, so that if it had been possible they would have
plucked out their own eyes and given them to him (Gal. iv., 15) ;
and yet they did not follow the Lord fully. They were soon re-
moved from the Gospel of Christ to another gospel. " O foolish
Galatians, who hath bewitched you?" And now they hated Paul
for speaking the truth to them. So with many of you. This is
not following fully. (4.) Many in affliction begin to follow Christ.
Ps. Ixxviii., 34. When laid on a sick-bed, or when some be-
reavement occurs, they take to their Bible ; begin to weep and
pray. But the world comes back upon them ; temptation, old
companions; and they go back. They do not follow the Lord fully.
Ah ! how many in this congregation are witnesses that ye have
not followed the Lord fully. Ye did run well, who did hinder
you ? How many of you were impressed ! Divine things ap-
peared great and precious in your eyes you came to the Lord's
table; you sat down with solemnity and where are you now?
Have you not gone quickly out of the way ?
2. Those of you who would follow Christ fully all your days.
(1.) Must be like Lot: Not only flee from Sodom, but flee to
Zoar you must not resist in convictions, however deep. It is a
good thing to be awakened, but, ah ! you are not saved. If you
would follow Christ fully, you must get fully into Christ. (2.)
You must continue in his word: " Then said Jesus to those Jews
that believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my
disciples indeed." John viii., 31. Remember ye are saved by the
Gospel, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye
have believed in vain." You must be like Mary, who at at his
feet and heard his word. (3.) You must be like aged Simeon :
" Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon,
the same was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of
Israel." Perhaps he was converted when a youn man ; but it
was no slight work soon over ; he followed the Lord fully all
his days ; and now, when he was an old man, he was still waiting
for the Consolation of Israel. He followed the Lord fully, and
now he follows the Lamb in paradise. (4.) You must be like the
palm tree : " The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree ; he
shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that he planted in the
house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They
shall still bring forth fruit in old age ; they shall be fat and flou-
rishing." Ps. xcii. The palm tree and cedar have both this
wonderful property, that they are fruitful to the last : and so it is
with the living believer; he is a Christian to the last full of
the Spirit, full of love, full of holiness to the last. Like fine
wine, the older the better. " The path of the just is like the shin-
ing light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day." {5.)
You must be like Paul. From the dny of his conversion, Paul
was a new creature. The love of Christ constrained him, and he
lived no more unto himself, but unto him that died for him, and rose
30
466 SERMON LXXX.
again. We never hear of his slackening his pace, or giving over
fighting: "Forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching
forth unto the things that are before, I press towards the mark."
Even when an old man, he did not lose the fire of his love, or
zeal, or compassion : " I am ready to be offered, and the hour of
my departure is at hand ; I have fought a good fight, I have finish-
ed my course, I have kept the faith." He followed the Lord fully .
he never looked back, he never halted, he never slumbered, he was
a second Caleb. So must you be, if you would be saved.
" He that endureth to the end shall be saved." Not he that has
a good beginning, but he that follows fully.
II. To follow Christ with all the heart.
This was the way in which Caleb followed the Lord, with all
his heart, fully. He had no inconsistencies he followed the Lord
in all he did.
1. The most of Christians do not follow the Lord fully the
most have some inconsistency. Most do not reflect Christ's image
in every part. The most do not think it attainable : they are dis-
couraged from seeking it. Many do not think it desirable ; at
least they think it better for the time to have this and that weak-
ness.
(1.) Some do not follow Clirist in his lowliness. Christ com-
pared himself to the lily of the valleys: " I am the rose of Sharon,
and the lily of the valleys." This was to express his lowliness
his genuine humility. Although he had no sin of his own to make
him humble, yet he was humble in his own nature. He did not
vaunt himself did not seek the flattery of men. . Some do not
follow Christ in this. Some who seem really saved persons, yet
have this unlikeness to Christ. They are proud proud of being
saved, proud 'of grace, proud of being different from others.
(2.) Some do not follow Christ in his self-denial. He was rich,
yet for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might
be rich. While we were sinners, Christ died for us. He had not
where to lay his head. Yet many who seern to be Christians seek
their own comfort and ease before everything else. They do not
drink into Christ's Spirit in this. (3.) Some do not follow his love.
Christ was love. He descended out of love ; lay in the manger
out of love ; lived a life of sinless obedience out of love ; died out
of love. Yet some who are Christians do not follow him in this ;
do not love as he loved. Some have little compassion upon sin
ners ; can sit at ease in their own houses, and see a world perish
for lack of knowledge. How few will do anything out of love !
2 Many Christians have a time of decay.
(1.) So it was with Ephesus. At one time they were " blessed
with spiritual blessings"- " chosen to be holy and without blame
before him in love." They were followers of God, as dear chil-
dren, and walked in love, as Chr'.st loved them. But a time oi
SERMON LXXX. 467
decay followed, and Christ says : " I have this against thee, that
thou hast left thy first love." They were not like Caleb : they
did not follow the Lord fully. (2.) So it was with David. When
he fell into gross and open sin, his whole soul seemed to decay for
a time, all his bones seemed to be broken, and he feared that God
would take away the Spirit from him for ever. He did not fol-
low the Lord fully. (3.) So it was with. Solomon. When Solomon
began to reign, it seemed as if he would follow the Lord fully.
The Lord appeared to him in Gibeon, saying : " Ask what I shall
give thee." " God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding, ex-
ceeding much ; and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on
the sea-shore." And God enabled him to build the temple, and
blessed him in all things. Yet did Solomon suffer a sad decay :
" He loved many strange women. For it came to pass, when
Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other
gods, and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was
the heart of David his father." He did not follow the Lord fully.
(4.) So it was with Asa. " Asa did that which was good and right
in the sight of the Lord his God." 2 Chron. xiv. : By his faith he
overcame the Ethiopian army of a thousand thousand. He also
made a covenant, and all Judah rejoiced at the oath. Yet he suf-
fered a sad decay. For when the king of Israel came against
him, his faith failed him. And when he was old, he was diseased
in his feet ; nevertheless he sought not to the Lord, but to the
physicians. He did not follow the Lord fully. (">.) So it was
with the five virgins. They were wise, and took oil with them in
their vessels with their lamps ; yet while the bridegroom tarried
they all slumbered and slept. They suffered a sad decay. They
did not follow the Lord fully.
Ah ! this must not be the way with you, if you would be like
Caleb, and follow the Lord fully. You must follow him without
any inconsistency, and without any decay.
1. You must be like those that say: "lam the Lord's." "One
shall say, I am the Lord's." God says, " My son, give me
thine heart." Ye are bought with a price, ye are not your own.
If you would be a Caleb, you must give yourself away to him,
you must give away your understanding, will, and affections,
your body and all its members, your eyes and tongue, your hands
and feet : so that you are in no respect your own, but his alone.
Oh, it is sweet to give up yourself to God, to be filled with his
Spirit, to be ruled by his Word ; a little vessel full of him, a
vessel to bear his name, a vessel afore prepared unto glory ! This
is to follow the Lord fully.
2. You must be changed into the same image. " We all, with
open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are
changed into the same image, from glory to glory, rven as by the
Spirit of the Lord." 2 Cor. ii., 18. Our foolish hearts think it
better to retain some part of Satan's image, but, ;th ' this is our
468 SERMON LXXX.
happiness, to reflect every feature of Jesus, and that for ever, to
have no inconsistency, to be like him in every part ; to love like
him, to weep like him, to pray like him, to be changed into his
likeness : " I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness."
3. You must have his whole law written in your hearts. " I will
put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts."
This is yoi::* chief happiness, to let every commandment have its
proper place in your heart, to have it graven deep there, so that
it cannot be effaced. This is to follow the Lord fully.
III. To follow Christ at all hazards.
So it was with Caleb. The congregation bade stone him with
stones ; still he did not care, he would do his duty, whatever evil
should befall him. He followed the Lord fully. Ah ! there are
many that follow Christ in the sunshine, that will not follow him
in the storm. When the winter comes, the swallows fly away.
There are many like the swallows. Many do not follow fully.
1. Reproach makes many stagger. As long as it is fashionable
to be religious, and a man's character is advanced by it, rather
than otherwise, then many follow Christ ; but when it becomes a
proverb and a byword, many are offended. Butterflies come out
when the sun is warm ; but a shower of rain makes them hide.
2. When men lose their worldly ease. When Paul and Barnabas
were going to Asia, they took John Mark along with them ; but
when the work appeared dangerous, he went back. Acts xv.,
37.
If we would follow the Lord fully, we must go through good
and bad report.
1. If we would follow Christ fully, we must bear his reproach :
" Let us go out to him without the camp, bearing his repi'oach."
We must bear the reproach even of our nearest friends : " He that
loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me ; and
he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of
me." We would fain go to heaven without reproach, but it
cannot be, if we go the narrow way, and follow Christ fully.
2. We must not think of ease if we follow Christ fully. Christ
trod a thorny path : he was crowned with thorns ; we must not
think to be crowned with roses. Paul says, "For whom have I
suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I
may win Christ."
3. We must be willing to lose our life : " Neither count I my
life dear unto myself;" "The time cometh, when whoso killeth you
shall think that fie doeth God service ;" " Whoso findeth his life
shall lose it ;" "Be faithful unto death ;" "They overcame him by
the blood of the Lamb, and they loved not their lives unto the
death."
Oh ! it is sweet to follow Christ fully, for then we shall reign
SERMON LXXX. 469
with him. If we suffer with him, we shall reign with him. If
we deny him,, he will deny us.
IV. How we may be enabled to follow the Lord fully.
1. By keeping the eye upon him. This was what enabled Caleb
to follow the Lord fully. He endured as seeing him who was
invisible ; he set the Lord always before him. If Caleb had been
seeking a name, or his own wealth, fame, or honor, he would not
have followed fully, he could not have followed all his days, nor
with all his heart, nor at all hazards.
If you would follow Christ fully, you must know him fully.
(1.) It is a sight of his beauty that draws us to follow him. " He
is the chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely." "And I,
if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." There is an inde-
scribable loveliness in Christ that draws the soul to follow him.
All divine perfections dwell in him, and yet he offers to save us.
(2.) His suitableness. He just answers the need of our soul.
We are all guilt, he is all righteousness. We all weakness, he
all strength. Nothing can more completely answer our- soul than
Christ doth. The chickens run under the feathers of their mother
when they see them stretched out, the dove flutters into the clefts,
Noah into the ark ; and our soul thus follows Jesus. (3.) His
freeness. " He will in no wise cast out." He forgives seventy
times seven. It is the keeping the eye on Christ that makes you
follow him. It is seeing the King in his beauty that makes the
soul cleave to him, and run after him. " My soul followeth hard
after thee." " Run the race set before you, looking unto Jesus."
2. By having the Holy Spirit, Caleb had another spirit. The
other spies were carnal men ; but Caleb had another spirit, he had
the Holy Spirit dwelling in him, leading him, upholding and re-
newing him. So with all who follow the Lord fully. (1.) The
Spirit of God in the soul is a constant stream, a well of water
springing up unto everlasting life. Lot's wife looked back ; but
she had not the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. (2.) The Spirit is
a filling Spirit, he loves to fill the heart, to fill every chamber.
" Be filled with the Spirit." " Now the God of hope fill you."
He loves to write the whole law on the heart, to lift the whole
loul to God.
V. The motives to follow to the Lord fully.
" Him will I bring into the land." The other spies died of the
plague, the people fell in the wilderness; but Caleb and Joshua,
because they followed the Lord fully, were received into the land.
1. It is the only happy life. There is no happier life under the
sun than to follow Christ all our days. There is not a more mise-
rable creature on earth than a backslider Every time we turn
aside from following Christ, we are providing misery for ourselves ;
hidings, desertions, and broken bones. The only happy life is to
470 m SERMON LXXXI.
follow with all our heart. We generally think it is happy to have
this cr that idol, but we are quite mistaken. Your true happiness
ig in self-surrender, in giving up your heart and all to him. Any
one inconsistency mars your joys, mars communion. Are you not
tar happier in your times of closest walking with God ? O that it
were so with me always ! Decays bring darkness and m sery.
The only happiness is to suffer the loss of all things. Many
Christians are not willing to deny themselves, to suffer for Christ's
sake, not willing to bear reproach or persecution. ( hrist will
give a hundred fold more ; peace of conscience.
2. This is the way to be useful. It is the thriving Christian that
is the useful Christian, the one that follows Christ fully. The
blessing to Abraham was : " I will bless thee, and make thee a
blessing." This was eminently true of Paul. He followed Christ
fully ; and what a blessing he was ! So would you be, if you fol-
lowed Christ fully. If you bore all the features of Christ about
with you, what a blessing would you be to the place and to the
world ! not a cumberer of the ground. How useful to your chil-
dren and neighbors !
3. This is the way to die happily. If you die the death of Christ's
people, you must live their life. Inconsistent Christians generally
have a painful death-bed ; but those that follow Christ fully can
die like aged Paul, " I am ready to be offered ;" like Job, " I know
that my Redeemer liveth."
4. This will insure a great reward. Every man shall be re-
warded according as his work has been. Some will be made
rulers over five, some over ten cities. I have no doubt that every
sin, inconsistency, backsliding, and decay of God's children, takes
away something from their eternal glory. It is a loss for all eter-
nity ; and the more fully and unreservedly we follow the Lord
Jesus now, the more abundant will our entrance be into his ever-
lasting kingdom. The closer we walk with Christ now, the closer
will we walk with him to all eternity. " Thou hast a tew names
in Sardis which have not defiled their garments. They shall walk
with me in white, for they are worthy." Amen.
Dundee, 1842.
SERMON LXXXI.
THE UNWORTHY COMMUNICANT WARNED.
" For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation tc
himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and
sickly among you, and many sleep." 1 Cor. xi., 29, 30.
WHEN it pleased God lately to pour out his Spirit in a remarkable
SERMON LXXXI. 471
manner on one of the parishes of Scotland, I was told by the
minister that the sin that took deepest hold upon the consciences
of the people, was the sin of unworthy communicating. He told
me it was a most affecting sight, to see aged persons of threescore
and ten sitting weeping over the broken sacraments of bygone
years. If it shall please God to pour out his Spirit on the grown-
up part of this congregation, I feel deeply persuaded that this
dreadful sin of unworthy communicating will be like a mill-stone
around most of your necks. Yes, my dear friends, God has a
controversy with you about this matter, and he will either plead
with you in time or in eternity.
1. There is such a thing as eating and drinking unworthily.
Even iu the days of the Apostle Paul this sin existed ; and so it
does in our day. There are many at the Lord's table who should
not be there. There are many who come without the wedding
garment ; many who displease and provoke God by coming ;
many who will repent it to all eternity.
2. They get no good by it, but great evil. They eat and drink
damnation to themselves. They think they are eating harmless
bread and wine ; or perhaps they think they are covering the sins
of the past six months by eating ; whereas God says they are eat-
ing and drinking damnation to themselves. It is as if they were
eating poison.
3. He explains wherein their unworthiness consists : They do
not discern the Lord's body. The phrase here used is evidently
taken from the sense of taste in the human body, whereby we dis-
cern between different kinds of food. To discern the Lord's body,
is to have a peculiar taste or relish for the way of salvation by
Christ and him crucified. When a heavy laden sinner feels the
power of the Gospel ; when he sees the sweetness, freeness, and
fulness of Christ, he then tastes or discerns the Lord's body.
But those who have not come to Christ, have never got this t;iste,
this relish for the way of salvation by Christ. They may be very
decent, good-natured people ; they may read the Bible, and keep
up a form of godliness ; but they have never tasted the honey
in the clefts of the Rock. These are they who profane the Lord's
table.
I. None should come to the Lord's supper but those who* discern
the Lord's body : i. e., have a true relish for Christ.
1. From the actions of the communicant. You do not come
to look at the bread and wine, but to feed upon them. You
stretch out the hand, and take of the bread and eat it ; you take
the wine and drink it. Now, since that bread and wine represent
the Lord's body, it is plain to a child, that the meaning of that
action is : "I relish the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my manna, my
sweet food, my only way of pardon, peace and holiness, my Lord
and my God." When a hungry beggar comes to your door, and
472 SERMON LXXXI.
you give him a piece of wholesome bread, how gladly does he
catch at it, and begin to eat it ! Why ? Because he relishes
it ; it is what he requires. Such is your feeding at the Lord's
table. You thereby declare that Christ is your Saviour, your
manna, your all. When the man found the treasure in the field,
he was glad, and went and sold all that he had and bought that
field. Such is your declaration in coming to the Lord's table ;
Christ is precious to me ; I have left all for him. The bride in
the Song of Solomon says : " As the apple tree among the trees
of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down
under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to
my taste." So do you say in coming to the Lord's table : I
have found rest in the shade of Christ ; his fruit is sweet to
me ; his way of pardon, his Spirit, his commands all are sweet
to my taste. When the maniac had the devils cast out, he sat
at the feet of Jesus clothed, and in his right mind. Once he bade
Jrsus depart: "What have I to do with thee ?" Now Christ is
all. Such is your declaration at the Lord's table. When Paul
was an unconverted man, he was a blasphemer he breathed out
threatenings ; but when he got a taste of Jesus, he said : " I
count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge oi
Christ Jesus my Lord." Such is your declaration in taking that
bread and wine.
Can you truly say that you have found the treasure, that you
have sold all for it, that you have sat down under the shade of that
apple tree, and that you delight in his holy fruit ; that you were
once far from Christ, but now sitting at his feet ; that you now
preach the faith which once you destroyed ; that, like Paul, you
glory only in the cross of Christ ? Can you say, in the sight of
God, that Christ is your manna, your sweet food, your peace, your
all ? Then you are welcome to the Lord's table. Eat, O friends ;
drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.
Most of you cannot say this. You have not found the treasure.
Will you come to the Lord's table? To what purpose? You
will eat and drink unworthily. It will provoke God in a dreadful
manner. You will repent it when you die. You will grieve on
account of it to all eternity. Some even perpetrate in half an
hour what they will mourn for ever and ever. Judas, in eternal
torments, bewails his sin and folly. So will you.
2. From the words of Jesus : " This do in remembrance of me."
An unconverted man cannot remember Christ ; for he hath never
seen him, neither known him. A man who never tasted honey,
cannot remember the taste of it ; so a man who never had a saving
taste of the sweetness of the Lord Jesus, cannot possibly remem-
ber him. Indeed, there is a kind of remembrance of Christ that
any man may have. You may remember the events of his life;
that he was born in a stable ; that he walked on the Lake of Gali-
lee ; that he wept over Jerusalem ; that le prayed in Gethsemane .
SERMON LXXXI. 473
that he died on the cross in Calvary ; but even the devils can
remember Christ in this way. They remember all his historv
much more perfectly than we do. Satan has more knowledge o*i
divine things than many doctors of divinity. And lost souis in
eternal misery remember Jesus ; they remember all he did, and
all he suffered, and how often he would have saved them. Judas,
in his place in hell, remembers Jesus. But, ah ! this is not the
saving remembrance of Jesus which we have at the Lord's table.
When a laboring, heavy laden sinner is brought to the feet of
Jesus, he finds a joy and peace in believing he never felt before,
He gets a discovery of the love of Christ that he never had before ;
the love of Jesus in coming for the ungodly, and dying for them :
the freeness of Christ to every creature ; to sinners, even the chief;
to publicans and sinners coming to him ; the wisdom and excel-
lency of this way of salvation ; the amazing glory and perfection
of the righteousness of God. When the Spirit thus takes the veil
from the eyes, he gets a sight of Christ which he never will, and
never can forget. This is the spiritual relish and discerning of
the Lord's body. Every new exhibition of Jesus calls up again
this sweet sense of his goodness and beauty. He cannot hear his
name but his heart is caught away to him. His name is like oint-
ment. When ministers preach his Word, the memory rushes
back to Jesus ; and when the broken bread and wine are set
before his eyes, his heart is drawn away to remember Jesus. As
when the widows stood by Peter weeping, showing the coats and
garments that Dorcas had made, every new piece of handiwork
of their departed friend called up fresh love in their bosom, and
fresh tears to their eyes. So to those that know Jesus, the broken
bread and poured-out wine stir up their inmost souls to remember
Jesus.
Have you this sanctified memory ? Do you remember when
the name of Christ was all a blank to you ? and is it now like oint-
ment poured forth ? Do you remember when first you saw the
Lord, or if not the very time, do you feel the amazing change that
has been wrought in you ? Then welcome ; " This do in remem-
brance of me."
But most, I fear, have no such memory. You have no gracious
discovery of Christ to remember. You have never discerned the
Lord's body. You say you will remember his life and death.
Why, devils could do that. Would it not shock you to see devils
seated at the Lord's table ? and yet they have as much right to sit
there as unconverted souls.
3. From the practice of the apostles. One example: The Ethi-
opian eunuch was "a man of great authority under Candace,
queen of the Ethiopians, and had the charge of all her treasure."
Acts viii., 27. By the amazing grace of God this man be^arr^
concerned about his soul : a Bible had come in hi? vw v**n na
474 SERMON LXXXI.
haps some wandering messenger of mercy. He could not rest,
but left his country to go to Jerusalem. There he found no peace,
no light. Sad and weary he proceeded on his journey home.
Still his heart was heavy ; he sat reading Isaiah the prophet. By
the mercy of God, Philip was sent to him, and in his chariot
preached to him Jesus, the Lamb of God. O what a new world
now opened to the Ethiopian ! He sees the way of righteousness
without works. Now they come to water : " What doth hinder
me to be baptized ? If thou believest with all thine heart thou
mayest. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. So they went
down into the water, and Philip baptized him ; and he went on his
way rejoicing." Is this your experience, beloved? Have you
sought Christ as he did ? Have you found him as he did ? Do
you believe with all your heart ? Then the Lord's table is open
to you, and you will go on your way rejoicing.
But, ah ! it is not so with most. If some of you had been
keeper of Candace's treasures, you would not have gone the
length of the street to find the way to be saved. Some of you
never read your Bible as that Ethiopian did never sought in-
struction. You dare not say that you have believed with all
your heart. Why, then, would you sit down at this holy table ?
You may come : but, alas ! you will not go on your way re-
joicing.
II. It is very dangerous.
1. They are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. There is
no sin less thought of on earth there is no sin more thought of in
heaven and in hell, than unworthy communicating. Those who
commit it are sharing with those who betrayed and murdered the
Lord Jesus. They share with them in two respects. (1.) In
pretending love and friendship towards him ; (2.) In real hatred to
him in their hearts, and contempt for his Gospel. When Judas
betrayed the Lord Jesus, he pretended great love for him. He had
followed him during all the years of his ministry had preached
in his name. He sat very reverently at the Lord's table ; dipped
his hand in the same dish with Christ. His words were smoother
than butter ; but war was in his heart. When he came to betray
Christ he said : " Hail, Master !" and kissed him ; yet all the
while there was awful hatred in his heart a deadly enmity at
Christ and his Gospel.
So the high priests and Pharisees pretended great zeal for God
and for his cause : they pretended to be very sanctified and holy
men ; and yet they hated and condemned Christ to die. The
soldiers of Herod pretended great respect to Christ, when they
kneeled to him and said : " Hail, King of the Jews !" but all the
time they mocked and hated him. Pilate pretended much to be a
friend of Christ : he washed his hands, and said : " I am guiltless
SERMON LXXXI. 475
of this innocent blood ;" and yet he condemned him to be
crucified.
So it is with unworthy communicants. You come to the Lord's
table with a great show of respect. You appear deeply solem-
nized. You take the bread and wine, pretending that you have
been converted : that Christ is your portion. You appear to be
under deep emotion. Yet all the while you despise Christ and
his people ridicule conversion, and the life of grace. " Woe'
unto that man ! it had been good for him that he had never been
born."
You have the same heart- as Judas, as the high priest, as the
soldiers, as Pilate. You are guilty.
2. Eat and drink judgment. This is true in two ways. (1.) It
is adding another sin, heaping another mountain on the burdened
soul, and so bringing heavier condemnation sinking the soul
deeper. (2.) It is always hardening ; all sin hardens, but especi-
ally sinning in holy things. One who makes jests out of the
Bible is hardly ever saved, it is so hardening. But of all sins
against holy things, unworthy communicating is the most harden-
ing ; so that an unconverted man communicating does often lite-
rally eat and drink damnation to himself. Just as a child of God
drinks life, so he drinks death, out of that cup.
Some of you may be saying : Though I be unconverted, I will
go ; for though it do me no good, it will do me no harm. Is it no
harm to add another sin to your soul ? Is it no harm to harden
and seal your heart unto perdition ? Is it no harm to eat and
drink judgment to yourself?
Some *nay be saying : I hope I shall cover the sins of my past
six months by it. Some of you, who have only been once or
twice at church all that time, will be saying: I will make up for
past neglect, and cover my sins. Will it cover your past sins, to
add another to the heap ? Will it atone for your broken Sabbaths,
to come and profane the sacrament too ? Will it cover sins to
eat and drink judgment?
3. Many weak and sickly, and many sleep. There are some
sins which God visits with temporal judgments, as weakness of
body, sickness, and death. When Ananias and Sapphira lied to
the Holy Ghost, they fell down dead at the apostles' feet. When
Herod gave not God the glory, he was eaten up of worms, and
died upon his throne. So it is especially in profaning the Lord's
table. This is God's word, who knows best ; " For this cause
many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." The
Lord Jesus, the master of the table, has all providences in his hand,
and he can, and does, make use of them to bring down those who
insolently profane his table. Just as God has provided a real hell
of material fire that never will be quenched, in order to affect some
gross sinners, who would not be moved to flee from anything but
bodily pain ; so in the Lord's supper it pleases God to make use uj
476 SERMON LXXXJI.
sickness and death to keep off profane hands from that bread and
wine. I have often observed God doing this. 1 remember three
deaths which took place in such a way and at such a time, that 1
could not doubt it was the fulfilment of this verse. Watch and
see, beloved !
Take heed, then, O beloved, lest when the bread is in your mouth
you should fall down dead. Ah ! it is an awful thing to die pro-
faning the Lord's table ; for you will sink lower than the grave.
" Therefore, let a man examine himself." What are your reai
motives for coming to the Lord's table ? Is it because you are
come to a certain time of life ? But are you born again ? Is il
because your family are coming ? Is it for a name ? Is it foi
money ? Ah ! Judas over again. Is it to get baptism for your
child ? That is to commit one sin to help you to commit another.
Is it to praise him for what he has done for your soul ? Ps.
cxvi. Is it to show the world whom you have chosen ? Is it to
get nearer to Jesus ? Come, then, and lean on his breast, and
never draw back. Amen.
Dundee, 1841.
SERMON LXXXII.
MORE BLESSED TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE.
" It is more blessed to give than to receive." Acts xx., 35.
THESE words form part of a most touching address which Paul
made to the ministers of Ephesus, when he parted with them
for the last time. He took them all to witness that he was pure
from the blood of all men : " For I have not shunned to declare
unto you all the counsel of God." It is deeply interesting to notice
that the duty of giving to the poor is marked by him as one part
of the counsel of God ; so much so, that he makes it his last word
to them : " I have showed you all things, how that so laboring ye
ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the
Lord Jesus; how he said, It is more blessed to give than to re-
ceive." These words, which he quotes from the mouth of the
Saviour, are nowhere to be found in the Gospels. It is the only
traditional saying of our Lord that has been preserved. It seems
to have been one of his household words a common-place
uttered by him again and again ; " It is more blessed to give than
to receive."
I am glad of having this opportunity of laying before you this
part of the counsel of God ; for God knows there is no part of it
I wish to keep back from you that you ought to labor to sup-
SERMON LXXXII. 477
port the weak ; and the only argument I shall use with you is that
of our blessed Lord : " It is more blessed to give than to receive."
I. We should give liberally to the poor, because it is a haj)pier
thing to give than to receive.
It is happy, because it is like all happy beings. All happy be-
ings are giving beings ; their happiness consists not in receiving,
but in giving.
]. Angels. The whole Bible shows that the angels are happy
beings ; far happier than we can conceive. (1.) They are holy
beings ever doing God's commandments. Now, holiness and
happiness are inseparable. (2.) They are in heaven always in
the smile of their Father. They " do always behold the face of
my Father which is in heaven ;" they must be happy no tear
on their cheek, no sigh in their bosom. (3.) They are represented
as praising God one crying to another, " Holy, holy, holy," and
singing, * Worthy is the Lamb." Now, singing praises is a sign
of mirth and gladness. " Is any merry ? let him sing psalms."
Now, I want you to see that the happiness of these happy spirits
consists in giving. 1st, they all give : " Are they not all minister-
ing spirits, sent forth to minister to them that shall be heirs of
salvation ?" Upon the earth very few people give ; most people
like to receive money ; to keep it, to lay it up in the bank, to see
it becoming more and more. There are only a few people that
give these often not the richest; but in heaven all give. It is
their greatest pleasure. Search every dwelling of every angel
you will not find one hoard among them all. They are all minis-
tering spirits.
2rf, They give to those who are far beneath them. They are not
contented to help those that can help them back again, but they
give, hoping for nothing again. There were some poor shepherds
in the fields near Bethlehem ; yet a great angel did not hesitate to
visit them with kind and gentle words ; nay, it would seem that
there were many more that would fain have been allowed to
carry the message ; for no sooner was it done than a multitude of
the heavenly host were with him praising God. You remember,
too, how kind the angels were to the beggar Lazarus. The dogs
were the only ones that ministered to him on earth; but the angels
stooped on willing wing, and bore him to Abraham's bosom.
3d, The highest love to give most. There is reason to believe
that the highest angels are those who go down lowest, and give
up most in the service of God. Jesus expressly says so : " He
hat is greatest among you shall be your servant." The angela
Ihat see the face of God, stoop to serve the meanest children of
God. It is the happiness of the happiest angel that he can give
up more, and stoop lower down in sweet, humble services, than
the angels beneath him.
Dear Christians, you often pray, "Thy will be done on earth a
478 SERMON LXXXII.
it is in heaven. 1 " If you mean anything, you mean that you may
serve God as the angels do ! Ah, then, your happiness must be
in giving. The happiness of the angels consists in this. If you
would be like them, become a ministering spirit.
2. God. We know very little of God ; but we know that h
is infinitely happy. You cannot add to his happiness, nor take
from it. We know also many things that enter into his happiness.
Everything he does must afford him happiness. As when he cre-
ated the world, and said, " All very good ;" God was happy in
creating. But the Bible shows that his happiness mainly consists
in giving, not in receiving. (1.) His giving food to all creatures
is very wonderful not one sparrow is forgotten before God.
The whole world has been cursed, and God could justly cast the
whole into destruction ; but he does not, he delighteth in mercy.
The young lions seek their meat from God. He feeds the ravens
when they cry. (2.) He gives to the wicked : " He maketh his
sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the
just and unjust." Just think for a moment how many thousands
God feeds every day who blaspheme -his name, and profane his
Sabbaths. He gives them food and raiment ; turns the hearts of
.people to be kind to them ; and yet they curse God every day.
Oh ! how this shows that God delighteth in mercy. "Be ye mer-
ciful, even as your Father in heaven is merciful.'' (3.) But, most
of all, he gave his own Son. God delights in giving. Jt is his
nature. He spared not his own Son. Although he was empty-
ing his own bosom, yet he would not keep back the gift. Now,
some of you pray night and day to be made like God : " Blessed
art thou, O God : teach me thy statutes." If you will be like him,
be like him in giving. It is God's chief happiness, be you like him
in it.
Obj. Would you have me give to wicked people, who will go
and abuse it 1 Ans. God gives to wicked people, who go and
abuse it ; yet that does not diminish his happiness. God makes
the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and pours down rain
on the just and on the unjust. It is right to give most and best to
the children of God ; but give to the wicked also, if you would
be like God. Give to the unthankful ; give to the vile : " Give to
him that asketh of thee ; and from him that would borrow of thee
turn not thou away, remembering the word of the Lord Jesus."
3. Christ. He was the eternal Son of God, equal with the Fa
ther in everything, therefore equal in happiness. He had glory
with him before ever the world was. Yet his happiness also con-
sisted in giving. He was far above all the angels, arid therefore
he gave far more than them all ; " The Son of Man came not to
be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom
for many." He was highest, therefore he stooped lowest. They
gave their willing services, he gave himself; "Ye know the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for cut
SERMON LXXXI1. 47y
sakcs he became poor, that we, through his poverty, might be
made rich. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ."
Now, dear Christians, some of you pray night and day to be
branches of the true Vine ; you pray to be made all over in
the image of Christ. If so, you must be like him in giving.
A branch bears the same kind of fruit as the tree. If you be
branches at all, you must bear the same fruit. An old divine says
well : " What would have become of us if Christ had been as
saving of his blood as some men are of their monev?"
Ohj. 1. My money is my own. Ana. Christ might have said,
My blood is my own, my life is my own ; no man forceth it from
me : then where should we have been ?
Obj. 2. The poor are undeserving. Arts. Christ might have
said the same thing. They are wicked rebels against my Father's
law : shall I lay down my life for these ? I will give to the good
angels. But no, he left the ninety-nine, and came after the lost.
He gave his blood for the undeserving.
Obj. 3. The poor may abuse it. Ans. Christ might have said
the same ; yea, with far greater truth. Christ knew that thou-
sands would trample his blood under their feet ; that most would
despise it ; that many would make it an excuse for sinning more ;
yet he gave his own blood.
Oh, my dear Christians ! if you would be like Christ, give much,
give often, give freely, to the vile and the poor, the thankless and
the undeserving. Christ is glorious and happy, and so will you
be. It is not your money I want, but your 'happiness. Remem-
ber his own word : " It is more blessed to give than to receive."
II. // is happier, because of the peculiar character of a Christian.
1. A Christian is a steward. In every great house there is a
steward, whose duty it is to manage his master's goods in such a
way that every one may have his portion of meat in due season.
Now you will see at once that the happiness of the steward does
not consist in the receiving of more goods, but in the due distribu-
tion of what he has got. If there be any grieve or foreman hear-
ing me, you will know quite well that your happiness consists not
in the quantity of your master's goods which goes through your
hands, but in the right distribution of it. The happiness of every
steward consists in giving, not in receiving.
Now, dear Christians, you are only stewards of all you possess.
You have not one halfpenny of your own. " Occupy till I come,"
is written upon everything. The reckoning-day is near ; O that
you would be wise stewards ! You would be far happier. It is
the devil that persuades you that it is better to hoard and lay up for
yourself and your children. It is far happier to be an honest
steward.
Obj. I am in very poor circumstances Ans. Still you are a
480 SERMON LXXXII
steward. Use what you have as a steward for Christ, and you
will do well. He that used his two talents did not lose his reward.
2. Christians are members one of another. When we are united
to Christ, we are united to all the brethren. It is a closer relation
than any other, for it outlasts every other. The wife of your
bosom will one day be separated from you. Father and child,
sister and brother, may be separated eternally ; but not so Chris-
tian and Christian, they are for ever and forever, branches of the
same tree for eternity, stones of the same temple for ever. Now
it must be the happiness of one member to help another. (1.) In
the body, when one limb is hurt or is weakly, the others help it.
It is their happiness to do so. When the left hand is wounded, the
right hand will do everything for it, it supplies all its need. (2.)
So it is in Christ's body. It is the happiness of one member to
help another. It is just like helping one's self; yea, it is like help-
ing Christ. If Christ were to come to your door poor, and clothed
in rags, and shivering with cold, would you feel it an unhappy
thing to supply all his need ? Oh, then, you may do this when-
ever you see a poor Christian : " Inasmuch as ye do it to the least
of these my brethren, ye do it unto me." Woe is me ! how many
of you turn Christ away from your door, with a rude and angry
countenance. Are you not ashamed to call yourself a Christian ?
Again : if Christ lived in some poor dwelling, with not enough
of fire to keep away the cold, wuthnot enough of clothes to make
the bed warm, would you not seek him out? would you stay till
he sought you ? Ah, woe is me ! in how many dwellings does
Christ dwell thus ? and yet, there are Christians hearing me that
never have sought him out. Change your plan, I pray you. " It
is more blessed to give than to receive."
III. Because Christians will be no losers.
1. They shall be no losers in this world by what they give away :
" There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth : there is that with-
holdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to penury." I am going
to say now what the world will scoff at ; but all that I ask of you
is, to be like the Bereans. Search the Scriptures, and see if these
things be not so. The whole Bible shows, then, that the best way
to have plenty in this world is to give liberally. (1.) " Cast thy
bread upon the waters, and thou shalt find it after many days."
This refers to the sowing of rice. The rice in the East is always
sown when the fields are flooded with water. The bread-corn is
actually cast upon the water. After many days the waters dry up,
and a rich crop of waving rice covers the plain. So it is in giv-
ing liberally to the poor out of love to Jesus. It is like throwing
away your money, it is like casting seed upon the waters ; yet
fear not, you shall find a crop after many days, you shall have a
return for your money in this world.
A word to Christians in humble life. You say, If 1 were a
SERMON LXXXII. 481
rich Christian, how happy would I be to give ! but I am so poor,
what can I give ? Now, I just ask you to look at the man sowing
seed. When he has but little, does he keep back from sowing
that little ? No ; he sows all the more anxiously the little he has
in order to make more. Do you the same.
How little you believe God ! He says : " Hs that givcth to
the poor, lendeth to the Lord." Now, I believe there is not one
in a hundred who would not rather lend to a rich man than lend
to the Lord. You believe man not God. In fact, it is but the
other day I heard of a child of God who was in very reduced cir
cumstances, her husband being blind, yet who contrived not only
to live, but to give to others also. She wrought with her own
hands, that she might have to give. She gave largely to the poor,
largely also to missions abroad. This was sowing the seed, all
the seed she had, for she had no hoard. And did the crop fail ?
No : it appeared in India, a distant relative died, leaving 20,000
to her alone. God is able to do this every day. " God is able to
make all grace abound towards you, that ye always having all-
sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work."
How easily God can give you, by the smallest turn of his pro-
vidence, more than all you give away in a year ! O trust the
Lord ! But the wicked cannot trust God. The world is an Infidel
at heart.
Some will say : I will begin to-night ; I will put your word to
the test ; I will give double what 1 ever gave, and see if I will
get a return. Ans. No such thing; keep your money, I advise
you. If you give, hoping for something again, you will get
nothing. You must give as a Christian gives cheerfully, liberally,
andfreely, hoping for nothing again ; and then God will give you
back good measure, pressed down : " Give, and it shall be given
to you." He that giveth to the poor shall have no lack.
2. Christians will be no losers in eternity. The whole Bible
shows that Christians will be rewarded in eternity just in propor-
tion to the way they have made use of their talents. Now, money
is one talent. If you use it right you will in no wise lose your
reward. Christ plainly shows that he will reckon with men in the
judgment according as they have dealt by his poor Christians.
They that have done much for Christ shall have an abundant en-
trance; they that have done little shall have little reward.
I thank God that there are some among you to whom Christ
will say : " Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world " Go on, dear
Christians, live still for Christ. Never forget, day nor night, that
you are yourselves bought with a price. Lay yourselves and
your property all in his hand, and say : " What wilt thou have
me to do ? Here am I, send me ;*' and then I know you will
feel, now and in eternity, " It is more blessed to give than to
receive."
482 SERMON LXXXII1.
I fear there are somo Christians among you to whom Christ
can say no such thing. Your haughty dwelling rises in the midst
of thousands who have scarce a fire to warm themselves at, and
have but little clothing to keep out the biting frost ; and yet you
never darkened their door. You heave a sigh, perhaps, at a dis-
tance ; but you do not visit them. Ah ! my dear friends ! I am
concerned for the poor ; but more for you. I know not what
Christ will say to you in the great day. You seem to be Chris-
tians, and yet you care not for his poor. Oh, what a change will
pass upon you as you enter the gates of heaven ! You will be
saved, but that will be all. There will be no abundant en-
trance for you : " He that soweth sparingly shall reap also spar-
ingly."
I fear there are many hearing me who may know well that they
are not Christians, because they do not love to give. To give
largely and liberally, not grudging at all, requires a new heart ;
an old heart would rather part with its life-blood than its money.
Oh, my friends ! enjoy your money ; make the most of it ; give
none away ; enjoy it quicklv ; for I can tell you, you will be beg-
gars throughout eternity.
Dundee, February 4, 1838
SERMON LXXXIII.
CHRIST'S SILENCE UNDER SUFFERING.
' He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth : he is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he open-
eth not his mouth." Isa. liii., 7.
WHEN the Jewish priests used to lead the tender, fleecy lamb to be
slain in the temple, it did not struggle, it did not complain. So
when the shearer is ^clipping the snowy fleece from the sheep, it
does not struggle, it does not complain. Even so when God gave
his own Son up to the death for us all, he did not struggle, he did
not complain. When that gentle Lamb of God was led to the
slaughter, he murmured not. When the four soldiers parted his
raiment among them, and for his vesture cast lots ; when these
cruel shearers robbed the Sheep of his snowy fleece, he was dumb,
he opened not his mouth.
When he was oppressed and afflicted by man, he answered not
a word. He was oppressed and afflicted by God he murmured
not. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. He put him to grief.
He was stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Yet he spoke
not. He did not turn round and say : Righteous Father, this is
SERMON LXXXII1. 483
unjust. Why should I suffer for sins I did not do ? Lord, thou
knowest that I am without spot and blameless ; thou knowest
that I knew no sin, neither was guile found in my mouth. He
was oppressed and afflicted both by God and by man, yet he
opened not his mouth. " He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his
mouth."
Do&rine. Christ was silent under his sufferings.
1st, The fact that Christ was really silent under his sufferings ;
2d, Why he was silent ; and, 3d, How this is showed forth in the
Lord's supper.
I. The fact that Christ was silent under his sufferings.
1. He was silent before man. He was oppressed and afflicted
by the wicked hands of men ; and yet he did not justify himself
before man. (1.) This is true when he was taken prisoner. Jesus
was in the garden of Gethsemane, and it was night, when a mul-
titude came upon him with lanterns and torches, and swords and
staves. Did Jesus flee away ? No. Did he make resistance ?
No. His disciples said : " Shall we smite with the sword ?" and
Peter actually used the sword ; but Jesus forbade them. He could
have called down twelve legions of angels. He could have taken
away their breath, that they should die. But no ; he said, " Thig
is your hour and the power of darkness." " The cup which my
Father hath given me, shall I not drink it ?" ' He was led as a
lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb,
so he opened not his mouth."
(2.) This is true in his trial before Caiaphas. They had bound
Jesus in the garden, and led him away to the Palace of Caiaphas,
the high priest. Chief priests, and elders, and scribes, there sat
in mock trial upon the Lamb of God. Many false tongues bare
false witness against him. Did he answer them ? No. He an-
swered not a word. And the high priest stood up in the midst
and said : " Answerest thou nothing ?" but he held his peace, and
answered nothing. He was led like a lamb; led to the slaughter,
" and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his
mouth."
(3.) True in his trial before Pilate. 1st, From Caiaphas they
led him away to the Roman governor, Pilate : " And there the
chief priests stood and accused him of many things ; but he an-
swered nothing. And Pilate asked him, Answerest thou nothing?
But Jesus yet answered nothing, so that Pilate marvelled greatly."
Ah ! the blind Roman did not know that he was the Lamb of God,
bearing the sins of many. 2d, Again, Pilate sent him to Herod.
Herod questioned him ; the Jews vehemently accused him ; He-
rod's men of war made a mock of him ; yet it is written: " He
answered him nothing ;" he was still the silent Lamb. 3d, Again,
484 SERMON LXXXIII.
when Herod sent him back to Pilate, then Pilate sat down on the
tribunal of justice, he declared, "I have found no fault in him."
" He washed his hands, and said, I am innocent of the blood ol
this just person." And yet he passed sentence on him that he
should be crucified. Did Jesus cry, Unjust? Did he cry, I stand
at Csesar's judgment-seat, I appeal unto Caesar ? No. " He was
led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers
is dumb, so he opened not his mouth."
Again, upon the cross he was oppressed and afflicted of man.
The passers by wagged the head at him. and said : "Come down
from the cross." The priests, too, mocked him, as an outcast from
God. The very thieves cast the same in his teeth, for three dark
hours. Did he complain? No. He felt it to be true that he was
an outcast from his God. He answered not a word. " He was
led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers
is dumb, so he opened not his mouth."
2. But Christ mas silent before God under his sufferings. (1.)
You remember him in the garden ; you remember how he was
bruised there, when " his sweat was as great drops of blood filling
down to the ground." There God set down the cup of his wrath
before him, to show him what he was going to drink. He might
have said : This is no cup of mine ; let them drink it that filled it
by their sins. But no; he only cries that it may pass from him :
" O my Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me." Prayer
is the cry of one who feels no right to demand. If he had seen it
to be unjust to give him such a cup, he would have said : Right-
eous Father, this is not for me to drink. Shall not the Judge of
all the earth do right ? But no ; he acknowledges it to be just, if
the Father wills it. The second time he prays, he says : " If this
cup may not pass from me, except I drink it, thy will be done."
He acquiesces in. the justice of God in giving him such a cup to
drink. He is the Lamb of God. " He was led as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he
opened not his mouth."
(2.) You remember him on the cross. There God hid his face
from him. For three hours did the sun refuse to shine upon that
cross darkness brooded over the land. But deeper was the
darkness brooding over the Redeemer's soul. God's face refused
to shine upon his Son. Yet did he say it was unjust ? No. He
said : " Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they do."
He said : " To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." At the
ninth hour he cried : " Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani " words not
of murmuring, but of agony. Again he said : " I thirst." And
again he cried : " It is finished. Father, into thy hands I commend
my spirit." These are all the words that Jesus spake upon the
cross. He did not cry : Why am I here I am the Lord of glory ?
Why should I hang between earth and heaven ? Righteous Father,
I never sinned 1 was always holy, harmless, undefiled ; why
SERMON LXXXIII. 485
should I suffer thus ? But no ; he was silent under his sufferings,
both from God and man. " He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his
mouth."
II. Inquire the reasons why Christ was silent under his suffer-
ings.
1. Because he knew his sufferings were all infinitely just. When
a person isoindergoing a trial ; when he is accused, borne witness
against, aiur condemned if he be really guilty of the crimes laid
to his charge, he is dumb, and says : I deserve it all. If he has
any sense of justice left in his bosom, he will be convinced and
conscience-stricken he will answer not a word ; he feels that his
condemnation is just and righteous, and therefore he is dumb.
Just so it was with Christ. Christ had an infinite sense of justice ;
therefore, both in his accusations by men and bruisings under the
wrath of God, he answered not a word. He was a silent Lamb.
Ques. How was it just that Christ should suffer, when he had not
committed the things laid to his charge ? Ans. True, he was holy.
He was the Son of God infinitely holy. When he became man,
still he was a " holy thing ;" through life he was holy, harmless,
undefiled, and separate from sinners ; and in his death he was a
Lamb without spot and blameless. But still he was a substitute
in the room of sinners. " He who knew no sin was made sin for
us." He that was the Son of the Blessed became a curse for us.
The reproaches of them that reproached us fell upon him. He
stood in the place of blasphemers, and gluttons, and wine-bibbers,
and deceivers, and thieves, and murderers, and outcasts from
God ; therefore it was quite just that the sufferings due to these
sinners should fall upon him ; and so. when he was accused and
condemned, he opened not his mouth : " He was led as a lamb to
the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he
opened not his mouth." Have you joined yourself to Christ?
Then there is strong consolation for you. If it was just that Christ
should suffer, then it is not just that you should suffer. He was
silent and opened not his mouth, when wrath was poured out upon
him. But, ah ! he will cry aloud if wrath should be poured upon
you. You have been condemned already, and buffeted, and spit
upon already. You have been bruised under the wrath of God
already. You will never suffer any more. " Who shall lay any-
thing to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that justifieth who
shall condemn ? It is Christ that died."
2. Because he would keep his part of the covenant. Before the
world was, he entered into covenant with his Father, that he
would stand as a substitute for sinners ; and therefore when he
did come to suffer, his very righteousness sustained him, and
he set his face like a flint. When a feeble man undertakes
some hrrd piece of service, very often he is loud and boastful
486 SERMON LXXXIIJ.
before he begins ; but when he comes up lo the point, his
courage dies, and he goes away back from his word. Not so
the Son of God. He had sworn that he would bear the curse
that was hanging over sinners. He had struck hands with the
eternal Father, he would be their Jonah, to lie down under their
sea of wrath : " Take me up," he said, " and cast me into that se;i
of wrath." And so, when the waves and billows went over him,
he did not cry nor murmur. He set his face steadfastly. He
had sworn once by his holiness, and he would not turn from it.
He would not alter the thing that had gone out of his lips. " He
was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her
shearers is dumb, so he opened not his. mouth."
Speak to awakened. Trust in Christ as a Saviour. He is wor-
thy of all your confidence. If I had told you that the Son of God
had undertaken to suffer in the room of sinners, surely that ought
to give you peace ; for if he undertakes it, he will perform it.
But we are sent to tell you that he has finished what he under-
took. He is a faithful and covenant-keeping Saviour. Come
and look upon that silent Lamb. See him led from the garden to
Caiaphas, from Caiaphas to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod, from
Herod to Pilate again, from Pilate to Calvary. See him carrying
that heavy cross upon his shoulders ; see him carrying the wrath
of God upon his head ; and yet he murmurs not. He does not
say : Father, these sins are not mine. No ; he keeps truth lor
ever. " He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep
betbre her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth." And
how do you requite all this ? You say, I dare not believe it. Ah !
does he deserve this at your hand, that you should call him liar ?
He that believeth not God, hath made him a liar._
3. Because oj ; his lm>e. It was love to perishing sinners that
made the Son of God enter into covenant with his bather to bear
wrath in their stead. It was the same love in his bosom that
made him keep the covenant which he had made. Ah ! it was
love that tied his tongue. The cords with which the soldiers
bound him were tight and strong ; but, oh ! his love bound him
more firm than all. The nails that pierced his hands and feet held
him firmly on the bloody cross; but, oh! his love was the
strongest nail ; it was stronger than death. When the Jews
accused him, and he answered not a word, it was love to sinners
which made him hold his peace. When Herod questioned him,
and Pilate condemned him, his trembling humanity said : 1 am not
guilty. But. oh ! his love said : Yes ; I am guilty of all. When
his Father bruised him with weights of mysterious agony, in the
garden, and on the cross when the infinite wrath of the infinite
God was all summed up in a three hours' agony when all that
bowed down his blessed head, his shrinking humanity said, in-
wardly : I never sinned this wrath is not mine ; I should not
bear it. But, ah ! his love said : Either I or my people must beai
SERMON LXXXIJI 48"
it ; I will bear it lor them. Oh, believers ! behold how he loved
you. Surely this love was stronger than death. A deluge oj
wrath could not quench this love. Can you count the drops oi
the ocean ? Then you may fathom the depths of his love to you.
Can you measure the distance between the highest throne in
heaven, and the lowest dungeon in hell ? That is the measure of
his love to you.
Some of you dare not believe in Jesus. Ah ! is this the way
you requite the love of the silent Lamb of God ? He would not
answer when he was accused. He would not murmur when con-
demned. When God poured wrath on him, he would not stand
upon his Godhead purity, but consented to bear wrath, that every
sinner looking to him may go free ; and yet you will not look to
this Lamb of God. Oh ! you grieve him and crucify him afresh.
4. He was silent, because he sought, his Fathers glory'. I have
often tried to show you that it is more glorifying to God when
sin is punished in his own Son, than when it is punished in the
poor worms that committed it. If sinners bear their own sins,
then they must suffer eternally, so that God's justice will never be
satisfied. They will always have more to suffer, and God will
never have full glory out of them. But when Christ suffers in the
room of a sinner, then God is satisfied at once. He is infinitely
glorified. Now, Christ knew this quite well. He came seeking
his Father's glory : " I am come to do, not mine own will, but the
will of Him that sent me." Therefore it was he was dumb, that
God might have more glory from the finished sufferings of his own
Sun, than from the eternal sufferings of sinners. " O the depth of
the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! how un-
searchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out !"
Therefore did he say : " I delight to do thy will, O my God ; yen,
thy law is within my heart." Therefore did he hasten to go up
to Jerusalem.
Speak to awakened. Some of you refuse to believe, lest you
should tarnish the glory of God. You fear that it cannot be
consistent with the glory of so pure and holy a God to receive
you to pardon and peace. Are you wiser than Christ ? Christ
feared that God would lose some of his glory if sinners were
allowed to bear their own sins, because infinite justice never
could get enough of suffering out of them. Therefore was he
dumb under the wrath of God, that justice might be fully satisfied
out of his infinite sufferings. Be wise, I entreat of you ; God is
more glorified by your suffering in Christ, than by your own
suffering in hell. It will be far more honoring to God if you will
cleave to that bleeding, silent Lamb, than if you were to bear the
wrath of God for ever and ever. Give glory to the Lord, before
your feet stumble on the dark mountains.
III. The broken bread represents the silent sufferings of Christ.
488 SERMON LXXXIV.
This day, my friends, I set before you the plainest and simplest
picture of the silent sufferings of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
In th:it night in which he was betrayed he took bread. Why
bread? 1. Because of its plainness and commonness. He did
not take silver, or gold, or jewels, to represent his body, but
bread, plain bread, to show you that when he came to be a surety
for sinners, he did not come in his original glory, with his Father's
angels. He took not on him the nature of angels, he became
man. 2. He chose bread, to show you that he was dumb, and
opened not his mouth. When I break the bread it resists not, it
complains not, it yields to my hand. So was it with Christ ; he
resisted not, complained not, he yielded to the hand of infinite
justice. " He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a
sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth."
Some of you believe not. You do not consent to take this
silent Lamb as a sin-offering for your soul. Either you do not
feel your need of him, or you have not faith to look to him. But
if you do not truly look to him, be not so rash, so daring, so
inconsistent as to take the bread and wine.
Some of you believe in the silent Lamb of God. You say, It
was my sin that lay so heavy on his heart. My sins were the
thorns that pierced his brow. My sins were the nails that
pierced his hands and feet. My sins were the spear that
pierced his heart. He loved me, and gave himself for me. Come,
then, to the broken bread and poured-out wine, feed on them,
appropriate Christ in them ; and whilst you feed upon the em-
blems of the silent Lamb, do this in remembrance of Jesus.
Dundee, 1837. (Action Sermon.)
SERMON LXXXIV.
AS THE HART PANTETH.
* As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee,
God." Ps. xlii., 1.
THESE are supposed to be the words of David when he fled from
his son Absalom. He seems to have been wandering in some
solitary wild on the side of Mount Hermon, the stream of Jordan
flowing at .his feet. David seems to have been full of pensive
meditation, for his enemies reproached him daily, saying, " Where
is thy God ?" nay, even God seemed to forget him ; all his waves
and billows were going over him, when suddenly a deer bounded
past him. It had been sore wounded by the archers, or pursued
by some wild beast on the mountains of the leopards. Faint and
SERMON LXXXIV. 489
weary, he saw it rushing towards the flowing stream, and quench-
ing its thirst in the water brook. His soul was quickened by the
sight. Is not this just a picture of what I should be ? Is not my
God to me all that the flowing stream is to that wounded deer ?
" As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul
after thee, O God."
I do hope that many of you have come up this day with the
same panting desire in your bosom. None but gracious souls can
pant after God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent. As the
loadstone attracts nothing but what is made of steel to itself, so an
uplifted Saviour, God manifest in the flesh, draws nothing but
what is awakened by his own Spirit to him. May God enable
me to show you shortly some of the reasons why the believer
pants after God !
1. The burden of sin makes the soul pant after God.
1. Unawakened souls those who feel no burden do not pant
after Christ. (1.) " The full soul loathes the honeycomb."
Christ is the honeycomb which God has provided for poor sinners.
The sweetest honey is to be found in the clefts of that Rock ; but
unawakened persons are full ; full of peace ; full of business ; full
of pleasure. They have no desire after Christ ; they loathe the
honeycomb. (2.) Unawakened persons are " dead in trespasses
and sins.*' They are as dead to Christ and eternal things as the
dead in the churchyard are to the things of this world. The dead
bodies in the churchyard are at present within reach of the
preacher's voice. If they could look up out of their graves, they
would see the table spread with the bread and wine ; and yet
when we speak they do not hear ; they do not weep ; their bosoms
do not pant ; they do not rise and come. Dear friends, the dead
souls within the Church are just as dead as they. You too are
within reach of the preacher's voice ; you too can see Christ evi-
dently set forth crucified; yet you have no desires after Christ.
Your eyes weep not ; your bpsorns pant not ; you have no heart-
longings after Christ. (3.) When Israel was in the land of Egypt,
they had leeks, and onions, and garlic ; they sat by the fleshpots,
and did eat bread to the full. They did not cry for manna ; they
did not seek water out of the flinty rock. So it is with those of
you who are unawakened. You have got the leeks and the
onions of this world's pleasures, and profits, and diversions ; and
you care not for Christ, the bread of life. You do not pant after
forgiveness and a new birth ; you have no heart-longings for the
living water, of which if a man drink he shall never thirst
again.
2. Many awakened persons do not pant after Christ. There
are some who feel like the deer stricken by the archers ; but they
think they can pull out the arrows, and heal their own wounds.
(1.) When Naaman the Syrian came to Elisha, he felt his loath-
490 SERMON LXXXIV.
some disease, and he longed to be cured ; but when the prophet told
him : " Go wash in Jordan seven times, and thou shalt be clean,"
he did not believe God's word : " Are not Abana and Pharphar,
rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel ? may I not
wash in them, and be clean ? So he turned and went away in a
rage." So do many awakened souls among you. You are maJe
to feel your loathsome disease ; you sometimes tremble for fear of
hell ; but when we tell you of Christ's blood cleansing from all
sin, you go away in a rage. (2.) When the flood came upon the
earth, when the rain fell forty days, and the bowels of the great
deep were broken up, I doubt not there were great pantings of
heart. Many fled from the wrath to come. Some fled to the top
of snowy Lebanon ; some to the peaks of Ararat ; but Noah only
believed" God's word, and entered into the ark. So many of you
tremble about your souls, who yet are not believing God's word,
and not panting after Christ: " Ye will not come to me, that ye
might have life." (3.) When Christ shall come in the clouds of
heaven, it is said all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of
him. There will not be one unawakened person in eartli or in
hell. Not the proudest and deadest of you will keep from trem-
bling in that day. But, ah ! it is only those who believe his
word that will flee under his wings. Dear friends, it is not
enough that you are anxious about your souls you must be
fleeing to Christ: yea, you must be in Christ, before you are safe.
3 All who are taught of God long after Christ : " Every one
that hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me" " All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me ; and him that cometh to me I
will in no wise cast out." When a sinner is convinced by God
that his sins are a burden heavier than he can bear that if he die
they will crush him into an eternal hell ; when convinced that
God has provided a Lamb for a burnt-offering ; that this Lamb is
free to all ; he rushes through the crowd. Others may keep back,
but he cannot. He places both his hands on the head of the
divine Lamb, and says : " My Lord, and my God." " Th& God
is my God for ever and ever; he will be my guide even unto
death" " As the hart panteth after the w^ater brooks, so panteth
my soul after thee, O God."
If there is any of you convinced that you are perishing ; that
heaven is like a great city with walls; that you are outside, and
the storm of wrath about to fall on you ; has God also convinced
you that Christ is the only gate into the city ; the strait gate, and
fet wide enough to admit any sinner in all the world ? Ah ! then
know you will strive to enter it ; you will agonize ; you will not
rest day nor night ; " As the hart panteth after the water brooks,
so panteth my soul after thee, O God." If there is any of you
convinced that sin is a mortal disease ; that all other physicians
are vain ; that Christ is passing through the midst of us full of
virtue, to heal : I know you will press forward, whatever others
SERMON LXXXIV. 491
do : " If I may but touch the hem of his garment I shall be healed"
" As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my
soul after thee, O God/'
/ would now invite panting souls to close with Christ. It is a
sad truth, that most of Christians in our day are rather coming to
Christ than come to Christ. Most of you are like the manslayer
running towards the city of refuge, rather than when he sits down
within the gates. O if you feel condemned in yourself, and that
God has provided a free Surety for sinners, why will you not rest
your soul upon his finished work ? why will you go round and
round the city of refuge, and not enter in ? This holy ordinance
is intended to teach you appropriating faith ; no more to waver,
but to put out the hand of faith and close witn Jesus. You do
not come to look at bread and wine, but to take it. Take, eat,
O panting souls ! May God give you light at the same moment
to venture on Christ, and say : " This God is my God for ever
and ever.
II. Desire of holiness makes the soul pant aft*r God.
1. Unconverted persons have no desire for holiness, and there-
fore they do not pant after God and Christ. Indeed this is the
chief reason why poor sinners do not come to Chnst. They know
that if they came to Christ they would get a new heart ; they
would bid an eternal farewell to their old companions and plea-
sures ; but most people would rather go to hell thon this. When
a few Greenlanders were brought into this country they saw no
beauty in the rich corn fields, and woods, and plaint. : they asked
for their fields of snow, and the mountains of ice gNncing in the
sun. When they came into our houses, they could not endure
the cleanness of them ; they greatly preferred their ,>wn smoky,
filthy cabins. So it is with those of you who are unconverted.
You have grown up with hearts frozen to God, and to divine
things ; and when you come to see the heart of a Christian like
a garden, with the river of life flowing through it, and beautiful
flowers of meekness, love, and holiness growing in it, yor cannot
bear the sight ; you love your own frozen heart better. When
you see the clean heart of a child of God, you say : I hac' rather
have my own filthy one. Ah ! this is the way with most You
do not long to be made holy : you have no panting after a new
birth. It needs grace to desire grace. You do not desir? to be
made a new creature ; you had rather remain in the image of the
devil than be changed into the image of God. You are like Jeru-
salem : " Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem ! Wilt thou not Be m.ide
clean ? when shall it once be V
2. But all saved souk pant after holiness : "As the hart pan*elh
after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O Go<* "
(1.) When a soul comes to close with Christ, he is not made p< '-
feet!) holy all at once : " The path of the just is as the shini 7
492 SERMON LXXXIV.
light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." Just as
you have seen the day struggling with the darkness, then with
clouds, till the sun bursts forth in meridian splendor ; so is it with
the holiness of a Christian. Just as in the richest lands, after the
deepest ploughing, weeds will still grow up among the corn ; so,
many roots of bitterness remain in the believer's heart. Paul
thanked God for the grace that was given to the Corinthians, that
they came behind in no gift ; and yet he says they had strife, and
envy, and divisions, so that he could not call them spiritual, but
carnal. So is it with every Christian heart. Weeds grow up in
the best cultivated gardens. There is enough in Christ to supply
nil our need. It is our own fault that we are not holy as God is
holy. It is not in Christ, but in ourselves, that we are straitened.
The shower of grace is plentiful enough, and more than enough ;
but we do not open our mouth wide. (2.) But every soul in
Christ hates sin pants after holiness. Nothing makes him pant
more after God than corruption striving within. Paul never
prnyed more earnestly than when he had the thorn in his flesh.
The thorn in the flesh makes us pant after God. When a vessel
is left by the tide lying dry upon the sand, it cannot be moved
it is a helpless log. The mariners may try to draw it with ropes,
but it only sinks deeper in the sand. They can do nothing but
long for the tide, that it may again be lifted upon the waves, and
sail into the harbor. So is it with a Christian. You are often
like a vessel on the sand. You cannot move. You attempt du-
ties, but it is heavy work. Without Christ you can do nothing.
You wait and pant for Christ, for the full tide of the Spirit, to lift
your soul above the waves, and carry you prosperously on towards
the heavenly harbor.
Let me invite weary souls to come to Christ this day. Some
of you are feeling the thorn in the flesh, and you are praying
that it may depart from you. Some of you ieel like the criminal
who was chained to a dead body. You feel your loathsome body
of sin ; you cry, " O wretched man !" Some of you are like the
deer that has been wounded by the lion, and trembles at his roar-
ing. You have been wounded by Satan, and you tremble to hear
his roar. Come you to Jesus. He will give you rest, O panting
soul. Close with Christ, feed upon Christ. Without him you
can do nothing. Through Christ strengthening you, you may do
nil things. This ordinance is intended to teach you to feed on
Jesus. You do not only look on the bread, or handle it ; you eat,
you drink. So come into personal union with Christ, O longing
soul, and he will be your strength : " God is our refuge and our
strength."
lit. Desolateness makes the soul pant after God.
1. Believers never should be desolate. It is contrary to the
promise: "None of them that trust in him shall be desolate.'
SERMON LXXXIV. 493
Christ is always the same. His righteousness is as perfect onft
day as another. If you are clothed in that righteousness, your
peace shall be like a river. It is very dishonoring to Christ for
believers to be going bowed down all the day long: "Rejoice in
the Lord alway ; and again I say, Rejoice."
2. Still I fear some of you can bear witness that the believer
is* sometimes very desolate. The moon does not always shine in
a cloudless sky. The ships do not always sail on a waveless sea.
The believer does not always walk in the smile of his Father.
(1.) Outward providences sometimes cause it, when they come un-
expectedly upon us ; when we cannot see God's meaning in them ;
when we suspect his love, and fall into darkness. So Job : " Let
the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was
said, A man-diild is conceived." (2.) Sin admitted into the heart
is the most common cause. God is a jealous God. So Israel :
" She said, I will go after my lovers that give me my bread and
my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink."
3. The desolate soul pants after God. So it was with Job: "O
that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to
his seat." So it was with the bride : " I will rise now and go
about the city, in the streets and in the broad ways." So David :
" As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul
after thee, O God." When a child that has been tenderly brought
up, that has been warmly clad and comfortably fed, and cared for
by a gentle mother's hand, when that child is turned out on the cold
world, O it is bitter indeed ! O for my father's roof! O for my
mother's smile ! So it is with a child of light walking in darkness.
Invite desolate souls to come to God, the living God. Some of
you may be feeling like a ship tossed on a stormy sea. Deep
calls unto deep, at the noise of God's waterspouts ; all the waves
and billows are breaking over you. Be persuaded to close with
Christ, freely offered to you. Put away entirely the question as
to whether you ever believed before. Believe now. This ordi-
nance is peculiarly fitted for you. You say you cannot realize a
Saviour ; well, here he is set forth plainly in bread and wine :
"This is my body broken for you." You say: But how shall I
know he is a Saviour to me ? See, here the bread is freely offer-
ed : "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."
You say : But how do I know he is still offered to me ? I answer,
" Yet there is room." Here is bread enough and to spare. You
ay : But may I really close with him ? 1 answer, " Take, eat."
panting soul, come under his .wings. "The Spirit and the
Bride say, Come "
Dundee, JVov. 4, IP38. (Action Sermon.)
194 SERMON LXXXV.
SERMON LXXXV.
THE FIGHT OF FAITH.
1 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the f?ith
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the
righteous judge, shall give me at that day : and not to me only, but unto all them
also that love his appearing." 2 Tim. iv., 7, 8.
How blessed it is to stand by the death-bed of God's children
How different from that of the wicked ! The wicked sometimes
die in anguish. Some have been known to cry out : " Lost, lost,
lost ! O eternity ! O for half an hour, to pray !" Some die in
blasphemy, cursing God for their pains and their sores. The
greater number die like a beast, without any thought or care, ex-
cept for the body : " They have no bands in their death, but their
strength is firm. They are laid in their graves like sheep, and the
upright have dominion over them in the morning."
How sweet, compared with these, is the departure of God's
children ! They fell asleep in Jesus : " I am ready to be offered,
and the time of my departure is at hand." Paul here compares
it, 1. To the pouring out of a drink-offering: " Yea, and if I be
offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and re-
joice with you all." Phil, ii., 17. He felt so entirely dedicated
and given away to God, that his death was like the pouring out of
the wine-offering, which already belonged to God. 2. To the de-
parture of a ship : " The hour of my departure is at hand." The
things of time were like the cables that bound him to this world ;
but soon his bark was to be loosed from the shore, to sail forward
to the shore of glory, to be moored for evermore.
In these words we have the secret of a joyful death-bed. 1.
He looks back upon the life of pain. 2. He looks forward to the
crown of glory.
I. He looks back. Threefo'd view.
He does not look back to his life before conversion at all. He
often did so, but it was to condemn it : "I was before a blas-
phemer, and a persecutor, and injurious ; but I obtained mercy, be-
cause I did it ignorantly in unbelief." 1 Tim. i., 13. "For I am
the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the Church of God." l.Cor. xv., 9. "Beyond
measure I persecuted the Church of God, and wasted it." Gal. i.,
" I am the chief." Paul never forgot his old life ; but not one ray
of comfort came from it, only condemnation. It was his life since
conversion that he now looked to, not as his righteousness before
God, but only as showing that he was really a sinner saved through
Chr'st.
1. / have fought a good fght. Every day since his conversion
SERMON LXXXV. 495
ne had been fighting ; he had been passing through an enemy's
country, and had to fight his wa}. (1.) With his corruptions.
" Warring." Rom. viii. " Flesh lusting.'* Gal. v. " A thorn in
the flesh." 2 Cor. x. Paul knew what these inward fightings are.
He probably experienced them more than any one here. (2.)
With the world. As long as he was Saul the blasphemer, the
world caressed him ; but when he was made Paul the apostle, the
world hated hirn. The more he loved, the more they hated. " I
have fought with beasts at Ephesus." His only weapons were the
word of God, and yet he fought on against a world lying in wick-
edness. (3.) With the devil. " A messenger of Satan." " Wo
wrestle not against flesh and blood." 2 Cor. x. He had experi
enced much of this. " We are not ignorant of his devices."
Still it was " a good fight."! Tim. i., 18. " War a good
warfare." 1 Tim. vi., 12. " Fight the good fight of faith." Often
when we are in the midst of afflictions and temptations, we grow
weary of the conflict. It is a hard lot. But when we look back
from eternity, every redeemed soul will be able to say : It was a
good fig fit. (1.) Because we are sure to overcome. " We are more
than conquerors, through Him that loved us." In other battles we
know not how it will go, until the battle is done ; but in this we
have a sure promise of victory. We have sweet glimpses of tri-
umph even in the thickest of the battle, sweet confidence in Jesus.
(2.) It keeps us close to our Captain. If we had no fight, we
would not keep near to Jesus ; but when we suffer such fearful
attacks, we are glad to hide ourselves under Jesus's wings. (3.)
Because glorifying to God. His glory is involved in it. Often
we would wish no fight ; but not so in glory. There we shall see
that every trial was glorifying to God, bringing out some new fea-
ture oT his grace, power, and love. Are you fighting this good
fight ? Soon we shall look back.
2. / have finished my course. The moment a soul is brought
to Christ, he has a course to run : " And as John fulfilled his
course, he said, Whom think ye that I am ? I am not he. But,
behold, there cometh one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am
not worthy to loose." Acts xiii., 25. Paul says: "But none of
these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself,
so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which
I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the
grace of God." Acts xx., 24. " Wherefore, seeing we also are
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay
aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and
let us run with patience the race that is set before us." Heb. xii.,
1. Every one has a different course,'like the planets. All do not
shine in the same part of the sky, and so every believer has his
course ; a work to do. One has the course of a minister another
the course of a master servant. The misery of inconsistencies ;
leaving the course. Each of us has a work to do for Christ ; let
496 SERMON LXXXV.
us do it diligently. " My meat is to do the will of Him that sent
me."
3. / have kept the faith. I think the dying thief could say, 1
believe, and enter with joy into paradise ; but he could not say,
" I have kept the faith." This makes the difference between a
peaceful and a triumphant death-bed. Paul " bought the truth,
and sold it not." That good thing committed to him he kept, by
the Holy Ghost given unto him. He held the beginning of his
confidence steadfast unto the end.
Learn that perseverance in the faith is needful to a triumphant
death-bed. It is Christ, and Christ alone, that is our peace in
dying; yet the hand thnt has longest held him has the firmest
hold. It is not our perseverance that is our righteousness before
God, but the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus ; and yet without
perseverance in the faith ye cannot be saved. Alas! you that
turn aside to folly, you are preparing clouds for your dying bed.
Can you say you have kept the faith, poor backslider !
II. What he looked forward to.
1. That day. " I know whom I have believed, and am persuad-
ed that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him
against that day." 2 Tim. i., 12. " The Lord grant unto him
that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day." 2 Tim. i., 18.
A great day of Christ's appearing, and all his saints with him. It
was not merely the day of death to which he looked forward ;
then he would immediately pass into glory ; he would go to be in
Paradise ; he would be absent from the body, and present with the
Lord ; he would be blessed dying in the Lord ; but he looked
forward to that day, because it is the day of Christ's full glory
the day of the gladness of his heart. There is something selfish
in merely desiring the day of death; but there is a heavenly joy
in looking for the day of his appearing.
2. The crown of righteousness. A crown of glory; a crown o-
life ; an incorruptible crown, that will never die ; nor shall tht
wearer die any more. A crown of righteousness; a crown wail
ing those that have put on the armor of God and the breastp'at-
of righteousness : a crown laid up. It is ready from all etejr.ity
It is ready now when we are fighting. Your crown is laid up
3. The Lord shall give it me. How sweet it will be, whej t
Christ puts on the crown on a sinner's brow ! The just God and
Saviour ! Angels will shout for joy when they see the righteous
Jesus crowning the sinners for whom he died. He will finish our
redemption. He was crowned with thorns ; he has been an advo-
cate crowned with glory and majesty ; but another step, he is to
put on the crown of righteousness. All heaven and earth and hell
own him faithful and true, and righteous in all his ways. Oh !
how sweet to be crowned by Jesus.
4. Along with all that love his appearing. One thing would
SERMON LXXXVI. 497
make us sad : Am I only to be crowned ? No, no ; " not to me
only." Paul could not be happy in heaven without seeing others
saved along with him. It gave him joy on his death-bed, to think
that myriads and myriads besides him would wear the crown,
many whom he had been the means of saving.
Dundee, 1842.
SERMON LXXXVI.
INTO THINE HAND I COMMIT MY SPIRIT.
" Into thine hand I commit my spirit : thou hast redeemed me, Lord God of
truth." Ps. xxxi., 5.
THERE is something peculiarly sweet in these words, because they
are the words used by the Lord Jesus in his agony. For six long
hours he hung upon the accursed tree, bearing the sins of many.
No thought of man can imagine the load he bore : " My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me ?" The vinegar mingled with gall
was bitter, but it was nothing to the cup of wrath ; the pain of his
mangled body was terrible, but it was nothing to the intense agony
of the sword of justice that pierced him. This was his last solemn
cry : " Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit;" and he bowed
his head and gave up the ghost. Jt is sweet to an afflicted sufferer
to use the same' words as Jesus. It is sweet to use the words of
a departed friend. We treasure them in our memory, and embalm
them in our hearts. But what friend is like Jesus, whose words
were all gracious words ?
It is sweet to a heavy-laden convinced sinner to take up the
words of Jesus in the 40th Psalm : " Innumerable evils have com-
passed me about, and mine iniquities have taken such hold upon me
that I am not able to look up." It is sweet to a believing soul to
take up his words in Isa. 1., 8 : " He is near that justifieth me ;
who is he that will contend with me ?"
And so it is sweet for a poor afflicted, dying worm to take up
these sweet words : " Into thine hand I commit my spirit : thou
hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth."
Observe three things :
1. The person who speaks a tempted, afflicted soul. Such
was David : " Pull me out of the net." Verse 4. Satan and the
world had cast a net abound his soul. Snare after snare, like the
meshes of a net, enclosed him. He felt himself helpless : " I am
forgotten as a dead man, out of mind ; I am like a broken vessel."
Nowhere can he go, but to his redeeming God : " Into thine hand
498 SERMON LXXXVI.
I commit my spirit : thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of
truth."
Such was the Lord Jesus: "Many bulls have compassed me;
strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon
me with their mouths as a ravming and a roaring lion." Ps.
xxii., 12. Where could he go but to his God ? " Into thy hands
I commend my spirit." So there may be some tempted, afflicted
here, enclosed in the net of Satan beset by bulls of Bashan ; let
him take up his sweet word : " Into thy hands I commend my
spirit."
2. The person to whom he speaks The Redeemer. On the
one side there is a worm ; on the other, a redeeming God. When
the Lord Jesus took up this word he put in Father: for the Father
was his Redeemer. When he had finished the work which the
Father gave him to do ; when he had drunk the last dregs of in-
finite suffering; he could look up and claim full deliverance:
" Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." When Stephen
took up this saying, he said : " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
The Redeemer seems to be chiefly meant; he that bore our sins
in his own body on the tree, not excluding the other persons of
the Godhead. It is a poor, guilty, helpless worm looking up to
him that died for us : Into thine hand I commit my spirit, O Lord
God, faithful and true.
3. The thing committed " My spirit." The soul of man is the
most precious part. I do not mean to speak lightly of the body
far from it. It is the creation of God, and though frail, and about
to crumble in dust, yet it is a dear companion, and will be raised
again incorruptible. But the spirit is the precious part. " What
shall it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his own
soul ?" The soul was made in the image of God. It is this which
the poor tempted soul commits to the great Redeemer's hands ;
the part where sin commences, and bursts forth in action ; where
guilt lies heavy ; where the blood of Jesus giveth peace ; where
Satan tempts the spirit. It is this the man gives in charge to the
great Redeemer of souls.
I. The times when we should do this. *
1. The time of conversion. This seems to be the meaning of
Paul : " I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he
is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that
day." Sometimes conversion is described in the Bible from God's
part in it: Jesus finding the lost sheep; Jesus passing by, and
spreading his skirt over the soul ; the Father drawing the soul to
Jesus. At other times it is described from the creature's part :
Coming to Jesus, beholding the Lamb, cleaving to Christ ; or as
here, committing ihe spirit to his hands. O it is a happy day,
when a poor sinner discovers that his spirit is wholly lost and un-
done ; that his soul is like the lepers body, unclean, unclean ; that
SERMON LXXXVI. 499
his sins are infinite, and his heart a rock ; a fountain of pollution,
unsearchable, uncontrollable, insufferable ; and when he discovers
Jesus an almighty and all-loving Redeemer, divine and glorious in
his person, and yet wounded and broken under the wrath of God,
borne for us ; when the sinner commits his poor, guilty, helpless,
polluted soul into the hands of the Lord Jesus ! Heavy-laden
sinner, commit thy soul to Jesus. It is in great danger. The law
condemns thee. Thy sins are many thy deserved hell is beyond
thought terrible. Satan is resisting thee ; tempting thee ; beguil-
ing thee. Jesus alone can save : " Into thine hand I commit my
spirit."
2. Time of temptation. This seems to have been peculiarly
fhe time alluded to in the Psalm : " Pull me out of the net."
Verse 4. The temptations of God's children are very dreadful.
Often a child of God goes on a long time without temptation. He
is like Naphtali, " satisfied with favor, and full with the blessing
of the Lord." Perhaps he laughs at temptation, and thinks it will
never come near him. Suddenly the sky is overcast, a strong
current of temptation is allowed to set upon his heart.
" Instead of this. He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart ;
And let the angry powers of hell
Assault my soul in every part."
The world concurs. Satan stirs up all his malice. What hor-
rors now surround the tempted soul ! He flies to his knees ? but
he is afraid to pray. He flies to his Bible ; but it is a sealed
book. Sin darkens the mind, and scares him away from prayer.
All the while God's people admire and praise, though their words
are like gall ; what can help the tempted man 1 None but Jesus.
O to discover Jesus in such an hour ! the Redeemer that died
that lives the Advocate with the Father ! O to be enabled to
commit one tempted soul into his hands! Poor tenpted soul !
give thyself away to Jesus ; he can blot out the sin, and change
the heart.
3. In time of affliction. Some Christians have little affliction.
They sail on- a smooth sea ; they enjoy health of body for years
together ; they never knew what it was to want a comfortable
meal. Death has perhaps not once entered their dwelling. They
think it will be always thus. But a change comes. The " harp
of thousand strings"' becomes out of tune. The " clay cottage"
gives tokens of decay, or grim Want invades their dwelling, or
Death comes up into the window. Ah ! it is hard to bear. No
affliction for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous. Who
can comfort 1 None but Jesus. He knew all sorrow deeper
sorrows than we have ever known, or ever will. His heart is not
of stone. He feels along with us. Afflicts not willingly. Seeks
to brinf us more to himself. O afflicted believer, commit thy
500 SERMON LXXXVII.
weeping, suffering, pining, trembling soul to Jesus : M Into thine
hand I commit my spirit."
4. In time of duty. Often at first the convert thinks only of
enjoyment, of hearing sermons, enjoying sacraments, and Chris-
tian converse. I have often been struck how often the inquiry is
made. Did you enjoy that sacrament, or that sermon ? How sel-
dom did you improve it ! What change has it wrought in ji.ur
life ? But when God stirs up the soul, a path of duty is seen
stretching before it. Often perplexed and intricate, often steep
and slippery, often dangerous and terrible. Oh ! what shall 1 do?
How difficult to know the right way ; and when I know it, how
hard to follow it ! Commit thy soul to Jesus. " In him are hid
treasures of wisdom and knowledge." His grace is sufficient for
thee. " He brings the' blind by a way which they know not." He
has light to guide thee, strength to uphold, and grace to give thee
courage: " Into thine hand I commit my spirit."
5. In time of death. Few ever think of dying till dying comes.
The last enemy that shall be overcome is Death ; and an awful
enemy he is. We go alone. No earthly friend goes with us.
We never went the way before. It is all strange and new. The
results are eternal. If we have not rightly believed, it is too late
to mend. These are some of the solemn thoughts that oversha-
dow the soul. What can give peace ? None but Jesus ; the
sight of Jesus as a Redeemer ; the same yesterday, to-day, and
for ever ; the same sight we got when first we knew the Lord ;
when first he chose us, and we chose him ; when first he said,
Seek ye my face, and we said to him, Thy face, Lord, shall we
seek ? To see him as a God of truth ; the Lord that changes not ;
the unchanging One ; the same Jesus ; thus to see him and to cry*
" Into thy hands I commit my spirit ;" this is peace.
Dundee', 1842.
SERMON LXXXVII.
GREY HAIRS ARE UPON HIM. *
' Grey hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not." Hos. vii., 9.
THESE words describe a state of secret backsliding, the most dan-
gerous, perhaps, of any. It is a common thing for persons grown-
up in years to turn old and grey-headed without observing it.
Most people are unwilling to be thought old. They do not love
to notice the progress of decay, and the marks of old age are al-
lowed to steal upon them unobserved. The teeth drop out one
by one. the hand loses its steadiness, the limbs lose their elasticity
SERMON LXXXVII. 5QI
the eye becomes dim, and grey hairs are here and there upon the
head, and we are in old age before we are aware. So is it in the
decay of the soul in divine things.
It is a solemn and most affecting truth, that the life of God in
the soul is subject to wither and decay. It cannot really die. If
God has once given spiritual life to the soul, I know he will main-
tain it to eternal glory. " The Lord will perfect that which con-
cerneth me. Have respect unto the work of thine own hands."
Ps. cxxxviii., 8. But still it is liable to many and sad decays.
This is plain from Scripture. God says : " Yet I had planted thee
a noble vine, wholly a right seed : how, then, art thou turned into
the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?" Jer. ii., 21.
" Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I am married
unto you." Jer. iii., 14. " My people are bent to backsliding from
me." Hos. xi., 7. Nevertheless I have this against thee, that
thou hast left my first love." Rev. ii., 4.
Alas ! my friends, it is plain from ourselves. Though I praise
God he seems to be adding to the Church among you still " such
as shall be saved,'' though some of you appear to be going from
strength to strength, yet of how many it may be said : " Grey hairs
are here and there upon you, and you know it not." How many
have lost their relish for the house of God ! It is not with you as
in months past. The Thursday evening is not so prized as it once
was ; the private prayer-meeting is seldom if ever visited ; the
company of the world is more sought after ; the company of Christ
more lightly esteemed. Is there not less zeal for the conversion
of others, less prayer, less praise, less liberality ? Ah ! brethren,
we as a congregation are a monument that there is such a thing
as spiritual decay.
How earnest you once were in hearing the Word of God !
You would not miss an opportunity, week-day or Sabbath-day.
You heard as for your life. Your praises were fuller and more
fervent once than they are now. How careful you were in trea-
suring up the Word ; repeating it to yourselves, and your children,
and your companions ! How fervent in your prayers ! On many
of your hearts I fear we must write, " Ichabod The glory is de-
parted."
Another solemn fact is, that this decay is always secret and un-
noticed. It is like the approach of old age. "Grey hairs are
here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not." Old people never
observe the gradual advance of old age. In general, they do not
like to think of their getting older. So it is in the decay of a be-
liever's soul. It goes on secretly and silently ; the eye of faith
becomes dimmer and dimmer; the hand loses its firm hold of Je-
sus; the soul loses its fresh delight in linmanuel's finished work:
and yet he knows it not. Sinful compliances steal upon the
soul. " Grey hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth
not."
502 SERMON LXXXVII.
I Marks some of the "grey hairs."
1. The Bible neglected. When a soul is first brought to Christ,
he delights in the word of God ; he has appetite for it "as a new-
born babe." Just as an infant has a constant, steadily-recurring
appetite for vis mother's milk, so has the soul for the Word. He
has spiritual understanding of the Word. It seems all swcei and
easy; it all testifies of Jesus. The soul grasps the meaning
earnestly inquires from ministers and others the meaning of dilfi
cult passages. He has growth : " That ye may grow thereby."
It is felt to be the daily nourishment of the soul the sword to
ward off temptation. What a difference in decay ! No relish for
the Word. It may be read as a duty, or as a burdensome task ;
it is not delighted in. Other books are preferred to the Bible.
There is no growing in the knowledge of the Word; no self-
application; no receiving it with meekness ; no frequent recur-
rence of the mind to the chapter read in the morning ; no an-
swering Satan by " Thus it is written," and "Thus saith the Lord."
Ah! my friends, how is the gold become dim! "Grey hairs are
here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not."
2. Prayer neglected. " Behold he prayeth," was the first mark
that Paul was brought from death to life. The soul enjoys
great nearness to God, enters within the veil, lies down at the feet
of Jesus, and pours out its groans and tears there. The believer
rises, like his Lord, a great while before day waking in the night
cries in secret to God ; before entering any company, or meet-
ing a friend, or answering a proposal, the heart would wing its
way to the mercy-seat ; so that he prayed without ceasing. He
poured forth earnest cries for deliverance from sin the sins he
was most tempted to, he prayed most against. His intercessions
for others were deep, constant, wide. Once it was sweet and
easy to pray for others : " Forbid that I should sin against God
by ceasing to pray for you." All this secretly changes. The
soul is far from God no putting prayers into the golden censer
entering within the veil drawing near. No early rising now to
pray, no cries in the night no prayer on sudden emergencies.
We now frequently answer proposals in our own spirit, without
asking counsel of the Lord. Little praying against sin now ! We
dare not pray against some sin, or only feebly, and without re-
solving to forsake it. Little intercession now little bearing
unconverted friends on our heart before God little prayer for the
Church, for the Jews, and the Heathen. Ah ! these are some of
the grey hairs.
3. Christ little esteemed. When first we know the Lord Christ
is all in all. He is the Fountain for sin, where we are continu-
ally washing our souls from sin and uneleanness. Under his
white-shining robes we are continually hiding our naked souls.
He is the Rock, giving out living water, which ever follows us.
He is the compassionate Husb-md and elder Brother on whom we
SERMON LXXXVII. 503
lean, coming up from the wilderness. He is our King, at whose
feet our heart is laid down, that he may reign over it for ever and
ever. When we decay it is not so. There is much guilt on the
conscience, but little travelling to the Fountain ; there is a doubt
and dislike of the way of Salvation by Christ. There is little
hiding beneath the righteousness without works. There is little
drinking out of the Rock it seems dry, or we are removed from
it There is no leaning upon Christ no sense of his presence by
night and by day. Ah ! this is a sad mark of grey hairs.
4. Sin not haled. When first we knew the Lord, how did sin
appear ? We had awful discoveries of the exceeding sinfulness of
sin. It appeared evil and bitter ; the load that had crushed the
Lord Jesus to the lowest hell ; we could not bear it we fled
from temptation with our whole heart we were quick-scented
(Isa. xi., 3 margin) in the fear of the Lord. Like those animals
that quickly scent game, so the new creature easily discovered the
approach of sin, and fled from it. Now we have little conviction
of sin. Dry eyes in confession little confession, or none at all ;
no time set apart for the confession of sin. Temptation little
feared, the soul becomes bolder and bolder in its approaches to
sin.
5. Christians lightly esteemed. Once we loved all that loved
the Lord ; all our delight was in them the mark that Christ left
as the mark of a true disciple applied to us : " By this shall all
men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to
another." John xiii., 3-5. We had all things in common with
them, so that none of them could be in want ; we exhorted one
another daily, as iron sharpeneth iron ; we would not suffer sin
upon our brother ; we spoke with such love, and frankness, and
humility, that they could not be offended. Now we look on them
with coldness ; we are not so intimate with them we fear lest
they see our guilt. We are not so careful of the poor saints as
once we were ; we have sworn to our own hurt, and we begin to
change ; we do not exhort one another daily ; when they reprove
us, we turn angry, and we do not reprove in love, but with a
bitter spirit, or we speak evil of them behind their back.
6. The ungodly not warned. Once we wept over them in secret
pleaded with God night and day for their conversion abhorred
their ways : " I hate the work of them that turn aside ; it shall
not cleave to me." Ps. ci., 3. Now our bowels do not yearn
over them little or no prayer for their conversion ; we now,
perhaps, guiltily smile on their wicked ways. If we do not par-
take, at least we do not reprove them.
H Causes of decay.
1. A lust allowed to prevail. So with Israel : " They are all
adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker," Hos. vii., 4. This
was the cause of Israel's decay. So it will be with you and
504 SERMON LXXXVII.
me. A lust for money a sensual lust a lust for praise or plea-
sure, if tampered with, and suffered to prevail, will make the whole
soul wither. For a time you begin to fight against it ; then your
opposition grows weaker ; then you make excuses for it ; then
you hide it from yourself, but still obey its power. This brings
guilt on the conscience ; takes away your relish of the Bible ;
makes you weary of the mercy-seat. This makes the holy
Saviour little prized ; this makes sin little hated, Christians
avoided, and the ungodly not pitied. O my brethren ! we must
either be enemies of all sin, or we shall be decaying, withering
branches. One lust nourished in your heart will be a viper in
your bosom.
2. Worldly company. " Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among
the people." Hos. vii., 8. This was the peculiar character of
the Jews : " The people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reck-
oned among the nations ;" but when they mixed themselves among
the nations, then grey hairs began to appear. So it is with
Christians they are a peculiar people. Jesus said of them :
" They are not of the wurld, even as 1 am not of the world."
We are as completely separated from the world as Christ was ;
we have got blood upon us, and the Holy Spirit in us ; we have
peculiar joys and peculiar sorrows ; we are a praying people a
praising people. But the moment we begin to mix with the un-
Ejodly, grey hairs begin to appear: our souls wither.
Do not mistake me. If God has cast your lot in an ungodly
family, where God is not worshipped ; where his holy name is
blasphemed ; where his word is not read ; where your ears are
vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked ; be not cast down.
This is your peculiar trial ; and God, who suits the back to the
burden, will give grace according to your day. But if you choose
a place where God is not ; if you choose companions who have
no fear of God ; if you venture into companies where the god of
this world reigns, where the Bible is a jest-book, and God's minis-
ters are the song of the drunkard ; then your soul will and must
begin to wither.
You retire to your closet, and open your Bible ; but its holy,
pure words, are not sweet to your taste. You kneel and fold the
hands ; but prayer is a burden : you have no spiritual desires.
You name the name of Christ ; but he does not appear altogether
lovely. Sin has lost its frightful look. Lively Christians are now
too exact and precise for you. Alas ! it is not with you as in
months past. The crown has fallen from your head. Woe unto
you, because you have sinned !
III. Cure.
1. You may be cured. " O Ephraim, thou hast destroyed thy-
self, but in me is thine help. Thou hast played the harlot with
many lovers, yet return again to me, saith the Lord." Satan will
SERMON LXXXVIII. 50J
tempt you to say, There is no hope no, for I have loved
strangers ; but this is a lie. Remember, in Christ there is hope.
2. Search out the cause. Your heart will be most unwilling to
find it out, but you must find it out. If you were in a sinking
ship, the first thing is to find the leak ; so you must find the leak
in your soul. Is it an idol ? lay it bare. Trace back your feel-
ings till you find it out. Is it some lust you indulge ? make it
out. Is it worldly company ? note it put your finger on it.
Say, This is the Achan in my heart this is the troubler.
3. Get forgiveness of it. Confess it over the head of the Scape-
goat : plunge it into the Fountain opened for sin. Jesus is crying :
" Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee."
5. Slay the Troubler. Do with it as they did with Achan.
Seek the Holy Spirit's indwelling power to slay the troubler, that
it never rise up any more. O my friends ! if we would thus seek
reformation, we would be the better of our falls ; we would get
honey out of the lion's carcass. Awake ! awake, my friends !
hell is as deep as ever it was ; Christ as free ; your souls as pre-
cious ; your eternity is nearer and nearer. O how foolish to deny,
instead of, like Caleb, following the Lord fully ! " Be ye stead-
fast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for-
asmuch as ye know that your labor shall not be in vain in the
Lord."
SERMON LXXXVIII.
GRIEVE NOT THE HOLY SPIRIT.
" Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemp-
tion." Eph. iv., 30
I. The holy familiarity of the Spirit in a believing soul.
I. He dwells in it. John xiv., 17 ; Ezek. xxxvi., 26; 1 Cor. vi. f
19; 2 Cor. vi., 16. 2. He teaches there. John xvi., 13; 1 John
ii., 20. 3. He prays there. Jude 20; Rom. viii.,26. 4. He seals.
II. How he may be grieved.
Something analogous to grief, anger, desire, in God. Take
away all imperfection from these passions. When God was
manifest in the flesh, he wns angry at sin, grieved, wept, longed.
So the Spirit is grieved. The same effect as in a grieved person
withdraws. 1. Putting his work for Christ's work. 2. Not
leaning all on him. 3. Not following his leadings. 4. Despis-
ing ordinances.
When we become Christians, we become acquainted with the
persons of the Godhead. An unconverted soul knows nothing,
506 SERMON LXXXVIII.
and thinks nothing about the Holy Spirit. How strange and fool
ish must such a command as this appear to many of you ! Paul
is dissuading from filthy, corrupt talking, and the argument he
uses is," Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God." You would under-
stand, Grieve not your minister, or father, or godly friend ; but
what can you make of this, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God?"
III. Application.
1. Because it is so ungrateful. 2. You will lose your peace
with God. 3. You will fall deeper into sin.
I. The holy friendship of the Spirit in the believing soul.
The very words, " Grieve not," show this. It is the part of a
friend to be grieved when we do wrong. An enemy would rejoice,
or an unfeeling person might be angry, but the Holy Spirit is
grieved. This shows his holy, tender friendship for the justified
soul. It is true, it is not possible for God the Holy Spii t to suffer
grief in exactly the same sense in which we do, for that would im-
ply that he was not unchangeably happy ; but there is no doubt all
that is holy, excellent, and perfect in our grief at the sin of another,
everything except what would imply imperfection. Accordingly,
when God was manifest in the flesh, these emotions of the God-
head showed themselves in the tears and groans of the Lord Jesus.
1. He dwells in the soul: "I will put my Spirit within you."
Ezck. xxxvi., 26. " The Spirit of truth whom the world cannot
receive, he dwelleth in you." John xiv., 17. "What! know ye
not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in
you ?" 1 Cor. vi., 19. "I will dwell in them, and walk in them."
2 Cor. vi., 16. Can there be imagined a more intimate friend-
ship than this ? Other friends may live in the same house with
us, mingle tears and prayers together, take sweet counsel together;
but he, the blessed Comforter, dwells in our body ; dwells in us
and walks in us. Can there be a more condescending friendship?
It was amazing condescension when the Son of God was made
flesh, and dwelt among us. It is hardly less wonderful that the
Holy Spirit of God should come down and dwell in a clay cot-
tage beside such a wicked heart.
2 He teaches there : " Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is
come, he will guide you into all truth." There is no greater kind-
ness than to teach the ignorant, to bear with a dull scholar, to
teach as the scholar is able to bear. It is great condescension,
v;h( n a man of gigantic powers, who might guide the councils of
nations, or wield the sceptre of the world, sits down to teach the
alphabet, like John Eliot, to a child. This is what the Spirit does.
It was amazing love in the Lord Jesus to come as a teacher, to
open his mouth in parables, and to explain all things so simply,
with such majesty, authority, simplicity, love and long-suffering ;
but. ah! surely it is no less amazing love in the Spirit, to c<me
and teach sinners by his own secret breathings ; to open their
SERMOiN LXXXVIII. 507
understandings ; to take of the things of Jesus and show them
unto us ; so that we have an unction from the Holy One, and
know all things. 1 John ii., 20. Ah, how the Spirit bears with
our backwardness in learning the divine lesson, strives to remove
our ignorance ; strives in our heart and upon the page of the
Bible ! How this shows the holy friendship and familiarity of
the Spirit in the believing soul !
3. He prays there : " We have not received the Spirit of
bondage again to fear, but we have received theJSpirit of adoption,
whereby we cry, Abba, Father." " Likewise the Spirit also
helpcth our infirmities ; for we know not what to pray for as we
ought : but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with gronn-
ings that cannot be uttered." Rom. viii., 15, 26. " Praying in
the Holy Ghost." Jude 20. It is an act of pure friendship to
tench one to pray. It is often the believing mother's part to lead
her child in prayer, teaching it to lisp after her desires for divine
things ; but ah ! how much more than a mother's tenderness does
the Spirit show, when he puts the very desires into our hearts
groans within us ! It is an act of intimate friendship to pray with
one another ! what must it be to pray in another ? This is the
Spirit's friendship.
4. He seals : " Whereby ye are sealed to the day of redemp-
tion." " After ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise." Eph. i. A friend who is much with you, leaves a
plonsing impression behind ; his words, his sentiments, have an
effect on your mind. When you have a holy friend, he leaves a
fragrance behind that abides with you. This is one of the happy
effects of sanctified friendship. Such was the impression which
David made on Jonathan. But how much more wonderful,
blessed, and indelible, is the impression made by the Holy Spirit
dwelling in the heart ! It is compared to the impression made
by a seal on wax, and it is to the day of redemption. Ah,
my friends! does this Friend dwell in you? Is your body a
temple of the Holy Ghost? Are you sealed to the day of re-
demption? " If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none
of his."
II. Ways of grieving the Spirit.
I have already shown you that the grief the Holy Spirit feels
is the same as ours, only without any of the sin or imperfection.
Jesus " looked round on them with anger, being grieved for the
hardness of their hearts." What the divine nature of Jesus then
felt, the Holy Spirit feels at the sight of sin. " Jesus turned and
looked upon Peter." We are not told what kind of look it was,
but I have no doubt it was one of grief; as if he had said, Did I
not tell thee, Peter, what thy boasting would come to? What
passed in the divine mind of the Lord Jesus at that moment, is
what the Holy Spirit feels a' sin in believers.
508 SERMON LXXXVIII.
1. Putting the Spirit's work in the place of Christ's. The prin-
cipal office of the Spirit is to glorify Christ. " He shall glorify
me, for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you."
John xvi., 14. When the three thousand were brought to receive
Christ gladly on the day of Pentecost, it was the Spirit who open-
ed their hearts and eyes. He loves this work. It is sweet, God-
glorifying work, to reveal Jesus to sinners as all their righteous-
ness. But many look in for righteousness ; they begin to look to
their sanctificati'on. for peace ; they begin to look to the work of
the Spirit in them for righteousness, instead of the work of the Son
for them. This grieves the Spirit. This is quite contrary to the
divine plan of salvation dishonors the law makes Christ dead
in vain.
2. Not leaning all on Him. Another main part of the Spirit's
work is to uphold the believer in holy living. " Uphold me with
thy free Spirit" " I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you
to walk" " Thy Spirit is good, lead me" " Without me ye can
do nothing." This is the sanctifying work of the Lord the Spirit,
which none can do but he ; and he is able to do it. But often a
believer dare not trust the Spirit. He says : I perish ; I know
not what to do ; m.y lusts are too strong ; I shall surely fall. O
ye of little faith, where is your faith? This grieves your indwell-
ing Friend. Did not I sny I would not leave thee? Did not I
say I would uphold thee ? Lean on me ; fear nat. Often we
lean on something else ; on promises ; resolutions ; good princi-
ples ; past experiences. Ah ! this is not leaning on the simple
promise of Jesus and the power of the unseen Spirit. This is
grieving your Friend.
3. Not following his leadings. When Jesus was on earth, he
led his disciples from place to place, and they followed the Lamb.
" Let us go into Judea again let us depart to the other side."
Had they refused, this would have grieved him ; it would have
shown want of confidence. In like manner, when the apostles set
out on their mission to the Heathen, they were forbidden by the
Spirit to enter one country. " Separate me Barnabas and Saul,
for the work whereunto I have called them." Had they neglect-
ed the command of the Spirit, this would have grieved him. So,
now, when believers are led by the Spirit, when the Spirit cries
" Abba" within them when a spirit of supplication is given ; a
yearning in prayer over others ; if we do not take heed, if we
restrain prayer, this is grieving the Spirit. If we were going into
unlawful company ; some feast where Jesus is not ; if a godly
companion were to pull us back, and say, " Ah ! do not go, you
will hurt your soul" would it not grieve him if we were to thrust
him aside) and quench his warnings, and rush into the place of sin?
This is what many of you do to the Holy Spirit. He warns
pricks the heart you persevere in your sin. Ah ! grieve not
quench not.
SERMON LXXXIX. 509
4. Despising ordinances. These are the meeting-places with
the Spirit, the wells of salvation. If you break appointment with
a dear friend, you slight and grieve him ; he goes away ; so with
the Spirit.
III. Application.
1. Because it is ungrateful. When Peter met the eye of Jesus,
and saw the grief he had occasioned him, he went out and wept
bitterly. This is what you should do who have grieved the Spirit.
It is he that brought you to Christ. Do you thus requite the Lord
the Spirit? Has he deserved this at your hands?
2. You will lose your peace with God. The grieved Spirit with-
draws ; the seal becomes dim, and disappears ; guilt, confusion,
unbelief, doubt, fear, crowd upon the soul. Othe misery that you
procure to your own soul ! " Thine own wickedness shall correct
thee."
3. You will fall into deeper sin. The grieved Spirit withdraws,
but without him you can do nothing; you cannot pray, you can-
not walk towards the land of uprightness ; you sink deeper and
deeper. Ah ! my brethren, you who have grieved the Spirit, and
are sinking deeper and deeper into sin, let this very thought
awaken you, that you know not where your sin will stop, unless
you now turn back to Jesus.
Dear believers, walk tenderly with this dear Friend. Do not
grieve him in anything. Let him reign in you and over you.
Lean on him, follow his leadings, often pray for him. Soon we
shall be his entirely.
SERMON LXXXIX.
YE WILL NOT COME TO ME.
' Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." John v., 40.
THERE is nothing more affecting in the Gospel narratives than to
read of the vast multitudes who heard the words of the Lord
Jesus, and remained unsaved. He stood in the midst of them,
the Saviour of the world, willing and able to save them to the
very uttermost ; he stretched out his hands all the day. Each
one of that crowd needed him ; he was the only one who could
save them, the only hiding-place for their souls ; and yet they
were not saved. Oh ! why was this? Hear. " Ye will not come
unto me that ye might have life." The same affecting scene is
still before you : Jesus is in the midst ; you all need him ; but ye
will not come to him that ye might have life.
510 SERMON LXXXIX.
I. What is in the hand of Jesus ? Life.
Jesus standing in the midst of a crowd of poor hell-aeserving
sinners, declares that in his hand there is life. He here implied
that all around were dead, void of life, and that in his hand alone
they could find life.
This life is of three kinds.
1. Life judicial that is, pardon; so verse 24: "Is passed
from de'ath unto lite." " He that hath the Son hath life." 1 John
v.. 12. " Believing, ye might have life through his name." John
xx., 31. Every one of that crowd was lying under sentence of
death on account of sin ; there was none righteous, no, not one
All were ready to perish. Some of them knew it, and had dark
forebodings ; most of them did not know it, and did not care about
it. Still it was true of all ; all were under sin, all condemned to
die the second death, poor condemned criminals ; the sentence of
the law had gone out against them, and any one moment might
be put in execution. In Jesus's hand there was life a way o.
pardon open and free to them ail. "In him was life." He came
into the world, and died in such a way that he could honestly ana
truly offer himself to every creature as their Surety and Saviour
This is still the same ; you all need life judicial ; you are under-
lying the curse of a broken law. All in this assembly who have
not come to Christ, are under sentence of eternal death. But
there is life in the hand of Jesus ; the Lord Jesus offers himself to
each of you as your complete surety. O how sad that the most
will not come to Christ that they may have life !
2. Life Spiritual that is, inward holiness, spoken of in verse
25, "The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God : and they
that hear shall live." He had been telling them that the Father
had given him authority to quicken whom he will. It is a hidden
life. Col. iii., 3. It is Christ living in the soul. Gal. ii., 20. All
the crowd around him were dead in trespasses and sins, like the
dry bones, very many and very dry. But here was the Fountain
of living water, the Rock smitten, and the life-giving stream
gushing forth : enough to quicken ten thousand worlds. The same
scene is still here. " Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day,
and for ever." He is the Unseen present ; in his hand is the
fountain of a new life. Your souls are dead, your will dead,
heart dead, mind dead to God and divine things. O that you
would come to him and find life ! You need your eye quickened,
to see him ; your ear, to hear him ; your heart, to receive him ;
your whole soul, to close with him. There is a fulness of spiritual
life in Christ: "If thou knewest the gift of God, thou wouldest
have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water."
John iv., 10.
3. Life of glory called in the Word "eternal life" and "ever-
lasting life :" " The righteous into life eternal." Matt. xxv.. 46.
" I give unto them eternal life." John x. " Whoso believeth ic
SERMON LXXXIX. 51 |
him should have everlasting life." John iii., 16. " He that
soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."
Gal. vi., 8. All around were on the way to the second death.
" Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of
death," standing over the lake of fire. Jesus had eternal life in
his hand, ready to give the right to it, the foretaste of it, and
itself in due time. No wonder he cried so earnestly. So now
every unpardoned soul is on the way to death, over the lake of
fire. Jesus has everlasting life.
II. The witnesses.
1. John: "Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness to the
truth." Verse 33. Compare John i., 7 : "The same came for a
witness, to bear witness of the Light." God raised up Jo'hn, on
purpose that he might point men to Jesus ; and so he did. He
was a burning and a shining light, and they were willing for a
season to rejoice in his light. When he told them of the life to be
had in Jesus, they were glad for a season; and yet they did not come
to Christ to have life. So with you ; a standing ministry is still in
the midst of you. However weak and dim the light, still it points
to Jesus : and I may add, you have been willing for a season to
rejoice in the light. Ye seem to love to hear, and yet ye will not
corns.
2. The works. (1.) The miracles of Christ. He had just been
healing a man thirty-eight years impotent. He healed all that
came, cleansed lepers, turned water into wine, raised the dead :
all these bare witness of him that he was the Son of God with
power. (2.) The quickening of dead souls : "The Father loveth
the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth : and he
will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.
For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them ; even
so the Son quickeneth whom he will." Verses 20, 21. Greater
works than these ! The quickening of a dead soul is a far greater
miracle than raising a dead body ; both are beyond man, but the
latter is most divine. Jesus had quickened some, his own few
disciples, the Samaritans. These works bore witness of him.
So still, saved souls in the midst of you are Christ's witnesses,
showing you that there is a way of pardon, and yet ye will not
come.
3. The Father: " The Father himself which hath sent me, hath
borne witness of me." Verse 37. At Christ's baptism and trans-
figuration : " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
The inward teaching and drawing of the Father. John vi., 45.
The Father had no doubt striven with many of them ; and so
with many of you, yet ye will not come.
4. The Scriptures. The whole Bible is the record concerning
Jesus. Luke xxiv. The Law of Moses speaks of Jesus in
type ; the Prophets tell of Jesus in prophecy ; the Psalms, the
612 SERMON LXXX1X.
inward workings of his heart ; the Gospels, the narrative of his
outward life ; the Epistles, the scheme of salvation by him ; the
Revelation, his future glorious coming. All, all tell of Jesus ;
Jesus pervades the Bible; it is the standing witness to Jesus.
There may be no faithful ministry in the land, no works of con-
version going on ; the Father's drawings may be awanting ; still
the Bible is God's faithful witness to Jesus. The written Word
testifies of the living Word. Hence Moses will accuse you to
the Father ; so it is now, and yet ye will not come.
III. The reason why men are not saved.
It is very remarkable that the only reason Christ dwells on here
is, " Ye will not come unto me." He does not say, There is no
pardon for you ; no grace for you in my hand. On the contrary,
he says to those who were probably reprobates : " Ye will not
come unto me." Christ could have mentioned other reasons. 1.
He could have spoken of the decrees of God. " Ye believe not,
because ye are not of my sheep." John x., 26. " As many as
were ordained to eternal life believed." Every thinking man
must know and feel that none will ever come to Christ but those
who were given him by the Father from all eternity. 2. Christ
could have spoken of their dead souls, dead in trespasses and sins.
He could have shown them that their hearts were dead, wills
dead, souls dead. He could have shown them that unless he made
them willing in the day of his power, they never would come.
But he does not touch on these things. 3. The only reason he
dwells on is this : ' Ye will not come unto me." Why ? Because
he thus brings them in guilty of wilful rejection of him.
Some of you may not be able to reconcile these things. If I am
decreed to be lost, how can I be blamable ? Christ could reconcile
them, and therefore said, " Ye will not come unto me."
And why will ye not ?
1. Some ignorant ; ignorant of God's righteousness. I believe
there are many of you quite ignorant of the way of life in the hand
of Jesus. " If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the
ditch." "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."
2. Some do not feel pressing need. The winter's cold drives
the little birds near the nouses ; want makes them bold ; so if you
felt your pressing need, you would draw near by the blood of Jesus.
3. Love of lusts. " How can ye believe, which receive honor
one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God
only ?" Verse 44. Many love life judicial, and life eternal, but
not* life spiritual. They do not wish to be sanctified. " He shall
save his people from their sins." But you love your Just ; you
love the darkness, and come not to the light.
1. Think how you will meet Jesus in the judgment-day. He
will say, " I would often have gathered you, and you would not.
I sent unto you all my witnesses, rising up early and sending them.
SERMON XC. 513
and you would not. I pleaded with you in affliction, showed you
the vanity of all the creatures, but you would not come to me."
2. Think how you will boar the reflection in eternity. When
you have'tasted ali the realities of hell for a thousand years, this
will add bitterness to all ; I might have been in heaven this day,
but only I would not come to Jesus that I might have life. O
cursed folly, cursed pride, cursed ignorance, that kept me back
from the Saviour of the world ! Arise, plead thine own cause.
October 8, 1842.
SERMON XC.
NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL.
" So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome
also. For I am net ashamed of the Gospel of Christ : for it is the power of God
unto salvation to every one that believeth ; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith : as it is writ-
ten. The just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in un-
righteousness." Rom. i., 15-18.
1. Where Paul desired to preach: "I am ready to preach the
Gospel to you that are at Rome also." Rome was at that time
the mightiest city in the whole world. Daniel compared it to a
beast with iron teeth stamping other kingdoms with its feet. It
was called the mistress of the world. Yet there Paul was willing
to preach the Gospel. It was the most learned city of the world.
Its poets, painters, orators, historians of the Augustan age, were
famed over the whole world. Some of the most perfect specimens
of human composition that ever were produced were published at
Rome at that very time. It was the most wicked city of the
world. The pollutions that flowed through its streets were equal
to those of Sodom and Gomorrah. The emperor was one of the
most cruel monsters that ever appeared in the form of a man.
That was the place where Paul burned with a flame of desire to
be allowed to preach the Gospel.
2. What Paul desired to preach : " The Gospel, the Gospel of
Christ." It was not to see Rome that Paul longed to be there ;
not to see its temples, and theatres, and statues, the wonders of
the world. It was not to show off his own eloquence, not to pub-
lish some new work to gain the esteem and applause of the Reman
people. It was to preach the Gospel, the way of salvation by the
righteousness of God. " I am determined to know nothing among
you but Christ, and him crucified."
33
514 SfiRMON XC.
3. What Paul felt : "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of
Christ." More is meant in these words than is expressed. He
docs not mean only that he was not ashamed of the Gospel, but he
izlorird in it. It is very similar to Gal. vi., 14: "God forbid that
1 should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Two
things are implied. (1.) That he was not ashamed of it before
God. He had ventured his own soul on this way of salvation.
He could say, like David, " This is all my salvation, this is all my
desire." The way of salvation by Jehovah our Righteousness was
sweet to Paul. His soul rested there with great delight. He
came thus to God in secret, thus in public, thus in dying. He
hoped to stand before God through all eternity clothed in this di-
vine righteousness. (2.) That he was not ashamed of it before
men. Though all the world had been against him, Paul would
have gloried in this way of salvation. He had a burning desire
to make it known to other men. He felt it so sweet, he saw it to
be so glorious, that he could have desired a voice so loud that all
men might hear at one moment the way of salvation by Christ.
Men would laugh at the idea of a poor worm like Paul going
to subdue mighty Rome with a few words of his lips; but Paul
saw such a divine power in the Gospel that he was not nshpmed
of it. He kne\% 't could break the hardest heart, and bind up the
most broken. The learned men of Rome would smile at the
words of this babbler ; but Paul saw such wisdom in the Gospel,
that all human wisdom appeared utter folly beside it. The wick-
edness of Rome reached up to heavenf it was a continual smoke in
God's nostrils, a fire that burned all the day ; but Paul knew that
the righteousness of God could cover the sin of a thousand Romes.
He saw it to be so vast, so immense, so free, so surpassingly glo-
rious, so divine, that it could flow over and cover the sins of the
.greatest sinner in Rome.
I. Reasons why worldly men are ashamed of the Gospel.
1. Because it is foolishness : " We preach Christ crucified, unto
the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness." 1
Cor. i., 23. " The natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he
.know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Cor. ii.,
14. Unregenerate men cannot comprehend the way of salvation
by the righteousness of another. It appears a foolish scheme.
They do- not believe it is in the Bible at all. That a man should
enter heaven by his good works they can understand ; this is agree-
able to the pride of the natural heart ; or that God should forget
to punish sin, and admit bad and good into heaven, they can un-
derstand this : " Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an
one as thyself." But that a sinner should be covered with the
righteousness of another, that he should have the sufferings and
holy life of another person laid to his account, so as to cover ab
SERMON XC. 515
his sins, this is utter folly to worldly men. Therefore so many of
you are ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. You are ashamed to
hear it preached : when it is clearly set before you, you despise >t
in your heart. You are ashamed of it before God. You do not
go to the Father this way. You do not enter into the holiest
by the blood of Jesus. You do not enter guilty and loathsome
in yourself, wearing only the obedience of One. You are ashamed
of it before men, ashamed to state it to your children and servants
as the only way of pardon and acceptance.
2. Because of the messenger. Once when Jesus was preaching
in his own country they said : " Is not this the carpenter, the son
of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon?
and are not his sisters here with us ? And they were offended at
him." Mark vi., 3. When Peter and John were before the Jew-
ish Council, it is said : " They perceived that they were unlearned
and ignorant men." Acts iv., 13. When Paul preached at Athens,
they said : "What will this babbler say?" At Corinth they said :
" His bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible." 2
Cor. x., 10. So it is still. We have this treasure in earthen ves-
sels. Every minister I know has got some painful defect about
him. Ungodly men always stumble at this, and are ashamed of
the Gospel because of the weakness of those who carry it.
3. Because they hate its holiness. Here is the main reason why
unregenerate men are ashamed of the Gospel because it is a
holy-making Gospel. It will not allow men to live on in their sins
If Christ had come to save men in their sins ; to pluck them from
hell, and let them enjoy their lusts ; unregenerate men would hail
the Gospel. But Jesus is a holy Saviour. " He gave himself for
us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify us unto
himself" " He shall save his people from their sins." He first
covers the soul with his white raiment, then makes the soul glori-
ous within ; restores the lost image of God, and fills the soul with
pure, heavenly holiness. Unregenerate men among you cannot
bear this. The drunkard among you says : Qh ! he will take me
away from the tavern ; the swearer : Oh ! he will take away my
darling oaths; the sensualist : tic will make me chaste and pure.
Hence your malignity against the Redeemer ; hence you s<>e no
form nor comeliness in Him who is altogether lovely. You are
ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.
II. Reasons why believers glory in the Gospel of Christ.
1. Because of its power : "It is the power of God unto salva-
tion." To ungodly men nothing appears more weak and power-
less than the Gospel. They regard it as Lot's sons-in-law did his
solemn warning : " He seemed as one that mocked to his sons-in-
law." It appears an idle tale; an old wile's fable; but it is in
reality "the power of God unto salvation." The Gospel is an
amazing weapon when God wields it : " The weapons of our war-
516 SERMON XC.
fare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down oi
> strongholds." When God wields the Gospel it is mighty to awaken
the hardest hearts. Paul felt this in his own experience. He \\ns
a proud blasphemer, persecutor, and injurious ; a proud, self-right-
eous Pharisee. You would have said : Nothing in the world can
awaken .that man. Jesus revealed himself to him. and he Jell to
the ground, trembling and astonished. So he had seen it in the
case of others ; in Lydia, and the jailer ; in Sergius Paulus, the
deputy of Cyprus : "He believed being astonished at the doctrine
of the Lord." Acts xiii., 12. " The power of God unto salva-
tion !" not God's mighty arm to destroy, but his mighty arm to
save. He knew it would have the same power on every one that
believed, whether Jew or Greek. The obstinate heart of the Jew,
and the proud heart of the Greek, would both be broken under the
sharp blade of the Gospel.
No wonder Paul went so boldly to Rome, when he had such a
weapon in his hand. He knew that the hearts of the Romans
were hard as adamant, proud as Lucifer, and full of lusts as hell is
full of foul spirits; he knew that Satan held that proud city in his
arms ; yet still here was a power the simple truth as it is in
Tesus by which God could bring low the proudest and hardest,
to sit at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in their right mind. This
: s what enables us to continue preaching among you. 1 have now
some experience of the hardness of your hearts, and that it is
easier to create a world than to convert one of your souls ; but the
Gospei is "the power of God," and I do not despair of the con-
version of any one of you. God is able to do it through this
mighty Gospel ; " for with God nothing shall be impossible."
O brethren ! have you felt the power of the Gospel? Has the.
Gospel come to you not in word only, but in power, and in the
Holy Ghost, and in much assurance ? Has it broken your heart,
and bound it up ? Mighty Gospel ! it alone can save. Awakened
sinner ! the Gospel is " the power of God unto salvation to every
one that believeth.'\ Though you may have the sins of the Jew
and the Greek, there is enough in Jesus to cover all. Though
your heart is hard, God is able, through this mighty Gospel, to
subdue it.
2. Because of the righteousness of God revealed in it. This
reason springs out of the preceding. It is the power of God :
" for therein is the righteousness of God revealed." It is this
righteousness which gives it all its power ; makes it so attractive
to sinners so pacifying to the troubled conscience. " The right-
eousness of God " is just the sufferings and obedience of the Lord
Jesus, who was God, freely offered to cover sinners. The suf-
ferings of Christ, from the manger in Bethlehem to the cross of
Calvary, were all sufferings of one who was God : " Unto us a
child is born ; unto us a son is given ; and the government shaU
be upon his shoulder ; and his name shall be called the Wonderful,
SERMON XC. 517
Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince
of Peace" "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against
the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts." The 'blood
of Christ is called the blood of God. Acts xx., 28. It was this
that gave infinite value to the sufferings of Christ. The dyin? of
one holy man might have stood for the dying of one sinner, if GuJ
had so pleased ; but it needed the dying of one who was God, to
stand for the dying of many sinners. The obedience of Christ,
from infancy to death, was all the obedience of one who was God.
His divine will agreed with his holy human will in every act of
obedience. His obedience to parents is the obedience of God;
his prayers were the prayers of God ; his tears the tears of God ;
his holy thoughts, the thoughts of God ; his holy actions, the ac-
tions of God his whole obedience is divine. It has divine per-
fection in it. It has a divine fulness and excellence which no
Hpr obedience ever had, or can have : it is "the righteousness of
Hi." This is what is revealed in the Gospel offered freely to
every creature, to cover sin, and justify before God.
"his was what nerved the arm of Paul. He knew that he was
ng this glorious righteousness into the view of sinners.
though the men of Rome were covered up to heaven with
innumerable sins ; he knew that this glorious righteousness was
enough to cover all.
O brethren ! it is this we come to offer you this day ; a righteous-
ness so vast that it is able to cover you divinely. For every sin
of yours here is a stripe in Jesus. For the sins of infancy, here
are the sufferings of his infancy ; for the sins of youth, here
are the sufferings of his youth ; for the sins of manhood, here are
{he sufferings of his manhood. For your infinite dishonor done to
the law of God, here is infinite honor done to the law. His obe-
ti&icc is divine obedience. For your unholy life, here is his
divinely holy life to cover you. Here are his divinely holy
thoughts to cover your unholy thoughts ; here are his holy words,
to cover your unholy words ; his holy actions, to cover your un-
holy actions. There is something infinitely vast and glorious in
tig righteousness of God. When the deluge covered the earth, it
ftiered the highest mountains. Looking down from above, not
one mountain-top could be seen, but a vast world of waters ; a
Tast plain reflecting the beams of the sun. So if you this day lie
down under the righteousness of Gud, the mountains of your sins
ot be seen, but only the vast, deep, glorious righteousness of
God and Saviour. If you were to cast a stone into tin;
pest part of the ocean, it would be lost and swallowed up by
I deep waves of ocean ; so when a sinner is cast down under
righteousness of God, he is as it were lost and swallowed up
jh Christ.
A righteousness so free" from faith to faith !" The meaning
' this is, that it is received by faith alone. If a man would give
ox
518
SERMON XC.
rill 1.1 ic substance of his house for this righteousness of
wo-.ild be utterly contemned. It is " without money and without
price." Christ offers himself freely to each of you to be Jehovah
your righteousness.
St Peter's, Oct 16, 1842 (Action Sermon ">
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